"You know, I think it's a matter of combining random, generic events with important, unique ones," mused Edward. He and Bella were talking about some details of how was Emmett going to implement Jasper's ideas using the means created by the two of them.
"How exactly do you see that?" she asked, not taking her eyes from a window through which she saw Carlisle giving a lecture.
"Imagine that you're playing a soldier in a war simulation using our engine. There are DEVS sub-automatons which simulate high-level story elements, like the beginning of the war, decisions of generals and politicians, and so on. Then there are low-level parts which simulate the ordinary substance of the gameplay - enemy encounters, warfare, and such. Now, let's say that certain classes of these parts can send output signals which can be accepted by the high-level ones."
"Like an ordinary enemy encounter serving as a trigger for starting the war?"
"Yes. A lighting of a fuse, in the real world language. Of course, such a signal will be sent over and over again for the rest of the game but it will be discarded."
"Or it can be accepted by an automaton created for the sole purpose of handling these stray signals."
"Yeah, it all depends on Emmett."
"There's something that bugs me though," remarked Bella.
"What?"
"This sounds way too much like what happens in ordinary games. You know, you do something and the story continues."
"Again, it will hinge a lot on Emmett but I believe the system will make it possible to give it an entirely different feel and make it more realistic. Think about Stanislav Petrov and the 1983 incident. That day, the survival of our entire civilization rested on his shoulders. Any kind of outcome was possible. And he was just an ordinary man, not a mighty dragon sent by his mother to actually guard an entire planet."
"I guess you've got a point."
The class ended then.
"He's on move," reported Bella.
"Let's get rolling!" declared Edward.
The dragon is doing something he really shouldn't. He himself knows that and displays this knowledge occasionally by stopping and shaking his head or making a remark in his head. It has to be admitted, what he's doing is quite pathetic but what does it matter when no one sees him?
Not being seen is no longer as simple as it used to be. Standing upright, he's taller than any man already (though not yet twice as tall as most men). That makes it difficult to hide, at least when not in convenient terrains such as deep forests.
Alas, he has learned a few tricks to balance that out. For instance, he can change color of his scales and thus create a rudimentary camouflage. It's not something biological, it's more supernatural in the way it works.
Another useful skill is passive usage of his extrasensory sense. Before, he had to actively extend his aura if he wanted to use it. In other words, when he wanted to keep his presence hidden, he had to rely on his sight, hearing, and sense of smell. Now, he's able to passively sense vicinity of a sentient being.
And when it comes to spying - his current shameful activity, the best way to do it is not to do it in person. He's able to ensnare a small bird or a rodent in his mental aura and send it out to act as his eyes.
At the moment, he's using a little brown bird to spy on two young villagers from a village which the dragon has been observing for some time now. A while ago, they sneaked out into a forest, just like the dragon had seen them do several times before.
While his reasons for observing the village are the same as ever (learning more about human behavior), he has no in-universe reason to spy on this young man and his gal. Although, it's probably premature to call her "his". The dragon is quite sure that neither of them has got a permission to court the other and that they would both get a proper beating from their parents if they were seen.
He has to admit, relationships between people are more complex in this land. It's most certainly a long way from the customs of the first people he observed back on that island. And yet, their goals and desires seem to be same and any differences stem mostly from different circumstances and rules.
After some time of observing the two and listening to their conversation, the dragon's patience is rewarded. They step closer to each other and... they hold hands! The mission is accomplished and as they turn to return to the village, the dragon is about to release the bird. But before he does that, he spots something moving among trees.
His first thought is that it could be other villagers but he doesn't recollect any of them leaving in that direction. A moment later, he gets a better look and confirms that it's indeed a group of people. However, they aren't villagers, they look more like bandits. The dragon makes the bird fly to investigate.
There are three of them. One of them wears a crude leather armor and another one equally crude padded one. They are unwashed and rugged. All three of them carry primitive weapons like wooden clubs and spears. It seems like a strange coincidence but the couple was sneaking out of the village every other day so such a situation was bound to occur sooner or later.
The strangers spot the villagers and their leader gestures to one of the others to go around them. The young sweethearts do not see them yet so the dragon decides to intervene. The bird flies back to them and attempts to warn them by chirping. It doesn't sound very alarming, the gal even beams a smile at him. So he moves between them and the two approaching intruders. That's when they notice the danger and start running.
The two bandits start after them. The dragon makes the bird to fly straight at the leader. It causes only a momentary delay. Moreover, its survival instinct kicks in and the dragon looses connection with it.
There seems to be only two viable options. One is to forget the matter and leave the area before he gets seen. That is actually the most logical course of action. He owes nothing to those two villagers and he knows from personal experience that getting involved in anything complicates matters. In other words, there's no reason not to leave quietly and let the events unfold on their own.
At the same time, if the dragon did only things which were logical, he would be still hiding in that salt mine near the site of his hatching. So his other option is to be unwise and save those two villagers and possibly find out what is going on. Hopefully without being seen.
It would be an understatement to say that this course of action is ill-advised. Moreover, there's very little reason to take it. After all, he didn't help the villagers back on the island when slavers attacked. And yet, there's a certain difference (besides the dragon being grown up now). The society on the island was at the end of its development - it wasn't going any further and he was never going to see anything new there. On the other hand, the few budding settlements in the area are at the very beginning of their journey and there's no telling where the region may go. Perhaps it could be a worthy investment to make sure that this journey doesn't halt prematurely. The dragon is also intrigued by the cozy village on a subjective level.
There's actually a third option but it isn't very viable. He could try to influence the couple and guide them to safety. Alas, there's a few problems with that. It's probable that the subjects would be disoriented and confused by the sudden contact. Moreover, there are two of them while he can influence only one target, not to mention that he has never practiced such a thing on humans. The closest he has ever got to guiding anybody was when he was still in his egg. And lastly, he doubts that they would be able to save themselves even with his guidance.
This gives him an idea. He could theoretically use the mental contact to distract the attackers which should make it easier to dispose of them. He just has to make sure not to let them escape. He doesn't want anyone touched by him to roam around, especially not some random bandits.
There's no time to loose so the dragon emerges from his hideout. He's too big to unfold his wings in this forest so he runs. His scales are colored to match the colors of the forest but since he's on move, it doesn't do him any more good than good masking clothing and face paint would do to a human. Still, he manages to get behind the two pursuers without getting noticed.
Killing the one on the flank is easy. The one in front hears the noise and turns around. He's momentarily stricken by fear and awe. The dragon hits him by his aura so the man doesn't even try to run when the dragon charges at him.
The boy from the village hears the sound of the dragon stomping through the forest and looks around. The dragon drops to the ground quickly but the boy still sees enough to be distracted and stops. The girl notices this and looks around as well. The dragon senses the third bandit's position and helplessly observes as he cuts off the escape of the two youths.
"I've got them!" he calls at his comrades, not knowing that they are dead. He makes sure not to shout too loudly.
The villagers turn back towards him and the girl screams. The boy grabs her hand. With the bandit between them and the supposed safety of the village and with something unknown in the opposite direction, the boy decides to run away in a perpendicular direction and pulls the girl after him. The bandit is expecting that and before they gain speed, he whacks the girl over her leg. She falls down, almost pulling the boy with her. He turns around and prepares to fight the bandit, looking around for an improvised weapon.
"What's it going to be?" sneers the bandit. "Are you going to run and leave your gal here?"
The boy responds by picking up a stone. It's to big to be thrown or wielded in a fist and too small to be used for ramming but it's the only weapon around. Suddenly, his eyes flicks to a spot behind the bandit's right shoulder. The man notices it but he thinks that it's his pals. Then he hears footsteps which sound too big and heavy to be human. He glances back quickly and just like the other bandit, he's stupefied.
The boy uses this opportunity. Suddenly, the stone he's holding is more convenient than anything else. He brings it down on the back of the bandit's head.
It seems like he needn't have exposed himself such. All he had to do was to paralyze the bandit and the lad would do the rest. He retreats quickly but the girl still gets an eyeful of him. At least neither of them have seen him change colors, that would creep them out for sure.
In the meantime, the boy hits the bandit again. He drops the stone and stands up. The girl hugs him tightly. Observing from distance and carefully camouflaged, the dragon feels great satisfaction. This is even better than watching them hold hands.
The villagers look around but the dragon seems to be gone. The boy grabs the bandit's club and they resume their run back to the village. The dragon follows them through his passive sensing.
There's no need to finish the bandit, he's dead. Keeping an "eye" on the couple, he starts a perimeter run around the village. True enough, he finds two more scouts. He kills one of them and probes the other before disposing of him as well. There's a whole raiding party headed for the village. Which was also the last destination of the young couple before he lost contact.
Once again, the dragon has a choice to make. This time around, there's even less time to think about it. If he does nothing, than his previous investment will be rendered void. Moreover, those two can be captured and interrogated about the killed bandits. What if they spill the beans? It seems like he ought to take the chance and do something about the impending attack.
Decision made, the dragon makes his way to the side of the village from which the main attack is coming. There's no forest on that side. On one hand, that means that he can take flight and attack from the air. On the other hand, it means no cover for him. No kind of coloring will help him either.
When he reaches the position, he sees that the bandits are about to mount the attack already. That's no coincidence. He calculates that even if he had optimized all the previous events to best speed, he wouldn't have arrived much sooner. On the other hand, if he had tarried, he could have arrived too late to help.
The villagers themselves aren't idle either and they are marshaling whatever meager defenses they can. Either they have noticed the attackers by themselves or those two young villagers have warned them. It doesn't look like they have much chances of repelling the attack.
Well, there's only one course of action and no time to think about it. (If only he had an ability to go back in time and scout the area around the village instead of spying on the two youths!) Waiting would only complicate the situation, it's best to attack before the two sides clash. The dragon leaps from his cover among the trees and spreads his mighty wings. His gravity defying ability makes his take-off almost effortless.
The bandits are on move so he lets out a loud roar. In this particular situation, it serves as reliably as using a mental paralysis - both sides stop in their tracks and stare at the dragon with their mouths wide open. In a corner of his eye, the dragon can see only two people moving - the young couple he has saved earlier.
He gets in the range of the bandit ranks in about two seconds and unleashes his main aerial weapon - his breath. It's something he has been experimenting with recently. It isn't terribly powerful yet but a single attack run is all it takes to break the charge. The dragon disappears quickly in a forest on the opposite side but everyone has seen him already.
The villagers are as flabbergasted as the surviving bandits are panicked. The only exception are the dragon's young acquaintances from the forest. They run to the bandits while bellowing at the other villagers to join them. For a moment, the dragon fears that they will be left alone in their counter-attack but then two men follow after them. The dragon believes that they are their fathers which explains why they shout at them to return back. Other villagers join in afterwards. The dragon has an amusing thought that the young couple won't have a problem to get their parents' blessing to get married after such heroism.
There's no need for the dragon to attack again. Most bandits are on the run anyway. The villagers seem to have everything well in hand so he hunts down the escaping bandits. He doesn't want any of them to get out of there alive.
When all the bandits are dead, he returns to his hideout and ensnares another bird. He spends the rest of the day watching the villagers deal with the aftermath of the attack. The two young ones tell the others about their encounter with the dragon. The elders listen contemplatively, saying little. The general consensus is that the strange creature saved them all. Its motives are another question though.
Corpses of dead bandits are being found throughout the day. The villagers want them all burned so they won't attract wolves and other beasts. The dragon pities those who will be on that detail next day. The bodies are strewn over quite a large area and they won't smell nice. It also means that he can't stay near.
When night falls, he leaves his hideout and moves to a secondary one farther away from the village, just at the edge of his ability to control small animals. Next morning, he sends another bird to keep tabs on the events.
People keep pestering the young couple for details about the dragon, as if they all didn't get a good look at him during his attack. More and more corpses are being found and people are awed by the dragon's thoroughness and unforgivingness. Village elders claim that it was a punishment for attacking their village. The dragon's young friends shyly remark that maybe he simply didn't want to leave any witnesses (other than the village itself).
There's nothing more to be done - his continued presence would only complicate things. The dragon travels north, hoping that the fallout will be minimal. As he leaves, the already familiar voice narrates:
"He realized perfectly well what a blunder he had made. And yet, he couldn't bring himself to regret saving my grandparents and all the other villagers. In later times, he admitted that an incident like such was simply waiting to happen. Does that mean that the string of unforeseen events which followed was inevitable?"
The screen goes black for a moment and the narrator adds:
"The first consequences came sooner than he had expected."
The dragon is in a middle of nowhere. Far, far away from a nearest sentient soul. It's night. It's quite cold this far north so he has made a small campfire and is coiled around it. Mostly for the sake of comfort, as even most biting of frosts would merely make him sleepy. He's most likely going to have some soot marks on the scales on his belly but that's irrelevant.
Something catches his eye. A shooting star. A semi-bright streak across the night sky.
Semi-bright? That's not the only curious thing about it. It's trajectory doesn't match that of a falling rock. It dims as it slows down and disappears completely eventually.
Now the dragon is intrigued. He steps on the fire and observes the sky intently. Yes, there's a shape soaring across it. He can't see it but it blocks the stars. It's headed straight for him.
Before he can react, it impacts next to him. The shock-wave throws the dragon away. Before the dust clears away, he's grabbed by his throat like a goose and for the first time ever, he comes face to face with one of his own kind.
One of his own kind. Perhaps that's an exaggeration. The two of them are as alike as humans and goblins. The creature examining him seems alien to him. General shape and features are similar to his own (though the other dragon is much, much bigger). However, that's where the similarities seem to end. The other dragon's scales and hide are utterly black. He absorbs all light, not even a speck of shine can be seen on him. No ears can be seen at first glance and the eyes are covered by hide. Some details on his body seem like they are supposed to fulfill some special function, presumably in space, but it's unclear what that might be.
In next moment, the smaller dragon gets a taste of what is it like for humans to be subjected to his mental aura - the big dragon makes contact with him. The smaller dragon doesn't know if those other dragons have some kind of a language but it's obvious that he can't know it so it wouldn't make any sense for the other dragon to try to speak in it to him. Images and ideas assault his mind.
The reason for the visit is simple - the dragon was seen. To be precise, he was seen in public. Revealing one's existence to somebody you're going to kill anyway is acceptable, so is making contact with a trustworthy follower. However, putting oneself in broad display in front of an entire village is unacceptable. Moreover, the exposure was connected with a severe disruption of natural order of events. The raid would have severe consequences for the village but any survivors would have been the stronger for it. The smaller dragon tries to explain but the big one doesn't care. It doesn't matter who and why has seen him - he's there because he has been seen at all.
The small dragon would like to have so many questions. Where has the black dragon come from? Are there others of their kind? How many? Is his mother somewhere out there as well? Why was his egg sent to this world? Alas, the other dragon is all business and gives him no opportunity to project those questions.
The black dragon's visit has one purpose only - to advise him how to mitigate the situation. Luckily, the population of the planet is still in early stages of its development so the effects of the incident will be hopefully diluted by passage of time. Still, the situation needs to be approached with care. The first step should be a long-term retreat from events of this world - a hibernation. The dragon has gone to long sleeps before but never for longer than several years. The black dragon has something far longer in mind - a whole century of oblivion. When he wakes up, all people who are alive today will be dead.
His hibernation will be followed by a careful and tentative examination of the consequences of his rash actions. If any action is needed, it will need to be taken either without being seen or indirectly. The former is complicated by his increasing size. He may decide to perfect his chameleon trick but any progress will be offset by his growth. Anybody will be able to see such a large thing, even when it's masked.
Alas, there's another way working on an entirely different principle. It doesn't have this problem and even provides far better concealment - an absolute one. Moreover, it works perfectly while moving, no matter how quickly. The problem is, it's no parlor trick - it's a proper piece of sophisticated magic.
Magic - the young dragon has never seen or heard about such a thing. Sure, he has displayed certain supernatural talents and encountered (albeit only indirectly so far) some unnatural creatures but this is something different. For dragons (or for any serious magic practitioners), magic is a science. Perhaps the highest form of science of them all, because magic influences the very fundaments of reality. A technology can be developed to exploit a particular scientific principle to mimic a specific magical effect and perhaps even mimic it with far more power than any dragon could generate or channel but magical spells are composed of the very underlying key elements forming those scientific principles.
Because of this, magic can't be used instinctively like some other talents a dragon may develop. Besides having magical power, one also needs to know what he's doing. That includes both theory of magic and patterns forming concrete spells. Such things can be either discovered (which is time-consuming) or simply learned from someone or something.
Seeing that the young dragon has no knowledge of magic, the black dragon relays to him basics of a theory of magic and instructions for casting an invisibility spell. He can't instill the actual knowledge in him, it's more like giving him a book. The young dragon is going to need time to process the received information and then more time to practice his first spell.
He can understand already how the spell works though. It's so fail-proof because it's not an illusion - it's a protective ward. The user is separated from the rest of the world and is utterly undetectable by visual means. The price for this is that he can't influence the world around him directly. If he does that, the spell is broken and he becomes visible. For all intents and purposes, he's reduced to an observer. What a perfect alignment with what a proper dragon should be.
The black dragon sees that the young one is overwhelmed but there is one last point of business to be covered before he departs. They finalize the plan for what the young dragon should do once he wakes up. Once they are done, the black dragon requests a promise that he will do as they agreed. There's more than enough latitude in this promise and it seems almost pointless. The young dragon argues that he has no intention of betraying their agreement but the big one is adamant. It feels almost like a "slap over his wrist". He gives the promise and it feels very binding. The young dragon feels that he wouldn't be able to break it even if he tried.
His task concluded, the big dragon severs their connection and makes himself invisible. He hardly needs it thanks to his color and darkness of the night but perhaps he wanted to demonstrate. The smaller dragon can hear him flying north. His head still reeling from the ordeal, he has no strength to call after him and ask him more questions but he idly wonders whether he intends to fly all the way to the north magnetic pole and use the planet's magnetic field to make his ascend back to space easier. Shouldn't he rather do that at the equator?
He feels tired and he has something like a headache. The information he has received needs time to settle before he can learn how to cast spells. He sets off in search for a suitable lair for his hibernation. In preparation for that, he gorges himself on game and drinks enough water.
He hides in a deep cavern system and barricades himself in. Placing magical alarms would be better but he doesn't know any yet. He falls asleep deeper than ever before and his mind wanders across his dream-scape as he processes the theory of magic.
As years pass outside, the narrator's voice returns:
"What happened to him was almost cruel. For the first time, he was presented with an irrefutable proof that there are others of his kind and that they most probably form some kind of an interstellar civilization - not that I know what that means. And then it was all swept away and his questions remained unanswered. Such a thing would surely crush me but my scaly friend is of sterner stuff."
An assassination drone followed professor Cullen. This time around, the mission was more complicated. The operators didn't just need to assassinate Carlisle, they also needed to gather information. Hopefully before the higher ups learned about the malfunction of the first drone. Luckily, the drones had been designed to destroy themselves so no traces were left. Hopefully.
Carlisle turned into a restroom suddenly. The drone waited outside. After a while, the operators sent a command for it to go in.
The drone entered. Just like in movies, it walked through the room, no one in sight. There were stalls on one side, sinks and urinals on the other. The drone continued onward while the operators switched to audio-location. There were no people to be seen so they searched for a heartbeat instead.
And a heartbeat they did find. In the last stall. The drone continued in that direction.
Suddenly, Edward (no heartbeat) threw paint in the drone's eyes. Before the operators had any chance to register that the vision was blocked, Bella was behind the drone. A quick insertion of the USB flash drive and the drone froze.
"What a hell?" exclaimed an operator when their feed went dark and the error reporting dialog box appeared. He clicked on "Cancel" a few times and the blue screen of death appeared.
"Are you kidding me?" yelled the operator and swept the screen of the table. "Damn this operating system!"
"Dude, we are making this system," reminded him the other operator.
"I know! That's what's makes it so infuriating."
Back in the restroom, Edward and Bella took the drone's head off. Carlisle emerged from a stall.
"Be careful!" he cautioned.
Very carefully, Edward and Bella cracked the head open and extracted the CPU. The body started to burn inside out, just like before. The smoke was unpleasant to Edward and Bella and suffocating to Carlisle. They ran out quickly and hid in a ladies' room next door.
"Do you have it?" asked Carlisle.
Edward showed him the implant.
"Is that ARM?"
Edward nodded.
"Huh. Cyborg assassins with laptop chips in their heads controlled by the faultiest OS on the planet," observed Carlisle. "Now I've seen everything."
"Let's go collect Esme before they send another one," urged them Bella.
Later on, when all four of them drove in a car back to their basement, they rehashed the question of predetermination in supposedly open games. They came to a conclusion that if something is waiting for you from the beginning, like the space dragon waiting for the newbie to make a mistake, that it's more or less kosher.
They had two issues with implementing anything that follows such an event, even when the event isn't a watershed one. One was the simple fact that the top-level DEVS automatons controlling basically everything from that point till the end needed to be statically pre-programmed. So, even though the game was going to be organic and unprecedentedly open in details, its overall structure was still given. It wasn't going to be visible on first play-through but they were sure that most players were going to load from a save before the visit of the space dragon after finishing the game and simply avoid the incident which prompted it. They had no alternative prepared. Jasper's story needed the player to make that critical blunder. If one kept avoiding it by exploiting the save system, than one could keep wandering the still primitive planet in real-time for the rest of one's natural life.
The other issue was purely cosmetic. The dragon can make his blunder in any place he wants and this can change the first narrator's race. However, his voice actor was going to remain the same regardless and he was going to say the same things most of the time in exactly the same way. Fortunately, this wasn't such a tragedy.