Let's Play The Spirit Engine 2

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Chapter 9: Return to Longreach

Part 3: Moment of Victory

My God, the space is enormous! There's a whole other world beneath us, lost in an endless ocean of cloud. So beautiful and yet so cold and mournful. I wonder what happened here...


I noticed an engraving on the wall by the entrance, my Prince, beside a forlorn and forgotten skeleton. It was labored and crude, unlike the other markings. Perhaps some sort of journal. Might I be allowed a short time to translate it?


Yes, yes. Be quick about it, Julius. My hour of triumph is at hand, and the eyes of history are upon us. I would hate for this moment to be spoilt by unwelcome guests arriving late.


I still don't understand. Why are the people upstairs hurting each other, and why aren't we stopping them?


Because it is their nature to do so, my dear Clay. Because they are foolish and submissive. Because they deserve it and because it serves our purposes for them to waste their energies on each other.


But I don't want them to get hurt! I don't want them to fight! Shana said that people fighting was what destroyed Amara and made her cry. Why do we want more people hurting?


Poor, stupid rock. You never told him about Porto Vale or Kelstarin, did you?


Your tone and your contribution to this conversation are neither appropriate nor welcome, Shala. Do not make me angry.


What was that about Kelstarin? I liked Kelstarin, it was pretty. When are we giong back?


We won't be going back to Kelstarin, Clay. We'll have no need to, remember? Once I reshape the world, there will be no more Lereftese Parliament. No more United Lereftain. No more Yaegara. And no more Rakari.


And I can have my own farm with a blue fence and it will be full of animals and I can spend all day petting them! Hehehe.


That's right, Clay. There will be no creature that calls itself your master. Amara will be free. We will all be free.


And then what, my Prince? When you have broken the two greatest powers on Medea, cast out the Rakari, raised Amara to the skies and secured our borders?
What of those left outside? There will be chaos. They will climb over each other to claw their way into our paradise.
Is the only way to secure our strength to ensure the weakness of others? What if you fail to slay all of the Rakari, and they strike back? We could find ourselves strengthening their tyranny.


Half my life has been spent preparing for this moment, Shala. The Rakari will die in the initial upheaval. There will be no mistakes. Julius and I have accounted for every possibility.


Including those nice people who keep chasing after us?


Y-Yes, you lumbering fool! Including them. Julius! I will wait no longer. Get back here and open the chamber!


But my Prince, I need more time to decipher the writing. It is crude and jagged, as if the writer were struggling to carve every letter. It may contain something of impor...


I will wait no longer! I cannot stand here idly while you dither over those scratchings. Those fools may be upon us at any moment, and I wish to crush them after I ascend, not before.


You don't think Shana was able to defeat them, my Prince?


No, I don't. Her heart may be full of fire, but it will never be enough to overcome her practical shortcomings. She was always the weakest of you. The one whose carelessness doomed my parents.


Then why did you leave her there to face them alone? We could have stayed beside her, fought together and won. Why did we run?! Were you afraid of them?


I am afraid, Shara, of unnecessarily risking what we have all suffered so much to achieve. This is a war we're fighting, against terrible odds and ruthless foes.
Sacrifices must be made. I have to be practical and make the best use of what few resources we have.


Resources... Yes, I see. I am sorry, my prince, I spoke out of turn.


Open it!




How very noble of you, Julius. And your reasons for making such a generous offer would of course be entirely selfless?


Yes, my Prince, of course! I think only of your wellbeing!


There is no need to test the machine. I have waited ten years for this moment. I will not wait another minute more. Watch me now, father, you did not die in vain. I am victorious!








Isabelle? Is that you? Thank God you're alright. Where are they? Did you see where they went?


They left me here and walked into the machine with the light. I haven't seen them come back out yet.
This place is spooky. I can't remember which way is out any more. Scratchy found me after they left. He's been looking after me and scaring the shadows away.
He's big and strong and he does whatever I say. Who's your new ghost friend?


His name is Darak. He's not really a ghost, but I suppose you could think of him like one. He's very old and he's here to help us.


Isabelle, I want you to stay here with your new friend while Ionae, Pyanpau and I go deeper into the tunnels and find Batiste. Can you do that?


No, you're not leaving me here! I don't want to be useless any more. Scratchy and I are coming with you, and we're going to help, aren't we, Scratchy?


I'm not sure this is such a good idea, Isabelle. Whatever happens down there won't be pleasant. We can't guarantee your safety.


That's okay. I don't think anyone can. Mister Batiste was right, I do have a choice. I want to come with you.


Then welcome to the party, Isabelle. Stay close behind with your new toy and follow us. We're going to disrespectfully request an audience wtih the Prince.






Clay, there's nothing we can do. Her neck is broken. She's dead.


I don't understand. You can make her smile again! She was too nice to die. The others would laugh at me, but she was always, always... so...


Kind...


The poor thing. He's just a little boy. What could do that to him?


I only need one guess. Our renegade Prince has found what he was looking for and discarded his assistants. We're in trouble.


He controls the World Eye now, the great machine that surrounds us. Already the earth moves above, reshaping and reforming. All of it.


All of it? What do you mean, Darak? What is he trying to do?


I-I do not know. I sense no pattern, no rationality behind the movement. It is change for change's sake, chaotic and destructive. He's tearing the shell apart.


Has he gone made? We have to get in there and stop him!


He is beyond confrontation now. The World Eye acts as an amplifier for the controller's latent power on a global scale. It is driven to fulfil their wishes, and whatever Batiste wants, it is trying to give him.
The Prince may be too far removed from his ancestors for the locked outer doors to recognize him, but the machine itself must have lain just as it was left, all those thousands of years ago.
Waiting to fulfil its purpose. Now it can, and we wields power that no force on Medea can contest save perhaps for these Rakari you speak of.


And he'll kill them first, before they even realize what's happening.


You can't talk like this! There must be something we can do!


Darak, can you read this inscription? It looks like it was made by the last person left alive in this chamber. It might be able to tell us why the machine was left in this state.


It is faint, but I can. It begins:



It is the fory-second cycle of the global hibernation, and as our compatriots slumbered, we caretakers had worked in earnest.



We had endured much, crawling aross the burnt, artificial surface of our world in our cumbersome suits and light-scorched machines, repairing, observing, collecting, surviving.
The storm is a wondrous yet unforgiving force, and it is far from empty. It has brought many unusual creatures with it to our world, not all of them mindless.
We studied them carefully as they fell. Some stopped and rested for a short while before launching themselves star-wards again. Others tried to stay.



Some that we confronted and drove back into the stellar winds were truly alien and grotesque. They posted dangerse we were ill-prepared to counter, but alone and isolated we could contain them.
There had been casualties. We lost several survey ships out in the storm to unknown forces, and we had too few staff to risk any rescue operations.
Tension had been mounting here as the shell began to crack and the skies continued to burn without end. Then, in one bloom of violet light, our end finally came.



For two days they descended upon us. Fearing their intention was to settle and given our previous conflict with the storm's refugees, we attacked with pre-emption in mind.
We sought to repel them before their numbers became uncontainable and their grasp upon our world became too tight.
Perhaps they came with invasion as their intent. Perhaps they were benevolent but weary from their journey between the stars.
I doubt it matters any more, here at the very end of our species. We failed, and they will write our history as they see fit.
These Rakari are not like the creatures we fought before. Those we could restrain physically, but the Rakari know no such boundaries.



They fell upon us like an idea. Our initial assault collapsed in disarray, and ever still did the creatures rain down from the storm. Once brave and fearless caretakers fell to their knees, weeping and wailing rather than attacking.
I'm not a religious man, but I wonder now, as my time expires, whether this tempest was a judgement from an angry God, wrought upon us for our sins. Perhaps mankind was never meant to survive it.
All the remaining caretakers rallied to the defense, but it was a lost cause. The automated systems were silenced one by one as their masters lost their minds. The sounds of battle outside diminished.



Captain Faran strode into the chamber, his stately robes billowing about him, seeking to wield the power of the World Eye in our defense.
In that moment, as the cocoon closed around him, I saw the despair in his once fierce brown eyes, and knew that it was the end. This would be our last stand.



They found us, found the inner workings of the World Eye and stuck us here. I heard them, talking through my mouth.



He lashed out savagely with the World Eye, like a madman against a swarm of insects. Mountains rose towards the stars and fell, dragging the Rakari down into the cold earth or smashing them against the rocks.
Still they fought, and for the first time I felt desperation in them as the slaughter of their kind grew ever wilder.
I watched the mind of a great man flayed away piece by piece before me as they redoubled their efforts. I imagined the countless millions of our own kin who must have died as their places of slumber were opened to the storm by his mad fury.
For a short time he raged as an angry God, with all the power and wrath of time-lost deities and none of the restraint. Even when madness had taken him, the World Eye fought on to grant his one last wish. To kill as many of the Rakari as possible.



The great machine let out an almighty roar that brought tears to my eyes, as if the heavens themselves were being torn asunder, and then died. I sat and watched and wept as our future collapsed around me.
If you are reading this, I beg you, do not touch the World Eye. Its sircuits are left twisted and broken by the strain, and the only gift that its interface can bestow now is the insanity Captain Faran left with it.
The poor Captain is lost to us now. I hear him wailing inside his coffin like a tortured animal, clawing at the insides and screaming in some unintelligible tongue. I have tried to console him, but I doubt he can understand me anymore.
I am unable to escape. Without power, I cannot open the doors. The core connections will be repaired by the automatons within a month, but by then it will be too late for me. Already I am delirious with thirst.



Did I do the right thing? Have I betrayed our people? I think of those left outside. Have any of them survived, and if so, what life awaits them and their descendants?
Medea now lies in the hands of what few Rakari are left alive on its surface.
Will these angels who see into our souls seek bloody revenge upon us for our rejection? Does the race of man end here with me as its last voice?
I acted with the best of intentions. We all did. Please forgive me.




Is that the past? He suffered a terrible fate. May he rest in peace.


The Rakari could have consigned humanity to extinction if they'd wanted. Instead they've kept you in a dreamworld and run Medea as some kind of interstellar refugee camp ever since.


Now Batiste is in control of the machine that built this world, and he seems to have lost his mind. Who knows what he'll do to Medea and to Lereftain?! There must be something we can do, Darak. Please, think!


I'm trying! I am a ship based construct without the knowledge of the Eye's power systems possessed by our carver. But we may be able to exploit the existing damage in order to eject the Prince.


The World Eye has fail-safes designed to prevent unstable personalities from performing catastrophic actions with it. They must have been disabled when humanity made its last stand.


If I traverse the Eye's network, I may be able to find and re-engage them. Could you distract the Prince long enough for me to attempt this?


I don't know, darak, but we must be all that stands now between Medea's inhabitants and utter ruin. We have to try.


We don't have any choice. It's our world up there, too, for all its faults. If Batiste wants to destroy it, he'll have to deal with us first.


We didn't come all the way down here expecting an easy fight. I'm with you.


Me too. I won't run away.


Then I wish you luck. I am a dying ember cast adrift on the wind. Thank you for granting the freedom to choose a noble end. Go swiftly now, and think only of victory.



Next time: The final battle!


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