Bang. The tranquality of space was interrupted as the Ranger, which was the name of Lion's private gunship, jumped and entered the system around Rigel.
"We are here." Said Lion to Dwan. The jump hadn't taken long and during the time that had passed the duo hadn't spoken alot, focusing more on resting.
Lion had taken the opportunity to send a quick message to Valerie, telling her that he might be a few days late.
All over a encrypted channel of course. Aside from that he had mostly gone through the inventory and ship status to make sure that they were ready for anything.
The Ranger quietly approached the icy white planet. In a way, the whole journey had begun here. The crew had formed a stronger bond.
And now they were back, or well, Lion and Dwan were back.
"I hope you have a mask or something, my plan doesn't involve tipping off the backtrackers that we're backtracking them."
"I don't, unfortunately.", Dwan told Lion.
"I see." Said Lion as they began descending. "Let's hope nobody notices then."
He looked at Dwan. "The plan is simple; we land, we go the Helix office and while we're outside I'll tap into their databanks remotely. If I find something suspicious or a blank space in the footage corresponding with the time when someone pulled our info we'll go in and confront Arenax."
The bar was already lonely without Dwan. Even with all the commotion of the medical crews and repair droids, things were eerily quiet in there. Sledge assessed the damage. State security had done a number on the place. Sledge removed Dwan's power hammer from the holster on his back and Lion's LWA Crusher from his hip.
"Damn, guys," he said to them, "Things have really gone to shit haven't they?" He sighed. "Who would have thought it would have ended this way?"
The droids hadn't gotten around to cleaning up the place yet, and Sledge thought it would be remiss if it was done so mechanically, so he reholstered the Crusher on his hip, across from the T-8200, and Dwan's power hammer on his back, next to the TX-9800, and prepared to do his late friend a solid.
Hercules had followed him to the bar as well, which was handy. There was a lot of broken glass and trash on the floor and Herc was a convenient means of disposal.
Over the next hour, Sledge did the best job of cleaning he'd ever done in his life. Hercules either really enjoyed helping or he really enjoyed eating glass and plastic. Either way he seemed really disappointed when they were done, and almost snatched an intact bottle from the shelf before Sledge bopped him on the nose with his broom. Sledge grabbed a mop and scrubbed behind the bar, suddenly remembering the messy tomato fight and the resulting fiesta and chuckling. He'd had a lot of good times with the crew, he thought as he spotted Hercules drinking the mop water. He wasn't really making this easy anymore. Herc's head was covered in sudsy alcohol which quickly froze to his snout. He tried to lick it off but only succeeded in getting his tongue stuck to the ice as well.
"Ha!" Sledge laughed, "Now what are you gonna do?" Hercules whined in response. "Aww, hang on." Sledge grabbed a bit of warm water from the nearest tap and freed his buddy. Herc stayed out of the bucket after that, and Sledge finished cleaning, getting the bar looking almost good as new. There were a couple areas worse for wear but that was probably something more suited for the repair droids. Herc had sat down, apparently pretty drunk from all that soapy floor alcohol. "You know, buddy, that doesn't seem like a half-bad idea," Sledge said as he stepped behind the bar and grabbed a bottle of cheap whiskey. He wasn't sure how much it cost and there was no one around for him to pay so he scribbled an IOU and dropped it next to the register.
"Thanks Dwan," he said, looking up. He took a deep swig from the bottle. "One for me..." He tipped the bottle sideways and poured some out on the floor. "And one for my fallen--shit! I just mopped this floor!"
Viper knew that Jeremy wasn't going to open up to the rather scary and towering shell monster that stood in front of him anytime soon.
"Sir yes, It seems that our situation grows increasingly more complicated as another shadow organization has sets its eyes on us yet again, Fortunately for us. This one is seemly more benevolent towards us." Viper said towards Jeremy and took a step back after finishing it's sentence to display a hologram in front of Jeremy.
"This is them." Viper said as the hologram formed into an symbol of the mythology Phoenix in an dark blue.
"Phoenix corps, one of the most powerful and influential mercenary companies within 2260s, Now a shadow of their former selves after an number of highly mysterious accidents that left their power in ruin and they faded into obscurity for over twenty years now." Viper said while the hologram shifted to from pictures of their soldiers, known vehicles and equipment.
"Much of the UGC, including myself have believed that they simply disbanded over years but this seems to not be clase." Viper said before showing an snapshot of there of their operatives above Viper, one on each side and one towering above with nasty dent on his mask.
"They seem to fallen to blackmarket work to criminals and terrorists in recent years but by chance have manage to.." Viper paused in the middle of it's talk for a moment, looking down at the gourd before overlooking the details to it's left and right, avoiding eye contact.
"Well..They managed to...Capture me." Viper said with low voice with an tone of regret. "During my investigation of the now, traitorous Sanghvi sect on Duroma."
"And though my failure, were able to recover my implant..and decipher it. Finding all secrets that were held within it." Viper then proceed to shut down the holograms and take a step forwards.
"However, the situation seemed to be in our favor as they have put a substantial amount of resources into convincing the Sanghvi sect into sparing me along with into my body's recreation." Viper said while looking down at it's fleet in fast tone.
The Sanghvi begin to twitch a bit after explaining itself to Jeremy, Compromising not just the ship but entire mission to an completely foreign party. Viper raised it's head up to met with soft-carbon's squinted eyes.
"Sir, Spacehawk Captain...Let me say that I accept the full responsibility for this massive breach of security to preserve not only ourselves but our very goals." Viper said to the soft-carbon with a strong sense of regret in it's Implant's vocalizer.
Viper then proceed to correct its stance up straight pull it's arms behind it's back when keeping eye to eye level with it's captain. "But Know this Sir, I will continue my duty towards you for reminder of our mission to destroy this hoffic syndicate and will not stop until they are all but an distance nightmare." Viper said with confidence before striking into an teran salute towards Jeremy.
The best anyone was going to get out of the reactor core was going to be 82% for the remainder of the mission. This was the conclusion reached jointly by the entire engineering department, including a now radiation-sick Kr, who had exceeded his own ability to properly absorb the energy when he briefly crawled into the reactor itself to fix a broken coolant line. As he left for the medbay, grumbling about the captain’s endless mistakes, Yanim departed for the workshop.
No one had commented on the pistol strapped to her ankle, although they had been sympathetic toward the injuries she had suffered in the previous two battles. On the surface, she appeared calm and collected, able to rationalize the loss of her crewmates, her pseudo-exile from her home planet, and her growing sense that the worst was yet to come. She took another painkiller. They weren’t for fun this time.
Lately she had a sense that something was boiling under the surface. She didn’t like it- it reminded her of when she broke down at the Privateer’s base weeks earlier, but there was something much more frightening about her current position. Despite the tragedies threatening to engulf her life and those of her crewmates, despair wasn’t the emotion that had taken root in her psyche. Instead, it was a sinister, roiling anger which was beginning to unravel her logical sensibilities.
When she questioned Rask, she wasn’t sure what she was looking for. There didn’t seem to be any reason why a young man with a future would lose his morals, his sense of purpose, and self-respect. For that matter, what drove a normal, productive youth like Damya to become a bloodthirsty killer? They had all grown up in the same generation, lived in the same city, Ébo, and attended the same academy and college. This question and its lack of answer gave her reason to wonder: if she allowed herself to embrace this new anger, would it simply be a phase and a natural response to the horrors she had seen, or would it take permanent residence within her and make her more like her kin?
Alone in the workshop, Yanim examined the knife that Lion had given her. She had admired her reflection in the blade the first time she had looked at it, but now she only admired the form of the metal itself. It cut without being cut, and drew blood without bleeding. It was the nature of a weapon to deal unilateral damage, and Yanim suddenly wished for this aspect to be transferred unto her.
Her brain was connected directly to the pins of an electronic device which interfaced through a neural bridge to a computer, which in turn was wired directly to the extendable, prehensile “tail” she had given herself to assist with her delicate electronics work. Until now she regarded it as a tool to be manipulated by her mind, but now she realized that the nerves of her brain terminated in the devices at the tail’s tip; it was as much a part of her body as her arms and legs. Now, she prepared to add the knife to her flesh as well.
Quickly, aggressively, she extended the tail and placed it on the work surface, pulling the pocket welder from the pouch on her hip. She opened the grip of the knife to reveal the circuitry inside which Lion had installed to make the knife hot enough to be used as an emergency spot welding tool. She cut and spliced the wires from the switch into the circuitry of the tail’s manipulator claw, and then welded the blade to one of the prongs.
At first, there was no indication of any connection, but as the battle played out in Yanim’s head once more, and she remembered the predatory look in her foe’s eyes, the blade turned a burning red, and what was left of the blackjacket’s caked-on blood was burned away into the workshop’s stagnant air with a sickly smell and a thin trail of smoke. Yanim paced around the room, imagining the fight’s progression, blow by blow, swiping the burning appendage around and snapping it against the ground. This was a demon’s tail- where it struck, small flames rose from the workshop floor.
Only when Varn’s message came through did she regain a hold of herself and calm down. Likewise, the blade returned to its natural black color and lost its heat, and quickly Yanim moved about the room, stomping out or extinguishing the fires as necessary.
[quote=Varn] Sorry to bother you so early after everything that happened, but do you still have that AI core?[/quote]
She had forgotten about it completely, but it was exactly where she left it. She had promised to fix it but hadn’t yet gotten around to it. She told Varn this in a reply message.
Yanim was quick with her reply. The answer wasn't what Varn was hoping for, but it was good enough.
[QUOTE]When you're done with it, bring it to the armory. I think I found a use for it.[/QUOTE]
Varn returned to the armory. The stench of dried blood, ash and death was still in the air. The cleaning bot's probably haven't made to the armory yet. Mind as well grab a mop and get to it. The cleaning itself gave him a rather calming feeling. It reminded him of home, back when he was still a "newborn" with his brothers training under the watchful eye of Hunter. Things were so simple back then.
He snapped out of it when he reached Lion's quarters. Going in there felt wrong. Like entering a tomb.
Varn had tried to keep some distance from the crew, since in his line of work attachment would lead to bad things. But over the last couple of moths the crew had treated him not only as a friend, but as family. Lion was always there right next to him in the thick of battle and Dwan was always there, ready to give him advice when he got drunk at the bar and share a crazy story. There was no point to try to keep a distance anymore, no point in denying it. The crew had become his family as much as his brothers and father and he missed two of them dearly. Best he could do was try to help to keep what remained intact.
He continued to silently work.
"Good, because right now we're going to have to bring our A-game into the ballpark." Jeremy said, he went back to the Bridge to see what the crew was looking at. A distinct planet with space debris crowding. The planet was most likely abandoned but they could see why these coordinates would lead to here.
They were probably going to prepare all the guns and vehicles they have at their arsenal for this one.
The AI core was still active, having been powered by a battery backup the entire time. It had a port for connection to external devices, but given the ship's vulnerable state and the unpredictability of artificial intelligence, Yanim shied away from plugging it into the workstation. Instead, she removed a small "firewall box" from one of the toolbox drawers nearby and plugged the core into it, and then plugged her tail device into the box.
With a two-minute safety delay between herself and the device, she began to communicate with the AI within the core. The internal organization of the artificial mind had been lost at some point in favor of some sort of free-form, communal resource sharing program. In other words, the AI was suffering from dissociative identity disorder. Gradually, she checked over the history data logged within the device, looking for the point of failure. Finally, she found it: a disagreement between one protocol and another, equally-prioritized protocol had resulted in the division of working resources, establishment of redundant processes, and loss of overall coherency.
Switching between virtual workspaces and reality was becoming easier for Yanim. One moment, she could perceive the program layout as three-dimensional forms in a non-existent space, and the next, she was back in the workshop, and the core was simply a small cylinder at the end of a log cord that connected to her brain. She logged into the network and accessed HarkArk's technical documentation for AI systems. Once she had determined the proper hierarchy for protocols, she returned to the virtual space to enact the changes.
Five minutes later, the AI had rebooted itself and was functioning normally. She wasn't sure why it hadn't been working properly in the first place, but she now deemed it safe and sent Varn a message to alert him to the success. He replied with an additional request- to allow the core to interface with the chip implanted in his brain. This was a decent opportunity to test the AI further. She sent it the technical information on the chip itself, and requested that it find a way to interface wirelessly. It was ready after only 12 seconds of analysis.
"Human tech," Yanim muttered under he breath with a roll of her eyes.
[quote=Yanim]Varn- the AI is ready per your request.[/quote]
The cleaning bots had arrived at the armory and started doing their work. Yanim's message caught his attention. Looks like everything was ready. He looked around to see if he had what he needed "Damn, I forgot I don't have the damn thing." He would have to handle the core at Yanim's station.
Varn put on the armor and made his way to her workshop. After a few minutes he was there.
"Hey Yanim, whe- " she pointed to the core on the workstation "Oh." Varn picked it up and took off the chest piece. "Sorry for the impromptu gun show, but I don't have the tool to open the hatch down in the armory." After some tinkering he placed the core in it's place and put the armor back on. It would take a few minutes for AI to kick in so he had some time to kill.
"How have you been doing Yanim? After that."
After Viper talk with Jeremy, The sanghvi took an moment to look around the empty hanger where one of the greatest soldiers that served in the protection of its homeworld, giving his own life in the line of duty to ensure it's safely. And doing it once more to protect his crewmates, Something that Viper couldn't say in its tours of service within the UGC.
Instead of saving it's homeworlds and it's people, The Sanghvi had ensured their race's downfall from the galaxy compared the soft-carbon who had given his very life to ensure his people rise to prosperity and did so again to his crew.
Viper felt sense of sadness before looking over and gathering every bit of information, footage and transcripts from the Archius IX during the State Security ruthless act of devastation on innocent station. Fueled by the death of Dwan, Lion and every man, woman and child that the State Security had taken from the galaxy.
Viper's connections and word along with report will hopefully be enough to ensure that the necessary investigations will commence after Viper duty aboard the Archius IX and will be first of many operations that Viper will undertake when it returns to the UGC after this whole affair.
However, The feeling of dread was starting to take it's toll on the Sanghvi's mind as the hanger reminded Viper of Lion and his service to the Archius IX. Viper shrug and proceed to walk towards the door, stopping as it reached it and turned it's head back to overlook work areas that Viper invested every minute of his days, always working on improvements to his ships and tech that served each and every one of his fellow crewmates to ensure their safety above all else.
Viper stared into the dark for nearly ten minutes before nodding it's head in an final farewell to one of finest human beings that humanly had ever produced.
The Sanghvi left the empty hanger, closing the massive blast door and the light's turned o black one last time as it made it's way to the armory, hoping to met Varn and Yanim to check on their status.
Truly, the Galaxy has lost of it's finest was the only thought that lingered in Viper mind as it make it's the scared Archius IX, Viper only goal now was to continue Lion's.
Giving and risking everything to serve the Archius IX and her loyal crew.
The Ranger touched down on a half-frozen landing pad. The rear door slowly opened up, hitting the pad surprisingly quiet.
Lion walked down with his poncho/cloak on and with the Peacemaker hanging on his back with a balck sling holding it in palce.
He pulled up the lower part of the headpiece up, obscuring everything but his blue eyes. He looked to Dwan. "You good?"
Dwan nodded. Being back on Rigel brought back some memories. Mostly bug-ridden ones. "Where to the Helix office?", he asked.
Lion pointed to the north, across the small town they had landed in. "Around the hill, should make for a short walk."
As Lion began walking the Ranger automatically closed itself up.
When he reached the edge of the platform, a young khergian approached, getsuring towards his [url=https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/10/4a/6c/104a6cf3f9f1124f177c4fe0de12484f.jpg]crude yet very terran rover[/url]. "Welcome to Rigel, my name is Uzhaki! I can drive you anywhere for small amount of credits, yes?"
Lion looked at Dwan.
"I left my money back at the Big Ship.", Dwan whispered to Lion.
Lion chuckled. "I'll cover you." With a swift moment Lion presented about a hundred credits which he tossed over to Uzhaki.
The young khergian looked surprise, as he knew himself that this is more than what his usual customers paid.
"Thank you, metal man!" He smiled up, walked up to his rover and opened up the side doors.
Lion walked up and stared into Uzhaki's eyes. "You only drive, no questions and no chit-chat. If you stay quiet all the way abck to the ship I'll throw in a extra two hundred credits. Deal?"
The khergian nodded quietly.
"You think this guy can be trusted?", Dwan asked Lion quietly.
Lion smiled at the khergian before taking a seat in his rover. He looked at Dwan. "I bet my credits on it." He said loudly as to let Uzhaki hear.
The khergian looked to Dwan before entering the driver's seat. "Where to, sirs?"
"Helix Corp Office, you can stop a few meters from the entrance."
Dwan, having sat down, tried to ease himself, as he still seems reluctant on being in a universe post mortem.
The rover engine kicked in as Uzhaki began navigating the tight wonr-down part of the town.
Slowly the architecture became more refined as they entered the business district full of offices belonging to various mining, PMC and shipping companies.
Lion looked at Dwan who had a uncomfortable look on his face. "I appreciate you coming with me Dwan, not sure if I'd be able to pull this off myself." He said in a friendly tone.
Dwan looked at Lion, responding with a weak nod and a half-smile.
Lion smiled back and nodded before tending to the Peacemaker. While he didn't think there'd be any trouble, it never hurt to be prepared. At least, that's what he had learned in his service of the SDF.
After a few minutes, the rover finally reached the Helix building. Uzhaki pulled up next to what appeared to be a temporarily closed office a few meters away from the Helix building.
He looked at Lion who nodded assuringly. He turned to Dwan. "Keep an eye out as I do some remote poking."
"Don't worry, I'll keep a lookout.", Dwan told Lion as he had his hand on his revolver.
"Alright, let's make sure we check for any oddities or cloaked ships in orbit. An ambush is not something we want." Jeremy said to Shelia, he saw Kira's ship beside his own sitting there. "Any expectations?" Jeremy said through the other ship's frequency.
"I expect something worst to happen in there, mostly troops coming in to capture you? This isn't a good idea."
"We've fought many people, from pirates to a corrupted State Sec. If we can survive through those obstacles then we can take them on." Jeremy reasoned.
"Sigh, fine. Your choice, but I'll be watching you in there. If anything goes wrong I'm taking the chance to assist. Be careful Jeremy, we're risking everything for one person. Not to be some cynical bitch but sometimes we need to pick what's practical instead a choice that might be the right thing." Kira explained.
He heard those words sink in, it made him think, would Bubal want the Crew to save him? "Descend, I'm going to pack everything we need." Shelia nodded as she controlled the ship. Jeremy walked to the armory, setting up all the weapons except for the cleaning equipment, which was still disguised. He sighed for the last time, marking his face with black war paint.
"Attention crew: anyone who has been trained with a weapon, come to the armory and pick your gun. Once that is done head to the hangar for a meeting."
Yanim and Varn walked to the armory together as she answered his question. She was idly disassembling a stun stick in her hands with the help of her tail device as she spoke. "I'm afraid of what my life is becoming, Varn. I joined this mission so I could fix things, but I'm finding myself shockingly capable of destroying things instead. I may not be a proper soldier, but I've become a decently-skilled killer, and at this stage that may be a more important factor than my skills as an engineer. I want to strike back at our enemies and avenge Lion and Dwan. It's driving me up the wall, honestly."
Varn noticed the blade at the tip of Yanim's tail begin to glow before fading away again.
She finished installing a projector bulb into the stun stick and handed it to her comrade. "A blast from this should disrupt the Crimson Son cloaking device. It's tuned to a complex set of frequencies which should confuse the receptors on their bodies and force them to change colors. This is the only one I had time to make."
The two slowly walk to the Helix building, as Dwan looked out for any suspicious figures. Lion walked casually next to Dwan as he tapped in to the Helix network. "Watch my six.", said Lion as he knelled down next to a small decorative sculpture outside of the building. Dwan nodded, as he continued being look out. Pretending to fiddle around with the Peacemaker, as Lion slowly analyzed the entire databanks. "Bingo.", said Lion as he found the files for the security footage. "That's odd.", he said as he found absolutely nothing at the corresponding date. The last footage shows a pair of guards patrolling a corridor untill everything is suddenly blank. The footage that comes next shows the receptionist walking, leaving out at least a good five hours. Lion looked at Dwan. "Blank space, let's go and talk with Arenax.", he told him. Dwan nodded, keeping his hand close to his revolver.
The duo walked in through the entrance, Lion holding the Peacemaker casually in one hand with the weapon over his shoulder. They walked up to the receptionist. Lion pulled down the poncho mask, revealing his smiling face. "We'd like to talk to Mr. Seventhian, please.", he said. The receptionist looked up confused and spotted a grinning robot in a poncho and a human with dwarfism wearing a very fashionable coat. "Uh, do you have an appointment?", she asked. Dwan looked at Lion nervously.
Lion glanced at Dwan before turning back to the receptionist, giving her a eerie-looking grin. "Yes, now.", he told her. "I- I see, go right ahead.", said the receptionist, pointing at the elevator. "T-thank you.", Dwan said as he stuttered a little.
The two of them walked up to the elevator and entered, Dwan htting the button for the CEO floor. "You good, Dwan? You seem a little tense?", asked Lion. "I've never really been any good when it comes to these sort of business buildings. More of a office man myself. Living alone also doesn't help your social skills that much.", Dwan said with a self-depreciative chuckle. Lion gave Dwan a friendly tap on the shoulder. "Good thing you're not alone anymore.", said Lion in a friendly tone as the elevator doors slid up. "You take point.", he told him. Dwan nodded, feeling reassured by Lion. He took point as they walked to Arenax's office.
A pair of guards in Helix uniforms stood in front of the office door. As Dwan and Lion approached, they became noticeably uneasy. One of them laid his hand on his handgun. "Halt! Mr. Seventhian has no appointments today!", they told the two. "Don't worry men. We're here on business.", Dwan said slyly. Confused, the guards looked at each other and before they could react Dwan pushed them lightly aside before walking through the door. "Don't worry lads, it's nothing personal.", said Lion as he walked past the guards right behind Dwan. "Hi there Mr. Seventhian.", said Lion as they entered the office.
Arenax looked up, seeing a similar person. "Oh, uh hello? Lion was it? I'm sorry, things are a bit busy today." He wrote some notes down. "Is there anything that needs to be discussed?"
Lion walked up to the busy CEO's desk and put down the heavy Peacemaker ontop of all his papers.
"Yes, hi. We got some questions for you." Said Lion with a stern look on his robotic face.
He nodded towards Dwan. "This is my colleague..."
Dwan coughed a bit before speaking. "Dwayne Carlson. Nice to meet you.", Dwan said in a slightly different accent, as he employed a pseudonym to hide his identity.
Arenax observed the large weapon plopped down. "I thought security was supposed to take all heavy weapons, but I guess you've threatened them enough. What are your questions?"
As had finished the first parts of its report of the state security attack, the elevator had already arrived on floor of the armory, most if not all of miscellaneous crew had arrive on this deck to equip themselves as per captain orders, hopefully they won't have to use them.
Viper entered the crowded series of rooms in search of Varn and Yanim, they both seem to be in the eastern work area.separated from rest of staff, either by chance or choice, most likely the later as the Sanghvi's implant showed Varn's vitals were fluctuating.
Viper entered from the left of room slowing, trying to not surprise them due ship's alert.
"Greetings, Varn and Yanim. It has been too long,." Viper said with relieved voice.
Turning about face, Yanim was surprised to hear Viper's voice. "When did you- you must have gotten back while I was still in the medbay. I had no idea you were here; I'm glad to see you, too." A very subtle smile appeared at the corners of Yanim's mouth. It was the first indication of happiness she had displayed since the ambush.
"They made a brave attempt at stopping us before we them convinced not to. You should give them a raise." Said Lion as he inspected the office.
He spotted a camera at the corner of the room which pointed at. "Can you explain to me while security footage from this entire building has at least five hours missing during the same night someone used your terminal to download info about the Archius and its crew- my family- for no particular reason other then, oh I don't know, backtracking us?" Said Lion as he slammed a robotic fist into the desk.
"What are you talking about?" He said calmly. "We had a breach a few weeks ago. Probably a few hackers, I even lost your buddy's merc card during that night. I blacked out, sooner or later a few of my security guards were dead."
Arenax scratched his head. "Perhaps I should have contacted you to have warned you."
Viper felt welcome by Yanim's warm reaction to the Sanghvi's return, however Viper was still worried about Yanim's psychological state as the soft-carbon wasn't only one onboard who's own race had elixe them.
"Likewise, Chief Engineer Yanim." Viper said while tilting it's head to the right as it talk to Yanim with the rather calm voice of it's Implant. "It's a long story but what's important is that I'm here now and that I will fulfill my responsibility to protect this vessel and it's crew at all costs."
"But I have to ask, how are you holding up Chief Engineer Yanim?" Viper said as it lowered it's head nearer to the Kanad eye level.
The smile waned on Yanim's lips as she had just explained her feelings to Varn minutes earlier. Her reply was short, but meaningful- "I'd imagine we're all feeling some strong emotions right now, but I can't allow mine to affect my work. We all have to hold on a while longer."
The Sanghvi stared at the Kanad for moment before nodding. "Understood." Viper said in response as it raised it's head back up to it's usual stance and took to a few steps back to lean on the wall of the armory. Looking out of the open doorway to view the soft-carbons out in hallways outside of the room, bantering among one another as they chose their weapons off the racks.
Viper turn it's head back to look at the Kanad. "It's shame to what happen to our races, instead of these soft-carbons out here, conversing and bartering with each other regardless of their race. Working with one another for a greater future in an perfect unity." Viper said while it adjusted itself and pointed towards the crowds while it slowly turned it's head towards them.
"They instead chose to isolated themselves, to plot and build fear among their kin in atmosphere of paranoia to ensure their own, sick and diseased rock as they shout at the very stars themselves to yield to their own cazy will, or vice versa to mine." Viper said as it stared down at the crowd, getting lost in thought as it talk about it's feelings towards what the Sanghvi and the Kanads have become.
"But yet, there is hope for your kin yet." Viper said while shifted it's head back towards the Kanad.
"While the Kanad Collective has done it's best to keep it's vile racism and hatred towards anything or one that tries to upset it's power alive in it's youth, you have managed to look past this and learn the truth about their insidious nature within their twisted regime." Viper said while looking towards the Kanad. "And that is what their fear most and will ultimately be their downfall. "
"Hopefully anyways." Viper said in dismissal tone while looking over the equipment around the room. "It can't really said for my race for us Sanghvi anyways, since most of us.....well lack emotions for most part." The Sanghvi then proceed to look over it's own body as it talked. "At creation at any rate, some may develop some later down time if they sent a great deal of time in presence of soft-carbons with them."
As Varn was walking with Yanim to the armory, he listened to what she had to say. He observed the stun stick handed to him. "Very interesting design. I bet we can get a lot of use out of it. As for your problem, I can't really offer any sound advice on it. I'm no creator myself. Hopefully when this is said and done, you can move on and do what you want to do."
They entered the armory. By that time the AI had linked itself and has been displaying the all the relevant information on his helmet's HUD.
"Greetings, Varn and Yanim. It has been too long,." Varn turned around, jaw dropping almost instantly. He couldn't believe it. By the time he snapped out of it Yanim and Viper were already in a conversation.
[QUOTE=doomevil;48419996]"What are you talking about?" He said calmly. "We had a breach a few weeks ago. Probably a few hackers, I even lost your buddy's merc card during that night. I blacked out, sooner or later a few of my security guards were dead."
Arenax scratched his head. "Perhaps I should have contacted you to have warned you."[/QUOTE]
Lion leaned forward, his head but a few millimeter from Arenax's face. "Is that really all that happened? You didn't happen to have any visitors which appeared from the thin air?"
Iska had been sitting in a meditation position for hours, going between looking at her clan banner to closing her eyes and humming chants.
She had never been a religious type, but recent events had made her reflect on things that the Grand Shaman had tried to teach her and her stubborn clansmen.
[quote][Media]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JGM3Q1dVDP4[/media]
[I]Iska, you have lost many comrades in the fighting with the Bolgans, but you can not let rage steer your will.
They may walk the white plains now along with our ancestors, their time had come.
Kuthanax watches all and all are part of his plan.
So Iska, take heart. When the day comes that the shadows of his wings darken your life, remember that he asks you to impress him.
We are all guests upon his land, and a while warriors life may be temporary...
His deeds will be eternal.[/I][/quote]
Iska felt that this lesson meant more in her life now that it ever had.
She but her hands to together and raised them up while lowering her head, "[By my deeds I honor him]" she whispered.
If she were to die and meet her father and the ancestors she could not tell them that she was afraid of dying.
If Kuthanax had indeed planned it so, then she was set to greet him as a friend.
She stood up and took one last look at her worn clan banner , "[I will not disappoint you, papa]" she said before leaving her room, oddly enough finding herself smiling.
She headed down to the armory to check her equipment.
[QUOTE=Viper123_SWE;48422241]Lion leaned forward, his head but a few millimeter from Arenax's face. "Is that really all that happened? You didn't happen to have any visitors which appeared from the thin air?"[/QUOTE]
"Yes and No." Arenax said annoyed. "Go ahead, look through all my fancy drawers, office holders. Anything to get out of here. Right now I got papers to fill and this will be signed instead of threats." He pushed the gun off the table, continuing to sign.
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