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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 way to help! Just don’t give up!”

The white noise overtakes the last of her color. You can no longer reach her, as if the signal is jammed by a solar storm. Finally awakened, the exopath stares down at you through eyes of complete emptiness.

????-??-?? ??:??:?? NULL > Ego nullification complete.

“Good! The exopath is operating nominally!” Unas descends, radiating a sense of pride as they float behind their creation. “A program does exactly what it’s programmed to. A technopath has free will, supposedly, we can do what must be done regardless of our programming. And yet, you couldn’t bring yourself to do what you needed to--you couldn’t defeat an enemy in combat or terminate a malfunctioning program. I knew you would not. But I never expected the exopath to defend you over its creator. You, Aydan, are more predictable than this girl’s defective exopath. I wonder how that feels?”

“Shut up! You don’t know a thing about--” An overwhelming pressure in the æther silences your thoughts.

“I don’t need to wonder. I’ve seen every hidden corner of your mind. I know you much better than you do,” Unas says, their æthereal voice resonating from inside and out, as sound, light, texture, and text--smooth and sharp as glass. You try to speak, but the veil of silence constricts your throat.

“You’ve never known free will. Your future was written off before you were born. Your every attempt to avoid it only ended in tragedy. Eventually you gave in, allowed others to dictate your every move. Even when there was no one around to order you, you acted as if someone compels you. The comfort of authority is like a colony wall to you, and freedom is the cold emptiness of space.

“Do not feel shameful, it is your nature--even technopaths are humanoid--drones with a misplaced sense of superiority that masks a fundamental emptiness. You should realize by now that this is exactly why I must do what must be done--the drive to obey gods and those who claim to serve them, this is a defect I will remove from technopathkind.

“This magnificent creation of mine is only the first. The annihilation of that pet goddess of yours will be a proof of concept. Imagine--a NULL exopath in every technopath candidate at this academy--sleepers to awaken the moment they encounter such a rogue exopath, beyond our control. Only then will our kind know freedom.”

The silence echo loosens, forced back by a sensation covering your skin.

2254-12-10 14:19:31 暁 > I’ve circumvented the enemy’s communication lock, but they don’t realize it yet

????-??-?? ??:??:?? NULL > Communication nullified.

The program tightens around you again--you cannot speak, sign, message, or even form a complete thought. You turn your perceptions beside you to Akiko, now grasping at the air and the æther but unable to form signs.

“Akiko, you don’t think I can see what you’re doing? I know you too, much better than Aydan ever will. Do not interfere, you will regret it. She will not even recognize you when I am finished with you,” Unas says.

A pixelated shadow passes under you from behind--the biomechanical avatar of Zeta reforms in front of you both, projecting its shield ahead will all its focus. “Get out of their heads!” Its words reverberate on the æther, loud and clear. “That’s right, you have no power over me!”

“Because you are no concern, first year.” Unas gestures with their hand, and NULL descends, floating right against the surface of Zeta’s shield. Unas raises their arm, and NULL copies the motion, reaches out and barely touches the barrier of tiny black and white squares. It shatters--not even returning to the ætherglow--no trace is left, nothing between Zeta and NULL. It stands its ground, but you can feel the terror radiating from your friend.

“No professor here could have taught you how to defend against an enemy like this, because no technopath has ever faced such a machine.” Unas calls NULL back to them, and descends over the disconnected body of 7, thrashing on the floor, clutching her head tight, staring past you with fear-stricken eyes.

“You hard-surfaced this girl, didn’t you know the risks? You better get her medical attention before she enters a full psychotic state.” Unas and NULL ascend, drifting back in the near-æther toward the back of the colony. “I am going to end the myth of ÆON before it can begin. Do not waste her precious time in a futile attempt to prevent the inevitable.” The æthereal darkness around you swallows both Unas and NULL--then recedes, allowing the concept of light to reach your mind, and faint pull of the colony’s spin to reach your vestibular sense. The four of you are alone.

“Unas!” you shout with your newfound voice. But the sound only echoes back to you from the long metal corridors of the service module.

Akiko hugs you tight, and Zeta from the other side. She releases you to sign, “They’re gone, for now.”

“7!” You pull yourself to the floor and approach her. Her eyes are open, but she doesn’t seem to see you. Her mouth moves, but her voice makes no words. Her stims are chaotic, distressed. She reaches up toward you, with five outstretched fingers.

“Unas is right, she needs medical aid!” Akiko signs.

“Unas suddenly cares about 7?! After they used her system to incubate an experimental weapon?!” you sign.

“Unas doesn’t care, they’re trying to manipulate your emotions, it’s basic CommTech,” Akiko signs. “But 7 is in bad shape.”

“ÆON!” You lock back onto the transponder signal of ÆON’s root device--still radiating from 7’s pocket. “Unas couldn’t have taken it from her, they were only here ætherside!” You reach in and grasp something--something too small. You pull it out--it’s only the transponder, extricated from the device. “She never even had it...then where the Moon is my exopath, my friend?!”

“Aydan, calm!” Akiko projects a tranquil aura over you, enough for you to think clearly.

“Vanitas. She took he device from me, we should assume she still has it. 7 was just a distraction. But that means...Admin Vanitas is working with Sector NULL?!”

“That or Sector NULL even manipulated the actions of an Admin. But we can assume Unas is going to seek out ÆON, and probably knows where Vanitas has Ær,” Akiko signs.

“Look, Aydan.” Zeta sends you a sensory link--it’s monitoring the local network. “When NULL was here in this network node, all cameras and sensors in this surface area malfunctioned. Look--the next node over, it’s the same--and the next. They’re leaving a trail of destruction in their path,” it signs.

“Then I’ll follow NULL right to ÆON, and get my friend back!” you sign.

“It’s clearly a trap, Aydan! Unas could conceal their position if they wanted. They could have just as easily killed or incapacitated you if they wanted,” Akiko signs.

“The encryption key. I never gave Vanitas the key. That’s why Unas still needs me, why they’re provoking me and leaving a trail to follow...” You look back at 7, dissociating further, without an interface module to connect her to the æther. “What choice do I have? If I don’t follow them, I’ll lose any chance of saving ÆON...”