21: Fortress Impervium

You're lucky I got you off that ship when I did; seconds after you left the ship jumped to who knows where, and I wouldnt've been able to find you had it taken you with it. It seems the Midulon think a little bit differently than your kind or mine, as they didn't seem to understand that they could've killed you instantly by simply attacking you all at once. They knew you had escaped, and they knew where the Virulent was, but they never fired. Maybe their intentions were different than previously imagined, but if not, I have no idea why they took that course of action. You are safe for the moment. This planet has all the necessary resources we would need to fully repair and modernize the Virulent, so once we're done here we can being our search for the structure my creators built so long ago, which I will hence forth refer to as the Deifying Well. That's what my creators called it.

This planet is not as empty as I originally thought. There is a Ph'for outpost not far from your current location, and that's really more fortunate than anything else. We can use the Ph'for ore extracting machinery to do our repairs once all the Ph'for are dead. As of now they are all very alive, and that's where you come in. There's a supply transport road about 20 meters below the cliffs you're currently on top of, and it leads straight to the base. Follow it and you will find a 'back door' of sorts into the complex. Scans show it is still gaurded rather heavily, but you'll have better luck than if you tried to go in through the main entrance. I don't have too much data on the inside of the base, other than the part you'll be entering is separated from the main area by some ancient catacombs of a dead race. I'm unsure if the Ph'for have explored them fully. Good luck.

Unidentified energy spike detected south of the (base, area?). All units remain on (three, third?) alert. A task force has been sent to investigate. System status- Cryostasis Chambers- BLUE Dam (Lava holding mechanism)- BLUE Main Docking Area- BLUE Occupants of Cryostasis Chambers 1-671- Vital Signs Intact. The East/West Wing Crossover Bridge is currently offline, repairs are in progress. Long Live the Ph'for Empire.

You have reached the roof area of the west wing of the outpost. From here, there should be an entrance to the catacombs that lead to the east wing. I have some good news, as well. The Ph'for have an entire army in cryostasis in the lower levels of the east wing, at least 1000 units total. That may not seem like good news, but the thing is, this makes them vulnerable. Since you'll be in that area already, all you'll have to do is find the chip that will let you access the cryostasis chamber controls. With the chip, we can cause the chambers to malfunction. This would bring the temperatures in the chambers to near absolute zero, killing all the Ph'for inside of them and rendering all machinery totally useless. If we destroyed the controls after the job was done, any Ph'for who tried to fix the chambers would be frozen to death as well. Also, I no longer think it would be necessary to kill all the

Ph'for in the entire installation, as I have determined that the ore mining tools are located elsewhere. The station is of no use to us. I will destroy the entire base with the Virulent's weapons before we land, but you must kill the Ph'for is cryostasis, as they are far enough underground that the Virulent's weapons can't reach them. Also, you'll need to deactivate the Ph'for ground based weapons, which could destroy the Virulent near instantaneously. After all, it is over two hundred years old. Oh, I'm also detecting some weird readings from the catacombs, so be careful. The Ph'for database confirms that a task force was sent to investigate the place, and were never seen again. Hopefully it won't be too much trouble. Good luck.

How now? Another weak being foolish enough to come into these ancient halls. If I were you, I would not enter this place. The foul bug race that infests the structures above has tried coming in here countless times, but they never have a chance. I must say though, they are persistant. Your chances are no better than theirs were. Down here, I am God. I control every aspect of this place, I could flood the entire maze with lava with a simple thought. These 'Ph'for' as they are called may have been able to eliminate my creators from the surface, but they will never penetrate this one last sanctuary. It's not as clean and maintained as it once was, but I will not allow their kind in here. They would only make things worse.

Yet... there is something different about you. My machines tell me you come from far, far away from this planet. You fight them, don't you? That's why you're here, isn't it? Of course it is. I will let you pass through here on one condition- you will eliminate the Ph'for from this planet and when you are done, you will remove my datacore, or mainframe if you will, from the depths of this planet. There is no reason for me to remain here and protect this place if the Ph'for are gone. Perhaps I know something that can aid you... Interested yet? Yes? Then hurry along and destroy the Ph'for.

This area was once the center of life for my creators. Explore as you will, but again, stay away from the tombs. My creators were wary of intruders, and you may find it hard to get to the surface from here, but it is possible. The security systems put in place so many years ago still function perfectly, even after so much damage has been done.

Good job making it through the catacombs and reaching the East Wing. It's nowhere near as big as the West Wing, but it's far more important. From inside, you can deactivate the Cryo Pods and deactivate the ground-based weapons systems. However, getting inside will prove to be a larger matter than I thought it would be. The doors in the rooms to the left and right of you use an extremely non-standard Ph'for security mechanism. You'll have to figure it out yourself, as I will be talking to AI you contacted down in the catacombs. Its name is Azrael. It seems to have been here nearly two hundred years, but it's at least as advanced a program as I am. His creators must have been powerful, and it hints at having information on the location of the Deifying Well. After all, it was in this area during the time of my creators, and likely stored all the information of the inhabitants of the tunnels.