[A/N: I'm not sure that this song is the best here. I'll have something at the end that everyone can argue about it.]
MushroomCleric
Woo!!!
I was on the edge of my seat through that whole sequence. From the Free Bird solo to the chase through the Deadlands and you heading into the Janus Storm. Zeke, that was absolutely insane.
Plus, the way you took ReCoil’s original plan as Primary and made fun of him for it, and then you rolled it back into the story. That was chef’s kiss. I mean, the dood spent all his time planning to try and send you into the storm, you told him “nah, I’m in the Cathedral’s of Ash,” and now you end up at the storm anyway.
Quantum_Amelia
My patience paid off! I loved the chase scene. I found myself rocking in my chair with excitement.
Wizzy
I didn’t expect this to go from the Kingsman Church Scene to Mad Max but it was done really well.
Nemo1986
That was literally my first thought as I was reading this. I kept waiting for someone to yell out “Witness Me!!!”
BrokenKing42
^Mushroom
I was thinking that Zeke was dead the moment the Black Teeth leader started walking towards him back in the arena. Then MIKEY FTW! Favorite character now, saving the Zeke-run.
CrumblyNectar
Nah. Zeke bailed way too early from the fight. If he’d stayed with the Cathedral longer, he could’ve killed the entirety of the Black Teeth. The riot was working. All the prisoners were fighting and the Black Teeth leaders were getting wiped out. Zeke could have rocked out there.
But what does he do instead? He leaves. He abandoned the mission halfway through. There’s soooo much loot that he missed out on because he dipped out too early. He could have set himself up for the future if he’d just stuck around.
StealthieGurl1010
Agreed. That’s why he should’ve gone stealth from the beginning. He shouldn’t have tried to play any music or started a riot. He could have just snuck through the Cathedral and quietly taken out every Black Teeth member one-by-one.
MapHackJunkie
I thought we all agreed that that would have got him killed SO fast.
Plus, Zeke becoming Deadlands Springsteen is so much cooler than another fic about a stealthy guy stabbing people. The Rockstar class is SOOOOOO much stronger than anybody thought.
The really insane part about the story is that the prisoners all probably got a boost from Zeke’s playing. That, and his magic seemed to affect the Black Teeth too and pushed them into a frenzied state with the Free Bird solo. Zeke can boost his allies and mess with his enemies, meaning that he can be terrifyingly powerful if he gets the right songs.
HollowSAINT
Basically, Zeke was spreading mental states through a bunch of groups. He does more with buffs and debuffs that pure destruction or anything.
I mean, that’s cool and all. But I think he’d have a better time with traditional magic. Zeke pretty much needs allies to get the best out of his class.
DeconstructedAntlers
He should have committed harder to the plan. If he armed the prisoners there was a very real chance of him taking over the Chapel Pit. Once that happens, he could have built up his own personal army and then marched his way across the Deadlands.
If you can destabilize a Cathedral of Ash from the inside, why stop at one? He could have taken them down all over the place and got ALL the loot.
GULP-Radio
| He could have taken them down all over the place |
That’s sounding less like Frontiers and more like Shadow of Mordor.
Zeke going from fortress to fortress and turning people against their own men. He’d be building his own wasteland army and going the Deadlands warlord route.
Now that I say that out loud, I would definitely play that mod.
Cerebrus6
Oh well, Zeke’s out of the frying pan, and into the blazing pits of hell.
ShivSays
Yo Zeke, were the last few chapters a “thank you” for Crush or something? You normally avoid huge combat-heavy scenes, but this Cathedral arc was basically everything that he wanted. He got a prison riot and a vehicle chase and a bunch of punching.
Also, how are you choosing what happens next in the story?
10161066
| how are you choosing what happens next in the story? |
I vaguely remember someone talking about Zeke maybe using encounter tables or a randomizer to help him with his story. It’s something that I do a lot for my DnD campaigns and it helps a bunch.
You just have a table filled with possible encounters and you roll a d100 and let the dice decide your fate.
Hidden_Boss
^10161066
I’m betting that Zeke rolls dice to see what just happens and he got a 1 so it’s “well, this is happening then.”
Last_admiral
Man, that bit sucked. I was hoping for Zeke to maybe slip and snek around, and feeding the infos to the forum about the details that aren’t available in the games.
CharlieHestonsHand
He needed to at least loot a bit more. I mean, pick up a gun or grab some ammo or get some better weapons or something.
Raj
Issue is that he’s genuinely awful with Guns to the point where he’s more dangerous to himself than others with one as we saw when he attempted to practice it.
That being said, I do agree that he should have quite a few guns in his inventory regardless, especially since he can always hand them off to allies and it’s not like his storage is close to full so he should have picked them up when he had the chance.
Last_admiral
| he’s genuinely awful with Guns |
Again, a gun is better than nothing, cause guns have lower learning curve than melee
Raj
I’m agreeing with you, and if we hadn’t outright seen him handle a gun then and almost shoot himself, I’d be pushing for him to give it a shot as well.
But a gun still requires some basic safety and common sense drilled in, something Zeke seems to lack, although my best guess is it was due to nerves and if he had kept trying for more than an hour, at most he might have been able to make a breakthrough.
BlackBanner99
Hey Zeke, you think the Rockstar class can consistently trigger riots? Or do you think the Cathedral situation was unique because all the prisoners were desperate and the Black Teeth were already unstable?
Because if what you pulled off is actually repeatable, I gotta say that the Rockstar class might be the most broken social class in the game.
FarFieldVanishes
^BlackBanner
This changes so much for the Zeke-run. We’re still trying to work on the whole Witness Chambers sequence right now. We’ve got a bunch of modders trying to get Patch to follow the character and everything, and that’s taking a bunch of time, but I’m not even thinking about it. I’m thinking about what comes next.
And the biggest problem isn’t even going to be the combat and how that would work with a Rockstar class. The biggest issue is figuring out how to get the PC kidnapped and transported halfway across the map to the Chapel Pit.
We’re trying to figure out a way to do all that so it makes sense, and now all this Rockstar stuff complicates things even more.
FopperyandWhim
??
Can’t you just teleport the player to the Chapel? I mean, Zeke hasn’t really given us a bunch of info on how he got there. Sure, people have figured out that he got smuggled through a portal, but we still don’t know who ordered his attack.
Also, how does the Rockstar stuff change anything? Shouldn’t you be excited that Zeke is finally explaining how the class works?
8a8yaga
| Shouldn’t you be excited that Zeke is finally explaining how the class works? |
We are. Me and all the other modders are passing notes about what we can do. But the whole Chapel Pit thing introduced a bunch of social mechanics that aren’t in the base game of Frontiers.
We always assumed that a morale system existed in the background for NPC behaviors, but Zeke’s story is suggesting that the morale system can cause cascades. If we’re trying to make the Rockstar class viable, we need to do a bunch of mods that would allow fear and anger to spread through a group. We’d need to mod in crowd momentum and NPCs influencing other NPCs. It’s way beyond the simple bard buffs that other games try to create.
FarFieldVanishes
Exactly. Off the top of my head, you’re going to need to mod for unrest, crowd panicking, faction morale, environmental stress modifiers and so much more. And that’s without touching the magical skills from the Rockstar class itself.
Individually, the class skills that Zeke has don’t sound that impressive. It’s only when you stack them together inside the right environment that you can get revolts and frenzy states and mass aggression.
8a8yaga
Hey Zeke, would you be willing to sit down with me and a few of the other modders sometime and really go over how the class “feels” from your perspective? That would help out a lot.
ReCoil44 (Primary)
You are all welcome, by the way. Especially you Z3ke. The Janus storm functioned exactly the way I stated it would.
Despite Gnomeland’s constant derailment attempts, despite repeated efforts to push the narrative towards an entirely different region of Frontiers, and despite the fact that many of you dismissed the Janus Storm as too dangerous, we have arrived at exactly the spot I suggested.
The reason for that is simple: the logic of the route was undeniable. Z3ke himself clearly recognized the value of the plan, whether consciously or otherwise, because the moment that circumstances allowed for it, he committed to the Janus Storm with both feet.
Now he will grow stronger, and we will get answers to one of the longest lasting mysteries from both Frontiers and Syndicate’s Wake.
JimothytheBarber
| Despite Gnomeland’s constant derailment attempts |
This phrase is killing me. Bro was just trying to stop you from feeding Z3ke to the apocalypse.
ReCoil44 (Primary)
The point remains that the Janus Storm represents the single greatest unresolved piece of lore from Frontiers, and I have piloted Zeke into its path.
GnomelandSecurity (Proctor)
Can we maybe make sure that Zeke is doing okay before you try and take your bow?
Hey Zeke, where are you right now? Are the Black Teeth still chasing you? Has the storm done anything weird to your body?
SignalLoss
He posted like twenty minutes ago. His OC is probably just decompressing after the whole arena fight and desert chase scene.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
I’m here and we’re safe. We drove the jeep into the giant pod thingy and parked it in what looks like some kind of loading bay or a garage area. As far as I can tell, the Black Teeth haven’t made it into the eye of the storm yet. Either they lost us in the storm or they turned back. I don’t know which and, frankly, I don’t really care. We’re not getting chased anymore and that’s all that matters.
Once we parked, Jackie and Elnor both just flopped over in their seats. I think they were exhausted and surprised that we’d just survived all the shit that was thrown at us. Jackie shut off the jeep and Elnor lowered his gun and he handed me back my Tech Slate. The whole jeep went quiet and they both just slumped over.
I was still kinda wired from everything, so while they were resting I started pulling out a bunch of supplies from my storage space and handing it out. I had a bunch of rations and water and some extra clothes.
Jackie practically inhaled the food I gave her, and I caught both her and Elnor staring at me while I was unpacking everything. I could tell that they both had a lot of questions about how I was pulling random shit out of nowhere, but they were both too exhausted to ask them. Instead they just focused on eating and, the way they devoured everything made me wonder if it was the first real meal that either of them had in weeks.
Elnor looked especially rough. He drank almost an entire bottle of water immediately, and then he asked if I had more. I tossed him a new bottle and he used it to wash the Veylstone dust from his hands and arms. Once the dust was gone he just slumped back in his seat and took a breath and closed his eyes.
The Veylstone dust was messing with Jackie and me too. When it covered me it made my thoughts feel slow and muddy. But I think there was something different going on with Elnor. Jackie and I didn’t really have any sort of perception skill that the Veylstone could really mess with. Elnor, though, was an old investigator.
When he was covered with the dust, it screwed with his biggest skill which is investigation. I asked Elnor about it and he said it’s kinda a perception skill, which the Veylstone dust plays havoc with. Thinking on it, he’s probably used that skill for most of his life. It’s become a part of him and it’s baked into who he is. When he was covered in that dust, it probably made the skill all wonky and really messed with his brain in ways that neither Jackie nor I could relate to.
After we finished eating and drinking and cleaning up a bit, I handed out some of the clothes that I bought back in The MIZ. I’ve gotta say that putting on fresh socks after wearing the same filthy clothes for the past week or so, traipsing through the mines and rushing through the Deadlands and getting caught in a literal hurricane, felt like I’d ascended to a higher state of existence. I’m serious. There isn’t a better feeling than fresh socks.
ReCoil44 (Primary)
Yes. Wonderful. Now Zeke, describe the pod for us. That is why I directed you towards the Janus Storm in the first place.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Uh…it’s a pod. It doesn’t really look like much. We’re in a garage area and it’s mostly just metal walls with some support beams. There isn’t really anything beyond that.
I can explore deeper if you guys want, but right now it just feels like we’re parked in a mall garage right now. I’m not sure what I can say about it. The game probably gave you all a better look at the place than I’ve got right now.
ReCoil44 (Primary)
No. That is precisely the point. Players never entered the pod in Frontiers. People attempted to get past the outer shell for years, but we couldn’t see inside the pod.
Whenever players reached the eye of the Janus Storm, Marek Vale would emerge from the structure itself, usually suspended in a bizarre mechanical pilot chair. He would speak to the players from a distance and then retract back into the pod.
Nobody saw the interior. Even attempting to use developer tools on it only revealed a blank circular void. The interior space effectively did not exist in the game files. That means that you are currently standing somewhere players were never meant to see.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Wait. What do you mean people didn’t go in the pod? I thought you were guiding me to something you all knew about already.
You guys have maps for everything in this setting. You’re all supposed to be obsessing over spreadsheets and texts and, I don’t know, archive stuff. All I hear about is you guys datamining things and looking at tables with numbers and shit.
Now I’m finding out that your big plan was just to have me go and crawl around a massive object that none of you guys understand?
HexaDeweyDecimal
LMAO. Congrats Zeke. You’re the unpaid intern for ReCoil’s archaeology department. Oh, he also doesn’t believe in OSHA requirements.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Dude…what the actual shit man?
The way you were talking about the Janus Storm and everything made it sound like this place could actually help me out. What the shit?
Can you understand how insane this is from my perspective right now? I almost died back in the Chapel Pit. I almost died escaping from the Black Teeth. And now I’m trapped inside a living storm that apparently the games didn’t explain properly.
ReCoil44 (Primary)
I was extremely transparent about this from the beginning. The purpose of the Janus route was exploration.
Frontiers is filled with inaccessible regions and unresolved mysteries. The value of your situation lies in the fact that you can physically interact with places players never could. You are capable of unveiling the higher mysteries that remain permanently hidden from the playerbase.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Yea. I get why you’re all excited about this. But you’re also not the one who is physically standing inside an apocalypse weather station.
GnomelandSecurity (Proctor)
Zeke, the pod is probably one of the safer places that you’ve been to recently. You’re not being asked to hunt down a Reclaimer. You’re not fending off monsters in the Deadlands. You’re not surrounded by a large gang or trapped in the Under-MIZ.
Marek Vale used the pod as a shelter inside the storm. That means the place was designed to protect whoever lived there from the worst of the environment outside. I understand you’re pissed with ReCoil. Frankly, I am too. But from a practical standpoint, you’re safer right now than you’ve been in a long time.
ClickWhirr
Oooo. You definitely gotta explore the place. There’s no chance that a hidden location like the pod doesn’t have loot somewhere inside it.
StoryLeech
^Click
Worst case scenario is that you don’t find any usable loot. The pod is still pre-Fracture tech though. You can strip the place bare and then sell all of it to the Pale Regiment and probably afford another one of those Keystone Elixirs.
Can you imagine how strong you’d be with a Rank 7 Persona AND Rank 7 Performance?
***
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Okay. I’m gonna walk around a little.
I talked with Jackie and Elnor and explained everything you all told me about the Janus Storm and the pod. I told them that the storm had a pilot and this pod was where he lived. Neither of them had heard about Marek Vale, but they were both pretty relieved when I said that we should be safe here.
Jackie is staying back with the jeep. I think she’s too exhausted to really move, plus she wanted to do some maintenance on it and make sure that the storm didn’t mess it up too bad. She also said that somebody should stay behind and watch out for the Black Teeth in case they somehow manage to find their way through the storm.
Before we left, Elnor gave Jackie the shotgun and he took the pistol for himself in case we ran into something dangerous.
MushroomCleric
Ooooo. Are you going to livestream everything for us?
StoryLeech
This is way better than waiting three days for Zeke to post a giant recap of what he did.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
I’m with Elnor. We found a door leading out of the garage area. This thing was sealed shut but Elnor was able to physically force it open.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
We’re inside the hallway of the pod now. This place is kinda creeping me out.
It feels abandoned and empty. The hallways are narrow and kinda industrial looking. Both the walls and the floors are metal, and there’s some overhead pipes that are running across the ceiling. The only lighting comes from these dim emergency lights that are buried along the floor.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Okay. I know I just said that the walls are metal but that’s not true. I touched one a second ago and it was soft.
It kinda felt like rubber a bit. There’s some give when you press against it, and it’s warm. It’s kinda hard to describe because it’s not hot or anything. It’s just…warm.
Metal isn’t supposed to feel like it’s slightly warmer than room temperature.
MapHackJunkie
What is Elnor doing right now? Didn’t he wash off the Veylstone dust? His skills should be working again…right?
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Yea, his investigation skill is why Elnor decided to come with me to check out the rest of the pod instead of staying back with Jackie.
After he washed the Veylstone off himself, his skill started working properly again and he was curious enough about the place that he wanted to see it firsthand. I asked him about his skill because I don’t really know anything about it, and he told me he leveled it a bunch back in his old life in The MIZ.
It’s up to Rank 8 and he used to use it for tracking and the like. He started off working as something akin to a cop, reading crime scenes and stuff. Then he got a paid a bunch of money by one of the local “neighborhood leaders” (aka warlords) and he was able to push his skill up to Rank 8. When he did that, he said it developed a secondary function which was a weak form of psychometry.
I don’t really know what that means, but he said that he can occasionally pick up “emotional residue from objects and places.”
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Z: Uh…what’s psychometry?
E: I get impressions from objects and locations.
Z: Like…visions?
E: Yes and no. It’s not full visions. It’s more fragments of things.
Z: Fragments of what?
E: I can sense emotional states. I can also see moments that’ve taken place in certain locations. Strong experiences leave marks behind and I can read them.
DuckDetective13
Dayum Zeke. You keep finding the weirdest people to join you on your adventures. That's an insanely high Investigation rank for an NPC. Most NPCs in Frontiers never get beyond Rank 5.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Uhhh, his weird magic powers kinda suck. He just touched one of the walls and froze and it’s creepy as hell.
SignalLoss
NGL, I’m not sure I like this whole live walkthrough thing Zeke is doing. I think I prefer when Zeke just posted giant recap updates.
PixelBaron
I don’t know. When he pops back onto the forum with the updates, we all know that he managed to survive whatever crazy thing happened to him. It’s a given because, how else would he be updating us.
This livestreaming of his introduces some real danger.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Okay, when Elnor touched the wall his eyes went completely white and he just stood there. It lasted a few seconds and then he “woke up” and said that we’re the first people to walk through the pod in years.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
He needed a break for a bit so we stopped. We’re sitting against one of the weird warm walls right now while he recovers. It seems like the Veylstone dust really messed him up back at the Chapel Pit and he’s gotta take it slow.
While he is resting, I decided it would be good to walk around the place a little. There are a few rooms nearby that split off from the hallway, and I checked them out. There’s nothing really there though. I found a storage room that had old containers bolted into the walls, but when I tried to open them they wouldn’t budge.
I’ll come back for them later. Everything in this place has this thin layer of dust covering it. I don’t think anyone has cleaned this place in years.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
We’re back up and moving again. Elnor’s been touching whatever he can get his hands on while we walk. We found some random tools and doors and broken computer screens and he’s been brushing his hands across everything.
Most of the time he just shakes his head and says that there’s nothing there. I guess psychometry only works if something intense happened nearby. It still feels weird watching him casually use magical detective powers on things.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Holy shit. Something just happened.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
We entered another room that was set a bit away from the hallway and once we got inside Elnor froze immediately.
It looks like he grabbed the side of the doorway and it just overwhelmed him and he collapsed. I barely caught him before he smashed face-first into the floor. Then he started shaking like he was having a seizure. His eyes went completely white again and I laid him down on the floor and was wondering what I needed to do.
I straight up started panicking cause I was worried he was going to bite his tongue or start vomiting or something. I mean, I’ve heard that you’re supposed to stuff your wallet in someone’s mouth when they start having a seizure but I don’t have a wallet and I didn’t know what I was supposed to do.
And while I was freaking out he was whispering under his breath. I couldn’t understand most of what he was saying. It was something like “too many.” I don’t know. Shit man. What the hell guys?
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Okay. He’s okay now. It’s okay. He stopped shaking and his eyes went back to normal and now he’s just sitting up against the wall. He looks like shit right now. I’m starting to wonder if I should just drag him back to the jeep and we can figure out what to do with this place tomorrow.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
I asked him what he saw and he said that he felt the people the Storm fed on. That’s what he said.
He said that all the people who got vanished by the Janus storm left impressions behind. All the pilgrims and the raiders and the scavengers and the storm chasers and anyone who got too close and were caught up in the storm…Elnor said he could feel them all.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Z: What happened? You said you could feel them? What happened with them?
E: I don’t know.
Z: Wait, how do you not know? You just said you felt them.
E: No. I get bits and pieces of what happened. It’s rare that I can feel everything.
Z: Bits and pieces?
E: Yea. There were a bunch of emotions all mixed together. There was shock and fear and…a bunch of other things overlapping and jumbling together. It felt like I was being drowned in people.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
We’re on the move again. The pod keeps getting weirder and weirder the deeper we go. There’s less light now and I had to pull out my flashlight. That somehow made everything so much worse.
I keep sweeping the beam across the room and catching weird shapes in the corner but when I look back at them it just turns out to be machinery. I feel like I’m stuck in a horror movie with an audience watching me and screaming at me, saying I’m making all the stupid horror-movie cliche mistakes.
DeadMienWalking
Zeke, have you ever played Outlast? That’s what this is reminding me of.
CrushDaddyXx
I HATED that game. I always upped the brightness because I couldn’t handle the dark sections. I might actually stop reading this thread until morning.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
We found a big room. I think it’s where Marek Vale used to live. There’s this massive chair suspended in the middle of the room and it’s got this thick tubing all around it. It doesn’t even really look like a chair or anything.
Thankfully, unlike the Witness Chambers, there isn’t anyone stuck in the chair. It’s completely empty and all these cables are hanging all over the place. Half the room is filled with computer terminals and monitors but…it’s weird.
None of the computers look like any of the tech that I’ve seen in The MIZ. Everything there looks all cobbled together. This stuff doesn’t. I can’t really describe it but, the best I can say is that the stuff all looks grown. I know that sounds insane but I genuinely don’t have a better word for it.
Ch3micalBurst93
STEAL EVERYTHING NOT BOLTED DOWN.
You’ve got a dimensional storage space. You should have been looting everything anyway. Grab every piece of tech you can get your grubby little paws on, and then sell it all to the Pale Regiment. They’ll pay you enough credits that you can buy ALL the weapons and become a problem to anyone trying to kidnap you.
DuckDetective13
Careful. That’s exactly how cursed artifacts enter circulation in horror settings. You’re basically asking Zeke to grab the facehugger eggs and bring them back to Earth.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Shit. Elnor was walking around the place, touching everything again. He touched the chair and immediately collapsed. I dragged him away from all the machines so he wouldn’t crack his head open while he twitched around.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
E: Marek was anxious about something.
Z: Anxious?
E: He was feeling…I don’t know. Nervous? He knew that the pod was dying. Or…not dying exactly. But it was shifting. Hmm. Not shifting. I don’t know..
Z: That…that doesn’t really tell us a lot.
E: Oh, I’m sorry. Is all this emotional shit piled up on me not sufficiently helpful to you?
Z: Sorry. Sorry. Go on.
E: I can’t really tell you what it was, but he was nervous about the containment weakening or something.
Z: Containment of what?
E: …
MushroomCleric
THIS IS SO COOL!!!
Z3ke (Original Poster)
“There was more though. It flashed between both Marek and the other people from the storm. I got flashes of people walking willingly into the storm.”
I asked him what he meant and it took a while for him to tell me.
“It was…they were laughing. They were laughing while the winds tore them apart.”
I didn’t really know what to say to that because…what can you say to that? Someone tells you that they felt someone laughing while getting ripped to pieces by a hurricane and that’s not exactly something that you’re going to have a lot of experience with.
“Wait, you said you felt that? How could you feel that moment? I thought you said that your skill only worked through emotional weight on objects? How could you get something like that from touching the chair?”
He looked genuinely frustrated at that. “I don’t know, alright?” he snapped.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Elnor is done touching shit now. He’s just sitting in the corner of the room and taking a break. I, meanwhile, was poking around at everything in the room. I found one of the computer terminals still working. The screen flickered on when I brushed some of the dust off it.
There’s some logs here and I’m scrolling through them now. Most of the entries are corrupted but some of them are still readable. It looks like Marek kept some kind of journal or something.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Okay, I’m going to write out a few of the logs here.
Entry 04
I have spent three days inside the structure now. It is not human. I know that sounds obvious written plainly like that, but I’m sure the next people to stumble across this thing will believe it is a military installation.
Nothing human would look like this though. The interior surfaces are seamless while the walls curve organically into the floors. Entire sections of the pod reshape themselves when I approach them. I have not found a single visible weld seam anywhere in the structure.
The terminals respond to touch patterns instead of keys. I might attempt to fix them to make them more intuitive to a human later on, but right now I am using them as intended.
Despite every instinct screaming at me to flee this place, I cannot deny its beauty. The pod is elegant in a way that human machinery never has been.
I believe this machine arrived during the event that people are calling the Fracture. If my theory is correct, this pod WAS the fracture. Perhaps more accurately: it carried the Fracture inside it.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Entry 09
I have confirmed that the atmospheric activity surrounding the pod is deliberate. The winds gather metallic debris from across the area and return it here.
At first I believed this to be random scavenging behavior, but it is not. The pod is expanding and adapting. Every day, new growths appear across the outer hull. The Storm strips ruined towns bare and days later I find materials from those towns integrated into the pod itself.
It is like the machine is feeding off the ruin from the Fracture. My theory is that the pod is preparing itself for something, and I fear what it will become if left unattended.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Entry 16
I finally understand the intended purpose of the pod. It is an atmospheric terraforming engine. The pod carried within itself a contamination that humanity now calls the Fracture. It was an alien virus that was meant to alter all biological life on this planet.
The virus is an adaptive biological entity meant to rewrite environmental conditions on a planetary scale. The pod was the transmission device and is meant to regulate the process by distributing the contamination safely and guide biological transition incrementally over time.
Something went wrong though. Whether through damage sustained during arrival or incompatibility with this world’s biosphere, the regulation systems on the pod failed catastrophically. The virus spread uncontrolled and the result is what we call the Fracture.
Z3ke (Original Poster)
Entry 22
I have done something irreversible. I have circumvented portions of the pod’s atmospheric programming. The machine resists interference instinctively, and it fought me every step of the way, but I could not allow it to continue.
The pod’s intended dispersal patterns would have accelerated the transformation of the lands beyond. Humanity would not have survived another saturation wave, so I changed its purpose.
The storm caused by the pod now disperses the contamination instead of concentrating it. The atmospheric currents spread trace levels of the alien particulate matter across enormous distances, reducing overall saturation density throughout the Deadlands.
In short, I stopped a second Fracture event. The storm surrounding this pod might appear monstrous to the survivors scattered throughout the lands beyond, but it is a containment of the alien virus that originally harmed us.
The pod is straining against the limits that I have imposed upon it. I can feel it attempting to correct the changes I made. I will attempt to ensure that the changes are permanent and that nothing can alter them.
If I can’t, and the pod continues on its original mission, I fear that what it will create will make the first Fracture look merciful in comparison.
[A/N: Like I said, I'm not sure whether the song I chose for this chapter is the best. It's supposed to be a horror song...kinda. The Host of Seraphim played at the end of The Mist, which is an amazing movie. But I feel like it might give off the wrong feeling in this chapter. What do you all think? Any song ideas?]