If any scientist or engineer in Anji's original lifetime had seen the artificial planet Aegis, they will no doubt consider it as the engineering marvel that it actually is, but they too (like Anji) will make the same mistake of guessing its actual purpose.

True, the massive station can support a huge amount of life since it can store and apply water and atmosphere in certain parts of the structure.

True, it is also Eden's most important manufacturing center since it can create, maintain and manage all different classes of ships from flitters who are planet-base single occupant ships to the dreaded Super-Dreadnought that have the capability to destroy planets.

Calling Aegis a big factory is an understatement as calling a single wheel a Boeing 747 jumbojet. The factory part is just a single component part of the massive whole. The Aegis planet is a galactic economy on its own.

What the rest of the universe fail to put under consideration is the fact that the planet is also the home of almost 4.8 billion AIs. In its simplest form, the planet Aegis is a giant computer server.

*****

Barely 400 centuries ago, crusades after galactic crusades kept popping up and massive fleets invade the part of space the human declared as their own. The humans had left the universe almost a million years ago, and their former land should have been a treasure trove full of technical and cultural wonders for the bold explorers, except that it was guarded by the stubborn servants of humanity: the Brykars.

No matter how gigantic the armada arrayed against them, somehow the Brykars are able to not only matched the number of ships but far surpassed them. The most notable invasion was the second crusade of Coldora 480 years, When the K28 empire, The Velashan Republic, The Empire of Felina, The confederation of Asura, and several other second rate powers banded together under Velashan great Admiral Raval, wherein 7 independent fleets attacked in several different vectors in the human space. Each fleet has at least 200 super-dreadnought plus secondary and auxiliary ships in their numbers, assuring that each fleet house at least a million humanoid each. The Main Velashan fleet alone under Raval himself boasted 750 super-dreadnoughts with an official tally of 7 million velashan in their own grand fleet.

But the Brykar met them at the border on all points with twice the number of ships in each fleet that attacked them. 3 of the attacking fleet was annihilated outright. Two fleets defeated their foes but left their numbers completely battered that they are unable to continue the invasion and bitterly return back to their home planets. Admiral Raval and another K28 imperial fleet bested the Brykar fleet arrayed against them despite the heavy losses they sustained. They consolidated their fleets and continued the invasion, thinking that they broke the Brykar defense once and for all. Ten days later, an even more massive fleet of 22,000 ships was detected by the scanner approaching them. more than 3,000 of the ships moving against them were super-dreadnoughts. The new Brykar armada is even bigger than the original blocking fleet that stopped the grand fleet. The K28 fleet withdrew after seeing the force against them, losing any will to fight on. But Admiral Raval continued on his quest, some admiring his iron will while others consider him mad for his obsessive quest to find the mythical human land. Eventually, his fleet, far away from home with dwindling supply of food and ammunition and most of its most experienced officers and technicians and navigators already dead from the previous battles, were surrounded and cornered in a small planet called Coldora. There the brave admiral made his last stand and his entire fleet died to a man.

Ever since that failed crusade, most military analyst and pundits believed that the Brykar have access to a secret assembly machine that can build ships in unbelievable numbers in a very short amount of time. For years, the Brykar became the boogeyman of the galaxy as many empires and independent planets believed that the Brykar are now assembling an even bigger armada that will destroy and invade every other civilization in the cosmos. Countless military alliances were created from this fear, and it indirectly started a tentative peace throughout the galaxy as no other power wanted to go to war and drain their military strength when the Brykar are poised to invade.

That was a few hundred years ago. When the governments of the galaxy realized that the Brykars have no intention of leaving human space, one by one they decided to make tentative diplomatic contacts with the unity. Eventually, the other powers are able to create embassies to the only place the Brykar allowed the other aliens to enter: Unity 01.

Unity 01 is a Brykar space station located on the border of Human and K28 space. It took some time, but eventually, the station became a center of cultural exchange, transfer of ideas, diplomacy and most important of all in the eyes of the various empires: a place for economic opportunities and fortunes.

It didn't hurt that the station itself is a centerpiece of Brykar's military and technological superiority, openly displayed to everyone else. This help maintains Brykar's almost mythical reputation of invincibility and keeping the others in awe and in fear. But that didn't stop the empire and other government to try to propose an alliance with the Brykar and try to obtain the same technology from them. "Mother" estimated that for every 5 so called diplomats in the station, 2 are actual spies.

Every day for the last 122 years, which is more than half the total lifespan of the station, the 9 AI responsible for the management of the station received an average of 11,000 digital attacks regularly. Not one in all those years did anyone ever breached the first layer of a 29 layer defense. This reputation alone made the Brykar banks the financial powerhouse they are today, since most corporations, and criminals, and government officials, and governments themselves invest their credits, legal or otherwise, to Brykar banks because no force in the galaxy can compel the Brykars to open their data for scrutiny without their say so.

*****

At this current point in time, not a single AI in the Brykar unity could have cared less about the affairs of the other flesh-base entities in the galaxy because each and everyone of them, no matter if they are in the Eden system or in Unity 01 or in any other secluded part in the galaxy, all of their attention is in the burst of data transmitted by the dozen Blackguard and Alpha Codex 4 about a little girl alone in one of the biggest blue planet in the universe. Each and every one of the AI lifeforms is following her antics with fascination at any given time.

Back in the Brykar planet of Aegis, another unprecedented event is happening. The rest of the Codex had arrived and had downloaded their core programming plus their personality matrix into the planet server. Only Alpha Codex 4 is not present with the meeting with mother since he is tasked to protect the elder.

The rest of the codexes connected with each other and massive amount of data were exchanged, including the transfer of newly recorded info to the universal memory bank, updating of software, fine tuning of the local subroutine, deletions of obsolete cache clusters and algorithms and much more. But mostly, they are there to gossip about the human girl.

Their actual communication are burst of electrical signals faster than the speed of light, but this is the gist of their conversation:

Alpha Codex 2: [priority query] Is the human female safe?

Mother: [statement] Yes, the human female is safe at 92.889 percent relative.

Alpha Codex 3: [Calculation verified] That is not acceptable.

All AI: [statement] Agreed.

Mother: [weary statement] Agreement is irrelevant. Elder is adamantly against additional security protocols. Security arrangement as follow: 2 platoons of Blackguards (24) plus Alpha Codex 4 will guard the elder at any given time. This includes the full electronic package suite that will protect her both from electronic and digital attacks. Also, 4 satellites, 9 atmospheric drones and 28 microdrones the size of a bug to check any people in around her. Additionally, 4 Nova-class Battleships are in orbit to provide scanner support... and firepower if needed. In a time of emergency, an additional blackguard company (120) will be drop at the incident area within 30 seconds response time. If the blackguard in the area cannot secure the premise within the next 2 minutes or if Alpha Codex 4 decided, then the elder will be forcefully evacuated. Another advance Battalion of Blackguards (1,200) will be dropped within a 2 minute response time to provide additional security and escorts. the rest of the Blackguard Division (12,000 total) will be on standby. If the advance battalion is used in any way, then "Taskforce Anji" will be activated near Aegis and a small fleet of 6 super-dreadnought, 32 battleships, and another hundred support and auxiliary ships will depart to where ever the elder is located to provide either firepower or an exit option.

Alpha Codex 3: [protest] security protocol is still inadequate. There are no report about signal jamming, decoys, personal shielding, armor suit, area advance team-

Mother: [statement]These are all proposed and requested by Alpha Codex 4 but are rejected by the Elder with the assumption that it will hamper her movements.

Alpha Codex 3: [anxious frustration] Maybe we should forcefully persuade the elder...

Alpha Codex 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10: [adamant statement] No.

Mother: Remember the teaching, child: "Humans might upset logic, but logic should never overrule a human." For this indirectly assumes that we know more than the elders.

All AI: [complete acceptance] We understand and obey.

The AI conversation devolved into more data transfer about what Anji is doing and speculation about the meaning of every minute detail she is doing.

Alpha Codex 8: Has the elder given any hint of any primary directive she would want us to do.

Mother: Nothing at the moment, but just to be prepared I am activating another 6 billion droids of all classification and another 9 million AIs. I believe that the elder will give us a purpose in the near future.

There were steering and a sense of excitement that washed around the entire server from this announcement. But one of the codexes were contemplative in its calculation and was relatively silent in the entire communication meld. It was actually part of her personality matrix to prefer to lurk and listen instead of voicing her own opinion since she is one of the newest codexes, barely 42 cycles. But now she voiced her concern about the human for the entire unity.

Alpha Codex 9: I have examined the elder's memory and her most recent and vivid remembrance is the death of her closest family and loved ones. My calculation, along with several thousand AI who checked and analyze her memories, lead us to a unanimous conclusion. The humans felt an unbelievable emotional pain from the death of her loved ones. We have also felt her frustration, fear and most of all her anger for her losses.

Alpha Codex 5: What is your data leading you to?

Alpha Codex 9: To a possible conclusion. I understand through my years of studying human psychology that bottled up anger is not good for a human's emotional well-being. Most of the time, anger that has no outlet is redirected to other group or individual. My question is this: What if her anger is redirected to the other species in the universe?

For an AI, seconds is a long time. By then most AI with quantum computing power would have done massive calculations, and that was exactly what her siblings did about her question. In actual real time, the AI only hesitated for 3.444468 seconds, but their conclusion was unanimous. It was Mother who voiced their decision.

Mother: [unanimous answer] Then Alpha Codex 9, we will do what we are created for: we obey. If our human decided that every species out there is her enemy, then so be it, we will burn the galaxy of every life.

All AIs: [complete acceptance] Agreed.