2021-10-30: In the Vaults of Shae Ving
- Log: In the Vaults of Shae Ving
- Cast: Citan Uzuki, Elhaym van Houten, Billy Lee Black
- Where: Freykragg Isle
- Date: October 30, 2021
- Summary: There is found a door in the depths of Shae Ving which will not open. Fortunately, Citan had asked along Elly and Billy for just this reason... as well as when it comes to accessing the still-live information storage systems beyond.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Perhaps there may still be an functional console around here...?"
Not all the side chambers -- the ones that weren't damaged in the, er, somewhat complicated landing they had at the bottom of the railway shaft -- are well lit. Others flicker with the promise of power only just pulsing through the veins and arteries of the installation. The only good news so far is that the Gear-sized hatchways are all functioning. Attempting this on foot would be a fool's errand.
This is not simply because of the scale involved. Shae Ving is a fine place to explore, as long as one has a Gear, and this is also because there is no functional temperature control left in the facility to speak of. Somewhere, there must be heating elements at play or the place would be a twin to Wec Stann and of comparative temperature to the ice and snow outside. But it does not mean it is safe or sane to explore this place on foot in the depths, unless one is dressed for the weather. This involves a little more than putting on a sweater.
The whole reason he had asked the two of them for their assistance had been practicality. Heimdall lacks the tools for accessing any data terminals they might encounter, as he had explained. And Billy's experience would be a necessary part of ensuring they reached these depths in the first place.
Now it's simply a matter of seeing if there is anything that still functions down here, in the guts of Shae Ving.
"Hmm. I wonder if this portal may be jammed," Citan muses, pausing before a door that refuses to open.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly doesn't just have a Gear, she has a Gear with a intrusion software package. It's also magical.
She thinks. That's the best she can understand it.
Elly found a box in the back of the empty space of the Omnigear's cockpit with a simple lock. It's rosewood, worn, old. It has something in it. She shook it a little, and then put it back in its alcove. For some reason she keeps thinking about it.
"Do you think this one failed?" Elly asks, a little belatedly. (Regulus's digital tools reach out for this one's access codes.) "I suppose one good thing about all of this is that we may actually be able to secure the location somewhat, even if we don't find anything... it'll be harder for someone to just come in and take everything. If we should do that, anyway... Maybe we should be emptying these sorts of places out."
The digital intrusion checks first for malfunctions, then for overrides.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Once Billy is back in phase with normal timespace harmonics again, he follows behind - Renmazuo now has one of the salvaged autocannons slung into an unused weapon hardpoint. He'll have to talk to the kids about paint jobs later.
Billy has in some part done his job here, but still, he wants to see this through, and takes up the rearguard while the others investigate. "I still have a few blast charges if we need," he notes to Citan.
... .... ....
"So what....are we looking for?" he asks, because he's been otherwise employed for most of this plot and then been having a total collapse of his personality for the rest.
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"It is difficult to know," he answers Elly. "Is the mechanism merely turned off? Or is it damaged, or even broken?"
Regulus' tools uncover something important -- there are signs of life! But they'll be terminal, unless something is done. It's difficult to determine if it's a mechanical failure (in which case they may as well try to break it open) or if if's something... more complicated but ultimately more repairable for the Omnigear.
"Yes, I have thought the same myself, on occasion. ...Wec Stann may be another location we would be well-advised to secure, if it is feasible. I do not think it will go unnoticed much longer." If they were willing and able to brave the cold, perhaps others will soon be slipping into the iced-over crypt it's become.
"Perhaps," the doctor allows, on the subject of the door. "If we are unable to open it by any other means."
Then Billy asks a very important question.
"Oh my... did I not explain?" Citan muses, and it's a certain thing from a tone of voice like that that he must be frowning and wrinkling his brow in consternation. "This dates back a few years, I am afraid... I was hoping, in light of recent events concerning Captain Albus, to see if there were anything still resting within this facility. Billy, are you at all familiar with the construct 'Gryndille'?"
Elly might have some additional input on this one. Perhaps.
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
Elly watches her network read-outs - "Ah!" she says on the radio, but it's parenthetical. (It's weird, really. The communications coming out of Regulus are eerily good. Elly actually sounded like she was *in your cockpits with you* until for some reason a slight buzz/crackle slid into the conversational mix.)
Regulus's ECM suit shifts into position with a faint sonorous hum. There is a subtle pulse of green, visible in the subdued lighting. "I think this one might be alive... I'm going to see if I can override it or get a workaround. It might be a database or controller connection..."
"Gryndille... it was an autonomous machine," Elly says. "Something like a -" She stops, and visibly finds another analogy. "A monster, a large one -- it resembled those scorpion machines we saw on the way in. In fact I think the resemblance was rather close. Its programming was broken, or altered by Lily's father, so it was like a real monster, not a broken machine... we were able to defeat it, but it wasn't easy."
"Did you ever run into such creatures before we met? They would have had, um-- I'm not sure how to describe it. I think there was an energy weapon on the tail... And claws, of course." Gotta have the snip snop if you want to reach the tip-top.
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Billy starts prepping the blast shells just in case. The revolver cylinders whir into position.
"I've had a lot on my mind," Billy says, quietly, by way of excusing his ignorance. "...though I wasn't particularly concerning myself with much but hunting Wels and Demons in the great sea at that time."
He hems, chewing his lip as he thinks. "Gryndille...the name rings a bell, but I can't say I recall." Elly explains, and Billy taps his finger against his armrest. "I can't say that part sounds familiar. So a cunning mechanical beast, is it? If you'll forgive me, it sounds a bit like it's of interest more for its relation to Leon and Lily than for its own merits."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"Have you found something, Elly?"
Citan is of course as unflappable regarding the quality of transmissions from the Omnigear, as if he would have expected no less. Then again, it is a legendary Gear...
"No, it is quite alright, Billy. This is... before our paths happened to cross. It is a story that began and ended on the Ignas continent. As Elly says, it had been responsible for much suffering on the part of Lily and Leon, though in the end they were able to destroy it. ...But you should know this, Billy. Gryndille was a Zeboim construct. More than that, from what Fei had told me, it had a particular... connection to Lily. I do not think this is entirely due to her father's control of it."
He is silent a moment, watching Regulus work through the cameras as if he could understand precisely what Elly is now attempting.
"We now know that Captain Albus was born more than five thousand years ago. But Lily's, ah, situation remains a mystery." He doesn't speculate out loud on what some have likely already begun to suspect.
There are too many gaps yet.
"Nevertheless, we are here because there are clear prototypes of Gryndille in this facility. I myself have encountered one here prior. Since we know that this location was connected to Wec Stann, it stands to reason there may be more to learn. Moreover, it is likely that Colonel Keil may deploy such weapons or those similar to them again. ...It is best, I have long thought," the doctor continues, "to know the shape of one's enemy. Is it not said, 'those who know their enemy and theirselves shall have no cause to fear the results of even one hundred battles'?"
The system, as Elly will find, has a number of blocks. Dead connections. Even the one thin line she's tracing is nearly departed. But--
Flip a switch (in the most basic of senses, 1s and 0s) back a distance. Flip another similarly defined switch. Might it be possible to get the power flowing down another pathway altogether?
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"Yes... it was just after Fei and I joined up with the Black Wolves. I remember at the time I didn't know if I really wanted to do it, and I suppose even now being a mercenary is still a little strange, but it's a cozy kind of mercenary work, isn't it? We hardly ever raze anything... except, I suppose, 'razing' Emeralda," Elly says, rather wistfully.
"I think you're right, though, Billy. In its own right, Gryndille would have been meaningful, but it could have been defeated by an army detachment if they could track it down... I think it would have been hard to fight it with Gears, but that's more from its size and speed."
"It's still a little hard to accept... He doesn't look any different from someone nowadays," Elly says. "If anything, Billy, he resembles you or I more than anything, don't you think?" (Of course, Elly may be misjudging Billy's features a little.)
And...
"I'm rerouting something... Doctor, Billy, I think I may be able to release the latch even if the power for the door won't work. It won't resist you, but you will have to pull it open. Do you think that's doable?"
Elly continues, musing aloud. "The legacy of the past is resting pretty strongly with us. But I suppose that's true everywhere, isn't it? Leon happens to skipped a lot of the... I don't know how to put it... the cycles of life, but he's no different from the rest of us. At least not in any way that seems to matter, or even make an impact. Lily's the one I would have thought..."
Why would Elly think that LILY would be the one to come out of a weird storage space of science weirdos? What could have prompted her mind to go in that kind of direction? WEIRD
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
Did...did Billy miss that episode!? Probably. "Five--" Billy yelps, and then composes himself. "Good Lord, imagine. And yet...yes, I see." He mutters to himself, mulling over the puzzle of the thing's existence.
"As you say, Elly. A beast of that nature is what the Order was for." ... He breathes briefly. "In theory, anyway. It's what the training and equipment were all designed for."
He says to Citan, "I see. Then, we should certainly pursue that lead." Citan has successfully made Billy understand he is hunting a monster, which activates old instincts he has been somewhat in search of. He seems to walk with more purpose as he steps up toward the door, shifting power into the thrusters so he can, if need be, assist his yank with thrust. "Yes...if Father could look that good at five thousand, he'd pickle himself."
... ...hm. "Not sure that one worked."
<Pose Tracker> Citan Uzuki has posed.
"It has been a strange turn of events to now be a 'mercenary'," Citan admits himself. "Though I suppose I am more of a 'hanger-on' than a bread-winner as such! Still, it is hardly such a terrible outcome, as these things go," he muses. One can imagine he at this very moment is wearing a disarming smile while shaking his head.
"Yes, Elly has the right of it. It was a fearsome enemy, but ultimately, it was an enemy that could be overpowerd. To hear Fei tell it, tracking it was the most difficult part of the matter."
Billy, though, appears to have been left ever-so-slightly out of the loop on certain matters.
"Oh! Had you not been told? It appears that Captain Albus had been set to 'sleep' for a long period of time, perhaps within Wec Stann itself. ...Thousands of years, to be precise. It is the sort of technology which is in very short supply these days. I am not certain that even Solaris could manage such a feat. --Is that right, Elly?"
She has just spoken to her rerouting the power to the door. It should at least get the door unlocked. But the rest will be brute-force work.
"Very well. Then, if you can pull with me now, Billy...! I believe it will take both of our Gears to make up the difference."
One.
Two--
"...How have you been of late, Billy?"
Of all the times for a conversation like that!
Three!
The door resists. It resists, and resists and
suddenly
slides free.
It's mostly dark beyond. But there, at the end of the chamber, is the dull glow of a terminal's screen.
"Aha. Perhaps this may be helpful to us. Would you mind seeing what you can obtain from here, Elly? It is quite alright if it might not be decipherable just yet. I expect that anything useful would be encrypted, and indeed, it may be of too large a volume to manage at this exact moment." Heimdall moves aside, making the way for her Gear. "We can return to the Karlsefni and analyze the data at our leisure."
And then, his attention returning to Billy after a fashion, Citan asks, "He has not vanished again, has he? I had hoped he would spend some time with his family..."
<Pose Tracker> Elhaym van Houten has posed.
"I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't been there, hearing Emeralda interpret the details of what he was saying," Elly says. (Regulus supervises the pulling of the doors.) "And yes -- I'm astonished it happened... I've never heard of such a case. Though I suppose there wasn't ever a need..."
Elly wonders about that for a moment, a dark bird in the evening sky, but it flies past.
"But yes - that's the summary - Wec Stann was meant to be a sort of redoubt for the Zeboim people, or one of their nations. A place where they could ride out their disasters. But..."
"Nobody came," Elly says, and then the door is open.
And through it--!!!
Regulus enters the room - carefully - positioning itself, not facing the terminal but with that great ponytail-shape of an antenna facing towards the terminal. "I'm starting to duplicate it into the working memory... I'll let you know how much I can get, doctor. Though I have to wonder if the computers they had then were anywhere near as good as the ones that could stay active, for this long..."
<Pose Tracker> Billy Lee Black has posed.
"I...missed that meeting, yes. What a strange thought...to sleep for thousands of years. Unimaginable," Billy says. "I'm sure it's the kind of thing--"
He stops himself. Refocuses on the door. One! Two!
"Uhm! I'm...fine?" Billy says, because even if he's not literally physically yanking on the door he's got to brace himself a bit for what he's about to do, and all! He doesn't even think to return to the question as they enter, scanning around with his cameras. "He picked up Prim from the orphanage and took her off to Shevat. We're still discussing if it's safer for the other children to be at the orphanage or the city..." ...grimace. "But Primera missed him, so she went ahead."