Battle of Site-6

"The Iron Lords came together in search of a solution to mankind's struggles. Instead, we found SIVA. We dreamt of using SIVA to build starships, colonies. We would become what the Traveler always believed we could be."

— Lord Saladin

The Battle of Site-6 was a battle fought between the Iron Lords and the Warmind Rasputin over access to SIVA, a highly advanced nano-technology developed by the Clovis Bray Corporation for use in human colonisation efforts. The technology was in secure storage in Site-6 and the manufacturing center located there called the Replication Complex, under the charge of Rasputin. Rasputin had been dormant for centuries since the collapse, and without him or any other Warmind’s assistance, SIVA had become unusable and faded away into distant memory. The Iron Lords attempted to awake Rasputin and convince it to help them use SIVA for the benefit of the City and Humanity. The Warmind, suspicious of the forces assembled against it, denied them the use of SIVA and activated his defences to drive them off, beginning the battle. The battle escalated as Rasputin’s attack killed dozens of Iron Lords, forcing a retreat, a change of plan and an effort to destroy the Replication Chamber and contain the threat that SIVA now posed. The Iron Lords succeeded in detonating explosives inside the Chamber, severely damaging it and rendering the complex inoperable until the SIVA Crisis, when it was at last finally and totally destroyed by The Guardian.

Overview

Background

Traditional scientific beliefs that existed prior to the Traveler’s arrival and the flourishing of Human knowledge and ingenuity in the Golden Age that followed it, held that all material substances existed in only four states: solids, liquids, gasses, and plasma. However during the Golden Age, a fifth purer state of matter called the Engram was discovered (Master Ives), and after a study of the datastatic structure of relic crystals on Mars, Dr.Willa Bray pioneered the first engram matter encryption-decryption techniques (in good temper), allowing fot the development of many derivative technologies including the transmat, as well as the transmutable substance called Glimmer, programable matter so hyper-utile as a nearly universal raw material that it acquired the value of a physical currency (Glimmer).

However, as the Golden Age progressed and humanity began to colonize the planets and moons of the Solar System, Willa Bray realised that they could push this technology even further (WB002). The Bray corporation began working on applying the concept to self-assembling nanobot technology to create a self-machining tool that could process any substance and perfectly convert it into another usable substance with no need for an external energy source (WB007), effectively creating through the utility of the SIVA prototypes a universal substance through which everything else can be made and which doesn’t degrade, forget or expire. The power of SIVA went further, with experiments being conducted on human bio-physical enhancements, with tests conducted on SIVA’s ability to improve the immune systems of patients, their skeletal and muscle strength, and even to accelerate neural synapse signaling allowing a user to not simply be stronger and healthier, but also to think and act faster and smarter in every way (OS165). SIVA was tested for applications for building Constructs (DLC TS), enhancing exoskeletons, joints, ever smaller and more powerful logic boards, and much more. (OS165). If the Traveler was the god of the Golden Age, then SIVA was its miracle.

The only downside to the technology was the threat of poor or malicious programming of the SIVA nanites underlying all of its function. To prevent this, SIVA was put under the charge of Humanity’s greatest and most powerful programmers: the Warminds, highly advanced artificial intelligences whose central mission was the defence and safety of humanity, the only entities with the computational power necessary to safely handle SIVA and prevent a “grey good” disaster occurring as a result of programming errors.

Consequently, SIVA became integral to not only the colonization program but also to the military defence of the Solar System against the anticipated arrival of the forces of the Darkness that could, and in fact did, trigger the Collapse of human society. Given its strategic importance, the main SIVA construction facility called the Replication Chamber was built at Site-6 in the Cosmodrome, where it was able to kept under the protection of the Warmind Rasputin at the same time as be quickly and easily located right next to the colony ships it was to supply.

Prelude

The Battle of Six Fronts was the first major assault by an alien force, the Fallen, against the nascent city. The brunt of the assault was held off by four Titan Orders defending the City on six fronts which, despite intense conflict, all successfully repulsed the attack and won the City its first major victory. However, the City as a whole was not prepared for such a clash, the walls had not even been built yet, and the Iron Lords who had fought in the battle realised that they needed something more than mere firepower and determination if they were to reclaim the glories of the Golden Age, and keep the City safe from future attacks. For this purpose, Lord Timur offered a solution.

Ever since he had first chanced upon Lord Felwinter, while the then Warlord was roaming through his vast territory containing the Cosmodrome, Timur had been obsessed with the promise of SIVA. (Felwinter Peak) Following their encounter and preliminary conversations about SIVA, Rasputin and the Cosmodrome he dominated, Felwinter was conscripted into the Iron Lords, and his mountain fortress converted into the Iron temple (Felwinter Peak) while together with a Lord Timur maddened by a warlock’s (IL Timur) insatiable curiosity and the incredible potential of SIVA, began a long search for it. (GF Dark Age 3)

Now after many years, during which Timur had painstakingly tracked it down to within the Cosmodrome (PL TS), there, scrawled in the margins of an ancient brochure: a crude map and a note from Lord Felwinter. The Replication Chamber, the heart of SIVA’s manufacture and control, had been found. (Vostok Observatory). SIVA, the ancient benefactor of the Golden Age was at last within reach of a city desperately in need of its technological aid.

The Iron Lords, inspired by this success, agreed to seek it out.

“We dreamt of using SIVA to build starships, colonies. We would become what the Traveler always believed we could be.” – Lord Saladin (Plaguelands transcript)

They set off at once, with every single Iron Lord mustered to the call, in all more than one hundred of them assembled together to fulfill their quest. (Plaguelands TS). Unlike on other, previously fruitless searches (Dark Age 3), there would be no one left behind to idly tend to the Ironwood Tree this time.

At the urging of Lord Felwinter and Lord Timur who were both convinced by their years of study up until this point, that the computational power of the Warminds was vital to gaining safe mastery of SIVA, the Iron Lords decided they would wake the slumbering Warmind, Rasputin. Felwinter – himself an Exo suspected by the archivist Tyra Karn, to have some unexplained connections to the Warmind detailed in a set of mysterious and extensive one-way audio-recordings between the one-time Warlord and an unknown entity that the Cryptarch suspected to be Rasputin (Felwinter Peak) – was convinced that he could communicate with the Warmind, assure it that the Iron Lords meant no harm and petition it for its assistance in their cause.

But alas for “Rasputin didn’t answer with words” (2.6)

The Battle

[The following is a speculative reconstruction of the sequence of events based on the 2.0-2.9 series SIVA.MEM (Iron Lords) Grimoire cards, as well as the location of Iron Medallions and observation of SIVA tendrils in the Plaguelands environment. Iron Medallions are collectibles required in the Beauty In Destruction (Year 3 Gjallarhorn) quest, that are described by Tyra Karn as each “[representing] an Iron Lord that fell in battle”, and when associated with the course of events described in the grimoire and evident through the environment strongly indicate not simply areas where the Iron Lords fought and died, but when mapped, grant a larger picture of the entire battle’s direction and flow. SIVA tendrils and nodes in the environment provide an exact record of the events they conducted, as SIVA does not degrade, forget or expire, and will continue in the execution and completion of a command unless a new one is given. More so, as SIVA generates new material as it progresses through an environment it actively consumes, enhances and converts into more SIVA, it is this succession of newer material that continues to advance whilst the older materials, having completed their movement and action orders, successively becomes inert and remains in place as the undegraded relics we see today.]

"V150NLK747CLS000 GLOAMING RESURRECTION

AI-COM/RSPN: ASSETS//FORCECON//IMPERATIVE

IMMEDIATE ACTION ORDER

YUGA SUNDOWN canceled by unauthorized access at Console 62815. Reactivation protocols in effect. Moral structures maintain MIDNIGHT EXIGENT.

Multiple lifeforms detected in Sector 17. [O] energy detected. Query: [O] status. Query: [O] activity. Query: Civilization status. Query: SKYSHOCK event rank.

.....

Analysis complete.

Lifeforms sustained by [O] energy. [O] direct control disengaged. Civilization status: nominal. SKYSHOCK event rank. (N)

Query: Re-engage population protection objectives. (N) Query: Reset moral structures. (N) Query: Activate defense subroutine AURORA RETROFLEX. (Y)"

— Ghost Fragment Rasputin-6

After waking Rasputin, and the ill-fated attempt by Lord Felwinter to communicate with the Warmind, with promises of peace and goodwill belied by the army of the Iron Lords assembling in the Cosmodrome for a fight, Rasputin activated his defences and the battle commenced. Thousands of combat Frames, and SIVA Constructs moved to their positions, preparing an ambush for the Iron Lords as they advanced through the canyon between the Lord’s Watch and the Giant’s Husk on their coastal route to Site-6 and the Replication Chamber. Great tendrils of SIVA nanites exploded out of the depths of their underground confinement, as Rasputin’s will made them break through their restraints, smashing through rock and stone as they exploded up out of what is now the Archons Keep and began to race across the coast towards the battle that had broken out at the tanker.

When Rasputin’s attack came, the Iron Lords were caught between the towering Cosmodrome wall where it perched atop sheer cliffs on the one side, and the ruins of the beached tanker on the other. The Lords ducked and scattered for cover as the narrow space filled with the echoing discharge of weaponry, each of them a legendary warrior in their own right, together they would be unstoppable. A fierce battle seemed to rage forever as the ground was made slick with machine oil, and ammunition ran low. Then the tendrils hit. Exploding through the old tanker as the densely packed swarms of SIVA nanites bounded across the plane towards them, they engulfed the Iron Lords, encircling them and cutting them off from each other in the confusion as the brutal order of professional violence gave way to frantic chaos of a route. SIVA coiled and thrashed about like an enraged monster, crushing Ghosts (2.0) everywhere it found them hovering over their fallen Guardians, as nodes spewed forth new swarms of the nanites, enveloping the Iron Lords in the red and buzzing clouds that angrily wormed their way through every nook and cranny in their armour. Infesting them. Eating them alive, and hollowing them out into armoured shells to be puppeted against their comrades. (2.7)(PL TS)

Most of the survivors of the initial attack fled back the way they had come, through the ruined tanker and the canyon beyond, back to the wall and the Lords Watch, where they would be safe atop the cliffs to rally and regroup. In the meantime, those still trapped by the swarm and the hundreds upon hundreds of frames flooding back into the area attempted to fight a rear guard action, to buy time with their last stands for their brothers and sisters to escape. Some, such as the carrier of an Iron Medallion managed to scale the cliffs and gain a brief reprieve out of the chaos below, before they two were cornered and killed. Lord Colovance, unable to escape from the tanker that would soon be his grave fought on until he ran out of ammunition, never giving up in the melee that followed against the hundreds of frames, and his own fallen comrades being puppeted by SIVA like violent ragdolls against the living until he could go on no further. His Light was not enough. (2.1)

The rest of the Iron Lords, enjoying the brief respite the sacrifice of Lord Colovance and others had bought them in their escape took the opportunity to plan their next actions. SIVA was now a far greater threat than anything they had previously imagined and to great a threat to the City in the hands of Rasputin for them to simply retreat. SIVA and the Replication Chamber they had wished to use for the good of humanity, now had to be destroyed in order to save humanity from its past creations and the dangerous they represented. (IT/PL TS). Lady Jolder would lead a strike force on by an alternative route to Site-6 to destroy the Replication Chamber, which included the Lords Felwinter, Gheleon and Saladin Forge, while the warlock Tinasha-3, known to her fellow Iron Lords as Lady Ashraven would secure the nearby Bunker Triglav and take command of its artillery overlooking the battlefield. With the bunker secured and the guns online, the Ashraven force would hold out against Rasputin as long as they could to distract the Warmind’s forces from Jolder’s group while they secretly closed on Site-6 to destroy the Chamber, and contain SIVA. (2.3)

The plan approved and the ravenous, serpent-like tendrils of SIVA approaching once more, the Iron Lords moved out, though not without another separation and rear-guard action was fought to buy the time needed for Jolder to escape, and Ashraven to secure Bunker Triglav, and train its guns on the enemy. In seconds SIVA was upon them, shooting up the cliff face as the tendrils lashed out at this rear guard, the tendrils coiling about and forming shapes to grapple with the Lords, driving them back from the ledge and opening the way for the Frame army to continue their advance. (2.7)

An Iron Medallion was dropped by its carrier during this engagement in a shed a few meters from the cliffs and the SIVA that roiled over them. They did not survive.

The precious time their sacrifices had won thus far was enough for Ashraven to cut her way through to the bunker and its guns. The trio of artillery pieces located at what is now called the Splicer Battery, appear to have successfully been fired upon SIVA and other of Rasputin’s forces, as enraged SIVA immediately throws itself off of the Lord’s Watch escarpment and runs directly after the artillery which cannot hit the tendrils below the guns minimum elevation, from their cliff top positions above.

Helplessly the guns are abandoned as the SIVA tendrils storm the cliffs and take over the guns, while their defenders flee inside the Bunker and try to barricade the entrances. With the doors to the battery emplacement holding for these few precious moments, Rasputin directs the SIVA tendrils to go around, climbing up and over the Bunker and snaking in through its large and wide open back entrance which cannot be shut. Trapped by SIVA all around, and the remnants of Rasputin’s army of defensive Frames and Constructs even now trampling over the bloodied bodies of the Lords who fell at the Watch, and storming up the bunker road towards them, Ashraven and her compatriots know they are doomed, but they fight on anyway. Every second is defiance. As SIVA envelops and consumes a large fuel tank in the middle of the room, converting this matter and energy into ever more of the omnivorous swarm, new tendrils break through from the floor and ceiling. The doorway to the gun emplacement is battered down and SIVA tendrils, like thrashing snakes coil and whip and charge at them from the front and behind, from above and below. But every second of defiance brings Jolder’s group closer to victory. They fight on. They die. By their Medallions you remember them.

For their sacrifice is worth it. Jolder and what is left of her contingent fights their way through the ravines of the Forgotten Pass, now with dramatically reduced amounts of SIVA in pursuit while they make their way over the bridge, where another lord dies and drops their Medallion, possibly in another delaying action. They reach the area of what is now the Archon’s Keep, where the entrance to Site-6 is discovered, likely by following the SIVA tendrils remaining from the start of the battle back down underground to their source. Two more Lords fell, leaving their Medallions behind outside the Archon’s Keep and deep underground, past the twisting, SIVA infected caverns, in Site-6 itself.

This is a SUBTLE ASSETS IMPERATIVE (NO HUMAN REVIEW) (NO AI-COM REVIEW) (secure/GLAVNAYA)

SITE 6 has been breached by unauthorized users with [O] energy. I am invoking PALISADE IMPERATIVE. [O] lifeforms in restricted areas will be suppressed.

SIVA use authorized. Self-destructs disengaged. Security codes reset. All defenses activated. Frames activated.

REPLICATE. ELIMINATE. IMMUNIZE. (GF Ras 6)

Only nine Iron Lords finally make it into Replication Chamber (PL TS). What awaited them inside it was beyond reckoning. The Iron Lords planned to plant explosives in the facility and destroy the Replicator, to prevent more SIVA from being produced (IT TS), but Rasputin was not about to let that happen. What remained of Rasputin’s defenses blanketed the area, reinforced by ever more frames, constructs, SIVA and according to Lord Saladin: “some things I haven't seen before nor since. They felt no pain. No fear.” (IT TS)

In these final moments as the last of the Iron Lords were overwhelmed by Rasputin’s forces, it seemed as though the Warmind’s presence was almost physical, according to Saladin, as though he was trying to communicate something vital that they did not understand. (IT TS). All while SIVA tendrils the size of monstrous tree trunks coiled and lashed about, crushing Ghosts, and grappling Guardians while their nodes produced still more of the buzzing swarm to devour the Iron Lords and secure the Chamber. The explosives armed, but with no chance of escape, Lady Jolder knew what had to be done. She closed the blast doors, to magnify the explosion within and prevent any surviving SIVA from escaping the chamber at the same time as she locked Lord Saladin, battling in the corridor beyond, out, so that he was the only survivor of what happened next when she detonated the bomb, killing herself and the Iron Lords inside the chamber and significantly damaging but not destroying the Replication Complex.