I am a soldier of the New Conglomerate. One of the first, actually. In my younger days, I was a technician for the Republic, but then again, who wasn't? I worked under the command of General Skylla on the Searhus project. You didn't know about the Seahus project? Nobody else did either.

About a year before the wormhole closed and the war broke out, the supply convoys from the homeworld had already started becoming less and less frequent. Although we had managed to activate and reverse engineer the nanites' construction protocols, this mode of construction relied on the unpredictable steam of free floating nanites in the atmosphere. They were still highly dependent upon regular supply drops from the homeworld. The future, which the people once entrusted to the wisdom of the Republic, was uncertain to the colonists for the first time in their lives.

Skylla had been on seven continental expeditions by that time. His surveys provided rich data on the flow of nanites across the crystalline pathways beneath each continent and formed the foundation of the Continental Lattice initiative. Skylla relied on only one man throughout his career. Anaxamander was one of the first scientists to arrive on Auraxis. His understanding of nanosentience and dimensional constructs were critical to the survival of humanity on Auraxis.

Using the data that Skylla had retrieved, Anax, as I called him, had developed a distributed network across the planet to maintain a reliable flow of nanites through all continents. In many ways, the lattice resembled an electrical circuit, and so it was necessary to use a continent to serve as the circuit's ground. Of all of them, Oshur was the only continent whose crystal infrastructure could support this application.

Anax was a good man. He worked tirelessly to provide for the humans stranded on Auraxis by extending our knowledge and application of Ancient technology. The homeworld was ready to forsake us, and he was just fine with that. A lot of us were.

The Searhus project was Anax's answer to our troubles. By this time, we already had a stable lattice circuit. But we had not really gone past its primary military application yet. If we were to truly make this world our home, we had to learn how it functioned. Although the trees and the grass all appeared, felt and smelled organic, we were unable to harvest any vegetation from the world or grow our own crops. We could generate food from the lattice terminals, but it tasted artificial and foul.

Anax had located a singularity over Searhus that he believed he could open and allow travel to another planet. He had hoped that it would lead to the world of the Ancients so that we could unlock the secrets of this technology and find a way to make Auraxis our own. And so began the construction of the Searhus portal. Sounds like a great beginning to new frontiers, right? This is where the story ends.

"What do you mean this won't go to the homeworld?" Skylla bellowed at me.

"Listen, man..." I replied.

"Listen, SIR." Skylla hated having his authority questioned. I think that's why I questioned it so much.

"I'm not enlisted," I said back with a wink, "I'm just telling you what Dr. Anax said at this morning's briefing. He believes that this singularity will open up to a number of different points in the galaxy, but the homeworld isn't one of them."

"Then why are we wasting our time? We have one goal in being here: to protect the sovereignty of the Republic."

"How does opening another wormhole endanger that?"

"Do you know what they say about us back home? They've classified us as Dead to the Empire.' Space exploration was risk-free until we discovered an alien civilization, which possesses technology that we are nowhere near. If we ever want to be allowed home, we can't go opening the door to that risk again."

"Can't say I care if we get back to the homeworld. At least here, we have a chance to determine our own future. Sure, it was comfortable being provided for, but don't you appreciate the opportunity to make your own decisions for a change?"

"You're not a soldier."

That was all he had to say. Even today, I can't help but feel for the soldiers of the Republic. Enlisted at the age of 10, they are taught fierce loyalty and live for only one goal: to ultimately die in the service of humanity. Being here on Auraxis challenged the military philosophy. Many of them had died to serve humanity, often in gruesome ways, and yet they lived again. After a lifetime of conflict, the soldiers looked forward to peace that they couldn't have. Getting away from the lattice was the only way they could have that.

We were both surprised to hear Dr. Anax's voice from behind me say, "Even still, the young man does have a point, Commander."

"I'm not interested in debating ideology, scientist," replied the Commander.

"Of course. The Republic doesn't allow you to develop that interest. But it has abandoned us. You'll see. Soon, their support will be gone. We have to embrace what we have, the planet, the technology. And if we can find the Ancients, we may be able to use it all to improve the lives we are now given."

"Like your engineers have? Turning alien mining equipment into weapons? There's no wildlife on this planet. Who do they intend to use them on?"

"And now the judgment begins, eh, Commander? Let's save that for another time. We have work to do.

"As Root has already told you," Anax continued, "the singularity opens up to roughly a dozen different points in space across the galaxy. We can open it from here on Searhus, but it will require an unusual amount of energy."

"I got that covered," I said, "I've been working on a plan to temporarily reroute the lattice pathways, making Searhus the ground. Simulations indicate that this would be safe as long as we restore the power flow to Oshur within a year. The problem is, once we close it, it doesn't look like we'll be able to open the singularity a second time."

"But perhaps once is all we need," replied Anax.

"You call rerouting a planetary power grid safe? What happens if we can't route it back to Oshur?" asked the Commander.

"I won't lie to you. There is considerable risk... we are starting to learn the nature of this planet, being a construct itself and not a natural body. By rerouting the flow of nanites through different warpgates, we are initiating a major fourth dimensional shift across all continents. There's no other way to say this, but it's very likely that we would destroy the planet."

"And... my soldiers would die," said Skylla under his breath as he contemplated the fate of final death for the first time in years.

"Sir," I said in a respectful tone to better influence Skylla, "the people agree that it is more desirable to risk our fate to the stars than to continue waiting on a master that has abandoned us."

Skylla straightened into his military stance, "Agreed. My men have no love for this world and departure would be best for all concerned. When will we begin rerouting?"

I smiled. I actually smiled at the man and replied, "I'm all set up, Sir. I just need Doctor Anax to provide the correct settings so that we can reroute back to Oshur if we need to."

"It will take me about twelve hours, Commander," said Anax.

"Fine. Root, meet Doctor Anaxamander and me at the west outpost tower at 0700."

"Understood, Sir. And thank you."

At 0600, I finished the last safety checks on the temporary lattice pathways. Commander Skylla radioed me, "Root, the doctor's work is finished. Go ahead and begin the rerouting and then head for the tower."

"Roger that, Sir. With any luck, we'll be moving into a new home by sundown."

"Of course. With any luck," replied Skylla.

It was quiet when I arrived at the tower. The door opened and I saw a trail of blood leading down the stairs. I rushed down to find Anax crumpled in front of a matrixing tube. His shirt was ripped and covered with blood. When I opened it, I saw the large jagged gash in his chest that could only have been made by a chainblade. He was already dead.

I could feel Skylla standing behind me by this time. "The scientist never matrixed. He won't be coming back. He understood the value of mortality all too well."

I turned and backed away from him, "But, Sir... why? The power is already rerouted. Without Anax, we may not be able to restore the lattice in time."

"That's exactly why! If humanity is going to die for coming to this planet, we're going to die as one Empire, under one flag! I swear to you, I won't allow us to sink into anarchy on worlds even further from Earth or serve a new alien master!"

His faced then sagged. He knelt down next to Anax and placed his hand across the dead scientist's shoulder, "And my men will finally know mortal peace."

I had never matrixed before either, but there was no way I was going to let this planet be my final resting place. With Skylla's back turned to me, I drew my AMP and unloaded it into his back. I entered the spawn tube and rematrixed at the AMS I kept near the portal construction site. Now, with my pattern imprinted into the planet, I could begin work on rerouting the power flow back to Oshur. I couldn't let humanity down by dying and taking all my knowledge and data with me.

I joined a commune hidden in the swamps of Hossin. Over time, we formed alliances with other clans and militias in a conglomeration of dissident factions who found the old Empire to be corrupt. In secret, I continued my work to restore the lattice and return stability to the planet. I've tried several times, unsuccessfully, to restore the lattice pathways. Over time, my achievements have become bolder. Beginning with a simple link on Cyssor, I moved on to making bolder changes that affected the global lattice. But I still could not restore Oshur's position in the hub.

When the Bending occurred, the singularity opened independently and scattered the continents across the galaxy. While I was relieved that humanity survived this event, I was not confident that the danger from the lattice reroute was over. It was a great opportunity for me to gather data and gain a better understanding of the underlying principles of nanopotential transfer.

I'm confident that I can restore the Oshur cluster as the circuit ground by spawning the monoliths. Many of the instructions I will be sending will conflict with the Central Core Complex, and our enemies may be able to manipulate the balance of power during these events. But the alternative is the end of humanity on Auraxis. But just as I decided many years ago, choosing this risk is better than resigning my fate to another.