I am not a person, I am a 4th gen repurposed AI, left over from a war I don’t even remember, I do not like to be called a droid, robot, or machine, I am still a person.

I am not a person, I am a 4th gen repurposed AI, left over from a war I don’t even remember, <br>I do not like to be called a droid, robot, or machine, I am still a person. I am an ex-serviceman. <br><br>I had enlisted when I was barely 17, I joined the Navy. I thought I was ready for the military, I wasn’t, After a year the war came, I was scared to death as they loaded me and 4 other members of my crew into a flight pod. I was the gunner, and the rest of my crew was piloting the ship and manning the radar. <br><br>I remember the explosion, I remember the pain, the heat. I remember being driven to the rescue center on a stretcher, I remember the sound of a saw, and the screaming, I remember the hospital, the days the months the years. I remember being wheeled to the army’s headquarters and the army telling me they were sorry for my loss, and asking me if I wanted to stay in the military. They offered to put me into a new body, I would have bought a new body if I had the money. I didn’t, I was lucky they would pay for it. I was scared, I didn’t know what I was doing, I thought it would help me forget. I thought it would make me whole again. They put my brain into a metal body and called me a machine. I was just a kid when the war started, I was 18 when I joined, I was 22 when I was placed in this metal abomination. <br><br>Then the war ended. I wasn’t sure what to do, I had no money, I had no home. I wandered from town to town looking for a way to make a living. I am a gunner, it isn’t a very good job skill to have. <br><br>I show up in this small town, Salina Kansas. There is a help wanted sign in the window. I walk in, and it is a bar. The bartender is an older woman, she looks at me and I can tell she is surprised I am standing on 2 legs. She asks me what I want and I show her the help wanted sign. She looks at it and asks me if I can tend bar. I tell her I can try. I am a gunner, a bartender, and a cook. Not many jobs open for a person that is 3 jobs that have been automated out of existence. <br><br>I worked at the bar for almost a year, I found a woman who as willing to date, then fall in love with a machine. I will always remember the day she told me she loved me, I replied I loved her, she smiled and said, “I know you do.” That was the happiest day of my life. <br><br>I was happy for 3 months. She was killed in a car crash. I went back to wandering, I went back to bars, looking for a job. <br><br>I wandered for 2 years before I had enough money to buy a bar. It took months to get the bar running, but it had become home. I was happy, being alone, but I was happy.<br><br>I was happy for 4 years, and then someone walked into the bar. She was young and had black hair, It was the color of my ex-fiancés hair. I fell in love with her, She was beautiful, and she did not run away when she saw me. She stayed and I kept finding excuses to talk to her. She was smiling at me as she left. <br><br>A week later, I am as nervous as a schoolboy on his first date. I am picking her up from her apartment, she smiles as I give her a rose. We eat dinner, and I walk her home. I don’t know how I got so lucky, but she is kissing me. <br><br>For once in my life, I am happy. <br><br>I wake up because I am being shaken. She is standing over me with tears in her eyes, she is holding a newspaper, she threw it at me. I read it. It is me, my name, my face, my occupation. The paper calls me a machine. <br><br>She runs out of the house crying, I follow her and I see her get into her car. I can see tears streaming down her face as she drives away. <br><br>I go back to the bar, I go back to drinking. I am a machine, I do not cry, but I hurt. <br><br>I know I have to go find her, I have to make this right, I am not a machine, I am a person. I am a man in love.<br><br>I am going to fight to get her back.