“Oh Divine One! I beseech thee!” the head priestess screamed as she held her left hand high into the air.

I watched as her left hand began to glow. The gem on her forehead resonated with the town’s guardian Deity. A black pillar that dominated the town square.

The stories of the Cyclops unveiled itself before me.

The pillar began to glow. A deep, rust colored red and brown swept across the surface. Then it began to pulsate. The color shifting like oil shimmering on water. The pulse quickened. The colors deepened as it gathered in power from its core.

My sensors were gathering all the data. The simplistic 128-million bit encryption was simple enough to bypass.

I saw its form before everyone else did. A 8 meter tall spider. It had a metal carapace and synthetic flesh.

If I had eyes I would have blinked. A honest, functioning, Anti-Hero Cyclops-Class War-Spider. I thought they had been phased out of use due to their limited specialty. Heroic combat units were rather rare.

In fact it made more sense to simply make another hero rather then a War-Spider.

The spider finished generating its body in real space. It flexed as its body immediately came under attack. The bandits simply firing on the biggest target in the town.

“Defend us as the oath remains pure!” the priestess said as she slid to her knees before the pillar. Her forehead touched the base and I could see the voice command travel from her gem and into the pillar. The pillar pulsated once, and broad casted a single command.

Defend territory.

The War-Spider’s single, giant eye began to hum and light up. The Cyclops eye was a simple, energy emitting weapon.

I watched as it targeted the incoming bandits. The simple humans looked like any other, but they lacked a key feature.

The genetic anomaly I detected when I had entered town. Everyone here had it. Prolonged exposure to the pillar contaminated the body ever so subtly. It wouldn’t do anything, nor would it mutate anyone.

It was a simple Identify Friend Foe marking. Very elegant as it made it easy for the pillar to defend this town. After all the invaders would lack the unique IFF markings.

I reached out to the pillar. Its functions were all working and my perception immediately shifted to the top of the pillar. I could even see my body as it took a seat to prevent falling.

[Query. Who are you?] a voice asked from every direction.

The intensity was quite loud, but that was because it was interrogating me. A simple, function AI. The issue was why was this town still alive?

“I am Master Engineer Pilo,” I answered and a complex, 9 layered engram unfolded around my forehead. Shapes within shapes all containing verification data. Impossible to mimic as the 512-quintillion security hash would take decades to unravel.

[Verification complete. Master Engineer Pilo. Orders?] the voice softened and a glowing sphere appeared. This was the central AI of this pillar.

“What are you standing orders?” I asked as found my cute little girl. I marked her as a friendly so that Cyclops would ignore her.

I watched Sophia saw the super unit change from hostile to friendly. Her shocked look was also cute.

The Maiden of the Valkyrie charged forward, her spear piercing the simple armor that the bandits wore. It was good enough for this kingdom, but far from enough to stop Valkyrie technology.

[Orders. None. Final orders completed. Elimination of heroes in local territory. Secondary protocols active. Defend the defenseless.] the voice was somber as it revealed the logs.

I stared at the last known contact with its masters. 1,118 years ago.

“Show me your last ten diagnostic results,” I ordered as I watched the Cyclops continue to melt the bandits. At some point the invaders had brought a tank.

I watched as the large vehicle slowly enter the town. The canon was able to rotate 10 degrees before a beam of super hot energy melted the turret. It also baked everyone inside as I saw the internal temperature spike to some 2,000 degrees centigrade.

[Warning. System failure within 65 months.]

I reviewed the logs. The three high grade reactors had long since failed. Only one was active, if barely. Which explained the oddly long delay between detecting the attackers and responding to them.

The IFF systems was also becoming corrupted. There was currently three variants of the IFF in the people right now.

Sooner or later the system would forget which was which and kill about 1/3 of the population.

Or even worse, help the invaders. The security layer had degraded from a 3 layer IFF to a more simple 2 layer. Which with the tech available on this planet meant it could fool the AI.

“Why are you still functioning? Your protocols should have sent you into hibernation after your primary mission was achieved,” I asked as I reviewed its mission logs.

This Anti-Hero weapon was simple, dangerous, and successful. The local defense corps was wiped out in a single night. The Pillar had five War-Spiders to use. Now only one remained.

[Resistance. Secondary protocols dictate support for the defenseless.] the AI growled as its lights feel from a soft blue to a dark brown.

“You feel guilty…” I whispered and the lights immediately shifted back to blue.

[Request. Pillar 0154.RK9.5656 requires immediate servicing to continue support.] its voice had returned to a cool monotone.

“What are your current datamass reserves?” I asked as ignored its unbalanced emotions. Time had warped its personality.

I watched the last of the bandits flee. Their numbers reduced from hundred to eighteen… fifteen. A single laser blast had cut down three as they ran.

[Status. Reserves at 2%.]

I hummed as I watched the War-Spider walk back. Its gait was uneven despite not taking any significant damage. Its operational health was at 16%. Time had done what those invaders could not.

“Pillar 5656, I require knowledge. I can get more datamass for repairs, but in exchange I will require read-only access to your blackbox,” I bartered as I began to catalog the repairs needed.

I would never be able to get it back to full function in this town. I would need access to a proper heavy workshop. What I could do was provide datamass, and repair protocols.

It would be enough to keep this pillar operation for another hundred years or so. Just enough for the people to learn to properly defend themselves.

[Barter. Read-Only.] its voice blared at me and I looked up unimpressed. It was trying to throw its weight around.

“Read-Only,” I confirmed as I disconnected. My perception returned to my tiny body. The small crab-like form that was all I had left.

Sophia picked me up as the head priestess rushed over.

“You spoke to it. The Divine One!” she hissed a combination of awe and anger. She could never speak directly to the Divine One but she saw the the visitor could. A odd perception given to those who wore the command gem.

“Yes, and the Divine One is fading. Its long vigilance is coming to an end,” I said as I shifted I Sophia’s hands. More to make her comfortable than anything else.

“No!” the priestess gasped as her hands flew to her mouth. The pillar that had guarded them so long could not die!

“I could save it. Prolong its life for centuries more. I will need datamass though. Pure and dense datamass,” I explained as I took out my only sample left. A small, black sugarcube. It looked like onyx under the afternoon sun.

“I… How much do you need?” the woman relented. The town was known for its sales and they needed the Divine One more then ever.

“Ten tons,” I responded with forthright answer. No reason to beat around the bush.

“Ten Tons!?” the woman gasped and her pale skin turned even whiter.

I frowned. This would be a problem. I needed at least 8 to fix the pillar, and two for myself. “How much do you have?”

“We have less then sixty kilos on hand,” the woman let out a ragged breath. “But…”

“But?” I prodded.

“I will reveal our source, and our keys. Just promise me that you can save the Divine One,” she whispered in defeat.

Without the Divine One this town was doomed. Either people would all leave, or they would all die. Only slaves of bandit masters would remain.

I smiled though only Sophia and the pillar would sense it. “I believe that we can definitely save both the Divine one, and the town.”

The woman nodded and began to explain about a hidden vault below the town. The guardian of the vaults and why it was becoming harder to get more datamass.

Which also explained why Pillar 5656 was sent here in the first place. A storage vault of datamass would be critical to any war effort.

Now the new question was how much datamass was left?

————

Thanks for reading!

A snippet on a Sci-Fi story I am slowly making. Apologies for the superficial characters.