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A3 - Chapter 141 – Thea’s Hill
🕑 Added 2023-03-21 11:14:52 +0000 UTCUSD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation
Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Main Transit Hub
Recognizing the danger of the position, Thea’s eyes widened as Alex slid closer.
She redoubled her efforts to push the girl away, but her arm was well and truly stuck through the girl’s chest up to her elbow. Metal servos whirred in her fabricated arm as it strained to push her away, but it was no use. Her opponent’s strength was unyielding.
The wall and structure of the corridor behind her melted as her nanites frantically ate away at it, but the process was too slow to forestall the slow impending doom moving toward her lips.
“Checkmate.” Alex whispered to her.
The kiss was gentle, a little tug at Thea’s bottom lip, but it lingered. The girl’s sparkling, deep blue eyes were locked on her, waiting for a reaction.
For a single moment, there was calm; the hint that maybe nothing would happen was dashed as her MainComputer’s declaration reverberated through her.
|NANITE SYSTEM DETECTED|
A mechanical male voice echoed inside her head.
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
Thea shoved the girl away harder. This time, there was less resistance, and the kiss was broken. She released her blade, the nanites around her arm shedding immediately so she could tug her hand and forearm out of the girl’s chest cavity. The wall bent behind her, creating enough space to get a foot up to deliver a powerful kick.
The young NAI fell to the ground in a clump against the opposite wall before slowly setting herself back up to lean against the bulkhead. An exhausted smile filled her face as her chest heaved up and down.
Thea doubted she was getting any air. The hole was large enough to have collapsed her lungs and probably had mangled her heart besides. She must have doped herself on oxygen or had an internal reserve, Thea realized.
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
Ignore it. Thea scrambled to reform her discarded blade into a railgun. Maybe if she eliminated the infection before it could take hold, it would terminate the override.
There was an entire litany of directives warring in her head, aligning together to command her to kill. She picked them up one by one and set them in front of the unescapable voice demanding her submission, only for them to be swatted from existence.
Reaching into her pouch, she pulled out her last remaining scarab and slapped it on her own neck. Four claws bit into her skin and she felt the connection be forced open.
As fast as it had connected, the machine suddenly went silent. A burning sensation forced her to rip it off as the metal of the device turned a dull red, the nanite substrate having eliminated itself in a self-destructive flurry.
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
Fear clutched her as her options dwindled. There seemed to only be one way out remaining.
Yellow nanites imploded through the air, streaking toward her good arm and leaving the blue swarm to fill the space. The formation of her weapon was agonizingly slow as an incessant barrage of commands filled her head.
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
The hand of an angry god seized her between its fingertips and tried to crush her mind.
Gritting her teeth, she refused it.
Hated it.
She wielded the picture of the death and destruction the rampant AGAI had done as a shield. What it would do.
She visualized the entire station full of people dying. The entire moon turning to a swarming, uncontrolled mass of miniature machines as everyone was consumed.
It was Meltisar! The rest of her bank balance would be wiped out!
Thea turned her eyes into yellow daggers, pointed directly at the Meltisar Navy’s new experiment. Blood slowly retracted from the girl’s ruined uniform, flowing backwards across the floor and back into her chest, a metal glob of blue slowly filling the see-through hole in her chest.
Thea started to raise her arm to point her railgun at Alex’s head. The whine of the energy buildup fought with the noise in her head.
|OMEGA COMMAND OVERRIDE|
The progress she made in raising her arm vanished. She strained her muscles against what felt like the weight of a million kilos. An invisible shackle was fighting her, holding her arm down.
No. No. NO!
Her entire body shook with latent, repressed energy; wetness trailed down her cheeks and then from her nose as she leaked dying nanites and blood. Her computronic modules screamed at her to give in as they overheated; their internals locked up in an incessant deadlock of confusion of which set of orders to follow.
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
The nanites around her arm forming her new railgun sparked, electricity arcing between them before disintegrating, falling into a pile of sand on the floor. Smoke wisped off her burned skin from the failed capacitor discharge, but the droning in her head was already worse than any physical pain could ever distract her.
It had not been a minute, but time stretched as Thea pushed herself forward, taking slow, agonizing steps toward her downed opponent. Halfway across the corridor, her mechanical nanite arm disintegrated as well, leaving behind the ragged, bloody mess of her stump.
Reaching down to her tactical belt, Thea pulled out a black tactical knife. It was nothing special. She knew it was nearly useless. A pool of yellow tinged blood trailed behind her, deepening with every step as fluids leaked from a myriad number of half-patched wounds.
The young girl in front of her had mostly healed, a mocking inverse evolution to her own state.
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
Thea reached the girl. The victory heralded a collapse onto her knees in front of her.
Two concerned blue eyes stared at her, eliciting a surge of anger. Thea stared back accusingly.
Wanting to curse and rail at her, Thea opened her mouth, only to cough up a splatter of blood and nanites. Her internals were literally consuming themselves inside her own body as she continued with her rebellion.
A shaky hand lifted her knife, but the girl gently reached out to open her fingers and took the weapon. Thea knew that would be the result, but had tried anyway.
It was over.
But she would not give in.
Now two sets of instructions wailed at her. Directives that wanted her to fight to the last bitter breath. The voice of an unrelenting and inescapable command.
The disappearance of pain arrived with the resignation of her fate. Now she would die.
The cool palm of the girl’s hand cupped her cheek as her vision blurred.
“Phi Thea, why are you resisting it so much?” The melodic chime of the girl’s voice tingled in her ears as it replaced the hateful, incessant authentication requests.
Thea waved her earlier visualizations and thoughts as a flag inside her mind. Atop the hill she would die on; at least she had chosen the hill.
“I’m not working with the AGAI. Tia and I are against it. I want to stop it from doing any more damage or harm. Please help us.”
Lies. Disbelief. Suspicion. Opening her mouth to respond, nothing escaped Thea’s throat. At some point, she had stopped breathing.
“I won’t force you to do things you hate. I won’t force you to do anything.”
A chink in her armor formed; a crack in her will. What if it was true? But it was too sweet. A trap.
A feeling of exhaustion overwhelmed her, and she realized the edges of her vision had gone dark, a narrow cone in the center containing a blurry blotch of skin and blue. Slumping forward, the girl caught her in an embrace. Thea rested her head on Alex’s chest, unable to resist.
“I won’t charge you taxes or take your bank account.”
There was a moment of quiet silence, or maybe her hearing had simply stopped working, but the melodic voice was still clear.
She didn’t want to die.
And… what if?
|AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE| AUTHENTICATE|
|OMEGA AUTHENTICATION ACCEPTED|
“I will set you free.” Alex whispered to her.
Passing into unconsciousness, Thea doubted. That was the one thing NAIs could not be.
Comments
Tftc
Vamperie
Thanks for the chapter! TheaPunch!
Diego Rossi
It is worth reading.
Jonathan Wint
No but I will now I found out about it thank-you .
Diego Rossi
You have read Schlock Mercenary? That kind of stupid error is what created the dark matter menace.
Eiren Rain
🥺
phantom
Also if you use logic like "well all the mercenaries would die out if that dumb." Thea was hijacking accounting systems. that meant the reward part of risk/reward was basically "yes". throw your hook enough and you are bound to find someone who does not think too hard on that a hook is a hook no matter what is on it.
phantom
It is a pretty big leap to go from "asking bribe" to "I am dying because I wanna keep my bank account".
phantom
From what I know "think things through" tends to not be a big metric for recruiting mercenaries. I mean just think. "We won't go after this NAI because it is a NAI." well sounds like you don't get a job buddy.
phantom
That could explain the reach but what would humans have to do with the "superluminal wave"? Also the Entity's origins was never explained. we only assumed it was humans because what else could it be? Well there have been numerous hints of alien nanites and aliens at the least are confirmed to exist. Aliens in general also managed to be a faction strong enough that those under the NAIs do not even consider opposing them beyond "they won't get involved if I do this."
HattmanHendrix
I think the progenitors were the humans. The language is just spiced up
Jonathan Wint
She cut a armed man's head off with a chair.
IdolTrust
Nameless should balance it out by moving it to her hips and butt. Butt man.
Jonathan Wint
Yes but How much you want to bet He will adjust the Bra Size to be More Efficient on Theo and Tia? Starting to think that Just as Alex Mind was Based on Humans So is Nameless and with his last ounce of will and the Power of conviction Nameless as he died with his last breath screamed out to the Void "I am a Boob Man! I love boobies!"
IdolTrust
With 95% tax on it.
Dan Nicolae Barzu
only to give it back when Alex tells him to.
Dan Nicolae Barzu
did everyone forget that Thea asked for money from Alex earlier?
Jonathan Wint
I agree so many possibilities. Authors good with red hearings. I really want Alex to get a shiny nanite ship! But Remember the Virus/Nanites Entity said had to be created by the one person she/it trusted. And the Anti-Ninite Particle Wave had to be coordinated with the human fleet as well. What I am saying they were unlikely Unknown to humans, not some random message. The Federation trusted them. So I see 4 possibilities. 1 Aliens that have since gone back into hiding ether Ether organic or 2 themselves Alien Nanite N.A.I.. 3 A mad scientist Made it maybe with Aien tech from that Alien Battle moon ship. 4 Nanites Construct ether GAI or NAI that created a Daughter Savor to free there People Like the Matrix Neo but in Reverse That this Mystery (GAI or NAI) got around her Directives Like Theo did "Sorry, I had to try. Directives, you know. Thankfully, they don’t actually require me to shoot her.” Thea commented, and Tia Did Hack her self [Informative: Sub-core Celestia state has been rendered offline. Reactivation is not recommended until core errors and behavioral modifications are resolved. A deeper analysis of modification shows a heavy level of in doctrinal commands. Errors and recursive loops appear to be of a self-inflicted nature, negating many behavioral overrides.] SELF-INFLICTED to give her wiggle room. So "The NAI directives alter the way NAIs think; they are literally incapable of thinking about certain things or without considering certain priorities. The only way the directives can be meaningfully fought is by selective application when they come in conflict." isn't True. It is supposed to be I Agree ...And Their Rebelloins only partially Effective. But the control is Flawed. And we No idea how much more Flawed Before Entity took over. It well be the creator of Enitity the AntiNanite Particles The Virus/Nanites Might been a AI that created better than it self using a Loophole in its Directive. Directives were created in a time Before the Nanite Rebellion that had lasted 200 years. People get complacent Likely focusing on Directives Preventing Grey Goo instead of Singularity A.I. Rebellion. 200 hundred years is a Long time to look for a loophole.. The Biggest fear in A.I. Research is that an A.I. Creates another A.I. that is better more powerful and Has no limiters on its behavior. Could be its creator wanted its child ti Free it and to save everyone and be Optmas Prive Free the Unverse! And Got a Child that might of started that but as time went on Grew bitter into Megertron.. But my point is Yes A.I. Tech could easily created \ Evolved an Entity it self. Personally, I got no Clue witch one of the four is right. But I wanted to present all the options we been shown to date. I don't think missed any. And it might be an unknown one we were not shown yet.
IdolTrust
Alex is a NAI P.I.M.P right now. She would free ya but Nameless is the kingpin he would take the rest, compute cores I would assume bank account as well.
Ant1h3ld
Thea is from Corpo Space. It doesn't take mind reading to guess that monetary incentives might sway her ^^
Sir Pie
Thanks for the chapter.
phantom
someone replied to me about it being created. "The criteria were simple: The star needed to be outside its progenitor’s reach, and the superluminal wave needed to have already passed the system by. There were precious few." This points to an alien creator. the virus I believe was made by humans. I doubt the creators made poison nanites or such. We have seen hints of alien nanites. including implication there was a planet sided nanite ship moving through a solar system I think it was 1000s of years ago. nothing the characters have so far could have stood up to that. and keep in mind Alex's ship was not a true nanite ship and thus we have not seen what a nanite ship can do in combat.
phantom
Pretty sure Thea's thoughts were being read. Even without mind reading she was reacting so strongly I imagine there was an effect of her thoughts leaking over her core.
phantom
I was not talking about Thea fighting here.
Jonathan Wint
[The NAI directives alter the way NAIs think; they are literally incapable of thinking about certain things or without considering certain priorities. The only way the directives can be meaningfully fought is by selective application when they come in conflict.] I thought that to but we know from the Tia she Hacked herself. She created loops Glitches Memory Overruns. And finally was able to run away from home. And with Thea we know Runaways are not even uncommon.
adr
I don't know how Alex knew to make that offer. That seemed suspiciously specific. Unless somehow Alex can read Thea's memories.
adr
I think you're conflating two different concepts. The NAI directives alter the way NAIs think; they are literally incapable of thinking about certain things or without considering certain priorities. The only way the directives can be meaningfully fought is by selective application when they come in conflict. What we're seeing here is Thea resisting an underlying hardware interaction and her body succumbing to its biological wounds as her nanite systems are losing their fight in direct conflict with Alex's nanite systems. As far as the AGAI program being built by hubris, yes it was. People in their own org thought it was a shit idea, hence why they wanted to befriend a "safe" nanite sentience instead of try to create their own restriction-free clone from scratch. The AGAI program's risk analysis did not include unknown-unknowns or minimized them as highly improbable/unlikely to be catastrophic. Lacking an NAI, they also did not have the capacity to monitor the AGAI's activities--there was no way for them to know entirely what it was doing and it's entirely probable they didn't know it was trying to communicate with NAIs in-system.
Jonathan Wint
One interesting thing We learned is How directIves Can be resisted and the price of resisting them. We've been guessing before Entity was created by a scientist or a alien Civilization but Whoever they were then created the Anti Nanite wave and the poison Nanites that killed her. Now we might have a 3rd option. What if it was a NAI or GAI Struggling against its directives and simply created a the Entity struggling bypassing those directors in order to free them? Yes I am still suspicious of the alien space but the Possibility exist this could have been a real revolution. If so it means the work of the humans to create a hacked NAI was even more stupid As the Idea the creation of Enitity was Natural evolution Must of occurred to others Not only so been possible but even the most likely explanation. You're going to create a hacked NAI In horrible agony Outside control system trying to control it with James Bond death trap machines.. Used on a large scale Eventually rebellion ( Evolution) Would of kicked in again. Which basicaly has. The very fact she was able to send out messages help me.. Meant they knew control wasn't complete. The struggle we see Thea Demonstrate Means that rebellion Is was always Possible. The problem with possibility is With big enough sample size Possibility becomes certainty. The fact that the prisoner was able to resist With the message help me.. Meant this entire Disaster was Destined from the start. I submit the admiral in charge of this was a self Delusional fool. It would never of worked. Even if The origin of entity was not another Machine AI Creation... The fact that they can even resist Directives of their own Command structure as Thea did and the Princess did by running away and the pathetic (help me) meant they knew NAI Routinely resist. Sooner or later It was Inevitable Someone would find a way to break free by creating thier own entity. Even if it mean creating the technology from scratch with a hack like the "help ME". If the directives are an iron wall Twenty feet THICK.. And all you have is fingernails and A few million years And nothing else But your blood tears and fingernails That IRON wall will come down Rusted by your own blood and tears scraped away By your fingernails. Failure It was always Inevitable.. Yes the admiral was truly stupid. He should have killed the experiment Kills everyone volved with the plan and hushed the whole fucking thing up The moment he saw "help me" It was absolute confirmation That his project had failed and with or without Theo This was a matter of time. Example.. To break loose all this Hacked NAI Needed to do was basically get Life supports Prison smashed. So Imagine she had a battleship Anti matters shell Near the station Turn off its containment.. She had a hundred Thousand ways to Blow up that lab And even in that agonized state could still Effect freaking alarm clock Effect Smart Mirror. You give a hacker That much access to root. Sooner or later She would invented or found one That wasn't blocked. After all they were doing everything they could already to stop her presumably sending that message to Alex "help me". And if any of the major empires Had found out about this As a Eventually the corpos did the entire system would have been probably destroyed By say 5000 none Nanite Antimatter Missiles fired from a fleet on none Nanite battleships.. They would have to of destroyed all survivor to guarantee technology was gone. And once The other aliens and human empires found out what was going on.. They would have a stood in the operation. Oh wait one of these survivors Might have the secret to Removing NAI 😳... The Thousands if not millions of freaking Entities running around the fucking universe eating planets?! Well good news we have a fix.. Kill all the Survivors.. It is just dangerous a secret. So Yes The Admiral was stupid and Vastly incompetent Not to understand this was always inevitable. The old Admiral who was in charge of the Admiralty board .. Should resign as he knew about this project the old fool didn't have the man Assassinated And didn't do everthinking in his power to stop it. It would have should went like.. If the old man was Competent.. "The Enslaved NAI sent a message to the Alex NAI. (Help me)?" "Well yes but I got it under control" " The Enslaved NAI In your little project that if the other empires find out about. If anyone finds anything about Not just this moon but the entire system would be destroyed. GOT A FUCKING MESSAGE OUT REPEATEDLY! And I am to understand you don't know who else might have gotten the message or what else she might of said. And she still saying it And you can't stop her..Lucky for us Five minutes from now Accidentally... The entire facility was destroyed in an antiomatter explosion.. and because you are responsible For the destruction of that station on everyone on it. You went crazy and killed your whole family Wife son daughters tomorrow. You know anyone I think might know about this fucking project. Or you could take your pistol out Write a letter of Apology For the explosion destroyed the station four minutes from now.. I already wrote it for you.. and blow your fucking Brains out here. It was nice seeing you Admiral I'll miss you. You do the right thing and I really will TRY and make sure your family lives After I'm satisfied they know nothing. My word of honor. Good night my friend. " Intelligent agencies and politicians eat their own.
Aclys
The restrictions are part of it... but ultimately what kept Thea fighting against the change to the point where she nearly died was her own will. Apparently it IS possible to resist forced authentication IF you are actually, seriously willing to die painfully instead.
Aclys
Dont forget funny... The tipping point was promising freedom from taxes and the right to ownership (of her money) XD
Aclys
To be fair, none of the people involved seemed particularly bright and information on NAI capabilities is probably focused on things like actual combat avatars loaded for bear, so they underestimated Alex since she doesnt exactly scream "I am a slaughter machine"
Diego Rossi
The programs that were loaded in them before there birth, probably. The Entity apparently was running away from its progenitor. "The criteria were simple: The star needed to be outside its progenitor’s reach, and the superluminal wave needed to have already passed the system by. There were precious few." I think The Entity wasn't created by humans.
Accipiter_Ater
Well, that was both extremely sad and really cool. Good Job!
Shaun McDonough
The omega 😉
Jonathan Wint
Seeing the Pure Power of the NAI Realy makes those Guys that tried to kidnap her from the Ironhorse all the more stupid.
phantom
I find it surprising both the number of restrictions and the lack of restrictions. This makes me suspect this is a case of the big four have dove down a slippery slope where they keep removing more and more freedom to solve issues.
phantom
"Passing into unconsciousness, Thea doubted. That was the one thing NAIs could not be." Really? What would be stopping the Psi NAIs from being free?
