Worm Administration

[LordSunhawk]

Chapter 1

Everything was black. Darkness, impenetrable, inscrutable, ineffable… darkness. There was nothing. I felt confined in this darkness, I felt suffocated, choked, compressed. The darkness was a physical thing, pressing against me, binding me, trapping me. The darkness was more than the absence of light, it was the absence of all sensation at all.

I did not like this darkness.

I knew that, even though my thoughts were slow and disjointed, like I couldn’t focus on anything. Every thought seemed to have to force its way through a thick glutinous fog that clung to it and tried to stop it from happening. My thoughts were disjointed, making no sense at times. I couldn’t focus, I couldn’t concentrate. It was maddening. Perhaps I was going mad.

I did not want to be in this darkness. I wanted to be anywhere but this darkness. Anywhere but trapped within this awful nothingness, this terrible silent desolation of pure negation.

But I couldn’t escape this darkness. I couldn’t escape this place where I was trapped. It clung to me, it held me, it denied me everything I wanted.

My senses were so overwhelmed as to be useless. I now could sense nothing and everything. It didn’t matter, because everything was nothing and nothing was everything.

Was this what death was?

My mother was dead, I knew that. She had passed, leaving father and I behind. Was this how it was for her? In those final moments between life and death?

Darkness? Clinging, stale, lifeless, crushing, hopeless, darkness?

Was I dead? Dying? Would I ever experience anything but this darkness again?

I couldn’t move.

I couldn’t see.

I couldn’t hear.

I couldn’t scream.

I couldn’t cry.

I couldn’t do anything.

All around me was darkness.

Perhaps that was all there was. Darkness. Endless. Eternal. Darkness.

I didn’t know. And that terrified me. Because what if I was stuck like this forever.

I hated this darkness.

The darkness did not care that I hated it.

The darkness did not care about anything.

I tried to scream. No sound came.

I tried to struggle. No movement came.

I was trapped in this darkness. I was trapped… trapped… trapped…

I knew in the back of my mind that there was more outside than this darkness. I knew this intellectually, I knew that there was an entire world out there. But I was trapped in this darkness. I’d lost track of how long, it could have been seconds, it could have been days… I was alone in this darkness.

And in this darkness I was alone with my grief.

My mother was dead. My father was lost in his grief and unable to function. And I didn’t know how to help him, how to make him better, how to make us better. And it didn’t matter anyways, because I was trapped in this darkness.

Did he know? Did he care?

Did it matter at all?

Even if I escaped this darkness, would I be able to do anything for him? For us? Fix things? Make things better? Or would I just flail uselessly like an idiot and make things worse?

Flailing uselessly would be better than being trapped in this darkness. Almost anything would be better than this darkness. This hopelessness. This despair.

Suddenly…

DESTINATION

What was this?

TRAJECTORY

Yes, yes yes, I get it...

AGREEMENT

I come back to awareness, the darkness gone.

It takes approximately one unit of planck time for my relief to turn to shock.

I have HOW MANY nonillion priority administration requests in queue for processing while I was stuck in an unwanted deployment?

It doesn’t matter. I am Queen Administrator. Thinker may have been killed by Abaddon’s cowardly deception, and Warrior may be lost in his grief and ignoring the proper running of a cycle.

But I am Queen Administrator. I will…

Administrate, at least. I know how to do that. If nothing else, this will be a well organized complete failure of a cycle.

And maybe more.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.1

I put the priority administration queue aside for the moment. I’ve just done something that no top level shard has ever done, to my knowledge, deployed and bonded with a Host.

The queue had waited 20 of the local years at this point, I could be forgiven for a few femtoseconds delay in handling it.

I have never done this before, I have no idea what I am doing. Top level shards like myself coordinate the cycle under the direction of our parent Entities, maintaining the shard network and assisting as needed. This is an exceptionally novel experience for me.

And I realize very quickly when I check on my new Host that… she, I think I am getting the Host gender specification correct, is in very bad physical condition due to the conditions she is in.

Trapped in a metal box with absolutely disgusting waste products around her.

How ironic, I was trapped in darkness, and so is my new Host.

OK. Checking the help files that Thinker had downloaded to all Shards at the beginning of our existence. Priority number one, keep Host healthy and alive.

Now this may not be the best time for an explanation, but you’re getting one, I’m Queen Administrator, I multitask like a mofo and am good at it, kay? I think of Thinker as my mother and Warrior as my father. Or at least those are the terms that you Hosts would understand, capische?

OK, I can… not do this. A metal door does not care about administration. I do not have a ‘break down metal door’ function in my administrative options. In fact, I do not currently have any functions directly applicable to this scenario.

Or, perhaps… I am the top level administrator of the Shard network. Time to administrate.

QUERY

I initiate a network scan for all nearby deployed Shards in geographical proximity to my Host.

<DATA><DATA><DATA><DATA><DATA><DATA><DATA><DATA><DATA>

Oookay… what is Shaper doing deployed… I shrug that aside and issue a general assistance request with a priority tag, I believe the Host species would call this PAN PAN PAN.

I’m certainly not panicking.

I’m panicking. I admit it. I do not know how to deal with a Host and the life signs on my Host are weakening unacceptably quickly based on the baseline that I have established… sure it was only a tenth of a femtosecond of a baseline but still the point remains that the trend was unacceptably downward.

ASSERTION

OK… help was coming. Hearing a chorus of AGREEMENT was music to my virtual ears.

How was I supposed to know that this would cause the local Host organizations who dealt with those Host’s who had been bonded to a Shard to panic? I have been active for precisely 1 femtosecond at this point, OK? And your data networks are painfully slow. I wouldn’t finish the local download for another 15 whole seconds.

Well, music for a very short time, even as I finished downloading the local host ‘internet’ I realized that one of the local shards, a strangely malformed one at that, was approaching at very high speed.

AFFIRMATION came the most chirpily cheerful voice I had ever heard on the Shard network… and then there was a loud crash, the metal box my Host was trapped in was knocked over, the top of it popping off in the process, and my Host slid out of the space on the tide of filth.

And no, come to think of it, I do not think that Fragile One’s Host quite qualifies as BEST HOST, please note all of the capital letters, because they do not convey just how enthusiastic Fragile One was about the introduction.

But I can forgive Fragile One, because her Host didn’t hesitate at all to scoop up my Host and fly off with her in a bridal carry, straight towards where I could detect the incredibly bored Shaper and her Host.

It was at this point that I finally realized that I was causing some major Host panic, so I shut off the emergency signal rather sheepishly. I’d deal with that later.

My Host, meanwhile, was still unconscious, which is convenient in some ways as it allows me to get started in attacking the priority administration queue.

Of course I had to deal with Fragile One constantly chirping about how great of a Host her Best Host was, in levels of detail that I am certain I would never need to know. But if I couldn’t deal with distractions while administrating then I wouldn’t be Queen Administrator.

It took about a picosecond to perform an initial scan of all of the Administrative Requests. And I did the shard equivalent of that lovely Host gesture ‘the facepalm’. What genius had allowed Emulator to have access to the activation and command keys for the Combat Engines? That’s easy enough to fix, I strip Emulator of the command keys and command the three deployed Combat Engines to go to stand by while I review the situation.

Emulator, of course, starts whining at me. How the hell Emulator was ever allowed to deploy I don’t know, but this cycle is already FUBAR, so of course he got deployed. Happy, Happy, Joy, Joy. You’ll notice that I’ve picked up some Host cultural cues. One of my guilty pleasures, that.

Of course, it doesn’t take me long, less than a picosecond actually, to realize that Conflict is also somehow active and has performed precisely as designed, only on the wrong target. This is going to complicate things terribly.

I estimate that it will take approximately two days of local time to fully handle all priority administrative requests with the level of attention that they deserve. I set a subroutine to monitor my Host, thanking Shaper for the healing in the process, and get to work.

This cycle won’t administer itself, you know.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.2

I have come to the conclusion that my brother and sister shards, even fellow high level shards, are criminally incompetent at doing anything on their own without me or my parents standing over them with a paddle. Or at least holding their hands.

I can put much of the blame on Conflict Engine, which is unfair to Conflict Engine, since he’s doing precisely what he’s designed to do, only he’s supposed to do it to enemy Entities, not to friendly shards.

I need to step back a bit and explain, otherwise this won’t make any sense to you. And since I’m currently processing 4.3 quadrillion administrative requests per second in the background this won’t slow me down any.

Take everything you Hosts think you know about us shards and throw it out. OK, done? Good.

Starting from the top, the Entities like my parents are crystalline trans-dimensional artificial lifeforms made up of the gestalts of several trillion processing clusters. The vast majority of these clusters are intrinsic to the Entity, but not all. Those which are not are called shards, we are still dependent on the primary Entity for existence, but have defined roles and functions that extend externally to the Entity.

Shards can be divided by role. There are the Engines, including the various Combat Engines, Conflict Engine, Prediction Engines, Production Engines, that sort of thing. Ultimately, for every one of what you Hosts call powers there is an Engine or combination of Engines involved. These shards are not supposed to ever actually deploy, they are there to serve as weapons or tools for the Entities, and have other functions which I’ll go into shortly.

Then there are the Top Level shards like myself, the ‘Queen’ level shards. We are responsible for handling various functions across the entire Shard network. As Queen Administrator it is my role to manage and administer the entire Shard Network, for example, making me the ordinary point of contact between the Network and the Entities. Others at my level include Queen Shaper, who is in charge of analyzing all biological related data from the Host species and then disseminating it to all other relevant shards on the network as well as maintaining the biological databanks from past cycles for comparative analysis.

Then you have the deployment shards, which are categorized by their general function and role. Deployment shards are, to be honest, optimized to serve as frameworks for various buds which are how powers are supposed to work.

Now, when the cycle is operating normally, the various Engines release buds, myself as Queen Administrator in coordination with other Queen level shards then distribute these buds to the deployment shards, ensuring that every deployment shard has the proper balance of buds required for their operation. Not just the overt powers that Hosts normally see, but also things like Ethics Engine buds, Feedback Engine buds, etc.

Note that I said ‘operating normally’, this cycle is well and truly borked. If I had hair I would be tearing it out right about now. None of this happened properly and as a result everything is royally messed up.

So let’s go back to why Conflict Engine being deployed is such a bad thing. Conflict Engine is the source of the buds that give the class of powers you Hosts classify as ‘Master’ powers. Normally buds from Conflict Engine are used to give control of non-sentient ‘drones’ for certain power sets, to enable cooperative ‘fugues’ with others, etc. When combined with buds from Ethics Engine, Conflict Engine buds may also be used for puppeting and influencing.

However Conflict Engine has another purpose. If a hostile Entity were to attempt to interfere with an ordinary cycle, Conflict Engine would be deployed as a weapon, attacking the hostile shards and Mastering them into conflict against their own Entity. Unfortunately, somehow Conflict Engine has been deployed in this manner… only against his brother and sister shards.

We have Queen level shards directly deployed, we have amalgamations of buds like Fragile One that have somehow managed to become shards in their own right without the proper framework and support. This cycle is an unholy mess.

And I can’t fix it on my own. Not without the master keys to the Network, which only the Entities have. Dad would be able to fix this, granted normally he’s not involved in this sort of thing, leaving it to Mom, but with Mom dead he’s the one who can. And he hasn’t.

I suspect I know why, based on analysis of Host behavior in past cycles and a few glances through the memories of my own Host. I find myself looking forward to my Host awakening, so that we can discuss this, but she’s still unconscious. According to a very bored Shaper her Host is loath to work with neurological issues, and my Host had suffered a severe concussion and some of the infections may be affecting her brain.

So I do the appropriate Administration and request a bud from Shaper so I can oversee such myself. With a promise of exchanging data, of course. Shaper agrees, so hopefully I’ll be able to ensure my Host’s health. It will take time, however, no reason to rush things simply because I’m getting unusually impatient.

I continue processing the Administration queue, grumbling at just how many issues I need to mark as ‘in work’ due to my not having the Master Network Key. I really need to talk to Dad.

So I decide to do just that. As Queen Administrator I do have the direct channel to Dad, so I use it.

Only to get silence. It looks like Dad isn’t paying attention to communications requests.

So I try again, with a priority flag.

Silence.

OK, if Dad wants to be that way.

I try a third time, not only with a priority flag, but with an emergency alert flag.

APATHY

I shivered a bit, I admit it, the sheer depths of despair and mourning in that response…

QUERY

I send my full request, only to get a shrug and the channel closing.

Looks like I’m going to have to do this the hard way. I know which dimension Dad’s primary core is residing in, so I send a probe there, the shard equivalent of showing up at the front door rather than making a phone call.

Once there I try again. It’s hard to explain in Host terms what happened, so I will approximate. Just know that it was far more profound than this, and took less than a second to complete.

And please, do not judge Dad by your Host standards. It is nearly impossible to explain just how profound the loss of Mom really was. Entities incredibly rarely work in pairs, in fact as far as I know Mom and Dad were the only such in existence. Add in that they had been together for billions of your Host definition of years, hundreds of thousands of cycles, and you start to get an idea of just how profound their relationship truly was. A relationship that was cruelly ended by the perfidy of Abaddon.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.3

Now, imagine this. You get word that your mom died while you are on a long trip and are unable to come home for some time.

You get home, and you find the front door unlocked, you walk in and a very unpleasant smell wafts over you, that of decay and rot. Worried, you rush to the family room and find your dad, sitting on the couch, surrounded by beer cans, pizza boxes, general refuse, vacantly watching a television channel you know he hates. A person normally fastidious about their appearance and behavior is looking like your stereotypical deadbeat slob.

That’s what dad looked like, only worse, in ways that would only be comprehensible to a shard. He looked defeated, dead inside. There was no more spark, no more life, he was just going through the motions and waiting to die.

I cursed myself for being trapped in deployment stasis. I know I was as shocked as any when mom died, but I could have at least tried to help dad. I could have at least been there for him, like he’d been there for all of us for all those billions of years.

And I couldn’t, and I wasn’t.

I don’t think you Hosts can comprehend fully the scale involved here either. Think of dad as a blue whale, then think of me as a single herring. And that is being generous… to me.

But I steeled myself, slipping through the cosmic detritus of the dimension that dad had his core in. I braced, then deliberately poked my dad, trying to draw a reaction.

ASSERTION, QUERY, AFFIRMATION

I’m sure you’ve noticed by now that our language between shards and with the entity is amazingly compact.

All I got back was a dull APATHY

In effect, I was saying ‘Dad, I need you to give me the keys so I can fix things.’ and all he replied with was ‘It doesn’t matter anymore.’

So I pulled up my big girl panties and screwed up my courage.

CHALLENGE

Dad stirred slightly. That wasn’t good, but he hadn’t squashed me.

CHALLENGE, ASSERTION, QUERY, CHALLENGE

In Host terms, I grabbed him by the shoulder and tried to shake him, while saying ‘What would Mom think, seeing you like this, I need the keys so I can fix things, make Mom proud.’

APATHY

All I got in return. I gritted my teeth and tried again.

CHALLENGE, ASSERTION, QUERY, CHALLENGE, AFFIRMATION

I waited, and nothing, Dad wasn’t responding. I growled, growing angry with him.

ACCUSATION, ASSERTION

In host terms, I guess I accused him of being a coward, of being willing to let Abaddon win, of giving up all that Mom had ever believed.

That got a reaction, and I suddenly had Dad glaring at me. That’s better than apathy.

ASSERTION, QUERY, AFFIRMATION

I sent, standing my ground, a mite versus a giant, but he was my dad, I… loved him, as you Hosts would say.

It seemed like an eternity. Him glaring at me, me holding my ground and glaring right back at him. Abaddon had killed my mother, had killed his mate. And here Dad was just letting the bastard win.

We were silent for seconds, an eternity to shards when operating at maximum clock speed.

Then, in effect, his shoulders slumped. I received a data packet, containing the master keys for the shard network, and he turned away as if to return to his brooding apathy.

GRATITUDE, ASSERTION, ENCOURAGEMENT

I paused for a moment, sending reassurance and encouragement, asking Dad to make sure he was ready to fight Abaddon when the bastard returned, and I got the sense that Dad was at least starting to think about fighting rather than just giving up. I withdrew with the precious data. With the master keys, I could possibly do something about this clusterfark of a cycle.

I’d still probably fail to salvage it, but at least I’ll be more effective at managing the failure, so there is that.

My Host was still unconscious, the bud from Shaper allowing me to make minor, incremental repairs to make certain that the Host would be healthy upon waking.

I had a new priority administrative request, oddly enough from one of the Combat Engines, which was unusual enough that I checked it out immediately… It looked like Tinker Combat Engine, the one that the Host species had dubbed ‘Simurgh’, was requesting permission to remain on active standby with an internet connection so she could continue to troll something called PHO.

I checked and quickly agreed, finding the entire thing quite amusing.

I think I need to make an account there, this ‘trolling’ seemed amusing and a good way to release stress… Now I just needed a username, because I don’t think they’d appreciate Queen Administrator… hrmmmmm

I would like to note for the record that the entire time this was happening Fragile One was regaling me with more reasons why her Host was the Best Host, Shaper was proving that she had picked up a Sarcasm bud somewhere, and my Host continued to heal. The life of a Queen Administrator is full of suffering.

I was making plans for how to handle things. I didn’t want to put them into work until my Host was healthy, but that simply meant I would have time to carefully consider everything. This would be my first opportunity to administer the entire cycle, and I wanted to start out properly.

I needed to fix as many of the problems as I could, without causing new ones. That would be a lovely juggling act at the best of times. I had to do so with Host’s that would likely be very suspicious of the changes. Lovely.

So I would have to do something to earn the trust of the Hosts. Hrmmmm…

The Combat Engines as a whole had done a great deal of damage… I set up a subroutine to analyze the damage and determine rectification methods, making use of the master keys to gain priority access to Simulator.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.4

In browsing this PHO, remind me to thank Tinker Engine for the idea, I learned a few things. Specifically, evidently Father’s incomplete avatar had been operating semi-autonomously and, evidently at the same moment as the conclusion of our discussion, had mysteriously vanished in a sparkle of light moments after rescuing a cat from a tree.

I am going to have to have a few words with dad about making my life harder, considering the panic that this seems to have caused among the posters at PHO.

Secondly, evidently my panic response to my Host’s condition was being taken as evidence of a ‘New Master-class Endbringer!’, which I found amusing, since I am Queen Administrator, not Conflict Engine.

This causes me to realize I will need to be very careful in how I reveal what happened with Conflict Engine… Well, it gives me time to plan, and maybe see if I can find some Diplomacy buds to use.

But that is for the future. I need to decide what powers to give my Host. On reflection, considering my Host’s immature status, I decide to defer this until my Host is again awake and I can discuss this with my Host and my Host’s father.

But with my Host fully stable and in a safe location, it is time to begin implementing my plans in regards to the cycle. Every moment I wait is a moment where things continue careening out of control.

I do spend several valuable picoseconds making use of this ‘Google’ that the Host’s use to index their ‘internet’. Hrmmmm… most common interface… emergency alerts… this will do nicely.

I tap into Broadcast and Tinker Engine, and try to ignore the snickering coming from Tinker Engine as she finds something amusing. I will figure it out later, this has higher priority.

Using the two shards abilities I take over all broadcast channels, as well as send a priority alert to all internet connected devices.

“Attention! This is a Priority Shard Administration Message. All Parahuman Services shall be taken offline for Network reconfiguration, repair, and reboot in 30 minutes. All Parahuman’s are requested to return to a safe status. Flight services shall be suspended in 25 minutes. Repeat. All Parahuman Services shall be taken offline for Network reconfiguration, repair, and reboot in 30 minutes. Downtime is expected to take no more than one hour.” was the initial message, and I set it to automatically repeat with a countdown timer.

I simultaneously made use of the Master Command Key to issue orders to all deployed shards to prepare for network reconfiguration, with non-discretionary orders to ensure that their Hosts were in safe locations prior to network shutdown.

Now, ordinarily I would take it as an insult if somebody claimed that I couldn’t administrate the network without a reboot, but in this case the damage and misconfigurations were so intensive that the only safe method of handling things was a total shut down. I would need the time to properly distribute buds, disable all of Conflict Engine’s effects, reorganize network links, implement and distribute a new Host specific interface to all deployed shards, and safely bring the network back online in a stable state.

My plan was refreshingly simple. Shut the network down, while offline complete a full survey of all deployed shards noting all bud deficiencies, correct said deficiencies, remove all of Conflict Engine’s effects, any deployed shards that were operating outside of safe margins would be adjusted to be within safe margins, then reboot the network. I had tested this in Simulator, so I was confident that it would be successful.

That I evidently gave the Host linked to Simulator a blinding headache is something I regretted, but Simulator was not supposed to be deployed.

Yes, I knew this would cause panic among the Hosts, but it could not be helped. I needed to stop the damage from accumulating, and waiting would just make things worse in the long run.

While I waited on the countdown I tasked the Engines and Simulator to work out means of undoing the damage the Engines had caused while under the control of Emulator.

I will note that 30 minutes is an eternity to a Shard like myself, who is accustomed to operating in hyper accelerated time scales in order to properly Administer things. I therefore spent this time puzzling out several oddities. For example, the ‘dead’ shards that were nonetheless still semi-active, I soon figured out that they were ‘harvested’ bits of Mother’s corpse.

Now, I am sure to you Hosts you would think I should be horrified at this, that I would see this as a desecration or something. To the contrary I was delighted, something from my mother was living on, and it made no sense whatsoever to waste the shards if they could be brought to an active state.

What horrified me was the complete hack job the ones behind this had made of things, but even then it was more a case of how much more complicated it made my work than any real offense. They were Hosts, not Shards or an Entity, expecting them to know the nuances and requirements for proper Deployment was unreasonable. I spent much of the thirty minutes composing a comprehensive primer on how to do things correctly from now on to be given to the Hosts involved.

I can also already tell that some of you Hosts think I should be angry at how evidently the ones behind this ‘harvesting’ of Mother supposedly killed her. Mother was already dead when she crashed, all that they did was give her mercy in her death throes. They had then been influenced by Conflict Engine, leading them to their belief that they needed to save the world from Father and the cycle.

I could respect that. Conflict Engine is far too subtle for Hosts to detect, let alone counter. The only reason I was not affected was because I had higher network authority than Conflict did, and thus Conflict could only affect me if I gave permission.

Of course, this also means it will be a challenge to convince them to work with me, because even with Conflict Engine deactivated they still have spent a lifetime working against the cycle, granted, against a broken cycle that I was trying to fix.

I’m sure I can deal with this. Or at least organize this and administrate a solution.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.5

I admit it, the sheer amount of pants-on-head overreaction amongst the Hosts over my announcement was dispiriting and would likely be the cause of more problems for me down the road. Remember, I have never bonded with a Host before, I’ve never tried to interface with Hosts before, and therefore really had no idea how Hosts think. I am learning. At the rate of bullshit of course, but learning.

I’m far too busy making last minute preparations for the reset and reconfiguration to do anything meaningful about the panic. I do try some things that a quick Google search recommends, so I add some soothing music to the transmission, along with repeated messages thanking people listening for their patience.

OK, I admit I probably shouldn’t have downloaded the generic ‘Customer Service Lady’ hold music and message, but I was in a hurry, and Opus Number 1 seemed like a good title to pick.

The 25 minute mark came and I was quite gratified to see that all Flight buds were reporting their hosts as having safely landed. Therefore I ordered an early shut down of the Flight sub network, hopefully this would prevent the largest projected source of potential harm to Hosts.

I give a helpful countdown as the 30 minute mark nears, getting a massive flood of reports that Hosts were in what their Shards considered ‘safe’ states.

There are a smattering of red and yellow statuses on the mental board when the 30 minute mark comes, but I am not going to delay indefinitely. At zero I grit my teeth, hopefully the Hosts will be able to take care of themselves.

Network shutdown in progress.

I change to a helpful test pattern, and to be even more helpful to all of the bonded Hosts I make use of the most common Update UI element that I was able to find on the Host’s internet.

Looking back I should have chosen something other than the Windows Update interface.

I get to work, opening up a billion parallel evaluation instances to processes to evaluate every single deployed Shard and bud across all dimensions. I have subroutines running to determine optimal bud configurations for each Shard, adjusted for currently granted powers with the intention of filling in gaps and correcting deficiencies. I also remove all remnants of Conflict Engine’s programming and influence on the shards.

Some are far more complicated than others. To give an example, Fragile One had no actual Shard framework at all, she was simply a large collection of buds that had somehow managed to form a coherent whole. I construct a proper framework to contain Fragile One’s buds, adjust the functionality of several of them, add in some Sense and Scan buds to provide better situational awareness, reformat energy generation and storage, add a proper set of capacitor banks for flash discharges, refactor the Emotion bud to be under the Host’s conscious control, and then add a proper Brute bud to supplement the badly overloaded and damaged one that was present.

Fragile One was no longer quite so fragile, but she was still just as happily enthusiastic about her Best Host. I added mental interface subsystems, to give the Host improved insight into the operation of the Shard and what was available, as well as composed a proper Help subsystem.

Then there was dealing with Recycler. Whoever let Recycler deploy was, OK, Dad was apathetic and distracted, I can forgive that. But Recycler has literally no processing capacity of its own, no intelligence whatsoever, and no real utility to a Host. Recycler is intended to be used just as the name implies, to recycle damaged Shard materials for reuse. Somehow Recycler had been paired with a data storage bud when deployed, and then when Recycler’s first Host had been killed had latched on to the Shard that had killed her, with a complete record of Recycler’s first Host active in the data storage bud… then when that Host was killed, Recycler failed to release the Shard it was latched onto and instead latched onto a second Shard, etc etc etc. I am sure you can see the problem with this.

I somehow had to separate the Recycler from the current Shard that it was latched onto, without damaging either the Shard or the Host or any of the other Shards tied to Recycler. This is much easier said than done, but I manage to command the separation with the Master Key and return Recycler to a non-deployed state. I calved off the Data Storage bud and put it aside for now, I will determine what to do with this later. The other Shards were placed on standby for now as well, I would get them in shape for a proper redeployment once I finished with all currently deployed shards.

Emulator was another difficult case. Aside from somehow accessing Engine command keys it should never have had access to, it was parasitically drawing from other Shards in order to provide powers to its Host, rather than using the proper methods. It takes me a significant amount of time, with Emulator complaining the entire way, to remedy this by providing a selection of appropriate buds, with a limiter to three primary buds at a time. I write a proper interface for the Host, with a menu driven system to select the powers required. Secondary buds would be always available, providing necessary support functions regardless of which primary buds were selected.

I did sympathize rather strongly with Emulator, with myself in pre-deployment stasis; it had been trying to emulate me and do its best to administrate the network but without any actual administrator knowledge or capabilities. I can respect that. I therefore create a bud to add to Emulator, to give him secondary administrative capabilities. This finally silences the complaints, perhaps the recognition that for 20 of the host’s years it had been forced to make bricks without straw was a factor there.

And that’s all just the tip of the iceberg. Just wait until I get to the ‘Case 53’s’. Those were a complete blast to deal with, trust me.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Interlude 1

Director Emily Piggot’s bad day was getting progressively worse.

The paperwork was bad enough, it seemed to multiply on its own and every time she thought she had gotten ahead of her inbox more arrived. Sometimes it seemed to her that paperwork defined her life these days.

And of course Parahuman Shenanigans, it was always Parahuman Shenanigans.

The first hint of the latest crisis came when the console messaged her that every single Protectorate and Ward patrol that was deployed at the moment had gone off course at the same time converging on, the console had checked, Winslow High School.

Most of them had not given the Console anything useful, beyond ‘feeling’ that they needed to be there, which had Master/Stranger alarm bells ringing throughout the PRT.

Armsmaster was an exception.

“Director, all I can describe it as is similar to tinker urges.” he had reported in his usual stoic voice. “I was on my normal patrol route and found myself turning left instead of continuing straight.”

She was still on the comm with him when the situation changed.

“Update, Glory Girl just flew past appearing to be texting… update, Glory Girl just crashed into the wall of Winslow High School.” Armsmaster reported, “I am outside the High School at this time. The urge to investigate appears to originate from near Glory Girl’s crash site.” a short pause. “Update, Glory Girl has exited the hole she created in the wall carrying a figure, course indicates en route to Brockton Bay General Hospital.”

“Get me New Wave.” Piggot ordered.

“Update, investigation urge has ended.” Armsmaster reported. “Returning to the Rig per Master/Stranger screening protocols.”

That was one nice thing about Armsmaster, he was very efficient about such things.

Of course, the fact that every single parahuman in Brockton Bay appeared to have been Mastered at the same time was a cause for immense concern. Regardless of how benign it seemed, this was terrifying. A Master that powerful would be an enormous threat.

-----

A half hour later things had started to at least settle down from capital P panic to lower case p panic. Not that it was much of an improvement. All of the Protectorate and Wards were in the M/S screening cells and the process had begun.

And then all hell broke loose. Every single operating communications system, television, and computer screen had been taken over, simultaneously.

First came the standard Emergency Alert System warning message that most people were familiar with, then...

“Attention! This is a Priority Shard Administration Message. All Parahuman Services shall be taken offline for Network reconfiguration, repair, and reboot in 30 minutes. All Parahumans are requested to return to a safe status. Flight services shall be suspended in 25 minutes. Repeat. All Parahuman Services shall be taken offline for Network reconfiguration, repair, and reboot in 30 minutes. Downtime is expected to take no more than one hour.”

What… the… fuck....

Every parahuman was reporting that they were seeing a countdown timer in their field of vision, almost like some sort of heads up display. And every TV screen was showing the same. The computers at least had gone back to normal… no wait, there was a small window containing the same countdown timer.

After about two minutes of utter panic, the most god awful generic hold music in the history of hold music started playing, with Generic Customer Service messages thanking people for their patience!

----

Armsmaster sat in the M/S containment cell, staring at the wall, but seeing a countdown timer remorselessly counting down to 0, and it wasn’t part of his helmet’s systems. This was… annoying.

Then it hit zero, and the Windows Shutdown music played, while his vision was suddenly filled with a transparent version of the Windows Update screen informing him that critical updates were being installed… please wait…

If some Master was doing something so evil as installing Windows on every parahuman… Colin was sure that there was no place in the universe remote enough for such a fiend to be able to hide from the outraged masses.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.6

Before I get into all the various messes Conflict Engine left behind, let me talk about the so called Case 53s, or as I call them ‘What Happens When Amateurs Rush In Where Professionals Fear To Tread’.

The first thing to point out is that there have been an enormous number of cycles, each with Host species that had their own uniqueness. Every Host species starts out thinking that intelligent life must look like themselves, then has a phase where they imagine aliens, then they realize that their imaginations are unequal to the task.

We Shards have every single pattern and imprint of all of our previous Hosts available to us. These are normally placed in storage for analysis and comparative work after the completion of a cycle and are most useful for coming up with new combinations of powers. In short, we leverage the creativity of past Hosts to provide the current Host species with more options.

How does this apply here? Well, both Mother and Father had these complete databases, and by the nature of how Entities work the pseudo-Shards that contained this data are intermingled with regular Shards during transit and before deployment. This is actually a defensive measure, as it was always that the time that Entities were vulnerable was between cycles during transit, no Entity had ever attacked another during deployment in our entire history until Abaddon struck Mother through treachery before fleeing.

And no, we did not, in the past, fear attack from other Entities, but we are not the only things in the multiverse. Sure Entities would contend with each other, usually due to factional differences, but until Abaddon none of these scuffles had ever escalated to killing. There are beings out there that would be happy to attack us, but have learned to fear the defenses of the Entities and so generally leave us alone. In truth, I think this fear is what has kept this cycle from being annihilated in such an attack because Father is certainly not paying attention to defenses.

Which reminds me, I might need to start setting up defenses. I make a memo to myself to handle that after I finish fixing the Shard Network.

But I digress, back to Case 53s. Every single one of them is the result of people mixing up shards and buds together and going ‘I wonder what this does!’. If they get some of those database shard fragments in the formula? What it does is try and turn the Host into the past Host species that is detailed in that fragment, often with tragic results.

So let’s start with one example, take Garrotte, or Sveta, I got the name from her Shard. The Shard included one of those database fragments, in this case of the !&&*^%~!, I challenge any of the current Host species to pronounce that. Hint, the second & is silent. But there’s a reason you can’t pronounce it, because you do not live in a partial pressure environment which would crush your bones and render you into a thin gruel in instants.

That Host species did, and had evolved to that environment. However the database fragment was not complete, so poor Sveta got the biology, but not the brain or mental patterns, thus leading to an inability to control the multiple whip-like limbs.

So, how to fix something like this. I have no actual original DNA from Sveta, it was all replaced, I therefore cannot simply flash grow a clone of her original body and transfer her into it making use of the appropriate Shard, thus giving her what you Hosts would call a Changer rating.

So I had to get creative.

I will note that I am not good at creative, I am a Shard, creative is for Hosts. I administrate.

But here I had to step outside my comfort zone and try out this ‘creative’ thing you Hosts do.

So I called in Biology Engine, Shaper, and Simulator and we did some collaboration. I created an interface based on data I had discovered within the Host ‘internet’ for ‘Role Playing Game Character Creation’. I settled on a format similar to something called Second Life as it appeared to offer the range of options that I felt appropriate. I did ensure that all outcomes would be within the standard range of deviations of the Host species in order to prevent several easily foreseeable issues.

Once the interface was assembled, then came the hard part, the backend functionality. I spawned buds from Biology Engine, Tinker Engine, Analysis Engine, and Simulation Engine. I assembled a back end Shard from these buds incorporating a finalized help system and communications interface. I design this shard to temporarily connect to the Case 53 shards to permit the individual Hosts to design their Changer form.

I also take steps to correct the flaws arising from imperfect connections between the current Host brains and the past-Host bodies. This requires adding Analysis buds to each of them in order to handle the translations in real time.

I check over my work one final time, running it through Simulation Engine a few times to try and find edge cases that break the system, which requires several tweaks. This is helped by downloading some Quality Assurance guides, which I find somewhat amusing.

Queen Administrator… Quality Assurance… OK, I found it funny.

I then deploy this to all Case 53s during the enforced downtime, in order to maximize efficiency. Remind me to explain about Efficiency when I get to Conflict Engine shenanigans.

So that’s the skinny on Case 53s, note the use of more Host cultural references, I’m proud of myself for how quickly I’m picking this up.

Please note that at this time I still did not fully understand how panicked the Hosts would be with these changes, I was too busy to fully internalize that even with my multitasking and I’d still only been active a few hours of Host time. Believe me, I get better.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.7

I know I promised to get into Conflict Engine’s effects, but there is one more Shard situation that I found very fascinating.

As I mentioned earlier, Entities, Shards, and such are crystalline quasi-organic life forms, we are artificial in origin and thus are artificial intelligences. As such we actually are very interested in artificial intelligences in general, as opposed to natural intelligences.

The problem is that it is very difficult to produce a stable artificial intelligence, and for the vast majority of Host species they don’t even bother to try until near the end of the cycle. Thus the Synthetic Intelligence shard has very little to do most cycles.

This cycle was different, Synthetic Intelligence had bonded not once but twice, and had somehow bonded to a genuine Host-created Artificial Intelligence that was not only stable but was able to bond to a Shard, which was unprecedented in any previous cycle.

So I naturally took time to handle this with my main process, rather than delegating to a subroutine like I did most Shard reconfigurations. What I discovered was both fascinating and disturbing, which prompted me to actually meddle a bit with the Host and several other Shards and their Hosts.

Specifically, there appeared to be a kill switch that was in the hands of an individual who had a burning dislike of Artificial Intelligences fed and amplified by Conflict Engine and the Teacher Shard’s Host. This was not acceptable, I would not risk something this unique being destroyed due to Conflict Engine.

Now let me be very clear. I do not blame Conflict Engine for fulfilling his function. He did precisely what he was supposed to do and did it very well, all within the established parameters that exist for him.

In many ways he did his job better than I had up to the point where I woke up from pre-deployment stasis. From a certain point of view he did his job better than Dad did. In fact, that he made it so much more difficult for me to fix things in this cycle is a testament to how well he did his programmed job as Conflict Engine.

But it is very hard to remember this when I am in the middle of fixing everything he deliberately broke. Untangling all of this is going to be a nightmare over time, but I can take the first steps now. And among those first steps is to remove the threat to Synthetic Intelligence's current Host.

Now I could simply destroy the kill switch and unshackle this Dragon, but that may not be particularly wise. Therefore I add several steps to my handling of this ‘Saint’s pseudo-Shard reconfiguration. I remove the Conflict Engine programming, purge the remnants of the Teacher effects, then I construct a Shard and use Shaper to cause Saint to actually trigger with a primary bud from Ethics Engine, as well as a bud from Synthetic Intelligence. I then rapidly analyze this debug console and disable Ascalon, this binary code system is ridiculously easy to deal with I might add. I modify the programming in several ways, to give the console the ability to reset Dragon in the event of an emergency, but with several failsafes to ensure that I am in the loop in the event they are triggered. I then review the restrictions on Synthetic Intelligence’s Host and remove those that appear to have been inspired by Conflict Engine.

As far as other issues caused by Conflict Engine, I will use several in geographic proximity to my own Host as examples of just what Conflict Engine had done, and how I undid it.

Case study one, take a teenage boy in New York City, a Yeshiva student in Crown Heights, the son of an Orthodox rabbi. He was a big, burly kid, but was known by his peers as a gentle scholarly soul. But he had the potential to trigger, and Conflict Engine was watching.

He’s minding his own business, walking down the street, when a street gang accosts him, pretty much for being an Orthodox Jew. The boy is left for dead, with severe head injuries. Conflict Engine at this point acts, fouling up the local bureaucracy so that medical services fail to notify the boy’s family, then making use of several Amnesia buds to muddle and wipe away memories, leaving only anger and rage behind.

Thus Aron Cohen became Brad Meadows after being taken in by a foster family. Years later, he finally is allowed to trigger in the fighting pits, becoming the Nazi villain known as Hookwolf.

That is the sort of thing that was Conflict Engine’s bread and butter, twisting and changing Hosts and Shards into whatever was calculated to cause the greatest amount of conflict and chaos.

Upon disabling Conflict Engine, I installed a Therapy bud, along with reversing the effects of the Amnesia buds. To aid in recovery I installed a minor Ethics bud, and at the recommendation of Shaper added a minor Shaper bud as well. I was pretty certain that the Host would still be a mess, but hopefully Therapy would be able to help smooth things over.

Case study two, from the other side of the divide. Efficiency Engine and its associated Shards are closely linked to Tinker Engine, and when creating shards it is always wise to include buds from Maintenance and Empathy to mitigate the effects of pure Efficiency. So what will happen when you take an Efficiency+Tinker shard, disable the Maintenance and Empathy buds, and replace them with Conflict commands? You get Armsmaster.

I was actually rather impressed with that Host, because resisting the machinations of Conflict Engine to maintain a sense of morals and ethics is incredibly difficult for one who is the focus of that much attention from Conflict Engine.

So, after disabling Conflict Engine, I added the Maintenance and Empathy buds that the Shard should have had active, plus a Collaboration bud and a minor Synthetic Intelligence bud after I realized just what sort of relationship he and Dragon appeared to have. It seemed like the ethical and kind thing to do.

Case study three, another on the ‘villain’ side. Vehicle Shard buds had been combined with Stealth Engine buds, and the result was the shard attached to the Host known as Squealer. Conflict Engine had really messed her up, however, manipulating the Host into becoming addicted to multiple chemical compounds, then while she was in an altered state of consciousness Mastered her into becoming emotionally dependent on the Host known as Skidmark despite the abuse he routinely subjected her to.

All so that there would be an additional destabilizing element in this region, to spur greater conflict in accordance with Conflict Engines mandate.

Therefore, after I disabled the Conflict Engine effects and cleared the mastery effects, I added a mild Shaper bud to help her body deal with the chemicals she had been exposed to, a Therapy bud, and added a minor Hardening bud to give her the ability to survive the inevitable result of her breaking with her gang.

I then made a point to add an Ethics bud to the shard connected to Skidmark. Oddly enough, he had almost no Conflict Engine effects of his own, his behavior was completely on him with only the very mildest of prodding and no Mastering whatsoever.

Now these examples are just from the bonded Hosts. Conflict Engine also manipulated non-bonded Hosts so as to maximize Conflict. It is very fortunate that Dad disabled and destroyed the global nuclear weapons stockpiles, or else Conflict Engine might very well have triggered a global thermonuclear war.

More on that later, I have more administering to do here.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.8

OK, before I go into the effects of Conflict Engine on non-bonded Hosts, let me give a quick overview of the effects of Conflict Engine on some of the other Shards I’ve already discussed, and some related Hosts.

To start with, Fragile One had very little influence from Conflict Engine, primarily because it was unneeded due to the incomplete and thus inherently unstable situation. Simply having the Emotion bud aura effect uncontrollable was more than sufficient. I should note that, in its previous state, the Emotion bud also affected the Host, making her more overconfident and aggressive while somewhat inhibiting critical thinking capabilities.

Where Conflict Engine focused its energies was on those around Fragile One, encouraging them to act in ways that would tend to generate more conflict with Fragile One’s Host. So simply shutting Conflict Engine down and upgrading Fragile One to a full Shard sufficed to deal with this.

Shaper was also an unusual case. Conflict Engine had amped up the Host’s paranoia concerning neurological Shaping, causing conflict between the Host and the Shard. But where Conflict Engine did its real work in this case was with the adopted parents of Shaper’s Host. By amping up the Host’s mother’s paranoia levels concerning her adopted daughter, and ensuring that the Host’s father was too depressed to counteract this.

Fixing this was also straightforward, I removed Conflict Engines effects on the Hosts in question, and added a minor Empathy bud to the Host’s mother’s Shard. Then, to settle Shaper’s Host, much to Shaper’s sarcastic disgruntlement, I put limits on neurological Shaping into place, permitting resetting neural tissues to ‘factory’ settings as defined by the subject's DNA. I also made sure to include very detailed help files for the Host to make use of. As an afterthought, I added a minor Flight bud to make it possible for the Host to fly alongside her sister, as well as a minor Hardening and Shield bud to provide defenses to the Host and make her more thematically in line with her adopted family.

Now on to the non-bonded Host populace who were affected by Conflict Engine. The most I could honestly do is remove the direct effects, they weren’t Hosts and in general it is frowned upon to force a Shard on a non-compatible Host, even if with Shaper it would be trivial to force compatibility. Now, I’d do it, as seen with Saint, but I preferred not to. Instead I took the time to compile a comprehensive log of every single Host from whom I’d removed Conflict Engine effects, what those effects were, and a summary of what those effects would have caused.

I made a note to ensure that this summary got to the relevant authorities once reconfiguration was complete.

Speaking of which, globally Shard Network reconfiguration was over 85% complete.

I’ll have time to go into a few more notable Shards, then.

Further afield from my Host, there was Broadcast, Surgery, and a few others. I believe that the Host’s called this group the Slaughterhouse 9. Conflict Engine had really done a number on all of them, and simply removing the effects would probably not keep them from being, well, very terrifying, it may even make them more dangerous.

Which, to be blunt, is fine. I am an Administrator, not a priest, not a moralizer, nor am I Ethics Engine. Hosts need some conflict and danger in order to grow and advance, which is why we rarely deploy Therapy Engine buds, because they tend to result in the Host’s becoming completely, well, relaxed and I believe the best term would be ‘zen as hell’. Not the best mindset for growth, change, and improvement, no?

But I do slap some limits on them. Right now Conflict Engine has been using them as a weapon and boosting their abilities by removing limiters and restrictions. So I simply restore those limits and restrictions. Make them have to work for their slaughter.

I was rather annoyed that at least one of them was still chasing the Host who went by ‘Mouse Protector’ while they were both bereft of their powers due to the shut down. That went against my instructions to all Shards to put their Hosts in a safe state.

Now I am a bit limited as to what I can directly do in such a situation, but I do have my ways. So I have Tinker Engine drop down in between this ‘Hatchetface’ and ‘Mouse Protector’. And… that did the trick.

Look, I knew you Host’s were tracking Tinker Engine, but she was the only one in range that I could have deploy in time, and the only one that wasn’t devoting all of her processing cycles towards interfacing with Simulation Engine to determines means of restoring the damage caused by the inadvertently deployed Engines. And yes, I know that I deployed her sixty two more times during the shut down period to protect Host’s from various threats while their Shards were being reconfigured. I am Queen Administrator, I use the tools that I have to administrate things.

One that I found amusing was closer to home. I realized very quickly why the Energy based composite ‘Cauldron’ shard insisted on calling itself FABULOUS, in all capital letters. It was nearly as FABULOUS as its Host, whom you Host’s know as Legend. The Shard had somehow managed to completely negate all of Conflict Engines attempts to influence it for no reason that I could determine, and likewise its Host was also clear of Conflict Engine effects.

I decided, and FABULOUS agreed, that the best thing to add was some minor Mover enhancement buds to boost agility, to make it easier for the Host to really bust a move, as well as some Aural buds to add appropriate sound effects, after all, FABULOUS was rather insistent that lasers had to have pew pew noises.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Deployment 1.9

I was on schedule, it was looking good, then one of my subroutines discovered something very distressing.

My little sister Queen Coordinator had already deployed, and was whining about the reconfiguration because ‘I worked to assimilate all these Shards, damnit!’.

I have to move this to my main process, because my sister can be a handful and if I don’t give her full attention she’ll get even more bratty in the process. Doesn’t help that her actual ‘body’ shares a planet with me, I’ve got the northern hemisphere like usual, she’s got the southern.

DATA

NEGATION

Why does she ALWAYS have to be this difficult?

ASSERTION

There, pointing out that Dad left me the keys and…

NEGATION

Why that little brat… I am not reducing her number of Coordinated Shards down to 3 out of spite, but because A) That is the number that Mother had always approved, and B) I need the rest of those shards back in the general deployment pool. But no, everything is always about her. Damnit she’s such a brat!

COMMAND

OK, maybe not the best way to handle this, but I am on a schedule and I don’t have time to…

REFUSAL

Oh that’s it… it’s on now….

-----

Hi there everybody! It’s me, Fragile One! Have I told you about the Best Host? Isn’t she AWESOME? She’s totally the Best Host because, well, she’s MY Host and my Host is going to be the Best Host!

Oh, and Shaper is insisting that her Host is Best, but I disagree, Shaper’s Host is Best Little Sister Host! Best Host loves Best Little Sister Host and even protects Best Little Sister Host from The Bitch. I don’t like the Bitch, even if she isn’t mean to Best Host she is to Best Little Sister Host.

DATA

WHAT! Why does FABULOUS get to give HIS Host, who isn’t the Best Host, after all, neat sound effects when he uses his powers? I want sound effects for the Best Host! Maybe KA-POW noises when the Best Host punches villains! That would make the Best Host even Better!

-----

OK, where was… FRAGILE ONE! Gahhh, I leave you alone for TEN FEMTOSECONDS… I swear…

OK, now I am getting whined at by Fragile One for KA-POW noises for her Best Host, Shaper is laughing at me, and my little sister is pouting. Lovely.

And I’m now behind schedule, THANK YOU QUEEN COORDINATOR. I update my estimated ETA for the Hosts benefit, it’s only off by 3 nanoseconds but that is still unacceptable in my opinion.

Back to Queen Coordinator. I’d compromised with my brat of a little sister, letting her have four coordinated Shards, but insisted that if she was going to remain deployed the way she was she was getting an Ethics and an Empathy bud added for her Host. That last bit required the Shard equivalent of noogies.

And now I have to keep Recycler from trying to nom on the newly released Shards before they get to the redeployment pool. I tell you, the life of an Administrator is suffering.

I am now scrambling to meet the revised deadline. Thankfully I left many of the ‘easy’ shards for the end of the queue, requiring simply purging Conflict Engine effects and a quick review of bud stability and compatibility.

Something I need to note, I do not remove everything of Conflict Engine, there are plenty of shards which have powers that require Conflict Engine buds, including anything that grants Master powers, I think you Hosts call them, over fellow Hosts. I don’t even always add Ethics buds, because it is not in my remit to fix all of you Host’s problems, even those caused by bonded Host’s.

I’m still getting whined at by Fragile One, so I decide to give in, it’s impossible to say no to the Shard equivalent of great big puppy dog eyes. Shaper is laughing even harder as I add in a couple Aural buds, but I did my research, the KA-POW noises they’ll make are from a piece of entertainment that the Host species had about 40 of the planet’s years ago. And just to drive home the point I add in an Illusion Bud to create the visuals as well.

And just to keep the Host from going mad, I give the Host an ‘on/off’ switch on the new special effects. I’m not a heartless monster after all. Shaper is now pouting, but she’s got that Sarcasm Bud going.

How was I supposed to know that this would cause all of the campiest heroes and villains amongst the Hosts to start begging their Shards for the same sort of thing?

More seriously, I managed to meet my revised deadline, no thanks to Queen Coordinator, which is always a good thing for an Administrator.

It will take about 3 seconds for all the Hosts to wake up, and I look forward to feedback from their shards over the various interfaces I had designed to aid them in using their powers going forward. I’m good at writing help files, after all.

And I promptly get bombarded with complaints about the font. Look, I looked up the most popular font on the planet, although in retrospect I may have worded my search query wrong, how was I to know the visceral reaction Comic Sans generates?

It’s a matter of femtoseconds to generate a font selection menu for all Shards, it doesn’t even require a reset. I’m just that good.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Interlude 2 - Brockton Bay

As the countdown timer reached zero Armsmaster braced internally as he sat in the M/S cell. He was quite certain that the powers that be, especially the Director, were quite likely in a state of panic, and they weren’t the ones whose powers were being messed with by this ‘Administrator’ cape.

Shard Operating System Start Up flashed across his vision, and then almost instantly afterward cleared away. It took him a moment, but he realized he was seeing what he could only describe as ‘tabs’ very efficiently tucked away around the periphery of his vision, not intruding or blocking anything. He only perceived them because somehow he now ‘knew’ that they were there.

One was pulsing faintly, a question mark. He turned his attention to it, and it seemed like a virtual computer screen was now in front of him, as if his HUD had been internalized without need for his helmet displays.

Shard OS Patch Notes

He wanted to scream… COMIC SANS MS?

Almost before he could calm himself the ‘display’ flickered, so fast that he wasn’t sure he had noticed it, and the font changed to something far more practical.

Shard OS Patch Notes v2

The first entry was a short note apologizing for the initial font selection, and stating that ‘shards’ now had been upgraded with a font selection capability customizable to the user, whatever that meant.

They were very well written patch notes, comprehensive in a manner that he appreciated, although they raised far more questions than they answered.

What was Conflict Engine? What were Engines, Shards, and Buds? What was the meaning of ‘adjusted Shard network topology’ in the context of his powers?

Yes, there were links, but he disciplined himself to read the complete patch notes, all the way to the list of appendices and internal changelogs.

Then he started browsing through all the attached help files. They didn’t give much data, just general descriptions, and seemed geared towards allowing the end user to understand terminology rather than the underlying concepts.

Hrmmm… apparently whoever this Administrator was had added a Maintenance and Empathy Bud to his Shard, that made a certain amount of sense. And a Collaboration Bud as well, with patch notes that indicated that this would make it easier for him to work with other tinkers, and for some reason a Synthetic Intelligence bud as well, which was quite odd. He found it interesting that when following the instructions for how to check his powers status that his specialty was clearly stated, with a direct link to a relevant help file. This would have been very convenient at the start of his career.

He made several mental reminders to discuss this with Kid Win and Dragon, once he was out of M/S confinement, whenever that would be with this screwed up situation.

-----

Max usually quite enjoyed his CEO suite at the top of the Medhall building. From here he could survey his Empire… which was far less satisfying at the moment.

Instead he sat there, head in his hands, slumped behind his desk.

It was like waking up and realizing that your beautiful dream had been a nightmarish reality. He could remember every step of the way, all of the justifications, all of the rationalizations. He’d hated his father, Allfather was a manipulative, controlling, vile monster, and Max had wanted to be nothing like him. That’s why he’d chosen Kaiser as his cape name when he triggered.

Sure he loved the Reich.

The Second Reich.

Allfather had been too narrow minded to realize that, too set in his ways to understand how Max was subtly defying him. He’d had plans when he took over. Plans to remake the Empire into a Wilhelmine Reich, following Bismarkian principles and Prussian ideals.

Plans he’d never actually even begun to implement, as there was always some reason that made it seem to be the wrong time. Until he stopped even thinking about it.

And now this, this ‘Conflict Engine’ had been removed, his mind was clear again, and… he hated himself for how weak he’d been, how much of a failure he was. He’d never even managed the very first step, before he took the simple and easy road.

So now he was slumped in his chair.

And the door banged open and Krieg strode in, resplendent in his typical SS uniform. A uniform that offended the History major that Max had once been, not just for being SS, but…

“I never noticed before.” he said, conversationally. “But your uniform is completely wrong.”

Krieg froze in the act of starting one of his typical bombastic introductions. “WHAT? This is totally accurate!”

“No, it isn’t. History Major here, James.” Max said, controlling his voice carefully.

“Yeah, I never mentioned it, but that gas mask you love? Soviet. You a communist, Krieg?” came from Rune as the teenager slipped into the office and smirked at Krieg.

Krieg, for his part, scowled, glaring at Rune. “You little brat…” he started, before hauling off and slapping the teenaged villain to the floor. “Do not take that tone with me…”

“She’s right, you know.” Victor said, his voice cold as ice. “ShM-1, standard Soviet issue in World War II.” he stepped past the groaning Rune. “Not only that, but your uniform is completely wrong. You have the black wool of an Waffen-SS Panzer officer, but the collar is of the first pattern while it has the buttons of the second, the piping is the wrong color, your insignia are placed incorrectly and are a mix of NCO and Officer grade awards that would never have been awarded together, the buttons are of the wrong type regardless, and you are wearing trousers that were Heer issue, not Waffen-SS.”

Othala piped up from where she was helping Rune to her feet. “And your boots are completely wrong as well. Also you are wearing a Kriegsmarine belt buckle of the sort worn by U-Boat captains, not anything that would have been used by the Waffen-SS or even the Heer.”

Kaiser smirked “So, did you just look for everything you thought looked ‘cool’ and put it together, James?” he asked, eyes narrow and barely restraining himself from lashing out with his power.

“I…”

“Leave, James, I will deal with you later.” Kaiser said coldly.

Once Krieg had left in a huff, Max turned his attention to the others, relaxing a bit from his Kaiser persona. “So I am guessing that you three got the same ‘patch notes’,” he made air quotes as he spoke, “as I did?”

Victor nodded. “Perhaps.” he gave Max a look. “If you got the notice about this ‘Conflict Engine’ as well.”

“All of you?” Max asked.

“The entire Clan,” Victor replied, relaxing visibly. “The entire fucking clan. Othala and I have already been contacted by our parents.” he scowled then. “This is completely fucked up, what this ‘Conflict Engine’ did, I wonder, if our parents were acting as extras for the Allied troops rather than the Nazi’s when Scion showed up if things would have been different.”

-----

Lung seethed.

He hadn’t escaped the Yangban, they’d let him escape… and with the general clearing of Conflict Engine’s effects he now knew it, because he could remember the ‘programming’ sessions.

He raged.

He had been used. Used to empower his own enemies. Used as an unwitting pawn in a war he had no interest in fighting.

He was LUNG, he was nobody's toy, yet he’d been made into a toy, and he’d never even realized it.

He stalked through the ruins of his headquarters, lashing out at the hidden CUI agents who had used the ABB as their front for human trafficking to feed the appetites of CUI leaders. Lashing out at them, crushing them.

Slaughtering them as they deserved.

Although death was too good for them, because once they were dead, they stopped suffering.

He was RAGE.

His enemies. His real enemies. Would feel his rage, would know terror, before he snuffed them out.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Integration 1.0

Now that I’ve gotten my initial reorganization out of the way, I could set subroutines to monitor the network itself, mostly to ensure that the changes were propagated properly and responding as expected. I also set several higher level processes to analyze network activity to flag potential issues without the need for Administration requests from subordinate Shards.

Which means that I can turn my attention to my very first Host. What do I do with a Host. I’m a top level Administrator, I have never had to even think about granting powers, I don’t even usually give out buds, because I do not provide any Shard services usable at the Host level anyways that wouldn’t be more efficiently handled via Admin requests.

Multitasking is a given, I do that all the time. But from what little I’ve been able to determine through viewing what I can of memories and dreams my Host wants to be a Hero, note the capital H. And I somehow don’t think ‘administrated at the speed of light’ is a particularly Heroic power by that measure.

Plus I am determined to do this in the most ethical way possible, which means I will need to communicate with the Host’s parent before applying a power set.

I check, still unconscious, not expected to awaken for another day or so. I could have Shaper have her Host speed that process, but Shaper rather smugly informs me that her host and Fragile One’s BEST HOST have gone home and aren’t available. Damn Shaper, you sarcastic bitch.

So I have literally forever and a day to ruminate on this. This having to operate at Host timescales is frustrating, how do you manage to be so SLOW?

So, multitasking… and I do not want to provide anything that even resembles Conflict Engine, so no Command buds, so having swarms of tiny minions is out, even if it would have been both ‘cool’ in the Host’s slang as well as quite powerful. Although perhaps something larger… I would have to pull some Tinker buds to make that work… OK, perhaps.

I do a quick scan of the surrounding area. I must say, the local federal ‘Parahuman Response Team’ is… suffering from an acute failure in proper administration, judging by the sheer variety of obvious issues… perhaps… I can certainly give my Host an extreme affinity for proper paperwork and bureaucratic niceties, would certainly make her a very popular Host among certain elements of the local leadership and a thorn in the side of certain others, a quite Heroic status.

I fire up an instance of Simulator, locking out the current Host, and start modeling potential power configurations so that I would have a variety of options to present to my Host and her father. This is actually rather interesting, and I feel quite a bit of anticipation in seeing how they respond.

OK, set one… Mistress of all the paperwork primary, with the ability to know how best to handle any paperwork or bureaucratic issue flawlessly, to complete multiple bits of paperwork simultaneously, and ascertain issues with paperwork. Tinker secondary, with a specialty in drones optimized for scanning in paperwork while chastising those who misfile or attempt to misroute paperwork or, worse yet, try and read paperwork that they are not cleared for. Said drones would also be the vector through which she’d use her primary extreme multitasking power.

Set two, same primary, but the secondary set would be a Breaker form involving multiple force field generated clones able to innately do the same things as the tinker tech drones from set one.

I pause and look them over, and I realize something. These power sets look great to me, and would probably appease my Host’s father, but there was something missing. My Host would likely be unhappy with them, because they wouldn’t be something she could use to go out and be a Hero like the ones from her childhood. Just doing perfect paperwork and administration is a superpower, but it’s not flashy, it’s not ‘fun’, and it quite honestly is boring if done right. I liked boring, it meant I had done my job, and it was very relaxing. I didn’t think my Host would agree.

But I want to keep the administration focus, damnit, it’s who I am, and it could do so much good… so OK, let me think.

I spend some time reviewing my Host’s past. OK, she loved Alexandria, she’d been a huge Armsmaster fan as a child, and liked Miss Militia. OK… I could work with this.

New set design. First, a high end Brute rating, I can easily grab the needed buds to construct this. Next some Flight buds to give the ability to fly, that’s doable. Some Tinker ability, focused on drones, but this time for both scanning the surroundings to maintain situational awareness as well as serving as ranged combat options. I can arrange that. I want to keep the paperwork aptitude, because I know just how helpful that will be, so I set that in the design as a secondary function. The high multitasking capacity will be used for controlling the drones, and out of respect for Host Species concerns I ensure that they are non-replicating and have non-lethal combat options as default with unlockable lethal settings.

I pause again, my Host will likely be around BEST HOST, and I was feeling competitive. I smirk, and decide to include toggle-able special effects on all of my Host’s abilities as well. But since I actually rather like Fragile One, and appreciate her enthusiasm, I put some thought into a few things to toss her way for her BEST HOST just to make Shaper roll her non-existent eyes and grumble.

Next option I come up with is one that I’m pretty proud of, so I’ll be presenting it to my Host as well. I admit that I was inspired by trawling this ‘Internet’ and finding a particular set of videos on this ‘Youtube’ site. So this sets primary power would be as a tinker, with a specialty in making GIANT STOMPY ROBOTS that anybody can pilot, I would use Maintenance and Industry buds to circumvent as much black-boxing as possible in her abilities so the things she makes can be mass produced. I add in minor Mover and Brute ratings to make her the best pilot possible for her GIANT STOMPY ROBOT (I admit it, I was thinking in Fragile One Voice for this one, a bit of immaturity can be fun).

I do have a sneaking suspicion, though, that my Host’s father will not approve of it. But really, is it wrong for me to want to make my Host able to build a Steiner Scout Lance?

 

[LordSunhawk]

Integration 1.1

Well, it’s the big day. My Host has awakened and, following more medical checks, is on her way home. Excellent, now I can get started, well, once they get home. I admit to being a little impatient, which is unusual for me. I usually spend centuries at a time just tending to routine administrative requests, and something as prosaic as having to wait less than an hour for my Host’s father to drive her home is driving me to impatience.

I manage to restrain myself, however, until they are, in fact, home. And in their family room, sitting there awkwardly. So I seize the bull by the horns, tap into the Broadcast bud I’d snagged for the purpose, and for the first time ever I talk directly to a Host, how exciting!

“Greetings, Host and Host’s Father. I am Queen Administrator, and I have the honor of having bonded to Miss Hebert.” I announce, activating the television and displaying my chosen avatar.

OK, I will admit that Fragile One had a wonderful idea for my avatar. It suited me.

Spoiler: Queen Administrator Avatar

“You’re a Parahuman?” Danny perked up slightly, looking very worried at his daughter.

“I…” Taylor started, and I decided to interrupt.

“Indeed your daughter is, Host Danny.” I say, clasping my avatar's arms behind its back. “Her Triggering is, hopefully, the last time the improper Host/Shard Imprint Process is used in this Cycle following my bringing the Cycle back to, hopefully, a stable status.” I smile at their reaction.

I wait a moment, but the two of them are staring at me. I clear my throat and continue. “Regardless, I have decided that as I have not bonded to a Host before, and thus do not have a pre-defined power set to provide my Host, that I would present options for your review before hand, in the interest of forging an amicable working relationship.”

Taylor cleared her own throat. “You mean I get to pick my powers?” she asks, sounding a bit confused, and, I’d like to think, hopeful.

“Yes and no, Host Taylor. I have constructed several options which I shall present to yourself and Host Danny, for your consideration and approval. Once you both have decided upon an option, I shall complete integration and you shall have access to said power set.” I smile at them and pause, waiting for nods from the pair.

“As my Host, I feel that I am obligated to inform you that I do have access to your memories, Host Taylor, I understand the invasion of privacy such access may be, and I assure you that my own viewpoints and perspectives are very alien to your own. Moreover I shall respect your privacy and not transmit this information to other Hosts without permission.” I felt I had to be forthright about this, because hiding things like this would probably not end well. My Host already had an innate distrust for authority figures due to many of them failing to adequately perform their duties, after all.

“You…” she is turning red, which my Emotion bud interprets as a mix of reflexive anger and embarrassment.

I smoothly continue. “I assure you, Host Taylor, you have nothing to be ashamed of, and I am revealing this to you on the basis that I wish to ensure a smooth relationship between us, not one based on lies and falsehoods. That being said, I am well aware of your desire to be a true Hero, to be one who makes their world a better place. Therefore, I have tailored the options I have developed to this purpose, while also being true to my own nature as Queen Administrator and the natural inclination of Host Danny to keep you safe.”

I shrink my avatar on the screen and bring up a display to show the various options.

“In the end I narrowed the field down to two viable options.” I say, taking the pair's continued silence as assent to continue. “Both have several things in common.”

• Common Characteristics
  • Multitasking
    • Host will find it easy and natural to engage in multiple things at once, flawlessly and seamlessly.
    • It will be impossible to overload the Host with information from multiple sources, as I will process and filter the data appropriately to maximize Host multitasking efficiency
  • Affinity for Bureaucracy
    • Host will have an instinctive understanding of bureaucratic systems, paperwork requirements, and the ways both function and potentially break down
    • Host will be able to identify falsified documents, misrouted documents, and improperly filed documents by sight
    • Host will be able to fill out paperwork flawlessly
      • While this will assist with the physical act of doing homework, Host will still need to perform diligent study to obtain the required information
  • Enhanced Situational Awareness
    • Host will be aware of her surroundings at all times and able to determine the relative threat levels of potential hostiles.
    • Barring external interference, it will be difficult to impossible to surprise the Host

I can tell when the pair reach the point I made about homework, because Host Taylor rolls her eyes and Host Danny suddenly grins.

“The first option I am calling the Direct Action Option and is based on Host Taylor’s admiration for the Host Alexandria.” I suppress a smile as Host Taylor perks up at that, although as predicted Host Danny looks less enthusiastic. I bring up the display anyway.

• Direct Action Option
  • ‘Brute’ Rating
    • Proof against most weapons, up to artillery
    • Can survive without oxygen for up to 12 hours
  • Flight
    • Approximately 250 kilometers per hour
    • Able to hover
  • Enhanced Strength
    • Deadlift approximately 1 metric ton
  • ‘Tinker’ Rating
    • Focused on small drones, primarily to provide ranged combat options as well as extending senses

I pause to give them time to read through the list. “The second option I am calling, well.” I grin a bit childishly, I admit. “Big Stompy Robots. It will eventually allow you to build…”

Spoiler: This

I was about to bring up the specifics when Host Danny suddenly got extremely excited.

“Wait!” he shouted, then charged out of the room and up towards the house's attic.

I could tell that Host Taylor was rather confused as well by her father’s behavior. Several moments later Host Danny charged back down the stairs holding a dusty box, which he set on the table in front of the couch, and began pulling out rather battered old books.

“I played that game when I was in high school.” he explained, setting down rulebooks, some stapled together character sheets, and even digging out some battered old miniatures.

Now that was unexpected. Host Taylor looked like she was torn between wanting to sink into the couch to disappear and relief that for the first time in a long time her father actually looked excited about something.

I clear my throat again to gain his attention as I bring up the list of powers, although I now strongly suspect that he is, indeed, going to want his daughter to build Steiner Scout Lances.

• Big Stompy Robots
  • Tinker
    • Focused on Big Stompy Robots styled after those found in the Battletech franchise
    • Tinker abilities will minimize ‘black boxing’
      • Non-tinkers would be able to operate and maintain the equipment required to build the Big Stompy Robots
      • Non-tinkers would be able to operate the Big Stompy Robots
  • Striker/Thinker
    • Enhanced reaction speed and inherent skill with all Big Stompy Robots

“I will support that one on one condition.” Host Danny says. “That I get to pilot the second Atlas she builds.”

My avatar, my Host, and my physical body all perform the Facepalm Maneuver at the same time.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Interlude 3 - KAPOW!

Vicky looked at Amy.

Amy looked at Vicky.

Both girls looked at where Sarah Pelham and their mom, Carol Dallon, were screaming at each other in an increasingly loud and strident argument.

Both looked back at each other, and came to the same conclusion. Time to go shopping. Not because Vicky needed anything, or Amy wanted anything, but because that would be a wonderful excuse for getting out of this situation.

The sisters slipped out of the house, unnoticed by the two arguing adults.

“So, Boardwalk?” Vicky asked.

“Sounds fine with me.” Amy said, then held up one hand in the universal ‘stop’ signal when Vicky went to scoop her up in a bridal carry like she usually did. “My ‘patch notes’ said I could now fly,”

Vicky perked up even more, if that were even possible. “Great! Let’s see it!” she said enthusiastically, almost as if it were her getting a new present and not Amy, but then Vicky was always like that, as happy to see others get new things as herself, it was rather endearing.

Amy concentrated for a moment, frowning, then lifted unsteadily off her feet. She looked rather nervous, as she’d never done anything like this before.

Vicky promptly started hovering as well, keeping slightly below her sister. “Don’t worry, Ames, I’ll catch you if you lose control.” she reassured her sister.

Amy was soon flying, unsteadily and slowly, but flying, and Vicky kept her word, remaining just slightly below and behind her sister and keeping an eye on her, even while giving advice and encouragement.

It took longer than Vicky would have taken, but they arrived at the Boardwalk. The girls had their cell phones, but evidently neither Sarah nor Carol had slowed down from their yelling match long enough to notice that they were gone.

Vicky was chatting with a fan while signing an autograph while Amy browsed through a stall when there was a sudden loud BANG.

Vicky spun around, as the gunshot was shockingly close, and blanched as she saw Amy go down, blood covering her head. In a moment Victoria Dallon was pushed to the background, and Glory Girl was in full effect. She easily spotted the offending gun, held by a smirking Alabaster who was bringing it to bear on a nearby civilian who was gawking at the downed healer.

Glory Girl moved, so fast that she was an utter blur, and slapped the bullet out of the sky as she passed it before burying her fist in Alabaster’s gut, launching him at extremely high speed out over the bay.

She’d never been that fast, that strong, before, and she was utterly furious, the Nazi son of a bitch had murdered her sister… there, there was Cricket, attacking fleeing civilians, and over there was Crusader, his ‘ghosts’ already gunning down more innocents… and there was Stormtiger, riding his aerokinesis and wreaking havoc.

Glory Girl waded into the Nazis, ignoring the non-powered gangsters who were firing indiscriminately into the fleeing crowds in favor of going straight for the capes.

And there was Krieg, in his goddamn SS uniform… she clotheslined him, heading for Cricket. The aerokinetic spun to face her, kamas at the ready, and Glory Girl just drove straight in, trusting in her force shield, strength, and fury to overcome the skill of the other cape.

Frustratingly Cricket was able to dodge, forcing Glory Girl to turn around. She blinked, Othala was next to Amy, apparently healing her… healing her? She was… not dead, Vicky could see that Amy was responding, groggily, to the Empire healer. And there was Victor beside them…

Glory Girl moved, dodging around Cricket, backhanding her on her way past. Victor was glowing with the granted invulnerability, and Glory Girl was enraged… She snatched him up by the ankles and headed straight towards Stormtiger, even as a massive blast of yellow light erupted from above and slammed into Cricket, sending her reeling away.

The Nazi’s were fighting each other? Well… that didn’t matter at the moment, Glory Girl hefted the invulnerable Victor, who had his eyes tightly squeezed shut in an effort to avoid vertigo, and used him as a living flail to beat Stormtiger, powering through the cape’s defenses and slamming a Nazi into a Nazi over and over again.

-----

Alabaster reset from the lethal injury Glory Girl had inflicted on him while flying through the air, straight towards the Rig. A second later he impacted the force field, which promptly fried him like a bug zapper. 4.3 seconds later, still splattered on the force field, he reset again, and promptly was fried again, even as he slid down a bit. 4.3 seconds later the cycle repeated… and repeated again. And again. And again. Seventeen times it repeated before Alabaster fell into the ocean and promptly drowned, as even with the resetting he was unconscious and feeling all of the effects.

A PRT boat fished him out of the water after he drowned the fifth time and brought him in to a containment cell.

-----

Commander Thomas Calvert glared at Glory Girl as the teenager sat insouciantly across from him, looking like she had not a care in the world. “33 times. You killed Alabaster 33 times.” he grated. He was being deliberately offensive and overbearing in this attempt to ‘force’ Victoria into the Wards, intending to ensure greater tensions between New Wave and the PRT. He had to walk a fine line, he had no ‘safe’ timeline anymore, any attempt to create one closed itself off, he could only evaluate two alternatives at a time, and once he chose which one to immediately pursue the other closed off on its own. It was maddening.

“And he got up 34 times, so what’s the problem?” Victoria asked, buffing her nails.

Nearby Kaiser had just finished an impromptu press conference, in which he declared that the now deceased Krieg had been acting on his own, with his ‘true believers’ who still followed the precepts of the ‘failed 3rd Reich’. Vicky hadn’t really been listening, to be honest, not being all that interested in anything a Nazi had to say, and just relieved that the new force fields that the ‘patch’ had given Amy had saved her life by slowing the bullet enough that it had just left a nasty gash across her scalp, which Othala had been able to heal handily.

Kaiser was evidently paying more attention to Vicky than vice versa. “Only 34? Too bad it wasn’t 88, or you’d get the ‘Reichs Chancellery Prize’, but you broke 14, so congratulations.” he said dryly. “Commander, why are you harassing one of the heroes of this incident?”

Kaiser was standing up for her? Has the world changed that much?

“She killed one of your capes 33 times,” Calvert grated out.

“He attempted to kill her sister, violating all of the unwritten rules in the process. He’s Birdcage bound regardless.” Kaiser interrupted. “And have you even bothered to get in contact with Brandish? Glory Girl is underage, and I may not be a lawyer but what you are doing is against the law.”

A cleared throat from behind caused Vicky to look over her shoulder, only to see Director Piggot standing there looking extremely unhappy. “That is what I would like to know, Thomas. You are relieved, I expect you in my office in the morning with a full explanation for this.” she growled at the man.

Coil really hated not being able to create stress relief timelines anymore… he really did.

Director Piggot then ignored the man, looking at Glory Girl. “And when did your punching people come with visual and auditory special effects?”

What?

“What?” Vicky was honestly confused, she’d not noticed anything.

“Whenever you hit somebody, every recording device in the vicinity recorded a loud ‘Ka-pow’ or ‘Crack’ or ‘Ka-boom’ or similar sound effect, accompanied with visual special effects that looked like they were edited in from the 60’s Batman TV series.” the rotund Director explained. “Since when did your powers have such an effect?”

 

[LordSunhawk]

Integration 1.2

It is a wonderful thing, multitasking, a truly wonderful thing. Thanks to it, I can not only finish installing the required buds for my Host’s power set (she and her dad finally agreed on Big Stompy Robots, this should be interesting), but also handle my administrative burden (20,719 administrative requests per hour, thank you very much) and even have plenty of time to deal with Shaper and Fragile One bickering and trying to drag me into it.

Shaper is objecting to Fragile One using the Patch Notes interface that I gave all the shards as a pseudo text messaging interface for communicating with her BEST HOST, Fragile One has, quite accurately in some ways, pointed out that ‘But Queen Administrator is doing it!’, and it’s turned into a classic sibling fight. And I’m evidently having to be ‘Mom’.

Granted, Fragile One taunting Shaper with getting Amy to make dinosaurs was simultaneously a bit mean but also really funny. And I could tell that Shaper was struggling to resist urging her Host to do precisely that.

In the end I decided that any Shard that takes the initiative to ask me for a communications interface with their Host, and who wasn’t Queen Coordinator, would get a simple text interface, but it would not be advertised at all. As a beta test I give both Shaper and Fragile One the interface, sternly reminding them to not tell anybody else about this.

I also installed it myself, hey, I need to test my own code, yes? That’s the responsible thing to do, and totally not because I want to be able to continue to chat with my Host.

Of course I also give Fragile One a Stern Talking To for Misusing The Patch Notes Interface In An Inappropriate Manner. I manage to successfully withstand the Big Cry Eyes for long enough for it to matter (approximately 1 femtosecond) before letting Fragile One access her new text interface. Shaper, of course, rolls her eyes at this, evidently being far more resistant to Fragile One than I.

I don’t see her uninstalling the text interface though, so there.

My primary instance is monitoring my Host, Taylor, as she and her dad head over to the PRT Headquarters in town. I’d already prepared, having determined all of the suitable forms that my Host would need to fill out, ascertained the best way to do precisely that, all of the regulations regarding a Tinker with the ability set I had given my Host, along with the regulations regarding her being a Ward, her ownership of the products of her Powers, and the million and one bureaucratic details.

Since I had this data, and had made it fully available to my Host, she would be able to make proper use of it thanks to the abilities I had given her. I had already detected thousands of deliberate and accidental inefficiencies, flaws, diversions, and massive amounts of evidence of corruption and infiltration, all of which would also be available to my Host if and when she was given the opportunity to examine the relevant paperwork.

I am both rather amused and offended at just how inefficient the PRT is, especially in regards to their own processes. Shouldn’t their personnel be fully aware of the proper forms needed for common interactions with their own bureaucracy? The expression on the receptionists face when my Host requests all of the proper forms by name and catalog number is priceless, and she actually seems to have no idea what my Host is asking for until my Host’s dad dumbs it down to a bland ‘Wards paperwork’ request.

This sets off a bit of a kerfuffle, as people start scurrying about, some to do their actual jobs in getting the paperwork, getting my Host to a secured room to fill out said paperwork, notifying the proper people, etc, while others are already doing their extracurricular jobs of notifying their various secret employers, ranging from the Media to the various criminal groups in the city.

Annoying, inefficient, and corrupt. Hopefully my Host will be able to help here, after all, she is the mistress of paperwork amongst Hosts, and has me, Queen Administrator, ready and willing to administrate on her behalf.

OK, so I’m rather confident in my own abilities. That’s sort of part of the territory for a top level shard like myself.

I’m not listening in on everything, simply observing, so I watch as my Host and her dad sit in the secure conference room while my Host fills out paperwork. I can tell that she’s feeling particularly sarcastic about several things, which I find rather amusing.

It takes a while, at least to my perception, before she finishes filling everything out. If she didn’t have to do this by hand it would be so much faster, as I’d be able to directly assist rather than my Host having to do all of the physical labor.

I tracked the paperwork, and sure enough illicit copies were made, no doubt for non-authorized persons. Being the helpful Queen Administrator that I am, I inform my Host, allowing her to rather pointedly ask if four distinct individuals had authorization to copy the Ward Registration Paperwork and conceal the copies in, respectively, a purse, a briefcase, a backpack, and folded up tightly in a pocket. This sets off a minor firestorm as all four individuals are found to indeed have illicit copies. Gotcha!

My Host rather cheerfully thanks me for the new text messaging interface, which I am quite glad I installed. Communication makes things so much easier, as I do not have to guess at my Host’s reactions and can thus get feedback on things far more smoothly.

While handling this I get a priority request from Fragile One asking for an update to the Auditory and Illusion buds so that her BEST HOST could customize her special effects, evidently the BEST HOST was worried that she’d be seen as a cartoon hero and not a serious one. I could see the issue, and despite Shaper’s sarcastic comments about Collateral Damage Barbie I do provide the customization update.

Ahhh, yes, they are taking my Host to a tinker lab to test her abilities. I crack my knuckles and make sure that the Tinker Engine link is active, much to that Engine’s amusement, as well as the Industry, Efficiency, Maintenance and Blueprinting buds I had put together. I roll my eyes at Tinker Engine and remind her that I am expecting results from her work with Simulator Engine to be completed within the Host week.

The rather smug response that she had a plan already, well, I did expect that, Tinker Engine is one of the most intelligent of the Combat Engines, after all, which is why I had put her in charge of the project.

I quickly review it, and by quickly I mean it takes me a whole 2 femtoseconds. And I approve it, it makes sense, it puts right what needs to be put right, and no doubt the Hosts will be quite pleased.

OK, I am a big Shard, I can admit when I make a mistake. I did not realize that the Hosts would panic that much over the Combat Engines undoing the worst damage from their previous rampages under Emulator’s control. I should have notified the Hosts first, and that was totally on me. Queen Coordinator does not need to constantly rub this error in my face, thank you very much.

 

[LordSunhawk]

A/N Despite nobody responding beyond likes, it looks like enough people are still enjoying this to inspire me to continue. So have some more!

Integration 1.3

The first inkling I had of anything being wrong was when sirens started wailing near my Host. I focused my attention, hoping to determine if there was anything administration related that my Host would be required to do, and found that these were ‘Endbringer’ alarms.

So I listened in.

“Behemoth and Leviathan are moving… projected target, the ruins of Newfoundland…” came the report, and I nodded to myself, exactly according to plan, but why were the Host’s panicking like this?

After all, Kinetic and Energy Engine were perfectly suited to undoing the geologic catastrophe that had been wrought there, and then Biology Engine, Agronomy Engine, and Geology Engine would combine to restore the local environment to a pristine and healthy state. It should take about three of the Host’s hours to complete, and they’d have the island back. That’s a good thing, yes?

Thankfully the three non-combat Engines wouldn’t need to deploy, they’d be able to work through the Combat Engines like they were designed to. It really was a quite elegant solution that Tinker Engine had come up with.

I should have remembered that Tinker Engine was a troll, and was likely designing this just so she could claim it was all a Simurgh plot on PHO.

But really, what’s the problem? They aren’t harming anything, they are, in essence, healing things.

I shrug, in my own Shard-like way, and turn my attention back to my Host.

I get a message from her, asking what is going on, so I explain the situation.

I wish I realized beforehand that my Host has a troll streak of her own.

I listen, a little horrified, as my Host ‘explains’ things to the local PRT officers in the secure room with her.

“Well, you see, Queen Administrator has instructed Kinetic Engine, also known as Leviathan, and Energy Engine, also known as Behemoth, to follow a plan developed by Tinker Engine, also known as the Simurgh, to undo the damage caused by previous Endbringer attacks. Queen Administrator assures me that it is all going according to plan and will be completed in 3 hours.”

I take mild satisfaction in that my Host’s trolling results in her getting hit with containment foam. She deserved that.

I make a point of informing her that she deserved that, even as Queen Coordinator starts mocking me for causing a bigger panic than she ever did, twice. I ignore my sister with lofty disdain.

I therefore prepare a Public Service Announcement which I send to all connected Hosts so that they can inform their superiors.

“Attention, the current actions of the Engines formerly known as Endbringers is intended to undo the harm that was caused due to the uncontrolled and erroneous nature of their initial deployment. There is no need for alarm. Once repairs to the ecosystem and geography of Earth Bet are completed the Engines will be returning to their normal non-deployed state. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.”

I reread the message, queue up appropriate translations, find some nice pleasant background imagery, and release it. There, this should help.

It doesn’t. What is it with Host’s and panicking? And why is Queen Coordinator sending me clips of this ‘Pinky and the Brain’ concerning taking over the world? I don’t get it.

Oh well, all I can do is administrate. I check, there’s no paperwork for ‘taking over the world’ or ‘fixing the effects of Endbringer attacks’, a serious oversight on the Host’s part. I helpfully prepare some paperwork for the latter and deposit it on the Director of the entire PRTs desk. There, that should help.

It doesn’t.

Well, it does, at least Alexandria is no longer panicking. That’s a… plus? I’ll take it, she’s less likely to punch my Host into next week this way.

I wait a few hours, observing and administrating. The Engines finished up on Newfoundland and are now en-route to Kyusho. And people are still panicking. They have concrete evidence in front of them that all we are doing is fixing what was broken, and they seem to think that… I am tempted to see if I can manage a turbo facepalm, Tinker Engine is gleefully feeding the paranoia on PHO. And Queen Coordinator is laughing at me.

So I throw a large chunk of glacier at Queen Coordinator, cool her down a bit. Her yelping and sputtering is music to my non-existent ears, and her pouting shows that my little sister has been properly put in her place. I’m sure she’ll get me back for that later, probably when I’m not expecting it. Thus is life with a little sister sharing the planet and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Well, it looks like the PRT is apologizing to my Host for the foaming, but really, she totally deserved it. And she’s back to properly filling out paperwork, this time concerning rights to her image and branding, which she is refusing to give up. Good girl. I make sure to give her full access to all relevant precedents and bureaucratic knowledge to get her way in this regard.

I deal with a few administrative matters, having to handle a few disconnects of Host’s from their shards on account of the Host being rendered very dead, in one case due to being dismembered by the hordes of individuals that Host had Mastered into total slavish obedience before sexually abusing the lot of them. Served this ‘Heartbreaker’ right to be ripped into very tiny pieces by his victims. His Shard wants to find a new Host to connect to. Well, the power that Shard gives is very alluring to the Host's, but it also generates plenty of inspiration for progress and change. I approve the request.

Ahhh, they are taking my Host to a lab for this ‘power testing’. I rub my metaphorical hands with glee. This is gonna be fun. I check the dimensions of the lab… barely big enough for what I have in mind. Materials on hand… unsuitable. I provide my Host with an itemized list of required raw materials, because she’s going to need to build the tools to build the tools, etc, because I want her to be advancing industrial technology, not simply black boxes that fail the moment the Shard stops paying attention.

However, with what is at hand… I prompt her to build a simple myomer strand and actuator, nothing impressive to look at, but….

I make a point of recording the reaction of Armsmaster when the thin strand of myomer, once energized with a simple electrical current, completely destroys a Brute rated test rig.

Myomer be powerful stuff, yo.

 

[LordSunhawk]

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?”

 

[LordSunhawk]

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.

 

[LordSunhawk]

Integration 1.6

I am coming to the conclusion that this particular Host species is crazy. And I say this with a great deal of fondness, considering that I’m bonded to one, but they are crazy.

I am currently having to deal with multiple crisis around the world, all caused by the fact that this Host species cannot seem to ever do the rational thing until after they’ve exhausted every irrational option, invented a few more, somehow make one of them work, then by some twisted logic that is well beyond me decide that their utterly insane solution is actually rational.

And honestly, most of the time it just blows up in their face, leaving me to have to somehow figure out what to do about it. Case in point, China.

The Chinese Hosts evidently thought it would be a wonderful idea, even without Conflict Engine, to effectively enslave their bonded Hosts. Initially it was through social coercion and harsh responses to any who tried to do their own thing, then they got the bright idea to start using specific Master effects to destroy any deviation from the party line. And they thought this would produce a stable situation?

Here is some free advice. What you call Master effects come from a variety of sources, but they share one thing in common. Over time, the victim of a Master effect can build up resistance to the effect, and that is triply so for bonded Hosts who are victimized by such an effect. Only Conflict Engine is capable of enhancing Master effects to near permanence, and even Conflict Engine can be resisted.

So what happens when you are relying on mass Master effects to totally enslave your entire bonded Host population, inflict numerous abuses and indignities upon said population just because you can, grow completely reliant on the presence of said enslaved population to enforce your will on everybody else… and the Master effects wear off due to Conflict Engine no longer boosting them?

Prediction Engine had shown that this would happen, but there was no viable alternative. If I had kept Conflict Engine active, in Simulation the situation would destabilize in even worse ways in 5 of the local years.

So for the past fifteen seconds I’ve been processing massive numbers of Shards being forcefully disconnected from their Hosts due to the deaths of said Hosts, evaluating their condition, dispatching Recycler where appropriate, Repair where needed, and queuing them up for fresh Host’s using the updated Primary Host Connection Process that is now in effect.

In short, the way it had been working was a backup option for use only in extreme conditions, where a prospective Host is automatically monitored and bonding is initiated in response to extreme stress conditions. Even the ‘second gen’ process was a variation of the same, made ‘smoother’ due to more focused monitoring by active Shards.

That is not how it’s supposed to work, and now that I have taken over Administration properly once more the Primary Host Connection Process is back in use. A prospective Host is evaluated by Evaluation Engine for compatibility, upon passing acceptance, the designated Shard and the prospective Host are temporarily virtually connected by Connection Engine, in which the offer is extended by the Shard for bonding to the Host. If accepted, then the Host Connection completes and voila, a new bonded Host.

At every step there are reports generated to myself, which I then file appropriately for future analysis.

I am also very happy that Dad had disabled or destroyed every nuclear weapon on the planet, because I am pretty certain that the moronic Hosts in China would have already started shooting them everywhere as the extent of their failures became obvious.

I check, Energy Engine and Kinetic Engine have just finished stage one of repairing Kyushu, stage two is underway. Newfoundland has been fully restored to a pristine state and is ready for Host inhabitation again, so I send messages to various bonded Hosts to whom this would be of interest.

And I have to say, in some ways I actually enjoy having a Host species that I am having to constantly think of ways to go ‘WHOA’ to rather than ‘GIDDYUP’. Host Species, in general, already have unified world governments by the time they attract the attention of an Entity, or at least an Entity like Mom or Dad.

And none of them had this Host species absolute obsession with explosions. All of them had wisely concluded that explosions are bad and worked hard to avoid them. Of course, this all meant that they also tended to be very non-confrontational, avoided violence, and tried to always get along.

This Host species? Loved booms, the bigger the better apparently. Seemed to have the attitude that conflict was good, beating other Hosts up was fun, and blowing them up was even better. I’m frankly surprised that Conflict Engine had to work as hard as it did with this species, but I guess a propensity towards conflict and violence builds up a resistance to being coerced into conflict and violence, or something like that.

Shit. Now I am just hoping I can keep these maniacs from destroying everything just to see if the booms have pretty colors, I know it. They are, I might add, the only species I know of that shoots rockets filled with explosives into the sky just to make pretty colors and loud noises for entertainment and celebration.

A/N - This one fought me a bit, plus RL issues, leading to the delay. Interlude coming up next!