Clang.
The shovel in Orion’s hand reverberated and twanged as it struck something much hard in the ground, likely a large bolder.
"Oww, son of a bitch." Orion shook his hand in frustration and pain. He could have done this the easy way, he could have just asked one of the machines to do it for him, but for some reason he wanted to dig the trench himself. Perhaps he had just grown tired of AIs?
Dropping the shovel, he took a few moments to breathe and look around, though it was starting to get difficult. It was growing dark; the sun had set probably 5 minutes ago. The world was still lit in subtle shades of orange and blues as the last embers of the day continue on for just a while longer. In the distance he could see machines running, automated farming equipment. Intelligence wise they were pretty dumb. Nothing even close to what Asher was. This farm was large and you couldn't see the edges of it from where he was. It just seemed to continue over the horizon, out to infinity. That's probably a good thing. The world was hungry place now.
After the damage Asher caused the planet was fragmented, quite literally. The damage Orion had seen from orbit was only the beginning of it. In all, the four of them had probably saved half of the old world. But of course, it was more complicated than that. It wasn't so much that they had saved half, so much as they had stopped something else from replacing and swapping with it. The patchwork was dispiriting fragments of other planets, worlds possibly even while universes. Brought into theirs from Asher's machinations, reasons unknown to anyone else.
Most large city centers on Earth were hit, and more than a few completely taken. Including almost every major capital.
His family had mostly concentrated on the west coast. In what used to be California. It was one of the hardest hit areas, and nothing was left. His entire family, even most of his extended family, appeared to be gone. Spirited away by Asher. Orion had never been particularly close with any of them. Still, it hurt to think they were just, gone.
There were still cities though, even large ones and a small number remained untouched thanks to their efforts. Most continents still had some residual governments that remained functional. But it wasn't enough to save off social collapse, and around the world there were several wars being fought. Wars between countries on this planet and wars between nations from elsewhere. In what remained of North America, there were now four nation states each vying for control over the landmass. What was the remnants of the United States that fractured into two Separate nations. Canada and Mexico were basically gone, their capitals replaced by two other nations brought in from other worlds.
The particulars don't matter. Needless to say, there were many conflicts. Territorial disputes and other complexities that arise from having half the world taken away and replaced by something else. Food production was now even more essential.
Most of the remaining Earth governments had come together more or less, and almost completely stripped out advanced AI overnight. Some did still exist, a necessary part of modern existence. There were even some counties where they were still protected, like those in the Australian commonwealth that remained mostly unaffected. They were the exception though, and those countries quickly found themselves as pariah states.
A flag on a nearby barn waved in the breeze, the Eastern Coalition of States. It was a familiar image, not unlike the North American Union and United States Flags that preceded it. But the differences were a stark reminder that this wasn’t the country he once knew. Not that he had been overly attached to it in the first place.
Motion in the distance took his eyes from the flag to a small vehicle moving in his direction. It was hard to see, but he already knew who was driving it. The old man who took him, and Tanya in after they landed.
The buggy pulled up next to him. The mock distain from the older Asian American in the driver’s seat was a welcome site. It meant he could stop this non-sense of digging and get something to eat.
“If I didn’t know better, I’d say you had something against machines.” The old man joked as Orion climbed into the cabin.
“Look who’s talking. I’m pretty sure this thing could have driven itself.”
“Ha! A human needs to know his worth and value. Just because a machined can do something doesn’t mean we should let it.” Paul was always trying to interject his own nuggets of wisdom into each conversation. Occasionally, he’d even joke that he was putting a book of proverbs together with his wisdom.
The man had a bit of an ego, and an inflated sense of self-worth. Still, he was a good man, who took in two wayward strangers. Personality wise he seemed a lot like his daughter.
Dinner was its usual hectic endeavor. A table just a few seats too big, filled with mountains of food. An ordered chaos echoed across its surface as various people reached across each other grabbing for firsts, seconds and in some cases even thirds.
Tanya sat comfortably at the edge of the table next to Orion, bouncing a small child one her leg.
“And now it’s daddy’s turn to watch her!” She gleefully handed off a small squirming mass as he sat down next to her.
“Yaaa!” The small bundle smiled and babbled out.
A happy sigh of relief, the fox girl quickly began to pull at the food on the table and plopping whatever she could on her plate. It all tasted good so she learned to just let her body guide her to what she needed.
The first few days here felt strange for her, very strange. People had never seen someone like her. Sure, there were people who would occasionally dress up, but the appearance of surgically implanted prosthetics was a step too far for most. Or at least it would have been were it not for the others like her that began to creep out from the new patchwork of cities and towns that came from wherever Asher was.
Even at this table, there were two physically not that different from herself. A man that looked like a wolf in all but name, and another that looked human, save for the features that resemblance a tanuki or maybe a raccoon.
Suffice it to say, Tanya didn’t feel quite so out of place here. Certainly not as out of place as she would have been a few years ago. Yun’s father was more than welcoming of any help he could find or pull in as well. Few people in the modern era wanted to be farmers, well aside from the luddites. While that might be changing with the changes to the world, it was still slow going. But as food shortages continued, many begrudgingly accepted their new fate. Not that it was a bad one.
“This food sure beats what I was eating back in Elsewhere. I still can’t thank you enough for taking me in.” The wolf man spoke between crunching on a rather gravy-soaked biscuit.
“Same. This world is different from my home, but without those false…” The Tanuki man stopped himself from finishing those words. Perhaps they were too painful to speak or maybe he felt a lingering sense of taboo around mentioning such things. To be fair, she could empathize with them. Even if she didn’t know exactly what they had been thorough.
Some days, she could still feel those digital tendrils around her neck, like Asher was still there in the shadows, waiting. So, his apprehension was something she could empathize with.
“Non-sense!” Yun’s father spoke with a jovial sense of appreciation and almost joy. “Any that are willing to work these fields are more than welcome to join us at the table. These are your fruits as much as mine after all.” He held up a bowl containing a baked pair. “Quite literally I might add.” He laughed as scooped up the softened sweet, seemingly skipping the main parts of dinner for the sweet.
Tanya gave him a side eye with a slight smile, “Eh, shouldn’t dessert come after? I don’t think Yun would appreciate her father skipping dinner for snacks.”
He held up a hand between bits, “Bah!” The older man paused halfway between chewing, letting off a bitter smile that came from the sudden addition to his sweets. “You know, you sound like her sometimes.”
The words seemed to work, as the old man picked up some of the many other options from the table.
“I miss her too dad.” From the other side of the table, Arial, Yun’s sister spoke up. She had just barely managed to escape the event horizon that claimed her sister, and most of what was New York and Newark. There was talk about a rabbit that didn’t make it, but that seemed far less important then Yun.
It was thanks to Arial that Yun’s father accepted the two of them in the first place. While they had never met, Yun had talked about 'that halfway competent tech from the station' on more than a few occasions. It was enough to convince Arial and Paul of the truth. The world would likely never know about its heroes, but at least those at this table knew.
For a moment the table was quiet as they each ate. But the silence didn’t last as the table grew in volume once more. Conversations, jokes, and even lamentations of the upcoming harvest. Tanya couldn't help but feel it was kind of fun.
Afterwards, Tanya took a moment to excuse herself from the cleanup. She had spent most of the day tending to her daughter and working on the machines in the barn, work which she wasn’t quite finished. It was that excuse that let her leave the dishes to someone else. She might not have had the physical strength and stamina of her husband or the others. But where her mind was concerned, she was smarter than all of them. Particularly when it came to other AIs, like those that inhabited the smart farming equipment.
Wandering out to the barn, she opened a terminal on one of the machines she had given up on earlier in the day. It's internal program, really just a bunch of matrices and weights were all jumbled up and confused. Likely caused by a memory failure in the module she replaced earlier. The machines’ original data was lost after the cataclysm, but she was confident the data could be untangled, sorted and in some cases even re-trained. With quite a bit of effort, and no small amount of time.
“Oh, you’re just all messed up aren’t you.” Her words directed as much at the machine as to herself. Glowing numbers and code lit up the otherwise dim barn. Her peripheral vision faded as she got lost in the code. This work was cathartic for her. Giving her time to escape the physical world and retreat back into some place more familiar. It wasn’t the same as what she used to, as what she used to be but, it was close enough to let her breathe.
The algorithm she had finished began to run, latching and stitching onto fragments, the initial output was promising. And then, the blueish white text turned a sudden reddish orange instead. While the color was not unpleasant, it did imply something else was wrong elsewhere in the machine. “Couldn’t be that easy could it…” She spoke to herself with a sigh. But in truth, she enjoyed this as her swishing tail implied.
A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation.
The side panel from the farm machine came off easy enough. Getting inside it was another matter. Technically, getting to the machines’ brain required completely disassembling the entire side of the automaton, but if you were smaller, like her, it was often possible to climb inside though an access port, and fix what was needed.
Her tail and ears twitched as she wrapped herself around a tight corner. There at the end was the main computer that controlled it all. One large board with six smaller boards plugged into it. Well, mostly plugged in. The black unpowered LEDs on the second one implied weren’t seated right or possibly just dead.
Shoving herself further into the frame she was just barely able to reach the board. Behind her, her tail swished violently, like it thought itself of a fish swimming deeper into a dark and cramped sea. Only she wasn’t a fish, and this wasn’t a sea. Instead, her tail fibers found them self-brushing along a tight crack between some joints. As Tanya pushed the board back into the place, the system began a quick post startup as lights flashed. The machine jerked very slightly, pinching her fur in a place it should never have been.
“Yaa!” She couldn’t help but yelp as her tail pulled away with a few less hairs at the tip. Quickly she made her way out of the machine. All the while, reconsidering her choice to work on this from the inside.
The small divot in her tail greeted her as she examined the missing fur patch. “What is your problem tail.” The mass twitched almost solemnly under her hand, as if it had a mind of its own. In truth, that could have been much worse. She was grateful for just a few missing hairs.
Everyday gave Tanya a new reason to question her choice in bodies. She could have just stayed that gray and plastic figure she started as. Surely Orion would have still loved her. She knew he would have, but the worry was still enough to make her sigh. In truth, it wasn’t just Orion that made her consider this subtly anthropomorphic feature set she found herself with. At least one of the souls that made up her mind had been a furry, and a few others had some otherwise interesting tastes. No, this form was her choice more so than his. Even if it annoyed her sometimes it still felt right.
The machines’ terminal slowly began changing color from reddish orange, to a blueish white, and a few lines were even turning green now. It would take the rest of the night for the machine's mind to repair itself, if it was possible at all. Tanya smiled, at least it was off to a good start.
Looking outside, the dark night seemed to call to her. She had done what she had set out to do. Between this machine and the other two she fixed early, both which still roamed the evening fields, her work was done for the day. Nay, for the week if she was being honest.
Pulling backwards, she stretched out her arms and back, eliciting a few pleasurable pops and clicks. There would be more to do tomorrow, and the next day, but it would be much easier now with the bulk of the challenges done. Standing outside in the pale moonlight night, her eyes traveled between the stars. Eventually stopping at the small nebula near the moon. It was subtle and fading faster than she expected. It would probably disburse in the next decade or so. Well, at least visibly, the debris would be there for hundreds of thousands of years. Forever, as far as humanity and the new races like hers were concerned.
It was hard to say how long she gazed up into the sky, but the crunching of soil behind her wasn’t enough to pull her away from the sparkly abyss.
"I finally put little Yun to sleep, you coming to bed Tanya?" From behind her, Orion grabbed at shoulders, rubbing them ever so slightly. It felt good.
‘Little Yun.’ They had named their daughter after her. It was Orion's idea, though she had no objections. It was cute, and it further ingratiated them to her father. Which suited Tanya just fine as well. He was a nice man, and it felt good to feel like she had an extend family, of sorts. Almost a father.
Turning to face her husband she couldn’t help but lean in for one last kiss. This was turning out to be a good life.
Elsewhere.
A desert baked under the light of two suns. The smaller one was quite pale, a shade brighter than the fullest moon. It’s like was gentle and soft, cool even. Its bigger brother on the other hand, was a blinding ball of heat and light. It scorched the sands, and the land.
Had they a thermometer they might have been surprised to see how cool the air actually was, barely 55C. The ground on the other hand, would have boiled a drop of water, or sweet at the case might have been.
Two robed figures wandered the dense seas of golden sand side by side. Their footsteps behind them, taken by the desert's hot winds with each slow movement forward. The robes saved them from the worst of the heat, but not gritting sand.
Yun couldn't decide if that sand was worse than the sun or not. It certainly got into places it shouldn't have. Though the sun did burn, as the scars on her back could attest to. Arriving in the middle of nowhere was not a pleasant experience. That was nearly two years ago now, and though her feet had grown used to the shifting soil under foot, the truth was she was still used to running on sidewalks, not hiking in the desert.
She didn't even know where she was going, some stupid quest issues by that damned guild she was forced to join. This was why she never liked to play RPGs, they never made sense to her. Why couldn't you just go grab your own damn ore? Why do you need ore in the first place? All nonsense.
“I fucking hate video games.” She whispered to desert winds, not expecting a response.
"You and me both." Her robed companion agreed with her.
He was an odd one, a foreigner like herself. But still different. It was odd for two mages to travel together, but he seemed to have all the answers or at least more than she did. Her companion was certainly more useful than Theo had ever been.
“Do you think it’s watching us?” Yun continued.
“It’s always watching…” He sighed, "Doesn't mean it's paying attention. Too much data to watch everything, even for a so-called god." He laughed at that last point, enjoying spitting in the eye of a non-existent or at least not present, god.
After a bit of banter, the two fell back into silence. It was too hot to continue the discussion, and speaking wasted what precious water they had.
Shifting steps on top of shifting sands. The most boring part of a game, a walking simulator as some might have called it. It was real, far to real. But then again, this place wasn’t truly a game. In fact, it was better thought of as a world under a spell, a spell of creature not of flesh or of spirit, but something else. Raw data.
The man next to Yun held a hand up telling her to stop for a moment. On his wrist something glowed dimly. With a swift motion, his hand rose up to a tiny black speck in the sky. A speck that grew into two, then three. Three specks that then grew into shapes. Birds, terrifyingly, deadly birds.
“Look like Death Head Vultures.” He spoke in a flat voice that hinted at his annoyance. “You got this one?”
Yun nodded and put down her staff. These birds were dangerous, deadly even. At least, to someone unprepared. The guild would rank one as a mere “E class threat”, but a flock, that could prove more challenging, a “D class” maybe even higher if it was a swarm. The mana she had in her was best saved for when she really needed it, instead she pulled out a different staff, one far too straight. It looked more like a plank of refined wood, with a length of metal wire running down it’s middle. A quick snap, and two wooden blade like features pulled out arming the oversized cross bow.
The first bolt let loose, blinding fast, with enough energy to rip the wing off one. With only one wing, a bird was less a bird and more like a fleshy stone that flopped and twisted as it fell to earth. A red trail of rain following it down.
The other two birds cawed a loud screech at the attack and speeded up. With great haste Yun loaded another bolt; they were close, too close. She had just enough time to aim at one as they dive bomb them. A short woosh followed by the sickening sound of bone cracking and squelching against flesh followed its impact. She couldn’t hear the thud of its body hitting the ground. It was drowned out by the fire ball that erupted next to her.
The last bird exploded in a cloud of feathers and visceral. Gibs, if one were to push the gaming analogy.
Yun sighed at her companion. The fire ball had seared the edges of her hair. Had it been a bit closer it might have even set their clothes alight. “Couldn’t you have used an ice spell? This desert is hot enough.”
The man just laughed. As he ignored her valid point, wandering out to inspect their kills. Vulture meat wasn’t particularly tasty, but it had decent water content. Besides the faint green glow of his arm crystal meant something else was in the area, something more friendly and larger that they could maybe trade their spoils with.
It was probably the very thing the vultures had come to attack in the first place. This was a good time to rest, it was after all getting late in the day.
The caravan was jovial thanks to their saviors. The leader of the caravan insisted on shoving a few coins into Yun’s hands despite her initial protest. Unlike her and companion, these people were natives to this world, to see people of such strength and skill was unusual for them. Best to be in their good graces, they thought.
Yun put up a smile, but whispered to her companion “We should leave. This feels like an encounter.”
Her companion nodded in agreement, “Yeah, probably. You really want to leave them alone to fend for themselves? They’re not NPCs, they’re real people.”
With one last sigh, she followed him to the encircled wagons. At least they could grab a bite to eat first.
In fact, they did more than eat, there was time to even rest. Something Yun needed quite desperately. She didn’t even realize she had passed out, until her companion violently shook at her side several hours later.
Confusion quickly gave way to fear as she saw the very bright and very red crystal on his arm.
Whit a shake of her head, she smiled, she was right. “I bloody told you. This would be an encounter.”
They barely had time to get into place, as the caravan began running off in different directions. Some of their supplies had been left behind. Spoils, should they survive.
The ground vibrated, like a continuous earthquake. The civilian’s no longer insight, now was the time. The man fired some spells into the sand, purposefully trying to attract the creature’s attention.
The crystal on his wrist glowed far brighter than either encounter before, the red dot nearly directly under them showed that he had succeeded. "Here it comes!" His shout proved unnecessary as the sands in front of the caravan clearly gave way to a rather large and rather dangerous desert predator. A mammoth sand worm.
The guild would have classified this threat as a B or maybe even an A threat. Very dangerous, requiring a large part of equality ranked people. Currently the guild ranked her a C and her friend, well. Technically, he was F class as all unregistered self-proclaimed adventures were.
This time Yun didn’t bother with her cross bow. A sudden bright green flash erupted from the tip of her staff. “Poisson-Acid” She whispered. A sticky greenish fluid made sickening by the purple streaks ran down the worm’s side. The fluid stuck and crept into the caprice’s cracks. A howling screech showed that it was doing its job, weakening the flesh for something more powerful.
Pulling its head back, Yun barely had time to register before jumping out of the way. A torrent of rock rain flew from its mouth. The impacts were strong enough to knock craters in the desert. Had they hit her, it’s likely there wouldn’t have been anything left of her beyond a pink mist.
Meanwhile, as she dodged the attacks, her companion remained seemingly oblivious as he chanted something under his breath.
The worm was targeting her now so it didn’t matter. She needed to slow it down. With barely a though she raised her staff once more, “Ice shards!”
Ice shaped spikes impaled the creature, striking into its flesh, and freezing both it and the acidic liquid on top of it. In theory, she could win, if she was fast enough. A bunch of small attacks, each designed to compound and build off each other. It was what she learned in her first few months here. Direct attacks were only good if you had the mana to back them up. Yun quickly found out, she did not. However, she did have a high capacity to learn new spells. In the end, she could drain its health with attrition, each small spell amplifying the others. There was just one problem, without enough mana, even that was hard.
Mana, was not a problem for her companion though.
“Plasma bolt!” The man cried out. A flash, blindingly bright, brighter than even the high noon sun of this scorched land.
The shockwave was enough to knock her to the ground, where she looked up at the new hole in the worms' hide. A hole which was now smoking from the steam and charged flesh. A deep thud echoed as its torso fell back to the ground.
Technically, the man was F class. In reality, he probably would have been classed A or even AA. He wasn't S class, mages like that would have been able to glass the desert without even needing to incant. Still his power was formidable, and she already learned a lot from him. Including the mistake of registering with the guild in the first place.
The desert was quiet again, but only for the briefest of time.
"This is why I hate video games! The rules always suck!" Yun, finding the timing just right, held a slight tantrum from the ground. As her fist hit the ground next to her.
"That's why you have to cheat." He held his hand out to pick her up. "We're almost there." His smile turned downward as she got up herself and walked away from him.
She ignored him and instead wandered over to grab a trophy from their kill. "I just had sand blow in the most unpleasant of places, and you burned the shit out of my robes. I'm grabbing it's fangs as proof of kill and spending the next month in a nice hotel room after I collect the reward." The coins from this kill would have made what the caravan tried to give them seem like pocket change.
The man could only shrug, she did have a point. He'd suppose there was at least some value in being known by the guild, even if it made it easier to be seen by Asher.
To be continued in Book 2… Eventually.