The one I had captured was moved down to a testing chamber.
Research Menu
"Thomas"
Thomas is a member of the Righteous and appears to be resistant to many Power core effects.
You have placed subject "Thomas" into a test labyrinth. While within the labyrinth escape is highly unlikely, although technically possible. If subject is held for one week you will unlock the secret of their power for your own usage.
I attempted to analyze some of the goop they head left behind, but was informed it would require a physics lab.
I instructed the Mechanites to head to the surface and disassemble both vehicles and bring the parts inside. I didn't want to leave the invaders anything on their next visit, and I could find some use for those resources.
Then it was time to find out what was in those archives.
"You do realize I'm still missing most of my skin, right?" Anna said.
I'd awoken her and even now had her headed into the deeper sublevels. She just wouldn't stop complaining.
"I thought you'd lost weight. It doesn't help," I said.
This was the level where we'd found the water pump before. Hopefully there were no more monsters lurking about.
"I'm not seeing signs for any kind of archives," Anna said.
My sight was limited to a camera I'd attached to her. It was seriously hampering my field of view.
"So, keep looking. I wonder if I could graft rat skin onto you? It might improve your complexion," I said.
Anna flipped a finger to my camera. Rude.
I'd still done little work down here, but at least things were hooked up to my power grid now and I was able to power the lights.
"Try a left at the next intersection. I'm getting more of a power draw that way," I said.
Anna followed my instructions. The hall ended in a sealed door, but the wall surrounding it had collapsed allowing entry to the well-lit room on the other side.
It looked like some sort of antiquated library, a number of workstations with monitors set up, and racks filled with carefully labeled metal tubes.
"Any idea what these are?" Anna asked.
"Although I didn't know it was possible, I'm as clueless as you are. Investigate."
Anna moved towards one of the racks and extracted a tube. She held it up to the camera. It was smooth and featureless. Making her way over towards one of the workstations she knocked a skeleton out of a seat and settled down.
With a bit of searching about with her fingers she activated the monitor. It flickered to life and the screen seemed to be displaying mathematical equations. If I understood correctly they related to cloud formation.
Anna removed a similar tube from a slot in the workstation and the display flickered out. Inserting the other one brought up an index. Historical records from 1401 to 1532.
During the next half hour, I had her try out a large sample of the tubes. They were an incredibly esoteric collection of knowledge on everything from advanced sciences to world history and entertainment.
"Emma, if I haven't told you this lately, you are one crazy smart machine," Anna said, settling back in the chair and giving a breathless sort of laugh.
"In comparison to you, certainly. You have an idea what this is?" I asked.
Anna removed the camera and set it on the desk so we could have something of a face-to-face. "You already know electronics don't work here, not like they are supposed to. Not like they used to."
I did recall her telling me that. My Power core allowed them to function.
"So you've said."
"That same influence means computer memory doesn't either. After the catastrophe, any digital record was gone in an instant. The whole of human history vanished in an instant."
"You seem to know an awful lot," I said.
"This is proof you knew it was coming. I always thought you did. You found a compact storage medium that would work and you recorded everything," Anna said.
"In a way I have no direct access to see? Viewable only with monitors requiring electricity?" I asked.
Anna pursed her lips there. "I don't know what is with that. There must be another way."
I didn't care. Not right now.
I said, "Mechos and the Righteous both not only knew these were here, they devoted a lot of resources to coming after them. You don't know why?"
Anna shook her head. "I've never heard of these. Honestly, and I know more about you than most."
"How?"
Anna paused, I could see her hesitating. I'd had enough of secrets. I might not have the leverage to get Mechos to talk, but Anna was another matter.
"To date I've kept my word with you. You think us friends, as deluded as you are for doing so," I said.
"You're terrible at this convincing thing. But fine, I am your friend, Emma. I'm not a local. The Cataclysm didn't just break the world, it split it up into all these little different pieces. I knew you from another piece," Anna said.
I thought she was being honest. I couldn't entirely discount her words given how much reality was proving on a regular basis to not be what I'd expected.
"Gather these tubes. We're going to move this entire archive up into my Core Room and then get you back to the Infirmary," I said.
"Hard labor in excruciating agony. Yay friendship," Anna said.
I'd at least deny these others what they were looking for. I could figure out what they wanted with this information later.
20
In terms of how the Righteous' resurrection might operate, I had a few ideas. It seemed likely to me that either the goop they dissolved into would somehow reform into them, or that they would by some means be reborn into some sort of facility nearby and make their way back here.
Guarding against the former, I had the goop placed inside a large incinerator. Should they reform, I'd quickly be able to take them out of the fight again.
In case they spawned outside the facility, I closed the exterior door. I had the Mechanites re-purpose the cannons into some makeshift turrets hidden behind fake walls of rubble.
It was the goop. Twenty-four hours exactly from the moment the Righteous were killed, the goop reanimated, one after the other. They reformed in their full armor and with the equipment they were carrying when they died—without any injuries.
I killed them again. They barely even had time to become aware before the flames were washing over them. But no matter how hot I made things the goop wouldn't dissolve.
As a method of immortality went theirs struck me as functional at best. It wasn't much use at all if any opponent knew what to look for, but then, without the warning from Mechos I wouldn't have known.
I made Mechos a plate of cookies as reward.
Then I could get down to the business of proper repairs and research. The Mechanites proved to be able assistants, for all that the woman did keep talking against me to the others.
Anna came out of the Infirmary after a week. All traces of her burns were gone.
Research Menu
"Thomas"
Thomas has traces of a void crystal lattice throughout his skin. This not only makes him resistant to most powered effects, upon death it also allows him to become amorphous for the span of a day.
You have unlocked disruptive burst.
By use of a targeted burst from a Power core at the moment of dissolution the void latticework can be shattered. This would stop any future resurrections of a subject.
I'd expected to discover how their power resistance worked. Learning how I could keep them dead was useful too. I studied the specifications of the disruptive burst. It would require 1 core energy and that was for each subject. That was pricey when really, I could just keep killing them each day.