It was the morning an hour before the update. The citadels were in an uproar — most of them at least. In under an hour they would be able to explore the vastness of the universe and find other lifeforms, but that is not what has them all riled up. In under an hour, the other lifeforms could find them, hidden in the darkness and shade of planets.
The citadel of Teddys was preparing a welcoming party for all their new friends and singing.
***
"We work and we love and we live for each other~!" Hundreds of Teddys were singing, the whole citadel was filled with noise.
Captain Teddy was up on the bridge and shouting commands at the other Teddys, not because Captain Teddy was mean or anything, she was a sweetheart, but because the singing was so loud that she had to shout.
"Everything ready?" She shouted: "The rockets filled up and are the coordinates set?"
Pilot Teddy shouted back: "Yes, captain Teddy." She saluted with a smile decorating her cute lips. "Everything is set and ready to go."
"Fantastic." Captain Teddy whispered. She turned her gaze out the laser window into the deepness and darkness of space.
Before them — Captain Teddy, Pilot Teddy and all those Teddys manning the bridge — they saw the vastness of the universe. The beautiful colors of the many different galaxies awaiting their arrival. It was a picture to behold.
With a heavy sigh and a bow to the rest of her crew Captain Teddy walked on to the elevator to exit the bridge. She went down to the lower districts, filled with deadly fumes and half broken pipes making sounds which are not very reassuring that the ship will last very long.
The lower districts were usually left alone on command from Captain Teddy, so it was rather empty. A few noises made by living creatures could be heard by the captain. Those noises were made by a creature the captain kept down there.
Captain Teddy walked down a dark and smelly corridor. Besides her one could imagine rats and mice scurrying around, but there were none. Besides the Teddys there was only one other creature on the citadel.
Captain Teddy hurried around a few corners, drawing out a pattern which opened up a secret passageway. Hurrying into the passage before it closed she started walking slowly again.
After half a minute she stopped in front of a ginormous cage. She stared into the darkness waiting for the creature to wake up. "Wake up, please." She said with a stern voice: "You should be awake now, we may need you to protect us in an hour."
Suddenly there was a loud dragging noise, as if something huge dragged its own body behind themselves. "You do not own me." It said in a dark and menacing tone.
Captain Teddy could just barely make out a head staring at her out of the darkness.
"You are nothing. This world was made for them, not you." It said and cackled.
Captain Teddy furrowed her brow: "Who are them?" Her question echoed through the dark halls. The creature cackled even louder and Captain Teddy started shouting: "Who are THEM?" Her hand banged against the walls.
The cackling grew fainter as Captain Teddy turned around and stormed towards the exit as the creature spoke again: "Even if I wanted to protect you from them, every citadel has one of my kind and they have hundreds of me. You are doomed." And with those words echoing through the halls Captain Teddy left the secret passageway, closing the doors behind her, not to be found by anyone but her.
Once Captain Teddy had reached the bridge once more, she had put on her usual smile.
"Everything is ready and the countdown is almost at zero." One of the Teddys told her.
All of their eyes — the eyes of those on the bridge and the eyes of every Teddy on board the citadel — was glued to the countdown.
5…
4…
3…
2…
1…
INITIATING UPDATE
***
There was a lot happening on the citadels which contained living Teddys. They were alive and preparing to make new friends throughout the universe with all the other citadels.
On the citadels containing the 2 main reasons for this simulation — citadel 6 and citadel 7 — they were getting ready. The citadel with a little below fifty thousand lukas clones was preparing their engines and trying to find weapons anywhere hidden, as they had been too lazy and stupid to prepare anything, all they did was push it further and further into the future each day. And now it is too late.
Citadel 7 — containing one hundred thousand max clones — was preparing their shields and camouflage system, which they developed over the entire year, as humans get tired and the citadel is ginormous.
They outfitted the citadel with hexagonal plates which they could flip over at any given point in time. One side of each plate was a giant mirror, while the other side was made of a new material which they just called steel+. It was only a little bit more robust and sturdy than regular steel.
The Max clones did not trust anything outside their citadel, well, they did not even truly trust each other. Once they would be able to move, their plan is to hide in the asteroid belt closest to the center of the universe they were in and just watch what happens.
***
"Morning, J3091." Said one Max clones, carrying their books to safety into the vault. He was hurrying and was not waiting for a reply before storming away.
The seventh citadel had assigned themselves a letter and name so they would not get confused. It took them the whole year, but they still got confused or made mistakes. Each letter — from A to Y — got a color assigned and a number from 1 to 4000. The letters were not hard, as they printed them on each side of the suits they made, while the color-coding for the letters was a little harder to memorise.
"Good morning, D182." J3091 answered. He was also hurrying, not making sure his reply reached D182. Then he came across a group that was taking a break from their hard work, drinking coffee and talking about things that crossed their minds: "The captain asked for you, A24. It sounded urgent." J3091 told them and almost fell to the ground due to exhaustion.
A24 nodded: "Sure thing. Going to the bridge right away." And he walked away towards the elevators.
"You good, J3091?" One of them asked. He put his cup down and helped J3091 into the seat A24 left and another one served him a cup. "Slow and steady." He said, patting him on the shoulder.
J3091's breath relaxed and he could talk once more: "Thank you!" He muttered and took a sip of the coffee. "Eh! That is way too bitter. Did you not put any sugar in this?" He complained and scanned the table for the sugar and milk.
"Well, we did not know your tastes, so we just let you do that." One of them said.
"We are the same person with the same taste, asshole." He answered him, "Go fuck yourself."
"Glady." The reply came without a moment of time in between the reply and the insult, "Want to help me with that? We are the same person after all." He took a sip of coffee and smiled weirdly at J3091.
On the bridge A24 just walked out of the elevator: "Here I am."
"Finally, it took you long enough." The captain said. His number was A1. "There is a weird sound coming from the lower districts and, fearing another citadel was able to move early and has attacked us, we send a group of armed policemen down there. They still aren't back. I want you to call your squad and go look for them." He said with a glance over his shoulder and a tired expression.
"Right away, captain." He answered and was already entering the elevator he just left.
"And be quick. The update is in half an hour." The captain shouted towards him.
A little over 10 minutes later A24 and his squad of trained Max clones was going down the stairs to the lower districts. They had to avoid the elevators down there, if there really was an enemy, it would surely wait there or set a trap.
Armor strapped around their bodies and weapons pointed down the staircase they advanced into the lower districts. The only thing illuminated were the points they pointed their guns at, due to the flashlights strapped to them.
The group left the staircase and entered the floor on which the first group had lost contact. They advanced, their shoulders almost touching the walls.
The group on the left wall ducked down and rolled into the first room they came across, their flashlights slowly scanning the room. After they were sure nobody was inside they talked: "First room left, clear!"
They left the room and locked the door, so nobody could hide in there who was not in there already.
A few more silent minutes later, having reached the 20% mark they found a small gun. "What is this?" A24 whispered, "We found a weapon." He slowly lowered his gun and took the gun from the ground and examined it. "There is blood on the gun." He put the gun into a bag he carried on his belt and continued.
They followed an almost invisible trail of blood into a small room. They were sure it was a trap, but came in anyways. On the far left corner of the room, one Max of the first group was sitting, his gun pointed at the door and his stomach was ripped open. One could see his organs and blood was covering the ground and walls beneath him. One of his arms was wrapped around his stomach and his breathing was heavy.
A24 put his gun onto his back and hurried over. "Are you alright?" He asked, unsure about what he has to do. "How are you still alive?" He muttered and lowered his head towards the mouth of the injured one, trying to hear any type of answer. He was not breathing, this… was a corpse. A moving corpse.
He jumped up, trying to leave the room, sprinting as fast as he could: "Run!"
Then the corpse stood up as if strings were attached to his joints which held him above the floor and started shooting at the squad. The first second, before their brain had processed the command, a handful of them were shot, dropping dead like flies.
A24 rolled outside the room and threw a grenade at the corpse. It exploded, but the moment it did, the new corpses started moving. Unsure if they just survived the bullets which hit them or if whatever that was was trying to control them A24 started blasting them apart, making sure not to leave even one bullet he carried in his gun or in his bags.
The corpses stopped moving and smoke was rising from the red glowing tip of his guns. "Get out. Fast! We have to quarantine this floor." He said and hurried out of the floor with his squad.
On the stairs they paused, having blocked off the door. Their breathing was heavy and the sweat was running down their skin. A24 continued: "I will tell the captain what we found."
He hurried upwards and, after he had almost reached the top he heard guns firing down the stairs and screams echoing upwards. He ignored them: "Sorry." and continued into the elevators and entering the bridge.
"What did you find? Where is you squad?" The Captain asked, his voice shaky because A24 was sweating bullets and he looked like he had seen a ghost. "What did you find?"
"Zombies… or… something was controlling the corpses. Making them attack us." He said, breathing in deep once before continuing: "I don't know how many survived. We tried blocking it off but… I think it had another way." Then he passed out onto the floor.
The captain, annoyed, turned his attention back towards the countdown.
2…
1…
"Shit." He whispered.
INITIATING UPDATE