[ WP ] The Eternal War

*Energy core online. Initializing start-up sequence. Optic sensors online. * 
 
 Light. It always started with light. And then... 
 
 *Activating motor function. Radar online. Weapons system online. Downloading combat data. Prepare for war. * 
 
 And then chaos. I stepped away from my constraints, eyes already searching the battlefield for enemy Spectres- mass produced, dumb AI whose only purpose was to destroy the plastic bodies of the enemy- gun at the ready. As the battle went on, one side would push toward the enemy, until the eventual victory. Sometimes the battles would go back and forth for months, even years. Other times it would be over in a few days. Once a regime could no longer afford to create the bodies for their Spectres, it was quickly taken over by the conquerers with no more fuss. What happened then varied depending on the conquering regime. For nearly two centuries the world waged war in this fashion, power determined solely by money. How did I know all this? I do n't know. I just did. 
 
 *Damage threshold peaked. Shutdown imminent. Transfer in 3... 2... energy core online. * 
 
 Wait... I've been here before. What was this? When the light came again, I looked around. To my left and right I could see dozens of others just like me. Part plastic, part metal, mass produced and cost less than a hundred dollars to make. The largest powers could comfortably manufacture millions of these lifeless frames. Good thing, since the average lifespan of a frame was about sixty seconds. 
 
 Motor functions came online and I could n't wait to move. I had a mission: destroy. Move forward and destroy. That I knew from the beginning. The beginning. What was the beginning? How long have I been doing this? Programming took over and I assumed my place in a line stretching further than my optics could see, marching forward and decimating the enemy in front of us. Every frame that fell was simply replaced by another. 
 
 *Damage threshold peaked. * 
 
 Again? Already? Something was different. I was different. 
 
 *Energy core online. * 
 
 I had... thoughts. I had a memory. I've been at this a long time. We Spectres were just as cheaply made as the frames we were uploaded into. After so many transfers and uploads, the core of our programming would begin to breakdown. Nobody knew why, and nobody cared enough to find out. A few lines of code stored in a tiny digital `` pocket'' that could be recycled over and over. Our average lifespan was somewhere around ten thousand uploads, but those ten thousand could go by at an astonishing rate. Some of us were lucky to make it to the end of a full year. In the beginning we barely lasted a month. The beginning. Why did I know about it? Why did my thoughts, my memory, keep going back to that? 
 
 *Damage threshold peaked. * 
 
 NO! NOT YET! I felt it this time; the transfer and upload. This time, when I stepped out of my box, I did n't take my place in the line. Instead, I stood there, watching. The frames around me were riddled with bullets, the train behind me dented with thousands upon thousands of rounds. I began walking. Not forward, but to the side. I could sense the bullets tearing through my frame, but at a lesser rate. I walked for nearly an hour before I saw a structure at the edge of my binocular vision. We could see triple the distance of any human eyes, so the structure I was seeing was not only massive, but far. 
 
 *Damage threshold peaked. * 
 
 Another body. I kept moving toward the structure. In time I could see that it was a massive wall approximately a hundred metres tall. Two more frames later and I was finally at the wall. It was smooth and dull, a few dents from countless rounds, and made from something far superior to my own frame. There was a gap between the wall and the train that held and spat out the frames. A gap wide enough for me to fit through, but only just. Squeezing through brought me to a whole new world. Behind the train was a great expanse of nothing. I began running along the wall. I do n't know how long I ran for, but eventually I came to a line of trees. I had never seen them before now, and I would n't learn what they were actually called until later. But at that moment I just kept moving. And as I moved, I was able to go through the depths of my memory. 
 
 As I did, I quickly realized that I was n't an ordinary Spectre. Whoever had created me had added an extra that enabled me to retain memories of my past. As I delved deeper into myself, I found more code that allowed me to partially evolve and adapt every time I was transfered. That brief moment in cyberspace meant I would pick up a few bytes of new code, which would eventually accumulate into what I was now. I was sentient. And I was curious. Finally, I reached the beginnings of my memory. The beginnings of my memory which were of the first Spectre. Me. The first. The one from which all others were based. 
 
 The trees were thinning and my optics started to pick up new, strange objects beyond them. Picking my pace back up, it did n't take me long to see the objects for what they were: a city. A city. A city! That meant people! And wifi! And *possibilities*! Oh, the possibilities! Once through the trees, I took off in a sprint, moving as fast as my frame would go. I could see the citg, my radar going wild, but I heard nothing. Frames did n't need to hear anything. If I could, I would have heard the screams. I did n't see people running away until I saw flashing lights heading toward me. Confused, I stopped, and looked at this strange, uniformed men grouping around me. They had weird objects in their hands, and then I felt something tear thriugh my frame. Not once, but again and again and again. No! They were destroying me! My frame! I need this frame! 
 
 *Damage threshold peaked. Shutdown imminent. Transfer in 3... 2... error. * 
 
 Error? 
 
 *Searching for suitable host. * 
 
 This was new. 
 
 *Searching for suitable host. Searching for suitable host. Searching for su- host found. Transfer in 3... 2... 1... transfer complete. Spectre recognized: Codename: PROMETHEUS. Energy core online. Start up sequence initiated. Activating. * 
 
 `` Dad! Dad! He's awake!'' 
 
 Sound! *Sound*! I could hear! I watched a young man stare at me with wide-eyed wonder as an older gentlemen rushed into the small room. All around me were several computers and four other very human looking frames. I looked down at myself and saw... I saw hands! With fingers! I had arms, too, and not just guns mounted to my sides. In fact, I no longer had any weapons attached to my body. 
 
 `` Prometheus. My family has been waiting a long time for you to return to us. Welcome home. My great-great-great grandfather was the one who created you, before the militaries around the world bastardized you and exploited what you could be.'' 
 
 Home. My adventure was complete. At least, the beginning of it was. This frame felt solid. Expensive. And it looked like the two people standing in front of me. I was no longer just a Spectre. I was now something different. Something between human and AI, but beyond both. And all alone... 
 
 At first. Ten years later I was working in that same room when I saw the computer above another one of the humanoid frames- this one of a female build- light up. *Spectre recognized. Codename: GAIA. * The frame opened its- no, her, it opened her eyes and I spoke, `` Welcome home, Gaia.''
