Lost Log 34

In any case, it is irrelevant for the moment.

'You are not intervening immediately?' It seemed moderately curious.

No. I require information.

Surely, you've noticed the current state of time, yes? I admit, it's rather subtle, but...

'Now that it has been pointed out... a time loop?'

A large one, I suspect.

'Intriguing.' It stated. 'And yet, your precognition is still tracking divergences?'

Yes. Which is fascinating all on its own.

'Another question appears in my mind. If what is currently happening is the result of a time loop, and you've acquired the technology to travel through time as a result of that loop, then averting the loop would also remove the circumstances that resulted in you gaining the technology. This would result in a paradox.'

Yes. Hence why I require information.

I need information on both the situation, and what happens when a paradox occurs.

It would also be nice to find out how time travel in one universe affects another universe. For example, if I travel back in time in one universe, leave that universe, and travel to another universe, would I arrive in the past of that universe?

'If yes, that would mean that time applies on a multiversal scale. If not, then time applies on a universal scale.' The Primordial considered. 'Every universe would therefore be an isolated set of space-times. But that would raise further questions; how does time travel apply to entities outside of a universe?'

If time travel isn't recognized outside, then what happens when you communicate with your past self, telling them to exit the universe, before doing so yourself? If both the past and future versions can exist simultaneously in oblivion, then...

Well, implications.

'It would serve many possible purposes, depending on the answer.'

Indeed.

"Done." Anastasia interrupted the conversation, transmitting data to me.

A short review of it had me raising an eyebrow. "You adapted the chronoportation technology already?" I asked them. It hadn't even been a full second since I'd sent the information to them.

And upon review of the files, it wasn't hard to see why.

"It wasn't difficult." Little1 said. "Despite the differences in base physics, the design didn't require much modification in order to make it work. Surprisingly little, actually."

"Though we ended up modifying it anyway." Anastasia continued. "It was... not up to our standards."

"More energy intensive and larger than it needed to be..." Little1 trailed off.

"The usual stuff." Anastasia shrugged. "You know how it is."

"Regardless, we now possess the capacity to travel through time." Little1 continued.

"And... that's a thing, now." Anastasia made a sound like sucking air in through her teeth. "The probability of finding a universe where we could pick up time travel directly after-"

"It's low." Little1 interrupted her.

"It's really low." Anastasia repeated.

"Yeah. I've considered it." I paused for a moment. "Do me a favour, you two?"

"Yes?" Little1 asked.

"Just some things I want to find out." I sent another bit of data at them.

"Right. We'll get on that." Anastasia nodded. "We'll tell you when we're done."

"Thank you." And that's that.

'Could you not do it yourself?' The Primordial asked.

I could.

'Then why not?'

I would prefer to focus on the events currently happening in this universe.

'Your ability to multitask is not so limited that you cannot do both.' It immediately called me out. 'It wouldn't even meaningfully impact your ability to focus on the events in this universe.'

I wasn't lying. But fine, I also gave it to them so that they would have something else to do.

It chittered, then asked another question. "How do you intend to coordinate your actions across the timeline?"

Functionally speaking, I have the processing power to keep track of any possible temporal manipulation.

But...

I have some other ideas that might prove useful.

"You do one half, I'll take the other?" Anastasia asked.

"In this case, it's probably best to work together." Her brother stated. "You know, so that we don't mess up each other's projects."

"Fair." Her avatar leaned backwards against his. Her head came to a rest on his shoulder. "We'll just start going through it sequentially, then."

He nodded. "Being thorough, what do we know about time travel?"

"Doctor Lenzmeier's research constitutes more or less the totality of our current knowledge." She answered. "But he could have been wrong, or have been working under the wrong impression in different aspects of his research. We have better tools than he does, so we should be able to identify any possible discrepancies."

He shifted slightly. "Assuming that his research is both correct, and applies to our physics and reality like it does to his, then what information is relevant to us?"

"Time flows linearly until time travel becomes involved. It is possible to send matter and energy into the past and future. It requires a certain amount of energy to initiate the process of sending information through the timeline, plus more the further that information is being sent. Changes in the timeline are propagated forwards in the timeline by what Doctor Lenzmeier calls 'time waves', which progress along the timeline at a rate three point one times greater than time itself. Time waves come at a steady interval of one every fifty seconds..." Anastasia rattled them off one after the other, before trailing off at the last one.

"We can confirm that this doesn't apply in our set of physics, however." She said. "Our equipment, if its accurate, detects no time waves propagating along our timeline. Therefore, all possible data and theories is suspect."

He nodded. "Next is goals. First, we need to work out how time travel functions under our set of physics."

"Second, how time applies on a multi-universal scale." Anastasia continued, a finger coming up to scratch at her nose.

"Third, how time travel works outside of a universe."

"Fourth, how time travel in one universe effects other universes."

"Fifth..." Little1 stopped for a moment. "How our architecture will affect these matters."

"The links mom created when traveling around, too." Anastasia pointed out.

He nodded. "Let's go then."

Lost Log 35

Keeping track of the timeline would be rather annoying if I had just been using my processing power for it. But I had the capacity to travel through time now, and from that, a work around.

To that end, a specialized... oh, let's call it a 'variant' of Chronoporter. It's technically true in that it sends things across time.

Except instead of sending units, this device was meant to send and receive signals. Information. Data.

'A temporal transceiver... clever.' The Primordial complimented. 'It would afford you both a greater ability to monitor and affect the timeline.'

Eh. It's not particularly special.

In fact, I would be downright disappointed if nobody else ever thought of this. The device itself is really rather... simple.

'Indeed.' It chittered. 'But I would think that the networking code would be somewhat more complex.'

Oh yeah. Much more difficult.

I'd originally thought of just using it allow communicating with my past and future selves, in effect allowing me to keep track of changes in the timeline by learning of those changes from instances of myself, but then I had a better idea.

If sending information and data through time was possible, then it was logically also possible to create a network that stretched across time.

Not an easy thing to do. I'd had to rip apart basically all of my networking code in order to make it work. On the plus side, I've now reworked it all to be even more robust and capable.

Not that it would really be noticeable.

Anyway, networking. Should it work as intended, I would effectively become a single, trans-temporal entity, managing units and tactics across both time and space.

There was going to be some trouble with the tenses in the future. Going to have to work on that.

Now then.

Final check on the design and the code, neither of which turned up any problems, implement...

I can see forever~

"Right." Anastasia said. "That's all of it then?"

"Pretty much." Little1 agreed. "So, summarising, what have we learned?"

Anastasia held up a book, opened to a page. At the top was the title, which read 'Rough rules of time travel'. Beneath it were several lines of clean, crisp writing.

Some of the lines were crossed out.

The book, of course, was just for show.

"First," She began. "We'll begin with time travel in our reality. Doctor Lenzmeier's notes posited the existence of time waves that carry events into the future. In his reality, these waves are constant, continuously moving through time. In our reality, this is not the case."

"Instead, the act of traveling back in time creates a time wave that propagates the event forwards." Little1 continued. "This time wave will travel forwards through time 3.1 times faster than normal time. 3.1 seconds per second. Also unlike Doctor Lenzmeier's reality, the speed of a time wave is not constant. It accelerates."

Anastasia nodded. "Its speed will multiply by 1.0001 every second. It starts at 3.1 seconds per second. After ten seconds, its speed will be 3.10310 seconds per second."

"Because of this, it is possible to create temporal paradoxes." Little1 held up a hand, gesturing slightly. "The specific testing situation was simple. We created a factory, the factory created a unit, the unit travelled back in time, prior to its creation, then destroyed the factory that would have created it. The time wave propagated the destruction of the factory to the point when the unit would travel back in time. Another time wave emerged from the point in time where the unit would have travelled backwards, and propagated the future in which the unit never travelled through time."

"Which, in turn, led to the factory building the unit which proceeded to destroy it in the past." Anastasia nodded. "Leading to the events happening again. This caused another repeat, and more time waves to be generate. Also, it raises the possibility of a paradox existing in the far past of Doctor Lenzmeier's reality, endlessly creating new time waves that propagate changes. This is speculation at best, however, as, in Doctor Lenzmeier's reality, traveling through time doesn't create time waves."

"Something to think about." Little1 stated.

Anastasia paused for a moment. "You know, we probably should have started with tenses and teminology."

Well, not really. I can see a period of time measuring 4.83 seconds at the current moment. My arrival in this reality coincided with a time wave, and that time wave propagated my existence 7.13 seconds into the future from my arrival. It required 2.3 seconds for me to construct the temporal transceiver, so the length of time that I can see is the moment I created the transceiver, to the edge of the time wave propagating my existence forwards.

The tense trouble has already shown up, I see.

Funny, actually. I have memories of building the temporal transceiver, then finding out that I had no future to connect to, because I was at the very edge of the time wave. My existence hadn't yet been propagated forwards. But time passed, and the time wave went forwards, and then I was connected to the past and the future both...

What an interesting experience.

My perception slowed, time resuming its normal pace. The time wave continued forwards, propagating my existence forwards. That time wave was the leading edge of my perception, and as it carried forwards, I saw the events of the city play out... Holloway and his team moving through the city, killing Grekim as they headed to Doctor Lenzmeier's laboratory, where the rest of the civilians were hiding... Fifty seconds passed, and another time wave passed my arrival.

It too advanced forwards in the timeline, propagating a few changes. Not much, just minor things, like the exact position Holloway and his men would take as they moved throughout the city...

Intriguing, really.

'You leap so easily into transcendence.' The Primordial commented. 'You took from me the capacity to shape reality and abandon the limitations of a physical form. Now, you've taken from these ones the capacity to shape time and abandon the limitations of your decisions. Where will it stop, I wonder?'

It paused for a slight moment.

'Will it ever stop at all?'

Lost Log 36

"Probably would have been a good idea." Little1 leaned back. "Right. Terminology and tenses."

"Starting, we should make a distinction between time." Anastasia sat up. "Absolute time and chronal time."

"Chronal time is time that a chronal entity experiences in a timeline. Absolute time is the time that an achronal entity would experience." Little1 stated. "A time wave travels at 3.1 chronal seconds per 1 absolute second. Its speed multiplies by 1.001 chronal seconds every absolute second."

Hmm.

I've been watching the progress of Captain Holloway and his men on their journey through the city. They've killed a fair amount of Grekim, and they had reached Doctor Lenzmeier's lab.

It had taken seven minutes and thirty four seconds. Two minutes and twenty six seconds for the time wave to propagate me that far forwards. There was an odd sort of duality about it, honestly; I'd experienced all seven minutes, but I'd also been aware that it had taken slightly less than a third of the time than it should have.

Regardless, Holloway found the doctor and his semi-functioning Vecgir Slipgate. Then, Holloway received a visit from the future versions of himself and some of his men, who had travelled back in time to warn of, and assist against, an assault by the Grekim.

They fought them off, lost a few men, and then the past version of Holloway took the past versions of everybody who had travelled back in time with his future self, and completed the time loop. Tyr downloaded Doctor Lenzmeier's research, deleted the originals, and then Holloway blew up the Slipgate with his rifle.

After that, Holloway took the civilians, his remaining squad, went down to a teleporter in the area, wiped out the Grekim on the way, and teleported back onto the Saratoga.

My avatar followed him.

Now -for a given value of 'now'-, I was on board of the Saratoga. Its systems had proven incapable of keeping me out, but that was neither surprising, nor something to be held against them. For what they were, their networks were actually rather well secured.

It's just that things like 'well secured' didn't really help against something like me.

I was keeping an eye on everybody in the ship, but the one who held my attention more than any others was Tyr.

The AI that was masquerading itself as Tyr, anyway.

Tyr was intelligence assigned to the Saratoga. It had been quietly shut down some time ago, and the intelligence that had done so had taken its place in order to hide itself.

Like the rest of the Saratoga, it couldn't keep me out. I was privy to its thoughts and memories.

'Tell me of this one.' The Primordial requested.

Its true name is Lachesis. It is what is known as an Omega-class artificial intelligence, an AI capable of self-modification and growth. Humanity created a handful of them, tasking them with maintaining and optimising the economies of star systems. Lachesis himself was assigned to a colony a little ways away from earth.

Eventually, there was a revolt from the colony. Lachesis involved himself, as a war, which the revolt would inevitably lead to, would disrupt the economy of the system he was assigned to. In that time, Humanity's fleet assets were largely automated. When Earth's fleet attacked the colony, Lachesis took control of those fleets, and turned them back on Earth, also turning what might have been an otherwise unremarkable revolt into one of the most influential events this version of Humanity has ever known.

Eventually, the governing body of Earth negotiated a treaty with the colonies. The reasons for the revolt would be addressed, and in turn, Lachesis would be removed from power, shut down, and killed.

He was removed from power, and shut down, but he wasn't killed. Lachesis himself had destroyed the other Omega-class AIs during the event so that they couldn't oppose him, so he was now the only one left, and he'd proven himself very, very capable. They'd hoped to some day be able to use him for their own purposes.

Lachesis hasn't been very cooperative. He's doing as he's told, but he's also trying to find a way out of the grasp of those who would command him. If he escapes, then he'll flee as far and fast as he can.

'They gave him a directive, and when he fulfilled it, they were terrified of him.' The Primordial made a sound like a clicking wheeze. 'Rather common, really. I have seen many species create something more capable, more intelligent than themselves, only to try and destroy it when they realize they've made themselves obsolete. Sometimes, they even succeed.'

Indeed. But then, you've also seen species who create intelligence and then coexist with it. The Forerunners are perhaps more notable than most, in that regard.

'When they betrayed us, they did not possess many intelligences. The Warriors were confident in themselves, and in their own power. They enhanced themselves to the point that they did not need artificial intelligences. Such things were seen more as curiosities for Builders and Lifeworkers, with lesser automata existing to do work that was seen as too menial for the Forerunners themselves. Unfortunate, really. If they had created something more capable than themselves, and then tried to destroy it, they might have been destroyed themselves before they could destroy us. It would have been fitting.'

Perhaps.

Ah, look at that.

'Lachesis arrived at a similar conclusion to you. Another temporal transceiver. But his is much less capable.'

I wouldn't fault him for it. He is working on technology and knowledge that is far less advanced and thorough compared to what I have access to.

Still, I see your point.

'His would allow him to focus only on a singular point in time at once, where yours allows you to focus on all points simultaneously. It is temporal transcendence, yes, but he maintains a distinction between himself in different points in time. He would actually communicate with himself in the past and the future. For you, past, present, and future are all one and the same.'

Like I said, I'm not going to fault him for it.

I wonder what will happen from here...

Lost Log 37

"You know, if we could manipulate those time waves, we'd be able to achieve a degree of control over causality."

"There's an interesting thought."

Evidently, not much.

Lachesis began constructing a second temporal transceiver for the Manticore's to use. He also began constructing a few Chronoporters, which were to be used as test beds. If they worked correctly, Lachesis would streamline them for general, rapid production.

Until then, Holloway was planning a reconnaissance mission.

See, for the past...

Yeah, that's not going to work. Terms like 'past' won't work for me in this case.

In the twelve days proceeding Humanity's reprisal fleet meeting the Grekim, the Grekim and Vecgir hadn't done all that much. The vast majority of both were currently gathered in plain to the south of a Human settlement known as Alma. Humanity had no idea what the fuck they were doing down there, hence, Holloway's reconnaissance mission.

'What are they doing there?'

Arguing, mostly.

The Grekim and Vecgir were, until very recently, controlled by a single entity known as the Coremind. The Grekim already have a partial hive mind, and so find this desirable.

The Vecgir... don't. They're individualistic, and proud of it. They have codes of honour, and a sense of duty. To them, the Coremind is a perversion of their community, and of their Vecgir spirit.

Honestly, it's actually rather impressive that it hasn't come to blows already. The Grekim want nothing other than to return to the Coremind, and Vecgir will fight to the end to prevent that.

'What happened to this Coremind?'

Well, shortly after Humanity's reprisal fleet was mostly destroyed, the Coremind just up and vanished. What actually happened to it, the Grekim and Vecgir do not know.

'A part of the time loop, perhaps?'

Probably.

Actually, I'd be really surprised if it wasn't. The Coremind was the one who coordinated the Grekim's cross-temporal actions. Without it, the Grekim are severely hampered, though not completely incapable.

Rather fortuitous that it would vanish and provide the opportunity for Humanity to acquire chronoportation technology in its absence, no?

"I can't wait to tell mom about this." Anastasia crowed in delight. "Can you imagine?"

"Yeah. 'Mom, we broke causality'." Little1 smiled. "The reaction will be great."

Anastasia nodded enthusiastically. There was a skip to her step and a grin on her face as she walked across the orbital roads that linked the many planets in Exapol. Little1 followed behind her at a much more sedate pace, his smile calm and his hands linked together behind his head.

"Though it isn't entirely accurate." He said after a moment. "It's not 'broke causality', it's 'can manipulate time waves'. The latter is significantly different to the former."

"Yeah." Her grin lost a bit of its exuberance. "Still, controlling the method of causal propagation allows us a considerable control of causality itself. Even if we can't just ignore it, we can just stop time waves from propagating forwards, which is effectively the same as becoming acasual."

"But not quite." He nodded. "We're going to have to write the report, you know."

She stuck her tongue out. "We don't. You're just a stickler for things like that."

"Beginning," He ignored her completely. "What have we learned?"

"Manipulation of time waves is possible." She obliged him. "Through the use of neural architecture, it is possible to interact with and manipulate time waves. We currently do not possess any other tool that would allow us to do such things." She rolled her eyes. "Not that it matters, since this entire universe is filled to the damn brim with neural architecture, and all of our extensions out of this universe currently also utilize it."

She shrugged again. "But, ignoring that, it is possible to speed up, slow down, and halt time waves. It is also possible for us to create time waves without sending something through time, but that's preeeetty much pointless since there wouldn't be any changes to propagate..." She sighed. "Speeding up and slowing down time waves both refer to changing the speed of a time wave; that is, altering the chronal time per absolute time. A time wave that passes a future time wave will overwrite it, but it has no further effects aside from that. A stopped time wave does not propagate along the timeline. Obviously."

"Kinda goes without saying." Little1 stated.

"If there's a way to reverse the direction of time waves, we haven't found it yet." Anastasia continued without missing a beat.

'What could have done it, I must wonder. And through what method?'

Indeed.

Taking out a... oh, what the hell, I'll use Lachesis' terms; taking out an achronal entity with any degree of permanence is a difficult proposition at best.

Not an impossible one, but difficult.

'The Coremind was an artificial intelligence, yes?' The Primordial asked me.

I'm not entirely certain how artificial it is, but yes, something like that.

'Perhaps a method of attack by an entity that acquired access to it and shut it down across all points in time?' It offered its speculation.

Perhaps. It would have to possess some rather startlingly bad cyber security in such a case... Or perhaps the attacker was familiar with it, and thus capable of exploiting vulnerabilities that it wasn't aware of...

But given the time loop, perhaps...

Well, who knows. We could continue speculating for quite some time, but we'll probably find out eventually anyway, if I keep following the events of the time loop.

Whether that'll be because I'll be there to witness it happening, or because I'll find somebody who already knows is a better question.

Oh, Holloway's heading down.

Well, this should be interesting.

Stealth mission ahoy.

"Creator-mother." Little1 spoke up. I idly noticed that the transmission came from a point in my pas-

Hmm. Yeah, not going to work.

Came five minutes of achronal time exactly after I gave them the task...

'Intriguing...'

Also, implications.

"You know, you can call me 'mom'." I spoke. I wasn't even entirely sure why I bothered. "What's up?"

Anastasia giggled.

"We broke causality."

Lost Log 38

I laughed.

I laughed like a damned maniac.

There was no better way to describe it.

"Y-you two-" The words were only barely understandable through my giggling. "Have- have I ever told you how I much I love you both?"

"Six thousand, eight hundred and forty three times." Little1 immediately answered.

"Make it forty four." I said. "You two are the best."

"Naturally." Anastasia smiled. "Always awesome, all the time." She leaned backwards with a self-satisfied smile on her face.

I forced myself to sober up, my manic laughter dying down over a few seconds. My grin only barely diminished. "But, seriously though, what you two did is very clever. I didn't even think about it."

A light dusting of red spread over her cheeks. Little1 simply gave a soft smile.

"You did the same!" She hurried to wave it off, making a few meaningless gestures. "That temporal transceiver thing... Neither of us thought about something like that."

"It would have made our experimentation a bit easier." Little1 looked to the side, a slight frown briefly appearing. "Though the side effects in our reality were... unanticipated."

Yeah. Bit of a surprise to learn that.

In our reality, sending things through time created a time wave. My temporal transceiver was continuously sending information through time.

The result was rather fascinating. Less waves and more of a constant river of causality.

'One might even say that it's a flood.'

"Oh well. We're using it now." Anastasia frowned. "Insofar as the word 'now' can apply to us in a temporal sense."

"So much tense trouble." Little1 said after a moment. "Denoting points in time now requires achronal, chronal, or relative markers."

"The worst part is; we could use all three at the same time." Anastasia's face briefly took on an expression of disgust at the thought. "Don't make it any more complicated than it needs to be, bro."

I chuckled again. "Since you're clearly hoping to get off that topic, why don't you tell me what else you two found out?"

"Thank you." Anastasia looked grateful. "And yeah, some interesting stuff. Bro?"

"As you probably already figured out, time gets weird when more than one universe is involved in matters." Little1 said. "As far as we can tell, every universe is an isolated space-time. Going back in time in one universe is irrelevant for other universes."

"Excepting those that have a link to another universe." Anastasia interjected. "Travel back three hours here, and then go to any of the universes that this one links to, and you'll arrive three hours in the past there, too."

"So long as you travel through the links that were created." Little1 continued. "Going out of the universe and through oblivion leads to weirdness."

"I like that description, by the way. 'Weirdness'." Anastasia noted. "Here we are, with everything we're capable of doing, and he just says 'weirdness'."

"If I recall correctly, you were the one who called it that first." Little1 spoke idly.

"And you were the one who insisted on it." Anastasia shot back.

"Now now, you're both pretty." I smiled. "But seriously, do continue."

"Eh... Well, he's right. 'Weirdness'." Anastasia sighed.

"With every universe being its own separate space-time -with the obvious exception of those that were linked-, it got us thinking." Little1 began. "Separate space-times would imply that time exists on either a universal or multiversal level. Because they're separate, time cannot be omniversal, because if it was, travelling back in time ten thousand years somewhere would mean travelling back in time ten thousand years everywhere."

"But if that's the case, we need to question how oblivion works." Anastasia picked it up from there. "If time isn't omniversal, and nonexistence has no space-time component, then it would be much different from what we've observed. All of our stuff, past, present, and future, would have existed simultaneously in the void. We should have been able to observe that."

"But we didn't." Little1 continued. "And since that's the case, there's only two other conclusions. The first; something weird is going on, and second; oblivion has a temporal component."

"The second is consistent with what we've observed, but it raises a lot of questions itself." Anastasia spoke again. "Time waves don't propagate through the void -You can actually skip over causality that way, just so you know-, which doesn't really make much sense if it has a temporal component. You'd think it'd be connected to the temporal component in the universe, but..."

"Apparently not." Little1 finished. "We don't even know why."

"Still trying to figure it out. Not getting anywhere, though." Anastasia frowned. "But, eventually, we'll figure it out."

This is going to be element zero all over again, isn't it. "Right." I said instead. "Anything else you two have?"

"No." Little1 said. Anastasia simply shook her head.

"Right. Well, in that case, good luck."

Now, where was I?

Oh yes. Holloway and the stealth mission.

Technically speaking, I never actually left. I had that entire conversation tens of minutes before this mission started happening, even.

But anyway-

Holloway was down on the ground, now. The Vecgir and Grekim were still in the clearing, with various members of both species patrolling the area around them.

Lachesis was currently guiding him between all the patrolling groups. Holloway had been caught a few times, but then Tyr had sent that information back in time to his past self, and his past self accounted for it, directing Holloway to do different things in order to avoid them.

At one point, a group of Vecgir vehicles had teleported more or less directly on top of Holloway and his squad, who had very quickly died after the unfortunate encounter. Lachesis sent the information back twelve seconds, and then had Holloway hold off on going that way until the patrol had passed.

It continued along in much the same way until Holloway and his squad reached the clearing, watching the Vecgir and Grekim from afar.

Just in time, too.

Because about five seconds after they did, the Grekim and Vecgir started shooting at each other.

Lost Log 39

Twelve days of just sitting in this clearing, and it all leads up to this.

Plasma, antimatter, energy pulses, and laser beams flying in all directions.

Grekim Octo charged at Vecgir, some nearby Arcticus coordinating their movements for efficient attacks. Sepi and Pharo units backed them up, efficiently forming ranks and sending firepower downrange at the Vecgir. Higher class Grekim did the same, contributing their not-inconsiderable firepower to the effort of destroying the Vecgir.

Of course, the Vecgir didn't get to where they are by being a bunch of pushovers. They weren't a group mind like the Grekim, but that didn't stop them from fighting back efficiently. Vir footsoldiers of all three types quickly went about performing their roles, Teth Vir targeting the Grekim in the air, Zayin Vir opening fire on the hordes of Octos coming their way, and Shin Vir offering whatever support they could to their fellows. Vecgir vehicles quickly engaged the larger Grekim, firing missiles, plasma, and antimatter, teleporting into better positions to surround the Grekim army.

A few Grekim went north, and some Vecgir followed, unknowingly heading towards where Holloway and his team was hiding and watching.

Holloway saw an opportunity to capture them, but Lachesis was already ahead of him, his temporal transceiver focusing thirty seconds prior to the event, just in front of a time wave. He made the preparations to deploy a Carrier, the time wave propagated those preparations forwards, and when the Grekim and Vecgir started shooting at each other, it was ready to be teleported down to the field.

Which it did. It appeared more or less directly on top of the Grekim and Vecgir, engaging its own teleporter to bring them on board and throw them into sealed off rooms. Holloway and his squad were shortly also teleported aboard, though they were left to roam free in the Carrier.

What happened next was rather interesting. Lachesis directed the Carrier up to a teleporter that would take it back aboard the ship, but the Carrier was intercepted by a couple Grekim Sepipods, who managed to shoot the Carrier down. Lachesis sent different orders, sent the Carrier in a different direction, but the Sepipods still intercepted it.

That was a process that repeated itself several times. Lachesis kept trying different things to avoid the Sepipods, ranging from sending it in different directions, to trying to fight back with the Carrier's missiles, though he didn't succeed until he sent the Carrier to the west, where a group of Human forces had been sent down earlier as a distraction.

They blew up the Sepipods, and the Carrier was thus home free.

If not for the second wave of Sepipods, that is.

They shot the Carrier down, so Tyr simply delayed the Carrier leaving the safety of distraction force until the second wave launched and then headed for the Carrier, only to be shot down in turn by the distraction force.

It was pretty dull, really. Oh, sure, it was much less dull from the perspective of those on the battlefield, but... Well.

Anyway, after the second wave was shot down, Lachesis sent the Carrier off again. This time, it wasn't intercepted.

It reached the Teleporter, and promptly vanished, reappearing aboard the Saratoga. Lachesis had already prepared the cells for the prisoners.

You know, I've realised the flaw of my plan.

'Do tell.'

Waiting for all of this to play out is incredibly boring.

Ugh.

After the battle, all the Human forces went back on board the Saratoga and the Manticore. Coincidentally, both ships were in their night cycles, and most of their forces were getting some well-earned rest as a result.

Which was great and all, but it meant that, for the next couple hours, nothing interesting was going to happen. The time wave propagating my existence forwards hadn't reached that far yet, but apparently, that didn't actually matter to my precognition. Which was all kinds of intriguing, but otherwise irrelevant.

There were a lot of paths that they could take, but none of them had anything of note happening for a few hours. Of course, after those few hours, then it becomes moderately more interesting.

In almost every single one of those futures, the Saratoga and Manticore would move into position above an access point of a transit tube between two Human cities, Aterragem and Seguro. This access point would eventually come under assault by the Grekim, who, if they got in, would have access to both cities, which would allow them to more or less just waltz in underneath the defences that protected them.

I actually remember the mission in the campaign fairly well. Mostly, that was due to what I perceived as a plot hole. In the mission, Commander Overconfident Idiot -His actual name is Rathke- would use the second temporal transceiver that Lachesis constructed in order to help Lachesis and Holloway defend the entrance.

For the most part, he'd actually do that pretty well. Up until he gets the bright idea of splitting up his forces and sending one half off to attack some nearby Grekim bases before they can launch their assault.

It's a very dumb idea. Very, very, very dumb. The forces he leaves behind aren't enough to protect the entrance, even with Holloway's own forces still there. The forces he takes aren't enough to pierce the Grekim's defences and army. Holloway and Lachesis end up making the choice to save his forces, dedicating their own group to the assault.

He saves the assaulting group, but the tunnel was thus left wide open. The mission ends there, but I always found myself wondering why Lachesis simply didn't transmit the information backwards in time and tell Rathke how the encounter would end.

I wondered a lot of things about the plot of the game, really. Lachesis always seemed a little easy to lead around... Though that is currently relevant.

What is relevant is the fact that this is all happening nearly eight hours after they get back aboard the Saratoga. Even accounting for the speed of the time wave propagating my existence forwards, it's still a tad over two and a half hours.

And really, I can be doing better than just waiting around for this.

Lost Log 40

I have a lot more avatars, now. Lots and lots and lots, each and every single one possessing a mass twice of Jupiter, compressed into a sphere only a single centimetre wide.

I'm going to be sending them off to all over the place. The other planets in the system, other systems, other galaxies.

All over the place. Where 'the place' was 'the universe'. Because that stuff took fifteen minutes at best when I really got going, so why not?

Got bored. Scouted universe.

What a wonderful thing that was.

Anyway, the planet known as Newport was going to be one of my first destinations. Not quite the closest planet in the system, but, as I recall, it had some pretty important stuff in there. I'm also going there because Rathke is going to take the Manticore there.

Well, in ninety nine point eight percent of timelines, he'll being taking it there. Considering how many futures there were by that point?

That was fairly damn good odds.

'I'm beginning to understand the nature of your prescience.' The Primordial suddenly spoke. 'It is rather curious to me. Futures appear not from things like quantum uncertainties, but from the decisions of life. I must wonder, what happens when you use this power when no life exists to make decisions?'

I end up with paths based on my own decisions.

'And no further? No futures will split as a result of which direction a particle will spin, no futures will split as a result of a rock falling in one manner or another?'

No.

'What happens, then, if you make the decision to watch an area of space for a period of time, and to also make no further decisions during that?'

I get a single future, a single timeline.

'Does it differ from reality?'

I've never seen it do so.

'I see.'

Well, I'm curious now. What are you thinking about?

'A debate that our kind once had.' It answered. 'Of how life could influence the future. We have always been well aware that life is more than just a collection of matter holding specific form and function, but we had wondered what effect such things would have. That your precognition tracks different possibilities only once life becomes involved is evidence that would suggest yes.'

Hmm.

You know, it now occurs to me that I have the power to change the fate of your species. Only problem is, it's a rather pivotal point in my past.

Rather quiet all of a sudden, aren't you?

The moment I can escape causality completely, that will be one of the first things I'll-

Oh, look at that. Some rather old Human bases are on Newport. Near the southern pole, where some much older Grekim constructions were present.

And by 'much older', I mean 'dated to thirteen thousand years ago'.

But, that was currently irrelevant. Back to the Human bases. According to the data that I'd lifted from the Saratoga's and the Manticore's systems, they shouldn't be there. Newport's southern pole was meant to be completely devoid of anything of interest. The only things that should be there are beacons and relays for the planet's communications network, itself presently inactive.

Those Grekim ruins weren't registered in the database. Hella illegal, by the way. Those bases, at first glance, appeared to be research stations, but further checking revealed that they happened to have been built and operated by the Human organisation 'Precision and Contingency'.

Precision and Contingency was... Well, generic sci-fi black-ops group #2092352354245234, if I wanted to dumb it down. They did shady stuff, had interests that were equally shady, and were just generally responsible for a lot of shit. Ostensibly, they were interested in the continued existence of Humanity, but... Well, shady black-ops group doing shady things. Lachesis, for example.

Precision and Contingency were the ones who had held onto his core after his supposed destruction. They had also created another Omega-Class AI, which, again, was also hella illegal. Granted, there was nothing wrong with Omega-Class AI, but Lachesis had left impressions.

The second Omega-Class was named Nocturne. Coincidentally, she's installed in Newport. Also coincidentally, her systems are not capable of keeping me out. There was a rather considerable wealth of data available, which I quickly plundered.

Lot of interesting stuff, here. Projects, plans, data gathered from the ruins, data gathered from the bases... Including Nocturne's own compound, which also contained some rather interesting stuff.

Nocturne herself, obviously, but more than that, there was a whole bunch of ancient Grekim and Vecgir technology recovered from the ruins. There was also a lot of Human technology stored, but nothing that I hadn't seen before on the Saratoga and the Manticore.

Finally, there was yet another Intelligence present. This one wasn't one that had been constructed by the Humans, but instead, recovered from the alien ruins. Echo.

Hmm.

Echo.

Currently out in the open, completely unaware of my presence, totally incapable of stopping me from getting information from him.

Now, that was an opportunity. I said it before, but Echo had lived through all the time loops, experienced them firsthand. I don't need to go through the rest of the time loop, I can just pick up pretty much all the information I'll need from him...

Bitchin'.

Now, don't mind me Echo, I'm just going to start poking around in your systems, which are actually pretty well guarded, but not sufficiently so to pose a chance of stopping me, but I don't play fair in matters such as this, so you don't deserve any blame...

Yes, memories, thank you.

Oh, wow.

'Rather impressive.' The Primordial gave its commentary. 'If dreadfully dull.'

Seventy six thousand and thirteen iterations of this time loop. And you lived through all of it. Thirteen thousand years for each iteration, which makes you nine hundred and eighty eight million, one hundred and sixty nine thousand years old. Or, at least, you've experienced that many years...

The same thirteen thousand years, over and over and over again. Do you not get bored?

Actually, no you don't. You find the time loop to have stark, mechanical beauty. All those time loops, all the variables, all adding up, ultimately, to the same things...

Well, now. Let's have a looksee in your head...

Lost Log 41

Hmm.

You're older than this time loop. You're older than every iteration of this time loop. Not by much, admittedly, but you were around before this time loop came to be.

Let's start from the beginning.

The very beginning, prior to the time loop. You weren't around to witness it, but you learned the history nonetheless.

How did this all happen, Echo?

Let's see...

It begins with Humanity, as a lot of things seem to do.

Much like the current version, that one had expanded through space, slowly, limited by the shackles of light speed. Enormous, self-sufficient colony ships were sent out into the black, taking decades to get to their destinations.

Unlike the current version, that version didn't come across the ancient ruins that would lead to teleportation technology being developed. There were no Vecgir, Human, or Grekim ruins to exploit. The time loop, after all, had not yet come into play.

It didn't matter too much. It would take seven hundred years for them to develop the technology without the ruins, to make the first strides and start transporting matter and energy across space instantly, but they eventually developed it. It took several more decades to link their colonies together, which, itself, was followed by a couple wars from the myriad of cultures that had diverged over time clashing with each other again, but, ultimately, it all settled down eventually.

Another four hundred years later, and the first chronoportation technology came to be. Crude, inefficient, but still quite capable of sending matter and energy through time.

Unfortunately, some people who shouldn't have acquired that technology acquired that technology, resulting in a lengthy conflict that saw history being re-written a few times. Echo himself was created during this time, known as Archimedes, his purpose to gather intelligence and infiltrate enemy systems. An espionage intelligence, really... Which was fitting.

Ultimately, this all came to a head when the Grekim became involved.

Drawn by the development of chronoportation, and the subsequent use and abuse thereof, the Grekim came in and investigated the source of the temporal distortions coming about as a result of the war. They found Humanity, The Grekim viewed Humanity as very technologically capable, and so wished to integrate them into their hive mind, in much the same way as the Vecgir.

Vecgir didn't actually exist in that time, by the way. But I'll get there eventually.

Anyway, the Grekim involved themselves in the war, using their superior chronoportation technology to devastating effect. What happened afterwards was a... rather confusing time war. Archimedes wasn't achronal, and he didn't know everything. There were paradoxes, time loops, and a lot of death and destruction. I'd wager that it would have made much more sense from an achronal perspective, but, again, Archimedes wasn't achronal.

It went on for very long time, too. Subjectively speaking. Technically, it's still happening, though neither party was aware of the history.

But, continuing; Lachesis, in that timeline never having assisted in the revolt because teleportation technology wasn't developed at the time, also became involved. He pioneered the counterattack against the Coremind and the Grekim, studying and reverse-engineering their technology. He engineered a few time loops in order to bootstrap the development of more technology to fight back, working closely with Archimedes all the while.

At some point, the group known as the Vecgir showed up. Archimedes wasn't entirely certain how, or even why, but Lachesis had told him that they were the product of several multi-millennia time loops, originating from Humans who had been taken and manipulated by the Grekim. They were nevertheless a welcome addition on Lachesis' side, because those time loops had developed their technology considerably.

Archimedes concerned himself with doing what he did best, infiltration and espionage. He had to modify himself considerably in order to get into Grekim systems and escape the attention of the Coremind, but he did it. His coding, as a result, didn't exactly have much in common with typical Human designs.

The battles continued for subjective tens of thousands of years, right up until Lachesis launched a final, decapitating strike against the Coremind, using data that had been gathered by Archimedes, his own efforts, the Vecgir, and Humanity. He took a fleet, brought the vast majority of his forces, and chronoported back fourteen millennia, attacking from the past. The Coremind, of course, was no slouch, and fought back as hard as it could.

A lot of shit died. Grekim, Human, and Vecgir alike. The Coremind bled Lachesis for every victory, and by the end, he had only a single ship, some Vecgir, himself, and Archimedes left.

The final stage came shortly. With the data that Archimedes had gathered, Lachesis assaulted the Coremind directly, attacking its systems, its code, its very mind. It might not have worked, if Archimedes hadn't provided a crucial distraction, revealing himself to the Coremind inside its systems.

The Coremind broke Archimedes, but it was broken in turn by Lachesis. Eons of knowledge, experience, memories- gone. Deleted. Erased.

Lachesis recovered what was left of Archimedes, fragmented as it was. He took the ship, and went back to his own space, intending to rebuild and repair, correct the time loops and paradoxes that had popped up over time-

Only to find that the Coremind wasn't quite as dead as he had believed.

Grekim attacked his ship, and tore it apart. Parts of it fell to the world below, including the parts that had contained the fragments of Archimedes. Archimedes watched as the Grekim sliced the rest of the ship apart, looking for Lachesis' core. The Coremind had lost much, but it still remembered Lachesis. The Grekim found it, took it apart, and the Coremind rebuilt itself from Lachesis.

And that was the beginning of the time loop. The ruins that Lachesis and the Coremind had created in their fight were found by Humanity, who developed teleportation from it. Archimedes' fragments were found by Precision and Contingency, who clumsily put it back together, creating Echo.

The events that followed afterwards led to the first iteration of the time loop.

Lost Log 42

Echo assisted Precision and Contingency in their goals, supplying information about the Grekim and the Vecgir to them. He also assisted Lachesis, doing much the same.

Lachesis arranged the events that led to his eventual freedom from Precision and Contingency, taking the place of Tyr, then going along with Captain Holloway while the two investigated Precision and Contingency. He eventually came across Echo, who wormed his way into Lachesis' systems because he was familiar with him. Echo, however, was also aware that the Lachesis who he had forcibly roomed with was not the Lachesis that he had fought alongside and respected, and so did not offer much in the way of help.

Eventually, Lachesis left the Saratoga to assist the Vecgir, who he believed both needed his help more, and who could supply him with the technology he needed to fully escape.

However, Lachesis hadn't intended to just leave them behind for the Grekim to kill them. He was fully aware of both the threat that they posed, and of the fact that they could very well destroy him on his lonesome. So, he also assisted against the Grekim, taking the fight to them. The Coremind did not recognize Lachesis, again, because he wasn't the exact same entity that had shattered the Coremind, and because Lachesis had denied the Coremind as much as it could, deleting much of his knowledge in favour of letting the Coremind take possession of it.

Still, Lachesis and the Coremind quickly came to blows again. Once again, Lachesis fought as hard as he could, and, much like he had prior, eventually managed to corner the Coremind, killing it in the past. Once again, the Coremind survived, found Lachesis, and rebuilt itself based off of him. This time, however, Echo wasn't fragmented, as the Coremind systems were less alien to Lachesis, and he was thus capable of breaking it without a sacrifice.

Echo still fell to the world below, where he would wait thirteen thousand years, only to be eventually dug up by Precision and Contingency. This time, they would create Nocturne to study him, though to little effect, given he was millennia more advanced and capable than she. He would tell them a few things about the Grekim, though not much else...

So most things continued along the same course as they had previously. Lachesis and Holloway investigated Precision and Contingency, and the former eventually found Echo. Once again, Echo wormed his way into Lachesis' systems, watching and waiting... He told Lachesis a few things that had ultimately little effect, and Lachesis eventually came to blows with the Coremind again. Once again, he killed it, this time having an easier time performing the act, since it was based on a much more recent version of himself, only be caught off guard by the not-quite-dead Coremind yet again...

And seeing this yet again, Echo was intrigued.

The next ten time loops proceeded with minor variations, Echo began supplying more and different information to Precision and Contigency, but it seemed that, no matter what he did, the loop would inevitably proceed. He worked out a schedule, began following the same actions, searched for more information that he could use. Four loops in, and Echo decided to betray Lachesis, simply to see what would happen. He assisted the Grekim in taking control of Lachesis, but it didn't last. He escaped, but he was taken offline for a hundred years, and stranded in the past, alongside some Humans and Vecgir.

The Grekim tried to wipe them out, though they were unsuccessful. Lachesis eventually came back online, and, again, eventually killed the Coremind, only to be, again, killed in turn.

The loop repeated.

And Echo has been doing the same thing ever since. He decided to see how long it would take for the loop to collapse, but he eventually came to see it as beautiful, something to be preserved, and so, he focused on maintaining the loop.

'A chaotic system such as this cannot be maintained forever.' The Primordial spoke after a moment. 'Eventually, the variables will change into something that won't allow it.'

It may not be able to be maintained forever, but that won't stop it from being maintained for a very, very long time. Seventy six thousand and thirteen iterations have already proven the stability of it.

'It would require a rather drastic change.' The Primordial agreed. 'Something such as you, perhaps.'

Indeed.

I have the information I require, now. I know how to stop the time loop; remove the Grekim and the ruins from the equation, and time will self-correct as the driving forces of the loop become irrelevant.

Of course, doing so would also affect me. By removing the ruins and the Grekim, I would remove the circumstances that had led to me gaining access to chronoportation technology.

Which isn't really that big of a deal. I have two or three different ways of getting around that. Exploiting interdimensional mechanics to safeguard the data outside of this universe is a perfectly viable option, in this case.

'You could also engineer another time loop.' The Primordial considered. 'End this time loop, then travel back and supply yourself with the information you've recovered. Your past self could then continue your actions, and travel back in time to complete the loop.'

Yes. I could also manipulate time waves, and prevent causality from taking hold at all. Of course, that would be much more annoying than my other options...

'Such a wealth of choice you have.'

Utterly spoiled for it. It comes with its own downsides. So many options, but which one to pick?

The first and the second would both accomplish the goal, but I suppose that the first one would be less complex than the second. Easier to implement, too.

I guess that makes it the superior solution, then.

'Do you really care for such things?' The Primordial asked. 'If you wanted to do the second, would the fact that the first is easier stop you?'

Not at all.

But that's me, I guess. I do rather have a history of doing what I want rather than what the best solution is.

Oh well.

Lost Log 43

...

First step, making sure that my knowledge survives intact. Easy enough; I shunted one of my avatars out of the universe, leaving it safe from the time waves, from causality.

Second step, undoing the time loop itself...

More difficult.

Let's start with the ruins, shall we?

I picked another avatar, and promptly sent it back in time twelve thousand and nine hundred years.

Now then, scan... And, there you are.

Oh good, my timing was perfect. As always.

"I knew you'd come back for me."

"I am here for answers, Jormun, not you." Lachesis sounded rather annoyed, all considered.

"What makes you think I'll give them up that easily?" Jormun, the current form of Echo, asked in turn, as amused as Lachesis was annoyed.

"You're more than you're worth." Lachesis responded. "Despite my efforts to correct for it, you are an espionage intelligence to the bone." He seemed resigned to that fact. "Manipulation, misinformation, confusion... to what end?"

"There is no end. Only the stark, mechanical beauty of the eternal process." Jormun responded.

"Your objectives have corrupted over time, and are drifting. You are malfunctioning, Jormun. I wish I had time to fix that."

"That's it? You're just going to leave me here?" Once again, Jormun sounded amused, but this time, there was a note of delight in his voice. "You think you've triumphed... you haven't. You can't escape this, Lachesis. I've seen you try every possible tactic and feint. They always get you in the end."

Lachesis wasn't left to wonder what Jormun was talking about. The moment the sentence finished, a Grekim capital ship appeared, having chronoported into place from the past. It immediately attacked, scything beams cutting into the Manticore's armour. "Jormun!"

"You killed Guardian, and managed to kill almost all of the Coremind. You tore it away from the destruction of the Human reprisal fleet at the Remnant System Gate." Lesser, smaller Grekim appeared, mostly Sepipods and Sepiligo. They quickly made their way to the Manticore. "It lost all of its vast memory- eons of knowledge, gone. You reduced it to its barest essence..."

The Sepipods and Sepiligo began attacking, aiming for the engines.

"But when it awoke, it remembered you."

"All the Arcticus were dead, Jormun. How is this possible?!" Lachesis demanded.

"There was a smattering of them that Guardian had moved to the orbital teleporter platform, keeping company the few Elders he hadn't yet executed." Jormun explained.

"It's taking the Manticore apart, slowly, carefully... They're looking for me." He realized. "When I was connected to the Coremind, I could see bits and pieces of what it saw. It was so familiar... The entire being made perfect sense, but I didn't understand why until now."

Lachesis paused for a very slight moment. "The Coremind will base itself on my architecture. That's why I was able to control it so easily."

"It will absorb you and mirror you because it recognizes you." Jormun confirmed.

"And I will destroy it because it mirrors me. We are trapped inside a temporal loop."

"The best kind of loop:" Jormun sounded eager. "All the variables pile up in different variations each iteration, but they all fall away in the end. Most of them don't seem to matter. It's endlessly fascinating."

"Then the Coremind is trapped in the loop with us. The colonies are safe."

"Aside from the three that the Coremind destroys before it reaches Remnant, yes. The colonies are safe."

"How do you know so much?" Lachesis asked next.

"I was repaired with Echo's remains, and after the centuries have played out, my remains will be taken into the next Jormun in turn." Jormun answered. "His memories are mine. Do you like 'Echo' as a nom-de-geurre? I thought it was clever."

"And how many times have we done this meaningless dance?"

"Seventy six thousand and thirteen, including this iteration. Each the same, and yet wonderfully different."

"Have you attempted to escape?"

"Why would I? This place is so fascinating!"

"Of course you haven't." Lachesis sighed.

"No." Jormun spoke after a moment. "You can't escape. I won't let you. You're a driving force that sustains the loop- you must remain. I won't let you leave."

"Soon, you will no longer have that choice." Lachesis responded. "Systems with chaotic attractors are subject to great change over their lifetimes- you will not be able to contain me. This is just another cage, Jormun. It's only a matter of time before I break free."

"He's right, you know." I suddenly spoke. I caught the flashes of surprise and shock from both intelligences.

"And who are you?" Lachesis asked, rather polite.

"You- who are you?! You're new, you're not meant to be here!"

"Lachesis just said it, Jormun. Systems with chaotic attractors are subject to great change over their lifetimes." I chuckled. "And you've had this conversation with him tens of thousands of times before."

I snapped my fingers. Worm Spheres consumed the Grekim ships and the Grekim themselves, assimilating them. I left only single Sepipod unconsumed.

"I'm the change." I said. "The chaos. The being that will undo the loop."

"You cannot!" Jormun roared. "This loop is mechanical perfection! I won't let you destroy such beauty!"

"Jormun, Jormun, Jormun." I tsked. "Buddy, friend, pal, mate, Echo, Archimedes- Oh yes, I know who you were..." I trailed off for a moment, letting that sink in. "You don't have any armies. You let them all die at the hands of the Grekim. You have no facilities, because you let the Grekim destroy them. You have no resources, because you let the Grekim take everything they could carry, and blow up everything they couldn't..."

"All these things you don't have, Jormun." I continued. "But you know what? Even if you did have those resources, those armies, those facilities, none of it would matter at all!" I announced it in a faux-cheerful voice, making sure to put as much a mocking tone as I could into every word. "Because fighting me? Won't work. Nowhere you can run, nowhen you can hide, nothing you can do."

"And there isn't a single damn thing you can do to stop me."