Research (Gear)

[Lukas]

Area 2 - 03:34am

Infiltration of indigenous social centre successful. Seven (7) individuals placed under mental subjigation with no risk of alarm, remainder removed from site. Now attempting experiment.
What was normally a bustling bar had closed early, the owner shoving out customers without even bothering to take pay. The staff had been dismissed as well, leaving empty plates and dirty glasses strewn over tables. Only a small group of men remained inside, sitting around a table silently. Their glasses left half-drunk and ignored in favour of a dartboard. Both board and wall were littered with holes and darts, the sign of a great many games played and won.
Physical challenge proving difficult. Indigenous species rely on stimulants - should bring Ichor supply for future experiments.
The board of special dishes had been repurposed to count wins, each player identified by a number one through seven. The eighth had a crudely drawn symbol instead, and no wins to its name thus far. It's own wild throws were responsible for a great deal of the holes in the walls, but with every toss it was getting closer and closer to the centre.

THUNK

Another close miss, and another loss to one of the men. There was no celebration - the bartender wiped the scoreboard clean, and chalked up another mark next to player number four. He returned to his seat with glassy eyes, and number five stood up to take his place. The man was unsteady on his feet, showing signs of physical fatigue as he grabbed a set of darts and lined up alongside the...

Spoiler: CREATURE?

Its manipulators were rolling a single metal dart between them as it considered the board, single eye unblinking as it looked over the arranged humans. Different builds, different faces.. still very much the same. A single tentacle twitched and the man chosen to play turned, picking up a half-drunk glass and downing the remainder of the liquid. It was not the pint he had claimed three hours prior, but that mattered little. Liquid Calories would keep the subject functional. Allow it to continue.
Subject two has relaxed mental defences. Critical information retrieved, but experiment not finished. Dominance not asserted.
Pilgrim did not plan on leaving until it had scored a victory over at least one subject. Each game marked a closer defeat, and greater understanding of the challenge. To give up would be to render the expedition pointless.

Spoiler: OBSERVATIONS SO FAR

Some members of indigneous species assert biological supremacy over others.

Indigenous social groups establish hierachy through physical and mental challenges.

Hypothesis:

Indigenous species will prove more receptive to interrogation if dominance is asserted through such a challenge.

 

[Nemesis]

Whunch.

The noise of wood splintering from the front of the bar likely would have made few heads turn. At length, the door creaked open, and a pair of figures creeped through. One let the doorknob, wrenched from its place in the wood, fall to the floor with a metallic clang. The taller of the two, his features seemingly wreathed in perpetual shadow, removed his hat and looked at the fallen knob, reproachfully.

"So much for our dramatic entrance." He said, sullenly.

His companion, the short woman with with the terribly pale skin, responded immediately, glancing up at him with dismay as she spoke with a voice that was like the thrumming of a thousand locust's wings:

"It was your idea, Mr. Guildenstern."
"I underestimated its durability, Ms. Rosencrantz."
"So sorry."
"So sorry."

By this time, several other... figures had filed in between the two. The long coats wrapped about their forms gave the vague appearance of humanoids, but their bulk implied otherwise. Six in all, they flanked the two Invaders, three to a side.

"What a curious scene."
"A puppet show in an alehouse? How novel!"
"Not something a human could have thought up."

A collective chuckle emerged from the two, as though they were laughing at a private joke, both clapping their hands in perfect unison. Their eyes settled on the... thing.

"How pleasant to see your kind here."
"But not unexpected."
"We have not come to meddle in your business."
"Quite the opposite."

 

[Lukas]

Every head snapped around towards the door when it shattered, the men jerking their bodies unnaturally to face its shattered remains. The creature dropped the dart it had been playing with and skittered behind one, using their bodies a a meatshield while it assessed the intruders. Waiting for a sudden movement that never quite came.

"Perimiter breach in entryway."

One of the men spoke up, eyes that looked at nothing coming into focus for a brief second of clarity. A puppet providing a voice for another. Some traces of a Britannian accent survived, but it was clear the voice was not his own. Their master's focus seemed to be flickering, the creature preoocupied with something beside the intruders. Once it deigned to speak again the air pressure in the room seemed to have thickened... the second puppet to speak sounding more confident than the first. Each sentence came from a different man as the creature spoke through them, voices different but unmistakeably from the same origin.
Blink pack charged. Escape route confirmed viable.
"You communicate. With their tongue. Through their skin."

"And yet you are..."

A pause. Every single human spoke at once, differing tones forming a harmony of disgust.

"Invader."
Close combat... feasible. Estimate 100% casualty rate among indigenous group regardless of outcome. Theorising alternate soluions...
Commencing adapation of original iresearch proposal.
It's pair of eyes surveyed the group, the upper one starting to hum with a soft tone. After some more consideration it died down as quickly as it had ignited. A weapon, perhaps? Afterwards the bartender cast a new set of darts onto the bar, one hand still clutched on something hidden underneath. There was an attempt at invitation when he spoke, an unnatural politeness.

"Would you like to play a game?"

 

[Nemesis]

A collective chuckle went up from the two Invaders. Guildenstern walked to the counter, and picked up the dart. Its keen, metal tip glinted in the light as "they" spoke.

"We are already playing one, you see."
"Our table is merely... different than your own."

One of the hooded figures accompanying the two shifted its weight. The feet extending down from it were more like enormous hooves, with pallid white flesh, as beady red eyes peeked out from under its poorly-fitted hood at the bar patrons.

"We had no reason to approach your civilization prior."
"Yet, we are more similar than dissimilar."

Another hooded figure beside the two seated itself. This one, at least, seemed to be more humanoid... but the sharp, metal-like claws that terminated from its sleeves, and the armored boots, suggested the presence of more than simple weaponry on its person.

"The universe is littered with dead-end cultures."
"Entire species left to wither on the vine."
"A graveyard of wasted potential."
"Those who fail to evolve become nothing but fuel for the future flame."

"However..."
"However..."

Thwop.

The dart sailed through the air, compliments of the shadow-wreathed man, to bury itself in the dartboard. A respectable throw, planted firmly in the black-marked section on the outside of the board. Rosencrantz presented the next dart to the creature. From the corner of her eye, a small claw pushed some flesh aside, a yellow eyeball peeking out at it - but only for a moment.

"You are different."
"You, like us, were drawn to this place."

 

[Lukas]

Pilgrim took the dart, flicking it a few times in its manipulator. The creature itself remained silent, but while it deliberated the toss each of the human puppets began to speak in sequence.

"This situation is abnormal. Indigenous response has been unpredictable. This... interests you?"
Point of questioning - Invader infiltration in indigenous society.
Its own throw was less measured, the manipulator flicking the dart rather than truly throwing it - but with enough force to embed it in the outer edge of the darboard, in the black segment below the twenty. A more accurate throw than any it had done so far, and one it took a great deal of pleasure in. The scraping of chalk marked its score out of habit, the puppets continuing to talk. Their bodies remained still like statues, but there was a growing hint of emotion in their voices as they repeated Pilgrim's words.

"You see the same variance. They scorn the ichor. Nobody spurns the ichor. Monitor does not comprehend. I do not understand."

Pilgrim's eye flicked back to Rosencrantz, focusing on her with such intensity that the puppets turned to stare as well. None blinking, none deviating - they barely even seemed to breathe.

"I wish to learn."

One word the invaders had spoken stood out in a way that others did not. Evolution. One that held a confusing meaning - which piqued Pilgrim's interest. It swept the minds of its puppets to obtain an understanding but their answers were scattered. Confused. Inconclusive in a way that forced the creature to define its own meaning, for better or worse.

"Is ichor-ascension Evolution? Infuse with ichor, mutate. Become stronger. Different."

 

[Nemesis]

The two gave a synchronized chuckle, as though sharing a private joke. To any onlooker, the conversation would have seemed as eerie as it was alien, two sets of monsters conversing about the nature of the universe.

"Once, these humans walked on four legs."
"Little more than furred beasts."
"In some sense, not much as changed."
"Indeed. Mankind's appetite for destruction has not diminished."

They nodded sagely in agreement with one another. A strangely human motion, considering the state of their respective bodies.

"The Getter Rays choose who shall rule this galaxy."
"The Getter Rays chose humanity."
"There were others before."
"Those who fell out of favor, and were consigned to the dustbin of history."
"Like your superiors."

A ripple of black, roiling flesh in Guildenstern. An involuntary shudder, or a minute spasm. Perhaps the Pilgrim's senses would have registered, now that there was due time to subject them to analysis, that their bodies seemed to have more mass than possible. As though they were bursting at the seams, their forms just barely containing whatever was within.

"The Ichor you speak of..."
"It is the final straw they grasp."
"Desperately wafting the fading cinders of a long-lost flame."
"Sad."
"Pitiful."

What would happen when the Ichor was gone?

If the thought had never occurred before, it perhaps might have now. The Tiberium was, after all, a finite resource. Nothing was forever... although the two before the Pilgrim, if the question were ventured, would have found that particular notion deeply amusing.

"There is so much more to existence than you can imagine."
"And we shall show it to you."
"We shall walk the path of evolution with you."
"Such things we have to show you."