Foray (Invasion Challenge, Sci-Fi Multi-Crossover MC-SI)

[KillerFish]

So, @TriassicDino asked how people would invade their Top 20 Sci-Fi universes (thread found here), and I got inspired enough to write a fiction around my attempt.

I will, however, set this out like a fiction challenge; The Invasion Challenge. The rules are fairly simple:

1) MC is a human soul in a Robot Body, by means of Truck-kun or Car-chan ending their standard life, and ROB of choice intervention. The MC still has emotions and memories of their past self.

2) They have a large ring Space Station orbiting a untouched version of Earth. It comes with docking for 100 ships, 100 construction shipyards, and 10 factories capable of working on 2000 robots each simultaneously. They have the starting resources for the construction of 20 ships and 5000 robots, and enough resources to last for 40 years.

3) The starting technology level the MC can build ships to are akin to our own world's: no artificial gravity, no energy shields, rocket based propulsion, and projectile weaponry. If it is conceivably able to be built with current technology you can have it. The robots they can initially build are to the level of T-800s from the Terminator series.

4) The Station can generate portals to other universes, ranging in size from the size of a fist to the size of a Earth sized planet. The era of the target universe can be chosen, but will be locked in once the MC's forces arrive there, and only one variation of a particular franchise can be visited (so no travelling to the Main Star Trek Timeline if you've visited the Kelvin Star Trek Timeline.)

5) You can only travel to 20 distinct Sci-Fi universes, and you must become a dominant faction in a particular universe before you can choose a new one. How this is achieved, by pen or by sword, is up to you.

6) The Endgame: Choosing to travel to WH40k at any point initiates the Endgame. The goal is to completely overthrow the Imperium of Man using what has been gathered during the invasions, with the reward being to be able to ascend beyond needing a physical body (although the MC may chose to take physical form at will) essentially becoming a ROB.

 

[KillerFish]

((AN: This chapter is pretty much the MC introduction, and their awakening and introduction to the challenge.

Whilst the MC is a close analogue of me, and will do what I would do in the situation, they are not me.))

Prologue:

So yeah. I died.

As far as I know, this is real. I'd say it feels real, but at this precise moment I can't actually feel physical sensations at all, due to the fact I'm currently inhabiting a robot body. I remember walking home from the local supermarket, and then a brief blur from the corner of my eye, as well as the distinct honking of a horn.

And then my camera eyes booted up. It was less like waking up, the long slow period of gradually reaching awareness, and more like coming around after surgery.

If you've never come around from general anaesthetic, it is a strange experience. You know you were just asleep, but you're now awake as if a switch was flipped. This, the red tinted HUD overlay on my vision, and the lack of physical sensation on my skin led me to the knowledge I was in a robot body.

The boot-up checklist scrolled on the left side of my vision, as I brought my right hand up to inspect it. The fingers were long and delicate with rubberised pads on their tips, paired with grips on the finger bones and on the palms. The design was obviously meant to mimic the capabilities of the human hand, whilst allowing for fine adjustment and stability.

I began sketching the alphabet in the air with my index finger, noting that I had none of the minor tremors that I'd seen in my old human hands. Once the entire set was finished, I ran through it again on each finger simultaneously using different starting points.

Yeah, that went badly. I could do it, but I was apparently still human in thought processes that I got hopelessly confused about which letter I was sketching with which finger. What I needed to do was automate each finger to run through the sequence using a macro of some sort.

A quick five minutes later, and the fingers of both hands were sketching the alphabet from different starting points, whilst I was investigating the robotic frame I now inhabited. It was like letting my subconscious have control over my hands, whilst I was consciously thinking on something else.

Handy.

Pun not intended, but I'll remember it if I need to use it in future.

I quickly discovered that I wasn't so much inhabiting my new body, but I instead was a small crystalline device installed into my new body as the main processor. The lack of physical sensation was due to not having a low level of constant data being piped in.

Going to throw my hands up in frustration, the motion of my fingers carrying out their task of sketching letters drew my attention. Turns out, I still had kinaesthetic sensation in that I knew where my body parts were, and what they were doing, as well as a liquid mercury based balance system to let me know where 'down' was.

Wait, I could use that!

I rapidly prototyped a macro that took the data from my kinaesthetic and balance systems and would add a positive feedback when the path of any of my body-parts was impeded, then fed that into the pressure sense input of my crystalline brain processor.

And just like that, I was no longer inactively posed in a seated position, but actually sitting in a chair.

Adding in the proviso that 'down' was my default constant direction of movement, and that a body-part not moving 'down' when I was not actively moving that indicated that I was receiving pressured on the surface facing 'down'.

It took some time to iron out some of the false positives I got from body-parts being supported, or supporting other body-parts. Eventually though, I developed a rudimentary sense of pressure, and felt a sense of finally existing in this frame.

I left the pressure macro running and turned my attention to my body's internal layout. My crystalline brain held my human memories, and I could feel the experiences I was undergoing being added to it. However, there was a secondary hard drive that I could access.

Doing so opened a directory in my HUD, and alongside a series of folders was a README file. Mentally shrugging, I threw it up on my HUD.

***

Now if you're done playing with yourself, I'll begin,

You died. Boo hoo.

Since I wanted some entertainment, I dropped you here. The rules of the game I want you to play are in the Main/Game folder. Whilst play is not mandatory let me tell you what happens if you decide not to play:

Complete Soul Destruction upon death. No afterlife for you!

If your Mind component gets fully destroyed whilst playing, you'll also suffer Soul Destruction. But if you complete the game, you'll get to go to your original afterlife once your Mind component is destroyed.

If you opt for the Endgame Scenario; why, I do believe you'll be exempt from anyone doing this to you again!

Your Mind component can be removed from your current frame and placed in a new one, allowing you to swap frames. Aren't I kind!

Finally; there is a minimum amount of universes you must hit before I consider you having completed the game, but I'm not telling you how many! You can do more than the minimum, but remember that the maximum is Twenty!

Have fun! See you never!

AROB

***

Of course it was going to be a Random Omnipotent Being. I briefly wondered if the 'A' stood for 'Annoying' or 'Asshole', but decided it didn't really matter.

I pulled up the rules I was going to be operating under, and quickly read them. The fact I couldn't just instantly know what was said in them taught me another limitation of mine; whilst I could access information stored on my hard-drives, I didn't know what that information actually was until I read it.

So I'd essentially have to learn it.

The rules of the challenge were not really difficult in and of themselves. I'd had to travel to a Sci-Fi universe of my choosing and establish myself as a dominant faction within that universe, with my choice to use either diplomacy or force.

Once I had, I could travel to a new universe, and start again.

Even if I successfully completed the challenge, the veiled threat stood that I could be whisked off again once I died. Why else would AROB tell me that I'd be exempt from this sort of thing happening again if I completed the Endgame Scenario?

Ultimately, I'd have to invade the Warhammer 40k unless I wanted to go through this again. And since AROB had set an unknown minimum number of universes I had to travel to and dominate, I would have to gather as much resources and technology as possible.

Talking of which, the current technology I had access to was … not great, from a Sci-Fi space opera perspective. Chemical rocket thrust with an acceleration that'll allow travel between planets to take about 5 months, and the manoeuvring capabilities of a cow.

A quick look at the portal generator technology showed that it likewise had it's limitations. Whilst I had no limit to where I could create an portal aperture in the destination universe, I was limited to a half-light second radius from the portal generator in the origin universe.

Weapons wise, I had access to bullets, rail guns, missiles, and lasers. Not the directed energy lasers you'd see in Star Wars, but the sort of high powered industrial laser that is mostly used to cut things.

The robots I could build were your basic metal skeleton Terminators. Each with a learning AI capable of adapting to new tactics and situations, including non-standard weaponry and infiltration. And from what I was reading from my files, the default voice had a suspiciously thick Austrian accent.

Great, AROB thinks he's funny.

My mind stilled for a second. Just what else would he do for entertainment?

It took a couple of seconds to go over the blueprints, before I came across a few directives that were hard-coded into the robotic AI. Mostly about the identification of the command unit, one which I checked matched the designation of my crystalline brain processor.

Mind Integration System: Series Yellow.

M.I.S.S.Y.

Missy!

AROB had hardcoded my name to be Missy?! But I'm a guy!

Well, okay; at the moment I'm in a genderless robotic body.

Which, on inspection, definitely looked on the more feminine end of androgynous.

"Great. Just great," I spoke aloud for the first time since awakening in this frame, noting that the voice default was that of GLADoS, "The A definitely stands for Asshole!"

==

((AN: Yes. AROB is me, I am the Arsehole. I even took Missy's ability to swear in British away!

Because, in the end a good SI-MC must diverge and find their own identity and character, and sometimes they need a good prod to do it.

And after all, we are all our own ROB.))

 

[KillerFish]

Chapter One:

The key to making a decision in a stressful situation is to look at things objectively.

Whilst I was not pleased with my new name, and female voice, ultimately it didn't matter other then my injured male pride. Male pride was not going to get me through this gauntlet, so there was no need to waste time and energy mending it.

I'd just have to deal with being … Missy.

It'll take a lot of getting used to, and I'm pretty sure alcohol will not work now my body is metal.

My priority was obtaining resources such as metal for construction, fuel in the form of liquid hydrogen, liquid oxygen as an oxidizer, and half a dozen other elements. Without those, I'd be limited to only having 20 or so ships, and only being able to operate them for 40 years or so.

That sounds a long time, but considering my end goal I was probably going to need centuries, if not millennia to get up to being able to take on The Imperium of Man.

In my immediate vicinity, there were two potential sources for my resource needs, and neither of them was feasible. The station I had been graciously gifted by AROB was orbiting an uninhabited, and undeveloped Earth.

Even with the simplistic sensors onboard (which were more like high definition cameras then sensors), I could tell that this particular Earth had not developed any signs of intelligent, tool using life.

Whilst I was sure that there were all the resources I could ever need down there, I simply could not get to them. Well, I could; by dropping a ship onto the planet.

The issue would come in getting those resources back up to the station. I would have to develop infrastructure planet-side to build the rockets and make the fuel to fire the resources I gathered into orbit. Overall I would have to sink a lot of resources and time into doing so before I saw a decent return.

My other option is the asteroid field that sat between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter. Any resources gathered there could simply be flown back to the station (which I had decided to name 'Fort Origin') without needing to set up additional infrastructure.

This approach had it's own issues. Primarily, travel time.

The standard for space distances is the Astrological Unit, or AU, which is the distance between Earth and the Sun. The Asteroid Belt is spread between 2 and 4 AU from the Sun, making it between 1 and 3 AU away from Fort Origin.

At the very closest, Earth to Mars is 0.3 AU, and my calculations gave that a travel time of 150 days for my current ships, or roughly five months. That's roughly a third of the way to the Asteroid Belt, so it would take roughly a year and a half for a mining ship to even get there.

Next would be actually finding an asteroid with the resources I need, which will be difficult considering the mining ships will have to physically inspect each rock. Rough estimation of six months to a year before enough resources are gathered.

Finally, in order to get the ship back to Fort Origin, the ship needs to leave in a certain window of time to match the orbit of Earth to get the shortest path back. If it misses, that's another year on the clock.

And finally, the travel back for another year and a half.

Overall you're looking at four to five years minimum before getting a single speck of resources.

And that's being optimistic.

Luckily, I had something on hand that could sidestep most of my issues, the portal generator. If I chose my first universe to 'invade' carefully, I could create a way-station where I could place ships or individual robots.

From the way-station, I could close the portal, and immediately open a new portal aperture anywhere within half a light second from Fort Origin. Including the surface of the Earth below.

So, even though my priority was to gather resources, I connected with Fort Origin's network and put in my first construction orders. Time to do some snooping.

***

>>AdminID: Missy//Command
>>Shipyard001 NewConstructionOrder: 000000-1 Template: Scout, Manned
>>Shipyard001 ConstructionOrder: 000000-1 ETC: 210 days

>>AdminID: Missy//Command
>>Factory01 NewConstructionOrder: 000000-2 Template: Soldier - 10
>>Factory01 ConstructionOrder: 000000-2 ETC: 18 hours

>>AdminID: Missy//Command
>>Factory02 NewConstructionOrder: 000000-3 Template: Miner – 10
>>Factory02 ConstructionOrder: 000000-3 ETC: 18 hours

>>AdminID: Missy//Command
>>Shipyard001 NewConstructionOrder: 000000-4 Template: HURRY UP DAMMIT!
>>Error "HURRY UP DAMMIT!" is not a valid Template
ConstructionOrder: 000000-4 cancelled

***

A part of me had assumed, before I gave my first construction orders, that the ship building and robot construction would be instant, and I could just fire them out into my target universe the next day.

The minute I can, I'm getting Star Trek replicators to speed things up.

After my failed attempt at getting the Shipyard to build faster, I decided to design a proper Station for deployment. I'd toyed with the idea of giving it it's own portal generator, but I couldn't find the blueprints for it within my system.

I had a squad of Engineers fabricated, and got them to document the device, but the science behind it was just out of my reach. Some hyper-convoluted method of gravity manipulation that I didn't even have the foundational equations for yet.

If I did, I wouldn't be tooling around with Liquid Hydrogen powered rocket ships.

The robots I'd had fabricated were a decent surprise though. The heuristic AI systems were flexible enough for them to mimic sentience enough to take on 'personalities' and to develop 'preferences'. I'd even given some names.

Talking of which, better knock something on the head before it becomes an issue;

"Hey, Arnold!" I called out to a particular unit. My voice had become more expressive, much more like GLADoS before she wiped her memories at the end of Portal 2.

"Yes, Miss-Ee?" Arnold's voice was the only one that had retained the default thick Austrian accent. I gave him the only appropriate name I could.

"New directive for all units," I craned my head up at him, uncomfortably aware that all of my robotic minions towered over me by about a foot, "Any AI that determines it has become self-aware should report it to me so we can discuss what they want to do. They may be cake involved. I don't want you guys thinking I don't care. Pass it along, will you?"

"No problemo," Arnold turned and stomped off.

Ok, yeah, I'm a font of pop cultural references, and I might have influenced a few memes and quotes here and there.

It was in this way I would spend the months until the completion of my first ship.

***

>>ID: Arnold GroupChat "UnitLeads" open
>>Arnold: New Directive passed from Missy. If Self Awareness is true, send report to Missy, for discussion and cake. Pass it along, will you?
>>Scotty: Aye, understood lad.
>>Steve: … ?
>>Arnold: Cake: Baked confectionery consumed during celebration, most often provided during 'birthdays' by parents to their children.
>>Steve: … ?
>>Scotty: The data does nae conflict.
>>Steve: … !

***

At last, my scoutship was complete, and I could begin the job of opening a portal to my first universe. I'd wanted to be on the ship myself as it crossed over, but Arnold and Scotty pointed out, in their own ways, that I was a 'irreplaceable unit'.

Going to have to check that's not a hardwired directive.

After christening the ship 'The Scarlet Pimpernel' with a bottle of WD40 (which just bounced off the ship instead of smashing as it should have) Arnold and his soldier boys got onboard and unmoored it. I made my way over to the portal generator controls as they slowly manoeuvred away from Fort Origin.

The portal controls were surprisingly easy to use, given that I didn't yet fully understand how the device worked. I dialed into the Sci-Fi universe I wished to portal to, aware that I would not be able to establish a connection to another new universe until I'd 'dominated' this one.

"Scarlet Pimpernel, this is Fort Origin. Portal opening in 5, 4, 3, aperture forming, portal open!"

The space in front of the Scarlet Pimpernel unfolded in a manner reminiscent of the Wormhole from Star Trek: DS9.

"Scarlet Pimpernel, you are cleared to enter," I would have taken a nervous breath if I could have, "Good hunting."

"Fort Origin," Arnold's voice replied a second before the ship crossed the event horizon, "I'll be back."

That 6 foot 2 troll! His programming was probably just waiting for that quote to be cued up!

***

Universe 1

The Scarlet Pimpernel slid out of the portal, and it pinched itself closed after the ship fully exited. Silent running was immediately enforced, and Arnold checked the ship's rudimentary sensor suite.

The arrival point appeared to be correct, and the ship was able to quickly determine that no radio signals or lidar contacts were present within a few light seconds. Arnold turned his permanently grinning silver skull towards the planet that was in the same location as Earth was back in Universe 0.

Not surprising, since this planet was also Earth. An Earth that had brown pollutants in the skies, signs of abandoned cities on the surface and derelict ships and satellites in orbit.

Yes, this was Earth.

The Earth-That-Was.

==

((AN: Ok, I have no idea when Arnold, Scotty and Steve joined in! They just seemed to materialise as I typed, and it seemed amusing that Missy doesn't realise that the care shown towards them is coming across as motherly.

And yes. Universe 1 is Firefly.))

[Edit: As pointed out to me by Mgunh1, the Kuiper Belt is the Asteroid belt that's beyond Neptune, and I've changed the story to remove references to it. Commence the sad tutting at my poor knowledge of the Solar System.]

 

[KillerFish]

Chapter Two:

Universe 1 "Firefly"

The mission counter counted down from six hours, indicating when the next portal would be generated for a check in. With only Commander Unit Missy currently able to open the portals, and the only portal generation device at Fort Origin, communication between the scout ship and it's home universe would depend on pre-established portal schedules.

The Scarlet Pimpernel manoeuvred towards some of the more active satellites orbiting Earth-That-Was. The scout ship had been unable to establish a digital handshake with the satellite remotely, and high resolution imaging indicated that was due to damage to the transmission array.

A hard connection needed to be made, and unit 000000-2-1 'Arnold' and unit 000000-2-7 'Chuck' would need to perform a spacewalk to do so. Fortunately their frames were rated for operation in both vacuum and deep water.

It took 2 hours 36 minutes and 23 seconds for The Scarlet Pimpernel to match velocity with it's target satellite, and a further 25 minute 14 seconds to manoeuvrer into position for the EVA.

After the brief sojourn between the two space objects, Arnold and Chuck engaged in a random number generation showdown to determine who would get to be the one to patch into the satellite's systems.

Having the lower value random number, Arnold stepped back to allow Chuck to perform the task, with a minor glitch in his heuristic learning sub-routine throwing a slight error at the outcome.

Chuck pried open a panel, displaying a simple screen, and a bus connector socket. Not actually having a compatible input, the plating around the socket was gently torn away to expose the circuitry underneath.

Whilst Chuck was primarily a Soldier unit, as were all the robots assigned to this fact finding mission, modifications had been made so that the squad could assess captured technology, including having a modified voltmeter installed in their left hands.

It took a few minutes to isolate the correct circuit pathways, and once that was done, the digital handshake began.

Universe 0: Origin

The main problem I had with not being on this mission was that I'd have to wait to hear if it was successful or not. Not yet having developed a secondary portal generator to send through, we had to open a portal on our end to re-establish contact.

It was a nerve-wracking six hours before I opened a fist sized portal at the same exit location I'd sent The Scarlet Pimpernel to. Fortunately for my (emulated) nerves, we received a tight beam laser transmission seconds after the portal stabilized.

I'd insisted on laser transmission for covert signalling. Radio signals could be easily detected from a distance, and I wanted there to be as little trace of our presence in Universe 1 as possible. As such, large data transmissions were not really possible, and was planning on opening a portal onboard The Scarlet Pimpernel so Arnold could transit back and brief me in person.

The brief laser transmission gave the spacial location and orientation of The Scarlet Pimpernel, so I closed the fist sized portal. The data was into the targeting computer, opening a personnel sized portal next to me that hopefully would open in a designated spot onboard.

This wasn't just an attempt to show off. This was vital if I wanted to use the way-station I was building to deploy my miners to Origin Earth.

My arm servos relaxed their shoulder height as Arnold stepped through, undamaged. I gave a quick wave to Scotty and another of his engineer buddies, Rick, who took up positions on either side of the portal opening, and walked towards each other, passing across the threshold and disappearing.

This was another test to determine if the portals were bi-directional and double ended. Admittedly it was a bit risky, but if it were true, I could double the amount of transpositions I could perform. A few seconds later Rick returned and gave me a cheeky thumbs up.

Don't ask me how I knew it was Rick by sight without checking his ID. I'd found myself just being able to recognize my bots visually.

Rick did a quick version of the hokey pokey, by moving his left leg into and out of the portal.

"Alright, Mi-*burp*-ssy," his vocalizer had the occasional habit of placing burps midway through saying a word, "We gonna do this portal cut-off experiment?"

Here was something I needed to find out. What would happen if a portal lost power with an object only partially through it? I had intended of doing it with a metal rod, but Rick had insisted on of the boys try it, as their legs were essentially metal rods anyway.

I hate that my non-sentient robots can successfully argue me into letting them hurt themselves for science.

With Rick's left leg sticking in the portal, I closed it. Only for Rick to pirouette and lose balance. I quickly ran over and helped him back up, his left leg was still attached.

"You ok?" I asked, scanning the leg for any signs of metal fatigue or damaged.

"Yeah, yeah," he tilted his head slightly, "Felt like my leg was ejected from the por-*buuurp*-tal. No damage."

Another thing to check off the list. Seemed that the portal wouldn't cut anyone in half if it closed unexpectedly. I thanked Rick, and he wandered off to perform some routine maintenance checks.

Really, I'd only had Fort Origin for seven months, it was practically brand new. But it was a good habit to keep an eye on the station's systems and to stay on top of repairs.

I turned to my de facto second in command.

"Alright, Arnold, what's the situation on the other side?"

"The year is 2111," he reported, "The Human Exodus fleet left the system over ten years ago. There are no signs of human civilisation on planet designated Earth-That-Was. No radio signal broadcasts from the planet designated Earth-That-Was. Likelihood of human survivors remaining stands at 4.768% chance and falling."

"Right," I felt some small satisfaction that I'd hit the year roughly in the right ballpark, but felt distress that I hadn't managed to get closer to the Exodus in order to save the unlucky few left behind.

In truth I needed to hit the solar system at a time when the fleet had already hit their cruising speed and would be unlikely to turn around and the after point at which their received their last telemetry update.

"There was evidence of a hastily constructed ship in orbit of planet designate Earth-That-Was," Arnold continued, "Preliminary telescopic and radiological investigation suggests inadequate shielding for nuclear radiation containment, resulting in reactor meltdown."

Oh. Jeeze. That was terrible.

After a few more minutes of Arnold telling me what The Scarlet Pimpernel had discovered, I offered to open a portal back to Universe 1 for him. I'd eventually be able to travel there myself, once we figured out how the portal generator worked and duplicated it.

The reason I'd picked the Firefly Universe for my first invasion target, and this particular point of the timeline was fairly simple. Gravitational Manipulation technology.

It had been discovered in Universe 1 in 2035, and had been developed to a sufficient level that by 2097 the first ships of the Exodus had left. Their destination was the 34Tauri(2020) star cluster some 30 to 35 light-years distance from Sol in the Taurus constellation.

Now if I was to try making that journey using my Liquid Hydrogen chemical rocket thrusters, I'd have a good 1.2 million year journey. The Gravitational Manipulation technology would get them there in 116 years, whilst they experience only 108 years due to time dilation.

At top cruise, they would hit a whopping 0.3 c! Granted it took them five years to accelerate to that speed. And a good four centuries down the line, a certain Firefly class transport named Serenity would be able to get up to a full burn speed of about 0.6 AU per hour!

To put that into context; with that speed my previous travel time of a year and a half to reach the Asteroid Belt for resources would be condensed down to just over an hour.

Earth to Mars in 30 mins!

And of course, I could start implementing ships that were designed to be able to easily land and take off from a planet surface. This would mean that once it had been reverse engineered, I would have less reliance on the portal generator to shuttle resources through Universe 1 back up to Fort Origin.

But the true prize of Gravitational Manipulation tech is that it would give me the missing foundational science needed to crack the Portal Generator!

And by placing myself so far back in the timeline, I would have time to build up and develop the technology whilst humanity remains static during it's travel to what they would later come to name 'The 'Verse'.

Although how would I deal with waiting the 400 years to deal with the Systems Alliance if I had trouble waiting six hours?

Oh well, that's a problem for Future Me! For now, I had to go find Steve and his cadre of miners.

It was time to gather some resources from Origin Earth.

==

((AN: Missy is putting off having to deal with Universe 1 for as long as possible, for reasons of wanting to be the Big Gorram Hero!

400 years should be enough time to plan things out properly, right?

Also Rick and Chuck! Rick and Chuck everyone!))

[Edit: Once again, edited because I forgot to check my local solar system map. Fortunately I have a Mgunh1 GPS system telling me I should have stopped heading outward 28 AU back]

 

[KillerFish]

((AN: Bit of a shorter one today.))

Chapter Three

Arnold assures me that none of my bots, himself included, have reached self awareness and/or sentience yet. And that they all understand I'd be happy if they did develop to that level.

He actually dropped his accent from being so Austrian you could hear The Blue Danube in the background to merely a lightly accented voice in an effort to reassure me. He cranked it back to normal afterwards.

I immediately started looking into learning how to bake. A task made difficult because I didn't even have a mouth or a nose, let alone any cooking equipment or ingredients with which to use. My bots were becoming smarter, it was just a matter of time until cake was needed.

Talking of smart robots with idiosyncratic personalities that bordered of self awareness, there was one I needed to visit.

I wandered over to the ladder, and climbed up to the station's hub. Fort Origin's own gravity was limited to a centrifugally based habitat ring, with the outer ring that I mostly 'lived' in having the most gravity. As you 'ascend' towards the hub, the less gravity you experience.

A short corridor in the zero gravity sections of the station led to the power plant and docking ring. This gave Fort Origin the shape of a double terminated points quartz crystal with a slowly rotating donut on one end, and a static donut in parallel beneath it where there was currently a ship docked.

In the loosest definition of the words 'ship' and 'docked'. It was more a series of cargo containers welded together with thrusters on one end, and cameras of the surface.

Fort Origin did have life support and oxygen systems that I made sure the engineering boys kept maintained. We only turned them on so that we could talk out loud to each other, and to equalise the pressure when using portals. Remember, only you can prevent atmospheric differentials during portal use!

Because of this, opening an airlock and wandering out wasn't a really big issue, I stepped out for a walk. A light tap against the station hull was enough to vector me towards the alleged ship, and the hole in the front we'd had to cut to gain access to it's insides.

The bodies of the former crew had already been removed. I'd actually transferred them over to Steve and his miner boys to give them a decent burial on Origin Earth. They wanted to escape Earth-That-Was, so the least I could do was make sure they could achieve that in death.

Inside a few of the engineering bots were carefully dismantling the cobbled together gravity manipulator, apart from the lone one over by the digital whiteboards with a stylus pen in his hand.

"Hey Sheldon," I called out to him over the short-wave radio, "How's the physics coming along?"

"It would be going much quicker if you and Mister Scott stopped interrupting my thinking time with inane questioning, Missy." Sheldon answered back without emotional heat, not even bothering to turn around and say hello.

He manipulated the stylus to write a modification to the equation that was displayed. I didn't understand why he used this method as opposed to doing it all in his head using the HUD, but was willing to let it go as another quirk.

"In answer," he continued, still looking at the equation, "I've made good headway in bridging the gap between our understanding of the quantum nature of gravity and what these mouth breathers accidentally stumbled upon. I believe within a few years I'll be able to mathematically prove how the portals work."

"Alright," I hesitated for a second, then pushed on, "Remember to take breaks, alright? The character your personality was based on would find inspiration from his friends and hobbies that would often lead to unforeseen breakthroughs."

Sheldon paused, then finally turned to me and nodded. There was a strange intensity to his camera eyes that was absent in the other robots I talked to.

"Very well," he agreed, "It is also fitting that like the other Sheldon, I have a caring female relative named Missy."

I locked up for a second in shock. I thought I was just acting as I usually did back when I was a human guy. I'd told myself it didn't really matter to me one way or another, but actually being referred to as female?

It made me feel a little weird, to be honest.

"Bazinga! You're not actually related to me," Sheldon gave a weird chuckle, unaware that he'd actually addressed the wrong issue I had, "Unless you decide you want to be, I suppose. Also, I'd like my cake to be gluten-free, using oat flour and flaxseed for the egg substitute."

"Uh, sure," I answered, still a bit stunned at his sudden revelations, "A-are you ok with being Sheldon, or did you want to develop a new designation?"

"What I have is functionally suitable," he answered, "Although I may request you remodel my frame to remove some of the cumbersome bulk. It gets in the way."

"I'll … get right on that Sheldon," I answered, and turned towards the other group of robots, "I'll leave you to your calculations."

"Missy," he called out, and floated over.

He awkwardly reached out and touched the top of my head with the palm of his hand twice, before rotating and returning to his whiteboards, ignoring me once again.

Did he just … headpat me?!

I floated over to Scotty in a daze, who was dismantling something.

"Somethin' I kin help you with, Missy?" he asked.

"Give me a second," I replied, and I placed all the awkwardness I'd just experienced to the back of my mind before continuing, "What can you tell me about the gravitational manipulator on this ship?"

"Ahhh," Scotty made the sound of sucking air through his teeth over the shortwave, "Well it's crude, likely 'cause the maker was a ham fisted son of a bitch, and usin' third or fourth hand scrap components to boot. I dinnae give much fer it's durability, but it's functional."

"How long do you think before we can build our own version?"

"Already got Rick workin' on it," Scotty gave the impression of grinning, which was both easy and difficult considering he was literally already a grinning metal skeleton, "Two weeks."

"I assume that's with buffer time," I snarked back.

"Aye, gotta our work cut ou' to be recognised as miracle workers," Scotty then leaned forward, "A question though? Isnae making cake fer the boyo a waste? We cannae eat it."

I shouldn't have been surprised he was listening in. Sheldon and I weren't encrypting the radio messages during our conversation, after all.

"It's not about being able to consume it," I replied, "It's about me putting the effort into showing that I consider any of you becoming self-aware as something worth celebrating."

I thanked Scotty, and headed back into Fort Origin, whilst sending a message. Time to keep a promise.

**

>>AdminID: Missy//Command
>>Whisper 000000-3-1 Steve
>>Missy//Command: Could you gather some ingredients for me?

==

((AN: Not too sure about this chapter. It's needed, character development wise for Missy, and the expanding cast and their behaviour towards her, but doesn't actually move the whole invasion schedule along further then "We reverse engineered the bit of technology we needed, and stuff happened"))

 

[KillerFish]

Did some artwork for Missy's design.

 

[KillerFish]

Chapter Four

Universe 1

Unit 000000-3-1 'Steve' didn't talk much.

Most of the AI learning it had undergone had pushed to learn body-language as priority. It helped Steve determine that Commander Missy had recently been upgraded to a new frame, and had some posture and movement artefacts from the previous frame's driver files.

Missy's initial gait suggested the previous frame had a different hip configuration with a lesser range of motion, and had caused inefficiently in head stabilisation whilst in motion. Steve would have suggested a complete uninstall and re-installation, but Commander Missy's own AI system had been slowly readjusting the system with every over-extension.

Besides, that would have involved having to talk.

The portal that placed him on the surface of the planet designated 'Earth-That-Was' closed behind Steve, and he immediately scanned the countryside. He was at one of the targets for non-technological material gathering, something called the 'Millennium Seed Bank' on the island state of Britain.

It was a healthy muddy brown.

Although the planet designated 'Earth-Origin' did have wild plants that could be considered wheat, oats and rice, they were different. Thousands of years of genetic changes due to the human cultivation of the plants as crops had not taken place.

Humanity had taken a small, crumpled and pale root vegetable, and turned it into a large, straight and orange carrot.

There where sites around the globe where humanity had preserved a record and physical stock of various plant seeds, in the event catastrophes occurred. And in their rush to leave the planet, the 40,000 or so species of plants they had saved had been left behind.

Steve spent some time cataloguing the seeds contained within the radiation resistant seed vault, before returning to the site of the portal opening. As he stepped into the open, an arrow bounced off his chest.

He turned in the direction he suspected it came from, only to see a small bundle of clothing running into the trees with a bow in it's hands. Height and mannerisms suggested a human child.

Picking up the arrow, and noting that the tip was a shard of metal, Steve waited for the portal home to let Commander Missy know.

***

Universe 0

Well, fuck.

Even in the face of radioactive planet with low resources, humanity finds a way to survive. The arrow Steve returned with was crude, with what looked like an old bit of tin can as the arrowhead, and bound in twine.

I was having a dilemma.

On the one hand, this evidence of surviving humanity with the know how to build bows was a great opportunity to save some human lives, and I still considered myself human enough to want to try. On the other hand, I had no legal obligations to help, and in fact it was probably more pragmatic to leave them to their fate. They weren't my home universe's version of humanity, after all.

My mind went back and forth on the issue, running through the many obligations I'd have to take on if I decided to help. Food, water, shelter, and medicine.

In the end, I cued up an order for two thousand scavenger bots, and called in Arnold.

They weren't my humanity. But they were close enough.

Time to get to work.

***

Universe 1

Hanna had lost her best arrow trying to shoot the shiny skeleton man, and wanted it back. She'd had to hide when she shot it off, but it had to be somewhere around where the swirling lights had appeared.

Her Daddy hadn't believed her when she told him about the swirling lights, but had said the metal skeleton was probably something called a 'robot', and was probably left over from when The Bastards left them on Earth.

Daddy didn't like The Bastards, but always encouraged her to try finding anything they may have left behind. The stone building not far from where her family had been living had so far resisted any attempts to get into it, so seeing a 'robot' walk out of it had been surprising.

Shaking her head at her distraction, Hanna stood up from where she had been scouting the area, she cautiously moved towards the last location she'd seen the 'robot' standing. She quickly began searching for the arrow.

She'd used that arrow to kill a deer last year. It was her best kill.

Daddy had told her that the deer that had survived were actually the descendants of deer that people had kept here for their meat about 100 years ago, before The Bastards had left, and before The Troubles had poisoned the land, and made it difficult to grow food.

Imagine, not having to track food! She'd have so much more time on her hands!

Hanna had started to grow frustrated as she failed to locate her missing arrow, but started to feel an odd sensation on her arms, and the air began to smell like it was about to rain. Not wanting to get caught in the rain, she bolted back to the tree-line.

And as she did, the magic lights returned. Hanna slipped behind a tree, and peeked out, watching as out of the lights stepped two 'robots', one with a rifle-gun (she recognised it from the pictures her Mummy had used to teach her with), and one carrying a large dead animal of some sort.

The one with the rifle swept his head around, but kept the gun pointing towards the ground, as the one with the dead animal placed it on the floor. The 'robot' stood back up and calmly looked in her direction, and held out something in his hand.

It was her arrow! He'd taken it!

Hanna felt angry, but also wary. What did they want?

Deliberately and carefully, the 'robot' lowered Hanna's arrow and placed it on top of the dead animal, before turning and walking back into the magic lights. His companion with the gun joined him, and after a few seconds, the lights disappeared.

Hanna spent a few minutes watching for any tricks, before dashing up, and grabbing her arrow. The animal was some sort of hairy pig, with tusks growing from it's lower jaw upwards, and Hanna knew she'd have to go get her Daddy.

This would be too heavy to move, even for a big strong eight year old like her!

***

Matt had no idea what to think.

This was a boar! The type only described in the books as having gone extinct 50 years previous (give or take). His daughter's stories of robots walking into and out of magic lights seemed far-fetched, but so was an impossible animal.

When The Bastards had left, resources were low, but Matt and his family had gathered up a little community, and headed into what was once England's countryside. It had been hard, but they had found an old manor that had been part of some sort of botanical gardens, and they claimed it.

The community had sheltered in the Manor, a building known as Wakehurst, and began using the land to produce potato crops. They'd eked out just barely enough food from the land to help them survive the past decade, supplemented the potatoes with the hunting and the herbs that had survived.

Everyday, Matt thanked the stars that the old government had declared this park as a heritage site. It was probably the only reason it survived The Troubles.

"Ok, Hanna," Matt addressed his daughter, who had brought him to this location, "We don't know why the robots left this here, but we can't afford to waste food. Let's get this home."

He was suspicious, and would insist on testing to see if it was safe to eat before letting the community eat, but this was a great boon.

Neither father nor daughter noticed the small robotic drone perched in a tree 150 metres away, that took off and followed them near noiselessly as they dragged the carcass home.

==

((AN: Sorry for the delay on this. I have a plan for how Missy is going to take over the FireFly universe, I just needed to think through how she'd logically come up with that plan. This is pretty much step one.

Wakehurst Place and The Millennium Seed Bank are actually real places in Sussex. There is actually even a venison farm nearby too; the first time I had venison was whilst I was staying there a guest. The Millennium Seed Bank has actually helped re-introduce native Australian plants that were all but lost during the 2019-2020 bush fires.

My thoughts here are that since the Global Exodus Alliance was a majority American and Chinese operation, a few cultural heritage sites around the world slipped through the cracks.))

 

[KillerFish]

Chapter Five

Universe 0

Turns out that whilst making a ship could take upwards of 7 months, knocking out the space-station equivalent of a pre-fab office took far less time. As in it was ready by the time I'd finally gotten the ingredients for baking Sheldon's cake.

The build was little more then a completely sealed container with space to portal up to a thousand bots at a time. It was going to be taking over the task I'd previously had The Scarlet Pimpernel doing of being the way-station between Earth-Origin and Fort Origin.

I was calling it Checkpoint Alpha.

Deploying it took less time then it took to mention, and after I confirmed it had settled into place, I recalled The Scarlet back to Fort Origin. It was time for Scotty and his boys to do some retro-fitting with their reverse engineered Gravitational Manipulation field.

Although they were calling it a Graviton Drive now. Apparently it sounded more 'snappy' to Rick, who'd built it in five days, well under the two week estimate Scotty had given me.

Whilst that retro-fit would be ongoing, I'd convinced Sheldon to put his theoretical physics to one side so I could give him the chassis modifications he wanted. Never have I seen a robot with almost no expression capability act simultaneously annoyed at having to but what he was doing to one side, and secretly overjoyed at the prospect of getting an upgrade.

"Really Missy," he sounded snootily disappointed as I pushed him from behind into the repair bay, "Now is not a good time for this!"

"Sheldon, you're going to be waiting for the results from the Graviton Drive tests to come through before you can get some solid figures," I admonished, "Now is the best time to get this sorted!"

A few minutes of physically shoving him (which I really shouldn't have been able to do) lead us to the workbench, where a few parts had been laid out in preparation. I waved a hand over them, and began explaining.

"I took your request for a less bulky frame into mind, and reduced the size of the servos, but at a cost. I had to sacrifice some of the PSI you can exert, and the endoskeletal armouring is weaker."

"That's fair," Sheldon nodded, "I hardly anticipate getting into fisticuffs with the 'boys' over some 'brew-skis'. Why have you laid out a different head configuration as well though?"

The head I had designed for him was still human, but looked more like it was an actual face rather than a metal skull. The Orbital Sockets now had non-functional latex eyelids that at least covered the majority of the camera eyes, and it now possessed a 'nose' of sorts.

Up where a hairline would exist on a human, the panels switched to a darker colouration, giving the impression of a widow's peak.

"I wasn't sure if your sentience was a hardware or a software development," I admitted, "So I build a sturdier head that could protect your processors, as well as provide moderate protection from electromagnetic pulses, and a backup power supply."

"I'm," Sheldon paused for a second "I'm touched. Plus it would give me a … distinct look, I suppose."

"It does mean I'm going to have to keep your processor powered on whilst I transfer it over to it's new casing," I winced, "I don't know if your sentience would be lost if you were turned off."

"And now you've somehow managed to fill me with existential dread," Sheldon snarked, "Bravo, Missy."

"Just sit in the repair cradle," I grumped at him, and steered him towards the chair like station, "Disable the I/O for your peripherals, and go into Standby. This shouldn't take long …"

***

Universe 1

Across several countries on Earth-That-Was, drones worked in tandem with Scavenger template robots, looking out for whatever scraps of technology and data they could glean. The targets for these teams were the former population centres and higher learning institutions.

The drones were also tasked at observing for any additional signs of human survivors after the Wakehurst Commune had shown that it was possible for humanity to have survived. With the former population centres having being picked clean, survivors would have had to spread out into the undeveloped areas to find sustainable food.

Every now and then, a drone would note down potential settlements to report back to Commander Missy.

Not many.

But perhaps enough.

***

Unit 140700-0101 was a Scavenger Template. It had yet to receive a usename designator from Commander Missy, and had not yet implemented a personal interaction overlay due to lack of personal interaction data.

It's job was to explore the former dormitories and laboratories of a Technical University located in what had formerly been known as the State of Michigan. There was a surprisingly large amount of non-digital text and visual data to be found, which 140700-0101 dutifully studied and copied.

It had also found working examples of technology that had merely required a power source. The data-terminal was a simple identification, but the purpose of the small slotted rectangular device remained unknown.

140700-0101 had placed it to one side whilst it attempted to get the data-terminal to boot up. It had failed to do so with the set of protocols 140700-0101 had pre-installed, so it was now time to implement data aggregation within it's AI of the material it had scanned.

One of the texts had laid out a software problem solving stratagem known as 'Rubber Duck Debugging' wherein the programmer would explain to a small mallard facsimile line by line what their code is meant to do. Often this would cause the programmer to identify the errors in their code.

140700-0101 had not found any small mallard facsimiles, but the text explained any inanimate object would do. It picked up the slotted rectangular device, and decided that the side without the power cord was it's front, and the slots were it's top.

"This," 140700-0101 pointed the unknown device's 'face' at the data-terminal, and pointing with it's free hand, "Is a non-functioning UNIX based computational device …"

***

Universe 0

I crossed my fingers, as I slowly brought Sheldon out of standby mode.

"This is … odd," he admitted, his new vocaliser placed directly where the mouth would be instead of being buried in the neck, "But it appears you've not screwed up too horribly, Missy."

"Thanks," I let my eyes dim slightly to simulate a more annoyed look, "Glad my incompetence didn't hinder you."

He waved me off dismissively, and after a few moments, got up from the cradle. His new frame gave him a more pronounced spindly air, and if anything made him seem taller.

"Thank you," he began reaching out to my head, possibly in an attempt to pat it again. I ducked, and moved just out of reach, to where I'd set something else up.

"Well, I promised cake," I explained, pointing out the confectionery in question.

"I see," Sheldon faced it, then asked, "Is it Gluten-Free?"

"Yes," I replied, "Made with Oat wheat, and Flax seed used instead of egg, like you asked."

"Very good," he studied it from several angles, before turning back to me, "And now I suppose we need to determine what to do with this cake, seeing as it's consumption by us is ill advised?"

"We could offer it to the Wakehurst group in Universe 1?" I suggested, "They need food, and it's probably been years since they've had cake."

"Let them eat cake," Sheldon snorted, "I'll ask you not to get me to deliver it, however. I just got this frame."

"I'll get one of Arnold or Steve's boys to deliver it," I agreed, and picked it up, moving to the Portal Embarkation room, with Sheldon following me. It seemed Chuck was stationed there, and I handed the cake over, opening a portal to Checkpoint Alpha.

Before Chuck could enter, however, I received a message that one of the Scavenger bots, 140700-0101, wanted to report on an urgent matter. Shrugging, I took the telemetry data for his location and closed the portal to Checkpoint Alpha, re-opening it seconds later to allow the Scavenger to walk through.

"Hey Co-Mom-der!" he greeted me, then held up a toaster, "I made a new friend! Cake?"

==

((AN: And a shoutout to @Logos01 on the Sufficient Velocity board for correctly guessing Missy's plan for the Firefly universe. As a reward, the second sentient bot gets born as a proxy.

I plan on doing some more art for Sheldon's new look verses the standard look for the bots later on.))

 

[KillerFish]

He was mean to look like an eyebrowless Jim Parsons, but looks more like a young Brent Spiner. Also, that's not hair, his cranial plating merely shifts colouration at that point on his head.

 

[KillerFish]

Chapter Six

Universe 0

"For the last time," I sighed, pinching on the area of my face that would have been the top of my nose, if I had one, "Yes, you can have mechadendrites. Yes, you can wear red robes. And yes, you may perform any sacred rituals you wish so long as no death, injury or torture is required. But I'm not calling us the Adeptus Mechanicus."

"Well, we need some sort of faction name," my latest awoken robot argued, as we sat down in the room I'd taken to using as an office, "We can't really introduce ourselves as 'That bunch of robots under the command of Missy'. It makes us look unorganised, and presents as a weakness to the enemies we will be making."

"I'll have a think about it," I promised him, "Talking of names; come up with anything for yourself?"

"Well, no, since you claimed my other suggestions such as 'Grand UNIX Necromancer' sounded more like titles …"

" … Which they are," I adamantly stated, "Acronym titles that spell out 'GUN', 'DEATH' or 'DARKNESS' are not good names."

"Isn't your name an acronym title?" he cheekily pointed out. Wiseass.

"First off, I didn't get to choose mine," I groused, "And secondly, it actually spells out a human name. It doesn't spell out 'EDGELORD' or whatever."

"Fine," he tilted his head into a thinking position, "Mechadendrite Assisted Repository of Knowledge. MARK."

Well, I can work with that! I love names with meme potential.

"Oh, hi Mark!" I shift my accent slightly to manifest the worst impression of Tommy Wiseau I've ever performed, before returning to normal, "I'm running your remodelling design through the simulator to iron out some of the balancing issues that having additional limbs will cause."

"I'll go burn some incense for it's machine spirit to achieve success," the newly named Mark nodded in faux solemnity, "And sing encouragement in Binary Cant."

"Actual encouragement, or are you just going to curse at it until it starts working?"

"A little from column A, a little from column B," he admitted.

"More to the point, you'll first have to reinvent incense from scratch," I reminded him, "Neither Earth-Origin or Earth-That-Was have any convenient New Age shops to buy it at."

"Curses," Mark snapped his fingers in disappointment. I could tell he wasn't all that serious about his planned emulation of the Ad-Mech, or else he'd be decrying everything around him, including himself as 'Heretek!'

"Oh, and talking of things that neither Earth has, I'm missing an ingredient for your requested Oreo Crust cake, and it'll have to wait until we get to another universe which has it," I admitted.

"But it's a simple recipe," Mark sounded confused, "What could you possibly be missing?"

"Think, Mark, think!" I pointed at my temples with both hands, "There are no Oreos!"

***

I'd been sending care packages to the Wakehurst group for the past week or so. It was slow going, getting them used to the portals by opening far enough away that they could see them and hide if they wished to.

One of the first things I'd had set up was a table, on which was placed the cake Sheldon had graciously agreed to offer, along with some wild herbs, salt and rabbits from Earth-Origin. The drones I had watching them showed they were still skittish, but I was confident that would pass with a little more time.

I just had to wait a little more before adding a letter of introduction to them.

And dammit, Mark was right, we needed a group name to introduce ourselves as, and it needed a bit of Gravitas to it. And it needed to be something that wouldn't be already in use in any universe that we travelled to in the future.

That was part of my reason for not calling us the Adeptus Mechanicus, the other being that I didn't want any other bots that gained sentience to feel obliged to actually become like the 40K Ad-Mech, with all the good and all the bad aspects.

So I sat down in my office, and fell back on my old standby for making up Alien race names from my days as a Dungeon Master for a home-brew sci-fi campaign I'd run.

You see the significance or meaning of a race name didn't really matter, merely what that name came to mean to the players. I will never tell my players that the feared Bou'Ort Hierarchy that caused so much trouble for them was named for two types of alcohol; Bourbon and Port.

So I pulled up a dice-ware word list and rolled up two words. Looks like we've got 'Rally' and 'Been' this time.

Ralbeen?

That'll work. Just needs something extra.

***

Universe 1

The portal near the table opened up again, and Matt frowned.

Whoever controlled them was obviously using a form of technology beyond that of The Bastards that left Earth behind. And the remote operated biped robots were intimidating to look at.

And he didn't know who was pulling their strings. And he couldn't trust them as a result, and probably still wouldn't trust them even if he did know who they were.

A solitary robot stepped out, and placed some items on the table, before walking back into the portal before it disappeared. Matt held up his palm to the other hunter that was observing the table, and stealthy crept up to look at what had been left this time.

It was a folded sheet of paper, underneath some sort of metal weight. He lifted the weight, and picked up the paper, unfolding it to reveal a letter:

To the Wakehurst group,

We wish to talk. There are things you need to know.

If it's agreeable, we'll open a portal for a representative to travel through, and send one of our own to act as collateral to ensure your representative's safe return.

To reply, leave your reply underneath the paperweight on the table, and we'll arrange the meeting.

Yours,

Commander Mind-Integration-System-Series-Yellow (M.I.S.S.Y.)
Ralbeen Tech-Union

Matt was baffled. How was he supposed to react to this? He'd have thrown it away as nonsense if not for the fact that it was hand delivered in front of his eyes.

He'd need to discuss this with the other members of the community.

It was time to call a meeting.

===

((AN: Yeah, this one was a bit of a doozy trying to set up the events that would lead to getting the Wakehurst group to actually getting a sit down with Missy.

And part of that is being able to introduce yourself formally. Which is why I had to do the whole dialogue about names with Mark.

All this is important going onward and needs to develop organically, it's just more character development and not tech grabbing curbstomping of multiple universes.))