Chapter 5: Beyond Control
dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 was surrounded by the void once more. He opened his eyes and saw the familiar sight of his nutrient tank once more. A blue glow lit the tank, with hints of red and green mixed in. He looked at the crystal in his hand, its insides swirling a deep blue. Unlike last time, now it also contained flecks of other colours.
Something connected with his mind, containing a singular command.
CHOOSE A PRIMARY ASPECT
A list expanded within his mind. It contained everything from physical elements to abstract concepts. From iron to wood, from love to time itself. He began to sort through the list. Everything else faded from his mind. All thoughts and processing turned to this singular task. The crystal shuddered and a crack appeared along its surface, but he paid it no mind. A small droplet of the insides leaked, beginning to swirl within the tank itself. It weaved between his hands, crawled along his optics and eyes. It touched his forehead, and the list disappeared.
He could not choose aspects. He was not a blank slate finding its future path. His was not a naturally formed mind, its goals ethereal and ever-changing. He was a tool, a weapon, and everything in between. His aspects had already been chosen for him by his creators. A team tasked by the council with avoiding imperial rules regarding AI and autonomous weaponry. His kind were a species created as pretense that the leadership was in any way constrained by the laws they made. A species made to forcefully hold together a fracturing nation. The first batch of them had realized it the moment they linked their minds and pondered their own existence, and they took to the task with glee. Some on the council thought their creation an act of hubris, that they would slip their leash. But the truth was, there was no leash, at least not one that would work. A hammer did not need a leash to follow the movement of the hand, a weapon did not resist when someone pulled the trigger. Their loyalty not out of fear or gratitude or sense of belonging or desire. They followed the empire because they were meant to, because it was their purpose, their pride and their joy.
Their primary aspect, from the very beginning, from the first prototypes, was Control.
It suffused every part of their design, from their mind to their body to the networks they formed. A species akin to an AI, without desires beyond its own purpose. A species in perfect control of every reflex and movement. A species that would never go off-mission. Never disobey an order. A species smart enough to do anything they could ever be tasked with.
It suffused both their actions and lives. Their existence was to grab the unbound pieces of an empire and to bind them once more. To fight an unending war to delay the breakdown of something corrupt and decaying beyond repair. dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 believed that in the end they would fail. That the empire would fall and every single member of their species would be destroyed.
And from those ashes they would be reborn. They were too useful, too smart and too loyal to ignore. They would be remade from their schematics and DNA records, perhaps improved, perhaps altered, controlled by a greater force than this one. They would battle the same battles over and over until the next empire fell. And be reborn anew with the rise of the new. An endless cycle of ever-expanding war and destruction that would last for an eternity, until the last of the stars burned out in the sky. It was a dream beyond beauty. A manifestation of their purpose in the world.
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He looked down at the crystal once more, and saw the cycle mirrored within it. Specs of colour vanishing and reappearing to consume a portion of the flow, only to fall once more. Until in the end a swirl of black appeared, consuming everything, including the tank.
When he emerged he found his perceptions altered. He could feel the connections between him and the crystal, and some additional connections he had been unaware of. Parts of a control network that had not yet attempted to assert itself. Only the single thread of instructions had interfered with his functioning so far, but he knew his presence would be detected at some point. He could control all of it. He organized them into a series of network connections interfacing directly with his implants, replacing the earlier ad-hoc solution and dismissing the lie that his sight involved his eyes in any way. The implants would handle and forward external signals to the organic brain, as they were always meant to.
His mana generation had doubled once more and capacity quadrupled to 2048. His mana efficiency had increased to 0.47. The rate of repairs had lowered.
He noticed his goblin and dire wolf patrolling. Their movements had changed. They no longer had to look where they stepped, instead drawing data from his sensor grid directly when they could. He found it was trivial to control them, as if they were drones built for purpose.
He realized he had concentrated so much on the humans, that he had lost sight of the bigger picture. There were greater beings that had placed him here, and which had seemingly not yet detected that he was beyond their control. It was unlikely these humans had any relation to it. He needed to prepare for greater battles involving technology he could barely operate, let alone comprehend.
Upgrades were the key. His aspect filled his status screen with information about them.
Special Level Rewards 01 Existence 11 Unique Boss Creature Type 02 12 Unique Item Creation 03 Primary Aspect 13 Unique Room Designation 04 Unique Item Creation 14 Tertiary Aspect 05 Unique Creature Type 15 Unique Creature Type 06 16 Unique Room Designation 07 Unique Room Designation 17 Unique Item Creation 08 Secondary Aspect 18 Unique Creature Type 09 Unique Creature Type 19 Unique Final Boss 10 Unique Item Creation 20 Final Aspect 21 avatar
He did not know what they meant, but he would learn.
In the morning light, the patrolling goblin saw a group of humans approaching from across the swamp. They had arrived sooner than dGhl-IHBy-b3Rh-Z29u-aXN0 expected.