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Arcalinte silently listens and nods.
"Vheiransch is the key," he replies to Kalthlo's question. "They merged their soul with the Ark's artificial intelligence core, subverting its processes for their own agenda, divergent from the wider Sivv project of empire. We separate Vheiransch from the AI and send them to Pharasma's long overdue judgment, and hopefully the Ark should go into dormancy. From there, we can reconnect with the Pact Worlds' fleet and begin planning our next move."
He takes point at Shocca's pointing and approaches the door, eyes open to make sure a trap like that "brain-scrambler" weren't waiting for them.
Kalthlo nods "I know of this Vheiransch. To think they became a machine ghost to haunt even the future..." She breathes out in a sharp huff through her massive nostrils "We will do this disentangling of ship and ghost. Based on what you are speaking of here, this may help." She opens a compartment on her armor and pulls out a hexagonal cylinder that shimmers with circuitry. "I found this in the medical room where they decided to bind me and it seems a likely fit." She passes the first of the transposition keys to your team.
Arc checks the western door and finds it unthreatening. He opens the way with a touch and reveals a storage room. Shelves line this room, and many are fitted with small doors with no handles. From past experience, you know these cabinet doors can't be opened without phasing them out of existence and into rel-state (a trivial task for a sivv). The light in this room has a dull, orange cast and pulses slowly. Two doors exit the room. Several deep gouges mar the wall at the back of a narrow alcove, as if something tried to dig its way through the wall toward the AI core, but without success.
Ajithu nods, assuming the scratches are caused by some creature that could overpower him.
Shocca hops a little when Kalthlo pulls out the key. "Ooh, ooh! Silly us, we should have asked about that!" She smacks her forehead and eagerly accepts the key. "Yes, though unsuccessful they would be a powerful combatant. Hmmmm.. I wonder who else would be trying to get into the core. Perhaps we have another ally in the wings." She takes a look around the room, focusing on the marks, to see if she can learn any more about the creator.
After searching she moves with the group down the hall to check out the next door.
Shocca inspects the gouges in the wall and sees that they're roughly paired in some spots but otherwise seem natural. It looks like something with great strength carved them with a pickaxe or similar pointed implement. Considering Sivvan construction, the force used and the integrity of the digging implement must have been tremendous to make an impact.
Leaving the question of the gouges aside for now, you proceed down the hall to the next set of doors. They open at a touch.
The large chamber you enter would be spacious except for all the additional computers and testing equipment that have been placed within. These machines are hooked up to a quartet of thick cables that run to the inner wall, facing the AI core chamber. The cables terminate at large metallic disks, each two feet in diameter, affixed to the far wall. Shocca recognizes that these complex devices seem to be some kind of diagnostic or signal amplification equipment, but its hard to tell for sure without more study.
Two creatures stand here, a moon giant and a sivv, both armed and armored. They appear to have been in conversation - the moon giant clearly subservient despite her much larger size. They're taken aback when you open the doors, but not as completely as you might have expected. It seems knowledge of your presence here has begun to spread.
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|||| INIT ||||
Shocca
Ajithu
Moon Giant
Sivv Warmaster
Arc
Kalthlo
Ajithu decides that perhaps slowing their foes is in order first.
He steps just inside the room...
and drops a dulling haze over the giant and sivv.
Shocca moves in through the door, taking cover beside one of the desks. She fires off her rifle, fully loaded with biohacks. "Eureka! Blended flavors."
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-
In slow motion, the moon giant takes on a martial stance and advances toward your team. The sivv on the other hand moves to cover and fires their long rifle at your team. A brilliant green beam flashes and traces a dissolving line across Shocca .
|||| INIT ||||
Arc
Kalthlo
Shocca (45 dmg)
Ajithu
Moon Giant (slowed)
Sivv Warmaster (39 dmg, -2 AC, -3 hit)
This time around Ajithu speeds up the gruop...
-
To the back, the sivv warmaster draws and tosses a grenade into the group of you clustered near the doorway. It explodes, releasing a degenerating burst.
Ajithu and Shocca are fully engulfed, but even Arc and Kalthlo find their bodies begin to weaken. Ajithu and Shocca additionally start to corrode as the degenerating wave lingers within them.
|||| INIT ||||
Arc (93 dmg)
Kalthlo (11 dmg)
Shocca (88 dmg, corrode 5d6) x2
Ajithu (43 dmg, corrode 5d6)
Moon Giant (153 dmg, slowed)
Sivv Warmaster (39 dmg, -2 AC, -3 hit)
Ajithu tries one last time to slow their foes...
He then tries to ward off the corrosion.
"OUCH!" Shocca fires through the crowd, her aim poor from the pain.
. She continues across the room, trying to fire accurately as she moves.
|||| INIT ||||
Arc (93 dmg)
Kalthlo (11 dmg)
Shocca (88 dmg)
Ajithu (48 dmg, corrode 5d6)
Moon Giant (153 dmg, slowed)
Sivv Warmaster (39 dmg, -2 AC, -3 hit, slowed)
-
|||| INIT ||||
Arc (142 dmg)
Kalthlo (11 dmg)
Shocca (88 dmg)
Ajithu (48 dmg, corrode 5d6)
Sivv Warmaster (39 dmg, -2 AC, -3 hit, slowed)
Phew! The big guy is down.
Ajithu wonders if he can use his new degenerator weapon to inflict the sivv similarly to himself.
Popping out of the corner by the desk, Shocca fires twice. "Alright, let's see how superior your race is now..."
Combat Over!
The molecular distortion causing Ajithu's form to waver and dissolve continues unabated for half a minute longer. By the time he manages to properly shake it off, he's looking quite a bit worse for wear.
|||| STATUS ||||
Arc (142 dmg)
Kalthlo (11 dmg)
Shocca (88 dmg)
Ajithu (156 dmg)
Ouch. Ouch. Ouch. Ouch.
He grits his teeth and bears the corrosion for some time.
Well, that wasn't pleasant.
Shocca lets out a little whistle. "Wow, Arc! Look at you!"
She's a little preoccupied with his own work to pay attention to her own. When her eyes flick back to her own work, she curses. "What?!" "Well, at least I can check out those disks."
Shocca notes that the metal disks at the par edge of the room are some kind of rel-state probe designed to be able to read and write information out of rel-state. In this case, because they are oriented into the AI core, they may be able to interface with it even while it's in rel-state. The normal purpose of this seems to have been to monitor and modify the AI core, but its access to those systems seems to have been intentionally limited.
Arc checks the terminal and finds that there's a large package of information that's in the middle of being uploaded to the AI core. This appears to include footage of yourselves - from your adventures on the detention deck, but also rather improbably, from across Absalom Station during the attack. Since this includes information on how you fight, it may very well be tactically useful for Vheiransch. He finds he can cancel this upload very readily if he wishes, or alternatively he could modify the upload to try to falsify the information being uploaded.
Looking elsewhere around the room, you spot other terminals that seem oriented around various rel-state experiments. One of these in particular catches Arc's eye - an experiment using the rel-state as a barrier between two tiny portals to the positive and negative energy planes. The balance of life giving energy and the suction of a swirling void is mesmerizing.
Ajithu, after he's done resting, spots a particularly interesting prize near where the sivv fell. Two quantum boxes are nestled against the wall, and a transposition key sits atop one of them. It almost looks like this sivv was planning to set up a link so that the key could be hidden away somewhere, but was unable to finish his plan before you arrived.
Ajithu picks up a quantum box in each hand, looking between the two of them.
This could... come in handy.
"Intentionally limited access... smart, smart..." She listens intently to Arc's suddenly proficient insight. She purses her lips. "We can do it. The two of us."
"Let's grab the key!" She peers at the Quantum Box. "This... this I don't now what to do with. But it's cool!!"
With some clever programming tricks, you edit key details of the footage and facts the sivv managed to gather about you, obscuring your weaknesses and strengths and creating a whole pile of misdirecting data points. Once you're done you hit upload and wait patiently as the falsified data is fed to the AI core. Assuming AI-Vheiransch pays any attention to this intel, you're confident that it'll be actively harmful to its decision making.
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"Good work, Shocca!" Arcalinte replies.
His attention turns to the portal experiment.
"Creation and entropy, and the barrier causes the energy to cycle...much like it would through a solarian's mind, spirit and body..."
He watches the interplay of energy, his mind almost instinctively seeking harmony with it, like to the crystals he'd meditated before during his training. Creation's Forge and the Void were universes in and of themselves, and still other universes lay between them, the energy flowing, transforming, from one end to the other and back again. This experiment was the River of Souls in microcosm. Planes, stars, light, life, gravity and entropy all reflecting back on each other like an infinite set of mirrors and prisms...and then Arcalinte snaps back to reality.
"Even here and now, at the apogee, I am only just beginning to understand..."
"Yes! We're going to need everything possible swinging our way in this..." She spends some time refilling her vials and speaking with Kalthlo. "That's two keys down. Do you remember anything else about the ship or the crew that you can tell us?" After everyone is ready, they continue down the corridor to the left.
Ajithu nods to Kalthlo.
Finally we have someone on the inside. It felt as though we would never make progress before. I almost don't resent becoming a... whatever.
Kalthlo shakes her head "This Ship? I know even less than you, I am sure. I saw little of it between when I broke out of the containment deck and was captured again. As for the crew... It could very have been this very sivv that captured me. Despite fighting them for many years, I still have a hard time telling them apart. When I was captured I thought I saw more than one, but now I'm not quite so sure."
As you discuss, you proceed down the corridor toward the next door . The door slides open at a touch. The room within is dominated by a massive device resembling a large telescope, embedded in the wall opposite the entrance. Rather than an eyepiece, a large translucent helmet is held by an aperture at the place an eyepiece might be. A few supply cabinets stand along the walls.
What attracts your attention perhaps a bit more than the telescope itself is the creature currently using it. A massive boar-like being stands here, it's body composed of equal parts crackling blue lightning and ancient stone and vines. Crystal wings sprout from its back and its head is formed of a shattered blue and white sphere. With a twist of one wing it removes the helmet and speaks in a language that sounds like the elegy of the universe. Despite not knowing a single word, you understand the meaning. It says "There is no hope. No future for Lathlath. Only vengeance for what was lost."
What the...?!?
Ajithu just stares at the creature in awe.
In the course of your explorations of various biomes, you have studied all manner of flora and fauna. Reduce the DC to identify creatures of the animal, plant, and vermin types using Life Sciences by 5.
Oh... Lathlath.
He glances at Kalthlo for a reaction to this. Then back to the being.
Where do you intend to find this vengeance?
"Aye, all the Sivv look like something out of a nightmare to me. When we study angry beasts back home, we tag them to tell the difference."
After opening the door...
"Oh, uh, hi?" Her microlab-laden tail whips up and runs an invisible scan. "We too are here to get vengeance on what was lost. And save that which remains. Please, tell us your story."
Both Ajithu's vast knowledge (together with his library chip) and Shocca's indexed microlab return back a single name for this extraordinarily rare fey creature: a calecor. Ajithu knows only a few stories of these beings, that they're an embodiment of disaster, created when an entire planet suffers a terrible catastrophe such that the degree of death ripples all the way to the First World. Calecors are a product of the trauma that birthed them and cannot help but both wish for restoration and spread further ruin wherever they wander. Their anguished minds are deeply dangerous to read or touch in any way. Perhaps one of strangest yet most common tales regarding the calecar is that their heads are a perfect recreation of the world that birthed it and therefore they are aware of even the most minute detail of what is happening there in real time.
Shocca's microlab instead offers more practical analysis. This creature possesses great destructive physical strength and magic, and can impose their own tormented thought processes on their vicinity. They are immune to mental effects, as well as any effects that wouldn't work on a statue, and have a powerful will. Despite its ungainly appearance it can fly.
At Ajithu drawing her attention, Kalthlo advances past Arc into the room. The Calecor of Lathlath rears back upon seeing her, its wings quivering. "A child of Lathlath. The last? Come. You must come. Your world lost. Broken. I am broken. If you remain..." Kalthlo for her part understands none of this. She shakes her massive head slowly before looking at your team. She asks "Why does it speak of Lathlath?"
Shocca flexes her tail, nearly injecting herself with a mind-strengthening potion then pausing. Perhaps diplomacy can work twice today. After Ajithu explains the mystical origins of the creature and it's birthplace - shared with Kalthlo through trauma - she speaks. "It wants vengeance for your world... but it is dangerous here. Perhaps you can lead it away, so we can search this room for the key. As a representative of your race, you may hold great power over it."
I'm not entirely sure either. It wants you to come with it, but where do you suppose you would even go?
Kalthlo if anything looks more confused "Vengeance for Lathlath? This strange beast would want such a thing? I have never seen its kind when I was alive. And why would I hold power over it?"
This creature wishes for restoration of the world from which it came. It seems to believe this involves you!
"Restoration of the world from which it came?" Kaltho starts to put two and two together "A creature like this came from Lathlath? But if it means to get vengeance or to restore the world then that means..." Her shaggy head shakes with horror "What of Lathlath? What do you mean lost? What can I do?" She says this last to the calecor. The creature responds "Shattered, decayed, ruined. You must come. You belong there."
It seems insistent that Kalthlo come with it immediately. Aggressively insistent. Kalthlo, shocked by the situation and not really understanding what it intends, seems uncertain. She says "What should I do? I want to go if there's any chance of meeting my distant kin and helping my world if it is in peril, but I do not know if this being can be trusted. And... I promised to aid you. If I go, you will be on your own."
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"Ohh... Sorry, should have led with that." She steps over and places a hand on Kalthlo's hip bone, as high as she can reach. "This being being here means... Lathlath must be gone. I'm sorry, the Sivv eat and eat until there is nothing and no one left." Lacking the proper words, she leaves a moment of silence for the lost world. "I think, by appeasing this... mystical creature, you will be aiding us."
That's what it wants, but I'm not sure good will actually come of it. Maybe you should stick with us Kaltho.
Arc knows fairly little about Calecors, much less if this one can truly bring any good outcome for Lathlath. What role Kalthlo would take in this is similarly unknown. It seems you'll need to take the Calecor on its word that Kalthlo's presence is needed. At the very least, if you refuse it seems likely to do something desperate.
When Shocca puts voice to what Kalthlo has already concluded deep down, the shaggy aqlath bows her head. "The sivv are a menace. I've known that my whole life."