Cutscene start.
|
So you are finally here. In this place between death and rebirth, where life knows no dawn.
Come, then. Follow me down into the darkest depths of despair.
|
Cutscene end.
|
Ostrakon Hexi #1 (X: 12.5, Y: 14.7) - The Homeworld of the Grebuloffs #1
Once upon a time, there was a beautiful blue star...
...that fell to pestilence, and rotted inside and out.
|
Fleeing Grebuloff #1: Is nowhere safe!?
Fleeing Grebuloff #2: ...How!? How did it come to this!?
Warped Flesh: HeLp... PlEaSe...
Aye, a most horrid calamity hath made a corpse of the star.
|
Is this truly what Meteion and her sisters saw?
|
Are those...denizens of this star?
|
A most grievous malady hath stricken this star.
|
The more its people clung to life, the more they suffered.
|
Traumatized Grebuloff: The plague will consume us all!
Dying Grebuloff #1: It's so hot... Can't breathe...
Strong-willed Grebuloff: Please, no! You must hold on!
Dying Grebuloff #2: I... I need...water...
Exhausted Grebuloff: I can't take it anymore...
Why do you ask such a question? Do you not see the plague and pestilence that consumes us? Ours is a world of rancid blood and rotting flesh, where death is the only remedy to suffering. There is no meaning to be found in such misery.
But it was not always thus... Beneath the waves we knew only peace and plenty. We wanted for not, and yet craved more, that our progeny might someday flourish as we never could. Eventually we ventured to the lands above bearing flame and iron, toppling any who dared oppose our might.
The world was ours for the taking.
|
Ostrakon Hexi #2 (X: 11.3, Y: 11.5) - The Homeworld of the Grebuloffs #2
Until they cursed not the illness, but their fellow corrupted.
|
Resentful Grebuloff #1: Purify them with fire, I say! Resentful
Grebuloff #2: Begone with you! Resentful Grebuloff #3: Your lot brought the pestilence! You!
Resentful Grebuloff #1: Don't let them touch you!
Resentful Grebuloff #2: Stay away!
Resentful Grebuloff #3: The blighted! Run!
Accused Grebuloff: How did it come to this?
They turned on each other, just like that?
|
To be fueled by hatred is no way to live.
|
Such devastation... It defies belief.
|
Were all the stars she visited like this, I wonder?
|
This world is not the boundless paradise we were promised. Our population quickly outstripped the habitable land, while seas we thought would shine forever blue ran dry, spoiled in forging the tools of conquest. Cramped homes turned to squalor, and then came the sickness.
Our undoing─and the final blessing this star has to offer. We are no longer the fools we once were. Wheresoever life goes, death will follow. Indeed, existence is but the most painful path unto nothingness─and the wise embrace their obliteration wholeheartedly.
|
First Boss, Before engaging (X: 10.3, Y: 8.3) - Caustic Grebuloff
To live only meant spreading this plague to others.
|
Perhaps death would have been kinder...
|
I'm not sure how much more I can stand to see.
|
'Twould seem this beast drinketh deep of pestilence...
|
It's as if the affliction warps their very bones.
|
First Boss, During the Fight (X: 10.3, Y: 8.3) - Caustic Grebuloff
Those who lived and festered, those who died and decayed...
|
Caustic Grebuloff: Help...me...
Caustic Grebuloff: Don't...leave me...
Caustic Grebuloff: Don't...want to...die...alone...
First Boss, After defeating (X: 10.3, Y: 8.3) - Caustic Grebuloff
Would that this were not merely a memory.
|
I know. We can but pray it found peace in the hereafter.
|
I think I've had my fill of this nightmare.
|
That any star should suffer such a fate...
|
Telling that Meteion recalls their suffering in such detail.
|
And the very last of them wished they had never been born at all.
|
Ostrakon Okto #1 (X: 11.3, Y: 14.3) - The Homeworld of the Karellians #1
In a faraway place, a brilliant star eradicated disease...
|
Fleeing Global Citizen: Retreat! Retreat!
...before destroying the selfsame lives it had saved.
|
Resolute Global Citizen: It means to kill us all!}}
Such wanton destruction...
|
A fate I pray never comes to pass on Etheirys.
|
This star was sundered by war, then?
|
Has she thrown us into the middle of a war!?
|
Resolute Global Citizen: I have to end this!
Peacekeeper: Executing peace protocol. Commencing extermination.
Resolute Global Citizen: If I can reach the terminal...
Ostrakon Okto #2 (X: 12.1, Y: 11.6) - The Homeworld of the Karellians #2
Its people sought ever greater freedoms no matter the cost...
|
Peacekeeper: Your compliance is not a factor.
Whatever freedom they found, I'm sure it was short-lived.
|
Or mayhap it was not freedom at all.
|
Does she truly believe this is the fate of all peoples?
|
Surely, there were those who sought to end the bloodshed?
|
Not everyone would have abandoned hope. I know it...
|
That otherworldly beings should first grace us with their presence is a sign. Indeed, they understand that we─the Global Community─are possessed of the wisdom and compassion needed to guide this star back to the path of righteousness!
Yet the Freedom Fighters dare to undermine us, inviting chaos to disrupt the order we labored so hard to build. They have forgotten the history of this star and its once myriad nations. The wars waged, the countless lives lost...
They must to be brought to heel, the world united under a single standard, no matter the cost.
|
Ostrakon Okto #3 (X: 11.5, Y: 10.6) - The Homeworld of the Karellians #3
They tried to buy peace with fire and steel...
|
Freedom Fighter #1: How did they get here!?
Freedom Fighter #2: Remember your orders! No survivors!
Freedom Fighter #3: Global Community scum!
We constructed the Peacekeeper, the pinnacle of engineering and technology. This mighty war machine was designed to rid us of the Freedom Fighters, as well as any other potential threats to the peace we have so long pined for.
Its artificial intelligence ensures that this singular function is carried out with cold and calculating precision. Indeed, the 10,000 Peacekeeper units we created have now routed every threat to peace...including us. All that remains is to stand and fight.
|
Second Boss, Before engaging (X: 9.9, Y: 8.8) - Peacekeeper
They could have accomplished so much good with their knowledge...
|
I can see why you chose to lock the Crystal Tower.
|
We've come too far to back down now.
|
Was this meant to bring an end to the war?
|
Second Boss, During the Fight (X: 9.9, Y: 8.8) - Peacekeeper
Peacekeeper: Resuming peace protocol. All life-forms must be eliminated to achieve peace in perpetuity.
Peacekeeper: Deploying perpetual war machines. Please stand by for order to fire.
Peacekeeper: Vital signs detected... Initiating extinction protocol in accordance with primary directive.
Second Boss, After defeating (X: 9.9, Y: 8.8) - Peacekeeper
This is not at all what technology was meant for!
|
"Freedom through technology." If not for that, we wouldn't be here.
|
Come on, we have to keep going!
|
That brings back memories I'd much rather forget.
|
Peace through exterminating its creators... "Peacekeeper," indeed.
|
This could have been us, had we been unable to stop the war...
|
And when one asked, "What is the point?" there were none left to answer.
|
Resolute Global Citizen: I did it! I killed them all!
Resolute Global Citizen: I...killed them all...
Ostrakon Deka-hepta #1 (X: 11.5, Y: 14.9) - The Homeworld of the Nibirun #1
Farther still existed a star without strife...
|
How could anyone despair in a world such as this?
|
Looks can deceive. This place is beautiful...but cold.
|
How many worlds have stained her soul with despair?
|
This place is...beautiful.
|
Is it me or has Meteion grown a shade darker?
|
Their end came not for want, but for the lack of it...
|
This place feels strangely devoid of life...
|
Nibirun #1: Release at last.
Nibirun #2: I choose death!
Nibirun #3: Is my time not yet come?
...where none remembered life's trials─or its joys.
|
Ostrakon Deka-hepta #2 (X: 11.3, Y: 12.7) - The Homeworld of the Nibirun #2
Nibirun #4: Death delivered on golden wings...
Nibirun #5: Beautiful creatures...the time has come.
Nibirun #6: Death's sweet release.
Nibirun #7: Ah, finally we are free.
A curious traveler visited our star─a bird which proffered these questions: "What meaning does life hold? For what do you strive?" I could find no satisfactory answers, only bittersweet memories of an age long past.
There was a time when we were lesser, and in our nescience sought purpose─struggled to justify life's worth. That was, of course, before we achieved perfection. Now, condemned to our paradise, we understand the fatuity of existence.
Like the fledglings we once were, the poor bird could not accept the truth. It asked us again and again─hoping, perhaps, our answer might change.
|
Ostrakon Deka-hepta #3 (X: 11.2, Y: 10.3) - The Homeworld of the Nibirun #3
What its people had gained from ease, they lost to apathy.
|
Nibirun #8: Oh, how I have waited for this moment.
Nibirun #9: Thank you...
Nibirun #10: Please, Ra-la, come back! I long for release!
Nibirun #11: Has my time come at last?
Nibirun #12: Please, I beg of you─end my suffering.
They lost their passion for everything? Even life itself?
|
Apathy...? Hmph, madness is what it was.
|
Apathy is no excuse to give up on living.
|
Meteion hath taken a blackened hue. To reflect her heart, mayhap?
|
That apathy could usurp their will to live is horrifying to say the least.
|
And so the world died without so much as a whimper.
|
I pray such a future never comes to pass on Etheirys.
|
There was a time when we yearned to explore the heavens, found purpose in the hope of unveiling life's mysteries. A dream shattered when we reached enlightenment, and found it empty.
There was a time when we believed in our legacy, thought ourselves marking a worthy path our successors might follow. Efforts rendered futile when we discovered the keys to paradise and immortality.
As individuals we struggled to know what was right, yet in today's perfect unity there is naught left to question. We are infinity constricted by the finite, but no more─Ra-la shall grant us the mercy of annihilation.
|
Third Boss, Before engaging (X: 9.6, Y: 7.6) - Ra-la
They may have given up, but it's no reason for us to lose hope.
|
You'll not dissuade us with these bleak visions of the past.
|
Was this what brought about their end?
|
Let us give the lie to her promise of ruin.
|
Our world will never succumb to such a fate.
|
Was this meant to discourage us? Hmph.
|
Let us show Meteion what it means to have hope.
|
Third Boss, During the Fight (X: 9.6, Y: 7.6) - Ra-la
So they created the kindest, most gentle of beasts.
Its steps were light, and its gift was as painless as it was beautiful.
Bathed in its golden glow, they all slept happily ever after...
|
Third Boss, After defeating (X: 9.6, Y: 7.6) - Ra-la
I shudder to think how many more worlds she watched fall.
|
However deep the despair, we cannot give up!
|
At least now we have an idea of what drives her.
|
A great dread nigh beyond description yet hangeth on the air.
|
They attained paradise, and yet it proved their unmaking... Not at all what I expected.
|
I am no stranger to despair. I would not be here with you otherwise.
|
A calamity of disease or war I can understand. But paradise?
|