Ark Brain Problems

Xanthiana had her rifle out and she was scoping out the targets down below. She could make out Rushard's men, they were all walking really weirdly near a salvaged piece of ark that had been clearly dredged out of the water (Xanthiana could see sea weeds and such still on the ark) she didn't know how they had gotten it to shore, but that was irrelevant, it was ashore and spreading the illness. The people were moving very oddly though, not exactly walking in a normal manner at all.

"What's wrong with them?"

"Their infected with the arkbrain, its controlling them specifically to protect itself."

"How do you know that?"

"It attempted to do the same thing to you, but after our last contact with ark tech I've modified my device to avoid the code it sent out." Xanthiana was proud of the ego device, she didn't even know it could do that.

"That's quite impressive."

"Well you don't like having your agency robbed of you, neither do I." Xanthiana could see down below the men had seemingly taken notice of her, probably because the ark brain after it failed to take her over made them aware. Xanthiana took aim and blew the first ones head off, the rest didn't seem disuaded at all instead they opened fire, but the ark brain controlled people were very inaccurate, she was able to kill three more of them before they even came close to her position.

"Impressive Xanthiana, I'm consistently pleased with your ability for marksmanship."

"Thank you Elly, I can't farm, I'm a terrible cook, and I style my hair like I'm not paying attention in the morning, but killing people its something I'm born to do." Xanthiana was running out ammunition, but she was running out of people to shoot sooner so the ammunition wasn't an issue. Xanthiana almost felt bad because the Ark Brain clearly didn't understand tactics or cover or literally anything to do with combat, she finished the last one off with another head shot and then made her way towards the ark. She had five rounds left and some explosives she hoped would be enough to stop the Ark Brain.

"I'm feeling better about our chances Elly, I think we can handle this."

"My scans of the ark show at least twenty people still inside."

"And there those good feelings just went."

Too Late

"My analysis of this subject shows it died of a massive nano viral load." Xanthiana had to carve the creature up for the EGO device to do its work, she felt like vomiting from the sight of all the entrails.

"So just a weapon, well that's good to know, surprising it took down a volge, but it was bound to happen may its rotten soul burn in whatever hell they have." Xanthiana didn't know much about the Volge, she did know they were basically killing machines that had no problem murdering human or votan.

"No its not just a a weapon, its a virus specifically targeted at killing things. I'm guessing we're too late and the ark brain has been unleashed." Xanthiana's heart sank, her mission was hard enough, it was even worse if she had already failed.

"But it killed a votan, the weapon was supposed to kill humans."

"It is supposed to kill threats to the votanis collective, and the Volge are certainly a threat to your people, they are a threat to everyone." Xanthiana got back into the car and started it up, she may have been too late to stop it from starting, but she could still attempt to stop it from getting worse.

"We don't even know if we can kill the ark brain Xan, this is a fools errand." The other ark brain had given her something, infused her with something, she could still feel it winding inside of her.

"I know that we have to try Elly, if not us no one else will be able to help." She could hear the little voice inside of her sigh.

"And if we fail."

"Than we can say we went out doing something good, which is unique in this world anymore." Elly seemed to like that answer and it made Xanthiana feel better even if it was a lie. She drove on, and hoped, just hoped, the plague hadn't gotten too far.

A One Votan Job

"This seems like folly to me." Elly had come back after the ark brain was finished giving Xanthiana instructions on what to do, the EGO device was not happy with the situation. Xanthiana was driving hard, the Arkbrain told her she didn't have a lot of time and she trusted it for good or bad, she figured bad, but she was a pessimist like that.

"Which part? The part where we are taking on long odds by ourselves, or the part where if we fail an ark brain will unleash a virus on the area that will make the entire bay area completely unlivable for non votanis people forever?"

"Both!" The plague didn't really concern Xanthiana as much as a votan weapon killing humans in general concerned her. If the weapon was unleashed she was certain a new war would start up and this time no one would survive it.

"I can't have the ereps involved or they'll blame the votans, and I have no connection to the votanis collective, and or they'll want the weapon for themselves just in case. And as far as the weapon, well I'll be fine if we fail so you know we'll keep living."

"You're such a pessimist."

"Of course I am, if you had my life story you'd find it hard to believe in anything good in this, holy shiiiiittttt." Xanthiana slammed on the breaks and almost collided right into a Volge. The creature was just standing in the middle of the road like a lost animal, it didn't even seem to notice her at first. She sat frozen in the car, her hands gripping the steering wheel.

"Do they normally just stand there?" Elly broke the silence, if only in Xanthiana's head.

"I've never seen a volge in person before, I don't know what I'm supposed to do other than turn the car around and drive in the other direction as fast as possible." The volge stood there in the road not moving still, Xanthiana didn't know the creatures to travel alone, then again she had little actual experience with them outside of campfire tales.

"Do you think we can kill it? I'd love to study a Volge."

"I can kill anything given enough time, the bigger question is, can I kill it before it annihilates me with some volge horrible, I have no idea." The creature lurched once and the collapsed, it was of course surprising to Xanthiana. In theory anything can get sick and die, Xanthiana didn't know shit about the volge let alone what could kill one.

"Quick we have to examine it!"

"Why?"

"Because whatever killed it might be fatal to you as well."

"So you want me to examine the corpse and possibly get infected."

"There's some optimism assuming you already aren't infected."

"Elly please, don't be you for just like a little bit ok."

Ark Brains

The wreck didn't look any different the second time around. It still smelled bad, and aside from it being darker inside Xanthiana didn't see anything that jumped out as especially dangerous. There wasn't any new sound or presence. She was about to ask Elly to find Deliah when she spotted the older woman on her knees sitting there like she was praying. Xanthiana approached her but couldn't seem to shake the woman out of whatever trance she was in. Then the ship went unnaturally quiet, and Xanthiana couldn't get a hold of Elly in her own head. And then Xanthiana's long dead, half remembered mother appeared.

"I mean you no harm Xanthiana." The voice wasn't her mothers, but Xanthiana didn't remember her mothers voice.

"Get out of my head Ark Brain." Xanthiana didn't know much about the computers, only they were the basis for the EGO tech and that some of them were extremely dangerous.

"You must listen to me Xanthiana, there is a danger here, other Votans are about to access an Ark ship they should leave alone."

"Why tell me, why not Deliah she's with the Erep." The image of her mother shimmered for a moment.

"She does not have an ego device, I've used some of my remaining power to remind her of her childhood, but I can not communicate with her like I do with you. This also concerns the Votanis Collective, if that Ark ship is breached and what is contained unleashed the earth will never be the same, and the votans will be to blame." Xanthiana wanted to tell the ark brain to fuck off and find someone else, but she couldn't, she couldn't let the world get worse than it already was.

"Ok, tell me what I need to know." The road to hell was paved with good intentions was an earth phrase, but it seemed to be the only one that made sense considering the situation.

Death Politics

"There is nothing in there just medical waste and instruments." Deliah had pulled out some instruments from her roller and was preparing to go inside the arkfall, Xanthiana felt the need to try and tell her not to bother and they should just blow it up before it caused more pain.

"To you and your EGO device I'm sure it looked like nothing, but the Earth Republic has been tracking this fall for a while and if our intel is right there is very important things inside of it." Xanthiana wanted nothing to do with it. The smell was getting worse than it had been when she arrived.

"So this is what you do, track down ark falls and kill raiders?"

"Mostly the ark falls, I'm a scientist at heart, but you can't be that in this world and not have a fast trigger finger." Deliah attached a gas mask in front of her face and offered Xanthiana one.

"No thanks I've been inside, no need for a return trip."

"Going to watch my back I take it."

"Sure we'll call it that." Its not like Xanthiana was in a rush to go kill Rushard, she wanted to of course, but wanted to savor the moment for a bit, let the dumb bastard think he's going to achieve victory, and then kill him without him ever knowing she was there. The fantasy was one thing that kept her going. Xanthiana didn't suspect anyone would be coming not with the smell from the ark fall and the smoke from the burning bandit vehicles, that usually tells people even in this shitty place to stay away.

"She might be right, there could be something VBI might want in there."

"And if I cared about that I'd go inside, but since I don't, and extension you don't Elly, we stay out here." Xanthiana was way more interested in picking over the corpses of the raiders.

"Why are you ok with picking over these corpses but not the ones in the arkfall?"

"Because these ones are fresh and I sort of know where they've been, the ones in the arkfall are gross and I have no idea where they have been or what killed them." It made sense to Xanthiana, but not Elly. Xanthiana had fully picked over all the corpses when she began to worry about Deliah. She hadn't heard from the human in what felt like a couple hours and she figured there would have at least been occasional chatter about something.

"Elly I'm going to regret this but scan for Deliah for me."

"She's in the arkfall same as she was, hasn't moved in like thirty minutes though."

"Shit." Xanthiana checked the magazine on her rifle and turned on her flash light, something was wrong in that Arkfall and sadly she was going to have to be the one to check it out.

Shootout at the Old Arkfall

"My name is Deliah by the way." The Erep soldier was dug in by the arkfall, Xanthiana was up top providing over watch with her rifle. The bandits looked to be in the twenty to twenty five range based on vehicles and the limited scans Elly could provide.

"That will come in handy, I can mark your gravestone now."

"It's better than we did for you Votans, mostly just left you rotting, maybe pissed on the corpse."

"In Castithan pissing on the corpse is considered a great honor." Xanthiana could see the raiders coming over the hill, she took a breath and sighted up on the lead car's driver.

"Really?" Xanthiana fired and the drivers head evaporated, his roller swung wildly out of control and smashed into the one next to it causing a bit of a jam up. It didn't stop the raiders from coming, but it would at least slow them down and make it easier for Deliah down below to handle.

"Oh yeah, its why I always tell every Castithan I run into I intend on pissing on them when they are dead, sometimes even before they are dead." Deliah laughed and then the sound of her voice was drowned out by the sound of gunfire. The raiders had pulled their remaining vehicles into a barricade, and they were trying to figure out Xanthiana's position when Deliah hit them from below. She managed to kill a couple before they adjusted to her firing position and pinned her down.

"You still up there?" Deliah croaked out, she sounded a bit hurried.

"Doing my best to kill these guys, but they are dug in very deep and keeping out of my scope."

"Well if you can figure out a way to help me out I'd surely appreciate the effort."

"Just like a human asking a Votan to help them out of a rough spot." The raiders were dug in tight. She had sniped them as best she could from where she was, but trying to relocate somewhere else might put her in the line of fire for the raiderss. But if she didn't Deliah would certainly be dead and as much as humans bothered her, that grizzled erep lady entertained her and that was more than enough. She slid down the embankment and came up firing she caught a couple surprised raiders who hadn't position to adjust to her firing from a different place. Deliah seeing her chance as they turned to face Xanthiana popped up from her fortified position and caught the raiders in a cross fire, she threw some grenades in for good measure The few raider who survived attempted to flee and Xanthiana killed them before they made it very far.

"Glad you didn't take too long to help me out there." Deliah looked a bit dirty, but otherwise unhurt.

"Didn't have enough of a bladder load to send you off in style, figured had to save you until I did."

Always Harder Than It Looks

The erep's roller was not exactly standard issue. All the windows and doors had been reinforced with big metal plates and the tires were larger with traction meant more for off road than trail driving. Xanthiana couldn't make out how many were on board, but the roller was small, so no more than two. She was laying prone with her rifle trained on the roller as it approached the arkfall. Elly could tell her the passengers didn't have EGO devices or even active radio signals, and they appeared to be alone. The roller stopped and one woman in armor got out, she had her hands up cradling a rifle above her head, it was the universal signal for surrender.

"I'm not here to harm you." Xanthiana was kind of surprised, while she wasn't in full cover she thought she'd hidden herself well enough. The woman's voice was broadcast from a speaker somewhere in her armor, she was wearing a facemask, so Xanthiana couldn't make out what she looked like.

"Can you tap into her com system to respond?"

"Affirmative, one sec let me connect you, and go ahead."

"This is Xanthiana Roeyka of VBI industries, we claim this salvage." The fact she didn't actually work for VBI as much anymore was something she just left hanging there, its not like VBI would notify the ereps of that. The soldier lowered her rifle and took off her mask, she looked old, probably around fifty, which was a bit strange for a foot soldier even in the shitty world they lived in.

"Thank god you weren't some raider, I caught site of your rifle glint and took a chance, I figured if you were a raider you would have just opened fire to start." The older soldier walked toward the arkfall, Xanthiana kept her rifle trained.

"I could shoot you you know, no one would know."

"You could, but you aren't, you VBI sorts are jumpy, kind of dick holes, but not flat out murderers. Besides you'll need my help." Xanthiana laughed, whoever this old military chick was, she had guts.

"And why do I need your help?"

"Because there are raiders coming, I got in front of them, hoping to check out what's here before they got here, but I can see its way too big to snag it and take off, so we'll have to defend it until support arrives, and it's easier to defend with two than it is by yourself." It was a fair point, and Elly confirmed the Erep's statement, there were more people incoming.

"You have a deal."