Main Story Chapters

## Introduction

Getting started

Synopsis

Note: This story content immediately follows the events of [Inscription of Labyrinth].

**Normal story**:

Vera, receiving instructions from Nikola, steals a transport aircraft from a dispatched group of Constructs and forcibly takes the Commandant with her. Together, they fly out over the Atlantic Ocean and ultimately reach their destination: A hidden, abandoned mid-ocean Zero-Point research facility, codenamed "Atlantis." Upon arrival, they retrieve a transport pod containing Vera's Flare frame as well as a recording from both Nikola and Hassan laying out their objective. Their orders are to collect any and all information they can find within the facility.
Embarking through the facility, Vera and the Commandant are greeted by various autonomous mechanisms, all of which being at remarkably low infection stages; some express weak hostility, while others are entirely benign. Moreover, the facility is completely devoid of all signs of human struggle. Walls, floors, and other structures are untouched, hallways are cleaned to perfection, furnishings lay undisturbed -- it was almost as if humans had never occupied the space to begin with.
Eventually, the duo discovers the personal office, and consequently a series of video logs, of the former Head of Research at the facility, Lastris. In her logs, Lastris details the events that transcribe prior to the vacation of the facility.
Lastris and the other researchers aboard Atlantis originally were participating in studies revolving around Zero-Point energy. However, when the catastrophic failure that led to the Punishing Virus occurred, their objective shifted: They set upon discovering the mechanisms behind the genesis of the Punishing by means of replication. Lastris and her team of researchers strove to recreate every aspect that went into the original catastrophe. As the world outside of Atlantis crumbled, the facility stopped receiving supply shipments; eventually, the population aboard found themselves strapped for food. Faced with dire circumstance, they chose to continue their research until the bitter end. Each member of the facility had their bodily needs, as well as roles in the research, measured and accounted for; they would then receive a daily ration of biscuits and other non-perishable food items in storage. Through these calculations, teams were starved to death in order of importance to their project. Administrative roles died first, while scientists and engineers whose abilities were core to the operation had extra rations saved so that they could survive longer. The entire staff eventually met its end in this way, giving their lives to their research in the name of saving humanity. Lastris herself was the final casualty.
It was at this time that Vera and the Commandant noticed that the entirety of Atlantis had begun to slowly sink into the ocean. Deducing that someone had initiated the sink as a function from a central control point, they race down to the central reactor where they believe the control terminal is located. Much of the facility begins crumbling under the heavy external pressures of the Atlantic Ocean, and their path is impeded by shattering walls, flooding, and increasingly violent Corrupted. Upon arrival at the reactor, they briefly encounter the Ascendant, Lamia, before she disappears. Vera and the Commandant chase her to the top of the central tower, where Vera battles her. Upon Lamia's defeat, Atlantis returns to the ocean surface.
Vera and the Commandant are then retrieved by a transport aircraft and return to Babylonia.

**Hidden story**:

Lamia continues to grow throughout the time the researchers live and work aboard the facility. However, her intellectual growth is stunted, and many of the scientists dissociate with her due to her inability to contribute to the project. When the facility begins rationing food, Lamia becomes increasingly more emotionally volatile, much to Lastris's discontent. Lamia eventually decides that, above all else, she wishes to live. In this interest, she consults with one of the scientists, who offers her the opportunity to become a Construct; that way, she would gain the ability to retrieve information or supplies from the outside world, thus making her useful to the team and thereby solidifying her importance aboard Atlantis. She accepts the offer, trading her prosthetic legs for a mechanical lower half with the ability to change between legs and tail, and is sent away from the facility by the research team.
Throughout her time as an Ascendant, she struggles with her own memory and intellectual capacity; she cannot remember Atlantis' location, and only learns of it through conversation with another Corrupted. By the time she manages to return, the members of the research team are long deceased. In her despair, she initiates the sink order, hoping to bury her own pain along with it.
After her defeat by Vera, Lamia is allowed to escape. She is last seen drifting aimlessly below the ocean's waves.

### Chapters 16-20

* Chapter 16

**Normal story**:

Concurrently, it is observed and noted that the virus on Earth has been evolving at an unprecedented rate, and has now begun creating human-like organisms with heightened intelligence and limited speech coordination. Babylonia assembles a task force with the Egret, Qing Ting, and Gray Raven units, along with a multitude of supporting Constructs (including Yata from the Scarab unit) under the orders of General Hans. The force then deploys to the Puglia Forest Park with a twofold mission: First, collect viral samples from the Polymerized Mother Structure, and second, destroy it.
Upon arrival, the force notes that much of the "vegetation" growing in the park is, in fact, not plant biomatter, but rather viral bodies. Humanoid creatures grow from their glowing red "vines" through an umbilical cord on their backs; these creatures are display immediate aggression towards the humans and Constructs on the ground.
Through their improvised combat and exploration tactics, the teams manage to arrive at Tower 40. From there, they ascend the tower, following the viral "veins" towards their target higher up. Gray Raven is eventually dispatched individually in order to retrieve the samples and defeat the Mother Structure while the remaining teams prevent pursuit by the inhabiting Corrupted.
Lucia, Lee, Liv, and the Commandant encounter the Polymerized Mother Structure and attempt to engage it. However, shortly after their arrival, the Mother Structure "gives birth" to two immensely advanced Humanoid Corrupted; these Corrupted are regarded as the perfect mirror image of humans, and display the capacity for both emotion and abstract thought shortly after they've opened their eyes. Lee and Lucia are quickly knocked out of the way by them, and the Commandant is struck through their stomach by a tendril from the Mother Structure. The Commandant manages to muster their will and fires a shot from their weapon at point-blank range into the tendril, separating some of its body from it; this injures the Mother Structure enough for it to relent, and its two "children" rush to its aid, allowing Gray Raven time to escape with the bit of its body they've collected.
Upon the return of Gray Raven, the task force requests an emergency evacuation transport and also issues a command to have an orbital strike performed on the entire Puglia Forest Park. Descending from the tower, Hans realizes that the transmitter inside the tower is jammed and unable to transmit coordinates appropriately, and goes back in alone to personally rectify the problem. He succeeds, but dies shortly thereafter due to complications from Punishing infection.
The rest of the force escapes the park. However, at their rendezvous location with the transport aircraft, the force are promptly slaughtered by the two Humanoid Corrupted who've pursued them from the tower. The orbital strike occurs at this time, obliterating the park and everything inside it except for the two Humanoid Corrupted. At this point, they walk off.
Lee, Lucia, and the Commandant are retrieved and brought back to Babylonia. The former Constructs are in poor shape, but are not in critical danger; the Commandant, however, is left hanging on the verge of death. While the samples were successfully brought back to Babylonia, the operation is considered a catastrophic failure by the World Government.

**Hidden story**:

During their ascent through the tower, the three scavengers are eventually separated from Roland. They continue their journey further up, seeking the serum vials that Roland used to bait them with, and stumble across the Polymerized Mother Structure itself. Realizing the scale of what's happening in the tower, they venture back down and into the tower's central control room. Zac (the engineer of the three) manages to disconnect some of the tower's power systems, from which the Mother Structure was feeding; this angers Hui Yan, who had been overseeing the Mother Structure's development. Hui Yan and Roland confront the three scavengers, fatally wounding Zac and scaring the other two out of the tower.
Before dying, Zac asks Roland to give the serum bottles to his escaped comrades, to which Roland obliges.