Broken Coast Labs

[Kazumaru]

((Preamble: This takes place several months after Parlez Vous Francais?, which is after BoaS, which takes place during The Clans, which is after DoaG. So essentially, about a year after the wrapup of events in DoaG.

In b4 tl;dr.))

Kazumaru stood on the centermost island of the Broken Coast, a grouping of uninhabited islands with a surprising abundance of the element Khadorium, in it's solid state. With this material, giant ants instructed by a drone with instructions from Sentinel, who was under orders from Kazumaru, had managed to build a fairly large structure on the central island and the first ring around it, leaving the second open for later expansion and the third for a thick ring of plants. And gargoyle statues. For whatever reason.

The innermost structure was a two-story affair, connected via short corridors to the outer structure at three points. The "front" of it, facing the gap in the ring, had a single door and a few gaps where windows would be put in momentarily, having been brought over with the rest of the finishing touches in Kazumaru's ship, the Rocinante. Window holes were also spaced evenly along the outer partial-ring.

The spirit walked across the bridges- Again, made of Khadorium and fabricated by the drone- to the central island. He opened the door and quickly proceeded to the basement, where the computer systems- having been dropped onto the island with the Drone, along with all the extra manufacturing equipment that would be needed, which had all been neatly stored in the basement of the central structure. Kazumaru ignored these things, and instead proceeded to the computer equipment. Kazumaru hit a key labelled "The bloody power key, dangit!" and the system turned on, with an audible click. Kaz slipped a PCD into the CD drive, then went to the second terminal and repeated the process (The power button on this side was labelled "The other bloody power button, dangit!")

A 'Ting!' sound indicated that the contents of the first PCD had been loaded onto the solid-state drives. A voice spoke from the speakers implanted in the walls. "I... where am I?" the voice said. It was a rather deep voice, and spoke a bit slower than average.

"Welcome to Broken Coast Labs, Greg." Kazumaru said, turning to face Greg's terminal, even though where he faced made no real difference to either party.

"Father?" Greg said. "Father. Good morning. It's been a while, hasn't it?"

"Yes, Greg. It's been a few months. This is your new home."

"Am I alone here?" Greg asked.

Kazumaru shook his head. "No. You and your sister will be sharing this place."

"My sister? ... Sparkles?"

"No... Melissa. However, aside from her, you'll be alone most of the time. Myself and my comrades will be here from time to time, but unlike my other lab or the CSS, this place shall have no permanent residents- Again, aside from you two. At least, initially..."

"So why were we brou-" Greg was cut off by another 'Ting!'

"Ah, hold on, Greg. I'll explain everything to both of you at the same time."

Another voice rang out, this one sounding far more feminine than the others, with a tone of innocence to it. "Ah... Where am I?" it asked.

"Your new home." Kazumaru answered.

"Oh! Dad! You're here! And... Greg? Who's Greg?"

"Greg's your brother, Melissa."

"Oh. Uhm, Hi, Greg."

"Good day, Melissa."

"Again, welcome to the Broken Coast Labs. A quick review of what I've told Greg so far: You two will be sharing this establishment. For now, there will be no permanent residents; However, myself and my comrades will probably show up once in a while. And now, onto the new stuff: Before either of you ask, yes, you do have permission to access KAIN, so you'll still be able to talk to me through the Crydex and such. Before you came online, Melissa, Greg was asking why I built this place. Or something like that. Well, that's simple. Recent events- And by recent, I mean everything over the past year- have made me believe that my lab, soon, shall not be able to cope with the increasing number of occupants. That is, Markus DeVane, Coolpikaaa, Clonepikaaa, Tetsu-ko, Zion, Sparkles, and of course myself.'

"I had this place built for three purposes: One, to act as a 'second home', if you will, in case my Lab is destroyed to the point where I cannot reconstruct it. After the battles against the Clans and Brackman, this is even more likely. The second is to act as a testing area for any new or acquired technologies. The third is-"

"Father, why are we both a refuge and the site most likely to be destroyed by testing an alien superweapon?" Greg asked.

"... I hadn't reallly thought of that. But it's too late. As we speak, the final touches are being put in place. Windows are being put in, furniture's being put into place, kitchen stuff, etcetera. An hour from now, this place will be fully habitable, and hidden from the outside by a ring of thick foliage on the outer ring of islands. The only outside indicator of the labs' presence will be the Rocinante, the soon to be overgrown statues on the paths through the breaks in the foliage, and the small bits of the Labs visible through the breaks in the foliage."

"... Dad, what about from the air?" Melissa, this time.

Kazumaru sighed. "Right. The air... Yeah, forgot about that. Uhh... Yeah it'll be pretty obvious."

"... And what about the pirate settlement within plain sight of the place?" Melissa asked.

"... That's Scurvy's."

"Scurvy?"

"Scurvy, yes. A pirate. A..." Kazumaru paused. "Friend. A special friend."

"'special friend'?" Melissa queried.

"... Yeah. Anyway. They'll leave us be. Now then, my speeches have gotten rather lengthy and I don't particularly like it down here, so I'm going to head to the ship, now. You'll still be able to talk to me through the Crydex, if you wish..." Kazumaru said.

Meanwhile, in the psuedo-universe of KAIN...

A man in a hooded cloak stood back to back against a woman in a black robe with a white border on the inside and the cuffs, and a white piece of fabric tying it. Circling around them was a man in what looked to be a gray powered armour suit, minus the helmet. Instead, his face appeared to be a construction of clockwork, half covered by a strange man's mask, a man Kazumaru would identify as Gordon Freeman. A bit away from him was another man, with a pumpkin for a head and a bare skeleton for a body, sitting on the ground.

An incredibly ornate scythe appeared in Greg's hand, and a kampilan with a black handle appeared in Melissa's.

"Who're you?" the man with the half-mask asked.

"My name is Greg." said... Well, Greg. "And this is my sister, Melissa. Who're you?"

"My name's Sentinel. Guy over there's Jack. Do you bring war or peace?"

"We have no specific orders on that matter from Father, so I'm going to say peace." Greg said. His scythe vanished, as did Melissa's kampilan.

"Father?" Sentinel questioned.

"Dad?" Jack said, jumping up.

"Yeah." Melissa replied. "Kazumaru."

Sentinel stopped circling. "Oh goody. The water balloon sent us company. Well, uh, welcome to KAIN, I guess. It's just a lot of desert, but, uh..." Sentinel went to sweep his arm around, gesturing at the scenery, before he abruptly stopped halfway through. "Uhh..." he said, confused.

"Sentinel..." Jack asked. "Was that salloon there before?"

Sentinel shook his head as the lighting of the world dimmed, and the lights of the Salloon came on. "Well... So this is what you guys bring. Feeling and Beauty."

Greg looked at his sister and shrugged, unsure what Sentinel was babbling about.

"... Right, mingebags. You don't know. Alright, I was the first here. I brought meaning- a home for us. Jack was the second, and he brought form- the desert. You two brought feeling- the dark skies- and beauty- that glorious salloon."

"... riiight. You... don't sound insane." said Melissa.