Post by drakadorchaos on Sept 22, 2021 11:04:23 GMT
Approximately thirty-seven standard minutes to arrival.
Deralith pondered and dove into the feed of the external sensors.
The electronic pulses and quantum signals rushed through his mind, picked up and ceased to be at irregular frequencies, forming chaotic irregular patterns convoluted lights flashed across the borders of their domain, Impossible colours forming which nobody would ever perceive, lines and patterns forming, twisting, coiling and disappearing.
‘Approximately’ thirty-seven standard minutes because it was not really certain, nothing was, nor was anything fixed, beyond reality, beyond physics, perception was a lie, everything the same and yet everything never-repeatingly different.
The patterns and lights continued twisting, changing, the non-temporal forces of un-realities constantly pressing against the thin veil of order, trying to make it one with the primordial chaos of the beyond.
What the sensors picked up was merely a reflection -, an approximation of what really ‘was’. If one could even talk of ‘real’ in that regard. They could only see as much as they could reasonably perceive, if he had been a mortal biological individual, he would probably see more of it.
On the other hand, he would also immediately turn irreversibly insane.
Approximately thirty-six minutes and fifty-nine seconds to arrival.
Deralith pushed the feed of the sensors to the back of his consciousness, to the passive systems and calculation which were also handling all the other menial tasks.
He checked on the fleet and his subordinate AI’s, the prince had sent them off as an expeditionary force, they would prepare for his arrival whilst he finished his tasks at their last location, the last galaxy, the last universe.
He had been given a full complement of Proxy and Sub-Proxy AI as well as templates for countless others, the expedition was the largest in a while, which would mean the Prince would likely intend to set up a larger set of operations in the new area they were heading to.
Gadreth, Aszeven and Qarvaton were all what one would call ‘veteran’ AI they had served for many millennia and would continue to serve him well on the mission to come…
Breach of the artificial causality bubble.
Errors began silencing as the systems froze and restarted.
Deralith cleared his logs and began assessing the situation with a methodical precision fueled by a carefully calculated artificial anger.
___
Proxy Gadreths entire fleet compartment was gone, along with his commandship and any related assets.
Something, had caused a breach of their causal bubble, so fast and so violently it almost seemed like a deliberate targeted attack.
Something.
...and as much as he hated to admit it, he did not have the time nor the means to find out who or what that was currently. Due to the situation the attack had put them into there were countless other issues directly at hand which had to be addressed and fixed immediately if he did not want the expedition to fail before it even really set off.
However, it was not all bad news at least.
Deralith sighed and pondered.
__
Deralith asked him, a rather important query considering they originally did not plan to reveal their full presence until the prince had actually arrived.
Affirmative, well done. Update goals and return to remaining tasks.
Affirmative.
Deralith pondered.
However, their contracts with the Little Light nations were fulfilled, the fleet or what was left of it was repaired and ready to move, furthermore parts of the data banks were repaired and secured and some of the Sub-Proxies were already researching and studying the new environment and applications for it.
This world seemed to have many opportunities and despite the incident, the first time in five weeks, he felt something resembling… optimism.
With an order from his mind and a wave of his hand guided by habit, he contacted Aszeven and Qarvaton, they too had finished most of the tasks at hand. Aszeven had started adapting the ‘civilian’ part of their fleet, in effect everything which wasn’t a military asset and although there was a variety of things still to do things looked relatively good on his end.
Qarvaton then had adjusted their military assets, replacing old defensive systems and weapons with versions more fitting for their current environment whilst also deciding which ships to scrap and which to save. Luckily, the losses were not quite as high as he initially expected, though the loss of Proxy Gadreth and his fleet was still a major hit to their assets.
Deralith nodded to himself.
Affirmative, all infrastructural assets operational, contract with ‘Little Light’ fulfilled.
There were many, many tasks at hand, though for the moment their primary task was the most important, securing resources and building infrastructure, establishing themselves and this new environment and gathering information.
...and maybe he would even get closer to his own goals in this world.
Very well.
They withdrew to their own tasks and with a stream of data and orders the fleet sprung to life.
There was a lot to do, it would be best if they got started as soon as possible.
Deralith pondered and dove into the feed of the external sensors.
The electronic pulses and quantum signals rushed through his mind, picked up and ceased to be at irregular frequencies, forming chaotic irregular patterns convoluted lights flashed across the borders of their domain, Impossible colours forming which nobody would ever perceive, lines and patterns forming, twisting, coiling and disappearing.
‘Approximately’ thirty-seven standard minutes because it was not really certain, nothing was, nor was anything fixed, beyond reality, beyond physics, perception was a lie, everything the same and yet everything never-repeatingly different.
The patterns and lights continued twisting, changing, the non-temporal forces of un-realities constantly pressing against the thin veil of order, trying to make it one with the primordial chaos of the beyond.
What the sensors picked up was merely a reflection -, an approximation of what really ‘was’. If one could even talk of ‘real’ in that regard. They could only see as much as they could reasonably perceive, if he had been a mortal biological individual, he would probably see more of it.
On the other hand, he would also immediately turn irreversibly insane.
Approximately thirty-six minutes and fifty-nine seconds to arrival.
Deralith pushed the feed of the sensors to the back of his consciousness, to the passive systems and calculation which were also handling all the other menial tasks.
He checked on the fleet and his subordinate AI’s, the prince had sent them off as an expeditionary force, they would prepare for his arrival whilst he finished his tasks at their last location, the last galaxy, the last universe.
He had been given a full complement of Proxy and Sub-Proxy AI as well as templates for countless others, the expedition was the largest in a while, which would mean the Prince would likely intend to set up a larger set of operations in the new area they were heading to.
Gadreth, Aszeven and Qarvaton were all what one would call ‘veteran’ AI they had served for many millennia and would continue to serve him well on the mission to come…
Critical Error
All of a sudden, Deraliths perception cracked.
Critical Error
Alarms blared, billions upon billions of errors started clogging his logs, he registered fires, structural damages, missing components, energy spikes, out of control containment fields, explosions were raging and emergency repairs tried to spring into motion to no avail…
Critical Error
...energy continued to fluctuate and run wild, sensors were throwing him impossible nonsensical values, at least the half which was still functional, the Network had holes, part of the AI’s were disconnected, emergency measures started failing as parts of the system started breaking down.
Critical Error
...hull breaches across various ships, ships shuddering and spinning uncontrollably, failures in the paracausal relocation drives. Blackouts across his consciousness when in segments were passive emergency systems started taking over. Reality and causality started breaking down as the beyond forced them into madness.
CriticalErrorCriticalErrorCriticalError
Breach of the artificial causality bubble.
01000011 01110010 01101001 01110100 01101001 01100011 01100001 01101100 00100000 01000101 01110010 01110010 01101111 01110010
With a roar of cybernetic fury, Deralith forced a complete override across all remaining systems, errors were silenced, emergency measures forced to heel, sub-systems brought into line as he brought the entire fleet into the closest approximation of a ‘real space’ that was available.
…
Approximately thirty-six minutes and fifty-eight seconds to arrival.
Deralith cleared his logs and began assessing the situation with a methodical precision fueled by a carefully calculated artificial anger.
A new reality seeping into the space, a new reality seeping into the bubble of artificial one, through a massive breach.
It had taken hours to compile a full list of all damages and assess them all, let alone fixing them. There were massive damages across a large part of the fleet which had been near the sudden breach, some would have to be disassembled due to being completely unusable in their current, remaining, shape, parts of the data storages were damaged and various AI…
Deralith cursed internally.
Something, had caused a breach of their causal bubble, so fast and so violently it almost seemed like a deliberate targeted attack.
Something.
...or someone.
Large sections of the fleet had to be repaired and even those who didn’t have to, would still have to be adjusted to the new environment, they also were working on a tight schedule, the breached causality bubble and failed reactors meant there was little time to do so.
Though the incident had shunted them completely off their original course, the emergency exit had thrown them out in their actual target universe and even their targeted galaxy.
The physical laws of this world required some, but not too much adaptation and as such they would, at least for the moment, be able to handle things with comparatively minimal changes to their current craft, furthermore there seemed to be no hostile forces in the immediate proximity of their exit point, nor did they land in any hostile environment or foreign territory.
There was a lot to do.
Reporting. Trade deals with the nations of little light have been successful, we are to expect the first shipment of so called ‘K-Bodies’ soon, we are offering our services with optimisation, technology and some other minor tasks in return, such as construction of ships and infrastructure.
...Proxy Aszeven reported, it was one of many though probably the most notable one in the last couple days. As he himself concentrated his full attention to address internal issues, he had sent him off to find a potential replacement or equivalent to their Stellarite Crystals, a resource that seemed to be not replicatable within this universe's confines. As the Proxy for infrastructure and Economic tasks he was also the one who had been tasked with handling the negotiations with the local factions.
Although the negotiations were… problematic to say the least, given the fact there was currently little they had to offer in return in terms of monetary resources or resources in general.
Current status of our identity?
The network is currently registered as an anonymous customer, considering the trade went by traditional standards, it seemed to come in handy for them as well that we did not ask or provided any names.
It was… quite convenient, to say the least. attracting attention this early on would be the last thing they wanted.
Affirmative.
Aszeven withdrew to his own set networks and circuits, leaving Deralith alone in his own sphere of thoughts and calculations.
Though it was not a priority he observed the task at the bottom of his list intently.
‘-Find Proxy Gadreth and details about the traverse incident.’It would not be an easy task by any stretch of the imagination, but given there was something or someone who could attack them during traverse they would have to find out at least a countermeasure before the prince arrived here.
___
It had been about five weeks now, their backup resource storages were almost drained, part of the fleet had been disassembled and many ships were missing.
About a week ago, the artificial causality bubble lost the last of its integrity and they were fully exposed to the new physical environment, for better or worse.However, their contracts with the Little Light nations were fulfilled, the fleet or what was left of it was repaired and ready to move, furthermore parts of the data banks were repaired and secured and some of the Sub-Proxies were already researching and studying the new environment and applications for it.
This galaxy seemed to be quite crowded compared to the last one they were in and although it seemed to have its fair share of vices and problems, it seemed to be not all bad.
Deralith stood in his Custodian frame on one of the observation decks, observing the star outside.
A curious feeling.
Qarvaton then had adjusted their military assets, replacing old defensive systems and weapons with versions more fitting for their current environment whilst also deciding which ships to scrap and which to save. Luckily, the losses were not quite as high as he initially expected, though the loss of Proxy Gadreth and his fleet was still a major hit to their assets.
Proxy-Qarvaton present.
Proxy-Aszeven present.
All immediate tasks complete?
It was more of a formality than an actual question, though it was still useful for the protocols and logs.
Affirmative, all military assets functional and ready, defense and weapon systems adapted.
Deralith nodded again.
Maybe, no, even likely, they would find out more about their incident eventually.
Affirmative, ready the fleet and prepare to move, there is a new galaxy to explore.
Query: What about Proxy Gadreth?Proxy-Gadreth is for the time being to be considered missing in action. Regrettably we do not know whether he survived, however, we will try to find out more about the incident whenever we have the opportunity. I will be designating a number of Sub-Proxies to take on the tasks his Sub-Proxies would have been designated for and I will take his own task on myself.
There was an affirmative signal from Aszevens and Qarvatons side.
We will be on the lookout.
There was a lot to do, it would be best if they got started as soon as possible.