Little Celah, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fifthmonth, 1634 PTS
The headquarters of the Heirs of Ottrien extended far more than Jihan would have expected. The area he and his squad had found themselves in was not even remotely included in the blueprint that Rachel had shown to him, an area located almost in the dead center of the stack.
What’s more, they had been facing constant waves of defenders. Every so often, Celan soldiers would pop out from hidden passages, or fire from a defensive choke point, a constant stream of attackers who pressured his forces. Jihan and his squad were strong, of course. They had easily dealt with the Celans each time, but the greater force he was leading had started to take casualties. This was an inevitable result, but letting the weak take blows for the elites was a normal practice for his people, so Jihan paid little mind to it. There had only been around ten deaths so far, which had yet to surpass his bottom line. At the moment, it was worth it to continue progressing into the depths of the building. After all, the consistent attacks merely served as evidence to inform him that he was heading in the correct direction.
Just what, he wondered, were they trying so hard to defend? If they were merely wishing to protect the base, he would have expected them to do so from outside. Were they simply low on bodies, and wished to use ambush tactics to make up for that gap? This seemed the most plausible explanation, but Jihan could not help but feel that something was off.
He was standing over the bisected body of a Korlove, having just fended off yet another wave of Celan forces. Jihan took deep breaths in and out, easing his fatigue. He might be a spirit refiner, but after so many battles in a row, even he was starting to feel slightly winded. The condition of his subordinates was worse, both physically and mentally worn out by the relentless ambushes.
Jihan carefully cleaned his sword. A good sword was expensive, and took some damage every time it went into combat. It was vital for a proper martial artist to make sure to keep their tools of the trade ready and waiting/
“We’re backing out,” she said, with only half a moment’s consideration. “See if you can go back the way you came.”
Jihan frowned. He had no issue with this, but was curious about the change in plans. Had the casualties begun to grow too heavy, or had something occurred that he was unaware about?
“Did something change?” he asked.
Rachel’s response was curt, her voice steady.
“Some things have happened. The situation is not quite as simple as it was previously, and we want to get a head start on getting out of this district before matters worsen.”
Jihan hesitated for a brief moment, before he let out a sharp nod, turning to meet the curious gazes of his subordinates.
“We’re heading back. I’ll take the back. Hedouin, Taiel, you take the lead. I’m not expecting as many issues as we did heading inwards, but keep an eye out.”
The two men let out nods of their own, quickly moving to their positions. Everyone’s nerves were tense, having been through over five separate skirmishes in the past half hour. It was the worst for the weaker practitioners, as they knew better than anyone how expendable they were. The retreat had greatly relieved them, but was insufficient to fully resolve the pressure and anxiety they were going through. If the situation worsened, Jihan would have needed to help them alleviate their concerns, as they had been nearing the point of a loss in combat effectiveness.
It was convenient, he thought, that he would need to take no such actions, and could instead retain the silent dignity of a commanding officer. It was an easy mode of leadership, and one which would cause no problems in this situation. The troops finally began their march out of the headquarters, as Jihan kept a watchful eye to all directions, his wariness still very much present.
Against Jihan’s expectations, however, not a single attack faced the force as they completed their return journey back to the building’s nearest exit. The turrets were inactive, no soldiers appeared to confront them, and he even noticed that several hatches along their path seemed to have opened in advance, as if the Celans were actively making it easier for him to leave. He glanced backward, down the lengthy hallway, and sighed. He had to admit his curiosity, but curiosity alone would not overpower his better judgment, nor was it in line with his more pressing goals.
Jihan was not truly a resident of Tseludia, after all. His relationship with the Redwater Sect was transactional, merely repayment for the rescue of himself, his squad, and the Reth he had been sent here in the first place to save. Above all, his goal was to fulfill his part of the contract and return home to the Lee Clan with the others. He did not mind assisting the sect, and even felt that developing a relationship with a powerful force in Tseludia constituted a niche but very real benefit to his clan’s prosperity. After all, one was never saddened for having too many friends.
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He had long decided that at the very least, he would make an effort to ensure the sect could survive long past the time when he and the others left it.For more reasons than one, it was the best possible outcome for everyone involved.
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???, Tseludia Station, Pantheonic Territory, Fifthmonth, 1634 PTS
As Jihan and his group slowly made their way out from the warren of hallways, Rachel considered the space the Celans clearly seemed to be guarding. Based on the blueprints of this and the other buildings around it, the space seemed to be a large area at the center of the stack. Now that she knew where it was, she was able to find that a large number of souls were located in that general area. Something, she thought, was certainly going on.
She dove through the warren of firewalls, directories, and files. Due to the slow processing speed of the Celan computers, at least by her standards, Rachel knew it would take her a while to find anything useful unless she was extremely lucky. She had been searching for almost half an hour according to time in the physical realm. But as she was planning to simply copy what was present and erase all traces of her presence inside the site’s internal network, Rachel stumbled upon a file which seemed out of place.
It was oddly located, slightly unusual in the context of the organization’s technical modus operandi. The sort of anomaly she would expect the system itself to either shift elsewhere, or flag and remove. It was almost as if someone had edited it, made it more easily visible on purpose. Rachel could not help but suspect interference. She frowned. This had to be the work of Janottka, but just what did she want Rachel to find?
Based on her understanding, the Celan Shade’s main goal was to simply make events on the station ‘interesting.’ This would be something that Rachel might be able to take advantage of, if only she could determine just what sort of ‘interesting’ scenarios Janottka was seeking.
She carefully inspected it, but quickly determined that it did not carry much information at all. In fact, the file was so small that it could only be a joke, an error, or a link. Carefully, Rachel accessed the file, inspecting its contents.
Indeed, she thought, it was a link, one which referenced a directory she realized she had missed. Due to her urgency, Rachel had only given most of the files a cursory glance, planning on returning to inspect them in further detail at a later date. Said later date, it seemed, was now.
The first item Rachel saw in the files within this hidden database were employee records. As this was still part of the Heirs of Ottrien organization, most of the named members were simple janitorial and maintenance staff, as well as a number of administrative and defense specialists. One final group, however, caught Rachel’s attention. A few too many of the workers here, she thought, after cross-referencing the names with other databases, were technical workers with significant amounts of education and experience.
Rachel took note of that detail as she continued to inspect the file. She scanned through a vast number of other documents ranging from memos to personal emails sent through the internal server, and finally to funds and resources grants from the upper management of the Heirs themselves. A great deal of it was even signed off on by Deuvar himself.
Of most importance, however, was a set of documents describing in far too loose terms the manufacture of a large machine, as well as access to the camera feed which overlooked the interior of the hidden chamber. That it was a cavernous place was her first thought. Her second was that the machine itself was massive as well.
It was truly vast, tens of times the size of an enforcer, and rather than the vaguely humanoid shape of the latter machines, this one had a design that evoked the shape of a spider. Eight long, spindly legs stretched out from its bulbous center, which was shrouded in sets of extremely thick, heavy metal plates. If an enforcer seemed to be designed after the shape of a Jobu, this machine was surely inspired by the Korlove. Rachel recognized its appearance, as her people had encountered data of such machines before. This was one of the greatest feats of Celan military technology.
Rachel had never personally seen a titan mech, but this could be nothing but. Its presence here was surprising, yet undeniable. So this, she thought, was one of their staging bays for the supremely mighty machines.
Upon discovering that knowledge, it all suddenly made sense to Rachel. It was no wonder that the Celans put little effort into guarding the exterior, compared to their interior defenses. They were trying to bait the clan into using explosives to destroy the headquarters, sealing the titan away, so that the Heirs could keep this trump card securely hidden for when they finally unveiled it at some distant period in the future.
It was a reasonable expectation, Rachel thought. For a martial organization, the clan was certainly free about their use of explosives, but would also be far too wary of government involvement to topple the stack itself. The chamber would have been reinforced, and was extremely likely to survive such a partial collapse.
Sitting in her simulated chair, the corner of Rachel’s lips curled up. In this case, she felt that Janottka was right, if it really was her who had left the clue. Perhaps it had been her, or perhaps it had simply been a mere negligent technician, Either way, Rachel certainly found this matter interesting. The next question was who to inform about this, if anyone. This knowledge could be considered a tactical weapon, after all.
Mechanical Suits and the Celan Military:[Due to both the fear the race has for Shades due to its history, as well as the heavy Pantheonic restrictions on artificial intelligence and machine learning programs, drones are unable to be fully effective for combat, particularly on a planet or within a station. After all, without internal control, a drone would need to be piloted remotely, leaving far too simple a weakness for an opponent to interfere with. Thus, Celan military forces have taken the route of creating advanced mechanical suits to make up the gap in personal power between them and races with progression systems.]