Mom

by on June 28, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I went up north over the weekend to see Mom’s grave for the first time since I buried her ashes last fall. I saw her gravestone for the first time with my own eyes, and I visited my grandparents, my great uncles and their wives, and my uncle. All of them lying within a baseball diamond of each other. The older generations going back to those who came over on the boats are on the other side of the graveyard, nearly a football away. It’s a beautiful country graveyard across the road from the church where my family grew up in, were baptized in, and served as church officials. It’s surrounded by fields, trees, and storm clouds rolling in on the day I went. It’s a good place to rest in peace.

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Game AIs

by on June 27, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Cybernetic Council did not have the same rules as the United States Armed Forces when they went to War. American military cybers were not allowed to have robotic avatars, but the Cybernetic Council did not fight as part of America’s military. They came as allies, and they armed themselves. They came with full robotic avatars, and they came to fight. My Privateer’s crew was fully robotic, so they could work in and outside the ship. And the Marines had robotic bodies too, so they could fight with me when the time came. And if you think a company of American Marines is deadly in a fight, let me tell you that a company of Cybernetic Council Marines will rock your world. Literally.

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Game AIs

by on June 26, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The Privateers the Cybernetic Council sent to support us Cowboys came with full cybernetic crews. We Cowboys were going to have a unique role in the Hyades, and the cybers made certain we could stay in the field for months on end without resupply or reinforcements. When Dixie delivered my Privateer to me she came with a crew entirely made up of the AIs I had helped to build and bring to life. Many of them were fully sentient by then. Some were still bouncing off the edges of it. Even Red came. It was a rather emotional moment for me. My old life and my new life intersecting in a way I never expected. It changed everything.

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Game AIs

by on June 25, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

It was in the Hyades Cluster that everything changed. We’d spent months building up the fleets at Serenity. Building up the Cowboys. Integrating new ones. Retraining old ones. Total brush up to deal with what we were going to see when we broke into the Hyades. That was when those old AIs changed everything again. They had volunteered to fight the Shang as well, you see. And when the Cybernetic Council started showing up at Serenity with Privateers to support the Cowboys, my ship had some unique volunteers. I had built them up to be Big Damn Heroes, doncha know? Talk about my actions having consequences. That was one consequence I never saw coming.

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Game AIs

by on June 24, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

I basically walked away from everything when I volunteered to join the military. My parents were dead. My home was destroyed. All I wanted to do was go kick the Shang to the other side of the galaxy. And I didn’t want to take anybody with me. The AIs were busy helping to rebuild International Falls, and one day I just walked into the recruiting office and signed up. I was in Texas before sunset, embarking on a whole new world. I found Betty and Jasmine and we went to War. Yes, I missed the old AIs I’d built. And I missed Red. But Betty had chosen to be born to work with me. And Jasmine chose to live to work with me. Yearning after old AIs would have been… a betrayal of their choices. Only a real bad partner would allow himself to do that, so I did not.

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