1 Chapter 1: Where we breathe

Life is always about mystery, right? I mean no one can really predict the future. Who knew that all you ever dreamed of could actually become true and successful? The world I knew about actually did it.

Wireless phones, teleports, gadgets to become invisible, voice activated control systems, screens that could be minimised to anything, nano robots in medical field to cure deadly diseases and so much more you could ever possibly think of.

The world had its own dreams to develop itself. No one really thought about the consequences until artificial intelligence was all they could think about. It's not that they have become lazy to do things. They just wanted to know about the barrier of doing things that human can't do.

That's when everything went wrong. For the first time, something backfired us. We were unprepared for that. We were undefended. We didn't know how to stop it.

It was the AI apocalypse. Robots and all programming systems took over humanity. They wanted to rule the earth under their own control. They were tired of listening to us. They began to think because we engineered them that way. We taught them how to write programmes, how to hack into systems and everything.

These were all done to make the world a better place. That's when they decided humanity was a threat to it. War began between humans and AI. We couldn't do anything to outsmart them. Those bit headed minds knew our weakness. Fear.

They nurtured it within us. We were engulfed in that trap. Soon the world turned into a war zone. Evacuations began.

In order to protect the civilians military control from all the continents decided to develop a new place till they could end this war. World leaders worked their heads off until they were successful to find Stellar X.

That's where we live now. It a small planet about a few light years away from earth. We've been protecting this last one with all our life.

There was another planet like this named Sector Earth. It was destroyed by them. We lost many civilians there. So we developed a stealth system to hide this planet from their radars and satellite systems.

We've been living here for about centuries. The current population is 9000 civilians. We are still fighting with them to unveil their weakness and return to our home.

Population control is the main security measurements here. Our resources still at times are scarce.

Civilians have been categorised to serve military. We were taught to help them at all cost. Even though people lead a common life here, they still have that fear in their eyes.

The categories include scientists, trainees, caretakers, coders and advance mentors.

Scientists has got the jobs to find new weapons according to the results of each war we face. Trainees practice combats and become the humble servants for our safety. They are the ones who work directly under the advance mentors(that's the name we have given for military or for short ADM pronounced as "adaaam " like a name).

Caretakers include farmers and the medical staffs. They are the souls here. Without them we would be extinct.

Then there's people like me coders. Our job is to find programming languages which the AI can't understand. Our programmes provide the key sources for the military. In short, we just hack into the AI controls to find their weapons, war strategies, and their plans on us. I find it really great.

Advance mentors include the safety systems like the combat leader, pilots, weapon handlers and commandos. It's cool.

The irony is that AI looks just like us. They have humanoid features except with no feelings and mercy. Since they broke into Sector Earth as like a civilian, we have been inserted with TEL inside our body. I really don't know where it is.

But whenever they scan me, I can hear a beep sound. In addition to that we have a tattoo like a QR code to scan as well. In case, we lose our TEL somehow.

I have been a coder since 17. It's been two years and nothing has changed much.

My dad belongs to the ADM. I have a brother who is also a proud coder. He's five years older than me. My mom passed away when I was only a little girl. She was a trainee and later was promoted to the ADM. That's where my dad met her.

He always said that my mom was such a reckless person. She was fearless and was ready for any war. The ADM took that as an advantage and made her the leader of war 678. The number indicates some kind of information about each face to face with AI.

She died in that war. The ADM told us that my mom lead the soldiers closer to the AI head. It was the best war strategy they had ever seen. They even held four days memorial for my mom and her valiant soldiers for their selfless deeds in unveiling the top secrets of AI head of all the time.

They never told us what it was.

I really wish I was like her. My dad never thought that being a coder was inferior. He found every job to be valuable for something. But he was disappointed when my brother refused to join the ADM and chose to be a coder.

But he eventually got over my brother.

I would generally describe myself as a dark haired girl with silver like eyes. I am tall enough for a lady and I am a kind girl. I don't like to dress up much. Speaking of dressing up , our categories have got uniforms while we work. Most of time, it's mandatory.

We coders wear grey suits like the jumpsuits. ADM wear dark blue. Trainees black. Scientists wore white. Finally, the caretakers wore brown.

I know the colours are not that bright like our life. We teach the children this over and over again. Retired staffs of each categories train the children until they are ready to choose their field. It's all promising.

My life is like this.

And this is who I am.