84. The Datasphere Showdown

“So, are we going?” Nox asked for the fifth or sixth time, the others had lost count. An hours rest had come and gone and they’d all regained their second wind. Cyphers old and new were sorted through, and used. Marius found another force cube cypher in the store's cupboard and installed it. Nox used a cypher she’d been holding onto that boosted her hacking abilities in case the datasphere held more locked doors. Jaden lamented that they couldn’t have a long rest as there may be more interesting mutations to be had. Still, the group could feel the end was near. This was the last step. The crystal prison was connected, the jammer was still blocking communication for the Shard and its minions, and they knew the spot to enter the Datasphere. It was time to go.
 
Jaden, Fureva-Yung, Marius, Nox and Ariaxa all entered the datasphere in their datasphere personas. Jaden was crystalline and angular, like she’d been cut out the very substance of the crystal prison. Now, the crystal has an irridenscent sheen to it, black and purple, green and blue. Fureva-Yung was still vibrating, a overlay of three different images of herself, shimmering and humming. The smallest of the three was older and wiser, the largest bestial and more her Yung persona, and the middle image as she was now, with a mischievous look to her face. Marius had the most dramatic change. He’d been a man divided, black and white, flesh and steel in loose collaboration. Now the steel and synth smoothly blended with the flesh, between the black and white, grey now existed. Ariaxa looked as Nox had first seen her, helping the refugees escape Celeron. The blue ghostly figure flitting through the forest, the blue people of the Edoval Forest Towers. It was comforting to have the blue form with them once more, at the end of it all. Nox, looked as she’d always done where she felt most comfortable. Though she was coming to terms with the idea of a flesh body, her form of stars would be how she forever saw herself.
 
The first room they appeared in was large and dominated by three shapes, a large hexagon nearest two doors, and two small triangles, closer to a door at the bottom of the room. A breeze from the crystal prison was already at work, dragging scraps of Shard down into the lower gate of the room.
 
“Well, this doesn’t totally suck,” Marius quipped as Nox happily blinked around the room. Attached to the walls and the shapes, glowing red blob struggled to hold on. As the group entered, one fell off the tip of a triangle and fell through the gate. It was time to clean house. Five red blobs remained to join the rest of the shard further down. Marius moved to the nearest shard, clinging to the hexagon, and zapped it with his Molecular rearranger. Sections of the blob pixelated as the data that created it scrambled. The blob retaliated, reaching out with a part of itself to grab and grapple him. Lightning quick, Marius dodged aside, but only just. If the worst came to worst, he would take the red blob shard through the gate himself, but he'd rather it went first.
 
In response, Marius shot at a blob on the opposite side of the room. There, two blobs lay flat along the wall, edging closer to a gate that lead to a quieter part of the datasphere. The other blob fired parts of itself at Jaden and Nox, both dodging away from the attacks just in time. Fureva-Yung was scrambling in her pack and eventually pulled out a cypher. Pulling the trigger, she threw it just in front of the gate the two shards were fleeing to. Instantly, a wall of flame covered the gateway. how any shard unwilling to brave the flames was trapped with them. Jaden tried aiming for a shard, barely holding onto the corner of a triangle. Buffered by the wind from the prison crystal, however, she couldn’t hold her aim and the shot went wide. Nox also grabbed a cypher she’d put aside for just this time. It boosted her Psychic abilities, making them more powerful for a short time. She then blasted three of the shards, one on the hexagon attacking Marius, one barely holding onto the triangle and the last shard closest to the fire. All three hit, the shard on the triangle flapping wildly in the breeze, the one nearest the door receiving extra damage from a direct hit.
 
Having seen the shards meant business, Marius pumped effort into his next Molecular Rearranger. It took a massive hit, showering Marius in red graphical artifacts, but still holding firm to its spot on the hexagon. One near Fureva-Yung at the fire sent a blast at her before falling away from the wall and into the portal below. Fureva-Yung was lost in the blast for a moment, but when the smoke and pixels cleared, Fureva-Yung had taken little more than a scratch. The Shard, barely clinging to the triangle, sent a bolt at Nox before it, too, fell away into the lower portal. Nox glided aside and watched the blast go past. The shard on the hexagon sent a shot at Jaden, but she was ready and dodged aside, her blast going wild as well in the heat of battle.
 
Fureva-Yung flicked out her chain at the last shard near the door. The chain wrapped the shard, tearing it away from the wall and the door to its safety. The shards were now getting pummeled from Jaden, Nox and Marius as the tide of battle turned. The shard on the chain allowed itself to be taken by the wind, pulling Fureva-Yung with it. By force of will, Fureva-Yung held her ground in a place without ground and refused to move. The shard, was torn from the chain and pulled back into the portal without its prize. Now, all that was left was a heavily damaged shard clinging to hope on the hexagon. A bright glow in the shard signified it was building up a big blast, finally launching it against Marius. Every joule of energy was absorbed or deflected by Marius’ armour, and he held his ground as the exhausted shard slipped away and fell back into the portal.
 
The room was clear. Marius dodged the flames to check the next room. It was another library chamber, a cylindrical room full of shelving containing data visualised as books. On the catalogue, Marius brought up a map of the local datasphere. The map showed a heavy concentration of the shard through the lower gate, but no presence of the shard anywhere else. Satisfied, he went back to tell the others it was all clear.
“I trust you,” Nox said to him, with the suggestion that if he were wrong, she would have something to say about it and allowed herself to fall through the gate.
 
Marius followed, turning on his invisibility as he appeared in the next chamber. The funnel-shaped room wide at the top and narrowing to the far end was familiar from their fight against the shard in the Spire. In the centre, the control panel for the shield was dark and lifeless, the shield glowing but not moving forward. At the far end, a large roiling mass of shard filled the space. Jaden somehow appeared in the room past the control panel, beyond the shield, floating back into the mass that was the shard. This was it, this was the last battle. Beyond this room was the crystal prison and the end of the Shard, Erinai and the rule of the Servitors forever and if they were unlucky, Jaden too.
 
Marius started by breaking the hold of the shard tentacles gripping inside the funnel. The Molecular Rearranger turned the tentacles to pixels and loosened its grip. Exposed, Jaden was the focus of the shard's attacks, barely dodging tentacles lashing out at her. Activating and attracting cypher, she linked herself with Fureva-Yung’s chain, halting her movement above the roiling shard. Inside the shield, tentacles started reaching around, whipping out at Marius, who twisted free to create a concussive bomb.
 
Fureva-Yung, her chain snapped taught, started pulling Jaden towards the shield and away from the grasping tentacles of the shard with one hand and pulled out a timely Friction Reducing gel cypher. This she threw at the wall close to the shard . Her trick worked, the container of gel shattered spreading across the wall. Wherever the gel hit, the shard lost grip, and another section of the shard fell back into the crystal.
 
“Mum! Can you start the shield moving up?” Nox asked of Ariaxa. With a nod of her head, the blue being blinked to the control panel and started up the machine. With that done and underway, Nox bamfed out to Jaden beyond the safety of the shield. Jaden had not been lazy as she hung exposed in the centre of the trap. Now she was not falling into the crystal, she pulled out her heavy laser and shot at the shard at almost point-blank range. Scoring a critical hit, she cut off a tentacle, the whole limb falling back into the centre. Marius' Molecular Rearranger attack had a similar effect, with the tentacle he cut falling into rainbow pixels to rain down on the body of the shard. Exposed and wrapped around Jaden, Nox was nearly snatched up by a tentacle, if not for Fureva-Yung reeling them both in. The next chance she got, she bamfed them back to safety inside the shield. Now safe, Jaden got to work getting the machine to move faster as Marius continued to blast tentacles into rainbow pixels. The shield flashed, and the machine in the centre burst into life as Ariaxa urged it and the shield towards the narrow end. Now that Jaden and Nox were safe, Fureva-Yung climbed out beyond the shield and planted herself against the wall. With a leap, she slammed her two feet onto the wall, making it shake and vibrate. The Earthquake did little to dislodge the shard , but it was at least to start.
 
Desperate, the shard started concentrating its attacks, not on those inside the shield, but on the shield itself. Though only made of energy, all inside could hear the shield cracking under the strain. Now the earthquake was having an effect, and the shard on that side of the trap started slipping. Fureva-Yung sent a Shattering shout after a large tentacle, just in case and returned to her place behind the shield. With Ariaxa and Jaden at the machine, the shield was taking the fight to the shard, scraping it off the wall and down the drain, but it was hard going, and the shield was failing. Nox helped by pumping energy into the shield… as Marius repaired the sections that were showing signs of breaking.
 
With one last push from everyone, the earthquake, the shattering shout, shield boosts, and the last of the shard that fell into the drain. A wail of monstrous despair echoed up from the drain just before the shield blocked and silenced the shard forever.
 
“Did we actually do it?” Jaden asked, looking at her controls to the empty room, “What now?”
“Take the giant servitor back to the Spire to get rid of this shard once and for all, “ Nox said, sure that it wasn’t over until the shard was past the gate in the star.
“We have to free the remaining villagers,” Marius reminded the group. But surely, now that the shard was captured, they were free.
“Maybe we should leave the datasphere and see what’s happening,” Fureva-Yung suggested.
 
They left the datasphere and reentered the Crystal Room. A servitor was slumped lifeless over the railing on the catwalk. Another two were frozen in place, prying open the elevator doors. They had captured the shard just in time. Just in case, Marius put up a force cube around the crystal. At least for an hour, it was safe.
 
While Ariaxa babysat the crystal, the rest of the group made their slow ascent through the temple complex to the surface. All along their path, they found downed servitors, their minds now lost in the crystal prison below. Marius set up a force cube around the top of the elevator shaft. Whatever was outside, they didn't want it to escape down into the temple and undo all their work. Tentatively, they exiting the temple into Celeron for the first time, the group was surprised by the stillness and collapsed servitors, as well as the roar of hundreds of voices. For a moment, the scene was a replay of the night of the original attack. The group prepared for battle with servitors who had slivers of shard onboard.
 
Everywhere, people were bludgeoning servitors, some successfully, some out of sheer cathartic revenge. Jaden recognised a few of the attackers as the respectable citizens of High Redoubt who used to ignore her complaints for fair access to io. Now, they had nothing and would have to start again, she wondered how reasonable they would be. Marius too was wondering how to rally the angry crowd and turn that energy into positive rebuilding. Between them, they came up with three points they could all agree on. Fureva-Yung used her authoritative Captain’s voice and shouted to get most of the group’s attention. Nox even chipped in, promising to connect to as many minds as she could to share the exact same message.
 
Marius placed another force cube on the door and used it to climb up to the top of the temple. From there, Marius and Jaden expressed their shared message. Nox flew up above them to scout how the message was received, and Fureva-Yung stood on the ground in front of the force cube, ready for action.
 
“ People of Celeron, the threat is over. The controlling force known as Erinai has been imprisoned and can no longer cause harm. Please find everyone still alive and free them, if needed, help them. Tomorrow, we start the rebuilding of Celeron in a new way, but tonight is a celebration of survival and commemoration of what we have learnt.”
 
The crowds slowly left their futile bashing of servitors and started gathering around the group at the temple. They wanted details. They wanted to know what was going on. How did the group know they were safe? And most of all, the priests of the temple wanted to know what they’d done to Erinai.
 
Marius and Jaden descended from the temple and began moving through the crowd, answering the questions they could, sharing knowledge of Tiltspire and the achievements of the refugees who had fled the night of the attack. Fureva-Yung stayed with them, pushing out subsonic rumbles to show they were not to be messed with. Nox, however, had other thoughts.
 
Firstly, she sent a telepathic message to Aunt Ivasha, Livaanar, her father, all the original refugees she’d travelled across the land with, Yitti and Orv, who had helped with the plan to attack Celeron, everyone she could think of back at the Spire.
Success! Celeron is ours! The servitors lie broken in the streets, and the Artificial Intelligence that called itself Erinai is captured! The people of Celeron are now free.
 
She heard some of the people talking about what was meant by”... rebuilding Celeron the new way…”. Old resentments, the shame she saw in her Father and her own treatment by the citizens bubbled up. She flew high above the crowd, she calling to them in voice and in their minds.
 
“Tiltspire is the new way! There, everyone works to make the town. No Highredoubt. No Buckles. No Gate!” And as if organised, Fureva-Yung sent an earthquake through the foundations of the wall and gap where the Highredoubt gates used to be. With a roar of collapsing stone, the wall shivered itself to pieces.
 
After that brief demonstration, a sense of peace seemed to settle over the mob. Marius and Jaden continued to answer questions, assuring the people this was a time to celebrate, to find loved ones and to remember the dead. They assured them many were alive at Tiltspire, and with time, a connection between the two communities could be reestablished. In the meantime, the temple and being kept imprisoned inside was safe with them.
 
Thirdly, Nox scanned the crowd for the High Priest of Celeron, a name named Kavaan. Though he only inherited the role, Nox held him personally responsible for all the trouble the shard had caused. Even scanning the minds of survivors for his possible location yielded nothing. She continued searching for the man whose family had conspired with the Shard to kill Celeron, the founder of the town, and set themselves up as quasi-religious rulers.
 
Celebrations started, the sick and dead were tended and still, Nox was bent on finding Kavaan. Days past.
“We have so much to do,” Jaden complained one day as Nox disappeared on her self-imposed mission, “We’ve only just started here, and she’s flitting off, probably looking for a dead man.”
 
Eventually, hunting through the upper rooms of the temple, Nox found a Kavaan. He’d been strapped into a high chair and kept alive like a baby until his servitor nanna had just stopped. It was the shards attempt at humiliating the man who had forever only benefited from the influence of Erinai. For days, he’d been alone, screaming, and no one had heard him. Nox had contemplated not telling anyone of her discovery. Only a look in his mind showed that he was no longer the man who used his powers to humiliate people like her Father. There wasn’t much of a man left at all, just a broken shell who had already been punished. She let the others know where he was, and Jaden used a mental imager to record what happens to those who enslave themselves to technology.
 
As the days past, more of Celeron came to life. Nox bamfed prominent members of the old Celeron from Tiltsspire to help reinforce the group's message of “...creating a new Celeron.” People like Yitti, and Ivasha, who could rely on the support of different parts of society to believe them. Plans were made not just to rebuild Celeron but to reestablish the transport system discovered by the refugees to help with quick transport between the two towns. Other plans were discussed on how to get the crystal back to Celeron, sooner rather than later.
 
And still, Nox looked at Celeron’s compass each night, “I promise we’ll go back and find you soon. I promise. I promise.”