Endgame Earth

[Luke White-Heart]

Luke looked up at Nova, trying to clear his head.
"Sorry, Nova, I got...distracted." He turned his head away from Nova, trying to make it look as if he was looking at something. Nova was the only person who had seen past Luke's veneer of calm, cold, and distant. He doubted he could hide anything.
"Daniel...the furson I'm looking for...I heard his voice just now...telling me that the answer was in our blood." He looked back at Nova. "I might become a liability if I can't separate reality and fantasy." Luke shook his head. "But, back to the matter at hand, no."
He kicked a loose rock in frustration, and turned to the vault.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova folded his arms and looked at Luke sideways. "In... in our blood?" It sounded crazy to him, and although he didn't want to say it, he was increasingly concerned that Luke was indeed becoming a liability. However, now was not the time to start a discussion about sanity or voices in heads... he shuddered remembering that it was Himawari's voice in her head that was keeping them alive right now. "Well in any case," he continued with a slight sigh, "I'm gonna have a look around inside myself. Any help you can give others, as I said, would be uh, welcome... Stay alert, keep your wits about you." With that he dismissed Luke and proceeded into the bunker. Immediately upon entering, he saw Warren scurrying about the newly-energized space, opening drawers and peering under desks with zeal. "What the heck are you doing, Warren?" Nova asked with something of a chuckle as he walked in, as the prospect that perhaps he had found evidence of a way to open the vault was certainly encouraging. "Did the generator activate something useful?"

[MrRazot]

Warren vaguely acknowledged Nova's question and continued kicking a box that was filled with some junk.
"If you can see, the main light it on and a panel on the wall opened that can be used to open the vault. The tech is very outdated and could even be hacked with a phone, keeping in mind no one has really had use of one since the event. Alternatively we could find a keycard and password of someone who had access to the vault, including a photograph to pass the retina scan, keycard access and pin code. Working on this we could even find the administrative computer to register a new user,"
Warren turned around towards nova and stood straight with his paws helf behind his back.
"I could even try short circuiting the board, but that could shut us out entirely... questions?"

[NovaAurora]

    Nova watched the fox in amusement as he explained his plan. Once he was finished, Nova mulled over the options thoughtfully for a minute before speaking again. "Hmm, finding a keycard with a usable photograph, not to mention all that other information, could be a long shot. You say it could outright be hacked by a phone though? I wonder..." Although she had never said anything about owning one to him, Nova wondered if Himawari carried a phone with her. He knew humans insisted on maintaining such devices even in this world, since they have a tendency to go off on ill-advised adventures and don't have the tracking abilities that furs do. After a minute of staring off blankly into space he said, "I'll be right back, I'm going to go see if Himawari has a phone in her bag that we might be able to use to hack that thing. Great work Warren, see if you can find anything else useful in the meantime!" Immediately he darted back out of the bunker, engaging in a full sprint back across the snowy field towards the convoy.

[Byracka]

Any trace of long kept innocence was thrown out as Sarah handed a small firearm to one of the young furs. Everyone needed some way to protect themselves; she quickly instructed the young one, not even blinking while doing so. Jave stood two vehicles away, struggling to bend and move around the seats with his burned skin. Bags upon bags were thrown out and crunched against the snow. Movement and cries everywhere.
Jave saw Nova sprinting. He crawled over the gear lever, bending on all four he lost balance and tumbled out. From the ground he shouted "Nova!?" He collected his breath from the fall "What's going on?" Not that he expected an exact explanation of their impending deaths but a thumbs down, well preferably a thumbs up, would be enough.

[Takamei Edevane]

Ip sat down on the edge of the storage unit casually holding his gun. It seemed like no progress had been made on the vault. He wondered what laid beyond the mass of impenetrable matter. Why was the security so high? What could be so valuable to deserve that kind of security? Ip thought for a moment, imagining what could be within the room beyond the vault door. He looked at Warren "You seriously think this will work? I mean, can you even hack something using a phone? Look at that thing, I don't think they would build something like this and use software that can be hacked by a measly phone" He said

[NovaAurora]

    Nova arrived at the convoy, panting from the excitement even though he was conditioned to not have exerted much energy at all on the way over. He flung the door to Himawari's car opened and dove into it, not physically acknowledging the rather hilariously sprawled out Jave but speaking to him quickly anyway. "What's going on is that we're under attack by a horde of consumers, much stronger than normal ones. Himawari is using that... thing... inside of her to lure them away from us and distract them- AHA!" He found her bag and started rummaging through its contents rather violently. At this point he figured it didn't matter if he made a mess of her stuff. Continuing once again, he said "-distract them and give us time to prepare a defense. We found out what will grant access to the vault, now we just gotta figure out how to get around the security system. Warren thinks-" he gasped as there, sitting tucked in a corner of her bag, was a phone with a touch screen, exactly as were used in the billions just before humanity's collapse. He howled with joy and ducked back out of the car, slamming the door shut behind him with his foot. "He thinks he can hack the system with one of these!" Nova brandished the phone triumphantly above his head. There against the sky, he pressed the power button once, and like a miraculous second sun it lit up in his palm, ready for use. "Haha! I can't believe it... I've gotta get this to Warren now. Continue what you're doing, we don't know what's in the vault, but it never hurts to prepare as much as possible." Chuckling somewhat giddily he gave a parting wave to Jave and sprinted back along the path he had just came from.
    Soon he arrived back at the bunker, where Warren and now Ip were still standing around. In he rushed, holding his prize out in front of him gleefully. "Guys! Warren! I've got Himawari's phone!" He stopped just in front of Warren and thrust it into his paws. "It's all yours now," he said with a grin, "so... go work your hacking magic!"

[MrRazot]

Warren jumped as the phone was thrusted into his paws and taking a few wires and usb cables out of his pocket along with his multi-tool, he set to work.
"This vault is horrificly old, and vault systems can be a nightmare to replace so they don't change out side of a software update." He said in response to IP's question.
"It will take me a minute or so, but how it works is that once one of the unlock sequences are passed, it unlocks the next sequence so if you can bypass the key card to unlock the passcode and retina scanner, and then bypass then in theory, you can bypass the safe."


Warren took the phone apart and did his best to wire up the phone to the safe's interface. It was going pretty well and the phone was a smart phone and definitely quite good for the job at hand. He managed to open the safe's system files with the phone's file browser and manipulated them to the extent he needed.


"It's like loading an operating system from the ram to access the locked hard drive." Warren turned to Nova quickly "Just need about 5 minutes"
he turned back to work and smiled.

[Takamei Edevane]

Ip watched Warren get to work, gazing at all the wires. "Ahh that makes sense..." he said as he looked over at Nova to see of he looked as confused as he was. "Hey Nova, you think maybe somebody might be in there? I mean we have the idea of taking refuge in there, maybe some of the original occupants before Harold had the same idea if they had access to the place." He looked back over at the vault door. "I mean they would be stupid not to... just a thought" Ip looked down at his weapon, and was reminded that he no longer had his pistol that he gave to Himawari. "Oh yeah. Hows Himawari doing? I saw her earlier."

[Ventus Fall]

The Voice had taken over Himawari's body. Her eyes were once again bloodshot. Her teeth a bit mre sharper than before.
It noticed she wanted to get them as far away as possible from the fort. It conjured up a grin on her face.
It didn't feel quite at home in this body. It saw its own species and how it had adapted the body to their 'liking'. It wanted something too like that, but not as vulgar. Now it's not
Once it stopped in the snow, it looked around and saw the horde was standing right behind him.

Himwari saw for a moment that she had succeeded in leading away the horde of Consumers and was glad. She might never see again after this, or talk, or control her own body whenever she wanted, but at least she did what was right in her mind. Which was saving her... friends.

The Voice grew more self-conscious of itself and felt Himawari's happiness and sadness. These experience of emotions weren't of any interest to him and he quickly muffled her back into a state of slumber. No, not slumber... The Voice tucked her back and would mess around with her later. For now, more important issues were at hand.
It turned around and looked slowly through the horde and grinned once again. It started moving slowly towards the fort again, leading the horde after it. It took its time.

[NovaAurora]

    "I highly doubt anyone's inside," Nova responded. "There are probably no supplies in there, there's no power so there wouldn't be any lights or anything, and it obviously hasn't been opened since the war so whoever could hypothetically be in there would have to be damn near immortal to have survived so long." His brow furrowed as he opened his mouth to answer Ip's question about Himawari. He took a moment before responding, carefully wording his phrases so as not to alarm Ip. "And basically," he said slowly, "Himawari's distracting the consumer horde right now. Protecting us from them. Don't ask me how exactly, because even I don't understand fully. But she was confident and determined... so I wouldn't worry about her." He managed to crack a slight smile.

    Nova then turned to watch eagerly over Warren's shoulder as the fox cleverly began his hacking exploits. For the first time since reaching the fort, Nova felt like there was some true hope for them, and his mind wandered to wonderings of what could be behind the mysterious vault door once they opened it. At the same time, Himawari was indeed always in his thoughts... despite his feigned confidence towards Ip, he wondered if she was still alive, and if she was, if she had managed to remain at all sane... Shaking himself violently he snapped out of his mental recession and looked at Warren again, still hunched over the phone. "Hey, how much longer do you think it's gonna be?" Nova said quickly, trying not to sound too much like a whiny little pup.

[Byracka]

“You’ll soon be safe” Jave lied both to himself and to the nervous wreck of a fur that stood shaking before him.  Jave reached for the last bag tucked away under the backseat, his skin stretched and tore against the rusted metal interior. A sickening smell struck his nostrils and he had to hold his breath in disgust, frowning until the bag was grabbed and tossed outside. It was quickly picked up by someone. Jave crawled out, the smell washed away in the cold air. “That’s that!” he yelled on all four, raised one paw from the layers of snow and waved towards the bunker. The nervous wreck hesitantly laid a hand on Jave’s shoulder; Jave gasped violently at the touch and swore with a hiss. “Just go.” He said. The other furs plodded through the snow, the collected mutter of clanking gear soon turned silent.

The air had gone clear and quiet, you could doubtless see for miles if elevated high enough. It would have been eerily calm though, to have storm and thunderous lightning instead. It would simply have resonated better with Jave’s pulse. This nightly silence did nothing but thicken the already choking clump he felt in his throat. Now the smell appeared again, it dried his mouth and watered his eyes. For a short moment a chilling wind dragged along, the utmost layer of snow was peeled off and swirled over the ground. Their touch felt like small grains of sand. The smell disappeared.

Jave’s leg made a great effort to disobey him. It was with heavy limps that he followed the flattened path towards the bunker. His furs had already entered; he could hear Sarah and her group just behind in the dark. It wouldn’t be harmful to rest a minute here outside. Wait for everyone; just take a moment to make sure all is fine. Jave leaned against the wall of the bunker and began nodding. The wind turned stale and a putrid stench overwhelmed his senses. Jave covered his mouth before violently coughing up bile. It ran through his fangs and fingers as small threads that slowly stretched to the ground. Through teary eyes he now understood where the stench came from.

From his arms and chest blood kept pouring down, sticking close to charred skin on its slow decline. Several burn injuries had opened up, some infected and reeking with a nauseating smell of pus. Sarah’s group passed by, they all looked horrified. Scared of the blood drenched, stinking, mutilated, burnt freak that were seconds away from crying.

Sarah grabbed one of the furs by the neck. “Go inside and tell Nova that I and Jave will come inside soon.” No one moved. Sarah dug her claws in and raised her voice. “I said go, everyone!”

[MrRazot]

Warren didn't even hear Nova as he asked how much longer. There was however a little countdown timer running in Warren's head. He found it fun to do those things in memory of how many old operating systems such as Windows would have the timer that never tells a god estimated time. The countdown was however fluctuating somewhere between 5 seconds and 5 minutes.


Warren finished editing one particular file that should, when executed, unlock the vault. He restarted the terminal and waited as it started up.


"It's just starting up, then it should let me unlock the vault door" he said stepping back to stretch from hunching over for the past 10 minutes. His spine wasn't the strongest bone in his body. The progress bar was going pretty slow considering how fast it started up last time. Then again it was running hastily compiled data strings. It's not like he didn't know what he was doing.
"Just give it a minute" he said, turning around to nova with arms crossed and smile showing. He took this opportunity to glance at everyone briefly to see any sign of a smile before quickly tuning back to the terminal and knocking the terminal with his paw.


Almost as if in a work of fiction, the screen flickered on and Warren tapped the enter button on the key pad and a loud humm could be heard throughout the room as ancient mechanical gears turned and an unlocking noise could be heard from the vault.


"Excelent," Warren exclaimed "let's just hope nothing is jammed".
He turned to the vault and watched as it creaked from being stuck in it's dormant position.

[NovaAurora]

    Nova gasped and put a paw up to his mouth in astonishment. "My god you've done it Warren!" he said breathlessly as the massive metal door swung open to reveal the vault's mysterious contents. It was pitch black for just a second, and then all the lights came on at once, illuminating the chamber within. It wasn't actually as large as Nova had thought it would be. The roof of the room was curved, so the shape of the vault's interior was half of a cylinder on its side, like an old traffic tunnel. It was no more than 50 feet long. Its contents were even more surprising. Lined up on each side were 5 robots of some kind, each plugged in to a terminal. They were about as tall as an average person, apparently used two tank treads to move around, and had a massive sensor bank where the "head" would be as well as two types of guns for arms.


    Nova's eyes widened as he approached the machines and ran a paw over their immaculate silver surfaces. "What the heck are these..." he wondered aloud as he walked behind one of the terminals, all of which had lit-up touch screens on them and a control panel with a joystick. "And why are they locked up in here, they look like they've never been used..." He pressed a button on the touch screen marked "main startup sequence." Immediately there was a series of whirring and clicking noises, and the robot in front of him detached itself from the terminal, spread its "limbs," and stood there like a dog awaiting command. "Gah!" Nova shouted as the thing unfolded itself from its docking station and simultaneously a panel opened in the side of the square block of the terminal facing him. Inside was a kind of helmet with a visor, which Nova picked up and stared at. It was clearly intended for human use only as it made no accommodations for his ears or muzzle, but he could see from the images being projected on the inside of the visor that it was meant as a means to remotely control the robot. He glanced at the control panel then and noticed an option labeled "operational method control," which he pressed, instantly deactivating the helmet and instead putting all the info on the screen in front of him. "Haha, that's better." He said as he examined the screen.


    Several numbers and measurements were being shown that he didn't understand, but there was enough that he did to make him shiver with a mix of fear and excitement. Among the central targeting reticule, charge gauge, and sensor settings were weapon indicators: "MG: Ready" on the left and "RG: Ready" on the right. Glancing at the long, sleek contraption on the robot's right arm combined with "RG" confirmed a suspicion in Nova's mind: These combat bots were equipped with railguns. The existence of hypersonic projectile weaponry such as this was hinted at during the war, but had never been confirmed. The race to develop it successfully had been a mini cold war in itself, as the implications of it were tremendous. Ultimately it had actually been deemed a WMD, in an attempt to dissuade countries from researching it and introducing it to the already unparalleled conflict. Of course, the war reached apocalyptic proportions without the help of railguns, but that would explain the state of these bots. They were probably kept locked in here as a last resort, to be used only in desperate situations because there would be massive outcry if the public heard about them. Nova wondered if the military itself even knew if they were safe, or if he would be in danger of evisceration the moment he tried to fire the thing.


    Taking a breath, Nova guided the machine off its station using the control panel and watched as it rumbled smoothly over the concrete floor. He saw through its camera eyes as it rolled through the vault door and into the main room. Suddenly overcome with a childish giddy excitement, the kind he might have experienced playing FPS video games as a child while controlling fictional robots like this one, Nova yelled out of the vault: "Hey guys! I know you can see already, but get your tails in here! This... this is something else!"

[Takamei Edevane]

Ip looked at Nova a little questionable of what he said. "Okay.." he felt slightly uneasy as the words "you don't have to worry about her" were said. He wanted to speak but then Nova turned his attention to Warren. Ip went into deep thought, wondering what would become of them? What was to happen next? He knew it wouldnt be easy, nothing was anymore. His thought was interupted by loud clanging of metal, he looked up to see Nova walking down into the vault. He stood up and walked to the edge of the vault entrance "Nova, what are you doing?" He jogged down to see what looked like robots. "W-what? Can we play with the toys later Nova because we need to get everyone in here. And we need to get Himawari" he said sternly. He turned slightly towards to vault entrance again "Nova!" he said loudly but not quite shouting, gesturing with his head towards the entrance.