Timestamp: 2012-06-22
Location: Future Technology, Paris branch
- Gramática: I'm not happy about this at all.
- Ardant: Why must you always shoot yourself in the head to summon the Precursor consciousness?
- Gramática: Because it works! I tried slitting my wrists. Nothing. I tried overdosing on pills. Had to get my stomach pumped, it was all very unpleasant. It has to be a major wound for the artifact to activate.
- Ardant: The risk is unacceptable. Without you, there's no Future Technology division, so I brought you a qualified volunteer.
- Da Costa: I'm agent Violet da Costa. It's an honor to meet you, sir.
- Gramática: Ah, is it? I tried to recruit you once, and you turned me down for Sigma Team.
- Da Costa: I thought I could do more good in the field.
- Gramática: Horseshit. A dazzling brain like yours is going to waste.
- Ardant: Agent da Costa is assigned to you for six months. Make the most of it.
- Gramática: Then let's get started. Wrap yourself in the artifact, please. I know how to summon the Precursor, but I've never been able to communicate with him.
- Da Costa: This is going to be an interrogation?
- Gramática: Bingo!
- Ardant: If it's all the same to you, I'm going to leave before the mess.
[Footsteps leaving]
- Da Costa: Mess? What did she mean by-
[Gunshot]
- Consus: I am Consus, the Erudite God.
- Gramática: Haha, yes, yes. Hello. I want to know more about you. Tell me, did you create the Shroud?
- Consus: When I was flesh, I apprenticed with Hephaestus, the maker. The War of Unification raged. We created devasting Swords to end it, but then... killed. I created Shrouds, to heal.
- Gramática: I suspected it might have been a tool to treat casualties of war. How does the Shroud heal such terrible damage?
- Consus: The body is a construct. A machine. Blueprints stored within. Shrouds access these recovery centers. Repairs damage to specifications.
- Gramática: Ha, a factory reset. Wait. Shrouds? There's more than this one?
- Consus: This is the original. My prototype. Created in the year 1923 of the Isu Era.
- Gramática: Isu Era? I have so many questions, but let's stick with you. How is it that your mind resides in this artifact?
- Consus: I was old. I wanted more time. Bodies constructs, minds are programs. Uploaded my program into the Shroud, to cheat death. Succeeded. Failed. Trapped in my prototype. Trapped in my forgotten lab. Alive. Awake. Cannot speak. Only watch. Generations passed, technology grew. My kind created yours. I never imagined machines like you were possible. My descendants proved me wrong.
- Gramática: Generations? How long have you been-
- Consus: The damage is repaired. Rest now.
- Da Costa: That was... indescribable. When can we do it again?
- Gramática: How about now?
[Gunshot]