Raid on the Cult of Kronos

From TVRS Wiki
Revision as of 14:29, 5 July 2026 by Krayfishkarl (talk | contribs)
Jump to navigation Jump to search

The Raid on the Cult of Kronos is the first major event that resulted in the founding of the PHIA Phorce. While it was not called that at the time, it was the first time all the original founding members had come together for a significant mission. The events leading up to the raid can in many ways be considered an origin story for Sophia Delphi. Her discovery of Twinkle, his capture by the Cult of Kronos and his subsequent rescue were cataclyst events for the organization forming its initial bonds.

Background

Sophia and Angela

In 2020 AB, Sophia Delphi was two years into her virtuoarchaeology degree at the University of Oraulan. She had moved to an apartment in Port Oraulan from Midori Monastery. One of Sophia's passions is her relentless curiosity over the origin of her powers in technokinesis, the ability to manipulate electric currents and to effectively mentally project herself inside of electronics. Although her time in the monastery taught her how to control her powers, she knew very little about them due to much knowledge about technokinesis being lost the Blackout, an event where 2,000 years ago, 99% of all human knowledge vanished. Despite the cramped living conditions, she remained in good spirits. Having access to a motorcycle allowed her to explore Port Oraulan with relative ease, including her grandmother's cafe known as Mimi's Milkshakes.

As part of a research project, Sophia investigated the ruins of a mega-city that Port Oraulan was built on top of. Common artifacts found in the area were random excerpts of data from various computer terminals and other electronics. From these artifacts, various data structures could be extracted using various tools - Sophia herself used her technokinesis to read the data. While students were permitted to survey the outermost portions of the ruins, a fenced off area was considered off limits due to sightings of Rampant, rogue robots and virtual life forms infected with a virus that corrupted their behaviors posed a threat.

At the mega-city digsite, Sophia met another student named Angela Harrison who was in her first year at the university. The two got to know each other and quickly became friends. Angela had also explained that she was struggling on one of her assignments, and Sophia offered to help her out. Sophia invited her to meet at Mimi's Milkshakes where they could look into the assignment.

Later while Sophia and Angela were enjoying themselves at Mimi's Milkshakes, Sophia caught wind that her grandmother's business had been struggling financially. Virtuoso, a supposedly humanitarian organization that was helping Port Oraulan recover from the recent end to the Virtual Wars, had been harassing Mimi's establishment over the use of real food instead of food synthesizers, claiming it to be inefficient and a hindrance to the city's recovery. Despite Mimi's business being perfectly legal and having all the proper permits, Mimi suspected that Virtuoso was issuing bogus fines most likely to drive her out of business and to seize control over the entire city's source of food. While Mimi assured her granddaughter that she had the situation under control and had a lawyer, Sophia was concerned that Mimi was going to run out of money for legal fees.

Searching for an Artifact

Against Mimi's reservations, Sophia decided to help her out. While Sophia had very little money to her name, she was well aware that certain virtuoarchaeological artifacts were worth a fortune due to their possibility of containing information that could restore knowledge lost in the Blackout. Theoretically, were she to find something of interest buried in the Mega-City Digsite, she could sell it off to help Mimi pay for legal fight against Virtuoso. Although Angela had no personal stakes in the matter, she felt she had to come along anyway to help a friend out. Sophia was hesistant, concerned over dragging her into a potentially dangerous situation, but she could not say no to strength in numbers.

Sophia and Angela gear up and sneak into the off limits area of the digsite. They had to remain wary of Rampants. While they did encounter a few them, the two were able to quickly dispatch them. Sophia was far more experienced as a martial artist combining her abilities in technokinesis to create electrical discharges and bolts of plasma. Angela had also been training as a field medic, hoping to eventually become a military doctor one day just like her mother. She was able to keep up with Sophia despite not having any superhuman powers.

While traversing a dilapidated skyscraper, Sophia and Angela discovered an ancient terminal with a data crystal lodged inside one of the input ports. It had gotten stuck there due to years of dust and rust, but the crystal itself had somehow remained in near perfect condition. Sophia used her technokinesis to carefully wriggle the data crystal free. On first glance, they identified the crystal as being well over 2,000 years ago due to its overall design being a clear match as having been created by the Valerian Empire, an ancient, technologically advanced society that ruled the galaxy before the Blackout.

Because of how rare pre-Blackout artifacts were, the excitement of its monetary worth was alluring to them. First, however, they had to do more research to verify what the data crystal actually was, where it may have come from, and potentially what could be inside of it.

Researching the Data Crystal

Because Sophia and Angela has technically trespassed into an off-limits area, both of them were already at risk of expulsion if they ever revealed where they had got it from. Thus, they decided it was best to keep their research discrete. They spent many hours at the university library looking for clues. They visited several vrNet domains which contained holograms and miniature virtual worlds that included snapshot recreations of the Valerian Empire.

While at the library, they run into a graduate student and nanomage named Kristoph Langusten who happened to be researching something else in the library. Through a simple matter of deduction, he figured out that Sophia and Angela had gone into the restricted area to obtain the artifact they were currently researching. When Sophia and Angela begged him not to tell anyone else, Kristoph agreed on the condition that he wanted to see what was in the artifact himself. He shared their sentiment that the university had been slow to process things due to the heavy bureaucracy, and he had tried to get a permit to explore that area himself for at least several years. He also shared Sophia's and Angela's concern that Port Oraulan's slow recovery from the Virtual Wars could risk Virtuoso barging in and taking over more places than they should be.

When Kristoph introduced himself with a hand shake, Sophia and Angela realized that he was only a hardlight projection. His real body was located on the planet Merin, and he had been remotely projecting himself across star systems due to personal circumstances. Nevertheless, he still wanted to help to discover the mystery of the data crystal. According to Kristoph's insights, several other data crystals like the one Sophia and Angela discovered had previously been found, but became very rare due to most of them having ended up in the hands of bandits and pirates who would subsequently sell them on the black market. The data crystals were designed to house a virtual life form, an intelligent, digital entity. And it was certainly possible that the entity could still be alive, having been dormant for centuries. This was further verified as Sophia claimed that using her technokinesis, she could almost hear something inside of it.

Through great effort, Sophia manages to find a way to download the virtual life form from the data crystal into the real world. Appearing as a holographic entity was a small creature named Twinkle. While Twinkle had no memories of who he used to be, he found himself suddenly and unquestionably loyal to Sophia, acknowledging her as if she were royalty. Sophia also discovered that she apparently began to share some sort of psychic connection with Twinkle and could now sense wherever he was through her technokinesis. While the group initially considered it a form of affection and thanks, they could not help but wonder if there was a deeper meaning behind it. Nevertheless, the group considered it a victory.

Interested Parties

There was still a lot of work to do with restoring the data crystal further. They hoped that they would be able to restore more of Twinkle's memories later on. But all of them were exhausted and decided it was best to take a break and go home for the day.

On the way out, a passing Virtus spots them and the data crystal they are carrying. The Virtus, automated humanoid drones tasked with carrying out Virtuoso's interests, made an offer to buy the data crystal from them. The Virtus had become aware through facial scanning and public transaction records that Sophia had been wanting to sell the data crystal in order to help her grandmother pay for legal fees. In that moment, Sophia realized the absurdity of what Virtuoso was trying to do. Not to mention, Sophia admitted that she had started to become attached to Twinkle. Now knowing that the data crystal was a home to a living creature, she was reconsidering even selling the data crystal at all.

The disappointed Virtus then assessed that the data crystal had been acquired in a restricted area of the digsite and had threatened to get them all expelled. Kristoph using his knowledge on the way Virtus cognition worked, persuaded it to leave them alone. Although they got the Virtus off their backs, Sophia couldn't help but feel that other interested parties had just become aware of her ownership of the data crystal, and that she would become a target.

On the way back home, Sophia got jumped by two thugs from the Hellhounds bounty hunter gang - Hati Ulfenlock and Garm Ulfenlock. While she did manage to defend herself, she lost the data crystal, and the Hellhounds got away. Sophia chose to call the police, hoping to get someone to go after them, but unfortunately, by the time the police were able to mobilize, the Hellhounds had crossed into a region outside of Port Oraulan known as the Condemned Zone, an area where police, military and other emergency services were not permitted due to the terms set forth in a truce with the rogue nation Taranis. As far as she was concerned, the data crystal was lost forever.

Sophia was absolutely devastated. More than likely, she expected the university to find out what she did, and that would get her expelled. Worst of all, she knew she not only lost the data crystal, but also Twinkle. She fully expected him to be sold off to poachers who might try to harvest him for his cybernephrine, an illegal drug used to induce very specific emotions to someone in virtual reality. She called Angela and Kristoph to tell them the news, and told them she was ready to accept all responsibility for what happened. With the police unable to help and the Hellhounds having covered their tracks, there was nothing they could do. Angela and Kristoph could only suggest for her to get some rest for the night, and perhaps they could figure something out in the morning.

When she fell asleep, Sophia began to have a vivid dream about Twinkle. As the dream progressed, she realized it was not a dream, but Twinkle was actually reaching out to her through the psychic connection they had established. Twinkle tells her that while he didn't know where the Hellhounds are taking him, he could still leave a psychic trail behind for Sophia to follow so that perhaps someone may be able to rescue him. Of course, there would only be so much time before the data crystal would get sold off and become completely unobtainable. Or worse, someone poaching Twinkle's cybernephrine and turning him into a Rampant.

With this new information, Sophia called Kristoph and Angela once again in the middle of the night, explaining what happened. While Sophia was ready to go right away, they still suggested it was important to rest and regroup in the morning given all of them were exhausted. Kristoph suggested that there was still time to locate Twinkle and that he could not have gotten far. Angela also brought up the fact that she might know some people who would be able to help find him.

Into the Condemned Zone

The next morning, the three of them met at the Onion Arcade, an establishment where Angela's father Joshua Harrison worked as a bouncer (and is often just known as Bouncer). The Onion Arcade was no ordinary arcade, but also a secret gathering for bounty hunters and other rogues who would accept jobs for the right price. Bouncer himself was a veteran of the Virtual Wars and had his fair share of experience on the battlefield. He was naturally skeptical of Sophia and Kristoph for dragging Angela into the situation. Not to mention, Bouncer was naturally hesitant to put his own daughter in more danger, but Angela told him she had always wanted to go to the Condemned Zone anyway. She had hoped to visit the ruins of her hometown one more time to pay respects to her mother Seraphina Harrison who had vanished in the Condemned Zone during the war. Convinced by Angela's heartfelt speech, Bouncer agreed to help. Instead of a monetary compensation, Bouncer would instead accept payment in the form of quality father-daughter time with her friends.

Bouncer suggested that if it was going to be the four of them, he had to make sure all of them were combat ready. Angela vouched for Sophia after seeing her technokinesis and martial arts, and Angela felt she was strong enough to at least be able to keep up, and to help provide medical aid if necessary. Kristoph also revealed that he fought in the Merinian front of the Virtual Wars at a young age where his ability to control nanobots with his mind was used as a weapon. Of course, being mentally ready was another matter, but there were few other options. After gathering some supplies, the group was ready to go. Traveling into the Condemned Zone was going to be a risk. While normal citizens were allowed to travel there, no one would be able to rescue them if they ran into trouble.

The first stop for the group was the town of Lycanton, a town in the Condemned Zone inhabited by werewolves.

TBA

The Raid

TBA

Retrieved from "http://tvrswiki.net/index.php?title=Raid_on_the_Cult_of_Kronos&oldid=4127"