To Ashes

[MAR 18 2015]

Noah heard a knock on his door, his fathers voice came through the wood,

"Hey Noah I heard a yell, you okay in there?"

Noah turned toward the door sheepishly and answered,

"Yeah i'm okay… just… finally beat this boss i've been working on."

His father's feet shifted their shadow under the door,

"Ah... I see."

There was an awkward pause and another shift of the weight.

"Well, you have fun now… and bedtime is soon, school tomorrow"

Noah responded through the door,

"Alright dad, goodnight."

Footsteps faded down the hall, then the stairs, and Noah turned his attention back to the source of his yell of excitement.

An hour earlier Noah had been doing his usual routine of flipping between message boards and forums looking for anything that could be of use on his mission to get off the simulator blacklist, and there he saw it. An anonymous message board user had posted a link to a file sharing service with no title or explanation in a thread pertaining to the simulators. Noah knew he should be suspicious, but something in his gut told him to click the link anyway. He hesitated, but remembered the multiple layers of security he'd adopted for this very purpose, he'd taken every measure that could be taken to prevent himself from being discovered. Noah clicked the link and it took him to the service advertised, and the filesize was several gigabytes, much larger than some ametuer's malware.

Moments after the compressed folder finished downloading the download page stopped responding and disappeared, expunged from the internet forever. Noah extracted the contents and looked inside, nothing looked suspicious, just organized folders with contents that seemed conducive to game software. He did a web search on one of the file types and excitement welled in his stomach, the only use it had was for a game console, the very same console whose motherboard was found in the back of the simulator. A console which Noah happened to have collecting dust in his closet.

Noah pulled out the dusty black box from amongst clothes and tangled wires. He blew the dust off, the device had been out of use for several years now since he'd moved on to PC gaming, but when he plugged it in it turned on like nothing had happened. Luckily for him this particular console was one of the most popular in the country, and groups of hackers and exploiters had successfully gotten past its security only a few years prior. It only took a few minutes of web searching to find the software they had developed, and the process was as simple as putting it on a USB stick and plugging it in.

In no time Noah had a fully unlocked game console capable of running any compatible software he threw at it. As Noah transferred the simulator files to the USB stick he crossed his fingers and pleaded with RNGesus that NERV hadn't made enough changes to the hardware to prevent his software from running. Green finished filling the loading bar, the transfer was complete. Heart racing Noah plugged his media into the console and navigated to the new software loader icon on the home screen, he selected it and was taken to the games folder. It contained a single item:

ESIM v1.1.3

Noah was on the edge of his seat as he selected the file and pressed run. The screen went black and the system fans kicked on.

Finally a familiar text readout appeared, asking him to enter his information. Noah's excitement welled over into a loud

"YES!"

He had more work to do, but this was big.

[MAR 19 2015]

Jacob's group still hadn't managed to complete the first stage, despite all coming very close on numerous occasions. News stations everywhere were talking about the uptick in pilots getting good enough to beat stage one, they made Jacob feel even more left behind than before.

Tonight Jacob had come to the arcade alone. He felt like the competition from his friends, while useful, made him more stressed than he should be. He needed to focus, just him and the machine. Jacob watched the previous pilot step out and slid into the pilot's seat after him. He shut the door, then drew a deep breath as he entered his information and placed his hands on the controls.

Light filled the dark enclosure as the simulation stirred to life on the view screens. As he had every day for nearly a whole month Jacob stared into the unyielding metal face of his computer controlled adversary. Hands raised he matched the foe's advance with a step forward, and as the enemy pulled back for its first attack something changed in him.

Suddenly Jacob felt more relaxed than any of his previous runs, without his peers standing over him he was able to take a step back with his conscious mind and let muscle memory guide him.

He pushed the first attack aside with ease but didn't counter for fear this flow state would suddenly shatter. Another perfect block came and went, and the enemy reared back for another strike. Jacob blocked again, and this time took the opportunity.

He launched a straight directly towards the enemy's unguarded face, and watched as the fist of his robot, his fist, collided with its target and crumpled the simulated metal. The blow seemed more powerful than any Jacob had seen before, his inputs were following his hands closely, guided by the mental image of throwing a punch.

Jacob could almost feel the wind on his knuckles as he went for a follow-up while the target was still reeling. Shock echoed through the speakers and up the control rod from the hit, Jacob followed the strike through and watched as his fist went clean through the enemy's head.

Jacob sat as still as his dispatched target for a moment, watching the limp form slide off his arm. Simulation time slowed down as it fell and the screen went dark, then displayed his metrics. Jacob was still in a state of stunned disbelief, too distracted to notice his score, or that his projected synchronization was higher than any other pilot who'd tried the simulators.

Darkness returned then fled as the simulation faded into the next stage, the sudden return to daylight pulled Jacob back to Earth. He was staring into the face of the second stage, which was beginning to approach him. With no time to celebrate his victory Jacob lifted his hands to face this new and improved foe.

He could feel the tranquility of his momentary flow state being replaced by nerves, not a single pilot had prevailed over the challenge in front of him. A rumble and a cocking back of the right arm signaled the enemy stepping in for a strike, Jacob sidestepped as a massive arm sailed by him. He felt slower than before, the nerves had reduced his synchronization, but Jacob went for a kidney shot. It wasn't square but it connected, and the force bent the robots torso some.

As the robots blank face turned to look at Jacob again he curled a left hook towards it. It managed to get an arm up and deflect the blow, but Jacob was ready with a right to match. A familiar crunch and rumble filled the cockpit as the hit sailed home. It wasn't as powerful as the previous knockout hit, but it still left a fist sized impression in the enemy's faceplate.

Raised arms dissuaded any further attack of the dented face, so Jacob set to work on the unguarded torso. He drove left after right after left into where its guts would be, each blow making the robot come a bit closer to crumpling. Helpless, it made an attempt to shove Jacob away but he noticed the movement and grabbed the incoming arm, dragged it aside, and used it as leverage for an elbow strike to the temple. Jacob felt something give under the force of his elbow and he knew the fight was over, he let the lifeless second stage collapse onto the tiny hill below him. Blackness engulfed Jacob, he stared into it, waiting for his results.

A bright green blob resolved into text, it read:

Stage 2 completed

Projected synchronization rate: 37%

Next stage in (5)

Jacob stared at the numbers in disbelief. He became aware of the present moment, and remembered his surroundings. His fear had faded, but excitement welled instead, Jacob was speechless. He'd just become the first pilot to complete two stages in a row.