Lyun found herself so tired that she had thus slept in very late into the dusk. By the time she did finally wake up, she found Axln in a very zombie-like state, still unable to get even a wink of sleep.

“Axln, you look absolutely terrible. Do you want me to get some kind of sleep instrument so that you can get some rest?” “Nope, I’m good. Considering everything that happened earlier, I think I would much rather not find myself under some strange influence.” Lyun noticed Axln grasping a certain white glove while responding, the meaning not at all lost. Axln was clearly feeling haunted by all of the chaos stuff, leaving her a complete wreck. Lyun had no idea how she could help, but clearly her presence wouldn’t make sleep any easier, especially when she herself felt the need to get stuff done. However, after making the finishing touches to the other power gear, she also discovered that her presence wasn’t being that constructive to anyone else getting sleep either, it had actually gotten a bit late. Of course, that was only by the standards of this world, she could easily find energetic ways to be productive in the other. The challenge would be dragging Axln around enough for them to complete a shift to that side. Axln at least followed along with the plan, not wanting to be in the way.

Kori was then set into yet another bed soon after, still in much the same state as Axln had been at this point. Their sleeping quarter with Hypertech was in one of the upper levels of the residential tower, leaving an overall trip from deep underground to high above it, and it didn’t help that the tower was still using a simple stairwell. After Rosa ensured Kori had made it safely to a bed, Rosa made her way down to the ground floor and began looking into something to occupy herself with. As uncertainty set in, she decided it might be best to start by checking in with Drew. She wandered over to the main office and knocked on his door, getting a reasonably quick reply. However, instead of the guy slipping out of his office discreetly as he had typically done, he instead motioned that she was allowed inside, his face showing that he visibly had a lot on his mind. Walking inside, she had assumed his office would have looked a lot similar to Kori’s own, a scatter of processing units in a slew of documentation work. While there were signs that some of such did exist, there was much more of something else. Metal parts laid scattered across the hall, visibly unfinished but still a work in progress. She couldn’t even tell what half of this stuff was trying to be, but there was still a subtle familiarity with it all. Something about the layout suddenly started to remind her of her old workshop.

“Hey, welcome back.. and to my office I guess. Sorry about the mess. Listen, I was wondering if you two were aware exactly what sort of place you both had offered us.” “A.. ruin in the middle of nowhere.” “One which you two seem to vanish into frequently. Then again, considering you both appear to absolutely vanish, I guess it might not be this place that is as interesting by itself. We’ve already noticed all the strange singularities that have occurred every time you both leave as well as when you return, I sort of knew you were both here long before anyone even saw you. I’ve even clued into such being related to all the fuss behind the whole Aerospace mess, the truth of why you were probably being detained before. Still, that’s a completely different matter, one I don’t even hold against you at all, no one else even knows about it yet. But what no one else seems to also understand is the exact nature of this place, especially its history. It appears that, before humanity drove the conduits into the gutters of society, they had a quite established society of their own. This site itself is actually one of their great capitals, a place that they held bastion for as long as they were capable. Something about this place was a treasure to them, but humanity never cared. To them, it was just a stronghold of their resistance, a fortification to be dismantled to put the conduits into place in the new society. However, this location really wouldn’t have held any strategic importance, there was another reason then for keeping it so secure.” Drew very clearly had been busy, Rosa was finding it pretty easy to tell why the guy might have had a lot on his mind. Taking a seat, she listened intently to his report.

“I haven’t told anyone else about this yet, by the way. I’m already feeling awkward walking all over what is basically the sacred ground of the conduit. Being offered this space has already proven to be quite the honor, I don’t even know how we could ensure to pay proper respects in such light. It would help if we understood why the conduit valued this place so much, but I guess such is asking too much. It has been why I’ve been very thankful that Kori herself had been personally delivering reports about the place’s layout, so that we might not disturb something we shouldn’t.” “Kori has told me that she honestly wishes she even knew anything about her own ancestral culture, she doesn’t know anything about the history of her people either. Whatever secrets this place might have, you probably know more than she does at this point.” “So, if I figure out anything interesting, I should let you both know. Got it.” Drew seemed slightly troubled by Rosa’s news, but he let it go. He really couldn’t hold this against either girl anyway.

“So was this what you’ve been up to all this time?” “Oh, you mean such research. It was a bit, to be honest, but not quite everything. As you can see, I have quite an interest in robotics and animatronics in general, it was my original inspiration into the industry. I started with such things, and then just climbed the ladder until I found myself with more executive responsibilities. Really though, I find it better to take the opportunity to return to my roots. Quite honestly, that cybernetic work between the two of you.. really inspired me to try something new for myself. I mean, it was my passion, but it kept being forgotten.” “Oh, so that’s why you’ve been so secretive about it?” “What? Oh, no, not quite. The others already know I do this sort of thing on occasion, but I guess, well, I had been working on a bit of a surprise. Cat’s out of the bag now though.” Rosa followed Drew as he went over to a counter space that had clearly been his latest efforts, the location generally clear of unrelated clutter. Rosa couldn’t figure out what anything there even was, though she suspected one piece was a kind of ODIF.. how did that go again? She was really bad with these names based upon letters. She knew that the other side made convoluted names by pulling terms from the Mythos, but here she learned that the Mythos really loved using overly long names, then condensing it into a string of letters. As she was still even getting used to such letters, it was really convoluted in her mind.

“This is an OSIDF DNTI, a Dynamic Nanotech Implant, or at least the parts of such.” “Oh, so the thing is done?” “It is a functional design, but I really don’t like it. It was having some huge performance issues, the only solution I’ve found for such was a neural interface.” “Is that bad? Sorry, these details are far more Kori’s part in things than mine.” “It means that the whole thing has to connect directly to someone’s mind in order to work properly. It runs in the same way your mind delivers commands to the rest of your body, through your nerve system. The whole thing gets attached directly to your spinal cord near your skull. It’s pretty intimidating stuff, having technology that is so invasive inside a person.” “Does it hurt?” “It might hurt a little at first, but it uses nanotechnology, most of the pain is just the insertion, it honestly takes no real space once inside. Such a thing would couple well with existing cybernetic infrastructure, drawing from an OSIDF unit to produce dynamic holo constructs. It would be like painting with a holo made by your mind. Considering you were communicating in drawing that whole time in captivity, I thought the idea would be pretty neat. I was planning on offering the design to you, for your own use, but I can’t in my right mind offer something as intrusive as a neural uplink.” Rosa’s eyes brightened the more details Drew presented to her. Constructing a holo design from the mind, wasn’t that pretty close to how the gift worked? She desperately wanted to try this thing out, the complications sounding totally worth it. Nanotechnology, that would basically be the same basic premise as the nanites. It wouldn’t be as smart as one, but it would be her own mind that would be doing the smarts.

Drew had given in with that, though they had called in Holi to help with the installation. With such skilled help, the process didn’t even take very long, though it did leave her with a bit of a headache.. mostly because of the medication. It seemed her neck was still rather swollen and sore from the process as well. The rest of the attachments were things she didn’t even notice, her knees fitting such other components rather easily. She found out that there was even one which Kori could use too if she was so interested, but that would have to wait for after Kori was back on her feet. While waiting for things to settle, she had also learned from Holi that there was a call that had come in for her while she was away. Something about her sister having checked up on her, the same one she had kept forgetting to contact. Holi meanwhile had gotten Drew’s permission to offer Sophie a trip to the new Hypertech, so she would be on her way soon. However, it might still be difficult to locate the place from so far away in the valley of snow. Someone would have to set a beacon up on one of the hills so that Sophie wouldn’t get lost along the way. Feeling generally responsible for this neglect, while being appreciative for the present, Rosa had been quick to offer herself for the job.

Thus, Rosa found herself out in the cold again carrying a rather heavy parcel through the snowy landscape, up a hill. Holi however had come along, something about offering to lift the package for her with a holo. Rosa jumped as inspiration struck, that was perfect. She went over to an area of open air, her mind focused upon the area as one of her experiences had often received training in. A sheet of holo appeared in the air, though she found no problems passing through it. Right, these things also needed a kinetic factor, a part of the same technology. Still focused upon the same idea, she attuned her creation accordingly, then successfully setting the package upon it. That done, the next problem she found was that the whole thing couldn’t be moved. Oh, she had the kinetic factor too high, it was all immobile. Carefully processing her adjustments, she managed to balance things evenly so that the package’s weight was supported, but the whole thing could be moved. Most people might have set the holo to a stable surface and basically dragged it along, but that took too much effort for Rosa. Instead, she pulsed the creation of the holo so that it played out like a mobile animation, shifting rapidly forward in a sequence of frames. The process was very slow at first, but as she got used to how such worked, she found things going about as quickly as she was comfortable walking. Holi just walked along with her, not having any idea what to say to these events.

Reaching her destination potentially far easier than she should have, she had the whole package set itself down carefully. Feeling proud of herself, she even managed to get the whole thing unpacked and set up by herself too, a beam of light shining into the distance. Her goal met, she turned to descend back down the hill, even proceeding a short distance away.. before a chill ran up her spine. Streaks of intense frost streaked across the ground towards her from behind, bringing a deep freeze far superior to the cold air. Turning around, she came to face a solid white mass of intense cold, moving without discernible shape. The thing stared at her just as she stared at it, a sense of familiarity building between them both. Catching herself being compelled to just advance into it’s cold embrace, she was instantly aware of what she faced. Much like the void monster that Axln had dealt with, that Lyun herself had gotten an opportunity with very briefly in another timeline, this was another fiend of chaos. However, in light of such memories, her previous failure to rush in and make a difference, something Axln had to instead step in for her.. Rosa was compelled instead to an opportunity for revenge.

Her biggest problem however remained that she simply wasn’t even as prepared as she was back then. She still did not simply have nothing. Remaining focused upon her target, a slash of holo crashed down onto it from above. The thing however weathered the strike with little concern, though such was enough to enrage it. As the beast tried to strike, Rosa formed up a holo barrier of full kinetic factor, but with the barrier fading on impact. Rosa still was then given enough opportunity to dodge, but the package she had brought was shattered by the blow. The wave of cold in turn also froze the very snow into a sheet of ice, having Rosa slip a long distance down the hill before she caught herself with her own holo. Struggling to her feet on the holo, Rosa tried to consider her options.. only to find the thing already upon her. It was viciously fast, dodging it was difficult, she wasn’t even certain she could outrun it. Was there even any point in trying?

“This thing is a dense concentration matching the same composition of your arm, which means it’s a state of zero energy. A high energy burst would very likely disrupt it’s stability, possibly even vapourize it. Holos are things of energy, but they are very energy conserved, visibly such low energy outputs aren’t enough to faze it at all. Meanwhile, this thing seems to easily consume energy quantities too inferior to it, considering its dark matter composition. Even the beacon there wasn’t enough to slow it down. We have nothing here that might stop it, but there is only one thing that might slow it down. Run back to Drew, tell him what had happened and tell him to get the weapon systems online. Ionic laser batteries, plasma particle cannons, those are some serious energy weapons. If anything we have might stop this thing, it would be some high density weapons like those.” “Wait, why me, why not…?” “Like I said, we have only one thing that might slow him down… well, one or a few billion. A high concentration of plasma cores set to overload all at once would be a very efficient way to slow this thing down. Don’t argue, just run, I won’t be able to slow it down for very long.” The holo that was Holi vanished at that point as the air around Rosa started to heat up quickly. The nanites were all primed to overload their cores in order to provide Rosa the room to escape and seek help, and Rosa knew it was too late to even argue.

Wiping her eyes, she hopped down the hill from holo to holo, ensuring the stability of her footing in the process. Right around the bottom of the hill, she had to catch herself with a holo as she was flung forwards by a catastrophic blast, the detonation generating some considerable smoke and a blue flame. Her ears still ringing, Rosa got back up and continued to run. For having original aspirations to gain revenge, this really wasn’t going according to plan. Rosa was still devastated at Holi’s sacrifice, but made sure to follow her last instructions. The whole place was in a flurry quickly after that, people running around to make their best attempt at getting the defenses online. However, left in disarray all this time, absolutely nothing was functional. This was bad, really bad, they didn’t have time for these delays. As Rosa ran around in the confusion, she found herself colliding with Tristine.

“Oh, Rosa, perfect, I need your help. I figured out what our biggest problem might be, for getting things working around here. I’m not an ionics technician for nothing, big deal repairs are what I do. I’ve seen these signs before, the biggest problem going on here is visibly a generator station failure. Drew hadn’t let me go check out this kind of stuff before for some reason, but now seems to be quite the exception. The guy is already quite busy, but you’re good with machines too. Follow me.” Tristine didn’t even leave any opportunity for a reply. Generator stations? Getting things to work would be a requirement for what Holi sent her to do, but this was only making things more complicated. Rosa certainly wasn’t skilled enough to help with something that big, not even in the other world. She only ever tinkered in the small things, never anything so architectural. Something like this was totally beyond her. Sure, maybe if she borrowed some of the immensity of the temporal plane… No no no! She just wished Kori was here right now, the woman knew so much about this stuff, understood so much, things would have been so much easier. Of course, Kori wasn’t in much of a capacity right now, not with her level of exhaustion. Rosa could tell there was something more to all that exhaustion too, Kori would have easily even made mistakes as a result. Kori had come to Rosa’s rescue too much as things stood, such a pattern couldn’t be left to continue. This was more than she had ever achieved before, but it was still something she had to do.

As is, it wasn’t even as if Rosa was alone, she still had Tristine helping her. The woman had already isolated that the generator station would be underground below the ruins, even had pinpointed a prime location for such a thing. There was a bit of concern about a decent access point, but Tristine still managed to figure that out while Rosa was still trying to figure out what was going on. However, they quickly found their path obstructed, a bunch of heavy plates having collapsed in the way. Tristine saw no other way, they would have to go back and figure out how to bring some heavy equipment here. Rosa looked at the formation, almost instinctively piecing the entire formation like an overglossed puzzle. Some very distinct movements could cause things to move correctly, but it required some excessive strength in some very tight spaces in some very precise locations. She could just take the whole thing out by opening a temporal breach.. that was always an option.. one she simply had no use for. Focusing on key locations, she set holo points carefully, extended the kinetic factor, then expanded the framework. Stepping back, the entire mesh of plates collapsed to the sides, the way through opened. Tristine passed Rosa a very inquisitive look, a moment where Rosa felt a bit of pride in having actually accomplished something, before leading the way down.

The area got incredibly dark very quickly, almost unnaturally so. Even after Tristine pulled out a tiny ionic lantern, the very darkness of the walls seemed to devour such light. Checking a bit closer, Rosa discovered that such was the case specifically because the walls were actually naturally solid black, with only trace patterns of white filaments scattered through the stone. As they continued along the path, this collective of stone continued to persist. Along the way, Tristine found a loose sample and started observing it as they travelled, just in case this wasn’t exactly safe. Rosa wasn’t sure, something about this was both comforting and.. repelling. She couldn’t quite pinpoint what might be causing those feelings either. Quite certainly, having Tristine on the job was great, she would have needed Holi’s help otherwise.. at least maybe Kori. She certainly wasn’t the most qualified in this area.

“It’s a silica mineral with a lot of crystalline composites. Gosh, this is like some kind of gem mine or something, it’s so rich in the stuff. It has some definite quartz qualities, with the moganite’s parallel banding makes it seem more like onyx than agate. Is this even natural? I can’t even detect much iron oxidation, it's nothing like sardonyx.” “So, this is a gem?” “Yes, a silica one, so silicon dioxide. At the very least, that makes it pretty harmless, so it's not a concern. You can look at it if you want.” Tristine passed Rosa the stone sample, her gloved hand sinking in dread at the close proximity. However, much as Tristine had expressed, the thing really was harmless, it was actually sort of pretty. She looked at it a while more as they progressed, before simply putting it away. It was rather fascinating, but they really had more immediate troubles. That thing from before was certainly on its way, there were people counting on them getting stuff working down here.

However, as the two of them continued deeper towards the generator, Rosa was still uncertain if she could be any more useful than the rock they had just discovered. Much like her, it was little more than just an interesting oddity that was simply just hanging around.