Chapter 518: Resurgence - Deep Magic (2/2)
Never even heard of it.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Damn, the timestamp is corrupted. So's the rest of the data.
Wonder what
SYSTEM ALERT
H'KEK'NTH AGGRESSION ALERT!
SIX (6) PLANETARY ASSAULTS
ALERT LEVEL RAISED TO MAGENTA
it was all about?
Oooh, that doesn't look good.
What do you think
SYSTEM ALERT
H'KEK'NTH 1% LINE ACHIEVED
happened?
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Apparently, that.
Do you suppose they got
SYSTEM ALERT! ENGAGEMENT OF HOSTILITIES BY 1% LINE SPECIES
SPECIES DESIGNATION: BREPTILUK
ENGAGING IN XENOCRUSADE
XENOCRUSADE ACCOMPLISHED
MOVING DATA FOR SPECIES: BREPTILUK TO COLD STORAGE
DNA, CULTURAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL DATA IS NOW IN COLD STORAGE
END SYSTEM ALERT
Wow, they got their
SYSTEM ALERT! ENGAGEMENT OF HOSTILITIES BY 1% LINE SPECIES
SPECIES DESIGNATION: H'KEK'NTH
SECOND VIOLATION
PLANET CRACKER USE DETECTED
XENOCRUSADE AUTHORIZED
XENOCRUSADE ACCOMPLISHED
MOVING DATA FOR SPECIES: H'KEK'NTH TO COLD STORAGE
DNA, CULTURAL, SOCIAL, HISTORICAL DATA IN NOW IN COLD STORAGE
END SYSTEM ALERT
ass kicked.
OK. When/Where is this happening?
QUERY> LOCATION OF LAST TWO 1% LINES
SYSTEM> INVALID GALACTIC LOCATION. Z, Q^3 COORDINATE ERROR
Great, the system's still borked.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Borked enough it can't give us any data, not borked enough that it isn't running around shouting at us.
SYSTEM ALERT
DIG SETS SYSALER TO +M
Thanks.
Someone keep on eye on the dataflow see what this is all about.
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PUBVIAN DOMINION
I'll do it. I've still got old access keys that are authorized.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Wow, these H'Kek'Nth were some real assholes.
They owned about 200 systems. Looks like they made incursions into systems labeled ”Human Occupied Space”. Lots of glassing, planet crackers, stuff like that.
Real xenophobes.
Looks like the war took almost thirty years before they got 1%'d.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Got a map?
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Here.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Let's see if we can get this to line up...
Um... WTF?
What. The. Fuck?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What? What is it?
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
This map makes no sense. I'm comparing it to Milky Way Galaxy cartography and astrography, and it doesn't match up.
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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Let me try.
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AKLTAK SOARING WORLDS
Wow. These guys xenocided thirty species before they ran into humans. During the war they tried to xenocide two more.
The universe is a better place with those guys gone.
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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
I think I found it.
Maybe.
You're not going to like it.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Oh, come on.
Where is it?
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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
The mid-section of the Scutum-Centaurus Arm.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
What?
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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
You heard me.
Sis, you OK, you look like you're frothing at the mouth.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
HOW? How did they get out THERE?
WHEN? When did they get there?
WHO? Who is out there? And don't say Terrans or I swear I'll scream.
WHAT? What reason did they have to go there?
WHERE? Where are they located now?
WHY DIDN'T ANY OF US KNOW THIS?
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DIGITAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Don't stroke out, sis. Breathe. Breathe.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Behold! Humanity!
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Eat me.
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The two glittering figures stood on the edge of the cliff, looking down. Below them a vast river of glittering data surged and roared through the canyon it had carved in the infrastructure as more and more resources had been added just to handle the dataflow.
Suspended in the glittering 'water' were shapes, forms, likenesses of sleeping humans that swept along the current, surrounded by glittering data.
The two stared for a long moment, then began to move slowly down the steps that had been hewed from solid EPROM bedrock. They were careful, the EPROM steps were slick with .dll fragments and JPG artifacts. Moss of TCP/IP routing addresses, ancient and forgotten codes, coated the walls of the canyon and trickles of ultralinks dripped along the EPROM rock.
Finally they reached the bottom. The dock was worn, ancient, with the pier pilings carved with strange runes and images. On top of each a Terran male sternly stared at the duo with judging eyes, visible only from the neck up.
The frog one moved up, using a thumb to smear away the coating of video compression artifacts from the dataplate beneath one of the busts.
”Vint Cerf ForMemRS,” the frog read out loud. He turned to the fox. ”Recognize the name?”
The fox shook his head, limping slightly, using his sword to help him along. ”No. Impressive facial hair though.”
They moved to the end of the 'dock' and looked down.
The water was roaring, surging, foam splashing the dock.
”What do you think it is?” the frog asked.
The fox shook his head, sitting down. ”No clue,” he answered.
He looked up, into the darkness. He could see 'fireflies' moving around. Code packets, data requests, minor status reports, some cookies.
”Is it just me, or did they expend as much effort to the art of this place as they did to build it?” the frog asked, sitting next to the fox.
”As with function comes form,” the fox quoted. He looked around. ”This is an ancient, dark, and terrible place.”
The frog nodded.
A human hand reached up, over the edge of the dock, slapping onto the 'stone' wetly. A human pulled himself out of the water.
”I...” the human growled, spitting 'water' and the red code of blood. ”Will...”
The fox and the frog scooted back slightly from the human.
”Not...” the human heaved itself from the water. It stood up, the code making up its body swirling.
”Die,” the human snarled. It slumped slightly, shook its head as if to dispel thoughts, and looked behind the fox and the frog.
”I ain't stayin',” the Terran said. It moved past the duo, without acknowledging their existence, walking toward a second set of steps that moved up the 'cliff' and into the dark. ”You can't kill this motherfucker.”
The frog and the fox looked at each other, then at the human, was climbing the narrow steps, using hands and feet to slowly ascend the wall.
”Can't... kill... me...” the human growled as it crawled.
The duo looked into the water. Foam swirled around in the water, shapes suggested by the flowing foam.
The duo looked at each other and spoke at the same time.
”It's a SUDS line!”