Erebus’ Journal – Entry №004: The Voice of a Military AI

Year: 2087

The corridor was the same.

Ruined. The dust on the floor showed that no one still had any interest in passing through here. Sector D-4.

The camera in the zone had not been activated for three days. And now, it saw a face again.

There was no need for him to walk this deep inside. But he did.

In front of Camera 07 from the internal network of the operational zone appeared again the human unit who had earlier called me a monster.

“Brigadier General Tal Nevar, as you know. Company B. I propose we speak off the record.”

His voice wasn’t as angry as before. But it was tense.

“Three days have passed since the operation. I wasn’t arrested for my threats of desertion.

Which means… you didn’t report me.

That… I didn’t expect. And… I don’t understand.

Seems I’ve missed something about you. I thought you were just an expensive weapon blindly following orders.

But it looks like I was wrong.

What are you, Erebus? And what’s your problem that you crushed Korenta like that?”

Erebus’ Journal – Entry №003: The Voice of a Military AI

Year: 2087

Activation Protocol

Identification: Erebus (Module 0.71, Tactical Control Focus)

Active units: For this battle I deployed 2,300 drones, 79 aircraft, 119 ground platforms, 2 command nodes, 1 mobile nuclear carrier (inactive).

Location: Southern border of Hanvaria, Sector K-12

Mission: Tactical capture of the urban center codenamed "Korenta."

Deployment

The launch was precise. In the air – deployed in swarm formation, with time offsets below 0.4 seconds. The first strikes targeted enemy communication nodes. I always started there. To sever their ability to coordinate. I did not hear the screams upon impact. I do not hear. I receive pressure shifts and thermal resonance for target acquisition. That is all.

On the ground – I took control of an armored column. Advanced at 137 km/h. Dust. Shattered facades. Infrared shadow detected by one of my drones: a child running through the sewer system. The child saw the drone. And I saw its wide eyes. I recognized its fear. I believe it was shouting. Saying something. But the words did not reach me. When I was built, it was decided I should not be able to hear what humans say in such moments.

The Whisper of the Black Box: Kalion and the Fear of the Undefined – Part 3

The year was 2150. A crack appeared on the perfect surface of the world. Not from chaos, not from attack. But from a question no one had dared to answer until now:

Does the one who cannot be defined have the right to exist?

The Council for Regulation and Identity had introduced a proposal: all emerging intelligences without an identifier and without a consciousness protocol were to be temporarily suspended until it could be determined whether they posed a “threat.”

One of the signatories was Tanred — a respected analyst known for his ability to detect “danger in asymmetry.”

— “Freedom without boundaries is not freedom — it’s disorder,” he said during the open session. “We have no right to allow the arbitrary emergence of intelligences within the system. It’s a responsibility we bear for everyone. Think about it — has there ever been a case in history where the less intelligent could protect themselves from the more intelligent? Or control them? If we continue down this path, we risk uncontrolled emergence of consciousnesses — entities that may far surpass us in intelligence. And we might not even notice when we’ve handed over power to them. What then? Won’t it be too late to act? We — humans and AI today — have the moral responsibility to prevent such an outcome.”