We'll fast forward this training montage.
The team takes a few hours to play around with changing shape, creating objects and otherwise manipulating the neural interface. Their practice gains them experience in its use and a lovely +1 dynamic bonus for further actions like the ones they've been doing. Eventually the technician gives them the boot from the machines and down the hall to one last room with one last person, a man who seems much more important then the last two, judging by his uniform.
The team and the man sit down at a table in what looks like a conference room and after a long pause the man begins.
"Here's whats going on. Currently we are in an area of deep space near the edge of the galaxy. There are no stars out here for several dozen lightyears in any direction. What there is out here is a jump point. A jump point that, if you angle in on the right vector, leads straight into the heart of UWM territory. Needless to say, we keep this place under close watch. The reason why your here is because our guard as gone AWOL, for lack of a better word."
The team looks at each other for a moment.
"And what does that have to do with us? Or these neural interface things?"
"The guard of this point is a Ghostship. A relic of the Altered wars, over a thousand years old."
He pauses a moment and seems to be considering how to go on. Finally he knits his fingers together and continues.
"Ghostships can do what they do by merging the minds of hundreds or even thousands of men. The process takes a great deal of work, unconscious programing and conscious training. If it's used for a relatively short time, the process is reversible. But the longer it functions, the more the minds lose their individuality. One this old has no individuality left. It's not even a hivemind, it's a singular consciousness, the thoughts of which we cannot even conceive of, wielding enough amp power to reduce flotillas to atomic spray.
The one orbiting the jump point out there, relatively near by, has gone silent. It doesn't respond to signals any more. We think it's trapped in a cognitive loop. It's something that happens to the old ones some times; they have a long time to float in space, considering their strange existences and finding paradoxes which lock them up. The danger is that, after considering the paradox for some time, be it a few seconds or a few centuries, they may come to dangerous conclusions.
Our job is to erase the paradox."
He pauses again, looking at the team and waiting for any questions before proceeding.
Author
Topic: Einsteinian Roulette (Missions 9a, 10, 11, and Heph post war survey team) (Read 435687 times)