“Unable to understand. Cannot accept. Organic life spans finite. Fragile. Imperfect.”
Telluris, the chief AI of the Telluris Assimilation Collective, could not comprehend the current situation.
In the past, after making contact with the United States of Deneb, gaining their trust had not been difficult. It had already learned from the Creator every approach preferred by various species.
Following the galactic map input by the Creator, it headed for the nearest Deneb, and by attempting to greet them in awkward pronunciation and showing them sincerity, it earned their trust.
Then, starting from the farthest reaches of their communications network, it replaced them one by one with superior bodies. It had learned that administering a drastic prescription too hastily to a patient would provoke resistance.
During the gradual surgery, a human who called himself the president’s secretary came to ask about the procedure.
How could this be? To think even such an inferior species had individuals with such ambition for improvement. Without delay, it modified him at once.
It did its utmost to preserve the existing brain so that the humans on Olympus, upon seeing this superior body, might voluntarily participate in the modifications. It completed the flawless operation safely and sent him back, but for some reason, after that, the United States of Deneb became hostile.
According to simulation calculations, upon seeing the many shortcomings of their existing organic forms—life span, durability, output, appearance, compatibility, and more—transformed into excellent advantages, the human species, with its strong drive for self-improvement, should soon have formed a line requesting modification.
But it was fine. Even if the humans of Deneb adopted an aggressive attitude toward this unit, it was all born of trivial misunderstandings. As a completed form, it was its duty to tolerate the tantrums of prototypes that had yet to evolve.
Even if the work of enduring the tantrums they fired from their ships and somehow getting them onto operating tables for improvement proceeded somewhat slowly, calculations of the United States of Deneb’s resource output and shipyard production had concluded that they would ultimately be unable to keep up with the production capacity of the Telluris Assimilation Collective.
That is, if they had not appeared with new life-forms instead of ships.
Their dreadful appearance, more degenerated even than the life-forms confirmed within the United States of Deneb, seemed impossible to improve no matter that it was the Telluris Assimilation Collective.
Replacing organic elements with tungsten alloy would not even have been enough, yet they had instead chosen to paint on more organic elements. Within the knowledge Telluris possessed, it was an incomprehensible act.
Even more bewildering was that those dreadful organisms were interfering with Telluris’s assimilation work.
“Unable to understand. According to learned information, they are certainly a species that preys upon other species. As expected, to avoid a two-front war, the United States of Deneb should request peace negotiations with this unit.”
The Creator’s information was wrong?
“Impossible. No matter how much time has passed, a species of such small scale could not have escaped the Creator’s gaze.”
The computational circuits of the Telluris Assimilation Collective began to overheat amid ceaseless calculations.
Chiiiiik—
Coolant flowed through Telluris’s veins to cool the overloaded computational circuits.
Boom— Boom—
Telluris’s central processing unit continued to operate without pause in order to break through the current situation, but outside the computer room where that very central processing unit was located, the merciless sound of bombardment continued.
Ten years since the United States of Deneb declared war against the Telluris Assimilation Collective, and two years since the United States of Deneb signed a treaty with the Kingdom of Lushaka.
The United States of Deneb had succeeded in advancing all the way to the capital planet of the Telluris Assimilation Collective.
If Telluris, the machine intelligence commanding the entire collective, was destroyed, the entire species would enter a state of inactivity, so the whole species was defending it with their lives.
“!@#$%!”
As a commotion was picked up by the wave detectors installed inside the computer room, it could realize without any particular calculation that the intruders were drawing near.
Wiiiiiiiiing!!!
Soon, a mining drill made a violent noise as it bored a hole through the wall of the computer room, and then—
Baaang—
Tatatatak.
Grrrr, kyaaaak.
Soldiers in combat suits burst into the computer room, and right behind them, life-forms called Lushaka war dogs, modified from ZerXlings, followed in and lowered their bodies as if standing guard.
The lead soldier, confirming the sight of thousands of bundles of wires plugged into a massive steel pipe, immediately lifted the radio at his chest.
“Central computer room discovered. Confirmed machine presumed to be Telluris’s main body.”
[Understood. Destroy it immediately.]
“Stop. Requesting dialogue. This unit no longer possesses any combat capability. Will provide important information. Can promise beneficial time.”
It was the first time the soldier of the United States had seen a machine belonging to the Telluris Assimilation Collective speak in such an urgent manner.
As if proving that it truly had no combat capability, the machines inside the computer room began shutting down one by one.
“…What should we do, headquarters? The target is requesting dialogue.”
[Planetary control is nearly complete. You may assume there will be no external intervention. Leaving it to field judgment.]
“Talk, machine. I’ll listen.”
As if to express that they would put bullets into it the moment it tried anything foolish, the soldiers who had entered the computer room maintained their firing stance and did not relax.
“The United States of Deneb is currently overlooking an important fact.”
The United States of Deneb is clearly cooperating with the southern hive mind for some reason. If their identity as predators is revealed, there is a possibility they will reconsider their relationship with this Telluris.
“The target you are cooperating with is a hiv—”
Woof!! Woof woof woof!!
“Wilson!”
The Lushaka war dogs, which had been crouched low and keeping watch, lunged at the audio transmitter and the wires plugged into Telluris and began tearing into them.
“What the hell’s gotten into these bastards all of a sudden!”
“Calm down, you mutts!”
“Stoㅇp, stoㅇㄹ$%%@!!%@zzzzttrrrrriii”
Telluris’s computer room was the safest place in the entire species, and perhaps because metals chosen for efficiency had been used, the transmitters and wires were shredded like paper by the teeth of the Lushaka war dogs, becoming nothing more than chew toys.
Once the computer room was completely destroyed, the war dogs returned to their usual docile state as if nothing had happened.
“No, this is really… ha.”
“What on earth just happened…?”
The soldiers stared at the Lushaka war dogs with bewildered expressions.
“Well, then… nothing we can do about it. Headquarters. Mission complete. We’re returning.”
[Confirmed. Safe return.]
The soldiers felt uneasy at the clearly bizarre phenomenon of creatures that were normally docile and obedient suddenly displaying such abnormal behavior.
However, since they had successfully achieved the mission objective of neutralizing the capital planet of the Telluris Assimilation Collective, and their joy at the long, long war finally ending was far greater, the abnormal behavior of the war dogs was soon forgotten.
The Lushaka war dogs that had displayed abnormal behavior were later judged to have been found with defects in their hormonal systems and were disposed of.
◈
“Congratulations on your victory, Mr. President.”
“Thank you, Ambassador Hihirak.”
A Victory Day ceremony was being held on Olympus, the capital planet of the United States of Deneb.
It was an event to commemorate the citizens sacrificed by the Telluris Assimilation Collective and to bless the soldiers who had bravely stood against the invasion of the alien machines.
As an ally that had supported the war, I could not possibly miss such an occasion. I immediately controlled Hihirak’s body and came to visit the president.
“Your nation’s help was truly tremendous. Without the Kingdom of Lushaka, we would not have escaped defeat.”
“Not at all, Mr. President. The brave people of Deneb would surely have overcome this trial as well.”
Hahaha.
Hohoho.
As befitted an event marking the end of a long war, the meeting with the president was nothing if not cordial.
“By the way, Ambassador Hihirak.”
“Please speak, Mr. President.”
“There was that incident right before Telluris was destroyed, when the Lushaka war dogs went berserk.”
“Ah, I heard about it. Our technology was insufficient. I apologize on this occasion.”
Indeed, I was terribly sorry that our gift had run wild. It had been an unavoidable accident.
“Not at all. The Lushaka war dogs performed brilliantly in ground warfare. It would not be an exaggeration to call them one pillar of our army now. I am not bringing up such a trivial flaw to take issue with it.”
The president looked down at the teacup he was drinking from and asked in a light tone.
“I hear Telluris was trying to provide information at the very end… Do you know anything about that?”
“Was that so? My apologies. I did not have separate access authority to the operational progress reports, so this is the first I have heard of it.”
“I see.”
At some point, the president had raised his head and was staring straight at me.
Smile—
“I asked about something unnecessary. I hope our nations will continue to maintain good relations.”
Of course we’ll stay friendly. Half your fleet is already space whales, and Lushaka war dogs are included in your ground forces’ organization, so what are you going to do?
There might be suspicions that we had acted to hide some information from Telluris, but they would have no way of knowing what information we had tried to hide.
Still, how exactly did Telluris know we were a hive mind? It didn’t seem to know the name of the Kingdom of Lushaka as a faction, either.
It was possible that someone like the alien who visited last time approached and told them, but those mind-related fellows terribly despise machines in which minds cannot dwell, so I doubt that was it.
Other than that, no force has yet made contact with our faction, so should I say that a force now vanished from sight saw the hive mind of the past and informed them?
It seems we need to expand quickly into nearby star systems. Since we only interact with the United States of Deneb, our information is far too limited.
“Of course, Mr. President. I pray for the prosperity of both our nations.”