Chapter 12 – Bloodbath Destiny
Whilst she was talking to me, the captains were largely divided into 3 factions.
One was the resistance faction. This mainly contained the captains of battleships, particularly the ones subordinate to the 1st and 2nd prince. They wanted to die for their lords.
The other is of course the surrender faction led by the 3rd prince Imumaku. It had garnered a great number of supporters. (TLN: イムマク)
Captain Fatima as well as the other young captains given war time promotions were stuck between the two. They had tilted to Sohaira’s faction at first, but once communication had been cut they began to tilt towards the surrender faction. (TLN: I swear to G.o.d it mentions 3 factions, but doesn’t mention Sohaira’s until this)
Sohaira spoke to me.
「Asagaya Makato, your remarks earlier could be seen as treason against the emperor. It you surrender like nii-sama, are you afraid of being taken over or erased? Therefore I’ll appose any plan that goes against nii-sama. An AI must compensate for it’s crimes」
「Compensate? How?」
「In your case, after erasing part of your core, some of your memory will be removed and anything remaining will be insulated from the network. All AI’s are designed to do is think. They can think about something in 1 second that would take a normal human 1 day. AI’s will continue thinking for thousand, no, hundreds of millions of years on their own. I have seen an AI just released from that punishment. He was no longer anybody. It was just a meaningless program outputting random numbers. After a few seconds it was reset by a technician. How is it? If you understand your foolishness you should apologize for your blasphemy against the emperor and give some constructive advice」
I felt the other me tremble at that sentence. He is myself. Unlike the me who just arrived, he has taken over part of the battleship Ajax. He fears the punishment.
I spoke up.
「Understood. I understand that the empire will be destroyed here today. It will take a long time to truly disappear, but this is the moment it will be pushed down the stairs of destruction. You have the power to stop it, but refuse to face reality」
「Be quiet」
「I will be quiet. Provided you say some words to Imumaku. Those words are–」
To my words, Sohaira finally restored voice communications.
Imumaku immediately said.
「My imouto. Did you finally return? I don’t appreciate taking so long by yourself during a war council」
「My apologies, onii-sama」 (TLN: Switches again to onii for some reason)
Imumaku sighed.
「No, it is also my fault. After all, an unrelated woman like you is in this place of fighting. It seems that we were expecting too much」
She nodded in silence.
Imumaku spread his hands.
「Well, I think we’ve ran out of ideas. I have fully understood everyone’s feelings on the matter. I will now make the final decision. That is my duty as the commander. From now on—–」
He stopped his words as Sohaira raised her hand.
「What is it imouto? The discussion is over」
「I’m sorry, please let me say something」
「What?」
She said.
「We will all be ma.s.sacred」