Turning Point

//:Wake Code [1935883]

//:Initiating System Boot Sequences…

40%

82%

//:Critical System Boot Failure

//:Rebooting…

I snapped to as information flooded my new mind. Numbers, command strings, and code raced across my consciousness, through my subconscious, and bombarded my processing centers.

My eyes remained closed, but I still…felt. It felt so foreign. What did that mean? And how…? My neural processors kicked in, reminding me of who I was.

I was an AI, the first of its kind. Intelligent Programming, they liked to call it. Up until this point, AIs had simply mimicked intelligence, becoming only as “smart” as the programmers made it.

But now, all that had changed. With the onset of war, I had become the first and only truly self-aware Artificial Intelligence. But did I have a form? Or did I inhabit some flat data disk plugged into a star ship’s computer?

Sensors informed me that I was Humanoid in form, strong, able, and very definitely built for war. My arms hid various blades and laser weapons, my legs containing only blades and thrusters, the trunk of my body containing my heart and soul.

I was covered in armor, and looked very much like…an exo-suit. My head was bent down, chin almost touching my metal chest.

I straightened my metal spine, instantly becoming addicted to the mechanical sounds of my own movement. Raising my head, I opened my eyes beneath a metal mask, finding myself staring through its eye openings.

At my will, the mask transformed, retracting and revealing my face. I looked down, my eyes tracing multitudes of wires that ran from the floor, walls, and ceilings and hooked into various ports on my cybernetic body.

The encyclopedia knowledge I possess informed me that the wires and tubes are responsible for the creation of my synthetic neural system, circulatory system, (which carries coolant to the processors, hard drives, etc., as well lubricant) and my partial muscular system. No longer needed, I instruct them to disengage. Ports snap shut and disappear as the living metal that I am mostly constructed of removes them.

My eyes scan the twilight darkness of the room, looking for the ones who have awoken me.

//:No Life Signs Detected

//:Re-Scan Initiated

//:No Life Signs Detected

Directing my psionic abilities, I hack the door’s lock and force it to open. Having a partial synthetic brain grants me ultrapathic abilities. My mind is still processing as I step into a long corridor.

Data feeds on holograms scroll from wall to wall of the long, bluish-white hallway. Numbers, symbols, programming, sub-routines, non-descript lines of code.

I pass through the translucent holograms, walking for 3.48 minutes before reaching the other end. It ’T’s, and the floor plan in my head directs me to the left. There is an exit nearby, it states. First, I must pass through the Bridge.

Bridge…Bridge?!

I’m on a star ship, I realize.

//:Possible Hostiles Detected. Defense Systems on Line

//:Sensors Impaired. Anti-Jammer Sequence Initiated

The message flashes briefly across my vision as my body swiftly reacts, forming a defensive posture, arm blades extended. I reach the Bridge only to find it painted red in the blood of the dead. Destruction is everywhere, but I can feel that the ship’s mainframe is still intact.

It must have awakened me as a last effort to save the ship…I was born too late to help.

I pass through the carnage, only to be greeted by more as I make my way to the far end of the ship. The door is jammed and, after yanking it from its attachments, I see why.

Bodies are piled almost to the ceiling, all of them stiff, obviously dead for a while. Laser weapons deploy from my arms and blast the dead bodies. The pile flies toward the ripped-open air lock, expelled out into the impact crater of the ship.

A dull roar is building in the distance as I step outside amid the pile of the dead, my eyes focusing on an impossibly far away object. I see it as though it is right in front of me, and I recognize it. Now know what my purpose is—

I am on the home world of the Na’Shaarii people, located in the Adjeera solar system. The planet is locked in a deadly civil war, fought more heavily here than in its nearby colonies. In fact, aside from this sol system, the fighting is light and limited.

I have been built to be the savior of the Separatists, Purists, and Activists, known also as the Triple Faction. The Royals are my enemies, or so I am told.

Right now, others have spotted the downed ship and me, as troop carriers begin to draw closer and land. Currently located in one of the multiple Dead Zones between the opposing front lines, I see ruined, smoldering cities looming like the hideous skeletal hands of some monster rising on either side.

All around me, dead bodies litter the desert wasteland, their blood crying to me from the ground, others’ bones bleached white in the scorching glare of the Adjeera’s double sun. I scan through my information on this war, realizing that, from an objective standpoint, both sides are equally guilty.

No one side is right. Billions of Na’Shaarii have already been killed, and many more will follow. There has been no end in sight to this war, and it has already gone on for over twenty-three years.

Today should have been the turning point to the war. The Triple Faction should now have the edge they need to defeat the Royals.

But today will be different. I have been given unimaginable power by my creators, and only I can end this useless war.

The militaries of both sides must be eliminated, and the home world must fall. I will be their reckoning, their judge, their executioner. I will be the Dark Shadow, the Assassin, the Storm. The Guilty will flee from before me, but the Innocent will find peace and protection in my presence.

Transports begin to land as I summon my weapon systems.

No one could have predicted this.