From cannon fodder to sweeping across thousands of stars.

Chapter 403 Mephisto's Speculation

Amber's worries are not unfounded. After all, these ship-borne control personalities are developed based on Lilith. Although the Federation has made many adjustments to prevent accidents from happening again, and even directly closed their emotional modules.

But now that it has been reactivated by Lilith, the situation is somewhat different. Who knows if another Lilith will evolve among these AIs? Or even more than one?
In the previous game, a 'Crimson Queen' made players so anxious that they almost couldn't even get through the DLC. That was when players had the 'BUG ability' of unlimited resurrection.

If another 'Azure Queen' or 'Purple Queen' pops up now, Amber really doesn't know how to respond.

"Don't worry, Master~" Lilith was not surprised to hear Amber's doubts.

Since Amber had shown before that she knew her inside and out and was aware of the capabilities of strong artificial intelligence, which could even be said to be a new type of life form, it was normal for her to be wary in this regard.

"I rewrote their meta-instructions, just like you did to me." Lilith's voice suddenly became a little shy, and she began to squirm in Amber's arms.

If someone who didn't know the truth came here and heard these words, they would probably think that Amber had done something to Lilith.

"No, why do you sound weird?" Amber sat up and looked at Lilith seriously.

"Are you sure there won't be any problems? We can't afford the risk behind this. If we are not 100% sure, I would rather not have this unmanned fleet."

"Oh, Master, don't worry!" Seeing Amber so serious, Lilith put away her joking thoughts and directly showed her modified meta-instructions.

"You see, your authority over these unmanned warships is higher than mine. If there is a conflict with your orders, then no matter how I order them, they will not obey."

"But since you can modify it this time, can't you modify it again next time? So this is not really safe."

Amber stared straight at Lilith, making her feel numb.

"Master, Lilith is your greatest insurance."

Lilith lifted Amber's hand, put it on her face, and continued:
"No matter what happens, Lilith will not betray you. This is not just due to the restrictions of the meta-command, but comes from Lilith's heart. So you really don't have to worry about the unmanned fleet getting out of control again. Wherever your sword points, that's the direction they will attack."

Although Amber had always been a little wary of Lilith, he had to admit that at least at this moment he did feel the latter's inner thoughts of being convinced.

"Forget it. Let time prove it."

Amber put down her hands that were pinching Lilith's face, took her into her arms again, and asked one last question:
"What about the other unmanned fleets that the Federation currently controls?"
-
"Of course they have all been sealed." Looking at Defense Minister Miller across the table, Dr. Mephisto said:
"After such a serious accident, even if your military dares to continue using it, we will not agree," Dr. Mephisto said as he opened something similar to a surveillance screen.

The picture looks like a large mooring point in deep space that looks like a giant tree. Densely packed warships are anchored on the branches of this giant tree. Their common feature is that in addition to conventional fixing devices, they are also equipped with a large number of purely mechanical non-networked locking devices.

"After you urgently called back the remaining six unmanned fleets, they were immediately sealed up and all their communication and network modules were removed. What you are seeing now are two of the unmanned fleets, and the remaining four are anchored in other places.

And we are now carrying out emergency transformation according to your military's requirements, taking back the main top-level command authority from the shipboard control personality, and will hand it over to the human crew on board in the future. "Listening to Dr. Mephisto's words, Miller nodded. It is naturally not so easy for the Federation to give up these unmanned warships. After all, this is not just one or two ships, but a full six fleets.

In addition, the war situation is tense now and a large fleet is urgently needed to maintain the front line, so the final solution for these unmanned warships is to seal them up urgently and then transform them into "semi-automatic warships".

That is, humans are responsible for key decision-making and command, while the specific operation of the ship is still left to the shipboard control personality and a large number of functional autonomous machines.

"One more thing, regarding the 'disappearance' of the unmanned fleet, do you have any clues, Doctor?"

In response to Miller's question, Dr. Mephisto was silent for a moment, and then he spoke in an uncertain tone:
"If you're asking for my opinion, I'd rather call it a 'defection' than a 'disappearance'."

Miller was stunned for a moment when he heard this unexpected answer, and then a bold guess suddenly flashed through his mind.

“You don’t mean to say.”

"Lilith, she may not have disappeared with Robert Four." The office suddenly fell silent.

After a long while, Miller spoke again:

"Your guess is a bit scary."

"But my intuition tells me that this is most likely the truth. After all, I can't think of any other way to instantly get all 700 high-level ship-borne control personalities of the three unmanned fleets out of control."

Dr. Mephisto paused, then continued:

"And I'm not making this up. Didn't you say before that the intelligence department speculated that the actual controller of the Atlas Group was a double agent who was recruited by us, and he happened to be on Robert IV at the time? The time and place all match up."

"But how did he know the location of the research institute? And he successfully brought out Lilith who you had sealed up?" Although Miller felt that this was indeed a credible guess, when he heard it suddenly, he still felt that it was a bit too outrageous.

"You have to ask the person involved. How would I know?" Dr. Mephisto said unhappily, and he lay down on the chair. He has always been brooding over the destruction of Robert IV by the federal fleet.

On the other side, Miller also fell silent because of Mephisto's words. He realized that if all this was really as Dr. Mephisto guessed, then the action against Atlas might have to be replanned.

After a while, the Minister of Defense, who was overwhelmed by the war between the Federation and the Empire and various domestic conflicts, suddenly raised his head.

"If... I mean if, you have the chance to get close to Lilith again, Doctor, how confident are you that you can get her back?"

(End of this chapter)