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Drakador_Chaos

"A man after me own heart I see."

The replicant leaned over the monument, producing the cigarette to his hands after a long inhale, and looking at it.

"Them buggers are getting less common by the day."

He lets the cigarette fall betwixt his fingers, stomping it on the ground lightly, putting out its embers.

"I'll let them cleaners earn their paycheck, eh?"

He draws a loud guttural noise from his throat, before speaking about anything that's mildly useful.

"Rumor's got that their's a big prize on a rogue planet down near the core, but you know how those cold rocks are, even more dangerous near that bloody storm. I'm going after it, any scrap of info helps."

    Dumb
    They did not stand out too much in the crowd so observing and listening was rather easy.
    There seemed to be all sort sof people around, workers, diplomats, ship crew at least all judging by their appearal...
    The man itself seemed to be not... particularly out of the ordinary, at least considering what he was, sentences like:
    "We are all doomed!"; "We can only be saved if we follow the true god!"
    ...and things alike were rather common in his speech, the only reason he hadn´t been apprehended so far was likely that he did not actually bother anyone directly, aside from the theme of the speech was apocalypse, divine retribution and everything else one would usually expect from a fanatic cultist, however, there was one oddly specific information which stood out amongst what he said, at least considering what they already knew.
    "...and so the story tells, of world near the core, a safe heaven for all those who reach it, devout to the true gods!"
    ...a ...rather unlikely piece of info, given anything near the core was usually everything but safe, though it was all the clues he gave, a couple of minutes later his speech concluded with the words that he would come back to the bipyramid to the north and tell them more...
    Though waiting for the man to go there would be rather impractical, there was likely a reason why he chose that place specifically...


    Fort_Master_Gustav
    The man seemed to process the info for a few moments and then nodded.
    "Near the core, huh? That´s new, people won´t like that but I´ll get paid anyways for the info."
    He scrateched his chin, info on that thing seems to be sowed thin so far, from I´ve heard that planet is supposedly some sort of 'safe haven'. From what or why? Who knows. I´ll throw you some extra in case we meet again."**
    The man frowned and eyed his surroundings before continuing, last info I got was by the GL&M sign somewhere to west, was some girl just... staring at the stars in direction of the core."**
    He sighed and shook his head.
    "Creepy stuff and may have been just some drugs or meds, but the way she said it... was oddly convincing, like those people you exactly feel they know... something, if ya know what I mean."
    He patted the Replicants shoulder and walked off the plaza, likely to another place he would gather info on, or just to report what he had found, though they had another clue now thanks to him.

    • Edited

    Drakador_Chaos
    "Huh"
    "Huh"
    "What's so surprising?"
    "Well whats your answer?"
    "It's just...these sort of chaotic viewpoints brings a nostalgia feeling"
    "Nostalgic due to the unprovable claims of a fanatic cultist?"
    "Weird eh? Ever since I was just a little kid, the government had been going wild with reckless actions, and of course speeches like these arise here and there......but hey, these policies worked out so far, so those people are probably wrong after all"
    Gillian slowly walks away from the crowd, and especially away from the security.
    "Chesed, follow that zealot, I have a slight suspicion that he would soon get mugged with those speeches, we shall meet up over at the bipyramid"
    And with a shrug, Chesed wander around the plaza, maintaining distance that can be easily covered up with a short sprint, while Gevurah and Gillian just go towards the bipyramid to the north and look for clues.

    Drakador_Chaos
    Alright then gent. I’ll be seeing you around then.

    The gentlemen in the trenchcoat tipped his hat towards the man, and left without any more motions. Almost seemingly avoiding the topic of staring into the core, as it has long become common knowledge that doing such is not an omen of good things to come. Whether that be true or mere superstition, one can’t underestimate the powers that were.
    With that behind their back, the team of replicants moved onwards again. This task was proving to be dragging on for quite a lot as the replicants moved to and fro, this better not be a dead end. However, even if it was, their infiltration was already successful enough, and they could chase other, more profitable endeavors.

      Dumb
      Whilst Gillian and Gevurah headed to the other location to odd preacher had mentioned, Chesed followed the aforementioned.
      Though, notably they didn´t seem to be the only one following the odd fellow, slightly ahead of them, the two security officers they had already noticed in the crowd, were following him as well, it took a while and they took several turns, though eventually they reached what looked to be a hotel of sorts, not particularly standing out amongst the others, which the preacher entered... without being assaulted by eitehr standstanders or the security officers, oddly enough.
      Bereft of their target, Chesed headed to their meeting spot at the other location, where Gillian and Gevurah were already waiting, looking at a large, black bipyramid, that was, although it was supposedly an artpiece, oddly resemblant of some of the devices the TATC used back in the days.
      ...looking across the place, they did not find anything particularly out of the ordinary, at first, a lot of normal looking people, normal looking security officers...
      Until... they looked around a second time, standing behind the Bipyramid, in a spot where should´ve seen him as soon as they entered the plaza, stood a... man? He was around 2 metres tall, clad in a crimson red robe, cover his entire body, including his arms, which he had wrapped around his chest, his face was hidden by a hood but his head raised to the sky and he, frankly, looked so out of place... they should´ve noticed him long ago, just like the bystanders on the plaza, yet they did not, as if he was not really there, or at least not on the same plain as them.


      Fort_Master_Gustav
      Reaching the the large GL&M sign, apparently a holo-display not a literal sign, after yet another while of walking, the replicants found themselves...
      Nothing.
      ...or nothing initially, there were an increased of number of businessmen and women aon the plaza along with representatives and possibly a few diplomats, though nothing out of the ordinary for this sector, A few security officers hanged around the plaza as well, observing everything that happened,
      ...but no sign of the girl the man had talked about... did he lie to them?
      Searching the plaza a second time, yielded no results either, leading to the assumption it had indeed been a dead end then, something odd happened, nothing one could describe in a reasonable manner, it was almost as if their perception suddenly... shifted.
      Sitting in the around the holo display was a young woman, clad in red robes with silver hair, she did not seem to have noticed them so far, given she was intently staring into the sky. Given her appearance and behaviour someone, anyone, should´ve noticed her long ago, yet... they didn´t. Rgeardless, she was here, the man hadn´t lied...

      • Edited

      Drakador_Chaos
      "Well...looks like my worries are not a thing...at least not just yet...huh"
      Gillian slowly watching the plaza while listening to Chesed's little debriefing of how the preacher went, before noticing the hooded figure.
      "What, another deja vu?.....huh"
      Gevurah and Chesed, intrigued by Gil's weird noises, follow his gaze and notice the figure as well.
      "Do you think..."
      "Affirmative, that's our target"
      "No, like..."
      "Mainframe?...well before the meeting in here she always got a grey robe like that, but definitely not that tall, or...even stand out that much..."
      " sigh anyhow, lets do the usual meet-and-greet"
      Gillian casually approaches the figure, with the duo following tightly behind.
      "Hello there...Mister?...how should we address you?"

      Drakador_Chaos
      The rest of the replicants scatter about, acquiring different positions around the square, into a formation of people that may be considered normal. However, the child slowly draws closer to the woman, and sits besides her. He employs a little bit of acting, presenting awkwardness in a situation that would normally be socially awkward if it weren't simulated on purpose, before shooting off a question towards the woman.

      "So... uhhh... what are you looking at, lady?"

      He clenches the clothing of his legs as he stares anxiously at the evidently weird being.

        Dumb
        As soon as he talked to him, the mans head...turned, no... more like... twisted, towards him, he heard a disgusting cracking sound and the mans head was slightly tilted, he still couldn´t see under the hood, but red eyes reflecting the light stared down at him...
        "What we are? Who we are? ...are we?"
        It didn´t sound like an actual question, on even a rhetorical one, more like the rambling of a madman talking to himself.
        "We are. A messenger we are, you are... here. Here for information? Here for information."
        The mans voice sounded weirdly hollow.
        "The world in the stars, the home in the hollow, the paradise amongst the void, a paradise?"
        It seems... he knew what they wanted though was getting there only slowly...
        "...but what is a paradise but a prison, if one cannot leave?"
        He shook his head, oddly choppy.
        " You need to listen. NEED TO LISTEN!"
        The man became louder, his arms unwrapped from his body, they actually had two elbow joints, the fingers long as other peoples hands, he stretched them out towards him, and grabbed his shoulders, oddly enough, Gillian... felt frozen, paralyzed.
        "NEED! TO! LISTEN!"
        The man leaned down down to him, his spine curving unnaturally, he saw his eyes, a faint red luminescence, shifting erratically, searching... for what?
        "NEED! TO! ..."
        He abruptly paused, once more his head began twisting unneturally, looking around as if he had heard something terrifying...
        He continued, this time... nothing but a whisper...
        "...listen, to the whispers, follow..."
        Gillian saw the red eyes for one last moment, then... the man was gone.
        The plaza seemed to have grown... darker, none of the people around seemed to have noticed anything...
        For a matter of fact, none of them seemed to notice them either.
        Were they really still on embassy?
        Then, as if gently nudging his mind, solely Gillian, began hearing it, a faint whisper...
        What had they gotten themselves into?


        Fort_Master_Gustav
        For the first couple minutes, the woman didn´t answer, just stared into the sky, didn´t even move, as if she was a statue, the people around them walked their ways, though didn´t seem to notice either of them...
        Eventually, them womans lips parted for the first time, without averting her gaze from the sky...
        "What are you here to look for, little one?"
        Before the replicant could answer, she continued.
        "Here to gain knowledge, for what reason, on what behalf?"
        She paused, a subtle dominance seemed emanate from her, stopping the replicant from uttering any words...
        "Due to orders? A hollow shell of child, the hollow shell of an old couple, the hollow shell of a tall man... seeking, to fullfil their masters orders, the dogs looking for a bone to offer?"
        She paused again.
        "Does it matter, any of it? Thou hast never seeked for something moe, for thou are incapable of doing so, though, wouldst thou, if thou could?"
        She blinked.
        It felt, as if he had blinked himself, reality briefly turning black, when his sight returned, she had her arm stretched out, pointing at the sky, his gaze followed as if on command, far off in the sky, he saw a psychodelic light, though what his gaze was drawn towards was the abysmal, ominous blackness beneath it, like a pinprick in the sky, neither should be possible to be seen from here, and yet they were there...
        Behind the veil he felt an all-consuming hunger for more... so much more...
        When the child looked back down, the woman was staring at it, her crimson eyes, pinning them down like a predator...
        "Follow it, follow the whisper."
        His head turned towards the darkness in the sky once more and a faint non-understandable voice began scratching at the inside of his skull...
        When he looked back down, he felt the dominance gone, the woman, was as well, though the plaza seemed... darker.
        Notably, none of the surrounding people seemed to have noticed any of what happened... more... alarmingly, it seemed none of them took note of any of the replicants anymore either?

        Drakador_Chaos
        Dark, cold, and a hint of stale air, Gillian thought he returned to that little railgun mount which he spent most of his life, desperately staying alive while not expecting anything for the future. He slowly kneel down, wanting to curl into a ball position and just continue waiting for nothing, while gazing into the stary scene......
        "Ouch!"
        A sharp sting originates on his finger, perhaps he touched his personal combat knife? Gil slowly lower his gaze, and finds a brightly colored knife standing perfectly by its pole, while the edge placed exactly between the nail and the flesh of his index finger.
        Wait, how do I even feel pain? i should be immune due to some tablet......yes, given from Mainframe, who rescued me from the doomed warship......hold on, where am I, who am I with, I should be in the middle of something......
        "Heartbeat normalised, good job Gev"
        "Welcome back, Gillian"
        A blue suit of armor, which cladded on him in who-knows-when, suddenly spurts out voices, and quickly chimed in by the sword as well.
        "Wha...oh right, damn PTSD sure isn't a good thing to have"
        "I thought Mainframe said you are cured."
        "Well...that would be a story for another time, anyway, anything happened when I'm out?"
        "Aside from the dimmed lighting and the reduced awareness towards our existence, nothing else is detected."
        "Hmm..."
        Just to test if it is true, Gillian swing the sword at a nearby passerby, stopping the blade just inches away from its face. The passerby simply ignore it, or most likely, cannot even perceived the existence of the whole action. Gil quickly retreats the blade, just in case some unfortunate incident would occur.
        "Huh, alright then......by the way, you two hearing any sort of whispers?"
        "Negative"
        "Nope...you hearing things?"
        "Mhm...almost like distant radio chatter"
        "...well then, want me to take over if your condition becomes unstable?"
        "Cool with me, well then, where do the whisters lead towards"
        Carefully avoiding the people walking by, Gillian, in full set of armor and a big sword, begin to stroll around the plaza to see the whisper's the loudest in which direction.

        Drakador_Chaos As the cult forces close in on the UEG ships they begin to backup to try and put enough distance from them. They continue to launch Archer and Fusion missiles. The MAC guns of of the cruisers and carrier whose tungsten rounds have enough power to vaporize other capital ships try and target the largest of the beasts. The carriers ai prematurely Firestone dual Mac gun under its to more accurately hit the bigger beasts.

        UNSC Corbulo FFG-472 Strident-Class Heavy Frigate.

        With the ships bridge crew limp in their chairs the ships AI “Clancy” who’s avatar was a green diamond or rift of light used the ships main smaller coilgun batteries at the small cult beats as they swarm around. She removed the safety’s off of one of the ships nuclear missiles. Bringing its targeting lasers online and setting an encrypted countdown sequence she launches it out of the tube as it flys and waits in the projected path of the next time the cult beasts come around. She coordinates this with the main carriers AI letting them know of what she is doing and insists the other frigates in the group do the same.

        ONI wait this should be in the GBE thread.

        Drakador_Chaos
        The child replicant sat motionless throughout the whole process, only following around whenever he seemed dragged by such inconspicuous forces. The other replicants observed him from various distances, however, they could immediately notice the change of focus away from them, after all, perceptiveness is a demand for the job of a supersoldier.
        However, they didn't seem perturbed by the changes, they seemed, by the other hand, glad. After all, they found exactly what they were looking for. After the woman was done, the child grimaced, then the man, then the others.
        They unanimously approached the woman like a group, whilst the child remain seated besides her.

        "The hollow shell of a woman, trapped amongst walls in a bravado of a whisper, in a whirlpool of madness. We are dogs after a bone, you are lambs to the slaughter.
        I can feel his grasp weaken, I can see his presence decay, how long until the façade of his graceful presence falls? Then, we'll see whose guidance should be followed. Like the stars run out and fizzle into darkness, so shall you, so shall us.
        "

        Like dogs, they smelled and traced the location that was being told to them. If it were in The Embassy, then they'd follow it through. If it weren't, then it was off their hands for this moment. Since the public's gaze had averted from them, they took slightly less care with their organization, but still kept to their routine.

        ONI (yo what)

          Dumb
          Gillian turned a couple of times trying to locate the origin of the whisper until eventually leaving the plaza towards the northeast, the eerie atmosphere remained all teh same no matter how long they walked, and it felt like the surrounding grew darker with every step...
          Once more they passed the group of replicants without knowing the actual significance behind it...
          They reached another plaza, there was a large GL&M holodisplay in the middle with people standing around the plaza, merchants, diplomats and alike, their faces looking worn out and exhausted...
          Gillian paused, the direction of the sound had changed.
          They were being led, if it hadn´t been obvious already it was now...
          He turned towards the east and began walking, whilst Chesed and Gevurah kept an eye on his vital signs.
          Darker...
          They found themselves on anotehr plaza, a monument of a indisciminate dna strain standing in the middle, people around. They looked... pained, despaired.
          Gil looked around, southeast. Continued walking...
          Darker...
          As expected, they reached another plaza. A large marble cube in it´s middle, names inscribed, many of them washed out written in shadowy colours, as if crossed off a list...
          The people around, their faces were, grey, indscriminate, pale and hopeless.
          Gil shuddered unwillingly, they defenitely weren´t on the embassy anymore, or at least, not on the embassy as they knew it...
          South. Gil took his first steps reluctantly, but walked nonetheless.
          ...darker.
          Gillian, Gevurah and Chesed observed their surroundings in simultaneous horror and otherworldy fascination.
          The sky was all wrong, grey and dull, the air thick and heavy.
          There was not much left of the people around, all they saw was shadowy worn down figures, dragging themselves across the plaza from unknown places to unknown destinations.
          No clouds, no sky, no 'people'.
          They looked at the middle of the plaza and found themselves back where they had started, the odd sculpture of the lizard-like thing, looked down at them almost mockingly.
          Whilst staring at the statue a faint but horrible realization crept up in Gillians mind, the whisper was gone... what would they do now?


          Fort_Master_Gustav
          After turning a couple of times the replicant who had been whispered to was able to ascertain the origins direction.
          Southwest.
          As they left the woman behind and walked of the plaza, she didn´t move, didn´t respond, didn´t say anything.
          Neither confirming... nor denying their claims.
          As they walked the surroundings, or possibly the atmosphere itself seemed to grow darked with every step they walked, after a while they reached their target... or, at least the first of them, passing the other group unknowingly once more.
          What they found was a plaza with a black bipyramid in it´s middle, the edges were glowing in a faint purple, though more notably were the people which were walking around the plaza...
          They seemed to be all equally worn out and exhausted, unnaturally so.
          The direction of the whisper had changed and so did the destination of the replicants.
          South they walked off the plaza, leaving the odd monument and the people behind.
          Darker...
          The next plaza they found themselves on, seemed to be even more degraded than the last one, there was a large greek looking pillar in the center, the statue of a muscular man atop of it seemingly thinking, though his facial expression seemed strained, forced, depressed as if worn out by centuries of thinking in downward spirals...
          The people around... were no better, they expressions speaking of pain and despair.
          Unsurpisingly, the direction changed once more. Southeast.
          Darker...
          They stopped once more, this time, it was a large black obelisk, smooth and without markers, yet it felt as if the thing was observing them, whenever one of them didn´t look.
          The people around were... grey, indisciminate, looking pale and hopeless.
          At this point it was not unlikely they were not actually on the 'embassy' anymore, at least, not the one they were used to.
          ...east.
          ...darker.
          With a dull feeling they came to the realization, they had been led in a circle, the fountain in front of them, looking all too familiar, although the atmosphere could not be much different.
          The sky was grey and dull, the air thick and heavy, no clouds, so sun, no stars.
          The people were...
          They were...
          There was not much left of the people around, all they saw was shadowy worn down figures, dragging themselves across the plaza from unknown places to unknown destinations.
          Even the sounds of the water in teh fountain seemed full and grey.
          Even the replicants, which were mostly immune to such influences, couldn´t get around feeling a faint discomfort, standing in this atmosphere...
          The child replicant stopped, pondered, before the otehrs could inquire about the directions, a faint realization came over their quantum comms...
          The whisper was gone.
          What now? Was this a dead end after all?

          Drakador_Chaos

          Music!

          "Hmm?"
          "Why are we stopping?"
          The halted steps of Gillian brings both Gevurah and Chesed to full alarm, timing every pulse and even monitoring the body temperature and degree of sweating, but everything is still the same as before, at least, same as when Gil gets out of his post-trauma shock. Meanwhile, Gillian slowly analyzes the situation, considering all the little bits which he had collected...
          "......what should we do..."
          Speaking...or rather, thinking of "collected" items, Gil brings out the leaf which he snipped during the little walk-around, only to find the part of the plant gleaming green as usual.
          "huh...hey Chezed, what sort of path did we take before returning to here."
          "Let's see...southwest, west, northwest, north, northeast, east, southeast, and... south."
          "A hexagon."
          "No... a circle, or even, a sphere..."
          Gillian looks up to the sky while whispering to himself, then towards where they enter this plaza from for the first time, and shifts to where the two women were chatting at.
          "...How does some more walking sound to you two?"
          "Uh..."
          "I mean, you are the only one who does the actual walking anyway..."
          "Alrighty then, time to trace our steps, southwest we go!"

          Drakador_Chaos
          It clearly wasn't. The automatic telemetry of the internals of the Replicants could track their movement in real-time, it was a much useful and necessary tool if the group were to function as the collective team that they were meant to be. However, what that also meant is that their systems automatically knew and picked up on patterns of the environemnts they transited within.
          That at first sight might seem a bit of a foolish endeavour, however, it is much more useful than one might think. Algorithms could sort out the telemetry data collected by the team and pick up on the trends of the location, like the intelligent guesswork of a fortifications engineer, and know, just by sheer probability and database analysis, what lay in the next room, or the layout of the surrounding environment, or even, who made it, if it were a sufficiently documented architectural style.
          What this also meant is that they could calculate the many different mathematical laws that governed the location they threaded in according to the logged information. As soon as the second plaza was reached, the system knew the probable location of the others, which it followed with the aiding of the semi-sentient AI that governs the Replicants themselves.
          But as the whisper faded and their subconscious-like processes became less clouded, they could once again reason by their internal computation. Thus, instead of regressing, then went inwards towards the center of the projected Octagon that their walking generated. If that were not the case, other points of mathematical relevance were available for inspection.

          Fort_Master_Gustav (damn it why your team missed mine every time)

            Dumb We were never meant to be together it seems 😔

              Dumb
              ...as they headed back southwest, step by step, they began to notice that neither the environment, nor the people seemed to change, neither back, not further devolving...
              It seems, they were stuck in worn down mockery of the embassy, at the least for the time being...
              After a while, they came back to the fountain, still spouting water, although the sky remained the same starless and sunless dull grey, the people aimless shadows, trodding along endlessly...
              Had they made progress or not?


              Fort_Master_Gustav
              As they wandered towards the center of the octagon, they registered people becoming less and less, those they met, all walking in the opposite direction, the sky began to get an... odd streaky black tone...
              As they moved on, noises became, less and less, until all that remained was their own thoughts and steps and even those sounded hollow...
              They had made about half the way to the center...
              Though the further devolving environment begged the question, were these signs for the right way, or the wrong way, in this twisted world?

              • Edited

              Drakador_Chaos
              Gillian slowly walks the path he had already taken in the original embassy, checking every plaza which came across and paying extra attention to the position where they get the clues until they reach the plaza with the bipyramid.