LotS/The Story/Legions of Steel/Command Center

Command Center
The five of you head towards the stairs leading up to the doorway. On the other side of the building, a fierce battle still rages between the two robot forces. But if you can carry out your mission within, it should soon be over.

You ascend the stairs, and pick your way over the wreckage, through the smoke, to reach the entrance. Inside the building, you find yourself in a long, high-ceilinged lobby. The smoke outside the entrance obscures the daylight, and the only illumination in the chamber is a soft blue glow from the lights embedded in the walls and ceiling.

At the opposite end of the lobby is a door, which begins to slide open.

Charge

Black and red robots pour through the doorway, spreading out into firing positions with mechanical efficiency. Red lasers flash towards you.

There’s no cover in the corridor, and little space to evade so much gunfire.

But Telemachus charges, and as he moves in front the body of his mech intercepts much of the fire. A moment later you’re all running after him, shooting from behind the cover he provides.

Hacking The System

Telemachus closes the distance, and his laser-edged chainsaw flashes as he carves his way through the remaining robots. Ragnar is only a moment behind him, cleaving another robot open with a swing from his axe. The lobby is yours. So far, so good.

You go through the door, and find yourself in a smaller room, with corridors leading off in three directions. For the moment no enemies are in sight, but you can hear the thudding of robotic footsteps coming from nearby.

“It’s this way,” says the Princess, gesturing to the corridor on the left.

You run into that passage, cutting down the two robots at the far end with a hail of fire as you sprint. You reach the arched door they were guarding, a thick metal barrier which looks like it could withstand a great deal of punishment. Princess Illaria’s fingers dart across the keys of the security panel next to the door. The sounds of pursuit are close behind you, coming from just out of sight beyond the mouth of the corridor.

“It’s not working!” she cries. “The code Wilex gave me isn’t working!”

Robots appear at the far end of the corridor, and once again red laser fire flies at you.

“Keep them busy!” yells Ragnar. “I’ll open the door!”

You’re dubious that a brute like Ragnar could circumvent a TALOS security system, but he seems insistent. So the rest of you form up around the door, and start blasting away at the robots.

From behind you there’s a horrendous clanging noise. You steal a glance over your shoulder, and see that Ragnar is hacking the security panel… with his axe.

Manual Override

“Bashing things always works,” Ragnar gloats, as the security door slides open. Then he turns round, and opens fire with his machinegun to help you finish off the last robots.

You enter the room beyond, and press the button to seal the door behind you. No interruptions. Telemachus pops open the cover to his cockpit, and leaps down from his mech. He’ll need hands for what he’s about to do, not a cannon or chainsaw.

The middle of the room is dominated by a large chair. Displays and terminals cover the walls. Directly in front of the chair, a big screen shows a video feed from outside the building, looking down on the fighting taking place in front of it. The gold and silver robots are hard-pressed, taking heavy fire from the black and red robots arrayed before them, and from huge laser blasts that seem to come from the screen itself.

Princess Illaria runs to one of the terminals. In her hand she brandishes a data stick Wilex gave her. She thrusts it into a slot in front of her. You hope it works better than his code did. Talia moves over to another terminal, and does the same.

A yellow holographic grid appears to your right, high on the wall. Red lines and dots blink on its surface.

“There it is!” says Telemachus. He runs towards the grid, but it’s far beyond his reach. “Why would they put it so high?” he whines.

“I’ve got you,” says Ragnar. He grabs the boy, lifts him up, and sits him on his shoulders.

Telemachus’ little fingers dance across the display. You sit down in the large chair in the center of the room, and move your hands to the control panel in front of it. Red lights, like those on the yellow grid, blink there. But a moment later there’s a cry of joy from Telemachus, and they turn green.

The turrets at the front of the building are under manual control now. Your control. It’s time to even the odds out there…

Metal Storm

Laser blasts ravage the ranks of the black and red robots on the screen before you. The gold and silver robots surge forwards, destroying those that are left, making for the front entrance.

“Well done,” says the Princess. “All of you.”

“Now for the bitch who did all this,” grunts Ragnar, a look of grim anticipation on his face as he swings his axe to and fro in the air.

Telemachus is already scrambling into his mech and closing the cockpit, perhaps before you have a chance to grab him and force him to stay behind. But you’re not sure you would have tried to stop him anyway. He’s proven very useful, and you don’t have the luxury of stopping to ponder the ethics of taking a child into battle.

The door to the turret control room slides open. The five of you move back down the corridor, and into another passage. It’s unguarded. The other robots must have gone to the front entrance, to repel those who are now storming the building.

You ascend a staircase, and come out on a gallery overlooking the front lobby. A little further along it is the stairway leading up to the main control room. Below you a horde of black and red robots is trading fire with the gold and silver bots surging through the entrance.

You and your companions shoot down from your vantage point as the robots clash.

Fabricatrix Vespaisa

The gold and silver robots pour in from below, now in complete control of the lobby. They fan out, moving to secure the rest of the building.

“We could let them deal with things from here,” you say. But the Princess is already moving towards the stairs to the main control room.

At the top of the stairs is another security door. Next to it is a control panel similar to the one which was outside the turret control room. Once again Ragnar puts his axe to work, and the door slides open. Seems like quite a significant design flaw…

The control room is a lofty round chamber, with blue display screens circling the walls. In the middle, at the foot of a circular platform, are more black and red robots, these ones somehow more menacing in appearance than the ones you fought before. Atop that platform stands a woman in black and red robes, a vicious sneer on her face. At first glance it looks as if she has tentacles, like some kind of alien creature. Then you realize that they’re cables, extending from her back into slots on the walls. Some kind of interface.

“That’s a Fabricatrix’s uniform?” asks Talia. “Seriously?”

Her costume does indeed seem rather revealing for the uniform of a high-ranking official… Then the woman and her robots attack, and you have no more time to ponder the matter.

........................................

Fabricatrix Vespasia topples over, falling off her platform and tumbling to the floor below. She sprawls there in a rather inelegant fashion. Most of the cables attached to the device on her back are now detached from the sockets on the walls. They twitch and flail like dying serpents.

She gives an unintelligible curse, then flops over onto her back, and raises her weapon. One of Talia’s pistols flashes, and the weapon flies from Vespasia’s hand, along with two of her fingers. She gasps in pain, her lungs unable to muster a scream.

“What were you doing here?” asks the Princess, desperate to learn all she can before death claims the Fabricatrix. “Why did you seize the planet?”

Vespasia spits, and remains silent. Then Ragnar stomps down on her damaged hand. This time she does manage to shriek, and blood erupts from her mouth with the effort it costs her.

“The Centurians!” she screams, as Ragnar grinds his boot into her hand. “They promised me… promised… me…”

A final rasping breath comes from her throat, along with droplets of blood. Then her eyes glaze over and her head slumps to the floor.

...

With the communications system back under the Chief Assembler’s control, a message is sent out across TALOS space. Fleets soon converge on the planet, and a meeting of leading officials is called. As a result of her role in the liberation of Capek, Princess Illaria is permitted to join them in the council chamber, and no one raises an objection when you enter alongside her. In their eyes you’re not merely her bodyguard, but her advisor. And under the circumstances, you suppose that’s true.

The news that Fabricatrix Vespasia was acting on behalf of the Centurian Collective shocks them. But the holographic recorders in the commander center’s control room captured her dying words, and upon viewing the images even the most incredulous official accepts the truth. It seems that the Centurians have greater designs than even the conquest of the Sian Empire. They wished to gain a foothold in TALOS space, and it would have been a powerful one given the many robot factories on Capek, which could have been used to turn out legions of the Fabricatrix’s bots.

Around the table there are angry calls for war, for vengeance against the Centurians. Other voices suggest that the Centurians be denounced at the UHW Assembly instead, and sanctions proposed against them. The Princess listens to all this, and you see her sharpened political senses absorbing every word, every mannerism as she assesses each person in the room as surely as you would assess the movement of fighter ships in a space battle.

At last it’s her turn. She stands, all eyes upon her, and when she speaks it’s with all the skill of one born to lead. Eloquent words flow from her lips, and in their echo, in the determined, passionate expression on her beautiful face, you see the empress she’s destined to become. Heads nod around the table, and you sense the flow of her will enveloping every man and woman there. Some of them require no urging, already keen on a military response. And the others are caught up in the raging tide of her oratory, of the arguments she presents. Even before the decision is made, you know what the result will be. TALOS is going to war.

Then Princess Illaria tells them of the strange technologies the Centurians possessed when they attacked the Child of Heaven, of the capabilities they demonstrated beyond those which should have been within their grasp.

The leaders of TALOS are perturbed by this knowledge, at the thought that the Centurians might have secrets which could give them an edge in the coming conflict. They declare that the truth must be known, and the Princess nods her agreement. And then she poses her stratagem, which you believe was in her mind from the very start – all the discussions leading up to this one suggestion.

She calls for a surprise attack on a Centurian fleet, made without a declaration of war – a violation of the Union of Human Worlds’ laws. Her plan is to capture a Centurian leader, and extract the truth. Thus you will learn the source of their mysterious new technologies.