A Path To Omniscience

December 29th, 2033

It had been seventeen days since the operation in the Crater, and the end of the month was coming up fast. That stretch also marked the break the Insurgency had been given to rest and recover after everything that happened.

The room assigned to the Insurgency was pretty big compared to most. It was set apart from the regular barracks dorms where the other Atlas Academy students stayed, tucked away on one of the lower floors of the academy's main tower.

The main space was circular, with light gray floors that looked almost like tiled marble. The walls had bunk beds built right in—two beds stacked on top of each other—with a ladder next to each for climbing up to the top bunk. There were five pairs total, so ten beds altogether.

Naturally, two of them were empty.

Right now, Jade—who'd pulled chores the night before—was the last one still asleep. She shifted under the covers, letting out a quiet hum as the sounds of the TV and the smell of something cooking drifted through the room. Eventually, she sat up, her blankets sliding off her shoulders, revealing her long, silky green hair, though it could use a brush.

She stretched, then got out of bed, tugging at a strap on her sling top and making sure it wasn't stuck inside her pajama shorts. Her bed was right below Sterling's, though he was already up. When her feet hit the floor, she was met not with the usual chill of stone but a gentle warmth that made her sigh with relief.

No way am I ever going back to normal floors after this.

Jade was a viper-traited Faunus, though it wasn't obvious at first glance. Her eyes looked normal, but if she opened her mouth, her fangs were impossible to miss. There were also patches on her upper arms and neck, textured just like snake skin.

She stood up and glanced around to see what everyone was doing. In the center of the room was a conversation pit—a huge circular couch surrounding an equally big, round table, all sunk into the floor. Sterling, Gray, Sable, and Cobalt were already up, sitting around the table, deep into some kind of card game.

"I pay three, and play this retrieval card, getting my tutor card back from my graveyard," Cobalt announced, laying out each move step by step.

"And, as my enchantment says, since it's the second card I'm playing this turn, I get to use its effect twice." He kept explaining, while the rest of the guys at the table just looked more and more annoyed.

"I swear, at this point, he might as well just call his graveyard his hand," Gray muttered, sighing.

"This is like the fifth time he's brought that stupid tutor card back!" Sterling complained, putting his cards face down on the table. Every time Cobalt did this, it meant his turn would drag on for another five minutes.

"Eh, it's not that bad," Sable argued, but both Gray and Sterling shot him glares.

"Oh, shut up. You're only saying that because your creature negates all combat damage."

Watching them, Jade just shook her head. She honestly had no idea when those four even got into card games.

As she walked by, she made her way to the countertop, which separated the kitchen area from the rest of the room. On her way, she spotted Auburn near the front, sitting with his legs folded up in a sofa chair, watching the holographic TV.

The projection was displayed right in front of the floor-to-ceiling windows that wrapped around the whole front quarter of the room. For anyone afraid of heights, it was a lot to take in, but it offered a sweeping view of Atlas—something they never would've seen growing up in Mantle.

It always brought up a lot of complicated feelings.

Anyway, when Jade took a seat on one of the stools, she noticed Ochre was the only other person sitting at the counter.

"Good morning. How are you feeling?" Jade asked, her voice softer as she rested her arms on the countertop.

"Morning, I'm doing good. You guys really don't have to keep worrying about me so much," Ochre replied, but the smile on his face made it clear he appreciated it.

"Telling us not to worry just makes us worry more." This time, it was Indigo who spoke—and surprisingly, she was the one cooking. It was a little-known fact, but most people who'd lived down in the Crater knew how to cook; when you grew up sometimes living meal to meal, you learned how to make the most out of whatever you had.

"Right, sorry," Ochre said, nodding softly.

"Hmm, it's fine. That 'mission' took a toll on everyone. No one blames you," Indigo said, stirring bacon and eggs in one pan while managing pancakes in the other. It was a little strange seeing someone as antagonistic as her cooking breakfast in an apron—but only if you hadn't grown up with her like everyone here had.

She was hotheaded for sure—easy to set off and still learning how to follow orders—but she was also like an older sister to everyone in the room, and even more so to kids back down in the Crater.

In fact, aside from the bit they were saving, most of their first paychecks as Insurgents had gone straight back to people they knew needed help down below.

"Speaking of that mission, how is everyone back at home?" Jade asked, making Indigo sigh.

"About as well as you'd expect after the Crater got flooded with Atlas soldiers—and with us running around while everyone thought we were androids." There was no way they could tell anyone they were part of the Insurgency. Not only was it classified, but with the way some people felt about Atlas down in the Crater, their families could easily get targeted.

It was a stupid situation, but it just showed how things were in the Crater right now. They'd managed to cut away some of the rot, but that just left open wounds. If nobody took care of them, they'd only get worse, and the whole mess would start over again.

"Hm… I nearly forgot, but aren't we supposed to be going back out soon? He said we wouldn't get called in for the rest of the month," Ochre said, watching as Indigo turned to grab plates she'd already set out, half of which were already prepped, sliding bacon, eggs, and pancakes onto the remaining four. 

When she finished plating everything, Indigo nodded and answered, "Yeah, but our 'boss' hasn't contacted me yet. So either he's going to spring something on us last minute, or there's just nothing for us to do right now."

"Yeah, but there's still training. We're probably going to have to start that up again," Jade said, clearly not thrilled. It wasn't that she hated the training—it was more about pushing herself to get through it. And with each of them having an AI to guide them, it was actually pretty straightforward.

But it was exhausting.

"Well, I didn't think it was that bad," Ochre chimed in, making Jade look at him like he'd lost his mind.

"Really? You're ranked eighth out of all of us. How are you not miserable?"

Ochre just shrugged.

"I never said I enjoyed it. I just said it wasn't that bad."

"Pretty sure anyone who's okay with doing something just because it 'isn't that bad' has got to be a little bit of a masochist," Jade replied, yawning.

"Ugh, I need to go wash my face," she muttered, hopping off her stool and heading toward the bathroom.

"Well, breakfast is done, so don't take too long. And the rest of you, quit playing cards and get over here—last time you let everything get cold!" Indigo shouted from across the room.

At that, everyone in the conversation pit froze mid-game. Gray and Sterling, especially, grumbled about infinite combos or something as they finally stood up and joined the others.

=====================================•=====================================

January 20th, 2034

All sorts of obstacles that had once stood in Asher's way had practically disappeared, giving him—for what felt like the first time—a clear path forward.

Since the end of last year and the start of this one, a lot has happened. For one thing, at least on paper, Asher's company was now fully established. The contract his parents had tried to draw up with him was officially signed with Karatheon. The first batch of products had already been shipped out, delivered, and deployed.

Just like that, Asher—or rather, his company—was over a hundred million lien richer, even after covering the costs for the land where his company headquarters were being built. And of course, even more money would be coming in throughout the year.

In fact, thanks to his automated factory, all five thousand drones in the order had already been built and were ready to ship on schedule.

As for the company building itself, calling the progress "fast" would be putting it lightly.

With Russet's help supplying the materials, Asher had sent over the completed models and blueprints for the building well in advance—the same way he had when converting his original warehouse into a factory. Because of that, the construction managed to get the warehouse up and running in record time.

Back then, though, the team had spent a lot of extra time double-checking every detail of his plans. Now, after the general contractors had met Asher in person and watched his construction drones at work, their attitude had changed. This time, when he sent over the paperwork, they only did a quick verification, trusting his work.

Add in the sheer efficiency of the arachnid construction drones, and the company building was already almost done, likely to be finished by February.

Naturally, the creation of his own company hadn't escaped Ironwood's notice. He and Asher had already had several talks about military contracts—after all, that was going to be Asher's main source of income.

On top of that, the deal they made during that match between Sable and Winter meant the black budget for his division was guaranteed for at least the next six months.

Of course, Asher wasn't really worried about that budget being pulled. Even in the short time he'd been part of the division, his results spoke for themselves—whether it was the SU-P Drones, the S.I.R.E.N. System they operated on, the S.H.A.D.O.W. and P.A.L.A.D.I.N. variants, or the specialized weapons he designed for the Insurgency.

Each one was a breakthrough in its own right, and Asher had managed to make all of them in the same year. Needless to say, his position was secure.

Once Karatheon was fully staffed and Asher had a few more automated factories up and running to meet demand, he and Ironwood would start putting together the official contracts.

Once those were in place, money would stop being a problem for a while.

That just left his personal projects, which—needless to say—were also doing well. His experiment with Weiss, for example, had already shown results.

The Nexus Space's ability to simulate future developments was one of its greatest strengths.

After seeing both the possible future of Frostvale Enterprises and how Weiss's fighting style might evolve, Asher had made changes to both—one by accident, the other on purpose.

With the company, he'd accidentally let slip that a protest would happen where they planned to expand. For Weiss, he took a more hands-on approach, teaching her how to control and use her summons—a skill she wouldn't have learned for years otherwise.

The first incident didn't seem to change the Nexus Space's predictions. That made Asher wonder: Was the Nexus Space wrong? Had his actions just not had enough impact? Or maybe the predictions became "locked in" once they were made, so any butterfly effects wouldn't be registered.

But in the end, it turned out to be none of those—or rather, a fourth option he'd briefly considered.

The Nexus Space only updated its predictions when the ripples it created actually caused big enough changes in reality. Just like Asher had once said, having an idea doesn't mean much unless you can share it with others.

The Nexus Space seemed to follow that same logic. Now that Weiss had learned summoning much earlier than she would have on her own, her "percentage" had dropped from over a hundred down into the nineties. Once the current Weiss reached the same level of mastery her future self would have, and Asher assimilated the knowledge of that progress, the Nexus Space would simulate a new future.

A version of Weiss that surpassed even her original future self.

As for Frostvale Enterprises, Asher figured he'd have to wait until his father took further action for the Nexus Space to update those predictions. Either way, it meant one of Asher's biggest worries—that the Nexus Space had a limit to how much of the future it could simulate—was gone.

If he wanted to look into the future of any branch of technology, or any area of knowledge, all he had to do was make sure the peak of that branch was accessible to everyone. That had already been part of his plan. As long as he didn't keep breakthroughs to himself and made sure the world had access to innovation, the world itself would, in turn, make the Nexus Space stronger.

It was as if everything invented today had actually been discovered a hundred years ago—naturally, a hundred years later, we'd be even further ahead.

One for all, and all for one.

And all of that led up to Asher's main project right now: the Magneto-Dynamo.

Inside the Nexus Space, Asher wore his usual white lab coat, one hand resting on his chin as he worked. The entire platform had been cleared out; anything not related to the project floated up in the air, hovering in the upper half of the Nexus Space's vast sphere. What remained was the prototype of the Magneto-Dynamo.

Floating well above Asher's head was a long metal cylinder—the dynamo's rotor—suspended horizontally by telekinesis.

It was even longer than a full-grown adult was tall, and more than thirty centimeters thick. Its surface was carefully etched, with conductive windings embedded in a spiral, helical pattern.

Surrounding the rotor was a gyroscope frame made from non-magnetic material, with five concentric magnetic rings attached at the top and bottom. Each ring was able to spin along its own axis, so the whole assembly could be rotated and positioned in any direction in 3D space.

Everything was anchored to a platform bolted down into the floor of the Nexus Space. The platform itself was hexagonal, built from dark, non-reflective material, made up of interlocking hexagonal plates. Hidden inside these plates were layers upon layers of induction coils.

The last major feature of the Magneto-Dynamo was the set of four pylons, positioned at equal distances around the platform. Each pylon was smooth and metallic, curved in a semicircle, and tall enough to arch over the entire mechanism, including the gyroscope frame.

"The concept behind a Magneto-Dynamo is pretty straightforward—it's just that, because of the laws of entropy, it normally can't work. In the end, the energy you need to spin the rotor always has to come from somewhere, and that input usually outweighs what you get out—at least under normal circumstances," Asher muttered. 

But the Nexus Space didn't have that limitation. With a thought, Asher set the rotor spinning, and it quickly picked up speed under his telekinetic control. A moment later, the magnetic rings around it started to oscillate as well.

When a conductor like the rotor moves through a magnetic field—like the one made by the five rings surrounding it—it creates a change in magnetic flux, which generates an electric current. That current was then collected by the hexagonal plates built into the platform, which form the foundation of the whole system.

The four pylons, meanwhile, regulated the voltage frequency and stabilized the output, converting raw electricity into something usable depending on Asher's needs. Right now, they only had one setting, since this was just a prototype.

As the speed of the rings and rotor continued to climb, the gyroscope frame and its connecting arms started to retract, opening the circle they'd formed around the spinning mechanism. Soon, the rings were moving so fast they blurred out of sight, and arcs of energy crackled between the rotor and the hexagonal plates below.

The telekinetic power of the Nexus Space wasn't limitless—it didn't seem to care about weight or size, but it definitely had a speed cap. Otherwise, what would happen if something started spinning at the speed of light? Still, that limit was more than high enough for what Asher needed.

At five hundred rotations per minute, the machine could generate almost fifty kilowatts. Push it up to two thousand RPM, and the output jumped to two hundred kilowatts. Once you started breaking into the four-digit RPMs, it could hit the megawatt range—enough to power an entire city block, or in this case, a highly advanced lab.

With the ability to bypass entropy and eliminate friction, it really was a perpetual motion machine, capable of generating endless energy—well, almost.

It was still just a prototype; it didn't even have a proper way to store all that power yet.

Asher noticed the metal heating up quickly, so he slowed the rotation. As the rings spun down, the gyroscope frame extended again, locking everything back into place so it wasn't just floating.

"I still need to build a vacuum chamber around the whole thing to cut down on thermal issues and vibrations. But once that's done, the dynamo should be able to run for years without needing new magnets—and better yet, it's scalable." The bigger the Magneto-Dynamo, the more energy it could generate.

"Since the Nexus Space is sealed off from everything else, I'll also need to figure out how to transform the leftover heat energy, so I don't end up overheating the whole space. Still, nothing I can't handle." Asher smiled to himself as he looked at the massive machine in front of him.

Once he had this running in his Nexus Space, he'd never need dust again. The whole place would become more than just a mobile workshop or lab—it would be a power core capable of running even his biggest machines.