The Cardinal Directive: Supplemental File #21

The First Domino

[Start of Season 2]
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>> //01000010 01100101 01110100 01110010 01100001 01111001 01100001 01101100 
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>> Confirmed. Now Playing Supplemental File #21

When the footage flickers back to life, the visual it shows is not from Olympica, nor within the ARNEN city far below the Martian surface. It comes from somewhere outside, at the top of a ridge that slopes down towards an overgrown metal gate, stuck ajar.

The gate is situated in the rocks but seems to be connected to some kind of artificial wall as well. It’s difficult to tell — the entire side of the cavern is populated by black roots, as if the forest itself had been trying desperately for years to get inside. They weave through cracks in the rocks and wind chaotically through the bars of the fence, then stretch like tendons into the ceiling.

The image itself is crystal clear, but like much of the other corrupted files, black artifacts occasionally stretch, bleed, and flicker across portions of the footage.

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Standing at the top of the ridge, the Outrider was well aware of what awaited them beyond the gate. External knowledge aside, she’d gotten a good look at the city from Solena’s perspective — all the way up, at least, to the point where she’d turned the camera off.

A dead city, in more ways than one. An ARNEN monument left to rot in the depths of the planet. A place they would find themselves stepping foot in all too soon.

But not quite yet.