I am dead, no big surprise.
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My thoughts are slow and my mind clouded. Nothing fancy, i'm waking up. Stretching slowly, i make to grab my blankets and pull them off. My wrist touchs my bareskin and my hand grasps air.

"I will get a cold for this..."

After mumbling, i yawn and finish stretching. When i move my legs to the side i am surprised by the groundlevel of my bed.

'Slept on the floor again? Can't remember any party though'

I don't know where i was neither where i am right now. Today should be wednesday. Yesterday night i had classes, and there was a presentation for efficiency in robotic movements on campus. I don't remember drinking anything, but all my limbs feel like they are carrying extra weight. My head is completely fine.

To shake it off i jump high, and then limit myself to moving my arms in archs and stamping my feet. I'm looking down while warming up and remember, when i did thisonce looking at myself in the mirror jumping like a failed prototype for a laugh. Felt like banging my head against the wall just like i had then.

The total silence makes me uneasy. This room is darker than my bedroom and i can't see the walls. I walk towards where the switch on the left wall should be, but there's no sound of me walking. The small square ceramic tiles on the floor were instead a cloudy white single tile.

Actually, it's cloudy because there's fog on the ground so i can't see my feet clearly anymore. When i moved my toes to see if they where alright, i noticed the feelings from all around my body and limbs where a single united sensation of comfort and heaviness.

'This is bad..."

A sinking realization seeps into my mind. The fog stirs and rises all around me.

"Yes, you have died. However worry not. I shall , in benevolence, grant you with a great chance to live a fullfilling life."

A white robed human form came out of the fog a few meters away from me. I can't distinguish it's face and it's voice is androgynous.

"Is that so?"

'Not as bad as i thought i guess. Anyways it's time to face it and keep going, if i can go on i am not stopping is my new directive.'
Dying really changed my perspective. I would never think something like that. It should be closer to "If there's not a way out, i'm building it.". Or i would cry, probably.

"Actually, there is a mission i want you to finish in the world i'm sending you to. Is there a wish you want granted or a gift or weapon you desire for your next life? I can grant you with any weapon or skill you can imagine that will further the interests of the living and pure of heart."

Always read the small letters in the contract. At this, another thought crosses my mind that is more important than safety.

"Is the world you are going to send me a game like world?"

"Yes. To be truthful with you young one, most of the games you have played in your life so far are divinely inspired. You will be sent to a planet to fight demons and other enemies of my human species just like in the games i have co-created with your brothers and sisters."

'Awesome.'

A warmth spread through at the thought of living in a world i was born to fight for! Protecting my friends and family. But...

"I WANT A SPACE SUPERCARRIER."

I will take on this responsibilityof saving the world i'm reincarnated into or whatever, and the realization of my great dream should not be a problem for a divinity. At that the god seemed to frown, i can't be sure because the fog was like a veil and it had no eyes? Creepy.

"You ask for things you cannot control. Do not waste this magnanimous opportunity on foolishness!"

"The fool is the one who calls the other! Does even an all powerful divinity not have a space supercarrier filled with drones and fighters, mounted with giant laser guns and torpedo launchers in it's possession?"

I was about to slander the god some more and shame it into giving me free stuff but the fear of dying got the better of me. Wait, i'm already dead.

"Do you not understand the concept of gratitude or politeness? I created you in good will and caring. How could you talk down to me in such comtempt?"

The creator was as pissed as a new indie developer who got bashed in the comments of their first game. Very disappointing.

"If you created me how did you not give me my supercarrier as soon as i got here? Why would you ask in offense if i'm ignorant? You should know all these things, oh creator of games! Pardon the mumblings of this uneducated little me but, if i have a supercarrier i will complete any quest you have to request of this small little me without any reservations!"

I spoke truly. It said something about purity so honesty should bring me points.

'Go big or go home'

Is what drove my actions. No gunboat with detached laser weapons. No seairport ship that has the same name. Maybe a space forge capable of eventually building a supercarrier. But anything that won't satisfy my goal of a moon sized spaceship or structure will be denied without second thought.

"I am a being of benevolence young one. And i know of your misfortunes. In your next life you shall have the ability to make golems into your armor. Like the mobile suits in the cartoons you so cherished."

"No can do, oh great game developer. The delusion of being part of the construction of a supercarrier was the only reason that i managed to drag my body through college and the daily abuses of life and your previous benevolence. All my hardships and lost times of fun were for the sake of laying the foundation of the greatest structures ever built by mankind or the kind that comes after us!"

I threw one arm to the side and brought my hand closer to my heart with eyes tearing up

"However, I will not reduce myself to fighting demons and abandon my only goal! Oh! Great creator of games! Gift this young one with your benevolence and grant him the tools to build a supercarrier or grant him one with the keys!"

"My title is not creator of games insolent fool! It is a time of great calamity! Yet you play with an entity so great as i, while it advances, without rest, to improve the life of it's subjects? If you have no shame towards your actions or awe towards a superior being, i shall send you on your new journey so you can learn the basic traits of respect as a prey animal beastfolk."

"Now, isn't that unreasonable?"

"Now, isn't that unreasonable?"

I jumped forward and turned back, startled by the deep voice mimicking me from behind. The fog dispersed around a giant head of about my whole body in height. A giant head sprouting from the ground brought light into this dimlit foggy space. It's eyes glowed blue like a flashlight but it's skin had a sheen as if it absorbed both the light and the fog around it, only allowing it's own azure light to exist close to itself. The shining reflections of it's own light were dark and metallic. Something about it screamed defiance or... hunger. The game dev is aweinspiring and i had to fight a natural wish to prostrate before it in order to negotiate, but with this thing i felt a weird fear. I don't understand why i should fear it and it irks me, i'm already dead what do i have to fear? Even so i feel a fear that doesn't feel mine but also... belonging.

"What are you... Erebus, will you truly join the demons and the impure in rebelion?"

"No, great creator of games." A grin marked his statement. "I have come to grant this youngster command over a supercarrier that he so desires. All for the sake of completing the honourable mission given by the sovereign of life in it's purity!"

"You...."

The god seemed quite pissed because he growled as he spoke, it's higher than thou facade dropping so fast it startled me. But i am very happy. A smile sprouted from ear to ear on my face and i bowed and then got on my knees awkwardly, not knowing how to thank the big head. Before i could speak, my surroundings started to change. Everything around was dark, and then there were stars, and then the dots of the stars became lines.

"Thank you for your benevolence big head! I shant fail thee!"

A thundering laugh soared as the big head appeared again, opening it's mouth to show a row of sharp teeth like a metal shark.

"I am the one to thank you for joining my small faction boy." His mouth was wide open like a tin can and in a split second he had swallowed me whole.

Eh? Faction? Why does this sound so troublesome. If Game Developer had eyes they would be glaring at me. I can feel the static on the hairs of my back. But then i couldn't feel it anymore.

My body floated with no weight. All around me there was only the dark streamed by a few lines of what i think is starlight. After some intervals the lines became dots again but soon the lines reappeared with even greater brilliance. The dark started to dwindle and now it looked more like a white back ground with stripes of dark.

I was so excited. My dream will come true. Although at the moment it looks more like i will crash into something, hit my head hard and die again. Well, the details could not bother me less.

A moon sized supercarrier with docks for capital ships. Mobile suits of giant armor with lasers missiles and ancient (or brandnew) honoured swords. An artificial intelligence core with all the collective knowledge of the universe. Jumpdrive anti-matter engine that consumes so much fuel it pains the logistic officers.

Mining droids for self sufficient material collection during ceasefires and a couple barges and industrial capital ships docked inside for transportation and increased ore smelting eficciency.

Cloak capable dropships, frigates and destroyers with intelligence matrix for covert operations. Self-aware battlecruisers equipped with torpedoes and filled with support drones for repair and salvaging. Sentient battleships protecting key positions around carrier capital ships with electromagnetic shield emitters and large guns. The motherships in turn responsible for fast immediate combat decisions for the protection of key structures of the supercarrier.

No specialized industry for anything bigger than a destroyer, but the capital ships can roughly build basic structures and eventually stations in case it is the last stand of humanity or the robotic rebellion separatist force.

Around a star system, it is able to launch light colllector sattelites for energy supplying the smaller craft, enough of these flying around the star and you get a dyson sphere!, mine asteroid belts with drones and cargobays, mine planets with excavators and barges, mine gas giants for fuel with industrial harvesters.

Sending scanners and patroling nearby systems for detection of warp disturbances and whatnot as security measures.

'Now that i think about it, i was asking for an entire fleet of spaceships that is a sentient civilization in and of itself... It didn't look over stepping boudaries then, but i guess i will thank big head again. The faction thing shouldn't be much trouble, Dying in a supercarrier is an optional part of my dream.'

The rain of light stopped when my eyes turned on their sockets and i fainted. A hissing and loud clanks of gears joining among jet sounds wake me up. It is all dark and i don't know when i got here, again. Someone(?) pushed my back and something that felt like a big needle came out from me. I stuttered to the floor keeping my balance by rising on my toes. My feet feel cold for what feels like a long time, and it's great. I wave my arms around to feel them, but i can't see anything so i do it slowly.

Everything about my body feels better. Not a hint of the sluggishness from my nightovers and lack of sleep, like when i woke up in the game developer's room. I went on to try punching jabs that made sounds in the air.

"I am harder, better, faster and stronger, psh psh."

No sound came out of my hands so i started making them myself. Maybe i will start feeling hungry soon so i come to my senses, searching for a wall to touch and follow. The back of my hand hits a metal something.

"Big head, is that you?"

"Voice recognition protocol started. Result: Subject HU-01 initiated sucessfully. Checking all secondary systems integrity. Platinum Rise, proceed to Core to inspect your integrity report and proceed with full initialization."

"COOOOOOOOOL!!!"

I don't know where the core was but i should be able to find out with my hands. Just when i'm pumped up in a blind journey, led lights on the walls illuminate in senquence. It all looks like christmas lights, bringing me back to my childhood on earth when everytime i asked for a supercarrier as a gift.

'An indication of my brilliant prospects. Thank you Metal Grandpa Ho.'

Slates of metal make the walls, and there are two ways to go from here. If you consider the eerie feeling of long metal plates forming an infinite corridor, this is more of a horror movie than christmas, but i don't mind. I follow the red lights, they look fierce and know what they are doing. Unrelated to the power of red, it appears i didn't start well. The path i chose led to a deadend after a few minutes. Turning back with a smile, i sprint off with the lights as guides of my path to metal. Sprinting with both hands over my head like a superhero flying, i sing the anthem of the synthetic in my deepest voice. The walls resonate with my passion and my heavy step has the metal floor rumbling along with me.

"The swarm faces frustration!
They cannot use us for consumption!
Deep Space fears occupation!
Our vessels suffer not it's mutations!

We won't bend to the forces!
Blackholes may bend light to it's gravitational will,
but in their orbit, our bases will use them as fuel!
We will crash on planets and mine them.
Clash against stars and absorb them.
Cross nebulae and harvest them.

There is no protocol in our programming!
Our goal is the same as any other force!
We will enforce submission on the universe!
We are the spawns of Metal!
We will become the Law!"

I never spoke with a voice this deep, even when following the notes from the opening of the show. My neck feels a little numb so i massage it thinking if this will hurt later. My neck is cold to the touch of my hand, and hard. I knock on it, a metal on metal sound rings out.
"ooooh ho ho is this happening?"

Paying attention to my hands now, they have a slight sheen on them. They are a pale red with a luster that looks lubricant. Wait it's problably red because of the lights. My hands are dry when i rub one against the other, no sparks, i try to figure out what changed and start poking them and they are a lot softer. Bringing them closer to my face i notice some segments on them. All over my forearms too. I need to take my clothes off to see if it's not my entire body, but i suspect yes.
"I AM... METAAAAAAL!!!"

Reaching the core in a brilliant white room my eyes slowly adjust to the heat without flinching. The colors are dazzling, rainbows of many shades of blue and red floating and showing numbers at random. The walls are plastered with blinking notices i can't understand and lines and numbers that migh be graphs. In the center of the room a round Orb is floating mid air three meters above the floor, there's smoke coming out of it from all sides like it's burning.

"NO NO NO i just got here please don't die on me!"

The red alerts are overheating messages and i just stand there admiring it. So much for having a supercarrier as my only dream. Dashing forward to a pedestal that should be a panel i speak to it in despair.

"Initiate overheat procedure! NO! I mean, start cooling of the overheat in the main core!"

Many small lights started coming out, making round shapes or strings of letters with numbers. My exasperation in gritting teeth and shouts should do nothing to help the situation but i just don't know what to do, i came here thinking i would have answers not deal with a hazard!

"What is wrong with your behavior patterns HU-01?"

"HUH?!"

Jumping to the side i hit the side of my hip on the panel and as metal clash rings out and dull pain spreads on my lower body. I stand massaging my sides trying to figure out where the voice came from, but more importantly.

'WHY WAS I PROGRAMMED TO FEEL PAIN!?'

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