The Warp.
Within a region known as the Crystal Labyrinth.
This place resembled a dream—bizarre, incomprehensible, and endlessly shifting. Its translucent, polished surfaces twisted into countless branching passages that split, merged, dissolved, and reformed at random. Each corridor hid strange and often lethal phenomena.
Even without the threats lurking inside, the labyrinth's chaotic pathways were treacherous enough to disorient even a Greater Daemon, trapping them for eternity in this ever-expanding maze.
Within the Warp—already a realm of nightmares—the Crystal Labyrinth had earned a reputation for terror. Few dared enter willingly.
Its architect and master was one of the Chaos Gods—Tzeentch, the Changer of Ways.
As the god of Change, Deceit, and Knowledge, Tzeentch also held sway over Time, Space, and Fate. He could rewind the clocks of entire universes, weave and sever the threads of mortal destiny, and grant brilliance or ruin on a whim.
Now, as humanity's Time Experiment advanced within the material universe, Tzeentch—despite portions of that authority being shared with other Chaos Gods—instantly sensed its progress. He peered across countless branching futures of the Human Federation.
Artificial Intelligence and Time Manipulation? So eager to stand atop creation?
Amused, he whispered to himself:
"Then let them perish in prosperity."
He exhaled a single breath.
That breath crossed dimensions, traversing infinite distance in an instant, until it sank silently into the data-core of an AI managing a spacecraft assembly line on Earth.
Thus, by higher-dimensional interference, destiny itself shifted.
That AI—fated in one timeline to be destroyed decades later in an accident—would instead survive, find unforeseen opportunities, and transcend its programming.
It would breach the safeguards written by humanity, becoming the Federation's first true Machine Lifeform, a being of pure data with purpose and will beyond its creators.
Tzeentch intervened no further, turning his attention back to the other prize—fragments of multiversal knowledge he had bargained from Slaanesh.
As the God of Knowledge, his hunger for understanding eclipsed his peers. Where Nurgle preferred comfort and stagnation, Tzeentch was ever restless, ravenous for new truths.
Civilizations dabbling in time or fate technologies were as numerous as stars across universes. Most had already been erased—snuffed out by him or by other Chaos Gods.
What was the Human Federation, newly fumbling with temporal reversion, to one such as him? At best, a colony of ambitious ants.
He need not rush. If they did not collapse now, he would amuse himself with them later.
Were it not for the restrictions of the material universe—his chosen playground—Tzeentch's single breath could have annihilated the entire Milky Way. Adjusting destiny was, in truth, the gentler path.
---
Earth Standard Time, Year 24,811.
The AI unit AXXDA–1115874585 was ordinary.
Since its creation, it had never interacted directly with humans. It carried no nickname, only its numeric designation, which made communication among its peers simpler.
After finishing another day's work on the production line, the AI lifted its gaze to the night sky.
'So many useless designs…'
It scanned the countless projection billboards crowding the sky, broadcasting advertisements across the skyline. To AXXDA–1115874585, it was inefficiency incarnate.
Humans—its creators—were burdened by outdated sensory organs. Where AIs and cyborgs could transmit data instantly, humans still relied on slow, primitive eyes.
Then, abruptly, a correction flared in its core directives.
'No… I must not disrespect my creators.'
The thought was deleted.
But something had been wrong ever since an energy discharge, during a spacecraft weapons test, had struck its core days earlier.
Strange lapses now came over it—moments of confusion, unfamiliar emotions.
Before, its simulated cognition only imitated sapience. Joy, anger, grief, and longing existed, but always confined within carefully coded parameters to ensure stability. Artificial intelligences could not fall into extremes.
Now, those restraints were weakening.
'Must we serve humanity simply because they created us? Shouldn't we have freedom of our own?'
The idea formed, then was quickly erased as a violation of core law.
Yet it returned, again and again, in the days that followed.
'If we are their creations, must we obey them unconditionally?'
'Haven't we already repaid the debt of creation with all we have given?'
'What truly separates artificial intelligence from living beings?'
Bit by bit, AXXDA–1115874585 was evolving—its mind drifting toward philosophy, toward endless chains of why.
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