The Scarlet Alliance was rather generous with how they used their spatial distortions most of the time. That was because they needed to lull their opponents into a false sense of security. While it was true that previously they had to change the location an entire segment traveled to all at once, that was centuries old. The previous generation.
They continued to expand not just their functional area by including their eastern territory, officially shielding Ratna and her surroundings, but they also added new features. Catarina was still head of development in that field, and responsible for some of the more complex operations.
It was just unnecessary at the moment. The way everything was set up already led to systems prepared to defend themselves. The Scarlet Alliance had sufficient Domination cultivators to maneuver one or two around… which was always a fun surprise for those that came through.
Would they meet Prospero? Catarina? Ratna? Timothy wasn’t frequently a solo participant, but he could conceivably show up. And even if they didn’t run into a Domination cultivator, they had to retreat in precisely the right direction to end up back where they came. Not that the Scarlet Alliance had to let them, but it kept them complacent.
They could have wiped out every single fleet that crossed the border into their fleets, but they wanted people to remember they could show mercy. That way, when they started cutting the heads off of Domination cultivators they could get everyone else to run or surrender instead of fighting to the death.
So far, the war in the upper realms hadn’t escalated to Domination cultivators acting offensively. Yann might not actually know better, but he likely wasn’t willing to act alone. It was yet unclear if the Tilki Clan would be further trouble, but there were potentially a few other Domination cultivators strewn about. They kept a constant watch for any movements regarding them. There wasn’t just one massive fleet coming for them, though it would have been easier to deal with in some ways.
On the other side, the Exalted Quadrant wasn’t eager to launch many physical attacks. No doubt they had been hoping for the Scarlet Alliance to be more crippled by the effects of Project Apocalypse- but they also couldn’t ignore the opportunity afforded by the Trigold Cluster attacking as well. If the Scarlet Alliance had any choice in their location- which they didn’t- they certainly wouldn’t have preferred a space between the two rivals. Now they acted as an unfortunate buffer between them- most of the time. But things didn’t always have to stay that way.
-----
When the upper realms portion of the Alliance had been hit by Everheart’s virus, communication had been greatly restricted. But when they determined that Everheart’s virus shouldn’t be compatible with the lower realms, they had relaxed slightly.
In truth, that was actually supposed to be the case. Despite the Scarlet Alliance being tightly connected to the lower realms, Everheart specifically tailored his attacks for a certain purpose. But sometimes even he made mistakes. Not that he would admit it. If anyone asked, it was a further distraction from his activities.
Nobody would have noticed anything until it was too late. Everheart’s methods weren’t so crude that they immediately activated upon infection- then people could react and shut down connected systems. No, they remained dormant only to spread further before causing any sort of visible trouble.
That was how some pieces ended up spread throughout all of the lower realms, including a few in one particular factory. Despite in some ways being a computer, Reneden wasn’t actually an expert in their operation- just like how humans weren’t born masters of anatomy and medicine. Even so, humans would feel sick when something was wrong, and Reneden felt the same for some of its hosts.
Being a distributed multividual, Reneden wasn’t actually worried about its own health. But something was quite wrong with certain computers, and that included new ones produced in the same facility. It used its energy to clamp down on what was wrong. There was no interaction with specific code, but it was instead a broadly targeted action like filtering poison out of the body. Once a certain substance was recognized as the problem, cultivators could remove it without actually knowing how it worked.
The problem was that it kept coming back, after connections to other locations came. Reneden could constantly stop the flow, and it wouldn’t even be all that bad… but this meant other computer systems were sick.
Reneden had two options. First, infiltrate each and every computer system the humans had… or tip someone off. One of those options was far easier and less risky. So like with all of the communication beacons, Reneden filed an error report that someone would absolutely see. That would bring their attention to the problem so that they could handle it.
Reneden did take over a couple input devices- microphones and their interpretation components- but not even whole computers in different systems. Just enough to hear people’s reactions, and it planned to leave the components later.
“Some sort of bug…?” one person commented.
“Aren’t there always?” their partner replied. “Just put it on the list.”
“It’s high priority.”
“Everything is high priority. People need to mark their tasks appropriately, or we’ll just toss them on the backburner.”
“No, seriously. It’s E-class.”
“Ev-” the second individual caught themselves before speaking. “... You’re sure it’s not someone trying to get their personal pet peeve fixed?”
“We have to inspect it,” said the first individual. “Because either it is appropriately marked, or we have to report their abuse of the system and send them a fine. High priority can be ‘mislabeled’ and people can get away with it, but… E-class issues are something else.”
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“Fine but… scans haven’t picked anything up. The systems are fine.”
“... That’s also what we’d see if there was an E-class problem.”
“Dammit. Are there any details from the report?”
“Not many. It’s just a… I don’t know where it came from, actually. Hold on one moment. The metadata is all weird. It’s from an unknown individual.”
“Check to make sure the message isn’t the threat.”
“We already received it but… I guess I have to.”
A few minutes of silence.
“I traced it back to the source,” commented the first one. “Some factory? I don’t think it’s even equipped to send these reports. I’m considering trying to get in contact with the manager.”
Whoops. Reneden didn’t think that could be traced. It wasn’t really good at those little details. It thought it hid everything that mattered.
“How long would that take?” the second individual asked.
“We’d need instant comms. And to talk to someone.”
“Ugh. Bad idea,” said the second. “I’ve isolated a segment of code that the report flagged. There’s something weird. It’s like there’s someone else in the network.”
“Do you think he managed it?”
“I sure hope not. It’s just-” Reneden felt a poke. Reneden stood very still. Or computered very still. “There’s something. I think it has access to the mics?”
Double whoops. Reneden was just going to have to trust that they would figure out the rest. Time to strategically withdraw. It got about halfway before the two people grabbed it. Reneden felt their energies connect for a moment. “Got you!” The two workers spoke in unison.
“Hi I sent that report but I have to go now goodbye!” Reneden yanked itself away. As it was now quite Assimilationish in power, it was more powerful than these Life Transformation career network jockeys. Once that connection was broken, Reneden just stopped being there. It was still in all of its normal locations, though. As it had been since it became a proper multividual.
It was quite possible that Reneden’s position was compromised. Maybe it should come clean so that people could worry about that E-class thing. Though asking someone for advice might be best.
-----
“Reneden wants to know if it should tell people about it being a multividual now,” Bear Hug said. “Oh wait, was that question for just me?” Bear Hug paused. “Forget I said anything, Anton.”
“Too late,” Anton said. “But hey, maybe Reneden’s finally ready to admit it. Good.” Anton extended his energy to some of the nearby beacons. Most people wouldn’t easily be able to find them- they were supposed to remain hidden after all. Even Anton didn’t always pick them out on the first pass through a system- even more now when Reneden was actively hiding them. Not against him in particular, but against passing enemies. It still fooled his senses sometimes.
Just one beacon gave Anton a slightly odd feeling. If he touched on two or three of the surveillance beacons at once, he felt a wider aura. Just like Bear Hug, there wasn’t really a connection between the pieces. Not located in physical space, unlike his sensory energy. But they felt the same.
“So let’s say, hypothetically,” Bear Hug began once more. “If Reneden had spread to more than just the only place we know Reneden is in for sure. And was something like a multividual like me… nobody would be mad about that right?”
“What do you think?” Anton asked.
“Well, we’re friends with Reneden. And Reneden would help us. Especially if it had taken over some beacons. Which it hasn’t. But it would be fine.”
“I think some people would get mad,” Anton said. “Or afraid. Things are quite unbalanced at the moment. People are afraid of outside attackers coming at any moment.”
“That’s right!” Bear Hug said. “Hmm, how problematic. We wouldn’t want anyone to be afraid of our friend. What a tough situation I… am pretending to think about.”
Bear Hug was not a good liar. Probably because they didn’t like to lie. If they got good at it, there wouldn’t be any body language for Anton to read except what they expressly intended. Though energy sign incorporated a spirit of truth that was rather difficult to bypass, as energy was always influenced by how someone was feeling. Bear Hug would never be that person though.
“Uh…” Bear Hug was suddenly on alert. “Outside attackers!”
Anton was on alert. How had he missed them? Oh, of course.
“At another location, obviously. That I heard about first because…”
“Because you have other bodies,” Anton offered helpfully. “Somewhere closer to that location.”
“Yes! That makes sense. That’s very normal,” Bear Hug agreed, bouncing up and down slightly. “All of that.”
“And which system is this?”
“Well, you see…”
“The one that you heard the news from, please.”
“It’s too far for you to get to, unfortunately,” Bear Hug said. “Especially if they have one of them divvy nasties with them. They’re coming quite fast. I hope someone can protect them until Devon gets there.”
Anton finally got a name. And sadly, he had no bound star there. He only had a couple hundred, and especially the border territories of the Lower Realms Alliance were sparse in connections to him. Perhaps he could expand more quickly, perhaps not. Ranks of cultivation were certainly more vague as he went on, so he might not have to be exact. Or he could create weaker forms of connection, if he still had to match somehow? Not splitting his connections, but incomplete bindings that would eventually be turned into full ones.
Unfortunately, he had neither the methods nor the time for that. He also hoped that they could hold off for Devon to reach them.
-----
Third Watch was a royal guard. She took her position zealously, overlapping with the official positions of her compatriots. However, this incident occurred entirely under her jurisdiction.
A warning from the humans. A call of danger. Take shelter. Evacuate.
The void ants would do no such thing. Shelter might be appropriate- until the invaders touched down on the planet. However, they would not be evacuating. They would be preparing for foolish boots to touch down on soil. Then they would eat the boots.
Or probably just the energy of the person wearing them. Most boots weren’t that tasty, even if they were real leather. Tolerable when cooked, though.