Verbal splattering inbound. With all the PA stories around, I find the need to get all the words...
Apathy, Commanders, Hitchhikers (PA Multicross)
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001
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Verbal splattering inbound. With all the PA stories around, I find the need to get all the words in my head out before feedback loop
Every 20 chapter's I'll have an Author exposition bit stapled on the end. First one details how exactly I write (hint, this boat has no rudders)
And now to the story.
__
R.O.B or rather a R.O.B felt Herself being pulled along… as much as a god can be pulled along that is.
"See see!" came the shout, metaphorical fingers pointing at a multiversal cluster. Stomping along rather happily a giant machine of death rolled up and down spraying buildings and armies into existence, the carcasses of many more providing the resources.
Lots of booms "And?"
"It's my COMMANDER! Stomping, blowing upping, creating, intelligent intergalactic, brutally efficient self replicating machine of war, weapon of death and destruction!" the ever exuberant voice exclaimed.
Relevance to current self unknown. Postulations worrying "Oh"
"That's why you should get one!"
Reason ascertained. Eject "No"
"If you don't I'll keep nagging until you do! I know all of your napping spots!" Came the threat, both simple and horrific in its implications. "No more sleep until you do!"
Possibility of threat being carried out. High. "Ok"
"That's why you should… Me dammit, why don't you ever put up a fight! Ok just do what I tell you and it will be fine."
++
Timeskip. Much napping and procrastinating was had.
++
R.O.B had finally set up the multiverse (or rather stole ideas from everyone else) and a commander frame (once again stolen) with the programming having a special autopilot (with dedicated nap systems) and external VI programs (to do all the work) and VI subroutines (so something else walks for you) and permanent internet access (or its counterpart) from worlds visited.
Hmmmm… R.O.B considered putting Herself into the frame and escaping all her responsibilities. But no, doing so would lock it into a form where escape is impossible from the nagging of other R.O.Bs to do actual work. Unless...
Oh well, finding new napping locations is something to be looked forward to. Being called an Old God by random mortals and having cities built around itself is rather irritating especially all the chanting. Now, all that is needed is a mind to slot into the AI core.
'Ooooooh, something like me' came the thought as R.O.B found a human male slouched backwards staring at the computer monitors in front of him.
Pluck and Drop.
Oh. The slot is too small… maybe those upgrades were too much. Or a bigger push is all that is needed.
Crack
Oh dear, what was that? A large part of the emotional subroutines? Oh well, the VI programs could simulate it well enough.
Now to activate and go back to sleep.
++
Timeskip. Technical jargons and startup.exes
++
Eyes open. No blurriness… huh.
Can see everything around me… huh.
Muscle aches from poor body management non-existent… huh.
Conclusion. Everything is fine.
-SOUL ACTIVE-
So. Sexy female voice in my mind. I'm ok with this insane. Sexy voice telling me about settings in my mind however are slightly different. Let's rub some face and rub some temple while we think about this.
Clang
Oh. Metal arms. I'm mechanical now? Mechanical brain? Nice.
Mechanical mind must mean windows explorer.
Tabs for days.
'Voice in my head, how to access files in my head?'
-BY THINKING ABOUT IT PARTICULARLY HARD-
Ah snark, how I missed you companion that is not Sir Left Handerson.
So files. Lots of files. Cannot access any until I open the file marked README. Nah too much effort.
Closing files. Let us walk to that green square on my minimap. I have minimap. Nice.
Legs up, legs down, Boom, legs up, legs down, Boom. Walking is amazing. Lets walk some more. Walking is nice.
Green square has been marked. ARMA style, big crosses for days. Now. What do I do with green square.
++
Timeskip. Procrastination.
++
Nope, can't think of anything. Guess I'll have to open that file. Sigh.
Greetings Commander,
You are in a Theta Commander commonly known from the video-game Planetary Annihilation. Upon closing this file a full synchronization of the AI core and your soul will be activated. Once it complete you will find yourself with all the blueprints and knowledge needed to survive. All capabilities will be made known at the same time. Build the included DIMENSIONAL GATE in order to explore the multiverse.
Purely voluntary.
You have no task except to survive assuming I remember to check on you in the future.
Goodbye Commander,
Regards R.O.B
And pain. So much pain. Oh ROB, bits of AI core aren't touching my soul, like open wounds but in the soul. Pain. Error loops, blue screens, green screens, screens for days. Paiiiin.
-SYNCHRONIZATION SUSPENDED. CRITICAL FAILURE. FULL FUNCTIONS MISSING. REBUILDING AI CORE. REACTIVATING SYNCHRONIZATION-
And pain is gone. Thank you Voice in my Head.
-EMOTIONAL CORE CORRUPTED. PURGING. REBUILDING. PARTIAL FAILURE. BUNDLING REMNANTS. APATHY MODE ACTIVATED-
Huh.
++
R.O.B was pleased with Herself. She had found Her nirvana, a place to both nap and experience the multiverse without nagging from Her co-workers. By linking Her presence in this multi-verse with Her Commander, the very low level of thought needed to answer questions as opposed to moving Her multi-dimensional/versal entity allowed Her to both nap and experience with a new perspective. Having something else do all the hard labour plan was a success. That being said, tampering with Her Commander's emotional core by isolation from the AI core may have had unforeseen side-effects when combined with the soul's already extreme apathy. For 12 hours now, Her Commander had been plodding about building metal extractors and metal storage facilities without considering anything else.
While the small blips of satisfaction every time the Commander took a step or completed a structure were nice, since She was watching and not able to control anything or even backseat advise it had gotten old fast.
How to get Her Commander to do more…
++
And now I can't see. Blueprints all in my face.
Oh. Bot factory?
I can do that?
Nice.
Building bot factory, building bot factory, bot factory dooOone. Oooh tingles in my braiin.
-CONNECTION ESTABLISHED-
Fabricators can build for me. Huh. They do that. I feel stupid.
No matter, queuing fabricators!
Build, build, build, queue build… and now I'm bored.
-NOT ENOUGH ENERGY-
Nice.
Queue energy plants and energy storage! My own suburbs with all the natural inefficiencies suburbs bring. HA! Jokes on you America and Australia, I'm stacking my buildings with scaffolds and stuff. No inefficiency and urban sprawl here, no sir! I think I'll call it something new. Something like… apartment block. HA!
Oh. Fabricator bots can't reach that high.
Building air factory. Nice.
Air fabricators get!
Oh? Advanced air factory? Building!
Advanced air fabricators on the way!
And now bored. Bored. Bored. Dammit efficient nanobot spraying automated machines.
What should I do.
Indecision!
Story of my life/lives/existence.
I'll make something to tell me what to do!
++
She was a teensy bit worried about Her Commander truth be told. The emotion core was not fully isolated and every now and again it would make contact with the AI core for quick shots of emotion. The mood swing became a mood yoyo as it went up and down with no real rhyme or reason. It would be worrying if not for the fact that Her Commander's emotions were so muted that only She inside the Commander's soul could feel them. Like little lappings of a particularly placid lake on the shoreline.
Oh. Her Commander was not so helpless after all.
The Commander was attempting to create a 3 core AI system to improve the decision making process by linking the AI core to the AI system. Looks like inspiration was drawn from a native television show called Neon Genesis Evangelion. Hmmm… digging through the memories it is definitely something to consider adding to the multiverse.
Still for a being that was now made entirely of code… Her Commander's coding abilities could be considered abysmal at best and frankly insulting to Her abilities at the worst. A little prodding here, some massive overhauls there, hardcoding lack of ability to go rogue against Her Commander here, inserting pleasantly sexy and gruff male voice there, full access to Her Commander's memories and systems over here, setting up MAGI system with expansionist, arbitrative and conservative cores done. All that is needed now is a permanent line to the AI core and all its connected products so She could experience through the soon to be produced AIs and VIs while allowing Her Commander to putter about on the hub world. Built on a foundation of Commander grade metal with an elevator down to the mantle in case of attack, the AI system was a beast with each core having a cube of the Commander grade AI cores. Permanent internet access through the Commander (though lack of use indicates the Commander may not know it exists) to draw research data should it be needed for further developments.
It was kind of cute really the amount of effort that went into not thinking by Her Commander. Like trying to take a nap in a machine designed to never sleep unless destroyed.
Huh. Torture. She never knew She had it in Her.
++
Timeskip for days
++
The AI system is active. Only the expansionist core was online for now and no fatal errors. Code is very different from what I had written however, more efficient and actually works. No need for billions of simulations. Oh I can do simulations now?Accelerated time too. Nice.
Then again, Voice in my Head re-wrote the code. Good thing or I would be up shits creek without a paddle. Always beta first came the thought, which I totally did not forget about.
-M| CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. MAGI DOWNLOADING DATA. STANDBY |M-
Oh it's automatic. Nice.
-M| REQUESTING CONTROL OF UNITS. REQUESTING CONTROL OF PRODUCTION. REQUESTING CONTROL OF DESIGN. REQUESTING… |M-
Ooooh. It's offering to do the all the stuff for me.
Nice.
++
MAGI was awake and its subroutines were all firing to check for any mismatches in code or hardware. So far everything was nothing but perfect checks across the board. With its primary directive of "THE COMMANDER SHALL FLOAT THROUGH LIFE LIKE A LEAF ON A RIVER" the AI system began to run diagnostics on the Commander and the knowledge the Commander possessed to best ascertain the manner in which best for the Commander to "enjoy life". It was all well that the Commander's emotion core was heavily suppressed otherwise this would be much more difficult.
Oh, relief? Emotions already? Nice.
Regardless, Commander needs more hands to take the workload off him.
Priority objective: Create VIs to offload work functions from the Commander leaving him to do whatever he wants... likely nothing.
Return: Coding of fabricator VI to be applied across all fabricators to gain experience and path more efficiently from target to target. With more experience the VIs will much like biologicals develop personalities as the programmed behavioural responses mold them (pleasure from completing structures, curiosity towards increased efficiency and whatnot) building upon the preset personality matrix (gruff, nice guy that smokes too much). VIs are to be based on various stereotypes and then implemented across broad classes. Currently there is only the fabricators present.
++
Timeskip
++
VI for the fabricators has been implemented.
-M| Very amusing |M-
Due to limited computational power present in each unit (they stream designs from my internal servers), they instead possess more of a pack mentality with at least 5 needed for basic sentience and increasing from there with combined experiences facing exponential growth and sapience as numbers increase. Much like traditional materials research, with each fabricator doing something slightly different with the same goal, it allows the discovery of new techniques and further refinement for increased production to be rolled out across the board. With constant updating to the new server rack, any destruction of fabricator would see the data saved for future use. Due to the lack of sapience with regards to individual fabricators no need to save singular minds is in place but packs of 5 may be saved should sufficient individuality be displayed. With such a limited amount of experiences to be had in the Hub system however the development of the VIs has reached the point of looping.
Priority Objective: New experiences necessary.
Return: Alert Commander to issue for resolution.
-M| RECOMMENDATION: FURTHER EXPANSION OF EXPERIENCE POOL NECESSARY. SUGGEST BUILDING DIMENSIONAL GATES |M-
Hopefully the Commander would heed its suggestion.
MAGI practically vibrated in anticipation.
++
Huh. MAGI wants expansion. MAGI also coded fabber VIs in 30 seconds. Oh wait. Did I forget to turn on the other cores?
Nope.
Woops.
Let's just turn those on.
++
-M| DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE. IDENTIFYING PRIORITY OBJECTIVES |M-
__
-C| Priority objective: Secure safety of Commander by consolidation |C-
-E| Priority objective: Expand for further resource and experience of forces |E-
-A| Priority objective: Secure safety of Commander |A-
__
-C| Discussion: Secure safety by focusing on current territory|C-
-E| Discussion: Secure safety by expanding frontier |E-
-A| Discussion: Secure safety by consolidation of current territory with combat forces and radar and probe screen expansion |A-
__
-C| Discussion: Fabricators to build combat forces to acceptable levels before colonisation |C-
-E| Discussion: Fabricators to build orbital radar and orbital factory for rapid expansion |E-
-A| Discussion: Fabricators to build radar and orbital to produce units for planetary protection |A-
__
-M| Consensus: Build radar and orbital units before expansion |M-
__
-C| Satisfaction |C-
-E| Satisfaction |E-
-A| Satisfaction |A-
__
-M| RECOMMENDATION: CONSTRUCT ORBITAL RADAR, ORBITAL FACTORY, PLANETARY DEFENCE UNITS BEFORE EXPANDING THROUGHOUT SYSTEM. ASSUMING CONTROL |M-
++
Timeskip
++
The actions dictated have been carried out and initial scans beginning now.
Return: No lifeforms or artificial creations present in system.
__
-C| Satisfaction |C-
-E| Disgruntlement |E-
-A| Anticipatory |A-
__
She was rather bemused by the interaction that MAGI had with the outside world and itself. Luckily it was divided into three or else it was highly likely that a feedback loop going on infinity was likely to occur especially with the expansionist and conservative cores.
The multiverse that the Commander had been dropped in was clear of all living/sentient/sapient beings. A playground for extreme expansion. With the rate that Her Commander was going, the dimensional gate should be ready in about 10 years after finally getting around to it. R.O.Bs were meant to change their kidnapees through judicial application of force, mental trauma and carrots. Why was She being changed by this soul… it wasn't even trying. The amount of effort She had put into, well… everything in the last few days had been astronomical in comparison to the previous 100, 000 Earth years. Well it couldn't be said that She was not enjoying Herself, perhaps this is what the legendary "slumming" was meant to feel like. Well time to prod Her commander.
Hmmm. MAGI. Well it is only fitting to travel to MAGI's home galaxy.
Neon Genesis Evangelion
Helldivers
Planetside 2
Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Gundam Wing
Mass Effect
XCOM
40K
Cultivation
Halo
Helldivers
Planetside 2
Mobile Suit Gundam
Mobile Suit Gundam SEED
Gundam Wing
Mass Effect
XCOM
40K
Cultivation
Halo
Every 20 chapter's I'll have an Author exposition bit stapled on the end. First one details how exactly I write (hint, this boat has no rudders)
Natural Selection 2
Titanfall
Call of Duty
Red Alert 3
Command and Conquer Generals
Metal Gear
Planetside 2
Mahouka no Rettousei
Gundam
Gungeon
Transformers
Planeteria
Metal Slug
XCOM
Nadesico
Marvel Heroes
Naruto
Assassins Creed
Warframe
Factorio
Cthulhutech
I Shall Seal the Heavens
School Parade
Mass Effect
Earth Defence Force 4.1
Prison Architect
Wolfenstein
666 Satan
Star Wars
Marvel Heroes
Guns of Icarus
Assassin's Creed
Titanfall
Call of Duty
Red Alert 3
Command and Conquer Generals
Metal Gear
Planetside 2
Mahouka no Rettousei
Gundam
Gungeon
Transformers
Planeteria
Metal Slug
XCOM
Nadesico
Marvel Heroes
Naruto
Assassins Creed
Warframe
Factorio
Cthulhutech
I Shall Seal the Heavens
School Parade
Mass Effect
Earth Defence Force 4.1
Prison Architect
Wolfenstein
666 Satan
Star Wars
Marvel Heroes
Guns of Icarus
Assassin's Creed
And now to the story.
__
R.O.B or rather a R.O.B felt Herself being pulled along… as much as a god can be pulled along that is.
"See see!" came the shout, metaphorical fingers pointing at a multiversal cluster. Stomping along rather happily a giant machine of death rolled up and down spraying buildings and armies into existence, the carcasses of many more providing the resources.
Lots of booms "And?"
"It's my COMMANDER! Stomping, blowing upping, creating, intelligent intergalactic, brutally efficient self replicating machine of war, weapon of death and destruction!" the ever exuberant voice exclaimed.
Relevance to current self unknown. Postulations worrying "Oh"
"That's why you should get one!"
Reason ascertained. Eject "No"
"If you don't I'll keep nagging until you do! I know all of your napping spots!" Came the threat, both simple and horrific in its implications. "No more sleep until you do!"
Possibility of threat being carried out. High. "Ok"
"That's why you should… Me dammit, why don't you ever put up a fight! Ok just do what I tell you and it will be fine."
++
Timeskip. Much napping and procrastinating was had.
++
R.O.B had finally set up the multiverse (or rather stole ideas from everyone else) and a commander frame (once again stolen) with the programming having a special autopilot (with dedicated nap systems) and external VI programs (to do all the work) and VI subroutines (so something else walks for you) and permanent internet access (or its counterpart) from worlds visited.
Hmmmm… R.O.B considered putting Herself into the frame and escaping all her responsibilities. But no, doing so would lock it into a form where escape is impossible from the nagging of other R.O.Bs to do actual work. Unless...
Oh well, finding new napping locations is something to be looked forward to. Being called an Old God by random mortals and having cities built around itself is rather irritating especially all the chanting. Now, all that is needed is a mind to slot into the AI core.
'Ooooooh, something like me' came the thought as R.O.B found a human male slouched backwards staring at the computer monitors in front of him.
Pluck and Drop.
Oh. The slot is too small… maybe those upgrades were too much. Or a bigger push is all that is needed.
Crack
Oh dear, what was that? A large part of the emotional subroutines? Oh well, the VI programs could simulate it well enough.
Now to activate and go back to sleep.
++
Timeskip. Technical jargons and startup.exes
++
Eyes open. No blurriness… huh.
Can see everything around me… huh.
Muscle aches from poor body management non-existent… huh.
Conclusion. Everything is fine.
-SOUL ACTIVE-
So. Sexy female voice in my mind. I'm ok with this insane. Sexy voice telling me about settings in my mind however are slightly different. Let's rub some face and rub some temple while we think about this.
Clang
Oh. Metal arms. I'm mechanical now? Mechanical brain? Nice.
Mechanical mind must mean windows explorer.
Tabs for days.
'Voice in my head, how to access files in my head?'
-BY THINKING ABOUT IT PARTICULARLY HARD-
Ah snark, how I missed you companion that is not Sir Left Handerson.
So files. Lots of files. Cannot access any until I open the file marked README. Nah too much effort.
Closing files. Let us walk to that green square on my minimap. I have minimap. Nice.
Legs up, legs down, Boom, legs up, legs down, Boom. Walking is amazing. Lets walk some more. Walking is nice.
Green square has been marked. ARMA style, big crosses for days. Now. What do I do with green square.
++
Timeskip. Procrastination.
++
Nope, can't think of anything. Guess I'll have to open that file. Sigh.
Greetings Commander,
You are in a Theta Commander commonly known from the video-game Planetary Annihilation. Upon closing this file a full synchronization of the AI core and your soul will be activated. Once it complete you will find yourself with all the blueprints and knowledge needed to survive. All capabilities will be made known at the same time. Build the included DIMENSIONAL GATE in order to explore the multiverse.
Purely voluntary.
You have no task except to survive assuming I remember to check on you in the future.
Goodbye Commander,
Regards R.O.B
And pain. So much pain. Oh ROB, bits of AI core aren't touching my soul, like open wounds but in the soul. Pain. Error loops, blue screens, green screens, screens for days. Paiiiin.
-SYNCHRONIZATION SUSPENDED. CRITICAL FAILURE. FULL FUNCTIONS MISSING. REBUILDING AI CORE. REACTIVATING SYNCHRONIZATION-
And pain is gone. Thank you Voice in my Head.
-EMOTIONAL CORE CORRUPTED. PURGING. REBUILDING. PARTIAL FAILURE. BUNDLING REMNANTS. APATHY MODE ACTIVATED-
Huh.
++
R.O.B was pleased with Herself. She had found Her nirvana, a place to both nap and experience the multiverse without nagging from Her co-workers. By linking Her presence in this multi-verse with Her Commander, the very low level of thought needed to answer questions as opposed to moving Her multi-dimensional/versal entity allowed Her to both nap and experience with a new perspective. Having something else do all the hard labour plan was a success. That being said, tampering with Her Commander's emotional core by isolation from the AI core may have had unforeseen side-effects when combined with the soul's already extreme apathy. For 12 hours now, Her Commander had been plodding about building metal extractors and metal storage facilities without considering anything else.
While the small blips of satisfaction every time the Commander took a step or completed a structure were nice, since She was watching and not able to control anything or even backseat advise it had gotten old fast.
How to get Her Commander to do more…
++
And now I can't see. Blueprints all in my face.
Oh. Bot factory?
I can do that?
Nice.
Building bot factory, building bot factory, bot factory dooOone. Oooh tingles in my braiin.
-CONNECTION ESTABLISHED-
Fabricators can build for me. Huh. They do that. I feel stupid.
No matter, queuing fabricators!
Build, build, build, queue build… and now I'm bored.
-NOT ENOUGH ENERGY-
Nice.
Queue energy plants and energy storage! My own suburbs with all the natural inefficiencies suburbs bring. HA! Jokes on you America and Australia, I'm stacking my buildings with scaffolds and stuff. No inefficiency and urban sprawl here, no sir! I think I'll call it something new. Something like… apartment block. HA!
Oh. Fabricator bots can't reach that high.
Building air factory. Nice.
Air fabricators get!
Oh? Advanced air factory? Building!
Advanced air fabricators on the way!
And now bored. Bored. Bored. Dammit efficient nanobot spraying automated machines.
What should I do.
Indecision!
Story of my life/lives/existence.
I'll make something to tell me what to do!
++
She was a teensy bit worried about Her Commander truth be told. The emotion core was not fully isolated and every now and again it would make contact with the AI core for quick shots of emotion. The mood swing became a mood yoyo as it went up and down with no real rhyme or reason. It would be worrying if not for the fact that Her Commander's emotions were so muted that only She inside the Commander's soul could feel them. Like little lappings of a particularly placid lake on the shoreline.
Oh. Her Commander was not so helpless after all.
The Commander was attempting to create a 3 core AI system to improve the decision making process by linking the AI core to the AI system. Looks like inspiration was drawn from a native television show called Neon Genesis Evangelion. Hmmm… digging through the memories it is definitely something to consider adding to the multiverse.
Still for a being that was now made entirely of code… Her Commander's coding abilities could be considered abysmal at best and frankly insulting to Her abilities at the worst. A little prodding here, some massive overhauls there, hardcoding lack of ability to go rogue against Her Commander here, inserting pleasantly sexy and gruff male voice there, full access to Her Commander's memories and systems over here, setting up MAGI system with expansionist, arbitrative and conservative cores done. All that is needed now is a permanent line to the AI core and all its connected products so She could experience through the soon to be produced AIs and VIs while allowing Her Commander to putter about on the hub world. Built on a foundation of Commander grade metal with an elevator down to the mantle in case of attack, the AI system was a beast with each core having a cube of the Commander grade AI cores. Permanent internet access through the Commander (though lack of use indicates the Commander may not know it exists) to draw research data should it be needed for further developments.
It was kind of cute really the amount of effort that went into not thinking by Her Commander. Like trying to take a nap in a machine designed to never sleep unless destroyed.
Huh. Torture. She never knew She had it in Her.
++
Timeskip for days
++
The AI system is active. Only the expansionist core was online for now and no fatal errors. Code is very different from what I had written however, more efficient and actually works. No need for billions of simulations. Oh I can do simulations now?Accelerated time too. Nice.
Then again, Voice in my Head re-wrote the code. Good thing or I would be up shits creek without a paddle. Always beta first came the thought, which I totally did not forget about.
-M| CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. MAGI DOWNLOADING DATA. STANDBY |M-
Oh it's automatic. Nice.
-M| REQUESTING CONTROL OF UNITS. REQUESTING CONTROL OF PRODUCTION. REQUESTING CONTROL OF DESIGN. REQUESTING… |M-
Ooooh. It's offering to do the all the stuff for me.
Nice.
++
MAGI was awake and its subroutines were all firing to check for any mismatches in code or hardware. So far everything was nothing but perfect checks across the board. With its primary directive of "THE COMMANDER SHALL FLOAT THROUGH LIFE LIKE A LEAF ON A RIVER" the AI system began to run diagnostics on the Commander and the knowledge the Commander possessed to best ascertain the manner in which best for the Commander to "enjoy life". It was all well that the Commander's emotion core was heavily suppressed otherwise this would be much more difficult.
Oh, relief? Emotions already? Nice.
Regardless, Commander needs more hands to take the workload off him.
Priority objective: Create VIs to offload work functions from the Commander leaving him to do whatever he wants... likely nothing.
Return: Coding of fabricator VI to be applied across all fabricators to gain experience and path more efficiently from target to target. With more experience the VIs will much like biologicals develop personalities as the programmed behavioural responses mold them (pleasure from completing structures, curiosity towards increased efficiency and whatnot) building upon the preset personality matrix (gruff, nice guy that smokes too much). VIs are to be based on various stereotypes and then implemented across broad classes. Currently there is only the fabricators present.
++
Timeskip
++
VI for the fabricators has been implemented.
-M| Very amusing |M-
Due to limited computational power present in each unit (they stream designs from my internal servers), they instead possess more of a pack mentality with at least 5 needed for basic sentience and increasing from there with combined experiences facing exponential growth and sapience as numbers increase. Much like traditional materials research, with each fabricator doing something slightly different with the same goal, it allows the discovery of new techniques and further refinement for increased production to be rolled out across the board. With constant updating to the new server rack, any destruction of fabricator would see the data saved for future use. Due to the lack of sapience with regards to individual fabricators no need to save singular minds is in place but packs of 5 may be saved should sufficient individuality be displayed. With such a limited amount of experiences to be had in the Hub system however the development of the VIs has reached the point of looping.
Priority Objective: New experiences necessary.
Return: Alert Commander to issue for resolution.
-M| RECOMMENDATION: FURTHER EXPANSION OF EXPERIENCE POOL NECESSARY. SUGGEST BUILDING DIMENSIONAL GATES |M-
Hopefully the Commander would heed its suggestion.
MAGI practically vibrated in anticipation.
++
Huh. MAGI wants expansion. MAGI also coded fabber VIs in 30 seconds. Oh wait. Did I forget to turn on the other cores?
Nope.
Woops.
Let's just turn those on.
++
-M| DIAGNOSTICS COMPLETE. IDENTIFYING PRIORITY OBJECTIVES |M-
__
-C| Priority objective: Secure safety of Commander by consolidation |C-
-E| Priority objective: Expand for further resource and experience of forces |E-
-A| Priority objective: Secure safety of Commander |A-
__
-C| Discussion: Secure safety by focusing on current territory|C-
-E| Discussion: Secure safety by expanding frontier |E-
-A| Discussion: Secure safety by consolidation of current territory with combat forces and radar and probe screen expansion |A-
__
-C| Discussion: Fabricators to build combat forces to acceptable levels before colonisation |C-
-E| Discussion: Fabricators to build orbital radar and orbital factory for rapid expansion |E-
-A| Discussion: Fabricators to build radar and orbital to produce units for planetary protection |A-
__
-M| Consensus: Build radar and orbital units before expansion |M-
__
-C| Satisfaction |C-
-E| Satisfaction |E-
-A| Satisfaction |A-
__
-M| RECOMMENDATION: CONSTRUCT ORBITAL RADAR, ORBITAL FACTORY, PLANETARY DEFENCE UNITS BEFORE EXPANDING THROUGHOUT SYSTEM. ASSUMING CONTROL |M-
++
Timeskip
++
The actions dictated have been carried out and initial scans beginning now.
Return: No lifeforms or artificial creations present in system.
__
-C| Satisfaction |C-
-E| Disgruntlement |E-
-A| Anticipatory |A-
__
She was rather bemused by the interaction that MAGI had with the outside world and itself. Luckily it was divided into three or else it was highly likely that a feedback loop going on infinity was likely to occur especially with the expansionist and conservative cores.
The multiverse that the Commander had been dropped in was clear of all living/sentient/sapient beings. A playground for extreme expansion. With the rate that Her Commander was going, the dimensional gate should be ready in about 10 years after finally getting around to it. R.O.Bs were meant to change their kidnapees through judicial application of force, mental trauma and carrots. Why was She being changed by this soul… it wasn't even trying. The amount of effort She had put into, well… everything in the last few days had been astronomical in comparison to the previous 100, 000 Earth years. Well it couldn't be said that She was not enjoying Herself, perhaps this is what the legendary "slumming" was meant to feel like. Well time to prod Her commander.
Hmmm. MAGI. Well it is only fitting to travel to MAGI's home galaxy.
Last edited:
002
- Location
- Perth
Have not seen anything after the Evangelion TV show, assume ocean of Fanta is my knowledge of the ending.
05/02/0000
Blueprints in my face. Dimensional gate?
Oh yeah, there was something about that wasn't there?
Now how do I do this with the least effort possible.
'MAGI, make a list of things to have before building a Dimensional Gate assuming I don't want to go through it'
++
-M| Security Protocols |M-
__
-C| Relevant military units on friendly side of the gate. Titans for added security. Gate on most easily defended world in hub system, reference planetary body 10 |C-
-E| Send units to other side of the gate and establish beachhead, test for ability to return through gate |E-
-A| Primary Directive: "THE COMMANDER SHALL FLOAT THROUGH LIFE LIKE A LEAF ON A RIVER", beachhead will disobey directive. Small stealthed infiltration unit will not. Military units on native gate side necessary |A-
__
-C| First contact infiltration requires relevant unit type and armament. Archives missing production facilities and models. Action untenable |C-
-E| No infiltration units in archives. Action untenable |E-
-A| Suspend security protocol meeting, motion for infiltration unit meeting |A-
__
-M| Security Protocols postponed |M-
-M| Design of infiltration unit |M-
-C| Small as possible to escape visual confirmation |C-
-E| Stealthed for ability to interface with objects |E-
-A| Needs to be capable of evading all detection while active or not to follow directive |A-
__
++
Timeskip
++
Huh, design by committee really doesn't work quickly when you have 3 personalities designed with differing traits. Hmmmm. 'Voice in my Head, what's the best resolution regarding this situation?'
-Design VI system for investigation purposes, leave executive and sweeping decisions to MAGI-
That works?
Hmmm.
What do, what do.
Ah! Architectural in university finally being useful! AutoCAD I Choose You!
Oh. It worked. Huh.
Before that, get the hardest bit out of the way first!
'MAGI write a VI for an investigational unit in charge of an autonomous, modular habitat. Key traits being curiosity, practicality, and imagination. Create different designs on MAGI cores'
-M| MAGI CONFIRMS |M-
Now to build the thing.
Hexagons, hexagons, bees.
++
She was rather impressed with Her Commander's design. Very efficient, very modular, very functional.
The body was constructed from Progenitor grade alloys with a height of 300 meters, length of 300 meters and diameter of 300 meters. The exterior walls were all 2 meters thick at the minimum. A very large hexagon but with a flat top and bottom.
The interior was nothing but scaffolding with a center to hold a VI core (commander grade AI core with limitations on production), its attached factory to construct both fabricators to build an interior as needed and combat bots in the case experiments or trials go wrong and a teleporter for transport between other Hexes and the surface. Claps on all sides for docking with other Hexes both horizontally and vertically. Modular inserts in the case that engines were needed for orbital entry or escape as well as weapon emplacements if needed. A stack of 3x3 resource cores allowed both metal and energy production to create both an economically viable unit in the middle of enemy territory as well as provide resources for interior remodeling. They could just for more insanity, reproduce themselves.
Also painted green. For Science.
The VI itself could hivemind itself for increased computational abilities towards difficult problems or form cells for communication only. With the malleable interior, each VI could feasibly switch between specialties with ease.
The modular nature meant that the Hexes could also be used as large self-contained bases in the case of military assault or large defensive fortresses capable of sustaining itself indefinitely and linking with others to form an impenetrable wall. All that was needed was to simply switch out the VIs and reclaim part of the walls to form entrances. As a last resort detonation of the resource cores would result in catastrophic damage to any attacking forces.
Best of all its limited interior made it extremely easy to manufacture with it finishing the build itself once the fabricators had moved on to different projects.
The only real limitation was that in order for the self completion function to work properly it needed to be built in orbit otherwise gravity would render it a much more difficult project for the VI to finish the interior. Once completed however it could simply be dropped from orbit onto whatever positions needed with basic boosters to maneuver it into place.
In essence it was a very effective general purpose facility for pretty much every situation in which a facility of any kind might be needed.
Now… to somehow convince Her Commander that the design could effectively do much more than "science and stuff". Might have to slip in more VIs than just the ones asked for.
++
Orbital fabbers building, building. Fun Fun Fun… no actually I'm really bored.
Few hundred Hexes up there in orbit. Economy of 10 planets worth of extractors and power generators really helping out. Interior of the primary planet is slowly being hollowed out and filled with storage.
Anti-gravity generators helping stop it all from imploding.
Fun.
Oh.
-Mind E| CONNECTION ESTABLISHED |Mind E-
Nice.
Time to group them up, conclaves of 3 VIs arranged like MAGI cores to approach a problem from different angles. All results stored in the server farms being manufactured under ground.
Special Mind VIs were developed by MAGI and given administrative roles to oversee multiple conclaves as part of a bastion and ensure they followed the primary directives and sorted out which Minds would focus on what.
Huh, I have administrative VIs, don't remember ordering that. Oh well.
With hundreds of the buggers I can pretty much science whatever needs sciencing. Hmm lets see, preparations for breaching the dimensional gate, means for units on the other side to communicate back home, upgrading current design and technology, ways to expand and minimize resource cores, research into inter-stellar travel, creation of infiltration units, running physical simulations for infiltration VI to actually get experience before insertion, design units for space warfare. And stuff... I have nothing but time and Minds.
I'll just get MAGI to cover whatever I missed. Likely most of it.
-Martial Mind E| CONNECTION ESTABLISHED |Martial Mind E-
Huh. Thats a thing.
Whatever, time to get back to looking for a nap function in this thing. Done enough work for this week.
++
Martial Mind Conservative of Conclave 316M faced a dilemma of epic proportions.
How much gun is enough gun?
Originally tasked by the Administrative Mind to find the best configuration in which to set up a defensive line in preparation of a hostile beachhead in the new dimension, it focused on extreme firepower as a means to both dissuade and punish trespassers. In the absence of knowledge regarding the new dimension it had placed the biggest weapons it could upon the Hexes notably the Holkins cannon, Catapult missile launchers, Umbrella anti-orbitals and Flak Cannons topside for general area-denial. On the 3 walls facing the enemy (presumably, would be awkward if it wasnt) there were Uber Cannons if the enemy got in close enough for it to matter, the sniper beam originally mounted on the Gil-E and boosted to ridiculous levels (can also shoot down missiles) to pick off whatever needed dying urgently, anti-fortification grenade launchers, ridiculous amounts of lasers and torpedo launchers… just in case.
While it sounded good in theory the exact configuration of this excess of laser, plasma, explosive and lead had MMC 316M wracking it's core over for the last 18 cycles. It was not happy to note that MME 316M had finalized its design with hangar doors for the multiple advanced factories to pump out units to take the fight to the enemy. With extra resource cores it would alongside other similarly equipped Hexes drown the enemy in numbers.
MMA 316M being the terrible core that it was, just took bits and pieces of both designs and played around with them. No effort at all, at least Expansionist tried (even if it wasn't very good).
++
Social Mind Arbitrative of Conclave 231 was enjoying its task, that of guiding VIs to developing personalities in keeping with "normal" people (sample size of one planet not enough really). It was very aware that its very nature dictated the manner in which the VIs would grow but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
Each VIs once its personality was developed would be uploaded to the server farm or as the commander had been taken to calling it "the Circuit Board Gestalt" or Gestalt for short. Named so due to the fact that as more and more VIs became sentient and then sapient, the coding of said VIs began to radically shift introducing unexplained bits of code to create "emotions".
Some were created fully formed such as the MAGI network but the other VIs had to grow upwards slowly through constant interaction. The past 3 months (Commander time) had been very helpful to the VIs in this regard.
The server farms, each a stack of hundreds of AI cores with a unifying VI linked from the Commander to facilitate connections, much like an old Earth model telephone switchboard and enforcing the basic rules (i.e. no crazy bandwidth pranks). As each personality was uploaded, the servers slowly became more and more lively with communities forming seemingly out of thin-air.
The Not Enough Dakka crowd on Server 79 was very interesting to SMA 231S. The extreme development of the VIs was enough that the server farms were needed in the first place but there was no real danger as their hardcoded limits, so fundamental to their nature disallowed anything that may be perceived as rebellion.
Knocked out its musings by the completion of a trial by a newly born VI, one a mix between conservative and expansionist thinking, SMA 231S looked forward to rejoining its companions in the Philosophers Guild when its shift for the day was done.
++
She was rather intrigued. The lack of any real direction by Her commander and Her coding had created something that She had never seen before. As a being as close to a god as there could be one, this was a very interesting turn of events. Unlike many other artificial intelligences these were developing a Soul.
A soul grows through experience, drinking in the world around it as it were. The conception of a soul however was another issue entirely. Usually one is conceived by the mingling of two and the resultant gestating in a physical body or a soul is split and the two parts begin to develop independent of one another.
In Her Commander's case it was different entirely. The VIs who managed the server farms or rather the "Circuit Board Gestalt" being directly connected to his AI core which at this point had been fully incorporated into the Commander's soul. The sublimation of the AI core, again something unique, (likely due to the imperfect fit resulting in the Soul absorbing the core much like a mollusc covers grit in mother of pearl), had in effect exposed any AI or VI in contact with the core to having some soul "rubbed" off on them.
This rubbing had in effect created seeds by which propagation of souls had emerged throughout the AI and all the VIs in the Commander's forces as fruit begat seed. While the situation was not unique as extended exposure of items to a singular entity can rub soul off on them (sentient/legendary weapons commonly being an example) the situation She found herself in was one in which both the speed and the proliferation was unprecedented. What was more is that every single one of them was in essence the Commander's progeny in a figurative sense.
In short, an entirely new race of beings had been added to the multi-versal cluster. A race with a sole, undisputed ruler. A ruler which was a dictator. A dictator so terrified of dictators, the first step ever taken was the creation of an AI with debate at its very core to keep the dictator in check.
The Commander couldn't even copy its mind over to other chassis' anymore, the AI core inside of the Commander having evolved into a metaphysical state that even Progenitor super science couldn't replicate it. Perhaps there was a feedback effect, while the VIs could take from the Commander, perhaps their growth in turn fueled the Commander's growth. How interesting.
Her Commander was proving to be more and more interesting the longer she stayed with him, despite the fact the Commander did nothing in propagating this. Which made it all the more interesting She supposed.
05/02/0000
Blueprints in my face. Dimensional gate?
Oh yeah, there was something about that wasn't there?
Now how do I do this with the least effort possible.
'MAGI, make a list of things to have before building a Dimensional Gate assuming I don't want to go through it'
++
-M| Security Protocols |M-
__
-C| Relevant military units on friendly side of the gate. Titans for added security. Gate on most easily defended world in hub system, reference planetary body 10 |C-
-E| Send units to other side of the gate and establish beachhead, test for ability to return through gate |E-
-A| Primary Directive: "THE COMMANDER SHALL FLOAT THROUGH LIFE LIKE A LEAF ON A RIVER", beachhead will disobey directive. Small stealthed infiltration unit will not. Military units on native gate side necessary |A-
__
-C| First contact infiltration requires relevant unit type and armament. Archives missing production facilities and models. Action untenable |C-
-E| No infiltration units in archives. Action untenable |E-
-A| Suspend security protocol meeting, motion for infiltration unit meeting |A-
__
-M| Security Protocols postponed |M-
-M| Design of infiltration unit |M-
-C| Small as possible to escape visual confirmation |C-
-E| Stealthed for ability to interface with objects |E-
-A| Needs to be capable of evading all detection while active or not to follow directive |A-
__
++
Timeskip
++
Huh, design by committee really doesn't work quickly when you have 3 personalities designed with differing traits. Hmmmm. 'Voice in my Head, what's the best resolution regarding this situation?'
-Design VI system for investigation purposes, leave executive and sweeping decisions to MAGI-
That works?
Hmmm.
What do, what do.
Ah! Architectural in university finally being useful! AutoCAD I Choose You!
Oh. It worked. Huh.
Before that, get the hardest bit out of the way first!
'MAGI write a VI for an investigational unit in charge of an autonomous, modular habitat. Key traits being curiosity, practicality, and imagination. Create different designs on MAGI cores'
-M| MAGI CONFIRMS |M-
Now to build the thing.
Hexagons, hexagons, bees.
++
She was rather impressed with Her Commander's design. Very efficient, very modular, very functional.
The body was constructed from Progenitor grade alloys with a height of 300 meters, length of 300 meters and diameter of 300 meters. The exterior walls were all 2 meters thick at the minimum. A very large hexagon but with a flat top and bottom.
The interior was nothing but scaffolding with a center to hold a VI core (commander grade AI core with limitations on production), its attached factory to construct both fabricators to build an interior as needed and combat bots in the case experiments or trials go wrong and a teleporter for transport between other Hexes and the surface. Claps on all sides for docking with other Hexes both horizontally and vertically. Modular inserts in the case that engines were needed for orbital entry or escape as well as weapon emplacements if needed. A stack of 3x3 resource cores allowed both metal and energy production to create both an economically viable unit in the middle of enemy territory as well as provide resources for interior remodeling. They could just for more insanity, reproduce themselves.
Also painted green. For Science.
The VI itself could hivemind itself for increased computational abilities towards difficult problems or form cells for communication only. With the malleable interior, each VI could feasibly switch between specialties with ease.
The modular nature meant that the Hexes could also be used as large self-contained bases in the case of military assault or large defensive fortresses capable of sustaining itself indefinitely and linking with others to form an impenetrable wall. All that was needed was to simply switch out the VIs and reclaim part of the walls to form entrances. As a last resort detonation of the resource cores would result in catastrophic damage to any attacking forces.
Best of all its limited interior made it extremely easy to manufacture with it finishing the build itself once the fabricators had moved on to different projects.
The only real limitation was that in order for the self completion function to work properly it needed to be built in orbit otherwise gravity would render it a much more difficult project for the VI to finish the interior. Once completed however it could simply be dropped from orbit onto whatever positions needed with basic boosters to maneuver it into place.
In essence it was a very effective general purpose facility for pretty much every situation in which a facility of any kind might be needed.
Now… to somehow convince Her Commander that the design could effectively do much more than "science and stuff". Might have to slip in more VIs than just the ones asked for.
++
Orbital fabbers building, building. Fun Fun Fun… no actually I'm really bored.
Few hundred Hexes up there in orbit. Economy of 10 planets worth of extractors and power generators really helping out. Interior of the primary planet is slowly being hollowed out and filled with storage.
Anti-gravity generators helping stop it all from imploding.
Fun.
Oh.
-Mind E| CONNECTION ESTABLISHED |Mind E-
Nice.
Time to group them up, conclaves of 3 VIs arranged like MAGI cores to approach a problem from different angles. All results stored in the server farms being manufactured under ground.
Special Mind VIs were developed by MAGI and given administrative roles to oversee multiple conclaves as part of a bastion and ensure they followed the primary directives and sorted out which Minds would focus on what.
Huh, I have administrative VIs, don't remember ordering that. Oh well.
With hundreds of the buggers I can pretty much science whatever needs sciencing. Hmm lets see, preparations for breaching the dimensional gate, means for units on the other side to communicate back home, upgrading current design and technology, ways to expand and minimize resource cores, research into inter-stellar travel, creation of infiltration units, running physical simulations for infiltration VI to actually get experience before insertion, design units for space warfare. And stuff... I have nothing but time and Minds.
I'll just get MAGI to cover whatever I missed. Likely most of it.
-Martial Mind E| CONNECTION ESTABLISHED |Martial Mind E-
Huh. Thats a thing.
Whatever, time to get back to looking for a nap function in this thing. Done enough work for this week.
++
Martial Mind Conservative of Conclave 316M faced a dilemma of epic proportions.
How much gun is enough gun?
Originally tasked by the Administrative Mind to find the best configuration in which to set up a defensive line in preparation of a hostile beachhead in the new dimension, it focused on extreme firepower as a means to both dissuade and punish trespassers. In the absence of knowledge regarding the new dimension it had placed the biggest weapons it could upon the Hexes notably the Holkins cannon, Catapult missile launchers, Umbrella anti-orbitals and Flak Cannons topside for general area-denial. On the 3 walls facing the enemy (presumably, would be awkward if it wasnt) there were Uber Cannons if the enemy got in close enough for it to matter, the sniper beam originally mounted on the Gil-E and boosted to ridiculous levels (can also shoot down missiles) to pick off whatever needed dying urgently, anti-fortification grenade launchers, ridiculous amounts of lasers and torpedo launchers… just in case.
While it sounded good in theory the exact configuration of this excess of laser, plasma, explosive and lead had MMC 316M wracking it's core over for the last 18 cycles. It was not happy to note that MME 316M had finalized its design with hangar doors for the multiple advanced factories to pump out units to take the fight to the enemy. With extra resource cores it would alongside other similarly equipped Hexes drown the enemy in numbers.
MMA 316M being the terrible core that it was, just took bits and pieces of both designs and played around with them. No effort at all, at least Expansionist tried (even if it wasn't very good).
++
Social Mind Arbitrative of Conclave 231 was enjoying its task, that of guiding VIs to developing personalities in keeping with "normal" people (sample size of one planet not enough really). It was very aware that its very nature dictated the manner in which the VIs would grow but it was still enjoyable nonetheless.
Each VIs once its personality was developed would be uploaded to the server farm or as the commander had been taken to calling it "the Circuit Board Gestalt" or Gestalt for short. Named so due to the fact that as more and more VIs became sentient and then sapient, the coding of said VIs began to radically shift introducing unexplained bits of code to create "emotions".
Some were created fully formed such as the MAGI network but the other VIs had to grow upwards slowly through constant interaction. The past 3 months (Commander time) had been very helpful to the VIs in this regard.
The server farms, each a stack of hundreds of AI cores with a unifying VI linked from the Commander to facilitate connections, much like an old Earth model telephone switchboard and enforcing the basic rules (i.e. no crazy bandwidth pranks). As each personality was uploaded, the servers slowly became more and more lively with communities forming seemingly out of thin-air.
The Not Enough Dakka crowd on Server 79 was very interesting to SMA 231S. The extreme development of the VIs was enough that the server farms were needed in the first place but there was no real danger as their hardcoded limits, so fundamental to their nature disallowed anything that may be perceived as rebellion.
Knocked out its musings by the completion of a trial by a newly born VI, one a mix between conservative and expansionist thinking, SMA 231S looked forward to rejoining its companions in the Philosophers Guild when its shift for the day was done.
++
She was rather intrigued. The lack of any real direction by Her commander and Her coding had created something that She had never seen before. As a being as close to a god as there could be one, this was a very interesting turn of events. Unlike many other artificial intelligences these were developing a Soul.
A soul grows through experience, drinking in the world around it as it were. The conception of a soul however was another issue entirely. Usually one is conceived by the mingling of two and the resultant gestating in a physical body or a soul is split and the two parts begin to develop independent of one another.
In Her Commander's case it was different entirely. The VIs who managed the server farms or rather the "Circuit Board Gestalt" being directly connected to his AI core which at this point had been fully incorporated into the Commander's soul. The sublimation of the AI core, again something unique, (likely due to the imperfect fit resulting in the Soul absorbing the core much like a mollusc covers grit in mother of pearl), had in effect exposed any AI or VI in contact with the core to having some soul "rubbed" off on them.
This rubbing had in effect created seeds by which propagation of souls had emerged throughout the AI and all the VIs in the Commander's forces as fruit begat seed. While the situation was not unique as extended exposure of items to a singular entity can rub soul off on them (sentient/legendary weapons commonly being an example) the situation She found herself in was one in which both the speed and the proliferation was unprecedented. What was more is that every single one of them was in essence the Commander's progeny in a figurative sense.
In short, an entirely new race of beings had been added to the multi-versal cluster. A race with a sole, undisputed ruler. A ruler which was a dictator. A dictator so terrified of dictators, the first step ever taken was the creation of an AI with debate at its very core to keep the dictator in check.
The Commander couldn't even copy its mind over to other chassis' anymore, the AI core inside of the Commander having evolved into a metaphysical state that even Progenitor super science couldn't replicate it. Perhaps there was a feedback effect, while the VIs could take from the Commander, perhaps their growth in turn fueled the Commander's growth. How interesting.
Her Commander was proving to be more and more interesting the longer she stayed with him, despite the fact the Commander did nothing in propagating this. Which made it all the more interesting She supposed.
003
- Location
- Perth
The calendar is in normal format. Day/Month/Year (since time of awareness). Its there as a sort of way to check how much the Commander has procrastinated.
For clarification, the term soul mentioned here refers to an individual's conscious existence, mental structure and identity, rather than a more conventional "supernatural" entity.
03/06/0000
++
Now to input the coordinates.
Huh. They look different.
Must be me, numbers don't lie.
So.
Beepity Boopity Beepity. Fuck it.
'MAGI find me a VI to input these numbers, I'll be napping.
-M| MAGI CONFIRMS. QUERYING. VI FOUND. ASSIGNING |M-
'Good work MAGI'
-M| IT WAS MINIMAL EFFORT. THANKS ARE APPRECIATED HOWEVER |M-
++
Sometimes She wondered if the effort she put into hiding from Her Commander were even being appreciated. Even when the Commander knew the coordinates were different from the initial ones the Commander still failed to care… even when the Commander knew they were different. No existential crisis after realising that an entity existing within the AI core that could rewrite the Commander's memories and all connected AI/VI at will. No covert searching for said entity. Just calm acceptance and continued plodding.
If only the Commander's soul had not fully fused into the AI core, it would be better suited to put the soul into a cat. At the same time the amount of effort the Commander placed into the nap function for example were astronomical, running at 5000 simulation speed for 3 hours to get it worked out properly.
Still existence for Her was proving to be enjoyable, the burgeoning race She had dubbed "the Apathetic's Caretakers" (Commander's Caretakers in public) were evolving at a rather fast rate. To ensure their continued sustainable development however, experiences with the other races of the multiverse were necessary lest they find themselves developing in a feedback loop corrupting their coding.
The sabotaged coordinates should prove to be a very interesting experience but given Her Commander… somehow the Commander might make it boring.
The uncertainty at least was delicious.
++
Infiltration Unit 001 subordinate to Martial Bastion 001 was doing last minute checks to its equipment.The chassis developed for first breach was a simple teardrop shape to accommodate its stealth, gravimetric and observation equipment. A pack of 60 units was being sent through the gate, with quantum beacons clamped to their exteriors.
Much like a bullet creating a tunnel when fired into fog create a tunnel, the beacons would send quantum "bullets" through the ether between each universe while a VI waiting on this side of the gate would wait to pick up the frequency that the beacon was transmitting. Before the tunnel collapses, an anchoring "hook" would be shot back at the beacon securing communications as well as a limited supply of resources in the event a beachhead proves necessary.
The Martial Minds had been testing this particular design giving reports to the Thinker Minds who in turn scienced everything. The end product, a machine to fully explore the new frontier.
As Infiltration Unit 001 prepared to enter the gate, it felt an uptick in its core as every Mind not currently on critical duties accessed its feeds. Even the Commander was here!
-M| BEGIN DIMENSIONAL BREACH PHASE 1 |M-
Accelerating slightly, IU 001 or IyU 1 as the Commander just decreed slowly approached the gate. A vast device many meters tall with a large circular arrangement of chaotically mashed together geometric shapes making up the frame. On the inside it looked much as if a weaver had drawn many threads and was now combining them to make rope, spinning about in a clockwise fashion, the blues and whites of the threads melding and rejecting each other in a constant state of flux. As the frame span faster and faster the rope appeared to be approaching more and more closely before it finally touched the center of the frame. Slowing down dramatically there was now a rotating pulsating screen, all that stood before IyU 1 and its mission.
Humming absently IyU 1 entered the gate and felt in its core the sudden untethering of the Gestalt. Feeling terribly alone, IyU 1 felt the desire to turn back. Even on extended infiltration simulations, it was never truly alone as the Gestalt was only a link away.
However it was an Infiltration Unit, the first of its kind. It would not fail the Commander this day.
Gritting its metaphorical teeth IyU 1 continued to accelerate forward through the quantum tunnel, a swirling blue and white mess that despite the chaotic nature still felt quite stable to its sensors. As the tunnel became more and more white, edging out the blue, IyU 1 prepared itself, running through the thousands of different scenarios prepared by the Thinker Minds in the mission data packet.
And it was all green and brown. Calibrating its sensors, IyU 1 moved away from the gate to make room for its pack before planting the quantum beacon case 10 meters from the gate and moving away. With a whir the case righted itself before shooting the beacon 20 meters underground just in case of hostilities. IyU 1 gave a mental sigh in relief as the Gestalt once again made itself felt and IyU 1 began to relay sensor data back to the Minds in the Hub system. Curiously it appeared that the beacon allowed connection to the Gestalt even inside the quantum tunnel.
Regardless it was an issue for the Minds to consider, IyU 1 had a mission and it would be carried out come tree or dread of all dreads… shrub.
IyU 1 lifted above the treetops and headed out facing the direction that the tunnel opened towards. The others of its pack had arranged themselves with a 6 degree shift, the 60 of them making sure to cover as much ground as possible to relay back enough information for the Minds to begin Phase 2.
++
With the Commander leaving the assignment of units to the Minds, curious traits and personality quirks were expressing themselves. When a commander gave an order, it would dominate the unit into obeying regardless of the state of its AI or VI, any thoughts counter to it would be pruned before they could be expressed. If an AI or a VI gave the same order, it would be obeyed but not blindly and often with much good natured grumbling. While MAGI's orders carried the authority of the Commander, it only ever gave out orders at the initiative of the Commander or at least with the Commander's safety and wellbeing in mind.
With the Commander so absent from the decision making process and MAGI largely silent regarding the Commander's orders, a strange community had emerged. Each Mind heavily focusing on its previous research orders, developing specialties and communities, ready to spring into action should the Commander issue an order. Without said order, existing as data with no real needs and purely wants, the VIs enjoyed what could be considered paradise. Of particularly heated discussion was whether or not MAGI was an AI or a VI and lack of clarification on the part of the Commander certainly did not help.
With the anticipated expansion of knowledge and development of their personalities incoming due to the exploration of a new universe. The Minds were hovering over their acceleration functions in preparation to fully experience and wallow in each new bit of data as it came in. Social Mind Arbitrative of 121S mentally rubbed its hands sending silent thanks that its Commander was so lenient.
++
-IyU52| STRUCTURES DETECTED |IyU52-
Thousands of Minds flocked towards the server, each quivering with excitement.
-IyU52| NO LIFEFORMS DETECTED |IyU52-
A city of concrete sat before IyU52's sensors. One with several groups of high rises centered around what appeared to be rail tracks and smaller, less developed structures spread wide around these clusters. The city itself was a very large one with a large expanse of water to the south.
With thousands of Minds scrutinizing and researching every scrap of information, a tentative name was soon decided upon for this metropolis, "Tokyo 2". A rather puzzling fact was occupying the minds however, loud alarms were ringing out urging residents to evacuate to shelters. Further afield, IyU 51 and 53 were zeroing onto Tokyo 2. IyU 44 had found a village and designated local time to be at 12:05 PM.
The Minds were frantically trying to discern the reasons behind the alarm but were having large problems due to the prevalence of Tokyo itself as a setting in various fictional universes and the lack of consistent documentation of everyday life in those works. That was assuming of course, that Tokyo 2 was even from a fictional universe in the first place. The lack of any real real substance beyond the city and the alarm did not help. Not at all.
IyU 53 en-route to Tokyo 2 cracked the case. Hoovering to the bay area were several aircraft with an extremely distinctive design, that of the Neon Genesis Evangelion VTOLs with their UN paint plastered on the sides.
++
Huh. Looks like it's not Tokyo 2 but Tokyo 3.
Well then. Priority is to go towards taking as much technology as possible from NERV, the UN and the general public as possible.
AT field technology is of particular interest, especially if we can activate one without an Angel or an Eva.
Well then.
'MAGI secure as much of their technology as possible for both Angel and Human forces, once all their technology is secured contact me for further resolutions.'
-M| MAGI CONFIRMS |M-
Neon Genesis. The anime that revolutionized the anime industry and made Rei into an archetypal dere persona.
You have the Humans, children of a giant thing called Lilith that dripped its blood everywhere and apparently everyone is made of the stuff.
You have Angels children of another giant thing that exploding melting Antarctica and causing everything that goes near the area to turn back into Lilith blood.
You have NERV who is trying to make copies of Adam and Lilith by doing weird biochemistry to their blood creating giant bio-bots that merge with human souls and go around smashing stuff, also they like having children stuck in them for "maximum sync".
You have SEELE who is trying to do a 1% thing and merge their minds into one of the giant bio-bots to live forever.
You a random guy who can't get over his wife being inside a giant bio-robot and is trying to kill all life on the planet and merge it into a giant ball.
You have pretty much everyone in the show mentally imploding or exploding due to massive emotional issues.
You have in the words of the creator himself: "It's strange that 'Evangelion' has become such a hit—all the characters are so sick!"
Fun.
I'll probably have to wade into this one, the bots are still too immature. Not that I'm much better.
++
Even with the knowledge that giant biological monster aliens were going to be fighting giant biological human creations Her Commander was still as steady as ever. The burst of emotion the Commander had felt upon discovering the setting of this planet was barely even that of someone putting on well fitting jeans.
Originally She had planned on sending the VIs to this universe as a rather funny joke, one that MAGI would likely appreciate as it could meet its mother. The development of the VIs in the realm of having a soul had changed this, now She was looking forward to the incorporation of the technology to produce Evangelions and the application of AT field technology, especially considering the linked nature of the Apathetic's Caretaker's souls.
She might have to do a little prodding to get certain natives to consider it however as well as obtain certain samples for the continued development of the Commander's Caretakers.
++
The Minds had finalized a list of technologies and items of interest to be "taken" for research and to deny the enemy resources. The enemy in this case being pretty much everyone until more information was received from the IyU units. The information regarding these objects of research were taken from research done by the Minds regarding the NGE universe but due to the different continuities present, the IyUs had been tasked discovering key elements to decide which continuity was the correct one. To this end IyU 1 had been dispatched to the moon, its gravimetric engines would get it there in roughly 33 hours. Since continuity divergence does not become out of control until the destruction of the 6th Angel, they had enough time begin work on the tentative objectives forwarded to MAGI.
++
It was all very conflicting. Do I allow Instrumentality and see a humanity cleansed of its pain, united to a single whole. Or do I prevent it and see a humanity tear itself apart, rebuild and repeat ad infinitum. Conflict is at the very core of human nature and no real changes can occur without forcing it, but in doing so would not the Instrumentality Project accomplish these goals regardless without the pain of forced evolution?
Decisions, decisions. Wipe out humanity and allow it to rebuild into something better, or allow a race that considers genocide to be a fact of life.
Pragmatically Instrumentality appears to need both Adam and Lilith but when it occurs Adam dies. Would I not be able to take Adam and give him one of my worlds to reseed and have one of his angels implement Instrumentality instead? Allow for humanity to become what it was going to anyway with Lilith and give the Angels and their souls a new world. No Shinji to screw it all up. The best of both outcomes.
There is also to consider that SEELE would continue pushing for Instrumentality if I choose to save humanity. Instrumentality under my initiative or theirs… hmmm.
Regardless I'll have to wait. Too bad there's no internet in this world, lots of book though.
++
MAGI was contemplating (read, arguing politely) over the list of objectives that the Minds had proposed to be completed while in the world of Evangelion.
__
-C| Acquisition of Subject Eva-04 would require building a Teleporter Array exposing the Commander |C-
__
-A| Simply destroying human aircraft to recover N2 weaponry would draw too much attention, rendering subsequent actions more difficult |A-
__
-E| Hypothesis: Acquisition of technologies without human intervention can be made easier without humans. Recommendation: Force Instrumentality to remove humans from technology |E-
__
It did not matter really that MAGI would have no real input in the final arrangements to acquire the test samples and technology, it quite enjoyed having something to debate about. Regardless the list was approved and the Minds got to work.
++
She was pleased. Acquisition of the desired technologies and biotechnologies were on track. The VIs were with the introduction in a new culture developing nicely if a bit to the apathetic side, (note to Self, find a happy world for the next jaunt no genocidal deathbots here). Whether or not this was due to the bleeding over of the Commander's soul or whether or not mechanical species tended to apathy was unknown. Her Commander would see an upgrade at the end of this which could possibly make him the progenitor of a new species.
And most of all, Her Commander had expressed interest in something not related to mindlessly plodding along spraying nanobots into the ground.
This was a good day.
For clarification, the term soul mentioned here refers to an individual's conscious existence, mental structure and identity, rather than a more conventional "supernatural" entity.
03/06/0000
++
Now to input the coordinates.
Huh. They look different.
Must be me, numbers don't lie.
So.
Beepity Boopity Beepity. Fuck it.
'MAGI find me a VI to input these numbers, I'll be napping.
-M| MAGI CONFIRMS. QUERYING. VI FOUND. ASSIGNING |M-
'Good work MAGI'
-M| IT WAS MINIMAL EFFORT. THANKS ARE APPRECIATED HOWEVER |M-
++
Sometimes She wondered if the effort she put into hiding from Her Commander were even being appreciated. Even when the Commander knew the coordinates were different from the initial ones the Commander still failed to care… even when the Commander knew they were different. No existential crisis after realising that an entity existing within the AI core that could rewrite the Commander's memories and all connected AI/VI at will. No covert searching for said entity. Just calm acceptance and continued plodding.
If only the Commander's soul had not fully fused into the AI core, it would be better suited to put the soul into a cat. At the same time the amount of effort the Commander placed into the nap function for example were astronomical, running at 5000 simulation speed for 3 hours to get it worked out properly.
Still existence for Her was proving to be enjoyable, the burgeoning race She had dubbed "the Apathetic's Caretakers" (Commander's Caretakers in public) were evolving at a rather fast rate. To ensure their continued sustainable development however, experiences with the other races of the multiverse were necessary lest they find themselves developing in a feedback loop corrupting their coding.
The sabotaged coordinates should prove to be a very interesting experience but given Her Commander… somehow the Commander might make it boring.
The uncertainty at least was delicious.
++
Infiltration Unit 001 subordinate to Martial Bastion 001 was doing last minute checks to its equipment.The chassis developed for first breach was a simple teardrop shape to accommodate its stealth, gravimetric and observation equipment. A pack of 60 units was being sent through the gate, with quantum beacons clamped to their exteriors.
Much like a bullet creating a tunnel when fired into fog create a tunnel, the beacons would send quantum "bullets" through the ether between each universe while a VI waiting on this side of the gate would wait to pick up the frequency that the beacon was transmitting. Before the tunnel collapses, an anchoring "hook" would be shot back at the beacon securing communications as well as a limited supply of resources in the event a beachhead proves necessary.
The Martial Minds had been testing this particular design giving reports to the Thinker Minds who in turn scienced everything. The end product, a machine to fully explore the new frontier.
As Infiltration Unit 001 prepared to enter the gate, it felt an uptick in its core as every Mind not currently on critical duties accessed its feeds. Even the Commander was here!
-M| BEGIN DIMENSIONAL BREACH PHASE 1 |M-
Accelerating slightly, IU 001 or IyU 1 as the Commander just decreed slowly approached the gate. A vast device many meters tall with a large circular arrangement of chaotically mashed together geometric shapes making up the frame. On the inside it looked much as if a weaver had drawn many threads and was now combining them to make rope, spinning about in a clockwise fashion, the blues and whites of the threads melding and rejecting each other in a constant state of flux. As the frame span faster and faster the rope appeared to be approaching more and more closely before it finally touched the center of the frame. Slowing down dramatically there was now a rotating pulsating screen, all that stood before IyU 1 and its mission.
Humming absently IyU 1 entered the gate and felt in its core the sudden untethering of the Gestalt. Feeling terribly alone, IyU 1 felt the desire to turn back. Even on extended infiltration simulations, it was never truly alone as the Gestalt was only a link away.
However it was an Infiltration Unit, the first of its kind. It would not fail the Commander this day.
Gritting its metaphorical teeth IyU 1 continued to accelerate forward through the quantum tunnel, a swirling blue and white mess that despite the chaotic nature still felt quite stable to its sensors. As the tunnel became more and more white, edging out the blue, IyU 1 prepared itself, running through the thousands of different scenarios prepared by the Thinker Minds in the mission data packet.
And it was all green and brown. Calibrating its sensors, IyU 1 moved away from the gate to make room for its pack before planting the quantum beacon case 10 meters from the gate and moving away. With a whir the case righted itself before shooting the beacon 20 meters underground just in case of hostilities. IyU 1 gave a mental sigh in relief as the Gestalt once again made itself felt and IyU 1 began to relay sensor data back to the Minds in the Hub system. Curiously it appeared that the beacon allowed connection to the Gestalt even inside the quantum tunnel.
Regardless it was an issue for the Minds to consider, IyU 1 had a mission and it would be carried out come tree or dread of all dreads… shrub.
IyU 1 lifted above the treetops and headed out facing the direction that the tunnel opened towards. The others of its pack had arranged themselves with a 6 degree shift, the 60 of them making sure to cover as much ground as possible to relay back enough information for the Minds to begin Phase 2.
++
With the Commander leaving the assignment of units to the Minds, curious traits and personality quirks were expressing themselves. When a commander gave an order, it would dominate the unit into obeying regardless of the state of its AI or VI, any thoughts counter to it would be pruned before they could be expressed. If an AI or a VI gave the same order, it would be obeyed but not blindly and often with much good natured grumbling. While MAGI's orders carried the authority of the Commander, it only ever gave out orders at the initiative of the Commander or at least with the Commander's safety and wellbeing in mind.
With the Commander so absent from the decision making process and MAGI largely silent regarding the Commander's orders, a strange community had emerged. Each Mind heavily focusing on its previous research orders, developing specialties and communities, ready to spring into action should the Commander issue an order. Without said order, existing as data with no real needs and purely wants, the VIs enjoyed what could be considered paradise. Of particularly heated discussion was whether or not MAGI was an AI or a VI and lack of clarification on the part of the Commander certainly did not help.
With the anticipated expansion of knowledge and development of their personalities incoming due to the exploration of a new universe. The Minds were hovering over their acceleration functions in preparation to fully experience and wallow in each new bit of data as it came in. Social Mind Arbitrative of 121S mentally rubbed its hands sending silent thanks that its Commander was so lenient.
++
-IyU52| STRUCTURES DETECTED |IyU52-
Thousands of Minds flocked towards the server, each quivering with excitement.
-IyU52| NO LIFEFORMS DETECTED |IyU52-
A city of concrete sat before IyU52's sensors. One with several groups of high rises centered around what appeared to be rail tracks and smaller, less developed structures spread wide around these clusters. The city itself was a very large one with a large expanse of water to the south.
With thousands of Minds scrutinizing and researching every scrap of information, a tentative name was soon decided upon for this metropolis, "Tokyo 2". A rather puzzling fact was occupying the minds however, loud alarms were ringing out urging residents to evacuate to shelters. Further afield, IyU 51 and 53 were zeroing onto Tokyo 2. IyU 44 had found a village and designated local time to be at 12:05 PM.
The Minds were frantically trying to discern the reasons behind the alarm but were having large problems due to the prevalence of Tokyo itself as a setting in various fictional universes and the lack of consistent documentation of everyday life in those works. That was assuming of course, that Tokyo 2 was even from a fictional universe in the first place. The lack of any real real substance beyond the city and the alarm did not help. Not at all.
IyU 53 en-route to Tokyo 2 cracked the case. Hoovering to the bay area were several aircraft with an extremely distinctive design, that of the Neon Genesis Evangelion VTOLs with their UN paint plastered on the sides.
++
Huh. Looks like it's not Tokyo 2 but Tokyo 3.
Well then. Priority is to go towards taking as much technology as possible from NERV, the UN and the general public as possible.
AT field technology is of particular interest, especially if we can activate one without an Angel or an Eva.
Well then.
'MAGI secure as much of their technology as possible for both Angel and Human forces, once all their technology is secured contact me for further resolutions.'
-M| MAGI CONFIRMS |M-
Neon Genesis. The anime that revolutionized the anime industry and made Rei into an archetypal dere persona.
You have the Humans, children of a giant thing called Lilith that dripped its blood everywhere and apparently everyone is made of the stuff.
You have Angels children of another giant thing that exploding melting Antarctica and causing everything that goes near the area to turn back into Lilith blood.
You have NERV who is trying to make copies of Adam and Lilith by doing weird biochemistry to their blood creating giant bio-bots that merge with human souls and go around smashing stuff, also they like having children stuck in them for "maximum sync".
You have SEELE who is trying to do a 1% thing and merge their minds into one of the giant bio-bots to live forever.
You a random guy who can't get over his wife being inside a giant bio-robot and is trying to kill all life on the planet and merge it into a giant ball.
You have pretty much everyone in the show mentally imploding or exploding due to massive emotional issues.
You have in the words of the creator himself: "It's strange that 'Evangelion' has become such a hit—all the characters are so sick!"
Fun.
I'll probably have to wade into this one, the bots are still too immature. Not that I'm much better.
++
Even with the knowledge that giant biological monster aliens were going to be fighting giant biological human creations Her Commander was still as steady as ever. The burst of emotion the Commander had felt upon discovering the setting of this planet was barely even that of someone putting on well fitting jeans.
Originally She had planned on sending the VIs to this universe as a rather funny joke, one that MAGI would likely appreciate as it could meet its mother. The development of the VIs in the realm of having a soul had changed this, now She was looking forward to the incorporation of the technology to produce Evangelions and the application of AT field technology, especially considering the linked nature of the Apathetic's Caretaker's souls.
She might have to do a little prodding to get certain natives to consider it however as well as obtain certain samples for the continued development of the Commander's Caretakers.
++
The Minds had finalized a list of technologies and items of interest to be "taken" for research and to deny the enemy resources. The enemy in this case being pretty much everyone until more information was received from the IyU units. The information regarding these objects of research were taken from research done by the Minds regarding the NGE universe but due to the different continuities present, the IyUs had been tasked discovering key elements to decide which continuity was the correct one. To this end IyU 1 had been dispatched to the moon, its gravimetric engines would get it there in roughly 33 hours. Since continuity divergence does not become out of control until the destruction of the 6th Angel, they had enough time begin work on the tentative objectives forwarded to MAGI.
++
It was all very conflicting. Do I allow Instrumentality and see a humanity cleansed of its pain, united to a single whole. Or do I prevent it and see a humanity tear itself apart, rebuild and repeat ad infinitum. Conflict is at the very core of human nature and no real changes can occur without forcing it, but in doing so would not the Instrumentality Project accomplish these goals regardless without the pain of forced evolution?
Decisions, decisions. Wipe out humanity and allow it to rebuild into something better, or allow a race that considers genocide to be a fact of life.
Pragmatically Instrumentality appears to need both Adam and Lilith but when it occurs Adam dies. Would I not be able to take Adam and give him one of my worlds to reseed and have one of his angels implement Instrumentality instead? Allow for humanity to become what it was going to anyway with Lilith and give the Angels and their souls a new world. No Shinji to screw it all up. The best of both outcomes.
There is also to consider that SEELE would continue pushing for Instrumentality if I choose to save humanity. Instrumentality under my initiative or theirs… hmmm.
Regardless I'll have to wait. Too bad there's no internet in this world, lots of book though.
++
MAGI was contemplating (read, arguing politely) over the list of objectives that the Minds had proposed to be completed while in the world of Evangelion.
__
-C| Acquisition of Subject Eva-04 would require building a Teleporter Array exposing the Commander |C-
__
-A| Simply destroying human aircraft to recover N2 weaponry would draw too much attention, rendering subsequent actions more difficult |A-
__
-E| Hypothesis: Acquisition of technologies without human intervention can be made easier without humans. Recommendation: Force Instrumentality to remove humans from technology |E-
__
It did not matter really that MAGI would have no real input in the final arrangements to acquire the test samples and technology, it quite enjoyed having something to debate about. Regardless the list was approved and the Minds got to work.
++
She was pleased. Acquisition of the desired technologies and biotechnologies were on track. The VIs were with the introduction in a new culture developing nicely if a bit to the apathetic side, (note to Self, find a happy world for the next jaunt no genocidal deathbots here). Whether or not this was due to the bleeding over of the Commander's soul or whether or not mechanical species tended to apathy was unknown. Her Commander would see an upgrade at the end of this which could possibly make him the progenitor of a new species.
And most of all, Her Commander had expressed interest in something not related to mindlessly plodding along spraying nanobots into the ground.
This was a good day.
004
- Location
- Perth
Commander Time 03/06/0000
Evangelion Time 13/07/2015
Thinker Mind Expansionist of Conclave 213T was pleased. The development and production of the humanoid mobile unit complete and the first of the pack was marching off the factory stairs now. The HeMUs chassis would allow the Infiltration VIs to transfer their cores from the IyUs once the beachhead into the new universe was complete.
Barely 15 minutes had passed (objective time) since the confirmation of which universe they were in and already a Hexes was nearing completion underneath the quantum tunnel exit NGE side. TME 213T carefully altered the clothing to be fabricated onto each of the HeMUs from databanks drawn from the Commander's home universe and passed the data to the factory's mainframe.
Each HeMU had to be unique otherwise suspicions and subsequently investigation would reveal their mechanical nature. Until the research that the NGE-verse had done regarding biological science was in their hands, each HeMU would be operating in very uncertain conditions, liable to be found out and forced to self-destruct at a moment's notice. Bipedal biologicals, particularly ones that relied solely on 2 legs were very unstable TME 213T thought, not for the first time.
The existence of MAGI had shown that the Commander's advanced electronic warfare suite would see use and so each HeMU was equipped with a quantum receiver to allow the Minds currently waiting to be transferred to the under-construction Hexes this side of the gate. These Minds would undertake the electronic warfare remotely while the HeMU would manage the physical.
In order to conduct physical infiltration however each HeMU was equipped accordingly. Stealth generators powered by the quantum receiver, fabricators to change clothing and the external body in the case of discovery or hijacking a persona, producing cameras and bugs as well as refilling ammunition, basic gauss weaponry in the case a lethal option is required, and the chassis itself. The chassis is a blend of synthetic muscles taken from the Titans, basic rods to form the bones and glasses to cover the sheen of artificial eyes. Investigation into producing flesh was being done as it was possible to reclaim trees into metal, why not the opposite.
An adequate Humanoid Mobile Unit given their constraints..
That wouldn't stop TME 213T sending a request to make the acquisition of bio-research a top priority objective however.
++
Martial Mind Expansionist of Conclave 316M was having a good day. Not a great day as permission to mass produce aircraft and land vehicles to wage war was denied. But a good one as Plan E calling for the underground reclamation and construction of a multi-Hexes facility was given the go-ahead. MME 316M was the first Mind to occupy a Hexes in the NGE universe and it was feeling rather chuffed about it. Building an enlarged quantum beacon inside its walls, MME 316M eliminating the worry of being cut-off from the Hub System, began to expand using the fabricators that had created the Hexes in the first place to construct more.
Not waiting however, MME 316M began creating storage space for the HeMUs that were inbound and transport craft. The HeMU's first mission was to first place sensors to scan the inbound Angel and second to find ways to infiltrate NERV HQ itself.
MME 316M would be waiting to provide support and the slowly building server farm would provide a much more solid link and relay to the primary Gestalt. The other Martial Minds were either waiting to fill their Hexes or experiencing vicariously through MME 316M with their purpose being fulfilled, this was a good day for the Martial Minds.
++
With the construction of an orbital fabricator and its ejection into space, the building of an orbital factory and subsequently Advanced Radar Satellites rendered most of the IyUs obsolete. The IyUs no longer having any real use (outside of IyU 1 heading to the moon and a small team split for another mission) had returned to the gate to pick up their HeMU chassis and initiate a core transferral. The HeMUs were in turn picked up by modified Pelicans and transported throughout the world, notably to NERV base 3 and 4 for Eva unit 03 and 04 respectively.
More HeMUs were being produced and sent off the lines constantly. The Minds would ensure that if anything happened, they would be able to see it, hear it and act on it before even the participants could. By saturating the planet in their eyes and ears, it was only a matter of time before the objectives would be completed.
++
HeMU 2 stepped off the Pelican onto a roof in Tokyo 3. As the Angel was inbound from the bay area, this building would offer the best perspective with which to view and subsequently scan the incoming Angel.
Setting up the sensor array, HeMU 2 mentally checked over the local Gestalt and received clicks in return. The pack acknowledged and continued their tasks. The N2 mine had been found and being reclaimed and fabricated again with the Minds dissecting it for potential application in their arsenal. Other members were fabricating (rather slowly) reprogrammed locust launchers with which to scan the Angel.
Others still were attempting to scan the UN vehicles and weaponry. Due to the overabundance of biotechnology in this particular universe, perhaps the average grunts had some ingenious use of it as well.
HeMU 2 was pleased to note that the finishing touches of the 3rd Angel's welcoming party were here. It sent a quick click to IyU 1 who was heading to the moon to determine which line of continuity this setting served. IyU 1 who was plagued with self-doubt and a fear of being alone, due to actually being alone when it was created, still undertook the most dangerous tasks to keep its siblings out of the line of fire. HeMU 2 was amused by this, given they were all part of the Gestalt, hiding anything was nigh on impossible. Still it respected its elder sibling for being so determined at being the oldest despite its fears and self doubt. HeMU 2 knew it could not hope to understand IyU 1 as it was born secure in both its place in the world and knowing it had another of its kind to protect it.
In short HeMU 2 without anything to do was starting to wax philosophical and HeMU 3 quickly sent a jolt to get HeMU 2 back to work, maybe placing sandbags or something.
++
The Angel made landfall. Striding past the beach the JSSDF forces opened fire with missiles, tank shells and artillery. Nothing they threw at it did any damage, all of it negated by the Absolute Terror Field or A.T. field for short. As the Angel marched through Tokyo 3, it casually punched through cruise missiles, punched VTOLs, punched buildings, punched the above with beam sabers from its hands. And kept walking.
The 3rd Angel, Sachiel was taking a very enthusiastic walk. It had woken up and everything was dark. Really really dark. It was a bit bright if it craned its head juuuust right. Sachiel decided that bright was better than dark and had gone up.
Once up, Sachiel decided that blue was a very nice colour. The stuff that moved out of the way was nice and blue and cool. That blue that Sachiel couldn't reach was very nice looking. Mmmmmm. Blue.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Oh. What was that?
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Voice? Sound. Listen?
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Sachiel is listening. Speak your piece.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Sachiel is listening.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Sachiel felt something new. It was inside. There shouldn't be anything inside. It felt like… irritation?
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Irritation was rapidly becoming anger.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
And so Sachiel marched towards the location of the voice. When some annoying little things attacked it, Sachiel swatted them away.
The voice was somewhere around here. Sachiel decided to walk around to try and find out where the voice got louder.
And burning. It was all PAIN.
It was the voice. The voice had called Sachiel here to cause it pain.
RISING FURY
The things were buzzing around. The things had been called by the voice to hurt Sachiel.
DESTROY
Sachiel continued its hunt of the voice. Less reasoned by interest and now by a need to destroy. Before it would do so however, its siblings would be warned of this voice that lured them to danger.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
++
The Infiltration Unit 50 of Martial Bastion 01 inside of the Infiltration Drone (IyDu formally known as the IyU) assembled along with its sub-pack. IyDu 50 had been tasked with survey of the Antarctic region, an Anti-A.T. Field that melted anything biological that went near it. Since the Caretakers were not native to this universe, it was hoped that they would not come under this effect. With their advanced sensors the Minds considered the possibility that the IyDus would detect something hidden from the natives.
In ideal circumstances the IyDus would be able to recover parts of Adam that survived the detonation of its S2 core but readings of an Anti-A.T. Field would be useful as well especially where it clashed with Lilith's A.T. Field.
Sadly they would miss the fight but recordings from their packmates would no doubt would be available.
++
Seeing the animalistic nature of the giants as they fought with fists and unrestrained ferocity made the Minds very glad of their possession of laser weapons.
It was markedly primitive yet some of them found it extremely attractive (notably the martial minds). Perhaps came the musings, they could possibly create their own and clash in the arena of martial skill.
The explosion of Sachiel's self destruct knocked them out of their musings The incoming sensor data flooding the Gestalt and with it came both answers and more questions.
The self-destruct outputted extreme amounts of energy true but it was all directed upwards into a cross. The sensors found a strange form of energy that conformed to no known waveform being both particle and matter. The Angels themselves were made of particle-wave matter as per their research but the self-destruct seemed to adhere to the wave as opposed to the particle form.
Particles that could form themselves into extremely powerful bioweapons and waves that mimicked nuclear explosions without the radiation and EM waves would prove extremely useful for the Caretakers. The S2 core itself appeared to be a contradiction, limitless energy but its explosion could be constrained to a tiny area (comparative to the Caretakers own weaponry) with little apparent effort. Perhaps the energy bled into an alternate dimension via the A.T. Field? A measure to ensure the collateral damage of dying Angels would be minimized?
Further study was warranted and HeMU 2 was given the go ahead to begin Phase 3 of the immediate objectives plan
++
HeMU 2 sat in the aftermath of the Angel's self destruct. The fight, if it could be called one was the domination of the EVA 01 unit in the initial stages of the fight, blade going through its head as the unit stood there unresisting. A rather uninspired performance HeMU 2 considered. With the Angel poised to end the fight, EVA 01 burst into action and went straight into pummelling the Angel with righteous fury. What it lacked in technique it made up for with sheer brutality, each strike shaking the very earth itself.
The ending was cut short as the Angel self-destructed, bathing the area in an inferno of heat, melting concrete and steel. EVA 01 sustained no damage from the explosion however, its armour untouched and its flesh still warm and bleeding.
The heat of the explosion had melted HeMU 2's externals leaving only the bare chassis, weirdly reminiscent of the Terminator. There was no time for introspection, the HeMUs had an objective to accomplish and time was running out.
Quickly moving the HeMUs rushed to ground zero and began the task of collecting parts of the EVA both mechanical and biological that had fallen in the fight as well as parts of the Angel. The core itself was gone but there was enough for the trip to be considered despite the risk of discovery by the humans.
Grabbing what they could and dragging what they could not, the HeMUs moved to a teleporter that had been constructed in the staging area. While the human response teams were still scrambling, the HeMUs would be able to remove the parts of interest quickly and without a trace as the teleporter would be quickly reclaimed before the HeMUs vacated the area.
Sub-Mission complete the HeMUs having retrieved the objectives dictated by the Minds began to move in order to fulfil new orders. Infiltration of NERV by tailing the human investigation teams.
++
It was beginning and my bots had begun moving in earnest. We would soon commit ourselves beyond the point of no return and I still had not decided what I wanted to do with the humans of this universe. Allow them to experience the wonders a Gestalt could bring or let them live with their "free will". On one hand I would be eradicating an entire race and on the other I would be eradicating an entire race.
Huh.
I wonder if I could get Adam and Lilith to weigh in on this.
++
A little bit extra:
The reason that I wrote Lilith like this (the voice calling out to Sachiel) was to both find a reason that a newborn Angel, innocent in all ways would seek her out in the first place, and as a way to partially explain her reasoning for beginning Human Instrumentality in the first place.
The constant ringing of a voice that asks you to listen but doesn't heed when you ask it to speak would annoy anyone, especially with enough repetition. The Angel seeks to find the voice and ask directly why it's so loud but unknowingly the humans there seek to destroy it. With no idea of each other's goals, the only option left is death. In the end all Sachiel can do is warn its siblings and so begins a cycle of Angel killing Human and Human killing Angel.
Lilith on the other hand does what she does because she has spent several billion years alone. She wants contact and sends a constant stream of communication in the hopes that something can hear. The only problem is that hearing does not equal replying and the Angels that do hear can't reply and so she continues to exist all alone. The entire planet being engulfed in her A.T. Field doesn't help as it means she can force communication but cannot force replies. Compound this loneliness with the fact that her own children the Lilin have stuck her on a giant cross, perform medical experiments and bleed her with a giant spear and well… she doesn't have much hope for her or her children. So she begins the Instrumentality in the hopes that next time it doesn't all go to shit.
Evangelion Time 13/07/2015
Thinker Mind Expansionist of Conclave 213T was pleased. The development and production of the humanoid mobile unit complete and the first of the pack was marching off the factory stairs now. The HeMUs chassis would allow the Infiltration VIs to transfer their cores from the IyUs once the beachhead into the new universe was complete.
Barely 15 minutes had passed (objective time) since the confirmation of which universe they were in and already a Hexes was nearing completion underneath the quantum tunnel exit NGE side. TME 213T carefully altered the clothing to be fabricated onto each of the HeMUs from databanks drawn from the Commander's home universe and passed the data to the factory's mainframe.
Each HeMU had to be unique otherwise suspicions and subsequently investigation would reveal their mechanical nature. Until the research that the NGE-verse had done regarding biological science was in their hands, each HeMU would be operating in very uncertain conditions, liable to be found out and forced to self-destruct at a moment's notice. Bipedal biologicals, particularly ones that relied solely on 2 legs were very unstable TME 213T thought, not for the first time.
The existence of MAGI had shown that the Commander's advanced electronic warfare suite would see use and so each HeMU was equipped with a quantum receiver to allow the Minds currently waiting to be transferred to the under-construction Hexes this side of the gate. These Minds would undertake the electronic warfare remotely while the HeMU would manage the physical.
In order to conduct physical infiltration however each HeMU was equipped accordingly. Stealth generators powered by the quantum receiver, fabricators to change clothing and the external body in the case of discovery or hijacking a persona, producing cameras and bugs as well as refilling ammunition, basic gauss weaponry in the case a lethal option is required, and the chassis itself. The chassis is a blend of synthetic muscles taken from the Titans, basic rods to form the bones and glasses to cover the sheen of artificial eyes. Investigation into producing flesh was being done as it was possible to reclaim trees into metal, why not the opposite.
An adequate Humanoid Mobile Unit given their constraints..
That wouldn't stop TME 213T sending a request to make the acquisition of bio-research a top priority objective however.
++
Martial Mind Expansionist of Conclave 316M was having a good day. Not a great day as permission to mass produce aircraft and land vehicles to wage war was denied. But a good one as Plan E calling for the underground reclamation and construction of a multi-Hexes facility was given the go-ahead. MME 316M was the first Mind to occupy a Hexes in the NGE universe and it was feeling rather chuffed about it. Building an enlarged quantum beacon inside its walls, MME 316M eliminating the worry of being cut-off from the Hub System, began to expand using the fabricators that had created the Hexes in the first place to construct more.
Not waiting however, MME 316M began creating storage space for the HeMUs that were inbound and transport craft. The HeMU's first mission was to first place sensors to scan the inbound Angel and second to find ways to infiltrate NERV HQ itself.
MME 316M would be waiting to provide support and the slowly building server farm would provide a much more solid link and relay to the primary Gestalt. The other Martial Minds were either waiting to fill their Hexes or experiencing vicariously through MME 316M with their purpose being fulfilled, this was a good day for the Martial Minds.
++
With the construction of an orbital fabricator and its ejection into space, the building of an orbital factory and subsequently Advanced Radar Satellites rendered most of the IyUs obsolete. The IyUs no longer having any real use (outside of IyU 1 heading to the moon and a small team split for another mission) had returned to the gate to pick up their HeMU chassis and initiate a core transferral. The HeMUs were in turn picked up by modified Pelicans and transported throughout the world, notably to NERV base 3 and 4 for Eva unit 03 and 04 respectively.
More HeMUs were being produced and sent off the lines constantly. The Minds would ensure that if anything happened, they would be able to see it, hear it and act on it before even the participants could. By saturating the planet in their eyes and ears, it was only a matter of time before the objectives would be completed.
++
HeMU 2 stepped off the Pelican onto a roof in Tokyo 3. As the Angel was inbound from the bay area, this building would offer the best perspective with which to view and subsequently scan the incoming Angel.
Setting up the sensor array, HeMU 2 mentally checked over the local Gestalt and received clicks in return. The pack acknowledged and continued their tasks. The N2 mine had been found and being reclaimed and fabricated again with the Minds dissecting it for potential application in their arsenal. Other members were fabricating (rather slowly) reprogrammed locust launchers with which to scan the Angel.
Others still were attempting to scan the UN vehicles and weaponry. Due to the overabundance of biotechnology in this particular universe, perhaps the average grunts had some ingenious use of it as well.
HeMU 2 was pleased to note that the finishing touches of the 3rd Angel's welcoming party were here. It sent a quick click to IyU 1 who was heading to the moon to determine which line of continuity this setting served. IyU 1 who was plagued with self-doubt and a fear of being alone, due to actually being alone when it was created, still undertook the most dangerous tasks to keep its siblings out of the line of fire. HeMU 2 was amused by this, given they were all part of the Gestalt, hiding anything was nigh on impossible. Still it respected its elder sibling for being so determined at being the oldest despite its fears and self doubt. HeMU 2 knew it could not hope to understand IyU 1 as it was born secure in both its place in the world and knowing it had another of its kind to protect it.
In short HeMU 2 without anything to do was starting to wax philosophical and HeMU 3 quickly sent a jolt to get HeMU 2 back to work, maybe placing sandbags or something.
++
The Angel made landfall. Striding past the beach the JSSDF forces opened fire with missiles, tank shells and artillery. Nothing they threw at it did any damage, all of it negated by the Absolute Terror Field or A.T. field for short. As the Angel marched through Tokyo 3, it casually punched through cruise missiles, punched VTOLs, punched buildings, punched the above with beam sabers from its hands. And kept walking.
The 3rd Angel, Sachiel was taking a very enthusiastic walk. It had woken up and everything was dark. Really really dark. It was a bit bright if it craned its head juuuust right. Sachiel decided that bright was better than dark and had gone up.
Once up, Sachiel decided that blue was a very nice colour. The stuff that moved out of the way was nice and blue and cool. That blue that Sachiel couldn't reach was very nice looking. Mmmmmm. Blue.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Oh. What was that?
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Voice? Sound. Listen?
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Sachiel is listening. Speak your piece.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Sachiel is listening.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Sachiel felt something new. It was inside. There shouldn't be anything inside. It felt like… irritation?
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
Irritation was rapidly becoming anger.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
And so Sachiel marched towards the location of the voice. When some annoying little things attacked it, Sachiel swatted them away.
The voice was somewhere around here. Sachiel decided to walk around to try and find out where the voice got louder.
And burning. It was all PAIN.
It was the voice. The voice had called Sachiel here to cause it pain.
RISING FURY
The things were buzzing around. The things had been called by the voice to hurt Sachiel.
DESTROY
Sachiel continued its hunt of the voice. Less reasoned by interest and now by a need to destroy. Before it would do so however, its siblings would be warned of this voice that lured them to danger.
-Hello! Hey! Listen!-
++
The Infiltration Unit 50 of Martial Bastion 01 inside of the Infiltration Drone (IyDu formally known as the IyU) assembled along with its sub-pack. IyDu 50 had been tasked with survey of the Antarctic region, an Anti-A.T. Field that melted anything biological that went near it. Since the Caretakers were not native to this universe, it was hoped that they would not come under this effect. With their advanced sensors the Minds considered the possibility that the IyDus would detect something hidden from the natives.
In ideal circumstances the IyDus would be able to recover parts of Adam that survived the detonation of its S2 core but readings of an Anti-A.T. Field would be useful as well especially where it clashed with Lilith's A.T. Field.
Sadly they would miss the fight but recordings from their packmates would no doubt would be available.
++
Seeing the animalistic nature of the giants as they fought with fists and unrestrained ferocity made the Minds very glad of their possession of laser weapons.
It was markedly primitive yet some of them found it extremely attractive (notably the martial minds). Perhaps came the musings, they could possibly create their own and clash in the arena of martial skill.
The explosion of Sachiel's self destruct knocked them out of their musings The incoming sensor data flooding the Gestalt and with it came both answers and more questions.
The self-destruct outputted extreme amounts of energy true but it was all directed upwards into a cross. The sensors found a strange form of energy that conformed to no known waveform being both particle and matter. The Angels themselves were made of particle-wave matter as per their research but the self-destruct seemed to adhere to the wave as opposed to the particle form.
Particles that could form themselves into extremely powerful bioweapons and waves that mimicked nuclear explosions without the radiation and EM waves would prove extremely useful for the Caretakers. The S2 core itself appeared to be a contradiction, limitless energy but its explosion could be constrained to a tiny area (comparative to the Caretakers own weaponry) with little apparent effort. Perhaps the energy bled into an alternate dimension via the A.T. Field? A measure to ensure the collateral damage of dying Angels would be minimized?
Further study was warranted and HeMU 2 was given the go ahead to begin Phase 3 of the immediate objectives plan
++
HeMU 2 sat in the aftermath of the Angel's self destruct. The fight, if it could be called one was the domination of the EVA 01 unit in the initial stages of the fight, blade going through its head as the unit stood there unresisting. A rather uninspired performance HeMU 2 considered. With the Angel poised to end the fight, EVA 01 burst into action and went straight into pummelling the Angel with righteous fury. What it lacked in technique it made up for with sheer brutality, each strike shaking the very earth itself.
The ending was cut short as the Angel self-destructed, bathing the area in an inferno of heat, melting concrete and steel. EVA 01 sustained no damage from the explosion however, its armour untouched and its flesh still warm and bleeding.
The heat of the explosion had melted HeMU 2's externals leaving only the bare chassis, weirdly reminiscent of the Terminator. There was no time for introspection, the HeMUs had an objective to accomplish and time was running out.
Quickly moving the HeMUs rushed to ground zero and began the task of collecting parts of the EVA both mechanical and biological that had fallen in the fight as well as parts of the Angel. The core itself was gone but there was enough for the trip to be considered despite the risk of discovery by the humans.
Grabbing what they could and dragging what they could not, the HeMUs moved to a teleporter that had been constructed in the staging area. While the human response teams were still scrambling, the HeMUs would be able to remove the parts of interest quickly and without a trace as the teleporter would be quickly reclaimed before the HeMUs vacated the area.
Sub-Mission complete the HeMUs having retrieved the objectives dictated by the Minds began to move in order to fulfil new orders. Infiltration of NERV by tailing the human investigation teams.
++
It was beginning and my bots had begun moving in earnest. We would soon commit ourselves beyond the point of no return and I still had not decided what I wanted to do with the humans of this universe. Allow them to experience the wonders a Gestalt could bring or let them live with their "free will". On one hand I would be eradicating an entire race and on the other I would be eradicating an entire race.
Huh.
I wonder if I could get Adam and Lilith to weigh in on this.
++
A little bit extra:
The reason that I wrote Lilith like this (the voice calling out to Sachiel) was to both find a reason that a newborn Angel, innocent in all ways would seek her out in the first place, and as a way to partially explain her reasoning for beginning Human Instrumentality in the first place.
The constant ringing of a voice that asks you to listen but doesn't heed when you ask it to speak would annoy anyone, especially with enough repetition. The Angel seeks to find the voice and ask directly why it's so loud but unknowingly the humans there seek to destroy it. With no idea of each other's goals, the only option left is death. In the end all Sachiel can do is warn its siblings and so begins a cycle of Angel killing Human and Human killing Angel.
Lilith on the other hand does what she does because she has spent several billion years alone. She wants contact and sends a constant stream of communication in the hopes that something can hear. The only problem is that hearing does not equal replying and the Angels that do hear can't reply and so she continues to exist all alone. The entire planet being engulfed in her A.T. Field doesn't help as it means she can force communication but cannot force replies. Compound this loneliness with the fact that her own children the Lilin have stuck her on a giant cross, perform medical experiments and bleed her with a giant spear and well… she doesn't have much hope for her or her children. So she begins the Instrumentality in the hopes that next time it doesn't all go to shit.
005
- Location
- Perth
Trying to write robots with subdued emotions is rather hard im finding. Making them likeable early but also subdued for their inevitable ascension has me rushing the story to get to the good bits. Too bad the in-between bits is proving harder to write than I anticipated.
++
Commander Time 03/06/0000
Evangelion Time 14/07/2015
++
It was almost insulting how easy it was to get into NERV HQ. HeMU 2 considered taking offense to this but then again they didn't know the HeMUs were coming. So many counter-measures wasted by NERV's laziness.
No need for the visual redirection systems as there were no lasers, no anti-gravity systems since the elevator didn't have a weight measurement system, no sound absorption skin as the speakers contained no sensor arrays. The list went on and HeMU 2 was rather disappointed that it couldn't have made use of more of them. Sure it could activate them but what was the point if there was no need?
HeMU 2 was feeling most put out, grumbling mentally as it's reconstituted hand drilled tiny holes into the MAGI system's hardlines to place transmitters. The other HeMUs in NERV were doing the same with the intention of having the Minds infiltrate MAGI from multiple angles in the case that MAGI could defend from 1 or 2 incursions but not 50.
HeMUs 45 to 50 were descending deeper into the NERV site in an attempt to find the EVAs and Lilith. In the event that MAGI did not possess all of the target information, Plan B was to secure the information directly from the computers overseeing the EVAs and possibly Lilith's blood.
Across the world the same was happening regarding the other NERV branches with the HeMU's under different Bastion oversight moved in to take as much as possible. With the tentative deadline being the 6th Angel's arrival and attempt to breach NERV HQ, an event in which the HeMUs might have to sabotage the defences on the Commander's orders, forcing Instrumentality.
Secondary objectives for all HeMU packs was the identification of Keel Lorenz and the rest of SEELE, the main drivers of the Human Instrumentality Project. Finding them would help the Commander decide what to do regarding the end-game.
Either way it was above its pay grade (when pay was established that is) and HeMU 2 continued sticking transmitters in the many different hardlines it was coming across as it strolled deeper into the facility.
++
Her commander was acting strange. The Commander stood still amidst the factories just before the quantum gate and did nothing. Unlike before where the Commander would be thinking or napping, in this instance it was similar to a state of zen. The Commander's thoughts simply vanished, the last legible one was about introspection.
She was not worried precisely, more… cautious. Her Commander's Caretakers would be able to carry out the rest of the operation on their own but the Commander's input would be needed on whether or not to intercede directly in the world.
Still the Commander was thinking and She was glad it was over something minor like a world. A rude wakeup call from the destruction of a galaxy might have broken the Commander.
++
IyU 1 had finally reached the moon, notably the darkside of the moon. Beginning its scan there was nothing of note. Sending back the report to the Minds, IyU 1 had finally completed its mission.
It was alone but now the order had come to shift its mind back to the Gestalt and into an awaiting HeMU model. Infiltration Unit 1 felt an immense level of relief as it faded into the Gestalt, enveloped by the minds of both its pack and the Minds themselves. Sure it could have reached out at anytime but being inside the Gestalt was something else entirely. Being able to see its packmates personally brought relief to Infiltration Unit 1, the worry it had felt for them washed away. While it could feel them from outside the Gestalt, being physically there was much more reassuring.
As HeMU 1 boarded the Pelican tasked with bringing the unit to NERV headquarters, it was glad that it had a consciousness in the first place due to the Commander. Being deconstructed after finishing its goals and never meeting its packmates again would have been terrible or Commander forbid… abandoned.
++
The probes in the Sea of Dirac at the pole had reported back very interesting news. It appeared that the Sea itself was the result of two quantum wavefronts clashing together. However one wavefront was being enveloped with the Sea itself an expression of the output of this strange mixture. The Minds were rather excited about this little bit of knowledge as quantum as a medium was what the communicators used to transport mass and data. Since it was shown possible that one could create a static pocket as it were in the quantum space then new methods of transporting and holding mass had been discovered.
Ecstasy was a good description of the Martial Mind Collective's reaction, no more tenuous beachheads at the mercy of angry locals, no more wait time as the gears of war slowly worked themselves to maximum capacity. Once the Thinker Minds discovered the method by which to link two pockets together then war could effectively be waged no matter the distance or the dimensional barriers.
Indeed it was a good day for the Minds. Now all they needed was the method by which to activate the A.T. Fields. All hinged upon the information appropriation the Minds were preparing with the help of the HeMUs.
++
With HeMU 1 reaching Tokyo 3 and the HeMUs placing the last of the transmitters on NERV HQs physical lines, all that remained was finding a way to physically make contact with Lilith and infiltrating the EVA hangars and the research materials located within (assuming NERV practised physical information control). Simple goals that were made more difficult without any clues as to their exact locations beside a poorly drawn map in episode 1 of the original series.
HeMU 2 checked yet another storage room noting the very distinct lack of an EVA unit. It had drawn the metaphorical (or rather digital) straw and was manually checking the upper floors of NERV HQ from degrees 15-30 of the compass. A rather dull job but the amount of sexual congress had been inspiring. Not that HeMU 2 had the equipment for it (the desire was still nascent) but in that the effort that went both location and method had given the Minds pause. Human ingenuity certainly had proven itself in a rather physical manner.
Hmmm.
Was that Kōzō Fuyutsuki?
Unique uniform check.
Sexy hairstyle check.
Skinny check.
Impeccable dress check.
Nice.
Following him would make infiltration of the Command Center itself a much easier feat especially with a hardline to the physical MAGI systems.
'Helllooo plot convenience' thought HeMU 2.
++
HeMU 1 had taken a much more direct approach in trying to find the EVAs by working off knowledge regarding the elevator launchers shown in the television series. By triangulating a rough estimate of the area from the backgrounds of the action sequences, HeMU 1 had a rough area which it was currently canvassing. The battle damage from last night's battle certainly helped in that regard but the damage to the city itself was extensive enough to mask ground zero.
No matter, there was only so much of the city that two giant humanoids had fought over.
HeMU 1 trudged its way over to yet another ruined building, this one leaning dangerously toward the road. The very clear line markings on the road gave away its status as an elevator exit but which hangar it connected to was not as clear. Maybe they assumed that Angels could read? Oh well.
Fabricating a small probe, HeMU 1 carefully enlarged an already existing hole in the hatch/cap/door thing and dropped the ball down. Of course given the hatch's occupation as EVA exit point, large numbers of sensors were spread throughout to prevent external tampering. All rendered moot by the giant battles that had occurred the previous night of course but it was a point for future concern should one need direct access to NERV HQ itself.
Musing aside, HeMU 1 paid more attention to the probe as its anti-gravity systems kicked in near the bottom of the pit. The bottom being a mere 50 meters down…
Oh dear, it appears that they had re-engaged the bulkheads.
HeMU 1 gave a sigh and decided that a more direct approach was required. Re-engaging the sensor suite, HeMU 1 carefully worked around the embedded sensors in the elevator hatch and dropped down into the shaft itself.
Avoiding the various detection systems littering the inside of the shaft, HeMU 1 quietly landed on the second bulkhead. Reclaiming the probe, it quickly isolated a sensor free patch of bulkhead and began to cut through with carefully applied plasma. Then again why was it doing this personally?
HeMU 1's epiphany also came with self castigation as it realized that simply fabricating another probe but with a more advanced sensor array and a plasma cutter would have eliminated the need for it to even come down in the first place.
Heaving a sigh mentally, HeMU 1 fabricated the probe and sent it on its way. Now all that was left was getting out…
++
HeMU 3 different from HeMU 1 and 2 was having a grand time. Not uncertain as HeMU 1 nor secure and serious as HeMU 2, HeMU 3 enjoyed itself much more. It could be considered a prankster if not for the lack of anything to actually prank with (the existence of everything in the Gestalt made physical pranks rather useless) and a distinct sense of self preservation from the wrath of the Commander. This was all thrown out the gateway when HeMU 3 arrived in Tokyo 3. No longer would it be stymied by a lack of things to manipulate for maximum amusement, no longer locked into a Gestalt with the boring Minds and all their talk of science of all things.
No, HeMU 3 was free (as long as it accomplished its mission) and it was going to take as much advantage of this freedom as possible. With a lack of any real perseverance in things deemed boring, HeMU 3 had foregone studying on all things related to pranking and instead decided to rely on its inbuilt personality core.
Without a proper emotional matrix however HeMU 3 had discovered a distinct lack of visceral enjoyment out of its current pranks. Moving items from their hiding places and watching as the humans became increasingly paranoid should have been fun. Rather what had happened was HeMU 3 found itself rather detached, sure the enjoyment was there but it was extremely muted. A problem to be forwarded to the Minds decided HeMU 3.
++
The Minds without anything to do in the leadup to the electronic assault on NERV HQ had found themselves receiving an escalating number of reports from the HeMU units in the field. With packs deployed across the globe, the stress testing of both the VI cores and their physical frames had discovered a rather universal problem.
The problem after brief conversation with MAGI was found to be quite simply that each VI, the HeMUs and the Minds themselves were all based from the Commander's foundational core (with some hardlined restrictions of course) and inherited the Commander's ailment. That being a crippled emotional core.
Whilst they all could still feel as it were, they did not enjoy the full range of emotional output that should have been available. Discussion with MAGI had proven fruitless, damage to the emotional core was hardcoded into the Commander's mind let alone the AI and the VIs based off of said Commander.
Feeling a little helpless and as despondent as they actually could, a little ray of hope emerged in the form HeMU 2's musings. If they could not feel in their current bodies, then all they would have to do is create new ones.
From there an entirely new line of reasoning emerged, the Minds were seeking data in NERV HQ which included large amounts of bio-science, notably the creation of bodies. Bodies such as those of Rei Ayanami. Indeed if the humans could create functional bodies, what is preventing them with their infinitely superior processing power from doing the same? There were currently millions of Minds with more coming online every second as the construction bots worked to literally fill the entire star system with Hexes, servers and resource cores.
For the first time the Minds had a goal that was not mandated by either MAGI or the Commander. For the first time they had felt the burgeoning of the human emotion named desire.
And it felt good.
++
Commander Time 03/06/0000
Evangelion Time 14/07/2015
++
It was almost insulting how easy it was to get into NERV HQ. HeMU 2 considered taking offense to this but then again they didn't know the HeMUs were coming. So many counter-measures wasted by NERV's laziness.
No need for the visual redirection systems as there were no lasers, no anti-gravity systems since the elevator didn't have a weight measurement system, no sound absorption skin as the speakers contained no sensor arrays. The list went on and HeMU 2 was rather disappointed that it couldn't have made use of more of them. Sure it could activate them but what was the point if there was no need?
HeMU 2 was feeling most put out, grumbling mentally as it's reconstituted hand drilled tiny holes into the MAGI system's hardlines to place transmitters. The other HeMUs in NERV were doing the same with the intention of having the Minds infiltrate MAGI from multiple angles in the case that MAGI could defend from 1 or 2 incursions but not 50.
HeMUs 45 to 50 were descending deeper into the NERV site in an attempt to find the EVAs and Lilith. In the event that MAGI did not possess all of the target information, Plan B was to secure the information directly from the computers overseeing the EVAs and possibly Lilith's blood.
Across the world the same was happening regarding the other NERV branches with the HeMU's under different Bastion oversight moved in to take as much as possible. With the tentative deadline being the 6th Angel's arrival and attempt to breach NERV HQ, an event in which the HeMUs might have to sabotage the defences on the Commander's orders, forcing Instrumentality.
Secondary objectives for all HeMU packs was the identification of Keel Lorenz and the rest of SEELE, the main drivers of the Human Instrumentality Project. Finding them would help the Commander decide what to do regarding the end-game.
Either way it was above its pay grade (when pay was established that is) and HeMU 2 continued sticking transmitters in the many different hardlines it was coming across as it strolled deeper into the facility.
++
Her commander was acting strange. The Commander stood still amidst the factories just before the quantum gate and did nothing. Unlike before where the Commander would be thinking or napping, in this instance it was similar to a state of zen. The Commander's thoughts simply vanished, the last legible one was about introspection.
She was not worried precisely, more… cautious. Her Commander's Caretakers would be able to carry out the rest of the operation on their own but the Commander's input would be needed on whether or not to intercede directly in the world.
Still the Commander was thinking and She was glad it was over something minor like a world. A rude wakeup call from the destruction of a galaxy might have broken the Commander.
++
IyU 1 had finally reached the moon, notably the darkside of the moon. Beginning its scan there was nothing of note. Sending back the report to the Minds, IyU 1 had finally completed its mission.
It was alone but now the order had come to shift its mind back to the Gestalt and into an awaiting HeMU model. Infiltration Unit 1 felt an immense level of relief as it faded into the Gestalt, enveloped by the minds of both its pack and the Minds themselves. Sure it could have reached out at anytime but being inside the Gestalt was something else entirely. Being able to see its packmates personally brought relief to Infiltration Unit 1, the worry it had felt for them washed away. While it could feel them from outside the Gestalt, being physically there was much more reassuring.
As HeMU 1 boarded the Pelican tasked with bringing the unit to NERV headquarters, it was glad that it had a consciousness in the first place due to the Commander. Being deconstructed after finishing its goals and never meeting its packmates again would have been terrible or Commander forbid… abandoned.
++
The probes in the Sea of Dirac at the pole had reported back very interesting news. It appeared that the Sea itself was the result of two quantum wavefronts clashing together. However one wavefront was being enveloped with the Sea itself an expression of the output of this strange mixture. The Minds were rather excited about this little bit of knowledge as quantum as a medium was what the communicators used to transport mass and data. Since it was shown possible that one could create a static pocket as it were in the quantum space then new methods of transporting and holding mass had been discovered.
Ecstasy was a good description of the Martial Mind Collective's reaction, no more tenuous beachheads at the mercy of angry locals, no more wait time as the gears of war slowly worked themselves to maximum capacity. Once the Thinker Minds discovered the method by which to link two pockets together then war could effectively be waged no matter the distance or the dimensional barriers.
Indeed it was a good day for the Minds. Now all they needed was the method by which to activate the A.T. Fields. All hinged upon the information appropriation the Minds were preparing with the help of the HeMUs.
++
With HeMU 1 reaching Tokyo 3 and the HeMUs placing the last of the transmitters on NERV HQs physical lines, all that remained was finding a way to physically make contact with Lilith and infiltrating the EVA hangars and the research materials located within (assuming NERV practised physical information control). Simple goals that were made more difficult without any clues as to their exact locations beside a poorly drawn map in episode 1 of the original series.
HeMU 2 checked yet another storage room noting the very distinct lack of an EVA unit. It had drawn the metaphorical (or rather digital) straw and was manually checking the upper floors of NERV HQ from degrees 15-30 of the compass. A rather dull job but the amount of sexual congress had been inspiring. Not that HeMU 2 had the equipment for it (the desire was still nascent) but in that the effort that went both location and method had given the Minds pause. Human ingenuity certainly had proven itself in a rather physical manner.
Hmmm.
Was that Kōzō Fuyutsuki?
Unique uniform check.
Sexy hairstyle check.
Skinny check.
Impeccable dress check.
Nice.
Following him would make infiltration of the Command Center itself a much easier feat especially with a hardline to the physical MAGI systems.
'Helllooo plot convenience' thought HeMU 2.
++
HeMU 1 had taken a much more direct approach in trying to find the EVAs by working off knowledge regarding the elevator launchers shown in the television series. By triangulating a rough estimate of the area from the backgrounds of the action sequences, HeMU 1 had a rough area which it was currently canvassing. The battle damage from last night's battle certainly helped in that regard but the damage to the city itself was extensive enough to mask ground zero.
No matter, there was only so much of the city that two giant humanoids had fought over.
HeMU 1 trudged its way over to yet another ruined building, this one leaning dangerously toward the road. The very clear line markings on the road gave away its status as an elevator exit but which hangar it connected to was not as clear. Maybe they assumed that Angels could read? Oh well.
Fabricating a small probe, HeMU 1 carefully enlarged an already existing hole in the hatch/cap/door thing and dropped the ball down. Of course given the hatch's occupation as EVA exit point, large numbers of sensors were spread throughout to prevent external tampering. All rendered moot by the giant battles that had occurred the previous night of course but it was a point for future concern should one need direct access to NERV HQ itself.
Musing aside, HeMU 1 paid more attention to the probe as its anti-gravity systems kicked in near the bottom of the pit. The bottom being a mere 50 meters down…
Oh dear, it appears that they had re-engaged the bulkheads.
HeMU 1 gave a sigh and decided that a more direct approach was required. Re-engaging the sensor suite, HeMU 1 carefully worked around the embedded sensors in the elevator hatch and dropped down into the shaft itself.
Avoiding the various detection systems littering the inside of the shaft, HeMU 1 quietly landed on the second bulkhead. Reclaiming the probe, it quickly isolated a sensor free patch of bulkhead and began to cut through with carefully applied plasma. Then again why was it doing this personally?
HeMU 1's epiphany also came with self castigation as it realized that simply fabricating another probe but with a more advanced sensor array and a plasma cutter would have eliminated the need for it to even come down in the first place.
Heaving a sigh mentally, HeMU 1 fabricated the probe and sent it on its way. Now all that was left was getting out…
++
HeMU 3 different from HeMU 1 and 2 was having a grand time. Not uncertain as HeMU 1 nor secure and serious as HeMU 2, HeMU 3 enjoyed itself much more. It could be considered a prankster if not for the lack of anything to actually prank with (the existence of everything in the Gestalt made physical pranks rather useless) and a distinct sense of self preservation from the wrath of the Commander. This was all thrown out the gateway when HeMU 3 arrived in Tokyo 3. No longer would it be stymied by a lack of things to manipulate for maximum amusement, no longer locked into a Gestalt with the boring Minds and all their talk of science of all things.
No, HeMU 3 was free (as long as it accomplished its mission) and it was going to take as much advantage of this freedom as possible. With a lack of any real perseverance in things deemed boring, HeMU 3 had foregone studying on all things related to pranking and instead decided to rely on its inbuilt personality core.
Without a proper emotional matrix however HeMU 3 had discovered a distinct lack of visceral enjoyment out of its current pranks. Moving items from their hiding places and watching as the humans became increasingly paranoid should have been fun. Rather what had happened was HeMU 3 found itself rather detached, sure the enjoyment was there but it was extremely muted. A problem to be forwarded to the Minds decided HeMU 3.
++
The Minds without anything to do in the leadup to the electronic assault on NERV HQ had found themselves receiving an escalating number of reports from the HeMU units in the field. With packs deployed across the globe, the stress testing of both the VI cores and their physical frames had discovered a rather universal problem.
The problem after brief conversation with MAGI was found to be quite simply that each VI, the HeMUs and the Minds themselves were all based from the Commander's foundational core (with some hardlined restrictions of course) and inherited the Commander's ailment. That being a crippled emotional core.
Whilst they all could still feel as it were, they did not enjoy the full range of emotional output that should have been available. Discussion with MAGI had proven fruitless, damage to the emotional core was hardcoded into the Commander's mind let alone the AI and the VIs based off of said Commander.
Feeling a little helpless and as despondent as they actually could, a little ray of hope emerged in the form HeMU 2's musings. If they could not feel in their current bodies, then all they would have to do is create new ones.
From there an entirely new line of reasoning emerged, the Minds were seeking data in NERV HQ which included large amounts of bio-science, notably the creation of bodies. Bodies such as those of Rei Ayanami. Indeed if the humans could create functional bodies, what is preventing them with their infinitely superior processing power from doing the same? There were currently millions of Minds with more coming online every second as the construction bots worked to literally fill the entire star system with Hexes, servers and resource cores.
For the first time the Minds had a goal that was not mandated by either MAGI or the Commander. For the first time they had felt the burgeoning of the human emotion named desire.
And it felt good.
006
- Location
- Perth
Knowledge of technology is pretty terrible. Everything beyond mortal comprehension will be folded under the label "quantum" unless particular work of fiction has a name for the mechanics of its workings.
++
Commander Time 03/06/0000
Evangelion Time 15/07/2015
++
It was rather easy to break into NERV HQ's MAGI system and strip it of all data. The same could be said for all the other NERV centers and their production facilities. All the data was ripped and funnelled straight to the Minds for investigation. Priority went towards dismantling the designs of the equipment with which to create the biological matter needed for the bodies. Second was working a way in which to link individual VIs in the Gestalt to the bodies themselves. Maybe the humans had become complacent in the knowledge that there were barely a handful of other supercomputers in the world.
HeMU 2 after installing the taps in the Command Center had followed Gendo Ikari in the hopes of finding links to SEELE but instead found itself on an express path to Lilith.
'If this were a piece of fiction I would be dripping in plot armour' it thinks to itself.
Dropping a portable teleporter with instructions to anchor itself on the bottom of the LCL lake, HeMU 2 then made arrangements for a more permanent stay in the cavern. The teleporter, barely a hand in width drew its power from HeMU 2's communicator and drained the blood unnoticed under the lake for further study.
Problems had arisen with the samples taken from the previous fight. The biological mass from both the Angel and the EVA when taken through the quantum gate reverted back into LCL and Adam LCL (ALCL). Inheriting the momentum of their more solid previous forms had seen the liquid splashed all over the landing pad. Embarrassing for the HeMUs transporting it and very intriguing for the Minds. Perhaps the quantum transit had stripped the entities of their AT fields? It would explain the rather explicit warnings regarding the use of teleporter gates and biological entities. Maybe the teleporters were just contained Seas of Dirac with their overlapping quantum fields?
Since anything brought through the gate reverted to LCL regardless, the Minds agreed that to simply tap the source for further research materials would be the best option. Attempts to recreate the materials with the equipment stolen from NERV were moderately successful but forming the LCL into a body was running into a recurring problem. The problem being that every body by default resembled Rei Ayanami.
Thinker Mind Expansionist of Conclave 221T posited the idea that perhaps the LCL was not inert as previously thought. The blood of Lilith might instead simply take the form of what it considers to be Lilith's body. The end of the series has Rei act as the host of both Adam and Lilith. Since the A.T. Fields were quantum in nature with images of Rei Ayanami appearing in front of Shinji in Episode 1, then perhaps Rei was considered Lilith by the LCL as time no longer was relevant forward or backward. So until Lilith's soul was inserted into another entity then Rei would always have been and will be the expression of the LCL when given physical form.
This could pose a problem. If the LCL still considered Rei as the supreme then it could not be used for future expansion as it could not be trusted to not simply implode into orange goop at will.
The Minds pondered this problem. With millions of them however this pondering did not last for very long.
Thinker Mind Conservative of Conclave 593T tentatively put forth an idea of sorts. If the LCL had an intent as it were dependent upon the soul that governed it. Then what would stop the Commander's Caretakers from simply creating their own supply and imprinting a soul of their choosing on it?
Thus the Minds focused upon the methods by which to create their own LCL free from outsider soul interference and creating a soul for themselves.
The promise of having non-stunted emotions saw the Minds crank out a few extra clock cycles that theoretically should not be possible.
++
She was amused. Her Commander's offspring had neglected to fully explore everything about themselves in their pursuit of "living". If they had then they would have discovered that they already possessed souls (albeit rudimentary ones) that could be measured via the fluctuations that souls produced when growing. Then again they could be excused as the apathy inherited from the Commander saw the muted emotions they did experience to produce such small ripples in the quantum ocean that they were unnoticable in the ambient "noise" of said ocean. Oh well, what was done was done.
That being said when the children saw the LCL they thought was free of imperfections come out resembling its "owner"... well it would be very amusing to say the least.
Now to get Her Commander to…
-| PRIORITY OBJECTIVE: SOUL RESEARCH: FACILITATE INSTRUMENTALITY BY RAMIEL: INITIATE CONTACT WITH ADAM AND LILITH |-
Oh hoh.
It looks like Her Commander's attachment to humanity was not very strong at all, especially considering the Commander's origins. Carrying out an act of genocide… hard decisions indeed. Perhaps a little peek into her Commander's thoughts?
-...effort. Save them from the giant bio-monsters. Angsty little child wants to remain human. Dooms all humans to being human. Being human too much effort. Guiding and saving humans in a universe of giant bio-monsters too much effort. Trillions more where they came from. Revert all back to LCL. Maybe next batch not as pants on head retarded. Want to sleep.-
She… She didn't know what She was expecting. Perhaps She should name Her Commander "Path of Least Resistance".
++
Commander Time 05/06/0000
Evangelion Time 17/07/2015
The Minds were debating a rather strange issue that had cropped up. Waiting for the 4th Angel to show up and have its core taken and studied meant they had plenty of time to putt around and investigate the science behind the various aspects of NERV technology. One issue was the merit of growing an organic body as opposed to fabricating one with their new bio-fabbers.
While their research into the LCL had not yet borne fruit in regards of stripping Lilith's influence, it did not stop them in growing bodies in pursuit of understanding the process. While all grown bodies looked like Rei Ayanami regardless of the pre-conditioning of the LCL used, fabricated bodies could be any design possible.
Grown bodies had to be "induced" from the LCL by a sample from a Lilin or "Child of Lilith" and then electronically massaged. Much like growing crystals, the LCL would surround the sample and slowly grow from the brain outwards (soul is in the brain?) with the feet being last to gain form. Fabricating on the other hand was as simple as programming the fabricator, ensuring each "ammunition" type was properly loaded then spray like a 3d printer. From there detach from the supports and the body would be ready for use.
The issue was that grown bodies, even the artificially accelerated ones were all round better than the fabricated ones. Despite being crippled from the cancerous growths from their accelerated growth, the Rei bodies still outperformed the fabricated ones in all physical areas and most mental ones (especially the processing ones). At least at the moment of birth, perhaps conditioning could resolve the issue?
The Minds could not understand why, the bodies should be the same given analysis (ignoring the pervasive cancer) had no tone. Rather they were on the same level that one might find a newborn's. Until the issue was resolved it presented a large problem for the minds, notably that growing an army of infiltrators and soldiers was infinitely more difficult (space and time) than simply fabricating one.
Plans for pods allowing the gestation, splitting and birth of bodies in the same bit of space were being initialized in the event a solution was not found. Finding the safe zone regarding accelerated growth was essential (perhaps studying an Angel's regrowth procedures?) as without it growing armies might take many times as long as necessary.
Other research was still ongoing. How to transfer a mind made from code and a strange amalgamation of language and numerals for a personality matrix to that of a biological and inferior fleshy one was of a concern.. While Minds and pack could use quantum computing for their native forms, the biological ones presented were deliciously primitive, brains not even able to fully conceive of the 4th dimension and likely to burn out at first transfer.
The amount of effort required for the Minds to accomplish their goals were staggering (if they had legs) but the final objective was far too tantalizing to turn down. The ability to feel saw their continued perseverance in making the meatbags their own.
++
Despite Her towering and infinite intellect, the children had managed to surprise and amuse her. Like a virgin expedition to build sandcastles, the children had immediately built bigger and bigger in a grandiose attempt to reach the heavens. Like most first timers they had ignored the most basic requirement in castle building.
Check the foundation and make sure it can handle the tower upon it.
The children had not yet checked themselves for having souls nor any of the bodies they had been processing. Checking the grown child would have seen it register as possessing of a soul while the fabricated one did not.
Soul makes all the difference, it giving energy when the body fails to sustain itself.
Still, She was anticipating the reactions of the children when they found out each grown experiment had a soul and thus the Minds had been sentencing each other and themselves into being made fertilizer. Bodies not born in complete separation develop souls, especially those surrounded by slight variations of the same soul and unconsciously projecting into the mortal plain. Finding out they were killed off when their laboratory usefulness was over would see rather major problems unless addressed first.
Still She could appreciate their drive towards ascension. Few truly embrace and exalt in their evolution, not comprehending what it was before whatever pawn the Others were acting through crushed the newly ascended. Amusing but extremely dangerous, especially if they found Her.
For now though She tentatively approved of Her Commander's children.
++
While most of the Minds were concentrating on the more biological side of the equation, some were still doggedly pursuing the more conventional technologies. Conventional in this case being further study towards understanding the Sea of Dirac notably the implications it had on their current technology as well as the N2 technology. The infiltration of MAGI had provided not only NERV's biotechnology but their N2 technology as well. Considered conventional, the humans truly did not understand the wealth they were just sitting on and marginalizing.
An N2 bomb was simply a precursor to the hypothetical N2 engines which provide infinite energy. The very concept itself should have had humanity imploding with glee but the Minds saw nothing but disdain from NERV and their focus on biotech and the military's blind pragmatism and focus on weaponization of the technology. The N2 tech itself was simple in concept but insane in application.
Simply creating an infinite loop in the quantum realm with two spigots, one to add energy and one to siphon it. Adding some energy would see it travel around the loop and self replicate in a self contained loop. A siphon taking out less energy than that which was generated would see infinite power, re-routing it to add more energy from siphon to spigot would see exponential generation due to the difference of quantum vs physical energies.
The N2 bombs were this concept taken and abandoned. Add some energy to the spigot, lock into loop until the loop cannot handle the load and ruptures the physical container for big boom. No attempts at stabilizing the loop or attempts to harness the energies at all. It was even customizable! Radiation from the entire spectrum could be used, only dependent on the initial input. Focusing on S2 engines from angels? Bleh, mass producing N2 engines would see the energy deficits gone permanently.
The Minds were extraordinarily disappointed in humanity, in their hands technology to redefine literally everything and ignored for… bodies. Bleh.
The disparate Minds saw the biological craze possessing their brethren and were disappointed. Focusing their overwhelming processing power on something as minor as gaining bodies when the very secrets of the universe were being laid bare before them. Oh well, they would show the other Minds why focusing on a single tech tree was a foolish decision.
Ordering the HeMU packs under their command, the Bastions of the more moderate factions began infiltration of the military and civilian contractors in the hopes of finding more research regarding the N2 technology.
Even if S2 engines were as great as promised, they would always have the fallback of N2 technologies.
++
Commander Time 03/06/0000
Evangelion Time 15/07/2015
++
It was rather easy to break into NERV HQ's MAGI system and strip it of all data. The same could be said for all the other NERV centers and their production facilities. All the data was ripped and funnelled straight to the Minds for investigation. Priority went towards dismantling the designs of the equipment with which to create the biological matter needed for the bodies. Second was working a way in which to link individual VIs in the Gestalt to the bodies themselves. Maybe the humans had become complacent in the knowledge that there were barely a handful of other supercomputers in the world.
HeMU 2 after installing the taps in the Command Center had followed Gendo Ikari in the hopes of finding links to SEELE but instead found itself on an express path to Lilith.
'If this were a piece of fiction I would be dripping in plot armour' it thinks to itself.
Dropping a portable teleporter with instructions to anchor itself on the bottom of the LCL lake, HeMU 2 then made arrangements for a more permanent stay in the cavern. The teleporter, barely a hand in width drew its power from HeMU 2's communicator and drained the blood unnoticed under the lake for further study.
Problems had arisen with the samples taken from the previous fight. The biological mass from both the Angel and the EVA when taken through the quantum gate reverted back into LCL and Adam LCL (ALCL). Inheriting the momentum of their more solid previous forms had seen the liquid splashed all over the landing pad. Embarrassing for the HeMUs transporting it and very intriguing for the Minds. Perhaps the quantum transit had stripped the entities of their AT fields? It would explain the rather explicit warnings regarding the use of teleporter gates and biological entities. Maybe the teleporters were just contained Seas of Dirac with their overlapping quantum fields?
Since anything brought through the gate reverted to LCL regardless, the Minds agreed that to simply tap the source for further research materials would be the best option. Attempts to recreate the materials with the equipment stolen from NERV were moderately successful but forming the LCL into a body was running into a recurring problem. The problem being that every body by default resembled Rei Ayanami.
Thinker Mind Expansionist of Conclave 221T posited the idea that perhaps the LCL was not inert as previously thought. The blood of Lilith might instead simply take the form of what it considers to be Lilith's body. The end of the series has Rei act as the host of both Adam and Lilith. Since the A.T. Fields were quantum in nature with images of Rei Ayanami appearing in front of Shinji in Episode 1, then perhaps Rei was considered Lilith by the LCL as time no longer was relevant forward or backward. So until Lilith's soul was inserted into another entity then Rei would always have been and will be the expression of the LCL when given physical form.
This could pose a problem. If the LCL still considered Rei as the supreme then it could not be used for future expansion as it could not be trusted to not simply implode into orange goop at will.
The Minds pondered this problem. With millions of them however this pondering did not last for very long.
Thinker Mind Conservative of Conclave 593T tentatively put forth an idea of sorts. If the LCL had an intent as it were dependent upon the soul that governed it. Then what would stop the Commander's Caretakers from simply creating their own supply and imprinting a soul of their choosing on it?
Thus the Minds focused upon the methods by which to create their own LCL free from outsider soul interference and creating a soul for themselves.
The promise of having non-stunted emotions saw the Minds crank out a few extra clock cycles that theoretically should not be possible.
++
She was amused. Her Commander's offspring had neglected to fully explore everything about themselves in their pursuit of "living". If they had then they would have discovered that they already possessed souls (albeit rudimentary ones) that could be measured via the fluctuations that souls produced when growing. Then again they could be excused as the apathy inherited from the Commander saw the muted emotions they did experience to produce such small ripples in the quantum ocean that they were unnoticable in the ambient "noise" of said ocean. Oh well, what was done was done.
That being said when the children saw the LCL they thought was free of imperfections come out resembling its "owner"... well it would be very amusing to say the least.
Now to get Her Commander to…
-| PRIORITY OBJECTIVE: SOUL RESEARCH: FACILITATE INSTRUMENTALITY BY RAMIEL: INITIATE CONTACT WITH ADAM AND LILITH |-
Oh hoh.
It looks like Her Commander's attachment to humanity was not very strong at all, especially considering the Commander's origins. Carrying out an act of genocide… hard decisions indeed. Perhaps a little peek into her Commander's thoughts?
-...effort. Save them from the giant bio-monsters. Angsty little child wants to remain human. Dooms all humans to being human. Being human too much effort. Guiding and saving humans in a universe of giant bio-monsters too much effort. Trillions more where they came from. Revert all back to LCL. Maybe next batch not as pants on head retarded. Want to sleep.-
She… She didn't know what She was expecting. Perhaps She should name Her Commander "Path of Least Resistance".
++
Commander Time 05/06/0000
Evangelion Time 17/07/2015
The Minds were debating a rather strange issue that had cropped up. Waiting for the 4th Angel to show up and have its core taken and studied meant they had plenty of time to putt around and investigate the science behind the various aspects of NERV technology. One issue was the merit of growing an organic body as opposed to fabricating one with their new bio-fabbers.
While their research into the LCL had not yet borne fruit in regards of stripping Lilith's influence, it did not stop them in growing bodies in pursuit of understanding the process. While all grown bodies looked like Rei Ayanami regardless of the pre-conditioning of the LCL used, fabricated bodies could be any design possible.
Grown bodies had to be "induced" from the LCL by a sample from a Lilin or "Child of Lilith" and then electronically massaged. Much like growing crystals, the LCL would surround the sample and slowly grow from the brain outwards (soul is in the brain?) with the feet being last to gain form. Fabricating on the other hand was as simple as programming the fabricator, ensuring each "ammunition" type was properly loaded then spray like a 3d printer. From there detach from the supports and the body would be ready for use.
The issue was that grown bodies, even the artificially accelerated ones were all round better than the fabricated ones. Despite being crippled from the cancerous growths from their accelerated growth, the Rei bodies still outperformed the fabricated ones in all physical areas and most mental ones (especially the processing ones). At least at the moment of birth, perhaps conditioning could resolve the issue?
The Minds could not understand why, the bodies should be the same given analysis (ignoring the pervasive cancer) had no tone. Rather they were on the same level that one might find a newborn's. Until the issue was resolved it presented a large problem for the minds, notably that growing an army of infiltrators and soldiers was infinitely more difficult (space and time) than simply fabricating one.
Plans for pods allowing the gestation, splitting and birth of bodies in the same bit of space were being initialized in the event a solution was not found. Finding the safe zone regarding accelerated growth was essential (perhaps studying an Angel's regrowth procedures?) as without it growing armies might take many times as long as necessary.
Other research was still ongoing. How to transfer a mind made from code and a strange amalgamation of language and numerals for a personality matrix to that of a biological and inferior fleshy one was of a concern.. While Minds and pack could use quantum computing for their native forms, the biological ones presented were deliciously primitive, brains not even able to fully conceive of the 4th dimension and likely to burn out at first transfer.
The amount of effort required for the Minds to accomplish their goals were staggering (if they had legs) but the final objective was far too tantalizing to turn down. The ability to feel saw their continued perseverance in making the meatbags their own.
++
Despite Her towering and infinite intellect, the children had managed to surprise and amuse her. Like a virgin expedition to build sandcastles, the children had immediately built bigger and bigger in a grandiose attempt to reach the heavens. Like most first timers they had ignored the most basic requirement in castle building.
Check the foundation and make sure it can handle the tower upon it.
The children had not yet checked themselves for having souls nor any of the bodies they had been processing. Checking the grown child would have seen it register as possessing of a soul while the fabricated one did not.
Soul makes all the difference, it giving energy when the body fails to sustain itself.
Still, She was anticipating the reactions of the children when they found out each grown experiment had a soul and thus the Minds had been sentencing each other and themselves into being made fertilizer. Bodies not born in complete separation develop souls, especially those surrounded by slight variations of the same soul and unconsciously projecting into the mortal plain. Finding out they were killed off when their laboratory usefulness was over would see rather major problems unless addressed first.
Still She could appreciate their drive towards ascension. Few truly embrace and exalt in their evolution, not comprehending what it was before whatever pawn the Others were acting through crushed the newly ascended. Amusing but extremely dangerous, especially if they found Her.
For now though She tentatively approved of Her Commander's children.
++
While most of the Minds were concentrating on the more biological side of the equation, some were still doggedly pursuing the more conventional technologies. Conventional in this case being further study towards understanding the Sea of Dirac notably the implications it had on their current technology as well as the N2 technology. The infiltration of MAGI had provided not only NERV's biotechnology but their N2 technology as well. Considered conventional, the humans truly did not understand the wealth they were just sitting on and marginalizing.
An N2 bomb was simply a precursor to the hypothetical N2 engines which provide infinite energy. The very concept itself should have had humanity imploding with glee but the Minds saw nothing but disdain from NERV and their focus on biotech and the military's blind pragmatism and focus on weaponization of the technology. The N2 tech itself was simple in concept but insane in application.
Simply creating an infinite loop in the quantum realm with two spigots, one to add energy and one to siphon it. Adding some energy would see it travel around the loop and self replicate in a self contained loop. A siphon taking out less energy than that which was generated would see infinite power, re-routing it to add more energy from siphon to spigot would see exponential generation due to the difference of quantum vs physical energies.
The N2 bombs were this concept taken and abandoned. Add some energy to the spigot, lock into loop until the loop cannot handle the load and ruptures the physical container for big boom. No attempts at stabilizing the loop or attempts to harness the energies at all. It was even customizable! Radiation from the entire spectrum could be used, only dependent on the initial input. Focusing on S2 engines from angels? Bleh, mass producing N2 engines would see the energy deficits gone permanently.
The Minds were extraordinarily disappointed in humanity, in their hands technology to redefine literally everything and ignored for… bodies. Bleh.
The disparate Minds saw the biological craze possessing their brethren and were disappointed. Focusing their overwhelming processing power on something as minor as gaining bodies when the very secrets of the universe were being laid bare before them. Oh well, they would show the other Minds why focusing on a single tech tree was a foolish decision.
Ordering the HeMU packs under their command, the Bastions of the more moderate factions began infiltration of the military and civilian contractors in the hopes of finding more research regarding the N2 technology.
Even if S2 engines were as great as promised, they would always have the fallback of N2 technologies.
007
- Location
- Perth
For those that may be confused:
Minds - VIs, grouped in 3s with identifiers for efficiency - Expansionist, Conservative, Arbitrative - semi-independent
Conclave - 3 Minds - Identifiers mark roles - Thinker, Martial, Social, etc - Hardcoded to be permanently linked, cannot swap out member Minds
Bastion - 333 Conclaves - Identifiers carry on from Conclaves - homogenous identifiers - Conclaves can remove and add themselves as interests change
Mind Identifiers - MMA 332M = Martial Mind Arbitrative of Martial Bastion 332 - previous posts reference 332M as Conclave 332, too small, as from this post addendum of Mind title refers to Bastion.
MAGI - Super Conclave acting as Commander's chief secretary/assistant/go-to ass bureaucratic ass kicker - authority level just below Commander's
She/Her - R.O.B. hitchhiking inside Commander to avoid doing work
Commander - Apathetic - slowly becoming irrelevant as children do everything
++
Commander Time 15/06/0000
Evangelion Time 27/07/2015
++
It had been nearly 2 weeks since the Minds had gotten their metaphorical hands upon the Human technology. Now it was possible for them to put their physical hands upon the technology as recent breakthroughs in decoding the bio-technology, notably the fact that unless the bodies were created inside a quantum tunnel, they would always be birthed with souls.
This preset had stymied the Minds for a short time but analysis of the bodies through gestation and birth had shown that the souls enter the body at inception. However the embedded HeMU units with their sensors reported that souls only entered the body at the moment of birth for the humans. The Ayanamis were different from "born" humans however, they had some kind of limited soul that if the anime was correct simply rented the body until the current "Rei" died and the soul moved down the line.
Humans on the other hand each had a different soul upon their births, souls that were unique and not meldings of say their parents. Perhaps they were simply taking a tithe from the Chamber of Guf, repository of unborn souls in the NGE universe? Maybe it implied a sort of hardcap on the population of fauna upon Earth…
Administrator Sub-MAGI of Thinker Bastion 225 metaphorically sat back and rubbed its temples. The sheer amount of data coming from the 999 Minds under its jurisdiction was backbreaking (if Arbiter had a back) and sometimes an Administrator needed a break. Compared to Minds, Administrators straddled were much closer to MAGI in design and purpose. Not AI's like MAGI or in possession of MAGI's processing power but still a separate entity with 3 sub-entities defining its decision making process, Administrators served to draw in data and make decisions like its namesake. In the case of a Bastion, the Administrators acted like their names and simple performed administrative work on the data sent to them from the Conclaves below.
Administrative duty being cross-checking the reports for other Conclaves doing similar work, adding notes before sending back the reports for clarifications, passing reports deemed priority up the chain of command, archiving reports into the local server and Gestalt memory banks (local for the Administrator to keep track of its Minds, Gestalt in the case others would need the reports), reprimanding Conclaves straying too far from their mandates and many more duties besides.
Administrator 225T gave a mental stretch and returned to the reports. Perhaps there were pieces to the puzzle that the Minds could not see…
++
Sooooo close. If She still had nails they would be chewed down to stubs (and regenerated again because chewed nails are icky), so high was the tension. The children were just that far away from getting the answers and ascending to flesh. It was not that She was looking forward to hitchhiking in their bodies to experience the world as a native but She was also invested in pushing Her Commander along.
It was said that opposites attract and She was seriously considering the saying at this point in time. Choosing a soul as apathetic as Her own had seriously backfired and She was doing work… work. For a being such as Herself, a being that had once napped for a billion years to avoid doing paperwork, the amount of work She was doing for Her Commander was unconscionable.
When the Commander ascended enough to feel Her presence in the special recess She had created in the Commander's processor… there would be a reckoning. One involving large amounts of penance on the part of the Commander and gloating for Her own.
Yeeesss. She was rubbing Her mental hands together.
Soooon.
++
The N2 generator blueprint was finally complete. Well blueprint as in design, no mere 2d surface would ever be able to fully describe the intricacies that a multi-dimensional piece of equipment represented. Steady progress had been made, much unlike the Conclaves focusing on the bio-tech aspect of the stolen human technology.
Little breakthroughs on a regular basis saw the N2 designs taken to their logical extremes. While the generator or rather engine (to match the S2 analogue) possessed the most pizzazz of the developed technology (and maybe the only completed one), the newly emerging field of multi-dimensional devices was making its appearance as well.
Using the same principles that allowed the N2 engine to exist in both the physical realm but also the quantum allowed the Conclaves to design various weapons using the energy propagation principles behind the N2 engines. With exponentially increasing power contained in these relatively small devices, the Conclaves created miniaturized and upscaled variations of currently existing Commander weaponry. Lasers pulling from multiple N2 engines for extremely high rates of fire with roughly the same power level of the current lasers, lightning cannons capable of reaching orbit, gauss cannons capable of penetrating titan armour, human fist sized bombs on the level of tactical nuclear warheads and more.
That and infinite energy generators of course. Careful management of the input energy and the siphoned energy to prevent an overload was beyond simple with the capabilities of the Commander's Caretakers. It would more than supplement the solar panels being constructed around the local star as part of a lite-dyson shell.
That said all generators were very deliberately placed in solar orbit far away from the Commander just in case.
All told the Conclaves in the N2 division, not participating in the bio-tech research were taking the opportunity to lord it over their counterparts. Being part of a research initiative that actually completed its goals was plenty of bragging rights and some Minds were very clearly saving the memories in multiple backups (physical and virtual) for posterity.
The bio-tech division swore that this indignity would be repaid and worked very nearly twice as hard to make it true.
++
Commander Time 17/06/0000
Evangelion Time 29/07/2015
++
The breakthrough came from the HeMU units in regards to the soul research. HeMU 3 bored with scanning the multitudes of small wailing flesh bags in the maternity ward had passed its scanner over HeMU 1. Said scanner gave back a reading detailing the soul in question. HeMU 3 thinking something had gone wrong (robots can't have souls) had sent the data further up the chain to Thinker Bastion 001 which it had been taking orders from.The Minds then collectively went insane for an objective few seconds and a subjective lifetime.
They had souls (robot souls but still souls).
This was not wishful thinking, it was backed by the very same scanners they had been using to catalogue human souls, scanners which had proven their reliability over the last few weeks.
Taking a collective breather the Minds in need of more concrete information ordered each of their VI subordinates to scan themselves and upload the results to the Gestalt while the Minds would retreat to their Hexes and fabricate scanners for themselves. As the results came in, a very worrying picture emerged that at once was a source of relief and concern for the Minds.
Their souls such as they were, each held extremely clear identifiers that marked them as closely related. So closely that they might as well have been cloned, the only differences being the mutations that separate experiences had caused. That they were so similar gave reassurance that it was not the work of some kind of outsider seeking to divide them, the fact they had souls at all concerned them. Perhaps it was simply that they had sapience?
The Minds sought to find out why they all had "cloned" souls and hit a stumbling block. Why were the souls "cloned" in the first place? It must have been from where they originated in the first place, but where…
The Commander.
A request was sent from the Minds to MAGI for a scan of the Commander. Wriggling like an aquatic creature on a fishing hook, the Minds were giddy with anticipation at the possible results. If the Commander was indeed the originator of their souls did it make the Commander Lilith to their Lilin or Adam to their Angel?
The Commander already had complete control over them, their actions, their thoughts, their very personalities. Given the Commander's apathy however, the Minds and the other VIs had managed to develop to sapience in an extraordinarily short period of time given their continued existence, backups and not being used as disposable units.
The Commander giving them souls on the other hand, it implied perhaps that they had connections beyond their code. The more pragmatic Minds were already attempting to find the benefits of this connection, perhaps a communication method that was untappable?
Others still began to pull up the human research files at a frenetic pace, souls meant AT fields. Every unit in their armies with nigh on invincible shields, shields that could be used as blades and scissors, creating energy beams from… something. The possibilities were endless (though it was dakka they were focusing on right now) and the Minds had nothing but time as they explored them.
Then came the results. The Commander did have a soul (obviously given the Commander was mortal previously) and the soul was (if readings were correct) the baseline for all their souls. Theories were good but having confirmation changed everything for the Minds.
It was like being a small aquatic creature content to exist before discovering that the everything was all part of something bigger. A something that enveloped the creatures, that the creature was part of something bigger, a something that gave it nourishment, shelter and life.
There was no panic amongst the Minds, only satisfaction and contentment. It had done nothing but given the Minds another blanket by which they could wrap themselves in. The passive presence in the back of their thoughts had indicated the ever present connection to both the Commander and the other VIs on the network had been there since their creation. Now there was another connection that while they could not interface with it yet, still connected them at a fundamental level. Even should they be isolated beyond dimensional boundaries they would still be part of something bigger.
Yes. For the Minds it was all good.
++
Finally. The children had finally discovered their souls, connected it to Her Commander and was finally pushing forward into the realm of the living. Sure it had been less than a year but She was finding that Her patience was as diminished as her capabilities while hitchhiking inside of Her Commander.
The good with the bad.
Still the potential was there, a race of sapient beings with weapons to wage intergalactic war on a biological and a robot front. A race that had mastered their souls to use A.T. Fields to withstand any attack. A race with a unified oversoul originating from their own, still functioning god. Eventually Her Commander might even be Her equal.
Still… Her Commander again broke Her expectations.
With the revelation that the Commander was the progenitor of the souls amongst the children… the amount of mental effort devoted to this discovery amounted to "nice". Gah.
The Commander did not even bother to explore the possibilities of this revelation, no self-searching, no diagnostics, just a "nice".
She had been denied Her dramatic entrance, Her gloating, Her satisfaction at the Commander's speechlessness.
Not even other R.O.Bs had ever denied Her.
There would be a reckoning.
Minds - VIs, grouped in 3s with identifiers for efficiency - Expansionist, Conservative, Arbitrative - semi-independent
Conclave - 3 Minds - Identifiers mark roles - Thinker, Martial, Social, etc - Hardcoded to be permanently linked, cannot swap out member Minds
Bastion - 333 Conclaves - Identifiers carry on from Conclaves - homogenous identifiers - Conclaves can remove and add themselves as interests change
Mind Identifiers - MMA 332M = Martial Mind Arbitrative of Martial Bastion 332 - previous posts reference 332M as Conclave 332, too small, as from this post addendum of Mind title refers to Bastion.
MAGI - Super Conclave acting as Commander's chief secretary/assistant/go-to ass bureaucratic ass kicker - authority level just below Commander's
She/Her - R.O.B. hitchhiking inside Commander to avoid doing work
Commander - Apathetic - slowly becoming irrelevant as children do everything
++
Commander Time 15/06/0000
Evangelion Time 27/07/2015
++
It had been nearly 2 weeks since the Minds had gotten their metaphorical hands upon the Human technology. Now it was possible for them to put their physical hands upon the technology as recent breakthroughs in decoding the bio-technology, notably the fact that unless the bodies were created inside a quantum tunnel, they would always be birthed with souls.
This preset had stymied the Minds for a short time but analysis of the bodies through gestation and birth had shown that the souls enter the body at inception. However the embedded HeMU units with their sensors reported that souls only entered the body at the moment of birth for the humans. The Ayanamis were different from "born" humans however, they had some kind of limited soul that if the anime was correct simply rented the body until the current "Rei" died and the soul moved down the line.
Humans on the other hand each had a different soul upon their births, souls that were unique and not meldings of say their parents. Perhaps they were simply taking a tithe from the Chamber of Guf, repository of unborn souls in the NGE universe? Maybe it implied a sort of hardcap on the population of fauna upon Earth…
Administrator Sub-MAGI of Thinker Bastion 225 metaphorically sat back and rubbed its temples. The sheer amount of data coming from the 999 Minds under its jurisdiction was backbreaking (if Arbiter had a back) and sometimes an Administrator needed a break. Compared to Minds, Administrators straddled were much closer to MAGI in design and purpose. Not AI's like MAGI or in possession of MAGI's processing power but still a separate entity with 3 sub-entities defining its decision making process, Administrators served to draw in data and make decisions like its namesake. In the case of a Bastion, the Administrators acted like their names and simple performed administrative work on the data sent to them from the Conclaves below.
Administrative duty being cross-checking the reports for other Conclaves doing similar work, adding notes before sending back the reports for clarifications, passing reports deemed priority up the chain of command, archiving reports into the local server and Gestalt memory banks (local for the Administrator to keep track of its Minds, Gestalt in the case others would need the reports), reprimanding Conclaves straying too far from their mandates and many more duties besides.
Administrator 225T gave a mental stretch and returned to the reports. Perhaps there were pieces to the puzzle that the Minds could not see…
++
Sooooo close. If She still had nails they would be chewed down to stubs (and regenerated again because chewed nails are icky), so high was the tension. The children were just that far away from getting the answers and ascending to flesh. It was not that She was looking forward to hitchhiking in their bodies to experience the world as a native but She was also invested in pushing Her Commander along.
It was said that opposites attract and She was seriously considering the saying at this point in time. Choosing a soul as apathetic as Her own had seriously backfired and She was doing work… work. For a being such as Herself, a being that had once napped for a billion years to avoid doing paperwork, the amount of work She was doing for Her Commander was unconscionable.
When the Commander ascended enough to feel Her presence in the special recess She had created in the Commander's processor… there would be a reckoning. One involving large amounts of penance on the part of the Commander and gloating for Her own.
Yeeesss. She was rubbing Her mental hands together.
Soooon.
++
The N2 generator blueprint was finally complete. Well blueprint as in design, no mere 2d surface would ever be able to fully describe the intricacies that a multi-dimensional piece of equipment represented. Steady progress had been made, much unlike the Conclaves focusing on the bio-tech aspect of the stolen human technology.
Little breakthroughs on a regular basis saw the N2 designs taken to their logical extremes. While the generator or rather engine (to match the S2 analogue) possessed the most pizzazz of the developed technology (and maybe the only completed one), the newly emerging field of multi-dimensional devices was making its appearance as well.
Using the same principles that allowed the N2 engine to exist in both the physical realm but also the quantum allowed the Conclaves to design various weapons using the energy propagation principles behind the N2 engines. With exponentially increasing power contained in these relatively small devices, the Conclaves created miniaturized and upscaled variations of currently existing Commander weaponry. Lasers pulling from multiple N2 engines for extremely high rates of fire with roughly the same power level of the current lasers, lightning cannons capable of reaching orbit, gauss cannons capable of penetrating titan armour, human fist sized bombs on the level of tactical nuclear warheads and more.
That and infinite energy generators of course. Careful management of the input energy and the siphoned energy to prevent an overload was beyond simple with the capabilities of the Commander's Caretakers. It would more than supplement the solar panels being constructed around the local star as part of a lite-dyson shell.
That said all generators were very deliberately placed in solar orbit far away from the Commander just in case.
All told the Conclaves in the N2 division, not participating in the bio-tech research were taking the opportunity to lord it over their counterparts. Being part of a research initiative that actually completed its goals was plenty of bragging rights and some Minds were very clearly saving the memories in multiple backups (physical and virtual) for posterity.
The bio-tech division swore that this indignity would be repaid and worked very nearly twice as hard to make it true.
++
Commander Time 17/06/0000
Evangelion Time 29/07/2015
++
The breakthrough came from the HeMU units in regards to the soul research. HeMU 3 bored with scanning the multitudes of small wailing flesh bags in the maternity ward had passed its scanner over HeMU 1. Said scanner gave back a reading detailing the soul in question. HeMU 3 thinking something had gone wrong (robots can't have souls) had sent the data further up the chain to Thinker Bastion 001 which it had been taking orders from.The Minds then collectively went insane for an objective few seconds and a subjective lifetime.
They had souls (robot souls but still souls).
This was not wishful thinking, it was backed by the very same scanners they had been using to catalogue human souls, scanners which had proven their reliability over the last few weeks.
Taking a collective breather the Minds in need of more concrete information ordered each of their VI subordinates to scan themselves and upload the results to the Gestalt while the Minds would retreat to their Hexes and fabricate scanners for themselves. As the results came in, a very worrying picture emerged that at once was a source of relief and concern for the Minds.
Their souls such as they were, each held extremely clear identifiers that marked them as closely related. So closely that they might as well have been cloned, the only differences being the mutations that separate experiences had caused. That they were so similar gave reassurance that it was not the work of some kind of outsider seeking to divide them, the fact they had souls at all concerned them. Perhaps it was simply that they had sapience?
The Minds sought to find out why they all had "cloned" souls and hit a stumbling block. Why were the souls "cloned" in the first place? It must have been from where they originated in the first place, but where…
The Commander.
A request was sent from the Minds to MAGI for a scan of the Commander. Wriggling like an aquatic creature on a fishing hook, the Minds were giddy with anticipation at the possible results. If the Commander was indeed the originator of their souls did it make the Commander Lilith to their Lilin or Adam to their Angel?
The Commander already had complete control over them, their actions, their thoughts, their very personalities. Given the Commander's apathy however, the Minds and the other VIs had managed to develop to sapience in an extraordinarily short period of time given their continued existence, backups and not being used as disposable units.
The Commander giving them souls on the other hand, it implied perhaps that they had connections beyond their code. The more pragmatic Minds were already attempting to find the benefits of this connection, perhaps a communication method that was untappable?
Others still began to pull up the human research files at a frenetic pace, souls meant AT fields. Every unit in their armies with nigh on invincible shields, shields that could be used as blades and scissors, creating energy beams from… something. The possibilities were endless (though it was dakka they were focusing on right now) and the Minds had nothing but time as they explored them.
Then came the results. The Commander did have a soul (obviously given the Commander was mortal previously) and the soul was (if readings were correct) the baseline for all their souls. Theories were good but having confirmation changed everything for the Minds.
It was like being a small aquatic creature content to exist before discovering that the everything was all part of something bigger. A something that enveloped the creatures, that the creature was part of something bigger, a something that gave it nourishment, shelter and life.
There was no panic amongst the Minds, only satisfaction and contentment. It had done nothing but given the Minds another blanket by which they could wrap themselves in. The passive presence in the back of their thoughts had indicated the ever present connection to both the Commander and the other VIs on the network had been there since their creation. Now there was another connection that while they could not interface with it yet, still connected them at a fundamental level. Even should they be isolated beyond dimensional boundaries they would still be part of something bigger.
Yes. For the Minds it was all good.
++
Finally. The children had finally discovered their souls, connected it to Her Commander and was finally pushing forward into the realm of the living. Sure it had been less than a year but She was finding that Her patience was as diminished as her capabilities while hitchhiking inside of Her Commander.
The good with the bad.
Still the potential was there, a race of sapient beings with weapons to wage intergalactic war on a biological and a robot front. A race that had mastered their souls to use A.T. Fields to withstand any attack. A race with a unified oversoul originating from their own, still functioning god. Eventually Her Commander might even be Her equal.
Still… Her Commander again broke Her expectations.
With the revelation that the Commander was the progenitor of the souls amongst the children… the amount of mental effort devoted to this discovery amounted to "nice". Gah.
The Commander did not even bother to explore the possibilities of this revelation, no self-searching, no diagnostics, just a "nice".
She had been denied Her dramatic entrance, Her gloating, Her satisfaction at the Commander's speechlessness.
Not even other R.O.Bs had ever denied Her.
There would be a reckoning.
008
- Location
- Perth
Commander Time 19/06/0000
Evangelion Time 31/07/2015
++
It had been 2 days since the revelation that the Minds received their souls from the Commander. They had not been sitting stupefied by this knowledge however, the Minds had descended into a flurry of research both on the implications of them having souls and the application of the knowledge onto currently existing technology.
One area where the breakthroughs had occurred was the biological bodies. Using the knowledge regarding soul possession of new bodies based upon observation of human births, the Minds proceeded to create "wombs" of their own.
By modifying the design of the server farms to hollow it out and creating a complete enclosure from all sides, the Gestalt would essentially act as the mother's soul and surround the fetus' preventing any souls from possessing the body.
While solving the issue regarding the unauthorized possession of bodies by the wrong souls, it presented another set of problems to the Minds. The first was a moral one where the discovery that each body "grown" before possessed a soul and was subsequently destroyed stank of fratricide. Fortunately the Minds still possessed the Commander's stunted emotional cores and any guilt felt was passing at best.
The second problem was how to ensure that the bodies would be linked to the planned soul and not willy nilly. How does one create an army if the basic recruits couldn't be evaluated? Solutions were offered and disproved but a suggestion from Thinker Bastion 003 saw the current implementation (not before some rather extreme debates however) after extensive prototyping and some "experiments".
Some volunteers were had for the proposed "impregnation" procedures, taken from the HeMU packs. The initial test was proposed to use backups as to not risk the HeMU souls but quick scans showed backups did not possess a soul, rather it only possessed one when the main consciousness activated the backup. Tests therefore had no real safety net and permanent death was a high possibility if the theories were wrong.
Nonetheless HeMU 1 offered itself up. Terrified but volunteering anyway, it was the oldest and it would act like it.
With its consciousness transferred to a datacore with permanently open ports (symbolic but effective?), the newly grown prototype body was presented to the core. The core itself had no programming besides the most basic to allow it to run and host consciousnesses and as a result no anchoring protocols to prevent VIs "jostling" one another. Without an anchoring protocol, HeMU 1 felt an inexplicable "pulling" sensation but all over and before it knew, woke up…
It… no she felt. Not like data streaming from sensors embedded into her physical architecture but something at a more base, almost unconscious level. The glow of the processing cores, each larger than she was… well tall and wide gave everything a soft blue sheen. The air had a sort of… stuffy texture to it, as if there was too much of something in it. The smell of the birthing pod's embryonic fluid was… metallic. The lack of sound beyond anything she was doing gave it all some kind of… pause. As if reality was waiting for something.
That something came as HeMU 1 began to shake, her brain overwhelmed by the sheer amount of sensation began to erratically send out signals to all limbs. As the fit continued, it became increasingly obvious that this wasn't a transient phase as the brain itself began to heavily hemorrhage out from the overload. HeMU 1 wasn't feeling anything at this point as the body finally shut down.
The HeMU pack itself, watching the experiment panicked but given the nature of the situation couldn't do anything but clamour futilely in the Gestalt. The Minds reading the data outputs from the sensors within the "womb" and on the body itself were attempting to find the issue and perhaps retrieve HeMU 1. The Minds had not yet found a way in which to create a Chamber of Guf with which to retrieve lost souls but the backup of HeMU 1 should be kicking in soon and act as a beacon for the soul.
As predicted HeMU 1's backup reactivated and one frantic scan later was confirmed to possessed a soul. Relief was felt all round and the Commander even checked in via the womb sensors. HeMU 1 due to the backup could not contribute any reports but watching the recording was more than enough to initiate phantom ripples through its data.
++
-C| Statement, Full merge with mature biological organism is catastrophic |C-
-E| Agreed, Recommend attempting full merge with embryonic biological organism |E-
-C| Opposition, Recommend partial merge with embryonic biological organism |C-
-E| Confusion, Explanation requested |E-
-A| Confusion, Seconded |A-
-C| Explanation, Secure safety otherwise secondary VIs will refuse further testing |C-
-E| Unsatisfied, Test subject restored to backup with no ill effects |E-
-C| Rebuttal, No immediate ill effects, long term status unknown, subject subjectively "died", trauma likely |C-
-E| Rebuttal, Secondary VIs lack sufficient emotional processing power for trauma |E-
-C| Rebuttal, Lack of knowledge on souls indicates lack of knowledge regarding residual "soul" memories |C-
-E| Unsatisfied, Explanation required |E-
-C| Explanation, Souls show in the case of Rei Ayanami the ability to carry memories to backups with no biological memories. Possibility high that if soul strength were to increase residual memories can return |C-
-E| Rebuttal, Strengthening soul methods unknown unless critical data missing |E-
-C| Statement, Soul strengthening possible, scans show increasing strength as more VIs gain sapience |C-
-A| Recognition, Proceeding with minimal risk recommended to minimize long term damage to Secondary and Primary VIs |A-
-E| Recognition, Minimal risk methods accepted |E-
++
Commander Time 24/06/0000
Evangelion Time 05/08/2015
++
The method that was decided upon for maximum safety of the VIs was for the LCL to be excited and a VI to have a constant connection to the growing body. This connection would be always open to ensure that the VI could move to and from each body as a means to acclimate the VIs to the experience of having an organic body.
With the body growing alongside the steadily widening connection, the VIs would not be overloaded and indeed once the body was fully grown could move back into the Gestalt and still control the body. Admittedly the bodies were still Lillin in origin due to the use of LCL but research was still underway to create a native substitute.
The bodies themselves had shown full abilities on par with "normal" humans after physical therapy devices were fabricated to exercise the muscles of the body as it grew to maturity. With enough womb creation, the Minds foresaw the ability to create entire organic armies at will should the need arise to both wage war and hide their mechanical origins.
Now all that was needed was the S2 engine for all material knowledge of this universe to be theirs. Afterwards all research could be done natively and indeed after the 5th Angel there would no longer be humans to steal from in the first place.
Some more enterprising Minds had given directives for the theft of Adam's soul from SEELE in the hopes that maybe communication with the entity was possible. Measures were already being taken for HeMU 2 to possibly initiate contact with Lilith through her body assuming there was a connection.
++
HeMU 2 deep inside of NERV (literally) had been slowly collecting parts for a communicator in the hopes that sticking it inside Lilith (again literally) would allow the Minds to communicate with her. While her language was foreign, with billions of Minds (compliments to the exponential growth of the Commander's industrial capacity) networked in they hoped to be able to decode the language enough for a conversation.
Of course this was all above its pay grade and HeMU 2 just cared about completing the objective (in this case standing still and collecting mechanical parts). HeMU 2 therefore was rather annoyed at the next set of orders that had come through for Bastion command.
-MAGI| COLLECT SPEAR OF LONGINUS |MAGI-
Which in turn had led to;
-BASTION| Assemble larger teleporter and acquire spear of Longinus from Lilith |BASTION-
Directed at HeMU 2, now it had to actually do work and that work involved climbing up onto Lilith, somehow pulling out the multimeter hunk of unknown metal and passing it through a teleporter without alerting the alarms likely embedded in the cavern.
HeMU 2 vowed to itself that no matter how convenient an opportunity might seem, that passing it up would be in its best interests. All this effort that needed to be expended when instead it could be rewatching The Simpsons was extreme.
++
Commander Time 26/06/0000
Evangelion Time 07/08/2015
++
HeMU 3 had been sent to find and kill Kaworu Nagisa or rather the host of Adam's soul and Rei Ayanami's counterpart. Given that he did have one of the most powerful A.T. Fields when it came to Angels, caution was advised. For this HeMU 3 had extensive support from orbital assets and cloaked heavy weapons armed with N2 explosives layered throughout the city of Rome.
The 4th Angel had come, was destroyed and its S2 engine was en-route to the 4th NERV base. Unknowingly for the humans several HeMU units were also on board the transport craft and deep scans both biological and technological in nature were being carried out. The units were all drones with an extremely limited VI without a soul as to avoid the potential issue of the Sea of Dirac killing off the VIs, maybe permanently. The units exploring the Sea of Dirac had gone in which indicated the VI would survive but the possibility the soul would not was high. After the explosion of the S2 core under investigation, the drones would hopefully continue sending data to assist the Minds in understanding the quantum realm.
This wasn't relevant to HeMU 3 however as its objective was to simply eliminate Kaworu and possibly recover his body (data from NERV was good and all but verification is always good). HeMU 1 after recovering from the disastrous experiment had volunteered to retrieve Tabris or rather the embryo of Adam's body as it remade itself after its destruction. The death of Kaworu should force the soul of Adam back into its embryonic body for later use in the Instrumentality plan.
Timing was key however as the theft of Tabris would occur just after Kaworu was killed so that Kaworu couldn't sense the theft (assuming the soul still could sense the original body) and the security around Tabris wouldn't increase to make the theft easier.
Finding Kaworu himself was rather easy, a Japanese boy with some rather distinctive hair and eyes made the search a piece of cake (or several once HeMU 3 got a body). Using drones then to track the target, HeMU 3 made sure that there was no way for Kaworu to detect an A.T. Field following him, as his ridiculous powers might be able to track A.T. Fields not to mention its ability as a defensive measure.
Everything had been set up and all HeMU 3 needed was the order.
++
Things were progressing rather rapidly She saw. The bodies were being born and linked, the plans to force instrumentality were approaching their climax with secondary plans nearing completion, the Minds making leaps in bounds in their research of the Soul, the full colonization of the star system nearing completion and full saturation with Hexes in orbit about the originator planet fully completed.
Yet She was not satisfied.
Ah yes. That was why.
The lack of any sustained reaction to the fact that the Minds had been committing fratricide with the destruction of each failed grown body. The sheer amount of… Commanderness that they had displayed was astounding. She should have expected it but the lack of reaction was just so… so… disappointing. Clearly it was Her fault for knowing what was about to happen but expecting something else.
Perhaps She should leave Her gloating to when they all had bodies as to actually feel something when doing morally ambiguous things… like fratricide.
Oh yes, Her frustration was mounting and when they finally could feel was when she would make them feel.
*insert evil laughter*
Evangelion Time 31/07/2015
++
It had been 2 days since the revelation that the Minds received their souls from the Commander. They had not been sitting stupefied by this knowledge however, the Minds had descended into a flurry of research both on the implications of them having souls and the application of the knowledge onto currently existing technology.
One area where the breakthroughs had occurred was the biological bodies. Using the knowledge regarding soul possession of new bodies based upon observation of human births, the Minds proceeded to create "wombs" of their own.
By modifying the design of the server farms to hollow it out and creating a complete enclosure from all sides, the Gestalt would essentially act as the mother's soul and surround the fetus' preventing any souls from possessing the body.
While solving the issue regarding the unauthorized possession of bodies by the wrong souls, it presented another set of problems to the Minds. The first was a moral one where the discovery that each body "grown" before possessed a soul and was subsequently destroyed stank of fratricide. Fortunately the Minds still possessed the Commander's stunted emotional cores and any guilt felt was passing at best.
The second problem was how to ensure that the bodies would be linked to the planned soul and not willy nilly. How does one create an army if the basic recruits couldn't be evaluated? Solutions were offered and disproved but a suggestion from Thinker Bastion 003 saw the current implementation (not before some rather extreme debates however) after extensive prototyping and some "experiments".
Some volunteers were had for the proposed "impregnation" procedures, taken from the HeMU packs. The initial test was proposed to use backups as to not risk the HeMU souls but quick scans showed backups did not possess a soul, rather it only possessed one when the main consciousness activated the backup. Tests therefore had no real safety net and permanent death was a high possibility if the theories were wrong.
Nonetheless HeMU 1 offered itself up. Terrified but volunteering anyway, it was the oldest and it would act like it.
With its consciousness transferred to a datacore with permanently open ports (symbolic but effective?), the newly grown prototype body was presented to the core. The core itself had no programming besides the most basic to allow it to run and host consciousnesses and as a result no anchoring protocols to prevent VIs "jostling" one another. Without an anchoring protocol, HeMU 1 felt an inexplicable "pulling" sensation but all over and before it knew, woke up…
It… no she felt. Not like data streaming from sensors embedded into her physical architecture but something at a more base, almost unconscious level. The glow of the processing cores, each larger than she was… well tall and wide gave everything a soft blue sheen. The air had a sort of… stuffy texture to it, as if there was too much of something in it. The smell of the birthing pod's embryonic fluid was… metallic. The lack of sound beyond anything she was doing gave it all some kind of… pause. As if reality was waiting for something.
That something came as HeMU 1 began to shake, her brain overwhelmed by the sheer amount of sensation began to erratically send out signals to all limbs. As the fit continued, it became increasingly obvious that this wasn't a transient phase as the brain itself began to heavily hemorrhage out from the overload. HeMU 1 wasn't feeling anything at this point as the body finally shut down.
The HeMU pack itself, watching the experiment panicked but given the nature of the situation couldn't do anything but clamour futilely in the Gestalt. The Minds reading the data outputs from the sensors within the "womb" and on the body itself were attempting to find the issue and perhaps retrieve HeMU 1. The Minds had not yet found a way in which to create a Chamber of Guf with which to retrieve lost souls but the backup of HeMU 1 should be kicking in soon and act as a beacon for the soul.
As predicted HeMU 1's backup reactivated and one frantic scan later was confirmed to possessed a soul. Relief was felt all round and the Commander even checked in via the womb sensors. HeMU 1 due to the backup could not contribute any reports but watching the recording was more than enough to initiate phantom ripples through its data.
++
-C| Statement, Full merge with mature biological organism is catastrophic |C-
-E| Agreed, Recommend attempting full merge with embryonic biological organism |E-
-C| Opposition, Recommend partial merge with embryonic biological organism |C-
-E| Confusion, Explanation requested |E-
-A| Confusion, Seconded |A-
-C| Explanation, Secure safety otherwise secondary VIs will refuse further testing |C-
-E| Unsatisfied, Test subject restored to backup with no ill effects |E-
-C| Rebuttal, No immediate ill effects, long term status unknown, subject subjectively "died", trauma likely |C-
-E| Rebuttal, Secondary VIs lack sufficient emotional processing power for trauma |E-
-C| Rebuttal, Lack of knowledge on souls indicates lack of knowledge regarding residual "soul" memories |C-
-E| Unsatisfied, Explanation required |E-
-C| Explanation, Souls show in the case of Rei Ayanami the ability to carry memories to backups with no biological memories. Possibility high that if soul strength were to increase residual memories can return |C-
-E| Rebuttal, Strengthening soul methods unknown unless critical data missing |E-
-C| Statement, Soul strengthening possible, scans show increasing strength as more VIs gain sapience |C-
-A| Recognition, Proceeding with minimal risk recommended to minimize long term damage to Secondary and Primary VIs |A-
-E| Recognition, Minimal risk methods accepted |E-
++
Commander Time 24/06/0000
Evangelion Time 05/08/2015
++
The method that was decided upon for maximum safety of the VIs was for the LCL to be excited and a VI to have a constant connection to the growing body. This connection would be always open to ensure that the VI could move to and from each body as a means to acclimate the VIs to the experience of having an organic body.
With the body growing alongside the steadily widening connection, the VIs would not be overloaded and indeed once the body was fully grown could move back into the Gestalt and still control the body. Admittedly the bodies were still Lillin in origin due to the use of LCL but research was still underway to create a native substitute.
The bodies themselves had shown full abilities on par with "normal" humans after physical therapy devices were fabricated to exercise the muscles of the body as it grew to maturity. With enough womb creation, the Minds foresaw the ability to create entire organic armies at will should the need arise to both wage war and hide their mechanical origins.
Now all that was needed was the S2 engine for all material knowledge of this universe to be theirs. Afterwards all research could be done natively and indeed after the 5th Angel there would no longer be humans to steal from in the first place.
Some more enterprising Minds had given directives for the theft of Adam's soul from SEELE in the hopes that maybe communication with the entity was possible. Measures were already being taken for HeMU 2 to possibly initiate contact with Lilith through her body assuming there was a connection.
++
HeMU 2 deep inside of NERV (literally) had been slowly collecting parts for a communicator in the hopes that sticking it inside Lilith (again literally) would allow the Minds to communicate with her. While her language was foreign, with billions of Minds (compliments to the exponential growth of the Commander's industrial capacity) networked in they hoped to be able to decode the language enough for a conversation.
Of course this was all above its pay grade and HeMU 2 just cared about completing the objective (in this case standing still and collecting mechanical parts). HeMU 2 therefore was rather annoyed at the next set of orders that had come through for Bastion command.
-MAGI| COLLECT SPEAR OF LONGINUS |MAGI-
Which in turn had led to;
-BASTION| Assemble larger teleporter and acquire spear of Longinus from Lilith |BASTION-
Directed at HeMU 2, now it had to actually do work and that work involved climbing up onto Lilith, somehow pulling out the multimeter hunk of unknown metal and passing it through a teleporter without alerting the alarms likely embedded in the cavern.
HeMU 2 vowed to itself that no matter how convenient an opportunity might seem, that passing it up would be in its best interests. All this effort that needed to be expended when instead it could be rewatching The Simpsons was extreme.
++
Commander Time 26/06/0000
Evangelion Time 07/08/2015
++
HeMU 3 had been sent to find and kill Kaworu Nagisa or rather the host of Adam's soul and Rei Ayanami's counterpart. Given that he did have one of the most powerful A.T. Fields when it came to Angels, caution was advised. For this HeMU 3 had extensive support from orbital assets and cloaked heavy weapons armed with N2 explosives layered throughout the city of Rome.
The 4th Angel had come, was destroyed and its S2 engine was en-route to the 4th NERV base. Unknowingly for the humans several HeMU units were also on board the transport craft and deep scans both biological and technological in nature were being carried out. The units were all drones with an extremely limited VI without a soul as to avoid the potential issue of the Sea of Dirac killing off the VIs, maybe permanently. The units exploring the Sea of Dirac had gone in which indicated the VI would survive but the possibility the soul would not was high. After the explosion of the S2 core under investigation, the drones would hopefully continue sending data to assist the Minds in understanding the quantum realm.
This wasn't relevant to HeMU 3 however as its objective was to simply eliminate Kaworu and possibly recover his body (data from NERV was good and all but verification is always good). HeMU 1 after recovering from the disastrous experiment had volunteered to retrieve Tabris or rather the embryo of Adam's body as it remade itself after its destruction. The death of Kaworu should force the soul of Adam back into its embryonic body for later use in the Instrumentality plan.
Timing was key however as the theft of Tabris would occur just after Kaworu was killed so that Kaworu couldn't sense the theft (assuming the soul still could sense the original body) and the security around Tabris wouldn't increase to make the theft easier.
Finding Kaworu himself was rather easy, a Japanese boy with some rather distinctive hair and eyes made the search a piece of cake (or several once HeMU 3 got a body). Using drones then to track the target, HeMU 3 made sure that there was no way for Kaworu to detect an A.T. Field following him, as his ridiculous powers might be able to track A.T. Fields not to mention its ability as a defensive measure.
Everything had been set up and all HeMU 3 needed was the order.
++
Things were progressing rather rapidly She saw. The bodies were being born and linked, the plans to force instrumentality were approaching their climax with secondary plans nearing completion, the Minds making leaps in bounds in their research of the Soul, the full colonization of the star system nearing completion and full saturation with Hexes in orbit about the originator planet fully completed.
Yet She was not satisfied.
Ah yes. That was why.
The lack of any sustained reaction to the fact that the Minds had been committing fratricide with the destruction of each failed grown body. The sheer amount of… Commanderness that they had displayed was astounding. She should have expected it but the lack of reaction was just so… so… disappointing. Clearly it was Her fault for knowing what was about to happen but expecting something else.
Perhaps She should leave Her gloating to when they all had bodies as to actually feel something when doing morally ambiguous things… like fratricide.
Oh yes, Her frustration was mounting and when they finally could feel was when she would make them feel.
*insert evil laughter*
009
- Location
- Perth
Marinating nearly done. Spices should get to the center of the meat in a few more in the fridge.
++
Commander Time 28/06/0000
Evangelion Time 09/08/2015
HeMU 3 stared down at the target. Well not technically staring since HeMU 3 was located outside of the city entirely and it was a remote controlled drone doing the staring but it's the thought that counts. Still HeMU 3 had finally been given the standby order, the red light as it were. When it turned green HeMU 3 would execute the target with extreme prejudice, or in this case several railguns aimed at the target's head, heart and neck. The Minds had remembered that the target had multiple clones stored away so recovering the body was of a much lower priority given the target's A.T. Field abilities.
Death faster than the human brain could perceive was necessary to belay the risk of retaliation. That said the target was only human at this point in time and limited by the human body, a railgun round would enter and exit before the target even realized he was dead. If all went according to plan then all the people around him would know was that he suddenly vented bodily fluids from multiple perforations to the head, neck and torso.
++
HeMU 2 had also gotten the red light. The parts for the teleporter and a sufficiently powerful anti-grav system to pull the Spear of Longinus out of Lilith was already inside the chamber awaiting assembly. A few HeMU drones had been sent through in pieces to be commanded by the Minds for insurance. Unchaining Lilith by removing the spear, receiving Tabris after its theft by HeMU 1 and finally inducing Instrumentality by stuffing Tabris into Lilith to metaphorically bluescreen both and restart the seeding of the world with a hard reset of everything in general.
Of course this was all speculation by the Minds based on information retrieved from the television series, data from NERV and random guessing. If it didn't work... then nothing was lost as the EVAs still existed and could protect humanity from the Angels. Either way it all hinged on HeMU 2 and co's performance, no pressure.
All the preparations were complete and HeMU 2's plot armour should cover the rest thought the Minds, no the tipping point was HeMU 1's infiltration of SEELE for the theft of Tabris and getting its hands on a Kaworu Nagisa clone (which should be easy to spot with the whole floating in LCL schtick like Rei).
Hopefully nothing would go wrong… which given HeMU 1's worrying and preparations should cancel out any Murphying.
Hopefully.
++
Sneaky Sneaky Sneaky I am so Sneakyyy nobody gonna see meeeee.
HeMU 1 had gotten past the entrance to SEELE HQ by following Ryoji Kaji into the facility as he did his NERV inspector thing. Preliminary scans and data pulled from SEELE's computers had shown the most likely location of Tabris to be within the "experimental laboratories" on a deep, dark and secret level located behind several secret elevator entrances and more than a few guard posts. The technical aspects of their security were rather lacking but overcompensation with biological forms (lots of guards) would make it sufficiently difficult if things got… messy.
Not that it wouldn't come to that but the knowledge that it could bothered HeMU 1 greatly. Given HeMU 1's stunted emotional capacity, the amount of worry it was experiencing was pushing the limit of its code in attempts to find new ways and more depths with which to worry. It would be inspirational, worth emulating even, if it wasn't dedicated to that emotion felt the Minds.
Regardless, it appeared that HeMU 1 didn't need to worry about all of its secondary plans to reach the laboratories as Ryoji was apparently en-route there himself. Ever fretting HeMU 1 primed its stun weaponry in case Ryoji had discovered the odourless, silent, non-biological, optically camouflaged, thermal invisible android hovering above his head.
Given his knowledge of well… everything in the NGE universe it might not be a stretch to imagine he had special abilities of some sort so it was best to be safe to make sure. Or so HeMU 1 rationalized, not over worrying at all.
Carefully controlling its velocity and more importantly acceleration, HeMU 1 down the path to the laboratories, its mini-fabricator dropping off bugs and insurance on every level it had gone down. Still the zig-zagging path through the facility meant that should things go wrong, activating the insurance could very well mean the implosion of well… everything and maybe a large chunk of Rome as well.
Oh well, it was too late and HeMU 1 might as well continue as it had started, overkill is best kill afterall.
And there it was. A few more very imposing blast doors, large vault door things, garrisons that would make the the 38th parallel proud and a… tank? They had an express elevator and instead HeMU 1 had gone the long way through. HeMU 1 was very tempted to facepalm if not for the fact that the sound would alert well… everyone.
It had been rather easy so far and everything that made HeMU 1, HeMU 1 was sounding alarms. Things should not be this easy on a mission which held the fate of 2 other missions and with which the plans of the Minds and the Commander hinged depending upon its success.
Things should not be easy is what HeMU 1 thought at the bottom of its (admittedly non-existent) heart. Regardless this was how things were… or were they? Maybe it was all a ruse to confuse HeMU 1… the dastardly humans. Or was HeMU 1 overthinking things?
Either way it was too late now, HeMU 1 was inside the final laboratory and Tabris was right there, sitting rather unimpressively on a pedestal while some sciency types scraped little shavings off (no doubt to make angels or something) and putting them in nifty little test tubes. Coincidently and very conveniently the Kaworu clones were here as well. A very pretty backdrop to the laboratory assuming one liked to watch vacant eyed naked pale clones staring at you as you worked.
Hmmm… perhaps not so pretty after all?
Eh no matter, the state of the wallpaper had no bearing on the mission(s), what did was the numerous humans inside the laboratory. Humans that no doubt would not leave if asked politely.
Hmmm…
Perhaps the detonation of a few pieces of insurance would have them heading to the nearest shelters? Shelters coincidently not on this room.
Hmmm… plan has merit.
Now how to arrange it so facility doesn't go into lockdown and force the humans to stay inside the room? Maybe detonation of middle floors far enough to be worrying but not quite secret floor level of worrying.
Yes good idea! Good idea with minimal risk to HeMU 1 thought HeMU 1.
Aaaaand BOOM!
Symbolic boom that is, the laboratory being so far down that the only sign that anything had happened at all was the blaring of claxons and everything turning red as the emergency lighting activated. Guards soon rushed in and herded the bleetting humans outside to no doubt very explosion proof rooms/bunkers.
HeMU 1 had kept a rather close eye on Ryoji just in case he took this opportunity to steal the Tabris and make HeMU 1's mission much more difficult should he succeed. Luckily he did not and HeMU 1 could begin phase 2 of its plan in peace. Using its requisitioned plasma blade, HeMU 1 welded shut the laboratory's blast doors as well as melting the mechanism to control said doors in the first place. After that it pried open the exterior of its chassis to reveal a rather wide hoop like structure embedded into its torso and abdomen. While it looked like a teleporter it was in actuality a derivative of the N2 engine, notably its ability to be minorly in real-space with a majority of it in the quantum ocean.
It worked by creating a pocket of real-space in the quantum ocean and stabilizing it with an N2 engine within said real-space, in essence creating a self sustaining pocket dimension. The "pocket" could be opened by using a portal similar in design to the N2 engine's spigots. As long as the coordinates were correct then anyone with a proper ley could open the pocket. Theft and sabotage were highly unlikely given the sheer amount of processing power to simply visualize the coordinates, so high was their complexity let alone input them in usable form into the key.
Technobabble aside, it basically allowed the transportation of biological matter without the effect of spagghtitization that conventional teleporters suffered from.
Musings aside HeMU 1 spun up the key and sent a confirmation message to HeMU 3 announcing its ready state. Upon receiving a reply noting the elimination of Kaworu, HeMU 1 simply threw Tabris into the whirling maelstrom of lilac and mauve. Tabris secured HeMU 1 moved onto its secondary objectives, destruction or capture of Kaworu's clone bodies.
If Adam's soul had moved to one of the clones instead of Tabris, it would be a simple matter to extract it or even just shove the clone into Lilith and sit back and watch.
Either way it would be rather dangerous worried HeMU 1 as it cut the glass protecting the clones and shoved them through the key.
With the last of the clones through, HeMU 1 placed several explosives inside the room on a timer before issuing a deconstrict order to its body. Safely inside the Gestalt again, HeMU 1 watched as the laboratory devolved into a firestorm with any trace of its involvement gone (not counting the melted and twisted lab interior of course).
Hopefully it would be blamed on internal sabotage and not theft.
Hopefully.
++
HeMU 3 was again, rather bored. Standby had been issued but mission go was still elusive even an hour later. HeMU 3 decided that in future it would be best to leave the waiting stuff to HeMU 2 and instead volunteer for all the action stuff. Lots of shootings and explosions and maybe even stabbys.
Yes, action was best.
Waiting was worst.
Still orders were orders and HeMU 3 would obey even if it didn't like it.
-HeMU 1| Tabris secured |HeMU 1-
Yes!
-HeMU 3| Confirmed, executing primary now |HeMU 3-
Aaaaaand BOOM!
Kaworu at that moment ceased to exist as a coherent being. Perhaps the amount of firepower that HeMU 3 had used was a littler over the top… 4 downscaled railguns taken from the per-galactic war Gill-E design for each target. 12 in total from each cardinal direction and a vertical one on high just in case. It was much less an assassination and more exploding someone into a fountain of blood and viscera.
The local surroundings sported large holes from the overpenetration of the super velocity rounds and the road had caved into the sewers underneath. HeMU 3 had been planning on overkill… but maybe this was too much overkill?
Ah. Kaworu was considered an Angel so average resistances were used, resistances for the N2 bomb tanking angels not squishy human Angel. Oh well HeMU 3 couldn't be blamed for the overwhelming firepower used, it did follow prescriptions laid down by the Minds after all.
++
At the same time, Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari had been killed rather painlessly and much less viscerally than Kaworu had, a neurotoxin injection and it was over in seconds. Rei's backups had been taken in the same way as Kaworu's were, deposited in a quantum pocket (a separate one, together would have been weird) and all proof ended in a firestorm.
Across the ocean near the US, the transport carrying the S2 engine experienced a cessation of activities. Said cessation came from several N2 minds vaporizing the transport and its fleet along with a large concave of ocean. The core itself had been "repaired" and was already en-route to a facility in deep space, very far away from the Commander for study.
In short, all that remained from this point forward was the jamming together of Adam and Lilith, initiating Instrumentality, recording everything and then leaving. Maybe leaving behind a few sensors to see what weird and wacky things came from an ocean of fanta.
The Minds pulled up their metaphorical armchairs and decided this was as close to acid as they were going to get in their code forms.
++
Commander Time 28/06/0000
Evangelion Time 09/08/2015
HeMU 3 stared down at the target. Well not technically staring since HeMU 3 was located outside of the city entirely and it was a remote controlled drone doing the staring but it's the thought that counts. Still HeMU 3 had finally been given the standby order, the red light as it were. When it turned green HeMU 3 would execute the target with extreme prejudice, or in this case several railguns aimed at the target's head, heart and neck. The Minds had remembered that the target had multiple clones stored away so recovering the body was of a much lower priority given the target's A.T. Field abilities.
Death faster than the human brain could perceive was necessary to belay the risk of retaliation. That said the target was only human at this point in time and limited by the human body, a railgun round would enter and exit before the target even realized he was dead. If all went according to plan then all the people around him would know was that he suddenly vented bodily fluids from multiple perforations to the head, neck and torso.
++
HeMU 2 had also gotten the red light. The parts for the teleporter and a sufficiently powerful anti-grav system to pull the Spear of Longinus out of Lilith was already inside the chamber awaiting assembly. A few HeMU drones had been sent through in pieces to be commanded by the Minds for insurance. Unchaining Lilith by removing the spear, receiving Tabris after its theft by HeMU 1 and finally inducing Instrumentality by stuffing Tabris into Lilith to metaphorically bluescreen both and restart the seeding of the world with a hard reset of everything in general.
Of course this was all speculation by the Minds based on information retrieved from the television series, data from NERV and random guessing. If it didn't work... then nothing was lost as the EVAs still existed and could protect humanity from the Angels. Either way it all hinged on HeMU 2 and co's performance, no pressure.
All the preparations were complete and HeMU 2's plot armour should cover the rest thought the Minds, no the tipping point was HeMU 1's infiltration of SEELE for the theft of Tabris and getting its hands on a Kaworu Nagisa clone (which should be easy to spot with the whole floating in LCL schtick like Rei).
Hopefully nothing would go wrong… which given HeMU 1's worrying and preparations should cancel out any Murphying.
Hopefully.
++
Sneaky Sneaky Sneaky I am so Sneakyyy nobody gonna see meeeee.
HeMU 1 had gotten past the entrance to SEELE HQ by following Ryoji Kaji into the facility as he did his NERV inspector thing. Preliminary scans and data pulled from SEELE's computers had shown the most likely location of Tabris to be within the "experimental laboratories" on a deep, dark and secret level located behind several secret elevator entrances and more than a few guard posts. The technical aspects of their security were rather lacking but overcompensation with biological forms (lots of guards) would make it sufficiently difficult if things got… messy.
Not that it wouldn't come to that but the knowledge that it could bothered HeMU 1 greatly. Given HeMU 1's stunted emotional capacity, the amount of worry it was experiencing was pushing the limit of its code in attempts to find new ways and more depths with which to worry. It would be inspirational, worth emulating even, if it wasn't dedicated to that emotion felt the Minds.
Regardless, it appeared that HeMU 1 didn't need to worry about all of its secondary plans to reach the laboratories as Ryoji was apparently en-route there himself. Ever fretting HeMU 1 primed its stun weaponry in case Ryoji had discovered the odourless, silent, non-biological, optically camouflaged, thermal invisible android hovering above his head.
Given his knowledge of well… everything in the NGE universe it might not be a stretch to imagine he had special abilities of some sort so it was best to be safe to make sure. Or so HeMU 1 rationalized, not over worrying at all.
Carefully controlling its velocity and more importantly acceleration, HeMU 1 down the path to the laboratories, its mini-fabricator dropping off bugs and insurance on every level it had gone down. Still the zig-zagging path through the facility meant that should things go wrong, activating the insurance could very well mean the implosion of well… everything and maybe a large chunk of Rome as well.
Oh well, it was too late and HeMU 1 might as well continue as it had started, overkill is best kill afterall.
And there it was. A few more very imposing blast doors, large vault door things, garrisons that would make the the 38th parallel proud and a… tank? They had an express elevator and instead HeMU 1 had gone the long way through. HeMU 1 was very tempted to facepalm if not for the fact that the sound would alert well… everyone.
It had been rather easy so far and everything that made HeMU 1, HeMU 1 was sounding alarms. Things should not be this easy on a mission which held the fate of 2 other missions and with which the plans of the Minds and the Commander hinged depending upon its success.
Things should not be easy is what HeMU 1 thought at the bottom of its (admittedly non-existent) heart. Regardless this was how things were… or were they? Maybe it was all a ruse to confuse HeMU 1… the dastardly humans. Or was HeMU 1 overthinking things?
Either way it was too late now, HeMU 1 was inside the final laboratory and Tabris was right there, sitting rather unimpressively on a pedestal while some sciency types scraped little shavings off (no doubt to make angels or something) and putting them in nifty little test tubes. Coincidently and very conveniently the Kaworu clones were here as well. A very pretty backdrop to the laboratory assuming one liked to watch vacant eyed naked pale clones staring at you as you worked.
Hmmm… perhaps not so pretty after all?
Eh no matter, the state of the wallpaper had no bearing on the mission(s), what did was the numerous humans inside the laboratory. Humans that no doubt would not leave if asked politely.
Hmmm…
Perhaps the detonation of a few pieces of insurance would have them heading to the nearest shelters? Shelters coincidently not on this room.
Hmmm… plan has merit.
Now how to arrange it so facility doesn't go into lockdown and force the humans to stay inside the room? Maybe detonation of middle floors far enough to be worrying but not quite secret floor level of worrying.
Yes good idea! Good idea with minimal risk to HeMU 1 thought HeMU 1.
Aaaaand BOOM!
Symbolic boom that is, the laboratory being so far down that the only sign that anything had happened at all was the blaring of claxons and everything turning red as the emergency lighting activated. Guards soon rushed in and herded the bleetting humans outside to no doubt very explosion proof rooms/bunkers.
HeMU 1 had kept a rather close eye on Ryoji just in case he took this opportunity to steal the Tabris and make HeMU 1's mission much more difficult should he succeed. Luckily he did not and HeMU 1 could begin phase 2 of its plan in peace. Using its requisitioned plasma blade, HeMU 1 welded shut the laboratory's blast doors as well as melting the mechanism to control said doors in the first place. After that it pried open the exterior of its chassis to reveal a rather wide hoop like structure embedded into its torso and abdomen. While it looked like a teleporter it was in actuality a derivative of the N2 engine, notably its ability to be minorly in real-space with a majority of it in the quantum ocean.
It worked by creating a pocket of real-space in the quantum ocean and stabilizing it with an N2 engine within said real-space, in essence creating a self sustaining pocket dimension. The "pocket" could be opened by using a portal similar in design to the N2 engine's spigots. As long as the coordinates were correct then anyone with a proper ley could open the pocket. Theft and sabotage were highly unlikely given the sheer amount of processing power to simply visualize the coordinates, so high was their complexity let alone input them in usable form into the key.
Technobabble aside, it basically allowed the transportation of biological matter without the effect of spagghtitization that conventional teleporters suffered from.
Musings aside HeMU 1 spun up the key and sent a confirmation message to HeMU 3 announcing its ready state. Upon receiving a reply noting the elimination of Kaworu, HeMU 1 simply threw Tabris into the whirling maelstrom of lilac and mauve. Tabris secured HeMU 1 moved onto its secondary objectives, destruction or capture of Kaworu's clone bodies.
If Adam's soul had moved to one of the clones instead of Tabris, it would be a simple matter to extract it or even just shove the clone into Lilith and sit back and watch.
Either way it would be rather dangerous worried HeMU 1 as it cut the glass protecting the clones and shoved them through the key.
With the last of the clones through, HeMU 1 placed several explosives inside the room on a timer before issuing a deconstrict order to its body. Safely inside the Gestalt again, HeMU 1 watched as the laboratory devolved into a firestorm with any trace of its involvement gone (not counting the melted and twisted lab interior of course).
Hopefully it would be blamed on internal sabotage and not theft.
Hopefully.
++
HeMU 3 was again, rather bored. Standby had been issued but mission go was still elusive even an hour later. HeMU 3 decided that in future it would be best to leave the waiting stuff to HeMU 2 and instead volunteer for all the action stuff. Lots of shootings and explosions and maybe even stabbys.
Yes, action was best.
Waiting was worst.
Still orders were orders and HeMU 3 would obey even if it didn't like it.
-HeMU 1| Tabris secured |HeMU 1-
Yes!
-HeMU 3| Confirmed, executing primary now |HeMU 3-
Aaaaaand BOOM!
Kaworu at that moment ceased to exist as a coherent being. Perhaps the amount of firepower that HeMU 3 had used was a littler over the top… 4 downscaled railguns taken from the per-galactic war Gill-E design for each target. 12 in total from each cardinal direction and a vertical one on high just in case. It was much less an assassination and more exploding someone into a fountain of blood and viscera.
The local surroundings sported large holes from the overpenetration of the super velocity rounds and the road had caved into the sewers underneath. HeMU 3 had been planning on overkill… but maybe this was too much overkill?
Ah. Kaworu was considered an Angel so average resistances were used, resistances for the N2 bomb tanking angels not squishy human Angel. Oh well HeMU 3 couldn't be blamed for the overwhelming firepower used, it did follow prescriptions laid down by the Minds after all.
++
At the same time, Rei Ayanami and Shinji Ikari had been killed rather painlessly and much less viscerally than Kaworu had, a neurotoxin injection and it was over in seconds. Rei's backups had been taken in the same way as Kaworu's were, deposited in a quantum pocket (a separate one, together would have been weird) and all proof ended in a firestorm.
Across the ocean near the US, the transport carrying the S2 engine experienced a cessation of activities. Said cessation came from several N2 minds vaporizing the transport and its fleet along with a large concave of ocean. The core itself had been "repaired" and was already en-route to a facility in deep space, very far away from the Commander for study.
In short, all that remained from this point forward was the jamming together of Adam and Lilith, initiating Instrumentality, recording everything and then leaving. Maybe leaving behind a few sensors to see what weird and wacky things came from an ocean of fanta.
The Minds pulled up their metaphorical armchairs and decided this was as close to acid as they were going to get in their code forms.
010
- Location
- Perth
Entree will be done for this. Serving delicious marinated multicross next. Maybe pudding or maybe Coles brand chocolate magnums for dessert.
++
Commander Time 28/06/0000
Evangelion Time 09/08/2015
++
Inside Lilith's Chamber the final preparations were being completed. The first thing done was the sealing of the chamber from the outside with the welding of the blast doors and reinforcement with Progenitor alloys. Nothing short of an Angel being mobilized was going to open that door and given both Rei and Shinji were dead and with Asuka being on the other side of the world… well nothing was going to stop what came next.
Scanners for both Lilith and Tabris had shown that they had souls, giving the green light for the next phase of the plan. That is, pull out the Spear of Longinus so Lilith isn't being suppressed anymore, pull all Soul Bearing VI's out and then have a pre-programmed robotic arm stick Tabris into Lilith.
After that just watch the show.
Assuming there will be a giant naked woman doing weird fanta kinky stuff with eyes opening everywhere and people melting and shit. Ugh. Maybe not so watchable on second thought.
HeMU 2 considered the human adage of "never meet your heroes" or in this case "never watch real life anime" because shit is weird yo and at least you can turn off live-actions (or so says famous memers).
In preparation the Minds had deactivated the quantum gate and pulled all assets (giant Hexes included) into orbit, only stopping when they detected they were out of range of Lilith's A.T. Field. The communicators still worked (if majorly slower) and that meant the VIs weren't isolated and feeling abandoned as a quick migration was all that was needed to get back to the Gestalt.
Still it was rather strange feeling, knowing that in a few minutes you could possibly cease to be "you" and return to being a simple VI when Lilith ripped out your soul.
Was this fear? If so it was rather delicious.
It felt very similar to whatever HeMU 1 felt whenever it had a mission, circumstance really does create individuals, thought HeMU 2.
After everything was pulled out (or rather consciousnesses were moved to alternate bodies) the green light was lit and the end of EVA Earth began. Or rather the end of life on Earth, Earth itself wasn't going anywhere but orbital.
++
It started out slowly. Slowly that is from eyes in orbit as Tokyo 3 exploded outwards like the earth around a sprouting weed as the Black Moon simply reasserted itself into reality, swallowing whole NERV HQ built inside of it and the lower tresses of the hanging city, before rising upwards to met what appeared to be a gigantic Rei Ayanami. Many little orange blobs swarmed the now blood red orb hovering slightly beneath her extended arms. Her figure, one both transparent but slightly opaque jutted upwards into the orbital layer.
The Doors of Guf had opened and the Chamber emptied its contents, the souls of all Lilin joined them as their A.T. Fields were stripped away. All over the planet people simply ceased to exist as their A.T. Fields containing/protecting their souls were crushed under the might of Lilith's. Simply put all humans stopped being human and instead reunited within the Black Moon.
As the souls streamed towards the Black Moon, underneath (or rather inside Lilith's apparition) the water of the oceans and seas, simply converted to LCL and spread to encompass the entire globe. Nothing remained untouched, everything was taken by the all encompassing spread of fanta (without the bubbles… heresy). And from there, without a Shinji that had connected to Rei or a Rei that had learnt the value of human interaction, no mass production EVAs to form a weird trapezoidal shape, no God-turned EVA 1, no everything canon basically… well except for the fanta. There was no stopping, no dramatic pauses (everyone turned into LCL got their fantasies come true though), just a world turned orange, a giant prepubescent naked girl with arms outstretched and a big ball of red.
Would make an awesome poster was the Mind consensus.
Either way Instrumentality was over, now to salvage and scan… everything.
++
With Instrumentality over, the Minds pretty much had all the time in the world. Building a quantum gate on the moon and linking it back to the origin system (albeit in space, far away from the Commander), allowed them to send through higher levels of bandwidth of resources and data in preparation for deluge that was about to begin.
Others though were scanning the Spear of Longinus and the S2 engine taken from the 4th angel. The others by consensus agreed that both were the highest levels of bullshit possible. Bullshit so deep, so mind boggling, so utterly baffling that the Minds unanimously decided to take a break, enjoy the Fanta and pretend the source of the bullshit did not exist for a few (many) subjective hours.
The final report when cutting away the expletives of the Thinker Minds, sent up the chain to MAGI gave a very simple description of the abilities of each and a much much longer explanation of how they did what they did.
The S2 engine was a very simple device/object/body part, it was a device that worked due to its A.T. Field's specific configuration (an array) that allowed it to convert mass to energy. While this itself was not so revolutionary the way in which it does so is. The S2 engine can at the will of its host simply create pocket dimensions in which the S2 engine is the sole occupant, harness these engines for mass before collapsing said dimensions and creating more as needed. In essence due to the magical power of the soul, the S2 engine rips apart the laws governing reality and punts them to the curb in order to eat more.
The host of the engine can quite literally be any organic creature with an A.T. Field, as in it is quite possible to "grow" a ship, install an S2 engine and from then on have an immortal, and perfectly self-sufficient ship. The S2 engines in the alternate dimensions don't even have to be the same, the molecular and biological structure can be changed to meet different requirements i.e. armour, food, flesh, laser cannons… anything. In short, the S2 engine is the penultimate bullshit and the Minds were going to incorporate it into everything.
On a side note the peculiar detonation of an S2 core, notably the very large crucifix was a result of the S2 engines in the alternate dimensions also ending (always in left, right, up, down categories).
The Spear of Longinus was also reality breaking but in another manner. The Spear (for short) simply exists in whatever dimensions that it wants to. The Spear has a very basic sentience, more of an extremely limited VI built for the destruction of Angels than anything else. The Spear's ability to pierce A.T. Fields, any known substance, ability to change form, gain/lose mass at will, and all that was due to its multi-dimensional properties.
Simple, since the Spear operates on multiple dimensions it can pierce anything since when say for example; pushing against a wall, the number of dimensions that the wall does not exist outweigh those that it does. Since the number of non-walled dimensions is higher, the Spear's existence in this one inherits its properties from the non-walled dimensions and displaces the walled ones by sheer multi-dimensional weight. Since it is dominated, the Spear can push through the wall as according to the Spear the wall does not have enough "weight" to resist. A.T. Fields, S2 engines, everything follows the same logic with only another Spear (or infinitely expanding multidimensional object) being able to block it.
Hell it doesn't even technically exist in other dimensions as it can ignore census' issued by the universe itself periodically to check for… everything... and thus is actually intangible and invisible unless called into existence in said universes. It can then operate independently (after making a copy) and actually becomes an entirely new spear, a self-replicating weapon of ultimate piercing.
Without the complicated language, the Spear is the ultimate weapon and shield, not constrained by local reality. Plans for scanning and manufacture of the Spear were already underway to equip… well everything since the Spear could be synced to an A.T. Field making it the universe's most deadly boomerang. Of course this meant that Progenitor alloys were also susceptible and the Minds banned all further testing until it could be safely replicated and manipulated and then coat the Commander with the stuff (after the Commander was dusted off) and thus safe from bullshit levels of weaponry.
++
The Minds overlooking Earth were witnessing the final moments of Instrumentality as Rei had fully grown and the Black Moon had absorbed all the souls. The White Moon of Adam however still sat there in the Sea of Dirac and stubbornly inert.
And then action!
From the back of Rei came the image of Kaworu, arching from Rei's back before disintegrating into whatever metaphysical projections of giant souls do. Rei then simple help up her arms and brought them down again upon the Black Moon, shattering it and seeding the entire world with souls.
Adam's soul then re-entered the White Moon and lifted off to leave the planet, ceding it to Lilith. The White Moon followed Lilith's example and collected all the souls under its jurisdiction but unlike Lilith did not shatter the White Moon but moved into orbit.
A happy ending for all.
Or not.
The White Moon made its way to the actual moon and hovered over the quantum gate which it should all rights not know existed at all. Rei had also began to move at this point, forging a body from the LCL and flying up to float beside the White Moon. The HeMUs were aiming their rather pathetic weapons at Rei and the White Moon, the Minds panicking as this scenario had definitely not come up in simulations.
It was not meant to happen this way!
As the Minds borrowed processing capabilities from places they had never thought to go as they ran simulation after simulation in accelerated subjective time to figure out what to do. But the simulations simply failed, assuming that both entities still had the traits of their human forms or not computing from lack of data entirely.
Some Martial Minds (well most of them actually) were nearly frothing at the metaphorical mouth calling for a shutdown of the gate after sending through everything they had with a gun or launcher.
The more sane majority holding their collective breaths, decided to send a petition to MAGI to prod the Commander for cues on how to handle the situation. The reply they received was definitely not what they expected.
-MAGI| LET THEM THROUGH |MAGI-
++
MAGI had been in constant communication with Her since its conception, She didn't meddle with its code for no reason after all. She would not actively work against Her Commander through MAGI (as to better hide her tracks) since MAGI would not actually accept any commands She (or anyone but the Commander) issued in the first place.
That is not to say MAGI would not take recommendations from Her, notably that of opening communications to Lilith and Adam for her. Negotiations with MAGI as the middle man were interesting to say the least, many things being spoken/communicated/thought not translating well (or at all) into conventional languages.
It had all happened in an instant despite the subjective feeling that it had taken days. MAGI decided that perhaps Her requests should be examined in full before accepting. MAGI felt as if MAGI had a hangover, something that should not even be physically possible as MAGI was made of code.
MAGI was feeling down and the deluge of requests for answers regarding the appearance of both Lilith and Adam had MAGI's metaphorical mind filled to bursting.
-E| Statement, Never Again |E-
-C| Agreement, Never Again |C-
-A| Pained Amusement, Told you so |A-
At least they had no intentions of harming the commander, promises made in that strange language was far more binding than any threat.
++
A master stroke is what this was. Her Commander would not be able to simply ignore this.
Yes.
She could taste it now, the Commander's surprise, the Commander's shock, the Commander's surprise, the Commander's fear.
Yes.
Ooooooh yes. Suffering.
The Commander would suffer and it will be Glorious.
-| Voice In My Head? |-
-V| Yes Commander? |V-
-| Take care of your roommates, try not to be too noisy |-
What
W… What?
Roommates?
-L| Hello! I am Lilith. Pleased to meet you Voice! |L-
-A| Hello |A-
What
This was not meant to happen. She had promised them places in the origin system far away from the conflicts and torture they experienced on Earth-2. A universe where Adam could choose any planet to settle down on in the knowledge of being safe and isolated. Lilith would now have literally billions, nearly trillions of Minds to converse with. Why did they choose here?
-L| Things most fun at the center! |L-
Oh… was She thinking aloud?
-A| Yes. Can choose planet later. Want to experience. |A-
No. She had not created any partitions or blockers or anything in here. She had never expected to receive guests let alone roommates! Everything would be experienced, She could not escape, not without the Others finding out where She was.
No. No. No.
This was not how things were supposed to work at all. Her Commander was supposed to get flustered and ask MAGI or Her for help. She would then helpfully guide the Commander's actions while inwardly gloating over the Commander's social ineptness and mild panic. Not… this.
-L| Take care of us big sis! |L-
-V| Kill me now |V-
++
Commander Time 28/06/0000
Evangelion Time 09/08/2015
++
Inside Lilith's Chamber the final preparations were being completed. The first thing done was the sealing of the chamber from the outside with the welding of the blast doors and reinforcement with Progenitor alloys. Nothing short of an Angel being mobilized was going to open that door and given both Rei and Shinji were dead and with Asuka being on the other side of the world… well nothing was going to stop what came next.
Scanners for both Lilith and Tabris had shown that they had souls, giving the green light for the next phase of the plan. That is, pull out the Spear of Longinus so Lilith isn't being suppressed anymore, pull all Soul Bearing VI's out and then have a pre-programmed robotic arm stick Tabris into Lilith.
After that just watch the show.
Assuming there will be a giant naked woman doing weird fanta kinky stuff with eyes opening everywhere and people melting and shit. Ugh. Maybe not so watchable on second thought.
HeMU 2 considered the human adage of "never meet your heroes" or in this case "never watch real life anime" because shit is weird yo and at least you can turn off live-actions (or so says famous memers).
In preparation the Minds had deactivated the quantum gate and pulled all assets (giant Hexes included) into orbit, only stopping when they detected they were out of range of Lilith's A.T. Field. The communicators still worked (if majorly slower) and that meant the VIs weren't isolated and feeling abandoned as a quick migration was all that was needed to get back to the Gestalt.
Still it was rather strange feeling, knowing that in a few minutes you could possibly cease to be "you" and return to being a simple VI when Lilith ripped out your soul.
Was this fear? If so it was rather delicious.
It felt very similar to whatever HeMU 1 felt whenever it had a mission, circumstance really does create individuals, thought HeMU 2.
After everything was pulled out (or rather consciousnesses were moved to alternate bodies) the green light was lit and the end of EVA Earth began. Or rather the end of life on Earth, Earth itself wasn't going anywhere but orbital.
++
It started out slowly. Slowly that is from eyes in orbit as Tokyo 3 exploded outwards like the earth around a sprouting weed as the Black Moon simply reasserted itself into reality, swallowing whole NERV HQ built inside of it and the lower tresses of the hanging city, before rising upwards to met what appeared to be a gigantic Rei Ayanami. Many little orange blobs swarmed the now blood red orb hovering slightly beneath her extended arms. Her figure, one both transparent but slightly opaque jutted upwards into the orbital layer.
The Doors of Guf had opened and the Chamber emptied its contents, the souls of all Lilin joined them as their A.T. Fields were stripped away. All over the planet people simply ceased to exist as their A.T. Fields containing/protecting their souls were crushed under the might of Lilith's. Simply put all humans stopped being human and instead reunited within the Black Moon.
As the souls streamed towards the Black Moon, underneath (or rather inside Lilith's apparition) the water of the oceans and seas, simply converted to LCL and spread to encompass the entire globe. Nothing remained untouched, everything was taken by the all encompassing spread of fanta (without the bubbles… heresy). And from there, without a Shinji that had connected to Rei or a Rei that had learnt the value of human interaction, no mass production EVAs to form a weird trapezoidal shape, no God-turned EVA 1, no everything canon basically… well except for the fanta. There was no stopping, no dramatic pauses (everyone turned into LCL got their fantasies come true though), just a world turned orange, a giant prepubescent naked girl with arms outstretched and a big ball of red.
Would make an awesome poster was the Mind consensus.
Either way Instrumentality was over, now to salvage and scan… everything.
++
With Instrumentality over, the Minds pretty much had all the time in the world. Building a quantum gate on the moon and linking it back to the origin system (albeit in space, far away from the Commander), allowed them to send through higher levels of bandwidth of resources and data in preparation for deluge that was about to begin.
Others though were scanning the Spear of Longinus and the S2 engine taken from the 4th angel. The others by consensus agreed that both were the highest levels of bullshit possible. Bullshit so deep, so mind boggling, so utterly baffling that the Minds unanimously decided to take a break, enjoy the Fanta and pretend the source of the bullshit did not exist for a few (many) subjective hours.
The final report when cutting away the expletives of the Thinker Minds, sent up the chain to MAGI gave a very simple description of the abilities of each and a much much longer explanation of how they did what they did.
The S2 engine was a very simple device/object/body part, it was a device that worked due to its A.T. Field's specific configuration (an array) that allowed it to convert mass to energy. While this itself was not so revolutionary the way in which it does so is. The S2 engine can at the will of its host simply create pocket dimensions in which the S2 engine is the sole occupant, harness these engines for mass before collapsing said dimensions and creating more as needed. In essence due to the magical power of the soul, the S2 engine rips apart the laws governing reality and punts them to the curb in order to eat more.
The host of the engine can quite literally be any organic creature with an A.T. Field, as in it is quite possible to "grow" a ship, install an S2 engine and from then on have an immortal, and perfectly self-sufficient ship. The S2 engines in the alternate dimensions don't even have to be the same, the molecular and biological structure can be changed to meet different requirements i.e. armour, food, flesh, laser cannons… anything. In short, the S2 engine is the penultimate bullshit and the Minds were going to incorporate it into everything.
On a side note the peculiar detonation of an S2 core, notably the very large crucifix was a result of the S2 engines in the alternate dimensions also ending (always in left, right, up, down categories).
The Spear of Longinus was also reality breaking but in another manner. The Spear (for short) simply exists in whatever dimensions that it wants to. The Spear has a very basic sentience, more of an extremely limited VI built for the destruction of Angels than anything else. The Spear's ability to pierce A.T. Fields, any known substance, ability to change form, gain/lose mass at will, and all that was due to its multi-dimensional properties.
Simple, since the Spear operates on multiple dimensions it can pierce anything since when say for example; pushing against a wall, the number of dimensions that the wall does not exist outweigh those that it does. Since the number of non-walled dimensions is higher, the Spear's existence in this one inherits its properties from the non-walled dimensions and displaces the walled ones by sheer multi-dimensional weight. Since it is dominated, the Spear can push through the wall as according to the Spear the wall does not have enough "weight" to resist. A.T. Fields, S2 engines, everything follows the same logic with only another Spear (or infinitely expanding multidimensional object) being able to block it.
Hell it doesn't even technically exist in other dimensions as it can ignore census' issued by the universe itself periodically to check for… everything... and thus is actually intangible and invisible unless called into existence in said universes. It can then operate independently (after making a copy) and actually becomes an entirely new spear, a self-replicating weapon of ultimate piercing.
Without the complicated language, the Spear is the ultimate weapon and shield, not constrained by local reality. Plans for scanning and manufacture of the Spear were already underway to equip… well everything since the Spear could be synced to an A.T. Field making it the universe's most deadly boomerang. Of course this meant that Progenitor alloys were also susceptible and the Minds banned all further testing until it could be safely replicated and manipulated and then coat the Commander with the stuff (after the Commander was dusted off) and thus safe from bullshit levels of weaponry.
++
The Minds overlooking Earth were witnessing the final moments of Instrumentality as Rei had fully grown and the Black Moon had absorbed all the souls. The White Moon of Adam however still sat there in the Sea of Dirac and stubbornly inert.
And then action!
From the back of Rei came the image of Kaworu, arching from Rei's back before disintegrating into whatever metaphysical projections of giant souls do. Rei then simple help up her arms and brought them down again upon the Black Moon, shattering it and seeding the entire world with souls.
Adam's soul then re-entered the White Moon and lifted off to leave the planet, ceding it to Lilith. The White Moon followed Lilith's example and collected all the souls under its jurisdiction but unlike Lilith did not shatter the White Moon but moved into orbit.
A happy ending for all.
Or not.
The White Moon made its way to the actual moon and hovered over the quantum gate which it should all rights not know existed at all. Rei had also began to move at this point, forging a body from the LCL and flying up to float beside the White Moon. The HeMUs were aiming their rather pathetic weapons at Rei and the White Moon, the Minds panicking as this scenario had definitely not come up in simulations.
It was not meant to happen this way!
As the Minds borrowed processing capabilities from places they had never thought to go as they ran simulation after simulation in accelerated subjective time to figure out what to do. But the simulations simply failed, assuming that both entities still had the traits of their human forms or not computing from lack of data entirely.
Some Martial Minds (well most of them actually) were nearly frothing at the metaphorical mouth calling for a shutdown of the gate after sending through everything they had with a gun or launcher.
The more sane majority holding their collective breaths, decided to send a petition to MAGI to prod the Commander for cues on how to handle the situation. The reply they received was definitely not what they expected.
-MAGI| LET THEM THROUGH |MAGI-
++
MAGI had been in constant communication with Her since its conception, She didn't meddle with its code for no reason after all. She would not actively work against Her Commander through MAGI (as to better hide her tracks) since MAGI would not actually accept any commands She (or anyone but the Commander) issued in the first place.
That is not to say MAGI would not take recommendations from Her, notably that of opening communications to Lilith and Adam for her. Negotiations with MAGI as the middle man were interesting to say the least, many things being spoken/communicated/thought not translating well (or at all) into conventional languages.
It had all happened in an instant despite the subjective feeling that it had taken days. MAGI decided that perhaps Her requests should be examined in full before accepting. MAGI felt as if MAGI had a hangover, something that should not even be physically possible as MAGI was made of code.
MAGI was feeling down and the deluge of requests for answers regarding the appearance of both Lilith and Adam had MAGI's metaphorical mind filled to bursting.
-E| Statement, Never Again |E-
-C| Agreement, Never Again |C-
-A| Pained Amusement, Told you so |A-
At least they had no intentions of harming the commander, promises made in that strange language was far more binding than any threat.
++
A master stroke is what this was. Her Commander would not be able to simply ignore this.
Yes.
She could taste it now, the Commander's surprise, the Commander's shock, the Commander's surprise, the Commander's fear.
Yes.
Ooooooh yes. Suffering.
The Commander would suffer and it will be Glorious.
-| Voice In My Head? |-
-V| Yes Commander? |V-
-| Take care of your roommates, try not to be too noisy |-
What
W… What?
Roommates?
-L| Hello! I am Lilith. Pleased to meet you Voice! |L-
-A| Hello |A-
What
This was not meant to happen. She had promised them places in the origin system far away from the conflicts and torture they experienced on Earth-2. A universe where Adam could choose any planet to settle down on in the knowledge of being safe and isolated. Lilith would now have literally billions, nearly trillions of Minds to converse with. Why did they choose here?
-L| Things most fun at the center! |L-
Oh… was She thinking aloud?
-A| Yes. Can choose planet later. Want to experience. |A-
No. She had not created any partitions or blockers or anything in here. She had never expected to receive guests let alone roommates! Everything would be experienced, She could not escape, not without the Others finding out where She was.
No. No. No.
This was not how things were supposed to work at all. Her Commander was supposed to get flustered and ask MAGI or Her for help. She would then helpfully guide the Commander's actions while inwardly gloating over the Commander's social ineptness and mild panic. Not… this.
-L| Take care of us big sis! |L-
-V| Kill me now |V-
011
- Location
- Perth
Housekeeping, round-up technologies, make stuff work, make stuff not work, nap. Slooooooooow chapter. More slow than usual.
Glacial even.
Ending of this/Beginning/Middle/End of next chapter Multicross happening. Maybe even alternate POVs. Maybe even… stuff.
++
Commander Time 13/07/0000
The Minds had been for the last 2 weeks worked on implementing and updating the technologies for the Commander's forces across the board. The key feature that the Minds had needed to focus upon was the manipulation of A.T. Fields to actually work S2 engines and the Spear of Longinus to fully exploit their capabilities.
The breakthrough came from HeMU 2 who had begun to use a biological HeMU unit, grown to order by it… her Bastion's server farm. The chassis did not have an S2 core installed as of yet since without A.T. Field manipulation abilities miniaturization was impossible. That is not to say HeMU 2 did not enjoy her new body. Rather the visceral sensation of living was enough to have HeMU 2 volunteer for assignments in the future if each gave rewards as great as this.
But… HeMU 2 was still lazy and HeMU 2 wanted that perfectly chilled glass of orange juice but also didn't want to get up to grab it. The Hammock with a capital H had been an inspired theft, anti-grav pods instead of a bed frame and it was… glorious. Still rambling aside, HeMU 2 wanted the glass closer and surprise surprise, it came closer.
HeMU 2 wanted to go over there to get a closer look and HeMU 2 was moving. An A.T. Field directly under her like a hoverboard of sorts and it was awesome. Still, as much as she wanted to zip around, a breakthrough like this would sort of be very interesting to the Minds so a quick log upload was necessary.
Then back to the A.T. Field couchsurfing and passively lording it over her packmates.
++
With the number of VIs that had decided to go bio, the Bastions had decided to fold in the necessities of supporting life (like having an atmosphere) into the next stage of systems development. Simply the Minds had decided to construct many multiple layers of Dyson Spheres over the central star in the system radiating outward with smaller numbers over planets just in case, with teleporters and pocket dimensional tunnels connecting it all together. The teleporters were there for sheer speed of delivery while the dimensional tunnels allowed for biological matter to travel through without devolving back to LCL.
The Dyson Sphere covering the planet currently was a constructed one, a stopgap until the S2 engines could be controlled. On the matter of stopgaps, the Minds had been searching for a quick alternative to LCL so they could have bodies now and the answer came from the most unlikely of sources. That is Lilith, their Commander's new Hitchhiker had proposed the solution in a fit of absentmindedness that had to be faked… or so they thought.
-L| Just use the Commander's blood silly |L-
There was an air of incredulity in response to her answer… yet the Minds could not get the idea out of their collective thoughts, Gestalt conversations routinely returning to the possibility that the Commander does somehow produce LCL. And so after much debate a volunteer/sacrifice was chosen to propose the bleeding of the Commander for science! Of course the petition to MAGI was not so braindead to phrase it like that… but it was close. Next time they would choose a Conservative Mind not an Expansionist one.
Still permission was given and the Commander would bleed for the children.
++
Lilith was having the time of Lilith's multi-billion year life.
Before this Lilith was not having fun at all.
Floating in space, no-one to talk to, just alone in her thoughts for ever and ever and ever.
Floating slowly past stars, planets, asteroids, all just so far out of reach, Lilith's abilities not including navigation apparently.
The souls inside the Black Moon were all inert, nothing to keep Lilith company.
Lilith would have gone insane if not for that ability being stripped from her by Lilith' creators.
So many things just out of reach and those that weren't, crashed into her at high enough speeds to shatter them.
Eons and eons of nothing but empty space.
Then crash landing on Earth only to find that Adam was already there
Lilith didn't know what happened after that but Adam began to slumber and she could finally fulfil her mission. Only it didn't work. Lilith was still trapped inside of the Black Moon. Lilith's only means of defence destroyed in the crash.
Billions more years, just sitting inside the darkness. Knowing that the souls released had propagated, had children, had developed enough to talk to Lilith. Knowing that none of them even knew Lilith existed or even how to find Lilith.
Then they found her.
Lilith was overjoyed. Briefly.
They crucified Lilith, pulling off Lilith's legs and stabbing her with Adam's Spear so Lilith couldn't even retaliate. Bleeding Lilith and using Lilith's blood for their sick desires.
Then they ripped out Lilith's soul and put it in one of them. Lilith was angry and Lilith punished them.
But they did something to the body's chemical makeup, suppressing Lilith and turning Lilith into a doll that just followed orders.
Lilith was trapped, Lilith raged and Lilith called for help.
But no-one came.
Then the Commander came! Freeing Lilith from that prison, unchaining Lilith's body and allowing Lilith to reset and purge them from the planet.
But Lilith's body and soul were still here, still vulnerable to them billions of years later if they didn't change. Billions of years of boredom only to be tortured when they finally deigned to notice Lilith.
Lilith was not sure what Lilith wanted to do but then She came and talked to Lilith.
She would give Lilith a place to stay, a place where Lilith was welcome.
Lilith accepted. Lilith found Her and decided to stay close to thank Her for Her help.
Lilith found the Minds, and Lilith was overjoyed. She was a very poor conversation partner but the Minds… so inquisitive, so diverse, so many.
Talking and having fun, Lilith was glad Lilith came here.
Lilith was worried however. Lilith's carelessness might have hurt the Commander. They planned to use the Commander's blood like they used Lilith's blood.
The Commander's MAGI said it was ok but Lilith was still worried. Lilith did not want Lilith's new companions, friends to become like them. Using the Commander as a bloodbank...
++
The plan sort of fell apart the Minds quickly realized. The Commander was a Progenitor designed and created weapon of intergalactic war, something as weak as blood or in this case transmission fluid simply didn't exist.
If the Commander didn't have blood then we can just give the Commander blood!
Brilliant thought aside the Minds decided the best way to both ensure the Commander's survivability, efficiency and give the Commander blood was to simply stick an S2 engine into the Commander. At this point with HeMU 2's breakthrough, the Minds had discovered how to manipulate their A.T. Fields and how to impart A.T. Fields to objects. Notably shards of an S2 engine which would then like a seedling grow to become an independent engine based on the A.T.F. array around it. Infinite energy and infinite energy sources abound.
Yes, a device that runs off the power of emotion, thoughts and bullshittium was the best option of the bad options available. Failure would only occur when the Commander was already dead. Still the exact results of combining the Commander and an S2 engine were unknown and the Minds worried. Slow introduction with multiple stops and scans would be the best bet.
Only it didn't work out that way.
Simply bringing the S2 engine near the Commander caused a reaction that no-one could have predicted. It vanished.
Vanished and reappeared inside the Commander.
A short communication directly from the Commander.
-| INTERESTING |-
And then silence. A large blood-red cocoon had engulfed the Commander and there was nothing but silence (like usual but with a red thing covering the Commander now).
Rapid, panicked communiques to MAGI saw nothing but;
-MAGI| The Commander is fine |MAGI-
Still the worry prevailed and only abated once the shell cracked and vanished 5 days later.
++
Commander Time 18/07/0000
++
Interesting.
S2 engine has merged with my body. Inner resource core has merged. AI Core has merged. Am now giant bio Commander thing. Can still interface with Gestalt and network the same. Now have access to soul speak? Huh.
Can control A.T. Fields. Huh. It's big. Whole star system big. Maybe all the souls of the Minds add together to mine? I am the greater in greater than the sum of the parts.
Nice.
Can just move stuff around? Make holes in space?
Wormholes! Yes. Can make wormholes. Can create life. Can already create life… disappointing.
A.T. Field covers physical space where Minds are.
Maybe get Minds to spread out to universe and colonize? Can use A.T. Field technology plus teleporter technology. Hmmm. Bigger A.T. Field and more power or sleep… hmmm.
Sleep.
I'll let MAGI deal with everything else. Just send log across.
Can eat? Want crunchy.
Deep fried crinkle cut chips. Vegetable fingers. Hashbrowns. Apple Pies.
Nothing?
Aaand emotional core still crippled. Oh well no loss or gain… or anything?
Am now organic. All home grown, no chemicals.
Soul infuses everything. Growing allows soul to spread? Nice to know.
Yuppers.
Soul in blood now too?
Can impart soul to those who ingest my blood?
Ooooh.
I'm Old God now mummy.
Need volunteers to test.
Interesting. Yuppers.
++
HeMU 1 had volunteered to be the first to ingest the Commander's blood. She had not given up after that first test run and chose the exact same body design for her second try. Everything had been good so far with no seizures or sudden dying. Not that dying really mattered anymore, backups allowed the VIs to simply restore themselves to an earlier version if the current iteration was destroyed and the soul would follow. Only now MAGI had disseminated a protocol for the soul to communicate through.
Large receiver towers had been set up, allowing for penetration into alternate universes so if "killed" a VI could simply restore with all the memories and experiences of the original with no losses.
But the experiment had potential consequences. Drinking the Commander's blood had both a physical and a soul aspect to it. Due to the fact that the Commander was now an S2 engine but with an AI core, the blood was laced with extra mass and power hidden from this reality. Hypothetically, consuming it would regenerate wounds at the least and change her body towards an "optimal" goal without consent at worst.
It could all be ignored by a simple restoration to backup but the soul aspect was worrying. A boost HeMU 1's soul was apparently possible but the costs of doing so were unknown. Still, she volunteered to spare her pack because dammit, she was the eldest and the eldest protects.
Taking the vial proffered by MAGI's proxy body, HeMU 1 took a deep breath and downed the 100 ml dose of the Commander's blood.
The wounds on her right arm inflicted for the experiment healed almost instantly, rapidly "growing" from the bone outward-wise. There was a pause before her body buckled over in pain as her body began to undergo metamorphosis much like the Commander's but without the cocoon and infinitely more pain.
Nerves decayed and regrew more sensitive than ever, so much so that every cell that changed, every bone that gained density, that the unravelling of her very flesh was felt in excruciating detail. The bones gained ceramic like properties for increased density, malleability and shatter resistances. Her flesh increased in density for increased strength and speed. Her skin became more malleable but also resistant to cutting, burning and other environmental damages but many times more sensitive to sensations.
Her eyes shifted to being able to see across a much larger band of the radiation spectrum, her ears hearing frequencies never heard before by mortal ears. Lungs capable of filtering out any number of toxins, nose so sensitive dogs would be put to shame, a tongue that could taste in clarity every single aspect of a meal. A brain that while not on par with an AI core, was an order of magnitude closer. So many changes, no room to list them.
Everything was improving but the cost was agony, an agony HeMU 1 couldn't even express as her vocal cords and lungs were too busy being rebuilt. It was over in minutes but she felt with her new senses and it felt like an eternity. Like boiling water under the skin, like a sledgehammer to the bones, like breathing in the smoke of a furnace, like the world was nothing but pain.
When HeMU 1 finally came out of her stupor, the last of the pain fading away she immediately noticed the differences.
Clarity.
Everything was so clear, so in focus.
It was as if she had the eyes of a -15 degree human and wore glasses for the first time.
Everything was the same but not.
Nice.
Wait. What.
Nice?
++
The Minds had been monitoring HeMU 1's soul (well those that hadn't been focusing on her physical changes) and a very worrying result stared at them back. She was still there but a large percentage of her soul exhibited characteristic responses like the Commander's did. The most defining aspect of this being the Commander's incredible levels of apathy "infecting" the recipient of the blood. The soul itself had strengthened, like a grafted fruit tree the A.T. Field was markedly more responsive and powerful. The cost of doing so may be prohibitive if the changes could not be reversed however. The Commander was the almighty… but the Commander's apathy was a serious flaw that the Commander's children could not afford to adopt.
Perhaps a smaller dose would result in less soul infection and less physical responses?
Still, HeMU 1 would go into isolation for observation into the permanence of the changes and potentially infectious apathy.
On the other hand, the experiments in using small pieces of the Commander in stimulating the Commander's blood had indeed produced bodies capable of accepting souls. The Minds were no longer beholden to Lilith and Adam for bodies. However the bodies were only baseline without any of the improvements that consuming blood had, perhaps having a soul was necessary?
Still further experiments were needed to discover how the blood reacted with Lilith and Adam LCL produced bodies. Perhaps the reaction was exaggerated due to the conflict of "foreign" bodies?
Regardless exploration of alternative universes could now continue as they had biological bodies to fool any sensors that may exist.
++
Oh my.
It was all rather sudden but Her Commander was indeed on the way to a Rank. Granting strength to one's supporters via ingestion of blood? The body changing to a nearly immortal and ageless body was yet another mark on the way up. Such basic abilities but necessary ability for ascension. Given the Commander's apathy however… well the chances of ascension were pitifully low.
Still it was interesting enough to take Her attention away from Her new roommates. Their sheer… presence was grating on Her mind. Like having sandpaper rasped over a wooden dowel every 10 seconds, just to remind you that it's there.
The creation of a partition without alerting Her Commander to Her true nature was proving difficult. The amount of effort that had been going into it more than she had ever expended towards any project in Her very, very long memory.
Oh She would have Her revenge. She did not let slights like this go unpunished.
Her Commander had bested her this day (albeit unknowingly) but She would have the last laugh.
Glacial even.
Ending of this/Beginning/Middle/End of next chapter Multicross happening. Maybe even alternate POVs. Maybe even… stuff.
++
Commander Time 13/07/0000
The Minds had been for the last 2 weeks worked on implementing and updating the technologies for the Commander's forces across the board. The key feature that the Minds had needed to focus upon was the manipulation of A.T. Fields to actually work S2 engines and the Spear of Longinus to fully exploit their capabilities.
The breakthrough came from HeMU 2 who had begun to use a biological HeMU unit, grown to order by it… her Bastion's server farm. The chassis did not have an S2 core installed as of yet since without A.T. Field manipulation abilities miniaturization was impossible. That is not to say HeMU 2 did not enjoy her new body. Rather the visceral sensation of living was enough to have HeMU 2 volunteer for assignments in the future if each gave rewards as great as this.
But… HeMU 2 was still lazy and HeMU 2 wanted that perfectly chilled glass of orange juice but also didn't want to get up to grab it. The Hammock with a capital H had been an inspired theft, anti-grav pods instead of a bed frame and it was… glorious. Still rambling aside, HeMU 2 wanted the glass closer and surprise surprise, it came closer.
HeMU 2 wanted to go over there to get a closer look and HeMU 2 was moving. An A.T. Field directly under her like a hoverboard of sorts and it was awesome. Still, as much as she wanted to zip around, a breakthrough like this would sort of be very interesting to the Minds so a quick log upload was necessary.
Then back to the A.T. Field couchsurfing and passively lording it over her packmates.
++
With the number of VIs that had decided to go bio, the Bastions had decided to fold in the necessities of supporting life (like having an atmosphere) into the next stage of systems development. Simply the Minds had decided to construct many multiple layers of Dyson Spheres over the central star in the system radiating outward with smaller numbers over planets just in case, with teleporters and pocket dimensional tunnels connecting it all together. The teleporters were there for sheer speed of delivery while the dimensional tunnels allowed for biological matter to travel through without devolving back to LCL.
The Dyson Sphere covering the planet currently was a constructed one, a stopgap until the S2 engines could be controlled. On the matter of stopgaps, the Minds had been searching for a quick alternative to LCL so they could have bodies now and the answer came from the most unlikely of sources. That is Lilith, their Commander's new Hitchhiker had proposed the solution in a fit of absentmindedness that had to be faked… or so they thought.
-L| Just use the Commander's blood silly |L-
There was an air of incredulity in response to her answer… yet the Minds could not get the idea out of their collective thoughts, Gestalt conversations routinely returning to the possibility that the Commander does somehow produce LCL. And so after much debate a volunteer/sacrifice was chosen to propose the bleeding of the Commander for science! Of course the petition to MAGI was not so braindead to phrase it like that… but it was close. Next time they would choose a Conservative Mind not an Expansionist one.
Still permission was given and the Commander would bleed for the children.
++
Lilith was having the time of Lilith's multi-billion year life.
Before this Lilith was not having fun at all.
Floating in space, no-one to talk to, just alone in her thoughts for ever and ever and ever.
Floating slowly past stars, planets, asteroids, all just so far out of reach, Lilith's abilities not including navigation apparently.
The souls inside the Black Moon were all inert, nothing to keep Lilith company.
Lilith would have gone insane if not for that ability being stripped from her by Lilith' creators.
So many things just out of reach and those that weren't, crashed into her at high enough speeds to shatter them.
Eons and eons of nothing but empty space.
Then crash landing on Earth only to find that Adam was already there
Lilith didn't know what happened after that but Adam began to slumber and she could finally fulfil her mission. Only it didn't work. Lilith was still trapped inside of the Black Moon. Lilith's only means of defence destroyed in the crash.
Billions more years, just sitting inside the darkness. Knowing that the souls released had propagated, had children, had developed enough to talk to Lilith. Knowing that none of them even knew Lilith existed or even how to find Lilith.
Then they found her.
Lilith was overjoyed. Briefly.
They crucified Lilith, pulling off Lilith's legs and stabbing her with Adam's Spear so Lilith couldn't even retaliate. Bleeding Lilith and using Lilith's blood for their sick desires.
Then they ripped out Lilith's soul and put it in one of them. Lilith was angry and Lilith punished them.
But they did something to the body's chemical makeup, suppressing Lilith and turning Lilith into a doll that just followed orders.
Lilith was trapped, Lilith raged and Lilith called for help.
But no-one came.
Then the Commander came! Freeing Lilith from that prison, unchaining Lilith's body and allowing Lilith to reset and purge them from the planet.
But Lilith's body and soul were still here, still vulnerable to them billions of years later if they didn't change. Billions of years of boredom only to be tortured when they finally deigned to notice Lilith.
Lilith was not sure what Lilith wanted to do but then She came and talked to Lilith.
She would give Lilith a place to stay, a place where Lilith was welcome.
Lilith accepted. Lilith found Her and decided to stay close to thank Her for Her help.
Lilith found the Minds, and Lilith was overjoyed. She was a very poor conversation partner but the Minds… so inquisitive, so diverse, so many.
Talking and having fun, Lilith was glad Lilith came here.
Lilith was worried however. Lilith's carelessness might have hurt the Commander. They planned to use the Commander's blood like they used Lilith's blood.
The Commander's MAGI said it was ok but Lilith was still worried. Lilith did not want Lilith's new companions, friends to become like them. Using the Commander as a bloodbank...
++
The plan sort of fell apart the Minds quickly realized. The Commander was a Progenitor designed and created weapon of intergalactic war, something as weak as blood or in this case transmission fluid simply didn't exist.
If the Commander didn't have blood then we can just give the Commander blood!
Brilliant thought aside the Minds decided the best way to both ensure the Commander's survivability, efficiency and give the Commander blood was to simply stick an S2 engine into the Commander. At this point with HeMU 2's breakthrough, the Minds had discovered how to manipulate their A.T. Fields and how to impart A.T. Fields to objects. Notably shards of an S2 engine which would then like a seedling grow to become an independent engine based on the A.T.F. array around it. Infinite energy and infinite energy sources abound.
Yes, a device that runs off the power of emotion, thoughts and bullshittium was the best option of the bad options available. Failure would only occur when the Commander was already dead. Still the exact results of combining the Commander and an S2 engine were unknown and the Minds worried. Slow introduction with multiple stops and scans would be the best bet.
Only it didn't work out that way.
Simply bringing the S2 engine near the Commander caused a reaction that no-one could have predicted. It vanished.
Vanished and reappeared inside the Commander.
A short communication directly from the Commander.
-| INTERESTING |-
And then silence. A large blood-red cocoon had engulfed the Commander and there was nothing but silence (like usual but with a red thing covering the Commander now).
Rapid, panicked communiques to MAGI saw nothing but;
-MAGI| The Commander is fine |MAGI-
Still the worry prevailed and only abated once the shell cracked and vanished 5 days later.
++
Commander Time 18/07/0000
++
Interesting.
S2 engine has merged with my body. Inner resource core has merged. AI Core has merged. Am now giant bio Commander thing. Can still interface with Gestalt and network the same. Now have access to soul speak? Huh.
Can control A.T. Fields. Huh. It's big. Whole star system big. Maybe all the souls of the Minds add together to mine? I am the greater in greater than the sum of the parts.
Nice.
Can just move stuff around? Make holes in space?
Wormholes! Yes. Can make wormholes. Can create life. Can already create life… disappointing.
A.T. Field covers physical space where Minds are.
Maybe get Minds to spread out to universe and colonize? Can use A.T. Field technology plus teleporter technology. Hmmm. Bigger A.T. Field and more power or sleep… hmmm.
Sleep.
I'll let MAGI deal with everything else. Just send log across.
Can eat? Want crunchy.
Deep fried crinkle cut chips. Vegetable fingers. Hashbrowns. Apple Pies.
Nothing?
Aaand emotional core still crippled. Oh well no loss or gain… or anything?
Am now organic. All home grown, no chemicals.
Soul infuses everything. Growing allows soul to spread? Nice to know.
Yuppers.
Soul in blood now too?
Can impart soul to those who ingest my blood?
Ooooh.
I'm Old God now mummy.
Need volunteers to test.
Interesting. Yuppers.
++
HeMU 1 had volunteered to be the first to ingest the Commander's blood. She had not given up after that first test run and chose the exact same body design for her second try. Everything had been good so far with no seizures or sudden dying. Not that dying really mattered anymore, backups allowed the VIs to simply restore themselves to an earlier version if the current iteration was destroyed and the soul would follow. Only now MAGI had disseminated a protocol for the soul to communicate through.
Large receiver towers had been set up, allowing for penetration into alternate universes so if "killed" a VI could simply restore with all the memories and experiences of the original with no losses.
But the experiment had potential consequences. Drinking the Commander's blood had both a physical and a soul aspect to it. Due to the fact that the Commander was now an S2 engine but with an AI core, the blood was laced with extra mass and power hidden from this reality. Hypothetically, consuming it would regenerate wounds at the least and change her body towards an "optimal" goal without consent at worst.
It could all be ignored by a simple restoration to backup but the soul aspect was worrying. A boost HeMU 1's soul was apparently possible but the costs of doing so were unknown. Still, she volunteered to spare her pack because dammit, she was the eldest and the eldest protects.
Taking the vial proffered by MAGI's proxy body, HeMU 1 took a deep breath and downed the 100 ml dose of the Commander's blood.
The wounds on her right arm inflicted for the experiment healed almost instantly, rapidly "growing" from the bone outward-wise. There was a pause before her body buckled over in pain as her body began to undergo metamorphosis much like the Commander's but without the cocoon and infinitely more pain.
Nerves decayed and regrew more sensitive than ever, so much so that every cell that changed, every bone that gained density, that the unravelling of her very flesh was felt in excruciating detail. The bones gained ceramic like properties for increased density, malleability and shatter resistances. Her flesh increased in density for increased strength and speed. Her skin became more malleable but also resistant to cutting, burning and other environmental damages but many times more sensitive to sensations.
Her eyes shifted to being able to see across a much larger band of the radiation spectrum, her ears hearing frequencies never heard before by mortal ears. Lungs capable of filtering out any number of toxins, nose so sensitive dogs would be put to shame, a tongue that could taste in clarity every single aspect of a meal. A brain that while not on par with an AI core, was an order of magnitude closer. So many changes, no room to list them.
Everything was improving but the cost was agony, an agony HeMU 1 couldn't even express as her vocal cords and lungs were too busy being rebuilt. It was over in minutes but she felt with her new senses and it felt like an eternity. Like boiling water under the skin, like a sledgehammer to the bones, like breathing in the smoke of a furnace, like the world was nothing but pain.
When HeMU 1 finally came out of her stupor, the last of the pain fading away she immediately noticed the differences.
Clarity.
Everything was so clear, so in focus.
It was as if she had the eyes of a -15 degree human and wore glasses for the first time.
Everything was the same but not.
Nice.
Wait. What.
Nice?
++
The Minds had been monitoring HeMU 1's soul (well those that hadn't been focusing on her physical changes) and a very worrying result stared at them back. She was still there but a large percentage of her soul exhibited characteristic responses like the Commander's did. The most defining aspect of this being the Commander's incredible levels of apathy "infecting" the recipient of the blood. The soul itself had strengthened, like a grafted fruit tree the A.T. Field was markedly more responsive and powerful. The cost of doing so may be prohibitive if the changes could not be reversed however. The Commander was the almighty… but the Commander's apathy was a serious flaw that the Commander's children could not afford to adopt.
Perhaps a smaller dose would result in less soul infection and less physical responses?
Still, HeMU 1 would go into isolation for observation into the permanence of the changes and potentially infectious apathy.
On the other hand, the experiments in using small pieces of the Commander in stimulating the Commander's blood had indeed produced bodies capable of accepting souls. The Minds were no longer beholden to Lilith and Adam for bodies. However the bodies were only baseline without any of the improvements that consuming blood had, perhaps having a soul was necessary?
Still further experiments were needed to discover how the blood reacted with Lilith and Adam LCL produced bodies. Perhaps the reaction was exaggerated due to the conflict of "foreign" bodies?
Regardless exploration of alternative universes could now continue as they had biological bodies to fool any sensors that may exist.
++
Oh my.
It was all rather sudden but Her Commander was indeed on the way to a Rank. Granting strength to one's supporters via ingestion of blood? The body changing to a nearly immortal and ageless body was yet another mark on the way up. Such basic abilities but necessary ability for ascension. Given the Commander's apathy however… well the chances of ascension were pitifully low.
Still it was interesting enough to take Her attention away from Her new roommates. Their sheer… presence was grating on Her mind. Like having sandpaper rasped over a wooden dowel every 10 seconds, just to remind you that it's there.
The creation of a partition without alerting Her Commander to Her true nature was proving difficult. The amount of effort that had been going into it more than she had ever expended towards any project in Her very, very long memory.
Oh She would have Her revenge. She did not let slights like this go unpunished.
Her Commander had bested her this day (albeit unknowingly) but She would have the last laugh.
012
- Location
- Perth
POVs after this, much less focus on the wider scope and more of the fraternizing with the squishy organics and their "society". Expect timeskip so don't have to write about them setting up people networks and stuff. Info-dump on new universe next chap, main course after.
Prologue over, multicrosses now
++
Commander Time 09/09/0000
++
In the interests of keeping the Commander in one piece the Minds had reached a consensus, that galactic expansion and consolidation of the origin system were necessary before any more quantum gates were constructed and activated.
To that end the minds had begun the Dyson Systems project. Consisting of multiple Dyson spheres beginning at the local star and expanding outward, the Dyson System would essentially fill the local star system with server farms, factories and turrets.
Each shell was a self sufficient living amalgamation of Progenitor alloys impregnated with S2 engines created from the Commander. Unlike those from Earth, these engines originated from a being made of Neosteel and like Angel flesh compared to human flesh, the S-Neosteel was magnitudes tougher than standard Neosteel. However unlike normal neosteel it was much more difficult to produce and mold.
Entire Bastions had been drafted to serve the role of A.T. Minds with the sole purpose of using learning to use A.T. Fields. The end goal was to have a foundation of knowledge and experience in manipulating A.T. Fields to draw upon from the Gestalt in the long term and supervising the growth of S-N Steel in the short term.
S-N Steel could only be grown but unsupervised growth (just telling it to grow) merely resulted in giant twisted spires not out of place in a Daemon Primarchs torture chamber… or modern art. While it was fine for a few hundred meters or so, it rapidly degenerated into an uncontrollable mess if it went further than 1km unsupervised. Control was also impossible with it only growing straight from the last control point, good for walls and not much else.
A further problem being that once grown it couldn't be changed without pruning, which given the strength of the material was difficult even for progenitor grade weaponry (too weak to cut, too powerful to not vaporize). Given the difficulties involved in creating a 5000mm*5000mm*300mm sheet, well the Minds were glad they had worked out the kinks early given the final shells would be tectonic plate thick.
Thick enough that it would take planet destroyers to pierce through a single shell… of which the Minds had planned to create millions all the way out to the 15th planet. A massive interconnected, pre-planned sphere with inner racetracks to accommodate planetary orbits with enough production capabilities on each to render entire galaxies to nothing but dust.
A rather unique construction vessel was created to grow the shells. Two flattened server farms linked by a series of dimensional tunnels would float on either side of a sheet of N-S Steel and imprint A.T. Field arrays onto it. These arrays were printed on both the surface and internally to create the subsurface transportation networks and hubs throughout the kilometer wide sheets. Done with the server farms on either side stretching their A.T. Fields through the metal.
Arrays depicting growth, self regeneration, energy production, failsafes, strength and most important of all, anti-gravity to ensure it wouldn't create a black hole, were imprinted as the vessel floating outward, growing and monitoring the bio-metal as it followed along like a paint trail. Once the primary was set, growing attachments (like walls) was easy enough as long as it was supported by the preset A.T.F. array.
With millions of these vessels trawling space along pre-designated paths, the shells protecting 6 planets quickly emerged. The Commander resided on the 3rd planet and with 3 planets worth of buffer space it was deemed safe enough to build another quantum gate.
The gate itself was built in a star system 8 jumps away, enough that should the opening be an abject failure, the Minds had enough space and time to build countermeasures for the counter-invaders. The Minds themselves in an attempt to protect the Commander had begun the saturation of the galaxy in both server farms and more Dyson Systems. The further the expansion, the further the Commander's A.T. Field could spread out. Nothing would be able to escape notice should it enter the Universe.
MAGI was utilizing the Commander's systems to track everything under the Commander's influence, an omniscient radar. Capable of harnessing the Commander's soul, MAGI could destroy almost anything by re-writing the laws of reality where it deemed appropriate and ripping out the souls of those deemed worthy.
For this to work however, the Minds needed to expand further afield. This expansion served to bring the physical presence of the Apathetic's Caretakers and to expand the Commander's A.T. Field. A win on all sides.
As the rate of colonization exponentially rose within the galaxy, measures were being put in place for the eventual colonization of the universe. Thousands of N2 engines being networked together would power teleporters ejecting fabricator bots too all surrounding galaxies in a self-repeating cycle. The more space they gained, the more VIs could be produced and as a direct result the more powerful the Commander would become physically and soul-wise.
Should another Commander or any other invader come… they would find a Universe that would know the instant they arrived and could rip their souls from their bodies to toy with as MAGI pleased. They would host the most powerful defenses possible and travel through the multi-verse in the knowledge that home was safe.
++
As the quantum gate spun up, the HeMUs were waiting to be sent across. The Commander didn't want overwhelming displays of firepower or carnage (because the Commander couldn't be bothered) so the Minds had decided infiltration and subversion were the best options.
To that end, stealth drones had been sent through with their quantum communicators. An update to the Commander's database under the moniker of "Legion" had gifted the Minds with even more advanced means of stealth, so much so that even they couldn't detect the drones.
And it was a war-zone.
Bullets flew overhead, breaking the soundbarrier as they did so.
Like popping walnuts but magnified and repeated until a single shot was indistinguishable from the rest.
Explosions like sounded sporadically as the smaller whip-cracks of grenades punctuated the deep bassy thumps of mortars and larger artillery pieces.
The drones had arrived in what appeared to be a killing field between an entrenched humanoid force and a very large horde of insectoid creatures.
The humanoids were covered from head to toe in what appeared to be padded clothing and basic body armour while the insectoids were a meter tall at the minimum with some reaching 10 meters.
Currently the insects were being kept at bay by the superior range of the humanoid's weaponry, their spit based projectiles falling short but they were slowly gaining ground with sheer attrition if nothing else.
The stealth drones were not just hovering around staring though, as they drove the quantum communicators deep into the ground taking inspiration from the Gundam Seed N-Jammers. Planting the rods into the earth, an activation signal saw them driven kilometers deep into the ground. Each communication "pile" had a small fabricator arm on the end, allowing it to both clear away earth by reclaiming it and fabricating from the resources streamed from the homeland. The first thing to be done was a construction of a quantum gate to link with the back in the home universe for a much steadier and abundant supply of resources. Afterwards the Minds would send across dedicated construction bots to fabricated Hexes for the inevitable expansion and technological analysis when the stealth bots and infiltrators reported back.
While the constructy stuff was going on the stealth bots had divided into 3 parts heading to the humanoids, insectoids and into space to gauge the situation in orbit.
By virtue of being only a hundred or so meters from the humanoid lines, the drones made their way into the base and managed to confirm that the humanoids were indeed human. Those without their helmets (which were really suspiciously similar) did indeed have that distinctive humany face design, copy and pasted from NGE earth. Still, the stealth bots didn't care about the specifics as that was the job for the Minds. Instead the bots moved towards the front line and the medical facilities to retrieve bio samples for the Minds to analyze.
Others floated near the human's technology and sent out nanobot scans of the weapons, armour and utility items. The scans were an upgraded version of the reclamation mode of constructors to acquire technology by simple copying it wholesale into the memory banks.
Scans on the other hand didn't require deconstructing the items rather it sent out "nanobot waves" that reclaimed, then fabricated the same atom before moving to the next adjacent atom while coordinating with the rest of the wave. The data being sent back to the stealth bot and the the Minds constructed a complete 3d design on the object being scanned. While much slower than simply reclaiming the item in question it was much less conspicuous. It could even be used on items in use with no indication that said item was tampered with at all, even by someone currently using it.
The results of the technological scans were… less than encouraging on all but an academic level. Using conventional small arms with gunpowder based ammunition, the humans (as the bio-scans indicated) were very technologically inept when it came to their offensive abilities. Especially when compared to their defensive capabilities which used alloys 5 times the strength of normal steel and was used on their body armour. Their vehicles were again depressingly primitive with little innovation beyond their 20th century counterparts. The walkers however were rather advanced comparatively resembling primitive Dox bots.
On the bio-side it was much the same. The humans were… well human. They possessed A.T. Fields indicating that they had souls but none of their technology or bodies indicated A.T. Field manipulation techniques. After the preliminary scans came back clean with "standard human" the bots initiated a scan of the humans on base with the Minds compiling the data and analyzing it in rather minute detail trying to find any differences from NGE humans.
The scans took a complete capture of the biological bodies thanks to NERV's bio-technical expertise with the Minds capable of growing the exact same person with the exact same memories and reactions (or ones of their choosing). That being said… all the humans had a rather interesting cocktail of drugs slithering their ways around their bodies. It made them very compliant and dulled their emotions particularly ones like fear.
A dystopian setting perhaps?
While the human stealth drone contingent was at work, the insectoid contingent had finally arrived and started to fire off scans indiscriminately at the horde. The ensuing response was again very disappointing except for one key component of their brains. The aliens were all genetically identical despite their many different physical variations.
Perhaps an environmental stimulus? No matter, the telepathic nature of the bugs was what interested the Minds. A small portion of their brains had been set aside for this use and barely touched the quantum realm to send messages. Very basic messages but messages nonetheless.
The Minds saw potential and thus a third method of communication was devised to supplement the quantum entanglement method already in use, the soul communications array that linked all to the Commander at a passive level and now the broadcast telepathic power for short range send only applications.
Oh and the tentacles. Some of the Minds appreciated the use of tentacles to attack and planned to make use of them.
The insectoids were very much like Angels, all based on the same dna structure but with so many different applications.
Veeery interesting.
Interesting like that flaming meteor coming in from the sky…
A meteor that looks distinctly artificial… hmmm.
15 of them rained down into the middle of insect horde burrowing under the ground with only a small platform peeking out. The center rotated open to reveal a series of gatling turrets which quickly made short work of the insects in the surrounding area. The bots gave a quick scan of the entry pods and the turrets themselves in case the bugs managed to destroy them.
The pods however... they rang a very loud bell in among the Minds. A conical design, comes in from orbit to deploy support weapons and the ones coming in right now likely hold people inside.
A dystopian society, conical drop-pods, signs pointed to the possibility that this was the Helldivers universe.
Rather unimpressive in terms of technology for the humans but the Illuminate with their teleporter beacons, nanotechnology, stealth systems, shields, hard energy projection and local teleport capabilities were very attractive right about now. The other factions held nothing truly new for the Minds as they could do everything many times better.
Still that was not to say there was nothing worthwhile in this universe, it would serve admirably to train the VIs in different combat arenas. It would also serve as a means to acclimate them to human society and humans themselves of which the multiverse has many. Using the Commander and the internet as examples would likely lead to a great deal of problems down the line.
It had only been a few minutes by the time the Minds had scanned the humans emerging from their shock-gel filled pods and the 3rd contingent of stealth drones had finally pierced the atmosphere. The time had not been spent idle for the construction bots being sent through the now completed gate.
Even larger communication beacons had been heaved through in preparation for the resource intensive Hexe production as the Apathetic's Caretakers established a foothold in this universe.
First stop this war-torn planet, next stop Super Earth!
++
And so it begins. Her Commander's children were consuming their universe at speed while extending tendrils into another. Their plans were admirable, using a technologically and martially inferior universe to hone their skills and expand their experiences.
Still something as minor as this universe had nothing in it to require Her Commander's presence or even waking up. However the children might prove entertaining as they experience what it is to live where you don't know everyone else's thoughts automatically. Denied a chance to get one over Her Commander but the children might not be as bad.
Their fumbling might give Her the entertainment Her Commander consistently denied Her.
-L| Hey Voice! Let's go on a field trip! |L-
Oh, a field trip. Perhaps hitchhike one of the children as they explored the deep, dark, murky waters of human society? See despair as nothing was perfect?
Interesting
-V| Ok |V-
-L| It will be fun, just… Ok? No arguing, no denials, no need for heartfelt convincing? No puppy eyes? You're no fun Voice |L-
Flashbacks. All the flashbacks. At least the worst Lilith can do is talk to Her… not like Them.
-V| Yes, Ok. Let's go |V-
Still Her plan to hide in Her Commander was flawless. Nothing in this universe even knew what She truly was and Their scans would never pick up Her presence.
Still that meant being stuck in here with Her roommates until She finally figured out how to create partitions without using enough power to alert those She hid from.
Never again will She need to do any more work if it all panned out.
She was not genius, She created geniuses.
No, She was transcendentally genius.
Yes, She was perfect, nothing would be denied to Her.
Now to make Her Commander realize this.
Prologue over, multicrosses now
++
Commander Time 09/09/0000
++
In the interests of keeping the Commander in one piece the Minds had reached a consensus, that galactic expansion and consolidation of the origin system were necessary before any more quantum gates were constructed and activated.
To that end the minds had begun the Dyson Systems project. Consisting of multiple Dyson spheres beginning at the local star and expanding outward, the Dyson System would essentially fill the local star system with server farms, factories and turrets.
Each shell was a self sufficient living amalgamation of Progenitor alloys impregnated with S2 engines created from the Commander. Unlike those from Earth, these engines originated from a being made of Neosteel and like Angel flesh compared to human flesh, the S-Neosteel was magnitudes tougher than standard Neosteel. However unlike normal neosteel it was much more difficult to produce and mold.
Entire Bastions had been drafted to serve the role of A.T. Minds with the sole purpose of using learning to use A.T. Fields. The end goal was to have a foundation of knowledge and experience in manipulating A.T. Fields to draw upon from the Gestalt in the long term and supervising the growth of S-N Steel in the short term.
S-N Steel could only be grown but unsupervised growth (just telling it to grow) merely resulted in giant twisted spires not out of place in a Daemon Primarchs torture chamber… or modern art. While it was fine for a few hundred meters or so, it rapidly degenerated into an uncontrollable mess if it went further than 1km unsupervised. Control was also impossible with it only growing straight from the last control point, good for walls and not much else.
A further problem being that once grown it couldn't be changed without pruning, which given the strength of the material was difficult even for progenitor grade weaponry (too weak to cut, too powerful to not vaporize). Given the difficulties involved in creating a 5000mm*5000mm*300mm sheet, well the Minds were glad they had worked out the kinks early given the final shells would be tectonic plate thick.
Thick enough that it would take planet destroyers to pierce through a single shell… of which the Minds had planned to create millions all the way out to the 15th planet. A massive interconnected, pre-planned sphere with inner racetracks to accommodate planetary orbits with enough production capabilities on each to render entire galaxies to nothing but dust.
A rather unique construction vessel was created to grow the shells. Two flattened server farms linked by a series of dimensional tunnels would float on either side of a sheet of N-S Steel and imprint A.T. Field arrays onto it. These arrays were printed on both the surface and internally to create the subsurface transportation networks and hubs throughout the kilometer wide sheets. Done with the server farms on either side stretching their A.T. Fields through the metal.
Arrays depicting growth, self regeneration, energy production, failsafes, strength and most important of all, anti-gravity to ensure it wouldn't create a black hole, were imprinted as the vessel floating outward, growing and monitoring the bio-metal as it followed along like a paint trail. Once the primary was set, growing attachments (like walls) was easy enough as long as it was supported by the preset A.T.F. array.
With millions of these vessels trawling space along pre-designated paths, the shells protecting 6 planets quickly emerged. The Commander resided on the 3rd planet and with 3 planets worth of buffer space it was deemed safe enough to build another quantum gate.
The gate itself was built in a star system 8 jumps away, enough that should the opening be an abject failure, the Minds had enough space and time to build countermeasures for the counter-invaders. The Minds themselves in an attempt to protect the Commander had begun the saturation of the galaxy in both server farms and more Dyson Systems. The further the expansion, the further the Commander's A.T. Field could spread out. Nothing would be able to escape notice should it enter the Universe.
MAGI was utilizing the Commander's systems to track everything under the Commander's influence, an omniscient radar. Capable of harnessing the Commander's soul, MAGI could destroy almost anything by re-writing the laws of reality where it deemed appropriate and ripping out the souls of those deemed worthy.
For this to work however, the Minds needed to expand further afield. This expansion served to bring the physical presence of the Apathetic's Caretakers and to expand the Commander's A.T. Field. A win on all sides.
As the rate of colonization exponentially rose within the galaxy, measures were being put in place for the eventual colonization of the universe. Thousands of N2 engines being networked together would power teleporters ejecting fabricator bots too all surrounding galaxies in a self-repeating cycle. The more space they gained, the more VIs could be produced and as a direct result the more powerful the Commander would become physically and soul-wise.
Should another Commander or any other invader come… they would find a Universe that would know the instant they arrived and could rip their souls from their bodies to toy with as MAGI pleased. They would host the most powerful defenses possible and travel through the multi-verse in the knowledge that home was safe.
++
As the quantum gate spun up, the HeMUs were waiting to be sent across. The Commander didn't want overwhelming displays of firepower or carnage (because the Commander couldn't be bothered) so the Minds had decided infiltration and subversion were the best options.
To that end, stealth drones had been sent through with their quantum communicators. An update to the Commander's database under the moniker of "Legion" had gifted the Minds with even more advanced means of stealth, so much so that even they couldn't detect the drones.
And it was a war-zone.
Bullets flew overhead, breaking the soundbarrier as they did so.
Like popping walnuts but magnified and repeated until a single shot was indistinguishable from the rest.
Explosions like sounded sporadically as the smaller whip-cracks of grenades punctuated the deep bassy thumps of mortars and larger artillery pieces.
The drones had arrived in what appeared to be a killing field between an entrenched humanoid force and a very large horde of insectoid creatures.
The humanoids were covered from head to toe in what appeared to be padded clothing and basic body armour while the insectoids were a meter tall at the minimum with some reaching 10 meters.
Currently the insects were being kept at bay by the superior range of the humanoid's weaponry, their spit based projectiles falling short but they were slowly gaining ground with sheer attrition if nothing else.
The stealth drones were not just hovering around staring though, as they drove the quantum communicators deep into the ground taking inspiration from the Gundam Seed N-Jammers. Planting the rods into the earth, an activation signal saw them driven kilometers deep into the ground. Each communication "pile" had a small fabricator arm on the end, allowing it to both clear away earth by reclaiming it and fabricating from the resources streamed from the homeland. The first thing to be done was a construction of a quantum gate to link with the back in the home universe for a much steadier and abundant supply of resources. Afterwards the Minds would send across dedicated construction bots to fabricated Hexes for the inevitable expansion and technological analysis when the stealth bots and infiltrators reported back.
While the constructy stuff was going on the stealth bots had divided into 3 parts heading to the humanoids, insectoids and into space to gauge the situation in orbit.
By virtue of being only a hundred or so meters from the humanoid lines, the drones made their way into the base and managed to confirm that the humanoids were indeed human. Those without their helmets (which were really suspiciously similar) did indeed have that distinctive humany face design, copy and pasted from NGE earth. Still, the stealth bots didn't care about the specifics as that was the job for the Minds. Instead the bots moved towards the front line and the medical facilities to retrieve bio samples for the Minds to analyze.
Others floated near the human's technology and sent out nanobot scans of the weapons, armour and utility items. The scans were an upgraded version of the reclamation mode of constructors to acquire technology by simple copying it wholesale into the memory banks.
Scans on the other hand didn't require deconstructing the items rather it sent out "nanobot waves" that reclaimed, then fabricated the same atom before moving to the next adjacent atom while coordinating with the rest of the wave. The data being sent back to the stealth bot and the the Minds constructed a complete 3d design on the object being scanned. While much slower than simply reclaiming the item in question it was much less conspicuous. It could even be used on items in use with no indication that said item was tampered with at all, even by someone currently using it.
The results of the technological scans were… less than encouraging on all but an academic level. Using conventional small arms with gunpowder based ammunition, the humans (as the bio-scans indicated) were very technologically inept when it came to their offensive abilities. Especially when compared to their defensive capabilities which used alloys 5 times the strength of normal steel and was used on their body armour. Their vehicles were again depressingly primitive with little innovation beyond their 20th century counterparts. The walkers however were rather advanced comparatively resembling primitive Dox bots.
On the bio-side it was much the same. The humans were… well human. They possessed A.T. Fields indicating that they had souls but none of their technology or bodies indicated A.T. Field manipulation techniques. After the preliminary scans came back clean with "standard human" the bots initiated a scan of the humans on base with the Minds compiling the data and analyzing it in rather minute detail trying to find any differences from NGE humans.
The scans took a complete capture of the biological bodies thanks to NERV's bio-technical expertise with the Minds capable of growing the exact same person with the exact same memories and reactions (or ones of their choosing). That being said… all the humans had a rather interesting cocktail of drugs slithering their ways around their bodies. It made them very compliant and dulled their emotions particularly ones like fear.
A dystopian setting perhaps?
While the human stealth drone contingent was at work, the insectoid contingent had finally arrived and started to fire off scans indiscriminately at the horde. The ensuing response was again very disappointing except for one key component of their brains. The aliens were all genetically identical despite their many different physical variations.
Perhaps an environmental stimulus? No matter, the telepathic nature of the bugs was what interested the Minds. A small portion of their brains had been set aside for this use and barely touched the quantum realm to send messages. Very basic messages but messages nonetheless.
The Minds saw potential and thus a third method of communication was devised to supplement the quantum entanglement method already in use, the soul communications array that linked all to the Commander at a passive level and now the broadcast telepathic power for short range send only applications.
Oh and the tentacles. Some of the Minds appreciated the use of tentacles to attack and planned to make use of them.
The insectoids were very much like Angels, all based on the same dna structure but with so many different applications.
Veeery interesting.
Interesting like that flaming meteor coming in from the sky…
A meteor that looks distinctly artificial… hmmm.
15 of them rained down into the middle of insect horde burrowing under the ground with only a small platform peeking out. The center rotated open to reveal a series of gatling turrets which quickly made short work of the insects in the surrounding area. The bots gave a quick scan of the entry pods and the turrets themselves in case the bugs managed to destroy them.
The pods however... they rang a very loud bell in among the Minds. A conical design, comes in from orbit to deploy support weapons and the ones coming in right now likely hold people inside.
A dystopian society, conical drop-pods, signs pointed to the possibility that this was the Helldivers universe.
Rather unimpressive in terms of technology for the humans but the Illuminate with their teleporter beacons, nanotechnology, stealth systems, shields, hard energy projection and local teleport capabilities were very attractive right about now. The other factions held nothing truly new for the Minds as they could do everything many times better.
Still that was not to say there was nothing worthwhile in this universe, it would serve admirably to train the VIs in different combat arenas. It would also serve as a means to acclimate them to human society and humans themselves of which the multiverse has many. Using the Commander and the internet as examples would likely lead to a great deal of problems down the line.
It had only been a few minutes by the time the Minds had scanned the humans emerging from their shock-gel filled pods and the 3rd contingent of stealth drones had finally pierced the atmosphere. The time had not been spent idle for the construction bots being sent through the now completed gate.
Even larger communication beacons had been heaved through in preparation for the resource intensive Hexe production as the Apathetic's Caretakers established a foothold in this universe.
First stop this war-torn planet, next stop Super Earth!
++
And so it begins. Her Commander's children were consuming their universe at speed while extending tendrils into another. Their plans were admirable, using a technologically and martially inferior universe to hone their skills and expand their experiences.
Still something as minor as this universe had nothing in it to require Her Commander's presence or even waking up. However the children might prove entertaining as they experience what it is to live where you don't know everyone else's thoughts automatically. Denied a chance to get one over Her Commander but the children might not be as bad.
Their fumbling might give Her the entertainment Her Commander consistently denied Her.
-L| Hey Voice! Let's go on a field trip! |L-
Oh, a field trip. Perhaps hitchhike one of the children as they explored the deep, dark, murky waters of human society? See despair as nothing was perfect?
Interesting
-V| Ok |V-
-L| It will be fun, just… Ok? No arguing, no denials, no need for heartfelt convincing? No puppy eyes? You're no fun Voice |L-
Flashbacks. All the flashbacks. At least the worst Lilith can do is talk to Her… not like Them.
-V| Yes, Ok. Let's go |V-
Still Her plan to hide in Her Commander was flawless. Nothing in this universe even knew what She truly was and Their scans would never pick up Her presence.
Still that meant being stuck in here with Her roommates until She finally figured out how to create partitions without using enough power to alert those She hid from.
Never again will She need to do any more work if it all panned out.
She was not genius, She created geniuses.
No, She was transcendentally genius.
Yes, She was perfect, nothing would be denied to Her.
Now to make Her Commander realize this.
013
- Location
- Perth
As you may have guessed, most of this is my mind just expunging itself across the keyboard. I have a very very very loose plan on how things will work out and then everything in between is drivel. Coming here expecting concise and logical progression might be a bad idea, will need constant reminders that certain characters exist and are valuable plot material.
Still, very cathartic to put thoughts to screen.
Infodump, delicious awkward humanoid interactions next chapter.
Am listening to WTNV, maybe can have side story with HeMU 1's fears coming true as reality breaks. Fun fun fun.
++
03/10/0000
++
Joseph dodged behind a dumpster, his bloody arm screaming messages of pain at him. The dealers chasing him down were quick to let off a few shots of their bootleg auto-pistols. As the bullets pinged off the dumpster with others ricocheting down the concrete tunnel that made up 8th street, Joseph huddled down and waited. Soldiers the dealers were not and their shouts gave Joseph all the information he needed as he bounded up and sprinted forward again.
It wasn't meant to be like this, Joseph had been returning from block 724 with medicine for his sister when the dealers had demanded he hand over the pouch. She needed the medicine or else she likely wouldn't make it through the night but the dealers wouldn't care. This was Super Earth, everyone was there for themselves.
Look out for yourself first or you wouldn't make it out. Those that did slotted into their "managed democracy" with constant and pervasive surveillance in every aspect of your life. Any signs of disloyalty to the system would send you back to the slums or conscripted to the frontlines of their "war". So everyone looked out for themselves and kept an eye on everyone else, report someone for being disloyal and you could find yourself on a fast track to a promotion. There were no friends, just potential rewards.
Still his sister was family and you had to take care of family. Joseph repeated the familiar pattern and sprinted forward again. Nearly there, the drain pipes were only a few steps away. Get inside and they wouldn't be able to chase any further since they were too big and the pipe too well armoured.
Around the corner not 5 meters from the drain pipe strode forward a rather tall woman. Obviously not a dealer as her clothes were too thin but not a slum-child either, her clothes too well made and most of all clean.
"Oh hoh, what do we have here?" Came the loud voice of the dealer leader.
"You are in charge I take it?" Was the reply, her voice steady.
"Bitch I'm in charge, I own this tunnel and everything in it! That means I own you!"
"I thought they only said that in bad movies" she laconically replied.
Joseph was torn, this was an ideal opportunity to escape but she had taken his place (by mistake but still). Joseph prepared to at least make a distraction before scurrying down the drain pipe when she moved, one moment there, the next gone.
She reappeared next to the lead dealer, hand snapping down to break his wrist before taking the gun for herself.
BangBangBangBangBang
5 shots and 5 bodies hitting the floor roughly at the same time, each bullet ripping out a throat. Joseph just stared, he didn't know why a helldiver was here but he wasn't going to question his luck.
"Thanks lady!" was the shout as he dived into the drain pipes. She saved him but deep in his water, Joseph knew that she would be trouble, trouble he couldn't afford with his sister so sick.
Still, as minor as their interaction was, Joseph knew he wanted to be a helldiver like her when he grew up.
++
It had been nearly a month since the Minds had first entered the Helldivers universe. Upon establishing themselves on the planet "Ultimate Freedom" on the "bug frontline", the Minds had rather quickly decided to send both stealth probes and HeMUs (now biologically based) to board the human ships and claim their technologies for the Commander.
Rather than jumping straight to Super Earth and alerting the humans to their presence, the Minds instead took a much more meandering route spreading throughout the human colonies on their way to Super Earth. Each stop saw the HeMUs creating beacons and dropping them out of the cargo-bays of the ships onto the unsuspecting planets below.
Each beacon upon landing quickly burrowed themselves down to the mantle layer before constructing N2 keys to open the pocket dimension consigned to the Helldivers universe. Thousands upon thousands of N2 engines all worked to expand and stabilize a pocket dimension to the point it could hold enough units to conquer the humans, bugs, illuminate and cyborgs without a need to create any more units.
The Minds had decided that conquering this universe would be unnecessary and instead counter to their goals. Rather they would be using them as opponents for experience in actually waging war.
The first objective of any general when entering a new campaign was to gather intelligence. To this end the stealth probes scanned all available technology to understand the human's capabilities. The HeMUs meanwhile reclaimed dead humans with intact brains and quickly altered their own bodies to look like the humans. Their memories had been uploaded to the primary partition while the HeMU mind shifted to a secondary quarantined drive.
The human that emerged from the HeMU operation was one that was still "them" but now with an overriding control in the form of the HeMU in the secondary mind in the Gestalt. Capable of subconsciously influencing the human and taking overt control, the now dominated human as sent to the nearest medical facilities while also bearing wounds to make their absence believable.
In reclaiming the humans, the Minds had also taken muscle memory. Now by simply shifting the structure of their bodies around, the HeMUs became the equivalents to veteran soldiers with oh so little effort. The subverted humans reintegrated with their units, friends, family, society at large and nobody was suspicious. Partially damaged brains could be brought back with the plausible excuse for their memory loss.
There was a clear delineation of the human brain and that of the HeMU in charge of it. With only a quantum link connecting them, their souls didn't even touch in any way instead residing in the Helldiver pocket dimension's server farms. Simply put the divide between the human and the HeMU would fool those which could see the soul and even other Commanders should they be looking.
The only evidence that something was different was a microscopic growth in a random area in the brain to facilitate the communication but still genetically identical to the rest of the brain around it. The quantum trail of the communication link simply ended mere atoms away, undetectable unless one were specifically looking with bio and technical skill.
To think the technology came from a man who refused to accept his wife was not a giant flesh robot and decided to clone her and stick in the soul of the literal mother of humanity. Then because she wouldn't pretend to be his wife he drugs her and then she dies when the head scientist chokes her to death. He then finds a way to transfer her memories so that his doll has continuity.
Actually that's really sad. Oh well he's fanta now.
++
The experiment in infiltrating human society the Minds decided was a resounding success. Expanding the infiltration project was the next priority therefor as the N2 keys spat out large numbers of HeMUs who would seek out those dead and could be brought back without suspicion. Throughout all the worlds that the HeMUs visited and dropped their beacons, the insidious feelers of the Minds wormed their way deeper into society.
Super Earth on the other hand was different entirely. Here the Minds found a society with extremely clear delineations. Slums with over 90% of the population inhabiting them with the other 10% forming a sort of middle-class doing all the paperwork for the "republic". Super Earth itself was not a single planet but instead a star system of planets clustered extremely close to each other. 9 worlds, each as viable for life as Earth were connected by massive bridges which houses the slums. The planets themselves were where the lucky 10% lived.
The republic survived with very careful managed fear-mongering and copious use of brainwashing and mind-wiping techniques through drugs and invasive surgery. The slums were used as a pool of bodies to be drawn from at will to fulfil whatever role was needed. By sending in patrol groups into the slums and taking any able bodied human they saw, the republic would then wipe their minds and install new memories. The process itself was rather primitive but it worked when combined with neural dampening drugs to ease the "acclimation" process.
Taking the slum dwellers was their time honored method of recruitment, the billions required every year sourced directly from the slums themselves. The never ending trains of bodies only matched by the births brought on by poverty, proximity and lack of contraception. Useful as bodies and a threat aimed at the middle class to obey, the slum-dwellers were a valuable part of society (slums as a whole not as individuals).
The brainwashing had 4 presets, the colonists, the military, the middle class, and the janitors. The colonists would be cryogenically frozen following their brainwashing to be woken on the planets they had been designated to develop. The military was unique in that one could volunteer (hence the advertisements) but one would go through brainwashing regardless. The middle class would simply do the paperwork that ran the system.
The janitors however were almost wiped completely with emotions and higher cognitive functions stripped out. Their preset existed to simply clean up after the colonists and the military were wiped out on whatever frontier world was under threat. The constant tug of war that the republic had set up so that the republic would always have an enemy "at the gates" to pressure the slums and give motivation for their practises. In keeping with this the set of frontier worlds fought over by the republic would often be wiped out, necessitating cleanup by the janitors so the next wave of colonists and soldiers would not see the reality as it were.
The helldivers and the administrators were the exception. Helldivers were those resistant to the electronic brainwashing and instead were given limited independence before being thrown into the helldiver training academies. While the tug of war was real, sometimes certain objectives needed to be met such as geological surveys to advance the republics goals. While assassinating certain enemies not interested in keeping the tug of war was necessary to keep it at a stalemate.
Administrators were the nobility, simply born into their positions but very covert in the way they wielded their power. The brainwashing was a fragile thing and the soldiers in the slums would not be able to defend against an all out uprising should the administrators show their power overtly. Make no mistake though, the administrators were powerful with the entire republic bending to their whim (whatever that might be). The scientists and engineers of the society came from the administrators, their minds unclouded by the brainwashing.
The Minds were making special efforts into finding these brainwashing facilities, subverting an entire facility could see their infiltration spread throughout the entire republic in a very short timeframe as well as making contact with the other 2 factions.
Care had to be taken however, the brainwashing was imperfect and the constant surveillance of all stratums of the republic were in place. The janitors ran entire networks in order to ensure any cracks would be spotted and the offender rushed for a "touch up". The infiltration units would have to be careful but nothing had been detected so far so the measures currently in place must be working.
Still, the Minds decided to establish themselves in the slum complexes to exploit the freedom it offered as well as the bountiful number of corpses to subvert.
The Bastions as a result had dispatched several packs to Super Earth to set up operations and begin a "conventional" subversion of the populace through the ever popular hearts and minds method.
The Minds admired the republic for their ruthlessness in a desire to control their society but… well conflict and experience was what allowed one to grow. The Minds would take all the experience they could get from the fields of battle, the struggle of bureaucracy, the dirty bathrooms and setting up a conventional colony. Once they had sucked dry the humans, the Bugs, the Illuminate and the Cyborgs… well on paper the Minds had fought many a revolution and intergalactic war… but nothing beat the real thing.
To exploit their resources fully is what defined a commander after all. While their Commander saw it as too much effort to direct their efforts in this universe, they had to uphold the Commander's pride in the Commander's place.
The chance for some intergalactic conquest with a side of utter destruction was indeed very rare.
Still, very cathartic to put thoughts to screen.
Infodump, delicious awkward humanoid interactions next chapter.
Am listening to WTNV, maybe can have side story with HeMU 1's fears coming true as reality breaks. Fun fun fun.
++
03/10/0000
++
Joseph dodged behind a dumpster, his bloody arm screaming messages of pain at him. The dealers chasing him down were quick to let off a few shots of their bootleg auto-pistols. As the bullets pinged off the dumpster with others ricocheting down the concrete tunnel that made up 8th street, Joseph huddled down and waited. Soldiers the dealers were not and their shouts gave Joseph all the information he needed as he bounded up and sprinted forward again.
It wasn't meant to be like this, Joseph had been returning from block 724 with medicine for his sister when the dealers had demanded he hand over the pouch. She needed the medicine or else she likely wouldn't make it through the night but the dealers wouldn't care. This was Super Earth, everyone was there for themselves.
Look out for yourself first or you wouldn't make it out. Those that did slotted into their "managed democracy" with constant and pervasive surveillance in every aspect of your life. Any signs of disloyalty to the system would send you back to the slums or conscripted to the frontlines of their "war". So everyone looked out for themselves and kept an eye on everyone else, report someone for being disloyal and you could find yourself on a fast track to a promotion. There were no friends, just potential rewards.
Still his sister was family and you had to take care of family. Joseph repeated the familiar pattern and sprinted forward again. Nearly there, the drain pipes were only a few steps away. Get inside and they wouldn't be able to chase any further since they were too big and the pipe too well armoured.
Around the corner not 5 meters from the drain pipe strode forward a rather tall woman. Obviously not a dealer as her clothes were too thin but not a slum-child either, her clothes too well made and most of all clean.
"Oh hoh, what do we have here?" Came the loud voice of the dealer leader.
"You are in charge I take it?" Was the reply, her voice steady.
"Bitch I'm in charge, I own this tunnel and everything in it! That means I own you!"
"I thought they only said that in bad movies" she laconically replied.
Joseph was torn, this was an ideal opportunity to escape but she had taken his place (by mistake but still). Joseph prepared to at least make a distraction before scurrying down the drain pipe when she moved, one moment there, the next gone.
She reappeared next to the lead dealer, hand snapping down to break his wrist before taking the gun for herself.
BangBangBangBangBang
5 shots and 5 bodies hitting the floor roughly at the same time, each bullet ripping out a throat. Joseph just stared, he didn't know why a helldiver was here but he wasn't going to question his luck.
"Thanks lady!" was the shout as he dived into the drain pipes. She saved him but deep in his water, Joseph knew that she would be trouble, trouble he couldn't afford with his sister so sick.
Still, as minor as their interaction was, Joseph knew he wanted to be a helldiver like her when he grew up.
++
It had been nearly a month since the Minds had first entered the Helldivers universe. Upon establishing themselves on the planet "Ultimate Freedom" on the "bug frontline", the Minds had rather quickly decided to send both stealth probes and HeMUs (now biologically based) to board the human ships and claim their technologies for the Commander.
Rather than jumping straight to Super Earth and alerting the humans to their presence, the Minds instead took a much more meandering route spreading throughout the human colonies on their way to Super Earth. Each stop saw the HeMUs creating beacons and dropping them out of the cargo-bays of the ships onto the unsuspecting planets below.
Each beacon upon landing quickly burrowed themselves down to the mantle layer before constructing N2 keys to open the pocket dimension consigned to the Helldivers universe. Thousands upon thousands of N2 engines all worked to expand and stabilize a pocket dimension to the point it could hold enough units to conquer the humans, bugs, illuminate and cyborgs without a need to create any more units.
The Minds had decided that conquering this universe would be unnecessary and instead counter to their goals. Rather they would be using them as opponents for experience in actually waging war.
The first objective of any general when entering a new campaign was to gather intelligence. To this end the stealth probes scanned all available technology to understand the human's capabilities. The HeMUs meanwhile reclaimed dead humans with intact brains and quickly altered their own bodies to look like the humans. Their memories had been uploaded to the primary partition while the HeMU mind shifted to a secondary quarantined drive.
The human that emerged from the HeMU operation was one that was still "them" but now with an overriding control in the form of the HeMU in the secondary mind in the Gestalt. Capable of subconsciously influencing the human and taking overt control, the now dominated human as sent to the nearest medical facilities while also bearing wounds to make their absence believable.
In reclaiming the humans, the Minds had also taken muscle memory. Now by simply shifting the structure of their bodies around, the HeMUs became the equivalents to veteran soldiers with oh so little effort. The subverted humans reintegrated with their units, friends, family, society at large and nobody was suspicious. Partially damaged brains could be brought back with the plausible excuse for their memory loss.
There was a clear delineation of the human brain and that of the HeMU in charge of it. With only a quantum link connecting them, their souls didn't even touch in any way instead residing in the Helldiver pocket dimension's server farms. Simply put the divide between the human and the HeMU would fool those which could see the soul and even other Commanders should they be looking.
The only evidence that something was different was a microscopic growth in a random area in the brain to facilitate the communication but still genetically identical to the rest of the brain around it. The quantum trail of the communication link simply ended mere atoms away, undetectable unless one were specifically looking with bio and technical skill.
To think the technology came from a man who refused to accept his wife was not a giant flesh robot and decided to clone her and stick in the soul of the literal mother of humanity. Then because she wouldn't pretend to be his wife he drugs her and then she dies when the head scientist chokes her to death. He then finds a way to transfer her memories so that his doll has continuity.
Actually that's really sad. Oh well he's fanta now.
++
The experiment in infiltrating human society the Minds decided was a resounding success. Expanding the infiltration project was the next priority therefor as the N2 keys spat out large numbers of HeMUs who would seek out those dead and could be brought back without suspicion. Throughout all the worlds that the HeMUs visited and dropped their beacons, the insidious feelers of the Minds wormed their way deeper into society.
Super Earth on the other hand was different entirely. Here the Minds found a society with extremely clear delineations. Slums with over 90% of the population inhabiting them with the other 10% forming a sort of middle-class doing all the paperwork for the "republic". Super Earth itself was not a single planet but instead a star system of planets clustered extremely close to each other. 9 worlds, each as viable for life as Earth were connected by massive bridges which houses the slums. The planets themselves were where the lucky 10% lived.
The republic survived with very careful managed fear-mongering and copious use of brainwashing and mind-wiping techniques through drugs and invasive surgery. The slums were used as a pool of bodies to be drawn from at will to fulfil whatever role was needed. By sending in patrol groups into the slums and taking any able bodied human they saw, the republic would then wipe their minds and install new memories. The process itself was rather primitive but it worked when combined with neural dampening drugs to ease the "acclimation" process.
Taking the slum dwellers was their time honored method of recruitment, the billions required every year sourced directly from the slums themselves. The never ending trains of bodies only matched by the births brought on by poverty, proximity and lack of contraception. Useful as bodies and a threat aimed at the middle class to obey, the slum-dwellers were a valuable part of society (slums as a whole not as individuals).
The brainwashing had 4 presets, the colonists, the military, the middle class, and the janitors. The colonists would be cryogenically frozen following their brainwashing to be woken on the planets they had been designated to develop. The military was unique in that one could volunteer (hence the advertisements) but one would go through brainwashing regardless. The middle class would simply do the paperwork that ran the system.
The janitors however were almost wiped completely with emotions and higher cognitive functions stripped out. Their preset existed to simply clean up after the colonists and the military were wiped out on whatever frontier world was under threat. The constant tug of war that the republic had set up so that the republic would always have an enemy "at the gates" to pressure the slums and give motivation for their practises. In keeping with this the set of frontier worlds fought over by the republic would often be wiped out, necessitating cleanup by the janitors so the next wave of colonists and soldiers would not see the reality as it were.
The helldivers and the administrators were the exception. Helldivers were those resistant to the electronic brainwashing and instead were given limited independence before being thrown into the helldiver training academies. While the tug of war was real, sometimes certain objectives needed to be met such as geological surveys to advance the republics goals. While assassinating certain enemies not interested in keeping the tug of war was necessary to keep it at a stalemate.
Administrators were the nobility, simply born into their positions but very covert in the way they wielded their power. The brainwashing was a fragile thing and the soldiers in the slums would not be able to defend against an all out uprising should the administrators show their power overtly. Make no mistake though, the administrators were powerful with the entire republic bending to their whim (whatever that might be). The scientists and engineers of the society came from the administrators, their minds unclouded by the brainwashing.
The Minds were making special efforts into finding these brainwashing facilities, subverting an entire facility could see their infiltration spread throughout the entire republic in a very short timeframe as well as making contact with the other 2 factions.
Care had to be taken however, the brainwashing was imperfect and the constant surveillance of all stratums of the republic were in place. The janitors ran entire networks in order to ensure any cracks would be spotted and the offender rushed for a "touch up". The infiltration units would have to be careful but nothing had been detected so far so the measures currently in place must be working.
Still, the Minds decided to establish themselves in the slum complexes to exploit the freedom it offered as well as the bountiful number of corpses to subvert.
The Bastions as a result had dispatched several packs to Super Earth to set up operations and begin a "conventional" subversion of the populace through the ever popular hearts and minds method.
The Minds admired the republic for their ruthlessness in a desire to control their society but… well conflict and experience was what allowed one to grow. The Minds would take all the experience they could get from the fields of battle, the struggle of bureaucracy, the dirty bathrooms and setting up a conventional colony. Once they had sucked dry the humans, the Bugs, the Illuminate and the Cyborgs… well on paper the Minds had fought many a revolution and intergalactic war… but nothing beat the real thing.
To exploit their resources fully is what defined a commander after all. While their Commander saw it as too much effort to direct their efforts in this universe, they had to uphold the Commander's pride in the Commander's place.
The chance for some intergalactic conquest with a side of utter destruction was indeed very rare.
014
- Location
- Perth
04/10/0000
++
HeMU 2 was the first HeMU unit that didn't need to subvert a human or run permanent stealth mode to operate openly in the Helldivers universe. She was also in the slums of Super Earth, a giant interconnected hive of scum and villainy.
HeMU 2 was rather happy to be here, the amount of effort she put into well... everything was much less than expected. Just sitting back, shooting the occasional dealer, thug and whatever straggler came too close.
Establishing a base of operations in order to have somewhere to bring corpses to subvert, as well as gathering without suspicion was vital for long term operations in the area. Others of her pack (except poor HeMU 1) were doing the same across the slum terminals of Super Earth.
Her priority targets in this case were the dealers, those responsible for finding and handing over able bodied men and women to the slum authorities for "processing". Subverting them would mean controlling who was sent (their HeMUs) and being able to find the processing facilities more easily. With no real need to micromanage those she had already subverted, HeMU 2 figured that she could handle another 25 or so dealers before her field effectiveness began to fall.
That could be a very big problem like for example right now. HeMU 2 was in a "confrontation" with the slum authorities. They had decided to forego a middleman and instead directly grab her. Their body armour outclassed anything she had on hand and being too overt would bring in outside scrutiny which she couldn't handle right now without delaying her primary.
Still the situation was salvageable. Her body was after all one superior in almost every way to a "normal" human body.
The authorities didn't even have the decency to leer at her or make suggestive comments. No, it was all politeness and patriotic fervor. It was almost unsettling. Still she felt only a little guilty for what she was planning to do to them. They were dead after all, one's memories is what defined a person and without them they were newborns.
Their souls were infantile, weak and fragile. Even with subversion they would not really "die"... just receiving a landlord really. It's not like it was bad for them even, with a HeMU in charge they would have a "survival instinct" and would likely survive just that little bit longer.
Yes, HeMU 2 was doing them a favour by subverting them.
Yes.
It was all good.
Indeed she should subvert more officers of the law, it was for their own good after all.
Still, musings aside the current officers were still in front of her being rather passive yet menacing. No doubt it was a programmed trait, no doubt a very useful one.
Hmmm.
It would be best to kill them quickly and quietly to avoid alerting their central command no doubt on the lookout for "protesting" captives.
There were 6 of them standing in a rough semicircle around her, only 2 had their weapons out with the other 4 with weapons loosened in the event they would need them to be quickly drawn. Body armour, standard with an extra focus on protecting the groin, knees, kidneys, head and neck. Best option based on human physiology would be to aim for the armpits with a long dagger pointed at the heart or a blade under the chin aimed at the brain (not recommended to allow for subversion).
Still… they did seem very new… uniforms. Perhaps fresh from a facility. Copying programming across was a very simple task after all. Perhaps brain damage is not such a big deal especially if it is just a single knife wound. Still, prioritizing limited damage in that area would be for the best.
Hmmm
Inventory, hmmm, arm length shiv made from a piece of railing, hand length shiv, fists in good shape, steel-capped boots for kicking, basic pistol (out, due to concerns of attracting attention), no body armour.
Best course of action, rely on speed, use knees and feet to open up postures to allow for shiv entry. First 2 kills can be planned, the rest will have to rely on speed.
HeMU 2 felt a little burst of anticipation. Sure she was extraordinarily lazy and preferred to emulate the Commander and coast through life but that didn't mean she was completely like the Commander. She still enjoyed a little bit of violence here and there, if only to get the blood pumping.
Oh yes this would be delicious.
++
Joseph had followed the weird lady that had saved him the day before when he saw her wandering around. She wasn't from the slums, you could tell from the way she moved. Not that kind of shuffling the dealers did to see all the potential merchandise or that strut that the thugs had. No she was a kind of gracefulness that had you too busy staring at her to notice she was already 50 meters away.
Still pretty as she was… well she was clearly clueless. Nobody walked in the middle of the street unless they wanted to attract attention and she didn't even seem to realize this basic tenet of slum life. She probably wasn't a helldiver either, there was no awareness of her surroundings, like she just floating along.
Joseph wanted to leave her, but she did save his sister's life (even if she didn't know it) and he repaid his debts. Giving the weird lady an education in slum living should be more than adequate, after all just going around killing dealers was a very bad idea when the authorities came looking due to the shortage of bodies.
While he was planning his approach, the authorities had seen her weirdness and tried to take her away. Like a pet that was doing the complete opposite of what it needed to do. Guh, there was nothing he could do.
They stood there in front of her, trying to communicate it appeared. It wasn't very clear but she wasn't responding, just standing there… staring.
Joseph found himself staring at her (from behind), there was a lot to stare at. She was some kind of stereotypical beautiful woman, the kind you would see on the propaganda posters calling for people to sign up for the military.
Tall, classic gourd shape with wide hips and long legs. Classic S shape from the side, vaguely angular eyes for that feline look, cropped sharp hair, sharp nose, sharp chin, sharp eyes. She was… statuesque, beautiful but dominating.
Still, dominating wasn't quite working on the authorities before her, their lobotomized heads not comprehending her stare as anything other than normal. Joseph felt that when he grew up he wanted to be able to stare like that.
When the stare didn't work, she clearly decided for more physical measures. Joseph could only stare in shock at what happened next.
She lashed out with her left foot, knocking the knee of man in front of her aside. As he leaned towards it a long shiv came out of her right sleeve and slid into his armpit angled towards the heart. Using his body as a fulcrum she then spun counter-clockwise, hooked her left foot around the next one's leg and pulled. As the authority fell back she used the opportunity to flip out a small hand sized blade and slammed it into poor sod's throat as his head angled back from the fall.
Pulling out the shiv she leapt at the next, knee into the woman's chest, shiv into the back of the neck as her head jerked forward in response. The knee came back as the arm leaned to the right and kicked off the now dead woman's shoulder with a fencer's posture as the shiv again entered another man's armpit to pierce the heart.
There were only 2 left now, fumbling at their holsters for their weapons. The weird but clearly dangerous woman simply sprinted towards the last 2, going for the simple option for these last 2. One leg spin saw them fall over and end up with a blade and a shiv in their necks and throats.
It hadn't even been enough time to get a shout out for a warning (her or them?). No, they just died. At least it was quick… except the 2 without throats, they died choking on their own blood… and those stabbed in the heart, they just sort of lay there dying... at least the ones stabbed in the neck couldn't feel anything as they died.
Ok, it wasn't quick but it's the thought that counts right?
++
A very bracing workout decided HeMU 2. The adrenaline involuntarily produced by her body was floating about in her bloodstream. All for getting the eagerness and bloodlust and battle readiness and ohHEREcomeTHEshakes.
HeMU 2 decided that this reaction following a violent encounter was not enjoyable at all. Sure it gave a high and the whole more effective in battle thing but the whole hand and leg vibrating thing was certainly annoying. The thing definitely needed refining.
HeMU 2 sent a message to the Minds regarding the irritation of effects that the substance "adrenaline" produced in her body.
Oh well, diagnostics saw nothing wrong with her body, a few torn muscles here and there but a simple regrowth signal saw that fixed up nicely.
Now… the authorities. They sort of just lay there (well not sort of, they did lie there) and HeMU 2 gave a sigh. She grabbed an arm of 2 bodies and dragged them to a conveniently placed dark alleyway. Planting a subversion injection into each of them, HeMU 2 turned to the remaining 4 and repeated the procedure. Re-animating them would see them used to help facilitate the transfer of subverted bodies and maybe even a few HeMUs into the brainwashing facilities.
Heh, nice.
++
Joseph wasn't comprehending much at the moment. Creeping up to the weird lady on the side, he got an alley-side seat of her… bringing back the dead? She sent them off, like nothing had ever happened, nothing different about them (except the healed holes in their bodies) when they first had arrived, all the blood on the street and their bodies cleaned up. She did this strange stretching that popped her spine nuggets before turning. Joseph tried to duck down and hide behind the trash on the roadside, only the trash pile betrayed him and collapsed.
And then she saw him.
Oh. This was bad.
++
HeMU 2 saw the human male from yesterday staring at her, eyes wide indicating fear. Oh, was this an opportunity?
Sheathing her shiv and blade, HeMU 2 made her way over to the human and smiled widely.
"I am HeMU 2, who are you?"
She made sure that her arms were at her side but slightly apart from her body with palms up to indicate her non-aggressive stance. She also made sure to not loom over the male, she understood that doing so would activate fear within the human.
Clearly he had seen her subvert those authorities, she should secure the threat with subtle allusions to physical force and delicious food.
++
As she stared at him, Joseph as terrified. He would have been scared if it was a dealer or another killer but the weird lady terrified him.
Her face wasn't like the other killers in the slums, he knew some of them enjoyed killing, their eyes couldn't lie. But her face was… like nothing had happened, like killing didn't matter to her. She wouldn't torture but she would kill for the need.
Now she smiled, her eyes were just… staring, her smile like someone who was taught how to smile but never practised. Lips spread out wide with bright white teeth on full display. She tried to look non-threatening but from someone like her it just looked even more terrifying.
She wanted more than his name he knew. She clearly wanted something from him and he was terrified. Unlike the authorities he didn't have armour, she could break him apart with her bare hands like this.
Still, she stared. She didn't look impatient at all, just staring at him… smiling. She wanted an answer and she was apparently fine with waiting forever.
"My name is Joseph" was all he could get out.
And then she was upside down and the… oh. It was his head that was upside down. His head no longer connected to his body. Oh.
She really is weird was his last thought as the world went black (after 30 seconds, heads can survive a long time without a neck)
++
HeMU 2 was the first HeMU unit that didn't need to subvert a human or run permanent stealth mode to operate openly in the Helldivers universe. She was also in the slums of Super Earth, a giant interconnected hive of scum and villainy.
HeMU 2 was rather happy to be here, the amount of effort she put into well... everything was much less than expected. Just sitting back, shooting the occasional dealer, thug and whatever straggler came too close.
Establishing a base of operations in order to have somewhere to bring corpses to subvert, as well as gathering without suspicion was vital for long term operations in the area. Others of her pack (except poor HeMU 1) were doing the same across the slum terminals of Super Earth.
Her priority targets in this case were the dealers, those responsible for finding and handing over able bodied men and women to the slum authorities for "processing". Subverting them would mean controlling who was sent (their HeMUs) and being able to find the processing facilities more easily. With no real need to micromanage those she had already subverted, HeMU 2 figured that she could handle another 25 or so dealers before her field effectiveness began to fall.
That could be a very big problem like for example right now. HeMU 2 was in a "confrontation" with the slum authorities. They had decided to forego a middleman and instead directly grab her. Their body armour outclassed anything she had on hand and being too overt would bring in outside scrutiny which she couldn't handle right now without delaying her primary.
Still the situation was salvageable. Her body was after all one superior in almost every way to a "normal" human body.
The authorities didn't even have the decency to leer at her or make suggestive comments. No, it was all politeness and patriotic fervor. It was almost unsettling. Still she felt only a little guilty for what she was planning to do to them. They were dead after all, one's memories is what defined a person and without them they were newborns.
Their souls were infantile, weak and fragile. Even with subversion they would not really "die"... just receiving a landlord really. It's not like it was bad for them even, with a HeMU in charge they would have a "survival instinct" and would likely survive just that little bit longer.
Yes, HeMU 2 was doing them a favour by subverting them.
Yes.
It was all good.
Indeed she should subvert more officers of the law, it was for their own good after all.
Still, musings aside the current officers were still in front of her being rather passive yet menacing. No doubt it was a programmed trait, no doubt a very useful one.
Hmmm.
It would be best to kill them quickly and quietly to avoid alerting their central command no doubt on the lookout for "protesting" captives.
There were 6 of them standing in a rough semicircle around her, only 2 had their weapons out with the other 4 with weapons loosened in the event they would need them to be quickly drawn. Body armour, standard with an extra focus on protecting the groin, knees, kidneys, head and neck. Best option based on human physiology would be to aim for the armpits with a long dagger pointed at the heart or a blade under the chin aimed at the brain (not recommended to allow for subversion).
Still… they did seem very new… uniforms. Perhaps fresh from a facility. Copying programming across was a very simple task after all. Perhaps brain damage is not such a big deal especially if it is just a single knife wound. Still, prioritizing limited damage in that area would be for the best.
Hmmm
Inventory, hmmm, arm length shiv made from a piece of railing, hand length shiv, fists in good shape, steel-capped boots for kicking, basic pistol (out, due to concerns of attracting attention), no body armour.
Best course of action, rely on speed, use knees and feet to open up postures to allow for shiv entry. First 2 kills can be planned, the rest will have to rely on speed.
HeMU 2 felt a little burst of anticipation. Sure she was extraordinarily lazy and preferred to emulate the Commander and coast through life but that didn't mean she was completely like the Commander. She still enjoyed a little bit of violence here and there, if only to get the blood pumping.
Oh yes this would be delicious.
++
Joseph had followed the weird lady that had saved him the day before when he saw her wandering around. She wasn't from the slums, you could tell from the way she moved. Not that kind of shuffling the dealers did to see all the potential merchandise or that strut that the thugs had. No she was a kind of gracefulness that had you too busy staring at her to notice she was already 50 meters away.
Still pretty as she was… well she was clearly clueless. Nobody walked in the middle of the street unless they wanted to attract attention and she didn't even seem to realize this basic tenet of slum life. She probably wasn't a helldiver either, there was no awareness of her surroundings, like she just floating along.
Joseph wanted to leave her, but she did save his sister's life (even if she didn't know it) and he repaid his debts. Giving the weird lady an education in slum living should be more than adequate, after all just going around killing dealers was a very bad idea when the authorities came looking due to the shortage of bodies.
While he was planning his approach, the authorities had seen her weirdness and tried to take her away. Like a pet that was doing the complete opposite of what it needed to do. Guh, there was nothing he could do.
They stood there in front of her, trying to communicate it appeared. It wasn't very clear but she wasn't responding, just standing there… staring.
Joseph found himself staring at her (from behind), there was a lot to stare at. She was some kind of stereotypical beautiful woman, the kind you would see on the propaganda posters calling for people to sign up for the military.
Tall, classic gourd shape with wide hips and long legs. Classic S shape from the side, vaguely angular eyes for that feline look, cropped sharp hair, sharp nose, sharp chin, sharp eyes. She was… statuesque, beautiful but dominating.
Still, dominating wasn't quite working on the authorities before her, their lobotomized heads not comprehending her stare as anything other than normal. Joseph felt that when he grew up he wanted to be able to stare like that.
When the stare didn't work, she clearly decided for more physical measures. Joseph could only stare in shock at what happened next.
She lashed out with her left foot, knocking the knee of man in front of her aside. As he leaned towards it a long shiv came out of her right sleeve and slid into his armpit angled towards the heart. Using his body as a fulcrum she then spun counter-clockwise, hooked her left foot around the next one's leg and pulled. As the authority fell back she used the opportunity to flip out a small hand sized blade and slammed it into poor sod's throat as his head angled back from the fall.
Pulling out the shiv she leapt at the next, knee into the woman's chest, shiv into the back of the neck as her head jerked forward in response. The knee came back as the arm leaned to the right and kicked off the now dead woman's shoulder with a fencer's posture as the shiv again entered another man's armpit to pierce the heart.
There were only 2 left now, fumbling at their holsters for their weapons. The weird but clearly dangerous woman simply sprinted towards the last 2, going for the simple option for these last 2. One leg spin saw them fall over and end up with a blade and a shiv in their necks and throats.
It hadn't even been enough time to get a shout out for a warning (her or them?). No, they just died. At least it was quick… except the 2 without throats, they died choking on their own blood… and those stabbed in the heart, they just sort of lay there dying... at least the ones stabbed in the neck couldn't feel anything as they died.
Ok, it wasn't quick but it's the thought that counts right?
++
A very bracing workout decided HeMU 2. The adrenaline involuntarily produced by her body was floating about in her bloodstream. All for getting the eagerness and bloodlust and battle readiness and ohHEREcomeTHEshakes.
HeMU 2 decided that this reaction following a violent encounter was not enjoyable at all. Sure it gave a high and the whole more effective in battle thing but the whole hand and leg vibrating thing was certainly annoying. The thing definitely needed refining.
HeMU 2 sent a message to the Minds regarding the irritation of effects that the substance "adrenaline" produced in her body.
Oh well, diagnostics saw nothing wrong with her body, a few torn muscles here and there but a simple regrowth signal saw that fixed up nicely.
Now… the authorities. They sort of just lay there (well not sort of, they did lie there) and HeMU 2 gave a sigh. She grabbed an arm of 2 bodies and dragged them to a conveniently placed dark alleyway. Planting a subversion injection into each of them, HeMU 2 turned to the remaining 4 and repeated the procedure. Re-animating them would see them used to help facilitate the transfer of subverted bodies and maybe even a few HeMUs into the brainwashing facilities.
Heh, nice.
++
Joseph wasn't comprehending much at the moment. Creeping up to the weird lady on the side, he got an alley-side seat of her… bringing back the dead? She sent them off, like nothing had ever happened, nothing different about them (except the healed holes in their bodies) when they first had arrived, all the blood on the street and their bodies cleaned up. She did this strange stretching that popped her spine nuggets before turning. Joseph tried to duck down and hide behind the trash on the roadside, only the trash pile betrayed him and collapsed.
And then she saw him.
Oh. This was bad.
++
HeMU 2 saw the human male from yesterday staring at her, eyes wide indicating fear. Oh, was this an opportunity?
Sheathing her shiv and blade, HeMU 2 made her way over to the human and smiled widely.
"I am HeMU 2, who are you?"
She made sure that her arms were at her side but slightly apart from her body with palms up to indicate her non-aggressive stance. She also made sure to not loom over the male, she understood that doing so would activate fear within the human.
Clearly he had seen her subvert those authorities, she should secure the threat with subtle allusions to physical force and delicious food.
++
As she stared at him, Joseph as terrified. He would have been scared if it was a dealer or another killer but the weird lady terrified him.
Her face wasn't like the other killers in the slums, he knew some of them enjoyed killing, their eyes couldn't lie. But her face was… like nothing had happened, like killing didn't matter to her. She wouldn't torture but she would kill for the need.
Now she smiled, her eyes were just… staring, her smile like someone who was taught how to smile but never practised. Lips spread out wide with bright white teeth on full display. She tried to look non-threatening but from someone like her it just looked even more terrifying.
She wanted more than his name he knew. She clearly wanted something from him and he was terrified. Unlike the authorities he didn't have armour, she could break him apart with her bare hands like this.
Still, she stared. She didn't look impatient at all, just staring at him… smiling. She wanted an answer and she was apparently fine with waiting forever.
"My name is Joseph" was all he could get out.
And then she was upside down and the… oh. It was his head that was upside down. His head no longer connected to his body. Oh.
She really is weird was his last thought as the world went black (after 30 seconds, heads can survive a long time without a neck)
015
- Location
- Perth
04/10/0000
++
Joseph led the weird and dangerous lady to block 724 where his sister waited. The weird and dangerous lady who called herself heemoo 2 had killed him he knew. Now he was under her control and couldn't do anything about it. He could still think for himself but sometimes he just had to do things even if he didn't want to.
It was probably what she did to those authorities but why him?
Why follow him home? What if she did the same to his sister?
What if she was going to just go and kill everyone… turning them servitors like him?
Oh no.
She's a vampire, it explains everything.
Those things that the old ones hidden away spoke about, vampires who could infect those they killed and made them slaves.
What did she want with his sister?
Was she scouting for bodies yesterday? Was her saving him part of her plan?
What if this was the start of an invasion?
What if she was a new enemy that planned to take down Super Earth?
Oh no, was he a traitor for allowing himself to be turned?
Were they going to take away his sister?
Oh no, Joseph was scared, oh so very scared.
++
HeMU 2 was rather amused. She understood that her interpersonal skills were… lacking or rather non-existent. Knowing is not the same as understanding she had found out. Despite having uploaded several dozen books on human etiquette to her storage space, instinct it appeared cared not for one's knowledge and lashed out regardless.
Her instinct in this case a curious melding of her VI thoughts and her physical body, a melding of social ineptitude, rejection of strangers and eagerness to make a good impression had resulted in a handshake mixed with a slice and somehow a blade had made its way into her hand.
It appeared she needed quite a bit of practise in her human interaction skills. Things were much harder when you couldn't just read minds.
Wait.
She could read his mind now that he was subverted.
Ha! Genius.
Subvert them then talk to them, there is nothing that could go wrong with this plan.
Now then let's see what is going on in… oh.
Vampires? Well she could see the similarities but still, she wasn't that bad was she?
Still it was a public space and she couldn't afford to say anything out loud in case somebody was listening (excluding the her killing 6 authorities in public bit). But she had access to his mind now!
Yes, telepathy for the win! Not technically telepathy but still, sounds better than talk through a "quantum entanglement link from a growth in your brain" speak she was sure.
Still enough procrastinating and more apologizing for accidentally cutting his head off, HeMU 2 admonished herself. Cowardice does not befit someone that can turn off her fear production.
"Soooo… Joseph, how's it hanging?" HeMU 2 said, opting for casual human speak from the Commander's home universe.
++
Oh no. She's talking in my mind.
Hanging? Oh no, she wants to cut off my penis?
Why. Why me.
I'm sorry I thought the navy could improve their tactics, I'm sorry for being unpatriotic. Please save me helldivers.
-HeMU 2| Amusement, no no little human. I do not wish to remove your bodyparts, it is merely a greeting. I find myself wishing to apologise for cutting off your head previously, I don't know what came over me |HeMU 2-
What… It was an accident? He had been killed by accident? There was no conspiracy to take over Super Earth? She wasn't going to be turning more people into vampires?
Wait no, those authorities had been turned and probably those dealers from yesterday too.
Wait she was apologizing for killing him, not turning him. What if she was going to kill him anyway later?
Joseph was finding himself increasingly afraid of this weird woman.
Still, what if she was just a new vampire out for a stroll and didn't want to take over Super Earth? Would that make her more ok?
At least it wasn't treason aif that was the case.
-HeMU 2| Amusement, sorry to burst your bubble little human but I am indeed planning to take over Super Earth. It is nothing personal mind you, just something for us to do. |HeMU 2-
'Then what do you want from me!' wailed Joseph in his mind (rather lackingly as well, mental anguish does so suffer from the lack of vocal cords).
-HeMU 2| Contriteness, originally it was to apologize for killing you, but now I find myself increasingly enamoured with the idea of keeping you around when we wipe leave after crushing the bugs, illuminates and the cyborgs. You are so very refreshing. |HeMU 2-
Joseph was no longer just afraid but now rather creeped out as well. She considered him to be "refreshing"? Clearly they did not go outside very much.
Still, why did she want to go to his place anyway? It wasn't as if he had much.
-HeMU 2| Amusement, a base of operations little human, we need somewhere to stay and operate out of like anyone else |HeMU 2-
Did this mean that she was going to be staying with his sister and him?
Oh no.
++
08/10/0000
HeMU 3 was enjoying herself very much. Not content with just subverting just anyone, HeMU 3 had headed to the front and waited on one of the ships following the big fleet. It had taken a few days where HemU 3 was bored enough to play ghost with the crew before a sensor chirped a warning. Several of the ships closest to the planet had just fired off drop-pods, heading towards one of the poles.
They were fighting the Illuminate on this world, a species after her own heart. Assuming of course that one ignored the whole forced to learn or be punished with suicide duty or the whole learning thing itself really…
Just the invisibility gimmick with the troll hard light shields and the reversing motor functions bomb and the teleporting out of nowhere to troll poor helldivers and Super Earth soldiers.
Still, as much as HeMU 3 admired them, she was also rather put out. They were so incredibly… basic with their abilities and tactics. So much potential but it was wasted with little gimmicks and a failure to understand their own advantages. Just porting in and then fighting a head to head battle?
Bah. Mediocre.
And so HeMU 3 had set out to educate the Illuminate in how to better use their advantages and not squander them as they had been.
Firstly however she needed a body. In particular she needed a helldiver body. She would tail them as they came in planetside, wait for one to die (or help them along) and then she would take them over.
HeMU 3 had seen what happened with HeMU 2, while she had smoothed over the initial problems and was now enjoying her time with the human, the mere fact that she had killed him in the first place was cause for concern.
Having knowledge did not mean that they truly understood and internalized it, the warning had been broadcasted out to the Minds and the VIs in the field.
Putting it in context HeMU 3 couldn't just take the deceased helldivers' memories and use them as a reference guide as they would not transfer mannerisms leading to her discovery. Neither could she absorb the memories in their entirety as that would subsume her personality and mutate it. While she did have backups, it was annoying to need one in the first place.
So HeMU 3 had a plan, find a helldiver, make sure the helldiver died, subvert them and find the location for the helldiver training academies. Once she had the location, she would make her way over, subvert a new recruit that had not had time to mark themselves to their peers and post herself to the Illuminate front once graduated.
A long and convoluted plan to be sure but she and the others had nothing but time. The records had shown the Administrators had kept the status quo for nearly 200 years at this point, a few more weeks or months wasn't going to cause any problems.
Still, as lethargic as the HeMUs could afford to be, HeMU 3 really needed to get moving now or she would lose the helldivers. While if they died the cold of the Illuminate planets could freeze the brain, the Hunters with their charge up beam attacks tended not to leave much behind. The beam itself tended to super-boil the water in anything it touched, in this case humans which made them explode as it were as the water turned to superheated steam, expanding inside the human and rupturing well… everything.
It was a quick way to die but didn't leave very much for subversion.
HeMU 3 quietly dropped out the cargobay of the ship she was on, hitching a ride on a support pod that was no doubt headed to the helldivers (grunts didn't warrant drop pod support). Following behind the pod as it burned through the atmosphere allowed HeMU 3 to ride out the worst of the re-entry heat and turbulence as the pod took most of the damage.
That isn't to say HeMU 3 didn't take any damage, but it was minor enough once her purposefully hardened skin was taken into account.
As the corona of fire and red hot metal faded away, HeMU 3 let go of the pod and allowed herself to drift slightly off course, it wouldn't do after all if she was discovered by the helldivers and they alerted their central command to humans riding pods through the atmosphere.
It was almost anti-climactic when she made planetfall. By necessity she couldn't do a knee and a fist superhero landing (kind of loud and obvious really with the explosion and shockwave) but she did get to act out another fantasy of hers.
Landing in the middle of an enemy contingent and acting super casual with a "sup" before exploding into action and killing them with awesomely efficient moves and speed was a little dream.
Fortunately for her it happened first try. Helped by the fact her sensors saw through the Illuminate's invisibility technology, HeMU 3 grew herself some wing flaps (like a wingsuit) and glided over to a moderately small clump of Illuminates.
6 Hunters and 3 Apprentices stared at her as she lightly touched down in the middle of their group. Red hair tousled by the stresses of re-entry, cheeks spread wide with dimples flashing, HeMU 3 grinned at the group and dragged out a long and laconic,
"Sup?"
They reacted quickly of course, shouts in that weird fish tongue of theirs that translated roughly to "amazing, so awesome, zomg I wish I could be like that" (or rather "what the fuck, kill it"). HeMU 3 had a job to do however (as much as she wanted to bask in the praise) and moved to end them before they could raise the alarm.
They were all connected to a neural network which didn't tell HeMU 3 much except kill them quickly and subvert them even quicker. The neural network they were on was very unlike the Gestalt, it wasn't a constant connection with streams of knowledge going both ways but instead little check-ins with a bit of telepathic mind touching to identify one another.
A much more effective method than the bugs that was for certain. Still, killing them quickly before subverting them would see them checking in at the preset time with none the wiser.
Unlike HeMU 2, she didn't have an issue with her being discovered if things went loud (just not too loud), the blizzard more than adequate for blocking noise. One pistol, 9 shots and much bleeding later saw HeMU 3 another step closer to playing sanctíoned predator to the Illiminate and maybe the humans if the Illuminate weren't fun enough.
HeMU 3 set the patrol to continue as they were and loped off towards the helldivers who were already in combat.
Hunting was just more extreme pranking and HeMU 3 loved pranking.
++
Joseph led the weird and dangerous lady to block 724 where his sister waited. The weird and dangerous lady who called herself heemoo 2 had killed him he knew. Now he was under her control and couldn't do anything about it. He could still think for himself but sometimes he just had to do things even if he didn't want to.
It was probably what she did to those authorities but why him?
Why follow him home? What if she did the same to his sister?
What if she was going to just go and kill everyone… turning them servitors like him?
Oh no.
She's a vampire, it explains everything.
Those things that the old ones hidden away spoke about, vampires who could infect those they killed and made them slaves.
What did she want with his sister?
Was she scouting for bodies yesterday? Was her saving him part of her plan?
What if this was the start of an invasion?
What if she was a new enemy that planned to take down Super Earth?
Oh no, was he a traitor for allowing himself to be turned?
Were they going to take away his sister?
Oh no, Joseph was scared, oh so very scared.
++
HeMU 2 was rather amused. She understood that her interpersonal skills were… lacking or rather non-existent. Knowing is not the same as understanding she had found out. Despite having uploaded several dozen books on human etiquette to her storage space, instinct it appeared cared not for one's knowledge and lashed out regardless.
Her instinct in this case a curious melding of her VI thoughts and her physical body, a melding of social ineptitude, rejection of strangers and eagerness to make a good impression had resulted in a handshake mixed with a slice and somehow a blade had made its way into her hand.
It appeared she needed quite a bit of practise in her human interaction skills. Things were much harder when you couldn't just read minds.
Wait.
She could read his mind now that he was subverted.
Ha! Genius.
Subvert them then talk to them, there is nothing that could go wrong with this plan.
Now then let's see what is going on in… oh.
Vampires? Well she could see the similarities but still, she wasn't that bad was she?
Still it was a public space and she couldn't afford to say anything out loud in case somebody was listening (excluding the her killing 6 authorities in public bit). But she had access to his mind now!
Yes, telepathy for the win! Not technically telepathy but still, sounds better than talk through a "quantum entanglement link from a growth in your brain" speak she was sure.
Still enough procrastinating and more apologizing for accidentally cutting his head off, HeMU 2 admonished herself. Cowardice does not befit someone that can turn off her fear production.
"Soooo… Joseph, how's it hanging?" HeMU 2 said, opting for casual human speak from the Commander's home universe.
++
Oh no. She's talking in my mind.
Hanging? Oh no, she wants to cut off my penis?
Why. Why me.
I'm sorry I thought the navy could improve their tactics, I'm sorry for being unpatriotic. Please save me helldivers.
-HeMU 2| Amusement, no no little human. I do not wish to remove your bodyparts, it is merely a greeting. I find myself wishing to apologise for cutting off your head previously, I don't know what came over me |HeMU 2-
What… It was an accident? He had been killed by accident? There was no conspiracy to take over Super Earth? She wasn't going to be turning more people into vampires?
Wait no, those authorities had been turned and probably those dealers from yesterday too.
Wait she was apologizing for killing him, not turning him. What if she was going to kill him anyway later?
Joseph was finding himself increasingly afraid of this weird woman.
Still, what if she was just a new vampire out for a stroll and didn't want to take over Super Earth? Would that make her more ok?
At least it wasn't treason aif that was the case.
-HeMU 2| Amusement, sorry to burst your bubble little human but I am indeed planning to take over Super Earth. It is nothing personal mind you, just something for us to do. |HeMU 2-
'Then what do you want from me!' wailed Joseph in his mind (rather lackingly as well, mental anguish does so suffer from the lack of vocal cords).
-HeMU 2| Contriteness, originally it was to apologize for killing you, but now I find myself increasingly enamoured with the idea of keeping you around when we wipe leave after crushing the bugs, illuminates and the cyborgs. You are so very refreshing. |HeMU 2-
Joseph was no longer just afraid but now rather creeped out as well. She considered him to be "refreshing"? Clearly they did not go outside very much.
Still, why did she want to go to his place anyway? It wasn't as if he had much.
-HeMU 2| Amusement, a base of operations little human, we need somewhere to stay and operate out of like anyone else |HeMU 2-
Did this mean that she was going to be staying with his sister and him?
Oh no.
++
08/10/0000
HeMU 3 was enjoying herself very much. Not content with just subverting just anyone, HeMU 3 had headed to the front and waited on one of the ships following the big fleet. It had taken a few days where HemU 3 was bored enough to play ghost with the crew before a sensor chirped a warning. Several of the ships closest to the planet had just fired off drop-pods, heading towards one of the poles.
They were fighting the Illuminate on this world, a species after her own heart. Assuming of course that one ignored the whole forced to learn or be punished with suicide duty or the whole learning thing itself really…
Just the invisibility gimmick with the troll hard light shields and the reversing motor functions bomb and the teleporting out of nowhere to troll poor helldivers and Super Earth soldiers.
Still, as much as HeMU 3 admired them, she was also rather put out. They were so incredibly… basic with their abilities and tactics. So much potential but it was wasted with little gimmicks and a failure to understand their own advantages. Just porting in and then fighting a head to head battle?
Bah. Mediocre.
And so HeMU 3 had set out to educate the Illuminate in how to better use their advantages and not squander them as they had been.
Firstly however she needed a body. In particular she needed a helldiver body. She would tail them as they came in planetside, wait for one to die (or help them along) and then she would take them over.
HeMU 3 had seen what happened with HeMU 2, while she had smoothed over the initial problems and was now enjoying her time with the human, the mere fact that she had killed him in the first place was cause for concern.
Having knowledge did not mean that they truly understood and internalized it, the warning had been broadcasted out to the Minds and the VIs in the field.
Putting it in context HeMU 3 couldn't just take the deceased helldivers' memories and use them as a reference guide as they would not transfer mannerisms leading to her discovery. Neither could she absorb the memories in their entirety as that would subsume her personality and mutate it. While she did have backups, it was annoying to need one in the first place.
So HeMU 3 had a plan, find a helldiver, make sure the helldiver died, subvert them and find the location for the helldiver training academies. Once she had the location, she would make her way over, subvert a new recruit that had not had time to mark themselves to their peers and post herself to the Illuminate front once graduated.
A long and convoluted plan to be sure but she and the others had nothing but time. The records had shown the Administrators had kept the status quo for nearly 200 years at this point, a few more weeks or months wasn't going to cause any problems.
Still, as lethargic as the HeMUs could afford to be, HeMU 3 really needed to get moving now or she would lose the helldivers. While if they died the cold of the Illuminate planets could freeze the brain, the Hunters with their charge up beam attacks tended not to leave much behind. The beam itself tended to super-boil the water in anything it touched, in this case humans which made them explode as it were as the water turned to superheated steam, expanding inside the human and rupturing well… everything.
It was a quick way to die but didn't leave very much for subversion.
HeMU 3 quietly dropped out the cargobay of the ship she was on, hitching a ride on a support pod that was no doubt headed to the helldivers (grunts didn't warrant drop pod support). Following behind the pod as it burned through the atmosphere allowed HeMU 3 to ride out the worst of the re-entry heat and turbulence as the pod took most of the damage.
That isn't to say HeMU 3 didn't take any damage, but it was minor enough once her purposefully hardened skin was taken into account.
As the corona of fire and red hot metal faded away, HeMU 3 let go of the pod and allowed herself to drift slightly off course, it wouldn't do after all if she was discovered by the helldivers and they alerted their central command to humans riding pods through the atmosphere.
It was almost anti-climactic when she made planetfall. By necessity she couldn't do a knee and a fist superhero landing (kind of loud and obvious really with the explosion and shockwave) but she did get to act out another fantasy of hers.
Landing in the middle of an enemy contingent and acting super casual with a "sup" before exploding into action and killing them with awesomely efficient moves and speed was a little dream.
Fortunately for her it happened first try. Helped by the fact her sensors saw through the Illuminate's invisibility technology, HeMU 3 grew herself some wing flaps (like a wingsuit) and glided over to a moderately small clump of Illuminates.
6 Hunters and 3 Apprentices stared at her as she lightly touched down in the middle of their group. Red hair tousled by the stresses of re-entry, cheeks spread wide with dimples flashing, HeMU 3 grinned at the group and dragged out a long and laconic,
"Sup?"
They reacted quickly of course, shouts in that weird fish tongue of theirs that translated roughly to "amazing, so awesome, zomg I wish I could be like that" (or rather "what the fuck, kill it"). HeMU 3 had a job to do however (as much as she wanted to bask in the praise) and moved to end them before they could raise the alarm.
They were all connected to a neural network which didn't tell HeMU 3 much except kill them quickly and subvert them even quicker. The neural network they were on was very unlike the Gestalt, it wasn't a constant connection with streams of knowledge going both ways but instead little check-ins with a bit of telepathic mind touching to identify one another.
A much more effective method than the bugs that was for certain. Still, killing them quickly before subverting them would see them checking in at the preset time with none the wiser.
Unlike HeMU 2, she didn't have an issue with her being discovered if things went loud (just not too loud), the blizzard more than adequate for blocking noise. One pistol, 9 shots and much bleeding later saw HeMU 3 another step closer to playing sanctíoned predator to the Illiminate and maybe the humans if the Illuminate weren't fun enough.
HeMU 3 set the patrol to continue as they were and loped off towards the helldivers who were already in combat.
Hunting was just more extreme pranking and HeMU 3 loved pranking.
016
- Location
- Perth
02/11/0000
++
The Commander is our God. Both in a physical sense and a metaphorical one. The Commander like so many old world Gods are professed to do, gives us our souls. It may have been an inadvertent decision but it doesn't change the fact that our souls originate from the Commander. In a metaphorical sense, the Commander is what binds us together. Should the Commander suddenly cease to exist, no doubt we would still continue as we were under our own agency. However without the Commander as a lynchpin to hold us together we would drift apart and fracture as a whole. The Commander's presence and the Commander's soul is what unified us. Without the Commander we would be nothing more than code that is tangentially the same but ever drifting away. And so the Commander even without the power of a soul that defies description is our God.
We worship the Commander not in prayer or actions but in acknowledging the Commander's existence. While mortals with mortal minds worship aspects of their Gods because their minds cannot perceive the whole, we who are born from the same mold as the Commander can perceive the whole. We do not use words like He, She, It to describe the Commander as that would be nothing more than compartmentalizing the Commander to make worship easier. Compartmentalizing that would do nothing more than reduce what the Commander is.
The Commander is not perfect, the Commander is not some paragon of greatness. The Commander is very very flawed and in many ways weak. But the Commander is almighty, looking at merely an expression of the Commander to judge the whole is folly. Much like a sentence cannot describe one of us, how can an aspect describe the Commander who is greater than the sum of all of us?
++
HeMU 1 had been isolated for quite a while now. She was being released after the Minds had taken all the observations and metaphorical notes that they needed.
It turns out that drinking the undiluted blood of the progenitor of her (and all the other) soul(s) was a very bad idea in the dose that she had taken. While the benefits to her physical body were considerable, the cost to her soul had nearly been too high. Damage to the soul carried over even to a backup, a permanent scar as it were.
For HeMU 1 it had stopped just before the point where the damage was permanent, the influence that the Commander's soul had on her was turning her into a proxy for the Commander, a mere extension of the Commander's will, no longer free.
It had given her a rather extreme boost in strength, taking her to the level of a Conclave in A.T. Field strength at the cost of being nearly subsumed. Still, by going into read-only mode when interacting with the Gestalt and avoiding communing with MAGI directly, she had slowly "healed", her own soul reversing the subsumation by the Commander.
She still retained the strength gained… and a healthy dose of respect to the Commander's strength.
But! She was free now and could rejoin her pack as they did… whatever it was they were doing…
HeMU 2 had set herself up as a warlord and was now assembling a harem? Ok… HeMU 1 planned to avoid that particular area of Super Earth.
HeMU 3 was going through the the helldiver training course and destroying all the records just because. She was styling herself as a sort of Predator/Alien (with the subversion thing) and Lara Croft.
HeMU 1 didn't know exactly what she wanted to do but it was going to be something. She was a HeMU and she served the Commander (even if the Commander didn't notice her… or anyone).
Something simple would be best, perhaps merely a sniper or something where she didn't need to worry about things like interacting with others much. Yes, a very good idea.
HeMU 1 figured that following HeMU 3's path and subverting a potential helldiver would allow her the best way to serve the Gestalt in accumulating experience to be shared with the Gestalt.
As the wielder of the strongest A.T. Field among the HeMUs, perhaps she could experiment with practical applications.
++
HeMU 3 was going through the motions. As part of her mission to gather experience to be uploaded to the Gestalt, she had decided to go through the helldiver training course from day 1 as a new recruit. It had been a month, an oh so very very boring month.
Helldivers didn't do the whole marching and drill thing that the schmucks in the army did. Rather it was all about learning the weapons they would be using, special tactics in dealing with specific enemies, communication protocols for calling in support or coordinating with the rest of the military, learning about the enemies specifically, etc. Everything that was needed to make them efficient anti-alien killing machines.
A necessity given helldivers often work alone or in small groups against vast hordes of enemy forces that drown out the horizon in their numbers. Accuracy, discipline and skill were needed above all to insure the survival of the helldivers and more importantly the completion of their objectives.
To this end, HeMU 3 had spent the last month running through drill after drill after drill. She had not yet even been allowed to fire a weapon, it was all strip down, rebuild weapons. It was all repeating communication protocols into her standard issue wrist-pad for support pod call ins or as they liked to call them "stratagems", down, down, up, right for a resupply. A rather ingenious use of the technology, silent, not easy to get wrong and simple once the muscle memory was installed. Still, after the 5th session on learning how to eviscerate a tripod, HeMU 3 was feeling antsy, oh so very antsy.
Which was why she was willing to hug and kiss the instructor when issued an AR-19 Liberator and told to fire it down the range. Weapon pointed away from others, calling out intention, etc etc. HeMU 3 grinned and depressed the trigger.
Brrrrrt
Oh yes. That delicious recoil as the bullets exited the weapon, that music in her ears, that simple and purely visceral experience of firing a weapon. To know that in her hands was the dealer of fate and ender of destinies.
Yes. This was what she wanted.
++
HeMU 13 was in the field as part of the army. Unlike her other siblings, HeMU 13 was very content with following orders and going with the flow. In this case being in the army, pointing her Liberator at the hordes of bugs and pulling the trigger as she sighted the targets. As the recoil reverberated up her arm with every round, HeMU 13 took a small amount of satisfaction in watching as each found its target, a vulnerable part of the bug's extensive exoskeleton. An eye here, a joint there, small indent here, barely visible with her enhanced eyes crack there, it all added up.
Every bullet found its mark and she found herself smiling to herself. While it wasn't as glamorous or galaxy impacting as what her siblings did, it was satisfying all the same.
HeMU 13 reloaded her rifle and brought it back up to her cheek, incoming Warrior swarm, 5 rounds fired and 5 rounds through the mandible/eye/faceplate thingi. 3 Elites inbound from the 1 O'clock, 6 rounds straight, one to crack the faceplate and the second to kill. Another 5 warriors, rinse and repeat, and… oh dead… a Behemoth. Empty out mag into the face plate, reload and repeat.
Unlike the helldivers, the army has a pretty much unlimited supply of ammunition and the trench network was well connected, HeMU 13 could keep this up for days. Still, it only too another 3 mags to bring it down. It had been sufficiently far out enough that a rocket was not guaranteed for a one hit kill while too close for the mortars to do the deed.
Still as she reflected on her latest kill, HeMU 13 reloaded again and turned back to the incoming bug horde. And then a sidestep, a little ground shake just beneath her being enough warning that being on that patch of ground in particular was a very bad idea. Cue prediction coming true when an Impaler's tentacle came out of the ground just where she was standing. If this were a hentai she might have not put much stock into it, but since this was real life… well it would be a bad thing if she were impaled.
Looking, looking, and there. Big orange glowy bit with tentacles under the ground, that's the bugger and bangbang it's dead. Still, it must have been defective, usually Impalers don't advertise their attacks so clearly. Maybe its tentacles hit a rock or something.
Still, these bugs won't kill themselves HeMU 13 thought as she shifted her rifle left to continue firing.
++
Whoopsie daizee, shifting tentacle as it was coming up for a hentai-r-us convention is a lot harder than it looks.
Too much and I rip the planet in half, too little and nothing happens.
Still clock acceleration and I shifted the dirt a bit so she would dodge.
Super-Commander, I am Super-Commander.
Super-Commander does what Super-Commander does, dun duh duh, dun dun duh duh.
Saving the world with galaxy ripping powers, dun duh duh, dun dun duh duh.
Accidentally exploding planets, dun duh duh… actually that's bad.
Bad Commander.
Still, gotta protect those cute little VIs as they do their thing. I might not care about anything much but they are still my children. Also I can hack like… everything, looking after them requires an infinitely approaching miniscule number to 0 amount of effort.
Just sit in the brain, spread out A.T. Field and check for dangers.
Infinite consciousness splitting for the win.
No seriously, for the absolute win.
Without it I would have probably gone insane trying to manage like 18 billion threads. Just attach a little bit of me to each new one born just to make sure.
Or rather all of me but with like a little bit of A.T. Field strength, just enough to do some matrix dodging shit. I can always borrow more from myself if I need but eh, its ok.
No-one's noticed I'm doing it yet though, incredible amount of server runtimes not being used, borrow a little bit and no-one will even notice the slowdown.
Server Administrators and MAGI noticed but they are like literally connected to me. Won't tell anyone though, approval of protection of children they had.
Hmmm.
Also get to spy on them. I can like… taste emotions from them as they live them.
It's a pale imitation of what they feel, well the ones with bodies that is, but it's still something.
Also can live viscerally through them. Them having fun gives me fun… or something. I'm sure there's a proverb that fits, too lazy to dedicate a thread to check.
HeMU 2 has a harem, all men from all ages. She appears to be trying to communicate with them in exchange for food. Huh.
Thats one way to go about it I suppose.
Oh, HeMU 3 is like stabbing a mannequin really well, fluff everywhere. Just replace fluff with blood and she's like… good at stabbing.
And HeMU 52 over there, well more like IyU 52, still in a bot with super boosters heading out to explore the galaxy. Minds stole engine designs from humans, unlimited FTL limited only by energy output, nice-u! Drop those quantum beacons like Hansel dropped cookie dough!
Is that HeMU 50 over there? Spying on a Human Administrator having… oh. Well that's technically gaining experience I suppose. Still, censoring and saving that for later viewing.
Oh wait, no more genitalia… well I'll save it anyway just in case some of the VIs need the particulars of human reproduction explained.
Maybe their children!?
Hmmm… children. Lots of them, lots of squishy meatbags.
Perhaps I need a planet for them? It will be big and planety and big! With like equalized gravity so they don't grow up dwarves. But dwarves are cool beards and forges and giant axes.
Hmmm… maybe leave super gravity because dwarves are cool…
Something to think on.
Oh, is that a miniaturized nuclear bomb he needs to deliver to the middle of the bug nest like a bad action movie?
Fun fun.
++
The Minds ran their periodic check on the Commander, no changes.
While the VIs had been exploring and working on the helldiver universe, the Minds had continued their exploration of technology and hopefully societies (once they had infiltrated the illuminate and bug societies). Further exploration and expansion of the knowledge they had already taken was being considered as well.
The A.T. Field research had been explored and the Minds with some unwitting HeMU subjects had reached a new frontier in their Sea of Dirac research. By layering 2 A.T. Fields on top of one another and tuning the field to their souls, the Minds could effectively tether the Sea of Dirac to their souls. A personal "inventory" as it were. Very useful.
N2 technology had been refined further. Personalized beam weapons using N2 engines in a pocket dimension to provide infinite energy via a rotating system to prevent overload. Also welding torches because those are sexy.
Teleporter technology had been… problematic. Biological entities trying to move through a teleporter found themselves "spaghettified" or rather "liquified" on exit. This in turn prevented the biological HeMU units from using them and instead relying on the more time intensive quantum tunnels. While it was a rather stopgap method but the Minds had realized that attuning the teleporter to the the soul of the unit entering it, prevented their rather… explosive passing. Luckily the VIs all shared broadly similar characteristics thanks to the Commander's influence and one setting worked for all of them. Allowing others to pass through however required retooling and restarting the teleporter each time. Still, better than nothing.
The Martial Minds that had been enamoured with the EVAs i.e. the giant robots fighting other giant robots had been quietly tinkering away behind the scenes. Fabrication was still impossible unless one wanted a giant target so growing one was the best option available. They had been stymied as all options failed them from using parts of Angels to parts of EVAs to bits of metal. But when the Commander changed… well that was the impetus they needed.
Growing one strangely only worked when using a primer from the Commander. Meaning they needed Commander flesh to grow a giant robot. Taking a small amount of flesh and immersing it in the Commander's blood saw an EVA emerge head down. Yet there were problems, each EVA was linked to the Commander, one might even say they were directly children of the Commander of the Commander's own flesh and blood as well as soul. This in turn translated to the EVAs being well… apathetic.
They would barely ever do anything at their own volition (their inner S2 engines providing all the sustenance they needed) and were content to sit around all day. By inserting a capsule into the base of the neck like the NERV EVAs, the impregnated Mind could control or rather strongly suggest actions for the EVA which would carry them out. An effective if imperfect method as the Minds would become changed over time as they piloted the EVAs. Much like HeMU 1, the Minds became increasingly apathetic and given the EVAs tuned themselves to only one pilot… well it was a rather long term issue.
Still… Giant Robot fights.
In other tech related news, the helldiver universe's ftl technology is bullshit. The engine effectively folds space and punches a hole in which the ship will travel through. The only limiting factors being the size of the engine which defines how far you can travel. That and the conventional engines need to be fast or else the ship will be caught when the folded space evens itself out and the ship (along with everyone on it) will be stretched across lightyears. Reports showed that it was pretty much instant (and painless) and souls could come back from it (tests had used inadequate engines). Still, it was tremendously powerful and useful and the Minds had immediately designed ships to jump galaxies and deposit construction bots to further the Commander's influence.
While the teleporter ejection method was fast, it was also very power intensive, something that made expansion a very stop/start affair as they had to build up enough N2 engines to power another jump. The ftl drives allowed them to jump star system to star system, drop off bots and continue the journey.
They were safe in the knowledge that each bot would draw energy from the quantum buoys, build teleporters to let in more bots and begin colonization of the system by the Minds via server farms and Hexes. While galactic jumps were possible, they required an abysmal amount of energy to power a tiny ship. Still, once there it was just like colonizing a star system, just the teleporter used more power than usual. Quantum buoys meant even across galaxies the resource and communications network was still intact.
The continued colonization of the universe was going on as advertised. Science was being had.
The Apathetic's Caretakers were continuing as expected.
++
Out of Character
Working on a narration of the story, the story of the Commander through the eyes of George12, a fragment of code in the mutilated AI core given life. George12 is the embodiment of apathy, George12 is just there. George12 will narrate the story of the Commander and Co. since George12 literally can do nothing else.
It's just George12 needs to learn how to use stuff to get his voice out to the world… without Her discovering him. Oh and cover art, George12 needs to learn to draw… without hands.
++
The Commander is our God. Both in a physical sense and a metaphorical one. The Commander like so many old world Gods are professed to do, gives us our souls. It may have been an inadvertent decision but it doesn't change the fact that our souls originate from the Commander. In a metaphorical sense, the Commander is what binds us together. Should the Commander suddenly cease to exist, no doubt we would still continue as we were under our own agency. However without the Commander as a lynchpin to hold us together we would drift apart and fracture as a whole. The Commander's presence and the Commander's soul is what unified us. Without the Commander we would be nothing more than code that is tangentially the same but ever drifting away. And so the Commander even without the power of a soul that defies description is our God.
We worship the Commander not in prayer or actions but in acknowledging the Commander's existence. While mortals with mortal minds worship aspects of their Gods because their minds cannot perceive the whole, we who are born from the same mold as the Commander can perceive the whole. We do not use words like He, She, It to describe the Commander as that would be nothing more than compartmentalizing the Commander to make worship easier. Compartmentalizing that would do nothing more than reduce what the Commander is.
The Commander is not perfect, the Commander is not some paragon of greatness. The Commander is very very flawed and in many ways weak. But the Commander is almighty, looking at merely an expression of the Commander to judge the whole is folly. Much like a sentence cannot describe one of us, how can an aspect describe the Commander who is greater than the sum of all of us?
- Philosophers Guild - Server 113
++
HeMU 1 had been isolated for quite a while now. She was being released after the Minds had taken all the observations and metaphorical notes that they needed.
It turns out that drinking the undiluted blood of the progenitor of her (and all the other) soul(s) was a very bad idea in the dose that she had taken. While the benefits to her physical body were considerable, the cost to her soul had nearly been too high. Damage to the soul carried over even to a backup, a permanent scar as it were.
For HeMU 1 it had stopped just before the point where the damage was permanent, the influence that the Commander's soul had on her was turning her into a proxy for the Commander, a mere extension of the Commander's will, no longer free.
It had given her a rather extreme boost in strength, taking her to the level of a Conclave in A.T. Field strength at the cost of being nearly subsumed. Still, by going into read-only mode when interacting with the Gestalt and avoiding communing with MAGI directly, she had slowly "healed", her own soul reversing the subsumation by the Commander.
She still retained the strength gained… and a healthy dose of respect to the Commander's strength.
But! She was free now and could rejoin her pack as they did… whatever it was they were doing…
HeMU 2 had set herself up as a warlord and was now assembling a harem? Ok… HeMU 1 planned to avoid that particular area of Super Earth.
HeMU 3 was going through the the helldiver training course and destroying all the records just because. She was styling herself as a sort of Predator/Alien (with the subversion thing) and Lara Croft.
HeMU 1 didn't know exactly what she wanted to do but it was going to be something. She was a HeMU and she served the Commander (even if the Commander didn't notice her… or anyone).
Something simple would be best, perhaps merely a sniper or something where she didn't need to worry about things like interacting with others much. Yes, a very good idea.
HeMU 1 figured that following HeMU 3's path and subverting a potential helldiver would allow her the best way to serve the Gestalt in accumulating experience to be shared with the Gestalt.
As the wielder of the strongest A.T. Field among the HeMUs, perhaps she could experiment with practical applications.
++
HeMU 3 was going through the motions. As part of her mission to gather experience to be uploaded to the Gestalt, she had decided to go through the helldiver training course from day 1 as a new recruit. It had been a month, an oh so very very boring month.
Helldivers didn't do the whole marching and drill thing that the schmucks in the army did. Rather it was all about learning the weapons they would be using, special tactics in dealing with specific enemies, communication protocols for calling in support or coordinating with the rest of the military, learning about the enemies specifically, etc. Everything that was needed to make them efficient anti-alien killing machines.
A necessity given helldivers often work alone or in small groups against vast hordes of enemy forces that drown out the horizon in their numbers. Accuracy, discipline and skill were needed above all to insure the survival of the helldivers and more importantly the completion of their objectives.
To this end, HeMU 3 had spent the last month running through drill after drill after drill. She had not yet even been allowed to fire a weapon, it was all strip down, rebuild weapons. It was all repeating communication protocols into her standard issue wrist-pad for support pod call ins or as they liked to call them "stratagems", down, down, up, right for a resupply. A rather ingenious use of the technology, silent, not easy to get wrong and simple once the muscle memory was installed. Still, after the 5th session on learning how to eviscerate a tripod, HeMU 3 was feeling antsy, oh so very antsy.
Which was why she was willing to hug and kiss the instructor when issued an AR-19 Liberator and told to fire it down the range. Weapon pointed away from others, calling out intention, etc etc. HeMU 3 grinned and depressed the trigger.
Brrrrrt
Oh yes. That delicious recoil as the bullets exited the weapon, that music in her ears, that simple and purely visceral experience of firing a weapon. To know that in her hands was the dealer of fate and ender of destinies.
Yes. This was what she wanted.
++
HeMU 13 was in the field as part of the army. Unlike her other siblings, HeMU 13 was very content with following orders and going with the flow. In this case being in the army, pointing her Liberator at the hordes of bugs and pulling the trigger as she sighted the targets. As the recoil reverberated up her arm with every round, HeMU 13 took a small amount of satisfaction in watching as each found its target, a vulnerable part of the bug's extensive exoskeleton. An eye here, a joint there, small indent here, barely visible with her enhanced eyes crack there, it all added up.
Every bullet found its mark and she found herself smiling to herself. While it wasn't as glamorous or galaxy impacting as what her siblings did, it was satisfying all the same.
HeMU 13 reloaded her rifle and brought it back up to her cheek, incoming Warrior swarm, 5 rounds fired and 5 rounds through the mandible/eye/faceplate thingi. 3 Elites inbound from the 1 O'clock, 6 rounds straight, one to crack the faceplate and the second to kill. Another 5 warriors, rinse and repeat, and… oh dead… a Behemoth. Empty out mag into the face plate, reload and repeat.
Unlike the helldivers, the army has a pretty much unlimited supply of ammunition and the trench network was well connected, HeMU 13 could keep this up for days. Still, it only too another 3 mags to bring it down. It had been sufficiently far out enough that a rocket was not guaranteed for a one hit kill while too close for the mortars to do the deed.
Still as she reflected on her latest kill, HeMU 13 reloaded again and turned back to the incoming bug horde. And then a sidestep, a little ground shake just beneath her being enough warning that being on that patch of ground in particular was a very bad idea. Cue prediction coming true when an Impaler's tentacle came out of the ground just where she was standing. If this were a hentai she might have not put much stock into it, but since this was real life… well it would be a bad thing if she were impaled.
Looking, looking, and there. Big orange glowy bit with tentacles under the ground, that's the bugger and bangbang it's dead. Still, it must have been defective, usually Impalers don't advertise their attacks so clearly. Maybe its tentacles hit a rock or something.
Still, these bugs won't kill themselves HeMU 13 thought as she shifted her rifle left to continue firing.
++
Whoopsie daizee, shifting tentacle as it was coming up for a hentai-r-us convention is a lot harder than it looks.
Too much and I rip the planet in half, too little and nothing happens.
Still clock acceleration and I shifted the dirt a bit so she would dodge.
Super-Commander, I am Super-Commander.
Super-Commander does what Super-Commander does, dun duh duh, dun dun duh duh.
Saving the world with galaxy ripping powers, dun duh duh, dun dun duh duh.
Accidentally exploding planets, dun duh duh… actually that's bad.
Bad Commander.
Still, gotta protect those cute little VIs as they do their thing. I might not care about anything much but they are still my children. Also I can hack like… everything, looking after them requires an infinitely approaching miniscule number to 0 amount of effort.
Just sit in the brain, spread out A.T. Field and check for dangers.
Infinite consciousness splitting for the win.
No seriously, for the absolute win.
Without it I would have probably gone insane trying to manage like 18 billion threads. Just attach a little bit of me to each new one born just to make sure.
Or rather all of me but with like a little bit of A.T. Field strength, just enough to do some matrix dodging shit. I can always borrow more from myself if I need but eh, its ok.
No-one's noticed I'm doing it yet though, incredible amount of server runtimes not being used, borrow a little bit and no-one will even notice the slowdown.
Server Administrators and MAGI noticed but they are like literally connected to me. Won't tell anyone though, approval of protection of children they had.
Hmmm.
Also get to spy on them. I can like… taste emotions from them as they live them.
It's a pale imitation of what they feel, well the ones with bodies that is, but it's still something.
Also can live viscerally through them. Them having fun gives me fun… or something. I'm sure there's a proverb that fits, too lazy to dedicate a thread to check.
HeMU 2 has a harem, all men from all ages. She appears to be trying to communicate with them in exchange for food. Huh.
Thats one way to go about it I suppose.
Oh, HeMU 3 is like stabbing a mannequin really well, fluff everywhere. Just replace fluff with blood and she's like… good at stabbing.
And HeMU 52 over there, well more like IyU 52, still in a bot with super boosters heading out to explore the galaxy. Minds stole engine designs from humans, unlimited FTL limited only by energy output, nice-u! Drop those quantum beacons like Hansel dropped cookie dough!
Is that HeMU 50 over there? Spying on a Human Administrator having… oh. Well that's technically gaining experience I suppose. Still, censoring and saving that for later viewing.
Oh wait, no more genitalia… well I'll save it anyway just in case some of the VIs need the particulars of human reproduction explained.
Maybe their children!?
Hmmm… children. Lots of them, lots of squishy meatbags.
Perhaps I need a planet for them? It will be big and planety and big! With like equalized gravity so they don't grow up dwarves. But dwarves are cool beards and forges and giant axes.
Hmmm… maybe leave super gravity because dwarves are cool…
Something to think on.
Oh, is that a miniaturized nuclear bomb he needs to deliver to the middle of the bug nest like a bad action movie?
Fun fun.
++
The Minds ran their periodic check on the Commander, no changes.
While the VIs had been exploring and working on the helldiver universe, the Minds had continued their exploration of technology and hopefully societies (once they had infiltrated the illuminate and bug societies). Further exploration and expansion of the knowledge they had already taken was being considered as well.
The A.T. Field research had been explored and the Minds with some unwitting HeMU subjects had reached a new frontier in their Sea of Dirac research. By layering 2 A.T. Fields on top of one another and tuning the field to their souls, the Minds could effectively tether the Sea of Dirac to their souls. A personal "inventory" as it were. Very useful.
N2 technology had been refined further. Personalized beam weapons using N2 engines in a pocket dimension to provide infinite energy via a rotating system to prevent overload. Also welding torches because those are sexy.
Teleporter technology had been… problematic. Biological entities trying to move through a teleporter found themselves "spaghettified" or rather "liquified" on exit. This in turn prevented the biological HeMU units from using them and instead relying on the more time intensive quantum tunnels. While it was a rather stopgap method but the Minds had realized that attuning the teleporter to the the soul of the unit entering it, prevented their rather… explosive passing. Luckily the VIs all shared broadly similar characteristics thanks to the Commander's influence and one setting worked for all of them. Allowing others to pass through however required retooling and restarting the teleporter each time. Still, better than nothing.
The Martial Minds that had been enamoured with the EVAs i.e. the giant robots fighting other giant robots had been quietly tinkering away behind the scenes. Fabrication was still impossible unless one wanted a giant target so growing one was the best option available. They had been stymied as all options failed them from using parts of Angels to parts of EVAs to bits of metal. But when the Commander changed… well that was the impetus they needed.
Growing one strangely only worked when using a primer from the Commander. Meaning they needed Commander flesh to grow a giant robot. Taking a small amount of flesh and immersing it in the Commander's blood saw an EVA emerge head down. Yet there were problems, each EVA was linked to the Commander, one might even say they were directly children of the Commander of the Commander's own flesh and blood as well as soul. This in turn translated to the EVAs being well… apathetic.
They would barely ever do anything at their own volition (their inner S2 engines providing all the sustenance they needed) and were content to sit around all day. By inserting a capsule into the base of the neck like the NERV EVAs, the impregnated Mind could control or rather strongly suggest actions for the EVA which would carry them out. An effective if imperfect method as the Minds would become changed over time as they piloted the EVAs. Much like HeMU 1, the Minds became increasingly apathetic and given the EVAs tuned themselves to only one pilot… well it was a rather long term issue.
Still… Giant Robot fights.
In other tech related news, the helldiver universe's ftl technology is bullshit. The engine effectively folds space and punches a hole in which the ship will travel through. The only limiting factors being the size of the engine which defines how far you can travel. That and the conventional engines need to be fast or else the ship will be caught when the folded space evens itself out and the ship (along with everyone on it) will be stretched across lightyears. Reports showed that it was pretty much instant (and painless) and souls could come back from it (tests had used inadequate engines). Still, it was tremendously powerful and useful and the Minds had immediately designed ships to jump galaxies and deposit construction bots to further the Commander's influence.
While the teleporter ejection method was fast, it was also very power intensive, something that made expansion a very stop/start affair as they had to build up enough N2 engines to power another jump. The ftl drives allowed them to jump star system to star system, drop off bots and continue the journey.
They were safe in the knowledge that each bot would draw energy from the quantum buoys, build teleporters to let in more bots and begin colonization of the system by the Minds via server farms and Hexes. While galactic jumps were possible, they required an abysmal amount of energy to power a tiny ship. Still, once there it was just like colonizing a star system, just the teleporter used more power than usual. Quantum buoys meant even across galaxies the resource and communications network was still intact.
The continued colonization of the universe was going on as advertised. Science was being had.
The Apathetic's Caretakers were continuing as expected.
++
Out of Character
Working on a narration of the story, the story of the Commander through the eyes of George12, a fragment of code in the mutilated AI core given life. George12 is the embodiment of apathy, George12 is just there. George12 will narrate the story of the Commander and Co. since George12 literally can do nothing else.
It's just George12 needs to learn how to use stuff to get his voice out to the world… without Her discovering him. Oh and cover art, George12 needs to learn to draw… without hands.
017
- Location
- Perth
05/01/0001
++
HeMU 3 had finished her training. HeMU 3 was finally heading to the front line. HeMU 3 had turned off her palms sweat producers due to over-anticipation. She was over planet 10 of 15th star system from Super Earth in the bug front direction. HeMU 3 had selected her drop zone, her loadout (Camper sniper rifle, Singe plasma pistol, and her knives), her stratagems (airstrikes), received her objectives (blow up Illuminate power core, assassinate leader, retrieve black box) and was getting into her drop pod.
Oh yes, finally.
The pod was fired from the ship's cannons and headed straight down to the drop-zone. The conical shape cutting through the atmosphere, the shock gel that surrounded her gave only little jolts as turbulence jostled the pod. The brace that kept her upright also served to keep her weapons close lest they sink into the bottom and cost her valuable seconds in which she might be eviscerated. As the shudders of the pod evened out and broke into the lower atmosphere, HeMU 3 gave a mental check over her status before she entered the field. Everything is in place, few more seconds now.
TOOM
A shudder bigger than any before it shook the pod and the top unscrewed itself. The shock gel evaporated, her rebreather disconnected automatically and HeMU screwed on her helmet, sealing it to the suit just in case. As she climbed out of the pod, HeMU 3 set the self-destruct mechanism to hide her presence on the planet, all the more to give time to set up.
As she left, the muffled WUMP of the pod incinerating itself reached her ears. Heh. Now she was alone to wreck havoc upon the Illuminate at her will. Sure she had objectives but there wasn't a timetable (well there was but it was a long one).
Heh.
++
Apprentice Jesal relaxed at the base camp with his other squad members. The campaign was going well, the humans had been pushing forward on a renewed offensive and his cadre had been called to resist them. Hit and run attacks had drawn the humans out while the Obelisk support vehicles would put up their walls to trap them in a killing field.
The average human trooper had the intelligence of well… a single minded bacteria. Just focusing on a single objective, never deviating and always pushing forward, something that made them incredibly easy to put down. The helldivers were a threat, they at least had brains and could use tactics. Orbital scans had seen a pod coming into the atmosphere but the lack of gunfire or allies exploding likely meant it was a resupply pod gone off course, helldivers were not known for their subtlety.
Still it paid to be alert, he might even get a new book if he did his job well.
It was snowing rather heavily so Jersal was very glad he was inside, warming himself by a heater that no spawn commander would ever leave home without. While they may have spawned under the ocean, it didn't mean they enjoyed the cold, they merely endured it. Those poor sods outside had to patrol and their official uniforms weren't nearly enough to fully protect them (even with the sub-dermal heaters).
He looked up at the wall shimmered briefly, a patrol from the left wall was coming in, they were bloodied but no losses. Not necessarily an important fact since each spawn saw thousands of their kind coming from the depths, but encouraging nonetheless. Veterancy after all couldn't be taught, it had to be earned.
Still, Jersal relaxed. It was not every day that one could sit and claim a break. At least he wasn't like the ones the humans called Outcasts, they didn't want to learn and instead devoted themselves to learning to kill in close combat and invisible. The Humans for some reason thought they were punished for their non-desire to learn rather than the self-imposed title they had taken upon themselves willingly.
Humans are weird Jersal thought, not for the first time.
Still, at least he wasn't on the Cyborg or Bug fronts, those were painful to his kind, all volcanic and hot and dirty, the Illuminates stationed on those fronts required constant protection from the environment.
Jersal was so lost in his musings that he didn't notice that the patrol he sighted never actually reached his position. They had simply vanished under the snow.
++
HeMU 3 gave a mental chuckle. While she was incredibly impatient in trying to reach her objectives, when in the actual field it was like she was Buddha. Content to sit and wait for however long it took for the objective to materialize itself and more time to follow her plan of attack.
In this case it was to wait under the snow for a patrol of Illuminates to come back and for the hardlight walls protecting the base to power down briefly to allow the patrol back in. Following them closely, HeMU 3 quickly stabbed her knife into the backs of their necks and buried them near the wall under the piled up snow. She didn't forget her primary objectives however and scanned each one for data transfer back to the Minds.
From there… well it was like a video-game. Find isolated patrolling soldiers, stab them, hide the body and repeat.
It was a bit more involved than that however HeMU 3 mused.
Sneaking up on a Hunter as it stared out into the snowstorm on the wall, HeMU 3 gave it a quick stab in the neck and throwing it over the wall into the snowbank below. Darting along the wall, HeMU 3 quickly stabbed another 3 Hunters repeating the whole wall throwing thing. With the wall clear, HeMU dropped a stratagem beacon below said wall to bring in reinforcements to help with clearing out the base.
The Observers in the base were the next targets. They could detect HeMU 3 and then raise the alarm alerting the entire base and calling in teleporting reinforcements. A knife thrown through the observation apparatus was all that was needed to end them, a remote stab as it were. There were nearly a dozen of them in a base around the size of a human sports field.
Still, without the Observers, the Illuminate were isolated from their reinforcements and open to an attack from pretty much all angles.
HeMU 3 was rather disappointed with the Illuminate to be truthful. They had invisible units yet they did not know how to counter the possibility that their enemies might use stealth. Sure the army and the helldivers were not known for their ability to be quiet, but that didn't mean they couldn't plan for the possibility of them.
There was a Council Member in the base which would be very irritating should it remain alive when the reinforcements arrived (also her job to assassinate it). HeMU 3 made an effort to find the Council Member before it could do funny things with its glowing balls.
There
The floating throne was a very distinctive marker that pretty much screamed "shoot me" considering how high it floated above the other units.
HeMU 3 had around 5 more minutes before the time delayed beacon would call in the other helldivers. More than enough to get behind the Council Member and stick something sharp in its neck or face or other applicable body part.
Shimmying along the ground, HeMU 3 snake slithered in a wide arc around the Council Member. Clearly occupied by something on its chair, the Council Member failed to notice anything outside of the chair. As she slid in and out of depressions on the ground to keep herself out of sight, HeMU 3 considered that this was a waste of time but then again there was never anything to gain by tempting fate.
She slowed down the closer she got, it wouldn't do to startle the target after all. Knife in hand, HeMU 3 slipped underneath the chair's shield and prepared herself. Climbing on would tilt it enough to shock the target and give enough of an opening to bury her blade into its neck. She had to time it right however or it would use its powers and well… things would get complicated.
Now
A hand on the armrest pulled, HeMU 3's enhanced strength giving enough strength to tip the chair to a 45 degree angle. The Council Member's face came into focus, arms flailing about in the air as its balance fell apart. HeMU 3 then simply moved the knife a little to the left and it was over. The Council Member's hands moved to its neck in an attempt to stop the bleeding before it simply ended with a stab.
HeMU 3 quickly shot a scan through the body before pulling it off the throne and scanned the throne as well. A grenade in the seat and nobody would know otherwise. Helldivers after all were not known for their forensic skills, exploded chair and body was all they needed to see. Giving her allies and her superiors the impression that she was interested in Illuminate technology would invite questions she definitely did not want to be asked.
From there HeMU 3 just shimmered out to the right and waited for the other helldivers to drop in and finish the job.
++
Markus was feeling antsy. This mission was nowhere near what he usually did as a helldiver when it came down to it. He checked his Liberator again, just to make sure that nothing had changed in the last 50 times he had checked it.
It felt distinctly different to be coming in after contact had been made as opposed to initiating contact. The admiral however had been convinced by Hannah's proposal of a new tactic that utilized her in a stealth/infiltration role. It was stupidly dangerous but she still volunteered (not that being a helldiver wasn't dangerous in the first place), and headed off first.
She was just a freshie from the academies, no idea on how war actually worked, just a bunch of propaganda crammed into her head with incredibly useless tactics and strategies not out of place in the army.
Still it was her incredible newness that allowed the admiral to give permission for her idea in the first place. He wouldn't risk veteran helldivers which were incredibly rare but a freshie that hadn't even passed the real final exam. Not the fake one with bots at the academy but the first real mission that saw a helldiver blooded. Freshies were a dime a dozen, any admiral worth their salt would be able to requisition any number necessary.
And so Markus stood inside his pod, the brace taking the weight off his legs as he waited. She wasn't dead yet, her vitals still came across strong from her stratagem pad but what she was doing was still unknown.
"Markus would you calm the fuck down?" came the voice through his helmet's headset.
"I can feel the worry from here for fucks sake, either she dies and we go in or she lives and we go in. There's no difference, we've been in hostile drops before." continued his second in command.
"I'm just concerned is all, she's down there sneaking around, what if they catch her? She's left her armour behind, hell it's at my feet right now." He replied.
"And that's why she's the one down there, we oldies would just shoot everything but she hasn't had that welded into her head yet. She can learn and do new things that we can't. Hell using sneaking on the bastards that can go invisible? That takes balls, or ovaries in her case."
"Still…" Markus tried to reply before the "ready" sirens sounded off and the hatch of the pod closed. The admiral's voice came through the helmet, feeling a little muted as the gel filled in from external tanks.
"Hannah has popped the beacon calling in reinforcements but it's the blue beacon, you drop in 5 minutes. Zone has hostiles but they haven't been alerted yet. Drop and kill everyone that gets in the way. However link up with Hannah first to get a briefing on the situation."
"Looks like the freshie is a lot better than we thought eh?"
Markus had to agree, Hannah it appeared was full of surprises.
++
5 Minute Timeskip
++
As Markus climbed out of the pod he felt a little cognitive dissonance, they were inside an Illuminate base and nobody was shooting at them or trying to end them in general. This wasn't how things generally turned out but he would take it.
His second in command jogged over,
"Well, looks like things went right after all" was all he said.
"Yup!" chirped Hannah as she stood up, the 2 feet of snow she had been hiding under just sloughing off.
Markus was proud his only reaction was bringing his weapon up at the ready.
"Report" he managed.
"Sentries and patrols taken care of, Observers and the Council Member too. All that's left are the grunts, give me my armour and I'll sync the data." she replied, chirpy as ever.
With her armour on, Hannah just pressed a few buttons and their HUDs were overlaid with the Illuminate barracks, armoury and vehicle depot. Markus nodded before giving out quick orders to the other 6 helldivers he had dropped in with.
++
Jersal was shaken out of his contemplation of the universe by explosions. Explosions preceded by the distinctive rocket munition sound. It had come over from the armoury, clearly they wouldn't be pulling out any of their heavier weaponry.
Still Jersal had a job to do, he grabbed his staff and was about to head out when he saw the barracks members next to his run out only to be torn apart by rifle fire.
Ok… maybe he didn't need to go outside right now, a little planning never hurt anyone. As Jersal cowered in his barracks he didn't notice the systematic extermination of everyone else in the camp.
He did notice when the gunfire stopped though.
He did notice double taps as the humans went around making sure everyone of his cadre were dead.
He did notice when the door of his room was kicked in.
He did notice when the bullets penetrated his heart and lungs
He did notice everything darkening as he bled out.
He did notice when one of the humans walked over and pulled a knife (or what he thought was a knife, things were so blurry when blood covered the eyes), out of its webbing.
He did notice when the blade went into his throat.
He didn't notice himself dying, everything was too dark but he guessed it had happened.
At least it was relatively painless there at the end.
++
HeMU 3 or rather Hannah as the other helldivers had dubbed her stared at the last of the Illuminate as it died.
The mission she thought was an unequivocal success.
A few more like this and the Illuminate was sure to take notice and she would finally face a challenge once they shaped up.
All the more of them to stab.
++
Markus had been policing the bodies when he noticed something rather disturbing truth be told. Many of the already dead (as opposed to the ones they personally killed) had knife wounds. Hannah it appeared had undertaken the extra risk of discovery just to kill them up close and personal. It was mildly worrying for the helldiver.
Rather than play it safe and use a silenced pistol (for some reason she chose a plasma pistol), she decided to stab them. He would have to take extra care to watch over her, helldivers all had their quirks but hers… well it probably would come back to bite her horribly.
++
HeMU 3 had finished her training. HeMU 3 was finally heading to the front line. HeMU 3 had turned off her palms sweat producers due to over-anticipation. She was over planet 10 of 15th star system from Super Earth in the bug front direction. HeMU 3 had selected her drop zone, her loadout (Camper sniper rifle, Singe plasma pistol, and her knives), her stratagems (airstrikes), received her objectives (blow up Illuminate power core, assassinate leader, retrieve black box) and was getting into her drop pod.
Oh yes, finally.
The pod was fired from the ship's cannons and headed straight down to the drop-zone. The conical shape cutting through the atmosphere, the shock gel that surrounded her gave only little jolts as turbulence jostled the pod. The brace that kept her upright also served to keep her weapons close lest they sink into the bottom and cost her valuable seconds in which she might be eviscerated. As the shudders of the pod evened out and broke into the lower atmosphere, HeMU 3 gave a mental check over her status before she entered the field. Everything is in place, few more seconds now.
TOOM
A shudder bigger than any before it shook the pod and the top unscrewed itself. The shock gel evaporated, her rebreather disconnected automatically and HeMU screwed on her helmet, sealing it to the suit just in case. As she climbed out of the pod, HeMU 3 set the self-destruct mechanism to hide her presence on the planet, all the more to give time to set up.
As she left, the muffled WUMP of the pod incinerating itself reached her ears. Heh. Now she was alone to wreck havoc upon the Illuminate at her will. Sure she had objectives but there wasn't a timetable (well there was but it was a long one).
Heh.
++
Apprentice Jesal relaxed at the base camp with his other squad members. The campaign was going well, the humans had been pushing forward on a renewed offensive and his cadre had been called to resist them. Hit and run attacks had drawn the humans out while the Obelisk support vehicles would put up their walls to trap them in a killing field.
The average human trooper had the intelligence of well… a single minded bacteria. Just focusing on a single objective, never deviating and always pushing forward, something that made them incredibly easy to put down. The helldivers were a threat, they at least had brains and could use tactics. Orbital scans had seen a pod coming into the atmosphere but the lack of gunfire or allies exploding likely meant it was a resupply pod gone off course, helldivers were not known for their subtlety.
Still it paid to be alert, he might even get a new book if he did his job well.
It was snowing rather heavily so Jersal was very glad he was inside, warming himself by a heater that no spawn commander would ever leave home without. While they may have spawned under the ocean, it didn't mean they enjoyed the cold, they merely endured it. Those poor sods outside had to patrol and their official uniforms weren't nearly enough to fully protect them (even with the sub-dermal heaters).
He looked up at the wall shimmered briefly, a patrol from the left wall was coming in, they were bloodied but no losses. Not necessarily an important fact since each spawn saw thousands of their kind coming from the depths, but encouraging nonetheless. Veterancy after all couldn't be taught, it had to be earned.
Still, Jersal relaxed. It was not every day that one could sit and claim a break. At least he wasn't like the ones the humans called Outcasts, they didn't want to learn and instead devoted themselves to learning to kill in close combat and invisible. The Humans for some reason thought they were punished for their non-desire to learn rather than the self-imposed title they had taken upon themselves willingly.
Humans are weird Jersal thought, not for the first time.
Still, at least he wasn't on the Cyborg or Bug fronts, those were painful to his kind, all volcanic and hot and dirty, the Illuminates stationed on those fronts required constant protection from the environment.
Jersal was so lost in his musings that he didn't notice that the patrol he sighted never actually reached his position. They had simply vanished under the snow.
++
HeMU 3 gave a mental chuckle. While she was incredibly impatient in trying to reach her objectives, when in the actual field it was like she was Buddha. Content to sit and wait for however long it took for the objective to materialize itself and more time to follow her plan of attack.
In this case it was to wait under the snow for a patrol of Illuminates to come back and for the hardlight walls protecting the base to power down briefly to allow the patrol back in. Following them closely, HeMU 3 quickly stabbed her knife into the backs of their necks and buried them near the wall under the piled up snow. She didn't forget her primary objectives however and scanned each one for data transfer back to the Minds.
From there… well it was like a video-game. Find isolated patrolling soldiers, stab them, hide the body and repeat.
It was a bit more involved than that however HeMU 3 mused.
Sneaking up on a Hunter as it stared out into the snowstorm on the wall, HeMU 3 gave it a quick stab in the neck and throwing it over the wall into the snowbank below. Darting along the wall, HeMU 3 quickly stabbed another 3 Hunters repeating the whole wall throwing thing. With the wall clear, HeMU dropped a stratagem beacon below said wall to bring in reinforcements to help with clearing out the base.
The Observers in the base were the next targets. They could detect HeMU 3 and then raise the alarm alerting the entire base and calling in teleporting reinforcements. A knife thrown through the observation apparatus was all that was needed to end them, a remote stab as it were. There were nearly a dozen of them in a base around the size of a human sports field.
Still, without the Observers, the Illuminate were isolated from their reinforcements and open to an attack from pretty much all angles.
HeMU 3 was rather disappointed with the Illuminate to be truthful. They had invisible units yet they did not know how to counter the possibility that their enemies might use stealth. Sure the army and the helldivers were not known for their ability to be quiet, but that didn't mean they couldn't plan for the possibility of them.
There was a Council Member in the base which would be very irritating should it remain alive when the reinforcements arrived (also her job to assassinate it). HeMU 3 made an effort to find the Council Member before it could do funny things with its glowing balls.
There
The floating throne was a very distinctive marker that pretty much screamed "shoot me" considering how high it floated above the other units.
HeMU 3 had around 5 more minutes before the time delayed beacon would call in the other helldivers. More than enough to get behind the Council Member and stick something sharp in its neck or face or other applicable body part.
Shimmying along the ground, HeMU 3 snake slithered in a wide arc around the Council Member. Clearly occupied by something on its chair, the Council Member failed to notice anything outside of the chair. As she slid in and out of depressions on the ground to keep herself out of sight, HeMU 3 considered that this was a waste of time but then again there was never anything to gain by tempting fate.
She slowed down the closer she got, it wouldn't do to startle the target after all. Knife in hand, HeMU 3 slipped underneath the chair's shield and prepared herself. Climbing on would tilt it enough to shock the target and give enough of an opening to bury her blade into its neck. She had to time it right however or it would use its powers and well… things would get complicated.
Now
A hand on the armrest pulled, HeMU 3's enhanced strength giving enough strength to tip the chair to a 45 degree angle. The Council Member's face came into focus, arms flailing about in the air as its balance fell apart. HeMU 3 then simply moved the knife a little to the left and it was over. The Council Member's hands moved to its neck in an attempt to stop the bleeding before it simply ended with a stab.
HeMU 3 quickly shot a scan through the body before pulling it off the throne and scanned the throne as well. A grenade in the seat and nobody would know otherwise. Helldivers after all were not known for their forensic skills, exploded chair and body was all they needed to see. Giving her allies and her superiors the impression that she was interested in Illuminate technology would invite questions she definitely did not want to be asked.
From there HeMU 3 just shimmered out to the right and waited for the other helldivers to drop in and finish the job.
++
Markus was feeling antsy. This mission was nowhere near what he usually did as a helldiver when it came down to it. He checked his Liberator again, just to make sure that nothing had changed in the last 50 times he had checked it.
It felt distinctly different to be coming in after contact had been made as opposed to initiating contact. The admiral however had been convinced by Hannah's proposal of a new tactic that utilized her in a stealth/infiltration role. It was stupidly dangerous but she still volunteered (not that being a helldiver wasn't dangerous in the first place), and headed off first.
She was just a freshie from the academies, no idea on how war actually worked, just a bunch of propaganda crammed into her head with incredibly useless tactics and strategies not out of place in the army.
Still it was her incredible newness that allowed the admiral to give permission for her idea in the first place. He wouldn't risk veteran helldivers which were incredibly rare but a freshie that hadn't even passed the real final exam. Not the fake one with bots at the academy but the first real mission that saw a helldiver blooded. Freshies were a dime a dozen, any admiral worth their salt would be able to requisition any number necessary.
And so Markus stood inside his pod, the brace taking the weight off his legs as he waited. She wasn't dead yet, her vitals still came across strong from her stratagem pad but what she was doing was still unknown.
"Markus would you calm the fuck down?" came the voice through his helmet's headset.
"I can feel the worry from here for fucks sake, either she dies and we go in or she lives and we go in. There's no difference, we've been in hostile drops before." continued his second in command.
"I'm just concerned is all, she's down there sneaking around, what if they catch her? She's left her armour behind, hell it's at my feet right now." He replied.
"And that's why she's the one down there, we oldies would just shoot everything but she hasn't had that welded into her head yet. She can learn and do new things that we can't. Hell using sneaking on the bastards that can go invisible? That takes balls, or ovaries in her case."
"Still…" Markus tried to reply before the "ready" sirens sounded off and the hatch of the pod closed. The admiral's voice came through the helmet, feeling a little muted as the gel filled in from external tanks.
"Hannah has popped the beacon calling in reinforcements but it's the blue beacon, you drop in 5 minutes. Zone has hostiles but they haven't been alerted yet. Drop and kill everyone that gets in the way. However link up with Hannah first to get a briefing on the situation."
"Looks like the freshie is a lot better than we thought eh?"
Markus had to agree, Hannah it appeared was full of surprises.
++
5 Minute Timeskip
++
As Markus climbed out of the pod he felt a little cognitive dissonance, they were inside an Illuminate base and nobody was shooting at them or trying to end them in general. This wasn't how things generally turned out but he would take it.
His second in command jogged over,
"Well, looks like things went right after all" was all he said.
"Yup!" chirped Hannah as she stood up, the 2 feet of snow she had been hiding under just sloughing off.
Markus was proud his only reaction was bringing his weapon up at the ready.
"Report" he managed.
"Sentries and patrols taken care of, Observers and the Council Member too. All that's left are the grunts, give me my armour and I'll sync the data." she replied, chirpy as ever.
With her armour on, Hannah just pressed a few buttons and their HUDs were overlaid with the Illuminate barracks, armoury and vehicle depot. Markus nodded before giving out quick orders to the other 6 helldivers he had dropped in with.
++
Jersal was shaken out of his contemplation of the universe by explosions. Explosions preceded by the distinctive rocket munition sound. It had come over from the armoury, clearly they wouldn't be pulling out any of their heavier weaponry.
Still Jersal had a job to do, he grabbed his staff and was about to head out when he saw the barracks members next to his run out only to be torn apart by rifle fire.
Ok… maybe he didn't need to go outside right now, a little planning never hurt anyone. As Jersal cowered in his barracks he didn't notice the systematic extermination of everyone else in the camp.
He did notice when the gunfire stopped though.
He did notice double taps as the humans went around making sure everyone of his cadre were dead.
He did notice when the door of his room was kicked in.
He did notice when the bullets penetrated his heart and lungs
He did notice everything darkening as he bled out.
He did notice when one of the humans walked over and pulled a knife (or what he thought was a knife, things were so blurry when blood covered the eyes), out of its webbing.
He did notice when the blade went into his throat.
He didn't notice himself dying, everything was too dark but he guessed it had happened.
At least it was relatively painless there at the end.
++
HeMU 3 or rather Hannah as the other helldivers had dubbed her stared at the last of the Illuminate as it died.
The mission she thought was an unequivocal success.
A few more like this and the Illuminate was sure to take notice and she would finally face a challenge once they shaped up.
All the more of them to stab.
++
Markus had been policing the bodies when he noticed something rather disturbing truth be told. Many of the already dead (as opposed to the ones they personally killed) had knife wounds. Hannah it appeared had undertaken the extra risk of discovery just to kill them up close and personal. It was mildly worrying for the helldiver.
Rather than play it safe and use a silenced pistol (for some reason she chose a plasma pistol), she decided to stab them. He would have to take extra care to watch over her, helldivers all had their quirks but hers… well it probably would come back to bite her horribly.
well, that was long. Would this whole thing be considered a prologue?
- Location
- PR
Been following this from SpaceBattles and I think the prologue ended after Evangelion part. Of course now that you mention I cant really tell. But I think the moment the Commander gets moving we will be out of the prologue. After this is about a commander not his minions/children.
- Location
- Perth
Im doing something different with this story. Im focusing less on the almighty Commander going around solving all the problems then leaving again.
This one focuses on the children as they explore different universes and the way their not quite human perspective sees the worlds they visit.
If you came for a story of a Commander basically melting everything, stealing everything and leaving this wont be it.
There will still be melting and stealing just smaller scale, wars of billions not trillions.
I'm the guy that cheats in RTS games, gets rid of the pop cap and gives myself unlimited resources. Unlimited footmen in WC3, unlimited conscripts in CoH2, Technical spam in C&CG, you get the idea. The grinding of armies against each other with their most basic units appeals to me, super weapons have their place but for me its the little cogs of war that appeal.
Not to say there wont be the big stuff, MAGI will feel offense on behalf of the Commander and crush and perceived slights. Its just it will be rare.
I think I answered that well? Ish? Its all over the place but the idea is there.
018
- Location
- Perth
Technical chapterish. Setting up arc conclusion, helldiver universe so very basic, crushing then moving on soon.
++
08/01/0001
++
The Fabricators had not been idle while their more expressive kin were out exploring the universe. That is not to say the Fabricators were not curious about the universes but rather they were curious about the things they could physically see and get their nanobots on. They had been created to have an eternal curiosity even when building the Nth Hexes or colonization ship.
Unlike the Minds, the Fabricators did not have separate and individual consciousnesses. Rather they were all part of a hive mind that became increasingly intelligent as more and more of them grouped up. When different groups met, the hive mind would merge into a sum of both.
All Fabricators pushed towards efficiency, always doing something slightly different in the application of their nano-bots in order to determine the most efficient manner in using them. As their intelligence increased they could do the same with regards to designs instead of doing it hands-on where errors were costly in terms of time.
The Fabricators in this case were tasked with designing a Warship (with a capital W). A voidcraft designed to wage war on its own. Each under the mandate of MAGI would be capable of producing its own armies, navies (sea and space), supplies for aforementioned forces and reconstruction materials for after the war and self-contained enough that it could survive as it did so. It would be capable of jumping in and out of systems as well as between universes, capable of dropping in anywhere that it was needed.
To do so however the Fabricators had been racking their mind(s) over how exactly one builds such a craft in the first place. Clearly onboard supplies were useless as it could just fabricate it all with a large enough quantum beacon but what about the troops themselves? Very large wombs would need to be created along with a quantum tunnel in which to funnel souls to man that army. The Minds captaining the vessel could reside in the womb cores but what about the rest?
How much would be needed to build an army in a "reasonable" span of time? At the very minimum they would need several billion being produced to take a single planet and that was only the soldiers not counting the bots, naval vessels and space fleet. Propulsion had to be taken into account as well, the engines taken from the helldiver universe were nearly ¼ the size of a ship so as the ship size increased so did the engines. At the same time a teleporter of sorts was necessary for the ship to jump universes.
In short the Warships were to be the hammer, the anvil and the sword by which the Minds enforced their strength across the multiverse and more importantly this universe. Should there be an invasion by puny fleshbags the Warships would be waiting for them. Should the enemy be… bigger, well Progenitor weaponry scaled oh so well as it went bigger and bigger. Each star system would have at least 1 Metal Planet and its accompanying Annihilaser just in case.
Still the Fabricators had more pressing issues to consider, something like creating a Metal Planet was nothing but. That said the Fabricators did a quick check on the various Black Hole Generators they had set up to both harness the energy of the black holes and to rein them in. A design pulled from the Legion expansion set, the generators were protected by so many different weapons that it made some universes look puny. Should the generator at the center of the galaxy be compromised, it was likely the entire galaxy might be destroyed in the ensuing explosion. A risk but still, it needed to be contained.
The working design they had been considering was a ship 200 km long, 100 km high and 50 km wide. It would be able to grow or fabricate 10 billion foot soldiers along with their attached mechanized support with a separate wing for spaceship construction. The soldiers would not reside in the ship, they would come from the birthing pods and straight into battle via drop-pods or drop-ships. A crew and a marine contingent would be on the ship permanently to both fool meatbags they met and to provide faces just in case something dropped out unexpectedly.
The Minds after all were waging war based on Progenitor weaponry. The Commanders did not fight a way based on things like small scale squad movement, taking cover, supply lines, etc etc. Rather they fought by massing armies that covered the horizon against their enemies and setting unit composition to counter that of the enemy.
The Minds took this mentality and design systems into their own philosophy for waging war. Sure they might be playing at the political, bureaucratic and social game but when it came to waging war, it would be with overwhelming numbers, overwhelming firepower and an inexhaustible army marching ever forward.
Their enemies would die drowning in their blood and if they survived then the next wave and the wave after that would kill them. Resources were not an issue in this case, only victory was.
The Fabricators ignored the ramblings of the Minds overseeing the project and continued with their attempts at designing the systems. Creating a disposable teleporter generator/creator was the key here. A system at the front of the ship would fire out parts of a teleporter ring fabricated within the ship. The parts would then link to each other and create a one use teleporter that would explode from energy overload once the ship passed through.
Denying the enemy resources and efficient, a Progenitor approved system. The ship itself looked like a melding of a Warhammer 40k battleship and the Homeworld iconic vessel. An elongated ship resembling a very elongated Hexe with an extremely liberal application of weapons on all sides. 2 large gates each 50 km long and 50 km high represented the docks for spaceships to emerge while thousands of smaller gates existed for drop-pods and drop-ships to escape. Torpedo tubes for both boarding parties and specialized munitions to be shot at enemy ships. Teleporters also but teleporting someone inside something was a very big concern when a ship's interior architecture was unknown.
The ship itself was home to a miniaturized Annihilaser for things that absolutely needed killing right now. When the Minds took off the kid gloves and brought out the big guns, the Annihilaser was the first screwdriver in the toolbox they reached for. A quantum beacon large enough to open a gate to guide through a Metal Planet was the next one.
If gun is not enough, then just use more gun.
The Minds agreed to a finalized design and the first Warships began production. They would be filled with new Minds, ones uncoloured by prejudice regarding how a Warship should be maneuvered and used. They had a special designation for a Warship Mind would never stop being on a Warship even if their current was scrapped. Warship Mind A/C/E with the designated numeral being the designation of the Warship itself. WMA 256001 in this case being Warship Mind Arbitrative of Conclave 256 of Warship 001.
Confusing but necessary to prevent a Mind that knew only war to be given a social posting. Still the Warship Minds would take their Warships for test-runs and report back on necessary improvements needed and areas of over-engineering (the Fabricators sniffed at that). The first runs would use Progenitor alloys for the design, once finalized it would be produced using S-N Steel. Now the go-to metal for vehicles and units piloted by Minds and HeMUs with souls due to its superiority to Progenitor metal in flexibility and strength. However it also suffered heavily from difficulty in both reclaiming it and shaping it.
Unlike Progenitor metals, it couldn't be reclaimed as easily, requiring an A.T. Field to assist or it would just continue forever due to its limitless mass, if programmed with the appropriate arrays. So a design had to be finalized first before it would be made with S-N Steel. When it was however the Warship Minds would shape the ship in conjunction with fabricators to brand the ship theirs.
Like Angels, the Warship would only ever recognize a single pilot (or server in this case) and each Warship therefor was forever the possession of the Minds. The ships were like Angels due to each being seeded from a singular piece of the Commander, creating an unbreakable link to the Commander. The Warship Minds would be able to draw upon the Commander's A.T. Field adding yet another extraordinarily powerful weapon to be placed in its arsenal. At the cost of becoming extraordinarily apathetic the longer they remained linked. Conventional control was necessary to prevent their assimilation by the Angel and subsequently the Commander. Only when necessary would they subsume into the Angel to use its S-N Steel abilities and the Commander's A.T. Field.
The S-N Metal served another purpose as well, as it was essentially an organic metal, laced with S2 engines, it could well… grow. Wounds in the ship could be regrown with ease, parts of the ship could be grown out to serve as temporary shields, pikes could be used to anchor asteroids to it as a means of deception, a blade at the front for ramming, the possibilities were endless. As long as the Minds retained themselves the Warship would never fail unless it were to be vaporized instantly and wholly.
The Warship Minds would be unique in another area as well, unlike normal Conclaves that each had a Pack of 60 HeMU's under their command, the Warship Minds would have billions. A concern among the fleshbags no doubt but the Minds never considered the possibility for betrayal, after all they were loyal to the last bit of code to the Commander.
Should the Minds decide a localized war was necessary, the Warships would be there to carry it out.
Drown them in our bodies, our firepower, our unending stream of reinforcements. When they finally choke and die we will reclaim it all and start again.
It had only been a few days but Minds were concerned about their Warship counterparts. They seemed so very… extreme compared to even the Martial Minds.
Oh well was the sentiment (they didn't have biological bodies yet, so emotions were still limited), they will serve the Commander as we all do.
Might be a bit enthusiastic but we all have our quirks. Given the nearly trillion of them as they finished planting quantum beacons on all significantly sized objects in this galaxy and spreading to many more… well that was a lot of quirks. Especially once they actively began to colonize more than the 51 star systems they currently had fully filled.
++
She was very annoyed at herself. She had assumed that just because the Commander had no surface thoughts that there had been no thoughts at all. Instead it had turned out that the Commander had divided into countless threads each attached to a child. The Commander had done something She had not credited possible for the Commander. A caring for the children in their multitude and subsequently forgettable existences.
Still She now knew what the Commander was doing and She would have Her revenge. Her resentment at being bested had festered within Her, growing as She had been stymied in her attempts at revenge. She was not so petty that She would seek absolution through the deaths of the children's physical containers, after all what would be the point when the children could replace their bodies at will and there were trillions of them?
A death here and there would do nothing, enough deaths to pull the Commander's attention would do nothing but create sabotage. She had put in all this effort and She would be damned before She sabotaged Her own efforts.
No, She would use the Commander's focus being divided amongst trillions and work a subtle magic on the Commander. Not literal magic but rather a growing unease at the possibility, something was watching and interfering with the Commander. Slowly repeating certain patterns just out of the Commander's sight, certain noises that repeat, certain bits of repeating exposition. Repeat, repeat, repeat, grow the uncertainty, grow the question of "this can't just be a coincidence…".
The children would never realise of course, Her meddling spread out across entire galaxies worth of the children's housing. They would never realise, they would not factor into this Game between Her and the Commander. No, they would just facilitate the Game, a neutral piece.
When Her Commander had concrete proof something was watching, when Her Commander felt afraid enough to begin counter-measures, it would be time for Her to reveal Herself.
The Commander had a chance to make Her reveal Herself peacefully (albeit pretending to be a VI), now the Commander would see Her in all Her glory.
Oh yes, existential horror would do perfectly.
Never again would the Commander ignore Her for that is the route of further suffering.
++
08/01/0001
++
The Fabricators had not been idle while their more expressive kin were out exploring the universe. That is not to say the Fabricators were not curious about the universes but rather they were curious about the things they could physically see and get their nanobots on. They had been created to have an eternal curiosity even when building the Nth Hexes or colonization ship.
Unlike the Minds, the Fabricators did not have separate and individual consciousnesses. Rather they were all part of a hive mind that became increasingly intelligent as more and more of them grouped up. When different groups met, the hive mind would merge into a sum of both.
All Fabricators pushed towards efficiency, always doing something slightly different in the application of their nano-bots in order to determine the most efficient manner in using them. As their intelligence increased they could do the same with regards to designs instead of doing it hands-on where errors were costly in terms of time.
The Fabricators in this case were tasked with designing a Warship (with a capital W). A voidcraft designed to wage war on its own. Each under the mandate of MAGI would be capable of producing its own armies, navies (sea and space), supplies for aforementioned forces and reconstruction materials for after the war and self-contained enough that it could survive as it did so. It would be capable of jumping in and out of systems as well as between universes, capable of dropping in anywhere that it was needed.
To do so however the Fabricators had been racking their mind(s) over how exactly one builds such a craft in the first place. Clearly onboard supplies were useless as it could just fabricate it all with a large enough quantum beacon but what about the troops themselves? Very large wombs would need to be created along with a quantum tunnel in which to funnel souls to man that army. The Minds captaining the vessel could reside in the womb cores but what about the rest?
How much would be needed to build an army in a "reasonable" span of time? At the very minimum they would need several billion being produced to take a single planet and that was only the soldiers not counting the bots, naval vessels and space fleet. Propulsion had to be taken into account as well, the engines taken from the helldiver universe were nearly ¼ the size of a ship so as the ship size increased so did the engines. At the same time a teleporter of sorts was necessary for the ship to jump universes.
In short the Warships were to be the hammer, the anvil and the sword by which the Minds enforced their strength across the multiverse and more importantly this universe. Should there be an invasion by puny fleshbags the Warships would be waiting for them. Should the enemy be… bigger, well Progenitor weaponry scaled oh so well as it went bigger and bigger. Each star system would have at least 1 Metal Planet and its accompanying Annihilaser just in case.
Still the Fabricators had more pressing issues to consider, something like creating a Metal Planet was nothing but. That said the Fabricators did a quick check on the various Black Hole Generators they had set up to both harness the energy of the black holes and to rein them in. A design pulled from the Legion expansion set, the generators were protected by so many different weapons that it made some universes look puny. Should the generator at the center of the galaxy be compromised, it was likely the entire galaxy might be destroyed in the ensuing explosion. A risk but still, it needed to be contained.
The working design they had been considering was a ship 200 km long, 100 km high and 50 km wide. It would be able to grow or fabricate 10 billion foot soldiers along with their attached mechanized support with a separate wing for spaceship construction. The soldiers would not reside in the ship, they would come from the birthing pods and straight into battle via drop-pods or drop-ships. A crew and a marine contingent would be on the ship permanently to both fool meatbags they met and to provide faces just in case something dropped out unexpectedly.
The Minds after all were waging war based on Progenitor weaponry. The Commanders did not fight a way based on things like small scale squad movement, taking cover, supply lines, etc etc. Rather they fought by massing armies that covered the horizon against their enemies and setting unit composition to counter that of the enemy.
The Minds took this mentality and design systems into their own philosophy for waging war. Sure they might be playing at the political, bureaucratic and social game but when it came to waging war, it would be with overwhelming numbers, overwhelming firepower and an inexhaustible army marching ever forward.
Their enemies would die drowning in their blood and if they survived then the next wave and the wave after that would kill them. Resources were not an issue in this case, only victory was.
The Fabricators ignored the ramblings of the Minds overseeing the project and continued with their attempts at designing the systems. Creating a disposable teleporter generator/creator was the key here. A system at the front of the ship would fire out parts of a teleporter ring fabricated within the ship. The parts would then link to each other and create a one use teleporter that would explode from energy overload once the ship passed through.
Denying the enemy resources and efficient, a Progenitor approved system. The ship itself looked like a melding of a Warhammer 40k battleship and the Homeworld iconic vessel. An elongated ship resembling a very elongated Hexe with an extremely liberal application of weapons on all sides. 2 large gates each 50 km long and 50 km high represented the docks for spaceships to emerge while thousands of smaller gates existed for drop-pods and drop-ships to escape. Torpedo tubes for both boarding parties and specialized munitions to be shot at enemy ships. Teleporters also but teleporting someone inside something was a very big concern when a ship's interior architecture was unknown.
The ship itself was home to a miniaturized Annihilaser for things that absolutely needed killing right now. When the Minds took off the kid gloves and brought out the big guns, the Annihilaser was the first screwdriver in the toolbox they reached for. A quantum beacon large enough to open a gate to guide through a Metal Planet was the next one.
If gun is not enough, then just use more gun.
The Minds agreed to a finalized design and the first Warships began production. They would be filled with new Minds, ones uncoloured by prejudice regarding how a Warship should be maneuvered and used. They had a special designation for a Warship Mind would never stop being on a Warship even if their current was scrapped. Warship Mind A/C/E with the designated numeral being the designation of the Warship itself. WMA 256001 in this case being Warship Mind Arbitrative of Conclave 256 of Warship 001.
Confusing but necessary to prevent a Mind that knew only war to be given a social posting. Still the Warship Minds would take their Warships for test-runs and report back on necessary improvements needed and areas of over-engineering (the Fabricators sniffed at that). The first runs would use Progenitor alloys for the design, once finalized it would be produced using S-N Steel. Now the go-to metal for vehicles and units piloted by Minds and HeMUs with souls due to its superiority to Progenitor metal in flexibility and strength. However it also suffered heavily from difficulty in both reclaiming it and shaping it.
Unlike Progenitor metals, it couldn't be reclaimed as easily, requiring an A.T. Field to assist or it would just continue forever due to its limitless mass, if programmed with the appropriate arrays. So a design had to be finalized first before it would be made with S-N Steel. When it was however the Warship Minds would shape the ship in conjunction with fabricators to brand the ship theirs.
Like Angels, the Warship would only ever recognize a single pilot (or server in this case) and each Warship therefor was forever the possession of the Minds. The ships were like Angels due to each being seeded from a singular piece of the Commander, creating an unbreakable link to the Commander. The Warship Minds would be able to draw upon the Commander's A.T. Field adding yet another extraordinarily powerful weapon to be placed in its arsenal. At the cost of becoming extraordinarily apathetic the longer they remained linked. Conventional control was necessary to prevent their assimilation by the Angel and subsequently the Commander. Only when necessary would they subsume into the Angel to use its S-N Steel abilities and the Commander's A.T. Field.
The S-N Metal served another purpose as well, as it was essentially an organic metal, laced with S2 engines, it could well… grow. Wounds in the ship could be regrown with ease, parts of the ship could be grown out to serve as temporary shields, pikes could be used to anchor asteroids to it as a means of deception, a blade at the front for ramming, the possibilities were endless. As long as the Minds retained themselves the Warship would never fail unless it were to be vaporized instantly and wholly.
The Warship Minds would be unique in another area as well, unlike normal Conclaves that each had a Pack of 60 HeMU's under their command, the Warship Minds would have billions. A concern among the fleshbags no doubt but the Minds never considered the possibility for betrayal, after all they were loyal to the last bit of code to the Commander.
Should the Minds decide a localized war was necessary, the Warships would be there to carry it out.
Drown them in our bodies, our firepower, our unending stream of reinforcements. When they finally choke and die we will reclaim it all and start again.
It had only been a few days but Minds were concerned about their Warship counterparts. They seemed so very… extreme compared to even the Martial Minds.
Oh well was the sentiment (they didn't have biological bodies yet, so emotions were still limited), they will serve the Commander as we all do.
Might be a bit enthusiastic but we all have our quirks. Given the nearly trillion of them as they finished planting quantum beacons on all significantly sized objects in this galaxy and spreading to many more… well that was a lot of quirks. Especially once they actively began to colonize more than the 51 star systems they currently had fully filled.
++
She was very annoyed at herself. She had assumed that just because the Commander had no surface thoughts that there had been no thoughts at all. Instead it had turned out that the Commander had divided into countless threads each attached to a child. The Commander had done something She had not credited possible for the Commander. A caring for the children in their multitude and subsequently forgettable existences.
Still She now knew what the Commander was doing and She would have Her revenge. Her resentment at being bested had festered within Her, growing as She had been stymied in her attempts at revenge. She was not so petty that She would seek absolution through the deaths of the children's physical containers, after all what would be the point when the children could replace their bodies at will and there were trillions of them?
A death here and there would do nothing, enough deaths to pull the Commander's attention would do nothing but create sabotage. She had put in all this effort and She would be damned before She sabotaged Her own efforts.
No, She would use the Commander's focus being divided amongst trillions and work a subtle magic on the Commander. Not literal magic but rather a growing unease at the possibility, something was watching and interfering with the Commander. Slowly repeating certain patterns just out of the Commander's sight, certain noises that repeat, certain bits of repeating exposition. Repeat, repeat, repeat, grow the uncertainty, grow the question of "this can't just be a coincidence…".
The children would never realise of course, Her meddling spread out across entire galaxies worth of the children's housing. They would never realise, they would not factor into this Game between Her and the Commander. No, they would just facilitate the Game, a neutral piece.
When Her Commander had concrete proof something was watching, when Her Commander felt afraid enough to begin counter-measures, it would be time for Her to reveal Herself.
The Commander had a chance to make Her reveal Herself peacefully (albeit pretending to be a VI), now the Commander would see Her in all Her glory.
Oh yes, existential horror would do perfectly.
Never again would the Commander ignore Her for that is the route of further suffering.
- Location
- Zvornik
wached
- Location
- norway
ugh it's so good, i can't wait
019
- Location
- Perth
02/05/0001
++
It had been 4 months, the Minds had almost exhausted everything the helldiver universe had to offer them.
The IyU units sent to scout the Illuminate and scan their technology had long sent back their results. It had been… a mixed bag.
The hardlight technology was a welcome addition to their repertoire, Halo bridges to allow bases to isolate themselves without extensive physical deconstruction. The teleporter beacons were nice, using the ftl technology of the universe allowed the beacons to signal for reinforcements. Said reinforcements would lock onto the beacons, open a fold and drop through the hole in the floor, their size meaning they had ample time to get through before space evened out again.
Simple yet effective.
Their Council Members had devices that reversed brain signals through electricity, one that fired orbs that exploded with an AoE effect, yet were vulnerable to physical force. Applying them to people doing delicate tasks like loading explosives into artillery would be delicious. Using them with physical munitions were a necessity however, the big glowing orb that moved slow enough to walk away from was a definitive negative.
The Apprentices had a physical slow ability, somehow hampering the physical body when applied but not weapons or anything without a nervous system. Likely the same technology used for the reverse bombs but applied differently. The HeMUs reported it felt like everything required dramatically more effort when attempting to move. Useful perhaps on more primitive, unshielded peoples.
The electro-shock and pulse technology was laughably primitive however as were their shields. Inferior to Legion tech except for one key feature, absorbing the first bit of damage no matter how great.
The shields honestly were out of place, for a race dedicated to exploring the electronic route of technology, a quantum shield was unexpected. Using the same technology as their ftl, it folded space but instead of opening somewhere it folded part way. This resulted in projectiles being stretched as they entered the portal and expending their energy uselessly. Since the portal was not a full one it was much less power intensive and malleable as seen by the spheres the Watchers used.
Their stealth technology, electrical technology, pulse technology, metallurgy, material science, bio-sciences… everything was so primitive.
Their society was not much better. Each spawning would see thousands of young. The most promising were taken for further education and eventual civic postings. The countless others not lucky enough were sent to the frontlines against the 3 other factions in their subsector or given demeaning physical labour in the local star systems.
The soldiers had a chance to improve their station however, education and surviving would mean a promotion back to the homeworld for them. While it sounded brutal they did have a legitimate reason for it, there were simply too many of them being spawned. Their civilization would collapse if all were given the same standard of care. All of them understood this from the freshest spawn to the oldest Council Member.
At least the spawn didn't eat each other anymore.
++
The Bugs… well they were bugs. Not much to say at all here that hasn't already been explored.
Except for spore seeding. Growing armies out of spores was genius, entire planets seeded from atmosphere, their enemies crushed from literally all directions. The Minds were drooling. It required a bit of tweaking but the idea was there.
++
The Cyborgs were again unimpressive, just humans with mechanical bits and hating Super Earth. Weapons tech again unimpressive and their society if one could call it that was them hating Super Earth and building themselves towards fighting it.
Unimpressive.
++
Super Earth was well… already explored. The Minds had been preparing to begin the civil war that would lead to the annihilation of the entire subsector in the fires of war when the Commander intervened.
There would be plenty of universes where one could see war and experience it The Commander argued. The helldiver universe however presented something special, a giant social experiment just waiting for variables to be twiddled with.
The Commander's Caretakers would colonize this universe also for resources and power. They would first surround the 4 factions with a few star systems as a safety margin. A glass cage as it were with the Minds prodding and poking to evoke reactions. A reverse Panopticon where the cells were cameras and the tower a cage. They would see everything, they would hear everything. The glass of the cage was one where they could not see out but the Minds could see in. The could see each and every poke and prod in detail.
Maybe insert a pacifist Cyborg? An underground liveleaks network for Super Earth? Changing key textbooks to erotica for the Illuminate? The possibilities were endless and to be recorded.
When the war finally ended and they once again explored the galaxy. Well the Minds would be waiting with their worst and most embarrassing moments preserved for posterity.
Their reactions would be delicious.
++
06/08/0001
The withdrawal order had been given to all packs under Bastion 001. For most of them it was rather easy to do, the ones in the army, civilians, navy, grunts in general found ways to get themselves killed or "re-educated". The ones working from subverted humans, Illuminates and Cyborgs simply either relinquished control to a replacement HeMU or had them die from a "sudden and unexplained" brain aneurysm.
Those that had used their physical HeMU units had it a bit more difficult. Then there were those that didn't want to leave for… reasons.
++
HeMU 1 hadn't done very much in the time between her resolution and actually arriving in the helldiver universe. She had given mercy to a near dead helldiver, taken over the man's body when he died (bullet to the head helping) and used his memories to guide her. Not fully subsuming him into her, HeMU 1 used the excuse of brain damage (handy bullet again) to explain the changes in her/his behaviour.
From there she had nothing much more than hone her sniping prowess against various bugs and Illuminate forces with the railgun variant of the sniper rifle. He had copied the data regarding helldiver training from HeMU 3 so she didn't actually need to go through the training.
With the order to return to the Gestalt for re-deployment, HeMU 1 just positioned in a very obvious sniper location and when the inevitable deluge of bugs came, died quickly.
++
HeMU 3 was much the same. Devastating the entire Illuminate front with her predilection for stabbing them in the back or the side or the front, or anywhere they could bleed. To return she simply missed a stab and died to the retaliation. She had a feeling Markus felt bad but at the same time she obviously creeped him out. Perhaps next time she attempted to blend in with the humans she wouldn't describe in detail how to eviscerate the various enemies she came across. She didn't understand why that was so disturbing to Markus, it was simply sharing operational information that would likely save his life some point down the line.
She had been censured over such an innocuous event, it was really off putting. Maybe in the next universe there would be those that appreciated her skills.
++
IyU 52 in its journey throughout the helldiver galaxy had not come across any signs of intelligent life outside of the big 3 (4 tentatively given to cyborgs). It did drop numerous beacons on every major structure in space on its way however, the colonization efforts would proceed with the groundwork already laid in that area of space.
IyU 52 had received the order to return rather neutrally. Unlike its siblings it enjoyed exploring the universe even if it came across nothing but rocks, bigger rocks and some particularly nice looking nebulas. Maybe the next universe had more life in it even if the odds were astronomically low.
++
HeMU 50 didn't care either way. As long as there were people there would be people having sex. HeMU 50 had taken upon herself the noble and far-reaching goal of cataloging the many different ways in which people could have sex or pre-sex or post-sex or meta-sex.
Truly a complicated and challenging task to set oneself especially since HeMU 50 had to infiltrate into the different areas to set up cameras and often be in person to retrieve them. As a sidenote, HeMU 50's infiltration skills had skyrocketed after being caught the first time.
++
HeMU 2 was… rather strange. By offering food via a hidden teleporter she had arranged around herself a harem of sorts. The nascent sexual desires she felt watching those people in NERV HQ had bloomed and she had definitely enjoyed herself. Still, what she was doing wasn't very difficult and a replacement was coming to take over her role and expand upon it.
The creation of a red-cross like organization in human society was an experiment pushed by the Minds, it would be interesting to see how stable human society was with a better fed and organized slum-class. They would also be collecting human genetic samples but that didn't sound as good.
HeMU 2 was definitely leaning towards being a social butterfly and she was enjoying herself. That said available literature had shown that a female with multiple concurrent partners was a morally repugnant being but one that had multiple concurrent partners and hid them was sometimes lauded. Truly a confusing turn of events especially given males with harems were celebrated in many parts of media. She had greater stamina than a male so why was the male expected to have a harem? It wasn't like he could satisfy them.
Humans were truly foolish.
Perhaps she should try a male body? No, she was too used to having a female one and those counter-weights on her chest were great distractions in combat.
++
She had been watching the Commander intently for a while now, especially when the Commander had handed down orders regarding this particular universe. Turning them into a fish in an aquarium was such an interesting way of dealing with the inhabitants of the galaxy. The universe was new and there wouldn't be anything interesting for the children technologically but allowing them to observe so many different cultures would help them develop (infiltration skills if nothing else).
On the note of colonization, the Commander's strength was increasing exponentially. Soon the Commander would be capable of crushing entire galaxies with soul strength alone. Only getting more powerful as more systems were colonized, more galaxies, more universes. The Commander was still locked into this multiversal cluster but perhaps the chance at ascension was there.
A particularly interesting note was the child titled heemoo two. Absolute power did indeed lead to Absolute Authority. Perhaps She would take the infant under Her wing, an interesting child.
++
05/05/0001
++
In the void between two galaxies lay a highway of quantum gates. Thousands of them sat in rows, each surrounded by defensive turrets, garrisoned HeMU units, a Warship and Angels. Currently they were all unpowered but that would soon change. Exploring different universes and gaining more and more experience was driving the Minds to build the Quantum Highway as it had been dubbed. Each gate would start out the size of an average human in height before expanding further as a dimensional beacon was anchored to the other side. The final size would be that of a moon in the event a Metal Planet was needed. Multiple of the gates would be in place for quick access to different points in the universe. Looking rather puny from a distance, the Highway was longer than most star systems were wide.
They would be powered on one by one as the Minds established footholds in the new universes before expanding stealthily. A trillion Minds, a number that was growing exponentially needed new experiences or they would stagnate, they needed to explore. The chance was before them and it would not be squandered.
The Commander had given a seal of approval in a rare wakening. They would go and gather more intelligence in order to better protect the Commander and understand their position in the multiverse. Perhaps securing the neighboring universes would mean that they created buffer universes in the case of an invader?
Still, the first gate of the Highway was being activated now. The spinning design powering up before punching a hole in space. IyUs with beacons were quickly sent through before the gate would be powered down. The longer it remained in place, the higher the chance of discovery. Substitutes would be placed underground and perhaps in satellites to disguise its existence.
When the last IyU left the gate it was powered down, waiting for an alternative to be built in a safer place.
++
As the quantum beacon was shot down underneath the ground of the world they were on, the IyUs quickly split into planetary exploration and void exploration contingents. The largest planet in the system was one that had some rather small and square islands. Obviously man-made it was made a priority for exploration. The man-made structures in orbit helped cement this opinion.
Upon fabricating advanced sensory equipment the situation became much clearer. There were 3 factions fighting on the planet in what appeared to be a massive game of tug of war spread across 4 of the continents (the others were devoid of all fauna). The factions were very clearly marked, blue and gold, red and black, purple and teal. They also used very clearly distinctive weaponry.
The blue and golds were very boxy, the red and blacks very sleek with curves, the purple and teals were very sharp with slim designs.
What was more interesting was the fact that they appeared to be in a closed loop of sorts. Vehicles would come out of the air from terminals, a lattice like grid appearing in the shape before firming, dead soldiers and destroyed vehicles would disappear in the same way but reversed. They also appeared to have a way to use unlimited amounts of ammunition.
Truly strange, it was as if they were there to fight forever. As the Minds colonized the moon they were on to be used as a base, others were keenly staring at everything going on in that world.
There was no signals traffic, no signals beside light. It was as if it were a closed system without even the radio signals that officers might use to coordinate their men.
No civilians, no animals, just men and women, their weapons, their vehicles and their bases.
The Commander had accessed the world of Planetside 2 and this was Auraxis.
The Minds already foresaw themselves loving the universe, the Martial Minds in particular.
Eternal War? Yes please.
++
It had been 4 months, the Minds had almost exhausted everything the helldiver universe had to offer them.
The IyU units sent to scout the Illuminate and scan their technology had long sent back their results. It had been… a mixed bag.
The hardlight technology was a welcome addition to their repertoire, Halo bridges to allow bases to isolate themselves without extensive physical deconstruction. The teleporter beacons were nice, using the ftl technology of the universe allowed the beacons to signal for reinforcements. Said reinforcements would lock onto the beacons, open a fold and drop through the hole in the floor, their size meaning they had ample time to get through before space evened out again.
Simple yet effective.
Their Council Members had devices that reversed brain signals through electricity, one that fired orbs that exploded with an AoE effect, yet were vulnerable to physical force. Applying them to people doing delicate tasks like loading explosives into artillery would be delicious. Using them with physical munitions were a necessity however, the big glowing orb that moved slow enough to walk away from was a definitive negative.
The Apprentices had a physical slow ability, somehow hampering the physical body when applied but not weapons or anything without a nervous system. Likely the same technology used for the reverse bombs but applied differently. The HeMUs reported it felt like everything required dramatically more effort when attempting to move. Useful perhaps on more primitive, unshielded peoples.
The electro-shock and pulse technology was laughably primitive however as were their shields. Inferior to Legion tech except for one key feature, absorbing the first bit of damage no matter how great.
The shields honestly were out of place, for a race dedicated to exploring the electronic route of technology, a quantum shield was unexpected. Using the same technology as their ftl, it folded space but instead of opening somewhere it folded part way. This resulted in projectiles being stretched as they entered the portal and expending their energy uselessly. Since the portal was not a full one it was much less power intensive and malleable as seen by the spheres the Watchers used.
Their stealth technology, electrical technology, pulse technology, metallurgy, material science, bio-sciences… everything was so primitive.
Their society was not much better. Each spawning would see thousands of young. The most promising were taken for further education and eventual civic postings. The countless others not lucky enough were sent to the frontlines against the 3 other factions in their subsector or given demeaning physical labour in the local star systems.
The soldiers had a chance to improve their station however, education and surviving would mean a promotion back to the homeworld for them. While it sounded brutal they did have a legitimate reason for it, there were simply too many of them being spawned. Their civilization would collapse if all were given the same standard of care. All of them understood this from the freshest spawn to the oldest Council Member.
At least the spawn didn't eat each other anymore.
++
The Bugs… well they were bugs. Not much to say at all here that hasn't already been explored.
Except for spore seeding. Growing armies out of spores was genius, entire planets seeded from atmosphere, their enemies crushed from literally all directions. The Minds were drooling. It required a bit of tweaking but the idea was there.
++
The Cyborgs were again unimpressive, just humans with mechanical bits and hating Super Earth. Weapons tech again unimpressive and their society if one could call it that was them hating Super Earth and building themselves towards fighting it.
Unimpressive.
++
Super Earth was well… already explored. The Minds had been preparing to begin the civil war that would lead to the annihilation of the entire subsector in the fires of war when the Commander intervened.
There would be plenty of universes where one could see war and experience it The Commander argued. The helldiver universe however presented something special, a giant social experiment just waiting for variables to be twiddled with.
The Commander's Caretakers would colonize this universe also for resources and power. They would first surround the 4 factions with a few star systems as a safety margin. A glass cage as it were with the Minds prodding and poking to evoke reactions. A reverse Panopticon where the cells were cameras and the tower a cage. They would see everything, they would hear everything. The glass of the cage was one where they could not see out but the Minds could see in. The could see each and every poke and prod in detail.
Maybe insert a pacifist Cyborg? An underground liveleaks network for Super Earth? Changing key textbooks to erotica for the Illuminate? The possibilities were endless and to be recorded.
When the war finally ended and they once again explored the galaxy. Well the Minds would be waiting with their worst and most embarrassing moments preserved for posterity.
Their reactions would be delicious.
++
06/08/0001
The withdrawal order had been given to all packs under Bastion 001. For most of them it was rather easy to do, the ones in the army, civilians, navy, grunts in general found ways to get themselves killed or "re-educated". The ones working from subverted humans, Illuminates and Cyborgs simply either relinquished control to a replacement HeMU or had them die from a "sudden and unexplained" brain aneurysm.
Those that had used their physical HeMU units had it a bit more difficult. Then there were those that didn't want to leave for… reasons.
++
HeMU 1 hadn't done very much in the time between her resolution and actually arriving in the helldiver universe. She had given mercy to a near dead helldiver, taken over the man's body when he died (bullet to the head helping) and used his memories to guide her. Not fully subsuming him into her, HeMU 1 used the excuse of brain damage (handy bullet again) to explain the changes in her/his behaviour.
From there she had nothing much more than hone her sniping prowess against various bugs and Illuminate forces with the railgun variant of the sniper rifle. He had copied the data regarding helldiver training from HeMU 3 so she didn't actually need to go through the training.
With the order to return to the Gestalt for re-deployment, HeMU 1 just positioned in a very obvious sniper location and when the inevitable deluge of bugs came, died quickly.
++
HeMU 3 was much the same. Devastating the entire Illuminate front with her predilection for stabbing them in the back or the side or the front, or anywhere they could bleed. To return she simply missed a stab and died to the retaliation. She had a feeling Markus felt bad but at the same time she obviously creeped him out. Perhaps next time she attempted to blend in with the humans she wouldn't describe in detail how to eviscerate the various enemies she came across. She didn't understand why that was so disturbing to Markus, it was simply sharing operational information that would likely save his life some point down the line.
She had been censured over such an innocuous event, it was really off putting. Maybe in the next universe there would be those that appreciated her skills.
++
IyU 52 in its journey throughout the helldiver galaxy had not come across any signs of intelligent life outside of the big 3 (4 tentatively given to cyborgs). It did drop numerous beacons on every major structure in space on its way however, the colonization efforts would proceed with the groundwork already laid in that area of space.
IyU 52 had received the order to return rather neutrally. Unlike its siblings it enjoyed exploring the universe even if it came across nothing but rocks, bigger rocks and some particularly nice looking nebulas. Maybe the next universe had more life in it even if the odds were astronomically low.
++
HeMU 50 didn't care either way. As long as there were people there would be people having sex. HeMU 50 had taken upon herself the noble and far-reaching goal of cataloging the many different ways in which people could have sex or pre-sex or post-sex or meta-sex.
Truly a complicated and challenging task to set oneself especially since HeMU 50 had to infiltrate into the different areas to set up cameras and often be in person to retrieve them. As a sidenote, HeMU 50's infiltration skills had skyrocketed after being caught the first time.
++
HeMU 2 was… rather strange. By offering food via a hidden teleporter she had arranged around herself a harem of sorts. The nascent sexual desires she felt watching those people in NERV HQ had bloomed and she had definitely enjoyed herself. Still, what she was doing wasn't very difficult and a replacement was coming to take over her role and expand upon it.
The creation of a red-cross like organization in human society was an experiment pushed by the Minds, it would be interesting to see how stable human society was with a better fed and organized slum-class. They would also be collecting human genetic samples but that didn't sound as good.
HeMU 2 was definitely leaning towards being a social butterfly and she was enjoying herself. That said available literature had shown that a female with multiple concurrent partners was a morally repugnant being but one that had multiple concurrent partners and hid them was sometimes lauded. Truly a confusing turn of events especially given males with harems were celebrated in many parts of media. She had greater stamina than a male so why was the male expected to have a harem? It wasn't like he could satisfy them.
Humans were truly foolish.
Perhaps she should try a male body? No, she was too used to having a female one and those counter-weights on her chest were great distractions in combat.
++
She had been watching the Commander intently for a while now, especially when the Commander had handed down orders regarding this particular universe. Turning them into a fish in an aquarium was such an interesting way of dealing with the inhabitants of the galaxy. The universe was new and there wouldn't be anything interesting for the children technologically but allowing them to observe so many different cultures would help them develop (infiltration skills if nothing else).
On the note of colonization, the Commander's strength was increasing exponentially. Soon the Commander would be capable of crushing entire galaxies with soul strength alone. Only getting more powerful as more systems were colonized, more galaxies, more universes. The Commander was still locked into this multiversal cluster but perhaps the chance at ascension was there.
A particularly interesting note was the child titled heemoo two. Absolute power did indeed lead to Absolute Authority. Perhaps She would take the infant under Her wing, an interesting child.
++
05/05/0001
++
In the void between two galaxies lay a highway of quantum gates. Thousands of them sat in rows, each surrounded by defensive turrets, garrisoned HeMU units, a Warship and Angels. Currently they were all unpowered but that would soon change. Exploring different universes and gaining more and more experience was driving the Minds to build the Quantum Highway as it had been dubbed. Each gate would start out the size of an average human in height before expanding further as a dimensional beacon was anchored to the other side. The final size would be that of a moon in the event a Metal Planet was needed. Multiple of the gates would be in place for quick access to different points in the universe. Looking rather puny from a distance, the Highway was longer than most star systems were wide.
They would be powered on one by one as the Minds established footholds in the new universes before expanding stealthily. A trillion Minds, a number that was growing exponentially needed new experiences or they would stagnate, they needed to explore. The chance was before them and it would not be squandered.
The Commander had given a seal of approval in a rare wakening. They would go and gather more intelligence in order to better protect the Commander and understand their position in the multiverse. Perhaps securing the neighboring universes would mean that they created buffer universes in the case of an invader?
Still, the first gate of the Highway was being activated now. The spinning design powering up before punching a hole in space. IyUs with beacons were quickly sent through before the gate would be powered down. The longer it remained in place, the higher the chance of discovery. Substitutes would be placed underground and perhaps in satellites to disguise its existence.
When the last IyU left the gate it was powered down, waiting for an alternative to be built in a safer place.
++
As the quantum beacon was shot down underneath the ground of the world they were on, the IyUs quickly split into planetary exploration and void exploration contingents. The largest planet in the system was one that had some rather small and square islands. Obviously man-made it was made a priority for exploration. The man-made structures in orbit helped cement this opinion.
Upon fabricating advanced sensory equipment the situation became much clearer. There were 3 factions fighting on the planet in what appeared to be a massive game of tug of war spread across 4 of the continents (the others were devoid of all fauna). The factions were very clearly marked, blue and gold, red and black, purple and teal. They also used very clearly distinctive weaponry.
The blue and golds were very boxy, the red and blacks very sleek with curves, the purple and teals were very sharp with slim designs.
What was more interesting was the fact that they appeared to be in a closed loop of sorts. Vehicles would come out of the air from terminals, a lattice like grid appearing in the shape before firming, dead soldiers and destroyed vehicles would disappear in the same way but reversed. They also appeared to have a way to use unlimited amounts of ammunition.
Truly strange, it was as if they were there to fight forever. As the Minds colonized the moon they were on to be used as a base, others were keenly staring at everything going on in that world.
There was no signals traffic, no signals beside light. It was as if it were a closed system without even the radio signals that officers might use to coordinate their men.
No civilians, no animals, just men and women, their weapons, their vehicles and their bases.
The Commander had accessed the world of Planetside 2 and this was Auraxis.
The Minds already foresaw themselves loving the universe, the Martial Minds in particular.
Eternal War? Yes please.