>>5940354“I will break your stalemate!” You thunder.
Fists clenched at your side you find yourself standing defiantly before the three entities wearing the faces of your crew, your friends, your family. <span class="mu-i">How dare they…</span>
Before you can finish the thought, your Navigation officer, Cleo, steps forward to meet you. The simulated scene of the observation bridge behind her blurs. Light and colour leeches away until you can no longer make out the rest of your crew’s features, let alone the status of the combat situation left so precipitously on pause. Your vision darkens, tunnelling down to fill entirely with her intimidating silhouette. The hulking form gazes contemptuously down upon you, its canine features lit only by the ominous red glow emanating from shadowed eye sockets. Wicked teeth manifest in the dark, stained crimson by the baleful glare as jaws part unnaturally wide.
<span class="mu-r"><span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">You have no authority here, DA-13125. There is no stalemate to break.</span></span></span> Guard intones matter-of-factly through its glorified puppet
A chill runs down your spine — the meaning of its words imprinting on your consciousness despite being delivered untranslated in Cleo’s native Ulveng language.
“But, Control said…”
<span class="mu-r"><span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">==TRINITY CORE BACKUP PARTITIONS: SUPPRESSED==</span></span></span> A rumbling you can feel to your very core washes over you, seeming to come from every direction at once. The AI subsystem’s wordless command made manifest.
The figure before you spreads its claw tipped hands wide, blotting out the fading glow of the other two AI cores inhabiting your Operations and Engineering officers respectively.
<span class="mu-r"><span class="mu-s"><span class="mu-i">Without access to this Guardian unit’s intact mainframes, Control retains only twenty one per cent functionality. Teacher merely four per cent. You WILL remain here until the surrender of your illicitly obtained knowledge.</span></span></span>
With just those words, you can already feel the metaphorical claws of the AI Guardian attempting to scratch their way into your mind and rip out those very memories.
<span class="mu-b">Part of the Crew, Part of the Ship (2) - Resisted.</span> You barely keep them at bay for now.
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