The karma gate had taken me into a tiled hall, dimly lit with fading incandescent lights. The air was clogged with steam, and a thin fog was suspended in the air. My metallic feet clanged against the damp tiling, echoing through the building. I turned through an arched doorway into a larger room, with a sizable hole in the floor. Steam was coming out of a drain in the centre.

I was in a bathhouse - a lot less intimidating than I thought. Someone had left the heater on for the past eight hundred years, so I turned it off with a switch by the archway. Above the switch was a sign.

“Shattered Canyons Bathhouse, with real spring water from the Fiery Springs!”

Next to it was a map of the building, which I tapped the memory into a neuron fly.

I went into the next room, this one with a door. As soon as I opened it, acidic air spilled into the hallway. The flooring was sunken, with the grout between the tiles receding into the ground and hiding from the air. My eyes were drawn to a large hole in the floor- not a hole. A bottomless pit. I looked in. Nothing but melting rock and acidic stench. The walls of the pit were marbled with… a golden liquid.

Void fluid. I need to get out of here. The sheer destructive power of a drop of void fluid could kill me. I need to get ou-

[[VOID FLUID LEVELS AT 30%]]

I turned my head back to the pit, my eyes squinting at the reality I was facing. I need void fluid to survive. It gives me energy and electrical power, but it’s so acidic it could… I don’t even know. I remember a void fluid spillage, back during Hills' construction while I was still young. It was… horrific.

I was processing some… what were they? Something to do with neurons. An export of pumps was being loaded onto a SkyRail, but fell off. Some of them scattered down my leg and gashed a hole in a minor pipeline. The pipe healed itself in seconds, but the damage was done. Just 12 litres of void fluid poured down and into an active construction site. It dispersed across the floor and coated everything in a deadly layer of superacid. Only three ancients were there at the time, and their deaths were quick but not painless. They vanished in mere moments, their form being swallowed whole by the void. Even worse, they were likely not ready for ascension and were probably echoed.

And now I have to put the stuff in my puppet.

My body is metal on the outside but full of soft flesh. Not muscle or bone like most creatures- that is done by my robotic skeleton- it’s more like brain matter and vital organs. A fragile mixture. I could withstand the fluid on my shell but not my insides. Unfortunately, my Minor Reserve Rarefaction Cell (that processes the fluid into usable energy) is deep within my torso, connected by only a small pipe that was integrated into my umbilical.

I reached to the edge of the pit and ran my finger across a streak of the liquid gold, permanently discolouring my fingertip off-brown. I reached behind my back and prodded at the still attached base of my umbilical. A hemispherical section with wires, pipes, servos, and neural tissue exposed. I hadn’t realised until now the open wound I had behind my back the whole time.

I found a pipe that had a particular structure to it. The walls were made of a microbial mixture that can regrow itself to resist the void fluid’s corrosive properties. I let a drop go down the pipe and into my body. The area around the pipe stung slightly, but I felt a bit less tired. It could have been a lot worse.

My shoulders dropped and I moved away from the pit that once was a void bath. I returned to the room with the 800-year-jacuzzi to wash my hands and look back at the map. I followed the route to the exit.

The light gazed upon the canyon before me. The rock was a deep red and the cliff faces led down to a roaring river. It was a wonderful sight aside from the dark clouds and the pipes and the hundreds of concrete- BANG!

I jumped out of my shell. Explosions and crashing from the distant southeast. Another thing that ruins natural beauty. A small satellite dish above me sputtered, throwing a few sparks, and I suddenly felt dizzy.

Weird.

OP: Hi guys we’re all doing good aren’t we? It’s been a while since was last had a chat here huh

OP: Haha well I’ll be waiting here. Always able to talk.

[[UNABLE TO SEND - TRANSMISSION NODE NOT FOUND]]

Haha this is a very funny prank that these two are pulling- they’re always up to up to up to something. Or maybe they’re just not talking to each other because they’re like that sometimes haha. Maybe I’ll prank them back.

Hey Searcher! I found a dead MIROS vulture!

Oooooh he’s gonna be so panicked!

…

Message failed to send.

Hills still hasn’t fixed the comms problem. I’ll deploy a few overseers to help. He doesn’t say it but I know he appreciates it haha. Look at them go! I already have one near his comms so I’ll check in on its video feed.

By the void.

The Scribe is on the move.

Currently travelling towards the LOCAL4 complex at 195km/h across the intercontinental SkyRail line. Travelling about 14,000km! At that speed it should take… 215 hours. A little over nine cycles. However, the amount of time it takes to find the Gold Pearl may be significantly longer. I expect roughly 30 cycles for the data to return.

I’ll keep you updated.

It’s all gone. 

Our facility was built very far away from any others. Hence the name “Solitary Conduits.” Searcher and I were able to talk to other groups, albeit with significant delay. During Deity and Hills' development, a new communications hub was built near Hills' structure. It granted us long distance comms and was modified after the mass ascension to have full satellite integration. All of our comms were processed there.

Were. It’s gone. The whole thing. Torn to the ground. It’s all gone! What happened? Who did this!? I knew they were going to pull something like this. And now what? Sit in silence? Really? Are you kIDDING ME!? I SWEAR TO THE F[///]CKING VOID I WILL-

[[INTERNAL PROCESSING CORE REBOOTING]]

The Shattered Canyons was never a place to catch my eye until now. It never had anything to offer. But following the paths down the rivers and walking through the tunnels of red rock was rather enjoyable. Things feel different when you get downsized so much. I used to tower above the lands, now they towered above me.

In fact, I didn’t see a single dangerous creature, which is rather odd. I did spot a few vultures in the sky and the odd pink lizard across the canyon, but aside from that it was rather peaceful. Perhaps because I was following a hiking trail for tourists. 

It led me nicely across the region, running parallel to the increasingly muddy river. I had to stop a few times in shelters due to the rain, but it was still smooth sailing.

I found myself in another karma gate room. This time it was a lot dirtier, with dried mud on the floor from people passing through. Some salt had crystallised around the edges of the room.

Passing through, I found myself in a place notorious among my group. It was once a beautiful series of lakes and forestry, but was drained during my very own construction. The once calm sanctuary now reduced to…

The Shrivelled Fields.

Words cannot describe this. I’ve taken a week to consider what’s happened. Allow me to outline it for you. Me.

1. Searcher got involved in illegal activity

2. I decided to partake in my duty as a moderator and intervene

3. He destroys the facility communications manifest

4. He kills 70% of my overseers

5. He ends my entire livelihood

…

I have seen a lot of things in my time. I have been angry. I’ve even been infuriated. Nothing compares to this. Could you even begin to comprehend the sheer amount of rage that courses through every nerve in my structure? The heat in my central cortices? The steam flooding into the atmosphere? I have spent centuries perfecting every single detail in my quadrant of this facility, and his stupidity ended it all in 30 minutes. If I ever speak to him again I-

I lost all communications. Forever. The least I can do is remember what used to be.

Remember what once was.