EliteCommander

The Cradle

Once again, there was a lot for Vreta to take in with his observations. Considering that this was the location where the first team had encountered the entity, the cube-like structure was highly likely to be directly related to the entity. It was indeed quite a curiosity, Vreta did agree. Scanning it would probably be their best opportunity to learn something of value, but Vreta still did not lose sight of his objectives. His superiors of course wanted to learn what they could just like Freyr did, but not at the cost of damaging the entity.

It was disappointing that there was no response from the entity, but Vreta supposed that approach had been a long shot regardless. He hoped they would be able to find some other way to make contact, but for now, he took a few moments to watch the holograms. He did not necessarily understand the significance of what they had discovered in the same way as the scientists, but the countdown clock was something that he took a particular interest in. “Okay, so could you explain exactly what that clock is counting down to? Does it represent the energy remaining before we need to leave? As in, the entity will still have enough energy once that reaches zero. Or is that the countdown until the entity runs out of energy entirely?”

The Cradle

Vreta did not seem to be nearly as enthused by the estimates Freyr gave as she was. “Hours or days? There’s quite a large margin of error in that estimate.” He remarked as Nirann started to turn the rig around. Despite some of the inconvenience of its design for a Rothian, it was at least large enough to be a smooth drive even on rough terrain. Perhaps unless something disturbed it too much.

Marae did answer back quickly, though as she spoke, she did seem to be otherwise occupied by her own tasks. “I’ve just started my own analysis of the field, but I can see what I can do. Just from my first impressions, there are some distinct similarities to other examples of the object’s code base, so there may be something I can latch onto.”

While Freyr was working, Vreta observed from the sidelines. In those idle moments, Rhia’s avatar appeared in his field of view. She stood right alongside Freyr, seemingly watching her closely. “So this is her: the Cradle expert. Her psychological profile is…quite something. I’d watch this one carefully. She’s a dedicated one, but not necessarily to the same things as us. Nor her own people, to be fair. She has her own goals, and right now, those goals want this test to go through no matter what. Careful that she doesn’t pull a fast one on you. I’d have Nirann double-check any calculations she gives you, just in case.”

”I’m surprised you don’t want to do it yourself.” Vreta commented within his mind.

Rhia’s avatar simply shrugged and leaned back against one of the consoles. ”Oh, I will, but if Nirann does the fact-checking, it gives you something you can actually act on without drawing suspicion.”

”Fair point.”

Of course, Vreta gave no clues to his conversation. He had still been aware of the discussion around him, and he responded immediately when Freyr pointed him to the rig’s loudspeakers. “Very well, I can try.” He replied as he stepped up to the mic. He hovered his finger over the button to activate it, but did not do so right away. “Okay, where to start? I…wish I knew this thing’s name.”

In any case, after taking a moment to collect his thoughts, Vreta pressed the button to begin. “For our host, if you can hear me, we would like to speak to you if at all possible.” Vreta began. The entity had referred to the first team as its guests, so he decided to keep up that analogy. “We would like to inform you of the plan we have made. We believe we have a plan that will accomplish what you asked of us quickly.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

In this case, it was Ahnasha who had more of the relevant knowledge on the situation. Her time spent studying with Hal-Neesa had imparted some of the vampire’s more esoteric knowledge onto her, including some of what she knew about the Towers. Although, she could not provide actual answers as much as just more reasons as to why it was confusing. “Honestly, your guess is as good as mine. Crystal-Like-Law was one of the towers that stabilize Mundus. From what Neesa told me, it existed in many planes, many worlds at once. Maybe when it fell in Mundus, all of the other versions in other worlds fell too? That would explain why it looks as damaged as it does. I…don’t know why he would be using it, though. Just piecing back together the shattered stones wouldn’t give the Tower back its power. It would just be a…questionably stable building.”

Lorag craned his head up to look towards the top of the building, though it was far too tall to see in much detail, especially with the raw magicka spiraling around it. “Well, with all this power he’s been grabbing, maybe he can make it work again or something?”

Ahnasha frowned and shook her head. “I…don’t think so. I really don’t think it’s that simple. He would need the power of the Stone again, and that’s not something I believe even a Daedric Prince could just create. And even if he could, I don’t know why he would. If anything, I would expect a Daedric Prince to want to tear down the Towers to weaken the barriers between Mundus and their own Planes. Maybe it really is just something symbolic for him?”

Ultimately, the pack faced no resistance moving up the hill. It seemed all of the tower’s guardians had been at the bottom, so they could reach the front entrance without a fight. Even those not magically inclined might have been able to feel the sheer intensity of the power radiating from the spiraling pillars of magicka. Their sources seemed to be coming from deep underground, but they were all certainly being focused to a point at the very top of the tower. All around the large, stone doors at the entrance were the cracked, faded remains of what had once been elaborate carvings, though they were now all far too damaged to be discernible.

Curiously, there were also some rather strange additions to the outside of the tower. There were lifts made from blackened metal on either side of the door that appeared as if they had been taken straight from the Deadlands. They looked quite out-of-place next to the tower, or indeed any other structure they had seen in Vile’s realm. The lifts themselves seemed to currently be at the top of the tower, while the mechanisms that moved them were on the ground.

The Cradle

“We need to be cautious, all the same.” Vreta warned. Among Nirann’s many responsibilities was to dive the rig, so he was the one to plot their course off of the plinth. For a moment, Vreta nearly lost his footing when the vehicle started to move. The interior of the rig was rather cramped to a Rothian, but there were plenty enough handholds for Vreta to use to make up for the awkward posture he had to use to move around.

Freyr seemed to want to take control of the situation herself at this point, but Vreta did not leave her be right away. “Sorry, but I need to speak to the entity as well if we can make contact. And that is our first priority, yes?” He remarked. Much like Freyr, he also looked over to Nirann’s body when he spoke to him, despite the fact that Nirann could easily hear any word spoken in any room, at this point. “Does this rig have the instruments to determine how much energy the entity has remaining? If we can’t make contact, I would like to know what kind of an impact our plan will have on it.”

Despite her insistence to the contrary, Vreta approached Freyr regardless. “I’ll still follow your lead for now. Let’s try to make contact. But, let’s not do anything drastic until we know it is safe.”

The Cradle

Nirann hummed a moment as he took a few more seconds to run a few extra scans, but all of them returned similar results. “Oh, there’s signs of something in the area. Unfortunately, I think that “something” is a jamming field. Or something that is acting like a jamming field, at least. I’m having trouble getting readings with this hardware.”

Vreta observed each development silently as they came. He did not want to interrupt Freyr too often, but he did tag along to keep up with what was happening. Although, each new development just seemed to be worse than the last, and Vreta was not too keen on taking risks here. “Errors, energy fields, swarming mammals? I don’t like any of this. It may be best for us to simply call this off. Nothing seems to have gone smoothly so far.”

“We do have transit stations ready, so we can evacuate at any time.” Marae remarked from the other side of the small room. “Though, we’d be going back empty-handed. Dr. Lang, can we guarantee that the terrain itself is safe for us? If this energy field is interfering with those sensors as well, then it may actually be best for us to simply leave. We need to make sure the lab itself is in a safe spot before we can perform any tests.”

The Cradle

“On it.” Nirann answered briefly, in a hurried voice. Vreta frowned as he looked around at the mechanisms, but he decided to hold on for Nirann’s assessment before saying anything about it. He intended to counter with his own recommendations for their defense, but another voice soon spoke up through their comm channel: Eti’Prar, the leader of the Rothian fireteam.

“We can move inside later. Until we have a full sensor sweep of the area, security personnel should keep watch on the hull. My recommendations are attached.” She remarked. At the moment, the Rothian team was still outside, patrolling the outer walkways. Each of them positioned to be able to cover different angles, but also to be able to see at least one of their allies at all times so that they would be in a position to be able to quickly assist one another if needed. The file that Eti attached in her message were the basic schematics of the rig, overlaid with the recommended positions of the members of both teams. For interior positions, once they moved inside, her plan involved splitting the members of the teams strategically so that someone could reach every part of the hull quickly in an emergency, while still having overlapping fields of fire to be able to cover one another on exit. It would also prevent them from having to crowd the interior hallways, so it was altogether well thought out.

As confident as Vreta might have been in his own planning capabilities, he still trusted their own soldiers to be able to lead themselves effectively. And fortunately, it also did not take too long for Nirann to get back to them on the issue he was dealing with. Although, it was rather obvious that he found some solution right away, considering that the mechanisms around them suddenly folded up into their compartments before deploying once more, this time correctly. “Got it. Just had to reset the system. I’m also on the external cameras, so I’m going to go ahead and start a sensor sweep of the surroundings now.”

Vreta was momentarily relieved that the problem had been solved, though he still could not help but to hold some concern. They could not afford “surprise” issues. “Good, but still run a full diagnostic on every system you start up, regardless. If there has been some kind of damage to the rig, then we’ll need to call this mission off. We need everything to work right the first time. Freyr, Agent, are hiccups like that normal for equipment in the Cradle? If something about this place is introducing unexpected errors, then this becomes a lot more risky.”

The Cradle

“That depends, how comprehensive is the lab’s surveillance system?” Vreta questioned. “I would say we should position the soldiers to cover any blind spots that might exist. Otherwise, they should position somewhere central to be able to reach any part of the rig quickly.”

Although Nirann was nowhere to be seen around them, he was evidently close enough to listen in, as he soon came in on their comms. “I’m heading up to the bridge right now. I’ll start up the sensors right away so we can get sights on our surroundings.”

“Good, safety is Rareth’s priority here.” Vreta answered back, though he quickly returned his attention back to what was immediately around him.. Unlike Marae and her team, he had not been instructed in the operation of this lab, but as an observer, he could still make sense of most of what he saw on the consoles around them. He hoped that the entity would have the ability to communicate through the comms system the lab was using. His job would be much easier if he did not have to go out into the storm. “Rareth also instructed me to make sure transit stations are prepared for activation as soon as possible. She wants everyone close enough to a station that we can all evacuate in under twenty seconds if we encounter trouble.”

The Cradle

“Unfortunate. I know you had some strange experiences in this simulation. I did see Rareth’s perspective, and you definitely disappeared entirely in that cave. I have a feeling that the rules here can be…different from reality.” Vreta commented .

For the moment, Vreta moved with Freyr and 595 into the lab. He did need to make contact with the entity, but it was not as if he was simply going to wander off into the ruins on his own. He hoped the equipment on the lab would help him in making contact. He followed the pair up the ladder onto the vehicle, followed shortly by Marae, Nirann, and the rest of the scientists. The soldiers were the last up, as they covered the area until the civilians were on board.

As they headed to the nerve center, Vreta continued to speak to both the Agent and Freyr. “I know you may not have the answers, but I would appreciate any advice you can think of. I need to find some way to make contact as soon as I can. I would prefer to be able to open dialogue with the entity before we make any drastic moves here in the sim. I hope you are aware that Rareth has ordered us to call off our attempt if the entity objects to it. We don’t want to harm it. Remember, the whole point of bringing the object to Outremer to begin with is so we can help the entity recover. Even your Institute is willing to reunite the two, which is honestly not the answer I was expecting from the Director-General, I’ll admit. At any rate, I’m just glad we can agree on something. Let’s just try not to sabotage our own mission while we’re here.”

The Cradle

For Vreta, entering the Cradle was never the most pleasant experience, and it seemed no different for this object. Though, by this point, he had grown accustomed to it. Rhia had the pleasure of experiencing it for the first time, and even being an AI, she did not find herself immune to the discomfort. She made that clear to him as soon as they came to consciousness, though Vreta could not help but to wonder what that feeling was like for a being without a physical form. Was she just sharing in his feelings, or did she experience something else entirely? In any case, Rhia did not waste too much time dwelling on it. ”Okay, that’s a new one. Let’s see…cold, howling winds, and snow. What a paradise. Let’s just get this done quickly, yeah? Checking on the team’s vitals real quick and…I don’t see any serious problems. Why don’t we go be neighborly and check up on the Humans? Need to get to having that chat with the Agent as soon as we can.”

The Rothian team had mostly inserted close together. Since Rareth was not entering the simulation this time, three Rothian soldiers took her place. All of the Rothian members of the expedition had been outfitted for combat, but the soldiers themselves still stood out like a blunted claw. Like Rareth herself, they towered over the rest of them, especially in their full-body powered armor. They were what the Humans would consider supersoldiers, like the Sacred Band. A normal fireteam would be larger than three soldiers, but Rareth was acutely aware of the limitations on their numbers. Unless he had a more important task to deal with, Vreta was expected to join them in the defense of the team, if it became necessary. Despite their limited numbers, the team was still well-equipped for a variety of situations. Most Rothian weapons had multiple firing modes that could change the behavior of a weapon, sometimes drastically. Even a standard rifle could switch between automatic or single fire, charged blasts, scattershot, and electric discharge. The team’s sniper had a weapon that could switch between being a high-powered particle cannon, or quicker shots that made it perform more like a marksman rifle. The third soldier carried the same sort of heavy weapon as Rareth had used during their first expedition, though his micro-missiles were not enhanced with antimatter charges.

Vreta could see that the Rothian scientists were quickly getting their bearings. The very first thing Nirann had done after powering up his motor functions was to rush over to Marae, help her up to her feet, and check on her well-being. The other two scientists did not get quite so much personal attention, but they looked to be getting ready to board the lab. For Vreta himself, he went straight to Freyr and 595. His official role in this mission was to try to make contact with the entity, so he could lean into that.

Vreta’s silhouette soon appeared through the snowstorm in front of Freyr and the Agent. He could not help but to be glad to be wearing climate-controlled armor, at this point. “No problems with the Rothian team, as far as I can tell. The science team is getting ready to board as soon as they can.” He informed the pair before turning his head towards what appeared to be the structure the team had discovered during their first expedition. Although it was somewhat hard to tell through the storm, the structure appeared to be a ruin compared to what Vreta had seen in the recordings. “I suppose you could say this place doesn’t quite look like the brochure. You were right there in the middle of it all last time, Agent. Do you think it was the storm that caused this, or something else? In any case, I need to at least try to find the entity, if I can. You spoke to it directly, right? What did it say in those last moments? I wasn’t able to watch your recording.”

The Cradle

Rareth let out a long sigh when Freyr relayed the Captain’s answer to her. “With respect, Dr. Lang, your Captain is not the one who makes that decision. I took the time to familiarize myself with your command structure. You are the lead science official on this mission for your people, and you are the one ultimately in charge of decision making for the expedition itself…for your people. If you set a limit for the number of people that can be safely involved in this mission, one that my people agree to, then your Captain must respect that. Come…let us deal with this.”

---

By this point, Rareth had grown just as frustrated with the frequent delays as Freyr and the others had, and she was intent on making sure there were no more of them. The discussion with the Captain was not entirely pleasant, but it was at least productive. Among other things, Rareth pointed out the Captain’s lack of scientific expertise to be able to make the judgement that it was safe to nearly double the number of people on the mission. She requested that Freyr describe every single risk that came with drawing too much of the entity’s energy to make sure that the Captain heard and understood them, then gave her own opinion that obstructing her Cradle expert’s decisions would be tantamount to sabotage for their mission.

Ultimately, they did reach an accord that everyone could at least agree to, albeit reluctantly. There would be eight scientists, drawn from both teams, on the mission, as the lab required eight people to operate. Marae and her team had already been working on the lab to make their upgrades, so it did not take much more for them to become familiar enough to operate it. The Sacred Band, as well as Agent 595 would be joining for security. The Rothians had space for a fireteam of three of their own soldiers, as well as Vreta. The role that Rareth was, officially, giving to Vreta was one of diplomacy. He was the one being tasked with trying to make contact with the entity to inform it of their plans, as well as speaking with any other intelligent beings they might encounter. Recordings from their encounter with the near-Rothians in the simulation had been analyzed to the point that they had been able to produce a translation program for their language. Or at least…a prototype version of one.

It was early the next morning when both teams were finally ready to enter the simulation. Among the Rothians, scientist and soldier alike were being armed and equipped with combat armor for their own protection. Nirann was again going to be inserting in the frame of a combat droid with as much processing power as they could fit inside. Though, regardless of what they had for defense, Rareth made it clear in her briefing beforehand that their primary response to any threat would be retreat. They were being given multiple of the mobile transit stations, as well the Human-made transit station for the sake of redundancy. Their first priority upon entry would be to establish their transit station, and if any threat were to emerge, their first response would be to use it.