12/3

This material is meant to be read after BioCrisis and STURMANDERUNG. It is followed by the fan speculation in Oni2:Aftermath.

It's not clear whether Konoko infiltrated the STURMANDERUNG complex right after filing her diary entry on December 3, 2032. We also don't know if she entered her fateful instructions from the main console before or after midnight local time. Either way, since the meltdown was worldwide, there were points on the globe where it was Dec. 4, not Dec. 3. However, if we assume that Oni's action took place in Japan, then it was still Dec. 3 over the whole world, and Dec. 4 only over the Eastern Pacific. So it would make sense to refer to the cataclysm as 12/3.

Diary

Friday - Dec 3
Muro's men have been up to something big. They have made secret heavy machinery shipments and infiltrated Atmospheric Conversion Centers all over the world. Ironically this may be the thing that Griffin had been preparing me for.

I don't know what Muro's building, but at least I know where. The tracker readings from his plane project him touching down somewhere deep in the mountains.

---

I know what I am now, and what my brother is. And I also know that whatever he's doing I'm the only person who can stop him.

STURMANDERUNG console

TITAN\mtnc\uplink…dcs115

Accessing Data Files...

Project: STURMANDERUNG
Final Stage:
13) ACC installation modification COMPLETE
14) STURMANDERUNG mountain compound COMPLETE
15) STURMANDERUNG transmitter array COMPLETE

<<<Final Stage Complete: PENDING>>>

input>?
invalid STURMANDERUNG command

---

input>help
invalid STURMANDERUNG command

input>F1
Welcome to STURMANDERUNG help.
Please choose from the following options:

1) Initialize
2) Test with current settings
3) Edit current settings
4) Abort current process

input>3

---

Current settings

Frequency: 1002 Amplitude: 233 Mode: 1

input>Frequency = 9999, Amplitude = 9999, Mode: 9999
Warning: value out of bounds

input>initialize
Warning: error encountered
Warning: charge overload detected
Abort process or press F1 for HELP

input>blam! love, little sister
invalid STURMANDERUNG command

input>

Outro narration

Konoko's ending monologue:

When I blew the processors I bought us some time, but at a horrible cost.

The dead and the dying now line the streets but it is impossible to deny the problem any longer.

My father's work may prove to be the salvation of the afflicted after all.

Mankind as we knew it is doomed: the Chrysalis will change us all. Let's hope it's for the better.

Added value

• A key question in determining how much damage was done by the destruction of the ACCs is knowing where they are in relation to the cities. If they were miles outside the cities then their blowing up should not have caused havoc in the cities (until the loss of purified air, or an ensuing panic, sets in). However, it is suggested here that the ACCs are actually underneath the cities. Let that sink in. Now look at the ending splashscreen for CHAPTER 14 . DAWN OF THE CHRYSALIS again, embedded above. Yeah. This would essentially mean that every city with an ACC had a giant bomb set off underneath it.

• There is already a fair amount written here about the questionable wisdom of Mai's rash actions in 'blowing the processors'. Was the "horrible cost" of so many dying avoidable? While she could have tried to defeat Muro first and then taken the time to reverse his scheme before it was implemented, how could she know if she would survive a fight with Muro? Perhaps the only choice she could make (acting alone, after all, with no one to sound her ideas against) was to take immediate action while she had the chance, rather than retreat and come back later. With the TCTF as her enemy, she would not be able to assemble any support for a raid, and thus may have figured that this might be her only chance.

• In the epilogue, Mai notes two large changes in society that are taking place: dealing openly with the situation of the poisoned planet, and, most intriguingly, the Chrysalis 'changing us all'. It may be necessary for everyone to have a Chrysalis to adapt to the pollution. But how can this be done? Is there time and money for every man, woman and child to get their own Chrysalis? Can they be cloned generically from a host like Mai? Who will get them first? Will everyone be subject to Daodan spikes, and even Imago transformations? Where will this lead civilization? Those are the sorts of unsettling issues that Oni leaves us to ponder, with no easy answers.