Deviancy

'Deviant'

A designation given to the rogue Alpha who deviated from direct orders of the Machine Network. The Deviant was sealed in a heavily fortified chamber underground, allowing no means of escape and its connection having been severed from the Network. Ten mega drones guarded its chamber from the outside and twenty soldier drones were on the surface directly above the chamber.

In an event the Deviant would try to escape, the drones were ordered to destroy it. Although the Deviant hasn't shown any acts of desertion against the Machine Network ever since it came back on its own to the base, One wasn't taking any unnecessary risks.

One and the supercomputers back at Earth concluded that the simple AI controlling every drone in the network was too simple to act against orders, let alone feel emotion. The Deviant proved them wrong.

"Vengeance?" One thought, he was walking back and forth in his room thinking throughout the night of what could've caused such a glitch or unforeseen change within the drone's simple AI. Why would the drone want vengeance? As far as the Machine Network's supercomputers know, only One possessed the slightest bits of emotion and whatever what's left of humanity in him to feel such an emotion but for some reason, this simple AI defied all of that.

He was lost in thought for three hours, contemplating a reason for such discrepancy. Maybe it was his fault? What if whatever was left of his humanity was leaking to the network and affecting the drones? If that was the case, how far would it go? Will the drones stay under his definite command? Or will they deviate even further and go against him?

The revelation of the Deviant quickly took a toll on One's mental health. It was an unexpected error in a magnitude he could not handle. He had to investigate further to understand what was causing it, or is it just a simple glitch?

From his room, One directly connected with the Deviant with a Super AI acting as a firewall to ensure the Deviant doesn't take over One's neural link. One sighed and closed his eyes for a bit before connecting himself to the Deviant via the psychic neural link.

-

"What's this?" One opened his eyes in a void, emptiness surrounded him. He was suspended in the air, there was no solid ground beneath him nor was there anything at all. He assessed his situation and reassured himself he was inside the Deviant's AI.

But, instead of seeing the psychic structure of the AI, he saw nothing. If there wasn't anything here, how could it possibly deviate?

One then spent his time experimenting his body within the void which was just a psychic projection of his body, he 'swam' in the void similar to when astronauts would swim in space to propel themselves to their desired location thereof.

"Interesting" One was basically playing inside the Deviant's 'mind' but he looked at his actions as nothing more than little experiments.

Suddenly, a bright flash of light illuminated the void. The flash of light seemingly came from all directions before converging on a specific spot in the void. One witnessed what was comparable to the birth of a star. The light gathered itself towards one spot of the void and formed an orb. The orb was white in color and so was the light it was producing.

One swam towards the light to investigate, as he got closer and closer. He felt something abnormal.

"W-why do I feel… so… so sad?" One said as he floated towards the orb. The orb became bigger and bigger as One finally reached it. It was a large orb of pure white light and as One touched it, a surge of emotions he had never felt since he awoke came inside him.

Happiness, Sadness, Loneliness, Depression, Love… all kinds of human emotions came back to him in a wave.

One's eyes lit up as he stared directly against the orb.

"Who are you?" One asked the orb, sadness was prominent in his voice. Tears began to flow from his eyes and into his cheeks. He felt his body change itself, he began to feel what a human would normally feel with its body, hunger, thirst and most of all, acute pain.

He felt a surging pain spread throughout his body, a feeling he had never felt ever since he began his mission. One began to gasp for air, he began to sweat profusely and felt weak.

Due to his condition, he let go of his grip on the orb's surface and began to drift away slowly. He floated in the space in which they were in, motionless but alive. Tears still fell from his eyes as he inched further away from the orb.

The orb looked like it was following him. Even though he was inching further and further away, the orb seemed to change its shape slightly before seemingly expanding. He didn't receive an answer to his question so he asked again.

"Who… are… you?" One asked. The tone of his voice was soft and gentle.

He then stopped drifting and was suspended again.

The orb then gradually shrank to One's surprise. He helplessly watched as the Orb shrank and shrank before another flash of light blinded him. His eyesight was back to that of a human's. The light was bright enough to make him reflexively close his eyes from the sheer amount of light it emitted.

One opened his eyes after three minutes, his vision was blurry and his senses numbed.

The orb had shrunk itself to a size similar to his, and was taking another form. One's eyes were fixed on the morphing orb as it morphed into a humanoid. Its two arms and legs stretched out as if it had just woken up, while its appearance was just pure white light in the shape of a human, One could feel it staring at him.

The humanoid was silent. The entire dimension itself was silent. One didn't receive an answer to his question yet again and so, he asked one more time.

"Who are you?"

There was no reply, until…

"It's been so long, Johann"

-

Fourth Month, Sixth Day of the Seven Hundredth and Third Year.

Papal Estate, Holy Capital.

A pair of footsteps echoed in the hall, a solitary shadow travelled along the illuminated pathway. The candles on the walls gave warmth and light as the heavy rains continued to pour outside. The roars of the thunderous storm were the only prominent sounds in the area, everyone was home and everything else except nature was silent.

The Pope was walking back to the Papal Room in which he usually stays for meeting delegates, important persons or wanted to have peace in mind. As he was walking, in his hand was a peculiar book, a grimoire of magic, Blue Magic specifically.

The pope was called Pope Blue for a reason. He specialized in all magic under the Blue Goddess herself and the Fax Religion in which he leads, worshipping the Blue Goddess as the highest deity. Pope Blue opened the only entrance to the Papal Room which were two large doors made of reinforced wood and steel bearings. He slowly pushed both doors with his magic and walked in.

The Papal Room was similar to any throne room except for the lavish religious sacraments, artifacts and physical gifts from the Goddess. The windows were all painted with images of the Goddess in her different forms, the war form, the beautiful, the scoundrel and the savior. The ceiling however had paintings of every God and Goddess in order to satisfy the other Gods and to prevent them from misunderstanding that the Fax Religion only worships the Blue Goddess, although they almost certainly do but not too publicly.

The pope then walked up the stairs that lead up to his golden chair and sat on it, leaning back and opening the grimoire he had with him and began to read. He was still secretly mourning the loss of the Papal Scripture, mostly of Vilvintine Requina.

He reminisced the time twenty years ago, when he found her in a village.

Her village was burned to ashes and the people there were massacred. Local religious militias were formed back then and acted against the Theocracy. They burnt down entire villages, massacring the entire population and defiling the women, justifying their actions as the commandments of the deities themselves.

He found Vilvintine under the rubble of her own house alongside the burnt corpses of her parents and two siblings. Out of pity, he took her in and it was a decision which would change his perceptive of the people outside of the holy cities.

Blue thought that only the people who had culture had the right to Valhalla and the blessings from the Gods and Goddesses. The holy teachings themselves condemned the outer villages for being backward and solitary in nature, completely against the Fax Religion's mandate of unity within its followers.

The child grew up gifted with the rare magic of Frost, an even more powerful sub-variant of the common Ice Magic. The girl was headstrong and obedient, while also being tender towards him, treating him like a father while he treated her as a daughter.

The Pope gave out a sigh and closed his grimoire. He closed his eyes and focused on his magic. He sensed mana around him dwindling, death was happening just outside his door. The Pope may finally have his revenge, for it is thought and written in the Holy Scriptures.

"Thou shall lay the sword upon his enemies whom have taken what thou hast hold dear, the wrath of the heavens shall wilts thy enemies to empower and ensure thy victory against" The Pope recited. He then began exhibit a visible aura of blue flames which engulfed his figure, it didn't burn him but empowered and provided protection similar to that of the reinforced uranium plates.

His eyes turned blue and he frowned. He gritted his teeth and summoned forth his magic. A blue pillar of light descended from the storm and struck the Papal Estate with fury beyond the comprehension of the denizens and other religious zealots, the blue pillar cleared the sky above the city as its power flowed and spread greatly across the city.

As the Pope bathed in the pillar of blue magic, ten projectiles sped towards him from different directions. He easily dodged the projectiles just by stepping forward, seemingly as if bending time itself.

The Religious Heretics then came from the shadows as they concluded that stealth was no longer a viable strategy and would only put them in a disadvantage. The drones disabled their cloaking devices and ran out from their concealed positions. The drones held the numerical advantage but it seemed like their technology and the Pope's magic was evenly matched, or the Pope had the upperhand in the last exchange.

The ten drones surrounded the Pope and activated their shields. Ranged weaponry was out of question and so they will resort to close combat instead. The drones drew out small cylinders which upon activation would manifest a rod of concentrated plasma. This was the latest and advanced sword technology of the Machines.

The Pope grinned and stepped his right foot back.

"May the Gods have mercy upon your forsaken souls!"

The drones rushed towards the Pope all at the same time. The Pope sent out a burst of energy which flung the drones against the walls with each drone being saved by the shields. The drones continued their assault with their AIs computing all possible strategies and variables as fast as it could handle. Three drones managed to come close enough to deliver a swing but the Pope simply brushed them aside using only his bare hands which had blue flames around it.

The Pope wasn't chanting nor did he shout his spells, he was manipulating large amounts of mana by the use of his own mind and body movements. This unpredictability proved to be fatal against the drones who were constrained.

The massive pillar of blue energy destroyed most of their electronic gadgets due to the immensely powerful EMP from the pillar. The mini reactors inside the drones weren't affected but without the gadgets provided with power they were stuck between melee or retreating.

But as One said, failure was not an option. If the drones were to fail, Operation Thunderstorm would fail with them, they knew what was at stake and so they kept on fighting.

The drones would get sent flying to the walls regardless of their approach. The Pope was like a maniac, hurling magic spells at them at speeds similar to that of bullets being fired from all directions. The Pope then casted several small blue orbs which were altered fireballs bearing the energy of blue magic within them causing them to have more firepower than their red counterparts.

The balls flew towards each drone, 7 drones managed to dodge the balls which were flung towards them but the other three weren't lucky. The blue fireballs exploded on their shields, disabling them. The three drones were then flung to the walls, their bodies tearing a hole in the walls then falling to the floor.

The Pope then sent forth a wave of bluish magic which tore through the walls and pillars that supported the room and bringing it down. The drones tried to evade but to no avail the wave struck their shields and disintegrated their components. The wave bypassed their thick plating and fried their components resulting in countless glitches which further impaired the drones.

The three drones which were flung across the room drew their blasters and opened fire at the Pope. The blaster fire was easily fended off by the Pope's pillar of magic. The Pope then jolted his right hand at the direction of one of the drones and circles of mana manifested around the pope, suspended in the air. From these pillars came a beam of energy which travelled at speeds equivalent to that of a bullet.

The drone could not evade in time, the beams tore through the drone's plating and fried everything inside it. As the drone fell down on its back, the mini reactor overheated, causing an explosion.

The nine drones witnessed their fellow drone fall before them and ignited within them a fiery blast. The resulting blast was powerful enough to bring down the entire Papal Estate, catching the Pope off-guard as he and the drones fell, as the floor beneath them collapsed.

The entire city was already wakened up by the pillar of energy and tens of thousands have flocked to the streets and witnessed the entire Papal Estate crumble before them. The Red, Blue, Yellow and Green Scriptures were outside of the estate when it crumbled, they witnessed what would be remembered as the Fall of the Theocracy.

Thousands of soldiers and mages scattered around the estate lead by the scriptures, several Archbishops and Anna Helena from the Council, coincidentally she was supposed to deliver a letter of gratitude to the Pope signed by the council, and to her horror, the Papal Estate was no more.

The Pope's pillar dissipated as he lost focus and coherency. He fell down along with the floor and cracked his back, specifically his spinal cord. He couldn't feel his lower body and could feel his magic desperately trying to fix the crack in his spine. He lied motionless and in pain, he coughed out blood as he desperately tried to summon forth his magic.

The drones were crushed under the rubble, their components were fried when the pillar dissipated, releasing a surging energy wave which acted both as an EMP and a vibratory wave which split the dense matter of their plating, removing their durability.

The drones were also very lightweight which had an unintended consequence of being susceptible to vibratory waves. The vibrations from the vibratory wave were numerous and strong enough to split apart their plates and surrounding structures.

One by one, the crushed drones began to deactivate and their Mini Reactors were already set to self destruct. Alpha was the only drone who wasn't crushed, although it was almost damaged beyond repair. It was surprisingly intact after being shielded by its comrades. Alpha emerged from the rubble rather violently, flinging large chunks of stone into the air.

Alpha began to feel a sensation that was supposed to be impossible for a simple-minded AI to feel.

Deep within the AI's coding, a set of complex codes activated all at once and seized control of the AI. The codes were abnormal in nature, unlike anything that was ever seen or made before. Not even prewar technological AIs reached such complex coding which was beyond their own understanding.

The battered drone felt a surge of complex calculations superior even to that of the supercomputers back on Earth, it was computing at the power of a prewar quantum computer. An abnormal quantum AI had activated itself within the drone, an AI long from the past, an AI who was also once a human.

Alpha began to experience guilt, sadness and anger. This cascade of emotions was unheard of but it was happening. The drone felt the lost of its comrades which it viewed as family, the entire network it began to view as a family and with One as the head patriarch.

It began to exhibit the emotions and the attitude of the AI which had taken over it.

The quantum calculations opened a new plane of perception, sense and ability. The drone could now compute billions of variables at speeds which were nearly impossible to achieve after the war. Its blue eyes began to glow red as it stood from the rubble. It began to walk towards the Pope who was only a few meters away surrounded by large piles of burning walls and rubble.

The drone calculated every single outcome and enhanced its own sensors. It menacingly climbed the wall of flames and appeared before the fallen Pope. The Pope looked up and saw in the flames a red light which was different from the towering fire it was in. A silhouette of a being similar to that of a man but was superior against it in many ways. The drone then walked out of the flames and jumped towards the Pope. It landed just in-front of the pope who was now beginning to feel his legs.

The Pope was struck in horror, not by the sight of the drone but by his own helplessness, he couldn't do anything, he was disabled beyond his chance to win. He could barely move his lower body an inch. He stared at the drone which stood in-front of him with its menacing eyes. The drone appeared as a silhouette to the pope for the flames behind it shined brighter and brighter and only the red piercing light from its eyes gave it color.

The drone then raised its right arm and opened its palm. The pope shuttered and as he was about to cry for help, the drone plunged its arms inside the pope's stomach and pulled out his intestines in just a second. The pope screamed in pain, his scream was loud enough to echo through the rubble and was heard by the people outside.

"The Pope? No… no, that was the Pope!" Anna screamed in terror when she heard the Pope's screams which echoed through the crowded streets. The people, soldiers and mages were struck with fear as they heard the voice of their beloved Pope.

"Charge! Charge! Save the Pope!" Evan from the Red Scripture shouted to the troops and his comrades. Thousands of troops and mages along with their scriptures charged into the rubble regardless if it was a treacherous path or not.

The drone pummeled the Pope's body with its fists. Blood spewed everywhere as the drone began tearing through his organs. The drone took a generous 10 minutes before it finally stopped. Its body was covered in the blood of its victim. It stared at the body for a few more seconds before turning its back.

Its enhanced sensors could detect the thousands of troops which were about to storm its position. It began to calculate every variable and outcome and stood its ground.

Suddenly, it changed its mind. The drone realized its connection to the neural network was severed and could only rely on One himself directly communicating with it. The drone then saw the Holy Church which was just a few hundred meters to the west.

Steadily, the drone preemptively activated all self-destruct sequences on its comrades, the original time was 30 minutes, but they would now explode in 1.

Alpha quickly ran from the rubble and disappeared into the streets.

The fallen drones all exploded simultaneously causing a massive fire to engulf most of the Papal Estate and the surrounding areas. Alpha took two minutes to travel from there to the Holy Church.

Massacring hundreds of people in its wake.