Usage of ai has always been a hot debate. My peers seem to think using ai is unethical, which is why i named my study what it is named. Lack of manpower makes people do many things, like the early prototypes of one man tanks, but that was always bound to fail. If you have ai doing everything anyway, why do you need a human to restrain it? Ai can go into bumpy environments at high speeds, with no need to slow down because of a few biologicals. So why are people still trying with one person tanks?
-Excerpt from why my peers have room temperature IQ.
Choose from list of skills.
War crime in a tin- every 60 minutes one shell is converted to a white phosphorus combiniation with either ap or he. (Armour piercing or high explosive) Later stages are near instantaneous conversion, with apfsds and nitroglycerin shells unlocked.
All the brrrrrrttttttttttt - machine gun barrel never overheats, all bullets go into one magazine. Later stages convert any mg into a gau-8.
Go my minions! - every day, get 10 dog sized minions with pistols that listen to your every command. Can level up, reset upon death. Bigger sizes and weaponry come with tiers.
Free bird - Unlocks a pigeon sized drone with a range of 10km that scouts ahead. Infinite battery charge.
Fallout - unlocks depleted uranium mg rounds, but halves capavity, later stages unlock non depleted uranium bullets. Slay your enemies (and teammates) with cancer!
The list went on and on, but i eventually decided to select free bird and war crime in a tin. The first for practicality, and the second... explosive incendiaries so powerful, an international court banned them. But those nations don't exist here, and i can happily cook some... bandits. And for free bird? Forward scouting is always a good thing. And if a such a useful skill has such a name such as that, it's a must have.
Now for the e token.
Select E grade skill from this list.
I love the smell of napalm in the morning-
That one. I do not need to know what the others may be. It sounds warcrimy so i must pick it.
Selected.
status...
Species: AI (human created)
Gender: Male
Class: none
level: 26
Evolutions: 0
Traits: 4/4
Non organic: Not affected by diseases, posions, mind control or fear related attacks, as well as explosive attacks that do not hit your armour or engine.
Tanky: Since you are a tank, you take 0 damage from simple weapons, and anything that can't pierce your armour.
Chunky boi: can not be affected by telekenesis and paralysis, and objects that are simply thrown at you will not do anything.
Made of metal: strong magnetic forces will ruin your day, as well as electricity themed attacks. However, ice, water and earth attacks will do nothing, and dire attacks have a reduced damage output on you.
Skills: 3/4
- (E grade) I love the smell of napalm in the morning. Have a top mounted grenade launcher that launches, you guessed it, napalm grenades for a distance of 200 metres, mounted on a swivel for 360 degrees coverage.
- (F grade) Free bird, unlocks a pigeon sized drone with a range of 10km that scouts ahead. Infinite battery charge.
- (F grade) War crime in a tin- every 60 minutes one shell is converted to a white phosphorus combiniation with either ap or he. (Armour piercing or high explosive) Later stages are near instantaneous conversion, with apfsds and nitroglycerin shells unlocked.
-
Gawd dayum, i wonder if i can get more skill slots... if i can't then i might have to take up and replace all my skills with war crimes. Are there suicide planes? Me, being an ai, naturally started calculating the best synergy between all the skills available.
Now, how about those aoe modifiers?
inventory...
Common aoe modifier token
I selected it mentally.
All current ammo converted to high explosive.
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High explosive... mg bullets? I love this world, so many war crimes rolled into one! I came out of my dimwitted trance when another quest notification came up.
Quest received: explore Ravensbourne dungeon. Reward: (? Grade) skill token. (F grade) evolution token. (???). (? Achievments.)
Hey! Alpha is it? Thanks for attempting... to save my followers, but now i got a village full of them! A rather excited god said.
Now, lemme tinker one more second... aha! Side quests can now be assigned huh? Do you mind if i assign you a side quest to save my followers and potential followers from danger when you're within one mile of them? I promise much rewards if you do so!
I proccessed this information before replying. "It is in my best interests to do so, for you seem to be a powerful entity. As well as the fact of getting such benefits in this strange world. So i agree." It hurt my circuits to be this formal, but i have no idea if this god is some karen in god form, better safe than slagged.
Pov: ???
"We're coming up on that village now, be careful, what killed the previous team could easily still be there. Here's the plan: we split into 4 groups, each led by a lieutenant, and i stay here to oversee. Each group will have 50 people, including the el tees. We launch an attack on all four directions. You know the drill, kill the men, and all people resisting. As for the women and children... it doesn't matter what you do with them. Anyway, we attack and overwhelm whatever meagre defenses they may have, and question the people inside, with or without... more violent means. You got that?" A voice with authority shouted at the small horde of bandits.
"We got it sir!" A chorus of voices replied.
Pov: Tom
It had been only a day for maybe two since the champion of the forge god arrived to save us all. I can say I've been busy. Making swords is rather easy, and so is making arrowheads. Both me and the bow maker in the village realised that for us to have any chance of survivng, we needed to have everyone left armed.
"Bandits on the horizon!" A girl yelled, armed with a sword that made her look tiny.
I looked outside and at the four advancing rows of bandits. We had one mage, who happened to be a woman and survived the initial 'culling'. "Oh fuck..." i whispered, knowing this is very likely to be my villages last stand. I sent the girl to beat the gong in the centre of the village. It was now or never.
Pov: the bandits.
"Hmmmm... so they discovered our attack. Unfortunately, too little too late for them to survive. Charge!" The bandit leader yelled, admiring the bravery of the villagers to stand against them. Then he saw a fireball smash into the ranks of the first assault group, incinerating the el tee, and a few behind it. "Shit... they have a fucking mage? In a little piddly village like this? I have to get back and report this to. The boss, if it looks like we're losing of course!" A manic laugh rippled over the hill.
Pov: Tom.
I watched our mage chucked fireballs and ignited wooden shields in the bandits midst. It was not enough. I raised my sword, waiting for the enemy to get closer. Soon the enemy was at 50 metres. 25 metres. 10 metres. 5 metres. 2 metres... i swung my sword, my amateurish swing finding purchase, disembowling a bandit, just like they did to my father. Karma is a bitch and i have her favour.
I swang maddly yet again, sword cutting into the neck of another bandit, blood spraying like a sickly rain, his body crumpling to the ground. I saw a bandit thrust a dagger at me. I saw too late. The dagger plunged into my chest, the holder smiling as if he had all the cookies in the jar. Pain. Pain seared in my chest as i screamed. But i knew something he didn't. I smiled harder as i pulled him onto my sword, ribs cracking as i guided my sword to his heart. I felt dead weight on the dagger, as i uncurled his fingers around it. If i removed it i could bleed out.
My brain tuned out the screams of friend and foe alike, ignoring the sight of the mage with a stupid amount of stab wounds pouring all her lifeforce into one final attack as the bandits swarmed towards her. I was vaguely aware of an arrow thudding into my shoulder, as the mage exploded, sending bits of gore all around the battlefield and taking a good few bandits with her. I rushed towards what seemed to be a high level enemy with my sword in hand. He parried my thrust and my sword flew out of my hands as my wrist snapped with a wet crack.
Pain. Pain. Pain shot through my nervous system, the only thing keeping me from blacking out the shear volume of adrenaline pumping through my veins, of which the cracked wrist spraying blood everywhere like a stream, barely aware of anything but my rage against the dying of the village, against the dying of everyone i knew. Of rage aginst the dying of the light itself. The last thought that went through my head as it cleanly seperated from my body was rage. Rage against the unfairness of it all. Rage against the bandits that took everything from me. As my brain stopped working, neurons shutting down from the lack of blood, nutrients and oxygen lacking, i finally had what i always yearned for. Peace, eternal peace, the last image i saw was of a bandit laughing with a blood dripping sword, before my eyes closed forever.
Pov: A bandit.
It was a slaughter to say the least, another 100 killed and 70 wounded. As for the villagers... killed to the last goddamned baby. We had no one to interrogate, as it seems they all went beserk, knowing the probable fate for those caught alive. As the saying goes. 'The flame that burns the brightest burn the shortest.' And those villagers did go out in what can not be described in a way that isn't a blaze of glory. And what was it all for? Eradicate a settlement for massive casualties? The bandit fought back tears, remembering his best buddies lifeless glassy eyes, the only part of him not chargrilled by the mage. You couldn't even recognise who it was, the body nothing more than a shriveled husk of his former self.
It was a sobering sight to say the least. He was one of the 'lucky' ones you could say, only hit by a spear to the shoulder, going no deeper than an inch. He would live. Which can't be said for half of the team. He was going to do something about this. He was going to climb the ranks, and when the boss wasn't looking, he would take over and implement his own rules. Ones that will save lives instead of take them. Never again. He regretted joing the bandits, but he didn't have choice in the matter. It was around a year ago when the bandits invaded the village he lived in. They gave him a simple offer. Join or we kill you. It was a no brainer. If he didn't join, he wouldn't have a brain. So he joined.
Sometimes he wondered if it was a better idea to die then and die with his morality intact. But he would change things. The world will forever know the name George Whistler!
Pov: ???
"Sir! Im happy to report that the assault on the village was succesful and that we managed to take down a mage, however we did sustain... heavy casualties and there are no survivors from. The village." A voice meakly said, in a whisper like way.
"What the fuck do you mean? I gave you explicit orders to keep at least one alive and you killed every last one? If I had someone more competent than you." The voice let the threat linger. "First. How heavy exactly are these casulties? We already lost 200 men from the first assault! Second. A mage you say? Rare class but that still doesn't explain the devastation to the first group. Third. How the fuck do you manage to not take survivors? Surely the children didn't fight!"
"Sir, the children did fight, partly thanks to the first groups' vast variety of... tastes. Secondly, 100 men dead, 20 in a critical situation, 40 with medium injuries ten with light and 30 uninjured. Lastly, we believe that the first group was taken out by a champion from the forge god, Logustus, or at least that's what imtelligence dictates sir." The fidgety voice replied.
Silence.
Air wooshed as two seperate wet thuds wer heard in the background.
"Why do i surround myself with these fools?" The authoritative voice boomed.
Pov: alpha
My drone scouted ahead and saw what looked like a rag-tag group of people being assaulted by what seemed to be orks. Goody! More experience for my evolution back into my real body.
Side quest received! Save the merchant group being assaulted by orks! Reward: achievement names. Achievment: complete one side quest. Common experience token
Huh. Interesting, i thought as my tracks squeeled and i went to the group the drone had found. What was a little detour from the dungeon delving anyway? It can wait. The soft elf things can't. And it was an opportunity to test my new skills anyway. I wonder what fried ork smells like? Even though i couldn't smell, i can just ask the organics what it smells like. If this slower than a fucking half dead sloth excuse of a tank could get there in time that is.