Batay Vètyè Pt 2 (Patreon)

The Ground Team would be led by Captain TNDI, Dr. Orphiatek, and Byt Chyyp, and consisted of three ensigns from the medical department, ten members of security consisting of Machina, Hobbgrots, Tekket, all dressed in the white and black uniform of their division, with a quartet of engineers to help Byt Chyyp.

Currently, they were in the Discoveries hangar bay, waiting for the Autonite Strike Force to arrive before they began their assault. Byt Chyyp was currently playing with a puzzle cube, the Tekket having a bored look on their face as they repeatedly managed to re-align the colors on the toy, consisting of dozens of squares on each side that automatically re-arranged itself once every side was a single color. Orphiatek, meanwhile, was pacing, looking at his holo-timepiece every so often: from what TNDI understood, it wasn't just a clock. Apparently, the NekroTek had turned it into both a talisman and a grimoire both, and had been experimenting with raising it as a Bond-Spirit by feeding it vast amounts of lifeforce from his personal TekSymphonion. 

The Console near the airlock beeped to life as the ferrometal sheet separating the hangar from the void lifted, a gravitic field being used to prevent all the air from being sucked out. From the void sputtered in a shuttle, a heavy welded thing that did not look remotely safe, especially since instead of coming to an actual landing it more...stopped floating, slamming into the hanger floor with enough force to cause several dents in the pink ferroplastic. A wall on the vessel lifted, and a group of autonites emerged, their metallic casings painted a shade of purple and black.

"Appologies for the damage to your hanger," The leader of the group said, slightly larger than the rest of the complement, in a familiar accent, albeit slightly less...boomy. "Ve vill assist in ze repair process after this is recovered."

"Noted and appreciated," TNDI said, floating to the automaton and holding her hand out. "TNDI-75567, captain of the Discovery." 

The autonite stared at the extremity with its singular cyclopian eye for a moment, before grasping it and giving it a shake, surprising TNDI. "Well met, TNDI-Captain. I will save us a bit of time, since you know who I am," Vlaahk said gruffly before stepping back, before raising their arms and a series of buttons on it. "Alright: I have sent you some informational packages containing ze layout as well as details concerning our largest obstacle. To make a long story short, ze Archives AutoFacility unit vill most likely when it realizes it is losing will likely order an immediate purge of all systems. Because of zis, ve vill need to seperate into teams in order to preserve as much data as possible."

"Does this purge pose any threat to our ground team?" TNDI asked, and Vlaahk shook its ball shaped head slightly to signal a negative. 

"Not likely: many of ze physical security features are non-functional: it only poses a threat to the research data and anything connected to the network."

"I presume there is a reason why we cannot simply begin our assault on the digital level, and fight this AI on the metaphysical layer," Orphiatek commented, pocketing his watch. "Dr. Orphiatek, leader of the Coven of the Black Nemetite and chief ship mystek," He said, giving an introduction, to which Vlaahk gave a nod of acknowledgement.

"The Archive utilizes a dual positronic-analogue set up: you cannot hack it because it cannot BE hacked unless you manage to physically access the core systems. It is like having worlds greatest knife and wanting to assault house and reach attic to defuse bomb, only to find it has no doors or windows: instead, you must crawl through the basement." Vlaahk paused, before shrugging. "That is a bad analogy, but you understand, I hope. CPUMoon has many facilities such as that."

"Well that's fantastic," Byt said, tossing his toy into the recycler basket in the hangers corner. "Oooh, I shoot, I score!" He cheered, before turning. "Byt Chyyp, engineering. So, my question is, how big a threat is this purge to the autonites?"

"Like lethal to any who are not disconnected," Vlaahk admitted, a hint of discomfort in their voice even as TNDI pulled out her datapad, looking over the layout. There was...a LOT of ground to cover. 

"How much time do we have until the purge happens?" She asks, staring it down.

"Most likely? Twenty minutes," He answered. Combined with the expected resistance they were expecting to encounter...

"I'm not sure if we'll be able to save everyone," TNDI admitted.

"Most likely ve vill not," The remotely piloted autonite said grimly. "But ve can at least give them peace, and ensure zeir deaths are not in vane. Now, as for our plan..."

Come up with a plan! You have the following officers you can assign to an area of the facility: while in that facility, they will attempt to save as much research data and as many autonites as possible. Each area has its own challenges.

You have an unknown amount of turns before the System Purge.

Major Zones:

Manufacturing Bay Zalph: A largely defunct factory area inside the asteroid that was used to manufacture Autonites. Scans indicate it's swarming with feral autons: probably the largest mass in the Asteroid. Apparently, prior to the organocide, it was used to meet the labour needs of the facility. Some time before, it had been shut down and quarantined, used as a stable of test subjects by the researchers of the Archive in order to develop weapons and technology. It was considered low priority by Vlaahk, who believed that it would be a waste of time and resources to disconnect the area from the network when they could be focusing on salvaging research data that could be used to free the several million autons on CPUMoon.

Lab Complex Algoa: A computer research area, Algoa was used to perform high end AI weaponization research and, once the Organocide had begun, develop countermeasures and anti-AI weaponry. The autons of this region were upgraded, designed to be resistant to the Logic Virus: but unfortunately, not immune. The Ground Team would have to expect organized resistance in this area of the facility, as there were many upgraded autons. Still, Vlaahk considered it high priority: if any location was likely to have tools they could use to liberate CPUMoon, it was Algoa. 

Lab Complex Bxixis: Bioweapons research. Vlaahk had no idea what to expect there: anomalous lifesigns had been detected, and unfortunately, his otherwise extensive understanding of the various projects of the Archive falters, especially after the Organocide began and its focus shifted. Unfortunately, Vlaahk still believes it to be fairly high priority: apparently, several high level government computers in both the facility and CPUMoon used bio-locks that could only be opened with certain gene-keys, copies of which (and the means to make more) were, predictably, in the black ops biotech research wing. 

Lab Complex Omen: The warp technology research wing. This one, Vlaahk noted, he actually knew a fair amount about: his creators hadn't yet invented the warp drive, but they had discovered warp space and had even been working on using it to develop highly experimental teleportation technology. While a lesser priority, Vlaahk is still interested in recovering the research data to fuel the post liberation warp drive development project: if the ground team aids him, he's willing to share the research data. 

Secure Holding Facility Itep: The location of the second largest group of autonites in the facility, Itep had apparently been used to house prisoners prior and during the Organocide: first, political dissidents, then infected Autonite test subjects. When Vlaahk had assaulted the facility, they had spilled out, killing every organic in the Itep wing. This area had at least some marginal utility: it likely contained security data from the event that could be used for combat simulations. 

Secure Holding Facility Kaziin: The location of the final massacre of the organocide. Before the war, it had been used much the same way Itep had, with one key difference that it had been temporary holding only. Kaziin was where they interrogated enemies of the state and stored all their dirty little secrets. During the organocide, however, when the Archive had become the last remaining hold out of the organics, Kaziin had been where the civilians had been housed. Cells turned into apartments. A mess hall turned into a community center. Apparently, some of the lounges used by the agents of Kaziin had even been turned into schools for children. The utility for this one is simple: it was where the government also actually PUT those dirty little secrets the facility was meant to hide: the servers had access to reams of research data, state secrets, and access codes that could be put to use in the CPUMoon assault as well as the main AutoFacility AI for the Forbidden Archives as a whole.