It had only been a couple days after they had began their new lives on Planet RS13-Alpha (They were still trying to come up with a more original name for it than 'New Earth'), and the fifteen of them quickly realized that life might not be any easier than before.
"You would think after millions of years they would be able to make shit that wasn't always broken!" Ogata expressed his frustration for the dozenth time that day as he walked into the living quarters with a huffy Kisaragi trailing behind him.
After finally getting a good nights' sleep the teenagers went forth into the world eager to explore, only to find that there were many things which weren't as they should be.
"So, you didn't have any luck either?" Miura asked, despite knowing the answer already.
Ogata didn't even bother to reply, instead stomping over to his bed and planting himself down on it in a huff. "I don't get it. They send us to live on some alien planet, spending all this time to do so, and then don't even give us anything that works?!"
There was a yawn, and Fuyusaka rose from the bed next to him. "Hmph? What's all the noise for?"
"Just Nenji yelling like an idiot, as always." Kisaragi told the sleepy girl.
Ogata looked over in annoyance. "What was that-"
He was interrupted by the door opening, revealing Juro and Amiguchi. Juro looked around at the room and sighed as well. "Judging by Ogata's current mood, I assume that your groups luck was the same?"
Kisaragi looked down sadly. "Yeah…"
"Then it looks like we are all having problems." A voice said, and everyone looked at the other door to see Gouto and Shinonome standing together. Gouto walked into the building as well, and finally all fifteen of them were sitting around the room again. He pulled out a tablet with a holographic screen and looked down at it.
"Now then, let's review."
"We found some Worker Deimos, or I suppose they're just 'Workers' here." Amiguchi corrected himself. "There was three of them in a compact form, each a bit bigger than a pickup truck. They could be useful for cleaning up the overgrowth and moving supplies, but they were covered in vines and we couldn't figure out how to turn them on."
"There were no obvious panels nearby to turn them on, and we couldn't find a simple on/off switch. We think may be remote controlled, but we're not sure with what." Juro added.
"Is it even safe to use those things? What if they decide to, you know…" Hijiyama trailed off, and everyone looked around awkwardly.
The final battle was still battle was still fresh in everyone's minds, and the imposing monoliths of the Deadly Kaiju littered across the world brought back memories of them stomping around streets and levelling buildings. Twintails, G-Molers, and even Hi-Quads could be seen slumbering on the horizon, having finished their duties of terraforming the planet ages ago. Still, many of them couldn't help glancing over their shoulder's whenever they walked by one of the alarming automatons.
"Don't worry Hijiyama, there's absolutely no chance of them ending up like the that." Okino assured, tapping away at his own tablet. "The Deimos were programs that were created by Universal Control to replicate the Kaiju's from the Deimos video game, by reusing the data from the terraforming mechs. The robot's we see here are perfectly normal machines."
"It is disconcerting that there is no obvious way to control them though. I wonder if we're missing something?" Gouto wondered aloud. "Megumi, Tamao, how was the kitchen?"
"It was a mixed bag." Megumi admitted. "Other than the overgrowth around the building, the building was actually fine. There are plenty of tools inside, and appliances like the stove and oven are still working. But on the term of actual food…"
"There isn't any." Tamao said.
"There is… something, but I would barely call it edible." Megumi corrected.
"Oh please, we've had nothing to eat for a whole day other than fruit we picked off nearby tree's, how bad can it be?" Natsuno complained.
"See for yourself." Tamao countered, reaching into the bag at her feet and producing a clear bottle filled with a substance that could only be described as sludge. It was grey with random flecks of color within it, and was liquid enough to sway when lifted, but thick enough to not be see-through. She held the jug up to Natsuno, who had now broken into a cold sweat.
"Y'know, fruit can be really filling actually, I think I read about in a fitness magazine once-"
"Quit being such a baby, Nat-chan. It can't be that bad." Yuki said, grabbing the jar of dubious substance from Tamao's hand and taking a gulp without hesitation. Moment's later, she threw the container to the floor, and began sputtering. "Guh! What the fuck is this?! Are you sure you didn't get this from the sewage disposal?"
"According to the documents I found recently, it appears that substance is from the recycled sustenance producer." Gouto replied, flipping through the virtual pages on his tablet.
"Yeah, that sounds real appetizing alright." Amiguchi scoffed.
Gouto simply rolled his eyes before "Apparently it's an incredibly advanced piece of device that breaks down excess material using nanomachines and turns them into food. It's supposed to be modifiable with all sorts of flavors and designs, but what you appear to have is its base state."
"You mean it's like the replicators in Star Trek? That's so cool!" Kisaragi exclaimed.
"It'd be a lot cooler if it worked…" Megumi complained quietly.
"Speaking of food, there's a bunch of fields nearby that are clearly meant to be used for farming, but it's completely overgrown with whatever was originally planted there. We'd practically have to tear down an entire forest in order to clear it and make them usable." Natsuno explained as she pat the sputtering Yuki on the back.
"That sounds like the perfect job for those Workers, if we could ever figure out how to get them running." Miura suggested.
"I feel like we're repeating ourselves here. I think it's safe to assume at this point that nothing is working as intended." Hijiyama said sadly.
"I at least think I found the source of most of our problems are." Okino said, showing a graph on his tablet. "This tablet is able to connect to certain facilities in the area. From what I can gather, our power generation is currently at about… 3%."
"3%? Why is it so low?" Miura asked.
"That's what I've been trying to figure out here. I think it has to do with the method of generation. Most of the systems used are things such as solar and wind devices. They all appear to be offline though, likely due to damage, if the greenery encompassing every building in sight is any indication." Okino said.
"I don't get it," Ogata suddenly shouted. "Why is nothing working on this damn planet?!"
"The simple answer is time." Gouto said.
"Time? What exactly do you mean by that?" Juro asked.
"The Interstellar Project was broken down into three phases. First was the dispersal of probes carrying DNA throughout the galaxy to find planets to live on. The second was the terraforming of the planet into something habitable using what we knew as Deimos. And then there was the final phase, which was us. After twenty years of living in the virtual world, the fifteen of us were to go through special training programs for another two years in order to acquire the necessary knowledge to survive in this world."
"That sounds a bit familiar. Isn't that from the video of that granny before we woke up?" Ogata tried to recall.
"Yeah, I remember that. She looked a lot like Granny Tamao. Wait was that the original Tamao?" Natsuno realized.
"Most likely. But as I was saying, we were originally supposed to leave the pods after twenty-two years, which included vital training experience." Gouto finished.
Sekigahara put a hand to his chin. "So you're saying that the problem is that we came out of the simulation to early?"
Gouto sighed deeply. "Yes, and also no."
"What, are we talking in riddles now? What are you on about?" Ogata griped.
"The loops…" Sekigahara muttered in realization.
"The loops." Gouto nodded in affirmation. "While us personally coming out of the pods early resulted in us lacking the expected training, those five or so years are nothing in comparison to the number of times the loops have repeated themselves."
"The loops? There weren't that many of them, were there?" Fuyusaka said innocently.
Gouto glanced down at his tablet once more. "It's impossible for us to currently tell exactly how many of them happened, but it was likely at least a few-"
"Well that's not to bad-"
"-Hundred." He finished, glancing up at Fuyusaka, who looked horrified.
"The way the final phase worked is that if there was some sort of failure, a failsafe would activate and… restart the process of growing the clones." Okino explained, trying not to think to hard of what that really implied.
"Jeez, I haven't eaten anything in ages and still feel like I'm going to lose my lunch." Amiguchi moaned, obviously thinking about it more.
"And each loop likely took about sixteen years, give or take a few months depending how long the other us's held off the Deimos." Shinonome added. "The Deimos attacked Universal Control directly, triggering the failsafe and restarting the process. The fact that we managed to even escape it is a miracle."
"So in short, everything here is falling apart because it's a few thousand years old, and we don't know how to fix any of it since we woke up early?" Juro tried to summarize.
"Damn, even when they're gone those Deimos are still causing us problems." Hijiyama lamented.
The rest of the group simply sat there in silence after that. Juro looked around the group, observing their reactions to the recent revelations. Most appeared too upset and annoyed to focus, but a couple of the more level-headed individuals appeared to already be attempting to think of a solution. Most notably, Okino and Gouto were tapping away at their tablets, flipping through its contents with incredible ferocity.
"Where did you two find those things anyways?" Juro asked them, curiosity getting the best of him.
"Oh, the tablets? I found a bunch sitting in the back room. They seem to be full of all kinds of information but figuring out which parts are for what is harder than it looks. There must be thousands of files on this thing." Okino complained.
"Well maybe I can help you search through it?" Juro offered.
Gouto gave him an unsure look. "Are you sure? The information here is a bit advanced for your level."
Juro just shrugged. "I'll have to figure it out at some point, won't I? Not like I have anything better to do right now. And I'm from the 80's, I at least know what a computer is. I'm not some caveman like Hijiyama."
"Hey…"
"Alright then, knock yourself out." Okino said, reaching into the bag on his bed and pulling out another tablet. He tossed it over to Juro, who began to try and turn it on.
After some fumbling, Juro ran his thumb over the circular button on the bottom, and the screen woke up. Juro prepared himself to begin searching its contents, but something at the top of the screen distracted him.
USER(S): [ JURO IZUMI ], [ JURO IZUMI(2) ]
"Umm, do you guys have your name at the top of the screen?" Juro asked hesitantly.
Gouto nodded, not even looking up from his search. "Yes. Our hypothesis is that it reads our nanomachines when we unlock the device. We believe it also uses them to control the functions on the device, since most of the features are holographic and technically untouchable. Is that all?"
"Well, it says Juro Izumi instead of Kurabe. I suppose it wouldn't be able to know about my name change, but…" Juro stopped himself for a moment, hoping that what he was about to ask wasn't a stupid question. "It has my name listed twice."
Gouto and Okino both stopped their tasks and looked up at him with sudden attention, then each other.
"Our devices only list us once." Gouto said as the two geniuses got up and walked over to Juro, sitting on either side of him.
"Is it a glitch in the device? Or an issue with his nanomachines? He was heavily infected by DD-426…" Okino began theorizing under his breath.
The two of them leaned over the poor teen, who suddenly found his personal space invaded. Juro glanced to the side and could see Megumi giving him an unpleasant look, or was it directed at the men next to him?
A noise suddenly pinged out from the device in his hand, and everyone focused back on it. Motioning for some space, he held the tablet out so that the three of them could all see the screen without crowding. In the center of the screen, there was a notification message with a single line of text within it.
(USER UPDATE: [ JURO IZUMI ] has been renamed to [ JURO KURABE ].)
"You changed your username? How did you do that?" Gouto questioned.
"I didn't-"
There was a second ping, interrupting Juro and returning the attention back to the tablet in his hands. The three could see there was now a second notification under the first.
(USER UPDATE: [ JURO IZUMI(2) ] has been renamed to [ JURO IZUMI ].)
Juro quickly threw the tablet aside and got up. "Y'know what, I think I'll go find something else to work on-"
A hand grabbed his arm, and he was immediately pulled back into his seat by Okino. "Oh no you don't. You're not allowed to leave till we figure out this mystery!" Okino demanded enthusiastically, forcing the tablet back into his unwilling hands.
There weren't any more notifications, but the tablet began to automatically search through files at a speed to fast for human eyes. It stopped its mysterious exploration after a few moments, and the screen was replaced with something new.
"What is this?" Juro muttered.
"This appears to be the app for communicating between devices. Okino and I used it before." Gouto realized. "But what is it communicating with?"
Static began to emit from the device, constantly warping and changing pitch, like a radio changing frequencies. A voice could be heard through the noise, unrecognizable at first, but as it slowly came into focus others in the room began to huddle around Juro in suspense.
Then, silence…
"It's good to see you again, Juro. Though I didn't imagine we'd be meeting again so soon."
Juro nearly threw the tablet out of his hand in surprise. He clearly recognized that voice.
"Shiba-kun?!"
"Yep. Gotta say, this isn't exactly the most comfortable way of talking, but I suppose it's better than nothing."
"Wait, who the heck is Shiba?" Kisaragi asked.
"426." Sekigahara said darkly. "What is he doing here?"
"We found him in Juro's nanomachines in the simulation. He's the one who allowed us to access the meta-system. I assumed that he would be left behind like everyone else, but if he was in Juro's nanomachines then I suppose he left with the rest of us." Okino explained.
"Got it in one. Unfortunately, not living in a virtual world makes it a bit harder to project myself into your heads. I had to wait until a certain someone used his nanomachines and gave me access to something manageable."
Iori looked at the tablet worryingly, leaning over and whispering to Sekigahara. "Isn't this guy a criminal or something? Aren't we in danger?"
"You know I can here you, right?" A new voice spoke. Instead of the goofiness of an aloof teenager, this one gave of the impression of a snarky man. "Did you all not just hear about how I helped save humanity? I just want to help you all. Honest."
Megumi sighed deeply. "Fluffy, it's good to see you again, but maybe dial it in a little."
"Oh fine. Seriously though, have you been getting enough sleep? It sounds like you all need a good cat nap." The voice suggested.
"I take it you have a goal beyond just talking our ears off?" Yuki spat out.
"Of course. I'm here to save you all from your hopeless situation, just like before. It's so glad to see nothing has changed, by the way."
"And how exactly are you going to 'save' us?" Gouto asked seriously.
"By doing all the work." Another new voice said. The voice was more mature than the previous two, but there was a tiredness to it. "I don't like to think about it too much, but as an AI I can go through information at a rate that makes Okino look like Ogata."
"Hey!"
"I also have access to plenty of files from 2188, including many documents on the operation of the colony. I should be able to find the best way to get everything running soon." The voice finished with a heavy sigh.
"So, you can just fix everything by yourself?" Hijiyama asked in amazement.
"Ha ha, no." The voice switched back to Shiba's. "In case you haven't noticed, I'm a bit lacking in the body department. I can come up with the best way to fix everything, but actually doing so is going to be on all of you."
"That's still incredible. You can help us out so much!" Hijiyama praised.
"But should we let you?" Gouto asked. Juro and Megumi were about to protest, but Gouto put up a hand and continued. "Kurabe and Yakushiji seem to be willing to vouch for you, and I'll admit that you helped us greatly in the final battle. But I know who you were before then, and what you did to the pilots in the previous loop. While I understand you wanted to end the loops, how can we be certain you won't take such drastic action again."
"…" The voice on the tablet was silent after the accusation, and when it finally spoke up, it spoke in the worn-down voice of Juro Izumi. "Back then I only cared about one thing. I thought that was saving the world, but really it was saving Morimura. In the end though, I ended up dooming the both of us. I realized that I didn't care about the future for you all. I was stuck thinking about the life I could have had with her in the past."
"It took a while to realize my mistake, but when I saw how Ida ended up, obsessed over Kisaragi like I did for Morimura, I knew that I was wrong. I needed to let go and help you all live the life we couldn't. I don't know if I can make up for all the lies and mistakes I've committed in the past, but I hope you'll at least let me try."
It had been a week since the fifteen of them all awoke, and things were already changing drastically. They had gained a new ally who, despite an initial feeling of suspicion towards him, had managed to fit in quite nicely.
"Hey, watch where you're going! Have you never heard of pedestrians having the right of way?!" Ogata yelled up at the Worker drone carrying a bundle of shrubbery on it's back.
"Apologies. With that hair of yours the machine must have mistaken you for one of the bushes." It snarked back.
"The fuck did you say about my hair, you oversized tin can?!"
Or as well as he could, Gouto thought as he observed the days work. They had begun to clear of the overgrowth from the nearby facilities, and with the directions from Izumi, started to fix them. It was a difficult and slow process since subjects like circuitry and power generation weren't exactly skills teenagers like them had much experience with. Luckily, Izumi had managed to pull the materials to be used during the two years of training from the main facility. While they wouldn't be able to use the virtual world for practice and must learn as they went, it was nice to finally have direction.
Each of them had taken their own field of expertise to focus on. Shinonome had taken interest in the genetic research of her 2188 self, and had begun to analyze and catalogue the surrounding flora and fauna to compare it with the original samples from earth. Fuyusaka and Tamao had started putting the medical wing back together, for when one of the men 'inevitably injured themselves doing something stupid', as the two had put it. Speaking of men, most of them were focused on getting the farming set up, clearing out the fields that have been overrun with surrounding vegetation.
Okino had eventually managed to patch up one of the Workers however, and its original use of moving construction materials translated well to cleaning up the many trees and other greenery that had grown in the way. With a little direct help from Izumi, the drone was able to use its low output laser and multiple limbs to do the work of a dozen of them in a quarter of the time. At this rate, it would be less than a week before the fields would be in usable condition.
There was a ring from the tablet in Gouto's hands, and with a tap of the screen he answered the call, already knowing who was calling him.
"Having fun watching from up high?" The flippant voice of Shiba emerged from the speaker.
"It's called management. How are the other groups doing?" Gouto inquired, the barb rolling off him.
"Okino's just about got the other two workers running. Megumi and Kisaragi are done going over the basic's and should start looking at the kitchen area tomorrow. Fuyusaka and Tamao have got the medical facility running at 10% now, and it should start producing supplies automatically once more power is directed to it."
"But we need that power to operate the Workers as well. It seems to be our main bottleneck at our current moment. Have Okino help you analyze the power systems and find the quickest ones to repair. They should be your next highest priority." Gouto ordered.
"Aye, aye, captain. I must say, your fitting into this role quite nicely. Are you naturally this much of a slave-driver, or did you learn this from Ida?" Fluffy now spoke, in a mocking voice.
"This experience was mostly from video games, actually. Before being recruited to fight the Deimos, I was quite the expert at city-sims and RTS games." Gouto admitted, the smallest hint of embarrassment slipping into his voice, near unnoticeable to anyone not familiar with the stoic teenager. "Luckily for me, those skills translated well to both fighting the Deimos and repairing this colony."
"Oh god, I always knew you were a closet nerd." Fluffy said in mock horror, before sighing deeply in the voice of Juro Izumi. "But in all seriousness, it looks like things are going well."
"Yes. It will be a while before things can reach a level of normality and stability, but I at least think we can reach there now." Gouto agreed.
"Once you do reach there, might I suggest something?" Izumi asked.
"What exactly would that be?" Gouto inquired.
"I was looking at the data of the mainframe when I grabbed the training information. I ended up finding a backup of the sectors, made right when we left that world." Izumi revealed. "With how run down the facility meant to host the sectors is now, it'll probably take years to fix it up into working condition again. But…"
"Hmm, that sounds like quite a bit of work." Gouto mused, before smiling slyly. "Luckily for you, a certain someone's diligent work will free my up my schedule much sooner than planned. I will have to fill that time with something, I suppose. Besides, the two of us both have people we want to see again, don't we?"
"Yeah, more than anything in the world…" Izumi said, hope in his voice for the first time in years.