: “Very well, with the White Company on board, I can tell you about my past. Long ago for me, but only a few cycles from Katherine’s present, the Aether Phantom Fleet will show up seemingly out of nowhere. They’ll blockade virtually every civilization in the galaxy, blocking all of sea, space and even planar travel and communications. We didn’t really realize how it easy we had it before with such open routes, but once they got cut off, life got a lot harder for everybody. And as far as I cared, all their raiding made them just glorified pirates so I dedicated my life to hunting them down, sinking them ship by ship if necessary. Not like there were any other pirates left in the galaxy at that point for me to go after, the Aether Phantom Fleet had obtained the full monopoly in piracy.”
:”I’ll spare you the details of our struggle and fights that lasted for many cycles, but eventually I managed to prove myself enough of a threat to force an engagement against the full might of the Aether Phantom Fleet in a single place where I may wipe them out for good. There were other people backing me up, but none of you. The Aether Phantom Fleet wouldn’t risk a direct engagement against our full might, so you had to be in other places of the galaxy for our plan to work. Plus my blades had proven particularly effective at cutting through their shields. You weren’t exactly idling either, there were still other problems, bloody revolutions and cults to deal with. I lost count of how many Aether Phantom Fleet ships I sunk that cycle, but when I finished the leftover debris could be seen from most planets in the galaxy. At some point they did try to sail away, but I hunted them all down. Some escaped to my eternal shame, but the plan had succeeded, there were too few left to pose a true threat to our universe anymore.”
:”However, looking back, the Aether Phantom Fleet could’ve caused a lot more damage than they did if they had just started directly bombing cities and colonies, but they seemed happy just striking military outposts and anybody trying to sail out. Everybody staying in their homes was relatively safe, at least from violent death, poverty and starvations were running ramapart. Sometimes I still wonder what the Aether Phantom Fleet’s plan was exactly. ”
:”But back then I had bigger things to worry about. Like Katherine had pushed my machine and body far past my limits. Never imagined one could feel so much pain, so much exhaustion. If I had succeeded in hunting down all of the Aether Phantom fleet ships maybe I would’ve just let myself go at that point, but my desire to finish the job kept Katherine’s failing systems, both flesh and metal working somehow. ”
:”Still me and my nanosuit were both wrecks barely able to move. All the Aether Phantom Fleet debris resulted in too much background radiation which I believer was the reason you didn’t rescue me and Katherine was declared missing in action. Much cycles later on I learned that Katherine was seen as a martyr and a new holyday declared in our honor that lasted to my day, but that’s getting a bit too ahead. I don’t know how long I drifted in space, but eventually somebody found me. Or something. Just recall a big ship approaching before passing out.”
:”Next thing I remember Katherine was in some big lab tube, being repaired. There were people observing me, taking recordings, discussing about my status, but all wearing suits and masks, wasn’t even sure if they were organics or androids. Kept me heavily drugged so I wouldn’t resist. When I got healthier and able to move again they had Katherine run combat tests, trying to get me to follow their orders whitout question.”
:”They’ve may’ve managed to brainwash Katherine, but then you came. Ammy and Hugo and Stephanie and Damarius and Nei and you succeeded in freeing me. But at a cost. They had planned for the chance my friends may find and try to rescue me and prepared contigencies. Specialized virus aiming at penetrating your defenses. When those didn’t seem to work, they prefered to blow themselves up along all their records rather than let any of them be captured so we never found out who exactly they were or their intentions. But they did last a last legacy. Ammy’s vírus had taken a hold after all and she was weakening fast.”
:”Maybe in a better time we could’ve found a way to heal her, but as I was released I found out the galaxy was in pretty big trouble. In the aftermath of the Aether Phantom Fleet, cultists quickly rose to fill the vacuum of power left, and a new Dark Force manifested, unleashing a new wave of destruction accross the galaxy. We were the only ones that could stop it that time. But there was a glimmer of hope, for Hugo and Stephanie devised a plan to seal it for good. However it would demand extra effort from us. Extra effort from Ammy when she needed to rest to heal. Katherine, I, we begged Ammy not to, that we could just beat Dark Force the normal way and somebody else worry about it a thousand years from now. Ammy… Ammy decided to go out fighting, sacrificing her life to stop Dark Force for eternity.”
:”Katherine wasn’t much better. I again had pushed myself far over my limits trying to do all the heavy lifting myself to spare Ammy the effort despite not having fully recovered yet. I was dying too then, but I knew I wasn’t going to see Ammy again in the other side, the combination of the virus and Dark Force’s attacks had consumed both her body and soul. Plus she had told me to keep going in her last words...”
:”The Aether Phantom Fleet followed by the Dark Force’s assault had left the galaxy in not much better of a state. A lot of people were despairing, no world seemed to be safe. So a bunch of governments and rich people developed the Data Arquive Utility Gestalt Humanoid Team Evolving Relay, DAUGHTER. A huge fortified complex where important people could upload themselves and live in a digital paradise free from the weaknesses of the flesh.”
:”Although Katherine’s survival hadn’t made it to public knowledge (seemingly I made a better martyr than a crippled veteran), I still received an invitation to join DAUGHTER under a new identity for my expertise to work as security. I took it. Both for a new life, and to keep an eye in the place, lest DAUGHTER go rogue or something like so many such projects.”
:”It wasn’t so bad at start. If anything, putting all the greedy and arrogant people in one place detached from reality allowed everybody else to kinda start rebuilding at their own pace and everybody was happy. Had fun keeping the order and enjoying my new virtual existence as Arodatam.”
:”Then before I noticed it some thousands of cycles had gone by and Dark Force was running rampart aagain. I wondered how the seal could’ve failed, then I discovered it was now Hugo himself who had broken the seal. Hugo, Fucker of Worlds, directly channeling Dark Force to rampage across the galaxy stronger than ever. Ammy was gone, Stephanie and Damarius and Mao were missing, Red Ring Rica tried to take him head on but she wasn’t strong enough. ”
:”With DAUGHTER itself threatened, they told me this was the main reason I had been invited to join and downloaded me to a cutting-edge robotic body to fight Hugo, Fucker of Worlds. I cut him down, but had no idea how to make a new magic seal. So Dark Force returned again. Along Hugo, Fucker of Worlds, who had backup clones hidden all accross the galaxy. And again. And again. An arms race broke between us, me getting new technology to keep up with Hugo, Fucker of Worl’s growing magic.”
:”And although I succeeded in winning, I couldn’t fully prevent all the destruction. Priority was always given to protecting DAUGHTER itself, thus more and more people started to ask to be let in. And with the advances in technology, it was indeed affordable for more and more people to be uploaded, first thousands, then millions and billions and growing exponentially, no longer limited to the elite but to the average worker too.”
:”Another result of Hugo, Fucker of Worlds were an increase in the number of eternals from Dark Force’s negative radiation. Or as Katherine would call them, undead, although such term was eventually declared illegal for reasons I’ll explain later. Initially the eternals were under Hugo, Fucker of Worlds thrall, meant mostly as a distractions. Eventually we found out a way to block his control, and even to make them recover their mindds even if couldn’t reverse the proccess in an affordable way. And as far as some higher ups cared, why would they? Resources were dwindling. And eternals didn’t need to eat or healthcare, right? They started getting rights and protection laws, the smart ones started to get jobs in important places. So even even between the attacks of Hugo, Fucker of Worlds their percentage of the populations kept increasing. They didn’t die of old age or broke down like androids after all. Techniques to control negative energy to a degree were developed, synthetic skins researched so vampires wouldn’t be harmed by UV light. Calling anybody an undead was declared hate speech.”
:”Quantum architecture multiplied habitable space, allowing for more and more population to reside in the world where DAUGHTER was. Easier to defend a single planet than try to figure out where Hugo, Fucker of Worlds would attack next, right? Efficiency was the first order of the day. Keeping old decaying organic bodies started to be considered pretty primitive, better to be uploaded or turned to an eternal.”
:”Eventually some organics started to resist. Some more violently than others. While some started the Synthetic Hierarchy Improved Neo Impact Geared Advanced Mind Initiative project, a contigency against the rise of the eternals, possessing both and exceptional ability to navigate between the quantic hyperspace routes being developed inside the DAUGHTER home planet to tackle space problems. However the Synthetic Hierarchy Improved Neo Impact Geared Advanced Mind Initiative ended up negotiating with the eternals instead of stopping them and mostly joined their cause. They technically became neutral, but made life for the living that much harder while offering all sorts of services and benefits to the eternals. So other bios started terrorrist attacks against the eternals on their own. The surface started to get pretty ugly, so more and more people moving underground. Meanwhile non-sentient organics were declared complete obsolete and fully wiped out down to the last bacteria. Saved quite a bit in needing to worry about diseases after all.”
:”Trying to keep other worlds going was deemed not worth the cost anymore, so they started to be dismantled for raw resources one after the other. Couldn’t risk they becoming dark havens for Hugo, Fucker of Worlds either. Some condemned such actions, but they were in the minority. Then there was the part where the workforces had so many eternals and androids that sleeping, eating and breathing were declared luxuries and cut from one’s salaries at premium rates for bios that demanded them.”
:”Eventually even bio-reproduction was illegallized, there were no organics left in positions of power to vote or veto against that. DAUGHTER users and eternals held some pretty big celebrations for that one. Like, they could still get new bio bodies to replace old ones. But even then that wasn’t enough to satisfy the more extreme parties, several cycles later it was deemed mandatory for the remaining organics to upload themselves to DAUGHTER or become eternals regardless of current status.”
:”Full war broke out between organics and everybody else. Mechas specialized in exterminating bios were developed. The eternals took control of the last cloning factories since there was still some demand for organic ‘products’ and the remaining free bios were pretty much fighting a losing battle whitout a way to replenish their numbers. I think Hugo, Fucker of Worlds may be laughing at us at that point. Eventually all remaining organic resistance crumbled and DAUGHTER declared victory… Or so it was thought. The organic remants managed to finish Advanced Revolutionary Kasha Autonomous System, a series of biomonsters meant to restore organic life on their own. The last free bios sacrificed themselves as distraction while the seeds of ARKAS were scattered in the surface that had been abandoned for being reduced to virtually all barren wasteland. Over the next cycles the eternals, androids had fully retreated underground, not caring about the rest of reality anymore. Eventually we started new conflicts among ourselves. ARKAS meanwhile covered the surface in fresh organic life, but all artificial designs of their original creators, an ecosystem that could resist Hugo, Fucker of Worlds, the eternals and DAUGHTER. Eventually the eternals underground started to clash against the new bios, but this time they were the ones that started being pushed back, in particular because the eternals were divided by bickering and grudges of their own. New weapon systems were developed, somebody tried to dark mix magics in between, time and space started to unravel. There was the passing of space-time sanctions from the underground government to try to keep things from spiraling out of control, but loopholes were found and more dangerous techniques were unleashed. Finally, most of the underground Quantum architecture collapsed. Many had no choice to return to the surface, then we saw not only the full work of ARKAS but also that the stars were not right. We weren’t sure what had happened. Had we spent so long underground that we had fully lost track of time? But before we could understand ARKAS were pushing us back down.”
:”ARKAS were winning, culling the eternals accross all fronts. Several cloning factories became independent factions in the chaos. Our situation became so desperate we had to unseal our own biotech again, clearly the organic wasn’t so obsolete as we had come to believe. Yet although the ARKAS advance was slowed they were still pushing forward almost reaching the main server of DAUGHTER itself, when Red Ring Rica arrived. Returned. I remember having met her long ago, but when had she gone missing? I wasn’t sure. Red Ring Rica was there too in a new younger body. Offered an alliance, the Android Administration’s legions to bolster our defenses. Also told us about a fresh colony from Parum in our planet’s surface. Parum was still out there I wondered? Hadn’t it be dismantled too? Clearly I had confused it. Some leftover refugees clearly.”
:”Mao said ARKAS would go after them soon enough so she needed our help to rescue them. I was too happy to comply. No time for explanations so we had to get a bit rough, but it was for their own good. Didn’t have much time to think. Got in, got them out. All of them. At least I think I did. Maybe somebody was left behind but there was no time to check everywhere. An ARKAS force was indeed approaching fast and engaged the garrison we left behind, but I wasn’t there to check how that one went. Was too busy with seeing to the refugees safety.”
:”Then the higher ups told me their newest project had gone awry. Attempting to clone the bodies and minds of heroes of old to fight for us. Initial results were pretty positive in several key fronts, but then they went out of control, some even turning to ARKAS. Maybe ARKAS were the ones who made them rebel? They sent me to deal with it. Then Mao showed up with Stephanie. Where had they been all this time? When was even the last time I had seen Mao? I couldn’t remember. Wasn’t even sure they were the same ones I had knew before. Maybe clones, maybe copies. But now Katherine and Ammy and Hugo and Damarius and time travel too. And the Aether Phantom Fleet returning too. Then it is now.”
____
: "You really do need a better name than Murasaki. I think you should choose a new name for yourself."
Some more catlike purring.
:”A name just for myself… I admit I hadn’t thought about it before, but that does sounds like a great idea. Let’s see… How does ‘Leonie ’ sounds?”
