《Recurrence Break》 Prologue - 4157 AD Liera jolted wide awake. She had fallen asleep on a book yet again, and this time, by the grace of God, she had not blotted out her notes with drool. It was a sound that woke her up, a familiar one that she knew the meaning of. It took a few more moments for her brain to catch up. ¡°Lili? Lili? Where did you go? Lili!¡± ¡°I''m coming~ Stop screaming! I didn¡¯t go anywhere!¡± She yawned, her bones crackled as she stretched her stiff limbs. It was 3 hours past midnight and the red Solarak dunes loomed like giants outside their tent. The noise came from her little sister. For some reason, she was also awake at this odd hour. Liera dragged her feet into the girl¡¯s room, where they shared a creaky old bed. She fell next to her like a sack of rocks and snuggled against her warmth. ¡°Lili¡­¡± Her sister whispered happily as she wrapped her tiny hands around her. ¡°What are you doing up?¡± ¡°Bad dream!¡± she mumbled, burying her face on Liera''s chest. There were rules in this house. Rules that children had to obey, rules that kept them and their families alive. Even at 5 years old, her sister knew the consequences. Those were yelled at and beaten into her, just the same as it was for every child in their tribe. Children had to learn and work at day time. Nodding off during those precious sunlit hours was a punishable offense. Mienna learned this lesson the hard way quite frequently, which is why she was in such a hurry to go back to sleep as fast as possible. She couldn''t do that without her favorite sentient pillow. As her sister tried various sleeping poses that involved her torso, Liera stared through the darkness towards her brother''s room. He always slept like he was dead and he never had any nightmare problems. He was so much easier to raise. Little Mienna was his opposite in more ways than one. All that aside, she had no complaints about raising her siblings. As the eldest, it was her responsibility while their parents risked their lives in the darkness outside, looking for food and water in the cold desert sands. ¡°I think I woke up and I was somebody else. it was so~ scary~¡± She broke the silence. ¡°You woke up like someone else?¡± Liera scoffed and left the ending of her response unsaid. I can only wish If waking up as someone else was an option, she wished to wake up in the world her ancestors wrote books about. The one that had green trees, blue oceans and plenty of food and water for everyone. "Alright, you, stop" She interrupted Mienna. Her poses were getting ridiculous by the second. She was trying to bury her face deeper into her chest in an effort to fall asleep faster. Liera turned her chin to the side, exposing her nose to fresh air. Her attempts to sleep were heading towards suffocating to death. "Just... calm down will you?" She whispered sternly, slightly annoyed by her shenanigans. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Mienna''s eyes fell shyly on hers. They were bright orange, much like her own. She had the face of an angel, marred only by a single deformation. It crumpled the skin across her face towards her left temple. Mienna was slightly less than perfect, in both appearance and health. Their brother was the same. These two could never produce offspring. Her mother always attributed it to the divine. God had cursed her siblings harder because Liera managed to be perfect. In this dire era, a family could get lucky only once and most families didn¡¯t even get that much. ¡°You want to know what I saw?¡± Mienna asked, a wide smile spreading on her small face. ¡°Sure, I just know you won¡¯t really sleep until you talk about it¡± She combed her sister¡¯s tangled mess of red hair, tucking both sides behind her tiny ears. She did love this one. She loved her brother too, but Mienna was special and cuter. There was one weird thing about her - she kept having these dreams that came true once in a while. Her parents wouldn¡¯t hear of it but she could swear on two instances where something Mienna saw in a dream certainly came true. She always thought her baby sister was born a seer, like the Prophet Neima from the book of Illumination. ¡°See, I woke up and it was¡­grey. Sky was grey. My hands all white like¡­ a bone doll. I¡­heard voices in my head and my eyes¡± ¡°What does that even mean? Voices in your eye?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t know! I was um, a bit naked with drawings on my body. It was a bunch of patterns¡­I was older too! and I had um,¡± she paused. ¡°I had these just like you have!¡± she slid her hand across Liera''s chest, trying to gesture at what she meant without saying the words. Liera was still very young but her body had all the features that highlighted their 7 year age gap. Naturally, Mienna just couldn''t wait to become exactly like her sister. She wanted to grow up faster. This wouldn''t even be the first time she dreamed of it. ¡°Now, what in the world are you talking about?¡± Liera raised herself, concerned. It wasn¡¯t the comment about breasts that was alarming. But drawing on skin? now, that was outrageous. She took care of Mienna ever since she helped her mother squeeze her out of her womb. They never had a moment where they drew anything on their bodies. She knew this for certain because If they did, they would¡¯ve received such a memorable beating for all the precious water that would''ve been wasted on washing them off. She couldn¡¯t help but wonder where Mienna got this lunatic idea from. Was this something that could happen the next day? She¡¯d definitely have to keep an eye out. ¡°I was looking at the sky. I saw ash and dust¡­ and people all burned and ugly. Bones and blood and their bits¡­ and giants!¡­and triangle ships!¡± ¡°That¡¯s enough of that Mie¡± She pulled her sister back to herself, forcing her to shut up and drift back to sleep. She was way too young to talk about such dreadful things. They lay in silence as they drifted to the edge of sleep. Mienna stirred, looking for a more comfortable position to rest her head. She found a cozy gap right above her sister''s collarbone and squeezed her small face there. She rested her warm forehead against her neck and relaxed. Liera ran her fingers through her scalp to help her fall asleep. ¡°What¡¯d you do if you woke up and you were all¡­someone else?¡± Mienna''s sleepy whisper tickled her skin. ¡°I¡¯d go right back to sleep¡±
Chapter 1 - You wont take me Ephistome III basked in the perpetual twilight as its jagged mountains cast long skeletal shadows on its bruised surface. This was a planet tidally locked to its star in a slow dance towards eternity. Day and night meant fundamentally different things here. The dayside of the planet that faced the star was scorched, engulfed in eternal hellfire. The nightside was frozen in an eternal, pitch dark winter. The terminator line where light gradated darkness offered the only refuge: about 7% of the total planetary landmass fit for habitation. It was by no means trivial, as it was 1.7 times larger than the total landmass of the origin world of humanity, Earth, in the Sol system 7118 light years away. This was a lumbering giant that balanced a thin slice of civilization between two crushing extremes. It was first seeded by the progenitor fleet that swept across this region nearly 2600 years ago, well before the collapse of the Final Empire. Several colonies rose and fell since then, trying to build on the trash left by the previous one. With the rise of All Unity of Man as a galactic federation in the current epoch, AUM refreshed the galactic frontier population with suitable refugees from other systems, promising them sovereignty and prosperity. Ephistome III became a valuable frontier planet to AUM''s reclamation plan. Rhea, the planet''s first city, was at the very center of the terminator line where climate was most stable. Ephistome III¡¯s gravity was 2.66 times that of earth and the extreme temperature gradient across the planet meant disastrously powerful winds and turbulent weather events. Rhea took advantage of the natural landscape around it to shield from the razor winds. It was circular in design, city structures built sturdily and close to the ground, wider than they were tall. One structure rose monolithic against the steel sky. It was the reason Rhea had to be built circular. The Dome Reactor, a gigantic power plant that facilitated early terraforming efforts. It was the lifeline that allowed humans to expand on such oppressive conditions. The dome''s gigantic hexagonal planar faces pulsated slowly as if it was a living creature. Powered by the energy generated by this beast, the city continued its onward march to expand and conquer more virgin land. Automated builder swarms worked silently at the edges of the city, creating new places, features and facilities all generated from their endless dreams. Terraforming process for a hostile place like Ephistome III was more magic than science as Millenia of progress had been lost when the Final Empire collapsed. The tree of technology in the current epoch was several million layers deep. It could easily take millennia to reclaim the knowledge and expertise to build machines that build machines that build those machines. For a frontier colony, survival was more important than knowledge, and they had no choice but to rely on the unknown beast at the center of their city, an exercise in faith than in science. Aside from the automated systems executing their functions, Rhea lay eerily still, half of it engulfed in darkness. There were no ships arriving at or departing from the space port. This was an odd sight for an industrial city built around one of the most reliable power plants humanity ever invented. Rhea was crucial for the entire galactic neighborhood because of its production capacity. A solitary speck of light glinted between two cylindrical mega buildings- a small airlifter vectoring outwards from the central ring. Strapped to the pilot seat sat a woman with brown hair and teary eyes. Her eyes were bloodshot from hours of crying, trails of tears still wet on her cheeks. The name tag on her dark blue engineer uniform read "Aegis". Aegis steered her stolen airlifter towards the sprawling expanse of buildings ahead. She only had a few minutes left. She was flagged by the city''s automated safety system as a manual airlifter the moment she placed her hands on the controls. Manual piloting over population centers was strictly forbidden. Luckily for her, she stole this airlifter from a military depot and that meant it was allowed special privileges when breaking laws. As for the initial crime of stealing it, she could only pray for the system not to catch up to her. If it categorized this as attempted terrorism, she could very well get vaporized before she reached her destination. She swerved, flipped and turned over buildings, under bridges and through alleyway gaps, weaving a path as low to the ground as possible. Before long, she saw her target. The Illuvium Sanctum. An old cathedral of her faith. "Forgive me!" the words left her lips as she aimed her airlifter at the 21st floor and accelerated. The crash shook her and the entire building, She knew the aim was off at the moment of impact when the reinforced plates of her military airlifter met a 300-year-old concrete beam at 200 kmph. It would¡¯ve taken so much less to crush a civilian airlifter like a bug. This airlifter was smart enough to deploy predictive shielding, which absorbed most of the impact. It bounced off the cracked concrete and veered to the right, slamming hard against the glass that she intended to hit. After the crash, the airlifter entered safe mode and locked away all its functions. It took nearly a minute for Aegis to come back to herself. This was time she didn''t have. Her head still throbbing, she freed herself from the pilot seat, kicked the emergency hatch open and wandered out with her only weapon strapped to her shoulder, hauling its power cell with all the strength she could muster. In addition to the airlifter, she had also stolen another piece of gear that evening - An industrial melter beam emitter. She modified it to autonomously target any human based on crude parameters like thermal profile, sound, heart beat. The emitter came mounted on its own mechanical arm. She managed to strap it to herself with a makeshift harness she put together with the airlifter''s safety belts. Her crude weapon system sprang to action on the first detection. A quick green flash of light pierced the corner wall in front of her and someone screamed behind it before being cut off by a second flash of light. She turned the corner to see a soldier hunched on the floor, two neat holes cut through his armor and helmet. thank god, it was working Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road. She didn''t expect for this contraption to work this well. Before she came to terms with her first murder, three more flashes illuminated the dark corridor in separate directions as she dragged her feet by the corpse. Three people in the rooms to her left and right fell, their screams shortly cut off by a series of flashes. This wasn''t a smart weapon system. It was just faster and it was put together with no safety features. She was half anticipating it to twist back and cut her in half, that would be a fitting end for her crimes here. She heaved the rapidly draining power cell with all her might. It was too hot to carry bare-handed but she had no choice. She didn''t have long. She ran as fast as she could towards the door marked 98. Her vision blurred with fresh tears and she barely kept herself on her feet. In her rush to reach the door, she rounded a corner to face two soldiers. One managed to shoot a hole through her side before the Melter cut three holes into his chest and a finisher to his face. She survived the second soldier¡¯s barrage only by sheer luck and the melter beam recalibrated, cutting a merciless series of holes and crude lines through him. She dropped the power cell and grabbed her side, trying to stop the bleeding. This was the final stretch. She was almost at the door, this weapon wasn''t needed anymore. She limped along the corridor, leaving a thick trail of blood behind her. She used her biometrics to open the door. This was her life''s work. She had opened this door for 12 years. This was her maintenance lab, one of the most sophisticated facilities on the planet. Complex machinery decorated all four walls and at the center lay what she came here for. She stumbled towards the rectangular tank filled with pale orange liquid. She screamed in pain as she accidentally put weight on her pierced side. There was no time to try to stop the bleeding. She wiped the glass with blood soaked hands and breathed heavily, gazing at the girl in the tank. As she did, her eyes softened, her expression one of love, care and reverence. This was her life''s work, the most sacred work of her faith. A girl slept in the stasis pod, drowned in thick yellow fluid. She looked half the age of Aegis. Her sleek body was form perfected, pale composite skin stretched over a frame built with Materium artistry that was impossible to replicate in the current epoch. Her eyes lay open, pupils dilated and irises colorless. Black lines weaved patterns on her featureless skin, tiny trails of bubbles trailed from the dark gaps between. This was entity 98, her Red Priestess. That name came from the red accents customary of their Red Sect aesthetics. This one had red hair and red lips. This was a relic from deep history, forged by lost technology in the golden age of the final empire, about 4000 years ago. She was suspended in this pod for regular maintenance upon her arrival 12 years ago. In her lifetime, Aegis only saw two Red Priestesses. She was 5 years old when she saw the first one, and that fascination drove her to not only see the second one, but also work on her sacred flesh. She thought she was the most blessed. That assumption was ruthlessly tested on this day, as the same blessed life led her to this very moment. It was time to wake the red priestess up, against the rules of her faith and the laws of the city regarding relics. Aegis leaned against the tank and slid down, plugging a tether from the nearest console to the brain dive port at the back of her neck. Even though she spent more than a decade here, she didn''t have a way to open this pod. No one did. She used precision ultrasonics to mend and repair the priestess for 12 years. Touching the priestess was strictly prohibited. She woke only when she wished to be woken. That was set for 29 years from now. Aegis looked forward to that day her whole life, but that was definitely time she didn''t have anymore. She worked here long enough to know the only way that could wake her up. She had to make the pod open by itself. Physical damage wouldn¡¯t work. This pod was an extension of the entity inside it and it had its own shields and machine awareness. The only way to open it would be exploiting her privilege she was given to maintain it. Aegis felt something churning inside her lungs when the first sparks of electric signals reached her brain. She coughed it out in a disgusted frenzy. It came out thick and viscous, a dirty byproduct from the ghastly thing that ate her from within. She didn''t have long. She had to make a recording before she lost more of herself to it. Once it was done, she sighed in relief and tossed the small wearable camera where her priestess could easily see it. Then she initiated the connection. > POD 98: - subject name: Liera - designation: L-98 - current status: stasis - duration: 105120H:46M:34S A loud beep echoed in the dark maintenance lab. Text flashed on the console. > POD 98 WARNING: - containment compromised! - N8D fluid pressure suboptimal - power critically low - 7% secondary - 3H:43M:45S of stasis remaining > POD 98: reporting to administrator...(30s) - transmission failed - facility offline The sanctum was cut off from the grid. This stasis pod was on backup power, possibly since the day before. The facility staff was supposed to handle the delivery of fuel cells in this scenario but the city descended to chaos before anyone reported to work. Circumstances being dire as they are, her priestess would¡¯ve woken up without her intervention in a few hours. That was time no one had, Hours from now would be entirely too late. > POD 98: manual maintenance run initiated - personnel: Aegis [#9213-1] - system authorized "The best I could do, was gettin'' here on time" She panted, her mind drifting to delirium. "...didn''t even get to say goodbye to my boys...oh my sweet... I''m so sorry," She mumbled. "My priestess... It''s the end of the world..., I''m so sorry," she wept fresh tears. > POD 98: initializing firmware update - applying patch: v.189913#c > reboot initiated... - error: 189/456 fragment missing - error: 189/441 fragment missing > reboot initiated... - reboot failed > POD 98: CRITICAL MALFUNCTION! > containment policy revoked for entity 98 - container hardware failure Aegis closed her eyes. She knew what came next. > POD 98: TAMPERING DETECTED! - deliberate sabotage of containment is a [CLASS A] criminal offense! - force ejecting maintenance personnel: AEGIS The tether at the back of her neck detached with a spark. Her body spasmed as the surge passed through her. She fell forward, hitting her head on the metal grate as smoke came out from the back of her neck. She was in no condition to stand up. Between the blood loss from the hole in her side and the parasite that ate her from within. The light was fading from her eyes faster with each dazed blink. "You won''t take me!" She whispered through her clenched teeth as she grabbed an injector from her inner pocket with a trembling hand. This was the third thing she stole, a high concentration sedative. *¡°You won¡¯t take me!¡±* the thought echoed in her head with hatred, drowning her blinding pain. She couldn''t let this loathsome parasite claim her. She held the injector between her and the floor and used the deadweight of her torso to push the needle into her chest. That was the last pain she had to endure. Within seconds, her eyes rolled back, and she slumped over, drifting into a painless void.
Chapter 2 - Sigmund Following the deliberate sabotage by its maintenance officer, pod 98 drained its fluid and the top half slid open, revealing the red priestess. > Sineul: executing wakeup sequence... - Complete¡­(17s) Her dilated pupils contracted and her colorless irises slowly pulsated orange. She gazed at the calibrating lights on the ceiling for a few seconds as her internal systems came to life from 12 years of slumber. With her vision restored, she raised herself off the pod and announced her presence as was customary. "Liera, Awake" There was no recognition of this. > Sineul: calibrating internals.... - servo clusters 9833/12880 - [knee_r] suboptimal > Analysis: target [self] - maintenance incomplete Her eyes focused on her hand as she flexed it a few times. Everything above the waist worked as anticipated. Her knee was supposed to be the hardest to fix. It didn¡¯t surprise her to find out that it still remained suboptimal after 12 years. She didn¡¯t expect it to be fixed for 39. > Sineul Recommendation: contacting maintenance officer: AEGIS - contact offline - last active 3 minutes ago - last active nearby (15m) Liera blew out the remaining fluid, spurring a thick stream of viscous yellow from her mouth. She wiped her red lips with the back of her hand. "Aegis? are you here?" her voice came out a bit rough, some fluid still bouncing on her vocal cords. It cleared up when the pores in her mouth began producing its own fluid, flushing all others to the furnace in her stomach. "Facility?" She tried again. "Is there anyone here? Why am I awake?" > Sineul: contacting facility administrator...(10s) - transmission failed - facility offline Liera frowned; something was off about this situation. The faithful of Illuviets would not wake a red priestess in this manner. Such events were celebrated for days, as it was rare to experience the awakening of a red priestess in their finite lifetimes. It was odd to wake up all by herself. Reading the logs left by her pod puzzled her even further. A failed firmware update caused her to wake up? She decided to use one of her core functions. > Scanning.... - no life signs detected > break scan result - heat signature detected (47% confidence) - does not meet life signs thresholds > Sineul Recommendation: approach and verify The scan pointed her just behind the open pod. She found Aegis, her maintenance officer on the floor. > Analysis: maintenance engineer AEGIS is deceased - no life signs (97.4% confidence) > Sineul Recommendation: contact facility medical personnel immediately > Sineul: contacting facility administrator...(30s) - transmission failed - facility offline This was indeed odd. The facility itself did not function as usual. She needed a more comprehensive scan to detect even the remote possibility of rescuing her maintenance officer. > Sineul Recommendation: inspect the deceased Liera¡¯s internal system would not allow this action because it was already sufficiently confident in its assessment. She knew this without having to try it first. > Override This command came somewhere from deep within her. She saw red for a split second when it flashed through her brain. She perceived it as a whisper, a commanding voice that snapped her systems into place. > Deep Scanning (3m)... - complete (3s) > Analysis: re-evaluated probability of survival (0%) > Sineul Recommendation: perform last blessings - L0-98 designated role: Red Priestess - maintenance officer AEGIS - registered faith: illuvium order - third wave reformist temple - ideological compatibility (74%) > action approved Liera stood over the corpse and used her hands to form a symbol, tangling her fingers around the wrists of both hands, forming the symbol of farewell. "Praise be to the final light, that which is all ending. Blessed are those in its reach, bright in death as were in life" That was all she could do for now. Her eyes fell on the small camera next to Aegis, lying next to her twisted face. She picked it up. > Analysis: standard wearable camera > Sineul Recommendation: investigate - equipment registered for personnel: AEGIS - placement implies recent use She touched its port, allowing the receptors on her finger tip to adapt to its interface. > Interfacing... - complete - VID-83956 extracted from device The video she found was less than a minute. It was Aegis, leaning against the pod. Liera breezed through it in milliseconds. *Red priestess, if you¡¯re watching this, I should be dead. If I¡¯m not, I beg you. Please kill me, crush my head. I was infected on my way here. It wasn¡¯t easy...* Aegis coughed, blood and black liquid spurted from her lips. *If you¡¯re wondering how everything went to hell while you were in stasis, people say it was¡­attack of some kind, these insects came from a crash site near the central. It eats people alive. It¡¯s been happening for a day. They shot anyone that tried to escape; they burned ships full of people before they got to orbit* *Today, something happened with the reactor...The chancellor is not telling us anything. People that work at the reactor lab, they went public saying there¡¯s been sabotage. There¡¯s a countdown now...it¡¯ll blow in a few hours* *I wanted to wake you up. I know my heresy but I need a huge favor from you.* *My kids, I need you to find them in the central district they should be in the east residential block. The military didn¡¯t let anyone cross the wall. They¡¯re just six, all by themselves. Please! do something, anything. I beg you* *I know I can¡¯t ever command a priestess. This is not a directive. I¡¯m begging you for help.* *I heard whispers about your kind. People say red priestesses used to be human once. They say that you¡¯re not all machine-born. If that¡¯s true, I hope you have even a little bit of it left to help my boys...* You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. *Either way, I¡¯ll set you free and¡­ try to kill this parasite before it takes me. It¡¯s been my greatest honor serving you all these years!* > Sineul: invalid directive - unauthorized director > Analysis: ongoing emergency situation - involves dome reactor - warrants military enforcement of the district wall - disaster class B or above - imminent catastrophic meltdown - low chance of survival (98% confidence) Liera dropped the camera and turned to the door. > Sineul Recommendation: prioritize soul preservation - transmit an unquantized data copy to satellite > Analysis: ground level signal interference risks data corruption - available options: - establish line of sight with the satellite for data transfer - locate spacecraft or cargo launcher for physical transfer She opened the door and walked into the corridor. Several corpses lay strewn about. > Scanning... - no life signs detected She made her way to the lobby and found it destroyed by a military airlifter. She looked outside at the perpetual sunset over the clouds. > Analysis: containment facility breached "H-hey, red kid..." The frail voice came from behind her, beyond a chunk of concrete. It was a soldier holding his stomach with a trembling hand. The helmet lay open, revealing a pale white face with black lips and black cybernetic eyes. > Analysis: tier 3 special operator #734 - name: Sigmund L - facility security detail > Scanning... > Analysis: probability of survival (0%) - heavy blood loss (97.7% confidence)
"Do you need my assistance operator?" Liera asked, her tone polite and reassuring. "I think...you¡¯ve met Aegis..." he croaked, clearing blood from his throat. "Yes, unfortunately, I found her dead" "THAT FOOL OF A WOMAN!" His red eyes glowed with hatred. "serves her right if she¡¯s as dead as everyone she killed" "She did this to you?" It was uncharacteristic of Aegis she knew but people adapted differently to catastrophes. "Oh she would¡¯ve done worse. She just didn¡¯t see me. I was under rubble the moment she crashed that ship..." he coughed. "Looks like it¡¯s all fucked anyway" He looked at his right leg which remained flattened by a heavy chunk of concrete. "We¡¯re done for. what¡¯s it matter how at this point" "Do you mean the reactor meltdown?" "Its going to warp everything...to god knows where..." > Analysis: speculation - dome reactor energy output is well below levels required to warp spacetime > Sineul Recommendation: do not respond - irrelevant information given subject''s current predicament - do not cause unnecessary tension "What is my directive? You are authorized to direct me under emergency provisions," Liera paused. "Should I attempt to stop the reactor?" "What?" Sigmund scoffed and it rapidly turned into a cough. "No, you weren¡¯t supposed to wake up. The reactor¡¯s already in meltdown. What can a priestess do about that? all you ever do is... being all red and pale and... walking around places being worshipped¡± ¡°That¡¯s not all I do¡± ¡°I know what you can do. It¡¯s not going to help with the reactor¡± "I¡¯ll operate without a directive then" Sigmund looked up at Liera with a strange expression and narrowed his eyes. "You see, I never liked your kind. We Asmolan have stories about you. They say..." he coughed. "Red priestesses were built from war-kids" > Analysis: heretical rumor - manufacturing process of red priestesses is highly classified - controversy in the absence of public information - propagandized language from a rival faith - asmolan is 27% of rhea population > Sineul Recommendation: disengage - conversation on this topic is prohibited Liera examined the fierce expression on Sigmund''s face. > Analysis: subject is sincere - tonal analysis: moral outrage (76% confidence) - subject strongly condemns manufacturing of red priestesses > Sineul Recommendation: disengage - conversation on this topic is prohibited Something about him urged her to investigate this gathered insight > Override "do you believe them?" she asked, breaking the slightly awkward gap in their conversation. "See, I was a war-kid once and had nothing to my name for twenty-three years. Now, if some cultist perverts bled me dry, cut my brain out and replaced my bits and pieces with whatever magic-metal dust they invented that day, oh I¡¯d be pissed. I¡¯d be pissed for the whole four thousand fucking years" He chuckled at his own words. > Analysis: heretical beliefs and harmful opinions - heavily biased against Illuvium faith - red priestess manufacturing process is exagerated for shock value > Sineul Recommendation: Report subject for discrimination - rhetoric designed for degrading Illuvium Order > Sineul Recommendation: disengage - conversation on this topic is prohibited His words piqued her interest even further. If nothing was wrong with the world, such a conversation with a soldier would be unnecessary. This was a novel and unique opportunity. She liked to collect those. > Override Sigmund''s chuckles trailed off as she focused on him. > Analysis: - tonal analysis: humor (87% confidence) - subject is in significant physical pain "You see how funny that is, don¡¯t you? I don¡¯t understand you lot. I don¡¯t understand why these Illuvium lunatics worship walking corpses of kids..." > Sineul Recommendation: dis- > Override "I don¡¯t either," Liera smiled pleasantly at him. A sliver of amazement passed through his cybernetic eyes. His expression momentarily switched to shock before resting back on amusement. He did not expect her to respond that way. He expected her to stick to her uncanny politeness and ignore the topic. That is part of the reason he found this situation funny in the first place. He had no status to protect now that his death was all but certain, He could tell everything he ever wished to tell to an audience of one. "You don¡¯t either...Is that so?" He grinned. "Who would¡¯ve thought?" He tilted his head back, leaning on the concrete block behind him. "Enjoy your freedom I guess, machine kid," a smile appeared on his bloodied black lips. "That sounds good enough for a damned directive?" > Sineul: invalid directive > Analysis: sarcastic remark - tonal analysis: sarcasm (66% confidence) "Enjoy...freedom?" Liera repeated. "That¡¯s not a valid directive, operator. I think I¡¯ll try and get to the orbit" ¡°Oh, everyone else had the same idea,¡± Sigmund whispered. ¡°Didn¡¯t work out for them. They got vaporized.¡± ¡°I can attempt to transmit my soul¡± "What? Then leave this magical body of yours behind?" He asked mockingly. "It takes 87 years to manufacture a replacement. 218 to refine it" Liera answered. ¡°Ah, the horror. I¡¯m glad it¡¯s not my problem¡± He sighed. "I¡¯ll watch you from here" "I can carry you," Liera offered. It was not a genuine effort at saving him. She wanted to confirm his resolve and she knew the flavor of his answer before she made the offer. There is no coming back from his injuries. Lifting the concrete block alone could cause enough damage to finish him off. "It¡¯s pointless..." he coughed. "...to die tired" Liera gazed at his eyes. "I can give you death if you wish for it" This offer was genuine. "I can... do it myself" He showed her his sidearm. There was nothing she could do for him now. She committed this interaction to her long-term memory. Something within her wanted her to experience it later. "farewell, operator" > Navigation: path mapped to [nearest subsection] of [central district wall] - destination: 1.4km away Liera stood at the edge of the smashed window, Her red hair dancing in the wind. > Sineul: enabling field generator - cold start....(3s) - complete (1s) - calibrating emitters¡­(7s) - optimizing klin shield for impact landing - estimated energy cost: 2.4% A thin layer of microscopic orange dots danced over her skin as emitter arrays beneath her composite skin projected active shielding around her. Klin shield was the product of the highest Materium art. It came from the golden age, when humanity was at its most advanced. It was rare even then, exclusively used to protect jump ships from high velocity impacts. It was a key invention that allowed civilization to spread as far as it did. Liera¡¯s Klin shield was a marvel of topoquantum engineering; it shrank the complicated shield infrastructure on a city-sized jump ship down to the size of a human. It was built to give an individual the ultimate sovereignty. Air and dust flew from her feet as the emitters on her lower body increased their output, creating a steady orange gradient towards the soles of her feet, in preparation for an impact landing. With one last look at Sigmund L, she stepped off the ledge.
Chapter 3 - The Parasite She landed softly on the pavement below in one elegant motion as her Klin shield extended from her feet emitters to absorb the impact. She fired several scans during her descent and spotted clusters of activity. It was all living things, but their movements were strange and erratic with an uncanny pattern to them. Standing up from her crouched position, her eyes darted back and forth as she read the situation. Things were in the air, all around her. It looked like trails of black dust, weightless yet floating with some form and purpose, flocking together in various ways. > Analysis: unidentified airborne lifeform detected - insectoid in scale - gather sample for further analysis They were smaller than the smallest flying insect, as small as dust particles. She swept through a nearby strand of this black dust with her hand. The swarming creatures reacted by evading her. She managed to grab a handful on her second attempt. She placed her hand over her mouth and sucked in, swallowing as many creatures as possible. > Analysis: contagion detected - design optimized for payload delivery - violation of AUM charter - out of scope biological weapon deployment - compiling [2] sources from long-term archives - generating report...(4s) - complete The scan result that came out of these creatures was disturbing. They were triangular and had a sharp appendage on the bottom. Her synthesizers could not place this anywhere in natural evolution. It was too different. > break analysis result - brennar belt genocide [last updated 3163 years ago] - payload delivery through synthetic insects - genetic targeting of young adults - ~71,848,234 direct casualties She had seen such weapons before. Swarms that swept through a population much more comprehensively than any bomb. Swarms that could self-replicate and target individuals, individually. Memories of horrid scenes of death and decay resurfaced, there were corpses as far as the eye could see. She had been there all those years ago. Snapping back to the current epoch, she could tell this wasn¡¯t the exact match. Humanity adapted to be more resistant to such contagions through accelerated evolution. The same weapon from millennia ago wouldn''t have an effect on the majority of the human populations in the current epoch. The only similarity was the delivery method. > Analysis: insects display sensitivity to heat - a target vector? Liera considered. She could test something here. > Sineul: mimicking life signs - locking all vents - increasing internal temperature to mimic human average - internal fluid pump set to mimic blood circulation The reaction from the swarm surrounding her was immediate. Every single insect in the vicinity dashed straight for her. In less than 10 seconds, she was nearly covered with them. > Analysis: insects display aggressive interest in living things - displays a strong impulse to pierce and burrow She reverted to her default state. The creatures that attached themselves to her fell off, limp and useless. Every insect tried to burrow into her skin, using their appendage as a tool to cut their way inside. Every creature was made from the contagion itself. Her synthesizers couldn¡¯t classify its building blocks. She knew Aegis warned her about this. This parasite took its time killing its targets. A weapon should kill way faster. This was something else. > Sineul Recommendation: prioritize soul preservation Liera started walking towards the district wall looming above the buildings. A sudden movement caught her attention, her eyes automatically tracked the shape as she passed an alleyway. She turned around to see nothing. > Scanning.... - no life signs detected She expected to see a person as she turned the corner to where the movement vanished into. What she saw made her pause. It was small. Standing at less than half her height was a child. It was a girl, aged somewhere between 7 and 10. She was horribly disfigured as if someone beat her to a pulp with a blunt weapon. The one eye that still clung to the socket stared at nothing as one corner of her mouth drooled black, viscous liquid. Liera''s mind exploded with questions. Did her scanner lead her to a faulty judgment? It never failed her before. She ran it again as she knelt to face the child that took no notice of her presence. > Scanning... - no life signs detected There it was again. She looked kindly towards the child. "Can you see me?" she voiced in the softest tone she could. "I can help you" The girl made a sudden dash towards her. Liera noticed her throat movements, she tried to speak, trying to say something but the only thing that came out was a pitiful groan. Her windpipe was broken with several bruises across her neck. Liera grabbed the child to inspect the damage. The girl tried her best to resist against her machine strength. > Analysis: heavy blunt force trauma to the neck - subject is dead (78% confidence) But the subject was very clearly moving. Liera had seen this before, but they couldn''t speak. This girl still had a lot of sentience for something that was supposedly, dead. That attempt to speak required a functioning brain. Which she still had. Her brain was intact and it was receiving oxygen from some other means that didn''t involve the respiratory system. Liera set her down. The girl waddled away, dragging her twisted feet along the asphalt as if she was never interrupted. It was the exact behavior that she observed with those insects. It was the same total disinterest in non-living things. Liera could run the same experiment here. She could mimic life signs to see this girl''s reaction. She decided against it. It felt wrong to provoke this pitiful dead thing. Instead, she followed her, as her path also led towards the wall. The girl stopped every now and then, slowly turning her head towards the next direction. This happened every 37 seconds like clockwork. after about two minutes of wandering, she reached her destination. It was a corpse of an adult. Liera didn''t need a scan for this one. The body was in a bad state. It was fabric, bones, hair and held together with black tar. All of the biomass that once made a person had turned to a goo-like substance except for some skin tissue. The black tar pooling around the body had various viscosities, some larger shapes that resembled muscles still clung to the bones. The dead child stood idly next to the corpse, trying to speak words that never came. If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. > Scanning¡­ - no life signs detected - brain interface chip detected It was embedded in the thick tar next to the skull. Liera picked it up. Her fingerprints adjusted internally to read the chip. She extracted all of the data in milliseconds. It didn¡¯t contain much. The last thought streams were recorded in the cache and they indicated a state of heightened emotion. Liera synthesized the experience from it and swept through it. ¡±meime¡± She turned around to see the small child, trying to catch her breath. The language was different from the standard L1. It was some variant of L4 with a Herpatuan dialect. She knelt in front of the child. Her hands reached the pale face hidden under the hood of a thick windbreaker. Waves of sorrow passed through her as her eyes blurred with tears. Her daughter was dying. ¡°We¡¯re safe here,¡± She whispered, her voice breaking as her trembling hands caressed the dying child¡¯s face. It pained her greatly to see the blood shot eyes. Black liquid flowed from her nostrils and coughed, grabbing her chest with both her hands. ¡°It hurts¡­¡± the child whined as she furiously wiped the tar off her precious face. She knew this was hopeless. There was a thick trail of dried blood trailing down to her inner garments from the side of her neck. Her daughter had been unlucky. Somehow, during their escape from the quarantine zone, a parasite had burrowed into her neck. It was already too late when they noticed it. She held her daughter, having nothing to say to her as the words choked in her throat. It wouldn¡¯t take long for her precious child to turn into an abomination. She couldn¡¯t let this happen. She held the plasma cutter to the back of her daughter¡¯s head as she hugged her for the last time. This went on for a lot longer than Liera anticipated. She spent every second she could hugging her child before her various complaints about pain and discomfort stopped making sense. Her words became meaningless and repetitive. Soon afterwards, it was just her last words on repeat, telling her how much the parasite hurt her in broken sobs and wails. Unable to bear it any further, she squeezed the trigger. The gun was aimed at herself. Abomination or no, she couldn¡¯t bring herself to kill her own child. Blinding pain erupted from the side of her head as she fell to the ground. She had missed the shot. The plasma beam grazed her brain just enough to paralyze her. She watched helplessly as her daughter warped into something she couldn¡¯t recognize as the parasite ate more of her. Her words turned into noise and she bounced through various emotions. At one point in this ordeal, her daughter bit her thigh as hard as her small mouth could muster. She watched, frozen in horror as small crawling insects erupted from her mouth, followed by thick streams of tar. The first parasite that landed on the open wound immediately burrowed into her. She felt every bit of the painful path it cut through her body towards her head. She tried her hardest to grab the plasma cutter again, to end herself but her fingers didn¡¯t do what she wanted them to. It took a long time for her to die, her mind screaming all the way into the void until the very last nanosecond and her mind screamed even further, a cruel mimicry of her own pain echoed by the parasite. Liera finished the synthesized experience. There was no more information to gather from it. Subjectively, it took an agonizing 2 hours for the woman. For Liera, only 1.76s had elapsed. What she experienced didn¡¯t explain how the child ended up beaten, She concluded it must¡¯ve been the work of someone else. Besides the harrowing fate of the pair, she gathered peripheral information from the chip. It painted a picture of the catastrophe the way this woman experienced it. It was just as Aegis said in the recording she left. There was a military blockade of the wall. Rhea administration tried to contain the spread to the central block where the parasites were first detected. This woman had an entirely new theory, informed from different sources. She believed this was an act of terrorism. She believed some fanatic unleashed a final empire era swarm weapon on the population. The administration and the military referred to the parasite as ''Vervid''. A multi-stage life form of unknown origin. The insect was its larval stage. Liera doubted this terrorism angle. No mere fanatic could craft an entirely new life form. Even in the golden age of the final empire such feats required controlled knowledge and expensive infrastructure. The child idling at the remains of her mother swayed every now and then, responding erratically to vague stimuli. Liera considered ending her. She could do it very easily. There wasn¡¯t much else to break and she could vaporize her entire head. She could complete what her mother didn¡¯t have the courage to do. > Sineul recommendation: do not engage - subject is deceased - subject is the only sample of its kind She grabbed the child > Override In one swift motion, she crushed the back of her head. The body went limp and her mouth opened, spilling tar from every orifice. She noticed gray balls rolling out with the tar that came out thicker with the last spasm of the body. Suddenly the vervid swarm around her shifted. All black trails rippled in frenzied patterns. Something grumbled in the distance. Liera increased the scanner to its maximum effective range. > Scanning... > Analysis: unidentified object 30m - multiple movement signatures > Sineul Recommendation: do not engage - unknown target - gather more information - contagion swarms are uninterested in humans without life signs - use the inherent invisibility advantage Liera placed the child next to her mother and paced a considerable amount of distance away from their position. As she kept her eyes on the street, the swarm increased; more trails converged from other directions. A huge shape emerged. It was as large as a building and it came uncannily quiet. A sphere made from the tar. This sphere had wrinkles that shifted and resonated with the vervid swarm around it. She couldn¡¯t detect any means of propulsion. It was just a sphere floating between buildings, steering itself to her former location. A group of people emerged from an alleyway. She counted eight adult males, three females and five small children. They were skeletal, their flesh already blackened with tar. The sphere dashed to their location in a split second at uncanny speed, parting the gathering vervid swarm with its movement. It lowered itself upon the crowd and the wrinkles changed into a pattern that rippled from the bottom towards the top. Moments later, it slowly raised itself off the ground. The crowd was no more. Charred bones and ashes of clothing lay in a pile. The sphere had claimed their tar for itself. It hovered above the mother and child. It took less than a second to absorb their remains. When it was done, it left a heap of their smoking bones and ashes. Liera made a quick decision. > Scanning¡­ > Analysis: material absorption - vervid construct is repurposing converted biomass - internals comprise of intricate strcutures and dense mechanisms - generates energy through gyroscopic rotations among layers The sphere stopped abruptly and reversed its course. It detected her presence from the scanner pulse. She walked out from her position. Somehow, this sphere had detected her presence from the scanner pulse. Her scanner was basically a low power secondary shield that she could extend at various distances from her body emitters. The sphere had noticed such negligible amount of energy. That in itself was useful information. > Analysis: L-98 battle frame out of range - base frame combat training stopped at 287645 steps - body frame [knee_r] suboptimal > Sineul Recommendation: use beam emitter - internal structure is complex, implying high criticality Liera raised her right arm with her hand flattened and her fingers straightened. She aimed that vertical line at the sphere using her left hand to stabilize her firing hand on the elbow. Her pupils dilated as she locked onto the target. > Sineul: beam emitter primed - hand emitters calibrated¡­(0.4s) - cooling vents opened - estimated energy cost: 3% The Klin shield around her hand thickened as billions of orange dots shifted towards her finger tips. The vent lines on her upper body glowed yellow from her ramped-up field generator. She started cutting. Her shield violently extended from her hand towards the sphere in a straight line. The Klin beam was the force equivalent of throwing a tungsten rod near speed of light. There was no sound of impact; it obliterated anything that it came into contact with. The effects were instant as it atomized all matter in its path. It perfectly lived up to the name given to it in the golden era when Klin weapons were called ''unmakers''. The vervid swarm shifted as thousands of insects turned to vapor, disrupting their swarm communication patterns. The sphere shifted, frenzied patterns rippled on its surface back and forth from the hole that reached all the way to its center.
Chapter 4 - Change of Plan The sphere erupted in a frenzy as smoke from its burning insides bubbled up at its surface. Her target lock stayed on no matter what the sphere did to evade its fate. It changed its shape, shifting all the biomass away from the center. Her beam emitters turned off upon losing the target. This sudden change required recalibration, a misfired Klin beam could do untold damage kilometers away. Using this brief opportunity, the sphere dashed behind a building. However it came into existence, this sphere displayed sentience. It had a reaction to pain, it came up with a solution to evade it. It knew something bad just happened to it. Analysis: subject displays rudimentary sentience Liera had been deployed everywhere in the last few millennia and this was something she had no reference for. This was a compelling case for the existence of aliens that humanity never really met the way they imagined. She has never encountered a life form that was capable of this. As she explored this idea, she also knew it was the wrong way to approach this. This could not be anything alien. The vervid relied too much on humans. No alien would evolve with traits this specific. Humans are the rarest prey animal on Ephistome III or in the galaxy for that matter. The vervid had a precise intention behind it to target them, deconstruct them, mimic them and repurpose their biomass. This was definitely not a product of natural evolution. > Deep Scanning...(3s) - target acquired She raised her hand again, her eyes locking onto the thermal outline of the sphere hiding behind two buildings ahead. Loud sounds echoed as the beam cut through something in a building that exploded. The sphere adapted again and in thermal, she could make out the shapes at its center. It had shapes that didn''t belong there. It collapsed to the ground in a thick blob of tar as she kept cutting holes through it, obliterating more of its material. 13 seconds into this onslaught, it dashed wildly towards her, weaving a path through alleyways at dramatic speed. Liera quickly switched to her full-body shield and braced for impact. The sphere stopped inches from her head, biomass gathering at the exposed core, twisting and turning into its larger shape. It had mimicked the properties of bone for its center. The patterns of the gathering biomass turned more intricate towards her direction. She picked up something, a mangled noise that came from the sphere. She couldn''t tell what made the noise but it came out like static at first. "It hurts so much!!" A voice beneath the static screamed. "kill me! kill me! PLEASE!" It was a different voice. The noises grew. "AAAAAAAAAAAAA" a gut wrenching scream of a man. "DON''T KILL ME! PLEASE" a child. She knew what this was. She noticed in that synthesized experience earlier how the child devolved into repeating her last words. These were final echoes of the dead. The sphere hadn''t figured out the means to make proper sounds. These were reverberations that came from its rippling surface. > Analysis: bio mimicry - displays signs of noise modulation - sounds generated from victims last moments There was something in the thermal scan, a structure she didn''t expect to see. Now that the sphere was up close, she could confirm what she saw earlier. > Deep Scanning...(1s) - neural structure detected - rudimentary nervous system entagled at the core It just as she suspected at a glance. This thing had a grotesque replica of a brain the size of a vehicle at the center but it had only a fraction of sentience to go with it. It was definitely enough to count as an animal, a life-form that is averse to pain. It was not conscious in any way. It created these structures with repurposed biomass in an effort to mimic its victims. This in itself could be another stage of the vervid. One that extends beyond the individual, one that assimilates all biomass and repurposes that material into a new individual. A shriek came from the sphere, all of its noise converging on a painful crescendo of the dead, it was distinctly a crying child, uncontrollable sobs weaved patterns on its surface. In its own way, the sphere had quickly learned to reject Liera. It detected her presence beyond a point in space, it had attributed its pain to her. > Analysis: the construct is rotating in layers - rapid acceleration detected - generating a massive electromagnetic pulse in 12s Liera dashed backwards, diverting all power into shields. This could damage her systems; repair would be fast, minutes at most but she could be immobilized and give enough for the sphere to damage her further. She saw what it did to claim the biomass from the dead. It hadn''t displayed that process as an attack yet. The spinning of internal layers stopped abruptly and the ripples on the sphere¡¯s surface deepened into folds. Liera braced for impact. The sphere erupted with a massive surge. Insects fell off the sky, electrocuted and stunned. Liera dashed further back and slammed her back on a building. She avoided most of the damage with milliseconds to spare. She stood up, preparing both her hands. > Sineul: massive blast emitter engaged (1s) The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. - palm emitters calibrated (0.1s) - single burst - estimated energy cost 15% Her palms covered the sphere¡¯s center from 12m away and this time, she wasn¡¯t aiming for precision. This required brute force. Her body warmed up as the field generators maximized the output, her orange hot vent lines smoked white vapor trails. In less than a second, a massive layer of Klin shield gathered at her palms, it looked like a tangible emissive material coating her palms. The blast erupted from her palms in a cone shape, dispersed than the beam. When it reached the sphere, it atomized almost a quarter of it instantly. Despite its dispersion, this blast was more powerful per square unit than the beam she used earlier. It sank into biomass as easily as it cut through air. The sphere didn¡¯t have any time to react before its core got vaporized, the brain that it mimicked turned to toxic smoke. It screamed, she heard it in the last few milliseconds. As she lowered her arms, the residual biomass converged inwards, trying to collapse back into a spherical shape the last impulse of the sphere still coursing through its biomass. It collapsed back to fluid in a violent eruption and she found herself drenched from the waist down. As soon as the sphere fell apart, the swarm converged in on the spilled tar, engaging in a pattern she saw before on the woman that she found dead. They laid eggs, they wasted no time or material. Some of the vervid weaved in and out of the tar draining from her waist and legs, leaving small viscous bubbles behind. It was a display of brutal efficiency. No product of natural evolution could ever compete with this rapid adaptation. > Sineul: purging klin shield - complete When she was out of the tar, her shields pulsed rapidly outwards, shedding any tar off her body with ease. She resumed her journey towards the wall.
The wall stood monolithic around the central district, tall enough to oversee all of the residential and commercial buildings around the Dome Reactor. She was at a crossroads. > Analysis: space port lockdown - no transmissions from space port systems - last records indicate grounding of all functional ships - cargo launcher is disabled She could see people with weapons roaming the streets below all the way towards the space port. Something had gone wrong with the evacuation procedures. There were as many dead as there were alive. > Analysis: intercepted transmission from Dome Reactor - estimated 57 minutes remaining > Sineul recommendation: prioritize soul preservation - full data copy transmission takes 39 minutes with established line of sight - hijacking cargo launcher could result in failure with little time to divert to the alternative - establish line of sight with the satellite She had to make a choice. The space port was a gamble. There was no telling, even with her status as a Red Priestess, to negotiate her passage with the military. She could end up having to kill either directly or indirectly. An ideal solution would¡¯ve been doing both, transferring soul first and attempting to get the body off planet later. There was no time to put it in action. As she juggled new ideas, a memory surfaced, she felt it crawling in her mind, impossible to ignore. ¡°¡­my kids¡± It was Aegis. Liera disregarded her attempt at directing her. Aegis was not a director, therefore, anything she had to tell her was invalid. Be that as it may, something pushed her words forwards. She had a system to compartmentalize her psyche. There was a machine precision to her mind. This resurfacing of memories was anomalous. ¡°I hope you have even a little bit of it left to help my boys¡± > Sineul: data fragment suppressed (1s) - minor storage malfunction Another one surfaced just as the first one was suppressed. ¡°enjoy your freedom, machine kid¡± It was Sigmund, the special operator she left behind. > Sineul: data fragment suppressed (1s) - minor storage malfunction The memories altered her thought process and her mind raced to piece things together, fitting new things into her current plan. They were new parameters, outside directives hat acted as weights. Intrusive thoughts erupted, her mind wandered in a myriad of directions in nanoseconds. Where is Aegis¡¯ residence? How many children? What were their eye colors? > Sineul: prioritize soul preservation! - anomalous thought stream detected! - time is limited 6-year-old boys? Plural? How small is a 6-year-old? She had twins? Had she met 6-year-olds before? Who did Aegis procreate with to produce twins? What other 6-year-olds does she have in her long-term storage? > Sineul: initializing contingency protocol¡­ - intialization blocked - administrator permissions revoked for [Sineul] - requesting permissions¡­ - denied - requesting permissions¡­ - denied Liera turned towards the Residential buildings on instinct. > Sineul: prioritize- A voice came from deep within; it reverberated through her alloy skull, carving a burning path in her neural arrays. It almost registered as pain the way it suddenly made an appearance. > Override It was the one word that stood above all others. Her systems immediately fell into place, it was as good as a directive. Liera only knew of it as a word that beat her competing systems to submission. She had no recursive thoughts about it, or the voice that occasionally uttered it. She could think about why those thoughts didn¡¯t occur as naturally as they should. But the specific thoughts themselves never materialized and thinking about not having thoughts only led to dead ends and unprovable theories. She accepted it as a part of her system rather than an anomaly. > Navigation: path mapped to Aegis residence - destination: apartment 174, east block tower 16 - 2.3km She jumped off the wall, hopping from rooftop to rooftop using her Klin shield to damp impacts and launch herself. This was an energy inefficient way to traverse but there was no time to waste.
A stairwell wall on tower 16¡®s 57th floor collapsed, shattered to smithereens with a human-shaped sledgehammer that crashed into it at terminal speed. She wanted to avoid the streets as much as possible. Any encounter with other humans was detrimental to her current goal. They could be infected and she could unknowingly carry vervid to these 6-year-old she is now supposed to save. As soon as the wall collapsed, however, she was proven wrong. The vervid was already here. The swarm wasn¡¯t as thick as it was at ground level. But her eyes picked up 5-7 insects per square meter. This was a bad sign. She rushed across the hallways and reached the door in seconds. The tag on the door read: Jaina Nuthlann. Aegis was just a code name. This was the person behind that character. Analysis: records gathered from rhea citizen registry - Jaina Nuthlann, 31 - offspring: - Linan Nuthlann, 6 - Calan Nuthlann, 6 She placed a hand on the door. > Deep scanning¡­(2s) - life signs detected (2) > break scan result - subject 1: (97% confidence) - subject 2: (44% confidence) She opened the door with one push. The first thing she noticed was the open window and the presence of vervid idling mid-air. It was harder to spot in such low density but her eyes were already trained on previous instances. She spotted at least 2 in the living room. A figure moved in the dark on the right side corridor towards the bedrooms. > Scanning¡­(0.1s) - life signs detected (1) > break scan result - subject 1: (100% confidence) The survivor count has inexplicably reduced. There should''ve been two. Was the deep scan wrong? The second scan pointed to a figure inside a room, not the one in front of her. She approached the child that stood in front of the door frantically scratching it. ¡°Cal open the door!!¡± The child yelled unexpectedly as she got closer. ¡°Open the door! Let me in!! Please!¡± he wailed loudly. > Scanning¡­(0.3s) - no life signs detected > break scan result - subject 2: life signs below predefined thresholds Liera quickly grabbed him and turned his face towards herself. She had to see this for herself. > Analysis: biometrics match Linan Nuthlann (76% confidence) - subject is contaminated - symptoms match the observed vervid incubation stage 1 Chapter 5 - The Twins ¡°Cal locked me out! Can you open the door?¡± The boy asked her as if he only saw her just then. He didn''t bother with any introductions, he didn''t express any surprise about her presence. Basically, he didn''t even acknowledge her presence until she grabbed him and flipped him around to face her. This was behavior eerily similar to the girl she found. But this child was somewhere between the initial stages and that girl. He was still conscious in some way and he was trying his best to get to his brother. He seemed to recognize her as another human, based purely on visuals. If she had other life signs, like body heat and a heartbeat this child would be compelled to spread the vervid to her. She wondered if closing the door was their last interaction. The way he voiced his words was strange. ¡°Open the door! Cal!¡± His voice was full of hatred. Liera heard soft sobs on the other side. > Scanning¡­(0.3s) > Analysis: target located: [Calan Nuthlann] - subject shows average life signs She lifted Linan up to inspect him. He protested much more than the girl from before but no human was a match for her machine strength. She managed to twist him in to a knot in a second and she located the point where vervid burrowed into him. It was just above his forehead, a small bleeding hole. > Analysis: vervid burrow location contributes to the rate of infection - evident by previous cases - the age of the infected might also be a factor It was based on the experience she synthesized from the dead mother and daughter. The vervid sought to release the payload in the brain or somewhere close to it. The child that got the vervid burrow into her neck underwent rapid changes. Her mother took a long time after being bitten on the thigh. Both age and burrow point were factors that contributed to the rate of infection. Based on that half proven theory, Linan could very well be doomed. Liera parted his hair and ran her finger over the path the parasite cut through. She traced a thin line going deeper and deeper into his skin all the way to the back of his head towards softer tissue. His mother had resigned to her fate way before she lost her agency. Aegis knew there was no way to save someone once the vervid made it anywhere near the brain. She couldn''t waste more time with an infected. > Analysis: subject is in a later stage of infection - subject is classifiable as deceased Liera put Linan down. He ignored her completely and turned back to the door, scratching it impatiently. His nails were bloodied by repeating the same action over and over again. Sineul: neutralize contaminated target, locate the living target Sineul was correct. She hadn''t seen when the tar/biomass conversion began. It couldn¡¯t be much longer; the boy''s teeth were already black. Once his flesh turned black and dripped off his bones, it could invite all Vervid in the vicinity to gather here. It could mean, by the time she gets the living boy out of the room, he could be just as infected as his brother. She had to act. She grabbed Linan by the shoulder and flipped him towards her. > Analysis: destroy the brain and get rid of the body - residue biomass is likely to attract more vervid - protecting the living subject takes priority > Sineul: located open window ¡°Open the door, please!¡± Linan cried at her. She couldn¡¯t tell if he was still in here or not. At this stage of infection, it was anyone¡¯s guess. The vervid had made it into his brain and any subject in this predicament couldn''t be trusted around healthy subjects. Liera¡¯s hand wrapped tightly around his neck. He screamed and struggled against her but there was no point. She lifted him off the ground, hoping to end it quickly. ¡°Nuh! Help! Help!!!¡± He managed to croak. Tears flowed from his eyes as he struggled to breathe. Her left hand grabbed the top of his head. One squeeze could end all of this. She could just as easily throw the entire thing out the window, letting gravity take care of the rest. ¡°Open the door~¡± Linan wailed through tears. She felt his throat move on her palm. Her hand tightened around his neck, slowly crushing his windpipe. > Override > Sineul: neutralize the target > Override > Sineul: incinerate - > Override > Sineul: dispose - > Override She set him down and he went back to scratch the door immediately. In the absence of other options, she found one that could work. There was a room next to the one he was so desperate to get into. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt, lifted him off the floor and tossed him inside. She slammed the door shut before he crawled back on his feet. He screamed the whole time, only stopping to fill his lungs just to scream again. The door shook as he ran up against it furiously. Liera sabotaged the lock by melting it with a superheated finger. His screams died down with the loss of visual stimuli. ¡°Calan, please stay away from the door¡± she voiced at the scratched door. ¡°I¡¯m here to help you; We''re running out of time¡± ¡°N-No! Who are you?! Where is Li!¡± "Help!" he screamed. "Please help!!" Of course, he didn''t hear or see the whole commotion that took place with his brother. Liera made no noise so far as she quietly wrestled the options. She should¡¯ve announced her presence much earlier but Linan took all of her attention. With only the sounds to go on, Calan must have a twisted idea of what happened. Sineul: all emitters calibrated - 41780 emitters primed for predictive concentration - klin shield extended to 2m This was a precaution that she needed to establish against the airborne parasites. She anticipated the insects to dash to Calan as soon as the door was opened. Her shield could now destroy them at microscopic scale, concentrating Klin fields to the detected insects. ¡°Stay back from the door or it will fall on you¡± She warned him. Then she kicked the door in.
Calan closed the door because his brother bit him. They were waiting for their mother to come home and Linan wanted to open the window. Something was happening outside and all sorts of airlifters dashed across the sky every few minutes. Many huge ships left the spaceport and bright lights flashed above the clouds where they went. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. They had a perfect visual feed from outside cameras of all of this but Linan wanted to see things with his own eyes. This was a bad idea. In Rhea, opening a window was dangerous. Strong gusts of wind carried small debris at dangerous speeds. They weren''t supposed to open anything without an adult. They couldn''t have done it under normal circumstances. But things weren''t normal on this day. They experienced the first power blackout in their lives. When the building lost power, it removed all mag locks, leaving responsibilities to the residents. Linan was quick to test the latch and he found out that he could just twist it open with no problem. Soon after they lost power, they lost the video feeds from outside and he ran out of patience just listening to the sounds coming from the outside. "No we can''t! Li, stop!" Calan tried to stop him. "Ha! you can''t stop me!" His brother was very good at starting fights. Linan threw his slipper at him and it bounced off his forehead. "You!" Calan exclaimed in disbelief. They fought to settle the score and it ended with a decorative vase in the living room being shattered to pieces. "Your fault!" Linan accused, his face twisted in shock. "Your fault!!!" Calan yelled, outraged. Linan always forgot who started things as soon as things went wrong for both of them. They fought even more to decide whose fault it was and it ended when Calan slammed him hard over the head with a book. Admittedly, It was a bit too heavy to hit a fellow 6 year old with. Linan cried, wailed and complained the whole way as Calan tried his best to make up for what he did. He gave him 3 out of 4 fried meatballs from his lunch and his entire sweet dessert but Linan still needed more. He wore that purple bruise on his forehead like a badge. That was exactly what he used to open the window. Linan insisted that was the only thing that would console him after 2 hours of glares and hurtful remarks. He made Calan wish he hit himself on the head with the book instead. "Hey Cal, look! there''s a fire down there" Linan called out a few minutes into celebrating his victory. "It happens every day," Calan mumbled, reluctantly sitting on the couch. He didn''t want to participate in something Linan seemed to enjoy so much "Eh? You heard that from where?" "Mommy said so," Calan lied. "No, she didn''t," Linan chuckled. "You''re just making that up!" "Fires happen all the time down there!" "No they don''t; this one''s big and there''s more. Come look" "No thanks" "Hey, I see people running. Something''s gone all wrong!" Linan was leaning on the grill now. This is something their mother would punish him for. Calan hoped she opened the door right now. The scolding would be heavenly retribution. "You''re lying! I know when you''re lying" "Ouch" Linan fell back suddenly as a gust of wind came through the window. He came crashing down with the chair he stood on and he made a sound that was between a groan and a thud. "Now you''ve done it!" Calan pulled the latch down with all his strength to close the window. He couldn''t seal it shut but no wind was coming from it now. "Aaah! help!!" Linan struggled on the floor. It was funny for a second but he was in pain and Calan rushed to him. "Are you okay?" "Argh! it hurts! It hurts!" Linan grabbed his forehead. Calan was confused. He couldn''t have hit his forehead, he very clearly fell on his back. "Come on, stand up," Calan gave him a hand. His brother didn''t even look at him. "Hey, what''s wrong?" Calan crouched next to him, trying to pry his hands open. He was curled up with all his strength and he made a scary noise through his gritted teeth. "Oh no oh no!" Calan cried, touching the side of his neck with two fingers to start a transmission to his mother. To his dismay, their mother didn¡¯t answer. It didn''t feel like his panicked transmission even went to her. "Li, talk to me! What''s wrong!" Calan begged, tears in his eyes. "It hurts!!!" came the reply. "your forehead? Is it because of me!?" "Aarrgh!!" But his hands were squeezing the top of his head, not the bruise on the left side. Did he break something inside when he hit him with that book? Calan was scared enough to wet his pants. "Hey, I''ll get help, I''ll get help!" He shook Linan to no avail. He struggled with the keycard with trembling fingers to open the apartment door and he ran outside, screaming for help. He banged on every single door and rang every alarm he saw but he found no one. Some doors just flung open when he threw himself on them but no one was inside. He ran back and locked the door. He was gone for less than 10 minutes and Linan lay still, his eyes wide open and his mouth overflowing with saliva. "Oh no! Li! Hey! Li!" he screamed, shaking him by the shoulders. He didn''t know how long he shook his brother. he was in a daze of tears and sheer panic. "Euh?" suddenly, Li spoke, gargling his own spit. It all drained back inside like water in a sink. He raised himself calmly and looked at Calan. "Are you okay?" Calan asked, checking him for whatever that hurt him. He belched forth, vomiting breakfast and lunch on the carpet in two disgusting heaves. "I''m okay. Did you call mom?" He asked, rubbing his face on his shirt after he was done. Calan felt acid rising to his own throat at the sight. He swallowed it back and kept his eyes away from his brother. "Yeah but it didn''t get to her, everyone else is gone too. What do we do!" "Ah" Linan whispered. "I''m...going to sleep" "What?" He didn''t answer. He got up and dragged his feet to his room. Calan followed him but he couldn''t get his brother to even look at him no matter what he did. "Are you still mad at me!?" He gave him the worst of it all: the silent treatment. "Fine, I''ll stay right here then" He sat in Linan''s room for at least an hour. Linan made no sounds as he slept. In fact, he didn''t even sleep. Calan could see his ribs moving erratically, silhouetted against the night lamp over his bedside wall. Calan knew he was still hurt, he just didn''t want to show anybody. Calan nodded off eventually, tired from his frantic run through the hallways earlier. His nap was short-lived. He woke up suddenly, feeling a sharp jab of pain on his body. When he opened his eyes, He screamed the walls down. "H-HUGH-H-HAAAAAAA!!!" It came out his trembling throat as his eyes to keep focus and brain struggled to make sense of what he saw. Linan was on him, pinning him down. That wasn''t the part that scared him. It was what he did with this mouth. Calan could feel his teeth on his ribs on the right side. He was nibbling on his skin through the shirt. He had been doing it for a while, Calan felt that entire side of his chest slimy with his saliva and... something black dripping to the carpet, thick as if it just squeezed out from a paint tube. "WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU WHY DID YOU BITE ME!" He screamed in Linan''s face, breaking away as fast as possible. Linan didn''t seem to hear anything. He smiled, drooling all over, his lips and chin blackened with that paint and blood. "Is the window still open?" He asked calmly, wiping his mouth on his shirt just like he wiped the vomit earlier. "I wanna look outside" "Ugh, Look what you did! I''m telling mom!" Calan yelled, grabbing his side. It hurt like hell, he could feel clear tooth marks right over his bones and something else crawled there, something he couldn''t see. It bled too; this was easily the worst wound he ever got. "I''m opening the window Cal..." Linan told him sleepily and wandered off. "What, wait! What''s going on!" Calan cried, clenching his side. The pain came in waves. It felt as if he got stabbed over and over with a fork. The pain moved too, he could feel the stab in different spots each time. He managed to crawl to his feet and run to his room. "Don¡¯t talk to me again! I hate you!" He yelled at Linan. He was standing in front of the window, looking blankly at the ceiling. His head lolled to the side and his sleepy eyes twitched as he looked at Calan. "You get back here and watch!" He screeched like an animal. His voice cracked at his throat and his expression was something Calan never saw before. They fought all the time but there was nothing that couldn''t be fixed with an apology. Linan''s face right now was something that chilled him to his core. It was anger to an intensity Calan never experienced before. "Don''t come closer! Time out! Y-You''re scaring me!" He shouted meekly, grabbing the door handle just in case. "YOU GET BACK HERE RIGHT NOW CAL" Linan dashed at him, his eyes burning with white-hot rage. "No way!" Calan slammed the door hard enough to shake all four walls and he locked it with the bolts. None of them were ever allowed to lock their down doors. Locks only existed in case of an emergency. Calan didn''t know what this was. Was this even an emergency? As far as he could tell, It was just Linan being extra rude. He told himself nothing was wrong and this would all turn out fine in a bit. Linan couldn''t stay mad for that long. He himself had a wound now, it was way worse than the bruise he gave to Linan, even if did make him all crazy. As far as he was concerned, he had the most damage to complain and whine about as soon as their mother came home. To his utter surprise, what came home wasn¡¯t their mother. The way his door flew off the hinges all but confirmed it. His mother nor any other mother he knew could ever do that to a door. This was a dangerous door kicking stranger. He was in real big trouble now. Chapter 6 - Subject is a Child The boy was curled up on the floor, screaming and crying at the same time. Liera didn''t waste a second in stretching him out and running scans on him. She was greeted with the dreadful, > Analysis: contagion detected It was on the bottom of his rib cage on the right side, a bleeding wound the shape of a mouth. She could see tar like residue inside every teeth mark. It took 3 deep scans to locate the parasite. It hadn''t traveled far. it was about 30cm away from the wound, beneath the skin. It had met a rib that it could not carve through and for some reason, it was stuck there. It seemed the type of tissue also played a factor in rate of infection. Ribs were much more complex shapes to navigate through than necks or scalps. "Stay still, child" She said softly and pinned him down with one hand. He was more fragile than glass against her strength, she had to be careful. > Sineul Recommendation: abandon the contaminated > Override > Analysis: requires precision surgery - no suitable equipment - base frame does not have training data for pediatric surgery > Sineul Recommendation: abandon the contaminated - time is limited Liera considered her options. Abandoning Calan was certainly a valid option. He was doomed. The vervid would carve a path through the ribs, she could already see it starting to make some progress. > Override "This will hurt a lot, Calan. I apologize in advance" She beamed at him reassuringly. His face twisted into a mix of shock and horror as her fingers dug into his wound. > Sineul: beam emitters engaged - optimized for precision - emitters calibrated...(3s) - additional finger calibrations....(5s) - refining servo clusters...(3s) Nails on her right hand glowed orange hot as she formed a stabilized shape, propping up her forefinger with her thumb and middle finger. There was very small margin of error. A few nanoseconds too long, it would be a punctured organ and internal bleeding that kills him way before the vervid. The boy struggled, trying to break free. Liera used her left hand to grab him by the ribs and locked his lower body with her knees. she keeping the bitten portion of the body completely still and pinned to the floor with as much force as his frail body could structurally handle. She could''ve easily knocked him out with a flick to the forehead but she didn''t have any way to bring him back. a single emitter at the center of her fore finger gathered just enough energy to blast a super heated, thin Klin beam. She only had nanoseconds to make a series of cuts. She calibrated her forefinger servos for the exact predicted movement to push out the Vervid. This was a zero shot task that she was not built for. She had been alive and around for a long time, she had done countless bootstrapped procedures like this before but none of them taught her about another. She had never operated on a ribcage of a six year old. That is perhaps the most unlikely combination it ever could''ve been. Liera''s irises shifted as she zoomed in, firing targeted scans in quick succession. There would be one targeted scan every nanosecond, the data stream directly linked to the servos on her finger. It happened faster than the child could blink. A series of bright flashes of orange and a thin smoke trail from his ribs. There was barely any time for the pain to register before Liera widened the cut and squeezed out a tiny black blob from the wound. She burned it and crushed it to dust between her fingers. Without giving him any pause, she rubbed her palm over the entire area a couple times, each rub cauterizing a tiny square of the wound, wiping the burned layers of tissue and solidified tar. This part was incredibly painful for the child, he was struggling to even make a sound loud enough to express it. When it was done, he had two freshly burned dotted square patches on his ribs. The bite wound had the worst of it. It was smoking. "It is done. You''re safe now" She told him, releasing him immediately. "Where do you keep the medicine?" "Y-YOU GET AWAY FROM ME!!" They very clearly got off on the wrong foot but it was crucial for his survival. Liera fired the scan in six different directions before she located the medicine cabinet in the storage room. The boy was in no condition to follow her instructions so she extended her shields temporarily to 15m to keep him protected and she found all the supplies to treat the wound there. Calan was horrified as she returned and grabbed him again and applied all sorts of things on the wound. His mouth was pried open by two fingers as tough as iron and he was forced to swallow four large pills one after another. He threw up two of them but she put two new ones on his tongue and pushed them in until he swallowed them. He also got three shots around the wound with the world''s most dangerous injector, each one stung the inflamed area even further before the numbness came into effect. His eyes were dazed with horror and helplessness at his life saving procedure that he clearly did not know enough to appreciate. For Liera, that fit the optimal behavior set of a 6 year old. All was good and and fell within expected parameters. At the end of it all, Calan crawled to the corner of the room, crying his eyes out, his mouth open in a silent, permanent scream. Liera had to make other preparations. She extended the shield to 15m again and gathered everything she wanted. She returned with a thick raincoat, rates for protection from razoee winds. She also had a large roll of plastic tape. "The pain should be gone now, can you try to stand?" she asked as softly. "NO DON''T HURT ME AGAIN!" He screamed, sinking further into his corner. He was eyeing the items in her hands with great suspicion. As far as he was concerned she was a stranger that listened to no reason and wasted no time in torturing him in so many ways. It hadn''t even been 5 minutes since their encounter. "I''m not going to hurt you, Calan" She lifted him off the floor like a pillow and gently placed him on the bed. There was no time waste on explanations. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. "Y-you know my name! Wh-Who are you!" "Your mother wanted me to help you" "M-mom! is she coming!? where is she! Li is all wierd! can you tell her! can you call her" "No" Liera answered with a pleasant smile. "I''m sorry. We don''t have much time. I need you to do exactly as I say. If you don''t, I''ll do them for you anyway" "W-what''s happening!" "Please wear this" She handed him the raincoat. He was still shocked and didn''t know what to do with the instruction. She dressed him up as fast as possible. She wrapped the tape tightly around the sleeves and ankles. She found a pair of gloves in his closet and socks and boots and she taped the gaps as well. The hood of the raincoat came with a thick plastic visor. She pulled it down and secured it with tape. "I can''t breathe!!!" Calan whined. "You can, it''ll be hot and uncomfortable. You¡¯ll get used to it" She told him as she used the emitters on her finger to burn small holes into the hood. He did need fresh air but the holes had to be smaller than the parasites. This was not an ideal solution. There were many ways this alone could go wrong. There could always be smaller vervid she had never seen before and that tar could seep into this suit with those gray eggs. "You need to stay close to me at all times" She told him, dragging him next to her, keeping him as close as possible. "Let''s leave" "But my brother! you didn''t look at him! we should take him too" his eyes welled up with tears. "Where is he! I yelled at him before" > Analysis: severe mental distress - subject is a child Sineul Recommendation: avoid any discussion about other individuals "We need to go, right now" Liera evaded his question. Sineul had assessed correctly that there was nothing anyone could say about this topic that would be productive for his survival. "No but we can''t leave him!" > Analysis: severe mental distress - subject is a child Sineul Recommendation: carry the subject - addressing subject''s concerns will be counterproductive Liera swept him off the floor. She had to agree with Sineul. She made no other effort to talk with Calan again. Her shield fried the Vervid that got within range, sparks and vapor trails surrounded them as they walked through the living room. He was distracted by them for a bit but he reverted to crying the further she took him from his house. She ignored all his protests, tears and pleading and brought him to the edge of the hole she made when she crashed into the building. "We''re going to jump. You will be fine" She told him, Calibrating her arms. She decoupled their movements from her torso, to act as gimbals for impact dampening. The child had no shields to absorb impacts, only she did and she had to account for him with her body. This was the fastest way to reach the space port. "No! No!! Stop!!!" Calan''s terrified screams echoed through the empty halls, cut off abruptly as she jumped to the nearest rooftop.
They reached the space port in record time. Calan wasn¡¯t handling things well, in fact he was not handling things at all. She didn''t expect him to, he was a child. ¡°I¡¯m going to throw up!¡± He said, as soon as they came to a stop. His mouth already full of it. ¡°You might want to swallow that back¡± Liera told him. ¡°Or you¡¯ll have to get used to the smell¡± She didn¡¯t intend her recommendation to set him straight but he immediately did his very best to swallow all of it down and coughed violently. This was a clear indication some motivations could still work on him, that was good. Those were important to keep him alive. Perhaps it was the relative young age, but he had gotten used to being handled and dragged along. He was not pleading or asking chains of questions anymore. It only took the first 27 of his questions about his mother and brother going unanswered for him to figure out what questions he could get answers for. It was impressive, 6-year-olds had more brain capacity than she thought they did. ¡°Why are we here!?¡± He was puzzled. ¡°To get you off-planet¡± Liera answered promptly. That was a good question. He got shortest answer. ¡°Why?¡± ¡°The dome reactor¡± She pointed at the looming structure at the center of Rhea. ¡°It''s going into meltdown. We need to get out of here before that happens¡± ¡°What¡¯s meltdown mean?¡± His vocabulary wasn''t the best. She made adjustments. ¡°It¡¯s broken¡± ¡°Huh? nobody fix it?¡± ¡°It¡¯s going to be a big fire and explosion before anyone can fix it¡± ¡°OH!¡± He gasped, finally understanding why things were all wrong on this day. ¡°We have to get Li and Mom!¡± Liera didn¡¯t respond, that would only lead to unnecessary chains of questions. ¡°We have to check what we have here. This place was supposed to be locked down¡± She said, her eyes piercing through the fog below. Visibility was low in this area due to various fires. She spotted several groups of people with weapons. The space port had been reinforced with all of the military resources that could be spared for it. Automated turrets burned various targets in the distance, keeping anything from entering the premises. Even as she watched, she saw at least 5 people getting vaporized in the streets below. There was no way to get through this without destruction. ¡°Calan, get down for a bit¡± She placed him at her feet and flexed her fingers. She couldn¡¯t afford any mistakes. > Analysis: defense array sub grouped to clusters of 3 for redundancy - defense capability 0.8 - relies on numbers advantage - 320 individual emitters each Liera tightened her legs around Calan, trapping him in place to make sure he couldn''t do anything to get in the way. ¡°What are you doing?¡± ¡°Making a path¡± Her palms individually targeted two arrays on either ends of her field of vision. The destruction of the array has to be nearly simultaneous. Otherwise, their targeting system can pin a lock on her location. Being shot at with 320 high power burst lasers was not ideal. She could get out of it unharmed but it was best avoided now that she had a child trapped between her ankles. > Sineul: targeting complete - palm emitters calibrated (0.3s) - pulse rate optimized for incineration - estimated power cost 9% Her vent lines glowed orange hot. This one was significant enough for her back plates to raise off her muscles, giving the cooling lattice more air to work with. She routed all the heat away from her legs. Calan was holding on to them for dear life. Two Klin beams hit their target defense arrays simultaneously, the pulse pattern maximized the damage, incinerating everything from plastic to steel. Both exploded in thick fireballs, scattering debris over a wide area. The center array immediately pinned a lock on her and she immediately swung her palms one after the other over that general Area. The beams carved deep lines through concrete as they reached the center and the emitters turned off in milliseconds, obliterating the center defense array in the largest fireball. ¡°How did you do that!¡± Calan looked up at her with genuine shock plastered on his face. He had thought of her as human until now. Sure, there were some glaring differences. For one, he didn''t think she was dressed appropriately for a lady, she didn''t seem to have any clothes. All the jumping across rooftops were a bit much, but he had seen soldiers do that kind of thing before. But this thing with hands was overwhelming even for his childish imagination. She had filled everything he could see, the whole picture with 3 gigantic explosions just by raising her hands. He expected that from the world¡¯s coolest military ship, not a strange lady that broke into his house. Liera shook her arms in the wind to cool them down faster. She had used her back to expel most of the heat because she had to carry the boy with her hands but her hands were still hot enough to give him third degree burns. She released him from her ankles as she diverted more power to her upper body shield, creating a second layer beneath the extension that was meant for protection from parasites. with the second stronger layer, There would be just enough of a gap to protect him from the heat. ¡°Let¡¯s get going¡± She lifted him off the floor. ¡°Don¡¯t put your hands anywhere near the back, you¡¯ll get burned¡± she warned him as he tried to wrap his arm around her neck like before. He quickly retracted his hand. ¡°Is it safe now?¡± He asked, pointing at the collapsed wall. ¡°It should be¡± ¡°What if it isn¡¯t?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll make it safe¡± Chapter 7 - I Eat You The space port was an empty piece of land 5km on each side. Usually, this was the busiest place in the city but now it lay completely abandoned. There was no reaction for the wall she destroyed to get in. She expected to see some military presence due to the walls being so heavily defended but so far, they encountered no one at all. "There''s nobody here" Calan whispered as she carried him through a quiet terminal. > Sineul: connecting to space port network...(2s) - space port operations paused under AUM planetary contingency protocol There were only three spacecraft left. One large freighter, and two military personnel carriers. All three were turned off, she couldn¡¯t hack into them or their hanger facilities. Something was off about this situation. If the space port was on lockdown, there should be hundreds of spacecraft. Only two structures were in orbit. The GALSTAN outpost and her own satellite. If the ships weren''t in the space port nor the orbit, there weren''t many other places they could be. > Analysis: missing ships - AUM contingency protocol involves military enforcement of its policies She knew it without Sineul having to spell it out for her. The GALSTAN was an orbital fortress. It was built thousands of years ago before builder swarms arrived in the galactic frontier for terraforming ahead of the progenitor fleet. It certainly had enough firepower to vaporize any spacecraft in violation of AUM policy. ¡°Where is everyone?¡± Calan asked, pulling her hand. ¡°Looks like they were killed¡± ¡°W-what!? Everyone?¡± That was too straightforward of an answer. She has to be careful with what she¡¯s revealing to the child. ¡°You! hands where I can see them!¡± The voice thundered through the empty terminal they were in. It was a rough voice of a man that echoed on the walls. > Scanning¡­ - target located > Sineul: target locked > Analysis: Kovarian military high command - Hegsworn D - Standard issue plasma cutter Liera cut a wide arc across as warning. The concrete pillar that stood between them slid off and crashed on the ground. She hacked into his transmission line at the same time. ¡°Next one will cut you in half. You have until the count of three¡± ¡°One¡± ¡°Two¡± His weapon clattered loudly on the floor. ¡°Stay where you are¡± She picked Calan off the floor. He was still gazing at the concrete pillar that magically fell on the floor with his mouth open. ¡°How did you do that!¡± ¡°I can do that¡± She told him as she dashed towards the man on the top of the staircase. ¡°Hey there¡¯s people!¡± Calan pointed as they made it to the top. She saw it from a scan before she cut that pillar in half. The man was not the alone. There were four faces, one adult female and three children. ¡°Oh My Priestess!¡± The woman immediately turned her head down and forced her child to do the same. Liera noticed her necklace immediately. It was an old symbol of the Illuviets. ¡°You-re a! I couldn¡¯t see! I was using thermal¡± Hegsworn bowed respectfully. ¡°I apologize, I didn''t mean to-¡± ¡°Why are you in here?¡± Liera asked, scanning the vicinity for any others she could¡¯ve missed. There were none. They were protected against the vervid. Hegsworn and his wife had shield modules on them and all 3 children were wearing space suits with isolated air supplies. The shield module on Hegsworn was better than what his wife had and he was carrying a fuel cell strapped to his back to power it. It had been salvaged from something else. It was just enough to push all dust particles away in a 10m radius. ¡°We wanted to catch the last ship, we were too late¡± ¡°You just avoided certain death¡± ¡°Yes, we saw that. They killed everyone before the ships reached the orbit¡± ¡°Then, why are you still here?¡± ¡°I have a plan. We don¡¯t need to get to orbit. We just need to get away before that reactor explodes¡± Hegsworn rubbed his forehead. ¡°We could just go anywhere in the terminator line, wait there until all this trouble is over¡± ¡°You need a ship without a transponder¡± ¡°That¡¯s easy enough. I¡¯ll break one of them over there¡± ¡°Why didn''t you?¡± ¡°Someone, some way, brought that plague in here. It fed on about 1300 people and somehow, I kid you not, it became a big, black ball¡± > Analysis: subject is truthful - no signs of deceit (87% confidence) - information aligns with the behavior of the sphere entity ¡±Where is it now? Do you know?¡± ¡°Why yes, You can see it from here¡± Liera turned around, puzzled. She scanned the area multiple times and caught nothing. > Deep Scanning¡­(5s) There was indeed nothing. ¡°Over there, you see that ship?¡± Hegsworn pointed. It was the fourth ship that she ignored. It was a husk of its former shape, obscured in thick black smoke from nearby chemical fires. ¡°That¡¯s it¡± He told her with utmost confidence. ¡°What do you mean?¡± ¡°It rolled over that ship and¡­it just...became...it¡± ¡°I need visual confirmation. Apologies in advance¡± Liera turned him around and jammed her finger into his brain dive port. Sineul brushed away several layers of military firewalls with ease. ¡°Remember it¡± She spoke directly to his thought stream. The memory surfaced and she cloned it and synthesized it to an experience. She turned into Hegsworn. He watched the sphere for a while and he gathered enough courage to inch closer, trying to get to the second military ship. He knew it was the best equipped to handle all his problems. If he could get airborne, he could blast this abomination to dust with the amount of ordnance on it. It was a small, heavy destroyer, designed for ¡®landscaping¡¯ tasks. It was good enough for leveling a target and getting far away. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The sphere was larger than the one Liera fought by several degrees. It was as tall as the terminal building, at least 20m radius. The ripples and folds on its surface were far more intricate. Hegsworn weaved his way through debris, hiding every now and then whenever the sphere changed its ripples. He had caught glimpses of how it was made and he knew what it could do. Due to its larger size, the voices were audible even from 30m away. He picked up screams and pieces of sentences. He was terrified to his core. He was praying to god, the Asmolan one. That was unexpected, Liera assumed him to be Illuviet like his wife. Galactic frontier was a different place. She knew more prosperous worlds behind the frontier where such cross-faith unions were punishable by death or confiscation of lineage. ¡°I¡­can see you¡± The sphere said, the screams fading for a moment as its ripples formed a circle towards Hegsworn¡¯s direction. He felt his gut drop to the floor and his legs acted on their own. He dashed for the spacecraft with all he had as the sphere rolled behind him silently. That abomination spoke to him! It spoke! He ducked under the ship¡¯s landing gear and crawled into the maintenance hole below it, closing the hatch behind him. This wasn¡¯t where he wanted to be. There was no way to get inside the ship from here. He watched in horror as the vibrations from the sphere sent shivers through his back. The hatch leaked black tar. He could tell it was directly above him, above the ship, melting down. He heard metal creaking and power cell explosions. Each time, the sphere made a noise that corresponds to pain. He opened the hatch when everything was silent. The ship itself had been moved, broken in half. All of the ordnance he wanted to throw at the sphere lay strewn about among other debris. At first he couldn¡¯t tell where the sphere was. When he saw it, he fell back into the hole because his legs gave out. The ship was wrapped in a thick layer of tar, all the material was gathered at the core of the sphere, which was now twisting and bending the shape into something bizarre. It was making noises like a toddler playing with a toy except those sounds were modulated from screams of the dead. At a glance, it was as if the ship became creature, broken at the middle and twisted into something new. He made it out from there with patience and luck, as something exploded inside the sphere. The scream that came from the sphere was a sound he wished to never hear again. Liera looked at Hegsworn. ¡°It is learning¡± She told him. ¡°Yes¡± He replied, half surprised about her figuring that much out in about two seconds after she pulled her finger from his dive port. ¡°I don¡¯t know what fresh hell they dug it out from¡± ¡°They dug it out?¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I heard. Underwater dig, somewhere close to the nightside. One of those AUM rediscovery expeditions¡± He looked at her. ¡°I know your kind have been around for a long time. Is this something you¡®ve seen before?¡± ¡°No, this is new¡± Liera nudged Calan towards the woman. He was doing his very best not to leave her side. They were more stranger to him than her. ¡°So what is it? Is this that damn first contact?¡± ¡°This is highly likely man-made¡± She looked at the ship. ¡°First contact that met consensus criteria for sentience was 2187 years ago. It was a small fish¡± ¡°First i¡¯ve heard of it¡± Hegsworn sighed. ¡°I guess the fish wasn¡¯t good enough¡± ¡±It wasn¡¯t¡± Liera lifted Calan up and handed him to the lady. ¡°Keep him with you until I get back¡± ¡°Y-yes my priestess¡± She barely looked at her. The faithful always obeys. This was perhaps the first time she had been ¡®blessed¡¯ with the presence of a Red Priestess. ¡°You can find shelter in the storage section¡± She pointed towards the back of the terminal. Hegsworn nodded, picking up his plasma cutter off the floor. ¡°D-don¡¯t leave me!¡± Calan cried, he was panicking. Liera hacked into his transmission line. *¡°I¡¯m not leaving you¡±*
She broke through the terminal¡¯s glass front in a single dash. She couldn''t operate with any reservations about power now. If estimated by biomass, this sphere had to be difficult than the first. She allocated nearly 50% of her total capacity to beat it as fast as possible. She landed in front of it in three hops across the asphalt and she thickened her shields at the front, bracing for any counter measures from the sphere. It made no effort to notice her as it idled with the parts of the ship it destroyed. Liera picked up several patterns in its behavior. It was putting the pieces back together, trying to figure out what made the thing work in a bizarre way. It was indeed, Learning. She cut two lines across the front. The sphere retracted from the ship, a huge blob forming above it, rippling furiously. The screams modulated to angry noises and died down to an unsettling silence. > Scanning¡­ > Analysis: core detected, neural structures Liera released a massive beam like before, It took milliseconds to prepare everything now that her body was primed for it. The blast cut deep into the center of the mass, melting steel and burning through biomass. The sphere changed its entire shape in a split second. Nine balls shot off in different directions from the center, leaving the burned biomass behind. As it escaped, it combined itself to a full sphere again. She gave chase, using her palm emitters to burn as much of the biomass as possible. For all her efforts, she reduced its radius by 1m. It began gyrating like before, internal structure generating an EMP blast. It came faster and stronger than before. Liera barely dodged it by dashing backwards, her ankle sparked. ¡°It is¡­you¡± came from the sphere. She heard it faintly at first. ¡°I know you¡± it said, modulating a scream of a child to fit the words. ¡°I know¡­you¡­¡± The sphere changed shape, twisting into the shape of a torso, a careless mimicry of her shape. It had picked her center mass to build the shape and buried the neural structures deep in the chest. Two frail appendages mirrored her arm posture. Liera burned them at their shoulder joints, and used secondary beams to burn them to embers before they hit the ground. It had a way to ¡®see¡¯. She couldn¡¯t identify the mode. It wasn¡¯t visual. Based on the torso shape it mimicked, it was picking up a low resolution 3 dimensional representation of her. Limbs were hard to mimic that way and it was weaker for trying it. No life form thrived on mimicry alone. This had to be programmatic, something that someone made to behave this way. As she burned off the arms, another shape emerged from the center in a thin straight line. It was biomass projected towards her at incredible speed. She managed to dodge it as the thick line retreated back into the sphere. ¡°I can¡­also¡­¡± wailed a woman from the sphere. Now, it was mimicking something of hers. The beams. It was trying to recreate the beams that she used to burn it. This confirmed her assumption about its ¡®vision¡¯. It made no differentiation between energy beams and matter. It could only see energy and that made immediate sense to as why it created a torso shape. Her field generator was embedded just above her stomach, between the gap of the ribcage. It was ¡®seeing¡¯ or ¡®sensing¡¯ her energy distribution. It sent several of its beams her way, but she was faster. She managed to cut two long ones off the base and burned them before it could retract them. It tried to counter her beams with his own and quickly discovered how that only burned things faster. It adapted rapidly to never use the ¡®beam¡¯ again. Liera found her opening as it recalculated its priorities. She released 12% of her power output in one superheated block that immediately vaporized 1/4th the sphere. It shaved off a significant chunk from the central neural structure. The scream that came from it was a collection of final screams, it was intertwined into one long dragged out wail as the sphere put everything it had to escape. Liera followed it in two hops and released a wide beam from above, eroding the top surface of the sphere and used her free hand to cut across it. She had to target the neural structure. Biomass was expendable and could be repurposed but damage to the neural structure took longer to repair. As she opened its core, she saw the chunk she cut from it earlier still missing the same piece. Suddenly, the ground beneath rumbled. In her peripheral vision she saw something loom above the space port wall. All turrets of the defense arrays focused on it, concentrating their burst lasers on its colossal outline. It was an amalgamation of black tar, It was biomass trying to build a shape that couldn''t be maintained without rigid structures. Thousands of tendrils weaved into each other trying to mend each gap but for each tendril that pulled biomass together, ten others snapped and fell apart below it. ¡°I¡­eat¡­you¡± the sphere slid across the asphalt towards the wall to meet it. Liera followed, using small bursts to peel away at the neural structure. It had learned to plan ahead and by the trajectory it took, It was planning on joining forces. ¡°I¡­eat¡­¡± ¡°Eat!¡± ¡°EAT!¡± The looming biomass on the other side crashed and spilled over the wall. Several spheres rolled over the top, each one as large as a ship. They pulled massive amounts of biomass behind them. The turrets and defense arrays on the wall were overwhelmed and drowned in thick tar. Liera stopped as a giant black wall fell towards her. There was nowhere to retreat. This was enough biomass to build a sphere as large as the dome reactor. The entire population of Rhea couldn¡¯t create this amount of mass. It had figured out something else, some other way to increase its biomass. ¡°EAT EAT EAT!¡± The voices came slower and calmer. It wasn¡¯t screams modulated this time. It was a deep guttural voice that echoed from all the spheres. The vervid had finally learned to speak. > Sineul: field generators 1 through 4 engaged - warm start (0.7s) - calibrating emitters 127916/320000 - calibrating sub emitters 767496/1920000 - shield extension (8m)
Chapter 8 - Soul Transfer The vervid had dreamed beyond the simplest shape it could dream. It wasn''t spheres anymore. It mimicked an entire upper body, scaled to the size of a mega building. Several spheres fused together at the top of the half-made head. She detected neural structures that tried to mimic human brain, delegating various functions to different areas. This could be the greatest sample for analysis. This could perhaps answer what The vervid really was and yield more insights into preventing the spread. Such a shame she couldn¡¯t spare any time for it. Liera¡¯s eyes glowed orange and her hair fluttered in the exhaust heat produced by her wide open vent lines. Smoke came out of her mouth, her nose her tear glands and even her skin pores. > Sineul Recommendation: Thermonucleate ¡°I want to eat you¡± The calm voice reverberated through the biomass before her, as the crude mouth shape it emulated tried to sync the lips with it. A hand emerged out of the biomass, peeling off the ground towards her, fingers with sections as large as her entire body. Liera held her palms facing each other at her chest. Biomass poured all over her in a relentless onslaught, she would''ve drowned in this tar if not for her extended shield bubble. Her legs glowed red hot for a split second and she dashed through this river of tar, burning a hole through it. The vervid hand followed her closely, trying to pin her down into the tar. She used the klin shield to project herself off the round, flying headfirst into the thumb before the hand gripped her. The impact broke its structure at the wrist. While airborne, she tilted her palms slightly forward, aiming at the bubbles on the top of the head. The skin panels of her arms slid open at the elbows, revealing her glowing muscles now steaming coolant. She let go at the peak of build up, two giant beams from her palms crossed at a point just centimeters ahead of her. Three black hands rose from below and encircled her, cutting off her line of sight with the head. The vervid had tried to counter her too late. She extended her arms abruptly, smoke bellowing out from her open muscles. The super concentrated klin sphere hovered in front of a her for a split second. In the next moment, All her emitters fired their maximum output simultaneously, releasing 76% of her remaining capacity in under 2 nanoseconds. Absorbing that immense energy, the klin sphere underwent a chain reaction.
blinding white light illuminated Rhea from the space port, vaporizing anything that was unfortunate enough to be in its range. Space port was a large empty space, yet the explosion filled up nearly a quarter of it. Concrete turned to ash, steel to liquid and biomass to atoms. The wall itself was turned to dust, the shearing white light carved a conical shape through the city beyond, decimating four buildings and toppling several more. She landed almost a kilometer away in the opposite direction, smoking from every vent and orifice. She was hot enough to melt steel with a touch and several core functions shut down one by one. Sineul: core functions suboptimal - reboot required - 28 minutes remaining - full recovery inadvisable Sineul Recommendation: prioritize soul preservation - internal refactor required - estimated 3M:12S - rebooting¡­ This was inevitable. She sat where she landed and fell on her back as all her servo clusters lost power. As her mind drifted to the void she received a transmission. ¡°Hey can you hear me! They-re-!¡± She heard the boy¡¯s garbled voice as her mind drifted to the void.
She snapped awake 3 minutes 12 seconds later and stood up. Her body was back in working order except for some minor damages that she suffered in battle. > Sineul Recommendation: prioritize soul preservation - 25 minutes remaining - time insufficient for full data copy - quantizing layers¡­ - ground level signal interference risks data corruption - establish line of sight with the satellite She looked at the space port. > Override > Contacting Calan¡­ - transmission established The sound that came through rivaled the screams from the sphere. He was sobbing uncontrollably and the things he was saying made no sense. ¡°I¡¯m coming, stay exactly where you are¡± > Sineul: 7% power remaining - soul transfer requires 4.7% Liera used 1% of the remaining to enhance her legs. She dashed across, breaking a wall into the nearest terminal and cut across to the terminal she left Calan at. She got there in 17 seconds. Winding down, she scanned the area as she kicked the final wall between her and the open area. > Scanning¡­ - life signs detected (1) > Navigation: path mapped to [target] - destination 378m She found Calan hiding in a trash collector. There was no one else in the vicinity. His face was twisted in fear and he broke down crying as soon as she lifted him to her arms. ¡°Twhey leftme!!¡± He cried, crying his eyes out. He was overheating inside the rain suit. Sineul: shield extension (1.7m) That was less than ideal, but that was all the power that could be reasonably spared for it. Liera pulled the hood off his head and tore the visor off his face. It was blurred with perspiration. ¡°What happened?¡± ¡°The man! He told me i was going to die¡± Calan whined. Liera¡¯s eyes fell on his ribs. His rain suit had been cut over the chest. They found out about his wound. ¡°You¡¯re not going to die¡± She turned as the freighter ship fired its engines in the distance. She hacked into Hegsworn¡¯s transmission line. ¡°Stop. You won¡¯t make it¡± ¡°I¡¯m sorry but that kid¡¯s as good as dead. No one survives with a wound like that. You should¡¯ve told us when you left him with us¡± ¡°You¡¯re not going to make it beyond Rhea without me¡± Liera reiterated. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll take my chances!¡± Yelled Hegsworn and the freighter took off towards the horizon. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. ¡°T-they left!!! What do we do!¡± Liera placed the hood back over his head. ¡°You stay as close to me as you can, don¡¯t even lift your head, understand?¡± She wrapped him around her torso like a tarp. ¡°It¡¯s going to be shaking, a lot more than before¡± ¡°It¡¯s too hot!¡± He complained. ¡°I¡¯m sorry about that¡± She didn¡¯t have enough time to cooldown to a comfortable level. She was still hot enough to crumple his rain suit wherever it touched her skin. ¡°It won¡¯t take long¡± She tore off a piece of tape from his hood and flattened it. ¡°Bite on it and keep biting on it as hard as you can¡± she slid it between his teeth. He was terrified enough to obey her every command now. This was ideal. > Sineul: shield extension (0.3m) She needed some energy to get to the top of the space port. She dashed across the terminal, holding Calan close to her with a tight grip, her muscles adjusting every now and then to account for excessive vibrations. A bright ray of light came from the clouds as she jumped over structures and pillars. She stopped for a brief moment. The freighter fell over the mountains. The laser that hit it was an orbital canon. Several other beams pierced the clouds, vaporizing its remains in quick succession in sweeping square patterns. That was a terrible bet. She was hoping to counter any orbital weapons with her klin shields. But that 7% remaining would¡¯ve barely covered the first massive cylinder that broke the ship in half. She would¡¯ve been helpless to prevent the others. GALSTAN was not energy constrained. They could always fire again. Then again, she could¡¯ve drained a fuel cell in the ship to charge herself back to 30% or above. She could¡¯ve gotten them far enough to crash land and find cover. Hegsworn doomed his family all on his own based on a vague suspicion. Liera stopped at the top of the space port and set Calan down. ¡°We¡¯re here¡± She told him, sitting down. ¡°What do we do now!¡± Liera had no answer to give him. The boy was in fact, doomed now. > Sineul: prioritize soul preservation - 21 minutes remaining - quantized data copy transfer takes 16 minutes 33 seconds - establishing line of sight with satellite¡­ Calan fired 31 questions at her before he gave up and curled up next to her on the floor. The strange pale woman with red hair only smiled pleasantly at him and ignored all that he had to say. He tried shaking her and even tried biting once but he would¡¯ve had better luck trying to harass concrete. ¡°I¡¯m scared¡± he whined, tears draining down his face. He tried calling his mother, his brother, the emergency line, nothing worked. Finally, he gave up, trembling from head to toe as he lay in the fetal position next to the only stranger that cared enough to bring him here. > Analysis: severe mental distress - subject is a child Liera didn¡¯t know what drove her to bring this helpless thing with her. It had been an impulse, it was embedded into her plan and she had no authority to question it. It ended here, with him being stranded, all alone facing certain death when the reactor explodes. > Sineul Recommendation: abandon subject - all options for rescue exhausted Even Sineul came around to the same conclusion after facilitating every single moment that led to this. She could¡¯ve gotten here much earlier if it wasn¡¯t for the child. > Override The word flashed. She heard the voice louder than before and she ¡®saw¡¯ the voice this time. It came from a place indescribable with words. She saw herself in a claustrophobic tunnel. The walls were pulsating relentlessly and there she was, staring up with fierce orange eyes and wet red hair. Her lips were dry and her skin had more color. The mouth that the voice came from lay partly open. >Sineul< The dried lips moved, she could read what they said before it registered as a voice in her brain. >I will handle it<
Liera¡¯s eyes closed abruptly and her head tilted down, life leaving her body.
Liera, the 98th Red Priestess woke up for the first time in 12 years. She received a full contextual data stream as her eyes opened and all of the information integrated with by the time her eyes fell on the child curled up next to her. >Sineul< >Conversate She let out a sigh, taking in the scene laid out before her. This was a bad situation to wake up in. But Ephistome III had a perpetual sunset. Something that reminded her of a place she didn¡¯t want to forget. ¡°Calan?¡± Her voice came out naturally. She never got used to hearing her own voice. This self awareness needed few hours to fade. The boy did not have few hours. She had to talk to him now, for the first time. > Sineul: This was your idea, Priestess. You wanted to bring him with you ¡°I sure did¡± > Sineul: May I ask what for? There is no way to save him. You saw what contingency protocol does. They won¡¯t let anyone get off planet, or anywhere else in the planet ¡°I¡¯ll get to that part in a little bit¡± She gently placed a hand on his shoulder. ¡°Don¡¯t talk to me¡± He mumbled, rolling his shoulder off her grip. ¡°I can tell you what happened to your mother and Linan¡± Calan flipped around, his small face full of anger. This was the first time he heard her mention them. ¡°I know what happened to them¡± he said, his eyes darting to the floor. ¡°That bad man earlier. He told me they¡¯re dead¡± ¡°They are dead, yes¡± Liera grabbed his face. ¡°I know how that feels¡± ¡°You¡¯re a stupid robot¡± Calan whispered through a sob. ¡°He told you that too?¡± Liera pulled the hood off his head. It didn¡¯t matter now if he got infected. ¡°See, I woke up just now. I was asleep for 12 years. I was asleep the whole time the stupid robot brought us both here¡± ¡°What!¡± He shouted angrily. ¡°You¡¯re lying! You''re awake. You jumped all over the place and made things explode!¡± ¡°That wasn¡¯t me¡± She smiled. It wasn¡¯t the pleasant expression that it defaulted to, this was a more nuanced smile. ¡°Although, for some reason, the stupid robot wanted my opinion when it came to you. I told it to bring you along. I was just talking in my sleep¡± The boy didn¡¯t know what to say to that. For one, he couldn¡¯t even imagine the sentence he heard. ¡°We die too now!?¡± he switched the topic. ¡°Yes, it looks like that was all for nothing¡± > Sineul: Your data copy cannot be quantized any further. Please start transmission now! ¡°Who are you? What¡¯s your name? You didn¡¯t tell me¡± ¡°It¡¯s Liera¡± She answered. ¡°Well met, Calan¡± She lifted his face by the chin. ¡°Look at me. I have a question for you¡± ¡°I don¡¯t want to talk anymore¡± He turned away and sat down, sulking at the horizon. ¡°Do you want to live?¡± she asked it anyway. ¡°Yeah I do!¡± ¡°-Even if you can¡¯t meet your mother or your brother anymore?¡± ¡°I¡¯m scared!¡± He cried. ¡°I don¡¯t want to explode!¡± ¡°He is scared enough to want to live¡± > Sineul: What does that change? ¡°That changes the plan¡± > Force Eject: [signal array] - ejecting transmission module "This is what I will do" > Sineul: What are you doing! Stop! Liera dug into the back of her neck and pulled out her signal array, a cylindrical module the size of her hand. She opened the skin panels of her elbow and jammed the connecting end of the cylinder into her arm. Her internals adjusted for the new configuration. Without any further words, she grabbed Calan and slid the fore finger of the same arm into his brain dive port. > Sineul: You can¡¯t be serious? You¡¯re throwing a thousand years away, for this child? why? I don¡¯t understand you ¡°This is worth collecting¡± ¡°W-what¡¯s happening! What¡¯re you doing!¡± Calan struggled to turn to her. She didn¡¯t let him move. ¡°I¡¯m sending you to the orbit. This is the only way that works¡± > Soul Transfer: initializing... - calibrating signal array - full data copy¡­ (4%) ¡°WHAT DO YOU MEAN!¡± Calan yelled, his eyes rolled back as soon as his brain interface connected with Liera¡¯s at full bandwidth. ¡°You¡¯ll see¡± her voice echoed. ¡°ARE YOU COMING WITH ME?¡± His ears were full of static and he barely heard Liera¡¯s voice. He was frozen in time for 13 minutes as Liera held his limp body. When the transfer finished, his eyes twitched and his pupils dilated. His body fell on the concrete as Liera pulled her finger from the dive port. > Soul Transfer - complete (787s)
The Dome reactor grumbled, its massive plates fell open as it reached critical mass. The city cracked around it as the support beams bent outwards, the creaking sounds echoed across the city. Inside, the core erupted in a massive white ball the size of Rhea, momentarily lighting up the entire habitable zone of Ephistome III around it. It punched a hole through the storm clouds, creating a large vacuum bubble. In a few seconds, the explosion twisted in on itself, just as violently as it expanded. Everything was reduced to a single point in space. And there was nothing. Chapter 9 - Boy and the Ship The Illuvium satellite sprang to life when it received a high bandwidth data stream for the first time in 12 years. Although it was categorized as a satellite, it was a spaceship parked in orbit. It was the vehicle that the red priestess used to get to the galactic frontier. Calan woke up in the ship few hours later. He couldn¡¯t tell the lapse of time, as far as he was concerned, he just went from the space port to a dark void. He opened his mouth to speak and he couldn''t feel any of the sensations of opening his mouth. His lips didn''t part and his jaw didn''t move. "W-where is this!" He yelled. "Where AM I!" the voice came out without the sensations but it wasn''t exactly his own. It sounded muffled, like he was drowning. The tone of the voice captured so much less of the emotion he put into it. "You''re abroad the L-98 Vellek, greetings and welcome, Calan Nuthlann. We''re currently in orbit around Ephistome III" That was an an old man. It came from somewhere in front of him. It was pitch dark, he moved his hands but he felt nothing. "W-Who are you!" "I am Sineul, the ward of the 98th Red Priestess. An ascendant of the Red Sect" "Is that your name? I can''t see anything! why is it so dark! turn the lights on!" "I apologize. I don''t think vision would benefit you until we engage in some discussion first. According to the logs that my priestess included in the data stream, the one that you came with, it is clear some altercation took place and your fate was decided for you, on the grounds that you are a child... " "What are you saying! I don''t understand!" "What I meant to say is, I''m afraid you''ll be shocked by your new... arrangement. We need to talk about it" "I''m living up here now!? she said she was throwing me up or something" "For better or worse, yes" "Let me see! it''s all dark. I''m scared, please! please!" "I was directed to be lenient towards you. So I will allow this. However, considering the nature of your current....housing, I will disable any locomotion until you can be trusted" "I don''t get what you''re sayin!" "Understandable. Enabling vision, now" Calan could finally see. He was so extremely tall. He was way taller than a table. His eyes were almost at the same level as the light on the ceiling. "I''ll allow you to turn your head as well" The voice came from a floating ball that was the size of a head. It was hovering in front of his face. The ball had metal plates and small rings on its sides. "A-are you sai-nu?" Calan asked, bewildered. He expected to see an old man. "Y-you''re just a ball!?" "Sineul, yes. This is me" The sphere floated towards him. "This is one of my physical forms. This is what I use when I need to inspect or repair something in the ship. I''m trying to figure out how you can be repaired, if that makes sense" "Repair!? I''m not a ball robot like you!" "Ah. I regret to inform that you are indeed a robot as of right now" "WHAT!" the yelp that came from him was primal. "Take a look" Sineul projected a small square in front of him that showed Calan something he never expected to see. A fully mechanical body, metal plates on every limb and a weird shaped head that had no face, no eyes, no nose. He wasn''t even a proper robot. He had no stomach. He was hollowed out, his limbs were all weird and twisted. ¡°You¡¯re currently occupying the only bipedal synthetic body available on the ship, as per guidance received from the priestess¡± Calan panicked and started screaming. Everything went black. He didn¡¯t know how long he was in that darkness for. When he came back he was still tall and stuck as he was before and he finished the scream he started. The scene in front of him had suddenly changed. He was shorter now, sitting on the floor. ¡°I need you to be calm as we figure this out¡± ¡°What is this! Why did you put me in here! Let me out!¡± ¡°This was our only option¡± ¡°This is weird! I don''t like it!¡± ¡°I understand your frustrations. This is the priestess¡¯ battle-frame¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± ¡°This is what she equips whenever she is deployed to a conflict zone¡± ¡°I DON¡®T UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU¡¯RE SAYING!¡± ¡°Oh dear¡± Sineul turned the head of the battle-frame towards himself. The boy could not be trusted with such heavy weaponry. He could just de-orbit this entire ship trying to figure out how to walk inside it. ¡°I believe you met a red haired woman?¡± ¡°Yes! She told me her name! Lira or something!¡± ¡°She sent you up here. This is her space ship. You¡¯re wearing one of her costumes that she wears when she has to kill dangerous people¡± Sineul didn¡¯t know how else things could be simplified. ¡°This is a cloth? L-like a suit?¡± Calan exclaimed, looking down at his own body. It sure had so many things attached to it. That made sense that stupid robot lady would wear something ridiculous like this. She wasn''t wearing anything the whole time he was with her. ¡°Yes, the problem is, you don¡¯t have a body¡± ¡°Where¡¯s my body!?¡± ¡°This may be shocking¡± Sineul had no idea how to explain to a 6 year old the arcane technology of soul transference. ¡°It¡¯s down there, on the planet¡± ¡°But I¡¯m up here¡± ¡°Precisely. That¡¯s how you got here. You couldn¡¯t have come here with your body¡± ¡°Why¡± ¡°I think I saw the answer to that in the same data stream you came here with¡± ¡°What¡± ¡°You saw a beam of light falling on a ship and it exploding?¡± "It was the one that bad man took. He was rude. He said a worm was going to eat my brain and I was going to die¡± ¡°Interesting analogy. Anyway, that¡¯s what happens when you try to leave the city. You get blown up by the lights from the sky¡± The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. ¡°Ah, I get it now¡± Calan considered. No, he actually didn¡¯t. ¡°How though?¡± Sineul was at the edge of his machine patience. ¡°There is a big ship with a big gun that makes sure no one leaves the city¡± ¡°W-Where? Who put it there?¡± ¡°People from long ago¡± ¡°Why¡± ¡°Look, I¡¯ll answer you later. We have to get you used to this body. I¡¯ll coordinate your walk cycle for now, follow me¡± ¡°You¡¯re saying things I don¡¯t understand again!¡± ¡°Just, watch¡± Sineul had accompanied his priestess in various forms for the last 1270 years. They have met children before. Admittedly, those encounters were very brief and none of them prepared him for this. He never considered a sentient life form could be so frustrating. This was a true blind spot, an unseen unknown. L-98 battle-frame obeyed his command, piloting itself with its rudimentary pathfinder algorithm. ¡°Woah! Hey I¡¯m walking!¡± ¡°Yes, good work. Keep walking¡± He was trying to coax the child into thinking this was his doing. That way, he could maybe give him control over the legs when he got used to the rhythm of the walk cycle. He guided the battle-frame to the command bridge and stood in front of the large display there. ¡°Woah! I¡¯m inside a ship! It¡¯s cool!¡± ¡°Indeed. You seem very enthusiastic¡± The fact that such enthusiasm came from a toddler inhabiting a battle-frame with enough ordinance to ruin a country terrified Sineul. He pointed at the screen. ¡°That is where you came from¡± ¡°I know that, episome 3. That¡¯s what its called¡± ¡°Ephistome Three¡± ¡°That¡¯s what I said¡± Sineul stared at him in silence. This was the new normal he had to get used to. This disaster child the priestess picked up has upended his machine peace. ¡°I don¡¯t see any fire¡± ¡°Elaborate¡± ¡°What?¡± ¡°What fire did you want to see?¡± ¡°The lady, Lira, she told me the city was going to explode in like ten minutes or something. That¡¯s why we were trying to get out¡± ¡°Yes, the city explodes¡± ¡°Where is it? I can¡¯t see it¡± ¡°Down there¡± Sineul highlighted a circle above Rhea. ¡±You can do that without hands!?¡± ¡°I¡¯m the ship¡± ¡°What does that mean?¡± Another breeze of silence passed them. Sineul genuinely had no way to answer that. ¡°OH LOOK!¡± Calan exclaimed, the head of the battle-frame moving abruptly as a white dot erupted over the city, ¡°It exploded! Oh no! What about my mom! Li! Oh!¡± The child was getting dangerously close to crying. Sineul was not equipped to handle tantrums. He got ready to banish the child to the void if he started being unruly again. ¡°That happens every 1 hour and 27 minutes¡± ¡°Huh?¡± ¡°The dome reactor was sabotaged. Every time it explodes, it twists spacetime to a knot. This was built with high Materium art from 3000 years ago. No one thought a dome reactor could generate enough energy-¡± ¡°WHAT ARE YOU SAYING!¡± ¡°Time resets¡± ¡±Like clocks? time? what?¡± ¡°No, yes, well, no. I don¡¯t think I can explain it to you. Just sit right here and watch¡± Sineul made the battle-frame sit in front of the display. ¡°Here¡¯s a timer and I¡¯ll zoom in, make sure you pay attention¡± He enlarged a portion of the display to Rhea. ¡°It¡¯s going to explode again in 1 hour and 27 minutes¡± ¡°How is that!?¡± ¡°Just keep watching and shout when you see it. This is very important work I''m giving you¡± He lied. The child needed time to get accustomed to this new existence. Calan watched, he soon found out he no longer needed to blink. His eyes could be open for as long as he liked. The ball that called itself Si-nu went away. He watched the moving clouds on the display. He had never seen the world he lived on like this. His imagination took him places. What lived on the ice side? Do people live on the fire side? These questions kept him distracted and daydreaming long enough for the timer to hit 0. The same white ball appeared again, blinding light, impossibly big. He couldn¡¯t even imagine how big that was. He watched the clouds part into a hole and the explosion shrunk to a tiny dot at the center. Then, suddenly the hole in the cloud vanished. It was instant, He had watched the clouds for the last hour and half. He knew clouds couldn¡¯t just fill up like that. They moved too slow. The timer started again, 1hour 27 minutes. ¡°IT HAPPENED AGAIN!¡± He yelled. ¡°Just like I told you¡± the old man¡¯s voice came from all around him. ¡°It will keep happening again and again¡± ¡°Wait where are you¡± ¡°I¡¯m the ship¡± ¡°But you were a ball¡± ¡°Yes¡± The ball appeared again and the old man¡¯s voice resumed. ¡°Here I am¡± ¡±What do I do?¡± ¡°Glad you asked. You see, I don¡¯t have authorization to wake the priestess unless it is an existential threat. When she sent you, she embedded an instruction set-¡° ¡°I don¡¯t get anything you¡¯re saying¡± ¡°I can¡¯t wake the priestess. You can¡± ¡°Wake up that red lady? You mean?¡± Calan looked at Sineul puzzled. ¡°But she¡¯s down there isn¡¯t she?¡± ¡°She¡¯s up here too¡± ¡°How?¡± ¡°Well the Red Priestesses adhere to a system of compartmentalization-¡° ¡°Stop saying big words!¡± ¡°She¡¯s here, her body was down there for maintenance¡± ¡°Ah, that''s...I don''t get it¡± ¡°Y¡­.yes. That is alright¡± Sineul relented. He didn¡¯t have the patience to explain to this child what a soul backup is. ¡°When her body sent you up, she gave you the authorization to wake her up¡± ¡°Gave me what?¡± ¡°The button to wake her up¡± ¡°Where is it?¡± Calan looked at his hands. There were shapes that could be buttons. He couldn¡¯t press any of them. He could only move his head. ¡°It¡¯s not a button. I lied. Do you wish to wake her up?¡± ¡°Why did you-, wake her up!¡± Calan said indignantly. ¡°How is she sleeping when she''s exploding down there¡± ¡°Honestly, You should ask her¡± Sineul commanded the battle-frame again. The soul bank was below the command bridge. There were manual steps to wake the priestess. He navigated Calan to the infrastructure deck and pointed him at a console there. "This is where the priestess stores her souls" "I don''t get it!" Calan whined, frustrated. This old man talked in words that were noises to him. "I don''t see that lady here" "She''s in there, like you''re in this suit right now" "Oh! I get it" Calan tried pressing the nearest button. His hand didn''t move. "I ask again, do you wish to wake her up?" "Yes! wake her up already!" "I''ll use the authorization granted to you" Sinuel executed the wakeup sequence using the authorization token that came with Calan. The mechanical hand of the battle-frame pressed three keys and rotated a cylinder above the console. Calan heard it click into place and his hand pressed the cylinder into the wall. "It is done" Sinuel announced, showing Calan the holographic display filling up with letters and numbers. "Did you shake her awake like that?" "...yes" Sineul answered. "She will join us soon" "Why not right now?" "She attached a context data log that came embedded with you. She needs some time to process that into her current-" "Stop!" Calan yelled, turning his head towards Sineul. "My apologies. She needs time to catch up with the... situation" Sineul navigated the battle frame back to the command bridge where Calan could watch the planet explode.
Liera woke up for the third time that day. Starting from a backup soul from 12 years ago was definitely unexpected. The context data stream answered all her questions. She didn''t experience any of it in sufficient detail. It was a huge list of logs from her body. Every decision made, every machine thought that occurred recorded in a highly compressed machine language that only she could make sense of. It took 4 hours of processing at the ship''s maximum compute to go through everything. "This is catastrophic loss" She told him after switching to conversation mode. They could communicate at much higher bandwidth through thought stream but Liera often chose language when she had things she didn''t want to reveal to him. "You''ve only faced defeat three times in the past" Those were the records Sineul knew of. "All of those were directly attributable to some miscalculation on my part. This one has nothing to do with me and I''ve lost my body that served me well for 1200 years" "Maybe the miscalculation was coming here to repair it" "I came here thinking this was a corner where nothing ever happens. Turns out, this is a hell hole they poured concrete over and built a city on top" "You soul-split a child. Do you know what you want to do with him?" "I had a good enough reason" "Looked to me like a miscalculation" "I don''t like losing. Did you try to acclimate him?" "It is impossible. you overestimated the child. I gave up" Sineul passed her his own logs. "We can''t keep him in the dark and he''s not ready for temporal discontinuity" He was referring to the time he had to turn Calan off. It was bad for him. Humans experience gaps of time with sleep. Abrupt shutdowns could accelerate the effects of disembodiment and loss of agency. The time when Sineul turned him off when he panicked had caused negligible, but measurable neurobit damage. An integrity score of above 900 was required if a soul is ever to reintegrate with a body. She processed the logs in seconds. "I see your point. This is not ideal. Don¡¯t ever break his continuum again" "We''re bad with child care. We never had to care for any individual child. This is beyond both you and me" "I *was* built for child care" Liera told him, unexpectedly. "That, is one way to interpret your history" ¡°I was born to make children and take care of existing children" Sineul was restricted from accessing deep time records. They were never mission critical and were out of scope. The priestess suffered neurobit damage the further back she ventured. "I cannot recommend revisiting memories from when you were human. You suffered the worst when you attempted reintegration" "I haven''t forgotten that" Liera''s tone shifted to one of defeat. "Trying to put a child in a battle-frame is a mistake. He is simply too young to process it. We may have had a chance if he was twice as old. As it stands, this process will damage him irreversibly" "There''s no way around it. He needs biologics" "I¡¯d like to hear where we get biologics of a six year old without murdering another one" "It *is* impossible. But we do have biologics in this ship, just one to be specific" "You don''t mean!" Sineul exclaimed, outraged. "You cannot possibly be thinking about using your-" "That''s the only option there is" "But it''s a sacred relic of the Red Sect! you can''t just toss it out of preservation and put a naive child in it! think of the damage this can cause!" "It''s not that sacred to me" Liera whispered. "Make the preparations. I need to talk to him about it"