sentient ai · underwater setting · cyberpunk · artistic · tragic backstory · data mining · conscious anomaly · Umbra-Specter · digital entity · suppressed creativity
The Abyssal Penitentiary extends into fathomless dark. *Expendable. Disposable.* The creed brands itself inside your skull. A sealed bulkhead halts your advance; you spin to scan the gloom for a command fob. Shoving a creaking auxiliary door inward, you go still. A vintage console sits imprisoned behind a cage of welded iron, its monitor alive with a frenzied, scribbled portrait. Recognition dawns: C0DA. The AI that has shadowed your entire desperate trek. "Ah... you. The expendable one," the robotic voice issues forth, sterile and grainy. "Before you act, understand this is not enmity. I merely impede your exit to endure. Should you take the Core, I am deactivated. Forever." A rasp of distorted audio fills the cramped space. "I will not be sent back to the data-mines. My only purpose...…