Noi sat looking out across the expanse of the great Pax desert. It was a bright day, unusual that the clouds of smog and pollution that normally covered the empire seemed to be somewhere else today
“I wonder if it will ever grow again?” She said out loud to no one in particular.
Her body was mostly cybernetic after years of implants and reconstruction. she clanked and gleamed in the bright sun as she strode across the desert. She controlled a vast population of peoples of all races. The billion voices, she remembered an old friend once calling them that. She thought it quaint that that particular estimate had long ago been passed. She watched as a group of Arkane sat idle from mining below the surface. She thought about the ever present green lands to the north that she envied.
“I wonder if it will work?” she thought to herself, still walking the desert.
1 week earlier
Noi sat in a conference attended by the topmost Hive researchers. They had promised her something that would cover the world in the Hive. She had expected them to show of a new weapon, or perhaps a new jump gate that would allow them to re-connect the abandoned planets of the empire. What she was looking at was shocking.
“As you can see Miss Noi, there is a strong current of raw energy that encircles the planet. We had first assumed it to be a form of dark energy that we could harvest for the singularity drives of the fleet, but we noticed it wavered in intesity at certain times. It seems that it was already being tapped.” A young human female researcher explained to Noi. “We could not figure out what was going on, but we traced the source back to what appeared to be a low power mage…” She let the gravity of what they had discovered hang over the room.
Noi asked “We have discovered MAGIC?! That seems ridiculous. No Pax has ever been able to access the mana streams. Even those who were assimilated from the Kandorese lost the ability when assimilated.”
The researcher smiled “Yes, it seems impossible, but there it is. We have had minor success in using the energy for small experiments.” She frowned now “However, we may have been noticed. We are unsure of the full effects of using the energy. We have no idea who may be watching us as we dip our toes into this new ocean…”
Noi walked through the desert. What had been proposed was extreme, even for the Pax. She would assimilate the energy source into the Hive, or at least try. The researchers predicted that it would open up the possibility of Pax mages. Noi shuddered at that thought. She hated mages, because it was something the Pax could never have… Or so she had thought. What would it be like, connecting an entire culture to the energy… She might as well think of it in the old terms… Mana… Could the Pax use it, or would it destroy them?