The price of progress

	Small metallic footsteps echoed down the dimly lit corridor deep within the confines of the Drurn station, those of Magos Cable as he inspected the new black site. Passing by giant gas storage spheres for collected gasses found within the atmosphere of Drurn II, all connected to a labyrinth of pipes leading to zro refineries.

The Magos followed the short assembly line to further machinery and watched with satisfaction as the zro was condensed into small purple crystals, that were then delicately placed onto a conveyor belt and moved on to the next room, were code priest worked away placing them into metallic cylinders assembly the devices with care, patience and with an overabundance of prayers and blessed incense.

In the center of the assembly room was a larger crystal adorned with two steel halos, one at its base and the other it top, covered in wires and purity seals, the Magos walked around it and observed every detail, glancing over at the construction notes he had provided.

“Is everything ready?” he asked eyes still locked on his creation.

“Yes, my Magos all preparations have been performed.”  Answered one of the code priest acolytes.

Cable let out a slight smile turning to the bulkhead at the far end of the room picking up three of the smaller finished devices. “Then let us proceed.”

The simply acolyte nodded and gestured to the module of iron - the towering robot obliged and proceeded to pick up the large crystal and fallow.



	The three entered a control room followed by more code priests that rushed to man their posts, the Magos took his seat and began inspecting the control panel as the module and acolyte both awaited their instructions. As the Magos finished his inspection he pulled one of the levers causing the blast screen in front of him to rise.

Behind it was a small cell with a status pod placed at the far end. “Lower the barrier to 50%.” Ordered the Magos looking other at one of the code priests, promoting him to whisper a prayer before turning a dial

“The machine spirit is willing, barrier lowering.” The status field began to flicker but ultimately stayed active.

For a moment all seemed as normal and the control room stayed silent until the acolyte placed his hand to his cheek and spoke up,

“Does anyone else teeth taste like orange?” the priests looked around in slight confusion.

Then it happened - runes began to mark themselves on the walls of the cell followed by a pentagram forming in the middle of its fall.

The code priest watched in terrified awe as a daemonic hand rose from the fall, pulling itself out, a frail creature that was mostly bones and skin, covered in a veil of ghostly smoke, dragged itself out of the abyss of the shroud into reality.

It simply stood there for a moment, observing its surroundings before its eyeless face locked on the code priest behind their reinforced glass, its jaw bones warped and  cracked as its smiled before lunging at the glass, the Omnicoders had been informed on these creatures, how they fed on emotions and tried their best to compose themselves as to not give it any satisfaction.

Instead the Magos just lifted one of the devices, pressed a button located upon it and dropped into a hole located on his console. Then slammed it shut and waited as the airlock sealed and reopened on the other side of the wall, dropping the device at the daemon's feet, the beast barely had time to look down before it activated.

With seconds of touching the floor, a small light was blasted from the device, causing the daemon to recoil and flicker from reality for just the briefest of moments. The Magos took his turn to smile back before dropping a second device through the airlock - Once again the daemon flickered and began to spaz in pain on the floor, crawling into the cell’s corner hissing at its captors.

Satisfied with the first experiment the Magos turned to the acolyte.
“This thing has outlived its purpose, activate the transplanar shield.” The acolyte nodded, picking up a power cable and connected it to the electronics surrounding the large crystal the module was holding, causing it to glow.

A sense of normality returned, the runes, the pentagram and the daemon faded. “Very good, you may deactivate it, completely lower status barrier.” said the Magos returning his gaze back to the cell readying the final device.



	As he did so the barrier completely faded, revealing a bound fefing who’s eyes began to shine a bright burning white light, as it ripped and tore itself from its restraints the omnicoders felt a sharp pain building in the back of their minds. Before it could overwhelm them, the Magos dropped the final device into the airlock, where it detonated as the last two had upon touching the floor of the cell. This caused the pain to cease as the fefing clung it’s head and let out a harrowing shriek, falling to its knees the light from its eyes was dimmed.

Cable observed and took notes quietly muttering to himself. ”I wonder…” turning once more to the acolyte. “Increase power to the transplanar shield by 33%”

The acolyte acquiesced pulling down one of industrial circuit breakers, causing the large crystal to slightly illuminate. This prompted the fefing’s shrieks to become louder, its fingers desperately clutching its head.

“66%” simply said the Magos.

Once more the acolyte acquiesced pulling down a second of the industrial circuit breakers, this time the fefing screams increased exponentially as it struggled to maintain its psionic abilities, its fingers now so firmly embedded in its head, that it was peeling off its own skin.

“100%” said the Magos without hesitation.

With a great deal of hesitation and reluctance, the acolyte pulled down the final circuit breaker, the crystal glowed like never before causing the fefing to rear its head and screaming in agony before it promptly ‘popped’ sending out a psionic shock wave, cracking the blast screen and coating the cell in a layer of blood and gore.

The code priests could do nothing but stand in a collective shocked and stunned silence at what they had just witnessed, the Magos however simply nodded to himself taking one last mental note and saying. “Excellent, I shall report my our findings to the council, you are all dismist.”