meadowlarklogs | [ open event log ]

[ open event log ]

WHO: all displaced heading to the pyramid during the outage
WHERE: the pyramid outside of new amsterdam
WHEN: evening of nov 11 onwards
WHAT: the displaced work to bring the power back online for the atmospheric controls
NOTES OR WARNINGS: please list your warnings in your subject lines. this whole log has warning for semi-graphic discussions of death

ESCAPE THE CITY

Late in the afternoon, the efforts of the Displaced to loot flying cars from the rich make it possible for those interested in making their way up to the pyramid to hitch a ride skyward. On the way out of the city, it's possible that cars have a hard time making it past border patrol, but in the chaos following the EMP and with their staggered departures/speeds, they might just as easily break through without issue. Feel free to write a car chase, but don't feel obligated!

ARRIVAL (HAUL THE BODIES)

As they approach the pyramid itself, the details come into view. The outside of the pyramid is metallic polymer that makes it somewhat reflective from a distance, but not so much that anyone's eyesight will be challenged as they fly in. Up close, they'll be able to see the intricate structure of the pyramid, clearly designed as layers upon layers before the engine at the top.

The interior of the pyramid is colored by purple emergency lighting and smells like a charnel house. The small handful of engineers are all dead. The heat, combined with the dead bodies in the heart of the place, has made things messy. Anyone who's concerned with that may want to get rid of the dead, most of whom are up near the top. In Meadowlark's world, most bodies are taken care of via compost, but it's not like there's a composting system on this pyramid. They may just want to carefully haul them out and leave them somewhere for the time being.

Note: occasionally it's possible that Vyonation or Pulsar will send someone via NAPD escort up to the pyramid to help, but they'll assume everyone up here is also permitted to be here, and they'll thus be ready to collaborate! It's possible they don't run into anyone, or it's possible they get some necessary assistance from altruistic middle-management who have no connection to the people in charge of these companies.

CLIMB THE PYRAMID (JUMPSTART THE LIFTS)

Those who are unfortunate enough to park their flying cars towards the base of the pyramid need to get ready to start climbing. The pyramid is 30 floors with one large engine room at the top with a lot of complicated mechanisms that aren't working the way they plan. Given the height of this engineering marvel, there are in fact elevators — though they will need to get these jumpstarted to make them workable! Someone is likely going to have to find whatever mechanism will bring up more power to make that happen.

The stations and living area are all located at the edges of the pyramid. If someone enters on the ground floor, they'll be able to see straight up to the top, where the mechanism to get the power going is located.

COLLECT DATA

Each floor has a different set of stations on there for different projects, each related to scientific inquiry in some way. They also link down to the scientific stations out on the planet down below, generating information back and forth. None of these projects are relevant to the overall working of the pyramid, but people can try to get into them if they'd like. They're primarily focused on environmental issues, climate control, and their information is remote and locally located. It's only after it's sent out on the web that the information "saved" on this pyramid hits cyberspace.

Some of the parties who made their way here might find it valuable to store that data locally so they can bring it back down with them while they have the chance.

COMMAND CENTER

Just outside of the heart of the area where everyone is dead is the command center. These are kept close to living quarters in the event of emergencies. This area is open, and someone will need to sync up with the pyramid's wifi (so to speak) and network to get in. Of course, this comes with the risk of introducing the virus into their personal neural implant or into the system itself from a different backdoor. Once that person is in, they'll be able to help others in.

Note that this will only be possible once the electrical systems are back online courtesy of the people getting the elevators going! So the software experts may want to hang tight until then, or devote their efforts to some of the data collection and body hauling before getting to this task.

(The person on whom the others piggyback may be suffering from blurred vision and a need to take a nap. Too bad the living quarters are full of dead people! This is due to their neural implant uncharacteristically overloading. It won't stop working, but it's like those rare moments when your new laptop is overheating because it's just that hot outside.)

Otherwise, they can use this system to access schematics for how to help. They will come across a frequently repeating secret of numbers: 1.618033988749895 that may take over their schematics, forcing its way in. Whoever does the hacking may see this sequence, combined with the Φ symbol blinking before it.

[ ooc; note that if you're involved in the groups for any of the tech work outlined above, PLEASE coordinate on the ooc post that melissa has put up! we'll want to figure out who's the sacrificial lamb being the server everyone piggybacks to get on the wifi ]]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

Please link any mod questions that helped provide information about the pyramids under this top level for easy access and reference for everyone.

Pyramid people have access to Morningstar wall-scaling gloves, and heat-reducing, implant-scrambling masks.

This pyramid is one of three like it responsible for collectively upholding the atmosphere. To function properly, they need all three.

The pyramid is only accessible from the sky. Flying cars are necessary to access it. Cars may or may not struggle with border patrol (whatever's more fun).

Interior description of the pyramid and info on what it takes to get it running again.

CLIMB THE PYRAMID

[ It's the worst thing she's ever smelled in her life. Rey nearly retches when they step inside the open door. It had been a rough ride up to the pyramid--jerky, uneven. She's never steered a flying car before, and it turns out that it's nothing like a YT-1300 light freighter or a hoverbike.

She makes her way inside despite it. The bodies aren't down here. No sign of the death, but that's what it is. It stings Rey's eyes, even. She pulls one of the Morningstar implant scrambler masks over her head. It helps with the oppressive heat, and a little with the smell. She holds another out for her companion. ]

Here. [ Then she points up. ] We need to get the power on. Get the lifts moving.

COLLECT DATA

[ Once the power's on again and the techies are working on getting the pyramid's software back up and running, Rey is heading back to the lower floors to look at the workstations. She walks through breezily, none of it really making sense to her, a sort of scattered survey that glances over everything. All indecision and uncertainty--she doesn't know what she's looking for.

But she does take to the machines, eventually. Picking them at random, she skims through the computers. ]

[ Despite her lack of physical prowess, Angel had volunteered herself for the turbulent trip out to the pyramid. She may have been on borrowed time, she figured, but she was going to make that time last. And any chance to use all the knowledge and skill she'd acquired while doing her father's dirty work for good was a chance she'd rather not pass up.

As she follows the others and enters the pyramid, the first thing that hits her is the smell. She's well aware of it before she's even properly inside, clawing at all her senses, making her nose sting and eyes water, and though it's painfully hot outside, she pulls her shirt over the lower half of her face to try and partially block it out.

And that's when she becomes aware of the lights- maybe not directly aware of them as the cause of what's about to happen, but her body reacts with old familiarity.

A neon purple glow she'd gotten so used to back home, but had hardly acknowledged its absence since her arrival. That's how repression works, she'll mull long after this particular episode, but for now she's stopping dead in her tracks as everything comes crashing through those mental barriers she's put up and into the forefront of her mind. ]

No, I can't-

Angel?

[Abel also looks a little worse for wear from the journey to the pyramid, and the smell of decaying bodies isn't helping matters either. He imagines that they're all tired, scared, overheating, and now faced with possibly dozens of dead people inside of this pyramid. Angel's reaction, he thinks, must be related to any of those things and it's absolutely understandable.]

[He approaches her to put a comforting hand on her elbow.]

Hey, it's going to be alright. Try not to look.

[ If only it was the bodies, that would make this all so much easier. She tenses first at the touch before sharply pulling away. ]

No!

[ The purple light is blinding and she closes her eyes to it, curling in on herself as a familiar pain washes over her; Eridium, fire in her veins, worse now because she's remembered what it felt like to live free of it.

She hugs at her arms, all hairs on them to the nape of her neck standing on end. ]

I won't go back there! I won't!

[ She backs up blindly, eyes still tightly shut as she tries to draw on a power the (now faint, barely audible) logical side of her brain isn't there. She doesn't want to hurt anyone, never did, but if that's the cost of freedom... a trapped animal will gnaw off its own leg in order to survive, Angel's brain gnaws away the guilt and accountability.

Behind Angel, glass acting as a wall between themselves and a living area begins to form hairline cracks. ]

Ah, I'm sorry! [Abel pulls his own hand back in a hurry, regretting trying to soothe her with touch. Maybe that was a bad plan. He can't figure out what she's upset over though, if it's not the bodies then... what?]

[Where was she afraid of going back to?]

Angel it's just me, Abel, I'm not taking you anywhere! [His eyes flick to the glass that's threatening to break, looks around for anyone else who might be in the blast radius of the glass if it did break. She might be doing this with her ability, she might hurt someone unintentionally, and if Abel knows anything about Angel he's sure that she wouldn't want that.]

Just take a breath, everything's fine!

[jon's used to corpses. he's not used to this level of decay. it smells more like pig slops than any dead thing jon's ever seen. the heat and the stench make him briefly dizzy, but he steadies himself and clambers out after rey, takes the mask and shoves it on his face.

he'd thought his first time flying would be more exciting than this.]

Thank you.

[he turns back towards the car.]

Does everybody have a mask?

[and then back at rey, squinting up to where she's pointing.]

I know this.

[his eyebrows knit together beneath the mask.]

I know how to move the lifts without the power. It's what we did on the Wall. You take one end of the cable and you wrap it around a winch. We need an axel from a wheel...

[or they could just get the power running, maybe. but he doesn't know anything about that.]

Hello, all! The mods would like to know if anyone will be rejecting the help of or attacking NPCs who can possibly come to help with getting things up and running.

Daenerys is going to be fairly vocal about wanting them to handle it themselves (because shes a suspicious ho and doesn’t want any potential eavesdropping in case they have to make a quick or questionable decision), but will back down on the condition that they don’t follow Dany and Rey to do research.

> Arrival_

The hover vehicle John has 'borrowed' is one small highlight in a pretty rough day. The controls are intuitive enough for someone who has flown a few different styles of space shuttle, and blessedly the thing has air conditioning, but parking on the outskirts of the ominous building reminds John of a few things.

One, the building is really very ominous. If anything it gives him super-villain lair vibes, or trap vibes, or just... not good vibes. Why a pyramid? For that matter, why a dark and shiny one?

Two, it's extremely hot still.

Three, they're all going to get heat exhaustion and then probably die if this isn't fixed soon.

"Okay kids," he's saying mildly as he approaches the entrance. "We take this slow and easy. No telling if anyone might be waiting for us here, or if this thing has safety mechanisms."

Presumably at least a few have been taken out, but that doesn't mean all of them have. The thing is still floating, after all, it has some power.

> Climb_

Well of course they parked at the bottom, and of course the thing they need is all the way at the top. John is standing roughly in the middle of the floor squinting upward through the pyramid, trying to count floors.

"So," he drawls, "there's gotta be stairs, and it's probably worth checking as we go up anyway. There should be more people here somewhere, wherever the control centre is, but some might be hiding out. If there is anyone alive in this place then they could help us get it up and going faster. Worth keeping an eye out. Otherwise, we head up and see if we can find whatever system controls the elevators have so we can get back up and down faster, and whatever powers the rest of this place too. Air conditioning would help everyone not faint while they work on the problem."

Boring but practical. John scrunches his face, thinking, then glances sideways.

"Ready?"

> HOLD MUSIC_

Once they reach the top the smell is stronger, simply by virtue of... more bodies in a concentrated area. John helps move them wearily, the heat starting to slow him down, then once it's clear enough steps aside to let the nerds do their thing. He's mostly here to negotiate any nerd fights, or hand people things, or make observations that might (or might not) be helpful.

For now he's dropped himself into a seat and is drinking water to try and stay hydrated, attempting to think of anything but the clamminess and the still-not-entirely-gone smell.

Glancing up, he holds out his water questioningly.

"Not really cold anymore, but better than nothing."

[ I'll switch to brackets if you prefer! OOC planning here. ]

Edited 2019-06-27 02:19 (UTC)

[ Angel continues to back up, unsteady steps until she her back hits the glass. Trapped, cornered, her mind racing for a way to escape. It's all so familiar, and it went badly last time too.

Thankfully, despite the cracks at her back continuing to spread, travelling across the glass like a nervous system, some part of her hears Able's voice. Safe, has never tried to hurt her, a friend

"Yeah, but would things stay that way if he knew what you were? What you've done? That's why you can't trust anyone except--"

A violent shake of her head as Angel tries to clear away the panic, the memories of then and come back to the now. Hugs herself tighter, making her presence as small as possible. Tries to listen, tries to breathe. ]

I'm sorry, I'm sorry...

[ No one ever taught her how to control herself. Just caged her and leashed her and left her underground. Let the collar and time do all the work, let her get ground down into nothing. ]

I-[ a shaky breath, a laugh without mirth ] I always have the worst timing.

There are enough for everyone in the car.

[ If other cars came here and didn't bring masks, that's their fault. But Dany and Octavia, who have come with them in Rey's ride, are covered. She listens to Jon's very mechanical explanation, her amusement hidden by the implant-scrambling mask thankfully.

Then, flatly, she says: ] Or we could find the engines. We'll need to get them going anyway, and they should restore power to the whole unit.

[jon's not sure octavia's ready for this kind of mission, but there's no point in saying so. he looks around the chamber they're in.]

Are the engines on this floor?

[did anyone ever find that manual for the pyramid online? he has no doubt rey can fix the engines for this unit, he just also has no idea where they are. or where anything is.]

Just tell me what you need me to do.

That's a very good question.

[ She looks around. Most of the floors seem almost transparent around the middle. She looks outward towards the edges of the pyramid, then up towards the top. ]

It'll be a whole room. Maybe a whole floor. I don't think it's this one -- there's the hangar, the lifts. I think we'll have to climb. [ Lots of space is already used, in other words. ] Lots of machine parts. Something's still going to generate the emergency power. Might be humming.

I can climb.

[his climbing gloves are tied to the cloth twist strung through his beltloops. he unties them. he doesn't know that daenerys has ever climbed anything like this before, but she's strong, and he hadn't actually climbed anything like the wall before he did that, either. again he's less sure about octavia.]

Or you could hook the elevator cable to a winch and I could turn it.

[it IS relevant rey!!! he sighs. it's probably going to be the climbing. in this heat....]

I'll keep an eye out for anything still running.

A city in peril is a disaster that Rodney can get behind, at least in the sense of not sitting on his thumbs and wondering what the hell he's doing there (existentially, physically, whatever). If nothing else, Being There and Saving People (at least in theory) is a satisfactory side-effect of a kidnapping.

Let's just say that he is very glad he doesn't have any flying-pyramid-related trauma like others in the SGC probably do or this would be much, much less pleasant than it's already going to be.

Rabbit and Hat Time
There's not really time to properly freak out about the bodies that they had to move to actually get to the mechanism, not when there's Engineering to perform. Also, John is watching his back and seems content to hang out, armed and dangerous, in a way that's comfortingly familiar. A babysitting-the-nerds sort of a familiar.

What is not familiar is the person(s) helping with the actual crux of the issue: getting the power back on. He swats at them--whether or not they deserve it, really--and snaps, "Careful!" Because he's still figuring out what everything does and he wants to do that before it gets messed with.

Wildcard

[Also an option: ping me to let me know if you want Rodney in on one of John's prompts :D]

At least there's air-conditioning, honestly. He hates to even think it, but he's more used to the cold and the heat is breaking him out in hives (he's mentioned this several times thus far on the 'drive' over) and he's definitely going to have heatstroke before the day is over.

But now they're on approach and he's got to get his game face on. Peering out the windshield at the pyramid, Rodney snorts at John. "It's a public works building, not a dungeon crawl. We're there to fix things."

His confidence is rock-solid at this point, because this is a problem he can sink his teeth into. He's dealt with enough EMPs. Even then unfamiliar faces on their 'team' are...well. It's strange how not strange it is. Just like breaking in new minions with an away mission. Rodney's going to get nostalgic.

"What I want to know is why it's flying?" he bitches, because that's the first lesson. "That's the worst kind of failure state for any engineering project. One cascade failure or a hiccup in whatever backups they've got and they have a crater in the middle of their city. Oh, there, look--entrance? Parking? We're going in 'official,' after all."

He points helpfully.

Or you could wait here, and take the lift once I get it running again.

[ She's not sure his mechanical prowess will be more useful up there than down here. Stars, the stench is getting in through her mask. She clears her throat, trying to breathe around it.

No. Jon won't like that. ]

Maybe there are stairs.

[jon raises his eyebrows--not visible, but perhaps inferable from his voice.]

Aye, stairs would help.

[he makes another attempt at peering around.]

I could find the rotting meat and get rid of it. We shouldn't leave it lying around.

[he's still picturing stiff, draggable corpses. he's never seen any other kind.]

They must have one of the big compost bins from the city.

[a dumpster, essentially. every other building has one. and they're good at keeping smells out...]

I don't think it's meat.

[ Just to be clear. And if that's a euphemism, she makes clear her displeasure over it too. It's not just meat. They were people. And now they're dead in this catastrophe. A part of her feels ashamed — if they'd come here directly, as soon as the power cut, could they have saved anyone? — but it's not a productive emotion. She pushes it aside. ]

But it's a good idea. We'll need to get them off the station. [ Which she's thinking of as a station because it's floating even if it's in the substratosphere. ] Split up? [ The bottom floor is a big one. ]

[it was more gallows humor, but his heart wasn't really in it. he gives rey a baleful look behind the mask.]

They're gone, Rey. Whatever's left--it's not how they would want to be remembered.

[he sighs, squints up towards the top of the pyramid again.]

I don't like it--not with the messages down. But we shouldn't waste time trailing after one another. Just call my name on the network if you need me.

[Daenerys is quiet as they descend to check on research. She hadn't been happy, letting others in to observe their work here -- it would make talking more difficult. But since they had not been followed down to collect information, her temper has simmered some.

While Rey picks at the computers, Dany chooses to focus on the physical -- the surveys and various maps, fingers brushing over areas of interest.]

If they can't get this device running again, a lot of people are going to die.

[She puts that into the air, mostly to remind herself why she had come. But so much of this information appears to be digital.]

They seem so...ill prepared, for a nation with such technological advance.

One floor at a time.

[ She arches her eyebrows. ]

Yeah?

[ They'll sweep the facility for signs of engine rooms. Probably after a few floors they'll realize it's not down this far and just start the direct climb, though, if we're all being honest. ]

We'll meet back in the middle to climb together.

They thought the AI were gone.

[ DAWN is a puzzle to Rey. She hasn't put a lot of mental power towards it yet, but she does know that it seems to upend a lot of what they'd previously assumed about the Xelkoven War and the history of this planet. ]

They were overconfident.

[ Who hasn't been? She isn't trying to cut them slack, but rather, point out how human it is of them to forget what had hurt them in the past simply because they believed they had handled it. ]

We got the engines up. It's already running again. They just need to get it back online. [ That's half the work already settled. The pyramid has all the power it needs to do what it does. Hopefully, DAWN hadn't attacked the software itself. But there are others -- pyramids like this at other points in the world that help maintain the global climate. They could get the software. Fly it here, if necessary. Right?

This is what she tells herself, though she's thinking of Amos' warning that they needed to evacuate. ]

And what is to stop it from being brought down again? What if there are more of them?

[It seemed so easily laid low by Daenerys, who is only just beginning to understand the marvels and pitfalls of electricity. Even as she runs her hands along a lit display, she finds herself shaking her head.]

How can we prepare for that? We do not control any of it -- we do not have the resources. And we do not know what they want.

[Except the destruction of humanity? Presumably? She's still catching up here.]

I don't know.

[ Rey grinds this out with some frustration as she tries to get the project terminals to boot. It's not a system she's familiar with, and most things in this world are entirely implant-based. The fact that things up here are more isolated from the larger cloud makes things different.

She drops her hands and turns to Daenerys.

All I know how to do is get this backup and running this time, deal with the problem that we know, that we have now. I'm not thinking about five problems from now. [ She can't be. She's never had the luxury to do that in her entire life. ]

That is why I am doing it, and you are not.

[Daenerys is not snappish in her response, but she does keep her voice and gaze firm. Thankfully, she has since covered up since first venturing outside, but some black splotches remain on areas she had not been able to cover up.

She takes a moment to change her approach. As much as she might loathe to admit it, she's of virtually no use in getting the terminals to power without Rey's guidance]

Why is it that these machines do not respond to us as the others do? Was that not the purpose of the implant?

Edited (im so bad at html) 2019-06-30 00:42 (UTC)

[ Rey wipes her brow. It's hotter in the pyramid, even with the engines going again. The air systems haven't managed to bring it all down, and they're higher in the air, which makes the sun stronger. She pulls off her oversized leather jacket and folds it over a high stool. ]

It's just because they've been offlined suddenly. It takes a bit for things to boot. Once they're going, we should be able to access them through the implant. These systems are just storing files locally. [ She looks back at Dany. ] Which would have protected this facility, actually. If the power hadn't gone out. They could use back-up generators, isolate it from the rest of the grid ...

[ She's not an electrician, but these are basic elements of circuitry. ]

If the EMP hadn't knocked it out, everything up here seems to be isolated. Other than killing the power, I don't think there's a way to interfere with them remotely that I can see.

[Well, that's something, even if she only understood half of it. So, with that, she nods -- but unlike Rey, she is content to keep sweating with her layers on. And it does not appear that she is sweating very much at all. Gross and weird.]

If they are only stored here, if this facility were to fail permanently...

[They would probably be screwed. Best to get everything booted then. Maybe they could replicate what they found -- if any of it was able to be understood.

Without finishing her thought, she turns away from Rey, carefully poking and prodding at things in hopes that she will get a screen to do what it is supposed to do.]

They probably have back-ups. Beyond the other pyramids. They must.

[ It would be so incredibly stupid not to have back-ups, but she also thinks about what she knows of the Death Star from stories and even if only half of it is true ...

Well, you know, maybe they don't. No one who builds massive monuments seems to have any lick of sense. She gets some of the systems lighting up, humming. ]

[Dany stays silent, her lack of agreement giving enough answer to what she thinks of Rey's optimism in this regard. It takes a lot of focus for her to manage any kind of technology. She nudges one tower with her boot and a smile briefly flickers across her expression as the screen in front of her comes to life.

But, of course, nothing beyond that makes a lick of sense. So she voices her idea.]

Do you think we could replicate their work? Or take it with us without interrupting operations?

[ Rey looks between Dany and the servers which are kicking on. Her implant registers that there's a system to connect to, and because they're removed all the way up here, it doesn't even ask for credentials. There's no reason to need a login. Who else could get up here? ]

We can copy what's here. To copy the programs that run the pyramid itself, though, that would need the people upstairs. These are just ... project files. Research. It's easy to copy that. But the whole run-system of the machine ...

[ That's a lot of fucking storage. ]

It is better than nothing.

[Now she just has to...try and digest as much as possible. So she falls silent while turning toward another terminal, frowning down at the information there. None of it makes a bit of sense to her -- but her eyes are drawn to mentions of Antarctica and an Arctic Circle.

She sighs out of her nose.]

If we cannot make sense of them, I am sure one of the Displaced can.

Fitz.

[ She always leans on Fitz for this stuff. Some part of her feels bad for that, and she tries to backtrack. Spread it around. ]

Clarke, Katelin, Strange. [ She wipes the back of her hand across her forehead again. Stuffy. ] They'll figure out what all these numbers mean. What are these, temperatures? [ That at least points towards something about the climate. ] These are readings taken from the north. [ She looks back at Dany, arching her eyebrow, thinking of DAWN's message. ]

[Daenerys nods along with Rey's observations, frowning in thought. She was hardly a scientist, but one thing at least was consistent about the North in the Seven Kingdoms: it was cold. She points to the temperature Rey had pointed out, and then to the reading of the area labeled "NEW AMSTERDAM".

They are not identical, but the differences are enough to draw her attention. Not enough to make sense of it.]

Perhaps, but -- it can't be, can it? It's too warm.

[Measuring temperature beyond "warm" and "cold" is not really a thing in a world like her own, but knowing from experience that New Amsterdam generally seemed to hover in the "warm" range, she knows enough to see that the close numbers ought not be.]

When we visited New Tokyo, we went almost directly from a heat wave to a blizzard.

[ And that's just one example. ]

The climate of this planet seems to be part of the problem, the reason that everyone's crammed in these cities.

[ The reason the plants and animals are gone, or mostly gone. ]

They must be tracking the damage.

[ She makes copies of the project reports to her implant. ]

[Again, she nods in agreement, drumming her fingers thoughtfully as she glances back to the notes on Antarctica again. It takes her some time to figure out, but eventually, she mirrors Rey in making copies of the information.]

James Holden received a message that wasn't meant for him about islands near here. Something about new species. It was dismissed for lack of evidence.

[There's no evidence to support it here, as far as Dany can tell -- no further mentions of it. But she cannot help her fixation. And so, she shakes her head to distract herself, moving to another terminal to find more information.

Besides, there's something else bugging her about all of this: why shut down the system presumably keeping everything alive? To start another war? She knows so little of the first.]

What do you think of artificial intelligence, Rey?

Where I come from, wealthy people build them to automate tasks that humans don't need to be doing.

[ Not just wealthy people, but mostly. Droids are costly. She could have eaten for months off what Plutt offered her for BB-8. Her forehead creases as she looks at Dany, focusing through the AR displays that her implant has projected of the files. ]

Here, they didn't seem to like that very much. There's a bit of it where I come from. You know, droids' rights movements. But it got bloody on Earth. Why?

I only know of them what I have been taught by this planet.

[She gestures at the pyramid and its state as if to make her point.]

And if this facility is what is keeping the population on Earth alive and protected from the planet's conditions, shutting it down certainly seems an act of war to me.

[And whether or not that person was an AI or simply posing as one -- were any of the Displaced ready for a war, let alone a war against machines? She certainly wasn't ready for the last bit.]

But I know better than to consider only one perspective regarding something I know very little of. That is why I ask.

Yeah.

[ Rey isn't looking at the projects anymore. ]

Me too.

[ It's a heavy awareness. There has been so much strife already, just dealing with the UNA and the climate itself. Now they're dealing with killer AI again too? She'd always wondered if the Xelkoven War had been exaggerated, since she'd never in her life met an AI who was so blooded, but ...

Looking at this ... ]

They used an EMP to end it the last time they were at war. [ That much, she'd learned. ] That AI, DAWN used one against humanity today. Seems like a message, doesn't it? 'You don't have weapons against me.'

Well thanks Rodney, that's a reassuring mental image. The whole Pyramid losing gravity and falling.

"I see it," John grumbles, trying to not think too much about the whole crater aspect. "How much power do you think it'd take to be keeping that thing up?"

Alright, fine, so he is thinking about it -- but that's absolutely your fault Rodney and he wishes he was thinking about anything else. Anything but 'well let's hope we don't run out of power and make it drop'.

Great, why is it always like this?

Bringing in the hovercar he slows down as he turns into park, scanning the entrance warily as he does for bad-guys with weapons or ominous looking people about to say 'I've been expecting you'. So far, so good?

My thoughts precisely. My experience is that exile only tends to rally the exiles more fiercely to their cause. And if this AI is a remnant from that war...

[They were all in deep shit. She does not say that.]

If naught else, we should consider setting our own maester-sorts to the task of replication.

Uh, maester?

[ Rey's eyebrows raise. Lost in translation, so to speak.

Though that does get her thinking again of what Daenerys had said while they were texting, and all this copying of projects will take a while ... ]

[Oops. Daenerys frowns in response, though it is hardly Rey's fault that she is still shifting some of her vocabulary around.]

Our learned men. Whomever will be able to make sense of what we bring back and be able to build upon it.

[Wait. She heard this word recently -- when she had been arguing against their presence here.]

Engineers. Our own -- not the city's.

Right.

[ She looks relieved to latch onto it, nodding. ]

I keep having that problem too. [ She offers it gently. ] Little things. Words that aren't quite right. Like they don't call it "caf" here, it's coffee. And it's not a "refresher," it's a bathroom. [ These things she offers idly. ] I'm getting better, I think.

[ they took separate cars and if rey was driving like a 15-year-old, poe was driving like a 16-year-old. but it's okay, because he quickly got the hang of it. nobody asked, but poe can fly/drive anything. he holds his hand out in a "no thanks i got this" kind of gesture while pulling his own mask over his head.

this... is gnarly. that's a word for it. a word poe probably wouldn't use, but i the narrator would. the mask helps filter out some of it, but his dexter kill room nightmare floats around his peripheral. that's what it would have smelled like.

he'd really like to spend less time thinking about it. ]

Are you thinking we climb to the top?

[ rey nods. ] I've been looking around on this floor, and there's nothing. [ for whatever that's worth. ] If the schematics of ships here are anything like ours, it'll be adjacent to the exterior of the ship somewhere, and if it's upright, there's probably something keeping it balanced. [ something that would be thrown off by a host of engine parts weighing down one side. ]

▼ARRIVAL + HAULING BODIES

[ By the time the WAU resorted to pulling a long-dead human’s neurograph into its menagerie, the world had been over for a year. Simon was spared the reality of the scorching slag, the toxic atmosphere, the curds of black smoke rising from the unidentifiable husk of the Earth — if not the images and recordings left behind, the descriptions given by the few who dared to to go to the surface to see the destruction.

Turns out this looks a lot like that. The pyramid is something of a reprieve from it, and he almost feels guilty for abandoning the ground for that reason, but he’s more useful here, surely.

—he assumes, until they’re inside it, and all the added complications of his second go-round on the “fix the science maze surrounded by rotting corpses”-mobile have made themselves clear. There’s the vicious, prehistoric heat, the scattered cadavers that have made Simon realize for the first time that what was missing from PATHOS-II was an olfactory experience. There’s the climb, and he can’t stop hearing dozens of simultaneous car crashes, and he definitely didn’t bring enough water for this.

But hey, they’ve made considerable progress in clearing by the time he’s leaning outside the living quarters, complexion chalky and greenish despite the temperature, implant scrambler mask pulled up. He's employing every Jedi mind-trick he knows to not make some poor streetbound civilian's terrible day worse. ]

▼COLLECT DATA...??

[ He’s human (although he doesn’t exactly feel all the way human, with this constant reminder of their vulnerable synthetic parts). There’s no Data Reader, as far as Simon knows. But it’s not as if he’s ever gotten his head X-rayed, and the neural implants are similar enough in concept... so maybe— if he can still get something—

He kneels in front of one of the sprawled cadavers, and, hesitantly, touches his fingertips to its chest. ]

▼JUMPSTART THE LIFTS

[ Intellectually, he knows what he’s looking at is far beyond the level of technology he had to deal with in PATHOS-II, and he didn’t understand that, either. It just had an intuitive UI and the incorporeal brain of an A.I. specialist to give him tips. But Simon’s need to feel useful overrides this, deciding that all he has is a hammer so he’d like for everything to just be cool about this and be a nail for a second.

When he spots somebody approaching the elevator while he’s trying to pry open a panel, his foggy overheated eyes light up and he nods in their direction — makeshift crowbar (flat piece of warped metal shrapnel that used to be... something), distinguished Gandalf beard of sweat down his shirt, missing left forearm, the whole thing. Competent-looking as fuck. ]

Hey, help me get this open.

[ nothing evokes feelings of progress quite like brute-forcing hardware. ]

▼COLLECT DATA, FOR REAL

[ ever hear about how mediocre white guys apply for jobs for which they only meet 30% of the qualifications

well

Simon's 30% was acquired in a 500-year-old system more intuitive than this, but he's found something. It doesn't look like what they need, though. ]

Think that thing can feel us snooping around in here? [ Simon gives the person next to him a sidelong glance. He's just assuming DAWN works like a virus, like the WAU, because-- Well, that makes sense. To him. ]

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