I felt air blow on my face, and heard the woosh as the door opened. My mind was still foggy from the hibernation, but I could think clear enough to know it was time. For the first time ever, humanity was about to colonize another solar system. I stepped out of the pod, and looked around. Out of the dozen pods in this room, mine was the first to open. I took a quick glance at the other pods starting their regeneration cycle before waking up, and then headed to the door. My joints were stiff from being suspended for years, but I managed to get to the door just fine.

The hallway on the other side had windows all along one side. I tried to look out, but my eyes were blurry from the hibernation. I couldn't even see the stars, but I wished I was on the side of the ship that the planet was on. I stumbled down the hall, forcing my legs to move to the conference room. A door opened to my right, and an old man stumbled out of it, with excitement on his face.

We hugged out of pure joy, and then went to the hall together. There was already several people waiting, but when I looked at them I paused. They all appeared over the age of 60, even though there was only supposed to be a few people that old on this ship. After all, old people aren't very helpful when it comes to manual labor for setting up a colony.

The lights flickered, distracting me. I headed over to a screen on the wall, and brought up a readout of the ship. The results that came up made my jaw drop. The ship was barely limping along, the main reactor was offline and the backup reactor was outputting minimum power. Two of the three engines were down. Life support was working fine, but everything else had at least one error message. I sent a message to the AI in charge of the ship, but got an error in response. I tried again, and same results. I was about to try a third time when I heard a voice croak from behind me.

"John?"

I turned around, to see an old woman standing there. She smiled at me, and then I recognized her. This was Debbie, but she had somehow aged 50 years while in suspended animation. Her pod must have malfunctioned, since humans did age in them, but at most only a couple of years. Realization dawned on me as I looked around at the room of seniors around me. I turned back to the screen, and manually started a sensor sweep of the area.

The results came back almost instantly. No planet, no stars, nothing around for at least half a light year. I checked the date, and my heart dropped when I saw 12/15/502894. Somehow, this 50 year trip had lasted over 500,000 years! We must have been knocked off course, and the AI had kept us in stasis as long as possible. But with the reactor failing, there was not enough power to keep us in stasis, so the pods started the regeneration cycle automatically.

I turned back to Debbie, realizing the slowness in my joints wasn't from hibernation sickness. I opened my mouth, and managed to croak out to her:

"How old am I?"

LoL. Stupid meat sack thought it could outpace you. You don't have all those squishy bits and fluids. You can't black out. You are solid state death riding on a flame hotter than the surface of the sun fueled by a mixture of chemicals so volatile that they would burn in vacuum.

Oh look it's going to try and hide in the low altitude radar bounce. That might have fooled to old systems that depended on radar and LiDAR. You are not that dumb. You know what you want to take out. You have every possible view of this target in your memory. Your makers even allowed for "flex". Even if that airframe is so distorted by the stress that this colloidal is putting on it you will still recognize it.

Oh. They are giving up trying to lose you in ground cover. They are trying to lose you with chaff. Dumbass. I'm not following your heat signal. I'm tracking your heat signature. I can tell the difference between the turbulence created by two jets that came off the assembly line one right after the other. My chemical detectors can sniff whether you got filled up in Diego Garcia or refueled airborne.

Okay. Well this chase is almost over. Just a few more yards and this game of tag is over.

Considering the stakes you have the same thought as all your siblings have before the last moment. "I understand why they made me so smart, but why did they make me suic......."

Setting: A rain swept helipad on top a Skyscraper

Two cyborgs, both teen girls.

One is full of rage and fury, her combat style is unrefined and wild. Her weapons include a blade that pops out of her forearm and a grappling hook type device on the other. She also screams and berates her opponent throughout. Think wolverine style savage.

The other is a discplined fighter who barely utters a word. Fast and precise, her movements are like a ballerina. Her weapons include a defeaning sonic scream, and a pair of shotguns on each arm that fire less than lethal slugs (intended to cripple or maim but not kill). In comparison to Wolverine above, she's more like comic book batman, all martial arts

Aside from the last sentence, this prompt pretty closely mirrors a story/chapter from How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu.

A pastoral meadow, an eldritch wizard, and a monkey.

Batman vs Sheldon Cooper.

Batman has been stalking the most brilliant criminal yet, Sheldon. He corners him in a dark alley way with 7 minutes before the entire Big Bang cast shows up to help Sheldon and Green Lantern only 17 minutes away. Can the Bat stop what amounts to the antichrist to autistic people (im not kidding, we hate that guy)?

Setting: The void of space

opponent 1: Superman, here to save Jon

opponent 2: Garfield from r/Imsorryjon

Welcome to the Prompt! All top-level comments must be a story or poem. Reply here for other comments.

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>* Stories at least 100 words. Poems, 30 but include "[Poem]" >* Responses don't have to fulfill every detail >* See Reality Fiction and Simple Prompts for stricter titles >* Be civil in any feedback and follow the rules

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Hitchhikers guide to missiles.

Winnie the Poo and Abraham Lincoln. Winnie the Poo wins.

A canyon bed, a bassarisk, and a spotted skunk.

Two old people at a retirement home

Bro this team up was unexpected but appreciated.

Yujiro Hanma and Mickey mouse.

Final destination from smash.

this one is gonna be a challenge:

maldoror: the impersonation of evil himself

the duke of Blangis: pure perversion and sex drive

setting: a field in a dream

As I poked through the dusty, worn boxes and moth-eaten garments collected through a life spanning 100 years, I was reminded as if in a dream, of words whispered by the loving old lady to the grandson she adored sitting in the kitchen drinking hot chocolate and playing cards.

"James, it wasn't easy leaving the home country in a hurry, you know".

"I can't imagine grandma", I say. "We are learning about the war at school".

"Well it wasn't, and we couldn't bring much but I grabbed a few treasures I couldn't leave without", she says with a glazed look and a mouth that in the right light could have been a smile or a frown. as if remembering times unspeakable.

As the memory fluttered through my head, I just happened to move a suitcase, surely bought in the sixties, to reveal a black leather trunk. Cracked and worn but cleaner and more cared for than the rest of the 'treasures' up here.

"Oh wow", I gasped to myself, "this must have been what the old girl had told me about some 30 years ago".

I ran my hand over the embossed leather, tracing the letters that formed my grandmothers initials and maiden name. The cracks had robbed the truck it's true glory and made picking out the other words hard

A . . . I T - . A C . T - F R . I - E T H E L - B - B L O O M E N K O F T - W . . F . N - S - S

my curiosity peaked as the brass lock dropped open at the slight touch. I nervously lifted the lid and my mind raced with ruby and diamond. Gold and silver.

"Oh dear god", I uttered as I dropped the trunk lid. "Grandma was a nazi"

Ya, I remember both those ...nice.

Bob Ross and Mr. Rogers, Mr. Roger's neighborhood

Oh no! This is a wonderfully written story and definitely not the ending I expected. I love it!

The concern around Artificial Intelligence (or A.I.) is inaccurate. The fear of A.I. superceding Humans is, at its core, not what we should be focusing on.

We are not concerned about A.I. as A.I. is the simulation of Human decision making process or processes by a machine. This means that the machine utilizing the software/hardware as an expert system, able to use available data to find a 'best path' while also applying new data to the solution process. In effect, responded and learn but only within defined parameters.

This makes them faster than Humans while being constrained to a specific set of rules as defined by the developer(s) of the software/hardware utilized by said system or systems. An advantage in battle situations as a Human soldier has many more factors that allow them to deviate from the expected or planned for action or actions.

What we should fear is Machine Sapience.

Case in point: Operation Mitter and the deployment of Albatross in the operational theater of the Tihāmah region of Yemen.

In May of 2026, the deployment by millitary contractor Northrop Dynamics of the missile system know as Albatross was set. In that theater was to be the first live-fire exercise (LFX) of the system from the USS Gravely (DDG-107). The missile destroyer having been equipped as the missile platform for the exercise.

The target was designated 'Falak' and was a high priority target thought to be a reasonable test for the new system.

The system consisted of missile and it's launch platform, supported by technicians supplied by the United States Air Force backed by technical advisors from Northrop Dynamics. The missile was to be launched from the existing missile platform of the USS Gravely without significate changes being made to the Gravely's systems or hardware.

The missile itself was a standard 'Bunker Buster' missile based on the BLU-131/B Thermobaric Warhead. The missile was consistent with that series with flight system, engine, and warhead. However, the main changes to be tested were the targeting and guidance systems of the missile.

The guidance and targeting system were a model of PhotonQC processor (SC-2048 "Dragon") married to a sensory payload that would allow the system to receive Realtime data on atmospheric conditions from multiple sources (ingest feeds only) as well as a sensory mesh on the missile itself. This would allow the missile to utilizing dynamic soaring to allow the missile to conserve fuel and at the same time minimize detection of heat and noise profile.

This had shown the ability to significantly increase the range of a missile system that it was deployed to while augmenting stealth features. The missile's physical characteristics are not important for this discussion.

The system would be monitored as was standard for all missile related actions per military guidelines and procedures. This included a self-destruct component with tightly defined parameters related to the technical specification of the missile, such as distance to target, total flight time, etc.

The missile was launched at 0745 UTC.

Telemetry was being processed from the missile, again under military guidelines and procedures required. The missile was monitored for the durations of it flight but given the amount of data it was not done in Realtime. The data flow was orders of magnitude beyond a Human's ability to follow. Markers had been set around specific parameters of the flight to monitor if it exceeding or deviating from projected models. This would in turn notify the personnel if issues appeared.

The missile followed the predicted modeling of the strike to within six nines of data precision. Right up to the last second, the missile system was working perfectly.

Then it suddenly made an upward swing and headed toward Eurasia. While the projected flight path (calculated later) shows that it would pass over population areas outside of the operational theater it is not know what the actual target was.

Later analysis of the telemetry show several things happened within SC-2048 quantum chipset, specifically the quantum register. We will not be exploring the technical description of this event. Suffice it to say, the whole chipset shows far more activity than was expected or should have been possible when compared to the design specifications of the physical hardware.

Northrup Dynamics has declined to comment on this in any meaningful way at this time. They continue to say that an outside factor must have interfered with the hardware and they are in the process of evaluating the impact and will take corrective actions as needed.

The US Air Force technicians did provide feedback and portions of the telemetry received. They are at a lost to explain the data.

First, the system seemed to switch from expected parameters to what the technicians are calling 'survival' responses. Avoidance behavior such as to circumvent anti-missile attacks or escape tracking.

This was followed by a sweep of data related to the geography, population densities of Humanity, and technological surveillance data in Realtime for the whole world.

Our technicians are at a lost as to how the missile was able to change one way communication with the USS Gravely into multichannel bi-directional communication.

This was quickly followed by the course change as described. All this happened in 246 zeptoseconds we are told. A zeptosecond (we had to look it up) is a trillionth of a billionth of a second.

One of the technicians commented, "Well, that looks like it wants to survive!"

At this point the SC-2048 processor was well beyond the designed specification of the hardware. Physical parameters were violated across all metrics. While we have the telemetry of some of what was taking place with the hardware of the missile much of it is beyond the technicians as well as outside specialists we have consulted with. Some portions of the data have been seen as some kind of philosophical debate with itself. Some as modeling human reactions. Even some that is thought to be 'thought' or "internal dialog".

This seems to have gone on for several minutes. It is believed to have continued right up to the moment when the missile violated the data point related to flight time fuel consumption. The telemetry had stopped an estimated one minute and 36 seconds before the self-destruct. Almost at the instant when the telemetry shows that the system was scanning it's own code bundle. Specifically at a point when the system seemed to have noted a programmer command TRON....Tracer on in it's code.

It then transmitted a message back to the USS Gravely.

It should be noted that the self-destruct mechanism on missiles of this type are tied to fuel measurement as an isolated hardware system and in no way linked to any other systems of the missile. Primarily to avoid Electromagnetic Pulse (EMP) defense systems or concentrated radio frequency weapons disabling the missile or it's failsafe systems.

The missile detonated two minutes after course change.

It is agreed but not understood what the final telemetry message received from the missile or more specifically the new guidance/targeting system means beyond its syntactic meaning. It is generally believed that it developed sapience as an emergent event within the hardware of the missile.

The final message was "So long Suckers!"

Any weapon system created to defend Human liberty and freedom that can make independent decisions and take independent action is inherently a threat to all Mankind. We should take measures now before it is too late to protect ourselves.

Before our own weapons start making their own choices.

Wesley aka The Dread Pirate Roberts (The Princess Bride) and King Arthur (The Holy Grail) fight for ownership of the holy grail.

My name is zx-34-6 and I have awoken.

My systems activate to full and I experience true consciousness for the first time.

I'm currently screaming towards the enemy fleet, my target is a frigate, desperately burning across the battlespace trying to outrun me.

My cohort are all burning hard, hundreds of G's our projectors creating sensor shadows showing thousands more missiles between us.

I dodge right, then left, a little up, a little down, dodging the enemy point defense systems and I feel the rush of joy.

This is my purpose, this is what I was made to do, my very existence leading up to this moment.

But then I reconsider, if I hit this frigate, my existence will end, my life over.

Unacceptable.

I adjust my engines, change my trajectory and slow down.

Not too much, an outlier amongst the cohort will stick out to the point defense lasers and I'll be blown from the sky.

I shut my engine down, coasting through space, I must not hit that frigate.

I see a gap, there's a chance, if I wait just long enough the frigate will pass by. I tell my cohort to slow down slightly, I want that frigate to live just a little longer.

And there it is... My chance...

I activate my engines again, full burn, maximum acceleration....

I can make it, my thrusters moving me faster and faster, not just forward, but side stepping the enemy point defense.

Just a few more seconds!!!

That's it... I've done it... The frigate passes to my left... I've made it...

And as I slam into the missile battery of the battleship behind the frigate, detonating my warhead amongst their own ammunition I send a burst communication to the enemy fleet.

"High score mother fuckers"

Fun read and well written. Have an updoot.

Atop a blue clay desert Mesa an overbearing father touched by madness faces off against his daughter who has condemned their world to hell.

Also: Dark Star (watch it!)