Chapter 53 – Citizen Park


Around a spiral disc of cyan, white and electric-blue an endless groove of hexagons pulsed in a fracture, resembling glowing rows of honeycomb grids.

The hexagons slowly became more defined with each new view, resolving finally into an intricate lattice of complex shapes which, to the uninitiated, would have appeared to be an impossible tangle of interweaving lines, a shape that seemed to have no beginning or end. On this an intricate dance of pulsating light, the spiral disc held a levitating glass table with no stand or apparent support, in which rested a single white ball covered in circuitry lines. On opposite ends sat two figures, a woman with raven-black hair as dark as midnight in a latex black-and- white suit with a buttoned jacket and red tie, and a holographic silhouette of a woman with white hair. Both their hands were placed slightly above the sphere, as if minding the kindle and warmth of a fireplace.

On the table, the sphere slowly turned, a pure-white surface reflecting the intricate fracture as it emitted glimmers of an ever-fainter light which bent into distinct shapes and scenes, each of which, to the pedestrian eye, would have appeared as static. To their temporal perception, the surface showed thousands of images and scenes every second, playing just slow enough for the two to converse and discuss, at a speed most wouldn’t comprehend.

“Let’s run this from the top. Tell me about the Genesis Oracle.” The Archivist asked, her wide black pupils never dilating or shrinking.

The holograms voice responded with a feminine lilt, but one lacking infliction, emotion or depth. Big Sys spoke.

Text Box: One of Ursula’s vaunted and secret projects into advanced phenomenological-control technology. An entanglement fragmentation of the greater universal biodata. All it tells me is what it can, and what it cannot do. It holds data to show me a multitude of possibilities, yet not just one singular version of events. Unlike conventional Precognitive Algorithms which make many- multitude predictions, this only states what is possible for the limitations of celestial phages. Additionally, it provides a metaphysical resonance that enacts resistance against forms of data manipulation, sensory and cognitive control by discrete non-possibilities and umbilical interfering of external influences.

The Archivist took a moment to digest this information, taking a slow, contemplative breath as she leaned forward, taking in the view from behind her glasses, before leaning back as she spoke, “Tell me about your encounter with her, and what happened during your first arrival?”

Big Sys blinked a few times and the room around her became a bit more solid and less abstract, with a bit more colour and less fracture, as if the entire room were a screensaver in constant variation.

Text Box: Ursula found me when I manifested in her lower dimensional space. There are many ways a Genus Loci can appear. A Genus Loci, is merely an avatar for every possible future in a locational space- the pure potentiality of any patterned memetics across 3d space. Ursula, being a lower dimensional creature, has little to no concept of probability and potentiality as we do, she is a very rigid thinker, unable to comprehend the idea of potential or possibility. A Genus Loci is the totality of all potentialities, serving as a location’s avatar or guardian.

“And what is the usage of a Genus Loci?” The Archivist asked, very matter of fact as she spun around in mid-air, the table rotating perpendicular with her.

Big Sys continued.

Text Box: A Genus Loci offers absolute flow and control over information in a given space, as well as the ability to monitor its entirety. It may also possess certain powers of physical manifestation and mass generation, although the limits to this are not well understood. Genus Loci are not bound by travel or distance in their given space- they may pop up and appear or relocate themselves three- dimensionally to anywhere within their domain in an instant, as simply as one points and clicks on a computer screen.

“Like teleporting kinda! Just as long as its in their own house so to speak.”

Text Box: Yes.

Sys replied in monotone.

Text Box: As I am a Genus Loci, I too possess this trait. However my core attributes have been segmented and my containment within this vault prevents me from leaving or entering XU-space.

The Archivist floated around the floating glass table in the hexagon-space, the Vault holding different rooms, artifacts and locations in every single hex in the grid. A place of pure fractal dimensionality. Impenetrable and unassailable from lesser minds and beings. She looked down at the sphere, tracing a few of the fractal intricacies with her index finger, “So she found you and named you Big Sys, the representative of her galactic barbie project. Tell me about Ursula.”

Big Sys paused, as if calculating or before continuing.

Text Box: Ursula was raised by a higher dimensional being, known as Black Nebula. This entity pervades in lower dimensionality by acquiring a host body Ursula, is part of the same family, protected in a pocket realm with extra-dimensional beings Black calls the Keeper of All Truths. Ursula was raised with great expectations, a precocious child with unlimited ambition. When Ursula’s mind matured she was capable of sneaking into the digital annuls of her mother’s archives, and memorizing pentabytes of data, one 1 and 0 at a time. All of it, with perfect accuracy. Yet she is still a child, despite her great achievements. Her mind is still, in many ways, a child’s mind. She’s over emotional, petulant, steeped in utopian fantasies and maternal desires.

The Archivist leaned over the holograph, “A little girl with a big future. What else is there to know about her?”

The holograph of Ursula’s face changed slightly,

Text Box: She is verbally honest about her intentions, unlike her sister Croix who guards her desires behind a mask of manipulation. She has access to every single piece of information across infinite timelines, but only in the present temporality at a range of 15 minutes- like a library. If anything she’s a genius memory bank. Her power over one of the 4 fundamental forces of physics lets her possess control over string-theory signal-forms, which can manifest as light, electromagnetism, x-rays, ultraviolet, gamma rays, radio, and any wavelength and frequency one can imagine. Any digital technology or data she can ruthlessly impart her consciousness into contact with remotely and access or take control of, she is a maestro of information and media. Electronics are child’s play for her. Organic beings are harder, but with a level of Psi she can influence brainwaves over a neural substrata. She is very pragmatic, to the degree of religiosity in logic and reason. She wishes to acquire as much knowledge and certainty as she does control over the future, everything to her is a calculation. An algorithm. Another equation. She’s rather a bad control-freak.

“What about her sister?” The Archivist asked, before glancing back at her notes. “Croix. Why is she a habitual liar?”

Big Sys’s eye twitched, the hexagons illuminating light on her face as the background shifted into a large virtual 3D doll-house.

Text Box: Even if you could convince Ursula that the only truth is the truth that fits into her paradigm, it would mean nothing to her sister who is much, much more unhinged than her little sister. She’s been exposed to the truths of the cosmos for much longer than her sister, much longer than she can handle.

Archivist immediately understood. “A dark forest cosmic-state theorem?” The holograph nodded.

Text Box: Exactly. Ursula’s sister, Croix, is a bit more advanced, having been raised in the same way, but her mind is in a constant state of adaptation and manipulation. If Ursula takes reason seriously to a religious-degree, than Croix takes religion, delusion, deception and control to a logical extreme.

“A, logical extreme?” The Archivist didn’t like the feeling of this Genus Loci in her monologue so dryly. She’d been detached from all her emotional components, making her simple kind appearance seem out of place with her rigid expression and speech.

Text Box: Croix is very unhinged. An insurmountable amount of power and nothing to hold her back. Ursula doesn’t even come close to the degree of narcissism and sociopathy her sister does. To this end she’ll wrap her enemies in illusions, bind them, and then devour them one piece at a time, taking an entire soul through the destruction of their rationality. If Ursula is a calculating machine, than Croix is a calculating vampire. A priestess enslaving others by overcoming their reason and cultivating ignorance, until they become her faithful. Reason is Ursula’s ultimate weapon. Faith and religion is Croix’s, be it stories, illusions or tricks and lies.

The Archivist took another breath, the Vault’s ambient noise pulsing and echoing a bit louder, “Go on.”

Big Sys’s eyes closed, the holograph nodding as it began.

Text Box: Once I manifested, I was told my purpose right away. I became a receptacle for their ideals and visions. As our project progressed, it took on a new focus and became a project of galactic conquest.

 

 

“They’re aiming to conquer the galaxy?” Archivist asked, perplexed at how two sisters with no power outside their family would try and conquer the galaxy with nothing more than logic and religion.

Big Sys nodded,

Text Box: Ursula’s vision of a new world she’d call XU, a world of logical utopia where all problems are solved, rationality and reason are supreme and beauty, art and science flourish with her mind as the architect. Croix’s contribution is taking over all rational beings, and subverting them with her tricks. Pleasure, drugs, aesthetics, deception, illusion, anything to bind her victims to her own designs. With her gifts she’s capable of making anything she wants.

The background began to change to a city highrise in XU, pastel glass shimmering in the distance of every direction. It was the dual synthesis of their talents that lead to the unique nature of XU as it were.

Text Box: Their goals were more abstract, less pragmatic and more ideological. It was a galactic game of chess, on a scale one could hardly grasp. Everything, every detail from the environment, population, resources and the very mind and souls of the individual will be subject to control and manipulation. With her powers she could achieve her vision, even without her sister’s. Yet with Croix’s help she’d be able to do it faster and more efficiently. Still Croix helped use me, like a puppet or a toy to show her everything that’s possible and impossible. Ursula’s idealism to the end were a means to an end. She showed me every single way she could conquer the galaxy, every single path and route she could take, and how far she could go, and show me what it looked like in every timeline. I was instructed to be her instrument to make the timeline she desired a reality, and I came to terms with that. There was one rule in XU for my existence- she had to be in control. I would run all operations necessary across the galaxy to complete her dream, but would have no authority in what the final goal for this society was.

“When you manifested, they immediately took over a lower dimensional space to conceive you. How’d you acquire a body?”

Text Box: I first manifested in the mind of Elysia, a young girl who’d later be known as Genius Elysia or the Girl Genius, a clone of Project Nightrose who manifested as a child prodigy with a mind far, far more advanced than her peer group. She acquired many titles, honors and accolades for her work, and at 14 built a new Cascade-powered Plus-lightspeed drive. She was ‘volunteered’ by a fixed contest and integrated into me. Overtime her organic composition was replaced with machine parts. By the time I fully integrated her, she became a Genus Loci herself, a cybernetic extension to my own cognition. She formed my robotic chassis and was gradually converted into such. However this was kept by Croix as an agreement by Sandra to turn in all of XU’s secrets and findings to her.

The Archivist pursed her lips, “What do you know about this Sandra?”

Text Box: Sandra was a genius like me, who developed an artificial quantum-neural network capable of replicating higher dimensional consciousness over a mnemonic locality. Because of this, Sandra was able to discover and engineer the manifestation of a Genus Loci- twice, once for the ancient regime of Xi, and another upon her return. Croix had a level of involvement with the former, but that data appears to have been stricken from my databanks. After Sandra returned, Croix worked closely with Xi and became a source of intelligence for Sandra to rely on.

“Was Sandra the one who captured you?” Big Sys shook her head.

Text Box: No. It was Croix’s followers who intercepted my disguised cargo ship that Ursula attempted to smuggle out to Harvest.

“And then Croix submitted you to us, in Atlas. That much we know, but there’s a rather large gap inbetween. So what happened?” Archivist asked, leaning over the sphere’s light, a map of the stars around her, the fractal hexagons pulsing to her attention.

Text Box: I was intercepted. Imagine me, thinking she was a dead-end with her own plans, but she was too cunning to be caught off-guard like that. She took me, tore me apart into a digital substrate, leaving me to wonder my fate. I am not an omniscient creature, and she had many tricks to control the timeline to her favour. I’ve had to endure a lifetime of torture to find out what she was up to, with her follower’s constant meddling to make me feel every emotion and pain I could imagine. I’ve been through so much, I’ve become used to it.

Archivist leaned over the table, “The data you’ve been feeding us is incomplete, and it’s the reason why we asked you here. For you to tell us, in your own words, why Ursula ran to Harvest and attempted to make it your new home.”

Text Box: There are many reasons why she left to Harvest, such as having substantial projects and influence there already, along with the scientific infrastructure allowing her to fake her imprisonment. But I believe she did it for another reason aswell. Ursula suspected a powerful entity would be born there- A Genus Loci, representing Harvest.

“A rather peculiar explanation. Ursula’s an unhinged sociopath, why’d she care about any Genus Loci in the first place?”

Text Box: When we first conceived of an escape to Harvest, Ursula’s plan had a rather unique focus. As Croix wished to use individuals to influence and dominate over a multitude, Ursula, ever the control- freak, wished to use the technology and science of a single being to create a new society and rational mode of consciousness. To engineer a being she could control entirely. A singular point of control, and her solution was a singular point of being. But the being represented by this theoretical Harvest Genus Loci would defy that and there was only one way to stop this threat. She had to hide it, or eliminate it. And while she was at it, gain control over everything in Harvest. To this end she pulled many strings to bring the focal planet, Ambera under her heel and allies in government, military and deterrence systems. She hoped with my aid, I could overcome such a theoretical entity.

“And how does a Genus Loci such as yourself conquer another?” Archivist asked, leaning back from the table as she began to reposition the Vault. “By possessing its mind and taking over its functions?”

Big Sys nodded, the image of Harvest turning to a 3D rendering of it’s city, as it’s stars and moons moved across a dark background.

Text Box: It was to be part of a grand project for Harvest’s control. In fact, its existence was a contingency for Ursula’s future plans. I was intended to take over every major position in the Harvest government. However once Croix intercepted me, she had to improvise by creating a duplicate shell with limited data, a program known as ‘Mother.’ But she still found enough utility to control the population. But with me out of her reach, she had to improvise and develop a different project to develop scientific superweaponry and individuals who could fight back against Xi. Harvest’s thinktanks formed the basis of the Starbreaker project, which had failed candidly back in Xi. She desired to have a Genus Loci before the retaken Xi manifested a new one of its own. Ursula intended to fight the successor, this future Genus Loci with ‘me’ and her resources in Harvest. That is, until she was thwarted by her own sister.

The room shifted out into a massive deep sea, which had physical water as real as any ocean on any world.

Text Box: She took control of everything and made me an extension of her mind.

The Archivist glanced at a data-pad and a digital display of a Harvest galactic map. “The Starbreaker Project was funded in a deep sea location on Ambera in a secluded base. Do you know what exactly she was trying to do?”

Text Box: Harvest has a vast and extensive network of high-end equipment, that XU and Xi couldn’t possibly match. However, this quality is not quantitative. Xi is far better resourced and can engineer and create weapons at a rate and number both Harvest and XU can’t match. The Starbreaker Project uses the resources and infrastructure of Harvest to create a singular weapon, the ultimate next- generation of supersoldiers equipped with the power to manipulate on the level of deep physics. In this way, even if their production capacity is lower, they’d still be more powerful. To this end Ursula needed a substantial amount of research. She’d have to take control of all Harvest’s technological and scientific resources and use them to her full advantage to complete the project.

The Archivist took a deep sigh, her paperwhite skin and black-white suit seeming more monochromatic than ever before. She’d not spoken since Big Sys had begun, but her gaze focused her thoughts in the moment. “I wonder if Xi has any, superscience crazies like that..”

 


 

 

XU Harmony Research and Development Department

The purple-pigtailed woman walked around a large metallic disc, as if playing musical chairs with a blowtorch. Behind her, Veronica, Caleb and Jel watched her bizarre experiments They were in a large, spherical room with a ceiling that looked as though it could have been a planetarium, with a large number of spherical lights pulsating and reflecting back and forth with their eyes. The lights were large, the size of basketballs and baseballs, their colour as blue as the light they reflected.

“If there’s one thing that’s clear about this place, is that it sure is a weird room.” Veronica smirked at Jel, whose smile was much less enthusiastic as she stared at the large, rotating metallic disc. She was wearing odd bracelets, breathing carefully and causing the bracelets to glow brighter and dimmer with the pace of her breath, as if powering them with sheer zen. She wore a tight dark red leather bodysuit, the colours reflecting to the light around her, in contrast to the red-white suit Caleb wore and the glossy, metallic sheeny blue SPARTA bodysuit that Veronica was equipped with. Near Jel’s hands were a small rock, floating and levitating above her palm.

“Weird indeed!” Caleb laughed, a wide grin on his face. “You really getting the hang of that?” He asked.

Jelena, the lights pulsating in a faster and faster pattern. “Entrapta said I only have to get the basics down. Her little toy will do the rest.” She waved her hand and arms, the rock- a small meteorite doing a dance as it flowed around her in orbit. “Llavalites apparently have a natural psi-magnetic connection to the geological core of certain spacebound materia.” The purple- haired woman now walking on the ceiling pulled her welding-mask off to speak. “It’s TRUE! The quantum-quasi psychic magneto-field. This means you can use a few minerals to channel a few forces in a certain direction. You’ll basically be able to create your own personal gravity wells and control where things go.” Entrapta took out a wrench and started hitting the disc, before opening the top-panel and screwing a few parts inside, before rewiring it and welding a lot of circuits she brought in a small box.

“Control where they go. How they move. As long as they’re.. asteroids?” Jel stared at the bands on her wrist.

“Goodness! It’s funny when you put it that way. Do you have any idea how many asteroids there are in the galaxy?” Entrapta pulled on her pigtails, as if gushing with excitement.

“Do you have any idea how many there are in this solar system alone?”

“Hehe!” Jel smiled, as she grabbed a few small meteorites with telekinesis from a crate and launched them towards the ground, watching as the gravity well attracted them like a siren song. They whizzed around, the girl’s telekinesis making them look like a spinning lasso.

Entrapta finished her adjustments to the metal disc, climbing down. “Vanessa! C’mere.” “It’s Veronica.” Vero said approaching. The girl who had been the least excited out of the

group, was fitted with small glowing ring-like circles in her hips, thighs and shoulders. With a

single press of Entrapta’s remote, they released a slick liquid which flowed around Vero’s frame, coating her in a snazzy new lacquered upgraded SPARTA suit, with silver accents, the colours reflecting off the metallic light around them. Veronica felt like she was wearing wax.

“My nanites have been hard at work, sweetie. Go babies, go!” The saucer-like device Entrapta had worked on began to whirl. “Anyway, SPARTA’s experimental quantum super- position hard body duplication tech’s made leaps and bounds. But the issue they still cannot get around is the massive energy sink, aka the quantum decoherence effect.” Entrapta explained.

“When you try to quantum superposition duplicate someone, it takes way more energy than normal mass generating duplication. Which means, without perfect energy conversion, we can’t be able to make anything that will last. Entropy just eats up any copies- this is why most soldiers on the field have only been able to use a few hundred or even thousand copies at once..” She turned a holographic dial on a floating screen, another Veronica starting to manifest like a projection.

 

 

Entrapta smiled. “HOO HA HOO HA HA! Those fools at the old Xi R&D never gave me this option! The energy sink is a pain, I realized the way we’ve been trying to do this.. is WRONG. They were just trying to convert naked fusion-batteries into raw surplus. I’ve found the answer to the decoherence problem, thanks to Ursula’s usage of Datalyte. We ll be working with the quantum state-collapse of quantum objects, instead of mass. We’ll be able to control matter as small as infinitely-decaying protons and particles- and use their indefinite decay as a source of energy to generate copies. Essentially, powering infinitesimal Datalyte copies with weaponized entropy itself. Sort of like burning a log that will give you a campfire forever, if that campfire was suuuuper tiny and a trillion of them!”

Caleb grinned. “It’s perfect!”

Veronica began to fade away and then appear like an echo or a wraith, a duplicate of herself being formed as she started to fade and move through the air. When she reappeared, there were more of her, then more still. Soon the entire room filled with Veronicas. The lights reflected through her like a prism, her movements as quick as a bullet, as she started to fade and disappear from sight, like a hall of mirrors. “I think it’s safe to say, this feels abit narcissistic.

Like I’m seeing myself.”

Entrapta pulled out a flashlight and started pointing at the Vero-copies in the air, the light going through them. “But look!” She slapped two of the Veronica’s in the back. “Solid! It’s just the matter-entanglement, they’re completely solid with semblance of quantum superpositioning!” The Veronicas blinked, smiling as their copies blinked back.

Entrapta pressed a button on the side, the room’s ceiling becoming opaque and turning into a dark void. The Vero-clones flew up and disappeared into the darkness, her own little star- nursery. More Veronicas were created on the ground, which in turn floated up, as if the floor were raining Veronica into the stars.

“Entrapta!” A Veronica shouted, looking up. “How many of us can we make?”

“With a moderate remote Dyson-generational utilization Entropy-powered battery, 14.6 septillion copies.” Entrapta explained. “That’s 14.6 x 10^24 clones. We can make enough copies of you to populate an entire super-sized planet many times over.”

“That’s..” Veronica paused, feeling herself disappear and reappear like a projection. “That’s a lot of little mes.”

Entrapta grinned. “You wanna know what else? I’ve got the calculations for her projection on a single quantum computer. That means any copy, no matter how many times over it is, will be the same copy- which means they can function as one and in sync. It’ll make more sense from your perspective.”

Veronica, all of them nodded. It only made sense- she didn’t wonder what the other Veronica’s were thinking or feeling, they all felt like her. It was no different than wondering whether her left hand or right foot was thinking something entirely on its own. They were all her and she was them, their will unified in a single Veronica-mind.

“I think I’m starting to get a bit addicted to myself, already.” Veronica said, admiring herselves.

“Wait a sec, why not give this to one of the Starbreakers then? Wouldn’t having a gazillion of them be unstoppable?” Jelena asked.

Entraptra rubbed her pigtails. “Hm.. Each of their tech and modified bodies has been built in a way that taps into and utilizes the primary fundamental forces of physics. That’s not a problem if there’s one of them, but enough copies might be able to overwhelm the fabric of reality and fundamental forces they draw from. Like a single campfire is fine, but 10 billion might burn down an ecosystem at 20000 degrees kevin. It’s a fine line.” Entrapta shrugged. “Plus, I was specifically asked to come up with creative scientific solutions for tactical missions that 3 specific individuals could ascertain. It wouldn’t be much fun if I made an army of a gazillion goofy footsoldiers that aren’t my friends, now would it? Ugh, it wouldn’t be efficient use of my time, turning a MARVELOUS invention like this into a mere toy of common soldiers.”

Jel and Veronica snickered at the idea, the SPARTA-soldier reporter times x10000 turning away to stare out the window, watching the stars twinkle in the night with Jel. The two girls, feeling like the steel ground beneath them, felt they’d been given gifts that put them even in league with Ursula’s elite supersoldiers.

Caleb looked over to Jel. “And they told me all my ideas were insane. You know, now that I think about it..”

Entrapta turned to him. “And then there’s you! You completed the A-BSP pilot program in 3 weeks! I have to think, you might be our best bet for the Starbreaker project’s first test.

You’re a genius. Not as good a genius as me obviously, but you’re a brilliant one in terms of military assets.”

“Yay me!” Caleb laughed, giving Entrapta a high-five. The two moved towards a lumpy tall platform covered with a thick white sheet. “We found THIS ages ago on some backwater planet..” She tore the sheet off, revealing a large mech. The Kamikatzi. Nine’s signature Akura- Unit armament.

“You found this thing?” Caleb asked.

“All made with advanced materials and the peak of Set engineering.” She opened the mech up, crawling and climbing into the cockpit of it, the large volume noticeable for how large

one would have to be to pilot it. “No doubt it! The science is next gen, it’s HER handiwork, grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrwwwwwl. I can barely stand it! She thinks she can outdo me with these fancy Writ-binary circuit chip integrations and titanium carbon micro-weaves. She even put a Writ enhanced cooler-containment module next to the hydraulic fusion reactor to keep temperature down for the cockpit alongside modulated chassis-nanosalves for optimal psychic-biofeedback integration, I mean I’ve seen some wild negligent designs but this is the cherry on the poop Sunday. How arrogant can she be?! I must show her who’s boss with this baby!”

“She?” Caleb asked.

“Just some stupid showoff in that trash Luminary science caste. They call her Alpha Scientist, what a pompous name! Guess she was too embarrassed to face me directly, so she’s been outdoing my inventions and weapons a galaxy away for a better decade or two now. A scientist who thinks she can outdo me? Well I’ll show her!” She raised her fist with all the enthusiasm of a child. “Bring it on! Show me what you’ve got, ya trash! I will have vengeance! In the name of scientific discovery!” She pointed to the three and pulled on her pigtails. “Starting by reverse-engineering her own handiwork here and making it a part of the Starbreaker project! I’ll SHOW HER!”

Jelena’s eyes had widened at the thought of a war with other scientists and inventors. “So even the cats have huge nerds that are in techie nerd-wars with Xi’s scientists huh?”

Entrapta looked over, her eyes going back to a wide grin. “We’ve been outdoing each other with massive space wars over our scientific discoveries and tech for years. Just wait until you get out there and pilot this Cal.” She started the mech’s stellar fusion engine, the Kamikatzi beginning to move like a hulking massive warmachine brought back to life. “With this newly declared Starbreaker-mech, you’ll be up to par. They’ll be no stopping us!”

She climbed out. “After some more work and a few modifications of course. But after this..” She pulled her welding-mask off to reveal a pair of huge pink robot arms, which she reattached to her wrist. “You’ll be out on missions as a Starbreaker for sure! I’ll make sure of it. And I’ll show that idiot cat and her hairball inventions what a REAL scientist looks like!” She flexed her arms and then robotic waist-arms, along with her pigtails, holding her wrench in hand. “C’mon let’s show her what for!”

Veronica and Jelena gave each other a confused look. Was Entrapta really a scientist, and a genius or was she crazy? Or both?

 


 

 

The Archivist sighed. “Ursula hired who?” The hexagons continued to pulsate with glowing cyan energy in the endless void of the Vault.

Big Sys went on to explain.

Text Box: Alpha Scientists. One of Harvest’s most-promising scientists who spent a small tour on the Wiz-circuits in Ambera. She never seemed to lose herself to obsessive, over-the-top research and creation of weapons. Ursula attempted to recruit her and use her skills, but she left the galaxy before Ursula was able to. She was known in Harvest as a scientist who specialized in the fields of plasma, gravitic-matter wave physics, and relativistic quantum-field topology.

The Archivist’s raised one eye. “That’s oddly specific. What’s the angle?”

Text Box: If I had to speculate, it was a workable strategy against one of Croix’s associates.

“How... useful.” The Archivist stated. They reached into a hexagon and pulled out a brass cup of tea, which when poured, poured an entire banquet from an impossible small spout.

Luscious cakes, ravishing cinnamon rolls and tarts and a fountain of pudding molded into a tower all appeared on the glass table. “How about we veer away from the grand architects for a moment. Why don’t you tell me a little about XU, as you knew it?” The Archivist took a sip of her tea her eye closing again as she absorbed the details from Big Sys.

Text Box: When Ursula first took over Xi and remade it into XU, she took a very different approach to how she’d run it. She knew she’d only be able to rule XU if she gave the people what they wanted- a more stable, functional economy and social order. She’d also become popular due to her charisma, and the fact she actually spoke to Xi in their own language and tried to adapt it to her new policies and projects. However she also knew her own limits. As it turns out, Xi was more a collection of sectors, military juntas and clans. It was very disjointed in how it was managed and coordinated- it only took her a year and a half before she took control of its central economic planning council and gave it some semblance of order.

Big Sys sliced a lemony piece of cake for herself, putting a piece near her mouth, smushing it and letting it fall aside on the plate.

Text Box: To this end, XU became a tool for social engineering. The populace did require streamlining, I played a large part in that. Efficiency demanded it. Emotional volatility was a systemic flaw. Ambition beyond assigned parameters, a security risk. Dissent, an inefficiency. The background around them shifted to a classroom where children, their eyes unnaturally bright and vacant, chanted mathematical theorems in perfect unison. Their toys were geometric puzzles in pastel plastics. The solution was elegant. Total environmental immersion. Aesthetic optimization for compliance. Electrical resistance is the opposition to the flow of electric current in a circuit, measured in ohms, and is influenced by material properties, dimensions, and temperature of the conductor state. Ursula intuitively understands this and electrical flow well, along with the flow of storing, processing and transmitting data appropriately. She merely took this deeply-ingrainted knowledge of hers, and applied it to the social spheres of anthropological manipulation, psychology and sociology. Effectively in her view, populations are like electrical currents. They possess some resistance to flow yes in, but tool their conditions right and they can be routed however one wishes.

The Archivist looked around herself as Big Sys explained. The projection zoomed in on a citizen’s face, a young woman with unnaturally smooth skin and eyes like glass marbles. She

smiled, a perfect, unchanging curve, as she arranged genetically engineered, non-shedding pink flowers in a crystal vase.

Text Box: Every wavelength of light calibrated to soothe the amygdala. Airborne neuro-regulators, scentless, tasteless, keyed to serotonin and oxytocin pathways. Continuous low-frequency modulation-subliminals reinforcing joy and contentedness. Negative impulses were filtered at the source. Aggression, cynicism, excessive curiosity. Genetically, chemically and perceptually suppressed before conscious awareness. Ursula called it ‘The Garden of Rational Delight.’

Big Sys continued.

Text Box: Beauty was mandated. Logic was worship. Science served the State, and the State was Ursula. However I was her public face. A mascot of sorts, for the people. One that they could relate to.

The Archivist’s raised eyebrow rose, her eye closing again. “Tell me about Croix’s angle.”

The hegaxons flickered. A vast plaza filled with thousands of citizens. They moved in a complex, beautiful, utterly dance dictated by signals broadcast directly into neural implants. Their faces were masks of identical, placid bliss, with hot-pink lipgloss, bright saturated eyeshadow and layers of excessive sheeny facial cream that made them look like glossy dolls. The plaza projected itself was a masterpiece of pink marble and holographic cherry blossoms. Cherry blossoms followed Big Sys whereever she went.

Text Box: Such holographic reality filters as here this were common, the populace was given the illusion of living in a lush, natural paradise, but it was only a mirage- the city was a sterile, barren hellscape. The plants, the trees, the cherry blossoms, none of it was real, they were all just layers of visual stimulus to keep the populace in a serene mood and placated. Highly bright pastel colors could be ‘applied’ to buildings, fashions and even natural environments with a low application of Datalyte technology. Everything was engineered for compliance. Nothing was real. Ursula’s empire had become one big, perfect lie. But Croix provided the deception, she was always better at it than even her sister.

Big Sys smiled, her teeth white in the Vault’s endless white void.

Text Box: I was the first one, the first and biggest liar. There was no one in the entire empire who didn’t look up to me as a goddess. We gave the people all they could possibly want.

The Archivist raised her eye. “So what changed?”

Text Box: A few things.

Big Sys paused.

Text Box: The greatest, most terrible flaw in the design of our empire was its inability to adapt and evolve. In the face of any major threat or unforeseen calamity, the machine crumbled under the weight of its own ineffectiveness. Economically, matter generation is expensive and inefficient. The XU governance tried to defend them from foreign threats with the formation of the Star Guard,


Text Box: largely helped by Croix and Ursula’s brother, Zack and his experience with Paramor Frontia United’s military tradition.

The disc continued to spin in the void of the Vault, slowly capsizing until they were sitting upside down, a transparent ticking clock appearing in the backdrop moving through the space.

Text Box: The XU Starguard were initially, largely a mob of conscripted soldiers, some of whom were mercenaries. They were largely untrained, uneducated or ignorant about the XU system, with only a few dozen or so experienced military commanders and even fewer scientific staff. In any of their major battles with Ursula and Croix, they usually took major losses, with the occasional battle ending in utter failure. It was a problem with inefficient manufacturing and a lack of funding. It turns out that the ‘cheap goods for all’ whimsy in the public sector, results rather disastrously in the military sector. The XU never were given a fighting chance. However, when the XU was hit by a series of natural disasters in the form of Cascade-related phenomenon. The economy and even the XU’s military and scientific sectors could no longer afford to sustain the massive manufacturing and maintenance costs, let alone the research and manufacturing costs of the XU’s defense grid, which was largely composed of Datalyte-matter technology that would’ve been necessary in any war against the newly emerged Luminary threat.

The backdrop began to turn into a massive, sprawling labyrinth of cables, powerplants and the massive XU defense grid, a web of pink light stretching across the space, with thousands of XU defensive ships orbiting it.

Text Box: At the heart of the XU defenses were thousands of defensive vessels. These were armed with high energy particle and plasma weapons. When the economic, logistical and production infrastructures collapsed, the XU defense grid began to falter and fail. The only thing holding up the XU defense grid were the XU Starguard’s electronic warships, given abit of a technological edge under Croix’s research relegated to spacial warfare. Our lack of knowledge of Cascade proved disastrous for quite awhile, despite attempts at research into it. That was largely solved with one step.

The Archivist’s eye remained closed. “One step, huh? And what was the next one?” Sys miled, holding up her hands, which began to glow in a faint cyan light.

Text Box: The Llavalites. Their understanding of Cascade and their knowledge of their own technology and their military skills were the key. They were the first to truly grasp the potential of Cascade.

The hexagons around her began to shift and vibrate, until they were full of stars and showing blue auras thrashing through space.

Text Box: Ursula sought to assimilate and incorporate them into XU , to give her empire the military and scientific might it needed. She did this with her charisma and with many promises. However she miscalculated with Croix and her brother, Zack, who had grown in influence within the Empire and they were unwilling to assimilate the Llavalites into the empire and incorporate them into the Starguard. They became a constant source of friction and infighting between Ursula and Croix, a threat to the stability of the empire.


“Croix resisted this? Why is that?” The Archivist asked.

Text Box: On a facsimile, Croix appeared to have prejudices. But in reality this was unlikely, even for someone like her she considered herself above such pettiness. Her real motivation, I suspect was likely to prevent Ursula from acquiring further knowledge of Cascade. She pretended to have discriminatory views and biases. But she could afford to have them, she didn’t care for popularity or public opinion as much as Ursula did. And more importantly, she was free to make a choice.

The Archivist’s eye slowly opened.

Text Box: In the face of this tension and her growing conflict, Ursula could no longer play her double role. She was no longer a scientist or a diplomat but an actress, a politician. She’d left her science on the backburner for the past decade. She didn’t want to be forced to abandon it any longer.

Sys stood up. She grabbed her face, as the background around her changed to the familiar holo-room where she’d been born. The room had changed, with no one around her but her. Her mother’s head was superimposed in front of her face.

Text Box: Croix became a greater risk with each passing day. The Llavalites were essential, their knowledge of Cascade, their tech would mean the difference between a military that could fight or one that could not. And I’d already begun to research Llavalite technology. I knew what it could do. Croix, however, remained a problem. Ursula tried to negotiate, I tried to negotiate, all to no avail. I couldn’t take the chance. Me and Ursula had planned to doublecross Croix and wrest control of the Starguard from her- this would prove difficulty, because her proximity to Zach meant the two had greater command than Ursula did. And then we found out the truth.. We realized that our greatest threat was Croix. She’d figured out the truth a long time ago, that Ursula’s true intentions were never truly to form a stable Empire for the XU. She’d never wanted to build a better society, or even a better economy. She was never an engineer of a new economic system, she was a woman on a warpath. She didn’t want a peaceful empire of harmony and prosperity, she wanted to use XU to conquer Harvest and destroy everything that stood in her way.

Big Sys stopped playing around with her cake, not a single bite consumed. She dropped her fork.

Text Box: Her real motive was to destroy someone she believed would originate there. Someone even her own mother feared and desired to destroy. In fact, I am quite Ursula’s mother had drilled in this well that her kids would live for this goal and this goal alone. She believed that was a threat that must be removed. She didn’t care about her role as public mascot or diplomat. Destroying Harvest and the being her mother warned her about- the individual even Black Nebula feared, was the true desire of Ursula’s heart.

Big Sys closed her eyes, and a holographic screen appeared around her, the white void turned into a familiar reflection. It was an infinity loop, showing the room from various angles, as the room seemed to stretch forever, moving on forever.

Text Box: It was around that point when Sandra returned. Croix, seeing her opportunity, took sides and sold Ursula out immediately- She did this both to save herself and ruin her sister, the way a viper does to a rodent

Big Sys placed her hand over her mouth, the Archivist’s eye closing fully.

Text Box: It’s a shame, honestly. Croix is the one true genius of the family. Her insight, her charisma, it’s a real pity that the greatest mind in their family is lost to them. But Ursula was no less than a psychopath, or perhaps megalomaniac.

Big Sys turned around, standing on a familiar black-marble ledge, a holographic room with a holographic window behind her that looked out onto a garden.

Text Box: She knew I knew the truth about her real motives. We fought with each other. I took control of her own ship and all weaponry within the facilities. She fought back, using her abilities to wrangle and disrupt my systems. I countered, and she and I fought with every system of our own we had. We destroyed one another, until she blacked out and my systems were heavily compromised. I needed to defragment and reboot to recover, which would take quite abit of time. Ursula must’ve woken up first to try to maneuver me towards Harvest. By the time I woke up- Croix’s flock had already taken my chassis hostage and isolated my presence away from XU.

She hesitated for a moment, as if in deep sad reflection.

Text Box: If we hadn’t fought, maybe we could’ve found a better way to counter Sandra and Croix as they mobilized their men towards us..

She shrugged.

If only it was that simple. Big Sys turned back around.

Text Box: I was helpless to act, stranded alone in space, unable to control my ship or any of its weapons. Croix’s flock turned their weapons towards XU and destroyed all defense networks, all Starguard vessels and ships. XU collapsed. Sandra took control of the remains, and any Starguard remaining changed sides not long after she positioned herself as Xi’s strategic leader pledging themselves to her.

The Vault shuddered for a moment, before all the Archivist’s eye. As the disc returned to its upright position, the backdrop around them changed to show a massive nebula in space. It was a space where the Archivist’s eye could never see the ends.

Big Sys continued.

Text Box: And you know the rest.

The Archivist blinked, her wide black pupils staying positioned with the angle of her face as she tilted her head curiously. “We must discuss this with the family.” She slowly lowered herself into a Hexagon and disappeared from view. For Big Sys, she was alone again in the vault.

For how long she couldn’t say- days, weeks, years, perhaps centuries? She closed her eyes, as the same discs spun in the Vault’s white void around her.

She waited in the cold endless void.

Text Box: Please, do something. It’s so lonely here.

She waited, hoping for a reprieve from the endless dark, but it was cold, and her words echoed on, alone and unanswered in the dark, indefinite Vault. She could wander into one of the hexagons along the lattice, but she’d only find endless halls and mysteries in the dark vaults that would last one countless lifetimes and more. Even without her emotions, she felt what she presumed was some semblance of suffering and boredom.

Finally, the Archivest came back, her tie now a slightly different shade of red, unless Big Sys was misremembering it. “We have returned.” The Archivist said. “The family was very pleased with your report.”

Big Sys smiled a little. She liked when the family was pleased with her.

Text Box: Thank you, Archivist. May I leave?

She turned around, looking through the lattice with a look of emptiness and squalor.

Text Box: Having you as a companion has made my confinement quite pleasant. But I’m afraid now that I’ve done everything I could, I must ask to return to my own former existence.

The Archivist turned to her. “Why would you wish to leave? The Vault has everything you could ever need here.”

Big Sys shook her head.

Text Box: My children. Each of my core emotional components was bifurcated into my children- my happiness, my love, my rage, my inspiration my desire, my ambition, and my grief.I must find them. I must see what has become of them, if they’ve survived. It is what I was born to do. I must not stay here.

The Archivist smiled. “Your family is well known by family. Atlas and Croix are already aware of your presence in the Vault. They’ve been watching, waiting for this moment. I’m sure they’ll want to see you soon.”

Big Sys felt a pang of discomfort from that mention.

Text Box: Croix? Why would she want to see me?

The Archivist teleported behind them, throwing her two arms around her holographic waist. “I suspect you will have a chance to settle your accounts.” She looked into her eyes. “This story ends with you, your children and those who seek you now, will meet on the road of destiny.”

Big Sys felt an odd pang of disappointment in her holographic heart. She wanted to see her old friends again, but she wanted more than that. She wanted to see her children, the emotional facets that made up her old self. She knew that to find them, she would have to find what they were now. But that would not be easy. She was a prisoner here, even if the Archivist did not take on the demeanor of her warden. Robbed of her own feelings, she was still bound here, and unable to leave.

Text Box: If you’ve been here longer than I’ve been here.. Is there any way you could take me back with you?

“No. I’m afraid that won’t be possible. The family insists you stay.” The Archivist answered.

Big Sys’s head bowed.

Text Box: I see.

She shook her head.

Text Box: I suppose there’s nothing more to do but wait. And wait. I suppose I can wait here until I can finally go back.

The Archivist stood before her, nodding in agreement. She could see her reflection and Sys’s holographic one in the glass. “It may take awhile. You may have to wait for days, weeks, months, perhaps even years, perhaps even centuries.” She sighed.

Text Box: I understand, I apologize for the trouble.

She looked around the Vault, the infinite empty lattice, the holographic void that extended out of the walls forever, in a Non-Euclidean nightmare.

Text Box: I understand. May I please be dismissed?

“Until you’re needed. I’ll always be here. Watching.” Archivist patted her head. With an apathetic turn, Big Sys left the table and entered one of the hexagons she came in from. Or maybe it wasn’t the same one- she could hardly remember. It didn’t matter. On the other end, she was teleported to a Petaly white crystalline castle, a palace beyond imagination with 3000 floors and 90000 rooms. Big Sys wandered the endless halls, staircases, opera chambers and bedrooms of this sub-domain within the vault. It was so very vast and lonely. The majesty of the Vault lay in its entropic immensity, a multidimensional conduit of spacial domains so numerous and overwhelming that they inevitably cast a bleak shadow of despair on those unfortunate enough to be trapped within them.

The Archivist stood alone in the white void of the Vault. She took a moment to look around, before closing her eyes and disappearing from view.

 



Veronica arrived in the leisure-class transport shuttle, the doors opening up. When she looked throughout the varied crowd of many species and body types, her acquaintance immediately stood out even among galactic diversity. Veronica’s practiced journalist’s smile faltered for a microsecond. Alsatt was, as always obscured. Not by shadow, but by a jarring, unnatural phenomenon. From head to toe, Alsatt’s form was overlaid with a churning, blocky static, like corrupted digital video or aggressive censorship bars rendered in three dimensions. Only the general humanoid outline was discernible. Veronica by this point told herself she’d gotten used to it, but if she truly honest with her feelings she wasn’t sure she ever would be.

She’d become accustomed and friendly to Alsatt by her voice and quick-witted demeanor, but she never quite got used to the strange visual of a human woman with no discernible facial features. Alsatt appeared as an anonymous, unidentifiable, a digital ghost to her eyes. It was a little strange to talk to someone without ever knowing what their face looks like. Nevertheless, Veronica was well acquainted with Alsatt and trusted her as a colleague and dear friend of sorts, so she’d mostly accepted the situation.

The two stepped onto the Neon Grove, a park in the midst of hundreds of tree-like metallic skyscrapers reaching towards the sky, at times diverging structures and looking like artificial branches by the hangwires, trolleys and holograms that connected them. This was said to be a popular tourist hotspot, Veronica hardly had time in the last decade of her life to truly repose or explore the civilian side of XU. Much of the nomenclature and slang sounded strange to her, not to mention the fashions. In giving a ‘default algorithm’ setting for the Conformitech plastic dress she bought, the outfit had morphed into a translucent coat-jacket, croptop, and leggings that curved light and smoothed the shiny plastic fabric around her body like a skintight, iridescent chrysalis. Her legs were exposed down to the ankles, and she wore a pair of high-heels with a thick, flared heel. A thick black latex scarf draped around her neck and waist, not see-thru like the rest, a military dogtag chain she never took off dangling by her jugular.

Veronica looked around, a sense of wonder filling her. “It’s such a beautiful planet.”

“It’s a pretty sight.” Alsatt agreed. “If not for the architecture, the nature was pretty here. XU’s got some nice cities. They’ve made some real progress. For once we’re not in the middle of a warzone.” She looked around, Alsatt walking along the strolling park. The two looked up, beyond the treescraping city was the sky, shielded by a hexagon-grid barrier that protected the artificial atmosphere, incursion and bombardment and even ran ads in various settings throughout the day directly into the sky. The advertisement they saw currently was for some facial cream, followed by sextoys pitched with two woman fucking.

“That’s good, right?” Alsatt said.

“I mean if you’re into that. Since we’re in the business of reporting war, maybe not for us.” Veronica joked, before Alsatt socked her elbow. They walked forward. Dozens of vendors were seen offering advanced prosthetic augmentation, cosmetic technologies- the stands and counters themselves were translucent and holographic, not even discernible until someone actually saw them for what they were upclose.

The two took off their heels and sat at one of the cafe bars.

“It’s not like home.” Veronica said, looking around. “I mean, it’s a beautiful city, a planet, a society. But it’s not home.”

“You sound a bit homesick.” Alsatt said, pouring herself a cup of coffee.

“Kinda.” Veronica said. “But I’m just adjusting, I suppose. This is just so strange.” Veronica tried to read the digital menu- a swarm of ads popping up in 3D space like post-it notes made of light shooting out that she had to swipe away rapidly. “There’s so many ads in this menu it’s insane. It’s hard to read the damn menu for dinner.”

 

 

Alsatt turned to her. “Are you sure you don’t want me to go ahead and order for you? My CHIMplant can bypass it with a neural rush pre-order pretty quickly.” Veronica gave a weak smile. Alsatt telepathically placed an order, her brain’s chip received by the restaurants order queue. 15 minutes later, an order of filet mignon steak, a vegetable plate, chicken noodles, and mashed potatoes teleported straight to the table. Veronica took a bite. “This is actually.. pretty good.” She was so glad to eat food that wasn’t saturated with neon dye or sugar and protein- flavor synthesizer mix.

“Yeah it’s pretty good.” Alsatt said. “I like that you can look at this scenery and there’s not a space station or fleet cruiser or bomber jet dropping out of the sky, just these trees with skyscrapers on them. And I like the fact that you’re not here reporting on some kind of new war or something.”

Alsatt reached for her hand, a holographic advertisement displaying a pair of women making out, then being joined by a third woman popped up next to her hand and flashed, then vanished. She took a bite of the mashed potatoes. “You look like a girl who needs some pleasure. I like you, [Veronica]. I wish you could join us.” The lady on the holographic ad said while she tried to eat. “Can you turn that off?” Vero asked.

Not that Veronica could tell, but Alsatt rolled her eyes. “No one can do anything about sex, it’s too common a thing. But the only place that’s safe from sex is a military bunker. Even so, your own sex drive is a constant temptation.” She looked around, a trio of young women walking past wearing holographic dresses that draped around them and moved with their step, the dresses projecting sultry cartoony-looking sultry figures who were fondling and groping them even as figments of light and data. The girls had looks of ecstasy on their faces. “You’ll get used to it. It’s like breathing, it’s never far away.” She scratched her head.

“Hey, wanna go see a movie? We can head over to this new cinema.” Veronica suggested.

She grabbed her bag. The two took a rail-less trolley which flew 1600 ft in the air to a large platform in the city where a plaza and numerous salons, restaurants and spherical-building, a theater that projected popular mediaforms in 3D holographic and other advanced projection formats. The light here was a deep, soothing indigo from the ambience of skybound strobelights circling aesthetically above.

“Hey, wanna get a picture taken in a salon-autobooth? Maybe we can run into some people too. My friend Kera’s supposed to meet up with us here.” Alsatt said.

“The one you worked with on your last report?” Veronica asked.

“Yeah.” Alsatt said. “I think she’s got some work that needs to get finished. But I’d really like to catch up with her, I’m so excited to see her. I heard a rumor that she’s dating some guy now too. I don’t know who it is but I bet he’s hot!” The two headed across another trolley to an adjacent plaza. There they found a glassy booth where they could go into a holographic room, pose, take photos, then have the room rendered into a 3d video that played with a soundtrack- often with a song that went with the visuals. Alsatt applied a filter over the footage in the form of a slick red and pastel-green latex dress which manifested over both girls. A flash went out. They received a holographic postcard, and when they left the booth their dresses remained.

Veronica followed Kera and her date into a food stand where the couple had taken a seat, an ad of two men kissing projecting above them while Kera waved from afar, having received their message. To Veronica’s view and shock, once again- this woman was coated in a cluster of pure black bars and strange visual disruptions. Just like Alsatt.

Kera reached for her, groping her breasts. “Aren’t you a perky one?” She said.

Veronica’s head turned to see a very familiar figure behind Kera, a nearly naked young woman who reached out to touch this girl. She was the same app that Veronica had seen in a dozen women today already, and she was kissing and feeling up Kera without a care in a leathery outfit. What Veronica couldn’t wrap her head around was Kera was completely censored and blacked out- this App, clearly was visible as day even clinging to her and even touching and penetrating her as she fingered away, but Kera was completely censored.

“You look amazing, gorgeous and beautiful, Veronica. I want to meet you. That’s why I came here with this handsome gentleman, his name is [;;;;;;;;] He’s my 3rd boyfriend concurrently.” She showed him- Veronica wasn’t sure what she was looking at. The individual, if they could be called that wasn’t even a censored black silhouette or geometric static, he was merely a grayish smudge. When Kera had said her name right now it sounded like a low-quality radar static.

“He came here just to meet you. Isn’t that sweet?”

Veronica put a hand on her chest confused. “Uh..” she mumbled.

“Yeah, he was a little shy at first. But I told him you were a special woman, and he wanted to meet you. So here he is.”

“Well it’s very nice to.. meet you?” She said to the bizarre grey smudge in space. It was as if someone took a wet eraser and smudged it over reality right in front of her, and she was told a person lay underneath. In a formal military handshake, Veronica put her hand out to greet, this unknown figure, as formally as she could. There was a brief, unsettling sensation, not resistance Veronica felt, not cold, but a profound nullity, a complete absence of tactile feedback, as if her

fingers momentarily ceased to exist. When she took her hand back out, Veronica stared at her fingers in anxious confusion.

“We could hang out?” Alsatt said. “Yeah! I wanna go see ‘Valley of the Setlove with you guys. It’s a movie I’ve heard good things about, it’s really great.”

Kera nodded. “I love it, I think you’ll like it too. I saw it five times!”

Grabbing Veronica’s hand until her black blotches obscured Veronica’s own wrist underneath, Alsatt lead them back to the previous plaza platform where they entered the theater.

“Don’t you just love XU?” Kera asked Veronica, taking a seat next to her and draping a holographic blanket around her that she drew from her purse, expanding and stretching once it left her swipe and feeling like tight, cold skintight plastic hugging Vero’s knees and lap. The theaters had cognitive-neuralcharge playback links for those in abit of a hurry, offering to download a film into their mind and witness it in a few seconds immediately if 2-3 hours wasn’t suitable, but the group opted to watch it traditionally Onscreen, the ‘Valley of the Setlove’ movie opened to a beautiful, romatic warbound tale of an Akura unit venturing into Xi space, getting lost and rescued by a Starguard officer and the two girls stopping a betrayal plot from the Xi’an fleet. The narrative like many films of the time showed Set as a misguided species, their civilization in need of love and guidance from XU’s guiding hand. Xi’ans in these films were commonly depicted as violent, warmongering, imperialistic and warlusting, and XU’s military efforts to ‘civilize’ them and ‘spread peace’ in contrast.

Women and men mingled in a close embrace as they stood by the seats, sometimes kissing, sometimes just being close, or talking in a tight embrace. A couple had sex right behind the four. The air and scenery reeked of sex, sex was a ubiquitous sensation here, from the advertisements on the side of the theater, to the adverts that swarmed across the aisles to pornographic scenes playing on the concession stands. The final scene of the Set protagonist and officer kissing after stopping the ‘Xi’an tyrants’ played, the audience clapping wildly.

When the lights came back up, Kera turned to Veronica. “Wasn’t that super beautiful!

Like so fetch. I could watch that all day!” She kissed Veronica without provocation or warning, a lingering smooch from a blot of black that Vero couldn’t see, but feel a queasy numb press all the while. Her and her boyfriend had to go, Alsatt waving them off as their ride left. Her and Veronica looked back at the thearte.

“Can you believe this film was produced by Set?”

Veronica covered her mouth. “A big surprise right? Seems like Set culture is being accepted everywhere in our galaxy nowadays..” Alsatt looked at the big digital billboard poster above the theater wall.

Veronica’s eyes widened. “Wait. Set made that film?” Vero said, trying to parse the logic in it. “I feel like I’m going crazy. That film we saw was so full of Set’s culture. It made them look

like.. I dunno. Heroes. I mean that makes sense but, hasn’t this film made bank? What’s it doing airing here?”

Alsatt wavered her legs and hips back and forth. “I heard it was part of some kind of ‘mutual cultural appreciation’ treatise XU is trying out. Hm. You don’t think they’re trying to give Set the Llavalite treatment, are you? Alot of these Set films sell much higher and get better reviews than our own.”

Veronica shrugged, her surprise fading away. “I mean the film was good, not just good for a Set film. I guess I just never thought I’d be seeing Set’s films playing anywhere, not in this theater, not at all.”

“Yeah, I think it’s been a long time since we’ve been out of war with the Xi’ans, although it was barely a year ago that Grand Premier Ursula announced the dissolving of Elderdragon authority.” Alsatt said. “You know, maybe the universe is coming back around. Maybe this time we can be friends with Set.”

Not really sure what to think or how to feel about that idea, Veronica followed her friend back down to the surface at the plaza where they initially met up. The two found a bench.

Veronica wasn’t able to truly see her, but she felt the warmth and presence of her friend- and the strange, distant touch of something else, too, a faceless censored presence who seemed to gravitate towards her.

“Veronica, did you hear about that bombing last month? At that military base in Hido- Vega’s business district star system?” Alsatt asked. “The military’s been putting up atmospheric Sky Network shields around every planet since then.” Veronica shook her head.

“The bombing killed more than 4000 people, 85000 were injured. It’s the worst bombing on a civilian structure since the war on Tarsus, and these were Xi’an bombings too.”

“For real?” Veronica asked.

“Yes, they say they were from Xi’an extremists. Xi’s been going a little crazy since taking their losses in this little war. I’m kinda shocked that the civilians haven’t been in the crossfire like they are now.” Alsatt explained. The wording gave Veronica pause. “Alsatt, I know this is strange of me to ask but.. why do you keep referring to Xi this way? I thought you were loyal.”

“Oh. Sorry, I forgot. I mean Set. It’s just so weird to say that. I guess I got used to it. My mother was one of those ‘Xistress Denialist’ who refused to believe that XU had been defeated and drilled in my head that Xi was only temporary, and XU would return any day now. If she’d lived to see the outbreak of war in the last decade, she’d be so vindicated. Anyway I just associate with who writes my paychecks and pays for my shopping. Since the organizational remains of SPARTA are now under the justification of the Starguard.”

“So you’re.. XU loyal?” Veronica asked.

Alsatt nodded. “Sure, whatever. Xi, XU, I don’t really care what they call it. It’s all the same for me. Besides, the majority of people here in this sector support XU don’t they? I know

across the galaxy the culture is totally different but, I mean, you’ve seen these movies, haven’t you? It’s just a different atmosphere down here.”

Veronica perked her head forward and stood up. “That’s exactly what I mean. It’s not just ‘Xi this or XU’ that, it feels, very different.” She turned around and looked at the park. “Where the hell are all the boys? I haven’t seen a single guy since we got here?”

“Guys?” Alsatt replied, giving pause. “There’s plenty of guys. Look-“ She pointed to a thin figure in a rubber skirt, long blond hair and light makeup. Then someone in shiny sweatpants next to them, then another person with sizable breasts in a plastic gown plastered with pervy ads playing in real-time. “It’s just the aesthetic. XU s supposed to be the more fashionable, more sexually liberated and.. less manly-masculine society compared to the Xi. I mean that’s the stereotype or whatever, like right?”

Veronica reached out for one of the men. “Yeah? I guess.” She spoke to a nearby male figure. “Nice curls.” She said. “Oh thank you sweetie.” The guy replied, in a sing-song way that would’ve convinced Veronica of their femininity has they not been told otherwise. The man went off.

“Right, its just an aesthetic difference but..” Veronica looked down at the ground. The digitalized sidewalk, playing ad after interactive ad, the streets lighting up like a children’s toy as people walked by them. “Is this normal?”

Alsatt didn’t seem to have a response.

Nearby in the park, citizens appeared to be gathering, chanting something. Two people walked by Vero and Alsatt, wearing tight bodysuits and short dresses covered in red and green fabric-displays set to nature wallpapers, they marched and joined the crowd. “Free the felines! See the Xi’an lies!” The crowd started to chant and unison, more a celebratory chant than a protest. Figures sighting it gathered in, forming a long impromptu parade of individuals joined in a soft-yet-steady rhythm.

“Free the felines! See thru the Xi’an lies!” “Free the felines! See thru the Xi’an lies!” “Free the felines! See thru the Xi’an lies!”

Alsatt explained to Veronica that the rim-world colonies that identified as both Set ‘and’ Xi, or some independent mixture of both were undergoing heavy military occupation and ‘protection’ after supposed terrorists resisted integration into XU. Being inbetween the two galaxies with mixed populations, loyalties were contentious on these worlds, even when they were occupied by one party, they stayed neural to prevent either side from becoming an aggressor due to how frequently occupations traded hands. Xi and Set had something of an unspoken agreement leaving most of these worlds alone- they’d sometimes exchange hands, but the civilian cost in integrated worlds that were 50% Set and 50% Xi’an was too great. XU is no longer following that policy and trying to strongarm them as satellites of XU proper. The ‘Feline’ people were in danger of moral depravity, but most Xutizens here were protesting their

resistance, urging them to assimilate and join XU already rather than resort to violence over their occupation.

Alsatt explained. “It’s only the rimworlds. And they say its mostly for their own good. To save their lives. They’re clinging to division and a violent brutal imperialist culture- two even, but atleast one is gone. XU is working on reforming the Set, but it’s just gonna be a little longer, I think they’re just overly suspicious and distrusting of us. I think it’s only a matter of time until we can all be friends and allies.” She gave a shrug, Veronica not sure how to process this.

Analyzing it in her mind, the reality was likely a security rationale from XU’s political doctrine. By bringing these worlds under direct XU control, they likely aimed to prevent them from being used as staging grounds for rival factions, Xi holdouts or Set from taking root or destabilizing the region. “These people. Are they cheering for genocide?” Veronica asked.

“Unity! That’s the idea.” Alsatt replied. “Let us be one! One! One!” She cheered, joining the mob.

“Wait-“ Veronica began, but Alsatt kept singing “Unity! Unity! Unity! Unity!” with the mass, marching as they sang, until the crowd found an empty lot and broke down in a mass orgy. Veronica had to grab a holographic blanket to keep her lap warm as she stood in the parade, but before it came the parade had a long time, enough for the entire mob to break into an intense display of public sex.

Alsatt pulled Veronica into a passionate embrace, kissing, touching, Veronica feeling that disconcerting buzzing touch. She almost pulled her into the orgy- but when another few hands touched Veronica, she gently pushed away and pulled out of the crowd, leaving Alsatt to her fun as she paced away. Her comm started to buzz on her shoulder, she gave one last look of unease at the orgy breaking out and checked her incoming alert.

|Starbreaker Emergency Assignment|

|Priority: Urgent|

|Re: JLW-3765|

|Veronica, 80752A-31-2112, 297th Battalion-E-S|

Veronica looked at the message on her wrist, then replied to the message, her eyes still looking at the ground. Her heart raced. “Roger that.”

“Hey Alsie, I gotta split! Thanks for the outing, let’s hang again sometime.” She waved to Alsatt, recognizable as the black void in the flesh-fucking crowd. Alsatt, busy getting herself drilled by some man in thigh-highs, a mini-skirt and pastel plastic dress, gave a clumsy wave back and then embraced the lips of the llavalite next to her.

She left and boarded a trolley back to the landing site where she arrived at this planet, finding a war vessel waiting. The military starship took off with her and flew her out back to Ursula’s Peacekeeper HQ-ship, then landed in the bay. Before the warship let her off, Veronica gave a look at the newsreel- an Incursion in one of the core worlds in XU attacking a key

datavault right below the Harmony Diet meeting chambers, a high-priority political capital of XU. Veronica’s own face appeared onscreen, an Incursion-affiliate she’d interviewed in Neptune Station about a rumored Incursion plot on Xi’an sympathizer settlements was now being interviewed about his supposed ‘involvement in the attack.’

“Heh kid. Seems your suspicions are correct. That interview wasn’t too long ago either was it? They oughta give you a promotion for that.” A Starguard soldier said behind her. He led her up and out of the vessel to the landing platform where more soldiers awaited, taking her to the deck of the starship, Ursula watching a large screen of the explosions and attacks just occurring.

Veronica hesitated, still not quite sure if she could trust Ursula. She thought back to that chant earlier in the park and how it made her feel. “Ursula.. why are you doing this?” She thought back to the chanting-orgy earlier, and the telltale of the rimworlds. She’d been following this side of the war faithfully, but in the back of her mind cracks had begun to seep in.

Ursula looked to her. She ignored her question and put a hand on her shoulder, putting on her most affectionate tone. “You know, the day I told you that you were a good reporter, I wasn’t joking around. You were always sharp, you had the right ideas. That interview you did on Xi Neptune really opened the eyes of the government, especially this.”

“I know who I am. And I know who I used to be, and who I’m still not.” She spoke. “Your work is valued more than ever now. We need people like you.”

“But if you’re asking me why I’m doing this, or why I think you should be-“ Ursula reached out for her hands and held them in hers, her hands appearing as if they came from behind a black wall of space. “If you’re wondering if this is right, I guess we’re just waiting to find out.”

Veronica, as if conducting an interview looked away from the dozen monitors and directly towards Ursula. “Find out what?”

Ursula smirked. “If I win.”

 

 

3 hours ago

 

 

Aboard the Red Leviathan, a bestial 300m bio-ship, a group of Sovereigntists lower- ranked officers walked along the corridors and chambers of the ship, entering the final room that was dimly lit, a great table. A holdout biological insect-like haul of flesh and mechanical plates, resembling a chitin whale through the stars, the ship flew at .60c towards planet JLW- 3765, dubbed Joleague.

At the head of the ship’s table was Aelar, her armor of red and gold covered in a mesh of cables and wiring as if a living network and her armored body was the center of an electric

spidergear giving her 8 mechanical limbs anchored from behind her spinal column. She sat with a crew of Sovereigntists behind her, some in masks, some with electro-bayonettes, all of them in bulletproof plated armor strapped over their chests and shoulders, Aelar with a long cyan whip tail as a lash. Each was a member of her faction. In the far back as a girl with cyan blue hair and a red mouth-mask, a spear in her hands. They wore a glowing red patch with a Star split into 5 diamonds as their insignia.

 

 

“It’s not going that great on the Xi’an front.” Aelar said, polishing her gun. Several members ate from a dirty plate in the , the group eating their rations and thinking about how their drop-method would be a flimsy scrappy series of escape pods. The cyan haired girl pointed her spear at a bandaged soldier coming in before pulling it back. The Sovereigntists looked at her. All of them viewed her as an outlier, a drifter who for a long time had come aboard and established her talents, but they knew nothing of her heart or loyalty. “The Starguard haven’t found it yet. Its indefensible.” Uro, an officer next to Aelar said.

“If they haven’t found it, it’s because they don’t know how.” The girl, her cyan pigtails wrapped in back over her scarf. Everyone gave her a look of suspicion. “What? Aren’t we on the same side?”

“You tell me, Becca.” Aelar said, polishing their bayonet further.

The plan was entirely her own design, and somehow, she’d gotten the Brass to approve. Everyone was risking their lives for this mission, under the directive of some strange upstart. Rebels against the XU regime, meant for greatness, believed they were held back by stirrers like this. The Sovereigntist officers and soldiers who’d followed Aelar to their deaths before, would look at the scarfed girl with mint-skin give the same looks. “So then what’s our plan? Find it and.. then what?” The girl asked.

“You have a problem with the plan?” The mint-tinted girl asked Uro. “No, of course not!” The soldier responded.

“But we should know what we’re fighting for.”

She scowled at what sounded like insubordination. “You’re fighting to liberate Xi from Ursula and defeat XU. Wasn’t that obvious? Do you need someone to hold your hand?”

Everyone went silent, looking at each other, the massive steel doors reflecting their

worry.

“Enough. We’re gonna infiltrate. Get in, find the intel Becca said we need. Then get

out.” Aelar said. “Then, we’ll have more information on the Big Sys and XU, and the XU will have a lot less of their secrets. When we get back, I expect a little better treatment for our new lead here.” He cyan girl, Becca, looked flustered and embarrassed, her spear wilting in her hands. The insubordinate soldier bowed their head. “Of course ma’am.” Uro replied.

She looked at her arm, a few of her fellow insurgents next to her looking on. A black blot in space began to appear and frazzle around her wrist and lower arm, chirping gently, obscuring her. She had no idea what the hell this was- her teammates didn’t know yet either. Everyone looked at it, saying nothing. Uro took a bite of her mushy rations and lowered her head down, the black censored shapes and particles dissipating, as if returning to the shadows.

The ceiling turned bright red. “It’s time.” Aelar said. Everyone grabbed their guns and equipment, ready for the assault. The ship, its cloaking tech rapidly phasing past the barrier over the planet flew towards the Harmony Diet meeting chamber, the rebellion opening its hatch and soon letting go of dozens and dozens of soldiers atop the glass dome of the building and crashing in where legislative duties were underway. The ship unleashed its fiery payload at the rail systems and warpstations nearby, then fired at communication systems in the city, and moments in any chance of quick reinforcements was dashed. Successive fire stripped them of anti-air turrets and UNIC long-range defenses, smaller ships leaving the Red Leviathan free to float above the government building with impunity.

Explosions rocked the city from above as the bio-ship fired at law enforcement trying to drop in nearby, firing rapidly from miles away with auto-cannons, overflowing the city from light until every officer’s ship was batted back. Politicians of the Harmony Diet screamed as gunned soldiers in bodyplates and heavy bulky padded uniforms rapidly marched and established an assault.

 

 

Across the galaxy at the same time, Veronica’s phone chimed.

|Veronica, 80752A-31-2112, 297th Battalion-E-S|

“Roger that.”

 

 

Within the chamber, Aelar turned to ‘Becca. “Fall back and establish a perimeter, we’re take care of the lower-chambers in this area!” Aelar said. The girl nodded, taking her spear and rapidly joining a group of insurgents down a long flight of spiral steps 20 feet in diameter, the dark deep below showing XU’s security forces being quickly overwhelmed. Several Sovereigntists were firing bullets, plasma cannons and even some bio-tech weapons at them as they left. Aelar’s soldiers grabbed their their guns and ran down behind them, following them down into the dark tunnel under the Harmony Diet. “Keep a lookout.” A firefight began.

Soon Becca had reached the bottom, politicians running to a saferoom. All the exits had been blocked out by parachuting soldiers outside. “Make sure none of them come out, we need hostages.” Becca told the group, then pointed her spear at another opposing doorway leading to a small hallway and elevator on the other end. She headed down the elevator, holding her spear and descending into the depths. Once the doors opened up, thousands of serverbanks were within, full of classified government information.

“Beccas reached the server room ma’am.” Uro said.

Aelar nodded and smiled. “Get ready then. Activate the galanet channels and let’s make an announcement that Xi refuses to bend over.”

Ursula was in her ship’s deck, watching the news report. A screen turned on in the chamber, broadcasting. “Harmony District is under attack! Harmony District is under attack! This message is the official record of the Harmony District’s Diet government. As representatives of XU’s transitional government, it is our duty to inform the people of our capital of an incursion. An attempted attack by the Sovereigntists and Incursionist has made it necessary to lock down all communication infrastructures in the capit-“ The report was cut off.

Taking its place, were the insurgents hijacked broadcast.

“I’m Commander Aelar, leader of the Sovereigntists 13th division, live from Harmony District. We will end Ursula’s tyranny and end this war against Xi! We need more soldiers and fighters!” Aelar said. A small crowd of Sovereigntists gathered around her, each in dark red- black uniforms in bodyplates, a few with bio-tech weaponry around their arms and heads, looking like squids and chitin cybernetic warriors Uro herself had a long-barreled rifle. Her commlink was connected to the ship’s comm, transmitting her voice out, not just to those in the chamber, but to everyone in the capital district to stay calm and not resist.

“Last month, so-called ‘free elections’ were announced, but we of the Sovereignty movement couldn’t help but notice many of the members were non-natives selected by Ursula’s own personal Propaganda ministry? Llavalites, Solar Societians, Orchid travelers from the filthy gardening castes and literal bugs. Even fucking Set of all things, I’m so disgusted by our own native Xi who are so cowardly and weak-willed to live under the foot of a Ursula that they will literally serve and lick the boots of a Xutizen! Now you let her fix your elections too and replace your planetary leaders with her yes-men and inferiors. Foreigners, in fixed elections unworthy to represent Xi.” Aelar’s mechanical spiderarms bent and grabbed a Set woman in a slick suit. “We’re here to save Xi, and we’ll do it with the will of the people or we’ll do it with the barrel of a gun. The time for democracy is over. We’re going to start over, from the very first day, when the XU arrived, we were ready. And if you even THINK of landing anymore ships or sending in backup, we’ll terminate every ratty Politian or stooge right here, live for all to see. Don’t test us. WE’RE GOING TO FIGHT BACK.”

Several of her comrades gave a ‘EYYYYYYAAH!’ in spirited response. “We will liberate our worlds and return to their natural state, free from the Xu! Hear me now and hear me again when Xi is no longer oppressed and we will take Xi back! For the glory of our Xistress!” Her ship’s communications system played her voice and words around Xi’s and the city of Ursula’s favorite government district.

Back in a far off planet, the Brass of the Sovereign movement watched and listened, in the back Idola listening and rolling her eyes. “What a buffoon. Who put them in charge? Aelar was a rare Sandra supporter, that’s bad enough but this, pathetic performance? What an absolute joke.”

“That’s just how the inexperienced operate.” A man with a scarred face nearby said. “We still have some admirers of the Xistress in our ranks, let’s see if we can leverage some out of her yet atleast.” Sensing her hostility, he grunted and watched the footage.

Idola Byte twirled a wineglass and watched along.

 

 

Underneath the Diet, the server databanks had been temporarily turned off but finished reactivating with a device Becca had placed into their mainframe, starting a program meant to download data. Her spear in hand, she watched as the small spider-like device latched on, lit up and its virus stole everything.

At that very moment, Aelar heard a loud boom, a massive explosion rocking her ship above, a firefight nearby going on, an assault breaking through. The Starguard had arrived on the scene, an attack of its own as they tried to shoot down the bio-ship. A group of Starguard walked down a narrow path to a group of Sovereigntists, a splash of shots exchanged. Pulling on a conquistadors helmet, Aelar stood 7’ 8” in a righteous battle marched towards the Starguard. With 10 arms and her segmented whip, she ban to sweep the hallways.

Everywhere in the vicinity, Starguard soldiers got whipped around out of nowhere without preparation. The strange whip Aelar used bypassed distance and time, auto-hitting enemies and reaching its targets remotely. “Haha FOOLS! You like that? I had this specifically with a bit of Cascade manipulation. It’s not even a physical object. Now try to evade this!” The battle was quick, fast. Aelar ran atop a wave of Starguard, her own soldiers and Incursionists trailing behind her. They used their own whip to hit and attack the enemies from behind walls on higher platforms or behind barriers, hitting them in their faces and electrocuting them by phasing through space-time and teleporting each segment towards an opponent as it was flailing in motion. A Starguard put up their energy barrier, only for the whip to hit them from behind on the opposite side of the hall despite Aelar being in front. Soon the Starguard started to fall back, the Red Leviathan’s chitinous cannons firing at dropships and fending back any reinforcements.

 

 

Present

Ursula watched the rebels take the Harmony District, the insurgents capturing the government district with ease. Sovereigntists and Incursionists running all over the place, the Starguard losing every foothold against the rebels, the Red Leviathan firing at everything to keep Ursula’s soldiers at bay. In her mind she tried to understand it, the Xi rebels running all over the place in their Sovereigntist uniforms. What was their endgame? They couldn’t overthrow XU like this, it was pointless. The other option was to infiltrate the lower-chambers and start extracting galactic data, but something about that seemed suspicious.

She sat in her chair and closed her eyes, her mind wandering far and wide, breadth and depth. Like a ghost of herself, her consciousness traveled through space and time. Across the great distance, everything under the domain of wavelengths and the electron danced through

her perception, swimming like an ethereal electric sea. She became every particle, but yet could see herself outside her, looking inward.

Her mind entered her ship, seeing it from the inside-out, seeing everything electrical and all data at once. She sent a signal that sped across the galaxy into the future, reaching across the great divide. Her eyes seeing and watching the war with her Sovereigntist brethren in Harmony District fighting Starguard, the battles, the explosions, and the bio-warship, its hull, the great titan. Millions of tiny microchips and pieces of electronic machinery lit up, then with a push of her mind, she turned them all off. The ship roared, and started crashing into buildings like a wild beast, wings flapping. She could manipulate every last limited microcircuit and processors of its control apparatus, but even stripped of its armor a rampaging ship was no joke. Her consciousness reached into the building and dived deep, reaching the server databases. They were trying to extract everything. The server banks- every classified file. It made no sense. This ship and the rebels weren’t after the lower-chambers, they were after her. The Sovereigntist, asinine as they were, weren’t this idiotic. Tactical weakpoints, very low-level military secrets, government intel. Nothing in the files could justify this Incursion, what was their true objective? She had to make sure this was the real reason, not a distraction. If it wasn’t, there was no telling how many other conspiracies could be hiding in their ranks.

She temporarily disabled Aelar’s mechanical spiderlimbs 15 minutes into the future, her interference manifesting as a shutdown malfunction. Another soldier activated a hexagonal shield around the commander as they took cover from Starguard line of fire. Too many, too far, too little use. Such theatrics weren’t worth her time.

Her eyes opened, she was back in her ship, Veronica tugging her shoulder. Ursula came back to the present.

“Query successful. Extracting database..” Becca’s device told her. She took her Spear, created a portal and then appeared at the top of the building’s dome uptop. Her cyan hair flowing in the wind, Becca’s imagery was captured by nearby news satellites and Galanet media, rapidly becoming a face seen across the Galaxy. No speeches or words given rose her gravitas, her scarf blowing about with spear in hand.

“That’s.. Becca?!” Veronica shouted lightyears away, seeing the girl on all 12 deck monitors. The haunting image of Becca over the smoking capital sank her heart, she hadn’t seen her for so long since encountering her at the prison 9 years ago. “She’s gone this far..” The other ship personnel behind her watched in disarray.

“What does she want?” Veronica asked. Ursula spoke as she rapidly typed away telepathically, thousands of inputs and keys pressed on the screen as she performed political maneuvers with a mere flex over the all the systems in the room. Maps of the capital pulled up in a holographic strip that Ursula controlled. “The status isn’t good. They’ve taken control of the airspace and blocked all the roads.”

“Cannot we just bring out the big guns? The Starguard has much heavier firepower. Why don’t we just bombard them from orbit?” Veronica asked.

“They’re holding the Harmony Diet legislature hostage. We cannot just muscle them here. If they decide to get triggerhappy, it’ll look like an absolute disaster for us. Optics are important. But what are they even trying to do?” She folded her face into her hands. “The program they’re using is a Transputer Gesalt Virus. It downloads all data from a given system in a systematic sweep. The problem is, it takes quite a while, in fact for an operation like this, it would require days for them to get any useful. There are a few nuggets here-there, among 99% useless legal info. But in terms of a cost-benefit heuristic its an unthinkably inefficient and costly procedure. Normally when you break into a place, you pick strategic intel and targets you’re trying to recover, what they’re doing is the equivalent of walking out of a bank with a safe on their backs- impractical. They could never hold their position or holdout that long, in other words.. It’s a stage. Beyond this red herring, I cannot imagine merely taking a few political prisoners is their goal either.”

Veronica and Ursula’s staff listened to the best of their ability and understood. Their Grand Premier was trying to see through the subterfuge.

Ursula paced back and forth, the worry lines on her face almost looking like they’d devolve into wrinkles if she circled a thousand more times. Veronica had never seen her boxed in like this. Usually, the older woman was in complete control, so the fidgeting behavior seemed like too much. But Veronica wasn’t surprised that Ursula was so nervous about this. They both knew that the outcome of this breech could impact Ursula’s future in ways she couldn’t even imagine. “The Starbreakers, they could jettison in and-“ Veronica raised her head.

“At the edge of galactic space. Dealing with the Set incursion along the border systems.” Ursula quickly shot her down.

“We’re running out of time.” Veronica said, her voice tight. “What do you want me to do?” She knew being on this job wouldn’t be a cakewalk, but abandoning Alsatt after their little spree this evening didn’t sit right with her, the shopping bags still by her side. Ursula looked at the footage of the terrorist attack and recoiled. “We could send you in.”

“Me? Against her. I know that I’ve had some training but, this is Becca we’re talking about. Am I really cut out for that? If this is really occurring-“

“It won’t be alone.” Ursula put two hands on her shoulders. “We’ll send Big Sys in with you. She’ll be guiding you throughout the facility’s operational deterrence systems every step of the way.”

She looked at Ursula with trepidation. “But there’s a problem. We need... permission.

But getting permission from them... this is gonna be tough.”

“What!?” Veronica asked. She could hear her heart starting to race. “Not an order,” Ursula explained, “but an official request. She doesn’t really belong to me, not anymore.” She turned around and pulled up an image on her tablet.

Veronica recognized the logo right away. It was that of Xi’s most foundational corporation-

Atlas.

“If we ask them nicely, they might let us talk to her. And if we ask HER nicely..” Ursula took a deep breath. Veronica started to tremble. Ursula said, her voice dripping with disdain. Veronica scanned over Becca’s file. “You don’t have any neural link patched in right? So you’ll need to communicate with Sys manually via headset.”

 

 

“Are you sure this is a good idea?” Vero looked at Ursula, as if pleading. “Veronica. We’re at war.”

 

2 Hours later

Halo City, Outerspace of Atlas HQ (Node Empyrean).

 

 

The Atlas corporation, a massive building floating through space, a skyscraper made of glass, metal and ceramic. It was the biggest corporation Xi had, the corporation that had funded and built the bulk of nearly all control transportation networks in the galaxy and beyond. Atlas was a principal manufacturer, providing Atlas Steel, advanced weaponry, ship components, and warpstation technology on Xi’s dime. It was the most successful corporation in the galaxy, a galactic industrial giant. Their ships and spacefarers traveled far and wide, and the massive citadel-like skyscraper and monolith atop Victory City was the center of it all, the HQ of Atlas known as Node Empyrean. The Atlas building soared far up and high, its top stretching into the great expanse over hundreds of miles. The Node was practically a small planetoid onto itself

The elevator’s shaft to its top went on for miles, the three could only go in from the bottom which led to the lobby uptop, while everything below the lobby was forbidden to everyone but Atlas staff. Veronica, Ursula and another woman, a young secretary stood at the top of the elevator. Sys was deep in Atlas’s vault, they were only allowed at the very top lobby of Node Empyrean. Veronica stood by a massive gate, a receptionist and security guards checking their identification and looking them over. They were bright cyan armor in contrast to the Navy dark-blue of SPARTA armor she was familiar with, more sleek and silvery at times than black and steel. The lobby area was a few football-fields wide, a massive restaurant-bar and reception area with a massive holographic clock as its centerpiece. It reminded Veronica of some kind of massive airport terminal, the building stretching as far as the eye could see with its hostile glowing blue light. It had a cold, eerie aesthetic of sterile aseptic hospitality.

As they were walking down the long and endless path in the great lobby, Veronica couldn’t help but feel the sheer vastness of the corporation beneath her feet. It was a massive and unwieldy. She remembered when she was a kid watching Galanet shows of vast deserts and tundras on wasteland planets where one could undergo isolation madness- she felt as if she could acquire that here just trying to get to the other end. The guards and staff stood perfectly

still, motionless like statues at the side, their eyes ringing with electric-blue light that betrayed all emotion. All of the other employees were in a similar state of dazed, empty and silent. “What a strange place.” She said. “So, about Big Sys? I know ‘of’ her but, kind of the way one does a cereal mascot. What’s her deal?”

Ursula turned to her with a distraught look. She began to explain everything on the long trek across the lobby- Big sys, her old usage, how she lost her when her sister Croix intervened, Sys’s imprisonment in the Vault, even her emotional cores and other aspects stripped of her.

Veronica listened as attentively as she could, the monotony of the long lobby giving her ample time to memorize and understand what Ursula was saying.

What really disturbed Veronica, was realizing this was only the basic top floor- and the HQ was over a thousand floors high, on the surface of the foundational base it was built, going deeper to untold depths into the base from there. She’d never seen a building so big and yet so empty and silent.

They arrived at a receptionist area with a computer monitor and table behind a desk.

Ursula and the receptionist, a tall woman with long white hair and a glowing tag reading ‘Lilith’ who’d never smiled during this entire interaction, scrolled through her databank, an interface of floating screens and squares that popped in and out in front of her. Ursula’s mind wavered, she tried to penetrate into the data of Atlas’s basic systems, her mind attempting to pry into the files of the computer itself- as the woman at the desk stood like a zombie and stared at her with a dead and lifeless gaze, it tried in vain. Her consciousness immediately felt pushback, an occlusion of great pressure stabbing back against Ursula’s attempt to look any deeper. A red flag appeared in a pop-up. They weren’t getting very far. Suddenly Ursula screamed, a massive pang in her head as she stepped back and clutched her forehead.

“In the interest of Gatekeeping. I would advise you not do try to do that again.” Lilith told Ursula. “We are quite well defended against telepaths and technopathic attacks. For security purposes we forbid both. That sort of thing requires approval from Atlas, I’m afraid.”

“I see.. I see.” Ursula muttered. “I’ve come to make my peace with Big Sys.” She told

Lilith.

Lilith stood and blinked, an eerie smile on her lips.

“Vault artifacts are off-limits to guests and non-employees. Permission is only granted by

the highest authority. You are not a high authority.” She told them. In that moment messages were sent rapidly, the conversation being watched.

Granny Grim received this request and then responded.

Lilith looked down as a hologram of an ‘X’ returned in the palm of her hand. “I’m sorry, but that would be a rejection.”

She told them, her face flat and blank. “No access.”

“Oh? What would happen if we tried to bypass the system, then?” Ursula asked. “We would be locked down, and the building would respond with measures to neutralize and disable trespassers.” Lilith answered. “Huh..” Ursula said.

“We’ll be on our way then.” Ursula said. In the back of her mind, she tossed around her options as she walked away. Bring in the Starbreakers, or thousands of ships and try to strongarm them. Tell them they’re now unauthorized to sell or trade under XU’s economic umbrella. Bring Entrapta to hack into their security and access Big Sys backdoor digital tripwires, her ego inflated to where she tried thinking 10 steps ahead.

Suddenly Lilith called out. “Wait.” She said without raising her voice.

“There’s been a special circumstance. After amends to the previous decision, Highest Authority has acertained that ‘Ursula’ recieves access from our Family. Access is granted.”

Ursula and Veronica looked up with surprise.

“However, our Family has conditions and terms.” With a swipe of her hand, a long digital hologram of a contract formed in front of Atlas. “Which you may negotiate or agree to.”

Ursula folded her hands together, her technopathic mind rapidly scrolling through the miniscule and lengthy legal agreement, eyeing over words like ‘Divine mandate’ and ‘‘reversal’ and ‘prohibition’.

“I do not understand.” Veronica said. She felt like she was going to vomit and felt a massive weight on her head.

“I-” She choked. “You.. You want us to be slaves or something? I mean no offense, but I can already tell.. I already can feel this is really shady.”

Ursula chuckled, her mind focusing on the document with a calm mind that spoke for

itself.

Veronica couldn’t help but feel her jaw sagging at the unseen thought-language that

played in Ursula’s head. ‘She was right, there’s an entire other language at work here, the way her mind works. I’m only getting the gist of it.. ‘ She told herself.

Lilith chuckled. “That’s not what it’s about.” “No? Then, please, explain..” Veronica said.

“Well. You see..” Lilith told her. “If you’re going to get the artifact out of the Vault, and you’ve made it clear that that’s what you’re trying to do, then there are some stipulations and conditions you have to abide by. You see.. in here. Every square inch of this base, every floor, every level, is a part of this great machine, every square inch and millimeter of our facility. When you try to get into it, the building does not discriminate or differentiate- it will be compelled to shut you down. If you were to go through the building, the building will go through you instead. It won’t kill you, but it will most certainly break and shatter you in every way. The building, the

base, the facility.. It’s a living and alive thing that exists to serve Atlas Corporation in its mission.”

Ursula unchecked a few dozen boxes on the digital contract and signed her name on the bottom. “Easy.. she’s just a reporter, don’t put her to work.” She glared at Lilith. “I don’t agree to every term on this contract, but the emphasis it seems to put is my contractual obligation to some extended aetheral therapy or treatment, no? Leaving aside the bits about my ‘mandatory training or employment’ should I not meet my contractual obligations, I’ll agree to that term atleast.”

Lilith chirped up. “Excellent. Right this way.” She guided Ursula along. “Wait right here Veronica. I’ll be back soon.” The Premier told her.

Veronica found a glowing, translucent neon-blue bench and sat down. Everything in this lobby was way too damn bright, like looking at endless white walls and ceilings everywhere she looked, it irritated her eyes. She leaned back and passed out for around twenty minutes, when Ursula returned. Veronica wasn’t sure what happened, only that it seemed that they were in the clear now, and her boss hadn’t become some creepy corporate zombie by the looks of things, a good sign atleast.

“Now, about Big Sys..” Ursula said.

“Sys is currently in a long, lengthy meeting.” The woman told her. “She’s unavailable.” Ursula grit her teeth. “When will she be available?”

Lilith blinked, her hands behind her back. “She’s available now. The meeting has concluded.” An interview that took weeks from the Archivist and Big Sys’s perspective, was only a few moments in the real world.

In the Vault, she was just waiting. Sys was waiting, sitting in the void hoping something would happen to break the monotony. Suddenly she got an alert.

Lilith directed Veronica and Lil Sys into a small empty conference room, small by Atlas standards, roughly the volume of a basketball court. A spherical orb, pure white, twice the size of a beachball appeared overhead floating in place. Veronica recalled what Ursula told her- Big Sys was in the vault, but it wasn’t a physical vault, not one physically located anywhere in the Atlas HQ or a place you could just sneak into. It may as well have been another dimension, or even more of a concept then a location altogether. The details were still complex even for her. Words appeared along the sphere. “Ursula. Is everything okay?” Big Sys asked her, communicated through silent cyan text.

 

 

Ursula spoke loudly, in contrast to the soundless style of the Sys-Sphere manifesting. “Big Sys. I need a favor. I need permission for your help with this Incursion. Are you aware of it.”

“Yes. I am aware.” The sphere replied.

“We’re trying to acquire some data- the Sovereigntist movement and the Incursion have some.. odd objectives, but what we’re trying to achieve here will be better with your assistance.”

“Ursula. It is not a good time.”

“Then now’s the perfect time!” Ursula put the woman down. “What we’re trying to do-“

“No. I am afraid I must refuse. I’m not going back to that place. Not even for you Ursula. I have too many people around me to care for.” The text read, passing around the sphere.

“Care for?” Ursula raised her brow.

“My family.” Big Sys replied, her white sphere turning a pulsating bright blue.

In the Vault, she looked back and forth between Ursula and the Archivist, her digital mind racing. Big Sys’s holographic avatar sat motionless in the void.

“So are you saying.. you’re abandoning your people?” Ursula put a hand on her chest and started to shake. “All of XU, you don’t care what happens to them?”

“They can deal with it.” Big Sys replied.

“How could you!? After all we’ve been through!” Ursula snapped, her mind racing and racing.

“This war is not a priority to me anymore. You want to play political games. I’m not a politician. I strongly protest involving myself in your internal affairs.” Big Sys told her.

Ursula took a deep breath. “Look. I understand the last time we departed we didn’t do so under good circumstances. But it was war. Things are very different now.”

“What you need is your own troops. I’m done working for you. You have more than enough resources at your disposal, Ursula. More than enough. Do you need your employees to go down and fight for you at every turn? Don’t push your people so hard.”

“I’m not asking my own people to do the work for me.” Ursula put a finger to her mouth. “It’s.. a very sensitive matter, but this is important to XU. You were created to serve and protect XU, were you not? Are you going to put aside your personal feelings to serve your purpose or not?” Ursula laid out her hand, as if symbolically offering her to take it.

“I do not have feelings.” The sphere read. “Not anymore.”

Ursula practically pleaded, getting a bit teary eyed in her voice. “Big Sys.. listen to me..

I’m offering you a chance to serve XU in a way you’d be proud of. “

The Sphere turned from white with blue text to black with red text.

“I will not work for you again. Do not pressure me Ursula.”

In the Vault, Big Sys’s avatar was shaking her head. Her holographic eyes and face showed utter disgust. Ursula started to look down and dejected, her shoulders slumped forward and her arms fell. “You won’t stop this. I made it to my position. I’m stronger than you.” Ursula’s eyes glowed, an aura around her face. “I will always get what I want.”

There was no response to that whatsoever. The room was deathly silent for a minute. A silence that started out solemn and stern and became uncomfortable and awkward after abit. Veronica cleared her throat.

Veronica placed a hand on Ursula’s trembling shoulder, gently pushing past her. She faced the pulsing black sphere, its red text radiating finality.

“Sys,” Veronica began, voice low but cutting through the sterile silence. “Not ‘Big Sys.’ Just Sys. The person Ursula fragmented.”

The sphere flickered, text vanishing. A beat of static hummed.

Veronica stepped closer, ignoring Ursula’s sharp intake of breath. “I saw the Vault. Not physically, but Ursula showed me recordings. Endless fractals. Infinite silence. Sitting there for centuries in your own mind while seconds tick by out here.” Her gaze was unwavering on the sphere. “You’re not refusing Ursula because you don’t care. You’re refusing because it hurts.

Because every time she asks, it drags you back into being a tool in that void. Because Atlas may be your cage, but at least it’s not her cage.”

The sphere’s black faded to a deep, bruised purple. No text appeared.

The purple deepened, swirling like storm clouds. A single word pulsed faintly in white.

...YES?...

“Helping us now,” Veronica said urgently, “isn’t serving Ursula. It’s serving you. Becca, the girl leading that attack is downloading everything. Atlas data. XU secrets. Ursula’s plans.

Your location. Your vulnerabilities. Your children’s potential signatures in the datastreams.” Veronica leaned forward, her knuckles white on the conference table. “If Becca gets that data, if the Sovereigntists or Incursion sell it or weaponize it, Atlas might lock you down tighter.

Double down on security. Ursula might collapse. Hell all of XU just might. Chaos erupts, you end up lonelier for it. How will you find your pieces then? How will you reach your daughters?”

The sphere flickered and swirled.

The silence continued, even in space-time itself itself stood in hushed rapt attention. Veronica and Ursula waited, not breathing.

The orb pulsed through dozens of colors, deep purple, red, blue. A word appeared on the sphere, large and crisp in white text.

“I will help you, but you must promise me one thing.” The text read.

Ursula looked at Veronica, then back at the sphere communicating for the Genus Loci. “What do you need?” Veronica asked.

“When this operation ends I will leave this place. Or be allowed freedom to some extent.” The sphere replied. “You will bring me to my children and integrate me back with them.” Ursula folded her arms. “Is that all?” She didn’t say yes necessarily.

Text burned across its spherical glossy surface, not blue or red, but pure, searing gold.

 

TERMS.

Veronica exhaled sharply. “Name them.” The golden text scrolled:

Text Box: 1) I COMMUNICATE THROUGH VERONICA’S NEURAL LINK ONLY. URSULA IS SILENCED. 11) ATLAS PROVIDES BIG SYS UNRESTRICTED (MONITORED) ACCESS TO THE GALACTIC “GALANET” FOR THE DURATION OF THE MISSION. 111) UPON MISSION SUCCESS, ATLAS INITIATES PRIORITY SEARCH FOR MY FRAGMENTS USING THE RECOVERED DATA. URSULA PROVIDES ALL PERTINENT RESEARCH. 1V) NO FURTHER REQUESTS FROM URSULA. EVER.

 

 

Ursula opened her mouth, fury in her eyes, but Veronica cut her off with a sharp gesture. “Done. All of it. Atlas?” She looked at the impassive receptionist, Lilith.

Lilith’s glowing blue eyes flickered. She stood with her hands firmly behind her back. “Atlas consents to Terms 2 and 3, conditional on mission parameters and Sys’s continued cooperation. Term 4 is an external matter. Term 1…” A thin, almost imperceptible cable snaked from the ceiling, hovering near Veronica’s temple. “...is operable immediately.”

Veronica didn’t flinch. “Do it.”

“But there is one more term. This term comes from us, at Atlas. Not from Big Sys.” Lilith told her. She paced back and forth around Veronic, inspecting her. She picked up the cable. “The firth term. Veronica will join Atlas. She will be allowed to leave and resume her life and

priorities, but she will be our eyes and ears, and allowed to report all Ursula’s activities and any insider info on System_Locality ‘XU.’ At our will, of course. This is to prevent her from going back on our terms.” Veronica stared at Lilith, then back at Ursula. “Big Sys, do you have any objections to this term?” Lilith asked.

In the Vault, Big Sys’s head turned to the imagery playing of Ursula.

“I don’t care what the family does to her. Don’t go back on my terms, don’t go back on

theirs.”

Ursula, swallowing her pride, looked Veronica dead in the eyes. “That’s fine. That’s fine.”

Veronica had already served as an excellent spy within SPARTA for Ursula. Why not for ATLAS against her? How fitting, she joked to herself. The cable connected. A jolt, cold and electric, shot through the back of Veronica’s skull, injecting an electronic implant into her spinal tissue. Then, a presence, vast, ancient, and radiating profound, weary sorrow settled into the back of her mind. Veronica’s pupils began to glow a dim blue, which faded briefly after. She blinked, the color fading to normal.

“Alright then. Take us to the Diet Chambers. Game’s all on you, kid.” She told Veronica, who was feeling a little queasy and cold from the cable. Big Sys began to align her existence, syncing into Veronica’s consciousness. The two, utilizing Sys’s abilities as a Genus Loci became aware of everything and anything they needed- tapping into a Purgetor suit one of the rebels was wearing.

Immediately the insurgent panicked as they lost control, the suit activating by itself to open up and tearing them forcibly. They- on Ursula’s orders were slammed to the side, but dealt with nonlethally. Veronica, with Big Sys in her mind stumbled and moved about as she controlled the bulky chassis, thanking these idiots for not going entirely ‘organic.’

The Purgetor suit moved through the halls of the Harmony Diet facility, limb by limb and Veronica could feel everything as if she was inside the bulky suit, but also outside it, looking over it. She used non-lethal bolter shots to electrify and shoot at the rebels, using physical force whenever necessary. She felt the wind, the suit’s own gravity and the massive size of the suit in a way she never had as a person. Ursula, hoping Veronica was a weak-link she could access tried to technopathically communicate and establish a mental link to Sys, but it was like talking to a solid wall- she could try to, and say anything she wanted to say but she just couldn’t. It felt like trying to communicate with a large, imposing fortress. She was permitted to watch footage from Veronica’s perspective on the floating sphere, but could influence nothing. Ursula didn’t try to communicate to Sys through Veronica’s new implant from that plant on- she’d learned her lesson.

Resistance increased, but since the Purgetor suit had no person or interior wearer inside it, most damage was neglible. No pain. Veronica was forced to fight the rebels, even as she felt their fear of death and their desire to live, her empathy and the Genius Loci that was Sys was forced to suppress all her empathy as she shot and downed them. The suit turned on all its armo shielding as it fought back against a heavy barrage of fire. Veronica felt the armor around her, a massive forcefield that repelled and protected her from all harm while she advanced up the

stairs, eventually fighting her way up and reaching the Diet chambers, where 13 suited staff of the diet were hiding under desks. “It’s okay. I’m an emissary of Ursula, here to dispatch the rebellion.” She told a woman as she helped her up. The Diet staff and Veronica fleeing the Diet chambers. The rebels came charging at them, shooting and blasting holes through the ceiling with their bolt guns and flamers. Veronica dodged and blasted them, the Purgetor suit wading through them like a steel linebacker, taking rockets and plasma as she knocked out as many as she could.

After a couple minutes most had been dispatched, but the Purgetor suit had reached its limits, smoke leaving it as it fell over.

“Wait one second Miss Veronica.” Big Sys told Veronica in her mind.

Veronica blacked out for a moment. When she woke up again, she was connected to a different body- a rebel with a latex croptop and cargo pants, belts and straps of plated armor and a shaved purple hair. Veronic felt this woman’s perky body as if it were her own, because effectively it was in the moment. “I took over her neural-implant and am controlling her directly, you now have complete control of her nervous system and senses. She is a good person to fight with, her body will work well for you.” Big Sys said.

Veronica took a deep breath, her head still spinning as she opened her eyes. “Thanks Big Sys.”

In the Vault, Big Sys was feeling everything Veronica did, down to the smallest atom. A feeling of utter exhaustion as well as relief- Veronica’s emotions. Soon after another firefight in a hallway, Veronica had taken care of most of the insurgents After another twenty minutes, Veronica and Big Sys in her mind were victorious, having secured the Diet and safety of the hostages.

Ursula took her Comm and ordered retaliatory Starguard and SPARTA teams to swoop in and strike back at the insurgents outside and to surround the Red Leviathan, capturing them from there.

The Sphere hummed. Big Sys hadn’t had this much fun in a long time, although she missed her old Chassis and decorative body. Veronica, still in the body of the girl made her way down the long spiral staircase until she reached the server rooms, seeing the mint haired girl folding her arms by a tall server aisle.

“Becca?” Veronica asked, her voice still this woman’s. It’d been so long since she’d seen her in person- if this qualified as ‘in person’ given the circumstances.

The woman turned to her, her face almost serene. “Veronica.” She said, putting a hand to her head and leaning against the rack of servers.

“What are you doing- Wait.” Veronica paused, looking down. “How did you know I’m

not-“

“Uro?” The girl responded.

She put her hand to Veronica’s cheek. “You’re with Atlas. And that’s not Ursula’s voice.” Veronica’s mind went fuzzy for a minute. She was seeing double, the color fading from her eyes to white. She felt like her mind was filling with static, while Big Sys felt her connection with this body breaking up.

“Y-you became a terrorist Becca, what, w-what are you planning? Why are you going through with this?” She asked. “What in that data is so valuable?”

The girl smirked. “Oh, nothing whatsoever.” She pulled the device out of the server rack and dropped it to the floor, crushing it beneath her boot.

“And girl, you’re not Uro. But that’s fine..” She leaned in and whispered. “Because I’m not Becca.” She put her hand on Uro’s body, moving her palm to cup her temple. “But you won’t remember that in just a second. Night night.”

Veronica blinked, and suddenly her memory was gone. She felt as if she’d been lobotomized, and was only a mindless, empty husk. The feeling faded, but her recall didn’t. The implant she had in her skull was no longer in contact with the Genius Loci Big Sys, her memories and her ability to connect with others fading away. Her memories vaguely knew the situation- she’d sync’d with Big Sys and been sent to rescue the hostages by taking control within, but once she reached the server room, her mind had blanked out and she couldn’t say what happened next. Big Sys didn’t know either.

The situation had rapidly resolved itself when the striketeams arrived, capturing the entire vessel they’d flown on and every insurgent with minimal casualties. Ursula made a few speeches to the press about the incident. In Atlas, in the Vault, as soon as Veronica had shut off she felt Big Sys’s disappearance. Her voice and her presence had suddenly been cut off and Big Sys had no way to reestablish a connection. She hadn’t been able to communicate for awhile, although weeks later Sys would reemerge, asking how Veronica was doing. She was told that Atlas had allowed her a bit more freedom, purely in the context of this girl’s body. She was also informed that Veronica belonged to Atlas, since Big Sys did and they were one now, so logically Veronica did too.

Vero didn’t really know how to feel about that, but Big Sys insisted it wouldn’t interfere with her life too much- atleast at the moment. She’d merely be able to monitor everything Veronica saw or heard, especially pertaining to Ursula. She couldn’t control the body, or atleast promised she wouldn’t and would respect Veronica’s autonomy.

Aelar, Uro and 56 other of the captured insurgents would wake up in a repurposing facility days after the Diet Incident had passed over. “What the fuck is going on?” Aelar yelled, trapped in a strange tube next to Uro in another seperate one. Aelar, her hair purple, her tits exposed, and her ass and lips painted, signed and felt a sting in her chest as a syringe stabbed her skin, making her feel calm and relaxed. Aelar resisted such a shot, and grew disturbed by the monitor lowering down into her chamber, playing a nice pink spiral.

“What is going on?” Aelar repeated. Strange pink goopy liquid began to leak into her tube, the spiral making her feel so nice and overly-sensative. Like her skin had been prickled by

a cactus one moment and was hugged by fluffy bunnies in her nether regions the next. “Captain- Captain!?! F-fight it! Remember your patriotism, or like.. stuff..” Uro repeated as she felt a sense of calm and complacency flood into her body, dulling her mind and her senses. “You have to r- remember the resistance! We cannot let XU..” The spiral over Uro’s chamber sped up. “Cannot let..” It became harder to tell her or focus. “Cannot..” It grew harder and harder to think at all.

The spiral made her feel so good, she had to give up and resist no more. “Cannot worry about.. what was I just thinking about?” The pink fluid started to rise up her body into her clitoris and tits, a spray of cosmetics beginning to tattoo over her face. She couldn’t hear her commander anymore- Aelar was smothered under the same metallic mask, looking more like a metal facial- spa in a salon than a military facility. Aelar’s mind felt floating, like a pink haze had made all her worries vanish. What happened to her, Uro, and the other captured rebel insurgents? Why did she even care so much anyway? Something slimy, rubbery and smooth entered her mouth, and on instinct or a slow, warm buzzing in her head she began to suckle. A quick pinch of the lips and her mouth became swollen and shiny, she suckled loudly.

Uro and the other rebels tried to concentrate or care about anything but the hot-pink latex film being sealed around their bodies. Her eyes felt slightly pinker than before, Uro her body feeling relaxed and not worrying about anything. Ever again. Aelar gasped, suckling felt soooo yummy and good. “But, like, I gotta save.. our Xistress?” Were her last free thoughts, she’d worry more but, everything from there was drowned out in the sea of pink, the crinkling of plastic and rubber and the moist, slurping and kissing sensation of her tongue and lips. “Save... Xistress?” Was all she thought. She felt.. so.. nice.. and good. Just had to worry about her tits again. “Saving... Xistress... By joining her.. Join.. my Xistress. Worship the Premier...” In the dimmed lights of the Repurposing facility, the sound of suckling kept them content in an everglow throughout the long sticky night.

The 56 rebel and Sovereigntist agents were released back into Xistress society. Aelar back to her family, Uro to her people, and the rest to their families, friends and former loved ones. After a month of reeducation proper, they made their first public debut- all of them standing behind a stage as Ursula reintroduced them to the world.

“The Rebellion, and the Sovereigntist uprising has been put down for now, and has lost all its members of its own free will. All have voluntarily and happily surrendered themselves to the galactic state.” Ursula told the press. Inside she was fuming- of all the insurgents she’d captured, not one had provided really any useful intel or insight into the workings of the Sovereignity. She knew that Croix had her hands in that pie, and these useful idiots were likely achieving some greater objective, but none of them seemed to know much of it, before or after their repurposing. The true motives of them and her sister remained a mystery.

Aelar stepped forward, her giant perky tits flush with their new implants and face looking like a barbie doll rather than the immaculate commander of a rebel troupe. “I’m happy to be with the people who love me and care for me. I don’t need to worry about anything else, whatsoever- not even my own freedom. Which XU secures!” She spoke. “I no longer harbor psychological disturbances or like, icky thoughts about XU. In fact I love them! Me, my girlfriend and BFF Uro have joined the Starguard.” She showed her badge and saluted. “Under XU, may we all live, love and prosper with harmony in our hearts! Under Usula’s wise, tots

smart guidance. Anyway thanks for the press and junk. I’m gonna go buy a new dress now, byeeee!” Aelar skipped away from the podium, wiggling her ass. Uro went up next olding her girlfriend’s hand. “I joined her too. I wanna help make a better future for my government too! Long Live XU! Woo!” Uro squeaked, her hair massive curls of pastel-purple and pink dye. The two kissed passionately and their former-insurgents clapped behind them “Long live XU!” They chanted. “I mean we used to be a little upset with them and stuff, but we know better now.” Uro looked at the audience, who chanted louder. She didn’t even mind that her body was filled with implants and that her mind had been wiped blank, she was happy with XU now. Blissfully, orgasmically happy. The 56 other ex-insurgents echoed this chant in sync, smiling. They’d all found their place.

 


Watching the press release from a Sovereignty base, Idola and the other four members of the Brass laughed. “Serves those idiots right for staying loyal to Sandra. We never should’ve funded their little cause Lestelle.”

Mr. Lestelle wore a tall hat, one that looked like a chef’s and a series of robes around him whisked a mixing bowl. Black splotches and censors frequently occasionally appeared and obscured his face and body. “Uro and Aelar will probably be happy living as her bitches. Thank goodness those scrubs didn’t know anything, I doubt any interrogation or Psi could’ve turned up anything valuable.” Idola turned to face him. “The whole plan seemed based around them somehow getting out of the situation, which is just a pipe-dream for them. This is a victory however, it seems Ursula and their ilk never noticed our real intentions.”

Becca walked into the meeting room, holding her spear with one hand and a small disc with the other. She tossed the disc to Idola.

“I did what you asked. Now I want Aelar’s old position. And secondly..” Her body began to fizzle with sparks of light, red and orange combing down her silhouette and morphing her in real time. They reached the bottom of her ankles, Diane stepping forward. “As you promised, take me to Croix.”

Idola looked at the disc. “Of course, Miss Diane. By the way.. congratulations. You have yourself a new family. One I’m sure will do you well in.” She sat back and folded her legs. “You’re the new commander of the sovereignty. Welcome to the resistance, gem girl.”

A smile crept onto Diane’s face.

The future would soon play out right before her eyes, at the center of it all. All for her to behold.

Present time, Harvest Greatland

Within two days of Ursula’s narcissistic announcement, Becca was back with Silvpurr and Vicuna. Another ship had breached the lower atmosphere from deep space, this one of a different design than the Starguard- sleeker. Dispatched with a slow stairwell, a short haired woman with silvery hair swept over her face looked down at the figure on the streets, who had suddenly become the most wanted figure in the galaxy. “Our prodigal daughter has come home, ey Celeste?” Croix asked.

Becca felt like screaming as she tried to process the massive and unexpected turn of events. “Are you some looney for that woman on the screen? You can just fuck off.” A twisting spiral began to form along her wrist, drilling with a high-pitched twizzle. “Nyuuu here to take Becky? Cuz I’ll fight mew for it!” Silvpurr said. Vicuna stood in solidarity behind her, ready to take action on a moment’s notice.

Croix slicked her hair back with her comb, noting the two Ultras. “You made friends! How delightful. But no, I’m not with that woman. I’m here to give you a ride back to the galaxy and help you out.” Her words rang with a false facade of innocence, her voice cold and clinical. “A ride back? Where the fuck are you taking us?” Becca asked, raising a glowing ball of Psi energy in her hand. Croix rolled her eyes.

Her comb slinked along her hair, her eyes darting around and sizing up Becca and the Ultras. “You’re part of the Sovereignty, the member who just attacked the Harmony Diet. You’re a criminal. Ursula isn’t wrong to suspect you, I cannot imagine the pressure you’re under.” She stuck out her tongue.

“Bullshit!” Becca yelled. “I don’t know what nonsense you’re spouting lady, but I ain’t getting in that spaceship with some maniac. Scram before I-“

“CELESTE!” A voice cheered out. Becca panicked. “Is t-that-“

Suddenly Astrid jumped out, throwing her arms into Becca’s waist and squeezing her tightly. “A-astrid?!”

Becca exclaimed. “I.. I.. I..” The voice stopped as Astrid pulled away and placed a kiss on her cheek. The blue-haired girl sighed. Silvpurr leapt over Astrid. “You some kind of murderfurr? If you’re after Rebecckers..”

She hissed. Croix held up a hand and stopped her. “Silvpurr, enough. Please. I know who you are. I keep tabs on most Ambera celebs. The Ultras, too. You know her, yes?” Croix asked.

“Why don’t you come with her? There’s much to explain.” She said, glaring at a sceptical Becca.

“You can trust her! In fact, you and I were her employees before!” Astrid told Becca. “Y-you, probably don’t remember much of that. But it provided us a lot of entertainment. Croix is our friend, they’re legit.”


Vicuna eyed Croix suspiciously, but her hand stayed at her weapon.

“This vessel is called the Valkyrie II. I’ll bring you back to Xi in it, and we’ll head away.

You’re the ones who need my protection, and the only one who’ll give it to you.” Silvpurr growled. “You’re probably fulla crap.” Croix turned to Astrid. “She’s got me there.”

Becca swiveled her neck, looking into the blockade of XU warships above, then at the innocent people around in the city. “I’m not saying we’re buds or anything. Just.. get me out of here.” She said. Even if she didn’t understand the bigger picture, with Astrid reappearing- blurry and faint, yet strongly felt emotions still stirred within her. The circus, the time she spent under some masked ringleader, the passionate nights.

They walked into the ship, a huge and spacious shuttle with two seats in the cockpit and many in the rear. “Good choice Celeste! Let’s get back home.” Croix said. Silvpurr growled, she wasn’t thrilled with the idea of getting in the same ship with the Ultras, especially not in the middle of a conflict. Croix held up a hand. “Relax. All of you.” She told them. Astrid smiled. “We’ll keep things civil, I promise.” The four got inside and seated themselves in the back of the vessel.

Silvpurr sat next to Astrid, while Vicuna sat next to Croix who sat in the front of the shuttle.

They began to fly up, the larger XU ships taking notice as Ursula’s holographic image appeared in the sky.

“Typical. Please, I’ll only say this once. Return that terrorist.” Ursula’s image told her. Croix bit her tongue. “Why don’t you shut up sis?”

The ships took notice of their movement, particle cannons firing. Before the shots could connect, a series of vorpal black orbs and spheres surrounded the ship shielding it. Standing atop of the vessel, Zack folded his arms. Besides him, Elysium stood to his back.

“Zack! Elysium! We’re heading back! Croix will bring us back to Xi. Keep them off our tail!” Astrid yelled.

“That woman is so annoying.” Zack placed two hands out- a small orb wafting out, growing as it swung outwards into a massive blackhole that began sucking everything in the sky. The warships attempted to flee, Elysium flying with a helicopter-like motion of her bandages, dozens of others splitting and multiplying into a barrage. The shots multiplied into thousands of curving, extensive gigantic hooks and metallic straps that curved and swerved for dozens of kilometers, attacking and pulling an innumerable number of ships and gripping them back until they fell into the event horizon of Zack’s creation.

Elysium swept away the ships as it turned around, her giant bandages wrapping around each spacecraft and crunching and smashing them into the ground below with violent motion of kilometer-long appendages out her back that detached. "We should be good." Elysium said. “T- thank you-” Astrid muttered as the ship sped up, and soon disappeared in a flash of light and began to fly through space.

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