Submachine: Transcripts (by Jatsko)

[Jatsko]

-Wait, stop, stop! No one move! Sandra, where are you?

--Over here, two steps from you. John, you're good too?

-Yeah, I'm fine. I guess we all knew the power would fail eventually. Hank, you have a backup flashlight?

---Sure do. Hold on...got it.

--That's much better. Let me double check the map...

---You don't need a map when you're with me, let me remind you.

--Very sorry, Hank. I keep forgetting. This place just seems so...foreign to me all the time.

--Too many damn bricks. The medieval builders really went overboard with that. Wait, hold on...I'm getting a signal from base.

Hey, it's Root Base One, do you read us?

--Root Team One here, loud and clear. What happened?

Something huge hit the main power generator. We don't know what it is. Brianna is going out there now with Charles to check it out.

--Hope it's fixable, whatever it is. Let us know when you hear back, okay? We're all safe, so don't worry about us.

Sounds good. We'll keep you updated.

-Hank, how long was that generator supposed to last?

---I put it at twenty years, and it's long outdone that, that's for sure.

--Only a matter of time, then.

-If only we could have had it for this last bit of work.

--John, cool it.

-C'mon, you were thinking the same thing. We've been to this place loads of times, and each time without error. I guess I just expected more.

---Oh really? Let's see you build something more sophisticated, laddy. I happen to really like this place, if you didn't know.

-Sorry, Hank. Just getting some frustration out.

--John, would you mind checking the second floor and the tower? Since you are the most able-bodied out of us three? As you always do? It will give you something to distract you.

-Fine.

...

--You know how he is, so don't get worked up over it.

---I'm not.

Team One, pick up the receiver!

--What's going on, Base?

Get out of there as soon as possible and come back to Base. He fucked us all up. Made a giant fucking portal in the generator and tore it to shreds. We don't know how stable the Root complex is anymore. I repeat, get the hell out of there.

--Henry, time to go.

---Oh, for the love of...sometimes I just wish I never built this place...

--John! Get down here, we're leaving! Immediate RTB!

-What? What happened?

--No time to explain, let's just go!

-Fine, fine! Let me just get on this damn ladder-

[loud rumble, shaking]

[thud, cracking, pained yell]

...

--My God, John! Are you okay?

-Fuck! Oh God, it hurts.

--Can you get up? Let me see if I can move these rocks aside. Don't worry.

-Sandra, just go! Take Henry with you. I'll find another way.

--John, you can't make it back by yourself with a broken leg. I need to get through to you.

-It's fucking fine, Sandra! GO!

[Jatsko]

-Guess who's just arrived.

-Yeah, you did?

-Yep. Looks like you really shaped the place up. Expecting visitors?

-I guess so.

-Well, my legs are toasted, and I need to get out of this sun before I dry up. Which of these huts are you in?

-George, there's something I need to tell you.

[Jatsko]

-Maybe she should have stayed here; I could use the extra company. Not something you've probably ever heard from me.

-Oh, please. You're only here for a few days. After you leave, even if you do find a way to come back and reach her, she might not remember you. Or me, for that matter.

-True. I guess that's just the human element in me speaking.

-Well, unfortunately, we have other things to attend to.

...

-The Village is still out there, right?

-Of course. Stop asking.

-I'm sorry. Sometimes I need the reassurance too. I don't want to end up thinking of the Shrine as my home.

-What does it matter, when you're hardly around here anyway.

[Jatsko]

[quote="Transcript 14/32: Intro to "The Forbidden Ground""]
In the early 1900s, the Fourth Dynasty realized that S.H.I.V.A. should serve functions other than simply answering questions of why things happened. And of course, still no one completely trusted computers back in those days. Of course, they had helped, by sending them the help they needed to build S.H.I.V.A. in the first place, but others wanted to take the computer's mind off the "whys" and let it focus on other questions.

Time was always both a tool and an Achille's heel in those days. And an instrument was needed to set the record straight. T.H.O.T.H. was made for the task.

The researchers then asked not "why" things would happen, but "when" things would happen. And the computer responded with a map as complex as the Subnet itself. A map of time, of the top ten million most likely results of eventss spread out over the next billion years.

These new Time experts saw what would most likely happen, and they were scared. They looked on in horror at the thousands of red threads that snaked their way across the screens. They already were aware of the young researcher who would most likely activate these timelines. They knew he had to be stopped. But how? How to get rid of such a young man? No justification could be given at the time.

The team split off from the Lab scientists, from the Architects, and from the Karma experts, and went into seclusion. After T.H.O.T.H. predicted the Collapse and the Invasion, they simply fled. T.H.O.T.H. was almost immediately destroyed. Far away from the Subnet project, from S.H.I.V.A., from everything, the team established their own sanctuary. Only one of them - a woman by the name of Elizabeth - stayed with the others.

The Time experts established their base far away from Kent, on the opposite side of the continent. In a place where sand and dust existed before the world drought or the mass Burial of Sand that would plague the continents for ages. They started the Fifth Dynasty.

People who visited the Fifth Dynasty did not come out of it. But not many were let in in the first place. No movement could be seen from behind its walls. No images could be captured on the bruised and battered satellites and drones that flapped their sandblasted wings miserably overhead. It was a secure area. It would be the last safe place.

After the Collapse, S.H.I.V.A. rushed to fix itself by getting rid what didn't work and saving what did. But, contrary to popular belief at the time, matter could not simply disappear. So the AI discharged its remnants in the Wasteland, not far from the Fifth Dynasty. Of course, they knew no one would make the journey to the Wasteland out of fear for what mutations of time and space it might hold, so it served as another wall of defense for those behind the walls. It became the Forbidden Ground.

The Fifth Dynasty grew very slowly in a strict contained style of the next hundred years. In that time only a few new visitors entered, enough to count on two hands. Then, even the special guests stopped visiting the City.

It would stay this way for many years until two brave souls, separated by time and space, escaped the Submachine and started their journeys toward the Forbidden Ground.
[/quote]

[Jatsko]

-Look at me.

...

Look at me! Denise, I'm talking to you.

...

Ok, let's take this slow. Look at me, please? Let me just...there, that's better. Listen. I promise it will be okay. We're going to get through this. Show me that you're listening.

...

I want to tell you something. There was nothing I could have done for Amelia. I wish I was there in time. I tried getting through to her as quickly as I could. But, it happened too fast. Too, fast, ok? I don't know what else to tell you!

...

Goddamnit, give me something! Tell me something!

...

You know I tried everything I could. But the door was stuck! I tried everything! I can't help what happened, Denise! There's nothing I could have done. I know what happened was horrible, and I'm so sorry it had to happen, but it wasn't my fault. If we're going to get through this, we have to communicate with each other. We have to. We have to stick together. And to do that, you have to trust me.

...

(sigh)

Thank you. Thank you so much. I'm just sad and frustrated too.

[Jatsko]

What did I just do.

I can't believe I just did that.

Fuck.

I need help. I need serious help.

This is....this is fucking unbelievable. It hurts so much.

I should not have done that. I should NOT have done that. Now what am I supposed to do.

...

Ok. Ok. I don't have much time. I need to realize that...before anything else. Let's see. Bandages. Yes. I need those. Fuck. Let me just check...oh god. It's completely red. I...I don't know what to think. I'm surprised I still am thinking at this point.

But I can't get help. I can't get help. I'm stuck.

...

[sobbing]

...

Get it together. This is not over. You can figure it out. You have to put the pieces together.

...

No, I can't. I can't. There are no options. I've run out of time.

...

I need to rest. Just let me be taken. Let me just lie here and have it all go away. I can't bring myself to do anything else.

...

What was it like for you? What was going through your head? Hm? Was anything going through your head, friend? I wonder...did you do something where you, I don't know, emptied it beforehand? To prepare yourself?

Maybe I should try the same.

But not the same as you. I don't want to make the call myself. I just want to lie back and myself be taken.

Yes, that's what I'll do.

[sigh]

I can't breathe. I can't breathe. It's too much.

...

[shortened breath]

These stones are awfully warm. It's like a warm ocean. Strange, how comforting it is.

...

Oh my god, I'm actually feeling it. I can feel it leaving me. It's draining out like a river. Out of my head, out of my body, out of everywhere. I don't know if I'm afraid.

I don't know anything anymore.

...

...

...

[Jatsko]

-I just realized, I've never asked where you're from.

-Huh. I guess you haven't.

-Is that weird? That's what you're supposed to do, isn't it? When you meet someone new...

-Depends on your definition of meeting. I don't know, I guess it's conventional.

-True. I just found it interesting that I never thought to ask.

-I'm from Stratford. A tiny little town off of the Long Island Sound in Connecticut.

-Connecticut, really?

-Yeah, you from around there?

-No, I'm actually from California. San Francisco representative at your service. But you said Connecticut...how far away is that from Kent?

-It's just over an hour away, actually. Never been there myself, personally, but I've heard it's pretty, um...pretty.

-Nice word usage there.

-Sorry, it's hard to talk and walk at the same time.

-Sure it is. That's quite a skill to master.

-Laugh it up. Be glad you're safe inside...wherever you are.

-I told you, it's a bunch of ruins. I can't really describe them, because I've never studied something like them before. You'll just have to see for yourself.

-That's my goal.

-You know, you sound interesting. So try picking up the pace a little bit; I want to have another meaningful conversation with another human being again at some point.

-I'm going as fast as I can. Don't worry, I'll be there soon enough. Wherever "there" is.

[Jatsko]

-Hey, you ok? Where are you?

-Come here. There's a digout tunnel under the bed where we slept.

-Ok, hold on...

...

-Oh my god. Hey, what's up? You ok?

...

-Yeah, I'm fine. I just never...I've never seen so many books...

-Yeah...

-It's weird...I almost forgot they existed. The only things that we've been picking up are those scraps of paper.

-I know.

-I got scared...because I almost forgot what a book was. How could that happen?

-It's been playing with my mind too. I've almost forgotten some things too. But don't worry. We'll be done and out of here soon.

[Jatsko]

-Cecil! Cecil, open up!

[shuffles, soft bangs and hits]

-What can it be this time? I told you not to disturb me unless it's important.

-Cecil, you have to see this-

-Young man, if you tell me one more time to come look at something without bothering to tell me what it is I will have you-

-I'm sorry, sir, but it's completely genius. Henry figured it out. He made a successful sample.

...

-Which test chamber?

-Test Chamber 105, sir. Dionysus sector. We must hurry! We don't know how long it's decay factor is!

-Very well. Call the capsule.

[Jatsko]

[loud yell]

[soft thuds, as on sand]

...

Oh my god...

No. NO! Holy...

[heavy breathing, gasping]

Hang in there, buddy, just hang-

[coughing, retching]

Oh god. I'm so sorry. Oh my god...

Fuck, fuck, what should I do? What should I- Amelia! Amelia, come in. Please come in.

-Yes? What's up?

My camel. The goddamned camel. It's dead.