Chapter 8

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"What am I supposed to do now?" Olga asked into the middle of nowhere.

Forty thousand six hundred and forty-fifth years of Christ's birth

The Machine was not long in responding. The cards already covered the floor in an even layer, fluttering grayish-yellow butterflies in the draughts from the ventilation.

Live

Survive

Exist

A fucking iron philosopher

"It's a crazy world... crazy... " the girl whispered, struggling to keep from rubbing her wet eyes with her fists. Her mind wove a schizophrenic tangle of mechanized dead men, three-meter-tall giants in the game armor, onion-headed freaks, and other crap. None of this looked at all like a bright future, or a future in general. Reinforced bricks on Ballistic, dust flasks, flying skulls, pneumatic mail... Is ballistic at all earthly, naval, or whatever the hell it is?

"How do you live here?"

The question was rhetorical, but apparently the Machine's "heuristic module" did not catch such complex nuances of emotions, so the skull immediately began to explain in detail:

The Entity - Imperium

The key features according to your assumed pattern of perception

1. theocracy and mysticism, rejection of rational methods of research

2. a quasi-feudal organization of society

addendum: specified organization: predominantly / not exclusively / statistically most represented

3. a high level of aggressive rejection of social, cultural, legal, and other norms and rules of behavior that go beyond established dogmas.

4. artificially stabilized progress

"Well, of course..."

What exactly "of course" Olga did not know, but in a bitter remark fused all the bitterness and disappointment of the past hours.

Addendum

Despite the self-definition of "Imperium," this entity cannot be considered an empire in the traditional sense

Foundation: a purposefully formed and maintained conception of the fortress in a hostile environment

It is highly recommended:

1. eliminate biological objects subjected to rapid phenotypic transformation

2. to burn unauthorized interpreters of religious dogma

3. to destroy members of other sentient races

"Are there even aliens here."

If it is not technically/ethically possible to follow the above recommendations, one should at least demonstrate strong endorsement of them

Note:

The essence and basic aspects of the Imperium's existence cannot be adequately revealed through a set of theses remarks

Appealing to the authorized structures of administration and interpretation of religious dogma is somewhat likely to lead to the elimination of

The exact probability of the outcome cannot be adequately calculated

Conclusion - for the subject Olga, contact with the Imperium in any organizational aspect is defined by the category of "luck"

Olga sat down, leaning her back on a steel box, which must have housed one of the parts of the Machine. The box was warm, soothingly humming, and slightly vibrating, just like a massage chair. SheI wanted to do nothing else. Just lie down and die a bit. Not for too long, just to make this whole circus go away while she was away.

"Luck, then," the guest stretched out.

The skull levitated, gleaming with its lens and wiggling its "tail" of pinned vertebrae. Somehow now the girl had absolutely no doubt that the skull was real, not a designer stylization in a plastic case. The Machine waited patiently.

"What happened here?" - Olga finally asked. A phrase from some long-forgotten movie was playing spinning in her head - does your disease have a name?

Against the norm, the skull did not respond. Instead, one of the iron cubes, which turned out to be something like a printer, worked. In any case, it squeaked and rattled just like an old typewriter. It printed just as slowly, on a wide sheet of thin, chewy paper that looked like tissue paper. The answer must have exceeded the capacity of the cards stored in the skull.

Data array - confidentiality

No disclosure is expressly forbidden

But, the credentials presented are

But, the credentials are characterized as borrowed

But, the subject is not dangerous

Further iteration "But" is repeated 9 cycles, taking into account all aspects

The "Olga" factor is an overestimation of the degree of danger, "statistically insignificant"

Olga pursed her lip. Not that she wanted to be very dangerous, but still to be relegated to the level of a statistically small value seemed offensive.

It is taken into account that further disordered development of the situation will lead to the physical termination of the existence of the object Olga

"Wow!" An "object" said.

In these circumstances, the second approximation chronological sequence is not expressly forbidden

Formulations are simplified, time points are ignored, spatial localization is ignored

Make a synopsis of -?

"Go ahead," Olga waved her hand hopelessly. The only thing she understood from the typed speech was that the old computer would like to tell her something useful, but it could not do it directly. The only thing it could do was to make some hints, some mumblings, and in a crooked paraphrase of the machine language.

Fatigue pushing, squeezing the last drops of strength out of her body and soul. In fact, the girl was no longer interested, She became indifferent to the local worries. She just wanted to sit mindlessly in a cozy room, as far away from the horrors of the outside world as possible, feeling the warm vibration of the mechanism behind her back. And while the Machine was busy talking, it did not chase away a guest from the unimaginable past.

Forty thousand years.

Olga sluggishly thought that she didn't even question the computer's diagnosis about the time gap. Probably because surviving on the ballistic station had already prepared her for the madness that had set in.

Sleep. Get some rest. Think about nothing. Though there was something else, something to think about. What was it?

Her thoughts were moving sluggishly, like fish in oxygen-poor winter water. Trying to remember what she had forgotten, the girl unfolded the thin paper from the Machine's printer with tired, trembling fingers. The dead scarecrow on the pedestal gleamed red glass.

Timeline

1. Stable background of information content.

2. Unstable background of information content.

3. Danger is identified. The qualification is the "Prohibited cult ".

4. Reconnaissance activities carried out by the commission of Or.He.

5. Additional reconnaissance activities.

6. The special task force begins routine actions.

7. Special Task Force - resource inconsistency with assigned tasks was detected.

8. Special task force - continuing action in a tactically disadvantageous situation.

Continuation - yes/no

Questions

"Orhe?" Olga wondered.

Ordo Hereticus

"Ah...yeah, now it's definitely clear."

The robot did not understand the sarcasm either and remained silent, glaring at his companion with the blind reflections of the lenses on his peripheral devices.

"So..." the girl thought for a moment.

She was so tired that she didn't even want to sleep. A sprout of sluggish curiosity broke through the wall of apathy, of indifference to this crazy, crazy world.

"I understand nothing," Olga honestly admitted. - Although no...

She thought a bit more.

"So some nonsense started here," suggested the girl after a one-person brainstorming session. "And some "oheretikus" started a reconnaissance."

The skull clicked loudly on the lens, or rather the red glass that covered the camera lens itself. She supposes it should have been interpreted as the equivalent of a nod.

"The task force... officers..." Olga unraveled the tangle further. "The oheretikus swooped in, started digging, questioning, and all that. Right?"

It clicked again. The red circle went up and down on the hinge again.

"Has there been a conspiracy or something?"

9. Special Task Force - an attempt to obstruct a set of actions defined as "ritual".

Addendum: "Ritual", danger category high [assessment documentary, operational-reporting]

10. Conflict, interaction - aggressive. Use of weapons - firearms, beams, throwing explosive charges

"Ritual" - continuation, escalation. Goals - not defined. An assessment of danger is subjectively characterized as constantly escalating. The emotional component can be characterized as "panic".

11. Unplanned disturbances. Instability. Probably had brief contact with chaotic unstructured pseudo-reality [Warp]

Information content is chaotic, scarce. Uncertain - composition, consistency. Side effect - interference/disturbance/disturbance/losses [no detail allowed]

Continuation - yes/no

Olga wrinkled her forehead. Separately, the theses of the machine were generally understandable, but putting them together into a coherent picture was more difficult than putting together a well-mixed jigsaw puzzle.

"Is the ritual something bad?" she tried to clarify.

Silence.

"Was the ritual performed by villains?" she made another attempt.

Silence.

"Is he the one that made everyone go crazy?"

Nothing.

"Ah, an iron donkey..."

The Machine was silent this time, too. Olga felt a little ashamed. After all, the electronic interlocutor seemed to be trying its best to give her some idea of what was going on.

"I'm sorry," she muttered. "Okay... We'll just assume it wasn't ours. I mean, they did some creepy ritual, and it ended badly. Gunfire and explosives. And then?"

13. Fixing of the intermediate result. Human losses are qualified as "very high". Social interaction is qualified as "extremely unstable, accompanied by mass murders committed with particular cruelty". All administrative connections were qualified as "ceased to exist". Material losses are qualified as "moderately high". Possibilities of fixation are limited. Notification of what happened - not implemented. Damage Work Report - sent in due course. Expected response time - 07 standard months on Terra's administrative cycle. Ritual - not completed.

"The ritual fucked up, and some freaks blew up the station?" Olga guessed, and immediately corrected herself. "Oh, no, they didn't. They just made a mess. You live interestingly. Seven months, isn't it too much?"

14. Ritual - an attempt to re-complete. Operative group - obstruction at the final stage. Initial Evaluation - no evaluation. The task force is eliminated. Initial score - 100% elimination. Augmented Score - not determined, not confirmed.

15. Landing according to the combat regulations, the nature - "Boarding". Two A.A. combat units.

Assumption 1 - backup support group.

Assumption 2 - an alternative plan of action [options - reconnaissance combat].

Assumption 3 is not formalizable.

Tactical Assessment - [X]. Tactical self-assessment /translation, terminological adaptation/ "They are crazy there. Inquisition as usual. Kryptman fucked up the whole operation. Acting without support. May the Emperor help us do our duty."

16. New factor. Undetermined. Unknown. Unqualifiable. Aggressive. Combatable. Defined as "Factor X." Degree of danger - tentatively determined as high.

A.A.'s group splits up, with two units operating independently according to the tactical pattern of "Recon VI".

Additional chronological sequence.

acs №1 A.A. unit eliminated.

The overestimation of the degree of danger of factor X - the degree is very high.

acs №2 A.A. unit eliminated. The overestimation of the degree of danger of factor X - the degree is extremely high.

17. The "Olga" factor - direct contact.

"And here I'm completely lost..." Olga scratched her nose. She rubbed her temples as if blood circulation could spur the thought process. "So... ...that means that some freaks have been hitting the muddy stuff. The Oheretikus tried to stop it. It went through an a..."

She sighed heavily again, trying to organize her thoughts.

"It didn't work out well. Then a kind of support showed up. Two of these... units. Hmm...'

This time, for a change, Olga scratched her ear.

"And about the task force officers, those units thought badly. I got it?"

The lens clicked.

"That's how good I am," the girl muttered. "Two... And then something happened. Оh!"

She looked carefully through the dark lens of the camera.

"The big guy the freaks at the warehouse killed, was he one of the two?"

Click.

And you say you're unintelligent," muttered the girl. "That's how good we've been going."

She reread the paper tape, straining her tired eyes. The questions in her head collided, reflected off each other, and swirled chaotically, like garbage in weightlessness. For example, how did Machine know about the giant's death, if only Olga had seen the fight, and hadn't told anyone yet? Or was she not the only witness after all? Now the girl began to understand what the ancient Machine meant, describing the difficulties of communication. It's hard to talk through a glitchy translator...

"So two guys showed up, and then they were killed one by one. And it wasn't the cultists... The new factor, damn it... Extremely high danger, of course," the girl shuddered at the memory of the creepy clawed wickedness.

"Kryptman is probably Kryp. Fidus..." she snorted. "So he's the leader? And he's the one who seems to have fucked everything up. Oh, no!"

That's what she couldn't remember. Kryp! The wounded, sick Kryp had sent her for help. It was embarrassing, to the point of fever and crimson cheeks. She'd totally forgotten all about Fidus.

Clarify

The story turned out to be confusing and rambling. Olga would often get confused and go back, trying to describe her observations and impressions. The Machine brought back the skull, which, presumably, was a more tool for communication.

"That's it," the girl finished and added. "And we need help now... I guess..." then she caught her breath. "And Kryp needs medication! He's dying in there. The first aid kits are helping him, but he's pretty messed up. But help first. Isn't there someplace we can call? I have a plaque with a skull! Well... it was."

She realized that she was losing the line and stopped talking so as not to confuse the Machine.

Reassessment of the situation according to new inputs

The special task force - partially eliminated, leader alive, wounded, nonfunctional

Unexpected developments

A set of directives contradict each other

My operators/services are non-functional, presumably dead

The Ballistic Station is collapsing

Cultists are detrimental

Factor X has undefined goals

If we express the essence of the problem in terms you can understand

I don't know what to do.

"Let's then ..."

And what "then"? Her troubles were supposed to end with a visit to the final point drawn by Kryp. But it seemed that the most interesting thing was just beginning. Olga clenched her fists again, her fingers aching with tension. The gesture of despair had become habitual lately and was repeated too often. The girl drummed her fists on the metal floor and a couple of times on the iron box in an outburst of emotion. The skull jerked its vertebrae, the machine gesture seemed strangely judgmental. Olga was shaking finely and her temperature seemed to spike. Drowsiness receded as foam washed away by the rush of water. It seemed that the problems of survival were not over but rather had taken another turn.

Damn you all...

"Okay, there are two problems," Olga began to curl her fingers so as not to get lost in the chaos. - Kryp ... I mean, Fidus is badly injured. Your medicine is helping him, and it's making him stop dying. Is there a first-aid kit here?"

A resuscitation field kit is currently being assembled

Type universal

Self-use options are available

Time of readiness and delivery 10 minutes

"There!" literally shouted the girl. "That's something good. Next... Next. I shoved a gold plate through the hole that unlocked the locks. Does that count as credentials? Enough to call the cops and the KGB and others? Who's in charge here?"

Insignia confers rights

However, directively the scope of their implementation requires agreement with my operators/servants

Mostly

"The ones that are dead," the guest remembered. "I remember, yes. No servants, no approval. And you can't do anything without it," she remembered the medicine kit he'd been gathering. "Well, almost nothing. Well... we'll think of something..."

Technical readiness of the resuscitation kit - 7 minutes

Technical dysfunction

Damages

Invasion

"What?"

The realization that something bad had begun again crept into Olga's consciousness like a cold leech.

Interception of control

Conflict of protocols

Interference

Parallel chain of command

Compulsory activation of the full protection mode

Any target will be attacked

"Kit ... the first-aid kit..." whispered the girl. "To call for help ..."

The skull held out a pause, frantically clicking something in its bonehead. The pointers on the dials went back into a chaotic, one might say nervous, state. The cadaver on the stand twitched, shaking its head in a mechanical jerky rhythm. The lamps under the ceiling, hidden among thick strings of wires, flickered.

"What to do?" Olga asked helplessly.

There was a loud clang behind the riveted walls. The noise was repeated, rhythmic, and ominous as if a giant chain was being passed through a ring of steel. The armored doors through which Olga had entered the engine room began to close.

"What is it?!" The girl screamed, realizing that the gold plate was lost. And the chattering iron is not going to call anywhere because of its glitchy "protocols".

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