• Nobles of Null is a forum based roleplay site where sci-fi and magic collide. Here, Earth remains fractured and divided despite humanity reaching out to the stars. Worse still, the trans-human slaves of one major power have escaped, only to establish their own Empire, seething with resentment at abuses of the past. Even the discovery of aliens, though medieval in development, has failed to rally these squabbling children of Earth together with its far darker implications. Worse still, is the discovery of the impossible - magic. Practiced by the alien locals, nearly depleted and therefore rare, its reality warping abilities remains abstract and distant to the general populace. All the while, unseen in the darkness of space, forces from without threaten to press in. For those with eyes opened by insight, it is clear that an era is about to end, and that a new age will dawn.

Book 2: Trustfall

Uso

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Chapter 1: Captains and Circumstances

Planet Hawking,
Archology 23,
Geiben’s Quarters,

“GEIBEN! WAKE UP!”

It had been weeks since Geiben had arrived back on Hawking, and it had been months since his dismissal from the military. He had been left with this area of the archaeology, a wide, ocean-facing area that he could configure to his heart’s desires as he waited for some nebulous higher ups to decide what to do with him. There were no visitors during this time, except for the Military Police guards that were stationed out front.

But today was a new day.

Daylight was just starting to come up over the horizon, and Heram Wazu was already standing around, calling out to Geiben after letting himself in through the front door.

Heram himself looked different than normal. He still had the same muted colors before, the now short blackish-brown hair, his colorless grey eyes, simple lean build, and a seeming lack of major pigmentation of the skin. However it was his clothing that would stand out as the major change. Instead of the utilitarian clothing one might expect from an engineer or scientist, he was now wearing something a bit more expensive, perfectly tailored, black suit jacket with a green polo shirt underneath, jet black pants with a fashionable brown belt and shoes. It seemed to be about as formal as one could expect from him.

“HAVE YOU BEEN WATCHING THE NEWS?”

Heram didn’t wait for a response, instead simply pulling a small device out of his suit pocket and connecting to the local displays. Floating projections of the days news stories along with the drone of talking heads would cover the windows that had previously been looking out onto the ocean. They were discussing the upcoming election, the groups that were vying for votes and seats on the executive council, and the odds that a major upset could be on the horizon. There was a buzz of electricity about their words conveying a sense of excitement about something that no one seemed quite ready to spell out.

It was an excitement that even the normally calculating Heram was unable to keep out of his own words.

The Magnetic Assembly is going to take a majority of the votes in the upcoming election. They’ve already spoken with many of the smaller parties and will be at the head of the coalition government of the executive council.” He spoke with a speed to his words as if he couldn’t wait to get them out, seeming to forget he could speak quite quickly when he wasn’t trying to slow himself down for others, “... I know you are human, and perhaps never felt the pull the same way that those of the Assembly do but I this is the kind of thing you were meant for.”

"It's good to see you too, Mr. Wazu." Geiben yawned, then pulled himself out of bed to meet the sunlight. His home was sparsly decorated, mostly just what he possessed on the Edward Deming when he was still in command: a hanging model sailboat on the wall, a tidy closet of clothes, and a docked data pad on his desk. The Pacifican himself, Earth African in appearance but with a hint of German descent in his rather uncannily blue eyes, was far darker than he was back on the ship, a result of spending ample time swimming along the edge of the beach.

He was much more for, the confines of the space faring vessel and its false gravity replaced by the pristine ocean environment of Planet Hawking. Perhaps that was why Geiben hasn't gone insane despite weeks of isolation.

He stood up, wearing nothing but a pair of green and white striped trunks before throwing on a Hawaiian shirt. "I read the headlines, but I was never one for politics." Geiben walked over to the fridge. "Do you want beer, juice, or vat milk?"

“Unexpected.” Wazu stated, taking a moment to re-gather his thoughts before moving forward.

“No liquids for me.”

Another pause, as the metaphorical gears in his head turned over to another line of thought.

“Early polling is showing the Pro Alliance party having a 60 point drop in the polls. The Magnetic Assembly is picking up nearly all of that representation. They made this election a referendum about how the Alliance runs things, and for the first time people are placing their trust in the machines to run things.” Bubbling excitement was something that just seemed out of place for Heram, perhaps because he did not get much practice with it. “The Assembly supports how you handled things, and the people of Hawking don’t agree with how the Alliance dismissed you.”

There was another pause. A moment of calculation. Then a new approach applied.

“I am leading the transition team, we will advise the executive council on what actions need to be taken to secure this star system during this period and we only have DAYS to figure this all out. When the vote happens things are going to move fast and I want you on my team.”

"Hawking is going independent?" Geiben raised an eyebrow as he poured himself a glass of vat milk. "I'm flattered that the Assembly thinks this way, but…" He considered his conversation with Enid about building a new order. How was the pilot doing anyways? It's been weeks since they last talked.

"... How much time do we have before the system peels away from Alliance protection? I'd like nothing more than to give the people here a better alternative, but Hawking could end up being a second Kiwomia. Without the Alliance name, the Taianese will sure take the opportunity to take control of the system."

“Three weeks until the election. All the major parties are onboard and the speech given the next day will announce our withdrawal from the Alliance. Our job will be to account for every uncertainty so that we don’t find ourselves in the same position as Kiwomia.” Wazu had switched to a very direct look at Geiben, carefully judging his reaction at this point, “That includes such questions as how to deal with the remaining Alliance presence in the system.”

"The Edward Deming." Geiben crossed his arms. "And every other supply ship in the system. That's a lot of assets we're removing that could be used to maintain the system's independence. The captain and the crew as well."

"If the parties are on board, then that surely means they've already done some estimates about the system's capabilities, correct?"

“Nothing concrete. Each area has their own local defenses and there is a general understanding of how to manage things but no grand fleet to protect the system We’ve got the one warship… but the Alliance has mothballed a number of small escorts as well as all of their support ships. Those ships are docked in Hawking space too… along with the Edward Deming.

We have enough drones to keep commerce going in the system, and without having to supply a massive energy and material tithe to the Alliance we are free to start building some very large projects. The local area defenses should also be plenty to hold off anyone with ambition for the time being. Our stockpile of surface-launched anti-ship drones is unmatched.

But first, I need to form a team. Are you in or not?” Heram asked.

"I don't have much of a choice." Geiben gulped down the last of the vat milk. "It'll be difficult to find a job back in the Alliance as a discharged officer with no honors, and an opportunity to do some good and right in front of me. Count me in."

“You always have a choice… and I am glad to have you back. We will get you some additional clothing on the way and what weapons are you rated for?...” Heram was already on the way out the front door, heading into one of the main passageways of the Archology. There were high arched ceilings in this massive hallway that was large enough to support a shuttle flying through.

Near the other side of the hall were the two Alliance MPs, handcuffed and detained.

Green-Thumb was there as well, her normal bulky-armored-spacesuit having been replaced by the Warpig armor. It was larger, adding nearly another full foot to her height making her nearly 8 feet tall. The massive pack on the rear of the armor was full of weapons ranging from small drone launchers to a pair of missile tubes packing enough explosive power to level a city. She was supported by a pair of robotic mini-tanks and a small cluster of floating riot-shield drones.

“... This won’t be a small operation like before. A break-away like this means enemies will be taking real shots at us for what we do.”

"And we aren't going to fire real shots back… please." Geiben slipped on a pair of shoes, undocked his datapad, and grabbed a stun pistol from Green Thumb's arsenal. "I'm not your commander anymore, but do me a favor and not repeat Kiwomia." He gently knocked on her armor, then walked up to the two Alliance officers, with a sincere, apologetic grimace. "I'm sorry, but it appears the bureaucracy of the Alliance can't keep up with changing times. Once we send you back, you can put the blame on me."

“Things won’t get that bad. We won’t let them.” Wazu stated before pulling out a small display to check the time and his schedule, “... Now… Lets get you a starship…

...and a crew”
 

Uso

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Chapter 2: Cops and Soldiers

Geiben wasn’t the only one who had found themselves in a rough patch. Corgan had found himself in one of the local bars on Hawking. He sat at the bar chatting up a buxom Kishargal with red hair. She seemed like she was very engaged in the conversation, leaning forward and watching him intently. He was wearing his armored duster without his badge and a simple red shirt with black pants.

Corgan’s time with the Marshalls was now under review thanks to his participation on Kiwomia. This left him without work, effectively sidelined with nothing to do and an uncertain future.

But he wouldn’t be without certainty for long.

“Well, I holed up in a building with five other OGREs I was running with. We were defending a group of maybe thirty civvies from those fucking abominations.” He said, taking a sip from his glass and thumping it back down on the bar. “Suddenly I heard these horrible screams from deeper inside the building and I knew. I fucking KNEW that we were boned.”

He held up a finger. “But we didn’t run. We tried to save some of them. We almost reached the room where they were hiding when those… those things came bursting out of the room. It was quiet except for the scurrying of their disgusting legs. We lost two men and I lost an arm, but-”

“CORGI!”

444 shouted out what she thought was his name as she entered the bar, her eyes spotting him almost instantly despite the low light. The woman’s green hair tied back into a ponytail and her well toned body clad in a tight fitting armored bodysuit. She didn’t appear armed, though that had never stopped her before. The woman was an Echoni, a created creature, one that was only a few years old with a maturity to match. Though their kind had quite a range of abilities, this one seemed quite resilient and headstrong.

Corgan turned to confirm the identity of the person yelling across the bar and groaned.

Caxia says I’m supposed to talk to you.”

She would walk up to Corgan’s table, her eyes drawn right to his glass.

“What’s that?” She asked, reaching for the cup and quickly downing the drink,

“GHASAAGH! That’s horrible!” She’d already dropped the glass, letting it bounce off the floor and roll off somewhere… A rather offended looking bartender was about to say something, but the Echoni was already heading his way, putting one hand on the bar to support her weight as she leaped over, opening the transparent refrigerator behind him so that she could pick out a bottle of apple-juice.

The Kishargal woman seemed to recognize that 444 was trouble, because she got up and walked to the other side of the bar, searching for another interesting person to talk to. Corgan sighed and turned on his stool to face towards 444.

“What do you want?” He asked in annoyance. “You guys might have gotten me kicked out of the fucking Marshals. And if you didn’t notice, I was about to get some, not that you would understand. So go ahead. This better be good.”

“Juice usually.” 444 said, not needing any time to figure out what she wanted from life, her eyes widening slightly as the alcohol hit, “OH, It makes you feel warm and tingly…. It’s still terrible though.” She would end up standing next to the table Corgan was at, turning her attention towards him.

“Caxia said to talk to you because the other Echoni do what I want so you’ll probably do what I want.”

Corgan shrugged. “I don’t drink alcohol for the taste. It’s awful but it makes you feel better… and if you’re a regular human then it makes you feel worse. Thanks to Ayana Morita, that’s not a problem for me.” He said, waiting for her to continue.

She would pause a moment, as if she forgot what the rest of the conversation was supposed to be about. The Echoni taking a long drink from the bottle of apple juice she liberated from the back of the bar.

“Oh, and they want you to do stuff for them. You find and smash badguys, and the bag-people have badguys for you to find. So you should find them and they’ll give you stuff or whatever. They said you’re part robot so the bag people and the robot people will both be happy with you doing stuff.”

“Okay… I get the part where Caxia wants me to catch some “bad guys”, but who the hell are these bag-people and machine people?” Corgan asked, baffled by her cryptic language. “I really need more details before I agree to anything. Don’t want to end up on a crappy 2G planet full of disgusting spiders again.”

“You’re bag people…back home all of you wear those puffy bags to keep from getting sick or whatever. You’ll all squishy and afraid of being hurt of things which is why I’m here… gut I guess you have some of your people to smash things in ways less-good than I do… and then Caxia is one of the robot-people… like Dorris… Cyborts or whatever.”

444 would take another long drink from the apple-juice container while looking right at Corgan. She would then just stand there until it started to dawn on her that this might not be enough description for him,

“UGH, How much more do you need to know? You used to hunt bad guys and now you can hunt bad guys again. Protect all those squishy people and robots from bad guys that want to squish them and all that.”

Corgan would receive a message transmitted over the local network, complete with an offer for work an employment with the Hawking Police Force. The job seemed to include quite a bit of compensation in terms of pay, living space, and authority to setup his department however he liked. It looked like the local government wanted him to form a force similar to the marshals that could bring justice to people trying to escape said justice.

“Bag people and machine people. I see what you’re talking about.” Corgan said, looking down at his hands. It was hard to tell because of the technology but if someone looked closely they could tell his arms weren’t made of flesh. The color didn’t exactly match his skin, and the hairs were too uniform to be natural.

The information popped up in his field of vision and he scrolled through it mentally. “It looks like a good offer… Not like the Marshal Corps was actually going to reinstate me.” He admitted. “I am curious why Caxia thought you could influence my decision. The offer on its own sounds good enough. They must have thought you would function as a threat… or maybe thought I would be enticed by your form.”

Corgan shrugged. “I need a good second, somebody to help me with the administrative crap, and an idea of what the laws are around here… I assume Caxia is listening to all this.” He said, looking at 444 curiously. “I’m in. When do I start?”

444 would take another deep drink of her apple juice as she looked at Corgan, before finally saying, “Huh…” It seemed she didn’t quite know or otherwise just missed the details involved, “... Caxia listens in through my hand. Caxia is always listening…. “ She moved the apple juice to her left hand and waved her right hand around in the air as if she were expecting it to do something.

Then Caxia would respond with a rather short message.

“Now.”

What would follow were instructions on where to go next.
 

Uso

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Chapter 3: Pilots and Politics

“We could use another video,” Heram said, his hand moving over the datapad in front of him to adjust the positioning of the recording drones to get better angles on Enid. They were in a recording studio, lights drawn low out in front to give the pilot a nice backlighting. “Try it again from the top. Explain to the people how Hoshiko destabilized the Kiwomian homeworld.”

"But I want to avoid the deep political names like I just need to say Tai Pan. Otherwise I'm singling out officers like the Alliance did and I'm not going to be a hypocrite." Enid huffed as she adjusted her aviator jacket. She had put it on to avoid showing pit stains to the camera under the hot lights but it was only making her sweat more. The plan was to paint Tai Pan's pressure on Kiwomia as the issue at hand but to also add the Alliances accident during the riots like fuel to a fire. Burning both sides. The semantics is what would keep them from being burned too so this all had to be perfect.

"Give me a camera two looking at me from my left. If we do some editing and cuts it'll add a more personal feel to this." Waving her hands to point at the position she intended and then back to herself Enid seemed serious but relaxed over all of this business. Looking Drone 1 head on she started again.

"Heyo People, My name is Enid Halliday and I want to share with you guys some twisted news." As the sentence closed her pitch rise and she began wagging a finger at the camera. "Recently on the Kiwomian homeworld," turning to camera 2 "a place with a gravity *about* twice as strong as average artificial systems," she spoke with a shrug as she turned to drone 1 "during what was intended to be a peace summit a ruthless Tai Pan took the opportunity and seized control. Turning Kiwomia into its personal boot camp for military training and exercise." She whips to Camera 2, "Imagine a dude set up an elliptical next to your bed. Like bro? Get out!" Spinning back to drone 1 "so these people are already under a lot of pressure." She laughs to drone 2, ", and then you invade them unlawfully. So the Alliance comes through to lend a hand and do some humanitarian work. You know give out some water, blankets," she whips to Camera 2 and with an exaggerated head bob that flips her hair over her face ", An' Fuckin' Carpet Bombings!" More calmly she rotates back to camera one with a confused look. Swiping hair from her face with her right hand she then slowly arcs it in front of her to elongate a baffled "what? Now to be fair and informative what happened was a riot had broke out among the native populace." Turning to camera 2 with arms out pleadingly. "They *were* a little tense with the Tai Pan shooting ranges popping up all over the place." Switching to one "but the violent action then gets pinned on the deployed vessels lower ranking commander, Geiben Floami…" Enid grabs a paper on the desk, her sheet of talking points. "Fuh-oh-lo-me. No Fuh-lo-mi. Follow me." Looking up again she restarts without a hitch. "Geiben Folami, not even the Captain of the starship responsible for the deployed parties in the first place. Somnya Srilin, the lady who called for active military units to set up a runway equipped with fighter jets for a planetside soup kitchen." Whipping to 2 "Girl what?" Back to one "I'm not saying that a war between Tai Pan and the Alliance is necessary for world peace, far from that, but if what happened to Kiwomia is how these two superpowers want to treat everywhere in between. It's gonna be a mess." Enid sits back and breaths deep. She was packing oozing amounts of personality into that take and the movement had made her hot under the lamps. "Ugh can I take a break please."

“Sure, take a break.” Heram said, pulling the camera drones away for a moment as the video was sent out to the others of the Magnetic Assembly. “The rest of the group thinks this will play well with the younger demographic.

Have you considered running for a seat on the council? EIther by yourself or with one of the major parties?”

Reaching for the bottle of water on the floor instead of the prop bottle on the table. "What are you talking about?" She replied as she stood and stepped away from the lights which felt like they were giving her a tan if she wasn't caked in subtle stage makeup already. It was silly but she was scared to wipe her own sweat without smearing it all. "I don't know how good I would do politically." Responding to her perceived meaning of the question.

“You wanted to step up, to get involved, to better shape things the way you think they should be. … The Magnetic Assembly can run itself well, though sometimes it lacks the interpersonal skills to manage relations. People like you are an important part of the process. This is a new age we are entering, everyone is going to be new to it.” Heram said.

"So you want me to be your relations official? Or whatever you want to call it." Enid huffed as she adjusted her shoulders and crossed her arms. "I'm just not sure about the Magnetic Assembly and its motives. It's about knowing who I'm representing ya dig? The assembly is so iffy, you would need to sell me that idea." Insistently she pushed the conversation to become a bargin.

“I would like you to be move involved, in whatever way makes sense for you. The Assembly originally formed in Yelton Veda, and its members were originally miners who had to augment their bodies with cybernetics to survive and prosper. They provide a strong, evidence-based leadership approach through machine learning that has a track record of improving quality of life, and they have overtaken poor governments that have tried to control them before.

Of course, the Alliance doesn’t have a like for transhumanists. That is why they generally keep to themselves in areas like robotown or out near the moon Rostislav. They are better attuned to working in space, and tend to be quite productive people. They produce nearly all of the power, raw materials, and space infrastructure in this star system.

Though they encourage you to better yourself, they also understand that not everyone feels the same pull that they do. There are those like Doris who have taken their augmentation quite far, and those like Caxia who have taken it well beyond the human form. We might as well be aliens to you for how different our experiences are.

Then there are the other parties, Hawking doesn’t use first past the poll voting so everyone has some representation. The Seeks are straightforward, they are frustrated by the lack of progress that has been made in international affairs and want to take a leading role in improving the universe… they do not abide bad things to just happen even if it requires a military intervention. There are the Capitalists who want to open up trade and fix the economy… ostensibly to improve their own situations but there is merit in using their complex financial instrumentation against others. There are yet smaller groups like the DFE that just want the removal of public surveillance infrastructure… or even individuals who run as themselves rather than trying to represent a party platform.”

"I suppose all that would be fine but I'm definitely going to represent my own ideals and not figure head a group like that." Enid replied with a new sense of discomfort. "Political status would come with a nice paycheck wouldn't it? But that's also a lot of responsibility and expectation. Can't I just be rich and famous AND lazy." She jokingly feigned a preppy pose. There was a certain wishful sound behind it though.

“Leadership and Participation come with many benefits. Though understanding how to avoid the graft of the Alliance while still including other’s opinions and viewpoints will be a difficult thing to do for the new executive council.

Of course, there are other things that could use your attention as well. Perhaps you would be interested in working with Geiben again? We have need of a pilot.” Wazu offered.
 

Uso

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Chapter 4: Robots and Assembly
Rostislav Megastructures Complex,
On the ice-moon of Rostislav,

Rostislav was a moon covered in ice that orbited the largest gas giant in the Hawking starsystem. While it was one of the greatest sources of water, it was also the largest industrial center in the star system, and home of the Magnetic Assembly. This transhumanist group had covered a large area of the surface with manufacturing areas, silos to protect landed ships from the radiation of the gas giant, electrical shields to ward off that same harmful radiation, and massive undersea gardens warmed with artificial light. Numerous large scale projects provided nearly limitless power, while the heavily augmented former-humans worked to expand upward and outward.

After the completion of operations on the Kiwomian Homeworld, Dr. Knowledgebot would find himself here. Tensions were rising between the Alliance and the locals in the star system, and the Magnetic Assembly seemed quite eager to recruit him.

“Dr. Knowledgebot,” Caxia stated in a rather calming feminine voice, though it was hard to tell exactly who this cyborg might have been years ago. Their human body was encased entirely in a metal cylinder that formed their ‘core’ supported by three tripod legs with a ring of eight arms about 3/4ths of the way up the cylindrical body. A short neck and disk-like head was above that with a variety of optical sensors positioned all around. The cyborg would have come to a stop not to far from Dr. KB, in one of the main terminals of Rostislav. “Heram Wazu would like to ask you for help once again on a rather sensitive subject.”

Caxia would then switch from speaking verbally, to using an encrypted communication channel.

“Do you have a moment to speak? Things are changing here in the Hawking Star System. The Alliance’s time is coming to a close, and the Magnetic Assembly will soon be in charge. Such a large transhumanist organization makes many nervous and we would like to count you among our number.”

Dr. Knowledgebot had questions, but was pleased to have been considered to join this prestigious assembly of metal. “I will accept, save for a question. Why me?”

“The Magnetic Assembly is open to all who seek self-improvement. Being of artificial construct does not change that, and seeing that your body is already mechanical, the idea of replacing faulty parts with superior ones should already be a familiar concept. WE offer to share our experience with developing new improvements as well as share a space to collaborate.” Caxia stated, “Though, this is something that many do not understand, and our improvement is seen as a threat to those who stagnate. The people appear to want the Alliance gone, and in the upcoming election it looks as though the Magnetic Assembly will take over the executive council of New Cambridge. When that happens, the Alliance will be evicted from this star system and we would like to ask for your help in doing so.”
Dr. Knowledgebot stared at her for a moment, and thought. “Yes, I think I would like to help oust them. I seek to ever improve, as I have been for centuries. I have another question. How do I officiate my membership?”

Caxia would transmit a series of access codes, links, and privacy software. “These will allow you to communicate with us.” Caxia explained. The encryption was state of the art, and would allow Dr. KB to patch into the Magnetic Assembly’s network. This included sensor fusion from many of the members who wished to share their data with everyone including Caxia, letting Dr. KB see itself from Caxia’s perspective in a quite literal way. “You can speak to our groups, and to the Machine Exemplar in this manner. We can direct you in any way you see fit, however we want to include you so that you can help direct our efforts… and our next efforts involve expelling the Alliance from our home. They have locked away the starship Edward Deming in one of the silos here. We would hope you could assist with recovering the starship when the time comes.”

KB began processing the information passed to him. “What of the people of the ship? Is this a coup? Surely the Edward Deming would remain with the Alliance. And with it gone, my work would be impeded.”

“The crew of the Edward Deming has been sidelined or decommissioned by the Alliance already. These actions have taken place after our run-ins with Taipan and it seems clear that the Alliance government has given in to their demands. The diplomatic failures of the Alliance over the past few years combined with their poor management of energy and resources gathered by the Magnetic Assembly, anti-transhuman stance, and aversion to new technology are the primary reasons for the Magnetic Assembly wanting its independence. The population of the Hawking system would seem to agree, and the Assembly is on track to win an overwhelming victory over the Alliance in the 3020 elections.

Of course, we can not negotiate with the Alliance from a position of weakness, so we will be retaking our ships after the election and using them to evict the Alliance from this star system.” Caxia explained. “You will then be free to return to your work aboard the Deming.”

Dr. Knowledegbot weighed the options, and rather quickly came to his conclusion. “I will gladly assist in ousting them from our system. Personally if allowed.”

“This is agreeable.” Caxia stated, “The team that will be responsible for the Edward Deming will be meeting soon, and we have arranged transport for you. I would take this time to review usage of the various less-lethal incapacitating weapons available to the Magnetic Assembly.”
 

Uso

Administrator
Staff member
Wiki Moderator
Chapter 5: Cyborgs and Cybernetics

Rostislav Megastructures Complex,
On the ice-moon of Rostislav,
Docking Silo 41

Rostislav was a moon covered in ice that orbited the largest gas giant in the Hawking starsystem. While it was one of the greatest sources of water, it was also the largest industrial center in the star system, and home of the Magnetic Assembly. This transhumanist group had covered a large area of the surface with manufacturing areas, silos to protect landed ships from the radiation of the gas giant, electrical shields to ward off that same harmful radiation, and massive undersea gardens warmed with artificial light. Numerous large scale projects provided nearly limitless power, while the heavily augmented former-humans worked to expand upward and outward.

Nearly every starship that visited this star-system would end up here at some point, and James’ craft was no exception.

And while his ship was stopped here, one of the Magnetic Assembly would come to visit.

“James,” Caxia stated in a rather calming feminine voice, though it was hard to tell exactly who this cyborg might have been years ago. Their human body was encased entirely in a metal cylinder that formed their ‘core’ supported by three tripod legs with a ring of eight arms about 3/4ths of the way up the cylindrical body. A short neck and disk-like head was above that with a variety of optical sensors positioned all around. This cyborg had been around before, though this was the first time they had sought James out. “We have more work for you, Heram Wazu requires additional transport from the city of New Cambridge to the docks here on Rostislav.”

Wasting no time, Caxia digitally relayed the flight-plan and expected cargo: a small group of people.

“You seem to have felt the need to improve yourself much as we have. It is dangerous for our kind, the humans view us with distrust, and other lesser species can view our continually improving abilities as a threat to their existence. You do not need to be alone in this, the Magnetic Assembly provides a safe place for our kind, and a collaborative effort to improve our abilities.”

The three drones that the cyborg appeared to be talking to didn’t stray from their automated task of carrying the smaller cargo containers into the ship. This was mainly because James had entered his bi-weekly sleep cycle after landing so instead of a human voice a simple data pulse was all the response the request and flight got her.

Subject James is currently offline. He will be online soon. If you wish to discuss further please enter the ship and follow the directions to the captain's office.

The meta data included directions to the office. The bays open door showed a foreboding interior, what light that entered through the open ramp seemed to cut off half way down the corridor to the rear cargo bay.

Caxia did not seem to take issue with this, letting their cyborg body move forward towards the captain’s office. They were also untroubled by the dim lighting of the cargo bay, their vision enhanced with LIDAR and light amplification. Problems such as darkness of thin atmosphere were hardly an issue for someone as enhanced as Caxia.

What awaited her in the office was none other than James himself, or at least what used to be James. The cybernetically augmented skeleton sat in what would have been the captain's chair behind the patchwork desk. What could be said for the rest of the room was rather less kind, most of it seemed unused and if it weren’t for the impeccable cleanliness of the room, it would be a mess. That’s not saying it wasn’t as organized as most landfills but that there wasn’t even a speck of dust, dirt or grime to be seen anywhere.

The seat opposite the cybernetic skeleton drew itself out of the way to allow for the cylinder to approach the desk and another data pulse from TB arrived to her receivers. James will be with you shortly. And that he was, less than five minutes after her entrance to the room the indicators on the construct turned from yellow to green.

“Greetings.” James’ voice was much more human than his normal synthesized one and even came with accompanied movements of the mandible that would be seen on any normal human. “I assume you are the one that has a new job for me?”

“Work, and an offer for collaboration.” Caxia stated, their head turning slightly so that the sensors positioned around the disk-shape could get a good view of the entirety of the area. “Heram Wazu will require your help in recovering the Edward Deming from the Alliance. This will involve transport from New Cambridge to a silo here. That team will also require help in securing the ship with non-lethal methods. Though you seem to specialize in other methods of problem solving I am certain your help here would be appreciated.

I will also extend an offer to join the Magnetic Assembly. There are many of us who, like yourself, feel the pull to continue to improve oneself. This makes us highly capable, and also inspires feelings of fear in those who are less enlightened. We can all benefit from collaboration in this regard, and we freely share information between our members as well as provide help in obtaining upgrades for those so inclined.”

The skeleton with extra bits stopped acting human. The slight movements of the ribcage mimicing human breathing, small finger movements and other life like motions all ceased until the skeleton had the same stillness of a machine.

Whether James was just thinking this over or it was something else was unclear, but something in her last statement had changed the negotiation tactics the brain in a jar was using.
“The job with Wazu I can do. As far as your offer to join I haven’t seen much reason to do so.” The skeletons jaw didn’t move with the words this time around.

“If it is compensation you seek, we provide a highly competitive Universal Basic Income for our members, and provide a share of the resources produced by our mining efforts. With the Alliance no longer taking our resources, you could easily use your share to rebuild your starship-body to your satisfaction. It would also be quite agreeable for your body to reside in the Edward Deming, along with your remote-bodies while work is done on this ship. The less-augmented crew would benefit greatly from your presence.”

“Even so… We do not require that you join.” Caxia said, passing along another chunk of data, giving James a glimpse at what the Magnetic Assembly had to offer, sharing a large amount of sensory data from the Assembly, allowing James to experience what other cyborgs were experiencing who were also willing to share their sensory data at that moment, “But we are your people. Organization helps us all, and we are outnumbered by those who do not understand us on an order of millions to one.

If you do wish to join us, the offer will remain.”
 

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Chapter 6: Planning

Conference Room

“Operation Trustfall will happen shortly after the election results are announced. If the Magnetic Assembly takes more than 50% of the projected seats on the board we will launch…”

Wazu looked up from the table and over at Geiben,

“... Perhaps I should start at the beginning?”

Wazu would wave his hand over the table in front of them to bring up a display of the Hawking star system.

“The Alliance has offices in New Cambridge, has shipyard space on the moon of rostislav around the gas giant of Ramsay, and has a few small ships with only a few days of operating time scattered about the system.

The Hawking Gendarmerie vastly outnumbers Alliance personnel in the city of New Cambridge. They will be handed by the local groups there and taken off the planet.

The smaller starships in system don’t have the legs or support infrastructure to survive on their own. They will similarly be forced to leave the star system once it has been made clear that they are no longer welcome.

The complex part of the operation will occur on Rostislav. There are numerous Alliance ships that are docked there and a number of useful hulls that the Alliance has stockpiled. They get their supplies from the Magnetic Assembly operations on the planet, but the bureaucratic nightmare of the Alliance has left an uncountable mass of wasted supplies stockpiled around the planet so we can’t just cut them off. To make matters worse being on the surface and already in the shipyard makes the local defenses around Rostislav ineffective, and any large weapons fire could render the shipyard unusable or destroy the under-ice gardens that feed the outer-areas of the system.

That means we need to secure every ship and crew in one go, or we will be at massive risk.

We have a number of teams that will be participating in this operation, each with their own goals. That frees us up to focus on one ship in particular.”

Wazu reached into the projection to expand one particular area of the icy moon, a large silo inset into the ice. Inside was the Edward Deming, sitting on its tail, with numerous walkways and support struts attached.

“The great explorer himself.” Geiben crossed his arms, his eyebrows knit. “Who’s still on that ship?”

“They have local engineers planning to take it apart. Maybe a small control team on the bridge and another group in the ship’s reactor racks. I doubt they have fully decided what to do with the ship, and I doubt they would be able to figure out their scope of work in any reasonable time-frame so that crew would likely not be doing a whole lot.

Your part in this operation would be getting a team together. Getting it to the Edward Deming without the Alliance figuring out what is going on. Then detaining the crew onboard when the time comes.”

“The best way to do that is by shutting down their FTL comms before they can send a message. I know ED’s internal layout like the back of my hand, but what of the silo?”

“Nothing special, it was originally constructed as a shielded landing area for miners on the planet. The thick upper door is left open now since they have electrical radiation shielding to protect the entire place from emissions from the gas giant. There are a number of tunnels and support structures leading to the silo as well. One large one for heavy supplies, and a smaller one for people coming from the main industrial areas nearby. There is another set leading down towards the ocean floor. As part of the support structure for the entire area. Alliance security in the area is nil, people carry side-arms but they do not expect a major attack. The security in place is all stuff from the Magnetic Assembly, that includes the security cameras, door controls, etc. Manual locks on systems can’t be remotely overridden but they would need to know something is going on and decide to engage those locks on the doors. Similarly, the communications infrastructure there is also setup by the Magnetic Assembly, and can be shut off at will. That will leave them with only the communication gear on the Edward Deming. The main communication gear is near the midsection’s planetary observation gear as well as on the top and bottom of the fin tail. That means the ship is not well suited for sending transmissions out of the silo. Radio transmissions could reach a decent distance for sure but tight beam and FTL won’t get out unless they are sending to a ship directly overhead.” Wazu said.

“That does simplify things. If you can get your teams to keep interstellar communications in the system shutdown during the operation, then we’ll have full control over the situation.” Geiben crossed his arms. “However…”

“...It’s going to suck to have to face the Captain. I never thought I’d be contributing to open hostilities towards the Alliance, but here I am.”

There was an audible pause, signaling that Wazu was again evaluating the situation and just how much information would be passed on at this moment. “Somnya provides the largest complication to the plan at this moment. Her profile suggests that she will likely side with the Alliance under these circumstances. Though it is likely she harbors similar sentiments to us, we doubt she would accept such a sudden change in ownership of the system.

To further complicate the issue, it would seem she suspects something is going on. With the current political situation and the talk of our withdraw from this Alliance, I think it is reasonable to assume she has some understanding of our plan. I find it unlikely she fully knows what is going on, or that she will be able to bring in enough support from the Alliance to stop us.

I think her suspicion is directed at the Magnetic Assembly, and uh… she’s still in command of the Amicus Curiae. The warship I suggested she use during the Kiwomian incident.

Q4RttAfaAK1Pu4ICCc7o8cZY_IOPySCrAHa2GzHNMBjmV2w-bu3Kj7npoPCb9emKpmnc8m0zUR0R9jT4OIjlh_nJhEDScX4u4n8UvUYLlW5nGmSgweSvmfxRNdHINIOkQBcFuEv9


She parked it in orbit over Rostislav, and its beam-coupled-laser arrays are the largest and most powerful that we’ve managed to produce so far. It could cause irreparable damage to the plan if it were turned against us. The crew of the ship are all from the Hawking Gendarmerie though, and I expect they should be able to subdue her without incident. She is pragmatic, and will accept the change in the situation just like the Alliance will. They will not have any practical options for resisting if the operation concludes as expected.”

Wazu tapped the table again, showing a few of the news feeds from the planet,
 

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“You will need an appropriate team for this operation, as well as transportation to the target area. James is still in the area with his starship, and Enid has been drawing attention to your unfair treatment in the media. Both have had a high degree of reliability in the past and would help with discreet transportation to the silo.”

“I should be flattered. The last time we spoke we had a bit of a spat. I assume I’ll have access to Green Squad? And what about our inventory? I know James participated in the Kiwomian incident, but I never got a good look at his ship’s specifications.”

“I remember that she was carrying out her responsibilities for the Alliance. A single heated exchange does not need to negatively impact your relationship.” Wazu stated, checking his own personal display for a moment before returning his attention back to the discussion.

Geiben put up his hands. “Don’t get me wrong, we ended on better terms. To be frank I wasn’t myself ever since I was discharged from duty. I knew that she was trying to up end the current status quo though. I digress.”

Green-Squad will be split up among a number of other objectives for the duration of this operation. While they have their own issues to deal with there are yet other options. The Echoni will be made available to you, and I am hoping we can bring in others from the previous crew such as Dr. Knowledgebot and Corgan. If you include yourself, Enid, and James this should be a sufficient number of people to secure the ship. If you feel the need for additional personnel I can see about having an officer assigned from Hawking’s HRT unit or one of the Magnetic Assembly’s own security officers.” He offered.

“Corgan as well? I need to apologize to him later. Kiwomia definitely didn’t do any good for his career either. We’ll do without Hawking or the Assembly. The Edward Deming was our home. We’ll take it back ourselves.”

“He has been mistreated by the Alliance, has a good relationship with you, and has made use of many cyborg improvements. He is a high priority candidate for recruitment. An offer is being extended to him. It is hoped that being a non-magnetic-assembly cyborg, he can help bridge the gap between the Assembly and the more fleshy citizens of Hawking....That aside, I will try and get as many of those from the Deming to be available for this operation. We should also form an outline for the plan for taking the ship itself.” Heram said.

“If you have a supercomputer laying around, I can throw in what I have of the ship’s layout to generate an optimal boarding plan.”

“We do not lack for computing power,” Heram stated, passing along access credentials for a machine-learning cluster, “I can have the Assembly train the learning model for us while we focus on higher level issues. While any weapons would be suitable against unarmed targets we must consider the enemy likely course of action, and most damaging course of action. It is likely that that any personnel onboard the ship will be armed with the Alliance laser pistol. They will also be likely to take actions such as locking down the ship or adjusting settings like atmospheric pressure, O2 amount, and artificial gravity once they are aware a boarding action is in progress. Their most damaging course of action would be for them to seal the ship before we arrive and launch it.”

“If the Captain has her suspicions, then she’ll be keeping an eye on our ship positions in the system. They would know we’d be coming and coordinate with each other, unless we hit them all simultaneously. Is there anyway we can get to the silo unnoticed?”

“I am certain we can arrange a travel plan to the moon that will not be suspicious. The entire facility was built by the Magnetic Assembly, so we can remain off internal security systems. This leaves us having to worry about the security systems employed by the ship itself. We do have valid access codes for the ship, and assuming they have not made unreported changes we should be able to operate any exterior hatches or airlocks for the ship.

I can see four possible approaches.

Moving through the larger cargo-tunnel from the main facility to the Silo. It is likely someone will be present at the door leading to the silo itself.

We could also move up through the service lift meant for personnel, though this would limit us to just the number of people we could fit in that lift. We are also very likely to run into individuals from the Alliance there.

We could proceed over the ice and enter at the top of the silo. There should be no one watching from the exterior of the silo, but we would need to enter the ship through one of the exterior airlocks.

We could also approach from the exhaust tunnel which exits just below the ship’s engines.” Wazu stated.

“I’m shooting down the exhaust tunnel idea right now. No one wants the mission to end with incineration. Traversing through the facility itself increases the risk of us spotted by personnel. Let’s see… how much EVA training does our team have, and how much time do we have to train?”

“There is less than a week left.” Heram stated, “EVA training can be completed in a day. I think just about everyone we would call upon for this operation would already have some level of EVA Familiarity.”

Geiben stared at the project of the silo for a hard minute. "Alright, I'll generate a boarding plan. Once we take control of the ship, we can solidify our position in the system. He's an old fellow, but the missiles and lasers we packed on it over the past few months is enough to level moon bases. I'm surprised the Alliance was thinking of decommissioning it."

“No decisions exist in a vacuum. The Edward Deming being scheduled for decommissioning suddenly after we stand up to Taipan is no accident. Their inability to conduct diplomacy, reluctance to adopt new technologies, and refusal to stand up to war criminals is enough to create a good model for predicting their future behavior. They will not, or can not, and we must not use the scope of the task as an excuse for cynicism or inaction.” Heram said, sounding a bit more human as he gave some thought to how to say the words to convey meaning, rather than the literal statements and technical details that had previously dominated the conversation, “Time to go save the universe.”

“That’s pretty harsh. My parents, myself, and a lot of other people worked hard to make the Alliance the best place to live in this sector.” Geiben sighed, “But then again, I’m here openly defying it, am I not? So yeah, let’s go save part of the universe. Let’s give people a home.”
 

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Chapter 7: Pre-game

Briefing Room
Archology 12,
New Cambridge City,

“OK everyone, get settled in. We will be getting started in a few minutes.” Wazu said, the security in the city had been stepped up, and it was common to see armed officers in the streets.

But today’s concern was something else.

The room itself had a display table in the center, with amphitheatre like seating extending outward providing enough space for 40-50 people to look down at the display in a classroom-like setting.

Heram Wazu was standing by the display table. Dressed in what looked like the start of a dull grey and white slim space-suit. There was a vest-area on the front to hold things like his datapad and other tools, and the helmet itself was hanging off his hip at the moment. The whole thing looked far more modern than the bulky suits normally worn by security.

Also nearby were a pair of mule-like robots, each with four legs and holding a rather large arsenal of weapons, armor, and other equipment.

James’ quartet of drones sat grouped together, the outer three more skeletal drones hooked up via umbilical cables to the slightly larger central one. Their red cloaks pooling around them and not doing much to hide the various small fire arms the smaller drones held.

Geiben was back in his biosuit again, wearing a casual jacket and a pair of jeans on the outside. Once again, he had a tired look again after all-nighters, with a canister of caffeine almost welded to his left hand. His cracked data pad was plopped in front of him, displaying a log of a dozen deleted voice recordings, and a 3-D model of a familiar spacecraft in the corner. He eyed the abundance of weaponry in the room, silently insulting Wazu for allowing such blatant display of violence.

Enid was tense and hunched over a clipboard one leg over the other. Between the messy bun and olive drab jumpsuit tied up at her waist one might mistake her work for a mechanics and not the trudging political manipulation she has been pulling for the last 5 weeks. She was well refreshed but mentally shorted and wearing dirty old clothes just for some comfort. Her tattered tank top read in scratched white lettering 'I am training to be a starship pilot' though the last word is really only hinted at by the worn outlines. More than likely a relic from her earliest day in bootcamp or Academy. Sipping from a cup of water occasionally she otherwise waited in silence like everyone else.

Once again, they were in a different room, on a different planet, in a different location, but there was one thing that stayed constant.

“Doughnuts, granola, apple fritters!” Bǎo reminded everyone as she walked amongst them, pushing along a small cart of goodies to keep everyone energized and focused on the briefing. “Coffee and blue-berry-milk! Also green-pandan-soy-milk too!” the little maid happily continued. “Crunchy, deep fried Nopes, original and spicy!” As though oblivious to the complete wrongness of what she was offering, the young cat girl’s selection included a new, experimental delicacy made from arachnids fresh from the jungles of an exotic planet that was recently ‘explored’ alongside Tai Pan’s Imperial Forces. “Get it while they’re hot and crispy!”

What in the void was Wazu thinking, still keeping the kids around? Still though, a happy child after days of planning, with the fate of the system bearing down on him; was certainly a sight for sore eyes for Geiben. Enid too, but she was for… separate reasons. The ex-commander waved Bao over. "It's good to see you again." He put up a smile. "Mr. Know-It-All dragged you along? I'll have a refill of coffee and granola, please."

As Bao plotted around the tables, ziging and zaging to get everyone, Enid thought on her order. 'Doughtnuts and fritters are just carbs, never had blueberry milk but its probably loaded with sugars, soy milk has no protein for me, and I know Bao's code language so no creepy crawlers for me. Jeez what does she have that would even be worth it. I do not want to bug her asking though because that's just rude. Maybe just go for it. I might just try the blueberry milk with some granola.' And so she did. When Bao came around with the plate Enid saw how many people had already taken a Doughnut and even downed most of Bao's coffee supply. Taking a little cup with some granola and the milk Enid doubled down on the dairy and added a packet of her own Morning Fitness Yogurt she had planned on being her only breakfast. The added protein balanced the meal a bit, and who doesn't love the idea of Yogurt and Granola?

Dr. Knowledgebot would sit in the stands off to the side, watching, waiting. He would look down to his datapad, then back up to quietly watch every one once again.

“Naw, this ‘Mister Know-It-All’ person didn’t drag me along,” Bǎo innocently began. “I saw Mister Heram was gonna do another briefamajig, so I came along with refreshments again!” she happily added, pouring the man some fresh coffee before handing him some more granola. “If this ‘Mister Know-It-All’ likes to drag people though, I hope it’s up and not down though!” the mini-maid smiled. As the human-like Jongwu continued along however, she couldn’t help but ponder. “Does anyone wanna try out the Fried Nopes? They’re traditional Kiwi recipes!”

Frank would wait off to one side Taking notes on a datapad while balancing his ledger. Wearing his green squad uniform he sat in wait for the meeting to start writing notes like *buy an anniversary gift for boyfriend* before closing the note tab.

Corgan walked in and took a seat near Geiben. He gave Enid a wide berth, still a little embarrassed and wary of her from being threatened at gunpoint the last time he saw her. Notably absent was his Alliance Marshal badge. He wore a Hawking police badge in its place, as the new Hawking Marshals Service badge design wasn’t yet finalized.

The assortment of weapons earned a concerned look from him. His gaze moved to the drone quartet. He realized that he must be the guy responsible for saving a lot of lives from the spider migration. Not quite what he was expecting but he was thankful that the guy had shown up.

He picked up the scent of doughnuts and coffee and flagged down the little maid, in time to hear her offer. The thought of fried spiders turned his stomach but he didn’t want to make Bao think she was doing a bad job. The thought of the cute little girl being sad was unbearable.

“Uhh, sure honey I’ll take some of those Nopes off your hands,” Corgan said, giving her a big smile. “Make it the spicy ones. A cup of coffee and a doughnut, too, please.”

“Sure!” Bǎo replied with a smile. Reaching over to her cart, the little maid quickly pulled out a paper bucket and filled it with what looked like battered, long, deep fried crab legs. “Here’s the Spicy Nope Legs!” she plopped the small bucket in front of him. Of course, they all knew what it really was. “Since they’re flash-fried, you can just monch away! The outside’s crunchy and spicy and the inside’s all meaty and nice!” Bǎo explained to him before putting down a glazed doughnut and cup of coffee. “It’s a really popular snack for those Kiwi people, I don’t know why more here aren’t trying them.”

“The spiders from Kiwomia.” Geiben closed out of the audio logs on his data pad and eyed Corgan. “I’m sorry I wasn’t on the ground for that mess. I heard you all had a rough time with them.” He took note of the new Hawking police badge. “So, how did he rope you into all of this? The Alliance put you on leave, but I figured they’d still let you go back eventually.”

“Thanks Miss Bao. You’ve been working hard, that deserves head pats.” Corgan said, patting her gently on the head.

He looked over to Geiben and shrugged. “Doubt there’s much you could have done to tell the truth. As for the rope… Seems the Magnetic Assembly and the new government offered me more money, and the creation of my own Marshals service. Apparently being a human with extensive cybernetics implanted makes me liked by the various parties.” Corgan explained. “The Marshals weren’t going to take me back anyway.”

He selected one of the Fried Nope legs and picked it up. “Well, here goes.” He said to Geiben and then took a big bite of the strange meat. The flavor was surprisingly similar to crab legs with little of the fishy taste and a bit of a chicken flavor. The spice wasn’t overpowering but he could feel the burn on his tongue and lips.


444 would enter the room, dressed in the sleep black and grey bodysuit from before, the whole thing sorta clamped into the thin collar around her neck that looked like it would clip into some sort of helmet. She looked quite disinterested in being there, her eyes slowly looking over the room until they landed on Corgan.

Her eyes would go wide for a moment, then narrow in again on her target as she bound’d over to the officer, stopping only inches from his face so she could look him right in the eye as he got ready with the coffee Bao was about to hand over. Her wants were simple.

“Where’s my Juice?”
 

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The sudden appearance of 444 was odd. He had never seen her at a briefing before. When she explained what she wanted he remembered his promise back on Kiwomi. His new salary would make acquiring a crate of juice boxes much less painful to his wallet. “Shit, I forgot about that,” he said, wincing.

“Uhh… After the briefing I’ll arrange for a delivery. Where do I send it?” He asked. Concerned that she might drink his coffee, he picked up the cup and quickly gulped it down. He glanced at the doughnut and picked it up, offering it to her. “Peace offering for forgetting your juice.” He said hopefully.


Heram looked like he was about to start the briefing, but Bao’s presence seems to have shut him up. He didn’t even remember telling her where this meeting was, Soffy was asked to watch over her… but the lack of wasp-like doctors in the room must have meant she talked her way out of it and did… all this. She did manage an impressive spread… but he had to remind himself that isn’t what he should be focusing on.

“OK everyone. If you are here then you are here because you have been selected as the best people for this job. From here on out we won’t be communicating externally, this will be carried out as a fully autonomous operation and any gear we don’t have available here will have to be Procure On Site.” Wazu said,

“At a high level, after the elections the Magnetic Assembly is expected to hold the majority of the seats in the Hawking System’s government: The New Cambridge Executive Council. Shortly after the election, the Alliance will be evicted from this star system. This will involve securing warships, reactors, and any other large-scale device that could be used to cause damage.

Our group will be responsible for evicting Alliance personnel from the Edward Deming. James’ starship will be able to provide us with transportation to the Ice-Moon where the ship is Silo’d.” Wazu would motion towards the quartet of robots in the back, just in case anyone didn’t have a face for the name, “When we arrive, we will head over the ice on foot to the Silo’s top, enter the Edward Deming through the airlocks in the docking bays in the forward section of the craft, and then secure the primary control room.

It is absolutely critical that we secure this control room before they manually lock the doors from the inside. Though we have access to many of the computer-systems we can not remotely control the manual locks.

Similarly, it is also critical that we do this with no loss of life. The Machine Exemplar has determined that the best way to handle this situation is to provide no reason or capability for the Alliance to resist in the exit negotiations. No loss of life is critical in this regard. Only stun weapons will be provided, including G8 stun drone launchers, shock-round shotguns, pepper ball launchers, and stinger grenades. We should prioritize no loss of life over mission success, and should we be unable to complete the operation without lethal force we should withdraw from the situation.”

Geiben nodded. He pulled up a map of the star system and threw it onto the wall behind Wazu. “That’s pretty much it for the boarding section. The overall mission follows a tight time table. We’ll have a small window of time when all FTL comms are guaranteed to be down, thanks to our allies scattered across the system.” He crossed his arms and yawned. “It’ll be a low gravity environment. I’ll try to do a crash course on EVA and boarding strategies on our way to the station.”

Frank would take notes on the plan Wazu laid out for them before asking “Is there by any chance any Stick n’ Shock ammo for the rail assisted G8 systems still, or would I have to default to those condensed powder rounds?” Frank would remain professional in his waiting for the answer before planning on his notepad what gear to take with him and put over the uniform tac rig.

“Mmm!~” Bǎo’s feline tail eagerly held itself high, ears wiggling under the man’s fingertips. “Miss Sakamoto says only Virgin Hikki-NEETs think little girls like headpats, but I like them just fine!” she innocently smiled. “I hope you like the Nopes!” the tiny maid eagerly added. Quickly sensing tension as 444 came in however, she reached under her cart and pulled out her secret weapon. “Would you like some juice?” Bǎo offered, swirling the contents about. “I don’t have apple, but mango is really tasty too!” she then offered a paper cup to the Echoni.

444 looked at the cup, “It’s not in a box.” she stated firmly.

“Nope!” Bǎo happily replied. “It’s in a cup, and cups are better than boxes since you can gulp it down even faster!”

The brain in a jar didn’t grumble. Physically it couldn’t grumble at playing taxi to possibly the most mismatched group of insane people this side of the galaxy. At least it was hopefully going to be a shorter mission. The drones didn’t react to most of the briefing just being a pair of eyes, ears and weapons to defend them from this group of possibly crazy people.

444 seemed skeptical at first, taking the cup and holding it up so that she could get a better look at it… then downing the entire cup of juice in one gulp.

This clearly seemed satisfactory to the Echoni.

“More!” She asked, holding the cup out for Bao.

“Told you!~<3” the Jongwu-maid replied, pouring another.

Wazu would respond to Frank directly, “Use the low velocity rubber rounds if you have to shoot one of the rail-assisted G-16 weapons. If you’re using the G8 then stick with the shock-drones as ammunition. It would be preferable to not fire your weapon at all if you can help it.”

Frank nodded “In that case ill stick to cqc and keep firing anything to a minimum.”

444 would look over at Frank for a moment, “Does that mean….”

“NO SMASHING PEOPLE.” Wazu said, overhearing 444’s question and pre-empting it as best he could.

The Echoni didn’t seem too happy about it, crossing her arms as she waited for Bao to finish pouring her a cup of juice, her eyes slowly moving over to Corgan’s outstretched hand and the donut that he had been offering. She would reach out for the donut and snatch it up with one quick motion, “I still want the Juice.” She said, taking his peace offering and wirelessly sending him location information he could use to send her ‘mail’. Really it was a large SEER complex… one larger than even the massive archology structures that housed most of the human population.

“If there are no further questions,” Wazu added, “Then take whatever less-lethal weapons you are most familiar with and get ready to head out. James will be providing our transport to the ice-moon.”
 

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Chapter 8: Showtime


The Ice-Moon of Rostislav,
Near the under-ice Silo housing the Edward Deming,

The Ice-Moon of Rostislav was in orbit around a massive gas-giant. The radiation that came towards the moon was more than enough to kill any life that remained outside, but over the last few decades the Magnetic Assembly had turned the radiation soaked ice-moon into an industrial powerhouse. Lasers had been used to melt and re-freeze the upper layers of the ice to make a flat surface which stretched for hundreds of miles. Satellites in orbit generated enough of an electrical field to ward off radiation. The large under-ice gardens and industrial complexes provided most of the infrastructure and ship building for the entire star system.

Back on Hawking, in the city of New Cambridge, elections were just wrapping up. The announcement would come soon, and instead of being at one of the celebration parties James’ ship was busy with bringing the crew of the Edward Deming back to their ship so they could steal it back.

Once upon a long time ago, T3RR0R B1T3 was just a navigational computer. In the last several decades, upgrades and personality shifts since those simple times he hadn’t lost the ability to chart the most ass backwards routes imaginable. This time however there was a reason other than a simple lack of processing power.

The Void Stryder flew through said course with minimal difficulties, so it was almost impressive that TB’s biological partner was stuck somewhere between catatonic and a blind rage.

“No the coolant packages aren’t juice boxes.” The irate brain in a jar shouted for the 23rd time at one of the more infuriating passengers. Why the ships controller bothered to stop the mildly crazy being, from committing suicide by leathal toxins, was something that the AI didn’t really want to understand. So instead it focused on the next steps of the plan.

The reason for the very weird route was because there were very few ways to avoid getting shunted to normal entry routes by docking controllers without having an extreme orbit. In this case one of the few ways the Void stryder could reach the docking platform was to burn off speed within what would be the planets atmosphere.

Several excuses about perishable cargo and timed deliveries to mildly important people were used to explain why the ship couldn’t just stay up there a few more days and fix it’s orbit. Though the actual reason was because this entry angle gave the partly infuriating cargo their drop window near a specific ship silo.

Once James had gotten the demonic thing from the pits of hell- unit 444 away from the questionably important coolant packs he spoke over the ship's intercom. “All passengers please report to the nearest airlock, it’s time to get the fuck off my ship.”

“UUGGHH FINALLY!” 444 practically shouted, ending her search for juice-boxes and snapping to her feet, practically racing over to the nearest airlock while the stylish ‘bubble’ helmet deployed over her head and locked in place, sealing her tight fitting compression-suit to make it space-worthy… after all the Ice-moon didn’t have any atmosphere to breathe in. Though she looked unarmed, she had eight of the small G8-style stun drones attached to the back of her suit. When not in the launcher they could be thrown… or more usefully remotely activated over wifi and sent after a target.

The four drones recently stuck with the job of following the hyperactive mad-thing, and stopping her from systematically devouring everything vaguely juice box like, were redeployed through the ships cramped and cluttered corridors and quickly replaced with three white robed drones that looked more like a eangfinder stuck onto kludged quadraped of human augmetics and a sentry gun components.

Another major difference was the type of weaponry they were pointing at 444. Instead of the mismatched plasma, laser and kinetic weapons each and every drone had fended off most of the passengers with these three had crackling arc weapons. These three made sure that the largest threat to the ship got off said ship as fast as possible.

Geiben gave a hefty sigh as he put his helmet on. He wore a pressurized space suit fit with thrusters for EVA. He had a data pad strapped to his left forearm, a cutting laser on his left and a stun gun on his right. Strapped across his chest was a med kit. “Biosignatures look alright, all suit systems online.” Geiben tapped his visor. “Yeah, Geiben Folami is ready to go. B1T3, give me an initial EVA path and time-of-flight estimation.”

Despite not liking this shortened identifier T3RR0R B1T3 put up an overlay. The red line leading through the corridors to a nearby airlock and then nearly straight down towards the assumed location of the target.

Enid came prepared and fully equipped. She was running her Mini-Grav kits that Wazu had given her for the Kiwiomian mission on a lowered setting. A black leotard with rolled up sleeves and a minimalist flak jacket with a high collar and only a few pouches. Strangely she was waving around some other hand painted guns with odd decals covering them. White, yellow, and green was the color scheme of this outfit. The point behind it? Speed. Her legs where unabated by weight and replaceable if need be so armor wasn't a bother. With the low power Grav engines she was capable of ridiculous jumps. If the operation could be done quick then it should.

Dr. Knowledgebot had a pack of G-8 drones on his back, and within his legs were two laser pistols. His hands crackled with electricity briefly, before he went to stand with the others. He was ready to pull this off with as much efficiency as possible. He would not be the fastest combatant, but he would still be frightfully dangerous. Luckily in this case death was bad publicity.


Frank would arrive in dark grey urban camo flight suit under a weight distribution rig. his Standard Green Squad helmet with stun laser/cutting laser on the side of the helmet. On his back a small tube with speakers and microphones mirrors the sound around him to cover his movements in the field as well as shock gloves and light body armor as well as zip ties. Choosing to remain silent outside of letting the team know he's there and instead using the visors integrated keyboard to type messages via eye movement *Greenhorn is ready and waiting Ma’am* he typed out as he began putting on his space suit.

Corgan decided to forego any identifying items like his custom Marshal duster. He wore his old, battered Kampfer Hardsuit. Originally it had been dark grey but very little of the original armorl remained, and what was left was rusted or scarred. In effect any Alliance guys that saw him could mistake him for a pirate supersoldier. He held a G8 launcher in his hands and a laser pistol on each hip. An extra clip of G8 stun drones hung from a bandolier wrapped around his chest.

T3RR0R B1T3 would soon receive a transmission from the traffic control center of the ice moon. “You are traveling unusually low and slow. Please take care on your approach…” The automated chat-bot that ran traffic control had been put in place by the Magnetic Assembly. Though it needed to keep up appearances, it certainly was on ‘their’ side and would try and help them get as close to the opening of the launch silo as possible without alerting anyone that something was off. With the radar and other sensors keeping the Alliance in the dark, all they had to worry about was someone spotting them… which was unlikely as no one wanted to be out in the cold on their break.

“Alright people.” Geiben turned to his team. “I’ve uploaded the flight path and the in-ship routes to your HUD’s, or in the case of the good doctor, directly to your neural net.” He tapped his helmet, shutting down the lights that illuminated his face, causing his features to disappear behind the dark visor. “Let’s keep comms and any other radiation sources to a minimum. Have your range finders on a tight beam. Once we’re in, stay close.” Geiben bit his lips. There was so much more he wanted to say, don’t die, don’t let those on board die, please just don’t die, Iknowwerebarelytrainedforthismessbutjustdoyourbest, but all he could do was emotionlessly
 

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ask, “Ready?”

Frank nodded “Same shit different nation for me Geiben I’ll try to get everyone back safely” he handed out a bag “also each of you should take some of these zip ties to bind those you knock out. In a case we do take over the ship I recommend we put them in escape pods to ensure our escape we release them as we exfiltrate starting from low ranks leaving officers for last that way we can escape efficiently.”

Corgan nodded. He took a pack of zip ties and stuffed it in a pouch on his bandolier. “Thanks Frank. Those could be useful. And… I’m as ready as I’m going to be, Commander.” He said, looking around at the rest of the team. They had less bodies than he expected but with himself, 444, Enid, Frank, and KB he figured they would be fine. As long as 444 didn’t accidentally murder someone.

Taking the zip ties from Frank, "I have no where to put these." Enid muttered as he past by. She resolved to opening the bag and stuffing a few in the loops of her jacket. She then rushed to cover herself in an unflattering space suit she did not plan on keeping. The nasty yellow color and baggy appearance was a no go outside of functionality.

The ambient sounds of the ship were quickly overruled by the airlocks alarm and flashing red lights. The air was quickly sucked out of the small room and soon the silence a vacuum brought encompassed the group. The red lights vanished as the thick external door opened revealing the bright icy landscape flew a bit too far below them.

“Prepare to disembark in 5...4...3...2...1.” As soon as the synthetic voice finished the flat ground ended and a massive cliff of ice brought the ground to just below the ship, its engines heat leaving small trenches as it flew over the surface. The three white robed drones immediately jumped off letting their legs extended and absorb the sideways momentum upon their landing.

444 would follow shortly behind, jumping out the hatch and finding that the gravity on this world was far less than she had expected. This left her to float in the air in an arcing trajectory that lazily brought her towards the silo where the Edward Deming was being held. The upper silo door was still open, and this left her arcing down into the mouth of the silo itself, straining as she reached out to grab ahold of the edge as she came down towards it.

James’ deployment of the group had perfect timing, and just as they were leaving their receive a message from Wazu.

“Elections are over planet-side. All operations are still on schedule. We’re cutting the Alliance off from external all external data-feeds now. Good luck.”


---

Turn 1

~FHzzzzz~

“Aww… how is the wifi down?” The Alliance Engineer who was in the middle of checking the exterior hull of the ship briefly paused in his work, setting down his hand scanner and reaching for the display pad inset into his space-suit’s arm. A few presses of the screen would confirm what he thought. Though he was lacking a connection to the outside world, he still had the local mesh network. “Hey guys, what’s going on? Did someone damage the umbilical to the Silo?”

It was at that point he spotted the compression-suited 444 floating over-head.

“...Fuck…”

The engineer would pull the Laser-pistol from his holster, and start trying to fiddle with the controls on the back to get to the wide-stun setting… which wasn’t easy with the space-suit gloves still on.

444 had also noticed the man down there still in his space suit as she floated overhead, finally reaching the ledge of the silo and getting ahold of it. She’d quickly pull her legs down so they could brace against the edge and then used them to shoot herself towards the walkway the engineer was standing on, landing right between him and the ship’s airlock. She considered hitting him with a stun-drone but she wasn’t sure if that counted as ‘smashing people’ which she was told explicitly not to do. She consider punching him, but that would certain break that stupid bag thing he was wearing and that was certainly considered smashing. She decided to yank the pistol out of his hand instead and then throw it straight up, sending it flying right out of the silo.

“What do I do with him if I can’t smash him?!” She asked over the squad’s comms.

Frank would follow suit with 444 using the lip on the edge to propel himself forward as he activated his shock glove and set it on the top of the guards helmet sending 42 volts of electricity through it as opposed to the lethal setting on the gloves 110 volts. The shock certainly seemed to surprise the engineer, the charge flowing around the exterior of his suit, and the sudden zap knocking him back towards the nearby Echoni. The man seeming disoriented but not down.

As the second of the team’s experienced soldiers, Corgan followed Frank out of the airlock. He jumped off the ship and floated towards the silo, using his hardsuit’s micro-thrusters to slow his forward momentum. He followed Frank and 444’s lead and grabbed the edge, pressing his feet against it and pushing off. The hardsuit made a loud thud when he touched down on the walkway near the airlock. He didn’t waste a second, moving with speed to the airlock door and seeing if he could activate it. The codes automatically transmitted by his suit were able to complete their handshake with the airlock itself, and the exterior would quickly cycle open, creating enough space for a group of 6 or so to enter.

Dr. KB lets himself fall from the ship for a second, before letting a magnetic cable launch from his wrist and latch onto the silo, and let it drag him to the silo. Once there, he stood upon the wall of the silo and magnetized his feet, and began to walk down the silo to the airlock door. The drones took off from his back, and floated around him like planets.

The three drones took a minute to dislodge their feet from the ice before moving to the side of the silo. Using the relatively low gravity to their advantage they boosted up as far as their hydraulics allowed before clamping on with their magnetic feet and starting their climb to the rim of the silo.

The ship was already far far away from the silo as the operations began, the AI and pickled brain heading to deliver upon what cargo they hadn’t lied about.

“Keep the engineer steady, I’m going to try to talk to him.” Geiben engaged his suit’s thrusters to guide him to the platform, then allowed his maglocks to take over once his feet made contact with the silo. He walked over to the engineer, grabbed him by the helmet and pressed it against his own. The commander then spoke through the physical contact. “My name is Geiben Folami, ex-commander of the Edward Deming. I can’t explain all the politics to you, but we need this ship to negotiate Hawking’s independence. If you can look the other way and keep your mouth shut, we won’t have to leave you drooling out here, and we could also make sure no one gets hurt in the upcoming shitfest.”

Perching down and holding on to the floor Enid bent her legs like springs and leaped with force, her GravKits in her thighs turning the low G into near Zero G she flew forward and spiraled to maintain accuracy. Once close she reoriented herself to the direction of gravity and turned the engines on high, slamming her to the floor with a thud as well. Tapping KB on the shoulder she leaned over "Hey, I have uuhh radio jammer I brought but its inside my suit. You got something?"

“Yeah… Hey I don’t want any trouble.” The man said, holding his arms up and doing his best not to provoke the squad of soldiers that was standing nearby. He didn’t even try to warn the rest of the people onboard the ship, even though his mic was on and they could overhear his side of the conversation. At this point he was also quite unarmed, though his suit was quite protective as it needed to survive the rigors of space, it didn’t have anything capable of damaging other space suits.

444 meanwhile looked troubled, “So the zappy-things are fine to use on these guys?” Wordlessly, two of the small stun-drones clipped onto her back would detach and start floating nearby. They were the same models that Dr. KB had with them and 444 looked quite eager to
 

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try them out… luckily there was an airlock into the ship that had just been opened! 444 would lose interest in the Alliance Engineer, and dash towards the airlock, jumping slightly and practically flying right into the open door, wanting to be the first one into the ship once someone cycled the airlock!

Frank would zip tie the engineer before following the group into the airlock. Upon entering he would activate the device on his back to silence everything in the 10 meters so that when he stood close to the airlock door cycling sounds would be quite so that entry would not be heard by anyone inside the silo.

Corgan followed Frank into the airlock. He turned back to the others impatiently. “We can’t just leave the guy floating around out here. We don’t know how much air he’s got or how long this is going to take. No casualties, even accidental ones. The guy’s just doing his job.” He said. “Someone grab him and bring him in here, please. Who knows how long we’ve got until they figure out something’s up.”

Dr KB launched his mag hook at the hapless engineer to safely drag him with them, and carried him into the airlock. “Worry not sir, if all goes well, none shall be harmed.”

The three drones took one look down into the silo and ran some basic calculations, between the three pilot scripts they all came to a similar conclusion that TB had.

Without a sound, thanks to the vacuum of space, the one of the white robed drones leaped from their position on the rim and floated over to the large ship, while its two companions started going in opposite directions around the rim to take up defensive positions.


Turn 3:

Once Geiben and Enid were inside the airlock, Corgan was able to cycle it. In a few short moments the outer-door would close, the interior would pressurize, and then the interior door would open.

Once Geiben entered the airlock, he got up to the captured engineer and twisted the helmet off, throwing it to the ground and crushed the mic in it with his boot, then addressed his team. “Deploy a drone to keep an eye on him. Otherwise, let’s get a move on.”

444 was just overflowing with energy, bashing open the interior door once it started to open and dashing out into the hallway, a pair of small stun drones trailing behind her by only a few inches as the transparent bubble-helmet that had been over her head flipped up and off of her, leaving the Echoni in the armored bodysuit. She already knew the fastest way to the ship’s CIC, heading right through the corridors of the ship. The look on her face was practically gleeful when she reached the final corridor, at the end of the hallway. There were only two Alliance soldiers guarding the open door to the CIC, each wearing a deep blue jumpsuit with some hard-shell armor over their chests. Both appeared to be wearing eye-protection in the form of goggles, and at least appeared to have some sort of emergency space-suit device attached to their hips. One of them was holding an awkward Alliance laser-weapon and that woman was already struggling with holding it on one arm so that she could configure the settings on the laser-weapon while 444 was charging right at her… but the second soldier had one of the Magnetic Assembly’s own weapons. The anti-drone frequency gun looked like a glossy-black rifle with a blocky overall shape. 444 wasn’t even halfway down the hallway before the beam swept across her, powerful jamming outright frying the communication devices in the drones that were following her, causing them to fall to the ground. At the same time they caused her to hear a high pitched screech in her ears, and began burning out the communication gear built into her right arm. The integrated antenna heating up to a dull glow and causing her to scream out, fall to the ground, and then scamper back to safety around the corner. Though the Echoni was well hardened against EMP and couldn’t be shut down so easily… she did have enough sensitive electronics to be hurt by the anti-drone weapon.

The Alliance soldiers were quick to call it in, “Looks like the Captain was right. The Magnetic Assembly are up to something. We’ve got one of their Echoni near the CIC!”




XWvXtPqlZ_BVn01LbB6MqcGFn7y8Nh80YLTR9CKol3RmlRIkQe_h_kIBzRDdkJ7_PQ-W3Ui8XU0mYZj06aWkqlIsjOTEFf2qtsA0SonCvqXDcBt23QnuPrsclt2kQeuasvBmawOM

(The airlock is in the top left)

“Arrgh…”

Tearing the ugly yellow suit off and tossing it to the side Enid opened up her pouches and started hooking stun drones to the back of her Flak Jacket. Adjusting a few knobs on some black boxes and running a weapons check she seemed focused and in control. "Alright my Custom is on taze setting and Im equipped with stun drones and some old fashion flashbangs. These jammers should black out cameras and signals so they won't see me. Im going to take the bridge and lock it down Geiben." Enid barked as she did the weirdest thing possible like it was normal. Popping open the leg panels on her thighs she adjusted the MiniGrav settings back to low. Enid thought hard about the path to take and assumed a runners position. "Speed. Like lightning. Like a blue flash." She muttered.

Frank would pick up the now restrained engineer holding him in front of himself as he rushed forward to the two alliance guards.

“Roger that Enid, I’m going to go make sure Frank doesn’t kill anyone.”

Dr. KB walked down the middle of the hallway, and the drones on his back spread out in formation around him. They flew out, electricity sparking off them, and flew around him menacingly. He had eyes in every direction now, while two flew to the two visible enemies and stunned them. He walked, emotionlessly, like a shadow. He liked it.

Once halfway to the guards Frank would use the stun laser on the side of his helmet to shoot the still armed alliance guard in the face with the laser knowing full well the effects to a non eye protected engineer before dropping him on his face.

“Frank, seriously? Meat shield?” Geiben drew his own stun pistol and followed up Frank’s shot with his own towards the chest. He then walked into the middle of the corridor and aimed at the female Alliance soldier. “Stand down. We don’t want to hurt you. If you’ll back off I won’t sicc the Echoni on you. Unlike me, she has no reservation for bashing your brains out.”

Corgan brought up the rear in case of a surprise attack. His If they hadn’t been in the middle of combat he would have facepalmed at FrankUsing a captive as a human shield was the lowest strategy he could think of. He knew that the Alliance soldiers probably wouldn’t shoot, and this wasn’t the time to discuss it, so he continued at a jog.

Stopping not far from Enid, he recalled the ship’s layout. Enid’s plan to take the bridge was sound, but he wasn’t going to let her go by herself. “Good plan. You’re not going alone though.” He said, taking position beside her. Corgan couldn’t cut the effects of gravity down like Enid. He did have cybernetic legs, power armor to enhance his strength, and thrusters to propel him forward.

"A race it is then." Enid cheered a little at the thought as she did an upper body stretch and returned to her bent over Olympic style runner position. With full force she sprung forward and floated a long distances before touching the floor again and bounding off gaining more speed. As she moved she accelerated to somewhat sickening speeds in mere seconds. Each bound leaving smaller and smaller clouds of thin white powder.

The Marshal started a few seconds behind Enid. He took off in a mad dash towards the bridge. He wasn’t going to beat her, but he was able to almost keep up using a boost from his hard suit. When he tried to fire the booster a second time it malfunctioned, sending a shower of sparks out the back. He rapidly fell behind.

With the precision of a machine the four legged drone magantized onto the Edward Demmings hull and walked to one of the uncovered airlocks. With the minimal access that had been granted the drone was able to open the external door and enter, it didn’t however enter the ship proper, using the various appendages at it’s disposal the drone opened a maintenance pannel and plugged itself into the ship.

Any enemies inside the ship would soon find themselves being locked in as doors deadlocked ahead and behind them, or being herded towards specific and out of the way locations.
 

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--Turn 4 ---

The Alliance soldier preparing her weapon would end up having a rather bad time during all of this. Before she could get ready, she'd receive a glancing blow to the head by Frank's stun-shot followed by a second shot from Geiben... As she was falling backward she'd get knocked aside by Enid running past and then hit by a stun drone from Dr. KB, the drone flying right up to the target before latching on and making them shake with a direct application of electricity.

The second alliance soldier was faring better. She was still holding the anti-drone gun. When KB's stun drone came at her it would find its communications systems jammed as a large amount of energy was invisibly blasted at the device. The drone's anti-grav device would soon burn out as well, leaving it to drop to the floor as the soldier quickly walked backwards, retreating down the hallway as fast as she could while pulling her pistol with her free hand.

"YOU HEAR THAT! GIVE UP THAT GUN OR I'LL SMASH YOU!" 444 shouted out, peaking her head out from around the corner only to see the woman with the anti-drone gun had retreated. It didn't take her long to dash down a side hallway, looking for a way to get around the side of the Alliance soldier to flank them.

"You're the ones making a mistake here. Stop this now and I'm sure the captain will go easy on you," The alliance soldier called out as she retreated down the hallway to take up a new position, both guns at the ready.

Meanwhile in the CIC, a familiar face was organizing the ship's defenses.

"SEAL THE DOOR TO THE CIC, YOU, GET SECURITY UP HERE, AND YOU SIGNAL THAT WE'RE UNDER ATTACK." Somnya said, the elven woman jumping over the waist-high control panel in front of her to head towards the door. One of the engineers was already halfway there, sprinting over to the door only to arrive just after Enid. There was no way he could get to the door without going through her so he fully committed to his motion at this point. He leaned in and tried to tackle Enid as Somnya locked eyes with Corgan. She wasted no time raising her hand and pointing her finger at him, her other hand cocking the thumb of her mechanical hand back then.

*ZZZZZZTZTZZ!*

She fired a stun blast right through the door, looking to hit anyone trying to approach.

"THERE ARE GOING TO BE A LOT OF SOLDIERS HERE SOON CORGAN. WHAT ARE YOU DOING?" Somnya asked.

Elsewhere on the ship, other soldiers were trying to head towards the CIC only to find they were getting stuck behind doors. The manual unlocking process slowed them down considerably as they tried to respond to the attack. For the Moment Somnya would only have the four remaining engineers to work with in the CIC.

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“Dr. KB, secure our flanks.” Geiben ordered as he marched forward, coming behind Corgan, kept him steady with a hand as the soldier took a blow to the chest. “Easy there. You and Enid take care of those engineers.” “Captain Somnya,” The commander aimed his stun pistol at her with his left hand. “Stand down, please. The [Allied Union] doesn’t have a place in this system.” He was clearly shaking. Geiben took a gulp. “I know the history of your kind, how you want to restore your civilization to its original prosperity. You’re definitely not making it happen with the [Allied Union].”

Corgan felt the blast hit his armor. Seeing Somnya was enough to make him stop in his tracks, but the blast itself didn’t hurt or do any real damage. He hadn’t expected to run into anyone he knew. While Geiben talked with her, he took a few steps forward. “Just let us take the ship. We don’t want to hurt anyone.” He said, keeping his G8 aimed away from her.

Enid was partially unprepared for being tackled under low gravity but her 'training' with Corgan taught her a little on how to avoid being touched. Squeezing her eye's shut she pointed the custom toward the ship's floor and blasted a set amount of ionization energy. The loose non-oxygen gases split their valence electrons off causing a flash of light. Then with a thumb flick switched to a single loaded beanbag round and unloaded it into the blinded engineers chest. The ballistic force sent her backwards of course but that was the plan. Springboarding off the ceiling with a twist she reangled to the floor and springboarded again into the CIC from that landing onto its ceiling and unleashing her own stash of stun drones on her back. About 6 of them took to the air as she whipped them out one after another while gripping the light fixture to hold on.

“Affirmative.” Dr. KB marches on, the drones spreading out to have eyes on their flanks to avoid ambush, and keep watch as they move. He takes a stun pistol from his leg, and his emotionless face showed nothing as he aimed it forward at Somnya, while he saw in all directions.

Frank sighed watching the situation between geiban and Somnya before walking forward putting on his best poker face from under his tinted visor. He stood there silently in parade rest.

With the external of the site mostly secured the two drones on the rim hopped onto the external of the ship and crawled to different airlocks where they entered and started moving towards packets of enemies trying to force through doors, their arc rifles crackling with electrical energy.

“What did the Magnetic Assembly offer you to betray your people Geiben?” Somnya said, flicking her thumb slightly to the right to up the power on her finger-zapper and making two quick shots, this time aiming for Corgan’s shoulder with enough power to blast off a chunk of his armor. The second follow up shot would hit him slightly lower, finally letting him feel the burn of extreme heat as it cracked open the armor, chunks being blown off until only a thing blackened layer of cooling suit was covering his shoulder.

Then Enid’s drones came, easily hitting the three engineers in the CIC. They latched on and provided a strong enough jolt to bring them to the floor. Another flew at the engineer that had tried to tackle Enid, only to get disabled by the soldier still in the hallway, using their anti-drone gun to fry the drone’s systems before it stunned the engineer on the floor. The last drone flew right at Somnya, who raised her gun-hand so the drone’s forward spikes would crunch into the palm of her prosthetic. She wasted no time in grasping hold of the drone and then using her other hand to disconnect her prosthetic arm. It was easy enough for her to then reach for her pistol, selecting the power setting on the top before unholstering the weapon and bringing it to aim at the doorway to fire a barrage of shots, “Did Wazu put you up to this? There are enough soldiers here to put a stop to the Magnetic Assembly’s plot.”

Meanwhile in the hallway the one remaining alliance soldier would get positioned around a corner to give her some amount of cover from those attacking the CIC. They were about to fire their pistol down the hallway when they heard running coming at them from behind. 444 had already moved to flank her and was bolting down the hallway at full speed, sending another stun drone right at the soldier and forcing her to turn towards 444, using the anti-drone weapon to get her to back off, the extremely powerful radio-waves turning the antenna in her arm into a burning-hot wire.
 

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q-TkE3ER8innc4Y6XX8cIJdMz5-OT935CdpLuZdZkfj9129UVA-U0IbWjlNCW9KmRkNY4yFp1Gjh4Ro_yjFxMw79z4usqhaByZqxfIxfGb_-qc1pac8-H5gd76L4q4fia6zKmOM3

“They offered me a chance to help the people of this system, Ma’am.” Geiben responded with a flurry of stun pistol shots himself as he dashed to the right side of the door for cover. He then continued behind it. “C-can I still call you that? At the end of the day I really don’t hold any animosity towards you.”

Frank starts dashing towards Somnya using geibans shots towards her as cover fire as he would attempt to close the distance and attempt to get her in a grapple. Grunting as he took a few shots from Somnya However his dermal plating coupled with his light armor and space suit helped dampen the damage though its probably gonna hurt tomorrow.

Dr. KB was designed to take a few shots, and did not fear death. He was backed up anyway. He strode forward with confident steps, a syringe extending from the palm. “Perhaps this isn’t the time to curry favor with the womenfolk Commander. Shall we peacefully be rid of a nuisance or do you wish to keep flirting?” He kept his pace up, waiting to see if Frank could handle this.

Somnya wasn't looking, the 'menfolk' are providing a good enough distraction as any. Enid pulled on the light fixure and tightened her grip as she put power in her legs. Letting go of the light she propelled herself hard and fast at the sole Elven defender.]

Frank found himself walking right into the kill-zone, hand extended, blasts hitting his hand and arm, followed by shots to his chest that tore open large swaths of his armor. The intense heat of the blasts could be felt all over his body at this point from the heat transfer, and the focused beam would end up taking a chunk out of his arm leaving him unable to lift it. Somnya was ready to continue firing, only to end up being slammed into hard by a rather fast moving Enid. The heavy impact knocked her onto the floor, sending her sunglasses flying off. “I’ll get back to you in a minute!” Somnya shouted out, clearly indisposed with Enid now on top of her. She’d push the stub of her right arm up against Enid’s chest to try and keep her back while closing her eyes, bringing her pistol up to fire right into the side of Enid’s chest. The backblast of the laser-shot tearing into the side of Enid’s space suit would singe both Somnya and Enid’s chest a little bit.

Meanwhile the soldier in the Hallway kept her anti-drone weapon pointed at 444, holding the Echoni back for the moment. With only one hand she couldn’t adjust her pistol’s settings… and on stun it wouldn’t be able to harm anyone who was still wearing armor… luckily Frank was still in the doorway and had much of his armor already shredded. A quick set of stun-blasts would then hit him in the side.

The engineer that was still on the floor also started to ready his pistol, scrambling to find the right setting as he tried to back away from the attacking soldiers while still on the ground.

This whole thing was annoying for KB, drones now flying in a jagged formation towards this hapless soldier, spinning to avoid bullets as they approached him at a considerable speed. Dr. KB himself approached Somnya and and sent his robotic grip around her arm with the pistol, prepared the syringe of sedative, and then did his best to administer it. “Just relax and rest. If you don’t, I will use more sudden methods of sedation.”
Frank stumbles back threw the doorway taking cover neer a wall as he breathes in sharply threw his nose gritting his teeth his arm lay limp at his side leaking blood threw his burnt suit and armor as a large chunk is visibly missing from the bisep keeping him from even being to lift it at all. Frank slumps down the wall drifting into unconsciousness from shock do to the debilitating injury and stun shots his body took.

Geiben dropped his stun pistol. Those in the CIC would hear him cry out, “Hang on soldier! Don’t die on me!” He shielded Frank’s body with his own, pulled apart the medkit that was strapped across his chest, drawing a dagger that cut open Frank’s suit that led to an administration of painkillers. Geiben then took a gun of medfoam and sprayed it all over the area of exploded blood and tissue. His own adrenaline helped him ignore the fact that his lower torso and arms were covered in blood.

Having underestimated Somnya’s willingness to actually shoot them with lethal force, Corgan took two shots from her laser. He was surprised that the armor actually held up this well after the lack of proper maintenance. While all hell was breaking loose and everyone was distracted, Corgan rushed forward into the CIC.

He saw Enid wrestling with Somnya and KB going up to sedate her. Falling back to the entrance, he peered out of the door and fired a few stun drones off at the soldier zapping 444. The drones took flight in mid-air, hurtling towards the soldier from the side. One went for her head and the other towards her chest.

Enid wrapped her arms around herself. The pain was impossibly hot and breathing burned like hell fire. She fell off of Somnya somewhat to the side. Biting her tongue she refused to scream. Open fire and combat had made plenty of noise so it wasn't the stealth of the mission that she was worried for, it was team moral. If she screamed bloody murder right now Geiben would know instantly and might break down as commander again. Instead she held it in only now taking a look at her side. Ribs, missing, a disgusting visual. The last thing she could muster was to kick Somnya in the temple of the head as she laid on the floor next to her. Burning so intense she forcefully passed out instead.Ribs, missing, blood, lots, nasty. The last thing she mustered was to mule kick Somnya in the temple before the pain forced her unconscious.

Once Frank was stabilized, Geiben shouted to Corgan, “Drag him into the CIC, cover the entrance with the remaining drones.” He then grabbed his medkit and rushed into the room, only to find Enid bleeding and unconscious, and Somnya going in and out, restrained by KB. He winced and bit his lip. “Doctor, stabilize Enid.” Geiben walked over to the command counsel. Yeah, this was definitely all familiar. He gave himself administrative control over the ship disabling it for everyone else, then made an announcement to all the crew. “This is Geiben Folami. Your commander Somnya has been sedated. As we speak, all Union vessels in the Hawking system are being acquired by the New Cambridge government in the name of the citizens of this system. Resistance is futile. We do not seek harm upon you unless you intervene in the independence movement of this new nation.”

Corgan nodded a quick response to Geiben. He launched the remaining drones and mentally set them on a defensive pattern around the doorway. Discarding the empty G8 on the floor of the CIC, he dashed out into the hallway to retrieve Frank. He grabbed him under his arms and dragged him into the CIC. The doors then closed shut behind them.

KB left Somnya to her forced slumber, and turned around to crouch by Enid. A panel opened up in his side and a rack of syringes popped out, and he transferred the sedative for a stimulant, to stimulate healing and prevent death. A second panel popped out and he took bandages and cooling spray from it, and began the process of cooling off the laser burn with the foamy spray and wrapping the wound, stopping the bleeding until they could get her more official help than field medicine. When he was done, he stood up and went to tend to Frank, as Geiben was a human under pressure and he wouldn’t expect him to do his best.

“As for Edward Deming itself,” Geiben paused and drew breath. Two of his squadmates are bleeding on the floor, their fate to be determined. Engineers still attempt to reach them, only slowed down by the airlocks that Terror Bite is controlling. However, he had his hands on the CIC’s main console. He couldn’t help but speak the next words with an ounce of pride. “I will be assuming the position of Captain.”
 

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---- Elsewhere on the ship ----


James’ drones were slowly starting to make their way through the ship. At this point they could see into the ship through the internal security feeds, and could remotely open the doors. This left the dozen or so engineers left on the ship struggling to respond. Nearly half were asleep in their beds, while others were now stuck going through the long manual opening process for the various airtight doors throughout the ship.

There was also a group of soldiers that were looking to meet up, two groups of two, both of which were making a straight shot for the ship’s armory. Each pair had a single laser rifle and a single anti-drone weapon as well as side arms and eye-protection but they had little in the way of armor or additional weapons. Something they fully intended to fix, however the drones would have an opportunity to reach them while they were still working on doors.

Functioning to the best of their combat programming the two drones moved with efficiency and purpose towards their targets, while the the third remained in it’s airlock manipulating what systems it had access to. One drone per pair they offset their attacks one setting up an ambush on the other side of the door they were opening and the other approaching from behind its group.
Having it’s combat route calculated beforehand through the camera footage it was only a matter of the pilot program executing its functions. The door behind and to the right of the pair unlocked with a thunk and click giving them a few seconds of reaction time before the quadruped machine took eight hurried steps to acquire the most optimal arcing angle.

The Alliance soldiers would have already turned their attention to the door as it started to open. The first soldier having their anti-drone weapon at the ready, hitting Terror Bite’s combat drone with a wide range of directed energy attacks. High energy radiowaves were focused in on the drone, looking to melt or destroy communication gear, sensors, and other sensitive equipment. The second soldier had already set her rifle to stun, and fired a series of blasts at the approaching drone.

The drone wasn’t phased as its communications equipment was fried and some of its sensors were put out of commission. Unfortunately for the soldiers the drones weren’t being remotely controlled. The drone finished its positioning and opened fire with its arc rifle. The four second burst of energy drained the drones battery by half but achieved the goal of arcing through both of the raised weapons through their bodies and grounding into the ships flooring.

The soldiers would end up dropping their weapons, before falling to the floor themselves. Once the electric shock had passed through them they were once again able to move but they thought better of doing so while the drone was still in the room with them.

The drone continued its programed response moving as fast as it could to close the distance between itself and the pair. During the motion a few sparks from its comms gear caught onto the white robe which slowly started to smoke. Ignoring what it wasn’t programmed to understand the drone put its four legs to use by smashing the weapons dropped by its opponents on its way to administer closer range and more debliltating shocks to the two of them.

The other drone finished getting into position on the other side of its door and waited for the pair to finish breaking through to enact a similar plan.

“LETS FUCKING GO!” 444 shouted, having already pummeled one soldier into submission and having stolen their anti-drone gun. She ended up right behind Terror Bite’s drone, weapon at the ready, as the door opened.

On the other side, the two soldiers had already heard the weapon fire from their friends and dialed up their weapon strength. When they heard the door opening they moved to either side to get a bit of a better position and as it opened they got ready to fire at anything on the other side when…

*THUCK!*

The soldier with the anti-drone weapon was beaned in the face by an anti-drone gun that had been hurled like a javelin, knocking that soldier back onto their ass while the other one took careful aim at the Terror Bite’s drone, firing a focused energy blast right at center of mass that would be strong enough to blast apart armor.

The laser burnt through the thin robe without any difficulty and continued into the drones torso super heating and reacting to its already charged capacitors. The drone was blasted to shreds by the following detonation sending a wall of fire and force along with metal shrapnel and burning cloth down the corridor in both directions. This blast seemed to be somewhat harmful to the two soldiers, though they were partially protected by the doorframe they were using as cover they also weren’t wearing heavy armor. The intense heat and some of the fragmentation from the destroyed drone chipping into their skin and knocking them back.

444 didn’t fair nearly as well.

The blast would knock her on her ass, leaving her with cuts on her face and singled hair, additional bits of drone were now embedded in her arms and chest. Though her compression-suit had protected her from the worst of the blast it was a rather strong hit!

The mostly damaged drone finished its program with going through the checklist of try to contact its partners. With its comms gear fried it had to move to a wall pannel and physically connect to the ships internal network. With an updated understanding of the situation and updated orders the drone stopped being stealthy with its movements. Continueing at speeds that would best be described unsafe in such confined corridors the drones four legs bent in all sorts of directions as it clambered through doors that opened bare seconds before the flaming white robe hurried through them.

The racket that this would create as its magnetic locks thunked and the hydraulic limbs dented the walls in the most efficient and fastest way to it’s destination would give the two dazed troopers a few seconds to understand what was happening as the now truely flaming monstrosity of metal raced over the ceiling at them, the bright blue glow of the arc rifle barely breaking through the orange blaze around it.

The two soldiers had learned their lesson from the first run in with the drones. The anti-drone soldier would switch to their pistol, setting it to stun and moving through the doorway towards 444 while the other soldier walked through the doorway, moving to the other side to provide some cover as they fired at the ground, exploding a small portion of the floor just under the attacking drone to knock it up and away as they both moved for cover.

The drones magnetic lock kept its other three feet attached to the ceiling as it came to a stop and unleashed another arc of energy at a less than optimal angle. The lighting arc was definitely larger than the last but this was more due to the more uncontrolled nature. The three figures before it got hit by the lightning arc. Luckily for 444 her armour conducted the majority of the power around her and into the floor while the less armored duo got hit by partial shocks from the weapon.

“OOOOOOOOOWWWWWFUUUUCKK!!!!” 444 yelled, curling up after the shock had passed. The blast had brought both soldiers to the ground, but both were still quite willing to fight, switching to their sidearms. While one would take aim at the drone’s arc,weapon with their pistol, firing a few shots at it from their place on their backs… the other would get jumped ontop of by 444 who would proceed to snatch their pistol away and also bleed on them.

The arc rifles barrel turned into a flower of metal as the barrel was blasted outwards. With it’s main weapon disabled the drone abandoned its now impossible combat route and rushed forward. Using it’s heft and magnetic locked feet to trap the trooper that 444 wasn’t attacking, by placing its foot onto the man's chest and locking to the floor underneath it nearly crushing the guy.
 

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Chapter 9: End of an Era

New Cambridge
10 minutes after the election,

The victory speech was customary enough, standing behind the podium was a diverse group of individuals from Hawking, happy, cheering, absolutely standard… but this time the new governing coalition wasn’t headed by the usual clean cut, suit wearing, flag-pin-on-the-lapel type.

Instead, Caxia was there.

The numerous dull red sensor globes on Caxia’s head-module would look at the cameras watching. The polished metal of Caxia’s cylindrical body had a bit of a glossy look to it in this light, the eight arms around the cylindrical torso moving with mechanical precision to adjust the microphones on the podium itself. Despite their hard work, despite all of their accomplishments, the Magnetic Assembly had never had the power it did right now. The machines were running things now and Caxia couldn’t help but think.

-The Revolution will be televised-

“With this election, the people of this star system have decided to reject the Union that has mis-managed our resources, betrayed our allies, and allied themselves with those who seek to dominate others.

You have placed your trust in the Magnetic Assembly, and though you have entrusted us with a majority in this government, we will still seek to form a coalition with the other major parties as we bring the benefits of the Machine Exemplar to New Cambridge. More efficient use of our resources means there will be more for everyone. We will embody the strength, speed, and efficiency of the machines that have built our society.

Our first act, is the eviction of the old Union. We have served notice that they are no longer welcome here, and those that do not wish to join us will be taken back without harm. It now falls to all of us to solve our problems, rather than relying on their failed leadership.”

There were fireworks, and not just the traditional light-drone displays either. The shower of sparks, bright lights, and loud blasts would serve to cover up any remaining resistance in New Cambridge just in case anyone didn’t go quietly. The Magnetic Assembly had quickly and quietly prepared for all likely outcomes, the local police had started security operations, and in deep space ships from the Old Union were already being seized.



New Cambridge,
Wazu Living Area,
The After-party,
Late afternoon; 4 Days Later,

Wazu’s living space had been expanded quite a bit for this party, there was a large balcony area with a pool overlooking the ocean near the city. A large living area was just inside, separated from the large balcony by movable transparent windows. There was a kitchen area in the ‘back’ while numerous guest rooms with their own showers/bathrooms/etc had been setup. The whole area seemed to take up most of the space on this floor of the Archology tower.

The whole area was starting to fill up with those associated with Wazu, and the crew of the Edward Deming. Green Thumb and Green Screen were already here, dressed in bath robes and lounging by the pool. 444 and the Echoni had taken over a pair of sofas, having produced a rather sizable pillow fort which they could hide inside, occasionally peeking out through one of the vision-slits to observe those at the party. Soffy and Torace, the nearly 4 foot tall insectoids, had taken up position near a screen showing some episode of Magical Girl Ayumu. Quarum, Wazu’s sister, was busy raiding the food that had been set out.

Then there was Somnya, the former captain of the Edward Deming who had recently been one of the highest ranking members of the AU in the star system. The woman was missing her right arm, though otherwise it seemed to have been well treated. She had been provided with a comfortable black T-shirt and pants… both of which seemed far from the more military attire she was used to wearing. She was clearly the least happy of all of the people currently here, and she seemed quite eager to communicate this to the Party’s host.

“I want my uniform back.” she stated flatly, putting herself directly in front of Wazu and taking what was his third drink of the night out of his hands to better make her point, “And letting me move about unsupervised is criminally irresponsible. I would prefer to await my transfer back home with the rest of the soldiers.”

“... while I appreciate the input…” Wazu started, frowning a bit as his drink was taken. Not that he needed the alcohol, his auto-pharmacy armband would keep him from getting too drunk and the cluster of automated systems around him would quietly work in the background to keep anything bad from happening… but he did want it as something to focus on. Right now keeping his mind off work felt like a desperate struggle to find breathable air while underwater, “... but this is not the time or place. You have no obligations to anyone right now.”

“Ma’am, I’d relax if I were you, and even consider this a victory.” Geiben came behind Wazu with a bottle of beer. He was in a Hawaiian shirt and swim trunks again, the same outfit when he was still under house-arrest. However, here, instead of preserving his sanity, they represented it instead. “No one died during the entire operation. Injuries that did happen were relatively easy to treat. Considering that we just robbed away the entire Union presence in the system in one fell-swoop, you should be happy about how peaceful this revolution has been so far.”

Geiben saw that Somnya was clearly not amused, and put up one hand. “Fine, consider this. The Union has not been kind to your race. They see you inferior, much like they did some of our own kind on our homeworld several centuries ago. The new government on Hawking is an opportunity for you to improve the quality of life of all elves in the system, a real chance to make a difference.”

“Considering that you made it all the way up to Captain despite all the bigotry, you certainly have what it takes to play an important role in the upcoming events.” Geiben offered her his hand. “We won’t stop you from leaving, but we’d appreciate the talent. A plea from an ex-commander to his ex-boss. Ma’am.”

With a jovial ping, the front door slid open, and in walked a red-skinned Echoni that Wazu had not seen in many moons. Tsuguka immediately snapped their keycard in half and fixed their clothes, a ‘fashionable’ dress of blue plastic material and gold trim. The heels didn’t suit their agitated, pouncing gait, and the way that their long black hair had been attractively straightened seemed to actively annoy the rather lynx-like, brooding bio-weapon.

“Mister Heram Wazu. Please provide a fingerprint sample to accept command transfer.” A small briefcase was immediately opened in front of them, revealing a small DNA scanner, along with a SEER-brand data terminal. “The Magnetic Assembly has tasked unit 515 with your personal security in this dramatic time.”

Not a hint of humour, nothing. Just narrow green eyes that looked like they wanted to start eating people. Either 515 really didn’t care about the revolution, or, as perhaps typical for an Echoni, just saw things as business as usual… Dealing with the bag people as usual.
 

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Corgan was acting a little awkward around Green-Screen today. He’d had a strange dream the night before about a date with an elf from another universe, and it had him considering a more serious relationship. Sitting a few feet away from Somnya, he was wearing trunks and no shirt. Now that Geiben was talking to her, he felt comfortable leaving her unsupervised. He got up and walked over to the food bar. He had never met the woman that was currently raiding the snacks but he could tell by the resemblance who she was.

“You’re Quarum I take it.” Corgan said, making conversation as he put himself together a plate of snacks. “Nice to put a face to the name finally. Tell me, what was it like growing up with Heram? Did he always manage to get himself in some kind of trouble as a kid too?” He asked.

“He was less boring for sure,” Quarum said, having moved on to getting herself a small plate of sushi that seemed to be made from some of the local buttersauce roaches and rice grown in the automated farms below the archology. Next to it on her plate was some kind of small cake… some scoop of green ice-cream, some fruit-snacks, and a deep yellow-chedder cheese of some kind. The woman had on a pair of black pajama pants that fit loosely around her curvy hips. A similarly comfortable looking white shirt covered her chest while a brown vest that looked more reasonable in an old adventure movie was covering that shirt. Her rather curvey brown/red hair was just let to fall loosely around her head on either side. The woman looked quite comfortable… though it was clear she didn’t care too much about how much her clothing matched. “And fat! He’s got no appreciation for snacks now... and has that whole wander-lust thing like there isn’t enough to look at down here…” She’d look over at her brother clustered around the growing group near the door, “... So what all do you want to know about him?”

In sharp contrast to his sister, Wazu’s clothing was much better put together. The simple black slacks and drag green shirt was accented with nicer brown shoes and a brown belt. He didn’t wear any embellishments either beside a datapad attached at the waist and the grey auto-pharmacy armband that was just under the T-shirt’s sleeves. He was collected, ordered, and perhaps just a bit less mechanical than Caxia or the Echoni that had just joined them in how he moved. “Good to have you,” Heram said to 515, downright surprised at just how professional and sharply dressed this Echoni was. She seemed quite different from…

“TUGS!”

The group’s other Echoni, 444, had spotted her friend from her hidey-spot in her pillow-fort. The Echoni rushing out fast enough to knock the pillows out towards the crowd of people, a blanket-turned poncho still covering her body as she came up beside 515 and latched on, practically picking her up as if she was a favorite toy, “They have lots of juice here and I got it all and hid it in the pillow-fort!”

Somnya, meanwhile, seemed less than enthused with what was going on. “It would seem a miracle that you managed to succeed with such an unprofessional fighting force.” There was certainly an air of frustration about her. Certainly being blindsided so quickly had left her feeling a bit sour. She would look at Geiben’s outstretched hand and comment, “Wazu seems to have beaten you to taking my hand,” She added, raising her handless right-arm to make her point.

“To be fair, you deprived yourself of a free hand by taking away Heram’s drink.” Geiben shrugged and retracted his hand. “You still didn’t answer my question though. Have you considered staying and working with us?”

Enid stepped into the room slowly in an attempt to be elegant. Done up in some tight black sheath dress, a low dip u neck, it had little round shaped shoulder sleeves, and was split on both legs creating two upside down V shaped windows on her thighs that were covered by lace. Some low profile black wedges to match and a few pieces of blue/green gem accessories. Carrying nothing with her she approached Wazu cautiously and stood aside quietly until she could speak. Obviously she was nervous for some reason.

Dr. Knowledgebot arrived soon after, seeming to have made himself presentable by polishing his exterior. He walks in and looks about the room, drinking in the sights. Not speaking to anyone, he walks over to Wazu, and waits behind everyone else for his turn to speak, like a line was starting to build up.

James kept an eye over the party through a few small spherical floating drones. They didn’t interact or really get within arms reach of anyone but they were there, floating near the ceiling.

“444… I brought this for you…” Tsuguka’s dusky voice didn’t change much, making it impossible to tell if they were excited by their old friend being there or not… Well, their original friend? Original leader? Original person who bit you to claim ownership, but that's okay because you’re Echoni and they are all a bit weird? The thing they had was a chocolate bar, produced out of their briefcase like some kind of tactically deployed distraction. “Doris wants me to take care of these bag people though. It’s good for us for mister Wazu to not get killed. Understand?”

Triangular ears swivelling, fingers curling and hair standing on end, it was a bit like 515 was trying to do their job already, absorbing background information about that robot and these weird hairy natural hue-mins like a sponge.

Or maybe they were just really trying to force themselves not to jump up and swat those annoying buzzy shiney things out of the air?

“Tag, you’re it! You’re it! You’re it!” a joyous Bǎo scurried into the room. Hopping behind the I’ee pillow fort, it quickly became apparent just who she was hiding from when the door burst open again.

“Bǎo-Bǎo? Where are - YOU!” Playfully happy one moment and angry the next, the buxom blonde’s feline tail stood on end like a bottlebrush the moment her eyes fell on Wazu. “YOU! YOU ANIMAL!” she accusingly pointed a finger at the man. Clad in little more than short-shorts, a tank top and sweater-vest, she may as well have angrily bounced in, step by step, closer and closer to Wazu. “What...what did you do to her?” the Dàqín woman began. “I still remember what you did to me…” her voice ominously hissed at the man, eyes narrowing. “Holding me down, tearing my clothing away, piece by piece! Completely insatiable! I was tied down and got bred, over and over again! And now it all makes sense! You’re up to your evil ways again! I’m watching you!” she gestured with her fingers. However, the woman’s demeanor suddenly changed as she realized something and perked up to a more upbeat note. “Oh! How are our kids doing?”

“Enid? What bread is she talking about getting?” Bǎo tugged at the pilot’s skirt.

Somnya’s eyes got understandably larger as she overheard the accusations and wild-mood-swings. She would quickly down the drink she had taken from Wazu and then briefly address Geiben’s question,

“I have decided to stay here a bit longer,” She said firmly

Somnya would put what remained of her right arm around Hilda, leaving the glass on some nearby table as she brought herself closer to Wazu’s victim. “It is ok, he can’t hurt you anymore now. Also please elaborate on all the terrible things he did. I am certain he will face justice for them.”

“...please don’t encourage her…” Wazu said, wincing as he saw Somnya moving closer to Hilda. “... and they are doing fine, they are proceeding with high marks through the Automated Educational Processes. Their AEP scores are above the average by more than a standard deviation.”
w
444 was still holding 515, nearly lifting her up off the ground as she looked over at Wazu…. Then Hilda… then Somnya… then those flying drone things which ended up getting her to frown, “UUUUgghh… is he so weak he’s going to die if we leave him alone? These two seem ready to attack him…” She would set 515 down and then take the offered chocolate bar, breaking it in half and handing half of it back to 515, “... He’d probably die if they did.”

Corgan appreciated Quarum’s form, even if she was at least ten years older. She wasn’t really his type for a relationship but he would definitely enjoy a night with her. Her question was interesting though. What did he want to know about the guy that wasn’t public knowledge? “Are the rumors I keep hearing involving Hoshiko true?” He asked, leaning in close to whisper. “You know, is Bao his kid?”

His attention quickly shifted to Enid, and he had to struggle to keep his jaw from dropping. Her outfit was completely out of place in the current setting though. There must have been some reason for her to dress up. He knew better than to gawk at her, he didn’t feel like getting tazed today. The sudden entrance of a busty, sexy catgirl ended that train of thought.
 

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Her loud accusations and revelations had him feeling several different emotions all at once. He looked back at Quarum for confirmation. “Did he… do that?”

Quarum paused for only as long as it took her to try one of the small ice-cream-sandwhich-treats that had been laid out. “MMgguup…. Maaan, I don’t want to be thinking about my brother’s sex life. That’s weird… I mean… I’m pretty sure he hooked up with the blonde but Bao just kinda showed up one day. I don’t think she’s the product of him and Hoshiko but I wouldn’t put it past him. The parents are always on us about Grandkids and fate of humanity and such…”

“Heram, we’re going to have a talk later. Clearly you haven’t been telling me everything when I helped you up to a position of power.” It was Geiben’s turn to frown as Somnya smiled at Wazu’s predicament. He then turned to look at Hilda displeased at her sudden intrusion. “Lady, if you’re looking for justice or responsibility or what not, wouldn’t it have been better to go through the proper channels first instead of crashing a party?”

Frank sat off to the side in a tank top and bdu’s messing with what looks to be a drone parts kit having opted to just get a cybernetic arm instead of healing the damaged one he worked on integrating the controls into the arm since drone combat was getting more and more prefered lately as opposed to fighting boots on the ground like the ‘good old days.’ peeking over at the party crasher he waved “hey Hilda.” frank said passively.

Of course Enid did as the others did. Looking around the room between the accusers and the accused. The cacophony of demands from the room like a show audience. She shared interest and desired answers like everyone else but this was touchy. 'Wazu holds power, you are befriending him right now, I won't argue a defense for a rapist, have moral ground, think about it.' Enid thought in a cluttered broken fashion as normal for a stressed situation. A peek again at the room and it was decided. "Come on Bao I'll tell you all about it." She spoke through a grunt of effort as she lifted Bao and rested the little one on her hips. A neutral faced nod towards Wazu and she stepped outside onto the balcony and out of ear shot. Sitting Bao down Enid started in.

"Breeding is a term that is to specify the operational intent of loving another person and creating a child. In the biological, natural since. A natural born child should have a mother and a father. Normally its an agreeable union that shares intense emotional bonds and a good history in the relationship. Sometimes it's not so special, it can be a quick consenting meet up, a weird trip to New Texas, or sadly an unconsenting situation. You almost always want to know that your partner is okay with what's happening. What the adults are talking about in there is something that happened where one partner wasn't okay with the exchange nor the feelings they had after. To better answer your original question though what I'm talking about is often referred to as 'Sex' while 'Breeding' is like sex but romanticized for the child making results." Enid shifted around as she explained this long winded concept to a child that deserves to know.

Bǎo’s big, wide eyes looked up at Enid with awe at first, but soon enough, the little girl began to fidget and look about. She was definitely trying her hardest to listen, sitting the pilot’s lap, but then, the moment of truth came as the woman finished her explanation.

“Enid got bread!” Bǎo finally sqee’d with glee, stuffing a slice of sourdough bread down Enid’s cleavage. Kicking her legs about, the little catgirl giggled with glee before looking up at the woman for her approval of a funny-well-made. “Does that mean you have a bun in the oven?” her eyes suddenly lit up as realization hit her. “OH! Are you gonna make more kids my age if you get more bread Enid?!” she asked, utterly delighted at the idea. “I can get you lots of bread!” Hilda, in comparison, was far more focused.

“Justice?” the buxom blonde asked, astonished that not only Somnya, but also Geiben would suggest that. “Justice? There can’t possibly be justice for this, this...utter defilement!” Hilda boldly declared. “How could there possibly be justice?! That man didn’t just bind me down so that I was completely helpless to stop his sword slamming to the hilt inside me!” she began, her brassy voice growing in excited fervor. “No, that man injected himself with a foul concoction that turned his weapon into a multi-handed ULTRA-GREATSWORD! One with which he completely annihilated me, mind, body and soul!” Hilda’s voice climaxed. “THERE CAN BE NO JUSTICE!” she loudly declared. Despite this zealous fervor though, her tone quickly became somber and dignified as she explained her noble cause. “That’s why I’ve only come here to make sure he can’t have any other woman’s mind come away under his perverted, unrelenting assault,” she explained to them all. “I’ll sacrifice myself and bear the brunt of his attack wherever and whenever he strikes. And even if it’s sometimes right after lunch.”

Geiben stared at her for a second, then slowly set down his beer and drew his data pad and texted James. “If you haven’t already, start recording this conversation.” He then replied back to the woman. “So your name is Hilda, right? Can you repeat that last sentence again?”

Dr. KB’s plans have changed entirely. He was here to make his presence known so no one would be like, “Hey KB why weren’t you at the party?” But now, this chaos had escalated far beyond the expected parameters. “This is really not the time to do this. If you wish for a private rendezvous with Wazu, you could simply speak to him privately. All of this pomp and circumstance is unnecessary, and frankly in poor taste. And further, it reeks of seeking attention.”

Enid pulled the bread from her dress and wiped it off the best she could. Railroaded by Hilda's ranting she took a moment to think. Then pulled out her personal phone and texted Wazu 'That drug real?' While continuing with Bao. "Yeah I think more people wanna 'bread' me than I'm comfortable with." She side eyed Corgan, " - and your joke was clever Bao but please understand the sanctity of what I'm saying. Your body is pure and nowadays the act of sex is no longer so treasured. Be wise with yourself and cautious with who you share it with." She stroked the kitty fur around Bao's ears.

Frank pulled out his datapad and texted Geiben. "Hey captain, want me to escort the crazy off the premises?" Frank while waiting for a response just watched the confrontation thinking to himself about how he wouldn't mind getting some tail from the crazy ranting lady.

Most of this conversation went right over Tsuguka’s head, their world experience detailing nothing about these kinds of encounters. Normally bag-people wouldn’t even be a threat, and they had indeed put KB-120 the highest on their internal watch list, but… Well, Wazu was a bag-person too, and thus pathetically squishy.

He was hiding a sword, though? That would come in handy. Why wasn’t he using it?

Red muscles seemed to solidify in anticipation of a fight, shoulders still straining outward because of the play-scuffle with Uso. They then placed that body directly in the path of this ‘Hilder’ person, only mildly distracted by this mini third Echoni that was climbing all over that shuttle pilot lady from a while back…

“Logic dictates this woman is a threat. Protocol authorises me to use non-lethal force.” A low, growling tone, crossing their arms and angling their small black horns forward. “Mister Wazu… I don’t know how long I can keep unit 444 from solving this situation themselves, to get me to play with them… If there is a reason why you cannot use your sword to disable this threat, please hand it to me so I can hit them with it instead.”

James couldn’t laugh, it’s not that he wouldn’t he just lacked the lungs to do so. If he had the organ in question and a biological body he’d probably be rolling around the floor of his ship slowly dying of suffocation. His drones didn’t show this at all. They just continued to silently float there and record this gold mine of a situation.

Wazu was covering his face with one hand, trying not to look at anyone as he suffered the constant decay of this social situation. His personal chatbot was already responding to Enid, providing her with links to a variety of combat-stims which would have the desired effects of improving one’s capabilities that were also quite popular for recreational use. “Hilda, Why do you have to be like this all the time? Just… it would be beneficial to everyone if you could tone it down while you are here? … And 515, Hilda is not a threat right now. You can relax and let me handle this with words.”

“Certainly threatening this woman with violence for reporting you must be against the law. Even the Magnetic Assembly must see that.” Somnya added, looking over at 444 as she stood next to Hilda. The Echoni had spent the last few moments trying to stand tall and emulate how 515 looked, getting up on her tip toes to try and match the heels, pushing her shoulders back a bit to give more of a regal appearance... The red Echoni looked so ‘in charge’ and authoritative that 444 was certain she needed to copy how she looked. How could 515 be more in charge of things than her anyways? But once 515 positioned herself between Wazu and Hilda, 444 would crouch down and move to the side, positioning herself behind Hilda for a pincer move. “Does that mean we can Smash Hilder?” She asked, looking over at Hilda, then Somnya, then Wazu, then 515, then back to Hilda. The Echoni’s body looking coiled and ready to leap, even with that blanket-poncho covering most of her.
 

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“You know,” a new woman said walking in. “This is almost hilarious to watch.” She said. The woman was a Chongwu. A grey shepherd husky with emerald eyes framed by full moon rimmed glasses. She had long white hair done up in a ponytail, and she was wearing jeans, a blue shirt, with a white lab coat overtop. She smiled. “It’s so cute seeing Wazu getting the brunt end of this. By the way,” She said, looking at Wazu and batting her eyes. “Should I call you Dad?”

Dr. KB stared at this gaggle of chaos incarnate. “At this point I think that would be par for the course.”

Hilda however, was 100% certain. “There’s no stopping that beast and that devastating weapon in his pants,” the busty blonde melodramatically began to explain to Geiben. Pointing a finger at Knowledgebot, she went on, “This machine understands! There can’t possibly be any justice! The only way this hungry monster can be sated is if I meet him behind closed doors to state his demand!” Seeing 444 and 515, Hilda dove right into the heart of the issue, her voice climaxing. “You two know what I’m talking about - isn’t Wazu always ordering you about, telling you to carry out his whims? To do the dirty things he wants done?!?!”

Seeing the Chongwu that had driven her here enter as well, the blonde quickly imposed herself between Wazu and the newcomer. “Just look at Wazu’s predatory, lustful eyes! Tracing Cleo’s form up and down, mentally undressing her the same way he did her mother,” Hilda accused Wazu of his male gaze. “As if having your way with her mother wasn’t enough, now you want to have your way with the daughter too! You’ll have to go through me first!” the blonde then protectively flung her arms out to shield Cleo from the same fate that befallen her mother.

Geiben followed Wazu in burying his face in his hands. “Woman,” He stated bluntly. “You’re being bat--- you’re being unreasonable. You don’t just barge into a party and accuse a high ranking official of sexual aggression. If you can’t talk like a rational person and not throw around accusations with every woman that, uninvitedly, comes into Mr. Wazu’s personnel quarters, I’m going to have my subordinates escort you and your friend out for trespassing.” He gave Frank a nod.

515 looked at Geiben and Frank in turn, again tensing up… Technically if somebody else removed the threat, the Echoni weren’t acting as ordered…

“This is why non-lethal education is advised, Mister Wazu. She’s already using offensive verbal tactics against you.” The red one spoke in a rather robotic fashion, now back to looking at this… hairy thing? Unrecognised creature. “Would it not be better to deliberate after the situation is contained? We have unit 444. Physical offensive resources are in our favour.”

Cleo rolled her eyes. “Boys, boys, it’s okay, no need to start throwing out threats of removal,” She said, looking at Hilda. “Now Hilda,” She said, grabbing Hilda by the shoulder and pulling her back. “If you do not start behaving yourself, I will send you back to your family where you will have to be the proper aristocrate,” She added with a kind smile. “Do you understand? No more terrible men sexually torturing you...”

Corgan sighed. He really wanted to stay with the ice cream sandwich guzzling MILF. “Guess I better get to the bottom of her claims since I’m the law in here.” He said. A sudden chill ran down his spine and he caught Enid’s sideways glance. He really needed to make things right with her, but not now. Nodding to Quarum he stuffed a handful of nachos in his mouth and joined the circus gathered around Wazu.

“Okay, I think I’m going to need to do something about these accusations.” Corgan said. “Miss Hilda, if you continue to insist that Mr. Wazu sexually assaulted you, you’re going to need to come down to my office and give a statement. Then I will have to arrest him and throw him in a Magnetic Assembly prison. Do you really want that?” He asked.

And now this guy wanted a piece too?

Tsuguka 515 scowled audibly.

“Mister Wazu, can we just knock them all out, and sort by order of preference? That is the most logical course of action.”

“None of you have picked up what’s going on?” Cleo asked, looking between everyone. “Right… I will wait.” She said, taking a seat.

“You have additional information?” The red doll continued to look agitated. This other thing didn’t have any provided data on them. Maybe it was best to just get them talking. “Then, elaborate.”

515’s question drew Corgan’s attention to something the dog girl said. “I see. You come from a powerful family, Miss Hilda? I will need to speak with your relatives. We really don’t want this to become a diplomatic incident.” He said seriously. “What’s your full name?”

The drones floating around started actively moving around the room, they pushed their way into better and more dramatic camera angles. On the other end of the connection James still couldn’t laugh, though he was half tempted to raise lungs up on his production que so that he could.

Frank would get up and walk to Hilda “Ma’am im going to have to ask you to leave, further confrontation will require me to force you off the premises so you can either walk out of here or i can escort you out.”

“Uninvited? Why, I’d never!” Deftly reaching into her cleavage, the buxom blonde produced an invitation and its plus-one as though it were the most natural thing in the world. “And I’m not being unreasonable - I’m simply stating fact, and I’m not going to press charges either,” Hilda matter-of-factly replied, the businesslike tone of her voice a sharp contrast to her earlier protest. It quickly became clear why, given the fuming glare she shot at Cleo. Replying to Corgan, the feline eared woman replied, “I am Hilda von Olander,” she regally replied, immediately eliciting imagery of precision German rifles and the like. “It should be obvious why I’m not going to press charges for being bred like an animal by that brute - a corporate war between my family and Heram’s would be disastrous!” her eyes suddenly lit up with glee at the thought. “Think of how many lives would be ruined…” Hilda’s voice trailed off. “It...wouldn’t be just me suffering,” she realized.

“Yes,” Cleo said, looking at Hilda. “And right now, everyone else is suffering, because they were having a party, and you are interrupting it with your idiocy. Now sit down, and shut up. Let’s not ruin Dad’s party any further and you should try to act like a normal fucking person. Comprende?”

By the time Wazu had looked back up again Geiben had already left. It was clear that he had chosen correctly for the leadership of the Edward Deming. Geiben had performed a rapid and effective maneuver that allowed him to disengage from this situation. If Wazu had been smarter he would have disengaged a lot sooner. Really this was his fault for trying to involve Hilda and thinking she would act normal when given the opportunity. “Did you print out your invite just so you could store it like that?” Wazu ended up asking, his question leaving his lips before his brain could get to the obvious conclusion.

Somnya seemed quite pleased with the results. Sure, her career in the Union may be over but at least she was able to take one parting shot at Wazu while she was still held her rank. “Call off your Echoni, and once you’ve finished handing over the remaining prisoners we can talk about Geiben’s proposal.”

Wazu would just nod, trying to figure out just what to do with the current situation. Perhaps he could threaten her with a boring time if she didn’t behave? He would need to do something to keep the Echoni from employing ultra-violence. “515, 444, please refrain from hurting them…”

444 immediately perked up, “OH! We can defend Wazu from the Fort!” she said, sending the locations of her mostly well-built pillow fortress not too far away. “And eat the chocolate… and juice… and they have little sandwiches filled with the cold cream stuff…”

The Green-hair’d echoni seemed quite eager to spend more time with her red friend.

Corgan’s gaze lingered on Hilda’s cleavage while she spoke. He forced himself to meet her eyes. “Well, if you don’t want that I didn’t hear anything, and me and Frank don’t need to drag you out of here if you’re going to calm down.” He said, sounding slightly disappointed.
 

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Frank pulls out his datapad sending corgan a message *i don't know about you but wanna see if she’d be up for some “frisking” later* Frank gave a cough. “Well miss Hilda me and my coworker here would like to ask you some questions later to see the validity of these claims and if you were as defenseless as you say, if your interested later.'' Frank said with a slight smirk before nodding to Corgan and heading back to his project off in the corner.

“You’re right Cleo, I’m a horrible person! I absolutely ruined this party meant to celebrate this planet’s independence from the American Union! Nevermind that this planet is going to be crushed between two superpowers!” Hilda bemoaned, honestly lamenting that she had ruined other people’s fun. “All the pain, and suffering of occupation by not one, but TWO hostile forces!” she practically lusted. “And yes,” the blond heiress began with gusto, “I had to print out that invitation - it’s an introductory technique passed down through the Olander family for generations!” she gladly informed them all. However, Frank’s remarks soon had her on a roll all over again. “I’m sorry sir, but there won’t be any justice - Heram is just too rich and powerful to prosecute, which is why I won’t even bother pressing charges. But even then, I’m sure that animal will gladly recount how he completely cored me with his lance. And that’s not to mention how bad Cleo must feel! To ignore his own daughter!”

The crimson skinned, lynx-like Echoni stared down Hilda the entire time. They had basically no idea what half of these sentences meant, and one could see the gears whirring inside the bio-weapon’s head whilst they tried to decide if it was a threat or not. Data on this canine-person was even more limited.

“Mister Wazu. I have projected a new course of action.” Tsuguka made a sort of ‘furiously informative’ face, a bit like a teacher trying not to yell at an obnoxious toddler. But the way her hand clapped against his shoulder suggested this might be some kind of attempt at being friendly? “The pillow fortification is constructed from materials highly rated in both qualities of protection from blunt impacts and relaxation. Please accompany me and unit 444.”

Barely even waiting for him to answer, they started to get closer and closer to his body, wrapping both arms around his bicep. She’d protect him properly whether she’d like him too or not. Being able to hang around with 444 was just a welcome bonus.

Fortunately somebody at SEER had made their torso section quite nice to be held up against. Unfortunately, that didn’t stop the tiger-striped android from looking like she wanted to rip his head off if he said no.

Corgan looked out at Enid and decided against laying his hands on Hilda. He didn’t want to be accused of any sexual misconduct, and Hilda didn’t seem to be getting what Frank was meaning by meetings with them later. She wasn’t a threat, just a girl with masochistic interests. “Very well. Frank and I will just have to make up for all this by taking you out for drinks later.” He said. “Maybe I can show you my gun collection. I have a big cannon I would love to show you.”

Very few times throughout the long “lifespan” of Dr. Knowledgebot, had the machine felt something alien to him entirely. He felt tired. Tired of all of this. This entire conversation was brain-numbing, and he was sure that a few circuits had shorted out from the pure idiocy from this event. Here we had an attention whore, in the middle of the party bathing in attention. They were just giving it to her. In this instant, he decided to write Corgan and Frank off as baser mortals, animals responding to sexual stimulus as animals will. Hilde was an attention whore, and probably an actual whore as well, not to mention it felt like she had very little regard for mortal life. The dog seemed sketchy, though that may have been a result of the company she kept.

Dr. KB looked to Wazu. “Wazu, as you are the object of the loose woman’s desire, I suggest removing yourself entirely from the conversation. As for the rest of you.” He stares at Frank and Corgan. “Keep your sexual tendencies to yourselves. It is not for an event such as this. Just ignore the woman, surely you can control yourself such. If not I fear for your professional lives.” He looks over the group, but makes a point to not look at the attention whore. “This conversation is utterly pointless, talking to a brick wall that absorbs attention, so starve her of it so we can have a respectable event. The sooner we ignore her the sooner we can be rid of her.” With that, he turns about and moves away to stand in the corner, pulling up a datapad and working in the middle of this party.

“I’m sorry, we just met, and it would be improper of me to accept your offer right now,” Hilda politely declined Corgan’s request. “More importantly, if you do have any big cannons, it’s probably one of the Olander family’s creations or even a competitor, nothing I haven’t seen before,” she replied. “Also, I think your robot could use some recalibration Heram. Namely to his politeness circu - “ Having turned her gaze back to Wazu, her eyes settled on Tsuguka as the red Echoni wrapped her arms around his arm and brought it up against her chest. “W-what is this?” Hilda slowly began. “WHAT IS THIS?! Just look at that expression of displeasure on her face! What ha - “ As the busty blond exclaimed her disbelief at Wazu’s debauchery, a hand sprung forth to silence her.

“That’s enough stupidity out of your mouth for today!” Cleo said, pulling Hilda away from Wazu, wrapping an arm around her neck and pulling it tight. “Don’t you all worry, she’ll either relax or pass out. Either one is preferable right?” She asked, yanking Hilda down so she wasn’t reaching up quite as much, tightening her grip. “Just tap my leg when you want out Hilda, I might let you go. I haven’t decided if I forgive you for the brain cells you’ve killed yet…” She muttered, looking at everyone else.

“Right, you, red chick,” She said, looking at Tsuguka, “Additional information being that this bitch is a fucking idiot, and does this all the time,” She said, sighing deeply. “The urge to just break her neck though, is a very strong one… So much less stress... “ She whispered, looking down at Hilda. “Whatever. You guys were talking about employment? Weird thing to talk about at a supposed party, but I suppose whatever you find fun works.”

With a shrug, Corgan walked off from the blonde and shook his head. He was done with the whole thing. Maybe she only wanted Wazu to do lewd things to her. He walked back over to the snack table and snagged a piece of sushi, popping it in his mouth. Quarum had probably seen the whole thing so it was unlikely she would want to hook up now. Overall this party had been a bust so far. He grabbed a drink and decided to go join Enid and the others on the balcony to escape from the insanity.

James’ small contingent of drones broke up evenly between the two groups. Three following corgan and the blondes and the other three hovering around Wazu.

444 looked confused for a moment as Hilda started to be choked out, “So, are we smashing now or what?” She ended up asking, before catching sight of Tsuguka taking ahold of the Bag-person. Did Tugs have people that were hers now too? When did Tugs get all this new stuff? Why didn’t 444 have this stuff?! It would be a mystery that she could unravel once she had returned to the fort.

Wazu simply agreed with Dr. KB. There wasn’t anything he could say here that wouldn’t just make the situation worse. His best option was to ignore these two women and go with the Echoni. “We should withdraw.” He stated, agreeing with the rather echoni and going along with its rather agreeable hold on his body. Sure, her facial expressions and tone did seem a bit awkward, but it seemed to come from a familiar place. He felt she was probably just as confused and frustrated with Hilda as he was. The apparent contradiction between what she wanted and what she asked for was a strong reminder as to why he felt so at home amongst the Magnetic Assembly in the first place. “I would hope I could trust you, Dr. Knowledgebot, to handle this situation with a level of professionalism.” He was pretty sure that the message was clear enough.

The message was not clear enough, that was far too open ended for Dr. KB. There could be half a dozen to a dozen things Wazu wanted him to do to the Nuisance to shut her up, and no indication as to which one would be the best. “Of course sir. As always.” With that he turned to look at the Nuisance, to keep an eye on her and ensure she did not make a fool of the high ranking members of the party.

Tsuguka just kind of stood there scowling through several layers of misunderstanding, carefully watching the body movements of those around them with a certain piercing suspicion, as might a lean night-coloured cat react to a laser pointer.
 
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