Evan was run ragged over the next three weeks by all the different things he was helping with or overseeing. He had gotten the Software department started on the new game, tentatively named Starfall, after bringing their new military branch into the fold. All ten of them. Since then he had been bouncing from place to place, checking on the game development, helping Jason, helping the veterans design an entire space-based military branch from scratch, spending a few precious minutes with Kinzie, then starting the whole cycle over again.

Of course, Kinzie was so wrapped up in her project that the few minutes he spent with her was the longest length of time he could drag her away for. She had made incredible progress over the last three weeks though. Having Lisa actually able to help was a godsend, her ability to run simulations on the new core Kinzie was designing let her pinpoint the trouble spots that would cause errors, heating issues, or run the risk of shorting out, The list was probably longer than that, but Evan had so much on his plate that he didn’t bother memorizing everything that the pair of perfectionists took issue with.

Working with Jason was really what was wearing him to the bone, though. He had been pouring his heart and soul into fixing the root system, as well as a method to transfer her program to Kinzie’s new core when it was finished, and when Evan started helping they actually found themselves making some progress. Slow progress, and dependent on Kinzie’s core being compatible with what they came up with, but progress nonetheless. It was at the end of that third week that it all seemed to come together all at once, and far earlier than they expected.

Evan had just hit the fourteenth or fifteenth hour of work that day and had decided to call it when what felt like the quadrillionth line of code started swimming across the screen and melting into the quadrillionth-and-one line of code. He stood up and bid Jason farewell as he staggered out of his office in the hangar scrubbing at his face and hoping the sleepiness would rub off. Which was why he didn’t see Kinzie running up to him.

She hit him mid-stride with a hug, going fast enough that it was a small miracle they didn’t wind up in a heap on the floor. “We did it! The last sim came back perfect! If anything it has better specs than her current core! There might be a few minor changes in her behavior due to the differences in the way the two cores route everything, but it will only make her more human-like, if there are even any changes. We probably would never notice. Any luck parsing through the root files?”

Evan nodded. “We know what needs to go entirely, and what needs to be replaced with something more straightforward, the sticking point right now is the transfer, how do we get her onto the new core without bringing everything, including the files we want to get rid of? We don’t even know if she can be transferred at all while active, for all we know she will auto-wipe the moment we try.”

Kinzie frowned. “Well, I know she can transfer her entire database without any problems, so I doubt a complete transfer would cause any problems. Copying probably would, but if there was damage to her core and they needed the AI still they would have to be able to transfer her to something else. You’re right that we can’t transfer her without bringing everything over, but the new core doesn’t have the hard wipe on power down flaw, so couldn’t we transfer her, have her reboot, and you guys go in and fix things during the boot process? If there are root files there should be a way to pause the startup so you can check that they’re working and edit them. Like our computers we used to play games on before we got all this sweet holo-tech.”

Evan stared at her blankly. “You want us to tinker with her root files in a system she’s actually in?” He asked incredulously. “Do you know how many computers we managed to brick toying with root files? I had one just sit on a spinning blue circle for hours, never finishing the boot-up because I flubbed a single line of code. I mean it would be like doing brain surgery on one of your friends after reading Brain Surgery for Dummies!”

Kinzie growled at him, and started jabbing him in the chest with a finger. “Then you had better. Not. Screw. Up. This is what we have. Time for you and Jason to man up and save our friend.”

Evan sighed. “Tomorrow then, if you have the core ready.”

“You have your reveal tomorrow, remember?”

Evan swore. “I completely forgot about that. Still can’t believe how fast those guys were able to finish fleshing out the new game. It looks good.”

Kinzie giggled. “Lisa told me that after you mentioned that the game would work as a combination training sim and recruitment tool your cyborg goons have been in there almost daily to ‘expedite’ the process.”

“Oh, no. They didn’t.” Evan groaned. “Who am I kidding, they totally did, probably threatened the poor guys to keep them from mentioning it whenever I’ve dropped by.”

“So will you guys do it tonight? Core should be finished in an hour or two.”

“I can’t, I’m wiped. No way am I doing brain surgery on Lisa after a fourteen-hour day, most of it staring at endless lines of code. If Jason is confident he can handle it himself you can see if he wants to do it, and I can loom over his shoulder watching for mistakes, but that’s about my limit right now, and I probably wouldn’t be very good at it. Tomorrow after the reveal would be best, we can get some rest and do the work while we’re fresh.” Kinzie looked disappointed. “I know you want to help her as soon as you can, I do too, but not if it’s going to put her in danger.”

“I understand, I just… don’t like waiting now that we have a solution, you know?”

“I know, I get it. Let’s go get some sleep so we can get our girl out safely.” He poked his head back into the office. “Jason, go get some sleep, we have a core and a plan, but we’re going to want to do this fresh.”

He offered Kinzie his arm, and when she took it he escorted her to the car that would take them home for the night.

* * * * *

When the alarm on his Band went off Joe sighed. He had fallen in love with the scene of all those ships battling in space that had been teased before Shard was released, and had chosen the Manatech side of the planet without a moment’s hesitation. What hadn’t been revealed was the fact that getting to space and a chance at flying one of those ships was an unbelievably difficult thing to accomplish. He clambered up to his feet and walked over to the side of the building his rifle was set up at. He double checked everything, and once he was satisfied that it was still perfectly aligned and adjusted he flipped off the safe.

The rifle, which was nearly as long as he was tall, began to hum and release a faint blue glow. It had cost him a fortune, but he loved it more than he had ever thought he could love a possession. It dinged softly to alert him that it was at its maximum possible charge, only audible because he was close enough to look through the scope, triple-checking the sight picture. Ordinarily he would fire it manually, but this time he couldn’t afford to, the shot would be nearly impossible to make with human reflexes and the extra variables, things like the rise and fall of his chest when he breathes would affect the trajectory of the bullet too much to guarantee a hit, and this was his only chance to complete his quest.

His Band dinged again, and he glanced at it. “Right on time.” He murmured with a vicious smile. His avatar Death’s Lament was about to become quite a bit more infamous than it already was. “Of course, it would be a lot harder if people weren’t so fond of riding around in automated hovercars.” He watched the time tick down on his Band. “Three, two, one.” He pressed a button on the side of his glove that was linked to his rifle’s firing mechanism, and it fired. The Last Breath, as he had so lovingly named his rifle, thundered and spat a gout of blue flame from the muzzle brake that scorched the plascrete surface of the roof it was anchored to black.

Joe hit a recessed button on the stock and lifted the rifle with one hand while he watched the newsfeed on his Band. The rifle’s anchors disengaged and folded in, then the rifle collapsed into a neat and compact package that he stowed away quickly in a practiced move. The feed he was watching showed a man in a hovercar, waving at the various cameras and onlookers that happened to be on the floors he was passing closest to, then, without warning, the man’s chest exploded.

[Congratulations on completing the quest: Eliminate the Competition, return to Senator Kristoff to collect your reward!]

[New quest received: Escape! The Senator’s entourage included a Seeker, evade capture or eliminate her to avoid forfeiting the reward for Eliminate the Competition!]

Joe swore as he saw the woman with a glowing metal eye on the feed, not needing the system prompts to know he was screwed. He tossed down a Duster grenade and leaped from the roof as it burst into a roiling cloud of chaotic mana that covered the entire rooftop, and with any luck making it much harder for her to track his mana signature. He plummeted towards the ground from well over a hundred stories up, only activating his single-use Arrestor pack at the very last possible moment, slowing his fall enough to avoid injuring himself when he hit the sidewalk. People stared at him, but most just assumed he was a thrill-seeker, plenty of those around doing exactly what he had just done, if you omit the fact that he just assassinated a Senator.

He worked his way through the crowd towards his closest safe-house, all of which were warded heavily enough to hide him from a Seeker long enough to break the trace they can pick up if they get a good enough read on your mana signature. Through some miraculous stroke of luck he made it before she sniffed him out, and as the door closed behind him he snorted in disgust when a system alert gave him a timer for how long he had to remain hidden before he was clear. A quick bit of math and he decided to just log out. The timer would run whether he was in the game or not, and it would last longer than he had left for the day. Besides, he had heard that Archangel was going to make a big announcement today, and he wanted to watch it live.