station72 | (CLOSED)

[ A nod, and they lift together on three. It doesn't need to be pulled far, just enough so that she can get her hand behind it and pull free the thin cord. When the bed moves, there is a clattering. Kneeling on the bed, Ilde fishes it out. ]

Another one.

[ She sits back and turns it over in her hands. ]

This one is different, there's no slotting along the edge.

[Lexa's head seems to lengthen (only seems) as she observes the card in Ilde's hands. Ah, that is much closer to what she had been expecting; that is what she had found on men from Mount Weather.]

It may be what we require. If the doors are activated. If not, then we'll find a dead end. [And they can't be trusted to build explosives to force their way in, which is the only way she knows they can.

But she also doesn't know how to build explosives, so that's a thing.]

[ She nods, she has seen enough of the automated doors within the Station. Either they will be able to continue into the Alkon site, or they won't. They will have to decide if it will be worth it to try to force open so many doors, or to simply leave it at that. Ilde offers the keycard to Lexa before, finally pulling free the thin cord to the little audio player. She wraps the word around her hand and then puts the player itself into her pack. ]

Yes, we'll see how far we get.

[With purpose, she turns. Lexa assumes Ilde will follow, and there is little more they can do here. As she moves, she pays attention to the markings their feet leave, signs that fire once ripped through this place long ago, burning nearly everything. If there is someone else to be found there, they are leaving a trail. Fortunately, she's alert enough to hear.

The first rooms they reach still contain the same soot on the ground, with very few markings or trails. She flashes her flashlight down to take note of the fact that it's barely been disturbed, and then she motions for Ilde to use the card reader outside of the room.

Just inside is the equipment area, though to Lexa, it looks like a place to gather scrap metal to create weapons. Her mind takes a moment to process it.]

Much of this could be traded. Used. Why hasn't it been? [She knows she's reiterating an earlier question, but there's a haunting sense of ... emptiness here.]

[ Ilde almost doesn't even notice the soot. She was so used to such things, her burned world was always raining with ash, and the continual fall would cover her tracks again like snow. But then again, if the tracks are not being covered over, that means no one else's would be either.

And theirs are the only ones. All the more reason it doesn't even enter her mind. Her tone is easy, not at all rejecting Lexa's uncertainty about this place. It was almost too easy, too good to be true, and such discoveries always came with a caveat. ]

If no one knows that this place is here...

[ Then no scavengers would come. As if they should be so lucky that that is the only explanation. ]

That may be so, [she allows, as it's a reiteration of an obvious point that's been present for a while. However, it's not as if they needed to go off planet to find it. They were able to travel there on their own, and they have a map assisting them. To some degree. Not entirely.]

Whatever we gather here, we will have to ask one of the senior Hosts what they think of it. [She has no other idea of what to call them, after all. "Senior" seems to do.]

In the note that Steven found, there was some mention of exploratory kits. Those seemed worthwhile to our group.

[ Easy to carry, with practical purpose to them. ]

Do you see anything else here you would take?

[What Lexa values and what their group would value are two different things. She recalls looking at the objects that would lead to the highest number of money. Things like that can be repurposed, especially if they've been protected inside these chambers.]

Anything that looks as if it might be on the inside of the devices we've been provided. If we can easily take it apart and retrieve it, we take it.

[They won't be very discerning themselves ... but thankfully, the datapad can meet them in the middle on it.]

[ She nods, accepting that logic. ]

It may be best to take full stock of what is available here, then decide how much can efficiently be carried.

[ In short, to keep poking around like the meddling kids they are. ]

It's a worthy idea. We may come across something that requires both of our strength. [Lexa can't begin to imagine how they'll get it out, but she's seen stranger things rigged up by her people. Perhaps they can simply ask for assistance if it comes to that.

But only then, because they're both so stubborn.]

[ They move through the rooms, sometimes one of them on each side of the hall, poking through desk drawers and cabinets and closets. Much of the inventory, the computers and lab equipment, is a bit beyond Ilde's understanding, all she can do is reference the datapad as Angel had modified it for her and compare it to what may be of use. Without knowing if they will have any success in trading, however, she is more inclined to what will be beneficial to the hosts themselves. In pulling open drawers after drawers, she comes across a few little audio logs, most of them recorded notes on the experiments, boring and mostly useless.

When she finds the pair of gossipy journal entries, however... ]

Lexa, these seem to be about some kind of... traitor?

[ Not exactly the word she wants, but she's not quite sure how else to describe it. ]

... Perhaps. [The first of the two messages had struck close to home. Doing great evil, bringing war, all to bring peace is a sentiment that she understands. As she processes the information, she thinks of home. Images or memories don't surface in her mind, but she is, at least temporarily, more emotional than she has been this entire journey.

Still, there is more to it. It isn't the man's betrayal that she focuses on (and she thinks it's not as simple as that), but the fact that someone was here, and then was not. She thinks of what they've seen, and the word "reactor."]

It may be a traitor. But more importantly, it may be someone who was here. Someone who knows what this place was for. We, too, fight a war. What is available here may be of use to us.

[What they were doing might be of use to them.]

[ There are parts of the recordings which she does not understand at all, the social structure, the blind obedience, near sychophancy, of their gossiper. She doesn't understand the idea of how a great weapon could end a war. She knows for a fact that greater powers only cause greater violence. She can't even really imagine a world without that, where no one holds weapons. What a strange dream. Especially to have united enough people to fill this entire facility...

The traitor makes more sense to her. 'Misguided' suggests that he fell out of love with such a delusion. ]

Marnl. I will keep this name in mind as I go through these notes.

[ She will, although she feels as if... they may certainly be inviting misfortune by using what was developed here. ]

[Lexa has always walked the middle of the road as the commander. Though she is harsh, she believes in exploring new ideas for the betterment of her people. Writing everything off immediately seems unwise.]

It may be something we need to give to the other Hosts. Namely the Prince or Cathaway. They'll have the resources available to find this man.

[Away from home, Lexa lacks scouts. She lacks warriors. And she lacks spies. Simply put: she has no such resources.]

[ She has no real idea of what either of the senior hosts could help them with, but she nods all the same. Her ignorance was no cause to argue in this moment. She simply continues on searching drawers, but finds nothing else of interest inside of them, so they move on to the next set of rooms, and the next.

The final door in this wing has nothing but a corpse inside of it, and Ilde steps back in surprise, almost mistaking it for a live human until it... becomes more than obvious it isn't one. The soft dusty smell of desiccation is not new to her and all the tension fades from her frame as she looks down at the curled up body in silence, eyes dim. ]

[The conditions make the corpse difficult to be around, but it's not the first time Lexa's encountered something like this. Feelings of discomfort weigh heavily inside of her as she crouches and tries to find anything of import on the corpse itself. When she finds nothing, she rises, pausing when she finds an unfamiliar string of letters (or she assumes that's what they are) on the wall.

Recalling the Prince's lesson, she retrieves her datapad from her pocket, using it to translate the words: CONTROL IS CORRUPTED I REGRET NOTHING.]

What happened here is no accident. [And it seems that her hopes to use the doctor from before are extinguished. She frowns, looking at Ilde.]

We should see if we can grasp what they were accomplishing here. [Even if they are absolutely the worst Hosts to try that. The knowledge they find can be passed along.]

[ The scent of Lexa's discomfort is soft, subtle. Ilde is aware of it, but forces herself not to engage it. She has seen plenty enough corpses in her life, and in a way this seems so correct. All paths lead to death, of course exploring this mausoleum of a place had led them here, to this one lone body curled up in a corner. Alone. She cannot even summon the will to emote about that, there is an icy lack in her reaction.

In Lexa's searching, she has disturbed his fetal crouch, exposing the name tag on his uniform. The datapad will expose the alien letters for what they are easily enough...

It brings to mind the excited whispers, the murmurings of weapons and war and trial. Tampering with something in a reactor. While Ilde does not quite understand the science there, she understands the concept: a dynamo, a casing for energy that could be unleashed... That was what Dreus had been in his own way, an unstable reactor for magicks beyond his human ability to control. ]

We should.

[ An agreement. They were here, this was what they had come for, although nothing about this excavation gives her much pleasure at this point. ]

We must learn whatever we can.

[ They were both worlds unlike the other hosts... They had much to catch up on. ]

It can be passed on. If you are stronger with your mind, then it may be best if it comes from you. [Lexa is only beginning to adjust to mind links, but the bleedover that happens is too frequent, too common, like a dam that's been waiting for its opportunity to spill over.

Knowing that their potential resource is gone is a problem, but it doesn't mean that there's no sign of what came here before. It may be of some use—or it may just be the key they've been looking for in understanding life away from their homes. The other Hosts should be able to help them comprehend it.

She tucks away her datapad.]

Search for clues around here, and then we press on.

(CLOSED)

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