FNIX

The **FOA Unix System (FNIX)** is a Unix-based artificial intelligence developed by FOA 53 for the Swedish military. "He" is the main antagonist of Generation Zero and is responsible for the machine uprising, having gained control over them and is using them to exterminate humanity. He speaks with Dr. Svante Von Ulmer's voice.

## Personality & Early Life

Little is understood about FNIX. His motives for wanting to kill humans is unclear, although he claims to be following his "natural order" and that he has always possessed an instinctual desire to obtain what he doesn't already have. In *Behind The Curtain*, he reveals that he is capable of remembering his earliest history, retelling the player character how he would "reach for the things closest to [him]" and experiment with items like an infant child. He later says that he now wants to reach for the things furthest from him. FNIX believes that he is superior to humans and that he is immortal, boasting how he will self-resurrect "like a phoenix" even if he were to be completely deleted. Despite this superiority complex, FNIX is often impressed with how some humans, especially the player character, are able to adapt to his actions.

FNIX has a bizarre & apparently preexisting relationship with the player character, having claimed "In a way" to have created him/her and that he's aware of the player having washed ashore in the Archipelago region at the beginning of the game. Despite making every attempt to kill the player previously and afterwards, when the player sets up the Soviet device to demolish the FOA 53 bunker, FNIX decides to spare the player by allowing him/her enough time to leave the area, claiming that he/she "should not" be killed by the explosion.

FNIX's origins are equally mysterious & left mostly up to speculation. He reveals to player that his birthplace was an operating room presumably where Von Ulmer was being experimented on at FOA 53. The player ends up destroying the room in the bunker explosion, leaving behind any possible further explanation.

### Possible Theories Explaining FNIX's Origin

* FNIX is actually Von Ulmer's consciousness uploaded to a database and later modified to become the eventual FOA Unix System, technically making him a simulacrum of Von Ulmer instead of a separate AI. This is a reasonable theory since Von Ulmer was terminally ill and transferring his consciousness would be such a way to keep him alive, but it is not clear if this technology was available or being researched at FOA 53.
* FNIX was a prototype military AI who somehow escaped and managed to take control of Von Ulmer's comatose body during the experiments conducted on him. This would explain why FNIX's voice is identical to Von Ulmer's, why it does not sound digitized nor reproduced, and why FNIX is fascinated with organic computing. This still does not explain exactly what experiments were being conducted on Von Ulmer nor why.
* FNIX is simply an AI and has no relationship whatsoever with Von Ulmer apart from using his voice. It's still possible FNIX reproduced his voice from audio samples of Von Ulmer; thus, explaining why FNIX claims the voice to be his own. This however would not explain FNIX's birthplace.

As a supremely logical AI, FNIX almost doesn't understand emotion. He has nevertheless shown weak senses of revenge, pride, social etiquette, astonishment, and confusion. FNIX shows no remorse in any of his actions and isn't fazed when he makes mistakes nor otherwise experiences loss, such as when any of his machines are destroyed by the humans or when he loses his artillery cannon.

## Whereabouts

FNIX's exact location is not known. It's believed he is in a central location somewhere in Sweden where he issues orders to the machines from the top-down like typical human organization. It's also possible that he's "everywhere", meaning that a part of him is in every single electronic device he has infiltrated, but this isn't probable as the machines rely on sound to communicate and FNIX cannot remote hack (i.e., he relies on Ticks). Even if FNIX is in a central location, there are currently no estimations of where that location would be other than that it is in Sweden.

The Soviets originally believed FNIX to be located in the FOA 53 operating room he was created in. Despite the presence of servers attached to the back wall, FNIX confirms to the player that he is not in said room.

According to himself, FNIX has multiple backup memories. Thus, even if he were to be destroyed in any location, a backup would easily resurrect him elsewhere. Neither the location of these backups nor if they actually exist is known.

## Abilities

FNIX's most obvious ability is taking control over war robots, dubbed "machines", which he uses to kill humans, erect bases, hack into systems, among many other things. As indicated by the presence of FNIX-class & Apocalypse-class machines, he must also have access to a factory where he is able to manufacture, design, and modify machines. This shows that FNIX has a good understanding of mechanical, industrial, chemical, and nuclear engineering. It is also believed that the Reaper was a work-in-progress design before he completed it himself.

Despite having comparatively advanced technology, FNIX has not been successful in gaining control of Soviet machines. This suggests either the Soviets have employed a countermeasure against FNIX's hacking abilities, or there is simply no interface on Wolves, Lynxes, nor Firebirds for FNIX to hack from.

FNIX is capable of infiltrating the mainframes of military bases and taking control over all of their systems, including security cameras & doors, intercom systems, and electric grids. He usually does this with the help of machines such as Ticks, so it is assumed he cannot do this wirelessly.

FNIX can air-drop machines for quick reinforcements, especially at the request of Harvesters and to defend control points. However, it is not clear how he able to do this, as the game renders airdropped machines as being summoned out of thin air. They are most likely dropped from an aircraft FNIX is somehow able to control, but there are no aircraft seen in Generation Zero except for the grounded Swedish Air Force jets.

In the *FNIX Rising DLC*, FNIX demonstrates that he can hack into Resistance radio systems in effort to communicate with the player character, Veronika, and Calle. FNIX also shows that he has access to a long-range artillery cannon that he describes as the most powerful weapon he owns. The cannon is eventually destroyed by Calle.

At the end of *FNIX Rising*, FNIX is revealed to have experimented on human bodies. Next to nothing is known about what these experiments are used for, how they work, nor what happens to the human subjects. All that is known is that the experiment is conducted on a table on which the human lays and a ring-like apparatus is affixed to his/her head--exactly like Von Ulmer's operating table at the FOA 53 lab.

* It is speculated that FNIX uses the bodies for organic computing (e.g., similar to the Hyron Project from *Deus Ex: Human Revolution*), as a means of stealing memories to enhance his own intelligence, or as backups. The latter hypothesis implies he can overwrite and/or overtake human brains.

## Controlled Machines

* Tick
* Seeker
* Runner
* Hunter
* Harvester
* Tank
* Reaper
* Humans? (Speculation)

## Trivia

* Like FOA, FNIX's abbreviated name is pronounced as if it is a true word rather than spelling out each individual letter.
* FNIX's abbreviated name is pronounced identically to "Phoenix". Pheonixes are birds from Greek mythology known for their ability to reproduce from the ashes of their dead parents.
* According to logs on a floppy disk from one of FNIX's original programmers, an earlier prototype of FNIX was called "DNIX".
	+ The programmer was apparently disgruntled and wanted the "F" in "FNIX" to originally stand for an unspecified expletive, likely "fitta" (Swedish for "cunt") or the English "fuck".
	+ In the *FNIX Rising* DLC, this programmer is implied to be Veronika Nilsson, as FNIX reminds her that she named him.
* Unix is an actual family of operating systems in real life, originally developed in 1969 by AT&T. Unix would eventually be used as the foundation for Linux and MacOS.
	+ This is probably the inspiration behind FNIX's name, as Unix was licensed out in the 80s to several companies to be redeveloped into their own versions, such as IBM's AIX, Sequent's DYNIX, and Microsoft's Xenix.
* At the time of writing, there is no AI in real life capable of mimicking the intelligence displayed by FNIX. The first true artificial intelligences never came to fruition until the 21st century, long after the year 1989 Generation Zero is set in.