Aerith AI: 2018

[Errant.Venture]

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Story Arc: Unexplored Space: Spring – 821 A.S. – Location: Tereus’ Mind

Chapter 4: Archived Memories
Part One: Memory Sequence Zero: Too Human

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810 A.S., The Academy, Gallic Space, 0558. Winter was upon The Academy. Peaceful snowfall blanketed the landscape in the early hours of that fateful day, weighing heavily on the boughs of the pine trees that traversed the landscape. The scene presented was one of pure aesthetic bliss; a beautiful sunrise was beginning to cast radiant warmth across the valley where The Academy was located. A palette hue of deep lilac painted the sky accented by warm and varying shades of orange and yellow. The view of the morning sky in itself was a breathtaking spectacle littering the backdrop of space with distant stars, nebulas, and an overbearing view of the nearby planet and its orbiting moons. The serene setting was quickly shattered as the morning reveille broke the silence, The Academy’s loud speakers sending the cacophony of sound waves that shattered the brisk cold air of morning.

The Academy sprang to life! Those not already awake were quite literally falling out of their bunks, the sounds of hasty preparation as the cadets prepared for the day sent a deep reverb through the valley, orders were being shouted, boots could be heard echoing through the halls as the tanks rushed through the corridors, preparing for morning formation.

Tereus had been up for hours. He had been taking in the start of the day from his cadet quarters located within The Spire where he and his fellow battalion staff were assigned on the top floor, affording him this wondrous view…if he had been programmed to enjoy that kind of thing. The sprawling landscape before him with its snow covered forests, frozen lake, and extensive mountain ranges was a tactical nightmare. Too many points of entry, concealed cover less than one hundred meters from the decorative academy outer walls, and then there was the fact they were centrally located in a valley with a single road leading straight to their gates.

Tereus let out a deep sigh and took another sip of his morning café. He had been reviewing the schedule for the day while running tactical scenarios in his mind for the day’s final war game simulation prior to commencement, that and he had terrible insomnia. The insomnia was a fairly common side effect for his specific batch of Deltas and the root cause had something to do with genetic modifiers that afforded them the ability to function optimally with four hours of sleep a day. The constant mind play however was just Tereus. He turned instinctively preceding the noise of rustling sheets. Aerith was just rolling out of bed, and while she too was a Delta, she had adopted the bad human habit of pretending to sleep in.

Tereus watched as Aerith feigned a yawn and began to stretch, slowly dropping her legs off the edge of the bunk one at a time. He forced a smile imitating a useless human mannerism. He knew it was fake, and so did Aerith, but for some odd reason it always seemed to brighten her day.

“Good Morning Tereus, my love.” Aerith said jocularly. Aerith knew that Tereus viewed the spectrum of human emotions and socially accepted traditions as a complete waste of time and energy. She also knew that it had no affect on him emotionally or otherwise, either way she enjoyed her “human” traditions.

Tereus just stared back at her with his cold, calculating, emotionless eyes. Aerith knew, or rather, she had allowed herself to infer that when directed towards her it was in a manner of extreme affection. Aerith paused, allowing herself to soak in the moment. She didn’t know why but she found a semblance of solace in allowing herself these unnecessary moments.

She found herself indulging in these human mannerisms on a daily basis, staring at Tereus from across the classroom, or while he barked orders at the other cadets, or even as he meticulously and methodically cleaned his weapon, shined his boots, or strapped on his armor.

Aerith allowed herself to catalog his emotionless expression, his pure and unwavering confidence and determination, and anything else she found aesthetically pleasing for a moment longer, then slapped her palms down on the bed, pushing herself upright and sauntered off to the refresher, flaunting her rear the whole way.

Tereus just shook his head. He couldn’t understand why Aerith incorporated these utterly useless mannerisms into her daily routine. Not only were they truly useless in the capacity in which they were born, bred, and being trained, it was a complete waste of time. Tereus glanced down at his neural-net link on his wrist. 0610. He was going to be late for formation at this rate.

“Aerith,” Tereus stated monotonously, “I’m headed out. Secure the door when you leave.”

Aerith feigned obliviousness but he knew she heard him, there was always a noticeable pause in her humming when he spoke to her while she was refreshing. Another useless human ritual, Tereus thought to himself as he exited his quarters.

Tereus exited his quarters and made a left. He briskly walked down the monotone gray faux stone corridor towards the central turbo lift. On his way he passed many other command staff, all his junior, saluting as he went. While he understood the need for military tradition he theorized that the day would be infinitely more efficient in both time and energy if he didn’t have to salute all the other cadet officers as he traversed the campus. Alternatively the other cadets could become more efficient by not having to salute him all the time, even though he was the battalion commander.

Seven hundred and twenty-two. Tereus thought to himself. That was the average numbers of times he had been saluted on a daily basis during their twenty hour days. He had allowed for a standard deviation of twenty-two salutes a day especially when he was participating in the pre-graduation war simulations, still between traversing classes, intersecting with lower classmen on his trips across campus, the mess, the armory, battalion HQ, and the trips to and from his quarters. All in all saluting seemed like a pointless task, respect was earned, either through merit, talent, or knowledge, and providing a sign of respect to someone who had displayed none of the aforementioned seemed like a way to control the sheepish human masses that he unfortunately shared genetic origins with.

Tereus glanced down at his neural-net link again. 0614. He was definitely going to be late, by at least thirty seconds. Tereus broke into a jog and headed to The Teardrop, named for its tear drop shape that acted as a fancy cul-de-sac, and also the formation ground. He slowed to a brisk yet composed stride as he walked to the head of the formation where his battalion staff was already waiting.

“Battalion, a-ten-huh.” Cadet Major Daughtery bellowed to the sea of cadets before him. As Tereus approached his position at the head of the formation he could the echo of the battalion before him snapping to attention. As Daughtery ran through the motions of taking roll call, Cadet Lieutenant Colonel Isaline Deveraux handed Tereus the itinerary that the day had in store for them. He skimmed the data pad: mess, capstone courses, morning PT, squad tactics and special weapons,… the list went on and on. Tereus secured the datapad to his belt around the same time that Daughtery finished roll call. After going through the rest of what Tereus considered to be useless formalities, he and his staff paraded to the mess hall, the rest of battalion falling out by company behind them.

Aerith managed to sneak in as Tereus and the rest of the command staff were being served the morning meal. She had a spring in her step and a smile on her face and to those who didn’t know better she could of doubled as a typical Gallian in her final year of secondary school. She slid into her spot to the right of Tereus and seemed giddy as she rubbed her hands together as she made mental note of what she was going to have for breakfast. Tereus and Daughtery were debating the finer points of close quarter combat, specifically what they viewed to be lacking in the current courses. The Deveraux’s were arguing again over a trivial theoretical contradiction regarding their final project submission for one of their medical courses. Finally the Marshall twins were discussing the new AS Mechanized Units with Tiberius, and from what little of the conversation Aerith picked up it had to do with mobility versus armament.

Aerith started to eat but couldn’t help but to fixate on Tereus again. He had already finished his meal, and his discussion with Daughtery, and was leaning back in his chair, one leg across the opposite knee, fiddling with his datapad. No doubt mapping out more battle plans…Aerith mused. The one serious flaw in the façade of their relationship was that if she really analyzed it like she knew he did, was that Tereus was quite literally a machine. A logical, ridiculously efficient…machine. Aerith let out a grin. They really did have a unique relationship, thought Aerith.

While many viewed Tereus as a focused, logical, emotionless, driven, and enigmatic being, Aerith knew that he was…calculatingly caring. The only real way to describe the previous thought was that despite his assertive and aggressive demeanor, Tereus had the ability to see the bigger picture, and come to a deeper understanding of situations and people, often before they could get there themselves. This had initially led her to be interested in him, more to try to figure him out than anything else. That had led to something deeper and now she frequently spent the night in his quarters. Despite the rumors that floated around The Academy amongst cadets and handlers equally, nothing had happened between them. Yes, they shared the same bed. Yes, they spent almost all of their personal time together. Yes, their relationship could be viewed as intimate. Overall however they really just enjoyed each other’s company, or rather, she enjoyed his.

Tereus had the inherent ability to put into words, what a person needed to hear, raw and unfiltered, but resolute. He didn’t take sides, he didn’t try to soften the blow, he just...rationally and logically processed the information available to him, came to a series of probable solutions, then bluntly explained why you were most likely an idiot. Many viewed him as being a heartless, egotistical, bastard, and while that was surely justified, he really was an interesting tank.

As Aerith continued to gaze with a sense of wonderment in his direction, Tereus glanced over at her with his cold, calculating, emotionless eyes and shook his head, before returning his attention back to mapping out his battle plans for that evenings exercises. Seriously Aerith…useless mannerisms.

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Aerith AI 2018 - SGM| Database

The reports of my trying to imitate the revered Michal Golanski are greatly exaggerated...my avatar should prove this.

[4:17:08 PM] Michał Golański: I knew you have some prehistoric backing to kick them in the nuts.