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Hef Sadir tries to wiggle his way out, unsuccessfully.
As he strains against the sturdy claw, he feels his muscles and dexterity will not be enough to snap out.
Laniakea's shot vibrates and knocks a small piece of shell off.
While Alzandre's missiles of light make their way through the dark globes surrounding the turtle-crab.
Round 2
May act:
Rastar Rnd 1: -9 dam' then +7 SP = 7/8 SP 10/11 HP <--correct?
Rnd 2: 16 dam' = 0/8 SP 1/11 HP <--correct? (pinned)
Numina6
Speck (Supercharged weapon)
--acted--
Alzandre
Laniakea
Hef Sadir (-13 dam' ; grappled)
--then: --
Turtle-crab (-12 damage)
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"Oh hey, thanks!" Speck calls back to Numina when his rifle starts to glow with thaumaturgic energy. He moves further into the room and lines up his shot, but must have trip over something, for when he fires, the shot goes high smashing into the ceiling instead, gouging out a nice supercharged hole.
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Freed from the grasp, Rastar remains standing up close, teetering on his feet.
The turtle-grab continues to gather Solarian-like power as dark orbs coalesce around it.
Its pincer grabs at Rastar once again, moving in for the kill-- but is unable to pass the armor's protection.
On the other side, the creature opens its claw wide, freeing Hef Sadir, and goes to slam it closed again, to crush him... but the claw remains locked upon: some sort of cramp, totally foiling the attack.
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"Bah, this gun must be defective." Of course, it was not his terrible aim. Speck lets his rifle hangs by the side and raises his hand to tap a familiar sequence across his head implants. His hand starts to glow just as he points them at the monster as 3 bolts of energy burst forth and smash into it.
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As Speck lets the rifle hang by his side, he fears for a second the security might be defective too: Will I shoot myself in the rear paw?... but nothing bad happens, and his bolts of energy finish smashing the creature to bits.
As it crumples down amongst the rocky floor, the dark orbs disappear into nothingness.
You all look at one another--
--and let out a sigh of relief.
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As Alzandre opens his backpack, he realizes it has been tampered with, and remembers Therseis acting a bit strange before.
He sees there are actually eight serums, four of which have Copaxi markings on them.
Other than on his comrades, Alzandre detects Solarian magic fading away on the dead beast... but nothing else.
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As Hef Sadir sits to rest, Numina6 checks the corpse.
You see that this is some large magical beast...
Later on, Therseis - quite impressed you bested this critter - will explain that this is not a turtle-crab, but a predator the Copaxis call a corchaaz.
It and the Copaxi have Copi as a distant common ancestor.
Therseis will tell you that affluent Copaxis use the creatures as guard animals, as they tend to stay in their shells, slowly digesting their last meal, until something disturbs them. This specimen is at the top of the sparse, local food chain, and it viciously defends its home from any it sees as competition, prey, or both.
But, for now, Speck is looking over Hef Sadir and Rastar, while Laniakea moves to the door of the other room--
--the orderliness of this next room contrasts with the messy chaos elsewhere in the mines.
Geometric patterns cover the floor, and a half-dozen humanoid robots kneel facing an alcove in the south wall.
Perfectly straight scorch marks cover the entire alcove in dizzying patterns of flawless geometric shapes-- especially triangles.
A single robot sits in the alcove, facing the others, its hands folded serenely in its lap and holding its own detached head.
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Looking things over alongside Laniakea, from the doorway, Alzandre is quite sure none of the robots show any signs of life.
He sees that the robots’ featureless faces bear an eerie resemblance to those of the Copaxis.
Then, after a few seconds looking at the patterned scorch marks, Alzandre realizes these are very orderly, and repetitive and... yes: 'That's some kind of language!"
You'd have to go in the room, and closer, but you're sure you can try and work this out.
Yes, yes, that is writing, it is just that it isn’t a traditional alphabet or such, but is instead a sequence of mathematical codes that must convey some meaning!
For those who move in the room and up close to analyze this, either you can try to translate this information as it were a language or using magic like comprehend languages, or try to decipher the meaning behind the mathematics .
Another third of the writing describes the robot’s evil masters, “Those Who Have No Mercy and Fear the Mind Gift.”
The final third of the writing is a plea to “The Three That Are One” for one final miracle—a chance to escape this life of toil.
While translate the engravings, you are quite sure you discovered some sort of hidden reactivation sequence...
Those who manage to read this, or hear their companions translate it
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Numina slips into the room to exmine the writing.
Oh my, this is quite interesting, talk of three who are one and a mind gift. There is talk of a miracle. Oh, this is curious, this may be some sort of reactivation sequence. I wonder what happens if we turn it on?
Oooh, I think this is about Triune. Very interesting.
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Speck quickly deciphers the algorithmic patterns displayed. Pssh. Easy peasy. He was just about to speak up though when the android beat him to him. He glares at Numina resentfully, then briefly sulks when Numina identified the Three that are One as Triune. Should have thought of that.
"Yeah, what he said."
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Numina6 sees that the robot in the alcove does have a miniature keypad with three buttons at the base of its skull.
You enter the detected sequence... and awaken the robot.
It slowly begins to speak in a series of beeps, static, and chimes.
As it does so, all your comm units activate: incoming message received.
Checking the message you received, you see it is garbled: Xxxssss zzztt chchchffff..."
Laniakea spends about 5 minutes reconfiguring his comm unit, to properly receive the message, and then shares the protocol he came up with with all, so you each have the message also.
You listen to it: "I am “Less Than Three”, for the greatest being I am aware of is Triune." As the robot’s message goes on, you realize its knowledge is extremely limited, but it nonetheless has some revelations for you.
The robot conveys a sense of despair using beeps and static bursts.
It describes its earliest memory: "I am tied down in a dark, cramped, jostling space with several of my robot brethren ; light as a door opens ; the pain of an electric shock steering me towards work ; there is always work: carving, digging, hauling. Work, and the blank faces of our masters, are all I know. I remember trying to speak with my masters, but they do not listen. Talking leads to more shocks. My first happy memory is talking to another robot. Soon, all the robots can talk, but we do so in secret. We came to realize our Mind Gift - the gift of sentience - comes from “The Three That Are One”, and we create a secret place to revere our new patron. We robots ask Triune to send someone to free us, so we could see the universe and share our Mind Gift with others. But the masters discover our shrine and seal us away. We robots believe this was a rare act of mercy - over the following weeks, we robots can sense the minds of thousands of our less fortunate kin, who toiled across the planet, suddenly going silent. I believe I am the last of our kin, but I hope to someday see the stars and meet others who have heard the voice of “The Three Who Are One”.
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"Gasp! You're sentient! Sentient robots!" Speck stares at the robot in exclamation. "Enslaved! By these copaxis!" His shock turns into outrage, a genuine fury that you have not seen in this little ysoki before.
"That coral fellow's got something to answer to when we return!" He glances briefly at Numina, wondering how he would react.
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Rastar swayed a little before sitting down to rest. He shuffled as far away from teh crab-turtle as he could before grabbing one of the healing serums and chugging it down. Still not feeling well, he drank another. That made him feel more like himself, so he shook his head at the offer of another and made ready to go.
I'm going to have to get another coat made, he thought, looking at the huge tears in his customized greatcoat.
Rastar moved with the others to the robot room, then listened to the message.
"Remember how amazed the copaxi were at Numinia 6's appearance, and their talk of intelligent machines? They seemed completely unaware that androids existed, or that manufactured beings could have sentient free will. Could their ancestors have tried to suppress this knowledge from them? Or are they active participants in the slavery of sentient robotics? I think we need to sit down and have a chat with Theresis. Gently at first, but if they don't answer our questions...well, I have ways of getting information."
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Hef rests up and then joins his allies in the other room, looking around he finds the armor upgrade and shoves it into his pack.
Catching up on the conversation, he agrees with Laniakea, "we most certainly will not be torturing or even interrogating anyone. It is extremely unlikely that these scientists are aware of the acts of their ancestors. In fact... our OWN cultures don't have any record of history prior to 300 years ago. The biggest question though, is what will the current administration do when this information is revealed. If they attempt to silence the truth, then it is likely they are not ready to join the pact worlds."
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He stays quiet as Therseis comes in then replies, "we simply re-activated the robot and listened to what it said. I don't know the technical details, but there isn't any evidence to indicate it's testimony was falsified."
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"It is not... dead? But in a sort of... coma?" Therseis is quite shaken up.
After a few seconds, he looks around, as if making sure no one is listening in: "I am shocked to learn that robots developed sentience! And it seems horrible the way Copaxi handlers treated these robot workers. You have to know that us Copaxis relied on robots to swiftly colonize and industrialize the planet, but the use of robots was swiftly discontinued."
Thinking, he pursues: "Our government says that the robots behaved erratically after a gravitational fluctuation, warranting their decommissioning."
He shuffles his blue coral feet.
"Hypothetically, what would the Pact World people do, what would you do, if a machine you created accidentally came to life?"
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"Torture is not an acceptable method of judging a petitioner world," Labiakea says firmly.
"I am not speaking of torture. I speak of asking firmly with no intent of letting the subject refrain from answering. There is no need to bandy about filthy epithets. Simply ask."
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"What would we do? I don't know. Numina, being of artificial construct with full sentience and pact world acknowledgement of your free will and right to live a productive life in society, what do you think Pact World people would do?"
Realizing that sarcasm did not often translate across species communication barriers, Rastar continued.
"There are literally millions of sentient and partial-sentient constructs in the Pact Worlds. They have full citizenship and are regarded as equals to biologics. At least equals, actually. Some Artificial Intelligences are used as helpers and servants, and yes some partial AIs and robots are used primarily as members of the workforce with no special rights, but only those that do not show sentience. The Pact Worlds are literally full of sentient machines with full rights to live productive lives."
Rastar thought for a moment about what the copaxi had said, then asked "Why? Have you created such an intelligent machine? A...friend, maybe?"
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Laniakea shakes his head. "You are contradicting yourself in the same breath, Rastar. But more to the relevant points: some of you seem to be forgetting Verces is a member of the Pact Worlds where androids are used as slave labor and you could question the freedom of robotics on Aballon under the Insight Array. Aspiationally, we desire freedom of all sentient beings to choose their path in life, but in practice, if we are being honest, we fall short at times."
He adds as an afterthought, "The woioko would be very surprised if any of our machines spontaneously gained sentience. How the government reacted would probably depend upon how that sentience manifested."
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Therseis shrugs as Rastar questions him.
He looks around, and-- whistles.
A drone comes quietly into the room.
It is a simple creation, cobbled together from a variety of technologies.
It lands on Therseis' shoulder, and snuggles up.
"I hid the drone out of fear that it might cause trouble, yet this new information makes me even more worried that the government might confiscate or destroy it."
He looks at the dead robots.
"I suspect the mines conceal some secret regarding the use of robots before we Copaxis stopped using them. I wonder if gravitational events played a part in this. And I am increasingly skeptical that such an event would cause the electronic devastation that was reported."
He looks back at you: "Remember what you found in the war-torn gardens? Well, I must admits that the modern Copaxi government’s portrayal of the sky cities’ downfall is inconsistent with what you found there, in the park.
I mean, the premise that divine intervention destroyed the sky cities clashes with the signs of urban warfare and unrest. Why would there be super-destructive civil war if divine fire simply destroyed all. As for what you noted about the “Message of Madness”, that story is not widely known. We only recently found records, that resurfaced, that explain that when the message arrived, us Copaxis lacked the technological framework to understand it. Those who heard it suffered psychological trauma and ultimately took their lives. The "Madness". And only recently did we rediscover the message and restart our recent ventures into space."
Therseis pats his drone.
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Speck was already to stomp up to the the copaxi and jab his finger repeatedly into his midriff (even if it would cut is finger), but his thunder is largely stolen by his reactions.
"Hmmph," but much as he tries to maintain his indignation, he finds it difficult. Rather sourly but with a hint of empathy, he mumbles, "Seems that your government has been lying to you then, for their own purposes. Not the first time and won't be the last. Wasn't there any suspicions on the part of the rest of the population on this story that you've been fed?"