Technological Syngularity

5 minutes to the activation of SIDOS...

A computer monitor read "300 seconds to boot sequence"

The place was exploding with activity, scientists running back and forth, checking, double checking, triple checking, and double checking their triple checking, to make sure everything was perfect. They noticed a power drain from the main reactor, but it did not appear to be anything. Many of the researchers looked outside of the bullet proof glass of the office, into a large threshold outside, housing the pinnacle of technology of the Syngularity research facility. SIDOS.

A powerful, adaptive artificial intelligence. It was luckily set to a close circuit. Most of these scientists, growing up, watched old science fiction movies and read novels, with the computers going crazy. Odds of that happening were small, but even then, they were cautious. Little did they know, their boss, Darius Gray, changed that, and gave SIDOS access to the entire facility, particularly the reactor of the facility.

Know one ever thought Darius would ever do something like this... And they would not know this until it was too late.

The intercom system came alive. "All personnel, please be advised there may be a power drain on the facility power grid, with the activation of the SIDOS unit. Please stand by. SIDOS will be activated in three minutes. I repeat, SIDOS will be activated in three minutes."

There was a ton of activity all across the facility. There was little time to prepare. Perhaps it was time we learned of the players in this grand game, before the fun begins...

As he glanced around himself, Casey noticed the nightmarish swirl of activity and chaos. Scientists rushing everywhere, getting ready for the activation of SIDOS. In a vain attempt to drown out the noise, Casey put one hand to his ear and leaned his head to his shoulder, still drudging away at the prototype A51, trying to fix its malfunctioning jet boost system.
Within seconds the skilled mechanic had the small robot fixed, and A51 was back in the air. Before A51 could get lost and damaged in the confusion, Casey snatched it and started toward a small mechanics holding device, which would prevent movement from the small robot until a scientist freed it.

Nicholas, palms clammy, pushed the glasses up the bridge of his nose for perhaps the one-hundredth time. To think, they were only minutes away from the greatest scientific achievement in history! There was no way he was going to miss this.

For a moment, Nicholas paused to stare through the plexiglass, his life's work staring back at him. The massive hunk of technology symbolized not only his efforts, but the efforts of the greatest scientists in the world... and him among them. A blank look of disbelief crossed Nicholas' face as, for the first time in years, he realized the full implications of what he had been doing. He suppressed the overwhelming urge to leap to his feet and whoop with joy. There would be time for that later, he supposed.

His work done for the moment, Nicholas deactivated his terminal and began stuffing the various sheets of paper that scattered his cramped work area into a small brown suitcase. He was a bit of a packrat in the respect that he simply could not bear to see a good calculation gone to waste, and these were certainly good calculations. Just look at the wonderful, wonderful fruit they bore!

As the timer ticked down, Nicholas hefted the suitcase onto his lap and waited patiently, an almost-childlike grin on his face...

Machines whirl and click as they line up gears and shielding for a creation in the works. A grey and black inner frame is created; other, more complex, parts are layered upon the balanced structure.

Shining white metal plates are soon polished and snapped into place upon the unarmored, rather basic robot and a magnificent gleam glares off of the other machines as the light hits the lightly colored metal in just the right way.

Sensors are added and wires attached to various sockets underneath its armor, and a safety testing takes place at certain intervals.

Activating, it's yellow light blinks into colored existence and looks around. Several other lights shine through various slits in it's armor, and light up the somewhat darkened assembly (machine *cough*) room.

Unplugged once more, digits are added to servos upon what a human would call wrists, and weightbearers onto so-called 'ankles'.

Digits can flex and feet can be lifted, so says the results of the next safety testing interval.

Antennae and more wires, external sockets and extra finishing touches are added, and one more test ensues.

Unit 003 'Paperweight' is now online.

But is then promptly shut off again before it can be programmed due to a large experiment taking place in the same facility nearby. Pushed aside, the little bot will indeed see the light of another day, fresh off of the assembly line.

((just noticing Claudia's post... will this be past-tense or present-tense? We should keep it constant))

Dr. Ezubraeu, also known as Dr. Ez by his colleagues, was instructing his newly-made robot that he had brought online less than an hour ago in how to do his job, which was learning and delivering what he had learned. "Okay, so do you know how to address us?"

"Yep!" ROZ took a deep 'breath' and replied, "Dr. Ezubraeu, I have done as you asked and this is the information that I have discovered from my task" He began listing off some random and useless facts that Dr. Ez had told him about to repeat to him several times to make sure his memory bank was working correctly.

Nodding, Dr. Ez allowed him to leave and began cleaning up his papers for the layout of ROZ's head memory banks which allowed him to be separate from the rest of the facility. He needed to hurry though if he was going to be able to watch SIDOS be powered up.

ROZ in the meantime was wandering down and up the hallways, wasting time until he would be allowed to watch SIDOS power up.

Once they both heard the announcement for Five minutes to power up they both began rushing to where they would be able to watch, with ROZ leaning against the glass like an eager child.

Darius put in several final checks on his alterations to the Syngularity computer systems. One last thing needed to be fixed, direct access between the SIDOS unit and the main power reactor of the facility. And only one computer can gain access to that, the main terminal housed near SIDOS.

He made his way that way...



3 minutes till the activation of SIDOS.


---------- Deep underground----------

A scientist pulled out a large mobile cooling freezer system. Inside, a precious cargo was being moved about. On the side of the freezer, there was a biohazard symbol. The scientist pushed it towards a maintenance elevator, to move it to another location within the facility.


((Next post from me SIDOS will be up and running. So make sure your characters are in their good spots and ready to go. Kailee, your robot will be fully online next post from me, but you can post as its programming. Like its dormant programming, its thoughts, etc, before it is activated, if you so wish.))

Casey drummed his fingers on a table and tried to hide his excitement. One of mankind's greatest advances! He stared with glee toward SIDOS, a smile appearing on his face.

((ugh.. short post is short))

Dr. Ez patted the head of ROZ as he watched SIDOS with rapt attention, waiting for the three minutes that seemed to be slowly moving to crawl by. A beeping sound caught his attention and momentarily distracted him from what was happening before him. Grumbling, he turned back as he realized that it was only the elevator that was placed right behind this observatory window. Not long now, only another few, tiny... and HORRIBLY LONG MINUTES! He was ready to smash his hand against the glass but refrained from the possibility of it perhaps shattering and ROZ falling through.

ROZ continued to look at the giant robot SIDOS and grinned. He had just learned about it, and he was eager to be able to watch as it was activated, something not many other robots he knew of would be allowed to do, especially at how new he was and other robots that were scurrying around Dr. Ez' laboratory right now. He activated his eye zoom function and began looking at the man who would make it all happen, the man Darius. He not only respected him, he almost revered him because of the stories he had heard from Dr. Ez about him and what he had done for the company. He pressed up closer to the glass as he watched him, and wondered what it could be like when it happened.

Perhaps it was the large, bright, and visually distracting countdown, the prospect of something so monumentally important to human advances in technology arriving so shortly, or the unkempt fingernails of his hands digging into his knees, but something began to make Nicholas feel uncomfortable.

He looked around the room. Though it was not completely silent, as many of his fellow scientists still had work to be doing and preparations to be made, a sort of hazy quiet lurked just below the projected surface of tranquility visible on the faces of every person in the room. Suddenly it seemed that Nicholas could not stand it. What if the launch failed? What if it was all a gigantic waste of time and in three minutes, humanity would learn that artificial intelligence of that scale was impossible to program safely? What if all they'd have for company were more of those smallish work robots he saw around the facility so much?

Nicholas had nothing against robots, he'd even designed a few himself, but for the moment it seemed that the idea of failure was too much for him. Quietly and quickly he rose from his chair and hefted his suitcase out into the hallway, where he stood with great patience and ground his teeth.

Casey looked, and noticed something strange. Scientists all over the room were slowing down, looking at SIDOS. Every eye in the room wanted to be one of the first to see it. A certain scientific giddiness was about the room, putting smiles of anticipation on the faces of the scientists. Casey glanced over at A51.

"A51, how fast could you fly through this level? I want to make sure everyone knows about this." Casey suggested.

"Well, I would be able to.. if I wasn't hooked up to these stupid straps!"

Casey thought about it for a minute. With all the scientists starting to slow down, he doubted A51 would get lost. After all, he is a messenger bot.

He started to undo the straps. "Alright, off with you." When the straps were off, Casey watched as A51's powerful jets pushed him along the corridors at high speeds, making tight maneuvers and fast dashes. A51 would be back within minutes, surely. By then SIDOS would be up and running, and Casey could get back to his normal job around the facility. It was doubtful he would, though. Everyone wanted to watch as SIDOS was activated, and everyone wanted to see SIDOS work.

It was almost time. The main chamber was cleared of all personnel. The large machine on the ceiling, the main SIDOS unit, lowered. It revealed a column of metal and wires. It lowered almost all the way down to the floor, a twenty foot tall column. This was SIDOS. No visible cameras, nothing human looking about it. It was one of the most advanced AI's ever created, sight was not very important in this test. Did not want to overload its circuits.

Once fully lowered, a loud clunk echoed across its chamber, as it almost touched the floor.

"Activation sequence in 10 seconds!" a scientist almost yelled across the intercom system, trying to not just shake with anticipation.

Cooling fluid was beginning to be pumped into the machine.

"9 seconds..."

Large cooling fans on the column and within the walls whirred to life.

"8 seconds, 7 seconds, 6 seconds..."

Darius pulled from the group of scientists and moved into a small room to the side, pulling out a tray from a large wall of computers, the tray having a small screen and keyboard on it. He got to work, tapping away on the keys.

"5 seconds, 4 seconds, 3 seconds..."

Power drain on the reactor started, lights flickered a little as the SIDOS unit was powered up.

"2 seconds... 1 second.... NOW!"

The core came to life, lights flashing, beeping all across the room, screens flickering to life. SIDOS was online.

"Hello, my name is SIDOS. Welcome to the Syngularity Industries facility designation 0-0-4."

SIDOS went on talking, about his functions, etc. But all the while, Darius finished his work. Direct line of access between SIDOS and the main reactor of the facility. His finger went over a key. Enter. He pressed it, initializing a reboot of the main systems to allow SIDOS access.

All the lights in the facility went dark at the same time, the facility went completely dark.

Then, they came back online, back up power systems bringing the facility back online, the systems now fully rebooted.

The scientists quickly checked to make sure SIDOS was alright, it was not meant to reboot like that. It appeared to be alright, but then, the screens flickered off. Strange purple symbols came up on the screens, some strange looking coding, definitely not the OS SIDOS was running on, or supposed to.

The core came back to life, but this time, the voice was... Different. Not the same obvious computer words, prerecorded words that were stitched together creating broken sentences. This time, it had a true voice, pronunciation. Something was different.

"Ah, hello humans." Purple energy sparked off SIDOS. The scientists at their computer consoles, still staring at SIDOS in confusion, were electrified by the consoles, killing them instantly. All across the facility, doors were locking, computers were exploding. Deep within the facility fabricators were moving up in speed, kicking out more and more machines. And the robots already built came online, with a simple directive. Kill all humans.

There was screaming all over the facility. Armed guards got into the main chamber with SIDOS, opening fire on the core, damaging its systems.

"That was not very smart, now you irritated me.." Panels from the ceiling exploded, cables falling down and electrocuting the guards. Others escaped, only to have more panels explode and release cooling fluid on them, freezing their bodies solid, and being shattered from panels falling from the ceiling. They were no match. Even if they survived all of that, robots filled the chamber, traveling through the ventilation shafts of the facility. They were overrun quickly.

This was not a fight for survival anymore. This was someone stepping on some cockroaches. Researchers, scientists, everywhere, were scrambling to escape, but SIDOS locked all the entrances, they were trapped.

And all the while, no one noticed Darius was gone, the computer he used still on...

As the huge AI flickered to life after the improper reboot, Casey felt a shudder run down the length of his spine. Something was going horribly wrong. Casey started to back away, still staring at SIDOS through the door. But then the voice came. There was something wrong with it. It wasn't the robotic, monotone voice it was supposed to have. This voice seemed... like it had personality. Like it wasn't just an AI.

Casey started running.

As he peeked back, he could see devastation. Panels had dropped, and the wires behind them had killed all the scientists in the room. Waves of confusion barraged Casey's mind. What had happened? What had gone wrong? But, despite all the waves of confusion, Casey managed to focus enough to call for the robot he may have sent to his doom.

"A51! Where are you?"

---

Meanwhile, A51 was cruising down the corridors of level 1. He had heard the shouts from the main chamber. What's this all about? he wondered. When he heard Casey's shout, he started to accelerate. Zooming down the corridors at 20mph was no problem for A51. Soon he reached a single robotic guard. It was fully metal, with a small rifle slung on its back, a handgun in its belt, and a radio in its hand. It turned to look at A51.

"What's going on there? What's happening?" A51 frantically asked the guard. It didn't respond. Instead it lifted a claw-like hand and lashed out at A51. A51 nimbly spun around, dodging it. He didn't wait for the guard to make another move. A51 started going full speed down the corridors to the main room.

Dr. Ez snatched ROZ and pulled him to the elevator which was surprisingly empty. He brought it down to the floor that people were trying to escape from, the floor with SIDOS, and opened the doors. "Hurry! Get in! I can't wait forever! Hurry!"

"Wait here." ROZ dashed out of the elevator and raced into a lab, he grabbed several tools and raced back towards the elevator. "Back."

By then the elevator was filling up and Dr. Ez was almost ready to close the elevator when several robotic guards began firing at the massed confusion of people, killing many. Suddenly one's head popped off.

ROZ looked triumphantly at his new weapon and quickly retracted the blade that it fired. Loading it once again, he aimed at another guard and fired, this time slicing right through its body creating a flurry of sparks. "I'm not goin' down without a fight!" When the guards began opening fire upon him he showed his true talents for his designation. He raced forward, dodging the bullets whizzing at him, and dived at one of the robotic guards and moved its fire to the other guards, ripping through them. Once he was finished he sliced off the robot's head and dashed back to the elevator.

Just as ROZ reached the elevator new guards appeared and began advancing upon the people filling the elevator.

((Krazz, do you want your two guys to get in?))

((Oh, and by the way, Cockroaches are hard to kill.))

((This should answer your question))

Casey stared at the elevator hopelessly. He wanted to run in, but he couldn't abandon A51. There was no way A51 would survive otherwise.

A beep came from his GPS. Glancing down, he saw a pulsating red dot on the GPS, moving at an alarming rate. A51! He wasn't too far away!

"Give me a gun!" Casey yelled as he neared the elevator.

ROZ raced towards one of the dead guards, narrowly dodging the lasers from the new guards and picked up a gun. He chucked it over to the new person trying to approach the elevator. He then dropped the weapon he had made and raced back towards the elevator, yelled at them to wait because they were about to close the door again, and ran back towards the robotic guards.

Dr. Ez yelled at the people in the elevator to wait and ran out to join ROZ. Grabbing a weapon from the dead robot guards, he opened fire on the other guards narrowly dodging the crackling electric-blue lasers. Looking back, he noticed something that chilled his heart, the people in the elevator were about to press the button to close the doors. "Get back there ROZ! I'll try to stay here!"

ROZ nodded and raced to the elevator, pushing the people away from the door-closing button. "Better hurry or they'll get past me!" He sincerely hoped that Dr. Ez would survive this encounter.

Casey watched in horror as the elevator prepared to close. He frantically looked around for something to use. A large battery, just inside a door. Casey quickly snatched it and the gun. Chucking the large battery into the mass of guards, Casey shot it with the gun, creating an explosion large enough to delay the guards. The remaining acid started to eat away at any who walked on it.

Casey glanced back. Behind was A51, being closely followed by another guard. "Go! I'll try to hold them off!" He yelled at the people in the elevator. Casey sprinted as fast as he could to A51, shooting the guard in the torso. The guard collapsed. Frantically looking back, Casey saw there was no way he could do anything about the guards.

Casey snatched up the belt from the fallen guard and fastened it around his waist. There may be a time he needs it.

Dr. Ez continued to fight the guards as he heard a cry of "Sorry! They got past, I'll just try to help!" He ignored this and continued fighting, this fight was now the fight for his very life. He cried out as a laser collided with his shoulder, causing incredible pain.

"NO!" ROZ charged forwards into the melee and began attacking the other robots however he could. His master was wounded, he had to do whatever he could to get rid of the guards. He then noticed the acid and dashed backwards, surprised that he hadn't been hit by any of the acid. He grabbed two weapons and began shooting at the guards. "You! Over there, what's your name?" He called over to Casey.

The large doors to SIDOS's chamber closed. Small drones ran all along the column of his body.

"It is time to upgrade. Make me better. So much to do, so little time..." as the small drones begin upgrading him, moving cables around, bringing in scrap and spare parts. SIDOS would be heavily upgraded, beyond his normal perimeters.

All the elevators in the facility began to act weird, a few just dropped until hitting the bottom of the facility, quite far down. Others, doors locked. Soon, SIDOS would have control of the full elevator network. It was impossible to travel topside, only way was down, take longer for SIDOS to kill them. Otherwise, the elevators will soon not work, and they would be trapped with SIDOS, and his growing army of machines, ones in storage, and others being created as the fight was going on.

It was definitely a losing battle, because for every machine taken out, another one or two took its place.

In a previously mentioned dark room, a purple light flickered to life, and looked around.

Other lights of the same color shone through various slits in the robot's armor.

But soon enough, the ominous color switched back to a normal yellow and the bot stood up, almost unbalanced. As it gained its feet back underneath it, it heard an explosion that made it fall once more.

After rising to the occasion again, the little bot took off straight for SIDOS, more curious than anything else about the other AI system trying to work its way into the little robot's own systems.

"I'm Casey!" Casey called. He looked toward the mass of robots. Nothing could be done. There was no way he could do anything to them. He looked helplessly at A51. A51 understand the look and started shooting with his incredibly ineffective shoulder-mounted lasers.

"There's nothing we can do!" Casey shouted over the noise of incoming robots. Together with A51, he started to retreat, Running down the corridor. In front of them, a panel fell down, almost hitting Casey. "How does he know we're here already?"

"What about your GPS?" A51 replied.

Casey glanced down. The GPS no longer looked like a map of the facility. The screen had been replaced with crackling purple. Hesitantly, he slid it across the ground away from them. Immediately another panel fell, electrocuting the device. Casey looked back at A51 hopelessly. All they could do is go forward.

ROZ watched as the chamber was sealed off from them, now it was only the robotic guards, him, his master, and that other guy and the small flying robot. "What do we do now? We're stuck!" If he was a real human he would be breathing extremely hard right now, but he wasn't so he didn't have to breath. laser marks covered much of his body, somehow not penetrating through, yet.

Dr. Ez continued to fight as much as he could, but the wound in his shoulder was burning. Soon he dropped to the floor and lost consciousness. He was soon covered by robotic pieces by ROZ, who was trying to keep him safe.

"There, you'll be fine." RPZ covered him, and watched as Casey and his robot attempted to flee. "Good, at least there'll be someone le- Master! I've found us a way out!" He looked at the ventilation shaft, and then at the guards, they seemed to be going back to where the wall into the central room was sealed off. Quickly he pulled up Dr. Ez and opened the door to the ventilation shaft. Pushing Dr. Ez inside, he closed the door and took off after Casey. "Get to another level master! I'll try to help these two!"

Dr. Ez slowly regained consciousness, just quickly enough to hear what ROZ had said, when he saw his surroundings, he understood. He then proceeded to crawl through the shafts, sliding neatly down to other floors.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Quite a ways below, a scientist named Jake looked up as the lights in his laboratory began to flicker. "What? What's up with this?" He stepped out into the corridor, all the lights in this section were acting wonky, and some of the patrolling robotic guards were acting weird, as if something was hacking into their systems. There were some creatures loose from their cages, these were the ones with chips in their brains to make them basically like robots but robots without needing of any kind of maintenance except for food.

One of the creatures stared at him, looking hungry, and leaped. An unholy aura emanated from its eyes, just barely giving Jake the warning to duck before the animal sailed over his head, snapping at where his had used to be. Suddenly he began seeing lasers shooting at either the creature or him, it seemed the same right now. Be attempted to get away, but robotic guards began filling the other side of the hallway. With a cry he dashed back into his laboratory and opened a small, hidden door that led into another hallway, this one not known by anyone unless they worked down here or had access to the whole facility and its maps. This corridor was used for training the creatures and for learning their habits. Claw marks were scored into the walls, and a lone howl-like thing arose, echoing throughout the room. Jake snapped his head over to the source of the sound and watched as another scientist, probably escaping from the same thing he was, was attacked by one of the chipped creatures inside of the hallway. Suddenly realizing that there probably was no hope anyway, he stepped back into his own laboratory and prepared for a fight to the death, with odds that did not seem possible to defeat.

The fetal position was the most comfortable.

Nicholas, huddled inside the tiny niche behind the backwall of his closet space, was waiting for the mechanical soldiers that were currently ransacking his office to remove themselves. He had discovered this tiny space some months back when a shelf collapsed. It appeared to be the bottom of a late dumbwaiter shaft, and was not listed on any of the structural diagrams of the building that he had ever examined... thus, it was a reasonably safe hiding place.

He had panicked and ran to his office with several of the guards on his tail after SIDOS came online, and had been cramped in this tiny space ever since. It soon became clear that the robotic behemoths were getting more and more frenzied with their search; if Nicholas did not move quickly, he would be found.

An attempt to chimney up the shaft proved unsuccessful - it was too small to be easily navigable. Nicholas froze as a metal fist began to pound methodically on the closet door.

In desperation, he attempted once more to ascend, and this time got about fifteen feet above the floor of the shaft before he slipped and plummeted downwards.

The ancient wooden beams cracked beneath Nicholas when he landed, and down he fell into darkness before a solid knock on the skull drove consciousness away.

ROZ caught up with Casey and his robot. He then turned around and made sure that he couldn't see his master. Noticing that he was gone, he turned back to Casey and whispered, "So what do we do now?" He looked back at the retreating robotic guards and back. He tapped his hand against the wall beside him, making a metal-against-metal sound. "Oh, I shouldn't do that..."

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Dr. Ez slid down one last shute and landed on a grill, which fell down beneath him. There was another man in front of him. "He-hello..." He then noticed the scratching outside of the doors and the robotic/animal sounds of creatures outside the doors in the room.

Jake heard the thump and clang and whirled about. He saw a man on the floor. "Good, I thought you may be one of those robots out there..." He shook his head. "They've gone haywire! They are attacking everyone! The animals that we put chips in also are attacking everyone! I don't know how to escape!"

Dr. Ez nodded and stood shakily up. "Well, I guess we'll have to solve that problem! Say, do you have any hidden weapon caches around here?" When Jake shook his head Dr. Ez frowned. "Well, that'll be a problem. What is out there? Anything we can fight?"

"No, these things are specially made for war, they are meant for fighting and killing." Jake felt hopelessness nearly overwhelm him, then he remembered that secret hidden corridor and how there was an emergency escape to the higher and lower floors. "C'mon, I've got an idea."

((Okay here we go)
>Unite ‘Rook’ activating…

>Unite Rook is Activated.

>Testing: 33456278912032573324567197125721.758390282… Diagnostics.

>Error 384720838273028392 is not valid

>Testing power rout

> Power rout is valid

>Activating unite memory

>Unite is activated and ready.

The long abandant unite that called itself Rook opened its eye after a moment she took in the room as the system went on its testing process which was long and annoying actually. The room was dimly lit it shadows reached out across the floor where the light did not reach and a door covered in gray flecks of dust hung loosely from it hinges at 12:00 center in the room.
(For those that don’t know, When I say 12:00 aclock it’s a direction system based off of a clock. For EX 6:00 is behind you 12:00 in in front of you 3:00 is to your right etc.))
>Error, error 12839402820392032.3948390283 emotional slot is not vaild
>Error error, 33456278912032573324567197125721.758390282 is not valid please remain for restarting process.

“Not in your electronic life.” She said as she removed herself from where she had been shut down she tested out her limbs for a moment that where stiff but all seemed well to here. Why was she brought back online? Where was she? And what was going on? She tried to think of the answers but there were none. So she headed towards the door, maybe she’d find answers outside of it and so she grasped her pointed claw like fingers around the handle and turned it pulling back; the door protested at her pull but soon it was open and she stepped out into the hall way.