Raven felt no remorse in his next actions. Knowing full well what would happen, and having seen #### resurrected- he knew ****** would remember dying. More than that, he knew that ****** would be upset- this company, these people, had taken the sweet solace of a peaceful death away from him.
Raven assessed his options, and overwhelmingly his decision was clear. He flipped the switch, and watched through the screen in a painful, joyous agony as his best friend woke up from death.
He waited to make sure ***** had fully broken free before he slammed his laptop shut.
Raven knew that his VPN would only take Lazarus Corp so long to track, once they figured out the ****** pre-emptive resurrection wasn't a fluke. Raven grabbed what he needed, rapidly filling his bags- grabbed his prototype helmet, and left the van where it was.
As Raven left, he heard the shouting. He saw the lights. The Kodiak boats had been scrambled- no doubt providing extra troops to hold down ****** as he attempted to break out. Raven walked a little bit faster away from the facility. Then the lights came on, surrounding the outskirt fencing, then sirens. The VPN Trace was faster than expected- Raven picked his pace up a little bit, working into a jog, and disappeared into the tree line- k9 units no doubt to be in pursuit soon.
Raven found himself at the base of a mountain. An old boarded off door, and some faded rusty signage vaguely read
"Lazarus Co, Mineral Mine"
Raven had heard ghost stories of the mine. An old rumor kicked around the R&D department really, something lived in there. Raven didn't have a choice though. He could hear the men charging through the dense undergrowth- flashlights waving, dogs snarling, howling, barking- Raven entered the mine.
Having only his faint phone light, Raven pressed on, lefts, rights, avoiding pitfalls and old shafts where he could. He followed the old signage as far as he could read it
The signage colours were long since faded, and held outdated texts about safety in the workplace- an old cartoon caricature of an Italian man with a comically swollen thumb. What letters he could make out didnt make sense, eventually he was able to piece together 1966.
after a short while of venturing forward, the rock and dirt had altogether turned into a concrete and dust. The wooden beams only surrounding the edges, no longer holding up the roof.
He had made his way to an old cold war bunker.
As raven entered the depths, he crossed the threshold of a room with 2 reinforced steel doors. He knew it must have been incredibly important - the Canadians weren't known for their large war budget, even back then. The lights came on, and revealed that it was a massive warehouse- huge wires snaking along the roof and upper walls. CPU stacks in columns along the floor. This entore room was a super computer- entirely analogue, but advanced even by today's standards. Raven sat in awe at what was layed out before him.
A faint green light blinked in the distance, beconing Raven over to the terminal
He approached a monitor, and it flickered to life. "PLAEDIS PROTOCOL ACTIVE" was spread across the screen
No buttons were responsive, no keys or cursor to be found- it was effectively dead, save for the screen itself.
then the floor lit up in a trail, small mechanical fans could be heard behind him, water rushing through the floor, and a small light flickered in a dusty glass panel of the ceiling.
Then he heard a cough. Like some one clearing their throat, but of oil and dust. Raven spun around to see a faint purple-white glow pulsing from behind a stack of boxes. Raven investigated, only to find that it was a familiar, tiny stone Obelisk! The kind that were used as the tour guides around the island. Raven had heard some things- but never interacted with one before.
a small port on the side opened up to a USB- raven reached into his pockets, and fished around, eventually pulling a charging cable out. Plugging one end into his phone, and the other into the obelisk. A prompt to install an app on his phone had appeared- 'it was a work phone anyway' flashed through Raven’s mind, and he set up the app. The Obelisk itself seemed to speak, as long strings of text appeared in the “PLAEDIES AI” chat box
"Hello! I am Pla3dies! Legacy tour guide. Though my functional state is limited due to the Plaedies protocol being enacted, i would be happy to assist you in whatever you may want to know. Is there anything specific I may help you with today? "
"Data retrieval" answered Raven- barely knowing what he was looking for himself. Something, anything to help him get his ship back.
"Linguistic pattern analyzed..."
(There’s a pause, followed by the faint whir of tape spools and magnetic drives engaging all around Raven- below the surface of the floor, dust starts to swell. The voice comes back, occasionally glitching between vowels)
"Acknowledged. Initiating retrieval protocols. Please specify:
Historical data — Mineral mine origin, purpose, and development.
Operational data — energy grids, maintenance procedures.
Environmental data — flora, fauna, climate, anomalies.
Cultural data — habitation logs, stored media.
My stores are incomplete, but intact in fragments. Retrieval may cause degraded syntax without proper re-integration of other Plaedies AI nodes. Please refine your request.
Which category shall I access first?
"Security, Lazarus Corporation"
"Historical Data- Lazarus Corporation- established June 13th 1982..."
"...yea. I was head of R&D there.” Raven interrrupted
"Understood. Without access to personelle files, I am unable to verify your credentials. However due to circumstances of the Plaedies protocol, I will grant you access to the Research and development sectors of this bunker. They may pale in comparison to what you will have used, I believe I've heard it called "analogue" vs "Dig1tal".
"Can you help me free something from Lazarus co?"
"Accessing my fragments requires a mix of physical action, verified credentials, and careful diagnostics. Below I will outline a safe, practical approach you can follow on the island. Should the plan involve any amount of physical aggression, or ballistic ordinance, I would suggest reconsidering, and contacting local authorities.
Listed below are some of the options for coming up with a safe plan of action!"
A long list of potential plans auto fills onto Ravens phone, 36 entries deep, none of which involve getting into the actual facility. After a brief pause, the machine whirls once again around Raven, Plaedies continues speaking, and text continues to follow
"Due to Ethics and moral stipulations, i will not provide instructions on bypassing locks, cracking cryptography, forging credentials, or harming others. If recovery requires legal force or authority, I will advise how to involve the proper channels and prepare documentation that strengthens your claim. Should any of these moral standings be outdated- additional firmware may be downloaded by linking the other exodused Plaedies AI nodes to me, here"
"How do I access these other nodes? Do you have some kind of physical code you'd like them downloaded onto? Isn't everything here "analogue" as you put it?"
"My access points can only be re-linked through physical action, verified credentials, or other means of service. Should any of these NOT be able to functionally re establish connected communications on their own, I will be happy to walk you through trouble shooting- most of the established hard lines are wired well beneath the surface levels of the island, rendering them well protected from weathering and impact. Simply put- overwriting the established protocol with a command key should re-integrate almost instantaneously"
"So If I make you whole again, you'll help me free my ship?"
"Simply put. Correct. Re-establishing connection will allow me to properly run diagnostics through other nodes, and collect meta-data as it happens. Functionally, once you re -connect the plaedies AI, I will be able to help you. In the event of AI splintering, or natural disasters, it is within my programming to administer (1) bribe! I may grant you the key you'd like, so long as conditions are met, and said key doesn't directly interfere with my other pre-programmed moral and ethical protocols"
"Confirmed. Please collect the update core from the glowing terminal on your left- the closest area with a last known Active AI fragment will be 'ghost lake memorial slide area and lake' terminal. Once you've found her, please handle her gently. She's me, and I bruise easily- safe travels!"
As the AI stoped talking- its obelisk light went faint. Raven noticed the pulse changed locations over to a small glowing rectangle on the terminal desk. He removed the glowing one, 4 others slotted around it, and stowed it in one of his magazine pouches.
