“Hey, big boss guy!” I heard a voice calling out to me as I was walking the halls of Olympus, preparing to head out for another training excursion. Turning my head, I saw the Terra twins standing perfectly straight in the hallway, wearing matching light blue dresses.

“I swear if you ask me to go play with you…” I said with a twitching eye, the two girls tilting their heads to look at me in confusion.

“The girl upstairs said that we needed to tell you something!” The one on the left started, the other nodding her head and continuing.

“They’re coming.”

“...That’s not ominous at all. Who’s coming? What’s coming? When are they coming?” I couldn’t quite make sense of what the two were talking about, but the twins smiled in unison. Of course, their next few words were certainly nothing to smile about.

“The memetic monsters. They’re coming. A lot of them.”

My eyes widened, and I turned to fully face them, a serious look on my face. “Explain.”

“Big girl upstairs says they’re hungry. And when a predator is hungry, they go to where the food is. It’s not just Earth… any inhabited world, anywhere with civilization, culture, conscious minds… they’re coming.”

“We just came from solving a security breach in Earth’s deep space observatory. One of them cut in line. Infected a researcher doing a deep space scan, and made him bash his head into the wall to draw a blood eye. Once enough people had been infected, it manifested in the base.”

I brought my hand up to massage my temples. “How many are there, and how long do we have?”

“For Earth?” The twins looked at each other. “Eight… nine, right?” One asked, the other nodding her head.

I let out a sigh of relief. “That’s not too bad--”

“Million?” The other added, making me choke on my words.

“Excuse me?” I opened my eyes wide. “Eight or nine million memetic beasts are approaching Earth?”

“Yeah!” One of the twins nodded her head. “They’re coming from all over the stars. Only the ones that feed on information are being drawn to Earth, though, so there are a lot more out there that eat other stuff.”

The other one smiled. “Oh yeah, it’s enough to really mess with general sensors. As for when they’ll get here… big girl thinks that the Hyperlane wall should slow them down, but she’s not sure how long. At their current speed, they’ll reach the wall in about two weeks.”

I took a deep breath when I heard that, closing my eyes. Dana… whatever project you are working on, put it on hold. I have something infinitely more urgent that I need you on, immediately.

There was only a brief moment before my shadow stretched out, Dana rising up from it. She turned, seeing the Terra twins, and blinked. “And me without a tricycle. So, what’s up, boss?” She asked, turning to look at me.

“Within two weeks, we need unmanned orbital defenses around every inhabited star system, capable of fighting against millions of memetic monsters.”

When I said that, Dana blinked. She lifted a hand, and then lowered it, opened her mouth, paused, and then just stared at me. “You need a miracle, so you call the only member of your staff that isn’t an actual deity?!”

“She’s got a point.” The twins chimed in together.

“Can you do it?” I asked, staring down at Dana. Regardless of her deific status, the only people that I had any confidence in getting this done in time were Dana and Chelsea. Chelsea was immersed in her world creation research, and interrupting that could cause its own level of catastrophe.

Dana furrowed her brows, pacing back and forth in the hallway. “Every direction?” She asked, to which the twins nodded.

“Oh, totally!”

“And, big girl doesn’t even know if this is the only wave, or if they’ll just keep coming!”

“Helpful.” She said in a sarcastic tone, pinching the bridge of her nose. “I’ll need the drones. A lot of drones. I don’t know exactly how many drones, but enough to automate this whole thing. Once I’ve got the plan set up, I’ll start modifying the Hyperlane Network. If I can add a damaging effect to the outer barrier, I can weed out some future monsters that try to force their way through.”

After she said that, she turned, preparing to leave Olympus. “I’m heading to Lorek! Two weeks out here will give me nearly a year over there. That should give me enough time to make the basic preparations. If anything comes up, I’m leaving Sienna behind, so bring it up with her.”

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At the mention of Lorek, I turned to face the twins. “Are those worlds in danger, as well?” To my question, the two nodded their heads.

“Oh, yeah. It’s not as bad for them, though. Space around Lorek and Spica is way less friendly. Constant energy collisions and massive stellar storms make it hard for monsters to travel through space.”

I gave a thankful nod at their answer, happy to know that Dana wouldn’t be even more rushed than she already was. The fact that she was being given a full year should help, though I was worried where she would be able to get the ammunition for so many defensive turrets, or a field capable of surrounding an entire solar system. Would the Digital Conversion system be able to handle that much output without putting strain on the world?

“What are the others doing to prepare?” I asked, focusing on the twins again.

“There’s not much that they can do in the time given.” One of the sisters said. Thankfully, the expeditions were already called back. Aside from that, there is a ban on any detailed scans beyond the local systems. For offensive tactics… well, if it was something easy to deal with, the big girl wouldn’t have sent us to you in the first place!”

Although begrudgingly, I had to admit that they were right. If it was only one or two memetic beasts making their way over, I likely wouldn’t hear about it until after the fact. “How close together are the monsters that are coming?” I asked, the two tilting their heads.

“We didn’t look at the scans ourselves, but the big girl says that some of them are spread out a lot, but others are clustered together.”

“Okay, the clustered ones can be considered the safest.” I nodded my head. “If they had powerful cognitive effects, they wouldn’t be able to operate in close proximity to one another without influencing them. Those that are the most spread out should be regarded as the most dangerous, because it means that they are likely to have effects that would be fatal simply by having concrete knowledge about the entity’s existence.”

As I was discussing this, I was inwardly debating whether I should purchase something from the system to help me out. Whether it was a specialized defense against memetic entities, a general space defense platform, or even a system that would provide ‘safe zones’. The latter would be more tricky, as the safe zone would be the size of a star system, and might interfere with the production of normal monsters.

“I’ve got to make a call.” I said, dismissing the duo and heading into my office. With a thought, I conjured my chat window. Buying tech trees or systems was expensive, but a consultation from a friend was free.

EarthForceOne: I’m back. Oldbeard, EverLasting, Aerial, any of you around right now?

Oldbeard: I’m here, what’s up?

EverLasting: I was just about to grab lunch, but I can put it on hold.

Aerial: Yeah, not much going on on my end.

EarthForceOne: All of you should know about void monsters and memetic effects. Thanks to my last invasion, I’ve got swarms of monsters spawning in distant star systems. They’re local monsters, so they’re not from the void itself, but they have memetic properties.

EverLasting: Ohhh, I see where this is going.

OldBeard: You do?

EverLasting: Lemme guess, they’re swarming towards civilization?

EarthForceOne: I’m guessing you’ve dealt with this sort of thing before?

EverLasting: Yeah. It was the inspiration behind the Hyperlane Network that I put in Fragments of Acidia. Of course, to protect my personal security, I drastically reduced the effectiveness of the network in that game.

EarthForceOne: Which means that you probably don’t have the full thing listed on the market?

EverLasting: Afraid not.

EarthForceOne: Well, at the current rate things are going, the monsters will be here in about two weeks’ time. I’ve got my best person working on a countermeasure, but I was curious if there was any sort of system or device that would increase the odds.

Oldbeard: The only one I would think of is Restricted Zones. It’s a basic game system, and when you buy it you can designate zones, and what monsters are allowed within those zones. It works for a more controlled form of monster spawning, too. Unless you’re dealing with a rare monster, others won’t be able to enter a zone they’re not designated for.

EverLasting: Yeah, that’s a good one. Though, it only really works if you use it from the beginning of a world. Otherwise, but the time you set it up, there are so many random monsters running around, all in different level ranges, that it would take you years to get it running, even with help.

Aerial: I suppose mass smiting them isn’t an option?

EarthForceOne: There’s no guarantee that this is the only wave.

EverLasting: If it’s like what I had to deal with, then yeah, they’ll just keep coming so long as their spawn conditions don’t change. You said that you’ve got two weeks, right?

EarthForceOne: Local time, so… about twelve Standard days? If my math is right, at least.

EverLasting: Got it. Well, after five Standard days, let me know if you’ve got a working solution. If it doesn’t look like yours will make it in time, I’ll let you bring some of your best researchers over to study the full network barrier. That should give them enough time to add the critical components by the time you get back.

EarthForceOne: Thanks, I may need to take you up on that offer.

After finishing that conversation, I closed my eyes, sending a message to Sienna. In five Standard Days, let me know if your plan can be implemented in time. Otherwise, Sarah has offered to let us study the improved version of the Hyperlane Network that is built to repel monsters like that. It would be best if we can do it with our own methods, but let me know if that is not an option.

There was a brief delay as Sienna transferred the message to Dana, and then relayed the reply. That’s fine. There is the chance that the upgrade won’t be easily applied with the difference in magic systems, so she wants to settle this with our own methods, if she can.