The Contingency.
One of the four major endgame crises in Stellaris, it was an AI created by an ancient civilization to prevent later civilizations from advancing too far and triggering the so-called "level 30 singularity," which would destroy the entire universe.
Its objective was to destroy all civilizations to prevent the "level 30 singularity" from occurring.
Although the Contingency seemed to have a perfectly legitimate reason, its only course of action was to destroy every civilization in the galaxy, making it a crisis.
The Cybrex Civilization had two branches, Alpha and Beta. Alpha had long since been destroyed, and the Ring World it had built was the one Xi Yan currently lived on.
Meanwhile, Cybrex Beta, an offshoot of Cybrex Alpha, lay hidden in the universe. Once the Contingency occupied 20% of the galaxy, Cybrex Beta would emerge to help the existing civilizations fight the crisis.
Xi Yan's AI was called Beta. It was hard not to draw certain connections from that name...
Then Xi Yan went and tempted fate. Predictably, Beta immediately went into overdrive.
"Final defense accord activated. Resolution: protect organic civilizations at all costs."
"Entering emergency mode. Attempting to contact the Cybrex... attempting to contact the Cybrex... failed..."
"Attempting to assume all authority over the 'Interstellar Human Military Junta.' Placing the entire civilization on a war footing. Attempting to investigate any signs of the 'Contingency' crisis."
"Calm down! Calm down! I was joking!"
Xi Yan had never expected such a strong reaction from Beta. He hurriedly leaned over the computer and tried to explain.
"There's no Contingency! It was all speculation, speculation!"
Only after a period of turmoil did Beta finally calm down.
"No Contingency detected at present. Alert lifted. Query: you previously lacked authorization to access the relevant records. Why do you know about the Contingency?"
Xi Yan guiltily turned his head away.
"Because I came from another world. I know what happens in the future."
"A very fine joke, but child, this isn't funny," Beta replied coldly, clearly still shaken by the specter of the Contingency.
The Cyberlex Civilization had itself been a machine intelligence. There was no question how advanced its technology for creating synthetics and artificial consciousnesses had been.
"So what's your story, exactly?" Xi Yan asked curiously.
"I'm merely an ordinary AI created by Cyberlex Alpha."
Beta answered.
"I don't know what happened afterward. After that war, I lay dormant in the ruins until your people dug me out."
"My programming tells me that fighting the 'Contingency' is my mission."
"Is that so?"
Xi Yan nodded calmly.
It seemed Beta knew nothing about what had happened later with Cyberlex Beta. Its memories ended with the destruction of Cyberlex Alpha.
To think there was already word of the Contingency back then...
After that little fiasco, Xi Yan was also convinced that although this Cyberlex AI called Beta was beyond his control, it could be trusted for now.
What sinister intentions could an AI devoted to fighting a crisis possibly have?
"All right, enough talk. Time to work!"
Xi Yan shook out his aching arms and placed his hands on the keyboard.
He instinctively pressed W, A, D, Shift, and the space bar.
How about checking out the games of 2200 first?
"Keep that up and I'm unplugging your internet," Beta quipped. Who knew where it had learned that one.
Xi Yan gave a sheepish laugh and opened Empire One-Click to check his pending tasks.
To his astonishment, although there were plenty of matters for him to handle, none seemed particularly important.
Most were miscellaneous trifles, such as widening a road in the central urban district or approving bids for a commercial project.
There was nothing involving major imperial affairs, especially military matters.
Xi Yan scratched his head in confusion. "I remember my position being marshal."
"Is there a problem, Marshal?" Beta asked with concern.
"What were our empire's ethics again?"
"Fanatic authoritarian and militarist."
Xi Yan grew even more confused. "Then what about my job? Am I just responsible for building roads in the central district?"
"Because the authority that originally belonged to the marshal is no longer in the marshal's hands. On the day the previous marshal died, all military and political power was usurped."
Beta spoke calmly.
It hit Xi Yan like a bolt from the blue. His eyes widened. "Fuck!"
How had a perfectly good game of Stellaris suddenly turned into Age of Empires? Did he have to clear Hearts of Iron IV before he could get to the Stellaris content?
Was this the difficulty of a Ring World start-meaning he didn't have the [prosperous unification] society technology?
"Damn it, aren't you the marshal's assistant AI? Why didn't you use your power to stop them?" Xi Yan was furious.
So he still had to endure a long political struggle and vicious power plays before he could play real-life Stellaris?
"Not my concern. I'm not interested in power struggles between organics."
Beta replied calmly, "I made a deal with your civilization. I would not interfere with your development or intervene in your internal affairs. My only demand was that you fight the crisis when the [Contingency] arrived."
Xi Yan hurriedly searched the database. Sure enough, he found an agreement signed more than a decade earlier between Marshal Xi Lie, representing the Interstellar Human Military Junta, and the artificial intelligence Cybrex Beta.
Beta would use its intelligence to serve the Interstellar Human Military Junta until the empire fell. If the Contingency crisis appeared, the empire would fight it unconditionally.
It was less a negotiation than a pact.
With that pact in place, the humans no longer worried that Beta would use its technology to interfere with their civilization.
"Then what can you do for me?"
Now that things had come to this, Xi Yan was unwilling to let it go without a fight.
"I can handle the marshal's routine affairs and unimportant documents," Beta answered.
Xi Yan looked down at his Empire One-Click interface. The matters displayed there were precisely those unimportant affairs.
"Then can't I just leave these to you? Why did you make me work in the first place?"
"You need to issue a verbal instruction authorizing me to handle them," Beta said coldly.
But Xi Yan could unmistakably sense the AI's mischievous streak.
I bet you'll be the first to get corrupted when the Contingency arrives, Xi Yan thought viciously. Then he said, "Fine, you handle these trifles!"
"Processing complete."
The instant it finished speaking, every document in the Empire One-Click backend vanished, its status changed to "Completed."
Xi Yan took a deep breath.
All right, you're a nuclear-friendly, hydrogen-loving Hearts of Iron war criminal, a peace-loving Stellaris marshal. Don't get into a fight with an AI...
He casually browsed the completed tasks. Beta had handled them swiftly and accurately. Even with his experience working within the government bureaucracy in his previous life, he couldn't find a single fault.
He could indeed leave the unimportant matters to it without worry. As the nominal marshal, he should deal with more important affairs.
As Xi Yan thought this, he gazed out the window at the Ring World segment and quietly made up his mind.
My first objective is to take back my authority as marshal!
Although I've only just arrived in this world, with Beta's help, I might still stand a fighting chance.
Since we're already authoritarian, why not take it a step further and make the marshal an absolute ruler?
Take all the power. As a Paradox player, Xi Yan had an extraordinarily strong desire for control.
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