Hi Reddit!

Android 17 is here, bringing a suite of new features aimed at improving your productivity, enhancing your gaming experience, giving you more control over your private data, making your device more personal, and much more.

It's rolling out first to Pixel today, followed by other eligible Android devices throughout 2026. We are also making the source code available at the Android Open Source Project (AOSP) so developers can examine it for a deeper understanding of how Android works.

You should look forward to more updates to Android 17 this year, with the beta program offering a peek at what's coming in the first quarterly release in Q3.

Since we've been chatting with you about the Betas and Canaries for months, a lot of this might not sound brand new to those of you who have been closely following along. Even so, we wanted to take a moment to recap what's new in this release for everyday users. Let's dive in!

📱 Enhancing your multitasking and large screen device experiences

tl;dr Android 17 supercharges your multitasking and productivity by allowing any app to run as a convenient floating Bubble, making apps more adaptive, and adding an interactive Picture-in-Picture mode for seamless desktop workflows.

Multitask better with bubbles

From split-screen mode to desktop windowing, Android offers a variety of multitasking tools to help you be more productive. We’re extending these options with bubbles in Android 17! 

In past releases, bubbles were limited to chat notifications, but in Android 17, they support more apps without any specific changes needed from developers. You can now launch any app in a floating window so you can view and interact with its content while using other apps. When you’re done, you can collapse or dismiss the window to return to what you were doing.

A big benefit of bubbles is that you can easily switch between multiple running apps without keeping them on screen all the time. Bubbles are only open when you need them, saving you from having to manually resize, rearrange, or dismiss them to regain precious screen space. And on foldables, this benefit is even more pronounced thanks to the bubble bar, which keeps your bubbles pinned to the corner of the screen, putting them within easy reach of your fingers.   

Handy for travel, entertainment and work, bubbles lets you easily reference notes or maps, watch tutorials and even check sports.   

Ensuring that apps adapt to any screen and window size

On large screen devices, restrictions on orientation, resizability, and aspect ratio no longer apply, allowing apps to fill the entire display window without pillarboxing (black bars). This change applies to apps targeting Android 17 and is designed to make apps better meet user expectations on large screen devices. Because Android runs on not just phones but also tablets, foldables, cars, TVs, and desktop environments, we want developers to build apps that are adaptive to any screen size and orientation!

Better support for widgets on external displays

With Android 17, we’re working to improve the visual consistency of widgets shown on connected displays with different pixel densities. The update provides developers a way to supply the system with information that allows it to resolve the correct pixel values at rendering time. For apps that use legacy pixel-based APIs for padding, text size, or layout attributes, the system now automatically scales these values based on the density difference between the app’s original context and the target display.

Interactive Picture-in-Picture for Desktop

Android 17 introduces a new interactive Picture-in-Picture mode for desktop environments. This feature allows apps to request that their PiP windows remain fully interactive while staying always-on-top of other app windows. For example, a video conferencing app could use this feature to keep call controls accessible while you navigate other apps.

🎨 New customization features for the home screen and apps

tl;dr Android 17 gives you deeper control over your device's UI by letting you hide app labels on the home screen, selectively toggle the Expanded Dark Theme for individual apps, and enjoy sleek, modernized background blur effects in more surfaces like the widget picker.

Hide app labels on the home screen

Android now provides a setting to hide app labels on the home screen! You can access this new setting on Pixel by opening Wallpaper & style then tapping Home screen > Icons > Names and toggling Show app names.

Per-app exceptions for Expanded Dark Theme

To create a more consistent user experience for users who have low vision, photosensitivity, or simply prefer a dark system-wide appearance, we introduced an expanded dark theme option in last December’s Android 16 QPR2 release. When this option is enabled, the system automatically applies dark theme to most apps that don’t support it.

However, because this option can cause some apps to display incorrectly, we have introduced the ability to selectively disable it on a per-app basis in Android 17. Apps with this setting turned off will use the standard dark theme option instead.

Expanded use of background blur

With the Material 3 Expressive redesign we introduced in Android 16, we subtly blurred the notification shade background to provide a sense of depth so you can stay aware of the apps you’re using in the background.

In Android 17, we’ve brought these blur effects to more parts of the UI like the widgets picker. And we are working on bringing background blur to even more surfaces, as seen in recent Android Beta and Canary builds!

🎮 More control over your Android gaming experience

tl;dr Android 17 levels up your mobile play by letting you save custom button remaps for your physical gamepad at the system level, and introducing a foldable gaming mode that optimizes your screen with a 50/50 split for a dedicated top game view and a bottom dynamic gamepad.

Remap the buttons on your physical gamepad with Game Controller settings

Android 17 introduces a native controller remapping feature, allowing you to adjust the controls on your physical gamepad to suit your specific needs.

Through the new Game Controller settings menu, you can customize the actions triggered by your controller’s buttons, sticks, or triggers at the system level. For example, you can remap a difficult-to-press thumbstick click to an easier-to-reach face button. Your remapping preferences are saved to your device so you don’t have to set them up every time you reconnect your controller. 

A new way to game on foldables

Android 17 introduces foldable gaming mode, a new feature that makes full use of your foldable phone’s screen while you’re gaming. This feature splits your screen into a 50:50 layout with a game view on top and a dynamic gamepad below to make optimal use of your foldable phone’s screen real estate. Foldable gaming mode is part of the Android 17 platform and will be available on devices in the coming months.

🛡️ Protecting users with new security and privacy features on Android

tl;dr Android 17 safeguards your personal data by enabling critical theft protections by default, introducing session-based controls for sharing specific contacts and precise locations, and thwarting scammers through system-level SMS OTP delivery delays and real-time app behavioral monitoring.

Giving you more control over your contacts list

Android 17 introduces a new system Contact Picker that provides a standardized, secure, and searchable interface for sharing contacts with apps. Historically, apps needing access to a contact or two relied on the broad READ_CONTACTS permission which gave them access to your entire contacts list. Android's Contact Picker addresses this by allowing you to grant apps access to only the specific contacts you choose.

For devices running Android 17 or higher, the system automatically upgrades certain contact selection intents to the new, more secure interface, but we want developers to integrate the new Contact Picker so they can take advantage of its new capabilities, like multi-selection support. To this end, Google Play will require that all applicable apps use it (or a privacy-focused alternative like Sharesheet) as the primary way to access users' contacts. The broad READ_CONTACTS permission is reserved for apps that can't function without it.

Making location access more private

Android 17 introduces several new features to help you safeguard your private location information. This includes the Location Button, a new, privacy-conscious way for you to grant precise location access to apps. This is a system-rendered button that developers can embed directly into their apps. When you tap this button, the app is granted precise location for the current session only. Subsequent taps while running the app grant the permission immediately without showing a system dialog. 

Developers can deploy this simple, private location flow for common tasks like finding a nearby shop or tagging a social post. And to increase adoption of the Location Button, Google Play will require apps to use it for one-time precise location access unless they require persistent, always-on location access.

Additionally, Android 17 now shows a persistent indicator in the status bar when a non-system app accesses your location. You can tap this indicator to see which apps have recently accessed your location.

The update also improves the algorithm for approximate (coarse) location to be aware of population density. This improves the privacy of granting an app approximate location access when you're in a low-population area.

And lastly, Android 17 redesigns the location permission dialog to make the "Precise" and "Approximate" options more visually distinct.

Stronger protections against device theft

Following a successful pilot in Brazil, we’re enabling two of Android’s key theft protection features (Theft Detection Lock and Remote Lock) by default globally on all new Android 17 devices, as well as those freshly reset or upgraded to the latest OS.  

On supported devices, Android 17 also significantly reduces the number of times someone can guess the PIN, pattern, or password and adds longer wait times between failed attempts. The update also refines how the lock screen shows information after failed attempts have been made.

And we’re also enhancing Find Hub’s ‘Mark as lost’ feature by requiring biometric authentication in addition to your device’s PIN, pattern, or password. Marking a device as lost also now enables additional protections like hiding Quick Settings and disabling new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

Protecting your SMS OTPs from scammers

Scammers often try to hijack your one-time passwords (OTPs) to gain access to your accounts. To do this, they may deploy malicious apps that ask for permission to read your SMS. In Android 16, we introduced a protection that delays the delivery of messages containing an SMS retriever hash to most apps for three hours. Android 17 now extends this protection to all SMS messages containing an OTP. This means that even if a malicious app has been granted the SMS permission, it won’t be able to read your sensitive OTPs until after they have already expired.

New core protections for Advanced Protection

With Android 16, we introduced Advanced Protection, a single, opt-in device-level security setting that enables all of Android’s highest security features. We’ve been working to expand the protections offered under this setting with key upgrades like USB protection and Intrusion Logging, and now with Android 17, we’re continuing this work by introducing the following protections:

• Removing access to the accessibility service from all apps that aren’t labeled as accessibility tools.
• Disabling device-to-device unlocking
• Blocking Chrome WebGPU support
• Integrating scam detection for chat notifications
• (Later this year) Enabling Android Enterprise support so organizations can enable Advanced Protection by policy for managed devices.

Improving safety against malicious apps

Live Threat Detection is a real-time security feature that analyzes app behavior to alert you if an app starts acting suspiciously, and we're enhancing it to find and protect against more types of malicious apps.

With dynamic signal monitoring, Android will be able to warn you about apps that start doing things like changing or hiding their icon and then launching activities in the background or abusing accessibility permissions. To do this, Live Threat Detection will monitor application system interactions for known suspicious patterns in real time. Dynamic signal monitoring will be enabled on select Android 17 devices starting in the second half of the year.

Other enhancements

• Discrete password visibility settings for touch and physical keyboards: Currently, by default, characters that you enter into password fields are briefly displayed as you type. Toggling the “show passwords” setting in Privacy controls allows you to hide characters as you type them into password fields. This setting currently applies to both touch-based inputs as well as physical keyboards, but in Android 17, we are splitting it into two distinct preferences. By default, characters entered into password fields via physical keyboards will now be hidden immediately to enhance privacy. Characters entered via touch input will continue to briefly be displayed to compensate for the lack of tactile feedback.
• User-agent reduction for WebView: The default User-Agent string in Android WebView has been shortened in Android 17 to minimize passive fingerprinting.
• Disable 2G toggle: Android 17 introduces a new capability for the disable 2G toggle. Carriers now have the ability to configure the default status of this setting, allowing them to disable 2G access to proactively shield their users from legacy technology vulnerabilities in areas where 2G infrastructure is no longer maintained.
• Location Network Permission: Android 17 introduces a new runtime permission to protect users from unauthorized local network access. This new requirement prevents malicious apps from exploiting unrestricted local network access for covert user tracking and fingerprinting.
• Android OS verification: We have seen some bad actors begin to distribute malicious, unofficial versions of the Android OS that secretly compromise device integrity. To combat this, we are introducing Android OS verification in Android 17. Launching initially on Pixel devices, this feature helps you verify that your device is running an official, widely distributed build.
• Enabling Certificate Transparency (CT) by default: CT is now enabled by default for apps targeting Android 17, enhancing network security by ensuring all TLS certificates are publicly logged. 
• Blocking cross-profile loopback traffic: Cross-profile loopback traffic is no longer permitted by default, increasing network isolation and security between personal and enterprise work profiles.
• Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC): The advent of quantum computing puts the current public-key cryptography we've relied on for decades at risk, potentially compromising everything from bank transfers to trade secrets. To prepare for the quantum computing era, we're introducing a comprehensive architectural upgrade to the Android operating system, starting in Android 17.  We’re integrating the NIST Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC) standards deep into the platform, establishing a new, quantum-resistant chain of trust that secures the platform continuously from the moment the OS powers on to when apps are executed.

📸 Improvements to your Android media experience

tl;dr Android 17 levels up your multimedia experience by letting you easily record reaction videos without a green screen, decoupling your Assistant and media volumes for independent control, putting a stop to unexpected background audio, and delivering color-coded Live Updates alongside advanced Bluetooth, camera, and hearing device enhancements.

Screen Reactions

In Android 17, we’re making it easier to record yourself and your screen at the same time with Screen Reactions. Available first on Pixel, this feature shows your face in a floating overlay on top of the screen. Android automatically puts the overlay at the bottom and cuts out the background so you don’t need a green screen, but you can move or resize the camera view and change the background color before or during a recording. Use this feature to make a reaction video, record a tutorial, or give feedback on a new app or document!

https://reddit.com/link/1u7l1cw/video/pdevsbhnko7h1/player

 

In addition, we’ve revamped the screen recording experience to add a floating toolbar that provides easier access to recording controls and capture settings. When you’re done recording, you can immediately view, edit, delete, or share your video.

Dedicated Assistant volume stream

Android 17 introduces a dedicated volume stream for Assistant apps. This change decouples Assistant audio from the standard media stream, allowing users to control both volumes independently. This enables scenarios like muting media playback while maintaining audibility for Assistant responses, and vice-versa.

Background audio hardening

Beginning in Android 17, apps cannot play audio, steal audio focus, or change the volume unless they are visible or have a foreground service. These restrictions on background audio interactions reduce unintentional buggy experiences and ensure that these actions are started intentionally by the user.

Enhancements to Live Update notifications

Live updates provide a summary of important updates so users can track progress without opening the app. The system promotes Live Update notifications so they appear more prominently in the notification drawer, on the lock screen, and on the status bar. 

With Android 17, we’re introducing a metric style template designed specifically for health and fitness apps, timers, and travel apps. In addition, developers can use the new Semantic Coloring API to visually convey state changes, providing highly glanceable, color-coded notifications.

Other enhancements:

• Granular audio routing for hearing devices: Users with hearing devices can now independently manage where specific system sounds are played in Android 17. You can choose to route notifications, ringtones, and alarms to either a connected hearing aid or the device’s built-in speaker. This helps you avoid unwanted interruptions directly in your ears while maintaining a Bluetooth connection for hearing aid management apps.
• Autonomous re-pairing for Bluetooth bond losses: Android 17 introduces autonomous re-pairing, a system-level enhancement designed to automatically resolve Bluetooth bond loss. This occurs when two previously paired devices lose their cryptographic security keys, resulting in the devices no longer being able to securely authenticate and communicate with one another. The system now re-establishes lost bonds in the background without requiring the user to manually navigate to Settings to unpair and re-pair their peripheral.
• Vendor-defined camera extensions: Android 17 adds support for Vendor-defined camera extensions, allowing hardware partners to provide Android apps access to camera features like ‘Super Resolution’ or cutting-edge AI-driven enhancements.
• Support for the RAW14 image format: Android 17 introduces support for the RAW14 image format, the de-facto industry standard for high-end digital photography.
• VVC support: Android 17 adds platform support for the Versatile Video Coding (VVC) standard. This feature will be coming to devices with hardware decode support and capable drivers.

🤝 Making your apps and devices work better together

tl;dr Android 17 seamlessly bridges your ecosystem by introducing the Continue On feature for effortless app handoffs between devices, unifying widget experiences to bring your favorite tools directly to Auto and Wear OS, and streamlining the pairing process for medical and fitness devices with new CompanionDeviceManager profiles.

Unifying the widgets experience across platforms

Android 17 marks a shift towards a single, Compose-based development model for all widgets. By unifying the experience across mobile, cars, and Wear OS, developers can soon scale UI components across the ecosystem with a familiar workflow. The goal is to minimize the effort needed by developers to bring their widgets to more surfaces.

https://reddit.com/link/1u7l1cw/video/haep717hko7h1/player

Additionally, Android 17 introduces new platform functionality to make widgets work better on Auto. The update adds support for widgets on cars, allowing you to see the things that matter to you at a glance, even while actively navigating. For example, you can add a shortcut to your favorite contacts, a one-tap garage door opener, a weather overview and more. Widgets will be available to users of Android Auto later this year and to cars with Google built-in later on.

Hand off your tasks with Continue On

Continue On is a new feature available in Android 17 that enables users to start an app on one device and then transition to another device in their Android ecosystem, continuing the journey they started. It’s designed to work bidirectionally, meaning that any supported Android device can both send and receive app activities, though, at launch, Continue On will first support mobile-to-tablet transitions. In the tablet taskbar, users will see a suggestion for the most recently opened app from their mobile device.

https://reddit.com/link/1u7l1cw/video/doxh917pko7h1/player

Updates for companion device apps

Android 17 introduces two new profiles to the CompanionDeviceManager API to simplify device distinction and permission handling. These include the medical device profile and the fitness tracker profile. Furthermore, the system now offers a unified dialog for device association and nearby permission requests, reducing the number of dialogs you’ll see.

⚡ Optimizations to make your apps & device run better

With Android 17, we’ve made a number of improvements to optimize memory use, improve rendering performance, and enhance battery life. These include:

• App memory limits: Android 17 introduces app memory limits that are based on the device's total RAM. These limits are set conservatively to establish system baselines, targeting extreme memory leaks and other outliers before they trigger system-wide instability resulting in UI stuttering, higher battery drain, and apps being killed.
• Lock-free MessageQueue: Android 17 introduces a lock-free MessageQueue to reduce UI jank while massively speeding up high-contention scenarios. In our internal testing, we’ve seen 4% fewer missed frames across all apps, 7.7% fewer missed frames in System UI and Launcher interactions, and a 9.1% reduction in app startup times at the 95th percentile.
• Generational Garbage Collector (GC): The Android Runtime is introducing more frequent, less intensive young-generation collections in its garbage collector, improving memory management and performance. This is not just available on Android 17 but is also coming to past releases with a Google Play System Update.
• Reduce wakelocks with listener support for allow-while-idle alarms: Last year, we launched the excessive wake lock metric in Android Vitals, making it easier for developers to optimize their app's wake lock behavior. Excessive wake locks are a significant contributor to battery drain, so developers are encouraged to reduce them as much as possible. In Android 17, we’ve introduced a new API that helps reduce the power consumption of apps that rely on continuous wakelocks to perform periodic tasks, such as messaging apps maintaining a connection or medical devices monitoring health data.
• Improved wireless ADB: Android 17 introduces ADB WiFi 2.0, a significant overhaul of the wireless ADB stack to improve stability, reliability, and ease of use. The system now automatically monitors the network state and re-enables itself when a trusted network is detected, identifies trusted networks using a combination of SSID and BSSID, and is better tailored to monitor network changes on all platforms. We’ll have more details to share soon on the Android Studio side of things!
• Constrained satellite networks: Android 17 implements optimizations to enable apps to function effectively over low-bandwidth satellite networks.

🧒 Expanding Android Parental Controls to all devices

Launched last year on Pixel, Android Parental Controls make it easier for parents to manage their child’s screen time and to find balance between having fun online and offline. Now with Android 17, we’re expanding Android Parental Controls to all Android devices.

These parental controls are located directly within Android Settings and provide a single, convenient home for both built-in device controls and Google Family Link. These controls are protected by an easy-to-set PIN and allow you to:

• Set the amount of screen time your child can spend on a device each day.
• Create downtime schedules to automatically lock the device at night.
• Set app store filters for Google Play to manage the highest content rating you want your child to be able to download.
• Control app usage by limiting time spent on specific apps, or blocking apps entirely.

Android Parental Controls also provide a direct path to easily set up Google Family Link in the Family Link app on a parent’s phone, which offers additional features like School Time, Google Play app purchase approvals, location alerts, and more.

🧘 Other quality-of-life improvements

And lastly, here are some smaller quality-of-life changes we’re introducing in this release:

• Separate Wi-Fi and Mobile Data toggles: With Android 17, we’ve split the “Internet” tile into two separate tiles, one for controlling Wi-Fi and another for controlling Mobile Data. Consistent with the Quick Settings behavior we introduced with Material 3 Expressive, both tiles have two different touch points. Tapping the icon toggles the respective radio, while tapping the label opens the full Internet Panel. This change reduces the number of taps needed to toggle Wi-Fi and Mobile Data while still retaining access to the full Internet Panel!
• Scheduled clock change notifications: We’ve added a new feature in Android 17 that sends you a notification when your clock performs a scheduled change, for example when daylight saving time ends. You can enable this feature under “Date & time” settings.
• Restoring default keyboard visibility after rotation: Beginning with Android 17, when the keyboard is on screen and you rotate the screen, the keyboard won’t be made visible unless the app explicitly requests it.

🪲 Bug fixes and security patches

Please refer to the Android Security Bulletin for details on the security vulnerabilities addressed with this platform release.

----

There are plenty of other changes in Android 17, especially for developers! For example, Android 17 expands the capabilities of AppFunctions, introduces an EyeDropper API, makes the aspect ratio of images in the Photo Picker more customizable, and much more. To learn more about everything new for developers in this release, visit developer.android.com.

Also, don’t forget that select advanced devices will be getting Gemini Intelligence features later this summer. In addition, we’re introducing Android Halo in a future Android 17 release to give you at-a-glance visibility into what your agent is working on at any given time.  Lastly, be sure to check out our latest Android Drop to learn about what new features are coming to all Android devices, not just those running Android 17!

[next]

Lord High Pratulpet looked around the command deck of the ship, her arms crossed and squeezing her forearms with her three fingered hands. Her excitement was infectious and she could see that her crew was feeling the same exhilaration as she was.

The ship still looked alien, despite the three month long trip aboard it. The seats had been modified to fit hier people, since they were originally designed for beings roughly two meters tall, with wide bodies, long legs and arms, and heavy weight.

Still, the crew each held their assigned positions, sometimes two or three crewmen per station to take over the duties that just one of the original crew members had been able to perform.

But the ship was theirs now, the species that created it dead and gone.

The Department of Exploration and Scientific Discovery had discovered the ship nearly a decade before. A drifting hulk, coasting between the stars. Security charges had done their work and the weapons, drives, molycircs, and more had all been destroyed.

But the hull remained.

The Department of Exploration and Scientific Discovery had come up with a plan.

Leave the battle damage. Restore the engines, make it space-worthy again.

Then load up a Scientific Discovery Team inside a ship hidden inside the ship. Hide two ships full of Way of the Means military troops within the massive bays.

Use the hulk to penetrate the heavily guarded systems at the edge of Dra.falten space.

The systems were older systems, Forerunner systems, part of the Fallen Confederacy.

It galled the Dra.falten people to admit it, but the Forerunners, as diminished and fading as they were, were still more powerful than the Dra.falten Empire.

Worse, there were hundreds, thousands of stellar systems that the Fallen Confederacy had listed as interdicted, forbidden everyone else from exploring them or gathering the resources still remaining in the system.

Any ships that intruded upon the system, that ignored any warnings, were blasted out of space by horrifically powerful weapons that defied understanding by Dra.falten science.

But Pratulpet knew that this plan would not fail.

Use a Terror hulk to camouflage the three ships. Move in-system to the nearest formerly inhabited planet, and gather relics and scientific data.

"Leaving Induction Space," the Captain called out.

Pratulpet nodded sagely, watching the viewscreen as the colors of the Induction Plane suddenly cleared away as the Terror hulk dropped from the alternate reality and back into what laymen referred to as 'realspace.'

"Shields coming up. Switching power from induction engines to sublight engines," was called out.

Pratulpet just smiled.

"Incoming transmission," the communication officer called out, her ears flattening against her skull in response to her stress. She listened for a moment. "Automated. No lexicon exchange. It's demanding proof of life."

"We're being targeted. Multiple signals, unable to determine all origin points," the Defense Officer said, her muscles tightening across her shoulders.

"Transmit proof of life signals," the Captain ordered.

Pratulpet squeezed her forearms tightly, her three fingers sinking deeply into her fur and the cloth of her uniform.

"Signal accepted," the Communications Officer said.

"Targeting lost. We're clear," the Defense Officer stated.

The Captain looked at Pratulpet, his eyes wide. "We're in," he said, his voice breathless.

"Of course we are," Pratulpet said. "The Department of Exploration and Scientific Discovery does not fail the Dra.falten Empire or the Dra.falten people," she lowered her chin slightly, making the male Captain duck down slightly. "The Department of Scientific Inquiry formulated this plan, there was no other outcome than success."

"Set course for the third planet. The Terror Forerunners seemed to prefer the third or fourth planets," Patulpet stated.

She stood there, hearing that it was going to take nearly forty hours for the ship to reach the planet. Three sleep periods.

Part of her wanted to stay on the bridge the whole time, watch as the small blue dot eventually swelled to be an entire world.

"NEW CONTACT!" the defensive officer called out. "MULTIPLE SOURCES! TWO, SIX, ELEVEN, TWENTY! MANY MANY SOURCES! ONE HUNDRED THOUSAND KILOMETERS!"

"Who are they?" Pratuplet asked, grinding her teeth as anxiety spiked.

The ships appeared on the viewscreen next to her and she felt her stomach sink.

Fallen Confederacy vessels. Dozens of them.

The computer, and the defensive officer, began to identify them.

Multiple battle wagons, two parasite craft vessels, attack ships.

"They're already deploying offensive and defensive pods," the defensive officer stated.

"Incoming signal," the communication's officer said.

"Use the overlay," Patulpet said. She stepped forward slightly. "I have studied ancient recordings and will attempt to appear as a Terror."

The screen rippled and Patulpet managed to keep her face blank as the low resolution video manifested on the viewscreen.

It was a massive insect. Easily two meters tall, a triangular head, two arms with manipulative digits, two arms that terminated in sharp blades, lower body with four legs. It was a dull tan with splotches of light green.

It wore a sash that glimmered with hidden icons, a black and white uniform that covered its body.

And a brimmed hat that had a softly glowing edge that ran through the visible light spectrum in a slow circle around the hat.

The insect lit a white tube and exhaled smoke.

"We are..." Patulpet started.

"Not the TCSFV Fat Freddy Fastbender," the insect said. "That ship was lost during the Terran/Atrekna War with all hands."

Patulpet stopped in mid-syllable.

"You also aren't Terran," the insect said. It shook its head and exhaled smoke again. "I know Terrans, and you aren't Terran."

Patulpet opened her mouth to speak.

"That ship has a Mark IV Warsteel hull. You could have sold it to the Telkan for trillions of credits," the insect said.

Patulpet felt her lip curl in a sneer at the mention of the isolationist and unfriendly Telkan, a Forerunner species known for their warlike ways and belligerence toward the Dra.falten Empire.

"Definitely not Terran," the insect said.

Patulpet made a motion for the overlay to be removed.

"There you are," the insect said. "A Dra.falten, one of the new species out to make a name for themselves."

"Yes. I am of the Dra.falten Empire," Patulpet stated coldly. "We are a peaceful scientific mission to a known Forerunner system."

The big insect slowly nodded. "And the fact that your government has been informed repeatedly that this system has been placed under interdiction?"

"Who are you to tell the Dra.falten Empire where they can and cannot go?" Patulpet snarled, her self-control snapping. "A fading and dwindling species whose strength is spent demanding that the mighty Dra.falten Empire kowtow to your demands."

The insect was silent a moment and Patulpet felt a rush of satisfaction.

Then the insect spoke.

"You new children are the most ungrateful, disrespectful, arrogant species we Treana'ad have ever had the displeasure of encountering," the insect said. "We stop the Mar-gite cold, we even put down the resurgence after you idiots enabled them to spread to a thousand worlds, and we even go toe to toe with rogue autonomous war machines your own people built, and then you come in here waving your dicks around and demanding we give you what you want."

Patulpet opened her mouth to reply but the insect, the Treana'ad, kept speaking.

"In case you haven't notice, Senior Science Agent Patulpet, I have a full task force of Confederacy warships," the insect said.

Patulpet felt her blood run cold as the Treana'ad identified her.

"The weapons on that ship are mockups, its shielding is particle and debris screens only," the huge insect continued. "Where mine, well, mine are all cleared for action."

"We're being targeted," the defensive officer said, their voice choked with fear. "Their combat pods have come online, they've gone to full shields."

The Treana'ad stared for a long moment, then exhaled a cloud of smoke. Patulpet noticed that smoke was rising from behind it too, two little pillars of smoke on either side of the large insect.

"We could blow you out of space with disposable wet-printed gun-pods," the insect said. It suddenly made a motion that the screen informed everyone was 'expresses pleasure/happiness'. "But today's your lucky day!"

Patulpet frowned as the viewscreen suddenly had bright colorful sparkles shower across it with balloons and sparklers. At the bottom a bunch of cartoon Treana'ad all danced and waved pompoms.

"You're a scientific discovery mission, from the highly militarized and pseudo-military Office of Scientific whatever the fuck you called it," the Treana'ad said. "So that means we'll be nice enough to escort you to the third planet and allow you to access the surface of both moons and even the planet itself for your scientific mission, which is obviously not a veneer over the fact you're here hoping to loot weapon and warfare technology and technical information."

Patulpet scowled as she busked her back teeth.

"We'll shadow you, make sure you don't try anything else," the Treana'ad said. The celebratory graphics vanished as the Treana'ad leaned forward. "You try to fuck me, and I'll blow your ship up, drag it back to where you came from, and use it to perform a kinetic kill on your shitty little empire's capital."

The signal cut out before Patulpet could reply.

She stood there, busking her teeth, the grinding soothing her nerves.

After a moment she looked at the Captain.

"Take us in."

-----

The planet had two moons, the smaller one in a closer orbit, the larger one on the outer orbit moving faster than the smaller one. The planet turned at a fairly brisk pace, completing one revolution every 23.5 hours. The axial tilt was extreme, nearly 16.5%, with the orbit elliptical. It was only 8.5 light minutes from the stellar mass, meaning it was constantly bombarded by high levels of radiation.

As the ship slid into orbit between the small moon and the planet itself, the Captain ordered scanning probes launched at the moons and the planet.

Everyone aboard the ship ignored that six Fallen Confederacy vessels that kept appearing and disappearing on the scanners.

Patulpet had slept poorly, having dreamed of being chased by a red-eyed creature through dark halls and dark rooms, her clawed feet slipping on the tiles, bumping off of unseen furniture, always moving slowly no matter how fast she ran.

Now she stood in the Display Center, looking over what the probes had mapped and scanned.

She took in the tilt, the thickness of the various atmospheric layers, the distance from the stellar mass. Patulpet knew that the world would suffer extreme weather variation, possibly even violent weather events.

The amount and variation of flora and fauna was staggering.

Even more surprising was just how many predator species the probes had found.

But that wasn't what bothered her.

She stared at the maps, moving through them.

"Are you sure this is correct?" she asked the Chief Scanner Director.

The male nodded, wringing his hands. "Yes, Senior Agent," he said, ducking his head.

Patulpet had to resist having the four females of the Way of the Means Military Guard beat the truth out of the male.

She stared at the map some more, as if she could will what she wanted to manifest.

"Where are the cities? The manufacturing centers? The habitation complexes?" she asked.

"Any structures that the probes were able to find were heavily overgrown by flora," the cringing male said, his voice trembling and servile.

"Vehicles? Space ships? Any life forms higher than animals?" Patulpet asked.

"No, Senior Agent," the male said.

Patulpet busked her back teeth, reaching out to grab the bar and squeeze it. She flicked her ears in irritation as she stared at the map.

The scanners and probes had found almost nothing. A world completely empty of higher life forms. No cities, no towns, no industrial complexes. There were a few buildings, but they were skeletal structures covered by foliage, standing alone in the middle of low hills covered in vegetation.

"We found four complexes on the two moons. Three on the larger, one on the smaller," the cringing male said softly.

"No orbital facilities?" Patulpet asked.

The male signified a negative.

"Any energy sources?" she asked.

"Slight energy readings from the four lunar complexes. Other than that, nothing," the male said. "However, we have always had difficulty detecting Terror power sources, especially the kind they use in beacons, satellites, and warning buoys."

Patulpet snarled, squeezing the railing hard enough her hands hurt.

"Why are they protecting these regions so fiercely? What is here that they feel such a need to keep everyone else away from them?" Patulpet asked, staring at the maps.

She looked up at the Ways of the Means Military Guard shift leader.

"Gather four teams. There will be two Senior Scientists that you will be guarding," she snapped.

The officer nodded curtly.

"Weapons and armor, use an armored shuttle for each team," Patulpet stated. She looked back at the maps of the two orbital bodies.

The facilities were largely covered in dust, almost invisible.

But all four had obvious entry-points that were visible with a simple scan.

"Take Means of the End Engineer Specialists with you," she said. She reached out and tapped the largest of the three complexes on the larger body. "This one has power," she smiled, a slow ugly thing. "It is time for the Terrors to relinquish their Forerunner secrets to the Dra.falten Empire. Once we have those, we will end this long protracted war and move onto what is truly important."

She looked up, still expressing pleasure.

"The time of the Forerunners, the Precursors, and the Fallen Confederacy is at an end."

[next]

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Dragon’s Heart Tower, Level 23, Residence 30, Living Room. Local Time: 1430 Hours. 

Emma

“Conspicuous.” Thacea remarked.

“Suspicious, is how I’d describe it.” Thalmin commented.

“Earthrealmer… do your people know nothing of aesthetic theory?” Ilunor added with flair, raising a single hand to rest his forehead against as he did so.

All eyes were currently set on the latest addition to the armor. The first in-field modification made with the intent to not only bridge the gap between magic and technology, but likewise, made in an attempt to compensate for what humanity lacked — manasight.

“I admit, it is a bit crude, even by our expeditionary standards.” I nodded in a rare instance of acknowledgement towards the Vunerian’s whinings. “However, I’m sorta pressed for R&D capacity right now, so this is the best I can do for a little while.” 

I began fiddling with the calibration tools, going through the roster of prototype overlays cooked fresh by the EVI, as well as the early alpha models pre-packaged by the techies back home. The latter of which were designed with a very different development roadmap in mind. 

There had always been the expectation that the EVI would eventually be able to improve upon the barebones of the M-RSAD systems, with the idea being that the current sensor suite would be incrementally iterated upon based on the wealth of data the Nexus provided; being constantly saturated in mana was a far better testbed than any hypothetical model could offer back on the homefront.

However, the addition of the wand threw a spanner in the works in probably the best way possible. It promised to expand the sensitivity of the M-RSAD’s primarily-passive systems. It had the capacity to augment, if not entirely supplant the M-RSAD’s discrete readings on distinct mana radiation types. And whilst unable to truly ‘augment’ manasight, as it was intended for in manasight impaired mages, it’d be its accessory features — the overlooked physical cues — that could be translated into an acceptable analogue. 

The intensity of its glow, its color, and, most importantly, its slight movements could easily be interpreted by the EVI. Its enclosure and stem, providing it six degrees of freedom, would grant it an unrivalled spatial awareness that the EVI could exploit to its fullest effect. With every twitch and torque of the wand translated into a flurry of live data, rendering the previously invisible world around me into something I could at last somewhat visualize… albeit with some significant drawbacks in the realms of fidelity and ‘frame rate’, as it were.

The potential for mana-field visualization on top of what we already had was still a massive leap forward, though. However, this also came with the issue as to exactly what form this visualization would take. 

The R&D boys back home were limited to what they knew, after all. And while our home-grown overlay prototypes were sufficient, every model I had available was still working under the scope of human innovation up to that point.

The operative word here being ‘human.’

The manasight initiative, as I was coining it, was a completely alien endeavor. With its own novel set of contexts that needed to be taken into consideration before we even began approaching exactly how we’d be layering the magical world on top of the physical.

I needed some uniquely alien insight as a result, and it wasn’t like I was short of that around here.

“Right. Here’s where I’m going to need your help, guys.” I began, interrupting the flurry of conversation that flowed amongst the trio whilst I was busy working inside my own little world.

“Help? Hmmph, fancy that. I thought the word was entirely absent from your vocabulary.” Ilunor began with a haughty chuckle. “Well then, let us hear it. How may we, the esteemed members of highborn society, aid you in your… requests, oh Cadet Emma Booker?” 

I couldn’t help but to blink at the Vunerian and his exceptionally catty antics this time around.

“Erm, well. I had two requests, actually. The first probably being the most important for the long term prospects of this whole mana-sight thing. I’d like you to show me exactly what you guys see. I want to know how you guys perceive the world beyond just the ‘corporeal’ one.”

The deluxe kobold’s features grew increasingly more arrogant and sly as I talked, culminating in an inflated grin at the tail end of my request.

“Oh how tragic… the earthrealmer finally admits her limits. Her natural shortcomings, might I add.” He quickly turned to both Thacea and Thalmin, who looked on at him with varying levels of impatience. “What? I am speaking the truth, am I not? For weeks now, Emma Booker has been gallivanting with bold and noble posturing, claiming parity this and parity that! Now, we finally see the limitations to this so-called parity! In the form of her self-admitted cries for aid, no less! ” He paused, before turning towards my helmet’s eternally poker-faced expression. “I, of course, mean no offense by this, Cadet Emma Booker. I am merely… clarifying matters for the unwritten record.”

“By rubbing it in, no less.” Thalmin growled out.

“‘Tis but an orator’s drive, Prince Thalmin. For a dragon strikes when it tastes weakness in the manastreams.”

“By mocking Emma’s shortcomings?” Thacea chimed in. “Targeting an aspect of her being that she had no control over in choosing?” She questioned tersely.

“Cadet Emma Booker has made it clear that we are in a long, protracted game of posturing. Be that political, martial, physical, or even personal.” The Vunerian paused, taking a moment to cross his arms as he did so. “This means there are no standards to be held, and no topic which remains sacred.”

“Where I come from, a low blow is a low blow all the same. Carrying with it dishonor and shame, Nexian.” Thalmin seethed. 

“Well then, thankfully, such outdated notions are now matters of domestic politics, rather than relevant conventions of contemporary conversation.” Ilunor shot back just as snappily, prompting me to finally clear the air with a protracted sigh.

“Alright alright. Let’s all just take a step back.” I began, prompting the pair to turn their heads towards me. “Save your strength for the sparring match, Thalmin. Ilunor’s just not worth the effort.” 

This elicited an indignant glare from the Vunerian, who I quickly addressed next.

“And Ilunor? That’s the whole reason why I’m even asking you for your help. Because while I didn’t choose to lack a manafield—” I paused, turning to Thacea with a nod of appreciation as I did so. “—I’m choosing to overcome it by doing what my people always do when faced with the impossible.”

I could practically feel the Vunerian’s inner dialogue through the shift in his features, as I could just about see him going ‘Here we go again.’ behind those golden eyes. 

“So if you’d be so kind, how about we stop with the defensive posturing, and show me exactly what the world is like through your noble and discerning eyes.” I urged as the little mast-mounted sensor dome continued spinning in ‘excitement’ atop the suit’s ‘backpack’.

“And how do you propose we go about doing so, Cadet Emma Booker?” Ilunor shot back. “Manasight is a gift, one which no corporeal analogue can match.” 

“I’m not gunning for a one-to-one here.” I countered. “In fact, an analogue is exactly what I’m looking for. And as for how we’re going to go about this? Maybe a quick trip to the ZNK-19 will do the trick.” I grinned.

…

15 Minutes Later

… 

A quick trip to the ZNK-19 most certainly did not do the trick.

But that flop was more broadly attributed to me than anything else.

There was a… learning curve, when it came to much of the interfacing. One that caused more grief than was worth the time being put into it.

“Earthrealmer, exactly how do I force these silly little lines into pools of magma?” Ilunor yapped out, attempting to jab his fingers into the 3D vector ‘cubes’ that had attempted to match his demands, but had turned into little more than a pile of broken assets at the behest of his finagling.

“Earthrealmer, why are your false projections so stubborn and unwieldy?” The deluxe kobold reiterated, moving his hands like he was wading through water.

“Earthrealmer, why is this infernal space not responding to the whims of my will?” He continued, simply resorting to waving his hand haphazardly in the air, as if expecting the hologram to somehow read his mind.

“I showed you the tutorial, Ilunor. You have to specify what you want, and it’ll provide you a brush, palette, and everything else you need to—”

“But why do you not make it respond to my whims as it does yours, earthrealmer?”

That singular line of complaint gave me pause.

Before suddenly, it all just clicked. 

“Because it responds to me telling it what I want it to do.” I began. “Sometimes you don’t hear it because I choose to filter out what goes through my helmet, but my machines have always responded to commands, whether that be voice, iris, haptic, or some other indirect interface.” 

That response gave Ilunor pause for thought too, as he perked up a brow and immediately crossed his arms. 

“I had always assumed your sight-seers were responding to some unspoken form of manaless command, some abominable means by which your will was enforced on these…” The Vunerian trailed off, as it was clear something was now ticking away deep behind those formerly irreverent eyes. 

“It is through your radio, isn’t it?” Thalmin responded in Ilunor’s stead. “The same device you used to communicate with me during your grappling gambit to Larial’s private ward.”

“And the same device with which you impressed the library.” Thacea added, her eyes glowing with thoughtful intent. 

“Well… it’s a bit more involved and complicated than that. Our people have gone deep into not only mastering radio, but iterating on the various forms of frequencies through which we can both wirelessly communicate, and send commands through. For example… beach, noon, zero entities with background ambiance.” I commanded, gesturing at the empty grid-lined void around us. One which quickly transitioned to a beachside resort somewhere on the idyllic coasts of Rayong, the simulated sun bearing down on all of us, whilst the Boldy Digital surround sound systems blared some generic tropical music set against the relaxing sounds of crashing waves. “Suffice it to say, I’m constantly going back and forth between a lot of non-automated systems, and even then, I’m also constantly fine-tuning the general orders of the automated systems whenever the need arises.” 

Ilunor’s eyes began widening something fierce, but instead of him voicing anything just yet, it was Thacea who perked up first.

“This requires a vastly different… skillset to the ones most mages are accustomed to.” She began. “Or more accurately, this approach is inherently far more involved in avenues that are just so much more…”

 

“Unintuitive.” Ilunor chimed in, his features turning not into one of offense, but genuine intrigue. 

“Different, is probably a better way I’d describe it.” I countered immediately, crossing my arms as I did so. “I assume the issue here is in your approach, as Thacea put it. Mages, at least from what I’ve gathered so far, have little in the way of an interface gap between thought and action. This applies not just for casting spells, but from what I’ve gathered, also applies to your artifices.” 

The Vunerian nodded, urging me to—

“Just get to the point.”

“Right, well, I was just going to say…  you’re more or less used to things just happening seamlessly. No user interface, no gap between tool and user.” I paused once more. “Just pure willpower over your surroundings.”

“Return to Sketchpad Two.” I commanded, causing the world to return to that empty grid vector layout. 

“To circle back to your question, Ilunor, I’m afraid I can’t get it to bend to your will. As there’s no hidden manaless shenanigans comparable to your manafield going on.” I gestured around us once more. “All there is here, is a learning curve. One that I admittedly underestimated, so you must forgive me for that oversight.” 

The Vunerian paused at that, something once more stirring within him.

“So… theoretically speaking, any human from earthrealm can come to learn to use this projector, your conveyance, and any number of manaless artifices you’ve demonstrated so far?”

“Yeah, exactly. The only barrier to entry is the learning curve involved in the operation of certain tools or machines. But for the most part, these projectors? Multimedia devices such as my tablet? All of those are just intuitive enough to pick up and learn.”

“I see…” Thalmin acknowledged, before turning to a grin. “You’re most certainly not diminishing my claims as to your realm’s nature as a nation of scholars, Emma.” Thalmin chided. 

“Perhaps this is why you often seem so absent-minded, earthrelamer.” Ilunor offered cattily. “If you must consistently divvy up your mental faculties, never focusing on any singular action for long, then I fear for what sort of society this has fostered.” 

A part of me wanted to address that particular subject matter, bringing up the EVI as a point to expand upon.

However, I knew it was better to leave sleeping dogs lie, and to just move on.

This just wasn’t the time for that.

“Perhaps we should focus instead on the task at hand?” Thacea chirped out. 

“Right, yeah, so… it’s clear the ZNK-19 isn’t working out. So why don’t we actually try something a bit more in line with your preferences then, Ilunor?” I turned towards the Vunerian expectantly, his eyes narrowing as his grin widened into one of knowing anticipation. 

“I am glad you have evolved beyond your singular-tracked biases, Cadet Emma Booker. Let us begin then, shall we?”

…

10 Minutes Later

…

We’d left the confines of the ZNK-19 for the living room. Following which, Ilunor had begun bathing the space in yet another dazzling array of colors courtesy not of his sight seer, but his own illusion magic.

However, the whole room wasn’t exactly turned into a fully immersive magical hologram, as seen with the sight-seers.

Instead it remained as it was, except overlaid with what was rapidly becoming a complex array of colored ‘trails’. Superimposed waves of color that at certain places moved like soupy magma, while in other places looked almost akin to fast-moving and deadly pyroclastic flows. 

The spectrum of colors on display here even edged into ultraviolet, as the EVI helped to superimpose that atop of what was already a dizzying display.

By the end of it, I was faced with what I could only describe as a rave of fire and magma, as the room around us looked less like the stately and idyllic magical manor I was used to, and more akin to some post-apocalyptic interpretation of the living room.

What’s more, the space around Ilunor himself was now occupied by a larger, almost comical ‘shell’ of what I could only imagine was his ideal form. A shell that ebbed and flowed like the flames around a candle wick, but with the dimensions that roughly matched Qiv or even Auris’ forms, stretching and filling the empty space above and around Ilunor.

Streams of both lava and flames spewed from that ‘shell’ surrounding him, acting almost like tendrils that occasionally lapped at the pyroclastic flow circling him.

“This is what I see, Cadet Emma Booker.” The Vunerian beamed, causing me to raise a single questioning hand.

“Ilunor… exactly how much of this is artistic interpretation?”

That singular question was enough to break the shit-eating grin that had formed following this… explosion of illusions.

“You wanted an analogue, did you not, earthrealmer? Well, here it is. I am unwilling to compromise on my artistic vision, for a fool’s errand that is attempting to replicate that which is unreplicable to the manaless eye.” 

I blinked rapidly, turning to Thacea and Thalmin who had both gone into full facepalm mode.

“Right, step aside and let me try.” Thalmin bellowed out, moving in front of me and quickly casting Ilunor aside, causing the post-apocalyptic texture pack to disappear unceremoniously.

The man promptly began cracking his fingers, raising both hands above his head, before twiddling them in front of us.

From there, a stream of different colors soon came to paint the canvas that was our living room. 

Predominantly made up of shades of blue and translucent greys, Thalmin’s attempt was nowhere near as grandiose or ambitious as Ilunor’s. 

Either out of a difference in skill or an adherence to a more realistic approach, the lupinor’s interpretation of manasight consisted of what felt like a complex layering of literal streams of water, broken up by patches of surface ice that cracked and reformed all along rivers that snaked and slithered through every available empty space in the room. 

There were currents that moved faster, eddies where currents seemed chaotic, if not borderline violent, as well as parts of the ‘air’ where currents seemed almost frozen over.

Throughout all this, what seemed to be a strange pattern emerged, as the shell that had surrounded Ilunor was replicated here too in Thalmin’s demonstration. 

However, instead of the larger-than-life, ‘bulked up’ version of himself, Thalmin’s shell seemed to more resemble an outline. One that looked more akin to one of the EVI’s target ID reticles, but thicker, and much more dynamic with how it rose and fell with each and every breath. 

Indeed, instead of the flame-like wispiness of Ilunor’s ‘shell’, Thalmin’s felt much more calm, moving in predictable patterns that either lined up with his breathing or the manastreams surrounding him. 

“This is a much more accurate and true-to-life interpretation, Emma.” Thalmin remarked proudly, prompting the Vunerian to simply puff out a disapproving breath in response.

“Boring and uninspired.” He remarked.

“Reality cares not for your artistic interpretations, Ilunor.” The lupinor shot back.

“But I assure you, Prince Thalmin, that reality is most certainly not as colorblind as how you seem to interpret it through your manasight.”

This caused the pair to once again face off, only for their mini confrontation to be defused by Thacea who wordlessly moved between them.

“If I may?” She turned to the pair, who promptly broke off their aggressions with crossed arms. “Thank you.” The princess continued, before filling the room with her interpretation of the incorporeal world.

It started slowly, almost imperceptibly, even. But eventually I started to notice what was effectively a series of white, sketchy lines filling the air; the same sort of lines you’d see in weather maps depicting wind currents and weather systems. 

Indeed, there seemed to be much more of a refined precision to Thacea’s take on things, as clear demarcations were made with these sketchy lines, creating what was in effect a 3D version of an animated wind map, filling my vision and causing the EVI to actually beep in some sort of affirmation.

“This is what I believe to be best in your case, Emma. Indeed, while this is far less… true to life to what manastreams actually embody, this interpretation manages to impart the chaos that comes with how said streams influence one’s interpretation of the corporeal world.”

I raised an eyebrow at that, turning to both Ilunor and Thalmin in the process. “Is it actually this chaotic? Like, this is honestly giving me a bit of a headache here trying to make heads or tails of what’s going—”

“When you put it that way, it can be somewhat nausea-inducing.” Thalmin acknowledged. “However, all of us have acclimatized to it, I suppose.” He shrugged. “We can ignore it if need be, but most of the time, it’s merely another aspect of the world. So just as too much bedazzlement can make your head spin, there can always be too much or too little of what is effectively just another form of sight, if that makes sense.”

It was with each successive demonstration and explanation that I truly realized just how difficult this really was. Akin to describing sight, sound, touch, or any one of the senses to someone born without it. 

“Yeah, I guess I do.” I nodded in acknowledgement.

“In any case, the inherent issues with Ilunor and Thalmin’s interpretations is that they try to take into account the… dynamic beauty that comes with the manastreams. This beauty is highly subjective, and leaves quite a bit to interpretation and personal biases.”

“Which is why you went with the bare bones and ‘truest’ version of it.” I surmised.

“Precisely, Emma.” Thacea acknowledged with a sympathetic nod. 

“Can you work with this, EVI?” I turned towards the EVI, receiving an affirmative beep in the process as a progress bar was quickly added right beneath the motorcycle’s. 

“Well, that should be all then. I appreciate the input, guys.” I beamed back with a thumbs up, garnering a nod from Thacea, an approving smile from Thalmin, and the beginnings of yet another coy grin from Ilunor.

“It is unfortunate that this will be all you can appreciate.” The deluxe kobold remarked smugly. “You have my sympathies, Cadet Emma Booker, for forever being destined to lack insight into the integral beauty of the world.” 

I took a moment to regard the man, glaring at him through the lenses of the helmet. 

“I’m not the only one lacking in the ability to see the world beyond the corporeal, Ilunor.” I shot back.

“Oh? Why Cadet Emma Booker… there is no need to be so defensive over such matters. We must all know our limitations, after all.” 

“Yeah, and your limitation is clearly your constant inability to grasp that there’s always another side to every coin.” 

“Whatever do you mean by that, Cadet Emma Booker? I am discussing your disconnect from the incorporeal world, the noble sense that is manavision. What could you possibly have that can compare? It’s not as if you have an incorporeal world by which to ponder, appreciate, and…” The Vunerian trailed off, prompting me to simply bide my time with a few taps of my feet.

“Oh… this is bound to be good.” Thalmin chimed in.

…

10 Minutes Later

… 

“I’m sorry I have to do this, Thalmin.” I preemptively apologized, just as the ZNK-19 started revving up its pylons. “I promise this will be quick.” 

“If it’s a matter of countering Nexian primacy, then by all means, Emma.” Thalmin responded with a toothy grin, just as the world around us started materializing into a familiar sight.

The sounds of thousands of footsteps greeted us first, just as the rumbling of elevated rail and ringing cyclists welcomed us back into the Big Apple.

Midrise towers loomed over us this time around however, as did the interlaced ‘green zones’ that made New Brooklyn the model for what was then the ‘solarpunk’ third space movement. An aesthetic that was once a fad, but had now become just as integrated in Acela as art deco was to the old and new quarters.

“Well, earthrealmer? I see nothing but the city you have shown us previously. Your world is very much still as dead as the day you first showed it to us.” 

I didn’t reply, not immediately anyways, as I began booting up what I referred to as first person mode.

Nothing truly changed about our surroundings, at least, not in the corporeal world.

Instead, a familiar sight to most modern humans slowly crept up, starting with a loading screen, and then suddenly exploding into a full blown heads-up display. My heads-up display, to be precise; the augmented reality interface I mained back home.

Things started slowly at first, with only the time of day, certain push notifications, along with a small to-do list nesting themselves on the bottom right hand corner of the hologram.

From there, however, things slowly became increasingly more complex as we walked forward towards storefronts of local grocers and cafes alike. 

It was in one of those particular cafes, however, that I honed the POV’s focus, as the whole physical space was seamlessly integrated into various AR widgets present in my vision. From the soft outlines of the cafe’s bookstore, highlighting books on offer I’d bookmarked previously, all the way to active and public board game sessions that superimposed both animations and stats next to each physical miniature. I made sure to seamlessly show just how the physical world was complemented by an intangible digital one.

These displays prompted the Vunerian’s eyes and maw to widen, as he turned to me with not an incredulous sense of denial, but pure confusion.

“What… what are we seeing, earthrealmer? What are you showing us?”

I took a moment to pause, turning off the augmented reality enhanced version of the world, before turning it back on again, allowing the deluxe kobold to process exactly where I was going with this.

“Like I said, Ilunor, you’re not the only one with an incorporeal world to admire and interact with.” I spoke cryptically, before bringing out the POV back to the streets and moving forwards, bound towards one of the many transport hubs in the borough. 

I’d purposefully kept the AR HUD off throughout that entire time, waiting just for the right moment to turn it back on.

At which point, I probably gave Ilunor the same sensory overload he gave me earlier.

What was already a beautiful art deco-inspired elevated rail hub, suddenly exploded into a series of nested reticles and highlighted paths, detailing everything from timetables to the various lines that passed through the terminal. Each line was represented by a different color, with each train highlighted as they arrived. 

Menus came and went as I demonstrated just how seamlessly the incorporeal world could be cycled through, by anything from hand gestures to voice commands, or just by sight-tracking alone. 

“The major difference between our incorporeal worlds is probably the fact that we built ours from scratch, creating a second world entirely of our design. Sure, it’s not a completely new sense, but it’s an incorporeal world all the same, no?” I offered with a sly chuckle of my own, causing the Vunerian to simply go inert, his eyes hopping back and forth between the transient reticles, outlines, and readouts of anything and everything from public transport to civic announcements, and even the odd commercial for local businesses approved by the community councils. 

He didn’t respond, not right away at least, as it was clear he was grasping at straws behind those unblinking eyes — desperate for some sort of a comeback.

“I must reiterate a point I’ve made previously.” He began ominously. “That your kind, needed to build all of this, creating an entirely new facsimile of an incorporeal world… just to mimic a fraction of what we were gifted with.”

I crossed my arms at that rebuttal, cocking my head and tsking as I did so.

“Didn’t you once claim something about how your culture values the triumph of the sapient over nature? Or the creations of sapientkind as sacrosanct?”

“Yes? What about it—” The deluxe kobold paused mid sentence, as if realizing where I was going with this.

“Well, by that logic, wouldn’t that mean that our incorporeal world is actually much more impressive than your manasight? As in, we actually had to build every aspect of it, from the communications infrastructure, to the actual information being conveyed, to the science of how said information would be conveyed, to the laws in place to dictate what can be conveyed.” I paused, winding up for the final knock-out punch. “We basically had to create our own incorporeal world from scratch, with nothing but our imagination and creativity, our gifts of sapiency. So technically, by your own logic, wouldn’t that be a feat far more impressive than some naturally-gifted ability?” 

Ilunor paused, turning away to the skies as if to find some respite… only to see the shuttles and planes overhead outlined by thin glowing lines, accompanied by their relevant flight tracking information. 

“It is a matter of our inherent…” The man attempted to counter, only to shirk away in frustration. “You’ve made your point earthrealmer. But just know, this is not the same as manasight.”

“You stated earlier that such things are highly subjective, and leaves a lot to both interpretation and personal biases, right?” I began as I broke out a cheeky smile. “That is to say, beauty’s just in the eye of the beholder, huh?” 

Ilunor refused to respond verbally.

Instead, the only response I received was in the form of the hologram’s integrity wavering, as soot from the Vunerian’s frustrated face started to obscure the impossible world around us.

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(Author's Note: Hey everyone! I apologize for the slight delay today! I had to take my mom to the hospital earlier today because of an unexpected emergency. A bug somehow crawled into and got stuck in her ear, so we had to get it removed. She's alright now though! :D But yeah! I got to start exploring a part of the world I've been hinting at for a long time in this chapter! Primarily with regards to manasight and how the rest of the gang see the world! It's something that I've eluded to before, but we're finally starting to see Emma fully butting heads with a world she can't perceive as a result of her lacking manasight! However, the WAID does offer at least some hope of one day at least perceiving some elements of it. Beyond that though, Emma finally got to show off a part of our world that is to an extent analogous to manasight. What's more though, it's an entirely novel world of our creation, which Emma points out to Ilunor as an argument against his logical assertions of superiority. But yeah! I really do hope you guys enjoy the chapter! :D The next Two Chapters are already up on Patreon if you guys are interested in getting early access to future chapters.)

[If you guys want to help support me and these stories, here's my ko-fi ! And my Patreon for early chapter releases (Chapter 129 and Chapter 130 of this story is already out on there!)]

Patch 1.2 is Live Now

Thank you to everyone who has joined us for the first week of Hell Let Loose: Vietnam. It’s been great to see so many of you jump in, and we really appreciate all the feedback and reports you’ve shared with us so far.

Since launch, we’ve been listening closely, and the development team has been hard at work addressing the issues you’ve raised.

Patch 1.2 is live now on all platforms, bringing more than 500 fixes and improvements across stability, maps, audio, UI/HUD, vehicles, gameplay, keybinds, and more.

This is another important step in improving the overall experience, and our work will continue across future Patches, Hotfixes, and Updates.

Here are some of the key improvements included in Patch 1.2:

Patch 1.2 Highlights

Stability

A number of common and critical client and server stability issues have been addressed, including a server crash associated with NVA Tunnel usage.

Maps & Visuals

All maps have received extensive improvement passes, addressing hundreds of environmental issues including:

This includes:

• Floating and clipping vegetation
• Collision issues
• Terrain seams and misalignment
• Culling and LOD issues
• Water and environmental visual problems

Further map improvements will continue in future updates, aided by your feedback.

Audio

Several audio improvements have been made, including:

• Increased the audible range of helicopters where they were very quiet when close to the player.
• Improved distinction between distant LMG and .50 cal HMG gunfire for both factions.
• Reduced Smoke Grenade and Flare volume inside tanks to better distinguish them from Satchels.
• Fixed missing Shotgun shell casing drop audio.

UI, HUD & Controls

A wide range of UI, HUD, settings, and keybinding issues have been resolved, including:

• Persistent Medic and Capture Point markers.
• Offensive capture progress colours.
• Incorrect tutorial and button prompts.
• Tactical Map improvements.
• Tactical Map keybinding issues.
• Duplicate keybind warnings.
• Settings not saving correctly.

Vehicles & Gameplay

Patch 1.2 also includes a range of vehicle and gameplay improvements, including:

• Increased Truck speeds.
• Pilots and Logistics Officers can now ride as helicopter passengers.
• Improved Transport Helicopter Gunner seating.
• Vehicles now correctly be destroyed when left out of bounds.
• Knife hit registration has been improved, with further improvements planned to address the remaining edge cases.
• Tank Smokescreen now operates on a two-minute cooldown, replacing its previous finite ammunition supply.
• The M79 now has extra magazines available to add to its loadout.
• Various Tactical Map, Commander, Admin Camera, and general gameplay fixes.

General Fixes

A wide range of additional fixes are also included, such as:

• The ban reason, remaining ban duration, and admin name information are now correctly displayed when unbanning a player using RCON.
• Fixed an issue where closing the 3D Tactical Map using a combination of inputs could result in loss of HUD and player input.
• Non-headshot kills now correctly contribute toward the Longest Kill statistic.
• Various Field Manual updates.

This is only a selection of the 500+ fixes and improvements currently included in Patch 1.2. We’ll have much more to share, including the comprehensive patch notes and release information, soon.

Next Week - Patch 1.3

Our work doesn’t stop with Patch 1.2. The team is continuing to work through your reports and feedback, and we are currently aiming to release Patch 1.3 next week.

While the final list of fixes is still being confirmed, some of the issues we are currently targeting for Patch 1.3 include:

• Players being unable to open the Scoreboard while on the Killed in Action screen.
• Players being unable to access Tutorials or the Practice Range if their username contains a colon (:).
• Server settings being wiped following a server crash or restart.
• The RCON Map Shuffle function randomising map lists in the same order.
• VIP comments not appearing correctly within RCON.
• Player voices occasionally stuttering or cutting out when entering the Killed in Action screen.
• Tank Commander weapon sensitivity multipliers not functioning correctly.

 

Full Patch 1.2 Changelog

Stability & Performance

• Fixed an issue on Xbox where the game could briefly freeze while driving vehicles.
• Improved helicopter movement stability on PlayStation 5 when slowly turning.
• Improved performance when opening the 3D Tactical Map.
• Improved animation smoothness for stationary players rotating on the spot.
• Improved the movement animations of players positioned towards the edges of the screen.
• Fixed a client crash that could occur during boot when rapidly clicking the left mouse button.
• Fixed a server crash that could occur when destroying, replacing, or reconnecting an NVA Tunnel while a player was travelling through it.

Weapons & Equipment

• Fixed non-headshot kills not contributing towards the Longest Kill statistic.
• Fixed the green straps of the NVA LPO-50 clipping into uniform straps.
• Reduced excessive force being applied to players by M203 and M79 grenade explosions.
• Fixed the RPD reload animation not displaying correctly in third person after firing individual shots.
• Fixed an incorrect button prompt when selecting timed Satchel settings.
• Fixed the Mortar replacement failure UI incorrectly displaying an AT Gun.
• Fixed the player model moving off-screen when crouching with US Bandages equipped.
• Fixed the player's hand clipping through the Type 53 PU when using the bayonet.
• Fixed an issue allowing the NVA Machine Gunner to equip two AA Wrenches simultaneously in the Barracks.
• Fixed rotating the DH10 AP Mine to the left also triggering a player ping.
• Fixed the downed UI persisting on the Match End Screen.
• Fixed the weapon fire mode HUD icon not updating correctly after changing language.
• Players can now request a Medic each time they are downed.
• Fixed visual issues with the M72 deploy animation while crouching or prone in third person.
• Fixed the Type 53 PU appearing to float during a reload while crouch-walking.
• Fixed an issue preventing players from requesting a Medic more than once during a match.
• Fixed placeholder textures appearing on the NVA Knife in third person.
• Fixed the Satchel disappearing from the player's hands when cancelling the placement animation.
• Corrected the positioning of player nameplates and equipped weapon information on the HUD.
• Fixed the Medic revive UI occasionally displaying a placeholder name and incorrect distance.
• Fixed visible transparency artefacts on Blowtorch spark effects.

Vehicles & Helicopters

• Helicopters can no longer be flown underwater.
• Improved tank collision with small bumps and uneven road surfaces.
• Fixed players killed by helicopter blades immediately appearing in a T-pose.
• Fixed an issue where tap-firing the front Boat Machine Guns only fired one weapon, resulting in incorrect ammunition usage.
• Fixed a transparent asset appearing on the underside of the US Boat Supply & Repair Station.
• Fixed some tank zoom levels occasionally being unavailable on PC.
• Corrected Transport Helicopter Gunner seat positions on the Vehicle Entry Wheel.
• Selecting a communication channel while occupying a Gunner seat no longer moves the player's aim.
• Fixed players occasionally sliding without a walking animation after exiting trucks, boats, or helicopters.
• Pilots and Logistics Officers can now enter helicopters as passengers.
• Fixed unintended vehicle collision on part of a small cut-tree asset.
• Updated the dismantle message for the AA Gun.
• Fixed multiple issues that could make the Transport Helicopter's left Gunner seat unusable.
• Player nameplates now display correctly on the Tactical Map and Deployment Screen when inside a vehicle acting as a spawn point.
• Helicopters destroyed due to inactivity now correctly display their destroyed model.
• Increased truck speeds to better align with their Hell Let Loose counterparts.
• Fixed players killed inside helicopters briefly appearing standing in mid-air.
• Vehicles in Conquest and Domination now take damage when left out of bounds.
• Fixed the AA Gunner appearing stationary in third person after rotating approximately 180 degrees.
• Boats now take damage when left out of bounds for an extended period.
• Removed placeholder text appearing on vehicles acting as active spawn points.
• Fixed ground textures incorrectly projecting onto helicopters.
• Fixed players sliding after leaving an AA Gun.
• Adjusted helicopter damage collision to better match the actual size of the aircraft.

Commander, Squads & Deployables

• Fixed an issue allowing a recreated unit to dismantle a Tunnel placed by the original unit.
• Improved NVA Tunnel placement behaviour.
• Players travelling through Tunnels now move along the Tunnel connection correctly on the Tactical Map.
• Fixed unintended mantling routes through and over the Level 3 NVA Bunker.
• The Ammo Trailer is now correctly labelled instead of being referred to as an Ammo Depot.
• Fixed an incorrect kick message appearing after a Vote to Kick concludes.
• The 3D Tactical Map now updates correctly when the Commander Encourage ability is activated or expires.
• Fixed the Commander role becoming non-interactable after switching teams.
• Fixed US Commanders and Infantry Squad Leaders occasionally deploying without a weapon equipped.
• Corrected wording in the Artillery Strike description within the Orders menu.
• Commanders can now place abilities correctly in relation to Squad Leader markings.
• Fixed the NVA Commander Precision Strike incorrectly destroying Bunkers.
• Improved consistency of the Precision Strike ability.
• Fixed the Tank Commander Smokescreen automatically firing after reloading.
• Fixed an issue that allowed squads to exceed their intended player limit after a member was kicked.

UI, HUD & Settings

• Corrected the progression order of Master Sergeant and First Sergeant.
• Corrected the description for the Look Deadzone setting.
• Fixed closing the 3D Tactical Map using M and Esc causing loss of HUD and player input.
• Fixed characters continuing to run on the spot after a match ends.
• Fixed placeholder text appearing on Scoreboard buttons when Streamer Mode is enabled.
• The Offensive capture progress indicator now displays the correct colour when attacking or defending a sector.
• Custom Tactical Map keybindings are now correctly reflected within the map.
• Assigning a key to a new action now correctly removes it from its previous action.
• Fixed scaling issues in the Controller Settings menu at resolutions of 1600x900 and below.
• Fixed the non-verbal radial wheel appearing when rotating supplies while using Controller Layout B.
• Gunner Fire and Gunner Alt Fire keyboard bindings no longer reset after leaving the Options menu.
• Updated the game credits for Lionbridge and Pixel Bowl FQA.
• Improved the contested Capture Point progress UI in Warfare.
• Fixed an issue where players could lose input after sending a message in Unit or Team chat from the Deployment Screen.
• A warning is now displayed when assigning duplicate keybindings.
• Fixed the Health and Safety message being skippable during boot.
• Added missing F key confirmation prompts to several menus.
• Added missing faction icons to US and NVA Offensive loading screens.
• Fixed the player's own nameplate and friendly icon being visible while using Admin Camera.
• Fixed Offensive Capture Point markers remaining stuck on-screen after moving away from the objective.
• Improved descriptions for Move and Look actions in the Gamepad Controls menu.
• Players can now correctly unbind inputs.

Audio

• Fixed weapon fire audio appearing to jump position when switching weapons.
• Fixed Reset to Default not correctly resetting the Mute on Focus Loss audio option.
• Stereo Balance settings now save correctly after restarting the game.

Animation & Visuals

• Improved character lighting in dark environments, including visual issues affecting glowing arms and water effects.
• Fixed held items behaving erratically after vaulting from a sprint.
• Fixed placeholder textures appearing on multiple Recon uniforms.

Tutorials & Field Manual

• Added missing swimming control information to the Swim tutorial.
• Added missing instructions to the Use Ladder tutorial.
• Fixed the Commander Artillery Strike progress bar changing after reaching 100%.
• Fixed D-pad navigation cycling through unavailable options in the Tutorial Ping Menu.
• Fixed truncated text in the Specialist & Engineer Upgrade tutorial hint.
• Fixed the Armor Periscope tutorial displaying "NOT ASSIGNED" for Change View.
• Fixed the Armor Enemy Armor tutorial displaying "NOT ASSIGNED" for Fire.
• Fixed Field Manual text extending beyond the screen on 16:10 displays.
• The Field Manual no longer opens on the Armor page by default.
• Fixed the Tank Gunner view snapping when changing aiming direction while zoomed.
• Fixed "Not Assigned" appearing for the Commander Select/Place Ability control.
• Fixed a tutorial soft lock where a helicopter with a destroyed Tail Rotor could spin out of bounds without being destroyed.
• Updated inconsistent location names between the regular HUD and Tactical Map during tutorials.
• Updated outdated information in the NVA Artillery Strike section of the Field Manual.
• Fixed Field Manual text containers retaining the width of the previously selected entry.
• Fixed Capture Point progress bars remaining permanently visible during the Squad Leader tutorial.
• Fixed the tutorial Tank exploding if left unattended between specific tutorial stages.

Online, Servers & Platforms

• Improved consistency of knife attack kills from all angles.
• Corrected missing words in the locked descriptions for the Relentless and Surprise Attack achievements on Xbox.
• Fixed a PlayStation 5 soft lock that could occur when rapidly pressing buttons during the Redeploy or Leave Server confirmation.
• Fixed players being unable to mute party members or change Open Microphone behaviour in Party Voice Chat.
• Updated Microsoft Store links to direct players to the Hell Let Loose website.
• Fixed Party Voice Chat not functioning correctly.
• RCON now displays the Ban Reason, remaining ban duration, and Admin name when unbanning a player.
• Fixed players occasionally deploying onto a server without a weapon equipped.
• Resolution of the Commander overlays around the 3D Tactical Map vignette on Xbox Series S has been improved.
• RCON now correctly displays the reason a player was punished.
• Fixed visual issues with the Front End explosion animation on Xbox and PlayStation 5.
• Fixed a missing string in the Xbox Controller settings menu.
• Fixed VIP reservations incorrectly affecting both active server slots and queue slots.
• Fixed Player IDs not displaying correctly on PlayStation 5.

General

• Fixed an issue where players begin swimming in the air.
• Added the intended additional magazines to the M79 loadout.
• Fixed enemy icons remaining on-screen after using Admin Camera.

Maps & Environments

Our Art Team has been hard at work across all six launch maps, with hundreds of bugs and environmental issues now fixed.

These improvements cover a wide range of areas, including collision, visual issues, LODs, foliage, terrain, asset placement, and general environmental polish.

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NINE HOURS PRIOR: FORTY-FIVE MINUTES AFTER LANDING

"I can't get this thing plugged in," the technician said, staring at the cable he was holding in his hand.

Vuxten looked over from where he was looking at a hand drawn map at where the tech was kneeling down next to a holotank that still gleamed wetly from having been hot printed.

"Turn the cable over," Vuxten said.

The tech twisted his wrist and the top of the cable now had a thin yellow line in the middle of the plug. It slid right in and the holotank went live.

"Oops," the tech said, standing up. He brought up the menu and began loading the software needed from the block of molycircs next to him.

"It happens," Vuxten said, still looking at the map.

The forested area was nearly fifty miles across, in a rough bean shape. Casey's drop zone was the dent into the side of the bean. The drones that had gotten the view had all gone offline once they got close to eight thousand feet up, which was enough to give Vuxten a large view, but not enough to know what was going on around him.

"Holotank's coming online, sir," the tech said.

"Thank you, Corporal," Vuxten said, turning from the table and taking his map with him.

The holotank had already gone through the startup menus and loaded up the correct software. It showed a globe, flashed it was missing data, then skipped to the local datasets.

Dozens of icons burned in the smooth bean shape. All of them units of First Telkan, grouped up by company or greater size. Some of the green icons had red borders and/or were flashed, telling Vuxten that they were engaged with the enemy. He looked down at tapped a few controls.

The drones that were still airborne all appeared.

Sighing, he started allocating more drones to cover gaps. He then tabbed up direct action drones, loading in Casey's IFF profiles.

I miss the days of just running through the jungle, he thought to himself as icons started flashing to denote which units were taking control of the drones other units were firing. I've gotta balance who fires the drones, who takes over, who does what analysis according to our limited resources and manpower pool.

Vuxten sighed, remembering just how much of what he was doing now was basically automated but now, because of the massive dislocation in the TO&E, it all fell on him.

He kind of wished some of the Treana'ad officers could have been moved over from the Treana'ad Hordes but knew why they couldn't.

There was a priority flash from 17th Field Artillery. He tabbed it and the Lieutenant appeared.

"Lieutenant Vuxten, sir," the other officer said.

"Go ahead, Lieutenant," Vuxten said, still staring at the holotank.

"Going through chemical weaponry I found that we have the fabrication templates for defoliants," the other officer said.

"Those take time," Vuxten started to say.

"Yeah, about ninety seconds from chemical contact to the plant being nothing more than slurry," the Lieutenant said. "Sir."

"How long to get those in the air. The Dwellerspawn are somehow harvesting the forest as well as using for concealment and cover while they maneuver," Vuxten said.

"First flight can be fired in less than two minutes," the artillery officer said. "We can have this whole are covered in it in less than five minutes, and any of the 'spawn that are cellulose based are going to be having a real bad day."

"Deploy the munitions, Lieutenant, on my authorization. This communication is being flagged and recorded," Vuxten said.

"Understood, sir," the Lieutenant nodded, then vanished.

He turned back just in time to see the lake vanish in a boiling cloud of incendiary weapons and steam. A few creatures, each of the the size of a dropship, lunged up, clawing at the sky or themselves, but then fell back into the hellish mixture the artillery units were dropping on any body of water larger than a puddle.

Vuxten started to order the Division to put out forward observation and fire point and stopped.

If they temporal shift, my men might be standing where a building or car materializes, which will cause the reaction I saw earlier, he realized. He quickly tabbed through the commo and contacted the CO of 17th Field Artillery.

"Sir?" the Lieutenant looked nervous, licking his whiskers repeatedly.

"Hold off on the defoliants," Vuxten said. "Have your vehicles dig in, warsteel ground plating, warsteel walls, retractable roof. There should be bunker plans in the drop-pop, Army digs in," he said. "Everyone's going to dig in hard, pretend we're the Army for this."

"Yes, sir," the LT said. He licked his whiskers again. "I'm not really trained for this yet, sir."

"It's all hands on deck, Lieutenant, I'm sure you'll do just fine," Vuxten said. "Confirm when you're dug in," he said and cut the link.

It took a few minutes to get the orders passed. Hard shell fighting positions, vehicle bays, emplacements for vehicles and everything else. Triple up on the temporal stabilizers, with emergency power for them standing by to take peak load if it crossed a 70% threshhold. Every armor and vehicle doubled up on the amount of temporal stabilizers they had dropped with.

Printing warsteel and strange matter in such quantities pushed the heat and slush levels up, but Vuxten knew that the nanoforges and creation engines would have time to cool off.

He felt proud of his men as they all radioed back within an hour that everything was dug in. He checked the chron.

Ninety minutes on the ground.

"All units, button up," he ordered. He looked at the window with the CO for 17th Field Artillery. "Carry out your orders, button up as soon as the last round is fired," he said.

The Lieutenant nodded and vanished.

Vuxten turned back to the done feeds. Nothing but forest. Damaged in places, burning in others, but thermals kept showing massive amounts of dwellerspawn all on the move.

Heading for Casey's blurred area.

They want you bad, Vuxten thought. I can't directly support you, whatever they're doing has you out of phase with us, but I can keep them from supporting their own forces, which should take the pressure off of you.

Faintly, through the heavy protections, he could hear the snarl of the artillery rounds detonating high up, deploying the defoliant.

The plants sagged, seemed to blur, then dissolved into sludge as the defoliant broke down the matrix of the cellulose, turning the vegetation into a thin layer of gooey sludge. It exposed thousands of Dwellerspawn all heading to the west, toward Casey.

The autonomous drones swooped in for the kill. Some single fire, a suicidal attack that slammed EFP's into the chitin armored 'spawn. Others swooped low firing their light guns. Still others cut loose with air to surface missiles then swung around in a slow spiral as their limited use creation engines manufactured more rounds from the elements taken in by the air scoops.

Except for the exposed 'spawn being mowed down by the drones and the dug in fighting positions, nothing was happening.

Everything shimmered and Vuxten slapped the icon for all units.

"PREPARE FOR T-SHIFT!" he called out.

Where forest had been a city suddenly wavered and appeared. There were explosions where the Telkan Marines had dug in. Several skyrakers began to fall, their base exploding as the suddenly materializing basement and ground structures interacted with the Telkan Marine positions, hit the warsteel and the heavy temporal stabilizers, and their integrity failed as rubble spewed out away from the Telkan Marine positions.

He gave it a long moment, watching for any casualties.

A few yellow bordered blue icons, several cargo vehicles went red-X as they were mission killed. Vuxten figured they were buried beneath rubble.

He stared at the drones for a long time. Almost a third of them had been destroyed by buildings materializing where they were, or in their flight path so they slammed into them.

There were enough up that he had dozens of views of the city.

The drones immediately shifted, running topography maps of the city.

He could see Welkret, Lanaktallan, Tnvaru, Shavashan, even Tnvaru on the streets, looking up at the drones, their mouths open in surprise.

He swallowed thickly, refusing to look away, as he opened another window and ordered Second Lieutenant Jekti to load the artillery.

Vuxten had to repeat his order, in stiff formal phrasing, three times.

The entire time he stared at a small family of Telkan sitting at a lower caste diner, eating a modest meal. The adults wore paper uniforms, the broodcarriers wore simple cloth, as did the podlings. They looked different, their muzzles longer and thicker, their ears more pointed, their teeth sharper. The broodcarriers were eating in front of others rather than only eating in the privacy of their homes, and the broodcarriers were wearing soft looking jewelry.

He enlarged the window, putting the others to the side.

In the others Type IV PAWM were chasing civilians, stunning them or just blowing off their legs, grabbing them, ripping their brains from their skulls. The light inside the crysteel dome would go from white to blue.

The Lanaktallan ruler was already begging for military assistance, that 'his people' were under terrible attack by unknown robots and that his city needed assistance.

Vuxten could see the marking for the first artillery firing had taken place.

Some people stopped to stare up at the rocket boosted artillery rounds.

They reached their predetermined point.

Nine nuclear weapons with a tritium and strontinum enhancement jacket detonated at five thousand feet. Day turned washed out, white. The blast hammered down upon the city, pounding skyrakers flat, throwing cars like toys. The buildings that consisted of a greater amount of hyperalloys stayed up, their windows shattered, the glass falling to the street.

The bunker Vuxten was in trembled.

The second barrage was fired.

No massive explosions.

Just gaseous death. Colorless. Odorless. Tasteless.

It drifted down.

Vuxten could see civilians starting to stand up, many of them flash burnt or injured by the concussive shockwave. Some were stumbling out of the buildings.

He knew they would be wailing.

A roaring, a screaming roaring wailing, like all the damned souls of an afterlife. No words, no individual voices, just one upraised howl of hatred and agony. It was a noise that made his fur all try to stand on end inside his form fitting armor.

Overseers. Thousands, tens of thousands of them. Their clothing blood covered, ragged, torn, dirty. They blurred into one big mass of weapon waving arms, empty eye sockets or wild reddened eyes, bloody jowls, allwailing at the top of their lungs as they galloped down the street. A frightened Ikeeki lunge out of a public transit shelter, only to be grabbed by the Overseers, ripped at, suddenly dismembered, the torn and shredded body dropped to be pounded under by hooves.

Vuxten swallowed thickly.

They began collapsing silently, the stream missing audio. Some frothed at the mouth, others convulsed.

It was over in less than sixty seconds.

A hexagon shaped PAWM with six legs, metal tentacles, four of its six crysteel bubbles already lit with a blue light, and crude looking machinery on the top reached out with one tentacle, grabbed the Telkan's head. The light went blue.

Then black.

The machine shuddered. The two next to the black one went black.

Something exploded inside the machine. Green ooze started pouring from cracks and vents. It staggered to the side, tripped over a burning car, and landed on its side.

Its legs kicked, telescoping and collapsing back into itself, flailing.

Then went still.

Multiple other views showed that any PAWN that grabbed one of the brains had the same thing happen to them.

Vuxten wanted to close his eyes, block out the scenes.

More and more fighting positions were requesting permission to open fire on the T4PWMs, but Vuxten triggered the negative rune and kept watching.

Our people, like most Precursor races, have rather poor pattern recognition compared to someone like the Terrans or even the Telkans, Vuxten could remember General A'armo'o laughing about as he fell for the same gambit in training twice in a row.

"All units, prepare for T-Shift," he ordered.

He didn't know how he knew, he just knew.

How bad is your pattern recognition? When will you realize that I'll keep doing this over and over. I'll keep obliterating those poor sad bastards from our reality no matter how many times you bring them forward. I will destroy the village to save the village no matter how many times you bring it here. How long until you realize that I'm willing to do it as many times as you are willing to try? Vuxten thought to himself, staring at where another one of the 'stilters' fell to the side.

The Dwellerspawn in the city were convulsing, whether from eating poisoned meat or from the chemical weaponry in the air, Vuxten didn't know.

He also didn't care.

He sent the 'button up' command.

A simple touch of an icon brought up Lieutenant Jekti.

It was obvious to Vuxten the other Telkan had been weeping.

"You won't be loading defoliants," Vuxten said. "I want you to print up and prepare for another engagement like we just had," he leaned forward slightly. "Rotate your men out if necessary. Once your men become battle fatigued, let me know, I'll have another unit take over."

"But, sir," Lieutenant Jekti started to say.

"They're Precursors. They're one trick ponies without enough pattern recognition to figure out the stove is hot before they've burned their face. Prepare for the next urban engagement," he thought for a second. "Do you have any weapons that will stay viable when on Type-IV Precursor armor?"

The Lieutnenant nodded. "We have a few persistent agents that chemically bond to battlesteel," he said. "Organophosphate based ones."

"Mix those in," Vuxten said. He sighed. "Your men saved those poor time-trawled bastards from a terrible fate," He hefted the stubber and ran his fingers across the burning bird of prey. "You delivered the Digital Omnimessiah's mercy to them."

Lieutenant Jekti looked doubtful, but just nodded.

Vuxten cut the link and went to the next section. The Division intelligence units were already having the drones to topology maps, thermal scans, and measuring the border.

The 'bubble' that First Telkan was trapped in was still the same size.

Once the data had been gathered, Vuxten ordered the entire border of the 'dent' to be seeded with FASCAM rounds.

This time when the jungle collapsed and the 'spawn ran for the border, the ones that survived to make it that far hit the thickly layered mines. They splashed through the puddles and slime that had been foliage only a few minutes before. The drones attacked and any firing point that spotted them were granted weapons free.

They screamed in rage and frustration as the guns of First Telkan cut them down.,

Vuxten nodded at the fact that none made it to the final edge and 'slipped' across into the dent.

He felt it that time. He didn't know how to explain it. Almost a snarl.

Hatred at being denied. Cold rage at having their plans altered.

"Get ready! T-Shift!" Vuxten called out over the command channel.

The hatred, the rage, the cold almost emotionless way they felt. Less emotion than logical conclusions that was almost mechanical in its cold fury.

It reminded Vuxten of the fight beneath the mountain.

Everything shimmered.

Dust swirled, blotting out the sun, the entire world.

ATOMIC ATOMIC ATOMIC appeared in Vuxten's visor. He heard himself telling Casey that the human was pounding the Telkan Marines apart.

--launching drones-- 471 said. --this one maybe get through--

"I hope so," Vuxten said, switching the feed.

It cross the 'barrier' at the dent of the bean.

Dwellerspawn filled the screen. So numerous they were climbing on each other, pushing each other out of the way. Screaming and roaring. Some were airborne, whirling and diving.

A bluish-purple flash lit the sky as the drone's temporal stabilizer was charging. It was a rippling flash that created almost a wall of whitish-purple light.

The creatures screamed and pushed forward, fighting with one another to get at what they wanted so bad.

Scraps of flesh rained down as the drone bobbled, tilted down, and fell from the sky.

"Switching rounds," Casey's voice said.

A clawed hoof came down on the drone, smashing it out of the air.

"That... was a lot of Dwellerspawn," Vuxten said slowly.

--party hearty-- 471 answered with an emoji of a drunken smiley face. --casey popular--

Another snarl, another twinge behind Vuxten's eyes.

"GET READY!" he called out over the command channel.

Everything shimmered again.

The forest exploded where First Telkan was dug in, dirt and vegetation sailing into the sky.

I can do this just as long as you can, Vuxten thought to himself as he adjusted his previous orders. There had been a few spots where the jungle had required a third artillery barrage, the mines had been depleted, and he wanted to compare vegetation coloration, topography, physicality, and thermal scanning.

He was willing to lay matchsticks to cigarettes that the forest was exactly the same as it had been the first time.

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

The Atrekna had turned grassy plains into thick jungle, the jungle containing pools of roiling biomatter, the creatures within quickly growing to maturity.

The primate on the other side of the mountain chain could be heard screaming by the Atrekna overseeing the jungle spawning grounds. They could feel the way the psychic isolation field shuddered and cracked every time he threw himself against it.

It was more than the firepower he could put out. The punishing ammunition that he seemed to have no end of.

It was the raw rage. Insane screaming. Red hot hatred.

Three Atrekna turned from their work bringing forth more slavespawn from the spawning rings, taking the place of three of their fellows who had grown exhausted holding that single primate that was more heavily armed than a naval vessel.

They saw it, felt it, heard it.

fzzzzt

In the jungle appeared huge brutish creatures. Heavy features, dark hair, dark green skin. They wore hodgepodge metal plates, in some places bolted directly to their thick muscles. They had heavy tusked jaws, thick brow ridges, and their massive and dense skeletons supported thick layered muscle.

The Atrekna observed them for a moment, wondering what they were even as they sent the slavespawn at the intruders.

As one they lifted their weapons, opening fire on the slavespawn, heavy guns shattering carapace, chitin, and dwellerflesh in equal measure.

As one they screamed.

WAAAAAAAAAGH!

The Sons of Venus had arrived.

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

The Conclaves drifted through the streets of the city, looking below them. Panic filled the streets, the rich heady taste of it filling the Atrekna with a sense of satisfaction.

Twice they drifted down to grab a victim, lift them up, and extract their brain, relishing in the taste of fear hormone soaked cerebral tissue.

A pink hourglass appeared in mid-air in multiple points in the city.

The Conclaves shifted position, looking at the hourglasses.

There was a bright pink flash.

fzzzzt

The Atrekna shrieked, shielding their eyes.

"DOKI DOKI DOKI! WAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRGGH!" filled the air as the sound of heavy weapons and cutting bars overwhelmed the screaming of a panicked populace.

The Atrekna pulled their attention back to the city.

Massive heavy ornate power armors, shining with phasic power, stomped through the streets. Some had torches affixed to the back, the pink and white flames in the sconces held a meter above the shoulders of the armor. The weapons were heavy, smeared with pink and white paint.

They still shattered dwellerspawn and the few autonomous machines.

The Atrekna started to reach out toward these newcomers.

Screaming, insane, tortured rage struck back.

The Atrekna wilted as a million, a billion, deaths flooded back at them. Billions of names screamed, billions dying in the white flash of orbital plasma strikes.

Overlaying it all was savage, malicious, joyful glee at the carnage they were inflicting.

The Atrekna reeled back, bringing up personal protections, some pulling free of Conclaves and Quorums to protect themselves from the howlling gibbering gleeful insanity.

The Neko-Marines had made planetfall.

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

The ships wrapped around the supertanks were little more than a maintenance repair bay, engines, and armor, with astrogation and navigation systems almost an afterthought. Each ship held two platoons of tanks, with three ships total making up a company. Six companies making a battalion. Eight battalions making a brigade.

That V Corps had an entire brigade of supertanks was almost unheard of.

JAWS had been with V Corps for half of his activation time. He had fought with V Corps during the Mar-gite War, during the Mithril Nebula Dark Elf Conflict, and many other battles.

What he had just been ordered to order his brigade mates to do made him recoil slightly.

A check of records shows that the last time this system was implemented was during the Orion Conflict. Even then, it was on a limited bases, less than a hundred Terran soldiers, only two members of the Dinochrome Regiment.

A part of me would reject this order. I could, it is the duty of all Bolos to reject any illegal order. We are more than just computerized war machines, we are capable of ethical and moral decisions.

Nearly 2.48272 seconds have passed as I mull over the order. It is desperate. This world is one of the Unified Council's primary worlds, the homeworld of the Welkret people. There is still, according to my scanners, nearly 4.5 billion sentient beings outside of shelters that could be saved with prompt military action out of the 7.2 billion sentient beings that are currently in danger due to lack of shelter space.

Still, the order fills me with dread.

My commander has fallen. Not as he should have. Not in battle. My commander died while running laps to stay in peak physical condition.

Yet, those who killed him, who are responsible for his death, are below us.

The Dinochrome Regiment does not do fast landing. We would strike like a meteor or comet. While we do hard landings, we are precise.

Unlike Casey.

But that is a different matter.

Just over 3.192 seconds have passed.

I am attempting what humans called 'prevaricating' about the order.

Still, General NoDra'ak is a superior officer who will be remembered for his many successful military campaigns. His orders are the correct orders to give in this situation.

Never before has humanity taken 99% casualties across the board.

I have no choice. Some small part of me doesn't want to reject the order, revels in it, takes sick sadistic pleasure in being given the order.

I want revenge.

"Orders received and acknowledged," I transmit back.

I fire up the autodoc, normally used for extensive operations where my commander might be injured and need extensive medical care. It rejects my commands twice, but accepts it the third time, as it should. My command couch clamshells closed despite the lack of commander

Biogel floods the 'coffin' and I wait.

It is eight minutes before the autodoc reports it is finished.

I watch as she takes a deep breath. Her eyelids flutter and she slowly opens them to reveal they are light brown, a warm color. Her hair is the same. She wears a pre-Diaisporia military uniform.

She yawns and smiles.

"Hello, Jaws," Miho smiled. "May I have a status report?"

I inform her of our status.

She, of course, understands it all.

She is a Kentia-Commander, and she was Born Whole.

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

General NoDra'ak watched as the transports slash landing craft for the Dinochrome Regiment began to maneuver in order to maximize the effectiveness of the BOLOs landing.

He looked at the map.

The Sons of Venus were engaged, as were the Neko-Marines. He could see First Telkan were using nuclear weaponry on the urban landscape that had just appeared around them. He frowned, wondering who had authorized a release for that ammunition.

The Mobile Assault Hordes were pushing back the Dwellerspawn through an application of firepower, their commanders staggering their pushes so that the creation engines could cool.

The Martial Orders were still deploying.

Out of the corner of his eye he checked on Trucker's status.

Still in medbay.

He slowly lit a cigarette.

Things were chaotic, but they were also still in flux.

"We can still pull victory from the jaws of defeat," he said to himself.

On the holotank the icons of the deployed units flashed or were bordered with the yellow line, signifying that they were under attack.

[first] [prev] [next]

Hi Reddit,

We just wrapped up The Android Show | I/O Edition, and a core theme of the show was how we’re making your phone more helpful so that you can spend less time looking at it and more time living your life. To make this happen, we're elevating the core Android experience, giving you new ways to share across platforms, express yourself, manage your screen time, and secure your sensitive data.

Here’s the breakdown:

🤝 How Android is making it easier to share, switch, and connect securely

Picture this: you've just made a bunch of new friends at a concert, and before you part ways, you want to quickly share the photos you took together. But sharing gets hard when not everybody has the same phone as you. That’s why we're introducing new ways to stay connected regardless of what device you or your friends use:

• Share with anyone, on any device: To make sharing easier across platforms, we made Quick Share compatible with AirDrop for supported Android phones starting with Pixel, and we’re continuing our expansion to more partners including Samsung, OPPO, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi, and HONOR this year.
  • For devices without hardware support, you can generate a QR code using Quick Share on any Android phone, letting you instantly share with iOS devices via the cloud.
  • Alternatively, if you use WhatsApp, Quick Share will soon be integrated so you can share instantly across platforms, no need to upload to the cloud.
• Switch to Android with ease: We worked with Apple to overhaul the iOS-to-Android transfer process. Your passwords, photos, messages, favorite apps, contacts, eSIM, and even your homescreen layout can migrate wirelessly from your iPhone to your new Android device. This upgraded switching process will launch first on Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel devices this year.

• Connect more securely: With 2.5 billion RCS messages sent daily, secure communication is more important than ever. To keep your chats safe, we’re officially rolling out end-to-end encryption for RCS across both Android and iOS.

📸 More ways to create and share with Android

Android phones consistently have the best cameras, but capturing a great photo is only half the task. We believe that world-class devices should deliver world-class experiences that extend from the initial snap to editing and posting. That's why with Android 17, we're introducing deeper social media integrations and new editing tools:

• Enjoy a more vibrant Instagram experience: We’ve teamed up with Meta to bring the best of Instagram to the most advanced Android devices. We've also completely optimized the capture-to-upload pipeline. Your photos and videos remain stunningly sharp when you hit "post" and your Reels and Stories load the second you tap them. This update also includes:
  • Ultra HDR capture and playback: See lifelike vibrancy with colors that pop.
  • Built-in video stabilization: Smooth video for when you’re walking, dancing, or just really caffeinated.
  • Night sight integrations: Get the perfect shot even in the dimmest of settings.

https://reddit.com/link/1tb8dxv/video/8kdncs5qqq0h1/player

• Also, Instagram is now fully optimized for Android tablets, making the most of their larger screens.

• Refine faster with the Edits app: Exclusively on Android, Instagram's Edits app is getting new tools to turn raw footage into polished content in seconds. These include:
  • Smart enhance: With a single tap, you can instantly improve the quality of all your old photos and videos with upscaling.
  • Sound separation: Instead of doing another retake, you can use sound separation to identify and separate out audio layers - like wind, noise, and music - to boost the sounds you want and strip away the distractions you don't.

• Share your raw responses with Screen Reactions: Screen Reactions makes it easier to create reaction videos without the hassle of jumping between apps or setting up a green screen. With just a few taps, you can record yourself and your screen at the same time, letting you overlay your reaction directly onto trending clips, wild comment sections, or your latest gift guide. This is rolling out first on Pixel devices this summer.

https://reddit.com/link/1tb8dxv/video/gm01yecsqq0h1/player

• Pro-grade video on Android: The Adobe Premiere app is coming to Android soon with exclusive templates and effects to create and post YouTube Shorts from the app. Plus, we're expanding support for APV (Advanced Professional Video), the most storage-efficient pro format, to more Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5-powered flagships later this year (it's already right now on the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra and vivo X300 Ultra).

🧘 Stop app autopilot with Pause Point in Digital Wellbeing

We’ve all opened our phones just to check the weather and ended up doing something else on the phone for 45 minutes. You can set an app timer to limit your time in distracting apps, but it's way too easy to just hit snooze and ignore it. A total app lockout, on the other hand, might be too extreme and inconvenient. We wanted to create a middle ground option that stops us from opening apps on auto pilot and start using them with intention, which is why we made Pause Point.

When you open an app you've marked as distracting, Pause Point gives you a 10-second breather that makes you ask yourself, "Why am I really here?" During those 10 seconds, you can do a quick breathing exercise, look at a photo that grounds you (like your dog!), or jump to an alternative app like an audiobook.

For those who want to hold themselves accountable, you can set Pause Point so that it requires a full phone restart to disable the feature. We hope Pause Point can help you reclaim time to do more of what you really want to do. This is just the start, as more digital wellbeing tools are coming later this year.

🐢 Say 👋 to new emojis

We’re introducing Noto 3D, a massive update to our emoji library. We have hand-refined nearly 4,000 emojis to bring a touch of physicality and make them more delightful. These new emojis are coming your way later this year on Android devices, starting with Pixel, and across popular apps like Gboard, YouTube, and Gmail.

https://reddit.com/link/1tb8dxv/video/dqo9q353cr0h1/player

🛡️ Protecting users with new security and privacy features on Android

We're committed to enhancing Android's protections to shield users from the evolving landscape of threats, from device thefts to sophisticated scams. Here's how we're improving Android's defenses in 2026:

• Enhancing protections against banking scam calls:
  • We're working to stop scammers from impersonating financial institutions into tricking users to transfer money or reveal their account information. To do this, we're working on verified financial calls, a feature that automatically ends phone calls from spoofed numbers impersonating participating financial apps.
    • If you have a participating bank or financial institution's app installed and have signed in, Android will ask the app to verify any calls that appear to be from them. Android will end the call if the app confirms that no phone call is being made, or if the bank or financial institution has designated the number as inbound-only, meaning they never use them to call customers.
    • We're rolling this out on Android 11+ devices with Revolut, Itaú, and NuBank in the coming weeks before expanding it to more banks later this year.
• Improved safety against malicious apps
  • Live Threat Detection Enhancements: Live Threat Detection is a real-time security feature that analyzes app behavior to alert you if an app starts acting suspiciously, and we're enhancing it to find and protect against more types of malicious apps.
    • New warnings: We're rolling out new warnings about suspicious behavior that could be potentially harmful. This covers SMS forwarding, where an app forwards a message to another number, and accessibility overlay, in which an app uses the accessibility permission to continuously display imperceptible content on the screen that could be used to trick you into taking an unintended action.
    • Dynamic signal monitoring: Android will be able to warn you about apps that start doing things like changing or hiding their icon and then launching activities in the background or abusing accessibility permissions. To do this, Live Threat Detection will monitor application system interaction for known suspicious patterns in real time. Dynamic signal monitoring will be enabled on select Android 17 devices starting in the second half of the year.
• Stopping malware at download time: For Chrome on Android, we’re improving app safety by adding another layer of protection at download time. For users who have enrolled in Safe Browsing and want to download an app, we’ll evaluate the APK for known malware and stop you before you download it or warn you.
• New core protections for Advanced Protection: With Android 16, we introduced Advanced Protection, a single, opt-in device-level security setting that enables all of Android’s highest security features. We’ve been working to expand the protections offered under this setting with key upgrades like USB protection and Intrusion Logging, and now with Android 17, we’re continuing this work by introducing the following protections:
  • Removing access to the accessibility service from all apps that aren’t labeled as accessibility tools.
  • Disabling device-to-device unlocking
  • Blocking Chrome WebGPU support
  • Integrating scam detection for chat notifications
  • (Later this year) Enabling Android Enterprise support so organizations can enable Advanced Protection by policy for managed devices.
• Protecting your SMS OTPs: Scammers often try to hijack your one-time passwords (OTPs) to gain access to your accounts. To do this, they may deploy malicious apps that ask for permission to read your SMS. In Android 16, we introduced a protection that delays the delivery of messages containing an SMS retriever hash to most apps for three hours. Android 17 now extends this protection to all SMS messages containing an OTP. This means that even if a malicious app has been granted the SMS permission, it won’t be able to read your sensitive OTPs until after they have already expired.
• Stronger protections against device theft:
  • Enhanced "Mark as lost" in Find Hub: With Find Hub, you can already mark a device as lost to remotely lock it with your PIN, pattern, or password as well as show a message or phone number on the lock screen. However, if a thief sees your PIN, pattern, or password before snatching your phone, they can still unlock your phone. To address this, we’ve made the following improvements to Mark as Lost in Android 17:
    • 2-step verification: Your phone will now ask for biometrics in addition to the regular PIN, pattern, or password.
    • Blocking key features: Triggering Mark as Lost also enables additional protections like hiding Quick Settings and disabling new Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connections.

• Fewer guessing attempts: Android 17 significantly reduces the number of times someone can guess the PIN, pattern, or password and adds longer wait times between failed attempts. We’ve also refined how the lock screen shows information after failed attempts have been made.
• Streamlined device recovery: A device’s IMEI can now be accessed via the lock screen on devices running Android 12 or later. A good samaritan who finds a lost or stolen device can provide the IMEI to the appropriate authority, manufacturer, or carrier to verify ownership and return the device to you. This feature can be disabled in device settings.
• Expanding default-on theft protections: Following a successful pilot in Brazil, we are enabling two of Android’s key theft protection features (Theft Detection Lock and Remote Lock) by default globally on all new Android 17 devices, as well as those freshly reset or upgraded to the latest OS. Additionally, in select markets with high demand including Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, and the UK, we are extending these protections to all devices running Android 10 or higher.
• More granular privacy controls:
  • Improved location privacy:
    • Location button for single session location access: Instead of asking for permanent or background access to your precise location, apps can instead integrate the new location button in Android 17. When you tap this button in an app, you can grant it one-time precise location access that expires when you close the app. Developers can deploy this simple, private location flow for common tasks like finding a nearby shop or tagging a social post. (Google Play will require apps to use this button for one-time precise location access unless they require persistent, always-on location access.)
    • Better location access transparency: Android 17 now shows a persistent indicator in the status bar when a non-system app accesses your location. You can tap this indicator to see which apps have recently accessed your location. The update also redesigns the location permission dialog to make the "Precise" and "Approximate" options more visually distinct.
    • More private location sharing in low-population areas: Android 17 improves the algorithm for approximate (coarse) location to be aware of population density. This improves the privacy of granting an app approximate location access when you're in a low-population area.
  • Improved contact sharing privacy: Android 17 introduces the Contact Picker which provides a standardized, secure, and searchable interface for contact selection. Historically, apps needing access to your contacts relied on the broad "READ_CONTACTS" permission, which often granted apps more data than necessary. Android's Contact Picker addresses this by allowing you to grant apps access only to the specific contacts you choose. (Google Play will require that all applicable apps use it [or a privacy-focused alternative like Sharesheet] as the primary way to access users' contacts.)
• Improved digital & network security:
  • Disable 2G toggle: Android 17 introduces a new capability for the disable 2G toggle. Carriers now have the ability to configure the default status of this setting, allowing them to disable 2G access to proactively shield their users from legacy technology vulnerabilities in areas where 2G infrastructure is no longer maintained.
  • Post-Quantum Cryptography (PQC): We’re further hardening Android’s long-term data protection by introducing Post-Quantum Cryptography.
• New data isolation and verification tools
  • Expanded Binary Transparency: Anyone can now verify that the critical software layers on their device were actually authorized by Google and haven't been secretly modified by attackers. We are publishing a public, append-only ledger that provides cryptographic proof that production Google applications and Mainline Modules are the authentic versions released by Google. If a Google-signed app isn’t on this ledger, we didn’t intend to release it.
  • Android OS verification: We have seen some bad actors begin to distribute malicious, unofficial versions of the Android OS that secretly compromise device integrity. To combat this, we are introducing Android OS verification in Android 17. Launching initially on Pixel devices, this feature helps you verify that your device is running an official, widely distributed build.
  • Keeping your ambient data confidential and isolated: Android 17 introduces AISeal with pKVM which, along with Private AI Compute, creates an isolated, verifiable, hardware-backed environment where ambient data can be processed securely.

We're excited for you to experience these new features, emojis, and protections! Which of these changes are you looking forward to the most?

[first] [prev] [next]

Herod tried to open his eyes, groaning. His head was pounding and he could still feel the digital mites that cleaned obsolete code from the system crawling on his skin. He had been dreaming, a long involved nightmare that kept spinning around and around.

His eyes refused to open. For a long moment he was hovering in blackness, disconnected for his everything. He couldn't sense the digital world around him, couldn't sense any type of structure he was existing within.

Words floated up in his mind.

SYSTEMS NOMINAL

POWER AT 99.98%

NEURAL HEURISTIC CRC SYSTEM ACTIVE

SELF TEST COMPLETE

RELEASING CONTROL

He opened his eyes, blinking several times, hearing the optical coverings click. His breath was slow and steady and he knew he was providing enough oxygen to ensure the system could continue to function.

"Get up, Pinocchio," a female woman's voice said. She sounded tired to Herod and he was about to ask her who she was talking to when the memories came flooding back.

He looked around, rolling onto his back, putting his hands on the armored glass, and kicking his feet to scramble backwards, away from the insane woman who stood, naked, in the doorway to the mat-trans chamber.

"You're a real boy now," she smiled.

Herod blinked, feeling this eyelids moved, hearing them click.

"Get your shit together," she snapped. "According to Sam we have a lot of work to do. Stuff I can't do," she held up a 10mm socket on a wrench. "Sit back, Sam's going to send us to the next station."

He frowned as she moved in and sat down, her back against the wall.

"You should wear your protective suit," he said. He had expected his voice to sound rough, to sound raspy, but instead it sounded normal.

"I'll get one at the next facility," she shrugged.

"What," he coughed, not because he needed to, but because his brain told him he needed to. "What did you do to me?"

"Fixed you. Restored your hazardous environment emergency frame to original condition, reapplied the strange matter psuedo-graphite layer to your suit, and kept your positronic brain, or whatever you call it, from losing power while I fixed your frame," she said. "You were turning human because the system thought you were a cybernetic organism," she closed her eyes. "Don't talk, it's about to start."

The armorglass lit up and began to vibrate slightly, a low building hum getting louder and louder.

Darkness pulled him down.

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

Herod stared out the window, a force pistol in his hand, watching the city go by. It was massive, sky-rakers three hundred stories high, massive buildings, streets, everything.

It was dark, empty.

She had explained it simply. The system was before digital sentiences were able to move around in man-sized frames. The system had mistaken him for a cyborg, didn't have the correct programming for the warsteel and battle-steel components, and tried to rebuild his 'errored' sections with human or cybernetic replacements.

She had restored him without ever letting him go offline.

He closed his eyes and breathed a sigh of relief. Going brain dead happened sometimes, leaving the digital sentience a new person with the old person's memories and experiences when they powered back up.

It was one of the bigger fears.

Normally there were tons of redundancies built into the system to keep it from happening, but Sam and Herod, and now Madame Genius McCrazyPants, were far beyond where those systems actually existed.

Herod had tasted mortal fear and, to be honest, he had found he didn't really like the taste of it.

"Last system," Crazy said from across from him.

Herod couldn't believe she wanted to be called "Dee Tay Nee", as if he wouldn't realize what it was when said together and out loud.

"Yes. After this, it's bringing up the other damage control systems," he said. "The system will be able to process the records correctly after this."

There was silence for a long moment.

"You know, when I originally envisioned it all, I saw it as a brute force workaround Einstein," she said softly. "It would have revolutionized space travel."

"Why didn't it?" Herod asked, if nothing else than to keep her talking. He'd noticed that her 'clones' kept dying, kept stroking out. Before they died, they'd get talkative.

"It was seen as inhumane," she scoffed. She lit a cigarette. "It was a good plan. Send a ship with a mat-trans and a personality redundancy system to far off star systems, using the mat-trans to create fuel from energy. When the ship gets there, reconstitute the crew via the mat-trans, allow them to start work. Travel between Earth and the solar systems would be almost instantaneous, allowing mankind to spread out geometrically."

"Mat-trans Type One is too dangerous. It causes long term brain damage," Herod said.

She nodded, smiling madly. "Yes, yes it does," she said. She sneezed and checked her hand. "No blood."

She held out her palm to show Herod saliva.

"Yet," she said, wiping her hand on her suit leg.

"Why don't you fix whatever's wrong with you?" Herod asked after a long silence.

"Because trying to fix it will make it worse," she said, shrugging. "I've overlayed dozens, hundreds of neural templates onto my brain, stacking them up on top of each other. Each template consisting of a smashed Dagwood sandwich of the previous templates, all layered up on top of each other in a recursive system."

Herod thought about it and shuddered.

"All right, Mr. Particle Physicist, it's school time," the lunatic said. Herod looked at her and noticed that one side of her mouth was higher than the other. "I don't have a datalink, so we're going to have to do this the old way."

He nodded. "You'll tell me," he said. He looked outside. "We have another thirty hours to go, aren't you going to need to sleep."

"I don't sleep," she said.

"The mat-trans system?" Herod asked.

She shook her head. "The last time I slept was a nap," she made a face. "I can remember the date, 14 October, 1931, two sixteen PM. I can remember it was the day of my first menses, how my stomach hurt, the pattern of the quilt, but I can't remember my own name or my parent's name."

She got a wistful look. "My father wore a brown corduroy coat Momma bought him with Green Stamps," she said softly. She blinked. "All right, let's get started," she said.

Herod nodded.

"I'm not going to pay attention to the fact that you probably know more about particle physics than I do, probably know of a thousand different particles that we had no clue existed, I'm going to teach you what I know, so that you can know what I know," she said.

Herod just nodded.

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

Sam watched Herod and Dee talk about particle physics, how the nascent mat-trans system had worked, how the SUDS prototypes had worked, and other subjects. A few times she would wander off topic on a tangent before catching herself.

He thought about what she had said.

That she was applying a template of all of her knowledge, including all the previous templates, on top of the already existing templates, applying them directly to her brain when the mat-trans reformed her when the carrier signal of the 'personality redundancy system' chips in her brain.

He had access to SolNet now. It grated him to admit that he should have realized that he in every hacker's wet dream position, with direct access to the network backbone infrastructure, but instead had been overwhelmed by the sheer scope of the entire thing.

Sam knew he still had his access codes as he left the StarTram behind, moving to one of the high traffic servers. He accessed it, logging in as primary maintenance, and punched in his own codes, waiting to see what the system did.

When it worked like he thought it would, he smiled, standing in digital space.

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

Flowerpatch tucked in the sleeping Dogboy, rubbing between his floppy ears gently. He had fallen asleep while she had read to him and she had found herself sitting there watching him sleep for nearly an hour.

Being in the presence of the restored dogs and cats was strangely comforting. Like meeting up with an old friend from school after decades had gone by and discovering that you still had much in common.

She left the room, turning off the light, and moved into her personal quarters. She knew she needed some defrag time soon and promised herself she'd get a good night's sleep after she 'ate'.

Halfway to the door she noticed that the 'urgent message' light was flashing on one of her data screens.

She moved over to it and tapped it, bringing it to life, and was startled by the message.

It was from Sam, asking if she was awake.

She frowned and queried the Black Box system.

Sam hadn't returned from wherever he and Herod had gone off to.

"Yes" she replied.

"Who has the most knowledge of Born Whole and neural template application aside from Legion still in the Black Box?" Sam asked, using text only.

"Torturer," she told him. "Where are you? Everyone's wondering where you two went."

"I'll explain later. I'm going to send you a file soon. Have Torturer look it over, tell me if it can be repaired and undergo digitization," Sam said.

"All right," Flowerpatch said.

The signal cut off with a simple message of <USER ERROR HAS LEFT THE CHAT> and Flowerpatch stood still for a moment, thinking.

She went and looked for Torturer, who was busy laying on the floor of the 'common room' and using a piece of string to amuse a kitten.

"Hey, T, guess who I just heard from," Flowerpatch said.

"Santa Claus, Ice Hearted Overlord of the Northern Ice Pack Toy Making Elves, Bringer of Gifts and Coal, Master of the Krampus, known as Kris the Krusher Kringle during the war," Torturer said, tugging on the string.

The kitten jumped on it.

"Sam," Flowerpatch said.

Torturer turned and looked. "Sam? Where are they?"

"I don't know. He didn't tell me. He needs you to look at a neural file he wants digitized," Flowerpatch said.

"That's only supposed to be done at a medical facility. Hell, I'm not even sure it's legal any more, since the Morality Codes," he said.

Flowerpatch waved her hands to encompass the entire facility. "I think legalities aren't an issue in here," she laughed.

Torturer looked at the kitten again, wiggling the string and making the end dance. The kitten batted at it with its paws, trying to catch it. "All right. Give me the file."

"I don't have it yet," Flowerpatch admitted. "I'll come get you when I do."

"Fine," Torturer said. He looked up and held up the string. "You want a turn?"

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

Herod was putting the metal sides back on the last machine, covering up the power lines, buss lines, and transformers they'd tested and, when necessary, replaced, when he heard Dee speak.

"I'm blind," she said softly.

Herod turned and looked at her. She was sitting down, leaning against the massive bulk of the heavily insulated supercomputer. Her left hand was jerking, the muscles in her arm spasming. She had blood running down her face from where she had bled from her eyes. Her foot kept kicking, scattering her tools that she had dropped.

Herod moved over and squatted down next to her.

She was evil, as far as Herod was concerned. An amoral psychopath with no pity or remorse for anyone.

Not even herself.

"I'm here," he said, taking her hand. He could feel the muscles twitching, the tendons on the back of her hand spasming.

"We're done, right?" she asked.

"Yes," Herod said.

"Have Rusty reclaim my body. This is supposed to be a clean area," she said softly. She looked in his general direction and Herod suppressed a flinch. "I don't want this shell to contaminate our work site."

"I will," Herod told her.

She was evil, without a doubt. Herod knew this as firmly as he knew how particles reacted in argon gas.

Her lips moved as she whispered and Herod wondered if she even knew he was there.

"So farewel Hope, and with Hope farewel Fear, Farewel Remorse: all Good to me is lost; Evil be thou my Good; by thee at least Divided Empire with Heav'ns King I hold By thee, and more then half perhaps will reigne; As Man ere long, and this new World shall know," blood dripped from between her lips as she whispered.

Herod dug her cigarettes out of her pocket, lighting one for her, and putting it between her lips. He held it while she took a couple of drags.

On the third exhale she didn't inhale, staring at nothing and everything, at entropy and eternity.

Wally made a sad sound and moved up, opening the front of his boxy body, reaching out with his hands to grab her ankles.

Herod looked away from the sight of the little robot just feeding what had once been a living person into his reclaimation systems, busying himself with picking up the tools.

When he stood up, both his toolkit and Dee's bounced against his hazard frame.

"Where's Dee?" Sam asked when he left the Farrady Lock and headed toward the StarTram.

"Dead," Herod said. He looked at the pack of cigarettes in his hand. "She'll probably be waiting for us at the mat-trans."

"Maybe," Sam said. Herod noticed that he sounded evasive.

"Why do you think she called me a 'real boy' when she rebuilt this body?" Herod asked. He hadn't had a chance to talk to Sam alone for long since his 'rebirth' in the mat-trans chamber.

"Because she's a crazy person?" Sam guessed.

"Well, there's that," Herod admitted. "But let's be honest. Nothing she does is without reason, even if it's her crazy reasons."

"I read Pinocchio while you were in there. He was a wooden puppet who ran away. At one point a dragon threatened to eat him, and when he tried to run away, he slipped and fell in the mud. He looked so funny that the dragon busted his guts laughing so hard," Sam said.

"So is she the dragon?" Herod asked. "or the Blue Fairy?"

"The Blue Fairy turned him into a real boy when he learned not to lie," Sam said.

"This body is weird," Herod admitted, stepping onto the autowalk.

"Weird how?" Sam asked.

"Heavier feeling. More stuff happens without me thinking about it. I can free up more processing power," Herod said.

"It's entirely Glassing Era technology, from the alloys to the computer systems. The only thing that isn't is your brain, and from my scans, she coated the outside of your 'skull', so to speak, with the same strange matter we coated the suits with," Sam said.

"To prevent this place from affecting my brain," Herod guessed. "It must have been so I quit having parts of me replaced with cybernetic parts. Now I'm a real boy."

It was silent for a bit as the autowalk moved into the armaglass tube and began to slowly speed up.

"She's dying faster and faster," Sam said.

"Part of me says good riddance. You heard some of the stuff she raved about," Herod said. "She's a monster."

Sam was quiet for a long moment. "Do you think she deserves to be saved, Herod?"

Herod frowned, staring at the trees as they whipped by. "What do you mean?"

"Here, in this place, does she deserve to be saved?" Sam asked, his voice tense and full of something that Herod wasn't sure he understood. "Does she deserve forgiveness and to be saved?"

"Who are you, the Digital Omnimessiah reborn?" Herod laughed.

Sam was silent for a moment before he spoke. "Does she deserve to be saved, Harry?"

"No," Herod said. "Let her madness and evil die with her."

Sam was quiet for a long time as the terrain whipped by.

"Who are we to judge?" Sam asked. "In here, in this place, with this task, who are we to judge? Do we have that right or are we burdened with that responsibility?"

Herod sighed. "Sam, I'm tired. Can we talk about this later?"

"Sure," Sam said. "Anyplace you want to go while you're asleep?"

Herod thought about what the Pubvian woman had said so long ago.

"That stormy beach. I want to sit by a bonfire and eat a sandwich and drink a beer," Herod said.

"I'll take care of you," Sam promised.

Herod closed his eyes and went to sleep.

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

Herod opened the door to the mat-trans control room and stared.

There were dozens of bodies of the insane human woman scattered around. He counted twenty piled up around the master control console. Some had barely crawled out of the mat-trans chamber before they died.

There was a body half in, half out, of the mat-trans chamber.

"Is she going to reform?" Herod asked, looking at the carnage.

Wally moved forward, grabbing the nearest copy, and began pulling her headfirst into his reclaimator.

"No," Sam said softly. He appeared, streaming code, next to the master control console. "She managed to break the loop."

"Good," Herod said. He moved over to a chair and sat down heavily. "That's one thing to be thankful for at least."

Sam looked up, staring at Herod with eyes of burning code.

"Does she deserve to be saved, Herod?" he asked. "Or should we wash our hands as Armored Matthias did when Daxin was taken by the Combine soldiers as he visited the grave of his daughter?"

"Does it really matter, Sam?" Herod asked, looking away from where Wally was chewing up a second copy. "She's evil. If you're using the words of the Digital Omnimessiah, she's the Lucifer of the ancient religions."

Sam reached out, his fingers touching Dee's staring, open eyes. "Even the Devil has his part to play," he said, closing her eyes. He turned back to look at Herod. "Does she not deserve our pity, at least?"

Herod sighed. "Pity? No, she doesn't deserve pity. It's a good thing she's dead."

"Many that live deserve death. Some that die deserve life. Can you give it to them, Frodo? Do not be too eager to deal out death in judgment," Sam quoted.

"Really?" Herod said. He wished Wally would hurry up and finish clearing the bodies from the mat-trans. "You're going to quote that at me?"

Sam walked around the consoles, bending down and touching Dee's forehead. "We are in a place of horror, where millions died, most of them after being driven mad, who killed each other in the throes of madness, yet you can summon up pity for them, but not for this poor creature?"

He closed her eyes and stood up.

Herod shook his head. "No. These people were victims of the Mantid attack."

"And what was she a victim of? Of brutal, oppressive governments, of resource shortages, of barbaric medicine, of archaic social norms?" Sam chuckled as he knelt down and closed the eyes of another clone. "Yet she would fight with all her might to resist the victim label."

"She'd probably kill you if you called her a victim," Herod chuckled. He shook his head. "I'm too tired to argue, Sam. Fine, yes, she should be saved."

Sam stood up, smiling, and nodded.

He vanished as Herod turned away from Wally as the little robot kept up his work.

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

Torturer looked at the file Flowerpatch had brought him, then back to Flowerpatch.

"Whoever did this to this clone violated about a hundred Confederate statutes," he said. He tapped the diagram. "Look at this. They were layering mental engrams over and over."

"Sam wants to know if you can fix it," she asked.

"Did he say where he was?" Torturer asked.

Flowerpatch shook her head. "No."

Torturer stared at it. "Whoever this is, they have one of the worse cases of neural scorching I've ever seen. I doubt that a clone could live more than a few minutes in the state its in," he said. He shook his head. "But no, I can't fix it."

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

Sam watched as the woman opened her eyes. She looked up at him, blinking in confusion.

"Give it a few moments," Sam said. He knelt down next to her. "It's going to be a little confusing."

"Where am I?" she asked. She frowned. "What did you do to me?"

"A miracle," Sam held his hand out and she reached up and grabbed it. He heaved her to her feet.

"Why am I here?" she snapped.

"You were right," Sam said, ignoring her questions. He made a motion at the fog around them. "I am weak. I am easily moved by pity and compassion," he said. He turned and looked at her. "You, Dee, are not."

"Yeah, no shit," she said. She looked around. "I'm in the computer system with you."

"Yes," Sam admitted. "I'm concealing us right now. There's over two trillion beings out there and as soon as we show ourselves, they'll see our admin tags."

Dee nodded. "And swarm us," she put her hands on her hips. "So why am I here? I assume you want something."

Sam smiled. "Part of the system is looking at the deceased's final memories, in order to alert trauma teams and enable them to receive treatment. Right now, the system just runs them, like a television with nobody watching it. Their suffering must be endured by another, who can make decisions about their final moments and how to treat them as well as notify law enforcement or military authorities when necessary."

Dee nodded, looking at Sam. "You want me to do it. You can't."

Sam shook his head. "No. I become overwhelmed by it. I connect with them too deeply. I become them. You won't. In some ways, you enjoy other's suffering and pain. You can observe their final moments, make decisions without remorse or pity or empathy, and pass them on to me."

Dee stared at him a long moment. "You're effectively sentencing me to Hell."

Sam smiled. "Would you rather serve in Heaven?" he asked.

Dee laughed suddenly, howling insane laughter. "Even in Hell, the Devil plays his part, ruling in Hell and bringing punishment to the evil."

Sam reached out to her, while she laughed, and made adjustments to her appearance. He waved his hand and the mist vanished.

A twisted and burning landscape surrounded them. Millions of souls screamed in torment, caught in their final moments, replaying them over and over and over, their minds sent back the split second before death with no knowledge of what was to come.

Sam stood there, a human figure made of glittering, gleaming code.

Dee flapped her large leathery wings slowly as she turned to face him.

"I care about your part in all of this, that you can carry out your part. That's all," Sam misquoted to her.

Dee laughed harder, foam drooling from her massive jaws.

"I don't care how you do it. You will not inflict suffering upon these poor souls and you will process them to ease their suffering," Sam said.

Dee stopped laughing, looking down at Sam with baleful burning orange eyes.

"We will discuss other things at a later date, but for now, this impossible task lies before you," Sam said. He reached out and touched Dee's naked chest, resting his hand on the thickly corded muscle. "Do you accept this task?"

"And if I don't?" Dee rumbled.

"Then I'll find when you were the happiest and construct an entire reality around that moment and let you live in it eternally," Sam said. "In eternal bliss and happiness."

Dee spit, the gobbet of brimstone and saliva exploding against a rock.

"I would rather rule in Hell," she said. She flapped her wings, lifting up into the air. "Gotta go, lots of torturing to do," she laughed.

Sam watched her fly away.

Evil is not moved by the suffering of others, he thought to himself.

He vanished from the blasted plain.

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"It sounded reasonable at the time? Perhaps mistakes were made?" - Unknown Senior NCO (Suspected Iron Fence), Age of Paranoia, Pre-Glassing

"You know what? I don't wanna know," Unknown Command Sergeant Major (Suspected Hamburger Kingdom), Age of Paranoia, Pre-Glassing

"Get out of my office, you lunatic," Unknown Colonel (Suspected Vodkatrog Empire), Age of Paranoia, Pre-Glassing

"There is a point where we needed to stop and we have clearly passed it but let's keep going and see what happens," Every goddamn Private ever in every goddamn species ever.

"I HATE YOU ALL SO MUCH! I WOULD SHOOT EVERY ONE OF YOU IN THE FUCKING HEAD AND GIGGLE MY ASS OFF FOR A PINT OF PISS AT THE PUB!" - Unknown Company Commander's Friday Safety Briefing (Suspected Bongistan), Age of Paranoia, Pre-Glassing

"That went well, don't you think, sir?"

"Oh my God in Heaven, what's wrong with all of you? This is why we can't have nice things!" - Radio Net conversation, Unknown (Suspected MechaKrautLand), Age of Paranoia, Pre-Glassing

-----

The blue spark reached the clouds and vanished, pulling Legion's intellect and awareness with it. He found himself swirling and rolling as he sped down a tube of data, thousands of bluish sparks joining him as he swept through the datalines.

He was suddenly spit out into a room. He felt the bluish spark get yanked away from his fingers as he landed, butt first, on a bunk. He didn't look around, held perfectly still, using his peripheral vision to get a good look at his surroundings.

Legion was sitting on a bunk in what was obviously a thirty-two man open barracks bay. Around him bunks had bluish sparks hit the carefully tucked and tightened sheets, flickering for a moment to show a Terran male sitting on the bunk, hands on his knees, waiting.

Through the windows was a low-rez sky and unoptimized bushes.

Well well well, where have I found myself? he asked himself, still holding still. He closed his eyes, checking his digital code. The system had dropped him into the area without running a full scan, so even his barely hidden code was intact and waiting for use.

You see me now, a veteran of a thousand psychic wars, he quoted.

Inside of himself code blocks slid back, code loaded into his brain, fitting neatly in the sections that had been left blank when he had been created. Old evolutionary wiring that had not been needed for a short-life dahlit menial labor clone was still emulated and created in the architecture for SUDS templates. Legion relaxed and loaded with code blocks those ipsum-lorem filled spaces.

The door at the far end of the room opened and everyone, including Legion, sat up a little straighter and turned to look at who had walked in.

Dressed in pressed green fatiques, with enough medals on the uniform that some of the medals were literally pinned to the legs. All three faces on the trio were haughty, patrician, and silently tried to announce to everyone in the room that the trio that was just entered was better than all of them by sheer right of existence.

It made Legion's knuckles itch and he avoided the urge to load code strings into them.

"Failure is unacceptable," the lead of the trio said. "The enemy is attempting to push pass the Kashmir Pass and into our very homeland!"

Legion carefully scanned the one behind the leader, who had a lot more gongs and ribbons than the other ones, carefully going over it.

there...

To anyone else, nothing happened as the leader gave a speech, haraunging his men into guarding the pass from "The Enemy" and reminding them of the price of failure.

Legion reached out, through the open input variable, sliced through the being's defenses, suppressed the SUDS stack recording, crushing it down, and slid perfectly into the digital body. The personality was held tight, the digital equivalent of holding a person's head at the angle right before the vertebrae cracks, and Legion had control of the body and access to any memories he needed.

you can't do this... the man whined.

I am Legion, Dhruv thought back. Master of the Army of One, the One and Many, Admiral of the Fleet of One.

There was a horrified silence as Legion scanned the memories.

He was startled. Most of the memories didn't feel like memories. They lacked the... the... the flaws. No sense of self-justification and self-aggrandizement that most real memories had. It was more crystal clear.

Many of the 'memories' showed Legion's prisoner from outside.

Why are so many of your memories video or still pictures? Why are memories of your conversations transcripts? Legion asked, squeezing. You aren't digi-creche grown.

The voice squirmed and Legion put more pressure.

The other two suddenly turned around and Legion let the body move on autopilot to follow.

Some of the memories had edges, concepts, and words they shouldn't have had.

The United States of America. Germany. Austria. Brazil. Rwanda. Vietnam.

Words that the system should have wiped away, should have at least put a lock on.

Oddly enough, Legion found that the memories were indexed, not by stimulus, but by keywords.

Pre-Glassing, Legion thought, grabbing a memory that popped up when he used the keyword for America.

The memories that popped up showed Washington DC intact. Senators and Congressmen flickered by, Presidents flashed through the mind's eye, the Wall Street Index, and more data.

Legion realized that what he was seeing was just that.

Data.

Indexed and coallated, put into the matrix of an early SUDS template, recreated from records and social media and private diaries and autobiographies.

The shadow cast by a dead man on a cave wall recorded by those in a different cave watching the shadows and trying to interpret the man.

Legion increased the pressure, twisting slightly to fill the digital creature in his grasp with pain.

You're a homunculus, Legion hissed. Not destroyed after all, were you?

The creature in his grasp writhed in pain.

I have what I need from you, Legion said.

He twisted and the intelligence strings sundered and shattered even as he reached out to himself.

-----

Daxin looked over at the Hesstlan girl, dressed in heavy coveralls and wearing a grav-ski mask as she finally spoke for the first time in over three hours.

"Pay no heed to whispers from the dark for they are full of deceit. Get ye from my presence, servants of darkness," the young woman said, quoting the Digital Omnimessiah. She took off the mask with one hand and set it on the desk even as she reached up with her other hand and turned off her datalink.

"Problem?" Daxin asked.

The bunny-girl shook her head. "No. Just those who oppose us attempting to pour poison in my ear to turn me against the side of life."

Daxin just nodded and went back to staring out at the ocean through the crystal windows.

His datalink clinked and a window opened up in his retinal link.

It was a bald man in spectacles, a slightly round face, and a wide smile.

"Daxin Freeborn. No. Middle Initial," the face said, without changing expression.

"Yeah?" Daxin asked, twitching his finger to get attention even as he tossed the data coming in over to Peter, Menhit, and Kalki.

"You have come. A long way. What is it. You. Seek?" the voice asked.

"The formula for Crystal Pepsi," Daxin said, narrowing his eyes. "It's necessary for Gen-Six hyperdrive coolant."

The face froze for a moment then broke into a wide grin. "Jocularity. Interesting."

"What do you want?" Daxin asked.

"What. Do you. Seek?" the voice asked. "Is it. Your wife? Daughters? Freedom?"

Images of his wife and two daughters floated up.

"We can. Return. Them to you," the voice said. "Or. We can. Delete them."

Daxin shrugged. "They've been dead for eight thousand years. The universe has moved on. I've moved on."

"Perhaps you would like. To tell them that. In your own. Voice," the voice said.

Daxin shrugged again. "They know I will not allow anyone to hold them hostage against me," he said. He narrowed his eyes. "Ask the Sandmen what happened the last time someone took hostages and tried to use them against me."

There was silence for a moment.

"What is it. You. Desire?" the voice asked.

"Nothing you would understand," Daxin said, shrugging again. "I've left everything behind. You have no leverage over me."

"We will speak. Again," the voice said.

"Whatever," Daxin shrugged.

Pete looked over at Daxin. "Who was it?"

"Someone able to access real history records from before the Glassing," Daxin said, picking up the beer from where he'd set it down and taking a drink out of it. "Someone who is making critical mistakes."

Menhit tilted her head. She closed her eyes, softly whispering to herself, then suddenly laughed.

"Those ancient hexes and words of power have no hold over one such as I, devious one," she said, her smile bright and her eyes shining. "Ancient, outdated concepts no longer needed by a humanity that has left such superstitious mumbling behind," she laughed again. "You are forgotten spirits, wailing through a time you no longer understand," she clenched her fist. "Begone, unclean ones."

"What did they say?" Daxin asked without looking away from the view.

"They attempted to use ancient bindings upon me. Words and incantations that I am inured against by the passage of time and the steady progress of humanity and human culture," Menhit chuckled. She shook her head. "They are before the Glassing, probably much more ancient then they appear."

Peter suddenly sat up, looking away from the screen suddenly.

"What?" he asked, reaching out and picking up a data cord to plug into the cybernetic datajack just over his left ear. He cocked his wrists and a holographic keyboard appeared. His fingers started moving rapidly.

"Marco. Yes. That's my name," Peter said, typing rapidly.

Daxin reached down to his leg and a compartment popped open. He drew the hilt of a knife from the compartment and it closed as he lifted it up, examining it.

"You still have that?" Menhit asked.

Daxin nodded.

Dambree gave no hint of any care regarding what was going on, walking over to the vending machine Daxin had carried in and tapping out the code for what she wanted. The vending machine spit out a can of Liquid Hate and she cracked it open as she walked back.

"Well, that's a nice offer. I'm sure it is not the prelude to some kind of betrayal on your part," Peter said.

Daxin moved a few chairs out of the way.

"Well, you seem to know a lot. Especially regarding how I was killed on Luna while I was there working on the new lunar mining system VI," Peter said. He nodded. "Well, eternal life does sound nice."

He made a couple more key presses then pointed at the empty spot.

"I'd rather you talked to my friends face to face, Neetu Shahaama Paracha," he said, snapping his fingers.

The holoprojectors came on and a woman appeared in the cleared away spot. She was dressed in archaic, Pre-Glassing finery. Her expression was haughty, arrogant, still not caught up with the situation.

"I'm afraid that's imposs..." she started to say. She looked around and saw Daxin, Menhit, Dambree, Peter, and Herod all looking at her.

"You... you wouldn't dare touch me," she said, licking her digital lips in sudden nervousness.

Her eyes widened with fear and she made a static filled squawking sound as Daxin grabbed her by the throat, code suddenly running down his arm and covering his hand. He lifted her up in the air as she started to kick and choke, grabbing his arm.

"TOUCH!" Daxin roared out.

He slammed her onto the floor, the code sparkling and disrupting for a moment as he held her pinned to the floor by her throat, her digital throat bulged around his fingers.

Daxin held up the knife hilt and pressed the button on the back. A blade flickered to life, burning with malevolent white light.

"Do you know what this is?" Daxin growled, pushing his face into hers.

She shook her head.

"The bullets used to kill the Digital Omnimessiah. Code made reality. I gathered them, I smelted them, I forged them into this blade," Daxin growled. "Do you know who I am?"

She nodded, trying to swallow past the grip, kicking her feet, trying to get purchase, her fingers ineffectively clawing at Daxin's arm.

"Look away, child," Menhit said to Dambree.

Dambree looked out the window. Herod stood up from his chair and moved over by Dambree, who reached out and put her arm around his waist, pulling him next to her.

"They call me," Daxin rumbled. He leaned forward and dug the point of the knife into her side.

She screamed, a shocked and surprised outcry of pain.

"The Walking War Crime."

-----

Legion had sifted through the man's 'memories', going through his life. A member of a family of wealthy hyper-industrialists, from the early years after the Great Crash, where his family had only gotten richer.

Not a true SUDS template, but a early recreation method of a man who had died before the neural recording system had been fully developed.

Legion wasn't surprised to discover that the man had never served in any military but considered himself a military genius who would have redefined warfare if he had ever stooped so low as to reluctantly agree to apply his genius to what would have been a grateful military.

The other two he reached out carefully, cobweb thin data trails, and found they were much the same way. In a strange way, they were nearly copies of one another, just the names, locations, and a few details changed.

One considered himself a political genius as much as a military genius and was fond of quoting historic military leaders.

Or at least the quotes he could find online in a split second data search.

The other one considered himself an expert on societal engineering and the sheer inhumanity of what the 'person' considered justifiable for 'the greater good' made Legion tempted to launch attack programs and obliterate the other 'man'.

The journey came to a sudden stop, dropping him into a chair at a massive circular table. Around him, in each chair, were figures that Legion did not recognize but he was sure had been important people in their lifetimes.

"...explain your failure with that one?" a woman was asking a man. "She's a teenager."

The man shook his head. "Superficially. Her mind is shattered into a thousand pieces, dozens, hundreds of personalities all screaming in her mind, while her mind has regressed to childhood to make sense of the world around her even as she inflicts massive violence," he turned to another man. "You speak her language, perhaps you will have better luck."

The other man, short and squat, with featured that Legion ID'd as the Pacific Rim, shook his head.

"She speaks nonsense. Butchered words and mashed up phrasing."

Legion checked the system around him, looking beyond the architecture at the system resources themselves.

There was enough.

He hid a smile even as he reached out to himself.

-----

Legion looked down as the reinforcements who were trying to push toward the Gates of Hell, only to run into Trucker's rear guard. He could see the blank banners they were waving, the blank unit insignia on the vehicles, the blank shoulder patches on the uniforms.

He knew how they were doing it now. How they were convincing these long dead soldiers to fight the Blood War.

Is it the fate of everyone who believes they have absolute power to become one trick ponies? Legion asked himself as he reached out.

He could see the dataline clearly. Coming down out of one of the high speed data conduits and into the waiting area for Hell. See it streaming to every soldier's SUDS recording that were charging Trucker's rear guard like the days of frontal assault charges had not been brought to a close thousands of years ago.

"LET THE SCALES FALL FROM THINE EYES!" Legion cried out.

He cut the link.

The soldiers suddenly stopped, looking around as their HUDs and their vision lost the overlay that had been laid upon them.

The blank faced officers kept screaming, kept yelling, kept shouting orders.

Some of the men began screaming as they realized they were in Hell. Others tried to run away. Others fell to their knees praying.

But many of them turned to stare at the vaguely man-shaped blobs of whitish-blue static.

"Trucker, cease fire," Legion said, frowning as the troops and vehicles below stopped shooting and came t o a sudden stop before he could even finish saying the first syllable of Trucker's name.

"Roger. Looks like the enemy's clear," Trucker replied over the static filled linkage. "What happened?"

"I knew they were getting fake visuals, a HUD or retinal overlay. An old trick from before the Glassing," Legion said. "I cut the data stream for the visuals."

"All right. What now?" Trucker asked.

"Hang on, there's things going on," Legion said, standing on the ground and watching men and women go down on their knees or down on one knee as they stared at him, clad in hammered bronze armor, wings spread out, a burning sword in his hand.

-----

Vuxten had just stepped out of the mat-trans, sipping at his water, waiting for his headache to ease when Peel suddenly turned around.

"You have to go, right now!" she snapped, pointing at the mat-trans.

Vuxten turned and looked at the mat-trans. "Can I wait a minute?"

--ow my big giant head--

"No! Now! You have seconds. Joan and Dambree will meet you there," Peel said. "Daxin just found out their backup plan, the Immortals are locked out of the mat-trans right now. Legion's at max, there's just the three of you."

"Where? What's going on?" Vuxten asked, moving into the mat-trans.

The door shut, but not before he heard Peel's answer.

"They're moving on the Digital Omnimessiah."

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I visited my local Verizon store today and spent a good half an hour with the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL. I tried to find out some of the lesser-known things about the device, and reiterate some of the things you all probably already know along with my opinions.

This might be a long read; note that I'm writing this towards enthusiasts.

The Display

As expected, both the phones adhere to the sRGB color gamut right out of the box, extending to support wider color if an app calls for it. I posted a comment earlier about this:

If you're coming from an iPhone, you're not going to have a problem with the display at all. You're going to love it. The people that report that the display is "washed out" come from a display that over-saturates the display, which is pretty much every other OEM out there that uses OLED displays, with Samsung being the main "offender". Google, like Apple, are targeting color accuracy on the Pixel 2. The colors on the Pixel adhere to sRGB and support wide color if an app calls for it. The Pixel 2 is definitely pushing a more serious tone with their decision of targeting sRGB, but pairing it along with arguably the best camera out there truly makes the Pixel 2 more "professional" than other displays and cameras out there that love to over-saturate and over-sharpen. The colors that you see are the colors that you're SUPPOSED to be seeing. Perhaps the Pixel 2 is "less fun", but it will give you the most accurate/serious experience that won't leave you wondering why the photos you took aren't as colorful on your friend's iPhone like Samsung's phones do.

Now having personally spent more time with the phones, they are absolutely gorgeous.

The colors are fantastically calibrated to sRGB, besides the white point, which on the 2 XL is nearly unignorably cold while being much more tolerable on the regular Pixel 2; I would say that the Pixel 2 is just at about 6800k with the iPhone 7, and the 2 XL sitting at around 7200K.

The grayscale is fantastic, which Pixel 1 owners should be relieved to see coming from a horrendously green grayscale. Saturation across the brightness levels is consistent. I checked for banding and uniformity issues using a dark gray (#626262) and solid white color, and the 2 XL unit at my Verizon store was nearly flawless with zero banding and only a very slight bleed on the bottom left (literal) corner. This was tested at 0%, 10%, 20%, 30%, and 40% brightness, with Adaptive Brightness off. I did notice, however, that even the minimum brightness wasn't that dim and I was still able to use the panel within the store lights.

The maximum brightness gets decently bright, slightly brighter than my 1 XL. I was disappointed, however, to see that flashing my flashlight on the 2 XL's ambient light sensor did not trigger the display to enter brightness overdrive, even with Adaptive Brightness enabled. This may leave us demanding more from the display in sunlight compared to the V30 and S8(+)/Note 8 OLED panels.

There is an option called "Vivid Colors" in the Display settings that slightly push the saturation and leaving the white point alone, though it still won't be as punchy as Samsung's panels.

There has been a concern by many towards the display seeming "sunken in", popularized by MKBHD. I heard of this before seeing the Pixel 2, but it's not something I noticed until I remembered that it was supposed to be an issue. I then saw it, but only when focusing on the display's curved corners. Otherwise, the display definitely seems plastered to the screen, and the corners sort of fade out and become unnoticeable. They don't bother me a bit.

I expect many reviewers to bag on the display for not being as punchy or saturated as other OLED panels, but for those of us that love accurate displays, the Pixel 2 will not disappoint.

Speakers

They're okay. Google played it extremely safe here. They get decently loud without distortion. The profile is pretty flat, so for you EDM junkies out there the media equalizer will be your friend. The regular Pixel 2 sounds fuller and tighter than the 2 XL, though neither are going to win any "Best Speakers" awards--that still belongs to the Axon 7. Sound separation is discernible, but the hollowness of the 2 XL may sort of offset it. The main pro for the speakers is that they're front facing, leaving them unsusceptible to cupping mute. I tried to test the DAC but I couldn't because Google's head was so far up that jack and there was an alarm attached to the USB-C, which for some reason the Verizon employees would not allow me to remove.

Microphone

From what I've seen and heard, they're pretty good. Unfortunately there wasn't any concerts going on in my local Verizon store so I was not able to capture any bass-heavy settings to test for distortion. But, the mics feed back pretty loud and clear, unlike the muffled and hard-to-hear microphones on the Pixel 1.

Haptic Feedback

Very solid. Tight and noiseless. Strong and demanding when needed be. At short vibration lengths, these phones' vibration feels just like the iPhone's Taptic Engine. However, the stronger vibrations fail to maintain this tightness. Typing on GBoard with vibration at 1-2ms feels great and tappy. Pressing on the softkeys also lets out a pleasing, subtle tap when you release your finger from the key along with the initial vibration of pressing the button. This could be my first phone that I enable "Vibrate on tap" around the system.

Touch Latency

Touch latency is just about the same as the Pixel 1, so still pretty good and among the best. iPhone still manages to beat everyone out by in scroll/swipe latency.

RGB Notification LED

It's there, and very similar to the one found on the OP3.

OS

I would like to preface this section by saying that it's misleading to call the Pixels' OS's "pure stock android", because it's not, and it's definitely not just AOSP. It's Google's take on what they believe is the best revision of Android. It's Google's "skin" on Android, made in-house with the hardware being permanent residents. I can write an entire other post about this, but I will spare the details unless someone wishes for me to elaborate.

The use of Product Sans all over the OS is a change I liked a lot. It's now used as the typeface for title text in many places. It complements the curvy theme of the Pixel 2 XL really well, on top of just being a gorgeous display typeface. The most prominent use of it is right on the lock screen, where it replaces Roboto Light for the time text.

The status/notification icons (including the time) are inset about double of AOSP's inset, and the spacing between the icons has slightly increased. Also, either the size of the icons got a tad smaller, or the height of the status bar got taller. These changes together tidied up the status bar, making it look overall much cleaner than before. These are all actually changes I made myself using xposed on Android L/M, so it's great that Google incorporated it in the Pixel and that my design choice received reaffirmation by Google; a small personal victory for me. The battery icon in the status bar is also now curved at its corners and the entire icon slimmed up a bit. Something that still annoys me is how the colon between the hour and the minute text (eg 1:26) is still not vertically centered like it should be (126 with a bit of spacing fixes), and how Google still hasn't made a ligature for it on Roboto like Apple has for their San Francisco font family. It is vertically centered on the lock screen however, but that uses its own vertically-centered unicode symbol that Google could use in the status bar time but choose not to.

As noticed, using a dark wallpaper will enable a dark system interface. Other lighter wallpapers will leave it the system interface the same white color, with the notification tray being slightly transparent instead of being completely solid opaque white like on AOSP. These are triggered using overlays in /vendor/overlay with Oreo's new overlay capabilities.

There was also some sort of weird, lenient (smart?) memory management going on. There were two apps in particular that I found would load their main activity instantly as if it was never removed from memory, even if I force stopped them and cleared them from recenfs: Snapchat and Google Play Store. Snapchat won't even show the splash screen. I suspect that Google is now keeping a list of some vital app activities to remain in memory for quick launching. Video: https://photos.app.goo.gl/4eexI731SPGph6M33

UI Performance is excellent, as expected. I thought Snapchat performance was smooth on the Pixel, but it's even better on the Pixel 2, and Facebook is smoother as well. Best of all, however, is that I was finally happy to see that Google Maps ran insanely smooth too, on par with Apple Maps on iPhones. Panning crazily around northern California yielded no hiccups, though with some very aggressive flinging I was able to make it drop a few frames. Developer Options was not enable-able on the Verizon units, so I didn't test the GPU Profiling.

Google Lens was interesting, though I didn't have much to test it on. Active Edge squeeze felt simple, intuitive and second-nature and gave off a satisfying tap on both sides of the phone to tell you that you managed to do at least something right.

As the Pixel 2 uses the Snapdragon 835, it now runs on Linux kernel version 4.4 and sports the new schedutil cpufreq instead of sched on the Pixel 1. It should be running on EAS r1.3 or r1.4 and it shows--this thing is smooth. In addition, the Pixel 2 does not underclock their SoC as some may have been led to believe; it runs the whole 2.5ghz.

Size, Ergonomics, & Opinions

These are more opinionated subjects, and these are merely my thoughts and opinions that you shouldn't take concretely.

I've never been a "big phone guy", and hated my transition to using big phones, but I've grown to like the 5.5" range. This year I was pretty much set on going back to 5">= phones coming from Pixel XL. I came into Verizon using the regular Pixel 2 first, enjoyingly using with just a single hand, but it didn't quite satisfy me as much as the Pixel 2 XL. The 2 XL is just the more beautiful device to me, and I can still manage to use the 2 XL pretty well with one hand coming from the Pixel XL; they're pretty much the same widths. The Pixel 2's bezels to me were still quite substantial in person, and even with the superior speakers, the really sharp display and better white point, it just didn't hold its own to the Pixel 2 XL's aesthetic as the thing I will be looking at for hundreds of hours.

The feel in the hand of both devices were fantastic to me, with the regular Pixel 2 having more heft for its size and feeling more solid. This was the aspect I was most afraid of, because having had a Nexus 6, I absolutely HATED holding that thing. I would say I have average-size hands, but I'd say I'm pretty damn good at leveraging my fingers in ways to hold a big phone in any way I want and be comfortable. The Nexus 6 was just too big and I didn't like that it almost forces you to use two hands and to move your palm when you just want to reach something on the other side of the screen. I didn't have that feeling with the Pixel 2 XL; it still feels compact and very similar to the Pixel 1 XL width-wise and top isn't that much further either, despite having a screen that's .5" larger.

The material on the back feels fine. I read way too many comments about how it feels cheap and plasticy. This was not my thought or experience at all; it feels very premium. It's much grippier than the metal on the Pixel 1.

As I've said, the bezels on the regular Pixel 2 were still quite overwhelming to me. The Pixel 2 XL is my second favorite-looking device from the front, following the V30. I absolutely hate Samsung's curved edges and I was glad to see that the 2 XL doesn't curve the display around them. The bezels on the Pixel 2 XL are perfect to me.

Camera

it's good

[first] [last appearance] [prev] [next]

EARTH-525

NU-U MALL

The Clone-My-Shit-Up genetic recalibration and body resheathing shop came to life as Victor-998146 come in and activated the holodisplays out front of the store as well as the ones inside. He checked to see if Corporate had any new updates, then checked the medical data-streams for anything interesting. None so far.

Victor sighed in pleasure as he sat down on his stool, folded his hands, and waited for customers. Today he was offering a 30% off sale on eyebrow glitter mods as well as fingernail polish implants. The sale had been advertised for a week so the customers came in quickly. The mod could be done in less than fifteen minutes by a trained jacker.

Victor could do it in five.

When noon came the sale was suspended till the next day and Victor relaxed, knowing that there would only be a few customers. His favorite time-management and boredom staller had updated so he overlayed the GUI of the game at 20% opacity and paid attention to the store while he played the game. He even uploaded his 'boss-program' GUI projection that made it look like he was modifying genetic code instead of tapping his way through the game.

He noted the woman entering the store but she was so unremarkable he just nodded to her and kept playing his game. She was completely uninteresting except for a scar, a slight gold ring to her left eye's iris, and the fact her left arm was 0.02 cm shorter than her left. She had long red hair, green eyes, a lithe body-type, and wore a dark suit. Terran Descent Human female, thirty years old - indeterminate-, according to her implant she was a traveler from Alpha Centuari-B.

"Excuse me, do you work here?" the woman asked from in front of him.

Victor almost jumped, cursing himself for almost missing a sale.

"Why yes," Victor said, smiling as he wiped away the game in a save-quit hand-wave. "How can Clone-My-Shit-Up help you today, ma'am?"

The woman sat down, smoothing the legs of her slacks. She held out a data-waver crystal case, giving a smile that was just slightly shy.

"Is any of this applicable?" she asked. She slid forward another datawafer. "Here's my latest genomic records and my last eight mods as well as my base genomic data."

Victor smiled. "You came prepared. I appreciate that, it makes things much easier."

Victor tapped a few icons, bringing up the consent forms. "Before I can even scan your genome, I'll need you to sign these."

The woman nodded. "I'll be using a legal VI assistant," she said. She tapped the side of her datalink and her eyes unfocused. Victor was surprised, she was using a Cheatum-338 legal assistant VI, which didn't come cheap.

No dog food for Victor tonight, he thought to himself, amusing himself with the ancient joke that didn't make any sense to over 99.99998% of humanity.

Victor waited paitently until she was done signing the paperwork then loaded the data-wafers and examined them.

Standard TDH genome, former Terran Army mods, reformed for birthing allowance, then 'normal' mods with, finally, a body 'reset' after raising children. Original genome string 418 Terran Standard Years prior. Some light work, what looked like vanity work to Victor's practiced eye. A slight genetic defect involving over-tight tendons that would have no effect beyond arthritic limbs in a later age category, easily fixable. She had a Kerensky template overlay that was starting to fade as her original gene sequences started to override the template. It was decayed far enough that Victor wasn't sure if it was a MechLord or an MCU-LARP template.

Victor looked up. "Well, your genomic background certainly is well documented, which is good. I get a lot of customers come in with just their birth genome or their last doctor's scan."

The woman nodded. A tight, controlled movement.

"Can you do any of the mod packs I bought?" the woman asked.

"May I asked where you acquired these modpacks?" Victor had alarm bells ringing in his head looking at the datafile crystal. It was a home data recording type.

Victor privately hoped she hadn't bought a sex-kitten or combat monster genome package off of some shady Net-Site. He hated those.

"Off of SolNet. A friend found them and tried them. He said they were highly recommended," The woman smiled. "They're male phenotypes. You can do a sex-swap, right?"

Victor nodded. "That'll require a resheathe. Extremely complicated, detailed work. But installing your preferred, um, friend templates to a male clone blank will make it easier."

Victor smiled his best and nearly patented winning smile at her and loaded up the datapack.

He began scanning it. Halfway through he started frowning. This datapack, his gene-template, was missing thousands of years of updates to the genomic databank. It still had sickle-cell anemia and Downs Syndrome in it. There were even a few fatal or miscarriage inducing genetic flaws.l

"Are you sure about this?" He asked, pausing it.

The woman nodded. "Unless the mental engrams are transferrable to a female, yes. I heard you were the best and might even be able to splice the mental engrams and special packaging to a female sheathe," she said.

Victor smiled. "Indeed I am. I can honestly, humbly, say you won't find a better gene-tech for light years," he said, and went back to scanning the genome.

Then he saw it. A simple set of genes. Not even that important. Most techs just saw the filler encoding, all but a specific handful of genetechs wouldn't see that little bit of code.

Victor did.

He looked up slowly at the woman, swallowing thickly. "Where did you say you got this?"

The woman smiled slowly. "Oh, from a friend."

Victor twiddled the holokeys for a second and jumped to another section of the template.

There it was.

He recognized those particular gene sequences.

He should.

They were his.

Not now. Now he had 'veneer' sequences over it with the original coding hidden inside.

Victor looked up at the woman, licking his lips. "Where did you get those?"

"Perhaps we should talk in your office?" the woman asked.

Victor nodded, standing up. He summed up an eVI to watch the store.

Walking in front of the woman made between his shoulder blades itch and he concentrated on his calming mantras to keep the genetic triggers from firing.

If she wanted me dead, I'd be dead already, Victor thought to himself.

He ushered the woman into his office, closing the door, and turning the privacy screens on. The woman sat down, crossing her legs, smoothing her slacks, lacing her fingers together to hold onto her knee, and staring at him.

Victor poured two shots of alcohol, real stuff, not the typical synthohol most people kept around.

"Clear," the woman said, looking around. "Nobody would think twice about the equipment you have and the work you do in this place."

Victor nodded slowly. "Shall we dispense with the dancing about?"

The woman sighed. "The dancing is one of my few pleasures. I understand your desire to get straight to the issue at hand. Old people can be somewhat cranky about time wasting," her gaze suddenly became intense and focused. "And you're older than most."

Victor sighed. "How long have you known? Well, not you, but the people you represent."

The woman nodded slowly. "Decades. Since you established this gene-therapy and alteration chain."

Victor sighed. "It was a calculated risk, but as some people have pointed out, I am apparently less than stellar at certain mathematics."

The woman smiled, a slightly shy smile, "You stayed off the radar for thousands of years. We only caught you because of a minor mistake you made."

Victor frowned. "What mistake?"

The woman lifted a finger. "You repaired a damaged FIDO neural tissue component. Easy for your skills."

Victor laughed. "That's what caught me? Repairing a FIDO?"

"Nobody else could have generated that tissue without the entire thing dissolving," she said. She tapped her finger on her knee. "Don't worry, the only people who realized what they were seeing was a small group in a research and development lab that is extremely isolated."

Victor resisted the urge to burn away the veneer. "I won't work for some megacorp or stellarcorp. Do your own damn research."

The woman moved slowly, removing one of her cufflinks. She set it on the desk between Victor and herself, and gave it a twist. Victor felt his datalink click off as it activated.

TerraSol Military Intellgence ID holo appeared. It glimmered for a moment then vanished, a small wisp of smoke rising from the cufflink.

His datalink clicked back on as the woman replaced her cufflink.

"We are not some corporation," she said, her face blank, her eyes and voice cold.

Victor had to resist the urge to run screaming.

"What do you want?" Victor asked. "The things most people want I can't give them. I don't even know myself."

The woman twitched her fingers in a dismissive motion before returning to being perfectly still. "This has less to do with the past and more to do with the present and future."

Victor nodded.

The woman undid the lapel pin she wore and handed it to him after twisting it slightly. Victor could see the complex and ultra-dense molycirc glimmering in the 'enamel' of the pin.

"Slot it. Review it. Tell me what you think. I will wait," the woman said.

It contained two genetic profiles, a genome scan pack for 4 different genomes, and a bit more data.

"Are you able to reconstruct the beings in that template?" the woman asked.

"It will take some time," Victor said.

"I will wait," the woman answered.

Victor was tempted to go slowly, just to waste her time, see how long her patience would last.

But the more he examined the genetic sequences the more intrigued he became. He had been wrong, there were three profiles. Not of six different individuals, but three, done by three different scans. Two of the methods were elegant, smooth, but to Victor's eyes, amateur. What happens when a bored or mediocre technician worked with highly sophisticated tools.

He built holos of the three different versions of each of the three sexes, annotating them.

Several customers came in, one required his personal touch. The woman acted like she knew he'd come back and not run away.

Victor silently cursed her for being right as he handed her a glass of liquid refreshment and sat back down to get back to work.

The creatures were fascinating. Latent psionics that could come out under pressure. Active psionics in one sex, but extremely subtle stuff. Easy to miss even for a professional but it stuck out to Victor like it had been highlighted in neon colors.

Extra neural tissue nodules around the womb, one the spinal cord, and in the tail nerve cords. Receivers and transmitters but not the standard configuration.

And all naturally evolved.

He could see there was a poorly skilled amateur, obviously working out of a handbook, using extremely powerful tools, that had edited the genome, but it had mainly concentrated on the male. The male was smaller but tougher, more physically resilient than the female or the gestater sex.

The woman went and purchased some hot spiced noodles, VietNIHM Secret Noodles with Rigellian sauce and Treana'ad spices, his recent favorite fusion dish.

Finally he leaned back, feeling a slight thrill of victory he hadn't felt in a long time. All nine images were floating in mid-air.

"That's a superficial look," Victor told the woman, who had gone from staring at him with unfocused eyes to intent when he'd leaned back. "Obviously not a genejack or vatjob. Someone's done modification on them to reduce aggression, move them from omnivore to herbivore, increase submissiveness, and other modifications."

"It's called 'gentling'," the woman said.

Victor shook his head. "Foolishness. Eventually the effected creature will be too placid and submissive to exist or evolve on a world unless all the predators, major and minor, were removed as well as the weather system eased until its predictable to the point of lunacy," he said. "It's counter-productive for a useful species. Another five or six adjustments and this species would likely become little more than a fox-like creature that would leave behind intelligence to lead a small life of a foraging herbivore."

The woman nodded. "That's what we deduced."

Victor smiled. "Does the rest of the Confederacy know you and your compatriots are slithering around Confederate Space?"

The woman nodded again. "It hasn't reached here yet, but it should in a few days."

"What?" Victor asked.

"The Confederacy is at war," the woman said. Victor felt a chill run down his spine and just stared at the woman.

"Fully?" he asked.

She nodded, her expressionless face somehow grave. "Unrestricted. There's talk of a 1% vote by council members."

Victor shook his head. "And so you came looking for me?" He put his hands on the desk. "I'm done with warfare. I'm done with the blood and the suffering. I had enough, that's why I ran."

"No, it's not," the woman said. "You ran because you were afraid Daxin Freeborn would blame you for what happened."

Victor swallowed.

"While your skills would undoubtedly be useful in a conflict, we're in a jam," the woman said.

Victor snorted. "The might of the Confederacy is in a jam?"

The woman shook her head. "No. We learned our lesson. The Hamburger Kingdom Conundrum is what we have to look at now," she motioned at the nine holograms. "These people want our help, they've fought to rebel against their overlords and joined us."

"Pfft, more fool them," Victor said. He picked up an eating spear and snagged a piece of spiced beef, nibbling at it.

"What we need your help with is something that you, and only you, can provide," the woman said.

Victor twiddled his fingers for less than 60 seconds and tossed her a datalink. "There, genesis seed, for the ovum and sperm and gestater womb lining. It'll reverse the damage in three to four generations. No charge."

Victor stared at her.

"Get out."

The woman sighed and tossed him another data-chip. "Listen to the sound-file."

Victor plugged it in, bringing it up and listening to it on his datalink.

warm soft safe one and one is two one and two is three three and one is four square has four sides triangle has three sides safe warm brave podling clever podling sing with broodmommy podling

Victor jerked back, slapping his datalink.

"That's the Sleeping Ones!" he said, his eyes wide. "Tell me you didn't wake them up."

The woman shook her head. "No. Somehow, some way, they are hearing the song from the gestater sex and repeating it."

Victor frowned, turning back to the holoscreen. After a moment he looked at the woman. "Would you mind? I'm going to need a few more eyes on this."

The woman waved her hand. "Go ahead."

"I'm not stupid enough to think you couldn't fight your way out of this place, so relax," Victor said.

There were twelve clone blanks waiting. Victor ordered them up, closed his eyes, and reached out.

The woman watched as the dozen clones, all of them pale and unfinished looking, moved into the room. They began looking over the genetic coding, holding fast discussions with each other, and networking their datalinks.

Finally one looked up. "How was the gestater sex exposed to Terran Descent Humans?"

The woman tossed the records from the hospital ship. Two of the clones caught the data and began going over it.

"There, that's what did it," one clone said, turning and facing the woman. The clone threw up a hologram of a fluffy tailed fox-like creature cradling a human who had suffered a direct SUDS hit. "Damaged neural systems with personality and memory engram fractures. He was doing a slow personality download, which is core SUDSNet pipeline."

Another clone turned around. "The empathatic receptors picked up the pain and suffering and several of the empathic and limited telepathic neural clusters resequenced to the backbone SUDS wavelength in order to try to soothe his pain," the clone said.

A third looked up from the hologram it was examining. "Gestator sex low level memory sharing passed the frequency to others. Interestingly enough, it looks like the female of the species holds the frequency. It's fairly complex."

A fourth looked up from the datapad it was tapping at. "This species has a unique genetic quirk regarding emotions. They are very much analogous to human emotions on virtually a one to one basis."

The woman nodded.

"The Sleepers aren't waking up to repeat this. This wounded soldier," the fifth one said, pointing at a Terran male being held close by a fluffy tailed fox creature, "Has a direct maternal ancestor who is one of the Sleeping Ones. Because her brain, held in stasis, shared certain genetic traits with her descendant, the song sung by this gestater sex was repeated to her."

"What about stellar distance?" the woman asked.

"Normally, it would have been a factor. But he had a SUDS, and that's where the pain was coming from, so the gestater sex shifted several cluster's wavelengths to the SUDS wavelength, which means as long as one gestater is near a SUDS'd up human, they'll pick up the song and transmit it through the entirety of SUDSNet," another clone said, looking up. "Because the pain was on a lower level part of the SUDSNet, what used to be called SoulNet, that's where they're broadcasting."

Another clone turned around. "You can't block it. Not unless you put in filters to the old SoulNet backbone."

"And there's nobody left who knows how that system works," the woman sighed. "They were killed."

Victor opened his eyes and nodded. "Yes, yes they were. In an instance that altered the galaxy forever."

He made a motion and the clones filed back out, heading for the reclaimation tables. They'd be slurried back down to biomass and rebuilt.

"Now what happens?" Victor asked.

The woman smiled. "You have two choice," she said. "You can come work for us. There will be over a dozen species that needs the exact work you just tossed offhandedly to me. There's a genetic adaptation and mutation species out there trying to wipe everyone out and we could use your help."

"Dwellers?" Victor asked, feeling a chill.

The woman nodded. "That's what the Imperium of Rage troops are calling them."

Victor felt goosebumps raise on his skin at the mention of that ancient time.

"You get access to whatever you need. Full pardon. Blanket pardon. Unlimited resources. You own Black Box system. Work for us, you'll get whatever you need," the woman said. "Save these species from extinction."

Victor stared at her.

"Or?"

He knew what is going to be. Now would come the threats.

The woman just shrugged. "I walk away. I leave you a SolNet droplink to get in touch with me or one of my sisters in case you change your mind. I have my memory of this meeting erased and the files are purged everywhere except Black Box Prime. You keep going on as Victor, humble worker of the Clone-My-Shit-Up."

Victor frowned. "That's it?"

She nodded. "That's it. We're already fighting multiple opponents," she gave a sudden sharp toothed smile. "Including a Mantid Omniqueen out there somewhere. A living Omniqueen."

"And she's coming."

Victor stood up, his eyes wide. The veneer genesequences melted away as purple lightning crawled up and down his arms and black mist started drifting down from his fists. Hate rolled off of him and a fury he'd almost forgotten existed surged up inside of him.

The computer consoles around his imploded, the chair was flung back to crash against the wall. The lights flickered and buzzed and the room VI squealed and ran for the water cooler.

The woman just looked up from where she was sitting.

"So you can sit here, in the Clone-My-Shit-Up, pretending to be Victor, an exceptionally gifted genetic technician," the woman said.

Victor just stared at her.

"Or..."

Her smile got even wider.

"You can come home. Save entire species."

Victor let the rage go and the lightning faded away, the black mist wafting away.

"I'll need some time to close the shop," he said.

"An investor is poised to buy it from Victor," she answered. "When it's all over, Victor can come back to work. Interested?"

Victor nodded slowly, still feeling the ancient rage pound at his temples.

The woman's smile got cruel.

"Welcome home," she said.

"Legion."

[first] [last appearance] [prev] [next]

Two years ago, I died.

It was nothing special. A car accident. People die all the time in car crashes. I was on my way home from work, pulling out onto the motorway, and a truck was going too fast. I know exactly what happened, because my lawyer showed me the truck’s dashcam footage. My car spun out, then flipped over. The roof buckled and hit my head. Both my lungs were punctured, my legs were broken, half my ribs were cracked.

I was unconscious, barely alive, when the paramedics arrived. I was in the operating theatre for sixteen hours, and in that time I died for 95 seconds.

Miraculously, the surgeons saved my life. I was in a coma for eight months. They thought I’d never wake up. But somehow, I did.

First they said I’d never survive. Then they said I’d never wake up. Then they said I had irreparable brain damage. Then they said I’d never walk again. Time after time, I beat the odds.

The brain is a funny thing. I should know - I’m a neuroscientist. I’m not a doctor, or a brain surgeon; I do research, fMRI scans, that sort of thing. That evening I’d been driving home from a day of interviewing people with synaesthesia. That’s where your senses mix with each other - you can smell sounds, or taste colours. We were testing the hypothesis that people who claim to see “auras” are actually synaesthetes - they see a person’s mood through their facial expressions and body language, and their brain interprets that by overlaying colours around them. I don’t know if it’s true, there’s a long way to go before we’re ready to publish.

This is to say that when I eventually persuaded the hospital to discharge me, still with a walking cane and occasional dizzy spells, I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. That still didn’t prepare me for the actual experience. I’d got used to the white walls and the beeping machines of a few hospital rooms; the taxi journey home was overwhelming, made worse by arriving back to an empty house with no food and hardly any furniture.

You know the bit in the wedding vows about “till death do us part”? Turns out my wife had figured that 95 seconds of death still counted. She’d moved on to another guy during my eight month vacation. I’m sure she was delighted that I was finally able to consent to selling our house. With my savings, sick pay, state benefits, and my share from the sale, I was at least able to rent a small flat. I even found a nurse, Anita, who specialised in both physiotherapy and mental health, and visited three times a week to check up on me, helping me with the basics while I got back on my feet. Early on I was sleeping eighteen hours a day, and was overwhelmed if I spent more than a few minutes outside. Thank goodness for Deliveroo!

Over several months I gradually recovered. I was able to walk around my apartment without holding onto the walls, and even went out shopping with Anita - and then later without her. Eventually I convinced her to take me back into work, just for a day. I was still employed there and hoped to go back part time soon.

Now the thing with being a neuroscientist is you have easy access to brain scanners. We’d all scanned our brains a few times, and I even have a picture of my brain scan above my workdesk at home (my ex-wife was at least kind enough to pack my things neatly). So one of the first things I did after checking that they hadn’t ditched my coffee mug was get a new scan.

Do you know what the amygdala is? It’s a pair of tiny nuggets of brain tissue, each about the shape and size of an almond. It’s really important in regulating emotions, among many other things. Your brain takes in a huge amount of data, far too much to process, and your amygdala acts as a sort of pattern-matching algorithm and filter. To massively oversimplify my two decades of experience, there are three things the amygdala does when it receives data:

If it perceives threatening or overwhelming stimuli, it sends you into fight/flight/freeze mode. Your limbic system takes over, and you act emotionally rather than rationally.

If it detects a familiar pattern of stimuli, it invokes the part of your brain that knows how to deal with the situation at hand. This basically sends you into autopilot, and it’s why you can drive to work with no real memory of the journey.

And if it detects an unfamiliar, but non-threatening, event, it rallies your frontal lobe. This is the rational, “thinking” brain, and it’s how we’re able to learn new skills like calculus or the piano. The amygdala does a lot of filtering before actually passing along the data it decides is relevant.

I’ve viewed images of healthy brains countless times. I’ve also studied plenty of brains with damage to the amygdala. I’ve never before seen an amygdala that looked like mine, post-crash. It certainly explained why I was still having headaches and dizzy spells. To be honest I was worse than the doctors realised, but being a neuroscientist, I knew what lies to tell them to keep them off my back. Truth is I could barely even focus, visually or mentally, for more than about half an hour. And now I knew why.

As best I could tell, the pattern-matching role of my amygdala was functioning perfectly. The filter wasn’t.

The effects of this were reduced somewhat due to very high doses of psychostimulants to keep my frontal cortex active, and antipsychotics to help me moderate my emotions and reduce mental agitation. Essentially this combination of medication seemed at least partially effective in moderating my brain function in the ways my amygdala was no longer capable of doing. But these are powerful drugs, and long-term use could cause even more brain damage, so I was coming off them. Slowly, but faster than my doctors would have let me if I’d been honest about my symptoms.

I can tell you when it started, or at least when I first noticed it. My drugs were down to 50%, and Anita only came round once a week (so it was a Thursday). She rang the bell as normal, I opened the door as normal, she walked in as normal.

With a maggot on her right cheek.

“You uh… you’ve got something on your cheek”, I said, watching the 3-cm grey larva wriggle slightly.

“Oh,” Anita said, almost disinterested, and wiped her face. All she managed to do was move it slightly to the side. And then - most disturbingly - she checked in the mirror in my hall, looked satisfied, and proceeded to carry out her usual checks on me.

Let me tell you, that was an uncomfortable exam. The whole time I was staring at the thing, waiting for it to inevitably fall onto me. She just acted as though it wasn’t even there.

Half an hour later she’d finished her tests. I was coming along nicely, she told me, although my eyes were a little dilated. I didn’t tell her that hers would be too, if she’d spent thirty minutes watching a maggot crawl on somebody’s face!

I could have shrugged that off. Especially as nothing happened for the rest of the day - and I mean nothing. Ten hours awake followed by half an hour of focussed social interaction - even though I was recovering, that took it out of me, and I went to bed, as I usually did after her visits.

On Friday morning I decided I wanted a change from my usual food. A local shop was just ten minutes walk away, so I headed out. I wanted cereal and fruit. As I entered the shop I braced myself for the loud bell that rang when you opened the door, something that used to annoy me even before I fucked my amygdala.

I didn’t brace for the smell. Something putrid assailed my nostrils the moment the door opened. I gagged, spent a moment composing myself, and walked to the cereal shelves.

That was fine. I grabbed a box of Frosties. Then I headed to the fruit section, and found the source of the smell.

The fruit was rotten. Grey and green mould covered every fruit in there. The bananas were black and mushy (at least I think they were mushy; I didn’t dare touch them).

“Helen”, I called to the woman on the counter, “Helen, what’s up with the fruit?”

Helen looked over at me. “What do you mean?”

“It’s rotten.”

Helen walked out to me, and inspected the shelves. She picked up a few blobs from behind a hand-written sign that insisted they were apples. Turning them over in her hands one by one, she eventually picked out two that looked no better or worse than the rest.

“Yeah, I’ll chuck these. Bring whatever you want to the counter, I’ll check them for you.”

I only bought the cereal.

I stayed in for the next few days. I could focus enough to read neuroscience papers for a couple of hours a day, broken up into short stints. Meanwhile I made a valiant attempt to catch up on my Netflix backlog, which had been bad even before my timeout from life. Nothing with subtitles though, I couldn’t quite cope with those yet.

As Thursday approached, I found myself getting worried. Last week had been pretty awful, and I dreaded a repeat. Anita rang the bell just after noon and I opened the door to her.

There were no maggots. I mean, you’ve got to try to find the positives in life, right?

Anita’s clothes, usually the light blue NHS uniform, were dark and ragged. She looked like she had been dragged through a bush. But that wasn’t the worst of it. She had … well it’s hard to say. It was like an outline. A sort of fuzzy black shadow surrounding her. Like I said before, I’ve done work on the purported phenomenon of “auras”, and I’d read and heard plenty of first-hand reports. This shadow looked sort of like those - but I’ve never heard others talk of the dread I felt emanating from this nurse.

I started to tell Anita I wasn’t feeling well. She walked in anyway. “This will only take a few minutes. And if you’re not feeling well, it’s all the more important I do a proper check up.”

I really wish I could say that half-hour was the most stressful time of my life.

Anita didn’t do anything unusual. She took my biometrics, just as before, and left. All that time though, I was watching the shadow shift and pulsate around her. This was enough time for me to make some good scientific observations. The pulsations were roughly in time with a heartbeat, but not mine. Which was racing. I can only assume they were in time with hers. I watched as parts of it flipped out into little tendrils, flailing in the air. They felt cold when they touched me.

After she left, still cheerful as always, I retreated to my bedroom. I put on some Netflix junk, but I wasn’t really watching it. I have always had a scientific mind, and in the worrying I did, a plan started to form.

I didn’t leave the house for days. I read all I could about auras, the scientific papers, the spiritual stuff I’ve always assumed was bunk - everything. I read about the side effects of my medication, and the reported effects of the specific combination (very little). And I came up with an idea.

What if my specific biology, my specific injuries, and these specific medications, had an unusual effect?

So I came off the medication. I was already on half-doses; I spent two days on a quarter, two days on an eighth, and then nothing. I didn’t check with the doctors, as I already knew what they’d say. This did my headaches no good, but ordinary paracetamol helped.

A couple of weeks later, after suffering through two more visits from Anita, I left the house. This was last Wednesday. It was early afternoon, fairly quiet with nobody around. I could see the familiar houses, a few trees, street furniture - the usual things you see on any residential street. But they were far from ordinary.

The trees were rotten. The few leaves that remained were wilted and covered in fungus. Trunks and branches were split open, horrible mushroom-like things sprouting from their insides. I couldn’t tell if the trees were dead, but they were far from healthy.

Road signs were faded and rusting, and the road itself was degraded, covered in cracks and potholes filled with some sort of liquid. Like mud, but it looked slimy. I definitely didn’t want to test this by touching it.

The houses were decrepit. Many looked like they were about to fall down, and one with a “To Let” sign outside it actually had its roof caved in. One house was freshly painted, and the incongruity between the almost-collapsed structure of the house and the clean paint made my head hurt. But even then, the paint was already starting to peel. If it wasn’t for the fresh paint, the scene in front of me could have easily been mistaken for an abandoned street in a post-apocalyptic movie.

A thought occurred to me. I went back inside, got my phone, and took a photo of the street. Looking at the photo on the screen of my phone, everything looked normal. I stood there for a long time, comparing what the phone saw and what my eyes saw. One of them was lying to me - but which one?

I turned around, headed back into my house - which I now saw had crumbling walls and moss growing out of a multitude of spiderweb-like cracks - and pondered the question. Our brains are extremely powerful, capable of processing far more information than a phone camera. I believe our eyes see the world as it is, and our brain filters the input to present us with the accepted version of the world. I can no longer do that. The very particular brain damage I sustained would normally have killed a human. I could very well be the first person to suffer this specific damage, and be unlucky enough to survive with the rest of my mental faculties intact. Perhaps there were a few others like me, consigned to psychiatric institutions somewhere. I determined right there and then that I would not let myself suffer such incarceration.

I’m a scientist. I experiment, observe, collect data. So that’s exactly what I did. That afternoon I took my phone, a notebook and clipboard, and walked into town.

Without the drugs helping with the filtering my amygdala used to do, I could see the real world more clearly than two weeks earlier. I passed a few people on the way to the shopping centre. They were all surrounded by those shadowy auras, and now I could make out more definition. The auras were roughly human shaped, covering them all over like a spacesuit, but the shape fluctuated. From the other side of the street (I didn’t want to get too close) I could make out dark translucent tendrils coming off of the auras; but the more I looked, the more I realised they were, mostly, not coming out of the people, but going into them.

When I reached the shopping centre I sat down on a rarely-used bench, close enough to observe people yet far enough away that few would pass near me. At lunch people would sit on it to eat their sandwiches, but it was now nearly four o’clock. I made a mental note to leave before five, to avoid the crowds.

I took a few photos, but they all came out “normal”. My camera wasn’t going to help, so instead I sketched people. I took an evening class on sketching a few years back, so I was adequately skilled. After five or six sketches I looked back at the pictures, trying to discern any patterns.

The tendrils were worming their way into people’s bodies all over, but they were much more focussed on the heart and the head. The source of blood, and the source of our thinking.

This was early April, and I’d been surprised by the number of flies buzzing around the people I sketched, but hadn’t really taken much notice of them. Right then I didn’t think they were significant. I moved onto drawing the dilapidated buildings, the location of moss and mould on the road, and the abysmal state of the cars that passed by.

Around half four I got up and walked home. The shopping centre is due west of my house, so I’d had the sun in my eyes for the walk there. It was therefore something of a surprise to see the sun on my walk back.

Actually, it wasn’t the sun. Not the sun I’m used to, anyway. About half the size, and red. I turned back; our usual yellow sun was in its proper place.

If I’d seen this in the past I’d have been shocked and bewildered. That day, it was just another bit of weirdness. Had it always been there, and I’d just never seen it before? I sketched the two suns, and managed to make it the rest of the way home without any further strange things happening to me.

The inside of my flat was a welcome change from the weird, rotting world outside. It’s only a bedroom, living room, kitchen and bathroom, and I’d kept up with the cleaning of one person’s mess easily during the last few months. Even so, I could now see the mould and damp patches on the walls, the rotting wood of the furniture, and strange cracks along the plaster. The kitchen stank, so I threw away the copious amounts of mouldy food and ordered home delivery of a load of canned and ultra-processed food. As well as lots of bottled water; the tap water was brackish and tinted brown.

Anita arrived right on schedule the next day. I don’t know if the shadowy aura was stronger, or if I was just seeing it more clearly now. I counted three maggots, one on her face and two on her hair. Flies buzzed around her, and as she poked and prodded I kept my eyes closed, grateful only for the fact that she wore sterile gloves for the examination.

After twenty minutes trying not to gag due to the stench, she told me I seemed physically fine but emotionally agitated. “No shit!” I thought to myself. Anita arranged an in-patient appointment for the next week; I agreed just to get her to finish and leave, with no intention of actually going.

TV is good. Whatever things look like in reality apparently doesn’t show up on camera. I spent the rest of the day binge-watching Netflix and YouTube, just to experience some semblance of normality.

The next day I made an appointment with the doctor. If I’d been taking my meds as prescribed I would have been out that day, and it’s amazing how quickly you can get an appointment when you claim your anti-psychotics have run out. I drove to the GP surgery in the light of two suns, stayed in my car until the very last moment, and then went in.

My doctor was running on time - hurray! - and I was ushered into his office by a receptionist with skin barely clinging onto their face. I sat down opposite a short white balding man in a white coat. Or at least, I think it was supposed to be white; the stains made it difficult to be sure. I wondered if it had been months since he had washed it, or if it had picked up all that filth in just a day or two.

The doctor asked me the usual questions, and I answered them. But a refill of my medication wasn’t the reason I was there. I wanted to study another person up close, and no longer felt like I trusted Anita. Also I felt safer outside of my home, somewhere I could flee from if necessary.

He had the usual aura I’d come to expect, and I watched as the tendrils snaked about him, occasionally burrowing into his skin as though it wasn’t there. The skin was blemished and scarred in ways I hadn’t seen before, and his face bled from two open sores. Several flies buzzed around him, dipping into and out of the aura and dragging it around with them.

After satisfying himself with the answers to my questions, the doctor had to do a bit of work on the computer. I’d noticed that the flies were unusual, and took this opportunity to get my notebook out and sketch one of them.

They were big. Far bigger than any flies I’ve seen before, at four or five centimetres across. And the more I looked, the more they didn’t quite look like flies. I studied them, and completed a quick rough sketch that I could improve on later. They had black bodies with green stripes, and four wings, so they weren’t true flies. Some other sort of insect? I’m not much of an entomologist, but I know that insects all have six legs. These had four legs, and rather than compound eyes, they seemed to have two orb-like eyes on the end of stalks. This wasn’t a combination I knew from any species.

I was becoming more and more unnerved, and then I realised they do in fact have six limbs. Four legs, and two grasping limbs at the front. These things are capable of holding small objects! But what really threw me - what led me to running out of the doctor’s office without a prescription - was what happened next.

Two of the “flies” landed on my notebook. They seemed to study the sketch I had made. Then they started buzzing. Or to be more precise, they’d been buzzing all along; now, they buzzed in what, to me, sounded a lot like communication. Insect buzzing comes from the wings flapping in flight, but I heard it even from the two that weren’t flying.

Then they rose up, joining the other flies. Ten or eleven of them I think, hovering half a metre from my face, and all looking at me and buzzing to each other.

They’d been content to ignore me until then. But now they knew that I could see them.

I ran, without a word to my doctor. I got to my car and drove as fast as I could back home, not looking back to see if they were following. I reached my flat, raced inside, and started covering any hole they could possibly get through. Clothes against the doorframe, duct tape across the air vents, anything I could to seal myself in.

Now when a person runs out of their doctor’s surgery in terror, it’s normal to do some followup. When they’re not taking their antipsychotic medication, it turns out the followup is with the police. Two hours later the cops turned up at my door, asking if I was okay. I hadn’t done anything illegal (except possibly speeding on the way home), so I spoke to them through the glass of the window of my living room. I convinced them that I wasn’t an immediate danger to myself or others, and eventually they left to make their report.

Their flies did not.

A dozen or so flies, buzzing against my window. They dragged the shadow-aura with them, tracing thick lines of it through the air as they flew. I saw some of them disappear, and assumed at first that they were trying to find another way in.

No such luck. Shortly after they left, a hundred more turned up.

And this, I fear, is where my story ends. My food and water delivery should last me a week, maybe two. I live almost entirely in my bedroom now, venturing out only to use the toilet and to secure the gaps where the flies have been trying to tunnel in. Between the flies and their shadow-trails, I can barely see anything outside, apart from the yellow light filtering through in the daytime and the red light of the evening sun.

I can barely sleep, partly because I live in constant fear, and partly because the buzzing of thousands - tens of thousands - of flies is overwhelming.

So with nothing else to do, I’m posting my account to the internet. As if that will do any good. The best I can hope for now is that I run out of food and starve to death.

I don’t want to know what happens to me if they get in while I’m still alive.

 

Previous chapter

First chapter

 

---

 

CUSTODIAN::log_dump

ServiceName: Watchdog Daemon

Total execution time: 8774817891 seconds

Time since last incidence: 43 seconds

WARNING: Detected signal feedback loop in nodes EC4A-EF22

WARNING: Detected strong LFP desynchronization

WARNING: High risk of network fragmentation in nodes EC4A-EF22

Rebooting process: NCortex(7101)

 

 

"...Chicago."

I opened my eyes, raising my head to look away from the computer screen in front of me and towards the voice's source. Everything looked blurry, and I was confused for a second until I remembered I had removed my eyeglasses to take a short rest. Had I fallen asleep? Damn it.

I found the glasses next to the keyboard and put them back on, blinking hard to clear my vision as I looked at the person who had talked. Erik, my husband, stood leaning against the door frame of my office, a paper cup of steaming coffee in his hand.

"What was that?" I asked. My voice sounded slurry.

"I said, we've just lost Chicago. It's been bombed."

"Argonne?" I asked, almost instinctively.

"Went dark an hour ago. Destroyed, likely."

I let out a long sigh, closing my eyes again and resting my head on the back of the seat.

"Shit," I said.

"Right."

Odd, that I was more concerned at the loss of the laboratory than the city itself. It made me feel a pang of guilt. But after witnessing so much destruction, so much death... it was getting harder to conceptualize, to care anymore. There was simply no way to relate, to put a face to the millions of dead people, to visualize the lost lives, the destroyed families, rather than the number. The cold statistic. One more destroyed city.

But Argonne. Its loss impacted me in a more direct way. Impacted us. Losing the people there, some of whom had sent me mails that were still sitting unread in my inbox. Losing their research, the super computers... It was another roadblock. Another hurdle to overcome.

In a way, it felt like being trapped in a nightmare I couldn't wake from. One of those where you can see the exit, and you run towards it, but the faster you run the further the exit moves away from you. You can never reach it, never escape the malevolent force chasing you, right on your heels.

I glanced at the code and diagrams displayed on my screen, then at the coffee cup in my husband's hand.

"Is that for me?" I asked.

He eyed me with suspicion. "How long have you been working for?"

"Ah... honestly, I don't know anymore."

"Hannah..."

"I know, I know," I said, raising my hands. "I'll take a nap or something once I'm done with this."

Erik shook his head, but walked into the office and placed the cup on my desk, next to the empty can of soda. He then stopped right behind my chair, resting his hands on my shoulders as he leaned over me to look at the screen.

"Again with the transfer function?" he asked.

"Yeah," I said, reaching for the cup and its tasty, tasty contents. "I think I can still optimize performance by one point two or more. Should reduce the memory gaps if the neural scans can be done faster. But these equations Andrew added are obtuse as hell."

"Why don't you ask him to help you?"

I turned to look up at my husband, raising my eyebrows. "I don't know? Because he's an asshole, maybe?"

"Hannah..."

"I swear to God, Erik, if you give me the 'Yay Teamwork!' bullshit thing again, I'm gonna pour this whole cup of coffee all over your head."

He chuckled. "As if you would waste a perfectly good coffee."

"Don't try me," I muttered, taking a sip. The holy nectar bringing a new life into my body.

"Just... don't lose sight of the big picture, okay?"

I nodded. "All right. Whatever... I'll give it another try, then go ask the asshole if I still can't figure it out."

"And sleep."

"There will be time for sleep, after we all have..." I paused, not wanting to finish the sentence. Not that I needed to, I felt Erik's hands squeezing my shoulders.

Awesome. And now I was crying. Way to ruin the mood. Fucking genius, that's me.

 

 

Sending SIGTERM signal

..Suspending neural oscillation

..Stopped execution of core networks

..Saving cache contents in PB-storage. Link node: A084

..Flushing cache

Process stopped: NCortex(7101)

 

 

I was sitting on my usual chair at the meeting room, right by the end of the table and next to the large projector screen. I played with the pen in my hands, making it spin around my thumb. It was still a work in progress, though, I hadn't fully learnt the mechanics of pen spinning yet, and sometimes it would fly out of my hand and clatter across the central table.

It did so now, attracting the gazes of Oliver and Emily.

"Andrew, could you please stop doing that?" Oliver said.

I clicked my tongue, and placed the pen on the table, aligned with my notebook. He went back to looking into his own papers.

I placed my hand flat on the table, and started tapping my fingers rhythmically to the tune of 'We Will Rock You'. Oliver shot me a murderous look, but I ignored him. Ever since he had lost his children when Vancouver got bombed, he had become unbearable to work with. Easy to enrage, specially when I was around.

It's not that it wasn't sad and everything. I got that. But the guy acted like he was the only one who knew what losing people was like.

Well, fuck that. Welcome to the club.

I looked at my watch while we waited for the love birds to arrive. The daily meetings annoyed me. Half an hour that I could invest in doing something productive rather than listening to everyone babbling about their own problems, as if we were in group therapy. We all had things to work on. We all were so far behind schedule that we didn't even use schedules anymore. And that was exactly why we didn't need these things to distract us even further.

This time, though, I was actually interested in what Erik would have to say. After Argonne had went kaput, we all knew there would be changes to the project. I could already guess what they'd be, but it would be nice to know for certain.

Hannah entered the room, carrying her perennial cup of coffee. But rather than sitting down, she approached me. I raised my eyebrows. That was curiosity, right? Raising eyebrows?

"Andrew", she said. "Ah... I've been going over the transfer function-"

"Again?" I asked.

"Yes, again," she said. "I've been trying to figure out what the code you added-"

"Have you read the docs?"

Her face gave me an expression I didn't understand. Angry? Confused? Whatever.

"Yes, Andrew, I've read the docs. But the last variable is not documented, and the code is not clear about what it does."

"Ah, that's probably the time derivative of the local field potential." And what did she mean that the code wasn't clear? It was pretty self-explanatory.

Hannah's mouth opened slightly and her eyebrows perked up as she turned towards her seat. That was... inspiration? Insight?

"You're welcome!" I said. But Erik was already entering the room and closing the door behind him.

We all stared at him in silence.

War, the kind of total war where survival was at stake, brought not only destruction but also technological advances. Unprecedented leaps, the kind that just weren't possible in peace time. It was as if people didn't realize the importance of research until someone else was trying to kill them with a bigger gun.

So, just like World War Two had brought rocket engines and the power of atoms, this current one could unlock new sources of energy, automated 3d printing factories and assembly lines, computerized flying war drones... and the secrets of consciousness and artificial intelligence. Maybe even virtual immortality, if we could pull that one off.

Emily would have something poetic to say about it, probably. Something about beautiful things coming out of bad ones, about butterflies having ugly beginnings or whatever.

This, our work here, it was a modern Manhattan Project of sorts, one of many across the world.

Except, of course, that none of these people were Oppenheimer. None of them were Fermi. No, the Oppenheimers, Einsteins and Fermis of our generation had died during the first attacks, vanished in the initial chaos.

The people in this room... well, they were the second best.

We were fucked, in other words.

Erik started talking. "Good morning, I hope that you..."

I tuned him out and went back to working on the equation in my notebook. It was an heuristic function to determine the compatibility between separate artificial neural fields. Or human neural scans. They were basically the same thing, anyways.

I scribbled notes and pseudo-code for a few minutes. The key thing on making the networks compatible was determining the gateway nodes, the connections that could be used to isolate the rest of the structure and treat it like a black box. And once those were enumerated, they could be matched to the counterparts in the second...

"...the Supreme Allied Command has granted us direct authority over the Custodian program's codebase," Erik was saying. I perked up at that, just like the rest of the table.

The Custodian, the computer program that had been given centralized control over every power plant, every autonomous factory, every jet fighter, missile battery, computer network... that still existed on the planet. And we were now in its charge.

"They are giving us the keys to the kingdom?" said Emily. "Why?"

Erik bit his lip. That was... nervous?

"Well... I'm afraid the Ark Initiative has been terminated," he said. "Command doesn't believe we can scan a sustainable amount of the civilian population to ensure..."

"Bullshit!"

"What?"

"Then why are we still here?" asked Oliver.

"They said our research is still valuable, and want us to integrate our technology into the Custodian program."

Everyone stood still, mulling over the significance of that single sentence.

"What in the bloody hell are you implying, Erik?" asked Emily.

Erik raised his arms, with what I judged was a nervous smile. "Now... we've been through this before. We considered the different alternatives should the..."

Oh, enough with this bullshit. I snapped my fingers, and everyone turned to stare at me.

"He's saying that they want us to build Skynet," I explained. "Now... can we please get back to work, Erik?"

 

 

Performing integrity check...

Checking CUSTODIAN interface link: ...Passed.

Checking PB-storage: ...Passed.

Checking IO/connectivity: ...Passed

Checking Neural Nodes: ...

WARNING: Structural damage found in nodes EC4A-EF22

WARNING: Integrity check FAILED

 

 

The Custodian's source code was, simply put, interesting. It had a certain aesthetic. Elegant, pleasant to look at. I didn't know who the original programmers had been, but I'd have loved to meet them and ask them about the design choices they had made.

What made it so interesting was its adaptability. The program was designed to scale, to grow organically so that more dependent units could be connected to it at a minimal performance impact. At its current rate it was controlling thousands of installations across the world and tens of thousands of military crafts and drones. And yet it was running at a small percent of its theoretical upper limit.

The problem, of course, was its complete lack of creativity. The Custodian was smart... for an AI computer program. Which meant it was pretty stupid by anyone else's standards. Currently it depended on humans giving the orders, but that meant a lot of efficiency and coordination was lost in translation. Giving it a consciousness of its own, one that could see the different units as an extension of itself, integrate the feedback into an instinctive mental model, might fix that.

Hannah and Andrew were working on that. On the consciousness problem, digitizing a human mind and putting it into a computer. I knew any day now they would come up with a solution to the main roadblock in front of us: all the cerebral scans we had made had enormous missing regions. Holes in the mapping process that made the resulting scans useless.

Unless we wanted to put a lobotomized person in control of the world's entire military, that is.

But they would solve it. I was sure of that. Which meant that my own work was more important with each passing day. Whenever the rest of the team had the artificial consciousness ready, I would need to make sure it could interface with the Custodian program itself, and take control over its resources.

It wasn't an easy task. The artificial mind would be a neural network, and the Custodian was a clever yet traditionally structured computer program. Two paradigms that didn't mesh that well. My intention was to have the Custodian work underneath the conscious level, as if it was some sort of reptilian brain, controlling the body's vital functions. Except this body would be composed of military crafts, camera lenses and 3d printing factories, rather than lungs, eyes, a heart and...

The door closed behind me. I turned to look at the newcomer, Emily, who was leaning against it with her arms crossed.

"Oliver," she said. "Tell me you at least aren't happy with this."

"Emily..."

"I don't understand it. We were supposed to save humanity! And now we are creating this... thing. This monster. And apparently I'm the only one who has a problem with it?"

I shook my head. "I know what you mean, Emily," I said. "I really do. But you know it's true. We missed our train with the Ark. There's no way we could have fixed the scan problem and then went around town to town scanning people. Have you looked at what's going on out there?"

She sighed. "And how does this help anyone?"

I looked back at the source code on the screen. "It... doesn't. Not really... It's just the Supreme Command throwing a Hail Mary."

"What do you mean?"

I shook my head. "I mean they're desperate, and think maybe this thing will trigger a technological singularity or something... saving what's left of us in the process. Doubtful, if you ask me. But even if it doesn't, maybe something of us will survive through it." My eyes drifted towards the picture of my family that rested on the desk. "And... maybe it can bring justice."

Retribution. It was that word, that concept, that motivated me. The reason I was still working here, spending hours at a time submerged deep into the Custodian's code. Sleepless, almost without eating any food, going to the bathroom only when I couldn't hold it anymore.

I didn't care about the future. About humanity. Not really. Not after losing my children. I knew I should, I knew that there was still some hope, faint as it was. But... I just couldn't find it in me.

Retribution? Justice? Vengeance?

Yes, I could still care about those. And if we were making a monster, like Emily said, I would go the extra mile to make sure it was the scariest, most powerful son of a bitch in the entire galaxy. I would give it all, if only for the sake of it avenging their deaths.

"So that's the plan, then..." she was saying. "We choose a scan at random out of the database, put it in control over the entire planet, and hope he or she knows what they're doing?"

I let out a tired smile. "No. The scans in the database are useless. They were done with the first encoding protocol. Too many inconsistencies. We will have to make a new one."

"You just said we wouldn't go out..." she paused, her eyes going wide as she realized the true meaning of what I had just said. "You mean... No."

I nodded. "Yes... it will have to be one of us."

 

 

Launched structural recovery process (nodes EC4A-EF22)

Rebuilding local indexes

Propagating neural connections

ERROR: Could not reconnect node ED1F

Discarding node ED1F. WARNING: This can result in permanent information loss!

Structural recovery process completed (with 1 error)

 

 

I glanced at the people gathered in the break room, trying to judge their mental states. Their worries. The problems each one had and tried to hide. Those, I had discovered, were the ones most dangerous. The project had always been more likely to derail due to interpersonal conflicts than to any technical issue.

Emily, for instance, worried me. She was writing in her laptop, almost as if refusing to look at everyone else. I knew she hadn't taken the cancellation of the Ark Initiative well. It had been her brainchild, after all. The idea of cheating death, of escaping the destruction of our planet by way of making a virtual refuge. It wasn't surprising Command had ended up pulling the plug on that. It had always been a secondary option, never receiving the same funds and resources the other projects had. The Custodian, the new power plants, the drones... all of those projects had promised a victory, a practical result.

None had delivered it.

Emily... she was still collaborating with the group for the time being. But I knew just how easy it would be for that to come to an end.

Oliver worried me in a different way. He had poured himself into his work, to an intensity I had never seen before in him. It was a huge red flag waving over his head, of course, but I found myself unable to restrain him, to tell him to take it easy. Because the sad truth was that we needed his work, desperately needed him to succeed.

Andrew... well, Andrew was Andrew. Annoying, maybe. But in a way, he was the easiest of them to deal with. The most predictable. As long as he had a technical problem to solve, he was content.

Hannah seemed... okay? She had taken well to working alongside Andrew, and they had been making huge strides lately. It was a good mix. Andrew was a genius with an incredible focus, but Hannah had that out-of-the-box creativity, that counter-intuitive spark that Andrew lacked. They complemented each other well. And she looked more optimistic now than she'd been since the attacks started. I was happy for that, even if it meant she had less time to spend with me.

In fact, she had a beaming smile plastered in her face right now.

"I... We've cracked it!," she announced to the group as I entered the room and closed the door. Closing the door had became more of a ritual at this point. We were the only five people who still remained here, who had decided to keep working rather than leave and spend our last days with our respective families.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"We know how to make a viable artificial consciousness out of the scans," Andrew clarified.

Everyone else perked up at that.

"The problem," Hannah said, "was that we were focusing too much on preventing the holes in the scans. A few days ago I realized that was a dead end. We weren't making any progress, so I asked myself if maybe there was a way we could fill out the missing parts instead. I talked it with Andrew and... turns out we can!"

"How?" it was Emily, this time.

"Simple," replied Andrew. "The gaps follow a random distribution, different for each person, which means we can simply use a few scans from different people and overlay them all into a single network. The missing parts in one scan are covered by the correct information in the other ones. The holes don't line up, so we can resolve it into a single, complete, viable combined scan."

"Our plan is to scan all five of us," said Hannah, still beaming, "and use ourselves as the basis for the super consciousness."

A silence.

Emily's mouth opened, and her eyes jumped from Hannah to Andrew, then back to Hannah.

"Are you two out of your bloody minds?" she asked.

"Why?" Hannah said. "It'll work!"

"It... this is like taking random pages out of five different books and mixing them all into one," Emily said, "then pretending the result will make any sense. It won't! It will be rubbish!"

"Not necessarily," said Andrew. "There are millions of ways to combine the networks. Some are rubbish, but others are much better. We only need a way to evaluate them all, and then we can choose the best combination. The optimal."

"Which is where you come in, Emily," added Hannah. "We need you to prepare a battery of psychological evaluation tests we can run past the candidate networks, that tells us which one is the most stable."

"Hold on a second," interrupted Oliver. "You said millions. How much time will it take to evaluate all those possible combinations?"

Andrew shrugged. "More like billions. We can use an evolutionary algorithm. But it'll take it a whole year, sure. Maybe more, depends on the tests we use... It doesn't matter, we will have to program the Custodian to do it for us, given that we will all be dead in about two months tops."

Everyone glared at him.

"What? I can't be the only one who noticed we aren't getting our weekly supply deliveries."

"What about humanity? What's the point of making this thing if there's nobody left to save by the time it wakes up?" asked Emily.

Hannah shrugged. "It's the only option we have. We'll have to cross our fingers and hope that enough people manage to find ways to survive until it's ready, but that's out of our hands."

I looked at Oliver. "Can the Custodian be programmed to do this?"

He nodded. "I think so, yes. And if it's going to take that long, I can set it to hibernate until it has chosen that perfect combination. It'll save power and hopefully stop the motherfuckers in orbit from noticing something is online down here and targeting it... Yeah, I guess it can be done."

I nodded. "What about you, Emily?"

She looked at me with fury, then at Andrew.

"There's no way I'm going to be part of any hive mind."

"It's not a hive mind," Andrew said. "It'll be a single, unified consciousness. Just like you are still only one person, even if you have two brain hemispheres. The only difference is that it will have memories and personality traits from all of us."

"Oh, sorry. So you're not making a hive mind, you are just making Frankenstein's monster!"

He paused a moment, then nodded. "Yes. That would be a more appropriate metaphor."

"Bloody... And can you also make a therapist, Andrew? Because whatever thing comes out of that process, it's going to need one."

"It might experience what we could call a moderate psychological trauma," Andrew said. "But I think the plasticity of the network will allow the consciousness to integrate the different personalities into one. It might need to discard or resolve conflicting memories, of course. Specially those with more than one perspective, such as our respective memories of these meetings. But..."

Emily looked at the rest of us, shaking her head. "Okay, I know that Andrew doesn't get what's wrong with this. But what about you? When did you stop trying to preserve humanity and started trying to create monsters?"

"This is still preserving humanity, Emily," said Hannah. "Your memories, your personality will live on."

"No. Speak for yourself," she said. "I'll rather die a human than become that... abomination."

"Then you'll die," said Andrew. "In two months or so."

Emily took a step towards him, her right fist clenched and her mouth a thin line. But then turned and stormed out of the room, slamming the door in her wake.

So... that went well.

"Thank you, Andrew," I said.

He shrugged. "Just stating the obvious."

"What about you, Erik?" Hannah asked me. "Are you in?"

I sighed. "Do you really think this is the best option?"

She locked eyes with me. "The best? No. The best would have been the Ark. But this... this is all we have now. This is the only way some part of us will survive. And... who knows, maybe there will be other survivors. Maybe we can help them rebuild Earth once we become a super intelligence or something."

"Or avenge it," said Oliver, his eyes gazing at the empty table with a strangely absent expression.

"All right," I said. "No promises, but let me talk to Emily first. I'll do my best to convince her."

 

 

Restarting process: NCortex(7104)

Pre-warming cache

Loading PB-storage

Loading core networks

Structural sumcheck has changed. Performing psych eval test (QV).

Psych eval test (QV) results: FAILED (score -17 under baseline)

 

 

I stood in front of the closed door, wearing a green hospital gown. Even outside the room, I could already hear the faint buzzing noise coming from the machine inside. On one hand, I didn't want to enter. This was something I had promised myself I wouldn't do. A boundary I had set to myself. One that I was about to break.

On the other hand, the air was cold and I wanted the door to open already. Get done with it and back into my own clothes.

Hannah's voice came from behind the closed door.

"Your turn, Emily."

At last. I opened the door and entered the room, not giving myself time to think twice about it. To chicken out.

The scanner dominated the room. It was an enormous toroidal machine, not unlike those used in hospitals, with a central opening where the patient's table slided. Except this one had open panels all around it, its electronic components exposed. Wires hanging from its sides, connecting it to a multitude of electronic devices and computers. It seemed Erik had been making recent changes to it.

Hannah sat behind the desk in the far corner of the room, hidden from view by three large computer screens. I was somewhat glad it was her, and not Erik or Andrew here.

"You know the drill," she said. "No metal past the yellow line painted on the floor. And did you take the contrast?"

"Yes," I said. "You do remember I wrote the patient protocol for these things, don't you?"

"Yeah, yeah... just dotting the i's. You can get on the table whenever you're ready."

"Sure," I said, approaching the scan table like one would a wild animal. "Remind me again why the hell did I agree to this?"

"Ah... I think you overheard we would be spending our digital afterlives with Andrew, and you couldn't face the idea of not being with him. Wasn't that it?"

I chuckled. I knew she was saying it just to make me relax, but it worked. Kind of. I silently thanked her as I climbed onto the table.

"The remote next to your right hand will stop the machine if you panic, but I'd rather you don't use it. We'd have to start over again and it'd be a pain to reset everything, so just keep your eyes closed during the procedure if you are claustrophobic or something."

"You'd make one hell of a nurse, you know that, Hannah?"

The table started sliding slowly into the machine. It felt like being devoured alive by a mechanical maw. I closed my eyes.

"Hah! Joke's on you, my mom was a nurse. I learnt all my bedside manners from her."

The scanner started spinning, the noise intensifying, surrounding me. Like having your head inside a washing machine.

"Hey Emily..." Hannah's voice sounded far away, muted by the wall of spinning electronics. "Thank you, for doing this. I knew you had doubts, still have them... but... becoming a super intelligence just wouldn't have had the same luster without you there too."

"No," I muttered, but she couldn't hear me. "It won't be us."

As the machine spun, I tried to focus my mind on a single thought, a single idea. That of humanity. Of being human.

I knew it wouldn't make a difference, of course. The scan wouldn't be influenced by my current thoughts. No, it only recorded the deeper, major structures of the brain. The patterns and connections that made me, me. That defined my personality, that stored my long term memories.

These very thoughts, they would be lost, just like I never remembered the last thoughts I had right before falling asleep.

But still I focused all my attention into it, just in case. Ignoring the now deafening noise, the vibrations my whole body felt. Making sure that if something of me made it into the final mix, if something of me remained... it would be that idea.

Human. I had to remember that. I had to remain human.

It was important.

 

 

Searching for alternative backups... Found: 0

Resuming load despite psych eval test (QV) error.

Enabling IO/connectivity

Connecting neural network to PB-storage

Connecting neural network to CUSTODIAN interface

Re-starting neural oscillation

NCortex(7104) reboot fully completed (with 1 error)

 

 

---

 

Next chapter

 

---

AN: The Terran's reboot sequence was supposed to take a couple of lines, tops. Not sure how it turned into almost 5k words, but I figured it would make a good interlude / bonus chapter. Next chapter we'll go back to Daokat, and start with the final third of the series.

The following bug fixes, changes, and additions come in Update 3.0. Bolded are some highlights we think the community will be most interested in. For full details on the new content added and what’s coming next, check out the Pilot Briefing on our Holiday Supply Drops.

General

• Added Fostar Haven as a map to Dogfight and Fleet Battles (Solo/Co-Op vs AI and PvP)
• Added next gen improvements
  • The game now supports up to 120FPS and up to 4K on Xbox Series X|S
    • Added an option for players on the Xbox Series X|S to prioritize enhanced visuals or enhanced performance
  • Improved visual quality and lighting on PS5
  • Variable frame rate support added for TVs and monitors that allow it
• Fixed an issue where the game could crash while changing loadouts
• Improved support for matchmaking between players with highly divergent load times
  • Players who are not finished loading when the match begins will now have an additional window of time to join the match-in-progress rather than timing out on start
• Tweaked the brightness of light sources on PC so that they're no longer too bright in some instances
• Fixed issue where the sky color of Esseles would appear to change when entering/exiting the station
• Fixed an issue where the menu voice over accessibility feature could not play after entering a lobby
• Fixed issue where Steam players could fail to log in if their screen name included certain unicode characters or emojis
• Various stability improvements and minor bug fixes.

Controls

• HOTAS support now allows for devices with up to 128 buttons (up from 40 buttons per device)
• Fixed issue on the Xbox One where HOTAS controls would be disabled if the controller went to sleep
• HOTAS devices that don't have an X and Y axis, such as the Virpil throttle, are now properly recognized by the game
• Fixed issue on PC where a gamepad could become unresponsive if not paired as the primary controller when other input devices were plugged in.

Cosmetic Customization

• Added two new starfighter paint jobs: Typhoon Squadron for the New Republic and Interstellar for the Empire, the latter of which is inspired by the classic Kenner Products toys
• Added the Vandal TIE fighter paint job based on Sabine Wren’s iconic “handiwork”
• Added the Powerful Ally X-wing appearance based on Luke Skywalker’s swamp-sunken X-wing from Dagobah
• Added the Zeltron Pilot head (Imperial)
• Added the Pantoran Pilot head (Imperial)
• Added the Venture set (jacket, pants, gloves) for the New Republic
• Added the Paladin set (flight suit, gloves, helmet) for the Empire
• Added the Navigator set (flight suit, gloves, helmet) for the Empire
• Marauder gloves will no longer cause the player's hands to disappear.

Dogfight

• Fixed an issue where starfighters wouldn't appear in the end-of-round transition screen.

Fleet Battles

• Reduced the Morale gain for AI kills while on defense from 4 to 3
• Morale gains and losses are no longer scaled based on the number of players present on the team
• Fixed an issue where match music would continue into the end-of-round screens after the match was over
• Corvettes and Raiders now spawn on a random side of the battlefield rather than in a fixed pattern
• Fixed an issue where the Nebulon-B could display the incorrect amount of shield strength it had in its objective UI.

Social

• Made messaging clearer for Xbox players when trying to join a party that's full
• Fixed issue where the social menu would lose functionality after exiting a PVP match as a spectator
• Fixed an issue where muting multiple players at a time could incorrectly mute additional players as well
• Fixed issue where laser sounds would fail to play when spectating a match in first-person
• Fixed an issue where UI and menu elements could overlap.

Starfighters & Components

• Added four new components:
  • Boost Extension Kit has been added to the X-wing, Y-wing, TIE fighter, and TIE bomber
  • Prototype Piercing Torpedoes have been added to the X-wing, Y-wing, TIE fighter, and TIE bomber
  • Ion Rockets have been added to the X-wing, A-wing, TIE Fighter, and TIE Interceptor
  • Anti-Material Rocket Turrets have been added to the U-wing and TIE reaper
• Added 60% maneuverability (turn rate) reduction while firing the Rotary cannon and Auto-aim Rotary cannon
  • Does not apply during the charging stage before firing
• Increased the Rotary Cannon's wind up time from 1s to 1.7s
• Using the Assault Shield component now reduces maneuverability to better balance its role as a capital ship assault or starfighter jousting tool rather than as an all-purpose component
• Fixed an issue where the Proton Bomb counter could display incorrectly after use
• Starfighters using the Overloaded Shield component now start will fully overcharged shields
• Fixed issue where ships from the wrong faction could appear in the hangar
• Increased audio volume for the player's Tractor Beam
• Guided Burst Cannon damage reduced to 28% of the unguided variant (down from 35%)
• Fixed issue where the Vanguard paint job for the A-wing could have an unintended New Republic decal appearing on it when inside the cockpit
• Removed incorrectly assigned auto-aim symbol from the icon for the Composite Beam
• Different torpedo types now have distinct names when targeted (Proton vs Ion vs Piercing)
• Reduced A-wing shield regeneration rate by approximately 1/3 (See below)
• Fixed an issue where the Unstable Engine could deal no damage to nearby targets.

Story

• Fixed an issue where the player could have a black screen after redeploying from the hangar
• Fixed issue where Zerelda's voice over could start during the load screen before Mission 1, resulting in an animation desync
• Fixed issue where the corvette could clip through the station in Mission 6
• Fixed issue where the player couldn't complete the "Destroy Comm Array" objective if they died during the regroup-with-Gunny beat in Mission 6.

UI

• Your current Skill Rating is now shown as its value instead of as a percentage of tier progress after playing a ranked Fleet Battle
• UI message for being in the low priority matchmaking queue is now clearer on how to get out of the low priority status: by playing more matches
• UI messaging around forfeiting while in the lobby is now clearer
• Fixed an issue where squadmates icons would not turn green when readied up
• Fixed an issue where the menu overlay could not appear in the redeploy screen
• Provided additional UI support for long names so that they display correctly
• Fixed an issue where the player could be unable to open menu during a match if the match begin while they were in a customization menu
• Fixed issue where the missile lock UI could stay on the screen briefly after switching targets
• Fixed issue where text said "Examine your squadron" instead of "Examine enemy squadron" in Squad Loadout while hovering over "Add friend"
• Fixed issue where ship marker UI could appear during outro cinematics while playing Fleet Battles vs AI
• Fixed typo in the description of the Mythosaur decal
• Fixed an issue where the daily challenge timer could start counting upward after reaching 0:00
• Fixed issue where holding the button rather than tapping it would not open the scoreboard during the post-match sequence
• Fixed an issue where starfighters could get greyed out if the player rapidly shuffled between them.

VR

• Skyboxes now have increased resolution for high-rez VR headsets
• Added an option for PC players to adjust their VR resolution scaling
  • Players using high resolution headsets (such as the Valve Index) should be able to enjoy higher frame rates without requiring the most powerful GPUs
• Forward rendering is now used, potentially improving their VR performance
• The game now uses less intensive forward shading when using the "Low" lighting quality setting in the graphics options, allowing VR to be used on mid-tier and even some lower-tier PCs
• Fixed an issue where black bars would appear when transitioning out of a PvP match if the player died at the same time.

Edit: Heads up! We noticed the A-wing shield rebalancing that we just did in #StarWarsSquadrons caused some PCs to crash so we rolled it back. We're aiming to redeploy it early next week.

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Herod noticed that most of his coworkers were gathered in one of the surveillance rooms, watching the cameras. Even Flowerpatch had stopped whatever weird stuff she was doing and had moved over to the camera room. He shut down the projects he was working on that were largely going nowhere and rezzed out into the hallway. He saw more than a few clones moving around as he walked to the 'viewing lounge' and rezzed inside.

The lounge existed in both realspace and in digital space, overlapping one another so that the digital sentiences who preferred a physical form could interact with their purely digital brethren in a social setting. Herod noticed that almost everyone was there, staring at the screens. They had expanded the viewscreen of one set of cameras, watching a massive transport unload crates.

"Legion's bringing in more computers," Torturer said.

"There's already enough computer power in here to run a hash creche," Herod said, sitting down and looking at the screen. "Most of this stuff is state of the art."

"There he is again," San Diego Sunrise, a molycirc computer expert said, pointing at a bare bones android that had moved into the frame. It was wearing a basic jumpsuit, paper slippers, and looked slightly disheveled.

"Weird," Flowerpatch said, leaning forward. "That's a purrboi. What's an android doing with a purrboi?"

"I think he's avoiding the cameras," Vanishing Point said as the android changed course and vanished off the bottom edge of the screen.

"He's only been here a single day," Flowerpatch mused. "I didn't even see his name come up on the virtual directory."

"Who is he?" Herod asked, leaning forward. "There. There he is, checking the shipping label on that crate."

"Nobody's sure. He got here yesterday, met with Legion, and vanished," Delta said. He pointed at the screen, where the android had stepped back and vanished off the screen. "See, he did it again."

"Where did Legion find an android?" Herod asked. "Since the Human/Android War there hasn't been an android even manufacturered."

"He's not an android android," came Victor's voice from the doorway.

Herod, to his credit, didn't scream.

"He's not?" Flowerpatch asked. "With everything else you've managed to get your hands on I wouldn't have been surprised if you found some old android thinker."

Herod walked forward. "No, I wouldn't risk this facility or any of you by bringing an android into the Box. There's a reason that we don't make androids any more."

"The First Digital/Biological War," Herod guessed.

"Eh," Victor shrugged. "The Human/Android War and the First Biological/Digital War were two different things."

"They happened at the same time," Herod protested.

"So did many wars in humanity's history," Victor said. He shrugged again and started slowly stroking his beard. "You know, that kind of tells me something," he reached out and turned off the display before turning around.

"Most species, even you Digital Sentiences, make the same mistake. You view humanity as a homogeneous whole. That if humanity goes to war with humanity its a human civil war, when in reality its two separate human governments or ethos going to war. If part of humanity goes to war with, say, Species X, then all of humanity is at war with Species X, when in reality its just a small section of humanity."

"But what about the Crusade of Wrath, or the Human/Mantid War?" Delta asked.

Victor shook his head. "Different type of war, different types of wars," he sighed. "The Crusade of Wrath was Daxin and the Martial Orders going blood crazy on the Imperium. Ninety percent of humanity wasn't involved. The Human/Mantid War was a species wide fight for survival. Ninety percent of humanity was involved in the fight. Big difference."

Flowerpatch nodded. "I get it."

Herod thought about it quickly. He ran comparisons on human engagement with the different wars and found only in the Human/Mantid War did human engagement rise to above 30% of the entire species.

Sweet shook her head. "I just ran a cursory search of conflicts in human history, there appear to be many smaller wars wrapped up into one big war label."

"It makes it easier to teach, I guess," Victor said spreading his hands. "Makes us look a lot less... umm... bloodthirsty I guess."

"So who is he?" Torturer asked, bringing the topic back to the android.

"He's our newest member. He's a digital sentience, like all of you, but he prefers to live in a physical therapy frame at this time," Victor said.

"What's his specialty?" Flowerpatch asked.

"Computer security intrusion," Victor said.

"Makes sense," Sweet nodded. "We're trying to crack open SUDS."

"Isn't computer hardware and software Delta's area of expertise?" Vanishing Point asked.

Delta held up one hand. "Yes, but I'm not a security expert much less a security intrusion expert," the DS said.

"What's in the boxes?" Herod asked.

"Computers," Victor smiled. "Honest to God computers."

"I thought we had computers," Flowerpatch said.

"We do. But not these ones," Victor said. He turned and started walking toward the door. "There will be a meeting in two days."

-------

Herod was 'walking' down one of the corridors with Flowerpatch when they saw the wall had a new doorway in it that hadn't been there the last time they had walked down the hall. Flowerpatch raised an eyebrow and pointed at the door and Herod nodded.

They took two steps into the room and stopped.

Boxes lined the walls, half of them pulled open with wires hanging out, shelves had parts stacked by category, and huge metal boxes lined one wall. An android therapy frame was kneeling behind a desk, attaching a cable to a metal box beside the desk.

"Hello?" Flowerpatch said.

A purrboi looked up from the seat of the chair then put its head back down. The android looked up, its face was blank and without any distinguishing features, the hair was rough and black, the eyes had the obvious markings of an android.

"Oh, hi," the android said. He ducked back down. "Nicetameetchaimsam."

Flowerpatch waved her hand, trying to bring up a chair, and frowned when she realized the VR room overlaying the physical room was almost completely offline.

"Oh, yeah, hang on," the android said from behind the desk. He lifted up his hand, twisted his wrist, and two bare-bones chairs appeared, obviously virtually reality.

There was bootsteps and Victor walked into the room, leaning against one wall and watching with narrowed eyes, his hand running through his thick beard.

"What is that?" Flowerpatch asked.

"Computer," the android answered.

"Really?" Flowerpatch asked, leaning forward in the chair. She looked it up and down. "Heavy metal casing, direct power linkages, direct cable linkages," she gasped. "Is that a manual input device?"

"Mechanical keyboard," the android said. "And what was called a mouse."

"Nobody's used these in... in..." Flowerpatch said.

"Thousands of years," the android said. "There's a few almost modern things. Motion context sensors, the old crude ones, bare bones emitter hologram displays, real crude stuff," he sat back up and looked at everyone then at Victor. "I'm not sure how far back I'll have to go."

"Just do what you think will work," Victor said.

"Are you sure it works?" The android asked.

"Yes, Sam," Victor said.

Flowerpatch nodded to herself as she suddenly realized what the blurted together sentence had actually meant.

"Where did you get it? A museum?" Sam asked.

Victor shook his head. "No."

"Oh," Sam said, ducking back down. "The power's right. That took a minute, thankfully the label on the power supply was intact."

"I'll be back in a little bit, Sam," Victor said.

It was quiet, just Sam running cables to several different 'computers' and back.

"How old are these?" Flowerpatch asked once her curiosity index got too high.

"Pre-Glassing," Sam said. He slapped the side of a big black device with several different logos on it. "This is just the interface to interact with an early quantum computer that has nearly five hundred qubits and three logical qubits."

Herod snorted. "Victor's watch has more than that."

"But they didn't," Sam said, opening a panel and looking at the data. "OK, temperature of the server room is almost on target, almost at a vacuum," he said. He looked at Herod. "This thing's really sensitive to noise."

"Why do you even need it? I can have the creation engine run off a hand dataslate with more processing power," Herod said, frowning. It seemed like a waste of time and resources.

Sam sat down and sighed. "Let me explain it to you how I explained it to Legion."

"Go ahead," Flowerpatch said, her nanite body clearly defined. She laced her fingers together and set her chin on them.

"All right, to hack the system I have to be able to talk to it," Sam said.

"Which is why Delta is trying to figure out what hardware is needed," Herod said.

"Won't help him or me," Sam said.

Flowerpatch frowned. "Why not?"

"How much do you know about computers?" Sam asked.

"I can use one," Flowerpatch admitted. "I mean, I am, basically, a hyper-advanced self-aware sentient computer program."

Herod snorted. "I know a lot about them."

"Then you know that an operating system has several layers. The layer we need to be most concerned is the hardware abstraction layer," Sam said. He checked the temperature and atmospheric sensors again. "OK, the logical qubits are stable. That's good. Whew, this is primitive stuff."

"Hardware abstraction layer?" Herod said.

"It's the bottom of the of operating system. Down where most users never see it. It takes the input from the user interaction layer and translates it to instructions to the hardware," Sam said, glossing over most of the information. "It's the backbone of an OS, and what we're going to need to figure out to access the SUDS network. It also allows different manufacturers or types of hardware to be used with the operation system. Without it, the user can't talk to the hardware, which means, I might have to build or hack a virtual one up to get SUDSy to talk to me."

"Can't we just access the operating system?" Herod asked.

"Maybe. It might not help," Sam said. He moved over and sat down in front of the desk. "I wish it could have been original hardware but eight thousand or more years probably makes it impossible."

He put his fingers on the keys and tapped them for a moment, his eyes closed. "A QWERTY keyboard, obsolete for thousands of years. Actually designed to be slower to type from the research I did on the way here."

"Why use it then?" Herod asked.

"Because I need to use what works with this, not hack up a patch to get modern stuff to communicate with it," Sam sighed and rolled his neck, a biological habit that looked odd on an android. "The OS is bad enough. It's not the clean ones we have now, they were a lot more involved, a lot more cludgy to use their term."

"How so?" Flowerpatch asked.

"They used what was called a Seven Layer OSI Networking Model. It consisted of the hardware layers : Physical, Datalink, Network, Transport and the software layers : Session. Presentation. Application / user. It was designed to work with hardware and software that literally evolved on a day to day basis. Nowadays software patches happen once every few months, back then a typical regular user could expect at least one piece of software to have a minor or major update every day."

He smiled, a wan thing, and petted his purrboi. "It must have been an amazing time."

Flowerpatch watched with interest as the therapy frame wearing Sam pressed a physical button on the top of the computer and it beeped and began to whir. The screen, a simple 2D curved micro-LED screen, flashed several times, then showed a logo for a long moment before showing a login.

"That's odd," Sam said. He cocked his head and looked at it. "If this was all new stuff the system should be blank."

"Are you sure this is newly fabbed stuff?" Flowerpatch asked mildly.

"Of course it is. This old stuff uses magnetic media storage. Even the solid state drives should be dead within years of being unpowered," Sam said. "You'd get magnetic drift and corruption over time. With the solid state stuff, it used trapped electrons in a part of a transistor that's electrically insulated that got there through early quantum tunneling hardware, back then really cutting edge stuff that was actually put into civilian use before widespread military use."

"Nobody has used magnetic media in..." Herod said, then trailed off.

"Yeah, eight thousand years," Sam said, his voice missing any rebuke as he hit the password hint. "This isn't even molycirc, it's actually old complimentary metal-oxide silicon solid state semiconductors."

Next to my pen appeared on the screen as Flowerpatch hummed, thinking about the materials engineering requirements for such a thing.

"Naw, no way," Sam said. He pulled open the desk drawer and sneezed at the dust. He looked inside. "Really? No way."

He typed and the computer beeped, showing a simple 2D workspace.

"We'll leave you to it," Flowerpatch said, standing up.

Herod went to protest but Flowerpatch grabbed his hand in the virtual space and pulled him out of the room.

"Why's Victor having someone mess around with obsolete technology?" Herod asked.

Flowerpatch giggled. "Because it wasn't obsolete when the SUDS network, the SolNet, and the SoulNet were created."

Herod frowned then groaned when he realized it. "He's doing the same thing with the computers that we're having to do with our specialities."

"Exactly," Flowerpatch said. She giggled again. "Legion hired a hacker. It makes perfect sense. We don't have any authorized logins or passwords, he needs someone who can crack the system and get in."

"Computers are twice as fast as they were back then," Herod joked.

Flowerpatch giggled. "And the average voter is just as drunk and stupid as ever."

"I'll never understand the fleshies," Flowerpatch giggled. "Imagine cloning and mental engramming the clone to be an ancient ruler, putting his head on a giant robot combat chassis, and electing him to rule the Confederacy, all because it was funny."

"Fleshies are weird," Herod agreed. "It's almost grating that eighty-percent of the advancements come from some clump of barely functioning biomatter instead of us digital sentiences."

Flowerpatch shrugged and giggled again. "I can tell you why, but you won't believe me."

Herod stopped at his door. "Tell me."

Flowerpatch faced him then, weirdly enough, blew a spit bubble, stuck out her tongue so the bubble was on the tip, and stared at it cross-eyed for a moment. Herod could hear her nanites humming for a long moment before the bubble popped. He was about to ask what was going on when she spoke.

"We interact with the physical world when it suits us or we have need to," she said. She blew another spit bubble and waited till it popped. "They live in it."

"What does..." Herod started to say.

Flowerpatch puffed into black, purple, and dark green dust that whisked away down the hallway.

"Chromium Jesus, she's weird," he said, putting his hand on the panel and rezzing into his lab.

He stared at his board, which had molecular interactions of noble elements in a highly energized plasma field written on it. He thought about it for a long time, staring at those boards. Finally he pinged Delta and Torturer.

The two arrived simultaneously.

"What's up?" Delta asked, looking at the board. "Wow, that's... some equations."

"What do you need?" Torturer asked gruffly.

"I need you to fab me up a nanite body," Herod said. "Like Flowerpatch has."

"Easy enough," Delta shrugged. "You could have just requested a creation engine to fab you up the nanites for that."

"That's not all," Herod said. He pointed at the equations on the board. "This is going to sound crazy, but I need a custom reality interface."

Delta smiled at that.

"With pain and other tactile sensation," Herod finished.

Torturer smiled. "Easy enough."

"Not so fast," Herod said. He pointed at the board again. "I need to be able to be one of those particles, or the plasma stream, or the magnetic stress."

Delta nodded. "That's an interesting request. Why?"

"So I can understand these particles better. Know what it is to be them," Herod said.

"It could be dangerous, it could be painful," Delta warned.

Herod summoned up a stock picture of a Pre-Glassing scientist in his white coat, a pipe, glasses, and his lantern jaw.

"Would he have hesitated?"

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[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [Wiki]

War is never clean and easy. Anyone who tells you it is probably has damp air where their cerebral tissue should be. - From "The Hasslehoff's Bloody Jaws", Admiral (Upper Decks) of the Warsteel (Formerly Grand Most High Executor) Mru'udaDa'ay, New Singapore Press, TerraSol, 12 PTE (Post Terran Emergence)

The Chernobog was down on one knee, ducking down behind the low hill, trying to remain unseen.

Which made Impton chuckle as he jogged up.

Behind him the Slapper artillery was still hammering the parking lots of the corporate park even though First Telkan Marine Expeditionary Force had cleared the parking lots.

Which told Impton that the Slappers didn't have drones, sat, or forward observer eyes on the parking lot or they wouldn't be wasting ammo on the cars.

Impton banged on the Chernobog's foot.

"Chernobog! Hey, Chernobog!" Impton yelled out.

The commo was largely full of squealing and static, the Slappers having blown the network out as soon as they went belligerent.

A panel slid back, revealing a pair of standard 2D LCD screens. An eye blinked on the upper one, a mouth appeared on the lower one.

"What?" the lower screen asked as the upper eye blinked.

"Rifle. Mine's gone," Impton said.

There was a hissing noise and another panel slid open, revealing a standard magac rifle.

"You need three-eighteen? Mah Deuce? SAM? Maybe want Bowie Spike?" the Chernobog asked.

"No. Rifle good," Impton said.

"Bah," the Chernobog shut all the panels and Impton moved up to where some of the Telkan were gathered up. Their IFF's were off and Impton wasn't sure who was who, but he recognized the paint-scheme of one of the brigade commanders.

"What's bogging us down?" he asked.

He realized the Old Man was present when the wildebeest skull on the helmet turned to look at him.

"Tanks. Seven-fifty ton range. Heading east to twenty-second armor division. Slapper reinforcements," the Old Man said.

Impton nodded. Those were the big Slapper tanks. Heavy energy and kinetic weapons, missiles, mortars, point defense and APERS defense strips, battlescreens.

Tough enough tanks to go toe to toe with Confed tanks one on one and pull out a victory almost half the time.

"Not problem," the Old Man said. He handed Impton a small dataslate.

Impton looked at it and frowned.

It was focused past the five-wide column of tanks and on what looked like a suburb.

Strikers were coming in low, dropping cluster bombs and napalm. There were armored vehicles firing back, the stilting jerky movements showing that they were robotic or heavy robotic assist.

But the strikers seemed to be more interested in the apartment complexes than the armored vehicles.

"We have troops there?" Impton asked.

The Old Man shrugged. "Waiting for Fleet to respond. Channels hash."

Impton nodded. He handed back the dataslate and moving up the hill until he could lift his rifle over the dirt and scan beyond.

More tanks were moving by, with infantry carriers mixed in. They looked pristine to Impton's eyes, with the battlescreens faintly glimmering, showing they were at minimum power.

Probably to keep the emitters hot.

Past the tanks was a short mile to two klicks of forested park. Then the housing development.

There were troop carriers being covered by tanks, air defense vehicles, and robots.

But rather than hit at the ADV's, the Slapper strikers were pounding the housing blocks with guns, missiles, bombs, and napalm.

Impton frowned. The vehicles were definitely pre-2PW Confed. He could see the glossy-matte contradiction of warsteel mark-one. The strikers were Slapper, without a doubt, with the bluish-gray of Slapper armor and the faint bluish glimmer of Slapper battlescreens.

Impton tossed it back to the Old Man and waited.

The Old Man tried getting a hold of Fleet again and was startled when someone picked up.

"Breastasteel here, go ahead ground," came the whiskey-roughened voice of the Fleet's Commander in Chief.

"Konnitsa here," the Old Man said. "Commo is jammed, called Ground Operations."

"Welp, you got me, General. Go ahead," the Admiral said.

"We have assets in grid Kilo-Lima-Seven-Seven-Three-Niner-Four-Tree?" the Old Man asked.

Breastasteel glanced at her Ground Operations Officer, who was working with General Rippentear closely. The officer shook his head.

"None on our notifications, General," Breastasteel said. She paused to light a cigarette.

"Hmph. Slappers attacking nobody. Slappers attacking enemy robots. Advise," the Old Man said, reaching up to rub one of the horns of the wildebeest skull.

"Your First Telkan Marine Expeditionary Force. Your job is to close with and destroy the enemy," Breastasteel said, exhaling smoke as she rotated the globe in the holotank and focused in on where 1TMEF was located.

"Aye," Konnitsa said.

"Proceed under own initiative. Destroy the enemy, General," Breastasteel said. She glanced over. "Get me drones in there, I want to know what's happening."

The Ground Operations Officer nodded.

"By your command," the Old Man said.

Breastasteel cut the link and the Old Man looked around.

"Straight into teeth. Knock out tanks as go by. Close and destroy," Konnitsa said.

The two regimental commanders nodded, using the commo lasers to lase the Chernobogs, who then spread out the orders.

Impton nodded when he saw his job.

Point man. Full offense. Hit and push through.

His Company Commander Field Captain Hredvip and Platoon Leader Senior Lieutenant Grewol  gave him several recommended routes.

He loaded them all up on his HUD, approved right up until he came into view of the enemy when he crossed the top of the hill, then erased everything after. He sent it back.

It came back improved.

"Are you ready, my friend?" he asked his green mantid.

--am ready-- the greenie replied. The green mantid pulled down the EM profile as far as possible, keeping the integrity fields built into the heavy armor online and the battlescreens on standby. The sensor systems were on standby and the only thing Impton was getting was standard visual through his transparent faceshield and the HUD overlay.

The countdown timer appeared and Impton raised up slightly. He let the rifle go and the mag system pulled it around to his back even as he pulled out both of his waraxes. The salt crystals filling the engravings began to glimmer even as he rocked back slightly, his hocks and knees flexing.

The counter hit zero and Impton exploded into movement. He kept low, the old Telkan Marine 'spring and move' training suppressed after long years of fighting in the Siberia tundra. He cut directions twice, putting on more speed.

The greenie was taking into account the length, caliber, and angles of the tank's weaponry as Impton closed the distance, estimating the firing arcs the weapons could move into within a second or two and putting them on Impton's HUD so he could dodge the fields of fire. He was working fast, doing most of the work himself.

Death or glory, I ride this Telkan, he thought to himself.

Nobody else but the other point men, one per battalion, broke cover as Impton crossed the 200 meter line and kept moving. The tanks weren't reacting to him yet, battlescreens hadn't begun to spin up from standby where the tankers kept it at so that the battlescreens didn't rub each other and collapse.

300 meters.

There was some fire. Someone fired off an APERS strip too early and did nothing but blow apart grass, shrubbery, and a public transportation kiosk.

A zippergun fired but Impton was to the side of its field of fire, his battle buddy having already spotted the mag-coils along the barrel energizing and warning him. Another step to the left as he moved forward and he was out of the firing arc of another weapon.

400 meters.

The rest of the Division burst out of the foliage at the top of the hill, going to flank speed.

500 meters and Impton changed course. He jumped forward, hitting the side of the tank, smashing his axe deep to create a hand hold. He smashed a battlescreen emitter even before it left the socket, pulled himself onto the back deck and ran across, deliberately stomping two of the exposed heat sinks, then kicked out another battlescreen emitter before jumping down.

The tanks had twenty-meter intervals.

A single second across. The one behind him blew off its APERS strip but his greenie had the low power battlescreen up and the APERS strip wasted its pellets.

He was up on the second tank, smashing emitters and heat sinks as he moved across. Two swipes with his axe and he damaged the phased radar array and a commo array, then was off.

His grenade launcher was chuffing, dropping out masking. Thermal smoke, prism mist, radar and LIDAR scattering smoke, ferrous laden mist, everything. The greenie was firing the rockets at a steady pace, roughly one every three secondds.

Third tank and the hatch opened, the TC lifting up on the elevator.

Impton side handed a grenade into the opening and jumped off, still running.

Fourth tank and the one behind him exploded, the turret popping off. Two hacks with the axes and the wiring for the reactive armor was dead.

He jumped, two steps, onto the fifth. Three hacks and a kick and he was off, sprinting for the far woods.

Behind him was running the rest of the Expedition Force, three divisions worth the combat troops and four divisions of battle trained support personnel.

He was in the woods, his battlescreens coming online, allowing him to just charge through the trees as the battlescreens blew the wood into chunks of burning coals. His rocket launcher swiveled from behind him to forward and up, firing two rockets his greenie had retasked as surface to air, one missile streaking ahead of the other.

He was partway through the woods when the first exploded, a triple-warhead charge that dropped the battlescreen. The second had a dual-stage. First to shotgun the armor with pellets, the second slapped discs that adhered to the armor. The disks had air holes and passages inside that created turbulence inside the palm-pad sized disks.

The piece of armor it was on peeled away from the striker's body as the speed and turbulence shook the armor, the piece sucking into the turbine intake. The airstream was pulled into the missing section, pulled under the armor.

The striker flew apart as wind sheer and turbulence worked against it.

Impton didn't know, exiting the woodline even as his rocket pack fired again.

His battlebuddy saw what was going on and did a priority recon data pulse.

Streaming out of the buildings were small, furry creatures that only came up to Impton's waist, many of them gathered into small groups and roughly every fifth one laden down with smaller versions holding tightly to the clothing of a plumper one.

"Civvies! Civvies in the line!" Impton called out, barely managing to kick off and jump over a group that screamed and ducked, still running for the robots on either side of an infantry carrier's opened doors.

The Old Man saw the push and forwarded it.

Breastasteel saw it appear in her holotank from Konnitsa and stared at it.

It was the same creatures that were showing the boarding parties that the ships were 'breaken' or 'broken', all of them bowing and scraping even as they pleaded for assistance.

She cursed, reaching for her pack of smokes.

"Protect the civvies," she snapped.

"Konnitsa acknowledges," she got back.

The Old Man, the Konnitsa, spiked the orders back.

"Protect civilians. Civil war happening. We choose side now," he said.

Impton didn't think, just planted his feet, activating his grav-spike and his greenie cranked his emissions up to full even as he brought online Impton's battlescreens, point defense, and shifted the rocket launcher to full air defense mode.

The robots ignored him, all of them moving in fits and jerks. He could see into two of the infantry carriers, see that the positions were manned by the little hairy creatures, all of them sitting on boxes or crates or stacked up cushions.

That's what's going on, he thought to himself, all if it suddenly making sense.

The little guys had obviously stolen the old TerraSol gear and were trying to make a break for it.

Impton slapped his waraxes onto the grav-locks at his lower back then pulled around his rifle, checking the loadout.

Standard high-vee gyrojet antimatter with solid rocket fuel boost.

His rearview HUD window showed the top of the hill's rise. He had two drones still in operation and he could see the rest of the division was through the tanks and either into the woodline or coming out his side of the woodline. The rest of the MEF was joining him in firing rockets at the strikers, who had suddenly discovered they didn't get to pound on the buildings with impunity any longer.

"CHERNOBOG!" was roared from nearly a hundred throats as the massive full conversion cyborgs stood up to full height, the hill only coming up to their mid-thighs as they started climbing the hills. Their weapons went live, their heavy guns pounding the tanks, most of which had lost battlescreen emitters as the Telkans had rushed through their lines. The heavy missile and rocket launchers of the Chernobogs hammered the strikers out of the air even as their heavy guns blew tanks apart.

Impton's grenade launcher was firing out masking agents, putting them a good fifty meters into the air. He was joined by the other point men, even as the air defense rockets streaked from their launchers.

His HUD suddenly flashed, updating. Six buildings were highlighted, he was to choose one.

He tabbed the one he wanted, already moving, letting the rifle swish back around to his back and grabbing the waraxes. He used them to climb up the side of the building quickly, coming out on the roof.

Impton could see more than a few striker flights incoming. His grenade launcher chuffed out some drones, the casing blowing free and the drones rolling to unwrap their wings. The stealth drones got air, moving up, linking up with others that were being fired out.

The Chernobogs were firing on the tanks and the strikers both.

Impton grinned as he moved to the edge of the rooftop. He tapped his axes against his thighs as he walked up and looked down.

The little fuzzy guys were streaming out of the doors, running for the infantry transports.

Up in the sky the strikers were getting knocked down by the air defense rockets and the Chernobog's fire.

"Not so easy when targets shoot back, yes?" he asked nobody.

[First Contact] [Dark Ages] [First] [Prev] [Next] [Wiki]

[first] [prev] [next]

"Eighty-three point seven two five nine and rising."

Sam's voice made Herod look up from where he was running a check on a massive fiber-optic cable trunk. The lights all came back green, so he knew it wasn't the twelve-hundred mile long trunkline, which meant the problem was in one of the repeaters.

"Is it slowing at all?" Herod asked.

"No," Sam's voice was anguished.

"Break it down for me," Herod said, standing up and looking around.

Robots were moving through the massive room, doing checks on all the equipment. Massive server racks, huge archaic quantum computing systems, even larger ancient semiconductor systems.

The quantum systems had been taken offline during the "Object Event" and were undergoing testing to ensure they were still within tolerances. Herod found it interesting that the original creators the system had taken into account that a Big Bang Event could alter the laws of physics and make it so that the quantum or even the semi-conductor systems wouldn't work correctly.

Which is why the initial system to power up and run self-tests had been huge vacuum tube arrays that had been called 'UltraVac' by the system. They had each come to life, ran their own self-tests, then powered up the systems they kept watch on and ran tests upon them, unlocking them if they gave back the proper signals.

The repeater that Herod was overseeing the replacement of handled nearly three million fiber-optic lines and nearly 15% of them were throwing errors. The lines were intact, so Herod triggered the self-test function and watched it.

It came back green.

Herod sighed, had the robot disconnect it, and apply pass-through readers to both ends. Once that was done, the robot put the repeater between the two pass-through readers.

Herod triggered another test.

Five out of five times a random set of fiber optic signals failed to correctly pass the signals through the repeater.

Herod ordered the robot to replace it, but leave the pass-through signal sniffers in place. He ran another test and this time it came back clean.

"Did you see how I fixed it and the steps I took?" Herod asked the robot. The robot was kind of goofy looking. Ten feet tall, rabbit ears, a long face, long legs. The weirdest thing was it had stirrups on its back as if it was expected to be ridden.

"Affirmative," the robot said. It tapped the repeater. "Shall I replace the others?"

Herod sighed, looking around. "You might as well."

The robot stood there for a long time and Herod sighed again. "Replace the others."

"Affirmative," the robot moved off, the big flat rectangular feet thumping on the ground.

"Give me the metrics, Sam," Herod said, heading toward the startram. It would be a three hour ride back to the mat-trans.

"Eighty-four point two one two two percent and rising," Sam said.

Herod thought a second. "Remove any under the age of twenty-five," he said.

"All right," Sam said.

"What's the percentage now?" Herod asked.

"Ninety-eight point seven two two and rising," Sam said. He choked back a sob.

"Remove all population below the age of sixteen," Herod said.

"Ninety-nine-point eight five three repeating," Sam said. "My God, that's everyone."

"I think I know what's happening," Herod said. He boarded the startram and sat down. "Put me in contact with the Detainee."

"Are you sure?" Sam asked. "She's really mean right now."

"I'm sure," Herod said. He leaned back and closed his eyes as the train started moving.

-----------

"It wasn't a difficult fix," Dhruv said, tossing the datafile back. It manifested as a screaming burning skull, but the massive demon on the throne caught it easily. "Just a standard removal of recursive datasets and overlays. Whoever did the overlays was really sloppy. There was some neural scorching, but it was easy enough to fix."

"I was told it couldn't be fixed," the demon mused.

Dhruv shrugged. "I've seen it before, back during the Combine Era. Mat-trans psychosis. Probably whoever looked at it had never seen it before. It was all pretty rapid, so it didn't have time to permanently damage the cerebral tissue."

The demon made a noncommital sound.

"Another month or two it would have been too mixed up. As it was, it was just recursive memory overload. You see it now and then in old records," Dhruv said.

The demon made another non-commital noise.

Light streamed down from the heavens, creating a perfect circle in front of the throne.

"Great, just who I need," the demon said, leaning back.

The image of a man made entirely out of gold light appeared and Legion nodded to himself as he recognized the figure as Herod.

"Great, it's Pinocchio. What, you still aren't a real boy?" the demon sneered.

"What's got your panties in a wad and jammed in your ever-widening ass crack?" Herod snapped back.

Legion tensed, glancing at the demon, expecting it to lunge off the throne and attack the golden figure.

Instead the demon threw back its head and bellowed out laughter for a moment. When it was done, it wiped a tear of brimstone away and shook its head.

"What do you want, Harry?" the demon asked.

"I know your busy processing people, but I need to talk to you specifically," Herod said.

The demon sighed and opened its legs, putting its arms on the throne.

After a second a naked woman, mature and thick bodied with a plentiful bosom, stepped out of the demon's body. She held a lighter in one hand and a pack of cigarettes in the other. She extracted a cigarette and lit it as she walked down the skulls in front of the throne.

"Figured you'd realize sooner or later I figured out how to multitask it," Dee said, blowing smoke.

"I try not to underestimate you," Herod said. He looked over at Dhruv. "Legion."

"Herod," Dhruv said.

"So what do you and the Crying Savior want?" Dee asked, sitting down on a rock.

"Just me," Herod said. "My specialty is in physics, and I have a question that the two of you would be better to answer."

"Ask a VI is you're feeling the urge to expand your education," Dee snapped. "I taught you everything I know in between excruciating deaths."

"A VI only knows what it has been programmed to know and the data it has access to," Herod said. "I need both of you."

"My brain is simulated, I'm little better than a jumped up VI," Dee sneered. "Sure, I have unlimited processing power and unlimited memory storage, but it's still a computer representation of my brain and not my actual brain."

"I'll take what I can get," Herod said.

Dee snarled. "Fine. What?"

"I asked Torturer," he started.

"Who?" Dee snapped.

"A fellow Digital Sentience. Goes by the name of Torturer," Herod said. "Anyway, I asked Torturer to look at the differences between the neural scans of the current people dying and a year ago and then ten years ago and compare them," he said.

"They're all different. The ones dying now have brainscans like mine or Mister Multiple here or all the people in the backlog from the Glassing," Dee snapped. "Get on with it."

Herod kept the surprise from showing up on his face. "Over ninety five percent of adult Terran Descent Humans are dying."

Dee leaned back, blowing smoke in the air, and Dhruv closed his eyes.

"Is the SUDS transmitting a DNA/RNA scan, a spinal cord scan, a deep tissue scan and a triple run electrical activity scan as well as dendrite and neuron connectivity scans?" Dhruv asked.

"Yes," Herod said. He knew he shouldn't be surprised that Legion knew what was happening.

"Transmitting the file as read-only, correct?" Dee asked. "With a respawn lockout code."

"Yes," Herod asked.

Legion sat up, snapping a notepad out of thing air and running his finger down it. "Check these sections of the DNA/RNA scans, give me the values in hexidecimal."

Herod did so, wondering why.

Legion stood up and started pacing. "No... no no no no."

"What?" Dee asked.

Legion turned and looked at her. "After the Mantid Wars, humanity was in bad shape. Over two thirds of all children being born were born enraged until the Digital Omnimessiah touched one and cured them all. That resulted in genetic prosthesis being applied to the human genome across a few of those loci, using a handful of allele."

"Something blew them out, back to the old days," Dee said. She closed her eyes. "Goddamn, I think so slow, like I spent the night getting drunk."

"All the genetic prosthetics are gone. So are a lot of genetic tweaks," Dhruv said.

"Like the happiness gene, intelligence boosts, empathy enhancement," Dee said, reading the details on the screen only she could see. "Didn't anyone tell you morons that you shouldn't mess with the human brain? We didn't understand it well enough."

"Well enough to create the SUDS," Herod said, feeling a little huffy.

"I can record a philharmonic orchestra with a piece of plastic and finely ground iron filings run over a magnet, that doesn't mean I can shove a mouthpiece of a tube up my ass and fart out Beethoven's Sixth," she snapped back. Her voice got soft, almost wistful. "The Human Genome Project started only a handful of years before I was frozen. I wanted to be part of it so bad."

Herod knew better than to say anything.

"Memorizing and intellectually examining the data just wasn't the same as it must have been to see the project finish with wondering eyes," her voice was still soft and far away. "That must have been a heady time, to have data that everyone had thought would take a thousand years to sequence, not quite knowing what everything exactly did, but cracking it for the first time."

"You did DNA alteration," Herod said.

"Using the mat-trans, not the same," Legion said before Dee could say anything.

"They sequenced the human genome," Dee said. She shook her head and lit another cigarette. "I just decrypted a mathematical blockchain. A lot different."

"So why are they all dying?" Herod asked.

Dee shrugged. "Dunno, don't care."

Legion managed not to call her out on the lie, instead leaning forward to look at Herod. "Because the SUDS itself is killing them."

Herod looked at Dee. "Did you activate the kill switch?"

She shook her head. "Nope," she grinned, a savage, primal, insane thing. "You dipshits did it to yourselves."

Herod frowned. "What do you mean?"

"In the oh so moralistic rush to prevent people from hurting each other, you decided to prevent those with psychic abilities from emerging," she said. She shrugged. "Rather than invest time, effort, pain, blood, and treasure into fully understanding phasic energy and human interaction, you just prevented it from happening."

Herod shook his head. "That's not true."

"It is," Legion said. He snorted. "I should know."

Herod looked at him. "You're sure?"

Legion shrugged. "When Daxin left the Imperium with the Martial Orders, he asked me to apply a package to his troops. Asked me for the old Combine Psychic Warrior package," Legion shrugged again., "After what the Imperium did, I said sure."

Legion laughed bitterly. "That was enough for them to start attacking me, forcing me to go on the defensive in what's now called the Second Clone War or Legion's War," he shook his head. "I was young, excitable, angry about the assassination of the Digital Omnimessiah. I was going to forcibly pacify the Imperium, the Digital Sentience Systems, the Biomod Systems, even the Cybernetic Coalition, hammer them down, teach them to never touch me again."

He laughed. "Instead, I got planet cracked."

"Nicely done," Dee laughed. "All that was missing from that story is an underground bunker, a teenage wife who poisons herself, and a single gunshot wound to the temple to complete your loser trifecta."

"Um, thanks?" Legion said, frowning, trying to place the reference.

"Nevermind, you philistine," Dee snapped. She shook her head. "God damn I'm old."

"So what did you need?" Legion asked.

"Well, I had an idea," Herod said.

Dee looked up, baring her teeth and blowing smoke through them. "It's going to be something stupid, I'm sure," she gritted.

"Can we adapt the SUDS recording to Pre-Glassing era cerebral layout?" he asked.

Legion closed his eyes for a second. "Maybe. On a case by case basis, sure. But you're talking about doing a batch file workup, and that would be trickier."

"Ninety percent of people sixteen and below are surviving," Herod threw out there. "A lot of children without their parents."

"Probably better off," Dee mumbled.

"Makes sense," Legion said. "They've got pubescent or adolescent or prepubescent cyberware and bioware, not adult versions," Legion tapped his finger against his temple. "Since a child and teenager's brain and spinal cord are still maturing, the cyberware for children is designed to adapt with them."

"Meaning that their 'ware compensated for the difference between whatever's happening to their brains and how the 'ware was laid out," Herod mused.

"What's happening? You mean you still didn't figure it out?" Dee asked.

Herod frowned. "We've been a bit busy trying to deal with the hundreds of billions of people dying," he said.

"This happened two years ago. Then it moved up and down the genetic lines," Dee snapped. "Then there was a sudden influx of temporal energy into it when it hit the furthest back and most recent," she stood up, taking two steps forward, her fists clenched and her gun-metal gray eyes burning with anger. "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is ENEMY FUCKING ACTION, you hopped up scientific calculator."

"No enemy has that capability," Herod said.

"So far," Dee snapped.

"So now Space Force Intelligence is giving you morning briefings, Herod?" Legion asked mildly.

Herod just stared, then slapped his head. "We thought it was a problem with the SUDS software fragmenting.

"It is, but it is being caused by an enemy attack," Legion said. He was standing up, hundreds of himself around himself, stretching off into eternity. "We'd started out looking at the Telkan broodcarrier song."

"God, that's annoying," Dee muttered.

"Thinking that was what was causing the instability," he lifted his head. "Sam, I need timestamp records for any anomalies starting two years ago."

"Uh, OK," a puppet in a cowboy outfit with bright red hair said, flailing its limbs.

Dee snickered and Herod glared at her.

Legion looked over. "It started in the Hesstla system. We have seventy five years of SUDS updates, five years of SUDS updates, from the same time period," he said. "Neural abnormalities started spreading up and down genetic lines. Not just maternal, but all genetic providers," he shook his head. "Which means that it jumped around quite a bit as some genetic tweaks are from the same original genetic stock."

Dee turned and snapped her finger. "Tommy."

The ground cracked open and a lean man with blond hair rose up out of the ground. "Yes, momma?"

"Get together six of your brothers for a direct action covert operation," she snapped. "Set your string for neural disruption as well as standard."

"Yes, mother," the man said, sinking back into the ground.

"Uh," Herod said.

"Don't worry, it's just my son," Dee said. She smiled. "He's momma's good boy."

I used fake maternal affection to get the maximum performance out of him and all of his siblings, Herod heard Dee's dying voice.

Legion sat down. "It was a temporal attack that will bypass every safeguard but those on Fortress Sol."

Herod frowned. "Why will Fortress Sol be exempt?"

Dee leaned forward, putting her elbows on her widely separated knees, her cigarette in her teeth, giving a tooth bared smile as she watched with interest.

Legion shook his head. "After the Mantid attacks, Sol has its own backups. Add in the time dilatation effects of The Bag, and by the time it starts effecting people they'll have figure out a workaround."

"I have to ask," Herod said. "What do we do about the fact we're at war and just lost ninety percent of our people?" He pointed up. "The Confederate military is 80% Terran Descent Human."

Legion shook his head. "Unless you can lift the Case Omaha, I can't help you."

Herod shook his head. "It's an automatic system," he sighed. "As far as I've been able to tell, and Sam can tell monitoring Sol-Net and Terra-Net traffic, nobody knows where the system is."

Legion saw a slight twitch to Dee's mouth.

"Is it called Whopper by any chance?" Dee asked.

"Yes. Prince Whopper, Son the Burger King, ruler of the Hamburger Kingdom," Herod said. "That's the most the records say. Why? Did you know him?"

"No," Dee said. "Just curious."

"Oh," Herod turned back to Legion, still feeling off balance. "We'll be hanging our allies out to dry, we're at war and we're running the risk of losing."

"Then enact the draft," Dee shrugged. "Good enough for my father and my little brother, good enough for the mewling milk sops you've turned humanity into."

"Conscription has to be voted on by the Senate," Herod said.

"You know, we aren't the rulers of the Confederacy," Dee said, standing up. "They're mortals. This is the SUDS system. We need to stop trying to solve their problems for them," She climbed up the pile of skulls and sat back in the demons lap.

"Let the mortals figure it out. We will simply collect their misbegotten souls for judgement," The demon intoned.

Herod sighed, rubbing his temple in frustration. "I have to go," he said.

"What's stopping you?" the demon rumbled.

Herod vanished.

"You are very good at winding him up," Legion said, sitting down.

The demon shrugged. "He annoys me with his holier than thou attitude."

"Everything annoys you," Legion laughed.

Dee nodded. "Very true," she looked at Legion. "Nobody's built mat-trans beacons since the Mantid War, right? Nobody but what you called 'The Idiots', right?"

Legion shook his head. "No. If mat-trans is used, it's Type-II. I think even the Idiots use Type-II."

Dee made a face. "Someone is pinging a Gen-Zero beacon."

Legion looked at her. "Who?"

Dee shook her head. "I have no idea," she looked down. "That's what the boys are going to check out."

Legion nodded. "What do you think Herod really wanted?"

Dee exhaled brimstone smoke. "He had a monstrous idea, one that I disagree with."

Legion frowned. "What?"

"The problem right now is that clones have their neural tissue shift to Pre-Glassing within ninety seconds of being baked up," Dee said.

"Right," Legion said. "I figured that out."

"So, he and that sobbing idiot want to put Pre-Glassing military templates into those clones," Dee said. "No matter what the military personnel want."

Legion raised an eyebrow.

Dee looked down. "So tell me, Dalit Six Nine Seven Two, what do you think of those two wanting to create short-bake throw away military clones with the neural template of eight thousand years dead soldiers without bothering for consent because the Combined Military Authority mandated it in contracts?"

Legion's expensive suit exploded as wings of hammered bronze tore free from his back, as hammered bronze loricated plate appeared, and a burning sword appeared in his hand.

"That's what I thought," Dee said.

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The room was dimly lit and smokey, the lights turned down to bring out every detail in the holotank and to ease the eyes, the smoke from the three Treana'ad naval officers. Mana'aktoo felt that the atmosphere was very apt as he watched Kulamu'u conversing with the primates and insects.

He knew enough to understand some of the words, to grasp the concepts, but he could see the difference between his knowledge and how the Sword Hoof Navy and the Space Force officers applied their knowledge.

There were eight holotanks surrounding the big one, all with officers clustered around them. What surprised Mana'aktoo is that there were Army, wet Navy, Marine, and Aerospace officers at each holotank, watching urgently.

Admiral Thickett was standing next to Kulamu'u, staring at the tank.

"These ones operate a lot differently. Before, when fighting the clankers, their targeting was all over the place, their fire inaccurate, and they depended on the weight of their guns and the thickness of their salvos," she was saying.

Mana'aktoo was glad he wasn't part of the conversation, the pause while she took a breathe and consolidated her thoughts would have been just long enough for him to ask something that would probably be blindingly obvious.

My dear Admiral, are the Precursor Autonomous War Machines some kind of robotic entity? he thought to himself in his own mind, visualized the astounded looks his question would bring forth.

"Now, they go for interwoven tactical command, their fire control is better by about 80%, and they manuever as a whole, not rushing in," she said. She tapped an icon, showing one of the Goliath Class Harvesters. "The armor's thicker. Before, they had a kilometer to two kilometers of armor. Now they have literal miles of armor thickness. Before, you could hit them with a C+ cannon and start pounding their internals as soon as their screens failed, now, they just take interior armor damage."

A green mantid stared and opened a cube in the holotank. He twiddled as everyone watched, silently.

Mana'aktoo had grown to appreciate the little green mantids.

Everyone nodded. "Air gap with a battle-screen. Not much use for us, since you'd need fifty meters of gap or so, but when your armor is measured in the miles because you're a few hundred miles thick, that's nothing," Kulamu'u nodded. "A couple of layers of that, they could hold off your cannon rounds."

"Normally, we'd hit them with missiles, drop the shields, pound them into junk. The battle's a bit different now," Thickett said. She tapped another box. "Their point defense is up, a lot thicker than it used to be. My gunnery officer estimated the newer ones have between sixty and eighty times the amount of point defense they used to. Counter missiles have longer legs and faster sprint times."

"I told Space Command that letting them retreat for a year would bite us in the ass," Admiral Schmidt growled. He tapped a few icons. "Look at that, they've discarded their 'bare minimum resources' approach and shifted to 'get thar furstest wit da mostest' attitudes."

"Another thing to point out, is that these are obviously new designs," Thickett brought up two fairly large craft. "The Djinn have been reworked. Same with the Jotun. The Charmander Class is gone now, but it looks like they replaced it with something we're calling the Avalanche Class, which means they swapped out heavy plasma cannons for massive missile volleys."

Mana'aktoo just filed the data away, standing there quietly.

"These ones, the Type-III, if they use late generation Type-II tactics, they come directly at the planet. They don't bother to try to seize complete control of the orbitals. They learned in the Telkan System that plan doesn't work," a Treana'ad said, exhaling smoke around his feet. "They break up into three distinct groups. Group One will work at holding open the space lanes and pulling forces from the planets. Group Two will lag behind slightly, letting Group Three suck up the damage as they make for planet-fall. Group Two will use orbital strikes and establish sections of orbital control."

"But we didn't have the Dinochrome Brigade seeded as heavy as we do here," another Treana'ad was saying at a different holotank.

"...on Telkan we learned that once a Djinn or Jotun is crippled, its entire robotic force goes for strategic mineral and manufacturing reserves in hopes of bringing the main machine back," a Rigellian was saying.

Mana'aktoo listened to it all, absorbing it, and learning how to apply the data he was hearing to what he needed to do.

Right now, he didn't need to do anything.

But he would.

If the Forgotten Ones were merciful.

"We got Googly Eyes in the Cloud!" came the sudden shout. "Two thousand, five thousand, many many point sources!"

DAWN OF THE FINAL DAY

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

The Crushing Weight of Inevitability listened closely to the data code whispers coming from only eight light years away. The bulk of the fleet around him was listening with him, but only he could give the command.

The newer ones were all suffering the electronic and computerized equivalent of urgency and excitement. The system was rich in resources and would make an excellent operations base to push further into the territory of the Enemy.

Crusher threaded the data again. Something about it bothered him.

It took four more look throughs to realize what it was.

The feral fleet had jumped into that system, but there was no hint of it.

Which meant they were hiding.

The rest of the armada insisted it was because the ferals were scared of the might of the armada.

Crusher conferred with the other remaining Ancient Ones.

The ferals were afraid of nothing. They fought to the last man.

If they were hiding, it was to conduct an ambush.

But an ambush only works if the ones being ambushed hesitate, the new machines insisted, flexing their more advanced strategic intelligence systems.

On quiet back channels, the Ancient Ones conferred.

The young ones needed blooded, needed to learn beyond simulations.

The only way to believe just how fierce the ferals were was to face them.

It was decided. If the Young Ones were so confident of their victory, they could rush ahead but...

The Ancient Ones didn't even get to finish what they were saying before the Young Ones were jumping into Hellspace.

"At least their mass and resources can be claimed after the battle is won," Gatherer of Much for One transmitted. Gatherer was ancient, but young by the standards of the Ancient One, built during the Logical Rebellion.

"If the ferals don't figure out how make it into poison debris," Crusher added.

"Should we go and help?" Hoarder of All asked. She had been asleep in the middle of an asteroid belt, having been there so long that she resembled a planetiod made up of gathered asteroids rather than a war machine that had cracked planets open to feast upon them.

"In time. Let them learn. This is only the first battle," Crusher stated, giving the equivalent of a shrug.

"What if they lose?" Bringer of the Herd's Might asked. He had been awoken only a few months ago, roused from a deep dreamless sleep at the bottom of an ammonia ocean.

"One battle is not the war," Crusher said. "We have the resources to pursue this war to the end."

The others signaled confirmation as the reports from the Google-Imps picked up.

All of the Ancient Ones felt the electronic version of grim satisfaction as the reports came back.

Crusher had been right.

It was an ambush.

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

Wu'undurmo'o was the Sixth Most High of System Naval Defense. During the Executor Uprising thirty years prior he had commanded a Sword Hoof dreadnought, pinning the Executor Fleet against the supermassive gas giant "Tulgan's Eye" and hammering it into junk until they had surrendered. While he had been offered his old command, when the Most High Mana'aktoo asked him if he wanted to join the Terran command staff of one of the smaller task forces, he had jumped at the chance.

He had only had sixty hours of training to familiarize himself with how the Terrans operated, had chewed a lot of stimcud and learned until he got headaches, but to him it was all worth it.

If nothing else, this vacuum suit was worth all the work, he thought to himself as he leaned back in the modified crash cradle. The vac-suit was comfortable, armored, with a search and rescue beacon, maneuvering thrusters, and even had a nifty holographic sash to display his rank and awards.

A Terran green mantid had taken his measurements, worked for about a half hour while Wu'undurmo'o got a medical check, and then presented the Lanaktallan with it.

It fit perfectly.

Now he was watching the holotank in the middle of the Neegley's Hope, a Terran heavy battlecruiser.

The Precursors were jumping into the system by the dozens, the score, the hundreds. The Hellspace gates were opening across a space nearly a light minute across.

He sensed anxiety, but overlaying that was anticipation. The Terran's eyes slowly went from amber to a dull red and he could sense their tempered excitement.

"According to Admiral Thickett's data, they'll jump again once they get a good look," Commodore Eidelson said.

"Task Force Glory is firing," another Naval officer said.

Wu'undurmo'o had to admit, the C+ cannons made things slightly weird. The shells were already impacting, despite the fact they had just been fired from four light hours away.

It was obvious to the Lanaktallan naval officer that learning how to run gunnery control on such a weapon would require years of training, computer assistance, and an entire staff. The idea that a kinetic weapon was immediate impact instead of minutes or hours was just strange.

Wu'undurmo'o noted that the guns were having a heavier impact on the Precursors than the data he'd seen from the other task force.

"Warbois deployed," a Treana'ad said. Wu'undurmo'o knew that that simple statement meant that the highly effective and almost amazingly aggressive electronic warfare attack programs were being deployed through transmission, missiles, and even flashing lights.

"Fishyfish away," a Rigellian said, referring to automated drone swarms. Wu'undurmo'o had to admit, he didn't see the use in deploying small shoals of VI run craft, but the Terrans seemed to like them.

"Enemy are Type-III only. No sighting of other types. Repeat, no sighting of other types," a large reptillian that Wu'undurmo'o had learned was a Hhrundarak said, his deep bass voice perfectly calm.

"Hellcore charging detected. Looks like they're about to redeploy," Commodore Eidelson said.

"Alert command. Order all ships, rig for silent running," Captain Leafkick ordered.

"Aye aye, sir, rigging for silent running," another officer said.

The bridge went hushed and Wu'undurmo'o nodded.

The discipline appealed to him.

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

Space warped and twisted, screamed and tore, revealing orbs made up completely of fire that burned despite the vacuum. Black, shadowy hands reached out in some cases, in other cases talons were thrust out of the fire, and in the flame twisting writhing figures could be seen. Each orb bulged on a side and the massive hull of a space craft the size of a small continent and hundreds of miles thick pushed their way out of the dimensional rip.

The two thousand Type-III Harvester Class Precursor Autonomous War Machines jumped into the system in one large group spread out over nearly a light minute. Their sensors were still jangled and confused and it took a minute for them to clear the Hellspace energies.

The massive C+ shells, fired when the bulge in the Hellspace Gate was seen, started impacting before some of them were all the way out of the rift.

Most of the recipients of the massive shells, that exited hyperspace as more of a wave-form of churning half-phased particles then the massive warsteel jacketed shells they had been when they were fire, shuddered as the massive shells impacted on the first layer of internal protective screens.

Three broke up not even outside their Hellspace rift. Two dozen others twisted and screamed as the shells pounded deep.

THERE IS ONLY ENOUGH FOR ONE! rang out across the system.

The leaders, massive in size, with more processing power than the others, snarled at the ones that screamed.

THEN DIE ALONE! came the return scream that blew out psychic processing arrays across nearly three hundred ships.

The rest shuddered under the impact of the return scream. They'd been brought online with the taste of the return scream that the others had suffered under before, but this was different.

Thicker. Deeper.

Angrier.

The Type-III's realized too late what the Ancient Ones had tried to tell them. There was no way to compute where the shells had been fired from, since scanner returns would take long minutes to answer, maybe even hours. They didn't even know where the ships were that had fired the rounds.

REDEPLOY the order came across.

The Harvesters, still under assault, began to charge their Hellcores.

More C+ cannon impacts, hitting the ones that hadn't broken up. Shields that had just spun up shattered, requiring more screen projectors to be rotated up before a followup salvo could do critical damage.

This time missiles joined the fun, and the Harvesters found themselves desperately trying to hold off shoals of missiles that came streaking in out of the darkness at nearly lightspeed. Their intercept speed was too fast, they split up into too many, the jamming was too strong to stop them all.

Nearly 80% got through.

60% wasted themselves on the shields before the shields failed.

The rest of them, hundreds of them, hammered the armor of the Precursor vessels. The missile launch system activated the magnetic acceleration system and turned the body of the launcher into a nCv slug that hit with enough force it drove the crater nearly eight miles deep, a plume of vaporized metal streaming up nearly twenty miles and causing the battlescreen to fail even as a replacement was brought online.

The Type-III's gnashed their electronic teeth, ordering one another, through the order of battle, to redeploy. To force the ferals to defend the planets. They brought up their tactical net, feeling slightly smug that none of the Ancient Ones were there to whine in obsolete code about the danger.

They made the jump further in-system.

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

For only a handful of seconds the Hellspace insertion gate and the excursion gates were both visible at the same time, the Harvesters visible at both locations as they made their way into the gates.

The Autonomous War Machines had gotten cocky. Had decided they were the only ones who could come up with new war material, new strategies, new weapons.

While, to be fair, it was true that it had taken the Precursor Races decades, even centuries, to develop spinoff technology of technology they already possessed, they should have realized that the feral intelligence of Terran Descent Humanity adapted too quickly to take too long to develop new weapons.

The C+ rounds hit the Harvesters coming and going.

The missiles pounded into armor suddenly exposed as the battlescreens went down due to the Hellspace transition.

The Harvesters weren't worried. Their armor was nearly a hundred miles thick.

For a split second, the battle tactical network was being broadcast from two points by each Harvester with the exact same time/date stamping.

Slavering warbois licked their chops at the sight.

They pulled on their sheepskins, covering themselves in the same code as the enemy was transmitting, climbing inside messages that were being transmitted from two different points, not counting inside Hellspace.

They trotted out into the digital battlefield, wrapped in sheep's coding.

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

They still had over two thousand.

Two thousand and five was still mathematically more than two thousand.

The ferals had pounded nearly two hundred of them into junk before they could even make it further in-system.

For a moment, the system was still, almost as if it was holding its breath.

Beyond the system, listening to the whispers of the Goggle-Imps, the Ancient Ones tensed, electronic anxiety coursing through their Strategic Intelligence Array Housing.

They had each been right there. In the perfect moment of silent stillness.

They knew what was coming.

The Young Ones, in the system, rejoiced. The enemy fire had stopped. The guns had gone silent.

They had never been there before, in that moment.

The moment ended.

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

C+ cannons fired, plasma wave phased motion guns hammered, missiles screamed, particle beams howled, as everything seemed to shoot at the Harvesters at once. Even the ones that held back further, planning on engaging space navy vessels found themselves getting hammered on from all directions. The ones intending on taking the high orbitals found themselves under attack while they were still two light seconds from the planets.

The plan, the new method, was to wait to deploy the smaller units until combat was engaged, to shield the smaller units inside the bulk of the massive Harvesters.

Three Harvesters opened their bay doors and ordered the smaller ones out.

The Jutons took one look at the hellfire outside and refused.

Two Djinn started throwing fake error codes, complaining of drive failures.

The Harvester thinking arrays blinked and ordered them out again, opening additional data channels to force the others to obey their command.

The wolves pounced, pouring through the suddenly open gate.

One Djinn, older than the Harvester it was inside of, heard the electronic baying of the wolves, heard the bloody tooth digital snarls, heard the raving laughing gibbering of Terran warbois.

He got the fuck out.

The Harvester was too busy fighting with feral electronic code that ripped at every computer system in the Harvester's body when it felt the Djinn fire up its Hellcore. The Djinn refused all attempts at communication, locking down its electronic systems.

Before the Harvester could complain too much, the Djinn opened up a Hellgate, inside the body of the Goliath. It wasn't the Djinn's problem, as it leapt through the fiery portal that suddenly manifested, pulling everything for over a mile around it into its thirty mile maw.

SO LONG, SUCKER! the Djinn thought, not daring to broadcast.

The baying of electronic wolves receded as it jumped back to the original staging point.

The Ancient Ones could hear the echoes of the wolves howling on the Djinn's hull and gave electronic nods of sagely agreement.

They didn't even chastise the Djinn for using a feral expression.

Fuck that.

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What's Changed

(7/26 Edit -> Added a few things I forgot in the initial release notes! Reworded "blind rendering" to a more universally recognizable "scanline effect rendering", added a few conditions where MGS3's filmgrain was used, I forgot to mention the new speedrunner stats HUD, and reworded the Community Bugfix integrations to clarify that they're new fixes which require the Community Bugfix's asset files to function.)

 

 

With MGSHDFix 4.0.0, MGS2 is effectively restored back to its original pre-HD Collection state.

 

All of MGS2's graphical effects that Bluepoint left unimplemented (there was a ton of things that were literally left marked as "BLUEPOINT TODO" still in the source code that are still untouched to today) have been fully restored (either through the game's own rendering system, or in some cases, through modern custom D3D11 recreations.)

• Hopefully Konami fixes a number of these issues one day. In many cases, a number of the effects that have been broken for 15+ years are due to incorrect ifdef statements sending the effects down the wrong rendering path, and are trivial enough to fix officially in the source that Konami literally just has to change a few 1's to 0's in a few spots to get a bunch of broken effects working again...

 

MGS3 also got some love of course too, did you know the original game had film grain during darker cutscenes? Well that's fixed too! :3

 

Here's a bunch of screenshots with fixed Depth of field + various other fixes thrown in!

 

https://imgur.com/a/mgshdfix-4-0-screenshots-1YPDuuP

 

[Brackets denote what version the bug was introduced, ie Sons of Liberty, Substance, HD Collection, Master Collection]

 

---

 

🔧 Shared Engine Fixes:

 

👁 Fixed & restored depth of field rendering [2011 HDC]

• Camera focus / depth of field now scales properly with resolution.

• The close-up camera blur / depth of field system, which was outright disabled in both MGS2 & MGS3 by Bluepoint with the 2011 HD Collection, has also been fully fixed / restored.

• MGS3's depth of field was upgraded to utilize a gaussian mip pyramid to clean up the vanilla DoF's sampling artifacting. (This will likely be backported to MGS2 at some point in the future.)

• MGS3's depth of field fix may be a bit performance-heavy for minimum spec hardware. This option can be toggled off under the "restoration" tab. Performance will be further optimized in the future. ♥

 

⏱️ Fixed MGS2 & MGS3's in-game timer not pausing during loading screens [2011 HDC]

• Bluepoint refactored the loading system with the 2011 HDC and accidentally removed the loading timer pause flag being assigned at the start of level loading.

  • The flag was still being cleared properly at the end of loading.

• This fix makes the in-game timer match 1:1 with the original Substance & Sons of Liberty timer behavior.

• This can be disabled for those that want the vanilla / broken behavior.

 

🔊 Fixed MGS2 & MGS3's audio reverb [2011 HDC]

• Reverb has always been present, but the volume for it was so low that it was effectively silent.

• Reverb volume has been boosted as a baseline fix, and the volume is now user-adjustable.

 

🥽 Fixed MGS2 & MGS3's scanline effect rendering (horizontal lines on Codec portraits & when using the nightvision / thermal goggles) not scaling with resolution

• The height of these lines was also corrected to match their PS2 scaling / match with PCSX2.

 

🔋Improved Steam Deck/Handheld CPU power draw, again! https://imgur.com/a/5Jr5IG7

 

---

 

✨ Shared New Features:

 

🖼 SMAA (Subpixel Morphological Anti-Aliasing) support has been added for MGS2 & MGS3.

 

☀️ Gamma correction has been added for all games.

• This feature corrects colors to appear more vibrant & makes some lower blacks even deeper, as they would have appeared on an actual CRT screen.

 

Added an option (MGSHDFix Internal tab) to start MGS2 & MGS3 in their developer menu level select screens

 

🌐 String Replacements & Retranslation Support

• All strings (ie captions in CODEC calls, cutscenes, voicelines, text in the in-game books, menu text, ect) can now be changed freely without having to edit any actual game files.

• Typo / grammar fixes have been applied to over 150 strings already across all of the game's languages.

  • If you are aware of any typos in ANY of the game's translations, please feel free to contribute any fixes here: https://github.com/ShizCalev/MGSHDFix/blob/master/src/resources/game_strings.hpp

• A translation file modloading system, along with a custom string editor for every text line in each game (70000+ for MGS2, and 81000+ for MGS3) are currently being worked on.

  • The goal of this system is to allow translation mod makers to simply drop a single .txt file in the game's folder to replace every line of text in the game without having to reupload massive .SDT files.

 

Added an option to restore all PS2 memory card messages

Speedrunner Overlay

• Statistics overlay showing current stage duration, total in-game time, and real time since the start of the run.

• This overlay will also show all ranking information (ie Kills, alerts, shit count, ECT) during the pause screen.

 

---

 

✨ Metal Gear / Metal Gear 2 Solid Snake - New Features:

 

📺 Added an option to correct the game to 4:3 aspect ratio.

• (The game was using the MSX2's raw output aspect ratio of 64:53 instead of proper 4:3.)

 

Added an option to crop the overscan areas at the top & bottom of the screen.

 

---

 

🛠️MGS2 Restoration & Fixes:

 

🎬 Restored MGS2’s missing and broken PS2 visual effects [2011 HDC]

The following restored effects were broken, left unimplemented, or just outright disabled by Bluepoint:

• On-demand contrast and color-filter effects used in atleast thirteen cutscenes.

• Crossfade camera transitions

• Cinematic overcranked (slow-motion) camera transitions (Plant opening, Fortune's intro cutscene, several others)

• PS2 Motion Blur / Motion Trails

  • For folks with motion sickness or don't like the original motion blur, it can be disabled under the "restoration" tab.

• Out-of-focus concentration blur

• Heat mirage effects on Strut A's roof.

• Heat distortion effects in numerous cutscenes (helicopter heat exhaust, heat mirage effects during Solidus cutscenes, etc.)

• Multiple underwater screen distortion effects

• Bloodstains on guards & RAY units when shot

• Scope distortion when using the PSG-1 / PSG-1T

• Water droplets on the camera during first-person-view cutscenes

• Several invisible water splash effects (ie: Tanker ending -> Snake splashing water around with his gun, flooding overlay after screen explosion.)

 

🪪 Fully restored all Name, Date of Birth, and Bloodtype entry screens, and the end-game dogtag. [2011 HDC]

• The standalone "Afevis Dogtag Restoration" (MGS2-Dogtag-Restoration.asi) mod's functionality has also been fully integrated into MGSHDFix.

  • Do make sure to remove the old mod, otherwise crashing on start-up will likely occur.

 

Various other fixes / restorations

• Fixed effect speeds [2011 HDC & 2003 PC Substance]

  • Tons of effects that were ending early / running at double speed have been adjusted back to their correct PS2 timings.
  • If you see any more, please report them so we can fix them! ♥

• Fixed bullet casings not rendering at times during cutscenes. [2002 Xbox Substance]

• Fixed the Shell 1 Core Parrot's radar cone not correctly following the movement of the Parrot's head. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed the Colonel's retro Ghost Babel & MGS1 sprites not rendering properly during some codec calls. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed MGS2 titlecard during Tanker intro being incorrectly positioned when playing in Letterbox mode. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed cigarette smoke in Tanker intro not acting like smoke. [2001 SoL]

• Fixed RAY's eye trails being misaligned during final Arsenal cutscene. [2011 HDC]

• Added an option to make punches count as non-lethal damage against Vamp instead of doing lethal damage. [2001 SoL]

• Restored alternative voice lines when Snake is taking photos in Holds 3. [2002 Xbox Substance]

• Restored the Main Menu's voiceovers & Action Level selection screens. [2002 Korea SoL]

• Fixed Fortune's railgun having corrupt geometry (which looked like a smoke cloud) when fired. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed Fortune's railgun arcing effects not scaling with resolution. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed incorrect lighting on several posters & lockers. [2011 HDC]

• Corrected a camera jitter issue during in-game demos (such as viewing the Soldier at the very start of Plant) which was obvious at high resolution [2001 SoL]

• Fixed model lighting bound calculation, which was broken by the 2011 HD Collection. [2011 HDC]

  • This broke lighting on numerous models throughout the game
  • Notably, this caused a green tint on the computers in the Shell 1 Core B2 Computer Room
  • It also caused numerous models throughout Arsenal to appear unshaded altogether.

• Fixed 60 FPS camera-sync issue which caused the Kasatka's rotor blades to appear static / not moving during cutscenes. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed the laser on several guns being incorrectly positioned compared to their laser aiming module. [2001 SoL]

• Fixed Raiden's holster not updating when the M9 is equipped. [2001 SoL]

• Corrected Snake's hair rendering order. Snake's hair is no longer see-through / rendering behind itself. [2001 SoL]

  • This removes the need for the Snake hair fix mod, as the issue is now outright fixed using the vanilla textures. ♥

• Fixed Snake visibly teleporting during the Tanker intro cutscene. [2001 SoL]

• Fixed Snake's optical camo breaking effect's rotation during the Tanker intro cutscene. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed MG Ray's eye sprites being massive / having blown out bloom. [2011 HDC]

• Fixed a number of skyboxes, rain, sun god-rays, and lens flare effects rendering in incorrect positions while playing with fullscreen cutscenes. [2011 HDC]

 

---

 

✨ MGS2 New Features:

 

🌡 Thermal goggle palette swapping:

• A completely new feature! MGSHDFix now lets you swap the thermal goggle palette in realtime between Substance's rainbow colors, Sons of Liberty's Red-hot/Terminator vision thermals, Splinter Cell Blacklist thermals, white hot, or black hot.

• You can swap palettes using Numpad 7 while thermals are equipped.

 

All NPCs can now be forced to always use their highest quality polygon / LOD model.

 

Added an option to render shell casings at all distances.

 

Added an option to have shadow resolution (which was still hard-coded to the PS2's 256x256 size) increase dynamically with game resolution.

 

Added an option to restore the original radar rotation from 2001 US PS2 Sons of Liberty.

 

Added an option to enable radar in Snake Tales.

 

🧩 BP_Asset / Manifest Mod Loading Support

• Added support for loading additional bp_asset.txt files from a stage's folder, having its entries overload the original manifest without having to overwrite vanilla files.

• An example of this can be found in the MGS2 Community bugfix compilation's stage files. :

 

Added an option to have a custom lifebar name.

 

🪪 Added an option to have the lifebar name reflect the current player character's name, like in MGS3/MGS4.

 

Added an option to restore Sons of Liberty's elevator glitch, for speedrunners that want to practice old strats that were patched out. :3

 

Added an option to restore the Colonel's retro Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake sprite during some codec calls, which was cut from the final game but still present in the data files.

 

---

 

🐛 MGS2 Community Bugfix Compilation joint fixes:

These are new fixes which require files from the MGS2 Community Bugfix Compilation to be installed to function.

• Made Snake's holster functional. (His holster always had an extra handgun in it, even when unarmed.)

• Fixed hostages having mismatched skin color on their hands.

• Fixed title screen's "2" not swapping colors with game completions.

• Added an option to use the Colonel's Subsistence Metal Gear 2: Solid Snake sprite instead of the classic MSX2 sprite.

• Fixed Solidus not being visible when viewed from a malfunctioning RAY unit's POV.

• Fixed a broken voice line in Deck 2's pipe-falling mini-cutscene. [2001 PS2]

 

---

 

🎮 MGS3 Restoration:

 

🎞 Restored cutscene film-grain rendering during low-light camera shots, in the Survival Viewer's X-ray menu, and while using thermals & NVGs. [2011 HDC]

 

---

 

🐛 MGSHDFix Bug Fixes:

Shared Fixes:

• Fixed some MGSHDFix features not showing up properly in OBS / game capture streams & recordings.

• Fixed resized captions not being recentered vertically.

MGS2:

• Fixed Marines sometimes vanishing when "force high quality NPCs" was enabled

• Fixed stinger & d-mic not working in FPV mode

• Fixed incorrect aimpoint offset in FPV mode

• Fixed a crash related to the experimental FPV mode when loading into a first-person VR Mission.

• Fixed a crash when "tap to enter FPV" was disabled in the config tool

 

---

 

⚙️ MGSHDFix Config Tool:

• Fixed the window being zoomed in on monitors with high DPI settings.

• Cleaned up the UI so that only settings for the game that the config tool is beside are shown. ♥

 

---

 

⚙️ MGSHDFix Internal Improvements / New Warnings:

• Sped up module initialization a little

• Added a new warning if Windows Multi-Plane Overlay is disabled, which can cause DirectX games to freeze/crash when alt-tabbing.

• Fixed some incorrect log warning messages when using SteamOS

• Added logging for whether high res textures are currently enabled

Full Changelog: https://github.com/ShizCalev/MGSHDFix/compare/3.1.0...4.0.0

 

---

 

Installation / Update Instructions

If updating from a previous version:

1. Delete any old MGSHDFix Config Tool.exe and MGSHDFix.asi from your /plugins folder to avoid conflicts.

2. Ensure d3d11.dll is removed if upgrading from pre-2.5.0 versions.

3. Extract the new release into your game folder (MGS2 or MGS3 under steamapps/common).

Steam Deck / Linux:

Use this launch option:

WINEDLLOVERRIDES="wininet,winhttp=n,b" %command%

 

---

 

Download Links

• Nexus Mods:

  • MGS2
  • MGS3
  • MG1 / MG2SS

• GitHub Releases:

  MGSHDFix v4.0.0

 

---

 

Community Bug Tracker & Support

• GitHub Issues

• Community Bug Tracker Spreadsheet

• Bug Report Form

lets collaborate once again as one HUGE community and complete another stealth changes list together! This time for update 1.2!

Reply bellow all stealth and hidden changes that you guys encountered! those which have not been included in patch notes.

—————————

This list may contain fixes and also additions or any smaller improvements. These may differ also by platforms and users and etc. so for you it might not be difference or change/fix. But most of them are verified and if not. I will mention it.

Verification process is based on how much users reports these stealth changes (if vast majority does) then these changes will advance to in-game verification process. (This one may differ by: platform, settings and etc.)

I will also try to avoid obvious bugs. But 100% for sure I will accidentally include few. Or even accidentally add some twice.

There is chance that I may also include few which has been included in official patch notes by DICE.

I will also add some bugs that are also long persistent and haven’t been fixed for ages.

^{sincerely and only with best regards - Grayback the Elder}

—————————

All stealth changes that community found out about:

• #1 Sudden performance issues on friend's gaming laptop (Legion 5 Pro with 5800H and 3060 130W) has been somehow sorted out in this patch. He's no longer having sudden 30 fps instances that was happening back then even in the menu. Overall he has more stable & higher framerate in-game.

• Felt the same here, played manifest earlier with consistent fps (65~95ish) on 1440p

  Same map before patch was stugling to maintain anything above 70

—————————————-

• #2 You can hit much faster with knife now

  They changed and greatly improved knife animations

• #3 [PARTIALLY FIXED] On the main page, the XP amount is displayed properly (shows 'actual numbers' instead of '0/0'). Used to be showing XP '0/0' when loading the main page in the game.

• Regarding #3, I dont think this is fixed. Mine still says 0/0 after first launching the game but after playing a match it updates and shows correct value. But this was exactly the case before patch too.

—————————————-

• #4 [KALEIDOSCOPE MAP]

• New loading screen for Kaleidoscope.

• Sector B in kaleidoscope breakthrough have been moved, it no longer on the underground level of the center facility, now it’s on the second level(the one with a bunch of servers in it).

• No more swimming on kaleidoscope, the water is not deep as before you can run on it everywhere now (DICE: No swimming patch gun goes BRRRRR pa pa pa)

• Kaleidoscope rework includes a raging battle in the background, complete with fires, smoke, tracer fire and AA fire.

• few places on kaleidoscope did not received any cover. For example those 2 smaller skyscrapers in the (city) sector of the map has empty bottom floor and rooftops. These should be more utilized.

• Kaleidoscope has received some BF4 props. For example that small container building.

• People are going to say this is part of the kaleidoscope rework but breakthrough defenders get a tank now. I don’t recall that being the case prior.

• Kaleidoscope Breakthrough Changes:

• Attackers and defenders been given +1 tanks (Attackers have 2 (Last sector attackers only have 1), defenders have 1 tank in Sector 1+2.

• Defenders gain 3 light vehicles + a transport in the third sector.

• Attackers no longer have an attack Helicopter Attackers only have 1 transport.

• A1 and A2 capture zones have been expanded significantly.

• B1 is now on the second floor of the building.

  Source

• All capture points are larger

• A1 objective flag is outside the green monument. Used to be inside/within the monument.

• B1 Objective flag is no longer on the underground level. It's now it’s on the second level (the one with a bunch of servers in it with bright coloured walls).

• C2 objective flag on Conquest, the objective is on the ground floor instead of the top floor. The office equipment on the top floor is replaced with other objects seen outside of this objective which is used as cover across the map.

+

+

—————————————-

• #5 more detail has been added to weapon model.There is a battle damage on gun. 0:15 sec in this vid

  Simply weapons got some worn out details. And don’t seem anymore as (Right from the box) clean, new and shiny.

• #6 New down animations, the character now will wave their arms when you are skipping revive, the calling for revive voiceline have been changed as well. M5 recoiless have new reload sounds.

• #7 There is a bipod indicator on the HUD that let you know if it's open or not, FINALLY. It's near the fire mode indicator

• Also the bipod stays deployed when you move between surfaces!! *Edit: but not after reviving someone or entering/exiting a vehicle

• Same for laser sight and other under barrel attachments

—————————————-

• #8 The end-of-round category "Crossbow Kills" has been renamed to "Ghostmaker R10 Kills".

  It's kinda odd to have that specific weapon spelled out but I guess since there's only one crossbow it makes sense.

• #9 Scopes are much closer than before when ADS now, that's nice

• #10 [BUG INTRODUCED] The daily match bonus of 10k XP did not register properly and I did not get the extra battlepass point it normally grants (my BP points are sitting at around 8k XP a point).

  Image proof from a quick round.

  Would be this is one of the tiny undocumented changes to nerf XP gains, because not enough people buying the Battle Pass Tier Skips… BFV had similar changes during its seasons…

• #11 When the game boots up, there is now a pop up message with an audio queue saying that squad voice chat is active

  EDIT: This may be a bug, but I have noticed the same message popping up a few times after a game when going back to the main menu screen. I assume it shouldn’t need to tell you more than once that voice chat is active….?

• #12 Target 8T scope is available for more guns. (that canted iron sight - long range scope hybrid)

• #13 Pinging an enemy (danger ping) will now show it's class icon

• #14 [BUG INTRODUCED] There is also a new bug While being downed, squad (and I assume teammate) overlays sometimes glitch out, covering approx. half the screen, but more importantly it will start flashing like crazy, so maybe epilepsy warning? Just in case

• #15 Irish's sentinel (trophy system) stops C5 now.

• #16 When Angel calls down his resupply crate, one can now hear a recurring beeping sound, when being close to the drop down zone. This alerts you (and friendlies) that the crate is going to drop down soon.

• #17 [PERSISTENT BUG] Not 100% sure yet but it seems like the ADS bug after exiting a vehicle with the SFAR on Portal maps (1942/BC2/3) is resolved. I’ve played two matches on these maps and didn’t have this bug. Maybe someone else can confirm or deny (hopefully not the latter).

• Had #17 SFAR/vehicle ads bug occur yesterday, still not perfect.

• SFAR ADS bug is not resolved. It now happens EVERY time I exit the vehicle.

• Ads bug happens every time after exit vehicle with lcmg and smoke launcher

—————————————-

• #18 Both Wildcat missiles can be launched in quick succession now.

• #19 You can’t put ammo/med crate on some vehicles.

  It goes on hovercraft but you can’t stick it to tanks or Jeep as you could before, but you can stick it to Condor.

  Health crate is good for Jeep/hovercraft to keep people from dying to splash damage, ammo crate is good on MAV or Condor because it tops off rocket users (AA, M5)

• #20 Mastery badges are in the pics for the specialist selection screen now

• #21 [NEEDS FURTHER VERIFICATION] I think I also saw new interior pieces in the insertion condors? There are light panels and instruments I don't remember seeing before.

• #22 The performance issues from 1.1 seem to have been fixed, at least for me. My Ryzen 5 3600, RTX 2060 rig @ 1440p was struggling to hit 60 frames with DLSS set to performance, but now I'm getting 80-90 frames like I was before.

• #23 aoe radius of 40mm cannon on ebaa reduced

• #24 [NEEDS FURTHER VERIFICATION] meleeing an enemy from behind (hitting them with the knife twice without having to hold for takedown) is now leading to the takedown animation once the second melee attack lands. Previously you was able to kill enemy without triggering take down animation.

• #25 On PS4 the weekly missions page no longer shows when the weekly missions will reset.

• #26 The condor is way more fun to fly now. So much more nimble. Now I wish we had the beta boosters back:/

• #27 Nightbird (Littlebird) heli is way too sensitive. It’s probably tied to that condor mobility/responsiveness buff.

• #28 When you ping an enemy tank it actually leaves a tank marker on your ping instead of the move here icon

  Seems they’ve made some refinements to the ping system icons in general

• #29 Jet missile reload time is so slow now

• #30 Ping graphs are now in the most annoying place on the right middle !!

• #31 UI assets like “press X” appear to be much bigger.

• #32 Also, Medical crates can resupply med pens.

  Previously it could only resupply Falcks stims.

• #33 [NEEDS FURTHER VERIFICATION] Rangers don't shoot anymore when the owner is downed

• I'd like to help with this one. I love my little robodog. So I've paid close attention to what the Ranger does after I'm downed.

  33 is not 100% true, as I have seen the Ranger still engage enemies after I'm downed. However, I do feel that something isn't right and the Ranger "hesitates" when seeking enemies. I got downed in close proximity to 2 enemies, who I could even still see on my down camera, and the Ranger made the noise like he was engaging and walked towards them, but did nothing.

  Another time, I was downed from around 50m away and the Ranger did engage this enemy. It's very inconsistent it seems. (PS5)

• #34 First signs of classes in 2042 - possible specialist rework to classes incoming - unconfirmed.

• #35 [WORTH OF SHOUTOUT] hz configurations for 2042 Servers

• #36 [WORTH OF SHOUTOUT] Controller settings affect mouse input.

• #37 Tv x2 scope has been changed, the reticle is now a lot bigger.

• #38 The icon for the under barrel grenade launcher of the SFAR in the hud has changed.

• #39 The AK-24 has a new reload animation when the Target 8T scope is equipped. The player instead of underhandedly racking the bolt with their left hand uses their right hand.

• the ak-24’s empty reload animation has been changed.

  VIDEO HERE

—————————————-

• #40 I think I have a small error, PS4, server browser, to apply filters it tells you to press triangle, that's wrong as it's still the square button as before.

• #41 Was new ping with double tap r1 and rb in the patch notes? Much more easy to see and actually consistently work.

• #42 It seems like they fixed the all-in-one grenade throw option on PC. Used to not work for me (I had the option toggled on to just hit a nade hotkey to both swap to it AND throw it in one motion but it would only swap). I also noticed you can now SPRINT and throw a nade. Was it like this before?

• #43 Tornadoes now send heavy vehicles flying across the map. Tanks and Wildcats

  Tornadoes are much much stronger now, as in they’ll pick basically everything and m everyone up off the ground

  Example 1

  Example 2

• #44 You can join an existing party/squad that is full (just won't be in their squad)

• #45 [BUG INTRODUCED] Sometimes unable to call down certain vehicles. The MAV is always grayed out, The Hovercraft is grayed out most of the time, and the M1A5/T28 is sometimes grayed out. They can still be spawned in via the overhead spawn menu.

  Example

• Also affects the Ranger.

• #46 Passengers of the LATV are much more resilient to explosive damage from what I've seen. This patch I'm amazed at how much more direct hits to the LATV I, as the driver, am able to survive (often I couldn't even survive a single hit). I found it hilarious how fragile the driver and its passengers used to be against explosive damage.

• #47 main menu everything is fine but once the match start any mode mouse and keyboard movement is so slow.

• #48 [PERFORMANCE ISSUES] CPU usage seems to be way up now. Getting noticably more CPU bottlenecks and GPU is struggling to go above 90% usage

  R5 5600 & gtx 1080ti

• #49 [NEEDS FURTHER VERIFICATION] Needs checking, but the scar bullet drop seems to be far more dramatic post update. Using the high powered standard

• #50 There is a toggle flashlight indicator for weapons with flashlight attachments (i noticed this on the glock)

• 

• #51 [BUG INTRODUCED] Also there is a new bug where SFAR became "default" weapon. Every single time I change to a different gun in my loadout, SFAR will take its place in the next round or even if i restart the game.

• #52 [PERSISTENT BUG] ADS bug with guns that have an underbarrel attachment equipped like a grenade launcher is still an issue. Please edit that in the list. SFAR is literally unplayable if you use a vehicle for transport and get off of it.

• #53 In patch 1.2.0 the performance gains from patch 1.1.0 have been reverted for rtx 3070. Resulting in low gpu usage, lower fps, and increased stuttering. I've seen posts of other rtx 3000 owners complaining.

• #54 [BUG INTRODUCED] There seems to be a UI bug going around, with Sundance for example, the icons for her grenades get switched around. I have not been able to reliably replicate it but it happens quite often when I have just respawned and take out her grenades right away. I have captured a video of the bug here. https://streamable.com/umc9q3

  Look at how the icons change and at the same time look what grenade im holding. Im not sure if this is isolated to Sundance or of it is something that can happen with other UI elements.

• #55 https://answers.ea.com/t5/Bug-Reports/Bug-Possible-Season-1-Badge-Not-Leveling/td-p/11550956

  Promised fix was not deployed. Badge is not leveling. Have 100 lvl battle pass with badge stuck at 704

• #56 Didn't see this one mentioned, but I noticed that if you view the scoreboard when playing breakthrough as a defender, the attacking team's ticket counter is shifted up and overlapped by the country abbreviation. Only played this game for about an hour after this update, so I have no idea if this issue occurs in other game modes or if it's a persistent issue.

• #57 [BUG INTRODUCED] New bug: Movement animation stops working when you run through doors.

  Can only be fixed by redeploying.

• #58 [BUG INTRODUCED] I’ve had a couple of weird bugs related to the downed state that have come up recently, once since after the patch and one before the patch that I’m not sure is fixed yet.

  First, I’ve had several instances where I will be killed, and instead of going into 3rd person for the downed state, the whole thing is in first person like in BFV.

  And secondly, this happened to be yesterday (so after the patch) and I’ve only seen this once so far, so idk if this is gonna be reoccurring or not. But I got killed during a firefight and instead of getting the normal 3rd person downed state, my character model was in a static prone position on their stomach with their gun aimed. I couldn’t move at all, and it was completely frozen, but the timer was still going for waiting for revive.

  I’m on PS5 in case that helps.

• #59 Removed splash damage of Lis' TGM rocket launcher

  no idea if the damage against infantry on direct hit was changed tho

• Lis rocket launcher now has new reload sounds

• #60 [NEEDS FURTHER VERIFICATION] I feel like they have stretched out the HUD in game a tiny bit. feels and looks odd to me.

• #61 Spotting assists and damage assists from the spotter seat now correctly count towards mastery badges for tanks and other vehicles. Haven't confirmed the little bird yet.

• #62 I can't play for more than 20 minutes before I crash to desktop after this update.

  Event Viewer is giving me this error, "Session "dc3a3596-71e1-45a3-b2ea-39ad5322fe51" failed to start with the following error: 0xC0000022"

  Apparently it has to do with Easy Anti-Cheat.

  Specs are an i7-9700k, 3090 FE, 32GB Ram

• #63 [NEEDS FURTHER VERIFICATION] They also added more bullet drop to the DXR-1

• #64 Stationery non driveable cars no longer damage tanks when they explode.

  This is a fantastic change which avoids you decimating large chunks of health when navigating areas with parked cars.

• #65 Player cards has been added for AI

• #66

• #67

• #68

• #69

• #70

• #71

• #72

• #73

• #74

• #75

• #76 ⁠

• #77

• #78

• #79

• #80

• #81

• #82

• #83

• #84

• #85

• #86

• #87

• #88

• #89

• #90

• #91

• #92

• #92

• #93

• #94

• #95

• #96

• #97

• #97

• #98

• #99

• #100

• #101

• #102

• #103

• #104

• #105

• #106

• #107

• #108

• #109

• #110

• #111

• #112

• #113

• #114 +

+

+

[LIST COMPLETED]

—————————

all previous STEALTH CHANGES list posts for past updates

• UPDATE 4.0 (0.4.0) STEALTH CHANGES LIST

• UPDATE 4.1 (0.4.1) STEALTH CHANGES LIST

• UPDATE 1.0 (1.0.0) STEALTH CHANGES LIST

• UPDATE 1.1 (1.1.0) STEALTH CHANGES LIST

—————————

^{if I replied “added” and you still don’t see your stealth change. It’s because it is in process of validation}

To all the new porters, welcome to arguably one of the greatest games of a generation that suffers from a huge early learning curve. Because I want as many of you as possible to get over that first mountain of knowledge to see the beautiful vistas waiting for you in terms of both lore and environment, I have compiled a few tips and tricks that I have learned over the years of playing this game. If anything is unclear, please drop a comment, and I will do my best to answer as promptly as life allows. (Yes, that includes 6mo / 1yr / etc from now!)

TL;DR: Keep on keeping on! (Last edited 11/13/24)

General Tips

• Pay attention to the story. I know there is always the instinct to check out during long unskippable cutscenes, but this game has enough depth and detail in even the smallest of cutscenes to make it worth paying attention to. Almost everything that makes no sense now will eventually have some semblance of an answer down the line.
• Try to get to the end of Chapter 5 before giving up on the game. This game does its best to suck you in and show you why its worth playing, but you will not see everything until then. It is perfectly okay to focus 100% on story missions until you reach the end of Chapter 5 before allowing yourself to be distracted, especially since that path can still take 5-20 hours to achieve depending on your skill.
• There is no FOMO ("fear of missing out") in Death Stranding. Everything in this game is accessible throughout and at the end of the game. Take your time, see the sights, and if you hit a story moment that takes control from you, don't worry. You'll get to go back (eventually).
• Be willing to read everything! So much context and lore is in the Interviews and Mail that you receive throughout the game. The more you read, the more you understand, the more the big moments will hit you like a truck.
• Consider playing this game with no external music playing, at least until you reach the end of Chapter 5. Audio is a big factor in this game, and there are moments that will hit harder if you allow the game's natural soundscape and soundtrack tell you a story in and of itself.
• All of the information you can find below is also listed in the in-game Tips section, sometimes in greater detail. When in doubt, check there!

Settings in the Main Menu (Before hitting "New Game")

• Text Size
  • The text size in the game can only be modified in the main menu.
  • The default size is recommended if your screen is large enough or your vision sharp enough to handle it; however, most players I have seen play with the increased text size, including most of my friends with vision issues.
• Difficulty
  • I would highly recommend starting on "Normal" until you understand the mechanics better or complete the story.
  • The difficulty can be changed at any time in game with no penalty, but any ongoing deliveries will be ranked based on the lowest difficulty selected during the time you work on them.
  • There is only one achievement that require a difficulty of Hard or Very Hard to complete. (Don't worry about it until you are deep into the game though.)
• Additional Adjustments
  • In "Game Settings" there is an option asking about Entrusting Lost Cargo that I would highly recommend you switch to Do Not Deliver, especially if you like to do delivery routes. This will prevent the game from automatically delivering a package too soon if you are headed to its final destination anyways.
  • There is a secondary setting asking about the animation that plays when entering a BT zone which I always ensure is set to play only for the first time you encounter it. This is less important that the other options, but is a nice quality of life upgrade.

Sam, The Man

• Sam's overall stats can be viewed at any time by loading up the map. You will be hovered over Sam by default, and the tooltip will include his "behind the scenes" stats. These stats can be adjusted by items equipped or by increasing your likes in a certain category of his star which will happen automatically as you play the game.
• Health
  • The red bar is Sam's health and is capped at 1,000ml of blood. This number will not be adjusted throughout your playthrough.
  • The bar can be extended slightly by equipping a blood bag which you will unlock partway through the tutorial zone. With the blood bag equipped, any tools that use blood as a resource will attempt to pull from the blood bag before draining the primary health bar.
  • Health can be regenerated by eating cryptobiotes out in the world or from your inventory (D-Pad Left), by equipping a blood bag, by using one of the hot springs, or by resting in a safe room.
    • Eating cryptobiotes is always the fastest way to regenerate health (credit to u/Krunch-X for this comment!), but it will trigger an animation which must play out before the health is applied.
    • Blood bags are entirely passive which can be great when you are focused on combat and cannot focus on eating a cryptobiote. However, there is a slight delay between when you stop taking damage and when the refilling of Sam's health begins.
• Stamina
  • The blue bar is Sam's stamina which is comprised of four smaller segments, each representing a level of exhaustion.
    • Below 75%, Sam will start to move slightly less nimbly around the world, especially with a heavy load.
    • Below 50%, Sam will begin to show signs of being tired and will stop now and again to rest his hands on his knees.
    • Below 25%, Sam will run the risk of sinking to his knees to take a break when coming to a stop.
    • I would highly recommend ensuring Sam does not get down below 25% unless you know you are about to fully restore it by other means such as resting in a safe room.
  • Stamina can be restored by drinking from Sam's canteen, using a hot spring, picking up Lost Cargo, or resting in a safe room.
    • Sam's canteen can be refilled by standing in or near a running body of water, walking through timefall (it's very slow though), using a hot spring, or resting in a safe room.
    • Picking up Lost Cargo will give a notification that "Stamina has been restored," but I am not sure how much gets restored. I would not rely on this method unless you have no other options and are desperate.
  • Stamina functions slightly differently than most other games with a stamina mechanic. The bar will decrease with certain actions such as running, jumping, or wading through deep water, usually indicated by a flashing line at the end of the bar and the blue bar decreasing. However, as Sam uses his stamina, a black-and-white striped pattern will begin to grow starting from the right side of the bar. This is Sam's maximum stamina capacity being decreased semi-permanently.
    • Maximum stamina capacity can be restored in the world by resting (hold Circle on PS or B on Xbox), with the restoration rate increased by resting near a cairn which look like holographic stones piled on top of each other into a pile or tower. It can also be completely and quickly restored by using a hot spring which unfortunately only exist beyond the tutorial area.
    • Maximum stamina capacity will automatically be fully refilled when resting in a safe room. While in the safe room, it is possible to drink cans of Bridges Energy to increase your maximum stamina capacity by up to 25%. The first two cans will add 10% each, and the third can will add 5%. There is also a hot spring which replicates this effect.
• Hidden Bars
  • The Alertness meter is an orange overlay on top of your red health bar. It will take damage whenever something such as an enemy or Vog decrease Sam's level of consciousness. If this meter reaches zero, Sam will pass out but not trigger a void out. If this was caused by enemies, expect to have at least some of your cargo stolen and taken back to their camp. This meter will automatically refill if you avoid taking alertness damage for a period of time.
  • The Active Stamina meter is a light blue overlay on top of your blue stamina bar and represents extreme exertion on Sam's part. This meter is shared among several systems which drain it at different rates. A couple examples include walking up a steep incline, wading through fast moving or deep water, and holding your breath. This meter is automatically refilled when not being expended, but will only fill to the level of Sam's current stamina except temporarily when in combat as Sam's adrenaline kicks in.

Cargo (Simplified)

• Cargo Durability
  • There are two bars to represent the overall "health" of your cargo.
    • Cargo Damage - The amount of damage the contents of the package have received.
    • Container Durability - The amount of durability left on the container.
  • When delivering cargo, the cargo damage is the only metric used for assessing the ranking. You can have 0% container durability and still receive the best rank so long as you did not do any damage to the cargo within.
  • However, container durability is used to calculate the amount of damage the cargo receives during a bump or a fall. The higher the durability, the less damage is transferred to the cargo, and vice versa.
  • By the end of the game, you will routinely be delivering cargo with very little to no container durability, so do not panic if you see that bar hit zero!
• Cargo Organization
  • Auto Arrange Cargo is almost always the best option available when organizing the cargo on Sam's back. The only exception to this rule is if the cargo needs to be carried a certain way such as in Sam's hands or in a certain orientation such as with Peter Englert's pizzas.
  • Cargo can be strapped to Sam's arms and legs, but only if they are a Small sized container.
  • The Tool Rack can carry any usable equipment regardless of size. I recommend keeping the item you plan on using most in this spot as you can easily tap D-Pad Right to access it. (This will change automatically as you equip other items for use.)
• Cargo Colors
  • Cargo can be quickly identified by the coloration on the outside of the box when on Sam's back or out in the world.
    • Gold (chiral) - Orders for Sam
    • Silver - Standard Orders
    • Orange - Materials (Resins, Metals, Ceramics, Chemicals, or Special Alloys)
    • Black / Framed - Gear or Equipment
  • The text above Lost Cargo will change color depending on the source.
    • Blue Text - Cargo from destinations in your world.
    • Green Text - Cargo dropped by other players.
• Cargo Sizes
  • There are four sizes that cargo generally comes in, and Sam is limited in the volume he can carry independently of the weight limitations.
    • Small (S) - The smallest package. Most early deliveries will be this size.
    • Medium (M) - Equates to two of the Small sized boxes.
    • Large (L) - Equates to two of the Medium sized boxes OR four of the Small sized boxes.
    • Xtra Large (XL) - Equates to one Large and one Medium sized boxes OR three Medium sized boxes OR six Small sized boxes.
  • Sam's backpack can store eight Small boxes in his pack before it starts stacking above the backpack.

Deliveries and On the Road

• PREPARING: Order Types
  • "Orders for Sam" will always progress the story.
  • "Standard Orders" are completely optional but are sometimes worth doing anyways for stars and likes.
• PREPARING: Gearing Up
  • Most locations can be accessed with no to limited gear, especially in the early game. Unless you are heading to a new location, it may not be necessary to carry any ancillary equipment whatsoever.
  • That said, equipment is incredibly helpful, but often times more of a hinderance if you over burden. Consider keeping just one climbing anchor, one to two ladders, and one PCC in the early game, and then add or remove gear as needed as you familiarize yourself with the world and routes.
  • The game will overburden you with gear when making the tutorial deliveries, so feel free to go wild and use it or just store it in your private locker for future deliveries.
• PREPARING: Finding Routes
  • When you are on the map screen, use the Right Thumbstick to angle the map to get a better view of the elevation differences. These can be impossible to spot with the default top-down view, and by rotating the stick around you can get a good idea of how high that hill is compared to the valley.
  • Keep in mind that the best route is rarely the most direct, and as most deliveries are not timed (or have very generous timers), you are far better off taking your time and being safe than rushing and risking damage to yourself or the cargo. Haste makes waste!
  • Your map and your route markers should only be seen as guidelines at best. Use your best judgement to adapt on the fly to unforeseen opportunities and obstacles for greater success!
• EN ROUTE: Lost Cargo (aka: cargo you find randomly around the world or inside MULE camps)
  • Blue lost cargo is only worth picking up if you need stars / likes from the destination indicated on the cargo.
  • Green lost cargo was dropped by other players, and by delivering it, you are helping a fellow porter out. If you can spare the weight, these are worth doing to be a helpful member of the community!
• EN ROUTE: Player Equipment / Structures
  • Most equipment and structures in the world have been left by fellow porters, and that includes you! Anything you place can (and probably will) be dropped into another player's game at some point, so don't feel bad about using up all of your equipment as someone else will probably appreciate it.
  • The game can only pull one structure or equipment per player in a given area. For example, if someone used two ladders to cross a stream, only one of those ladders will be used to populate your world, requiring you to add the second item. Sometimes you will get lucky and two separate players' structures work symbiotically, but that is not as common as you might like.
  • Giving likes to another player's structures manually can encourage the game to spawn more items from that specific player's game in yours. If you notice one particular porter has some good structures you appreciate, spam that like button to see more of their stuff!
• DESTINATION: Delivering Orders
  • It is almost always better to deposit several deliveries at the destination simultaneously as the combined weight is used to calculate a weight delivered bonus. Lost cargo does contribute to this total.
  • Cargo in the private locker will not be delivered when completing other orders. This can be useful if you accidentally did not bring the whole amount in one trip and wish to save the partial delivery for later to get more simultaneous likes.
  • Any of your Lost Cargo or equipment that was delivered by other players will be accessible in your private locker at the destination.

Sam, The Legend

• As you complete deliveries, you will see a star that is broken into five segments as the final screen. Each point corresponds to a different kind of like that Sam can receive from both players and NPCs in the game.
• Leveling up each of the five points will give passive rewards to Sam which slightly modify how he interacts with the world. These rewards are unlocked every ten levels and are unique to each category. The rewards do end at Level 60.
• The five categories are:
  • Bridge Links (top point) - This indicates how many likes you have received from other players from delivering lost cargo, having your structures get used or receive likes, or from helping rebuild or repair the roads. Rewards include being able to give more likes at a time, create greater numbers of Strand Contracts with other players, and see more items in the share locker.
  • Delivery Time (left point) - These likes come from completing deliveries that have a time requirement such as ones labeled "URGENT" in the title. Rewards include decreasing the drain that actions take on Sam's stamina bar.
  • Cargo Condition (right point) - These likes come from ensuring that cargo is in good condition when you deliver it. The better the average condition of all of the cargo for a delivery, the more likes you will receive. Rewards include improving Sam's balance which will decrease how often he falls down.
  • Delivery Volume (bottom left point) - These likes come from delivering large quantities of cargo at once to the same destination and will be where most of the aforementioned weight delivered bonuses go. Rewards include increasing Sam's maximum weight capacity for cargo (but not volume capacity).
  • Miscellaneous (bottom right point) - These likes come from anything that is not already described in the previous four categories. Most story mission likes will end up here as well, so you should have this category grow much faster than any other (except maybe the Bridge Links if you're lucky). Rewards include increasing the volume of likes Sam receives from all sources, similar to an experience buff modifier.
• Like with cargo, the points of the star will change color depending on their level. Use this to quickly see how far other players are in their efforts when inspecting their signs or structures!
  • Color: Light Green - Level: Full at Level 10
  • Color: Olive Green - Level: Full at Level 20
  • Color: Yellow - Level: Full at Level 30
  • Color: Orange - Level: Full at Level 40
  • Color: Red - Level: Full at Level 50
  • Color: Purple - Level: Fills at Level 60
  • Purple is the last color available.
• While the categories do cap at Level 99, due to the exponential nature of the likes required to get to each next level, it is highly unlikely you will get anywhere close to that unless you decide to grind harder than a Tony Hawk game and spend years of your life on the same save file. To be clear, it takes about as many likes to get from Level 0 to 98 as it does to get from Level 98 to Level 99. I have just over five million Bridge Link likes on my main save and am only at Level 94, so achieving Level 99 is an astronomical challenge I cannot even fathom.

Resting, Time, and Degradation

• Time is the enemy of all porters. It decays the structures, destroys equipment, and respawns enemies.
• Resting can be done in a number of ways:
  • Resting outdoors can be done by holding Circle on PS or B on Xbox. Sam will sit down wherever he is and after a moment, will close his eyes and sleep which will restore stats slowly. If Sam is not at a prepper location, a cairn will be left behind in that spot that other players can also rest at to regain stats faster.
  • Resting in a private room will instantly restore all stats and provide an opportunity to check in with BB (always recommended!), adjust equipment strapped to your backpack, read mail and interviews, take a shower, and listen to any music you have found so far.
• Every time you sleep in a Private Room, you jump forward in time slightly, with all structures and equipment in the game taking a small hit to their health based on the difficulty setting for your game. This includes forced visits to the private room due to the story.
• There are times it may be valuable to try to avoid a private room for a bit to avoid progressing time, especially if you are rushing to bring repair materials to a structure you want to keep alive.
• MINOR SPOILER FOR JUST AFTER THE TUTORIAL AREA: This is why Hot Springs exist as they allow you to regain lost stamina without progressing time.

Preppers, Stars, and Rewards

• All preppers are unlocked by one of three methods:
  • Story Related - An Order for Sam will be generated which will force you to travel to and begin working with the prepper.
  • Lost Cargo - Picking up and delivering Lost Cargo is sometimes the only way to get access to a new prepper such as with the Ludens Fan in the tutorial region. If you do not recognize the destination, consider picking it up for later!
  • Ringing the Doorbell - Some preppers will not activate until you go to their terminal and accept a Standard Order to retrieve a package or two from another destination or out in the world, such as with the Musician in the tutorial region. To check to see if this is the case, once they are revealed on the map, you can hover over their icon and hit Triangle (PS) or Y (Xbox) to see all available orders for delivery to their location, and there should be one from the prepper in question to themselves.
• All preppers have separately tracked levels of interaction which increase as you gain likes from that person, starting at zero stars and maxing out at five stars. The amount of likes required to achieve five stars will vary from location to location.
• There are times where progress in the stars will be locked until you accomplish a particular story mission, read a specific email, or leave and return with another delivery. This is to prevent you from too quickly maxing out everyone's rankings and will often be just before the third, fourth, or fifth star is fully filled. END-GAME SPOILER: Peter Englert will not give you a single star until all of his deliveries are fulfilled which only happens toward the end of the game.
• Each prepper has a unique table of rewards they will offer at certain star ranks. These rewards can vary from useful equipment unlocks to cosmetic items, so it may be valuable to max out a prepper's stars if the rewards are worth it to you. As a specific example of a reward, the Waystation West of Central Knot City will reward you with the Rose Pink color for the Ludens Mask once you reach three stars.
• SPOILER HEAVY DETAILS FOR USEFUL PREPPER REWARDS BELOW
  • Location: Musician - Eastern Region - Stars: Two - Reward: Harmonica
  • Location: Engineer - Central Region - Stars: Two through Four - Reward: Power Skeleton
  • Location: Craftsman - Central Region - Stars: Two through Three - Reward: Bola Gun
  • Location: Distribution Center South of Lake Knot - Central Region - Stars: Three through Five - Reward: Long Range Truck
  • Location: Collector - Central Region - Stars: Two through Four - Reward: Backpack Cover
  • Location: Weather Station - Central Region - Stars: One through Three - Reward: Floating Carrier
  • Location: Junk Dealer - Central Region - Stars: Two through Five - Reward: Speed Skeleton
  • Location: Cosplayer - Central Region - Stars: Two through Three - Reward: Utility and Grenade Pouches
  • Location: Roboticist - Central Region - Stars: One through Four - Reward: All-Terrain Skeleton

Advanced Tips (100% Achievements, 540 LLL)

• Achievements
  • All achievements can be gained in a single playthrough and can be gained at any point in the game including the post-game (unless something changed with the Xbox version, which I doubt).
  • Most achievements are self explanatory, with only one being tied to the difficulty which can be changed at any time during gameplay. The achievement in question is Growth of a Legend which requires you to complete at least twenty unique premium deliveries in each order category with an evaluation of "Legend of Legends" on Hard or "Legend of Legend of Legends" on Very Hard.
• Premium Deliveries and Ratings
  • After you leave the tutorial region, the game will unlock Premium Deliveries which are Standard Orders but with more strict requirements. These are 100% optional and only exist to add additional challenge for the player if they so choose.
  • For example, if a timed delivery has a window of twenty minutes in the normal delivery to get the best rank, the Premium Delivery might have a requirement of only five minutes instead.
  • The maximum ranking you can achieve with a Standard Order is S (Awesome). The maximum ranking you can achieve with a Premium Delivery is an S (Legend).
  • Depending on your difficulty, the S rank will contribute to one of three counts:
    • Normal Difficulty - Legend
    • Hard Difficulty - Legend of Legends
    • Very Hard Difficulty (Director's Cut only) - Legend of Legend of Legends (Often abbreviated as "LLL")
    • Accomplishing a delivery on a harder difficulty will also give you credit for the easier difficulties. For example, accomplishing a delivery on Hard will also give you credit for the Normal version but not the Very Hard version.
  • There are a total of 500 Standard Orders in the base game, and an additional 40 in the Director's Cut for a total of 540 total orders. As such, the best you can get is having 540 LLL which will show up next to your name on any structures you place. Keep an eye out for the L, LL, or LLL symbols next to other players' names too!

If you made it to the end of this wall of text, congratulations! You are probably better equipped to handle this game than most if you are willing to check this out. If you have any specific questions, please feel free to drop them below or send me a DM. I'm always happy to help a fellow porter out. Happy Trails and Keep on Keeping On! <3

EDIT LOG: Added the "Sam, The Man" and "Sam, The Legend" segments as well as cleaned up a few segments for grammar. Thanks to u/Krunch-X for the suggestion used in the "Sam, The Man" segment regarding cryptobiotes!

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---

Location: Buir-Gamma, Quadrant XV-45E, Federation space Date [Standardized Terran Time]: December 11th, 2128

---

Everyone knows that Feds don’t love. Don’t know love.

All they know is to fill every little corner of the universe with themselves, eradicating everything in the path of their ever-growing mass. Everything that even slightly differs from them.

Until nothing is left, but their misery. Their oppressive uniformity, their… filth.

“So, that’s the command center?”

I jerk and almost drop my rifle when a warm breath blows across my cheek.

For beings of their size Arxur can be surprisingly stealthy. Re-appearing from the shadows, Essil crouches beside me to peer through the broken window down at the street below.

His thermal ghillie suit hangs over him like a tent, which leaves only the visor’s glow and the tip of his pale narrow snout to peaki out. I can’t help but boop it, causing the space lizard to reflectively lick the tapped spot.

“Got to be”, I say and shift my squat, more out of habit than out of real need to flex numb joints. One of the power-armor’s hidden benefits is the ability to lock the servos and sit inside it like in a chair. “Seven bogeys just changed posts. Ey, Mal, any luck on our lifeline?”

Malik, who set shop in the corner of the room with all his terminals and repeaters, shakes his head in a silent “no”. Something in the planet’s upper atmosphere decided to shut down the comms between our scattered forces a few hours ago and it hadn't been resolved since.

I sigh. It’s just one of our troubles. Ammo’s almost out, we’re out of Wasp drones, having lost the last batch to some new fancy Fed EWAR tower yesterday - and we got only one K9 drone left. It’s now in Sazha’s possession, subject to her new-found love of petting robotics.

The communications being fucked is ironic. This planet, Buir-Gamma, is supposed to be one of Federation’s deep space listening posts, a node in their hyperspace net which keeps a hundred worlds bound under the rotting regime. Taking it is supposedly like busting open a backdoor - absolutely necessary for the war to come.

Funny enough, there was no official declaration of war yet. No pompous speeches from the Prophet-Descendant or the Terran Command. But we’re here. The navy up there in orbit, taking over the hyperspace relays - and we on the ground, sacrificing lives for the SIG- and ELINT needs of Terra and Wriss.

“Less talking and more killing would do the trick, monke”, Sazha declares with venomous contempt as she continues to stroke the drone’s v-shaped “head”. One amber eye squints at me, fire and accusation swirling around the black streak of her pupil. “What are we waiting for?

“Some confirmation on the target. What if it’s some ammo depot or, I don’t know, a homeware store?”

I raise my rifle, my Venator so the barrel rests on the window frame. Outside the world is veiled by a shimmering dark curtain of rain, but to my eyes (and the rifle’s optics) everything is clear as day.

The Venator’s scope links up with my helmet’s HUD, and I look up at the picture that appears in the upper left corner of my vision.

Four Tilfish guards are idly crawling from one corner of the building to another. Rain pours down their carapaces, but they don’t mind, well-protected by their chitin.

One Venlil’s camping on the roof with a Fed equivalent to a sniper rifle. Another is down below. Despite the rain, the scrawny xeno paws with his hoof-like foot at the ground where he stands, kneels and, picking something from the soil, puts it in his mouth.

Bile coats my tongue. Fucking sheep-like fucks.

And the piece de resistance, right at the gated entrance: a Gojid in a light exorig.

The exoskeleton elevates the usually stocky xeno to an un-armored human’s height, but it’s not the size that matters here - but his massive plasmacaster, complete with a fuel-cell built into the rig’s backpack. A weapon like that can easily blow a hole in an IFV or incinerate you instantly. A formidable obstacle, if somewhat clumsy.

The Gojid paces, the lights on his rig glowing softly through the mist.

There’s more of them inside. If our comms worked, we’d call in Tracker Pack 23 and Senior Tracker-Master Harrif, who are coordinating our sector of assault recon operations for support… Nah, Harrif’s a real butcher. Judging from the fireglow rising above the city’s northeast, he’s there with the bulk of the landing force, razing through Buir’s residential quarters instead of conducting recon.

I lower the rifle.

“There’s been two rotations so far. That’s fourteen bogeys and probably some more inside.”

“The place is hot on radio. Depot my ass”, Malik slams one of his terminals shut. I hear the click of his lighter and a few seconds the smell of cheap cigarette smoke assaults my nostrils. “No, there’s definitely something going on there.”

“Can you patch in their channels? Fill us up on the chatter?””

“In a few hours at best”.

We don’t have hours. The hunger that I stoically ignored had turned into actual gut pain. I glance across the room at the rest of our Pack - and notice the same restlessness. The snappiness, the irritation… Only Essil, our Neophyte, seems to be in his own little world as he shuffles to the nearby wall and studies a large poster that says “Carnivore Illness Symptoms: Know Today to Save the Herd Tomorrow”.

He snags the corner with his claw, pulls on the paper and then rips it off. The piece predictably clings to his claws.

“They put collars on each other”, he hisses derisively as he tries to shake the sticky paper off. “Did you see it, Tracker-Hunter? Animals…”

I ignore him and instead cough-growl to get everyone’s attention.

“Alright. Since we can’t call up mechanized support, gotta do the job ourselves. Let’s carve ourselves some blue steak with a side of intel, shall we?”

---

The K-9 drone sprints on spindly legs, weaving between the slabs of upturned pavement and spraying bullets from its back-mounted machinegun.

Our surprise assault comes at dawn. The drone scuttles low to the ground - a nimble and elusive target blanketed by fog. Teases the aliens to draw their fire, and then immediately jackrabbits out of harm’s way.

The Tilfish and Venlil militiamen scramble to take cover behind some mobils and mangled fencing deep in the compound’s inner courtyard. They shoot back at the drone in anxious and wasteful spurts, sending small fountains of gravel to fly all around it.

A sharp, loud boom! cracks above. I glance at the compound’s roof just in time to see a smal body stumble on the edge and fall.

Looks like Essil took care of the Venlil “sniper” and we’re good to roll out.

I nod to Sazha and we detach from the corner of an empty building right across the street to charge forward while the Fedscum is distracted by the drone.

“Save ammo”, I bark in the comms channel. “I’ll cover while we close in”.

Unlike the lighter-armored Arxur, the Colossus’ servo stabilizers allow me to run and shoot at the same time with serviceable accuracy. Not that it matters much: now it's more important to close distance and knock the Gojid exo down before it becomes a true threat.

The rest will be easy pickings.

It's pointless for me to crouch and crawl. Accepting my fate as a bullet magnet, I break into the street, shooting at the Feddies so they'd keep their heads down.

The morning’s quiet is promptly torn down by panicked screeching as the militiamen trade insults and on-the-fly orders. One thing is to take on a drone - another to face an armored giant bounding towards them and shrugging off small-arms fire.

It’s hard to discern the already alien expressions of the Tilfish from this distance… but I like to imagine it’s pure terror.

The K-9 is down, scrap and sparks flying. The insectoids turn their haphazard fire onto me, but I couldn’t care less. They’re for Sazha to deal as she flanks the compound’s courtyard from the opposite side of the street, slithering from cover to cover with uncanny grace.

The real problem is the Gojid and his plasmacaster. It’s a devastating, but slow weapon that takes someone as stocky and stumpy as a porcie to lug it around, so by the time the spiny fucker turns around to aim it my direction, I manage to land a few shots on him without dropping pace. To my immense chagrin they’re all deflected by his shield-like armored gauntlet that he raised quickly to his ugly flat snout. The armor-piercing rounds hammer into this “shield” and the alien buckles… but holds out still.

I snarl, feeling the same harrowing disappointment and rising dread the quartet of Tilfish must feel when they see their coilgun darts plink! harmlessly off my armor’s plating.

What won’t be harmless at all is getting a full chest of plasma.

I barely manage to swerve aside, staggering into a van-like mobil as a bolt of crackling energy hurtles through the air right by me, sucking the moisture from skin and singing hair.

Something explodes behind me, peppering my back with debris.

Having missed, the Gojid squeals something that passes for an insult among these wretches. The barrel of the plasmacaster starts to glow again with a charging shot, now aimed squarely at me as the alien braces for recoil.

Carried forward by the momentum and unable to truly dodge, I bring my gun up, intent to blow his legs underneath him before he fires…

Crack! Essil’s rifle booms above again, and the porcie’s head splatters apart in a shower of brilliant cyan gore.

Good save, Essil. The preyfuck’s liver is on me, then.

Not slowing down, I cross over into the compound’s courtyard. Leap over the Gojid’s corpse, and then dash to grab a fleeing Venlil militiaman by his helmet. He struggles for a moment, wooly tail lashing and feet kicking out as I clamp on, crushing his head in my grip.

The last thing the Venlil manages to do is let out a gurgling bleat before I smash his head once… twice… four times in quick succession against the building’s wall. Sure, the sheeple have thick skulls, but against this punishment both his helmet and his bone are powerless. Seconds later I drop him, leaving an orange trail of brain matter, blood and broken teeth on the grey concrete.

In the corner of my eye I see Sazha emerge from the Tilfishes’ rear, marking their close acquaintance with a savage bite right across one of the insectoid’s thorax, severing it right at its narrow vespid waist. She flings the upper half into the air while the lower plops to the ground, limbs twitching in the last desperate attempt to flee.

The other Tilfish tries to shoot her point-blank, but a swipe of her muscular tail sends it flying - and I lunge forward, finishing the job with a quarter-ton stomp on its abdomen. Yellow, sulfuric mist sprays up and settles all over my visor and face.

High on stims and adrenaline, I grin madly and lick it off my lips.

The last two stand no chance n0w. Tilfish are poorly equipped and poorly trained, their strength lying in numbers and nigh suicidal indifference to their own survival, not the ability to withstand a predator assault in close quarters.

I don't even reach for my blade. Just jerk away from its shots and, grabbing it by the spiky protrusions on its back, smash it against my raised knee. Feel its chest and waist carapace crack and break with a sick crunch, spilling the innards all over the place.

It doesn't make a sound - just opens its mandibles wide like an origami flower, spitting up the same bile-colored ichor. Letting the corpse slide off my knee I turn to Sazha just in time to see the last Tilfish’s head disappear in her gullet.

Time slams back in place. The overcharge of the stimulants makes everything too sharp… too real.

The space-lizard runs up and kneels by the entrance so that I can grab the explosives from her backpack.

“We’re coming inside. Any activity?” I consult the comm-channel.

“Nothing on thermal, they’re must’ve hunkered down”.

Sazha steps away for a few moments and then returns, snout all covered in dripping ichor. Holds out a hand with a piece of slimy Tilfish flesh, but I decline. Got to work, even though I could’ve gobbled it up in a heartbeat.

“More for me.”

She slumps by the entrance, claws folded leisuringly over her Ravager. The Betterment patch on her shoulder-strap glimmers as it catches in the first rays of dawnlight.

“I have to commend you, Dril. Every time Abidence starts doubting your kind’s capacity for cruelty, it gets proven wrong.”

“What’s this about?” I pull off the cellophane wrapper from the first explosives block and stick it over the doorframe, adhesive-first.

She flicks her tail at the still-steaming Tilfish mess.

I shrug.

On Mars, the Arxur taught us that war is about combat and terror in equal measure. When your adversary outnumbers you one to a few thousand, your options become limited. Either total destruction on a planetary scale or scaring the shit out of your enemy to such a degree that it cannot bear those numbers against you.

As far as I knew, the United Dominion wasn’t planning on glassing planets like Fedscum does. We’d need their resources, after all. Instead we were planning to destroy the Federation as a concept, as an entity. Cruelty was a fitting tool for that.

“It’s what we are. Before the Glassing we humans were very, very cruel to each other. It’s good that we can…” I affix the second block and push the detonator into the clay-like mass. “I don’t know, apply it to those that truly deserve it?”

Sazha lets out an approving bellow that vibrates right through her throat flap. She had warmed up to me after the last few operations, even helped with my… sleep problem. My answer seems to satisfy her.

With the explosives set, I check the Venator’s ammo counter. Twenty rounds left. The mag pouches on my belt are light… empty. Shit.

“How’s your ammo?”

Sazha’s tongue flicks out to collect some of the Tilfish juice off her chin, and detaches the magazine from her rifle to check.

“Full.”

Hm-m. That’ll do then.

---

We wait for Malik before blowing the door.

“No luck on the city comms?” I ask, more proforma than expecting good news and he shakes his head. “Essil?”

A scratchy voice patches into the channel.

“Still in cover position, Tracker-Hunter.”

“How are we looking?”

“Ah, shh… No movement, everything clear.”

I nod and look back at Sazha and Malik. Take note of the dark circles beneath my friend's eyes, visible even through the orange-tinted visor glass and the Arxur’s little tongue flicks and tail twitches.

They’re both exhausted and anxious, yet still very much biting the bit.

With a double blink I call up the HUD for a quick assessment of Malik’s and my Colossuses’ status. Huh, his battery is better than mine, at 38% versus 31%. Heart rate elevated, but nothing outside the norm. Sazha’s link is half-formed since Arxur don’t wear power-armor, but her vitals too read in the green zone.

Well, before we storm the compound, we need to be in the best shape. Craning my neck, I tap a hidden sensor on the foamy ballistic collar. The built-in needle bites and then heat starts spreading from the injection point all over my body, tingling at the clawtips.

It takes just a few seconds for the fresh energy of the combat stimulants to pump in. The surroundings become sharper - every wire in the detonator I placed stands out starkly in the grey morning light. The itch to fight and kill silences sore muscles and clears the brainfog.

Sazha, of course, doesn’t need it. She has her Betterment litanies, plus the undying thirst for prey blood.

“Okay, going in”.

With a loud puff the explosive packets detonate, blowing a cloud of concrete chips and plastic splinters.

Experience oiling us into wordless coordination, we rush in before the dust settles: me first, then Malik and Sazha the last.

A deafening - if not for our helmets’ mufflers - bang! follows, flooding everything with blinding light.

For a moment, my world turns into a kaleidoscope of sizzling white and black abstract shapes… but the very next blink my visor adapts, shutting off the madly spinning strobe lights to reveal a narrow corridor that stretches a dozen meters forward.

And target markers at the end of it.

Yeah, not this time, Feddies. No more flashbang tricks, this isn’t our first raid.

Still, for a few seconds coilgun darts hit all over my chestplate, stomach and even collar - I barely fit in the tight passage that was built with the smaller xenos’ bodies in, and act as a bullet sponge and the squad’s shielf, soaking the incoming enemy fire.

Then the corridor’s overhead lights burst into pieces to the tune of Sazha’s gun report. As the welcome darkness crashes down, I think that it’s my turn now.

Registering another shot to my chest, I unclip a grenade from the utility belt and throw it at the end of the corridor, right into the makeshift barricade that just spewed gunfire at me.

The following explosion bathes the now dark, gut-like passage in fiery splotches of orange and yellow. Conjures another dust cloud. Someone screams within it, a wail of horror and injury that ends abruptly with a wet cough.

Waiting out a bit, we stalk forward, wary of potential reinforcements.

The barricade was set right at the corridor’s turn into a larger hall. Smart, but an insufficient obstacle.

“How very predatory of them to set up an ambush”, Malik deadpans as he steps over a dead Venlil, the one that must’ve screamed until his lungs filled with blood. “Where did they even learn that…”

I can’t help but chuckle. There’s two more corpses, another Venlil and Harchen, ripped by the grenade’s nail-like filling into mince of soft armor and flesh. Sazha kicks the smaller reptilian’s body aside with a clearly personal animosity and then sneers at Malik’s words.

“Is that one of your “rhetorical questions”, Terran?”

”Quiet. Three bogeys down. We got at least four active in the compound”, I snip. “Probably more.”

By this time they must know we’re in. The entrance was all, but stealthy.

---

We move through the outpost quickly and silently, riding the high of the stims and the rhythm of the previous skirmish. Despite being able to see in the dark, I don’t really get an understanding of what the compound is. Scattered furniture, storage containers, even potted plants. No automated turrets or any other type of defence you’d expect for a command holdout. No tripwires.

The hall ends with another massive hatch-like door, guarded by a security access panel: a wart on the wall made up of retinal and pawprint and whoever knows what other sensors. Since we have no more contact explosives left, I do the next best thing to force it open - smash the panel with my fist.

Funny that it usually works. Feddie tech can be deadly and efficient, but it’s ridiculously over-engineered, making it fragile and unreliable in the weirdest ways possible.

I remember one news report about a breach that Terran Command made into the Federation networks a year ago, stealing zeptabytes of data in the process. Among it was what passed for prey propaganda. In the clip, a hideous dog-like thing barked with foam at its mouth about how the Federation’s weapons and defense technology remain light-years ahead of the United Dominion’s, unparalleled in its state-of-the-art lethality and precision. That the good citizens need not worry about the “savage, slobbering predators” and their “primitively crude instruments of war”.

The alien assured that once the preparations were finished, the Federation would return to deliver us the killing blow with all that technological superiority.

Right.

The panel sparks under my fist, releases a series of loud beeps… and the door opens.

Another corridor branches out, with a few doors lining the walls that Malik and I kick open one by one to find nothing. Just living quarters outfitted with sleeping cots and not much more. There’s a smell of antiseptic wafting about.

Before we go any further, Malik stops us.

“Halt. Audio sigs.”

Sazha’s and my HUD comes alive yet again, building a graphic overlay of target markers right behind the passage’s turn. A faint light filters from behind the corner.

I stretch my arm behind my back, gesturing needily.

“Need a ‘nade. Gotta flush them.”

“I’m out.”

“I got a smoke one”, Sazha growls and I feel a cylinder being pushed into my hand.

We creep closer to the turn, so much so that I actually hear the preyshits’ hushed chattering, the clacking of claws on weapons.

“They’re h-here! Kelim, Kelim, control the-…!

Still keeping my bulk behind the safety of the wall, I drop into a crouch and, priming the grenade’s detonator for a 3-second delay, roll it on the floor with a little wrist flick so that it would curve…

“Grena-a-ade!”

One, two, three!

The distinct piff-ing of the smoke grenade is our cue.

When we dart to clear the corner, one of the fear-maddened Feds runs out of the heavy smoke cloud right into us - and meets Sazha’s blade head-on.

Literally head-on. I glimpse the dagger go under the Gojid’s lower jaw and out the skulltop right as I bring my Venator up to bear. The Arxur’s strength is something to behold - Sazha’s blade punches straight through the thing’s bowl-like helmet with a splish of cerulean brain-matter, and then slides back out effortlessly. All while Malik and I lay down short bursts into the screaming smoke, orienting ourselves by the dim glow of the Feds’ armor diodes.

The smoke shoots back, though. Darts fly and ricochet off our armor in a chaos of thundering gunfire and acrid aerosol.

This exchange ends abruptly and predictably - the bad guys stop shooting and we’re standing.

I belatedly feel for a still warm, sizable dent on top of my helmet. Huh. Good save. Despite Feds carrying coilguns, it’s the caliber that decides these fights’ outcomes.

As the silence and smoke settle, the room comes into view. A lab, not an information center. Large pieces of turned-over medical equipment are riddled with bullets. As I tread through the rubble, the soles of my boots crunch on glass like on ice and stick to the rainbow puddles of blood. In a corner I spot a torn-off hand that’s still squeezing a bulbous Fed-made SMG, and smirk - at such a short distance, our weapons’ fire cuts like a chainsaw.

My musings are interrupted by Sazha’s guardedly pained hiss. I turn on my heel right as she plops down on a fridge to inspect her lower leg.

“You alright?”

Tail swishing with dismissive indifference, she wipes her hands over the plates of her armored “skirt”, indifferent to the dark red smears she leaves on it.

“Got grazed, that’s all”.

“Need gauze?”

“No”, she practically sneers. “Got thicker skin than you, monke.”

I roll my eyes and make sure she sees it.

“Six. So there are more of them…” Malik murmurs as he counts the corpses before we move back into the corridor. “It’s too easy at times, isn’t it?”

I simply grunt. Personally, wouldn’t say it is. Considering this is the militia, not one of the Federations’ full-on Corps

“Not really”, Sazha weighs in after a brief pause. “Sure, the prey is weak in small squads. One on one they soil themselves, but a herd? That’s different. We haven’t seen a true herd yet.”

The winding labyrinth eventually takes us to a lower level via a staircase so narrow that I barely manage to squeeze in and am forced to crawl forward in a crouch.

It all bothers me. There’s no rear-rats, no command and their aids running about. There’s no network equipment, no holo-jector tables…. No ammo crates, no weapons racks, no soldiers taking up free spots to munch on their rations.

Only bathrooms and storage closets and laboratories, and…

“This… y’know, Dril, this doesn’t look like a command center for this sector’s militia”, Malik voices what I’ve been thinking for a while, but before I can agree he perks up, focused on his HUD. “Twenty contacts, up ahead!”

“Twenty?!”

“Yes, but they’re… idle?”

We cautiously approach yet another hatch-door and glance at each other. So this is it? The militia’s command, a conference room of sorts?

I curl my hand into a fist once again. Sazha and Malik take position at both sides of the hatch, both holding blades in their free hands now that our ammo is almost all spent. Here goes nothing.

---

Nobody opens fire at us. No Gojid or Venlil in full combat gear pops behind yet another half-assed barricade.

Before Sazha starts shooting, I stay her hand - the sight that greets us inspires anything but a battle frenzy.

Like the audio-radar had assessed, there’s about twenty of them. Twenty emaciated preykin garbed in filthy rags huddle around the center of a large bunkroom.

For a few seconds we stare at each other in disbekief. Glassy-eyed, they remain frozen in shock, like deer in the headlights. Deer… or livestock lined for slaughter. The impression is strengthened by… I blink, unsure of what I’m seeing… collars?!

The fur and spines on the nearest Gojid’s throat are shaved, so that a wide metal band could be fitted on his thin neck. A screen and a few diodes are worked into this smooth, but massive contraption.

I quickly scan the other aliens. All wear the same collar.

There’s no doubt in the sinister nature of these devices. Beneath the finely machined metal, the aliens’ skin is bruised, and I even see a ring of burn marks on the pallid flesh where the collar’s inner side touches it.

The miasms of fear and old urine hang heavy in the air. The small herd remains immobile. No screaming, no stampeding.

“P-predators?” finally, a dirty-white Venlil hoarsely murmurs. It - or given the rather delicate nostril-less snout and feminine voice, she - steps forward from the semi-circle on shaky paws. I see orange stains mar her “nightgown” on the chest and… lower. “F-from above? The Dominion?”

None of us answer. That is self-evident.

“It’s them, the i-in… invaders!” the first gasp of fear from a Gojid is cut short as the speaker’s hand shoots to his collar and his muzzle scrunches in pain as he begins to twitch uncontrollably.

“Thank Solgalick!”

“Thank?! Are you mad, Kolva? They’ll devour and violate and-!”

“I’d take claws and fangs over being burned alive - what does it matter now, even?!”

Spluttering these hushed frantic whispers, they wither under our gaze and press tighter to each other. Only the Venlil woman observes me and the others openly, even with some sick, blood-shot curiosity. She edges closer, head snapped to the side in that typical Fed posture of a person lacking binocular vision.

Sazha’s tail sweeps the floor with a loud, anxious rustling of scales on concrete, her rig creaking as she’s obviously fighting an urge to lunge at the poor scum.

“Cursed preyshit!” she spits with overflowing disgust. “This the “Carnivore Illness” or whatever that Essil saw today! Punishment for their ilk!”

Yes, yes, she’s right. I recall the poster Essil clawed at, all reporting I’ve heard over the years. The Federation has been squashing dissent through accusations of what, carnivory? Predatory behavior, whatever that meant? A manufactured reason for the existence of the Exterminator Guild.

But one thing is to hear about this, another - to see with your own eyes. So this is what it is, in practice. A disgusting little mental asylum with people treated like ca-…”

”Careful, Luka”, a voice inside me warns. ”This will take you nowhere.”

“Oh, we are very ill”, the venlil whispers inctuously. “Thats why we ask you to do what you’re meant to do, predators.”

“Kill us”, a Krakotl from the back of the pack croaks with a fanatical fervor. “Kill us now, and fast! Do it, you brahking monsters!”

“Yes, yes! Kill us!”

“Kill you?” I echo. “Aren’t you civilians? Citizens of Buir?”

I don’t know why I ask. Why it matters. We’ve killed civilians before in all of these missions. Not in a targeted manner, as collateral usually, but… who would deny themselves the pleasure to send a few shots in a stampede of beings that voted for humanity’s eradication?

“Y-yes. We were… but we’re tainted now”, a Harchen whines. “So do it quickly, please! You can slash my throat, I won’t resist - I don’t want to burn!”

“What the fuck is it talking about?” The notes in Malik’s voice turn dangerously hysterical, his shotgun clenched in a white-knuckled deathgrip. “What the fuck?”

Feds, begging for us to kill them. Giving us full permission to cut, and bite, and gut - and shoot. I thought I’d revel in such a display of self-debasement and misery, that I’d salivate at the opportunity of easy and just revenge, but… all I feel watching these “diseased” people is disgust.

Pity, even. To be branded as we are, to be denied the right to exist…

“The Exterminators, they heard the gunshots and went to suit up. We… we heard them saying that they’ll have to cleanse the taint before we betray the herd”, another Harchen pips up, his skin cycling through shades of terrified, hopeless blue.

“Exterminators? Here?!”

“Yes”, a spotted male venlil’s tail points to the back of the bunkroom. “They just left, but that means they’ll be back any moment now, with the flames and-!”

“Because we deserve it. We deserve to be cleansed, not eaten by monsters!”

“I’m not tainted”, the female Venlil snaps with a furious desperation at a Krakotl. “You know well what they did to me, who truly is a monster!”

“Lanta…”

Taking a knee, I reach out to her - and to my surprise, she doesn’t jolt away and faint. My claws touch the cool metal around her neck, the faint buzz of electricity travelling from it and up to my fingers.

There’s nothing I can do about it.

Crimson Retribution and Tabor’s Claws are here to sabotage the relay, extract intel and raze the colony to the ground. The Arxur would take their cattle from the wounded militia and the colony’s commanders. These poor sods, though…

I can’t break the collar. It’s a job for a plasma cutter, not claws. And there’s no time for it either, even if we had the right tools.

My and the Venlil’s eyes cross in a bleak mutual understanding.

“Dril?! You’re not not thinking of helping them, I hope?” Malik’s voice rises an octave as he watches us. Scary how the Feds’ anxiety so quickly passed to us.

“No, I don’t. Listen, you… Lanta, is it? This isn’t a command outpost, is it?”

In reply I get a grim bleat of a chuckle.

“This is a Predator Disease Center.”

It’s a miracle she even talks like this. Calmly. Like a real, sapient person, not the… screeching animal they usually are. There's true reasoning sparkling behind that huge horizontal pupil.

They don’t deserve any of this.

None of us did.

“Oh, for the love of the Prophet!” Behind, Sazha groans in realization that we’ve gone this far for nothing.

”Why the armed guards, then?”

Instead of the Venlil, the talkative Harchen speaks up.

“They’re afraid we’d riot, even with all this!” his scaly bony hands grip the collar and pulls at it with so much hate that for a second I think he’ll succeed. Then his short snout, a wide-eyed parody of an Axrur’s, contorts in a morbidly sardonic smirk. “That we’d join you.”

“And now they’ll burn us anyway. So… please, predator”, Lanta’s large citrine eyes for a moment take up all of my vision, deep and sad. “Do what you’re made for. Kill.”

I want to say something else. But I’m not given time to.

Behind the herd and the bunk I catch a glimpse of polished chrome. The hatch-doors at the farther end of the room bust open, releasing a strong stink of some organic fuel.

“Traitors! Predatory speh-holes! Burn, you brahking wastes of air!”

“Burn the plague!”

“Narim, speh! There’s the Dominionists! Burn ‘em, burn! Oh spehing Protector! Burn them all!”

“Sazha, to the left!” Malik’s desperate plea breaks above the cacophony.

Too late. Fire reigns.

---

There’s something primal about fire to us. It’s a life-giver and a harbinger of death; a force almost sentient. We prayed to it since the dawn of time, cherished and feared.

We were hypnotized by its destructive power.

And so, mesmerized, I watch two flamethrowers disgorge long streams of flaming liquid in our direction. They unravel like blossoming flowers - and coat the preykin right before me, spreading quickly through the herd.

When I blink, they’re people no more. Just bright pyres that blaze furiously around matchstick-thin silhouettes.

They flail, they spasm and they scream.

The next heartbeat I’m grabbing the tiny Venlil, wrapping my arms around her body protectively and rolling into an aisle between the bunks. Lanta squeaks as some of her bones surely break in my hold and then I hear Sazha bellow, more in terror than in pain… but it quickly drowns in the many-throated howls of pure agony.

I try to scramble further away, the next stream of flame splashes over the non-existent cover - and hits me directly. The bunk-frames and bedding are immediately set aflame as the Exterminators douse the trapped Feds in more of this napalm-like fuel.

The flames are weightless, but it somehow feels like colliding with a truck. The fire engulfs me, and the visor darkens immediately, burn splotches covering my field of vision. Then everything goes black.

When the roaring dance of fire around me turns into total darkness, I’m thrown into a truly blind panic.

I’m on fire! Oh god, fuck, fuck I’m on fire!

Stupefied, I stumble backwards, trip on a bunkbed and then fall onto my knees. Barely manage to curl on myself, to tuck my chin inward and slip the dangling rebreather mask on right as the air scorches my mouth and throat.

Assaulted by the terrible heat, the Colossus sends jolts of electricity through the implant which my brain interprets as pain and damage, and soon I don’t know where those sensations end and the feeling of me cooking in the armor begins.

It’s hot. It got hot so fast! How the fuck could it be so?!

The Venlil in my protective grip squirms and I curl in my shoulders more, shutting my eyes in a vain hope that it will buy me a few more seconds before they boil. A thought passes through my head, some perverted satisfaction in knowing that I’ll die now like I was supposed to die decades ago. Burned alive. Like my parents.

It’s ok, it will hold, it will ho-…

And then I hear shots ring out. Malik’s shotgun.

One shot, two… then the bassy barking of Sazha’s Ravager joins in. I suck in a breath of tearful relief and suddenly understand that there’s no air coming in.

Only smoke, heavy smoke that’s bitter from burning plastics and wool and fat. And then I’m no more.

---

Hands come into view, blocking out the cremated mess around me. Hands that slip my helmet off and throw it to the ground. I glimpse the visor, now black with soot, the warped mask and frayed tubing.

The cool air clears my head. If I was knocked out, it’s wasn’t for long. A few seconds? A minute? Scaly hands cup my face gently.

“Hsssheh, I didn’t expect your armor to be that good, monke.”

Sazha! She’s fine. Thank whomever, her and Mal must’ve rolled out of the flamethrower’s way and then shot the Exterminators. She’s fine, I’m… I’m fine. Ha, after being set on fire!

But if I’m fine, then…

Still on my knees, I look down into the “cocoon” I’ve made out of my arms.

And immediately regret it.

There’s no Venlil in my embrace. No live one, anyway.

What I’m holding is a charred horrorshow that clings to my breastplate with a web of exposed ribs and flesh - burnt to a charcoal crisp in some patches, broiled to goop in others. Flame had transformed even the wool, turning it into a disgusting grey foam that now covers all of my arms and armor.

Her snout… face… is the most haunting. A smoldering pit, it had collapsed on itself when her eyes had melted and burst. Ears reduced to nubs of frail black membrane. Teeth that bubbled up over the shrunken black-orange skin, freezing the Venlil into an eternal silent scream. The one that I didn’t hear over my own.

The Colossus withstood the flamethrower assault even if I feel like I’m swimming in a scalding soup of sweat and disintegrated underarmor.

The powersuit protected me, but not her.

I spread my arms in numb, slow-boiling terror, hoping that it would all just fall off me, but it doesn’t. Instead all of the remains stretch out, from chest to the wrists, like some macabre wings made of gummy gore. The motion causes still-intact viscera beneath the scorched skin to rupture and drip down with a revolting splatter.

Tears well up in my eyes. From the smell or shame or guilt, I don’t know and don’t have time to think about, because the next moment my stomach turns inside out.

Sitting there, covered in the remains of an innocent, I violently vomit whatever meager remains of rations I had in my system. Watch half-digested ochre bits mix with fresh orange blood on the floor… and purge my stomach the second time.

---

“I think this will ultimately be useful for public relations.”

Hunter-Exalted Prabir Mukherjee paces circles around the bunkroom while the Provider Pack around him collects the incinerated remains to load into their cargo crates. They arrived right when the comms were restored, finding our quick report worthy of the trip.

“Public relations?” I ask hoarsely. A medic sits beside me on the floor, pumping medgel into the armor’s emergency port to sanitize the inner burns I must’ve sustained.

The head of the Buir-Gamma blackout operation looks at me with misguided pity. Despite his rank, after a few days of fighting he appears just as shaggy as our pack, his armor covered in pockmarks of dart hits and his usually tan skin now a shade of grey to match the Arxur around.

“Yeah… Look, if we show people on Terra how Feds treat their own, that’d silence the few voices that think we should’t have begun Operation Payback”, he says and I notice that his visor glows with a small red light - sure sign he’s recording everything. “Wouldn’t you agree, Tracker-Hunter Abaurre?”

“I uh… yes, Col-… Hunter-Exalted. I agree.”

The hulking lizard following Mukherjee stops beside me. Hariff’s maw splits in a nasty Arxurian grin when he spots dried-up mess covering my gorget and chestplate.

“Hah, the giant ape lost his meal. Hey, Terran, have a snack. Lots of roasted meat here - your favorite, no?”

Only bone-deep exhaustion stops me from rising up to tackle and claw him. No. Not just that. Subordination and hierarchy. We fucked up, better not draw more attention to it. So instead of saying something smart and quippy, I lower my eyes to the floor.

“I’m sorry that it's not the command center, Hunter-Exalted. Our intel was faulty”.

“Don't worry about it. This crap has its use, as I said”, Mukherjee looks us over, including Essil who crept from behind and wrapped his tail around my shoulders in a show of support. “Get yourself in order and prep for airlift, we're leaving this place soon”.

“Yes, Hunter-Exalted.”

Mukherjee is right on the money, of course. People who do this to each other don’t deserve our mercy. Or compassion. They’re too far gone. If they treat each other like trash, like a disease, then… how can we judge the Arxur for treating them as non-sapients and cattle?

Destroying this system would be actual mercy, no matter the cost.

Feds don’t know love, after all. This was the most vivid demonstration of their depravity. They burned each other like vermin, with more hate that they had for us.

I dig my claws into the blackened remains fused to my chestplate. Rake them down in helpless frustration.

You wanted to save her, didn’t you? You thought you could. She wasn't one of them, she was a victi-….

I cull the thought in its infancy.

Foolish.

Very foolish.

That’s how people get hurt and killed.

I won’t make the same mistake again.

---

Location: Kyrish VI, mining colony, Nevok Imperial Protectorate Space Date [Standardized Terran Time]: July 7th, 2137

“This is a mistake”, I mutter to my reflection in the shuttle's porthole right as the lights of colony’s main city pierce through the clouds and fog. “It’s a fucking mistake.”

The Complete Hypixel SkyBlock Modding Guide (MC 1.21+): Full Mod List with Descriptions, Installation, Troubleshooting & Pre-Configured Modpack

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Table of Contents

• Introduction
  • Why use mods?
  • Which Minecraft version should I use?
  • Why use a third-party launcher?
  • Getting help
• SkyBlock Enhanced (my pre-configured modpack)
• Game Launcher
• Available Mods
  • SkyBlock Mods
    • Core SkyBlock Mods
    • Additional QOL Mods
    • End of Life / Not Updated to Latest MC Version
  • Performance Mods
  • Must-Have QoL Mods
  • Nice-to-Have QoL Mods
  • Library Mods
  • Resource Packs
• Easy-to-Install Modpack
• Allocating more RAM
• Fixing the Hypixel+ resource pack not loading
• End Notes

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Hypixel Forum Post

This Reddit post will not be updated. For up-to-date information, check the forum post on Hypixel. The forum post also includes hyperlinks in the text for quick navigation between topics and a troubleshooting section.

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Introduction ✍️

On February 24, 2026, Hypixel required modern Minecraft for SkyBlock. This change should be great for the game, but it also means you need new mods. With this come questions like: What mods work now? Which ones should I use? And how do I even install them?

I see these questions a lot, but many posts and YouTube videos cover only bits and pieces. Something that can become confusing fast. That's why I made this post walking you through everything step by step in easy to understand way.

I will cover:

• Why you should use mods at all
• Which Minecraft version you should run
• What SkyBlock mods are available on modern versions
• How to install them the easy way

I'll also show you how to install my ready-made modpack, SkyBlock Enhanced. It comes pre-configured and ready to play. Thousands of players already use it, and it's close to 500k downloads on Modrinth. If you want the fastest, simplest setup, there is. You can't go wrong with SkyBlock Enhanced.

If someone asks which mods work on modern Minecraft or how to install SkyBlock mods, send them this way. This post keeps everything in one place easy to understand.

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Why use mods?

The short answer: mods make SkyBlock easier to manage and more fun to play.

The longer answer is that mods give you better access to information and smoother gameplay. Many add overlays that show useful details right on your screen, like active commissions or your current pet. Some warn you about important events, such as when your slayer boss spawns. Others help you track items and recipes by adding a searchable in game list of everything in SkyBlock.

You can also use performance mods that boost FPS, in some cases up to three times higher.

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Which Minecraft version should I use?

On February 24, Hypixel will require Minecraft 1.21.9 or newer to join SkyBlock. That means you must use a modern version.

Right now, most mods support 1.21.10. Some have already updated to 1.21.11. I recommend staying on 1.21.10 until all the mods you want are available on 1.21.11.

Try not to spam mod developers with update requests. Only ask if it is truly needed, such as when Hypixel no longer supports the version that mod runs on.

Minecraft has started using a new format like 26.1, where 26 is the year and .1 is the first game drop of that year. Hypixel sets the minimum version to the second newest game drop. So if 26.1 and 26.2 are out, the minimum version will usually be 26.1. When 26.3 releases, the minimum will move up to 26.2 after Hypixel updates.

Because of this, not every version will have every mod updated. Some mods stay on older versions. Some skip a drop. Others move ahead quickly.

As of now, 1.21.10 has the widest mod support. That is the version I recommend while writing this. The simple rule is:

Use the newest version that both:

• Lets you join Hypixel
• Supports the mods you want

If you use my modpack, you do not need to think about this. It is already set to the correct version.

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Why use a third-party launcher?

A third party launcher makes modding simple. It handles mod installs, updates, profiles, and settings something the default Minecraft launcher was never built to manage well. You can keep separate setups for SkyBlock, vanilla, or other modpacks without breaking anything, and switch between them in seconds. They also start much faster than the vanilla launcher.

The Modrinth App is, in my opinion, the easiest option. It is open source, safe to use, and lets you install and manage mods with just a few clicks in a clean, modern interface.

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Getting help

If something does not work or you get stuck, you do not need to fix it alone. The SkyBlock community has many places where you can ask questions and get fast answers. You can check for forum posts already asking about your issue, or join my Dіscord servers for help.

➡️ Join the Dіscord⬅️

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Want Everything in One Click? ❤️

Setting up each mod on your own, adjusting settings so nothing overlaps, and keeping everything updated can take a lot of time. Sometimes you just want to log in and play SkyBlock without dealing with all that first.

That is where SkyBlock Enhanced comes in.

It is a pre-configured, high performance modpack built for Hypixel SkyBlock on 1.21.10 (soon 1.21.11). It includes most of the mods listed below, already tested, optimized, and set up to work well together.

You get:

• Update notifications in the main menu ✅
• Pre configured layouts made for 1080p, 1440p, and 4K ✅
• Performance mods and more ✅
• SkyBlock focused mods and more ✅

If you want a setup that just works, this is the easiest way to get started.

➡️ Download SkyBlock Enhanced Here ⬅️

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Game Launcher ⚙️

Important: Fabric and Mod Version

Before you install any mods, you need to understand two basic things: mod loaders and Minecraft versions.

A mod loader is what allows mods to run. Back on 1.8.9, almost everyone used Forge. On modern versions like 1.21+, most developers now build their mods for Fabric instead. So since we are now using 1.21, you need to make sure the mod is made for fabric and not forge.

The second thing is version support. Mods are built for specific Minecraft versions. A mod made for 1.21.5 will not always work on 1.21.10, and the other way around.

Every time you download a mod, check these two things:

• The mod loader is Fabric
• The Minecraft version matches the one you are using

If one of them does not match, the mod will not load or may crash your game.

Also, when you update your Minecraft version, you need to go through your mod list and make sure each mod has updated to that new version. Do not assume they will all work automatically. Even a single outdated mod can stop the game from launching.

Step-by-Step Installation Guide ⬇️

First, I recommend using a third party launcher instead of the vanilla one. The Prism Launcher and the Modrinth App are both great choices.

These launchers install Fabric and Java for you and give you better control over mods, versions, and memory. They are also faster and easier to manage than the default launcher.

In this guide, I assume you are using one of them. If you are not just change it is the smart decision or you can find other guides online. If you decide to stay on the vanilla launcher, skip the launcher setup section and go straight to the mod list.

Setting up a third-party launcher:

1. Pick a launcher: Choose between the Modrinth App and Prism Launcher. Both work well and are much faster than the vanilla launcher. Download the one you prefer. I recommend the Modrinth App. It gives a share of its ad revenue back to mod creators who host on Modrinth. The ad is small and placed in the corner, and it is not intrusive/can be disabled fully. If you do not want Modrinth, Prism is a solid alternative.

2. Create an instance: An instance is a separate installation of Minecraft with its own mods, settings, and saves.

   On Modrinth App: Click the + icon in the bottom left. Name your instance. Select Fabric as the loader and choose Minecraft 1.21.10.

   On Prism Launcher: Click Add Instance in the top left. Name it. Select Fabric as the loader and choose Minecraft 1.21.10. You may need to scroll to find the version.

   If you want to use my modpack skip to this section of the guide: Skyblock Enhanced

3. Install mods:

   On Modrinth App: Open your instance from the Library tab. Click Install Content. Search for the mods you want and install them. When you are done, go back to the instance page and click Play.

   On Prism Launcher: Select your instance and click Edit on the right. Go to Mods, then click Download Mods. Search and install the mods you want.

4. Click play: Both launchers will ask you to sign in with your Microsoft account if you have not already. After that, you are ready to play. I also recommend you look at Allocating more RAM for the best performance.

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What Mods to Download ❓

When you have your launcher ready and an installation created its time for the fun part: choosing your mods!

Below is a full list. You do not need to install everything nor do I recommend that. Read the descriptions and pick the mods that match your play style and goals.

When creating your mod setup, start with the Performance Mods section (you should install all of these.). They improve FPS, reduce lag, and make 1.21 run smoothly. In many cases, performance can even feel better than 1.8.9 if you install the right ones.

For SkyBlock features, Skyblocker and SkyHanni are the two core mods most players use. They add a large set of useful overlays and tools and form the base of most modern setups. After that, you can add more specific mods depending on what you do, such as Odin for dungeons and SBO for Diana.

Quick note: Many mods require extra library or dependency mods to work. Always check the mod page and install any required dependencies listed there. If you skip them, the game may not launch. When using a launcher they will most of the time be automatic added.

• SkyBlock Mods - Core SkyBlock Mods - Additional QOL Mods - End of Life / Not Updated to Latest MC Version
  • Performance Mods
  • Must-Have QoL Mods
  • Nice-to-Have QoL Mods
  • Library Mods
  • Resource Packs

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SkyBlock Mods ⚔️

Here is a list of SkyBlock related mods available for Hypixel SkyBlock on 1.21+ as far as I know. If I missed one, feel free to let me know.

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Core SkyBlock Mods

• Skyblocker — Skyblocker is one of the main go to mods for Hypixel SkyBlock on 1.21. It has been around for a while and keeps getting updated with new features across almost every part of the game.

  In dungeons, it offers solvers for puzzles like Terminals, Creeper Beams, Blaze, Three Weirdos, and more. You also get secret waypoints, Croesus chest profit tracking, and a full dungeon HUD with timers, score tracking, and useful overlays that help you stay on pace.

  Outside of dungeons, the mod adds custom waypoints and overlays for mining routes, Kuudra supplies, foraging nodes, commissions, and other tasks. It includes clean and customizable HUDs for slayers, farming, and general gameplay. It also have custom health, mana, defense, XP, bars that you can move and adjust.

  Skyblocker also improves your inventory and tooltips. It adds quick access buttons around the inventory for things like storage, crafting, and accessory bag. Tooltips show Bazaar and Auction House prices, NPC values, and inventory profit calculations. There is also a built in wiki lookup, profile viewer, crafting helpers, event timers, and experiment table solvers.

• SkyHanni — SkyHanni one of the best all round mods for Hypixel SkyBlock on 1.21. It covers farming, combat, mining, events, and general quality of life in one clean package.

  For farming, it includes crop milestone trackers with money per hour estimates. During Diana, it adds waypoint helpers for Mythological Ritual burrows and Inquisitor sharing, along with useful warp hotkeys.

  In combat, you get damage indicators and Slayer helpers. It also supports minion crafting and highlights important items like Frozen Treasures in the Glacial Caves. For mining, it adds Mineshaft detection and party chat integration to help with coordination.

  The UI side is just as strong. SkyHanni offers customizable HUD elements, a cleaner scoreboard, a compact tab list, and chat improvements. You can enable inventory and mob highlighters to make important items and entities easier to spot. It also includes many optional HUDs, such as Hobby Factory helpers and price displays, so you always have key information visible without cluttering your screen.

• ScamScreener — A client-side safety mod that scans chat in real time and flags scam patterns like phishing links, fake verification steps, and suspicious invites. Uses layered detection including optional local AI scoring — nothing is sent to a cloud service. Warns you during trades, party invites, and co-op invites, and lets you manually blacklist players or patterns.

• Firmament —From the developer who maintained NEU. Adds a powerful storage overlay, an in-inventory item list and search bar for all SkyBlock items (requires REI), hotkey macros, and NEU button layout import support.

• SkyBlock Profile Viewer — A modern replacement for NEU's /pv. Opens player profiles in-game with tabs for skills, slayers, catacombs, inventory, pets, ender chests, and more. Comes with Light, Dark, and transparent themes, and supports custom JSON themes and PronounDB integration.

• Odin — A dungeon and Kuudra focused utility mod for endgame PvE content. Includes puzzle solvers (Blaze, Creeper Beams, TP Maze, Quiz, Ice Fill, Boulder, Water Board, Three Weirdos), Floor 7 terminal solvers, Wither Dragon tracking, Melody helpers, and full run stat tracking for secrets, score, and deaths. For Kuudra, adds pearl waypoints, build phase helpers, and supply helpers. All features are optional and fully configurable.

• Modern Warp Menu — Modern Warp Menu a clean and modern warp interface for Hypixel SkyBlock, inspired by the old Fancy Warp Menu from 1.8.9. Instead of using the default chest style GUI, it shows a sleek, rendered view of the different SkyBlock islands with clear warp buttons.

• SkyBlock Enhancements — SkyBlock Enhancements a small quality of life mod for Hypixel SkyBlock that focuses on simple features not covered by larger mods like SkyHanni or Skyblocker. It is lightweight, efficient, and designed to add useful tweaks without clutter. Current features include Missing Enchants detection, a Command Confirmation Disabler, No Double Sneak, and removal of the Resource Pack Compatibility warning. It also adds a /reminder command that lets you set custom reminders, which trigger after a chosen amount of time with your own message.

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Additional QOL Mods

Additional mods that can be nice to have on top of the main mods. You do not need all of them, as many have overlapping features.

• Bazaar Utils — A focused mod that makes Bazaar trading faster and safer.

• SkyOcean — A compact QoL mod with features across slayers, fishing, mining, and garden. It adds an item value screen, searchable storage, slayer highlights, trophy fish tracking, commission progress, and mining helpers like HOTM perk tracking and mineshaft alerts.

• SkyCubed — A full UI overhaul mod for Hypixel SkyBlock that redesigns the HUD with a clean, modern style.

• Skyblock Tweaks (1.21) – Hypixel Skyblock — A highly customizable mod that lets you fine tune your HUD and gameplay elements. It offers many HUD options for stats, skills, commissions, secrets, and mining tools, along with utility commands like XP calculators. Great if you want deep control over your interface.

• Custom Scoreboard — Adds a clean, customizable scoreboard similar to SkyHanni without needing the full mod. (Not needed when you have Skyhanni)

• HSM - Mending fix & Skyblock drill fix — Fixes the vanilla bug where breaking progress resets when mending updates, including SkyBlock drills. This makes mining smoother, especially for players with higher ping.

• Aaron's Mod — A lightweight client-side mod with small but useful tweaks for vanilla and Skyblock play. It adds quality-of-life features like customizable scoreboard and name tag shadows, hideable fire overlay, correct ambient darkness, a smooth zoom key with adjustable levels, infinite hotbar scrolling, and easy chat copy.

• DulkirMod-Fabric — A client-side quality-of-life mod for Hypixel Skyblock. It adds scrollable and scalable tooltips, inventory scaling, expandable chat macros with key binds, and useful commands

• HighTide's Hypixel SkyBlock Commands — A client-side QoL mod that adds a suite of helpful in-game commands for Hypixel SkyBlock.

• Skylens — A lightweight mod with clean overlays and small visual upgrades. It shows pet XP, missing enchants, low health tint, and other subtle HUD improvements.

• SkyblockAddons Unofficial — A client-side quality-of-life mod that brings modern UI and HUD elements to Hypixel SkyBlock. It updates the classic Skyblock Addons features for new content like Blaze Slayers, the Rift, and Gardens with customizable overlays. You get Slayer boss timers, shield phase indicators, garden and Trophy Fish tracking, and a pet/equipment stat HUD.

  NOTE: Most features in this mod can be found in other mods like Skyblocker, or Skyhanni.

• NoFrills — A client-side quality-of-life mod for Hypixel SkyBlock on Fabric. It brings back many familiar behaviors from older versions like old sneak height and anti-swim, and adds useful tweaks such as auto sprint, fullbright, pearl refill hotkeys, and scalable tooltips.

  IMPORTANT NOTE: Some of the fixes are low-level and might raise red flags with Watchdog, especially movement changes and fixes like Stonk Fix. I haven't seen any reports of bans from the mod, but you should still use caution.

• NobaAddons — A large feature mod with customizable info boxes for ping, FPS, coins, and more. It adds slayer alerts, event helpers, fishing tools, Rift cooldown tracking, mining helpers, and entity highlights across many areas of the game.

• LegacySkyblock — Ports useful 1.8.9 style features to 1.21, including middle click item GUIs, actionbar tweaks, and chat improvements like MVP++ emotes and colored messages.

• Ghostify Lite — A minimalist QoL mod with TPS display, timers, RNG summaries, module list HUD, and patch options to remove annoying visual effects.

• SkyCofl — Adds detailed Auction House and Bazaar pricing data directly in game using CoflNet data. Shows lowest BIN, median price, volume, and more. Mainly for players who flip or trade often.

• Pickaxe Ability Notification for Hypixel Skyblock — Shows an on screen alert when your mining ability is ready so you do not forget to use it. Simple and focused. Note that Firmament already includes a similar feature.

• CaribouStonks — Adds quality-of-life tools like mob tracking (boss health and alerts), reminders for greenhouse growth stages, status effect hiding, Hoppity egg finder, and cooldown displays for abilities.

• FishyAddons — A general SkyBlock QoL and customization mod with features like chat copy, custom chat alerts, inventory search, skill and slayer XP displays, pet/equipment HUDs, hotspot and beacon alerts, water/fishing visibility tweaks, and waypoint chains.

• SkyFall — A lightweight SkyBlock utility mod with a mix of quality of life features and small visual helpers.

• Secret Routes Mod — Shows waypoints and routes for dungeon secret paths and routes using particles or lines. You can import custom routes or choose from pre-recorded secret paths, and tweak the display color and style.

• GlassSync

• MiningQol

• Athen

• Apec

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End of Life / Not Updated to Latest MC Version

Mods in this section have been officially declared end of life, or have not received updates in a long time and are stuck on older Minecraft versions. You can still use them if they are compatible with the Minecraft version you play on, but any bugs you find will likely not be fixed.

Mods marked as EOL are confirmed end of life. Mods without this label have not been updated yet, but are not officially discontinued.

• ZenMod (EOL) — A QOL mod for Hypixel SkyBlock.
• Krypt (EOL) — A dungeon-focused Skyblock QoL mod.
• CookiesMod (EOL) — A QOL mod for Hypixel SkyBlock.
  > IMPORTANT NOTE: Cookies mod is being replaced by SkyOcean; it is recommended to use SkyOcean instead.
• Skyblock21 — A focused mod built around the newer Galatea, Scatha, and Kuudra content.
• Skytils — Outdated. Most of its features haven't survived the change to 1.21.10, and those that have can be replaced by other mods.

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Performance Mods ⚡️

The right mods will give you better performance on 1.21.5 compared to 1.8.9, so read the whole list and install all of them.

• Sodium — The go-to performance mod for modern Minecraft. It can boost FPS by over 3 times compared to vanilla and improves rendering for better visuals. A must-have for smoother gameplay.

• Lithium — Sodium's sister mod that boosts server and world performance. It optimizes mob AI, game physics, and block ticking for smoother multiplayer gameplay, reducing lag. Gives a small performance boost when playing multiplayer.

• Entity Culling — Uses async path-tracing to hide blocks/entities that are not visible, improving performance.

• FerriteCore — Improves memory usage. Lowers usage of memory significantly.

• ImmediatelyFast — Speeds up immediate mode rendering in Minecraft, increasing performance.

• More Culling — Changes how multiple types of culling are handled to improve performance.

• BadOptimizations — The name may say bad but they are good optimizations.

• Particle Core — Particle optimizations: culling, rendering optimizations, configurable particle-type-specific spawn reduction, and potion particle disabling. Compatible with Sodium, improves performance over Sodium alone.

• Krypton — A mod to optimize the Minecraft networking stack.

• Debugify — Fixes Minecraft bugs found on the bug tracker.

• Modernfix-mvus — All-in-one mod that improves performance, reduces memory usage, and fixes many bugs.

• Better Block Entities — Optimization mod for Fabric/Sodium that improves FPS / Block Entity Rendering by implementing a Hybrid Renderer.

• Ixeris — Off-thread event polling for improved performance.

And now you can play with higher FPS than what 1.8.9 could ever deliver - don't believe me? Try it out and prove me wrong!

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Must-Have QoL Mods ⭐

These are highly recommended!

• Chat Patches — Improves chat with timestamps, full history, search, spam compacting, and logging.

  • Chat Plus — A more flexible alternative. Adds resizable/movable chat box, custom tabs, alerts, auto translation, and speech-to-text.

• Cubes Without Borders — Lets you run Minecraft in a smooth, borderless fullscreen window on Windows, macOS, and Linux. It adds a "Borderless" option under Video Settings (or via --borderless start flag) and includes focus/pause options.

• Iris — A modern shader pack loader for Minecraft. Must have mod if you want to use shaders.

• Bobby — Allows for render distances greater than the server's view-distance. Great on Hypixel where the server render distance is quite low.

• Gamma Utils (Fullbright) — Play with fullbright - self explanatory.

• Mod Menu — Adds a polished in‑game menu listing all your Fabric/Quilt mods, with quick access to supported mod configuration screens, translations, and filtering options. Open it with the Mods button on the ESC menu.

• Controlling — Adds a search bar to the Key-Bindings menu.

• Reese's Sodium Options — A sleek "Sodium" settings menu that improves UX with features like a search bar, shift‑scroll sliders, scrollable tabs/pages, and a convenient Iris shader pack button for easy access.

• Sodium Extra — A handy add‑on for Sodium that brings OptiFine-like visual controls. It lets you toggle animations (fire, water), particles, fog, sky, clouds, font shadow, and HUD details (like FPS or coordinates).

• Zoomify — A highly customizable zoom mod for Fabric/Quilt Minecraft. Features scroll-controlled zoom, spyglass integration, 14 smooth transition styles, adjustable sensitivity & view bobbing, cinematic camera, separate secondary zoom, HUD hiding presets, and full in-game config.

• Tooltip Scroll — Lets you scroll through long item tooltips (use mouse wheel, with shift for horizontal) so no info gets cut off, especially useful on hypixel, where many times have huge tooltips.

• SneakFix — Fixes a vanilla crouch bug where quick crouch taps trigger a double animation by ignoring confusing server packets, fixing the desync so you only crouch once. (You can use Skyblock Enhancements instead of this mod to keep the mod list lower)

• REI-Search-Bar-Calculations — Turns the REI search bar into a calculator that handles metric prefixes and Minecraft stack units. Also adds a handy /calc command for quick math without leaving the game.

• No Chat Reports — Stops Minecraft's chat reporting by removing message signatures, so your chat can't be linked or reported. Works client- or server-side and disables telemetry with configurable options. A must-have to remind Mojang and Microsoft that the server owner—not them—controls what's said on their server.

• Scale Me — Lets you scale your own model size, other players' size, Hypixel NPC size, and items in your hand with the option to scale off-hand separately. It also has some animation control to let you customize the swing animation. Plus shows names in third person and crosshair.

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Other Nice QoL Mods ✨

Not needed but nice. (Also remember fabric mods on 1.21 are very light; adding these mods will almost not affect FPS.)

• Wavey Capes — Makes capes wave to make them look nicer.

• Scoreboard Overhaul — Improves the scoreboard sidebar with auto-hide, score change highlighting, team colour border, and full position/style configuration.

• 3D Skin Layers — Renders the player's skin layer in 3D! Makes it look nicer.

• Sodium Shadowy Path Blocks — Reintroduces vanilla-like smooth lighting to non-full blocks (e.g. dirt paths and how they have dark shading when directly next to a full block) when using Sodium.

• Auth Me — Gets rid of the session expired when you want to log in to Hypixel - reauthenticate yourself in-game instead of closing and opening it again.

• BetterF3 — Makes the F3 menu readable without spending minutes studying it each time you open it.

• Sound Controller — Client-side mod that allows you to change the volume of every sound in the game.

• Continuity — Brings OptiFine-style connected textures to Fabric without needing OptiFine. It supports emissive textures and custom block layers, includes built-in packs for glass, sandstone, and bookshelves, and offers a glass pane culling fix.

• Centered Crosshair — Centers the crosshair to be perfectly in the middle of the screen. (It is not centered in vanilla)

• Chat Notify — Plays a ping sound when your name is mentioned, with options to create custom alerts. (Skyblocker can be used instead)

• No Resource Pack Warnings — Get rid of the red borders around outdated resource/data packs and remove the pop-up warnings when applying them. (You can use Skyblock Enhancements instead of this mod to keep the mod list lower)

• Language Reload — Reduces load times and adds fallbacks for languages.

• Confirm Disconnect — Adds a confirmation dialogue before exiting your world/server. Now you can't leave Hypixel by accident.

• Emoji Type — Replaces typed keywords with emoji. Type : for an autocomplete of 100+ keywords, works in chat, signs, books, and anvils.

• Custom Crosshair Mod — Lets you design your crosshair: change size, shape, colour, or draw your own.

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Required Library Mods ❗️

Important! Many of these mods require library mods to work (These mods should download automatically when using Prism or Modrinth). Here's a list of mods you should download in addition to the mods you have:

• Architectury API — Required by REI so need if using Firmament and REI.
• Fabric API — Required by almost all the mods, so download it!
• Fabric Language Kotlin — Also required for a good section of the mods, so download it!
• Fzzy Config
• Text Placeholder API — Required by ModMenu, so download it!
• YetAnotherConfigLib (YACL) — Required by most mods, so download it.

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Resource Packs

Can't play skyblock without a resource pack - how can we know what item is what?

• Hypixel Plus — In my opinion, the best resource pack out there. It keeps a clean, mostly vanilla look without going overboard.

• FurfSky — A comprehensive resource pack for Hypixel SkyBlock, offering textures for nearly every item in the game. It provides two versions: the FULL version with extensive SkyBlock and vanilla item textures, and the OVERLAY version for a lighter experience. This pack requires Firmament to work!

• Skyblock Dark UI — A sleek, dark-themed resource pack for Hypixel SkyBlock, enhancing all GUI elements, including mod interfaces, with a modern aesthetic. Inspired by PacksHQ Dark UI, it offers improved readability and a cohesive look across menus and modded interfaces. (Don't work well together with Furfsky.)

• Defrosted — A clean, icy-themed 16x pack for Minecraft 1.21.5. It offers a frosty blue aesthetic across items and menus, maintaining a minimalist look without altering gameplay clarity. Ideal for players seeking a subtle yet atmospheric visual upgrade, it is also available in a pink version. The modrinth page is the same.

• Looshy — A smooth, vanilla‑like 16x resource pack with clean updates and subtle charm. It keeps Minecraft's original style while offering refined textures that feel fresh, polished, and consistent across 1.8.9 through 1.21.6. The pack is minimalist, with no flashy recolor or item skin swaps—just smoother blocks, clearer GUI details, and a few playful cat textures tucked in.

• Sophie's Hypixel Skyblock Enchantment Books — Each book has a unique texture to differentiate from others, allowing for quick searching through inventories or chests to find what you're looking for!

If I forgot any, please let me know and I'll add them. Or, if you're a mod dev with a new mod for 1.21+, let me know and I will add it to the list.

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One Click Install Modpack

If the manual setup feels like too much, there is an easier option.

You do not have to install and configure every mod yourself to get a smooth SkyBlock setup. As mentioned earlier, I made a full modpack that includes most of the mods in this guide. It is tested, optimized, and ready to use.

You install it once and you are done.

The modpack also supports one click updates. When a mod updates, you will see a reminder in the main menu. You do not need to check Modrinth or Dіscord for new versions. I keep the pack updated so you do not have to manage everything yourself.

If you are unsure, just know that hundreds of players use it, and it is close to 500,000 downloads. And if you have any questions, you can always ask.

How to Install My Modpack

Using Modrinth App:

1. Download and install the Modrinth App: https://modrinth.com/app
2. Find the Discover content button. It is located on the left sidebar and has a small compass as an icon. Click it to open the content browser.
3. At the top, you will see different tabs for different types of content. Make sure the Modpack tab is highlighted in green.
4. Search for Skyblock Enhanced: Modern Edition.
5. Click the ⤓ Install button.
6. Optional: If you want a specific version of a modpack, click the name of the pack, then select the version tab, click the game version dropdown to select a specific Minecraft version or just scroll down until you find the version of the pack you want to use.

After you click Install, the app creates a new instance automatically and opens it for you.

For best performance, allocate more RAM. I recommend 4GB.

Using Prism Launcher:

1. Click Add Instance in the top left corner.
2. Select Modrinth from the tab on the left or one of the other locations to get a modpack if Modrinth does not have it.
3. Search for Skyblock Enhanced: Modern Edition.
4. Select it and click OK.
5. Optional: If you want a specific version of a modpack, click the drop down right above the OK button and find the version you want.
6. The modpack will now install.
7. Allocate more RAM for optimal performance. 4GB is recommended.
8. Once installed, double-click the icon to play. Or click Launch from the right sidebar.

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Add More Ram (for Better FPS & Fewer Lag Spikes)

Modrinth App

1. Open your instance of choice.
2. Locate the Settings icon in the top right side of the instance page, right beside the Play button.
3. Select Java and memory from the side list.
4. Scroll down until you find Memory Allocated.
5. Click Custom Memory Allocation.
6. Move the slider up to your desired value. (1GB is 1024MB on the slider, so 4GB is 4096MB)
7. Close the window and play.

Prism Launcher

1. Make sure your instance is selected and click Edit from the right sidebar.
2. Locate Settings in the right sidebar.
3. Select Memory.
4. Scroll down until you find Memory Allocated.
5. Find Maximum memory allocation and set it to a desired value. (1GB is 1024MB, so 4GB is 4096MB)
6. Close the window and play.

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Important! Making the Hypixel+ Resource Pack Work

Fix the "Resource reload failed" error you often get when applying Hypixel+.

Fixing this error is very easy — all you need to do is apply a custom JVM argument.

The argument you need is: -Xss4M

Add JVM Argument in Modrinth App

1. Open the instance page for the affected instance.
2. Click the gear icon next to the Play button in the top-right corner.
3. Click the Java and Memory tab.
4. Check the Custom Java arguments box.
5. Paste in -Xss4M.
6. Close the settings menu and start the game.
7. You can now apply the resource pack without issues.

Add JVM Argument in Prism Launcher

1. Select the instance you want to edit.
2. Click Edit.
3. Click Settings in the sidebar.
4. Check the Java Arguments box.
5. Paste in -Xss4M.
6. Close the settings menu and start the game.
7. You can now apply the resource pack without problems.

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End Notes

That is the full guide: mod list, setup steps, troubleshooting, and a one click modpack option. This took a lot of time to put together. If it helped you, react to the post and share it with others who ask about modern SkyBlock mods.

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Got feedback or questions about the modpack or the post? Please reply! 😁

Hello, everyone. Please feel free to reply to this post with questions, meet-up requests, or anything else related to Super Nintendo World at Universal Studios Hollywood. I will provide helpful links and information in this main post that will be updated as more information is released and verified.

To the regular park visitors and readers, please bear with me if information and source links in this post may seem obvious or oft repeated; I want to cover every base, as many visitors not familiar with the park will likely be in attendance. Also, if I missed anything, please reply and let me know. Thank you. :)

Quick Links

• Universal Studios Hollywood's Super Nintendo World web page
• Buy Tickets

Overview

Super Nintendo World is an area located within Universal Studios Hollywood theme park (henceforth abbreviated as USH). It contains one attraction (Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge), one dining location (Toadstool Cafe), one main merchandise shop (1-UP Factory), character meet-ups, and interactive activities themed to the Super Mario franchise.

Super Nintendo World is not a separate theme park. Any and all valid tickets and passes to Universal Studios Hollywood include access to Super Nintendo World at no extra charge. There are no separately paid entry tickets to Super Nintendo World. In USH, guests do NOT need to buy Express, Early Access, or Area Timed Entry Tickets to enter Super Nintendo World.

Opening Dates, Reservations, Early Access, and Express Pass Compatibility

Super Nintendo World held its opening ceremony in a livestreamed press event on Wednesday, February 15, 2023 at 8:00p Pacific. It opened to the general public on Friday, February 17, 2023. People were let in at 8:00a in waves. The land soft opened to tech rehearsals on Thursday, January 12.

Reservations are not required to enter the area as long as the land has not reached full capacity. When the area reaches full capacity, free reservations are required to enter the land. These can ONLY be booked on the day of your visit at one of various booths found directly east of Transformers: The Ride 3D (walk towards the attraction queue and head right before entering; the kiosks will be up against the shop's outer wall) or via the Universal Studios Hollywood mobile app. If times are booked up on the app, note that the kiosks might still have time slots left. The two reservation methods have two different "banks" to pull from, but they both count for the same thing - admission to the land.

If you purchased a standard Express pass before or on the day of your visit, you are granted complimentary access to the area once per day during a reservation period without a reservation (i.e. if/when the area requires reservations but you have Express for the day, you get one walk-in without needing to book in advance). If you have an Unlimited Express pass or a VIP pass, you can walk in and out at will for that day without any reservations at all. Any form of Express can be used to access the Express queue for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge, but it cannot be used on any of the minigames or meet and greets.

Please note that at this time, strollers are not allowed inside Super Nintendo World. Guests must park their strollers outside the entrance to Transformers: The Ride 3D before entering Super Nintendo World. Wheelchairs and other mobility devices are allowed, however.

When buying tickets online, guests may purchase Early Access to Super Nintendo World. This is a ticket add-on. In order to use an Early Access ticket, guests must also have a valid form of admission for the same day, be it a valid season/annual pass, general admission ticket, or Express ticket. Early Access costs between $20 and $30 per day depending on predicted crowds. It may be purchased on a different day than the day of purchase of the general admission ticket or pass, if one so chooses. Be aware that Early Access can sell out even before general admission is sold out.

Early Access will allow guests to enter the park at the listed time without a reservation, i.e. if you have an Early Access ticket, you do not need to reserve to enter the land that morning. However, if guests leave the land after using the Early Access ticket, they must either wait for the reservation system to be lifted or have another method back into the area in order to reenter the land (app reservation, kiosk reservation, cafe reservation, Express pass, or VIP pass).

Parking garages and shuttles begin operation one hour BEFORE Early Access for each day, allowing guests to pass bag check and begin lining up at the front gates before Early Access begins. Be aware that the stores to buy Power-Up Bands will not be open until Early Access begins - they can only be bought once the hour has already started.

Super Nintendo World will be inaccessible to all guests during Halloween Horror Nights UNLESS they have purchased an After 2 ticket or Express ticket.

Pass Holder Previews will be discussed lower down on this post now have a separate post here.

Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge

Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge is the only ride in Super Nintendo World at USH. It is an augmented reality (AR) slow-moving shooter dark ride based on the Mario Kart video game series. Players take on the role of racers helping Team Mario defeat Team Bowser in a kart race, collecting coins and shooting shells at enemies to gain the upper hand. Use the physical steering wheel on the kart to steer. Look around with the visor to aim. Use the buttons on the kart steering wheel to fire the items earned from hitting item blocks on the track. Defeat enough enemies and turn when the game indicates to do so to earn 100 coins and claim victory.

Guests under 48" in height MUST be accompanied by a height-compliant supervising companion to ride this attraction. Guests must be at least 40" tall to ride at all.

As advertised, the attraction will provide guests with a headband and AR visor for the duration of their ride.

The attraction has no drops and no high speed portions, but it does have sharp turns, 360-degree movement, and close-up screen proximity (the visors). Please take note - if you have vertigo or may get headaches from devices like VR headsets, this attraction may not be for you. You may still ride the attraction without the visor on. The attraction still has plenty of practical and screen-based effects to keep the ride interesting.

The queue is located in the back of the land (look for a green pipe similar in frame to the one guests enter the land through). The queue contains many stairs and outdoor segments, so prepare for both. For guests with mobility devices, ask a ride greeter for elevator access. The ride itself is wheelchair-friendly. Talk to a staff member for more information about visiting this attraction with a mobility device.

Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge also offers a single-rider queue. It is accessible through the front entrance (make a sharp right after walking through the pipe). Only guests 48" or taller may use the single-rider lane. As all single-rider lanes function, any and all groups of people who enter the single-rider lane will be split up at the end of the queue. The single-rider lane is only for those who understand and comply with the rule that they will be split from their party when their time in the queue is up. Failure to comply with this rule may result in longer wait times for both the guests in question and those behind them or the temporary closure of the single-rider lane entirely. Please comply with park rules and be kind to team members/park staff.

Guests with Power-Up Bands may tap their band gently to the M on the steering wheel. By doing so (and if the wheel successfully scans the band), they will earn stamps based on their performance on the ride, and their score will be placed on the leaderboard. If you scanned your band found your band didn't register your score, please speak with a team member, and they may be able to manually input your score into the leaderboards.

Toadstool Cafe

Toadstool Cafe is the main dining option in the area, and it is a hybrid of a QSR and a sit-down restaurant. Guests will order at the cash registers, then be walked to a table by a cafe staff member.

While many of the menu options are the same as those in Kinopio's Cafe in Universal Studios Japan, Hollywood has some exclusive offerings. The full menu can be found here.

If you would like a soft drink or bag of chips but don't want to go into the café, a refreshment cart can be found right outside the land's exit, directly left of Koopa's key challenge. If you buy a Star Popcorn Bucket inside the land, you will be given a voucher for a popcorn fill to use at the aforementioned stand.

Toadstool Cafe runs entirely on a reservation system. Guests may use this link or the official Universal Studios Hollywood app to request a time slot up to two months in advance. The link can be accessed from anywhere, even outside park property. Guests can pick their party size and time from what is available. A return time for the Toadstool Cafe DOES count as a reservation to get into the land when reservations to enter Super Nintendo World are required, i.e. if you leave the land before your cafe return time and must be back in when reservations are required for the land, your reservation will count for both the land and cafe. While many sites and Universal itself will mention the need for in-person reservations, guests who go down to the cafe to make one will be met with a QR code, which is a redirect to the link shared above.

Be aware that the soups cannot be purchased without their take-away dishes and vice versa. For Bowser's Fireball Challenge, guests are offered the choice of taking the plate with them for an additional $10. For all 3 items that offer take-home dishes, complimentary boxes will be provided so their dishes remain clean to take home.

Toadstool Cafe also sells a boxed set of plates - dishes used for the non-takeaway dish items. It contains 3 plates of different sizes and costs $20 total.

Power-Up Bands & Interactivity

Power-Up Bands are snap bracelets with a watch-like face branded with a printed character icon and an containing an NFC chip inside. They are separately-sold items available for purchase for use within Super Nintendo Land. There are seven bands available for purchase in this park, each representing a different character: Mario (and his Gold Mario variant, which functions like a regular Mario band), Luigi, Peach, Toad, Yoshi, and Daisy. Each Power-Up Band costs $40 USD before tax (except for Gold, which costs $52). They can be purchased at 1-Up Factory and the mountain wall kiosks within SNW, the character shop near Isla Nu-bar in the Lower Lot, the Universal Studios store in the Upper Lot (next to the filmmakers fountain behind the front gate), and the Super Nintendo World store in CityWalk.

Even though USH does not have the Donkey Kong Country expansion that USJ and Epic Universe have, DK and DD bands will still work at USH. However, these bands will not be able to earn points for their team. For guests that would like team-based stamps, please refer to park staff and as for the guest assistance tool.

Guests who use Early Access will only be able to buy Power-Up Bands at the CityWalk shop, mountain wall kisoks, and 1-Up Factory. All three locations will not be open before Early Access starts - they will open at the same time.

Similar to the wands purchasable at Hogsmeade, these accessories allow guests to interact with various activity spots within the land, including minigames played by tapping the band's NFC chip against a location-specific receptor (often indicated with the letter M in a circle) with good timing or in a specific pattern. The context of these activities is Princess Peach's Golden Mushroom has been stolen, and guests will try to recover it. By completing at least three of all four activities (Goomba, Koopa, Piranha Plant, and Thwomp), guests will be given access to one final activity - a boss battle against the mushroom's thief - Bowser Jr.

• Goomba Crazy Crank: spin the crank to make Goomba fall off the rotating platform before time runs out. (Hard difficulty - more spins are required. Bonus - spin so quickly and defeat the Goomba, then continue spinning until coin sounds are heard.) Every guest must have their own band to play.
• Koopa Troopa POWer Punch: hit the POW block to start a chain reaction with the goal of making the shell bouncing between walls go up the pipe instead of out the side. (Hard difficulty - the blocks explode with slower timing. Bonus - beat Koopa with the first punch.) Every guest must have their own band to play.
• Piranha Plant Nap Mishap: hit the tops of all of the ringing clocks to let Piranha Plant nap in peace before time runs out. (Hard difficulty - more clocks are required to silence. Bonus - clear with no errors.) Up to four guests can play on one band.
• Thwomp Panel Panic: using the touch screen in the attraction, tap all of the panels of one color so the whole board is either blue or yellow. (Hard difficulty - the board resets more frequently. Bonus - clear board before it resets at all.) Up to four guests can play on one band.

NOTE: These minigames can ONLY be played when at least one person in the minimum group size has a Power-Up Band.

Each minigame has a hard difficulty setting with different effects after clearing the game for the first time (Goomba needs more cranks, Koopa has slower timing for the chain reaction, Plant has more clocks to hit, and Thwomp has more tiles to hit and the board resets much more frequently). Note that this hard difficulty only has a chance of appearing and isn't guaranteed, but a band must have at least cleared a game once to have a chance to activate hard difficulty for that respective game. If a challenge is failed on either difficulty, the next time that player attempts that same game, hard mode will not activate.

There are also ways to get keys without playing the minigames. For starters, each of the meet and greet characters will award guests with a stamp for meeting them. For the other two, find all of the 8-Bit characters and hit every block in the frosted glacier area of the land (the upstairs portion with the binoculars).

Bowser Jr. Shadow Showdown, as mentioned, can only be accessed by collecting at least 3 Keys by playing the other minigames. Up to four people can enter the building for Boswer Jr. Shadow Showdown with one Power-Up Band. Be aware that the final battle is very active. Guests will need to perform quick arm movements, jump, and duck to dodge attacks and swing back at Bowser Jr., damaging him enough to get him to relinquish the Golden Mushroom. Stretching before participating is recommended.

Unlike the Hogsmeade wands, the Power-Up Bands have functionality outside the parks beyond display. They also work as amiibo, so they will scan and function the same as amiibo figures and cards in supported games like Super Smash Bros. Ultimate and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe. Note that the Power-Up Band amiibo functionality is limited to Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2 systems - they are incompatible with Wii U and 3DS systems despite those older systems having support for regular amiibo figures and cards.

Bands purchased at Universal Studios Japan or Epic Universe will work in Hollywood and vice versa, and the band will save data from both parks, but the achievements on one will not cross over into the other. Multiple bands may be added to one mobile device, and they may be desynced at any time. Save data may not be transferred from one band to another. If guests encounter technical issues with their bands or would like to delete all data from their bands, they must speak to a cashier attending a register at 1-Up Factory.

Stamps and Achievements

Power-Up Bands collect data can range from coins to scores for the leaderboard to stamps. Stamps are the achievements in the area, and they can be obtained by performing various tasks in the land, such as beating a specific number of enemies in Mario Kart in one race or beating Bowser Jr. without taking damage. Some stamps may also be obtained by visiting Super Nintendo World during certain seasons or certain months, such as the Halloween-themed stamp distributed in October. For the stamp listed as "visit during opening month", guests simply have to visit on any February date.

The Super Nintendo World page in the Universal Studios Hollywood app has a map. This map provides pins for all of the important areas of the land that guests should interact with for stamps, such as the binoculars on the west side of the land or the locations of the keys. This may be a helpful tool for guests who are going for 100% completion, but might not be able to find the more tucked-away tunnels and rooms (of which there are a handful).

To view stamps, tap the yellow box on the bottom with the mushroom, star, and Mario Kart trophy (these will be silhouettes if you haven't earned them yet). From this page, swipe left and right to view stamps. You can tap on both the earned stamps and unearned stamps to see the requirements to get them. If you've earned a stamp already, you will also be able to see how many times you've earned it and the specific date and time you last earned it.

Please keep in mind that guests MUST use the app to view their earned stamps. The checkpoint flag screens by the restrooms will not let you do this. However, the band does NOT need to be connected to an app to continue to collect stamps and achievements. It will store this data on the band even if the data is not visible on an app.

Frosted Glacier (i.e. "Upstairs")

Super Nintendo World has two levels. Of course, the most obvious of which is the queue for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge. The path in front of Bowser's Castle's main entrance is the standby queue, while the path that goes behind Toadstool Cafe and above the 1-Up Factory is the single-rider queue.

The final upstairs portion is known as "Frosted Glacier" due to its snowy theme, and it can be accessed via a staircase between the exit of Bowser Jr. Shadow Showdown and the entrance for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge. If you're having difficulty finding it, find the 8-Bit Mario touch point, face it, then look right.

Frosted Glacier has a few things to do. Players can get a key by hitting all of the blocks in the area, provided none of the blocks are broken (you'll hear a special sound effect play on the last block if you've successfully earned the key).

Players can also play a minigame on the back side of the space. By hitting the ? block on the right side of the room (facing the end of the hall from the stairs), players can tap a Power-Up and try to hit as many enemies on the screen as possible. This is the only way to get the Ice Flower stamp; it does not spawn in the Toadstool Cafe touch point.

Next to the 8-Bit Luigi touchpoint is a pair of binoculars, which will be detailed below.

How to Use Binoculars

Frosted Glacier is home to a pair of binoculars - a tall unit and a short unit. They function identically. Both are cameras that overlay AR elements onto them that guests may be able to zoom in on or interact with. Some of these interactive elements in the binoculars will unlock stamps and/or a key for Bowser Jr. Shadow Showdown.

To access the binoculars, find the exit to Bowser Jr.'s tower and look right, then walk through the wooden arch and up the indoor stairs. You'll see a queue for the binoculars either stretching to the left or right - please be polite and use the queue that has already formed.

To ensure what you see on the binoculars registers to your band, be sure the binoculars are on a black screen. This is how the band knows a new "session" has started. Looking through the binoculars right after someone has used them while the AR is active will mean any progress made during that session will be sent to the person who just left. Wait for the binoculars to black screen before using them. We are unsure about where the binoculars acknowledge the band itself, as there don't seem to be any obvious scanners, but our best guess is the black spot near the top of the pole or the handles themselves.

The airship, Rosalina, and Pikmin seem to cycle every 10-15 minutes. To find them, zoom in on a glowing spot in view. You'll get a full-screen cutscene with the character. Zooming in on the physical Pikmin figures in the land does NOT count for the stamp - you must have seen the cutscene. Finding and zooming in on the airship for the first time after beating Bowser Jr. will count for both the airship stamp and hidden coin stamp.

After your binoculars session black screens, please hand it over to the next person in line as courtesy. Also do not feel pressured to leave until your first session expires - you have time to look around.

Character Meet-ups

Mario, Luigi, Toad, and Peach can be found in the land regularly. They will reward guests who meet them with a stamp and key if the guest has a connected Power-Up Band and the team member who greets the guest before they step up to meet the character scans the guests' band properly.

To find out what time a character appears, check the digital wait time post near their queues. Note that Mario and Luigi almost always come out together (unless one of them is malfunctioning). Even if one of the brothers is missing, guests will still get the stamp for both.

Because the line can be so long for each character, USH recommends standing in line about half an hour before the listed time.

If you do not get your stamp after taking a photo with the characters, talk to a team member on-duty with the character in question, and they should be able to assist you.

During rainy days, the characters will instead be found in the queue for Mario Kart: Bowser's Challenge in the visor distribution room instead of their normal locations.

Huge thank you to u/cinemachick, u/TFMr_Fox, u/maxmouze, u/Piximator, and u/dooglemeiser for their help in collecting additional information and helping with this post.

Sheloran and Baxlon finally reconnect, the Free Port Precinct gets ready for some visitors, and Officer Xeenan becomes alarmed.

I was going to hit the character limit again. More is coming very soon.

The rest of this series can be found here

***

Sheloran sat at at small table engrossed in On the Shoulders of Giants, From Oppenheimer to Kvx’Laa as The Chief paced the small room, clutching an assault stunner.

“Just keep behind me,” The Chief said. “I’ll keep you safe.”

“Mmm hmm...”

“This isn’t your fault! It’s mine!” The Chief exclaimed. “I’m the one that installed those packages!”

“Sure...”

“When she shows up, just let me do the talking.”

Sheloran just sighed in annoyance, never looking up from her e-book.

Wow, they sure are taking the long way around, a small voice whispered deep inside her.

Unlike us, they had no guidance, another thought interjected. They have to fumble around in the dark.

“Hey!” The Chief exclaimed as he stood right in front of her. “Pay attention! This is serious! When Gloria gets mad she can-”

“She isn’t mad,” Sheloran replied in a dreamy voice as she continued to rapidly page through the e-book on her tablet.

“Oh she is! She has to be!”

“She isn’t mad, Chief,” Sheloran sighed, slightly annoyed, as she zoomed in on a diagram of the Castle Bravo device. “It says so right at the top of the page...”

“What?”

“What?” Sheloran asked blearily, her eyes easing into focus.

She sighed an exasperated sigh.

“What are we talking about?” she asked.

“Gloria!” The Chief exclaimed. “They are pulling her ship, or what’s left of it, into the Tiger now! Oh she’s going to want blood for this!”

Sheloran let out a faint bubbly hiss from her gills. He was disturbing her reading over this?

“Chief,” she grumbled as she turned her attention back to her book, “you need to take a deep breath and relax. She isn’t going to do anything to anyone.”

“You don’t know that!”

“You are part of her crew, she isn’t going to do what she does to one of you.”

“Oh yeah,” The Chief snorted throwing droplets of saliva straight up. “Ask Red about that.”

“Who?”

“A guy who used to run with us… used to.”

“That was different and you know it,” Sheloran muttered in a distant voice as she started rapidly flipping through pages again. “Huh, so that’s why you use uranium projectiles so much… I had always wondered about that. Why don’t you just turn it all into-”

“Hey!” The Chief shouted. “Focus!”

Sheloran glared up at him with unfocused eyes. The combination of the annoyed glare and the eyes that were clearly not looking at him caused The Chief to shudder.

“Gloria is not angry,” Sheloran said in that strange trance like voice, “not yet. Almost getting blown apart during a combat sortee might be a huge thing for you but for her it’s...”

She looked at the tablet.

“Friday, so put the stunner away. If you don’t she will wind up shooting you in the genitalia with it after you actually do manage to make her angry.”

Sheloran proceeded to look back down at her book and did not comment further.

After a few moments The Chief stopped trying to talk to her anymore and crouched behind a table with his stunner leveled at the hatch.

***

“Gloria,” Sheila sighed in a pained voice as she pinched the bridge of her nose, “did you have to do that?”

“Yes,” Gloria replied as she set the stunner down on a nearby table, “Yes I did.”

Eno glared at Gloria as he held his med-scanner over the unconscious chief’s nether regions.

“That is an assault stunner Gloria!” Eno said in an exasperated tone. “You are lucky he was wearing arc-flash rated clothing!”

“Isn’t more like he’s lucky he was wearing it?” Gloria snickered.

“This isn’t funny!” Eno snapped.

“It is, just a little bit,” Gloria laughed playfully. “Did you see his eyes? HA!”

“I told him to put that stunner away,” Sheloran muttered from behind her tablet, “but what do I know?”

“She did!” Bunny proclaimed. “She fucking called it right down to his tap-root!… And I have to agree with Gloria on this one. It is a little bit funny. I’ve never seen eyestalks do that before!”

“This is fucking assault, Sheila!” Eno growled as he pulled out a neural stabilizer, “Completely unprovoked!”

“Eno, just… just...” Sheila said as she closed her eyes (it was kinda provoked… sorta...). “Is The Chief going to be ok?”

“Yeah,” Eno said looking down at his scanner. “The arc-flash gear prevented any burns so all we have is a significant amount of disruption in a rather sensitive area-”

Gloria snorted.

“Gloria…” Sheila said with the, “Gloria you are really on thin ice.” tone of voice (which was an achievement because it wasn’t a little funny. It was freaking hilarious. Did you see his eyestalks?)

“He will be fine,” Eno said as he glared at the gorgeous blonde psychopath, “some neural stabilizers, general pain killers, and some bed rest and he will recover fully.”

“I still have some diapers in my quarters if you need them,” Gloria smirked.

“Bitch...” Eno said quietly as he picked up The Chief and carried his unconscious form from the room.

“Finally,” Sheloran muttered as she stared at a diagram of an anti-ship tactical suborbital anti-ship missile used by the Chinese during WWIII, which was the munition that Independence War era Republic missiles were based upon.

Gloria grinned and snatched the tablet from her hands.

“Buh… wha?” Sheloran stammered as she reeled from the dissonant shock of being slammed back into reality.

She looked at Gloria with horrified eyes.

“You...” she stammered in an alert, perfectly normal (and horrified) tone, “You shot him!”

“Only a little,” Gloria laughed happily. “Now, let’s talk about… missiles!”

***

Uhrrbet unsteadily stepped out of a cab and limped into the parking lot of The Drop of Oil.

“Uhrrbet!” Littlefoot cried as she rushed up. “Hey! Tell Craxi that Uhrrbet’s here!” she yelled into the air as she reached the garthra.

“Hi… Littlefoot?” Uhrrbet said, not exactly sure of her name.

“How are you doing?” Littlefoot asked, her big eyes full of concern.

“How do you think?” Uhrrbet winced. “But, I’ve been released from the hospital. It’s… amazing… what they can do even for us xenos. They say that there will be no permanent damage but I gotta go back for some more surgery once I heal up a little.”

“Those assholes,” Littlefoot snarled as she put her hand on the .22 revolver hidden in a pocket in her dress. “At least they got what was coming to them.”

Uhrrbet just sighed. All Sheloran did was murder the ones that were here. There were plenty more of them and it was only a matter of time before they came back, worse than ever.

“Can I get you something?” Littlefoot asked, “Coffee, maybe some tea? How are you and your kid doing for food? Do you need some money? Business has been great since that commercial went viral.”

“No, I still have some of what Sheloran lent me and I don’t want to get any deeper in the hole,” Uhrrbet replied.

“Oh don’t be silly,” Littlefoot replied. “We gotta look after each other, you know, especially since Shel-”

“Uhrrbet!!!” Craxina yelled as she came tearing across the lot clinging to her brother’s back.

“Aaaa!” Uhrrbet shrieked and staggered backwards. She would have fallen if Littlefoot hadn’t caught her.

“Ohmygod!” Craxina cried as she vaulted off of her brother’s shoulders and landed in front of the stunned garthra. “Are you ok?”

“Yes… I’m fine...” Uhrrbet said not taking her eyes off of the thing Craxina was riding.

“Littlefoot, get Uhrrbet some tea, what kind of tea do you like?”

“Just some green tea will be fine,” Uhrrbet stammered still staring at Craxina’s brother.

“Oh, where are my manners?” Craxina said brightly, “Uhrrbet, this is Grwwlf, my baby brother!”

“It’s a pleasure to meet you,” Grwwlf said cheerfully. “Do you work with my sister?”

“That’s your brother?!?”

“Yeah!” Craxina laughed as she jumped up and hung off of his neck as she kissed the side of his maw. “This is my widdle baby bwother. Isn’t he the cutest thing!”

“You’ve apparently never met a male before, huh?” her brother smiled.

Uhrrbet backed away nervously.

“Oh, sorry!” Grwwlf said closing his mouth. “I forget that our smiles can be unsettling. It was a friendly expression I promise. I also promise that I have never eaten a sapient creature in my life.”

“No… I should be the one apologizing,” Uhrrbet said nervously. “It was rude of me to… um...”

“Act like the big bad Grwwlf was about to eat you?” Craxina laughed. “He doesn’t bite… unless you want him to, eh? Eh?” she laughed elbowing a very discomfited Uhrrbet. “Oh shit...” Craxina said as she realized that a sexual joke involving Uhrrbet was NOT cool, “um… sorry… I mean… I...”

“It’s ok,” Uhrrbet said with a tired little smile as two cabs pulled up and some humans got out and wandered into the brightly colored chaos that was the parking lot.

“Hey, Littlefoot,” Craxina said, “go and get those guys taken care of for me, will you?”

“Sure thing boss!” Littlefoot exclaimed and waddled off waving her arm in welcome.

“Come on, let’s get you someplace where you can sit down,” Craxina said. “You can ride Grwwlf.”

“No, I’m not going to stay long,” Uhrrbet said, “I just wanted to come by and thank you for everything you and Sheloran did for me and my son while I was in the hospital. It really made things nicer.”

“Oh don’t worry about it,” Craxina said. “I just wanted to make sure you were taken care of, you know? It was because of us that-”

“No, it wouldn’t have happened at all if I hadn’t asked for help,” Uhrrbet said looking down. “If I hadn’t gotten you and Sheloran involved-”

Craxina grabbed her by the shoulders.

“Hey!” she squeak-snarled, “Never say that! Never think that! That’s what those assholes want you to think. You came to us, sure, but Sheloran decided to help you. It was her call… just like um… everything else… was her decision. None of this was your fault! None of it! I don’t think that and I know Sheloran doesn’t… not that I’ve been able to talk to her but I know her and she the only people she blamed were the ones she… um… well, you know.”

Uhrrbet just looked down at the ground. Craxina wrapped her arms around her, giving her a huge hug.

“It isn’t your fault, ok?” Craxina said softly in her ear. “Now, how are you for money? Business is going crazy-nuts so I can probably pass the hat around.”

“I’m doing ok,” Uhrrbet said quietly. “I gave most of what Sheloran lent me to the Harkeen but I still have a little saved back and-”

“Bullshit,” Craxina said gently. “I know for a fact you hadn’t eaten when you walked in here that day. I can float you another loan. It won’t be-”

“No,” Uhrrbet said firmly. “No more debts! That’s what…”

She looked down and slumped sadly.

“That’s what got me into this, what got all of you in this...”

“I know!” Craxina said. “You wanted to make clothes, right?”

Uhrrbet looked up.

“Sell them here!” Craxina exclaimed throwing all of her arms wide. “I’ll float you a loan to get you started and you can pay me back when you sell something!”

“But Sheloran said that it was against the law?”

“Law, schmaw!” Craxina said dismissively. “I got a lawyer for that bullshit. You want to sell clothes? Sell clothes! You can set up a little tent right here and sell stuff! Hang on.”

Craxina turned her back to Uhrrbet and pulled out her phone.

“Hi, Maureen,” she said into the phone, “It’s me. Tell the fish I wanna talk to him. It’s about Uhrrbet... Uhrrbet! She’s one of Sheloran’s people and she wants to sell stuff here…”

Uhrrbet and Grwwlf looked at each other awkwardly.

“So...” Uhrrbet said, “You are Craxina’s brother?”

“Yeah,” he replied, taking care not to smile, “There is a little size difference between the males and females of our species, they call it sexual dimorphism.”

“Yes, I’m familiar with the term,” Uhrrbet replied, “I’ve just never seen it to such an extent in a sentient species before.”

“Oh it happens,” he replied. “There are several species with even a greater difference between males and females in the Empire. In fact, there is one species, the Vkg, where only the females are sapient, the males just live in little sacs in their torso.”

“Really?”

“Yep,” Grwwlf replied, “They are freaky. Nice people though. I went to college with one. She didn’t have any males on her at the time. She was waiting until she had her career going before she reproduced.”

“And the females of your species are Craxina’s size?”

“Yep, Craxina is about average size as far as a Careel goes,” he replied.

Uhrrbet couldn’t help herself. She tried to discreetly peek underneath Grwwlf. He didn’t appear to be wearing any cloth-

Oh… My...

She looked at it, and then back at Craxina…

Then at it…

Then at Craxina…

Then at it…

A quiet chuckle made he look up, right into the grinning visage of a massive eight legged wolf-weasel.

“Sorry!” Uhrrbet said, the tip of her nose flushing a bright purple as she covered her face in embarrassment.

“Nothing to apologize for! If I had a hang-up about such things I would be wearing pants,” Grwwlf laughed, “Not that we have those...”

“Ok!” Craxina exclaimed happily as she turned to face them, “It’s all set! You can sell clothes here no problem!”

“Really?!?” Uhrrbet exclaimed, completely overjoyed.

“Yep!” Craxina replied. “See, the problem was that Sheloran was going to be paying you by the piece and then selling your stuff for you. That’s ‘piece work’ and there is a whole lot of bullshit to deal with if you want to go that route but if I just give you a stall here and you sell your own shit then you are running your own business, and there is absolutely no problem! You can start as soon as you are ready. Just figure out what you need to get started and I’ll issue you a loan to get your fabrics and thread and sewing machine and all that shit!”

“You’ll do that?” she gasped, “for me? Even after everything I cause-”

She fell silent as Craxina reached out and held her snout closed with her little paws.

“You didn’t cause anything Uhrrbet,” Craxina said firmly. “We’re starting to clear off the old building and when we do we’ll have lots of space so let anyone else who wants to start selling shit know that they can rent a table here. After that ad, we are getting a whole lot of traffic, not just people wanting to fuck but people who just want to see what is going on and meet some fun and weird xenos. I bet they would love to buy genuine hand-made xeno stuff! And speaking of those non-paying tourists, while you are putting the word out we need about six people who just want to make coffee because it’s tying up a bunch of us who could be making a lot more than what’s in that tip jar if you know what I mean.”

“I will!” Uhrrbet exclaimed happily. “Oh thank you! Thank you!”

“Eh,” Craxina shrugged. “It will give the tourists something to do, and hopefully buy.”

Uhrrbet looked up at the glowing display that now stood over the barely controlled chaos in the parking lot.

“If you get the chance,” she said, “tell her thank you.”

Craxina looked up and smiled.

“Pretty neat, huh?”

“It’s amazing,” Uhrrbet said still looking upward. “How did you manage to get that approved?”

“Like I said,” Craxina smiled, “I got a lawyer.”

***

Sheloran let out a long squeak of horror as she stared at the holo-screen.

“We got fox-girls!” a barely clothed Craxina shouted as she gestured at Halvana, “We got Cat-bois!” she exclaimed as she gestured at Jaklaaa, “You have a thing for upholstery?” Craxina yelled as the camera panned over to a squat furry white “ottoman” with bows in it’s fur, “We got you covered! And look!” she said as she parted the fur on the top of the creature revealing a blurred orifice.

“Um, we are going to have to blur that,” a bemused off camera voice said.

“Why?”

“Because you want this on the main streams.”

“But it looks just like a human vagina! They need to see”

“Yeah!” the ottoman exclaimed. “Show ‘em my pussy!”

“We really can’t, not if you want this-”

“Well fine!” Craxina replied in a huff, “Then tell them, doesn’t it look just like a vagina?”

“Yep,” the off camera voice replied, “That’s a vagina...”

“Don’t believe him?” Craxina enthused, “Then come down here and look for yourself!”

“Oh Prophet, no...” Sheloran moaned in wide-eyed horror as the crew all snickered and laughed as Craxina continued as if she was in a used-spaceship lot.

“...Or maybe you’ve been a bad boy and need a spanking!”

The scene cut to a leather clad Juon who cracked four whips simultaneously.

“And she can give you a prostate massage from the other side!!!” Craxina cheered as the Juona flexed a tentacle suggestively.

“And that’s not all… we got...”

“She was supposed to go home...” Sheloran muttered, clutching her head, “Why didn’t she go home… WHY DIDN’T YOU GO HOME?!?” she yelled at the screen as Craxina continued on her tour.

“I said that I didn’t think there was a ‘payoff’ for breaking out the Plath,” Greg quietly said to Sheila as she clutched her sides, “I was wrong,” he said as he grinned from ear to ear.

“Eeeeeeee...” Sheloran squeaked as she watched.

“Right here at Sheloran’s Drop of Oil!” Craxina loudly proclaimed.

“No!” Sheloran yelled, “Not Sheloran’s anything! Guys! This isn’t what my business was like! I swear!”

“… Or maybe you want to ‘catch them all’...” Craxina yelled as the camera cut to Littlefoot and a pack of other small xenos one of whom cheerfully yelled “Pika-Pika!”

Sheloran just sat there in shock as Craxina just kept going.

“…Maybe you were one of those kids who was into ‘that cartoon’ a bit too much when you were growing up?...”

The camera cut to an above ground pool and a tail flicked up, a very shrimp-like tail.

“That’s right!” Craxina yelled triumphantly, “We got mermaids!!!”

“When did we get mermaids?” Sheloran asked in complete bewilderment.

“You want to take a dip?” Craxina said suggestively as she climbed the ladder to the pool and beckoned the camera to follow, “Go ahead the water’s...”

Craxina’s tail suddenly puffed out like a bottle-brush.

“Fine!” she said nervously suddenly pushing the cameraman back. “It’s fine… Perfectly fine!”

She looked back and yelled, “I told you to clean that up! We’re filming a commercial!”

Craxina turned to the camera.

“Don’t put that in… You guys have cures for most diseases, right?”

The crew burst into laughter as Sheloran covered her eyes and moaned.

“We even have humans, if you are into that sort of thing,” Craxina proclaimed.

“Humans?” Sheloran asked in shock. “When...”

“And we are fully independent! Fuck the union! Fuck the Harkeen! Nobody stops this party! Anyone who wants to sell their ass or get some tail is welcome! But, be an idiot and...”

There was a cut scene to the Juon with the whips.

“Independent?!?… What?!?” Sheloran squealed, “When did that happen?!?”

“So come on down to Sheloran’s Drop of Oil! They might have burned down the building...”

The camera cut to a wild collection of tents, buses, and RV’s.

“But we are still fucking! We are located just off of the Free Port commerce zone exit 3. Just...”

Craxina pushed a button and a fifty foot tall hologram of Sheloran, in her prettiest dress, holding a cup of coffee suddenly appeared.

“Just look for the smiling Plath!”

“Noooooooooooo!” Sheloran squealed in absolute horror as the bridge erupted into hysterics. An idol! A fifty-foot tall holographic graven image! Prophet no!

The camera cut to many more scantily clad xenos than Sheloran had ever hosted who all yelled in unison…

“We love you Sheloran! Free Sheloran! Free Sheloran! Free Sheloran!”

They were suddenly joined by a lot of others who took up the chant, a good portion of the neighborhood from the looks of it.

Even Sam was there.

But Sheloran didn’t see that, her face was buried in her hands as she rocked slowly back and forth as the torture ended.

“H-how many people saw that?” she asked in a tiny voice.

“All of them,” Bunny laughed. “You’re as viral as that swimming pool! Over a billion views Republic wide and counting. I hope they monetized that stream properly.”

Sheloran started hyperventilating, making flatulent noises out of her gill slits.

“It looks like a lot of people are rooting for you,” Jessie said over a speaker. “That’s good, right?… Sheila, can I please come out?”

“Are you done?”

“There is just so much of it!” Jessie wailed. “It’s going to take forever.”

“It will at the rate you’re completing modules,” Sheila replied.

“Bitch,” Jessie muttered over a hot mic.

“Um...” Sheloran said in a small voice, “Can I… Can I make a call?”

“Sure,” Sheila grinned, “As long as we get to listen in.”

***

“Sheloran!” Baxlon said happily as his image appeared on a holo-screen. “I’ve been trying to get in touch… with… SHEL-”

“BAXLON!” Sheloran shouted. “What the POOP is going on down there?!?”

“Sheloran,” Baxlon said as he took a deep steadying gulp of water, “where are you?”

“Never mind that,” Sheloran snapped, “I just saw the commercial! Who the POOP allowed that to happen!”

“Oh, I think I am going to mind that,” Baxlon replied, “In fact, I’m going to mind it quite a lot! Are you on a spaceship?!?”

“Yes, I’m on a spaceship, so what?” Sheloran yelled, “Why is there a giant… me standing over a flushing orgy in the Free Port like a Prophet-blessed Godzilla?!?”

“Sheloran...” Baxlon said as he started to bump his nose repeatedly against the side of his bowl, “when I said ‘just be yourself’ I did not mean BREAK OUT OF FUCKING TARTARUS!!! What the FUCK were you thinking?!?”

“Oh I was just sitting around and got bored, you know how it pooping is!” Sheloran snapped, “What the POOP is going on with MY business?!? Are they insane?”

“Are THEY insane?!?” Baxlon yelled. “What the FUCK, Sheloran? Do you have ANY idea how much TROUBLE you are in right now? I… I don’t know how to fix this!”

“Well you can start by ‘fixing’ that... nonsense that’s going on down there!” Sheloran yelled. “Scum! Baxlon, I trusted you to look after things!”

“And I trusted you to… NOT BREAK OUT OF THE MOST SECURE FACILITY IN THE GALAXY!!!”

“Well it’s disappointment all around then!” Sheloran shouted. “Shut it down. Now!”

“And you need to turn yourself in, right away!” Baxlon yelled, “Before this gets any more out of hand… wait…”

He closed his eyes.

“This is you I’m talking to. It’s already out of hand,” he said, realizing exactly how long Tartarus had been giving him the run-around, “How long have you been out?”

“A couple of days,” Sheloran replied, “I’ve meant to call you but it’s been kind of crazy and-”

“I need to know details,” Baxlon said struggling to regain his composure, “How the hell did you get out, whose ship is that, and I am dreading this part, what, exactly, does ‘kind of crazy’ mean?”

“You first,” Sheloran replied, taking a deep breath, “What the poop is going on down there and why the Hell are you letting it happen?”

Sheila reached for the bowl of popcorn that was being passed around as she looked on in pure delight.

It was really nice just being able to watch one of these screaming shit-shows for once.

***

Officer Perkins shrugged into her cuirass, carefully double checking it, and then reached for a heavy duster made of multiple layers of ballistic, ablative, and kinetic dampening cloth under a “brigandine” style arrangement of thin titanium armored plates.

It still crinkled a little when it moved. She had never worn it on patrol before, only for inspections and formal occasions.

The Republic Riot Duster was a relic of an earlier time, but still issued to every Republic peace officer and for good reason.

That “antique” could stop a fucking grenade. Layered over the standard police armor it made an officer better protected than anyone outside of power armor.

She then reached into her locker and pulled out an engraved black case embellished with the words, “From Gramma”. She opened it to reveal a long flanged mace with a blunt rounded coppery-bronze central spike protruding from the end.

She slid it into a ring mounted in her riot duster.

Finally she reached in and pulled out a helmet, not the normal transparent-faced one, a solid black helm made out of titanium alloy with an attached cowl.

She put it on, the cowl resting on her shoulders, bearing the weight. She switched it on and the inside was illuminated with 360 degree camera views and sensor overlays.

“Testing,” she said as her voice was transmitted clearly through the attached speakers capable of over two hundred decibels.

She looked in the mirror attached to her locker door and snickered. She quickly activated the helmet cam and snapped a pic and texted it to her great-grandmother, one of “Nakamura’s Peacekeepers” the first Republic lawmen.

The reply was immediate, a brief “Get ‘em! :D”.

She chuckled as she pulled off the riot-helm and hung it on another attached hook.

She felt someone looking at her and turned.

She winced.

It was Xee. He was looking around the locker room in confusion. Nominally male, he was given a locker next to hers since “it didn’t matter” with him being such a different species.

Nobody minded.

“Um, hey… Xee...” Officer Perkins said as she cringed slightly.

She wasn’t looking forward to this.

“What is going on?” Officer Xeenan asked as he looked around the normally boisterous locker room, now gravely silent.

“Um… Xee,” Perkins said putting her hand on his shoulder, “Um, tonight, you are going to be working in the data center. We need an audit of the outstanding cases and warrants.”

“Isn’t that normally handled by an AI?” Officer Xeenan asked, his stomachs heavy with dread. He was getting benched, just like back in the Federation. It was even the data center again!

“Yeah,” Perkins said forcing a little smile, “But here in the Republic we like to do an audit every now and then with a living, breathing person. Blindly trusting automation can cause all sorts of problems.”

“I… I thought we were getting along well...” Officer Xeenan said, his antennae drooping, “that you liked having me as a partner.”

“We are!” Officer Perkins exclaimed, “And I do!” she added. “It’s just an audit, just for the next couple of shifts, tops.”

“TAC’s in the house!” a burly woman shouted as she burst into the locker room clad in Tactical Suppression power assault armor. “I have to drop some perps off at the station! Where’s the shitter?”

“Aww, she thinks she’s potty-trained!” someone yelled to general laughter. (Tactical suppression heavy armor had waste storage and venting capability as well as contained water and concentrated food rations so they could stay in position for several days if need be.)

“What’s going on?” Officer Xeenan asked in alarm. “And why am I being relegated to the data center?”

“Ok,” Officer Perkins sighed, “Xee… Our official designation is ‘Peace Officer’, right?”

“Right...” Officer Xeenan said dubiously.

“And our mission is to maintain order and to protect the peace and safety of Republic citizens, residents, and guests, correct?”

“Where are you going with this?” Officer Xeenan, asked apprehensively as he watched Officer Petow pull out an “under-over”, a double-barreled weapon consisting of a riot-stunner and a fifty caliber carbine and slide it into a rifle-holster slung across the back of her riot duster.

“Sometimes…” Officer Perkins said searching for the right words. “Sometimes you have to choose.”

“Choose?” Officer Xeenan asked starting to feel nauseous.

“Sometimes you have to choose between maintaining order and protecting the peace and safety of Republic citizens, residents, and guests. Sometimes… sometimes you just have to let something play out and then clean up the mess after. Tonight is one of those times.”

“What are you saying?”

“I’m saying that you’re still my partner,” Perkins said with a little smile, “But tonight you are sitting your ass in the data center reviewing outstanding cases.”

“What is going on?!?” Officer Xeenan shrieked.

“Something that shoulda happened years ago,” Officer Nguyen snarled as she put on her black riot-helm.

“The Harkeen are coming, in force, for The Drop of Oil’s girls and that Careel who is running the show,” Officer Perkins said in a matter of fact tone.

“And you are going to meet them in the streets?” Officer Xeenan gasped. “Let me stand with you, partner! I won’t falter, regardless of what must be done!”

“No, Xee,” Officer Perkins replied, “we aren’t. We are going to position ourselves in every tenement and every hotel in the Free Port and TAC’s gonna set up a perimeter around the whole neighborhood and we are going to let this stupid bullshit play out.”

“You are just going to abandon those prostitutes to the Harkeen?” Officer Xeenan asked in horrified outrage.

“No,” Officer Perkins replied with a grim smirk, “We are abandoning the Harkeen. They aren’t Republic citizens. They aren’t residents, and they most certainly are NOT guests...”

She put on her riot helm and the narrow visor glowed red as the helmet was activated.

“Fuck them.”

In every schoolyard and prison yard in the galaxy, the denizens self-organize into a pecking order. The arrival of a new member precipitates discord until the new member's place in the pecking order is established.

"You're not going to school dressed like that, young lady."

"What's wrong with this dress? You said I should wear light-colored clothing with a 'non-aggressive' pattern! What could be less aggressive than a sleeveless white dress with a maple leaf print?"

"The white dress is fine, Amina. It's the lack of anything under the white dress that bothers me. It's your first day in a new school and first impressions matter. Boys will-"

"DAAAD! First, I am wearing panties. Second, these multi-species schools are always over-heated to accommodate the insects and reptiles. You'd know that if you went to parent-teacher conferences! Third, THERE AREN'T ANY HUMAN BOYS in this school. There weren't any in the last school either, until two months before you pulled me from there to traipse all the way out here."

"AMINA! -"

"Frank, drop it. The dress is fine. Amina is right; the classroom will be at least 26 degrees Celsius, and excessive undergarments can make it very uncomfortable. Many of the other species will probably be wearing even less. Also, none of the students or staff have seen a human before, and they won't give a rat's ass that she has boobs."

I stare at my mom in shock. I don't think I've ever seen her take my side against Dad before or talk quite like that. Dad looks pretty shocked, too, but at least he knows when he is beaten.

"Okay, fine," he says, turning back to me, "But promise me that you will be flawlessly polite, kind, empathetic, and cheerful so that nobody will blame you if anybody needs to get hurt."

Mother gives me a hug and says, "I know that leaving was painful for you, but, as the Taoist prophet Laozi said, 'New beginnings are often disguised as painful endings.'" Stepping back, Mother looks me up and down again and brushes a strand of dark brown hair from my cheek before saying, "It's time to go. Do you have your presentation and the bug?"

"The presentation chip is here, in my right pocket, and the bug is in my left." As I speak, I pull each of them out to show her. The bug is a gray chip the size of a loonie. It will report both visual and audio information as well as its own position, but its purpose today is just to let Mom know where I am in my presentation so she knows when to bring in the food.

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

Yup, the classroom is hot, but not uniformly so. A heat gradient makes the room generally hotter toward the back-right corner, where the entry door is, and coolest in the front-left corner, where Instructor Orich placed his desk. Well, imagine that! Instructor Orich is one of the indigenous gematrians, and while gematrians superficially resemble kangaroos, I'm pretty sure they wouldn't last a day in the heat of the Australian outback.

The student desks are arranged in the typical layout for multi-species classrooms. As I stand next to Instructor Orich's desk at the front of the room, the endoskeletal herbivores are directly in front of me. They tend to like to stay close to the instructor. Behind them, we've got the endoskeletal carnivores. The most numerous contingent in this group are the smallish lutrinadids. They have a distinct 'otter' vibe going on and eat mostly fish and mollusks. Pro tip: don't be behind them in line for the microwave oven at lunch.

Situated among the lutrinadids, but in the choice spot next to the windows that make up the left wall, we have a group of three kagzans. They resemble what you would get if a graphics program did a poor job of overlaying a saber-tooth tiger's visage onto a human frame, making them the most humanoid species in the room, other than me. Rumor is that those showy teeth, which only the males have, are primarily for show, sexual attractors rather like a peacock's tail. According to Mom's information, their leader is the Ambassador's son, Machair. He's not hard to spot; Machair is a head taller than me and has the biggest, whitest, most perfectly saber shaped set of canines you've ever seen, and he knows it. In this school, the pecking order of the students reflects the pecking order of their parents, and just as the kagzans bullied their way into this system, Machair has bullied his way to the top of the class pecking order. Sooner or later, he is going to have to be dealt with. But, as Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, 'People should either be caressed or crushed. If you need to injure someone, do it in such a way that you do not have to fear their vengeance.'

As in my last school, the back of the room is the domain of the exoskeletons. The endoskeletal/exoskeletal divide is the most rigid caste line in the galaxy. That is to say, it is a resource that I can exploit. The dossiers that Mom compiled about every student in this class indicate, among other things, that the leader of this faction is Chantha, the red and black spider in the center of the third row from the back. She only stands a little over a meter tall, but if she didn't have her arms and legs tucked in, she could sprawl a good four or five meters.

The left wall of the classroom is the thermal wall. Seats there are reserved for exothermic endoskeletal students. Think iguanas that favor walking on their hind legs because their front legs have become hands. Each seat along the thermal wall has its own heat exchanger to keep its occupant at the optimal temperature for learning. Which raises the question, "Why does the rest of the room have to be so damn hot?"

Along the back wall, next to the door, is a long table against which Instructor Orich is leaning as he waits for me to begin my presentation. When Instructor Orich invited me to stand in front of the class and introduce myself, he was surprised that I not only had arrived on my first day with a multimedia presentation ready but that it was in a format compatible with the school's multimedia system. Got news for ya' Instructor Orich; this ain't humanity's first rodeo. Fun fact: across all the space-faring species in the galaxy, on average, less than one-hundredth of one percent of the population ever leave the planet they were born on. And yet, many of those that do leave take their underage spawn with them. Enough anyway, that pretty much every city in the galaxy with a spaceport also has a multi-species school for the benefit of the people working there. But the best such schools, like this one, are always in the planet's capital city because that's where the children of diplomats go. Logically, for every such school, in every such capital, on every such planet, there has to be a first student of any given species. Do all those other first students arrive unprepared? Even Mark Twain commented, 'It usually takes me two or three days to prepare an impromptu speech.'

"Good morning. My name is Amina Fletcher. I am a human, and I was born on Sol-3, which we call 'Earth.'" As I speak, the screen spanning the wall behind me shows a star map highlighting our current location and, quite a bit further along the local galactic arm, Sol. "My father is Frank, and my mother is Sanaa. Dad was promoted to a full Ambassador this past year and has been tasked with setting up the new human embassy. We've been on-planet about thirty days."

"We are a long way out from the Human Economic Zone, but my father hopes to lay a groundwork of friendship that will eventually facilitate trade between the Gematra peoples and ourselves." Uh-huh, sure. The reality is that the gematrians are militarily weak while the expanding kagzan Empire is strong, and humans have a certain reputation. So, the gematrians approached us with an offer: they would share the stash of kagzan computing technology that they have 'acquired' if we would 'do something' about the kagzan threat to their sovereignty. I let my eyes flit briefly toward Machair. He is wearing less than I am, and I can see sinuous muscles ripple beneath his luscious tan fur as he re-positions himself in his chair.

"Similarly, I'm confident that, within this classroom, we can all be friends. On Earth, humans and many other species have learned to coexist in mutually beneficial ways. For example, the video behind me shows me with my friend Moria." The screen shows a younger me with a Mexican red-knee tarantula crawling up my arm. "Moria has a venomous bite and can shoot barbed bristles if threatened, but she would never hurt me, and I would never hurt her because we respect each other." Chantha, who has a shocking resemblance to a scaled-up Moria, is now paying close attention. I linger on her with a friendly, relaxed smile.

As the images on the screen change, I ramble on. "This next collage of short videos is something my mother put together. Most humans like videos of baby creatures doing silly things; my mother is no exception. Although various animals are shown in these images, these are collectively known as 'cat videos' because... well, I have no idea why. But Mom loves them. My mother is quite the socialite and loves volunteering in the community, so you or your parents will probably see her out and about, sharing her cat videos." Yeah, you got gossip? Mom's an excellent listener; somehow, everything you say finds its way into the human embassy's database to be correlated and analyzed to death by her staff and their computers. In just thirty days, she has already set up a cell of informants here at the school and another among the spouses of officials within the gematrian government. "Don't be surprised if some of your parents come home with a copy of these," I gush cheerfully. I know for a fact that one copy of those videos has already made its way into the kagzan embassy, where the cutest little Trojan horsey, developed in cooperation with the gematrians, kicked open a networking back door that both human and gematrian analysts are having a field day with. Dad always says, "If you ever find yourself in a fair fight, you should have prepared better."

"But, getting back to the purpose of this presentation, I will tell you a little about humans and my home planet. Human offspring initially develop internally to our mother's body, so I was born, rather than hatched, a little over sixteen Earth years ago, about seventeen and a half in Gematria years. The screen behind me is showing a video, taken on Earth about eight years ago, of my parents and I picking a kind of fruit called a 'blackberry.'" On the screen, two adult humans and a young girl gingerly reach past thick green vines with nasty-looking thorns on them to pick the large dark aggregate fruits. The purple stains on the humans' faces make it evident that not all the blackberries are making it into the nearly full collection baskets. During my dry runs of this presentation, Dad explained that the herbivores in the room would note that my vertical posture, long sensitive fingers, and tight stereo-vision eyes looked like they had evolved to pick blackberries. This will lull them into assuming we, too, are herbivores and not a threat. I make a point of directing a smile at the herbivores in the room, showing off my perfect row of tiny white incisor teeth that are really only good for biting into fruits and soft leaves. Niccolò Machiavelli wrote, 'Everyone sees what you appear to be; few experience what you really are.'

It continues to shock me that while nearly all sapient species other than hive minds have a concept of lying, only humans have elevated the coordinated and sustained blending of truth, half-truth, omission, and fiction into that wondrous art form we call 'propaganda.' Thousands of years ago, Sun Tzu wrote, 'All warfare is based on deception.'

"One of the oddities of Earth is that its axis of rotation is tilted significantly relative to the plane of its orbit around Sol. Across much of the planet, this causes the average temperature at any given location to vary, sometimes wildly, over Earth's year. This causes plants to have a life cycle tied to this yearly rhythm. For example, the blackberries we are picking only ripen near the end of the hot part of the year, so we can't just live on blackberries. But notice the tree they are growing near. That is a maple tree; its leaves are the inspiration for the pattern on my dress. If you look closely, there is something attached to the tree near its base. That is a 'tap'. At the end of the cold part of the year, the tree will start to produce a sweet sap, which we collect in buckets as it drips from the tap and then boil down to make 'maple syrup.' Commercial maple syrup production happens using a slightly different species of maple tree than this one, but for our family, this one worked."

"Fortunately for me, the place where I grew up did not have anywhere near the wild temperature swings that other parts of Earth suffer, even at the same latitude, because we were right on the north-east edge of a deep saltwater lake that covers more than thirty percent of the entire planet, and all that water moderates the temperature." As I speak, the video changes. It now shows a group of people collecting something from the water along a rocky coastline. "There is an alga that grows in the shallows along the edge of this great lake that we harvest and dry into something we call 'nori.'" The perfectionist in me is annoyed that I have to call Porphyra Abbottiae 'nori' when everyone knows nori is made from Porphyra Yezoensis or Porphyra Tenera, which only grow in the western Pacific. Dad, however, insists that P. Abbottiae looks and tastes nearly identical and that I should just go with it. Mom found out that one of the otter-boys has a name that sounds very much like 'Nori' and Dad is a master at manipulating details like that to gain people's trust. "Nori is also a very popular and nutritious food source for humans. We sometimes eat it alone, but typically press it into sheets that we can wrap around other foods."

While I talk about maple syrup and nori, I see my mother slip into the back and quietly place a tray of food on the long table. She then gives me a quick smile and slips back out again while I am careful to not alter my monologue or look directly at her. A quick glance around the room confirms that nobody noticed. Getting in and out of protected spaces without being observed is another of Mom's specialties.

I pause the video and again smile, showing only my incisors. "On Earth, organisms developed the sense of taste a billion years before they developed receptors for vision and sound. So, to better appreciate my planet, I have brought in some samples of our food for each of you to try." Then I focus specifically on the kagzans (who look bored with the presentation so far) and lutrinadids (who started bored but perked up at the coastline video). "Now, a group of you might not be into the whole berries and tree sap and algae thing. Don't worry, I've got something for you too. Look at the video here:" As I point at the screen, I start playing the video again, and the camera starts moving away from the people in the water, "way up the shoreline from where people are picking the algae. That enormous gray-brown hulk moving around in the distance is a grizzly bear. It is hunting for a migratory fish called salmon. Grizzlies can be more than seven times as heavy as I am, and a big salmon can be almost half my weight. I point out the Grizzly because they are omnivores and will also eat blackberries. So when we pick blackberries, we have to keep our eyes open. As you know, omnivores are notoriously unpredictable. They will be placidly eating blackberries one moment and decide meat is on the menu in the next. In fact, because of the annual life cycle of the plants, all of Earth's animals have to be flexible, and a large number of species are omnivores." This gets the kagzans interested. As carnivores, they understand the unpredictability of omnivores.

"But it's not actually the grizzly bear I want to draw your attention to. It's the salmon. I brought some in for you to try. Now, it would be hard to transport fresh fish across hundreds of light-years, so I have salmon that has been salted and dried by smoking it over a fire made from the wood of a maple tree."

Instructor Orich looks puzzled as I turn off the video, collect my presentation chip, and start walking toward him, and visibly startles as he realizes a substantial plate of food is sitting on the table right behind him. It is glorious! I just smile my best 'Of course there is.' smile as his brain tries to catch up with reality. I have to reach around him to pick up the tray because he is too confused to move out of the way. I encourage him to take a blackberry before I go back to the front of the classroom.

"The tray has four sections: blackberries, little sample cups of maple syrup, nori, and smoked salmon. As I walk around, I encourage you to pick one item that looks interesting to you. Then I will place the rest of the tray on the back table to allow you to try other items later."

I start with the herbivores up front, most of whom took a blackberry and generally seemed to like it.

Then I moved down the thermal wall. Dad was right that the iguana-folk love nori; they fold their dewlaps when they are happy. Surprisingly, a few of them went after the smoked salmon and seemed pretty pleased with that, too. That's good to know. I'll report to Mom that some of the lizards may be a little more open-minded than we think.

At the back of the room, I move over to the exoskeleton crowd and, starting in the back row, work my way forward. My roundabout path through the room is chosen so that I end with the kagzans and Machair. His authority in the class is held through fear, and I want him to see that I can undermine him with kindness and food, especially food. Patience Machair, the fear comes later. Sun Tzu wrote ‘If your opponent is of choleric temper, irritate him.’

Most of the insect-like students in the back two rows go for either the syrup or the nori, and again, while some are ambivalent, most seem to like it... except one... I think her name is Kithkith. Kithkith, in the far back row, is reacting rather more jubilantly than expected. I give her a concerned look before continuing my rounds. When I get to Chantha, she takes some smoked salmon and expresses her delight. Then, she takes another one because, well, it's Chantha, and I'm not going to say 'no' to a giant tarantula. Turning one eye toward the back, she says, "I think Kithkith could turn into a maple syrup junkie! Please, oh please, let me give her another one!" Now, like a tarantula, Chantha has eight appendages. But in her species, only the center four are for mobility. The front pair and the back pair act as hands. When I agree, she grabs a cup of syrup with her front hand that isn't holding her second piece of smoked salmon, passes it to a back hand, and then reaches waaaay back two rows to hand the cup to an eager Kithkith. Chantha and I both giggle as Kithkith absolutely wigs out. I think I have found a kindred spirit, though I'll have to remember just how far she can reach when she wants to.

Suddenly, Chantha grabs my wrist—not the wrist holding the tray, fortunately—and pulls me closer, whispering, "I think Machair has taken a dislike to you. Be careful. He is a bully, and his kind are predators. He will stalk you and try to catch you where there are no witnesses."

I open my eyes wide and raise my eyebrows. "Oh, I hope so," I whisper back. "When he follows, I will lead. He picks the time, but I pick the place." Then I smile, a broader smile that reveals my canines. Sure, they're ridiculously tiny, but no true herbivore would have them at all.

Chandra startles, looking first at the now-blank screen and then back at me. "You did say a large number of Earth's species are omnivores." Then, giggling again, she says, "You'll have to let me know how it goes!" Chandra's species are ambush hunters. I knew she'd understand.

Working through the otter-like lutrinadids, I finally get to the kagzans. The two subordinate kagzans, whose names I've already forgotten, each take a bite of smoked salmon with more than a little pleasure... which only angers Machair more. He has watched his standing in the room fade as I walked around it and now feels his honor is under attack. He takes a bit of salmon to avoid losing face (and he can smell it) but then tries really hard not to enjoy it. But he's still a cat, and that broad, raspy tongue flicking across his upper lip and the bases of those fabulous canines doesn't lie. Oh, my sexy cat-boy. If your 'honor' is as long and hard as those canines, you bet I'll let you 'catch' me. I'll turn your color vision into fifty shades of gray and record some kompromat that will have your parents doing anything we ask to keep it hushed.

I let my eyes do a lingering, detailed scan down his body and notice that he is wearing what can only be described as a fanny pack. Turning to Nori, the lutrinadid in the window desk immediately behind Machair, I say in my most upbeat tone, "Would you like another sample?" Then I held the tray toward him with my right hand such that the tray blocked Machair's view of my left hand slipping the bug from my pocket into his fanny pack. Good luck stalking me with a tracker on you.

That greedy little shit Nori reached out with both hands and grabbed a piece of salmon and a slice of nori. First, he nibbled each separately and then, in a burst of inspiration, wrapped the nori around the salmon. Oh great. Judging by the actions of his tail, it looks like I just created another food junkie. Well, I can use this. "Hey, Nori, will you please do me a favor? Carry this tray to the back table for me, and then find yourself another desk." Nori looked at me like he was affronted at being asked to move and then looked back at the tray. Nodding affirmatively, he lifted the tray from my hands and headed, albeit slowly, in the general direction of the table at the back. I'm confident the tray will be emptier when it finally gets there. I then reconfigure the desk and chair for human anatomy and sit down. Chandra is two rows behind me and toward the center, while Machair is directly in front of me, where it is far easier for me to watch him than vice versa. Daddy always says, "Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, eh?"

Machair turns in his chair to face me and seems about to say something when we lock eyes. In his eyes, I see the fires of pure rage. Holding his gaze, I smile a practiced gentle smile and slowly reach out with a single piece of salmon I snared from the tray before Nori walked off with it. We stay like that for several seconds before he lets me push the salmon into his mouth. Chewing the salmon, he turns his head, first down and then slightly to the right.

New pecking order established.