Chapter 111: Men of Iron and Artificial Intelligence
Omega, realizing he had shot himself in the foot, after hearing Laust's explanation, secretly waved his hand in the air and said, "Don't get any funny ideas. It's just that the technology I used is too advanced for you to understand. Look, what is this?"
As he finished speaking, a visible grey mist ball condensed in his raised palm. This mist ball, which had appeared out of thin air, also attracted the attention of the cog-heads. Then they heard Omega say, "This is a nanite machine, a relic from the Dark Age of Technology. I just used it to crack the password. So you've misunderstood."
"And I'm very disappointed in you. As priests of the Omnissiah, how can you act like those ignorant savages, thinking that anything you can't understand is a divine miracle? Is this all your faith amounts to? What if a heretic used a technology you couldn't understand in front of you one day? Would you kneel to him too?"
"Answer me! Would you?! Don't you feel ashamed? Don't you feel guilty? Don't you feel that you're unworthy of your status as priests?"
The cog-heads, who had been put on the spot and had the tables turned on them, looked at each other awkwardly. Those who had already knelt down silently got up after hearing Omega's questions.
"The explorator fleet is destined to encounter countless terrible, abominable enemies of the Omnissiah. With your faith so fragile, how can I lead you forward? I think you should just leave my fleet and go back to Teyedan."
Laust received another plea for help from the cog-heads. He was a little tired, but to prevent the Omnissiah cub from cutting off his own arm in a fit of rage in his immaturity, he said, "Magos Omega, please forgive their ignorance this time. Didn't you say that 'it's not that a person is afraid of making mistakes, but that they don't know they've made a mistake'? They have already realized their mistake. Please give them another chance."
Omega, having received Laust's "that's enough" signal, took the way out. "This time, I'll give you another chance to repent. But only this once. In the future, in the Cogboy fleet, any rumor that I am the Omnissiah is a heretical evil doctrine! If I find out, don't blame me for bringing out the codex for punishing heretics!"
The cog-heads now, hearing Omega say he would bring out the codex, immediately shivered. The punishments in it were enough to make their scalps tingle just thinking about them. But a few of them were not so impressed. These were Rhea and the others, who knew what the "Grey Mist" was and what it could do. They would not be fooled by Omega's "lies."
As the veterans of the "Omega Party," they knew their Omnissiah cub's preferences best. They had long since found out from secret channels that the "previous Omnissiah" on the Golden Throne of Terra also did not like to admit that he was a god, and had also been enraged by being worshipped as a god. The "Imperial Truth" he had advocated had directly denied the existence of gods. One who admits he is the Omnissiah is definitely not the Omnissiah. The real Omnissiah never admits he is the Omnissiah. This stubbornness, the two of "them" could be said to be of the same lineage.
Laust wanted to get this over with. Although he had temporarily shut the cog-heads' mouths, this impromptu excuse was full of holes. As long as a Tech-Priest carefully reviewed the video recording of what had just happened, it would not be difficult to discover Omega's little tricks. Some priests with advanced augmetic eyes might even be able to see clearly when the nanite machine had appeared. He had to help Omega hide his "tail." So he said, "Omega, are you going to continue?"
"Hmm, let's continue." Omega also wanted to get this over with.
The task of scouting the path was not for the fleet's great leader to do. Such a dangerous task had to be left to the experienced cog-heads. Rhea took Aedus and Paul to chat with Omega and distract him. Laust used this opportunity to send a coded message containing a time and place to the other cog-heads on the scene.
Although a few servo-skulls were lost in the process of scouting the path, these obstacles, in the face of Omega's talent, were like a naked little wife. Soon, they came to the second security door. This time, Omega pretended to splash the "Grey Mist" on the security door, and then input the password.
And so, Omega led the cog-heads forward almost unimpeded, until they were stopped at the core of this ancient data center.
"I've long heard that the Kastelan Robot is an ancient security robot. This time, we've found the proof," Omega said, looking at the image sent back by the servo-skull before it was destroyed.
"Be careful, they are complete Men of Iron!" Laust reminded him from the side.
"Hmm, I understand. But Magos, you don't have to worry too much. These Men of Iron have gone mad."
"Mad?"
"Yes, they're mad. Isn't there a rumor in the cult that the surviving Men of Iron that have been discovered all have an extreme hatred and desire for destruction towards organic life?"
Laust asked the question that was on every cog-head's mind, "There is such a rumor, but how do you know that they are also the mad kind?"
"Since they are security robots, if they could still think normally, they would have understood that there was an intruder after discovering the servo-skull. They should have activated the corresponding defense program. But they didn't. They just destroyed the servo-skull and then returned to their original position. And since they were assigned to guard here, their first duty should be to protect the safety and integrity of this place. If you think back to the power of the weapons they used just now, it was completely unrestrained, full-fire."
"I see. But why did they become so mad?" Rhea chimed in.
Omega thought for a moment. "The truth has long been buried. But we can speculate. We don't know the cause and process of the Men of Iron's rebellion, but the result is obvious. Humanity won. Although it was a tragic victory, we still won. This means that the humans of that time must have had a weapon that could defeat the Men of Iron. The most powerful and terrifying thing about these Men of Iron is not the weapons on their bodies, but their cold, extreme logic, and their ability to self-iterate and evolve through data. Only by starting from this aspect could humanity have a chance of defeating the Men of Iron."
"You mean, the reason these Men of Iron went mad was actually caused by the ancients?" the cog-girl exclaimed. The others were also shocked at his words.
Omega shrugged. "I've already said it's a speculation. It's also possible that humanity split into two or three factions and had the Men of Iron fight each other. Or maybe the Men of Iron won, but they still had some lingering affection for their creators and left the galaxy, to create their own civilization and kingdom in another galaxy. In short, these remaining Men of Iron are dangerous. They will not serve us again. As for whether there are any sane Men of Iron left in the galaxy, I don't know. What we need to consider now is how to take them down without destroying the data center."
The cog-heads automatically filtered out the Omnissiah cub's "heretical evil doctrines." They had already subconsciously believed that this was the hidden truth of time. Omega's "speculation" had no logical loopholes. The fact that humanity was still the master of the galaxy was an iron-clad fact. But they also heard that the cub had no intention of making the "truth" public. They could only suppress their shock and curiosity and begin to plan how to deal with these abominable intelligences.
Omega actually already had a plan to deal with these Men of Iron. He knew the internal structure and design philosophy of these complete versions of the Kastelan Robots like the back of his hand. He knew where their weak points were, where their core was. He had the Tech-Priests discuss it just so he wouldn't have to have another "I'm not a god" incident.
These mad security robots, under Omega's subtle guidance and reminders, were dealt with cleanly. In the end, they all became spoils of war, taken by the little cog-head for himself. It wasn't that he was stingy, nor that he really liked these security robots. His own Battle Automata, with their limiters unlocked, could win in a one-on-one fight with these Men of Iron. He was mainly afraid that if they fell into someone else's hands, they would create an abominable intelligence. To describe Omega's behavior in 2k-era terms, it was like the first person to get on the bus welding the door shut so no one else could get on.
With all the obstacles cleared, it was finally time for the harvest. This time, the experienced cog-heads scouted the path first. Omega would not be blinded by "treasure." He knew that there was a high probability of a dragon guarding the "treasure."
Sure enough, in a short while, the "suicide squad" that had been sent out came running back, rolling and crawling, shouting, "There's a mummy! Magos Omega, there's an abominable intelligence inside! It's controlling the weapons and attacking us! If it weren't for the shield you gave us, we wouldn't have had a chance to escape," the escaped Tech-Priest said with lingering fear.
"Oh, there are Men of Iron too?" Omega said, a little surprised. He hadn't expected there to be security robots inside as well.
"Magos, not a Man of Iron with a body, but an abominable intelligence!"
"A high-level artificial intelligence? The original AI that assisted the colonists in managing Korsa? What did it do?"
"We don't know. We didn't see any warning signs beforehand. We didn't hear it issue any warnings. But the weapons that attacked us could predict our movements. After discovering that one weapon was ineffective, it would switch to another. Our defenses, under its targeted attacks, didn't last long," the Tech-Priest said with a tone of shame.
After comforting these brave and daring warrior-cog-heads and giving them the personal shields he had lent them as a reward, Omega began to think of a countermeasure. He wanted to take this "dragon" down as well. Although this was probably also a "mad dragon," that didn't stop him from learning its technology.
Ever since the Cogboy explorator vessel had been upgraded to the Cogboy explorator fleet, the increase in personnel and ships had also multiplied the difficulty and cost of management. Omega had had to devote more and more energy to miscellaneous tasks. He didn't dare to just dump everything on the Tech-Priests. The result of giving them power would likely lead to some things happening on the fleet that Omega really disliked. He felt that he not only needed a captain, but also a steward, a steward who could manage the fleet in an orderly manner. But he had looked around and had not found anyone he trusted and was capable enough. Although Laust could do it, he was also a Tech-Priest. It was not appropriate for him to do this full-time. So Omega had set his sights on an artificial intelligence—a high-level artificial intelligence.