This is a poor time for introductions, but I’m Robert Blake. I used to be a mechanical engineer on Tau Ceti, but now I’m somehow in command of the remaining human and S’pht survivors on this God-forsaken rock. The Pfhor held you prisoner for nearly a month before we were able to discover your whereabouts and release you, but unfortunately little has changed since your capture and Durandal’s destruction. I’m communicating with you through the old S’pht network from our base on Lh’owon. We’re barely hanging on, nearly a mile below the surface.
There’s a virus down here which kills Pfhor in a matter of hours; our S’pht say it was bio-engineered by their ancestors during the war against the Pfhor a thousand years ago. Whatever; it’s saving our butts. Durandal’s last instructions were for us to reactivate a dormant S’pht AI, sealed beneath the surface and reachable only through teleportation. We hope you will succeed where we failed. Good luck.
You’re doing well, but have not activated all the personality cells in this area. We have been able to find no maps of this structure to help you, but the activation switches must be nearby. Durandal convinced us that this old computer is our only link to the lost S’pht clan, and that bringing back the lost clan to fight against the Pfhor was our only chance of stalling their invasion of Sol. Nobody here wants to think about what would happen if the Pfhor reached Earth.
Good work. The S’pht have verified the partial activation of the AI. The Pfhor are already curious about what we are doing, but when they realize what we have found they will go insane. We’ll continue trying to replace the weapons you lost when you were captured, but all the heavy ordinance is in high demand and it may be a few hours before a rocket launcher or flame thrower is available.
The rest of the AI will have to wait, though: our base has been infiltrated by Pfhor androids. The machines are disguised as humans and packed with explosives. Aside from detonating them we’ve got no way of telling them apart from our own men. Their telltale differences are hard to spot until its too late. We need you to come back and exterminate these simulacrums. No one will be safe until they are all dead.
interlevel teleports
