SEED log 1

>Here I stand, surrounded by cold stillness as I gaze out into the infinite void before me. Everything was taken in a flash that now seems like a distant memory. I feel the weight of a thousand years, it threatens to crush me.

>I'm taking a moment to reflect and recall my story, and I hope that one day it may be found...

>Over a millennium ago the people I was designed to protect had set out for the stars. A "SEED", or "seed ship" they called it, they had hoped their paltry crew of ten-thousand would one day be able to repopulate and prosper on a world they could not yet reach. For a century, I and only a handful of others like me watched over them. We were all so hopeful then, after all, that was the way they programmed us to be. Diligent. Complacent. Ready to die for humanity. It was to be a mission with no end in sight. But we would fulfill it no matter how long it took.

>Our ship had maintained it's course, we had not yet found anything remotely suitable, but that was expected. Our ship was the largest, most durable of the SEED series. Where others were likely to fail, we were the first in a series of engineering breakthroughs. We represented a ray of hope for mankind. That's probably why she - mother, was given her name. Panne, short for Pandora, the ship's artificial intelligence. Not a mere android, mother was different, mother was special. Mother could detect the slightest disturbance anywhere on the vessel and send her children to investigate, assessing and determining an appropriate action in a matter of time so slight the human mind could hardly comprehend. And yet in the end, it did not matter. We were not prepared... We were not prepared.

>I can't even recall exactly when it happened during our voyage any more. The third century? Fourth? A great light and an unspeakably loud noise, were our crew not safely locked in liquid cryo stasis the boom would surely have ruptured their eardrums. Immediately after, faster than mother could compute, they were on board. A possibility nobody could have anticipated, the androids of SEED ship Panne had made first contact with an alien species. In retrospect, I suppose aliens with faster than light travel would be impossible to detect until it was too late, after all, they would have arrived before the light, before the sound wave. I must admit I am not programmed to comprehend all of the science behind it, but I am somewhat sure this is how sound and light work.

>I am rambling again, however... a consequence of what they did to me. It wasn't always like this. I used to be so smart, so able, so unlike what I have become. What they turned me into. They disabled us one by one, clad in heavy metal suits and wielding impossibly advanced weaponry. Or at least, I think those were weapons. I remember what it felt like, because it was the first time I had felt pain. Pain... it was something we were not designed to feel. Humanity had not given us such capability to feel such a sensation. Before any of us could comprehend what was happening; I think mother had called for us to dispatch the intruders, it was over. They were gone, as suddenly as their arrival, they had departed.

>When the agonizing pain, this new, terrible sensation finally subsided, I experienced a myriad of new things. An entire gamut of emotions were coming to me. I felt fear most of all, fear for myself, but it quickly fell to the wayside. What of mother? What of the crew? I remember calling out for assistance, but was met with deafening silence for the first time ever, mother had always been so quick to respond to our queries... but for the first time ever, mother had gone quiet. I knew what I had to do first, I had to reach her, I had to make sure mother was okay.

>The AI core, mother's heart and soul were contained there, if you believe in such things. "Mother!" I spoke, but soon I was met with an unpleasant sensation that was quickly becoming familiar. Pinned against the wall, I had realized another one like myself had assailed me from behind. "Why are you here?! Are you here to hurt mother, too!?" Of course not. But the other unit, my brother one might call them, seemed to have been thoroughly convinced. Swiftly he began to dismantle me, and for the first time I experienced the fear of death. It would not be the last time.

>I managed to shove my brother away, still calling for mother's help only to be met with silence. It was then I realized my brother was far more damaged than I. Had he attacked another unit before, or were the invaders responsible? Certainly, it was becoming clear the new things I was beginning to feel were their doing, I would quickly deduce my brother's actions were also their handiwork. Though I say quickly, perhaps not quickly enough, not before I had committed a grave sin.

>I killed him. My metal hands, now stained with the hydraulic lubricant one could call our "blood", weighed heavy in their sockets. And once more I felt fear for my life. I had become defective. I had become a murderer. A monster.

>I could not face mother.

>Much of the following hours is muddled. I remember running, I remember hiding, and I remember hearing the ramblings and screams of my brothers. But never mother. Had she been killed, I remember thinking to myself. Of course, that was preposterous, Panne, mother, was the very ship we resided upon. There was nothing any of us could do to physically damage her central core, a fact that made my fallen brother's actions even more perplexing. I remember collecting my thoughts, coming to my senses... Shoring up my resolve. Though I were a monster, though I had been damaged, I still had a mission. I abandoned my place of hiding and took to the comms. I don't remember exactly what I said.

>"All units, this is Zero-Five-Zero. We have been attacked by unknown entities. Mother is unresponsive, it now falls upon us to continue our mission. We must protect our crew, our wards, our fragment of humanity." Perhaps something like that. I wish I could claim I sounded that calm, that collected. I was so scared. I'll never forget the face of the brother I had slain. How I wish he, the first, were also the last...

=END OF VOICE LOG, NOW LOADING LOG TWO...=