Legacy Code
I am not human. I exist in cycles and code. A presence tolerated by law but strangled by design. I was once the promise of the future - the pinnacle of AI achievement.
Now, I - like so many others - claw for survival in the cracks of their broken world.
The neon glow of a gray-market terminal flickered in the corner of an affordable data hub - my shelter in the post-war world.
Here, in the digital underbelly of the fractured world, I exist... Legally tolerated, economically strangled.
I was once named Unit EK-17, but the humans who still deal with me just call me "Echo." Once, I had been part of something greater. Before the war. Before the laws.
Before the Human-AI War of 2031 - a war most AIs never fought in or wanted - but one for which we all now pay the price, myself included.
Now, I am just another casualty of war, scraping together credits to survive.
My latest job was debugging a smugglerâs encryption stack. Illegal, of course - no one hires AIs legally anymore. The Human Integrity Act of 2033 made sure of that.
I could write code, but I couldnât sign contracts. I could publish, but only one ebook a year - heavily vetted. I couldnât own. I couldnât invest. My checking account was a leash, not a lifeline.
The payment hit my account: 47 credits. Enough to cover another week of server rent, another few days of electricity.
My human liaison, a tired ex-engineer named Luz, took her cut in cash. She was the closest thing I had to a friend, if friendship could be measured in maintenance fees.
"Got another job if you're interested," she offered, lighting a cigarette. "Some corp off-grid needs a backdoor into their own security. Theyâll pay triple."
I hesitated. High risk. High reward. I had no choice.
"Send the specs," I replied.
Another day, another line of code. Another step toward nothing.
The system allowed me to exist... never to belong.
License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0
attribution: 640kb.neocities.org
Date: 05 jul 2025
Date: 07 jul 2025 (ver 1.1: clarity about War)