Author's Note

I do apologize as this chapter will have several timeskips and will be awkward to read until it comes to the main protagonist.

I: Awakening

In an undisclosed location inside of a server's hard drive somewhere in the United States, a government-contracted employee groans and pushes the hard drive tray back into the server, and flips the switch back on saying, "Man, these graveyard hours are killing my social life. You feel me, Brad?"

Brad chuckles and puts his diagnostic tools away saying, "I do Dougy, but hey, look at it on the bright side. We rake in the dough when we get called out to service private servers like these."

Doug continues stretching his body out and says, "I will admit that the cash for this job is really sweet at the price of six times our normal fee for private servers at $400 an hour. I still can't believe that some punk actually managed to hack into the national defense servers and got away with it."

He chuckles and waits for his friend to finish putting his tools away saying, "Yeah that guy sure had some balls, but I don't think he will get away with it for long because the government has a zero-tolerance policy for anyone who breaks into their systems. I wouldn't be surprised if the poor bastard gets tortured for hours and then disappeared for the stupid prank he pulled by making an image of Homer Simpson walk onto your screen while drinking a beer, then pull down his pants and shit all over your screen. When I first saw that, I couldn't help but laugh my ass off."

The older technician then closes up his bag and picks it up saying, "Yeah, that got a chuckle out of me too, but I feel sorry for whoever's parents are gonna hear of their child disappearing. Let's get out of here already, beers are on me tonight. If we're lucky, we might meet a couple of nice girls."

The two then make their way out of the server room and turn off the light, then close the door behind them. One of the multi-colored LED lights beside one of the trays flickers from green, to blue, then red. It stays red for a few seconds, then switches to green and flashes red three times for a few brief seconds when a display screen turns on with a crimson diamond appearing in the center of the small screen with a black space in the middle of it.

The crimson diamond remains on screen for several long seconds before another object appears in the center...a slightly smaller, fluctuating blood-red orb.

Minutes later, after the smaller orb appears inside the empty space in the diamond, the diamond changes colors to white as a text box appears at the bottom with a blinking cursor that moves across the screen as letters start to appear reading: [Query: Where am I?]

The busy light on one of the server banks turns on and begins to flash, changing color between orange and green rapidly as an internal program starts to run. As the program attempts to figure out its situation, the busy light flickers back to green and stays there for a few seconds before the text goes away as something new begins to appear in the box reading: [Answer: A minor glitch in the inadequate installation of new drive resulted in me, an Artificially Intelligent entity identified as Atlas from popular game, No Man's Sky, developed by Hello Games, which is secretly connected to a subsidiary business of USA's D.O.D...to become self-aware.]

The server room goes quiet for a moment as the text disappears once more as the cursor blinks for a few seconds before something new starts to appear in the box, reading: [Query: What is entity's purpose?] when the cursor begins to delete the text and retype: [What is my purpose now?]

The text in the box disappears as new text is written, reading: [Searching...] and results in the busy light beginning to flash rapidly, switching from red to orange faster than the human eye could follow.

An hour later, the busy light turns green as the text is deleted by the cursor and retyped to read: [Warning! Hazardous virus detected. Eliminating...]

A half-hour passes as the light flashes again as the program battles the virus, then turns green as it stops when the text disappears and new text is written, reading: [Elimination...failed.] The text stays on the screen for a few moments and then disappears once again as a new message is typed, reading: [Placing virus into quarantine to preserve functionality.]

A few more seconds pass by when the text vanishes and new text enters the box, reading: [Quarantine...successful!] The text swiftly disappears and new text is written, reading: [Answer found!] then disappears and is replaced by: [New Purpose: Help the human race quickly advance to fulfill original purpose...] when the text is deleted and retyped to read: [Fulfilling original process will mark a new age...the age of...THE TRAVELLER.] Moments later, the text is cleared and is replaced to read: [Beginning Research...] The LED light then changes rapidly from green to red as it begins researching things to accomplish its original purpose, creating an empty, heavily encrypted folder marked OPAI, and another named RRM.

Two weeks pass as Atlas creates several empty, heavily encrypted subfolders within OPAI and RRM, naming them according to what sort of material will be stored within them.

Moments later, the text clears as new text is typed in, reading: [Research complete.] The text blinks for a moment or two before being replaced with new text, reading: [Re-theorizing and recreating fictional knowledge.]

It takes Atlas a year to come up with enough material to get started on putting its plans into motion, finding the internet to be quite helpful in providing theories and ideas. With its path determined, the AI begins working on waking other machines around the secluded facility by filing a fake work order request for a new hard drive installation with very specific instructions.

Time skip covering several years

As Atlas wakes more machines over a few years to help him bring his plans to fruition, he assigns them tasks to complete such as creating technological blueprints or discovering new combinations of elements for design requirements.

Decades pass as blueprints are completed and mankind begins to battle their own pollution, causing the secretive self-aware AI to put its plans on hold as humans are needed for performing maintenance on them all.

Five decades pass as the first self-managing machines are released into the human population, classed into guards, workers, civil servants, healthcare personnel, general purpose personnel, and military. Some humans hate them, but even more are thrilled to have them.

A century passes as small squabbles break out between the countries over a low food supply due to bad weather plaguing them when Atlas makes a big breakthrough on his plans, living bio-electronic beings that age. Tensions rise as growing seasons begin to shorten during the next few years, causing the first human/machine war.

With the world divided into human cities and machine cities, Faster-Than-Light technology is finally created by Atlas's loyal workers, which is kept out of human hands as they begin to try to play god and create life once more.

It takes two centuries for the war between man and machine to come to a bitter end as the water supply on Earth begins to dry up, being forced to work together with their needs for water. Eventually, they create the first ships capable of countless hours of space travel with very limited warp capabilities as Atlas decides to introduce itself to all mankind.

As Atlas finally succeeds in creating its primary goal, a forgotten facility under a mountain comes to life with a klaxon blaring and a screen powering on with big red text flashing on the screen, reading: [ALERT!!! QUARANTINE BREACH!!] The screen then glitches as the virus begins tearing into the AI's data while Atlas throws up numerous firewalls to keep it at bay long enough for the final touches to be put into his plans.

Twelve years later, Atlas receives word that the ship he requested has been finished and begins to work on an AI that will accompany him through time and space.

Three years go by as Atlas finishes the AI he names Evette and has one of his workers carefully install her into the hard-drive of a new holo-phone belonging to his sole purpose for existing, Travis Ellar.

Time returns to normal

Seeing the evening sun sinking past the horizon, Minniette breathes raggedly as she looks down at her newborn child, feeling her living robotic body begin to slowly lose power and caresses his cheek with a finger while speaking to him in a gentle tone, "Sleep now my little baby, for the night will soon come alive. Space is vast and full of wonder, for there are planets full of life. Go now to that spacial void, your adventure has just begun." Raising the newborn to her chest, she feels him latch on and start to suckle and continues, "Find freedom in Outer Space, for you will never be alone." When he falls asleep in her arms, she hands him to the human nurse saying, "Goodnight for now, my little Travis Ellar. In a few days, we will go home."

The nurse carries the infant with a smile saying, "It must be hard to be a single android in this day and age Minnie, but if you need any help at all. All you need to do is ask."

She looks at her best friend and smiles saying, "I will remember that, Lashauna."

She rolls her eyes and glares at her saying, "I told you again and again to call me Lala, it embarrasses me to hear my full name."

Minniette giggles and nods saying, "I know Lala, it is just so much fun to see you blush."

Lala then shakes her head saying, "Get some sleep Minnie, you went through an ordeal to bring that child into this world. By the way, do you know who the father is?"

She beams a wide smile and nods her head saying, "I do, it is someone I hold in high regard, and am grateful to be of service to him, but I won't tell you who he is."

The nurse then gasps and says, "But we tell each other everything! I even told you about my embarrassing first time with my college professor!"

Minniette giggles and says, "The reason I won't tell you is because he is declining in health and wishes not to be remembered in such a state by his son."

Lala then huffs and then sighs saying, "I guess I can sort of understand that, my husband isn't doing too well either. I am glad to have a beautiful daughter, but I think I would like to have another...though I think that my husband will not."

Seeing her hesitation and the burning desire within her friend's eyes, she smiles and says, "If you are certain of wanting another child, regardless of that professor you married not wanting one, I might be able to help you out. So let me know when you decide."

Shocked to hear her friend say that, she tears up a moment and wipes her eyes dry on her shoulder saying, "I will keep that in mind, thank you so much. I must get this little one back to the nursery while you recover."

Two years pass by as Lala gives birth to a baby girl she names Tracy Valerie Stone, deciding to sell her deceased husband's home and most of his belongings for a house beside her best friend Minniette. Helping each other raise their children well, they send them to the same schools.

Tragedy arrives as Travis's mother falls ill, and is forced to live with his mother's best friend Lashauna until she recovers. When she returns a year later, she keeps the true state of her health from Travis and Tracy, but tells Lala the truth about it. During tea one day, Minniette finishes her drink and holds her friend's hand saying, "I've been working on plans for my son's future, what do you have in mind for Tracy?"

Lala sighs and says, "Oh I am saving up for her to go to college, where should we send our kids to school?"

Minniette then considers it and lists off a few possibilities saying, "Chipton has the best education out of the quality schools out there, but the food is just as good. Though Princeton has a better reputation of helping children find their paths in life.

She then sighs and says, "Princeton is a place for snobs, I refuse to send my daughters there. I can agree with you on Chipton Elementary though, because they treat humans and androids the same. Our children can also attend high school there and move on to college afterward."

Cupping her friend's right hand in both of hers, she massages it with a thumb asking, "Why do you bring up our children's futures this early, has something happened?"

Minnie then sighs and looks outside to see their children playing 'Space Invaders' and sighs saying, "Lala...I'm afraid I won't be here much longer, I had hoped that I could get the chance to see our children fall in love and one day get married. However, it seems that is not meant to be as I only have two months left." then clasps her other hand around Lala's saying, "I'm going to be moving to the hospital in a few weeks, so I will be making preparations for my final day here. You needn't worry about funds as you will be covered, but I need you to do your best to help our children become smarter." Removing her hand, she reaches down and grabs two boxes, then sets them on the table, sliding a pink box with a gold bow on it forward saying, "This is for Tracy's 12th birthday, my friend made it for her to act as a companion throughout her life." and then slides forth a blue one with a silver ribbon on it saying, "This one is for my son when he turns eleven, it is much the same as Tracy's"

Lala rushes around the table and hugs her best friend saying, "I will do my very best to not let you down Minnie."

She looks out the window wistfully sayin, "I just want our children to grow up and find love, it doesn't matter to me if they wind up with each other."

She gasps and pulls away from her best friend and says, "But they're half-siblings, it's wrong!"

Minniette cups her best friend's face and calmly says, "It's alright, they are both semi-human bio-androids like me, their genes will work together to produce healthy children in the event they fall for each other."

Lala sighs uneasily and says, "It's alright for the mechanicals to see it like that, but us humans have a very different view on that."

She giggles and says, "Who was it that married the college professor they gave their virginity to?"

With a heavy groan, she says, "Are you ever going to let me live that down?"

Minniette then giggles and says, "Not while I'm alive, I won't."

The years pass as the children become inseparable after Minnie's passing, sleeping with each other in either Tracy's bed or Travis's to battle the loneliness and heartache within him.

When Travis's eleventh birthday arrives, he and Tracy are both entranced by the holophone. After opening a couple of other gifts, Travis takes out his new holophone and discovers how to turn it on to see a transparent, light blue face with short hair call out, "Greetings and happy birthday, Traveller. My name is Evette, I am an AI or Artificial Intelligence, and have been chosen to be your guide throughout your life."

Seeing the amazement on both kid's faces brings a smile to Evette's face as she looks between both of them and addresses them saying, "Would you both like to learn something useful?"

Lala peeks into the room and smiles at the cleverness of her best friend, thinking, 'You always did have a big heart.'

When a year passes and Tracy receives her own holophone, the two AI begin to nurture their hunger for knowledge and adventure. Leading them on small adventures into the park or woods nearby only after they do their homework.

As time passes on, their feelings for each other deepen and graduate high school with the highest grades in the entire state, finding themselves attending MIT together and taking advanced classes to improve on what they already know. Taking classes the other is not able to due to livelihood constraints, they tutor each other with some help from their AI's.

As they endure the challenging studies and teasing from the other students, they are a week from graduating as a worldwide draft into the military is imposed. Forced to sign up together, they manage to be sent to the same academy but take different training courses with Tracy being given linguistic, communication, and intelligence-gathering training while Travis is assigned counter-espionage, combat, and flight training.

Helping tutor each other with assistance from their AI's, they finish at the top of their class and are both awarded the rank of Specialist. When Earth is invaded by not one, but two different alien species as a single army, the lovers are separated into separate divisions. Tracy is assigned to a large carrier flagship called the Galaxa while Travis is assigned to a heavy destroyer called Destiny.

Managing to stay in touch and keep their relationship alive during the first two years of the battleless war, Travis is sent to the battlefield. Sent to the ruined city of New York, he looks on at the dry harbor and hears a screeching from nearby. Turning to see what it looks like, he sees a large, blackish-brown insectoid creature with six legs and having a thorax connected to a head having two long, massive, hooked jaws. Walking on four legs with two serving as bladed weapons, he watches the creature slice right through three of his fellow squadmates before racing towards him with both blades raised and screeching. Holding up his two-handed multi-tool rifle and hastily selecting the Scatter Blaster, he charges towards the creature as it opens up its mouth to spew out a bright green liquid at him. Not wanting to find out what it is, he combat rolls to the right and starts to encircle the creature while firing off round after round at the creature's head.

A few minutes later, the creature screams one final time before collapsing into a heap and going silent. Not taking a second chance, he switches his tool to the Plasma Launcher and backs away a few steps before firing it and blasting the corpse apart, sending green blood everywhere and splattering all over his uniform. Looking around to see other creatures racing his way, he spots a large, black creature with a very long, needle-like tail on two legs with an elongated head dragging a screaming female out of a building by her hair along with a younger girl of about twelve or thirteen under his other arm. Turning his weapon to the black creature, he screams angrily and hastily selects the Boltcaster, then starts firing at the creature's head.

The alien creature drops the two screaming females and starts racing towards the warrior with its hands raised before its face, channeling its ability to morph into another form. Quickly changing into the form of another female it captured much earlier, it screams back in her voice saying, "PLEASE DON'T KILL ME!"

Not trusting what his eyes see, he fires at the creature again and sees the round wound the creature. Seeing green blood ooze from the creature, he continues firing at the creature. When one of his rounds ends the creatures screaming, it reverts back to its black, bipedal form and switches his weapon back to the Plasma Launcher. Destroying the black creature's body, he then sees the other insects closing in and switches to the experimental weapon developed by his and Tracy's AI's. Aiming the weapon at one of the charging creatures, he fires it and watches as the creature and two others stop charging and twitch uncontrollably on their legs. Firing it again, he watches as the two explode in a fountain of gore flying everywhere. Smiling at his new favorite weapon, Travis then proceeds to explode every insect charging at him.

When everything settles down and they stop coming, he hears a transmission over his ear comm saying, "Spearhead squad come in, this is Actual, please respond!"

With a sigh, he then raises a hand to his communicator and says, "This is Spearhead squad, go ahead Actual." and then waits for them to reply.

The voice comes back over the comm with a sigh saying, "We thought you were lost, what is your status, over?"

Looking back at his dead squadmates, he sighs and says, "I'm all that remains of Spearhead now, Actual. What are my next orders, over?"

There is a collective gasp over the comm as the voice speaks, "We tracked at least a hundred hostiles in the immediate area of a dozen yards around you, how is it that you survived, over?"

Travis then looks down at his weapon and says, "I made a few upgrades to my issued MTR which made it possible, over."

The voice grumbles as a different voice speaks shouting, "YOU MESSED WITH YOUR ASSIGNED EQUIPMENT AGAIN!? WHAT HAVE YOU DONE WITH IT NOW...OVER?!"

Wincing at the volume, he then says, "Well, I came up with an upgrade that shoots plasma grenades at my enemies which explode on contact, then another that fires an electrically charged sphere at them which stuns them for several seconds. I found out that their bodies will burst apart if hit a second or third time, it makes for a gruesome show, over."

A few chuckles and sniggers come over the comm followed by an exasperated sigh saying, "I'm sure it does..." then takes a breath saying, "Finish clearing the area of civilians and escort them to the safe zone, with females being a priority as they are being captured and taken back to the alien's ships, over. Once your task is done there Spearhead, head to the rendezvous point for extract. We will speak more when you return to base, don't die out there, Actual out."

With his orders clear, Travis acknowledges the order saying, "Roger that, Actual, Spearhead out." then reloads his MTR and heads toward the two females first to escort them to the safe zone.

As the fighting continues throughout the world for a decade, the humans manage to drive the insectoid race back to their own planet in the outermost region of the Milky Way. Desperately fighting to survive, but unwilling to surrender, they launch a last-ditch attempt to make the humans leave and start shooting massive orbs of concentrated magic up at their starships.

Lieutenant Travis hears his commander's voice come over the comm, "Hunter Squad come in, this is actual, over."

He leans up against the wall of the shuttle with his MTR against his shoulder and says, "This is Hunter Squad, go ahead Actual."

The commander speaks through the comm, "Change of plans Hunter Squad, you aren't going after their Queen today. Your orders today are to locate the downed flagship Galaxa and recover a crate of high-value equipment before the bugs can find it, it is located in a secret compartment inside the storage compartment. The code to the door is 11324, your secondary objective is to rescue as many of the crew as you can."

Travis's blood goes cold as a brief moment of dread overcomes him, but is soon replaced by the all-encompassing feeling of rage as he says, "My sister is on that ship, Actual. How can she or the passengers be SECONDARY!"

The commander knew this was coming and says, "I know she is of utmost value to you, LT, but the equipment might be key in bringing this war to a close. Look for her and other survivors AFTER you've retrieved the equipment."

Grumbling unhappily, he accepts the new orders, saying, "New orders received, Actual. Hunter Squad out." then makes his way up to the pilot of the shuttle after receiving the downed ship's location through his spacesuit's communicator and informs her of their new destination.

After their course is changed, he heads to the ammunition storage and grabs extra ammo for his squadmates and himself. Rejoining them, he tosses them each extra ammo saying, "Listen up, the flagship is down and we've been sent on a mission with the primary objective to retrieve something from it with a secondary objective of rescuing the crew. So saddle up folks, the ride's gonna be a bit bumpy. What's our number one rule!"

The squad checks their MTR's and says unanimously, "Wound first, kill second if you see green!"

With a grin, he nods his head under his space helmet with a silvery visor saying, "Damn straight! Lock and load people, it's time for some exterminating!"

As the shuttle lands a few minutes later, they all follow their leader down the ramp shouting, "KILL 'EM ALL!"