2254-12-10 14:01:55 Aydan > they have ÆON.
2254-12-10 14:02:01 Zeta > *what?!*
2254-12-10 14:02:03 明子 > who’s they??
2254-12-10 14:02:07 Aydan > I don’t knowww it happened while I was ætherside and I surfaced and the device is...
2254-12-10 14:04:30 Ætherglow > the last thing ÆON said to me was about 5, maybe 7 knows something
2254-12-10 14:04:34 Ætherglow > stand by, I’ll try and gather more information before we engage
You switch to 7’s chat.
2254-12-10 14:04:39 Aydan > 7
2254-...
Her pink eyes watch you as the door slides closed. You want to rush in, confront her, get answers. But you suppress the impulse.
2254-12-10 14:10:07 7 > Don’t.
She messages you as the heavy door slams shut with a clash of metal.
“Aydan!” Zeta calls...
“Every lock can be picked,” you say. Staring up at the echo of 7’s avatar through space and æther, everything else dissolves away. Your mind follows the radiant pathways tracing a river of light through valleys of resonance, connecting you to your...
You don’t think you know chaos theory half as well as 7. But maybe a construct you created does--you launch your familiar program. The little creature manifests, invisible to your eyes but circling around you in the local network, fluttering on its...
Your empathic sense feels overwhelming--you understand her--you know you can still get through to her.
“7! I know how it is, beholden to the will of a mother who only sees you as a tool! A weapon! A thing to possess and use!”
You stumble forward...
You think your best chance is to incapacitate her before she can launch a cyberattack.
Your hands are pinned down, and you couldn’t hope to overcome her strength--but this close to the center of the colony she weighs almost nothing. You wait for the...
> gravitystim1
You execute your new program. You’ve hardly even had time to debug it, so you’ll just have to hope nothing goes wrong.
The singularity manifests in the æther between you and 7 and 11. Its intense gravitational attraction quickly...
7’s avatar floats in your weapon’s sights, distorted into a pink-blue-green ring by the gravitational lens between you. But you’re sure no matter how much you can amplify this attack, striking 7 head on is futile. You shift your aim and see her body...
For a single moment, you hesitate. Above you, 2 fires its full array of æthereal weapons. A storm of prismatic glass shards plunge into your shield, trapped in its water, each penetrating deeper than the last. Akiko’s shield surrounds you, softening...
As the rifts of chaotic white noise close in on you, you fall back up to the surface. Light floods your mind’s eye as you float up and up into conscious space, until your physical eyes open to the metal beams and conduits above you. You push your...
You keep the shrinking circle of green light in your weapon sights, but you cannot execute the attack.
“5!” you send through every layer of communication you have, “Fight it! Resist it with everything you have! I’ll think of something...we’ll find a...
“We are in over our heads!” you sign. “Technopathy no one has ever faced before, an enemy who knows our every thought pattern, predicts our every move!”
You take a deep breath. Calm. “I wish Synth was here...”
“What would Synth do?” Zeta signs.
“Synth...
“I’m the Messenger of ÆON,” you say. “The Chosen of ÆON hunted me for months, and I kept ÆON with me on a primitive device nobody thought to look in, they didn’t know ÆON could compress Ærself into pretty much any data space, it only limits Ær...
“Akiko...Zeta...I’m with you both ‘til the end! Come with me!” You turn to face the trail of annihilation your enemy left for you in the near-æther--a dark tunnel against the dense web of connections here in the service module.
Behind you, you hear...
“No time to delay, keep moving and get past the junction before them!” you sign, already turning to run ahead, shielding yourself from the sides.
You cross the corridor of light and run ahead into the darkness. In your peripherals you see them closing...
“We may as well cooperate with each other,” you say, already moving forward toward your objective. “Follow me. I’ll open a comms channel so your communication barrier with Akiko won’t be a huge problem.”
You create a new channel, connecting Akiko,...
2254-12-10 14:40:12 Ætherglow > I trust Protogen’s plan more. Akatsuki, Protogen, and Pulse can maintain a web of sensory silence over me more easily while I’m still connected to the æther, and we can run the comms wire between us to communicate while...
You take the injector in your right hand, watching your foe through the screen in your left. One chance to strike--your finger hovers on the inject button. You aim for the center of mass, any muscle will do. There’s no time to hesitate--you strike!
Yo...
You reconsider your options--the dose the injector is set to administer is heavy, according to Admin Crypta. Maybe half of it would be enough for you to enter the æther properly without dissociating deep inside yourself, and maybe leave enough to take...
To freeze time for a moment may give you an advantage--but Anko would know you’re capable of that and be ready for it. A spark of ambitious inspiration strikes you--memories of the deep æther--past, present, and future are one. Everything that...
“Zero Four...I think your systers wanted you to help them, go remind Zero Six of what you always remember!” you say.
[Synth liked that]
“Okay!” Zero Four looks up at the combat above--Zero Six envelops Admin Crypta in a whirlwind of fire from the...
“Anko! Can’t you tell we have a common enemy?! Or would you rather we both be killed!” you say, through æthereal impression. Knowing these ambitious young technopaths of the Chosen of ÆON, you know you can’t count on their loyalty to their masters,...
You suppress your panic, your fear of death--hide the very concept of mortality from your ego if you must--the mission comes first. And besides which, you’re sure Akiko can win her internal battle, sure any synthgirl could win this struggle.
ALERT:...“I am not you!” You push you away. Whatever this weird box of numbers and letters is, you can’t let go of it. It’s the only thing you know.
“Admirable. You truly would have been a great technopath. But your resolve is irrelevant. If you won’t...
You take her avatar arm--trying to move her as an object from one location in the server to another. She allows this, trying to help. Even the touch of her avatar fills you with a numb, cold sensation--not a feeling, but the complete absence of one.
...“NULL existed in 7’s system for months,” you say. “She didn’t understand what it was, but she managed to keep it under control all that time, mostly. If anyone knows how to stop it, she would.”
“Unfortunately we left that girl in surfaceshock on the...
“If we can get you back in control, suppress NULL the way it was before, then we can get you out of here--separate you from NULL,” you say.
“What will happen to it?” 5 says.
“I...don’t know. We’re in uncharted territory for technopaths of my level....
You& let go of everything, even your& agency, your& self-determination, to let another borrow it for a moment. The decision you& choose is not your& own, but you& feel it, know it as surely as your& own names. Then, your& will returns to you&.
“You...
“Where is ÆON?!” you sign.
Zeta glances away from you. “Admin Crypta...she has the root device.”
“No!” you sign. “After all this, we didn’t recover ÆON?!”
“She ordered me, in person...what can I do against an Admin’s order? I already physically...
After getting up and getting dressed, a short adjustment period to the surface and its gravity, and a short walk from the medical center to the Administration building, you enter once again the glass corridor at the entrance.
Admin Crypta only asked...
You pull the ancient cable from your dress and connect your system to the device--so used to it being there, you didn’t feel quite whole without it.
With a glance up you see the triangle of metallic eyes watching you, their gold irises reflecting the...
“Well Admin, did I pass my exam or not?!” you say.
Her lavender eyes look up at you. “It may be my last act as an educator, but given the circumstances, how could I fail you? Your task was to return to consciousness, and here you stand on the...
2254-12-18
A week without classes, exams, or attempts on your life--without ætherwalks, synchronization, or any sort of meaningful decision. Here at the pond at the world’s edge, you lay on the soft green moss, your head resting on Akiko’s chest, lost...
“You’ve been a good friend,” you say. “No, more than that, you’re like the older sister I never had.”
The LEDs in their eyes go dark for a second, then their glow returns. “I’ll accept that.” They pat your head.
[Synth liked that]
But you move in...