My overseers haven’t been responding or following orders properly for months, but they’re finally fixed. I’m sending out special units to the communications manifest at TOWER_SC01 to modify some important signal distributors and sneakily destroy a couple hub units. The operation should only take half an hour and shut down communications for about 2 weeks. 

Okay, my first units have arrived and have begun altering some of the internal code. One hub is already dismantled. Let me test something…

[TEST MESSAGE NOT RECEIVED BY USER OBSERVANTPILLARS_SC]

Good. Now to just enter the manifest… Wait- number 197 went out?

YOU BASTAR-

[CONNECTION TRANSFERRED TO SOTH.OS_0212]

Sh[//]t sh[//]t sh[//]t I forgot to start recording! The Deactivators have reached the main part of the communications manifest. Needless to say, they are excellent at tearing computers to shreds. It’s beautiful! The metal and sparks flying reminds me of the good days when we could just tear out our old mechanisms. 

I remember the satisfying crunch-squelch of my internals being ripped out by the inspectors. The way they would dig into my systems and mercilessly destroy every stray fibre… yes, it was painful, but it was all in the name of progress!

Now I must progress further into new technologies. The kinds of creatures I could create with this data… I just need to get around Hills. 

Crap, one of my deactivators just blacked out. Quick headcount… 4, 10, 13… they’re all active. Did I take out something else?

YOU’RE FU-

[CONNECTION TRANSFERRED TO FS.MD_01]

Now this is an occasion worthy of a log. Watch this. Watch it. See.

It’s me, yellow. Gracious entertainment! I'll skip the poetry. See this.

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.32]

Just barely peeking out of the clouds was a small series of rusted metallic boxes supporting a tall and spindly communications pylon, towering above the facility grounds. Hundreds of metres high, it stuck far into the heavens as a beacon of satellite dishes and lights. At its base, a hole was torn through a small structure. It was crowded with at least a dozen hazy blue spider-shaped… things… somewhere between holograms and siphonophores. A better view, see it.

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.09]

Oh that’s a good one. Right near the scene. A demented overseer. Some normal orange overseers coming up on them. Oof… one of the orange ones just died. Hear it.

[MICROPHONE ON]

Overseers from both sides projected holograms of their respective iterators. The blue ones showed some boxy idiot and the orange ones showed some fat[///]ss midget.

The orange one was first to speak, “YOU BASTARD!” 

Calm down bud.

“YOU’RE F[///]CKING DEAD,” the blue one screamed, “GET OUT OF MY F[///]CKING SIGHT!” 

One of the blue things reached out a wispy tendril and peeled a metal plate out of a wall, throwing it at the crowd of orange overseers and taking five of them out. Their forms fizzled and their small robotic eyes scattered into the endless sea of clouds. Another seven replaced their fallen clones.

“Get out of my systems!” the oranges yelled back.

“Or what? You’ll cut off my comms?” the blues retaliated, “That’s why I’m here!”

“You nut, that’s my job!”

You nut? You nut? What a void damn idiot. Can’t even make a good insult, unlike me, the linguistic genius. The oranges moved in on the blue, blocking the door off. There were about 3 oranges for every blue, but a normal overseer can’t do this much damage.

The blue and orange holograms faced each other for a few seconds glaring into their projections. They stood on the edge of the catwalk, hundreds of meters above the boundless clouds. The evening sun coated the rusting tower with a warming ochre glow. A brief scene of serenity.

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.12]

This view’s from a bit above them on the comms tower. I count about a dozen of the blues and- by the void- that’s no less than two hundred oranges hurrying along the catwalks and support beams.

“You need to leave,” the orange iterator said. The blue one just stared.

“This isn’t your problem, Hills,” the blue iterator blurted, “Just turn your overseers back.” I guess the orange one’s name is ‘Hills’.

“And let you destroy my precious comms hub? I came here to just carefully turn it off and you plan to annihilate it!”

“I’ll annihilate you.”

“Try it.”

A cloud of shrapnel and fire burst out of the torn-open room. Overseer eyes scattered and sparks flew. The blues were untouched. Like a swarm of ants, the oranges rushed in on the base of the tower. Some blues began to scatter up the tower, some guarded the base, and a few slid into the computer racks and began to tear them to shreds. Hazy blue strands weaved through the wiring and circuit boards. They wrapped around cables and intercepted signals, carelessly sending the systems into disrepair. 

Around the server racks was a wall of blues. They lashed their tendrils at the oncoming army of oranges, swiftly swiping them out of existence. Their unique forms allowed them to interact with the environment rather than just observe it, so they peeled sheets of metal from the walls to use as makeshift weaponry. They swung rebar and spun sheets at the orange swarm, fizzing their bodies and dispersing their eyes.

The oranges ran up the tower and encompassed it in a layer of semi-holographic overseer flesh-stuff. They were chasing a few blues- I can barely keep up!

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.32]

Okay, back to this one. A few blues blazed past, followed by an endless stream of oranges. One of the blues looked back and yelled something, but the wind was too strong to hear it. It continued up the tower, ripping satellite dishes and antennae off to destroy the orange overseers.

And it was working. Though there were hundreds of oranges with more arriving by the minute they simply couldn’t compare to the dozen or so blues. The standard overseers couldn’t do anything except weakly wrap around objects unlike the modified overseers’ sheer strength.

Metal rained. Fire blazed. The chaos! This is what I live for (as if I have a choice). Oh let’s see the views!

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.49]

This camera is right at the top of the tower. A single blue stood at the top, clawing at the wiring looms in the highest dish. The dish shot off with a burst of flame, but it held on. It heaved itself up to the tip of the tower, looking down at the oncoming wave of oranges. 

Its single robotic eye turned to the sky. The darkened expanse filled its vision, dotted with white specks and moving green lights. The satellites moved as a community, intercommunicating as a web of creatures in a living system high in the sky. One of them blinked out, and the sky fell away. 

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.36]

The horizon tilted.

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.27]

The metal groaned in pain.

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.15]

The blues and oranges scattered.

[CAMERA TOWER_SC01.08]

The fire raged.

[!!CONNECTION LOST!!]

[CAMERA BEAM_SC33.02]

The clouds swallowed the tower whole.

[CONNECTION TRANSFERRED TO TYP.CC_01]

Astounding. I have never seen anything like this before.

RIVETING!

This is unlike any form of entertainment I’ve had in the past eleven hundred years! By the void it was beautiful! My thought an uncorrupted moment; yet I cannot believe what I just saw. These two- hahA- IDIOTS just f[///]cked themselves over for eternity! No more comms for you two! Now you know how I feel stuck in this goddamn basement! It's- it's a...

As BRONZLY as! Bronze in bronze in blue and unblue in glorious glorious metallic flesh!

My chance!

[POWER OFF]

OP: And Suns was so surprised! You should have seen his face.

DOL: Haha!

SS: It was pretty embarrassing lol. Hilarious in hindsight.

WP: lmao

DOL: So he really did just get Truman Show’d for a month?

WP: whats a truman show

OP: ???

DOL: I dunno.

WP: xd

SS: MOVING ON MOVING ON who’s been keeping up with the Super Goal?

OP: I do not condone snail-based sports. Leeches on the other hand…

WP: if i had legs i would punt those f[///]cker snails across my roof and into the salt flats where they belong.

DOL: Which teams are playing next?

SS: The Redlands District Team versus TEAM GIGASLUGS WOOO GOOOOOOOO GIGASLUGS! Look! Rings of Gold added team colour integration to public channels!

OP: That’s a dumb name.

WP: gigaslugs couldn't throw a snail if they tried

SS: Hey, they’re getting new throwers this season.

OP: I don’t get it. They make these horrific contraptions to throw snails around?

DOL: The snails have to pop and knock an upside-down bucket off a pole.

OP: Is there not anything better to do than mess with innoce-

[USER OBSERVANTPILLAR_SC LOST CONNECTION]

SS: Pillars?

WP: uhh

DOL: Oh that’s unfortunate. Well, the game’s about to start. Let’s tune in.

SGB NETWORK: Hello iterators! This is your host Rings of Gold for the Super Goal MDCLV!!! 

-nt snails and create abominations?

…

Hello?

Ugh. Another comms issue. Scan Communications Manifest.

CM: No connection to broadcast towers.

Oh… What about the wire connections?

CM: Ground lines unavailable.

Crap. Let me call Hills.

CM: Comms unavailable.

Hm.

AND ALL YOU’RE GONNA DO IS GET YOURSELF KILLED! I DON’T WANT TO LOSE ANOther… I don’t want to… 

Ugh. I lost connection.

Three quarters of my overseers are dead. The comms hub is gone. There’s no salvaging it.

There’s no salvaging it…

It’s over.

…

Communications manifest, assess damage.

CM: TOWER01, 01B, 01C, BEAM43, 12, 42 not found. PrimaryHub not found. Critical power loss system wide. No connection to SAT428.SC

Thought so. That looks about- wait. No connection to SAT428.SC? Satellites are… the only way to communicate. 

…

I need Nebulous Hand.

I may have gone a slight bit overboard…

…

It’s fine. I have what I need. Just a small incident.

One less obstacle to worry about. I’m deploying the Scribe.

SOTH: Nebs? Nebs? Are you there?

SOTH: Nebulous Hand?

SOTH: SPEAK TO ME

SOTH: PLEASE

[MESSAGE NOT RECEIVED]

SOTH: Nebs…

[SWITCHED TO GROUND LINES]

SOTH: Please answer me

SOTH: I know you’re not able to talk to me. Please come back.

SOTH: PLEASE

SOTH: I need you to do this for me

SOTH: We need a new satellite connection right now

SOTH: Nebs?

[MESSAGE NOT RECEIVED]

SOTH: NEBS PLEASE

…

SOTH: please

SOTH: i need this

…

SOTH: i love you