Aftermath

In the space of just thirty seconds, everything that could have gone wrong had gone horribly wrong -- and the TV Titan felt that it had only itself to blame.

The Titan, blinded, had to navigate the void-pathways by thought alone-

It had been so close.

…Get… towards the Base…

The Titan had lost its flightpack, lost its magnificent raking claws, lost the banks of amps that the Soundkind had gifted it -- and now the Skibidis had used the Sound Titan to smash the TV Titan's screen. It hurt-- both the agony and the humiliation…

The Titan stood in the void, alone, shuddering, as little shards of glass dropped from its screen.

The TV faction were perfectionists enough that they had not believed there was a possibility of their Titan failing - but they were also perfectionists enough to have prepared for that eventuality anyway. The SOP in case of mission failure was for the Titan to port to a specified location just outside TV Base - close enough for aid to be delivered, but avoiding porting any potential skibidi detritus inside the base itself.

…Get towards the Base… Find the path.

The Titan stood unsteadily, almost delirious with pain and regret and anger and guilt and self-loathing and confusion, clutching its head in its hands against the agony radiating from the blade embedded in its screen. The black fog coiled inside its teleport circuit thrummed as the Titan tried to concentrate through the pain and find the way home. Luckily for the Titan, its sheer size allowed it to rip its way through the void-pathways, the subtle network forced aside and made to conform to the Titan's will, like vegetation trampled by elephants.

Through the pain, the Titan felt a familiar weight on its shoulder and a touch on the side of its head.

"Titan, follow your Imperator. I will guide us to the hangar. Can you port again? I will steer us," said the Imperator from where they had just teleported upon the Titan's shoulder.

The Titan managed to stop its wordless static scream enough to choke out an affirmative response. The Imperator initiated the short teleport into the hangar, and both units stepped sideways from reality into the void-plane. The Titan gratefully ceded control to the Imperator, concentrating only on staying on the Imperator's pathway and on sitting itself down so it could manifest inside the hangar. The Imperator steered the pair perfectly, the Titan porting to exactly the point in its hangar where its crew of engineers had the greatest range of access.

The Imperator stroked the side of the Titan's head comfortingly. "We're here, you're safe. My dear Titan, you did well, following the void-pathway just now. Rest now, you're in good hands."

"My Imperator… I've failed you. I had one job…"

"You can have 5 more seconds, then pack that shit in," said the Imperator, to which the Titan responded with a confused chirp of static. "This is a disappointing outcome and a terrible setback, that much is true," continued the Imperator. "But this self-flagellation serves no-one. Serve your Imperator by concentrating utmost effort on your recovery."

"…I will obey, my Imperator," replied the Titan.

"I know you will," the Imperator said, stroking the side of the Titan's head. The Imperator was disappointed. The Titan should have been able to finish the job. But the Imperator would squash it down and hide it from their dear Titan - there was nothing the Imperator could say that the Titan would not already have said to itself. Punishing the poor Titan would only have been heaping extra evil onto its suffering.

The Imperator teleported to the Engineer Prime. "Sixty-Eight. Am I needed here still?"

"No, Imperator," said Sixteen-Sixty-Eight, the Engineer Prime. There was no rudeness in their response, only the matter-of-fact pragmatism that characterised the TV faction. The Imperator needed to make battle plans, and the Engineer needed to repair the Titan, and they would best assist each other by getting out of each other's way.

"Imperator, don't leave me," said the Titan. "Please… stay with me."

The Imperator teleported back to the Titan's shoulder, resting their hand on the side of the Titan's head and rubbing it soothingly. "I don't want to leave you, dear Titan," said the Imperator, "But I have to leave you. I urgently need to speak with the other Imperators. I am sorry." The Imperator pressed themself to the side of the Titan's head, hugging the huge flat surface as best they could. The Titan trembled under the Imperator's touch. "The Alliance is not finished yet. One Titan remains. Still in recovery, but nearer than you to being able to re-enter the field. …I must depart now, dear one. I will return." The Imperator ended the hug and gave the Titan's head some final strokes. "Sixty-Eight will look after you, I know they will. Be good for your Imperator, my dear Titan."

"I obey my Imperator," said the Titan, and the Imperator teleported away. "Sixty-Eight… I need you," said the Titan. "I need you and I can't see you."

Sixty-Eight teleported to where the Imperator had just been, and laid a hand on the side of the Titan's head. Techfolk didn't need to be able to see to locate each other - they all could perceive each other's yes-I-live signals. Sixty-Eight guessed that the Titan was in too much pain to be able to mentally untangle the signals, and in distress about losing its vision. "I'm right here, Titan," said Sixty-Eight.

"Thank you," said the Titan. "Don't leave me."

Sixty-Eight felt crushed. "I'm so sorry," said Sixty-Eight. "I need to get to work right away. You'll have to wait for me just a little while longer-"

Sixty-Eight was interrupted by the sudden arrival of their deputy Forty-Two-Twelve, the Vice-Engineer Prime. "I've got this," said Twelve, teleporting next to the Engineer Prime. Even now, the engineers were prepping the ceiling cranes on Twelve's transmitted orders. Twelve transmitted privately to Sixty-Eight: "I'll get the Titan fixed. Stay up here and keep the Titan as calm as you can."

"Thank you," transmitted Sixty-Eight in reply. Twelve nodded to confirm their understanding, and teleported away. Sixty-Eight felt immense gratitude for Twelve's actions, and was glad to have such a reliable deputy and team that they could hand over command without worry. They would thank Twelve properly later. "I'm here," said Sixty-Eight again, rubbing the side of the Titan's head comfortingly.

"It hurts, Sixty-Eight," said the Titan. "It hurts so much."

Sixty-Eight felt crumpled with sorrow. The manipulated Sound Titan had plunged a blade right into the TV Titan's screen, compromising the vacuum of the glass CRT envelope. It was only the Titan's implosion band that prevented the screen from shattering altogether.

The Titan and Sixty-Eight perceived Twelve's transmitted commands to all engineers present - both the Titan's permanent crew, and as many floating engineers as the faction could spare. Twelve ordered them to prioritise removing the blade - at its depth, the tip was buried in the Titan's deflection plates and causing constant pain.

"This is going to hurt so much," said the Titan pitifully, placing its hands on a couple of nearby gantries (making a couple of engineers teleport swiftly away) and gripping them to steel itself. Pulling the blade out would relieve the pressure on the deflection plates, but it was also probably the main thing keeping the giant pane of screen glass together. Switching the Titan off altogether was always an option, but no-one, Titan included, wanted to do that. The Titans weren't meant to be cold-booted - their continued operation was dependent on interconnected systems that relied on each other to stay online.

"I'm right here," Sixty-Eight said again, trying to soothe the Titan.

"You'll look after me, won't you, Sixty-Eight?" asked the Titan.

"Of course," said Sixty-Eight. They felt so helpless - they wished they could do more to take their dear Titan's pain away.

"You always did," said the Titan. "You were there… you brought me into existence, and you looked after me… You've always made me feel so well looked-after." (Sixty-Eight stroked the Titan's head as it spoke.) "I've let you down, my dear engineer," continued the Titan. "I've let the faction down."

"You haven't!" said Engineer Sixty-Eight. "You haven't. You came back to us. You're still with us… you didn't fail. …And you did damage the Skibidi leader." Like the Imperator, Sixty-Eight couldn't bring themself to be angry with the Titan for its carelessness in what it knew to be a trap. At least the faction still had a Titan, which was more than could be said for the Soundkind.

"I did, didn't I," said the Titan quietly. "That I did."

A trio of ceiling cranes moved into place on trackways, as the TV engineers prepared to extricate the knife. Engineers teleported into place on footholds on the crane hooks and shackles, and began chaining them to the giant knife handle.

"Don't get rid of the knife…" said the Titan as the engineers worked. "Keep it somewhere for me… I'll use it… I'll do to them what they made Titan Soundkind do to me." The Titan trembled, clenching its fists, and said quietly, as if to itself, "I'll avenge you, Comrade Soundkind." The cranes strained as they pulled out the knife tip from the deflector plates, then the knife suddenly was free and surged forth out of the Titan's screen. The Titan emitted a shuddering buzzing sound of protest.

"How does it feel?" asked Sixty-Eight, continuing to stroke and rub the side of the Titan's head. "You're being so brave about this, dear Titan."

"Oh, it feels bad…" replied the Titan. "My deflectors feel slightly better for it." The Titan gripped a gantry hard enough to warp the railing, as the cracks in its screen spiderwebbed outwards with a horrid crunching sound.

The Titan heard the familiar sound of a teleport right below its head, then was aware of a weight bearing down on its arm - and the sudden arrival of a nearby yes-I-live signal.

"Polycephaly's here for you," said the owner of the signal.

The Titan clung to Polycephaly for comfort, letting go of the gantries so it could clutch Polycephaly to its chest above its core.

Polycephaly re-arranged themself slightly to accommodate the Titan's grip, and hugged themself to the Titan's arm. "I'm here," Polycephaly repeated. "…I wish I could do more for you."

The Titan firmly stroked Polycephaly's back. Polycephaly was surprised by this treatment - "You're the one who most needs comforting right now, not me," they thought. The Titan repeated the gesture, catching its fingertips on Polycephaly's sub-screens. As the Titan continued, Polycephaly realised the Titan was trying to stroke the screens away and pull out Polycephaly's stems to their full length. "Anything for you, Titan," thought Polycephaly, and obligingly protracted their stems.

The Titan wrapped its fingers around Polycephaly's stems and pulled at them gently, dragging its fingers along the stems' length. Polycephaly uttered a surprised chirp of static, not sure what the Titan was trying to achieve, and consciously relaxed their stems as much as possible to let the Titan do whatever it was trying to do. The Titan continued stroking Polycephaly's stems, wrapping them around its fingers, and pulling them gently, apparently using them as a stress-reliever. "…I'll let you do that if you need to," thought Polycephaly. "Anything for you."

"I don't know where I'd be without you, Polycephaly," said the Titan quietly. "You're the only one in this faction who knows what I've been through."

Polycephaly wasn't sure what to make of that statement. They hadn't suffered any injury nearly this bad. Then it dawned on Polycephaly: "Being upgraded, you mean?"

"Yes," said the Titan. "You took the biggest risk of us all. You did what no TV did before." The Titan gathered Polycephaly in its arms as much as it could.

"Thank you, Polycephaly," transmitted Sixty-Eight privately to the large unit. "Please would you continue letting the Titan hold you? Your presence is calming it a little."

"Of course," transmitted Polycephaly.

The Titan basked in the presence of Sixty-Eight and Polycephaly, the two units it felt closest to. If it paid a little attention, it could distinguish snippets of transmission going back and forth in the hangar between Engineer Twelve and all their colleagues. The Titan was still in pain and still felt like a failure, but it took courage from how quickly yet calmly its engineers were working. "The most powerful and perfect of all Titans must have the best engineering team," thought the Titan.

"Titan," transmitted Engineer Twelve, the Vice-Engineer Prime. They kept their transmission public, so that Engineer Sixty-Eight would receive it too. "We have to remove all the remnants of your broken screen. We will probably have to resort to a controlled implosion - I am sorry. We will eventually need to remove the entire CRT and build you a replacement. Until then, we will need to bolt a covering over your screen aperture to protect the insides of your head." Twelve directed some more engineers and cranes into place to begin the task.

The Titan felt a great sadness at the realisation it would be sightless until its new CRT could be built and fitted. It tried to comfort itself with the knowledge that it was in the safest and cosiest place it could possibly be - its hangar - surrounded by the units it trusted the most.

"I'm sorry, my dear Titan," continued Engineer Twelve. "I wish there was an easier way."

"I'm sorry," transmitted the Titan in reply. "I know it's an arduous task to align that many magnets." The huge magnets of the Titan's CRT would hurt the engineers' much smaller ones - the installation process would require the engineers to spend at least as much time de-gaussing as working.

"But you're worth it, Titan," transmitted Twelve. (Engineer Sixty-Eight chirped in agreement with their deputy's words and rubbed the side of the Titan's head some more.)

"Don't tell the Titan yet," transmitted Sixty-Eight privately to Twelve, "But we should go ahead and start building the upgrades instead of building copies of the previous parts. I think the Titan will appreciate that but I don't want to get its hopes up just yet."

"Agreed on all counts," transmitted Twelve. "When I can, I'll begin delegating upgrade tasks. …When our Titan returns to the field, our enemies won't even recognise it."

┄

Elsewhere in TV Base, the TV Imperator conferenced with the Imperators of the Camera and Soundkind factions.

"Operation Vengeance has failed," said the TV Imperator.

The Soundkind Imperator slumped in devastation. They surely already knew, from the fact that their Titan had not sent any message to their base, but must have been holding onto hope until the TV Imperator confirmed the worst.

The TV Imperator continued: "Target Alpha took damage, but still lives. Our Titan is now incapacitated, and the Sound Titan is still under enemy control. Imperator Camera… your Titan must not fail."