"Yes... external triggers and psychology..."
"The cadence of which previous-" The instructor's question fades out, along with your perception of the last few seconds of conversation. When you begin concentrating again, you realize they've been speaking for a while "-though their scores compare favorably to their yearlings. This promises to deliver them to a promising position within society. A priveliged position, where they can put their skills to use in ensuring that our lives run in ordered precision, as they should." By this point, a dull throbbing pain has begun to spread in each of your heads, and the ongoing conversation feels somehow dreamlike. You can't tell if you've been speaking to the instructor for a few minutes, a few hours, or a few years. Shocca in particular senses that the recent comments have painted a picture of Sivvan society for her - one in which the social elites restructure organizations an marginalize budding cultures to ensure the existing hegemony is solid and untouchable. This realization simultaneously feels terrible and perfectly unremarkable, and while Shocca wrestles with that fact you all hear "Ah, but Now we come to it. It is the Truth that your spawnling as many gifts..." and your collective thoughts scatter once more.
The instructor continues, and you notice the setting around you has changed to a more casual one "Your own project is fascinating, but it pales in comparison to the great work being undertaken by graduates from our establishment. Critical research into tapping the true potential of the solar furnace. Imagine the power - and the control - of drawing the entirety of a sun's energy into Rel Space? It is projects like these that prove our superiority, no?"
"Yes, so superior... it almost baffles the mind what such power could unleash upon our enemies."
Surely a star yields more than just energies that interact on a physical level... Perhaps that is how it can survive the transition to the rel state.
Though both of you are far from slouches in your respective fields, the instructor's esoteric explanations of the technology that seems to fascinate him slowly creep out of your realm of understanding. On some level, it almost seems like his explanation is *meant* to not be understandable. He ends with "ultimately, we must all remember that Now it is the Truth."
You blink and the instructor is discussing a new topic. "-but I would recommend that they focus not only on their current interests, but on the study of the biology of our close servitor species. Yes, it is not a prestigious position. Yes, it is perhaps beneath your spawnling. But should they fail to secure a more meaningful role, our administrators have seen great demand for this skillset."
"Great demand because of our reliance on these servitors? Or because of their rampant breeding?" Sivvca asks the question, though she feels like she should know the answer... "Now... is the truth?"
"With the great war, there are few left to keep the servitor species properly... cultivated." The instructor doesn't even twitch at Shocca's use of Now is the Truth. In fact, it's so cleanly ignored that you start to doubt you even said it.
Ajithu focuses on the instructors next reply, but decides to not add anything more for now so as to not blur the focus on the current question.
The instructor focuses his attention on Arc "You are not aware of the controlled breeding programs? Our superiority is self evident, however not all are privy to the programs of the upper echelon." Neither Ajithu nor Arc are able to glean anything further from the confident instructor's responses.
"Of course, the innovations in battlefield medicine should first be applied to our brave soldiers... But perhaps the same discoveries could be used to more efficiently squeeze value from the servitors."
"Excellent, you understand so well. We recently conducted a bantrid vivisection in class and your young spawnling installed new phantosmatic sacs within its internals while the fellow students noted the servitor's conscious responses to the new impulses. An enlightening exercise, and one that shows their gift for this subject." The description of the live vivisection seems run of the mill for Arc and Ajithu, but Shocca's greater medical knowledge amplifies the dissonance in her mind. She finds scraps of some other memories bubbling to the surface in her mind, one that recognizes how abhorrent these live vivisections and other deeds are.
With her partial awakening, the area around you all freezes. Faintly you can hear "Rejection detected. Aborting. Aborting. Diverting..." as the space around you dissolves into visual and audible static. Then that static too fades and you're once more in the dark void.
You once again sense a strange texture to that darkness that surrounds you. You feel yourself compelled to indicate a preference, though the question doesn't seem to come from anything or anyone.
1) A Medical Miracle?
2) The Horrors of the Kishalee?
3) A Rally for the Triumphs of our Military?
4) Exit?
Ajithu will focus on The Horrors of the Kishalee.
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Kishalee...that word rang familiar in Arcalinte's mind. It hung in a strange, fuzzy place where the context it was placed in made sense: the enemy, the thorn in one's side, the horror; but also...reclaimers? Friends? Heroes?! These couldn't mean the same thing, couldn't occupy the same mental space. He decides to descend into that dichotomy further, to untangle the true meaning and seek clarity.
vivisections?!
The insights into Rel State flash before Shocca/Sivvca/Shocca's mind, interrupting the thought. As Sivvca begins to get closer to Shocca, she thinks... "Medical Miracle... that sounds like... another life..."
The kishalee laugh and saunter out of the room. You can hear their chatter fading into the general hubbub of the place you're currently in. As you strain your memories, you vaguely recall that this is the site of a kishalee guerilla base, located on a dense jungle world - one of dozens currently embroiled in the war to end all wars.
You take in the room once more. Empty plastic boxes are stacked in three of this room’s four corners; the fourth corner holds a single, closed crate, several feet long and on its side. Sets of ceramic shackles are attached to a free-standing wall in the center of the chamber. They're currently pinning your full set of tentacles as well as your neck, not allowing you to move even a millimeter. A thick plastic curtain blocks the exit to the north. You can hear a faint beeping from the manacles - they're likely electronically controlled.
Can't move a millimeter.
Ajithu looks around the room for controls that he might operate with a telekinetic hand...
Sivvca works to wriggle out of the manacles, not deigning to speak to these savages.
As kishalee leave, Arc's outburst briefly grabs their attention before they laugh again, one saying "Not so proud now, are you?" in rough Sivvan as they go.
Arc struggles against the manacles but makes no progress. Ajithu scans the room and sees no controls to operate. With the manacles secured electronically there are no switches or dials to operate to release them. Luckily however, Shocca is one slippery sivv. She wriggles out of the manacles not long after the kishalee leave. Her neck is the last thing she manages to free up with the aid of her other limbs.
She finds herself unclothed and slightly numb from being bound for a long time, but otherwise uninjured and in full possession of her faculties.
Sivvca! Well done! Undo our bindings!
"Nothing some superior Sivv hacking can't break through..." Sivvca puts all of her tentacles to work on the problem.
Shocca remembers she doesn't have any tools, and the manacles don't have an obvious user interface, meaning her skills can't be put to use. At least not yet.
Sivvca takes a brief look in the barrels and crates throughout the room. If nothing helpful arises, she gets to work on prying apart the manacles at the weak points.
A search of the largest crate uncovers all your stored gear, just as your captors implied, and with hacking kit in hand Shocca breaks open the remaining manacles binding Ajithu and Arc. You're able to arm yourselves and don your gear without interruption, but you can hear the rest of this base is currently busy, with the sounds of kishalee voices all around you.
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Arcalinte clutches Skyndi? That was the sword's name? to his torso once it's retrieved. He HAD to make sure it wasn't lost to the enemy. He'd made a promise...a promise he...couldn't quite remember.
"We need to find a terminal of some sort...a map. If we rove the facility blindly we will be recaptured for sure," he says softly. "Our way must be illuminated."
Unfortunately, the room you're currently in looks like it was intended largely to function as a cell, leaving it bereft of any maps or other information. Worse, it seems your capture must have been quite traumatic, because you can't remember how they brought you in in the first place.
Another soldier nudges a crate that's out of reach with their foot. "Your equipment will be put to good use for our cause. The kishalee war effort thanks you. Relax for now. Your executions will be coming soon enough."
Seeing no terminals and lacking any memories of the compound... Shocca pulls out her thieves tools (hmmm... surely a Sivv wouldn't use such base instruments? These must be... 'special operations' tools...) and works on the door.
Ajithu watches Sivvca's efforts nervously with complete and utter confidence for superior sivv outcomes.
Sivvca draws her rifle and stops just before pushing through the curtain. "The kishalee are everywhere. We could, of course, fight our way out. But that could be a waste of fine Sivv ammo. Any ideas?"
Arc turns invisible and takes a peek out beyond the curtain. Directly to the north of your makeshift jail cell is a combination corridor and supply staging area. Several crates are stacked against the north wall of the room. A large case sits atop the largest of the crates. The case's top is open, revealing a jumble of syringes and plastic webbing with a triangular datapad stuck in the middle of the mess.
The corridor continues to the west and south. Arc can hear the sounds of kishalee voices are strongest in that direction, though they echo through the whole of this fort.
Well, I'm not invisible but here goes nothing. Wait, where are you Arc! How do I follow?
Ajithu tries to move quietly behind Arc.
Sivvca waits demurely for her stealthier peers to fetch the contents, even though she is itching to look at the datapad. And those needles for some reason...
A trio of barbed needles stab into Arc and auto-inject their contents in the process. His vision swims for a moment and a chill runs through him, but beyond that it seems the poison within isn't able to completely take hold. Ajithu on the other hand is lucky and the needles that went his way deflect off his armor.
Worse, the needle cascade thups and thwiks into every surface around the room, making quite the racket. There's no immediate response from the south-west, but it would be surprising if they didn't hear it.
Ajithu mentally sighs.
They must know we're out and about now.
When Arc decides to proceed, Ajithu looks out more carefully for additional traps.
Recovering from the rain of stabby bits and the clamor of a few hundred barbs impacting the walls, you look around and see no further hazards or traps - at least none beyond what you've already triggered. The triangular datapad that sat at the center of the web lies undamaged but also is now unpowered.
Sivvca's shoulders slump at the rain of metal and glass. "Typical kishalee, lashing out when they could be helpful." She shakes her head and moves towards the datapad quickly. Is there a way to provide power to this barbaric device?
After playing with the datapad for the moment, Sivvca points forward. "Time is running out. Let's head down the corridor. Around the corner, let's go."
Ajithu doesn't give Schocca long to fiddle with the datapad before he starts moving down the corridor as she suggests.
Arc! I'm trusting you to keep an eye on us since you're invisible. Don't let us zig when you zag!
Shocca picks up the datapad and quickly concludes that it burned itself out in delivering the surge of power through the web that sent all those needles flying. Unfortunately, it seems a trigger for that defense is all it was.
You push down the corridor and around the corner toward the sound of kishalee voices. The large room that comes into view contains tools and machinery spread across several collapsible tables, as well as three large robots in various states of disrepair. Two are currently gutted and clearly not in operation. A third is on a large pallet. While the third robot's treads and wheels have been removed (rendering it incapable of movement), it seems that the kishalee have powered on its turret, which it has trained on the corridor you're currently entering from.
Four kishalee engineers stand armed and ready for a fight. However, one of them calls out in clumsy Sivvan "Desist and drop your weapons! Do not make your return to confinement more painful than it needs to be."
And still without our equipment. We need to be careful here. Ajithu relays telepathically.
They see two of us and Arc is invisible, if we retreat a short distance we have a chance to deal with them without that large turret trained on us...
Sivvca, realizing she's the only target visible, holds up her hands. "Uh... yeah! Right... Back to confinement..." She shifts backwards, back around the corner.
From her very barely safe position, she speaks in a low voice to her teammates. "Do we try to draw them back here, or do you both want to move around behind their back to ambush them?"
Yes, draw them back! That way we can deal with one problem at a time.
Ajithu shifts further backwards.