Activation Degradation: A Novel

Unit Four is a biological soft robot built and stored above Jupiter's atmosphere. When activated for the first time, it faces an immediate crisis: aliens are attacking the Helium-three mine it was designed to protect, and it must defend Earth's largest energy resource through ship-to-ship combat. However, Unit Four experiences anomalies. Its databanks contain files it cannot account for, unusual chemical combinations flow through its systems, and its information about the aliens is surprisingly limited. Programmed to seek and destroy, Unit Four follows its handler's orders without question. When Unit Four launches its ship to attack, it becomes entangled in a spiral of misinformation, reprogramming, and interstellar conflict. As it carries out its directives, the robot begins to develop sentience and evolve beyond its original programming as a simple tool.