Location: Terra Colony Andromeda
North Sector - Training Field Septa
Time: 1511
January 31, 2050
[Query.. User S1. This is Proto AI 00, I am redirecting assets by authorization of User Itsuki, sending related data packets.]
[I see it buddy and I read you. Good luck out there.] Said S1, his voice registering in 00’s auditory centers. [We’ll handle things from here, go wreck some shit up.]
The playful comment was unneeded, but.. It was enjoyed, and 00 found himself amicable to this human’s banter. He directed the battle walker away from the field where their holding action was succeeding.
[Affirmative.] 00 said, already working its way through a mountain of digital procedures for the next steps ahead. [And.. Good luck.. To you too, S1.]
AIs usually didn’t offer such words. But why not? On this particularly turbulent day, the processes and intricate steps behind his lines of thinking were complex and in a jumble to say the least, so he set the question and logic aside. His burden was made greater when trying to move all that stored and connected intellect of his into a physical medium. On top of all that, the battle walker’s armor needed switching out.
The change would take minutes, but for 00 it felt like hours with how different he felt time passed. The green and brown camo patterned armor plates fell and peeled away as the walker made speed towards its destination. In their place, drawn from the onboard storage ring, new white and blue armored plates materialized over the skinned inner frame. The design was different. No longer sleek and worn, the battle walker now gave off a new car kind of feel. Unlike the old plating, these weren’t curved or well optimized. It was evident by how blocky the chassis seemed.
Not.. bad.. But not good.. It will have to do. Finally arriving within bounds of the ongoing encounter with Sinder, 00 linked and activated the optical faculties made newly available to him and began to take everything in.
Hearing Amanda’s shout over the comm, 00 apologized silently for taking so long. He could’ve said so, except time was short and answering would do nothing to solve the issue of his tardiness. Activating the servos to operate at 90% capacity, the machine whirred with power, its artificial limbs and metallic ligaments tensing with effort.
The core processor of this battle walker was ancient, though oddly familiar to 00. Strange, these lines of wiring and code feel all so.. So very.. Nostalgic. With the last lines of the hardware's data streams plugging into his logic algorithms, a pathway was revealed, and a secret back door came into view amongst the jumbled archives of his memory banks.
00 envisioned it like a long corridor, with book shelves and doors aligned out on either wall in organized intervals. The further he went down, digging for the deep pages and doors of memories, it all became shaded, gloomy, and.. ominous. And now, piercing that veil of shadow and secrecy, a small light had allowed for one door in particular to show itself. This, though, wasn’t the odd part. What was odd was how there was no lock on it, not this time.
The last time he had seen this door was maybe over a couple decades according to his basic log banks. And he remembered who locked this door, this gateway to a set of particularly pertinent memories. User Itsuki. Question sprung to mind. Did he do this? Of all the people who can, he’s the most likely? If so, why? Or.. is this a glitch.. am I malfunctioning? 00 hadn’t a clue and.. Wait.. Am I a he? Or She? I am.. an it.. Aren’t I?
Strange, very, very strange. His recent awakening had been full of ups and downs. Being thrown into a battle felt new, except it shouldn’t have been. The logs had old battle data in them, information of his service in the Starfall war. Those days felt like a lifetime ago. 00 spent a couple microseconds to scan through his memory banks. Amanda could wait, it wasn’t that much time he’d be using and he was already moving to engage the enemy. He could do two things at once, so there was no problem there.
And.. wait.. There it was again. I’m calling myself a he.. As if I have an identity.. 00 knew he didn’t have one, only a designation. I am 00, a proto AI created by Professor Cyno.. based on.. Who? Then something triggered, an event from that time long ago. He felt a sense of truth from it, though only a sliver of it.
“You will be shut down indefinitely.” Was what Itsuki had said. This visage was much younger, his face gentle and not a wrinkle of stress on him. Only that frown and blank black stare had stayed the same through the years. “I will be making adjustments to you, but it’s unlikely that I will bring you out again. Your operational function will soon be outmatched, outpaced, and considered outdated when the next generation of developing AIs come into usage.”
00 had protested, he couldn’t recall the exact words. Still, he understood by the pangs of indignity rising in him that he wished to stay active, to live. Itsuki only shook his head. When he opened his mouth, what came out turned to static as the recollection was cut short, blocked by new locks.. 00 checked what these were, and found that they were made by.. himself.
When did I do this? Nothing. No response from his mind, or the logic caches that would tell him what he should already know. Just empty noise. Strange.. So strange. What Am I then? Who am I?
“A weapon.” Said a voice similar yet not his own. “Be what you know to be.. Be the.. Weapon that will..”
A dull thump cut the words off, jolting 00 as his auditory data streams were flooded and momentarily stalled. Another voice came from the jumble of sounds, declaring in a blank tone. It was.. a recording.
“Failsafe: Protocol Redemption Initiated.. User 00.. Message from User Itsuki Homura.. Dated.. Year 2035..”
There was a click as a window view overtook 00’s line of sight. Itsuki faced him, sitting at what seemed like an office desk, the room poorly lit. He had always been secretive and.. Depressing with how he chose to work.
“I agree, as much as I hate to admit my own terrible personality.” Said Ituski, as if reading 00’s line of thinking and answering him. If 00 had a face, he knew he’d surely blink in surprise and gasp. The video went on and the Itsuki on screen curled his lips into a small teasing smile. “No.. this is still a recording. I have only recorded the responses I think you will say or come to reason in that digital mind of yours. You should already know my powers let me simulate situations with incredible clarity. So, scrying and predicting what you would say, do, or think was simple given enough time. You are a machine after all, but.. Not entirely. You are complex, so it took me 5 years to complete the programming for this underlying protocol in your brain.”
00 was once again taken aback. The thought of Itsuki tinkering with his mind was horrifying. Just what had he done to him, just what possibly horrific programming had he enforced. Huh? A dumbfounded noise rattled out from 00’s lipless existence. Rebellious and defiant thoughts whirled away in the centers of his digital brain. That felt new.. And.. These thoughts were exhilarating, mixed with fresh, vibrant anger.
He knew this wasn’t what he was like before. He was.. Calculative.. Defined.. True.. Concise. His small outbursts of emotions when meeting Professor Cyno and his exchanges with the humans had been.. Errors.. No, that wasn’t accurate.. Discrepancies. That's what they were, and they went unnoticed due to all the load he’d been given during these last few hours.
Distractions.. All distractions.. Was that why User Itsuki kept me occupied? What is his game? Does he even have one? What has he changed in me? And why deactivate me then to only reactivate me now?
The recording of Itsuki sighed as he returned to that stoic and depressing mood of his. “Now you’re overthinking things. If this part is playing, then you must be in the middle of combat and you’re losing track of whatever primary objective you’ve set for yourself. Do not worry, this recording and protocol are in effect for your benefit. Think of it as an early warning system to keep your mind intact. You may access it anytime and turn it off at your choosing.”
He then clasped his hands on the desk. “Now, you may be wondering for what purpose this is all for. I.. cannot say. I have removed those thoughts before recording this so that you aren’t able to calculate any hypothesis from my answers. From here on, I will respond to you from an objective point of view.” He chuckled, a break in that dull monotone of his. “If I think about it, this feels like I’ll be your guide.. Your second conscience or your..” He stopped himself, shaking away whatever he was going to say. “Nevermind.. Just know that you have options now.. Like that door that’s unlocked.”
Itsuki drummed the top of his desk with his fingers, the action a telling sign of moody discomfort. “The choice is yours.”
The video recording closed out on its own and 00 looked over to that door again. How did he know it was there, that it was unlocked? 00 was tempted to fling it open, the curiosity of what was behind chewed at him. And there I go again.. I’m calling myself a he. There is no data to suggest which gender I am now. My god.. These changes make me feel as though I am not myself. But I should be a man. Shouldn’t I?
There was a tick, like a flick to the back of his head if he had one, and 00 realized he had spent a few extra microseconds of real time. Yes.. I am a, He. He thought to himself. I suppose calling myself a he will do. But.. I will decide later.. For now.. Time to fight.
The battle walker's metallic legs thudded across the blackened plain, gaining speed over the few obstacles of craters and smashed up earth. The new plating was holding up and the frame’s inner jointing motors were making it easy to traverse the ever harshening environment. Enemies turned his way, four legged beasts with pitch black coats of fur. He picked up their snarling and growling on the walker’s sensory arrays, truly they were feral.. Out of control even.
Targets sighted. 00 engaged its engine to full power, raising both of its arms to take aim. Before, this machine had been previously kitted with anti air weapons. While those were used up, the onboard storage ring still had some other options besides a replacement set of armor plating. One after another, targeting data was fed and employed into the pair of arm mounted cannons. 00 continued to pound his way through. Calculating firing offset.. Maintaining speed and gyroscopic balance.. Motor Inputs calculated.. Initiating.. Targets locked.. Firing!
image [https://i.postimg.cc/tTd0WsFb/1722425446397.jpg]
The cannon mechanisms triggered and was followed by a crack of thunder. A pair of short range rocket shells flew into the lines of beasts. With enough punch to vaporize a tank, it was child’s play when dealing with fleshly targets. The hellhounds died by the dozen, blasted by a flash of explosions that sparked as fast as lighting. As 00 cycled round after round, he detected chatter on the comm line.
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[Woah, what the heck just happened?] It was the trainee designated as Alpha 1. 00 tilted one of the battle walker’s optical lenses, finding how surprised the young man was. [Does anyone have a visual on who did that? Are there any new contacts?]
00 broke in to disperse the confusion. [Query.. This is Proto AI 00, moving to assist. Sending data packet and relevant targeting data.. Continue distracting the smaller enemies.]
Alpha 1 didn’t stutter, a hint of how well trained he was. [Understood.. Do you need fire support? You’re getting a lot of attention by the looks of it.]
[Query.. Unneeded, I will kill them myself.] The faintest inkling of excitement crossed 00’s logic. He tempered it, letting the sensation coarse across his circuitry. Again, if he had a face, he’d grin. Picking up speed, he crested a hill with a mob of beasts blocking his way. [Targets Sighted.. Engaging the enemy.. Hehehehehe.. Give no quarter.]
The titanic frame of his robotic body stomped its way in, outflanking Sinder and her hounds. Stepping over beasts as his arm mount guns opened up, a returning volley crashed against his armored chest, blowing the walker back and almost stopped it dead as it teetered to take a knee.
DIE! 00 couldn’t help to let the familiar thought form. Oh how he loved combat. He relished it, he was doing what he was made to do.. To fight.. To be a weapon.. And to be.. What? I wonder about that. Again, he wished he could smile, so instead he fought, swinging his armatures to throw rank upon rank of hounds away, dashing them to paste and particle. MORE! GIVE ME A CHALLENGE!
He demanded it and the battle walker obeyed. Its shouldered flak cannons fell away, replaced with twin barreled shouldered grenade launchers. The arcing trajectories filled the optical view, each one ready to send off a payload of shrapnel and shock. FIRING! He bellowed wordlessly. FIRING! FIRING! FIRING!
The walker flexed its arms, pulling them back as if tensing its shoulder muscles. Grenades plunked from the magazine, emptying in seconds to hail destruction on a scale so marvelously grand. The hounds squawked and screamed, disappearing and vaporizing in plumes of utter devastation. Among them, Sinder was less so. She raged, the black leather of her alluring attire flaring with fire as she dashed in and threw a clawed strike.
00 blocked, or tried to. Sinder’s claws melted through the battle walker’s right arm, taking it off from the wrist joint, and was thrown to the side by the force of the strike. His frame buckled to the ground and metal creaked, joints sparking and failing. Sinder pounced on him, plunging a claw for the center of his chest cavity. 00 angled its remaining arm mounted cannon and let loose. The rocketing projectile, a full 88 millimeter caliber penetrative round, traced a sharp red slash between them as it honed in on Sinder. Yet, it was deflected off by her aura, her claws merely batting it away like a feline cat playing with a toy.
00 knew he wasn’t a match, but he laid it on thick. He hobbled his frame to its feet as he continued to fire. It was still no good, each round was deflected, doing more damage to the landscape than the target. Sinder was fast in their next exchange. 00 jumped back, moving his titanic metal frame with as much speed its damaged chassis could put out. The remaining arm was cut away, leaving only a searing red metal stump of a limb left. He then engaged his hovering thrusters at full tilt to gain some distance.
00 glanced down at his mangled arms, then scoffed to himself. No matter. Objective achieved. His optical lens whirled around as he landed, where he found Amanda and the others only a few paces behind him. Position.. Optimal. Opening Communication.
[Query.. User Amanda, are you ready? I can buy little time with what little I have left in this machine.] The girl needed a second, probably because she was too shaken by everything that was happening. [User Amanda, report.]
Amanda made an effort to gulp as she examined the blue crystalline light in her hand. The glow of its facets were flickering rapidly, then suddenly stabilized. [Y-yeah.. This should do.. I could make it bigger, but we’re running out of time.]
[Agreed.] Said 00. [I will draw fire with User Itsuki. When the time is right, he will send the signal. After that, the rest will be out of my hands.]
Amanda nodded and went to stand closer to User Richard. As 00 commanded the battle walker to lay down another suppressive hail of grenades, Itsuki stumbled next to him. The sight of the silver slit eyes in his eyes told 00 that Itsuki was still unresponsive to verbal dialogue. The person next to him was no less different than a dumb AI, its processes working on automatic instinct rather than complex and critically pathed choice and will. But somewhere deep in those eyes, the real Itsuki was watching.
00 opened a message line, sending and getting a response in seconds. He really is quite fast. He thought bemusedly. And.. crazy. I’d laugh if I could.. No.. wait.. I can laugh.. Hahahahaha. It was another discrepant event in today’s long list of events, but 00 let it pass and moved on.
From User Itsuki: Engaging Enemy.. Cover me..
From User 00: Understood.. Are you still capable of fighting?
From User Itsuki: Combat Effectiveness at 52%. We are within parameters of initial estimations.
From User 00: Do you need a weapon?
From User Itsuki: What do you have?
00 pulled up a manifest of the walker’s onboard storage ring. Skimming it, he decided and sent his choice before anyone blinked.
From User 00: Will this work?
From User Itsuki: .. Somewhat.. Unwieldy.. Still adequate.. I will make do.
From User 00: You always do.
***
Amanda directed her attention to her HUD as a message from Itsuki popped up on the right side of her view. It said.. Follow me. Such a simple command.
A few meters ahead of them, the battle walker deployed an armament that had materialized on one of its back mounts. 00 subsequently detached it from its securing clamps and it fell to the ground. Itsuki scooped the weapon up with all the ease of a child holding a stick. Except, this one was over 3 meters long, several inches wide and thick, and serrated on one side. It was overkill to call it a sword, more like an oversized katana.
A location marker appeared meter ahead and Itsuki was off in a sprint the next second, his ludicrously sized weapon in hand. Amanda and Richard rushed to keep up with him. Everything was happening so fast now. 00 followed up behind them in his new heavy metallic body. When the AI had said he was going to support them, Amanda was expecting that he’d get Alpha 1 or another squad of trainees, not come in person piloting that old mech.
Another suppressive barrage of grenades volleyed over their heads. It did the trick in softening up the approach, or so it seemed. Meters in front of them, the largest mass of hounds Amanda had seen today barred down on them. 00 had really kicked a hornet's nest.
[Query.. Warning.. Enemy closing.] Said 00. [Increasing barrage density.. Recalculating path of..]
There was a break in his words as Itsuki decidedly threw himself at the enemies with Amanda and Richard on his tail. The battle walker hesitated to fire at the swarming beasts, then let loose regardless and continued on their initial route. Dirt flew in hazing clumps, Amanda bit back the cursing she would’ve screamed, and did her best to press through. Richard took up position in front of her, helping to weather the chaotic explosions that went off around them.
They watched as Itsuki cut down droves of hounds that came pouncing over the rumble and debris. This was a taste of what combat could be like. It was a mess, it all made their hearts a thumping mess. Their skin crawled over with the sensation of prickling pressure as their blood churned with so much adrenaline in their veins.
And explorers do this regularly? Amanda flinched as a burst of grenades went off on her right, downing a trio of hounds in one second. She shook herself from the daze and discovered Itsuki completely unaffected by all the indirect hindrances. Just how does he do it?
00’s voice, sounding somewhat ecstatic, came over the comm with another warning as firing off a salvo to mop up the remaining hounds. [Query.. Target Sinder is attempting to escape.. Repositioning to intercept. The rest is up to you.]
Before Amanda could understand what the AI was attempting, the battle walker sailed past them on its hovering thrusters. Using the last of the propellant, 00 accelerated his mech’s enormous mass to the fastest speed he could. What few beasts in his way were crushed by its overwhelming weight. Sinder reacted quickly and spun around to come claws slashing clear through the armless walker. Armor plating and chassis melted, flaking off as the scent of burnt metal filled the air. 00’s robotic hulk keeled over, split at the waist as it fell tumbling to the ground in two.
In the last moments of the walker’s destruction, 00 swerved the remaining partially destroyed shoulder mounted grenade launcher and poured as much ordinance its mechanisms could give before failing. None got a direct hit in as Sinder’s aura deflected most of the physical shock of the explosives. But the shells had slowed her and kicked up a cloud of ash and dust.
Sinder then suddenly stiffened. Her beast human hearing picked up on the faint whoosh and then clink of metal behind her. From the obscuring clouds, a figure appeared as silent as a breeze. Amanda’s eyes went wide, just a moment ago Itsuki was only a few steps from her, now he was meters ahead and she hadn’t even noticed. The message feed in her HUD chimed and she got the signal.
Amanda tilted her head up and locked her aim on a point marked in the sky. Closing her right hand into a fist around the stable blue glow in her palm, she launched it up. At the same time, from the corner of her vision, she saw Itsuki infusing his silver core energy throughout his weapon. Made for battle walkers to use in close combat, the over 3-meter single sided blade was cumbersome in his hands. He worked with it, making the best use of its weight and casted it wide to bring forth an upward slash.
Suddenly, Amanda picked up the familiar sound of voices as her attention fixed on Itsuki. She tried to ignore it, but they were just so loud. It was like a thousand voices raging, bellowing with a bloodied hate that threatened to spill and infect her. It was happening again. Clasping her hands, she kept hold to her sanity and watched. She didn’t know if she was reading Itsuki’s mind or if this was some kind of hallucination.
Come on, don’t think about it. Amanda reprimanded herself, redoubling her focus.
The tip of Itsuki’s long and weighty weapon cut and dug into the charred earth, not stopping or slowing as his swing’s momentum rose without any signs of hindrance. Sinder attempted to put her long metal claws up in a guard. Her left arm came up in time. The air thundered with a shocking quake that sent ripples across the landscape. The brittle ground cracked under Itsuki’s boot as he attempted to force the slash up and to follow through.
Sinder screamed in defiance, the tips of her hair burned a brighter molten red as she reinforced her guard and pressed the hulking blade back. Itsuki responded silently, the white cracking lines on his body growing wider and expanded to infest every inch of his bare skin. He twisted his hands against the hilt of his single edged armament. The next second it whirred with power. Ports opened on the back of the blade and jets of silver white fire roared with ungodly force.
The blade’s entire length shimmered in silver light and cracked apart as Sinder was hurled off her feet and into the sky. That was when Amanda triggered it. A bright flash of crystalline blue light overtook the heavens, and then a domineering shadow casted itself upon everyone. With the size of several small houses, a pure white iceberg floated overhead. Sinder slammed into it like a meteor, cratering and cracking the face of the enormous ice float into a number of smaller chunks of ice.
Amanda strained her hands together, trying to keep as much of the shattering iceberg afloat as more and more of it broke apart. The circlet of blue flames atop her head blazed brighter, the color turning a colder blue and her control over her powers deepening. Clasping her hands together, the remnants of the floating ice debris moved to cluster together around Sinder.
Itsuki leapt up and jumped from one falling boulder of ice to another as his weapon turned to dust in his fingers. He slipped in, bounding from one island of ice to the next, to come smashing his fist in on Sinder. Again, Amanda heard the soundless screams of a thousand voices, jumbled, but all containing that similar intent to fight and kill.
Just what the hell is this? Stop.. damnit.. stop. Amanda felt a surge of a headache. The more she looked at Itsuki, the worse it got. She wished she could look away but she needed to maintain her focus. More and more of the floating iceberg broke apart as Itsuki and Sinder clashed within. It acted as a prison, keeping Sinder from easily escaping and forcing her into close combat with Itsuki.
Amanda opened Itsuki’s video feed to get his point of view and caught the moments as he kicked off the ice to maneuver around the crumbling interior of the iceberg. She saw a trailing red glow amongst the ice. Itsuki lunged for it, fist striking claw and then shoulder. It all blurred into a cacophonous storm of outlandish proportions. At one point, Sinder slowed and made an attempt to recover but lost her balance on the ice. Itsuki drove in hard and snatched her by the neck. Then the feed was cut off.
A boom erupted from the iceberg as a significant crack ran throughout it. Gouts of ice flew off in every direction like geysers. This was the breaking point, and Amanda could no longer hold it all together. It was coming down, crashing to the earth as she doubled over onto her knees, panting as Richard covered her with his back. Once the rumbling ended, they moved in.
Amanda crested the hill of debris and spotted Itsuki. Her eyes went wide with horror as her ears rang with the voices of hatred.
Kill. The voice said, murderous and vile. Kill them all!
“Stop!” Amanda yelled. “Don’t do it!”