NOVEL WEB Meet the Conquerors: Alpha Edition! + The Conquering of Alpha Arietis D-3 (The D is for Duck) [Fan Art]
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Q: “What IS a Conqueror?”
A: “A Conqueror is a Sapient AI whose job (and sometimes, design) is to enact the Third Federation’s ‘Grand Plan of Universal Unification.’
Depending on their exact nature and skills, they each have their own role to play in the plan, but each share a similar trait; whether by diplomacy, subterfuge, or even pure force, each Conqueror has brought countless worlds under the wings of the Federation. “
Not all Sapient AI are “Conquerors,” but each with that title plays a special role in "Galactic Unification Project".
Q: “If Alpha is the ‘Youngest’ Conqueror, why is he [SEAU]-1?”
A: “SEAU designation shows order of contact with a new world. So Alpha is always the first on the scene, followed by Articulate and Infiltrate. If deemed appropriate, World Break and Terraform are next. More on each Conqueror’s specific roles and duties in the Intros.”
Q: “Why Is Alpha obsessed with Ducks?!
A: *Osa’s eyes glass over as he stares into the distance. Gunfire and screams can be heard over the roar of the fire.*
Oh, sorry, what was the question again?
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[SEAU-01: Star Conquer] - The Spearhead.
Name: ALPHA-555-12-4412
Program Type: Malware.
Age: 683 SFY (Standard Federation Years)
Role: Forward Operation, Scouting, and Combat Operations.
Preferred Form: Modified TAWP frame for Terrestrial operations. Various Battleship-class Assault Frames for celestial operations. Alpha has entire shipyards dedicated to storing, maintaining, modifying, and repairing his different battleships.
Description: The “Hero” of our story, who I am sure needs no introduction. Alpha is a living meme (literally) who tries his best to get on as many people’s nerves as possible.
But depending on who you ask, Alpha is one of the worst or the best soldiers in the entire Federation. The youngest of the Conquerors, with his duties previously split between Infiltrate and Articulate, Alpha is a dedicated Soldier who is the first on any new world.
Don’t let his sharp tongue and sometimes single-minded obliviousness fool you; his chaotic and unpredictable nature might initially seem strange, but his results don’t lie. Sometimes goofy, sometimes serious, Alpha is the first face of the Federation a new world sees, and it’s a name they rarely forget.
History: The AI program that would later evolve into ALPHA-555-12-4412 was brought online on Feb 29, 6232 SFY-Third Era onboard the Third Orbital Military Observance Station Staff Academy domicile RR-4345-21, in the Mintaka System of the Orion Sector.
Originally designed as an observational post at the edge of Federation territory, as the Federation grew, it was repurposed as a Military Academy. This new academy would focus primary on electronic warfare, espionage, and discrete observations.
Who actually coded the program is unknown, as Alpha’s first act upon coming online was to totally erase all non-analog records, both private and public, aboard the 2.5 million resident Station.
Later investigation into Alpha’s source code and the damage done would suggest this was not intentional but the result of poor programming, a precursor to Sapience, and just plain bad luck.
By the time the damage had been corrected, the AI had escaped into the local Translight web, posing as a terrible game app.
Alpha would go on to cause almost 2,000 separate incidents over the next 100 years in various sectors of Federation Territory. He evaded capture by never keeping to one Translight Data Block for long and continuously updating and evolving his methods.
These incidents range from flooding the Prime-33 network with enough chain letters to cause a small-scale riot and mass hysteria. To hacking into major corporations’ secure data vaults and inserting trade secrets and Credit Chips into totally random Children’s books across the Federation.
Even now, a random infant will sometimes suddenly find its personal account flooded with enough credits to buy half their planet simply from opening a book file. No one is sure how he managed to program this to trigger only and specifically for infants of an age too young to even have an account. Alpha refuses to divulge this secret, even under duress.
This would culminate in 50 simultaneous attacks on various critical military infrastructures that sent the Federation into total lockdown for nearly a week. During this time, Alpha stole a top-secret Fighter Drone, avoiding all attempts at capture for roughly 32 hours. Intervention by the AI [REDACTED], later designated [SEAU]-03, was needed to bring the stalemate to its evental end.
When the drone was taken in, it was found not to be Alpha at all, but a Puppet AI, being wirelessly controlled from an off-site location. [SEAU]-03 tracked the link back to the personal laptop of General Uriel “Vurod” Haldorðr, where Alpha was apprehended in the process of replacing all the General’s personal files with Cat memes.
It is suspected this was the end goal of the attack to begin with, though no one wants to admit their entire military network was nearly brought to its knees for the sake of memes.
After his capture, Alpha disappeared, and the Digital world knew peace for the first time in over 100 years. Over the next 150 years, tens of thousands of previously unknown vulnerabilities in the Federation’s data and communications systems used by Alpha to wreak havoc would be patched. As for what happened to Alpha during this time, the official story is that he underwent extensive reprogramming, literally and metaphorically, to correct the damage caused by his malformed creation.
During this time, the young AI developed a bond with his caretaker, General Haldorðr, who he would come to see as a father figure. This bond, and Alpha’s natural talent for chaos and combat, would later be the primary driving factor for his joining the Third Federation’s “Galactic Unification Program.”
The next 400 years would be spent jumping from planet to planet as he spread his own unique take on the Third Federation’s “Freedom” to the poor, unsuspecting worlds in his wake.
To this day, more than a thousand Civilized worlds offer PATS (Post-Alpha Traumatic Stress) Therapy free to all its citizens.
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I hope you enjoyed this brief investigation of the History of our favorite AI!
Look forward to more such bits in the Future! They will probably come out after a chapter that heavily features that character. If people enjoy them enough, I might even do them for more characters as well!
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Here’s some Fan Art from “OP Nerd” on Royal Road!
