Industrial Commander

5

I wasn't expecting to have the Systems Alliance contact me... although I did laugh when I got the first contact package. You see I had put a ton of ships on my side of the Gate, namely to do observation and such, but at the same time I put a LOT of guns on my side. I had three Explorators that were documenting and storing information on the side, and the rest were Railgun Frigates and Cruisers. Although, by their definition my ships would be Dreadnoughts. I suppose it's because my ships aren't reliant on Element Zero for everything. Regardless, instead of letting them sit there, I should probably respond.

My radio antennas are normally completely blackboxed to prevent hacking, but I can use a Virtual Machine to isolate any attacks and broadcast without an issue I think. Really should work on strengthening my Firewalls, Reapers would likely be able to take control easily per the moment. My main defense is that my tech isn't wireless at all. But, Reaper nanites are a thing. Damn, I will have to work on it. I started construction on another set of labs that will specifically try to hack each other and defend against one another. That way I can repeatedly patch holes in my firewall.

Alright, let's get in contact. I start broadcasting back with my own message. I unfortunately have no idea how to make an actual sound, so I'm sending it in text. Another thing to add to the list of things I need to research.

[Greetings.]

They take a few minutes to actually get back to me. While they are presumably talking, I'm going to check out the research progress on Fusion Reactors. The Labs are actually making decent progress, but none of the prototypes have been successful as of yet. Although, a branching path has looked into using Antimatter, the problem is that I have no clue on how to get antimatter, nor how to contain or use it. It is kind of worrying to see it being researched, cause I have no clue how dangerous antimatter could be. Not yet at least. I got ideas from Star Trek though.

Ah, they responded.
[Hello, we represent the Systems Alliance, we come in peace.]

How to respond...

[Good.]

Back to my science! Construction of the Gigastructure Project, Starmaker, has had some issues. Calculating the effects of gravity and space is frustrating when you make a mistake. Regardless, I lost some of its frame, which will set me back a few months as it is recalculated. Luckily it did provide a lot of data on architecture. Something I will be employing in my factories from now on, I should be able to build a third layer of machinery on my factory worlds now. Huh, the Systems Alliance ships haven't responded. I'll send a message.

[I do not know how to make audio messages at the moment. We will have to communicate via text until then. I should probably introduce myself. I am Commander True. I represent myself and my factories. I am an Artificial Intelligence.]

Heh, that will cause chaos. Either they will start firing, or there will be panic on the other side. I wonder what they will do. Regardless, I do actually know what I am doing. Introducing myself means I'm willing to talk, the first message I sent can be considered a gesture of emotional intelligence, despite being A.I. Which will increase the odds of talking, instead of just straight panic. The representation part is also important, as it says I don't represent an actual faction beyond myself. Although the scope of myself is a bit out of their league. The most important part is the fact that I communicated that I physically can't talk via audio, never had audio receptors installed on my Terminator body so I wasn't able to reverse engineer that technology, nor did I actually think of it being a problem until now.

I finally got a response.

[Can we talk to your creators?]

I responded. [No Creators, I just exist as far as my knowledge goes. If there were Creators, I have not met them.]

—

Ambassador Lora Scott was having an interesting day, first they had to travel to a System with an newly activated relay, within Systems Alliance territory, to start diplomatic intentions with a new race that had activated a relay. Upon arriving to the other side of the relay, they had almost instantly retreated back through the relay, because there was a massive fleet on the other side, these ships were obviously armed, and had large spinal guns.

However, people calmed down after they realized the aliens hadn't fired upon them. Which was great, Lora loved living another day. So they broadcasted the first contact package on all the frequencies they knew, and after a few minutes, they got a radio broadcast back. One that was quickly translated to a text message in English. A simple greeting betraying nothing of the others intentions. It was quick to raise tensions again. I had to take control of the situation and ask the Comms Officer to reply with the message that we come in peace.

The reply however... stumped them. How are they supposed to reply to a one word message of good?! Not to mention they couldn't just say whatever they were thinking of, who knows if one wrong word would start a war or not. It was worrying to the extremes. Lora had to think for a bit, trying to come up with the perfect response. Before they got another message.

This one caused more panic than the last. The possibility of Artificial Intelligence had been confirmed originally. But they had run with the hypothesis that it was a remote controlled ship. They had some deep red tape to tiptoe through now. The Citadel would definitely pressure them to stop communicating with the A.I. Probably even blockade the relay. But communications with the A.I. could be just what the Systems Alliance needs. The lack of Element Zero, on top of the Energy Shields shown on the first ship? It showed immense promise. One of the others suggested asking to meet their creators. Lora figured that would work. So they sent a message, asking to meet with their creators. The result wasn't what they were expecting. An unchained A.I. was exploring the cosmos. It was both a terrifying and exciting concept.

So they continued communicating. Things started to relax as they realized something. The A.I. wasn't going to shoot them. So Lora began doing what they were brought to do. To be a diplomat. They asked the A.I. questions, and it asked them questions. The results? Scary and promising. The A.I. held only a small amount of territory, the ship ended up on their side of the Relay is an Explorator, an Exploration ship not meant for combat. Which showed that Commander True had curiosity. The knowledge that Commander True held territory meant that they knew the concept. Which meant borders could be made without the other violating said borders. Most importantly, Commander True was on the complete opposite of the Citadel, having no knowledge of its existence.

Thus, for both sides this was a first contact experience. To be honest, it was a way better experience than when they had met the Turians and the Citadel. Not to mention, Commander True understood diplomacy to a degree. There were some things that it considered classified, such as the locations of its worlds and more. The Commander wasn't completely trusting of the Systems Alliance. Which wasn't actually a bad thing. It meant they were more human in nature than A.I. They had personhood.

Altogether, the talks were promising. There were questions that I couldn't answer without permission, and questions it couldn't answer. We were playing a game of question for question, and answer for answer. However, we had made one massively important step. Commander True was ok with trade agreements, for tech, culture, and supplies. Meaning that this talk had already paid off economically, which would hopefully counter the Citadels attempt to supplant the economy from the inside. Although, there was one problem.

Commander True wanted their Explorator back as a gesture of goodwill. If that request wasn't met, well, the message they sent said they would be displeased. So the Systems Alliance upper echelon will have to come to a decision, as Lora knew that they had planned on keeping the ship to reverse engineer it. The fact that the Commander had specifically mentioned trading technology should reduce tensions, as it meant they may get access to said tech even without reverse engineering the ship. They had been given instructions on how to return the ship through the Relay, but it is unknown if they would be willing to return it.

— Commander True

I watched as the Systems Alliance envoy returned to their side. I'd say that was promising. Not sure who I was actually talking to. Could have been talking to a full on team. Regardless, they really loved asking questions. Some I was willing to answer, some I wasn't willing to answer. So I asked them questions as well, and I managed to get a territory map! I didn't know where Earth was. But I still knew where Systems Alliance space was, and more importantly? It was in range of the Railspace Dimension. If they didn't return my ship, I could send a small deterrent force to show my displeasure. I wouldn't be violent of course.

I'd just have a lot of ships sitting next to one of their colonies until they are pressured into returning my ship. If they want my tech, they can trade for it. Cause I'm not letting one of my cards go that easily. Especially when I don't have nearly enough cards. I'm going to have to make an Android body for regular contact with them. Can't have it look like a Terminator, just in case the Terminator story exists in this universe. I'm thinking of borrowing the look of GDI Commandos and turning them green and red. Honestly that is not a bad idea, let's start building a couple... Oh I don't have any rooms in my ships to fit moving bots that aren't the Spidertron Drones. Well, I can retrofit them pretty easily, I need to make a Starport anyways. I don't have nearly enough Orbital Construction Platforms. I was building an excess of resources anyways, it is exciting to finally realize I have a use for them. Should have started these projects sooner!