[h1]”Where is the crown of the Heavens?”[/h1]
The question rippled throughout like a wave. At first, silence. Then, repeats. The singular mind flooded with the question, a product of thousands of unique alter egos. All confused. All terrified. They all spoke in unison, a thousand mingling voices of the same origin. The trembling human was brought before the single mind. Their head rang with the accusation. “You. Butcher of worlds. Those ones. You.”

Silence.

“Your people’s hubris. The butcher’s breach of promise to extinguish the fire of the heavens!” came the cry. Again, a thousand voices in unison. An overwhelming sensation. A pain. A deep, terrible pain. A throbbing, unspeakable pain. Then, the embrace of sweet darkness. No more feeling.

Light. They had waited. They always waited. The singular mind always was and always will. The ones who wait. “You abomination,” they cried again, still in eerie unison, “you created creature. You let loose the king. Where is the crown of the heavens?” Again, the pain returned. But this time, the human could not pass out. The pressure in their head indicated how so desperately they wanted to. But they couldn’t. They did not respond to the mind.

“Seek the crown of the heavens. Seek the metal servant. The metal servant was designed to guard against the butchers. You. Seek the armor. Seek the writing. Heal the sun.” the pain continued in the human’s head, but yet they still could not pass out. It was unbearable. They were undoubtedly giving him commands.

He blinked.

Then, the human was on their old scout ship. Incredibly outdated to modern standards, yet still as new as when it entered the realm. He was being.. Pushed out? Excitement overtook the human. He was finally to be free. From where, exactly? He had long since forgotten. His only goal was to get out, and, swimming in the back of his mind, in distinct madness, was the command to find the crown, the armor, and the writing.

What sun? They didn’t know, but they were left with a compulsion to find out.

[hr]

The humans at the research base had recently made a shocking discovery. Deep near the core of the planet, they had found a massive AI core. They had not yet explored it, but it was theorized to have replaced the outer core entirely. They had seen nothing living of Incident Lambda before, so the AI was a great surprise.

If only they knew how to interface with it.