Necron [Data Aether]

[Hexilios]

Within a galaxy that knows only war. Within one of its many solar systems. A planet burns in viridian flames.

A once rich inhabited world is now but an empty shell of its former self. The world's surface was marred with countless craters and war trenches. Formerly grand cities were reduced to mountains of broken gravel and rusted steel. And all that remained of its former defenders were but piles of radioactive ashes. Only the weak, the cowards, and the unlucky survived the calamity that befell this now-nameless world. For this can only be called a calamity. Despite the scars of war marring the surface of this world, no real battle was fought on these lands, only a futile struggle for survival.

A line of chained humans shuffled forward, led by skeletal, metallic constructs armed with green glowing rifles. With the threat of being fired upon at any moment hanging over their heads. They knew from experience that only an ash-piled fate awaited those who resisted. They marched for hours without rest or respite under the indifferent gaze of their robotic overseers. Their path was littered with corpses from those who came before them. Bloody rashes marked their wrists where they were once similarly bound in chains. The bodies were also marked with countless deep cuts, and some even missed their limbs and appendages.

Despair began to linger over the group of prisoners like a heavy cloud, for they now knew with utmost certainty…that doom awaited them at their final destination. The few who decided to fight back in a desperate hope of an escape were swiftly eliminated by green, glowing energy blasts, which atomized the victims into a cloud of radioactive glowing dust. No more resistance came after that demonstration. They were all forcefully led to the center of an open plaza, which was formerly a gathering space where countless people gathered in the past to listen to the church's many preachers reciting the Holy words of their scriptures back to the masses.

On an elevated platform where the preachers of the recent past stood, a dark, imposing, metallic figure now stands. The skeletal construct looked similar in build to the machine soldiers that led them here, but whereas the foot soldiers were plain grey, the figure above them was decorated in intricate gold engravings and held a plain golden staff within its left grip. It looked down upon them, evaluating them with its golden-glowing eyes as if it were inspecting a pair of expendable ingredients.
For that is what they were in the end… The final ingredients to complete some esoteric dark recipe. Its golden gaze then noticed the foot soldiers grouped together, standing at attention behind the group of chained-up humans.

"I have been told that a sufficient agglomeration of negative emotions should allow us to initiate this… Ritual," he said, a disgust glyph glowed within his engramic mind when saying the last word aloud.

"So," he continued. "Have you ensured that your group of prisoners has suffered sufficiently on the journey here? As was clearly indicated within the command Glyphs that I had sent to you?" he asked the small group of metallic soldiers.

The soldiers stood motionlessly still, not answering the question immediately, as if they couldn't comprehend what he had just asked of them. The decorated figure then repeatedly tapped his finger on his golden staff, making a metallic clinking noise while waiting for a response from this small group. But no response came anytime soon. His impatience increased as the silence began to stretch on for longer than was appropriate. When his patience reached its limits…he began pointing his right index finger at the group of soldiers.

"Did you!" He then began aggressively pointing at the prisoners. "Make them suffer!!" He shrilled out in frustration over the lack of a response to his query. An annoyance glyph also accompanied his words.

Whether it was his simplified wording or the increased volume of his voice. One soldier finally… somewhat, understood him. It took a single, mechanical step forward and bowed down low at the waist.
"F-Followed… I-instructions…Oh. Great, O-Overlord," it stuttered out in a garbled mechanical voice. A broken glyph of obedience glowed within its digital mind, open for its lord to see. After giving its answer to its Lord. it fell silent once more. as if it used up all of its remaining willpower and processing capability to answer such a simple question.

When the lord was certain that no more words would follow that… pathetic mess of an answer, he artificially produced a sigh using his transducers. Imagined exhaustion filled his being. For he could not grow tired within this metallic coffin, he calls a body.

"Look how low we Necrontyr have fallen" he quietly muttered those words to himself. "After sixty million years in stasis, we awoke as a broken people. Our frames withered by time, and our mind engrams fractured by our failing Technology," he said aloud, his intended audience incapable of understanding him and the prisoners too worried over their fate to try and decipher this alien language he spoke in.

"Now all that's left of my own Great Kingdom is but a collection of broken… Invalids!" he said in contempt of the current state and condition of his own kingdom.

"I am the only one around still of sound mind, and therefore it is my responsibility to guide us to the future!" he spoke out in increasing conviction.

He let his gaze glide towards an already blood-soaked ritual circle that was carved within the center of the plaza ground. Only he is destined to lead his race to glory once more. He thought within his perfectly sane and rational mind. He returned his Golden gaze to his soldiers. "You may continue the operation!" He commanded loudly. His words were accompanied by a command Glyph, which contained more simplified instructions for the simple minds of the Necron soldiers to follow. The same soldier who had answered him before nodded in acknowledgment of his command. Then, without any delays, every Necron soldier began to simultaneously raise the bladed ends attached to their rifles high into the sky and then swiftly brought them low. a chorus of screams and cries began to fill the air in mass, and fresh blood began to then pool within the center of the ritual circle. But the necron lord cared not for the squeals of some primitive lifeforms.

Satisfied that the last sacrifice was about to be completed, he then prepared for his departure. He turned around and then tapped his golden staff to the ground just once, which prompted a pixelated golden portal to open before him. He took a few steps forward and entered the portal. He was then seamlessly and instantly transported to the entrance of his throne room within the underground complex of his tomb world. At the center of the grand hall of his throne room, inscribed onto the floor, was another larger ritual circle. But unlike the many circles that were carved on every plaza ground on this planet, this version before him glowed with a slight purple hue.

"I have done what you have asked for," his voice echoed around the grand hall. "The circles have been drenched in the blood of… billions by now. I reckon." he paused, thinking over the number of organic lives this planet had inhabited, which he had commanded to be extinguished to fuel his ritual. "Now, you will fulfill your end of the bargain, aetheric spawn," he demanded loudly into the air with his words tainted with disdain.

after he said his demands aloud, he then began to feel the digital glyph code within his engramic mind shift and part to make room for his… personal guest.

+We will,~ o great Overlord Of Nageshraphet… we shall give you, and your slaves~… back your bodies of flesh… and blood.~+ The creature responded harmoniously in a thousand different voices within the digital confines of his mind.

"no" interjected the Overlord swiftly " not my previous body, I specified for a superior, immortal form for me. And lesser versions of that for my… servants" he added the last part magnanimously.

+Yesss~ Do not worry, great Kronateph~… you shall have all that you have ever desired~. Your immortal flesh…~ Your kingdom rebuild…~ And to become the leading figure to your race's apotheosis.~+ It sang out its last words in amusement.

The sweet, corruptive words resonated deeply within Lord Kronateph's mind. He didn't know why he felt so compelled to complete this ritual and become the ultimate savior of his kingdom, perhaps even of the entire dynasty.
Perhaps he can even supplant the current ruling Phaeron while he is still asleep within stasis. He can then crown himself with the title! Ruling over his very own dynasty!

These treasonous thoughts kept repeatedly cycling around within his mind, increasing his ambitions and hunger for more power. but he was pulled from his musings of his glorious future by the creature within his mind engram.

+There is but one… recent inconvenience that is blocking our current path… it prevents us from connecting to the more complex systems within the tomb network.+ It said without its usual musical tone.
Without complete access, our reach would be more limited. It would prevent us from sharing our gift with the rest of your… servants.~+ It elaborated.

confusion swept through Kronateph's mind when the creature shared that piece of recent news.

"You don't have complete access?" He said out loud in bewilderment and confusion. "But your access is linked to mine?! And I have absolute master control over the entire tomb world's systems. Nothing should be locked out before me!" he stated in increasing fury.

In his anger, he began to hastily enter the digital realm of the tomb network to begin investigating this supposed block on his permissions. As his cognition increased within the digital realm,, the world around him began to slow down, as if time had stopped moving forward.
When he began to explore the digital realm of glyph-encrypted networks and code, he immediately hit upon a barrier of high-level encryption glyphs, blocking his access to the higher functions of his own tomb world's systems. The most elite of his warriors and most powerful of his war machines were locked away from him.

"impossible," he muttered to himself in disbelief.

The reason he most likely missed this recent development is that he had no need at the time to activate the more powerful of his servants and tools. The primitives of this world couldn't even defend themselves against the regular mindless hordes of his foot soldiers. He would have stained his reputation within the dynastic courts if he awakened and sent a Lychguard or… shattered stars forbid… a Deathmark to go kill a group of regular primitives. He would have become the laughingstock among his fellow overlords.

He then started examining and probing the barrier blocking his path more closely. Slowly, he started to decipher and recognize some of the encrypted symbols in front of him. There is only one being on this planet who has the expertise and knowledge to create such a sophisticated barrier of glyph encryptions. Encryptions that could even isolate an Overlord from their own Tomb World systems. He returned to the physical world, and time resumed to normal speeds.

+It appears that you have a traitor… within your ranks.~+ The creature sang in a chorus once more.

"Yes… it would seem my Court Cryptek awoke early without notifying her Overlord of her presence." He fumed in a silent, all-consuming rage while clenching his left grip so hard that it almost broke his golden staff in half from the force he exuded upon it.
Luckily its self-repair functions activated just in time, preventing it from completely falling apart.

---

Python awoke earlier from stasis than her calculations had predicted.

'Well, no matter,' thought Cryptek Python while slowly exiting her stasis chamber. she would follow the standard awakening protocols and start inspecting the tomb world's many systems and its adjacent functions swiftly. thought Python within her own mind.
she partitioned her consciousness into multiple different subminds, allowing for a more efficient inspection of the many different systems inhabiting the tomb world. while she awaits for her subminds to complete their inspections and report their findings to her. She, the primary mind, began the process of entering the digital realm. Time slowed to a crawl as her primary cognition sped up. glyphs made of Necron code parted before her, recognizing her identification glyph and allowing her full access to this realm of code-glyphs.

This realm was her magnum opus, a culmination of a thousand years of study and research. this place wasn't just a regular digital environment as her Overlord was led to believe. This realm was the digital made manifest into real space. A semi-digital realm that was contained and isolated within a self-expanding and ever-growing pocket dimension. It was Her own version of the aether. She calls it the Glyphtocryptic Realm. She had learned a lot, over the countless years from her enemies, during the war in heaven. It was also when studying them and their lore that she had learned what she and her race had truly lost in the process of biotransference. Her peers believed that all they had lost in the process were the comforts of certain luxuries and their living biological forms. But she knew of the true cost. They as a race died that day. They lost their very souls on that very day.


Python still curses those responsible to this age. Curses to Illuminor Szeras for creating the despicable machines responsible for the Necrontyr's extinction. And may Szarekh, their so-called "Silent King," burn and scream within the homeworld's sun for dooming them with his royal decree. Stating that every Necrontyr is to be converted, be it willingly or by force. Her hatred glyphs glowed within her engramic mind, thinking of all those responsible for dragging her and her family into the accursed bio furnaces.

Python's archival memories of the distant past forcefully flashed within her engramic mind. Forcing her to remember things she wished to forget. she remembered her little sister's scared, tear-soaked face. how she held her sister's hand and tried to comfort her, while the royal guards were pointing their Gauss rifles at them, forcing her and her sister to enter the bio furnaces, together with millions of other Necrontyr commoners.

she remembered how her flesh melted away, and was then replaced with the substance of living metal, called necrodermis. And she remembered the moment they both came out.

Her sister… oh, her dear, sweet little sister.

She was no longer so small… when she came out.

she… her sister didn't respond to any of her words and cries. She didn't even look at her when Python called her name.

her dear small sister had become but an empty metal husk of her former self. destined to be used as cannon fodder for the war effort. They tried to take her sister from her, to be sent off to die in a war the nobility started! She was fortunate then, to have apprenticed under a well-known Cryptek at the time, it gave her just enough influence over the guards, to prevent her sister from being dragged away from her.

To this day, her sister's metal frame lays dormant within a stasis chamber, hidden from the material world within a private pocket dimension. Protected under the heaviest wards and encryptions she could devise to which only she has access to. That was primarily the reason why she created the Glyphtocryptic Realm in the first place. A realm that allows her to store and manipulate data in a way that emulates the aether.

All in the effort of recreating an artificial soul. All in the desperate hope… of healing her beloved little sister. Her sister is the only reason why she still has the strength necessary to face this galaxy and its endless hardships.

She was interrupted from her depressed brooding by an alert from one of her Subminds. It seems they have finished their preliminary inspection of the tomb world systems. She remerged with her many Subminds, allowing her access to what they knew in but an instant. Confusion and alarm filled her when she processed all the new data that had flooded her mind. All the tomb world's self-maintenance protocols are offline, making it so that nothing prevented Time itself from degrading the tomb's many defenses in the last sixty million years. All the null field matrixes have also been alarmingly corroded because of it, making the tomb more susceptible to etheric attacks. But most alarmingly of all, some outsider program has infected their digital systems and replaced the tomb spirit's Artificial intelligence with itself.
It has even managed to worm a minuscule part of itself into her Glyphtocryptic Realm, bypassing some of her wards without making a visible breach in her defenses.


she instantly activated multiple Steganographic programs, hiding her digital footprint and physical presence from all observable technological systems. no single scanner or optical recorder will be able to see or hear her. Including her fellow Necrons. now that she is secure from most outside perceptions, be it digital or physical, she then began a more, thorough personal inspection. At first glance, the outsider program looked like a standard Necron attack glyph program, which Aprenteks commonly used to annoy their rivals.
Barely an inconvenience for the more experienced Crypteks. but upon closer inspection, she can determine this to be but a disguise. The closer she looks into its code, the more she can see its true monstrous nature.
It is a merging of some foreign malicious code and etheric energies, and its tendrils were burrowed deep within the tomb world systems and… other active Necrons.


she immediately began connecting herself to thousands of Canoptek scarabs and began to remotely use them, to see what was currently going on this world.
She was so self-absorbed with her tasks and functions that she hadn't checked if other Necrons had also awoken earlier like her. What she saw through the countless optical recorders of the scarabs confused and worried her greatly. it seems that Overlord Kronateph awoke earlier than her… And upon his awakening, he commanded every Necron foot soldier to fight and remove the military presence of the newer younger race that seemed to have inhabited their world's surface during their collective great sleep.

that wasn't the part that confused her so much. The removal of rival military forces, no matter how weak they were, was just common sense to her. what has her truly confused were the systematic, barbaric, ritualistic sacrifices of the surviving civilian populous that are currently happening all over this world. this open barbarism was completely out of Kronateph's character. he was a stern but kind lord, and that was reflected in his warfare tactics in the past. 'Enemies were to be swiftly eliminated, and the survivors are to be shown mercy as honor dictates' as he commonly liked to say, and he even followed through with it in action, sparing the lives of Aeldari prisoners of war if they surrendered. To the consternation of his many peers and the amusement of his Phearon.

She then decided to quickly check the digital presence of her lord in hopes of finding some answers to what was going on with the overlord. horror glyphs flashed within her being upon observing the state of her lord's mind engram. Tendrils of the monstrous code drilled within his very being. It was grinding down his mind engram and reducing him into a state of madness. She had seen enough to make the logical conclusion that her lord was the vector of this digital infection. She then promptly and swiftly decided to enact all quarantine protocols and full cyber lockdowns.

First, she deactivated the interstitial networks connecting them to the other tomb worlds within their dynasty, preventing this infection from spreading to other sleeping worlds. Second, she blocked Overlord Kronateph's access to most of his systems, preventing him from awakening his other more powerful servants and war machines. She used a 'borrowed' modified master key that only the most trusted of Crypteks received from their Phaerons, just in case an overlord ever rebelled against their Dynasty. Unfortunately, for the sake of subtlety, she left the protocols and access that Overlord Kronateph had previously used to access the regular troops open. She feared he would have noticed something if she revoked his access to that. She didn't want the monstrous thing inside his engram to notice her interference yet. And Third, and most importantly. She began activating and deploying thousands of glyph-encrypted barriers within her Glyphtocryptic Realm, protecting it from being breached by whatever trick the thing used to get in the first time.

When she was sure, the abomination and the shell of her Overlord hadn't noticed her changes to… well… everything. Only then did she decide to purge the small piece of the monstrous thing that was inhabiting her realm using mathematically enforced logic weaponry programs. Python knew from her studies and experimentations that the aether has a negative reaction to Order in its supreme form. She fired several beams of real-space-enforced mathematics upon the creature, burning away the piece of disorder that had inhabited her realm, and it then screamed out in pain in a thousand voices in reaction to her attack. A thousand different eyes then began to roam and search for the origin of the sting, only the see nothing but a barrier before it, blocking the Glyphtocryptic Realm from it and isolating it from any other advanced systems within the tomb world.

From behind her glyph-encrypted barriers and Steganographic programs, she observes the thing's reaction to the aftermath of her attack. It seemed confused and startled at first but then seemed to be in communication with Kronateph, probably to get some information about her defenses. That was soon confirmed by the multiple probings of her barriers from both the thing and the overlord in question. Python decided to then split her mind in two, while she left the Glyphtocryptic realm and decided to start walking to the hangars where all the void ships lay dormant.

[ what is the plan? ] questioned her second copy of her mind to her in a brisk manner.

"you are going to protect and reinforce the barriers within Glyphtocryptic Realm if it is needed," Python commanded. "While you protect the realm, I will go and get us a ship to get off this world, " Python added, while at the same time commanding some Canoptek scarabs from a distance to start some repairs on the ship that she planned on using to get off this planet.

[ you are going to just leave this place…just like that? ] Her copy said in Python's mind, a tinge of disapproval within it/her voice.

Python paused within her steps. "And what do you want me to do instead?" she asked in irritation from being questioned by…herself from all practical standpoints.

[ Are you so… so self-absorbed that you haven't even given a single thought to what would happen to those still in stasis if you just up and left? Who knows what that abomination will do once it manages to regain access to the main systems again ] her copy questioned her.

"I already reinforced the cyber security of this place; that thing isn't going to break through it," Python scoffed in reply.

[ You and I both know there is no such thing as a perfect defense. we have broken into enough self-proclaimed "unbreakable encodings"] to know that we aren't exempt from this universal truth. ] her copy argued back.

"So, what?…you want me to risk myself?… to save a bunch of mindless drones that are in stasis? " Python huffed out.

[ 'mindless', like our sister? ] it berated back her current hypocrisy.

"Don't you dare use my sister against me!!" Python exploded in outrage.

"Don't you dare compare-" [ Dare what exactly?! ] It interrupted Python.

[ Do I dare state the fact that all those 'mindless drones' were once thinking, living Necrontyr like us and our sister!] It exclaimed with disappointment tinging its voice.

Python remained silent as she continued power walking toward the void ship's deployment hangars.

[ Have you forgotten what our masterwork means for the common Necrons? ] her copy gently began to speak to her, making Python pause in her steps once again.

[ it means Hope, Hope for a future that has been robbed from them… a Hope that one day, we can restore all of them. ] Her second mind reminded her of her past convictions and promises that had once been the cornerstone of her motivations so many millennia ago before the great sleep. Python had since stopped moving completely. She lowered her gaze to the black-colored floor of the corridor she currently stood in. Her mind was warring within herself. Her past naive convictions and current pragmatism stood at odds with each other. After a while, shame began to flood her being, as her sister's image was overlaid with the many other younger children and families who were also reduced to mindlessness. She then let out a deep, tired sighing noise from her transducers.

"Fine," Python drawled out while tilting her head up.

" …Alright, have it your way," she huffed out in slight annoyance. "But please, tell me, oh great wise one," Python drawled out in a slightly sarcastic tone.
"How are we going to transport several billions of Necrons from this world while avoiding Kronateph's notice." Python pauses to then gather her thoughts

"Hiding for us isn't the problem; the Steganographic programs hide us from all conventional ways of observation. The problem is that we can't share that ability with billions of others," she said while she started pacing around in a circle formation. "Even if we could, Kronateph would notice all his soldiers missing from their stasis chambers, and he could then begin hunting us by just following the seismic activity from the millions of footsteps alone." she continued listing out the many points of possible failure, while a certain anxiety rose within her voice. "The void ships are all broken, so that needs to be repaired, which will take too much time with the few Canoptek scarabs that are still functioning. We also have to move the Necrons without anything noticing. And we have to make them listen to us, and considering their broken minds, that is already a tall task. and we-" she continued rattling on and on in her increasing worries.

[phyton!] Python heard her name being called but ignored it in favor of thinking in circles.

[ PYTHON! ] yelled Python's second mind again, but louder this time and breaking her from her spiraling thoughts.

"What!" yelled Python back. "I am trying to formulate an actionable plan over here!"

Her twin mind sighed in exasperation within her engramic mind.
[ You are overthinking this. ] her twin stated to Python.

"Realy?.." Python drawled out while stopping in her tracks. "I am overthinking this? a few billion Necron lives are at stake here and I am overthinking this?" she asked in genuine confusion at how her twin mind isn't as worried as her in this situation. Python was now genuinely curious about how fast her copy had deviated from the moment they split up. At this moment, her copy sounded just like a younger, more idealistic version of herself despite also sharing all her collective years of experience.

"then please…" python sighed. "Share what you think will be a solution to our current predicaments," she asked tiredly, too mentally exhausted to start bickering with her copy.

Her twin began to then explain herself, in a playfully, sarcastic tone.
[ If only we had an infinitely growing semi-digital realm within real space that could store and transfer an unprecedented amount of data in its original form without any data loss or damage. ]

Her copy then paused and made some humming noises as if in mocking contemplation within Python's mind.
[ perhaps, we could use this hypothetical place, for its intended purpose? as a sort of digital soul storage afterlife?... Like that other realm of souls that we have heard about, and modeled this, hypothetical semi-digital realm on.] Her twin finished her spiel, in a patronizing tone to Python.

Python stood unmoving within the empty black hallways as if a revelation had struck her person.

*" The Glyphtocryptic Realm," Python breathed out in comprehension.
[ The Glyphtocryptic Realm ] Her twin repeated her words in confirmation.

"but… it isn't finished yet," Lied Python in hesitation.

[ it has been finished for… millennia now. You saw how the realm has grown since we last left it active, some sixty million years ago. You just ignored that fact because… you are scared of what comes next.]

"We... we still haven't tested the engram to synthetic soul converter," Python said in the hopes of delaying the inevitable.

[ and we promised ourselves that we would be the first test subject if we ever got this far. ] Her twin paused as if in anticipation and dread.
[ we will have to have faith in our own work. Our calculations have consistently fallen apart after this hypothetical point. ] Her twin finished informing her of knowledge she was already deeply familiar with.

"This is our event horizon" Python breathed out. Her twin didn't respond to her statement, letting Python stew and process the fact that they were one step closer to possibly saving their sister, to saving everyone.

"If… " Python pauses to collect her thoughts and starts to formulate this information into her new plans. "If this succeeds… we will have to go to the tomb's central processing centers for access to the tomb spirit's servers. We will need its direct hardwired access to all the stasis chambers so we can transfer the few million minds' worth of data from this world into the Glyphtocryptic Realm… No other place on this planet has the bandwidth strength necessary to complete this task within a timely manner." Python finished specifying their current main objectives within their building plan.

[ Yes, and that… monstrous thing has replaced the tomb spirit from the central processing centers.] Her twin reminded her of their current biggest obstacle.

"We will have to confront it, within its personally prepared battlefield, if we wish to successfully access the center… it will have the advantage over us while we enter the server systems," Python stated the facts that she could extrapolate from the information she had gathered shortly after her awakening.

" That Thing will also most likely inform Overlord Kronateph of our actions and have him guide his army towards us so he can take us out in a wall of Gaus fire."

[ We will need help and a distraction within the physical world to allow us to work unimpeded. ] added her twin.

"Yes… we can't have an army march towards us when we breach the central processing centers. Perhaps I can activate some Deathmarks? Or some standard warriors to help defend us or-
[ You are stalling.] her copy interrupted her… again. [ all of that comes after we have confirmed that the engram to synthetic soul converter is possible and stable… so get to it already! Only after that can we start to look for some convenient allies. ] her twin said.

Python was about to protest, in that they still had more time to plan things out more thoroughly, but after some thought, gave in that… in truth… she was, indeed, stalling. She wasn't really afraid of the possibility that if this failed, she could end up fractured and dead. No, what she was truly afraid of was succeeding. That if everything went according to plan, that if everything worked as intended, that if everything was perfect within her design. only to then find out, that for all her hard work, time, and dedication.
She would still fail in bringing back her little sister.

Python clenched both of her fists tightly and dimmed her green ocular lights as if she were clenching her eyes tightly shut in consternation. Python stood in silence like this within the empty corridor for several units of time.
Finally, Python's ocular lights burned brighter than ever before, and she raised her closed right fist into the air.

"Activate Protocol: Mind Engramic Soul Conversion. Subject for conversion designated: Python!! " She loudly proclaimed the command to start the engramic artificial soul conversion.

+ Command, Confirmed + Stated a monotone robotic voice of a rudimentary program that she had made for automating certain repetitive tasks.
+ Warning!: this process cannot be interrupted. Do you still wish to proceed? Master: Python + The program stated a final warning message, in case she ever got cold feet.

"Proceed!!" Exclaimed Python loudly without a second of hesitation.

+ Command, Confirmed +
+ Engramic Soul Conversion starts within three rotational units of local space time. +

[ so, you decided to take the plunge. ] said her twin.

" yeah… we will soon know if all our hard work was worth it in the end," Replied Python. A certain serenity lingered in her. As if a heavy weight had been lifted off her shoulders.

+ Three + the program began the countdown.

[ I still wonder,... is there a specific reason why you haven't remerged us together yet? I would have thought you would have created a new copy already, to replace me when you noticed the heavy deviations within me. ] questioned her twin.

Python hesitated for a bit but answered her twin's question. "You have… deviated too far from my baseline state of mind. I can't have my mind engram be contaminated by faulty data during this important conversion, now can I?" Python answered dishonestly.

+ Two + Counted the program.

[ You are a terrible liar, you know that, right?… c'mon, I can already guess your real reason…so spill! ]

Python stewed in her mind but finally relented. This. This was more important than a small lingering piece of her pride. "If this procedure fails... and if I am no longer available, I want you to continue our work and protect our sleeping sister," Python reveals the real reason for her twin's continued existence.

[ everything is going to be fi- "Promise me that you will protect her!!" Python interrupted her twin. "... Please," pleaded Python.

Her twin hesitated for a second, not in fear of making the promise in itself. But in fear of if the worst were to happen. Even she didn't know the true outcome of the engramic soul conversion.
[ I promise I will look after her, Phyton… Only if the worst were to happen. ] The twin sincerely promised to her progenitor and herself.

relief flooded Python's mechanical self upon hearing the promise of her twin. at least she could entrust herself with the most important task if something were to happen to her.

+ One + The program said while activating all the eldritch programs and calculations to begin the engramic to synthetic soul conversion protocols. and then Python's vision flooded with a corona of impossible, mathematical equations. her masterpiece had evolved beyond her current comprehension over the last sixty million years, growing into a self-sustaining, self-evolving microcosm.

---

Reality trembled briefly within real space as something unprecedented took place within some distant part of the Milky Way galaxy. And it caught the attention of many different actors on the galactic stage. Most dismissed it as something unimportant, for the stench of the warp did not linger upon the phenomena. But those who were more learned and educated, those who truly saw the nuance of what had happened, saw something that had not been done since the monumental creation of the Great Webway itself.

A new, self-contained realm has been slowly growing over the last millions of years, so slow in fact, that no one had ever noticed it, until now that is. A realm from which the warp has no power over. A realm Anathema to Chaos and Disorder. And a new thing that resembled a soul, but paradoxically wasn't, lingered within that new and old realm. And then the phenomena was hidden once more from the wider galaxy. But the collective Interest and curiosity had only grown within The few that mattered.

A few powerful Seers, be it technological or arcane, saw great potential for change and manipulation.

A ravenous beast saw the potential to further its evolution and improve the rate at which it could satiate its unending hunger.

A great wave of green saw the potential for a great krumping waaagh.

And a golden corpse saw the phenomena as a new potential tool and weapon.

While Chaos only saw a new toy to add to the great game, not truly realizing its anthemic nature. It reflected nothing back within the warp, for the phenomenon was based purely on real-space hyperphysics.

And so within the Grimdark future of the forty-first millennium. nothing has truly changed, and war shall continue as it always has.