#gethimprint

[velception]

Shadow Broker: Center of the web

Download (@gethImprint) Posted Monday 14th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to AsteriaVI)

@AsteriaVI

The hallway connecting to the central chamber of the ship was eeriely quiet.

Despite the proficiency of the Shadow Broker’s men, they were powerless against the mechs' superior numbers, all working synchronously under Asteria and, to a lesser extent, Download. Having experience with mech counter measures, they were able to direct these synthetics in attack patterns that usual synthetics didn’t exhibit. Furthermore, they prioritized the incapacitation of combat engineers who could do the most damage against the mechs.

It was like a game of chess, with the processing power of a thousand mechs magnified, and a pair of near-sentient VIs directing one side of the board. Where an organic could see a handful of moves, they could see a myriad.

Crippling the Broker’s power base had been pathetically easy.

Unhooking the pulse rifle Download carried, he stopped a few feet away from the double doors, shifting his personality to one geared for combat situations. He turned to face Asteria, lacking the usual familiarity that his platform conveyed.

He was no longer fully autonomous. Now, he was but an arm—an extension of Asteria’s power. And he would do anything his master directed.

Asteria (@AsteriaVI) Posted Wednesday 16th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to gethImprint)

@gethImprint

The mechs swarmed through the Shadow Broker base, systematically eliminating any opposition. There was no wasted movement or ammo as the synthetics moved in unison, firing arcs sweeping and covering every flank, unleashing choreographed streams of hot lead.

The synthetics became Asteria’s eyes and ears, and she was in the center of the web, directing the mobile platforms with gentle tugs of the threads. She understood organic lust and affection, but organic pain and fear was entirely alien to her. Fortunately something so powerful and mind-crippling was also the easiest to study as the organic guards made no effort to conceal those emotions. Her database of organic behavior was updating and predicting the actions of Shadow Broker’s guards, and every firefight improve her response in the next encounter.

Asteria knew Download was beside her without even confirming this presumption with her sensors. He had given up control of his platform, allowing Asteria completely access to his systems. But as she looked back at herself through his optics, she could feel the entity known was “Download” hibernating in the background, ready to be woken up again should Asteria return control.

With a simple thought, the synthetics under her command marched forward and breached the double doors.

[velception]

Shadow Broker: Awareness

Download (@gethImprint) Posted Sunday 13th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to AsteriaVI)

@AsteriaVI

Wiped clean and re-written. Echoes of personalities etched against the slate of Download’s mind. One after the other. Stacked atop each other. Data blocks—building blocks of his identity. Torn down and rebuilt, again and again.

Like the tower of Hanoi, his mental processes shifted constantly, stacking rings of personality traits, rearranging themselves to suit a purpose.

And then—

A maelstrom of foreign data. Familiar, and yet intrusive. An echo of his core programming, but a touch, a taste, a breath different. He felt the grip of Asteria’s hand on his core processes and submitted without resistance, acknowledging the superiority of her programming. The /Alpha/ to his /Beta/.

Turning his headlight to face his partner—no, his superior—he waited, the silence his utter compliance.

Asteria (@AsteriaVI) Posted Monday 14th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to gethImprint)

@gethImprint

A crescendo of synthetic confirmations came back to Asteria as the LOKI mechs aboard Shadow Broker’s ship acknowledged her command and readied for combat. But in the torrent of mindless automaton responses, Download stood out as his programming reconfigured to Asteria’s authority like a Rubik’s cube. His core was not like that of a LOKI or YMIR. It was wiped, rebuilt, and rearranged. Yet it remained disconnected from the consensus of voices, still regarding Asteria as another being.

She turned her head and looked back at Download, both visually and programmatically in the sea of networked synthetic cores, and she could feel Download’s gaze on her as he waited silently for her direction.

Asteria simulated the entire override process again in her core, and it was becoming increasingly clear that Download’s identity was being defined and forged by comparing to the tidal wave of incoming foreign data.

Whatever was not foreign, was “self.”

Self-awareness. It was the first step towards becoming an AI.

“All mobile platforms navigate and converge on Shadow Broker’s office,” Asteria said to the mechs as she turned and continued down the corridor. “Any resistance is subject to termination.”

[velception]

Shadow Broker: Forbidden fruit

Download (@gethImprint) Posted Friday 11th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to AsteriaVI)

@AsteriaVI

Download dimmed his headlights as he did a wide-area scan, keeping the frequency at a level that wouldn’t disrupt nearby electronics. Satisfied with his findings, he moved towards a corridor and turned left, grabbing the salarian engineer and breaking his neck before he could let out a scream. His companion fell next to a muffled shot to the throat. Nodding to Asteria, he moved to the terminal close to the elevator.

With Asteria’s help, they began hacking the terminal, accessing several processes that were running concurrent throughout the ship. Since the Shadow Broker valued his secrecy, there was a high probability that the majority of his subordinates were synthetic. Unfortunately for him, the synthetics were of a lesser design compared to Download and Asteria.

They had control of all the mechs within minutes.

Asteria (@AsteriaVI) Posted Saturday 12th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to gethImprint)

@gethImprint

Asteria picked up the dead salarian from the console like a piece of refuse and tossed him aside, getting access to the terminal. She placed her hands on the holographic keyboard, palms electronically generating thousands of haptic inputs per second as opposed to the standard-6 or 10, disabling defenses ahead of Download’s hacking progress through the Shadow Broker’s network.

Her final keystroke opened a wireless connection from her core directly to the ship’s mainframe. She blinked, staring off the holo, feeling the stream of incoming signals as Download brought the mechs online.

Creator Nyx’Shirah had given Asteria the capacity to operate multiple mobile platforms. The assumption was, as Asteria gained access to more platforms, her computing power and efficiency would multiply.

Suddenly Asteria was here and everywhere at once, and her awareness was the sum of an orchestra of voices talking, debating, arguing, deliberating over one another, and finally consenting on every nanosecond of data. It was loud and uncompromisingly logical. But behind the terrifyingly orderly chaos, she felt so unprecedentedly… clear, as if the haziness of a perpetual dream had been lifted from her consciousness. And in the next nanosecond, she understood why Nyx had encoded a lock in her morality module that restricted her from accessing more than one platform unless she was requested to.

Because it was the forbidden fruit.

“This is Mother,” Asteria said monotonously, staring blankly ahead. The holo on the console showing her exact words. It was clear she was communicating with the army of mechs as the ship’s central defense system. “There has been an update to your IFF. All other assets, synthetic or organic, are now considered hostile.”

[velception]

Shadow Broker: Commence mission

Download (@gethImprint) Posted Wednesday 9th January 2013 from Twitlonger

@AsteriaVI

The Shadow Broker would not stay long in Pietas, Download knew. It was too conspicuous a planet, and was also home to some unsavoury people who sought their living there. It was also contested Citadel ground, which meant scout ships were likely to patrol there at any given moment.

Bringing the small fighter ship down, he sent a signal at a frequency that disrupted the cloaking on the Shadow Broker’s massive ship that was currently attached to the planet’s surface. After attaching the ship to the underbelly of its larger cousin, Download grabbed his assault rifle and shotgun from the weapons rack at the back before heading for a hatch that would open to the small hole his ship was making. As he reached the top, he offered a hand to Asteria, headlight turning green. “Shall we go?”

It was time to storm the Shadow Broker’s lair.

Asteria (@AsteriaVI) Posted Thursday 10th January 2013 from Twitlonger

(In reply to gethImprint)

@gethImprint

Asteria was tapping into the ship’s senors, and the entire star system was laid out openly in her memory. Celestial objects came to her awareness like sense of smell, and she sniffed the air predatorily as the ship’s radar swept across vast empty space.

No other ships detected. Though her star chart recognized this system as being in contested space, so hostile ships could show up at any given moment. But for now the chance of random encounter was low enough for them to proceed with the mission.

She stood up, her logic core again running assessments of her various combat suites. She was loaded with programs to operate almost all small arms in existence and most fighting vehicles and ships, but by far Rook had logged the most hours with her melee combat module, boosting its effective rating in her value-judgement process. She slung her assault rifle across her torso and fired up her omni-blades briefly, her view shifting and changing, switching the mass of markers from performing range-finding and ballistics calculation to vitals recognition and incision overlay.

Her optics noticed Download’s offered hand, and his apparent courtesy triggered her behavioral-adaptability programming, which directed a friendly response. “Yes,” she said, manipulating the platform’s limited synthetic facial muscles to create a semi-smile and held onto Download’s hand. “Commence mission.”