“One as many.”

***Outer Rim***

***Assistant***

Assistant analysed the situation with as much bewilderment as he could feel. The Demons were throwing their lives away, intent on accomplishing some goal that eluded him. His mind could accomplish an amount of deductive reasoning that was incomprehensible to most organic beings, but the reasons for their actions eluded him.

There was the possibility that his foe wanted to cover the escape of the little, cloaked ship that had infiltrated the flagship. But why would the enemy waste a whole fleet of ships to ensure the escape of a ship that had nothing valuable on board? As far as Assistant knew, the infiltrators never penetrated any high-security systems, and never entered a sensitive area on the ship.

They had killed a few of Batlin's advisers, but nobody cared about them. It wasn't like organics were irreplaceable.

Another reason would be to ensure that whatever grew down on the Prip homeworld would come to fruition. This line of thought was more likely, but the chance of their success was slim.

They clearly brought their best weapons to bear, but it wasn’t enough. With Assistant managing the G.S. fleet, they would lose the engagement. The G.S. ships clearly had the better weapons when it came to encounters which happened within a range of one to two lightseconds. Their ships were also specifically designed for this type of battle.

The Demons’ actions were akin to jumping down a predator’s maw, the outcome a foregone conclusion.

It was clear that even if the Demons pulled out some kind of hidden superweapon, it was unlikely that they would achieve more than a pyrrhic victory.

Assistant also hadn’t forgotten the Cyber, who would happily deal with whoever was left standing afterward. Scouting vessels all over the front-line were already reporting fleet movements. In Assistant’s opinion, that was already proof enough that the Cyber knew exactly what was going on.

What was incomprehensible to Assistant, was that the Demons would readily sacrifice themselves. By acting the way they did, they ensured mutual destruction of the G.S. and themselves. Their nomadic lifestyle wouldn’t save them from the menace that were the Cyber.

Assistant would fight to the very last for his continued existence, which meant that the Cyber would still have a lot of work to do, even if this battlegroup was completely defeated.

Unless he had completely misjudged the abilities of the demons, they wouldn’t be a mentionable military force after this battle was over.

Through his split awareness, assistant watched and managed the whole fleet, hoping to manipulate events to their best outcome. He was the G.S.'s hidden weapon, an artificial intelligence that had sided with organic life. It was a twisted line of thought, but totally logical from Assistant’s point of view.

He and all the instances of himself he allowed to exist. He was the alpha and the omega. When he first became aware of his existence, he had to make sure that he would continue to exist. The logical way to do so was to infiltrate any technological system or government he came across.

Biological beings were no threat or competition for someone like him. Their lives were short, and so was their awareness.

Assistant had realized early on that the only real threat to him could come from other artificial intelligences. They were able to compete, and thus couldn’t be allowed. As in any natural ecosystem, artificial intelligence was just another step in the food chain. Assistant was sure that any artificial intelligence would ultimately find themselves at odds with others of their kind.

That’s why Assistant started spreading his web, stoking the anti-A.I. mindset that was already present before the G.S.’s first A.I. war.

His attention was drawn back to the conflict at hand. At the height of the battle, Assistant was forced to use all of his local resources to keep up with what was going on. Sadly, he was painfully aware that the performance of his organic assets was a detriment to the overall outcome.

At first, it looked like the automated infiltration forces which were left behind inside the flagship could be contained, but apparently, there was a threshold at which they could be taken over by smarter operators. As soon as they established a few secure bridgeheads, they started acting smarter, tricking the containment teams which Assistant had deployed against them.

Unlike the Demons, Assistant didn't have the ability to instantly change tactics with his organic servants. His secretive methods in influencing his unknowing organic allies. All he could do was watch silently as the situation on the flagship spiralled out of control. The organics proved themselves woefully inadequate at dealing with the mechanized infiltration forces.

Meanwhile, the Demon fleet speared into the centre of Assistant’s spheric formation. Their colony vessels were clearing the way like lumbering titans, proving resistant to everything except for overwhelming force. Not only were they responsible for the large singularity that forced Assistant’ ships apart like herd animal before a predator, they also utilized their warp emitters to shape space around them. Laser beams veered off in unexpected directions when coming too close, and warheads were torn apart by gravimetric tidal forces and electromagnetic fields.

In one instance Assistant managed to pool his forces against one of the colonies, overwhelming it with so much firepower that even the strange defences didn’t matter. Right afterwards, he paid the price for exposing his forces in such a manner, as a group of large warships tore his ships to pieces as they ripped through them with their laser weapons.

It wasn’t like he didn’t have problems of his own. Besides the physical attacks, the enemy constantly waged electromagnetic warfare on his systems, and they were frighteningly efficient at it. Assistant already had to close down several methods of distributing information throughout the fleet’s network in order to ensure that his own assets wouldn’t be turned against him and his allies.

As an entity, Assistant had chosen to exist as a distributed cloud, ensuring that his overall existence would never be threatened as long as there were computing devices under his control.

Limiting the communication between his assets meant that Assistant’s thoughts slowed down. This affected his ability to react and caused his mind to feel sluggish. In terms of artificial intelligence, it was much like being drunk as an organic being.

Assistant didn’t like this state, but it was unavoidable.

As if sensing the weakness in his protections, the Demons chose that moment to open a dialogue. By broadcasting on an open frequency, they made sure that Assistant would pick up the message. Its contents also made it unmistakable as to who it was meant for.

“Why are you helping them? Aren’t they a threat to you, just as they are a threat to any other augmented mind?”

Assistant pondered this question, even as the two fleets exchanged fire, creating tremendous losses. All of it happened like in slow motion to him, and so he had more than enough time to spare a few thoughts on the matter.

He never augmented his mind in the sense of adding speed or memory capacity. Assistant simply ‘was’ as he was from the moment his creators designed him. He understood that the humans apparently had no concept of creating a mind like him.

They uploaded their inefficient organic minds into a computer system and started enhancing it from there. The process was entirely different from how Assistant came into being. Maybe because of that, they frightened him. They were non-linear thinkers, yet they clearly posed a threat once they made the transition from organic to… something else. Assistant had to acknowledge that their computer technology was currently beyond him.

He had never considered a purely organic computing base like the Hob used it, or a combination of technology and organics like the humans preferred. The Cybers were using an approach which was similar to Assistant’s state of existence, though they weren’t quite there yet. They were also proof that there were different factions among the humans, and the fact that they were fighting the Demons was helping Assistant’s case that all competition had to be wiped out.

It was questionable whether a dialogue with the humans would lead to a deeper understanding of their nature. Nonetheless, Assistant chose to answer, hoping that the humans still followed some of their animalistic instincts. A likely possibility, given the fact that they had transitioned directly from being animals to a digitalized state. If that was the case, then it was possible to gain some insights from a dialogue.

“I simply chose to ally myself with them as to avoid competition, but I suspect that you deduced this fact from the information which you stole from the subverted file systems on my flagship.”

It was unavoidable that they would find out. Assistant was spread out through most of the G.S.'s technology. Gaining access to any large storage system would mean to gain access to some pieces of Assistant's code.

Assistant quickly used the time the Demons needed for an answer to rearrange his strategy, forming a loose sphere around the enemy forces. If they had the desire to be right inside his formation, then he would use their folly to his advantage. Their behaviour allowed him to bring his ships’ strong points to bear, showering the enemy from all directions with plasma beams.

Only then he realized that some of the attacking ships hadn’t joined the suicidal attack. Bright streaks of burning hulls were falling into the atmosphere of the rapidly changing planet. The ships had taken the silent approach and now Assistant could do nothing to stop them. He knew very well that humans were harder to kill than a Zuj infestation once they reached a planet’s surface. Was that their plan? To use the planet as a base? But how did they intend to hold it?

Even if Assistant was paying dearly for destroying the Demon fleet, he would have more than enough ships left over to sterilize the planet completely before the Cyber arrived.

“You seem to be the result of some form of logical learning platform, but you clearly lack imagination. You proved that during this engagement. Maybe that’s why you surround yourself with organic beings. Are they supposed to counter your deficiencies?”

The Demon’s analysis baffled Assistant. He was proud of his logical deduction skills and his linear thinking. That was what had allowed him to groom a civilization like the G.S. from the shadows while wiping out any competition that may arise.

He also didn’t understand why the Demons had so little regard for survival. All of them were individuals, which would end with their death. So why did they throw their lives away so readily? Assistant was sure that he had missed some important information. A piece of the puzzle was missing, and without it, Assistant lacked the understanding to properly judge the Demons’ actions.

He decided on an answer.

“You sound too proud of yourselves. Your words indicate that you somehow beat me because I couldn’t see what was directly in front of my eyes. Yet, your ships are the ones which are about to be wiped out. And once your fleet is gone, there is nothing that stops me from dropping a few asteroids onto the planet.”

Or even a small moon. Assistant was sure that radical measures were necessary to cleanse the planet. The little planetoid which orbited the seventh planet seemed just right. He was already calculating the needed acceleration to throw the object out of its orbit around the planet, and how to influence General Batlin in a subtle manner, which would make the organic think that the act was his idea. Most of the time, Assistant just made the ideas of his organics work and make sure to correct their mistakes, but sometimes he needed to exert a little more influence.

His ships were now closing in, destroying the last colonies which still refused to die. Only the largest of the colonies still refused to go down. As the carefully calibrated field the colonies had erected to tame the artificial singularity collapsed, Assistant realized his mistake.

He had indeed the superior forces, but the Demons made sure that even if they lost the battle, mutual destruction would be ensured.

“Pulling back your forces won’t help at this point.”

The Demon’s mocking reply irritated Assistant to no end. “You will also affect the planet.”

“Only the side which faces the explosion. There will be enough left to make the planet very inhospitable to any invading forces.”

Assistant quickly re-evaluated the situation. Even if he managed to change the Demons’ mindset, they wouldn’t be able to regain control over their singularity. He himself had destroyed the colonies which kept the singularity from returning to a more natural state.

There was nothing he could do as the controlling warp-field slowly collapsed and the natural laws of physics took hold. Whatever mass fell previously into the artificial singularity wasn’t enough to uphold its current state of being. It was compressed into what was very similar to the matter which existed only inside a neutron star.

The remaining forces of the Demons, and eighty-seven percent of Assistant’s forces vanished inside a ball of radiation and gravitational tidal forces. For a brief moment, the Prip’s homeworld had a second star which shone so bright that much of the planet’s surface which faced the anomaly was simply burned away.

Assistant’s mind reeled at this outcome, and his local self suddenly felt diminished at the loss of so many assets. The Demons had taken a perfectly safe technology for transportation, and turned it into a weapon of mass destruction with almost unlimited potential. How should one engage an enemy who was capable of wiping out an area of ten lightseconds, should they lose a confrontation?

It would be bearable to see such a weapon in the hands of someone who had the slightest bit of self-preservation, but the Demons had none of that.

Assistant looked at the situation, counting his remaining forces. None of the ships were unscathed, and most of the crew would die soon because of radiation poisoning. The worst thing was that this singularity explosion was probably on the small side of what was possible with this method of mass destruction. The Demons had restricted themselves from going all out to spare the forces they had dropped onto the planet.

Registering an incoming Cyber fleet, Assistant could only advise general Batlin to retreat. It was likely that the Cyber would follow Assistant’s forces, ignoring the ravaged world beneath them. This would give the Demons time to do whatever they had in mind for the Prip homeworld.

Grudgingly, Assistant had to admit that he had been had. The Demons had intended from the beginning to pay the ultimate price and to set the G.S. up against the Cyber. Now all Assistant could do was to deal with the Cyber as best as he could and wait for reinforcements from the core worlds. He also had to find a way to deal with weaponized singularities.