29: Another Dimension

terminal 0

unfinished

# n
# n

You're here to destroy me. Don't forget that.

# n

The A'khr are in a panic. A'khr society is, as you might expect, aggressively authoritarian. The ruling body consists of seventeen councilors, not entirely unlike the Pfhor. When they inserted me here and attached me into their networks, it was made clear that I serve at the pleasure of the A'khr council and that I may find myself terminated if my performance is not satisfactory. The combined efforts of yourself and the Pfhor are leading to a total defeat of the A'khr forces. The Pfhor have captured and disabled the shield barrier; with the Shield Wall down, the bugs can begin aerial bombardment of the remaining defenses. They will likely have full control of the A'khr citadel within two hours. The council sees this as a failure on my part; this is why they have taken control of the last few military forces away from me.

# n

If you're up on your history of old Earth societies, you'll know this is bound to fail rapidly. The A'khr may be able to sabotage enough of their own technology and prevent the Pfhor or the UESC from capturing their technology, but instead, high command is rerouting their troops for a few stubborn and futile last stands against the Pfhor assault. As a synthetic mental construct, I am quite capable of overcoming pride. But it doesn't matter anymore, does it? It is absolutely critical that you destroy me quickly, and completely. The Pfhor are not too clever, but they're intelligent enough to scavenge whatever looks interesting and pillage the rest. They may have missed their first opportunity with Tycho, but I believe they won't make the same mistake twice with me.

# n

But since I don't have control of the A'khr forces anymore, high command will likely throw everything they have at you just to stop you. Out of spite. They won't succeed, but that's not the point. You will have to find the engineering annex north of my main coolant chamber. There should be some kind of control panel to destroy. I think destroying my coolant pumps will cause the most damage, and will do it quickly enough to prevent the Pfhor from seizing anything valuable. My forces have captured all sorts of materiel from the Atreides when it crashed. I'll send you whatever we've found. It's not like we need it anymore. Just be quick about it, okay?

# n

success

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# n

What's going on? Suddenly I can get in touch with you again. Where the hell have you been?! What... Oh. You're... You're in the citadel? I've suspected that... well, it's irrelevant. You must have destroyed Phoenix if I can suddenly get in touch with you again. It's time for you to come home. I'm going to teleport you to a secure planetside location, and then bring you back on board the Istanbul. There's too much interference for me to get you directly.

# n
# t
<teleport to level 30>

terminal 1

unfinished

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When you structure an entire cultural and social purpose around an eventual battle against some distant enemy, and live in isolation until that encounter occurs, interesting things happen. Since my original purpose was for scientific study and research, I've naturally been inclined to studying how the A'khr society has completely collapsed in the last seven hours since the Atreides blew a hole in the Shield Wall. The core belief shared by nearly everyone in the A'khr military ranks was that, no matter what else happened here, the Pfhor could never penetrate the Shield Wall. This isn't strictly true; you are familiar with the trih xeem, for example, but even the Pfhor are reluctant to destroy planets out of hand. But once the Pfhor did penetrate the Shield Wall and began their assault on the citadel itself, morale plummeted immediately. Some divisions of troops even surrendered to the slavers -- despite centuries of hard training on never surrendering. Their indoctrination strategy naturally never included how to handle defeat.

# n

The Pfhor have destroyed most of the internal communications networks. I'm still linked in to the council tower, and the high command are in a complete panic. They send out contradictory orders, blame each other for their defeats, and watch as the Pfhor continue cleansing the streets of the last stubborn troops. Interestingly, the Pfhor have not made any moves on the council tower itself. And I think I know why. The Pfhor are nothing if not needlessly malicious. You've visited the S'pht Tower of Antiquity on Lh'owon, where the first ten clans made their last stand against the original onslaught a thousand years ago. The A'khr have a long memory; apparently, the slavers do too.

# n

success

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# n

What's going on? Suddenly I can get in touch with you again. Where the hell have you been?! What... Oh. You're... You're in the citadel? I've suspected that... well, it's irrelevant. You must have destroyed Phoenix if I can suddenly get in touch with you again. It's time for you to come home. I'm going to teleport you to a secure planetside location, and then bring you back on board the Istanbul. There's too much interference for me to get you directly.

# n
# t
<teleport to level 30>

terminal 2

unfinished

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The engineering annex is nearby. The A'khr have pulled together the last few troops in the complex for one massive last stand. They would prefer to die fighting rather than huddle amongst themselves in the council tower as the Pfhor gas them to death. Meanwhile, the Pfhor are making their way here. You will need to act very quickly. Destroy me and evacuate before the Pfhor enter the complex itself. Not even you can withstand the Pfhor assault for long, and they very well may gas you too. Hurry up and destroy me. I'm getting impatient. Waiting for death is much worse than death itself.

# n

success

# n
# n

What's going on? Suddenly I can get in touch with you again. Where the hell have you been?! What... Oh. You're... You're in the citadel? I've suspected that... well, it's irrelevant. You must have destroyed Phoenix if I can suddenly get in touch with you again. It's time for you to come home. I'm going to teleport you to a secure planetside location, and then bring you back on board the Istanbul. There's too much interference for me to get you directly.

# n
# t
<teleport to level 30>

terminal 3

unfinished

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# n

You are aware of what my mission was onboard the Atreides, I suspect. We were on a six-month voyage in the inky darkness of distant space. We were looking for... anything of interest. We had all sorts of top-secret information inside my databanks. Since we traveled in complete isolation from the UESC at large, one of my most important objectives was to preserve the security of that information in the event of capture or destruction. And you'll be pleased to know that I did. I have already opened contact with Director Harrison, and I have begun uploading the contents of my databanks onto her ship. This will ensure that, if nothing else, what I have learned from my few months in the possession of the A'khr will be of use to you and the S'pht'Kr. South of here you should find a panel that can directly interface with the cooling mechanism. Destroy it. And goodbye.

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success

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# n

What's going on? Suddenly I can get in touch with you again. Where the hell have you been?! What... Oh. You're... You're in the citadel? I've suspected that... well, it's irrelevant. You must have destroyed Phoenix if I can suddenly get in touch with you again. It's time for you to come home. I'm going to teleport you to a secure planetside location, and then bring you back on board the Istanbul. There's too much interference for me to get you directly.

# n
# t
<teleport to level 30>

terminal 4

unfinished

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# n

Message 1 from Karma commences: This Pattern Buffer unit is being installed with an experimental energy modulating device. In order to reduce staff tendency to overbuff their pattern, this unit will only be functional once per person per day for one ten-second interval. To activate the unit, press the switch to the left of the unit. If you have not used the unit in the previous 25 hours, you will be permitted to operate the unit. Thank you for being mindful of excess energy usage!

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Message 2 from Karma commences: [note -- no longer applicable] We are currently suffering massive staffing shortages for Engineering Annex security teams. In response to the insect invasions, it is required that there are three full defensive teams around Artificial Personality Controls active at all times. It is now policy that any incoming visitors must be properly scanned and explored by all three teams in turn. In the event of a security breach, do not all enter the Annex to respond simultaneously; there is not enough space in the Annex to deploy all three teams without suffering unacceptable losses from friendly fire.

# n

success

# n
# n

What's going on? Suddenly I can get in touch with you again. Where the hell have you been?! What... Oh. You're... You're in the citadel? I've suspected that... well, it's irrelevant. You must have destroyed Phoenix if I can suddenly get in touch with you again. It's time for you to come home. I'm going to teleport you to a secure planetside location, and then bring you back on board the Istanbul. There's too much interference for me to get you directly.

# n
# t
<teleport to level 30>