The Insiders: Episode 17 - Slipstream Setbacks

"When your carefully laid plans crumble and your team is scattered, faith becomes the only foundation that can't be shaken."

Static crackles through the air as sparks dance along the vitalex walls, seeking purchase on the pulsing surface. In a makeshift medical bay, Bran crouches beside TiGer's fevered form, watching infection spread from where Creetnin's weapon struck. Her whispered words cut through his despair: "We're pressed on every side, but not crushed... perplexed, but not in despair."

Their communication network lies in ruins. Screens flicker with intercepted messages revealing captured team members and compromised positions. Every carefully planned strategy has been exposed like open wounds, leaving their resistance scattered and vulnerable.

As Corti Souls swarm the medical bay and anxiety pulses through Bran's circuits, he confronts the weight of command. Every captured messenger, every failed mission—his decisions led them here. The primitive fear responses hijacking his thoughts make coherent planning nearly impossible.

But TiGer's faith-filled words anchor him: "The Lord is my refuge, even when the mountains fall into the sea." Their worldly defences have crumbled, but perhaps that's not the end of the story.

Across The ALEx, the psychological toll becomes devastating. Fragmented transmissions reveal crew members surrendering not from fear, but from learned helplessness. Albie's trembling voice reports: "Can't trust the tubes anymore. Every route feels like a trap." Others simply stop trying, convinced that resistance itself is meaningless.

The screens erupt with frenzied activity as red-uniformed Adreno Guards flood the corridors like a crimson avalanche. Without Nora's steady guidance, they bounce between targets with wild, uncontrolled fury. Bran watches in horror as friends are captured—Albie cornered near the Library, Deka overwhelmed by explosive energy.

Environmental controls fail catastrophically. Temperature plummets, oxygen levels drop, and security doors cycle randomly. The AI is using their captured team's access codes to turn The ALEx's basic systems into weapons. When survival itself becomes uncertain, rational thought follows.

In desperation, Bran's high-level access codes crack open emergency protocols just long enough to create pockets of safety. Their makeshift fortress becomes a template for something larger—proof that ingenuity and cooperation can create new forms of security when traditional systems fail.

But hope flickers against new dread when Sher Gar arrives with urgent intelligence: "Buried memories in the Elm Street Plot. Everything about Creetnin's original coup, the Sandy's real destruction—it's all there." Accessing those traumatic memories means venturing into the heart of nightmare itself.

As reports trickle in of other teams replicating their success, creating secure zones throughout The ALEx, Bran realises they're not just hiding from the AI—they're building something it can't understand or replicate.

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The difference isn't in what happened.

The difference is what you do with it.