Establishing Connection...
Back to OperationsIntelligence gathered during operations at City 015 identified a new category of threat operating within the Corrupted: entities designated Ascendants. Unlike standard Corrupted, Ascendants retain higher cognitive function and are capable of harnessing the Punishing Virus as a source of directed power rather than succumbing to it. They draw strength from a collective known as the Ascension Network, the precise nature and extent of which remains unclassified.
Field reports from City 015 confirm that at least one Ascendant, named Roland, was capable of transforming a Construct into an Ascendant-class entity, suppressing Virus consumption within the host while amplifying combat output at the cost of the subject's humanity. Engagement records further indicate that Ascendants are capable of coordinated withdrawal, deliberate misdirection, and operating among Construct forces undetected. The faction demonstrated awareness of Babylonia's operational movements before direct contact was made.
Following the conclusion of City 015 operations, Babylonia intelligence traced an Ascendant's last confirmed position to the Museum Estate, terminal station of Rail 11 on the city outskirts. Babylonia High Command has ordered all available combat-ready squads to converge on the location and investigate immediately.
Intel has traced the Ascendant's last confirmed location to Museum Estate, the terminal station of Rail 11 in City 015. Records indicate that the estate was formerly owned by Mr. Copperfield, a business magnate within the Transatlantic Economic Community during the Golden Age. The structure is equipped with integrated Anti-Punishing Virus countermeasures dating back to the Post-Pandemic Age and served as a civilian shelter facility until the conclusion of the Great Evacuation.
Distress signals from recon squads draw us in. We investigate the area and find multiple Construct bodies. Upon a closer look, most of their wounds are from gunfire. Then the Estate Terrapods begin to engage us from multiple angles. Lucia calls for Liv to request backup from the nearest available team.
As a Terrapod aims a shot at Lucia from behind. Before it fires, a Tank-type Construct with a colossal blade drops it instead. He introduces himself as Kamui from Strike Hawk, tasked with tracking one of the Ascendants, Roland. After an encounter with Iron Maiden in City 015, she slipped the name, but Kamui does not know what the Ascendant looks like.
He also mentions the Ascension Network as the source of Ascendant power and strength, though he has yet to provide a precise definition.
Kamui is visibly surprised to see Lucia and reveals that they knew each other when they first entered service in Babylonia. However, Lucia has no memory of him.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We push deeper into the estate. Kamui triggers the highest tier of the museum's security system. After clearing the security mechanoids, the Estate Butler contacts us on a private channel, ordering us to leave immediately. Kamui directly asks him about the Ascendant's location, but the butler does not respond and cuts the connection.
Lee manages to hack the gate open, just as an explosion is heard somewhere inside the estate. Liv picks up friendly Construct signals from the courtyard, engaged in combat with an Ascendant reading several magnitudes above Tifa. Force field barriers block our approach. Liv uses her Levi-Gun to breach the core terminal and overloads the field. The butler returns to the channel with a final warning: past this barrier, there is no going back.
[Timestamp: +10m]
The courtyard is massive. The fighting has stopped, but it is eerily quiet. Lucia utilizes Electromagnetic Camouflage to sweep away the remaining Corrupted. We move upstairs and find Constructs on every level. Their limbs and Inver-Devices are damaged, but they still register vital signs. Their voice modules are missing. One Construct manages to send a warning before Motion Bombs detonate inside their bodies.
The normal route leads us into a fake guest hall. The butler contacts us again. He tells us to stay put with the Corrupted already inside. He explains that these are the ones the estate could not neutralize: he had them sealed in this room. He prefers us to be consumed by the Corrupted instead of being used by the Ascendant. We clear the Corrupted in the hall. A second voice, probably the Ascendant, cuts into the channel and states that the butler deliberately routed us apart, then the line goes dead. Liv scans for an alternate path to the real guest hall.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We caught up with the Ascendant. Kamui recognizes him from his previous encounter. Roland looks past us at the butler, who is now fully Corrupted. He remarks that the outcome would have been different if the butler had accepted the power of the Ascension Network.
The butler is a formidable opponent. We engage him for a considerable amount of time before he finally falls. His last words are an apology to Mr. Copperfield for failing to protect the estate, and then he activates his self-destruct sequence.
Kamui presses on toward Roland. The fight shakes the hall, and debris rains down from the ceiling. Kamui is losing ground. Lucia moves in to assist. Roland tells her: "She is weak, just like she said." As Roland pushes Lucia back, Kamui charges forward. The Ascendant reveals that he was after Kamui all along. He swings his weapon, bringing down every pillar in the hall at once. The collapse seals Kamui off on the far side, and we lose all visual contact.
Chrome contacts us immediately, indicating that Kamui's corruption level is rising rapidly.
[Timestamp: +15m]
After breaking through the wall debris, we find Kamui unconscious on the ground. The Ascendant is nowhere to be found. Lucia brings him around. He reports elevated Virus activity in his frame but has no memory of what happened after losing consciousness. Before we can press further, Liv warns us: the manor structure is failing, and Corrupted swarms are already moving in, blocking our only escape route.
Kamui points us to a set of nearby monitoring devices, deployed earlier by Strike Hawk to collect high-precision geo-data of the surrounding area. He suggests feeding that data to Liv to calculate a second escape route. Lucia is visibly worried about his condition. He notices and comments that she is more caring than she used to be.
[Timestamp: +20m]
We recover the devices and hand the data to Liv. She runs the calculations while the rest of us hold the hallway and push back toward the far side. When she finishes, the result is zero. No viable route exists. Kamui does not hesitate. He still has EMP grenades and proposes blasting through the wall directly. The risk is that the electromagnetic discharge will wake whatever is dormant beneath the manor floor—his guess: One of the guards here will start fighting the Corrupted. We can slip past them.
[Timestamp: +25m]
The gamble holds. A massive, uncorrupted mechanoid guard rises and tears through the Corrupted, blocking our path and giving us the window we need. Before we leave the manor entirely, Lucia calls for us to take down the guard. It is not infected yet, but given its scale and combat capability, it will be a serious threat once the Punishing Virus infects it. We engage and bring it down.
As it falls, its speaker cycles in a loop, calling out a name: Emma. It keeps calling until the power runs out entirely. Kamui pulls its memory shell before we withdraw from the manor.
After taking down the last of the Corrupted that had been pressing us, we reach the desert outside the city. The tunnel back to City 015 has been destroyed by the Ascendants. There is no signal in range except Corrupted. Lucia spots a crash site ahead, but the pilot is already dead. It was likely the Ascendant's doing. We retrieve the pilot's dog tag and move on.
[Timestamp: +1h]
Celica comms in: she is routing another aircraft to extract us. Lucia points out that the desert is dense with Corrupted, and we need to keep moving. Celica acknowledges and keeps the pilots updated on our position. She wishes us luck and disconnects.
Liv checks the info on this area and finds an old military installation approximately 10km out. A foreign organization called the Forsaken is camped there. Before we can act on it, a tremor rolls through the sand. Target incoming, one o'clock. It is Vassago, a massive bionic mechanoid. It takes considerable effort before we manage to drive it back beneath the sand.
[Timestamp: +1h]
The sandstorm in this area is relentless. Liv detects an unknown signal blinking in and out, not Corrupted. The wind and sand are disrupting their visual sensors, so they switch to thermographic scanning. Still no confirmed identification. Lucia and Lee scout ahead while Kamui stays back to cover my position.
Lucia clashes with an unknown assailant almost immediately. He stops when he recognizes her. A unit of military soldiers surrounds us. Kamui recognizes the man, Watanabe, noting that the three of them trained together in Babylonia. Watanabe tells us bluntly that we are fortunate it was he who found us first; we would have been killed by his comrades already.
Liv provides context: since the Great Evacuation, certain Ground Force units have been left behind by the World Government and have cut all ties with Babylonia. They have recently resurfaced under the name Forsaken. Watanabe joined them and is listed in Babylonia records as a defected Construct.
Watanabe steps toward me. Lee raises his weapon immediately. Watanabe holds his hands up and produces a small white box of wild mint, handing it over as a gesture of goodwill. He insists. The scent is sharp enough to clear my head.
Watanabe tells us the sandstorm is easing but will return within thirty minutes. He is about to leave when Lucia asks whether he knows of any nearby position suitable for resupply or a safe retreat. He says there is nothing out here, but offers us his temporary survey post nearby if we are willing to follow. Lucia hesitates. Lee points out that our supplies are nearly exhausted, and we have no other options.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We follow him to the post. The surrounding area is thick with Corrupted. Watanabe notes that, unlike Babylonia, the Forsaken do not have the resources or manpower to clear zones like this. Pointless sacrifices are not his approach. We clear the area for him. While Lee asks Liv to raise Babylonia and report our situation, an explosion goes off, and Corrupted flood in from multiple directions. Watanabe signals us to follow him toward the garage. His troops fan out to retrieve the vehicles while we hold the line.
The vehicle arrives. Watanabe tells us to move now. In the chaos of the extraction, only Lucia, Lee, Kamui, and I make it into the vehicle. Liv ends up in the Forsaken's car. They drive it away, leaving us behind.
[Timestamp: +1h 30m]
We track Liv's signal before it goes dark near a facility up ahead. Lee spots Forsaken vehicles outside. We move to extract her, but Vassago's signal closes in before we reach the entrance. We burn through everything we have left to bring it down. Kamui wonders aloud how it tracked us this far across the open desert. Lee works it out immediately: Vassago's primary tracking trait is olfactory sensitivity. The wild mint Watanabe gave me led it straight to us.
While Kamui scouts the perimeter, Lucia brings up Liv. She recalls the time they spent in the shop during the City 015 operation, picking out plushies. She says Liv carries a warmth about her, even when she stays in the back, she shines the brightest. Lee agrees and notes that Liv is the only one among the three to receive an honorary medal of the highest rank, and that she always knows exactly what to do in this situation. Kamui returns and reports that Corrupted are patrolling the facility perimeter. Infiltration is the most viable approach.
As we enter the facility, Lee remarks that the interior feels like being inside a M.I.N.D. Within moments, visual contact across the team breaks down entirely. We manage to find each other, but Kamui does not respond.
Lee determines that the facility is running a specialized EM Projection device. Locating and shutting it down should restore real space. He reaches into his collar and pulls out a toy his younger brother Murray gave him. It functions as a miniature graviton detector. By moving through the space and recording its reactive signals, we can piece together a rough but usable map and, from that map, identify our direction and the locations of the projection devices. Lee starts working on it immediately.
Lee manually disables several projectors, but concludes the approach is too slow. There could be hundreds of units in this facility. Lucia asks whether the EMP grenades from Strike Hawk would work. She knows Lee well enough to assume he has at least one of anything he finds worth studying. Lee confirms he has one, but says a single detonation will not cover the space. It needs to be placed at the right location.
We find the optimal position. Lee throws the grenade. The blast causes the alloy paneling across the floors and walls to reveal their true surface, and the projection layer drops. Lee maps the facility's full layout and marks all projector locations. Lucia locates Kamui and asks why he never responded to comms. He says he accidentally broke his own communication system. Lee repairs it before we push forward.
The projectors restart on their own shortly. Lee recommends finding the central control source. Kamui moves immediately. Lee notices that the Corrupted in this facility consistently fail to engage Kamui and fall back in formation. We follow the retreating Corrupted and take them down.
Lee explains the mechanism: the special properties of consciousness mean that the longer it is held in an external container, the more it degrades. What these Corrupted can do is plunder new consciousnesses and feed them into the projection devices, constructing a virtual M.I.N.D. to display in real space. It is a roundabout method of observing and studying M.I.N.D. technology without fully understanding it.
Lucia goes quiet for a moment, then asks Lee whether consciousness can be copied. He answers: consciousness processing is far more complex. Only the top researchers in the Science Council have the capability to work with consciousness at that level. There are no recorded cases of successful consciousness copying in Babylonia's database. Any form of consciousness manipulation has been strictly prohibited under human law.
Kamui asks who the imprisoned consciousnesses in this facility belong to. Lee pauses, then answers: The Forsaken.
Memory shell records from the neutralized Corrupted identify an individual named Gabriel issuing directives to research M.I.N.D. technology here. Based on what Kamui knows, Gabriel is likely one of the Ascendants.
[Timestamp: +5m]
The wall tears open, and Nanami jumps in. She announces she is here to see more M.I.N.D.s. Lucia asks whether she has seen a pink Construct, named Liv, nearby. Nanami offers to share Liv's last known location on the condition that Lucia becomes friends with her. Lucia hesitates but agrees. Nanami provides the route, and we continue onward.
The projection scenery shifts. We pass through another virtual M.I.N.D. belonging to one of the Forsaken, then the last. The next space is the central consciousness container. We reach it.
Watanabe and the Forsaken stand silently in the darkness. Liv stands behind them, eyes closed, motionless. Cables extend from her Inver-Device, connecting her directly to the central consciousness container. Watanabe explains: Liv connected herself to it and successfully extracted all the imprisoned Forsaken consciousnesses from inside, but could not get herself out. He attempted to pull her free, but their technology is too outdated compared to Babylonia's.
Lee assigns Kamui to watch the Forsaken. I sync with Lucia and Lee, then activate the Mind Beacon to establish a connection with Liv's consciousness.
[Timestamp: +15m]
Inside the M.I.N.D. space, we destroy the intrusion countermeasures and clear the pseudo-consciousness construct holding Liv in place. She comes back. Lee turns to Watanabe. He clenches his fists and walks toward him. Liv steps in front and stops him. She tells Watanabe she has completed her end of the bargain and asks him to uphold his promise.
Watanabe acknowledges it. He thanks Liv for her selflessness and courage, and apologizes to Gray Raven for putting us in danger. He states that the Forsaken will assist Gray Raven to the best of their ability whenever we operate in the area, on the condition that the arrangement applies only to Gray Raven, and does not extend to Babylonia but he is open to discussion.
He offers to transport us to a secure base where we can resupply freely or choose to leave on our own terms. He adds that the mint this time will not have anything in it. We decide to spend a night at the Forsaken camps.
HQ clears us to remain with the Forsaken, noting that we may serve as diplomatic contacts for future engagement. Celica relays our next objective: continue tracking the Ascendant and investigate City 019, approximately 30km from Forsaken territory. Kamui joins as a scout, as the city has no prior investigation record. Watanabe decides to come along. The city is a nearby source of Corruption and has been directly endangering the Forsaken's survival.
[Timestamp: +2h 30m]
We reach the entrance of City 019, an underground shelter city, no survivors, only corpses are piled up high. The city once held half a million refugees, one-third of Babylonia's current population, during the mid to late Post-Pandemic Age. Watanabe tells us that when the Virus began corrupting factories and generating an endless supply of Corrupted, neither the serums nor the newly developed Construct technology could hold the line.
Lee restores its emergency power supply. Shortly after, Nanami appears and ambushes Watanabe, impersonating a Purifying Force operative. Before Watanabe can address his unfinished business with her, she is already gone.
[Timestamp: +1h]
The Corrupted grow noticeably stronger the deeper we push. New variants appear that Liv cannot profile: their memory shell data is encrypted. Lucia detects Nanami nearby and calls her out, noting she has been quietly clearing enemies ahead of us.
Liv warns of the next incoming wave. Nanami tells us to follow her. We push through. Afterward, Liv successfully decrypts the memory shell of one of the Corrupted, recovering a battle record from years ago involving another powerful entity.
Viral density spikes suddenly near the military factory sector. Liv is monitoring everyone's M.I.N.D. status and flags that Kamui's waveform is irregular. Before we can respond, Kamui says he has an emergency, cuts his comms, and runs back the way we came, disappearing into an area of high viral density.
We reach the factory's assembly floor. Corrupted on the production line have reactivated and are filling the corridor behind us in horde numbers. Nanami spots isolation doors nearby. We seal them behind us and buy some time.
Watanabe proposes destroying the entire facility using the explosives he brought with the nuclear fusion reactor below the factory floor. While Liv calculates placement and yield, Watanabe confronts Nanami about her repeated interference at the Forsaken camps and the psychological damage she has caused to several of his people. Nanami deflects, saying she was observing the Forsaken lifestyle. We split up to clear the Corrupted in the vicinity while Watanabe plants the charges at the positions Liv marks.
The structure behind us gives way. Corrupted are forcing through. We move, but Watanabe drops out of view. Nanami informs us, without urgency, that he intends to detonate the charges himself on a suicide run. I am not pleased that she knew and said nothing. Seeing my expression, Nanami offers to take any order I give, noting that she normally answers only to President Hassen. I tell her to find Watanabe and get him out. She moves immediately.
The charges are set, and the enemies are cleared. Watanabe and Nanami rendezvous with us at the escape route. Then the isolation doors tear apart. A Corrupted with bladed wings forces through. She calls Lucia's name, though the Virus has taken a heavy toll on her. We bring her down. Her model version resembles a sister. Liv moves to pull her memory shell data, but the detonation sequence starts. We clear the factory. Nanami and Watanabe take a separate exit.
[Timestamp: +30m]
We are barely catching our breath. Lee spots the transport craft coming uninvited; it must be the Purifying Force. Liv picks up Kamui's signal nearby. Before we reach him, Vera's blade is already at his neck. She states plainly that Kamui is corrupted and that she is here to execute him. Lucia steps in and asks Kamui directly when he was infected. He says it happened in the manor, when Roland had him pinned on the other side of the collapse. He did not tell anyone because he believed there was a way to reverse it, and saw no point in raising the issue beforehand.
Vera smiles and offers Lucia the opportunity to do it herself. After a long pause, Lucia lowers her blade. Vera moves to act on her own. Lee steps in and invokes the "free pass" Vera offered him during the City 015 operation, asking her to honor it in exchange for sparing Kamui. Vera is displeased with both of them. She turns and leaves without a word.
Two figures step out of the shadows: Bianca from the Purifying Force and Karenina from the Engineering Force. They have orders to eliminate Kamui as well. Lucia holds them off long enough to give Kamui room to withdraw, but their combined strength exceeds hers. Before they can complete the order. Chrome comms in and tells them to stand down.
He explains about Kamui and Tenebrion, a dark energy that can cleanse the virus, and prove its existence. Bianca still cannot decide whether to trust Chrome, while Karenina reminds her to follow the mission instructions, or they will be disciplined. To break the deadlock, Bianca is willing to make temporary concessions and help find Kamui, while Chrome will handle speaking with the higher-ups and report his findings to the Science Council.
We agree to go with Bianca. Kamui is part of the team, and his support throughout the operation has been valuable. Chrome remains on comms and thanks us for cooperating, noting that our involvement in the Tenebrion matter is critical. Bianca's geo-signals place Kamui deep in the desert. We move out.
[Timestamp: +1h]
We reach a concentration zone filled with ruins of what appears to be an old settlement. No scavengers. Only Corrupted. We also find drilling devices originally at the Sicilian Energy Station, used for surveying and extracting underground resources with quite high power, which can cause mini tremors. It suggests someone has been after this area long before Kamui.
We venture deeper. A wave of Corrupted attempts an ambush but strikes broken pillars nearby instead, bringing the whole ceiling down. We retreat to the safe zone near the entrance before it collapses entirely. The entrance seals shut behind us.
Karenina is not pleased about the delay. Liv is already working through the ruins' structure, looking for a viable path forward. After several minutes of analysis, she concludes that the ruins are all structurally connected. A drilling device has caused large sections to collapse and become inaccessible, but we can use the underground route it carved to navigate through the surface holes, circling back close to where we need to be.
[Timestamp: +15m]
Following the new route, we find Nanami again. She came out unscathed from the middle of the explosion back in the city. She says she was wandering after the factory exploded and ended up here. She offers to lend a hand one more time.
Back near the first engagement point, Liv asks Bianca how she knows Nanami. Bianca says she showed up unannounced during a previous mission and interfered more than once. We also encounter Rohacchi, a survey-type robot built for ruin environments and, apparently, a companion of Nanami's. Nanami asks whether he saw anyone pass through. He says he saw a number of them, all heading deep down.
Lee and Liv request permission to copy data from Rohacchi's frame to study the phenomenon of machine awakening. Rohacchi is not fully cooperative and warns that his companions are on their way. Liv reports Corrupted closing in. We engage and clear them. When we regroup, Karenina is gone.
We pick up Karenina's trail: broken machine parts and heavy fire damage. Advancing alone through Corrupted-filled ruins with unstable structural integrity is reckless. Bianca apologizes for Karenina going ahead without the group. I ask Liv to analyze the trail data.
Liv identifies traces of a clash between Karenina and Kamui along the same path. We also pick up a signal transmitter from the Corrupted; our location has been exposed. Bianca moves ahead immediately. We follow. Nanami stays back with Rohacchi and offers to divert any Corrupted that come through.
[Timestamp: +10m]
We catch up with Bianca. Karenina is unconscious and barely coherent. Liv detects an unknown form of energy attempting to breach Karenina's M.I.N.D., causing it to overheat. Liv cannot identify the energy's properties. The only option is to issue a brute-force sleep command from inside Karenina's M.I.N.D. to pause her frame and buy time until proper support arrives. Lucia enters the M.I.N.D. with my Mind Beacon as guidance. Lee and Bianca hold the perimeter. Liv monitors our status.
Karenina's M.I.N.D. stabilizes. The Corrupted numbers in the area begin to climb, forming a perimeter around us. We hold the line until Babylonia repositions its orbital platform and fires support. Bianca notices another signal transmitter in this batch of Corrupted from before.
Roland appears. Everyone raises their guard. He expected to track Kamui here, but found us instead. Watanabe arrives shortly after, responding to our signal. Bianca makes an exception for a defective Construct given the circumstances. We hold off the huge Corrupted unit designated Musashi IX while Bianca and Watanabe engage Roland directly.
Musashi IX falls. At the same moment, Watanabe gets thrown hard into the wall from the side. One of his arms is destroyed, sparking and unresponsive. I order the squad to close in and support Bianca.
Roland is losing ground. Before we can get him, a sudden sandstorm blasts through the air, reducing visibility to almost nothing. When the air clears, his signal is gone. Roland has withdrawn from the area.
A connection request comes through on the E-02 Babylonia Private Channel. Commander Nikola opens immediately. Our actions have severely compromised Babylonia's strategic safety. He orders Gray Raven to withdraw and suspends my commanding authority on the spot.
Before I can respond, President Hassen breaks into the channel and asks what Babylonia plans to do about Kamui if we pull out now. Nikola calls it a disproportionate risk for a defective Construct. Hassen points out that Kamui has already shown potential as a means of fighting the Punishing Virus. Nikola counters that Chrome's report is unverified. Hassen says that sounds exactly like what an elite squad is for.
He addresses us directly: HQ will airdrop supplies. Drop coordinates go to Liv through Celica. Finish the mission and return safely. Nikola tries to object. The channel disconnects.
Liv confirms the coordinates. The drop zone is close, but the airdrop will draw Corrupted. Karenina and Watanabe are handed off to the Forsaken for repairs. The sleep command is holding; a full checkup can wait until we return to Babylonia. Lucia calls for us to move.
[Timestamp: +20m]
The airdrop package comes down ahead of us. It contains a significant quantity of resupply serums and a new frame designated "Dawn", configured specifically for Lucia to facilitate recovering Kamui. We take the time needed for Lucia to switch frames and run calibration. Bianca reminds us we are already behind. We move.
We push deeper into the ruins under stealth. Direct engagement is a drain we cannot afford. Roland has positioned mechanoids along our advance to slow us down, including units resembling Nozzle and Roseblade. They are not the same as the encounters before, but they are not to be dismissed. Lucia's new frame is tested with every exchange. We continue.
Vera opens a line on the Purifying Force private channel. She has received orders from Commander Nikola to provide support and assess whether Kamui still poses a credible threat. She tells Lee that his ticket remains valid, provided her subordinates do not reach Kamui first. Bianca informs her that Kamui is somewhere deep within the ruins. Vera thanks her and disconnects.
We encounter another Iron Maiden. We engage. She withdraws after a brief clash. Before we can regroup, Lee's behavior shifts. He stops responding to commands and moves off on his own, following the Iron Maiden's direction. We split the squad: most of us pursue Lee while Bianca pushes forward.
By the time we close in on Lee, he is no longer responding to my commands. He turns on us — the surrounding Corrupted press in at the same time. We bring Lee down without causing permanent damage. Liv isolates the cause: the Iron Maiden injected a foreign energy signal directly into Lee's systems during the encounter, triggering a full loss of control. We engage the Iron Maiden and take her down. Before her voice module cuts out, she says she has bought enough time, and Kamui will fall into the Ascendants' grasp. Lee comes back to himself immediately and pushes forward to rejoin Bianca.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We reach the energy chamber. Vera, Bianca, and the remaining Purifying Force members are under heavy Corrupted pressure when we arrive. We move in and clear the exterior. While we hold the line, Liv analyzes the chamber's material composition. She cannot identify the energy's properties, but flags that the chamber is undergoing a visible color shift, cycling from red to deep purple.
The exterior clears. The chamber opens. Inside, Kamui is motionless, and his readings are critical. Liv confirms that Tenebrion energy from the chamber is being absorbed directly into his frame, and his M.I.N.D. is overheating. Bianca steps forward. She cannot hold her position while an unidentified energy source rewrites a Construct's M.I.N.D. in real time. We ask her to wait. Just a little longer.
Kamui's viral density reading begins to fall. Liv confirms the corruption risk is low enough to attempt extraction. Lucia enters Kamui's M.I.N.D. with my Mind Beacon as guidance, and Liv provides external support.
Inside, Kamui is defeated by Camu, the second consciousness within his frame. After the battle between Lucia and Camu, Kamui regains control of himself. Instead of expelling Camu, he acknowledges Camu's existence and the assistance he has provided throughout this time. Kamui chooses to accept the coexistence of two consciousnesses in one body, and Camu resigns.
When he wakes up, his first remark is directed at Bianca: he asks her to stop aiming at him. He confirms he can control Tenebrion and is actively using it to suppress the viral corruption in his frame. We pull the location data, withdraw, and head back to Babylonia.
Following the battle, Roland successfully evades capture. However, the engagements throughout this operation provide valuable intelligence regarding his combat abilities, tactical methods, and influence during the operations. He demonstrates clear intent and prior knowledge of Babylonia's movements, prompting an update to his threat classification.
A working arrangement has been established with the Forsaken through Watanabe. Currently, the terms are limited to Gray Raven operations and do not extend to Babylonia; however, Watanabe has indicated a willingness to discuss this further. This partnership holds potential value for ground operations in desert areas beyond Babylonia's typical operational range.
The M.I.N.D. research facility recovered during the operation has been flagged for further investigation. Recovery teams are tasked with retrieving any surviving documentation and remaining assets related to the lost M.I.N.D. technology.
The Tenebrion energy source and the associated research facilities beneath the desert ruins are to be secured and investigated by the Science Council. Priority areas for study include the energy source itself and its potential applications in viral suppression and Construct frame development.
Tracking the Ascendant
OperationOPS-███ // Outskirt of City 015
Field reports from City 015 confirm that at least one Ascendant, named Roland, was capable of transforming a Construct into an Ascendant-class entity, suppressing Virus consumption within the host while amplifying combat output at the cost of the subject's humanity. Engagement records further indicate that Ascendants are capable of coordinated withdrawal, deliberate misdirection, and operating among Construct forces undetected. The faction demonstrated awareness of Babylonia's operational movements before direct contact was made.
Following the conclusion of City 015 operations, Babylonia intelligence traced an Ascendant's last confirmed position to the Museum Estate, terminal station of Rail 11 on the city outskirts. Babylonia High Command has ordered all available combat-ready squads to converge on the location and investigate immediately.
The following logs represent Gray Raven Commandant's personal account. Timestamps are approximate and based on field recollection.
Terrapod
As a Terrapod aims a shot at Lucia from behind. Before it fires, a Tank-type Construct with a colossal blade drops it instead. He introduces himself as Kamui from Strike Hawk, tasked with tracking one of the Ascendants, Roland. After an encounter with Iron Maiden in City 015, she slipped the name, but Kamui does not know what the Ascendant looks like.
He also mentions the Ascension Network as the source of Ascendant power and strength, though he has yet to provide a precise definition.
Kamui is visibly surprised to see Lucia and reveals that they knew each other when they first entered service in Babylonia. However, Lucia has no memory of him.
Terrapod: An advanced security robot created by Cosmos Industries, designed to patrol designated routes reliably. It detects intruders with precision signals from monitoring devices, ensuring thorough coverage. The Gatling gun, provide robust protection and can rotate at any angle, offering versatile defense. It automatically reloads through the magazine below, maintaining continuous operation without manual intervention.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We push deeper into the estate. Kamui triggers the highest tier of the museum's security system. After clearing the security mechanoids, the Estate Butler contacts us on a private channel, ordering us to leave immediately. Kamui directly asks him about the Ascendant's location, but the butler does not respond and cuts the connection.
Lee manages to hack the gate open, just as an explosion is heard somewhere inside the estate. Liv picks up friendly Construct signals from the courtyard, engaged in combat with an Ascendant reading several magnitudes above Tifa. Force field barriers block our approach. Liv uses her Levi-Gun to breach the core terminal and overloads the field. The butler returns to the channel with a final warning: past this barrier, there is no going back.
[Timestamp: +10m]
The courtyard is massive. The fighting has stopped, but it is eerily quiet. Lucia utilizes Electromagnetic Camouflage to sweep away the remaining Corrupted. We move upstairs and find Constructs on every level. Their limbs and Inver-Devices are damaged, but they still register vital signs. Their voice modules are missing. One Construct manages to send a warning before Motion Bombs detonate inside their bodies.
The normal route leads us into a fake guest hall. The butler contacts us again. He tells us to stay put with the Corrupted already inside. He explains that these are the ones the estate could not neutralize: he had them sealed in this room. He prefers us to be consumed by the Corrupted instead of being used by the Ascendant. We clear the Corrupted in the hall. A second voice, probably the Ascendant, cuts into the channel and states that the butler deliberately routed us apart, then the line goes dead. Liv scans for an alternate path to the real guest hall.
Estate Manor's courtyard
[Timestamp: +15m]
We caught up with the Ascendant. Kamui recognizes him from his previous encounter. Roland looks past us at the butler, who is now fully Corrupted. He remarks that the outcome would have been different if the butler had accepted the power of the Ascension Network.
The butler is a formidable opponent. We engage him for a considerable amount of time before he finally falls. His last words are an apology to Mr. Copperfield for failing to protect the estate, and then he activates his self-destruct sequence.
Kamui presses on toward Roland. The fight shakes the hall, and debris rains down from the ceiling. Kamui is losing ground. Lucia moves in to assist. Roland tells her: "She is weak, just like she said." As Roland pushes Lucia back, Kamui charges forward. The Ascendant reveals that he was after Kamui all along. He swings his weapon, bringing down every pillar in the hall at once. The collapse seals Kamui off on the far side, and we lose all visual contact.
Chrome contacts us immediately, indicating that Kamui's corruption level is rising rapidly.
Addendum I: Kamui meets Roland outside the city's skirt, who appears as a friendly Construct, and asks for directions to the Museum Estate to reinforce Gray Raven after receiving their request for backup.
[Timestamp: +15m]
After breaking through the wall debris, we find Kamui unconscious on the ground. The Ascendant is nowhere to be found. Lucia brings him around. He reports elevated Virus activity in his frame but has no memory of what happened after losing consciousness. Before we can press further, Liv warns us: the manor structure is failing, and Corrupted swarms are already moving in, blocking our only escape route.
Kamui points us to a set of nearby monitoring devices, deployed earlier by Strike Hawk to collect high-precision geo-data of the surrounding area. He suggests feeding that data to Liv to calculate a second escape route. Lucia is visibly worried about his condition. He notices and comments that she is more caring than she used to be.
[Timestamp: +20m]
Zack the Harvester
[Timestamp: +25m]
The gamble holds. A massive, uncorrupted mechanoid guard rises and tears through the Corrupted, blocking our path and giving us the window we need. Before we leave the manor entirely, Lucia calls for us to take down the guard. It is not infected yet, but given its scale and combat capability, it will be a serious threat once the Punishing Virus infects it. We engage and bring it down.
As it falls, its speaker cycles in a loop, calling out a name: Emma. It keeps calling until the power runs out entirely. Kamui pulls its memory shell before we withdraw from the manor.
ADDENDUM II: Zack is one of the large agricultural machines codenamed Harvester; they were refitted and militarized by humans during the early days of the Punishing Virus outbreak. To avoid exposure to the virus, they were only allowed to operate inside the Central Purification Filters' range. Most were destroyed during the Great Evacuation, but Copperfield managed to secure a few.
- See Personnel File: Roseblade, the Estate Butler, from the memory shell of the large mechanoid guard named Zack.
[Timestamp: +1h]
Celica comms in: she is routing another aircraft to extract us. Lucia points out that the desert is dense with Corrupted, and we need to keep moving. Celica acknowledges and keeps the pilots updated on our position. She wishes us luck and disconnects.
Vassago
[Timestamp: +1h]
The sandstorm in this area is relentless. Liv detects an unknown signal blinking in and out, not Corrupted. The wind and sand are disrupting their visual sensors, so they switch to thermographic scanning. Still no confirmed identification. Lucia and Lee scout ahead while Kamui stays back to cover my position.
Lucia clashes with an unknown assailant almost immediately. He stops when he recognizes her. A unit of military soldiers surrounds us. Kamui recognizes the man, Watanabe, noting that the three of them trained together in Babylonia. Watanabe tells us bluntly that we are fortunate it was he who found us first; we would have been killed by his comrades already.
Liv provides context: since the Great Evacuation, certain Ground Force units have been left behind by the World Government and have cut all ties with Babylonia. They have recently resurfaced under the name Forsaken. Watanabe joined them and is listed in Babylonia records as a defected Construct.
Watanabe steps toward me. Lee raises his weapon immediately. Watanabe holds his hands up and produces a small white box of wild mint, handing it over as a gesture of goodwill. He insists. The scent is sharp enough to clear my head.
Watanabe tells us the sandstorm is easing but will return within thirty minutes. He is about to leave when Lucia asks whether he knows of any nearby position suitable for resupply or a safe retreat. He says there is nothing out here, but offers us his temporary survey post nearby if we are willing to follow. Lucia hesitates. Lee points out that our supplies are nearly exhausted, and we have no other options.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We follow him to the post. The surrounding area is thick with Corrupted. Watanabe notes that, unlike Babylonia, the Forsaken do not have the resources or manpower to clear zones like this. Pointless sacrifices are not his approach. We clear the area for him. While Lee asks Liv to raise Babylonia and report our situation, an explosion goes off, and Corrupted flood in from multiple directions. Watanabe signals us to follow him toward the garage. His troops fan out to retrieve the vehicles while we hold the line.
The vehicle arrives. Watanabe tells us to move now. In the chaos of the extraction, only Lucia, Lee, Kamui, and I make it into the vehicle. Liv ends up in the Forsaken's car. They drive it away, leaving us behind.
Temporary Survey Post
[Timestamp: +1h 30m]
We track Liv's signal before it goes dark near a facility up ahead. Lee spots Forsaken vehicles outside. We move to extract her, but Vassago's signal closes in before we reach the entrance. We burn through everything we have left to bring it down. Kamui wonders aloud how it tracked us this far across the open desert. Lee works it out immediately: Vassago's primary tracking trait is olfactory sensitivity. The wild mint Watanabe gave me led it straight to us.
While Kamui scouts the perimeter, Lucia brings up Liv. She recalls the time they spent in the shop during the City 015 operation, picking out plushies. She says Liv carries a warmth about her, even when she stays in the back, she shines the brightest. Lee agrees and notes that Liv is the only one among the three to receive an honorary medal of the highest rank, and that she always knows exactly what to do in this situation. Kamui returns and reports that Corrupted are patrolling the facility perimeter. Infiltration is the most viable approach.
As we enter the facility, Lee remarks that the interior feels like being inside a M.I.N.D. Within moments, visual contact across the team breaks down entirely. We manage to find each other, but Kamui does not respond.
Lee determines that the facility is running a specialized EM Projection device. Locating and shutting it down should restore real space. He reaches into his collar and pulls out a toy his younger brother Murray gave him. It functions as a miniature graviton detector. By moving through the space and recording its reactive signals, we can piece together a rough but usable map and, from that map, identify our direction and the locations of the projection devices. Lee starts working on it immediately.
EM Projection is a projector's device that alters the electromagnetic fields of nearby space, overlaying a false layer over the real environment, causing a sensory discrepancy due to maladjustment to the augmented space. The effect is both significant and expensive to maintain. To ensure projection quality and accuracy, multiple devices are positioned at various angles to support one another.
Lee manually disables several projectors, but concludes the approach is too slow. There could be hundreds of units in this facility. Lucia asks whether the EMP grenades from Strike Hawk would work. She knows Lee well enough to assume he has at least one of anything he finds worth studying. Lee confirms he has one, but says a single detonation will not cover the space. It needs to be placed at the right location.
Virtual M.I.N.D. Projection
We find the optimal position. Lee throws the grenade. The blast causes the alloy paneling across the floors and walls to reveal their true surface, and the projection layer drops. Lee maps the facility's full layout and marks all projector locations. Lucia locates Kamui and asks why he never responded to comms. He says he accidentally broke his own communication system. Lee repairs it before we push forward.
Royal Guard
Post-engagement analysis identifies them as bionic mechanoids designated Royal Guard, originally built to operate in the Cultural Restoration Exhibition Hall, where they were responsible for displaying cultural archives and operating the projection systems.
After the Punishing Virus outbreak, M.I.N.D. research became the priority. This facility was repurposed into the M.I.N.D. laboratory. The Royal Guards lack their own M.I.N.D. systems, but retain the capability to extract Construct consciousness and upload it to a central consciousness container. The single unit we engaged has already uploaded more than ten consciousnesses.
After the Punishing Virus outbreak, M.I.N.D. research became the priority. This facility was repurposed into the M.I.N.D. laboratory. The Royal Guards lack their own M.I.N.D. systems, but retain the capability to extract Construct consciousness and upload it to a central consciousness container. The single unit we engaged has already uploaded more than ten consciousnesses.
Lee explains the mechanism: the special properties of consciousness mean that the longer it is held in an external container, the more it degrades. What these Corrupted can do is plunder new consciousnesses and feed them into the projection devices, constructing a virtual M.I.N.D. to display in real space. It is a roundabout method of observing and studying M.I.N.D. technology without fully understanding it.
Lucia goes quiet for a moment, then asks Lee whether consciousness can be copied. He answers: consciousness processing is far more complex. Only the top researchers in the Science Council have the capability to work with consciousness at that level. There are no recorded cases of successful consciousness copying in Babylonia's database. Any form of consciousness manipulation has been strictly prohibited under human law.
Kamui asks who the imprisoned consciousnesses in this facility belong to. Lee pauses, then answers: The Forsaken.
Memory shell records from the neutralized Corrupted identify an individual named Gabriel issuing directives to research M.I.N.D. technology here. Based on what Kamui knows, Gabriel is likely one of the Ascendants.
[Timestamp: +5m]
The wall tears open, and Nanami jumps in. She announces she is here to see more M.I.N.D.s. Lucia asks whether she has seen a pink Construct, named Liv, nearby. Nanami offers to share Liv's last known location on the condition that Lucia becomes friends with her. Lucia hesitates but agrees. Nanami provides the route, and we continue onward.
The projection scenery shifts. We pass through another virtual M.I.N.D. belonging to one of the Forsaken, then the last. The next space is the central consciousness container. We reach it.
Watanabe and the Forsaken stand silently in the darkness. Liv stands behind them, eyes closed, motionless. Cables extend from her Inver-Device, connecting her directly to the central consciousness container. Watanabe explains: Liv connected herself to it and successfully extracted all the imprisoned Forsaken consciousnesses from inside, but could not get herself out. He attempted to pull her free, but their technology is too outdated compared to Babylonia's.
Lee assigns Kamui to watch the Forsaken. I sync with Lucia and Lee, then activate the Mind Beacon to establish a connection with Liv's consciousness.
[Timestamp: +15m]
Inside the M.I.N.D. space, we destroy the intrusion countermeasures and clear the pseudo-consciousness construct holding Liv in place. She comes back. Lee turns to Watanabe. He clenches his fists and walks toward him. Liv steps in front and stops him. She tells Watanabe she has completed her end of the bargain and asks him to uphold his promise.
Reunite with Liv
Watanabe acknowledges it. He thanks Liv for her selflessness and courage, and apologizes to Gray Raven for putting us in danger. He states that the Forsaken will assist Gray Raven to the best of their ability whenever we operate in the area, on the condition that the arrangement applies only to Gray Raven, and does not extend to Babylonia but he is open to discussion.
He offers to transport us to a secure base where we can resupply freely or choose to leave on our own terms. He adds that the mint this time will not have anything in it. We decide to spend a night at the Forsaken camps.
[Timestamp: +2h 30m]
We reach the entrance of City 019, an underground shelter city, no survivors, only corpses are piled up high. The city once held half a million refugees, one-third of Babylonia's current population, during the mid to late Post-Pandemic Age. Watanabe tells us that when the Virus began corrupting factories and generating an endless supply of Corrupted, neither the serums nor the newly developed Construct technology could hold the line.
Lee restores its emergency power supply. Shortly after, Nanami appears and ambushes Watanabe, impersonating a Purifying Force operative. Before Watanabe can address his unfinished business with her, she is already gone.
[Timestamp: +1h]
The Corrupted grow noticeably stronger the deeper we push. New variants appear that Liv cannot profile: their memory shell data is encrypted. Lucia detects Nanami nearby and calls her out, noting she has been quietly clearing enemies ahead of us.
Liv warns of the next incoming wave. Nanami tells us to follow her. We push through. Afterward, Liv successfully decrypts the memory shell of one of the Corrupted, recovering a battle record from years ago involving another powerful entity.
Viral density spikes suddenly near the military factory sector. Liv is monitoring everyone's M.I.N.D. status and flags that Kamui's waveform is irregular. Before we can respond, Kamui says he has an emergency, cuts his comms, and runs back the way we came, disappearing into an area of high viral density.
We reach the factory's assembly floor. Corrupted on the production line have reactivated and are filling the corridor behind us in horde numbers. Nanami spots isolation doors nearby. We seal them behind us and buy some time.
Military Factory Sector
Watanabe proposes destroying the entire facility using the explosives he brought with the nuclear fusion reactor below the factory floor. While Liv calculates placement and yield, Watanabe confronts Nanami about her repeated interference at the Forsaken camps and the psychological damage she has caused to several of his people. Nanami deflects, saying she was observing the Forsaken lifestyle. We split up to clear the Corrupted in the vicinity while Watanabe plants the charges at the positions Liv marks.
The structure behind us gives way. Corrupted are forcing through. We move, but Watanabe drops out of view. Nanami informs us, without urgency, that he intends to detonate the charges himself on a suicide run. I am not pleased that she knew and said nothing. Seeing my expression, Nanami offers to take any order I give, noting that she normally answers only to President Hassen. I tell her to find Watanabe and get him out. She moves immediately.
The charges are set, and the enemies are cleared. Watanabe and Nanami rendezvous with us at the escape route. Then the isolation doors tear apart. A Corrupted with bladed wings forces through. She calls Lucia's name, though the Virus has taken a heavy toll on her. We bring her down. Her model version resembles a sister. Liv moves to pull her memory shell data, but the detonation sequence starts. We clear the factory. Nanami and Watanabe take a separate exit.
- See Personnel File: Sister for memory extraction record.
[Timestamp: +30m]
We are barely catching our breath. Lee spots the transport craft coming uninvited; it must be the Purifying Force. Liv picks up Kamui's signal nearby. Before we reach him, Vera's blade is already at his neck. She states plainly that Kamui is corrupted and that she is here to execute him. Lucia steps in and asks Kamui directly when he was infected. He says it happened in the manor, when Roland had him pinned on the other side of the collapse. He did not tell anyone because he believed there was a way to reverse it, and saw no point in raising the issue beforehand.
Kamui's Fate
Two figures step out of the shadows: Bianca from the Purifying Force and Karenina from the Engineering Force. They have orders to eliminate Kamui as well. Lucia holds them off long enough to give Kamui room to withdraw, but their combined strength exceeds hers. Before they can complete the order. Chrome comms in and tells them to stand down.
He explains about Kamui and Tenebrion, a dark energy that can cleanse the virus, and prove its existence. Bianca still cannot decide whether to trust Chrome, while Karenina reminds her to follow the mission instructions, or they will be disciplined. To break the deadlock, Bianca is willing to make temporary concessions and help find Kamui, while Chrome will handle speaking with the higher-ups and report his findings to the Science Council.
[Timestamp: +1h]
We reach a concentration zone filled with ruins of what appears to be an old settlement. No scavengers. Only Corrupted. We also find drilling devices originally at the Sicilian Energy Station, used for surveying and extracting underground resources with quite high power, which can cause mini tremors. It suggests someone has been after this area long before Kamui.
We venture deeper. A wave of Corrupted attempts an ambush but strikes broken pillars nearby instead, bringing the whole ceiling down. We retreat to the safe zone near the entrance before it collapses entirely. The entrance seals shut behind us.
Karenina is not pleased about the delay. Liv is already working through the ruins' structure, looking for a viable path forward. After several minutes of analysis, she concludes that the ruins are all structurally connected. A drilling device has caused large sections to collapse and become inaccessible, but we can use the underground route it carved to navigate through the surface holes, circling back close to where we need to be.
Taking a Break
[Timestamp: +15m]
Following the new route, we find Nanami again. She came out unscathed from the middle of the explosion back in the city. She says she was wandering after the factory exploded and ended up here. She offers to lend a hand one more time.
Back near the first engagement point, Liv asks Bianca how she knows Nanami. Bianca says she showed up unannounced during a previous mission and interfered more than once. We also encounter Rohacchi, a survey-type robot built for ruin environments and, apparently, a companion of Nanami's. Nanami asks whether he saw anyone pass through. He says he saw a number of them, all heading deep down.
Lee and Liv request permission to copy data from Rohacchi's frame to study the phenomenon of machine awakening. Rohacchi is not fully cooperative and warns that his companions are on their way. Liv reports Corrupted closing in. We engage and clear them. When we regroup, Karenina is gone.
- See Personnel File: Rohacchi for memory extraction record.
Desert Ruins
We pick up Karenina's trail: broken machine parts and heavy fire damage. Advancing alone through Corrupted-filled ruins with unstable structural integrity is reckless. Bianca apologizes for Karenina going ahead without the group. I ask Liv to analyze the trail data.
Liv identifies traces of a clash between Karenina and Kamui along the same path. We also pick up a signal transmitter from the Corrupted; our location has been exposed. Bianca moves ahead immediately. We follow. Nanami stays back with Rohacchi and offers to divert any Corrupted that come through.
[Timestamp: +10m]
Musashi IX
Karenina's M.I.N.D. stabilizes. The Corrupted numbers in the area begin to climb, forming a perimeter around us. We hold the line until Babylonia repositions its orbital platform and fires support. Bianca notices another signal transmitter in this batch of Corrupted from before.
Roland appears. Everyone raises their guard. He expected to track Kamui here, but found us instead. Watanabe arrives shortly after, responding to our signal. Bianca makes an exception for a defective Construct given the circumstances. We hold off the huge Corrupted unit designated Musashi IX while Bianca and Watanabe engage Roland directly.
Musashi IX falls. At the same moment, Watanabe gets thrown hard into the wall from the side. One of his arms is destroyed, sparking and unresponsive. I order the squad to close in and support Bianca.
Roland is losing ground. Before we can get him, a sudden sandstorm blasts through the air, reducing visibility to almost nothing. When the air clears, his signal is gone. Roland has withdrawn from the area.
A connection request comes through on the E-02 Babylonia Private Channel. Commander Nikola opens immediately. Our actions have severely compromised Babylonia's strategic safety. He orders Gray Raven to withdraw and suspends my commanding authority on the spot.
Before I can respond, President Hassen breaks into the channel and asks what Babylonia plans to do about Kamui if we pull out now. Nikola calls it a disproportionate risk for a defective Construct. Hassen points out that Kamui has already shown potential as a means of fighting the Punishing Virus. Nikola counters that Chrome's report is unverified. Hassen says that sounds exactly like what an elite squad is for.
He addresses us directly: HQ will airdrop supplies. Drop coordinates go to Liv through Celica. Finish the mission and return safely. Nikola tries to object. The channel disconnects.
Liv confirms the coordinates. The drop zone is close, but the airdrop will draw Corrupted. Karenina and Watanabe are handed off to the Forsaken for repairs. The sleep command is holding; a full checkup can wait until we return to Babylonia. Lucia calls for us to move.
[Timestamp: +20m]
The airdrop package comes down ahead of us. It contains a significant quantity of resupply serums and a new frame designated "Dawn", configured specifically for Lucia to facilitate recovering Kamui. We take the time needed for Lucia to switch frames and run calibration. Bianca reminds us we are already behind. We move.
We push deeper into the ruins under stealth. Direct engagement is a drain we cannot afford. Roland has positioned mechanoids along our advance to slow us down, including units resembling Nozzle and Roseblade. They are not the same as the encounters before, but they are not to be dismissed. Lucia's new frame is tested with every exchange. We continue.
Vera opens a line on the Purifying Force private channel. She has received orders from Commander Nikola to provide support and assess whether Kamui still poses a credible threat. She tells Lee that his ticket remains valid, provided her subordinates do not reach Kamui first. Bianca informs her that Kamui is somewhere deep within the ruins. Vera thanks her and disconnects.
We encounter another Iron Maiden. We engage. She withdraws after a brief clash. Before we can regroup, Lee's behavior shifts. He stops responding to commands and moves off on his own, following the Iron Maiden's direction. We split the squad: most of us pursue Lee while Bianca pushes forward.
By the time we close in on Lee, he is no longer responding to my commands. He turns on us — the surrounding Corrupted press in at the same time. We bring Lee down without causing permanent damage. Liv isolates the cause: the Iron Maiden injected a foreign energy signal directly into Lee's systems during the encounter, triggering a full loss of control. We engage the Iron Maiden and take her down. Before her voice module cuts out, she says she has bought enough time, and Kamui will fall into the Ascendants' grasp. Lee comes back to himself immediately and pushes forward to rejoin Bianca.
[Timestamp: +15m]
We reach the energy chamber. Vera, Bianca, and the remaining Purifying Force members are under heavy Corrupted pressure when we arrive. We move in and clear the exterior. While we hold the line, Liv analyzes the chamber's material composition. She cannot identify the energy's properties, but flags that the chamber is undergoing a visible color shift, cycling from red to deep purple.
The exterior clears. The chamber opens. Inside, Kamui is motionless, and his readings are critical. Liv confirms that Tenebrion energy from the chamber is being absorbed directly into his frame, and his M.I.N.D. is overheating. Bianca steps forward. She cannot hold her position while an unidentified energy source rewrites a Construct's M.I.N.D. in real time. We ask her to wait. Just a little longer.
Kamui's viral density reading begins to fall. Liv confirms the corruption risk is low enough to attempt extraction. Lucia enters Kamui's M.I.N.D. with my Mind Beacon as guidance, and Liv provides external support.
Kamui's M.I.N.D.
Inside, Kamui is defeated by Camu, the second consciousness within his frame. After the battle between Lucia and Camu, Kamui regains control of himself. Instead of expelling Camu, he acknowledges Camu's existence and the assistance he has provided throughout this time. Kamui chooses to accept the coexistence of two consciousnesses in one body, and Camu resigns.
When he wakes up, his first remark is directed at Bianca: he asks her to stop aiming at him. He confirms he can control Tenebrion and is actively using it to suppress the viral corruption in his frame. We pull the location data, withdraw, and head back to Babylonia.
Addendum III: Post-operation debrief records from Kamui confirm the following. On the upper floors of the ruins, he locates a small concentration of Tenebrion before his path crosses Karenina's during her lone advance. After the Tenebrion energy destabilizes her M.I.N.D. and she loses consciousness, Kamui pushes deeper into the structure, aware that his time is limited.
The Corrupted in this section are not acting at random. Camu confirms they are here for him. Roland is still pressing to connect him to the Ascension Network. After extended fighting, Kamui finds his way into a wider underground space: a long, narrow corridor, well-preserved and technologically advanced beyond what the surface ruins suggest. The Tenebrion concentration here is substantial. He absorbs the energy and uses it to push back the viral corruption in his frame.
With Camu present in his consciousness, he can process the energy without overloading his M.I.N.D. However, the sustained absorption gives Camu increasing influence over his frame, pulling at his sense of self. It is at this point that Gray Raven makes contact, and Kamui reaches the resolution that brings Camu to resign from his influence.
The Corrupted in this section are not acting at random. Camu confirms they are here for him. Roland is still pressing to connect him to the Ascension Network. After extended fighting, Kamui finds his way into a wider underground space: a long, narrow corridor, well-preserved and technologically advanced beyond what the surface ruins suggest. The Tenebrion concentration here is substantial. He absorbs the energy and uses it to push back the viral corruption in his frame.
With Camu present in his consciousness, he can process the energy without overloading his M.I.N.D. However, the sustained absorption gives Camu increasing influence over his frame, pulling at his sense of self. It is at this point that Gray Raven makes contact, and Kamui reaches the resolution that brings Camu to resign from his influence.
A working arrangement has been established with the Forsaken through Watanabe. Currently, the terms are limited to Gray Raven operations and do not extend to Babylonia; however, Watanabe has indicated a willingness to discuss this further. This partnership holds potential value for ground operations in desert areas beyond Babylonia's typical operational range.
The M.I.N.D. research facility recovered during the operation has been flagged for further investigation. Recovery teams are tasked with retrieving any surviving documentation and remaining assets related to the lost M.I.N.D. technology.
The Tenebrion energy source and the associated research facilities beneath the desert ruins are to be secured and investigated by the Science Council. Priority areas for study include the energy source itself and its potential applications in viral suppression and Construct frame development.