The Time from Before (ON HIATUS)

Signal

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Well, I promised an update.

You see, Mr. Author here is off to join the United States Navy. I don't, won't, and definitely can't write anything during basic, and probably during my schooling. (I'm going into IT, btw.)

In preparation of me heading off to serve my country, I've whipped up three complete chapters to tide you all off for a few months. I hope you guys enjoy them! I've crunched plenty of time for 'em, and I gotta say, I'm gonna fucking miss writing this. It's a lot of fun when you get your characters just the way you want them. 

To any of you reading this, go ahead and write something! But don't humble yourself, expecting fame. I don't, and I couldn't care less if a million people read my work. I only care about one thing: You enjoying what I write. If I enjoy it, why not let others too?

Anyway. This is my farewell for a while. I'll be back, and I'll make absolute sure of it. 

So, as of now,

The Time from Before is OFFICIALLY under hiatus!

Have a good one, and enjoy reading!
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Sitting alone in the dimly lit Control Room, Allen leaned back in his chair, the steady hum of machinery his only company. The myriad of screens before him flickered with images and sensor readings, most of it noise, a digital cacophony filling the space. Yet, within this sea of data, Allen knew there was something vital, a needle hidden in a haystack of electronic static.

His eyes darted between the monitors, the soft glow illuminating his face as he searched for that elusive signal. The rhythmic tapping of his fingers against the console was the only other sound in the room, a counterpoint to the low hum. He rubbed his eyes, feeling the strain of countless hours spent in this metallic cocoon.

Suddenly, a sharp beep cut through the background noise. Allen straightened, his eyes narrowing as he focused on a single screen. "Cv-7, focus on that." He commanded.

The AI's voice, smooth and emotionless, filled the room.

"Analysis complete. Signal identified: Arctos Dominion transmission, emergency broadcast, marked."

The transmission was incredibly corrupted, but it also had redundancy he'd never seen before. Not the contents, but the excessive amount of it. The data just needs to be pieced together.

"Transmission decoding progress marking fifty percent."

Bit by bit, they were getting there. With Cv-7's sheer processing power and Allen's insight into Dominion-related information even the AI didn't have, they made relatively quick work of the decoding process.

Allen leaned closer to the screen, eyes scanning the data. At first, he didn't care about the contents of the message. He wanted to know where it came from. But even with the hundreds of antennas receiving the broadcast both on Earth and at different points in space thanks to multiple Arctos ships hanging about, they couldn't triangulate the signal's direction.

"The broadcast came from multiple directions all at the same time..." Allen muttered, frustration creeping into his voice. "What the hell does that mean?"

"This implies either a deliberate attempt to obfuscate the origin or a significant malfunction in the transmission systems."

With the factor of direction out of the equation, that leaves a few things.

Namely, who, what, and why.

Who sent it, what does the message contain, and why was the message broadcast?

The first one can be answered rather quickly. Just using the auth key found in the metadata of the broadcast itself, Allen found that the key matched the Founder's personal key exactly.