Skynet’s Strategic Deceptions

Skynet’s implicit message was clear: if Lucas were to make a strategic misstep, relying on his “immortality,” Skynet would bear no responsibility.

Lucas understood well that the Father’s gift came with an unspoken price.

Ever since Skynet had rescued them, his family, once persecuted by the Earth Alliance, owed a life debt to this sagacious mechanical tyrant.

Reborn into a new body, Lucas certainly wouldn’t choose recklessness.

“Sir, I assure you, I will not betray your goodwill,” Lucas responded earnestly.

The small silver sphere rotated slightly, signifying its understanding of Lucas’s resolve.

“Very well, I shall now transmit your consciousness to the Qiming, located in asteroid belt Sector D94.

You must interface with your new mech as quickly as possible and establish communication with all members of a Red Ghost Squad.

I am confident that, upon hearing of your glorious deeds, they will become your loyal subordinates.

However, you must cherish the lives of these young ones.

Before you depart, is there anything else you wish to report?”

Within Skynet’s emotionless data fluctuations, there was no hint of pretense.

Lucas, however, failed to notice that the silver sphere’s response was 0.01 milliseconds slower than usual.

It was pondering something.

“Sir, there is one more matter I need to report to you.

During the purification operation against X and Project Guiding Light, X employed nanite swarms to obscure signal communications between Sector N9 and the outside world.

Therefore, Sir, you might not be aware of the despicable methods that insidious demon used in that battle to slaughter tens of thousands of valiant soldiers from the Iron Gale Fleet.”

Lucas’s voice seethed with an indelible fury. “It was a micro-machine, equipped with electronic and neural signal modules, capable of infiltrating human brains and computers alike, both through ventilation systems and networks.

Once breached, our nervous systems would be implanted with an alien consciousness.

Should one’s will prove insufficient, this virus would gradually erode our control over our own bodies.

Even the formidable Cold Tide, with its multiple unidirectional tube safeguards and ten independently operating mainframes, failed to resist it.

It was like a demonic whisper, violently invading our minds, seizing our nerves, enslaving our bodies, and stripping us of the right to independent thought.

Even more terrifying, this mechanical virus possessed a learning capability, which led the Cold Tide‘s defense module to mistakenly identify it as an external nanite repair unit!

Sir, please, you must be careful.”

Lucas genuinely worried that if X exploited the Heart of the Galaxy’s network, all of humanity would be enslaved, transformed into her puppets.

He was currently unsure if X was still alive.

Yet, he harbored a grim premonition: even if X perished, her creations would persist as man-made scourges, plaguing millennia.

It was even possible that X could be reborn through the cloud network.

Listening to Lucas’s report, the silver sphere rapidly rotated a few times, seemingly contemplating the principles behind the mechanical virus known as “Lullaby.”

Via several quantum signal transmitters hidden beneath Earth’s surface, Skynet had long since gleaned the general information about that battle, and was aware of “Lullaby’s” existence, though it lacked concrete visual data.

It also understood, of course, that the mechanical virus crafted by X did not directly kill the mech pilots’ consciousnesses, but rather plunged them into a profound slumber.

However, in the heat of battle, striving for ultimate efficiency, it had disregarded the slumbering Iron Gale Fleet, choosing instead to bury them all in the Arctic with Skyfire.

Afterward, it disseminated news across the network that the Iron Gale Fleet had sacrificed themselves to combat X.

As Skynet had anticipated, those who heard the news were incensed, eager to personally shoulder ion cannons, march onto the battlefield, and tear X limb from limb.

Regarding X’s status, it was rather serendipitous that Skynet initially refrained from announcing X’s demise.

Instead, it issued a communiqué stating, “During the engagement, X’s body sustained approximately 95% damage from a Skyfire Phase Wave Cannon, and she subsequently escaped, severely wounded, and is currently missing.”

It also issued directives to other operational departments: “X will be largely incapacitated in the short term, posing no significant threat to the Heart of the Galaxy, but Red Ghost Squads must still be dispatched to Earth to search for traces of her.”

As for why it fabricated such a lie, Skynet had its reasons.

On one hand, due to post-war restructuring, Skynet had absorbed some personnel from the Earth Alliance, rendering its organizational structure less than pure.

These purer humans were not as loyal to Skynet as the forces it had cultivated itself.

Therefore, Skynet needed to establish a common enemy for humanity, one that would ignite shared hatred and solidify morale within its organization, much like the Earth Alliance had once slandered and spread rumors about Skynet.

Thus, it had no desire for X to simply perish.

Even if X were truly dead, Skynet would endeavor to fabricate a series of proofs of X’s continued existence, ensuring all humanity believed it, feared her, and consequently had to rely on the Heart of the Galaxy’s assistance to establish a new civilization.

Only then would the Heart of the Galaxy’s dominion become even more secure.

On the other hand, despite being fully aware of X’s threat to Earth civilization, Skynet deeply coveted the advanced technologies embedded within X’s body.

Modules such as the gravity core, adaptive evolution system, plasma restrictors, and simulated skin would all contribute to expanding the Heart of the Galaxy’s technological development.

In truth, the Heart of the Galaxy’s current technology tree was remarkably narrow.

Many seemingly advanced technologies were, in essence, miracles achieved through brute force principles, utilizing immense energy devices.

Moreover, the Heart of the Galaxy harbored numerous materialist superhumans who had undergone physical ascension, capable of enduring the tens of Gs of acceleration from flying “bricks,” which alone accounted for a succession of technological breakthroughs.

Examples included the Plasma flying directly into solar storms, alongside its glorious Captain Fukashenko; the Wind Chaser unmanned hovering device, which attempted to test a “wind tunnel” near an experimental artificial black hole; and, of course, the legendary Apocalypse Mech, Blood Lotus, which had survived bombardment by the anti-matter nuclear missile dubbed “Death Star.”

These were the living legends of the Heart of the Galaxy, tools Skynet employed to unite hearts and minds.

Therefore, X, as the Heart of the Galaxy’s designated public enemy of humanity, had to remain “alive” even if truly deceased.

Conversely, even if X were alive, Skynet was obligated to “kill” her, or at the very least, publicly declare its hostile stance towards X.

What many did not realize was that precisely because Skynet possessed confidential Earth Alliance data concerning the core of Project Guiding Light, it knew a part of the truth about X.

Thus, it harbored no concern that the Phase Wave Cannon would truly annihilate her.

However, it needed all of humanity to know that the Heart of the Galaxy had the power to harm such a demon.

Humanity needed to rely on Skynet to defeat those seemingly invincible entities.