Chapter 12: The Ruins of Talrodeon
The ruins themselves were not big, reaching out to only a mile. To even call it a ruin was a stretch, as there were no buildings, or any form of structure larger than a house. Garin, Sara and the Touak security group traversed the streets, their vehicles left on the edges of the city-town. Anna and Pepper kept to themselves in the back making notes whilst Priscilla taught the Security force what to look for in case there was a burrow in the area. It still surprised Garin how much Priscilla changed when it came to the Touak and their ways. She seemed to relate to them even more so which made him feel both at ease and suspicious.
Though when he questioned her about the vehicles, she still kept her stony glare to him about the reason. Personally, he thought it would have been safer to have the vehicles near-by in case they ran into anything that might want to kill them, but Priscilla told them that if the vehicles were destroyed by the time they got back then they would know about any Skiritix activity in the area. The tactics that they employ dealt with destroying escape options first, namely a vehicle or a mode of transportation.
Next, they sent out a search party in the surrounding area for a group that might have used the vehicles. Priscilla was certain that if they did find out there was a party here, they wouldn’t get farther then the vehicles. Garin asked why not, but she just gave him a grim nod that oozed malice. Tehran began nagging inside his head, telling him the importance of the city and the people who used to live there.
“A statue used to be in the center to your right. It was there that the students would come and talk to the other neophytes about their assignments and the futures they sought to achieve. Many of them were lacking in the logistics though, wild dreams of uniting other tribes, saving us from the famine. It was a strange thing, when they all started to try and kill each other over the last bit of food.”
Garin’s thoughts were flooded with visions of people ripping each other apart, eating metallic beings and falling to pieces themselves. Gruesome, and yet he felt nothing for the lot of them. “They did it to themselves, if they worked together, joined up with the other tribes like you did, they may have not had to resort to eating each other.” Tehran regarded him for a moment, as if he was running a scan program in his brain. Sara noticed Garin’s brooding, moving closer to him and placing her metal tendril on his back.
“Garin, it’s alright, we’ll get back to the Vault and out of this crazy mess. We’ll just beat up anything that tries to stop us.”
Sara always had a way to cheer Garin up, even when she had no idea of how he was feeling. The memories of their lives before the Cheruv started to come back even more fluid now that she was near and it felt good to know that finding her also helped him find himself in the process.
The city wasn’t what was depressing him, nor the Cheruv talk or homesickness. Tehran talked with such robotic thoughts when it came to his own people, like he didn’t even care that they killed each other. Garin couldn’t stop thinking about his family.
His mother and her work with the Cheruv to save the last of their settlement, his father who seemed to escape his mind every time he reached for the memories. The toughest however were his siblings, his brother and sister. They were the hardest to think about, just thinking about how they must be out there by themselves in the strange world they called home. But his brooding was put on hold as his reality set in.
Up ahead stood a console with a wide berth giving to a ton of space to what looked like a massive terminal. Over his thoughts Garin heard Tehran call it the Conflux. This was the center of the Cheruv assignment processing, so it was an obvious place to check for information on the AI the rest of the team was after. They split up, making sure that each of the group could contact the other should something go wrong.
Sara and Garin already had ways to contact each other, since their Cheruv were synced to each other now that they had been in contact. It was like being hooked up telepathically, except they were able to filter each other out if needed. Sara’s thoughts invaded Garin’s own, swarming over the thoughts of his family and replacing them with worry beyond measurable circumstances. Tehran redirected the thoughts through his mind, attaching them to the filter and allowing Garin’s brain to recollect all the emotional data.
“This is so weird, if I didn’t already know I’d say this was a mall.” She looked around the place, and sure enough there was places that could have been concession stands one time. Another looked like a child care center, with toy creatures on metal springs. The rest of the halls were wide and long, shooting for hundreds of meters down what looked like more novelty stands on the sides. Strange place for an information center.
“The models of this part of the city are unknown. That is unsettling.” Tehran said, worry clearly setting through their mental bond. “The Information hub should be in the center point of this facility, yet,” he paused. Garin noticed the surrounding structure, holes in the walls. The walls had been burrowed through. The rubble surrounding the massive aperture couldn’t have been made by any machine. Something living made these holes.
“Priscilla, what kind of creature could make a hole about 6 meters wide?” The intercom static through the radio crackled.
“What holes? There isn’t any kind of structural damage over in our sector.”
“Priscilla, I’m staring right at one.”
“Gods, this isn’t a good sign. Garin, I want you to go back to searching for the hub, but keep an eye on those holes, they’re Skiritix acid maw holes.”
Great, more problems. Garin turned from the hole and headed back to the main causeway, looking back occasionally at the gaping chasm. Getting the AI and getting out, he had to focus on those. Tehran muttered the use of the facility in the back of his head, talking as if he were a teacher in school, droning over the use of power nodes and information crystals. Most of it was pointless, since Garin understood it all simply from being in contact with Tehran. Sharing a brain with him made getting information easier. Sara spoke through the bond, sounding concerned.
“Garin, you saw a hole?”
“Pretty big one actually, Priscilla says it was a Skiritix that made it.”
“Garin, I saw one too. What should I do?”
“Well, if you find something that looks like a bug, think happy thoughts and bash its skull in.”
“Garin, you know how I am about bugs…”
“Seriously? Still afraid of spiders Sara? Thought you would grow out of that.” Sara had a problem with them back when they were six, she threw a book the size of a cinder block at the teacher, who unfortunately had one little spider on her desk. Sara never had that great of an aim, and coupled with a book twice her size, Ms. Dawson still has trouble remembering that day, thought the spider made it out just fine.
“Spiders… just promise me they don’t look like spiders Garin.”
“Sara, you’ll be fine, don’t worry.”
Poor girl. This place is going to give her nightmares.
Garin focused on the walls, counting the holes. Three so far. This place was starting to feel like a graveyard with as much eerie silence as there was.
“Garin we are reaching the main information hub. The AI that your comrades are looking for will be here. I have notified Kalra already and the other team members should be here shortly.”
Finally, a reason to get out of this creepy excuse of a town. Garin noticed the structure that Tehran described as he turned the corner into the chamber. The place looked like an information kiosk, straight out of a mall. The idea sent shivers down his spine. This is way too familiar to be coincidence, or maybe it was just his head messing with him, but two kiosks made exactly alike, from two different races entirely.
No, this was human made, which means there’s more to this place then some AI. Melchior turned to the kiosk, making his way to a computer terminal set in the middle of the structure. Sara and Priscilla arrived, both staring at each other with a mixture of worry and suspicion. Pepper appeared scribbling furiously at her note pad. This place was probably her dream vacation with how much she was smiling. Sara drifted to Garin after she made sure Priscilla was a safe distance.
Her mind opened to me, “She still gives me the creeps Garin,” Her rage filtered through the com-link between them, Tehran filtering out the emotion. “Sara, she is on our side, technically. I mean, what would you do if you met an alien the first time? And no Sara, you would be screaming your head off. She’s just trying to get a gauge of what you are. You’ve seen what we can do Sara. Hell even I’m afraid of it.” It was true, simply existing was never this dangerous back at the settlement. Now Garin had to be careful about whether or not a slight misread thought would send the ground into a tremor. The thought scared him more than the Sheok or Touak.
“Still, I’m partnering up with you from now on, at least she won’t think about doing anything weird with you by my side.” Relief filtered through, Kalra filtering the emotions this time. Both Tehran and Kalra began to hum to each other, something registered as humor through their bond. “Kalra, what is so funny?”
“You two, more like fledglings then wielders of Sate’s grace, always on edge, always frantic. It is quite amusing.”
“Indeed, the gods themselves would be laughing along with us I feel.”
Garin could feel the overwhelming flow of embarrassment from Sara. It coupled onto with his own fury as they retorted in unison.
“Who are you to call me a fledgling?”
“Real mature Kalra, so I’m the fidgety one eh? Maybe Tehran would like to know how you can stand still for one second without thinking an attack’s coming hmm. Maybe you’re the inexperience!”
Tehran and Kalra, buckled under the immense front of emotions we sent at them, pinned into the “wall” of our combined conscience. Sara and Garin became pinned as well, their thoughts and feelings moving around the bridge in a torrent. Kalra began screaming over the waves, “Get your emotions under control, or you’ll break apart in all this!”
Tehran yelled, “Calm, think of something calming, for the love of the gods!”
Sara and Garin stared at each other, and the thought of their last day together filled Garin’s head. The park, the slides, and the pond where they fished. Her face was the epitome of calm, never smiling or frowning. Suddenly the waves of emotion subsided, and the four of them became free from the torrent. Sara spoke first, “I remember that pond, never did catch anything from it. Is that what you remembered when you thought of me Garin?” She looked sincere, resting her eyes on him for an answer.
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“Yes, that pond.” I turned to her, “was the one place where you were still with me, before you left. I used to go to that pond every day.” She smiled at that, and through their connection, her happiness radiated across.
An explosion rang out from behind them as Garin turned. He noticed someone running straight for them draped in a scientist garb looking scared to death.
Anna arrived in full sprint running straight at the kiosk, ducking behind the desk. Priscilla turned to her, “Anna what is it? Where’s Selo and Maria?”
Anna panted as she spoke, “Skiritix, they came after the vehicles, Selo held them off while Maria and I escaped, they overwhelmed him… oh gods.”
“Where is Maria, Anna?”
“Dead, an acid maw got her… popped right out of the floor. There everywhere Priscilla!”
Priscilla grabbed a device from her belt, a syringe and rammed it into the Doctor’s neck, she gasped and fell asleep.
“There, if she got infected, that will stop it from spreading before we have a chance to get out. In the mean time we got Skiritix to fry people.” She pulled out a crate, ripping open the contents to reveal an assortment of weapons. “Aim down the sights, and for god’s sake make sure their dead.”
As if on command, fifteen Skiritix converts rushed out of the hall way Garin and Sara came from. Their crackling heads, covered with decayed flesh and scythe-like claws, was something out of a nightmare. In a panic, his mind thought of drones from a hive, their eyes black as pitch.
Mouth pieces moving around in a mouth not made to support them, the skin of the converted bodies ripped as the insect-like beings screeched at their group. Five of the party rushed forward, while the others began to contort into balls, rolling around the perimeter of the kiosk. Priscilla began barking orders furiously, keeping the rest of the group inside the walls of the kiosk with nothing but her growls.
“Target the rollers Garin, Melchior take the flame thrower and hold those bastards back! Sara you’re with me, we got to take those rushers out!”
One of the group, a Touak named Tim by the tags he wore, didn’t need any orders, as he took what looked like a bazooka out of the crate, and proceeded to blow the rollers to dust.
The rockets blasted the bugs apart, but the rollers adapted, moving around sporadically so that the rocket couldn’t lock onto them. Garin picked out one of the rollers, using his tendrils to snatch one from the group in quick succession. It screeched and clicked at him, until he broke his neck off. Green ichor splattered his face as he tossed the corpse aside and picked out another.
The rushers caught Melchior, but for an old owl he was pretty quick, pushing the flamethrower into the mouth of one of the rushers. Char was all that remained of the three that tried to take him as he shrugged off the remains from his pearly white robe. Sara grabbed one of the rushers and proceeded to beat the hell out of it until it was nothing but a pulpy mess.
As quickly as they appeared, the converts were dead, parts of their bodies scattered around the kiosk with bits of insect blood oozing still from the wounds and twitches from the dying. Priscilla called the group back and they gathered around the kiosk’s computer.
Sara drifted towards Garin as they peered behind Melchior to see what he was doing. The terminal whirred to life as Melchior pulled out a round cylinder next to it. He pressed a button on the top of the device and with a pop the can sprung open. Wires moved towards the computers outputs and attached themselves to specific points. The computer began reading numbers on the screen as Melchior explained.
“This little ditty is a memory restoration device. A computer like this one hasn’t seen much use in a while and most likely its data core is corrupted from the neglect. Using a little ingenuity from Dr. Pepper’s part over here, we can revive this old piece of tech and get our answers.”
Priscilla nodded to him telling him that everyone but Maria and Selo are accounted for. He nodded to her and continued, “It will also power the unit for a while, but it isn’t made to last more than three hours. So hopefully we can find out where… Pepper could you translate this for me?” Pepper came over to the console, and noticed something Garin recognized right away. It was an emoticon, a smiling face with a wink.
“This is what the Cheruv people would use to communicate in an informal way, usually to friends or relatives, it is a rather rare coincidence for something like this to be in a ruin… wait, I think I found the file!” Pepper clicked onto a file folder, revealing a face on the console screen above the computer. The face sprung to life, looking down at their group with concern.
“AI unit Sheila XG261 reporting, Welcome to Talrodaon travelers." The face on the screen smiled for a moment, until it started to look at the group.
Wait… Two lifeforms recognized, yet the other five are alien to my records. Processing…oh dear there’s twenty of you… hold please.” The AI Sheila seemed to be searching though actual files like a secretary as she looked and scanned the group.
“Indeed you are lifeforms alien to the planet, yet it would seem that something is amiss. Scans reveal increased intellect and frontal lobe growth in all of you? Strange, that such evolution would take place in such short time… wait… scanning…?! Error! This is not the programmed time!”
Priscilla was the first to answer.
“Computer, what time does your programming dictate?”
The AI looked to be somewhere between shock and horror. “The Year designated is 2167 circa AE. But this cannot be! Such radical changes in your development would have taken millennia to progress. The city is in disrepair! Oh goddess, what has happened?”
The Computer looked around the entirety of the kiosk.
Peering at Sara, Garin could have sworn that she was cocking an eyebrow at this thing. The “AI” seemed to be talking like it was alive, or as alive as a computer could be. Tehran looked through his eyes at the AI, interested. “She knows of Sate. This AI was made after the Tribal wars, and clearly, she has upgraded herself since then.”
“Clearly? Tehran how do you know this much about her?” It was strange referring to the computer as a she.
“Her Artificial Intelligence is one of guidance, they were always updated frequently so that they could convey information with clarity. Her model is definitely what your companions are searching for. But her programming is in disarray. If she continues to process so much information, she may burn herself out before we get what we require from her.”
He gazed at the screen some more, then retreated back into Garin’s mind. “Best that you do something about it quick Garin, try to strike a conversation.” Sighing to himself, Garin approached the AI whose seem to be in mid-crisis.
“AI, err… Sheila! Calm down!” Garin’s mind couldn’t believe it, trying to calm a computer down. “Cease processing!”
The AI unit turned to him, giving what looked like a sigh of relief.
“Thank you Overlord, I apologize… it would seem that this new surrounding is indeed no longer Talrodaon. The information of this cities demise is saddening to say, may Sate take those lost to time.”
She looked to be close to tears, almost as if she was truly self-aware and alive.
The damn thing is alive, she was praying to Sate, a damn computer!
“I mourn their loss, but there is nothing more that can be done for them. Overlord, how may I serve?”
She looked eager to please, apparently there was a small transition when it came to emotions for AI.
“Why are you referring to him as Overlord?”
Pepper pulled in front of the group gazing at the giant face. Sheila turned to Pepper, clearly unhappy. “Are you the Overlord? No that was a rhetorical question creature of this world. And to humor you I will answer that ridiculous question. Overlords are the primary tribe leaders, all Cheruv strive to be a fraction of their capability but many only pale to their comparison. The young Overlord here has the seniority of the use of my systems so his problems come first. So any more stupid questions?”
The AI looked annoyed, as if Pepper were something to be squashed. Pepper was hurt, strangely enough, and retreated back into the group.
“Sheila these are my friends, my companions, the tone you are using is very inappropriate.” Sheila gazed at Garin for a moment, giving him an expression that said “are you joking?” He shook his head at her, and a feeling of remorse showed through the lighted features.
“It would appear I was wrong, although failure to compute why is beyond my emotional recognition. I apologize smaller lifeform? I will gladly answer your questions as well, be I permitted to?”
She looked to Garin for confirmation. He shook his head yes and she switched to the group. Pepper, regaining her spine approached her again.
“Ms. Sheila, my, that sounds strange, we would like to take you from this terminal back to our stronghold so that we could ask our questions there. Talrodaon has become rather unsafe since last you were operating here. Also the power unit we are using will die rather shortly… so if we could?”
The AI began to grow more concerned when she heard of the dying power unit. “I suppose that would be agreeable, give me a few minutes however, I must save this encounter… it would be better if I remembered your faces when I am reactivated.” Her face went blank as a bar appeared underneath the screen.
“That went rather well,” Pepper said with a sigh. Priscilla grunted at the bar, “Three minutes until she’s ready to be moved to the memory storage unit. Alright, lets pack up the gear, we should be ready to go as soon as she is finished.” the team began to pack up while Garin went over to talk to Sara. “Sara, what’s the matter?”
During the conversation with Sheila, Garin noticed Sara looking around the kiosk, searching for something. And the face she gave wasn’t pleasant. “I don’t think the Skiritix are gone Garin, Kalra says she can feel something coming, but I can’t tell what it is.” Garin looked around the kiosk, but nothing was peeking interest.
“Are you sure Sara?”
She nodded. “Whatever they are, there big and fast. I think they… yea there underneath us right now Garin.” Strangely calm, she looked at a point in the floor, and pointed, right where Priscilla was standing.
“Priscilla, get out of the way!”
Priscilla looked up at Garin just as the ground ruptured underneath her. Somehow, she managed to dive out of the way before the clattering claws grabbed her legs. Sara was right, huge monstrous claws began to reveal two even more menacing insect creatures.
Mouths gaping with feelers all around their heads, and broad fore limbs. They looked at Priscilla in unison, and began to advance on her. Sara picked up a massive rock from the rubble and tossed it at the nearest one. It flinched, but kept on pursuing. “Tim! Get something to break through that plating.” The Touak ranger Tim grab a massive gun from the bags of equipment with bright red letters saying Recoiler. With a twist he rolled and blasted at the two huge claw wielding brutes
“Blast at their legs, try to slow them down!”
Even in crisis Priscilla was barking orders. Tim did as he was told, he blasted at the creatures front legs as they lumbered. It bounced of the carapace and ricocheted across the wall. Tehran began analyzing the creatures through Garin’s eyes. “Indeed armor as thick as the structures around us, these creatures won’t even feel the blasts from their weapons.”
“What should we do, Tehran?”
He began searching more, piercing into the very biology of the creatures.
Garin looked at what was a complete x-ray of the entirety of the creature. Tehran was still looking for something, but Garin had an idea brewing. His scans showed him the anatomy of the creature, everything was there, but one part of the creature didn’t make sense. Near the creature’s mid-section was a squirming centipede.
The centipede’s legs were incredibly long, branching over the entire body. His mind thought of the parasite, something that could be controlling the creature against its will. Garin stretched out his tendril and grabbed the creature, propelling himself onto its back.
Tehran sensed his train of thought, and began to use the metal arms, breaking through the weaker section of the carapace. As Garin reached for the centipede, the creature lurched, completely losing focus on Priscilla and instead, focusing on the small metal creature on its back. It tossed him around, trying furiously to rid itself of the tiny pest. The centipede hissed in fury as Garin ripped it off the creature’s back. The creature screamed as it fell to the ground.
The other monstrosity noticed straight away immediately turning to Garin, its crackling teeth hungrily clicking.
Garin turned to Sara, and through the link they shared, she knew what to do.
He ran full sprint in the opposite direction, looking back to make sure the monstrous behemoth was chasing him. It was, and with a fervor that didn’t show before. Its mouth gaped open, revealing a hole of teeth, circular and rotating. Garin ran faster, faster than he thought possible.
The halls were becoming blurs around him as he picked up speed, but the behemoth screeched after him, not losing an inch in his effort to gain on him. Garin glimpsed back at Sara, her arm hanging on its back for dear life.
Clamping onto the ground, Garin stopped himself, smashing the concrete floor in the process. It hurt, but it made the behemoth stop as well. Sara clamped onto its spine, ripping at the armor in the back to find the centipede. The Behemoth finally noticed her, and with one movement, spun her off of its back. She slammed into the wall, ricocheting off of the pillars nearby. It turned back to Garin with its red-lit eyes. He knelt up, but the force of stopping himself mid-stride shook him.
Its claw reached out to him and grabbed his arm. Horror struck Garin as the claw clamped down, attempting to break his arm in two. He flailed at the monstrous claw with his tendrils, but the claw pressed down deeper.
In a guttural tone, the Behemoth laughed, “Pitiful, your kind, made of metal yet you feel pain just as much as those of flesh. You will not escape me metal man. To the Mother we will go, Il tok sera’otesh.”
It held onto Garin’s arm and began to dig into the ground trailing him behind it like a can attached to string. Garin’s thoughts turned to ripping his arm off to escape the beast, but Tehran seized that thought. It was all he could do not to try to rip off his arm when Tehran spoke to him. “That will not save us.”
It was said with such finality that Garin realized that he had given up. Garin cried out in horror, as the twisted monster dug deeper, covering him in darkness as they crawled into the depths below.