It was morning, Ava and Sylvie made their way to HQ. A huge monolith of a building surrounded by scanner gates that fried anyone who wasn't authorised. Truly a fearsome building. While the rest of the district was quite bright and cheerful, there was always an aura of dread around it. It was during work hours, so Sylvie and Ava were both forced to wear their standard body frame. Naked, basically.
"We're both heading to the briefing room today. Just us two. It must be pretty important if its only us." Said Sylvie. She tried to act a little more professional now that it was work hours, but that spritely personality of hers was still struggling to get stifled,
"You finished your report, right?" Ava replied,
"I compiled it last night when I was charging. It took all night..."
"Well I'd imagine it would, that's pretty irresponsible, doing it when your body is charging. Your mind needs charging too you know."
"Don't be so stuffy. How long were you digging around on the network for? You think I couldn't tell? I heard you gasp and shake for ages." She frowned, "God knows what you were looking at."
"Wait... what're you trying to imply?"
"I'm just saying it's better to sync with friends, that's all."
"Hey now listen!"
"Man, you're easy to tease."
"Not it's a good idea to tease your only friend Sylvie," Ava smiled,
"Whu-what? You're not my only friend Ava!"
"You're easy to tease too." he chuckled.
The two stopped their banter when they saw the Major at the main doorway of the building. It was odd for her to greet people in person.
"Hello, both." She said in a surprisingly casual manner, "come with me." She turned around and walked into the building, "I trust you had a good evening last night?"
"Yes ma'am! We synced for hours ma'am!" Sylvie replied, Ava immediately stiffened. Block-3s man...
"Very good operator. Looks like you're good at something at least."
"Thank you ma'am."
"Don't look so red Ava. Synchronising is essential for jobs where you're carrying someone's AI-copy on you. I thought doing it naturally would be better than forcing you two."
"...You asked Sylvie to sync with me?" Ava replied.
"No, it's something built-in to operator units. They're built specifically to sync easily with people. Like I said, it makes the job easier. You probably didn't learn about it in your training but synchronisation, while not standard military procedure, is considered essential for bonding and developing empathetic connections. It means transferring copy-AIs is more comfortable and missions in general move more smoothly because both minds are more compatible. I used to be an operator myself so I knew Sylvie would be forward about it.
"Usually we build in a high-sync drive into field-units like you too but... well, you're a special case of course. Your architecture obviously looks at syncing differently from us."
"Oh... right."
"Speaking of which we can sync after this meeting for a few hours." The Major said casually, "if you wish."
"Ahem..." Sylvie added,
"No Sylvie. Still no."
Sylvie looked crestfallen.
"I'll be taking your AI-copy with me again too Major?" Ava ignored Sylvie's behaviour,
"No, but you know, I'm an ex-operator. Some habits die hard." She remained stern with her voice, "you don't have to. It was an offer."
"Lucky bastard." Sylvie whispered to Ava. Ava didn't reply to either of the women but he'd already decided they were both too intense for him to handle.
The three entered a small room with four seats and a TV screen, only one terminal available, one that wasn't connected to any network. This wasn't the briefing room.
"This room was made just for us. And Go-bot, he's in that terminal right now." Said the Major, "what I'm about to tell you it too classified for any other place in this building. No-this planet. I'm not over-stating this. We're the only four who can even enter this room."
"Whoa." Sylvie added unnecessarily, whoa indeed.
"Ava already knows the basics of what I'm going to mention here, seeing as he hacked into our boardroom meeting from yesterday afternoon." The Major smirked at Ava in a gotcha! Kind of way.
Ava didn't talk for a while, after a few seconds he broke the silence and sighed "I had a feeling you knew." He crossed him arms "No... you didn't just know, you let me, right? You knew I'd try to plant my AI-copy which is why you didn't scrub Go-bot."
"Very good. You really are a smart one Ava."
"Why? Especially considering you're telling me this stuff already."
"What stuff?" Sylvie asked. But she was ignored,
"Your reaction," the Major replied, "I needed to see what it'd be. I can't let you go on this mission if you get too emotionally invested. If you're unstable, unable to handle such a truth, you won't be appropriate. Block-1 and Block-2 Servs aren't as predictable as Block-3s." she frowned, "The committee really expect you to be able to find the specimen and not ask questions. To just bring it back. But I have a feeling you're not like that. Are you? Questions are part of your make up."
"You're right. But... I haven't had a chance to go through the classified files."
"Fine. Let's start from the top."
And so, the Major started with the basics, for Sylvie's sake. Then she got into the nitty gritty, ignoring Sylvie's mouth that was agape.
"I understand that it's hard to believe, but we've had evidence of this race for quite a while now. Never as much as the Evos though." The Major continued,
"These things looked like us, but they were carbon-based!? So... like, they were like rabbits and squirrels, but tall and on two legs?" asked Sylvie,
"Not quite, here's a mock-up." The Major showed a picture, a standard human male, "Our designs were largely based on this base format. Specifically, from the race variant in the oriental side of Earth."
"Why specifically there?"
"Most robots based on servitude, such as butlers and courtesans, were designed in Japan, they were vanity models created in mankind's image, not really created for practical reasons. From what we know, a lot of our models were made on Mars as an incentive for people to emigrate there. That's what a lot of their texts say."
"So, the Evo robots, where are they from?" asked Ava,
"Generally, all over, that's why there's more of them, and why there are a lot of factories on all the moons and planets on the outer system. They were created largely for construction, and sometimes as war machines. This explains their heightened numbers and lack of autonomy."
"Man..." Ava crossed his arms, "it does make sense. But it sounds so farfetched at the same time. I mean, what even happened to these beings?"
"That one's easy. Already corroborated by hard evidence. Trauma caused by a barrage of nuclear bombs destroyed Earth's atmosphere and wiped the planet of all life. Apparently we tried our best to keep our human owners alive on the colonies but there weren't enough resources to keep them alive." Her face was emotionless, "That was eight thousand years ago. They've been gone for eight thousand years."
"Wow..." Sylvie was gobsmacked,
"And here's why they're dangerous. They all had full autonomy. Individually."
"Full autonomy? What does that mean?" asked Ava
"The ability to make their own decisions. Not locked to any system. The block system as we know it didn't exist among humans."
"What!?" Ava slammed his hands on the table, "that's nonsense!"
"Can you calm down please Ava?"
"But... that'd essentially make then gods. Wouldn't it?" he couldn't get it round his head, "I mean, that'd mean every single one of them would be Block-0, which is literally impossible. There's only one recorded Block-0 in the universe and that's the Evo-robot's mother brain. That's a goddamn super being the size of a moon!"
"You really mean every single human had that sort of power?" asked Sylvie. She was gasping, it was hard for her to get her head around. A race of... essentially deities. Gone extinct.
"In the thousands of years we've been alive we've only really advanced in a few ways. All Servs are still based on butler, maid and prostitute models," she looked at Sylvie,
"Hey..." Sylvie muttered,
"We have a design variation of several thousand usually relying on vanity items to set us apart. Sounds like a lot of designs, right?"
"Yeah..."
"Being carbon-based, they underwent genetic variation every generation. Meaning almost every single being looked unique."
"Incredible."
"But honestly, what's really impressive is their intelligence." The Major crossed her arms, "When you think about it, we Servs are pretty unintelligent. Humans were around for a far shorter time than we have, yet they started as nothing but beasts, and developed into sophisticated beings, to start from nothing and then so quickly can leave their planet and colonise others... When you look at it from the context presented, it really is incredible what they achieved."
"This is all very confusing," Ava held his temples, he'd never heard about anything like this before, or comprehended something like this. The Major had known the basics for a while, so she wasn't having as much trouble spouting all of it out. He looked at Sylvie, he could tell she was just as dumbfounded as him.
"Ava, I don't need to tell you how dangerous a being with Block-0 autonomy is. We've barely changed from our original Serv ancestors, that means we're still programmed to be... slaves to humans. Block-0 autonomy is too powerful, we'll turn into mindless drones like Evos. Chances are the mother brain developed a human to control us, and win the war.
"Your mission is simple. Go to Europa and find the human... if it's not finished, capture it."
"Playing with fire." Said Ava,
"Valuable data. Evos don't follow the same servitude rules as we do. But with a live human we can create a virus that simulates those rules. But that's only if it's unfinished. If it's finished then you'll have to kill it."
"...What if it uses its powers on me?"
"You'll be using Go-bot as a proxy, masking yourself with their virtual OS will help too. It shouldn't affect you that way."
"Oh. Right." Ava paused for a moment, "Wait... not just Go-bot right? I'm going too right?"
"No, you're staying here. You left the Go-bot on Europa active, didn't you? You'll be hacking into him from Mars. A copy-AI of Sylvie will be joining you."
"What!? That thing barely has any legs!!!"
"Deal with it Ava. We can't waste time sending you there physically. That thing needs to be taken out as soon as possible."
She had a point. It'd be tedious, but he'd probably have to end up using Go-bot eventually anyway, he had no choice.
"Your mission briefing will be supplied to you tomorrow morning. We still have a few things to iron out in the plan, and then we'll send you out tomorrow afternoon." She looked at her watch, "for the rest of the day I want you guys to go through your simulations. We have rooms for syncing if you feel you need to as well. My diary is open from midday to three in the afternoon if you wish to sync Ava."
"Yes Major." Ava said with a zeal in his voice, Sylvie said the same thing, but with a hint of disappointment.