Chapter 100

Lykan

The Room

Lykan entered the door, feeling a slight form of resistance as some of the liquid Qi had solidified at frame. Still a slight bit of force and resounding screech showed the doors were open. The movement also caused anyone who was unaware of his actions to be deftly aware that he was there.

Lykan paused, half expecting a room full of giant titans to turn and look at him. Fortunately, nothing happened. The room was empty, well not empty but seemingly devoid of people. Still Lykan couldn’t help but feel his nerves beginning to settle in, causing his mind to become hyper aware and focused. Rather than getting excited, Lykan seemed to calm down during events of stress. His body seemed to almost relax as he entered the door, muscles that would normally be tight with fear suddenly unwound.

The room was both larger and smaller than he had expected. The room was larger than the standard rooms, but for how much equipment was inside the room, the room and area that he could move about in was rather sparse. Giant black windows filled the different walls. In the back of the room where what had to be giant cocoons. That is if butterflies grew to be over four meters tall after their gestation period.

Lykan entered the room and felt a very clear demarcation line form in the room. From this side he felt safe, but he got an uneasy feeling the further into the room he went. Not wanting to test out why his senses were telling him that danger lurked in the back towards the overgrown cocoons he decided to stick with the part of the room that his mind told him was safe. Well, this part of the room was not safe, even being here set the hairs on the back of his neck to lift with fearful anticipation. Yet it was much safer to be here than on the other side of the room. So, for the moment he was stuck to being here.

There were a lot of different areas on this side of the room. The most notable areas were the things that looked like giant seats, that pulled up to long flat obsidian black shelves. Everything was dead, that much was clear to the eye. Dust and debris were rampant. It appears that there was once a cleaning bot here as well, but that one too had been fed upon by the rampant rodents that seemed to have been a plague upon this place.

Oddly it was the sign that the rodents had been here and died that made Lykan relax slightly. The idea was that if the rodents could search around without fear of reprisals, then so too could he. With that comforting thought he continued his search, though again stayed well clear of the far side of the room.

Looking around he tried to understand why his mind warned him of the danger from the far side of the room but could not identify any true reason why he should be frightened. Yet, something was off.

Finally, he found something that did seem odd, it was faint and muted but after a long time of searching his senses did identify something of interests. The Qi in one of the cocoons was massive, though he couldn’t see through the black walls of the cocoon like structure he could still feel the waves of Qi that seemed to radiate from there. Breathing deeply, he calmed himself, or at least tried to.

Did I notice that much Qi from so far away as soon as I entered the room? Lykan wondered, partly impressed with his senses and partly sad that it had taken him so long to notice the exact spot of the threat. There was Qi there, an abundance of Qi, which meant that whatever was in that cocoon was alive. Or if not alive, then enough of a threat to cause Lykan’s survival instincts to go off in warning. Seeing where the cocoon was and its placement seemingly behind the others that didn’t radiate Qi at all Lykan wondered why that one cocoon was so different from the others.

Rather than going to see what made the threatening cocoon so different, he opted to stay on his side of the room. In fact, rather than going with the halfway marker like he had nearly done before, he opted to keep close to the front right corner. The corner near a chair and a black shelf. This was also the corner that was nearest the exit. While he didn’t think he could take something that powerful in a fight, he did feel that given enough of a warning he might be able to escape. Also, with his mapping skill he knew the quickest escape route. He also knew areas where he could quickly hide from an advancing pursuer. The most obvious place to hide would be in the remains of the exploded motor room. Lykan figured he could duck in, fly up and try to hide near the entrance for the monster to either go by or enter the room not looking up. That was the contingency that ran through Lykan’s mind as he gingerly made his way over to the corner chair.

Though to call the structure a chair was a bit of a misnomer, first it was just a giant still that seemed to swivel around a peg that jutted out from the floor. Second it was easily a meter and a half off the ground. Lykan immediately froze, he himself had just managed to get into the giant-sized chair. The chair reminding him the way he would try to sit in his father’s reading chair that the library, when he was but a child.

The height forced Lykan to place on hand on the black shelf, as he then used his other hand to hoist himself into the chair. He could have easily circulated his Qi to float up into the swivel chair but thought against such an action. While his normal movements might not be enough to awaken the creature that was in the cocoon, circulating his Qi would likely be the equivalent of blowing a bugle listing his rallying cry to charge. No, in this case he opted to move normally without Qi at all.

This was why, he was shocked and almost annoyed when he felt the now too familiar shock of power from his hand that touched the black shelf. Qi was drawn from his hand, then Lykan felt the moment that his Qi interacted with Qi reserves that had lain dormant from within the walls. In seconds, the Qi reserves were called forth as slowly every black window slowly came to life with a faint glow of Qi.

Lykan swiveled the chair back towards the cocoons that lined the far wall of the room. His heart racing as he checked for any deviations in the Qi fluctuations. Fortunately, the monster at the far end of the room either didn’t notice the wall of glowing Qi windows or was in such a deep sleep that they didn’t notice. Either way, Lykan let out a sigh of relief at his good fortune. Then he turned back to the monitors to note that the wording had changed.

Login Screen. Username: CyroAssist Password: Enter Password.

The words on the screen made no sense. He wracked his mind for what to do but didn’t know what was being asked. With a shock he saw glowing letters and numerals appear on the shelf he had touched a moment ago. He looked around the letters trying to figure out what to do. He eventually did find the word “enter” written on one of the glowing images. His mind told him that was the final thing he needed to do, but still nothing else came to mind.

Shrugging he pressed the “enter” button.

Immediately the wording on the panel changed.

Incorrect Password Used. Try again.

This time Lykan pressed a few random buttons before pressing the “enter” button again.

This time he got the same message as before, but there was a bit more to the message.

Incorrect Password Used. Try again. Password Hint: password1

Seeing the hint Lykan wondered if it was some type of trap. But then realizing he had nothing better to do, he typed in the letters and numeral, then hit “enter.”

Success. Logging in. This might take a moment.

The words on the screen flashed and moved quickly. Words flew by so quickly that Lykan almost had a hard time reading them.

Installing updates. Warning System is offline and cannot receive updates. Critical Updates are available. Cannot receive critical updates due to systems being offline.

Lykan read the messages and was confused by everything that was happening. What were updates? Why were they critical? Also how did they know updates were available if they couldn’t get them while offline? Also, what was offline?

Lykan looked about for any cords or fishing lines from the monitor. After a quick glance it was apparent, there were no lines from the glowing panes of Qi to the rest of the room. The machine clearly knew what it was talking about. Then a question came to mind, does that mean that this machine is self-aware?

“Hello?” Lykan said in a whisper, making sure to speak in high wood elven.

“Hello User CyroAssist. You have been promoted to admin user due to your time in service. Do you wish to see what new options are available to you now that you have been promoted to Admin?”

Hearing that a lot of questions came to Lykan, but the most obvious thing he had at his command was to say “yes.”

“Very well. Administering Admin level briefing of privileges and benefits.” The voice began. With an idle curiosity Lykan realized this was the same voice that spoke of cleaning processes on the upper floors. Realizing that, and that this voice seemed to think he belonged here Lykan let out a sigh as he let the voice speak.

“The first thing we should point out as an Admin is that you now have access to control all functions of this facility and are even able to completely take the facility offline. As a reminder of how bad this would be for Terraforming purposes, we suggest you change your password every Lunar cycle. Note: Our records indicate that it has been well over 87400 Lunar cycles since you have last changed your password. Would you like to do so now?”

Shrugging Lykan said “yes.”

“Very well. Please state or enter the last password.” The voice began.

Lykan froze with fear for a second, before he remembered the absurdly easy password from before. Realizing that was too easy, Lykan typed it in easily. Then when asked to enter in a new password he chose one that he thought would be easy for him to remember.

New Password: lykanvovvita1 Reenter Password: lykanvovvita1

Lykan just chose his full name and the numeral one. With that he hit “enter” and it was accepted.

“Would you like to change your hint?” The voice asked.

Thinking about it Lykan chose “no.” He hoped that seeing the numeral one on the reminder would help him remember what he had changed it to. Also, he didn’t think he would be coming down here all that often. So, he didn’t think he would need it for too many more times. Since it was his name, it was simple enough to remember.

“Now that administrative duties are taken care of. Is there anything you would like to hear more about?”

Hearing that Lykan felt a surge of questions come to his mind. He felt like he was a child again sitting on his father’s lap, during the times when he was able to ask any question he wanted. The only problem was his father was a bit of a trickster and would answer the question based on the way he asked the question, not on the intent behind the question. Feeling that this voice was likely one like his father he paused, collected his thoughts and then began.

“You said this is a terraforming facility?” Lykan asked, his tongue nearly stumbling over the long alien word terraforming.

“Yes.” The voice answered back.

Grimacing that the voice didn’t understand the intent behind the question and go on, Lykan realized this would be exactly like talking to his father. Taking a deep calming breath, he asked the same question differently. “What is terraforming?”

“Processing. Answer found. Terraforming is the process of taking an alien planet and making it habitable.” The voice ended.

Nodding to himself and realizing he would need to ask still more questions Lykan proceeded. To ask the questions in a slow and deliberate fashion.

“How long does terraforming need to take place?”

“Accounts vary from location to location.”

“How much terraforming has occurred on this planet?”

“Approximately 61.5% complete.”

Hearing that, a chill ran down Lykan’s spine. The world was over halfway terraformed? Did that mean that the Titans were winning? Despite the gods having driven them underground they were still able to corrupt the outside world? But if so, how? Then an immediate answer came to mind, this facility.

“How many terraforming facilities are there?”

“Unknown. We do not have contact with the collective, as such we can only guess at how terraforming efforts are going on other planets.” The voice spoke back.

Hearing that Lykan was both frustrated and frightened. Frightened that these monsters were doing this to other planets, but then frustrated that he still wasn’t asking the correct questions.

“How many terraforming facilities are on this planet?” Lykan asked.

“Unknown. We do not have contact with the collective, as such we can only guess at how many terraforming efforts are still functioning on this planet.”

It was going to be a long day, but Lykan was not one to give in easily, not when he finally had answers available. Annoying answers but answers all the same.

“How many terraforming facilities were on this planet before you lost contact with the collective?” Lykan asked.

“Of the original five thousand facilities noted, over three thousand were destroyed, five hundred were uninhabited, and seven hundred were deemed to be bio-hazard areas. In all less than seven hundred facilities received the last directive to disconnect from the great collective and continue degraded terraforming procedures.”

“What are degraded terraforming procedures?”

“Degraded terraforming procedures are where we slowly release Qi into the world at a rate that does not take away from minimum system processes.”

“How is that possible?”

“Thermal energy.”

From there Lykan asked questions, hundreds of questions. Even when given bad or no answers he refined his questions until he could understand what was happening. He eventually learned a few key points of knowledge.

The first was that all remaining facilities that were still able to be given the order to dig down to the thermal lay lines and continue operations.

The second was that the facilities were only to contact the collective of their success once the planet reached 100% terraforming status. Once the signal to the collective was sent, fleets of Titan settlers would be sent to take over the planet. He even saw images of the proposed plans.

The third and most important piece of information that he was able to piece together was that the dark pillars that popped up throughout history were part of the terraforming project. Apparently, those were direct tubes sent to the surface of the planet to expedite Qi saturation. Qi saturation of the planet was somehow part of the terraforming process. Apparently, the invaders would not be able to come until all mana in the atmosphere had been removed. This made sense given how the two elements, both Qi and mana seemed to be at odds with one another.

The fourth and last piece that Lykan was able to gain was that he could shut down this facility permanently, but it would come at a cost to the planet. By overloading the reactors to this facility Lykan could force the plant to destroy itself killing every creature inside, but also forever stopping the slow terraforming process. The cost would be a negligent 1.5% of terraforming to the entirety of the planet. Such a cost would be high, but maybe such a cost would be worth it, assuming no one could ever reactivate the facility. A second way was just to shut down the facility and leave, hoping that such an action would be enough. He pondered the choices but ultimately chose to just shut down the facility.

“Are you sure you wish to shut down this facility? Warning by doing this all-emergency life pods and escape hatches will be permanently opened. Creatures that are unable to make the transition will perish from this process.” The voice said.

Once again Lykan thought back to the dragons, wondering if they somehow managed to escape from a facility. The most obvious answer was that they came from the facility that the high wood elves now use as their base of operations. But that was an action for a different time.

“Yes.” Lykan said.

“Please enter your password as final confirmation.” The voice said.

With that Lykan typed in his new password lykanvovvita1 and pressed “enter,” once again he was glad it was something easy to remember.

“Password accepted. Admin status verified. Complete facility shut down will begin now.”

As soon as the words were spoken a hissing sound could be heard coming from the back end of the room as all the cocoons suddenly opened. To Lykan’s shock he saw the bodies of a dozen frozen Titans. The Titans in the front were all frozen with multiple wounds littering their bodies. It was clear that they had been in battle with something that was able to create giant burn marks within their bodies. Then he turned his attention to see that one Titan was moving.

Fear gripped Lykan’s heart as he looked at the massive monster that moved. This monster too had been damaged as even now wounds that had not been fully healed, only frozen over began to bleed out slowly. The monster before him was clearly wounded, but even still the beast radiated power and killing intent. The beast rose charged across the room in the blink of an eye.

One second Lykan was sitting in the over-sized swivel chair, the next he was being thrown violently across the room. Only by sheer instinct was Lykan able to circulate his cores quickly enough to negate the worse of the toss into the wall. Instead, a crash that should have cracked his skull open against the metal wall only managed to crack and shatter his vertebrates. His left arm was also crumpled and shattered, lying in a deformed mess on his chest. It took Lykan a moment to understand what happened. The best he could understand was that the Titan had moved so quickly that he ran across the room grabbed Lykan by his arm, shattering the bones within his arm upon contact then threw him out of the chair like he was nothing. Then Lykan collapsed to the ground like a sack of potatoes.

Everything went dark.

“Change it back.”

“Please enter password.”

“Incorrect password given.”

“Hint.”

“Password1.”

“Incorrect password given.”

Pain laced Lykan’s mind, but he had succeeded, at least for the moment. Now all he needed to do was to get out…

Darkness overtook his mind as the pain from his body being broken and thrown about finally caught up to him. He had been fortunate enough not to crack his skull open, but the intense waves of pain that were coursing through him were momentarily flooding his mind causing him to pass out.

In the distance shouts and pounding could be heard as the Titan tried desperately to revert the shutdown that Lykan had started.

“Shutdown eminent in 22, 21…”