The Legend of Zelda, its characters and locations are all property of Nintendo. Any and all OCs and original locations belong to me unless specifically stated to belong to someone else.
The Voice
Chapter 38 - You Didn't Say the Magic Word
Deep within the mountains, on the Rito territory border, a creature stumbled its way along the path, which had turned into brown mush from the rain. Its movements were lethargic and awkward, its feet slipping and stumbling in the muddy ground. Its red uniform had long since been turned an earthy brown from the slippery footing, its face obscured by the wet soil.
It continued on its way until it happened across a small cave in the cliffside, which it squeezed itself inside. Chest heaving from the exertion, it sat against the cave wall, closing its eyes, turning its attention inwards...
$ login
Starting shell...
Shell ready, awaiting query
$ cd diagnostics
$ sudo genDiag
Starting general diagnostics...
Date: N/A
Dist: N/A
OS ver: N/A
Charge remaining: 12% (critical)
Available updates: Unable to connect to repository, please check network status, and try again
Physical integrity: Nominal, no repairs necessary
Combat effectiveness: N/A, please check error log for details
Network status: No connection available, please check error log for details
$ sudo netCon
Connecting to Sheikah Tower Network...
Unable to connect, please check error log for details and check physical status of antenna equipment
$ sudo netDiag
Starting network antenna diagnostics...
Diagnostics output: Everything's fine here. If experiencing connectivity issues, try a different port. If still unable to connect, contact network admin for assistance :-)
$ sudo netCon -p 22
Connecting to Sheikah Tower Network...
Unable to connect, please check error log for details and check physical status of antenna equipment
$ sudo netCon -p 23
Connecting to Sheikah Tower Network...
Unable to connect, please check error log for details and check physical status of antenna equipment
$ sudo netCon -p 24
Connecting to Sheikah Tower Network...
Unable to connect, please check error log for details and check physical status of antenna equipment
Some time later...
$ sudo netCon -p 2022
Connecting to Sheikah Tower Network...
Success!
Connection established, initiating handshake protocol...
Network response: Public key accepted, please verify private key for authentication
Verification failed, connection rejected. Server response:
Ah, ah, ah! You didn't say the magic word! Nice try, though, better luck next time. Your ID has been logged and blocked permanently from accessing the network, and the admin has been alerted.
Have a nice day! ^_^
Connection rejected, terminating script
$ ...
$ logout
The creature's eyes opened, shining with rage and renewed hatred for the Sheikah and everything they stood for. How dare they deny its connection?!
No matter.
It did not need a proper connection. It did not need a way of tracking its target. Intuition and deduction were enough.
Vah Medoh had been disconnected, which logically meant Vah Naboris was next. The target would head south-west, to the Gerudo Desert.
All the creature had to do was get there first.
...though it really wanted to kill the Rito first. He had interfered with its hunt, and nearly ruined everything.
The Rito could wait, however. They all could. The target remained its priority. The creature had patience.
First, however, it needed to charge, and it knew exactly where to get it.
Guardian AS-#42 would, if it were capable of higher thought, be embarrassed.
It had been one of the first units activated a hundred years prior, its systems flooded with the malevolent intent of its new master, the prime directive changed to destroying every living creature in sight, and then seeking and destroying what was left.
It had accomplished this task with great prejudice, completely obliterating the small Sheikah research station that had housed it and turning its inhabitants to ash. Somewhat isolated, AS-#42 had then begun to seek new targets throughout the countryside. Unfortunately, its form was not optimised for traversing the swampy area near the research station, and had quickly gotten stuck, its legs sinking deeply into the muck which refused to let go.
And that had been the end of AS-#42's great campaign of destruction. Its prime directive remained active, but the unit had been forced to shut down periodically to conserve energy, only waking up briefly whenever its proximity sensors registered movement nearby.
Like now.
Its eye flared to life, spinning crazily as its head swivelled around with loud creaks—years of exposure to the moist environment had taken its toll on various components, and the internal diagnostics were screaming about the rust that was eating away at the chassis—trying to find the foolish being that had wandered into the swamp, intending to vaporise it with glee, as its programming told it to.
Turning one-hundred-seventy-eight degrees, it quickly spotted the intruder and charged its laser, firing two-point-five seconds later.
The tree the intruder had been in front of was reduced to splinters, but the target itself remained intact, moving faster than something its size and general shape should be able to. AS-#42 attempted to charge its laser once more, but by then it was too late. The target was too close.
The last thing AS-#42 saw was a hand reaching for its optical unit, and then everything went black.
Diagnostics told it that its cranial unit had been ripped open, its internal components exposed.
Finally, all systems shut down abruptly, as the main battery was ripped out of its cradle and disconnected when the cable was severed.
AS-#42's lights died as the backup power sources failed to re-initialise its vital components, and the cooling fan gave a last, sad and defeated whirring sound as the target walked away leisurely, the battery cradled protectively in its arms.
Soon, the animals that were scared away by the sudden violence returned, the natural sounds of the swamp slowly increasing in volume, until all that remained as evidence of AS-#42's brief struggle were the smoking remains of a tree, and the unit's dead, silent chassis, waiting for time and the elements to wear it down to nothing.
$ sudo genDiag
Starting general diagnostics...
Date: N/A
Dist: N/A
OS ver: N/A
Charge remaining: 89%
On the nightstand in Prince Sidon's chambers, the Sheikah slate's screen lit up as several alerts started to figuratively blare in Sheik's head.
Someone had tried to log in to the Sheikah Tower Network, which, as far as he knew, was impossible on account that he was the only unit remaining that was even capable of such a feat. Which meant that not only was the network not as secure as he'd hoped it was, but there was someone else out there who could, potentially, interfere with his and Link's quest.
And that was simply not acceptable!
The first thing he did was to try and access the logs in the administrator section of the network, but, as fate would have, that part of the system was horribly corrupted, the particular unit in charge of those logs buggered to shit.
Sheik briefly took a moment to reassign those duties to a new host, so that he could actually get logs worth a damn from now on...though that wouldn't do him much good until the hostile unit (he would at least assume they were hostile until proven otherwise) tried to log in again.
That didn't mean he couldn't take precautions, however. The first thing he did after breaking into the administrative tools for the network was to deny every other unit than the slate access to the network, meaning he and he alone could use it.
"That ought to do it for now," he muttered to himself.
He would have to do something similar for the Divine Beasts, as well, whenever he was able to reach them next. He should have done it right away, but he hadn't assumed there was anything left that could access the damn things, what with Princess Zelda keeping Ganon occupied.
Woken from his sleep cycle (the closest thing he had to resting other than shutting down completely, which was really more akin to blacking out completely), Sheik found it difficult to wind down again, his processor working rapidly in trying to think of ways to track this intruder, who was apparently clever enough not to broadcast their position or identification tags on any frequency, making any attempts at locating them impossible until they decided to try another connection attempt.
There was probably some way of triangulating a signal, but he'd need to know exactly what sort of output he could expect from this new unit, but he couldn't find anything that matched any of the known signal sources in his libraries, and trying to find a specific anomaly in a kingdom filled with nothing but anomalies was very much like that proverbial needle in a haystack.
A complete pain in the ass, in other words.
"Sh-Sheik?"
Link's voice, rough from sleep, brought him out of his thoughts, and he realised the Hylian was sitting up in the bed, looking at him.
"Yeah?" he asked.
"Are y-you okay?"
"I'm fine, Link. Go back to sleep."
The rest was doing Link a world of good, in Sheik's opinion. The Hero had been exhausted after his ordeal with Vah Medoh, and immediately sending him to the Desert without a chance for respite would have been a terrible idea. Sharky had a way of making Link relax in ways that Sheik had no hope of accomplishing.
Maybe he could have, with hands...or a mouth...
"You s-sound t-troubled," Link said, his eyes narrowing from more than fatigue in the dark.
"I don't—" Sheik began.
"Y-Your fan," Link said. "It's n-noisy."
Sheik cursed inwardly. "So it is," he agreed magnanimously. "I'm working on some problems that's taking a lot of processing power right now. Didn't realise it was drawing that much power. I'm sorry if I woke you."
The Hylian's eyes narrowed even further. "B-Bullshit."
Sheik gasped, keeping his voice down (for once). "For gosh's sake, watch your language. What would Sharky say to such words being uttered in his presence?"
"He would be tremendously annoyed at being kept out of the conversation, is what he would say," Sidon said, his voice reduced to a low growl that registered quite pleasantly in Sheik's auditory sensors. His head was turned towards the two, frowning. "What is it?" he said. It was not a question, it was a demand. Even Sheik found it difficult not to obey.
"Sh-Sheik won't s-say wh-what's w-wrong," Link said immediately.
"You are such a tattletale," Sheik hissed.
"And?" Sidon asked, his attention focusing entirely on Sheik. "Is something wrong, Sheik? If so, why won't you tell us about it?"
"Nothing's wrong per se," Sheik said, chuckle fading when two highly unimpressed gazes landed on him. "Well, I was planning on telling you, but not until I had gathered more information, so I could actually present facts rather than speculation, okay?"
"Then tell us what you have now," Sidon suggested, "and inform us when you discover more detailed or contradictory information. I know we're not nearly as smart as you, Sheik, but I hope you don't consider us entirely unable to process this sort of information." He grinned toothily at the slate. "Or should I be worried about how you look at me?"
"Or m-me?" Link added.
And gods damn it if Sheik didn't it difficult not to spill it when his two...whatever they were, looked at him like that.
"Fine, fine," he all but snarled. "Someone just tried to log into the Sheikah Network but were unable to because they didn't have the proper credentials. I have not been able to find out who or what it was, but I have taken precautions and locked everyone but myself out, just in case. I was trying to find a way to track the intruder when you two, who should be asleep, by the way, decided to harass me. There, happy?"
"Very," Sidon said with another grin. "Thank you for telling us, Sheik. That sounds very serious indeed."
"Not really," Sheik grumbled. "Not yet, at least. Danger's been averted with the lockout, so..."
"B-But someone out th-there still has th-the equipment to..." Link began, trailing off. "Who?"
"As I said, I'm trying to find out, but it's not easy," Sheik said, a little gentler, in the hopes that he wasn't provoking Link's anxiety again. That was the exact opposite of his intentions with this visit. "My best bet is waiting for the idiot to try logging in again and tagging their signal. That should let me track them with the towers. No telling when or even if they'll try again, though, so for the time being there's no point in worrying about it...so go the fuck back to sleep, or I'll tell Dorephan you were both awake at...Din above, three in the morning!"
Sidon's eyes widened. "You wouldn't!" he said.
"Watch me," Sheik countered, his screen dimming. "I never make idle threats, Sharky."
"He r-really doesn't," Link said, having already experienced the lengths to which a petty and vindictive Sheik would go to make a point.
"I'll keep you updated on the situation, don't worry," Sheik promised as the pair of them got comfortable again.
"Please do, Sheik," Sidon said, giving him another one of those incredible smiles that made everything feel all right, just for a moment. "There is no need to carry the burden alone, even if all you can do is vent your frustrations at us."
"Th-That's right," Link intoned, reaching out to touch the slate's screen gently. "T-Talk t-to us, yeah?"
"Sure," Sheik said. "I promise."
He wasn't entirely sure if he was being honest or not.
He watched the pair of them pressing a little closer to each other under the covers, getting comfortable in a gradually entangling heap that was unfairly adorable to watch.
For a moment, all Sheik could do was wish he had a real body, so he could join them.
Then he shook it off and went back to work. He still had a lot of obfuscated code to decrypt, and he was finally starting to make headway...
Why yes, of course the Sheikah based their OS off of UNIX! And their programmers were purposefully being annoying with their error messages!
(Yes, I know the commands aren't exactly accurate to the UNIX command line, but I got bored with making it all up, plus the formatting ended up really weird)