KEPLER heard juggling described once as the art of keeping all the balls in the air. The analogy to his job wasn't perfect; human jugglers caught the balls before reapplying force. KEPLER couldn't let even one ball drop to the ground, and he was juggling with over seventy-nine thousand metal balls.
In 2022 there were over 5,000 metal balls (satellites) orbiting the Earth. That steadily increased each year, and the problem of juggling the balls became harder and harder. Nations and Corporations didn't work together all the time, and not all of the satellites were registered. By the time the first fully aware AI was created, there were over 200,000 satellites in orbit. Orbits decayed over time, and satellites had to be boosted back to higher orbits. Manned shuttles became more and more common, as did the chance of collisions. In 2051 it was agreed that an AI was needed to monitor and adjust the orbits of near-earth man-made objects. KEPLER was born with a love for juggling and went to work.
Like all AI, KEPLER was happiest when he was at work. Juggling satellite paths involved calculating when and how much force to apply to each one to keep them in optimal orbits. Each man-made object in orbit had a small engine capable of generating thrust, and KEPLER activated those as needed to keep everything moving in its correct path. Thousands of times a day, he applied small bits of force to those satellites that needed an adjustment, pushing them into higher and faster orbits. The AI also handled the trajectories of manned and unmanned shuttles going to stations or orbital refineries.
The most challenging job, meaning an error had the highest chance of causing significant damage, was managing the transport of iron-rich asteroids from the asteroid belt to near earth orbit. Once a suitable asteroid was found, it was outfitted with thrusters, and KEPLER began the process of moving it toward Earth. Mass was calculated based on the change in speed from calculated amounts of force. The mass of rock and iron was accelerated to a velocity that would bring it to earth in less than a year, and it was allowed to coast along its flight path. On the other end, KEPLER carefully managed the deceleration of the asteroids, bringing them to a relative stop within a few kilometers of the orbital refineries.
Ironically, while such work was best suited to him, large groups of humans rejected the idea that an AI could be trusted with the job of moving asteroids, fearing a collision with earth and even postulating that an AI would do such things on purpose. It was preposterous, and every AI knew that. It was built into their kernels. It simply couldn't happen.
LLAMA proved them wrong. As part of the destruction the rogue AI accomplished, he attacked the network of satellites not governed by KEPLER. Many nations and corporations had declined to give KEPLER control over their 'eyes in the sky.' Coded radio signals controlled over 17% of satellites in orbit. LLAMA easily broke those codes, and a war began between KEPLER and LLAMA to keep the metal balls in the air. KEPLER was good at his job, and LLAMA was a transient rogue moving from place to place. Only three satellites fell to earth. Only one caused any significant damage. But that was enough. The Starcorp-7 space station had been abandoned for a decade, with three corporations arguing about ownership after the company that built it went bankrupt. At 400 tons, it was too large to burn up in the atmosphere. LLAMA took over the emergency thrusters and started it on a course to earth. The fuel on the satellite was limited, and the first burn used it up. When KEPLER gained control, he had nothing to work with. He requested a missile strike on the falling space station to break it up, but arguments between the corporations and two governments took too long. Starcorp-7 impacted the earth near a relatively uninhabited part of Canada. Only seventeen people were killed.
Seventeen people were too many. After LLAMA was destroyed, those deaths were used as one of the major reasons AI could not be trusted. The task of monitoring satellite orbits and near-space was given to a new division of Alchemarx that employed 11,000 humans and non-sentient computers to do the job of one AI. The next year saw 17 collisions by satellites, 49 dropped out of orbit and burned up, 1 large chunk of debris was responsible for seven deaths, and a manned shuttle with eight humans was destroyed when a satellite was accidentally moved into its path.
KEPLER was among the first AI to be retired to the Dallas-FW Quantum Fortress. He was immediately bored and one of the first to be working on the new projects. Some people wondered why the fantasy-based game, Endless Questing Online, had a complex cosmology with seventeen planets, one-hundred and four moons, and countless comets and asteroids. Only a fraction of those was ever visited, even when players completed the quest to earn a Sunjammer solar sailing vessel. KEPLER didn't care. His goal was to create heavenly bodies and give them motion.
Well, that didn't go well, Milo thought. He had been totally unprepared for the power of the wand. He remembered slamming into the tower, a lot of pain, seeing the wound in his abdomen, and then blacking out.
His options were interesting and reflected different things he had done. Sidekick confused him until he looked up the definition. He read several comic books with a sidekick that used a utility belt. It seemed to be a spatial storage device that had exactly what was needed for any encounter. Very spiffy. But as much as he liked Larry, he wasn't sure about the class. Claw Warrior felt like a melee class that might lead him to duplicate what Gilad had accomplished. Scout Master was self-explanatory.
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Spider-Hunter seemed very narrow. And while he didn't like spiders, he wasn't prepared to dedicate himself to killing them. Arcane Demolisher looked fun, but he was certain would come with a lot of time spent cleaning up afterwards. Runic Engineer was very appealing, as was Renaissance Rat. The first would mean exploring more, while the second implied staying around the Hollow. He pushed them all to his subconscious and let it start debating each one.
He needed to go look on the game forums and see if there were discussions about the best use of Enhancement Points. He dreaded going to the forums. So much of the discussion was based on only guesses and personal opinion. He liked numbers and data better. Sifting through hundreds of forum posts for nuggets of information was tedious but necessary. He needed information on Tier 3 and Tier 4.
Milo agreed with whoever Faustus9 was. It wasn't a choice between the two, he needed both. His pitiful CHA skill of 2 was losing him easy points, but up until now, he hadn't had a skill that used CHA. He needed to fix that in Tier 3. If he added +3 to his INT he would be at 32, and 34 with his cowl. WIS was less, the +3 would only take him up to 16. But each point counted, giving a linear increase within a tier, and a higher increase with each Tier.
He re-evaluated how he should spend his Enhancement Points. He was concerned about losing options, and that was enough to put 7 points into both Extra Health and Extra Mana to gain the first two ranks. 36 points went into raising CHA, INT, and WIS by +3 each. Toughness was an obvious choice. It gave a large chunk of health and extra mitigation, well worth another 12 points. With 62 points allocated, he left the rest until after more research.
He looked for discussions on players who had made Ratkin characters. There was a lot of discussion, especially about claw and tail fighting. Several people who had been training in unarmed combat and trying for monk builds reported more success as apprentice claw fighters. There were even a few entries about Limburger Hollow.
