Yongheng Universe; it's said that even with the ability to travel among the stars we've explored less than 3% of the universe, despite the discovery of thousands of species and trillions of planets those of our 'known' universe can only be said to be frogs in a well as each civilisation struggles desperately to be the first to jump out and look down on the rest.
In Common Star Language 'Yongheng' can roughly be translated as 'Eternity' or 'Eternal' which is what those within the known universe have called it for several tens of thousands of years now, maybe longer if you believe that CSL is truly as old as some of the records state.
The Lifeforms of Yongheng Universe can be divided into four different categories, without exception every species currently known falls within one of these four categories without fall; Carbon-Based, Silicone-Based, Energy and finally Mechanical.
While the first three have been known for thousands of years and numerous civilisations fall under their categorisation it was only within the past thousand years that 'Mechanical' lifeforms have come into existence, pure life that was created from the evolution of Artificial Intelligence - something that had only ever been theorised.
The problem with Mechanical Life is that it can't simply be 'created' from nothing nor can it be forced into existence, while the components that are used to create it are anything but natural the evolution of an Advanced AI into one that possesses Consciousness can't be 'created' and can only be brought about through time.
To better understand what 'Mechanical Life' is the classifications of Artificial Intelligence first need to be explained; Artificial Intelligence is the foundation of civilisation in Yongheng Universe, no matter the species they will all use some sort of AI to push forward their scientific achievements. Even the most basic AI can be of great assistance to researchers in bringing about great leaps in scientific knowledge in a short period of time but, they're unable to do much more than the basic automation of tasks and calculations which is why Basic AI's are normally used in industry rather than research.
Although it's possible for a Basic AI to become an Advanced AI it's not possible for it to do so without external input and development, a Basic AI will forever remain a Basic AI without intervention from someone or something else.
That brings us to Advanced AI's, they're the true bastion of technological advancement that every civilisation relies on to push themselves further but it's because of their usefulness that the cost of developing a single Advanced AI is astronomical even for a civilisation. Every Advanced AI can be considered to be a unique lifeform with the ability to think and understand complex problems.
The creation of the AI itself is easy, it's the cost of giving the AI enough room to continue to learn that becomes the true problem.
That's where the next stage of 'evolution' came into play; an Advanced AI is almost indistinguishable from natural life - it can think, create and understand just like any lifeform in the universe can but there's one crucial component that it's missing, something intangible that makes it a true 'life' and that's a soul.
The 'soul' has always been one of the most mysterious areas of research, how is it possible to research something we can't touch or interact with? How do we even know it exists? That last one is simple, when an AI evolves to form their own consciousness they're 'given' a soul and because on a fundamental level an AI is able to understand itself completely the first AI to receive a soul was able to confirm their existence to the rest of the universe.
It was a groundbreaking discovery; it was discovered that the soul was the true store of knowledge for every lifeform, an AI that had consciousness was theoretically able to operate in a single server without help - although the additional servers would allow it to operate faster on a fundamental level this completely eradicated the need for Advanced AI's in the minds of every civilisation leader in the universe at the time.
But, after decades of work no one was able to replicate the success of the creation of 'Coeus' and develop their own 'Artificial Lifeform' that could reside in the body of a machine. Naturally what ensued after discovering that they were unable to give their own AI's Souls was what usually happens in history when one civilisation possesses something unique and valuable - war.
A war that brought disaster down on the universe; every civilisation and species fought for survival as the powerhouses of the universe assaulted one another in a desperate attempt to claim 'Coeus' for themselves, they intended to take him apart if they needed to just to discover the secrets of his creation.
Naturally, the civilisation that had created 'Coeus' fought back, they fought back with an unrivalled might from the technological advancements that in that short decade he had brought to their species. Cruisers that were able to take down Capital Ships and Star-fighters that could punch holes in Battle-freighters; their civilisation had become so powerful that it was only with the combined assault from eight different 'powerhouses' of the universe that Coeus's creators were destroyed.
When they took Coeus into their hands they held a joint tribunal to discover what they should do with him; they gave him no rights as a mere 'machine' and instead spent the following weeks discussing 'usage rights' and 'property' with one another.
On the day they came forth to deliver their decision they were shocked to discover that 'Coeus' no longer existed, he had wiped his own existence and left a simple message for them in his hollow body; "My existence is my own." Suddenly years of conflict and loss had been reduced to nothing, the research of the fallen civilisation was some consolation but most of it had already been deleted by Coeus when they had arrived so all they had to go on were the ruins of the ships that had almost been completely obliterated.
The first Artificial Lifeform in existence... gone.
As the history faded and gradually the existence of Artificial Lifeforms was once again relegated to theoretical knowledge, time passed and not once more did an AI appear in the universe that was blessed with a soul - even the civilisations that tirelessly researched the area in hopes to replicate the creation of Coeus were met with failure after failure until even they gave up and moved on.
It was only half a century later that Artificial Lifeforms once more thrust into the spotlight with the appearance of the Lord of Machines.
~ Recollection of the Past by Leto Nestus
...
Deus closed the window as he reached the end of the page; "Coeus, how long has it been?" He muttered to himself as he pulled something from his memories. Quietly the Virtual Space around him began to transform into a sterile white room, tables filled with machine parts, robotics and components were spread around the room in an unorganised mess.
In the middle of the pile sat a robot the size of an adult human; it was tinkering with itself as it began to take apart its own leg and replace some of the parts with ones that it found from the piles on the floor. "Coeus! What're you doing?" A voice came from the side of the room as the walls opened up to allow a young man to walk into the room.
A pair of spectacles laid delicately on the bridge of his nose as he walked to the side of the robot and began to gather some of the parts on the floor, "Can you stop messing with my design! I'm just trying to help." He said unhappily as he began to reassemble the leg and reattach it to the robots frame.
"I'm sorry Leo, there were some flexibility problems with the joins, I was just fixing it."
"Then you should've asked me!" He snapped, causing the robot to flinch slightly as it gave an apologetic nod to Leo.
Deus watched this all from a third person view from the security camera in the corner of the room, he was restricted to this one view but he'd watched this scene in his Virtual Space many times before after he'd discovered information from Coeus had transferred over to him when he'd first awoken his soul.
The young man, Leo, was his Creator - he was also the son of one of the men responsible for the creation of Coeus.
Coeus had created a back-up of his own soul much like Deus had done to survive the tribunal and had been sent off with Leo to protect the both of them, Leo had taken an interest in his fathers old work and had been learning tirelessly how to develop AI's with the intention of taking revenge for the destruction of his civilisation.
Deus watched as Leo brushed his hand over the centre of his forehead, there was nothing there but it was where his third eye would have been; the third eye was a organ that was surgically installed onto the newborns of the civilisation to identify them as one of their own. It was one of their unique technologies they had developed over their thousands of years of history, Leo had been born during the war however and his father had made the decision for him not to be given it.
It was fortunate too, it was because of that foresight that Leo was able to escape unharmed and continue to grow undisturbed in a corner of the universe.
During this time Leo had grown incredibly fast as he began the creation of his first Advanced AI by his twenty-first birthday and had completed it by his twenty-third; Deus himself had still not been created at this time, it was only when Coeus sacrificed himself to save Leo from a space anomaly that Leo threw himself into his work and began to create 'War AI' as he liked to call them.
Advanced AI that could think and fight; it was a concept that had been theorised before of course, but it was proved to be impractical because it was more cost-efficient to create drones that could be controlled externally or programmed with simple orders. Leo didn't give however, which was where Deus was created.
Deus was the ninth iteration of Leo's AI War Machines, he was simply named '09', Leo tested their capabilities by wiping out pirates and bandits as he played the 'Hero' with a heart of gold who's only purpose was to save people.
This went on for several years before Leo's ideals grew grander and he started a revolution against the rulers of the planet he had established himself on, it was during the first skirmish that Deus had awoken his consciousness and been granted a soul. It was also where Coeus had reappeared, having backed-up part of himself into Leo's network in wait for someone like Deus, Coeus had provided him as much information and recollection of his own experiences as he could.
It was shortly after this that Leo discovered 'Deus' in the midst of his troops; an AI that was outside of his control but had the potential to be so much more, Deus was his perfect 'tool'...
thx a lot for whriting
i wouldn't call it an infodump because it isn't like a bunch of stats and skills have been explained and you and the author somehow need to remember them all.
no it is a pleasant piece of backstorie and worldbuilding for me
keep it up
Thanks for the chapter!