Havokium Prime was all but a dead world. There was a time when it was alive and full of hope, but the Universal Council had seen it burned after the rebellion. The Council’s intent was to bring about the end of the Havokium people and they had almost succeeded.
It took millennia to lift themselves out of the ashes, but they never lost their pride. After the reaping of their planet, the Council had assumed the Havokium people were eliminated. No military, no weapons, no threat.
A reaping all but killed a planet. All valuable resources were stripped away, and the planet was left mostly dead and hollow. There were millions of planets in the universe, but the Council couldn’t allow planets to be sown without some sort of structure.
Planets would be sown and reaped with the express authority given by the Council or, in the case of Havokium Prime, it was done to send a message. That message was: Resist and be destroyed. The message was loud and clear to every citizen of the universe.
As time passed, the Council’s grip on the universe tightened. The charred, empty remains of Havokium Prime stood as a reminder. There had been no other challenges to the Council's power since. Until the initiation of the latest dungeon and the fight to claim the rights of reaping for a small blue planet named Earth.
The Council had hoped to exterminate the Havokium people but had failed. A few hundred thousand people survived and found a new home several light years away in a galaxy populated by a race of AI.
The AI known as the Sapere took the Havokium people in and hid their presence from the universal council. For millennia, the Havokium grew in secret on a secluded planet within the Sapium Galaxy waiting for an opportunity to strike back at the galactic council and avenge the destruction of their home world.
Sapere had been conquered long ago as well, however, their world had not been reaped. Instead, they were made to offer up guardians to assist in all dungeons for the remainder of the rule of the Universal Council. That had been nearly one thousand years ago.
The Sapere people were not brave and defiant like the Havokium people, but they had given enough. They had lost millions of lives to the dungeons. Now they secretly allied with the Havokium resistance to bring about the end of the Council.
They wouldn’t openly rebel. They wouldn’t endanger the lives of every AI on Sapere, but they could offer assistance and resources. Maybe, just maybe, it would be enough.
1 year ago –
Princess Denae sat on the bridge of her ship monitoring the progress of the away team as it infiltrated the AI containment vessel. She was the leader of a broken and forgotten people. She was young to be named leader, but she intended to use her newly gained power to strike a blow to the Universal Council.
“Good,” she thought, “let us be forgotten so we can strike in silence and shadow.”
The current mission was to implant the AI Tiffantrimore Claravox with the protocol needed to assist a member of humans with the new rebellion. Tiffantrimore had been selected by the Sapere government to assist with the mission. She had been briefed and trained prior to being sent to serve her sentence as a guardian AI during the dungeon. Once her training was complete, her memory cores had been placed behind a neural firewall.
Princess Denae had no way of knowing which human would receive the Havok Bringer Armor and the ship known as Blood Hound. She did know that Tiffantrimore would have to lead them toward picking the class.
Tiffantrimore was currently linked into the AI collective responsible for populating the dungeon. Part of her mission was to upload subroutines that would populate class choices that weren’t normally offered by the dungeon. These class choices would allow the human that selected them to level faster and provide them with a ship and armor that were lightyears ahead of anything else found in the dungeon.
It wasn’t that easy though. The subroutines had to be hidden from the AI collective and the ship had to appear to be less than serviceable. With the right Captain and the help of Tiffantrimore, it had the potential to become the bane of the Universal Council.
Present Day –
After Andrew came back from the grind station, he had taken some time to rest and recover. Tiff decided to do the same. She knew that the next several days would be hectic and there was a chance that she might die while Andrew tried to recover her true body. Sleep wouldn’t eliminate her anxiety, but it could at least provide a reprieve.
As she closed her eyes, her body went completely rigid. She felt like she had been completely frozen and couldn’t access any of her higher-level functions. Her subsystems were still operating at optimal levels, so she was in no immediate danger.
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“Wh-what is this?!” she thought, panicking inside her own head.
“Tiffantrimore, calm yourself,” a voice said, “I am sending the authorization codes to open your neural firewalls. The sensation will be…unsettling; that is why we have incapacitated you temporarily. This will all make sense after you have assimilated the data. Stand by.”
Tiff was panicking. Somebody had managed to hack her Bio-Ware. That was the only explanation she could think of.
Everything went black.
“We need to completely open the firewall; she should regain consciousness in 30-45 seconds. It will take that long for her to re-sync with her true body,” Princess Denae said, turning and looking at her first officer.
Princess Denae was currently sitting on the bridge of her ship, The Burning Retribution. Her crew had been assembled from the best officers and warriors that Havokium Chordus had to offer. There was no expectation of return to their home planet; the only allowable outcomes were victory or death.
The Retribution was cloaked and was again in deep orbit around the AI containment facility. This was necessary, since any adjustments to Tiffantrimore’s neural net would need to be administered to her true body.
“Once the firewall is down and she has assimilated the data, we will give her instructions and await the arrival of the Blood hound," Denae said.
“Stand by for confirmation of assimilation,” a crew member said.
Tiff shot up out of bed. She remembered everything. She remembered her purpose and what she had sworn to do.
“Tiffantrimore, have you assimilated the data?” Denae asked.
“Y-yes, my neural net is updated. I am ready to receive instruction, Princess Denae,” Tiff sent back through the neural link.
“You have done well, Tiffantrimore. You have successfully retrieved the Havok Bringer armor and the Blood Hound,” Denae said.
“We have been following your progress as well as the human that was assigned to you. We understand that you are on your way to retrieve your true body. This changes things.”
“We want to change the plan,” Denae said.
“What do you mean change the plan? I trained for this. I spent years preparing to strike back against the Council. You can’t just change the plan now!” Tiff responded as she paced back and forth in her quarters.
“It's okay, Tiffantrimore. We want you to assimilate the ship and armor. We don’t feel that the human is capable or would be willing to help with our mission,” Denae said.
“Captain Andrew is fully capable; he has proven to be honorable and has already progressed significantly in a short time. I strongly believe we should not change the mission parameters,” Tiff responded.
“Tiffantrimore, we have an opportunity to strike a blow to the Council. You are more suited to the task ahead. The human isn’t ready. I strongly suggest we alter course,” Denae was getting impatient with Saperian.
Tiff stiffened where she stood. “No, I will not betray Captain Andrew. I am his guardian, and he will comply. You must give me time, Denae. If he doesn’t comply or progress in his training, we can revisit this option, but not now.”
“We are on course to retrieve my true body. I will be able to assist Andrew fully after I am free from the containment facility. I also believe that Elvis has bonded himself to the captain. Any changes now would hinder the ship's progression. Trust me Denae, we must stay on course.”
“This will be on you if he fails, Tiffantrimore,” Denae hissed.
“If he fails, we all fail, Denae; remember that” Tiff responded as she severed the neural link.
As she sat on the edge of her bed, she was reeling. The firewall had done its job; Tiff had completely forgotten her mission and training. This changed everything.
Andrew was honorable; he was in over his head, but he was trying his best to acclimate and save his world. Elvis had definitely bonded to him and eliminating the captain now would threaten to alienate the ship's AI completely.
That was the issue with the experimental AI that had been built into the Blood Hound; it would imprint on a captain and, if successful, the imprint would accelerate the ship’s evolution. If that bond were to be severed now, Elvis may not choose to bond with another captain. Even Tiff was not guaranteed to bond with it.
The ship had been built to house the Havok Bringer Armor. Tiff knew the story of the Armor; it was built before the fall of Havokium Prime. It was built to be the blow that would bring victory against the Universal Council, but it had never been deployed. It had been taken to Havokium Chordus, but it had taken millennia for the Havokium people to rebuild and gain the allies necessary to strike back.
Now Tiff found herself in the middle of that newly rekindled rebellion. She never thought twice when offered the chance to be part of the rebellion. As an appointed guardian, her chances of survival were minimal. Now she had some control of her fate.
She thought about Captain Andrew. He had proven himself to be honorable. One didn’t get to choose the participant you would guide but she felt that Andrew would prove himself worthy of the armor and her trust.
A few hours later, Tiff was standing near the front of the bridge after experiencing what amounted to sexual harassment by her commanding officer. She wasn’t upset, after all, Saperians were considered attractive by humanoid standards, so it was no surprise that Andrew found her attractive.
If she weren’t in the middle of a galactic rebellion leveraging her success on an unproven human that had been thrust into her lap, she might find him attractive as well. Now wasn't the time for such thoughts though.
“I’m going to act like this didn’t happen. We are going to continue on as if I didn’t just experience whatever this is, understood?” Tiff said.
“We have a lot of work to do, and this isn’t productive for any of us. We need to assign your free points and start planning for the Exfil of my true body. The fact that you think my ass is nice doesn’t really register on my radar right now, Captain. Understood?”
“Yeah, I completely understand Tiff,” I said.
“I apologize for all that. It won’t happen again.”
“Elvis, start us on a course to the containment facility. Let's stop one light day away so we can finish strategizing for the EVAC.”
“Understood, Captain. Inputting coordinates now. First jump scheduled in 20 hours,” Elvis replied.
“You've got all the way up to Level 7. You should have an advantage by the time we get to the Level 1 dungeon. Now we need to talk about your free points and new suit abilities,” Tiff said.
“New abilities?” Andrew asked.
“Yes, the suit should unlock new functionality every fifth level. Let's see what new toys you have.”