title: A Solution on Multiple Levels aliases: [] tags: [FA] author: [ArgentVZ] id: [27968400] date: 星期五, 八月 26日 2022, 10:48:43 上午 modified: 星期三, 八月 31日 2022, 10:26:35 上午

[TOC]

A Solution on Multiple Levels

Author: ArgentVZ Source: A Solution on Multiple Levels

The dragon gingerly set down his newest acquisition, taking some care to not bump the thick disc too much as he deposited it on the hardwood floor. Even so, the container got a slight jolt as it dropped the last half-inch to the floor from his fingers. Dominic shrugged, assuming that it could take the light bump. Having already plugged it in, he gingerly flicked the gadget’s thin power switch with a clawtip. The dragon then straightened, skeptically eying the ‘device’ one last time before he slid forward in his chair, shrouding the underside of his desk in darkness.

It’d been branded as a “Wi-Fi signal booster” when he’d bought it at the specialty electronics store a few hours earlier. Made from “Human technology captured during the War,” the device was “guaranteed to improve your Internet experience by 300%!” Even the thickest of people would know that it was all marketing; however, Dominic was still hopeful. Intermittent disconnections had plagued him for weeks, and none of the dozen-or-so proposed solutions he’d tried had worked. As such, he’d jumped on this rather niche product, the good reviews from friends and online bloggers tamping down his usual skepticism—and making its high price point somewhat more palatable.

Luckily, it seemed to give a strong first impression. To his rather pleasant surprise, it seemed to have automatically set itself up. His network connection strength was full—a rarity—and a speed test did in fact confirm that he was getting better performance than before. Dominic rumbled, equally satisfied and surprised, and set off to browsing.

The latest in the most recent series of earthquakes rocked the city, sending products tumbling from store shelves and setting off car alarms for miles around. Earlier in the day, the first few quakes had knocked the city’s automated power plants offline. However, not even these hardships truly bothered the hardy colonists. Even this was far better than living in one of the crowded slums they’d left behind on their home planet.

While their world and its multiple intelligent species had each faced their own major issues, humanity’s was arguably the worst. Rampant reproduction and a near century-long peace with their draconic neighbors had mean that their population had exploded. At first, it was helpful. Their people had been cut down by the thousands during the War, and they needed fresh blood to maintain their existence. But as the number of humans climbed the strain on their resources soon became too great to bear.

It’s where the colonization initiatives had come in. Through multiple science partnerships with their onetime enemy, the two races had moved forward with interplanetary colonization at an unprecedented rate. Within a matter of decades, planets were discovered and surveyed, fabricators and their transports were launched, and entire cities were built from scratch on the new worlds’ surfaces.

The colonies had been awaiting occupants for almost two years by the time the first manned ships departed Earth. Tens of thousands for each world were placed into cryostasis and shuttled along, crossing thousands of lightyears in a matter of months, only awakening when they’d reached their new home. Sheltered beneath hard, protective shielding a few hundred meters above the ground, the colonists were safe to start their new lives.

Or so they thought.

After about an hour of basic browsing and video-watching, Dominic figured it was time to test his new connection on a game. He picked something rather intensive and fast-paced, where even slight lag could ruin the experience—and his statistics. It took him a few minutes to gather and organize a small group of friends, but soon they were in a lobby and ready to play.

At first, things went well. His ping was low and his packet loss was non-existent. Both of these brought a toothy smile to the dragon’s face. Dominic leaned forward in his chair as he chased down a weak opponent, inadvertently rolling his seat forward. His feet moved too, scraping along the floor to either side of his newest gadget. The dragon’s thick toes began to scrunch and curl as he played, occasionally brushing against the sides of his new ‘toy.’ These bumps were nothing to him—he would’ve had a hard time noticing even if he wasn’t distracted by his computer—but they sent sudden twitches and jerks of momentum into the little disc.

It didn’t translate well for what was inside.

Unlike before, the quakes didn’t seem to dissipate. In fact, they seemed to intensify. For the first time, many of the colonists felt truly afraid. They’d all seen news reports on natural disasters back on Earth, and none liked the thought at all of being buried beneath rubble after having their house collapse on them.

Unused until now, people began trickling towards the shelters set up all around the city. They were designed for a possible breach of their colony’s several-hundred meter high ‘shield,’ but the government figured that it’d give the more flighty colonists some much-needed peace of mind.

The flow of people was slow at first, but soon began to grow as the jolts intensified. It had become less of a vibration and more of an actual impact. With each successive hit more and more of the city’s denizens began moving towards the shelters. It was slow-going and difficult, as the tremors were strong enough to knock even the steadiest person off of their feet.

These efforts to find safer ground were soon rendered completely useless. Without warning, the overhead ‘dome’ was dented in before being cracked apart like the shell of a thin egg. Those outside simply watched, transfixed through sheer terror, as their protective ceiling dented and deformed under the impacts of some indescribable thing. It made short work of the casing and soon began forcing its way down onto the countless miles of urban sprawl below. While slow enough that those still watching—and not fleeing—could begin to make out the smaller details on its steel-grey underside, the object was just as inscrutable as before. The thousands of humans caught in its shadow could only wail and cover their heads, as if the minute gesture would somehow stop the immense entity from flattening them into nothingness.

Dominic’s game had gone awry. His team was losing, and the dragon was getting frustrated. He wasn’t the type to yell, but one could tell how furious he was by the hard focus in his eyes and the tightness of his jaw. His feet also reflected this annoyance. The excited shifting and toe-curling had morphed into concentrated toe- and heel-tapping. While the latter had little effect on his gadget, the former certainly did.

His digits managed to find the disc, and involuntarily seemed to focus on it. It became the object of his currently indirect frustrations. The dragon’s claw-tipped toes smacked down on the little thing over and over, the thin casing giving way after only a handful of hits. His foot smashed down onto its innards, the crunchy debris flattening effortlessly beneath his toes. The two which had landed atop the gadget itself shifted and curled, smearing the inner workings of the device into an unrecognizable mess.

As his ping abruptly spiked, Dominic’s foot lifted away. Only now did he swear, rather loudly, as an easy kill was snatched away as his foe seemingly teleported behind him. He swore again and stamped his foot down—directly atop the little disc. This time his ball impacted it, and one half of the object’s area found itself pancaked beneath the dragon’s heavy sole.

It was at this point that he finally noticed the thing poking annoyingly into his sole. The dragon’s foot lifted away as he slid back into his chair to get a closer look at what he’d accidentally stepped on. Immediately, Dominic’s face contorted into a frustrated snarl. Even with his anger at its peak, he managed to muffle this latest curse as he bent down to inspect the damage.

The once gleaming colony was now in ruins. The shield had been breached, and after multiple impacts by the still-unknown object barely half of the city was left standing. Thousands were dead, many of whom had sought shelter in the bunkers now well above the bases of the craters the massive entity had left in its wake.

The survivors began moving as the apocalyptic thing lifted away, the intense suction it created killing hundreds more and toppling the buildings closest to it. They hoped it was the end, and that perhaps they could rebuild—although when the glaring light from high above was replaced by something far more familiar yet still utterly incomprehensible, all of their hope seemed to flare out in an instant.

Dominic hissed. He’d broken the outer casing, and whatever fragile circuitry had been inside was now a mangled, oddly gritty mess. The dragon knelt down and prodded at it with a clawtip, snorting as a little piece of the circuit board cracked and shattered under the light brush of his claw.

“What a cheap piece of shit,” he growled.

With an angry shake of his head, the dragon rose. He inhaled deeply, and slowly exhaled in a long sigh. He needed to relax, even though the destruction of such an expensive purchase annoyed him greatly. As he eyed the thing from above, he considered simply returning it to the store the next day and trying to get at least a partial refund.

However, after a few moments of consideration, he came to the conclusion that the effort simply wasn’t worth it. Knowing how off-brand tech like this usually worked, it probably didn’t even have any sort of warranty. With another, softer sigh the dragon lifted his foot and swiftly stomped down on the disc’s intact half. The focused force of his step crunched the disc nearly flat, even managing to slightly curl it around the side of his foot. Dominic smirked as he lifted his foot away, wiggling his toes and lightly shaking his foot to unstick the gadget from it. It was oddly satisfying, destroying the little piece of useless, frustrating technology. And he intended to milk the feeling for all he could.

The dragon stomped down again and again, each successive impact flattening the disc more and more. Dominic’s heavy toes and sole ground the cheap plastic and metal gadget down into a cracked and crumpled husk, completely unrecognizable as the shiny disc it had been only a couple hours prior.

With yet another sigh, the dragon bent down and scooped up the disc with his fingers. He gave it one final examination before casually dropping it into his room’s wastebasket. It was quickly forgotten about as he returned to his computer to let his friends know that he was done gaming for tonight—and that their recommendation was garbage.

As Dominic relaxed back, waiting for his computer to shut down, he rubbed his feet against one another to get rid of a sudden itch on his sole. As his feet moved, the last remnants of the human colony were scraped away to be lost among the rest of the minute bits of dust scattered across the floor and stuck to the dragon’s long soles.

Somewhere far away, a control center noticed one of their hundreds of ‘colonies’ suddenly redline before going completely dark. With motions practiced dozens of times before, a special communique was sent out as yet another group was scratched off a long list. Their compensation would come soon enough. The draconic technology consortium the government had partnered with was prompt with their payments. A few million lives was certainly worth the survival and continued prosperity of their entire species.