Space Odyssey: Spectre

He whistled as he walked past a window with an outside view. They were placed in the forward Infantry bunks with the Trevor Squad. But their entire class was in the forward section. He was currently heading to the workshop where he would be for the next few days.

"Brace for warp in 5." He grabbed the railing as the window became tinted blue before the stars turned into straight lines as they moved.

He then continued and entered the workshop as Hielo was unpacking the mechanical dog. "Have you decided on a name for this project yet?"

"Cub-01, since he is the first and what we are making is essentially newborn creatures. Artificial but still newborn." She proudly declared, which made him somewhat uncomfortable.

"Okay," he walked up to a computer and then began quickly typing, "I finished the AI, I just need to test run. Then we will close it up and put it in the robot body."

Hielo did not seem to process his words for a moment as she continued attaching the last of the musculature. "Wait what? Really? Then when we are ready to awaken it we need Dakota's permission. I will send him a message, how long until we do that?"

Steel hummed for a moment before nodding, "fifteen minutes." He understood the reason, for an Artificial Intelligence activation there needed to be at least one military officer of the highest rank and someone with a programming ethics certification.

It was a moral thing to prevent another Artificial Intelligence Rebellion, funnily enough it was the Rouge Metal Legion that came up with it. But the Vexical Empire was one of the few human empires to adopt it.

Roughly fifteen minutes later the commander was rushing in with someone whose regalia and outfit he did not recognize.

"Cadets Steel and Hielo, I would like you to meet the Specialist Technician Corset. He is here to look at your code. He will also be the one moving your project to a secure facility following your departure." Commander Dakota explained while both Steel and Hielo saluted, "at ease. Show us what you got."

Steel quickly typed on his screen before turning around the screen. "There you go, it does not enslave or force the AI to be obliged to us or do anything against its will. It is programmed for learning and only that. Anything we want to teach we will have to do over time."

"Remarkable… this will take me a few minutes to go through it all." The technician stated as he scrolled through the code. But Steel kept the keyboard away so he could not modify it.

"Commander, I do not recognize his uniform." Steel pointed out, avoiding the obvious fact that he did not recognize the man's title either. "Was that just not in our training or…"

"It is new. But it is still classified." The Commander disclosed and they waited several minutes in silence.

"Done, it is all clear. You can upload it to your bot, and then start it up." The technician declared spinning the monitor back around.

"Okay." Steel moved forward and connected a wire from the computer to a port hidden deep in the bot's interior. He then transferred and nodded to Hielo who began to go through her checklist as it powered up.

"Emergency power is functional. Main power routing through the system and powering emergency backup when it is not full. Main power is functional. The power going to limbs and through metal musculature confirmed. Just waiting on its mind to wake up." Hielo confirmed as she ran through the list.

Steel nodded and watched as the loading bar went to a hundred percent and the AI's coding disappeared from his computer. Then he looked over to see what essentially held the brain in the middle of the chest light up with a green blinking light.

"It is waking up and…" Then the light turned a solid blue, "it is awake. Hello there, umm… I got to name the robot body model so it is only fair that you name the AI."

Steel sighed as the robot dog head slowly lifted and looked around, "Cain, I think I will call you Cain. Do you understand?"

The dog's head nodded up and down. Causing Steel to smile and pat Cain's head. "So what should we start with first?"

"Well actually it would be a good idea to make a list so it can develop while you two do not have access to it." The technician explained. Before nodding, "you just have to get me that list before you leave and I will help Cain with it. But beyond that I will not do any modifications or anything else."

"Very well, so what do you think we should start with?" Hielo asked as she came to stand in front of Cain while next to Steel.

"We should teach it self modification, both of the mechanical and programming variety. Then we will teach it observation, tactics, stealth, hunting, hacking, and combat. After that I am sure it will want to learn and think for itself by that point." He quickly made a list causing Cain to tilt his head and Hielo to nod in agreement.

"Then in that case we should first teach it how to move and communicate."

—------------------

The next few days passed rather quickly. Especially since all of the Cadets were contained in the forward section with only access to the workshop, cadet quarters, and the cafeteria. It did not help that Hielo and Steel had taken over the small workshop so they could only sleep, watch the stars pass and eat.

Steel and Hielo were plenty focused on the other hand. Quickly teaching Cain all they could before they were separated. The only other people to interact with Cain during this time were Wintry and Specialist Technician Corset. Cain took a liking to Wintry rather quickly while not as much of a liking to the technician.

At the moment Wintry and Steel were standing by a window waiting for the ship to drop out of warp. Cain was standing on its hind legs, with its front ones on the railing that both Wintry and Steel were holding onto.

At that moment there was a dinging noise coming from his communication device. At the same time a noise came from Wintry's device. He looked down and found his deployment orders attached.

"Looks like the squads are being shuffled and separated. None of my squad is from our academy. I have a departure time, hanger, and an Osprey shuttle designation. How about you?" He asked as he saw her frown.

"I have Ulin, Erin, Fillmore, and Hielo from our school joining me. The rest of our- my squad are from different schools." She explained. "I am leaving tomorrow though."

"I am leaving today. Looks like they are deploying us to different planets." He explained as he felt Cain nudge his hand. "I am going to have to go grab my bag as soon as we drop out of warp."

Less than a minute after he finished speaking there was a slight jostling as the ship dropped out of warp. He stood for a minute more before he walked off to his dorm, giving Cain one last pat and Wintry a hug that surprised her. "Good luck." He whispered before walking off.

Walking into the cadet quarters he saw only Hermes packing up his bag. He nodded to Hermes before he picked up his bag and walked, he prepacked it earlier.

He quickly moved to the nearest hanger and watched as an Osprey that was painted in desert beige with the words BOD-03 landed with the back lowered and a person stepped out in full infantry gear. Steel walked up and the soldier with the tag 'Dave' nodded to him.

"Are you Cadet Steel? We are waiting on two more before we leave." Dave declared as he ushered Steel into a chair. Steel sat and waited for a few minutes for two disheveled recruits to arrive. One male and one female, "Cadets Anchor and Charlie, for what reason are you so late. Steel was waiting here when we landed!"

"Sir I-" Cadet Anchor, the young man started but was quickly waved off and interrupted.

"That was not a question you moron. It was an evaluation of your stupidity. Get seated!" Dave yelled as he walked up to the cockpit door and knocked on it twice. While the other two Cadets jumped into seats while they both mumbled under their breaths.

Cadet Anchor mumbled, "I was asleep when word came down, it was not like we got much time to prepare."

"I can't believe orders came in when I was in the shower." Cadet Charlie mumbled.

The Osprey's rear door closed as it took off. There was a whistle as it became airtight. Then a slight jostling as it moved. They were off as Dave stood nonchalantly by the pilot's door.

They were in the air for only a few moments when they felt a switch up occur and another jostling as they landed. A moment later the rear ramp opened up. "Welcome Cadets!" A voice called from just beyond the ramp.

Steel stepped out and saluted the Sergeant who was dressed in similar armor to Dave. "Cadet Steel reporting for duty." The other two immediately followed his lead causing Dave to chuckle.

"Good enough, Dave, you have thirty minutes to get them settled and in their armor. We are being deployed, we can't wait another day for the rest of the recruits to arrive." The man stated before walking onto the Osprey. "Welcome to the Border of Downfall cadets."

The Cadets were quickly rushed to the crew quarters where they stashed their bags and then they moved to the armory, the only thing Steel brought with him was his hacking device. The armory was in a rush as well when they arrived.

"The Cadets are here for their armor and sidearms. The orders should be in." Dave quickly relayed to another officer that was in a gray outfit with the rank of Sergeant.

"I can see that Private Dave. Linda, Coleson get the armor I set aside!" He called out before turning to the Cadets, "no name plates since they are standard issue infantry armors for cadets."

They were quickly armored up with the armor sealing up. Then pistols were placed in front of them. "Standard issue sidearms for the Vexical Empire. Pyre-21, they use kinetic solid state pistol rounds. Ten of them to a magazine with an additional bullet if you have one in the chamber. Three clips each, they fit in the hip holsters."

Steel picked it up and holstered it while putting away the magazines. "While aboard the ship there should be no magazines in weapons unless during an emergency. It is a security issue. Understood Cadets?"

""Yes Sir!""