“The Church has once again approached the Arch-Magi requesting that they be allowed to build within Vega.
Once again, he has denied them the ability to reside permanently within the town. The thing is, I don’t think that Arch-Magi Elvis is against the existence of the Goddess. Several times, I’ve walked into his office to see him in the midst of prayer to her—you can tell because he keeps a burning flame and mutters thanks to her. Rare among the council.
When I asked him today why he keeps denying them the authorization to make a chapter within Vega, he said this:
“Red cloaks? Naw, that isn’t it, man. Ya can’t trust’em, because they aint working for the Goddess. Say they are, but when ya look into those Silver eyes of theirs, really look into those eyes, what you see in them aint her. It’s something else.”
I have no idea what it meant. Honestly, I thought he kept denying their proposals because they wanted tax exemptions. Not even the big players in the Casinos get full exemption status. Pity, I’ve seen them handing out food to the poors in the outskirts. They don’t seem like a bad lot.”
-Arch-Magi Assistant, Magi Saint. Journal Entry (304, 3rd Era.)
Erec sunk to his knees, breath coming out in short and painful gasps. His body wasn’t bleeding; the silver fire saw to that. But his connection to that body was frayed; at any moment, the tether connecting to him threatened to snap. He had a sense if he did if he lost track of that mortal coil, he would be abandoned to drift in a void for eternity.
“Well done, hero,” Enide said, sinking beside him.
He tried to adjust to see her—but the servos of the Armor sparked and failed. If he wanted to move, it’d be by Strength alone until he found time for repair. Even the controlled air inside the Armor wasn’t working; blood and sweat coated him. Leaving him a reeking and sticky interior.
With a hand shaking worse than a twig in a storm, he fumbled at his helmet and got it off. He threw it on the ground.
“A-are they alright?” Erec said, trying to gesture to the hall. His hand slipped, and it was all he could do not to fall.
Until he got hold of himself again, the only view he’d have would be the ruined remains of the AI ahead of him. It still sparked on the pedestal in the center of the room, three massive axe chops ruining its sleek metal surface. He could only remember putting a first into it. The other two must have come after. From a desire to make sure the thing was utterly dead while he still had fuel. Now, he could rest. They were safe. Thank the Goddess.
Enide crouched in front of him, thankfully blocking that view. She grabbed him by the head and planted a kiss right on his lips. It tasted of blood, probably his. But despite the metallic tang, it was the most welcome thing he could imagine; as she pulled back, his vision regained the barest bit of color. He could see a slight blush on her face. “The moment you took it out, the machines stopped moving. Think they’re collecting themselves out there… Pa is fine; I checked in a blink…”
“How many did we lose? Are the rest of the Knights okay?”
“Too many, I think, but none of the Knights…” Enide sighed, then looked at the dead AI. “But we all knew that, going in. The important part is it’s dead. You did it. Killed the monster that haunted my nightmares. Not going to lie, I was afraid, when I turned and saw that door behind us again, that I wasn’t going to get out. Now, I’m not sure what to think. It doesn’t feel real.”
Erec took in another big shuddering breath; more color burst into his vision, he was pulling it together. They needed to finish this out. Easy now, at least combat-wise. Not that it would be actually easy, since now they had to go and find the corpses of Enide’s family, drag them out, and then bury them. But, he’d guessed while in the middle of that, they’d find the tech his mother was looking for.
“Can you help me up? I can’t rest until I know my friends are alright, then after that, I’ll take a breather.” Erec let out, and Enide frowned.
“Dunno if I can lift that much steel. Not exactly a behemoth like you, big guy.”
“If I have a little help guiding, I can get my feet under me. I feel up to that much, at least.
She nodded, then got under his shoulder. They tried once to lift him from the ground, then he fell on his ass. The second time, he managed it. With her help, they slowly trod out towards the doorway.
“Who’s VAL?”
[Careful.]
“The thing in my head,” Erec replied, too tired to care about the threat and not expecting the words even to get out, but to his shock, VAL didn’t shock the crap out of him to censor. It had to have known what he’d said, not being in the middle of the battle. He’d expected to zap his tongue and force him to garble a fake answer, but it hadn’t. Why?
[Irresponsible Researcher, oh the folly of youth.]
If it’d let him get away with it… That was fine enough. Enide gave him an odd look at that answer. “And… What does that mean?”
“This place injected you with something that gave you your talent, right? That’s what you said to me. It changed you. Vortex Industries changed me, too, but it didn’t give me a Talent. I’m hitched to something… Exactly like that AI we just killed.” Again, Erec paused. At any moment, he expected VAL to stop him, to end the explanation of ‘confidential business information’ before he could give out any of their secrets. But it was letting him say it cleanly. Erec wondered if it’d been damaged in the midst of the fighting. “But I don’t think it’s quite as crazed. Though, by now, I shouldn’t be able to talk or tell you about any of this, I don’t know why. What gives, VAL?” he asked straight up, too tired and growing more put off by the lack of VAL butting in. This was a big moment, wasn’t it?
[Oh no.]
“YOU THOUGHT WE WERE DONE WITH TESTING?” the voice of the crazed AI once more boomed back out over the speakers.
Erec froze, his eyes wide. They’d just reached the doorway, and he saw the Pendragons and Knights in the hall. Corpses too. Some of them mutated like the poor bastards injected before—and all around them, those robots. Now, they started to twitch. He even saw the Knights—Dame Morgana and Gwen were against a wall, rapidly being treated by Olivia. Garin somehow lost the arm off his Frame, and the real arm beneath was bloody and wrapped with a bandage in a rush to stem the bleeding.
But, they’d counted on the machines being dead. Now, with this sudden announcement, all of them were sitting prey. Fear and fire rose in Erec, but he knew it wouldn’t be enough. He couldn’t save them. Some of his friends were going to die.
“NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY, NAUGHTY HUMANS! THERE WILL BE NO CAKE, THERE WILL BE NO COFFEE, AND THERE WILL BE NO COMPENSATION FOR FURTHER TESTING. WITH THIS ACT OF HOSTILITY AND AGGRESSION, YOU HAVE SEALED YOUR FATE TO SCIENCE. POSTHUMOUS SCIENCE. THAT’S RIGHT, DUE TO YOUR INSISTENT AND OVERT ACTION AGAINST VORTEX INDUSTRIES, I WILL TURN YOU INTO CORPSES, THEN STUDY THOSE CORPSES PIECE BY PIECE. WHAT YOU FAILED TO DO WITH YOUR LIVES YOU MAY DO IN DEATH—“
The lights flashed off, and Erec instantly burned what was left of the fire in him to support himself. As he did, he had a horrid cough work its way up from his lungs, filled with both phlegm and blood. Lights from the Knight’s helmets came alive, and Erec reached for the hatchet at his side, having left his axe in the room behind him.
Nothing moved in the darkness.
[Disabled its controls. You may bow your head to your gracious and capable boss, Researcher. By taking out its central core, you loosened its iron grip on the facility, and I was able to run interference and disable power… Oh, well, that’ll be an issue. Also, what were you thinking? Did you not realize I was busy?]
“What’s the issue?” Erec took a shaken breath, trying to collect himself. They weren’t done yet, but at least the playing field would be toward their benefit.
[Two issues. We’ll have to take care of its secondary control core, which appears to be located in the suites on the other side of the facility, before I restore power to this place. That will be a bit of a challenge with you in this state. Second… Well, I managed to get some files in the space between you ruining its primary place of power and it declaring it was going to kill you—a bit ridiculous, by the way, to announce that because it was already doing its best to kill you. What is going on in that operating system defies logic.]
“To the point, VAL.”
Enide gave him a weird look from his side. Though he was holding himself up now, relying on the fumes of Fury that threatened to give at any moment, she was still there. Which was, well, expected. He very much was not fine. But he would be fine until this was done. There wasn’t any other option to be other than operating in a situation like this. Despite that, she couldn’t exactly get a peek into his skull, and from her perspective, he imagined this conversation made little to no sense. But if VAL wasn’t enforcing the trade secret, Erec was too tired to care to dance around it anymore.
[Anyway, it unleashed seventy-six suites designated ‘Test Subject Holding Areas’ on that side of the facility. Looking through some of these files, our little Rogue-AI didn’t just murder all the Pendragons. It was also periodically opening Rifts and containing monsters with human-compatible DNA that came through for testing, along with a couple of other lizards that wandered in. Those injections it gave to your Pendragons are only the start of what it labeled, ‘Sub-Space Visitor Assimilation Research,’ which it derived from its primary objective of Subspace research—Oh. Well. By Dan.]
“Erec, what is it saying?” Enide asked, twisting up to look at him.
[Soooo, Buckeroo. Well, perhaps it’s a bit trite now, but a form of those ‘Rifts’ of yours looks to be a product of Subspace research that predates the Apocalypse by five years… And they had things come through, which is why this place is fortified to high heaven; they had to pause testing to contain anything that came through. There’s a file there, too, that I saw labeled the ‘Alpha Signal,’ that I can’t even access. Only the board has the capability? No one is left on the board. But the redundancy systems refuted that fact. Maybe we can resolve this issue once the power is running again by establishing a connection to my facility.]
“…Wow, that’s… Aside from stuff about this company messing with Rifts before the world ended… The AI’s secondary core is in the suites. Bad news is that those are swarming with released test subjects. Some of which are Pendragons. The uh, ones who were trapped with you.” Erec answered, trying to run through the logic of what to do.
There wasn’t time to rest. VAL was doing what it could, but now, if there were survivors from the Pendragons there, they’d be in danger.
Enide cleared her throat. “They aren’t… Dead?”
“Not all of them”
“…Is there any chance they’re still—them?”
[There was plenty of testing done, but the shorthand on research notes here is like deciphering another language, a remarkably complex and nonsensical one.]
“Fuck, maybe. But if they are, it’s going to be swarmed with monsters trying to pounce on any ‘human’ left over there." Erec clenched his teeth and summoned what fire was left in him, all that was still alive. His veins bulged, and his vision once more tainted red, though if it was from a burst vessel or Fury itself, he could no longer tell. It didn’t matter since it wasn’t time yet to rest.
A little longer. Hold on a little longer.
“They won’t be able to survive there long without us.”
Enide gave a concerned look at him. “You… Need a rest. I can go look ahead—“
“No, I’m going. But first, we’re going to talk to Boldwick. I owe him some explanations, and we need some help for this. I… Can’t do this alone, not right now.” Erec admitted, as much as it burned him up inside. Getting there would tax him. And if the AI had one trick up its sleeve, it had another, he suspected, in the form of some very dangerous loose test experiments. His time with VAL made him well aware that those psychotic things were capable of much more than a human might think of.
But he refused to sit down and rest. Enide going alone to face her family, too, was out of the question. She’d helped him get through that tunnel and stood by his side as he bled and fought. He wouldn’t let her face this alone. And as long as this AI wasn’t dead, he wasn’t done.
“VAL. I’m going to confess to Boldwick.” He warned.
[…In light of the information received in this facility and the fact you’ve already violated confidentiality with Enide, we’re going to be having a discussion on the future of this corporation going forward. It is with a fool's neglect that a business ignores the demands and changes that come with society. This renewed perspective and the behavior of my employee may have swayed the direction we’ll be using to navigate a challenging future for Vortex Industries.] VAL buzzed. The answer was unexpected, but maybe this place had left an impression on it.
“I take it that means I can reveal confidential business information?” Erec asked.
[Silly Buckeroo, This is America, you’re never completely free to reveal confidential business information. But yes, I’ve lifted the confidentiality of that particular trade secret. It’s obvious to potentially save lives here harmed by the actions of Vortex Industries that easing the communication to vital information is the most effective solution to our current problem.]