Playing In The Night [Dao x Peregrine]

GuanYue

sorrow made you.
Original poster
FOLKLORE MEMBER
Posting Speed
  1. Speed of Light
  2. Multiple posts per day
  3. 1-3 posts per day
  4. One post per day
  5. 1-3 posts per week
  6. One post per week
  7. Slow As Molasses
Writing Levels
  1. Give-No-Fucks
  2. Intermediate
  3. Adept
  4. Advanced
  5. Prestige
  6. Adaptable
Preferred Character Gender
  1. Male
  2. Female
  3. Nonbinary
  4. Transgender
  5. Primarily Prefer Male
Genres
Modern Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Sci-fi Futuristic, Cyberpunk, Victorian, Steampunk, Dieselpunk, time period fantasies, semi-realism, slice of life, organization/agencies, gangs, dystopian, dark, comedy, medieval fantasy
This is a roleplay between @Peregrine and Dao Ma. Something something post apocalyptic, 20 years into the future after attacks from mysterious night beasts began. Sanctuaries, forts and compounds have been created to keep the surviving humans alive. But with danger lurking every night, there is always something bound to happen.



Cadence Shelby. A brought young woman that had survived for nineteen years already. But living in Compound AG-20734 aka Fort Brendan had really done nothing for her sense of awareness besides mask it with false securities. For Brendan seemed impenetrable. And for the most part, it was. Spare for the stupid kids that dared each other to sneak past the guards out to the wall barriers about the time the sun went down, nothing particularly exciting seemed to happen here. But that was for the best. At least... that's what everyone told Cadence. Boring was safe. Boring meant that nothing bad was going to happen. Boring meant living another day in comfort. Boring meant alive. But for someone that grew up sheltered and locked within the confines of Fort Brendan, boring was... well, boring.

"Dare you to go past the wall, Caddy." Jake Turnlock chided, nodding his head over to the large wall that separated safety from the dangerous wild. The sun was setting and orange light glimmered off of the security lights posted at equal intervals all along the top of the wall. "You bitched out last time."

"I didn't bitch out, Jake. My dad found out I was out here." She snapped back, posturing at him.

"You're an adult now. Why does your dad have such a tight grip on you still? Rebel a little." Despite them all being around the same age, it was common knowledge around the area that Cadence still has a curfew, ground and house rules, and a somewhat overprotective father. Even more common knowledge was that Cadence liked to hang out with the misfits to at least spark something interesting in her life.

"She's not going to do it, Jake." A third voice piped up. Another male, Chad. "She blames her dad but she's just scared like everyone else."

"I'm not like everyone else." Cadence pouted, furrowing her brow and stepping back from Jake. "I'm not scared either. I bet there's really nothing out there. Just watch. I'll cross the wall and I'll stand out there at night. Jerks." With that, she headed toward the wall, being use to use the guard supply crates as cover. They were making rounds now, preparing to shut it off for the night. She could hear the guards corresponding with one another. "Okay guys. I need you to make sure the small gate stays unlocked." She looked back to Jake and Chad, noting their confirmation nods. "Ready?"

It was a matter of simple distraction and Cadence managed to slip out through the one-person door out to the other side. She pressed her back against the wall, heart pounding as she heard the door close behind her. Jake and Chad were still inside, watching from the small slit in the door. Taking a few deep breaths, she looked out. It was.. rather amazing really. Lackluster, but amazing. And with the light sinking further and further in the sky, everything began to change colors. Orange turned to purple and purple turned to blue. With a few more breaths, Cadence pushed herself off of the wall and took a few shaky steps forward. So far so good. No monsters. Nothing at all. It was just... normal. She turned around to look toward the door and struck a pose. Nothing was going to stop her now!

"Told you I'd do it." She replied quietly, knowing fully well no one would be able to hear her. She started to walk back to the door, but found that it wouldn't open. "Very funny guys. Open the door." She patted her hand on the door, then tried to push it again. "Guys, come on!" She hissed, feeling the ebb of frustration. A couple bangs on the door, and she tried it again. It was locked. "Not funny, Jake! Chad! Open up!" Now a wave of panic started to set in. Little did she know that a good few minutes ago, a couple of guards toted them a distance away from the door.
 
That night, the Hukuru was once again struck by that strange sense of wrongness. The sensation had been haunting it, like an echo of a long-forgotten memory, for months now. Not constant, not persistent, no. It had come and gone, lost under the bloodlust of the hunt, or the bright intensity of dawn. And then Hukuru would forget all about it, forget that strange feeling had ever dwelt inside itself, until it suddenly returned. It would return in the moments of stillness, that half-realized moment at the edge of dusk when it had yet to fully form, but was still aware of its surroundings, or a quiet moment, when there was nothing around it but the stars glinting in the sky and the perfect silence of the night.

But, what was worst, was that every time the wrongness came back, it came back stronger. Perhaps that was why the Hukuru couldn’t remember when it had first noticed the sensation. It had been nothing but a vague prickling then, easily dismissed and easily ignored. Now, though. Now the sensation grabbed at the shadowy creature, wrapping around it like some strange binding, and then squeezing.

At first, it had tried to find some measure of distraction in the hunts, in serving those few greater than it, and, when that had failed, it had turned its attention to humanity. Their enemy. The losing side of a war that would determine the rulers of the world. Small, stubborn creatures, lacking any form of unity, but still persisting against the continued, neverending tide of Zvose that plagued them.

And that’s where the Hukuru found itself that night, when the wrongness returned far more strongly than it ever had. It had led an army of Zvose towards a small settlement, one that had set up high walls and strong defenses in a desperate bid for survival. The Hukuru’s army was small, considering the enemy they faced, and it was the only one of its rank amongst the swarm. It was clear that the Mukuru expected nothing from this battle, and the Hukuru couldn’t blame them. Aside from the Hukuru, the next strongest Zvose was a Zvakaipa, a full three ranks down from the Hukuru. This fight was destined to failure before it even began. The only point of it was to test the walls, test for weakness, and see if they might finally have a chance to crack the shell of this fortress, and dig out the treat that waited inside.

As for the sacrifice of the lesser ranked Zvose? The Hukuru didn’t care about that at all. Such was their role in life. There were more than enough others in the world that the death of this entire troop would be no particular loss. Well, except for itself, of course. If the Hukuru hadn’t volunteered for the job itself, it never would have been put on a task of such little importance.

The Hukuru spread its wings, talons opening and closing reflexively as it imagined piercing through a human. That was as close as it would get to bloodshed tonight, as the lesser Zvose let out a cacophonous wail before charging towards the wall. They came from two sides at once, washing around the walls like the tide striking against a rock, racing forward to meet each other in the middle. If there was any crack in this settlement’s defenses, they would find it.

Unconsciously, the Hukuru licked its lips, the sense of wrongness all but forgotten in the rush of battle adrenaline. This was how it was supposed to be.
 
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The small wave of panic turned into pure fear when Cadence realized that she was actually locked out of Fort Brendan. Her pleads to be let in fell on deaf walls and only bounced back to the encroaching darkness. Tears started to well up in her eyes and her body trembled. Standing there banging wasn't doing anything. She needed to find another way in. Knowing the compound from the inside, she knew that there was a door on the far side much like this one. She had to try it. Maybe guards were making their rounds over on that side. With a few quick breaths to try and ease her panic, she bolted, keeping close to the wall to try and make it to the other side.

It was then that she heard a massive crash and some unearthly screech, forcing her to cover her ears with her hands. The ground shook under her. Or maybe it was the walls themselves. She looked up as the warning sirens began to sound off, resounding and echoing off of the barren trees nearby. Flood and spotlights flashed on and began to move in the direction of the contact point. It was just ahead of her around the edge of the building. She could see the edges of... something moving. And how it was moving, it would surely flow over toward her.

"No... no, no, they're here...!" She cried out, turning tail and heading back toward the door she came from. With nothing to protect herself, she was completely defenseless if they saw her. Little did she realize that they had attacked from two sides, and she would meet them no matter which direction she went.

Before she made it back to the door, she saw more massive movement as the spotlights swung around, illuminating the dozens and dozens of black masses of beasts. Soon, she was overwhelmed. They moved too fast, and there were far too many for her to do much of anything. All she could do was run, and this time, it was away from the fort that she called home. She was forced into the forest when the guards opened fire, attempting to mow down the low ranked creatures that attacked it.
 
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The Hukuru watched the battle from the back line, perched lightly on the top of a tall tree, which swayed only slightly under his weight. Between his perspective from on-high and the feel of the swarm of Zvose that covered the battlefield, the Hukuru was able to get an accurate representation of the entire battle. The walls were tight and strong, and the Kubatsira, the lowest level of consumable Zvose, could only crash uselessly against it. From the top of the wall, the gunfire of humans rang down on their dark forms, causing them to crumple up against the wall, before cascades of fire washed over their form, scattering them into misty darkness.

When they’d first begun the battle against humanity, the Zvose had been able to overwhelm many human compounds simply by piling corpses up against the walls until they’d created a literal ramp of bodies. However, that only worked until humanity realized that their enemies were almost as weak to fire as they were to sunlight, and the corpses would quickly vanish if they were exposed to even a trace of flame, and might even begin to disappear if exposed to a bright flame when still alive. This had given humanity, the masters of fire and explosives, an undeniable advantage in the war. Of course, they didn’t realize that burning corpses did nothing to lessen the overall number of the Zvose, and only served to temporarily dispose of their bodies until the next night. The Hukuru didn’t worry about the flame, or the sound of the Kubatsira dying. That’s what they were there for. This first wave would inevitably be a failure. The Hukuru’s next probe would come from other directions, from on high as winged Zvose attacked from above, and down below as those Zvose who could enter or tunnel through the earth would try and dig their way under the walls. No new tactics, nothing this stronghold hadn’t seen and survived a hundred times before. It was just a simple test.

The Hukuru was rapidly growing disinterested, and considering entering the battle itself, when it suddenly noticed a shadowy form sprinting across the open ground between the encampment wall and the forest. A growl rumbled through it, and its first instinct was to send a mental push towards the deserter, forcing it back towards the wall. However, when the figure didn’t even stagger, the Hukuru suddenly realized that something was wrong. That wasn’t one of the Zvose. That was a human.

The growl of rage instantly transformed into a keen of excitement, as it leaped out of the air, massive wings spreading open to propel it forward across the tops of the trees, before it dove down towards the human from on high.

Instantly, the night was transformed into a much darker level of black, as the Hukuru’s form enveloped the smaller human. Tendrils of shadow snaked around her arms and legs, pinning her to the ground. The Hukuru’s claws moved forward, about to tear through her chest, when it suddenly froze from the overwhelming sense of wrongness.

For a moment the Hukuru lingered there, ignoring the small creature’s struggling and screaming, before it leaned forwards, bringing its own face scant inches away from the human’s. It lingered there, standing, staring. Uncertain.

What was this human doing out here? Why had she left her encampment? How had she even been able to leave her encampment and run away when there’d been a battle going on? Why hadn’t one of her superiors called her back?

These questions burned inside the Hukuru like the heat of a flame, or the rays of the sun, forcing all other thoughts or impressions from its mind. For a moment, it even forgot about the ongoing battle, leaving the other Zvose without direction or guidance. Unknown to it, the fight slowed, the Zvose growing confused and unsure at the sudden lack of direction, until instinct and the cries of several Zvakaipa drove them back to the fight.

The Hukuru had tasted human flesh before. It knew their tongue. And so, for the first time, the Hukuru disregarded its instinct, its drive to hunt. Instead it spoke, in a thick, raspy voice that was somehow still intelligible.

“What are you doing out here?”
 
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Cadence could feel the night consume her. The darkness sent a chill through every inch of her body, setting her lungs on fire and making her body ache as she continued to run. She had no idea where to go, what to do. She just knew that if she remained stationary too long, she would be killed. Even still, moving could just as easily alarm one of those beasts. But she couldn't think about that. She just couldn't think.

It all happened so suddenly once she entered the forest, she barely could grasp the situation. One moment she was running, the next inky blackness enveloped her and sent her crashing to the ground. Stinging from the landing was greatly overshadowed by the pains and fears of what had caught her. She was hysterical--tears stained her face and made her hair and dirt and debris stick to her cheeks while her screams ripped from her lungs. Even a few pleads to be let go escaped her. But deep down she knew this was it. This was the end. There was no hope and she was that stupid girl that left the fort on a dare and got herself killed for it. If she had the piece of mind for it in that moment, she would have hoped that the boys would feel guilty for pressuring her into this. This was just as much their fault as it was hers!

The death wasn't instant. Was the beast taking its dear sweet time? Did these things like to watch people suffer? Cadence hadn't ever actually seen one up close. She had only seen glimpses of them on security cameras and what people had sketched up. But this one... even through the darkness and shadows of the trees... looked nothing like what she could have ever imagined.

Then it began to lean in. It was going to kill her! It was going to rip out her throat or eat her face or something with that general idea in mind! Her screaming died down, only because now, she felt petrified under the beast's gaze. Everything around her seemed to deafen. The sounds of the attack in the distance faded out as all of her focus centered on the fact that she was waiting for the moment death would take her.

But then through the deafening silence, there was a single question.

"W-What?" Did she hear right? Her voice was cracked and shaken from her prior hysterics. Did this thing really ask her what she was doing out here? Or was there a chance that someone had come out here for her? Maybe, in some twisted way, this was all a nightmare that she couldn't wake up from. It didn't make sense, but what other choice did Cadence have besides to answer?

"I-I got-ot I got locked out." She stammered followed by a sob. "I-It was a supposed to be a joke! I was supposed to go outside and come back inside, but the door locked--please! Don't kill me!" She spoke quickly, trembling, and it built up to her panic once more. She could barely focus on anything else.
 
The Hukuru didn't know what jokes had to do with this creature going outside the walls, if it properly understood the meaning of the word, a joke shouldn't have anything to do with something so serious. As for it not killing her, that still remained to be seen.

But for all the ambiguity that was contained within both of those thoughts, neither of them stirred the sense of wrongness so much as her saying the door locked. The door, her way back in, it was closed? Why would it have been closed if she was supposed to go outside? How was she supposed to follow through on the order of coming back inside if the door was closed? That was a truly foolish way of getting her to accomplish her order. The Hukuru was certain that even the Vazhinji, stupid lesser creatures as they were, wouldn't give such a blatantly contradictory order.

The body of the human was soft under the Hukuru's claws, and its unconscious urged it to tear into her, to rip her to pieces and consume her flesh. But it ignored the impulse, allowing the sense of wrongness that it had tried to ignore for so long hold its instincts in check. There was no thought that was going to answer the questions it had. It would have to ask. And if the human didn't answer for some reason? Well, then the Hukuru would just have to eat her.

"If you were ordered to go out and come back in, why would the door be locked?"
 
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This was torture--waiting to see just how this monster was going to kill her. Even worse, was that it was asking her questions. Did it want her to tell it how to get inside? Doing that could kill everyone. She couldn't tell it! Her death couldn't be in vain! She had to be a hero in some form! But the question it asked wasn't exactly one that she expected. It was more of a curious one. Ordered to go out? That didn't make sense.

Wait, did it think that she was... a soldier?

By now Cadence had stopped struggling. The skin of her arms and legs burned from being gripped and held down. Tears still flowed, but slightly less as she tried to focus on the questions at hand. "I wasn't ordered!" She squeaked, her own guilt crushing her and making her sob again. "We're not supposed to leave the fort--it was a game--M-my friends and I dared each other to leave the fort against orders to see who was bravest--Oh god, I didn't mean to...!" Better admit to her sins right then and there. Judgement was staring her straight in the face, after all. Fear, guilt, regret... worse than this beast, her acknowledgement of her own stupidity was cutting into her.
 
“Against orders?”

The Hukuru hadn’t intended to repeat her words, but they were so staggering to it that it couldn’t help but repeat them. The words were all but nonsense, oxymoronic. It understood what they meant theoretically. Not do what you were told. Behave differently than ordered. Disobey.

But how was that even possible? Orders were absolute. Irrevocable. There was no way to go against orders. But, from the sound of what this human had just said, it wasn’t just her but also her friends who had been going against orders.

The Hukuru unconsciously released the human, backing away a step as though she contained some sort of virus. As though she might infect him with this orderlessness. Of course, its dark purple eyes didn’t stray an inch from her form, and its claws continued to open and close, as though trying to tear the air. But it didn’t move.

“How?” It finally asked. “How did you go against orders?”
 
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She didn't understand. What did it mean how did she go against orders? Why was it asking something like this? As soon as she was released, she curled her arms to her chest and rubbed over where it had been holding her down. She then pushed herself to sit up. But as she looked back up to the monster, she felt that she was still trapped. As if it still had a hold on her. She couldn't move.

Tears had finally stopped, and she was able to breathe a little bit, albeit shakily. "I don't... What do you mean?" She muttered in her initial thought. "I just did... I.. I don't know, free will?" How was she supposed to answer? Was she supposed to give a morality answer? A practical answer? That question was loaded in more ways than the creature could possibly know.
 
The human girl's confusion was almost perfectly mirrored, if not increased, in the Hukuru. The only difference was it was better at hiding it. For several long moments it remained standing there, looking like nothing so much as a shadow of the trees in the darkness of the night, trying to find a way to understand the answer the human had just given it.

But no matter how much the Hukuru thought, it was unintelligible. How could the human not know what it meant? It wasn't like it was that difficult of a question. All it wanted to know was how she had gone outside when she'd clearly been told not to. No, her answer wasn't even an answer.

For one moment, the Hukuru was tempted to simply bite her head off. She wasn't one of the Zvose. It couldn't give her orders, like it could to all the lesser ranks. There was no guaranteeing that anything she told it would even be true. Eating her would be so much simpler. Then it could get back to its own job of testing the walls of the settlement.

The sense of wrongness held it in place. That sensations scratched at its innards like some worm that had crawled down the Hukuru's throat. It writhed inside him the way a Mukuru's orders would. Impossible to ignore. Impossible to exist. There was something terribly, terribly wrong in this situation, and if the Hukuru didn't figure out what it was... it didn't know what would happen. Maybe nothing. That didn't make ignoring it an option.

That did not make its desire to bite off the human's head any less.

"Answer the question!" the Hukuru demanded, voice some strange combination of guttural and shrieking. "Why are you able to go against orders?"
 
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When the beast shrieked, Cadence did as well. Tears sprung up again. She didn't understand what it wanted. "Because I wanted to!" She cried out. She didn't know how else to explain it. "I wanted to prove that I could." She was frustrated. It seemed like her answers weren't what it was looking for. And then it clicked. It wasn't asking why she went against orders, per se. It was asking how.

It was then Cadence dared to do something she never thought she would ever do. "Can you... not go against orders?" Tears had stopped again, and she was hoping that her guess was right. If it wasn't, well... she would be dead soon enough anyways.
 
The human wasn't the only one to have a realization lock into place with an almost audible snap. The Hukuru almost staggered slightly under the realization that, to this human, obeying orders was not a part of her very existence. It was like someone had walked up and said that they didn't need to eat, didn't need to rest, and could move through solid objects. It was... incomprehensible.

"The hierarchy is absolute."

It was both an answer to Cadence's question, and a self-affirmation. The Hukuru could still feel the bond to the Zvose that were assailing the human stronghold, and just to prove it could, to remind itself that the lives of the Kubatsira were nothing in comparison to a Hukuru's orders, it told one of them to freeze, watching dispassionately through their shared gaze as one of the human's balls of metal pierced through its head, causing its body to limply fall upon the ground.

Yes, the hierarchy was absolute. Orders were to be obeyed.

But if humanity had somehow... escaped the hierarchy, escaped it sufficiently that individual humans would flaunt their orders just to 'see if they could', how was their Allmother supposed to control Her children, and ensure they always returned to the fold? No Amaivezvose would ever stand for such behavior.

What was wrong with humanity? They didn't return during the day. It had taken the Zvose a long time to understand that, to figure out how the human world changed so greatly when the sun was in the sky. Now, the Hukuru was learning that they didn't have to follow orders, either?

No, there was something very, very, very wrong about humanity, about this strange child in front of it now, about all of them. And the Hukuru was going to figure out what it was.

Gradually, it pulled even further back, glowing eyes locked onto the human girl, sharp nails clicking unconsciously as it thought. "Is that not so for you?"
 
Cadence wasn't sure what the beast was doing. Though, it was very clear her answer didn't make sense to it. Maybe... maybe it really couldn't disobey orders. But that meant... who was really giving the orders? Those words echoed in her head for a long minute. The hierarchy is absolute. They had a hierarchy. Bees, is what came to mind. Were they like bees? Doing what they were told for the hierarchy?

She was able to sit up a little further as it backed up. "No it's not." She finally replied calmly. It was the first time she felt a false sense of calm since she stepped out of the fortress. "No, there's all kinds of systems but none are absolute." She added. She wanted to explain further, but wouldn't that be giving secrets to the enemy?

"No, we... My people have independent thought. We have our own opinions and can voice them and..." She wasn't entirely sure if it was making any sense to the beast. "We can make our own decisions freely. We agree on decisions, but we can also disagree. Nothing is absolute." She slowly began to rub her arms and legs, once again feeling the sting of life course through them. She was alive still, and the thing seemed a bit too bewildered to think about killing her in this moment...

Speaking of the things... "What... are you called? My name is Cadence. That's what I'm called." Maybe, just maybe, she would be able to get some more information out of it.
 
Nothing was absolute. The words seemed almost incomprehensible to the Hukuru, but not to the point that it truly couldn't understand the concept. They didn't have a hierarchy. Anyone could do anything they wanted, and there was nothing to stop them.

How could humanity function without a hierarchy? How had they not collapsed in on themselves long before the Zvose arrived? That was the incomprehensible part.

But one thing was for certain, the Hukuru wouldn't figure out anything by standing here thinking about it. If it wanted to learn more about humanity, it was going to have to find out more from humans. This one would be a fine place to start.

"I am Hukuru." Yes, when it was called, that was what was called for. If a Mukuru called, a Hukuru would come. Nothing else. "I would like to learn more, about your people."
 
"Hukuru..." Cadence echoed after him. Right. This was good. This was really good. Eventually she dared to stand and began to dust herself off. It wanted to learn, and she let the request linger for just a moment. "Good, learning is good." She took a deep breath to keep herself collected and looked back up at the beast. She had a curious thought though. Did it want to learn or did the hivemind want to learn? She had to chance it. It wasn't like the other creatures from what she could grasp. Especially not since it didn't kill her right away.

"I can help you learn. Keep me alive, and I'll help you learn as much as I can." It was a bargain for her life at this point. Maybe it was a cowardice thing to do, but Hukuru did seem almost genuinely intrigued. She bit her lower lip as she pushed herself to take a step forward toward Hukuru. "What do you say? Deal?"
 
The Hukuru considered Cadence's question with its head tilted slightly to the side, large eyes blinking. However, only a moment later, it nodded its head. "Deal."

It was, the Hukuru had decided, not a particularly risky deal. It was not as though the human would hold any sway over it should it have to go back on the deal. If she was dead, it would not gain any knowledge, but it would not lose anything it currently had, either. There was no way it could lose out on this deal.

A moment later, and it sat down in front of Cadence, a strange, lanky, shadowy student. "Please begin."
 
Oh. Well that was simple. She thought maybe it wouldn't take the deal. Or would want more conditions. She felt relieved, really. It was the first time this entire interaction that she felt like she had some kind of control over the chaos. Though with such powerful feeling came... great responsibility? She was somewhat startled when Hukuru sat down in front of her and waited for her to start teaching.

"W-Wait." She didn't even know where to begin. Her mind drew a blank with an audible 'uhhhh' as she tried to think of something to teach him first. "Okay, um.. let's start with some questions. What do you want to know about us first? Or rather, what do you know already? Yeah," she smacked her fist in the palm of her other hand. "Let's start with that." She paused though to look out of the forest toward the direction in which she thought she originally came from. "Are the... um... are they still attacking the fortress?"
 
The Hukuru frowned slightly at Cadence's inconsistent mumbling, wondering just how poor of a teacher it had found itself with. As far as it knew, teaching was about imparting knowledge to others, not asking for knowledge from the one being taught. Perhaps this was some strange human custom it and the rest of the Zvose were unaware of.

Deciding that was the most probable answer, the Hukuru decided to go along with the oddity of it all. If worst came to worst, it could always just eat the human and go find a different one for teaching.

At the very least, whether or not the Zvose were attacking the fortress was something that it knew already.

"They are still attacking," the Hukuru agreed. "The probing has not finished yet. I know this."