“Cojone.” Aurelio groaned.
His mind had been so preoccupied with the discovery of this INSPECT action that it didn’t dawn on him that there would be other actions available. He attempted to interact with the bolded word for a drop down menu or an information key but the word was static.
He had a general idea of what that action would do and he could contextualize what the FORTIFY action would mean but his eyes kept glancing back at the {Connection} innovation.
The system refused to elucidate what COMMUNE would do. The description of the innovation already suggested that they’d be able to communicate with the stone to a greater extent but whether that tied to the action or not was too opaque for Aurelio to wrap his head around.
“What’s taking you so long?” Elena impatiently asked.
Kalani stepped to Aurelio’s side and read through the provisions available.
“So we’re deciding between a repository of knowledge from the former denizens of this place, a training arena, and… the ability to communicate with the stone?” Kalani summarized.
Aurelio nodded, “Yes. Between the actions they bestow upon me, the immediate benefits they provide to the outpost, and the following innovations that come from selecting a node within the tech tree, there’s a lot to consider.”
“Actions bestowed upon you?” Kalani questioned.
He furrowed his brows, “Yeah. Something about inspecting, fortifying, or communing.”
Kalani didn’t register the statement, the state of her confusion growing deeper on her face.
“I’m not seeing what you’re seeing, Aurelio.”
Of course! She’s not seeing what he’s seeing on the panel because he was marked as chosen by the stone. There’s information that the stone is unwilling to provide to the rest of the crew.
“This isn’t a hard choice.” Elena said exasperatedly. “Pick the {Archives} and get on with it.”
He paused, “The {Archives} were my first choice before arriving but why are you interested in that option?”
Elena scoffed, “Well isn’t it obvious? It’s the best of the hand we’ve got. We can train in the plaza if we have to until we request the facility. And I’d rather slit my wrists now than attempt to talk to that hunk of rock after what it did to us.”
“I mean, the {Archives} would provide us with information on the world that we’re not privy to, right Aurelio?” Kalani asked.
“I’m not sure,” Aurelio looked back at the panel and sighed, “But I agree with Elena on this one. It serves too much strategic potential to be swayed by other mysteries.”
Those mysteries being abilities not within the tabletop game, which did compel him a great deal.
But he had a plan to stick to and the first step on that plan was the discovery of the {Archives}.
“Then let's get on with it.” Elena started to tap her foot while side-eying the exit.
He selected the innovation and watched as the panel fizzled out of existence. Aurelio watched the light within the monolith become brighter before one of the metallic roots attached to its back absorbed this energy.
And then the ground quaked.
The three scavengers bolted outside of the station, Aurelio following the glowing metallic root along to its destination.
They came up to a worn stone building. Its outer walls were sketched on, a faded mural of people in suits basking at the feet of the sun. His interpretation of the timeline of events for Dying Ignition was being upended the more he experienced the world around him.
He was familiar with the introductory hook that compelled the current crew to the scrap planet but the history of the scrap planet before then were mere snippets in the base material.
Aurelio couldn’t stop himself from grinning like an idiot, salivating at the possibilities dwelling within every tome inside.
The locked doors unceremoniously opened. Crystalline sconces inside the building filled up with energy and shined away the surrounding darkness to reveal rows of shelves. Each shelf was lined with thick pieces of obsidian panels, a small glowing stone embedded in the top corner of their spines.
“Woah.” Kalani whispered, gravitating towards the centerpiece of the building that only now caught Aurelio’s attention.
At the center of the archives was a grand table carved in a similar obsidian material as the panels on the shelves. Floating above the table was an alien mechanism that jarringly altered its shape from one geometric pattern to another. The metal it was made from was a solid gold with fractaled patterns running down the grooves of its various shapes.
Small golden wisps of fire clung around the device, softly drifting in and out of the things space to avoid touching whatever geometric form it planned to take.
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“What in the world is that?” Elena asked.
“I...” Aurelio marveled at the device from all sides, “I have no idea.”
They moved around the dusty interior of the archives in overwhelming silence, the sheer grandeur of ancient history seeping into their bones with each uncovered relic of the past.
Aurelio pulled out one of the obsidian slates from the shelves and watched as the dormant pane of stone lit up with energy. The same cryptic runes he recognized around the outpost appeared in a soft, legible script. Upon closer inspection, those stark lines shifted, letter by letter, into the English language he was familiar with.
He blinked multiple times to see if this ability was not just his mind playing tricks on him but like a cascade, the alacrity at which runes were replaced with their lettered counterparts was as interesting as it was alarming.
A byproduct of his new INSPECT action, maybe? The translation was mechanical in nature as some runes eluded understanding even under his new ability, like a machine incapable of translating a concept from stone to meat.
The title of the book he’d selected was simple enough though; The Anatomy of a Heretic by Jad Salazar.
What he could understand was enough to leave him overjoyed. He could put up with contextualizing the missing letters and making sense of the garbled sentences if it meant diving into a side of the Dying Ignition world wholly unfamiliar to him.
“Can you make heads or tails of this stuff?” Aurelio turned around to Kalani waving an obsidian slate in her hand. “It’s written in those runes around the outpost.”
Aurelio nodded, “I think I can now. Whatever happened when unlocking the {Archives} innovation, the resulting skill might have given me a rudimentary capacity to translate the runes into legible script.”
Elena sighed, “So we have to depend on you for the information. Great, just great.” She rolled her eyes, placing an obsidian slate back onto the shelf.
“I’ll probably make an alphabet for the rest of you to have in case I’m indisposed. Doesn’t make sense to have all your eggs in one basket here.” Aurelio retorted.
There were a lot of tomes to pour into and he hoped that he’d access the immediately beneficial material while burning daylight.
“So this was step one of your plan, yes?” Kalani asked. “As your commander, I want to be kept in the loop. What’s the strategy that I’m meant to coordinate with the rest of the crew on?”
What he wouldn’t have given for a slideshow and a spreadsheet at that moment.
---
The resources within the archives were a substantial yet dormant boon for the crew as a whole. The obsidian table in the center of the building was a three-dimensional projector of sorts. The functions he could discern included a live feed of all active sparks registered to the outpost strewn across the mostly occluded biomes on the planet, a renderer of flora and fauna discovered by scavengers both present and past, and a recording function to generate new obsidian slates for the facility.
The tertiary function was limited though but Aurelio planned to change that.
The whole crew convened in the barracks.
Cantwell had been hard at work inspecting the repairing cloud that lived in the suit docks at the end of the building. It was slow going but the rust colored cloud that could be found in the junkyard was slowly repairing the default integrity of the scrap suits.
It was a headache that Aurelio appreciated not needing to worry about. They were limited by the number of docks available to repair the suits but that was an issue his future self could deal with.
“Well, well, well, look who’s back to see us, Canti,” Phineas puffed up his chest while leaning on a bunk bed, “The commander, the stranger, and the hound dog coming around to bless us with their presence.” The man couldn’t avoid snickering in between his words.
“Welcome back crew.” Cantwell said while scrutinizing the mechanisms of the suit racks.
Elena glared Phineas into submission, the man slinking into a lower bed.
“The commander and her subordinate want a word with all of us.” Elena stated. Cantwell pulled away from the rack and swiveled to look at Kalani and Aurelio.
Kalani cleared her throat, “Before I begin, I’d like to apologize for our crew’s behavior,” She turned to look at Aurelio directly, “I’ll look past the lies you’ve given. There was no malice in it and I’ll have it move past us like dust in the wind. To that end, our suspicions were unduly critical. No hard feelings.” The other crew members mumbled their apologies and Aurelio accepted them in silence.
“Now with that out of the way, we have a limited action plan by Aurelio that I have full veto power on any of it should it come at risk to the rest of us.” She gestured for him to step up and he did so.
“We have unlocked the {Archives}. The knowledge stored in those obsidian slates are gonna give us the upper hand should we commit time and grab hold of it. The next innovation I have in mind is a role related innovation. Unlike the rest of you, I do not have a special skill that I can assist with in combat.” He started.
The Archivist role was one of his favorites in the tabletop game for its supportive nature and its capacity to predict the monster's immediate moves. In a world like this, it made sense to have greater predictive power to draw from.
“Gaining access to this role is an immediate priority for me as it should grant me the ability to scry into the near future when predicting a monster's actions.” Aurelio explained.
The crew looked at one another with questions on their faces but held them close, allowing Aurelio to finish.
“If I’m referencing the avenues of growth I was talking about earlier, this INSPECT action should give me access to the diagnostic sheets of the rest of you. With your consent, of course.” Aurelio added. “That’ll mean the personal growth level and the weapon proficiency level of you all can be organized and allocated. I'll ask the rest of you what kind of weapons you’d like to use and orient my plan accordingly. Beyond that…”
He stopped. Beyond that, there was so much more to consider. There were events in the overworld that he wanted to acquire and whether the system would be cooperative in giving him those events remained to be seen. His secondary role was hidden within the catacombs of this world. Guaranteeing an encounter with the dying monarch somewhere in those hallowed halls was at the top of his priorities.
Selecting suits of armor that the crew could benefit from was also a necessity.
There was so much to handle but he could do it. He didn’t have much of a choice.
“Well, beyond that is up to the rest of you. Do you have any questions I can answer while we take advantage of our downtime?”
The rest of the crew raised their hands, Kalani included.
It was going to be a long day