"Not even a scratch..." Sounbyte's clip whispered, his hands brushing over his body as if dusting himself. Perhaps he may not've hit the deranged being, but in the end nobody was left with injuries.
The missionary kneeled down toward the cooled corpse, placing a hand on it's forearm while his audio played,"Do not regret what happened, that you had to take a blade to your brother once dear. For he had fallen into darkness long ago. In the times when they reject our hands to pull them free of their chains, we must instead extend the hand of mercy. May they be judged fairly in the Boneyard, may that Her Light may touch them one final time."
Shoulders slumped, he shook his head in sorrow. This man had likely seen so much pain, but at least now his soul would be free.
As Soundbyte kneels, he realizes something. This thing isn’t human, and likely never was. It’s a robot!
Organic or synthetic, a soul was a soul. He wondered what maddness had overtaken this machine, perhaps it was the same corruption his captain had witnessed earlier? Entirely within the realm of possibility.
Krizen shakes his head at SETs question. "Less than optimal, captain... This station is cursed! I can't wait to get off this thing and be above water again!" He nervously fiddles with his rifle, trying to look everywhere at once.
Set gives Krizen a quick visual examination, then says, ”As long as you’re not injured...” Then, looking at Soundbyte, ”Thank you. That blow rattled this one’s circuits.”
With the threat dispatched and the team seemingly unharmed, Set ventured into the room and looks about.
SET doesn't notice anything new in the room, save for the large piece of equipment a bit closer. It seems like there might be some sort of records up on one of the screens, but without being closer it's impossible to tell.
"Fine, Cap," Bravo replies. He doesn't say anything while Soundbyte performs last rites. "Kriz...breathe. Curse or no curse, we're at least alive and not wounded."
It'd sound more effective if Bravo didn't sound like he was trying to convince himself of that...
Krizen nods decisively at Bravo's words. "Excellent point. Breathing is good. As long as we're breathing, we aren't undead!" Krizen begins to breathe obviously, in through the nostrils and then giving a panting exhale, muttering to himself in the meanwhile; "In through the nose and out through the mouth? Or was it in through the mouth and out through the ears? I should have paid more attention to that human massage advert..."
Soundbyte considered placing a hand upon Krizen's shoulder to give him the comfort of touch, but for one he was several heads taller then the Gosclaw. As for the other, as he clenched his golden digits in front of him, the missionary felt that what his companion wasn't the cold grasp of another machine.
"I won't let them hurt you," He intoned, voice clip deep and filled with confidence.
The SRO moved into the next room.
"Some undead pretend to breath to better effect a semblance of life. Then there are those who are not undead who do not breath, such as this one and Soundbyte. Better to simply neutralize any threats irrespective of whether they are breathing," the S.E.T. muses as it looks about the room. When it sees the monitors, it tries to get a better look.
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"Not. Helping. Cap," Bravo says to S.E.T.
Set paused and fixed its oculus on Bravo, the iris swirling about a pale green light. ”Which part was incorrect?”
Soundbyte offered SET a shrug, "Seemed pretty clear to me, cap'n."
Krizen mutters to Bravo, "You didn't say he was wrong. Just not helping. Which isn't helping!" He returns to his breathing exercises, staying a tad closer to Soundbyte after the tall SRO offered reassurance.
Set paused and fixed its oculus on Bravo, the iris swirling about a pale green light. ”Which part was incorrect?”
"Not factually wrong, just socially. All that fact did was set Kriz back on track to a panic attack. Let's just keep moving."
SET creeps into the room, managing to avoid the ghost's tormented gaze. With a bit of fiddling, he gets some sort of data up. The text is illegible, but cross-referencing with previous examples combined with raw datastreams and pictographic symbols paints a grim picture.
The facility operated normally for a few decades, but almost all activity abruptly stopped over the span of a few days. For the milennia since then, conditions have been stable, with the exception of steadily increasing oxygen and power consumption.
Set paused and fixed its oculus on Bravo, the iris swirling about a pale green light. ”Which part was incorrect?”"Not factually wrong, just socially. All that fact did was set Kriz back on track to a panic attack. Let's just keep moving."
If the SRO had a brow to furrow, it would have done so. Instead, it replied, "Very well. This one shall endeavor to lie more in the future in an effort to facilitate peace and calm." To Krizen, "There is nothing to worry about. This place is perfectly safe."
It then turned its attention to the displays and data, and relayed the information to the others. With no knowledge of biology or life sciences, it posited, "Perhaps the increased oxygen levels are the result of a malfunction in the environmental controls. Hmm..."
The data doesn't indicate higher ambient oxygen levels, just higher consumption.
Bravo just sighs at S.E.T.'s response. He moves closer to S.E.T. to keep them covered.
"Ah, no... that's consumption, not output. Why would the undead and robots be using more oxygen?" Set returns to the others in the hallway and relays its findings.
"Now... destroy the spirit in that room, or press on?" It gestures to the door on the 'eastern' wall.
"My vote's press on for now. Maybe we'll find something further in that'll give us an edge against ghosts."
Set inclined its head in a nod, then said to Krizen, "This one is sure there is nothing threatening on the other side of this doorway... but be prepared to shoot anything that moves."
Set took a position at the side of the door, looked for any traps and, if finding none, made an effort to open it quietly.
Krizen nods firmly, happy to be pressing forward though he's less than thrilled to put any undead things at his back. Still, the being is focused and ignoring them, so he returns the favor and inches his way to stand on the other side of the doorway.
The party ventures further into the station, the tendrils on the floor growing slightly thicker as they go further. The room beyond contains another rack of databanks, these ones defunct and intertwined with tendrils.
Beyond the small entry room, two upright glass tanks contains some sort of biological specimen, though the glass is smudged and clouded. Slumped against a computer console connected to one of the tanks is a mostly disintegrated body.
Set tries to advance quietly into the room, expressing with a hint of surprise, "Interesting... This room may actually be devoid of threats. Inactive organics in some containment vessels."
While scanning for threats, Set tries to determine if the smudges are on the inside or outside of the containment vessels and if the computer console with the partially disintegrated body is active.
Bravo moves towards the smudged tank, keeping a safe distance but training his gun on it. He didn't want to take the risk of something bursting out of there and attacking like they always show in the trivids.
The console is active, and the clouding seems to be on the inside.
The SRO looks around the room with mute curiosity, though everything inside was beyond his level of understanding. He needless kept an open set of sensory input, aware of how tense the group is.
"Cap? Think we got a live one in here."
Krizen edges his way towards the computer, avoiding the containment vessels as much as possible. "Perhaps the computer may tell us something..."
Though the text is the same as that found elsewhere in the facility, Krizen's familiarity with computers and some recurring symbols between other computers allows him to puzzle out that the tank is several millennia overdue for a routine cleaning procedure.
It's a few button presses before the tank begins to clean itself, and a something comes into view on the inside. A three foot length of the tendrils found on the floor floats inside, preserved by whatever liquid it's in.
As he accesses the system, Krizen also notes what looks like an audio log.
As Krizen came in and began working with the computer, Set switched its attention more to watching for the inevitable threat that would rend flesh from bone. Not the SRO's flesh, for it had none, but perhaps ceramic from circuit... "It seems the tank does not contain a threat after all, though incineration may still be advisable."
Set looked about, then proceeded to door at the opposite end of the room. It made no effort to open the door, but rather quietly stood guard and listened to the others reports.
"Were they studying these things and they got loose?" Bravo wonders aloud. "May still be a threat if that's the case. Check that log, Kriz. Considering the people that built this base were humans, we may get lucky and they spoke something similar to modern Common."
"Don't know if the speakers around here are still working, but we can give it a shot." Krizen hits whatever symbol looks the most like "play" and then steps back.
It takes a moment for Soundbyte's translation software to kick in, but it translates it without too much difficulty. A woman's voice plays, a somewhat snobbish tone clear in her voice, "-rcher Olmaris Hekvin, monitoring base 7-Alpha, callsign Deep Blue. We're findings new organisms by the day, including the subject of this log. Current designation is Octis. It displays fascinating properties, sharing stimuli with other individuals of it's species. Intelligence cannot be ascertained, but the natives seem unnerved by it's presence. Superstition, of course."
Set listens to the translation and, while it wouldn't say it was 'nervous', there was an curious irregularity in its circuits. "It would seem they lost control of their experiments. Could the organism, this Octis, be the tendrils we're seeing? And how could this be related to the Unity entity? Too many variables."
"too many questions, not enough answers." He hummed with some frustration. One would think that in the modern era scientists would put more stalk into faith and superstition before toying around with unknowns. Evidently not so.
"Think the Karang had the right idea," Bravo comments. He nods at Soundbyte's assesment. Then his eyes widen.
"Hang on, the log mentions this Octis thing can share stimuli with others of its species...kind of like how the Old Mind worked with the Karang, maybe? Maybe they're related but the Octis is...like, corrupted somehow? It apparently was able to mess up computer systems attached to it, maybe it happened the other way around: Unity getting smuggled in on a computer system and infecting the Octis?"
The door to the next room slowly slides open. The corridor is dark, with dim, flickering lights and panels ripped off the walls. A skeleton is curled in a fetal position on the ground, tendrils on the floor wrapping around parts of it's bones. The door beyond is closed.
Soundbyte looks upon the tentacles with curiosity and mild horror at the death, drawing a few more obvious conclusions from the display. With a wave of his hand to test a theory, Soundbyte uses some magic to grasp something loose on the ground and lightly touch it to one of the tendrils. He makes sure to stand a good distance back.
Set maintains a position of cover at the side of the door, pistol at the ready in case the dead body forgot it was supposed to be dead.
As Soundbyte shifts the skeleton, a wailing sound can be heard as the very same ghost arises from the body, "Nonononono...it doesn't stop...can'tsleepcan'tsleepcan'tsleep...why won't they turn it off..."
It locks eyes with Soundbyte for a moment as it goes silent. It doesn't stay that way for long as it releases a blood-curdling shriek. The party, already on-edge, was prepared for something spooky like this to happen.
Krizen, already on edge, fires wildly at the advancing specter!
"Large feline named Krizen, you must endeavor to aim better..." Set fired its pistol down the hallway, hopefully without the spirit having known the SRO was there.
It wasn't the precise shot the SRO had been attempting, but...
His optics flash in surprise, that hadn't exactly been his intent. There was nothing more for it though, it would be here that he'd have to help lay this soul down to rest. Perhaps it would be best to make sure it didn't do anything nasty to his comrades first.
"Sarenrae's light, I beg of you, come forth and deliver us into to the warm touch of redemption!" He blared from his speakers in the voice of his priest, sparks rolling down an extended hand to gather in the form of a miniature star. With a thought it zipped forward, flying around the spectre's face to hamper it's vision.