Sector Fornax

Sector Fornax

"Sector Fornax is a large storage facility made up of geometric patterns. The main motif seems to be equilateral and reverse triangles. It looks like a giant storage facility for data. There's memories of everything here... absolutely everything."

—Black box data, Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Sector Fornax is the sixth sector that the Red Sprite's crew investigates inside the Schwarzwelt.

Appearances

• Shin Megami Tensei: Strange Journey

Profile

Sector Fornax is the most inhuman sector of the Schwarzwelt, as it resembles more a massive supercomputer than an actual human dwelling.

The Red Sprite 's crew lands here after the crash induced by The Three Wise Men, witness a vision in which the Schwarzwelt Joint Project tries to firebomb the dimension with nuclear bombs (despite agreements not to do so while the Red Sprite was still inside) and are left to realize the graviton radio, a key component of their Schwarzwelt escape, is totally destroyed, and they are left with no choice but to analyze the energy band the Protagonist seized after Ouroboros' death, concluding it is a rare form of energy known as Exotic Matter, and that it serves the same purpose as Rosettas, only it keeps leading to new sectors instead of a giant circle as Rosettas did. Concluding it's best to investigate rather than give up, the crew is forced to continue onward.

Soon after landing on Fornax, the Protagonist is encountered by Louisa Ferre, who warns him the Demon Leaders of the first four sectors are fully unhindered in Fornax and are thus likely to seek revenge for their defeats. Soon after, he is ambushed by Morax, who sheds his lesser form and rises as Moloch; despite the power augmentation, he loses again. Passing past Moloch's defeated form, the Protagonist reaches a wide area where three doors lead to different sections of Fornax's basement; the other three Kings clamor from the basements they will kill the Protagonist in payment for their past defeats. One of the doors, however, contains an invisible demon which cannot be detected and can impunely attack the Protagonist.

The first of the basements explored can either lead to Orcus or to Mithras and a piece of Rare Forma; in either case, when said demon is defeated, Arthur reports an emergency and summons the crew to inform them of the latest development of the Jack's Squad issue; the Lightning has entered a stationary mode in which it created with its enhanced technology a small subspace sector for the Squad's use, with laboratories and garrisons. Interested, the Protagonist and Jimenez visit them, only for Ryan, the squad's subcommander, to reiterate the policy not to mess with each other. Setting the issue aside, he offers to purchase Bugaboo from Jimenez, but he politely but firmly puts down the offer.

Sensing something was wrong with the squad, Jimenez remained behind in their HQ to spy on them. Begrudgingly agreeing, Zelenin supports him and the crew proceeds to destroy the third Leader and acquire a new piece of Rare Forma. When this is done, they are again summoned by Arthur, who reports Jimenez has not reported; soon after, Jack radioes an infuriate message issuing a complete relationship breakdown, stating Jimenez was found destroying vital equipment and releasing demons. He concludes the message by indicating Jimenez would pay for his act by serving as a guinea pig in the squad's experiments.

Hurrying back to the squad's HQ, the Protagonist found several heavily mauled and wounded demons, some kept alive in gruesome conditions in stasis tanks to serve as spare parts for weaponry. Horrified by this, he released whatever demons he could and switched off the stasis tanks, as those demons were already beyond help. Finding the Lightning locked, he was forced to slaughter most of the squad and found the secret laboratory area, where Jimenez and Bugaboo were to be used in a fusion experiment using a flawed Demon Fusion technique. Begging the Protagonist to use his Demonica to access the Demon Fusion Program, Jimenez is fused with Bugaboo either the Protagonist heeds his request or not.

Following this, Jimenez rips open the Lightning 's deck hatch and is confronted by Jack's best demons, while the Protagonist set about disarming Jack himself. After a battle, Jack lost, and begged for his life. Spitting his own words back, Jimenez killed Jack. After this, he tried to do the same to Ryan, even after he surrendered the squad's combat data and rare forma without a fight. However, Zelenin intervened and Jimenez was sent to be inspected at sickbay. Ryan, desperate to bargain, handed over a third Rare Forma piece.

Using the three rare forma, the Enemy Search function was upgraded so the Protagonist could see the invisible demon - Asherah, who was added to the Protagonist's kill list, and proceeded to Fornax's sublevels until he found the leading demon of the Sector, Mother Tiamat. Vowing to rebirth all defeated demons, Tiamat attacked. She was, however, defeated, dropping her Rare Forma and Exotic Matter.

With this in place, the crew, shaken by the events of Fornax, left the sector for Sector Grus.

Alice's EX Mission

If the player explores one of Fornax's many dead ends, the protagonist will come in contact with a strange girl challenging him to find and corner "the rabbit". After completing the request, the girl will proceed to brutalize the rabbit by skinning it alive, shoving it in saltwater, and by finally eating him; at any point, the protagonist can stop Alice, even before she starts harming the rabbit. In either case, the girl attacks, revealing herself as the Fiend Alice; upon her defeat, she sadly cries in defeat and fades.

After Alice' defeat and destruction, the rabbit will reappear, regardless of whether the player stopped his torture or not, and thanks the protagonist for releasing the curse that kept both him and Alice unable to move on. He grants the protagonist a rare forma and Alice is unlocked for fusion, and gives a Bead Chain if Alice was not allowed to torture him.

Demons

Black Box Data

Demons appearing in Sector Fornax include:

• Kaiwan
• Balor
• Hel
• Gurr
• Rukh
• Zaccoum
• Strigoii
• Manticore
• Alraune
• Gryphon
• Atropos
• Lachesis
• Clotho
• Ose
• Taotie
• Throne
• Da Peng
• Grendel
• Catoblepas
• Decarabia
• Tlaltecuhtli
• Kinmamon (Enemy Search A)
• Hanuman (Enemy Search B)
• Black Rider (Enemy Search)
• Alice (Boss; Ex-Mission)
• Moloch (Boss)
• Mithras (Boss)
• Orcus (Boss)
• Asherah (Boss)
• Tiamat (Sector Boss)