"The man – the spokesperson you guys talk about, is named 'Mak Solun', which means 'Salt Flower' in old Leinatan. He is 1,304 years old, and has been the spokesperson since the war began and the president went missing. Nobody found the president, no matter what. We believe he has been killed and buried, and that the president is a fake. We also do not have enough evidence to claim this. However, our spies – the most professional spies in the Altairian star system have found out that the spokesperson leaves at specific times, those being every 6 hours and 17 minutes past midnight, and is gone for three minutes. We sadly couldn't breach the security of his office, so we do not know what he is hiding. Your speculation of the curse is as strong as our speculation that the spokesperson is controlled by somebody else.", says Haim, looking all serious.
"So, our goal is to attempt to breach his office without being caught…", says Zarya.
Rain just looks at Zarya, questioning her own capabilities: "This is my first mission, and I already have to break the law? Somebody, please help me, what the hell do I even do??"
Mailen just pats Rain on her shoulder and says: "Do not worry, Rain. Zarya and I are here for you, right?"
Zarya nods in agreement. Haim leaves and says: "Good luck on your mission, young ones. I will tell Sanydra that you can become allies of Kephar once the mission is over. You have our aid."
Rain and Zarya look at Mailen like he is the main one in the group. Mailen just looks back and asks: "What?"
Rain replies: "What is going on this planet?"
"I have zero idea myself. Ask Zarya, she's the local one here.", says Mailen, now staying a bit back from Rain's 'curious question'.
"We need to understand everything that's happening. Let's start from the beginning. Zarya, will you begin?", says Rain, telling Zarya to start planning and to go back a bit to everything they've understood. They go to the square again and have a walk.
"Okay. The president of Sanydra – Kael, sent us here to deal with Leinata's president/spokesperson, who has always had this weird habit of leaving every peace meeting and just leaving somewhere nobody knows. Hmm…", says Zarya, with a thinking expression
"There are also the speculations of the neutral group and Sanydra that they are controlled by other people, or another person. And also Zarya's speculation that he's cursed by the war god. Zarya, how did you even come to that speculation?", says Rain
"The statue in front of that restaurant we were in earlier? It had a statue of Volkarod, and I searched him up on the internet. He is known to curse leaders to win wars, but nobody ever proved it, and is just a myth.", says Zarya. "I have a photo if you want to see?"
"Let's keep that speculation back, because it doesn't sound too realistic. Let's just guess that the spokesperson is controlled by some people, maybe there's a 'party' or group of people like him, and he is the leader.", says Rain, rubbing her chin.
"Fair enough, considering also it's stated that the cursed leaders win in a span of days, and not a thousand years. But that was a very long time ago, before humans settled on Kephar.", says Zarya, putting her phone back.
They decide to go to their hotel because it's getting late. As they enter their own rooms, Zarya and Rain decide to play some videogames, while Mailen – in his own room creates a small database called "World Data".
"I'll have to use this to see possibilities and to mark everything that has happened in ever, to keep record of everything.", says Mailen, finishing up and preparing his tea afterwards.
In the morning, Rain wakes up early enough to also see Zarya tired. She is chaotic and loves joking around, but she still prefers to wake up early and finish her work earlier.
They have a good morning, and call up Mailen a few hours later to come to their room. Mailen comes, and they start strategizing their plan to break into the president's office and not be caught by the spokesperson – just to find the truth and deal with it, just to have peace on this "Planet of Beauty".
Mailen says: "So, the man said last night, that the spokesperson leaves exactly every 6 hours and 17 minutes after midnight. This means our possible times are 06:17, 12:34, 18:51. So three times a day. Considering right now it's 06:49, we only have two shots today. Let's prepare."
Rain decides to prepare food, Zarya prepares Sanydra by Rain's request, and Mailen decides to run a bit to prepare physically. As he comes back, he prepares the "World Data" log, and shows it to the girls: "I will input everything possible here. It's a huge data bank – a log database. Whatever."
They decide to go to the president's office.
------------
Author's Note:
The following scenes are written as entries from Mailen's "World Data" database, marked with timestamps.
------------
[data://entries/thread/crew/logs] - OPENED
Subject: Breach into president office – Attempt #1
Time of input: 12:33
"We prepared to infiltrate his office, right by his door. There was no security, so surprisingly it was easy to come."
Time of input: 12:35
"We heard the spokesperson leave, but we ran into an issue. An alarm went off, and the room was filled with lasers. We have to find a way to disable these lasers. Before we left (and nearly getting caught), I noticed that there was a specific drawer with a lock. Thankfully, I studied lockpicking when I was young in Astoria, and that lock looks very easy to lockpick. Our only obstacle are the lasers."
[data://entries/thread/crew/logs] – CLOSED
As the three were leaving for their hotel, a guard noticed them and asked what they were doing. They said they were just walking around, and they were surprisingly let go.
The three settle in Mailen's room, and decide to strategize once more.
"Ugh, these lasers. They're also deadly, I noticed they have a special material that kills on touch.", says Zarya
"Have you dealt with them before, Zarya?", asks Mailen, tuning a weapon he had. "Because no matter what, there's something I noticed."
"What was it, Mailen?", asks Rain, eating yet another hot dog now.
"There is one specific drawer with a lock on it. However, it seems to be the strongest lock on this planet, which again, is no problem for me, because I know how to lockpick. Maybe there's something that causes the spokesperson to act as such.", says Mailen, finishing with his weapon tuning, making it a good lockpick.
"Maybe a lever system, or what?", asks Rain, having zero idea.
"Why would a lever change a person's way to act? That is very unrealistic", says Mailen with a straight face, while Zarya is trying to hold her laugh.
"I literally have no idea", says Rain.
Zarya calms down, and adds on: "I believe that there may be an entity of some kind that is controlling the spokesperson's mind, and it might use adrenaline to keep him alive. Nobody has lived past a thousand years old except for Orkans, who are basically demigods on the Orka planet."
"That seems to make the most sense, considering before the war there was an epidemic of mind-controlling parasites infecting humans.", adds Zarya.
The crew has gathered several ideas on top of Zarya's theory of a mind-controlling parasite. Rain added on a theory that the spokesperson has really been normally alive for this long, and is just a self-proclaimed unknown dictator, and Mailen added on that it might also be possible that the president is actually alive, and is making sure the war goes on forever. There's still also the theory of Volkarod, and his curse to go to wars and win them.
…
With so many possibilities to think about, the crew has come back to square one. They will attempt breaking into the spokesperson's office and break into the safe to see what's so important to the spokesperson.
------------
Author's Note:
The following scenes are written as entries from Mailen's "World Data" database, marked with timestamps.
------------
[data://entries/thread/crew/logs] - OPENED
Subject: Breach into president office – Attempt #4
Time of input: 12:32
"This is our third attempt at breaking into the spokesperson's office. Last attempt we nearly got the safe but ran out of time. We managed to disable the alarm before it went off, and today we will recreate the last attempt, with speed on our mind. "
Time of input: 12:36
"We got the safe and left successfully. Zarya hit her head on the doorknob, but overall everybody is fine."
[data://entries/thread/crew/logs] – CLOSED
Rain, Zarya and Mailen were running from the office with the safe in their custom-made case that Mailen made after the 2nd attempt.
"We should be far enough. Let's open the case.", says Rain, completely exhausted and out of breath.
Mailen opens the case, and brings the safe out, he starts to lockpick it, and as he opens it, a face of disappointment shows on Mailen.
"This looks just like some family photos… Why would he have them in a safe?", says Mailen, now completely out of ideas on what to do.
"Wait, wait. Let me scan this. I have a device that can look at physical images and find secrets. It can decrypt literally everything.", says Zarya, taking out something from her 'mysterious bag of items.' Nobody but Zarya knows what is in there.
"[SCANNING…]", spews out the machine. "[PROGRESS: 2,64%. ANOMALIES DETECTED: 0]"
"It may take a while until it is done with these photos. There is like fifteen of them, so it should take around a few minutes.", says Zarya, holding her device near the photos.
"[PROGRESS: 49,76%. ANOMALIES DETECTED: 17]"
"[PROGRESS: 69,42%. ANOMALIES DETECTED: 65]"
"[PROGRESS: 99,84%. ANOMALIES DETECTED: 87]"
"[SCAN COMPLETE. ANOMALIES DETECTED: 88]", says the machine.
"Eighty-eight anomalies? That is a lot… What does that all mean though?", asks Rain, unknown of what an 'image anomaly' is.
"Basically, technology can hide special codes and stories in images. Normal people usually use this to store stories about people, and politicians, like the spokesperson, use it to store weaponry codes, or national secrets. I'm surprised there is eighty-eight of them in these fifteen images.", says Zarya, adding on: "I will look into this tonight. You folks have fun in the city."
"Alright. I wish you the best in the research.", says Mailen, looking at Rain and adding: "I found an arcade we can go to."
Zarya goes back to the hotel and looks into her research.
"What the… What is this language?"
The 15th anomaly that Zarya looked into has had a weird text in an unknown language. The past 14 anomalies had some weaponry codes and also a few weird sentences that didn't catch up such as 'Creation machine. World death." – coming from the 11th anomaly. It made zero sense to her. She looked into Mailen's data bank and looked into languages, and she found this:
[data://entries/languages/mashynan.lgn] - OPENED
Subject: Language entry for "MASHYNAN".
…
…
[data://entries/languages/mashynan.lgn] - CLOSED
Zarya was studying the language and successfully translated the sentence.
"Kolkrai vekth mashynai sharn-drūlai. Nael Leinata saen lumr kolvath, Kolkrai sharneth. Tarun-en ilnath, dravun velkar. Voren marun drūlen. 5 pollur"
"Kephar will create machines capable of destroying worlds. The nation of "Leinata" will conquer the holy city and destroy Kephar. Its people will survive and capture the galaxy. Forever unto death of worlds. 5 days."
Zarya fainted.
Several hours later, Rain and Mailen came to the hotel to find Zarya unconscious. They wake her up, and ask her what happened:
"Zarya! Are you okay??! Are you dead? Alive? Hello?", shouts Rain.
Zarya jumps up and gasps. "Kephar will be destroyed in a few days! We have to run!!"
Rain calms her down. "What do you mean?"
Zarya explains the anomalies and tells them her findings up to Anomaly #15.
"I've read that machines are also cause of Volkarod. No way it's true…", says Rain, with a small shock on her face.
"Ugh… Let's just find these machines, and destroy them if it's true.", says Mailen, about to go to his room for a weapon.
"Wait! I am not done yet, let me figure out the rest… These seem to be smaller in size, gimme a minute.", says Zarya with worry in her eyes.
Zarya finishes her research and creates a report. "Mailen, I've uploaded it to the data bank. Look into it."
Mailen opens up the data bank, and it reads as follows:
[data://entries/thread/zarya/research/1.log] - OPENED
Subject: Report on eighty-eight anomalies of LEINATA
…
ANOMALY #15:
Leinata is creating machines that will destroy Kephar on the Month of Peace, Day 14, Year 2175. Prepare for battle.
…
ANOMALY #48:
Volkarod is mentioned in this anomaly. He has cursed the spokesperson 2 days before the war began. However, he only used around one tenth of his power. Since they are losing the war starting year 2065 2SE, Volkarod started to use more of his power, leading to exhaustion.
…
ANOMALY #88:
We have 2 days until battle. 3 days before the destruction, the machines will start to be born. We have to fight them when they aren't at their peak strength, and when Volkarod falls on Kephar to strengthen the machines.
[data://entries/thread/zarya/research/1.log] - CLOSED