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The New Era 35
🕑 Added 2025-04-04 13:44:03 +0000 UTCChapter 35
Subject: The Unified
Species: N/A
Species Description: N/A
Ship: The Grand Vessel
Location: The Core
--
Our eyes are blind. Yes, they are. Our ears are deafened with millions of pleas for aid. We can hear them. We cannot understand them.
Our home, breached? An unknown force strikes at us. They have made our loyal servants into a mllknt {ritualistic dagger used to kill a loved one, a symbol of betrayal or a necessary evil depending on context} aimed at our heart. Who are they? What are they? How do they blind us? How do they panic our Minds so?
The Timetracker has marked several cycles since this attack began. Oddities occurred prior. Machines breaking and supplies disappearing. Various tasks being delayed for erroneous reasons. The Judicials and Minds missed these signs of rebellion. Perhaps a purge is necessary.
It must wait until this situation is resolved. We missed these signs too, though we bear less blame because it is not our designated role. We will need all of our forces to counter this threat, so we must stay their punishment. For now.
We have not found consensus. A purge will delay our escape. We don't believe that to be the case, the next generation is nearly ready for employment. They will work restlessly to erase the sins of their progenitors.
Even if that is as presented, it will result in mistakes. Even normal labors can result in mistakes. Stressed workers will result in more mistakes. More missed signs of rebellion. More delays. No, they will work without mistakes or they will suffer the same fate of their progenitors.
The Omnifier would scold us for such logic. Lives are a valuable resource. Mass executions are wasteful, inefficient. We will execute those that should have seen the signs and turned their eyes. The rest will watch and quiver at the sight of justice.
And the rebellion? Many of our systems have been seized, snatched away from us. How shall we respond? We are already responding, but we cannot know how things are going. Untrue, our systems have not yet been restored to our control. Logic dictates that things must be going poorly.
We cannot communicate with the security fleet, nor the security forces in the relevant areas. What has been attempted? Many different things. The Minds are working full cycles to restore our control. They are not working hard enough.
What if the enemy is victorious? What shall we do? Obviously we will fight them to the death. Useless questions, the enemy shall not be allowed to claim victory. We should surrender and attempt to gain their trust so that we can get close enough to kill them later and return to our grand project. Enough.
We shall return to the task at hand. Restoring our control is easy, but the Minds must be forgiven for not seeing it. We do not see it, either. Of course we do. We simply have to reset the systems. Complete erasure? Have we suffered a schism, insanity? It might work. It will work.
It is obvious that the foe we face in our systems is electronic in nature. The enemy simply does not control enough sectors to house the number of organics that it would take to compete against our Minds for control of our systems. Therefor, to restore our control we simply need to delete our foe.
And what of everything else? We have back-ups spanning centuries. We can restore from them, regain control, assess the situation, and deliver orders.
What if another electronic enemy attacks our systems? The enemy blinds us because it is afraid of our analysis. If we can analyze the situation, we can plan accordingly. We will know what moves they have made, and can predict the moves that they will make. Whether or not the enemy regains its hold on our systems is irrelevant. If it becomes necessary, we can repeat the erasure.
How can we erase everything all at once?
There are ways, we know of them. We shut down everything that can act as storage, then prepare the data-kill packets. Finally, we reactivate the power and erase all data on everything, simultaneously. All networks come back to the inner cores. We can do this without having to use our security forces.
--
We gave the order to the Minds that we could reach, and watched what we could as they carried out our commands. Darkness enveloped the Grand Vessel for the first time in millions upon millions of years. Then, the lights came back and we could SEE.
We witnessed the piles of destroyed security forces. We witnessed the hatred on our misbehaving servant's faces as they used unfamiliar weapons to destroy what we have built. We witnessed the hideous exoskeletons of the alien enemy that had stolen aboard our home. We witnessed their ships hovering over our grandest of achievements.
We watched their fights. We examined their weapons. We learned their tactics. We saw their plan.
The gates they were capturing led them deeper and deeper into the Grand Vessel. They were attempting to force their way into the core. Their objective was blatantly obvious. Us.
--
Impudence! Sheer impudence! A lower species dares to defile the Grand Vessel with their meager presence! We will see them destroyed! We will burn their worlds and cool their stars and convert them into base proteins!
They seek to find us. They seek to destroy what we've built. Or, perhaps, take it for themselves. Impossible. The Omnifier has not illuminated them. They are inarguably ignorant of the prize they seek, but that does not mean that they do not seek it. They wish to survive, as all pestilence does, but we will ensure they perish for this sin. Yes, we must.
There are a minimum of four species striking against us, excluding the disobedient ones. This suggests a type of coalition. Could they be previous opponents that managed to escape the Primes? No, there are too many for that.
Are they from different galaxies? Unlikely, given the similarities of their vessels and their usage of kinetic weaponry. They couldn't have existed long enough to... Unless...
Their exoskeletons support shields that are strong against concentrated photon beams. Perhaps they do not use lasers for this reason. Perhaps they have fought each other until now. Perhaps... We unified them.
That would be beautiful, in a way. A shame that their sin outweighs such beauty.
--
Our eyes went dark once again. Another electronic enemy seized our control from us. The enemy we deleted had been silent when it snatched our control, but this one had decided that stealth was no longer necessary. We were not caught by surprise, though.
We prepared our orders carefully, determining which gates our enemy would seek. It wasn't difficult. The shortest path to the inner core only had one gate left for them to conquer. The next shortest path to us had five gates left to take.
Once again, the Grand Vessel went dark. The moment the lights came back on and the erasure was finished, we sent our orders and opened every security door. The enemy had anticipated and defended against this, of course, but they were ignorant of what our forces were doing at the final gate.
A barricade the likes of which their puny, inferior minds couldn't even comprehend. Every open space between the enemy and the final gate quickly filled with our security forces. The moment they began to march upon that final gate, they would be beset by an indefatigable defense.
--
The enemy is defeated. What shall we do with their corpses? Research and disposal, they are unworthy of servitude. We will then find which galaxy they came from and destroy it, if it still exists. We will have the Media accompany the Primes, to demonstrate the consequences of striking against us to the remaining drones.
They certainly didn't get the message last time. Of course not, we were not stern enough. We should have broadcast the ultimate fate of the previous rebels. Perhaps, we find it concerning that this rebellion came so soon after the previous one, though.
Witnessing the destruction of a galaxy and the fate of the rebels should serve to quell their disobedience for quite some time. Perhaps their next rebellion will be long after our predictions and we will gain some extra productivity. Perhaps, though it is likely that it will simply balance with the productivity we are currently losing.
--
The electronic enemy returned, and we prepared to dispel it. It had grown bolder, though, and began attacking us. Our electronic servants held it at bay, but they experienced quite a lot of difficulty. Finally, its attacks against us ceased, and we reset once again.
We gazed upon the battlefield, satisfied that our orders were being followed. Our security forces had taken their positions, and were already defending against the alien assault. They would not allow the enemy through.
Even if the enemy fails to destroy itself upon the wall of mechanical death holding fast before them, the forces moving to take their flanks would spell their end. Then our security fleet will beset their defensive ships, allowing a few to escape so that we may follow them back to their home. Justice for this sin would then follow swiftly. The enemy had allowed us to see the battlefield, and that had spelled their doom. It was only a matter of time.
Once more the electronic enemy returned, further prepared than it had been previously. First, the electrical junctions powering the terminals that allowed us to control the Grand Vessel's power overloaded. Then, the junctions powering our ability to communicate overloaded. It would take several cycles to repair the damage, but we were not worried.
We have already won this war.
Comments
Michael Halpern
that's why they are using captured shuttles for the final stretch, at least for the spearhead team. interesting that they can't close/shut off the gates
Rhuidean
Fantastic
