Excerpt of History of the Eras abridged

***2th ERA***

Technological advancement

The second era brought multiple advancements in every technological field however there were 2 that are of great importance for humanity at large.

The first one came from the failure to make an Artificial Intelligence.

Regardless of all the work and time placed, of quantum processing computers, of quantum storage drives and many other advancements this technology could never be accomplished. True autonomous self-aware machine sentience was something that could not be accomplished.

Medicine also advanced incredibly to the point that we could store a full brain into a digitalized form yet no hardware was ever been developed that could allow it to work properly.

From both failures a new piece of technology was found, the Restricted Autonomous Interface or RAI.

Trying to make a machine or computer simulate or achieve sentience never worked but on reduced test it could actually simulate a very advanced behavior to the point that certain generals uploaded their particular knowledge base to be used as virtual opponents in wargames. While limited and restricted to only specific confines they could learn and advance however it was also possible to go around those limits. In those cases, the machine will simply be unable to function properly.

RAIs required enormous amounts of processing power to work regardless if it was Virtualized from a human or Design by a team of experts. Over time they were improved but the requirements never lowered so the solution was to go bigger.

The Technocrats supposedly had the biggest quantum computer made with rare materials hidden inside one of the many moons in their systems and yet it still was not capable of achieving full sentience. They eventually split the processing power to create their own digital god called Akasha that helped them track their population calculating taxes, removing bureaucracy, helping catch criminals and many other uses.

While the Technocrats did rely heavily in their RAIs for bureaucracy with great success not all civilizations adopted this and not all had the same outcomes*¹

The most common use however was in limited modules to do specific tasks, driving automated cars or transportation vehicles, managing the transportation networks, automated assembly lines, construction, medicine, combat*² and many many others. These modules could even show self-improvement over time however this was quickly restricted and required human confirmation after the Apser 2 incident with their medical bot.

The bot was ordered to heal the patient who suffered multiple broken bones and some organ damage. With a combination of injected nanites and other surgical tools the bones where re positioned and fused, the organs where sutured and then the heart was stopped to heal a minor congenital problem that caused no problems, while the heart was stopped the hippocampus suffered some damage due to the lack of oxygen which was also repaired.

When the patient woke up, he had partial memory loss and problems with object recognition due to the ‘repaired’ neurons.

Since then, automatic medic bots are given specific areas and order which to work.

*¹ Refers to multiple graft and corruptions scandals particularly seen during the fall of the Trade Union Alliance.

*² Refers to the Replicator War

"2 done 2 more to go" said Marcus after finishing the 5th bus, he was still waiting new parts for Dextra’s bus and a piece from Marcellinus for the other one.

‘To be fair it wasn’t bad and the different ideologies are helping me learn different ways to apply some concepts’ though Marcus ‘also is not as boring as expected though I would like some mana, I’m feeling more tired than I have in the last few weeks.’

Usually, he would get 3 to 5 mechs a week that had beast parts or blood from the outside and he would absorb it while disassembling and repairing mechs, he could just passively absorb the mana from a distance now. However, since Darius wreck he hadn’t been near any other. Maybe because he was so focused, he didn’t feel the mana absorption while working but it had obviously affected him, however he wasn’t feeling the energized by the mana from that day. Maybe mana couldn’t be stored in his body for too long or maybe he used too much that day. He didn’t know how to control the usage nor did he know exactly when he was doing it, he just had a vague sense of having lots and having little.

A ping in the data pad distracted Marcus from his musings.

"20th door, mech stuck, go now" Val’s message was incredibly short. ‘What had the Vigiles done now?’ wondered Marcus.

Still, he was less than 200 m so a quick jog and he was there, however he didn’t see anyone else from the workshop. ‘They must have done something stupid and I should be able to take care of it’.

From the workshop he could see the gates. They were a massive construction easily 20 meters tall and almost 1 km long occupying space both inside the city and outside too, thankfully the 20th door was the closest to them.

The gates were the only public entrance and exit point for the city, carefully protecting that no contaminant ever made it inside. The mechs would go in separate sections, go through multiple decontamination procedures, and be released into a second internal section were everything would be divided.

The mechs that would stay for long storage would go into private bays and the pilots will exit the mech into a secured space while the mechs that had to go inside the city for any reason would go to the internal gates where the pilot would exit the mech while it would go through a second more intense and longer decontamination procedure and an observation period.

From the internal section all materials that should go in the city would be processed, sealed, and sent to the appropriate places while the rest would be sent to the appropriate cargo bays for further transportation.

While not usual passenger transports could come in and had a specific disembark place.

Everyone moving in the inner section or beyond would be required to wear a protective suit or even a fully enclosed exo including incoming passengers that should wear the suit for the whole duration of the trip.

While the gates restricted ground traffic they also had bays for planes and spaceships which followed similar rules. This was the most common way for transporting passengers and fragile materials.

As Marcus reached the side entrance the navigation lights in the floor started to guide him inside to an office not far from where he entered.

"You from Val’s?" asked a woman inside the room, she look like a mechanic, black hair, oval face with brown eyes wearing a typical black mechanic overall filled with stains and multiple pockets.

"Yep" answered Marcus curtly "Val said to be here ASAP. What happened?"

"Good, transport’s RAI fucked and rammed into a mech. It compromised the mech’s power line, spilled the content everywhere and we are shorthanded with mechanics so we need someone to deal with this NOW. The nav will guide you to a changing room with a protective suit for you. Do what you need to separate them SAFELY, discharge the mech’s power line safely and try to connect the transport to the loading dock" said the woman in a fast and concise manner.

‘They fucked up and can’t deal with this type of stuff? They sure are useless’ though Marcus "OK I’ll do it". A compromised power line should be easy to derive or close and the rest he can just use a crane.

The woman waved her hand, the door opened and Marcus left following the navigation lines.

It took him nearly 5 minutes to reach where the room with the suits, he changed into one about his size, picked a data pad for mechanics and went into the marked airlock.

After a bit more of walking he finally arrived at the cargo bay and he understood everything. ‘Motherfucking lazy asses’ cursed internally Marcus ‘To not do this by hand they tried to use RAI’s and OBVIOUSLY now you don’t want to take care of this. Who was the genius with an IQ lower than room temperature that though this was a good idea?’

A wheeled transporting unit had rammed front first into the back of a mech rupturing all the back plates and possible all power and fluid lines, there were some slag marks on an armor plate because of the electrical discharge while the floor was a giant pool of some oily substance.

Marcus observed all of this and one extra detail the Vigiles and the woman forgot to say and that Marcus didn’t realize till he was closer due to the lighting.

‘OF FUCKING COURSE, THE TRANSPORTER IS FILLED WITH HARVESTED BOOMRAT MEAT, LOOK ALL THE BLOOD POOLING BELOW THE TRANSPORTER’ Marcus face was a mask of fury, working with electricity near boomrat blood was a quick way to become dust. Boomrats had the wonderful property of storing small amounts of an explosive compound in their blood, the same oil-looking dark red blood that was on the floor. It was very common to refine it into fuel but it had the bad tendency of exploding if you are not careful.

Marcus recognized that this was a fucked-up situation and that he shouldn’t do this, this was their problem and if anything went wrong, he would be blamed, on the other hand if he worked so close to that much meat, he should absorb tons of mana. Fighting with both ideas he opened his personal terminal and contacted Val.

"Val’s Workshop, if you …" Marcus quickly pressed the code for direct transference and the computer redirected him.

"Val here. What happened?" Valentina’s voice came quickly and strongly, whenever this number was dialed it meant there were problems.

"Marcus here, I’m sending you a picture here now, I need you to take a good look at it" Marcus used the watch to take a general picture and sent it.

"OK, let me… Is that boomrat MEAT AND BLOOD?" Val’s voice quickly escalated as her fury and worry rose. "They told me they had a time critical problem regarding electricity and all their mechanics were occupied in other things, they asked for any mechanic ASAP"

"Well, they didn’t lie, see the mech? It has some slagged armor, most likely from when the power conduit broke, some power discharged there and slagged the plate, however now working with it could be dangerous"

"FUCKERS…" Marcus lowered the volume of the call, Val started a tirade of insults that could last for a while

"Quintus to Val, Quintus to Val, hey come back" said Marcus trying to cut short the insult-fest.

"Yeah, yeah I’m here. OK you are there. What is your assessment of the situation?" asked Valentin

"Let me check it a bit more. Tentatively I can do the job, I can simply redirect the energy to the batteries and removed them or ground it anywhere. However, this is not a favor, they owe us big if I do this so, please get in touch and confirm payment details." said Marcus

"I’ll call Silvia, the request came from her. We’ll see how much does she know and what is she willing to pay." said Val with a sadistic tone "Call you in 5" and closed the connection.

Marcus went down from the walkway to the bay’s floor. He scanned the blood with a portable analyzer confirming that it was blood from boomrat plus some non-compressive oil from either the mech’s or the transporter’s pneumatic system.

He walked directly to the impact point with some disgust in his face, the thick and sticky blood was making a squish sound on every step.

The transporter was a simple box truck body with an open top, with an external connection point on the front and the back so you can link them like a train. While every connection point was rigid and strong the union between could rotate so they would stay linked even in transit.

This transporter had wreck the mech’s left leg with the stud and broken the lower back thanks to the corner of the body. The mech’s back armor plates were mostly shifted sideways while a few had been broken but were still hanging there. Marcus could see clearly that they were already separated so he commanded the crane to move the transporter to the appropriate position.

All in all, the job seemed doable, he already dealt with the transporter and now he needed to drain the power, and leave the mech inert. It should be easy with a remote connection. He could have done it from the walkway but since the mech had a power malfunction all remote connections were down. Since that wasn’t the case, he needed to walk there, climb up instead of using a magnetic platform, and connect to the capsule to run diagnostic.

He could also feel the mana being absorbed slowly. He couldn’t know how many hours it would take to absorb all, neither if he even COULD absorb it. A communication request cut Marcus musing.

"Marcus, unless you have everything almost done get the hell away, this is some weird play and not a proper request" Val said quickly, quietly and with some fury in her voice.

Marcus recoiled from her tone "Why do you say that?" asked cautiously.

"They agreed to too much, a healthy credit compensation, owe you and us a favor and some citizen score for both" Val commented with a steady voice "It’s too much for this, either they want to sweep this under the rug and that’s why no one else is doing this or they want you or us to take the fall"

"What if I can do it Val?"

"You are that confident?"

"I already dealt with the transporter, the crane is moving it, it will take a bit but is done and the capsule seems intact. I can connect to the controllers and be done. Worse case scenario I use a cable and drain the energy to the structure "

"Look, the request was done under Silvia’s name but she is not there and some woman who didn’t introduce herself was answering for her, there is something I don’t like, unless you are willing to take the risk you should leave" commented Val.

"Can you take control of the internal cameras to verify no wrongdoing? If you give me 10 minutes I should be done with the power" replied Marcus with confidence.

"Only if you keep the line open, I’m also sending Otho and Marcellinus in case something happens, at best they accompany you back, at worst they help you in whatever you need".

"It’s a deal then" said Marcus, having Val’s support felt quite good.

The mech was in bad state but the breaks and his magnetic clamps were more than enough to climb into the back and go for the open entrance. A simple override activated and the mech went into repair mode unlocking the entrance to the capsule. Marcus climbed inside, connected two wires to the side panel and into the data pad and cursed. ‘Of course the overload affected the electrical control circuit because why not. Hard way it is.’ Marcus made his way out and down, again stepping on the sticky floor, making his way towards the wall.

He took a nearby charging cable, unlocked it from the charging port and forced it into the metallic structure, walked to the mech started to climb up again. Most of the controls were working so after connecting once more with the capsule, he gave the order to open the cover for the battery pack and forced the charging port connection to close.

Now was the last step, he went out again from the capsule and towards the left the armor plates had shifter revealing the charging port. It was a simple procedure, plug in, go to the capsule, reverse flow, and discharge… except the control circuit was dead. When Marcus placed the plug in place and secured it, the process started with a beautiful white blue arc coming from a nearby cable.

Marcus was feeling stressed, was also feeling all the mana around and a bit annoyed with all the bothersome procedure. He didn’t expect to also feel an electric shock in his hand. The shock broke the magnetic clamp he was using to stay there, Marcus fell backwards, tumbled twice, and hit his head on the floor.

By the time Marcus came back he was out of his suit in the hospital in a decontamination room.