Luca DR
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Edge of apocalypse 110
🕑 Added 2023-08-18 12:15:50 +0000 UTC110 – Earth update
There was a device in the warehouse level of the Lair. An increasingly complex thing, made of magic and technology built according to some inscrutable blueprint, followed word for word at first, and then increasingly not anymore. It was the personal crown jewel for Samantha and a whole crew of engineers, even in its incomplete state.
The first step had been in the direction of a containment device. Yet, as weeks passed, things changed. The biggest change happened when the blueprints just stopped coming, following Albert’s departure and subsequent long absence. Without them the team just went on, and the device looked more and more like just a miniature version of something much bigger, like a simulacrum meant to not contain things inside of it rather to do something else entirely. Like an idol, or a totem, or a magical device which only bore slight resemblance to what it was meant to do, in a manner of symbolism.
An Ark.
***
Tryte turned out to be a fucking mess. By the time Samantha arrived on site with a crew of scientists and a full platoon of soldiers armed with the latest gadgets coming out of Site A, the Pylons had already come down, from the inside. The process revealed that what was supposed to be a radioactive wasteland had become a radioactive wasteland full of functioning and actually thriving Lithoid constructs.
Immediately, as the first pylon was destroyed, radiation spewed out of the exclusion zone and impacted the personal shields of the soldiers. Alongside it, a torrent of Alignment Energy also hit the shields of the soldiers with such power that they almost had to retreat there and then.
Fortunately they wore upgraded shields, less bulky and with better performance compared to the previous iteration, designed to allow them to fight in the harsh weather of the storm and to survive the radiation. Even with the added problem of Alignment Energy. They were not strong against hits, but they might still save a person once or twice should they get caught off guard.
“There’s nothing.” Samantha said. “Do a full scan, magic and EM spectrum.”
“On it.” Tech said. “There is movement, four hundred meters out. They are approaching.”
“Visibility is 5 meters, everyone.” Command yelled. He was a tough military guy pilfered from the Army and put under psionic oath, now in charge of the whole platoon. “Helmets on, full spectrum. Tight formation. Weapons ready.”
The soldiers fell into their places in unison.
Silence. Only the deafening sound of the storm, and the faint glow of the shields. Barely any light reached the ground from above, the yellow radioactive dust mixing with the hail blocking the sun away. Only the powerful beam of the electric lights behind the soldiers pierced the dark somewhat, but all that it showed was a flat field of mustard.
Through the helmets, however, it was another world. They were the latest addition to Site A’s growing arsenal, after a successful reverse engineer of a Perception wand. They were far from perfect, but allowed almost perfect sight even in these conditions, together with a sense of space, energy, and magic.
“200 meters.” Command said.
Samantha poked her head out of the armored van, while her other left hand still pointed at things for Tech to do on the console.
“100 meters before contact.”
She could see them, clear figures that ran and crawled and did all sorts of strange things in lieu of locomotion.
The shapes of the hulking stone constructs marching towards the perimeter of the fallen fence. Then the roar of weapons, the light of explosives and the yell of machine gun fire swallowed everything.
It wasn’t long before she heard the voice of Command again.
“We are losing ground, and fast.”
***
“It’s a computronium matrix.” The researcher said.
The air of the sterile lab was pungent with the smell of disinfectant, to make sure no organic matter ever touched the Egg.
“A what?” Samantha gasped.
“Computronium, a substrate made specifically to handle computations.”
“I know what computronium is. I was just surprised.” She said, composing herself. She was still shaking from last month’s failure on the field, especially every time she went close to Lithoid technology. But she could not show weakness. “Why would a tier one egg be a processor? What’s it for?”
“It’s too simple to do anything beyond basic programming. Unlike higher tier eggs.” Lloyd, who was also there to listen to the report, said. He was all bent and relied on a stick to walk, time not being kind to him. So far, no magic seemed to be able to reverse aging. “That tier 4 egg we have in containment, for instance, it’s been doing all sorts of strange stuff ever since we brought it there.”
“It’s intelligent.” Samantha said. She wore a red jacket, having ditched her dark clothes now that her status had changed. She was not an operative but a leader.
“And it’s trying to spread its power.” Lloyd said, now firmly in control of the conversation. What he lacked in physique he had in wits. “Fortunately it doesn’t quite run on mana like a dungeon core would, or we’d be in deep shit by now. It seems to be… starved of energy without an Alignment to power it.”
“Can we see what’s inside it?” Samantha asked.
“We have only managed to peer into the Tier one egg, and even then it took months of work. Right?”
“Yes, it’s correct.” The researcher said. “We expect it will take exponentially longer for each tier, even with our growing capabilities.”
“Okay, I understand that, but what did you actually see inside the tier one?” Samantha asked.
“Code.” Lloyd said. “A program written in a language we have never seen before. It was to be expected, of course. We cracked it, in the end. From what we managed to understand, Lithoids act as some sort of gestalt intelligence, made of autonomous nodes under the authority of a central intelligence. These eggs function as nodes, acting according to their directives even if they are disconnected from the gestalt.”
“Shit. And the directive?”
“Consume and grow at all costs.” The old man paused, struggling to remember something important. Then he smiled mischievously. “Ah, and eliminate the filthy organics.”
“Damn.”
“Damn indeed.” He said. “At least we now know what would happen if we let an event grow unchecked. Speaking of which, how is progress at the front?”
Samantha’s face darkened. She shook her head and did not speak. With a flick of his mind, Lloyd directed the query to the Lair itself, which replied through the speakers.
“It’s bad. We are being pushed back, and the thing is spreading.”
A floating panel filled with data appeared with a simple gesture. None of the present people appreciated the technology, however, for all of them were too busy looking through the screen to look at the screen.
“It seems to be working in a dungeon-like manner. Growing around the center of the alignment where the egg is hidden and protected. It’s building automata and structures to transport the alignment energy to the outskirts, where it builds fortifications and golems to push us even further back. We are even seeing signs of artificially induced alignments to gather even more energy, and we are expecting more eggs to be sent through soon, although of a lower tier than the central tier four.”
“Shit… the invasion has finally begun, hasn’t it?” Lloyd muttered.
A nod. Samantha had gathered herself. Took her long enough. “From what scant data we can gather through the raging storm… There is no trace of organic life there anymore. Everything in a 25-km radius around Tryte is Lithoid.”
“How fast is it growing?”
Samantha sighed. With a single look, she made the researcher leave the room. He was no liability thanks to the oath, of course, but both she and her father liked the sensation of privacy.
“The outer perimeter is pushing steadily at a rate of three kilometers per day, and gaining speed. We are sending everything we have, both from inside Transit and from our government sources to slow them down. Although the HDF is lobbying against us.”
Lloyd hummed. “They are completely gone. The HDF is Lithoid now.”
“It doesn’t matter. The only threat is SpaceOps. For all their lobbying, sooner or later the international community will recognize the threat and mount one final defense. We will have to be there and ready when it happens. If even that fails… The only thing left to do would be to use the Cutter and hope the Ark—”
“No.” Lloyd said sharply.
Samantha stared back, meeting the gaze. “Yes.”
The old man seemed to wither and deflate. “Another Erebus.”
“It’s inevitable. But it might save us.”
