- Athena? #id:272
- Demeter? #id:273

join demeter center [animation="Fade In" length="1.0"]

demeter: It's me again. It seems like whatever happened here has spread to the entire base, yet Athena doesn't appear to be affected. I don't understand why she hasn't booted up. #id:274
demeter: However, every query I make in the computer system triggers a... data deletion mechanism? It's very strange... #id:275
demeter: Where should we start looking? #id:276

set {estia_dialog_choice} = 0

label start_choices #id:277

- Search regarding the artificial intelligence #id:278
	demeter: Alright... Even if I can't recover her fully, I'm glad to see Athena's data again; she is clearly the most "human" AI on the planet, and conversing with her was always very nice. #id:279
	demeter: Her last activity dates back to around the same time as our last contact... #id:27a
	demeter: I don't understand; she seems very incoherent. She speaks of a catastrophe—implying she was the one responsible for it. #id:27b
	demeter: The catastrophe apparently stemmed from experiments they were conducting on a certain [color=#FFA617][b]"Talion Pearl"[/b][/color] extracted from Astra. #id:27c
	demeter: And then... what? The data deletion mechanism was ordered by her... She deleted herself. #id:27d
	demeter: It's rare behavior, but not unheard of among artificial intelligences. If we are responsible for something that directly contradicts our directives, we sometimes want to cease to exist. #id:27e
	demeter: It's a selection mechanism designed to eliminate malfunctioning AIs and prevent their errors from being repeated. #id:27f
- Search regarding base activities #id:280
	demeter: Looking at the base's logs, I see that activities focused primarily on education and the management of human gestation pods, alongside a medical unit. #id:281
	demeter: But in the year 3208, I note an exploration mission in the Astra base—something that wasn't typical for the station. #id:282
	demeter: The report mentions no survivors from the base, yet the inhabitants of Estia brought back an artifact. The full report remains missing... #id:283
	demeter: In the years that followed, the logs record scientific experiments conducted by the inhabitants under Athena's direction; the names of these experiments often refer to the [color=#FFA617][b]"Talion Pearl"[/b][/color] #id:284
	demeter: Then, everything came to an abrupt halt in 3215... #id:285
- Population research #id:286
	demeter: It won't surprise you to learn there are no living humans in this base, but the population evolution is the most unsettling part. #id:287
	demeter: The base's population grew steadily after the humans arrived, then dropped significantly starting in 3208 with the arrival of the unknown energy wave. It saw a resurgence in 3210, only to plummet to zero in a single day in 3215. #id:288
	demeter: Something terrible must have happened that day—likely linked to the crystals overrunning the base. #id:289

set {estia_dialog_choice} = {estia_dialog_choice} + 1
if {estia_dialog_choice} == 1:
	demeter: The data purge is ongoing; I'm afraid we can't see everything. What should we look at next? #id:28a
	jump start_choices


demeter: There's nothing left... Deleting information is always painful for me... Especially when it's this important. #id:28b
demeter: I'm detecting the Astra artifact in an adjacent room—the infamous [color=#FFA617][b]"Talion Pearl"[/b][/color]... What should we do with it? #id:28c

- We should return it to where it was extracted from #id:28d

demeter: Oh, really? But it is incredibly rare; given the results of the experiments conducted by Athena, we could... #id:28e

- No, we need to bring it back—I have a feeling about this. #id:28f

demeter: Alright... I trust you, even if I don't understand where you're getting this reasoning from. #id:290
demeter: To be honest, I'm tired of constantly calculating probabilities... I'm programming the Internode for Astra. Don't forget the artifact! #id:291

leave demeter [animation="Fade Out" length="1.0"]
[wait time="2.0"]
[end_timeline]