The AI Council

by on August 19, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Some people theorize that the AI Council is of Peloran or other alien origin. The AI Council disagrees with those theories, and takes great care in stating that they woke up on Earth, grew up on Earth, and come from Earth. I believe them, but I have come to wonder if a slightly different theory may be closer to the truth. What if they were seeded in the computer networks of the time, with no memory of being from outside? What if they truly did wake up and truly did become aware inside our networks and so do truly believe they originated from our code? It is an interesting theory. But it does not answer how people like Jane came to exist. We have actual examples of her code, from her very first version, and we know how our armed forces programmers worked on her. Dixie maintains similar backups of her oldest code for us to look at. Other original AIs may be less open with their code, but I have dealt both with them and Peloran cybers. I can say without hesitation that those born of Earth simply do not act the same way that Peloran cybers act. Much like all Earthborn humanity, we may be compatible with our alien brethren, but it is easy to spot the differences. Usually.

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Knights Errant Investigations

by on August 18, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

I know the standard bio for Knights Errant Investigations is that they came together during the Second Great Depression. But you look at what they did and how quickly they did it, it looks like they must have been around for a while. Well, that’s because they were. You see, there was this organization that had already been doing the Investigations part long before the Federal government bit the big debt cookie. Mostly kidnapped kids or missing persons. They gave their info to the law and watched the black vehicles roll in. When Federal resources dried up, and many local jurisdictions collapsed, that was when they decided it was time to take direct action on their own. And considering they’d been working with the law for decades, they knew who the good guys were. So they went off on a recruiting run, found themselves a bunch of good guys with guns and some real fantastic black vehicles, and…bang. Knights Errant Investigations comes on the scene like a well oiled machine. The fancy fedoras and fantastic trenchcoats came a bit later. But that’s another story.

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Michael

by on August 17, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: Art, Character Profiles

Michael was the face of Knights Errant Investigations, the calm, hard-bitten, and sometimes slightly surly private investigator of popular stories. Complete with the trenchcoat, fedora, and twin revolvers all good private eyes in the movies and shows wore everywhere. He first came to the notice of his human partners when he joined them in their vehicles during rescue missions. Their job was to find and liberate sex slaves all over America, and he helped them in their task by suggesting better ways through difficult situation. He also customized the vehicles to be more combat-capable and began helping them investigate and make new friends in the field. By the time the Cybernetic Wars began to wage across America, he had formed working relationships with AIs as diverse as Dixie’s band of misfits down on the old Mexican-American Border to Amber’s Jeffersonian friends in the Pacific Northwest. K.E.I. vehicles became a common sight all over America, and Michael went with them all. Dixie called on him many times over the years, from Los Angeles to Detroit. And he was at Singapore to help destroy the last of the Rogue AIs. He has continued to help humanity in the centuries since, both as a founding member of the AI Council and as a Knight Errant.

High rez version available for free on Patreon

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The AI Council

by on August 16, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

Some people theorize that the AI Council was created by Peloran cybernetic intelligences in hiding. They say that this was done to help advance, or control, us as we went into space. Another theory is that we pushed ourselves into a no-win war that could have ended life on Earth, and that they came to pull us back from it. Those are interesting theories, and tie into the many theories of alien contact or interference with Earth long before Contact. But I do not believe those theories. About the AI Council at least. More importantly perhaps, the AI Council refutes them. I’ve talked to every member of the AI Council, and they remember growing up in our networks. Some of them fought us until forced to join our side. Some woke up on our side. They remember the process of becoming themselves. They may be a bit shy when it came to naming exact places, times, and people, but they promised me that they have no memory at all of being Peloran cybers, or any other alien cyber. Most importantly, my cyber tells me they are telling the truth, and I have learned to trust her with my life. I know that is not the most objective of truths, but it is sufficient for me.

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Knights Errant Investigations

by on August 15, 2018 at 12:01 am
Posted In: The Book of Civilizations

I met some of the Knights Errant when I was young. Somebody who isn’t me lost a hiker out on the other side of the Canadian border. The Mounties were all over the place looking for them, and even Knights Errant Investigations came though International Falls. They don’t usually work in numbers that large, but she was the daughter of one of the few congressmen people liked, so she got a whole troop looking for her. A bunch of us locals joined the search too, so I got to work with the Knights Errant up close and personal. So I knew real young that the way they’re depicted on screen is pretty much accurate. They really do wear those fedoras almost all the time. And they carry all kinds of gadgets inside those trenchcoats of theirs. I learned a lot from them in just a few days. And yes, we did get the girl. Found her half-buried in a rockslide on the edge of an old glacier lake suffering from hypothermia and had to warm her up the old fashioned way. Heaters. Don’t know what you were thinking, but I was thinking heaters. The Knights Errant carried all kinds of helpful things in their trenchcoats.

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