[b]Rofafpasub, Wusdafu[/b]

Odaly sat in her chair as the processors hummed all around her, the room dark around her save for the glow of the computer's monitor. A bag of crisp mrufgu'af-a sweet, banana like fruit common on Wusdafu-chips sat between her legs, and she occasionally popped one into her mouth. At the same time in most places on the planet, people were resting (even a sleepless species needs to rest their mind and muscles). Odaly, on the other hand, was hard at work despite all appearances.

She was a resident of the antisol territories that had once been ruled by the Great Republic before unification, and they had taken much longer to integrate into the Union than the other lands absorbed in the Twilight War. She could still remember the days before the old economy of the Republic had been phased out, in fact, the machine that surrounded her had been a product of it. A relic of an earlier time, before the Twilight War had come to an end. With a few modern modifications, of course.

The antisol territories, unfortunately, do not happen to be a kind place to even those adapted to them (and most definitely not a long-eared woman like Odaly). Just like humans, Tougpasa need vitamin D. And just like humans, they tend to get it from sunlight. Which, of course, doesn't exist on the antisol side of the planet. As such, the Union government stated during the annexation of the Alliance's antisol lands that all inhabitants would have a relaxed schedule to prevent depression.

Despite that luxury, Odaly was still at work well after the hours of even the Twilight. She didn't have an urgent deadline to meet, but she wanted to make sure she was finished with her job well ahead of the loose date she'd been given. Flanking her on both sides were computer towers as tall as her when standing up, though they were not at all the full composition of her device. Rather, they were purely its disk drives. On her right side side there was a much newer assortment of floppy disk drives (mainly for installing and running software thanks to the quick read times) combined with various processing units in the extra space. On the other, a massive deck of datasette tape readers stood whirring away as data from her project was transferred onto them.

The first she had acquired on her own back during the war (though means very much less than legal), but the second had been given to her by the Military Sector for storing her project. Her project was a new operating system designed for use on Space Force warships, which was the reason she was storing it on datasette tapes rather than on floppy disks. Most starships were built and used during the earlier stages of the Twilight War, and as such had used datasette tapes as the floppy disk hadn't come into widespread use at the time. Rather than tear out the entire digital infrastructure of every vessel, the Military Sector instead decided to just keep using tapes.

This new operating system, however, would have support for floppy disks. As well as have support for a type of data storage device that was apparently advanced enough that the Military Sector refused to give any details beyond the basic parameters to Odaly. From the parameters, however, she had deduced that it was an impressive new piece of hardware. It had almost seven hundred times the storage capacity of even a floppy disk, with a total storage space of around 700 megabytes. And this new OS they wanted had to be able to handle the workload of an entire city's Central Unit. Odaly was, in fact, working in tandem with countless other programmers the world over to make it a reality.

But she still had no idea what it was supposed to do. Clearly, the Military Sector was planning a digital overhaul of their systems, but to what end? 

An alert noise played through her headphones, and she switched her monitor to display the I/INC (International/Interplanetary Network Chat) channel that had been set up for the project. She'd programmed her computer only to alert her when she (or anything else pertaining to her share of the work) was mentioned in it.

[i]Gisafp: Hey Odaly, Milsec sent you some architecture that they need inserted. Should be at the post office. No clue what it is, but it looks sort of like a brute-force hacking program to me. 

Odaly: Why do you say that? And why would Milsec want a codebreaking program worked into the OS?

Gisafp: It's similar, not the same. They let me take a look at it and it's got some sort of trial-and-error system built in like a brute-force program. Beyond that, I've got no idea. Some of the lines of code look like they wouldn't even work on a binary computer. The program is huge, Odaly. I've never seen anything like it.

Odaly: How big is it then? I don't have much space left on my computer. It's and old Twilight War self-contained, you know.

Gisafp: They're sending it to you on multiple drives, I didn't see them but I think you're going to need to expand into another room.

Odaly: That big?

Gisafp: Just get to the post office, they've got it all ready there. And by the way, Admiral Widvurg is going to be there too.

Odaly: The Admiral?

Gisafp: Yeah, the one and only. Lucky you. Care to meet for lunch at that old speakeasy in Kelagef afterwards? I want to hear about this new program.

Odaly: Sure thing, I'll give you a call.[/i]

Odaly closed the tab and looked out the one and only window in the room, out into the almost pitch-black frozen wasteland beyond that was only illuminated by the city lights of Rofafpasub.

[i]Well.[/i] She thought. [i]Guess I have to go out for once.[/i]

[hr]
No sooner had she signed for the delivery of the program (which, to her surprise, included putting down her address for "delivery and installation") than Admiral Widvurg came up behind her and tapped her on the shoulder.

"Miss Odaly?" He said, glancing at the paperwork to confirm it was her. "I'm Admiral Widvurg, the head of the Red Pulsar OS development team and the current commander of the Latch Bodefl Task Force. I'm here because you've been entrusted with the most important part of the Red Pulsar OS, and as a result you should be aware of just why we've begun its development. Here, take this."

He handed a floppy disk over to Odaly, who quickly stashed it in one of her large jacket's many pockets. 

"What's on it?" She asked, ears twitching in curiosity.

"It's an explanation of the project and it's goals in full, in a standard text document. There's something else I'd like to give you, assuming you have a good place to put it."

"What is it?"

"It's a new disk drive that you'll have to keep out of sight. I have a self-contained system at home, I know how many nooks and crannies there can be. Do you think you can find some place to keep it hidden?"

"Yeah, my closet's just got the network hookup cables and an old mid-war Republican military calculator I reprogrammed. It's a good spot. Is this related to that new storage device?"

"Yes, you'll need the drive to install Milsec's new comms program. It's a big file, nothing like civilian netmail software. If you didn't use the new disk, then it'd take you a few stacks of floppies to hold. We wrote in plenty of functionality, automated end-to-end encryption, a location mask, as well as the ability to easily attach files of any type. Not to mention the capability to interface with an entirely new digital infrastructure-if you can even call it digital. We'll be using it to communicate with you from now on."

He handed over a small little disk reader-surprisingly about the same size as a floppy one-along with what looked like a tiny vinyl record that the lights of the post office glinted off of in all the colors of the rainbow.

"What's this? The new disk?"

"We're calling it a TB-SED, for Compact Disk-Read Only Memory. You're holding seven hundred megabytes."

"Why me?"

"Hm?"

"Why are you giving me all this? I'm just some chubby shut-in programmer from the former Great Republic. Why is it that [i]I[/i] get entrusted with a new disk type, some kind of weird program that needs multiple drives, and a direct network line to Milsec personnel?"

"Because for the past month you've spent a total of about 600 hours working on our project. That's unbelievable dedication."

"I just never leave my house, Admiral. I don't code to serve some higher purpose, I code because I'm lazy and bored and it's one of the few things I can do for fun."

"If you think of yourself as lazy then that's no problem, because us higher ups can only see the numbers and they're damn good numbers. Besides, Miss Odaly, you're a programmer. The purpose of your job is to let other people be lazier than they already are. And you're good at that, because we've chosen to adopt every one of those extra little 'time saving' functions you sent in as suggestions. It's enough in my eyes to get you this sort of access, as well as some brand new IMD-8830 NBU drives."

Odaly's eyes lit up at the mention of such a powerful piece of machinery. The 8830 had been all over the tech bulletins for weeks, it was the most advanced storage drive ever built by the Tougpasa. Only Milsec had it, and the only Civsec applications that had been mentioned were the possible conversion of the massive Gestalt tower storage drives over to it in order to free up more space for processors. Never had she thought that such an impressive piece of hardware would be in her own home.

"Really? A Union Processing Machinery 8830 Hard Drive Assembly?"

"More than one. They're going in your living room, is that okay? I heard you didn't have any space in your study."

"That's fine, the radiator in that room just doesn't cut it anyhow. It'll be nice to get some more heat in there."

"Good! Now then, go get yourself a nice hot meal while the deliverymen install them."

[b]Rova'ujuf System, Uncharted Territory[/b]

The kinetistar [i]Megodtaf[/i] floated silently in space above the giant water-world for which the Rova'ujuf System was named. The Rova'ujuf was one of the most famous legendary creatures of Tougpasa mythos, said to have skin with the strength of steel and lurk underneath the waves in search of unsuspecting prey in the form of merchant ships. It would take their gold and goods and toss the sailors overboard into the ocean, only to retreat back into the depths with its plunder. 

And the system had gained such a dramatic name because the first exploration ship to uncover it had lost a probe to some kind of squid-like creature on the water planet below, and said probe happened to be almost a crew mascot. They'd painted a face on it and everything. To think, an entire system would be named in tribute to an atmospheric probe.

The purpose of the [i]Megodtaf's[/i] mission was to fully chart the system's major and minor bodies, including everything from gas giants to the asteroids of its debris belt. So far, they had come up with disturbing finds that actually came to lend a much darker meaning to the system's name as well as a great revelation regarding the place of the Tougpasa. The news hadn't reached home yet-kinetistars don't carry message buoys and the captain wasn't about to turn around before finishing-but it would be big when it did.

On the water planet below, half-sunken into the water, was a massive metal structure. Given its grid-like construction easily visible from orbit, it was most definitely not natural. A probe sent down revealed a great, ruined city of some civilization long since destroyed. In that system, at least. An above-water floating city on a world without land? It was the work of a colonizing species. The Tougpasa had long considered space colonization to be a way of preserving themselves. If one planet was lost somehow, the others would live on.

This system, however, revealed that there was something else out there. And if whatever had destroyed this world was still out there, then it could come for the worlds of the union as well.

And if that happened, then Milsec would need to know as much about what it might be as possible before it reared its head.