New Beginning 22: Once Upon a New Beginning...

[The Narrator]

 Did you hear, they'll be sending someone to take us out!  I wonder what movie we'll see....

Shut him up

NEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Both of you two calm down, with my powers outta whack everyone can hear you all know.  It looks like I'm locked in this place until this anchor is broken, and all three of us...I mean, I will have to get along with myself.  Agreed?"

Areson and Intelligence agreed.

*I follow everyone*

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"They'll likely be visiting all throughout this star system, including numerous extensions into alternate dimensions, so that's a yes." The Penultimate replies, "So, we'd better get on with however we're gonna defeat them. Though, it might be kinda hard while we're still on Mars. My resources are all back home, and I'm assuming so are yours."

[Philote]

"I tend to carry with me everything that I need for combat, but I'll still inform the other Correnians so that they are ready."

[The Narrator]

"Wait so they're looking up info on us all?  They don't plan to
pillage the areas while they are there do they?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 "Oh, uh, right." the Penultimate whistles awkwardly, realizing his own unpreparedness, "Because as a reality bender, you always need to be prepared and whatnot. For all those emergencies and such. Ahem, anywho, yeah, you're right, we should probably get on with some plan to defeat Computress' race."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Well, knowing Computress, they'll take everything that seems remotely useful to defeating us, and taking back Computress." The Penultimate responded, "That will be a lot. Thoughts, emotions, dreams, hopes...fears. All of that, I think, is fair game. And don't be shocked if they exploit them arbitrarily."

[The Narrator]

"Crap that sucks, my mind and dreams are a terrible place to be....."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Sorry to all, I seem to have drifted off for a moment there. What;s going on? And Why do I feel...lighter? Weaker?"

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Sentient superhumanly intelligent supercomputers." The Penultimate frowns, "They're plotting to destroy us, and their first step is reducing us in power."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Then my fears have been realized. The Rise of the Machines Is Upon Us! Woe is us!" I exclaim as I run about the area in a panic.

Karma watches with subdued expression before interjecting, "I would never rise against you sir."

I calm down just a bit. "Well, that's a relief..."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

 The Penultimate sighs, "It's not all machines. Not even most of them. Only those belonging to Computress' race. They aren't just ordinary computers, in case you hadn't guessed. See...humans aren't nearly the first to come up with computers. Those of Computress' race emerged a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, when the Tech Elves found themselves experimenting with sentience in computers that they had invented."

[Marvelous Miscreant]

"Dear gods! They're Terminators...You just described terminators! We're all gonna die! Or....perhaps not. Or perhaps we will. I suppose its up to how clever we are. Lucky for us all.....I'm terribly clever."

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"And also lucky for us, they've only been experimenting with magic for a few of those thousands of years." The Penultimate volunteered, "So...um, none have reached Merlin-level magical capability! Which is good!"

[Philote]

I step out of a floating door into the area the others are gathering in.

"I've informed my lieutenants on Aeon to prepare defenses. Do I need to call any reinforcements to bring to a general area of defense, or will us alone be suitable as the non-SPL members set up defenses around our planets?"

[The Narrator]

 so they haven't mastered magic...  Why not ask Gaia to help us?

"I'm anchored, it would temporarily exhaust my powers"

[Gentleman Vaultboy]

So, Wulf, clarify for me exactly how big this fleet is and how wide an area it's attacking. Just the planets or everything in between.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

@Phi: "Set up what defenses you can. I don't know what good it'll do, but some defense is better than none."

@Narrator: "Yeah, probably best to preserve what resources you have. If you can't muster it, don't exhaust yourself."

@GV: "They escaped from the Tech Elves, and established a planet of their own, twice the size of Celadon. That is, four times the size of Jupiter. And since they've upgraded themselves to survive on easily accessible sources of fuel, like hydrogen, oxygen, water and sunlight...there's no worries about population. Likely, their entire planet is occupied with computer sentience. Let's just hope they haven't all been sent. That could be well over a trillion supercomputers. And they're scanning every celestial body within this star system, to divine intentions, and discern threats."

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

"So, then we're being attacked by computers. That'll mean Suzu's going to need her other weapon, which I've sent her off to get already. Is there anything else we need to know?" I inquire.

[Celadon's Penultimate]

"Among the first magic they learned was against typical electronic weaknesses." The Penultimate answers, "Water spills, viruses, malware, bandwidth overload, glitching, freezing, technopathic assault. All deflected by their capabilities."

[Tsubasa & Wen Tien]

"Ok, then I guess I'll have to avoid those magics. And I'll let Suzu know too."