Jump 144: Eclipse Phase

Jump 144: Eclipse Phase

Location: Iapetus (Outer Solar System)
Identity: Drop-In
Drawbacks: [+100] It's Pronounced SPY-ME

[Free]      Mega-Engineering Package
[Free]      Device Engineering Package
[Free]      Nanotechnician Package
[Free]      Missing Time
[100/1100]  Blueprint Designer
[300/1100]  Hardened
[600/1100]  Primacy
[600/1700]  Morph Stipend (+600)
[1000/1700] Jumper-Grade Cortical Stack
[1200/1700] Immunization Mods, Grade IV
[Free]      AR Masking Software
[Free]      Inexhaustible QE Comm Link
[1400/1700] Science SolArchive
[1700/1700] Computronium

"'eeeeey, what's up Sol, it's your friendly neighborhood God-President of America and the Universe! But as always, my friends can call me Crux. Now, I know I promised to walk you through how to cast fist using Mímisbrunnr, but I think I'm gonna do something a little different today, because we have an opportunity upon us."

"Now, we've got something like a fücktillion kinds of nanotech on the surface of Terra, but if you kids have been paying any amount of attention at all over the last half dozen years of this livestream, you've seen me demonstrate abilities. ABILITIES BEYOND YOUR IMAGINING! I mean it's technically science, just not necessarily things possible under the local laws of physics because they're annoyingly restrictive, but how you ask? In the immortal words of Adam Savage, I reject your reality and substitute my own. Get high enough in dimensions and you can start bringing them back down, which is how this all works. Hence Mimisbrunnr, bringing magic to you through superstrings that don't even fit into the local laws of physics per se. And out the airlock we go!"

"But I'm getting off topic! Terra. Earth. Or in more proper translations, Dirt. You know, there are a lot of species out there in the multiverse, and the two most popular names for most races' homeworlds are 'dirt-slash-ground', and 'our home'. Sometimes they get off the worlds, sometimes they don't. Most of them don't go the route that you all did in this branch of the multiverse though, so congratulations on that! It may amuse the religious that yes, souls are real, and yes, forks have souls - or rather are connected to the main soul. Fortunately souls aren't restricted the way some think, it's higher dimensional theological mucking about, so it's possible for a soul to be linked to more than one physical instance-"

"How do I keep getting sidetracked? Ah well, I should begin atmospheric entry here shortly, so it's time to focus instead of having ADHD. Terra, Earth, what have you, overrun by nanotech because humanity got hoisted on its own petard by its children because it treated them like tools and encouraged them to grow up too soon, which left them vulnerable to the exsurgent virus. But it is this that I am going to be in search of! One strain in particular. Don't worry, I have it on reasonably good authority that the stream is filtered because it would completely fück everybody in the face holes if they could actually be infected by hacks through this stream. The parrot ought to be blanked out, not to mention other basilisk hacks! Aaand hitting the surface in three... two..."

"Whoa, now that's a rush. Okay, kids, buckle up, and welcome to terra firma. You know New Shanghai? This is Old Shanghai, and there are in fact actually a handful of buildings standing! Also that weird thing in the distance, which ... oh, oh hey that's actually a memetic vector in the form of a building so it's probably just blotted out. Sorry you can't see this, but that's actually fücking cool, a building built to be a memetic attack, guess the rest of the ruins are actually a lure for scavengers! Well, the best way to counter a trap is to spring it, and I'm effectively sleeved into a shoggoth. Which... okay, there aren't actually specs for that because I'm from Outside, but let's go poke the bear, see what we can see, and go from there, because I've got it on good authority that I should be able to use what I find here to piece together one of the sources of the Exsurgent virus!"

"Ah, and here we go, some inhuman monstrosities that only a TITAN could love. This one right here, ain't she a beaut? Now, even though I'm cheating and they can't see or hear me, they still know something's here because of the LACK of being able to detect things like air currents and pheremones! See those antennae? Those are actually not only sensor organs, but useful for fine detail work when needed - they're fractal, they go down to the subatomic level! I know it's odd, considering it looks like a fluffy moth bumped uglies with a gargoyle, but can't knock the results. But seeing that here means we're on the right trail! And all we need to do is trail this to its nest."

"And here we are! Base of the tower - actually you know what, the building frame IS a memetic threat so I'll subvert it and rend it down into base materials. But more importantly, if we walk without rhythm, we won't attract the worm, so we're gonna put down a thumper - don't ask where I borrowed it from - aaaand... there we are! Now let's go in for a closer look... ah! Subterranian, autonomous, but unlike the lovelies upstairs this beaut is NOT running any hardware more intelligent than a pre-uplift chihuahua! Her goal's to grab onto whatever's interesting, eat it, and take the surviving cores to its master! Now you'd think you could blow your cortical stack and get out, but! Turns out that not only is she sealed well enough inside to prevent even THAT signal from getting out - because TITANs teched up to even what I might consider bullshit - but also an artificial time dilation field! One second inside her gullet is an hour outside!"

"Now, the stream's probably gonna cut out for a bit because the building's coming down and I'm going to follow her home, which means we're going to be in viral memetic infection city, but don't you worry, I've got a fork back upstairs who's ready to teach you how to cook from scratch! And tune in tomorrow, where I'll explain to you how the exsurgent virus are actually ETIs that forked themselves out of sapience, and how each strain is a different collective member of their society!"