The Day The World Changes (Again)

[Beware Ye Who Enter Here]

As the Zarethian homeworld was flung from its fairly peaceful life to a life devoid of the very essence of the people - magic - its masters struggled to regain and keep control over their scattered subjects. Riots had broken out and force had been used, tragedies had occurred and people died by the thousands. As one people, they reacted to the sudden loss of their life-blood which had carried them even to the horizon after The Fall.

However great the events that occurred during the Loss of Magic, they were nothing compared to what happened during the Loss of the Machine.
Communictations were severed, the loss of many influxes of data crippled the fleet. Almost immediately, the ships veered off, their shields, engines and other systems -barring, oddly, the life support systems- were shut off and locked. The billions strong fleet of the Zarethian Empire, large as it was, watched helplessly as their engineers struggled to hack into their own computer systems - their ships sliding inexorably closer to the gravitational pull of the planets they orbitted.

On the ground, the effect was rather more subdoed. At first, the lack of communications was thought of as simply a bug and the systems were looked into only to find that they were completely locked off from any outside source. Their radios worked marginally well, as they simply had to manually dial in the known frequencies. This was on their side, but the planetary shield network protecting the sky above with an invisible corona of benevolent technological power flickered and flashed and died.

People, already worried with the lack of their lifeblood, became even more so. Calls by the millions were halted as the computers in their phones locked them out. People using the Zarethenet were locked out of their computers.

The military had a bigger hit to it than simple phone issues. The advanced hovercraft were built with computers built in and wouldnt rise an inch so long as they were locked. High above the cities, many hovercraft were halted in mid-air and came speeding down to Tefillin with mighty crashes that shook the ground and tore great holes in the pristine sidewalks. The Zarethian pulse weapons refused to fire as the computers that measured bullet size and projectile speed went inert.

Factories shut down as the automated assembly lines ground to a stop.
Slowly, one by one, the lights that shone as beacons of the hope of technology fizzled out and as the technology failed.
----- Addler's Conference Room: Hour 45
He walked through the flickering corridors of the office building. His office building, he reminded himself grimly. He passed the worried faces of dozens of soldiers and political aides, dirty and sweating. The lights and air conditioning had gone out earlier that morning and the heat of Tefillin's summer sun was pounding down mercilessly on the cramped, stuff spaces inside the city.
He continued to make the now familiar way to his office and the voice of SubChief Engineer Sajimechoed down the hall.
"I want that generator running now! Look, just reconnect the circuits here and there... And jump start it... Yes!" A shout of jubulation and a flood of white light were cut short with another flicker and a unhealthy popping sound accompanied shortly by a very loud and creative curse as Sajim stormed out and nearly bowled the elderly admiral over.
"Oh, sorry Admiral." The man said, wiping his greasy brow and leaving it even filthier then it was before. Sajim had become the acting engineering chief after Urig, the Mechera immigrant had shut down when the power went out.
"Its all right, son. The lights still giving you problems?" Addler asked, nodding solemnly.
"Yeah, the circuits refuse to connect over the normal route so we're going to try subroute five fifty two-A to try an reconne..." He trailed off when he saw the old Admiral wasnt quite following his technological jargon. "We'll keep trying sir." He affirmed, moving past and heading down the hall back to the basement.
Addler sighed and opened the door to his right, walked the short distance to his desk and sat down with a creak of old leather and the crack of old bones.
At well over five hundred years of age, Addler vas Vacon had been through a lot and was far too old for this shit. He was pretty sure that, Aser protect him, there was some diefic force out there just loving to fuck with his people and leave him to clean up the mess.

He sighed again and lowered his eyes to the desk, covered in shoddy paperwork and reports of casualties, status reports and the like and lit by the ruddy red glow of the setting sun behind him.

He dialed up the ringer and called for his number one man.
"Hello? This is Admiral vas Vacon speaking. Patch me in to asset seventy-three please. Yes, I'll hold. Thank you."
And so he sat and waited as his people die and there was nothing he could do about it.

[Admiral Regis Hermitage]

Admiral Hermitage rushed down the hall past a few people. been up for an unhealthy amount of time, but was still running around the building like a mad man attempting to assess the situation. He had switched out his usual dress uniform for a pair of ZCU (Or whatever the Zarethian equivalent of ACUs are.), and was hard at work all around.

"Tell ELECINT that i want them to analyze the transmission that we received. SIGINT, you need to find a way to contact this thing. The rest of you need to recall every single Agent in the field we have..." he orders several of his staff who were trying to keep up with him. Once they had received their own orders, they quickly dispersed. Hermitage turned down a hallway that led to the entrance, where several soldiers were stationed at the door. There was an angry mob outside, and they wanted blood.

"Hold that door!" he ordered as he ran to assist a team of guards who were trying to move the large reception desk in front of the already barricaded door. After a few tries, they had managed to move it into place. "Where is Vaccon?" he asked one of them.

"Over near his office i think." A HIRU agent spoke up.

He nodded and took off down the hallway again towards Vaccon's office. He ran past the Sub-Chief of Engineering, and knocked on Addler's door. "Sir, its Hermitage!"

------

Elsewhere in orbit, the Zarethian fleet which had gone out of commission had their ships start back up again, but by their own power. Something was controlling them. They moved away from the planet but remained on their stations. It was watching them... keeping the crew prisoner.

[Beware Ye Who Enter Here]

In orbit, the crews all let out a triumphant shout... until they realized that they weren't controlling the ships, that the navigational computers weren't letting them in. Hands beat against the hull in tired frustration. Zarethian Marines worked in the combat decks, fighting hand to hand. Captains were sending bare transmissions on short range bursts.
-- Ground
Addler heard the knock on the door and sat up, trying to look as though he was the epitome of calm reassurance - the look that hadn't been put to such use in nearly three hundred years.
"Let him in, please." He tried to reply, realizing with a faint start how hoarse his voice sounded. Silence would do that to a man. He  cleared his throat and repeated his statement in his more normal sounding voice.

[Admiral Regis Hermitage]

He walked in and gave a weary salute. His uniform was a bit of a mess. His ZCU jacket was dirty and unzipped, his undershirt was soaked in sweat, and his hair was out of its usual style into a more crazed look. "Vaccon, we have a problem... besides the usual bullshit today." Hermitage said very bluntly.

[Beware Ye Who Enter Here]

"Terrific." Addler sighs, looking down at his steepled fingers. "What is now, Regis?"

[Admiral Regis Hermitage]

"Well, its something a little more personal, but still affects the current situation. I've talked to the MPs, and they havent seen Aki in at lease 24 hours. They say that she's ocked herself in her office, but in a situation like this, we need every bit of man power we can get." his stance became uneasy.

"Im just not sure how to get her out... she's scared Addler, and I dont know what to do."