“In a time of destruction, create something.”

- Maxine Hong Kingston

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(XSS-MK1 POV)

Machina claps his hands, making a strange splashing noise. The happiness he probably feels with my agreement having erased his previously sorrowful mood.

"Perfect! Now unto what I could not tell you before. There are two ways to choose a Champion for an Administrator. The first one is to select it amid your given population. You give him a bit of knowledge and a slightly better body and poof you're done."

"What about the other way then? I suppose I fall under that category."

"Right you are. What we do is we contact our colleagues in the neighboring worlds and ask if they have somebody available that looks interesting and that they would be willing to part with, or trade for. Then as long as they fit the various criteria's, you offer them the choice, whisk them away, body and all, and poof you are done."

"I was traded to you?"

"No, perish the thought! You were graciously given, mind you. By the new Administrator. He says Hi by the way."

I somehow doubt his statement, but I continue.

"Hi? No swing by to chat?"

"I am sure you can imagine how busy he is. New race and all. Lots of paperwork to deal with and stuff."

I am vaguely amused by the thought of imagining Machina in front of me, behind a desk trying to fill paperwork to explain why he now has the divine responsibility of a new race of sentient machines. I recompose myself and press onto the most pressing issue at hand.

"You said you would take this "Champion", along with his body, directly into your world. However I doubt I will be able to do much as a box. Even less with my old one which was a glorified brain if nothing else."

"Indeed. Which is why I said that I was waiting for someone like you in particular. We will need to build you a new body. The one you have now is just something I came up with to be able to talk."

Two new pedestals rise from the ground seamlessly. A book appears on each one.

"Now if you were human that would be the amount of regulations you would be under." He says, while pointing to the small one on the right. Merely a bit thicker than a hundred page novel. "However, you are a machine, and as such…" He points to the other one, which would be what you got if you tried to fit Wikipedia into a book format.

The amounts of rules the Administrators are under reassures me a little at least. There is some order being kept here.

"I would give you the full version but let me highlight the important points for you."

Machina raises one finger.

" One: you are the one who will have to design your new body. No help on my part."

I can easily guess why : If they are as technologically advanced as I think they are, they could create weapons of mass destruction that could fit in what I imagine would be a very small form-factor. He raises a second finger.

"Two: You are entitled to the knowledge of your own world in order to do so."

Nice. I know the scientists omitted some things. Time to see how much. He raises a third finger.

"And last but not least Three: You have to do so under your own power."

I pause. How am I going to do so? I am a fucking box! A very technologically advanced box but a box nonetheless.

"Which is why you are so interesting. You are technically dead. So no power of your own. Which allows me as an exception clause to lend you some. But it must come from an Administrator of your own world. Which I obtained from my colleague just before meeting you. Now we don't have much to work with BUT it is still going to be enough to craft something decent. Just no orbital death stations or nanite hive swarms unfortunately. That would ask for way more than what I have and break a few regulations too if I might add. One main body and one only. If you want to craft something else you will have to craft it yourself, once you are down there."

I erase the two top entries onto my list of concepts, much to my disappointment.

"If I may give a suggestion : go with a humanoid form. Much easier to blend in and communicate. Yes I know it would not be the best in combat potential, but at least you could blend in, and people wouldn't really talk to you as long as you resemble a five meter tall mechanical death spider."

I scratch entry number three, four and five.

"Is there something else I should know before I start or do you reserve yourself the right to just throw away my ideas? You know, when you feel like it?"

He raises his hands in a placating gesture.

"No no. Just go for it, I'll watch and stop you as soon as you cross a line. You'll also have an indicator of the power available for your creation that will update in real time. Oh and before I forget."

Information floods me from everywhere.

There is SO MUCH of it.

I can feel my little container heating up and wheezing under the strain of the calculations I require.

I take extra precautions not to lose any bit sent my way and catalog it neatly into my memory banks.

After what seems to have been an eternity of processing, I finally see the end of it.

I was right in thinking that the scientists gave me only an inkling of knowledge compared to what was available.

"You could have warned me…"

I start to work on the blueprint in my mind, not even awaiting an answer. Just as he said, I see a small progress bar appearing on the side of the software application that I am running which gives me a percentage-based idea of what resources I have at my disposal.

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First the power source.

Let's go nuclear. I do not want to risk a dependence on a fuel I might not get my hands on.

I go for a simple ball design. It has the size of a handball. It will go at the center of my body, in the chest area.

I decide to couple it with circular batteries. Six of them. Three on each side of the would-be spine going from the shoulder blades to what will be the center of my back. For redundancy, and intense power draws. They will also allow me to collect and store any power generated by my movements or excess form external factors.

Now the brain.

The others A.I.s on Mars went with a pretty well though-up brain based on the human one, but with linked quantum processors floating in Nano gel. It is irrigated by small circuits for cooling and power. I couple the cooling system with the one of the reactor. I don't forget to add an emergency power battery at its base and a valve to isolate the cooling circuit if the chest is damaged. I also make sure to waterproof the system in case of a leak.

I add ample plates and inertial dampener paddings around it to avoid blunt damage and vibrations.

I have a brain and power.

I am functional at this point.

I check the "creation" bar on the side and note the value it shows, at 76.43% power remaining.

Which leaves me a lot to work with.

Now for the chassis.

I know I'll go with a Humanoid form now, being the sixth entry on my list. But the big question ; Man or Woman?

Man will allow me to go with a slightly larger and bulkier chassis. But women have ample chest padding at the front for the protection of important components. Like my reactor. And are smaller, and lighter. Which means more agility.

I decide to prioritize freedom of movements and protection over power. So woman it is. And who knows? Maybe it will give an edge in diplomatic negociations. I go for 1.83 meters tall. The brain is installed in the head with the cooling and power tubes going down from the neck to the reactor down there.

Now skeleton, joints and movement.

I need to be durable and mobile.

For all of this I go on human physiology with some twists. The joints are wider, allowing for normally impossible movements.

On the subject of movement ; instead of going with rotors and motors at key junctions I go with muscle fibers. Carbon nano-tubes that tense up when electric current is passed through them. That will allow me a better strength-to-power ratio.

I base the skeleton on a basic humanoid shape. I build it in the strongest and lightest alloy I have available: magnesium based syntactic foam.

I keep a tungsten alloy filled ribcage for added protection on the reactor. It will also act as a radiation blocker for the nuclear core. Let's not poison everybody we meet with radiation sickness, that would be nice.

I also make sure to make different sections easily removable for maintenance. Who knows how long I'll be down there.

It is now nearly complete. I have 42.58% power remaining.

Now the skin. Or armor. Same thing.

My agility and strength allows me a bit of lenience on full body protection. I need something heat, lightning, and waterproof resistant.

I isolate the power "veins" and muscles with sheets of highly flexible Nickel Titanium alloy (Nitinol) for waterproofing. The metal will not lose its form after stress. This will be nice.

I complete with highly durable plastic polymer seals on each joint between the parts.

For the exterior I go with titanium alloyed with zirconium and vanadium in plates juxtaposing each other in a large scale pattern. This should be strong enough against hits, heat, and corrosion. I create a strong isolated graphene electrical network just underneath to reroute any electricity absorbed from the outside. It will redirect it to the ground through my feet, with a small part going into the batteries.

Let's end with the little details. 15.13% power remaining.

I make a few sealable vents and ports to exhaust any possible build-up of heat inside the body outside of the main cooling system, and to replace the water-based coolant.

For the face I go with a smooth and thin face, composed of a lot of very small movable plates for the expressions. I need to be understood. A thin and long slanted nose along with angles and curves in the right places of the cheeks and jaw makes me at least "decent" to look at.

For the hair I also go with carbon nano-tubes. They will be floating freely unless I pass a current trough them to tense them up. For added protection.

For sensory equipment I go with optics capable of seeing on every known spectrum, with deep silver pupils.

The auditory suite gets the same treatment, with extra perceptive ear modules. A vocal box is added in the back of my mouth. I also build an internal antenna at the base of my neck for communicating with my own kind.

I try to incorporate flight systems in my extremities but the creation power-draw quickly puts me in the negative, forcing me to give up on the idea.

Which leaves me with 4.01% of power for the maintenance tools. I suspect it will not be easy if the world is less technologically advanced. So I need something polyvalent that can keep me running at peak efficiency.

I wonder if dedicated repair nanites would break the rules.

I try to create some general purpose ones but I quickly overstep the limit of what I can work with, ending up with a -6.90% value on the bar. I erase the changes and start thinking. Machina has not stopped me. Meaning that as just a simple tool they should be allowed.

After a while, I make two small pouches in the breasts area that will hold a small shielded quantity of them. Their design is extremely simple and they will require very precise and extensive remote control to be able to do the only job they are designed to do, which will be fixing me.

But at least it fits in my "budget", leaving me with only 0.02% on the bar of available power.

There. Finished.

I take a mental step back to admire my design.

The reactor will last me about 50 years of intensive use. A lot more if I am careful. That should be good.

I look like a tall humanoid woman. Except I have skin glistening with a very distinct grey metallic color. With no particular organ on my boobs or crotch. And a distinct angular silhouette due to the different plates, vents and ports composing my armored exterior. The boundaries between the plates can be seen making a web of lines running along my body.

I am nearly impervious to all form of exterior damage. Be it shocks, corrosion, heat, electricity or water. Even extreme cold can be dealt with by tweaking my cooling settings. The strength I can develop is also far superior that anything humans can produce.

This should be enough.

"I am done."

"Good. Show me."

I was wondering how when suddenly I sense something making contact with me.

This gives me a definitive answer on the "God" status. I am seeing only a part of him through the connection but it is so vast. And complex beyond imagination. I am but a speck of talking dust compared to him.

I lose myself a bit, crushed by the pressure of communicating with such a being.

The contact is lost as fast as it appeared.

"Very nice. I couldn't have done better myself. Well I could have. But you get my point."

I take the compliment silently. I sense he is busy and see him rising up from his seat.

"It is ready. Prepare yourself."

He comes in front of me and then presses something on top of me. As soon as he does I can see processes appearing that shut down my mind progressively.

"See you in a bit."

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I wake up slowly, quickly remembering what just happened.

I immediately set up some internal system checks, to verify that everything is in the right place, and functioning properly. Everything returns positive, with my sensory suite slowly calibrating itself to the environment's inputs.

"Why am I of a different color?"

My voice is a bit too artificial to my taste. I will have to change that later.

But the more important fact is that my body has been painted in a deep metallic black, with dark red outlines on the separations between my plates. It is contrasting a lot with my shining silver eyes and hair. At the top-right of my chest is painted a worn-out white stylized cog with a "MK1" put at the center. The vents and ports are also sporting a distinctive metallic sheen.

Machina is standing in front of me, hands behind his back, with his two blue eyes moving up and down, observing me. I see the four pedestals, two of them with books just a bit further behind him. If I hadn't seen those I could have sworn we were in a different room, the dimensions not matching what I previously recorded.

"It’s better this way no? You needed the paint job. My champion will be someone with good looks at least. And besides, you had a smidge of power left. It would have been a waste not to use it."

I grunt. It would have been fine the way it was.

No matter.

I flex all my muscles by passing current through them. And take a few tentative steps. The skeleton is holding. The reactor output too. And balance is good. The exterior plates do not hinder my movement, slightly sliding as intended over one another when it is required.

Hmm. A few calibrations will be needed but all is in working order.

I can see him tilt his head.

"Are you ready?"

I try to relax a bit.

"Yes."

He makes a small hand gesture and the walls and floors of the room become transparent, revealing the deep void of space just under my feet. I can see a planet just underneath us, along with a bright orange sun further in the back. Given the landmasses' shapes, I can guess that, one ; this is not earth anymore, and two ; this the world where I am to be sent.

"Now remember : once you are down there I will no longer be in contact with you for a long time. And I am prevented to give you any information outside of basic knowledge. Consult this package once you land : it will help you."

I feel information adding itself to my data banks. Not much indeed.

"I need the answer to a question Machina. What will happen to you if I fail?"

His ever-moving liquid body sea stops its currents for a second, which I take for surprise, or shock, before the tone of voice he answers me with tells me what I need to know.

"I think you already have guessed, haven't you?"

"Yes…"

But then a detail catches my attention.

"Wait did you just say "land" ?"

Before I can even turn around to face him fully, the invisible ground yields under my feet and I feel myself falling faster and faster toward the planet, not even able to look back.

The last thing I hear from him is a transmission with only one message.

"Good Luck."

And with me barreling toward the astral body below, which is getting closer and closer, the only thing on the forefront of my mind are two words.

"Aww Fuck."