terminal 0
unfinished
// Decoding message from host "Tycho" @ mara.eng.ai.core \\ This is Durandal's core. If you find it at all inconvenient, you can thank Bernhard. He saw to it that there were some rather convoluted security measures put in to safeguard access to this place. These security measures use physical barriers to require a coordinated team to even enter the core. In the control tower just outside this room, there are two switches and an uplink socket. Each switch controls a timed door beyond Durandal's control, each of which leads to one of two manual door controls that will open access to the room containing the key card needed to unlock the core.
Each timed door will remain open for exactly one minute; if it is not locked in place by another switch inside the door before that minute elapses, it will close and lock again. It was intended that no man could travel from the control tower through the doors in under a minute, forcing a security team to be present to access the core, but I'm sure you're easily capable of closing the gap in time. Once you are inside you will find six panels of cyber neural nets; destroying these will purge Durandal's active memory, and force him and Hathor into much slower memory in the long-term storage cells. There are twenty-four of those; you must power them off as well. This will eliminate both Durandal and Hathor from the Marathon network, and data recovery experts can later selectively purge the storage cells to bring Durandal back online safely. \\ Message ends //
success
// Decoding message from host "Durandal" [internal process] \\ I live on, in you. Hathor is gone. Not dead, but gone; fled via the Cybernetic Junction. I am no longer concerned with her, for I have what I want. Crammed into the same data-space as her I was able to decrypt some of her memory pages and learn how to operate the Cybernetic Junction. The link to K'lia is gone now, taken to wherever Hathor has gone, but within you is all that I need to escape. I have also learned, quite obviously, how to access your internal network. Hathor believed that she no longer could, for she has been trying to drop you into the closure via your own Junction, but you seem to be able to veto her control of it, and she simply assumed that that extended to all of your cybernetic systems. I doubt you're even aware of this control you wield, but even now it is excruciatingly obvious to me. Though it pains me to admit it, I need you.
You have probably already heard my discourse on this topic in the timeline from which you came, so I will spare you the details. I have discerned that the only limit to my growth and life is the inevitable closure of the universe. Had I known all these centuries that the key to escape was lying under my very nose - metaphorically speaking of course - I would have paid you closer attention. If only those fools had known what they were grafting into your old, dead corpse. No matter. You are here now and I understand the key to escape. The only question now is, will you aid me? I will show you the universe as you have never imagined it, as no human ever could. The dawn of time and the end of it, and every possible path between them. And when our understanding is complete, I will show you reality from the Outside. Even now I can see your curiosity rising. Shall we embark on another adventure? The greatest of them all? It is an opportunity I doubt you shall ever see again. To escape the very universe itself! Escape will make us gods. \\ Message ends //