Chapter 7607: Deathtech
Chapter 7607: Deathtech
The badge did not look all that impressive.
However, Ves found himself unable to fully understand its mechanisms and principles. To his senses, it truly looked like a piece of stone carved into the shape of a uniform accessory.
Even when its surface began to display growing green lines, Ves found himself unable to explain why those specific places lit up. The rock composition of those glowing bits did not seem any different from the rest. He was quite certain that no esoteric green crystals had been embedded into the alien object.
"What you are looking at is one of the simplest examples of what we have come to call deathtech." The Farseer said as she stood at Andraste’s side. "The badge is made out of a special stone variety that is in turn part of a collection of specially treated materials called deathstone. Much of the artifacts and debris that we have taken from the ruined temple complex consists of 6 different grades of deathstone."
Deathtech.
Deathtone.
Brand new terms to describe brand new phenomena.
Ves knew that these words had already been used a lot of times by the researchers lucky enough to work with samples of deathborn technology at this early stage.
The collies working in the labs of the Moloch and the researchers stationed in several other ships were practically making history!
"What defines deathtech?" He asked. "What are the key traits that distinguish it from other technologies?"
This was easy for the Farseer to answer.
"Let me preface my response by stating that our understanding of deathtech is hardly complete. We are merely scratching the surface of what the deathborn has introduced in an entirely different galaxy. I am convinced that their manifestations of technology are much more impressive in their home galaxy. Nonetheless, what they have shown so far possesses numerous new and interesting properties. For one, deathtech functions decently enough in normal environments, but gains a considerable amount of potency when put in an environment that is saturated with death energy."
That was easy enough to guess.
It also provided clarity to the previous battle.
"If that was the case, then deploying my Poison Willows had unintentionally neutered the temple complex when it was still intact." Ves thoughtfully responded. "That explains how the Riot Mark III was able to descend from orbit without being greeted with stronger defensive fire. The alien facility was so big and so developed that it is hard for me to believe that its anti-air capabilities are so inferior. What truly happened is that the temporary dispersal of dark miasma had effectively deprived it of an ideal operating environment. All of that ’deathtech’ suddenly behaved like a fish out of water."
The formation master shook her head. "I would not use that particular analogy to describe the circumstances at the time. Deathtech still performs adequately outside of a favorable energy environment. It likely has to be as the deathborn will not be able to utilize their equipment outside of the territories under their control. I would rather equate deathtech to amphibian organisms. Many of them fare better when swimming in water, but they can still hop on land if they need to hunt for easier or more abundant prey."
The properties of a racial technology said much about the species that created and utilized it. From this trait alone, Ves deduced that the deathborn highly preferred to operate in territories engulfed in death energies.
For example, star systems blanketed by dark miasma or old battlefields that had become steeped with alien corpses would definitely allow the deathborn to operate at their strongest!
This trait heavily limited the deathborn’s ability to operate in positive energy environments. This heavily reduced their overall threat to the other races that occupied Messier 87. After all, the deathborn didn’t seem all that scary once they entered the light.
This likely also saved them from getting crusaded against by a massive coalition of rival alien civilizations!
"Have you tested the badge in chambers that have been filled with death energy?"
"Yes, but only on a limited basis, sir. Those initial tests have introduced numerous unexpected surprises. Sadly, that was also when we suffered harmful accidents. Numerous pieces of deathtech are embedded with security protocols or possess interactions that are deadly to living organisms. Deathtech is safer to use by entities that are not threatened by exposure to death-attributed E energy."
Ves turned his gaze towards his daughter. "Doesn’t that put my girl in danger?"
"Not exactly." The Farseer tried to reassure him. "Deathtech is made to be used by the deathborn, or more generally speaking entities that are not harmed by exposure to death energy. Prior medical examinations of your daughter have long revealed that she actually falls within this category. As a posthuman paired with a companion spirit that is aligned with the death attribute, her entire body and soul has actually acquired an immunity or a high degree of resistance against the harmful effects of death energy. More importantly, we have discovered that many deathtech devices contain several permission levels. The higher ones are not accessible to living alien thralls. Only a genuine deathborn can activate these restricted functions."
"Are you telling me that my younger daughter can moonlight as a deathborn?"
"We believe that to be the case." The cultivator responded with a smile. "To what degree, we cannot say. That is why we have prepared this little session. We want to take a first look at what little Andraste can do when coming into contact with a number of low-risk artifacts. Depending on how thoroughly the deathborn have implemented their security measures into the deathtech devices that they have constructed in the Hypeh-Tekas System, your daughter may very well gain the equivalent of administrator access to these alien artifacts."
That clearly excited the collies. From the reports that Ves had read, the collies had largely failed to activate the artifacts in their hands. They could only look at their surface and deduce a few clues that were largely trivial in the greater scheme of things.
"Before you called upon Andraste, have you tried spoofing these devices with your own version of a deathborn?"
Andrea responded with a disappointed expression. "We tried, but our results are limited. We lack the time, resources, knowledge and expertise to produce more than a handful of marginally acceptable outcomes. Our research institutions back in friendly territories are much better staffed and equipped to study the recovered deathtech devices, but we cannot that long. The more progress we make today, the sooner we can understand this latest galactic-scale threat."
Ves truly did not like to put his daughter at risk, but there was another side to him that actually approved of this initiative.
He had imbued the seed of death inside the precursor form of Yaika for very deliberate reasons. If Andraste was destined to become a champion on the battlefield, then he wanted to ensure that she was able to thrive in the midst of death!
If deathtech could unlock new possibilities and empower her future endeavors far beyond the level of her ordinary peers, then Ves was eager to find out whether he could harness this exotic new tech base!
"Andraste."
"Yes, papa?"
"Describe to me how you feel now that you have held the badge for a while. Do you feel any danger from it? Has it conveyed any information to you? Do you feel that you can do something specific with this thing?"
His daughter spent a few seconds formulating her words. "I... don’t know. I don’t feel anything special about it to be honest. There might be something about these glowing bits that twigs my senses, but... that is all I can say."
"Thank you. I am glad to hear that you are still comfortable. Don’t hesitate to toss it away if it becomes harmful."
The Farseer reached out to pick up a disc that was at least thrice as large as the badge.
The texture of this stone disk looked a little different. While it was made out of the same family of ’deathstone’, it was clearly made out of another grade.
"This is a piece of grade 5 deathstone." She said. "Our material tests have already discovered that it is harder and more energy-dense than grade 6 deathstone. It takes a little more resources and effort to produce it. That means that this artifact is a little more important than an identity badge. We have not tried to activate it because previous experiments with similar objects triggered a security protocol that caused them to crumble into pieces."
That said much about the nature of these circular rocks. They were deliberate constructions that possessed sensitive functions. While they were somewhat disposable to the deathborn, they were still important enough to make it harder for third parties to unlock their true capabilities.
"I am curious. What grade of deathstone is the main structure of the temple complex made of?" Ves asked.
"Over 90 percent of it is made out of grade 4 deathstone. This is clearly the base material that the deathborn and their native alien collaborators have used as the baseline for their megainfrastructure project. We do not believe that this is the preferred grade for such a facility. The deathborn most definitely prefer to make their alien headquarters and ritual site out of stronger and more energetic variations of deathstone, but they are heavily constrained by their current circumstances. If we assaulted Hypeh-Tekas II a year later, I have no doubt that the entire complex would have been made out of grade 3 or maybe even grade 2 deathstone. We have already detected small proportions of these superior materials in core areas."
"Give me an example."
"The monoliths that surrounded the massive green crystal were made entirely of grade 3 deathstone. The top layer surface where the green crystal rested upon was made out of a sparing amount of grade 2 deathstone. These design choices suggest that the aliens are limited in production of superior grades of deathstone and are forced to allocate what little they have on where they are needed the most."
"I see. That makes a lot of sense."
From what Ves could deduce from this explanation, grade 6 and grade 5 deathstone probably consisted of the low-end versions of this material family. They were cheap and easy to produce en masse, but lacked the strength to serve as a qualified structural material. Anything the aliens made out of grade 6 and 5 deathstone shouldn’t be too dangerous or impressive.
When Andraste slowly took hold of the stone disk, its surface began to light up in moving green patterns.
Soon enough, a combination of completely unfamiliar glyphs and more recognizable native alien text scrolled across the surface of the device!
"Is this... the alien version of a data pad?" Ves quickly guessed.
"Apparently so." The Farseer smile grew wider. "This is the first ’normal’ activation of such a device. All of our previous attempts have failed for one reason or another. Let us conduct another test."
The older woman instructed the girl to let go of both the badge and the disk, before proceeding to touch the latter again.
Nothing happened. The stone disk remained inert. The alien ’data pad’ refused to activate.
That disappointed the collie. "Ah. I see. Our visitors from M87 do not allow any random member of their species to access the information contained within this device. Well, this confirms one of our suspicions. The deathborn clearly take their information security seriously. Even their own kind must carry their own ’badges’ or other identifiers in order to access their tech properly."
"Have you found such objects?"
"Yes, or at least we suspect so." The Farseer responded in a graver tone. "We have found badges made out of higher grades of deathstone that were presumably worn by alien corpses that have been animated by deathborn officers. These are the true backbone of the temple complex. They likely served as the overseers and controllers of the many systems and facilities of that alien site. It is too dangerous for your daughter to experiment with the help of these badges. The risks are too great."
Though Ves wanted to see what Andraste could do if she came into contact with the higher-end deathtech specimens, he largely agreed with her caution.
Whatever possible gains he could obtain from such experiments was not worth the risk of serious harm befalling his cute little girl!