Trimounts Streets

It's plugged up there directly into her nervous system. Functions as a regular part of her mind, and logs data on neural activity in each region and lobe all the while.

Which means you've just been looking at every last thing Ptilopsis's visual processors—her own two eyes—have been seeing.

Columbia's Pioneer Team members come from all backgrounds.

Youth dissatisfied with their lives, middle-aged couples drowning in debt, petty criminals who don't want to end up behind bars—

And of course, Infected powerless to cough up exorbitant insurance, who don't resign themselves to being shut away in quarantine zones for 'treatment.'

I'm more interested in the agrypnotic Franks has been using, personally.

I love a drink after work as much as the next, but all that fluid intake on the job's bound to cut up your train of thought.

From the logs Ptilopsis keeps synchronized with us, we can tell that along with her, there's our other Rhodes Island-partnered operator, Elena in Rhine Lab's Energy Section...

Along with Rhine Lab Originium Art Section's Director, Dorothy Franks. That's everyone caught up in this abduction by the Pioneers.

And practically simultaneously, Saria informed us Rhine Lab Ecological Section's Director Muelsyse went missing after she sent out an SOS, and there's no telling if she's currently alive or dead.

At present, looks like it.

......

Welcome to Columbia.

Sky-high odds Rhine Lab is already in crisis, if things are pushing Saria to ask Rhodes Island for help.

Lucky the landship's nearby, or else we'd be hard-pressed to make an expeditious response.

The kidnapping's gone down at a new site about a hundred or so klicks out from Trimounts, but Kal'tsit's concerned this has something to do with the experiments that got shut down a while back.

The stuff they show to outsiders indicates it's your typical testing grounds, currently in the middle of construction.

Kal'tsit's cleared us to access all relevant files before we enter Trimounts.

The city's the beating heart of Columbian science and technology. Hundreds of tech companies are headquartered in Trimounts.

The 'Diαbolic Crisis,' 'Loken Watertank,' the 'Lumberyard.'

Each name means something to one of our Rhodes Island operators, and behind their fronts, ties to hundreds of similar experiments.

Most of these experiments have involved Originium's mutative effects on living beings' cells, and each one has been incredibly dangerous.

In Columbia, more often than not, tech giants like Rhine Lab aren't going to participate directly in such high-risk experiments.

They'll have smaller-scale organizations carry them out on their behalf, hire a Pioneer Team, construct a suitable site out in the wasteland fringes of the city to execute their experimental work.

In this case, Ptilopsis is at Site 359, which is one of those.

Work? I'm not gracing my time there with the word 'work.'

Those megacorps 'plagiarized' what I created, and applied it all in places it wasn't meant to be.

See that billboard, about fifty meters out? 'Volvort Kochinski's Automatic Popcorn-a-Tron for the home—faster, sweeter, every time.'

I still have the prototype sketch for its energy core on my terminal.

It was supposed to be used in automatic wasteland road-cleaners at first, but my manager decided it'd never sell as a product.

He says, what kind of HR company's spending on better equipment for Pioneers?

Brought my mind to Rhodes Island after that. Our course-clearer team in Engineering's using the very latest model.

I've long seen it coming. Be it Volvort Kochinski or Rhine Lab, in the end, all these so-called tech firms are going to be destroyed by their own creations—

Because they've never respected the creations themselves.

......

Was that a laugh line, Doctor?

Because what you said isn't sci-fi flick material, or a dumb joke.

Chances are it's tomorrow's news.

You mean her occasional stints as target practice for my new weapons?

She can stop interrupting my work with her ridiculous ideas, and then she won't need to fear me.

......

As a partner, Logos is pretty good.

But can you give him a reminder, Doctor?

If he could cut some of his speechcraft, mission times would go down by at least 30%, and I could spend more time on my actual job.

Done processing the intel, Doctor.

This is as much useful info as we have for now. I've already set the most important files to top priority on lookup. You can read them via PRTS at any time.

Ptilopsis's logs haven't been updated past this point.

Device #9's data transmission should be more stable ever since Mayer adjusted it.

So unless something physically happened to Ptilopsis...

Silence will notify us of any developments at the site as they happen.

Saria's copied the info. She'll be rendezvousing with us in an hour.

Doctor, any other proposals for the time we have left?

I'm a mechanist. I'm no detective's assistant.

Alright, Doctor. In that case, we move now.

Here's hoping I'm back on the landship by tomorrow, at my beloved workbench.

Anything new with the people on-site?

Nothing, officer.

You shot word to your Director Clooney or whatever at Rhine, right? When exactly will he be here?

Director Clooney's in a... meeting right now.

Meeting? You're telling me he's still in a meeting? What kind of meeting's more important than his employees' lives?

Dammit!

Give me those binoculars.

Uh... okay.

You don't think those Pioneers are gonna follow through, do you?

Let me tell you—they will.

Push them enough, and they'll do any fricking thing.

So you mean our colleagues at the site could be in mortal danger?

Who are you?

Olivia Silence, Rhine Lab researcher, and Rhodes Island Pharmaceuticals-partnered Medic Operator.

This is my colleague from Rhodes Island, Mr. Greyy with the Engineering Department.

H-Hello! I'm a Rhodes Island electrical engineer... but I'm still interning!

Rhodes Island? What kind of useless crap does that company do?

Er...

Forget it, save the explanation. One day passes in Trimounts and a barge of fresh company names unloads out of the sewers.

You're Rhine Lab, right? Got any pull in the office?

Pull? Ma'am, I'm not too sure what you mean...

Forget it, I knew you wouldn't be in charge.

You strike me as one of those... eggheads-swimming-in-books types, like the hostages they've got.

You guys and those guys might as well live on different planets.

I heard they were the Pioneers working at this site...

Pioneers.

The name rings too nice for anything except billboards.

And I know better than anyone what kind of people they are. Convicts, gamblers, Infected who can't stick the medical fees... Nothing to lose by the time they went out to the wastes.

Excuse me... could we try and talk to them?

You might have realized already, but Dr. Silence and I are both Infected. We're in a place to understand their situation.

Rhine Lab makes stupid cash, doesn't it? So does Rhodes Island or whatever?

You've got these, let's say 'well-intentioned,' companies paying your insurance premiums—that's the key thing.

That's why you can shut up about understanding them.

Premiums? Which part exactly is...

It's the way things work here in Columbia. A policy aimed at Infected.

Ma'am, please trust us—Rhodes Island is a pharmaceutical corporation dedicated to addressing Infected issues.

Addressing issues? If I gave you a crossbow and told you to square away those kidnappers from here, would you do it?

...I couldn't.

I'm a doctor.

What about him?

Me? N-No, I don't think we've reached the point where we have to resort to violence...

Then it looks to me like you two can't help much at all.

......

No sign of anyone coming, sir.

They're playing it cool.

Say, you think the megacorps might not, uh... care if their hires die?

What with those two being Infected and all.

Don't give me that.

Infected aren't subhuman or nothing. At the very least, we don't wanna treat each other like that.

Alright... said that on the Pioneer recruitment ads too.

Well, count our lucky stars the ads ain't all lies, then.

Would you kindly drop the communicator, Dr. Urbica?

......

He said drop it! No funny business!

Alright.

I'm... I'm putting it down. Please don't hurt us.

Sir, she was sending messages!

Bring me those comms, Sam.

Hmm. Only half-typed. Didn't get to send anything yet.

......

These are our exact coordinates. You want them to send a drone in or something?

Let me give you another idea. Change this to an SOS, send it to your tutor, your manager... whoever.

Tell them—I'm waiting. And my patience is running out.

What exactly are you after?

Well that's wicked simple, doctor.

Me and my friends here, we all just wanna leave this place alive. That's all.

Director, finally, you're back! Can you spare a moment?

You're... Ben. Ben from Structural.

Y-You remember my name?

Call me Ferdinand. Nine whole directors at Rhine Lab and all.

Sir... Ferdinand.

My next meeting is in ten minutes.

I can spare you seven of those.

Ahh... alright, thank you, thank you.

Sir, do you know where Control is right now?

I've got Structural's application for equipment purchases here. Control was supposed to give us an answer three days ago... but we haven't heard anything from her.

Structural's having to suspend a lot of its experiments right now...

Give me the form.

—

Alright, go procure.

Did... Did you just sign? The handbook says large-scale equipment purchases this expensive have to go through Control...

How long have you been with Rhine Lab? Just a couple of months?

Yes, sir... I reported in a month ago.

See this site in front of you?

Huh?

Isn't it monumental?

Fifteen years ago, this place was still wasteland, not even a single nomadic plate yet.

You wouldn't see Rhine Lab on a foldout of Trimounts back in those days.

I...

Meet Parvis for tea, if you get the chance.

You've got a lot to learn, Ben. And you won't find it in your handbook.

A-Alright... Got it, sir.

......

Well look at that, I still have four minutes left.

Not often you call me when it's light out, Ferdinand.

Ho'olheyak.

Are you done with everything I asked?

Mmhm... at least three empty seats for Rhine Lab's directors' meeting today?

No. That's not enough.

Oh? Which director's next?

Are you finally fed up with the old goat behind the chimeric organism experiments, or do you want the dreamer at the test site to never come back?

Word is Rhodes Island's people went to the site.

The experiment's almost complete. I don't want anyone getting in the way before it's done, understood?

You want me on site?

No, no need for that.

How cruel. Your assistant's one of the hostages, isn't she? I saw that Elena girl once. She's as pretty as she is hardworking.

I had a feeling you'd like her.

She's with Energy. She can wrangle the Pioneers.

You keep an eye on developments in the city.

It's unlikely Rhodes Island would only send two operators to the site. Don't forget, Saria's had a line to them all this time.

Oh? Your Defense Director again?

Saria's already stalled our experiments long enough... Both the Colonel and I are running short of patience.

Remember, they can't find anything this time.

This is the place, Doctor.

The last message we got from Saria was sent from this alley.

There's hundreds of these alleys in Trimounts.

Here to there is about a half-hour trip by car.

That's the exact sector she was in.

She was waiting for Muelsyse. They'd agreed to meet at a specific time.

If she wasn't being pursued, she'd never choose to set foot in this alley.

No matter who it was, acting in the open streets would've obviously been too risky.

Right... search complete.

'Ability to manipulate water molecules'—would that be energy conversion-type or matter restructuring-type in terms of Originium Arts? No matter which principle it is, it's powerful at a glance.

'Water molecules'—no flaws visible to the naked eye?

Even more interesting. Experimental research folks and us mechanists are alike. Our powers of observation are usually razor-keen.

If it fooled even Silence and Mayer, then it's not your ordinary Arts illusion.

There's a couple of scorch marks on the ground.

Not very wide-range... whoever did it, all signs point to some kind of technical equipment used to heat the air surrounding Muelsyse.

Considering her Arts are heavily dependent on water molecules, her opponent must've known her very well.

You mean...

They might be a Rhine insider too?

Doctor, watch out!

That was an energy weapon.

Shot from deep inside the alley. Enemy's only thirty meters from us, give or take.

And getting closer.

Doctor, you'll want to stay behind me.

Defense system active.

——

......

Doctor, I've never seen this model of power armor before. It's new.

Without testing, I can't tell you exactly how destructive any weapon hooked up to this could get.

And by that, I mean we need a change of plans.

Escape system active—now get on my back!