[IC] The Cradle

[Cath]

“Knowing what we know now, i agree with you, Datius.” Captain Andersen’s hologram spoke up. “We can’t afford to lose you, Dr Lang. By all means, elect enough deputies to set up shop inside this thing without your help, but i can’t allow you to go in with the first wave. Agent 595, i’m transferring operational command of the Sacred Band to you. Once a beachhead is secure, get word back and we can funnel more resources in if required.

595 bounced excitedly on the balls of her feet. Freyr bit nervously down on her bottom lip and clenched her fists repeatedly. She wasn’t happy to put other people in danger like this. What if they faced something they didn’t understand that she could help with if she were there? But it did make sense - she had to pick her battles. Especially when being brave was getting her nowhere. “Ok...Lets do it!” She conceded, trying to sound positive. She looked around at her team. “Ngata, Dlamini & Wetherall. Will you go in for me? I’ll understand if you don’t want to.”

Wetherall looked at the other two, who nodded. “We’ll do whatever is necessary.” Freyr nodded and smiled, giving his shaking hand a reassuring squeeze. “Thank you. Happy?” She directed the last question at Andersen, who nodded her approval unequivocally this time. She then looked at Rareth, who also gave the green light. “Okay, positions, people! Let’s be ready for insert in fifteen minutes. Apalkov, I need you to dial in suits and equipment for these three! Give Wetherall the transit gear.” The lab exploded in a flurry of activity, leaving Freyr momentarily free to bite the nail on her right thumb and wonder if she’d made the right choice.

[EliteCommander]

For the Rothians, there was less to prepare, given that they were only sending a single of their number for this insertion. Though, the assignment of any Datius to a task was far from a small contribution. Rareth had her body fully scanned to ensure her full array of augmentations would be represented in the simulation, followed by her complete set of combat gear. Her armor resembled that of most Rothian soldiers, being a full-body suit comprised of a light, durable alloy. The metal plating had a silver shine and hugged closely to her body across most of her form. Its integrated power source could work in tandem with the fusion core implanted within her own body, allowing them to combine their power output. It could amplify the strength of her internal energy shield generator, as well as further enhancing her strength, speed, and senses.

The team was limited in what they could bring for their first insertion, but they could still bring along their personal weapons. For the sake of ensuring she was prepared for any potential enemy, Rareth’s chosen weapon was a fusion-powered heavy repeating cannon. Normally a vehicle-mounted or stationary weapon, it was large, bulky, and unwieldy for even a Rothian soldier, but Rareth could handle it with roughly the same difficulty as a light machine gun. The energy blasts it could produce were intense, though it was also equipped with a secondary micro-missile launcher. Compared to the normal version of the launcher, the missiles she would be using were…nonstandard.

Once Rareth was ready, she laid down in the harness, and waited for the others to be prepared as well. “Remember, do not stray far from our arrival point unless absolutely necessary. I would rather avoid violence if we can help it. At least before we get a chance to make contact.”

Meanwhile, as the Human team was still preparing, Freyr soon found herself with additional company. In the chair next to her, Vreta took a seat, placing his hand gently upon her shoulder. Even without the assistance of his neural implant, he would have been able to recognize how she was feeling. "It's alright. Your scientists are in the best possible hands, I can assure you."

[Cath]

After a short huddle, Agent 595 and the Sacred Band made last minute checks to their equipment before letting the science team secure them into their harnesses. Dr Apalkov quickly and carefully readied a pre-load file for the three deputies Freyr elected to go inside. As they wouldn’t be carrying weapons, they had a bit of room on their person for vital equipment, like the components for a new transit station, a comms mast and deployable cover modules. Once they were all kitted out, they too strapped into waiting harnesses and prepared to go under.

Freyr was deep in thought when Vreta approached, and flinched slightly at his touch. She looked at him, and smiled distractedly. “I hope so.” She said, before getting up and moving over to where her team were finally settling down. “I’m sorry to leave you behind, kiddo. We’ll get you in as soon as it’s safe, ok?” 595 called, her hand craning forward to see Freyr while the rest of the agent’s body faced the ceiling. “Just focus on keeping everyone safe, alright? Don’t worry about me.” Freyr asked.

She then moved across to Wetherall and the other two scientists, who were looking noticeably less cavalier. “Remember, if everything is quiet: comms mast first, then transit station, then deployable cover. If anything happens, it’s the other way around. Do you understand?” Dr Wetherall gave her a thumbs up. Freyr nodded. She stepped back and looked at Dr Apalkov. “How are we looking?”

“We’re looking as ready as we’ll ever be. I can make adjustments based on entry feedback we get.” Freyr nodded again and looked over at Nirann, who was attending Rareth’s harness. “Ready?” He answered in the affirmative. “Okay. We’ll insert in thirty seconds; start the clock, please. Good luck everyone!”

[EliteCommander]

Rareth did not know what to expect upon entering the simulation, but she was as prepared as she would ever be. Nirann had updated the software she would be using in her translator to include ancient Rothian languages, though it was a long shot that any of them would be useful. Ideally, they would not encounter any lifeforms in the simulation until they were ready to make contact on their own terms. Nevertheless, someone had to be the first one in, and Rareth had no issue being that person.

---

The first breath inside the object for Rareth was a long, painful one.After her senses had faded in the real world, they were quickly, almost violently returned to her in the simulation. Her eyes burned from a seemingly intense light that overwhelmed them, her ears were filled with a high-pitched ringing, and her scales felt like they were experiencing every sensation at once, from light itching to a piercing pain. The sensory overload gave her a sharp headache, but it all subsided in mere moments. The light faded into a world shrouded in near-darkness, the sound softened into silence, and she was finally able to take a hold of her weapon and rise to her feet. She was not sure if the false sensations had merely been short-lived, or if her augmentations had cured them quickly, but she was glad for it to be over.

The area around Rareth was dark like a moonless night, but Rareth’s implants quickly adjusted with low-light vision. She deployed her helmet from her armor, then started to use its sensors to enhance her scans of the environment. She was on a ridge overlooking a valley, though visually, the landscape was rather featureless. She used her echolocating sensors both to get a good picture of her surroundings themselves, and to search for any lifeforms that might be hiding out of sight. Firstly, however, she turned her attention to making sure the Humans had not fared any worse than she had. Establishing their beachhead was their first and only priority at the moment.

[Cath]

“Everyone alright?” Thebes sent over comms once he’d regained his senses. He quickly located the outlines and IFF tags of the group in the low-light even before his enhanced vision came online. Memnon and Carthage were still on their knees, hands either held up to their helmeted face or resting on the ground. Knossos, second in command and the Band’s medic, rushed over to them while Saddam and Athena moved into protective postures, weapons raised and looking out into the darkness.

“Permission to lift my visor?” Memnon, the Band’s marksman, asked from his kneeling position. His voice arrived over comms noticeably crackly. “Atmosphere is breathable, no sign of any dangerous elements.” The scientist named Dr Ngata offered helpfully from nearby, also crackly. “Alright...Make it quick.” Thebes replied, pulling the energy rifle off his back and establishing a sensory grid from his suit. His team’s suits quickly integrated and amplified the field, creating a wide net to monitor motion, heat and other tactical data.

The front of Memnon’s helmet slid back and he promptly threw up between his hands, onto the featureless surface they all found themselves on. Knossos patted his shoulder. “You’re alright.” He chuckled gruffly. Memnon waved one hand around behind him to move the old soldier on. Knossos shuffled over to Carthage, who was having trouble as well. Memnon watched the ground greedily suck in the matter he’d ejected before grabbing his heavy assault weapon and standing up.

595 opened her visor too, standing on the edge of the group. It crawled back over her face, revealing her pearlescent teeth in a Cheshire grin. She sniffed loudly, sampling the air with her nose as three bright blue dots cycled up in each of her eyes. “This place smells different to the Cradle.” She noted, looking around.

“Ok, let's get this comms mast in the ground first.” Dr Wetherall announced, turning Dr Dlamini around so he could access the equipment attached to the back of her suit. Carthage finally stood up with Knossos’ help, unpacking her SMG. “Well, that was rough.” She crackled. "Good to have you back. Join the wall, look sharp.” Thebes ordered. “Doctor Ngata, may I take those deployable cover modules?” The short, stout suit with ‘CRD’ printed on the front nodded, chucking three containers over before rejoining work on the comms mast.

[EliteCommander]

Rareth had bounced back quickly enough from the sensory overload she had experienced, so she placed herself In the role of scouting their immediate area while the Humans were recovering. She did not stray far from their arrival point, but she did walk the perimeter with every sense and sensor she had available to her, her weapon held intentionally in a more relaxed position. The fusion cannon was too heavy to be held comfortably at the shoulder, but her extensive targeting assistance could allow her to still fire accurately from the hip. So far, there was nothing of note for her to detect. Even in the darkness, her low-light vision could allow her to see at a reasonable distance, and echolocation pushed her “vision” even farther. She also scanned the area in thermal and EM vision, but so far, the only strong electric fields came from her own allies.

Eventually, Rareth moved to the other side of their arrival point, closer to the ridge. They were high up enough to have long sight lines, though the darkness did restrict how far her eyes could see in the visible spectrum. However, swapping through other vision modes did finally reveal something that might have been worth seeing. In the infrared spectrum, there were heat signatures down in the valley, near the far end of her visual range. “I might have something. Heat signatures down below the ridge. Something to investigate, maybe. After we’re set up here. How long until communications are up?”

[Cath]

“Five minutes.” Dr Wetherall responded to Rareth’s question directly, lying next to the comms mast to fiddle with one of the control panels. “Why are comms so patchy? Sounds like you lot are inside a ration packet.” Memnon asked, carrying his massive repeater like it was a beloved pet. “Not sure. I’ll try to clean up some of the background noise in a minute.” Dr Dlamini grunted, tugging at one of the levers controlling the mast’s base.

“Athena, go and check out what our Rothian friend has found.” Thebes ordered the Sacred Band’s sleek, grey armoured sniper. He activated the first node in their deployable cover, which was actually a misleading name for an acorn shaped energy shield. Once the other two nodes were in place, it would envelope the transit station in a bubble which resisted ballistics and supercharged energy alike. They could even camouflage it against the background, making it almost invisible.

Athena wordlessly complied with the order, jogging over to the edge of the ridge where Rareth stood. She lay down on the pitch black ground and unpacked her weapon. Originally a rectangular block, it quickly unfolded in her hand, elongating into a high powered rail gun with a bulky scope. A bipod flicked out from the end of the barrel, which Athena rested on a stable platform before peering through the optics where Rareth had indicated. “Shit. My picture isn’t clear.” She put her hand in front of the scope and flicked it back and forth, trying to focus it. “That’s a bit better. Hmmm. Yeah, I can see something. Heat sigs. Looks like some buildings too.”

595 jogged over. “Where?” Athena pointed, her eye still trained down the sight. “Interesting...We should do a recce, see who or what lives there.”

[EliteCommander]

Rareth spoke without a hint of hesitation in response to the Agent’s suggestion. “We stay here and establish this transit station. Once we have our fallback point secure, then we can worry about exploration. We will scout the surrounding area, then bring in more of our science team if we find no signs of danger. Once that is done, we can discuss the settlement with our scientists. I would rather have a professional anthropologist on-hand if we are going to make first-contact with a new civilization.”

Rareth knelt down lower to the ground as she moved closer to the edge alongside Athena. She zoomed her own optics in on the village to try and get as good of a picture of the settlement as possible. Even without going down into the valley, seeing the types of buildings could paint a picture of the type of civilization they were dealing with. “But do keep an eye on them. It is possible we are not undetected here. If they come to visit us, I would rather know ahead of time. We are still going to try a peaceful approach, before anything else.”

[Cath]

595 sighed. That was the boring, correct way to handle the situation, yes. “Fine. We wait.” With all the power coursing through her right now, she had to make a conscious effort to stay rational. She lowered her visor; it crawled back over her face and bright blue eyes.

---

Far away, further up the side of the valley, two creatures watched the twin lamps disappear. After a short exchange, one of them set off back down into the valley’s basin at a run.

---

“There...that...should do it.” Dr Wetherall groaned as they maneuvered the last of the mast’s supporting legs into position. “Start on the transit station, would you please?” He asked his two juniors, before turning the comms mast on. He stayed by the control panel while he tried for home. “This is Olive Branch calling base. Come in, over.” No answer. Dr Wetherall made a few changes to the configuration and tried again. “Base, this is Olive Branch, come in please.”

---

Back in the real world, aboard the FOB, the lab was suddenly filled with a whirlwind of white noise. Freyr jumped out of her seat and approached the comms console where one of her team was already sat. “Isolate that signal, clean it up!”

---

“I have one foot-mobile moving into town.” Athena reported after about ten minutes of Dr Wetherall trying unsuccessfully to get through to the real world on comms. She shared her view through the scope with the group. A faint, red and yellow blob was quickly traversing through the black canvas of the landscape toward a cluster of shapes identified as buildings.

“Great, there goes the element of surprise.” 595 commented, just as Thebes and Saddam successfully deployed the shield around the area being prepared as a transit station.

[EliteCommander]

“If they’ve seen us, they’ve seen us.” Rareth remarked towards Athena with a shrug of her shoulders. “We’re not here to fight them. Just keep watching, and keep us updated. Make sure we don’t end up getting caught by surprise ourselves.”

The locals were something to keep tabs on, but Rareth’s priority was still the beachhead. After ten minutes without any progress on communications, Rareth joined Dr. Wetherall by the mask, her massive form towering over the relatively unaugmented Human. Fortunately for him, she was far more understanding than demanding. “I suppose we shouldn’t be surprised to have comms issues. The program we uploaded, we couldn’t get a good signal back from it either. As I recall, it was mostly static. But we were getting something from it…” She said, resting her fusion cannon on the ground as she took a moment to think. “Even static can be useful. We can use a code language; something that only requires simple signals. I believe your people have such encoding methods as well. You call it…Morse code, according to my files. Even if they are only getting static, you can send pulses in that code to get across a message.” She suggested.

[Cath]

“They might be watching us right now. We’re not exactly hidden up here.” Knossos remarked, peering through his rifle scope at the multitude of crags further up the valley from a prone position. 595 scanned the higher elevations too, her hands so far still free from weapons of any kind. “Not loads of cover up here either, apart from the transit shield.” Carthage muttered, picking up a small rock near where she knelt. It crumbled into black dust and fell through her fingers. “Keep the line clear.” Thebes ordered. “We’re trying to reach base.”

---

“I’m getting something!” A Rothian manning the auxiliary comms console called. Freyr rushed over and listened in. “It sounds like some kind of code.” He reported. Freyr only needed to listen to three pulses before she realised what it was. “It’s Morse code, an ancient Human form of communication. Plug it in, let's see what it says.” The transmission was unbearably slow, with words gradually forming on the screen. After about a minute they had their first phrase.

“LZ set up….safe”.....

Then another.

…..”mast jammed”

Then a sign off.

“TS in ten…life found…..stop”….

“They found life!” Freyr shouted, for the benefit of the people not huddled around the console. “The transit station will be ready in ten minutes. We only have limited space as it sounds like they need spares. We’ll need an anthropologist to go. Who else?” She’d resigned herself to being the vicarious co-ordinator in this expedition for now, but had already briefed the members of her team who were staying behind what to do when she did finally go in.

---

“I’ve got a lot of activity down here.” Athena crackled, sharing her feed again. Lots of heat blobs were emerging from the long, flat building shapes to congregate together and mill around. “Think they’re coming out for a look. Maybe we should tell the civilians to stay put.”

[EliteCommander]

“I don’t want anyone else coming into the simulation until we have the transit station up, and we know it’s working. Tell them to wait until we give them the word.” Rareth answered. Athena’s feed of the growing crowd of locals was overlayed over her vision. Rothians did not stand out as much in thermal imaging compared to warm-blooded creatures like Human, but their bodies still did not perfectly match the temperature of their background. “Just keep watching, and let’s keep eyes on any other approaches as well, in case they send anyone to flank us. Just don’t shoot anything unless we’re attacked first. If they get to us before we get the anthropologist in, I’ll be the one to try and communicate with them. Don’t point any weapons at them, and try not to seem threatening.”

---

Marae, naturally, was the one to start organizing her team. She had already expected beforehand that they would need experts on ancient Rothian civilizations at some point, so her picks for that role were already essentially ready. Nevertheless, she double-checked that their equipment was already scanned. “Artek, Enha, between the two of you, I would say you have the best chance of getting through to whoever might be living in that simulation. Get ready by the harnesses.”

“Nir...” Marae began after she turned back to her workspace, prompting him to appear beside her. “Make sure you scan in the best translator they can carry.”

“Already done, but computing power will be more limited in there. They won’t have access to the Core like I do. Even the best translation algorithms could take up to a week to decipher an entirely alien language, without a supercomputer running the algorithms.” He answered.

Marae’s eyes stayed on the collection of holographic screens in front of her as she answered. “That is true, but if we’re lucky, this won’t be an entirely new language. If they’re ancient Rothians, maybe their language has some common threads with ours that could speed up translation?”

Although Marae was confident in her selection of experts so far, she was not too proud to admit that she would still benefit from some advice. After all, she and her team were still catching up with their knowledge on the Cradle. It did not take her long to approach alongside Freyr. “I have made sure we will be as prepared as possible to meet with any Rothians we might find in there, but I am not yet familiar enough with this kind of environment to know all we might face. From your knowledge of the Cradle, what sort of expertise would be valuable?”

[Cath]

“Ok. Still getting the hang of this…” Dr Wetherall replied. Even through the interference, his voice seemed nervously excited by it all. He began sending pulses, referencing a Morse code guide.

“Non-threatening is our specialty.” Saddam chuckled from his post on the opposite side of the transit station. “There’s someone up there, watching us.” 595 reported calmly, pointing into the dark up the valley. “Where?” Thebes asked. “Let me try and mark it.” 595 replied. A waypoint appeared on everyone’s HUD at a point in the distance, but it quickly began jumping about, moving hundreds of metres each time. 595 removed it after a few seconds.

“Fucking hell, what is going on with our gear?” Carthage growled. “How can you even see that far anyway? I can’t visualise half that distance.” 595 shrugged. “My eyes are adapted for the Cradle.” was her opaque reply. She waved into the blackness at the faint figure high up the valley’s edge, beckoning for them to come forward. The figure promptly disappeared from view.

“A few of them are leaving town.” Athena reported. “Which way are they heading?” Thebes asked. “Away from us. Looks like they’re riding something warmer. The rest are still milling around.”

---

“New message from inside: TS test in five. They didn’t respond to our last hail.” Freyr nodded in acknowledgement. She was deep in thought, planning out what would go over in the first shipment. The transit station area set aside in the lab was a four metre square. They could scan and send people and materiel much quicker this way than programming equipment into the harnesses.

Freyr was using a datapad to simulate what they could fit into the transit station space; it was vitally important not to actually enter the area until it was confirmed to work. So far, with the help of a systems engineer, she’d sim-packed a third of the available space with spare parts and repair equipment for the comms mast and transit station, and more deployable cover, personal issue. Lab assistants had been running to fetch the required items and arrange them close by the transit plate. Freyr projected there was enough room for two Rothians and two Humans to squeeze in without touching each other.

Freyr looked up when Marae approached her. “Well, we need a wide variety of skills. My three so far span Genomics, Artificial Systems and Xenobiology, but they’re all trained how to survive in environments like the Cradle. They also all know to some extent how to maintain equipment and learn from their surroundings. I’m going to send in one of my other systems engineers in the next wave. It seems like the team are having some trouble with the equipment in there. My working theory is that this could be down to a divergence in language between this object and the Cradle over time. Oh yeah, and I’m also going to send two of my all-rounders to begin holistic study.”

Freyr spoke quickly, trying to translate her complex thought process on the fly. There was still a lot to prepare, but first they needed to confirm the transit station actually worked. “There should be room for four Rothians. Who do you have so far?”

[EliteCommander]

Rareth started watching other angles, now that their presence was known. Peaceful contact was her preference, but that did not mean she wanted to open herself up to a surprise attack. Her vision was getting clearer and clearer as time went on. Basic low-light vision helped to start, but it could still be better. Her neural implant worked on taking in any wavelength of light her occular implants were taking in and filtering them in to the image that was sent to her brain. With some adjustment and fine-tuning, she would be able to see more clearly.

In any case, Rareth continued to pace around the perimeter of their position. “They’re riding animals? That does paint a picture of the kind of society we may be encountering here. Anyone here who is not equipped for combat, stay inside the shield if they approach. I will talk to them, but watch out for your own safety in case talks break down.”

---

“I’m sending an archeologist and anthropologist, both with expertise on ancient Rothian history. I do not want to send any more people into danger than absolutely necessary, but if the issues we are experiencing are the result of differences in this object’s language or programming, then Nirann would likely be the most helpful person. But, I don’t know that we can send him in.” Marae replied to Freyr.

[Cath]

Freyr shook her head. “We don’t have the infrastructure in place to support a hologram inside this thing. He’d need to come down here and go in person, I'm afraid. How far away is he? If it is a re-code they need, I could go and oversee this personally. I may have more luck inside, where i can analyse the equipment directly.”

A low humming sound interrupted Freyr’s train of thought. “Transit plate is live, and we have Dr Dlamini queued to RTB. Want me to bring them back?” One of the technicians asked from behind a row of holo-screens. “Yeah, hit it. Someone start loading the transit plate, please!" Freyr called, jumping over boxes and jogging to Dr Dlamini's side. "Come on, honey. Come back to us."

---

“Good luck my dear." Dr Wetherall presented two thumbs up to his assistant as she stood on the transit plate. "Tell them to bring spare parts and a good engineer, would you?" She nodded, crouching into a brace position. After a few seconds, there was a bright flash and the junior researcher disappeared. Dr Wetherall put his gloved hand in front of his visor to stabilise his vision again.

“If by some miracle our new friends hadn't spotted us yet, they definitely have now. A whole bunch of them are coming this way.” Athena reported, sharing her feed again. A mass of heat shapes quickly flowed to the edges of the village, which the sniper tracked with her scope. They stopped before the incline of the valley increased, and fanned out so they presented a broader face. “Looks like they’re signalling at us....” Athena mused, as some of the shapes wiggled at her. “Bit of arguing and pushing going on too.”

[EliteCommander]

Marae followed Freyr to Dr. Diamini’s side, though her mind was focused on the problem at hand. Nirann had some unique circumstances to contend with, but it was still possible that they might be able to send him in. Diamini was slow to awaken, as it did seem that she had to take some time to recover and get her bearings, so Marae did have a chance to reply. “Nirann can’t move here himself. His AI core is locked pretty firmly in place.”

Nirann’s hologram appeared on the other side of the harness. “Do I really need to be there in person, though? Maybe I can puppet an artificial mind, like one we uploaded? Just one more…directly connected to me.”

---

Seeing that the transit station was up and working was encouraging to Rareth, though that did not take her focus from the crowd of villagers spreading out at the bottom of the ridge beneath them. “We have the transit station working. It shouldn’t be long before our experts join us. Still…I should acknowledge them. At least give them some indication of our intent."

Rareth moved over to the edge of the ridge, though unlike Athena, she stood clearly silhouetted at the top. She had retracted her helmet so that her head and face were clearly visible and identifiably Rothian.She hoped that their eyesight was strong enough to see her at their current distance, as she wanted to show them she was something familiar, even if she was a giant of a Rothian. She placed her fusion cannon on its magnetic holster on her back, held out her hands open-palmed for a moment, then bowed her head and crossed her arms tightly over her chest. Among Rothians, it was a distinctly non-threatening position, as it was not a position from which one could use their claws quickly. Even if these villagers were not truly Rothian, she hoped they would still recognize the more instinctual Rothian body language.

[Cath]

“Senty Dlamini, can you hear me?” Freyr asked loudly, opening the girl’s eyelids. Her pupils were almost completely dilated. “Can I have a medic in here now please!” Freyr shouted. Dr Dlamini moaned suddenly, struggling within the harness. Freyr quickly worked to unplug the junior researcher from the device, and helped her sit up.

“Senty, do you know where you are?” The girl didn’t acknowledge her, instead abruptly slumping to one side. Freyr managed to catch her before she hit her head on the floor, awkwardly holding her up. “Medic!” Freyr yelled. One of the Barbarossa’s doctors sprinted over with a satchel in hand. Together they maneuvered Dr Dlamini back onto the harness table. “You’re alright.” Freyr soothed.

“I’m not sure that’s a good idea.” She shook her head once the medic had taken over. “These objects are much more adept at controlling artificial systems than organic ones. We don’t want to give it open-ended access to your mind, especially at this early stage. We could lose you in there. In fact, I have half a mind to scrub this mission altogether until we can adjust our equipment. Although we’ll need to run diagnostics on my colleague first before we can even consider pulling everyone out.”

---

“That’s done it. They’re coming up here now.” Athena confirmed. Her feed showed a few of the shapes had broken ranks and were making their way up the slope toward the ridge. “Looks like they may be heading for level ground before approaching us.” More of the group were following behind the first figures, while some stayed behind at the village limits. “I count...maybe one hundred?” Athena offered helpfully. The sound of an alien chattering registered on the group’s sensory net for the first time as they drew closer.

“Sacred band, shield wall. Keep your weapons down.” Thebes ordered, before pointing at Dr Wetherall and Dr Ngata, who were desperately trying to fix the comms mast. “You two, go in the transit station shield and stay there. Be ready to jump out on my signal.” The Sacred Band jogged over and formed a loose line between the array of equipment and the approaching mass of heat shapes. That included Athena, who detached the scope from her rifle to continue tracking the life forms. 595 shrewdly arranged herself behind the shield wall.

[EliteCommander]

Nirann shrugged his shoulders as he eyed one of the harnesses. “I mean, that may be true for your AIs, but I think I’m a cut or two…hundred above them.”

Marae once again rolled her eyes, but picked up in a more serious tone. “My husband does have a point. I mentioned that our AIs could be indistinguishable from a Rothian mind, and that is Nirann, quite literally. I designed his series of AI to perfectly replicate the neural network of a Rothian brain. If you were to scan his neural pathways, you would not be able to tell them apart from a natural mind.”

“The way she build up service layers outside my core mind to expand my capabilities was a real stroke of genius, but…I can’t get into that. The point is, I think my mind should work with the harness.” Nirann remarked. “It’s not like the simulation is interacting directly with the brain. Your brain interacts with the harness, which interacts with the simulation. There’s a layer in between the object and your squishy, fleshy bits. The simulation should see my mind just the same as any Rothian.”

While she did agree with NIrann on the point he was making, she spoke more softly, and less optimistically when she interjected again. “I’m more concerned about the safety of anyone entering at all. Is she alright? I am going to assume that is not normal for exiting your Cradle.” She said, pointing to Dr. Diamini.

---

“Just stay back near the transit station and watch the other approaches. I’ll meet with them and try to see if we can communicate at all.” Rareth instructed to the Humans. The numbers that these villagers had might have seemed daunting, but at the same time, they were riding animal mounts and did not show signs of technology even close to that of modern Rothians. Or even Humans, for that matter. Though, in any case, she did not intend to let down her guard. Surprises could come from anyone.

Rareth stepped forward partially down the hill, presenting herself as the envoy for their group to meet them halfway. She supposed such customs might not have been entirely universal among early Rothian groups, but these villagers might still do the same. She kept herself in a non-threatening posture and spoke out to them once they were close enough to hear. “Greetings, my name is Rareth’Jharn. I come to you peacefully.” She said aloud. She did not actually expect any of them to be able to understand a word she said, but she figured she might as well try.

[Cath]

Freyr sighed. “Alright! Lets try it. Just be sure to isolate the fragment you send in. We can check for signs of corruption when it’s downloaded back from the simulation. With any luck, you’ll be able to circumvent some of the issues us organics are having on exit.” She looked worriedly down at Dr Dlamini, who was being scanned for brain function and given fluids by the medic.

“No, it’s not normal. Nirann if you’re set on going in, i will stay here and to work the problem from this end. Look for deviations in notation that could be causing these malfunctions. Until we can figure this out, no one else comes back out. I’ll send in my systems engineer to help you, but holistic research will have to wait for now.

---

The aliens stopped in their tracks when Rareth began approaching; Some of them even retreated slightly. When she spoke, they all fell silent as one before looking curiously at her and among themselves. And then, they began chattering again, conspiratorially pointing and shaking the objects they held in their hands. Some of the creatures near the front pushed and jostled each other in some kind of heated debate before three of them edged forward.

These envoys began talking at her in their own tongue, slowly and carefully. They were all studying Rareth in great detail, moving forward sideways on, so they could dash away at a moment’s notice. The lead creature beckoned at Rareth specifically, and then at the armoured figures behind her. “Lots of potential weapons.” Knossos grunted over comms. “Hold position, eyes on a swivel.” Thebes ordered.

Ignoring half of that directive, 595 peeled off and walked slightly back toward the transit station, checking all around them for anyone sneaking up on their position. Everything seemed clear, for now.” She gave a thumbs up to the two scientists watching from inside the shield bubble.

[EliteCommander]

While Nirann seemed willing to try his hand at entering the simulation, Marae did not seem nearly so enthused at the idea. She reached out and grabbed at Nirann’s wrist. Her hand passed partially through his, but he did still seem to be able to “feel” the touch. “Now hold on. You know I don’t approve when you do this.”

Turning to face her, Nirann gently took both of her hands in his and stepped in closer to her. “I know, my dear. We’ve had this discussion-”

“-argument…” Marae snapped.

“Argument…many times before. I know you made my mind to be as Rothian as it possibly could be, but you also gave me far more capabilities beyond that, even ones you didn’t intend. Nothing dies when I reunite with a fragment. We just…become one.” He said softly.

Marae’s eyes narrowed. “That is very debatable, Nir. And what if a copy of you dies every time you do this? I can’t handle the thought of that.”

Nirann was silent for a moment as he leaned in closer to her. He lifted a hand up to her cheek and encouraged her to lower her head, then pressed his forehead against hers. “You know I would never do anything that I believed would hurt you. I’m only doing this because I genuinely believe it.”

A slight smile crept across Marae’s expression. “I never said you didn’t believe it…I just think you’re the smartest idiot I’ve ever met.”

Nirann laughed along with her. “I know, but I have a plan.” He said, finally pulling away from Marae and giving a quick look over to Freyr. “Here’s what we’ll do. Right about now, I’m having one of the ship’s security droids cart in the strongest Rothian computer I can get a hold of on the ship. Now, it’s no Core, but a Rothian computer still has far more processing power than the average organic brain. I’ll download a copy of my central neural network onto the computer. You can have your technician stay here in the real world; until we get that transit station set up, it’s just not safe to send any of you organic people in. Just download all of the schematics, technical manuals, any data you can think of even tangentially related to the transit stations into that computer. I’ll organize it all into an abstract service layer; think of it as a…brain outside my brain, but still in my head. It allows my to gain access to functions a normal Rothian mind would not have, without making any changes to my core mind. Long story short, if you give me all the information you have on the transit station, and anything that might possibly be affecting it, I should be able to fix it myself. Before I go in, I’ll perform a detailed scan of the copy’s mind. The only changes that should occur are in the mind’s memory center, so when my copy does come back, we’ll separate out and quarantine the memories, then I’ll meld back with my copy only if the rest of the neural network is identical to when we sent it in.”

Nirann glanced back and forth between Freyr and Marae. “Does that make everyone happy?”

---

Rareth’s eyes glanced around at the villagers surrounding her. As expected, her translator could not identify any of the words being spoken around her, which likely meant they could not understand her either. She went ahead and had her neural implant start examining their words and try to begin the translation process, though that was not a task that could be done in a short time. For the moment, she spoke back to the Humans watching over her. “Plenty of weapons, yes, but they are crossbows, spears, and farming tools. They’re primitives. If I harden my shields, they wouldn’t be able to scratch them, much less my armor. If I am attacked, I will just return back to the transit station, and we can leave without bloodshed.”

Seeing as none of the villagers had tried anything violent so far, Rareth opted to try and start establishing some degree of a rapport with them. The first, and simplest step towards that was exchanging names. Even without speaking the same language, that was something she felt they could accomplish. She kept in a passive position and did not make any sudden moves, but looking specifically at one of the envoys, she pointed to herself and said “Rareth’Jharn.” She repeated the same words, and the same motion several times to try and get the point across.