Chapter 63: Where They Arrived

Kay sat comfortably on the creep as Corvurn explained the events that took their places in the past twenty years. Several minutes had passed, which turned into a couple of hours as Corvurn did his best to give Kay as many details in the best way he could, despite his machine-like, though efficient, way of speaking. It had taken a while for Corvurn to tell the lengthy history that followed right after Kay's entrapment in the temporal tomb, but Kay was beginning to understand the events that had transpired afterwards.

The abridgement to Corvurn's narrative, relating to Kay's absence, went as thus: After Kay was trapped within the temporal tomb, Virid, Corvurn, and Othafurn received a psionic message from Corvurn's self-cloned offspring, named Corvurn Junior. He explained that Kay would become a pivotal force to the zerg's eventual victory over the Golden Star Empire and their allies, but only if they allowed the events of the world to naturally unfold, and naturally reveal the way to release him from his temporal tomb. However, they decided to become their own commanders that shared a single army, either deferring to Virid's tactical viewpoint to weaken Gollog's empire, or using a two-out-of-three vote system on any major strategies. With the many resources that the zerg have acquired, they had also gained more territory deeper underground. When it was discovered that the resource tumors could sap the warmth created from the upper mantle of Kiln, the zerg's stored resources had exploded into a plentiful supply. Kay was quite surprised on the size of the territory the zerg swarm had gained after twenty years of converting heat into bio-matter and accelerant.

The Golden Star Empire soldiers tried to amass their numbers to fight against their zerg enemy, which had already created their hive clusters near the energy plant that had formed around Kay's tomb, and were protected by an airless vacuum that the energy flower created around itself. Several attempts were made by the empire soldiers to fight the zerg within the vacuum, but found that air was not only a resource that was needed for breathing, but was also needed for all kinds of combustion engines that uses oxygen to combust their fuels. But as the war between the gilanian empire and the zerg swarm continued, they found that the Kiln Keepers could tolerate being inside of the vacuum. Gollog allowed the metal machines to be the only sole fighters to fight the zerg in the vacuum anomaly, which enabled him to concentrate his forces elsewhere.

Since many empire-aligned settlements had been targeted by small bands of zerg, an elective decision came forward to construct several different types of Golden Star settlements that had increased defenses against zerg infestation. Several methods were used, but many of them ultimately failed. However, as several designs were tested and analyzed, one design became quite efficient after several years of revising. Floating fortress style type settlements became incredibly popular and the norm after a decade, which prompted several empire populations to commission for the construction of more floating fortress cities, which completely circumvented any zerg tactic that involved attacking the empire settlements from below their very feet in melee. Production of these flying fortresses were increased when Gollog ordered the Kiln Keepers to help in their construction. As such, hundreds of hundreds of floating fortresses would float above the ground, free from the dangerous zerglings that were always attempting to rip open their settlement's defenses and eradicate the people within that were loyal to Gollog. However, it didn't stop any anti-air capable zerg organisms from attacking them. Even the brood lords and swarm hosts had the capacity to send their spawn onto the top of these fortresses. Eventually, some of the flying fortresses were fitted with an upgrade that enabled the gilanians to survive in the thinner atmospheres, tens of kilometers higher than their normal floating altitude would allow.

But even as a large hive cluster formed around the energy plant, and that Virid spent much of her time growing a huge hive cluster on the hexagonal moon, several more hive clusters were created in various locations all around Kiln. The empire's attempt to contain the zerg was met with failure, which resulted in many empire-owned settlements and cities abandoning Gollog's rule and seeking shelter elsewhere. Gollog was quickly losing his people, and they continued to leave even when he kept threatening them with death if there were any more dissenters leaving his rule. But when the idea to build mega structures over the orbit of Kiln was presented to Gollog, he had Commander Faddoh instructed the Kiln Keepers on how to build a massive series of orbital satellites. Once built, it could grant the entire gilanian residents that still resided on the world of Kiln the ability to MEM-shift off the planet and onto the orbital mega structures, and vice-versa. As a result, the entirety of the Golden Star Empire population moved and made their homes into the sky rings themselves.

However, when the zerg used the brood queens to inject parasites into several of the gilanian citizenry, both empire and nonaligned, Gollog was unaware of the subterfuge that the zerg was trying to employ at the time. When Commander Faddoh came back with the analysis of the parasites infesting the gilanian hosts, Gollog was outraged when he further learned of the zerg's capabilities. It was when the super satellite structures was around 74% complete five years later that the psionic sensor system was activated. It took another five years for the 'sky rings' to become fully constructed, seeing as though several gilanians had to be culled in order to prevent any further information from being shared with the zerg swarm's hivemind. It was only after the nonaligned public discovered that the gilanian empire were killing zerg parasite infested children which created a permanent divide between the two groups. It resulted in a social reform so powerful that Baroness Tak herself announced that she won't be maintaining a neutral stance with the Golden Star Empire anymore. But even so, its sensor systems were advanced, and its point-defense turrets and long-range energy lance towers could effectively counter any zerg that dared try to fly up to the satellite.

The point-defense turrets utilizes energy projecting weapons that sent ionized particles, which was similar in regards to the Kiln Keeper's energy weaponry. They could be fired as a burst or charged into a detonating shot that could damage a cluster of tightly grouped enemies. These turrets could swivel around on three rotating elbow joints on long and telescoping metal pole arms, effectively giving the arms a 360° degree firing arc, tightly packed in a long line on the sides of the sky rings. One pair of energy lances were positioned facing the planet, while another pair faced away from the planet. They were further spaced from one another, but they were a larger type of weapon when compared to the point-defense turrets. They were designed with only one rotating servo elbow, and had only a 90° degree firing arc to swivel their shots with. They were designed for counterattacking any leviathans that had the bright idea to warp up next to the structure and attack the sky rings directly on the sides. But the energy lances not only can target the leviathans that seldom attacks the sky rings or descends to the surface of Kiln, but they could also target the surface and bombard the targets on the terrain far below. In essence, it was a global attack that replaced Gollog's devastating orbital smite attack. It wasn't as powerful, since using the energy lances easily drains the entire super satellite of its precious energy very quickly, but it was a close equivalent that had full planetary coverage, and it could attack the zerg regardless if it was night or day.

The entire interconnected structure was kept aloft by twenty six magnetic gyroscopic rail stations that slows and speeds the rotations of each sky ring, essentially keeping the mega structure in orbit, and they were all heavily defended. Each station supplied enough energy to an entire super satellite mega structure to produce a magic wall that could cover a section of a ring, or the entire structure for a brief period of time. The empire also added short range ENO sensors that encompassed both outside of the satellite, and the inside of itself, making the sky rings a heavily fortified orbital stations of great magnitude that could detect parasites in their officers and citizens, or changelisk spies hiding in their ranks.

When the Era Agency turned down Gollog's proposal to 'speed grow' a new generation of gilanians in a plan to increase the numbers in the empire's population, a double agent within the Era Agency managed to contact Baroness Tak in secret. He told her that a special kind of technology that can lift the anomalous properties of the energy plant was created. She was most interested about removing the vacuous atmosphere that slowly crawled toward her precious citadel. It was only upon the twentieth year that Baroness Tak decided to assemble a specialized team to infiltrate through the vacuum, and past the dangerous zerg territory, in order to 'nip the flower in the bud', so to speak. But what the double agent didn't tell Baroness Tak was that the device was actually meant to be used to free Kay all along, using a cleverly disguised temporal tomb disruption device.

How that double agent from the Era Agency came by that technology, Kay had no idea. in fact, he would like to meet the one responsible for his rescue and thank him personally for his trouble. But as of now, Kay's carapaced backside was beginning to feel sore. When Corvurn began to describe the events of Othafurn using a leviathan to flash-warp into Kiln's atmosphere and dropping a sac that she used to land near a shrylisk's location, Kay got off of the comfortable creep-covered ground and stretched his legs.

"-command organism Othafurn intercepted command organism Corvurn underground. Agreed to travel to command organism Kay's last known position, after energy plant anomaly dissipated. After dissipation, traveled to center of crater and discovered command organism Kay. Discovered with unconscious ailment. Surrounded by empire gilanian bodies and Kiln Keeper machine wrecks. Uncertain of swarm's future at time. Command organism Othafurn attempted mental link. Suffered psionic backlash. Became unconscious. Command organism Kay, recovered. Extrapolation of past twenty years, complete."

Kay groaned as he rubbed his tuchus. "Damn. All that happened while I was missing in action?"

Corvurn pleaded his fingers together. "Correct. Was summarized, but relevant. Information now shared."

Kay looked down at the creep and closed his eyes, as though heavily concentrating. "This is no good. These 'sky rings' have effectively grounded us, and we don't have a way to fight them directly. Worse still, it feels to me like we are forgetting something..."

"Query. What was forgotten?" Corvurn asked Kay, sounding somewhat confused.

"I dunno, It's just... something is just off. Like there was something that we completely forgot to investigate, and I think it was mentioned a few times too. I can't even remember what it was." Kay said, carefully scratching the back of his head.

An awkward pause passed before Corvurn changed the subject. "Must focus on task. Destruction of empire gilanians, highest priority. Must plan. Must strategize. Command organism Othafurn, needed. Must cure unconsciousness. Will begin. Command organism Kay must make plans with command organism Virid."

"Hmm... Well okay. You can begin... Begin? OH!" Kay clapped his hands together. "THAT'S what I was forgetting! The beginning!"

"Unclear. Explain." Corvurn said, sounding somewhat unamused.

"Oh you know. The beginning, Corvurn. We're we came from. Fucking hell, it's only just now that I'm beginning to remember that we came from that facility hidden in the Night Circle!" Kay shouted, smacking his head.

"... Unsure if facility is important." Corvurn replied.

"Well it's important to me. Think about it! If the scientists were able to pull us from the void and bring us here, then whose to say that they would attempt that again and obtain pieces of terran or protoss technology? Even if twenty years may have passed, such technology being in Gollog's hands won't be favorable to us at all." Kay said sternly. He then pointed at Othafurn. "Take care of her as best as you can, and I'll inform Virid that I'll be at the Night Circle. I'm going to go investigate the facility that got us here in the first place."

As Kay turned away and headed back to the nydus network, Corvurn followed after Kay for a brief distance before stopping in his tracks and looking back on Othafurn. "... Understood. Does not understand reason to investigate. Improper waste of time."

"Yeah, well we've been distracting ourselves from investigating our emergence on this world for too long anyway. This needs to be investigated anyway." Kay said, entering through the nydus network's maw and directing it to transport him to a nydus bio-structure closest to the facility that was responsible for bringing the zerg to Kiln.

Corvurn paused for several seconds before turning to look at the unconscious Othafurn. The queens began tending to the downed informant that time traveled to the new timeline, even if Corvurn had no idea on how to bring someone back into a conscious state. "... Will obey. First, contact command organism Virid. Communication link must be brief. Will attempt revival of command organism Othafurn." Corvurn said, pawing across her face and body to try and wake her up. It was obvious that he had no idea on how to bring someone out from an unconscious state, but it didn't stop him from trying different methods and performing tests to see which remedy or technique worked.

"I'll do it on the way." Kay said before the nydus network whisked him away to where he willed it to take him to, a location already in his mind.

'Virid, I'm heading to the facility that was responsible for bringing us here to Kiln.' Kay said to Virid.

'I see that you are finally awake. I heard from Corvurn that he found you unconscious.' Said Virid. For some reason, she sounded somewhat elated to Kay.

'Yeah, he and Othafurn found me after some kind of battle took place, which must have happened either before, during, or after my release from the temporal tomb. Anyway, Corvurn is taking care of Othafurn with a group of queens at one of the underground chambers. I thought you should know.'

'What happened to her? Was she attacked?'

'Can't say for certain. Apparently, she was made unconscious after trying to form a mental link with my unconscious self. I guess the attempt to revive me created some kind of psionic backlash that affected her.'

'Hmm. This might mean being in that temporal tomb deprived you of the psionic connection that the swarm hivemind provided, effectively making you more sensitive to psionic emissions. What happened inside of the temporal tomb after it trapped you?'

'Uh... Hmm...' Kay didn't know how to answer Virid. Up until the moment that Othafurn had revived him, he could not remember what had happened after the era agent Kay named Bubbles had thrown that temporal tomb device, or before his revival from unconsciousness. '... To be honest, I don't really remember anything. I guess Othafurn remembered what my personality was like, and she did her best to place her impression of me into my own mind to bring me back to consciousness. But still, I don't have an explanation on how SHE became unconscious.'

'Mm. In any case, you should exercise caution. It has been a long time since we left that facility, and I know not what they have developed after our escape.'

'Then let me ask you something. How is it that in the twenty years we have been on this world, we haven't thought about returning to that facility just to investigate it and ask the scientists there why they brought us here?'

'... A good point to bring up, I suppose. We must have been too distracted with fighting against Gollog's forces to ever considered that option.'

'And what about C.J.'s prophetic foretelling about me eventually being freed from that temporal tomb? I mean... Hasn't he informed you guys on what would happen next?'

'No. He said that he was running out of time at the time.'

'That doesn't sound too good for him, or any of us.'

'The message he had sent to us was urgent. He said he didn't have time to explain everything.'

'Hmm... Oh well. If he's not available for a Q and A session, then we're going to have to make one with the scientists at the Night Circle science facility. But as for you, see if you can rile up our forces and escalate the war.'

'What do you have in mind?'

Kay could feel a smile creep along his face. 'A simultaneous attack on all empire assets and settlements. Once we figure out a plan, we can attack, distract, and divert the empire gilanians long enough for us to carry out whatever plan that involves my revival. If C.J. can somehow get back to us and tell us what his plan is or how pivotal I am twenty years later, then I am certain that we can win against Gollog and his empire.'

'This will take time, but it is doable. I will produce multiple leviathans and position them close to the veil. The super satellites would have a harder time hitting them if they skirt the veil's edges. Corvurn has been experimenting with new bio-structure strains that might prove useful to our cause.'

'Kay! We can talk about it when we finally find a way to defeat Gollog, and make a plan to accomplish that afterwards.' Kay said as he neared his destination.

In the constant darkness that was ever present in the Night Circle, a facility that was directly on the south pole sat comfortable in the silence. Its neighbor was the Era Agency, and it illuminated a light source that was moderately brighter than the violet moon in the horizon. Such an oppressive darkness, brightened only by the two kinds of danger in those recent times, was quite foreboding.

Using a shrylisk to emerge onto the surface of the world, it's occupant had directed it to the facility that has been ignored for far too long. After inspecting the facility, it looked as though it was expertly hidden by several piled boulders. But Kay knew better as he left the shrylisk's maw and approached the supposedly natural formation of boulders. He jumped onto and walked over each boulder as he inspected this structure, having very little memories to draw upon from the zerg's brief time here. After looking at many of the boulders, Kay then decided to change his search for a way in between these big stones.

After inspecting this edifice of large rocks, he eventually found a door that was blocked by errant stones that were in the way, cleverly hidden by a tight passage of boulders that curved around. After moving them out of his way and inspected the door. It seemed to be made of a rusted metal that was painted with the same color as the surrounding rock. It looked plain, but also heavy in design. There didn't seem to be any handles, knobs, or levers that told Kay that it was a door that could be opened from his side.

This felt strange to Kay. If the zerg escaped this facility, how did they do it in the first place? There was no visible holes that was blown outward, or any visible signs of destruction that stated otherwise. Or perhaps that, in the twenty years of time that had passed, the scientists within this facility had repaired the damage that the fleeing zerg caused? It was a very likely scenario. Despite the theories, Kay began to knock on the hidden metal door. "Hey um... In case you didn't know me, my name is Kay, and I was brought here because of you guys. This might be a bit awkward after twenty years, but... I want to know why you pulled the zerg from our own dimension and onto Prison Planet. If you can hear me, then please know that I want you to know that I'd like to talk with you in a civil manner. And I know that the zerg are known for their... less than polite discourse. ... Or rather... no discourse at all and are completely impolite at times. So! May you let me in?"

Silence answered Kay.

"... I'm getting the impression that you think this is a trap." Kay held his arms out in a passive manner. "I assure you, with whatever kind of honor that remains with me, I have no intention of harming you whatsoever. Now, if you can give me an answer right now, I will not immediately assume that nobody is home, and I will barge into your laboratory like some home intruder. What do you say?"

Nobody answered Kay.

"... Alright. Fine. I'll just dig my way in through your door." Kay said, splaying his hand out and placing his sharp nails on the metal door. "Just know that this will be your last warning before I make a me-sized hole with my claws. You have twenty seconds before I start slashing my way in. Twenty. Nineteen. Eighteen. Seventeen. Sixteen. Five! Four! Three! Two!"

[Okay okay, stop stop stop! You win.] An unseen speaker system replied to Kay. [The staff inside isn't entirely comfortable about letting you in, so... can I recommend talking to you like this instead?]

"... One and a half." Kay warned.

[You are making this hard on all of us.]

"Then give what the bug-man wants." Kay demanded.

[Guh... Dammit, fine. Unlocking the magnetic locks. Just... Wipe your feet, please. Some of the staff are currently arming themselves, so... Don't make any sudden movements toward them. I'm worried about their safety.]

The metal door hummed to life as it opened slowly. After the door stopped opening and humming, Kay slowly strolled through the opened door. "Don't worry. I didn't come here to fight. And thank you very much." Kay said with a smile. Walking past the magnetically sealed iron door that opened for him, Kay began to walk through a winding passageway of clean white walls. Once he entered a room that seemed to be this facility's lobby, he could see that it was constructed with a neo-futuristic design. From what Kay could tell, life once flourished within its halls. But right at that moment, the life within the lobby seemed to be replaced by several gilanians wearing riot gear that filed into the room, while they aimed their shotguns and pistols at the 'invited' intruder. Kay furrowed his brows when he met the laboratory's security forces. They subtly exchanged worried glances while Kay sized them up. "... Guns? Really? Come on. Those things are just about as effective as you fighting another gilanian with a wet blanket. Put them down before you hurt yourselves."

"No need to fight, please. Security, lower your weapons." The anti-riot security guards parted when a gilanian in a white lab coat passed through the security from its side. He also seemed to wear a prosthetic leg as he hobbled from one place to another with a crutch.

"Uh... Are you sure that is necessary, Qalop?" One of the security guards asked.

Qalop patted the security guard on the shoulder and limped forward toward Kay. "Dad never taught me to shirk away from any polite gestures. Besides, I want to hear him out with my own tympanic membranes. Could you bring us two chairs, please?"

"... Fine." The security guard turned to the rest of his personnel. "You lot, keep an eye on this big bug-man." He said, slowly ducking away into the small crowd of security guards and out of Kay's sight.

Kay stared at the exchange between the security guard and the... researcher that was supposedly in charge of the facility. Kay crossed his arms and tilted his head as he watched the gilanian named Qalop hobble closer to him. "I take it that you run this facility?"

He nodded. "My name is Co-manager Qalop, and I run the research and development of technology in this hidden laboratory facility. I'd shake you by the hand, but... knowing what the zerg virus does to any organism of biological make, please understand my preference to keep my hands clean."

Kay nodded back. "Hmm... Well suppose I understand your logic. In fact, I can't remember the last time I washed my hands."

"Euh... Okay then." Qalop said in a nervous and disgusted tone.

Kay sighed and folded his arms behind his back. "... So uh... Important question first then. How in the fuck did the zerg get here?"

Qalop paused for several seconds as he stared at Kay before he sighed. "As much as I would like to answer that question, I'm afraid that I don't hold all of the answers. I DO know that my father was responsible for bringing you into our world. He was a particle physicist that found a way to create a spacial bridge that could create an artificial wormhole that can link two locations together."

Kay nodded. "And you somehow brought me and a portion of the zerg swarm through that, I reckon?"

Qalop nodded. "Indeed. We have discovered from several research notes that Prison Planet Kiln is a heavily contained world. If any of its systems were compromised, then the automated fallback protocols would activate, depending on how severe and which systems have been broken. Even the use of wormhole technology was considered forbidden, or else the anti-quantum veil would collapse and kill everyone. Everything that is outside the orbit of Kiln's sun and moon consists of the anti-quantum veil, and anything that dares escape through it would... well... cease from existing. To put it simply, nothing can get out, and nothing can get in. Even the light from the distant stars are considered mythical to the younger generations of gilanians."

Kay sighed and looked up. "So that's what that infinite black is? Huh... No wonder there are no stars in the night sky." A slight pause later, Kay looked back at the scientist named Qalop. "But that doesn't explain how I, and a portion of the zerg swarm, got here."

Qalop sighed. "As it would turn out, there are protected sensors that can detect gravitational eddies, which we believe is situated on the outside of the anti-quantum veil. If there are any eddies that does not come from our own planet's gravitational forces, or is otherwise inadvertently produced from the creation of a wormhole that is linked within a different location of a nearby solar system, or in a completely different star system, we believe that the prison system will default to its automated protocols, supposedly activating a flood of micro-machine infused fluid that would reclaim all of Kiln. However, we have figured out a way to trick the system into thinking that there are no wormholes within the prison system that it is programmed to contain. To do that, we had to create a wormhole that was outside of any local, or distant star system. Basically, we created a wormhole outside of the very galaxy itself."

Kay tilted his head and expressed confusion to Qalop. "... So wait a minute... I think that means you're the one responsible for pulling me out of the void, aren't you?"

Qalop chuckled and shook his head. "No no no. That would be my dad."

"... Ah." Kay said, nodding. "... But then that would mean I am either on a random planet on the galaxy I had originated from, or that I am on a completely different galaxy entirely... I don't know which is worse."

Qalop furrowed his brow. "... Odd, considering that we posited and hypothesized that the zerg organisms naturally evolved in the space between the galaxies."

"Ehh..." Kay said, shaking a hand in a 'sort of' gesture to Qalop. "We can evolve quickly enough to survive almost anywhere."

A security guard eventually came back and brought two chairs with him. After the chairs have been placed, Qalop nodded to the helpful security guard and sat on one of them. "Thank you, Elvog." Once Kay looked at the other chair and inspected it, he sat onto it and got comfortable. Qalop sighed. "So uh... I would like to know your history, if you don't mind allowing me to know about it."

Kay sighed and looked down at the ground in thought. He was slightly hesitant to tell Qalop the story of his past, seeing as though he doesn't completely remember his own history. However, there was some things that he did remember, and it was the various campaigns that had taken place prior to his arrival on Kiln. But even then, he was hesitant to tell the stories that involved such campaigns as well. Kay sighed. "Perhaps, but I want to know something first. How in the world did you all survive when we came through that wormhole and escaped this facility?"

Qalop sighed. "... Sadly, we didn't know that you were alive at the time. We pulled your monsters through the wormhole without checking your pulses, as well as several other kinds of corpses and technology that we had no understanding of. When the zerg organisms came to, we panicked and tried directing them out of our facility. We we made the mistake to assume that the local fauna would eat you and the zerg and save us the trouble. Sadly, we had no idea that the zerg had the potential to breed so quickly. But in the end, it was thanks to the awareness redirection machine that saved our scaly hides. Those blade hounds had no intention on staying inside our facility, let me tell you."

"The what-a-what machine?" Kay questioned, cocking his head.

Qalop chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "The awareness redirection machine? It's a fairly powerful piece of technology that has saved our asses more times than I can count. To put it in layman's terms, it has the ability to filter the perception of those that tries to infiltrate our facility. Or to put it simply, disregard it if they look at it or think about it. Imagine one person looking at another person and the observed person's sixth sense is activated, warning him that he is being watched. The awareness redirection machine effectively blocks that extrasensory perception. ... Well. Most of the time that is. We found that incredibly brilliant minds, or certain people using mental techniques to cancel its anti-memetic effects, tends to circumvent it. Seeing as though you're here, it looks like the awareness redirection machine has no effect on your perception. Your brain must be incredibly intelligent."

Kay said, smiling and carefully rubbing the back of his head. "Thanks, I guess."

"So... Uh... How did you and the zerg came to be before coming to this world?" Qalop asked, leaning forward and looking intently at Kay.

Kay paused for several seconds, sighed, then leaned back in his chair. "I guess I'll try to recount events of my past, and the campaigns I once partook in. Without giving away too much information away, of course."

And so, Kay recounted the tales of the factions that warred with one another in the Koprulu sector to Qalop, to the best of his ability.

A/N: Oh hey, Hollow Knight is going to have some new free DLC in the future. And uh... Sorry about this chapter. I'll try to get some action going in the next one. :V