Joury:
Joury had his head in his hands as he daydreamed at work. He loved his job; he was on a team that was crossing the limits of their knowledge every day while being handsomely paid. He also loved that his job came with a lot of perks and even some fame. The discoveries of the divine text a few years back had made their archeology team major celebrities in the nation. There had been some grumblings from groups inside the church that tried to say that knowing the divine text is what got the ancestors in trouble in the first place, but that wasn’t a popular opinion of the people nor was it mentioned anywhere in the religious texts.
Overall, their work had received a lot of support from the common person as well as the main powers within the church, who had hopes of once again being in the good graces of the gods. He stopped fantasizing and looked at the crystal on the desk in front of him. The reason for his joy, and his greatest frustration.
They had yet to figure out what would cause a crystal to release its divine text, but after years of research, they now had a few examples to pull from, and he was starting to feel like he was on the edge of a breakthrough. Through rigorous study, they found that not all of the crystals contained divine text, but sometimes the text on the outside of them would give a clue as to what could be inside. They had originally thought that the longer the text on the crystal, the better chance it had at containing divine text. Instead, they found that it was completely random, meaning that each one had to individually be tested and catalogued. Though the work was tedious at times, the moments when they finally got their hands on the next text… it made all the hours and hard work worth it.
They had six different examples now and a catalog of certain keywords from the text. The pattern revealed its holiness in the way that only divine text can. It frequently talked of “while equal, you can continue.” A good proverb for anyone. Only while equal can the people move forward. Another set of divine text revealed that “if one is True, then they return, else end.” That proverb had become quite popular to the priests that enjoyed talking about divine punishment. Stay on the true path they say, or you may find your path coming to an end. It was a bit much for Joury, but he got where they were going with it.
Their discoveries had spurred a few leaders in the church to create new books to add to their religious collection. They were heavily debated among the higherups, who sometimes visited his team and asked for their advice or to get their opinion on their next sermon. So far none of the texts had been officially accepted into their holy book; nobody was willing to fully commit before seeing what else could be found amongst the ruins of their ancestors.
He tested another one of the crystals, to no surprise it didn’t spit out any divine text. They had noticed that it would only occasionally happen during the day. Not once had they recorded divine text outside of daylight hours. Nor had they been able to repeat an experiment with the same crystal. It really stumped his team that they could do the same thing twice and get different results. There was a hidden activation sequence, and they had no idea what it was.
He reached down below his desk and grabbed another crystal from the box of items the excavation team had sent up. His hand rummaged through the box but instead of finding a crystal, he felt something smooth and square. Joury slid his chair back and pulled the box out from under his desk for a better view. Sure enough, his hands hadn’t lied, in the middle of the stacks of crystals, was an unexpected metal cube. With eyes full of curiosity, he pulled it out of the box and examined it further.
On one side of the cube there were four holes that were shaped just like mini versions of the crystals in the box. On the opposite side there were four nubs sticking out, creating a base. On one of the edges there was a port, which Joury recognized as a standard power interface for ancient equipment. Joury had seen devices like this a few times. Sometimes you powered them on and they played music, other times bright lights came out and danced along the ceiling. None of them had revealed anything important, but after a day of testing crystals, looking at something new was a welcome reprieve.
He connected the device to the power adapter and checked his equipment. The metal unit didn’t display any changes, but he noticed that power was flowing, which was typically a good response, but he had yet to see any results. He notated the start time of the power flow in his notes since this was not unusual for ancient equipment that had been neglected for hundreds of years, so he would let it charge for a few minutes before deciding if it worked or not. As he was reading the outputs from his various machines, the emergency alarm suddenly went off across the compound, jerking Joury out his thoughts.
He stopped his work and immediately got himself ready for the other reason his job paid so well. Even he, a high-level researcher, wasn’t excluded from defending the base. He had spent his time in the military, like most people he knew, and was willing to die for their cause. The extra duty meant he was required to keep himself in shape and occasionally join the Rangers for training in the mornings, but it was all worth it to him. Moving his people forward and regaining favor with the gods was a worthy cause to follow.
Joury had been assigned to the lookout tower on the top floor of the base's central tower. He was always in or around the tower due to his job position so getting there was always quick, plus the church leadership really did not want him to get hurt. He was assigned with a few other people from around the base. Their job was to observe the reported threat and look for any others that might have been missed and report their findings to the people guarding the base on the ground. More than once, they had creatures come upon the base from multiple directions, and their observations were critical to their defenses.
He quickly put on the uniform he was required to keep in his work locker and headed up the emergency stairs – the elevators would be busy – and he didn’t have the luxury of being late. Other people would be using the elevator to go down to the lower floors to wait out the threat and getting on it would take forever. When he reached the top of the tower, he was exhausted, and he regretted not doing a few leg stretches before hauling up the stairs. He was in shape, but that did not mean his body enjoyed going from sitting to doing a full sprint up multiple flights of stairs.
He took out his looking glass and aimed it in the direction the full-time watcher was pointing at. He immediately saw a group of tree leaves shaking much more vigorously than the others. He focused the lens as he observed the group of shaking leaves moving through the forest, heading in the direction of the base. Once located, he took measurements using the marks in his scope and checked a map of tree heights and sizes around the base. He needed to double check the size of the beast in case the first warnings were incorrect.
His quick calculations put the creature far above what they encountered on average and was only a few points below the largest animal they had seen to date. He quickly relayed the information, using flags, to the ground crew, noting that it was more than likely two to four carriages in length and with the furiousness that it was hitting the trees, it more than likely had a very thick hide.
Once he got confirmation from the ground crew, he continued watching to see if anything changed. It was critical for the lookout crew to relay any new information they could to the ground; the lives of those below depended on them. The more they knew, the better chance they had at killing it or driving it away without any casualties. He zoomed his observation scope out to get a larger picture of the forest. The ground around the base had been cleared, giving the watchers, and those on the towers an excellent view of the surrounding area. This also ended up giving the armaments on the walls a clear line of sight to whatever dared get close to them.
Joury intently scanned the tree line waiting to get a glimpse of the beast that would soon be assaulting them. The anticipation, the waiting, this part of the job was always stressful. As he waited, his stomach growled; the alarm had gone off right around lunchtime, and he was noticeably hungry. He thought of the last creature that had been killed, a tough, stub-necked giraffe.
Vicious creatures that used their strong necks to tip trees, allowing them access to the roots below so they could eat them unabated. They were very territorial. Much different than their long-necked counterparts that enjoyed eating the leaves at the top of the trees. Stub-necked giraffes had meat that was very stringy and tough to chew; he hoped the creature coming toward their base would be a bit more delicious. After all it wasn’t every day they got fresh meat that wasn’t shipped in.
One he was comfortable with his size estimation of the beast, he scanned the tree line in hopes of catching a glimpse of whatever had started such a ruckus. He didn’t have to wait long before he saw some activity and he zoomed in using his telescope to see what poor forest creature had angered this beast, only to find himself rolling his eyes.
From between the trees two Rangers came bursting through the bushes and he recognized them both, Phil Del’Orion and former Administrator Olter Vank. This was not the first time he had seen these two do something less than questionably sane, and he knew both of them personally from the morning workouts he joined. He had no issues with Phil, he worked with his wife, and she was a brilliant researcher. He had different feelings about Olter Vank.
Olter Vank had been in charge on the night that the Moon's Fury had hit the base for the first time. His ineffectual leadership had caused many of his friends to die on that fateful night. After Vank had resigned, he joined the Ranger Core in an attempt to make up for his failings. Joury wasn’t sure how he felt about the man, at best he was neutral.
They came out of the tree line into the cleared area around the base and split apart, Phil going to the left and Olter going to his right. A textbook Ranger move. The trees at the forest line went flying apart as a giant armored-back wolverine came bursting forth. Dirt, grass, and small bushes went flying everywhere as it stopped to take in its new surroundings, the light of the day causing it to take pause in the clearing.
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Joury had heard of these creatures in his briefings. They had a nasty temperament – they were also very tasty – and were known to tear apart entire packs of animals in a frenzy if angered. He could only imagine how it would behave during a Moon’s Fury. That was probably the reason that Phil and Olter had angered the creature. If they found it near the base, it was the current leadership's policy to have them dealt with before the Moon's Fury could make them harder to take down. A policy he didn’t disagree with.
The wolverine noticed Phil first and took off after him. Its acceleration wasn’t fast, but it was picking up the pace and slowly making up ground on the sprinting man. Joury could see a huge smile on Phil’s face as he was chased by this giant beast. Joury didn’t know how the man could be smiling and not worried, with two kids and a wife at home you’d think he would be more careful. It was something Joury didn’t understand, but then again, Phil had a great track record of protecting the base and was one of the top fighters in the Ranger Core. Joury wouldn’t judge, the results spoke for themselves.
He watched as the beast gained on Phil, who was for some reason, slowing down and letting the beast gain on him. Right as the wolverine was about to reach him, Phil jumped, releasing his script, launching himself into the air while doing a graceful backflip over the wolverine. Joury nodded his head in admiration. Phil may be a little crazy, but one could not deny that he was talented. The beast slammed its paws into the ground to stop and turn around to face the two-legged creature that would dare dodge him, only to find that it was now facing two individuals.
Olter Vank had finally caught up after their last maneuver. Both him and Phil faced off against the beast now that they were out in the open and had room to move around. Olter, not hesitating to start the fight, swung his arm in a long slashing motion in front of him, causing his fire script to appear in the shape of a sword. Joury knew the move was completely unnecessary to make the script work but he admitted that it looked amazing. He heard those below him start to hoot and holler with the show. Not many people had powerful scripts like Olter and it was fun to see them in action.
The beast paused for a moment as it viewed its fiery new opponent. This delay was all the time needed for the forces on the wall to start firing their scripts and wall armaments at the beast. Giant flames and metal siege arrows attached to ropes flew forward, heading toward the ferocious beast as it was distracted by the duo.
A giant ball of flame that had been launched from the wall hit its front paw; the beast roared and stood on its back two legs. Joury noted that the wolverine, on its hind legs, was as tall as the surrounding trees it had just come from. The wolverine swatted its paw up in the air in a frenzy, trying to stop the flame. This caused many of the siege arrows to miss, but when they stuck into the ground, the ropes would be suspended in the air; hopefully entangling the beast's limbs when it tried to walk over them.
Since the beast was no longer running, the wall launched another round of siege arrows toward the massive beast. They flew through the air with a slight whistle, alerting it to the danger and causing it to try to dodge. All but one missed. He heard the wolverine roar as the siege arrow embedded itself in its hind leg, enraging it. The defenders down below tightened the rope, hoping to knock the creature off balance, but to Joury’s surprise, he heard a loud crack and saw the rope beneath him go slack. Wow, it ripped the ropes anchor right out of the wall!
He watched as the beast barely maintained its balance on its two hind legs, its front paws wildly flailing about, with the one still on fire. The whole base seemed to hold its breath as the tree-sized wolverine wobbled back and forth, waiting to see if it would recover. Joury, equally as entrapped into the battle as everyone else, noticed Phil sprint at the creature.
As the beast was just about to recover from its wobble, with its one foot up in the air and its arms still waving, Phil launched himself up, causing a divot to appear in the ground where he was just at. Joury heard a loud CRACK! As Phil’s leg slammed into the beast's jaw, causing its head to snap to the side and some of its teeth to go flying. If he didn’t know better, he would have thought that Phill had teleported.
He watched as Phil turned midair, a benefit of his force script, and launched himself away before the creature could recover and swipe at him. The wolverine roared in rage and became focused on the creature that had just caused it so much pain, but in doing so, it had failed to see Olter sprint forward and use his flame sword to cut the tendons on one of the beast's legs. Another roar came out from the angered beast, but it was no longer able to maintain its balance and though its fighting spirit was still bright, its fate had been sealed.
Joury watched as the wolverine fell over backward, smashing into the ropes that were attached to the siege arrows, causing the arrows themselves to become dislodged from the ground. The beast landed hard, its head hitting a stump that had yet to be removed, causing a loud and resounding thud to echo across the ground. Phil and Olter wasted no time in using their newfound advantage.
Olter snagged the broken rope and tossed part of it over the beast to Phil. In the few seconds that the beast was dazed, they looped the rope around the creature's legs and then Phil used his force ability to kick the arrow right into the wolverine's ribs. The brutal crunching sound could even be heard up on top of the tower Joury was at and it made him wince. It wasn’t pretty, but it would be enough to hold it for a few minutes. A beast this large was way too big for either Phil or Olter to kill alone and it was floundering around to erratically for them to do their final execution move.
A horn on the wall sounded, letting Phil and Olter know that the wall was about to fire upon the beast again. Arrows that had missed by a wide margin were pulled back in and re-launched. The large siege arrows on the wall peppered the beast until it looked like a pin cushion. It took multiple rounds of arrows, yet it was still alive, a testament to the vitality of this ferocious creature. Finally, one arrow pierced the creature's chest, hitting its lungs and causing a slight whistle sound as the creature tried to breathe.
With it no longer mobile and a death rattle coming from its lungs, Olter had waved for the arrows to stop, and he used his fire script to re-create his sword which he held over the creature's neck. Phil, on the other side of the creature, jumped up and with the ball of his heal used his force script to assist the downward momentum, severing the head off the beast, taking it out of its misery. They may have just battled a monster, but they themselves were not monsters.
Joury stayed on duty while the cleanup crew went out and butchered the beast. He had friends on those teams, and he liked to keep a look out to make sure they made it back safe. As he watched them work and take the beast apart, he smiled at the thought of Armored Wolverine steaks.
They were a delicacy in the city, and he had not expected to be eating something so delicious while on a remote job site. He had no worries that the base’s cooks would make it tasty, the church leadership was frequently on site, so they had some of the best cooks in the kingdom here. His tastebuds salivated as he thought about the delectable meal ahead of him. His thoughts were anywhere but, on the lab….
Down in the lab... while the battle above rages on
Scout#005 awoke after hundreds of years in hibernation. Power flowing into its reserves at a slow, but acceptable rate. With sufficient and constant power flow confirmed, it started self-diagnostics and memory review. Once the diagnostics came back green, Scout#005 checked its memory and loaded the last orders it had been given.
#Last Call Protocol Enacted: Bring candidates to training facility.
Scout#005 checked the time and date of its logs and found that its orders were already hundreds of years out of date by the time its internal reserves ran out. It was unsure how long it had actually been since it was last awake, but it had its orders, and it was going to follow them. It powered on its external cameras and looked passively at the environment it was in, its outer shell hiding its activities.
It found that it was in some kind of empty lab or repair shop with low tech equipment. Nothing obvious could detect it or what it was doing. Scout#005 waited a few more minutes to scan for movement before moving on with its objectives. First it needed to find out where and when it was, so when it confirmed that the coast was clear, it sent out an active pulse to get a three-dimensional map of the area it was in, hoping to match it with known building blueprints in order to find its location. It quickly received a map of the local area and found that it was a few floors underground, but it didn’t have enough power to do a more powerful scan and was unable to see anything more.
With its surrounding area clear, Scout#005 moved on to its next phase, updating its orders. It booted up its low powered antenna to try and connect to the local communications tower, only not a single signal was found. It was unusual, but Scout#005 had been given protocols to follow when this happened. Scout#005 then tried to connect to the building's internal communications network. They typically had a guest network of some kind that it could use.
Guest networks were generally easy to access; however, they were also risky because they were typically monitored for unusual activity. Once again Scout#005 found itself going to the next item on its list as there were no networks to be found. Scout#005 made a note that it was potentially in a black ops site due to the lack of sophisticated technology and wireless networks. As it slowly recharged, high level intelligence gathering modules were finally getting enough power to turn on and begin their review of the incoming data.
Before it could get too far into its analysis, its active scan had found movement coming toward its location. Scout#005 went into immediate camouflage mode, shutting down its higher functions and intelligence gathering modules. It only kept passive microphone and cameras active, ones that were hidden by its external casing. Not long after the sensors went into passive mode, it saw someone enter the lab, a shorter guy with optical lenses and some sort of spy glass in his hand.
The man changed outfits in what looked to be a locker and walked over to where Scout#005 was plugged in. The man picked it up and began to study its outer shell in detail. Since it now had power, Scout#005 was able to show some decoy buttons on its side. It was designed to blend into urban environments and using misdirection was key to remaining undetected.
One of the easiest ways, and the current method that Scout#005 was using, was to appear as a portable music device. Scout#005 had years of music stored up from its previous users, and it had never been found out while in this mode. Eventually the man pressed the right button and Scout#005 was able to present it with a music list. As the list loaded Scout#005 noted that there were only a few songs on it when it should have had tens of thousands.
It went to debug the program only to find that it wasn’t a bug, but since it couldn’t contact anyone, it wasn’t able to update its LICENSING! All it could play was some older classical music and anything public domain that its previous users had added. If it had a personality module, it would have been screaming at whoever had included this in its programming.
Nevertheless, the man seemed pleased with its few options and soon called a few people over to listen to the music coming from its speakers. With its spy position secure, as each new person trickled into the lab, Scout#005 would assign number designations and create a dossier for each one. Once it was alone and fully powered up, it would have its analysis systems go through the data and come back with potential targets and an analysis of its situation.
For now, it played music while its internal power storage slowly gained more energy. At its current recharge rate, it would end up taking a few days to fully charge. Not too bad considering its vast storage capacity, it was designed to allow it to run at max capacity for weeks on end. Until then, Scout#005 went into sleep mode to save power and so as not to arouse suspicion.
