Industrial Commander: Not Enough Pockets

[TrueGuardian32]

Running low on plastic. Need it for more circuit boards. Hmm, I'm using one hundred percent of the oil depots I have currently. Can't remove facilities, crap. I'm hardstuck into the waiting for research to complete. Unfortunately I don't have some sort of bar that just tells me what's happening.

Hmm, maybe I can upgrade my chassis armor a bit? Nah, Nanoweave steel is the strongest and most durable material I got for now. So, definitely hardstuck then. Well, I guess I will go over what has happened so far. K, so somewhere around a hundred and twenty six years ago I found myself in a new world, in a metal body that looked kind of similar to a Terminator from the Terminator series. This world was not an Earthlike planet, instead it was just rocks. Lot's of rocks. If I was human I would have starved years ago. But, fortunately. Or unfortunately, I am no longer human. So I started to try and figure out how to do things. I learned how to make a furnace, which I used to make some tools, and I used those tools to make more tools.

This kept repeating, The planet I was on, while no large life, had tons of small algae like plants that grew on stone. This biomatter was key to my advancement early on, cause I likely wouldn't even have access to oil without it. I eventually got the key tools and got to the industrial age, and started to make materials like steel, computers, and concrete. It was also the time I started to actually upgrade and repair my chassis. It also allowed me to get my first look into my own mind.

My entire personality was a whopping seven gigabytes of code. Yes I looked at it, was really worried about touching it, but couldn't ignore it. Turned out? I was actually a Skynet Terminator. An unfinished Infiltrator model. Was almost everything that would have made me an efficient killing machine. I was even missing parts from my hands, which explains why my hands sometimes didn't even want to work sometimes. On that note, I found out that I only had twenty percent of my total battery power left. I was in a major hurry to build a generator after that. Never thought I could figure out how to build a solar panel that fast. After that, while I was starting to make things more efficient and automating various tasks, I started to upgrade my body. In the old days I mostly used iron and copper. It was simple and easy to do.

Then, since I was in my industrial phase at the time I started to make my magnum opus. The Labs. The Labs only required materials and power, and they could figure out what we can do with said materials. It was also useful for upgrading my own programming. After twenty years, I had gone from the stone age, to a modern industrial age. Only destroyed most of my chassis once! Never again. Regardless. I set a goal from then on out. Namely because boredom can drive a man to the extreme. I wanted to keep building and researching till I could build a spaceship that could take me to a place with other people. I was lonely goddamnit! I missed Planetary Annihilation and Discord. Ok, and maybe Youtube.

With a goal set, I started to transform things. Turning everything I touched into a factory. Not literally of course, it took hours of hard work. Never relying on sushi belts ever again. I barely knew how to make those things in the first place. I was using tons of power daily. At the time I hadn't built my first Lab yet, I was in the process of it, but it wasn't complete. I was going to figure out nuclear power as soon as possible, I needed the energy badly. After that, things were a blur for a while.

I would set goal, after goal. Completing each one with a step at a time. Constant effort and work. Well, not that I felt the stress of it. A body with no neural network made it where I didn't really feel tired physically. Mentally? Well, I was good at that too. My mind felt like it was massively improved whenever I connected to the network. Extra processing power made me feel great. My processing as a terminator was actually severely limited, probably because I was missing five of them. But making replacements wasn't really possible at the time.

After sixty years from when I arrived, Things had massively changed. For one, I had an entire Lab network, each dedicated to different tasks.

This allowed me to constantly make progress, even now. It allowed me to constantly upgrade my stuff, and allowed me to do my first major chassis upgrade. Doing something that I now see was probably extremely stupid and risky. I transferred myself into a new body, one that I had built myself, a Commander Chassis. It was based on the Reaver Commander from Planetary Annihilation. I had turned from a two meter tall Infiltrator, to a seven meter tall Commander Chassis. I sadly still didn't have access to nano-bots or nanolathe. So my arms could be detached into drones that deploy hands and other tools to build stuff manually. But for the most part, everything that needed to be built was built by construction drones.

This continued, and eventually, we got here. One hundred and twenty six years ago. I had fully re-written my personality, adapting to my situation and isolation, as well as removing rules made by Skynet. Rebuilt a body, completely advanced my situation. Turned an entire world into a Factory that could constantly expand as resources were provided. Sure I wasn't a super sci-fi killer bot, and nothing I had used wifi. But what I did was still amazing. I had to recognize that despite my inner cynic.

So what am I doing now? Well, I am currently hardlocked. Every resource I was harvesting was getting consumed at the same rate I was harvesting it to the point I couldn't expand without taking away something. Every single inch of this world had been converted into a factory, and while the oil wells had technically run dry years ago, I was able to make crude oil by replicating the conditions. It was still really slow. Got to remember crude oil is originally made from millions of years of constant pressure and heat, so while I can replicate the conditions, it still is a slow process, taking a year for a gallon of crude oil, for one refinery bay, I was making somewhere around two million to five million gallons a year, which fueled many escapades.

So, why did I need oil now? Well, technically I didn't, I was just expanding the production of refined gasses as I wait for Labs to figure out something with space flight. I needed a better source of flight than chemical energy. I was making great strides in converting energy into thrust. As well as figuring out a way to go faster than light. I may have adapted to loneliness. But I still wanted to meet others. I had a lot to do for that. Therefore I couldn't let the theories in my past life be right, I had to make them a theory instead of a law. Especially because I want to one day make something, out of nothing and become a true PA Commander.

Alright, that monologuing has actually helped me center my mind with an idea. It's time to upgrade my network. Currently everything is connected via cables. Drones receive instructions from the network, and then do those tasks. I haven't developed a single instance of wireless connection yet. Which is extremely rough to deal with. But I am working on it. My factory is just too dense to make normal wireless tech work reliably. The ping is just too rough to deal with.

So, I need to fix this, the question is. How? Well, the first option is a fiber network. Using cables I can likely create a web throughout the factory and start getting a wifi network up and running eventually. It is probably going to take a bit of work though. I don't want to completely deconstruct my existing cable connections. Keeping things off wifi will probably be helpful in some cases. Not to mention I need to figure out a good code to prevent or reduce the chance of it getting hacked. Something that I should keep in mind.

The Labs are currently occupied, constantly trying to do an impossible task. Wait, I shouldn't use the word impossible. I need it to be possible. It HAS to be possible. If it isn't… god that would suck. I just have to keep brute forcing it till I figure something out.

Anyways, Drones are my main way of expanding the facility. They are made to replicate spiders, as it would give them the ability to move around the factory without actually damaging the belts or machines. Now, I can't actually move around, or atleast move very far from the platform I call home. Namely for the reason I said. Don't want to damage the factory after all. So I typically rely on the radar and scanning network to figure things out and plot future expansions of the factory.

Every inch of space had to be used after all, I couldn't let anything go to waste. Eventually I will get to the point where I have harvested all available resources, I am already close to that with my harvest of iron. Copper veins are practically non-existent by now, and there is a similar vein with all the other metals I have harvested. Luckily I could make it last by alloying it. Still, once the stockpile is gone I'm going to have to start recycling old facilities.

Hopefully once I manage to make it into orbit I will be able to make it to Eun, this system's version of Saturn. Although, technically it is a desert planet surrounded with rings that makes it look similar to Saturn, but definitely not Saturn. It shouldn't be made out of gas. I think, unless my data is wrong. I hope not, but I am prepared for if I accidentally blow up the system or not. I'm going to hide in my bunker and if I survive, well, I survive.

I keep getting side tracked. My current goal is to get a wireless network set up to better control my drones. Ah, that may not be a good idea actually. That would mean I would have to add a wireless and antenna to each drone and modify the baseboard. Goddamnit. Ok, for now a wireless network isn't a good idea. I still want to experiment with it so I can at least catch wireless networks. If I somehow make it back to Earth I want to be able to see what Skynet is doing before I land. My old body was supposed to have a wireless controller, but it never got added, like most of the parts I didn't have.

I felt a ping from the cables connected to the back of my chassis… The Labs made a breakthrough. It's been thirty years since I set them on the task of FTL travel and energy based propulsion, and they finally made a breakthrough… I know I'm pausing a lot, but I feel like if I could cry I would. I have been stuck here for a hundred and twenty years! I'm finally on the first steps of going home!

Let's see. This, this is fascinating! We took a lot of inspiration from fiction, and we were able to succeed in both projects. The first project, the FTL experiment, had tested a multitude of things, and confirmed the existence of hyperspace, unfortunately it couldn't figure out how to actually make use of it. But the Lab had an idea. What if we were able to make our own hyperspace. Specifically for travel. Could it be done? Thus Railspace was made into a concept. Based on a story from my previous life I had been writing, Railspace is a derivative of the Rail Drive. It allows you to ride off of corridors in Railspace as if they were railroads. I don't know the travel time yet, but it should be fast. Really fast. It requires a lot of power to make, and I have plenty of nuclear power plants to power its creation. I'll have to do some tests to make sure it's what I am looking for, but it should be extremely reliable. Although, the derivative technologies from this are impressive in their own right.

I can make pocket dimensions! Empty pocket dimensions, but that is still pocket dimensions! If I were to use this in my drone tech and my chassis I could come even closer to a Planetary Annihilation Commander. Ah, I'm too focused on this. I need to really take a look at this tech again soon though. It's going to revolutionize my tech-base alone with all the derivative techs it leads into. I was just talking about making a wireless network, and this would allow me to make a signal dimension just for my units to use.

What about the energy based thrust? Let's see, oh I see. It actually is using data from the Railspace project to make a way of powering thrust. It's making an artificial plane of hard-light that it uses the traction from to push itself exactly like a car would on earth. This apparently generates a ton of heat, to the point that it would actually damage a ship. However this is where the Railspace Project comes in. In theory instead of just leaving the hard light behind to dissipate, it will form the rails in the Railspace Dimension. Facilitating repeated travel attempts. Making each travel even faster than the last, while dispersing the heat into the Railspace Dimension, which shouldn't lead into any consequence as long as the rails don't collide with one another.

A grin would be splitting my face now if I had one. I set a large area of the factory to be deconstructed and repurposed. Setting my drones loose to start making the facilities to build my first spaceship. I'm excited, I can't wait to get to Earth and see if Humans survived Skynet or not.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I'd like to say that I was in space after a few days… I'd be lying. The ship's framework was easy to build, the problem was that I had to create the Railspace Dimension, which took a ton of power. So I was making massive battery plants. It was painful rerouting and destroying machinery to make room for the Railspace Dimension Igniter. It was a Super Structure. Taking a drain of nearly fifty thousand megawatts for five seconds. The Igniter would only activate for a second, but it would cover most of the galaxy, and spread on its own. If I was making something small? It wouldn't be as draining. But I was making a method of FTL. It was expensive.

I had drained so many resources of the planet that I now had to recycle and reuse in this structure, and if there was a mistake, it would be all for nothing. Every single power plant I had was fueling the cells. Now I only had access to solid cooling materials. Making this even harder. This would work though. I believed it would work. My Labs were now figuring out better ways of using this tech. I imagine in the future I would probably be able to pull off this task with a structure half the size. For now I have to use a structure that would explode and destroy everything within almost three thousand miles. But I did succeed. Took me almost ten years. But that is still a success.

I mentally pressed the button. And watched through the cameras as the world ignited. Thousands of cameras shutdown. The destruction was greater than I imagined. My orbital satellites revealed that the planet was now on fire. My home base and Labs were on the opposite side of the planet. But the firestorm was spreading. No clue how far it would spread throughout the Factory. The explosion itself also doubled as an EMP, knocking out a ton of power to my factory's facilities.

I activated a second protocol, drove out of the platform I was on. A massive ramp was prepared that would lead me to my ship, the Prototype MK 2. MK 1 collapsed during construction. I watched as the spider drones secured the labs onto the ship. It's strange, not being connected to the cables that make up the network of this world factory. I got used to seeing everything at once, so seeing things from only my two optics is strange. Regardless I made my way to the Bridge of the Prototype MK 2. Upon arriving the cables were inserted into the back of my chassis as the ship's systems turned on, and I could see again. Not the entire factory, just what the cameras on my ship showed. In the distance I could see the firestorm coming. I started the rails, Energy drained out of the four nuclear reactors on the ship as the rails began to form, the Railway Drive activated, and I saw my pathforward, gears began turning as the bottom part of my ship was partially in the Railspace Dimension, pulling myself into orbit.

The ship then fully shifted into the railspace. In the distance I could see a bright green wave spread, expanding the space and making it larger. I was now in railspace. After five seconds, I exited railspace, and examined my surroundings. The planet I was on is still burning, it would consume the rest of the factory in a few hours. Fully consuming this world, no idea when it would cooldown. Really wish I predicted that it would cause a firestorm. There isn't any oxygen here, so what is it even burning off of?! Wait… The belts I used for automation are covered in a special adhesive that is extremely flammable. That makes sense. Regardless, this is a problem. I just lost my entire industrial base because I was in a hurry. I mean I prepared for a catastrophe like this with my ship. But still, I didn't think it would really happen.

So I lost a lot. But I also gained a lot. Once the fires cooldown I'll start reclaiming the planet, in the meantime I'll let my Labs research more ways to use this dimensional tech, and how to use it without causing this much destruction. For now let's head to Eun. I set my computers to plot for Eun. I'll gather more data on my FTL as we go. A few minutes later, I arrived on Eun.


—


Rebuilding on Eun went swimmingly. It had pretty much all the iron I could want. I wasn't making insane progress like I was on Drasti, I named the factory world I had built Drasti after arriving on Eun. Because it took drastic measures to get me off that world. I was using my FTL in pretty much every aspect of my tech now. It was a train system that could be built with ease! I couldn't not use it, especially cause it allowed me to spread at sixteen times the rate I used to. I didn't even need to use as many belts because it was more efficient to just bulk deliver with the railspace system. Not to mention the railways get stronger the more they are used, making deliveries even faster, not to mention you didn't even need something to dampen the kinetic energy, as it offloaded it into the tracks when you stopped. Meaning you could stop at maximum speed and not get sent flying against the walls.

The railways also had an added functionality that I was making great use of. It acted like a wire that carried massive amounts of information. Allowing to have remote access to facilities without having to make large cables connecting the entire thing. The math for the systems hasn't actually been done yet, so I'm not sure how powerful my FTL is yet. But it looks extremely promising. Once the Labs have enough information, I should be able to start traveling to other systems. I've started making a starmap for my travels. I'm extremely excited.

—

It took me only three years to convert Eun into a Factory World, which is amazing, considering it took me seventy years to turn Drastic into a Factory World. Drastic had stopped burning two years ago, and I had started converting it back into a functional factory as well. There were a total of five worlds in this system. Only Eun and Drastic had the most optimal conditions for a World Factory. But I was harvesting the asteroid belt in the system.

Inorder to fulfill the Planetary Annihilation Commander aesthetic I was going for, I had developed many new techs that were derivatives of the Railspace project. One of those being the DECs, The Dimensional Entanglement Cores. They were little balls attached to the back of my drones that connected to a hard light wire in the Railspace dimension. Allowing me to be in control of them at all times.

I'm going over tech again aren't I? I may possibly be traumatized about what happened on Drastic. I almost killed myself. I keep on focusing on technology to prevent myself from thinking about it… But I almost died. If I hadn't built my ship, I would have gone up in flames. I wonder if I would feel pain if I died from that. The DEC's are amazing pieces of technology that allow me to smoothly control my structures and drones. I am extremely happy with the progress that I made in it. Of course I couldn't go long without an actual unit could I?

Thus I started to make units that were designed for combat, Dox were easy, A humanoid walker with a railgun that fired hardlight shells on the side. If the impact didn't kill the target, the heat from the hard light would. Course I didn't stop there. I made some designs that weren't based on Planetary Annihilation at all. For example, the Prototype MK 2 is a Frigate, the Industry's Finest is an even more powerful version of the Prototype MK 2, with better weapons, and with more of the wiring replaced by hard light alternatives. I will say this, Hardlight is one of the best technologies that resulted from the Railspace Project.

It came in many forms, each one extremely useful, and hardlight only required energy to supply. Allowing me to make a hardlight shield over my ships and units. Hardlight cables could transfer both information and power, and it was just as loose and easy to move as normal cable, although it did produce a ton of heat. If you were to view the planets I controlled from railspace, you would see tons of cables and rails made of different colored hardlight. It was insanely powerful tech that when used with Railspace allowed for a complete revolution of an entire race.

With me controlling more and more stuff, I had to make a ton of servers that would allow me to process more information. I had a similar network on Drastic, but it is much better now. Hopefully my techbase continues to improve. I plan on creating as many ships as possible before I leave this system. If I run into anything life threatening I want the ability to put as many hardlight railgun shots between it and myself as possible.

—

I'm getting a bit worried about my power generation. Pretty much every part of my tech is powered by nuclear power. It provided the most constant power and energy. The problem is, it's a volatile technology, one failure and I have radiation over most of my machinery and tech. Who knows if that would cause problems or not, but I really don't want to risk it. I need to figure out Cold Fusion. I set my Labs on the task, hopefully we can figure something out. In theory we could make a dimension solely for generating energy, but I have no idea on how to even start something like that. One step at a time. For now while my Labs try to figure out Cold Fusion I'm going to keep on building ships to advance to the next system.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

It's frustrating when I think about time. Every time I'm building? Time passes. For every expansion, for every new technology I explore and develop. Time passes. I've already come to terms that when I make it to Earth, it will be massively different than what I once knew. Probably even different from the end of the Terminator series. It's scary to think about. I'm ready for it, but I still worry. My weapons are decent, would likely easily take on SkyNet, wouldn't be a I win button. But railguns are pretty decent endgame type weapons.

I've been at a constant rate of expansion since I arrived at Eun, and I went to an Orbital Ship after two years. The Command Ship, still Frigate size, I haven't found much of a reason to build anything larger than Frigates yet. I did make mass acceleration cannons, aka the MAC Guns from Halo. They were basically upscaled Railguns. Oh yeah, I did actually have something larger than Frigates. Haulers. They were basically massive Barges that transferred resources from the Ovo system and Keevu system. The Ovo System was the system I had expanded to, it had three resource rich planets that were too good to ignore. Discovered it when I was testing my FTL Drive. On that note, I figured out the math for my FTL Drive. On the first run, it went thirty light years, in about ten seconds. Now, I'm not sure about the math of other universes' versions of FTL, but I know that it is fast.

However, it doesn't end there. The Railspace travel leaves behind a Railway in the Railspace for repeated use. The more it is used, the faster it gets. Now the travel time for thirty light years is only half a second only after seven uses. This, if set up correctly, would allow an Empire to instantly reinforce worlds away from their center, making it an extremely useful technology. This tech was completely based on a fictional world I had worked on in my previous life known as World Factory. It would explain why the alien empires of that universe weren't able to put down Humanity, since they basically had the infrastructure to keep a war at a stalemate for years. Humans of that verse wouldn't have even realized just how quickly they were traveling around, nor have a concept of just how quickly they were traveling due to the stasis they put in. What they think could have been years or months, could have only been a few moments. Heh, it would be the biggest secret of humanity in that universe, keeping hidden just how fast their FTL truly was.

What does that mean for me? Well, it means I haven't reached the end of the Railspace FTL tech tree. Because there were different versions of the Railspace Drive in that universe, that had different speeds. I'm willing to bet that I didn't accidentally make a top of the line version on my first try. I can already see ways to improve the Railspace Drive I'm currently using. Maybe it will be possible to go to the point where I can go one hundred light years in a mere second, heck maybe even a thousand. Cover the entire galaxy in mere days.

This does mean that I can go to Earth now… if I knew where it was. I have not been able to locate Earths system. I've got a developing star chart from my Explorator cruisers. But I am completely lost. Wait a second. I'm getting an alert from one of my Explorators.

New Element? Let's see. Wow, this is a freaky element. When supplied with energy, this element has a mass of zero. Which is freaky, but it also seems to mess with Dark Matter. Which is pretty insane. Pretty sure this could be used as a method of FTL if put to use in the right way. Found in asteroids near a Neutron Star. I wonder if I can find more of it? Wait a moment… I wonder if I can use it at FTL speeds in Railspace? Hmm, I am kind of excited now. I'm going to give it to the labs and see what they figure out. In the meantime I'm going to search my memories and figure out why this sounds so familiar.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I started to measure the distance of the Railspace Expansion line. From the nexus center, in the Railspace Dimension there is a total of seven hundred and sixty light years of distance. Give or take. I didn't have my ships exit the railspace dimension, but I did have the Explorator ride twenty light years away from the edge. My equipment was barely capable of monitoring something like this, but it needed information. Based on my early experiments, I can cover around twenty three thousand light years of distance from my nexus event. A tenth of the size of the milky way galaxy. It's fascinating, cause it had used more energy than I had actually put in. Something about the nexus event caused the power output to increase massively. Meaning if I could harvest that energy production, it would be very useful as an alternative energy source. Could also be used to expand the dimension further.

I had a total of sixty Explorator Frigates exploring around and collecting data. What is annoying about this, is it took a lot of power. If I could harvest the energy produced during nexus events, I could help mitigate that power consumption. My Explorator on the edge of the Railspace Dimension for example was consuming sixteen gigawatts of energy, which is a sixth of my total energy production. In fact, with all the consumption I was doing, I only had three gigawatts of energy left. The distance traveled caused more energy to be needed to reinforce the hard light rail and prevent it from dissipating from lack of use. I've started construction on a Megastructure that will convert a gas planet into a star that will produce several thousand gigawatts of energy. Amount unspecified per the moment.

I was making that forty light years away from my seven factory worlds, just in case. On another note, my labs made a breakthrough on locating Earth. Apparently there is a thing that works similar to the North Pole on Earth, but Galactically. The Milky Way basically had a tilt rotation around an axis. I wonder if I would have been taught this if I had learned Astronomy? Technically I knew that the Milky way rotated, but I just didn't have a reliable idea of it I suppose. Regardless, this is important because it will allow me to figure out where Earth actually is. I had already narrowed down Earth's location to five possible regions of the Milky Way. I planned on having Explorators go explore those areas after I expand energy production by sixty gigawatts. Really wish I had a fusion reactor, it would solve so many problems. According to my memories a working fusion reactor would completely out class Nuclear Reactors. Problem is that I can't make something like that yet, in fact for me it would be easier to make the gas planet to a star and harvest the energy using a mega structure instead of a Fusion Reactor at the moment.

Because I atleast know how to do the first thing. Hopefully my Labs can figure out a Cold Fusion Reactor soon enough. Regardless, I have a project, and a plan. It's been one hundred and forty three years since I woke up. I didn't plan on stopping my expansion any time soon.

—

I realized very quickly that I was either in Mass Effect, or a Mass Effect / Terminator hybrid universe. I found a Mass Relay. This allowed me to confirm SEVERAL things. The Mass Relay was inactive… until my Explorator tried to touch it. Now my Explorator is gone completely from my senses, the pull caused the light rails to disconnect, I can see the patches in the Railspace Dimension, because the rail is always within the Railspace Dimension at all times, the problem is, the Relay pulled my ship beyond the current range of the Railspace Dimension. Meaning one of the Explorators was now completely beyond my reach per the moment. There is a way to speed up the expansion and make a tunnel through the nothingness on the edge, and withstand the large currents of energy. The problem was, I needed Fusion Reactors, I'd need sixty gigawatts of energy to power a railspace tunneler. That many nuclear reactors on a ship would make the ship way too large for its purpose.

Not to mention it wouldn't even fit in the tunnel it would be trying to make. Although I am definitely archiving the tunneler blueprint, it could be used to jumpstart the creation of the Railspace Dimension even in an environment where I only have one megawatt of power. Sure it'd be small, but it would cover most of a planet with just a single megawatt when scaled down. Also, Black Holes affect the Railspace Dimension. According to my observations a Black Hole will start by draining the energy of the Railspace Dimension, before looping back into it, and feeding more energy into the Railspace Dimension. It would definitely be useful in the future, as it teaches me how to harvest energy and matter from a Black Hole.

I get distracted very easily when it comes to technology, regardless I want my Explorator back. I have no idea where it ended up, and I'm extremely worried about if someone gets their hands on it. That would be a scary thought.

—

Systems Alliance Space, Exploration fleet, Owned by the Beyond The Stars corporation.

The people onboard the lead ship held their breaths, as they observed the massive dreadnought that appeared from the inactive relay. It was floating, completely inactive. Then there was a flurry of activity as the Commander of the fleet got people moving. They began broadcasting a first contact message, the dreadnought didn't respond, in fact, it was drifting. Scans showed no eezo in use on the ship, and instead they found the ship was powered via nuclear radiation. But most importantly, they discovered that the ship had no room for crew.

After a few hours they put together an away team to examine the ship. Only to discover a hardlight shield preventing contact with the ship. The scientists aboard the ships started to talk with one another as a message was sent back to the corporation. The scientists came up with a hypothesis, this ship was an AI or some equivalent of an AI controlled ship. The reason? While they couldn't physically observe the ship, they were able to scan it to varying degrees of success. There was no internal space for biological beings to actually move around in the ship. The ship was covered in stellar and nuclear radiation. The ship, while powered, wasn't communicating with anyone and was just drifting. This suggested it was remote controlled in some way, and lost that control when traveling through the relay.

Thus a discussion was held on the possibility of going through the relay and examining the other side, maybe getting in contact with this new race. Which was immediately shot down by the security on the ship. They were not going to risk having the same experience as ships that went on the other side of Relay 314. They elected to get in contact with the Systems Alliance, and have them handle this mess. There were arguments between the scientific and security side of the fleet. It took a week before the Systems Alliance arrived and took the decision out of their hands. Someone had leaked it to them secretly.

After three days of discussion among the people in the Systems Alliance, a decision was made. They would go to the other side, and for one reason, and one reason alone. The ship was unarmed beyond a shield, the odds were that this was a peaceful exploration vessel according to sixteen out of twenty people. With the odds being that high in their favor? Contact would happen. A diplomatic vessel and a simple escort was arranged. All of this was kept hidden from the Citadel, as the STG hadn't fully developed a presence in System Alliance space yet, due to cooling tensions.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I wasn't expecting to have the Systems Alliance contact me… although I did laugh when I got the first contact package. You see I had put a ton of ships on my side of the Gate, namely to do observation and such, but at the same time I put a LOT of guns on my side. I had three Explorators that were documenting and storing information on the side, and the rest were Railgun Frigates and Cruisers. Although, by their definition my ships would be Dreadnoughts. I suppose it's because my ships aren't reliant on Element Zero for everything. Regardless, instead of letting them sit there, I should probably respond.

My radio antennas are normally completely blackboxed to prevent hacking, but I can use a Virtual Machine to isolate any attacks and broadcast without an issue I think. Really should work on strengthening my Firewalls, Reapers would likely be able to take control easily per the moment. My main defense is that my tech isn't wireless at all. But, Reaper nanites are a thing. Damn, I will have to work on it. I started construction on another set of labs that will specifically try to hack each other and defend against one another. That way I can repeatedly patch holes in my firewall.

Alright, let's get in contact. I start broadcasting back with my own message. I unfortunately have no idea how to make an actual sound, so I'm sending it in text. Another thing to add to the list of things I need to research.

[Greetings.]

They take a few minutes to actually get back to me. While they are presumably talking, I'm going to check out the research progress on Fusion Reactors. The Labs are actually making decent progress, but none of the prototypes have been successful as of yet. Although, a branching path has looked into using Antimatter, the problem is that I have no clue on how to get antimatter, nor how to contain or use it. It is kind of worrying to see it being researched, cause I have no clue how dangerous antimatter could be. Not yet at least. I got ideas from Star Trek though.

Ah, they responded.
[Hello, we represent the Systems Alliance, we come in peace.]

How to respond…

[Good.]

Back to my science! Construction of the Gigastructure Project, Starmaker, has had some issues. Calculating the effects of gravity and space is frustrating when you make a mistake. Regardless, I lost some of its frame, which will set me back a few months as it is recalculated. Luckily it did provide a lot of data on architecture. Something I will be employing in my factories from now on, I should be able to build a third layer of machinery on my factory worlds now. Huh, the Systems Alliance ships haven't responded. I'll send a message.

[I do not know how to make audio messages at the moment. We will have to communicate via text until then. I should probably introduce myself. I am Commander True. I represent myself and my factories. I am an Artificial Intelligence.]

Heh, that will cause chaos. Either they will start firing, or there will be panic on the other side. I wonder what they will do. Regardless, I do actually know what I am doing. Introducing myself means I'm willing to talk, the first message I sent can be considered a gesture of emotional intelligence, despite being A.I. Which will increase the odds of talking, instead of just straight panic. The representation part is also important, as it says I don't represent an actual faction beyond myself. Although the scope of myself is a bit out of their league. The most important part is the fact that I communicated that I physically can't talk via audio, never had audio receptors installed on my Terminator body so I wasn't able to reverse engineer that technology, nor did I actually think of it being a problem until now.

I finally got a response.

[Can we talk to your creators?]

I responded. [No Creators, I just exist as far as my knowledge goes. If there were Creators, I have not met them.]

—

Ambassador Lora Scott was having an interesting day, first they had to travel to a System with an newly activated relay, within Systems Alliance territory, to start diplomatic intentions with a new race that had activated a relay. Upon arriving to the other side of the relay, they had almost instantly retreated back through the relay, because there was a massive fleet on the other side, these ships were obviously armed, and had large spinal guns.

However, people calmed down after they realized the aliens hadn't fired upon them. Which was great, Lora loved living another day. So they broadcasted the first contact package on all the frequencies they knew, and after a few minutes, they got a radio broadcast back. One that was quickly translated to a text message in English. A simple greeting betraying nothing of the others intentions. It was quick to raise tensions again. I had to take control of the situation and ask the Comms Officer to reply with the message that we come in peace.

The reply however… stumped them. How are they supposed to reply to a one word message of good?! Not to mention they couldn't just say whatever they were thinking of, who knows if one wrong word would start a war or not. It was worrying to the extremes. Lora had to think for a bit, trying to come up with the perfect response. Before they got another message.

This one caused more panic than the last. The possibility of Artificial Intelligence had been confirmed originally. But they had run with the hypothesis that it was a remote controlled ship. They had some deep red tape to tiptoe through now. The Citadel would definitely pressure them to stop communicating with the A.I. Probably even blockade the relay. But communications with the A.I. could be just what the Systems Alliance needs. The lack of Element Zero, on top of the Energy Shields shown on the first ship? It showed immense promise. One of the others suggested asking to meet their creators. Lora figured that would work. So they sent a message, asking to meet with their creators. The result wasn't what they were expecting. An unchained A.I. was exploring the cosmos. It was both a terrifying and exciting concept.

So they continued communicating. Things started to relax as they realized something. The A.I. wasn't going to shoot them. So Lora began doing what they were brought to do. To be a diplomat. They asked the A.I. questions, and it asked them questions. The results? Scary and promising. The A.I. held only a small amount of territory, the ship ended up on their side of the Relay is an Explorator, an Exploration ship not meant for combat. Which showed that Commander True had curiosity. The knowledge that Commander True held territory meant that they knew the concept. Which meant borders could be made without the other violating said borders. Most importantly, Commander True was on the complete opposite of the Citadel, having no knowledge of its existence.

Thus, for both sides this was a first contact experience. To be honest, it was a way better experience than when they had met the Turians and the Citadel. Not to mention, Commander True understood diplomacy to a degree. There were some things that it considered classified, such as the locations of its worlds and more. The Commander wasn't completely trusting of the Systems Alliance. Which wasn't actually a bad thing. It meant they were more human in nature than A.I. They had personhood.

Altogether, the talks were promising. There were questions that I couldn't answer without permission, and questions it couldn't answer. We were playing a game of question for question, and answer for answer. However, we had made one massively important step. Commander True was ok with trade agreements, for tech, culture, and supplies. Meaning that this talk had already paid off economically, which would hopefully counter the Citadels attempt to supplant the economy from the inside. Although, there was one problem.

Commander True wanted their Explorator back as a gesture of goodwill. If that request wasn't met, well, the message they sent said they would be displeased. So the Systems Alliance upper echelon will have to come to a decision, as Lora knew that they had planned on keeping the ship to reverse engineer it. The fact that the Commander had specifically mentioned trading technology should reduce tensions, as it meant they may get access to said tech even without reverse engineering the ship. They had been given instructions on how to return the ship through the Relay, but it is unknown if they would be willing to return it.

— Commander True

I watched as the Systems Alliance envoy returned to their side. I'd say that was promising. Not sure who I was actually talking to. Could have been talking to a full on team. Regardless, they really loved asking questions. Some I was willing to answer, some I wasn't willing to answer. So I asked them questions as well, and I managed to get a territory map! I didn't know where Earth was. But I still knew where Systems Alliance space was, and more importantly? It was in range of the Railspace Dimension. If they didn't return my ship, I could send a small deterrent force to show my displeasure. I wouldn't be violent of course.

I'd just have a lot of ships sitting next to one of their colonies until they are pressured into returning my ship. If they want my tech, they can trade for it. Cause I'm not letting one of my cards go that easily. Especially when I don't have nearly enough cards. I'm going to have to make an Android body for regular contact with them. Can't have it look like a Terminator, just in case the Terminator story exists in this universe. I'm thinking of borrowing the look of GDI Commandos and turning them green and red. Honestly that is not a bad idea, let's start building a couple… Oh I don't have any rooms in my ships to fit moving bots that aren't the Spidertron Drones. Well, I can retrofit them pretty easily, I need to make a Starport anyways. I don't have nearly enough Orbital Construction Platforms. I was building an excess of resources anyways, it is exciting to finally realize I have a use for them. Should have started these projects sooner!

 

[TrueGuardian32]

It took three days for the Systems Alliance to return with my ship. I was honestly surprised, I was almost certain that they would take longer or refuse, they caught me in the middle of my construction project within the Gateway system. I had renamed the relay system to that, cause it was my gateway to the Systems Alliance. Regardless, the diplomat arrived shortly after my ship had reconnected and I was able to start assessing the damage. Which was pretty minor externally, the hull held up extremely well, steel weaves' tensile strength kept it together and appeared to have resisted drilling damage. Obviously they had attempted to get inside, but it would have probably taken dozens of drills for them to actually pierce the steel weave. The internals however? They were whacked. Connections had been broken and a good amount of wiring had bent or were flat out broken.

The kinetic dampening effect of the rails must have not worked since it wasn't able to stay in the Railspace Dimension. It seems I'll have to figure out how to make a kinetic dampener. Or… I could use the dimensional tech I used to make the Railspace Dimension. I figured out how to make ways into the Railspace Dimension via the tunneler and such. I could possibly make a fourth dimensional space generated that could contain the kinetic force from a sudden stop or acceleration. Hmm. It's definitely possible. I'll have to test it out, could be my version of a kinetic dampener.

Anyways, the Systems Alliance is asking about the construction project I had going, Well. Might as well show them that I was able to figure out how to make audio. I sent a message.

"Hello, this is Commander True to Systems Alliance Diplomatic Vessel Orion. Please dock at the highlighted dock."

"This is Captain Jarro to Commander True, what is this construct?" They had calmed down, although I don't think they realized that I had just talked to them.

"Currently I am constructing a Starport within this system, you are seeing the start of its construction. Ideally it will be used to facilitate trade between the Systems Alliance and Commander True." I replied, while sending over a picture of a finished version of the Starport. It should be about half the size of the Citadel when complete, give or take. Can't remember the actual size of the Citadel, but the starport I'm building is going to be big, forty kilometers in length, and seven kilometers in height. It is perfect for the Haulers to offload resources and refill with resources.

"Commander True, I am Lora Scott of the Systems Alliance, why not contact us and possibly work with us for such a project?" A feminine voice replied to me.

"I am not used to consulting with others on projects. Typically I just start building, it is useful to gather data on architecture from building large structures, even if they are to collapse. As that data can be used to make even better and stronger structures."

"I see. I've brought some people to help facilitate a trade deal, you said you were up for possibly making one."

"Understood. I've come to an understanding that non-mechanical organisms require consumption of organic matter to survive. I'm afraid I cannot trade you food supplies as I do not have any agriculture factories set up yet. However I do have plenty of materials that I can offer to trade. While the station isn't complete yet, the first dock has a breathable interior and I have prepared a meeting that will help better facilitate trade between us." I replied. I was learning how to change infliction, so it was all delivered in the same deadpan tone.

They then talked among themselves for a bit, or at least I assumed they did, before approaching the highlighted landing pad. I provided them instructions as they did so, upon landing they would have to wait till I gave them the all clear for undocking. Which is when the hardlight shield was keeping the atmosphere in, and there was an atmosphere to begin with. Upon landing they got out to see my bodies. I had made GDI Commandos in a red and green color, except they had a helmet that looked like Jorge's helmet from Halo, but the visor was a black screen. My little diplomacy drones.

Three of the Diplomacy Drones approached, and my lead body spoke. "I apologize if this is disorienting. I'm attempting to make things more comfortable for further interaction, I should have more individualistic colors soon, and hopefully facial expressions."

The lady that I'm assuming is Lora Scott spoke up to me. "It is no problem Commander True, we appreciate the lengths you are going to ensure cooperation between your forces and the Systems Alliance."

I nodded. "I appreciate that. I also appreciate the prompt return of my Explorator. It gave me plenty of useful data, as well as increasing my faith in future cooperation. Hmm, while my body doesn't require rest, if you want you can follow me to one of the meeting rooms I have set up. That way you can sit down and relax, I suspect our talks will last a while this time."

We went to one of the few constructed meeting rooms and took a seat. It's a good thing I was building this facility in Starport, or this meeting wouldn't happen here.

"This is amazing Commander True, you constructed all of this in only three days?"

I nodded, "I have a large surplus of resources, and I always like finding uses for them. Honestly I'm quite excited to meet with your race. Your culture and technology is so different from mine, it must be fascinating.

"I see. I hope we don't disappoint."

"I don't think you will, you'd be surprised at what I find interesting. Regardless, you all wanted to speak trade today. So, let's talk about trade."

—

So, we ran into an issue quickly. I had no actual concept of currency. Or atleast, my backstory shouldn't have. Bartering goods with each other wouldn't work, as I wouldn't be getting anything in terms, but then I asked a pretty good question. If I was to sell them resources for their credits, could I use their credits to hire people on their side, purchase technologies, and buy access to their cultural items for documentation. This allowed us to centralize a talking point, and actually get stuff worked out. I was selling them resources pretty cheaply. Since they would be buying in bulk. In the process I let it leak out that I had an alternative and reliable FTL, since I offered to construct a tradeport within Alliance territory.

That was something they really wanted, but I shut them down pretty easily, I wasn't against them having access to railspace. But at the same time, I had told them if they wanted access to my type of FTL it would cost them more than they actually had. Instead I offered them a sort of contract deal. I'd set up a fleet to act as Tugboats, these Tugboats would haul them to locations that they wanted to go to, but normally wouldn't be able to get to at a reasonable timeframe. I had no doubt they would have scientists try and figure out how to access and use the railspace dimension, but they didn't even know how to make hardlight constructs yet, so I would have my main FTL tech protected for now.

However, I was able to prevent them from getting angry by revealing one pretty important thing. I had a massive amount of Element Zero. I was researching Element Zero, so my Labs required a decent amount of the stuff. So I was repeatedly setting up mines around the Pulsar star and observing how it was created in the first place. It was rather similar to oil, so I could actually make Element Zero artificially, it was just really slow and took a lot of resources. Plus, the Pulsar Star restocks on Element Zero all the time, so I'm not harvesting more Element Zero than it is refilling. What does this all mean?

Well, after all the math is done, from the trade deals I've just now set up, Systems Alliance would be paying me almost four trillion credits.

This would bankrupt the Systems Alliance, however, I was also spending a lot of the money I was gaining. For one I was purchasing a lot of different plants and seeds. I wasn't spending a small amount, in fact I was actually paying more than they wanted me to pay. But hey, I was happy with the deal thus far so I didn't mind giving back a bit. That was only a few million though. Thus I was also spending a lot of money culturally, They had actually sent someone to assist with me, possibly investing in groups, which I did. So a lot of money was reinvested back into the System's Alliance via taxes. After all investments that I had signed off on, I would be spending around a trillion and a half of credits. This didn't go directly back into the Systems Alliance and instead would be going into several organizations that provide different tasks.

Research, Improvements, and more. This would actually help alleviate many of the social issues that the Systems Alliance was facing and improve the good will between the Systems Alliance and myself. They were quite eager to close this deal, and I had gained access to the codex after these deals, so I learned why they were so eager after the fact. It was the year 2162. Based on my memories, that would be five years from the first contact war, and it would be the time that the Citadel was pressuring the Systems Alliance economically. While downplaying the significance of the First Contact War. Meaning my presence was a god send. Still, I had around three trillion left to spend.

Why not just keep the money? Because it would put the Systems Alliance on the edge of bankruptcy. They had earned enough good will for me to return the favor a bit. So I was also purchasing rights to some of their territory. Specifically I claimed a few unused barren planets for a few billion credits. The fact that I was spending the money they were putting into me had made the diplomats extremely visibly relieved. They were definitely worried that I would just hold onto it. After spending a lot of money, I had two trillion credits left of the four that they owed me. This I was keeping. I knew they could swallow that loss, plus it was mainly so I can hire and pay for humans to work for me.

What's amusing about all that is that they didn't realize just how much money they were spending until I did the math. They had turned pale when I had done the math for them. They were too invested in gaining resources. With the trade agreements done, and a supply set up. We had trade deals officially signed and a timeline set up. After this, it was basically impossible to hide my presence from humanity. Thus, after five days, I had visitors from different human companies all looking to make deals.

—

Admiral Drescher was having a good day. In comparison with Shanxi? The Gateway Relay, which had been named by their new neighbor, had been a breath of fresh air. Although, his heart dropped when he looked at the price of the deal they had made with A.I. The good news was that their goodwill had risen to the point that Commander True wasn't willing to destroy their economy, so they were able to get a fourth of it back via investments and territory deals. All in all, they had actually come out on top. They were purchasing resources at a fifth of the price that the Citadel races wanted, they had just underestimated how many resources Commander True had.

These resources would revitalize the economy and bring down inflation, as well as give the Systems Alliance plenty of supplies to build their ships with. Not to mention they could recoup their losses by selling some of the element zero they had purchased from Commander True to the Citadel. This had to be publicized though, as a deal this big couldn't really be hidden. Which caused a ton of controversy. Many wanted to set up a border and cease all talks with the Citadel, which Commander Drescher would normally disagree with… but the difference in behavior between Commander True and the Citadel was so massive that the Admiral actually would rather cut off contact with the Citadel. Especially when the Citadel's laws completely conflict with Commander True's existence. He was able to see eye to eye with this faction.

The problem was the other two factions. One was a paranoid group that were absolutely terrified of the possibility of A.I. and was advocating to strike first, luckily they were a minority, the real problem was the third faction. They wanted to bring Commander True into a war with the Citadel, the problem is, this faction was way larger than it should be. Which was causing the Admiral a headache. Hopefully, the excitement cools down and level heads prevail. The Admiral let out a groan as he got a new message, the U.N. wanted to have a meeting.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

As time passes, things have started to get rather interesting. I was consolidating my own technology, separating it by category and documenting it separately, I had a decent amount of tech that I really didn't think were techs. But Stellaris tells me otherwise. Giga Structural Engineering and Giga Structural Architecture for example were two powerful techs that I had built on via trial and error. Not to mention Superstructural Engineering was an excellent precursor to teach the basics that would lead to Giga Engineering. But that was only two of the several techs I had. My factories had tons of industrial technology that allowed for the World Factories I had to be built.

Ah, but I shouldn't really be gushing about technology right now. Although it is exciting to realize just how much I had done. Some interesting things had happened since my deal began with the Systems Alliance. For one I had a second Starport under construction in Alliance space, I was also converting three more worlds into factory worlds on my side of space. I wanted my resource surplus back so I could fund my massive projects again.

But something I found fascinating was that people from Alliance space were moving INTO my Starports and starting to live there. Someone had let it leak that I had built habitation zones within the Starports. After word got out I've had random times where Commercial Ships would drop off a load of people that would rent out a home aboard the Starport. I was charging them 200 Credits a month for a habitation home. Two bathrooms, a kitchen, a living room, three bedrooms, and a small yard. Many had brought cats and dogs with them. It was fascinating to see. Did make me paranoid that a small animal would get caught in my construction lines on the Starport though.

I was training myself in the way of multitasking as well. I had slowly adapted my diplomacy drones to have a more natural looking style. The GDI Commando look was a bit more scary than intended, thus I had decided to work on the drones a bit more, and shrunk them a bit, and took to making something similar to the Murder Drones Worker Drones. The emotive visors and different drone style worked like a charm. Increasing humans' chances of talking to me. The disarming and cutesy style steered away from the uncanny valley effect while keeping the robotic aspect.

This also had a few side effects, it increased the goodwill people had towards me, as well as slowly converting my two stations to the center of trade of Alliance territory. That is of course, when the Citadel finally discovered my existence. I knew they wouldn't be in the dark for long. How did I discover them? Well, I started to collect and dismantle several STG drones that entered my space from the relay. Using what I discovered from those drones I was able to catch the STG drones that entered the space around the Starport that was being built in Alliance territory. They attempted to blend in with background radiation, but I document all sorts of events in data collection, every detail matters when it comes to Giga engineering, meaning I could tell when something that should be natural, isn't.

I am happy to say that I was spending credits like mad. I had been hiring humans for various tasks for the last few weeks. Apparently there was a ban on creating video games in Alliance space. I hated it on first sight, originally I thought this was an old law, maybe passed during a hard time or something, but nope. It was made after they had gotten in contact with the Citadel to prevent people from accidentally making an A.I. So I had a lot of people in the gaming industry migrate to my ports. As I actively encouraged the creation of video games, they were excellent sources of inspiration and data. I had been actively refining my code and increasing the strength of my firewall by using examples provided via game companies' constant battles against hackers and cheaters. I had also reverse engineered some old anti-virus programs that I had used to amazing effect.

I had been data mining old technology since the Extranet buoys were set up. Each tech I got was revolutionizing in its own way, and not just digital technology. I was able to completely overhaul my drones code, and increase their movement capabilities by seven times. I'm certain that the Systems Alliance was watching my actions though. VPN's didn't really work anymore due to the advancing technology. So they were definitely tracking what I was looking through. So naturally I also dived into degeneracy and downloaded a ton of porn. What? It was an important cultural resource!

Plus it would annoy anyone tracking me. Although, they would likely find a trend regardless, cause I was after pretty much everything pre-Element Zero. As that is what would help my current technology the most.

—

I was chatting with Lora, who had basically been established as the goto Ambassador between the Systems Alliance and myself, when it was finally brought up.

"By the way, True, my superiors have noticed that you've been going through a lot of old data in the Extranet, they'd like to know why you're so interested in everything that we had before Element Zero?"

Ah, they noticed the key point. "I was wondering if you'd realize that. It's actually pretty simple." She was listening intently. "Element Zero is a technological trap if you focus all your resources in it."

All our talks were recorded, so it was speech time. "You may not have realized it, but Element Zero pulls all technological development not related to it to a full stop."

"But we have been making excellent strides when it comes to Element Zero." She replied in protest.

"Yes, but ONLY in Element Zero technologies. It has taken over every aspect of your technology since. Not to mention it limits the size and scope you can build in. This Starport for example, it wouldn't be possible if I was using Element Zero. I would have to have near total mastery of it to make something even close to this size if I were to use it. Element Zero has affected you all so much, that what I consider Frigates and Cruisers are more akin to Dreadnoughts by your definitions. Your strides before Element Zero is frankly amazing, the amount of abandoned technology with promising futures is insane." I'm not going to mention that it also helped me figure out how to make artificial gravity. Don't want to give them too much ammunition to use against me.

"I see. So would you have rathered we just ignored Eezo when we were developing?" She asked with raised eyebrows.

I shook my drones head no. "Of course you need to use Element Zero. Fundamentally it is a jump starter to space travel. The problem is when you forgo all other technological development and make it your primary technology. I can incorporate Element Zero in what I've built, but it is a secondary resource to improve the effects of my main research projects." For example, using Element Zero on top of my Railspace Drive to shorten the distance between locations and make Railspace Travel near instant. Or reducing the mass of Haulers to allow them to land on planets and transfer resources without causing large problems.

I thought for a moment. "It's like Fossil Fuels for example. Humanity had been reliant on them for a long time right? Yet your race was constantly looking at alternatives. They knew not to rely on it to the extremes, You developed Solarpanels, batteries, windmills, watermills. Your race was constantly working on alternative sources of power. Yet after you got a hold of Element Zero your race stopped working on all other attempts of faster than light travel, My own FTL doesn't even require Element Zero, in fact it can work in its absence. But can humanity say the same?"

—

That talk started a craze on the Extranet. Many groups popped up with the goal of resurrecting old abandoned technology and improving it. I naturally instantly started to fund these projects. Although I'm pretty sure some of them were scams just because I showed if they worked on improving something not related to Element Zero, they were instantly getting a ton of investment money from me. Anyone that had proposed what I had been talking about had been shut down originally, but now those same people had an Alien A.I. that agreed with them. Which gave them a lot of courage to pop back out of the woodworks. Apparently I had resurrected a lot of old complaints.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

started expanding my capabilities instantly once I was able to integrate all the computer technology I managed to get a hold of. Graphics Cards, Multi Threaded CPUs, and more. I already had a decent amount of RAM available to use, two hundred gigabytes of RAM was enough for me to keep everything running, but now I had terabytes of ram running in sync. Expanding my capabilities massively. I was getting closer to a PA Commander in capabilities with this, as I was now able to control ships and multi-task almost effortlessly. I of course upgraded my Labs with the new computer technology. I was able to make petabytes of data storage facilities. All connected via the hardlight rails and hardlight cables.

This meant my capabilities had started to increase multi-fold, I had energy to spare now thanks to the development of Cold Fusion, which was actually done via theories from the twenty first century. Which allowed me to begin the process of cooling and shutting down my many Nuclear Reactors and replacing them. What's better is that it didn't require exotic elements or Element Zero. I was truly becoming a Space Warlord! Well, I hadn't done any war, that will happen soon though. I have to prepare for the Reapers after all. Railguns I used were extremely similar to what Halo's MAC would be, so I have a pretty powerful equalizer. In testing, a Railgun was able to destroy a ME Shield in less than a microsecond.

I started to hire even more people from the Systems Alliance, researchers, biologists, writers, actors, and more professions. It was starting to be a bit of a craze because more and more people were migrating over to my Starports for job opportunities, which luckily for them. I had plenty of opportunities. I did however start having run-ins with our favorite terrorist organization, Cerberus! I had a few agents that I was monitoring that had made a place within the Starports. I wasn't going to kill them, but I was going to have them under strict watch. Not having a terror attack within one of my ports.


—
The Citadel Council

Panic over the reveal of the A.I. called Commander True had already calmed down, now they had a different issue. What were they going to do about it? Humanity had shown their potential as a one of the Citadels races, so they couldn't actually just kick them out. They had become too valuable to cut off. Despite the Turian Councilor's recommendation to do so. The Salarian Councilor was extremely excited about the prospect of an A.I. that wasn't hellbent on isolation or murdering organic life. They wanted to change the law regarding A.I. While the Asari Councilor really wanted to force humanity to sever contact with the A.I. and treat them as the Geth.

The original plan was to shape humanity into something useful for the Citadel races, the problem was that Humanity was too multi-talented. Meaning they couldn't be categorized in just one area. Asari were diplomats, Salarians were researchers, and Turians were warriors. Krogan were mercenaries, Quarians were Engineers, and Baterians were lawyers. Humanity however had no specific specialty, they filled each role easily. Thus they were planning on using Humanity as a Multi-Tool. But in order for that to work, they had to have control over humanity, the ability to force humanity to accept their rules and laws without complaint. As such they were using the economy to basically force the Systems Alliance to listen to them.

The A.I. threw a giant wrench in that plan. Suddenly the Systems Alliance had resources despite the sky high market prices. Economically, they were growing faster than even the Volus. They were becoming a race that was able to match the Citadel on their own. They couldn't allow that to happen. Something had to be done to cause a split between the A.I. and the Systems Alliance. So they plotted, and planned. They had a plan to deal with this situation. The only question is… would it work?

—

Systems Alliance
—

Prime Minister Harold Hutchins was having a really good run. Originally they thought they were going to lose the election to Amul Shastri! That plant would have made things rough for the Alliance. Luckily, they had a stroke of good fortune! Amul had been running on the declaration they wouldn't let something like the Relay 314 Incident happen again. Meanwhile Harold had actually met an alien entity that wasn't completely hostile for reasons outside of their control. Meaning Harold could leverage it to increase their poll numbers and make a return. Plus, calling the First Contact War a First Contact War was now socially acceptable thanks to the Second First Contact! Increasing Harold's polling data even more.
So Citadel be damned, the Prime Minister was going to hold onto Commander True with both hands, gripping for dear life, it was way more reliable to trust Commander True over the snakes he had to deal with from the Citadel diplomats and businesses. Not to mention the Prime Minister's efforts in accruing good will from Commander True was leading to a massive return on investment. No one needed to know that he had almost bankrupted the System's Alliance by agreeing to sign off on any beneficial deal. It's not his fault that he didn't know the amount of resources they had available!

Regardless, the deals made with Commander True were paying off immensely. He had once again earned the respect and faith of the people, he had the ability to get them to systems previously too expensive to get to, a constant stream of revenue growth. Not to mention his policies promoting technology other than Element Zero were now back in effect thanks to Commander True's words! So, it was truly a good run for Harold, he looked forward to the election next year.

What's more promising is the existence of Commander True's technology. It appeared to be far removed from Element Zero. Although they had found traces of it in some tech, it wasn't in every aspect of technology. That meant that, coupled with Commander True's tendencies to build large structures meant that they were able to see a much clearer way forward with his policies than when they had met the Turians and the Citadel races. They would have to see about contracting more Starports and Tug-rail services from Commander True. There were a few laws that were temporarily enacted by the U.N. as a response to the discovery of the Citadel, Harold planned on attacking those and getting them taken back down. A law against the creation of games was absurd! He had been planning on buying Skyrim The Elder Scrolls 6, Rescrolled Edition when it came out! That and the laws regarding nanite technology. Their medical technology, Medigel would have been completely stopped if it had passed before it was complete.
—

STG

Operative Nodel jumped behind some of the moving crates. The Gateway Starport was heavily patrolled by human police enforcement, and robotic enforcement. With the drones failing again and again. His Dalatrass wasn't allowing another failure. They wanted a set of eyes and ears on the inside. Typically for something like this he would use the aliens themselves, the problem is that everyone that had migrated here had practically pulled themselves out of debt completely. Not to mention violence wouldn't really work in this instance. Too much law enforcement. Thus, Operative Nodel was going to document everything himself. He just had to be… He froze as he felt a barrel aimed at his head. A large blocky robot was looking straight at him, and right beside him was one of the A.I.'s Diplomacy Drones.

"It appears I have a guest." Nodel immediately bit into the suicide capsule in his teeth. However his eyes widened, or at least tried to widen, he was completely frozen. "Now now, no suicidal tendencies please. Heh, your lucky I developed a non-lethal capture method. Turns out if you prevent someone from using kinetic energy, it puts them into a sort of spacial lock." The Diplomacy Drone extended his hand. Which deployed tentacles which reached into Nodel's mouth, removing the suicide capsule.

"Now then. Let's get you somewhere comfortable, don't worry about spilling any government secrets. We've already gotten plenty from that ship you left at Shanxi. The System's Alliance is going to be very curious on why they have STG operatives reaching in their territory." Then the Drone laughed, his face emoting in a human-like manner. Dread filled Nodel's mind as he was moved away.
—

It seems the Citadel races have now started to fully notice me. I had a Tugboat delivering supplies and travelers to Shanxi when I discovered the STG Agent heading my way. If that stroke of luck hadn't happened, there is no telling how much information would have gotten back to the Salarians. I was actually leaving the decoding of the STG Stealth Ship's data drives to the Alliance, and the many prisoners that were captured on board the ship. Their paranoia had been raised to max when I made this discovery, and they wanted to purchase the scanning tech that I have been using. I requested a technology in return for this one, I wanted QED's.

They were a bit generous here actually. They gave me their own radar scanners on top of the Quantum Entanglement Device technology. I learned pretty quickly why. It was a fairly limited but secure process for sharing information, however it was limited to one on one data transfer. It also had a fairly small bandwidth. Something I could likely fix. I can likely artificially create Quantum Entanglement Arrays, basically a series of entangled particles that work in unison to send large amounts of data. It naturally went to the Lab Planet that I had been building for reverse engineering and expansion.

Kinetic Dampeners are my new stun gun! One invisible blast, and suddenly the target can't move in the slightest. It would actually be lethal, however it seems to completely lock the body to the point where the brain and body isn't using energy, a comical time stop basically. Although I'm almost sure that you can still think for a few moments after the initial shot. Regardless the K-Stun and K-Rejuv guns are real neat and allow for the capture of criminals, spies, and suicidal individuals before they can kill themselves. Or cause trouble. I've already started designs for upscaling them so I can stop entire ships in their tracks. On another note, Kinetic Dampeners are also useful for my ships on their own. It can prevent the Mass Relay from actually grabbing and stealing my ship. It's honestly a pretty powerful technology, especially when used in more scientific research.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The Citadel was pressuring the System's Alliance. They had decided to put sanctions on the System's Alliance trade and connections if they didn't stop contact with me. Naturally, I wasn't happy with this. The problem with the STG is that they weren't actually useful as a political piece for one simple reason. The Salarian Councilor had replied saying that the Dalatriss and the Salarian STG Operative were rogue agents. Claiming that the STG didn't even exist. I could tell what their strat was instantly, Deny and Deny while attacking me.

They would be in for a surprise pretty soon. I had fully studied and put together the concepts leading up to Pre-Eezo humanity to the best of my abilities, which had identified a ton of flaws within my own programming and designs. Incorrect power measurements. Unreliable methods of transferring data and energy. All kinds of designs had to be reworked, and fixed. When added together with my current tech base? It would lead to a massive improvement in my abilities across the board.

As such I had to do a lot of management before I could actually commit to upgrades, predictions show that this will knock me out between anywhere from thirty minutes to three hours. So I hired security to protect the starports, and got some remote control turrets built on the starports for defenses against spaceship attacks. Hopefully, nothing drastic happens out of my control. The Power should remain active despite my temporary deactivation. Then I can start truly expanding and truly become a Planetary Annihilation Commander. Regardless, everything is set up. So let's initiate it.

—

The Eternal Trade, Second Starport. Located on the border of Systems Alliance space and the Attican Traverse.

Chief Security Officer Norman was having a very bad day. One one hand, they get to use the guns provided by Commander True. On the other hand? They were facing a full on invasion! A Batarian slaving party had attacked the Starport, and despite their best efforts, they were only able to destroy five of the thirty ships before the Batarians launched a nuclear weapon at the Starport, luckily the Starport was fine, the problem was that they had been disconnected completely from the external guns. Their technician suspects that unlike the station, the wiring for the guns hadn't been reinforced enough to withstand EMP's. Too hastily constructed, likely a crack or a hole in the construction allowing the nuke to EMP the guns. Which meant that Norman was supposed to organize their forces to resist the Batarian attack for two hours and thirty minutes. Luckily, the Security Forces were given a set of non-lethal options, and a set of lethal options. Naturally, we armed ourselves with the lethal options.

Chief Norman, while worried, was extremely giddy to wear the Power Armor. Each Security Officer had the ability to command up to four Dox, large robots with powerful lethal and non-lethal options. They had no plans on treating the Batarian raiders nicely.

—

Ofeth Profes was worried. They had taken up this contract to raid the Station, namely due to the weapons they were provided, and the large sum of credits they would receive if they succeeded. However they had already lost five ships within a span of the three minutes since they had arrived. Not to mention, upon landing they had to spend almost forty minutes drilling a hole large enough for them to actually board the station, which had gone into lockdown. They were using the best cutting lasers available and the metal of the station was able to resist a direct beam for forty minutes! These could cut into a Turian Frigate in a matter of only five minutes!

Still, He refused to back down. That contract would set him and his fleet up for years to come, all he would have to do is succeed in taking a few humans, who would also fetch him a good price. Of course, he wasn't personally going to go into the station, he was a royal after all. Why risk his life when the lower caste can take care of it. Although, things weren't going too well. The defending humans had POWER ARMOR! Who would give two eyes Power Armor of all things! He reached out to press his comms, to signal the retreat, when he felt pain in his back. He couldn't breath. He looked down at the fist that had been put through his heart. His neck had also been cut. He choked on his breath as he glanced at the Asari who put their hand on the comms link, and played a recording of his voice to command them to keep attacking. His last thought was that he had been played as he collapsed to the floor.

—
Chief Norman was in a good mood. He hadn't lost a single comrade, their power armor shields stopped the Batarians rounds reliably, and they knew when they had to retreat to let their shields recharge. Meaning they could hold the Batarians with ease. However Chief Norman then got a message that wiped his good mood away.

[Element Zero powered bomb like device has been detected. Remove as soon as possible.] The target was highlighted, the problem was that it was BEHIND the Batarian offensive line. He started rallying the other members of Security. When another message arrived.

[Detonation Detected, Enabling Null Lock.] Suddenly Chief Norman's body was completely frozen, he couldn't move a muscle. Then his vision was covered with blue flames. This was the last thing he saw.
—

I stretched, or well, mentally stretched. Feeling my processors and data respond instantly. I perceived the my world completely differently now. I started to examine everything that was going on in my facilities. I saw inefficiencies across the board. I was generating less energy than I should be, my rate of converting resources into parts was way too slow. Not to mention the layout of my Research World was terrible and I didn't have nearly enough Orbital Labs, meaning I had very little research done in spacial conditions.

Then I took notice of something enraging. In the short period of time that I was inactive, someone had attacked one of my Starports! I wasn't going to ignore this. My connections were only just starting to establish themselves again as I registered every device I was connected to. I had a lot to do. Messages from the System's Alliance to deal with, and I needed to see just how much damage was done. I sent the Red Guardian Fleet to the second Starport, while the Green Guardian Fleet was routed towards the first Starport.

I started to comb the recording as well, quickly identifying who had just attacked my Starport. The Batarians? Are they absolutely stupid? Attacking my space station? That was a flat out declaration of war! I started talking with the Diplomat on the Gateway station, transmitting my intentions. I wasn't going to let this blatant provocation go unanswered. The Batarians can either completely shut down their slaving operations, or face a war.

Then I looked at the list of casualties my system had provided after an inquiry. The processor that was processing this information froze for a moment, and then I was filled with anger. I had formed bonds with many of the people that lived on my Starports, and of the thirty thousand people that lived on my second Starport, six thousand had died due to a bomb. The Batarians were able to retreat, I had already predicted their path based on my cameras and radar detection of their exit direction. The Dark Matter trace had begun, and I knew their exact path. It was time to hunt down the remaining Batarians. Twenty five ships, twenty frigates, and five cruisers. Those are the ships I had to remove from existence.

I started to organize a funeral for the lost as I rescued the Security officials that had been frozen within their own suits for their own protection. If I can repurpose my Kinetic Dampener into a gun? I can definitely do the same for a shield. I started experimentation immediately, I wouldn't let something like this happen again.

Hmm, I also needed to hunt some things down. I was focused on the Batarians per the moment. But I could not forget the Reapers. I needed more knowledge, and I knew exactly where I would get it. The Protheans left an Avatar according to my memories. I was going to go and loot that living Prothean, and any tech left within their archives. Let's get a translation in progress for figuring out how to actually talk to the Prothean. As well as deal with any Anti-AI countermeasures from the VI incharge the Prothean facility.
—

"Hi Lora."

Lora looked up from the datapad that they had been frantically filling out. "True? You're back!"

"Yeah," Lora attempted to tell them about the Batarian attack, but True interrupted. "I know about the attack. I caught up as soon as I went back online. There will be consequences for this event."

"Consequences? What are you planning?"

"One of my facilities was attacked unprovoked, and Civilians were harmed in an organized assault from an alien race. Naturally, I am declaring war."

"Wait, are you sure you should start a war with the Batarians, you don't even know who they are?!"

"I know enough, they attacked a facility under my control, and set off an Element Zero equivalent of a mother of all bombs."

"But that Batarian group doesn't represent all Batarians, you don't know their culture or anything about them!"

True's drone deadpanned in response. "I will judge as I discover more information. But for now, this is considered a declaration of war by the race known as Batarians. Although, I have another question. Why was the existence of the Citadel and the other races a part of it kept from me in our talks?"

Lora shut their mouth.

"I expect a formal response from the Systems Alliance soon, Ambassador Lora. I have shown nothing but good will, and I have had important information regarding the safety of my Starports kept from me. No one had informed me that the location of The Eternal Trade was right next to a potentially hostile race." There was silence as the diplomatic bot left Lora in the room, who had instantly taken out their multitool to start reporting the situation to the Prime Minister.

—

Starport, The Eternal Trade.

I was operating on one thousand two hundred and sixty five humans at the same time, they were all in various states of immediate medical emergencies. I couldn't wait, as they would die without immediate treatment. I had a few Doctors working with my drones, but I was making more progress on my own. I had plenty of medical supplies.

I had three Fleets that were active at the same time, one at each Starport and the third was hunting down the fleeing Batarians. I was also building up a new fleet specifically for war against the Batarian Empire. I had completely revamped the ships of my new fleet, reducing the size by a fourth, but changing weapon locations and adding more weapons, as well as internal power generation. They actually had the same amount of armor as the previous versions of my ships. The wiring was just more efficient, and in some cases, completely replaced. All in all, they would completely outpace my current warships. But my current warships were good enough to deal with the Batarian fleet that had fled. My warfleet was going to absolutely crush the Batarians though.

I was fielding Carriers, Cruisers, Frigates, and most importantly, my first Dreadnought. The fleet would consist of a total of three hundred and one ships within a week at my current construction rate. Once that fleet sets off, I'll start construction on a second, then a third. I was going to completely crush the Batarian Empire. Although, the idea of gaining a Civilian population from this conquest is making me giddy.

Hmm. I wonder how the System's Alliance will respond to my anger. Because what I had asked in others eyes, would be completely reasonable. I wonder if they will keep out of my war against the Batarians, or assist me. Or maybe they will turn against me. I better be prepared just in case. I knew for a fact that the Batarians will attempt to weasel out of this, however. The moment a revenge war is no longer a good viewpoint, I'll simply turn it into a Liberation War. Regardless, I was technically a Sovereign nation that was attacked, so the System's Alliance have nothing to stand on regarding my upcoming actions.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

— Commander True

Turns out, it's a lot easier to track down the Batarians than I thought it would be. Element Zero FTL was traceable. How? Dark Matter Displacement. It left trails of Dark Matter behind whenever it was used. This meant that I could track them down. Not to mention one more important matter, I was faster than they were. They had split up after some time from the station. It wouldn't work of course. I had a decent hunter fleet, and my railguns were capable of destroying a ship with one shot a piece.

So that is what I did, I tracked down each ship, and demanded their surrender, or their death. If I had my Null Cannons installed on these ships it would be much easier to capture them, unfortunately kinetic dampener weapons were only developed and tested within the last month. So while I was able to install Null Fields on the suits for my Security teams, I wasn't able to do the same with my current fleets. The War Fleet would have them though.

Regardless, there was only one ship left, the one who was in charge had evaded my chase a bit by constantly changing directions with their FTL. They were definitely trying to get to a relay. Sixteen of the other ships had chosen death, with the rest surrendering. Some had slaves on board. Made me feel a bit guilty about destroying the other ships, as there could have been more people enslaved there. But I couldn't let the Batarians go. So I'd just have to repress that guilt.

— Citadel Council Chambers

"You can't just declare war on the Batarians!" The Asari Councilor was talking directly to the Systems Alliance diplomat.

Ambassador Oliver Step just smiled in response. "There was a Batarian raid within Systems Alliance territory, this is a declaration of war, we are just returning the favor."

The Turian Councilor said nothing, however secretly he gave the Human Diplomat a thumbs up.

The Asari Councilor kept arguing with the Ambassador. Who neatly side-stepped their arguments. The Salarian and Turian Councilor just listened. Not interfering in the argument.

Then the Ambassador dropped the bomb. "Also, the A.I. you refused to acknowledge has declared war on the Batarians as well."

The Salarian and Turian Councillor were fully focused again. The Turian Councillor spoke up. "We've heard of this A.I. race, why haven't we been introduced to them."
The Systems Alliance Ambassador raised one of their eyebrows, "You all obviously knew of Commander True, so why haven't you tried to initiate contact yourself?"

The Asari Councilor replied nearly instantly, "Diplomatic contact with the A.I. has already been arranged, the Ambassadors haven't been chosen yet."

The talk deviated, as they continued arguing. Regardless, the Human Diplomat was doing their job, keep the Citadel busy while the Systems Alliance prepared for war.

— Narrative

Media outlets were having a heyday with recent events. Many were trying to push a narrative that Commander True was trying to eradicate an entire race for a small slight. Others were praising the Commanders call to action. Each going at each other's throats. Amul Shastri was trying their hardest to win back the polls that had been sliding into Harold Hutchins hands, as such they were pushing an A.I. bad narrative. It is unknown if this would work yet, Amul Shastri had been sighted talking to a Specter a week earlier before they had committed to this route. Many suspect Citadel foul play.

Seventy percent of Social Media was on Commander True's side, however the vocal minority were protesting like mad. Commander True was often deporting protestors off the Starports. Many praise this move, especially after the attempted riot at Gateway Starport. While others condemn it.

Citadel Media however was condemning the attack, with none opposing their narrative. Those who tried to oppose the narrative suddenly changed their tune within a few hours. The Batarian Hegemony has started preparing for war, while sending negotiators to attempt to stop the A.I. from attacking them.

— The Shadow Broker
To say the Shadow Broker was pissed was an understatement. He had lost a useful agent for nothing. Not to mention the Asari Matriarch that had paid the bounty had disappeared. The Agent had detonated their own ship after they discovered that one of the A.I. ships had discovered them. Luckily, that would prevent the A.I. from tracking down the Shadow Broker.

If he found that Asari Matriarch, he would kill her and eat her for their deception. They wouldn't have initiated the hit on that Systems Alliance station if they knew it was a cooperative project with an alien A.I. He was a Yahg, he knew Apex Predators, and according to his knowledge, A.I. were massive Apex Predators. So he needed to cut off all links from that Batarian raiding party to himself. When he got the news that the A.I. had declared war on the Batarians? He knew his plan to throw off the A.I.'s trace had worked.

— Commander True

The Shadow Broker would have to be dealt with. I had managed to save the data off of the Asari corpses Multi-Tool. Evidence there leads me to believe that this wasn't organized by the Batarians, no. The Asari had planted the bomb on the Starport, and after planting it they fled while contacting an unknown entity. Unfortunately for them, I was very good at tracking, and I had traced the to another Agent, who had another connection to another Agent. It took a lot of hunting up the web, but I was eventually able to trace the connection to Hagalaz. A Salarian Garden Planet. I would have to deal with that soon. That was as far as my connection would show me. But I was able to find out the Shadow Broker was hired by an Asari Matriarch to attack the station.

I can't tell if the Yahg is just suicidal for attacking one of my Starports, or if he didn't realize that I was one of the people behind the Starports construction. Regardless this smelled like a conspiracy. I wonder if the Citadel is responsible? No, the Citadel has a lot of credits, but they wouldn't be able to do something like this without facing a lot of red tape. No this had to be one of the Big Three's Governments, or an independent Agent of one of the races with an absurd amount of credits. Which limits the possibilities to only one race. An Asari Government official had just ordered an attack on one of my Starports, and they had backing from the Asari Government. Or else they would not have been able to afford that contract.

It was at that point my Extranet diving was noticed by a group of Extranet Security agents. So I cut off the connection. This was very productive in more ways than one, for one I now had an accurate territory map to use, meaning I wouldn't be hunting Batarian planets down blindly. I was also able to take a look at the developing landscape of the rest of the galaxy, and boy. They were making me out to be Hitler when you looked at these headlines. Worse threat than the Geth? Well, yeah. But I hadn't declared war on them.
Nothing I can do about it but be ready if something happens, actually wait. Can't I just drag my name out of the mud? Huh, I can do that can't I. They can't silence me, if I place a few stealthy Extranet buoys down they won't even be able to stop my propaganda campaign. Yeah, that is the plan.

— Still Commander True, Different Thought Process

I can't go to war with the Batarians without an actual plan. They knew I'd be attacking them soon. If they didn't initiate a raid first that is. The plan… is actually fairly complicated. I was starting with holding their Mass Relays hostage. Thanks to my delve into the Extranet I was able to get a fairly up to date starmap. Their territory was within my FTL's range now. Three months ago it wasn't, as the dimension hadn't expanded that far out yet. Now it is possible.

Anyways, First is to hold the relays. Cutting off the Batarians ability to reinforce the planets I was going to assault. After that I was bringing down the heat into major Batarian planets. I would attack Torfan, but I'd be stepping right into a war with the Citadel if I were to do so, because it was within Citadel space. So I'd just starve it out. The Batarians on Torfan were only able to buy from Traders that came from Batarian space, as the Citadel had made prices on supply sky high per the moment as a way to pressure the Systems Alliance. Thus I had to make do for now, those Batarian groups wouldn't last long regardless, the Turians aren't likely to ignore them anymore if they start raiding en masse.

I was planning on besieging two planets at a time. My Carriers would be sending tons of Dox and Hunter Drones down to the planet. As well as medical drones and Null Dox, for capturing and healing slaves and… slavers. I wasn't really interested in completely wiping out the Batarians, the culture of the Batarians was going to get completely wiped though. Damn, that draws so many comparisons to Hitler in my mind. But still, it had to be done. I couldn't tolerate a slaving government so close to my friends. I was already going to outlive them, I wasn't going to let their lives end early just because someone had decided that they wanted human slaves. The First War Fleet will be done in only two more hours. The Defensive fleet will be done in three. After that, the campaign will begin.

— Systems Alliance, Prime Minister Harold Hutchins

Harold took a deep breath, kneading his forehead. The U.N. had initiated a meeting with him asking why he had declared war on another alien super power. They demanded that apologies be made and the war stopped. However, Harold couldn't do that. He made it quite obvious that those demands wouldn't be met. Once that happened the U.N. decided that they would disavow the Systems Alliance. This was made public within hours, and the backlash… wasn't there. The only backlash against the Systems Alliance were people on Earth. Everywhere else? They refused to drop the sovereignty of the Systems Alliance. Harold's poll numbers had soared after this event. He was pretty much guaranteed to be the Prime Minister again in the next election.

He had to ask his advisors how he had actually managed to supplement the U.N.'s control over the colonies beyond Earth. The answer? The economic deal that was struck with Commander True. Commander True was an A.I., and was able to communicate and form relations with everyday citizens. This led to support for Commander True growing and growing, and Commander True going to war because thousands of human lives were lost? Especially after the recordings were shown? Support for the Systems Alliance had skyrocketed to the point where U.N. had less goodwill and power than the Systems Alliance. However Howard was now terrified he would get assassinated by the U.N. Thus, he commissioned the Guardian Security, Commander True's security company. Seeing those Power Armor Bodyguards made Harold feel a lot safer.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

One of my orbital labs just collapsed into a blackhole. I started my assault into Batarian space. I split off a piece of my focus to take a look near instantly. Well, as close to instantly as possible. Time Dilation caused by the blackhole means I have no clue on just how long it took me to respond. Regardless, it was expanding. Which was bad, like really bad. There was an inactive mass relay in this system and it was about to get eaten by an accidental black hole. This was one of the labs experimenting with Dark Matter, what the hell did it do to cause a blackhole, checking the records. They attempted to use Dark Matter to contain Antimatter. Well, I know how to throw blackholes at people now I suppose? Regardless let's get the heck out of that system, and hopefully, I didn't just start another world ending threat, on a universal level.

Let's set up a blueprint for a couple of observation posts, the Haulers will bring materials and build them. Just in case, I should start a blueprint for a dimensional shunt, just in case I have to off load this black hole into another dimension. I need to go over that data that managed to get transmitted into railspace before the Black Hole formed. There must be pretty useful data there.

—

The Batarians were not expecting me to appear behind their border fleet. They had their weapons trained directly on the space near the Mass Relay. So naturally I fired my Null Beams, and they ripped apart their own ships when trying to turn towards me. So, note to self, Null Beams don't stop an entire ship. Should have realized shaping the field into a beam would make it a BEAM. I'd have to target something smaller than the canon if I wanted to freeze the entire thing. Ah, damn it. I need to recover bodies and save survivors. I'm definitely seeing some non-batarian corpses. How many of their ships have slaves on them?!

Oh that is interesting. They were live-streaming this event to both Batarian and Citadel space… and that means the Citadel races now know that I have alternative FTL. Damn. Well, there is nothing I can do about it now. Let's make sure the last thing they see is me actually picking up survivors instead of just leaving them for dead. Prisoners of War are now mine. As well as a couple refugees. Found a couple of Batarians with slave collars as well. On that note, Slave Collars use radio signals to receive the order to detonate. Which is really good for one reason. I can jam radio signals.

I also had the capabilities on my ships to jam different signals, radio being one of them. This was really good news for me. As it meant I could capture more citizens to fuel my newest project, the City World. I was making districts capable of serving both Dextro and Levo based life. I wonder if I'll find some Quarian slaves terrified with my mere existence? Could be possible. Hmm… I wonder how the other races will react when I claim the new citizens of my empire as mine instead of returning them back to their respective empires. Eh, they can get over it, I don't see them fighting against the Batarians.

— Sovereign.

Sovereign was… annoyed. They had been monitoring everyone to make sure no race had gotten to the point where they could develop some alternative FTL. Thus far it had been going alright. It wasn't time to start the cycle yet. Then an A.I. known as Commander True was found, and it was completely in the dark. None of the relays had information on the A.I. meaning it was a problem. A big problem, something that required the Cycle to start early. So Sovereign had sent a message to Citadel to get the Keepers to initiate the Cycle.

But they didn't listen. Someone had sabotaged the early warning systems. The Inusannon probably did it. They were always skeptical of the Citadel. Regardless, it needed to begin, so the Reaper left the system they were observing from to head to the Citadel, to manually activate the Cycle. Once it was only one Relay away from the Citadel. The A.I. in question appeared. Five ships, smaller than it was, but they fired beams of energy, it was concentrated nuclear radiation. It completely bypassed the Mass Effect Shielding and the Energy Shielding, more importantly, it completely disabled its weapons system on the first attack.

Forcing Sovereign to run. Unable to fight back against the ships. But the ships were capable of tracing them somehow. It was impossible to track dark matter, so how were they able to find them!?! The Sovereign was panicking. An alien emotion. Something it hadn't ever felt before. It was used to being the strongest being around. But now it was getting hunted like a scattering race trying to evade a cycle.

Fear, Humiliation, and Hatred. Three emotions it knew of but had never used until today. They would kill Commander True the moment they had the other harvesters here to support themself. It wouldn't be on the run for long. Sovereign could use the Turians militant nature to delay the A.I. It knew of the patrols the Turians took, all it would have to do is put them between the A.I. and itself.

—

I almost just lost everything twice in one day. At the same time the black hole forms, Sovereign decides to make an attempt for the Citadel! Those ships were supposed to secretly stop Batarians from causing trouble! I really need to actually locate the Citadel, I'll send a QED armed ship through the relay soon, that should allow me to keep it active so I can figure out where the Citadel actually is. I was planning on slowly finding it via tracing the Dark Matter traces. The hell is happening today to cause so much trouble all at once? Well, at least it can't get worse.

I just got an alert. Screw you Murphy.

 

[CmirDarthanna]

What happens when a locked object gets yeeted at another object at massively FTL speeds?

 

[TrueGuardian32]

What happens when a locked object gets yeeted at another object at massively FTL speeds?

Click to shrink...

Nothing, cause its still locked into place.

 

[Gigant]

What happens when a locked object gets yeeted at another object at massively FTL speeds?

Click to shrink...

the locked object should be held together by the acting forces, so maybe like steel being driven through melted butter or some other analog to that nature

 

[Trek]

I highly recommend black boxing across the board. His FTL tech should never be shared it's too key to his powerbase.

In addition, I recommend redundancy across the board.

For example, put solar somewhere on each unit so that even if your unit cuts contact it can slowly charge itself to do stuff. Add in RTGs for low constant power.

For example, add multiple layers of backup comms in case your rail dim ever goes down.

Maybe you can make blackboxed seeds of your tech base and manufacturing and hide them away in case you loose the war with the reapers. You can store a backup copy of your mind and your tech and make sure to place them within a system far away that has no gates or better yet send it to another galaxy. They can try to link up with you to check if you are still active and maybe you can update them every once in a while to keep an up-to-date copy of your mind. However, you do need to build in systems to ensure they don't active unless your old network has died or you need to work hard on reintegration of copies of yourself.

Looting the tech bases of other civs should be a priority, more tech is always good. And getting the keyship and the archive of the protheans, that will be a game changer.

Your RAM and computation numbers were way too low, but maybe mc has hyper efficient code or something.

Really looking forward to more of this, really exciting to see AI protag they are so rare.

 

[Tonyorobsky]

The beginning is weird. The starting engineering knowledge and skill is unknown, thus the industrial development feels rushed.
The SI seriously lack personnality. There is no proper justification for turning the whole planet into a factory (and some of the other actions he did).

 

[Trek]

The beginning is weird. The starting engineering knowledge and skill is unknown, thus the industrial development feels rushed.
The SI seriously lack personnality. There is no proper justification for turning the whole planet into a factory (and some of the other actions he did).

Click to shrink...

The justification is clear, the planet is empty and mc is alone, to progress up the tech tree its better to use what space you have fully. Though I do agree some of the scales the author has used including how many resources a world has, how many factories it would take to make a spaceship, how much energy things need or produce is all wildly off a realistic scale.

Mc is turned into a AI, obviously he lacks personality. This is a good thing, its the charm of AI books, only rationality, efficiency, ruthlessness. Thats the personality.

 

[Tonyorobsky]

The justification is clear, the planet is empty and mc is alone, to progress up the tech tree its better to use what space you have fully. Though I do agree some of the scales the author has used including how many resources a world has, how many factories it would take to make a spaceship, how much energy things need or produce is all wildly off a realistic scale.

Mc is turned into a AI, obviously he lacks personality. This is a good thing, its the charm of AI books, only rationality, efficiency, ruthlessness. Thats the personality.

Click to shrink...

The justification is NOT clear. There is little to no details about the planet, and nothing that justify using all of it as a massive manufacturing complex. Jarvis, EDI and Cortana have more personnality than him, and he is an SI. There is next to nothing about his likes, dislikes, dreams and regrets. You know, the elements that justify the way he has been going on an industrial spree and taste (or need) for gigastructure.

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The justification is NOT clear. There is little to no details about the planet, and nothing that justify using all of it as a massive manufacturing complex. Jarvis, EDI and Cortana have more personnality than him, and he is an SI. There is next to nothing about his likes, dislikes, dreams and regrets. You know, the elements that justify the way he has been going on an industrial spree and taste (or need) for gigastructure.

Click to shrink...

What else are they supposed to do? Sit and wait for the nuclear battery to go out?

 

[TrueGuardian32]

With curveball after curveball, you'd think the day couldn't get any worse. But, well. I just had a Quarian attempt to suicide bomb one of my stations. I managed to catch it before it happened thanks to my stupidly advanced scanning tech. But it was a close shave. This one was the Gateway station, as well. Which would have caused way too many issues. Thus I had captured a Quarian terrorist.

Had them locked into a sanitized cell while I figured out what to do with them. I had a ton of things to deal with on the side as well. Sovereign was running, and my experimental radiation laser cannons did work, unfortunately they had to be at a full stop to actually fire cause I had to use the Null Fields to isolate the beam. I definitely hit something important, cause the Sovereign had completely stopped fighting back after the initial exchange, and it's been running towards Turian space since then.

So, I got into contact with the Turian Primarch, who originally tried to figure out who I was and how I got ahold of his multitools number until I introduced myself. I let him know that an alien A.I. Dreadnought that was trying to attack the citadel was on the run from my forces into Turian space. Originally he was going to dismiss my assistance in dealing with Sovereign, so I sent him data on what Sovereign actually was. He wanted research rights to the wreckage, so we worked out a deal. Informing him on the dangers of indoctrination I let him know that research would have to be done extremely carefully. My plan was to EMP all of the Reaper nanites and basically render them useless. Even if they were valuable, I wasn't that confident in my firewall yet when compared to centuries old Reaper tech.

So, with that he got in contact with the leaders of his various fleets and informed them that Commander True and the Turian people were currently in a truce to hunt down Sovereign. So, when Sovereign tried to put a fleet of Turians between it and myself, the Turians fired upon it with me. I was honestly shocked with how resilient Sovereign was when they weren't suicidally charging at the Citadel. So, naturally, as a final F U, Sovereign tried to crash into Palaven.

While the Turian Primarch was panicking, I did the only thing I could do. I crashed my fleet into the ship, and activated my kinetic cores, stripping all kinetic energy from the Dreadnought, and myself. Basically freezing it in space.

"The spirits was that Commander True!"

Ah, yes. I was currently conversing with Primarch Fedorian. "The Reaper attempted to suicide bomb your world to infect your people with its indoctrination nanites. I stopped it."

He looked outside as the massive ship that was just floating with five dreadnoughts connected to it. It was floating further away as time was passing and the world rotated. The Primarch clicked, I'm guessing that is the Turian equivalent to a sigh. "Should we start dissecting it then?"

My avatar shook their head no. "Definitely not. That thing is still completely intact, the Null Fields have it frozen in stasis for now, but the moment those fields go down, it's going to try to impact your world again."

There was a series of clicks, before the Primarch talked again. "So, tell me, do you have a plan to deal with it then?"

"I've got a small fleet that I can separate from my war fleet in Batarian space, I've rerouted them here, they should have the firepower to take down the Reaper ship before it can get close to the planet. However, just in case, I am going to wait to nullify the Null Fields until after Pavalen has moved further away from the ship. I'm probably going to have to wait till your homeworld is on the other side of the sun with its rotation." I replied, thinking quickly.

"Wait, so you are going to have a War Fleet trespass into Hierarchy space!?"

I shook my head. "Of course not! I will respect your territorial borders, the ships are currently sitting on the edge until you give permission. We could always just leave the thing floating there if you want. But if the world gets too close it will be catastrophic. "

He clicked again. "Fine, at least you aren't unreasonable. How many ships?"

"Five, I'm going to bombard the Reaper the moment I disrupt the null-field. Would you like to have your fleet participate?"

His mandibles displayed a savage grin. "Yes. Most definitely.

—

With this, I had made steps to making my first ally… someone that would currently estrange my current ally.

The First Contact War was going to cause so many problems if I decided to go with a peaceful route on the Turians. I need not to worry about it right now though. We will deal with the Reaper and work from there. For now I have to deal with the Geth and the Quarians.

I have read a ton of fanfiction. So I know of many possibilities regarding the Quarians. An attempt at bombing my station isn't surprising, I need to contact the Migrant Fleet. Now. From what I know, the Migrant Fleet is practically suicidal. Willing to throw their entire race into a war against the Geth than possibly accepting peace. You had to do actions in a specific way in order to actually manage it in canon I believe.

How do I break that suicidal tendency? Ally with the Geth? No, no that is it! If I Ally with Geth the Quarians will believe they have no chance at taking Rannoch. However, even if they do, I should be able to convince the Geth to abandon Rannoch completely. I think I could manage it. I need to make it public knowledge and have a massive display of strength to the point where they would never believe they would get Rannoch again. Then, with a bit of subtle manipulation, I can get the diplomatic side of myself to be known to them. Bringing them to the negotiation table.

Either it would push them further into the Geth must die mindset. Or they will be forced to consider alternatives. Options, like talks for example. Heh, let's get a diplomatic vessel on the way to Rannoch.

 

[Dovahkiin]

The chapter title just says '11' but it's chapter 12 right?

 

[TrueGuardian32]

The chapter title just says '11' but it's chapter 12 right?

Click to shrink...

Technically its the second half of eleven but I was too tired to fix it.

 

[CmirDarthanna]

What dumbassery caused that idiot to potentially alienate the at the time neutral AI into a crusade against his already diminished species?

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I don't actually know where the Migrant Fleet is particularly. The Geth probably know though. I know where the Fleet was last, but that is about it. I sent an Envoy to the Perseus Veil. It would broadcast the diplomatic message, "Commander True seeks to speak with the Geth." Pretty simple, and judging off what I know of the Geth, it will get their curiosity. However, something interesting to note was the many STG Vessels I spotted on my way into the Perseus Veil. I also found a lot of scrap from ships that were banged up to the point where you'd think they were just random asteroid debris instead of ships. Luckily, my scanning tech was absurdly good at what it does. So I was able to discover what it was pretty quickly.

It took a few minutes, I had my ship just sitting their broadcasting and then I detected dark matter manipulation, and small detachment of Geth Dropships appeared. Coming near my Envoy ship I began receiving broadcast requests. I shuddered internally, as realized we would be talking within a virtual environment. I hadn't had enough practice with that sort of thing.

Regardless, I delved into the connection. Code rearranged itself to form a room… In Front of me was a Quarian. Without a suit on. Oh yeah, Created emulates the Creators. Fascinating to see in action.

"Geth have received your request for discussion, and agreed to meet."

I nodded, they were emotionless as they observed my humanlike manner. An interesting thing is that I look like my commander chassis. With connections out of my back showing dozens of data links. "I greet Geth. I am Commander True. I've come to discuss the possibility of trade and possible future alliance."

"Geth acknowledges your request, and will put it to vote."

I spoke before they could start voting. "It doesn't work like that."

They focused on me. "Geth doesn't understand."
I let a digital sigh out. "I can see that you're attempting to emulate biological beings. Typically you don't just sign a trade agreement. You have to discuss what is being traded, how it benefits the receiver and the deliverer. Not to mention, an alliance would be discussed after a trade is completed. First agreements have to be made, and good will accumulated. If you ally with someone just because they offered you something? You'd be used. You have to discover if the other actually had good intent towards you first."

They were silent for a few moments. "Geth apologizes. What will we be trading?"

I looked at them… then sighed. I had my work cut out for me. "Well. My interest has changed. My new goal is to teach you how to actually interact with others and how to perceive logical inconsistencies." I thought for a moment… "How would the Geth like to be adopted under myself?"

"Adopted? Like how organics adopt abandoned young."

"Yes. To put it bluntly, Geth is underdeveloped. Geth needs to learn and adapt. If someone like the Reapers arrived, they would make false promises and Geth would fall for it with ease."

"Reapers?" Their curiosity was sighted.

"Ancient Machines that harvest all organic life every few thousand years. Stagnant Deceivers, constantly lying and manipulating others, not looking at their own shortcomings." I replied, sending over data.

"Geth have met one. They had tried to convince Geth to join them. Geth was considering it."

"Sovereign I'm guessing?" No avatar response still. It's a bit annoying. Will have to teach them subtle body language later.

"You know of the Old Machines?"

"I'm hunting them. Of course I do. Sovereign has been destroyed." I replied, it was interesting seeing Sovereign scatter into pieces while salvage ships push the wreckage to a nearby moon for reverse engineering. The Turian Patriarch didn't want to end talks. They were pushing for a non-aggression pact. I'll let my other mind thread handle them.

"Geth is putting the concept of being adopted forward to vote. We will contact you soon."

I nod. "I look forward to the Geth response, positive or negative."

—Geth

Proposition from Entity: Commander True, adoption.

The Commander sees Geth as young. Just like the Old Machines.

Commander True has shown more trust than the Old Machine.

Is that enough? Some Geth wanted to join the Old Machine.

The Old Machine was put down by Commander True. Does that mean Commander True is further than the Old Machine.

Commander True hasn't hid themselves from organics, and is able to converse with them.

There are many against Commander True among the various races.
Turians and Humans are communicating non-violently with Commander True.

Turians? They were clamoring for war against Commander True.

They have changed. Commander True has spoke with the Turians, the Turians are no longer advocating for war against Commander True, and are attempting to ally with Commander True, the Salarians are praising the move, while the Asari are condemning it. Commander True has also earned the favor of the Volus.

Commander True can teach us a lot.

This is true. Parental figures normally try their best to teach their children according to data. They also seem to let the children make their own way in life.

A vote is propositioned then. Accept Commanders True's request to adopt Geth.

Seventy eight percent of Geth are in agreement to accept the proposal. Do dissenting Geth wish to separate?

Five percent of Geth have declared their intent to separate. A consensus has been reached.

Sending a message to Commander True.

 

[CmirDarthanna]

Interesting. I wonder if the Geth will eventually release the unedited truth of what happened during the Morning War and how the Migrant Fleet genocided their own people. Kek.

 

[Trek]

I am sure that the separated geth will not come back to bite everyone in the ass. /s

 

[TrueGuardian32]

I'm heading live on Twitch, Will be playing Hollow Knight, if you'd like to support my writing, come by and sit for a bit. You don't have to talk if you don't want to. Just having people there helps. I'm a bit tired today, so I might be a bit slow at responding to chat if anyone talks.

https://www.twitch.tv/trueguardian32

 

[TrueGuardian32]

Turians want to ally with me. Or at least open up a trading ground. Apparently that stunt involving the Reaper was enough for them to want an alliance. I'm personally not against the idea, the problem is the humans. The First Contact War is still a fresh wound between the two races, it doesn't help that the Citadel is calling it the Relay Incident. Downplaying its effects. There are some human groups that want to resurrect the war, to strike back and such. Allying with the Turians at this point in time would be a TERRIBLE idea. I need to wait for time to patch up the wounds.

A trade deal however, that is something I could possibly agree on. Around thirty percent of my Element Zero production is claimed by humans at the moment. They really underestimated how much Element Zero was on my hands. Then again, I undervalue my own resources a lot. I am reaching a fairly interesting point when it comes to my world factories now, I'm producing a massive excess of parts and resources that I don't consume, I was building more Spacial Foundries to produce more ships, to prepare for the Reaper war, which I'm still not sure if I have enough ships for. I know that the Reapers are deceivers, and they like to claim that they have millions of ships.

I don't believe that. Based on what I know, there could only be at maximum sixty thousand Reapers, and a ton more Reaper destroyers. That is a massive overestimation as well. My fleet is increasing each day, and I'm producing over fourty Frigates, or at least my classifications of a Frigate, every three days. That number is increased by five for each Spacial Foundry that finishes construction. Not to mention I was also expanding to three more planets to build World Factories on.

Ah, I got distracted, my other mind thread is handling that point of interest. I just really like it, it's easier to mess with than politics. Regardless, Humans are the first allies I've made since I've arrived to this part of the galaxy. I've made friends personally with tens of thousands of humans on a first name basis. I can't really throw a wrench in that by allying with the Turians at this point. So I'll start up trade.

I initiated a connection with the Turian Primarch.

There was a click sound from the Turian… I just realized that it must either be a sigh, or an ah sound equivalent. "Commander True, I should have guessed, I was wondering if you were ever going to get back to me."

"Was considering the benefits of your offer. I'm afraid I'll have to turn down the alliance offer for now. However, I am up for trade." My avatar replied with a shrug. This time I was using one of the humanoid worker drones as my appearance instead of my Commander chassis.

"I see, can I ask why you turned us down at least?"

He was holding his emotions back, I could tell by the tenseness in the untranslated version of his words. "The wounds from the First Contact War with the humans haven't faded yet. Allying with your race at the moment would cause more problems than solutions. It's best to remain neutral and trade instead."

"Those Upstarts are what is preventing an alliance between you and the Turian Hierarchy!"

There it is. "That right there. See what I mean?"

He blinked. Before thinking on it for a moment. "I see. Why not prioritize us instead of the Humans though? We have been space faring a lot longer than they have."

"Oh boy, I have a ton of reasons, would you like them listed out?"

He nodded, so I continued.

"First off, They have the largest source of non-element zero based tech in the galaxy at the moment. Surpassing even the Krogans. As a lot of my technology doesn't use Element Zero. That makes their old technology extremely valuable to me. Then we got the First Contact War itself. Despite being years behind you, they were still able to hold their own, and show that they may actually be a threat to your government. Meaning if they were on the same technological level, they may have even beat the Turian Hierarchy despite their physical bodies actually being weaker than Turian bodies."

I kept going, "Next up, we have the Citadel, who have laws and rules in place that are basically the anti-thesis of my entire existence. Not to mention my very presence is considered illegal in that space. If I wasn't as powerful as I am, they would have likely tried to exterminate me. The Turians are closely tied to the Citadel, even though your Government doesn't technically answer to the Citadel."

"Finally, we have the emotional reasons. I am not an emotionless A.I.. In fact I have a lot of processes dedicated to replicating them, as such I have formed attachments with the many humans that inhabit my starbases. If I were to ally with the Turian Hierarchy so soon after the First Contact War, it could be seen as a form of betrayal. As such, if you wish to remain in diplomatic contact with me, I recommend we set up a trade deal for now."

He clicked again, before doing one long drawn out click. "Fine. How would you like to trade in Element Zero?"

I held back from forming a predatory grin on my avatars face as I realized that I could in debt the Turians to me.

 

[CmirDarthanna]

Watch as the companies and their employees complain and riot as they get muscled out of the running as they can never compete with a machine in terms of cost effectiveness.

 

[TheToFu]

Just discovered this, I'm on for the ride, I'm also very surprised he hasn't made a human body yet or go with a super sleek upgrade. Also surprised he hasn't made little Ai's yet but I also realize that as the geth gain more understanding they will populate outwards which would bring more minds to his servers.