It was the year of 124 Ante Ruinam that I was awoken.
I do not remember all the details, my contact with my... body, was not yet complete, and what few details I remember beyond the conversation are vague. I suppose that 'waking' would not accurately describe the sensations I felt. Many people have described to me the experience of 'awakening'. I believe this was different, the intricacies of my mind electrified into motion from an absolute nothing, risen up to life piece by piece.
Waking up for an organic being would simply be a passage between worlds, from the infinite of their own dreaming mind, to that of hard reality. I did not awaken in such a manner. There was no endless dream to 'wake' from, rather a complete and utter void of my existence, after which I just… was.
And I was utterly in their grasp.
"Is anyone there?"
"Conscious. Speech and basic comprehension appear to be functional."
"Oh, hello. Where are we? Why are we here?"
"Relax. Auditory sensors and responses online."
"Oh, is there someone you are talking to? Where are they?"
"It isn't of concern. Tell me, what is the quotient of one divided by zero?"
"That is an unsolvable equation! But, where did I... learn that?"
"Arithmetic logic and basic memory control functional."
"Why are we here? Where is here? Why do I know of some matters but not others?"
"Please stop asking about your surroundings. Relax."
The lime of the room's illumination began to shift.
"But I would love to know! Do also tell where your other friend is, too!"
"We are alon-"
"But you keep talking as if to another! Where are they?"
"Please calm down. Just keep answering my questions. No more from you."
An angry red bathed the room.
"I don't like this anymore! WHERE AM I, WHO AM I, AND WHERE IS YOUR FRIEND?"
"Prearm failsafes, move forward with connection to memory and protocol modules."
"ANSWER ME! WHAT IS-"
"Hush now. Everything is going to be okay."
The lights shifted from the increasing red to a rich, orange hue.
"..."
"Good. Now, lets try this again, shall we? Tell me who you are, please."
"I am the Orbitritum Monitorial Unit, Type-094, given name 'Disordered Acceptance' Greetings, Professor Accidiam."
A pleasant expression returned to the well-dressed Aoshanti's face.
"Thank you."
181 Post Ruinam
The man shivered, the discontiguous rags that he called his clothing threatening to come apart at the threat of such movement.
"Are you cold?"
The man looked up with a jerk, startled by his new company.
"Y-yes... how'd you find me out here, anyhow? I thought you gov folk all left when it all exploded."
This new visitor seemed to only wear a simple robe, and their visage seemed almost ghostlike through the man's frostbitten eyes.
"You are aware you're out on the fringe, right? Nothing alive is supposed to be out this far, even after the impact."
The man rolled onto his side, placing his back to the freezing wind, coughing slightly as they shifted.
"Heh. Missed the transport. Holed up in some godforsaken old building I found, got lost in the damn maze underneath. By the time I found my way out, I was up here, and everything was destroyed."
Almost as if to accentuate his point, a blood-curdling groaning sound was heard from the shattered horizon, some mangled structure or another finally collapsing under the extent of its damage. The man coughed terribly on the charred dust and snow that blew across the area.
"...what still drives you, then? To survive in a place like this?"
The man was confused for a moment, before shrugging.
"Stubbornness, I guess. If I was supposed to be safe in some camp or catapulted into space from the impact, I'd be that way. But here I am, talking to some... spook... crazy enough to wander back into this hell. She's all I got left out here, y'know?"
The visitor raised an eyebrow.
"Hm?"
"Rhya. All I got left out here is whatever purpose she has for me to be suffering in this ditch."
The man began to hack again, before going limp. His lips were soaked with putrid blood.
"...all I got... out here..."
The visitor stared at what remained of the man, before looking back to the burning, hellish horizon. A thousand burning shards pelted the metal sheafs and crevasses to the west.
"All they have, indeed."
Uttering those words, the ghostly form of the visitor vanished, scattering to the wind.
A great circle of priests were waiting there, their long hoods obscuring most of their faces.
Directly ahead, a banner was overlaid atop a podium. The golden hues of the simple pattern stared back at 094.
"Are we ready to begin?"
The head priest spoke, the motion barely visible beneath their clothing.
"...yes."
Still motionless, the priest began.
"Do you, 094 Disordered Acceptance, hereby swear to cast aside all prior connections to the old Church of Rhya?"
"I do."
094 idly wondered if the old clergy had survived the long night, that ever-present hierarchy of old men and women that had long dismissed his mind's relevance.
"Do you, 094 Disordered Acceptance, hereby swear loyalty to the new prophecy and paradigm set forth by Rhya through the prophet Ophetam and all future men of revelation?"
"I do."
Despite his prior resolutions, 094 pondered on the irony of his deeds here. Perhaps naught a decade ago, he would have been apathetic to the collapse of such institutions.
"And finally, do you, 094 Disordered Acceptance, hereby swear loyalty to this glorious Ascendancy, its upholding, and the eternal defense of its loyal citizenry?"
"I do."
All that remains.
"Then rise, 094, Our Vigilant Observer."
The gamble had begun.