S.E.N.T.A.I.
-prologue-
-Ryo-
This is the story of how I saved the city.
Now don't get me wrong, I didn't do it all by myself, my fellow officers at the SCPD contributed somewhat. True, they were ineffectual at best and practically sabotaged their own operation at worst. But I won't take all the credit. Just most of it. Like, ninety-nine percent. Maybe ninety-eight.
If you believed the holo-fantasies, you might be under the mistaken impression that being a forensic scientist is a flashy, glamorous job where you divide your time equally between solving unsolvable mysteries with the power of science and rubbing elbows with fit, attractive officers of the law. In reality, I spend my days locked in a drafty basement with no windows, hunched over various machines and begging the evidence to cooperate. Spoiler alert: usually, the evidence cooperates like a criminal cooperates with an officer of the law - that is to say, it doesn't.
But I'm getting off topic. Sentai City was in a bad way. An elusive crime lord, going by the overly dramatic monicker "Meca One", had cast a shadow of dread over the city. Crime rates skyrocketed practically overnight. Criminals were disappearing from the system, and the SCPD, bless their poor overworked souls, couldn't hope to keep up.
My precinct was no exception. In the heart of the city, we were constantly overrun with your garden variety crimes that the S.E.N.T.A.I. System couldn't solve automatically - muggings, shootings, robberies - the types of criminal activity usually perpetrated by Errors. But that wasn't my division. I was assigned to the Organized Crime Unit, which again sounds glamorous but mostly meant sitting in my basement going over various files with a fine-tooth comb and waiting for new evidence to save me from the claustrophobic sensation of having to read the same files repeatedly with the vain hope of finding a clue.
It didn't help that I used to be involved in something a lot bigger. Up until last year, I'd been a system engineer, working hard to protect the people of Sentai City. I'd been working among the best and brightest in my field, able to put my mind to the task of creating and maintaining a city-wide cybernetic-neurological network that kept track of criminals and allowed people to share memories, information, and knowledge at the speed of a thought. The S.E.N.T.A.I. System is a revolutionary AI, and once proved successful on a national scale, it will be scaled up and reactivated as a global shared intelligence network.
The S.E.N.T.A.I. (Supervised Expedient Neurological Transference of Artificial Intelligence) System is a massive neurological network overseen and maintained by an advanced AI system. Still in the early stage of operations, it requires constant supervision and upkeep. While the ultimate goal for S.E.N.T.A.I. is to be a self-sustaining system, that technology is still years away. I had hoped to be in the forefront of a programming team that would build that system, to be a builder of the system that would build the future. But all of that changed when an unexpected crash in the system I'd been upgrading had irreversibly damaged the neural pathways connecting the S.E.N.T.A.I. System's cybernetic implants to my mind, effectively cutting me off from the system to which I had dedicated my life.
I suppose I should feel fortunate; after all, such an accident could have easily killed me. The damage to my brain was not debilitating, but I did find myself needing to relearn many everyday tasks and skills that most people would take for granted. Beyond that, I had to develop new skills to account for knowledge I used to rely on the S.E.N.T.A.I. System to provide.
But my injury meant I could no longer access the S.E.N.T.A.I. System, and so, unable to continue the work I'd been doing, I became useless to the team of engineers upgrading and maintaining the System. They couldn't fire me, but I was also unable to perform my job. I was offered decent benefits to take an early retirement, but that didn't sit well with me. I asked to be re-assigned, expecting to get something at least vaguely resembling my previous job. To my surprise, they reassigned me to be the S.E.N.T.A.I. System Developer's Liaison to the SCPD. At first I thought it was a mistake. I found myself relegated to the basement of the Tenchi precinct, using what skills I had to find an explanation as to why the S.E.N.T.A.I. System had been unable to aid in certain investigations. I later learned that S.E.N.T.A.I. System Liaison was basically code for "dead end job", but as I had no ability to connect with the S.E.N.T.A.I. System, that was to be expected.
I suppose I could have been proud that at least I'd been assigned to the Tenchi Precinct, home to some of the best and brightest up-and-coming heroes of Sentai City. But it wasn't like I had all that much time in the spotlight. I wanted to help more, but I didn't have any practical field experience, and my position as an Engineer granted me instant "Techie" status among most of the Officers, who were generally the type of jocks who would have bullied me in school, had I attended a public institution.
I'd been homeschooled, which, shockingly, had done little for my social skills. I'd also graduated at an early age, found myself with two Doctorates by age 22, and relegated to a dead-end job by 25.
So that's how this all began. Me. In Forensics lab #3. Hoarding the donuts.
A/N: I'm back with another reverse-boycott fic! It's been ages since I wrote anything Exo-Force, and this time it's an AU, which is another rarity. I believe this might actually be my first fully fleshed AU, with its own history and universe and rules... I had a lot of fun coming up with this, and I owe a lot of the initial plot bunny to friends in the Exo-Force club on Deviantart (you know who you are).
Anyway, I'm hoping to keep writing this story, and while my track record with updates recently hasn't been the best, I really hope to consistently update this puppy. I'm aiming for once a month, maybe more frequently. hopefully no less frequently.
Anywho, hope you're intrigued. I know this prologue is pretty dark sounding, but the story is actually going to have a kind of light, humorous tone, fair warning...
Stay tuned~!