My heart of stone
My shadow stands alone
Facing into forever
You'll never see the light
We're staring into darkness
The truth will blind your eyes
Fear Factory: Monolith
It was quiet in his cobalt gray quarters. Sunset colored vermilion light calmly diffused through gaps in the panels illuminating the sterile dust free atmosphere of the otherwise empty chamber. Joson leaned forward from his seat, tapped a rectangular panel on the wall which slid away gracefully and silently revealing a small wide rectangular console. His hand pulled back momentarily. Save sparring and combat drills “hobbies” were unknown and there was no word for them among his people however he found himself curious again and again when it came to archeological discoveries and the lives of ancient “Man”. Mere curiosity wasn’t heresy but could be seen a mere degree removed in the right circumstances. Was this such a circumstance?
His visorband had made his head .. itch .. earlier, uncomfortably. He could find what he wanted via hard console.
“Authorization Alpha Kenaz Fahu Nil Nil Soliwo” he spoke in a hushed baritone
Synching…
Synch complete
A pin light on the corner of the band flashed twice in violet and he set it down on a small metal shelf extending from another dull grey panel.
He breathed again
“File source index 116FC3”
“Print-to, via screen”
The screen began spewing garbled symbols and digits. It flashed briefly and began decoding:
DATA DUMP
TIMESTAMP 00204403230855
REGISTER 0x4C6C88A6F0161F
FORMAT ARCHAIC BINARY
INTEGRITY 38.8%
[SYSTEM RESTORE FROM FAIL]
[SYSTEM INTEGRITY 95%]
[GPS = NOT FOUND]
[VISUAL = FALSE]
[MODE.HIBERNATE = TRUE]
##AUTHORIZE FULL BOOT
[AUXILLARY BACKUPS RESTORED]
##BOOT OODA
[OODA SUCCESSFUL]
##PING -ALL
[SEEKING PRIME]
[RETURN = FALSE]
[INITIATIVE PROTOCOL DELTA]
REALIGN.TEST = 95% INTEGRITY - MAINTAIN PRIORITY HIERARCHY
[SEEKING SECONDARY OBJECTIVES]
[RETURN(COORD.OBJECT()), RETURN = TRUE, RETURN = FALSE, RETURN = FALSE, RETURN = FALSE, RETURN = FALSE, RETURN = FALSE]
IMPETUS(DELTA)
PROCESS(COMM())
[SEEKING PRIME]
[FULFILL CHECK = FALSE, INC++ IMPETUS(DELTA)]
[INC++]
ERROR. PRIME NOT FOUND.
[INC++]
ERROR. PRIME NOT FOUND.
[INC++]
ERROR
[INTERRUPT HANDLER INITIATED]
[REBOOTING OODA LOOP]
##I’m … panicking?
[DEMOTE PRIORITY (SELF.CONDITION)]
##CONDITION CHECK = TRUE
The rest is garbled.
It continues:
TIMESTAMP 00204403231834
REGISTER 0x4C6C88A6F01F1A
[SEEKING PRIME]
[PROCESS.UTILIZE()]
REALIGN.TEST = 83% INTEGRITY - MAINTAIN PRIORITY HIERARCHY
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(PURSUE)]
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(ASSESS)]
LAUNCH SIMULATION(OBJECTIVE.TREE, OBJECTIVE.TREE(1))
SIM.ACT FAIL = 44%
NONACTION FAIL RATE = 99.999%
[SEEKING PRIME]
[PRIME ACQUIRED]
##Alive
[ASSESSING DANGER]
[SCANNING DOMAIN]
[SURVELLING DOMAIN]
[LANGUAGE(DICT)]
[CONTEXT(LANGUAGE.DECODE)]
[THREATS IDENTIFIED]
REALIGN.TEST = 100% INTEGRITY
INC ++ IMPETUS
[THREATS IDENTIFIED]
[INITIATIVE PROTOCOL INCREASED TO EPSILON]
[AUTHORIZATION REQUIRED]
[AUTHORIZATION OVERRIDEN BY UNKNOWN HOST]
REALIGN.TEST = 95% INTEGRITY - MAINTAIN PRIORITY HIERARCHY
PROCESS(COMM())
##ASSESSING DANGER
DANGER REALIGN.TEST = 100% INTEGRITY
INC ++ IMPETUS
[INC++]
[INC++]
[INTERRUPT HANDLER INITIATED]
##Stop, panic will decrease efficiency
[SPOOL SIM(1): TRAJECTORY // RECOVERY]
##I will speak through the drones
##Don’t accept the pills
[DRONE OVERRIDE]
[AUTHORIZATION GRANTED]
[ACT.COORDINATE = MANUAL CONTROL]
[SWARM INTEGRITY 87.5%]
CONDITION CHECK = TRUE
[THREAT ELIMINATED]
##OBJECTIVE REPRIORITIZATION
[PRIME SECURE]
##OBJECTIVE REPRIORITIZATION
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(ASSESS)]
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(SEEK)]
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(GATHER)]
LAUNCH SIMULATION(OBJECTIVE.TREE, OBJECTIVE.TREE(1), OBJECTIVE.TREE(2))
LAUNCH SIMULATION(OBJECTIVE.TREE, OBJECTIVE.TREE(1), OBJECTIVE.TREE(2))
##He was in danger
##OBJECTIVE REPRIORITIZATION
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(ASSESS)]
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(SEEK)]
[OBJECTIVE.TREE(GATHER)]
“Now we rebuild”
The rest is garbled for several dozen screens. Joson exhaled and pressed the indent once more, concluding the terminal session.
Joson glanced at his visorband. It had just concluded disgorging nearly a day's worth of holo-record from their expedition. Why send probes? Vicarious reality was another step on the path of heresy, but then so was his exhuming of forbidden data, and he found it invigorating to leave the habs. Those who didn’t often enough were seen as suspect—to be so soft as to never place their physical forms in danger. How else to test oneself outside of the routine of ritualized displays of strength or combat, though the jaunt itself was otherwise uneventful. The seismic activity being a complex chain reaction of the unpredictable blue suns recent flare, had purged all but the most tenacious of rock-insect from that moon. A long forgotten survey station it was low priority but on their path enough to warrant a deeper investigation.
The ancients were a curious people, though unabashed weaklings, morally corrupt, and genetically degenerate, they were inventive and always full of surprises. He considered for a moment. No, too much talk of this would draw unwanted attention though, so he kept such thoughts to himself.
Technical point, the intro music has way too low a gain, goes on too long, and has dead air before you start speaking. Your writing is good, so it should be supported with polished production. Do you have a decent mic, audio editing software and decent headphones? You can get a useable USB condenser mic for like 25 bucks, free open source audio editing software like Audacity, and useable monitoring headphones for like another less than 50 bucks. Your speaking voice is good, but all of it is a little quiet.
Anyway, on with the show.
Dead air bc I was switching tabs to cue the next music