1.127

Arms straining and your own heart pounding in your chest, you scramble up the skeletal framework surrounding the heart. Quickly, you reach the connections where your jury-rigged defibrillator has been secured to the surface of the heart. You set the last few links, then nervously you reach down to the electric leech and scratch its belly with your gloved hands.

The leech contorts, and you jerk your hand away as a massive shock fires through the device and into the heart’s flesh. A few moments later comes another jolt, and then another and another. Over the constant cracks and through the strobing flashes of arcing electricity, you hear the heart beating steadily. You did it! The heart's been stabilized.

You hastily remove the device. The heart’s beat remains regular, but the beats seem to be growing weaker. Something is still very wrong.

If you are on THE CAGE CRUMBLES, go to 1.127a

If you have completed CARDIAC THERAPY, go to 1.128.

Otherwise, continue reading:

Rangers Choose

A) Let the heart pass away.

You've done all you can. Even though the heart is beating steadily, it's clearly lost the will to live. Perhaps this is for the best, for its long years of torment will finally be at an end.

Go to 1.127a

B) Don't give up!

You can tell that the heart is tormented; even someone with no sensitivity to such things can perceive the raging emotions emanating from it. Now that the heart's beating steadily, you just need a little more time to help it release its emotions. Perhaps then it will come to see that life is still worth living.

Complete the CLEAR mission.

Complete CARDIAC THERAPY to save the heart.

1.127A

Quietly and without a fuss, the heart stops. You feel tremendous grief at the passing of such a unique being well up within you, but it’s tempered by the knowledge that it's now at peace.

For a long moment, you stand silently, staring at the heart. But then you hear a loud crack from the vaulted ceiling above. The stone sunders, and at the center of the chamber, a large chunk falls to the ground with a terrific boom. The lights go out, and all is plunged into darkness.

Complete all Story and Interlude missions. Record SILENCED THE HEART and record 1.129 above the next day on the campaign tracker.

End the day.