Project Infinix
XXII — Theta 1.0
1. Riding the Sky
- Lisa manages to sneak into a Black Ops airplane carrying a bomb, flying through a canyon.
- She sets off the bomb mid-air, and she throws herself from the plane, and as it looks like she’s sacrificing herself, Luna shows up and takes Lisa.
- Lisa, the Dragon Rider, starts soaring the skies with Luna.
- Lisa and Luna are pursued by Black Ops jets through the canyon, mountains and forests, but they manage to escape.
2—11
- Ana and Lisa find a military base with armored Nyx Bugs with mounted guns that were tamed somehow, revealing that some governments have secretly managed to weaponize Nyx Bugs to use them as part of their artillery.
- This was the main reason Luna was previously captured, and Black Ops are still after her.
- Ana wants to recover Ed’s memories and instantiate a version of him on Infinix.
- They acknowledge that Ed won’t reunite with Ana, but she had already realized that Earth never really was Ed’s true habitat. Infinix was always his home, the world of his dreams, where he was always meant to be; and as long as he was disconnected from Earth, he would find peace, and so would the people of Infinix who need him.
- Ana asks if that’s even possible.
- Jeco says that some years ago, clones were patched into Infinix as part of Project Nyx Hominini.
- This worries Lisa.
Jeco
- Clones were enhanced versions of Nyx Miners, retaining their attributes but with augmented abilities. However, they would not retain memories nor consciousness, but those are what really drives the power of a Miner. Ed was one of those who managed to overpower his clone, because of what was driving him at the moment.
- Lisa reveals that that was the moment she first knew about Ed’s existence, as she witnessed the clones getting released, and one of their targets was a test subject. She says that the experiment was considered a failure, because the scientists thought that enhancing their abilities and increasing Nyx Energy output would perfect a Nyx Miner, but what they didn’t know is that nothing overpowers the human consciousness and its will to fight.
- Ana asks if those missing retentions could be plugged in. Jeco says that memories and conscience of Nyx Miners have revealed to be dangerously vulnerable, as some managed to get hijacked. So yes, as long as the data exists, it can be uploaded.
- However, Infinix’ connection to Earth is offline; therefore, it needs to go back online, and restoring the connection requires direct access to the Kernel, and none of the 24 data centers allows such access.
- Lisa shows some Project files she had gathered and kept for herself, revealing a 25th data center, which is said to host the Kennel, but its location is a mystery.
- Ana asks Dreamers for their help.
- Kali faces Lisa and unleashes her abilities, revealing herself as one of the twelve test subjects from Project Nyx Hominini.
Kali
@Black Ops Athena
In Greek mythology, Athena is the goddess of wisdom, strategy, warfare (in its disciplined, defensive form), crafts, and civilization. Born fully grown and armored from the head of Zeus, she embodies intelligence, justice, and practical skill. Athena is often depicted with a helmet, spear, and shield (sometimes bearing the Gorgon’s head), and she is closely associated with the city of Athens, which took her name in honor of her protection and guidance.
- Kali was aware of Lisa’s sleeper agent, and she managed to wake it up through the bird of paradise crypt, turning her against Luna.
- Theo shows up and faces Kali, and they remember each other.
- Ana protects Luna from Lisa, and Theo snaps her out of her sleeper agent.
- Luna befriends Ana.
- A huge army of Black Ops agents shows up to arrest everyone, mainly Luna.
12. Asymptotic Circle
- Dozens of Dreamers show up with guns and surround Black Ops, who get outnumbered and eventually let everyone go.
- Some Dreamers tell Ana and Lisa that they have some information regarding the main server of Infinix and where they must head to.
- They say that a scientist from the Theta data center is waiting for Ana and Lisa alone, who must deliver him a chip.
- The Dreamers hand them the chip, labeled with “Θ” (theta symbol), and say that they must fly to Mount Olympus, Greece.
13. Road to Olympus
- Luna takes Ana and Lisa, who bring Ed’s sword, to the facility inside Mount Olympus which supposedly contains the Theta data center.
- As they enter the facility at the mountain’s base through the coast (altitude of 0 meters), they notice there are eight labeled floors (“Α” (alpha) at the top, “Β” (beta) is the one they’re currently in, which is above “Γ”, “Δ”, “Ε”, “Ζ”, “Η” and “Θ”).
14—16
- As Ana and Lisa go through each floor, they don’t seem to find anything interesting, not even related to Infinix.
- Once they reach the Θ floor, they find a computer where they can plug the chip in.
- The chip is plugged in, containing an executable file, which they run.
17. The Spire
- All lights turn on, and some doors are open, revealing that they’re indeed in the Theta data center.
- The scientist is released from a room he was locked in.
- His name is Pyxis, and he says he’s been waiting for the two of them. He recognizes Orion’s sword, Lisa as Artemis, and he says that Ana really does look like “her”.
- Pyxis seems quite extroverted, and he’s excited to reveal the “rabbit hole”.
- He also says he used to work with Alpha Ed.
- The scientist is released from a room he was locked in.
- Ana and Lisa discover the location of the main Infinix server - Earth’s core.
- The retrieved data reveals that the data center is sitting on top of an underground facility, called “Spire”, and they also get a map, which seems to connect the place they’re in with the Core, and it really does reach down to 6371 km deep, divided into 17 sections, continuing the eight floors above them - “Θ” to “Ω” (omega) and then the Core - ”∞”, however each section is hundreds of kilometers deep.
- It seems impossible how Earth was managed to be pierced to its core, but the Spire seems to be the part result of years of gathering technology from the future by Alpha Ed during Infinix’ development.
18. Purple Rain
- As they go down, the facility seems to be covered with amethyst veins, vugs and clusters in the walls and what seems to be “wormhole matter”, and the facility itself seems to be blending in with a parallel dimension. The deeper they go, the more they blend in, and gravity gets weird.
- It seems that the only way to counter the gravity, pressure, and temperature of Earth’s interior was to pave its way through a bearable environment.
- Communication with the surface can’t be reached as everything seems to be extremely isolated and radio-frequencies are clashing.
19. Clashing Frequencies
- Their radios seem to be playing weird hearings, and according to Pyxis, they’re capturing signals from the future. However, strangely, Ana and Lisa seem to be listening to different things.
- Ana hears Ed’s voice, and Lisa hears monstrous roars.
20. Age of Gaia
- Pyxis reveals that the host of Gaia didn’t begin with Alpha Ed. As the personification of life, Gaia’s origin lies in Ed’s earliest antecessor, passed during human evolution to the first offspring of each iteration (unless it dies before a successor, who becomes its sibling).
- He says that Alpha Ed managed to use Infinix to instantiate multiple iterations of the host, after failing to protect his firstborn.
- As they keep going down, they see drawings in the walls, resembling Paleolithic art from cavemen.
- These drawings seem to be glowing purple as they seem to be amethyst veins carved in the walls.
- These drawings feature the host of Gaia fighting giant monsters, surrounded by rifts in the background; some monsters are emerging from these rifts.
Pyxis
- From the Ages of Gods to the Ages of Man from the last 300 thousand years, over the course of history, spoils of war have forced mankind to face their sins and fight the monsters who came to judge them.
- Records revealed these as forces of nature, history depicted them as large animals from the top of the food chain, religion wrote them as demons, and myths sculpted them as monsters.
- The deeper they go, the drawings seem to represent a time-lapse from ancient times, enriched with Greek mythology:
- Age of Gaia - featuring the original host - Gaia, Uranus, the Titans, the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires.
Gaia
Pyxis
- In the beginning of creation, Gaia brought forth Uranus as her firstborn. He became her consort, and together they produced powerful children: the Titans, the Cyclops and the Hecatoncheires.
Uranus
In Greek mythology, Uranus (Ouranos) is the primordial god of the sky and the personification of the heavens. Born from Gaia or alongside her, he became her consort and fathered the Titans, the Cyclopes, and the Hecatoncheires. Uranus ruled as the first sky-king, but his fear of his powerful children led him to imprison them within Gaia, causing her great pain.
Titans
The Titans are the powerful second generation of divine beings, born from Gaia (Earth) and Uranus (Sky). They ruled during the age before the Olympian gods. The core group, known as the Twelve Titans, included figures such as Kronos, Rhea, Oceanus, Hyperion, Iapetus, and Themis.
Cyclopes
The Cyclopes were primordial giants born from Gaia and Uranus. This first generation of Cyclopes - Brontes, Steropes, and Arges - were craftsmen of immense strength, each possessing a single large eye in the center of their forehead.
Hecatoncheires
The Hecatoncheires (“Hundred-Handed Ones”) are three gigantic primordial beings - Briareus, Cottus, and Gyges - each possessing fifty heads and one hundred arms. Born from Gaia and Uranus, they embody overwhelming strength and elemental chaos.
- Age of Uranus - Uranus is the next host of Gaia as her firstborn.
Uranus
Pyxis
- Uranus feared some of their children, especially the Cyclopes and the Hecatoncheires. Afraid of their monstrous power, he imprisoned them in Tartarus.
Tartarus
Tartarus is both a primordial deity and a deep abyss beneath the underworld. It serves as a place of punishment for the wicked and as a prison for the Titans after the Titanomachy. Tartarus represents the darkest depths of the cosmos, embodying divine retribution, confinement, and the boundaries of the ordered universe.
- Gaia resolved to end Uranus’s cruelty. She crafted a great adamantine scythe, a divine cutting tool, and asked her Titan sons to help overthrow their father.
- Only Kronos had the courage to agree.
- Kronos castrated his father Uranus, separating Sky from Earth forever.
Kronos's scythe
Kronos’s scythe (also depicted as a sickle or adamantine blade) is the weapon Gaia gave to her son Kronos to overthrow Uranus. Fashioned from unbreakable adamant, the scythe allowed Kronos to ambush his father and sever the bond between Earth and Sky, ending Uranus’s rule.
The scythe symbolizes rebellion, the violent cycle of succession among the gods, and the shift from the primordial age to the age of the Titans. It also foreshadows Kronos’s own downfall, since Zeus would later rise against him just as he had risen against Uranus.
- Golden Age - Kronos is the next host of Gaia, which cannot be inherited from offspring imprisoned in Tartarus, which was the case for Kronos’s older siblings.
Kronos
Pyxis
- The blood that fell on Gaia gave rise to:
- The Erinyes - who embody punishment and vengeance on men,
- The Giants - who embody great strength, aggression and great size,
- And the Meliae - who embody and take shape of nature.
- The Golden Age begins - the first and most idyllic era of humanity, a time of perfect peace, harmony, and abundance. Under the rule of Kronos, humans lived without toil, suffering, or aging, and the earth provided for all their needs without labor. It was an age free of conflict, governed by justice and natural order.
- However, terrified of the precedent where sons overthrow fathers to take the host, Kronos imprisons each child born to him in Tartarus. Now the precedent is also present in preventing the next generation from coming into the world, also committed by Uranus.
- Gaia and Rhea save one of Kronos’s son, Zeus, from being imprisoned, becoming the next host, and later freeing his siblings.
- Titanomachy - the Titans, led by Kronos, clash with the Olympians, led by Zeus, ending in an Olympian victory, and in the imprisonment of Titans, including Kronos, in Tartarus by Zeus.
- Silver Age - following the same precedent, Zeus is the next host of Gaia, for his siblings were imprisoned in Tartarus during his birth.
Zeus
Pyxis
- As Kronos is overthrown by Zeus, the Golden Age comes to an end, giving way to the declining Ages of Man.
- During the Silver Age, ruled by Zeus, humans became foolish, impious and immature, foreshadowing the lust for war in the following ages.
- While Zeus holds the host of Gaia, Kronos becomes the host of his new realm - Tartarus.
Kronos
21. Age of Man
- Ana, Lisa, and Pyxis keep going down while observing the next drawings.
- Ages of Man:
Pyxis
- The host of Gaia is eventually passed to humans across generations.
- 300.000 BCE - homo sapiens rise - cavemen, including the host of Gaia, point and throw spears at monsters.
- 5000 BCE - Stone Age - bows and arrows are wielded by another host and others, who also wield stone axes and wooden shields.
- 2000 BCE - Bronze Age - Egyptians fight with bronze swords and daggers and chariots.
Pyxis
- During the Bronze Age, humans are violent, destructive and obsessed with war. Although it preceded the Heroic Age where morality was briefly lifted, it didn’t last long.
- 1000 BCE - Iron Age - Greeks bear arms with iron swords, spears and armor and siege weapons.
Pyxis
- During the Iron Age, humans face miserable labor, corruption and injustice.
- 100 BCE - Roman gladiators conquer.
- 1000 CE - Middle Ages - English knights rise.
- 1600 - Age of Gunpowder - gunpowder weapons emerge, along with cannons and naval warfare.
- 1900 - Industrial Era - rifled barrels surge, along with machine guns and high explosives.
- 1915 - World War I - Alpha Ed’s father, host of Gaia, fights for the Allies.
- 1945 - World War II - Alpha Ed witnesses his firstborn, host of Gaia, getting shot.
- 1960 - Cold War - Alpha Ed witnesses the detonation of the Tsar Bomba.
- Project Infinix Gamma, Delta and Epsilon branches - rifts and Titans are witnessed by Ed’s iterations.
- Project Infinix Zeta branch - Zeta Ed witnesses rifts in Zetania and in the Underworld, and he battles the Water and Air Titans.
- Lisa seems to be quite reserved, quiet and sometimes frozen during her observations, as if she’s having some cryptic flashbacks.
22. Memories of the Future
Pyxis
- Now here’s the fun part. It’s been years since the last time I’ve been here, so what follows may have changed.
Ana
- This is… the future?
Pyxis
- It sure is!
- What’s even more bizarre, is that what you’re seeing may be different for me. What lies ahead is influenced by our own fate.
- Ana says that she’s seeing stars exploding, galaxies colliding, black holes forming and a male silhouette of light.
Ana
- Ed?
- Lisa is frozen and she looks dead inside, but the reflex on her glasses features a huge number of monsters emerging from the rifts. Her future looks quite dark.
Pyxis
- Hold up… Something is odd…
- That’s it? No more entries?
- In the last time I’ve here, entries kept going all the way down.
- Could this mean that… no… it can’t be!
- Pyxis says that future branches of Infinix were described in the entries that seem to be missing.
Pyxis
- The Theta branch, the other branches… the portals, the merging, the final release…
Ana
- Portals? Merging? What are you talking about?
Pyxis
- Your future isn’t as bright as it should be, as it seems.
- It’s all part of the Founder’s roadmap.
- The Gamma branch will feature pass-through portals, so Nyx entities may launch a large invasion on Earth, other future branches will feature transferring Infinix atmospheric characteristics to Earth, and eventually merging Earth with Infinix, as a unified “Nyxformed” Earth.
- Ana doesn’t support at all what Pyxis is saying and points him Ed’s sword.
Ana
- Nyxformed?
Pyxis
- Humans aren’t the only ones who must adapt to the system; the whole Earth must adapt to the system’s entities as well.
- Actually, you’re looking at a nyxformation right now. This whole wormhole matter along the Spire is in a superposition state, and it’s what’s merging Earth with Infinix.
- But save your efforts. As it seems, the future I’ve seen is gone, for we have reached the “end of file”. The future has been changed, and Zeta Ed might now have been his last iteration and the last host of Gaia.
- Ana says that that means that Ed’s bloodline must not end, so he must be respawned.
- Lisa looks worried.
23. Singularity
- They reach what seems to be the deepest point of the facility, and according to their map, they seem to have reached the core, but it looks like a dead end, as they only notice that the floor they’re standing on seems to be made of basalt.
- Lisa detects a huge flow of Nyx Energy below their feet.
- Ana uses Ed’s sword to pierce a hole in the floor, which seems to be the outer matrix rock of a giant amethyst geode.
- This geode seems to be the main server room, a hollow sphere with inverted gravity and a floor made of amethyst crystals.
- The server is shelled with a huge amethyst cluster.
- Lisa says that something feels off as she has a bad feeling about everything.
Lisa
- How can the missing entries mean that Ed must be respawned? If the scheduled future was the end of Gaia, how should we expect it to be changed if respawning Ed was already part of our scheduled plans?
- Ana doesn’t know what to say, but she decides to stick to the plan.
- Ana pierces the sword in the amethyst cluster, connecting it to the server.
- Infinix is back online.
24. Respawn
- Omega Ed reincarnates on Infinix as an NPC with his hosting consciousness, as well as the memories of all his past iterations.
Omega Ed
Broadcast Miner omega#0237edff
- A dimensional breach opens to send Luna back to the system.
- The communication between Earth and Infinix crashes, and GCC loses contact with Ed.
- Ana, Lisa and Pyxis feel an earthquake.
- The fourth channel from Lisa’s debugger starts flickering intensely.
- They return to the surface and notice the rifts in the sky getting brighter.
- The rifts in the sky start opening, and so do rifts that appear on the ground as well, where millions of unknown Titan entities (5 to 50 meters tall) start emerging from, and they don’t seem to be from Infinix.
- Each Titan’s body seems to be based on some kind of element - Copper, Silver, Gold, Uranium, etc.
- Titans are extremely fierce as they trample people and destroy buildings with a single punch. Panic emerges once again.
- Kronos releases Rui back to Infinix.
Kronos
- Your time is up. We’ll take it from here.