After another trip sequence, I find myself in a metal room that reminds me vaguely of some scifi-fantasy blend flash RPG I played a few months ago.
What the... where are we?
There's no way they Chancellor can reach us here. *
The civilization here seems so... advanced... *
It's like we're in another world. *
We all head outside and discover a bunch of random future-domes, the kind that sci-fi movies have encapsulating cities on planets with toxic atmospheres. We drop by one, but find that its inhabitants all look vaguely like me if I was a zombie.
Auuuuhhgh... I wish we had food...
What happened to
you guys?
We need food... at least we have the
Enetron! But we're still hungry... maybe the guys at
Arris Dome have some... but we can't get past the monsters at Lab 16...
Well that sucks. We don't have any food, either, so you're out of luck.
Awww man...
We drop by Lab 16 and beat up the monsters there like nobody's business. We drop by Arris Dome, and the old guy there is really curious about how we got here.
Woah! How'd you guys get here?
We... came through Lab 16? The monsters there were easy as pie.
Amazing! Hey, everybody! There's people who crossed the ruins!
WHAT.
We could have food... but the storage area is downstairs and it's guarded by a really powerful robot.
Robot? Pffft. I eat robots for breakfast.
Ok, well, maybe I don't because the metal isn't really that easy to digest. But I beat them up for money all the time.
You're not really going down there, are you?
What? You basically just told us we're going down there to beat up the robots.
No I didn't.
Whatever. I'm still going down there, because I'm...
NEUTRAL GOOD! Fair enough.
We head downstairs and enter a room.
A giant robot promptly attacks. And since no internet image could provide humor and look vaguely like it, the Terminator will do instead.
INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT INTRUDER ALERT
Umm... that doesn't look good!
I have a katana!
I should know what I'm talking about. I myself commissioned a genuine katana in 2300 AD for a lot of gold (that's about 2400 gold) and have been practicing with it for almost 2 hours now. I can even cut slabs of solid steel with my katana. That's nothing compared to a robot!
As it turns out, it is, because it took me a while to figure out that attacking the Guardian before I destroy his minions prompts a counterattack. After I figured that out, though, he went down hard.
We enter the next room and find an actual dead guy next to a bunch of crates of spoiled food.
Ooh! A seed!
... Where'd you find it?
On the dead guy.
O_o
... Anyway, this could be their last hope for survival.
Fair enough.
There was also a note that told me that a weird rat outside the room knew the secret to turning on the computer terminal outside. I investigate the rat.
12
BAHAHA GOT YOU YOU STINKING RAT NOW TELL ME HOW TO TURN ON THE COMPUTER
aaa ok in order to activate the computer terminal outside the room, hold L and R and hit A
... You have no respect for the fourth wall, do you?
wat fourth wall
That fourth wall.
whos that guy and why is he staring at us
Forget it.
Anyway, I turn on the computer console and reach the next room, because the computer terminal made a panel slide out of the wall or something that let me reach the other room. I meander through the area and discover a bunch of bugs and things, most of which I sneak around. I meander through a few rooms and eventually find another computer terminal.
Hey, we could use this to find time warps!
How the hell do you use a computer to search for time warps when time travel clearly isn't an everyday thing?
It doesn't matter, because there's one in Proto Dome, east of here!
I'm beginning to think that you could do anything with this device! Say, what does this button do? *
And she hits the big red button.
And it shows a "visual record of the Day of Lavos"--
WAIT A FRICKIN' SECOND.
THEY MISSPELLED LYEOS.So anyway, the visual record of the Day of Lyeos, in AD 1999, goes something like this.
That explains everything. The hungry people, the destroyed labs, even the really depressing, abandoned-sounding background music.
And that looks positively sucktastic to encounter, and being
NEUTRAL GOOD, I decide that I'm going to stop it.
Lyeos?... Is that what's destroying our world?! *
We must truly be in the future... No! NO WAY! I refuse to believe it!! This... this can't be the way the world ends...
Oh, such a kind statement, Marle. How would you
prefer the world ended?
Let's take a second and do some more research on Lyeos' activities back in our time period! Next stop, Proto Dome!
So we head back upstairs.
Where's the food?
We didn't find any, but we found this seed.
This... this may be our future... but why do you all look so different?
Maybe it's because we're healthy!
Heal-thy? What kind of friggin' fairy tale are you living in? The one that has things like "dok'taars" and the "Cloak of Band-Aid"? Ha ha!
We need to get to Proto Dome.
You'll need to take Lab 32, to the east. Take this, it's the key to the Jet Bike there.
JET BIKE?
Yes, the one I used to ride when I was young.
O o O
We head down there and are accosted by someone who appears to be Mr. T with wheels and sunglasses.
I pity the foo who thinks they can beat me in a race.
That a challenge, home dawg?
I don't hear a no. Would you like me to explain how to jet-bike?
For some idiotic reason, the game defaulted to "no", so this is the one time I consulted a FAQ so that I could find out how to play. I won easily and continued on my way to Proto Dome, where we found a borked robot.
It's in bad shape... but appears to be a humanoid robot! Incredible! I think I can fix it. *
What? It might attack us! *
I'll make sure it won't. Machines aren't capable of evil... humans make them that way. *
Oh, what a
wonderful observation. Which would you like me to bring up first, the Guardian that just attacked us or the robots that attacked us on our way in here, or would you rather me go rent the Terminator?
Anyway, we get a long fixing sequence, although it doesn't rival the
master of fixing sequences.
Mo...... Good morning, mistress. What is your command? *
I'm not your mistress. I'm Marle! and this is Tawa... and Lucca, here, fixed you! *
Understood. Madam Lucca fixed me. *
Just Lucca will do. *
Impossible. That would be rude. *
Look, I hate formal titles. *
I understand, Lucca. *
All right! Now, what's your name? *
Name? Ah, my serial number. It is R66-Y. *
No! That won't do at all! Come on, Tawa, let's give him a better name! *
Morbidly obese? Basically made of metal and likely obsessed with industry? As an added bonus, I found out he beats up enemies with his bare fists. The choice is obvious:
Urist. Urist... Urist... that's perfect! Your new name is Urist, okay? *
I am... Urist... data storage complete. *
After a slightly boring bit, we decide that Urist, Marle, and myself are all headed up to the factory to turn the dome's power on. (Lucca is staying behind to open the door when the power comes back.) After a short dungeon crawl and fighting some acid, we get to the power thingy, and bad things happen.
Emergency! Security system has gone haywire. Must escape immediately!
We all start running and almost make it to the exit when we are accosted by six security robots who look just like Urist, except they're blue, if memory serves.
Th... these are my friends! R-64Y, R-67Y, and R-69Y! Good to see you!
You are defective. *
You have been tainted. *
After a short dialogue in which Urist gets all bummed about being "defective", I beat up the rest of the robots. Marle pulls Urist out of the scrap pile, and we take an absurdly long time to drag him back to Proto Dome. Lucca fixes him, rendering the entire robot encounter moot except for the gold and experience (and maybe some character development later).
We run through the door, and another trip sequence commences.
TO BE CONTINUED
I should mention that during some point in the sequences with Urist, some kind of chiptune version of, of all things,
Never Gonna Give You Up, or at least a pretty good facsimile of it, started playing.