Chapter 172: (Historical Archive) (2/2)
How is he still alive? And some of us remember that woman. I think her name was .
Uh, what was that.
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
That's why try not to say their names. The systems that support our Gestalt try to bring up the files and get nothing but errors with most of them.
And we don't know. We just know he's the First and Last Immortal.
Some think it refers to Clinical Immortality, just having your brain put in a jar, but trust us, kid, it's more than that.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Like what? I mean, if you shot him with, say, a C+ Cannon, wouldn't he just be subatomic particles?
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
You mean like this...
>>>PLAY FILE
The battlefield was covered in debris. Smoke filled the city streets as tanks clashed at the range of half a city block. Through the streets massive figures in heavy power armor clashed, separated, and clashed again.
The entire thing was eerily silent.
One figure strode through the hellfire. A massive figure in a strange combination of Combine and Imperium armor, the eagle in burning white warsteel on its chest strangely out of place. It raised up it chainsword in one hand roared in rage.
Right as a tank breached the wall of the building next to the figure, aimed the barrel with a sense of almost panic, and fired its main gun.
The figure was reduced to a pair of legs in mid-air. The tank ran them over, continuing across the street.
Within seconds space bulged and rippled in the dust left behind from the tank as it crashed through the next building wall. A tear appeared in midair, heavy gauntlet covered hands grabbing the edges of the tear and ripping it open even further.
The figure stepped out of the fiery rip, chainsword in one hand, heavy magac stubber in the other. The armor was blackened and smoking.
---END FILE---
MANTID HIVE WORLDS
Just seeing that makes my abdomen go cold.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Wait, wasn't he just killed?
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Yeah, looks like it, doesn't it?
He's been recorded as killed at least a half-dozen times.
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BIOLOGICAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Believe me, kid, nobody has any idea how it works.
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
Believe me, we've tried to figure it out.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Doesn't TerraSol know?
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TERRASOL
No. All the records were lost in the Glassing. Whatever was done to him was done before the Glassing.
There are a lot of projects, secret projects, terrible projects, that were lost.
We learned long ago that just because it might be before the Great Glassing doesn't mean we can ignore it.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Trust me, kid. If someone unearths some old PreGlassing files, everyone panics. It isn't like the Tri-Vid shows where they find it, put it in a computer, and all kinds of data comes out to win the war or make them rich or whatever.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Then what happens?
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Most of the time? Black ICE rips their brain apart. A nearby creation engine prints out a hundred killer drones that murder everything in a ten mile radius, or a Digital Sentience leaps out and slags everything for fifty miles. Then the data-core vanishes. We're not sure where.
This one time, someone found an old pre-Glassing computer core, plugged it in, and they damn near lost the planet to hunter killer drones and murderous AI's, and black ICE that destroyed every computer system for fifteen light years.
We had to use atomics to destroy the city they plugged the core into.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
So they made him immortal back then?
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Which is why I'm looking at all these old records.
Well, not exactly me.
The seers.
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TREANA'AD HIVE WORLDS
Brrr, they give me the creeps.
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DIGITAL ARTIFICIAL SENTIENCE SYSTEMS
You aren't the only one.
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TELKAN FORGE WORLDS
Can I help?
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RIGELLIAN SAURIAN COMPACT
Trust me, stand over here with me, kid.
We don't want to get anywhere near this guy or anything about him.
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TERRASOL
Trust us old guys, kid.
You take care of Telkan.
We'll figure out what all this means.
What's next?
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Legion.
More into Legion.
There's clues there.
We just have to find them.
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TERRASOL
I'll open the datafile next.
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CLONE WORLD CONSORTIUM
I'm really sorry about this, guys. I mean, this is like dawn of history for me.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
It's OK. There's stuff in all our histories.
And when it comes to him, we're all equally guilty.
All right, the seers are ready.
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TERRASOL
This file is from the Imperium of Rage era at the end of the Imperium of Holy Light, before the Mantid LIberation War. It hasn't been opened since it was written and encrypted over eight thousand years ago.
Hold onto your butts.
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