Chapter 1 Tutorial Program Initialized
Aura a ground breaking city of technology; everyone in the city knows everybody and anything. The city along with its people are powered by a new found energy source known as Nano. A source of energy discovered in the deepest reaches of Cyberspace. That's right the city evolved by traveling deeper into the digital realm. It's a utopia poverty does not exist in the city. Everyone is guaranteed work. And, the crime rate of the city is almost none existent. Yes, there is only one wanted criminal in the city. A criminal who's only crime is not being linked to everyone else. That criminal is me.
A single red light shined in the city. It moved rapidly through the streets; the light shined down on a single person. The person wore a black hooded trench coat, metallic back jeans, black racer gloves, and a cyber-facemask. Being the person was a group of Anti-identities; their sirens wailing as they each shot at the only unlinked. The person was riding on line bike; it's max speed was usually one-hundred and fifty. But, the bike they were on was modded; the torque light mod on it's engine allowed it to reach the speed of a solar flyer. A single engine aircraft that flew at speeds of five-hundred miles a byte. It allowed the bike to stay in front of their logic speeders. But, unfortunately they were getting closer with every turn.
One of them yelled out, “It's over Unlinked! Stop and surrender yourself to the network!”
The person on the bike looked over their shoulder. The mask used LED light's which shined brightly. The lights then moved and shifted; the colors changed to a dark red. The lights then formed the image of an angry face. They spotted a sign that showed the cities diva; the signs lights programed to give the illusion that the image was waving. They lifted their left hand as they approached the sign; the energy shots from the Anti-identities shot past both their head and hand. In the palm of their hand a data sphere materialized. As they were just about to pass the sign they fired the sphere. When it hit four of the five fingers disappeared off the sign. The anti-identities looked only to see the cities diva waving the bird at them.
Another one of them yelled, “You're dead you punk!” they then saw their back up going full speed down the line way towards them they smiled and yelled out again, “It's over Unlinked surrender now or be errored!”
Although they were warned they continued to speed down the line way. Heading right at the oncoming forces. When the gap between them was about halfway closed; they pressed a button on their bike. Causing the line on the road below them to flicker and then shift. The bike followed the light taking a sharp turn towards a building. Just as the bike reached the side of the building; the bike suddenly turned upwards and vertically climbed the building. The anti-identities had to stop before they slammed into each other. Each of them getting out of their vehicles and aiming their coders at them. They held onto the bike handles tight. The energy rounds shooting pass their body; as they reached the top of the building. They pulled themselves up and stood on the front of the bike; before launching themselves up into the air, curving backwards, and falling back down to the ground below.
The lead anti-identity shouted, “Open fire!”
After the command was given each of them fired at the Unlinked. Their shots came close to striking their body; but somehow the shots would always miss them. They fell and fell getting closer to the ground. They then pulled their left arm back and balled their hand into a fist. A series of zero's and one's pulsed through their arm. The lead saw what was going to happen and tried to give the fall back command but it was too late. For the unlinked landed and slammed their fist into the ground. Sending out a logic buster wave. The anti-identities shouted as the wave passed through their bodies and corrupted their codes. Some of them fell to the ground while others started walking in random directions. A few of them started dancing the Harlem shake, some were moving and clucking like chickens and the last few were simply frozen where they stood.
The person slowly stood up and looked at their work. The image on the mask changed to that of the laugh out loud emoticon; they heard a low groan causing them to look down in front of them. The lead was lying still on the ground; glaring up at them. They walked closer and knelt down; the image on their mask changing again this time to a pair of eyes that stared down at them. The eye's would blink every once an awhile.
The lead threatened through clenched teeth, “One way or another you and the others will be linked or errored.”
The image on the mask changed; this time it displayed the words, “For your network.”
The lead suddenly saw an alert appear in their vision; it was a file that was slowly being uploaded. A look of horror appeared on their face. Before they could yell the file was uploaded and fire suddenly engulfed each of their bodies. The ones on the ground cried out in pain; while the others continued doing what they were doing.
They watched all of them burn for a few seconds until a telephone image appeared on the mask. They accepted the call and spoke in a robotic voice, “Open the backdoor; I've got what we need.”
Behind them reality seemed to shift and suddenly a thin white light appeared. It shimmered for a little before it opened up into a large portal. Data clusters, zero's and ones, and other various data stream flowed out and in the portal. Slowly, they turned and entered the portal their body dematerialized into a sequence of zeros' and ones'. Inside a holochair the same being from the city sat. the chair glowed brightly before it powered down and slowly rose up. The person slowly walked out of the chair; only to go down to a knee almost immediately.
A voice called out, “Nomad,” Shortly after another person stood next to them, a female that wore a LED vest and steampunk style goggles. She knelt down next to them and asked, “Are you okay? Did you get it.”
Nomad looked up the image on their face mask changing to the sick emoticon; before they spoke in their cybernetic voice, “Yeah, I got it,” They then lifted their other hand up and pushed her away saying, “Get the hell off of me Steam Stream.”
Steam huffed in anger before commenting, “See if I care about your well being the next time you log out,” She noticed them looking around she quickly yelled, “Bucket to your left!”
Nomad quickly moved lifted their face mask started to violently vomit into the bucket. They groaned loudly as they finished emptying the contents of their stomach into the bucket. They took in a ragged breath and slowly stood up. They turned towards Steam; their mask image changing to the dizzy emoticon. They stumbled a little bit before finally getting their balance; the image on the mask changing to a picture of a peaceful valley. They took in a deep breath before they slowly exhaled. The image changing to the eyes again. They walked up to steam and lifted their hand. From the index finger of the glove a data cluster appeared. A look of excitement appeared on Steam's face as she brought up a flash drive and absorbed the data cluster. She then uploaded it to her computer.
Her computer whirled to life as the data was uploaded; she looked over the data and a smile stretched across her face. She spoke in a voice filled with happiness, “Oh, this is great, great!” She turned and looked at Nomad and thanked them, “Thanks to you our.”
Nomad interrupted them, “Thanks to me! We've delayed them from networking all of us for another week,” They groaned as the frustrated emoticon appeared in the mask, “After you've cracked the cluster. Tell the others we leave tomorrow afternoon.”
She whined, “We're moving again!”
They replied, “Each of you knew what you were giving up the moment y'all joined up with me,” They walked to the door and opened it. They turned and spoke, “Tell everyone to start packing tonight. Anyone whose not ready; we leave behind.”
Steam commented, “Just like you left Old Bill and Corrupted Data.” She expected to hear them reply in anger. But, instead the just stood in the doorway. They stood completely quiet; before they looked over their shoulder. The emoticon on the mask showed that of great anger. But, the tear that fell fro underneath the mask showed a different emotion. Before Steam could say anything; they were out the door and on the move. She looked out the door just in time to see them riding the camps zip-line down and out to the hunting grounds.
She spoke in a calm voice, “They'll be ready by the afternoon,” She was silent almost as if she was hearing them speak back to her. She sighed sadly before she spoke again, “Then, we'll leave without you.” She then slowly turned and walked back to her computer. She had a lot of data she had to crack.
Nomad took in a slow deep breath; as they sighted in on a deer. They slowly pulled back on the drawstring of their bow. They aimed just below the deer; they held their breath for a moment and then launched the arrow. They watched as the deer instinctively dropped down; hoping to avoid the arrow. Only to have it hit its mark; before it took off running into the woods around it. Nomad breathed a sigh of relief before heading off to track the deer. As they walked down to where the deer fled; the still continued to look on in amazement at the wonderful forest around them. They chuckled as brought up their hand a pressed a button their mask. Causing an audio file to play.
A elderly mans gentle voice spoke through the the masks speakers, “The forest that we see today are not like the ones we used to see back in my day or my fathers or my grandfathers. Yes, thanks to humans downloading or uploading themselves into the city of Aura. The planet has been able to heal; taking back not only what humans had taken away. But, it has also brought back these lovely forests. Yes, some of these trees that you see now used to be extinct.”
Nomad listed to the voice as they reached the area where they shot the deer. They eventually found the blood trail and began to follow it. The voice described to them how different the world used to look. But, for them they could never image the world being so full of machines and technology; like that nightmare of a city they had uploaded themselves in. they looked down at their arm and activated their holo-watch. Sun down was going to be in about five hours. They had a little time; but they needed to find the deer before a wolf got it. They tracked the deer all the way to a large river; where it had come to rest for its final moments of life. They knelt down and began to field dress the deer. It took the a little bit but they eventually got the nessecary meat and fur need from the deer. This would be the tenth animal they had gotten today. The took the meat they had gotten from the deer and digitized it into their bags inventory. The bag gave off a loud beep signaling that it was full. The smile emoticon appeared on the mask and they turned off the audio file.
They then spoke, “Time to head back.”
before they could a small beeping sound caused them to quickly ready their weapon. They suddenly turned and stared forward at the river. Taking in a deep breath to calm themselves down. Why did their proximity alarm go off; there was no hunters or seekers in sight. Unless they had just expanded their raiding grounds. They quickly activated their area scanner; a seismic pulse was then sent out from the bottom of their boots. The pulse sent a digital map of the area around them straight to their mask. As the data came back they saw multiple hostile blips coming from the ridge above them; just above the waterfall.
They spoke to themselves again, “Only, one reason why they're up there.” They then began to make their way to the waterfall. When they reached the base; they opened the inventory of their bag and selected their grappling gun. The moment it materialized into their hand they aimed and fired the hook. It flew all the way up and latched itself onto a rock. Nomad checked to make sure it was stable; before they hooked the rope to the belt and started to climb up. When they reached the top; they looked around for any sign of seekers. When they were alerted that they were clear; they hid themselves among the trees and other various foliage. They scanned the area again; managing to finally pinpoint the location of the raiding party. They moved toward the location of the raid and confirmed what they feared. No doubt Aura was once again raiding that world again.
They spoke in anger, “Why can't they just leave Equestria alone?”
It was then one of the hunters shouted, “Sir, we got one about to wake up here!”
Nomad questioned, “About to wake up?!” They aimed their glove at the pod the hunters were gathering around; taking a quick scan; they saw that there was in fact a creature. From that world that was about to wake up inside the stasis pod. They didn't think all they did was react; they aimed their arrow and fired it at one of the hunters.
They watched as the hunter dropped dead; while the others quickly spread themselves out. The seekers took quick scans and quickly located them. They knew that they had no time to hide; so they did what they had to do. They opened their inventory put away their bow and took out their primary weapon. A heavy pistol with a laser sight attachment. They also pulled out a flash-bomb and threw it; closing their eyes as it exploded and blinded a couple of the hunters and seekers. They then rolled out of the brush, took cover by some crates and took out a few that were still blinded. While the others managed to regain their consciousness and opened fire.
One of them suddenly shouted, “Capture rounds only! It's the!”
Nomad had shot them in the head before they could finish what they were saying. The fight was a short but bloody fight. The hunters were good fighters but Nomad was the best. As the final hunter fell; the last one had pulled the pin on a grenade they had. The explosion caused the stasis pod they were trying to protect to roll to the river. They saw this and ran after it; they tried to activate the pods grappling hooks. But, it was moving too fast and soon it was floating in the river.
They shouted, “Damn it!” Looking around they saw another stasis pod and growled loudly in anger. They ran towards it, opened it, and locked themselves inside. They hacked the camera along with the control panel. Using the camera they aimed the magnetic locks at the end of the other pod and fired them. Locking the pods together; they felt the pod being dragged across the ground and into the water. They then took in a deep breath and activated the pods stasis mode.
Before they were taken by sleep; Nomad whispered, “May the code protect us.” They were thankful to fall asleep before their pod went over the falls. Even though they were one of the best warriors in the colony; they could not get over their basophobia.
The last thing Pharynx remembered was the colony being invaded by strange creatures. He remembered how they were taking their brothers and sisters; how they eventually took him and his brother. The rest of his memories were a blur and his head felt like it was about to split open. At first everything was dark and cold; it was then a loud ear splitting beep echoed in his mind. Followed by a blinding light taking away his sight.
He heard a strange voice speak, “What in the world are you?!” He then felt himself being lifted up and pulled out of something. He coughed loudly as something gently patted his back.
The voice spoke again, “I have no idea what you are but you.” the voice was muffled as he began to finally regain his senses.
He knew that he was still alive and he was thankful for that. But, when he regained his sense of sight; what he saw was some kind of strange creature looking down at him. Without think he launched a magical attack at the creature. The creature yelled as it was launched backwards and skidded across the ground. He then quickly got to his hooves and readied himself for a fight. But, then all of a sudden he felt a large amount of electricity course through his back. Causing him to scream out as he was brought to his knees. It was then the pain stopped and he began to take in deep breaths of relief.
Nomad apologized, “I'm sorry to do that to you,” Slowly they sat up as he looked at them, “But, lets just say after surviving our two day journey. Last thing I want is for us to kill each other.”
Pharynx watched as the creature slowly stood up and walked towards him. He hissed loudly when the creature got to close and reached for him. It watched as it's face changed to that of an angry glare. He heard it speak, “I'm only taking off the shocker.” he continued to growl as it reached for an area on his back. He felt something being pulled out and off of his back. The creature revealed it to be a strange square device. It then crushed the strange device in it's hand. It then looked at him; he prepared himself for an attack. But, all the creature did was nod, turn, and then walk away from him.
He questioned the creatures sudden action; it had him in the perfect position to make the kill. He also had it so why didn't he attack? He watched as it suddenly stopped and brought up it's arm. It seemed to stare at it's arm for a few seconds before it started walking again. He watched as it continued to walk away from him. He looked around and quickly realized he was no where near the hive. And, he also knew that he was no longer in Equestria. He stayed there in silence as his mind began to process all of the information. With a deep sigh and a quiet growl he got up and started to follow the creature. Thanks to his wings it didn't take him long to catch up to it.
Nomad asked him, “Gonna follow me?”
Pharynx responded, “You didn't kill me and you also seem to know the area,” He took a moment to swallow his pride and continued, “So, it would be wise to follow you,” He paused a moment before he asked, “If you will have me join you?”
Nomad responded, “Just don't hiss at me again and I won't skin you alive.”
He agreed, “Deal,” The walked a little ways into the forest before asking, “Where are we going?”
They answered, “I'm heading back to my colony's last known location.”
He asked, “How far away?”
The replied, “Two days north of here."
