I gathered up all of the fallen Automata that we’d killed and laid them out in the street. I wanted to toss them into my [Inventory] but we’d need to show the townsfolk what had killed their fellows. It seemed that whomever was running this raid used a nerve gas that put everyone into a sleepy daze. Elita worked on opening up windows for people while I tracked down the source of the gas.

I found a total of four smoke canisters around the north side of the village that were mostly spent. They were probably placed to make the best use of the wind to carry the gas to all the buildings. I gathered them up as well and dumped them with the Automata bodies.

I heard a shrill scream come from one of the houses that had been hit. Sounded like the people were starting to wake up. In total, about a dozen of the townspeople had been murdered but we were able to save the others as well as the orphanage so that was some good news. Elita went to rouse the mayor while I tried to get some more information on these murder bots. Our best bet for an autopsy would be the one that I’d tried to free since there wasn’t any physical damage to it. I left Carnivac to stay with the murder bot bodies, put Cyclone back into [Inventory], and grabbed the examination subject to bring up to our room. It was around midnight now, but as people woke up from their gas induced stupor, there was likely to be a flurry of activity well into the early hours as people tried to figure out what had happened.

For starters, the model seemed to be pretty basic and had a mass production feel to it but with some additions; namely the spike arm and canister. There were tubes that ran from some smaller spikes around the main one up the arm and into the back. These didn’t feel like after-market add-ons though, they were neatly integrated into the body design. Even the non-spike arm was thicker and heavier to balance out against the weight of the spike.

“Wha... Whazzat? New toys? Why does my head hurt so much?”

I looked up to see that Shea had woken up. She had packed some pain medicine so I gave that to her and explained what had happened during the time that she had been out.

“Right now, Carnivac is having some trouble explaining to folks what all the murder bot bodies are and what happened to their houses and families. Could you give him a hand?”

“Yeah, sure, on it,” she said as she stowed her sword and headed downstairs.

Shea went out through the pub to find that the man who had been murdered there was carefully laid in the street with a sheet over top of him. Carnivac had a crowd of people around him demanding answers about what had happened, were they drugged, were the Automata rising up against them? He/I was trying to answer them as best I could but it was still the middle of the night and everything had just happened; we would hopefully have more answers by morning. The crowd wasn’t happy with the answers though and was starting to turn ugly.

Shea pointed her sword to the sky and shouted “[WaterGlob(max)]!” A huge glob of water formed above the crowd and dumped onto them.

“We’re doing the best we can with what little information we have,” she called out, “right now, the best thing you can do is to check on your loved ones and neighbors. This is going to be a long night as we deal with what has happened here. We’ll want to have a group that can prepare food and drink for the workers, a group that can work to repair any damages done to homes and buildings, and a group that can focus on taking care of our friends that were killed and digging graves for them.”

Those in the crowd grumbled at being wet but nodded at her direction and volunteered to help with the different tasks. I was really impressed with how she handled them, was this kid really only a teenager? I’d never actually asked her, maybe she was really a 57 year old elf. Way more take-charge and confident than I ever was at that age at any rate. Elita joined the group with the mayor and her family and helped out where needed. Everything was well in hand and I could focus my attention on my Automata autopsy.

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I opened up the [Console] to [Inspect] the body and nearly fell over when I saw what was inside the canisters. Souls. Living souls were categorized and bound immediately to Automata cores. It was like a portable factory conversion unit. As near as I could figure, these murder bots were harvesters. They raid a town and murder the people, collecting their soul at the moment of death and bind them to a core for later installation into an Automata body. This was pretty horrific. Was this the work of The Factory? Why did they need so many Automata cores? This unit had collected two souls so far and bound them to cores. I carefully removed the cores and set them on a pillow to [Inspect] individually. I remembered the brief interaction that I’d had with the soul of Tibbins the cat before putting it into Ravage so maybe I could interact with it. I was able to connect with the core and opened up a [Terminal Window].

$connection established: alice@CORE1984 %>

%> Hello, are you there?

--Who?

--Who’s there?

--I can’t see anything or feel anything.

--am... am I dead?

--Is this god?

I suddenly remembered asking Beam this same question. It’s funny how life works in cycles sometimes.

$connection established: alice@CORE1984 %>

%> I’m so sorry. You were murdered, and now your soul has been bound to an Automata core

--I see

--I can’t really hear you

--I just feel your words

%> My name is Prime, I’m an Adventurer. I killed the one that had murdered you and was able to stop their raiding party from murdering the rest of the village

--How am I speaking with you Mister Prime?

--Are you a wizard? Oh no, maybe you're a necromancer

%> No need to worry. I'm an artificer, I can only talk with machines, and now you since you've been bound to one.

--That’s a relief

--I'm glad that the rest of the village could be saved

--What about the children?

--Are the children safe?

%> Yes, Elita got there in time to hold them back

--Oh, I remember her, the pretty orc girl

--What about the other girl?

--The elf?

%> She’s safe and is helping to calm the villagers down right now. Are you the Sister that took care of the orphans? Your name is Alice?

--Yes, that was me

--I’m afraid I don’t remember much after putting the children to bed though

%> Maybe it’s better that way. What would you like for me to do for you now, Sister?

--What can you do, Mister Prime?

%> I can take the core that you’re bound to, and install you into an Automata body, or I can break the core and release your soul to move on to wherever your soul is supposed to go to next.

--I think...

--I think that I’d like to move on

--I love the children, but I’ve lived a pretty full life

--and I miss my older brother terribly and would love to see him again

%> Then be at peace Sister. Safe travels on your next journey.

--Thank you

--Safe travels to you as well Prime, on your continued journey