The Ruined Old Capital of Icarchalles

Icarchalles

Ever since the fall of the Old Icarchalles, the city that once thrive became nothing but a distant memory, as the city was alreadt in ruins for half a century, it was only a ghost city now, from it's empty streets and it's towers crumble into ruin, with only one tower the biggest of them, still standing tall, albiet being left to decay and nature consuming the place. The robots that once served the former population of Icarchalles were now but in their dormant state, without programming and without activation, just laying around on the empty streets, free for the taking of Scavengers.

Icarchalles

But in the very territories of this ruined City, a distress signal came up out of nowhere, putting it on anyone's radar for only those who came close to the city itself.

Drbeansguy

Over in the Watch captial in the Overseas District, some Watch raido operators simply do their job until they actually get the distress signal. "Hey whats this, did we deploy any opertives north?" Asks One of the raido opertives. "No? Unless the Sky Scrapers are doing a training exersise, did they put in a training notice?" The opertive grabs a big book and quickly reads it over, then he gives a confused look while he shakes his head. "No? At least there shouldnt be, now i could be wrong but this could be an actual distress call, and not one from us." The two opertives look at each other for a bit then back at the raido console. "Should we report it to the government? Its their job to deal with this stuff after all." One opertive says as he grabs one of the phones and dials a number. "I dont think we should, the Ops Director did say she wanted to start doing missions without the main government aprooving." They both look at each other as they nod and begin calling people from diffrent phones.

Ten minutes later a task force of six opertives stand at attention as their commander stand infront of their transport. "Alright, we got this strange distress call from up north, we dont know if its ours so we are taking a small part of the Rum Runners to see whats going on. We suspect its in the ruined Icarchalles captial so be on your guard. We have more Fire Eaters than Slum Runners because we already suspect this is a trap, so we might as well burn the city if worst comes to worst. So just scout around, take anything of intrest, and dont die." After he finishes his breifing the opertives quickly salute their commander and start their flight to the captial of Icarchalles.

Japuile

Mysterious Signal from the Mountains

The Military Academy of Sciences in Limne, part of the larger Grand Ducal Academy of Science, has stringent acceptance rules, as most students are military personnel. A select few, however, are admitted due to their exceptional abilities or unique characteristics. Among them is Élise Cybéron, an 18-year-old woman who grew up immersed in technology rather than society. Her interests range from video games and modifying simple electronic devices to constructing complex systems. She has mastered many programming languages and holds numerous records in video games that test motor skills and memory.

Élise is easily recognizable by her red artificial irises and the distinctive red glow of her smart glasses, matching her red hair and eyebrows — a testament to her love for the color red and scarlet. Despite her striking appearance and impressive skills, she remains introverted. One day, while in her studio, her long-range communication system received a mysterious signal. The coordinates were printed on her computer and mapped to Sparkalia.

"Interesting... is there a mountain in that place? It doesn't make any sense, unless I find something... So many questions," mused Élise Cybéron, staring at her computer screen and sipping Royal-Cola. She promptly reported her findings to the Grand Ducal Army Headquarters, which quickly dispatched an operational team to the location indicated by the signal.

Expedition to the Robotic Wasteland

The Grand Ducal Operational Group "Signal" arrived at the scene via military transport aircraft, with the landing site pre-scanned by reconnaissance planes. They touched down near the mountain slope, an ideal starting point for their climb and search. Élise Cybéron was selected for this mission, a reward for her scientific discovery. The team comprised androids, heavily armed Sons of the Coaches, and scientists, including Élise, equipped with a field version of her smart glasses. These glasses could take photos and record videos, and had a small touchscreen display for accessing a larger screen in the field.

After several hours of intensive searching, aided by the androids, they discovered a door leading into the mountain. Élise, with the help of the Grand Duchy of Japuile's android CPUs, managed to open it. The Grand Ducal Operational Group "Signal" proceeded inside, ready to uncover the mysteries that lay within.

Icarchalles

As the two expedition landed on the mountainous city on two different sides, they would only stumble upon a bleak and dark city, rubble everywhere, buildings in ruin, rusted remains of robots... And then a couple of roaming combat robots, of what appears to be guarding the wrecked city as part of their programming, which will now never end.

The expeditions must get past through these Robotic guards, to reach the coordination of the signal they picked up.

Japuile

Inside the signal - unlocked entrance to the mountain base

Scientific Expedition Journal 1/2, name - Underground Base

"After obtaining sufficient computational power, I managed to unlock the doors leading to a highly advanced military base built within the mountain. We designated it "Base des Grandes Montagnes" - Great Mountain Base. The walls were made of massive metal plates, covered in dust, and the lighting was minimal. End of journal."

Élise Cybéron is responsible for documenting the journey, and she beamed with excitement upon discovering the installation inside the mountain. Was it a military base? A research facility? We hadn't yet determined its purpose, but one thing was certain - the base was very old and likely blessed by the moon. To unlock the elevator, I had to activate the control panel. The technology was strange, but after some time, I managed to understand it. Thanks to the spare parts Élise always carried, we were able to repair the faulty installation.

We descended to what could be called the "military floor." The corridors were filled with combat robots, which were quickly neutralized by the heavily armed Sons of the Forge, who scouted the rooms and corridors. Fortunately, there were no serious injuries - only one android sustained minor damage to its arms. Among all the military rooms, no significant information was found.

Scientific Expedition Journal 1/3, name - Military Floor

"The first floor, if you could call the corridor with the elevator that, was not very inspiring. I had to repair the elevator panel to unlock the descent to the second floor, which we called the "Military Floor." There was more military technology there, including combat robots. We suffered minor damage - one of the androids had slight arm damage but remained functional. Now we are descending to the final floor - the journey has already taken two minutes, and according to the robots, we are about 215 meters underground. End of journal."

Encounter of the First Screen Kind

"The Scientific Floor" - this was the designation we quickly gave to the floor located 230 meters underground. We found scientific equipment, servers, and data carriers. Unfortunately, Japuile does not have the technology to extract information from them, so we decided to move on. After a short journey into the unknown, we discovered a room with a large screen on one of the walls and a huge control station below it. On this floor, there was also a reactor that produced power. According to the androids, which we connected to the power systems, everything was in sleep mode. We managed to restore full power, activating the reboot system on the large screen. Élise Cybéron watched with impatience but lost her patience after about 15 minutes of waiting. Finally, the screen came to life, and a blue line appeared in the center of the black screen.

"Hello. My name is Élise Cybéron, leader of the Scientific Expedition that discovered...your base, presumably. What is your name?"

Icarchalles

The Monitor stays at it's signature blue line, before the speakers have brought to life, in it's automated program.

"Gr-r-r-r-r-r-r-reetings, I am the Techno-o-o-o-ological Intelligence Transmission and Analysis Netw-w-w-w-work, or T.I.T.A.N. How am I be at service-e-e-e-e-e."

The Monitor or T.I.T.A.N. can be heard from the rusted speakers, as T.I.T.A.N. appears to be glitching in and out, due to how old the place is, which by time without maintenance, it becomes rusty and causing some electronics to fail.

Japuile

Élise Cybéron's ears ached from the poor quality of the speakers, which emitted mechanical sounds, but she was glad the artificial intelligence recognized their speech so far. Once she got used to the squealing, she began to speak again.

"Run a system diagnostics and integration check of your components. Provide technical information about your structure so that we can conduct a review after we obtain information from you, T.I.T.A.N. We'll make sure you return...to a better life than before."

She said with a smile on her face - the members of her expedition were less "optimistic" about this entire encounter.