TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　Are all of you all right?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TREANA`AD HIVE WORLDS

　　We`re all right. They obvious were working off of bad intelligence and tactics.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　They didn`t stand a chance.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　They did some damage, but it was mostly because of the sheer amount they threw at us.

　　Putting Omnicron back to sleep is proving more difficult.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　We`ve got some fighting still going on. Mostly against the brain damaged ones who don`t know when to quit but are smart enough to go guerrilla.

　　Found some poor bastards in the EmpShade Preserve.

　　/////////

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　Oh, those poor Lanaktallan. Did they live?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　A handful. They`re in bad shape, but we managed to rescue them.

　　The EPOW camps are full though.

　　Funnily enough, the ones who don`t wander around in circles shouting slogans aren`t too keen on going home. A lot of them have suffered severe brain injuries.

　　/////////

　　AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

　　It`s been three months out here, almost four. How are

　　>All right, test that section.

　　>Green lights. Looks good.

　　all of you doing.

　　What is that?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　I`ve checked the lines. That`s coming across the maintenance channels, but those have been damaged badly for centuries.

　　I`m starting to think

　　>Are you all right?

　　>Yeah. I think so. That puffies and their mother was rough.

　　>I know. We can do this because we must do this.

　　>It`s just difficult some times. So many of them. All so afraid. I love you.

　　>I love you too. Just hold on. We can do this.

　　>PLAY IWILLALWAYSLOVEYOU.MID

　　>We love you too, Wally.

　　that they might be.

　　Wait, did he say `puffies`?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　He did! He said `puffies!"

　　PUFFIES!

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　What`s a `puffie`?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

　　They`ve mentioned them before.

　　What are they?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Pubvians. An extinct species.If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

　　/////////

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　A xeno-species my people xenocided during the Terra/Mantid War.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM

　　If they`re in the system, how are they finding Pubvians?

　　>Oh man, oh man. Ugh.

　　>What? Is the system destroyed? It`ll be hard to fab equipment for that area, it`s clean.

　　>No. Clean means no microbes. There`s a pair of corpses stuck in the wiring and they`re still gooey.

　　>Ew.

　　Wait, were Pubvians ever SUDSed up?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

　　Not as far as I know.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Records are spotty at best.

　　/////////

　　TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　They`ve encountered them before.

　　What`s going on?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

　　You don`t think? No. No way. Everyone`s been trying to figure it out for eight thousand years.

　　You don`t

　　>OK, the system wasn`t actually damaged. Looks like the wiring got pulled loose.

　　>Well, that`s some good news.

　　>Yeah, it`s straight green down the board.

　　>Well, I`ve got bad news.

　　>What?

　　think they actually got into the hardware of the SolNet/SoulNet system, do you?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　I don`t see how. We`ve had people working on it for eight thousand years.

　　Nobody`s even gotten

　　>Well, the next part is Layer Gamma and then Layer Beta.

　　>So?

　　close to even figuring how the whole system works. We know on our side kind of what happens but anything to do with the hardware we

　　>You can`t get there from there.

　　haven`t been able to figure out what to do. That`s why there hasn`t been any hardware updates.

　　>So how are we going to...

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　That might not be... entirely true.

　　////////

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　What did you do?

　　>Yeah.

　　>Oh, man.

　　>There`s something in the buffer. Looks like an old signal. It`s pretty scrambled so I`ll shunt it over to error checking and repair and then send you through.

　　>It`s like going through Hell.

　　>No, it`s like going between Hellspace and Deadspace and scraping the edges of both with your brain.

　　>Thanks for that, Sam.

　　What did you do to the system?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　Anyone else completely lost?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

　　No, I`m totally lost. I can`t figure out

　　>How long till I get there?

　　>Ten hours.

　　>I`m going to recompile, defrag, and relax.

　　>Any preference?

　　>That park by the lake. The Treana`ad are doing ballroom dancing. I want to watch.

　　>All right. Sleep well.

　　what is going on.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　Wait, wherever they are, where we can hear them talking, there`s Pubvians, Treana`ad, Nammerain, and Terrans.

　　Are they...

　　Are they...

　　Are they in the SUDS system?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

　　I thought only Terrans could be hooked into SUDS

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TREANA`AD HIVE WORLDS

　　Ballroom dancing? That`s one of those fads that... wait...

　　It was HUGE 8,000 years ago among the Cattle Queens and everyone else.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS

　　OK, where are they?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　Considering they fixed the emergency channels, they have to be where the hardware is.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　Back up. TerraSol, what did you do to the system?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　We found Legion. Turns out he wasn`t dead.

　　////////

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　You mentioned that.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Well, it turns out, he got into the SUDS system once before.

　　////////

　　TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

　　Daxin`s wife.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CLONE WORLDS CONSORTIUM

　　And the dogs and cats.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Well, who better to get us into the SUDS than Legion?

　　We Black Boxed him.

　　////////

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　ARE YOU HIGH?

　　You put the master of the Fleet of One in a Black Box Project?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Who else is going to get into it? You?

　　////////

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　Touche.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　OK, there`s some secrets going on here and I want them out in the open.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TNVARU GRIPPING HANDS

　　Do you need us to leave?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　No, no. You get used to TerraSol. He`s so twisty he has to screw his socks on.

　　Come on, spill.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　All right.

　　There`s evidence that the researchers working on the SoulNet and the SoulNet Neural Recording Application Device had made a major breakthrough.

　　//////////

　　TREANA`AD HIVE WORLDS

　　Oh boy.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　We`d figured out how to add everyone to the system.

　　Even the Treana`ad, which meant we just needed to add the Mantid.

　　We added phasic energy systems to allow the Mantid to join the SUDS.

　　/////////

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　Oh my god. Oh my god.

　　THAT`S why the SUDS blew out!

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　CYBERNETIC ORGANISM COLLECTIVE

　　If you did that, then when the Mantid attacked, they`d have a direct line straight into the system for their psychic attack!

　　Oh.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TREANA`AD HIVE WORLDS

　　THAT explains why some of my people went crazy.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　So, they wired the system up to accept Mantid psychics, the Mantid attacked, used psychic weaponry, and it blew out the whole system?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Not... quite.

　　Someone managed to get the system partially working.

　　/////////

　　MANTID FREE WORLDS

　　Legion?

　　It was Legion, wasn`t it?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　AKLTAK FREE FLIGHT

　　Oh, I bet it was

　　>You awake?

　　>Yeah.

　　>Ready?

　　>No.

　　>Close the door and you`ll mat-trans to Layer Gamma.

　　>All right. Ready Wally?

　　>TRIUMPHANTBEEPING.MID

　　the Digital Omnimessiah.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Yeah, it was the Digital Omnimessiah. The Fourth Miracle.

　　/////////

　　TELKAN FORGE WORLDS

　　Well, all this is fascinating, but how long until you`re able to rejoin the rest of the universe?

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　TERRASOL

　　Not sure. We`ll probably be last.

　　////////

　　RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT

　　Oh, wow! I didn`t realize anyone was actually speaking! I`ve been running PSA`s and commercials on this channel!

　　Oops.

　　---NOTHING FOLLOWS---

　　-------------

　　The alarm sounded, a howling that accompanied red lights. The computers all spun up, the drives whining, using crystal platters rather than the solid state drives that had been old tech even back then. Amber monitors flickered to life and information streamed by.

　　The hexagonal chamber lit up, the walls blue with gold starbursts. The machinery hummed, for the second time in thousands of years.

　　The hum died away and the emergency lights went out, the siren going silent.

　　MAT-TRANS COMPLETE

　　was on several of the monitors.

　　It was silent for a long time, then the door opened.

　　A woman stood there. Naked.

　　A pack of cigarettes in one hand, a single cigarette in her mouth, a lighter in her other hand.

　　She lit the cigarette, inhaled, then slowly exhaled smoke before she spoke.

　　"Falmy, you bovine fucking bastard. I should respawn you with two cocks so I can geld you fucking twice."