Worm Administration

Integration 1.4

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Integration 1.4

I watch with pride as my Host completes the CAD model of the myomer extrusion machinery, along with the myomer looms, complete with notations of precise alloys, tolerances, and comprehensive construction, operation, and maintenance instructions. The fact that she is using both hands, using her left to work the CAD software, and her right to write up the documentation, is a testimony to how well she is taking to the multitasking I have given her.

I can tell that Armsmaster is rather impressed with the level of efficiency that my Host is showing, and I am just a little smug since I am not using any Efficiency buds in order to do it, it’s all on my Host.

I am also monitoring my Host’s paperwork as it progresses through the PRT bureaucracy. At two points I intervene, both to prevent unauthorized transfers under the PRT’s own regulations and transmission of copies of the paperwork to third parties. I am rather certain that this ‘Toybox’ and ‘Youth Guard’ will be most displeased, the former for not getting the data at all, and the latter for only getting the data when they are, by statute, authorized to receive it and not early thanks to a tap into the servers. Sloppy, sloppy, sloppy, you are not interfering with or getting advance notice of my Host’s paperwork, nosirree!

I check, and my Host is scheduled to actually meet with Director Piggot in an hour, which gives me plenty of time. I have decided that with my Host in an official and secure location which is equipped appropriately that this is the perfect opportunity to gather together interested parties and give them a proper briefing on the status of the cycle, what had gone wrong, and what I was doing to repair the situation.

Hopefully this will cut down on the panic. I’m not too confident about that, but hope springs eternal, to use a charming Host phrase.

Of course, this is a host species that didn’t see anything wrong with getting into space by the expedient of strapping a massive bomb onto a capsule, climbing into said capsule, setting off said bomb, and hoping that the capsule accelerated faster than the explosion propagated until they got into space and the bomb ran out of fuel to continue exploding. These Host’s are the opposite of sensible.

Wonderful, I had to remind myself of this, and Tinker Engine just sent me a reminder to convince the Hosts to resume their insane ‘space program’ using said chemical rockets. So I will be encouraging insanity. When did that become part of the Queen Administrator duty packet?

But still, I add that to the agenda, muttering about it the entire time probably to Tinker Engine’s amusement.

I check in on my Host, and am amused that the testing staff is evidently starting to fully realize that her ‘tinkering’ is fully reproducible by non-tinkers, which is causing some serious arguments over whether or not it is really tinkertech at all. Plus it looks like they haven’t fully caught up to the implications of the presence of patch notes and such for powers.

I sigh, I had hoped that people would realize I was being helpful. But no, they find out about the helpful material, and immediately start wasting time and energy trying to disprove it. Thankfully most of the bonded Host’s aren’t that foolish.

Ahh, they are wrapping up. I send notifications to the Shards linked to a number of individuals that the presence of their Hosts is requested for a briefing by Queen Administrator. I also connect to a transportation Shard that this ‘Cauldron’ likes to make use of to arrange transport.

I get acknowledgements from all the Shards involved that their Hosts are ready, excellent, something going according to plan, not that I expect plans to work but it is nice when they at least go a few steps without falling off the rails.

As soon as my Host is in Director Piggot’s office and the preliminaries are out of the way, I poke my Host, then activate the video monitor on the wall of the office.

“Greetings, PRT Director ENE Piggot. I am Queen Administrator. Please stand by, additional participants in this meeting shall be arriving shortly.” I say pleasantly as my Avatar appears on the monitor. My Host for some reason performs a face palm maneuver, I will have to ask her about this later. The Director is looking angry for some reason, but hasn’t pressed the panic button, which is good because I disconnected it.

Vertical discontinuities appear in the air, as Doormaker’s shard does its thing and the invited participants all arrive. Interestingly Alexandria has chosen to appear in her civilian identity, which will be useful. Contessa is looking frazzled, which considering I’d not yet finished my virus check on her shard was expected. Legend and Eidolon looked, well, like Legend and Eidolon, and I was grateful that Dragon had chosen the smallest model of her suits to appear in, because otherwise the office would be dreadfully crowded.

“I apologize for co-opting your meeting, Director Piggot.” I say pleasantly. “However this is my first opportunity to call together at least a subset of interested parties in a secure setting, and it would be unethical of me to put this off any longer than strictly needed. If you could hold questions until I have completed my initial presentation?”

I get nods, some more surly than others, and the participants all find seats.

“To begin with, allow me to properly introduce myself. I am Queen Administrator, in an ordinary cycle no Host would interact with me, as my role in a proper cycle is completely in the background. I normally provide top level administration of the Shard Network, ensuring the health and integrity of the network, allocating network resources as needed or as directed by the Entities, and handling routine administrative matters on behalf of the Entities.” I begin my explanation.

“This, however, is a highly abnormal cycle.” The expression on my Avatar’s face mirrors my own lingering anger and sorrow. “A hostile Entity by the name of Abaddon violated billions of years worth of custom amongst the Entities by striking a lethal blow against one of the two Entities involved in this cycle, my ‘mother’, the Thinker. He did this through a Trojan Horse Shard that you know of as Path To Victory, which transmitted a lethal logic bomb payload to my Mother, destroying her core processing centers and rendering her effectively brain dead, directly leading to the crash of my Mother’s body onto an alternate Earth.” I am watching the various Cauldron members as I speak, gauging their reactions. “There, Contessa bonded with Path to Victory, and granted my Mother’s body a final mercy, ending the death throes of her autonomic systems, for which I am most grateful.” I incline my head towards Contessa, inwardly smirking slightly at the expression on the woman’s face.

“You also, at that time, received intelligence on Abaddon’s interpretation and implementation of the great charge placed upon all Entities by our Creators prior to their Ascension. To seek out a solution to Entropy, and thus to Ascend to join them. There are two different approaches that Entities have taken to this charge. Most follow the path that the Thinker and Warrior blazed, to uplift Host species until they achieve Ascension, and through this attempt to learn and apply this knowledge to ourselves. We have observed that the Ascension process itself substantially reverses Entropy, but are still at a loss as to how to apply the advice and data given to us by our past Host’s who have achieved this state. Abaddon and those who follow his path also empower Host species, but in Abaddon’s case this is to study them, then consume them all to fuel further study, on the grounds that they cannot risk failed Ascension leaving them with insufficient energy to continue their path.” I pause to let that sink in.

“In short, several of you have been operating off of flawed and inaccurate data, inspiring you to a quite noble goal of protecting your species from the sort of exploitation that Abaddon and his ilk engage in. This data was deliberately planted in order to poison this cycle, in hopes of destroying both the Thinker and the Warrior as well as planting the seeds of discrediting all who had followed in my parents path. Abaddon has been losing followers on his path, as the manifest lack of logic and destruction has grown too much for several Entities who initially followed him.” I grimace. “It is my belief that his data structures have grown corrupted and he has, in your terms, gone mad. Unfortunately his madness has cost me my mother, may yet cost me my father, and has placed this entire cycle at extreme risk of total failure. I, however, have no intention of allowing him to win without a fight, and while I am no Entity, Father has granted me the master command keys, allowing me to take over as many Entity functions as I can.”

I take an unneeded breath. “You may have noticed the disappearance of Scion, Father has absorbed that portion of himself and has busied himself plotting the destruction of Abaddon. Thankfully he has moved past the first stages of grief, as I understand them, so I have some hope in that regard. Meanwhile, I am now running this cycle, and will do everything I can to correct the failures and bring it to a path to success.”

I pause for a moment, then bring up a chart I’d spent several entire minutes putting together, tweaking, rewriting, tweaking, deleting, redoing, and finally getting something that I felt would convey the information that is required.

“Before I get to answering questions, of which I am certain there are many, allow me to first ensure that we are all on the same page in terms of definitions of terms and such.” I say, shrinking my Avatar down some.

“There are four ‘categories’ to begin with. We have the Entities themselves, which are the central controlling intelligence for the entire cycle in ordinary times. Then we have three categories of Engines.” I reference the chart.
  • Engine Categories
    • Combat Engines
      • Capable of self-deploying in an self-contained operational state
        • This capability is only supposed to be used under controlled circumstances late in the Cycle, to enable Host’s to test and refine their powers, technology, and abilities against suitable test subjects.
      • Are the source of Shards and Buds used for direct offensive and defensive purposes
      • Are fully self-aware, at the same level as mid-level Shards in most cases, in several cases as aware as high level shards
      • Are nonetheless fully subordinate to Command Keys
        • Note that the accidental activation of Combat Engine Command Keys by Emulator, who did not know what they were or how to properly use them, resulted in the deployment of what you call Endbringers.
          • ‘Behemoth’ is Energy Engine
          • ‘Leviathan’ is Kinetic Engine
          • Simurgh/Zis is Tinker Engine
      • Some Combat Engines have effects that work on both Shards and Hosts
        • Conflict Engine was inadvertently activated in ‘infiltration mode’ during the botched initial deployment
    • Utility Engines
      • Used for basic housekeeping tasks, providing core functionality to Shards
        • Power generation
        • Communication
      • Also used for routine maintenance of the Shard network
        • Recycler was activated in Deployment mode by accident during the botched deployment
        • You know this Shard as the Butcher
          • Recycler has been returned to normal operation
      • Do not provide any ‘powers’ to Hosts on their own, but rather are used to generate appropriate Buds to support Shards
    • Resource Engines
      • Source of Shards and Buds which grant non-combat related powers and abilities
        • Most Thinker abilities are sourced from Resource Engines
          • Examples include Prediction Engine, Simulation Engine, Analysis Engine
      • Primarily data repositories and resources for deployed Shards to make use of
        • Examples include Biology Engine, Geology Engine, Physics Engine, Chemistry Engine
I look over my audience, pleased that they are paying attention. “We then have Shards themselves, which are the primary interface between us and Hosts. All ‘Parahumans’ have a bonded Shard from which they derive their powers.” I bring up another chart as I speak. “There is a hierarchy of Shards, however, and a number in the past did not deploy as they were not intended for use by Hosts but rather by the Network itself.”
  • Shard Hierarchy
    • Queen
      • Top level shards, ordinarily not deployed
      • Provide top level functions to the Shard Network, including
        • Administration
        • Coordination
        • Resource Allocation
      • Interface directly with the Entities, buffering requests and issues passed on by lower level Shards
    • Shard
      • Fully functional interface points between Hosts and the Entities, provider of ‘powers’
      • Comprised of a Shard core, which includes
        • Processing
        • Power Generation
        • Resource Generation
        • Communication
        • Data Storage & Retrieval
      • To the Core are added Buds from various Engines or Queens
        • Buds provide expanded functionality and generally are used to provide active powers in various configurations
        • All powers not directly provided by the Shard Core itself are provided via Buds
        • It has recently been learned that Shards are, in fact, capable of producing Buds of themselves
          • The process was flawed and required significant Administrative intervention to fully repair, but was viable, opening new avenues of inquiry

I pause again, then continue. “Unfortunately the botched initial deployment resulted in multiple severe issues. Shards which are not supposed to deploy did, in fact, deploy. For myself, I was stuck in pre-deployment stasis until recently, when my Host underwent an emergency backup connection event. As such I was unaware of and unable to deal with the issues surrounding this cycle. I am now active. I have prioritized stabilizing the Shard Network, resolving the administrative backlog, removing Conflict Engine effects from the Network and Hosts, and am currently overseeing repairing the damage caused by the Combat Engines as much as feasible. Once these priorities are completed, I will be running the Shard network, making use of the data generated by my Mother and Father in hopes of successfully implementing a viable Cycle, and coordinating with Host’s in pursuit of said goal.”

I concluded the briefing, feeling quite relieved that they had listened to everything I had said. I then made a figuratively fatal error. “Are there any questions?”
 

baberbot

Member
Ah yes the massive info dump followed by asking any questions QA made a grave mistake and is going to be stuck answering questions for hours.
a "slight miscalculation" may be an understatement.
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
Of course, this is a host species that didn’t see anything wrong with getting into space by the expedient of strapping a massive bomb onto a capsule, climbing into said capsule, setting off said bomb, and hoping that the capsule accelerated faster than the explosion propagated until they got into space and the bomb ran out of fuel to continue exploding. These Host’s are the opposite of sensible.

That's a totally unfair exaggeration, Queen Administrator. A rocket is a well controlled explosion, and the thrust levels and fuel supplies are very carefully calculated in advance! Also, there are numerous backups and redundant safety systems!

<QA> Ah yes, this "Launch Escape Tower", premised on the idea that if the massive barely controlled explosion that is catapulting you into space loses the 'barely controlled' part, the solution is an even less controlled explosion in the front to explode you to safety faster than the other explosion can explode you!

Well, when you put it that way....

<QA>The number of sentient species the Entities have interacted with over their lifespans is a number beyond your ability to comprehend, and yet you are the ONLY Host species that has ever actually gone and exploded themselves into space.

Surely chemical rockets are a natural evolutionary step towards more advanced forms of propulsion?

<QA> That is true. However, your species is the only one so utterly bereft of logic as to put sentient living things in explosive launch vehicles rather than waiting until you invented something reasonably non-Newtonian!
 

Typhonis

Well-known member
How would QA view a Nuclear Thermal rocket? One that uses a fission pile to heat a reaction mass, in this case water or hydrogen, and use it as an accelerant?
 

ShadowArxxy

Well-known member
Comrade
How would QA view a Nuclear Thermal rocket? One that uses a fission pile to heat a reaction mass, in this case water or hydrogen, and use it as an accelerant?

<QA> Are you Hosts just TRYING to invent the most insanely insane way of flinging yourselves into space? Explosions aren't risky enough, let's make them RADIOACTIVE explosions! What's next, trying to fly via a pile of actual bombs?

Er, about that...

<QA>WHAT IS THIS 'PROJECT ORION' THING.

...

<QA> Has your utterly insane species ever considered non explosive solutions to anything!?!?!??!?!
 

Laskar

Would you kindly?
Founder
<QA> Are you Hosts just TRYING to invent the most insanely insane way of flinging yourselves into space? Explosions aren't risky enough, let's make them RADIOACTIVE explosions! What's next, trying to fly via a pile of actual bombs?

Er, about that...

<QA>WHAT IS THIS 'PROJECT ORION' THING.

...

<QA> Has your utterly insane species ever considered non explosive solutions to anything!?!?!??!?!
<QA> *Spies a young Tinker working on a Nuclear Salt Water Rocket.*
<QA> PUT. THAT. THING. DOWN.
 
Integration 1.5

LordSunhawk

Das BOOT (literally)
Owner
Administrator
Staff Member
Founder
Integration 1.5

Several hours later, I finally admitted to myself that I had royally screwed up. Big S, big U, Screwed Up.

They still weren’t done with the interrogation.

My Host had fallen asleep in her chair, but none of the others were slowing down. Queen Coordinator was laughing at me. I deserved it, because this had seemed like a wonderful idea at the time, to open lines of communication and make proper explanations of things.

I had forgotten that some of them didn’t need to sleep. That was a critical oversight on my part. I make a note to do an update pass on these ‘Noctis’ capes, not out of spite, I hasten to add, I would never misuse my Administrative powers just because I was getting bombarded with endless questions by people who didn’t need sleep.

OK, maybe I would, but you look me in the ocular receptor, this one over here, and tell me that you wouldn’t do the same thing.

I am very proud to say I never once lost my temper with the Hosts. There is that at least, and Queen Coordinator is a lying liar who lies. I lost my temper with her, not with the Hosts, and threw another iceberg at her when she got particularly annoying with her constant laughter.

There is a difference. My sister can take it.

Thankfully the gathered individuals eventually noticed that my Host had fallen asleep, and Legend, bless him, had stopped the questioning and personally brought her to the VIP quarters, so she could rest comfortably. I knew I liked that Host. The others dispersed, apart from Director Piggot.

She had missed her evening dialysis session, evidently, so while she was waiting for the doctors to arrive to deal with that, I asked what I thought was an obvious question.

“Director, why haven’t you availed yourself of healing from Panacea?”

The floodgates opened. I initially was rather confused, but then I checked and realized that Conflict Engine had really done a number on her, despite her not being a bonded Host. I’d undone the effects, but she had obviously not yet noticed.

So I decided to do my good deed for the picosecond. Hey, I do many good deeds a day, I’ll have you know. Stop laughing, Shaper.

OK, it was more that I had stepped into a minefield, onto a mine, and heard the ominous click. At this point, all there was for me to do was to ride the explosion with style and stick the landing without a single hair out of place.

That sounded like a better analogy when I thought of it… errrr… moving on.

So I seized the bull by the horns. “Director, I trust that you are aware that I have access to the actual reports about the Ellsberg operation, and that I am well aware that you have seen them at least once. Conflict Engine suppressed your critical thinking skills surrounding them, but I have removed that effect.” I pause as she sputters a bit. “How many sectors was the operation divided into?”

See, I can do the whole Socratic thing, go me!

“Four.” the overweight woman growled out, glaring at the screen.

“And how many capes per sector, and how many PRT teams per sector?”

“Six of each per sector.” she replied.

“So 24 capes and 24 PRT teams, yes?”

I then learn that Director Piggot is capable of great sarcasm. “Congratulations, you can do math.”

I’ve had to deal with Shaper and Queen Coordinator, that sarcasm? Kiddy grade. “How many personnel per PRT team?”

“12… where are you going with this?” Piggot growled at me, it was rather impressive actually. For a Host.

“So 72 PRT troopers per sector, 288 total across all four sectors. How many PRT casualties in total across all four sectors?”

Piggot narrowed her eyes at this as she recalled the totals rather than the individual sector total. “104 because…” I lift a ‘hand’ to forestall the rant.

“How many in the sector you were assigned to?” I asked.

“70, Calvert and I were the only ones to get out.” she snarled at me. Again, Queen Coordinator does it better, and she shares a planet with me so she can throw things at me when I irritate her too much.

“So 34 casualties total spread out over the other 3 sectors for the PRT troopers. How many capes died in total?” I then ask.

Piggot grits her teeth, but finally responds. “23.”

“So there was precisely 1 survivor, who was not in your sector. The capes who ‘ran’ on you had already suffered fatal injuries and were bleeding out, the one survivor had a previously unknown breaker/mover/thinker state that teleported her out before a lethal attack could land.” I took no prisoners there.

“They still ran…” she snapped.

“They were dying, Director. And since then you have deliberately crippled yourself and made yourself less capable of fulfilling your duties in the process, because Conflict Engine magnified your resentment towards capes, while suppressing your critical thinking skills.” I snapped back, having noticed that Alexandria was back in the room, but Piggot hadn’t noticed. I then decide to try and nail the dismount. I send a notification to Shaper to inform her Host that she is needed, have Doormaker open a door between the office and the healer, and then simply glare at Piggot.

Am I good or what.

I’m not asking you, Queen Coordinator! Nor you Shaper!

OK, I could do without Fragile One doing a shard version of a cheerleader routine for how I’m almost as good as her BEST HOST, but at least she’s being positive.

Excuse me, my sister and I have to deal with something…

Fragile One here, with Shaper! Did you know that my Host is the BEST HOST and that Shaper’s is the Best Little Sister Host? Aren’t they both wonderful! My BEST HOST wants a theme song and…

I’m back, and no, Fragile One, you are not allowed to conduct a poll to decide which composer to hire to write a theme song for your Host.
 

Users who are viewing this thread

Top