Chapter 309 (2/2)

PRIORITY SYSTEM FILE TRANSFER: PRIMARY SOULNET PHASIC BUFFER SYSTEM

HING FOLLOWS---

>TELKAN GESTALT HAS ACCEPTED FILE (SYSTEM NON-REFUSABLE)

FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE

>AKLTAK GESTALT HAS ACCEPTED FILE (SYSTEM NON-REFUSABLE)

FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE

>TNVARU GESTALT HAS ACCEPTED FILE (SYSTEM NON-REFUSABLE)

FILE TRANSFER COMPLETE

TELKAN GESTALT HAS DISCONNECTED (LOST CONNECTION TO CLIENT)

AKLTAK GESTALT HAS DISCONNECTED (LOST CONNECTION TO CLIENT)

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

Urk.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS HAS JOINED THE CHAT

AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT HAS JOINED THE CHAT

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Oof. What is that?

I'm going to open it.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

I wouldn't.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

Too late.

By the Vat Grown Luke's beard...

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

What is it?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

It's... it's...

It's to filter out something called phasic echoes and phasic energy from data streams. It's the size of a BOLO tank.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

What's it for?

ARCHANGEL SYSTEM NOTIFICATION

ALL ARCHANGEL HASHES ARE OFFLINE

SALTED HASH CRECHE OFFLINE! PLEASE INFORM EMERGENCY CREWS

and why did we get it?

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

I have no idea...

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

Herod leaned back, looking at his handiwork and trying not to laugh.

If he started laughing he'd start screaming and his throat was already raw from that.

There were fuses on either side of the component Herod had replaced. The component had to be precisely manufactured, taking nearly an hour to print out through the strange matter creation engine, and was probably exceedingly expensive to create.

The fuses, finger thick coils of iridium wire, were intact.

Praise be to the Digital Omnimessiah that those fuses survived, Herod thought to himself.

He laughed, but managed not to go any further.

Wally leaned against him, playing a comforting little ditty. Herod put his arm around Wally and hugged him slightly.

”Fire it up,” Herod said.

”All right,” Sam-UL answered. ”How long do you suppose they've been running with this blown out?”

”From the evidence? This blew out during the Mantid Attack,” Herod said. He stood up and stretched, feeling the artificial muscle fibers uncramp.

He didn't ask why his robotic physical interaction frame now had artificial muscle fibers.

”All right. I've got it working. Ready to move to the next part?” Sam asked.

Herod nodded, closing his tool-tray and patting Wally. ”Ready.”

Herod followed Sam-UL's directions, a blue line in his vision, to the mag-lev tram station.

At least there weren't any Shades around.

Herod leaned back and closed his eyes. ”Where are we going next?”

”Gestalt Channel Switching Emergency Bussline,” Sam-UL said.

”Huh, might need that.” Herod said. He closed his eyes. ”I'm going to defrag and recompile. Mind running me a dream?”

”Can't do that. Want to hang out in one of the parks?” Sam said.

”Hit me,” Herod said.

The world dissolved.

--------------------

TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

I have no idea where this blueprint is from, to be honest.

---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

Maybe there's something going

EMERGENCY GESTALT CHANNELS ONLINE

on in Terra that

SCANNING CHANNELS

has to... what?

SCAN COMPLETE

ACTIVATING CHANNELS

TERRASOL HAS JOINED THE CHAT

Bring Task Force Starlight to 33.383 and have them go to rapid fire on all guns. These guys aren't going to surrender.

MANTID FREE WORLDS HAS JOINED THE CHAT

only a half a billion Lanaktallan prisoners.

RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT HAS JOINED THE CHAT

Try Doctor Gwarkarkawt's Foot Webbing Cream! Warm and tingly for all your webbing needs!

TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS HAS JOINED THE CHAT

The War Queen has announced that she will be turning over control of Smokey Cone to the Council of the Queens. In other news, Lanaktallan prisoners need your help! Pen pals, vid-chat buddies, and more! Donate grazing land today! Assist the victimized Lanaktallan in reentering society and culture with a small donation of fifty acres of grassland today and receive rewards! Contact your nearest War Matron!

DOKI! DOKI DOKI DOKI (DOKI)

DOKI!

---BEAUTY FOLLOWS---

...

...

...

CHAT RELEASED TO ALL MEMBERS

WARNING: LAG BETWEEN EMERGENCY MEMBERS AND NORMAL MEMBERS = 60X

TERRASOL

I think we need a roll call.

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