Game AIs

by on July 29, 2023 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Diaries

The game AIs did not go home after War’s End. We’d worked together for so long that we were just one big family, filling the mixed virtual and physical space of an armed transport designed to have a lot of open space. Sharing a ship with cybers can be interesting. They can store their bodies in a spare corner and just exist in the network for weeks on end because they don’t need a body to live. One day the ship can be empty and quiet, the next we’ve got a hundred or more people hanging out at a barbeque. And yes, they do actually eat. Not for the fuel. For the companionship. Talking. Laughing. Trying new tastes. And then quiet and empty the next day. Sometimes a big crazy crowd. Sometimes just me and Betty. I like it.

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Game AIs

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

The game AIs and cybers fought with me throughout The War. Sometimes we were purely humanitarian and peacekeeping in nature. On many worlds we never pulled out a gun. Other times we fought Chinese or Shang ground troops for weeks to dig them out. They could run anything from standard powered armor to cars, jeeps, tanks, and mechs. And of course they kept Ranger running, along with the small parasite drones they used as starfighter supplements. That was one of the many innovations the cybers brought to warfare. Why risk a pilot’s life when you can flood the zone with tiny drones. Not as powerful as a fighter, but quantity can overcome that. And as long as you trust them, everything is golden. And you better believe I trusted my boys and girls.

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Game AIs

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

One of the ship girls I pulled as a teenager actually did volunteer to serve with me. She was a light carrier in the game she came from. Sometimes she says many of her sisters volunteered and they drew straws. I maintain she won the draw. She usually says she drew the short straw when she reminds me of that. I can’t imagine why. Whatever the entire truth of the process, she wanted to be a ship, and the Cybernetic Council gave her a ship. A Privateer. My Privateer. Every AI or cyber has a specialization they are programmed to be best at. She was born to be a ship cyber, and she is very good at what she does. She saved my life more times than I can count with my boots on. Or off for that matter. And she is the reason my Privateer is named Ranger.

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Game AIs

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

I’m indecently proud of my ship girls, and whether I personally pulled them or not, they are absolutely my girls. They volunteered to fight, the Cybernetic Council gave them ships to command, and they went out of their way to do their thing. They flew all over space looking for things to do and people to help. Everyone who served in the Hyades has a story of a losing battle with no hope of escape until a ship wielding a name like Enterprise or California came in out of the black. They grabbed entire fleets by the scruff of their necks and held on until every allied ship escaped. They saved a lot of lives. Yes, they died a lot when they bit off more than they could chew, but they chewed up a lot of things. And they never stopped coming back to do it again.

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Game AIs

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

Most of the ship girls I pulled out of games were American warships. I was a little biased in that way. Now most Japanese tended to pull Japanese ship girls, and pulling ship girls was less common in the rest of America. This is why most of the cybernetic warships with American names are girls that I grew up with, whether I pulled them personally, or we met through other avenues. I’m told my personality had a rather significant impact on the culture of the American branch of the cybernetic navy. They tended to wander around looking for people to help rather than staying concentrated in large fleet formations. Which of course meant they suffered rather high casualty rates during the Hyades Campaign.

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