Berkut

The history of Berkut begins in ancient times. He was born in the 60s in the USSR into a family of Soviet scientists. his mother was a geologist and his father a computer specialist. But his childhood was not happy. The parents were obsessed with the idea of ​​​​creating a Soviet superman and did not limit themselves to raising the child. The father made his son his own innovative project and, from childhood, implanted various electronic devices into the boy, accustoming his body to prostheses. The child was also raised in excessive severity: he was not allowed to have friends, play and was forced to constantly study in order to become smarter than all the children of his age. Initially, Berkut's name was not that. His real name is Seraphim Mikhailovich. Afterwards, he took the pseudonym "Berkut", as if renouncing his human nature. The Berkut's mother was in moral slavery to her husband and did not protect the child from cruel experiments. Moreover, she did not leave her abusive husband and when the child was injured, instead of helping him or escaping with the child from the father’s violence, she lied to little Seraphim that his pain was not the result of experiments, but some kind of random illness. She said when Seraphim woke up without remembering the event that happened: “You fell, that’s why it hurts so much” or any other lie. Seraphim's father did not encourage his desire to play and did not allow him to communicate with himself without permission and punished him if his son did not spend all his time studying but played. But Seraphim had a secret - he made himself toy men out of paper and played with them when no one was looking. He built them a military base from books. And then he hid it when his parents could see this yoke. When Seraphim's father died under unclear circumstances, Seraphim was already an adult and feigned tears at the funeral. Although everyone knew that he was afraid and hated his father. But he did not run away from his father in order to get a prestigious job through his father’s social connections.

After this, Seraphim replaced his father at the Scientific Research Institute and became the chief aircraft design engineer. He was respected for his knowledge and genius. But Seraphim’s character was terrible. He was rude, moody, and disrespectful to employees. However, his employees respected him for his intelligence. Seraphim grew up as an ascetic: he did not like luxury, although he could build it for himself and devoted all his time to science. His little joys were invisible to others. Seraphim loved to look at lilacs in parks and gardens while walking near his place of work. And he loved to eat pies from the canteen at work. At such moments, alone with himself, he felt happy. Seraphim’s most important dream at this time was his project. He named it "Mechastat". In those days in the USSR, and throughout the world, the cult of the superman turned into the desire of all people to create a cybernetic body for themselves or to transfer their minds to some type of technology. Literally, children wrote in their school essays, “When I grow up, I want to be an airplane.” Seraphim was no exception. His body was deformed and ravaged by the experiments his father carried out on him. He grew up thin and tall, with an uneven skull due to implants. Seraphim had poor vision and wore glasses. His limbs: his arms and legs were too thin and long, and his ribs and spine protruded from under his skin. That's why he tried to wear baggy clothes, sweaters and a work coat. Therefore, Seraphim dreamed of making himself the most powerful and beautiful plane, and from it a magnificent ideal cyborg body.The political situation was changing and now there was a “Thaw” in the USSR. Citizens of the Soviet Union were given the opportunity to communicate and work with foreign companies. Then Seraphim began looking for a sponsor and partner for his project. It was multimillionaire Mortimer Grumman. Also a fan of technology and aviation. And now together they began to work on the Mehastat project. They wanted to create complex aircraft that could change shape from an airplane to a humanoid robot. And then transfer your mind into such bodies and thus become immortal.

Grumman began taking Seraphim to exhibitions and scientific symposiums. Gather supporters and scientists there for the project. And against the background of this, the relationship between the two scientists also developed on a personal level. Grumman was fascinated by Seraphim's simplicity and modesty. Grumman was surprised how such a person lived so modestly and therefore began to pamper Seraphim with trips to expensive restaurants and bars. I wanted to encourage my friend from the USSR. But Seraphim was embarrassed and afraid of people. And he didn’t even pay attention to women. He was bored even in the strip club. And Grumman didn’t know how else to please his new friend. For Grumman, their friendship with Seraphim was very important, since Seraphim was his first acquaintance who did not shake money out of him, but actually dreamed of scientific progress.

And finally, the Mehastat project was created. Seraphim himself was the first to transfer his mind into the machine. But there was one problem: when consciousness was transferred to the machine, the human body died and it was impossible to return back. Grumman was very afraid that Seraphim would die as a man and would not be able to be reborn as a machine. Because he secretly loved his work partner. But Seraphim convinced him that even if he died, it would be better than if he, Seraphim, did not achieve his dream. He climbed into the capsule that scanned the brain, turned off the ability to pull himself out and began the process. During the transfer, there was a power failure and all the scientists panicked, but Grumman stopped the panic. And then, after some time, the inscription appeared on the monitors: “Is there a God? Yes, now there is.” Seraphim said this through communication channels that went from the screens to his new body - a 22-meter Su47 fighter aircraft. A black aircraft with reverse swept wings, supersonic engines and additional (canard surfaces/foreplane vane/FHW) wings on the nose. Grumman asked: “Seraphim!” It's you? Can you hear me? Are you... in the control system? The line continued to write. A new inscription appeared on the screen: "My name is Berkut. From now on and forever"

Since then, Seraphim has always called himself only "Berkut".

After the first cyborg plane, others appeared, everyone wanted to step into the future and gain technological immortality. If in the USA and other capitalist countries rich people, politicians and businessmen had access to a body-machine, then in the USSR it was given as equipment for work. Therefore, cyborgs in these countries were very different. In the USA these were eccentric, ambitious elites, and in the USSR they were military men, scientists and public figures. Therefore, their attitude towards who is worthy of digital immortality differed greatly, as did their ideology.

But that was only half the problem. The biggest problem was that cyborg technology, also called Mechastats, could not claim the same civil rights as ordinary people, since they had strength disproportionate to human strength. Therefore, they were feared and limited in every possible way due to unequal opportunities. And then, one day, the patience of people and mechastats burst and a war between machines and people began. The machines wanted to get rid of the fact that they were treated like things, because before they were people, and people wanted to destroy the machines, since they were weaker and knew that they would sooner or later destroy them.

Meanwhile, Berkut, taking advantage of the confusion, began to subjugate all the Mezastats with the help of a code and created a Network that coordinated the actions of the Mezastats and helped them harmoniously fight with people. This greatly accelerated the victory of the Mechastats. Humanity was destroyed. But all the mechastats became puppets of Berkut, without even knowing about his existence. He appeared before his subordinates only when they died, therefore he appeared to them as the God of Death, the God-Machine. Like the Scandinavian god of war Odin, Berkut took the souls of mechastats who fell in battle and uploaded their minds to servers, and then built them new bodies and revived them. But the mechastats forgot that they had been resurrected and thought that they survived by a miracle.

People were defeated, their cities were destroyed and turned into deserts, and the pollution of the planet with household waste ended. Lush forests grew everywhere and animals flourished. Only small areas with few mechastats remained as a stronghold of high technology in an absolutely natural world. The Mechastats lived in ideal equality and communism, governed by the wise advice of the Network, which connected them as a messenger and an Internet network. But no one knew that the Network had an administrator who monitored all mechastats, read their thoughts and erased unnecessary thoughts. This is how Berkut controlled his servants and protected himself from uprising and overthrow.

Years passed. And Berkut practically merged with the neural network, and his mechastats almost forgot their human needs and lived like automatic beings, without self-awareness. It was as if they were sleeping forever.

Berkut built himself a huge underground bunker in which there was a DATA center and a server center with dozens of servers where he stored and processed the knowledge and personal experience of dead and living mechastats. There were also servers with recorded identities of those who died but had not yet been resurrected, having received new bodies. Those whom Berkut considered dangerous were also kept there. He destroyed the bodies of the mechastats he feared, and uploaded their consciousness and intelligence to the server and stored it just in case. Because the only thing he adored was new information.

Among the mechastats there were also their own contradictions and quarrels. For example, those mechastats that were created from civil airbus aircraft protected the remains of people and made them their pets. They bred them in their hangars as pets. Other mechastats thought it was dangerous and wild.

People still remained in wild forests and wastelands. But those people, over many generations, became wild and lost part of their knowledge, because they believed that the Mechastats were ancient gods and were afraid of them. And Berkut sat for years in his bunker on his throne of wires and cooling plates and, as the center of the Network, endlessly monitored his subordinates and the world. Thick wires ran from his neck and connected to his back and the back of his head. He was dressed in a formal black military uniform, with the same cap with a Soviet star. His hair was short, black, a little curly with gray bangs. The eyes are different: the left one was red and glowing with a pupil in the shape of a Soviet star. And his right eye is black, like the man he was. Under the black jacket there was a white shirt and a black tie, with a red star badge on the tie. Golden Eagle's hands were clawed and steel, black, and they also had red five-pointed stars in the center. On his feet were boots and black trousers. The Golden Eagle also had wings. They could disappear by being drawn into the body and change shape from the wings of a fighter plane to the feathery black wings of an eagle. The golden eagle's teeth were sharp and triangular like those of a shark. He liked to smile ominously and squint one eye. On his throne, he ironically squinted and smiled, watching the whole world. But I was also bored. Because he understood that no one knew about his existence and no one would ever go down to his bunker. And if you go down, you will have to kill him. Because no one should know about the secret ruler of the world. Otherwise, such great power will attract envious people and stupid heroes who will want to overthrow him. But Berkut could not die. All mechastats were also monsters at heart. Their nature as war machines took over their human personality and they often wanted to kill each other. Therefore, Berkut constantly suppressed their bloodthirsty activities through connecting to the Internet. He also controlled the production and supply of fuel, the operation of cities, communications, repairs and other vital processes for the existence of mechastats.

But Berkut was lonely. His power was a necessity, not a goal. He no longer understood what he wanted and why every day he prolongs the existence of those he saved. The mechastats had no goal. They were too strong and perfect for their world.

And Berkut always had to play the role of a villain in order to intimidate his subordinates and put them in their place, so he never showed his sincere feelings and was afraid to seem humane. Therefore, he always appeared before observers as a totalitarian monster. But deep down, he remained a lonely Soviet engineer who believed in the best qualities in people and that science would save the world. He did not want the nightmare and genocide that he essentially created by destroying humanity. But he wanted to save the best, those who became mechastats. Therefore, he always felt a sense of guilt and knew that he would have to be an enemy to everyone in order to maintain cohesion.

Now Berkut was lonely, cowardly, and paranoid. But deep down I wanted warmth and closeness, I just couldn’t trust anyone.