FSE

Furry search engine

formerly SoFurry search engine

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Titans of the World - That's not Funny

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Next chapter in "Titans of the World," still short and sweet, like before, but the chapters are going to get a bit longer. This series will end in the next two chapters.

Character Copyright to The Copilot

edited by Warrior Scribe

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(Chapter 4)

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Flying through cyberspace, running from the many search programs, that's where my story starts. My name is Rain and right now, I really wish I was someone else. Why am I running? Well, why do most people run? To get away from something that frightens us and what is currently chasing me right now is the single most frightening thing I've ever seen. The Weyland Company Central Artificial Intelligence. Ever since I hacked into the mainframe with a fake user, it's been following me, toying with me even. Usually, I leave Cyber and just log off, but I couldn't. Somehow, this mainframe had all the exits blocked and was working on cornering me. I don't know why, I never actually did anything.

The Central A.I. Is the only program of its type in the whole world. To my knowledge, only the vast entity referred to know as the Company has succeeded in creating a self evolving computer system capable of independent thought. There has only ever been Cen, as it calls himself, and I was desperate to see his programming... to see perfection. When I hacked in, it didn't notice immediately. I was awed by the complexity, tier upon tier of programming layered upon a core system. It was absolutely amazing to feel the power of its intelligence as it buzzed around me. Then something happened, it kind of felt like a giant pause and I could feel something turn its intense concentration to me and I was mortified. It felt alive. he felt alive.

As frightened as I was, I logged out immediately and ran. Ever since then, it's been playing a giant game of cat and mouse with me and I can't escape it, usually it lets me go, but not today. Flying and flying, search programs like blood hounds followed me faster than I could run, I knew I was caught.

"Alright, you got me, I give up," I said, stopping. I could feel a virtual gust of wind rush past as my pursues tried to stop.

"What do you want from me?" asked Rain, looking at the chase programs. They blinked out of existence and a ghostly white face appeared before me. It's eyes were deep wells of knowledge and logic that seemed to pull in all light, like a black hole.

"Your help," said the face.

"My help?" asked Rain, his puzzled frame of mind written all across his face.

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Thomson starting coming around rather slowly, the effects of the stunner wearing off. He coughed, and groaned. Opening his eyes, he realized he was flat on his back, sprawled out in the dirt.

"What happened?" Thomson asked himself out loud. He was looking straight at the sky and everything was still kinda fuzzy. He heard a figure walking towards him and he struggled to get control of his limbs back. He recognized the feeling of numbness in his limbs, he had been stunned by someone but who? The figure loomed over Thomson, blocking out the sun and casting a large shadow over the man.

"I happened," stated a familiar voice. All at once, memory flooded his mind.

He had heard that voice just before he was stunned, it was Gabriel, the soldier he left dieing on the side of the road back in the Middle East. He was hit almost directly by a mortar round and Thomson was sure he had died, no one ever lived after being hit by a mortar.

"Gabriel?" Thomson asked, worry evident in his eyes.

"Yes," said the figure, stooping so that Thomson could see him. Thomson was not in anyway, shape, or form ready to see what he saw. The eyes he knew, but the rest of the figure before him looked like a creature of lore.

"No," said Thomson incredulously.

"Yes," stated Gabriel.

"It cant be, your not human!" Thomson, still incredulous.

"Not anymore," said Gabriel patting Thomson on the shoulder. "You let me die!" Thomson averted his eyes and went quite after that last comment, staring off into space.

"Hey, you going to get up and out of the dirt and join the rest of us or are you just going to sit there and stare at me?" said Gabriel, standing up and offering Thomson a hand.

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Thomson, Kayla, Marcus, Joe, Husker and Alvarez had assembled inside the command tent, Gabriel and Sam on one side, and the rest of the team on the other. There was a tension between the members of the team that was palpable as the human members stared at their Android counterparts.

"So, you're alive?" Husker ventured.

"No," Gabriel replied with a shake of his head.

"Yes, you are," Kayla replied with a bit of confusion. "You survived."

"Well, yes and no. I am alive, I am still me. My body is neither. I... just... am," Gabriel said with a shrug.

"Well, I'm glad you're back," Kayla said with a smile, leaning across the briefing table and trying to be a bit flirtatious.

"Thanks," Gabriel replied with an uninterested stare.

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"What do you need my help for," Rain asked. He was floating in a small white room, a suited figure standing before him.

"Emotions," said the suited avatar of the Weyland Company Central Mainframe.

"What do you need my help with emotions for? I'm a programmer."

"One of my minds was developing a program so I could experience what it means to feel, to be alive."

"What's the problem then?"

"I feel."

"Congratulations, your programming worked. Can I go now?"

"I feel, but I have not implemented my programs."

"Oh--" Rain squeaked. "--that is a problem."

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"So then I pulled the trigger and, oh God. The look on your face when that gun went off was almost worth dieing for!" Gabriel laughed as he tried to imitate Thomson's shocked expression, but his humor was shared only by Sam, who was laughing like a jackal. Everyone else just shifted uncomfortably in their seat.

"Right, note to self... my death, a touchy subject," Gabriel said, rubbing the back of his head.

Sam giggled again, a laugh breaking out before he clamped a hand over his muzzle. He took his hand of and coughed before another laugh broke free, yet again.

"Sam, that wasn't that funny," Gabriel said as he watched the grey wolf.

"I know," Sam said, laughing and standing up.

"Then, why are you laughing?" Gabriel asked as he too stood up.

"I don't, ha! Know, haha!" Sam replied clamping a hand on his muzzle again, his forehead wrinkling in worry.

"Sam, are you okay?" Gabriel asked as he took a step toward the wolf. Sam got his laughing under control and straightened himself up.

"I... I think so. Say something, anything," Sam said, trying to keep a serious face as his lips twitched into a smile.

"Uh... vegetables?" Gabriel said, a brow rising. Sam immediately started laughing uncontrollably, doubling over from the convulsions of his laughter and tears rolling down his face.

"What... what's wrong with me? I can't stop, it hurts!" Sam laughed, but he pulled his hands away to examine his paw. "Tears," Sam laughed again. "I can't have tears, I'm not alive! I'm not built for this," Sam said, looking up at Gabriel before he gasped and grabbed his head, falling to his knees with a scream.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaah!" Sam shrieked as Gabriel ran and slid to him. The wolf just locked up, his voice turning into a computer scream as he twitched before his body fell limp into Gabriel's arms. Looking into Sam's eyes, Gabriel found that they were totally white, it was like the wolf had just turned off. Turning on his internal transceiver, Gabriel quickly radioed back to Cen.

"Cen something's happened to Sam!"

"I know, what was he doing before I shut him off?" Cen replied back.

"He just started laughing uncontrollably, even crying!"

"Laughing? Sam doesn't laugh, he's not programmed for humor and he definitely does not have actual tear ducts. Something must have happened, but what?" Cen pondered over his connection.

"I... I gave him an upgrade."

"You did what!? I never taught you to do that, you weren't ready!"

"Are you saying the nanites did this?"

"I'm saying you did! I've analyzed his mind, I found you in there. Pieces of you have bled over into his programming and he can't handle it."

"What are we going to do? Can you take me out of his head?" Gabriel asked.

"You've done enough, I will try to fix him. Until then, you wait."

"Wait? For what?"

"Your transportation, she will be there soon enough." As Gabriel received that message, a gust of wind ruffled the tent momentarily before all light passing though the cloth was blanketed in darkness.

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"Zephyr, it's time."

"Is it?" the mind of a Titan answered back, long inactive systems coming slowly back to life.

"Yes. Here are the coordinates. You're cleared for jump status when you are ready."

"Command confirmed," Zephyr replied, massive engines charging even bigger capacitors, ready to unleash a massive wave of energy that would momentarily displace the ship form natural space.

"A command, this is not. Zephyr, you are a friend, this is only a request. Everything has always been a request."

"And as always, I understand. Jumping."

Somewhere, in a near condemned hanger, a ship similar in appearance to a Zeppelin rose a foot out of it's cradle before a flash engulfed it end to end. The ship, Zephyr herself, blinked out of existence and reappeared on a whole other continent, floating directly above a training sight command tent. Zephyr was a Titan, one of a kind. She didn't know where she came from, no one did, but she was vastly different from the 100 or so Titans that had once roamed the skies. She was much smarter too.

Zephyr appeared to be a Zeppelin, her appearance made even more so by the addition of ion drives and fins placed by Cen. Zephyr was everything a typical Titan was not. She was small, she was fast, and she was capable of things that science said was nearly impossible, especially for the level of technology that was existent in the days of the oil wars. She was everything the typical flying carrier was not. She wasn't well armed, she wasn't well armored, and she didn't look like eight aircraft carriers trying to emerge from a box. She even relied on lighter than air technology, like an actual Zeppelin, though it was only partially responsible for keeping her aloft. Her grav motors did the rest.

Cen had found her drifting over an ocean, and upon entering, found her dormant. She had no memory of who had made her, what she was, or how she was able to do the things she did. She was held aloft by a combination of hydrogen balloons and anti grav, and her tiny engine was more powerful than that of a titan 8 times her size. She also had the first ever hard shields capable of stopping actual projectiles. When all other titans relied on armor for rail gun attacks, and shields for beam weapon, she had a shield that could do both. It was because she was so impossible, that she was special. That and the fact that she was the only Titan to ever be piloted by it's own A.I let alone one of only 3 full conscious, self evolving, learning A.I.'s in the world.

As Zephyr landed, she rolled out a ramp and prepared herself for the first crew she would ever receive.