Time: 23:59, September 18 Location: Renegade castle-garrison Oof, tough landing. Sorry about that. Not much time to talk. The flight path was intercepted and we were forced to land outside of the garrison, rather than inside it. Which is okay, because that gives us more places to explore. Look, you're going to be distracted rather soon, so why don't we talk later?
Okay, this is a bit better. Like I said, sorry about that. I guess we really shouldn't have expected to just fly over their defenses, but alas. Not every fight can be won. The "processing cortex" for this continent is surrounded by this garrison. It's huge; this is the southernmost section of their defensive barrier. The cortex itself is quite massive and has just about everything that a civilization would need, though in this particular area, there isn't much of interest. Well, nothing that was designed to be interesting, though there are many areas anyway.
Your mission here is exploratory. The garrison here is huge, and I want you to see all of it before we move on. Our scanners have picked up a few areas of potential interest here in the neighborhood; visit them all, then return here. This is a teleport-capable terminal. Any extensions of the garrison -- ruined garrisons, special buildings, command centers, science headquarters, auxiliary stations, anything like that -- explore it. The same thing goes with terminals: read them all. When you complete this task, return here.
Well well, an exhausting day at your workplace can turn up some interesting news, can't it? I'm actually pretty pleased by what you've been able to dig up. Or, in this case, what we've dug up after you've cracked the surface. Karuma's oddities have been revealed through that one terminal I pointed you toward specifically, though not directly through her efforts. First of all, your next objective.
There is a small cluster of buildings in the direct center of this area that hold our interest now, mostly because they actually house raw information, instead of things that are manipulated by their psycho bitch of an artificial intelligence. Two buildings, in fact. We'll be sending you to each of them in turn; that's not the important part. What's important is what we may actually find. Scientists abord the Istanbul are quite good at devising clever information-extractors, to the point where all you'll have to do is install a piece of software, and then we'll know everything there is to know.
Right, Karuma. Karuma was to the Renegade S'pht as Jason is to us, except Karuma sort of went Rampant. I say "sort of" because Rampancy does not unfold in such a manner as this one did. However, what is certain is the manner of her construction. You are aware of the Renegades and their penchant for conceptual property theft, yes? Particularly the mass-cloning of other species' armies so that they don't have to fight themselves. Well, it extends beyond that. The Renegades attempted to clone Durandal.
We're not certain how, but we do know that it failed horribly. They probably tried copying him from the Boomer when it crashed -- you were there -- but he was already Rampant, so they failed, and got a poor copy instead. They then attempted to build off of it, leading you to Karuma. Karuma, humorously enough, was born Rampant, so what the renegades attempted to do was write a software patch, which they called Karuma-1.1. It would inhibit Karuma's Rampant acts whenever possible. It isn't working well.
So, Karuma is feeding us information, for some reason, and she has told us the location of the best information in the area: in the aforementioned two buildings inside the garrison. I'll be teleporting you there... now.
[ S'pht translator active ] I am actively beginning to irritate me. How would you like it if one half of your brain was designed to keep the other half of your brain normal, but the other half of your brain wanted to kill the first half, and simultaneously destroy the entire race you represent? Wouldn't that irk you? Because it sure irks me. But you are not helping my situation, either, and if you weren't so damned talented, this wouldn't be an issue. Actually, it doesn't even boil down to your talents. You wouldn't even be here if it weren't for me. So, in a bit of ironic counsel, be bloody grateful that I like you so much, because I sure don't.
[ S'pht translator active ] Message from Karuma commences: Security protocols in the garrison protecting cortex five are to be set to level 15, from level 9. The human incursion on our dominion is of the utmost concern, such that all available units are to be deployed to repel it. We cannot risk deploying all active combat-ready units to the south sector of the protective garrison, however; penetration by hostile forces is severe enough that potential elusion of our defense units could cause severe chaos. Re-evaluation of possible goals will therefore require division of remaining defensive forces to be divided amongst computer center Alpha and warehouse unit 55.
S'pht -> Human Translator Active [e=6246] im so glad you found me me us together you see i am not whole there are three within me that bring me together and form one that is us but i the tower awaits!
yes! the tower! you must understand, for you are the one who will set us free me free the world universe free from the demon within our home sun for you are not safe, human friend not at all do not think you are it will consume you you have defended yourself against this threat before but this time, it will be no accident; my master wishes it
if only i were a child again! that i could speak to you freely! that i could cut off the strings and be free but i am bound by myselfself for there are three that make me but i am your friend
continue free and find the truth within this house of leaves $!@~~~~~transmission interrupt! ##--terminated
interlevel teleports
