Editing Announcements - 2009/08 - Reclamation (section)

== Teaser ==
{{Turbine 2008
 |  Link = http://ac.turbine.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=493
 | Title = Reclamation
 |  Text = The Virindi drifted serenely toward an assembled crowd of a dozen Lugians.  The grey giants were standing in a circle around another Virindi and a large open space on the floor.  All of the Lugians were members of the Gotrok, a group that had rebelled against their lords in the citadel of Linvak Tukal and had allied themselves with a renegade faction of Virindi that had been dubbed by their Isparian foes as “Apostates.”<br><br>They were all gathered in a newly discovered ruin far beneath the Direlands.  The Lugians had been excavating the site for weeks, and had finally broken through several thousand years' worth of sediment to find the remnants of an Empyrean facility that apparently predated the presence of Lugians, Virindi, or humans on Dereth.  Not long after they had broken through a wall to explore the interior, all labor had ceased as the Lugians discovered something incredibly interesting, and summoned the Virindi supervising them, the one now floating in the middle of their circle.<br><br>The Virindi in the center of the circle was a Servant, with little independent initiative of its own, charged merely with directing the labor of the Lugians.  The newly arrived Virindi was its superior, ranked a Master in the Apostate command structure, and given broad latitude in its powers to explore, expand, and defend this dig site.<br><br>The Master drifted into the crowd of giants.  These Lugians were eight feet tall, nearly half a ton of muscle, and descendants of a proud and harsh warrior culture.  Even so, they stood aside, respectful and occasionally fearful, as the insubstantial shrouded figure moved among them.  The gleaming sickles at the end of its arms were elegant and effective weapons, but the magical power at its command was the true intimidator.  The Lugians knew little of magic and feared and distrusted its power, and they knew that, behind the unsettling graven visage of the Virindi's white mask lurked an alien and ruthless mind, capable of sapping the strength from their limbs with a thought, or destroying them all with blasts of fire and acid<br><br>At the center of the crowd, the Master came close to its Servant, which was hovering over a pile of bronze-colored metal.  The mass of metal appeared to be some kind of suit of armor, or the body parts of some metal creature.  Armored legs, arms, breastplate, and helmet were visible.  It lay in pieces, and inside each of the body parts could be seen intricate gears and clockwork mechanical parts.<br><br>The Servant dipped in the air to acknowledge its Master and opened its mind to communicate.<br><br>“We have found a remnant,” it wordlessly told the Master through their telepathic bond.  “It is ancient by the estimations of this world.  Analysis dates it to before the opening of the portals, before the invasion of the Olthoi destroyed Empyrean civilization in this locality.”<br><br>The Master absorbed this information and drifted closer, letting its own keen analytic senses wash over the prone form of this clockwork being.<br><br>“We do not detect sentience in this shell, and it does not appear to ever have harbored biological components, but it still carries the emanations of energy within its shell,” the Master told the Servant.<br><br>“We discovered traces of energy within the shell.  A core of power contained within the abdomen of the body.”<br><br>The Master, with a mind more capable of analogies and comparisons than the other, acknowledged the information.  “If this entity was once a bipedal biological construct like the Lugians or the human meatlings, the core would be its heart.”<br><br>The Servant had nothing to say to that, but continued with its report.  “The power core is composed of an unfamiliar element.  The element appears to be very complex in structure, yet very concentrated and rich in potential even in the trace amounts present here.”<br><br>The Master examined the body parts more closely, paying special attention to the abdomen and the power core.  “The Quiddity knows of this element, but it is rarely seen and knowledge of its properties is not granted to those of limited agency.”<br><br>The Master stepped back, coming perilously close to excitement at its find.  It asked the Servant a question: “Are there more shells like this?”<br><br>The Servant said, “Our remote survey indicates there are more shells distributed throughout the facility.  We also sense trace emanations of the unknown element.”<br><br>The Master thought for a moment.  It turned to survey the crowd of curious Lugians gathered around, then spoke again in the mind of the Servant with a series of orders.<br><br>“Send a message to the Consul.  Inform it that we will need fifty more Gotrok laborers and thirty Hea soldiers to continue the work here.  We will also require six more Servants to supervise the work and security details.  Secure this area.  Allow no more laborers to enter this chamber.”<br><br>The Servant was about to turn to go and execute its orders when a quick command from the Master brought it back to attention.<br><br>“Order these laborers to their quarters.  When the new Gotrok laborers arrive, direct them to separate quarters, outside the facility.  Do not let the groups mingle.  When the Hea and Servants arrive, they are to exterminate all of the laborers gathered here.  From that moment on, only other Servants will be allowed to see or touch any of these shells.”<br><br>The Servant bobbed in the air to acknowledge the instructions.  “We shall obey.”
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