Phase Q/New Sounds

Ka-pap-ka-pap-ka-pap-pap-pap.

The small metal box emits rapid sounds as it bursts forth with laser fire.

Triad squaddies duck for cover. However, the concrete and steel protection gives way. Powerful lights drill through obstacles and barriers like warm butter.

Zappo, gwoong, blong.

Triad squaddies fall, by the dozens, hundreds, thousands at a time.

Teenagers take over villages, then towns, and even whole cities. No one leader seems to guide the revolution. Just a spontaneous takeover.

The adults in org flee, deserting their posts. However, rather than occupying their offices and garrisons and bases, the teenagers simply blaze them to the ground.

It’s a relatively technical war, with optech equipment deciding many battles. In the rare instances where Triad forces come out on top, they execute traditional military maneuvers such as brutalizing boys and ravaging girls. When Flowrisers win battles, the battlefield itself often seems to morph into something altogether foreign.

Whole regions of the country fall under Flowriser sway. These regions remain relatively free from curfews or other military restrictions. Yet, they definitely feel the effects of war.

A few rogue Flowrisers install themselves as despots in a small corner of the hinterland. There, they commandeer all the voltagers, set up a massive games room, and demand tribute from the villagers’ daughters.

Amid the chaos, new forms emerge. Monstrous buildings made out of some kind of superclay stretch up miles into the sky. Aircraft fly at the speed of fusion. New air villages evolve, spiraling through the clouds with functioning groups of Flowrisers, Triads, and Zonnyxes.

Often warfare breaks out among the functional groups. Economies tear apart, and reform elsewhere. After the destruction of the tubeworks, far more trade takes place in plain materialspace.

Amid the flourishing new forms, diminishing quantities of traditional forms, now relics, continue to serve duty. Trains on tracks made of plain old steel still transport shipments of arms. Traditional airplanes continue to fly beneath the shadows of the new superliners.

Flowriser groups clamber for a return to the tubeworks, while celebrating their victories in materialspace. In one secret research lab, an uncommon group of their distributors and programmers and tinkerers gather to hatch a plan.

“It’s no use,” says Zank, a goateed distributor now verging on adulthood. “Even if we have all the materials, there’s no obvious way to reinstantiate a new internodal.”

“C’mon,” huffs Lupak. “We can think of something. Why don’t we redline the transcoms? Or write another layer, do it all in softlinks? I’m going to vape a ring.”

Meanwhile at Command HQ, Mrs. President secludes herself in a secure shelter. “We’ve got to strike against these kids,” she says.

“I know, dear,” says the President. “We’re going to get back to normal.”

• Transport to suburbia.
• Transport to the city.

Phase Q: An interactive adventure.