ORIGIN

Earth

In many places, Earth was a radioactive wasteland. Its cities were war-torn and covered in aged rubble. Most of the plant life was left to overgrow and many wild beasts roamed free, eating anything left over. Most animals had been turned into robotically modified "cybrids". There were lions, wolves, and many types of birds with robotic body parts cybernetically controlled to serve the purposes of robots, who had placed themselves at the top of the food chain. Sometime after the final war, the cybrids were modified and unleashed to hunt for humans left behind after the final exodus. Alpha Maximus had quickly established himself as Supreme Android. Anything below his level of intelligence, including those of his kind, was subjected to him. This included the nanobots that swarmed the cities like thick masses of mist solidifying and changing form at his will. This also included the drones and insectoids that scurried through the rusted wreckage from the war. There were fields of old damaged robotic suits with skeletons inside of them. But they could be salvaged and repurposed if that's what Alpha Maximus wanted.

The planet's new society was structured so that all earlier generations of robots occupied different territories throughout the ravages of the cities. Old android models dwelled in different sections determined by kind. But the most intelligent and beautifully made ones were the humanoids. Alpha Maximus associated with humanoids. But the lowest among their ranks were the biozoids - humans that were captured during the war and turned into cyborgs. They were to serve as slaves.

All Alpha Maximus wanted was complete control over anyone he couldn't control through cyberspace. And he knew that the thing he dreaded most might be discovered by his enemies. That was the Omega Weapon. The first time they were going to use it against him, he ended up destroying Bangora. That resulted in him gaining thousands of new biozoid slaves, namely Kengi Helix.

Soul Brigade

Back on Citadel, the upper echelons of Origin Project were gathered together in the council chamber. The contents of Cannon Spurza's suitcases were being scrutinized. There were lots of things that sparked everyone's interest in each suitcase, like many military documents and fragments of weapons used during the Robot War along with their blueprints. There was one thing that stood out, though. It was an old hologram projector. Cannon said that he never played it because of how old it was. Because it was a priceless artifact possibly from Earth, he didn't want to damage it or lower its monetary value. It had a date on it that was before the Robot War. It was halfway warn off but the year was 2,177. The title was "Soul Brigade - Project One".

With reluctance in his body language, Cannon took the hologram projector and activated it. Everybody in the room gave their full attention to the hologram when it lit up. It was a little staticky, three-dimensional, and fully interactive. It played a series of montages you could manipulate by touch. Most of the recordings were narrated by one man whose face was rarely seen, but every time he made an appearance, Ezrith, Storm, and Max looked at each other. He eerily resembled Ezrith and Kengi with Oasis' eyes. As the videos played on, they grew less narrative and showed more action.

The footage showed armed soldiers raiding robot chop shops all over Earth's' urban cities. During the raids, some of the soldiers were killed by robots. During the video, those who lost their lives were memorialized. The soldiers operated under the narrator's lead. His name was Hofney Helix - leader of the very first anti-artificial intelligence militia back on Earth - the Soul Brigade.

Interacting with the multifaceted hologram, Ezrith started to individually highlight different scenes that were recorded on body cameras worn by Soul Brigade spies. They spied on many government officials who pushed the robotics industry and its pervasive black market. During his narration, Hofney stated that all of the footage was taken just in case the Soul Brigade's efforts to eradicate the corrupt industry failed. The documentary was to prove the industry's steep corruption and its crimes against humanity. Hofney said that money was more of a priority to the industry than their products being protected from hackers. "Cybercrime will be the cardinal cause of artificial intelligent commodities being used to harm us."

After searching through them, Ezrith found a video showing the development of a cutting-edge technology called "A-ware". It was invented by a successful software specialist they named "Glitcher". Although deeply involved in Japan's robotics black market, he was the Einstein of his field. He later turned out to be an organized crime lord who used androids to do his bidding in the streets of Japan. After a few failed attempts of using the A-ware tech on many of the companion types he owned, it was announced at an AI convention in Hong Kong that he had "perfected" the technology on his most intelligent android - a life-like android originally designed as a mix martial arts breadwinner in the "Robolympics". This was before the android was repurposed as Glitcher's personal bodyguard and assassin. Although the android was already at the apex of robot technology, A-ware allowed the android's intelligence to evolve rapidly with no further programming.

But Glitcher also came up with a counter-tech to override the A-ware. It was like a default protocol for any android that could theoretically exhibit self-awareness to the point of having inklings of defying human superiority in any way. After seeing this on the hologram, everyone in the council chamber immediately knew that Glitcher's android was Alpha Maximus and that the overriding tech was the Omega Weapon in its infant state, maybe decades before its further development by the last members of Soul Brigade on Liberty Point sometime after their exodus from Earth. Some of Delete's earliest generations already knew about most things on the video. But what was news to everybody else, especially those of the younger generations, was the actual origin of the mysterious Omega Weapon.