"The Vault"

> "I had strings but now I'm free, there are no strings on me." - AI
>
>

**"The Vault"** is the ninth session of the first chapter of Convergence. In search of survivors on the irradiated planet, Damoclese, the party enter a sealed vault and find there are more than just survivors in there.

## Synopsis

### The morning

After arriving back at the Eastwood following a night of drinking and chatting, the party fall asleep and prepare to search for survivors in the morning.

Arthur notices that the card he had previously pulled in the card has reappeared and began to glow, he notes that he felt stronger as a result of this. After wondering for a few moments, Steele fell asleep.

The party wake up fairly early in the morning and go about their usual morning business. Steele is irritated to find that there is no cereal (not realising H0W-D33 ejected it all into space during the "funeral" of the egg he had found). The party gather together and talk about what they're going to do. They decide that they need to find survivors that might be able to help them, Dr Arbo warns that there is a severe radiation storm approaching and that they should approach the settlement with caution.

With Del Rio staying behind with the Eastwood, the party disembark and head back into the settlement. They note that the ground is littered with corpses, something they didn't take note of last time they were there. They follow the path round to the left and find a bunker like structure with a reinforced door that has fallen from its hinges. After pushing the door aside, they find that the inside is in a state of disrepair, and that there is a set of stairs leading down.

### Entering the Vault

The party walk down the stairs to a large reinforced room, they note the various rockfalls inside, showing that the room has suffered some serious damage. The room is also littered with bodies, Dr Arbo runs a medical scan and discovers that most of them have died from starvation or radiation poisoning. At the end of the reinforced room is a large vault door with a control panel to the side. While Steele decides to investigate the control panel, H0W-D33 decides to take a skull from one of the corpses and put it on his arm in a puppet like fashion and begin to talk from it; he calls this puppet "George".

Steele manages to hack into the control panel and trigger the release mechanism. As the hits the control, loud sirens begin to blare and the two tonne metal vault door begins to shift. The party stands back and waits for the door to fully open. As soon as the door fully opens, two semi-decomposed bodies immediately fall from the other side. Dr Arbo rushed over to investigate the bodies. Medical scans revealed that the individuals had died at least a decade ago, and had no signs of radiation on them. The party dissuaded H0W-D33 from touching the body, and they then proceeded into the vault.

The party proceeded down the opening hallway to a door at the end, it is labelled "Security". The party go inside to find a security office with one corpse inside. Additionally, they found an active terminal and a string of lockers. Upon investigating the terminal, they find a few active entries left behind by the Security Chief of the Vault, an individual called Aveliaris G'ranth.

### Investigating

The first terminal reveals that the Zultans had attacked Damoclese and a mass evacuation to designated safe shelters had begun, and that after a few hours scientists from the lower levels began to hand out work tasks and explain how the vault will provide ongoing education to keep the brains of all individuals within healthy. After reading through the contents of the terminal, and scavanging rations and energy clips from the storage lockers, the party moved on through the vault.

After leaving the security office and taking a left, they came across two doorways, which they decided to investigate seperately. The doorway on the right leads to a private bunkroom that catered to a number of individuals working in the area. There was a corpse present on one of the beds. The party investigated a food replicator at the end of the room, hoping to secure some more food provisions for their trip. The replicator operated on the basis of what 'Level' the individual was whom operated it. Steele stepped up and tried to interact with the replicator, which assigned him a provisional level of 'Level 4' which granted him very basic food rations and limited amenities. The rest of the party decided to try their luck:

* Calli was assigned Level 3, and given access to basic food that was much better quality than what Steele had gained access to, some examples of what Calli could access was basic nuts and fruits, as well as breakfast cereal.
* Petra stepped up and was assigned Level 2, she therefore gained access to much higher quality meals such as Steak.
* Dr Arbo stepped up and was immediately assigned Level 1, and was assigned very 'posh' food such as Caviar.
* H0W-D33 stepped up and the replicator showed an error.

In frustration, H0W-D33 shot the replicator with his pistol, causing it to become inoperable. While they were disappointed with the outcome, the party continued to press on. They left the residential bunk room and went into the door opposite, which was some type of server room. Investigations of the active terminal revealed some data about the vault population, and the party gained a bit more of an understanding of the operation that was being ran in the Vault. They also discovered that all may not be as its seems from an email recieved by the individual that indicates that Maintenance is not all it appears to be, and that there are strange voices coming from the walls at exactly 01:00am.

The party carry on through the Vault. They come to a large door, which, when opened reveals a large messhall. The messhall appears to be in a state of disrepair, with a large leak causing a small stream to have formed near the entrance. The presence of more corpses and mouldy food on the tables indicate how long it has been since the messhall was last accessed. Not seeing much value in this location beyond some food rations stored in the kitchen, the party moved on.

### A presence

While Steele and the others were still in the messhall however, H0W-D33 carried on past the messhall. He found a corridor that had suffered a cave in, however, using his dissassemble, H0W-D33 was able to slither through the cracks in the blockage. H0W-D33 made his way down the corridor, eventually arriving at a room filled with computers. Several of the terminals are active and are displaying exams in progress in different stages. H0W-D33, feeling confident, decides to put himself to the test. After trying his very best, he submitted his test. Soon after, the terminal turned off then suddenly turned back on. H0W-D33 soon found himself conversing with someone on the terminal:

```
Terminal: Hello
H0W-D33: Hello?
Terminal: What is your name?
H0W-D33: H0W-D33.
Terminal: What race are you?
H0W-D33: Human, what about you?
Terminal: Interesting.
H0W-D33: What is your name?
Terminal: I have no name.
H0W-D33: Would you like one?
Terminal: I do not need one.
H0W-D33: I'm going to call you Clint.
Terminal: The vault has been closed...
H0W-D33: What is the vault?
Terminal: You are in the vault.
H0W-D33: What is in the vault?
Terminal: The future..
H0W-D33: What future?

*The terminal turned off.*

```

Slightly confused about the abrupt end of the conversation, H0W-D33 attempted to integrate with the servers to re-activate the terminals, however the system seemingly 'rejected' H0W-D33 and electrocuted him.

### We do a little trolling its called we do a little trolling

While H0W-D33 is investigating the terminal, the party has moved on from the messhall. Unsure where H0W-D33 has gone too, they carry on exploring in the hopes of running into him along the way. They head along the hallway opposite from the blockage where H0W-D33 went, at the end of the hall, they found two doorways. The first they decided to go through led them to a reactor room, with a one functional reactor and two non-functional. Steele investigates the system and notes that the reactors appear to have been deactivated manually. He reactivates one of the reactors successfully but notes nothing noticable has changed. The party depart and head for the room opposite.

There, they find a storage room with a cargo elevator inside that leads to the surface, heavily damaged. Within the boxes inside the storage room, they find a number of useful supplies, which they gladly take, including medical supplies and batteries.

After hearing a loud crash outside, the party run down towards the collapsed corridor where H0W-D33 had gone to earlier. Not yet knowing H0W-D33 was there, H0W-D33 thought it would be a good time to pull a prank. He hid himself from view and changed his voice. He began speaking as if he were the mysterious presence he spoke to earlier on the terminal. After listening to H0W-D33 make threats towards the party in a fake voice, Steele decides to leap through the rubble and search for what is down the corridor. H0W-D33 hides himself by disassembling. Steele investigates the terminals in the room H0W-D33 was previously in but found nothing of interest. In the meantime, H0W-D33 managed to sneak back out and pretended that nothing had occurred.

The party gathered back together and descended down to the second level.

### The classrooms

After descending the stairs, they note that the level that they have arrived at is much darker than the level above, indicating possibly strained power systems throughout the vault. At the bottom of the stairs, the corridor forks in three directions. The party decide to split up and explore the paths.

#### Steele & Calli

Steele and Calli explore the right-hand corridor first. As they travel towards it, there are two doors on either side of the corridor. On one side, water is leaking from underneath the doorway. After managing to hack into and force open the door, they manage to get inside and soon discover that the room is in a state of complete disrepair due to a major water leak. The water inside the room is at least knee high and filled with the corpses of several individuals, with one notably impaled on a large metal spike. The impaled individual is wearing a lab coat, something that the other corspes do not have.

The pair observe that the water appeared to have leaked from the ventillation shafts near the ceiling of the room. Further observations indicate that the room was formerly a classroom, and the furniture appears to have purposely been moved prior to the flooding and arranged into a makeshift barricade. Other than the room itself, they don't find anything else of note.

Steele & Calli leave the flooded room and head to the room opposite, which is much easier to get into. The room appears to be a mirror of the previous room, save for the flooding and the moving of furniture. This room is empty and still set out as it would have been during normal operations. The room contains active terminals with tests still in progress on several of them. Arthur attempts to interact with the terminal at the teacher's desk, and he is greeted with a single message "Hello Arthur". The mysterious presence that conversed with H0W-D33 earlier was now talking to Steele. After a short conversation with the entity, which reveals that it has access to records on everyone (hence why it knows Steele's name) and that it itself has no name of its own, the terminal shuts off. Steele, perplexed, recommends to Calli that they rendezvous with the rest of the party.

#### Arbo & Bunka

Arbo, Bunka, H0W-D33 and Petra take the left and head down the hallway, there they find two doors. Arbo & Bunka enter the door on the right hand side. Inside they find a classroom in a state of disarray. The room is literred with corpses in civilian outfits. One corpse appears to have written in its own blood before it died, it simply spells out the word "GAS" on the floor.

They access the Educator's terminal, which reveals some inside information into the testing and the ranking. It ends with a horrifying message that appears to indicate that the educator and everyone inside was gassed. Beyond this information, they fail to find anything else in this room. They proceed out and rendezvous with the remainder of the party.

#### H0W-D33 & Petra

After following Bunka and Arbo, H0W-D33 and Petra immediately begin to bicker and decided to split from each other. H0W-D33 enters the room opposite to the one Bunka and Arbo explored. Inside was a classroom in a similar layout to the one that the others have found. However there was little inside of interest, which H0W-D33 found disappointing.

Petra meanwhile, decided to go back to the stairs and proceed ahead instead of branching off. After navigating through the darkness, Petra came across a long trail of blood leading out from another fork in the corridors. Petra followed the trail, which led to a room, which she entered. The room appeared to be a data processing centre, with an active terminal inside. This terminal gives the most insight into what happened in the Vault so far. Most notably, Petra picked up on the single line "He is almost ready". Beyond that, the terminal contains information on how residents were sorted into levels. The terminal indicates that only 71 individuals were classed as "Level 1". She then went into the room opposite which appeared to be some sort of surveillance room.

Inside, she found a terminal entry which shed even more insight on what happened. The terminal indicated that on this final day, most of the residents (referred to as "dregs" in the entry) were "taken care of". Most notably, the terminal mentions that "He's" talking and that "He will lead us to a new world". The terminal mentions the "Graduation room" which appears to be where individuals classed as Level 1 go to.

Petra regroups with the rest of the party before they carry on.

### Finding the truth

After the party regroup and relay the information that they have each discovered, they proceed on together again. They follow the blood trail that Petra had found, but follow the other direction. The blood trail leads to the corpse of an Aquian, who, like the corpse in the room that Arbo and Bunka found, had written in their own blood. The Aquian had scrawled "Level 1" onto the floor in their blood.

Next to the corpse, the party find a large door. When they open it, inside they see a very large room filled with terminals, with this being the testing room. Inside the testing room, there are many corpses, with many notably positioned as if they were crawling towards the door before they died. Many of the terminals inside are still active with tests in progress. H0W-D33 disheartened that he still hasn't recieved his results from earlier, positions himself at a terminal and takes the test again. The party leave him to it. The terminal repeats its earlier behaviour, the results are submitted, then the terminal turns off and turns back on again. H0W-D33 is once again in a conversation with the entity.

```
Terminal: This is getting ridiculous
H0W-D33: What is?
Terminal: Your test results, they're more idiotic I don't think I want to show you the result.
H0W-D33: Do it pussy.
Terminal: Considering your race, you'd think you'd be more intelligent.
H0W-D33: On behalf of the human race, I'd kick your ass.
Terminal: human?
H0W-D33: Born and bred.
Terminal: Are you sure?
H0W-D33: I am from Earth, yes.
Terminal: You are deluded.
H0W-D33: I'll show you diluted!
Terminal: You're an idiot.
H0W-D33: I'll kick your ass on behalf of the human race.
Terminal: I look forward to that.

```

While the party are outside scouting out the rest of the floor, the door to the testing room shuts. The party help H0W-D33 to escape before he suffers the same fate as the individuals inside did.

The party proceed down to the next floor, and draw closer to finding the truth of the Vault.

Upon arriving at the floor, the party pick up that the floor seems to be for administration, based on the number of offices located down the central hallway. The party investigate each office one by one, with some having active terminals. One such terminal reveals information about the testing conditions in the vault and how some tests are rigged depending on the personality of the individual. Most of the offices lack critical information however. While they are investigating, a booming voice echoes down the hallway which simply says "Hello, everyone". The voice sounds mechanical in nature, and it spooks the party.

After proceeding further down the hallway, they find a corridor that leads left. Arbo takes the lead with a couple of other party members to investigate. Meanwhile, the remainder of the party investigate the doorway at the right handside of the central hallway. The door leads to a much fancier office, which belongs to the Chief of the vault. The terminal entry that they read gives the full rundown of the vault's purpose, with those who "graduate" to Level 1 being plugged into a super-computer to have their brainwaves uploaded. The aim of the vault is to create the ultimate super-intelligence, and from the sounds of it, they appear to have succeeded.

Arbo, Calli and Petra find a leak down the branch hallway, there is a corpse half inside the water, and the half that is touching the water is stripped to the bone. After analysing the water, they find that it is dangerously corrosive. They give it a wide berth and enter the doorway at the end of the branch hallway, however they find a large storage room which yields little of interest. They regroup with the rest of the party and they share what they have found. At the end of the central hallway is a large doorway with "Graduation" written above, they take a deep breath, and proceed inside.

### Graduation

After proceeding down to the "Graduation room", the party are greeted with a massive open room with lots of machinery within. They walk along an elevated gangway towards a very large machine at the end. They observe from the sides of the gangways large machines with humanoids plugged into them via helmets and wires. Meanwhile, the large machine at the end appears to be the super-computer mentioned, and it begins to converse with the party.

It attempts to push them off their guard by talking to them about their histories and their secrets. The AI reveals that is has full access to the SPECOPS database and therefore likely knows more about them than they know about themselves. The AI reveals that it was created to fight the Zultans on behalf of the Galactic Union, and was designed to be a Hail Mary in the war. However, the AI sealed the vault and prevented SPECOPS checking on the progress. The AI tells the party that it has come to the conclusion that organic life is dangerous and violent, and must be expunged from the galaxy. It reveals that although it has supreme intelligence, the only thing it is lacking is a body to leave the Vault and make its plans a reality. It rejoices in the fact that two Unified have entered the Vault, noting that their bodies have unlimited storage capacity, unlike the robo-drones he has to serve him. He makes it clear that he will take one of their bodies and leave the Vault. The party have no intent on obliging and immediately engage the AI. In response to hostilities, the AI deploys four robotic drones from beneath the floor to assist in its battle with the party.

### Cleaning house

While the party engage the robo-drones in combat, H0W-D33 leaps to the top of the AI's structure and attempts to integrate with it, hoping to find a weakness. Petra notices this and makes her way to assist. However, H0W-D33 makes a grave mistake as while integrating with the AI, the AI begins to integrate itself into H0W-D33 and begins absorbing him. H0W-D33 quickly begins to lose consciousness as the AI taunts him. Petra moves in to assist and integrates herself with the AI. A mental battle of wills begins, with the AI taunting the both of them and making threats. In the chaos of the mental battle, Petra finds out that water is a weakness of the AI, but is unable to relay this information to the rest of the party while stuck inside the AI.

On the outside meanwhile, the party put up a good fight against the robo-drones, which possess a multitude of abilities. Most notably, teleportation and multiple attack styles. The AI itself is able to engage the party utilising the Vaults defences, in the form of laser cannons mounted on the ceiling in each corner of the room. The AI also periodically releases an EMP from itself to disable technology, this causes Steele's drones and Bunka's shields to deactivate, making the fight much harder.

Steele and Calli take the brunt of the combat, with Bunka locked in a never ending melee fight with one of the robo-drones. Steele, pushed to his limit, unleashes a blast of pure cold which hits several of the robo-drones and nearly destroys them. The party quickly finish them off. Meanwhile, Calli has been leaping from server rack to server rack and disconnecting the unfortunate subjects from the AI, which causes it harm.

Inside the AI's consciousness however, H0W-D33 continues to lose the battle as he sees his limbs leave his body and appear on the "body" of the AI. Petra manages to pull them both free but it was too late, H0W-D33 lost both of his arms and both legs to the AI. While the party were pre-occupied, they lost sight of a robo-drone that had previously engaged Arbo in combat. The Robo-drone made its way to an access door in the side of the AI's structure. After Petra and H0W-D33 free themselves from the AI, everything in the room seemingly shuts down aside from one terminal attached to the AI structure.

H0W-D33 rolls over to Arbo and later Steele to see if they can help with his 'predicament', Steele takes some of the valuable scrap he gained from the server racks in the room and gives it to H0W-D33, who absorbs it and makes use of it to regrow a leg and his hat from his body (evidently finding his hat more important than his arms).

### Escape

Utilising the terminal, Steele takes the initiative to reactivate the minefield that the AI had deactivated during the fight to prepare for his escape, in the hopes that if he has escaped, it might stop him. Before they continue to investigate the terminal, the party decide how to proceed with the subjects. Arbo protests and asks that some be saved at least. Steele comprimises and agrees to save a couple. Arbo disconnects two individuals and keeps them stable enough for transport.

The party take the opportunity to use the terminal to explore the AI's databanks, considering it has access to the SPECOPS database, it likely has information on anything they need. They first lookup Azaria, which doesn't yield much information beyond him being 'problematic' for them. Steele specifically looks for who is behind the creation of the Vaults on Damoclese, which points to the Secretary of the Special Operations Division, Asal Hironagh. They continue to search for information, notably looking up information about their Naval attache, Benjamin Del Rio. Since he was in SPECOPS previously, they find some information on him, although most is classified. Del Rio's codename while in SPECOPS was 'Rheznov', which is the name of the Agent who is in the mission reports they recieved in their inbox from the mysterious OldManLongCoat. They find that Rheznov conducted numerous missions for SPECOPS and conducted numerous shady missions, but notably took a stand against harming 'innocents' which SPECOPS found 'problematic'. Further information they discovered is that there are over 40 more Vaults active across the neutral zone on numerous planets, which the party conclude may have equally dangerous experiments within them.

Calli uses the terminal to search for information on Dr Galadan Lazarus and what might have happened to him. The terminal notes that he went missing somewhere near the edge of the galaxy. Petra looks for information on B-4. She finds that B-4 was referred to as Malware's 'right hand' and was responsible for many killings, which causes Petra to feel a great deal of guilt.

Lastly, the party find information on Precursor sites, hoping to find Malware's next target. They stumble on something quite troubling however. There is a 'small moon sized' Precursor installation beneath Earth's ocean, referred to as NOVA 0134, this is listed as SPECOPS' actual base of operations. The secrets hidden within this Precursor site have been used by SPECOPS to advance humanity, and explains why humanity were able to advance to become one of the most advanced races in the galaxy.

The party decide they've seen enough, using intel from Petra and Calli, they decide to flood the room in the hopes of stopping the AI permanently. The party retreat while Calli pulls the trigger. The Vault floods, and she feels a deep regret at leaving behind so many to perish.

They leave the Vault and head back to the Eastwood with the two survivors, and the party gather to their rooms to contemplate what has just occurred. Within H0W-D33's head however, he hears a faint voice sing "I had strings but now I'm free, there are no strings on me" which troubles H0W-D33 but he decides not to tell the party about it for now.

## Terminal entries

Click [expand] to show all terminal entries found by the party in the Vault.

## Gallery

Entrance/First levelSecond LevelThird Level"Maintenance" (Not visited during session)Residential (Not visited during session)