Galactic Terran Federation, Mother Planet.
Standard GTF Time, Year 2985.
On the 77th floor of a twisting and bright high-rise building, a middle-aged man could be seen slowly walking on the spacious corridors.
The warm sunlight passed through the tempered windows, illuminating his black goatee and curvy mustache.
His bluish eyes stared straight ahead, stopping his advance as he stopped at a black wooden door. He raised his tanned arm and knocked thrice, making a firm thudding noise.
"Come in." A mature feminine voice resounded from the other side.
He turned the doorknob and entered a dimly lit room illuminated by a desk lamp on a wooden table.
The mature woman's blond hair half covered her brownish eyes, solemnly staring at the middle-aged man.
"Did something happen?" She said while biting the blue pen's handle.
"Madame, one of our sentinels has returned. It's B-Y21."
"Planet X10-254-L2?" The woman stopped biting her pen and put it down, forming a devious smile on her face. "And the results?"
"He failed the mission. Everyone else on that planet died, including the Scion woman."
Her eyes furrowed, biting the pen's handle again. "Impossible. The Umbra Maestro would have known that firsthand. If he had not..."
The middle-aged man frowned. "Didn't they say he was in seclusion, madame?"
"Who knows?" She grabbed the pen out of her mouth and started waving it around. "Maybe the Scions are more apathetic than we would ever know. Even then, we have no qualms against them. Sentinel B-Y21 did his best but failed at the end."
A cold glint appeared in her eyes. "If the Umbra Maestro wants an explanation, we'll reason with the sentinel."
"Understood, madame." The middle-aged man bowed. "What about the Army? Should we report the casualties to them?"
"Do whatever you like." The woman let out a snort. "We're at war at the present. I doubt they would have the time to visit a little deserted backyard."
"Then I will report it to them." The middle-aged man smiled, vanishing the next moment. "Doctor Steve died. He was one of your top scientists. Are we not punishing the sentinel, madame?"
"Ignore it. We'll lose some assets just because of this small failure." She waved her hands, dismissing his vengeful thoughts. "Doctor Steve may be one of the good scientists, but he's not the only one, as far as the public is concerned."
The middle-aged man jolted for a moment, taking out a piece of paper from the pocket of his black polo suit.
"The people from that place gave me this. It's about Sentinel Program S. That girl made it out alive."
"Alice?" The blonde woman grabbed the paper and opened it. "So she ignored my warnings. What a dumb little sister she is."
"I thought she wanted to overshadow that lost captain, madame?"
The woman glared at him, snorting right after. "All of this for a lost cause? She's going to regret doing that."
Her roughened hands crumpled the paper, torn into pieces by a wisp of psionic power emanating from her mind.
Her subordinate was confused about her actions but dismissed this peculiarity.
"You may go now if there's nothing else." She waved her hands and stood up, watching him exit her office. "Alice, what have you done to yourself?"
...
Planet Origin. Several galaxies away.
Julian stood in front of a small assembly factory, waiting for the sparks echoing inside to end. On his VNI was a production progress bar of a single automaton.
On the side was a complicated digital design used as a basis for the assembly factory's work.
"You think that sentinel fooled them?" Julian asked Tasha, who was sitting beside him.
"We can only pray that it did, captain. You should have a little more faith in Doctor Steve." She smiled, staring at the factory ahead. "So, what's the story with the robot inside?"
"A new design. You'll see it in a few minutes."
"Keeping me in suspense?" Tasha rolled her eyes. "Don't tell me this is an upgrade from those walking robot sticks of yours?"
"You've been pestering me with a lot of questions lately." Julian stared at her. "Can't you have a little bit of patience, lady?"
"Okay, successor. I'll gladly wait here as you wish." She shrugged, shutting her mouth, afraid that Julian would suppress her if she continued.
Her eyes trailed off to the distance, looking at the humungous structure with three extremely wide chimneys exhausting clean water vapor into the atmosphere.
'That amount of energy... is terrifying... A nuclear power plant, was it?'
Tasha vividly recollected the densely stored plasma inside the energy storage cells as soon as that structure began to operate.
"Hmm...?"
Both of them turned their focus to the now silent assembly factory.
One excited, the other, curious.
The mechanical metallic doors slowly opened, revealing a slightly larger-than-usual bipedal automaton walking out in great strides.
The circular purplish light that surrounded the crystal clear camera that served as its eyes coldly glinted, staring with great respect at its master.
It knelt on the ground, revealing a bulging chamber on its back.
Tasha could feel the same energy frequency resonating from that automaton to Julian's mecha suit.
"Successor."
Julian locked his eyes on this automaton and saw the information on his VNI.
AMR-MD-101. A Tier 1 automated melee assault robot with high-intensity, low-capacity thruster systems integrated with fighting skills designed after Julian and Tasha's countless training sessions against the dummy robot, and material structure regeneration that Hesab willfully added after countless creation simulations in the Re-Creation room.
Julian could not help himself over how powerful this automaton was compared to the Tier 0 automatons from before.
"Stand up. Your squad information should have been synchronized with you. You are the first of the Hellhound squad. You can wait here for your mates or go somewhere else."
"Then I will explore the area, successor."
It stood up and stepped back, releasing thunderous blasts and flashes of light on the edge of its four limbs and heading north.
"A mini-thruster system and hidden weapons?" Tasha walked to his side with raised eyebrows. "That's the upgrade you were waiting about, successor?"
"Hmph, it's more than just adding mini-thrusters, Tasha." Julian grinned, mocking her naivety. "Remember that sand elemental you fought before?"
"That robot can fight that thing?" Tasha snorted. "Not in three months, captain."
He laughed off her doubtful thoughts, knowing that a psionic had to retain their 'reputation' at any cost.
Another small assembly factory nearby let off creaking sounds as its doors opened, revealing another automaton of the same design.
Julian sent it away after a short greeting and looked at the incoming connection on his VNI.
"Intellus, how's the tank assembly factories?"
"Production is in progress, successor. The success rate is quite low at this moment. Our machinery is adjusting to the specificities of our designs, and I am constantly adjusting so as well."
"You've really gotten an upgrade, don't you?" Julian saw the effects of upgrading the Base Server Network Building.
Although it cost him a lot of resources, the materials he could store increased, and the processing power of his network relay structures and AI constructs improved dramatically.
"Nothing I would have achieved without the successor's support." Intellus bowed. "I am here to inform the successor that the last slumbering AI construct is slowly booting up, successor. The estimated time is unknown, but according to my impromptu analysis, it is a result of our advancement in military technology during the past months."
"A warfare-specific AI? Is it waiting for me to amass a company of automatons?" Julian muttered under his breath. "I do lack some heavy armor units currently... That's what those large assembly factories are currently working upon, don't they?"
Intellus nodded. "Our heavily armed automatons can be identified as the units like the LMX-RT-12C piloted by one of our automatons."
"Still, it's not a complete automaton..." Julian frowned that Fox 1-1 had to manually operate, wasting the potential of his 'digital' resources.
"The successor need not to worry. Our smaller assembly factories are improving their material processing and production as we speak. They should be able to produce a mimic of the LMX-RT-12C in a few days time."
Tasha's face suddenly appeared in front of Julian, making him jolt and stagger backward. "What the hell are you doing?!"
"Say, why don't you just fabricate it out of nowhere just like what you're doing with your bullets? Wouldn't that be more efficient?"
"Do you ever hear him say something?" Julian asked.
"I can hear you both loud and clear, captain..." Tasha winked at him.
"It is not that simple, Miss Tasha," Intellus interjected. "Fabrication requires the utilization of network resources. I will have to continuously command the yellow proto insects which will divert the attention of my computational workload followed by the network being overloaded as the amount of data transferred between facilities increases in volume and size."
"Is that so? What makes these assembly factories different then?" Tasha tried to wrap her head around it but could not. Was it a gap resulting in the difference of perspectives?
"The assembly factories has their own AI cores, acting as individual entities that receive the data of their blueprint and devise a way to manufacture and produce outputs on their own. They consume their own computing resources, not affecting the network in the slightest. The success rate starts very low but over time..."
Tasha narrowed her eyes. "They'll become increasingly successful to the point of perfection..."
"That would be an understatement, Miss Tasha." Intellus chuckled, now gathering the attention of even its sucessor. "Whatever these assembly factories have learned on their own can also be transferred to the other and newer assembly factories."
'Then wouldn't it be more efficient in the long run? Is this the reason why the Machina race is the most productive civilization in the Convention?!' Julian gulped at this revelation.
"That sounds really good but there should be a fallout somewhere in that, right?" Tasha did not think that this method was fool-proof.
"Miss Tasha has a point. Our methods will require a consistent supply of raw materials." Intellus bluntly spoke out.
Meanwhile, Julian received another beep from his VNI. "Bear 1-1?"
The portrait of the first AMR-MD-101 appeared on the sides, surprising him.
"Successor, this is Bear 1-1. Unknown hostile creature detected nearby. Shall I engage?"
