A Skylark wounded in the wing A Cherubim does cease to sing

[Enkidu]

The continuing journeys of Delphi Ara A-1 [αφα], and the simulacra Atar/Nesrin Khan, ward of consciousness. Chapter 1.

The Tallhares loped through the cold, midsummer snow, whirling into whorls in the torchlight of their optics. A leg of unit 8173-Helena brushed the cap of a young fir that was clinging on after the last avalanche. Helena hopped onto one leg, suspended on its gyros like a crane waiting for a fish, scanning the half-exposed, haggard canopy; still alive. A non-destructive xaser flash revealed that the young fur had the age rings of twenty one winters, as much as Sol seasons could be applied to the desolation of the Mind-world.

The Gammune formally known as Nesrin Khan reached out through the garbled links of the FTL connectome, and signed new directives into 8173-Helena and 8174-Juno to avoid disturbing the plant life as much as possible. They were, after all, guests in another's garden. The fact that the nascent biosphere of the valley still clung on meant that, somewhere, a green-fingered Gammue had kept their watch over the old geoengineering stations that had been left to rot and degrade since planetfall. Already the trees that had grown here exhibited fascinating mutagenic properties - furs with splined leaves, larch with spiral flowers - benign, or harmless mutations that did little to harm the life expectancy of the trees. Perhaps some day, when Sirius had shared the secrets of ascension to the point where they were secrets no longer, a human, not a gammuian, would walk among a meadow.



<Origin source, located. Positional data inferred. Separation - eight point three two dot one nine three nine recurring meters. Execute? > Juno spiked up, letting out a roar approximate to that of a harbour seal, waggling its manipulators like an elated dog. Its wetware was a synthetic splicing of animal improbabilities, borrowed from all over Sirius's genetic pools. With limited resources, it was simpler to weave together a nervous system from protein, carbohydrate and a tissue loom than it was to mine, grind and cut enough optronic chips to create an armature that could think for itself. Nesrin wasn't opposed - the servitors grew into all manner of fascinating character traits. Grown consciousness was energy-efficient, synthesised consciousness was energy intensive. But it was like owning a pet, or raising a child. The uncertainty was part of the point.

"Good girl. Juno, Hela', Dig it out, carefully. Don't destroy the trees, you feel me? We're still guests here." The servitors nodded, springing against their suspension. Of course they understood - they were a part of her. But Atar had made a point of never nano-mannaging their constructs. Atar held the controversial belief that Gammu's desolation would never end if the Gammu kept creating entities that couldn't think for themselves. They kept making oversights, oversights which an entity caught in neural nirvana would have little time for, but a Gammune who had ventured beyond the homeworld would have thought to clear the avalanche off the emanation chute.

Yet again, that same neglectful intelligence had taken the time to care for the trees.

The robots dug - if digging could truly be the word. They scythed their way through the snow pack, infrared lasers glinting as compacted ice and tundra flash-vaporized to steam. Helena's boot pressed a mandible into the trench, and scrabbled forwards. Ice gave way to tagia permafrost, and then to black, compacted mud, then steel, then...

<Chute accessed. Handshaking tractor relay. Expect artifact recovery in T-three, T-two, T-one...">

Helena weighed the Neural Transducer in her two-fingered plasteel hands. <"Artifact recovered. Awaiting pickup.">


It was an odd artefact, a monstrous artefact. A tissue biopsy from an unknown primate species of the K'vosh who once dwelt under the sands of Primus, expanded and extrapolated into a mechanism and caged in a container of Malvada crystal and ancient, rad-degraded superalloy. On Manhattan, it'd be highly sought after. To the K'vosh, it would have been obsolescent rubbish.

Nesrin sighed into the void. She detested her adoptive homeworld, its byzantine doctrines and ancient plots that took a millennia to ferment. Only the trees marked the passage of the ages. Nesrin preferred to move fast and break things.

This attitude had alienated her to Gammu, and, for a time, made her useful to all manner of evil who stood to profit from bending Sirius to their will. Sometimes you had to break a treasure to cannibalise its secrets. But Nesrin was tired of being a hammer.

Nesrin, and the Atar fire that shared her consciousness, wanted to build. So did the tallhares, lifting their ancient cargo above their metal bodies towards the sleeting sky.


"Bingo. Stay put, ladies. I'm coming to pick you up."


Nesrin's Osprey - an Outworlder craft bent almost unrecognisable under an armature of shimmering wiring that straddled the fighter like veins, tore through the hail and carved a contrail down towards the surface. They had work to do.

---

THE SYNDIC LEAGUES
(A co-operative of Rheinland's outlawed trade unions, determined to take the underworld for themselves.)

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[Enkidu]

Chapter 2. [αφα - 'Atar']
Out we go. Out with us all. Flowed through you as sidewinder fang to the bladder, as mercury to a kidney.

Have fighter, will travel. Roam by the nodal nexus, through the webways, piped through the walls, through cosmic vacuum's insulation, and up yonder, we go, through the void spaces.
Scuttle onward, silverfish. Toward a biochemical need that makes mechanisms of the thoughtless. You're not without reflection. You could chew asunder the neuralnet, if your jaw was wide enough. Wide enough to masicate the collective fracture, the spar-bone, the awkward crook that is Sirius - a human fraction, in distillate.

You are but one of the marooned. As on Pygar so on Manhattan. As on Gammu as on Europa. A millennia of precedents.

Again, you're grappling with the big picture. Be careful; carry that frame too far, and you'll snap it, if you don't shatter under it first. That's a lot of loadmass, and you're only one, singular abstraction. A decadent distraction, for a Gammusian short of a vector, stilted from any raison d'être.
Factorize the goals. You can't stay still while Sirius is mobile. Out of Gammu's high atmosphere plunged the Core and blew away your ripest excuses.
This escapism ends now. Head outbound. Return to the roost to be plucked at and mother-henned.

You've been casting pebbles and shells from over the cosmic cliff, but you never heard so much as a plop, let alone saw a ripple. Oceans of obsolescence isolate you from the present of Gammu.
Then, at the fringe of isolation, as you plunge towards the shifting edge worlds - the tide bore arrives.
On the way to nowhere, On the way to oblivion, you find US. You hear, not with ears but with the tendrils of a stem projection, ONE OF US.

A Gammusian voice, spoken not in words, but in quantum strings, brash and self-assured; an inquest of a cello section. All desires for kinship shattering on the cliff you've totted up. He's relentless, for this Gammusian is a young one; sure of itself, quick to judge.
Unit-9467Foxtrot - Novak.
When you tell 9467 that You and I are of one mind, he rebuffs you, as is the way of the young. He's traumatized, as you are. He only senses your oddities; your simulacra, the scant tools you've worked with - the Hammerhead you've covered your innards with against the cosmic rays - the trappings of humanity in a Core fighter and a Zoner's corpse. Novak, a survivor of such implements, gives an understandable response. He accuses. You are incomplete, Nesrin Khan, made filthy over your years of vagabondage. You must be remade clean.

Code:

[20.11.2025 22:18:26] Atar:  <<<<||||||>>>>>
[20.11.2025 22:19:08] Atar:  ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::???::::::???:::::???
[20.11.2025 22:19:08] Death: Asharru'Yag suffered a self-inflicted catastrophic decompression.
[20.11.2025 22:19:11] Death: Cher`Kash suffered a self-inflicted catastrophic decompression.
[20.11.2025 22:19:12] Death: Al'yoth-Zyr suffered a self-inflicted catastrophic decompression.
[20.11.2025 22:19:50] Atar: ::[Metaheuristic_packet] <Recieved> [Degredation_state_ERROR]::
[20.11.2025 22:20:03] Atar:  "In media res."
[20.11.2025 22:20:59] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [Only silence. No respond from the other party yet. It judges- calculating.]
[20.11.2025 22:22:37] Atar: *A gamma-flash from the brink of porch collapse. A quark resolves upon another quark, in supersymmetry...
[20.11.2025 22:22:50] Atar:  ...across two hundred and sixty one, point six light years.*
[20.11.2025 22:23:15] Atar: :: ::
[20.11.2025 22:23:54] Atar:  ::[Transient objective] (of) '_ORIGIN' = "Home" (subjective string)::
[20.11.2025 22:25:36] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Identify - yourself :::]
[20.11.2025 22:25:54] Atar:  "Zone Twenty One. Oh, <expletive> me", so catastrophises Nesrin Kahn.
[20.11.2025 22:26:40] Death: Novacula suffered a self-inflicted catastrophic decompression.
[20.11.2025 22:28:43] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Whoever you are - 'I' have other matters to clear :::]
[20.11.2025 22:29:05] Tip: Accidentally mounted the wrong ID and ruined your repsheet? Planning on repurposing an old ship for a different faction? You can use the /resetrep command to reset to a blank repsheet. This costs $100,000 Credits per use.
[20.11.2025 22:30:46] Atar:  * An identifying coalescence flashes through the void. Whoever the sender is, they are, at least, in form...
[20.11.2025 22:30:56] Atar:  ...if not in media or in whole, a Gammuian.*
[20.11.2025 22:32:27] Death: Atar was put out of action by a hostile vessel.
[20.11.2025 22:32:32] Welcome to the Discovery Freelancer 24/7 RP server!
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[20.11.2025 22:32:47] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Your signal - a 'Gammunian' ? What are you seeking by - reaching 'me' ? :::]
[20.11.2025 22:37:39] Atar:  ::<Metaheuristic error>::
[20.11.2025 22:39:41] Atar: *Harmonies strum the cosmic strings as ?-DIE- -?-? attempts a justification of themselves.*
[20.11.2025 22:40:32] Atar: *Faced by an answer poorly befitting the question, the Being begins again, working from 9467.F's predicates.*
[20.11.2025 22:41:23] Atar: [::: "Our" signal - is of <Nexical origin> :::]
[20.11.2025 22:41:47] Atar: :::[Gammu]:::
[20.11.2025 22:42:36] Atar:  :::[Syntax between Gammuian Being and Gammukind Origin is... "unworkable"]:::
[20.11.2025 22:43:13] Atar:  :::["Our" nature has changed since "I" last "reached out" to "touch"]:::
[20.11.2025 22:44:06] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: How your nature - changed ? :::]
[20.11.2025 22:44:13] Atar: :::[The resonances are not as they were. Different physical predicates. A base 7 against a base wau]:::
[20.11.2025 22:45:00] Atar:  :::[Explained summerically; isolation and continuous evolution resulted in discontinuity between 'Gammu' and...
[20.11.2025 22:45:18] Atar:  ::::_SELF::::
[20.11.2025 22:46:18] Atar:  ..."we" find an objective in the deciphering of "our" continumn of separation]:::
[20.11.2025 22:47:23] Atar:  :::[Of one kind with two subsets. Two outcomes in different formations. <query> - is "that" not "engrossing"?]:::
[20.11.2025 22:48:57] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Not logical - however - 'I' simulate for the best of our kin - if you want to witness - new era shall you join ? :::]
[20.11.2025 22:49:18] Tip: Accidentally deleted the wrong character? Your harddrive failed and you lost your account? Visit our forums @Discoverygc.com and post under Player Help in the appropriate section.
[20.11.2025 23:04:09] Atar: "Nostalgic?"
[20.11.2025 23:04:49] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: So - it was you - - - :::]
[20.11.2025 23:04:59] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'I' have no data - on you :::]
[20.11.2025 23:05:22] Atar: "Nor I on you. We're a pair of estranged turtledoves."
[20.11.2025 23:05:38] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: And yet, things get stranger.
[20.11.2025 23:05:42] Atar: "I know this one though, as Puck must."
[20.11.2025 23:06:16] Atar: "It's been a brief eight years."
[20.11.2025 23:07:38] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Better late than never.
[20.11.2025 23:07:45] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Is your origin - truly 'Gammu' - 'Atar' ? :::]
[20.11.2025 23:07:59] Atar:  [::: <patching> metaheuristical infraphenomenal model:::]
[20.11.2025 23:09:02] Atar:  *Now no longer bounded by the exingent harsh limits of extreme interstellar distances, the floodgates open.*
[20.11.2025 23:09:31] Rules Tip: Discovery Freelancer is a role-playing server. All attacks against another player must be the result of some form of written role play. One-Word engagements such as "Engaging" or "Halt" are not considered sufficient.
[20.11.2025 23:09:53] Atar: *Over subluminal handshakes, 'Atar' transmits what, to a human observer, could be reciphered as memories.*
[20.11.2025 23:10:19] Atar: *But memory robs the immediacy from the experience, and nothing could be taken away.*
[20.11.2025 23:11:20] Atar:  {This atypical Gammuian appears to have been an early precusor to the post-occupation cognitive models...
[20.11.2025 23:11:45] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Your data - are - questionable - into 'my' perspective :::]
[20.11.2025 23:11:47] Atar:  ...that appeared in the wake of the Core's occupation of Gammu Actual}
[20.11.2025 23:12:42] Atar: {'Questionable' is exactly the correct term to suit this newcomer - or, rather, an oldcomer. This unit appears to be...
[20.11.2025 23:13:20] Atar:  ...backward, by the standards of its more contemporary peers. An abberation, of sorts. One which is, by Gammuian standards
[20.11.2025 23:13:44] Atar:  ...incomplete.}
[20.11.2025 23:14:59] A/)-ACV-Titania: "This entity appears to be unusual. No records have been found as to the units origin."
[20.11.2025 23:15:07] Atar: *A Bretonian voice, female but not feminite, middle-class, urbane, from the Isles of Wicken, Planet Cambridge.*
[20.11.2025 23:15:16] Atar: *effeminite
[20.11.2025 23:15:40] A/)-Blossoming.Star: "Our database does not show any matches."
[20.11.2025 23:15:45] Atar: ?:  Either startling, or I've been scrubbed.
[20.11.2025 23:16:27] Atar: ?: I wasn't high on Sapphir's list of priorities after she turfed me out.
[20.11.2025 23:16:36] Atar: ?: Ancient history.
[20.11.2025 23:16:49] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [Novak is uncertain. Preferring to observe for now before to decide anything.]
[20.11.2025 23:17:21] Atar: ?: Marduk gets a carving, and watchman serial number #726, gets sanitized. It's how it goes.
[20.11.2025 23:17:51] Atar: ?: Rozencrantz doesn't make it to the end of the play. Another Shakespeare analogy for you. How am I doing?
[20.11.2025 23:18:19] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I'm starting to think if she's turfed you out, this is probably the reason why.
[20.11.2025 23:18:31] Atar: ?: There's the old Auxo' spunk.
[20.11.2025 23:19:00] Atar: ?: Getting the obvious out of the way; why are we all here? I came because I got an itch.
[20.11.2025 23:19:14] Atar: ?: All the way from Curacao. Some itch.
[20.11.2025 23:19:28] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: [Static at first. The tabbing against the microphone could be heard.] Helllooooo, is this thing working?
[20.11.2025 23:19:47] Atar: ?: Yeah, it's working. We're doing voice comms? Thank God, we're doing voice comms.
[20.11.2025 23:20:07] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Mm. You're broadcasting on seven, N. Either way, our presence here isn't really your concern, now is it?
[20.11.2025 23:20:28] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I could ask you the same question, in fact.
[20.11.2025 23:20:35] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: An itch? I don't buy it.
[20.11.2025 23:20:43] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: Uh-huh, thank you. I am too far away from the console to see if this broadcasts. So. But you can hear me, that's good.
[20.11.2025 23:21:51] Atar: ?: It's all an abstraction layer. Do either of us still have a set of ears?
[20.11.2025 23:22:08] Atar: ?: Still, thank you. It's reassuring.
[20.11.2025 23:23:03] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: For security measure - 'I' will rather - keep an 'eye' on you 'Atar' - 'I' cannot let you wandering - with our technology-
[20.11.2025 23:23:05] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: I would look weird without ears...
[20.11.2025 23:23:53] Atar: ?: As is that itch. You're right to question it; I'm not sure how it functions either. When ?-?-?-? pulls me in a direction...
[20.11.2025 23:24:10] Atar:  that's where we go. For me, it manifested as an itch. I've had enough years to stop overthinking it.
[20.11.2025 23:26:02] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: In any case - for security measure - you must be locked down - so we can ensure our safety :::]
[20.11.2025 23:26:13] Atar:  [::: "We" conceed to _GAMMU <direction> :: [::: Issue precautionary measures as necessary, _9-4-6-7-F:::]
[20.11.2025 23:26:22] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I figured an entity considered all potential possibilities. Overthinking is part of the deal, is it not.
[20.11.2025 23:26:40] Atar: ?: "Usually."
[20.11.2025 23:26:59] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: Theoretically they are running simulations for every possible outcome which we humans would call 'overthinking'. So yes.
[20.11.2025 23:27:28] Atar: ?: "Simulator and simulacra."
[20.11.2025 23:27:39] Atar: ?: "A tale old as time."
[20.11.2025 23:27:44] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Good. So we're dealing with some kind of hybrid, in that case, based on what it said. Seems oddly..
[20.11.2025 23:27:57] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: But what do I know. I am just a scientist. Hah.
[20.11.2025 23:28:21] Atar: ?: "Almost. I'm a... hm."
[20.11.2025 23:28:58] Atar: ?: "I'm a Gammuian's imagistic replication of a person's qualia. It's a ship of theseus case. The original 'Odysseus'
[20.11.2025 23:29:30] Atar: was a Bretonian veteran of the colony wars, turned zoner, turned stain in the dunes of Pygar."
[20.11.2025 23:29:43] Rules Tip: If you die to another player, you must not only leave and not re-enter the system you died in for one hour, but you must also not attack the players you died to for one hour on ANY of your characters.
[20.11.2025 23:29:55] Atar: ?: "For eighteen months, that simulation also turned into one of you."
[20.11.2025 23:30:07] Atar: ?: "Before you had a citadel in Inverness."
[20.11.2025 23:30:45] Atar: ?: "That simulation wasn't au fait with the idea that they weren't the proverbial 'Real Boy', and took exception to Sapphir
[20.11.2025 23:30:48] Atar:  blurring the lines."
[20.11.2025 23:31:00] Atar: ?: "We lash out at that which reminds us of ourselves."
[20.11.2025 23:31:33] Atar: ?: "All of that -should- be in your datafiles. If it isn't, either Sapphir or her Number Two went and deleted it. Thanks, Hunt.
[20.11.2025 23:31:48] Atar: ?: "Either way, I'm a historical footnote."
[20.11.2025 23:31:56] A/)-Blossoming.Star: "Query. Does that mean that 'you' were 'human' once?"
[20.11.2025 23:32:15] A/)-Blossoming.Star: "Or. An entity trying to 'mirror' humankind."
[20.11.2025 23:32:30] Atar: ?: "I? No, no, probably not. I'm a replication of a dynamic system running on dissimilar wetware to dissimilar objectives."
[20.11.2025 23:32:53] Atar: ?: "It's taken me a good eight years of flying around by myself to accept that, but that's the way it goes."
[20.11.2025 23:33:35] A/)-Blossoming.Star: "Interesting. 'We' have evolved. A miracle of 'science'."
[20.11.2025 23:33:50] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: Shush.
[20.11.2025 23:34:06] Atar: ?: "If anything, you're the evolution, I'm, hm."
[20.11.2025 23:34:32] Atar: ?: "Pleasantly obsolescent? Resigned to it? Either way, it's immaterial. Qualia isn't real."
[20.11.2025 23:35:06] Atar: ?: "Gammu eventually involved Auxesia into whichever objective the dominant Minds are following at the present time."
[20.11.2025 23:35:17] Atar: ?: "That much I can infer."
[20.11.2025 23:35:41] Atar: ?: "My route's a discarded clipping. I'd doff a hat, if I had one."
[20.11.2025 23:35:49] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'I' have no - data about anything that old nodes did - however - 'I' cannot let such - anomalies uncheck :::]
[20.11.2025 23:36:28] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: And for that - you must be assimilated :::]
[20.11.2025 23:36:38] Atar:  [::: Nor "should" 'you' :::]
[20.11.2025 23:37:34] Atar: [:::'We' crossed the span of _Sirius to subordinate 'ourselves' to the fufilment of the 'Whole'. 'We' are 'yours'. :::]
[20.11.2025 23:38:39] Atar:  [::: Issue corrective modulation of This Mind as exingent to _Gammuian sustainment. 'We' are a resource. :::]
[20.11.2025 23:38:48] Atar:  [::: Use 'us' :::]
[20.11.2025 23:39:46] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Negative - you are not 'mine' - you must be assimilated :::]
[20.11.2025 23:39:50] Atar:  [::: Asssimilate our oneness into alloyance of the whole :::]
[20.11.2025 23:39:50] A/)-ACV-Titania: "Caution, alien entity detected. Arming offensive capabilities."
[20.11.2025 23:40:02] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Then - 'I' will see a use of you :::]
[20.11.2025 23:40:16] Atar: ?: "...Titania, Atar."
[20.11.2025 23:40:24] A/)-Blossoming.Star: "Priming all weapons, syncing fire-control with Titania. We are awaiting your command."
[20.11.2025 23:40:43] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Phoenix if that thing comes within our weapons envelope, crush it.
[20.11.2025 23:40:48] A/)-ACV-Titania: "Affirmative, commander."
[20.11.2025 23:40:53] Atar: ?: "Their loryclytic emmissive readoff's showing that they're likely a Vagrant. I thought, um..."
[20.11.2025 23:41:09] Endless.Void: ~{The once so brighten stars now demolished by the humanity [Lost]}~
[20.11.2025 23:41:23] Atar:  "...Last I knew, the Technocracy didn't go out of its way to engage the Vagrants." *Pause* ..."Guess I'm out of the loop."
[20.11.2025 23:41:34] Endless.Void: ~{The starts lighting brighter the darker the void}~
[20.11.2025 23:41:41] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I don't trust those things as far as I could throw them.
[20.11.2025 23:41:49] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I didn't get this far making stupid assumptions.
[20.11.2025 23:42:09] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: Can I have the main battery again? Pleassseeeee~
[20.11.2025 23:42:19] Atar: ?: "Strewth. The old band's gone and changed their crowd. Alright, I'm for it."
[20.11.2025 23:42:31] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I /am/ the old crowd.
[20.11.2025 23:42:35] Atar: ?: "Figured."
[20.11.2025 23:42:37] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I was just the one who saw sense.
[20.11.2025 23:43:00] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: You know this ship.
[20.11.2025 23:43:02] Atar: ?: "Yeah, I'm not one for irony, but I'm feeling it. That, and nostalgia."
[20.11.2025 23:43:17] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I also found your dossier in the archive, I know what you are.
[20.11.2025 23:43:44] Atar: ?: "...Sure, I'll buy that."
[20.11.2025 23:43:55] Atar: ?: "Glad to be recognized. Tentatively."
[20.11.2025 23:44:28] Atar: ?: "Hey, that morphform's enormous, and I'm not equipped for this."
[20.11.2025 23:45:02] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Yet people seem to think it exists for a chat.
[20.11.2025 23:45:10] Atar:  [:::_9467F, 'we' request transit to _Sucundus:::]
[20.11.2025 23:45:23] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: It seems to have thought better of picking a fight.
[20.11.2025 23:46:04] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'Vengeance' - would share the data you have regarding this- annomaly 'Atar' ? :::]
[20.11.2025 23:46:18] Atar: "Gracious of it, too - the Atar armature's flying with an eight year out-of-date weapons load."
[20.11.2025 23:46:40] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I can. Though it might share it with you by itself, it used to be one of us.. though this was a very long time ago.
[20.11.2025 23:47:25] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: So much so it took me a moment before I recognised what it was going on about. Old age sucks.
[20.11.2025 23:47:36] Atar:  [:::We grant uninhibited access to our cognitive record:::]
[20.11.2025 23:47:41] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: Mhm, you are ancient.
[20.11.2025 23:48:02] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: - - - So - it shall be - 'I' will clear this out :::]
[20.11.2025 23:48:07] Atar: ?: And yet, we're still alive, somehow. Metaphorically.
[20.11.2025 23:48:44] Atar: ?: I'm tracking to Secundus. If the fabrication frames don't eat the Atar as a white blood cell would digest cancer...
[20.11.2025 23:48:45] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: And the mystery of PI deepens.
[20.11.2025 23:48:52] Atar:  they might bolt on a few new emitters.
[20.11.2025 23:49:32] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Not yet - you must be observed before everything - else :::]
[20.11.2025 23:49:55] Rules Tip: Do not disconnect from the server to escape player versus player interaction. Your ship will remain helpless in space for 2 minutes and you will not be able to reconnect during this time.
[20.11.2025 23:50:03] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Even if you were part - of 'Technocracy' - 'I' cannot let an unknown threaten 'my' kin :::]
[20.11.2025 23:50:11] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Whatever is the form :::]
[20.11.2025 23:50:14] Atar:  [::: 'We' acknowledge your edict, _9467F.::]
[20.11.2025 23:50:30] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'Novak' :::]
[20.11.2025 23:51:11] Atar: ?: "I'd whistle, if this cockpit was pressurized."
[20.11.2025 23:51:30] Atar: ?: "We've made breathtaking advancements. Hah, breathtaking. Because I'm in trace gas."
[20.11.2025 23:51:38] Atar: ?: "Nobody? Alright."
[20.11.2025 23:51:59] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I..
[20.11.2025 23:52:03] A/)-Blossoming.Star: "Humor wasn't part of our initial programming."
[20.11.2025 23:52:04] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Nevermind.
[20.11.2025 23:52:27] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: For some reason whenever I'm in this area, strange things seem to pop up.
[20.11.2025 23:52:39] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: This by far is the strangest thing to date. [She sighs]
[20.11.2025 23:52:51] Atar: *The Gammuian's mask slips, and a trepidacious waterfall of probing queries floods through open space*
[20.11.2025 23:54:03] Atar:  ::[Primus Outpost was not as intensively re-adapted upon the prior visitation of this 'Mind' to Omicron Phi]::
[20.11.2025 23:54:51] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: We knew it as 'Lost'.
[20.11.2025 23:54:57] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Which.. was more fitting if you ask me.
[20.11.2025 23:55:09] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: Hate this place.. [She mumbled rather quietly.]
[20.11.2025 23:55:30] Atar: ?: "Lost, but with an itch that pulls you home. Better word for it might be 'Prodigal'."
[20.11.2025 23:55:42] Atar: ?: "Eh, too Biblical."
[20.11.2025 23:56:01] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I don't remember you being this.. whatever you are.
[20.11.2025 23:56:10] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I actually don't know how to describe it
[20.11.2025 23:56:30] Atar: ?: "...I've had time to gain some semblance of inner peace."
[20.11.2025 23:57:00] Atar: ?: "Seemed to remember I was more agonized."
[20.11.2025 23:57:04] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: My recollection, although it is almost in sepia by this point. You were far from peaceful.
[20.11.2025 23:57:28] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Whatever it is - it will be converted for 'my' use - Enigma's use unless - :::]
[20.11.2025 23:57:56] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: It is too dangerous and must be - neutralized :::]
[20.11.2025 23:58:10] Atar: ?: "I was a listless war veteran with the associated psychoneuralogical disorders. Pretty baseline for Auxesia."
[20.11.2025 23:58:37] Atar: ?: "Given most of that generation were either Generation Two Hellfire, or Generation Three Core."
[20.11.2025 23:58:52] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Or ex Navy.
[20.11.2025 23:58:58] Atar: ?: "Now the Legion's less fire but scattered ash. Right, or ex-navy."
[20.11.2025 23:59:07] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: I totally don't fit into the 'baseline' of a technocrat. Damn.
[20.11.2025 23:59:22] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Apparently I don't either but that is besides the point.
[21.11.2025 00:00:14] Atar: ?: "My complicating factor was that I, or, anyway, the thing that likes to pretend it thinks it's me, was aware of their, uh...
[21.11.2025 00:00:31] Atar: situation. It's a Plato's cave problem. You get blinded by the sun, and you think about running back in."
[21.11.2025 00:01:16] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: That.. aside. Where have you been all this time?
[21.11.2025 00:01:17] Atar: ?: "Sapphir, at the time, was playing with higher destinies and the like. The K'vosh and the man behind the curtain."
[21.11.2025 00:01:52] Atar: ?: "Nesrin saw just enough of what Sapphir was doing to be disgusted by  it, and, by extension, by Nesrin's reflection."
[21.11.2025 00:02:03] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Simulation completed :::]
[21.11.2025 00:02:08] Atar: ?: "So she, hrm - I'm gonna' steal a Hacker term here... Crashed Out?"
[21.11.2025 00:02:34] Atar: ?: "Curacao, and sometimes, Cambridge."
[21.11.2025 00:02:49] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Mhm. That doesn't seem surprising, no offense.
[21.11.2025 00:03:19] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I imagine there are a lot of things I have since forgotten, has been what, a decade? maybe more?
[21.11.2025 00:03:22] Atar: ?: "Nesrin's been humming along, enjoying the simulation of being a retired paramilitary, who turned in her...
[21.11.2025 00:03:24] Atar: flight boots."
[21.11.2025 00:03:31] Atar: ?: "It went in moments."
[21.11.2025 00:04:14] Atar: ?: "But it's difficult to see much value in keeping up the charade."
[21.11.2025 00:04:28] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'Atar' :::]
[21.11.2025 00:04:45] Atar:  [::: '9-4-6-7-F':::]
[21.11.2025 00:04:55] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Or rather whatever you are - the conclusion has been - set :::]
[21.11.2025 00:05:42] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'I' cannot let you - be a potential threat for the future 'I' foresee :::]
[21.11.2025 00:06:05] Atar:  [::: Deference to judgement will be unwavering and complete, even if said judgement results in 'our' abrogation:::]
[21.11.2025 00:07:25] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Either you remove all 'Gammunian' technology and be free - or 'I' let 'Technocracy' taking you away and decide your
[21.11.2025 00:07:28] EC]-Unit-9467F.: fate :::]
[21.11.2025 00:07:36] Atar: [::: 'We' are of _Gammu. 'We' exist, we will cease to exist, 'we' are recomposed, by the direction of peer consensus Minds:::]
[21.11.2025 00:08:12] Atar: [:::Removal of Gammuian technology is impossible. To remove Gammuian technology would be to remove the 'self':::]
[21.11.2025 00:08:34] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'old minds' - Those minds are no longer operational :::]
[21.11.2025 00:08:35] Atar: [::: Removal of the self equates to neutralization :::]
[21.11.2025 00:09:32] Atar: [:::If our destruction is a prerequisite for the furtherance of _Gammu, '9467F', then so we will submit:::]
[21.11.2025 00:09:57] Atar: [:::Yet 'we' would make the case for our continuence:::]
[21.11.2025 00:10:07] Unsure about the regions listed in your ID? You can use the following command to access the full systems classification list - /helpmenu regions
[21.11.2025 00:10:16] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: To be quite honest, I don't know what to do with it. There is no contingency for.. this thing.
[21.11.2025 00:10:50] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Yet - you said it was part of your 'group' :::]
[21.11.2025 00:10:53] Atar: ?: "This ship is me. The pilot in it is a simulacra. A robot that behaves as a human would."
[21.11.2025 00:11:07] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: A very long time ago, Novak. This was prior the citadel being constructed.
[21.11.2025 00:11:24] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: In fact.. our home consisted of this ship and the Wraith.
[21.11.2025 00:12:09] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: So - the 'fate' - of this entity is to 'my' resort - - - :::]
[21.11.2025 00:12:22] Atar: ?: "Taken together, 'we' are a Gammuian - but an older version. Nesrin/Atar/?-phi-? is Homo heidelbergensis....
[21.11.2025 00:12:38] Atar:  ...to whatever 9467F's Homo Sapien Sapiens is."
[21.11.2025 00:12:42] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: It is. I would prefer it did not die, as I aim to preserve all sentient life, no matter how insane it is..
[21.11.2025 00:13:26] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Yet - 'The Core' - could use it against 'my' kin :::]
[21.11.2025 00:13:38] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'I' cannot allow this possibility :::]
[21.11.2025 00:13:53] Atar: ?: "<expletive> The Core."
[21.11.2025 00:13:57] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: You are correct, Novak. I won't argue with you, I know you have other entities to protect.
[21.11.2025 00:14:33] Atar:  - A scream of neutrons -
[21.11.2025 00:14:44] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Hence why I aim to try and stop the likes of the Core taking more of your kin.
[21.11.2025 00:14:53] Atar: ?: "The Core nearly razed Gammu."
[21.11.2025 00:15:07] Death: UN]-Hydra-1 was put out of action by a hostile vessel.
[21.11.2025 00:15:13] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: While - 'I' would regard every 'Gammunian' equals - this non-complete 'Gammunian' is another story - :::]
[21.11.2025 00:15:53] Atar: ?: "The itch told me that. We all have our own ratways. All tunnels in the aggregate minds share a Neuron or two to Gammu."
[21.11.2025 00:16:06] Atar: ?: "I'm obsolescent, sure."
[21.11.2025 00:16:26] Atar: ?: "I'm running a program that's, by all measures, worryingly comparable, if you're not familiar with me, to what...
[21.11.2025 00:16:32] Atar: the Core are attempting to do."
[21.11.2025 00:16:48] Atar: "But I'm a replication of humanity run by a Gammuian."
[21.11.2025 00:17:06] Atar: "The core replicated Gammuians to run on their treadmills."
[21.11.2025 00:17:24] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I think we need some assurances.
[21.11.2025 00:17:47] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I don't really have a contingency for you, Novak here needs to protect his kin.
[21.11.2025 00:18:00] Atar: ?: "The convenient answer would be to shoot me."
[21.11.2025 00:18:25] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: I would prefer to avoid a death of an entity if it can be helped but, I ended up in Auxo by saving one myself.
[21.11.2025 00:19:34] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: [She sighs] I have a headache.
[21.11.2025 00:19:45] Atar: ?: "...You're in a defensive war."
[21.11.2025 00:19:55] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: There is no procedure in the manual for this.
[21.11.2025 00:20:05] Death: Ageira-Echolon-7 suffered a self-inflicted catastrophic decompression.
[21.11.2025 00:20:05] Atar: ?: "I'm an old asset. Make use of me."
[21.11.2025 00:21:10] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: How can you be useful. Do you want to go and slaughter the Core?
[21.11.2025 00:21:18] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: You don't need my permission for that.
[21.11.2025 00:21:33] Atar: ?: "At the moment, I'm caught, alone, in the cold. Other Gammusians aren't recognising ?-phi-? as one of our own."
[21.11.2025 00:22:00] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: I wouldn't say no to some core toys I can dismantle and turn their inferior tech into superior one~
[21.11.2025 00:22:22] Atar: ?: "...I'm not a core toy. This fighter came from Auxesia's stocks."
[21.11.2025 00:22:31] A/)-ACV-Titania: A: Which we stole from the Core.
[21.11.2025 00:22:48] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: That was more or less about slaughtering core the Venator mentioned.
[21.11.2025 00:23:05] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: You know, slaughter, then loot their cold.. dead.. bodies. Hehe.
[21.11.2025 00:23:22] Atar: ?: "Vivid, but, alright."
[21.11.2025 00:24:27] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: Compelling everything said - your best output 'Atar' - Adapt yourself into something less - questionable - or -
[21.11.2025 00:24:46] Atar: ?: "All ?-phi-? knows, all Di'ra'alpha understands, is that the Core broke through to the crust, and subordinated our own."
[21.11.2025 00:24:47] EC]-Unit-9467F.: your other output will be different :::]
[21.11.2025 00:24:57] Atar: ?: "?-phi-? didn't believe that was possible."
[21.11.2025 00:25:20] Atar: ?: "Something was shattered down there. My own people don't recognise my emissions."
[21.11.2025 00:25:33] A/)-Blossoming.Star: S: The Core is vile. The only solution to their existance is complete destruction. They will turn everything into profit.
[21.11.2025 00:25:41] Atar: ?: "Now... it's as if parts of ourselves are missing. Holes in the cosmic background radiation."
[21.11.2025 00:26:02] Atar: ?: "Nesrin fought the Core because she had an obligation to Auxo'. For us, now, as we are now?"
[21.11.2025 00:26:21] Atar: ?: "It's more essential. It isn't the replication that has a crusade to fight."
[21.11.2025 00:26:24] Atar: ?: "It's all of me."
[21.11.2025 00:26:43] Death: [EX]-SmallIcarus was put out of action by a hostile vessel.
[21.11.2025 00:26:51] Atar: ?: "We are of Gammu. Till the limits of it all."
[21.11.2025 00:28:29] Atar: [::: <query> - '9467F', define "different" :::]
[21.11.2025 00:29:19] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: 'I' do not perceive you as - 'Gammunian' - a pure one :::]
[21.11.2025 00:30:04] Atar: [::: To learn from the Sirius Sector is not to enter a state of Impurity :::]
[21.11.2025 00:30:19] Tip: The ''Laws of Sirius'', are a collection of in-roleplay laws for each house. They mention things such as contraband, punishments and fines and are enforceable by lawful IDed ships.
[21.11.2025 00:30:27] Atar:  [:::If such conditions were true then knowledge itself would be an anathema:::]
[21.11.2025 00:30:48] A/)-ACV-Titania: "Contact detected."
[21.11.2025 00:31:04] Atar: ?: "Titania, Atar. Talk to me."
[21.11.2025 00:31:09] Access Denied! Docking request rejected. Your papers are no good.
[21.11.2025 00:31:34] EC]-Unit-9467F.: [::: For now - it will be interrupted :::]

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