Part 119: Episode CXVI: Deus Ex Machina

Episode CXVI: Deus Ex Machina

Music: Omen


Driving back the Solarian interceptor forces, we took to the floating continent, Mahanon.
It was a pretty awesome battle. But I guess you will just have to take my word on it...


It was the central hull of a colossal spacecraft with a diameter of at least 40 kelts. Judging from the condition of the hull, we estimated the ship was thousands of years old.


It was determined, by examining the inside of the wreckage, that some kind of accident occurred on this ship about 10,000 years ago... which forced it to crash onto our planet.
“Alien beings that came to our planet from a far off galaxy, aeons ago..." Could it possibly have been that our ancestors were the passengers of this ship and had crash landed here on this planet...






"Alpha 1 to Razael Central. Access confirmed. Initializing fake net. Disconnected. Activating emergency shelter...denied."










The party soon stumbles upon a Lovecraftian horror stuck in stasis. Something tells me we probably shouldn’t be poking around this place for shits and giggles.


'It' gave off an inexplicable air of intimidation. Perhaps it was more than a gut reaction. Perhaps it was the fear of the 'Absolute' that came from the very depths of our inherited instincts...




Like any good horribly mutated bio-organic weapon, the creature immediately gets pissed someone woke it up and shatters its stasis capsule to attack the interlopers.


Anyhow, meet Deus. If you’ve brushed up on your hamfisted plot resolutions or cyber-punk shooters, you might have heard the word “Deus” before. But if not, it is Latin for god. Yup. Meet the god those Solaris jerks have been scrambling to wake up. I guess 10,000 years stuck at the bottom of the ocean hasn’t done much for its complexion...


Deus here is a big ‘ol gimmick boss. You see, if we attack it...


It immediately fully heals itself. Which, ya know...is a bit problematic when fighting a boss.




Deus’ other primary attack is releasing some manner of gas that damages everyone in the room, including itself, for 50% damage. I think you can see where this is going. Deus will occasionally swipe at someone for a couple thousand HP of damage. It also has another magic technique that has the power to cause ePSXe to hang indefinitely when cast. Powerful indeed. But, mostly it just keeps diminishing everyone’s HP by half.






Once the total damage it is outputting against itself reaches less than 5,000 then we can just have Fei flip on System Id, perform a Level Infinity Deathblow, and kill the jerk in one attack. Super easy boss, except for that whole emulator technical issues thing.


”...That was lame. Bleh. Whatever. Maybe Grahf will leave me the hell alone now that god is dead.”

Deus’ corpse and the platform it was hanging out on sinks into the depths...




Click to view cutscene




So down the hall from the B.O.W. god we find the Death Star core. Hey... I think I remember this one too...




"Omega 1, they are attacking! We can't stop them. 98% of our weapons have been taken over!"






Fei takes the time to strike a pose against the sci-fi super technology. The man knows his priorities.


In its center were two gently glowing objects. It was the source of divine wisdom... It was 'Razael's Tree'. And the cavern itself was a giant computer called Razael.
”I'm not really an expert on theism terms or anything, but shouldn’t this be ‘Raziel’? Ya know, like the soul sucking jawless guy? Did nobody proofread this thing?”


Citan hops on the nearest platform and begins typing away on a console and err...creates sheet music around the monoliths. I’m not sure if I am comfortable with Citan Uzuki dicking around with the knowledge of the gods...




A large unmanned strategic weapon and its battalion of terminal interface weapons, travelling from star system to star system. And a gargantuan mothership used to carry them...


The creation of the -Malakh- angel... God's army to reign over the vast universe with... And the construction of a divine ark.


These weapons were called, 'Yabeh', the inter-planetary invasion weapon system.


What the Gazel Ministry was pursuing was right here.


According to the data, the giant, rotting organism we just defeated was in fact the nucleus of this system.


We were on the verge of accessing the data for the object called... 'Zohar'... the central neural circuit and power source controlling the entire system, from the weapons to the mothership... When...


”Did somebody say...’POWER’!?”


”Son of goddamned freakin’ BITCH!”









"Doc...what the HELL did any of that mean? That was more barely explained Proper Nouns than a Gazel Ministry session and a half."
"I will try. It would appear this giant space craft was some manner of colony ship called the Eldridge, which crashed on the planet 10,000 years ago."
"So it's from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away...?"
"Indeed. We are all probably descendants from the survivors of the crash."
"So we're aliens?"
"Insofar as not originating from this world? Yes."
"Okay. So what's that giant glowy thinger that looks like the Death Star core?"
"That would be the Razael central core. It appears to be a giant super computer databank for the Eldridge."
"'kay. What is all that Malakh and Yabeh junk?"
"It seems, when functioning normally, the Eldridge mothership would colonize a new world by unleashing a horde of drones known as -Malakh- or angels to wipe out any resistance and/or hostile lifeforms on a planet in order to make it suitable for colonization by humans."
"Awesome."
"Yabeh is a bad translation of Yahweh...Jehovah...God. It is just another name for Deus."
"Oh yeah. What the HELL was that thing? That was freaky looking."
"Deus/Yabeh/God is the central nucleus of the interplanetery invasion system."
"...Easier example, doc?"
"Deus is the Overmind to the Malakh's Zerg. While we do not personally have access to this information, we can deduce from the opening movie that it went out of control and caused the Eldridge's crash onto this planet."
"Ah. Alright, so it's the big boss. And the Zohar thingie?"
"It is some manner of immense power source. It seems to be located elsewhere..."
"POWER!"
"Goddammmit, doc!"




Entering Razael Core FMV




Deus First Stage Concept Art – Aww. Lil’ baby Deus from way back in the prologue where it massacred millions of people.


Deus Second Stage Concept Art – Toddler Deus taking his first steps.


Deus Third Stage Concept Art – Modern day Deus with nobody having cleaned its fish bowl in ten millennium. That is not how to treat your deities, people.