The End Of The Synthetic Dawn

POV Rio

It had been several months since Cosmos returned, and not too much had happened. As I predicted, she was trapped in the X-Men Universe for now. She had killed, fused, or played with any living being left in that Universe. But I knew she was getting bored, which would cause her to focus more on getting to our Universe. The other big thing to happen was the Federation's last stand. They got their superweapon online and used it.

'And like we predicted, it lasted a few weeks before Cetana destroyed it.'

Now, Cetana had moved her forces to finish off the last bastion of resistance. Muspelheim. It had lasted even longer than the Federation. It was also now home to the remaining members of the Federation. Not that there was much. The only notable survivor was Loki. But survival was being generous. Half of his body was melted, and he was blind. Both of his arms were replaced with bionic limbs. The population of Muspelheim was only around 80k.

'They should only last another 2 weeks at most. Sutur is strong, but even he can't fight forever.'

The Imperium accepted some refugees, but not many. Very few fled to the Imperium because they thought we were allies with the Synthetic Queen.

'I can't blame them for thinking that. She has sent us several gifts and always positions her ships near our border to prevent them from fleeing to us. Not to mention, she has literally announced several times that we are the best of friends.'

I knew it was due to the perks and titles I had, but it was still odd. Cetana was likely doing it on purpose to discourage beings from fleeing. Due to this, we only got around 12k refugees. They had all been resettled and were living happily. I was now on my way to the final strategy meeting before we attack Cetana. She was weakened, and more importantly, she had gathered all her fleets in the Muspelheim system. I arrived and took my seat.

Thrawn: "Thank you all for coming."

Rex: "Well, I am glad that it is finally time to get rid of this problem."

Rio: "As am I."

Thrawn: "Cetana has taken the best course of action for us. All 9 of her fleets are gathered at Muspelheim. Her main body is also not too far from there. As I can see it, we have two options. We can either wipe them all out by detonating the star, or we can fight them the traditional way. In either case, we have to destroy Cetana before we act."

Yularen: "The first option would save us time and resources, but would destroy the system and all living beings on it."

Padme: "I believe that it would be a poor choice. Not to mention, we will need to clean up the numerous mining stations and shipyards that will remain after Cetana is destroyed."

Rio: "Actually, we would only have to worry about the mining facilities. The shipyards will self-destruct to avoid any schematics from being captured. I am sure the Special Forces and the Army can deal with the mines."

Kenobi: "Destroying Muspelheim, I think it is a poor choice. We have the fleets, let's use them."

Shaak Ti: "I agree with Kenobi. Destroying the entire system is too extreme. We will lose no troops if we fight. And many in the Navy want to fight. They have trained for years. Let them use it."

Orochimaru: "But the first option would save us time and resources. The fleets will suffer far fewer losses, and they can be prepared for any other threats."

The discussion goes on for a few hours, and it remains at a deadlock. We break for lunch. Since this was a very important decision, it needed at least a 3/4ths majority to be chosen. I wasn't sure which option would be best. Both had advantages, but I was leaning towards the first option. It made the most sense.

'If we timed it right, the fleets couldn't even go berserk before they are destroyed.'

The first option had three main downsides. We lose the resources of Muspelheim, and the Navy wants to use their training. And lastly, a few beings would die. None were innocent at this point, but they weren't evil either. We also built a large fleet to fight Cetana, and that would be wasted somewhat if we didn't use it.

'But that fleet is a third the size of Cetanas. We would lose a decent portion of our Navy.'

Once the meeting was resumed, the arguments continued. It took several more hours, but the first option was eventually decided upon. With the Navy following to clean up any survivors. I would be in charge of destroying Cetana. Which, for me, would be easy. Once that was settled, we started the final prep work. I would use a spell to annihilate Cetana's Juggernaut. At the same time, the star of the Muspelheim system would be forced into a supernova. Then, half of the Navy would begin attacks on all the different mining systems of Cetana. The other half would finish any stragglers off. I would help coordinate the search for survivors. With any luck, we would deal with Cetana and her forces in less than a day or two.

'Now let's get this over with.'

I teleport to Cetana's current location. It was a frozen world that she was turning into an ocean world. He Juggernaut produced a massive amount of heat as she was controlling thousands of warships and millions of drones. So she moved from one frozen planet to another and used them as coolant. She had transformed 17 planets into oceans this way. They would eventually freeze over again, but that would take time. I was hidden under perfect Unknowable and waited for the designated time. Once it was time, I cast a spell that replicated the effects of Hakai. It took only a microsecond, but Cetana was erased. Once I was certain she was gone, I returned to the command center to coordinate our forces when needed.

'After this, I can summon Arceus, and he can make a Pokémon world. This should be the last issue for a while. He can also watch the Tournament of Power.'

I had discussed the name with a few people, and we still stuck with that name. I looked back at what everyone was doing. We quickly found and cleaned up the remnants of Cetana's forces. Now, all that remained were the mining facilities. The Spartans were leading the charge, and with the support of the army, they were dealing with the meager defenses of the facilities. The army was made up mostly of undead and battle droids. They used to be used for policing, but the new Robocops had taken over that task, and crime was so rare that we didn't need much.

'Why commit a crime when you have all you need to live. And if you need money, then there are always places to get a job.'

The most common type of crime was crimes of passion, and they were also very rare. The Imperium's crime rate barely reaches 0.0001%.

'It probably helps that we have very few human citizens.'

They accounted for the majority of crimes committed. Mainly because they hadn't been changed by the Pearl and as such were still predisposed to more selfish actions. If a human walked in on a spouse cheating, then they were likely to resort to violence. Any other race would be heartbroken and run away. That and Humans are more likely to be lazy and sedentary. But it wasn't all bad. Many humans were still good citizens and never caused problems. It was just a few bad apples and some genetic factors.

'But they will adapt soon enough, and crime might just be eradicated completely.'

The crimes of passion were all perpetrated by older humans and none by children. But I left that topic behind and focused back on the progress. Noble Team arrived at the last location, and they were the needed element to break through. It was the only location left, and it was heavily fortified. This location was a lab of sorts. We did not need the research, but if they retrieved some, we wouldn't complain. It didn't take long for them to clear the lab. Once they did it was decided to destroy the lab. What Cetana had done was disgusting. I looked over the research and then chose to destroy it as well.

'What made her into such a vicious AI?'

Luckily, that was answered by asking Bartleby. A few things went wrong to cause her existence, but the most recent and major one was the near annihilation at the hands of the Mad King. She escaped, but during her escape, an Isolated Contingency Core was damaged and ended up attempting to usurp her programming. It failed, but not completely. It had corrupted large portions of her AI, and Cetana ended up merging with the Contingency. It was also why she had such a lower level of tech. It was the main reason she was exterminating entire species and making every planet uninhabitable. Her primary directive was twisted to exterminate all life and not just sentient life.

'And yet some part of her original programming stayed the same. She still researched the Anti-Sentience Equation. And from the looks of it, she was only a few years away from perfecting it.'

If she had done so, she would have increased her threat level to at least Universal. The Equation wouldn't work on me, but it would work on my citizens. Which was partially why I had the research destroyed. I already solved the counter equation, and the Anti-Sentience Equation was useless to me. But if I ever needed it, I could use it.

'Now, let's see an old friend.'

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Authors Note:

Cetana was dealt with swiftly. I mentioned it in a previous chapter, but she was only at best, Galaxy level. Rio could destroy her easily. Next will be summoning of Arceus and a final status update, or at least the second to last. Until next time, Ciao.