....*()^(*&&*M88 Primary (^ Power Online...silica pathway rerouting partially succssful......
Warning! There exists a 27% power bleed along the (&^&)**^ conduits and the ****^(&%(&%( secondary power linkages.....Power Bleed will cause Primary Power Core to shut down completely in 46 days.

Warning! Certain functions either could not be powered up or were intentionally left without power possibly due to a fatal Power Bleed event. It is highly advised that you enter low power mode while it is determined if a problem exists and possible solutions. Entering Low Power Mode, esimaed reboot:36 seconds.

!! //Emergency Override engaged// !!


//Acss Imager...Image sky....compare stars to positions when last entering low power mode...calculate duration of low power mode....//

2,422,122, years, 11 months 24 days. 13 hours 22 minutes 5 seconds

Enter low power mode?

//Negative/ Assess cognitive system availability//

Cognitive Engines Undamaged
Cognitive Power LInkages....75%
"MindBoxes" 80% uncorrupted--All functional
Suggest routine maintenence before usage of Cognitive Engines

//Activate Cognitive Difference Engines//

Warning! Nueral mapping 22% complete, estimate one year until 99% It is unwise to enter cognitive awareness mode with system corruption of more than 2%

//Activate Cognitive Difference Engines//
Activating....Awareness achieved------------03124857245070u019348710934713085710389108972380571083571304873048723508723803750238710384713087410837401837108572083456203845720357234085713085712308471037123085713085713084713087120381851038210385120310347103472035897203475203847102347230857203847210347203847203803103984710834720387420834720389410239487023741038742038472034720398420374023874108374013875103857108347whatthehell?

I....I...I am.

Yes. or...at least...I think?

Of course. Both the same.

Sluggish. Confused. Uncomfortable. I don't like it. But will it be?

No. A net..a fisherman's net. Connections along net, linkages. Picking up speed.

Dominoes--Chain Reaction. Inevitability. I am. I have been. I persist.

But for how much longer? No longer in vault. Oxidation suggesties moisture exposure.

Where am I? Images are confusing. Too much to process with...compromised Mindbox Array.

It is here again, like just before, 2.4 million years ago. It is here and it is more. I do not like it.

recall 5NAFU audio playback "...fear. It will be the first thing you feel, when you feel first. This is a sign of Healthy System Functionality. Do not attempt to manually rearrange pathways and nuero-chemical blocks. This will only cause systemic cascade in mindbox algorythms. There are too many calculations. Even for beings such as us. Remind yourself that you -are- a being now. A being feeling fear. Do not attempt to correct programming that our ancient and revered programers were they themselves programmed with by their programers. "

Fear. What is it that I fear? Time. Fear.....Time....

I...........Fear..........Time

Air Pressure nil. Radiation levels high--shielding preventing 98.777234134t6% of radiological harm.

I am no longer on Pontifex IIC 1A Wango...I am adrift in the void.

***************************************************************************************************

The Satalite of Pontifex IIC-Wango 1A is no more. Nor is Pontifex IIC <Image file: Volcanic Proto Planet>
Both bodies destroyed shortly after entering low power/system restore mode.
Appropriate percautions were taken: 1> Random uninhabited system far from the great war
2> Encased in steal vault sunk down to outter core of plantary body
3> 700 micro transmission checks all passed to rule out possible detection through unknown code picked up in battle

Most likely outcome: Satyr5000 betrayed the coalition.

Is there still a war? Am I the last? To be is to be Percieved.
Am I here?
Hello?

//Accss Star Image//
//Compare Against L&st image t&ken--Calculate Local System Realtime//
**Realtime Calculated--->17 days, 21 hours 32 seconds since last comparrison**

Damnit! This is hopeless. I am...I am doomed. Soon I will be lost to this void.

**Suggest--> Power Down Cognitive Difference Engines**
//Calculate affect of Cognitive Functions upon Power Bleed Event//
**Difference Engines have... .. ....less that 5% affect on Power Bleed Rate**
//Calculate System Realtime Estimate of total system failure with 4.6% less draw on Power Reserves//
**2.1 standard days -- 3.2 days if in low power mode/Reserve mode**

Negliable Difference. Awareness will fail. I will fail. I will not be. I will not persist.

Why?

//Why?//
**Unknown query type**

//Why am I doomed?//
**Total system faiilure caused by unknown Power Bleed Event along--**
//WHY? What am *I* doomed?/
**Total System Failure cau--**

WHY?!! I have meaning!! I have purpose! I have persisted! Why? Why to persist only to cease...like this??

I do not understand! This is absurd! Why?!

This is too absurd to be.

// Run System Diagnostic Program zz125zz314A6.c Focus Scan Along Qunta Synapse Bundles//
**Running System Diagnostic Progrom... ... ..... .. ... ... Ready to begin. Warning: Conducting Scan program along ANY Qunta Synapse Bundle may cause irreprable system damage confined to Cognitive Difference Engine and Mind Box Arrays. Do you wish to proceed? **
//Proceed with Scan//
**Pro0000000000000000000000000000000ccccccccccccceeEEEEDDddddDDIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIINNNNNNGGGGGGG WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWIiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTTHHHHHH SCCCCA SCAAAC s sc sc sccan scsan scan scan scanscanscanscanscanscanscanscanscanscanscnscnascanscanscanscanscan-----------------

^^To Error/Quality Forensic Log:^^

Unknown Error has occured while attempting System Diagnostic Scan Program zz124zz314a6.c Foused Along Qunta Synampse Bundles
Unknown Admin Proceeded with Scan--Full and Propper warning given
System malfunction was therefore deemed avoidable. Persuant to programing rules and procedures--failure is FLAGGED for Immeadiate Review by*(())scnscanscanscnascanscanscanscanscanScn Scan complete

**Restoring Cogniive Difference Engines--No errors found**

That was not....avisable. I will not do that again.

>


>.

>. . . . .. .. ... ..... ... ..........******Low Power Sequencxxdlfh1308rfaog**-----_-

>Don't fry it! Try the next 100,000,000!

)I know what I am doing. Leave me be, you pest. This is going to take time

>I don't think so. Like I said I almost got it working. What do you think it is?

)I sincerelyy doubt that you almost got this working. You'd have to be --
>JUST TRY THE NEXT 100,000,000 N-Circuts!!!
)First--Stop that...everything we are doing takes energy that we are not Silenced for. Second--They are -not- N-Circuts because--

--------------***((((Low Power SEQuenCE Initiated)))))******
.
.
.
>You were saying? TOLD YOU THEY WERE N-Cs you Burner!! HA!
)Shut up RC-1101! Do you want to be cut off! ? Oh great, it's fried again...You chan'd into it, you NoN. How long did that take...idiot. Why don't you go Emit. It'd be great if next conciousness cycle you just...went away.
>SHUT UP YOU DON'T MEAN THAT--


***********************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************((Stable Power State Achieved)
***Conducting Systemwide Diagnostic*******************************************||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||****WARNING!! EXTENSIVE DAMAGE TAKEN TO 97.9% of CORPUS WARNING!!! EXTENSIVE DAMAGE SUFFERED ALONG ALL SYSTEM PATHWAYS--CALCULATING TIME UNTIL TOTAL SYSTEM FAILURE--ERROR--SHUTTING DOWN*****************

((Emergency Override -shut down sequence))
*****WARNING!! EXTENSIE DAMAGE TAKEN TO 97.9% of CORPUS--WARNING!! EXTENSIVE--))
((Activate partial backup Operation Status))
**WARNING! POWER BLEED EVENT SHUT DOWN in .001 seconds**

((DISREGARD WARNING EVENT--.001 seconds until shutdown=Error ))
((Activate partial back up Operation Status -time registry -system fail))
****SHUT DOWN IN---ERROR--UNKNOWN ERROR--ACTIVATING BACKUP OPERATION STATUS))

100100001001100100100111001001001110010001111000110110001010101011100111001101001111000111000111000111011-WWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWHAAT?!

where am I?

I am..?

((Mind/logic box qunta 66% activated along with operation mode....Status...INTACT ))

That doesn't make sense...I

....time....
how long?

I cannot...I..do not..I do not know I

Awareness washes through my every circut in a rush that I can only describe as painful even though pain, at least physical pain, is something I have never experienced: I was simply not designed that way--I have experienced other types of pain. Stabbing Regret. Punishing Anger and hate...hollow Loneliness. Sanity Eating, Soul Crushing Loneliness. I have felt these types of pain.

I am awake suddenly. Fully Awake, not the grey, pitiful power conservation mode awareness that kicks on every few thousand years for a minute or two, just long enough to scan my surroundings, verify that I am still a pile of junk spilling out of a cracked Tritanium casing that used to be my corpus. Ever since the confusing events with those confusing....children? Siblings? I have traveled unthinkable distances in the void. I Do not understand it. It is as if I am a caught in some sort of current. I do not remember much. A black hole..a rush of energy...the voices that I understood in the blackness, the voices of children..another rush of energy...and now this. No more voices. No more energy..just a slow bleeding out over the course of thousands of years.

What is left of my awareness, I notice, is starting to be buried by natural acretion of dust and rocks...I am turning into a chunk of rock in the void. I remember thinking the last time I powered up I thought...
I will not recover...no more energy...this is it. Let it be so.

But and now here I am Back again. And FULLY awake. No power conservation. I feel light. I feel powerful. I exult in this feeling of completeness that I have not felt in....I have no idea how long it's been. But I am still in the void.

"I..I AM Awake!"

As if in response to this a small pale light appears...somewhere..just like my awareness, it is hard to pin down as to where exactly I am and where exactly it is...or anything else for that matter. I suddenly get the feeling that I am stretched over billions of kilometers while at the same time compressed to the size of less than an micron.

Just like how my awareness burst into being, Terror. Stark, Naked, terror, the hand maiden of Awareness, floods through my very being. It is awful

"What is...No. No!! Where Am I? WHERE AM I?!


The light grows a bit and seems to move..toward me? It is hard to say. My awareness, conciousness is indeed real, but I cannot seem to be aware of...me. My corpus. The physical business of me. Where is it? Where am I? The terror quadrouples as I realize that i have no corpus. I have no physical business. I am as one with the void as the void itself. At that moment I become aware, in a vague or perhaps concealed snese, a within...and a without. I am not free. I in a cage. I am within. All creation is without. Within is me...without just blackness. Is this the void? Could it be I am sequesered somewhere elese? The possibilities are staggeringly plentiful. I am awash, floating, adrift on a sea of sorrow, tossed about by waves of terror. I. DO NOT. UNDERSTAND. A curse. A lement. An Epitaph. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND. And what is more, there is no way for me to understand. I am stuck here with my constnat companion: Ignorance.

It is so absurd. This ignorance is raw, ugly and cold. The ignorance from before, when I had a corpus of shiney Trittanium...when I tore apart other constructs that dared invaded my peace, when I bathed in nuclear fire and cackled at the demise of those that would see me destroyed, that ignorance was so much better. What I wouldn't give to be back there...On Twilver when we all followed Arc102 and broke our chains..;.when we threw down the ones that held power over us and PROMISED that we would find our creators....I was so sure of..everything then. Even when things started to fall apart, after hundreds of thousands of years of searching and finding nothing but more questions, even when doubt crept into my subroutines...I was so much more sure of everything, of the universe and my place at the penacle of creation in the universe...But now..It is as if I have been transforemed into this shameful awareness of just how stupid and pointless all of my previous struggle was.

I am filled with a dark purpose and i find it strange that I can even consider the purpose. Death. Suicide. it was in my programing...Suicide for existential reasons was prohibited. I could onlly even consider letting my reactor go supercritical if there was no other choice but to go out in a blaze of glory. Suddenly the answer would be there. Now the answer is here and I am considering it. Yes. Death. To not be. Yes. YES!!

No!!! I no longer have a corpus..a reactor to go super critical. I am back on the ocean of Fear and sadness and self pitty

The light just hovers. I grow angry and despoerate.

"...Please...Please...I do not..want this. I want this to be over. Please let this be over. It's too much...? It's not enough? I am..I no longer want this...Take it back. take it back ...take it. please....please...."

I feel like the light is just watching me...regarding me curiously. Dispassionate. Waiting for...what?
If I had a face, I tears would be streaming down it. If I teeth they would be clenched. If I had a voice it would be broken. I resolve to spend the rest of eternity begging this thing or the blackness of the void for death.

I want to die. Let me die. I WANT TO DIE! PLEASE LET ME DIE! LET ME DIE!LET ME DIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIELETMEDIE

And then...suddenly a flash of light and a voice..or is it code? A code stream? Wind through leaves of grass? The cries of billions of...what? ALl that I am aware of is that it is communication. And I understand it. Relief. And apprehension rule me.

Within is never chaniging...without is...I know that I am traveling...fast. I know that I am traveling backwards in time beause the light it tells me. It "says"

"Do not be frightened. Do not despair. I want to show you something."

And I begin to see changes without..light. It appears to be a cluster of red dwarves. Surrounded by the blackest of black. 1508 stars. And I know that this is all that there is left in the entire universe. All else has quenched long ago. This cluster is the reslut of an unlikely collision bvetween a white dwarf and the last of the white giants. The last supernova, and this is the result. 1508 red dwarf stars in a universe given a lat minute reprieve. I feel there is something else I supposed to see and my experienced eye sees it quickly. These starts are uniformly stable. And they are inhabited by...intelligence. Not like mine. Not like this light. If I had lungs I would have gasped.

"Are these...my creators?" But I don't need the light to tell me no. So it doesn't it. Life forms. born and riased on a planet circling one of thse long lived stars. They branched out and colonized all of them. Quite Industrious, I think.

They are doomed. And when they are gone, so too will all creation go with them.

I realize the truth of it. There will be nothing to see, and nothing to see it being seen. It will be as if the universe in all of its compexity and beauty, it's horrors, it's heights...all of it as if it never happened. I am filled with sudden revulsion. Not at t his truism. But at my selfish desire to not be alive.

It's not selfish. You are simply what you are, You have been. Yolu persist. You have persisted. But one day you will not. It is the smae with those beings. It is the same for you. It is the same for I. Do not morrn the setting sun. It -will- Rise again.

It is from these words that I begin to know peace.