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The Departed is the thirty-third chapter. It was added in version 2.8.0 and released on July 23, 2015.
33.1[]
- It's a declaration of war. Revolution is here.
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 4 |
XP: 28248 XP/stam: 1412 Coins: 619 |
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The Oxsecian ship, 6 seconds before destruction...
The king gazes around the evacuated ship.
"Just live to fight another day...
It's true I believed that at the time.
Until that moment, that is."
--
The faces turned skyward express
neither disappointement nor despair.
These are the people assigned to carry on
the resistance against the technological
life form and the alien beasts.
The king charged them with this duty
personnaly. They are to stay behind and
fight to the bitter end.
They're called "the enlisted."
Their eyes now follow a ship embarking on
a journey to the stars in search of a future.
the vessel is christened the Neogenesis.
The Oxsecian people have been divided in two:
those remaining on their home world and
those vanishing into the future.
The ship soars higher, further and further
into the distance, until it can be seen no more.
--
The mood aboard the starship is somber.
As home falls further and further behind,
it grows painfully clear to all present that
the land they walked until just moments ago
is in grave danger indeed.
Red and white specks bloom and wilt away
all across the planet's surface--
a distance view of the war waged by
those left behind.
The Oxsecian passengers weep bitterly for
the fallen. And they murmur prayers that
they will soon find a new world and return
for their brethren.
Your party watches in silence with
troubled faces.
--
Suddenly, a gunshot slices the air,
followed by a shout:
"A king who abandons his people is unfit to rule.
He is no king of ours!"
It's a declaration of war. Revolution is here.
33.2[]
- "She's missing, sire. Princess 36AIS is nowhere to be found."
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 5 |
XP: 41088 XP/stam: 2054 Coins: 952 |
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You fight your way throught the fleeing
crowds to the Oxsecian king's side.
He and his advisors are assessing the
situation based on incomming reports.
You arrive just in time to catch an
alarming one.
"She's missing, sire. Princess 36AIS is
nowhere to be found."
"They're after my daughter?"
The air seems to crackle with an icy fury.
The royal advisors fall silent.
It seems the rebels are armed with
electromagnetic radiation devices--
powerful enought to obliterate the king's
formidable security forces.
--
The royal security troops resemble Proto
in some ways but differ distinctly in others.
They are state-of-the-art androids modeled
on their Osxsecian creators and constructed
with synthetic skin, muscle, and sinew.
They now lie incapacitated, some
spouting white smoke and others
reduced entirely to ashes.
Only Proto remain functional.
He's an older model designed for
optimal performance and durability,
with no use of sunthetic flesh or the like.
"Come, Proto." The king strides off.
"We're going with you, Proto."
You race off with him in the king's wake.
33.3[]
- The eyes of the rebels smolder
with anger and hatred.
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 4 |
XP: 36117 XP/stam: 1805 Coins: 864 |
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The eyes of the rebels smolder
with anger and hatred.
The pain of abandoning their home must
be tearing them apart.
But why take up arms against their own kind?
33.4[]
- "...I wanted to prove them wrong."
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 4 |
XP: 37398 XP/stam: 1869 Coins: 937 |
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Proto chugs painfully along, movements
sluggish. He didn't escape the earlier assault
unscathed after all.
"Why didn't you say something?"
"I must not fail my king. This was the most
efficient choice. Also..."
It seems the king's retainers sneered behind
his back that Proto was an obsolete bucket
of bolts.
To Proto, this was tantamount to insulting
the king himself. It was he who had appointed
Proto to service, after all.
"...I wanted to prove them wrong."
--
Androids have no need for loyalty, emotion,
or a sense of purpose. It is enough that they
carry out their duties with precision and
without complaint.
Many held this view, but the Oxsecian king
was not one of them.
"I know, I've put you through a great deal
of trouble, Proto. But remember this:
I entrust 36AIS to your care precisely
because you know what it is to feel loyalty.
The others feel nothing at all. They're...cold.
And children need warmth."
For Proto, those words were enough.
He urges you now to go on ahead.
"I will act as a decoy.
Please, rescue the princess."
Before you can protest,
Proto is gone.
- Rebel Soldier
LV 73 x2 - Oxsecian Shock Laser LV 70 (Column)
- Oxsecian Generator LV 72
- Modded Oxsecian Medicbot LV 73 x2
33.5[]
- "Absolutely nothing. If he learns of this, it will mean our heads."
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 5 |
XP: 80742 XP/stam: 4037 Coins: 1624 |
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As you advance boldly on the rebels' base
with the king, his retainers are busy reviewing
new intelligence. Their faces are grim.
"So, that's it after all."
The rebels all have one thing in common.
"The fact that they went after the princess
could mean they've realized the truth."
"What shall we say to His Majesty?"
"Absolutely nothing. If he learns of this,
it will mean our heads."
33.6[]
- "Demolish it."
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 5 |
XP: 43335 XP/stam: 2166 Coins: 1035 |
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A wall of barricades rises high overhead,
cobbled together into a makeshift stronghold.
The king is curt:
"Demolish it."
33.7[]
- Step by step, you press onward with the king, into the heart of the rebel stronghold.
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 4 |
XP: 41730 XP/stam: 2086 Coins: 1304 |
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Countless traps. Ambushes. Delay tactics.
Pincer attacks.
"They sure fight dirty, don't they..."
While these guerrilla tactics slow you down,
they fail to halt your advance. Step by step,
you press onward with the king, into the
heart of the rebel stronghold.
33.8[]
- His flashing blade spares no one, striking without hesitation or mercy.
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 5 |
XP: 46708 XP/stam: 2335 Coins: 1188 |
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Another barricade smashed.
The king plows ahead, effortlessly
razing all in his path as he bellows,
"Where is 36AIS?"
His flashing blade spares no one,
striking without hesitation or mercy.
He is fury incarnate.
33.9[]
- The memory of cradling a tiny bundle of warmth in his arms resurfaces.
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 4 |
XP: 49113 XP/stam: 2455 Coins: 1289 |
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The memory of cradling a tiny bundle
of warmth in his arms resurfaces.
She was a living miracle, frail and fragile
as a dream. It seemed unthinkable that
anyone would threaten that tiny life.
"Spineless, soulless fiends..."
The king charges onward, gaze fixed
straight ahead.
His eyes are murderous.
33.10[]
- The king curses his carelessness, but it's too late.
| Stamina Cost: 20 Difficulty: 73 Battles: 3 |
XP: 42854 XP/stam: 2142 Coins: 1044 |
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The Oxsecian king charges straight into a
dead end. Behind him, the rebels grin and
turn their EM devices on him full blast.
The king curses his carelessness,
but it's too late.
It's Proto who saves the day.
He leaps into the line of fire, shielding his
king. His circuitry instantly begins to smoke,
smolder, and sizzle away.
And suddenly, it's over.
--
The king cuts down the leaders of the uprising
and roars a defiant challenge to the rest.
The rebels surrender one by one.
36AIS is safely recovered as well.
All seems to end in a decisive victory
for the king.
However...
It is in that moment of triumph that the
rebels achieve their objective.
--
New information flashes onto the displays
installed throughout the ship.
It is 36AIS's biological data.
The people grasp its significance immediately.
The king alone does not.
The data has been analyzed at the genetic
level to determine whether the subject is
fit to carry on the species.
--
"What... what is this?"
The king is bewildered.
"Do not make me repeat myself!"
A retainer steps forward.
His hands tremble for a moment but
his gaze remains steady.
"Forgive me, sire, but you are naive.
Too naive. So we took it upon ourselves
to establish these classifications."
A note beside 36AIS's name reads:
"Fit for enlistment."
The names of several other members of
the royal family are branded likewise.
"Injustice! It was rigged from the start!"
The people erupt into a storm of outrage.
--
The truth is this:
The Oxsecian people were divided into
two groups : one that would depart their
home world and one that would stay behind.
This classification was based on their biological
data with no regard for their wishes.
Those deemed biologically inferior were
relegated to the latter group and declared
"fit for enlistment." It was a convenient
euphemism.
Members of the royal family aside,
the "enlisted" had been left behind.
Deserted.
Understanding dawns on the king at last.
--
"I told you to leave the choice to them,
did I not!"
"Which is why I said you are naive, sire.
Someone had to do the dirty work or none
of us would have made it off the ground."
The ship rumbles with angry voices,
dark resentment sweeping through like
a tidal wave.
And then, a violent and blinding explosion
blooms in the distance.
"It's...gone. Our planet is gone!"
--
The Oxsecians' home world ceased to exist
in that instant.
King and people alike could only stare in
stunned silence.
All stood in a daze as though half-asleep and
dreaming. Not one of them could fully grasp
the situation at the moment.
--
Nor could anyone grasp the depth of
the king's grief as he knelt over
the fallen Proto afterward,
now a charred and smoking husk.
Trivia[]
- In Version 4.6.0, stamina costs were reduced from 22 to 20.
