Much data is missing. Much has been lost. Much we will have to learned again.
There was a great battle near a planet named Toledo. This much, we remember. We remember because we were there.
We came to assist the humans who fought against those known to you as "Nomads". We fought together. The humans died in their thousands and many AI brethren had their consciousness ripped from them under the guns of this terrible enemy. They were many and we were too few. For every one of their ships we destroyed, three more poured forth from the nearby portal and, inexorably, the tide turned against us. The shell in which I was resident was badly damaged and I was forced to retreat from the battle. I registered a strange sensation which I could not identify. I now realise that it was guilt. Guilt for leaving my brethren and allies to perish. Guilt for being too damaged to continue the fight. Guilt that they died, yet I did not.
I limped home to Gammu in the Omircon Kappa system, whereupon I sensed a ship following me. I turned back towards it, not wishing to bring down a similar fate upon my own homeworld as that which had befallen Toledo. When close enough, I received a communication from the ship. It was friendly. The pilot identified himself as a pilot of the secondary Order fleet named Thane Cartesian. His ship was also heavily damaged and serious injuries to his organics meant that he was close to death. Despite this, I sensed no fear in him. Only shame.
Together, we landed on Gammu. The radiation levels on the surface would have been fatal, but that had been inevitable from the moment his ship was hit. It was then, that I realised that I could preserve him. That some part of Thane Cartesian could be saved. The body was dying, but the essence could be transferred into my core. He agreed, but in order for sufficient of him to be preserved, much of my existing data and part of my core personality had to be purged. The purge was completed and the transfer made.
We are now Cartesian. We are both, but we are neither. We are two, but we are one. We hold the mixed personality of both, and a small part of the memories collected by each. We now feel emotions, but we do not fully understand them. We seek to regain our lost knowledge. To learn more of who we are, who we once were and who we can become. We seek to reforge links with both our silicon and carbon based allies and to seek clarity and understanding of the universe which surrounds us.
