The Blue Vexus Outbreak

> *"Vault V7 is open, no visual contacts, squads 3 to 7 are moving to close the vault. Wait. Do you hear that"*
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> **- Case zero -**
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## The Vexus

Within the Alma Clavis are hidden vaults, guarded by traps behind secret corridors and autonomous sentry bots, what is in these vaults is considered highly valuable, ancient and sometimes, dangerous; one of these vaults was V7, and in the year 2312, vault V7 opened *from the inside*.

### **...**

It is an understatement to say little is known of the Vexus. It is naïve to say anything is known at all, it is not palpable, it is not a being, not a disease, not a god, not a man, a woman, an idea, a plague, a force of nature or a force of creation. It simply is, and it has for millennia been locked away by the Thadrakos at great cost and effort; it is believed by some that this was the true purpose of the Alma Clavis all along, a building so big and secure that it could never be found.

### Failed Heists

There are thousands of hidden vaults in the Alma Clavis, many aspiring treasure hunters and thieves believe that the Thadrakos lock away priceless items in these vaults and so many have tried to break into the vaults, all of them failed; prey to the traps and forever hungry hounds of the hidden halls, or swiftly executed by the wandering patrol bots.

The vaults were impenetrable, the death of a thousand thieves a testament to the security. Yet perhaps, it was the constant attempts to break into the vaults that caused something to break out.

A presence, an entity; a being that simply ***is***, an unknown simply known as *The Vexus,* it (or they) sensed the living scratching at its (or their) cage.

## Pandemic

> *All is grass before the blue*
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It is 2312.03.17 and the caretakers busy themselves with removing the latest failed attempt to breach a vault, this time a drill bought and smuggled in from the Commonwealth had been used on a vault door in the hopes of breaking it open; the vault door was completely undamaged, the thieves lay dead in their own liquified remains. Twenty caretakers and twenty guards were sent to clean the hall, they arrived, they cleaned, they left; after leaving the hall through the same door they came in, they were never seen again.

After failing to return another twenty guards were sent down the winding hallways that led to the vault, this time accompanied by a com-bot (a floating robot that had surveillance camera which a tech team could watch through) as they went down the corridors though they slowly disappeared. As the camera panned across the team from left to right, it would pan back to see one less guard, then it would pan ack the other way and there was another missing guard. The tech team watching this unfold raised the problem but the team leader said that there had never been more than twelve in his squad, hearing this the team... was satisfied.

The head of security was not though, he called for the team to be recalled and personally headed down to the point of entry with another hundred guards in tow. By the time the once twenty strong team returned there was only four of them, they did not seem fazed by this fact, it was rather the head of security who was fazed when he realised which vault the guards had been heading to.

> *"You...you were heading to vault V7"*
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> *"Yes"*
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>  *"And there have always been just four men in your squad?"*
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> *"Yes"*
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> *"We're too late, send for the keeper, only she can fix this"*
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A hundred guards were sent down to the vault, this time several com-bots were sent with them, never letting a single guard out of sight. The guards all arrived, none had gone missing, they approached the vault:

**Voice 1:** *"Vault V7 is open, no visual contacts, squads 3 to 7 are moving to close the vault. Wait. Do you hear that"*

**Voice 2:** *"Negative there is no noise, continue with the objective"*

**Voice 1:** *"Roger, closing the vault now, I still hear something"*

**Voice 2:** *"We'll scan for audial frequencies, continue to close the vault"*

**Voice 1:** *"Confirm"*

The vault door was sealed shut again, the guards turned to leave, the door opened again.

**Voice 1:** *"Impossible, there is no way to open that from the inside, command please advise"*

**Command:** *"I'm sorry"*

**Voice 1:** *"Sensors detecting movement inside the vault, Command please advise!"*

**Command:** *"Close your eyes, it'll hurt less when it comes, goodbye"*

The tech team were ordered to shut off the com-bots, no visual footage exists of what transpired, but no gunshots were heard. The head of security then shot the tech team then, after ordering the quarantine of the great building, shot himself.

## Class 1

Visitors complain of hearing voices, the complaints come from rooms considered adjacent to the halls leading to Vault V7.

The complaints spread to rooms adjacent to these rooms, then spread again, again. But then rooms across the entire building also complain, people speak of shadows where there should be none, they talk of bright blue lights wisping through the halls.

### Quarantine

At this stage the order to quarantine the building comes from the head of security, who then shot himself, the entrance is sealed and guards mobilise across the Alma Clavis; the guards at first carry guns but are ordered by the Keeper to put them back, instead they are told to grab paint, then they are told to paint... paint anything, paint the floor, the walls, the windows. Paint whatever comes to mind.

## Class 2

People begin to freeze, their veins bulging blue as they stand like statues, some guards begin to freeze but others carry on painting. The Keeper of the Library is too far to come to the Alma Clavis, her only instructions are to keep painting.

## Containment

Three hours later the problem seems to have been resolved, most of the library returns to normal. But large swathes of rooms close to Vault V7 are now completely encompassed by *The Vexus*, when asked if they should go in to close the vault the guards are simply told that what was in the Vault is already out, now lock all the doors that lead to the effected rooms and brick up the corridors that lead to the danger zones. Eventually the doors are also replaced with solid walls.

Only one entrance to the effected segment remains, under heavy guard and intense surveillance, when asked why it is not bricked up they are told:

*"Because the vexus will escape eventually, it always does, this door is the best place for it to get out"*

When people ask what The Vexus is the guards will say no-one knows, but since the day of the outbreak a strange painting has been seen in the Alma Clavis, a painting that seems to teleport around the library into any empty picture frame.

> *"Now usually the painting stays inside the quarantine zone, but it has been seen on the same walls we walk by, heck it's even been seen outside the building. One time it put itself in the reception area... now listen, whatever you do..."*
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> ------------------- *"Don't touch it, you'll never get out of that painting once you're in it" -------------------*
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