Prologue
Have you ever wondered what you feel when you died? Well as for me, when I was run over by a truck and struck by lightning, I felt a single torturous second of absolute agony before the darkness took me.
You want to hear how it happened? One day in my daily morning exercise, it was a busy day with lots of traffic rolling along the asphalt my regular route ran along. I still remember that moment I took a glance at the road that day, spotting a guy cutting right across the road on foot. One of those big cargo lorries was bearing down right on him as I watched, and I abruptly realized the idiot had no clue at all that a giant metal behemoth was about to turn him into paste in about six seconds.
Was it idiocy or blind heroism that I bothered to help that day? Even now I'm not sure.
Moving on. I was the only one close enough to him to do anything, so I did the first thing that came to my mind and shoved him out of the truck's path. For my trouble, I got a face full of truck going at highway speeds in short order, and as my mangled corpse-to-be rebounded off the road fate chose that perfect moment to finish me off with a lightning bolt before I even hit the ground.
On a completely clear day.
Sigh. Why did my life suck so much?
…wait. Why I am talking to you? After all that, even I'm perfectly aware that there was absolutely no way I could have survived that. Still, as I opened my eyes to an infinite void, I kind of expected the afterlife to be anything but… darkness.
And more darkness.
"What is this place? It's all dark and gloomy, where am I?"
I was in deep thought of where I was, whether I was dead or alive, when a flash of light shone in front of me. In that light a mysterious girl emerged, her face was framed by a mane of wheat-blond hair and an otherworldly figure, but when I looked up at her eyes, they bore a look of heart-wrenching sadness as she gazed upon me.
Even in all my confusion, I couldn't help but wonder why she was crying. Still, if she was a Goddess or some sort she probably has the answer of the question I sought, so I crossed my arms and raised an eyebrow at her. "Who are you? And where am I?"
"My name is ***************, This is my domain young mortal" was the reply.
Okay, what was that? I asked for her name again but for some reason all I heard was a distorted murmur. Must be some sort of language barrier, I guess. And apparently this was her domain? Cheery place.
"Hmm, you can't understand my name? Oh, apologies for my appearance. That man you sacrificed yourself to save was destined to pass on in that accident." she murmured with tear-filled eyes. "It wasn't supposed to be your time yet, and for that I am so, so sorry."
Wait, what?
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She eventually explained that before that accident, she had been jealous of some of her peers who were patrons to Commander units from Planetary Annihilation, so she had set events in motion to find a perfect candidate of her own. Turns out the man I saved had been the original candidate, she had intentionally put the truck's driver to sleep so that he would have struck the candidate down, but I had interfered and in her frustration, she had inadvertently loosed off a lightning bolt completely by accident. Turns out, having a metal belt on you makes you real attractive to stray volts, which explained the electrical double-tap at the end.
Still didn't make it hurt less. What a bummer.
"My apologies for that ordeal once again," she said, looking slightly calmer after that explanation. "I now have an unclaimed Commander chassis which I placed your soul into, and as compensation for my mistake I will grant you three pieces of technology of your choice. Do you accept?"
Well then, no need to mope. At least I have a proper body (Chassis? Mainframe? I dunno.) despite being converted into an AI, and a head start of three techs of my choice. Hmm, choices, choices. After brainstorming for a couple of minutes (practically forever with my new mental capacities) I came to a decision. "Alright, I accept. 'I'll become a Commander." I said to her with a smile. "as for the techs, I choose cloning tech and a database of about a million different DNA samples, the android tech of Dr. Gero from Dragon Ball and Asgardian Matter Conversion Technology from Stargate."
"Thank you! Thank you so much for accepting!" she cheered with a big grin on her face. "I've taken the liberty to upgrade some of your choices like the Asgardian Matter Conversion Technology, it should allow you to scan and create any magical item that you find in any magic oriented universe. I hope you don't mind!"
Awesome. That could be useful if I happen to go to a magical universe, and with cloning and android tech I'll be able to blend my units in any city. Very useful.
"Now then," she finished with a flourish, gesturing to a gargantuan mechanical form that abruptly appeared in the distance, opening what looked like a literal tear in reality with a single flick of her other hand. "This is your Commander chassis, and this is a portal for a hub world I've prepared for you. You'll have to build your own Dimensional Gateways after you arrive there, the blueprints should already be inside your databanks. They'll be able to bring you to anywhere you wish to travel to, anywhere except here." The Goddess gave a dainty giggle as her tone took on a slightly teasing lilt. "Bringing you here was a one-off I'm afraid, a lady needs her privacy you know!"
So, my commander chassis, the form I'll likely be wearing for the foreseeable future. It kind of looks like a Japanese samurai.
"Thank you for giving me all this," I breathed, still slightly dazzled by the sheer size of the Commander unit. "this is amazing."
"You're welcome, and thank you for accepting. I wish you good luck in your journey." she continued with smile, eyes glimmering with mirth. "You can put yourself to sleep in your chassis whenever you want, just think of it like logging off from a computer of sorts. And a word of advice? You can't use your old Earth name" As the last word left her lips her smile turned into a frown, expression turning serious.
Was it that much of an issue? Well, if I can't use my old name I'll have to come up with something else to call myself, something worthy as a Commander's title.
Aha, I've got it.
"My name Commander Alpha." I declared, nodding in satisfaction as I willed the Commander unit to stride through the portal. "Thank you once again."
"I see. Good luck, Commander Alpha." I heard her say as the portal closed behind me.
What adventure waits for me, I wonder? This is so exciting!
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Back within her domain, the entity watched her Commander walk in the portal leading to his hub world in silence. As the portal closed, she began to cackle hysterically. "Huhuhuhuhu~! Goodbye my candidate, everything was according to plan." The entity crooned, voice dropping into a snakelike hiss, earlier cheer gone. "Entertain me, my Commander. Fufufufufu~"