>>36571078
Next is a male teenager in a candle-lit, room with five determined-looking priests praying, holding crucifixes, and splashing holy water towards him Beside, above, and behind the priests a
re seven angels, staring at the boy's head with contempt and revulsion. In the shadows four stereotypical red demons are giving him murderous glares. The teenager is frowning.

The second largest painting is of an urban battle. Soldiers, policemen, armed civilians, exhausted and bloody, look up in amazement and relief despite the army of monsters nearly overruning them. A man without a hand raises his bloody stump and shouts in victory as swarms of UAVs fly above while convoy of drones on treads charge in, weapons blazing at Cryptids on the ground and in the skies. One soldier doesn't share their enthusiasm, instead he's hiding underneath an accidental shelter of rubble and debris.
Under there, Rodney is quaking in fear, unaware that the tides of battle have turned.

You can feel that your Host doesn't want to look at this, or much else in the gallery right now.
That's fine you suppose.

...

HegemOSy V1.06 is started up, desktop displayed with the background changing every ten seconds to member(s) of Able Squad.
Unfortunately you still don't remember any passwords,.
Hmm....
>Find the folder where these photos are at.
>Open up HegeMail and pull up the psych eval emails
>Start HegExplorer and look up... (insert subject)
>(other)

>>36571104
>Start HegExplorer and look up... (insert subject)
The Cryptid Wars, and the Angels and Demons that appeared. What is known of the planes of Heaven and Hell.
From the portraits, it looks like we have enemies both Above and Below.

Following a double-click on the icon, HegExplorer instantly open to mostly blank page, sole contents are a search bar and the word "Hegemongle" with a different color for each letter. Rodney wants his body to groan for some reason.

You search for "Cryptid Wars", first result is one site named Hegepedia. You click and read.

The Cryptid Wars began sometime in early 2018, although numerous reports of monster attacks in more isolated areas in late 2017. The "Cryptids" were beasts of legend and myth, everything from yetis to tengu to the Beast of Gévaudan. Through means unknown, they had managed to amass armies undetected and struck humanity on a global level, often targetting landmarks and government officials. The article notes that the deaths inflicted caused by the Cryptids themselves amount to less than a billion out of over three billion lost, vast majority of which were due to various diseases, new and old, that the Cryptids had within them.
By 2021 most world leaders were deceased, in haste numerous multinational militaries were formed, many of those in the Western Hemisphere eventually merging or cooperating with NATO as well as each other. The next year numerous supernaturally-focused groups announced their existence and their support for their fellow humans. Mass usage and instruction of magic commenced, greatly helping the war effort.
However, the tide didn't turn until the Siege of New York in 2025, when a prototype AI at a local military base gained full self-awareness. Named ZETOZ, the AI made multiple significant scientific breakthroughs, including a confidential one that allowed the city's defender to mass producing hundreds of drones within days. Other AIs gained self-awareness elsewhere or went out of hiding. The few who opposed humanity were promptly destroyed and the rest pledged to help humanity or stayed hidden.

With the combined might of global armies, magic, and the Singularity, humanity began its first true counter-offensive.

>>36573596
During this period AIs and scientists made even further breakthroughs including ways to purify nuclear radiation and FTL travel. Test flights of the latter technologies were done but focus was placed on the war until it officially was declared over in 2029. The hunt for remaining Cryptids is still ongoing to this day, as you saw on that news report. The war led directly to the formation of the Terran Hegemony almost immediately afterward, but this article doesn't detail the Hegemony's start much. You can look that up later.

(Not done. 2/4?

Next are "Angels", which you again use Hegepedia for info on. Winged servants of 'God' blah blah. Section on what modern mages have to say...very little. Very few seem to have spoken with angelic beings, and one account from two years ago claims that the angel he spoke to was was evasive of many of his questions, most of which involved the afterlife. This account is commonly considered evidence for the "Soul Darkness Theory". You consider looking at that but put it aside for now.

The more modern section on "Demons" is much longer
and more detailed, although the modern mage's usage of "Demon" seems to mostly indicate almost invariably hostile spirits. There's not much on there nature, but is stated that they hail from mulitple realms, one mage has an account of a demon that was unaware any realms besides her's and our own, and several more accounts have "Demons" asking what Hell, Heaven, and reincarnation are. Once again, the "Soul Darkness Theory" is brought up but you again put it aside for now.

None of these articles have concrete information on their abilities, weaknesses, so on. Shizi probably knows. Hmm....that nymphomanic also mentioned "spirit hub realms" to you earlier tonight. You look that up, as far as you can tell it's an acknowledged but poorly understood (by humans at least) part of the magical side of reality. You try "Heaven" and then "Hell". A few minor realms postured to be each come up, but there's little to no information. However, both articles mention the "Soul Darkness Theory" once more. Sighing, you click on a link to it.

>>36574584
The Soul Darkness Theory posits that while human souls exist (five citations, one of which is a collection of videos of souls leaving their bodies, often by force) by default they simply vanish into places unknown after death, and that few if any of the spirits humanity has interacted with actually knows what happens to the soul of any dead sapient that "passes on". Furthermore it states that mortal souls reincarnating or entering into a spiritual place of existence are all in fact unnatural. That last part in particular has generated a lot of controversy.

Well, some things were interesting but unfortunately you weren't able to find much. You try looking up other results for the previous few subjects on Hegemongle, once more little to no useful information. Most you find are essays on the Soul Darkness Theory.

Hmm...
>Look up something else...
>Find the folder where you keep photos of the squad
>Turn off the computer

>>36574607
>Find the folder where you keep photos of the squad

>>36574607
>Find the folder where you keep photos of the squad

>Find the folder where you keep photos of the squad

Not on anywhere on the desktop. Right-click, background changing option, right-click an image on the list of pics, shortcut to the folder location...
Two folders, "Normal" and "Other".
Normal has various photos of Able, at least three hundred. Hazuko petting the sleeping Vivel in her lap, Teza working on a grumpy Suko's wings, everyone playing a game of cards, lot of combat shots, poses near ruins and fallen enemies, Shizi and Veronika strangling each other, Vivel kneeling before a bizarre shrine complete with an effigy of the real you, so on. There's sub-folders sorted by each person for solo images, though all of said solo images are also in the main folder. Computer probably has enough space for copies.

Now for the "Other" folde-
You glance around the room almost automatically. Nope, nobody else can see this except for maybe that AI...
The folder is full of images of the squad of in risque positions or in some cases nude. Some of them are selfies (more than a few by Vivel) but the vast majority are ones that definitely weren't taken without permission, cleavages, undressing, bathing. There's a little over a hundred here.

You nearly jump when your PDA vibrates. It's the AI.

[Would you like me to obtain more of such material for you? I promise the utmost discretion.]
Umm....
>["Sure..."]
>["No..."]
>(insert option)

>>36575296
>weren't taken without permission
Was this intentional?
["No..."]

>>36575296
>["No..."]
For now.
We're under investigation and I don't want more dirt heaped on us; the dirt from our previous iterations is enough.
Especially since Rodney has seen these now.


Hey.
How did the AI know about these? Is it already remoted into our workstation?

>>36575360
Nope, dumb mistake on my part.
>>36575365
>Is it already remoted into our workstation?
Indeed. AI has access to pretty much everything.

>>36575427
>AI has access to pretty much everything.
This AI is the city's AI, right?
Not a military AI?
Isn't this a breach of national security, for it to be accessing all of this classified information?

>>36575427
Can we ask it if it knows our passwords?

>>36575469
Forget trip.
Well, the "city" (a lot of the buildings aren't even meant to be entered) is intended specific military (RDBFO) personnel and occasionally special guests, so not really.
>>36575482
Yes. However we may or may not have installed some special encryption. It can certainly work on figuring them out.

>>36575581
I suppose we could ask it to do some password recovery.
It already has complete access to all of the files on our computer, after all.

Though I am perplexed; some of the psych evaluations seemed to be classified, even to us.
Wouldn't it be a bad thing for those reports to be found on our workstation?

>>36575630
Don't forget the report Shizi obtained. We're rather fortunate this AI likes us.

>["No..."]
[No...] You reply.
[Ah, the ellipsis your dissaproval. I apologize most greatly.]
[Not now at least. Instead, can you help with my passwords? I'm having trouble remembering them.]
[Which ones?] You hesitate for a second.
[All of them.]
[Oh dear. I shall attempt...working now.]
[Okay.]
It takes a half-minute for the AI to send its next message.
[The password for your Task Manager is "allthingsareI". Your HegeChat conversations have separate passwords for each of your comrades. The password for your logs with Hazuko is "NOT_cute", rather rude in my artificial opinion. I'll be working on the other passwords as I cannot access the logs from their PDA's due to Shizi's modifications on them. I'm having much difficulty with your email conversation with Vivel. Her computer is turned off and we do not store all sent emails, so I will not be able to currentlly obtain those by alternative means. You must unfortunately be patient for now, my good friend.]
[Thanks.]
Task Manager, 'allthingsareI'. It displays a list of processes you don't have the slightest clue about along with various system stats. You'll mess with this later.
HegeChat, Hazuko's conversation, "NOT_cute". Let's see...
[Hey, how are you?] [Fine I guess.] [HIIIIIIIIIII!] [Hi?] [How'd you like my singing today?] [It was high-pitched.] [Oh, okay...] [Cheer up.] [Okay!]
This along with asking how you feel about some song lyrics she made (you asked her to just email you them) sums up pretty all your conversations with Hazuko, small talk.

You let out a yawn and type a message to the AI.
[Getting some sleep. Keep the computer on?] Helps that thing is noiseless.
[Yes please. Shall I turn off the monitor for you?]
[Please.]
[Done! Get some rest, my good friend.]

>>36576315
You yawn again as you get out of the chair. TV's still on, running a report about some sporting event. You find the remote and shut it off.
Calmly you look to Rodney's bed but for some reason it doesn't look comfortable to you. Two sleeping places suddenly come to mind, the tent in the living room and the surgical bed in the art gallery. You walk to each one.
The tent gives you a feeling of calm and safety, the surgical bed of violence (nearby shotgun and the paintings probably don't help) and uncertainty.

Hmm...
>Detach from Rodney.
>Stay in Rodney.
And where?
>Sleep in the tent.
>Sleep in the surgical bed.

>>36576339
>Sleep in the tent
>Stay in Rodney
Unless we are allowed to separate at home

>>36576605
Only place on Little Downtown where we are.

>>36576657
So then separate, keep good rapport with our host

>Detach from Rodney
>Sleep in the tent.

You walk back into the living room, where you promptly release the "ten grips" of your legs from Rodney's gel and leap forward onto the floor in front of your Prime Host.
Rodney's rubbing his head as you turn around to face him, your mouth already lightly chittering.
"Nice collection you got Nomad, real fuckin' nice....didn't delete my memories this time?"
"Previous iterations of me made that collection, not I." You respond in a certain whispering tone, noticably irritating the soldier.
"Ugh...can you not talk in that serial killer's voice? Hadn't thought about him in over a decade and then you start somehow using his voice..."
"Sorry." You swap to the loud TV-show demon voice, Rodney wincing in response.
"Please. Change."
"Sorry."
"Hearing my own my voice is only slightly better..."
"Sorry. Can you tell me about that serial killer?" You ask out of curiousity.
Rodney looks away but answers.
"He trained kids and teens to ruin people's lives, gave them live demonstrations on how to hurt and kill people. I don't like to think about that..."
"Sor-"
"You're an abomination that hijacks people, you don't need to apologize." Rodney laughs at you, scratching his hair. You try to laugh along with him via your chittering and clicking, but it just creeps him out.
"So Nomad, you're sleeping in the tent tonight?"
"I am."
"You make some really weird noises when you sleep in the art studio."
"Huh...speaking of art, about that one painting with you in it..." The lieutenant grimaces.
"You know, with you using my voice right now, I'm half-expecting you to start saying the stuff my damn mind says to me about that day. And I don't need that while I'm already beating myself up over today damn it!"
You frown as best as your...face can, causing Rodney to do the same.
"Sorry little ancient guy, just agitated from today. Gonna put Thomo back into the damn grave when we find him....oh, and goodnight Nomad!"

>>36577684
"Goodnight Rodney." You say as he he abruptly finishes speaking and walks towards his bed, his all-around exhaustion showing as he does so. He moves onto his bed in an almost-dejected manner, occasionally looking at his hands with an empty stare.

You turn to the tent. With a moment's difficulty you grab onto the zipper and open it up. Slowly you go inside, zipping it closed. The blanket is thick and you don't have to worry about it piercing, and it seems you can rest on these three pillows without a problem. You set the pillows up next to each other before lying on your back against them and pulling the blanket over you. Your legs go through the blanket a little but it still feels comfortable. You clench your legs inwards in what feels a natural sleeping position for you.

Slowly, you close your eyes.

And that's all for tonight, brain's clearly shutting down on me.