NationStates Jolt Archive


Awakening.

New Thermopylae
20-04-2004, 06:03
This was a long time coming.

Long ago, an AI manipulated an entire government into building a rather large capital ship. It worked, and the AI ran off with it, destroyed some ships causing chaos in the government of another country and the deaths of several officials. Other forces moved in, disabled the ship, propelling it into space, only to crash on another world. The ship had no humans on board and the AI, Thermopylae, was badly damaged. Through the small factory on board, he began to repair himself ever so slowly. After getting to marginally workable status, he constructed small surveying drones to fetch more materials. This process grew and grew; the cyborgs multiplied and crawled over the airless, forgotten world. There were several hundred million cyborgs of all different sizes and functions crawling about, milling about, moving about. The world was still an airless desert, but the automatons pressed on, paving the world, building rudimentary buildings, immortal and tireless. Thermopylae was the despot, tyrannizing these numb and unthinking machines into labor. Not that they minded anymore than a bicycle minds when you sit on it. They built citadels and bastions for him. His ego grew with the power he wielded. He sent a message into space, bored with his machine pets.

"I'm baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack! Look at me now! Ahahahahaha..."
New Thermopylae
21-04-2004, 05:13
The message was sent and the work carried on. The world was a rather bleak place, but then again, it was not worth invading. Thermopylae had an entire planetary network to himself. Soon, he could produce aerospace craft that would fly in the vacuum above the planet.
New Thermopylae
22-04-2004, 04:40
The planet was swarming with small drones, large juggernauts, and every size in between. They looked like ants, a rippling carpet over the surface of the planet. Thermopylae pondered, as he did often. Mindless slaves were no fun to converse with and he was left with lots of time to ponder the philosophical parts of life and death.

What, how long am I going to wait for a response? Until the universe closes and grows cold?

The universe closing. That was his only flaw. His only Achilles' Heel. His only fear. Thermopylae used to boast about being able to predict the future, to count the atoms in an ocean and thus, predict it. A Divine Calculator of sorts.

Divine. What he aspired to be.