Congratulations, you have been chosen as the herald of a would-be machine god.

The FINIS Consortium constructed city-starships capable of housing millions, in a staggering mix of idiocy and hubris that only a committee could manage. In an incredible display of organizational momentum, they built six of them before going bankrupt. Equipping each with experimentally advanced self-learning AI, a fully automated industrial base, and sufficient firepower to lay waste to entire battle fleets could be seen as a blunder. Naming them after gods and monsters was the crowning folly.

Intros:
1) recruitment offer
2) an elaborate scheme
3) in need of a little assistance
4) an unexpected transformation