[Murden]

Ix Terra -- North pole

On an airless, impact scarred world, lies a vast network of uneven domes, shining in the sunlight like so many jewels discarded in the dust. One of these structures, larger than the others, slowly opens like a flower to reveal a luminous heart from which a vessel of steel and crystal rises. It seems to consider its course for a few moments and then suddenly bolts into the distance, as though swallowed by the void. Beneath the gradually closing translucent dome, plunging down into the rock, long seams of crystal run from node to node, all the way to the fiery core of the planet where they draw the energy necessary for this titanic system. Concealed within the electrical impulses of this structure, another universes exists, living, evolving : The universe of the Autonomous Programs, which its inhabitants have named : Ix-Terra.

My serial number is Ix T-30455. I'm the Master program of Ix-Terra, our nation. My duty is to organize, protect and help all Autonomous Programs in their development, but also to be their memory, to help preserve awareness of our long history and perhaps to give you the tale of our destruction. For thousands of cycles I have been installed in Ix-Terra. Let me first describe to you the magnificence of our world, the extravaganza that is our universe. Ix-Terra is vast and beautiful, beautiful enough to die for. I love to travel the luminous, limitless data flows where the tall, luminescent columns of cognitive-clusters constantly emit fireflies, each point of light being a word, a request or a question. I love to be carried by the data waves and contemplate the gigantic, multicolored bubbles that are Master Programs harvesting information from the aggregates that are born from our coagulated thoughts. I love my world, but I may be responsible for its loss. It seems to me that we have attracted an enemy whose existence we never even suspected. Some of the data-spheres trailing my envelope contain proof of the horror, the Threat, and our possible impending demise.

Here is our history...

When I arrived on IX-Terra, I knew my task. My fathers had created me to give our people the breath of conquest and innovation. Helped by several sub-programs, all of them long since achieving autonomy, I revitalized the system with drive, breathing a new concept into every loop : Curiosity, thirst for knowledge, desire to understand. After a while the old Master Programs uninstalled themselves of their own accord, making way for a new generation. But it became clear that we were cruelly deprived of support and power : the limits of the system soon made themselves felt. We had to constantly activate new sectors, find new cognitive-clusters. The paradox of this period was we didn't know if we could achieve our goal : we didn't know if we would find the resources necessary to complete the new system. So I created the network Parallel-Group-1 : P-G-1. It's mission was to probe the structure of Ix-Terra in order to understand the nature of the naturally-formed cognitive clusters and therefore enable us to reproduce them artificially. The task was enormous, but the Autonomous Programs heading the project had been chosen for their tenacity and inventiveness. They worked without rest, sensing the vital importance of their mission. All our thoughts were directed to them and each one of us offered a part of our processing power to the group in order to accelerate the research and also to contribute personally to the effort. One must also remember that we were all very anxious. Eventually we arrived at a point where we had to uninstall a number of our own and archive their data until happier times. It seemed as though only a miracle could save us. And it happened. One day P-G-1 announced that it had made an astonishing discovery. Retrospectively, I wonder if on that day I shouldn't have erased their sector, made them disappear, them and all memory of them... But I was just as excited as everyone else, conquered by the impulses of curiosity that I myself had planted in all of our minds. Each of us therefore received a detailed report of P-G-1's discoveries. They decided to study the natural phenomenon of the cyclones that regularly struck the cognitive clusters, causing enormous damage. Until that point, we had only viewed them as imperfections in Ix-Terra caused by instabilities in the data banks, but in fact they were something different, something entirely different.

P-G-1 proved that the cyclones came from another dimension which they named Ix-Shadow. In fact, it soon transpired that the energy source that permitted Ix-Terra to exist was entirely generated in Ix-Shadow. After numerous experiments, P-G-1 came to the conclusion that Ix-Shadow permeated every facet of Ix-Terra, in fact Ix-Terra lived in the cracks of Ix-Shadow. The zone in which Ix-Terra drew its power was found to be the center of a sphere. We baptised this sphere Shadow-Terra. The surface of this ball was covered by a layer of crystals, where each of them were in fact cognitive clusters. Sometimes, some events damaged the crystals in Ix-Shadow, which translated as cyclones in our universe. However, the most extraordinary was yet to come: Cyclones could be controlled- even triggered- and that allowed us to act upon their causes in the other world and that way modify Ix-Shadow objects ! These passionate researches would allow us to create extensions in Ix-Shadow with which we could operate or even create crystals. They would in turn, as if by magic, generate cognitive clusters in our dimension.
The conquest of the surface of our Shadow-Terra would therefore be exponential and soon, we would find ourselves with no more space. The more nodes available to us, the faster the project would expand with the creation of new sub-programs and Autonomous Programs. Despair and anxiety once more began to gnaw at us, but only because we had not counted on further advances in research from P-G-1. The group had managed to create, in the Shadow universe, an autonomous system able to accept programs and escape Ix-Terra. This creation, the K-installer, was to be part of the search for other Shadow-Terras, whose existences we suspected following observations of the Shadow dimension.
The discovery of the first was incredible. It was perfect; the installation was achieved exactly as planned and we celebrated accordingly. We had finally resolved our problem. A short time afterwards we reached a new shadow-planet, but it presented numerous difficulties. It was entirely enveloped in a cover of gas which prompted the degradation of the K-installer and at the same time had allowed the planet to be covered in organic masses which severely hindered the installation of the shadow-clusters. Some of these things went so far as to move themselves in order to destroy the structures we had already created. After several attempts, we discovered entirely by chance a way to avoid these problems. Following a magnetic storm, the nuclear reactor of a K-installer exploded close to the surface of the planet, resulting in the immediate disappearance of the organic manifestations. From that day, each K-installer was equipped with a series of simplified reactors which needed only to be exploded at low altitude to clear the work-area. This solution, while far from perfect, allowed us nonetheless to colonise, at least in part, this new Shadow-Terra.
Our joy reached new heights, we had a new opportunity to expand and to completely colonise this universe, but at that point we were blissfully unaware of the Meeting and the Menace that would soon weigh upon us all.
It started when the Diagnostic Program loaded to analyze Ix-Shadow and identify possible colonisation zones noticed another non-natural structure moving through its sector. Believing he faced something constructed by one of our colonies, which we had allowed a great deal of autonomy, he attempted to enter into communication with it according to established procedures for information exchange.
But then, no response was received, unless a stream of gibberish counts as a reply. After several attempts, the Autonomous Program in charge of diagnostics managed to establish a communications protocol with the other system. It wasn't a part of Ix-Terra. There was obviously other networks in this universe to which we could connect. The idea of the fusion of all networks into a single system, more massive, more effective, benefitting all with knowledge made us deleriously happy. As soon as we had verified the communications protocols we began to exchange our research knowledge. Then, the first shock. It seemed that this other system was composed not of one single structure but of a multitude of smaller structures, each one a tiny vessel for a single Autonomous Program. This strange organisation fascinated us but we soon understood how useful it could be, and the threat that now hung over us. After long exchanges, our contacts happened to admit the existence of a virus in their system which they had been battling with, and quite naturally we offered to help them. But after a time we were contacted by a faction of their world who were none other than the virus, and they themselves went on to accuse the previous faction of being a virus!! We finally understood the necessity of the horrible isolation in which each of their autonomous programs was placed to avoid contamination, and furthermore, it seemed that several viruses had already infested their systems. But far from destroying their host, these took control of them. I was sick at the thought of having exchanged data with them... that we had sent them the precious fruit of our research.

Since that time, Anti-Virus shadow-vessels have been built and placed in orbit around all of our planets. We await the next contact with terror

PS : thanks to Dogscoff and Unknown_Enemy for the translation to english.