On the morning of the contest, at hour four local time, I went to see ser Angelus in his suite at Hotel Paladai. When I entered, he was being tended to by his nons, who were tidying all the feathers of his wings, painting his leaf-like hair, as well as giving him a pedicure. He appeared very large, his wings spread out the way that they were.

What was your purpose for this visit?

I sought to ensure no further harm would come to my fellow colonists. I sat down on a sofa opposite ser Angelus and briefly outlined my position, asking him to stop sowing discord between our people, cease the encouragement of ser Stephanov’s disruptive behavior, and begin treating ser Marakova with more respect.

Did you expect a positive outcome?

Yes, officer. At the time, I had assessed that ser Angelus was performing an act, and he would be more open to reason if spoken to in private, at hours he was not casting to his sats.

Your assessment was proven wrong?

Indeed, officer. Based on the answers ser Angelus gave me as well as the manner of his speech, I came to understand that his behavior was not merely an act, but was innate and ingrained in his character. He scoffed me, downplayed my arguments, and ridiculed them.

He argued that the colony was a relic of old times, one where individual freedom was suppressed, where everyone was a soulless automaton generating profits for the corps that owned us. He asked what side I wanted to be on, on the side of the winners or remain a loser, as he put it. He said Providers endorsed and supported everything that humanity had built and done at 96 G. Piscium, and showed how much meat, again his words, passed through his establishments in the Licensed district every day.

I did not agree with him on a personal level. However, I felt it was hard to ignore that he had made one good point: Everything was apparently in accordance with the law.

How did that make you feel?

Uneasy. It is my duty to uphold the law in my colony, and I subscribe to the values that that law entails because I believe it ensures harmony, order, and good quality of life for all. I believe it is morally wrong to exploit and harass people. Yet ser Angelus merely shrugged and laughed at my concerns.

How did you react?

At first, I tried to make rational counterpoints, but I realized quickly that I was getting nowhere. I bade my leave and resolved to protect the other colonists the best I could. We had under two days remaining on this world. But as I turned to leave, he suddenly revealed that ser Marakova would be fighting ser Qian later that afternoon. This shocked me, and I asked him why he hadn’t told us sooner, but his answers were evasive. There was nothing more to be gained from the conversation, and I departed.

What did you do next?

I wanted to tell ser Marakova immediately, but she registered as still asleep. Ser Stephanov was not, however, and I had to see her and discuss the matters that had occurred the previous day. About a quarter of an hour later, I arrived at her room.

I was relieved to find her sober that morning. She had a bit of a guilty expression on her face, and I partially expected her to apologize for harassing ser Marakova. I proceeded carefully, talking about casual things first. She said she enjoyed it on 96 G. Piscium so far, but she also understood that it was not a place for people like me. And then she said the words I had feared to hear. She felt the same way about our colony, that it was not a good place for people like her.

Regardless of what happened the night before, you wanted ser Stephanov to remain in the colony?

She was still one of us. I asked ser Stephanov to reconsider, at least discuss the matter with commander Woodward first, or see ser Sekhon before making any hasty decisions. She said she had already decided, and that she did not share my view that we were the same group of people. She said that for her, there was nothing of the camaraderie I spoke of.

I wondered if being rejected by ser Marakova had any role in this, and she said it had. She told me about being rejected by ser Luo a few decacycles earlier, and how she believed she was shunned by the available women in the colony. She told me she felt dejected about how the women were more close to each other than with her. Only then it dawned to me that her new appearance somewhat resembled ser Luo. I asked her about it, and she grinned, so I took that as affirmation.

She said she wanted to be close to someone, have someone to talk to, share intimacy with. She said how lonely she felt at our colony, even when surrounded by other people. She listed reasons such as not being taken seriously at her work and how she felt ser Max had been getting all the attention, while the other people at the lab ignored her.

I inquired about her plans for the future, and she said she’d briefly return to the colony to organize her belongings, and then she planned to transfer out. She reminded me of all the credit she’d get soon, and how much better life would be here, or at any other world. And how she was going to explore all the possibilities of Provider technology. She said she was fascinated by how ser Marakova had received combot training in just a few short hours, and also the preloaded skills that ser Max possesses. She expressed a desire to enhance her own abilities by artificial means and told me how frustrated she was by her inadequacies, both mental and physical.

I felt there was little I could do. I left and immediately sent a message home to notify the commander of the situation. Perhaps there was something she could still do about it.

How did you spend the remainder of the morning?

I had close to two hours remaining until our departure to the arena, so I went outside, with only my non accompanying me. I walked the streets, observing the diversity of people, contemplating all the things that had happened... and all the things that were said.

What conclusion did you reach?

I did not arrive at any conclusion. The thoughts were still milling in my head, when I heard the distant noise of a disturbance, which was about a kilometer north of Hotel Paladai, around the onset of hour six. I pushed my way through the dense crowd of people to see if I could be of any assistance and saw that there were two groups having a stand-off at an establishment.

Please describe the two groups.

One group was masked and dressed up in orange and black and some wearing plush hats with tentacles on them, others actually having skins with tentacles on them. The other group was more thuggish and disorganized. They just looked like random angry citizens, brandishing weapons.

Did you participate in the event?

Event? I failed to understand what was going on. Shortly after I arrived, a large holo appeared, and a countdown began. The plushies were dancing and cheering, chanting ‘Megalith, Megalith!’. When the countdown reached zero, the lights in the orange establishment behind them came on, and a catchy song started playing. The holos exploded into a million burgers and other fast food products, and a friendly female face announced ‘Welcome to Megalith!’, and then some slogans, which I have forgotten. An army of drones came flying out of the windows above and began to drop boxes with burgers into the street below. I got one too, a drone tried to drop one on top of me, and so did the non.

Was it good?

Not bad, not great. Bottomscale synthetic ingredients, but the vegetable sauce on these things made it taste good. Pretty similar to habfood. But some random people downrepped me when they saw me eating.

Then the doors swung open and the support group rushed in, drones belching colored smoke, confetti, and strobe light. I could see the inside of the establishment now. People wildly scrambled over tables and pushed each other aside, trying to get to the main counter and put in their order. Several celebrities were present, reporting on the event. It was madness.

I managed to get close to one of the reporting people and listened in on what she had to say. From what I could gather, there was a controversial Shincho infosphere community that had managed to obtain planning permission for a Megalith fast food restaurant to be operated from within the licensed district. For reasons I could not entirely understand, Megalith is infamous and loathed by the vast majority of people. People were quite literally up in arms about it, demanding its removal.

What happened next?

The situation escalated. One prominent man in the opposing group made a statement, saying that Megalith was an affront to their culture and way of life and had no place on this world. Roughly ten minutes after the establishment had opened, the group attacked. I sent a memo to localsec, but they simply replied that they were already monitoring the situation. I could make out that they were not planning to become involved.

The people inside fought back, placing some people with polearms at the entrance, but eventually, the assailants broke through. Tables were flipped and the fighting continued inside. I could see one of the staff girls inside, standing on the counter, cheering and throwing food at the attackers.

Within minutes it was over. The attackers had disposed all of the defenders and taken the unarmed staff captive. They dragged them outside, strung them up by their feet, and then cut their throats one by one. The victims were cheerful throughout. I presume they must have been contractors. People were waving their bloodied weapons and posing over disposed skins, some even taking trophies. Only when they tried to set what was left of the place on fire did localsec step in and order people to leave. Flow was not far behind for the cleanup.

How did you feel, witnessing this?

I truly couldn’t believe it. We were in the middle of the licensed district, surrounded by the worst possible filth, and of all things, people were celebrating the vandalization of a fast-food restaurant…

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I presume you returned to the hotel afterward?

That is correct, officer. I was back half an hour before our scheduled departure to the arena, so my non and I went to have breakfast together, as the burger had started my appetite but failed to satiate me. Then we gathered up in the lobby. On the way to the aero I briefly spoke with ser Marakova. She thanked me for helping her out the night before. I informed her that she was up against ser Qian. She replied that she already knew, and it didn’t bother her, as it was all in good fun.

I remember I felt useless. Everyone just appeared to be going their own way and there was little holding us together.

We departed for the arena. On the way there, I noticed how the other members of our group had resurfaced on the infosphere again, so I pinged ser Qi a memo asking to meet up before the match started. She acknowledged a few minutes later. We arrived at our scheduled time and I excused myself towards ser Angelus. It appeared he did not care, as I was no attraction for his sats, and he waved me away.

I went down to the combot maintenance pits, where ser Qi was waiting for me to let me through the checkpoint. Ser Sato was there, along with his nons. Their combot was already gone, being prepared for insertion into the arena. I bowed politely, and they bowed back but said nothing.

The other two colonists were there too, sers Ronningen and Qian. They gave me a harsh look. It felt as if they regarded me as their enemy. Ser Ronningen asked accusingly whether I had liked it with ser Angelus and said she was curious to know how many nons he had mutilated and disposed so far.

I ignored the stab and asked ser Qian whether he was aware that he was up against ser Marakova. He answered that he was not fighting ser Marakova, he was fighting sers Angelus and Paladai, and everything they stood for. Ser Sato nodded approvingly in the background. I instantly took a dislike to the fellow.

You disliked ser Sato? Did you have any reason in particular, or was it just a feeling?

It was mostly intuition, officer. Perhaps you know this feeling, when you see a person and you immediately know something is wrong, that something about them makes them draw attention and arouses your suspicion. When you know they are guilty of something, and they are doing their best to hide it. They try too hard or get nervous. They stand out.

I had that feeling with ser Sato. I knew something was very wrong, but I couldn’t put my finger on it. And I had no authority to inspect him.

Did you report him?

No, officer. There was too little to go by.

A nearly unforgivable lapse.

Yes, officer.

Please describe the events that followed.

The game was about the start and ser Sato, his nons and ser Qian went to the stage. I went with sers Ronningen and Qi and took the elevator to a private spectator booth. Ser Ronningen taunted me and asked if I was ready to see my team get stomped into the ground, and I replied that I wasn’t on ser Angelus’ team. She looked skeptical at me.

I used my aura to keep a watch on the others through ser Angelus’ cast. As always, he was putting up a show and both ser Stephanov and ser Marakova appeared happy to participate. Ser Sato was casting also. He attracted respectable numbers of sats, but he remained humble and asked the sats not to expect too much. His crew of nons put up a great entry show. Ser Sato himself played a lute, his nons played large drums and one of the females was blowing a horn. It was very powerful and spectacular, much more impressive than what ser Angelus’ nons had done.

After a quarter of an hour had passed, the combots finally emerged: Oni-ni-kanabo in red for ser Qian and Brumir, an axe-wielding combot with plain steel colors for ser Marakova. From within our booth, we could get a direct feed from ser Qian. We wished him luck, and the fight began. Both combots moved slowly because their operators were inexperienced, or so it seemed.

But both were feigning their incompetence. Suddenly, Brumir unexpectedly rushed forward, performing a spinning jump with the two axes the combot was equipped with. Oni-ni-kanabo sprang out of the way and performed an impressive backflip and quickly lashed his long mace around, managing to hit the metal combot in the knee.

The charade over, both combots started circling each other cautiously and then another exchange of blows happened. Though it was close, I felt ser Qian was the better fighter. He dodged better and his strikes were more precise, so after a few rounds of blows his combot had only suffered a few scratches, while Brumir had taken a few solid hits to the limbs. Ser Qian was playing it slowly, trying to disable his opponent rather than risking everything on a single strike.

Did you enjoy watching the fight?

I don’t think I did, officer. I just wanted it to be over and the colonists to be safe back home, and I was keeping attention in case anything went wrong. Sers Qi and Ronningen were far more engaged, cheering on every time ser Qian landed a blow and wincing every time he took one.

Did something go wrong?

Yes, officer, but nothing I could do anything about. In the middle of a jumping lunge, ser Qian appeared to lose control, and the combot fell flat on its face, without being hit by Brumir. ‘Undervolt on the main gridline,’ I heard ser Qian exclaim. We could see him struggle frantically to get his combot in working order, and we could see him trying to restart the systems and reroute power.

While he did manage to get Oni-ni-kanabo to roll out of the way of Brumir’s strike, it was too late. The moment he tried to get back up to his knees, Brumir was onto him, striking him in the neck and then kicking him in the head. The combot tumbled back down to the ground and Brumir kicked it a few times more. It was clear that the fight was over, and ser Qian yielded shortly afterward.

What was the reaction of your fellow colonists?

Ser Ronningen couldn’t believe it and was very frustrated. Ser Qi was over it faster, and consoled her.

Ser Sato had already packed the drums and appeared to be in a hurry to leave, while ser Angelus was performing a victory tirade with sers Marakova and Stephanov.

Ser Qi asked whether I wanted to come with them, and I accepted, as I thought I would better keep an eye on them and on ser Sato. I was planning to convince them to leave and go to a public hotel for our last night. We climbed into their small aero. I saw ser Qian, he looked exhausted, and ser Qi, being a doctor, tried to look after him.

But to our surprise, ser Sato’s aeros flew to the licensed district. We saw he had plastered a big announcement on the infosphere, stating that the combot battle was meaningless, and the real battle was going to occur that night.

The location was on a rooftop of one of the buildings ser Angelus controlled. As soon as we were dropped off, his nons jumped out and assailed the staff, slaying everyone on our floor by surprise.

Ser Sato was attacking the Licensed District? What did you think of that?

I immediately reported it, of course, but I got a reply that there had been a formal challenge, there had been sufficient registered supporters, and everything was in accordance with local law. Localsec advised us to evacuate.

Sato’s nons unloaded the cargo crates onto the roof and unpacked their drums. Then ser Sato emerged in a powered suit of armor. More aeros appeared and began dropping people onto the rooftop. These were the kind of people with the masks and tentacle hats that I had seen earlier, at the Megalith restaurant. I asked who they were and what was going on, and found out that this was an infosphere community that ser Sato was an honored member of.

I learned that they were in conflict with a lot of the current generation of topscalers, the influential celebrities in particular, over the fact that they believed that unlike the real Shincho, these celebrities did not contribute anything of value to society, but were predatory and keeping people intellectually repressed with their bottomscale entertainment.

I asked what the deal was with the Megalith restaurant. They answered that Megalith is not a restaurant, it is a self-replicating meme of sorts that maximizes the consumption of their burgers at the expense of all else. Left unchecked, it would have taken over the whole district, much like a virus. Their group had helped it acquire planning permission for one venue. They just did it for fun and to make the topscalers that owned the licensed district panic.

Did you participate in the conflict?

No, officer. I searched for a way to escape the rooftop, but ser Qian looked like he was in a bad state and the building was in lockdown, so all the elevators had stopped. With ser Qian the way he was, we could not take the stairs. The only way off was to commandeer one of the aeros, which had begun ferrying more masked people and weaponry onto the roof. I did not get the opportunity, as eventually the aeros disappeared and stayed gone.

The drums rang and one group went off to clear out the upper floors of the building. Ser Sato asked ser Ronningen if she wanted to fight alongside him when the time came. I was glad she declined.

Half of an hour after we had landed, I saw a large number of aeros coming in at a terrace on the lower levels. It was unmistakably ser Angelus and his crew, as I recognized their aeros, especially Blancandrin’s golden one. Initially, nothing happened, and ser Sato’s group was unopposed when slaying whomever they could find. They took captives, which were brought to the rooftop and then pushed over the edge by the cheering mob.

An hour later, I overheard them saying that there was fighting on the levels below. Ser Angelus’ forces were coming up, and the final battle would begin shortly. Not long after that, the doors to the roof terrace were smashed open. To my surprise, two figures in a powersuit stormed through. It was Blancandrin and someone that ID’ed as ser Stephanov on my aura.

Ser Stephanov was able to use a powersuit?

It would seem he had transferred to yet another skin, officer. And somehow got himself trained. The two of them easily cut down a few dozen of Sato’s people that were standing close to the door. Behind them, horrifying figures followed. Large monsters, half man, half wolf, one covered in bloodied hides that looked like they had been flayed off living people only recently, the others carrying scalps and other trophies. More fighters began to emerge, and it was clear that ser Sato was both outnumbered and outclassed.

There was a standoff, until finally, ser Angelus appeared. He shouted: “Hello, my old friend, I have brought someone that wants to see you die again!”

With that, a large litter was carried onto the rooftop, and on it, a dreadful creature. Four arms stood out, but it had a horrifying face that was the thing of nightmares: menacing eyes, rows of sharp teeth and a long, forked tongue. The Ishari, it IDed as.

“Begin!” it hissed. A split second later, the pack of wolf monsters had speared some unlucky fellows with some kind of barbed darts with chains on them, and pulled them away from us and into their group. Their victims screamed as the wolves carved the flesh off their bodies with lightning speed. Most of them didn’t scream for long. I figured that more than a few of them used their termination implant, but others were overcome with shock.

Ser Qi said that it might be necessary to self-dispose too, in case the belligerents would not see us as neutral non-participants. The wolves pounced into the mob, followed by Blancandrin and ser Stephanov. It wasn’t much of a fight, it was a massacre. After about a third of his followers were slain, Ser Sato leapt into the midst of battle, cutting down one of the wolves and injuring another, but he was soon surrounded.

I heard ser Stephanov shout: “Stop, he’s mine.” His voice amplified so all could hear. “I challenge him!”

The combatants on both sides parted and stopped fighting, making way and forming a circle around sers Sato and Stephanov.

They clashed, and four swords rang. It was an impressive sight, both moving faster than I could see, slashing and kicking and lunging and parrying. The fight resolved very quickly, under ten seconds. To my surprise, ser Stephanov stood victorious over a disabled ser Sato, who had both of his arms severed and a large gash visible across his torso.

“People like you are just perpetual losers,” ser Stephanov taunted him, raising one of his swords for the killing blow.

“Victory or defeat are without consequence,” ser Sato answered. Behind him, one of the crates popped open. Everyone looked at it in hushed silence. Even ser Angelus was quiet, for once.

“A combot fuel cell!”, I heard ser Qi exclaim, and it dawned on me. “He stole one of Shirong’s fuel cells and weaponized it!”

An instant later, everything turned white.