Patrol/Dialogue

“

Boons I grant you, oh bearer mine, but debts must be paid in time.

”

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"And my vanquisher will read that book, seeking the weapon, and they will come to understand me, where I have been and where I was going."The following is a verbatim transcription of an official document for archival reasons. As the original content is transcribed word-for-word, any possible discrepancies and/or errors are included.

A list of all Patrol dialogue can be found here, sorted by location and type.

The Derelict Leviathan

• Eris Morn: These Nightmares have been drawn from the Moon by the Leviathan's siren song. The trauma that bore them into this world is anchored there, not here. They are lost. Perhaps even… confused, if such phantoms can experience emotion beyond the snapshot of pain they represent. We may be able to disperse them by resolving their associated traumas.

Behold

Introduction

• Calus: Guardian! Welcome, welcome! The Leviathan beckons, and you answered. I knew you would survive its greeting. Such tenacity. Such grace and wisdom. This is why I want to… share my bounty with you. We do not have to be enemies. I have heard the Voice in the Darkness, Guardian, and it sings a song of peace everlasting. Come and see.

• The Crow: Good. Great. Perfectly normal. All right, Guardian, let's go, see what Calus wants to show us.

Baths Entrance

• The Crow: There's material embedded in the hull here. I can't be certain, but I think it might be Ghost Shell fragments.

• Calus: Your scout is as keen as he is troubled. I did have some Guardians as guests. They appreciated my generosity, my compliments. I appreciated their capacity for enduring pain, and the generous offerings of their final deaths. Nothing is gained without some sacrifice.

• The Crow: It looks like someone fought a war in here before us, but I've never read any reports of a full-scale conflict on the Leviathan.

• Calus: There were those among my Loyalists who lacked conviction in the face of the unknown. No transition is ever painless. But now? We're of one mind.

• Calus: Beyond those doors lie some of my greatest creations, but also my greatest failures. I feel a sense of kinship to my Loyalists. I feel a sense of kinship to my Loyalists. They are like family to me. Even more so now, as each is but an appendage of the greater apparatus I am becoming. I cannot wait for you to behold my majesty.

• The Crow: That doesn't make any sense. It sounded like he was talking about a lab. But if I'm reading this map correctly, this door leads to the baths.

Gardens Entrance

• Calus: The Leviathan has changed since last I had guests. Its innards have twisted into new shapes, its steely flesh blooming with new growth. I encourage you to witness these changes for yourself, and ask a question: What more could you become, if only you didn't fear loss?

• The Crow: There's spores in the air here: same kind we'd seen aboard Calus' research vessel, Glykon. They don't seem to be harmful.

• Calus: Aspirating the Egregore spores allows them to take root in your body. While they are symbiotic, they are also short-lived. But for a time, they join your consciousness to that of the mycelial network, and other minds that would witness you.

• Calus: This ship was once so full of a specific kind of life, vascular and wet: flesh, meat, bone. Now, new life flourishes in the dark. My Menagerie became a feeding trough for such splendor, the likes of which are both beautiful and obscene.

• The Crow: The plants we're seeing here appear to be concentrated through those doors. Maybe it's where they started?

Gauntlet Entrance

• The Crow: The map of the Leviathan says there was some sort of arena near here, but I think it’s derelict. No signs of life. There’s bodies, though.

• Calus: Once upon a time, I would enjoy watching blood sport with my Shadows. Loyal to the end to their friend, to his riches. My Shadows paved the way for my transcendence, and for that, I am eternally grateful.

• Calus: In my exile, I thought of the Leviathan as a prison. But what I have found while journeying has given me greater perspective. Do you hear that, Guardian? The Leviathan is breathing. Its veins pulse, its heart beats. This ship is alive, in so many ways.

• The Crow: It's not actually alive, is it?

• The Crow: Weird readings here. The power conduits below this spot have a reversed flow. The energy is behaving… strangely. I don’t know how to describe it.

• Calus: The Leviathan is growing, changing, transforming. You are witnessing the death of one state of being… and the beginning of another. Terrible and beautiful new life will bloom from its carcass.

Throne Entrance

• Calus: One of these days, Guardian, we will meet face to face. There is an inevitability to our lives, the course of them. I merely hope that when we do, it is with one mind and one vision for the future. Not as enemies.

• The Crow: People have made me similar offers before, and they never turn out well. For anyone.

• The Crow: According to the Vanguard database, Calus' throne room is beyond these doors. And below it's some sort of… fabrication lab.

• Calus: The heart of the Leviathan, yes. A forge where I replaced tired and imperfect flesh with gleaming steel and glittering jewels. But even those aspirations were misguided. I did not truly see until I slipped beyond the edge of our universe and… was witnessed.

• Calus: Our last meeting beyond these doors was exhilarating, was it not? I wish you had been able to stay, to shed this… dead meat you inhabit. Perhaps in time, I can help you understand. All of this, it is temporary. Fleeting. It is not worth fighting for.

• The Crow: That sounds a lot like cowardice. You're too afraid to lose, so you'd rather just give up.

Baths Statue

• The Crow: [chuckles] You think this statue is big enough?

• Calus: That monument was forged from exotic matter mined from the heart of a neutron star. It was sculpted by one of my empire's finest artists. May he rest in peace. The material was highly radioactive, and in the end, it looked better plated in gold.

• Calus: I once reveled here for hours on end, contemplating mysteries of the universe while soaking in these now-stagnant pools… Gorged on wines and fruits from across the empire, asking questions of the stars. Yet the truest question was one I could not think to ask.

• The Crow: Going to take a while to get that image out of my head.

• The Crow: Why is Calus showing us all this instead of Caiatl? Is he avoiding her?

• Calus: You would do well to keep my daughter's name out of your mouth, whelp. She is not and never will be your concern. Caiatl will come to see things my way… in her own time.

Cloning Facility

• The Crow: There's definitely something below us, a larger facility. I can't tell if it's still functional. On a scan, it looks like the hull folded in on itself.

• Calus: My Leviathan has been changing, contorting itself into new shapes and forms both regal and majestic. I encourage you to stay around long enough to bask in the majesty of our transformations.

• Calus: My cloning facilities below the baths are a labor of love. It took centuries to perfect their design. It has long been a point of personal pride that my Loyalists are handcrafted. Each meticulously engineered to exacting specification.

• The Crow: I suppose that makes sense. I can't imagine anyone willingly serving you.

• The Crow: I'm picking up something weird under the — wait. This isn't water. It's a protein slurry. There's Cabal DNA mixed in this and —

• Calus: Ah, yes. I suppose calling these "baths" is a bit of a misnomer. They are built atop a cloning facility where my Loyalists are engineered. What you are standing in is the liquefied remains of failed experiments, which was fed to their unborn kin.

Lifts

• Calus: I remember a day when these lifts would rise, expelling new, perfectly engineered Cabal champions into my embrace.

• The Crow: Perfectly? The way I hear it, most of them were failures, like the one you engineered to bear the Crown of Sorrow.

• Calus: It is not failure, it is progress.

• The Crow: Based on structural scans, this chain is part of a containment system that connects to a lab below us. It's too badly damaged to use. This must have been a deployment system. When whatever was engineered down there was finished, it was brought here.

• Calus: These mechanisms no longer serve a purpose. My cloning facilities no longer serve a purpose. I have been shown… new horizons.

• The Crow: I'm reading pieces of exterior hull fused with the machinery below this lift. I can't explain how the outside of the ship got in here.

• Calus: When this ship passed beyond the threshold of our universe, the change had already begin. You are witnessing its growing pains. I can feel every bulkhead, every door, every pillar pulsing with new life. You understand, now, what I wanted to show you.

Gardens Statue

• Calus: A once-glorious monument, now little more than a sunken head. All things decay and change. It is the nature of the universe. Entropy knows no master, walking hand in hand with the phantom of time. All things that exist are doomed to crumble. Only that which does not exist — which has never existed — is truly free. Contemplate this, my friend.

• The Crow: Looks like Calus has seen better days.

• Calus: There is an unplanned truth in the monument's depiction of my form. Just as I have let this statue crumble, so have I allowed myself to. This withered flesh is an inefficient vessel by which to explore the limits of sensation the universe allows. I wish for something new.

• Calus: I imagine this is how Caiatl must see me. A crumbling monument to indulgence, long forgotten. It matters not. I gave my daughter everything she needed to succeed, and she returned the favor with a knife in my back. And yet, I continue to give her chance after chance. Hoping that, perhaps, she will see reason. That I only want what is best for her.

War Beast Statue

• The Crow: Huh. Cabal really do love their war beasts. I wonder if this was a specific one.

• Calus: Milos, Caiatl's first war beast. I gifted it to her when she was just a girl. She was so very attached to it. Too attached. I had it butchered. It felt insulting for her to love an animal more than her father.

• Calus: War beasts are celebrated part of Cabal culture. They were native to our homeworld, Torobatl… when such a world still existed. In my era, each war beast was bred to serve a specific handler from birth. The bond between war beast and soldier was profound. I assume Ghaul saw fit to change that, turning them into something that is a military asset and not a partner. A shame.

• The Crow: War beast statue. Gold-plated and… can't tell what the material beneath is. Definitely radioactive, though. I wonder if Saladin has a war beast of his own, now that he's working with Caiatl? It's probably best that he's not here, though. With his history? [chuckles ruefully] I'd hate to see what Nightmare the Leviathan would create for him.

Garden Overlook

• Calus: They are majestic, are they not? These fungi are not unlike your world's mushrooms in how they live, how they breathe, how they grow. Their mycelial networks do not proliferate in soil, but rather spread like ethereal conduits between dimensions of space.

• The Crow: This... sounds a lot like the Ley Lines in the Dreaming City. Is that possible?

• Calus: Do you know these fungi are drawn to the unique psychological phenomena of death? The moment of true terror before life ends… the death of sentient beings fosters the growth of these fungi. Normally it takes centuries for them to spread like this, but…

• The Crow: But Calus sacrificed countless lives to feed his pet project. This is horrifying.

• Calus: I have become quite attached to this fungus since I discovered it on a world far from yours. It grew in great forests across the planet. Even here, infinitely far from where the first spore was harvested, they remain connected. Darkness is many things, Guardian. Many things.

• The Crow: I'm sure Eris might find this information… insightful. But I'm a bit nervous about intelligent fungus that can think across the void of space.

Salvage

• Eris Morn: Abandoned and alone on the cold and lifeless Moon, this Nightmare recalls the feeling of being separated from something precious. We may be able to substitute a replacement.

• Eris Morn: This Nightmare is born from an emotion of desperation and loss, and we may be able to dispel it by providing it with a substantial offering.

• Eris Morn: Loss and longing turned to desperation and panic. We will need to provide an offering to this Nightmare in order to provide it the desired catharsis.

• Eris Morn: Only an offering made in good faith will disperse this Nightmare, and its needs seem… specific. I believe I know where we could find a suitable substitution.

• Eris Morn: I have identified an offering that may have this Nightmare disperse. I have transmitted the telemetry to your Ghost.

• Eris Morn: This Nightmare is lost here, an echo of Moon-born trauma. If we provide it with a suitable offering, it will find catharsis, and sublimate into the dark.

• Eris Morn: Like the ghost stores of old, this Nightmare haunts the Leviathan with unresolved affairs. If we provide it with a specific material offering, it may yet disperse.

• Eris Morn: In order to disperse this Nightmare, we must find an offering to satiate its imprinted desire. I believe I have identified something that may serve our purposes.

• Eris Morn: A material offering should provide this Nightmare with enough cognitive dissonance that it simply… ceases to be. It is the best we can hope for.

• Eris Morn: We must find a suitable offering from among the resonant materials of the Leviathan. That should cause this Nightmare to disperse.

Combat

• Eris Morn: This Nightmare relives the trauma of a Guardian long since dead. Only violence will bring it the catharsis it yearns for.

• Eris Morn: This Nightmare suffers in endless death at the hands of the Hive God Crota. Only further violence will lessen its pain.

• Eris Morn: I feel this Nightmare's agony and terror, a moment of death stretched across time. It will only be released by more violence… on another.

• Eris Morn: This Nightmare is a snapshot of suffering, and only through inflicting more pain can we banish it from the Leviathan.

• Eris Morn: A Guardian's fear of final death burned this Nightmare into the fabric of space. Now all it knows — all it will be satisfied by — is more pain.

• Eris Morn: A Nightmare, drawn to the Leviathan, seeking the death of faceless enemies as a catharsis for its own suffering. It asks you to deliver such violence.

• Eris Morn: So much pain, so much suffering. And yet it will only languish here unless we deliver its pain onto others. Such is the cycle.

• Eris Morn: I feel this Guardian's pain so clearly. The taste of bile in my mouth, the blind hunger for revenge. They want blood.

• Eris Morn: Fear of death compounding into resentment and hate of the living. This Nightmare desires death for others, and it will only fade if you deliver it.

Neomuna

The City is My Weapon

Introduction

• Quinn Laghari: Oh, you're that Earth-person, yeah? I'm Archivist Quinn Laghari, and I know this city. I also know how to make the city work against these goons. But with all this jamming, I need someone near the physical systems I can piggyback off. All you gotta do is not die.

• Quinn Laghari: This — this horrible distortion in the network repeating a word. I searched my whole library, but can't figure out what a "Nezarec" is. Anyway…

• Quinn Laghari: Little distracted. I can't figure out if this weird CloudArk feedback is creaking, or screams, or what. I just know it makes my teeth hurt. Anyway…

• Quinn Laghari: Don't give up on me. You need a sec? No? OK…

• Quinn Laghari: All right, let's push through this.

• Quinn Laghari: Ugh. Just reviewed some industrial incident reports and I got horrible inspiration.

• Quinn Laghari: Ha! Can't resist me, huh?

• Quinn Laghari: Insurgency's a numbers game. Find little things that hurt them without costing you, then repeat. I'll show ya!

• Quinn Laghari: I just need a friendly little signal repeater to hang out at these coordinates.

• Quinn Laghari: I hate doing this, but I hate my city being a war zone even more.

• Quinn Laghari: Ha! I told Sid you weren't dead!

• Quinn Laghari: Get your butt over there and get me some system access!

• Quinn Laghari: Just head here and open a comm channel.

• Quinn Laghari: Ready to make this occupation just a little bit harder?

• Quinn Laghari: Get to this position and make a network link for me.

• Quinn Laghari: Been crunching the new troops rotations, and I've got a new target for us.

Typhon Imperator

• Quinn Laghari: That ugly ship's a black hole of intel. Couldn't even tell you what it's made of or how it flies. It's why I keep downloading and scouring every sensor log you can bring me. I hate not knowing.

• Quinn Laghari: I'm accessing local chemo-sensors. Whatever that Cabal ship is dumping, we'll need to clean up some day. Would be nice to know what it is first.

• Quinn Laghari: Updating system map. That flying nightmare barge hijacked a ton of utilities, but that means some of our system backdoors can access it. Doubt I can override security, but worth looking. Maybe get you a layout.

• Quinn Laghari: This district is mostly reclaimed land — y'know, pylons and landfill. That spacefaring ego trip is straining every system.

• Quinn Laghari: Whole district's dotted with sensors to track and count wildlife. They'll track soldiers just as easily with this update. Won't bring back the blue tiger, but makes me feel a little better.

• Quinn Laghari: Co-opting some of the park drone network to deliver, uh… other payloads. They're small. Silent. Probably for the best they don't see it coming. I know I wouldn't want to.

Typhon Imperative (Side View)

• Quinn Laghari: [sighs] I've had the airlock control codes for that ship for a while, but… you ever see pics from a depressurization event? 'Cause I have. I ain't gonna do that to anyone.

• Quinn Laghari: Used to come out here to chill. There's a data conduit right here I tripped over all the time. It's how I know it's there to hack. You think I'm gonna get my park back?

• Quinn Laghari: There's a data trunk buried here that ties to the wildlife tracking sensors. With the clear access you're giving me, I can track a new kind of wildlife.

• Quinn Laghari: Modifying the maintenance systems to pump the hollow in this with pressurized sodium hydroxide. Shouldn't register to explosive scanners.

• Quinn Laghari: When I start to lose it, I let myself visualize that park under the monorail, when I was little. The thrum of the train and the ozone smell of the maglev. Upload's done, by the way.

• Quinn Laghari: You know your scanner uses an oscillating Sundaresh field? It'll ionize the palladium in this statue to make sensor shadows.

Ahimsa Park Central

• Quinn Laghari: No sabotaging this time. We're downloading genomes from the De-extinction Project. This war's probably already wiped out a dozen species.

• Quinn Laghari: Thank the Founders you're helping. Between the Cabal jamming and the Vex ECM, I'd never be able to access systems as far out as these parks. Nothing more anxiety-inducing than feeling helpless. With you, at least I can do something. Anyway, we're good here.

• Quinn Laghari: The Shadow Legion used our parkland system to grow food. We can stop it… or I can introduce nightshade DNA to the assembler system.

• Quinn Laghari: Found a Cabal parasite genome. Gonna try introducing that to the bio-assemblers. Sick's better than dead. Logistically. And morally, I hope.

• Quinn Laghari: Accessing the botanical assemblage protocols. Tweaking 'em to produce Cabal-tailored allergens. Next rain, mass anaphylaxis.

• Quinn Laghari: Splicing in a little poison, and — I mean, is this right? I mean, I know it's right. It's right to protect my city, but all this death… That's a lot to carry. I gotta talk to someone. You got someone to talk to?

Turbine Station

• Quinn Laghari: Getting into this system's easy. My dad actually helped rebuild this whole turbine station after the Twenty-Year Siege. I copied a bunch of access codes. Y'know, just in case. This'll overload some relays.

• Quinn Laghari: With this root access, I can divert a small charge to the cryo-bunkers. Let us recharge! And it's all thanks to my favorite two-legged signal repeater.

• Quinn Laghari: Could take out this turbine with a shaped charge, but with you giving me access, I can upload a carrier signal and track whoever recharges off of it.

• Quinn Laghari: Saw one of these blow once. [grunts] Those blades are smart carbon fiber, meaning they don't break. They turn into 20-meter flying swords! Cut a technician in half.

• Quinn Laghari: Just gimme a sec before I upload. Some stuff you can't unsee, y'know? And sometimes, normal things remind you of it. [exhales] Important to take a second to breathe when you need to. [breathes deeply] Aaaand sending.

• Quinn Laghari: Updating BIOS to cause erratic start-ups. Kinda feel bad for the Cabal maintenance crew that'll get electrocuted trying to fix this.

Zephyr Bar

• Quinn Laghari: Inventory system says the Cabal are hitting ethanol stores pretty hard. Think they're using it as fuel? Or maybe they need to forget, too. Gonna… gonna maybe leave that be.

• Quinn Laghari: Got access. All these systems rebuild nutrient sludge into real food. Even comfort food, ha! Had to come outta cryo for a week last year for some system repair, and ate the goo straight. Ugh, not good stuff. Not all all comforting. [gags] And done.

• Quinn Laghari: Everyone's gotta eat, yeah. So, we mess with the food printer's audio controls and get an eavesdropping chef. Easy! Plus, nobody dies.

• Quinn Laghari: I can use this terminal to hack the local food assemblers — reverse the protein chirality in any food the Cabal produce. Uploading a tummy ache!

• Quinn Laghari: Chirality's a funny thing. A molecule twists one way, it's a tasty protein. It twists the other way, and it's still tasty, but boom! Indigestible. Violently so.

• Quinn Laghari: I can backflush the food systems with recycler bacteria. There was a really gruesome accident with this stuff, about ten years before I was born. It's, um… made to break down flesh. It's not gonna be pretty.

Landing Pad

• Quinn Laghari: While pad's held in place by chemical stem bolts. But mix the right household ingredients, it turns that bolt sealant into shaped charges. For a rainy day.

• Quinn Laghari: Lemme just access the landing pad's crash response systems. I can realign it to dump visitors about 20 stories straight down. All done.

• Quinn Laghari: Command says the pad stays intact, so I'm modifying the pressure sensors to count troop arrivals. Love this clear signal your gear gives me.

• Quinn Laghari: I can just disable to decontamination safeties and wipe out guys I'll never meet. Seems like survival turns you into the kind of person you hate.

• Quinn Laghari: Adding a program that'll modify the fuel systems to plant detonators. [snorts] The Vex took out my grandma with the same hack. Not sure she'd like who I grew into. I'm done!

• Quinn Laghari: Not gonna lie: I feel real bad about, say, hyper-oxygenating the fueling platform like this. [sighs] Guilt's normal. It's healthy to second-guess, to have empathy. Means you're still human. Anyway, you should move on.

Cargo Bay

• Quinn Laghari: Those docks should be bustling with skimmers — these big boats that suck water and microdiamonds from the storms.

• Quinn Laghari: This system will let me update orders to automated ships. We still got some skimmers out on harvest; best to keep 'em away.

• Quinn Laghari: Logs show the Vex are draining microdiamond stores from these skimmers. Hey, fun fact: diamonds are flammable! Inject some pressurized oxygen, and they'll be pumping napalm into their foundries, ha!

• Quinn Laghari: Stay cool while I make these changes. Just… feel your feet on the ground. Feel your knees under you. Your hips. Your chest. Your shoulders. And breath… [breathes deeply] And we're done.

• Quinn Laghari: I'm depolarizing the weather sensors, heh. Next storm that blows through the area will call down a whole lot of lightning for our mechanical buddies.

• Quinn Laghari: Realigning skimmer profiles profiles. You got here quick for a space zombie. Even with my prosthetic leg, the pain limits me to sorta… an angry trudge. You, uh… you like cyborgs, space zombie? Oh, hey! Alignment's done.

Navigation Beacon

• Quinn Laghari: These nav beacons are life. Neptune's magnetic field is erratic, which is great for hiding a city inside, but it sucks if you need to find that city.

• Quinn Laghari: Just gotta upload these new specs. You enjoying the view? That storm's the Cerulean Front. Been out there for 80 years now. From a distance, it don't look so bad, but in the middle of it, it'll rip you apart. Oh, that's a metaphor! Upload's done.

• Quinn Laghari: Scrambling nav systems. I like to encode a binary virus into the broadcasts too, just to mess with 'em.

• Quinn Laghari: Accessing Harbor systems to scramble nav signals using an irregular rotation. Keeps anyone nav signals using automated flights or drones.

• Quinn Laghari: All right, accessing and — whoa, hey. You okay? I know, it's easy to lose hope. You gotta find little joys to focus on to get you through. For me, it's reading. Can't die today. Starting Chapter 8! [chuckles] Anyway, I'm done here.

• Quinn Laghari: Accessing systems… and done. Y'know, it's usually quiet up here, so it's cool if you need to have a cry. Just, you know, give me a heads up so I'm ready.

LINS

• Quinn Laghari: The hologram-looking bits are LINS: Light Investment Nanoscale Structures. Electric dust. And dust does fun things to computer drives.

• Quinn Laghari: We use LINS as botanical framework, but I'm tweaking the assembly protocols to give it a charge. Makes it cling to machines and degrade Vex circuitry… like digital poison.

• Quinn Laghari: You getting me past all this Vex ECM lets me ionize the LINS this planter produces. It'll cling to their chassis, and I can use my systems back at the archive to track their movements.

• Quinn Laghari: Modifying the LINS system to produce a monofilament edge. And… wow. Turning a public garden into a barded wire just feels like the worst metaphor for what war does to you. Stupid lit degree! It's done.

• Quinn Laghari: You know, my doctoral thesis was actually on using LINS for exposure therapy. Building paper doll scenarios to activate patients. Not loving that I gotta use that to inflict trauma. Anyway, file's uploaded.

• Quinn Laghari: Repurposing this stuff for violence is getting too easy… Like there's part of my brain trained to figure out how to hurt people now. I hope I can turn that off later. …We been done a while. I'm just ranting.

Salvage

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: So, you're one of them Earth Lightwielders, yeah? I'm Maintenance Chief Viragni d'Sydney — call me Sid. My crews keep this city running — or we do when it's not filled with space rhinos! So…

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Sorry, was just thinking. My kids had a little pouka, and we had to let her loose when lockdown started; they don't take to cryo. Anyway…

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Ha! It's my favorite little worker ant! Listen…

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Well, if it isn't our friendly Guardian! Good to see ya—assuming you're here to work.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Well, well! Look who's got free time.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Back for more, huh? Ha! You're one resourceful little terror from the stars, I'll give ya that.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Always imagined if we made contact with Earth, we'd be the ones saving you. So yeah, thanks for keeping me humble, I guess.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Guardian!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Cabal runoff's changing pH levels in our algae pools. Gotta culture a new strain, but that takes food we can't spare. Bring me some Cabal rations.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Delicate hands, stout heart. You got the makings of a good repair crew if you ever want to give up the scholar lifestyle. Until then, bring me some parts.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: So, I've got this special little technique for tuning a Vex diode into an entanglement oscillator. Bring me a few, and I'll show you.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Nezarec debacle's left us screwed. Nobody thinks about what stress does to infrastructure. People get scared, they burn calories. Need a top-off.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Should be picking up my kid from school. Instead, I'm out here begging you to find me bolt sealant. Would appreciate you taking out my misplaced anger on these turnips.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Dinesh over in Reclamation thinks I'm nuts asking you for help. Says you can't clear a Vex without damaging the bits we need. I say he's an idiot.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: I don't need this extra stress. I just need chow! Those Cabal keeping hitting storehouses, and I need that back.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Listen up, Guardian. Outages are frying apogee diodes across the district. I need you to shoot Vex and pull the blue diodes out of their milk jugs.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: These Vex are ripping tech right out of my walls! I'm not wading through the red tape to requisition more! So I need 'em back.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: The CloudArk's a suspended energy matrix — lets you draw power out of thin air with the right parts. Except these days, the right parts are scarce.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Crew Gamma's having supply issues. Without more diodes, they can't restore the defenses these Vex are tearing apart.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: My crew in Límíng Block says we have a cascade failure. Could be in for a citywide brownout if we can't get them some replacements fast.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Let's just say I got some practice making repairs with spare Vex parts. Bring me what you can.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Some sketchy type is reaching out to sell me supplies — name of Spider. Heh, he says he knows you. But for now, I'd rather get my parts from you direct.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Vex incursion's frying's all the apogee diodes within a hundred meters. We need to replace those parts, or we'll never retake the district!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: This assault's running our supplies thin, and we were never what you'd call flush.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Eh, we're hard-pressed for everything, and these stem bolts don't seal themselves. Any of these invaders should be carrying sealant.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: City's built to handle a siege, not sustained violence. We got coolant leaks on three major systems and need sealant to keep 'em contained.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: The Vex and the Cabal both use a thermoset liquid prepolymer to seal system breaches. I need liters of the stuff, and fast.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Pylons are spraying hydraulic fluid everywhere under that Cabal beast. I need sealant to patch things until it's safe to send repair crews in.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Nanite conduits run through the whole infrastructure like veins. When they breach, that's the city bleeding to death! Heh… I need liquid bandages.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Still rebuilding our fortified positions. It'll go faster with better materials, if you can help.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: I tell ya, this has been damn exhausting! And now, Reclamation's blown out THREE exchange valves, right after we run out of sealant!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Got some spare crates of induction coils I could donate to your war effort. I just need some bolt sealant to get the loader running again.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: I'll level with you; I don't strictly need sealant, but these goons trashed my sister's noodle shop! If I'm asking for revenge, I want it to be practical.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Vex were bad enough, but with the Vex splicing up one side of town and Cabal blasting the other, we're almost out of emergency materials.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Whole district's at war! No talk! Repairs! Get me the goods!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: You eat, Lightwielder? Well, we do, even in cryo. If you're really here to help, take down some of these Cabal and get us some nutrient packs!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Hydroponics is shut down over in Galloway. Gamma Crew needs 24 hours to bring it up. Need some nutrient packs to feed folks in the meantime!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: People aren't the only thing in this city I gotta feed. I've got eight kilometers of organic circuitry slowly starving to death. Help a man out.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Got a whole conduit of biopolymer that needs nutrient paste to regrow, but, uh, supplies are tight. The Cabal carry a ration sludge that'll work.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Nutrient paste'll keep you running in cryo, but it's not appetizing. Guess you need to tell the Cabal that, 'cause they keep swiping tanks of the stuff!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Back in my soldier days, we used to use nutrient paste as the basis for thermite IEDs. Send me a few packs, and I'll teach you.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Strictly off-label, but nutrient paste has enough lipids to make a passable lubricant. Cabal just nabbed an expired pallet I need to repurpose.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Had to divert power from the granary mag-locks, and the Cabal looted our food supplies. Cover my butt and bring back something edible, yeah?

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Used to be this dive bar, Hamza's. They'd fry nurtient paste into crisps. Tasted like crap, but you couldn't stop eating 'em. Could use some of that.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Tell you this: the Cabal are hurting for basic supplies—keep hitting our food stores. Food stores we need back, mind ya.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: This Vex incursion's cut right through my supply lines! I need nutrient paste, but Cabal are stripping our cupboards bare!

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: Nezarec might be gone, but he left a lot of imaginary flotsam in our repeaters. Replacing them's a real chore, but purging them takes parts.

• Viragni "Sid" D'Sydney: We all did regrettable things thanks to Nezarec. I might have tossed a few crates of bolt sealant thinking they were haunted. Now I need more.

Combat

• Sam Moleyn: Hey, hey, I've heard about you! You've been all over! Wow. OK, my name's Sam Moleyn. I'm pitching in like everyone else during this ti— um, time. I'm coordinating rapid responses to enemy movements. Could you help me out a bit?

• Sam Moleyn: CloudArk's been a bit weird the last couple of days. You haven't seen any of that, have you? Well… maybe it's better if you don't.

• Sam Moleyn: Bud! We're buds now, right? Right? It's good to see you, genuinely. You're great company AND a great problem-solver.

• Sam Moleyn: Straight to business today, nothing too fancy. We just need to reduce the number of, quote unquote, "hostile combatants" within city limits. In other words, pick a corner, and start blasting!

• Sam Moleyn: These new guys, the Shadow Legion? They're real overachievers, aren't they? Trying to make up for all that time they weren't here trashing our city. How about we make 'em work for it?

• Sam Moleyn: Eventually, they'll have to run out of Cabal in that ugly ship of theirs. Hopefully. Until then, will you keep the streets clear? There's a lot.

• Sam Moleyn: So this shouldn't take too long, based on the numbers I see coming in. If you could swing by and drop off a helping of pain for the folks trying to pull down our infrastructure? That'd be best, thanks!

• Sam Moleyn: I've been told by our good friends in Catastrophe Response that the Vex have great raw materials for repairing some damages. So, don't worry about the cleanup on this one. Just break up the party, and we'll solve two problems at once!

• Sam Moleyn: Hey, hey—do you feel like exploding some more Vex? They look SO cool when they blow up, and it keeps the city safe at the same time. There's no way to lose here!

• Sam Moleyn: I know it's technically a bit irresponsible, but heck… it'd be real cool if you could take a bunch of these nasties using just your superpowers. Please? For me? For, uh, science!

• Sam Moleyn: My arcade buddies were real impressed when I told them about how good your aim is. Think you can pull it off again? There's plenty of targets!

• Sam Moleyn: So, you're a good shot, right? No, what am I saying? 'Course you are. No wasted shots, perfect economy of motion—bam! I bet I could learn a thing or two from you. You wanna show me how it's done?

Assassination

• Tse Jingye: So you're the maverick Warlord I've been hearing about. I'm Administrator Tse Jingye. You can call me Administrator Tse, or ma'am. I have vital intelligence on targets of strategic importance, if you're of a mind to put those weapons of yours to constructive use. I hardly think you can do worse to Neomuna than has already been done.

• Tse Jingye: When I close my eyes, I see everything burning. Even the CloudArk, consuming us all. Guardian. Something's coming.

• Tse Jingye: You're real, aren't you? Oh, yes, I thought so. I've been seeing things that aren't. And a name, uh — Neza — no, it's nothing.

• Tse Jingye: The CloudArk has cleared up, finally. Dreaming isn't wrong anymore. You Guardians had something to do with it, didn't you? Thank you.

• Tse Jingye: Up and at 'em! I've got a report of heavy Cabal boots on the ground nearby. Plenty of them, of course… With one problem leader that oughta make a tempting target for someone with your firepower. Should stick out of the crowd.

• Tse Jingye: I have a high-value Cabal target to offer you. Whether or not I'm sure about you, the fact remains that our resources are stretched thin. We don't lose much if you fail, but we'll be in a much better position if you succeed. I'll send you the coordinates.

• Tse Jingye: Warlord—or is it Guardian? Never mind. I'm sure your tools work the same regardless of your title. Here's the location for a high-profile Cabal. Remove this one, and then sweep up the remainder… carefully!

• Tse Jingye: For someone of your power, removing Cabal from the city shouldn't be a high-risk endeavor. I'll send you the coordinates for a high-profile officer I'd like gone. Shall we collaborate?

• Tse Jingye: The Cabal are bringing in additional forces, and officers to manage them. Right now, I have a location on a commander. Yours if you want it. I ask only that you move quickly… and precisely.

• Tse Jingye: Cabal invading the city; hardly news by now. The one I'm sending you after looks like a vital link in the command chain. If you can take them out, that should buy Neomuna some breathing space — for a while. Careful, reports say this one's a heavy hitter.

• Tse Jingye: Here's a target for you. Big Cabal commander setting up to be a problem, judging by the troop movement reports. Take out the big one, though, and that disorganizes them. We'll be able to cope. Ready to get to work?

• Tse Jingye: The best way to clear troops out of an area is to break their confidence. I've got a Cabal leader marked for you. If you can take that one down, the ground troops shouldn't be replenished quite so easily. The ranks will falter. That's a win for all of us.

• Tse Jingye: Up and at 'em! I've got a report of heavy Cabal boots on the ground nearby. Plenty of them, of course… With one problem leader that oughta make a tempting target for someone with your firepower. Should stick out of the crowd.

• Tse Jingye: I'll make you a deal: don't blow up anything other than the Cabal I'm sending you after, and dinner's my treat. Location's next to a network cycle allocation server—I'll send you the coordinates.

• Tse Jingye: You'll have to go a bit off the beaten path for this one, but the rewards should be well worth it. Taking out this Cabal officer should destabilize local ops for some time — give us a chance to catch our breath.

• Tse Jingye: Good news: removing the Cabal's leader, Calus, helped. Some. They're not as organized now. But of course, these Cabal have a solid command structure. We'll have to keep picking at that if we hope to make a difference. Up for another target?

• Tse Jingye: This Vex Mind is cutting through layers of CloudArk security with worrying speed. The situation calls for a precise application of force. I'll send you the specific location. I'm sure you have the force. Move fast, if you can.

• Tse Jingye: [sighs] Can't afford to be choosy about help right now. Fortunately, you cause fewer problems than a Vex Mind on the loose. Here. Go and crash this thing's hardware platform, and I'll overlook whatever you have to do in order to get the job done.

• Tse Jingye: The Vex have been our enemies almost as long as this city's been real. Getting a few more off our backs? If you can help, the breach of protocol is worth it. Here's the coordinates on a Mind accessing terminals it shouldn't. Do what you must.

• Tse Jingye: There are signs of Vex interference starting to stress CloudArk systems: data artifacts, broken overlays, the usual type of thing. Early reports have narrowed down the cause to a Vex Mind at a hardware access point. I'm passing you the location ping. Go break it down, will you?

• Tse Jingye: We can't afford to have Vex incursions break into the CloudArk proper. We'd never get them out again! That's where you come in. Go to this place, remove the Mind, and it should stall them for enough time to shore up our defenses.

• Tse Jingye: I have a report here on a Vex Mind nosing around one of the voltaic routing substations. Yes, "nosing" is a technical term. Just go turn it into scrap metal before it can bring any critical systems down. Should be showing in your telemetry now.

• Tse Jingye: I'm going to send you a location on a data storage node. There's an infestation of Vex in that area, networked and directed by one troublesome Mind. If you can remove it fast, I won't even ask how many repairs the city block needs.

• Tse Jingye: I've got a list of Vex Minds with trouble written all over them. The one at the top is showing coordinates near a CloudArk network relay. If you could take it out before it gets too far into our networks, we'd thank you for it.

• Tse Jingye: The Vex never seem to get tired, do they? And here I am, watching generations of Cloud Striders crash against that same shore. Oh, I'm sorry, that was unprofessional. Can you please just… go and destroy this Vex Mind?

• Tse Jingye: It's been an unorthodox experience working with you, Guardian. No, that's not a bad thing. It's difficult to make friends when you reach my age and have seen so many come and go. Vex after Vex, loss after loss… many have died for this city, and this is no time to get careless. But… you shake things up. I appreciate it. Well done. Now, to business.

The Pale Heart

Stitching

Introduction

• Micah-10: Currents of healing Light are congested here. Follow the flow to allow it through.

• Micah-10: The Light seeks to move through this terrain. Your presence following the flow can guide it to its destination.

• Micah-10: Move swiftly and follow the path of Traveler's Light through this terrain. Guide it to freedom.

• Micah-10: There's a current of Light struggling to weave through this terrain. If you follow the flow, you can help it move freely.

Completion

• Micah-10: The Light flows freely again. Thank you, Guardian.

• Caiatl: The Traveler reminds me of a great plains beast of Torobatl. It required small birds to pick parasites off its hide, and keep it healthy.

• Micah-10: There, the Light flows again, pushing back the blight.

• Mara Sov: These ethereal currents remind me of the flow of the Ley Lines. Perhaps there is intentional symmetry in their design.

• Micah-10: We're done all we can, the Light is flowing.

• Mithrax: Remarkable, the Light bleeds freely into the land again. I pray the Traveler finds relief in these ministrations.

Mending

Introduction

• Micah-10: The blight spreads through these brambles. If you take them to a font of Light, they will wither and decay.

• Micah-10: The Traveler is infested with these blighted brambles. We must purge them in the Light.

Completion

• Micah-10: It'll take a while to purge all the blight from the Pale Heart, but this task is merely great, not insurmountable.

• Mithrax: House Light stands with you, Micah, in devoting to the cause of healing the Great Machine. Together, we will end this plague.

• Micah-10: There's much work left to do to heal the Traveler. This blight will take years to fully purge.

• Caiatl: My legions will take fire to every square inch of the blight, day and night, until there is nothing left of the Witness. Not even a memory.

Expunging

Introduction

• Micah-10: A wellspring of power blossoms from the land. Use it to purge this corruption.

• Micah-10: Take this power, Guardian, and wield it against the blight.

• Micah-10: Though the Witness' blight is prolific, the Traveler arms you to purge it.

• Micah-10: As Misraaks says, the Light provides. Now use what is offered to purge the corruption.

Completion

• Micah-10: There's more work to be done. The Traveler won't be healed overnight.

• Mithrax: We are fortunate the Great Machine still lives. We must do everything in our power to protect this gift.

• Micah-10: You've done everything you can to purge the blight, and we'll continue to fight it wherever it emerges.

• Caiatl: It is true; a warrior's duty is never done, and vigilance is the price we must pay for peace… but a price we will pay gladly.

• Micah-10: We do all we can to cleanse the Traveler of this blight… but our work isn't done.

• Mara Sov: I wish you were wrong, Micah. But I know that our victory here may only lead to greater conflicts to come… from enemies unknown.

Restoration

Introduction

• Micah-10: Corruption spreads thick here. Bathe yourself in the cleansing Light of the Traveler and purge it.

• Micah-10: Bathe in the Light, Guardian, and use it to purge the Witness' corruption.

Completion

• Micah-10: Wherever the Witness touched, this blight spread. But one day, with your help, there will be nothing left of it.

• Caiatl: It is said that to be forgotten is the truest form of death. May the Witness suffer this ignoble fate, and its name fade from history.

• Micah-10: This blight is tenacious, spreading so long as even a single root remains.

• Mithrax: Hmm, such is the nature of evil… If we allow it to take root in even the smallest of forms, it will spread like a disease.

• Micah-10: The Traveler is healing, but it will be many years yet before it recovers from this calamity.

• Mara Sov: I look forward to the day when we look on the Traveler anew, and perhaps learn more about its purpose.

Offering

Introduction

• Micah-10: Interesting. The Light has made itself manifest in a material form, fabricating a gift for you. But I cannot tell where.

• Micah-10: A gift born of the Light has been forged from the Traveler's grace, but its location is hard to discern. Get hunting, Guardian.

• Micah-10: The Light has taken shape in material form, an offering to you from the Traveler. All you need to do is find it.

• Micah-10: The Traveler wishes to bestow a gift upon you, Guardian. All you must do… is find it.

Completion

• Micah-10: The Light has the power to take material shape, to form objects of mass and matter. But how are the designs determined?

• Mara Sov: Perhaps the Pale Heart is the answer — it is memories. While it is the Dark that remembers, the Traveler, too, has a mind all its own.

• Mithrax: I have long known the Light can be sculpted into material form. Legends of ancient Splicers from Riis speak of these feats.

• Micah-10: What I wouldn't give to have seen Riis in its height. Perhaps one day, the Traveler will show me.

• Caiatl: The Light can take the shape of weapons, of armor, of whatever the Traveler desires. Yet it prefers insects… plants… birds. Curious.

• Micah-10: Maybe the Traveler had to hope for us all, that there's a time where weapons will no longer be needed. But that day isn't today.