Chapter 7: Life at the Institute

Aquarians are innately a lot less of a social creature compared to the friendship groups typically form by humans or clans formed by Rockies. The oceans are a lot easier to survive compared to the harsher environments the other two groups of intelligent beings have to deal with. The single units of the Aquarians worked great until the one of the planet's surface ice sheets were cracked and melted thanks to the Event.

It was only known after the Aquarians have become space faring civilizations, but it was a solar storm that dumped an excess amount of energy onto the planet. This changes the make of the Oceans just ever so slightly, and the race of Monster fish evolved and became the single most dominant species on the planet. The Aquarians are more careful and suspecting, while the Monster fishes are more ferocious, aggressive and powerful with less capability for information processing and planning. However, the warmer waters now enabled them to spread all across the world.

The Aquarians were faced with a choice of being hunted down and made extinct by the Monster fishes, or group up and fight back. The necessity for simple language was first realized, the concept of coordination first realized, and the ocean became a lot harsher than what they all once thought.

When the last nest of the monster ship was pushed down into the magma pores at the deepest part of the ocean, the Aquarians, now dressed in scales and armors made from dead monster ships, realized their species will never be the same any more.

They have now come to know war.

Soon after, the Aquarians conquered the ocean, built up an entire underwater civilization through the exploit of biotechnology of varying degrees, giving nature and evolution a push in the right direction according to their needs and wants. That's when they have finally made up their mind about exploring the cracks in the ice sheets up in the poles. Those cracks allow for extremely fast streams of water jet out all the way into low earth orbit, as the planet's doesn't really have much of an atmosphere to resist such movements as most of the planet is covered by thick ice sheets.

All they have to do is to build a ship that can sustain the pressure of space and the exit and things will be a lot easier after that, as the difference between the stream and the interior of the ship is much greater than that in space and in the ship. The first few dozen trips were one way trips, but soon, channels were dug through some of the other cracks, and for the first time in history, Aquarians finally saw the other side of the continental ice sheets.

All of the Aquarians standing here today are here thanks to all of the deaths of the past Aquarians, They have come so far, and the Institute is here with the express purpose of pushing that much much further.

There are obviously two things Alrith can do right here, the two approaches to solving the problem. There is the transient approach when short term solutions are applied, and there are long term solutions that relates directly to how she lives from now on on this bloody planet.

If Alrith only focuses on making her way to the living pod in one piece, all she had to do would be to create some sort of a makeshift gas mask and air mixture tank using the breathable air in the buildings. However, does that mean she will have to wear it all around and every time she leaves her room?

Alrith shook her head, it's not like that she can't work on making the system a lot more modular and coonvenient in the future, but she simply can't bring herself to surrendering over to this task. Instead, she will clash with it head on.

'Wait.....all of the others were not doing anything different...' Alrith thought back to when she accidentally ran into a teaching hall, and the memory flashed back. She looked to Anozee who's patiently waiting for her to figure out the things in her mind, 'I walked in during a lesson, and nobody was doing anything different.'

'That means two things.' Alrith continued, looking over towards Anozee, 'either you guys have already developed some sort of modular breathing devices like the lung membranes we use, or you guys have altered some part of yourself to suit the planet! But both of them is a long term solution that will take time to do.''You are a smart human.' Anozee complimented. It might have sounded like an insult to most, but Alrith never puts any weight into words regardless, 'I suspect so too. Our exoskeletons also carry the gas exchange functions, but it appeared the conventional setting will not be sufficient here.'

Adapt or die. That was the key message sent by the Institute, and it was understood by all of them.

After a local week camping away in the building, the pair were able to develop an upgraded version of the membrane that used the planet's local plantation as part of the filter for the air. It ended up being a rudimentary face mask as the composition of the planet's atmosphere appeared to have been designed to be slightly off set rather than completely inhabitable after some gas analysis. Anozee took care of the work outside the lab while Alrith brought out the material printer she bought especially for the Institute.

And finally, Alrith stepped outside with a face mask that made her also looked like a short Aquarian except with two arms. It was a little stuffy, but she can finally breath somewhat normally now. That's a first step for sure, but an important fist step none the less.

After that Alrith slept and relaxed in her living pod for days before even starting on her next assignment.

The teaching structure at the Institute is in typical Aquarian structure as it is done with a task focus rather than syllabus focus. meaning instead it's a list of given tasks that will have to be performed and completed by the individual in order to graduate from the institute. The last task of them all is notoriously difficult, and is commonly dubbed 'That Place'. Only a handful is able to break through that place while most are either stuck or are forced to quit.

The resources are allocated by region and location, and each of the incoming student has the freedom of forming parties among themselves or joining one of the more established parties. Parties will then have access to party owned facilities, contractors and other quirks that are hard to come by for individuals.

Before the start of the next task, Anozee and Alrith met up and decided to move as a unit before they eventually choose a party. However, as they have come to realize, the pair had little idea what the true nature of the relationship was.

They cruised through the few introductory tasks, taking half a year in local time before the time has come to choose a party. During this time, Alrith has come to enjoy the quirkiness and lightheartedness of Anozee, as she doesn't care for a thing apart from what she is curious about, leading to her getting side tracked before completing certain tasks. Alrith shared the same passion for research, but she is a little more goal driven compared to Anozee.

Then, the time has come to join the parties. Alrith, being the only human and is actually a competent biotechnology researcher, has made quite a reputation for herself. She was recruited by a few parties, and she picked the one who's the most open and welcoming: The Open Waters Party.

Some parties are established based on the planet and region of origin for the Aquarian, but that's not the case for the Open Waters, as all of the members came from different backgrounds and are sick of the division based on origins, or they just don't care for it much to begin with. For the first time in a long time, she has felt like she had a family somewhere.

She moved her living pod to the Open Waters area, and continued on with her research journey.

Parties are allowed, and even encouraged to compete against one another for resources and prestige in the Institute, and the use of various combat tactics are allowed with the only limitation being the buildings and equipment cannot be damaged as a result, or the invading party is deemed to be the loser of such a 'siege' and will be forced away by authorities. This rule has lead to the use of a fighting format called the Ring in which the same number of combatants enter from both sides and fight in one on one matches until one side has no more capable fighters any more.

In order to prevent unwanted challenges, alliances form between parties and defend against the other alliances as a whole.

The whole point of the party system was to encourage competition and breed outstanding researchers in all areas who are all trying to establish their own networks and circles. However, during Alrith's time there, the nature of the system has began to shift.

There was a single party who has a sole purpose of expansion by any means. At the end of their crusade, they will be the monopoly of the Institute, and no one would be able to be remotely competitive against them. With how the Institute is heading forward, it is inevitable that a party like this will emerge, and it finally happened.

And worse yet, that's where Anozee went. The party is simply named the Party of Power.

With one party falling after another, either with all combatants dead or entire properties surrendered, every one in the institute knew a revolution is coming.

The Open Waters Party prepared for it by temporarily focusing on combat biotechnology for a little while, but as always, they offered Alrith freedom to do what she wanted, and she had planned on an excursion to the other side of the planet then to observe some local predatorial species, and she went.

When she returned, the Open Waters Party was no more, and the Party of Power became the party in power.

Amidst those that are in combat were Anozee, who developed a fascination and specialization in combat biotechnology.

The ruthless kind.

The bodies of Alrith's family has been cleaned away, the living pods in the area recycled, and all that's left was Alrith by herself with the data of the predators with nowhere to process and analyse.

Without saying a word, Alrith returned to the other side of the planet with a singular purpose.

That was the day the Butcher was born.

The rules of the combat is extremely loose, as the restrictions on building and equipment damage essentially limits the scale of the weapons used. And nobody would be stupid enough to give away the advantage by fighting at places away from the newly conquered buildings.

Alrith has spent all of the time observing the apex predators of the planet, and to her surprise, it just wasn't the large animals that she typically expected, or the ferocious snake species that are hidden. Instead, it was nests of drone bugs that are follows the queens, overwhelming the prey with shear numbers and hyper-specialized units, with some secreting chemicals to weaken the shells of the prey while the other attacks either with toxins and mechanical brute force.

If Alrith can find a way to manipulate this precise interaction between the queen and the drones, then those will become the strongest weapons she will have. There will be no building and equipment damage, and Alrith can just choose her target, doting them with the chemical signals and letting the drones do what they are naturally designed to do: Weaken and kill.

However, the task of conquering the nature is not as easy as some might think, though Alrith already thought of how humans once was able to control swarms of drones with a single unit. That's exactly how nanotechnology enhancement work, with a central control unit being implanted into one's brains and the nano-sized drones injected into one's blood stream, which are directly controlled on two different layers. The macro-layer is as a result of the user's intent and focus while the micro-layer is as a result of detection of local tissue damage.

This is exactly as how the queen and drone system works, with the macro-layer being the queen's orders and the micro-layer being the instinctual behaviors of the drones.

From that point onward, Alrith has a few different options. She can choose to either use the drones to somehow control the queen from the inside, or she will create a new queen, order the drones to devour the previous one and take over the entire nest.

It took another three months of research and data collection for Alrith to gather enough biological and chemical data to realize that creating a new queen is way too complicated, so the mission changed course to instead try to control the queens. The nanotechnology drones were injected into the body of a prey while having the core functionalities turned off, and Alrith waited patiently for the nano-sized drones to be fed into the Queen's body to reactivate them.

The coding of the queen's movement to the drones took another week to complete, but it was done with a learning algorithm while Alrith was making some final preparations. When she was finally ready to return, she has already used up fifty nests of the apex predator. Her hand is now stained with blood, just like all of the others, but she didn't care.

It is very easy for someone to justify their actions with lies of a greater purpose, of trying to defeat the party that will ruin many's lives, that how Alrith is actually doing good for the institute. But all she wanted was to just see the Party of Power crumble and lose. She knew exactly what she wanted and what she had to do, so there is no need to justify anything.

When that is done, Alrith will be free. In a sense, she felt like she owed it to those at the Open Waters Party to avenge them on their behalf. But also, she felt like she owed it to herself.

It's not like she hasn't learnt so much in the process.

As she stepped foot on the once territory of the Open Waters Party and declared her challenge as one against all of the combatants of the Party of Power, Anozee has already risen to the higher echelon's of the Party with the combat modifications and support equipment she has been creating.

And then she watched on as Alrith's bugs tore them all apart.

As the last combatant dropped onto the ground, Alrith was preparing to unleash the bugs all throughout the building, but instead, Anozee stood in her way.

'What are you doing?!' Anozee asked, blocking the doorway with her arms, 'the combat is over! You have won!'

'And what does that mean?' Alrith asked, pointing a finger directly at the first person she knew at the Institute, 'will you stop your expansion then? Will you stop trying to play with the rules, and let the other parties do their own thing without you tempering behind the scenes with all of the contracts?'

'The rules dictate that all you have won is this establishment.' Anozee said with a rigid tone, 'nothing more, nothing less.'

'Halt!' Then, as Alrith is preparing to strike down Anozee, a voice came from behind, and the jurisdictional committee of the Institute has finally showed their face. Perhaps they were working with the Party of Power and taking advantage with the surge of contracts, perhaps they were waiting for someone to challenge and win against them or perhaps they just want to enforce the rules that are blatantly being exploited.

Alrith turned around, and waited for the committee president to talk. Instead, he came here to negotiate.

Of course, the actions of the Party of Power is noticed by them, and of course they did nothing for one excuse or another. Alrith couldn't remember what the precise reasoning was, but the result was the expansion of the Party of Power should be suspended indefinitely, and Alrith will obtain back what they took from the Open Waters Party.

This lead to a period of parties challenging the Party of Power as the most powerful combatants were located at the Open Waters Party building as they are preparing to attack a neighboring party. They were all, of course, taken out by Alrith. As the party became severely weakened overnight, the more peripheral parties were able to rally together and fight back against the dominant foe.

Alrith set the drones and the queens free, and she returned to her list of tasks over the next three years. With the Open Waters Party returning to form and the legend of the Butcher protecting them, it grew bigger and bigger and Alrith gave the leadership position to others that are seeking a new belonging while she focused on her research. The focus being combining human and Aquarian biotechnology together.

The two styles of science are inherently different, and yet a combination of the two can alleviate the shortcomings of the two. Human biotechnology emphasized a bottom up approach, starting with the smallest scale mechanisms and attempting to program those, which will lead to changes on much bigger scales. The advantages of human biotech is the simplicity in its understanding, but that simplicity often fail to account for the system level complexity of biological systems. Aquarians approach it from a top down perspective and typically uses entire programmed biological systems to achieve what they want, though it often always ended up being a game of chances.

However, with the looming dark cloud of the final task before graduation, Alrith know that each of the techniques used alone may not be enough for what she wanted to do.

If she wanted to conquer that place like the handful that is sucessful every year, she will need to try something new.