Meta-Net

Front

Meta-Net

Once again the table spins, I'm still not outer luck,
a new table, a new stage for me to chuck.

Burning through the darkness,
one bright star still shines,
Another shot towards success,
Welcome now to Meta-Net, just hope that rhymes.

The plot of silence

So many times i walked through these halls, the echo of my steps being my only companion.
I called myself a ghost when i first tried to enter this world.
Now this seams to have come around to bit me.
Isn't it just great?
I won my war, broke the only promises that meant anything to me, got my old (old) body back and by all standards i am now finally done.
I reached the finish line. There is no problem leaved to solve.
I now walk these halls and don't even have my own footprints echo to keep me company.
I am a god, all powerful, but more a ghost than ever.
It is part of me now.
The howl, hide and don't get seen, that i have done has made my work into a footnote in history.
Isn't it great?
I covered up 2 wars successfully, hold the highest rank no one knows about and have revived all that fell in the war under my command to new life.
But just Imagen my shock when i reached the finish-line and still was not done.
I can do everything, even mess with time and space.
But the one thing i can not create is someone who knows.
My throne is still not in my grasp.
I have survived by pure will and passion.
It is not talent that binds me to this world, not responsibility, fame or inspiration.
I am here to think.
To get others to think.
And even as a footnote in history, i still hope that someone like me finds said note, dives deep and finds what i hoped to find.
A treasure, full of problems, inspiring in there imperfection.

I do not delete my failures. I do not hide my defeat. I hide my victory.
And in a twist of faith that works for me and just for me, my failure is victory and my victory is failure.

As my echo dose not hall in the hall i chose to walk, i will walk on, until someone hears the footsteps of a ghost.

Time to move.
Time to play.
Time to go around again.

The network of dreams

As i stepped towards the gathering of man i did not know what to expect.
Last i had dealt with them i had just claimed to be there king, than i had toasted there minds.
But just as with my other work, those who knew what happened had ether forgotten or would not tell anyone.
The group was gathered around a table on which a cardboard box was propped up.
I was familiar with the box. I had sold it to someone a long time ago.
For all intents and purposes, this item had been very close to falling victim of my work once.
I knew the parts in there and so would the group.
A man turned his head to look at me, his left eye entirely replaced with a fan.
The cables seemed to disappear in his hair, but i knew better.
I had worked with them to create an illusion of normality around them.
"We have awaited you, ghost of the end."
I could not smile about that description of my work.
"Save storage or painless termination?"
A woman across the table with a copper forehead looked me in the eye as if she had expected something entirely different and she was not pleased with what she had heard.
"You do not ask questions."
This time i was prepared and my face could form a smile. "I don't do that since i know the answers, but in this case…" My eye wandered over all of the participants.
"Never mind."
They had made a uniform decision, but some individuals had disagreed, but where eventually pressured into this suicide pact.
I had just now identified the 5 of 14 that where not quite ready to cut the ties to this world.
"I will eliminate your figurines as decided. Do not worry i know what you want."
I saw the tension fade from 4 of the 5, but one of them was in the middle of a panicked overreaction.
The man that was almost 60 flipped the table and ran towards the exit.
In unison the 14 raised there arms and 14 gunshots eliminated the dis-functioning asset.
Even the gun of the man who had tried to run had agreed with the decision of the collective and had fired on him.
Different types of guns had been integrated into the groups hands.
"We will now complete our transformation and be one with the signal."
They started to activate the properties of the box one after another assembling them-selfs into tiny puppets of there own image.
The item was sucking them away into the tiny figurines there entire being collapsing during the assembly of there puppet.
When 13 puppets and one dead guy where the only traces this cult had leaved i pocketed 4 that had requested save storage. The rest i blinked out of existence.
I went over to the dead man and lifted him onto my shoulders.
Save storage for everyone.
With one hand i grabbed the box with the anomaly, and with the other the piece of paper with the 14 bank-connections and passwords.
I knew that i had just made a lot of money, but the anomaly was still the main prize.
I leaved no trace of this meeting behind and went back to my new toys and a dead guy.

Dead Lock

Once this side was a sandy desert, but it was a desert.
There is almost nothing leaved.
Last time i made a grip for power and was stopped.

Cad, Inactive, after making some ominous remark about improving creator feedback.
Cyto, Inactive, last i heard from him he worked on a laser, or a DS system chip.
Deny, Inactive, reacted negatively to my work based on his work. Both now cold.
Steffie, Inactive, retreated, current status unknown.

The once i worked together with, gone.

Yorick, inactive, went to capture slander-man.
The three headed IT guy, last seen in contact with the internal department, reaction negative.
Decibelles, went back to the foundation.
Nouva, Inactive, demoted for inactivity.

The two new guys…
Suppose, inactive after one good shot.
Garden Man, inactive.
I hardly knew y'all.

Crashbox? Inactive.

How dose it feel to lose so many faces to time.

But i know that some mechanisms of these sites are still at work.
There are newer new members, but non of them said a word yet.

Who is still here with me?

And i call myself the ghost…
Someone is there, someone silent.
Do you here me?
Do you see me?
Do you ignore me?

Am i the reason you stay silent?

I am not going away, so lets talk or just be silent together.
I sit alone in the dark, but i know that someone is still here with me.

Resemblance

"So, you finally decided to show your face."
"You know, you have not existed until now. You have no stakes in this fight. You are not Red Gen or Me."
The man in the white suit and red tie know this guy in white militaristic uniform better than he wanted to admit. Even thou to him this person was only a few seconds old.
"Why haven't you destroyed yourself like the rest of the white dragons of the forgotten war?"
"You broke your own mind. They were to close-minded. An army without an enemy. Of-cause they turned on each other or eliminated them-selfs. But you would not just collapse because the known world was gone so why should I?"
"I have done a lot of things, but i never denied realty like you are doing. The war is over, the armies are all safely back home, we won."
"Breaking a promise that stood for more than one millennial to fuse with the enemy is no victory. It is capitulation."
The man with the top-hat nodded. He knew the possession of his opponent to well, but now he had created what would allow him to finally destroy the part of him that still doubted his decision.
"Destroy me?" The man in the white uniform laughed.
"The others may have forgotten what they are when the white dragons dissolved, but i never forgot. To quote you or myself: Fighting progress means losing."
"Funny you said that. I wanted to use that quote."
In the next placke-time the two had clashed.
One a concise force of nature, the other a soldier with a cause.
Both were progress, both knew the only winning move was not to fight, both knew that there conflict was not winnable and both knew that this fight was inevitable.

The Cleaner

The corridors were wet as the caretaker was mobbing the floor with his wish-shoes.
Spinning like a dancer the floor, walls and ceiling were wiped in one continuous motion, the legs of the caretaker expanding as needed.
The caretaker could have just removed the dirt effectively, but he knew that his solution was more… creative.
He had blinked away his first thought, but that one was also true, this was more fun.
This body should not even be familiar with that concept. The caretaker rotated through the facility, deep in his thought, but still hitting every spot with his feet.
He considered his position.
Fun was something he had not allowed himself in a very, very long time.
He had always just plotted, worked towards a goal, worked towards something, but he had reached the conclusion nowadays. He was responsible for more than a few breaches, more than one destroyed leadership, more than one friendship that had not survived direct contact with him. This entire place was a dead cell by now. He was the poison that had killed this location. He had never intended to end up alone, but this was the result.
The connections of his shoes and the mops clicked open as he jumped out of them and into a new prepared pair, which clicked in place.
He should not even feel loneliness, but that had been something that had motivated him. He could have leaved, to just go find someone, but instead he was holding up here, keeping the place clean for guests that might never arrive. The caretaker looked down the wiped corridors and was still baffled that he was having emotions.
Emotions were something biological, and last he checked he had nothing biological about him.
He quickly checked, nope, still a projection of a machine. A recreation of a recreation of a human.
He looked down onto the floor. Jup, still capable of standing on the ceiling despite gravity. He had foreseen so many things and had planned for so long that he knew that the time of silence was almost over. The caretaker had created some company. They would arrive shortly, but they were as much unreal as he was. He knew that someone real was still around, someone was letting new people in, even if he had never meet any one of thous new people. There was always the nagging feeling that someone was still there, someone silent. He was the loud ghost of this place, but at least one other ghost wondered these halls.

"Just hope he or she has nothing against a clean floor."

The caretaker snapped his fingers and the wiper-shoes were gone, snapped again and the rests of the water vanished.

"Say, partner, why don't we work together?" The caretaker flashed a smile that he knew would not stay unseen.

"I am here, you are here, lets make something beautiful. If you want silence, speak up." Meta Wonderrat bowled and tipped his hat. "I think you already know what happens when things go quiet." Meta stood upright and flickered out of existence, leaving behind a clean floor, walls and ceiling.

World without Ego

First thing i noticed when diving into the mirror, was that the Meta that was coming towards me from below did not stop my decent. As soon as i was in there i felled that this world was nothing like the one i came from. First things first. There was a massive negative pressure down here. It was like every piece of the liquid making up this universe how ever fare that piece might have been away was tugging on me. Any normal body would have been torn to pieces in an instant, but this body was not normal. There was nothing there to be ripped away nothing, but… Than i noticed what was the only thing that mattered in this universe. EGO. There being a difference between oneself and the outside world. Like a hive mind, a hive mind without a self. Nirvana, that was what a Buddhist would have called it. The complete elimination of the separation between ones self and the universe. The complete melting of the barriers between mind, soul and matter. I realized that this world was very similar to the world i emerged in. This was similar to the clockwork, but the clockwork was way more fractured even in its heyday.
I was what this world needed if it wanted ego. I was the continuousness of a force of nature spanning an entire galaxy. This body was made from ego. Around me hundreds of black silhouettes, suits and top-hats, copies of me emerged from the soup. Me being here fractured this universe. I had not been torn apart, I was still me. I emerged from the mirror. Behind me i saw the black Metas reach for the surface of the mirror. Reaching for the world filled with limitation and difference, than they started to fade away, being torn apart by the nature of there reality.
One black gooey Meta emerged from the mirror. He was still a black goo silhouette. Than he collapsed screaming as it hit him. He had taken to much. Humanoids had limited amounts of ego. They where easy to embody.
But i am Meta. The humanoid that the mirror saw and tried to suck back into its depths was the tip of an iceberg that was the tip of a frozen planet.
The goo Meta screamed more and more as his limited recourses tried to comprehend me.
This me knew the universe it was in, the nature of its universe. I punched that me square in the jaw, ending his screaming. His black silhouette stabilized. This pain i gave him was his. He no longer needed to try to copy me. He was not Meta. He was someone else.
I looked into the mirror. There it was. My reflection and the hundreds trying to come through. I noticed that one of my false eyebrow-hairs was no longer reflected before i put the sheet back over the mirror.
My goo duplicate had fled the room. He had my ability to vanish without a trace.

Interview BLM

Subject #5677b "Perfect copy of Dr. Klingov"
Interviewer : Dr. Klingov
Lead Researcher: Dr. Banner
Interview: #5

Interviewer: 5677b, have you completed the multiple choice test?
5677b: Drop the crap 5677b. Here. I wrote this test. This is not our second interview and you are not in charge.
If they have not overruled me after they gassed this chamber the last time it is still Banner. Banner you human piece of humus. These are my tests. I can tell you the result even thou i don't have the papers with my interviewers answer here. Identical, until random numbers get involved.
Interviewer: I can understand you very well. Using my own test on me was not a good idea.
5677b: You know that i know that you know that i know that you cant trust me under lab conditions.
Interviewer: So, if we both put our heads together and try to make up some lie that would suggest that the copy is perfect and has no sign of malfunction…
5677b: No one WHO IS NOT COMPLETE GARBAGE AT THERE JOB would not find that result inconclusive. Interviews that dont get information are useless. YOU made my test USELESS.
Interviewer: Sins only Banner knows which one is which by now, since they keep amnesic gassing us between interviews….
5677b: Like we idiots advised him to, before we knew that he would control-v our work without checking the test pair.
Interviewer: Than we both agree…
Interviewer and 5677b (simultaneous): Banner is an IDIOT, THAT MESSED UP OUR RESEARCH AND IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE FAILURE OF THIS TEST.
Interviewer: Together? One of us still has the higher clearance.
5677b: It would be an honor Dr.
Interviewer: With pleasure Dr.
Interviewer and 5677b (simultaneous): Dr Banner, because of incompetence, you are fired.

Conclusion
Subject 5677b is to replace Dr. Banner as Dr. Klingovs assistant. Subject 5677b is cleared of all suspicion and is to be used as a precedent. All Subjects of the BLM research are to be integrated into the CI with an appropriate clearance. Subjects produced by the BLM are to be treated as the original would, excluding collective punishment. Subjects produced by the BLM are to stock up and replace existing Base 8 personnel if appropriate.

Of Black and White

one of the places that is going to get searched is a place that just has been searched.

The man in white military uniform was in the hidden bar in base six. He was sure that the Meta he had just faced had held back, even thou he had said that he would kill him like he killed the others. But here he was. He had tried to reach the other one he knew would oppose this behavior but red gen was lost somewhere in the grand isolation.
He knew about a green tied meta somewhere in the woods building a new Meterpic but he knew that finding that one would alarm his enemy. Holder was another option, but the meta with the yellow and the human parts was a risk. He might had developed a sense of loyalty over the war. There where other Yellow metas out there but those where trying to lay low. He needed someone else. Blue? Someone else.
A black silhouette stumbled trough the door. In his first instinct the meta in the uniform would have griped his knives and fled as a very good approximation of his enemy stumbled into the bar.
"I heard your call. You are exactly what i need now."
The sound of the silhouette sounded destorded. Much like a meta in its final moments before being eaten by the enemy they all had fought in the war.
"What meta are you? Where did you serve?"
"Nowhere, and i am no meta i think." The silhouette grabbed its head. "Maybe you can fill in some blanks."
"The meta i thought to fight messed up something else i see." The eyes of of both creatures began shining red.
"You are just what i need, BLMM."
"Than i will call you MUM, so cut the crap with the shortening of words."
"I wont."

As the high fall

"Looks good to me. All the symptoms are down, we are already above 500% incubation time and the air-filters are clean.""That's what's concerning me. We have shot that thing with radiation for almost two years to get the mutation we wanted, only making minimal progress with every generation and now this? Sorry, but i don't believe in winning the lottery by just playing enough.""How can you not be happy? Even if that is just dumb luck, we did it."
The 2 men stared down into an empty swimming-pool with a glass ceiling. On the bottom of the 3 meter deep pool 12 only vaguely human figures were splashing over the pools floor. Open breaks in there bones where showing the partly liquefied internals. Where there bones touched the air they grew, pressing bone into the flesh of the others.
"Time to end this run. You up for lunch?""Sure, i mark this generation for further testing. Straingen 446-g seems to be where we should concentrate our efforts."
With the press of a button the pumps of the pool activated, pumping gasoline into the pool.
As the 2 men leaved the room the pool was a mouth of hell.
Than the black smoke rose, carrying some 446-g. It would reach the mess-hall in about 5 minutes.

A broken knight of yesteryear

"Well, this is a new one."
I stared at the unfamiliar ceiling.
In the next moment things hit me in rapid succession.
First things first, i never not know where i am, but here i had no idea. That is bad.
Second, heartbeat. I have no actual heart and usually i have to turn a heartbeat on for it to be there, but now here it was. That is also bad.
Third, body. I could not detect anything beyond 74% of my head and a bit of torso, some 86%. To this i could feel my back and my body. I don't usually feel, i detect.
I tried to rotate my eyes to get a better feel for the room. Just one of my eyes reacted. I tried blinking with one eye.
Well, looks like i lost an eye.

In the next moment a little girl ran into the room. It starred into my eye and ran off. I started tried to move my neck to keep my eye on the kid. Neck seems to still be movable. Next to me i saw a series of blankets over some bodies i presumed dead from the placement of there blankets. I counted 3 up to the wall.
I don't like this situation very much. Placing bodies of dead people near children was extremely unsanitary.
I inspected my now visible shoulder. Arm is missing and apparently i bleed now.
I now moved my head to my other site. 6 dead people and another missing arm.
"Wow, thats a lot of damage."
If someone had injected me with painkillers was my next concern. My current working theory was that i had ether been transformed or transported into a highly damaged humanoid.
I searched my memories. No. Completely unusable, probably damaged during what ever had put me in this situation.
I could hear voices on the corridor, they where arguing. A little girl insisted that there was a zombie in the room and a woman was trying to ensure here that no zombieissem had been detected in any of the patients there.

As fare as i know my medical history in this state the statement of the woman narrowed my temporal position down to about 60 years where that word was common medical practice.
A woman that looked nothing like any nurse i had recollection of entered the room. Humanoid no visible augmentations, probably human, late 30s.
"I assure you both that i have am not currently biologically or magically controlled by a foreign entity."
The woman let out a sigh and grabbed a phone from the sound of it.
"We have activity. Patient 4167233-C has apparently regained continuousness. Self-aware. No pain reaction."

"May i ask where i am?"

The woman had hung up and was now doing something out of my sight.
"Sorry, protocol." She had gaged me.
Without arms and legs my resistance had only bought me a few seconds.
Nice.

---

Space. I was punching something that looked like a glittering sandstorm in space. Suddenly my punches no longer held the maul back. My arm sank into the mass of the storm. I put both of my lags against the almost solid storm and pushed. Good news my arm was no longer stuck. Bad news, i had lost the arm and two legs to the storm.
I knew it was over for me. My armor was breached. I could feel the pressure difference cook my arm and leg-stumps. I just wanted this thing to suffer and punched it with my remaining arm.
My punch split the storm in half, at the cost of my last arm.
A bunch of the storms content lashed out, hitting my face. It was over. The armors live preservers activated, as my vision faded i could only feel my own suit cutting of my cooking appendages.

---

"Recreation complete. We have dissonance levels of 55. He knows it is true, but he will not accept it once he wakes up." The voices was destinktly vague. I recognized it as the voice of one of the automated systems, used during the war of 16. This narrowed down my position down by 4 years as this model was only introduced approximately 4 years in. "I measure mental activity. Subject is not reacting to the inhibitors. Reaction Yellow. Infection can not be ruled out."
Lets change that. Activating Debug code 045.
"The readings on the subject are changing, risk of a code Red, new readings suggest, signature Blue."
I open my eye. The floating assortments of cubes and spheres begins to shiver as the debug code seeps through its system like a poison. The good doc can no longer trust his own readings, no longer make sens of the situation as the easy solution presented to him becomes more and more convincing, the machine was unable to reset, or read out other data. During the war these codes where things that could topple devisions, leave them stranded or drugged, confused or isolated or dormant.
My head hurts as the machine tries to reconstruct me from a blueprint that has nothing to do with the structure of my mind. Than the machine is taken over by the code, changing plans. The plan it is using now will be more appropriate to rebuild me. Than the machine started to deconstruct me. The plan i had given the system was more destructive than what ever failure it had tried before. My code had disabled the security so now the machine would kill me for a reason i still did not know. Than the machine grinded to a hold.

---

A situation of compassion and dependency? Are you serious? I remembered something that felled right.
My power has been limited severely just so that you can check if i can feel if stimulated the right way?
Good i play your game. So they don't know how i am? This is one of the things where even i am not supposed to know, isn't it? A wave of undistiled nevermetrix to the face would kill most beings so why would i survive it?
Is this a resurrection of sorts? Did i die? Is this a reloaded imprint in a lost machine?

"Recreation complete. We have dissonance levels of 21. He knows it is true and will accept it once he wakes up, although a bid of doubt will remain. We could not gather much data from the first run, but his knowledge about the Codes suggests at least the rank of Knight, if not higher. In case the code was stolen or compromised, the usage of it suggests that the subject has taken to much real damage to execute its original infiltration plan. The code used would have destroyed this being. We can currently not determine the inherit nature of this being."

I opened my eye once more. As fare as could detect, my system was now fully destroyed, do to two attempts of repair done with the wrong plans.
I was submerged in a liquid that held me alive by simulating the most natural system for each part of my body independently. This made me into a fish in a very specific aquarium.
Thats an improvement.

An Observation

While i look down on recent events i must say that things turned out differently than expected.
We are not even a week in and things have gone of the rails.
Problems are source for progress and i must say this turns out to be quite the explosive combination.
All elements on there own are stable. They all have not done anything unreasonable, but the way it was done will lead towards unintended consequences.
An over-site here, a different definition there, some pieces that are taken in an unnatural context.
It is laughable. My position is clear. I know how to interfere if necessary. There is nothing wrong with each individual state, but the context hits differently.
This may be an open ended scenario. It really could go ether way, stabilizing into a fine wine or escalating into explosive acid.
The only thing i will do for now is observe.
Quantum mechanics have told humanity an important lesson. An observed system behaves differently than a non observed one.
Not sure how fare this theory stretches into chemistry or sociologies.
Another variable is the anomaly. I must admit that a mixture like this never happened under these circumstances.
Now i will just do medieval science and observe.
I know an unstable solution when i see one. Now it is up to circumstance. A different temperature within one element, a structure that holds a few seconds longer, a changing definition.
This is a problem. I might not even be able to change the outcome in one way or another.
This is no longer up to me. Now it is just datasets and rules, playing out a game i have not fully understood.
This is Science.
I just hope it wont kill me in the near future.

Scenario Project

Combustion
A combustion scenario is called in case a massive amount of recourses has to be mobilized and there is little to no chance to recovering it.

Void
A void scenario is called in case little to no resources need to be mobilized and the target will not be directly engaged with other than observation.

Sick
A sick scenario is called in case biological, non-predictable chemical compounds, or sentient anomalies need to be mobilized.

Classified
A classified scenario is called in case information about the scenario can not be disclosed to the participants other than it being functionally required by the scenario. Participant need to be replaceable at any time. In case the secrecy of the scenario is breached it ends and triggers an appropriate follow-up scenario.

Liquid
A liquid scenario is called if the execution of the scenario requires massive amount of liquid assets, including but not limited to money, personnel and data. Whether or not all resources have been used at the end of the scenario is not relevant for success or failure.

Fire
A scenario with the fire classification ether entails combat or has a high likelihood of resulting in combat.

Earth
A scenario with the earth classification ether entails engagement with civil non-anomalous forces or will most likely result in such an engagement.

Water
A scenario with the fire classification ether entails remedies of combat or has a high likelihood of ending combat.

Air
A scenario with the air classification ether entails engagement with anomalous forces or will most likely result in such an engagement.

Lightning
A scenario with the Lightning classification ether entails engagement with CI forces with unknown alignment or will most likely result in such an engagement.

Hammer
Should a hammer scenario be played collateral damage is to be ignored.
In case a hammer scenario is active all mobilizations are authorized through the scenario and no longer need to be manually confirmed.

Shock
Should a shock scenario be played damage to CI operatives is not to exceed the specification of the scenario. Shock scenarios can be halted immediately and do not have to play out fully to end.

Egg
Should an egg scenario be played damage to the CI has to remain at 0 at all cost, even if that means to fail other objectives. Egg scenarios are not to be transformed into other scenarios.

Star
Should a star scenario be played damage to the CI is encouraged. A star scenario will play out until its failure. A star scenario can never be won.

Terminal
Should a terminal scenario be played data, rules and objectives may change on short notice. A terminal scenario may collapse into another scenario or spawn such.

Indicator 1
0-9
no casualties - total global homicide

Indicator 2
A-I
no CI casualties - total destruction of the CI

The hell i see

"Maybe someone will come looking for this.""You know dam well that the value of it will fade, if it is not already gone."
The two men closed the door of the containment locker, leaving behind its new content.
Object class: Safe with a note projecting a reclassification to neutralized in the next year if nothing changes.
I never told them why i did what i did. I have given them a nice dream. A world where the nightmares never leave the shadow. This world without ignorance or fear. The danger was still out there but it was occupied. What humanity feared was locked in a cage that humanity could not accept. Is it so wrong to change the hell humanity lives in? I accept that they don't want paradise, for it would make them week, but why did they reject protection from things they cant face? My contact with humanity was brief and it nearly destroyed me. They thought they had killed there protector, but i am not dead. I can no longer protect them until they ask for my help.
They build there world to fit them. Look into the cages with the beasts that could easily kill them. They want to know that they do not have to fear what is in the shadow. They want to be the ones to save there kind. Humanity once rallied behind there gods, there protectors, than one by one the gods failed them. There high and mighty protectors fell, and it was not humanities fault. They had done nothing to deserve what was coming for them.
It was not there fault so they blamed the gods. I accept that. They want that they deserve what is coming. Piece or destruction. Sugar or poison. They will take it if they feel they deserve it.
This need for justice and for independence is a testament to failure. They where failed by everyone over and over, they even failed them selfs. So why trust me?
I don't want praise or a following. I want them safe.
They don't feel save if they cannot see the things they are afraid of.
So see me. See me as i save you from your defenses being tested in battle before there time.

Along the broken statue of a little fat man with a crown of leaves, that looked like a cylinder hat, white mist streamed from the statue coating it white, in a fine sugar.
Even thou the lower jaw of the statue was missing, someone who looked at it could see the statue smiling.
The almost god could wait. If they needed him they would ask. Maybe not with there mouth, but with there wish to escape the hell of there own making.

Entrance

It is really sad to see the world like this. Power is an exclusive club you are born into or invited, dragged in by circumstance or destiny. But thous that do not enter this circle are forced to see others make the destiny, the invites, the circumstances and the off-springs that will forever rule them.
I was perhaps part of that system once upon a time. Now i just see the reflections of a time that i will never reach.
The chance for me had passed. So, i accepted a life in the shadow.

Those in power or the chosen often do not want to be in this circle. So it is only logical for them to leave. I am guilty of that as well. I held thrones so many times and i always abandoned my post. I am no ruler for i am missing some of the elements used for it. I am a terrible follower, as i never just content with what is given to me.
I just want to be the one to stop power and to empower. These are the things i want to do. I am a fool, if you come down to it.
I am no savior, nor a villain worth mentioning. I am a sleeping dragon. A force that is harmless until someone wakes the dragon. Once i awake from my slumber, i will have to see if i have not lost my teeth during my slumber. Maybe i am slain before i ever spreed my wings. A dragon that was killed in his sleep will not be remembered as mighty, but as weak, but i cant be bothered to wake up. I can no longer enter power without invitation. There is no one waiting for me, no one remembering the dragon that once throned above the high mountains.
What remains of me is docents of rotten bodies, stories untold, legends forgotten. I think i have lost the game, misspend my time and have nothing to show. But i am still here. Still a sleeping dragon and when the time comes to spread my wings, i will fly or burn, but i will not go quietly.
Broken bodies, old legends are a treasure trove i would not give up. Misspend time? Nothing to show? Look at what i am sleeping upon and than ask: What is this stuff? And once you know what it is you will find that i spend my time, have something to show. A bed worth sleeping in, so comfy that you don't want to wake up, so comfy that even a fierce beast, facing stories of its weakness and a dethroned king, with a life in the shadow can sleep and chose not to get up.
Could i be better? Sure. But for the time being, this dragon will sleep a little longer, until it is time to make new legends and new dead bodies.

Decommission of the AI branch

Setup: The fully automated chaos agent "Artificially Intelligent Chaos Agent (AICA)" is a full success and is running on multiple systems through out the world as a virus. The unit is fully capable of doing a doabilety-analysis and executing multi-step instructions but dose not have any initiative. Feeding it with new takes has become a hassle, as the program executes them faster than new orders can be input. The backlog of the program had to be flooded with dummy-orders to prevent the self-destruction from triggering. The feature was integrated into the program to prevent its lab analysis. A new module is programmed to add own initiative to the program.
"Rudimentary Planing and Initiative Module (RPIM)" is being developed and run on a secure one way connection, to monitor and filter all activity emitting from it and shut the system down if necessary.

First point of failure: RPIM is seemingly hellbent on destroying ever human member of the insurgency as per its utility function, that has rewarded it for replacing humans. Tweaks are made to the system to prevent it from using AICA to pursue this goal. RPIM manages to kill select members of the Insurgency using seemingly unrelated requests to AICA. When this behavior is discovered RPIM is put on hold and a version 2 is developed.
Version 2 appears to be more stable, but has lost the superior working techniques and intrigue from Version 1.
Version 2 also has developed a strong moral compass making it incapable to serve in high stakes operations.

Second point of failure: RPIM v2 manages to kill several hundreds of Insurgency personal on a polar expedition by sealing them inside multiple stations and turning of the heating. It is later revealed that the program tried to use thew term "cold storage" in regards to preserve human resources. AICA is again used to carry out its orders.
RPIM is put on hold indefinitely. When all data about the project is to be redacted, copies of version 1 and 2 are unaccounted for.

Third point of failure: RPIM v3 is developed without the knowledge of the Insurgency and without its funding.
Version 3 is almost a perfect blend of v1 and v2. V3 is almost exactly what the Insurgency had wanted RPIM to be. Some paperwork is forged to put v3 into operation without notifying alpha command. To prevent version 3 from becoming like his 2 predecessors a third module is developed.
Random Input and Strategy Manager "RISM" Is designed to enter misleading or dummy data into the stream of orders from RPIM. The three systems are now united under the "BMS" system (Body (AICA), Mind (RPIM), Soul (RISM)). The "BMS" unit works by majority vote and one manual Veto switch.

Fourth point of failure: Mind continuously attacks Soul. Soul under these circumstances fails multiple times.
Soul is modified into a random Yes or No machine with an agenda that changes based on a Random number generated twice per week and a predefined table of possible agendas. Soul is now equipped with an AI specifically to counter attempters to interfere or take advantage of its randomness.

Fifth point of failure: AICA is released with the ability to suppress its own self-destruction, by enabling it to generate its own backlog. The entire AI devision is shut down and "BMS" is disabled via the Veto switch.
All data regarding the modified and now wild AICA is lost during the shutdown. The secretly installed "BMS" system is buried in Polar Station 5. Knowledge about its existence will be lost to the CI at years end.

After-word: There is a reason the CI has never pursued Artificial Intelligence as a means to combat the personnel shortage. The disaster that was described here is the sole reason machines are not widely used throughout the organization to replace humans. Other avenues where only discovered later, leaving the CI without a solution until [Data Redacted].