February 25th at 15:55pm
Doctor Bast kneels closer to the corpse, still holding the cold, half-metallic hand between her own. The faint static hum intensifies for a moment, like a dying vox trying to catch a signal through a storm.
-Adept CXI…- she whispers softly. -You are not alone. Your duty is fulfilled. Your brothers came for you. Let us carry what you cannot anymore.-

LIV stands rigid beside her, optic implants flickering with streams of data no one else can see.
-Ref 1 – Bio-signature at 0.05% and falling.
╙►Warning – Neural lattice instability increasing.

Doctor Bast swallows and continues, her voice trembling but firm.
-You fought. You endured. Whatever happened here… it was not your failure. Let us understand it. Let us give it meaning.-
The corpse’s remaining augmetics twitch. The white noise sharpens into a thin, almost melodic whine. On LIV’s retinal display, corrupted files begin to unspool like torn parchment in a digital wind.

-It… responds.- LIV murmurs, almost surprised.

-Of course he does,- Bast whispers. -He is afraid to fade without purpose.-

-Ref Null – Emotion parameter unverified.-
And yet the machine spirit yields.

Broken fragments of memory bleed into LIV’s processors and are projected in flickering hololithic flashes above the corpse: marching columns under red skies… mining domes in the distance… regimental banners of the LX, LXI… and the newly arrived LXII.

-Ref 1 – Adept CXI assigned to LXII Chagothian Forces.
╙►Deployment objective – Reinforce LX and LXI regiments already engaged in subterranean conflict.
-Ref 2 – Officer authorizing deployment: Commissar-General Jarsus Stulton. Supreme military authority of Chagoth.
Thanatos curses under his breath.

-Stulton? The bastard runs the whole planet’s war machine.-
More images flicker—troops fortifying extraction areas, rat-like shadows swarming through maintenance ducts, desperate last stands among supply crates.

-Ref 3 – No data regarding P1-10 compound synthesis.
╙►Adept CXI had no clearance nor operational knowledge of “Pixie Dust” production.

Commissar Bryce clenches her jaw.
-So the cogboy didn’t even know what they were really guarding.-
The static spikes violently. The corpse jerks once, then twice. LIV’s voice lowers.

-Ref 1 – Bio-energy at 0.004%.
╙►System collapse imminent.

Doctor Bast squeezes the limp hand tighter.
-Thank you… You can rest now.-

For a heartbeat, the static fades to near silence.
Then, unexpectedly, a final surge.
A new data cluster unlocks within LIV’s cortex. Hidden. Isolated. Marked with a simple binary signature.

-Ref – Additional file discovered.
╙►Tag: Gratitude.
╙►Content: Structural map fragment.

A wireframe projection blossoms in the air: beneath their current level, slightly offset from the main shaft, an old cargo elevator. Disused, unregistered in the public holomap. Its access corridor concealed behind maintenance storage and sealed bulkheads.Thanatos lets out a low whistle.

-He showed us a back door.-

The corpse’s optics dim completely. The white noise collapses into silence.
-Adept CXI. Offline.-
LIV inclines her head.
-Gratias tibi, frater.-

The room feels heavier now. Commissar Bryce straightens, adjusting the newly acquired sword at her belt.
-So. The missing regiments were here. The source of P1-10 is here. And Commissar General Stulton signed the whole deployment.- She exhales slowly. -That’s not coincidence. That’s design.-

Beyond the sealed gate, distant scratching resumes. The swarm has not dispersed.
Thanatos checks the charge pack of one of the newly found rifles and grins beneath his mask.
-We have better toys now. And a hidden lift. I’d call that a miracle.-
LIV projects the map fragment again, the faint outline of the old cargo elevator pulsing softly in red.

----------------------------------------------------
The choices now are as follows:
1-The missing troops and the origin point of the P1-10 compound was this mining facility. Use the elevator to go down a level and look for the P1-10 compound.
2-Use the elevator to leave the place and go question Commissar General Jarsus Stulton.
3- Use the newfound equipment to try to clean the rat infested corridor and get back to the battleground, hopefully to recover more hints about what happened there.