END

Chapter 1
849 years after the Duel at I30

Dawn was ascending on the russet night of the smoggy metropolis, Ambredo. Brilliant light shimmering over the horizon burned away the dank bloodstained mud that littered the heavens like a candle in an Ugenda’s den. On an untouched world, pins of light would protect and inspire the minute populace, but Typrus had been stained by wealth, power, and genius, leaving the night hopeless but for the incandescent glow of the cityscape. Change, progress, growth, future, all set aside to the pleasures of today.

Although, pleasure was the last thing on the mind of Jenvui Kiuf when he finally rested his hands from his data center with red eyes and trembling hands.

“Prepare to send DOCUMENT-1000101-1001110 1000100 over encrypted wireless connection to access station 049 Baey District. Trigger system failure 0.31 microseconds after data is received. Terminate station in exactly 36 hours. After all docking preparations are complete I’ll wave a goodbye and we’ll go, got it?” Jenvui purposefully asked.

“It’s END game.” Replied the other present flatly.

“Cheery now aren’t we? Heh heh. Well we ought to be going. Don’t want to be late for the big show.” Jenvui halfheartedly replied.

One hour earlier, Ambredo, Security Headquarters - 10 miles from Jenvui’s location.

“Wake up Ulan.” Barked Captain Loid Silver, of the Ambredo Anti-Terrorist Contingent.

“Ahhrg, Who?!” Ulan gasped. “Oh! I’m so sorry Overseer It’ll never hap-”

“Forget it. Just show me your report and you can go home.” The overseer stated.

“Thank you sir. It’s been hard adjusting to 4th shift. ” Ulan explained as he accessed his daily cyber irregularity report. “37 hours aren’t enough to fill a day.”

“Sure, Sure. What have you got for me?” said the annoyed Silver.

“Well there were some power fluctuations in the old network, I mean the oooold network. Not a single piece of wetware installed, it’s the Wi-Fi infrastructure, so I don’t think it’s a problem. I’m surprised their still maintained at all. Anyway, you know those signal towers are as old as Duron.”

“Fool! Did you not investigate at all? Odd activities related to those old relics have been happening all across Typrus! And your right, that infrastructure stopped receiving power centuries ago. Events must be interconnected and we can’t just blame it on the rats so you can get your beauty sleep!”

“Not to disrespect sir but what could possibly happen?” Ulan said nonchalantly.

“Moron! Worst case scenario: we have pirates or worse, Inveda operatives, using the ancient mainframes to trade instructions.”

“So what are you going to do?” Ulan groggily asked.

“We are going to track these fluctuations to the source. Prep the ship for takeoff and alert the crew. You’re working another 12 hours.” Silver ordered.

“Ugh.” Grunted Ulan as he left the room.

“So, what do we have here?” murmured the intrigued Captain Silver.

Three floating screens were before him with the first displaying Ulan’s report. The second displaying a map of Ambredo with overlays depicting the signal tower’s power fluctuations and the third now listing all previous police reports related to ancient technology within the last month as he brought it up.

Let’s check the headlines first, Loid thought. Six references were made to the since replaced WI-FI++ infrastructure.