The Suppressor

"So this artifact..it could be the doorway to your world?"
"No. The lock that seals the door. My kind...we call it...the Suppressor."

- Clive Cullin and the Whisperer^(src)

The Suppressor

The Suppressor was a Celestial artifact left on Earth.

Overview

The Suppressor is an octahedral device, twelve feet tall and six feet wide. It is composed of shifting plates that constantly move and morph into different geometric patterns. It apparently prevents the opening of a stormgate on a world. The Suppressor generates a "quantum choir," akin to voices.

History

"Got it in sight. But it’s not a cavern. More like a pocket...the Artifact’s here. Biggest one we’ve ever seen. And it’s definitely active."

- Julian Nassar^(src)

The Suppressor was buried somewhere in Earth's Arctic at or after the conclusion of the First Invasion. The Infernals were apparently aware of the Suppressor at the time, but were unable to find it. The Infernal known as the Whisperer, who had been left behind on Earth, was aware of the device, but had to rely on human patsies to find it, and given humanity's limited capabilities, she found them wanting in this regard.

In the early 22nd century, the Suppressor was unearthed by a Sigma 6 team led by Dr. Clive Cullin, who had come under the Whisperer's influence. They were led to the Suppressor's resting place, where they found it surrounded by an energy field. While Sigma 6 had found artifacts prior to the Suppressor, it was not in quantum flux, but instead, fully physical and active. The Whisperer instructed Cullin to destroy it, and with the rest of his team in the dark, Sigma Polar was built around the Suppressor's pit. The Suppressor itself was kept in the Artifact Chamber.

The Suppressor, now inert

While Cullin was aware of the Suppressor's true name and purpose, he instructed his team to call it "the Key," and led his team to believe that it could be used to open a doorway to another world. All it would need to activate was a boost of energy. In truth, Cullin intended to use that energy to destroy the Suppressor, as in truth, it was already fully active, preventing the Infernals from returning to Earth. However, the Suppressor proved itself immune to human technology—nuclear, sonic, kinetic, thermal, nothing worked. Cullin realized that destroying the Suppressor was beyond the means of human technology, but not giving up, he intended to use the energy of an interplanetary coronal mass ejection, coupled with capacitors, to destroy the device. The magnetic waves of the ICME hitting Earth's atmosphere would be harnessed by a dynamo relay, and focused on the Suppressor in a single burst of energy, through refracted lasers down into the chamber. The first attempt was thwarted by Lilla Nassar (apparently under the influence of an unknown entity), but the second went ahead years later. The Suppressor was rendered inert, allowing the Infernals to again invade Earth.

Trivia

• The inert form of the Suppressor bears resemblance to Ulnar from the StarCraft universe.

• The timeframe of the Suppressor appears to shift within the context of Beyond the Brink. It is referenced as having been on Earth "for centuries," but is also placed in the context of the First Invasion, which took place 8000 years before the events of Stormgate.