“Just can’t catch a fucking break,” a man sighed, looking at the sky. His sentiments were shared by almost everyone on Earth; Minister Rogers’ staff had released news of the incoming celestial catastrophe mere minutes before.The current populace of Earth, both imperial citizens and noncitizens alike, were becoming numb to world-ending situations. The emergency broadcast notification sound had been heard so often that most people considered it no more important than the beeping of an alarm clock that woke them for work in the morning.That was partly due to the frequency with which it sounded, but the greater reason for peoples’ eerie calm was that the empire would either have long been prepared for the emergencies, or there would be time for them to prepare a solution. Thus, they took the announcements in stride, confident that the empire would solve all of their problems before they became problems at all.......As everything urgent had been dealt with, Aron had returned to his lab
Aron had advantages that made all of the problems the early pioneers of runic computing encountered complete nonissues. He was the perfect, or perhaps worst, person to have ever gotten their hands on that technology; it only depended on whether you were friends or foes in his eyes.For the mana requirements, he had an adapter that would convert electricity into mana, even if the ratio was steep. For material needs, he had atomic printers. And for the issues the original creators had run into regarding mass production of runic computers, he’d upgraded his atomic printers with the capability of printing runic constructs. All he would have to do is gather up the pre-printed materials and channel his mana into them for a while.And even that would cease to be a problem as soon as he worked out a way of automating the process of imprinting intent into runic constructs that were created by his atomic printers.Aron laughed out loud after he finished explaining his plans. He was quite excite
Aron watched as the atomic printer in his lab whirred to life, printing the base materials he would require to build his runic computer. Block after block of pure minerals slid onto a waiting tray, beneath which he had already carved a mana condensing runic construct linked to a fusion reactor the size of a golden retriever.“Nova, increase the time dilation around the condenser as high as it can go,” he ordered.Nova nodded and waved her hand; the condenser construct was immediately increased to a time dilation factor of 1100:1. In reality, they could do the same thing by increasing the size and output of the runic construct and fusion reactor, but that wouldn’t fit in Aron’s personal lab, virtual or not.“While that’s working, let’s see what the system has for programming languages that’re compatible with runic and biological computers,” he muttered to himself, bringing up his system shop window and giving Nova access to his senses with a blink.“Hmm... you,” he began, “and... you.”
Aron, still giddy with excitement, ran to his seat at lightning speed. He couldn't wait any longer to test the computer and see if it met the standards outlined in the knowledge he had purchased from the system. He plugged it in and powered it on, allowing the computer to draw electricity from the wall through its power brick, which converted it to mana to power the components, thus completing the bootup processes.The operating system he had written into it came to life, lighting up the screen with the GAIA Technologies logo, something he was careful to never leave out of his innovations.“Let’s see how it holds up,” he said as he pulled up the benchmarking program he had written alongside the runic OS.But after fiddling with the program for a while, he was left less than impressed by the runic computer’s speed of operations. It was fine for single operations, but didn’t even include the ability to hyperthread to at least emulate the ability to multitask. Perhaps starting with quant
Meanwhile, around the Sun.The detectors launched by the imperial space agency that had first discovered the signs of the impending disaster finally let out an alert as the sunspot stretched to the verge of breaking. Shortly after, with a flash of light, all of the detectors vanished as the eruption began.A mass of nearly liquid hydrogen and helium the size of Earth was ejected from the sun in a 120 degree arc. Its velocity was such that it would reach Earth in just over twelve hours, and Mars about two and a half hours after that.And all of it was being broadcast live to everyone in the solar system, courtesy of the imperial space agency.......Some people believed that, if something beyond their control was about to happen to them, it would be better if they were caught off guard by it. That way they wouldn’t spend the time leading up to the event in anxiety and panic. “Ignorance is bliss,” they claimed, and in a sense it was the absolute truth, because the moment one was notifie
“Babe,” the man said with a choked sob. “I know you’d rather die than become an impy. I know what happened to your family in the war... but I can’t do this by myself. I need you.” He clenched her blanket in his fists, then used it to wipe his tears. On some level, he knew it could cause more problems, but a man drowning in an ocean of tears wouldn’t fear the rain.“It isn’t just me, either. Our son, our son!” He sniffled back the snot that was about to drip out of his nose. “I can’t do it alone! You need to live, not just for me, but for our son. He needs a mother, not a stepmother or a nanny. And you promised me forever!“What happened, happened, but you can’t punish our son for the mistakes of others. Your pride is punishing us, and for what? What did we ever do? Is it fair to punish us just so you can keep your pride? Is it fair to make us feel the pain of losing you? The people you’re angry at don’t even know who you are! You’re just a number to them... but you’re everything to us
The fallout from the EMP was relatively small, considering that it only really affected a minority of the population. It also helped that the empire hadn’t been caught off guard and had had time to prepare. Thus, the damage was relatively minor, only in the billions of END. And most of that was the damage to old “legacy” versions of their tech, as anything that had been released over the past six or eight months had been well shielded and hardened to resist EMP attacks. Even civilian tech was the same.As for the electrical grid, that had been shielded from the very beginning. Thus, nothing connected to it faced any issues due to surges in the grid itself. Still, as part precaution and part political theater, the imperial press agency had reminded imperial citizens to ensure that any electrical appliance was unplugged at the time the CME hit, and for at least two hours afterward in case of any residual effects.However, the same couldn’t be said for things that weren’t reliant on the
As Murphy said, anything that can go wrong, will go wrong, and at the worst possible time. Just hours after Aron received his weekly briefing about the increasing crime rate, an event that would change his stance on the remnants began.Former Somalia.Sahro Hassan was sitting on a bench on the side of a street in Mogadishu, overlooking the ocean. The street itself was very clean, considering how much conflict the nation’s capital had gone through. It had been through wars between warlords, pirate groups, terrorist attacks, and riots, all within the young man’s memory.But now, all the traces of destruction had faded and the city was, on the surface at least, at peace.“Those were the good old days,” he sighed, reminiscing on his early life. He had lived like a prince in Somalia’s troubled times, as his father was not only a warlord himself, but also a high-ranking member of the terrorist group Al-Shabaab. Those early years had shaped his personality, fostering an extremist interpreta