{DECRYPTION} {Reconnaissance Innovation Type} - The world’s mysteries are revealed in glimmers. What can be revealed can also be veiled. | CHOSEN gains the DECRYPT and ENCRYPT action. | When a SUBJECT or CHOSEN uses the STATION, they can alter reality and draw a new thread of FATE. | New functions are available within the STATION.
Aurelio stared at the innovation before him. Just like the others, he'd been presented with the actions he could perform as was his right as Chosen.
Two this time.
Placing some thought into it, he gingerly reached out with his INSPECT ability for clarification on what these new actions would do and found... something vague and interpretable.
His DECRYPT ability, like it had presented itself in the wild, would allow him to see a list of outcomes for the actions he performed using his dice. Fate was predetermined at the hands of the dice and the ability would give him clarity on what the outcomes would be should he decide to roll.
A welcomed ability for his ailing mind out on the field but not much else.
His ENCRYPT ability was much more dubious. There was nothing he could discern from the power aside from a vast space now present in his mind.
If he committed to focusing on the space, it was like walking through a library of locked tomes, each book binding distinct to the authors that bore their contents into it.
He could commit to these annals as well. The soft leather cover on his hands yearned to be filled with his experiences. They promised safety and security.
Aurelio reached out to the other books in that mental repository of knowledge and found their bindings to be locked.
If he had to take a guess at the function of this newfound space, this was a repository for his memories to be bound to. Another mechanism for him to protect what he could remember and recall ideas with a flick of his wrist, combing through the pages of his preserved memories for answers.
He tested his hypothesis with an innocuous memory. The time he...
Aurelio paused.
He reached back to his leather book and found the memory bound within its seams, the time he went out for pizza with his younger brother to celebrate his graduation from college.
The uncomfortable red pleather booth they sat in with cracks in the upholstery. The greasy cheese that'd clump up towards the crust whenever they bit at the pizza from the tipped end. The chatter of the pizzeria now local family chain, a relic of their childhood past that Juan hadn't let go of.
All of it was there and heightened to an unsettling degree. It was like simulating the memory itself.
And yet when he pulled away from the book's pages, the memory would slip through his fingers like a pile of sand, only the vivid imprints of his experience lingering in his mind. An aftertaste of a recollection.
This was a dangerous ability.
The mechanism to draw his experience out of the book was as subconsciously intuitive as it'd been to place his memory into it, but the cat was out of the bag.
Considering the strange effect the world was having on his memories, it would be prudent of him to fill the repository with some of his core memories but would that not alter him as a result?
And what of the other authors and their memories? Locked behind codes of their own design, of which he was certain he could (and should) gain access to?
There would have to be a recall system in place to keep his core thoughts open and available if he was to even consider messing around with his psyche further.
An issue for another time.
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“Come look at this.” Kalani called for Aurelio.
The once tidy and dust covered Archives was now a veritable disaster, with obsidian slabs strewn about from their feverish dive down the history of the scrap planet.
“The other commanders were busy in their generations.” She compiled coordinates on a draft of the local area and circled points of interest, each node corresponding to notes left behind by an archivist as to their motivations for leaving.
“There’s a surprising number of points on here.” Aurelio said. Something like eight points on the map at an initial glance, with more bound to appear given their preference for a thorough investigation.
“Each commander thought it necessary to have an outlying safehouse or outpost away from the stone,” Kalani focused on a node in what Aurelio knew to be the Valley of Lost Things in the gamebook, “and this point in particular is of key interest.”
“Why is that?”
Kalani looked at him with a feverish excitement, “This place is a cold storage facility.”
Aurelio’s brow furrowed.
“Oh?” She smiled, “The great Lio doesn’t know something?”
“I’m not omniscient, commander.” Aurelio rolled his eyes.
“Well, I’d be more than happy to inform my fresh faced recruit. A cold storage facility is a place where DNA is stored. Typically military contingents will store the DNA of their soldiers in the facility and spit them out like drones to deal with one of their forever wars in the cosmos. Something of a godsend considering the effects that the Culling has across the stars.”
That left Aurelio with more questions than answers.
“Considering the notes here left behind by Captain Boccham, they set out to fabricate a replication facility for… ‘research into the composition of new lifeforms that pose a present danger to spark-based life on the planet’ and did so with a squad of ten other soldiers.”
She looked up at him, “And of particular interest are their marginal notes on the command.” Kalani pointed to a square of letters overlaid above the report the captain had provided.
The two others have been banished from the Outpost and stripped of their gear and ranking. It’s a sure blow to our contingent that we’ve lost access to the Stone Touched but he’s chosen to fall in line with that crazed Salazar. May we never deal with their lot again.
“Is there anything else from this Captain Boccham?” Aurelio asked.
Kalani shook her head, “Nothing else. It’s like someone came by and scrubbed through all mentions of the captain and his crew. And whoever did so failed to account for this report. The slab was filed as ‘Reports on the Undying Flame’ by their archivist. I’d found it tucked away amidst topography reports from that generation.”
So the captain was proactive in obscuring his trail.
“How do you know so much about these replication facilities? It sounds like they were going to conduct human experiments there?” Aurelio asked.
She painfully chewed on the question.
“Those two roustabouts were right, it seems.” Oja said, proudly strutting through the Archives towards them.
“Did you finish with your objective already?” Kalani quickly leapt out of her chair to meet the automaton.
Oja smiled, “I would not come here and perform my victory lap if I didn’t arrive bearing good news.”
A pause in the moment.
“Well spit it out, Oja!” Kalani motioned.
“If you insist, Commander,” Oja cleared their throat, “My dive led me to a number of locations currently brighter than the sun that hangs overhead. There are a number of spots below us that are alight with activity. I believed it to be too risky for me to engage with their walls since it would affect my psyche so I made note of them and moved on. Beyond where even I’ve gone, there's a network of outposts cordoned off by a local grid. It's like looking at a castle from beyond their moat. One entryway that guards incoming and outgoing traffic but the bridge has not been drawn down.”
Aurelio chimed in, “Were there any facilities in the valley that are active?”
Oja nodded quickly, “You need to learn patience, boy! I was getting to them.”
“Them?” Kalani said.
“Yes. Theirs is an enticing anomaly.” Oja replied.
“What does that mean?”
The automaton took a deep breath, “The facility itself is functioning under a sleep state. Going there and activating the location through their local command console would set the facility back to functioning properly. The anomaly comes with the signal in their undercurrent.”
Aurelio sighed, “And what does that mean?”
“It means that the previous denizens of the facility scrambled their signal for an unknown purpose. And, considering my skills, I decoded their message with great ease,” Oja slammed their hand down on the table, “It was a distress call.”
That certainly piqued his interest.