Chapter 39

Excerpt from Alexander Harlow's Personal Journal. Year 4, Day 190, Solitude, Terra Prime

This may be my last entry, I'm about to do something incredibly stupid, far more so than anything I've done to date, and I've done a lot of stupid shit since meeting LVIOS.

Yesterday the Kromaggs invaded Earth 29. Millions are already dead, cities are burning, and billions more face slavery under the subhuman monsters. I can not let that stand. Even if it means killing myself.

I thought I'd have time, I thought that my plans for a space fleet would allow me to hold off the Kromaggs, but I forgot one of the cardinal rules of war: No battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy. That's why he's called 'the enemy'. It's right up there with kill the bastard before he kills you, and I forgot it.

They showed up in orbit first, their Super Manta raining death down onto military bases; thankfully Earth 29 was expecting that, I'd warned them after all. I have to hand it to Row, she's one smart woman, I hope she's alive. The U.S President managed to convince her counterparts to start up saber rattling, giving all sides an excuse to deploy their armed forces. By the time the Kromaggs showed up the world was at the equivalent of DefCon2.

Once the Kromaggs realised they couldn't just stand off and bomb Earth 29 into submissions, not without leveling what they hoped to gain from the invasion, namely infrastructure and slaves, they sent in their ground forces.

Millions of the bastards.

Earth 29 is holding out for now, but it's only a matter of time.

I considered a lot of things, I thought about going looking for help from other advanced pan-dimensional empires, others like me, hell I even thought about going looking for that Planeswalker I ran into a few months ago. But it all comes back to time.

I don't have enough of it. How much time did I waste fucking around? How many days did I spend looting artwork and books from dead worlds? How many hours did I waste doing fucking paperwork? At the time it seemed like I had all the time in the world... Anyway back to the subject at hand.

I could transit a big ass nuke onto the Super Manta, and it would help, a lot, but it wouldn't solve the main problem, that's where my borderline suicidal plan comes in.

Project Brainiac. I've been working on it for over two years now, and as it currently stands I think I've got a 60/40 chance of frying my brain. I just don't know enough about the human brain to go fucking with it, but I do know that if I don't fuck around with my brain billions, possible trillions of people all over the multiverse are going to be enslaved by a most brutal empire.

You see the problem with LVIOS is it was designed by and for beings as far above humans in the evolutionary sense as we are above amoeba. It was a miracle that it was even possible for LVIOS to interface with me in the first place.

That's why I can only move 1400kg, and why if I transit too often my head feels like it wants to explode. LVIOS needs a living host, it can't do shit without one, one of the many many safeguards built into it. It channels it's power through the brain of it's host to effect the multiverse. But with me it's like pushing a tidal wave through a garden hose.

I spent a fair bit of time on Brainiac, not as much as I should have obviously, but enough. I researched neurotrophics and brain augmentation, I looked into everything I could get my hands on about how the human brain works, and I think I can make the changes needed at least become a firehose, to extend a bad analogy.

I've set these journals to auto-send to Viriathus if I don't log back in within a year, along with a bunch of other stuff I've been holding close to my vest. I've also named him as my heir, he should do a good job of running Terra Prime.

I don't know where LVIOS will end up if this fails, but I hope whoever finds it does a better job than I did.

I'd pray if I thought someone, anyone, would listen to me...

No more stalling Alexander, let's do this thing.

Year 4, Day 190, Solitude, Terra Prime

Alexander walked into his personal med-bay, metal surfaces gleaming under the harsh lights that flickered on when they detected his movement. His face was grim as he started stripping off his clothing, shivering slightly when he got down to his underwear. Tilting his head slightly, Alexander looked at the chair sitting near the corner of the room.

It looked like a sci-fi version of a dentist's chair, all gleaming silver and white leather with two large arms extending away from the main body. With a sigh he walked over and slid into it. He placed his arms on the chair's arms and tapped a command on the right arm. He jolted slightly as restraints expanded out of the chair and pulled him down tightly.

Alexander twitched his fingers fast, pulling up the body modification menu. He quickly loaded the latest version of Project Brainiac, making sure everything was still as it should be. He was about to active it when he paused.

"Computer." Alexander called out, activating the VI he'd installed only the month before, "Music please, random selection"

There was a chirp as the computer responded to the query, and as the air filled with synthetic chimes the would-be king started laughing. As a man's voice called out "You've got the touch" Alexander decided that maybe there was someone out there listening to him after all.

Alexander gritted his teeth and yelled out "LVIOS activate!"