Prologue

Line Height (because I know this can be a bit dense)

PROLOGUE // PART ONE

Via Admiral Soklomof

"I've come to a decision."
Admiral Soklomof spoke with a very well-faked confidence. This decision was going to affect his life- and many others.
His dusty, spacious office reverberated his voice powerfully off the walls. His secretary Aiden, working at another desk nearby, didn't even look up as his voice washed over the room.
Aiden, unphased, replied- "Oh, so you finally have a decision on that response team?"
"What? No, of course not. You know I've been stuck on that the whole week." Admiral Soklomof appeared somewhat surprised. "My decision was about lunch."
He'd admittedly left papers on his desk with a series of applicants, but he hadn't bothered to filter them. Though looking over, he noticed the papers seemed much thinner.
As the Admiral was eyeing the papers, Aiden spoke up. "Well, that's too bad. I made a decision foooor youuu~"
Soklomof went through a range of faces. Initially, he appeared still, as he processed- then, he raised his brow in confusion, before half-pouting in disappointment.
He accepted defeat after a full emotional rollercoaster. "And, I'm guessing, it's on my desk?"
"Why of course," Aiden teased, "where else would they be? The floor?"
The Admiral sighed. He really didn't want to have to make this decision. It was enough of a pain that the Council had recently declared another sector entirely under lockdown because of his failures- he wasn't eager to risk making another mistake. But there wasn't really a choice on whether or not he would have to take a risk, he just... really didn't want to have to DO it.
"I wanted to go pick up lunch," Soklomof pouted, "not... do this."
Aiden wasn't having it, though. "Of course not. But, sir, you can't keep letting the state of things get to you. Especially if you want things to improve."
Soklomof sighed, sank into his seat, and begrudgingly began turning papers over. He counted five papers, for five applicants- the perfect size for the response team.
All five applicants had been through basic defusal training, but they hadn't been tested as a team yet. They probably hadn't even met each other, unless Aiden did something the Admiral didn't know about. Sifting through the papers...
First was a 'Varis Heurich'. Common human, 31 years old, she/her/hers, 1.5 meters tall. She was previously employed in chemical engineering, with a job requiring her to both come up with designs and utilize nano-scale biofabricators. The Admiral didn't really understand some of the fancier terminology, but it was clear she was good at her job. Aiden had left a note that 'Varis's defusal skills were lacking, but she was able to de-escalate and had received training as an emergency medical technician in her previous application.'
Soklomof was skeptical. Her defusal skills were, in fact, lacking. In training, she set 7 practice bombs off early, and in total only 8 of the 25 were defused. Better than the average Joe, sure, but a one-thirds rate isn't good enough to pass.
Second was 'Shtelle Apferkeit'. Common lanius, 23 years old, any pronouns. 1.68 meters tall. They were previously employed as a security officer. She had excellent marks from their recommendations, excellent resume, and had actually had a surgery to his surface plating which gave it extreme resistance to explosives.
Soklomof was using every possible pronoun before he remembered that, in fact, 'any' pronouns did not mean 'all' pronouns. He decided to stick to they/them for Shtelle and move on. Between this and the weird name, Soklomof was confident he'd make many mistakes referring to the lanius, no matter whether or not he hired them.
Shtelle's actual resume was a glowing recommendation. With 24 of 25 bombs defused and the last bomb mitigated successfully, Soklomof was surprised he hadn't come across their resume any earlier. But then he saw Aiden's note- 'They appear to have arcanophobia. Not the kind that stops them from fighting, thankfully, but they often refuse to work alongside magic users. Don't worry about Fili, though, they were introduced to each other and it was fine'
The Admiral decided to leave the question of who Fili was until the end of the papers.
'Trite Varra'. Flare novian, 26 years old, he/him/his. 1.57 meters tall. His resume seemed broadly irrelevant- managerial positions, mostly- until he suddenly, strangely, haves massive gap explained with piloting courses. But, Aiden himself had a glowing review. 'Trite here had a very early mid-life crisis. Realized they were bored. Took up classes to become a pilot, because they realized they wanted to own their own starship one day and live among the stars they were made of. Inspiring stuff. He might look mediocre, but they are committed- and we need someone on the team like that.'
And it's not like Trite's scores were bad. Looks like he took the test once and only got 17 defusals, but went again and managed to ace it with all 25. Definitely a hire.
Fourth, 'Diaz Apellen'. Damain lashunta, 24 years old, he/him/his, 1.62 meters tall. While his literal resume was a bit lacking- a 22 of 25 for defusals, poor de-escalation skills, refusal to even attempt psionics, resume gaps and all experience prior being retail- images were stapled to the paper of him inscribing circuits running purely on electricity, using them to create unique weapons, disable other devices, and break in where necessary. In fact, using this technology, it appears he had given himself an impromptu transitional surgery using only autonomous programs and his own hardware. Aiden's note- 'The legality, sure, is questionable on this- but he's clearly a good mechanic, and we're a bit short on good electricians.'
The Admiral was a bit skeptical of this one, too. By the read of it, he wasn't the most affable person- The literal affability index put him at 'Poor'. But, for now, Soklomof read on to the final paper.
'Fili Kempth'. Self-awakened android, 19 years old, it/it/its, 1.6 meters tall. It became conscious, but reportedly did not realize what that meant, and continued its function as customer service- however, after a shooting passed through its store in which certain horrors were involved- the details of which are classified even to the Admiral- it was rendered afraid, ran away, and eventually resurfaced and was diagnoised as having been severely traumatized. It did, however, file for appropriate Jointworks citizenship and get approved. It then developed reality-bending potential, tested for it, took on responder training, and applied. Its "resume" looks more like a history report, and looks like Aiden probably typed most of it up. Soklomof briefly dreams up scenarios by which his secretary could've met this android, but moves on quickly.

I fully understand the meaning of the protocol.
It is my duty not to be curious. That's been drilled into my head quite effectively.
But something about this, I just can't help wondering...
What did this poor android go through? Why would it have such a high level of classification that...
Well, in theory, not even the JWAC can read it. Or in other words, nobody can.
I'm not going to investigate. Why?
Because I fully understand the meaning of the classification.

"So? What do you think?" Aiden spoke up, startling Soklomof out of a bit of a trance. Aiden was hovering over his shoulder, watching as he scanned over the papers. Soklomof eventually answered, "They, um, look okay. I'm a bit skeptical of Varis and Trite, but-" "They'll do? Great!" Aiden interrupted, pretending to finish Soklomof's sentence. "I'll go let them know to show up for orientation, you just sit right here. I'll come back with lunch and five recruits, okay?" The Admiral didn't have enough time to speak up before Aiden had already bolted from the room. He grumbled, and decided he should probably prepare orientation and a teamwork simulation.

PROLOGUE // PART TWO

Via Hobbyist Diaz

Diaz tilts his head at a laser module.
He's been trying to figure out what's wrong with it for 10 pips now, but hadn't looked inside yet. These modules are supposed to use hardlight to deliver universal printing material- but, the thing is just shooting out normal light, and it's been leaking material all over. At this point, he's had to drag it to an old-smelling closet workshop , with barely enough space for him and the module combined, just to have all his older tools at hand- since he broke the newer ones trying to get inside. He's visibly unhappy about it.

It's been hard for me.
Getting by on its own around here is... pretty easy. There's some level of universal basic income, which some people call socialist and some people call capitalist-
But I don't care about all that. Never have. Ants whining about an anthill. It's whatever.
But being able to do what I want has been hard.
The job market isn't optimal. It's been worse in my lifespan, but it's also been much, much better. I got laid off of a job in retail.. several, really.. in the last, what, few years?
There's just no room for work anymore. The planet is too good. So I'm leaving.
I'm leaving these cramped, dusty spaces behind.
That's why I...

"What is WRONG with you?" Diaz loudly whispers, impatience growing quickly. He nearly spills even more of the leaking material before deciding to stop his work and get a bucket to dump it into. He carefully starts to turn around, delicately moving his arms to avoid bumping any tools- when a sudden knock at the door startles him, and he knocks his arm straight into the door.
"Damnit!!" Diaz whines, as his tools rattle, and his arm recoils- but at least, by a quick glance of the room, none of his gear has fallen.
He freezes up, in a panic response- last time something like this happened, he had to put up his entire wall of tools, and it took him at least 80 pips to run through each one and make sure they weren't broken, or replace parts that were. He did not want to risk that again.
"Hello?" A muffled voice came through from the door, bringing Diaz back from the dread of fallen tools.
"Yeah," he answered, "give me just a second here-"
"I can't hear you from there!"
Diaz sighed. He began to slowly turn around again, this time enough to get up from the cramped workspace and answer the door.
He checks the peephole at the door, and on the other side is a fairly well-dressed man. He probes, "Who is this?"
"Depends on who's asking. Are you Diaz?"
Diaz, hesitantly, replied, "Yes? Who are you?" The man answered, "You already asked that- I just needed a second to make sure I was at the right place. I'm Aiden, from our messages."
Diaz was a surprised to hear this. He didn't remember any meetings or anything, and he'd been doing fairly well lately at keeping on top of those. So, he assumed, "I'm guessing you're here to give me bad news in person?"
"Not unless getting a position is considered bad news!" Aiden exclaimed, seeming rather more excited than Diaz by the news. Diaz was, however, rather excited himself.
"Oh!" Diaz almost opened the door, but decided it'd be better to really make sure that was, in fact, safe to do so. He didn't live in the best of neighborhoods, and it wouldn't be the first time something went wrong.
Diaz had hung something up at the door, a scanner meant to find weapons- A metal detector with some modifications to be able to single out materials like Noqual and Abysium, and show their structure through a wall.
He pressed the device against the surface, waiting for a moment- But it thankfully appeared that Aiden was in fact unarmed, so he opened the door after the slightly awkward silence from scanning and stepped out.
"So, if I'm hired," Diaz began, "why are you showing up here to tell me? Couldn't this be an email?" Aiden explained, "Well, I wanted to see if you'd have time for one final training exercise. I'm checking on each of our five chosen recruits, and I want to see about getting you through orientation right away."
Diaz was a bit confused- that's not how orientation usually went for him, but he hadn't really applied for a 'usual' job, so it wasn't all too surprising.
"Yeah, sure, I can manage that," he decided, "but let me finish this thing I'm fixing first. I won't take long."
Diaz left the door open, and moved back to his workstation. Aiden followed him inside, watching him at work.
"What is this anyways?" Aiden asked, angling his head towards the broken hardlight printer.
"It's a hardlight laser printer, but right now it's just being a laser laser, not even a printer," Diaz explained. He couldn't tell if Aiden really understood or not, but he didn't really want to elaborate, so he instead focused back on his work. He unclipped the outer hull, and pulled down a bolt wrench to open the internals- but even as he was doing so, he could see the problem. The hardlight injector had been knocked out of place, and done damage to the material casing. At least the fix was relatively easy- He didn't even have to get into the circuits like usual. Diaz carefully reached overhead and opened a cabinet, grabbing a material casing. He carefully removed the bolts and screws holding the damaged casing in place, and poured its contents into the new casing. Aiden spoke up, "That looks like it's going to be a huge mess. Do you need a rug or anything?" Actually, Diaz thought, that would probably be an even worse mess to clean up... "No, but I could do with some paper fodder from the kitchen," Diaz replied. "It's down the hall over there." He pointed towards his kitchen, and Aiden moved towards it.
"I'm just going to guess this is it," he heard Aiden say through the wall.
Eventually, Aiden came back with a handful of fodder, and Diaz set the old casing down on it. He used a wrench to nudge the hardlight inserter back in place, and screwed its fastenings in properly- then, he put the new casing in, and sealed the whole thing up.
"Okay. That's, going to live without testing," Diaz asserted, taking the printer module out of the room. He finds the nearest table and delicately rests the module on it, hoping to reinstall it into his printer later.
"Good to go?" Aiden asked, still a bit impatient-sounding from his excitement. It felt weird to Diaz to see such a formal-looking man seem so giddy about a new hire, but it at least likely spoke to a good corporate culture. Or a very good actor.
"Yeah," Diaz confirmed, "take me on whatever wild ride you've cooked up."
Diaz began to follow Aiden into a fancy government shuttle. It had Jointworks markings proudly sticking out on an otherwise dark, sleek material. Diaz was... naturally untrusting, but he already had his embedded gear if he really wound up needing it.
If I can succeed here, the money I'll make could build a thousand of that module, Diaz thought. The imagery of countless universal printers, all working in tandem on massive, delicate designs made him giddy himself.
The door opened, and Diaz stepped into the shuttle.

PROLOGUE // PART THREE

Via Driver Trite

At this point, Trite was a bit impatient. Aiden had left the shuttle for quite some time now, and Trite's antsiness was getting to him. He was the first to get picked up, but unlike this 'Diaz', he'd been quick to get on board. And just as quick to take the driver's seat. It wasn't necessarily addictive, but it certainly calmed Trite to drive. Whether it was keeping his hands busy, or the feel of his gloves against the controls, it was always a good feeling. And it was a welcome distraction from the new car-like smell and uncannily sleek consistency of the shuttle's metal.
In this case, he supposed, it's really not so much 'driving' as 'piloting', but this isn't exactly a starship. Shuttles like the one he was driving were small enough to enter mass hyper-drivers, meant explicitly for commuter travel. The government gets their own fancy ones, which Trite was adoring the handling on. Though, as Trite was thinking about how responsive the shuttle's accelerator was, he saw two figures returning on the left camera feed- Aiden, with a Lashunta he didn't recognize. Presumably, Diaz. Seeing Aiden approach, he opened the left shuttle door.
He didn't know much about Diaz. Apparently, Diaz was a bit of a tech nerd- tinkered with electricity, but never the arcane. Trite could get behind that, but considering that two of the three common hyper-drive mechanisms were dependent on magic, he was certainly just as grateful for the arcane as the electric.
"Oh, HELL yes," Trite distantly picked up. He wasn't sure, but it didn't sound like a familiar voice. That same voice inquired, "Can I see the hardware on this thing?" And then, finally, Trite heard a familiar voice, as Aiden responded, "Sure, why not. Just keep a hand on something steady." He heard three sets of footsteps move from the entrance to the machine room's door. The shuttle only really had three 'rooms'- One for the pilot and copilot at the front, one for the machinery at the back, and one bigger one for everything else inbetween the two. Diaz and Aiden were headed to the machinery- thrusters, shielding, and the power core. All in one place. A bit dangerous, sure, but normal for commnuter shuttles like this. It's definitely safer than older models, which ran the power core throughout the entire shuttle just to save on space- or had the shielding modules exposed outside the shield.
He couldn't hear what exactly was happening, but Diaz and Aiden had some brief banter. Trite didn't expect that banter to last all too long- He had already asked Aiden about the shuttle's specifications, and apparently Aiden didn't really know too much other than "it flies, it takes bullets, and it doesn't stop until you tell it to". Fittingly, the banter was relatively brief, before the two came back to the main room. Diaz stopped moving- probably sat down, but it was hard to hear it from here- but Aiden came to the piloting room. "Okay, Trite, here's the next place," Aiden spoke, handing Trite another simple punch card. "We'll be picking up Varis, next."
It's weird to think that such complicated storage methods were developed, theoretically, before the simple metallic punch card. Sure, it didn't carry data all too efficiently, and it was effectively read-only once minted, but it had basically zero maintenance cost, and the sheets were relatively cheap and durable. Almost every autopilot system was able to make and use a single, standardized punch card, giving a relatively precise location of the destination based on the planetoid.
Trite wordlessly slid the punch card into the shuttle's console. The assist systems lit up, pointing to closest the mass hyper-driver in this system. He turned on the shields, isolated gravity, and began the usual liftoff sequence.
"We should be there in about 8 pips," Trite calculated. It was off the top of his head, but since traffic wasn't a big concern, it was probably accurate.
"And you're sure you don't want the auto pilot to do it?" Aiden questioned. When Trite got picked up, he noticed the shuttle was being driven by auto pilot- the others didn't mind, but he could feel something jarring every turn, and it disturbed him.
"Yes," Trite briefly asserted. He put on his visor- it didn't do anything fancy, but it made sure his body didn't flare up and disrupt his vision. It also felt nice to have something resting on his .
Aiden shrugged. "Alright," he settled, "but if you change your mind, you know where the button is." He left the piloting room, likely to speak to Diaz more, leaving Trite to fly. While he could hear them start to banter relatively clearly, he chose not to eavesdrop- mostly because it was the same stuff he'd heard when first getting on the shuttle himself.
Atmospheric exit was relatively calm. There was traffic, sure, but the planet had solar guidance systems in place, so it was easy to request a clean lane to the hyper-driver. Relatively calmly and quickly, Trite followed the lane and flew the shuttle to the mass hyper-driver, handled the basic communications to get on board, and had the shuttle flung to the next system. From there, it was a quick and calm atmospheric entry to the next planet, where Varis would apparently board. The sheer effectiveness of the shuttle's shields was astonishing to Trite. Atmospheres this thick often begin to induce friction burns to even most thermally resistant materials, but the shields held strong, with 60% left in their projection strength even after landing.
Right after landing, though, Trite actually noticed that Varis was already at the shuttle's exit and ready to board. Trite opened the door, and was immediately curious to listen in.
"Hey, Varis!" Aiden exclaimed, seeming just as excited as when he got to Trite.
"Hey, Aiden," Varis returned, with much less excitement. "Who is this?"
Diaz's turn. "I'm Diaz Apellen. You're the bio-tech girl, I'm the techy-tech guy."
"Ah. Cool," Varis awkwardly got out. She sounded relatively anxious, which was reasonable- if anything, Trite and Diaz were weirdos for being as confident in themselves when they were probably about to brush past death every day for the rest of their relatively short lives.
"So, same deal as I just told Diaz here- We're going to take you to a training facility of ours, run you through one last test, and then do all the paperwork to get you guys hired," Aiden explained. I'll give you the rundown in a moment, but I'm going to start us heading to the next destination first.
Aiden once more popped his head through the piloting door, and handed Trite a punch card- this time wordlessly. Trite punched the card in, and immediately started moving- he hadn't even had time to disengage the shield systems.
Sensing once more that the boring speech about NDAs, liability, and waivers was about to wash over the ship, Trite chose to mostly zone out and focus on driving. This drive was even faster- while there was more traffic on this planet, the next destination was actually on the same planet, so it was a rather short trip. It was unclear if next would be Shtelle or Fili- Trite had heard their names already, but hadn't seen them at all. He briefly considered placing a 'bet' on it- not for any real purpose, just for fun- but before he could decide which name sounded more like it would appear in the region, he had already reached the destination.
Trite opened the door for Aiden once more, but to keep himself from being too antsy in the seat, he chose to leave it open and wander into the main room himself. When he slid the pilot door open, Aiden had already left- but Diaz and Varis remained. Now that he could see them clearly, it was much easier to start associating the names with faces.
Diaz was a Lashunta. He had no hair, instead having various antennae where they belonged. Reportedly, Lashunta used to have only two antennae universally, before Damain Lashunta incidentally (somehow) appeared with their many antennae and hightened intelligence. Fittingly, Diaz had several barely visible implants, mostly noticable because of the scar tissue above them.

I think it was some kind of lab experiment.
I don't... do a whole lot of this 'thinking' thing, but the Lashunta aren't exactly super secretive about being really nosy. Not as aggressively so as kobolds, but certainly more than most humans.
Somewhere buried in my nebulous mind, I remember-
I've spoken to a few Lashunta in my time. One of them, I was particularly... close with.
He told me- was it a he?-
They told me stories about some lab somewhere. A lab in a place that didn't exist.
They never actually went inside, but they found it while being nosy about some disturbances in some nebula somewhere. Apparently a particular black hole was of interest, and there was a lab nearby.
...Why were they even near something so dangerous? Black holes... they're...
...The Lashunta are very nosy.

On the other hand, Varis was clearly human. While humans had generally taken galactic dominance as a species for eons now due to their hightened reproduction rate and advancements in science, they were still differentiable by their many styles. She, in particular, was wearing a filtering mask; this was relatively uncommon for humans, only generally seen when they are "autoimmune" or otherwise vulnerable to the elements. Hers had various symbols attached with stickers.
"Oh, hey," Diaz began. "Are you Trite?"
Varis appeared confused. "How would you know that..?"
Diaz explained, "I heard his name when Aiden was talking to him before we picked you up. I also read up on the other possible recruits."
"Oh." Varis seemed vaguely uncomfortable with the idea, but Diaz didn't seem to pick up on it.
After a mildly awkward silence, Trite finally spoke. "Heya."
"Do you have a mouth? Where's the sound coming from?" Diaz immediately asked.
Trite was a bit offset. He'd gotten the question before, but usually in a more, aggressive, fashion.
Varis shot Diaz some looks, but Trite responded without issue, "It's, the metal piece. We call it a signet."
Diaz pried further, "So it just vibrates really fast or what?"
Varis seemed almost disappointed in Diaz at this point, going off human gestures.
Trite asserted, "Yeah, actually." He didn't have more to say about it, so he continued, "Nice to meet you two and all, but I should prob'ly go back-"
He interrupted himself, seeing Aiden now returning with a third new hire. An android, interestingly, but that didn't tell him whether it was Shtelle or Fili.
Aiden, however, would definitely be enough. He joyfully walked up and greeted, "Hi guys! Trite, I see you're out of the chair- Everyone, meet Fili!"
Trite didn't want to admit it to himself, but he had secretly been betting on the android being named Shtelle. It just sounded like an android...y... name. Not because androids had any kind of naming scheme, but because 'Shtelle' was basically 'Steel' with an extra letter or two and a bit of rearrangement.
"Fili," Aiden introduced, "meet Trite, Diaz, and Varis. I'm sure you knew which one was which, but it's still fun to introduce them."
"Indeed!" Fili chirped. They- Or, it? It seemed rather excited as well. As Aiden and Fili boarded the ship, Trite chose to quickly escape to the pilot's cabin to avoid even more introductory speeches. Aiden briefly signaled for him to stop, and handed him another destination punch card, which Trite welcomed.
One more recruit needed picked up, and then it was time to be put to the test.

PROLOGUE // PART FOUR

Via

Shtelle

The humans' technologies have always been rather interesting.
Vessels of the same materials comprising a lanius's surfaces, and organs. Animated with sparks.
Tools of the mind, animating that which is mindless.
It was as horrifying to Shtelle as it was grand. Many of these machinations were capable, with only mild alteration, of incredible harm. Their magics incredibly so.
So, of course, Shtelle was rather uncomfortable standing in a frail vessel of dead flesh.
It was nothing new. Dead flesh technologies were far more popular than the lanius's own, limited technologies from before the humans arrived. At that time, Shtelle wasn't alive, or even going to be alive, for hundreds of years. But it was still... weird, to them.
They'd boarded a human vessel. A transit shuttle, apparently common on other worlds- even nonhuman, as long as they're part of the jointworks. While Shtelle wasn't personally used to them, they'd heard plenty of these shuttles. Jointworks had hired them for a job, which was an extraordinary opportunity to learn more about human culture. They were hesitant- humans were often participant of magics- but, there was only one such sorcerer to cowork with. The android, Fili, who- thanks to Shtelle's requests- they had already met. Shtelle and Fili didn't necessarily 'get along'- but, they, had an exchange, and decided to not get involved with the others' choices regarding the arcane.
Shtelle much happier to step out of the shuttle than they were ruminating on its origins, or the magics within. It had finally arrived at the training site, with a completely assembled team.
"Now," Aiden excitedly explained, "we finally get to the fun part! As I'm sure any of you who actually read my emails will know, there's one last thing to do before we can get you out there on a cruiser, and that's a test of real teamwork."
Some of the soon-to-be trainees looked nervously at each other. We all, theoretically, knew what he'd say next- but it was still reasonably intimidating knowing what happened next.
"You're going to have defuse my bomb before you get to have anyone else's," Aiden smugly stated.
Diaz quipped, "Well I'm sure that'll be easy. We can just drag you with us and-"
Aiden immediately bolted off without another word. Diaz, of course, panicked- "Wait, hey, no, I didn't mean for-"
Trite then spoke up, saying "Ya prob'ly should've grabbed him before sayin' that."
Diaz squinted at Trite. After a brief moment, he questioned, "Where the hell did that accent come from?? Did you always sound like? That?"
A moment of silence followed as Trite thought to himself, but before anyone could add to it, Varis and Diaz suddenly covered their ears. Trite's flames suddenly grew more erratic, as well.
While Shtelle didn't hear much of anything, they knew that they had a relatively poor sense for high pitches- so it was no surprise when the loudspeaker came on, probably having been extremely loud in doing so.
"Uh, hello? Oh, wow, that's, loud. Um, one seco-" An unfamiliar voice- not Aiden's, or any Shtelle recognized- came through the loudspeaker and was extremely loud. Trite's flames had calmed down, but Diaz and Varis were both shouting obsceneties and covering their ears still.
The loudspeaker turned on again, and the same voice spoke- now at a much better volume- "Okay, this should be better? Good, okay, good. SO!"
Varis and Diaz stopped covering their ears and started listening again. Diaz in particular was in a weird, hard-to-describe pose. The shuttle began leaving behind us, causing Varis and Diaz to briefly cover their ears again in response to the loud engines. Trite (somehow) looked disappointedly at the shuttle.
As the shuttle left, the voice continued, "You want the job, right? Maybe, uh, maybe it's money, or fame, or maybe it's honor, or just to protect people. But that's not, my, problem."
Once more, Varis and Diaz- slowly uncovered their ears, visibly annoyed. Their faces changed to confusion, listening to this.
"What is currently my problem", the voice kept rattling through the dead metal walls, "is, um, getting you NOT hired. I'm your antagonizer today."
Diaz squinted at the part of the wall the voice was coming from, seemingly taking this as a threat.
"Alright," he spoke up, "let's fucking go then."
"Ah- no, no, no, we won't be doing any, direct, combat. See, what I'm going to do, is this:"
A well-concealed door opened nearby. On the other end were several countdown timers, attached to strange devices with wires. Test bombs. Shtelle- and presumably the other trainees- were all too familiar with these.
"If ONE of my babies goes off," the voice excitedly taunted, "you LOSE! And, uh, also have this."
As the countdown timers began ticking, our defusal suits were thrown at us from somewhere. We couldn't even see the source clearly.
Fili spoke, "It is just like before! Let us put on our equipment and begin the process!"
Diaz caught on immediately and ran to a suit, while Trite and Varis took a second, seeming to question what was going on. Shtelle casually began to approach and equip a defusal suit.
Shtelle was familiar with the suits at this point, as they had to wear one when doing the first defusal tests. They are bulky, though not as bulky as they reportedly have been in the past, and it was apparently normal for trainees to "handicap" themselves in this way in preparation for wearing the same suit in a situation that mattered. For Shtelle, it made no difference- While lanius were rather slow and had a limited metabolism compared to humans, they were incredibly durable and could survive almost any environment so long as they had time to rest between exposure periods. An explosion was perfectly fitted to their natural skills, so the suit was not so necessary.
Shtelle put it on anyways. It felt nice having something weigh down on them.
The others seemed to be having a harder time, but Shtelle decided to 'take point' as they were ahead. They coordinated, "I will survey for other devices that we can't see. Diaz, Fili, start defusing the ones you can. Trite, Varis, come with me in case there's hazards along the path to clear."
Diaz, Varis and Trite seemed almost disoriented hearing Shtelle start talking so much, but Shtelle ignored them and got moving. Fili, now donning the defusal suit, wordlessly moved to begin defusing bombs- in the meantime, Varis and Trite rushed to get into their suits and followed Shtelle, who was already walking into the corridor.

...These look significantly different than even the defusal training 'bombs' did, compared to real explosives.
Can they even be called dummy bombs?
They look more like what a toddler would doodle when asked about what the inside of a computer looks like.
Crude, with wires sticking out anywhere they please. No clear source of danger. No clear source of power, either. At least some of them look normal...
I'm tempted to call it out. Say something. But I don't know how to speak it in their language.
Not their literal language- everyone knows Common nowadays-
It's more about the nonliteral, with them. Subtle meanings. I can't convey them efficiently enough.
...I have something to focus on. I don't have time for these thoughts.

Lanius did not run. Not out of inability, but more so out of culture. Running was generally considered a rather hostile action- it was loud, abrasive, felt bad, and indicated fear. So they walked, allbeit at a fast pace.
The two following behind Shtelle seemed rather impatient about the not-quite-running, but not to a critical extent- they were taking their time being cautious, too. Most likely due to the traps set in previous training, the fake ambushes- it was always so hard to balance time spent with risks taken.
As the three half-ran, they passed several more fake explosives. Trite was counting all of them, as the halls twisted and turned and split and rejoined. Several times, Varis and Trite would split off, but they would return relatively quickly- there was a general direction, it seemed, which the halls would converge towards and twist around. By the time they had explored every branch, they had seen 15.
There were no traps. No hazards. Something felt off- in every training simulation so far, there were fake hazards to trip them up, but not this time. Why?
Varis, now exhausted from running, barely got out "I... I counted everything, and the lowest bomb is... gonna blow soon. I'm gonna... go get it, it's over there, I just..."
Varis pointed a direction, and Shtelle immediately ran towards it. No time to wait for Varis to recover, they thought.
Still exasperated, Varis continued, "You know... that's, fair, honestly, I think that's... for the better," as she pulled something from a pocket under her suit somewhere.
By the time Varis had managed to use it, Shtelle was already off to find- Ah, yes, that's the one, it must be.
A device with a countdown, 24 seconds.
23.
22.
Shtelle was looking it over. 21. Once. 20. Twice. 19.
18.
This thing made no sense. 17. Wires were sprawling everywhere. 16.
Shtelle was never all that confident in their own ability with human technology. 15. They avoided it for various reasons, so they weren't always the most practiced. 14.
Varis ran over with a strength that shocked Shtelle. 13. The item Varis used must have been some kind of booster- which wasn't surprising, but it caught Shtelle unaware. 12.
Varis exclaimed profanities as the bomb's timer ticked. 11. 10.
Shtelle couldn't make anything of it. 9. Varis was panicking over every detail. 8.
...Well, theoretically, there was an idea available.
7. ...Sure, Shtelle thought. 6. This can't go wrong. 5.
Knowing full well that they didn't have time to really disable the device, Shtelle tore it off the wall. It gave way easily. 4.
The metal and wires clatter to the floor. 3. The countdown just kept going.
Shtelle huddled around the device, covering as much of it as they could with their body. 2. In recognition of this, Varis barely had time to react- but still jumped away. 1 second left.
At the last moment, Shtelle fried their right arm from the huddle, and drove it into the device with as much force as they could.
The ugly sound of metal scraping against metal rang proudly throughout the halls.
...
Beeping continued, but not from within Shtelle's sudden embrace. Shtelle, catiously, began to stand.
A smoke rose from beneath them, tinting the air with inconsistent dark spots, as Shtelle glanced down.

00:00.56

...That makes 14 left.
Shtelle returns to their work, defying the parts of their mind too slow to catch up. No time to dwell on that decision yet.
Varis, meanwhile, seems to be doing plenty of dwelling, and is recoiling from what just happened.
Suddenly, snapping Varis out of it, both their comm units animated a voice; "Hey, Trite, Shtelle, Varis, you guys okay?"
It took a moment, but Shtelle was able to identify it as Diaz's voice.
"Yeah, narrowly," Varis affirmed. Her breath was surprisingly stable for having been through such effort followed by a shock. "Shtelle took care of one of them."
"Cool, cool. So Shtelle's winning among the three of you I imagine. Well, Fili's got me beat at 3, so we've gotten a good 5 down in total here. How many did you count total?"
Varis seemed upset at Diaz's lighthearted attitude, and prepared to argue with him. Shtelle decided to stop focusing on the discussion and instead direct their attention to the next-most nearby device.
This device had a much longer-lasting timer at 02:79. Shtelle took a moment to truly analyze the device.
"So what, this is a game to you now? Is Fili in on this or is it another victim?"
The device was made with what appeared to be scrapped together junk. It had a visible gyrometer, accelerometer- a metronome was attached to what appeared to be the timer unit with its own connection to the fake explosives.
"Hey, I'll have you know-" Metal crashing into metal rang out in the background. "-Fili is a willing 'victim', and-" Diaz audibly snipped a wire. Presumably. It sounded like it. "-understands the concepts of game-ification stuff."
It's a good thing, thinking back, that the last device didn't have any of those devices. It's less good that Shtelle can't help but listen in on the comms unit. It is still stuck to their shoulder, but reaching up and fiddling with it would be a lot of effort.
"Right. And why are you turning this into a game?! This is a professional interview- probably, anyways- and it's also a BOMB DEFUSAL SIMULATION???" Varis screamed loudly, enough that Shtelle couldn't ignore it. Her voice coming from both the comms unit and her actual mouth was too dissonant. While yelling, Varis also loudly stomped her way to the next bomb, adding even more to the distractions.
Nonetheless, Shtelle identified a weakness. While there were plenty of indicators on the machine, all the powered components linked to a single battery without a dead man's switch. Shtelle, in response, immediately punched the bundle of wires extending from the battery.
The timer lost power, but given that nothing rang out over the comms system, it was a reasonable assumption that the bomb was defused. Between Diaz claiming 5 other bombs had been defused already, that made 7 confirmable defusals, and most timers Shtelle could see were above 5 minutes left. They had plenty of time compared to usual, and there had been no traps or even fake civilians to evacuate.
"And you know what? Now I'm at 4. How many are you at? We agreed you guys get plus 2 each because you were running to the other end, but I bet you're still behind even with that. Shouldn't you want to get to defusals, Varis?" Shtelle didn't really care for what was happening, but Diaz's taunting tone was rather distracting. Before moving to another device, they took the time to reach up and feel around the comms unit. The buttons all felt the same to them, but they'd gone out of their way to memorize which was the off-switch after being told the first time. They didn't want to ask again, and they were right to imagine the other trainees would be...
Loud. Loud is the right word. Loud and obnoxious.
*click* At least it'll be a bit quieter now.
Shtelle intentionally chose a device down the hall, only to meet Trite picking at another device nearby.
While a human might find the silence awkward in the circumstances, Shtelle was not only undisturbed- they were grateful for Trite's relatively untalkative nature.
Within the silence, Shtelle took the opportunity to focus on the device. It was nothing like the last one. Its boxy, sleek-looking shell looked formidable and properly fashioned- nothing they couldn't break, but these components were rather delicate at times.
Unlike the other devices, there wasn't a timer on this one, or really almost anything except a standard CDB port on the side. No labels, doors, peripherals, lights- a metallic box and a single exposed port. The rest was a mystery.
Did we count this one? It doesn't look like the others, Shtelle questioned to themself. But, they didn't linger on it long, instead focusing on disarming it safely. They knew exactly two people with the technology to use ports like this- Both of them were rendered unavailable by the silence Shtelle was enjoying.
...It's more important to get the job done than to get it done easily, they decided.
They reached up to their shoulder again, found the button, and...
*click*
"OH MY GOD CAN YOU SHUT THE"*click*
Nevermind.

PROLOGUE // CLIMAX

Via Trainee Varis

The biting cold inside the training sector was really getting to Varis. The air had been surprisingly brisk and breezy. There must have been some hidden airflow units, air conditioning, something. It was getting to her through the suit.
She'd already used two of her boosters. Despite the increase in metabolism that normally comes with, overheating her quickly in room temperature- especially while wearing the bulky, mostly-insulating defusal suits- it was still really cold.
Varis was only noticing this now that she'd finally stopped talking to Diaz, who was teasing her relentlessly just moments ago. Diaz hadn't given up, but at this point Varis was completely tuning him out.
Focusing on the task at hand was more important.
At this point, Fili had caught up to her. Trite and Shtelle were still further ahead, likely to be done with their section soon- Over the comm units, all five of them had discussed, and they believed they were collectively working on the last three devices remaining. Shtelle had elected to completely disengage in conversation, but Trite reportedly spoke for it.
Fili was analyzing a strange device stuck to the wall in front of it and Varis.
Out of nowhere, as Varis had followed a wire back, Fili busrt out, "I've got it! The solution to this device is as follows!"
Suddenly, it pointed at the device- and a strange aura Varis could only describe as horrifying emenated in a cone from its extermities.
Fili then spoke again, "Please supply me with any cognition boosters you have! This will dramatically aid the process."
"...I don't, have any of those," Varis tentatively replied. "I don't really know how to make any.."
"That is okay!" Fili assured.
Suddenly, the device was twisted aggressively, and its timer stopped. Varis wasn't all too familiar with the magic Fili used, but it wasn't a concern right now how exactly that happened- There were still two more devices.

Well, okay, that's a little bit of a lie. I actually am relatively familiar with the magic I saw there.
Witchwarping.
It's an ancient practice- around as long as electricity, realistically. The thing I wasn't familiar with was it being able to witchwarp.
It's not theoretically impossible for a robot to witchwarp. But it's extra difficult for them. SROs are generally less emotional than humans. For better or worse.
(Usually worse.)
And humans can only barely ever witchwarp. It takes an immense amount of willpower, emotion, or arcane build-up. You need at least something to be able to offset yourself from the world around you- the stronger the better.
For robots, who generally lack the nervous structure to collect arcane energy, and bear less emotion to cast with- They can still be excellent friends, employees, laborers, artists- but almost never witchwarpers.
And Fili... what she- er, what it was doing was so violent, so powerful. It's the kind of thing you can't really accomplish with a robotic organism. And it was like that when Fili was fixated on just one thing to warp- it was clearly controlled, not let loose. It has to be emotional, yet trained.
So what the hell did it go through... to be that vibrantly affected..?

As Varis turned around to speak, however, Fili grabbed her arm. The grip was sudden, cold, and firm- In any other circumstance, Varis would've assumed it was someone intending to get violent.
"What are you doing? We've gotta go, Fili!" Varis urgently probed.
Fili didn't speak, and seemed much less animated than usual. Instead, they turned their face towards Varis. Instead of a cheerful projection like usual, a screen was poking where its cheek normally belonged-
DON'T MOVE. DON'T SPEAK.
What?
Varis didn't even know Fili had screens hiding behind their synthetic facial components.
But, before Varis could speak up, she heard something.
*click*
The screen changed text.
A TRAP LINGERS OVER US.
I WILL CONTACT DIAZ.
DO NOT MOVE; OUR POSITION IS DETECTED.
*click*
What the hell is that clicking? Varis pondered.
It wasn't there when we got here. When did it start? Did I not notice it? Fuck.
"We're really bringing a gun to a knife fight with this one, eh?"
Despite having a screen sticking out of part of its cheek, Fili still had enough facial structure to make a confused glance towards the strange voice.
"Shut up and place the damn charge."
"Yeah, alright. Couldn't I just throw it in on a 5 second fuse though?"
*click*
"Hell no. You wanna die?"
"Yeesh. It's really that much, we need a whole sixty seconds to get that far out?"
What the HELL?! Is this part of the test? Are they trying to freak me- us- out? BECAUSE IT'S WORKING??? Is this meant to show environments changing or some bullshit? Where even is the trap? I can't even hear the voices clearly through these stupid walls!
The screen updated again.
DIAZ SAYS RUN IS OVER.
AIDEN SAYS NO TRAPS.
GUARDS ON THE WAY.
Is this a real threat after all?
Varis's thoughts began to spiral. She was grateful she'd applied boosters already- they were helping her keep her thoughts and movements focused, or in this case, still. Under this much pressure, she'd ordinarily be antsy at minimum.
What are we supposed to do?! We can't just stand here if there's- *click*
"Okay, whatever. It's set. Let's get the hell out of here."
*click*
*hissss*
Is that...what is that hissing?! And...
A gas, almost invisible, began seeping through near-invisible overhead vents. Varis was trained to spot these things through small distortions in the air- Fili didn't seem to notice it, but it did start speaking normally again, as the screen retracted into its cheek.
"Our position is no longer being monitored," Fili urgently conveyed. "But we are still likely in danger."
Yes, very, 'in danger', !!! The gas at this point was approaching Varis's ankles- She dragged Fili by the arm out of the room, running down the hall, before realizing the gas was still coming from the vents farther away.
"Shit." Varis didn't even consciously think to say it like usual- it just slipped out.
Okay, okay, okay, I have a moment. I'm thinking fast. Everything is slow. I have time. No need to panic. Focus.
Someone, outside. Whoever it is? No idea. The voices weren't familiar. Two voices, both new. Fili didn't seem to recognize them... but I'm not sure what exactly it'd do if it did, so I'm not sure I can gauge that. I guess it probably would've said something though, right? Unlike me, it had a wide window to communicate.
So, unfamiliar, likely hostile, definitely unintentional 'visitors'. I don't really know what word to call them? I guess intruders.
...This could also be a really fucked up training exercise.
The gas... it's likely not to be a contact effect- most airbone, direct-harm chemicals are things Fili would be able to see clearly with its sensors. I don't know much about Fili, but I do know at least that after whatever it went through, it wanted some 'anti terrorist' sensor systems, and that's one of them.
My skin does feel... mildly irritated by it, but it's just a weird texture. Nothing super bad yet, but definitely something to check out after...
That means... if I hold my breath, cover my mouth and ears and close my eyes, it should be fine. Or fucking Diaz gets here, I guess.
I don't really want to rely on Diaz, though, so...
Having burnt through plenty of brainpower- and only about 15 seconds- Varis began to take off her suit. It was in her way if she wanted to get to her personal equipment, and this was probably not part of a training exercise.
Strangely, Fili began to remove its suit, too. Seeing Varis making confused glances its way as she removed her own suit, it spoke up.
"I have realized you are removing the suit so as to move efficiently in a crisis, and am following.. well, suit!"
...It can make jokes in this kind of... Whatever-!
Varis got briefly distracted, but focused more on the ever approaching gas. Having at this point removed her suit, she quickly rummaged around her personal bag.
She kept a small kit of various supplies on her person. It was stuffed under her shirt like she was smuggling a gun everywhere because, at some level, she was definitely smuggling weapons everywhere. Some of the things she had could easily kill an average person in seconds without being traceable, but only if you knew how to use them.
Varis, despite temptation, has never used these tools for intentional harm outside a laboratory.
...None of her usual supplies are what she's rummaging around for, though.
Varis pulled out a scarf. She covered her ears, nose and mouth twice over, wrapping it around her head and tying it up on the right side.
"There's some kind of gas seeping through the walls," Varis explained. Her voice sounded a lot less sharp through the scarf.
"I am unable to see it," Fili stated plainly. Yes, I knew that. Fili continued, "Have you already identified it?"
Varis, glancing to the side as if embarrased, muttered out "No," at a volume just loud enough that Fili could likely hear it.
She couldn't tell if Fili was judging her skill, trying to make her feel embarrased, or what else it was, but she felt a pressure coming from Fili for her to have identified it.
The gas was getting close to being a danger. It was up to Varis's chest, she guessed, just off the vague texture.
In the long distance, callouts could be heard, but she wasn't sure what for. Either way, she had no time to wait. She already had boosters injected, so she'd have plenty of airtime- a few minutes, in theory. So all she could do now was...
Varis took a deep breath, slow and careful to avoid traces of the gas-
And began holding her breath.
Varis got straight to running.
The hallways, despite being the same, still felt like an unbearable series of twists and turns. Linear, yes, but difficult to navigate quickly while conserving stamina.
It took her, by her best guess, at least a full minute to get through these plain halls. She tried to keep focus how she usually did- Focus on her senses, extend them outwards- It was harder when she was suppressing two of her most helpful senses, and her eyes...
It didn't even occur to me, she realized, to wonder if I should be closing my eyes too. These kinds of things can burn your eyes out... But I can't get around these damned hallways without them..!
Just as Varis was realizing this, she began to ironically feel a sting in her eyes. She looked around with what little time she believed her eyes had left to function- saw Fili, catching up- And with one more desperate corner turn, saw Diaz running towards her, and a few official-seeming people running with him.
Varis bolted for Diaz. At this point, she knew it'd been over a minute and a half- maybe longer- and she was starting to run out of energy. As she finally got to people she knew would bring her to safety, as begrudging as she was sure she would be about it later- she was grateful, at least, that she would survive this exhaustion. Her eyes, on the other hand, had started to hurt in a way she had never known possible.
From the sheer pain of it all, the loss of air in her lungs, the stress of the situation- Varis bordered unconsciousness. And yet...
She felt a mask placed on her head. She realized it was probably something Diaz and the guards were wearing too, but she couldn't tell. She was, if nothing else safe- though her eyes were in violent pain no less.
She was barely able to focus, but she saw the others with Diaz run towards the gas- they seemed well enough armed to handle it. Fancy suits of some kind- Varis could barely tell what color with the tears in her eyes, but they seemed yellowish. Fili was now hovering over her.
...Then, she realized she could breathe again.
Varis got straight to hacking and coughing as her lungs quickly refilled, shortly followed by screams of pain. Her eyes were burning, and it became even worse as her focus returned- she almost wished she didn't realize she could breathe again.
She began to hear the voices of her friends who had, at this point, carried her just outside the training facility, into a shuttle that seemed safe. They'd taken off their masks to speak, and had begun to take hers off as well.
"God fucking damnit," Diaz started, "her eyes are fucked. Got any fancy gizmos for this, gadget-bot?"
After a brief flash of confusion, Fili answered, "No, unfortunately not. I am unable to even see the gas clearly. We need an eye wash; Is there a water source nearby?"
"Eh, fuck it," Diaz blurted out, before pulling out some kind of... wait-
With her mask removed, Varis's reddened and horrible eyes were doused in bottled water. Varis knew from training that this was broadly considered a mediocre-at-best idea, but... It was probably the only option they had. It hurt like hell...
But, the water hurt less than the gas. It took Varis almost no time to realize that, as her uncontrollable screeches and screams of agony began to recline.
And yet, despite this, despite being 'fine' for the immediate moment-
Varis passed out.

PROLOGUE // AFTERMATH

Via Trainee Fili

Varis had been injured severely.
A corrosive, hidden gas had affected her eyes.
It was an unfortunate circumstance. Fortunately, the solution was obvious; her eyes needed cleaning, and she would otherwise be in full condition, allbeit exhausted.
Diaz had to use unsanitized water for this task. This is generally considered a very bad idea, but at the time, there were no other options within reason. We later took Varis to a proper eye wash in a nearby laboratory, and everyone was systematically cleansed and purified.
There were explosives rigged to the walls and toxic gas was spilled into the vents, reportedly with express intent to harm the trainees. The assailants had apparently been successfully captured, but not before- after everyone was evacuated- an explosive was set off, and the training facility was levelled.
Varis was rather upset and got borderline heated, once her boosters wore off. It was a significant discovery that she displayed a decreased level of aggression when her boosters were active; they had at this point worn off.
"What the FUCK was the security on that?!" Varis complained.
"I'm sorry, Varis. We'll compensate you for double the legal rate, of course- And we're still figuring out what happened, and we'll-" Aiden looked... almost, afraid. The look on his face wasn't pleasant.
"I WOULD'VE DIED." Varis was incredibly heated. Fili was tempted to intervene- It had gone through training modules on de-escalation, and this fit the bill. But it chose otherwise; it was already mentally exhausted from the stressful invasion.
"I know. I know. But screaming isn't going to-" Once more, Aiden was interrupted trying to simmer down the conversation.
"IN A TRAINING EXERCISE!!!!" Varis's anger was moderately surprising- to even get this job, signing a waiver and accepting the possibility of death as an almost-certain inevitability was a mandatory step.
Varis stormed off. There was a generally negative mood; Fili couldn't really sort it out, and didn't care to.
Instead, Fili focused on reorienting.
...A waiting room. Dim lighting, turned down when Trite walked in so the room wouldn't be too bright.
Fili was sat down, but almost forgot this as focus drifted to the conversation between Varis and Aiden.
Trite was hiding in the corner. He seemed uncomfortable, but it was hard for eyes not to drift to him occasionally- A flickering source of light in an otherwise very inconsistently lit room, poor color design.
Varis... wasn't present anymore.
Shtelle was standing at the door. Probably security training instincts kicking in.
Diaz was sitting on one of the simple metal chairs in the room, positioned awkwardly. He was being patient to an unusual degree- it seems he picked up on Varis's anger with Aiden and chose not to intervene.
...Fili was in a similar place, but was sitting in a way humans usually do, instead of draping limbs in complex arrangements probably unique to Diaz.
After a moment of stuffy silence, Aiden spoke once more. "Okay. Sorry, again, about all that, everyone. Any other questions, anyone else want to storm out, or can we get to debriefing?"
Nobody spoke. The only movements were from breaths, and from Trite's flickering.
The environment felt empty without a bit from Diaz, or screaming from Varis, or shuffles from Shtelle. Fili did not care.
"Good. One at a time, starting with Fili, we're going to take you back to the other room, ask some questions, give some answers. Ready, Fili?"
Wordlessly, Fili stood up and nodded.
Aiden, acknowledging Fili, began moving to a door cloaked almost ominously in a dark corner of the room. Even Trite's light wouldn't reach it.
As Aiden opened the door, strangely, that darkness almost felt that it bled into the light of the waiting room. Nonetheless, Aiden stepped in, and Fili followed into the darkness.
And thus began the complicated story of the soon-to-be Travellers.
Inside the room, Fili lost track of Aiden quickly. In fact, they couldn't really see anything- there wasn't any light except the door, which closed on its own fairly quickly. It made a loud slam as it did so, but there was almost no echo in the room.
From somewhere- Fili couldn't tell where- Aiden spoke once more.
"You already understand what happened here at some level, I'm sure. You were there when it happened- that makes your testimony all the more important."
The usual cadence, excitedness, tone of Aiden's voice- they were gone.
"Before I tell you what we know, you'll have to tell me what you know. From the top."
...Fili, after a brief pause, gave a flat retelling of what they experienced. Aiden withheld his questions until Fili was finished.
"So, you weren't able to see at all."
"No," Fili confirmed. "What gas was it?"
"Oxygen diflouride. You couldn't have picked it up- our own sensors couldn't have. It's nothing special, but it's been a long time since we used it in any of our technology."
Fili paused, and tried to call to an API once saved for the sake of research that should have a knowledge base about these kinds of unsafe gases.
Strangely, Fili's networking modules couldn't even reach the net.
After a brief pause trying again and again to reach out, Aiden articulated, "You won't reach the net until we're out of this room. Sorry about that. There's security to be concerned about here."
"I see." Fili wasn't upset or even all that surprised, and moved on quickly, leaving an internal note to return to oxygen diflouride in future research.
Aiden continued to probe Fili. "Your mystical capacities. Why not apply them? You could've cut a hole in the walls for the gas to leave through."
"It was considered," Fili answered honestly. It was, in fact, considered- "but, there were decent odds the gas had already built up more severely outside, and I would've been unable to know. We weren't even informed of the structure we were visiting. Such assumptions-"
"Enough," Aiden interrupted. "That's, enough."
A moment of silence took the air before a voice rang out again. This time, it was different, and relatively unfamiliar.
"So, Fili. To put it simply-"
The voice cut out with a sharp pop coming from above.
Suddenly, the unrelenting darkness of the room plummetted into the floor, which was now clear to see. A clean, metal floor with sleek and unadorned walls. The ceiling was less simple; It had strange filter-looking devices on the edges, glowing brightly with heat, that appeared to be the source of the freshly removed darkness. A small part of the wall opposite the entry door began to slide down, revealing another room on the other side.
The other room seemed to have strange equipment, but also had a similar kind of darkness to it. Not as full, but certainly present. Emerging from that darkness was Aiden and what Fili could only assume was the face behind the voice-
Admiral Soklomof.
Aiden ran up next to him, complaining "You can't just lower the veil like that in the middle of a debrief! I'm doing process here-"
The Admiral interrupted Aiden with an impressive, clearly faked confidence. "Fili."
Aiden quickly stopped talking, though he still appeared upset. The admiral continued.
"I'd like to have you properly re-armed. Your consumer-grade technology is nothing to scoff at, but military equipment is capable of far more- and could've detected something like, ah..." The Admiral pulled a paper from a table in the other room, reading from it. "Arcanically enhanced oxygen flouride."
"Look. I know Aiden won't be all too happy about this, but... There's no point in debriefing anyone but our guards. Process be damned- this was a failure of ours, not yours."
Aiden seemed thoroughly upset, though had gone back to being half-playful as usual despite that.
"So, rather than put you under veil and terrorize you with questions, I'd like you to come with me to the waiting room- and through one more shuttle- to finally arm each and every one of you with some real firepower."
"And in case it's not clear,"
"You're hired."

Damage Control Report 679162A

Written SD 679165
Regarding the training exercise on SD 679162..:
The training facility had been left with an intentional skeleton crew. According to Secretary Aiden, this was for "the good of the trainees and the effectiveness of the training exercise." There were no non-trainee creatures, friend or foe, inside the building.
The 2 suspects are members of the known group of interest (the) "Cult of the Aperture", self-designated as the "Aperture Devotees".
The suspects were both armed with explosive ordinance, toxic airborne vectors of attack, advanced drones and illegal programs.
The suspects entered through a gap in patrol routines and were undetected as security was left unfilled.
Once within the perimeter, the suspects deployed their explosives and began filling the facility with a gas toxic both to prolonged skin contact and to almost any eye or lung exposure. The explosives were set for an unknown duration, estimated to be a 5 minute fuse based on the time between first reported discovery and recorded explosion thereof. No attempt was made to disarm the explosives as all valuable assets were quickly evacuated.
The station patrol has been debriefed and given updated patrol parameters. Additionally, the facility will be reconstructed and maintain a minimum baseline of staff to ensure this cannot happen again- though due to the nature of the attack, it likely will not.
Admiral Soklomof has insisted that the new response team be re-armed with military equipment. This request has been acknowledged and accepted by def not the o5 council lol.
The group of interest "Cult of the Aperture" will be investigated further for this activity. With any luck, the response team may well be an attracting force for this group, and enable new strategic actions.

END OF FILE