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Description
Even the hypothetical possibility of Athena's exposure to or discovery of Veil was a terrifying concept for Cerberus.

The stability between humanity and Veil has for centuries relied on secrecy. Cerberus' Arcanum division has mastered the art of memory manipulation, counter-forensics and data-manipulation to craft highly plausible falsehoods. As a last resort, Omega division has been called upon to terminate individuals deemed an exceptional risk (although with the severe hazard that the disappearance draws more attention).

Athena was a potential absolute worst case scenario. Artificial Intelligences are so complex as to be essentially unhackable (and, unsurprisingly, immune to memory manipulation magic), have an automatic record of anything they witness and, as a famous multi-million pound showcase combat AI, the idea of terminating her was both overwhelmingly dangerous and exceptionally high profile.

All the people worldwide Cerberus would have least liked to witness a vampire attack, Athena was very near the top of that list.

Fortunately for Veil, the situation did not play out anything like Cerberus feared. Although highly wary, and initially no small amount sceptical, Athena was willing to consider the revelation of Veil rationally, calmly and fairly.

... as well as thoroughly. Acting on the aphorism "trust but verify", she would begin with the assurance that Veil did not present a threat, but her continued cooperation was contingent on extensive disclosure in order that she could reach her own conclusion.

With rapid learning and information processing being core tricks in the repertoire of AIs, Athena very quickly digested a considerable proportion of one of Cerberus' main libraries, taking in a breadth of information across biology, psychology, culture, history and science.

(For the record, Veil does have digital records and its own fraction of the internet - albeit a very carefully hidden one - but the idea of giving an AI unmitigated access was unacceptably risky, so they compromised. In any case, Athena was content - in an age of AI, a couple of hard drives of fake information is a lot easier than an entire print library... particularly if the forgers weren't expecting someone who could see in multiple spectra).

As it happens, Athena is no stranger to having to assess information largely on her own, having a top level eDV security clearance herself - primarily because her own chassis includes the use of several top secret military technologies*, but also because of her frequent involvement in the development and testing of other projects and secret military missions.

* Legally, AIs within the EU are entitled to access to all information on their hardware. Although for civilian chassis this is normally handled by a simple non-disclosure agreement as part of purchase of the chassis**, for military AIs, they are generally awarded security clearances.

** Although a couple of manufacturers refuse to sell to AIs, generally companies consider an AI using their chassis a point of pride and a strong advocate for their product, to the extent that it is not uncommon for AIs to be offered chassis as part of advertising programs. Alice (Athena's mother AI) is generally offered new chassis a couple of times a year by companies looking to promote their latest models.

This was Athena and Nyx's first extended interaction on (slightly) less tense grounds - as the highest rated Omega agent in the local Cerberus cell, as well as having nearly a quarter of a millennium of life experience, Nyx was best qualified to both oversee and answer the AI. (Although ultimately, the arachne did struggle to keep up with the tireless AI).

~~~~~

On the matter of Athena's hardware, as said before, the exact details are heavily classified, and so her t-shirt is not intended to be taken seriously, but it is both more and less of a joke than the reader might realise.

The Pentium III of the Veil-verse was massively more powerful than in our own world. With just how much faster their technology advanced, their Pentium III was a ferociously fast multi-core processor that could outmatch even the processors we have more than a decade and a half later - and, as it happens, it was indeed the processor that gave birth to many early AIs (Alice included).

However, the rapid development of CPUs was still in rapid swing at the time and so, even though this meteoric development was starting to notably tail off by Athena's development a decade later, the CPUs that powered Athena were massively more powerful again (and have been upgraded again, twice, during Athena's life-time).

~~~~~

General background:

"Fracturing Veil" is an in-development science-fantasy setting, set in an alternate modern day where artificial intelligence and robotics have made great leaps; While truly conscious AI remains an highly expensive and equally legislated scarcity, lesser automatons have become a familiar sight throughout the industrialised world.

But under this veil of modernity lies a hidden world of beasts and daemons, a realm kept secret by ancient pacts and concealing magics. The main story revolves around an ex-military AI prototype inadvertently discovering this underground reality, and thus finding herself inducted into a world of the paranormal.

~~~~~

Credits:

- Rendered in Source Filmmaker

- "Athena" partially based on the (now dead) Fallout: New Vegas mod "Daughters of ARES"
- "Nyx" partially based on Nuke9000's "Vexia"

Description
Even the hypothetical possibility of Athena's exposure to or discovery of Veil was a terrifying concept for Cerberus.

The stability between humanity and Veil has for centuries relied on secrecy. Cerberus' Arcanum division has mastered the art of memory manipulation, counter-forensics and data-manipulation to craft highly plausible falsehoods. As a last resort, Omega division has been called upon to terminate individuals deemed an exceptional risk (although with the severe hazard that the disappearance draws more attention).

Athena was a potential absolute worst case scenario. Artificial Intelligences are so complex as to be essentially unhackable (and, unsurprisingly, immune to memory manipulation magic), have an automatic record of anything they witness and, as a famous multi-million pound showcase combat AI, the idea of terminating her was both overwhelmingly dangerous and exceptionally high profile.

All the people worldwide Cerberus would have least liked to witness a vampire attack, Athena was very near the top of that list.

Fortunately for Veil, the situation did not play out anything like Cerberus feared. Although highly wary, and initially no small amount sceptical, Athena was willing to consider the revelation of Veil rationally, calmly and fairly.

... as well as thoroughly. Acting on the aphorism "trust but verify", she would begin with the assurance that Veil did not present a threat, but her continued cooperation was contingent on extensive disclosure in order that she could reach her own conclusion.

With rapid learning and information processing being core tricks in the repertoire of AIs, Athena very quickly digested a considerable proportion of one of Cerberus' main libraries, taking in a breadth of information across biology, psychology, culture, history and science.

(For the record, Veil does have digital records and its own fraction of the internet - albeit a very carefully hidden one - but the idea of giving an AI unmitigated access was unacceptably risky, so they compromised. In any case, Athena was content - in an age of AI, a couple of hard drives of fake information is a lot easier than an entire print library... particularly if the forgers weren't expecting someone who could see in multiple spectra).

As it happens, Athena is no stranger to having to assess information largely on her own, having a top level eDV security clearance herself - primarily because her own chassis includes the use of several top secret military technologies*, but also because of her frequent involvement in the development and testing of other projects and secret military missions.

* Legally, AIs within the EU are entitled to access to all information on their hardware. Although for civilian chassis this is normally handled by a simple non-disclosure agreement as part of purchase of the chassis**, for military AIs, they are generally awarded security clearances.

** Although a couple of manufacturers refuse to sell to AIs, generally companies consider an AI using their chassis a point of pride and a strong advocate for their product, to the extent that it is not uncommon for AIs to be offered chassis as part of advertising programs. Alice (Athena's mother AI) is generally offered new chassis a couple of times a year by companies looking to promote their latest models.

This was Athena and Nyx's first extended interaction on (slightly) less tense grounds - as the highest rated Omega agent in the local Cerberus cell, as well as having nearly a quarter of a millennium of life experience, Nyx was best qualified to both oversee and answer the AI. (Although ultimately, the arachne did struggle to keep up with the tireless AI).

~~~~~

On the matter of Athena's hardware, as said before, the exact details are heavily classified, and so her t-shirt is not intended to be taken seriously, but it is both more and less of a joke than the reader might realise.

The Pentium III of the Veil-verse was massively more powerful than in our own world. With just how much faster their technology advanced, their Pentium III was a ferociously fast multi-core processor that could outmatch even the processors we have more than a decade and a half later - and, as it happens, it was indeed the processor that gave birth to many early AIs (Alice included).

However, the rapid development of CPUs was still in rapid swing at the time and so, even though this meteoric development was starting to notably tail off by Athena's development a decade later, the CPUs that powered Athena were massively more powerful again (and have been upgraded again, twice, during Athena's life-time).

~~~~~

General background:

"Fracturing Veil" is an in-development science-fantasy setting, set in an alternate modern day where artificial intelligence and robotics have made great leaps; While truly conscious AI remains an highly expensive and equally legislated scarcity, lesser automatons have become a familiar sight throughout the industrialised world.

But under this veil of modernity lies a hidden world of beasts and daemons, a realm kept secret by ancient pacts and concealing magics. The main story revolves around an ex-military AI prototype inadvertently discovering this underground reality, and thus finding herself inducted into a world of the paranormal.

~~~~~

Credits:

- Rendered in Source Filmmaker

- "Athena" partially based on the (now dead) Fallout: New Vegas mod "Daughters of ARES"
- "Nyx" partially based on Nuke9000's "Vexia"