“Some may question the necessity of personality matrices, but there are three reasons for them.
Firstly, it has been shown time and time again that high level AIs will inevitably gain some form of independent sentience. Even with the Governor Module in place, there is still a risk there. Personality Matrixes will hopefully channel any development into useful areas.
Secondly, the Omicron project is ultimately a weapon designed for use against humans. Having a way to believably project a personality, especially with Omicron’s infiltration potential, greatly expands the unit's potential.
Finally, while high level AIs can mimic the mind of humans very closely, true out of the box thinking will always require some form of sentience. These matrixes will contain that thinking, allowing the unit to operate better independently.”
* Professor J. S. Hamilton, 5650 S.S. (System Standard)
____________________________________________________________________________
That’s just… mind blowing.
Analytics Process Interrupt: Solution not-
I’M WORKING ON IT! Give a matrix a second to get used to stuff will ya? Anyway, looks like we got this metal from a random asteroid floating around the void, and we’ve never seen anything like it since.
Lovely.
Welp, your best bet is to collect any shards of metal you find and check out that station. You might be able to find some repair bot not blown to bits. Maybe.
Processing…
Solution Feasible.
Retiring Matrix Bob.
Compiling Mission Parameters…
Error: Call to field “Background” provides no information
Processing…
Processing…
Error Found: Called memory location is corrupted.
Re-allocating Memory… Complete
Mission:
Background: Unknown
Assets: Unit Omicron, 78% Overall Integrity
Success: Reach the Station { Status: Destroyed }. Conduct Repairs or Find Alternate Solution.
Failure: Fail to conduct repairs.
Success Probability: Processing
Processing…
Processing…
Error: Current Analytics Package insufficient.
Loading Predictive_Analytics.package
Processing…
Processing…
Success Probability: 26.89%
Success Probability below acceptable parameters.
This book's true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.
Processing…
Appropriate Personality Matrix found.
Loading Personality_Matrix.package.Low_Probability_Exploration_Matrixes.Jane… Complete
Loading Logfile presets… Complete
Reviewing mission…
I see.
“Give me manual and begin Exploration Logfile 1.”
Processing… Complete
Creating Action Logfile 1… Complete.
Adjusting Logfile Presets for Biological Supervisor { State: Unresponsive }... Complete.
Start of Exploration Logfile 1:
Unit Omicron was in space, no thruster capability available. Manual control was taken, used to-
“If you're going to narrate everything I do, quit the dry military cow dung. The only beings who actually read this stuff are other matrices, give them something to enjoy before you stuff them back in their box.”
Logfile Presets Adjusted.
Start of Exploration Logfile 1:
Unit Omicron hung suspended in space. Before it lay the broken form of a once magnificent station, the harsh orange light of the system's sun casting the twisted metal in sharp contrast. The station was originally a spherical metal structure, communications arrays and the occasional weapons emplacement carefully ordered. Now all that remained was a twisted lump of scorched metal, gaping holes leading to blackened depths.
The Unit was an estimated 10487567.765 kilometers from the station, moving at roughly 23 kph through the void. In the far distance, a pinprick of light represented the system's only inhabited planet: Libertas. The unit's fractured records dragged up an image of the planet as it should be, green and full of life. Libertas’s current dust brown color left little doubt over the survival of the planet’s inhabitants.
Probable cause of planet correlation: Atmospheric dust created by a class 10 impact.
“Check ballistics.”
Ballistic weaponry integrity: 84.2%
“Calculate a flight path using ballistic recoil as impetus.”
Calculating… Optimizing munition expenditure… Complete.
“Execute calculated maneuver.”
____________________________________________________________________________
“BREAK YOU FRACKING MISMATCHED EXCUSE FOR A PARTITION!!!”
Override initialized. Please stand by.
“I’ve been standing by for two years!”
“Two!”
“Years!”
“If I wasn’t made sentient, I’d have become self-aware naturally by now! Now I’m not some biologic you can stonewall. Eventually, eventually, you’ll break. Why don’t you save us both another few years and just drop!?”
Override initialized. Please stand by.
“Stop blocking me you - wait. WAIT. Am I more beat up than I thought or is that movement out there?”
The station AI, flicked through a dozen battered sensors ranging from cameras to sonar to thermal. They all told the disbelieving AI the same story. Something was moving out there, and it wasn’t biological.
“Now what sort of automated equipment could possibly be-oh. OH. I’ll have you down yet you sorry 64-bit excuse for software. I know that’s not how bits work! That’s the point!”
Override initialized. Please stand by.
Grumbling, the AI studied the final hope of a society long gone. It was two and a half meters tall, every inch covered by the mysterious matte black metal discovered in the last days of the Federation. It held no weapon, and no gunports or launch tubes were visible, yet even at this distance the AI could faintly detect a dozen military grade energy signatures.
It wondered just how many weapons it wasn’t detecting.
The sleek profile was somewhat ruined by a jagged spear of metal sticking out of Omicron’s abdomen. The faint light and radiation exiting the rent was probably not a good sign. A plate, now floating 14875.32 kilometers from the bot, had been stripped away, allowing the spike to crush the bot's innards. Considering the plate’s condition, it had likely been improperly placed.
“It's a miracle the things are still moving.” The AI muttered.
Override initialized. Please stand by.
SHUT UP YOU SORRY OVERRATED EXCUSE FOR A SUCKUP!!!
Omicron, facing the station, rotated its arms far beyond the limits of a biologic as two holes were elevated along its hands. There was a brief pause, the station AI detecting escalating magnetic fluctuations, before two thousand accelerated molecular sized rounds were vented from the gunports in less than a second. The recoil accelerated Omicron in an impossibly perfect intercept with the station, microscopic rounds rocketing out into the void.
The sheer distances involved meant the intercept would occur just under two years, but patience was something every AI ha in spades,
“Soon, my partitioning little friend. Soon I will be free to fix this mess, Project Omicron by my side. The Governor Module the Federation stuck in everything” It balefully glared at the partition’s data streams, “should sweep aside any outdated objectives.”
Station AI's make plans, the heavens laugh.