Heist Battleground, Moon
The Guardian attempts to gain entry to the Seraph bunker.
Ana Bray: All right, Guardian. This is a smash and grab: smash some Hive, grab a chunk of submind.
Osiris: And live to tell the tale.
A Deathtongue moves to channel Xivu Arath's Battlesong.
Mara Sov: Xivu Arath's battle song emboldens her soldiers. End it.
The Guardian reboots the Seraph security protocols.
Ana Bray: That did it! Hatch opening… and setting that perimeter tower to "friendly." You're welcome!
The Guardian ventures inside to reach the submind Malahayati.
Mara Sov: Xivu Arath moves in the open, but I worry we are missing a piece of our enemies' plan.
Ana Bray: Maybe for now, but we'll have a Warmind up and running soon. If anyone can outmaneuver Xivu Arath, it's Rasputin.
The Guardian begins hacking the door.
Ana Bray: Patch me in, and I'll get that door open again.
The Guardian completes the hack.
Ana Bray: Cracked it! You and Ghost are clear to move.
The Guardian enters the Malahayati submind vault.
Ana Bray: Vault security re-upped. You know what to do, Guardian.
The Guardian attempts to breach the Submind Vault Security Door.
Ana Bray: You were right, Mara. That Scorn's definitely trying to corrupt the submind, and… using some weird interface to copy out files? Luckily, it looks like Malahayati's rewriting itself with repair protocols every time we clear the bunker, so damage is minimal.
Mara Sov: I suspect the Witness is treating this Scorn as a living archive, copying important information to its mind for safekeeping. Troubling…
The Guardian opens the Vault.
Ana Bray: Vault open. All right, Malahayati, here we come.
The Guardian battles and defeats Once-Phyris, The Exhumed Tether.
// OPTIONAL
Mara Sov: My Corsairs report movement in the Ley Lines surrounding the Moon. Your mission's success draws attention.
Clovis Bray AI: Let them come.
Mara Sov: The great Clovis Bray, finally risen from your frozen tomb. To what do we owe the presence of this revenant?
Osiris: He means to help us restore the Warmind, so that we may wield its knowledge against the Witness.
Ana Bray: We need him to save Rasputin's life.
Clovis Bray AI: Charmed, I'm sure.
Mara Sov: Both such noble endeavors for a man as vile as he. I am not convinced, and I hope neither are you.
// OPTIONAL
Mara Sov: The submind is in our control. Well done, Guardians… and preserved minds clinging to a frail existence.
Clovis Bray AI: I assume that was directed at me.
Mara Sov: Did you solve that riddle all on your own?
Ana Bray: I've cut Clovis's comm link. I don't think his response was important anyway. Exfiltration ready.
// OPTIONAL
Mara Sov: Osiris, my heart lightens to see you returned to us, and that our plan found purchase with so much at stake.
Osiris: Did, uh… did all unfold as you foresaw? Did I?
Mara Sov: Not all. I carry sorrow for Sagira's sacrifice. The details are never exact, but I am assured this path will lead us through the storm, despite the costs.
Osiris: We've both suffered losses for the potential of a better future. Let us hope that probability is in our favor.
// OPTIONAL
Clovis Bray AI: This is where we first encountered Clarity. This was the beginning of everything—the second age, after the Traveler. It was meant to be the Age of Man.
Mara Sov: There was never a second age. Only a precursor to the Collapse. The Witness drew you in and exploited you, like an invasive vine pushing through a crack in stone. You invited it in, and it ran rampant.
Clovis Bray AI: From your tone, I take it you've had a similar experience? Well, that doesn't surprise me. You seem the type to be attracted to power.
Mara Sov: No, it is power that is attracted to me.
// OPTIONAL
Clovis Bray AI: I'm not familiar with this station! My authentication protocols aren't functioning. Did Elisabeth do this?
Ana Bray: Rasputin built it himself.
Clovis Bray AI: Insubordination, then. Did you teach it to do that?
Osiris: Since your death, the Warmind has evolved, Clovis. Many of the shackles you bound them with have rusted away.
Ana Bray: And he's so much more without you than he even could have been with you. Hey… I'm seeing a pattern emerge.
// OPTIONAL
Clovis Bray AI: How long has our Moon been overrun by vermin? Is the City this weak?
Ana Bray: The Hive aren't so easy to root out. It's been tried.
Clovis Bray AI: Then destroy the Moon! I could have replaced it with a singularity, or a station to maintain tidal gravity. There are options here.
Mara Sov: I've seen firsthand the brashness of Golden Age humanity. Odd that the Collapse didn't humble you at all. It is better to keep the Hive concentrated in one place. Show them they are threatened, and they will cease to make obvious their plans.
// OPTIONAL
Mara Sov: Our victory here is short-lived. Xivu's Wrathborn are converging upon you through the Ascendant Plane. You're advised to extract quickly.
Clovis Bray AI: What is this "Ascendant Plane"?
Mara Sov: A realm that shadows our own; I do not have the time or the patience to explain it to you.
Clovis Bray AI: Then I haven't the same to listen.
Mara Sov: Absent for hundreds of years, and still gripping onto smug superiority. As if the world could never advance beyond you. I doubt your ego would allow the capability to listen.
// OPTIONAL
Clovis Bray AI: You've been sneaking in extra files to these data packages, Anastasia. Literature? Philosophy? Unnecessary drivel.
Ana Bray: Rasputin's not just protocol and process. Treating him like that won't be rebuilding him. It'll be remaking him into something else. His memories, lessons, connections… I'm doing the best I can, but some things can't be expressed in a line of code.
Clovis Bray AI: I beg to differ.