Heavy Metal
Nikopol - May 5, 2594
The Descent into Nikopol
The Rarogi, once steadfast in their duties, now staggered to their posts drunk and grinning, their discipline slipping away under the shadow of celebration. Meals were missed, responsibilities forgotten.
The first group of the Clique was released: Anastasia, Konrad, Sasha, Yelena, and her young daughter Zofia. Their liberation was observed by four armoured Rarogi, their bast plating heavy with tradition and authority.
As they made their way toward the subterranean city, the Rarogi spoke of the summer festival. Nikopol was alive with revelry—food, drink, and music filled the Founder’s Square.
Friedrich Voigt’s tome
The group’s path goes through a large square tunnel. Here, Konrad broke the silence, recounting the tale of his prized tome to Anastasia. But his story took an unexpected turn: Anastasia revealed she had met Friedrich Voigt in Kiev eight years prior. The man, known as “Old Fritz,” had sought the Kievan Chroniclers’ help to encrypt stolen data—stolen research from the Spitalian HIVE group.
Their conversation was interrupted by Sokolov. Emerging from deeper in the tunnel, he was mid-deal with a shirtless reveller, whose drug-fuelled movements seemed more convulsion than dance. Sokolov, ever pragmatic, boasted of his Bion traffic network within Nikopol, a venture nearly a year old. Yet his gaze betrayed restlessness—his heart remained set on Africa, where ambition and opportunity waited.
Heavy metal
The Founder’s Square was a cacophony of hedonism. Drunken laughter mingled with the pounding rhythms of heavy metal, and the air was thick with the haze of Burn.
For many, it was freedom incarnate; for young Sofia, it was an assault on her senses. As she began to wail, Yelena whisked her back to the relative quiet of the tunnel. Sasha followed, his concern for the child palpable, but his attempts to soothe her proved futile.
Within the square, Anastasia encountered Prokhor, the hardened leader of the Streltsys, Nikopol’s special operatives. Their exchange in an office room was brief. On her way out, Anastasia pockets a book of some sorts.
Then it happened. A sudden, gut-wrenching blast of sound erupted from Zofia. A Psychonaut awakening. The reverberations tore through the tunnels, drowning the revelry and shattering the musical action.
Making silence
The sound was unbearable, a visceral attack on the senses. With ears covered, Anastasia, Prokhov, Konrad, and three Streltsys sprinted toward the source. What they found froze some, but not the Streltsys, who kicked Zofia with their boots.
Anastasia and Konrad stood paralysed, the scene unfolding like a nightmare. Sasha acted first, tearing one of the men away, but his efforts were not enough. The Streltsys, driven by fear or duty, delivered their brutal verdict.
The sound blast ceased. The air fell deathly still. On the cold tunnel floor lay Zofia’s small, lifeless form, her awakening silenced before it could take root.
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