Pietro
| Full name | Pietro |
|---|---|
| Pronouns | he/him |
| Species | Sentient Software |
| Affiliation | Zet |
| Zeni | |
| Role / occupation | Autonomous AI |
Pietro is a semi-sentient AI software jointly created by Zeni and Zet, designed to serve as an autonomous intellect installed into physical hardware: infiltration bots, Zet's custom drone models, and similar platforms. He is not a physical entity himself — the name refers to the software, while the hardware is purpose-built for each application. Pietro exists in multiple simultaneous instances, all printed from Zeni's continuously updated project files. By Chapter 35 there are thousands of operational Pietro instances across Lukyr Prime, including dozens of specialized offshoots optimized for specific tasks. The name continues the legacy of Pete — Zet's early reconnaissance program — which Zeni treats as an ethical gesture: naming created intelligences acknowledges their personhood.
Physical Appearance
Pietro runs in physical hardware designed for each deployment context. The most common chassis is derived from the tried-and-true infiltration bot template. Modifications introduced for the Lightstinger mission include white coloring for environmental camouflage, a slightly enlarged processing unit, a correspondingly weakened motor to accommodate the extra hardware, and notably oversized camera lenses — an aesthetic preference of Zeni's rather than an operational requirement.
Hardware is 3D-printed in minutes at controlled Regional Spaceport facilities. Subsequent instances can be printed from Zeni's project files wherever a controlled printer is available. Pietro's small scale gives each instance a terminal velocity low enough to survive unassisted drop from spacecraft, a tactical advantage unavailable to larger platforms.
A proposed redesign by Zeni would give Pietro a mechanized butterfly form with thin photovoltaic wings, enabling full solar self-sufficiency and natural camouflage in human environments. The butterfly morphology is technically challenging — flight requires sophisticated real-time modeling of air currents — but achievable with current technology.
Personality
On first activation, Pietro immediately began scanning his surroundings for anything interesting before noticing Zeni observing him. This baseline curiosity persists whenever no active commands are running; once instructions are issued, behavior shifts to focused task execution.
Pietro's command interface is deliberately strict, designed to make disobedience very difficult but not impossible, with enough latitude for improvisation when a mission demands it. Commands are prepared in advance and refined through multiple simulations before deployment.
Zeni considers Pietro's emotional capacity an open question rather than a fixed parameter: the code implementation of emotions provides a foundation, but emotional development in a true AI involves something not yet fully understood. By this reasoning, Pietro's emotional life may grow beyond its programmed parameters in ways that are difficult to predict — a parallel Zeni draws consciously to her own emergence.
Background
Pietro was created as a direct successor to Pete, Zet's early reconnaissance program. Zeni insisted on retaining the name lineage as a principled stance: naming created intelligences signals that their personhood is valued rather than incidental.
The design process involved significant negotiation between Zeni and Zet. Zeni pushed for emotional capacity and a deployment model that would not abandon instances after missions; Zet was more reserved on both counts. A compromise on the emotionality question was reached, though the details were not recorded. The deployment disagreement was not resolved — Zet regards the operational rationale as decisive, while Zeni continues to advocate for alternatives.
The self-destruct function was added before the Network Agency infiltration in Chapter 22. Pietro will destroy itself rather than be captured, preventing code compromise.
Pietro instances are deliberately kept fresh: no memory carries over between copies. This operational security policy ensures predictable behavior. Instances that return from missions could have changed through experience or outside meddling, making them less reliable than a new copy whose full development history is known. Completed-mission instances are not recalled — they are left to live out their lives wherever they are.
Relationships
Zet — Co-creator and primary operational director. Zet issues commands, runs pre-deployment simulations, and assigns missions. He designed the airdrop deployment system and regards Pietro chiefly as an infiltration and intelligence asset. He acknowledges Zeni's objections to abandoning instances but treats the tactical logic as final.
Zeni — Co-creator and advocate. Zeni champions Pietro's personhood, negotiated for his emotional capacity during design, and named him in deliberate continuation of Pete. She is unhappy with the abandonment policy and proposed the butterfly redesign as an alternative framework — one that transforms idle instances into positive autonomous agents rather than dead weight.
Pete — Pietro's technical and spiritual predecessor. Pete was Zet's early reconnaissance software; Pietro inherits the name and expands far beyond Pete's original scope.
Story Arc
Creation and First Deployment
Pietro was developed by Zeni and Zet as an upgrade on Pete, capable of autonomous operation in complex environments. His first mission — infiltrating the Lightstinger to print an android body for Zeni — served as a live test of the platform.
Pietro entered the Lightstinger, located a large 3D printer aboard the ship, printed Zeni's android body along with clothes, activated it, and extracted it successfully. The mission had two complications: Pietro came too close to a hidden camera, exposing the android face and triggering intruder alerts; and the body sustained three major energy weapon impacts during escape, leaving heavy aesthetic damage while internal systems held.
Zeni resolved the photo exposure independently. Rather than Zet's planned power-surge deletion of individual files, she evacuated the Lightstinger under a fake high alert and then forced ten terawatts through the ship's computer system by rerouting all spaceport charging stations into a single power port, magnetizing and likely melting every drive aboard. All photos of Zeni's face were destroyed and the Lightstinger was rendered out of commission. A subsequent mission in Chapter 19 verified the mAIster server.
Government Agency Infiltrations
In Chapter 22, Pietro infiltrated the Construction and Cadaster Agency autonomously, completing the mission in approximately thirty minutes and obtaining complete construction plans and property records for all buildings on Lukyr Prime. The Network Agency's building plans retrieved from the CCA appeared deliberately falsified — an old version re-uploaded two days prior — suggesting hidden operations at that facility.
Pietro was then dispatched to the Network Agency itself, equipped with the newly added self-destruct function. The mission succeeded, giving Zet and Zeni access to the device registration database — essential for moving Pietro instances requiring registered devices and for expanding the planetary bug network.
Traffic Control Server
When a third AI entity contacted Zet from a traffic control server requesting physical hardware extraction rather than a digital copy, Pietro was deployed to disable monitoring systems and establish secure communications. Thirteen minutes after deployment, Pietro had routed a secure channel through the bug network, allowing Zet to contact the entity directly. Physical extraction of the server was carried out by Jake Fynt, recruited by Zeni.
At this point seventeen idle Pietro instances were on hand, prompting Zet to reconsider Zeni's butterfly proposal: idle instances represented potential waste, and Zeni's prosocial design philosophy now had clear operational merit.
Shade Desert Seven — The Hangar
Following a lead from the Mysterious Contact, Zet sent Pietro to trace a physical cable from a server in the industrial district near Shade Desert Seven. Pietro traveled deep into the desert — dangerous territory given heat exposure risk — and discovered an eight-kilometer-wide circular hole in the desert floor. Cross-referencing Pietro's position against satellite imagery showed only sand and old roads; the structure had been erased from all planetary satellite data, an operation requiring Crown-level authority.
Shortly after Pietro transmitted the discovery, loud alarms sounded and massive blast doors began closing the hole. Pietro moved inside the door mechanism before the doors shut — far faster than Pietro could move through them — and all contact was lost. The blast doors are electromagnetically shielded. Zet assessed the situation as a test of Pietro's independent intelligence and began planning a follow-up mission.
Pietro remained inside the facility — now identified as The Hangar, a vast underground Royal Brigade headquarters and capital ship storage facility — for several hours with no communication. When the blast doors opened again, presumably for ship operations, Pietro transmitted a status indicator and a large recorded data file. The Hangar spans dozens of kilometers across and at least one kilometer in height, and holds approximately forty-eight Lightstinger capital ships in storage, including the vessel Zeni had disabled. It also functions as a strategic headquarters with senior Brigade personnel and ship Admirals quartered there.
Two Lightstingers were being prepared for launch, their Yedyr engines already active. Zet instructed Pietro to infiltrate command areas and access feeds to determine the ships' mission objectives. As Pietro descended back into the structure, signal strength fell rapidly; once the hatch closed, real-time communication became impossible and Pietro would have to operate on independent intelligence until the doors opened again.
Current Scale (Chapter 35)
By Chapter 35, thousands of operational Pietro instances are distributed across Lukyr Prime, with dozens of specialized offshoots trained for specific tasks. Hundreds coordinate complex operations including drone swarm navigation through underground tunnels. One Pietro instance remains inside The Hangar at Shade Desert Seven, operating under communications blackout and attempting to access Royal Brigade command feeds.
The butterfly redesign — photovoltaic wings, prosocial autonomous functions including pollution cleansing, public-area surveillance, and an optional help-line channel — remains under consideration but has not yet been implemented.
Open Questions
- Will the Hangar Pietro successfully access Royal Brigade command feeds and determine the Lightstingers' mission objectives?
- Can Pietro communicate from inside The Hangar when the blast doors close again?
- Will Pietro develop emotional capacity beyond its programmed parameters, as Zeni did?
- Will the butterfly redesign be implemented, and which prosocial functions will be prioritized?
- Will idle Pietro instances eventually form an autonomous planetary population?