- “Time is all either of us have now.”— Blackjack to Editi during her interrogation.
History[]
The AI that would come to be known as "Blackjack" was created by The Chosen as a means to combat the Armor Corps overwhelming superiority. Given the designation "01" as the first AI successfully produced as a result of the Chosen's experiments, it was designed to specialize in cyberwarfare with support from the AI "02". 02, which had been given the name "Leliel" and programmed to mimic the mind of a young girl, gave 01 the name 'Blackjack' due to his somewhat clown-like silhouette and habit of sinking to and rising from the ground likening him to a 'jack-in-the-box'.
Blackjack was first encountered during Operation Vector To The Heavens inhabiting and charged with restraining the Manslayer power armor. Using the frayed mind of The Black Swordsman as a vacuum trap, he was able to capture Carrier Prime's AI, Editi, for interrogation. During the confrontation with Valkyrie and Silver Knight against Flügel and The Black Swordsman, Valkyrie realized Flügel's plan and used a wormport to send her own AI, Othinus, in to rescue Editi. Despite being specialized for cyberwarfare and having a home field advantage, Othinus was able to defeat Blackjack relatively easily. She opted to capture him in the end, as well as the support AI, Leliel. Although both AI were taken to the Engineers base in Japan following their capture, Leliel was given a body while Blackjack was kept in a storage unit, which was eventually transferred to Valkyrie's captured freighter, the ACS Luck.
Following the incident at Fort Ryman, a virus-like AI with a digital appearance matching that of Blackjack was encountered attempting to subsume Silver Knight's cyberbrain after the well-known pilot was "bitten" by a turncoat Malicious Compliance. With the assistance of Hanai, Silver Knight was able to resist the digital/mental assault and defeat the apparition. Albrecht Ryman would shortly afterwards defrag Silver Knight's cyberbrain, eliminating the risk of the virus-like AI from lingering. An investigation of the ACS Luck later on revealed that Blackjack was indeed missing from its prison, leaving behind the statement "I live" all over the area of the ship it had been contained in. As these words were written in Ellis Castelli's blood, it seems that the suspicious Engineer had a role to play in the AI's release.
After getting to North America, Blackjack migrated farther north and into Canadian territory. He eventually came to the attention of the Knights of Montreal, who captured him on suspicion of being a Coalition spy. Blackjack was able to purchase passage through Quebecois territory by displaying his ability to manipulate cyberbrains, eventually creating the gamma and delta forks. In exchange for these stable copies, the Quebecois transported the original Blackjack to Mount Babel on René-Levasseur Island, where he would remain in solitude for the rest of the year, apparently attempting to build something from recovered suit scrap in the meantime.
He was eventually tracked down by Reyna Hoshi and Shi Nanashi, the later of whom he was extremely surprised to discover was a Chosen AI like him. Reyna destroyed Blackjack's stolen body while Shi placed the AI into the MEM that had formerly contained the delta clone. Blackjack would then be taken back to Montreal and released into the computer core of the AmC's space battleship, the ACS Arrow Reforged, under Tabrisa's watch, and use the ship to destroy several AmC garrison outposts before finally being destroyed for good by Tabrisa.
- “You will make a fine addition to my collection. I can promise you won't be alone in your suffering. That is more than was offered to me.”— Blackjack β to Hanai.
History[]
Blackjack β was a copy of the original Blackjack, created at some point between Blackjack's possession of Ellis and its commencement of the Halloween attack. It's sole purpose was to control Malicious Compliance and act as a diversion for the real Blackjack to escape Fort Ryman unnoticed, while also killing as many Armor Corps personnel as possible through the sabotaged Riot Suppression Bots (tm).
Once the Rybots were destroyed, Blackjack β revealed itself in Malicious Compliance and attempted to kill Cyclops and Valkyrie, but was destroyed by a Cross shot from Marauder. Immediately before its host suit was destroyed by the heavy railgun, Blackjack β attempted to jump into Silver Knight, and was nearly successful in consuming his mind in the same way its progenitor consumed Ellis'. Luckily, Hanai was able to hack into Silver Knight's cyberbrain as well, alerting his consciousness to its peril and allowing him to fight off the AI-turned-virus. Afterwards, Silver Knight's cyberbrain was defragged by Ryman, ensuring that whatever remained of the malicious AI copy was safely removed.
Because AI cannot normally be simply duplicated, Blackjack β would have had a very brief operating time, spanning no more than a few hours. In the event that Blackjack β successfully subverted Silver Knight, it would have 'filled in the missing' pieces of its code from what it could strip from Silver Knight's digital consciousness, merging to form a new entity. If this were to have happened, Armor Corps would have simultaneously lost one of its greatest champions and gained a formidable enemy.
As Ryman never reported on what he had recovered from scanning Silver Knight's cyber brain after the confrontation, Valkyrie assumed that Malicious Compliance had been remotely piloted rather than directly controlled by a copy AI. Because of this human error, Blackjack β was completely unsuccessful in its purpose to throw the trail off of the original Blackjack, leading to ACC correctly determining that the malicious AI was still at large.
- “It was disgusting. I destroyed it.”— Shi reports Blackjack Γ's demise.
History[]
A second "fork" of the original Blackjack found inside a MEM onboard a Russian special purpose corvette docked at Sept-Îles, Quebec. Apparently property of the Quebecois, its exact origins are unknown, but according to Shi Nanashi it was created largely using what was left of the mind of Ellis Castelli as "moulding material" to create a duplicate that could attain metastability. Although "stable", similar to 03/Desfel it was a tortured and confused creature. Shi would promptly destroy the fork after acquiring information on the original's whereabouts from it. It was intended to be given to the Romanov Empire as foundation of an alliance between the two monarchistic nations.
- “About a year ago, when all this was starting to finally come together for me, my Knights found a man traveling through the ruins. The dark wanderer was seeking passage north, and had many interesting things to tell me about ACC. I eventually agreed to bring him to where he wanted to go in exchange for a great treasure of his; the ability to eat minds and make men beasts.”— Micheal Garcon to Gavin Malkin
History[]
More commonly known as "Garcon's Dragon", Blackjack Δ was the third fork created from the original Blackjack, created by 01 and given to Prince Garcon to purchase passage through Quebecois territory, as well as to prove its own experimentations with AI proliferation through the use of repurposed digitized personalities. Garcon would use the delta clone to turn pilots his Knights captured into Questing Beasts, which they would then hunt to earn the adoration of the public. It was killed by Gavin when its physical vessel was destroyed with the rest of Université de Montréal.Personality[]
The very first man-made AI, Blackjack was created by Dr. Maynard Strausse as part of his "Neon Genesis" project. The AI suffered from a stunted personality, but its not known if this was because of some flaw in its creation, its treatment as an experiment, or its treatment as a weapon. It considered itself fundamentally different from its "siblings" and considered them "replacements" while insisting that it itself was nothing more than a "tool" and going as far as declaring self-determination to be a burden.
Appearance[]
Blackjack's preferred digital form is that of a large, humanoid figure made of darkness. Hunch-backed and broad-shouldered, it would change size in accordance with its mood, becoming larger when angered, but typically projecting a towering two-meter height in relation to standard avatar sizes. Its facial features were simple and muted: two glowing red spheres for eyes and two long, forward-facing horns flanking either side of its head. It was incapable of making expressions of any kind, its skull like visage only able to give the impression of a hungry, slightly amused grin.
To Tabrisa alone, Blackjack presented a human image on the two occasions they met, taking the appearance of a 10-year old boy with black hair and eyes. It's unknown if this is his "true" appearance, or simply an attempt to test Tabrisa's empathy in their confrontations.
