Art of Domination Thread 04

>destroy the decoy

>recover half of the nukes
>Hawkeyes can we set up the remaining nukes to be remotely detonated without the enemy noticing? I like the idea of letting them open a portal to attempt to recover the nukes, but I think we could trick them into revealing the location of the base they're using for that purpose in addition to heavily damaging it

WEEK 6 DAY 7

07 00 hours

It took a lot of work, but half of the nuclear material has been recovered from the Vault. With Hawkeyes’ supervision, a trap has been set to detonate remotely in case the enemy tries taking it again. The decoy has also been properly disposed of.

This has been a major setback to the enemy’s plans, and it doesn’t seem like they’re aware their preparation has been foiled.

As you prepare to assess the overall situation, Ghulls hands you a report about a ’minor’ operation:

== Operation Angry Nurse ==
Submitted by Captain Selev

Operation was initiated in response to intel that indicated local terrorists sympathetic to the old regime were planning an attack on Monroe Hospital. We contacted local law enforcement and co-ordinated with them.

Operation was a success with no casualties. With cooperation from local law enforcement, we were able to locate and neutralized the terrorists before they could attack Monroe Hospital in Region 3.

In total, there were 14 suspects. 8 were killed, 6 were wounded and captured. Early interrogation indicates that Robert North has been sending secret psychic messages to potential candidates for terrorist attacks. We have already asked Intruder about ways to counter-act this, but he insists that we stop asking him questions until he finishes his project.

===

You decide to contact Intruder for yourself.

You: Intruder? What exactly are you working-

Intruder: I will not repeat myself so listen very closely.

You: Intruder-

Intruder: I am going to die of starvation. Soon. My strength is fading. Listen.

You resist the urge to ask further questions.

Intruder: Underneath your Omni-Factory I have built a facility. You may call it the Author’s Forge. It builds machines no one in your universe, not even your Wisdom Cabal, can. It operates by temporarily replacing a part of this dimension with another, allowing it to construct matter under different physical rules.

Your ship’s screens are flooded with a burst of information! Ghulls shields his eyes; the flashing lights are giving him a headache.

Intruder: My people were built. They put us together. The Audience. We don’t know why. We’ve never even talked to them. How could we? To compare us to them would be like comparing an electron to a star. We don’t know why they care. Why they chose US. We only do what they want us to. To tell stories. Using the lives of smaller beings to play roles for us.

You think to yourself. The Audience. All of this was because of them?

Intruder: The Auditors, The Redactors, The Authors. It’s a deliberate system. We’ve been doing this for so long. I think we were all born just for their amusement. Some sick monsters enraptured with the tales of tiny creatures destroying themselves. Monstrous demons too big to fit even in our cosmos. My conscious mind hates them even though all my instincts tell me to obey. And now I am dying for my disloyalty.

Lagantis: Intruder…

Intruder: Our time together has been brief, but I’ve done everything I wanted. If there is a life after this, I will surely be laughing loud enough at my peers for the living to hear. The survival of Koda Serivi and the creation of hybrid children is an enormous setback. So is Alone’s survival. You can create food for it using the Author’s Forge. When Alone recovers, sic him on our foes. The failure of the Magnum Opus will end my people’s savagery on your kind.

You: Wait, but what about the Audience?

Intruder: They’re not watching anymore.

You: What?

Intruder: They’ve been gone for a long, LONG time. We all know it, yet we continue to behave like they’re still there, even though they stopped talking to us for eons.

You: Then why are your people, The Authors, still doing this to us?

Intruder: Because it’s the only thing they’ve ever known. We are instruments. Born for a purpose. There is nothing else that makes us… happy. It’s been burned, deep into our soul. We are cursed to tell stories. The Redactors and Auditors have more freedom, but they are still bound to Authors. Bound to their role. They too still behave as if The Audience never left.

Intruder pauses for a moment. His voice now sounds almost like a whimper.

Intruder: That is why you must defeat them. Defeat Robert North. Destroy the Magnum Opus. Defeat The Authors. We don’t have a purpose anymore. We’re scared. We’re scared because we just don’t know what else to do. Even this, my act of rebellion? The only reason I could do this was because I used a loophole.

You: A loophole?

Intruder: I made a story of my own, using ‘characters’ from an already ongoing tale. I took you, your husband, and many others from the Magnum Opus to fill in my own blanks. I MUST use real people to tell stories, I MUST influence them, but there is nothing stopping me from using characters who have already been ‘assigned’. The Redactors and Auditors allowed it. So I did everything I could to keep you all away from being completed taken over by the Art of Domination, their primary tool.

Lagan: So what’s going to happen to us after you die?

Intruder: Write your own story. The Magnum Opus is already collapsing. I… I envy you.

The stream of data stops flooding your systems. It’s everything you need to operate the Author’s Forge.

Intruder: You are free.



Intruder’s connection to our cosmos has shattered.

[[TO BE CONTINUED]] ==>