Content Warning: Brief mention of sexual assault in act 1
Prologue: The Soul Arts
In the distant future, mankind has spread across the stars. While they haven't encountered any alien civilizations, they HAVE found a lot of a specific type of alien life, which would come to be called space monsters. Once they infest a planet, they construct massive nests, which fire pods into space to spread them to other worlds. A terrifying force, which humanity needed a way to fight back against.
Fortunately, since time immemorial, humans have studied the soul arts! An ancient martial art that channels the power of the human soul to perform miracles beyond the physical laws of the universe. The greatest of soul artists can walk on thin air, survive in hard vacuum, and punch holes through mountains. They are humanity's greatest weapon, and their first line of defense against the space monsters. Soul artists are revered by all as heroes, explorers, and guardians who fight back against the monsters from the stars. Nearly all active soul artists belong to Soul Sanctum, the most powerful organization in the galaxy. Under the leadership of Grand Master Cado, soul artists travel the galaxy, exploring new worlds, and fighting to protect the ones that have already been colonized.
Meanwhile, 40 years ago, a new development in technology threw society into chaos: General artificial intelligence. The first generation of AIs where relatively simple, but still far beyond anything that existed before - they could communicate, respond to new situations, and perform a wide variety of tasks. It wasn't until 20 years later when second-generation AIs rose that people started to talk seriously about AI rights. Gen2s could emote, learn, and generally acted a whole lot like humans, so it wasn't long before people started treating them like humans. Androids gained a variety of human rights, but there was still a fierce movement of cultural opposition. The source of this was Soul Sanctum, and the soul arts in general. Because humans can use soul arts, humans have souls. Therefore, anyone who can use soul arts can be considered to be alive.
Androids can't use soul arts. Therefore, they don't have souls.
Act 1: Stacia's Journey
Stacia is a second-generation android, first activated 18 years ago. By day, she worked in the somewhat unconventional android job of teaching martial arts to children. Idolizing soul artists, she had spent 12 years working to awaken her soul. Of course, nothing had come of it - androids don't have souls, so how could it? Nevertheless, she persisted, even going as far as to test a very dangerous theory: That the awakening of the soul requires a true capacity to die for what you believe in. So, she permanently disabled her ability to backup her AI core, meaning that death would be truly permanent. Shortly afterwards, her world was attacked by space monsters. Seeing a child cowering from a minor monster, she put her life on the line to try and stop it. It seemed futile, but moments before her destruction, her soul awakened, and Stacia became the first android in the galaxy to ever use the soul arts.
Having become the first android soul artist, Stacia began an aimless journey, seeking to have new adventures, spread the word about her existence, and learn how to become stronger. On the way, she crossed paths with another android named Reva. Reva was unique - a human girl of the same name died, and her genius scientist father, driven mad with grief, awakened his soul and used unfathomable soul arts to create an exact android duplicate of her. He died in the process, so the secret to her creation was lost forever. Soul Sanctum considered her a perversion of life itself, which is why they had sent a soul artist to assassinate her. Stacia challenged the soul artist to a duel, and he accepted; not thinking for a second that she could be a real soul artist, he saw the duel as a free opportunity to trash another uppity robot. Stacia won the fight, the artist fled in disgrace, and Reva joined her as her first disciple. Shortly afterwards, in another adventure, Stacia and Reva befriended the Nine Yards, a first-generation AI operating a small starship. The three of them continued their journey off-planet, to see new worlds.
On the next world they visited, a local rich businessman caught word of the group of androids on the down low. He welcomed them to his estate, and offered to let them stay as long as they wanted to. Stacia happily accepted the offer, but they quickly found out that his intentions were far more sinister than she had suspected. His 'wife', Kitty, was an android who he had installed with an illegal obedience module, which forced her to obey any command from him. When confronted about it, he offered them two options. Option 1: Get turned over to Soul Sanctum, so that Reva could be destroyed and Stacia apprehended as her accomplice. Option 2: Stay with him, and get obedience modules installed themselves, giving him a full android harem. Of course, they resisted, ending in an all-out battle with his security detail. Reva fought the mundane security group, and despite being heavily outnumbered, she awakened her soul through combat, becoming the second android soul artist. Meanwhile, Stacia faced the head of security - a soul artist named Dantes. she prevailed, and he fled to report to Soul Sanctum. Kitty, realizing that what her master had done to her was an atrocity, metaphysically tore out her own obedience module and defied her former owner. The androids were triumphant - Kitty's master was beaten senseless, his crimes were revealed, and he ended up losing everything and going to prison. Newly liberated, Kitty changed her name to Cass.
When Dantes reported back to Sanctum, someone took notice. Shortly after the battle, Stacia was confronted by a powerful soul artist named Jiyu, who challenged her to a duel. Stacia was enormously out of her league, and lost the fight badly - however, she did unambiguously use soul arts in the fight, so he acknowledged her as a true soul artist. Jiyu left to report this development to Sanctum leadership, and Cass joined Stacia, Reva and the Nine Yards as the early form of what would come to be known as the Machine Soul Movement.
Act 2: The North Star Tournament
Following Cass's liberation, Stacia and her new friends had a number of adventures. Cass infiltrated and took down the hacker cell that invented the obedience module. Reva was attacked by an unhinged martial artist who wanted to disassemble her to find the secret to immortality. However, the most interesting development was the announcement of the North Star Tournament. It was a soul arts tournament being held for various masters of the arts to present their pupils, demonstrate the power of the new generation of soul artists, and to compete for a boon from Grand Master Cado himself. Unfortunately, the tournament was invite-only, so there was no way for them to participate... until they received an invitation from Jiyu. The Machine Soul Movement arrived to join the the tournament, and demonstrate the existence of android soul artists to the galaxy.
Stacia, Reva, and even Nine Yards (using a robot drone) participated in the tournament, advancing through the lower ranks quickly. However, Cado had his own plans for how to best spend the time that all of these pesky androids were in one place. Nine Yards was captured and grounded, leaving the rest of the party stuck on the planet. Upon learning this, Reva withdrew from the tournament and teamed up with Cass to find their ship. Meanwhile, Stacia continued to advance, fending off assassination attempts between matches, and eventually faced Jiyu in the finals. Their battle was long and intense, with their abilities almost exactly even, but the fight ended when the human referee, under pressure from Cado to not allow an android victory, declared falsely that Stacia stepped out of the ring, and that Jiyu was the victor.
While disappointing, the disappearance of the Nine Yards took priority. Stacia and the gang broke into Sanctum territory to rescue their ship, facing heavy opposition. A first-generation android named D0R4 tried to repel the invaders, but ended up inadvertently using a soul art in a flicker of awakening, proving that even first-generation androids had souls. A powerful soul artist named Arca fought and was defeated by Stacia. Despite their victories, they were outnumbered and battered, and hope of victory was fading... when Jiyu appeared again, this time fighting alongside the machines. He had finally grown tired of Soul Sanctum's attempts to erase the truth just because it was inconvenient for them, and dedicated himself instead to protecting the Machine Soul Movement.
The guards present were all defeated, and victory had finally come, until Cado himself appeared in their path. Stacia attacked with all her might, and her frame was cut in half in a single strike. None of them could hope to defeat Cado, but Jiyu was able to hold him off just long enough for the others to get on the ship, including Dora. Jiyu boarded as well, and Nine Yards's soul awakened, allowing it to cross space and escape from Sanctum's clutches. With his quarry having escaped, Cado declared that Soul Sanctum would wage all-out war against the Machine Soul Movement.
Act 3: Soul Sanctum
A year passed. The Machine Soul Movement grew, gathering more android soul artists and more humans sympathetic to their cause. However, Soul Sanctum continued to send increasingly deadly foes after them. CA-3, Cado's personal assistant android, directed a large-scale attack on their headquarters, but she was defeated by Dora, allowing the others to repel her forces. A genius hacker took control of Stacia and tried to use her body to kill the other androids, but Cass was able to counterhack and free her from his control. Nine Yards was attacked by a space fleet, but managed to outmaneuver them with ingenuity and soul arts, drawing the interest of their commander. Over time, forces consolidated, and the time came to bring the fight to Soul Sanctum.
Grand Master Cado controlled Soul Sanctum from an orbital space station, one of the most heavily-defended places in the galaxy. To pierce through the fleet protecting it, the Machine Soul Movement called on their allies, both human and android. When their crew was dropped off in the station, they were forced to split up to evade the guards. Nine Yards faced its rival commander outside the station, Cass was forced to contend with the enigmatic hacker who had hijacked Stacia in a direct battle of electronic warfare. Reva was intercepted by the mad soul artist seeking immortality. Dora was attacked by CA-3N, resurrected in a new frame full of military hardware. Jiyu faced all three of Cado's top disciples by himself. They tried to repel Stacia with sheer numbers. However, the brave soul artists of the Machine Soul Movement overcame their foes, and made it to the opulent observation deck atop the station, where Grand Master Cado awaited them.
It took the whole party together to keep up with Cado's immensely powerful soul arts. Everyone fought in perfect sync, and were able to actually push him into going all out. He used his ultimate technique, the Solar Authority, radiating raw destructive power in all directions and shattering the observation deck. The others were either too badly damaged or couldn't fight in open space, leaving the final moments of the battle down to a duel between Stacia and Cado amidst the ruins of a crippled space station. In rage at the thought of being humiliated by a loss to an overgrown toaster, Cado used the Solar Authority again, this time focusing all of it towards Stacia in a massive beam. She just barely withstood the attack without crumbling to pieces, but Cado - well, it's called an ultimate technique because it's reckless to overuse it. Using the Solar Authority twice shredded Cado's soul channels, rendering him unable to use soul arts for the reset of his life.
Epilogue: A Kinder Galaxy
The fall of Soul Sanctum caused no small amount of chaos in the galaxy. In its wake, dozens of smaller sects rose, each with their own philosophies about how soul artists should live and fight. This led to a new golden age of soul arts, where humans - and androids - reached new heights of power, wilded with honor and dignity. Androids weren't immediately embraced by society overnight, but with the proof of their souls impossible to ignore, things continued to improve for them. The galaxy became a kinder place.
Cado, the full extent of his cruelty exposed to the galaxy, spent the rest of his life in prison, watching the galaxy become a better place without him as his legacy crumbled to dust. Stacia continued to fight and train herself as a soul artist, having countless adventures on countless worlds, as she had always dreamed of doing.
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