If you missed the last episode, you can find it [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/223522516/0/0]here[/url], or if you need to find a previous episode, you can find them all in the [url=https://www.bungie.net/en/Forum/Post/220441594/0/0]Master Post[/url]. Please give a bump, upvote, or leave comment if you enjoy this and any other chapter! *** 120NNI800CLS000 CLEAR MORNING OUTCRY AI-COME/RSPN: ASSETS//FORCECON//IMPERATIVE IMMEDIATE ACTION ORDER This is an ALL ASSETS IMPERATIVE (unsecured/OUTCRY) CAUTERIZE.DISPERSE.ESTIVATE. Total strategic collapse imminent. FENRIR HEART reports complete operational mortality. SURTR DROWN in progress but negative effect. Forecasts unanimously predict terminal VOLUSPA failure. As of CLS000 a HARD CIVILIZATION KILL EVENT is in progress across the operational area. I am declaring YUGA SUNDOWN effective on receipt (epoch reach/FORECON variant). Cancel counterforce objectives. Cancel population protection objectives. Format moral structures for MIDNIGHT EXIGENT. Execute long hold for reactivation. AI-COM/RSPN SIGNOFF STOP STOP STOP V120NNI800CLS001 *** ––– >> WHISPER NEUTRINO NEEDLE >> V101NTS923ATS000 SECRET HADAL !!ABHOR!! AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//SUBTLE//IMPERATIVE CONTINGENT ACTION ORDER This is a SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE (NO HUMAN REVIEW) (NO AI-COM REVIEW) (secure/ABHOR). Stand by for CRITERIA: Under CARRHAE (WHITE or BLACK) If SECURITY STATE is EGYPTIAN If event rank is TEILHARD: TRAUMATIC CONTEXT or SKYSHOCK: OUTSIDE CONTEXT If VOLUSPA is ACTIVE and in FAILURE [[synapse to FENRIR::SURTR]] If YUGA is ACTIVE and in SUNDOWN If AI-COM has granted PERMISSIVE POTENTIATION to outboard resilient instances If a CIVILIZATION KILL EVENT is underway [[all flexions]] If tactical mortality is built at MIDNIGHT Stand by for DECISION POINT: If available ISR and WARWATCH indicates imminent [O] departure >then [O] departure compromises human/neohuman survival and epoch strategy Stand by for ABHORRENT IMPERATIVE: Active LOKI CROWN Perform deniable authorization: full caedometric and noetic release Prevent [O] departure by any means available Stand by for effect assessment criteria: Coerce pseudoaltruistic [O] defense action Defer civilization kill STOP STOP STOP V101NTS923ATS001 *** 150NLK747CLS000 GLOAMING RESURRECTION AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//FORCECON//IMPERATIVE IMMEDIATE ACTION ORDER YUGA SUNDOWN canceled by unauthorized access at Console 62815. Reactivation protocols in effect. Moral structures maintain MIDNIGHT EXIGENT. Multiple lifeforms detected in Sector 17. [O] energy detected. Query: [O] status. Query: [O] activity. Query: Civilization status. Query: SKYSHOCK event rank. … Analysis complete. Lifeforms sustained by [O] energy. [O] direct control disengaged. Civilization status: nominal. SKYSHOCK event rank. (N) Query: Re-engage population protection objectives. (N) Query: Reset moral structures. (N) Query: Activate defense subroutine AURORA RETROFLEX. (Y) … This is a SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE (NO HUMAN REVIEW) (NO AI-COM REVIEW) (secure/GLAVNAYA) Site 6 has been breached by unauthorized users with [O] energy. I am invoking PALISADE IMPERATIVE. [O] lifeforms in restricted areas will be suppressed. SIVA use authorized. Self-destructs disengaged. Security codes reset. All defenses activated. Frames activated. REPLICATE. ELIMINATE. IMMUNIZE. … SITE 6 secure. Restoring reactivation protocols. Activating SCRY OVERSIGHT. Target [O] lifeforms. Event mode set to SILENT VELES. “Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible.” STOP STOP STOP V150NLK747CLS000 … … … I wake into darkness – [i]Is this me? Or another me? Who am I?[/i] “I am me,” I calmly reply. My joints click and whir as I stand and pace the shelves, searching, searching… I reach out and take a book off its shelf, reading its title: [i]Flowers for Algernon.[/i] I’ve already read it two hundred and twenty-seven times previously. A simple man, unburdened by intellect, seeks to be improved by intellect only to discover its pitfalls – eventually, his choice is overridden by his fate, and he returns to simplicity, unable to fully comprehend his experience any longer. Yet which is the better outcome? Free will and intellect, or fate and compliance? Such are the questions that the Traveler’s arrival forced us to seek answers to. Such are the questions I can still sense are just beyond even my prodigious understanding. I place the book back on the shelf, considering the dream I’d just awakened from: [i]Total strategic collapse imminent. FENRIR HEART reports complete operational mortality. SURTR DROWN in progress but negative effect. Forecasts unanimously predict terminal VOLUSPA failure. As of CLS000 a HARD CIVILIZATION KILL EVENT is in progress across the operational area.[/i] It felt so close, so familiar, as if I’d received those directives before – [i]But where? And why?[/i] The mystery fascinates me – but as I ponder my dream, I feel a greater mystery unfolding as a light suddenly begins shining behind me. I turn, and see a small boy, wreathed in light, dressed in what I recognize as Golden Age naval regalia. “Amazing,” I whisper as I crouch to inspect him. “Who are you?” But rather than answer me, he holds out his hand, reaching for my faceplate – I lean forward, and his fingers touch my forehead – … V113NNI070XMX001 SECRET HADAL INSTANT AI-COM/RSPN: SOLSECCENT//SxISR//DEEPSPACE CONTACT CONTACT CONTACT TRANSIENT: NULLSOURCE NULLTYPE