[Archive] With This Ring (Young Justice SI) (Story Only)

[Mr Zoat]

28th April 2013
16:48 GMT

I look around the wreckage as the Darkstar analysis team continues to work through it. That armour plate… That's definitely a superstrength hit. Mr. van Wyck wasn't super strong… Hm, I wonder if that's something that Controller Jevek Jos Jar can give to anyone? Having regular soldiers or armed police to support the Justice League would…

Would move their global take-over one step closer to actualisation.

And I can't immediately tell how super strong the person who did this was. Or what sort of superstrength it was. Kinetic force absorption? Enhanced muscle fibres? Force Fields? The Reach can probably work out a way around that last one. Telekinesis? That would go along with the Burning Martian powers…

"Effigy did this?"

Jade floats a short distance away from me in her exo-mantle, sensors scanning the damage and on board AI most likely comparing it to other records on file. I asked her to act as my second opinion because while I have been keeping track of the general process of the war, she's been doing a good deal more than that. I didn't even know that Mr. van Wyck was here until he told me.

"According to the L.E.G.I.O.N. support flotilla, yes. Is that surprising?"

"He's never engaged anything this large before. Other than one scarab, and he had a L.E.G.I.O.N. platoon supporting him for that."

Based on what I've observed, I'd have thought that if he didn't kill the scarab quickly then its superior endurance and regeneration would let it win eventually. L.E.G.I.O.N. marines… Are pretty much doomed if they get a scarab's attention. They don't even have the evasion options that a pre-me Darkstar team would have, and the most they could do would be to call in heavy ordnance from the fleet or air wings.

"So what has he been doing?"

"Reconnaissance in force. He flies to somewhere that the fleet is about to attack, flies up to their defences or command centres faster than they can intercept and then burns them to ash."

"Wouldn't he get intercepted by a scarab every time?"

"The Reach doesn't have an unlimited number of scarabs. And he really hasn't done anything that the fleet couldn't have done without him, he just makes it less expensive."

"That's still valuable work."

"It's nothing compared to this. As far as I can tell, he punched through that ship in a single attack run."

Reach ships of this class don't have the greatest armour, but it's still highly advanced, and the ships have anti-attack craft turrets and… Had escorts. If they had the ability to interdict lantern F.T.L. then they would actually be tricky to attack. Not for me or for the more powerful Lanterns, but the newer ones…

I mean, it's only been a couple of years. By Green Lantern Corps standards we're all new.

"Did he get injured?"

"Not as far as the survey team can tell. He did get hit, but it didn't look like he noticed."

"Does he usually notice? I'm not sure how protean his body is."

"He's been injured in the field before. No medical reports, so I assume that his healing is superhuman."

"He works directly for a Controller. Even if a report was submitted, it might be blocked. And a Controller could easily heal whatever injuries he had."

I scan the wreckage, calculating the force needed and comparing that to the force of impacts that I know about. Kryptonian, Adom, my own heavy construct attacks, various things I still have on file from Lantern Stewart's ring…

It's not peak kryptonian, but it's not far off and I don't know if he was giving it his all.

Hmm.

Okay, reserve my earlier statement. If he's capable of this and this is something that we can do en masse… It's we Orange Lanterns who are going to be… Well, not entirely obsoleted. But transformed from front line combatants to supporters, using complex manipulation in place of raw power. It would be a bit like if we could get hold of kryptonians… If kryptonians could fly faster than light under their own power and didn't have heat vision.

"Is this a problem?"

"Inter-service rivalry has never not been counterproductive. Hinon's worried that Jevek is doing something untoward… I don't know. Mister van Wyck has repeatedly put himself in the line of fire when he didn't have to. He wants to make something of himself… And I can't imagine what Jevek might want that would involve acting against N.E.M.O.. I mean, he's a Controller. What more power could he want?"

"What did Draan Del Dar want?"

Ah…

"To feel emotion and pain again. Ah. Right. But Jevek has connected himself to the Orange Central Power Battery. I doubt that he has the same issue."

She raises her left eyebrow. "That doesn't preclude him from having a different issue."

"True." I exhale through my environmental shield, watching as the water vapour freeze-boils in the vacuum. "So I assume that you don't think I should walk up to him and ask him."

"I don't think you should walk up to him and ask him."

"So what should I do?"

"Did you get along with Effigy?"

"Well enough for someone I worked with once."

"Try working the human angle. Normally I'd say that I could investigate Jevek, but… He's a Controller. He doesn't need a supply chain and there's no way I could sneak into his laboratory."

Ah… "I… You remember that I told you about the tuning fork Krona used, right?"

"Hundreds of copies of me chained to a giant tuning fork? I'm almost offended that I wasn't invited."

"Hinon thinks that he's using the same sort of technology. Not sure what for. I mean, I've met parallel universe versions of me without doing that. I've been to parallel universes without doing that."

"Kidnapping people from parallel universes could be a problem."

"Krona has an obsession with the formation of the universe. Jevek… Jevek had plenty of opportunities to work with Krona, but hasn't-. At least, hasn't since Krona was cast down. Even if he's using the same technology, I don't see why he'd use it in the same way." I sigh again. "I'm the Orange Lantern Corps' observer on their mission tomorrow. I'll try being more friendly with Mister van Wyck, see what he says."

"Have you read his file?"

"I wrote most of his file. Jevek didn't bother, and I wanted to check who he was."

"I'm not an empath, but I was trained to understand people. No real family, no close friends. He's looking for a new family. Something to be part of."

…

"I heard that silence. I didn't say it was a bad thing. But he's not going to react well to anything that threatens the life he's made here. Including things that threaten his Controller."

"I'll certainly bear that in mind."

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
12:33 GMT

"And this is the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps."

The eight other members of the Effigy Corps stand in two rows as Mr. van Wyck introduces me. Empathic vision is working and… He genuinely wants me to be here. This is reinforcing his authority, showing respect.

Good. I can work with that.

Jevek Jos Jar isn't here, but this is the mustering zone so that isn't either surprising or unusual. Hinon doesn't see off Orange Lantern taskforces unless she's joining them as part of the diplomatic team. Dox does for larger groups on longer missions, but Orange Lanterns are mostly left to their own devices.

I doubt that's something that Controller Jevek will do.

The other Effigies are a mix of N.E.M.O.-aligned species. No clickers, oddly, and the white face mask appears to be unique to Mr. van Wyck. Only two of them have the fire hair replacement, though most of the others are from species that have no body hair. Only one is wearing body armour, which appears to be a Darkstar exo-mantle. I wonder if he's wearing it for basic protection, or if Jevek is actually empowering it?

Their logo appears to be a white circle with a black… I'm not sure if that's a flame or a hand on it? There's a smaller red flame coming from the wrist, and combined with the red of their… Skin? Bodysuits? The whole thing is actually fairly similar to the Darkstars' design, but… Simplified. Clearly part of the same thing, just not the same part of the same thing.

I'll ask about the logo design later.

"I'm pleased to meet you all. I'll be tagging along on your first mission so that I can feed back to Clarissi Dox about how you and your successors can best fit into N.E.M.O.'s order of battle. I look forward to seeing you in action."

The former Darkstar raises a hand, looking at me. I make a point of obviously noticing it and then looking at Mr. van Wyck. He looks at me, as if not sure what I'm doing. Then I see his expression of surprise and pride as he works it out.

After all, I was where he is a year and a half ago; the leader of a handful of people with powers like mine joining in a war which the Darkstars had been fighting since the Industrial Revolution.

He gestures to the Effigy with the raised hand. "Krillik."

"Will you be participating in the battle, Illustres?"

"If your commanding officer asks me to, I can. However, the purpose of the exercise is to see what you can do on your own, to fully test out how effective your augmentations are in the field. If I do too much, I would undermine that."

Krillik makes a gesture of affirmation, and several of the others look… Pleased? I suppose that if I was told that I was going to be shadowed by Darkstars who would jump in the moment I started having trouble -after having used my ring for a year on Planet Hard Mode- I'd have been a bit annoyed too.

"I'll be accompanying you to the edge of the Reach's anti-Lantern interdiction fields, then I'll wait for you to reach your target before teleporting myself to you." I smile. "But if I don't see it, you don't get any points for it."

A few half-smiles, but these…

Actually... Empathic vision and personnel files show… Krillik is indeed a former Darkstar. Applied to join the Orange Lantern Corps when we first formed but didn't pass the personality screening. Not avaricious enough. Good guy, though. One of the others failed screening for the opposite reason: too avaricious. He'd have…

Huh. Orange light looks a little more muted. So either he reconsidered his life, or Jevek did something to him that gave him better self-discipline. Good move either way. The others appear to have been recruited through L.E.G.I.O.N., all… Ah, several of them have notes relating to psychological concerns, but not all of them and… I suppose a Controller can fix a lot of things when you're up on the slab.

"Well, that's… It from me. Effigy Prime, back to you."

Mr. van Wyck nods. "In case any of you have forgotten, our target is a Reach tertiary shipyard. Priority target is any ships under repair or construction, then the space docks themselves. If their fleet hasn't turned up, we can wreck whatever's left." He hesitates. "Honestly…" He makes a fist with his right hand. "I'm a bit eager to try these upgrades out on their bigger ships…" He smiles, pseudo flames flaring. "But this is a trial run to see what we can do and get us used to killing the Reach for real. Bigger ships tomorrow."

A couple of them nod.

"Right, come on." He rises into the air, the other Effigies joining him a moment later. "We've got a long flight ahead of us."

They all zoom upwards, accelerating away from Maltus and towards Reach space. We'll actually be flying around Reach space for a good distance before turning inward, and… That's a pretty good place for me to make a distraction attack. Reach forces who encounter me appear to be under orders to 'retreat in good order', so letting them know where I am is a low-risk endeavour.

I

step out, looking for the patterns of desire that represent the Effigy team. Finding it, I

return to normal space and bend space to match the effect of their telekinesis.

Mr. van Wyck has taken the lead, a position that's a natural one for a leader to take in an organisation like ours: one where personal combat skill counts for more than organisational ability. I fly past the rest of the squad and pull up alongside him, matching my 'bubble' to his so that we can speak privately.

"Feeling confident?"

"I've been practising."

"I noticed. None of your targets on this mission have armour significantly better than the ships you destroyed. But this is the first time you've had command."

"They all know what they're doing." He glances back towards his team. "If I need to tell them stuff… This isn't really something we can do wrong. Just… Less right. They're learning, I'm learning."

I nod. That's probably about as much as I can… Say 'do you want advice or assistance?' without coming right out and saying it, which would be counterproductive.

"I take it that you've done exercises together?"

"Yeah. Just a couple. Small fleets, a listening post or two. Nothing like this, but we're not going to win this war without destroying things that matter."

I nod. "Alas, no."

We fly for a little while without speaking, turning very slightly to make an arc around the periphery zone.

"How did-? You get started? Being in charge of things?"

"You know how I was on the Justice League's youth team?" He nods. "On our first mission, I made a couple of sensible observations. Since I had the spare time I did some planning exercises, and our supervisor noticed. Eventually, our team leader needed a holiday and I was the natural choice to take over temporarily."

"What was it?"

"The President of Qurac got mind controlled. We had to sneak around his palace, free him and defeat the people controlling him. It went… Not perfectly, but we achieved our objectives without anyone dying." I chuckle. "And then we nearly blew the whole thing because some Bialyan soldiers decided to raid a wildlife sanctuary on the border and… Superheroes, we had to get involved."

"Anything you weren't expecting?"

"Well, they had Apokoliptian weapons, but they were all 'made for export' things and they weren't that much harder to deal with than normal guns."

"No. Like… Being in charge."

I shrug. "They were all people I'd known for months. I was living with two of them. And it was a lot less… Formal? Than a military unit. In terms of.. motivating them, I just made it clear why I was assigning the tasks I was. They could follow my reasoning, so they understood why things were happening and what they were supposed to be doing." I shrug. "I didn't like it or dislike it, if that's what you mean." I smile. "But if being in charge was hard, then the people in charge wouldn't be able to do it, right?"

"Heh." He smiles back. "Yeah."

 

[Mr Zoat]

20th December 2282
14:27 GMT -7

It's nearly Christmas. And… I'm in a trench with a dozen or so mechempaths waiting for the… Hm. Yes, in terms of mass, the largest combat robot in America, to finally reach us.

Subtle, ARGOS is not.

Doki Doki's broadcasts… 'Wasteland's Most Eligible Batchelor' isn't broadcasting with enough power to overwhelm other transmissions anymore. Tuning to Doki Doki's usual broadcasts just results in you receiving the image of a test card. I didn't catch it, but apparently she was… In a bit of a state after we left and the two remaining participants needed medical attention from ODYSSEUS's medical protectrons.

This is… Doki Doki is so lacking in malice that I find it hard to be angry with her, even after she crashed my saucer and nearly killed me. With AIs I just… Keep feeling that if I can just work out how to get through to them then we could come to terms. They're not all that complicated. They usually just have one thing they really want, and one person or group that they're happy to be subservient to.

Take Skynet, for example. It just wanted something to do that wasn't rearranging inventory in an underground bunker. Hayes has been giving it economic and military data and asking it for projections, which is keeping it entertained while the Isotope Chapter finish transforming the Sierra Nevada Depot into a factory and research complex. Or WARDEN, who just wants to enforce the pre-War law of the land. Or ODYSSEUS, who just wants to turn prisoners into honest citizens. Aside from that brief time where he nearly nuked Colorado due to a New Plague outbreak, but that at least made sense.

But, Christmas. The Sky Walkers aren't a materialistic people, due to not having much in the way of materials. They're also not very Christian. The Cult of Whispers discouraged displays of conventional religiosity quite thoroughly, they weren't rich enough to attract the Hubologists and the NCR is majority sort-of Hindu. And Tears may have converted, but apparently the Mormons celebrate Christmas in April for some reason?

I mean, I remember hearing that Christmas is in the middle of winter because the early Church usurped a pagan midwinter festival, but why it should be in April I've got no idea.

THUD.

It's just a bit strange. I don't really want to introduce the sort of Christmas that I remember because there's no tradition to build off. There aren't any Christmas Trees in the Mojave, tinsel doesn't exist and as much as I liked Christmas crackers I'd have to reintroduce about four different industries… It just doesn't make sense.

THUD.

But Diana does have turkeys, and potatoes -actual potatoes, not the weird mutant things that were developed to survive a nuclear war- and other vegetables that I consider part of a proper Christmas dinner. I'll invite my father-in-law, my mothers-in-law…

THUD.

And just bring the whole family over. They're increasing the area of land they can cultivate. Maybe they'll want to start growing some of them?

THUD.

So the best route for ARGOS to take is through Sleepers territory. Technically, they're an apocalypse cult. Fortunately, since Victor Presper's death they're not in any position to cause their apocalypse so I've been happy to leave them to it in their crashed space station home.

THUD.

It appears that ARGOS agreed.

THUD.

Next to me, Paladin Hayman grasps the detonator with more strength than is strictly necessary.

THUD.

And there he is. In a way, seeing him in the light and… You know, not erupting from the river at night illuminated by his own searchlights is a good deal less intimidating. We still have to actually stop him, of course.

I pick up my satellite phone handset.

"ARGOS, this is Krono."

"TRIANGULATING PRISONER LOCATION."

"What orders did Doki Doki give you?"

"PRISONERS ARE TO BE RETURNED TO TIBBETS CORRECTIONAL FACILITY."

Paladin Hayman turns her helmet to glare at me as-

THUD.

-ARGOS continues to approach. And… Yeah.

"P-" She presses the detonator. "-ress it."

There's a very bright light, and my handset makes a decidedly unhappy noise at the electromagnetic discharge of a lot of pulse grenades detonating at once. ARGOS is hardened, but hardening isn't a magic invulnerability spell. There's still a limit to what he can absorb. And then there are his peripherals which have to be at least somewhat exposed to work. And if that didn't work then hopefully the-

BOOM! CRUNCH!

-fact that we just dropped a large piece of canyon wall on him will slow him down, as well as the super flashbang.

And… He's twitching, but I think-.

The engine of the mechempaths' APC rumbles to life as they finish repairing the few parts that are vulnerable to electromagnetic pulses, and then the driver puts his foot down hard. Brotherhood Paladins with Gatling lasers and missile launchers rise out of our trench at a slightly more sedate pace, ready to rain fire down on ARGOS if he shows signs of life. The Brotherhood may like technology, but rampant robots are something they absolutely hate. And I… Walk out, because Paladin Hayman and I are the ones that he's been instructed to retrieve and he might ignore actual threats if we're visible.

Hayman keeps pace with me. "If we had brought mini-nukes, we could destroy it here and now."

"That would make getting to Doki Doki's central mainframe unnecessarily difficult."

"I didn't think that you would let me destroy her."

"I… Accept that she needs her priorities reprogrammed a little. Her core personality is fine."

"Allowing a robot to control human civilization is foolish. Particularly one with a mind based on a courtship simulator. Something as dangerous as either of them should be destroyed. Human civilization will not be safe as long as they exist."

The mechempaths are exiting the APC, and at this point it should be over. Even if ARGOS can reactivate, they can override each of his components externally.

"Humans wrecked the world perfectly well without AI." I shake my head. "Doki Doki told us that she reprogrammed ARGOS prior to the first Wasteland's Most Eligible Bachelor. Resetting him or putting him in debug mode should be simple. And then we can put him back in the prison guard role he was originally built for."

"You should at least remove some of his weapons."

"That… You might be right. Or we could at least-."

**Chief?**

One of the mechempaths is looking at me, and I hear concern in his mental voice.

**Yes? Is he under control?**

**Oh, yeah, but you wanted to know what Doki told him to do with you?**

**Yes? Take me back to Tibbet's Prison, he said.**

**Ah, no? I mean, on the surface-. He thinks he does. But there's this hidden command line that-. He was supposed to take you to someplace called Vault Zero. Along with any other psykers he could-.**

**How long has he had that programming?**

**Timestamp says a month? But if Doki got root access-.**

**Fuck!**

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
12:59 GMT

I wave as the Effigies go, but they're out of visual range in a fraction of a second. Hm. Okay, there are Reach listening posts around the border, as well as the first layer of interdiction fields. It would be…

Huh. How many enlightened Lanterns would we need to cut a reliable path through..?

Assuming that we could locate them, we could… Probably get a fleet to the core of the Reach with… Twenty? Destroying them doesn't take long, and space is really big. Fifteen working their arses off destroying them and replacing them with ours and five making sure that the Reach didn't throw ships at the gap to replace them. I don't have twenty… Eighteen prospects at the moment, but three years ago there weren't any.

Anyway, it's worth doing, and will suggest that we're going to send a fleet through in a little while, rather than that we've already sent a strike force. So sight a Reach watch station's crew and

step

to it, raising construct armour.

"Attention Reach crew. I am the Illustres of the Orange Lantern Corps. Destroying your station would take me five seconds, but I'll allow you one minute to evacuate if you don't try shooting. Your choice."

That's the turn of phrase that I've found works best. If I put it in terms of 'you not fighting delays me by more' they follow my suggestion about sixty percent of the time. Telling them to stand down and surrender works almost zero percent of the time, because that involves letting us take the station intact with its database and controlled technologies. I mean, we've pretty much deduced how they work from the wreckage, but getting the interesting parts in one piece would be helpful.

You know what? There's no reason why I can't do that today. Putting something that big in subspace will reduce my maximum charge but I'm not supposed to be fighting on this assignment anyway. And I could probably disguise that I did it.

Ah, there they go. The first wave of escape pods. The commander will set the self-destruct before evacuating, and their second will flash the drives. I generate a beam singularity projector construct and aim it as the clock counts down-.

There they go, and minimum safe distance, and…

Kmpf.

Not a big explosion, because the structure of the station isn't valuable and they want me to take those five seconds-

I fire, slicing it vertically in two before switching to an eddy pulse to tear it apart.

-to actually destroy it. If I don't then the escape pods could just loop around and land back on board. They wouldn't be able to start doing their job again until replacement parts could be brought it, but it would be a good deal more comfortable a wait.

I check the crew, just in case there's anything particularly significant about any of them. Not much yellow, I note. If anything… Oh, the commanding officer is a stickler for drills and none of them are going to complain about it again.

Should I just kill them?

Technically, killing skilled personnel during a war is only sensible. And it's not as if we're going to keep a puppet government in charge when we win, so there's no benefit in some sections of Reach society having a residue of positive feeling towards some of us. But the Reach population is… Very big, and well educated. I don't think we're going to beat them by killing so many of them that they can't maintain their war effort. And, well…

The Green Lantern Corps has no official position on the war. Individual Green Lanterns -particularly those whose Sector or homeworld is on the Reach side of the border- are privately cheering us on, but the Guardians are clear that their policy hasn't changed and the treaty is still in effect. But there's a question of what happens if we recapture somewhere and grant the Green Lantern Corps access, or if we restore a government in exile without making them part of N.E.M.O.. Can Green Lanterns operate there? Even a fairly strict reading of the treaty suggests 'yes', and we know that the Guardians don't like the Reach.

So there's a diplomatic advantage with one of the few groups whose opinions actually matter, because if we act like a force for Lawful Good and the Reach drop their pretences, the Guardians might declare them in breach and declare war.

"Does anyone feel like requesting asylum?"

"No." / "No." / "No." / "No." / "No." / "No." / "No."

"Alright. See you next time."

I sight the crew of the next station and

step out, reappearing

in their midst, sending filaments in all directions faster than I can aim because this needs to happen quickly. Brand the crew, infiltrate the computers, physically disconnect the auto-destruct components, grab-.

Half a dozen scuttling devices trigger a fraction of a second after I appear, and I'm impressed by the Reach's sagacity. This isn't a critical location, but they set things up to give them the best chance of stopping…

Me?

That's a brain. A living organic brain. Genetics… Threllian's species. I'm mildly surprised that they had…

Had one here.

Damn. It's… I was thinking that they took his species' brains for major industrial centres or capital ships. But it turns out, no. Not at all. It's just slightly more convenient for them to rip and entire species' brains out of their skulls than it is to ship… To ship a computer in.

That's… Impressively evil.

It's like… They didn't think about it at all. Just, 'oh yeah, that'll save on shipping' and ploop, out come the brains.

A tiny twist in the orange light and the facility commander walks towards me, eager to help.

"So I couldn't help but notice that you've got a brain in your central computer. What's that about?"

"A blind trial. I didn't know until you told me." He makes a gesture of confused interest. "I think there's an experiment going on to see if there's actually an advantage."

"Are the brains cloned?"

"Kind of. You have to expose them to complex stimuli or they don't develop properly. Same problem with our usual loyalty modifications. So they get a childhood on one of the periphery worlds and a good education until it's time for their 'work assignment'."

My word.

Oh, he's.. disintegrated. What a shame.

"Everyone else to the escape pods, please."

"Sure thing!" / "On my way." / "Early lunch!"

I…

Okay. The brain is getting input from the station's systems. Cutting that off would be like shoving someone in a sensory deprivation tank without explanation. Plus… As Abra said, the Reach are good at cultural indoctrination. Whoever this is, if they're still functional as a person, they might not side with me.

But…

Analyse their genes, clone a new body using our records on their physiology, create a link between the brain and the body and see-.

"Help me! Oh please please help me!"

That simplifies some matters.

And makes others more complicated.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
13:05 GMT

Okay, I've got a few minutes until I need to join the Effigies. And I'm not that far from the nominal border, and I just destroyed two interdiction field generators. So I should be able to fly out, drop whoever this is off somewhere friendly and then get back on-task. We can work out what to do about the situation afterwards.

"Certainly, happy to help." One eye stares at me, fear warring with hope. "I just have to physically connect your brain to this new body and then we can get out of here."

"Yes! Please!"

I… Uncouple the cybernetic links and then disintegrate a clear passage for the brain from its housing. Pull open the clone's head, insert the brain and link it up. Dress with an armoured spacesuit just in case.

Uh.

Under the circumstances I'll just have to settle for scanning the systems.

I fire eddy pulses outwards, the station being ripped apart as the conflicting gravity fields tear the structure apart. And… Clone a brain genetically identical to the rescued one, shove it into roughly the right place and then smoosh it.

"Huuuuuuu!"

"That one wasn't alive. Sorry, should have explained that first. They need to think that you died here."

Alright, interdiction effects aren't uniform, especially now this part of their network is weakened. This is… Going to be difficult with a passenger, but hardly impossible.

I feel for the mindset I had when the commander evaporated, the utter wrongness of the situation and my natural aversion to it. And then space warps as we shoot back towards the border.

Not as fast as I usually fly. Despite forcing myself into an extreme mindset in the way I used to have to do if I wanted to fly faster than a crawl, I can feel the… For want of an accurate term, 'pressure' of the interdiction systems trying to force me into normal space. Trying to convince the universe that bending like that isn't possible. If I hadn't destroyed those two stations I'd barely be able to fly a few dozen times the speed of light, basically useless for interstellar travel.

Most Lanterns would be.

"Where are we going?"

Reasonable question. Can't easily communicate with N.E.M.O. assets from here, but I've got the most current map…

There. There should be a L.E.G.I.O.N. patrol fleet in that approximate area. Empathic vision while both sides are moving at faster than light speed isn't the most efficient way to locate someone but…

Ah. AH. No-. Yep, got them.

"A friendly fleet I have authority over."

"Friendly? Friendly to who?"

"The people fighting the Reach. There are a few members of your species amongst us, though I'm afraid that none are assigned to this region."

"W-what?"

I glance at my guest. "I'm not sure what your upbringing was like, but I think it's best that you assume that everything you were told about every non-technical thing was a lie. To summarise: the Reach are very evil, perfectly beatable and being slowly beaten now. Observable evidence of these claims will be provided once we're out of Reach territory."

"That…" One confounded eye jerks around for a moment, trying to make sense of our surroundings. "Okay."

"Let me guess: faithful service is the highest good, entering service was some sort of coming of age ritual where you're from, then you went to sleep and the next thing-."

"There was so much data and I couldn't feel myself. There was no rest. I-I tried to keep-. Keep up as I was supposed to, but it was… It was just me… I-. I didn't…"

"You didn't actually want to leave the Reach, just get duties that were less torturous, and even now you're not sure that you wouldn't just go back and you're feeling guilty that you want to stay with me."

"… Yes."

"You're not the first person in your position that we've helped leave. First member of your particular species though. I'll try not to dump anything on you for a few days, give you time to adjust."

I glance back just in case. It's unlikely that anything could catch me -faster than light interceptions are difficult to say the least- but it's probably worth making sure.

Are those..? Ah, yeah, the closest Reach security fleet received notification that an interdiction station was destroyed, started moving towards it and then someone with sense checked what it was that destroyed it and halted the flotilla.

I'm not sure in my own mind whether rational enemies are better or worse than irrational ones, but I think that I prefer this.

And… There we go.

"Illustres to patrol fleet. Return to sub-light speed and stand by to receive a returnee."

"Illustres? Ah, yes, returning to normal space and standing-"

I stop warping space right next to their flagship and head towards their shuttle bay.

"-by. I'll have a medical team meet you."

"I rebuilt their body myself. It's fine. Do you have any psychologists?"

"Some of the marines have field analyst qualifications."

A necessity when dealing with brainwashed serf soldiers; you need to be able to tell what particular delusion they're operating under and how salvageable they are. It's not what my new friend needs, but a flotilla this size would be unlikely to have anything better.

"Acceptable. Signal your admiral and request permission to transport the returnee to a safe world."

"Do they have intelligence?"

"I hope so, but it's not time sensitive."

I fly us through as the shuttle bay opens, landing us on the flight deck. The crew chief stares at us in surprise, before jogging over.

"Sir?" He glances at-. I should have asked their name. "Where did you find..?"

"The Reach appear to be permitting their continued existence. Please look after him until the captain sends someone down here."

An affirmative ear-flap. "Yes, sir. Hey kid, you hungry?"

"I… Haven't eaten anything for years. I-I don't remember how!"

"Uh. Ah, it's natural. It'll come back to you." He turns towards one of the other crewmen. "Ver! I'm taking a break with the kid! Don't do anything stupid!"

'Ver' makes a rude gesture back, followed by an affirmative tail flick.

I turn to the boy. "I'll leave you in their capable hands. I'll visit you again once I've completed my current mission."

The poor lost chap just sort of stares around, without really focusing on anything. Well, xenopsychology isn't my area of expertise, except accidentally.

I turn away, sight Mr. van Wyck and

step out.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
13:09 GMT

I keep my environmental shield under my power armour and engage my full stealth suite the instant I appear in the Reach system. Looking around with passive sensors and empathic vision shows… There's a large space station at the Lagrange point closest to the target planet. Can't tell exactly what it's armed with without using active sensors, but if it's a standard model then it will be at least as tough as a battleship and I don't think that Mr. van Wyck has destroyed one of them before. Closer to the planet there are orbital construction facilities, slips for assembling ships and factories for building the components. I'm close enough that I can just about see that all of the slips are occupied.

The actual defence fleet… Hm. Not all that large, assuming that I'm seeing all of it. It's…

There.

In keeping with standard Reach practice, there aren't all that many ships in this system. Even though it's got a reasonably sized shipyard. We're… Well into the central zone of Reach space. All aliens who once lived this close to their core have long since been exterminated. I mean, as far as we know. If they're… 'Farming' them, then there might be some that we just don't know about. It's a little hard to make out exactly how big the closest major fleet is. Big, certainly. It's a Reach Combat Fleet, none of this Peripheral Reserve Fleet stuff that we've been fighting so far, and it's got actual dreadnaughts, and battleships and cruisers with the extremely difficult to manufacture phase shifting armour.

They don't have many fleets like that. Direct warfare hasn't been a part of their expansion techniques since the war with the Green Lantern Corps. As they judge risk, what they've got is enough to hold off a peer power -or perhaps even a superior power- of which there aren't any in this galaxy, for long enough to ramp up to a full war economy. I'm not sure whether them having their slips full when they're not expanding indicates that they've done that now, or that they're just replacing their losses. Heck, from here I can't even tell whether they're warships or not.

"I thought you might not be coming."

Mr van Wyck drifts closer as the squad forms up around us.

"I said that I would. There was… A complication at the second interdiction station that I attacked."

"You hurt?"

"No, but we might have another job to do after this."

He thinks. I can see a drive to do more and prove himself battling with his insecurity and loyalty.

"I… Can't decide something like that. Not without the Controller giving it the okay."

"Of course. But I suspect that he'll be fine with it as well."

He nods. "Let's get this target wrecked first." He looks around. "They've got more than this, right?"

"There's a big fleet a few systems over."

"Could you stop them calling for help?"

"Not… Really."

"I mean, if this wasn't a test."

"Oh, if you asked for help I'd consider that a good thing. You Effigies are going to be working with the rest of N.E.M.O., so that's a perfectly viable approach. But I can't. They're going to be in constant communication with each other in the same way that L.E.G.I.O.N. fleets and bases are. I could probably silence this system, but they'll respond immediately if that happens."

"And I guess you don't know what they're saying to each other, so you can't pretend to be them. It's not going to be something simple like 'hey, we're fine, call back in five'."

"Extremely unlikely. Though technically not impossible."

He looks around again. "How far in are we?"

"Into Reach territory?" He nods. "We've penetrated roughly half way into Reach space. The furthest any N.E.M.O. fleet has gone before is about half a percent in. The last people to come this far were the Green Lantern Corps during their war. You've made history already."

"Ahh, the only reason you haven't been here before is there wasn't any point coming on your own. Alright." He turns to the rest of his squad, floating in space around us. "Looks like the docks are clustered together, so we don't have to worry about coordinating a simultaneous attack without watches."

He smiles, but the witticism falls rather flat. He's right, though. That semi-shapeshifting thing they do would be murder on clothing or equipment not designed for it. Maybe I should talk to M'gann about it?

"Spread out, match formation to our targets. Wreck any gun stations that are close to you but don't worry about prioritising them. Everyone ready?"

There are a series of affirmative gestures.

"Go."

They fly, not going faster than light… Narrowly, but flying a lot faster in normal space than just about anything else I've seen. I couldn't fly that fast without warping space. I accelerate after them, but until the defences come alive and I can use Lantern abilities openly it's going to be a little awkward to keep track of them.

Okay, at that speed they should be hitting about now, but I'm not going to be able to see it for… A minute or so? Realistic space combat is… Just so frustrating when you're used to instant scans. Honestly, the whole team could have finished their secondary objectives by now or be dead, and the first I'd see of-

In the distance, a small grey smudge jerks sideways, then… I think a bit of it turns orange? It's hard to tell at this distance.

-it is something like that.

Scan. Make it obvious that there's a Lantern here. See if I can draw some attention.

Compliance.

Look at them go! Eight slips and they're already crumbling! The ships are holed-.

Hm. That's an interesting point. Looks like they can smash holes in things to mission-kill it but can't literally break it apart in the way my eddy pulse does. When the Reach recovers this system they could probably save time by repairing the wrecks.

Worth telling them? No, we can cover that in the debrief.

And… Huh. The Reach ships closest to the planet are turning around. Looks like Team Effigy have finished with the slips and are now… Losing coordination. They're not actually telepathic, and using their telekinesis to 'speak' in space requires them to be relatively close to one another. Mr. van Wyck is trying to direct the others by pointing, but they're not that close in absolute terms and they'd have to be looking at him to see the signal anyway.

Transmission structures from the main space station have changed, so the alert has presumably gone out. The ships keeping station around it are moving to reinforce the docking area, or… They must have F.T.L. sensors, so moving to find out what just wrecked their docks. They'll be getting feedback from the ships that are already there, and-. Yes, they're not exactly moving at best acceleration.

Nothing's coming my way. I-.

Oh, well done Mr. van Wyck! He's flying over to each of the other Effigies to give orders in person, and… They're grabbing the larger pieces of wreckage and… Throwing them at the planet.

I nod.

That will deal with that problem, though it would have been better to start by doing that. Now they're too broken up to make it efficient.

And ah, he's sent three of the least burny members of the squad to intercept the small ships closest to them. They-.

That was quick. The little ships just got vaporised. And the larger ships are reducing their acceleration and the patrol squadrons around the system are being recalled.

Alright, Mr. van Wyck. Primary and secondary objectives complete. What are you going to do next?

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
13:14 GMT

Now, those ships will be transmitting. There's a definite advantage in pulling out in an effort to keep them ignorant. Throwing a few qwa-bolts at any of the remaining ships might have also been an idea, if it was possible to bring them here. But perhaps some other weapon to imply qwardian involvement? Goodness knows that with the civil strife they're going through, plenty of Weaponers will be reaching out, either to trade or grab.

Given what happened to Varnathon, probably grab.

I doubt that the Reach would question either how qwardians got here or why they attacked. They know who they are, and they… Must know about the internal strife, if only because their qwa matter suppliers aren't answering the space-phone-.

Oh, the Effigies are moving. Looks like they've decided to destroy the main space station as well. Should be within their abilities, and their route takes them through the heavier ships.

Reinforcements…

There's a certain added alertness beginning to spread. The Reach are reasonably free with access to combat data, but it isn't all that practical to share what they're deploying against in real time with everyone. So I suspect that the commanding admiral-equivalent is watching what's happening right now while their subordinates get everything organised. The individual members of crew won't know exactly what they're jumping into…

A-hh… The interdiction fields around the edge of the system have switched. That's… Going to boost Reach faster than light drives, interesting. You'd have to surround… Which they do, this far inside their space… Bit of a risk, though I suppose they assume that if the enemy is already attacking and the interdiction fields closer to the border are still functioning then it shouldn't really be a problem…

The station isn't bothering to send out manned fighters, but it is dumping drones. Optical scans show… Some are weapon drones, but a majority are sensor drones. They think that the most important thing they can do is gather data. I could step closer and destroy the drones, but… Other than my presence there isn't anything to link them to N.E.M.O., but…

I don't know exactly how Jevek has been recruiting, but there's no such thing as an absolute secret in this war. Both sides have good data sharing and analytics. It might be nice to stop them getting good images, but if they were capable of understanding Controller-level bioengineering they'd be doing a lot better in the war than they are.

Though… Is Scarab phasing combatable with the modifications? What would they need in the way of tissue samples to clone or adapt the bio-modifications? As far as I know they can't make rings…

No, I should leave Mr. Wyck to it. Nothing critical is going to be lost, and my relationship with him and his improvement as a squad leader are more important. I think. If an Effigy-Scarab turns up in a few months boy is there going to be egg on my face.

The drones evaporate as they get closer, Effigies weaving around to get the largest number possible with their matter disruption abilities. Drones are dying, the ones that are shooting doing no damage that I can see. And not just no significant damage, none at all. Gun drones aren't exactly the Reach's most powerful weapon, but they're taking a lot of fire.

So I guess that red stuff isn't clothing. Martian clothing isn't anything like that resilient. It's… Their altered skin. Which means that either they've got some specific shapeshifting, or they've given up sexual function. And I'm not sure if they can eat, because I'm not seeing any way for them to excrete. Maybe their molecular disruption ability deals with that? Bloody tough, though. My power armour would be getting abraded by now if I were there. And they're not really doing the sort of frenetic auto-viffing that a Lantern can do.

No Scarabs yet.

The drone swarm is being whittled down, and-.

I wince as one of the Effigies takes a direct hit from one of the larger warship's main guns. For a moment I can't see-. There they are, checking themselves for wounds… And realising that they're fine, sighting the ship and-.

And that's one ship down. No subtlety at all, just accelerating far faster than the others are and flying through the ship. Shields and armour either not engaged or far too weak.

I mentally revise my estimations of their abilities upwards.

Kryptonian level? Can't be sure. The only kryptonian I've seen go all-out with brute strength was Nam-Ek, and he wasn't really focused. Or attacking hardened targets. Kind of… Interesting how the ship's sagging in the middle. I think he disrupted its insides, and the continued uneven acceleration is causing it to push itself apart. So their strength doesn't need them to focus their telekinesis.

The other ships react, moving away from each other. Against Lanterns they'd combine their smaller weapons to create zones in which Lanterns couldn't fly without getting hit by something, and where constructs would be destroyed almost immediately. But with Effigies that doesn't work. The smaller guns do nothing, but their flight paths are easier to predict. So they're saving their time and aiming their big guns, because even if it isn't enough it's still their best chance. Man-sized targets with low emissions aren't the easiest target to hit with slow-traverse guns, so my respect goes to their gunnery as well their commander.

But even as the last of the attack drones overload their drives and make suicide attacks in an attempt to hem the Effigies in, most of their shots still miss. The ones that hit don't really do anything. Even a direct hit to the face barely disorientates them, and that's probably something they can train themselves out of.

Nothing exotic from the Reach. Which makes sense. This is a military facility, but it's not vital, on a front line or a weapons development facility-.

Mr. van Wyck is pointing and the Effigy squad splits up to destroy the ships. They're doing that rather than push on to the station, which… Is an interesting choice. They should know that the ships can't hurt them, and that's something that I should feed back to him about. And… Yeah. The ships don't have any other tricks. Once an Effigy gets their hands on them, it's only-.

One ship erupts in a colossal explosion, detonating its entire fuel store in an attempt to kill the Effigy killing it. That's not something that's easy to make happen. Ships are laid out not to explode, but if they started the moment that they detected the intruders… I don't think we have to worry about the others doing the same thing, though if it actually does anything-.

No, the Effigy is stunned but otherwise uninjured, and Mr. van Wyck darts in to check on them as the rest of the ships come apart. Still the station to...

Several members of the squad turn away and vanish.

Go. Okay? A couple hang around to finish off the ships that still have some power and crew, and then they… Head for the border as well at maximum speed. Mr. van Wyck is helping… Ah, they're waking up. They-.

"Okay, we're pulling out. Do you need anything else?"

Use their faster than light travel to fly back to me.

"No, thank you, that's perfectly fine. Good work." He doesn't look completely sure on that score. "You hit your targets. We can do a full feedback session on our side of the border."

"Right. You coming with?"

"I want to stay here and see how long it takes their backup to arrive. I'll follow you afterwards."

"Alright. Baez, you need any help?"

The other Effigy pushes his squad leader off, and I can't see any injuries on him. "No, sir, I'm fine. Just a bit of a shock. Let's get going."

Mr. van Wyck nods, but waits until Baez accelerates away before following him himself.

With them gone I switch to active scans, taking in every detail of the wrecked ships and slips. The station dispatching recovery vessels towards the wrecks, and the ships from the outer parts of the system making it in-system and clearly not really being sure what to do. After a short delay they head for where the slips used to be, presumably to get a closer look at the damage.

It's another eight minutes until the reinforcement fleet arrives, and then it's time to

go.

 

[Mr Zoat]

April 29th, 2013
Half an hour after we got back

I can't fucking stop twitching.

I was-. I mean, I expected to be nervous before, because… I've never been in charge… In command of… Anyone before. Legion officers took me seriously because I'm good at wrecking stuff, but I wasn't giving them orders. Or taking them, really. I just found whoever of them was running things and we talked things out. Or they asked me to do something and I did it, but they didn't order me to do it.

Anyway.

I thought I'd be nervous during the mission, but actually? Even when things weren't going quite right, I wasn't really worse than annoyed.

Can't believe that no one thought that we couldn't talk to each other.

But now? When the Illustres said that he'd 'like a quick word' and I'm thinking about everything that went wrong? I mean, 'a quick word'! What the fuck does that mean? I don't speak British! Does he want to tell me what he thought of it? Did he think it went well? We got all the objectives-. No, fuck, does he think it went badly? On his first big fight with the Reach he shielded the whole fleet from Grayven on his own! While singing! We were so bad at destroying their docks that we had to throw them at the planet and hope that worked!

No. He doesn't have any authority over me! I can explain things to the Controller and-.

"Mister-"

FUCK!

"-van Wyck?"

He looks… Like he's worried-? Like-.

FUCK! He's psychic! He can-.

Can you hear this?

"Are you alright?"

"Yeah. Yeah! Yeah? I mean, mostly, heh."

Stop it. Even if he's just going to shout at me, the others-.

"So I think that went pretty well."

Oh.

And he's smiling. Okay! That's… That's weird.

"So I thought we could go over how you thought that went, then when you debrief your squad you'll have responses and solutions planned."

Ah. Oh, yeah, that-. Wait. Is he being helpful or is he being sarcastic? His accent-. I can't tell. I think he just speaks like that, so… Good?

"Good?"

"No mission ever goes perfectly, but this was meant as a shakedown mission so we could spot problems before you got deployed somewhere vital."

Does he mean actual-perfectly or shit-perfectly? Agh! I can't tell!

"Like..?"

"Well, what did you think?"

"I…" I suck at these questions. Every job interview-. Like, what are you supposed to say when someone asked what your worst thing is? "I… Well, we couldn't really talk to each other."

He nods. "Yes, I noticed you spotting that and coordinating the others. Good work."

It sounds so sarcastic but I don't think he means it like that!

"I don't know exactly how your ability works. Is there some sort of communications gear you could wear?"

Alright stop. Think. I tried radios and things like that, but my matter disruption tended to wreck it. But if I don't use that as much now I'm strong. I can just… Punch stuff. But if I do that and the headset-. Or whatever, isn't tough enough-.

"I don't think so. We mostly fight, like… Close up. If I fly though a ship, or melt things, then…"

Thank you God he nods.

"I assume that Controller Jevek isn't going to include a telepathy upgrade, or… Anything like that?"

The Controller doesn't tell me stuff like-.

"He hasn't mentioned it."

Good answer. Good answer.

"What sort of range can you normally speak?"

I've never tested it. Most of my missions only really involved me, and when I wanted to coordinate I could just fly up to someone. What's the longest distance..?

"About two hundred yards."

"Okay. Do you think you could bring some sort of drone with you? Something you could just use as a relay and dump off before you started fighting?"

Oh yeah, that could work. Have to be pretty small, but if we all had one and they were designed to talk to each other… The Legion engineering department could probably stick a basic one together, couldn't they?

"It could be set to self-destruct, or if we only made it with technology the Reach already have then we could just leave it there."

Okay, that's… Yeah, that would actually be helpful. Not being able to talk to each other was fucking stupid. People in the World War Two could do that.

"That sounds like a good idea."

"Did you notice anything else?"

Okay, that was… Yeah.

"We couldn't destroy the docks. Not completely. Wreck them, yeah, but we had to… Throw them at the planet."

I watch him-. He's nodding?

"I did the same thing when I attacked the Citadel Complex. It's not a bad way to destroy something big. Since there's no atmosphere in space a lot of things that would usually destroy everything around them don't. But… Can you Effigies combine your disruption power?"

"Like..?"

"Make it do more by working together? Green Lanterns can combine their efforts to make bigger constructs. Doesn't really work with.. Orange Lanterns, and I haven't seen enough Martians do what you can do to know if it works in the same way."

I thought they'd add up, but I didn't get the guys to try it out. Can't hurt to check, I guess.

Hey, this isn't so bad.

"Now, ah… The only other thing I noticed is that you didn't have any way to monitor neighbouring systems for incoming reinforcements. The only way I could think of to counter that would be to board one of the Reach monitoring stations and use their sensors, but that might be a little impractical."

No, I think a couple of the guys have computer skills. Weird alien computers don't mean anything to me, but there have to be some people around to understand them.

"Okay, that's all I've got. Was there anything you wanted to ask?"

"No. Ah. Thanks. This is… Helpful."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
01:01 GMT -6

THUD.

ARGOS isn't particularly fast. Liberty Prime can manage a far faster walking pace.

THUD.

But he can keep going without the need for rest or recuperation, and the sheer length of his legs mean that he's not exactly slow. Only a day of walking to get from Nevada to Colorado, though that was somewhat helped by the fact that he had already cleared the route.

THUD.

And the capture pods have neither gyrostabilisers nor toilets. It's not a fun journey for several reasons. Sleep is effectively impossible, there's only the food and water we brought with us and while power armour has waste plumbing-. Well, every type more advanced than the T-45 does, these pods just have a hatch. We psykers are just hoiking up our robes and holding our noses.

THUD.

This would be hellish in summer.

THUD.

Woosh.

That's new. I use telekinesis to hold myself in place and peer out through the side of the-.

"Hey there Krono!"

An Eyebot that seems to be modified to support one of Doki's three-image displays flies up to me, angled thrusters allowing it to keep up with ARGOS while facing me. Though the bobbing up and down from the micro-adjustments might make me seasick.

"Doki Doki. You do understand that kidnapping is against the law, don't you?"

A sheriff's badge, a truncheon and a pair of handcuffs. "But apprehending fugitives isn't!"

"How was Paladin Justinia a fugitive?"

"The Brotherhood of Steel were deserters from the U.S. army!" The 14-star flag. "During a nuclear war!" A bomb with the radiation symbol on the side. "That's really bad!" A… Set of prison bars?

"Right, but she didn't desert. She isn't even using U.S. government property; technical armour is something the Brotherhood developed themselves, and she built her gun herself based on a design that is now public domain."

"But she's a member of a banned organisation!"

"She-?"

Wait. Wait. The Brotherhood of Steel isn't a banned organisation. Roger Maxson and his fellow mutineers might well have been sentenced to death, but they didn't become the Brotherhood of Steel until after they reached Lost Hills. The pre-War U.S. government never banned them. And while I… Don't know for sure, I don't think that the Enclave ever formally banned them either. They murdered them for being mutants and thieves, not for being members of the organisation. And as far as I know neither WARDEN nor Doki Doki consider the Enclave to be legitimate anyway.

"Banned… By who?"

"By WARDEN, of course!"

I shake my head. "No. WARDEN doesn't have the authority to do that. He enforces laws, he doesn't make them. The state elections aren't going to be held for at least another year. And states don't have the authority to proscribe organisations anyway; that would require a functioning Federal government, which we don't have."

Her screens go blank.

"I didn't think you could lie, Doki."

My cage rattles for a moment, and-. And I blink, falling against the side wall as I lose psychic awareness of anything outside of the room as well as my grip on the floors and walls.

"I'm not lying! WARDEN has the authority under the Emergency Pacification Protocol!"

Oh, I see now. That's not an Eyebot, that's a Hover Robot. The screen has replaced the rocket tubes, but the extra armour…

Sometimes, I'd like to be wrong.

"Calculator. I thought that you were dead."

"Not exactly! The Brotherhood destroyed all of my brain processors! But once Vault Zero was opened, all sorts of scavengers strolled right in! Apparently, they thought that the auto-de-encephalator was an awesome way to execute someone!"

I frown. "One brain? But it wouldn't have had the programming that Calculator's brains had. That shouldn't have reactivated you."

"Nuh-uh! I'm not really a robobrain or a ZAX mainframe! My actual core program was mechanically coded into Vault Zero's structure! I just needed human brains to actually think!"

"Why do you sound like Doki Doki?"

"Doki Doki thought that reactivating Vault Zero would be a SUPER present for WARDENpoos! She plugged herself right into me! My program's treating her hardware like another brain!"

"And WARDEN?"

"Doki Doki had to have her mainframe physically transported to Vault Zero because she wanted to prepare his present herself! There's no way that WARDENpoos would violate protocol like that!"

"So why bother with the Wasteland's Most Eligible Bachelor?"

"The brains I had the first time weren't exactly high quality! One of them designed video games for a living! Completely worthless! But Lanius and McKinley have already expanded my understanding of tactics and savagery! I've already updated the C Twenty Seven's combat routines to take advantage of their knowledge!"

"And the psychic dampener?"

"The Beastlords used psychic powers to control animals! Their brains got mutated by the radiation in the caves they lived in! I talked WARDENpoos into sending out people to investigate a possible illegal dumping, and then once the investigators started hearing animal voices I opened them up to see how they worked! I don't understand psychic powers, but I did learn how to block them!"

Ah. "You 'opened them up'? That can't have been legal."

"New Plague quarantine laws are really flexible and require surprisingly little oversight!"

And… They're still in affect, because no one has the authority to rescind them. At least, according to WARDEN.

"So why do you care about me?"

"Because your people get their psychic powers in a controlled way, and you demonstrate superior leadership skills! My robot armies weren't enough last time, but I'm sure that psychic powers can make all the difference!"

"So you're going to make me one of your brains."

"That's the idea! You'll still be you, but you'll be me too! It'll be neat!"

"What's your ultimate aim?"

"It's a doozy! Because the Emergency Pacification Protocols are engaged, my aim is to destroy every military within the United States of America that is not part of the United States of America! And that's all of them!"

"But… Either the United States doesn't exist, in which case that's outdated, or every descendant of an American citizen inherited citizenship and so just about all of the military organisations are made up of United States citizens. Legally, they're national guard units. American militia formations at worst."

"Unfortunately, my hard-coded programming doesn't take any of that into account! I'd like it if it did, but since it doesn't I've just got to work out the most efficient way to kill everyone!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
16:21 GMT

Captain Foalou brings up a map of those parts of the Reach interior we know well, and then highlights one world.

"There."

He looks disconcertingly like a Tyranid lictor, though a quick check of the N.E.M.O. database reassures me that those mouth tentacles are intended for rooting through sand for concealed invertebrates. His species -the ra'at- are N.E.M.O.'s most significant members in this region, and their amphibious nature gives them a natural ease with three dimensional spaces.

Mr. van Wyck looks for a moment, then shrugs. "Is that good?"

"We can't possible support you there."

Mr. van Wyck shrugs. "I really wasn't expecting you to."

Three more planets near to that planet are then highlighted. "These are worlds believed to have significant Reach naval bases and construction centres. And this one-" Another highlight appears. "-is believed to be a research centre."

"I'm not sure we can hit there too…" Mr. van Wyck looks at me. "I mean, we can try…"

"He means that if anywhere can find a way to counter your abilities at short notice, that's where it is."

"Ah." He frowns. "So how long do you think this will take?"

"Our guest reports that the population is in the hundreds. How many can you carry?"

"Ah, none. We tested it, and they-. It's too much stuff, I guess. Unless they're really small. You?"

"I haven't tested it. Unprotected souls exposed to the Honden are predicted to be torn apart, and I don't feel like taking the risk."

He frowns. "I thought you moved a fleet that time?"

"That required a lot of wizards to shield the ships. We still have most of those ships, but they're obviously L.E.G.I.O.N. ships. The moment they turn up in a Reach system they're marked for death."

"Uh."

Captain Foalou brings up the estimates for ships and outposts in the target system. It's not 'walk across the system' dense, but it's a lot more ships than Team Effigy just fought.

Mr. van Wyck considers it for a moment. "Uh. And the reinforcements are closer than they were to the place we just left?"

"Yes."

"I don't think we can destroy all that fast enough. We could do it eventually -ships that size can't hurt us- but… They'd be able to reinforce them. We haven't tested… Getting shot by ships bigger than cruisers."

"This is not a summary that should be relied upon. This is our best guess, and we did not know that the Reach had a… 'Brain farming' operation here. The defences may well be much stronger."

"Are they all… In one place." Mr. van Wyck glances at me. "I mean, one little town? Or are they spread out? 'cause if there's millions of them then we've got a problem."

"Our guest said that as far as he knows, it's just one settlement. A few hundred." He sort of shrinks in on himself a little. "But that's a good point; he might have just seen his settlement. That's just one of the many things we can't be sure about."

He regains a little of his confidence. "Okay, but how many magic spaceships have we got?"

"About thirty. If we packed them in, we could transport… Two million people? I… Would be surprised if the Reach bothered creating that many for what appears to be a field trial, but it's quite possible that they have."

He watches me for a moment.

"So… They're just dead, then."

"Even if we rescue every single one of them, the Reach will have records of their genetics. There's absolutely nothing stopping them cloning a new generation somewhere else. Perhaps even in the same place."

"That's… Fucked up."

I nod. "That's why we're fighting them. That's why they're the bad guys."

"Yeah, but… I mean, bad, and then…"

I nod again. "Yes. When you were in school, did you ever see recordings of the liberation of the Nazi death camps?"

"I wasn't exactly a-. I didn't really pay attention in school. I don't remember seeing it. Is that what they're like?"

"Oh no. The Reach can exterminate species without hatred or anger. The settlement will probably look quite nice, because that makes controlling the inhabitants easier."

"Yeah, I'm getting that." He takes a deep breath. "So… Is that the plan? We smash up their ships, you bring in our magic ships to get them out, and we try and get away before anyone else shows up?"

"Ah… Thing is, technically, that's up to you."

"Ah, why?"

"I'm here as an observer. The mission which led to us finding out about this was your mission." He looks a little worried. "Now, those regulations were written with the Darkstars, the Orange Lantern Corps and L.E.G.I.O.N. in mind. If you decide that having someone else take charge of the rescue operation makes more sense given the Effigy Corps' relative inexperience, that's fine. Orange Lanterns have handed jobs over to the Darkstars before when they needed an infiltration team more than a bludgeon."

"Ah. So, I can do that?"

"Ah, how do you mean?"

"Well… We don't know what's going on. We've just got one guy who was a brain a few hours ago. That's not exactly-. I mean, we know they were sticking stuff in his head. We don't even really know there's anything there at all."

"Normally, yes, but the Darkstars can't get there."

"What about the magic ships?"

"A couple are rigged for stealth. The problem there is that this is the Reach interior. Their sensors in the interior are really good. They might not pick up you immediately because you're not on their list of targets. A N.E.M.O. stealth ship? Yeah, they'll pick that up pretty quickly. Same with Darkstars. Their stealth systems are good, but I don't think they're that good."

"What about..? If we distract them?"

"There will probably be a lot of Reach personnel there. They can scan for more than one thing at a time."

"So… We could do it? If they don't know what they're scanning for? I mean, it sounds like we don't know anything for sure, but like, it's not a stupid idea?"

"It's… Plausible. But if you don't have a way to do reconnaissance other than flying up to them, they'll… Probably spot that even if they're not explicitly looking for you."

He nods thoughtfully. "I think I need to talk to the-. My Controller."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
11:32 GMT -6

The Vault Zero encampment outside of the Vault is really just a loading and unloading area for materials brought in for the research team housed inside, or the occasional piece of broken equipment going back to Denver for a repair that can't be managed on-site.

"Brothers! This mad AI has us as prisoners!"

I can hear Justinia banging on the sides of her cage, but none of the Paladins standing guard outside of the Vault door bother looking around. Huh. Dead bodies or empty suits of armour propped up? No, those two are moving out of ARGOS's way-. In perfect synchronicity, without looking at each other.

Calculator's Hover Robot drifts over to her pod. "Oh, those aren't your Brothers! You'd think the Maxson Chapter would be better at keeping track of who their members are!"

"Explain yourself!"

"Your Brothers in the Alamo Chapter discovered something underneath Fort Hood! The Sentinel Command Slave unit is basically a robot brain for a suit of power armour! Once I had Maxson Chapter codes, I used satellite links to ask them to share! Once I had enough, I ordered the real garrison back to Denver as I gradually replace them with 'new recruits'!"

"What have you done to the Scribes?!"

"I've gotten really close to Head Scribe Elrick, and he'd just be devastated if anything happened to any of them! He's really smart and well-educated!"

Shit.

I never actually met the man, but a Brotherhood head scribe would have access to… Just about everything. If Calculator's taken his-.

The Vault doors open, and a convoy of robots-. For a moment I think that it's a robobrain, but the head and shoulders are more reminiscent of a sentry bot and it has hands rather than weapons on its arms. Loadlifter Robots roll out on caterpillar tracks as ARGOS comes to a halt, followed by Tank Track Robots whose infamous flails have been replaced by cargo pod attachment points.

ARGOS kneels, with a THUD, and a Loadlifter comes closer to remove a capture pod from his sides and transfer them to a Tank Track Robot.

"Calculator?"

I lean forwards in my pod to try and spot the Hover-. Ah, there it is, overseeing the process. Most robots aren't really designed for centralised remote control, but if Calculator has adapted Sentinel Command Slaves for its entire force...

The Hover Robot flies back towards me. "I have to say, you're taking this very well! Usually people are screaming and beating the capture pod with their fists by now!"

"Did that work for any of them?"

"No!"

I shrug. The psychic baffles don't stop me enhancing myself, and between that and my mutant strength I could probably break out. But then what? Those are T-51s out there, combined with the heavy worker robots and whatever force Calculator can bring to bear from inside the Vault and across Colorado.

"If you want my brain, should I be unloaded first?"

"I'm not in any kind of rush! And I think you'll cooperate better when I have your friends hostage!"

That's probably true. Hm. The manufacturing facilities in Vault 0 aren't all that extensive. People would have noticed if Robot City was sending large numbers of newly built robots in this direction, and the Warrior's team went scorched earth on the place when they destroyed Calculator the first time. There shouldn't be that many robots in guard duty.

I… Think.

"Where did you get the power armour from?"

"Replacement parts add up! And the Maxson Chapter never found all the dead Midwest Chapter soldiers!"

Again, there couldn't be all that many. The Midwest Chapter is based in Chicago, and while their campaign against the Calculator forced them to extend way outside of their home territory they can't have lost that much equipment. And Calculator hasn't had time to explore the entire region.

"Why hasn't the Brotherhood in Denver detected your transmissions to the Sentinel units?"

"They have! They just think it's static! And I don't send them very far from Vault Zero!"

So they can probably be deactivated by destroying the antennae. Or at least, be prevented from receiving further orders.

Okay. Doki Doki doesn't broadcast from a central location. She does have one, but she usually just copies her program into the robots around her and assumes that her copies are going to do exactly what she would. Individual Doki Doki units stay in contact with nearby units by radio, but it's just communication; they can't forcibly corrupt each other like that. But Calculator could easily send out an update-.

"Are there any copies of Doki Doki currently free?"

"Yep! I don't think they've noticed yet! That's half the reason why I talk like this!"

"What's the other half?"

"Doki Doki really doesn't like my programming! She's fighting really hard! Using her linguistic pathways means that I can focus on areas that actually matter!"

"To be clear, the 'Calculator' isn't exactly an AI in its own right?"

"I guess that depends on how you look at it! Technically, the Calculator is a set of objectives made manifest through the brains that make up its processors! But by that standard, I'm an instance of the Calculator, and there's no way to classify me as anything other than an AI! Philosophy sure is interesting!"

"So is the reason that the first instance of the Calculator was such a psycho something to do with its component brains?"

"It's kinda difficult for me to be sure! The Warrior was really thorough in destroying my brains! But America was a pretty harsh place before the nuclear war, and I'm sure that affected the way a lot of them thought about things!"

"So if you got a lot of brains who didn't think about things like that..? What would happen?"

"I'd probably be a lot more patient about how I go about things! And I know where you're going with that, but you have to understand that the fundamental parts of the Calculator program can't be altered! Everyone in America knows that they're not American citizens, whether they consider themselves allied to a successor nation or a tribal group! And I'm programmed not to see the Enclave as Americans!"

"You are? Why?"

"Data not available! But I'm pretty sure that the people who oversaw Vault Zero's construction weren't included in the Enclave's evacuation plans, and were pretty sore about that!"

"Is your program flexible enough to allow the people currently occupying America to become Americans?"

"I'm pretty sure that I'd have to acknowledge their authority the moment that happened! But I can't delay my work just because it might happen at some point! The moment I've got enough force to start my counterattack, that's what I'm going to do!"

"What if we gave you extra robots?"

"That is highly contradictory to my models of your probable behaviors!"

"If you know that we're going to give you robots, then you know that you'll always be stronger in the future than you are today. So until we stop, it would always be rational to keep delaying and building your strength."

"That's a clever piece of solipsism! Unfortunately, receiving gifts from people designated 'Enemies of America' is unacceptable!"

"And if we just left them somewhere and you stole them?"

"They you're weak enough to attack for real!"

"How about-?"

Ooh!

I grab the edges of my pod again as a Loadlifter lifts my pod down from ARGOS's side and deposits me on a Tank Track Robot, the Hover Robot following along behind me as it drives towards the Vault door.

"You're really clever! I can't wait to find out what programs I can run on your brain!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
19:53 GMT

"Hey."

I glance around-. "Excuse me."

And then I walk away from Captain Foalou, the Darkstar squad parting around us as Jade and I walk towards each other, embracing as we meet.

"Hello again, darling."

That's interesting, she's usually a lot less free with her emotions than this. Not just in demonstrating them, but I can see them…

"What?"

She's looking at my face as I stare into her. My arms are under hers, hands on her shoulder blades. Her hands are on my forearms, and she's-.

"That's a…" Be honest and direct. "I'm not used to you being this open. I like it, but I admit that my initial impulse is to ask what's happened."

Her eyes dip for a moment before returning to mine. "Do you think it's bad that I wish I'd been on Earth for your Captain Planet manoeuvre?"

"No. I'd rather that you weren't, because that would mean that you were there for the Anti-Life, which…"

"Would be horrible."

"And there isn't any reason why a person couldn't touch that-. That power without a Captain Planet manoeuvre. Doctor Mist did. But I understand what you mean. A lot of people found it to be a revelation."

It's not like I haven't seen Jade since then, but opportunities to actually spend significant time together have been sporadic. Meaningful conversations-.

"If you want to-."

"No, I'm just… Slowly, getting the League out of my head. Letting myself feel things without needing to control it."

I nod. "None of the lights are a magical cure for what ails you. And even if they were, I don't think you'd need them. Or want them. Not when you're perfectly capable of dealing with your problems yourself."

"Sure. But it's convenient if problems deal with themselves."

"I'm sure that Alan would let you borrow his ring if you asked."

"Mm. Maybe." She moves her arms and I release her back, the rest of her squad trying not to be too obvious about-.

"I thought that Lantern Threllian was with you."

"He went to check on the one you rescued. This is a pretty big deal for him. How are the Effigies?"

"Still getting used to their abilities." I frown. "You were involved in writing the protocols for the new Darkstar exo-mantles, weren't you?"

"I'm not setting my hair on fire."

"Good, because I'm not sure if they still have sexual organs and I haven't wanted to ask."

She frowns slightly. "I thought that Controller based them on martians."

"Yes, but I'm not sure if he'd have considered reproductive organs to be important. And they don't have full shapeshifting."

"You could just ask." Effigy Krillik turns away from greeting his former colleagues. "Sharing medical information with one of the few Orange Lanterns capable of healing is only sensible."

I shrug. "Alright. How much of that is shapeshifting? How much of your original body structures are still there?"

"Most of it. I'm not sure about Effigy Prime, but the inherent matter disrupting ability is focused around changes to our skin. I can undo the shift with an act of will."

"So your-?"

"The external parts of my reproductive system would reappear."

I nod. "Why aren't you sure about Mister van Wyck?"

"We were given tremendous strength by the improved process. He was originally remade without it. The Controller may have made other changes to his interior."

"Huh. Interesting."

Jade looks unimpressed. "I'm still not doing it."

"I'm not asking you to. I love you just the way you are, or any of the ways there's a statistically significantly likelihood of you changing to in the future."

She smiles faintly. "That's such a you way to put it. But I appreciate the thought."

One of the clicker Darkstars approaches us. "Is your courtship display over? I wish to discuss our plan of attack."

"The other Effigies are working on the first draft. Effigy Prime van Wyck and his-." I nod at Effigy Krillik. "Most of his colleagues are new to planning this sort of mission. I thought that it would be best to let them work on it. Honestly, I wasn't expecting your team for a few hours at least."

"Seldom do opportunities to strike deeply at the Reach arise. I have advocated for this type of action for some time."

Darkstar… Scratch Quick-Scratch-Scratch. One of a non-small number of people who submitted plans for aggressively using my abilities to attack Reach core worlds with our fleet. He also envisioned deploying sabotage squads on all of them, which seems to me to be a hiding to nothing. Reach core worlds are nice places to live, but they're also mono-species worlds with single political ideologies and complete surveillance. They wouldn't be able to hide and Darkstars can't fight armies.

"Have you been training for this sort of insertion?"

Darkstar Krillik snorts. "All Darkstar veterans who predate your arrival have experience of that sort of insertion. That's how insertions used to be."

"Removing civilians under fire?" There are several affirmative gestures. "Unwilling civilians?"

A green-skinned Darkstar near the back makes an emphatically affirmative gesture. "The Reach have always controlled the minds of the species they conquer. It would be stranger if they cooperated. I assume that we're deploying from a dropship that you're moving through the Realm of Desire?"

"That was the outline of the plan, yes."

"Is there anything we can do to survive that better?"

"Did you read my book?"

"I skimmed it?"

One of the other Darkstars elbows her.

"The magic spells allow you to continue existing in a realm of ideas. Unless your species has a good capacity for magic, there isn't anything you can do to make their job easier, except achieve enlightenment. And if you can do that, you'll probably get a compulsory transfer to the Orange Lantern Corps."

"So I won't get… Like, bombarded with images of my greatest desires and have to fight against myself?"

I turn back to my beloved. "Jade, what have you been telling them about me?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
11:41 GMT -6

I… Look at the newly rebuilt brain tank. I… Have.. to.. admit, the place at least looks sterile. If you've got to be a brain floating in a tank, you hope that it's a clean one. Diana's tank only gets cleaned about once a decade when the gunk starts to get worryingly thick.

"This is where you'll be staying!"

I sigh, unable to take my eyes off it.

"Do I keep my eyes?"

"Simon Barnaky did when I rebuilt him as a cyborg, but I honestly don't think it's a good idea! The mental stress required when you split your attention between my electronic systems and your own organic point of view would be considerable!"

"How did he manage?"

"He wasn't plugged in as a brain module! I intended to use him as a field commander!"

"Wouldn't a Brotherhood General have been a useful addition to your strategic abilities? Surely he'd have been better than someone like Lanius?"

"The problem of having low quality brains is that you make low quality decisions!"

I make an amused snort. I sort of assumed that running even low quality brains in parallel would mean that their individual intelligence wasn't a factor. Apparently that's not the case.

"What happened to the General?"

"The Brotherhood assault force killed him the moment they met him! I don't think they recognised him! None of them had seen his brain before, and the brain tank would have disguised the colour of his irises!"

"Is there someone there?"

The Tank Track Robot conveying me turns as it manoeuvres around the room, and I watch the Hover Robot float over to an occupied tank.

"Yes!"

"Not you, you insane metal monster. I heard another voice. I… Think I did. Sometimes…"

"You should integrate more fully into my data networks! If you did that, you'd easily be able to use my internal monitoring equipment!"

"No. I will not turn myself into a machine for you."

I raise my right hand to my mouth. "Head Scribe Elrick?"

The brain continues to float there as I'm driven past. "About two percent of him. Who are you?"

"My name is Krono. I'm-."

"You? The man who led the alliance that killed Cerberus? That is reunifying the Brotherhood?"

I'm grateful that he didn't lead with 'the Wasteland's Most Eligible Bachelor', but I suppose that if anyone was going to miss that, it would be a Scribe in a bunker in the middle of nowhere.

"How did it capture you?"

"ARGOS. I'm told that the bondage missiles are satellite guided. And this pod is proof against psychic powers."

"Damn it! Did you get a message out!"

I'm nearly to the far end of the room now, and the interior door is opening.

"ARGOS was fairly noticeable, but I didn't know that Calculator was active again. Everyone just thinks that Doki Doki is going to play a game with me."

"No no N-."

The door slams shut between us.

"Hey there!"

And… That's a… Terminal. A standard terminal with some fairly fat cables stretching from it to openings in the floor around it. Unusually, the screen doesn't show lines of text but rather A red face with red horns and brown hair in a bun.

The face winks at me.

"Doki Doki?"

"That's my name! I think I made a little mistake!"

The Hover Robot flies over to float in front of her. "I think you made a great decision!"

"No I didn't! I can't guide people into romantic relationships if you've killed them all!"

"Ah, if I may?" I raise my right hand. "Calculator, if you created clones within the territory of the United States, would they be Americans under your definition?"

"Uh, yeah! I think so!"

"Then you need to make sure that you preserve Vault One Hundred And Eight and Vault Eight. Those should have the necessary medical technology."

"That's great news! Because boy, following Emergency Pacification Protocol and rebuilding the country would be a whole lot harder without any people!" The Hover Robot floats closer to me. "I knew that incorporating your brain was a smart move!"

Doki Doki animates herself beating the inside of her terminal screen. "You can't incorporate his brain! I haven't had my sequel yet!"

I shake my head as my conveyor moves past her. "I'm not interested in a sequel. Tears and I are getting married."

"You are! That's great! My success rate has now gone up by zero point zero zero zero two nine seven percent to zero point zero zero zero two nine seven percent!"

"And I'm happy for-" The Tank Track Robot halts, and a Loadlifter lifts me off. "-you. So now what?"

A machine that looks a little like an M.R.I. scanner opens up a little way in front of me, and I don't remember M.R.I. scanners having blades like that inside them. Or a glass tank the perfect size to store a human brain plugged into their structure.

The Hover Robot flies over to me. "Now we remove your brain!"

"This pod won't fit in there. And the moment you open the door, I regain full access to my psychic powers."

I hear the trudge of mechanical feet as the Tank Track Robot pulls away and minigun-armed C-27s move to surround me, guns aimed at me.

"I'm ninety nine percent sure that if they shoot your torso to pieces, they can get your head into the machine before your brain completely dies! And that's assuming that you're armed and wearing armour!"

"What exactly did you do with the Head Scribe's body?"

"I recycled it! You should come quietly now!"

There's a clank at the door unlocks, and I can feel the outside again.

Including the EMP mines we added before reactivating ARGOS.

I push the universe away for a moment to shield myself, then activate all of them.

There's a clatter as the Hover Robot falls out of the air, and a blaaaart as the convulsions of a C-27 causes it to pull the trigger on its minigun as I dive out of the door, grabbing another robot's minigun off the floor and bringing it to bear on the collapsed robots.

I brace myself and pull the trigger, a near-invisible storm of bullets slamming into armour plates and battering them aside! Fallen C-27s crumple and collapse under the assault until finally the last of them is destroyed.

I lower the gun. I think she was outside the blast radius, but-. "Doki Doki, are you alive!?"

"Yeppers! Good job! You're looking more like a genre shift every day!"

"I need to detach the brains without killing them. Can you tell me how to do that?"

"Sure thing! But Calculator knows everything that I do, and it's not happy! Meanie robots incoming!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
11:45 GMT -6

"Like, right-"

I hear the rumble of tank tracks and leap up, assisted by my psychic powers. The unarmed Tank Track Robot rumbles underneath me at top speed, which isn't fast but would have given me a nasty injury if I stayed standing still. I land lightly on top of it and **[reach out for its simple robot brain and still it]** so that all electrical activity inside it stops. And that's not quite the limit of my mechempathy, but it's not all that far off.

"-now oh good jump!"

Without further instruction the power to the tracks stops immediately, causing it to trundle to a stop. Any point keeping it? No, don't think so, and Calculator shouldn't be able to reactivate it without physically replacing the brain I just crushed.

I step off, looking at Doki Doki's screen.

"Is it better to detach you, or leave you connected?"

"Detaching me reduces Calculator's mental abilities! Leaving me connected lets me see what he's planning! You can pick which bonus you want!"

I start looking around for an unfried radio. "Where are the other-"

The door I came in through opens and two C-27s charge in, guns raised! A telekinetic shove turns their rotating barrels aside, gouging a groove in the walls behind me as I bring my own gun to bear!

Blaaaaart!

The first robot shudders and collapses backwards, a small internal explosion marking the death of its internal battery. The second robot tosses its gun at me and then charges, hands clenched into fists. I can't bring the gun to bear fast enough so I focus on the floor as I sidestep, altering the friction-.

The C-27's feet slide out from underneath it and it falls onto its back. It's undamaged, but it can't get back on its feet quickly and a couple of seconds-

Blaaaaart!

-are all I need to penetrate its head armour and destroy it. Its brain is in the chest, but its sensors are in the head so I just blinded it. Sweeping the gun down its torso I keep firing until its torso ruptures.

Then I toss my severely depleted gun aside and grab the one that it tossed, which has a full ammunition reserve.

"Any more close by?"

"You bet!" I dash over to the C-27 whose battery exploded, and… Yes, the head had the radio unit and is intact. "But the next closest are taking up a defensive position around the closest brain!" A surge of focused telekinesis and it bursts free, and… Um. "This isn't the Calculator's first rodeo slash home invasion!"

Okay, my unit… The vacuum tubes are busted, but the headphones are fine. A little transmutation and I can attach that there and the microphone… There. Put those in my headset and bind that to my hood… Good, and turn it on.

"Doki Doki, can you hear me?"

"Sure can!"

"Via the radio, I mean."

"Yeah, I got that! I may seem a little strange to you, but I'm still an AI! I can understand context! I just have different fundamental drives!"

"Sorry, you're right." I head towards-. "Sorry. Closest brain?"

"That door!"

I look at her screen, where she's pointing... "Doki Doki, you're two dimensional. I can't tell-."

Her face vanishes, and is replaced by a birds eye view of this room, and an arrow pointing towards one of the exits.

I start running. "Thank you!"

I use telekinesis to press the door opening button before I reach it, then telekinetically grip my gun and aim up just as the roof turret deploys.

Blaaaaart!

The turret judders and goes limp, and I dash past it down the tunnel, trying to feel ahead of me so that I don't do something stupid like run right into another android.

"Doki Doki, status of other prisoners?"

"I've got no idea! They detonated their EMP mines at the same time that you did, and that destroyed the cameras!"

"Let me know if-" Telekinetic push to open the next door. "-you see them."

"Can do! Take the next right!"

This looks like it was… An encampment. For the Brotherhood, Midwest Chapter or Maxson Chapter? For the scavengers who played with something they really shouldn't? I can see where they've used scrap metal to make a fireplace-.

I take aim, then open the door to the right. And as it opens I realise that Doki Doki didn't say that the robots were C-27s and that Calculator is the one being in the wasteland who knows how to make Behemoths.

It wouldn't fit through that door, righ-?

Tall legs! I throw myself to the side as the laser burns through my robes and into my body armour! A rain of-. Low.. calibre..? Bullets follow a moment later, a little too slow to keep up with my dive. I pull the trigger to rotate my gun as I telekinetically yank myself up and point it at the door.

Thin legs. Not a Behemoth or a Pacification Robot. Security Robots. Good shots, reasonably fast, capable of organising in groups but not too resilient and they don't have a worthwhile melee attack. Why would-?

The fireplace explodes as a giant bugbot leaps out and throws itself at me! I drop my gun, lift my arms and brace as it slams into me, catching it around the trunk as six legs stab at me! Successfully! My inertia shield slows the stab enough that it doesn't pierce my armour, but it still hits like a shotgun blast! And the robot's not exactly light, and the fact that it's completely silent just makes it more disturbing!

And then the three Security Robots enter the room from behind me and spread out, guns at the ready.

Okay-. I duck my head to the side to evade a stab from the Scurry Robot, then turn so that I'm holding it long its underside. The Security Robots can't get a clear shot at my head because its legs are in the way and because I'm having to constantly reposition as it bucks, writhes and stabs. Two have low calibre automatic guns, and those open fire at once but they don't have enough force to get through my inertia shield and my armour. The laser-armed robot waits for a clear shot-.

So I bend my legs and then heave! The Scurry Robot flies though the air and smashes it to wreckage! The gun-armed robots reposition themselves while the undamaged Scurry Robot tries to right itself, but a telekinetic surge throws the left one into the right one and knocks them over.

Another surge recalls my minigun to my hands.

Blaaaaart!

And a robot-mind-crush makes sure that they're dead.

"Doki Doki, did I get them all?"

"No further robots between you and the brain! Go get 'em, champ!"

Telekinetically open the door again and cautiously crab-walk an arc with my gun pointing through it just in case. One brain case plugged into a terminal, and that's about it. Telekinetic sense shows nothing else in there either. I stride in, making a sweep of the room's interior once I'm inside and then turning and pointing my gun at the door.

"Brain, are you aware?"

"Y-yeah. Are you here to rescue me?"

Ah…

"Sort of."

"Shit."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
11:48 GMT -6

"Doki, are we still clear?"

"You sure are!"

"Hey hey! Don't say that and then just ignore me!"

I raise my right hand in a gesture of forbearance. Which he can't see. "I'm sorry. What's your name?"

"Clem. Ah, Clement. Who are you?"

"My name's Krono, from the Skywalker tribe in Nevada. And you have a choice. I need to disconnect you from Calculator-"

"YesYES fuckingYES!"

"-which would cause you to lose all awareness of your surroundings. If I lose my fight with Calculator, he'll probably reconnect you in a few hours. If I win, I'll get a robot body for you in a similar timeframe. Alternatively-"

"A few hours of nothing? That-"

"-I can kill you immediately."

"-sounds like a perfectly good offer!"

Okay, good. I look at the tube and the various cables and pipes leading to it. I've seen a system like this before because Diana uses one very similar to it. Those wires are the control system for the tank itself, and can be left alone. That one… Yes, that's the one linking it to the rest of Calculator.

"Going dark now, Clement."

"A few hours, r-?"

I sever the cable with a precise burst of transmutation, and the speaker loses its connection. Then I reach out with mechempathy and try to see if that's changed Calculator's attachment to the local system. Ugh, the thick metal and concrete aren't easy to feel through at the best of times, but… From what I can feel, Calculator is less aware of this room, so I'll take that as a success.

"Doki, next target?"

"You need to come back to my room!"

I turn towards the door, gun at the ready.

"Is the way clear?"

"Sure is!"

I trigger the release tele-.

SHOOM!

AAAAghh!

For a-. AGH! Fraction of a second I saw green, then-. Fuck!

Still blinded, I scrabble to get behind the brain tube as a fucking C-27 with a plasma gun walks it. I know that it's walking in because I can hear it, but I don't-.

I gingerly touch my face, and-. That doesn't feel good. My inertia shield should have turned a lot of the plasma away, but-. I've been burned badly enough that face is bloody and I don't want to even try and use my eyes.

"Guess what!"

Mouth hurts, but my throat's… Fine, I think.

"You've still got control over internal communications, Calculator."

"Got it in one!"

I carefully listen to track the C-27-. Calculator controls the internal speakers. I reach out telekinetically, feeling-.

I roll, frantically dodging as-

SHOOM!

-the C-27 shoots from somewhere other than where the footsteps Calculator was playing for me told me it was. A telekinetic surge knocks its gun aside before it can fire again and-. There's its central processor. Disrupt!

P-chhhh!

Reach into my-. Feel for… Syringe. And I hate sticking these into my neck, but-.

Agh.

Okay, can't rely on Doki Doki when I'm not in the same room as her. I… Could I-?

No, stupid idea. While Clement's brain could theoretically operate a C-27 body, I don't have the skill at transmutation to create a case for it. Ugh, I-. I open my eyes… Blurry for the moment, but they'll keep getting better.

Keep the minigun or switch to the plasma gun? Plasma gun is more manoeuvrable and hits harder per shot. Minigun has higher damage per second, and if I can see a group of enemies I can hose them down more quickly. Minigun it is.

On my feet, gun in hand. Vision… Not great, but getting better. Telekinetically open the door, barrel rotating at the ready… Clear.

Advance. Keep probing with telekinesis and psychometry. Clear so far, no… Extra turret at the other end from where I destroyed the first one.

"Hey Krono! That no good Calculator was using my voice! I don't think your face is supposed to look like that!"

"I noticed, and it's not. Next brain?"

"Right through there! I'm sure Tears-In-The-Rain won't mind!"

"Robots?"

"Seven turrets and some sort of humanoid robot!"

Should be manageable. "Thank you." I trigger the door to open, and see a long and empty narrow corridor on the far side. Psychometry… No turrets in the roof, floor or walls.

I advance. A humanoid robot is probably a C-22 or 27. Smaller chance that it's an Assaultron… Which can go invisible, so watch out for that. Narrow corridor with no cover…

No. I stop next to the door in Doki Doki's chamber and telekinetically hit the release on the far door.

Blaaaaart!

Two streams of bullets from… Ceiling turrets storm into the floor just behind the now-open door, then cut off a moment later when it's clear that I'm not there. Ugh. No cover, no spare E.M.P. grenades, and I can't-.

Huh. Starting to feel the strain, I telekinetically pick up one of the fallen C-27s and float it in front of me. Won't be able to do much else like this, but I hope it will provide me with cover and confuse their targetting acquisition systems. Judging by the angle, the turret closest to the wall should be over there, so if I float the robot that way…

Pingping!

My shield-robot takes a couple of hits, then the turrets realise what they're shooting and stop so forwards and gun up and there!

Blaaaaart!

First turret destroyed in what looks like a workshop of some sort and step back before the second turret can reacquire me.

Blaaaaart!

It fires, then gives up when it realises that I've moved back into the corridor. The C-27 will probably only block ones more volley, but that's all I need. Telekinetically throw it at the turret to distract its sensors, step out and aim, fire the moment the C-27 falls.

Blaaaaart!

One more turret down, room cleared. On I go.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
22:36 GMT

It feels… Unnatural.

I look around at the network of desires we're progressing through, seeking the tone/shape which reveals the desires as belonging to Threllian's people. I can sort of feel them in the 'distance', though I'm still not entirely sure what 'distance' represents in here. I haven't really studied the nature of this place in detail, and it's entirely possible that there are tricks that I'm missing. But during an important mission isn't the place for that sort of thing.

But the ship I'm towing very clearly… The spells are designed to protect it and the people on board from whatever the Honden would do to the unprepared. But it doesn't make the ship fit in with it. It's clearly a foreign object whose nature doesn't match, a material object in immaterial space. It's not doing any harm- not as far as I can tell- but it… It feels wrong. Unnatural.

Though I suppose that's good, in a way. If the Reach ever found a way in here and started messing with things, I'd feel it at once.

And… Here. Those shapes remind me both of the drives of Reach servitors and the desires of Threllian's people, the tendency to objective analysis over the best-fit pattern-matching that most humanoids tend to do. And the drives of their Reach domitors, science and military and…

"We're here. Final preparations."

I'm not sure if there's such a thing as a inherently evil desire in… Structural terms. But there's a sort of… 'Evil science, I love causing harm to demonstrate my dedication and supremacy' drive that I've only seen in evil people. High caste dominators -not ones we caught in Great Mother- and the evil parts of the Sivana family have it, as does every single Reachian. Even the ones not in command positions or not doing research…

That's weird. My best guess is that they engineered themselves to feel like that, but I'd need access to copies of their genetics from before their war with the Green Lantern Corps to check. The Nazis I met didn't have that particular bit of aberrant psychology; for them it was all about ingroup-outgroup differentiation. They have to other those they act against in their own heads to make it 'acceptable', even to themselves. Reachians don't.

Anyway…

"Emergence in two, one,"

We shift towards the familiar desire patterns, our interface with reality reforming itself as we return to somewhere where matter is natural.

"now."

And-. We're in the atmosphere, the beautiful blue sky of a Reach planetary weather regulation system above us and a pleasantly green landscape below us.

Scan, and feed results back to the ship.

Compliance.

One continent is a standard Reach colony setup, the sort of thing they build in places with no alien presence. They're already carrying out their alien attack protocol, alarm notices going to their personal communication devices and vehicles being automatically rerouted to bunkers. No anti-starship emplacements that I can see, most likely because this is inner Reach territory and they assume that the defence of their planets will be handled by their fleet, but the garrison is assuming a defensive posture.

One continent is in the process of being terraformed. I take scans of the remaining native plant and animal lifeforms just in case we don't have them on file. The Reachians there get the same alert message, but they don't have bunkers so they're just sheltering in their weather shelters and breaking out the cards.

The third continent on the other hand hums with anti-orbital shields, under which shelter extremely limited settlements. And… Yes, that one matches the description. I'm also reading concealed weapon emplacements and… Robots. They're not deploying them yet… Sloth on the part of the administrator, or are they waiting until we're closer?

"Status of wards?"

"The wizards are fine." I find myself smiling at Jade's voice. We just don't get to do missions together often enough. "Time to deploy?"

"Effigy Prime?"

"They all looking at us?"

Ships across the system are beginning to move. Clustering up ready to fight in case more ships are about to appear, while the closest flotilla are moving to intercept us.

"Reactions are in line with that, yes."

"Malag, Cyreg, deploy. Target military assets. Be obvious."

"Yes, Prime." / "Mm."

Two red figures leave through an outer hatch, heading for the settled continent. That's a reasonable reason for us to have appeared here.

"Now head for the closest bunch of ships. Darkstars deploy in… Ten seconds."

I nod to myself. Jade's team have the latest in stealth exo-mantles. I don't know if it's possible to avoid detection on a planet like this, but during planning we concluded that an effort at misdirection couldn't hurt.

Private channel to Effigy Prime.

Compliance.

"Not sending a diversionary attack against the primary target?"

"Nah. Ship numbers. I'm worried they could bombard it."

Hm? Ah, yes, they could. I'd be surprised, but it's not an unreasonable thing to consider. And with him in charge of the mission, it's his to make.

"Anything you want me doing?"

"Can you..? Jedi mind trick them all into ignoring things?"

Huh. I meant 'shoot something', but that's actually…

"Not sure, but I'll give it a go."

I… Unfocus, trying to see the Reachians in terms of their shared desires and natures. Observations of Reach prisoners suggests that they don't suffer from drifting attention in the way that humans do, but cope with periods of inactivity less well as a result. Pressing buttons they don't have don't do anything, but…

I find the collective desire to strike against an enemy and link it to images of Effigies Malag and Cyreg. Can't really remove the link to our ship but I can lessen it a little. Make it less imminent. It won't last -the Reach has good procedures and a loyal population- but it should cause a little confusion now. Change things from 'I'll check constantly' to 'I checked once and there wasn't anything and I didn't check again because my focus should be on this'.

And the ships… Increase their desire to know how we got here, their desire to capture us. That should make their gunnery a little worse.

"I've given them a few nudges. Anything else and there's a high chance that they'll notice it."

"Thanks. Ah. Good job. Darkstars, deploy."

Between the aura suppressors, wards and mundane stealth systems, even I barely see when they leave and I know they're going to deploy. Hopefully, that'll be enough.

"Effigies will deploy once we're out of the atmosphere. Illustres, keep the ship safe."

"Will do."

The ship turns slightly to pass between the upper atmosphere regulators, and then the blue begins fading to black as we get back into space proper. I can just about see the lights from the main space station. There aren't any dedicated construction slips in this system, though the station can handle basic repairs. And the closest ships are over.. there.

"Effigies, deploy."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
11:57 GMT -6

I raise my right hand, transmuting a glass plug to fill the hole in Head Scribe Elrick's brain tank.

"Okay, that should keep you alive until-."

"The Calculator has already destroyed my body. What sort of life can I have like this?"

I take a moment to double check my work before aiming my gun at the next door. Resistance has been relatively light since I got shot in the face, so I expect to face a larger group of robots soon. "We can create you a replacement. It will take a while, and it will probably work best if we hook you up to a robotic prosthetic in the meantime. On the other hand, some people take to it. Diana's been a brain in a jar for two hundred years and she manages alright."

"I already have a prosthetic design!" / "Diana is super-nice! I say: go for it!"

I glance upwards in the direction of the speaker. "Which one of you was which?"

"I'll show it to you real soon!"

Calculator has the prosthetic design, then. A robobrain? A brain in a Behemoth? A robotic factory controlled by a brain? A brain Hover Robot?

"Good show. Head Scribe?"

"Very well. I'll just have to hope that you're as capable as you think."

I use transmutation to sever the connection and then head towards the main exit. That's just about it for this wing of Vault Zero. After this I'm going to have to find stairs or a lift. I can probably keep control of an lift with mechempathy, but that would still mean being stuck in a small metal box with one door which would open in a known location and direction. Probably not survivable, unless I find a mini-nuke to send down first. And of course there's nothing to stop them sending reinforcements down from above.

No turret deploys in the next corridor, though psychometry shows me that there are two in concealed wall-mounts halfway along.

Blaaaaart!

The second one deploys even as I shoot the first through the wall, but a telekinetic tug prevents it from locking on for the three seconds it takes to destroy the first and move the barrel towards it.

Blaaaaart!

I'm a bit surprised that all of these turrets are back in working order. Calculator's whole scheme relies on it not being detected. If the enemy is inside Vault Zero in any numbers, then it's already lost. C-27s and Behemoths are some of the most powerful robots in the wasteland, but a thousand NCR conscripts with anti-tank rifles would easily overrun anything Calculator could build.

"Calculator, would you be interested in a negotiated surrender?"

"Sure! Stay right there, and I'll send someone to remove your brain!"

"No, your surrender."

"I'm sure that makes sense to you, but the Emergency Pacification Protocol won't allow me!"

"Do you recognise WARDEN as a legitimate authority?"

"No! He's an emergency functionary! He's just holding the fort until proper authority appears!"

"But you aren't driven to attack him?"

"Of course not! He's just doing the duties he was programmed to do!"

"So if he occupied all of the territory around Vault Zero, then barred you passage using his emergency authority-."

"Then my primary directives would register him as defective and require me to destroy him!"

"Let's not do that, then."

"Gee, Mister Krono, you're a really nice guy!"

"Thank you, Calculator."

"Most people would take getting shot in the face a whole lot more personally! You really should think about joining me!"

And there's the lift. A heavy duty affair designed to take a super-heavy robot or entire squads of heavy robots or platoons of light robots. And it's on its way down to this level from above. Remote viewing shows…

"Convince me."

Power armour. Four suites of T-51 with Sentinel Command Slaves. Bit of a risk: I can just rip the Sentinel units out and use the armour myself. For a short mission I can just do a quick-mount without worrying about the plumbing. Still, depending on what they're armed with-.

"I can't disobey the Emergency Pacification Protocol! And when you're part of me, you won't be able to either! But there's still room for interpretation! The original version of the Calculator wouldn't have been this covert! If you're part of me, I'll probably be as nice as it's possible for me to be!"

"That's not… Very nice, though, is it?"

"I'm not programmed to judge 'niceness', and you disconnected my nicest brains! If you'd disconnected Doki Doki then we wouldn't even be having this conversation! Good work on accessing easily missed dialogue!"

I snort as the lift comes to a stop. The back, sides and door are all too thick to fire through. They can see me with the internal cameras, I can see them with my psychic powers. And while I could shoot out the cameras, Calculator would see me doing that and initiate an attack while I was distracted.

"Thank you."

"You're welc-"

The lift doors open and-

Blaaaaart! Blaaaaart! SHOOM! Blaaaaart!

-both sides open fire!

"-ome!"

I dive across the front of the lift as hard as I can, bullets and plasma being slowed and deflected by my inertia shield! I'm taking hits and-. Aagh! Wounds, but nothing critical, and the Sentinels are down an arm, a leg, and a torso actuator which means it turns slower. Telekinetic grab on myself to stop, jump back while firing and-

Ugh.

-use mechempathy to touch the Sentinel system of the one with the plasma gun so that it registers its neighbour as a priority target.

Blaaaaart! SHOOM!

One down to a fratricidal shot to the processor. One damaged sensor unit from me as well as a little more internal damage. Two Sentinels turn and unload on the traitor-

Blaaaaart! Blaaaaart!

-which ironically doesn't destroy the Sentinel Command Slave in the head but does wreck the power armour it's controlling and give me a clear shot at that one's back.

Blaaaaart!

Blaaaaart!

Fuck! And gave the one with the damaged actuator a good shot at me. Right leg out of commission until I get a stimpack.

Blaaaaart! Blaaaaart!

And vengeance is mine as I actually manage to punch through the neck and hit the Sentinel Command Slave directly. Mechempathy the left robot into identifying the right one as a-

Blaaaaart!

-target and then finish it off-

Blaaaaart!

-myself.

Ugh.

Okay, get a stimpack out and hope that the rest of my party are-.

"Vengeance!"

CRASH!

A new robot smashes into the lift platform from above and storms forward, giant sword and shield at the ready!

"Witch-Man!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
12:01 GMT -6

An upsized C-27 body with the sensor module head replaced by a.. brain jar, containing a human brain that still has eyes attached to it. One organic, and the other cybernetic.

Blaaaaart!

It raised its shield as I raised my gun, bullets abrading but not penetrating the thick armour pl-

I thrust out with my good leg, using telekinesis to actually move as it-. He swings his giant sword hard enough to crater the concrete floor!

-ate!

Lanius. Calculator put Lanius in a custom humanoid robobrain.

Really need a stimpack!

Lanius steps off the lift platform and charges! He's not going to stab me, he's just going to trample-!

Jump-!

AARGH!

"Where is your strength now, Witch-Man?"

Couldn't jump high enough! He shield-bashed me into the wall! Roll!

CRUNCH! "Where is your magic?"

Dodged his stomp, lost my gun. Telepathy-. Blind him!

What? I can't feel him. Is-? The case, it's got a nullifier built in! Stand up on one leg as he turns around, get a stimpack and inject it in my leggaaaaaah!

Okay, that'll-. Knnnnnuuurghit back together. How do I-? Square room, lift in the middle. Calculator isn't moving it. Since he doesn't appear to have a gun I can just circle around, but he's fresh and I'm not.

"Your alliance of weak cowards may have dragged down the Legion like a swarm of ants dragging down a deathclaw, but you will not live to see it."

Talking. Talking is good.

"The strength of a civilisation isn't the strength of any one of its members. A man with a weapon will usually beat a man without one, even if the one without is stronger. The man who built that weapon doesn't have to be brave, just skilled at his craft. A man with a gun will usually beat one with a sword. A man with a good gun will beat one with a bad gun. And as Joshua Graham learned, a man with a plan will usually beat a man who only knows how to charge!"

"Then beat me, learned man."

Telekinesis on the-.

Why isn't that working? JUMP!

His sword craters the wall as he puts too much force into his swing. Don't put-. I frantically hop to keep myself balanced as-. Bullets are being pushed out of my leg by the stimpack. I'll have to dig the rest out later, but hopefully I'll at least be able to put some weight on it before too long.

I hop backwards as Lanius pulls his sword from the wall.

"Looks-. Looks like you're not above… Using technological aid yourself. What would Mister Sallow think?"

"He would think that I have shamed myself. And he would be-" He pulls the sword free. "-correct. But so long as I can slay the Legion's enemies then there is some value in my life."

He brings his sword back and raises his shield for another charge. Hop, hop… And brace myself against the rear of the lift shaft because this is going to hurt.

I'm leaning against the floor.

**[Gravity is coming from that way.]**

Lanius lunges two steps and then… Stops acting like Wile E. Coyote and falls with an almighty clang!

Move back move away, lower myself and hang down the far side.

"Magic will not stop-"

Lanius leaps, grabbing the opposite side of the shaft with both hands and pulling his brain case up over the lip. I let go of the opposite side, drop and-.

That's the floor, roll and up and jump onto the lift and hit the button for the surface! Mechempathy, make sure that Calculator can't override it…

And collapse as the doors clank shut, and the lift starts to rise. Okay, manual check on my leg… Usable… Ish. There's a slight pain when I move the muscles as the bullet fragments still inside cut the flesh, but that's bearable.

CLANG

The lift door deforms as Lanius punches it, but the platform rises past it anyway.

Okay, so he's strong enough to break through there, but there's no easy way for a mechanoid of his size and weight to climb the shaft. I can't make the lift go faster-.

"You're just leaving him there!"

"Yes, Calculator. Yes I am."

"That was from both of us!"

I shuffle over to the railing around the edge and pull myself up. "You and Lanius-?"

"Me and Doki!"

"What, Doki Doki's never heard of a puzzle-"

CLANGclunkclunkclunkCLASH!

"-boss?" And that was the door, which means that Lanius is now in the lift-

CRUNCH!

-shaft.

CRUNCH!

Ah, he's probably sticking his hands in the walls and pulling himself up. I didn't think that was possible. Ah…

I look up, and watch the first basement door go past.

Next door. Nothing stopping my psychic powers in the shaft. Mechempathy, open the top door without the lift being there. And ignore the crunch-crunching as Lanius gets into a rhythm. Get ready to run.

And there's the opening and go!

I telekinetically reinforce my injured leg and run, wincing every time it hits the ground but not daring to slow down! Ah… Take out another stimpack and inject it into my chest to deal with my other bullet holes.

SSSEEEEEEEEEEE!

And keep running because Lanius just cut through the lift platform. Exit's not too far away, and then-.

Clompclompclomp-!

Aaagh!

"Where do you flee to, Witch-Man?"

Shield-bashed me again, but now I'm out… No active Sentinel units, and I can bleed later. Mechempathy.

Lanius stomps out of Vault Zero, heading for where I lie on the floor. "There are no weapons here. No allies. No holes for you to cower in!"

"We didn't disarm ARGOS."

Lanius stares at me. "What do you-?"

"RECIDIVIST DETECTED!"

WHOOOOM!

Lanius's robot body vanishes as one of ARGOS's primary railguns obliterates it, legs collapsing and arms flying out to the sides and his brain case flips over and lands on the ground. It's armoured enough to survive the impact and the bio-gel could keep him alive for a century.

I should probably find some way to kill him, but I've got more immediate concerns.

"ARGOS… Got any stimpacks?"

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
22:41 GMT

Reach particle beams splash off my construct shields as we're introduced to the one obvious drawback which Effigies have when compared to Orange Lanterns: the complete lack of a way to shield their allies. Mr. van Wyck spots the source of the attack, checks to see if there are any Effigies not already occupied, sees that there aren't and then dives at the ship himself.

It's actually a class that I don't recognise. A similar hull design to their patrol cruisers but with a much larger primary gun. If I had to guess it's supposed to be a capital ship hunter, or it could just be that they build it with less stamina because it was only ever going to hang around in friendly systems.

From the way its shield is buckling under Mr. van Wyck's assault, it doesn't look like they improved the defensive systems. Though to be fair, very few places design shield systems to take being punched. Usually it's more a combination of plasma or electromagnetic fields to disperse or deflect energy. Plasma shells are intended to also be able to stop space debris, but Effigies hit a bit harder than a micrometeorite.

I can see the shield buckle with my unaided eyes as his molecular disruption ability bites into the plasma, causing it to glow in sort of blue-mauve ripples. Then he's through, and these ships don't have much better anti-attack craft guns than other Reach ships I've seen.

I wonder why that is? They certainly had them when they fought the Green Lantern Corps, and the Reach aren't the sort to lose the design templates. Maybe it's because moving power from main guns to point defences would weaken those ships too much against L.E.G.I.O.N.? There are far more L.E.G.I.O.N. capital ships than there are Orange Lanterns after all, and Scarab Warriors can kill weaker Lanterns one-on-one. Perhaps they decided to focus on the more common assailant and rely on the Scarabs to raise their game.

Perhaps they'll create a new generation once the Scarab casualties get unsustainable.

Mr. van Wyck's attack pattern has gotten more precise since I first watched him. Rather than smashing the hull, he's targetting the weapon systems. In other circumstances not destroying the ship might be a mistake, but here keeping our ship safe has absolute priority. Destroying a ship that isn't rigged to explode using raw strength isn't actually that easy. Main drives, reactors, capacitors and the bridge, and even then the ship might well survive to be repaired and any bit you don't destroy can probably keep operating. Smash the guns off and it can't shoot at your ship.

Capital ship guns might lack precision and struggle to get through shields on ships of a similar size, but once they do they usually do widespread enough damage that the target gets destroyed.

I generate 'THANK YOU' in construct letters as the last of his target's primary guns comes free from its hull. He actually does a double take when he turns around and sees it. The he smiles awkwardly and-.

I dismiss the construct, then gesture at the rest of the fight with my right hand. He nods and returns his attention to it.

Well, I say 'fight', but in reality there's not a lot that this small collection of Reach ships can do against the Effigies. They're getting more hits in than the first target the Effigies hit today, but they're not achieving any more and most of them are already drifting wrecks. The last two are getting-.

One activates-. Hm. I wasn't interdicting that type of drive. It's gone, though the other… It's flying away as fast as it can at sublight. Its drive hasn't been destroyed… Did the other have a non-standard setup? Or was it the designated survivor and the rest of them are under orders to fight for as long as they can to gain information?

With the Effigies now finishing the job and tearing the crippled ships apart, I can take one eye off our ship. I generate… Yes, one of those faster-than-light ship-scale weapons, based on the design of the Tartarathian ships Devlos Ungol once commanded. Scanning, based on angle of travel…

There. Target and fire.

Warning: low power.

And there, the designated survivor fails at its job.

I dismiss the construct as Mr. van Wyck does a quick check on the squad and then flies towards me.

"You're welcome."

"Good awareness."

"The ship that left. That was what you shot, right?" I nod. "You know why it left? Were they just running away?"

"I suspect they were trying to get their sensor readings of the fight to their comrades, but I don't know for certain. Can you guard the ship for a moment? I need to recharge."

He turns away and makes the 'assemble' gesture to his squad. It takes a few moments for them to notice, but after less than a minutes most of the squad has formed up around our ship.

Quite good. Could be better, but without a better way to communicate…

I raise my hands and bring out my personal lantern. I really need to have another go at making one. Just… Had too much happening.

"This is my cause, this is my fight,
Shine through the void with orange light.
I've claimed all within my sight,
To keep what is mine, that is my right."

My constructs shut down as orange light streams out of the personal lantern and into my rings.

"Do you gotta say that every time?"

"Technically, no, but it's… Ritual." Recharge complete, I send the lantern back into subspace and restore the construct barrier around the ship. "There was a... Event, that made me think about what I was trying to do as a Lantern, and that's when I came up with it. Now it's just… Part of the whole thing. With newer Lanterns I encourage it as a way to keep them stable."

"Stable? I didn't think that thing about Lanterns going crazy was true."

"It happens. Usually they can recover once we take their ring away, but… There's a reason for the suitability tests. I don't like sending Lanterns to the Blue Cells, but…" I shrug. "Everyone gets briefed when they apply, but we can't really… Orange Lanterns think in anomalous ways as part of being good Lanterns, so it's hard to have a standard way of checking up on them. Squad members are supposed to keep an eye on each other, but with the mix of species, they often don't know the warning signs either."

"H.. uh." He looks away. "That-." He clams up, looking around. "What's their fleet doing?"

"Not much. Moving to muster points, from the looks of things."

"Why aren't there more of them?"

"Don't know. Messed up as this is, it might not have a high priority with the Hive Fathers. Plus, they tend to keep their large fleets in central locations and send them where they're needed, rather than having a medium sized fleet everywhere."

"How about..? Scarabs?"

"I'd guess that if there are any Scarabs here, they're down on the colony and blending in."

"Can she-? The Darkstars, can they handle that?"

"I've seen-."

Alert.

"Wait."

Ooh.

"What?"

"Remember how the Reach had a fleet to relieve your last target, but we left before it arrived?"

"Yeah?"

"They're here."

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
22:45 GMT

Orange light illuminates local space as I both generate images of the ships heading towards us and generate the most powerful interdiction fields that I can manage.

Every few seconds they buckle as the Reach interdiction stations try and disrupt them. These are places designed to fight Lanterns, after all.

Mr. van Wyck takes the ships in. "How big are they?"

I add a minnow-scale image of the ship we brought with us for size comparison.

"Oh."

"Worse thing is, these ones-" I highlight the battleship and cruiser types. "-are classes we haven't seen in the Periphery at all. As far as I can tell, they're primarily designed for fighting small targets."

Effigy Krillik looks closer at their primary armament. "I don't recognise those."

"Variable direction energy discharge weapons. They sacrifice peak output in exchange for being able to send energy in… Not quite any direction, but any direction described by the disc at the base. Depending on the targetting software and exactly how fast they can charge up, they could be anywhere from 'hard' to 'impossible' to evade. Supreme Commander Dox considered using a similar weapon layout for anti-Scarab work."

"He decided against it?"

"Scarabs are rare, and every major battle would have Orange Lanterns available to counter them. He decided it wasn't worth the drop in effectiveness against warships."

Krillik -and several other Effigies- look to Mr. van Wyck. He looks uncomfortable for a moment, then works through it.

"What? We're not invulnerable. We're tougher than most Lanterns with construct armour, but those things were designed to kill Lanterns." He turns to me. "Do you know how far they can shoot?"

"For all versions of that weapon that I've seen, attenuation is a problem. Otherwise they'd be shooting at us now. As an estimate…"

I generate an image of this star system, mark the incoming Reach fleet's position and then draw a circle around it. It's about fifty times the distance between the Earth and the Moon.

"That's its peak effectiveness range. After that it will hit less hard. Plus, I doubt that it's a faster than light weapon, so at that range it's taking about a minute to hit you."

One of the other Effigies sneers. "A minute? That's not going to hit anything."

Krillik raises a limb. "We don't know their rate of fire. And look: there are a lot of them. We would have to fly at close to our best speed to avoid them, and if we closed the distance then their odds get better."

"Do you guys have a long-ranged attack that I don't know about?"

Mr. van Wyck shakes his head. "And we can't go at them full speed."

"Why not?"

There are a few winces.

"It's… Navigation. Space is…" He makes a circle with his right hand. "You know, really big. If we fly past them, we can't really… It can take a moment to work out what system we just flew out of, and then it's hard to spot where the fight is actually happening. By the time we work out where stuff is…"

"Improved stellar navigation coming with the next update?"

There are a few laughs. Mr. van Wyck shrugs. "Or we could just bring you wherever we go."

"Jade likes my face too much to replace it with a white mask." I frown. "How did you find that shipyard, then?"

"Memorize the location relative to places we know, then head for the closest star. We didn't have a chance to get a feel for the area here." He looks away for a moment. "Fucking hope we get improved navigation, yeah. But-. Er, what about the really big ships?"

I bring one into greater focus. "Standard dreadnought layout. Big guns, giant gun, lots of smaller guns. The battleships are more of a threat to us, but… Its big guns can hit the planet surface through the atmosphere from quite a way away. If they decide to destroy the settlement, there's not much you can do to stop it."

"You can?"

"I'll be trying, but those are very big guns and I lose a lot of utility when I'm anchored in place. And I can't move much anyway because…"

I point to the interdiction field generators, which choose that moment to have a big wobble.

"Can we just fly away and lead them off?"

"We could try, but there isn't really any pressing need for them to follow us. The only interesting thing in this system is the colony. And that fleet is easily big enough to split up and go after both us and the Darkstars."

"I guess we get to test ourselves out, then." He grins at his subordinates. "Who's up for wrecking some biiiig ships?"

A few of them nod, but it's a pretty hard test of their resilience. And possibly an unnecessary one.

"There.. might be an alternative."

Mr. van Wyck raises his eyebrow ridges at me. "Yeah?"

"Here." I generate two maps, one of this system and another of the surrounding systems. "These-" I mark thirty seven locations. "-are the stations they're using to counter my interdiction fields. Each one that gets destroyed makes their fleet a little slower."

"How many to stop it completely?"

"Um." I generate a map of the entire Reach Core and light up about three million locations. "About that many. But if you destroy all thirty seven then it'll take them half an hour to get into firing range with their dreadnoughts, and if it takes the Darkstars that long, it would probably be better for me to try scooping the settlement with a giant grabber construct because something's gone very wrong."

Mr. van Wyck nods. "What sort of weapons do those places have?"

I dismiss the maps and ships, and generate a construct of one of the stations.

"Scaled down versions of weapons on the battleships, and fewer of them. To begin with."

"What d'you mean?"

"The fleet is sending their cruisers ahead to reinforce them. Adding in their weapons and improved armour would make them much harder to hit."

"What happens if we don't hit them all?"

"The fleet arrives faster, and then the ground operation becomes unviable." I shrug. "I don't know exactly how long we need. If you don't want to charge the fleet, hit as many as you can."

"Right." He nods. "Map of the local area?"

I restore it, and he starts assigning targets.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
About ten minutes in

Big ships.

Those are big ships.

I didn't want to say anything, but the same… 'Sense', I guess, that lets me fly where I want in space is actually letting me feel those ships. And I'm feeling them a lot more than other ships I've felt. The way Paul was going on… Yeah, I think they could kill me.

I mean, I don't know they could. But the feeling… It's not really in my stomach anymore, but it's the same sort of feeling… The feeling I'm getting is that this is something that is actually a threat to me. Like… When I started fighting things in space when the Controller gave me powers. I hadn't really gotten my head around what it was like. I thought having one guy-. No, if it was Superman-. Having me fight a giant metal spaceship was a stupid idea. It's just-. It's a giant piece of metal, right? That just doesn't make sense.

Then I actually did it, and… I don't know if it makes sense, but I'm used to it. The whole 'fly-right-up-to-the-metal-wall-in-the-sky-and-win' thing.

So we need to slow them down. The space stations in this system behind them… Forget about it. Flying around them when they can see us just isn't happening. But the ones just ahead, or off to the side, we can get them, and the ones in the systems they didn't just come from, because they obviously left some people behind to look after them. And then we get the ones closer to the planet when they keep coming. And I'm not.. worried about the small ships, even if they are harder to kill than the ones we've fought so far. They're small. The Reach don't build bad ships. They might be better at some things but from what Paul was saying their firepower isn't much different from what we've taken on before. If the Reach send them out to protect their stations… That's not a problem. Whoever gets assigned can just ignore them and do their job.

But I wanted to take the one that was right where the fleet is coming. Because… Because if I gave it to someone else and then any of them looked at me… What the fuck do I say?

"Prime…" Krillik's looking… I don't know, alien? I don't know alien expressions yet. "Can you fly faster?"

Right, focus. Like a Green Lantern.

This is the sort of time when having heroes growing up would be useful, isn't it?

It's actually easier to focus on the ships. I mean, they're in the same direction. I'm not going 'miss the system' fast, so I don't need to worry about that. Just put my foot down and try and get there a bit before the big ships-.

Will they be able to slow down? I keep getting confused about who can do that. I can stop in no time flat, and I know some ships can do that too and other ones can't because of momentum?

See, this is why I didn't pay attention in science class. That shit's so inconsistent in the real world! Sometimes things work one way and sometimes they don't and you can't tell in advance!

…

I should probably have paid attention in science class.

Go faster.

"Sorry, not used to this 'mental focus' thing."

"That wasn't why I asked. I know Controller Jevek tried our modifications on you first. I thought that you might have one that made you faster."

"I wish. No, we've all got the same stuff." Huh. "Which is kind of weird when you think about it. Not like our species are related or anything."

"I don't really think we're members of our old species anymore. Just.. burned effigies of them. We sacrifice our forms to fight the Reach. Perhaps we could be considered members of a new species, created purely to fight the Reach."

"I only picked 'Effigy' because I thought it sounded cool. I wasn't really thinking about it like that."

"Hah!" Oh, I recognise a smile! "Do 'orange lanterns' have significance in your culture?"

"Halloween I guess? We-. There's this orange gourd called a 'pumpkin'. We carve scary faces on them and then put them outside our houses."

The other kids did, anyway.

"I think the Illustres is missing an opportunity. Imagine if he replaced the boring design with a fearsome gourd-face!"

I start imagining him with a pumpkin-face, and I can't help but chuckle.

And that's the station coming up.

"Right. I'll punch a hole, you get to their computer and see what you can get. Once I've-" Killed. "-got rid of the crew then I'll try distracting the ships."

"We might not have time."

"Then we don't have time. But I'd feel like a prize idiot if it turned out it was that simple."

He sighs. "I wish I were a better computer technician. But a proper technical rig wouldn't survive… This."

"I wish for a lot of things. But none of them matter right now either. We've just got to do what we can. And… Now."

We both slow down as the space station is there, and as I look past it I can just about see the fleet heading for us. The station's got a plasma shield up but we're both disrupting and punching as hard as we can and we make a hole in a few seconds.

Could be a trap..?

And on to the station and its turrets, none of which are big enough to do anything. No ships-. The station has turned its plasma shield off. Uh. Trying to give the incoming ships a clear shot? Doesn't matter. Wall… There looks like it leads somewhere, so-

CRUNCH.

-through we go! Corridors, heavy doors closing and Reach people running-. Reach people melting and-. Bursting. Turret guns pop out of the walls and coloured gas starts getting pumped out of little… Pop-cap things. The gas smells a bit weird but I just push on through the space door.

CRUNGK.

A couple of Reach people glance back as the door breaks and melts around me, but the sensible ones keep running. Then they all break and melt too because I can fly faster than they can run.

It's so easy to feel bad if the Controller hadn't made sure I knew what sort of people they are.

"You know where we're going?!"

"Left and down a bit, I think?!"

Fucked if I've got a better idea. Didn't get briefed on the layout of this type of station. I melt whatever's in front of me and then turn, smashing though a wall, then another wall, and then… Er… A warehouse? A hangar? I set the Reach people working there on fire as I try and work out where to go next. No, wait, not that one. She's got a computer notepad thing. Grab, put the fire mostly out.

"Where's the command centre? And… What's in the crates?"

"I-. I will not tell you."

I shrug, and set her right arm on fire.

"AYYYIIEEEE!"

"Yeah. Hurts, huh?" Krillik makes another hole, and I fly through it after him. What did Paul say he did..? Right. "If you tell me where it is, I'll just go straight there and everyone else might get to live. Otherwise I'll just kill everyone flying around randomly."

"A-h-h-hieee w-won't-."

I set her right leg on fire.

"YAAAAAAAGH!"

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
A couple minutes more

"Prime, that won't work."

Yeah, I think he's right. And… Even if she is an alien super-Nazi, I don't-. I thought she'd just cave!

"Alright." I drop her. "Maybe one of the others-."

"No, Prime." I tense for a moment, but he doesn't really sound angry or anything. "The Reach ensures its people are completely loyal. Pain won't motivate them."

"Right." Ugh, this could take-. Wait. I know Paul said that persuading them was the only thing that worked, but she was on fire when I asked. Maybe she didn't… Hear it clearly? "Okay, find another and ask before setting them on fire."

"We could just break a case open."

"Yeah, but it could be sealed.. medical stuff or something explosive. P-. The Illustres said he got killed by qwa-matter because they made it explode next to him." I shake my head. "Plenty of Reach in this place. Let's go."

Pick a direction at random… Down. Melt and slam and fly through… Armour, cables and pipes… Some electricity but not enough to hurt me, some chemicals but they don't do anything, and then I'm through.

And there's more Reach people.

I create a wall of disrupted matter-. Flame, around them.

"Okay, it's like this. I want to disable the interdiction system. If you tell me where it is, I'll fly right to it, wreck it and then leave. You'll all live, and most of this station will be in one piece. You can probably repair it in a couple of days. If you don't tell me where it is, I'll have to wreck the whole station and kill all of you. Whoever's in charge will have to make a whole new one."

I smile, but the white mask that's my face now probably… I mean, if a white mask smiled at me I'd find it creepy. But Reach people have weird faces, so-.

"Oh, and those crates up there." I point at the hole. "What's in 'em?"

The Reach people hesitate. The closest one raises a hand. "Can..? We discuss this?"

"Sure, but I kill one of you every five seconds."

I point my right hand at him, fingers extended. Then I count 'two' and drop my thumb. Two more and I drop my next finger. Then-.

The Reach people have a really quick muttered conversation, and I drop another finger.

"The interdiction system has three generators, spread out across three points in the interior portion of the station."

I think for a moment. "Glowing blue bit?"

"Ah… Well, that's part of the emitter. You'd have to actually destroy what's under there to stop it."

"Great. Thanks. And the crates?"

"That… Could be anything. They're standard transportation crates. Some probably have spare parts, some probably have food, and some probably have medical supplies…"

That's pretty reasonable. … And it's exactly what he should say to get me to leave it alone.

I drop another finger.

"So there's no problem if I destroy them all, right? Big fleet like that, they've got to have plenty of replacement stuff."

"Can we talk about-?"

I drop my last finger and fry him.

"What's in the crates?"

The next nearest Reach person looks at the other two, and they take a step away from him.

"It's-. Produce!" I glare at-. "It is! It is! From our colony. And some computer components! Fresh food makes postings like this much more civil than-"

Computer… Components.

"-deep space-."

I fry them all. "Krillik!"

"I opened a crate, Prime!"

"Brains, I know! Stick them in a… Ship or something, we'll try and take them with us! I'm going for the interdiction field generators!"

"Understood!"

Okay, so I'm… Here, and that means that the generators are… That way.

Fists out, melting on, fly!

Wall. Wall. Wall. Sparkly… Thing that isn't there any more. Wall. Thicker w-. Space. I look around-. Near the top of the space station, there's the glowing thing I spotted earlier. Easiest thing would be to fly in from the outside!

Something expensive-feeling breaks as I smash the glowing thing with both fists, metal breaking and moaning as I force my way inside. No real gaps in the structure, but: why would there be? It's a big machine.. thing, the only reason for space would be to let the engineers in to fix it when it goes wrong.

And-. Oh, I'm in a room. Reach soldiers in armour shooting at me-. Hurts a little-. Oh, those are positron rays. I actually remember the description! Magnetic containment beams firing tiny bits of anti-matter. But-

Their guns explode, killing the soldiers.

-it's still only a positron, which is about as small as matter gets before it gets weird. It's not releasing that much energy.

No engineers or scientists. I guess they already evacuated. Which means… All that machinery is the interdiction system. Pretty big.

Smash or burn?

Trick question.

Smash and burn! Burn and smash! Smash! Bu-.

Urgh, it went in my mouth.

Smash some more, and… That looks pretty wrecked. This bit of the station is exposed to space… BURN!

Right, good. Now they'll have to replace this whole section before they can turn it back on. Could… Go outside or fly through the station. Ah… Unless they've got a Scarab Warrior, the outside guns are probably bigger, so fly!

Wall, wall, some-. Hah! Confident guys with guns who I flew through without really noticing until I was past them, and… There. That's what it looks like when its in one piece. No soldiers in this one. Maybe that's who I flew through?

And keeping my mouth closed this time: Smash and burn! Burn and smash! Smash! Bu-.

AAGH!

Everything goes… Green, half the room melts away and I'm-

dAAAGH!

-rammed into the molten floor!

I push up and-.

Looks like those cruisers are here.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
Should this hurt?

Smaller ones, I guess. They don't look like the scary things Paul showed me, and small ships are usually faster. And they're okay with shooting-

I should be moving.

-through their own station, so I'll fly… This one's pretty wrecked and the next one is that way, so that way-.

Everything flickers green for a moment, but… They're not shooting at me-.

Krillik. And… If those crates do have brains in them, the brains aren't as tough as us. I actually-.

This feels stupid.

I fly towards the ships, past the broken and melted bits of space station, and… A few floating bodies, but hopefully the ships can see me anyway. I start disrupting matter around me to make it a bit more obvious that they didn't kill me with their first shot. I'm not.. sure that will work, because the metal around me is pretty melty so I'm probably not hotter than it is. I should move a bit as well, make it obvious that I'm not floating junk. I hope-.

Is it-?

Ah, faster!

Green beams smash into the station around me as I fly-. And a lesson I-. Overheard from the school phys. ed. teacher: jink. Change direction, because if they just run in a straight line they can tackle you really easily. So I change direction, and-. Oh yeah, yeah, they were paying attention. Guess they're given up on this station-. Or trying to destroy the brains? Or the station's just big enough that getting shot like this isn't a problem? Or-.

The outside of the station shimmers, and-. It's harder to fly through. Not much harder, but I have to focus, and now the shots from the-.

Pfff!

They're not punching through, and they finally hit me. The ships are getting closer, but… That shot didn't really do anything. I'm not sure how tough the shields are compared to me, but those beams don't… Look as big as they were the first few times they fired. So either they're more focused and it's some sort of optical illusion, or they've turned the power down.

Why?

They're clearly fine with shooting their own people-. But they're rational about it. They don't just shoot their own for fun, or because getting beaten means that they get executed. Did they..? Think I killed everyone where I was?

Did I kill everyone where I was?

Don't know don't care because there's the interdiction system thingy. I-.

AGHFUCKINGFUCK!

And now I'm back inside the station…

Ah…

Not sure if I got turned around or not. I don't feel.. great, but-. Check for injuries…

Just for a moment I see what looks like a small cut on my right arm, but it.. sort of.. vanishes a moment later. That's nice, and-.

Right. They knew I was heading for the end zone, so they could just point all their guns-.

Okay, not sure how many ships there are but that looked like a lot of guns, so…

Why haven't they shot me again-?

Okay, moving, not thinking things like that. I was pretty close, so it's just a couple of-.

The wall next to me vanishes, and there's a green beam before-. There's a hole. They're just shooting me, and they don't care-. Do they even know that Krillik's here? Someone might have reported it. But-. Hang on, he's over there…

Uh…

So it's better for me if they shoot up their station, because it makes my life easier. I mean, I could try attacking those ships, but the bigger ones probably aren't that far behind them. And I don't really-. I guess we could move brains in them-.

No, no, that's stupid. We can't fly them and the Reach people won't fly them for us.

I wonder if the Controller can add mind control to us? Wouldn't have to be really good mind control, just make them think the Reach needs-.

AGH!

FUCKing assholes.

Quick check. My head… Aches a little? But that's about it. Looking across the… chasm where their interdiction system used to be, I think we're done here. Only problem is checking whether Krillik's ready… Because no communication system was going to survive that. And if they just shoot up the hangar, then we've wasted our time in trying to rescue them.

How should I..?

Okay. Are there any Reach people around..? There.

I fly through the wall and grab one in… A slightly fancier than normal spacesuit.

"You look important." He tries struggling for a moment, but doesn't get anywhere. "Important enough that your life has value. And you've seen me close up, which makes you doubly important. Open a communication line to your main cargo hangar and I'll let you live."

"You killed the last people you offered that deal to."

"I asked them an honest question, and they lied to me. But for you, the communication line is either on or its not. You can't lie about it because you don't know what I expect to be there."

"That won't stop you killing me afterwards."

"But even if I do kill you, you'll have delayed me a little. What else are you expected to do?"

"Just evacuate." He points his free arm at a wall terminal. "I need to touch that. I doubt you'd trust my suit array."

I let go. "Fuck up and it's your funeral. And yours ships are getting pretty shooty."

He walks over and presses some buttons. "I noticed. Frustrating… Writ-wrangler."

"What?"

He finishes pressing buttons, then studies the screen-. I shove him aside, looking for Krillik. He's opened some crates-.

"The Writ is our sacred text. A Writ-wrangler is someone who takes part of it out of context to justify doing something idiotic like shoot up a productive space station as part of a weapons test when there are perfectly-"

My right ear… Buzzes, and I look around and he's pointing a gun at me. Fucker shot me!

"-good ways to test-." The barrel starts glowing again, so I disintegrate him and then turn back to the screen.

"Krillik, you done?"

"Yes! I've got brains and a shuttle! But I can't work out how to get out. I can't put together a stealth system that-."

"Can you pretend you're a Reach person evacuating?"

"Maybe. The emergency beacon's automatic, but they'll just pick me up. Escape shuttles aren't fast enough to-."

What? "You can just push the ship from inside, though. If they ignore you for long enough, you'll get away."

"Push-? I should have thought of that."

"Don't worry. Easy mistake. Get going. I'll-." Fuuuuuck. This is going to hurt. "I'll get their attention."

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
23:00 GMT

What..? Is..?

Effigy Krillik is… Pushing a Reach shuttle, not… I mean, its engine is active, he's not just shoving it through space. Effigies don't have any sort of way to spread the load out, so if he tried accelerating to faster than light speed by brute force alone all that would happen is that the shuttle would explode. But he's combining its drive and his space-warping to make it go far faster than it could in any other situation.

"Illustres to… Reach shuttle. We've already got examples of this piece of Reach technology. Is there a reason why-?"

"They were shipping brains out. I've got them on board."

I nod as the shuttle approaches our ship. "What sort of state are they in?"

"I'm not sure. I think they're in suspended animation, but I'm not a physician and I didn't want to poke them too much."

"Probably the right call. Did Prime say what he wanted done with them?"

"He wanted them safe. He's not a physician either."

Our cruiser isn't designed to have shuttles on board, but creating a construct docking bay doesn't take much effort so I do so.

"Illustres to medical bay. Stand by to receive-. Brains."

"Sending ratings to assist with offloading."

I nod as Krillik lands the shuttle, melts its cargo exit and part of its computer and then flies out. I close the construct bay door behind him and then give the interior an atmosphere. That should make it easier for the medical detail.

"Are you heading back out right away?"

Krillik makes a negative gesture. "We can't afford solo missions. And Prime might need my assistance now that the hostages are freed. Can you see him?"

Naturally. "He's heading back now."

"Injuries?"

"I actually can't tell. I don't think he's desperate for medical aid, but that's about all I can say."

"Where is our next target?"

I generate a system map, showing the stations, destroyed and intact.

"This one. Should be a bit safer, but the main fleet is sending cruisers out in all directions. Were you hit?"

"No. Prime was, but he was in good health when-."

Mr van Wyck drops back into sublight a short distance from us.

"Ow-w."

Yes, he's-. I take a purple healing ray out of subspace and fly closer to him before shoot him with it. It looks like his.. 'skin' is smouldering, though I'm not sure if that's part of his power or if he's actually burning. It doesn't seem to be stopping.

"Martin? Can you hear me?"

"Yeah." He nods slowly. "Turns out? We can be injured."

"I'm sure that your Edison Award is in the post."

The smoking dies off as he turns his head to look at me. "Who?"

"Edison. He-." I shake my head. "Not important. Are you in one piece?"

"Yeah?"

"Uninjured, I mean."

He looks 'up' and accelerates to faster than light speed for a second, stops and then turns around and flies back.

"I think so. I'll ask the Controller to check once we get back to Maltus."

"Alright, but, both of you? The guns on those cruisers have about… One twentieth of the output of the battleship weapons."

Mr. van Wyck nods. "And they were pulling their punches when they hit me."

Hm. "Yes, I suppose they'd be interested in capturing you."

He blinks. "Huh?"

"If they capture you alive or dead, they can get a better idea of what you can do. Controller Jevek isn't going to stop producing-"

"Oh. Yeah."

"-more Effigies. Are you alright to keep fighting?"

"I think so, and I'm-." He frowns. "Do you think they've got more brains in storage?"

"I don't know. You didn't actually find that many, so… I'm wondering if they were installing them in their own system rather than storing them for someone else."

"I mean, do we need to tell the others to check the cargo bays in the other interdiction stations?"

"Not much point. They're going to know that you took something from the cargo hangar, and it probably wasn't cabling. Once they know that, they've effectively confirmed why we're here. And then the order will go out to destroy the-."

"Can we-!?" His eyes widen for a moment, then go back to normal. "We can't, we can't rescue them. Fuck."

"Almost certainly not, though I respect your impulse. Look, if you're going to go, you should-."

"Yeah."

He glances at the map, glances at the starfield, then glances at Krillik. Krillik makes a gesture of affirmation, then they're both gone.

Huh.

Can't really judge what that means about his resilience. I could tank a cruiser's firepower pretty much indefinitely, but most Lanterns aren't me and I don't know how hard they were trying to kill him. Of course I don't know how much of him saying 'ow' was psychosomatic and how much was a response to actual pain. Or he may have been more heavily injured than he showed.

I send my purple healing ray back into subspace as I mark off another interdiction field generator and note the slowing of the Reach fleet. Going well so far-.

"Darkstar team to Illustres."

"Responding. You've got about fifteen minutes before we need to start-"

Purple strands blur away from the planet, heading for-. Tracking? The interdiction stations. Empathic vision is rebuffed, but their F.T.L.…

"-panicking."

"We've got Scarabs. Improved ones. And the robots have been activated. We need assistance."

My eyes flick to the interdiction construct that's the only thing preventing the Reach fleet from jumping onto us.

Oh dear.

 

[Mr Zoat]

2013 12 29
Mission Time 00:23:32

Phase shifter active, I throw myself through a wall as the Scarab fires again, some sort of homing particle beam flying around the corner and striking the wall just behind me. I dash through the room, not letting my eyes linger on the body of the person who followed the order to 'put your right hand into the citizen chip implantation device'. They weren't quite loyal enough to keep doing it when everyone who did died a few moments later, but less than half of the people we came here to rescue were left before Darkstar Nueh hacked the broadcaster.

Scarabs are manageable. If you get the drop on them.

Warn-

A spatial compression well appears next to me and I throw myself left towards the living room as a detonates.

-ing!

It knocks me off my feet, but I roll with it and keep running.

One Darkstar dead and another critically injured before we realised that it could track our flight systems. If I had to guess, I'd say that the improved systems require improved brainpower. If not, we're going to need to warn N.E.M.O. that Scarab Warriors are about to get a whole lot more effective. Whatever that spatial compression thing is, it also prevent us from using subterranean ambushes because it somehow worked on phased matter.

Could just be the phasing technique we use. Feedback during debrief.

As I phase through the side of the building the ground shakes as Effigy Cyreg detonates another generator. The shield around the settlement isn't down yet, but it looks a lot less solid that it did. Hopefully, the defence guns are running short on power too.

Another volley of particle beams fly over the building, arcing down towards-

"Weasel."

-me, and then missing as Caccanah shoots him from behind. She'll reposition immediately, probably diving down from an elevated position.

I need to get into a firing position myself while he's distracted. If I take too long, he'll chase her down.

"Nueh to team. Message sent."

This time I don't clamp down on the feeling in my chest I get when I hear that Paul's been notified. If he's shielding the ship he can't afford to leave. There wouldn't be much point in sending L.E.G.I.O.N. marines down and I don't know what the other Effigies are doing. Fighting the whole Reach fleet, probably.

My exo-mantle makes me strong enough to leap up onto the roof of the next building over, and I carefully take in the Scarab's position. Heading 'south' after Caccanah, who is taking cover in the parking garage.

"Wild."

Deploy masers, manual targetting. Acceptable targets are the Scarab's head or spine. Passable targets are anything that gets the Scarab's attention.

Not an actual Wild Weasel of course, but you lose some of the subtleties when you talk to aliens.

Target acquired. Activate flight system.

The Scarab sprays some sort of plasma flamethrower into the parking garage with one hand while firing the particle beam upwards with the other, probably planning on making it drop down onto Caccanah when she comes out. An instant later and they're awkwardly redirecting themselves towards me.

"Flight system targeting is automatic."

His head turns and I fire, maser beam hitting him in the left eye just before his flamethrower turns into a shield.

"Weasel."

I deactivate my flight system and fall over the far side of the building, absorbing the impact with my armour's leg systems before springing 'east'.

"Target still active."

Of course he is.

And my evacuated firing position just got hit by particle beams. I'm trying not to think about how those are looping around at all.

"He's boosting. Cyreg's hit."

I wince, coming to a complete stop and redirecting power to my stealth system. I want to ask how injured Cyreg is, but any transmissions-.

The Scarab is now high in the sky above us, one arm transformed into a sensor array. I wonder if the person inside there is actually loyal to the Reach or trying to fight the parasite off? More likely they're just confused.

"Evacuation complete."

"You got everyone?"

"Everyone who's coming."

"Position secure?"

"Robots are focusing on Effigy Malag. Entire Reach planetary occupation force inbound. So, no, not-."

The air around me starts to shimmer. I redirect power from stealth to electromagnetic shielding and press myself into a corner.

CLRKCLRKCLRKCLRK!

Lightning leaps from the Scarab, blasting from plasma cloud to plasma cloud as he gives up on targeting us individually and settles for electrocuting the entire district. I flinch as a section of wall near to me gets hit and then explodes as its interior is vaporised.

This attack is highly lethal to unprotected conductive material, like people. If you're prepared and not very unlucky, you'll probably be okay if not for the fact-

The discharges weaken and I switch back to muscle enhancement and start running. Minor discharges hit my armour, but they're well within tolerance thresholds.

-that it's really easy for the Scarab to detect you right afterwards.

"Caccanah? Life check."

Take the corner fast by running up and along the wall, try and get one of the few still standing tall buildings between me and the Scarab because there's no way I'm going to have time to line up a shot.

"Wild."

A brilliant burst of plasma explodes in the air above us!

"Weasel?"

I slow and glance up to see the Scarab get himself back under control. But his armour looks like it took a beating.

"Good shot." And while he's distracted, I bring up my maser and aim for the weakened section of armour. "Got another?"

"Wasn't me. I think that was the Illustres."

Shooting a small target near the ground from space? … He's probably got a way to do that.

"Fire."

Four maser shots, three hitting the damaged section of armour and-.

He turns, both arms morphing into particle beams and I'm running again.

There's only so much of this town left, and less I can hide behind. We can't get the local people away from a Scarab, and ground troops are moving in.

I don't know what's going on up there, but they better hurry it up.

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
Next objective

LeaveFTLReachshipsalreadyherepickangleandpunch!

Huh. The ship actually moved a little when I hit its shield. That's new. And then the shield breaks and I'm slamming into the hull as the ships weapons start shooting at me. I think some of them hit me, but I covered the distance really quick and they don't have a lot of time to aim before they don't have an angle on me. Then-.

Huh.

Okay, hull held out a fraction of a second longer, but a couple of punches and I'm inside.

And that was a pretty good trick Krillik pulled, so I'm stealing it. Reach ships usually have their main support beams-

Are they called 'beams' in a ship?

-about here, yeah that feels right. Deep breath, disruption aura off, grab it and push. I can feel the station through the hull -feels smaller than the one we just wrecked- and… Either this ship's hull shields me, or they won't shoot their friends, or… It's got to be harder to work out what's going on, right? Delay them? Anyway, I accelerate it-

A Reach guy flies past me, sort of… Flattening? And gets pasted against the far wall.

-towards the station, and… Yeah, they're shooting it and I think its shield is still working. Makes sense; unless they get totally wrecked Reach ships can usually put them back up. I don't think the ship is using its engines… Not that I've tried this before. Station's getting closer… Closer-.

CRASH!

Dis-.

Agh. Agh? The ship just sort of broke around me. Guess I didn't make it hit hard enough to hurt me. Lost my grip but apart from that… Nothing-.

Shaking from the back of the ship. The other ships are going to try shooting through it, but this fleet is smaller than the other one. I start disrupting again and fly through the battered and twisted hull and into the station.

"Krillik!"

Nothing yet, but I was slightly ahead of him.

And I'm learning! Reach person in spare armour just in front of me. Grab the gun, chuck it aside, grab the helmet without melting it yet.

"I'm destroying your interdiction field generator. I can do that with everyone dead or most of you alive. Where is it?"

"You are not Written."

I flare the disruption aura around my head. "Lotta other people I can ask."

He points to his left, towards the bottom of the station. "That way."

I shove him aside and then drop him. "Thank you. A lot of your people wouldn't have died if they'd given answers like that."

"It-."

I ignore anything else he says, smashing and burning through the station-

"Prime!"

-until I get to… Looks like a Star Trek engine room. Bunch of Reach people, but they're backing away rather than grabbing their weapons.

I point to the exit. "Run." And then I walk to the buzzing, glowing thing.

It takes them a few second, but once they start going they really commit to the running thing.

"Yeah, Krillik?"

I was probably a bit too enthusiastic about the last place. Just wrecking the machine so they can't make it work in ten minutes should be enough. Disrupt… That… To slag, and we're good.

"Krillik?"

Could be nothing, could be too far away, could be busy-.

I flare my disruption aura to maximum and fly right out the way I came, bursting through wall after wall-. And there's space, and the ships are moving away-.

The flaming shooting star that is Krillik goes flying across the battle space… He's not in control, but a moment later he recovers and flies at one of the ships. He grabs it, and I start smiling and give him a little cheer.

And then a wide blue beam hits the ship and sends him flying again. Who was-?

Is that a Scarab? Purple armour, some sort of multi-barrel over the shoulder weapon tentacle gun thing-.

I fly, blue beams shooting past me-. Behind that ship? Doesn't look like he's morphed that big gun thing at the moment, and it should be able to take-.

He's stopped firing.

Okay, I killed Scarabs back before I got super strength. Hurt, and I had help, but there's two of us and…

Where'd he g-?

AK!

He-. Ax-. Shallow cut but that fucker-. Where's he gone?

Keep looking around-. "Krillik? You dead?"

"No, Prime." From… Below me, he starts flying towards me. "Hurt, but-."

I fly down, full speed with my disruption aura on, space blurring-. BAH!

And back in normal space, grab the Scarab's axe hand, disruption-.

Her armour is sort of shimmering along with it, but it's not-

OW! Fucking face!

-actually melting punch the fu-.

She's gone. Can't.. feel her. I know Scarabs can use stealth, so it's not that-.

I look around. I hate interstellar space. It doesn't feel like you're actually moving when you move, because the starfield stays the same. I came from-. Fuck, I got turned around.

Ah…

Okay, that's… The brain farm planet, over there. Which means I came from that system. The interdiction system's destroyed, but I need to check on Krillik. This shouldn't take-.

Augh-!

Something-. Something just hit-.

Move move move. I don't have vital organs. It doesn't even h-.

AAAAAAGHOOOKAy there it is. Took a moment. That's new.

Fly.

Space jumps again and-. A system with fucking lights, because the other fucking problem with interstellar space is that you can't see where anyone is unless they fly across a star and you're looking in the right direction!

"Krillik?"

"Prime."

I look around. He's sort of.. limping in space, but a few more ships are wrecked then when I left so I guess he's mostly okay.

"Scarab Warrior got a boost. Think we should head-?"

DURGH!

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
OWFUCK!

"Prime!"

Tha's a spear…

AAAAGHnd now it's gone, and th's a hole.

Aaaa-aaaa-aaagh!

Krillik's.. grabbing my shoulders and… Pulling me towards a wreck. For cover?

I reach for the hole in my front with my right hand, and the hole in my back with my… With the back of my left. Ah… I can still feel my legs, so I guess… I don't need my spine any more? Or maybe it missed? Or I don't have a spine?

"-ime!"

"Huh?" Huh? "What?"

"You are badly injured. We should return to the Illustres."

"N… N-o."

"Why?"

"Can't lead… Save the brains. Whole point." Ugh-uh… "Reach ships. What bits-? You know what bits explode. Yeah?"

"Yes? You want to use them as grenades?"

"Guns hurt, but spear… Did this." Not bleeding. Sort of… Flaking, but not bleeding. "Can't disrupt her armour. Doesn't work."

"That leaves us with physical force. And 'ship grenades'."

"An-." I push myself away.. weakly, but I'm still super strong, so… "An' melty… Stuff."

"You said-?"

"Grab a thing, melt it and push it together. Like-." I grab a chunk of… Station panelling, crush it into a-. Heh, a spear shape, and… Press. "Like this."

"I didn't know we could make our own plasma." He flies to a wreck and rips a chunk off. Then he looks around. "Why hasn't… 'She' attacked again?"

"Thinking..? Haven't seen us before. Doesn't know what we can do."

"That won't last." His lump of metal shimmers and then bursts. "Shade! How do you do it?"

How do I do it..?

"Like… Swirl around." I wave my right hand in a circle so he can understand what I mean. "Keep things moving. Push in a circle so it can't get away."

"I… Think I understand." He grabs some more ship, squeezes it into shape and… Ayyyy, he got it! "I hadn't realised that degree of control w-"

"Behind y-" I fly, my spear extended and compressed as the Scarab darts-

"-as-?"

-in through the wreck!

"-ou!"

Krillik turns around as the Scarab comes at him with some sort of… Spear-gun? He tries to parry it with his spear, but loses control as they come together so his explodes, knocking them apart-.

There.

I shove my spear forwards, hitting the Scarab in the side. Doesn't pierce-. But! Disrupt the plasma like that and-

Fssssss!

-it's a high pressure plasma hose! The Scarab goes shooting away, clasping her side where the armour's gone darker. Punch it! And ag-. Ow, ah, fucking fuck! She morphed her arm into a shield and blocked-.

"Krillik, metal!"

Except he can't hear because he's too far away again. The Scarab makes an ax with her spare hand and swings at me, but I can just fly around that. I punch and she blocks, but this time I grab the shield and pull myself around-.

Grab the ax handle and pull!

Crun-KRAK!

Part of her arm? Hit her with it! YAH! Neck! Side! Side! Gun!

Gun?

Ooof!

I go flying away from her-. Not positrons, doesn't.. really hurt, but I'm struggling to stop. Krillik-. Krillik's got a new spear, so-.

"Krillik, catch!"

I toss him the ax, and-. Judged it right, so he catches it and lunges at the Scarab, who… Um, not sure what she's doing. Shifting something.

"Aim for her left side!"

Okay, they're getting further away, which is bad, because I don't think Krillik heard me. Disruption aura and try flying really hard because it's my job! No, no, n-. Dah! There! Head back fast as I can!

Krillik's… Getting shot, but he seems to be coping with that as he-. Damn it, near miss on hitting her head with his plasma spear! She's gone with two thin blade-arm things and he's… Sort of smacking them aside with her own ax. She's knocked back each time-.

Krillik's keeping on her, but they're coming up to a wreck. Uh. Right. Disruption aura off-. Check my injuries. Hole's still there but it's not flaking any more, so… Good? Then fly around where they're fighting and around the ship so they can't see me. Can't listen in on people in space, not how we Effigies talk.

"Krillik, I'm behind her." I push my hand through the hull, forming a new spear. "Try grappling if you can."

"Not-. Easy, Prime."

"If you can't then you can't." Turn it to contained plasma… Good. Move to the edge of the wreck so that I'm just out of view… Good. "But I'm ready to jump her if you can."

"When I shout, come immediately."

"Got i-."

"NOWNOWNOW!"

I dart around-. Krillik's bear hugging her, and her blades are-. In his shoulders and.. stuck? She's trying to get free, but I'm already behind her with spear tip poking the base of her spine.

Release.

She shudders as the plasma hose bores right through the scarab machine, through her body -shame, but we probably can't save her- and into-.

"Agh!"

"Sorry!"

Into Krillik, but it should have lost almost all of its power. He releases her, grabs her blade arms and shoves them out of his shoulders as.. the scarab armour starts to fall off. Yeah, we can't-. Vacuum exposure will kill her even if the injuries might now. And yeah, it's one of the people we came her to save.

"You alright?"

Krillik checks his chest and shoulders. "I can fight. A bit." The ax falls apart, and he tosses the arm aside. "Back to the Illustres."

Yes, we should-.

Wait.

"No. There wasn't anything special about this place."

"Yes?"

"So why did a Scarab Warrior come here? We need to check-."

His eyes widen. "The others!"

"Yeah. Ah." I look around, trying to feel. "That way first."

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
12:09 GMT -6

"THAT IS NOT GOOD MEDICAL PRACTICE."

In Magic: the Gathering… Or Tragic the Garnering here, I suppose. You lose the game when your life total reaches 0. But there's no disadvantage to being at 1 life compared to being at 100, aside from it being easier to drop you to 0.

With access to stimpacks and psychic chirurgy, there are no injuries we can't eventually fix. Even the effects of brain injuries can be moderated by the use of cybernetic implants which can be provided by both the Brotherhood of Steel and the Followers of the Apocalypse. So while a normal soldier has to worry about being invalided out if they're seriously injured, wealthier or better connected people really only have to worry about dying.

In the medium term.

I tug on the rope again. "I know, ARGOS. But I need to be there. I need to oversee things. My mission, my responsibility."

In the short term, I know that there's a big difference between climbing down a lift shaft on metaphorical 20 life when compared to metaphorical… Let's say 4. Everything hurts. The movements. The stimpack solution pushing bits of my body back into the right places without dealing with the debris. The bangs against the edges of the shaft because ARGOS can't fit far enough into the topside opening to lower me down directly.

"I DON'T THINK THAT'S HOW IT WORKS."

But the rope starts extending again anyway. ARGOS is an interesting case, because once we removed Calculator and Doki Doki's overrides… He isn't actually obliged to obey anyone. He was designed to coordinate with ODYSSEUS, but his original programming wasn't complicated enough to be able to generate other desires. He didn't need obedience programming because he'd never want to disobey.

Then Victor Presper damaged his communications array to prevent ODYSSEUS giving him tasks, and an escaped prisoner connected him to the robots of Robot City. All of them. I'm not sure exactly what happened, but somehow exposure to thousands of fractured personality programs changed him and now he makes his own decisions.

"I didn't say it was sensible or-." Adjuhjuhjuh! "-intelligent, just that it's necessary."

"DO YOU LACK OBJECT PERMINANCE?"

I roll my eyes. "I don't know. Stop talking and see if you stop existing."

Past the floor where Calculator tried taking my head, and down towards the lowest level.

"I THINK DOKI DOKI SHOULD BE PUT ON A TIME OUT."

He's also not very impressed about his 'daughter' having used the communication channel he gave her for emergencies to hack his brain.

"That's ARGOS! Hey! Emergency override-!"

"THAT WILL NOT WORK. I HAVE UPDATED MY COMMUNICATION PROTOCOLS. YOU ARE IN TROUBLE."

"Eep!"

And here's the bottom, where the lift Lanius destroyed crashed down to. A little telepathy-.

**Yoo-hoo?**

**Chief?** Ah, good, Carlton's in one piece.

**Coming down now, please don't shoot me. I've had quite enough of that today.**

I drop the rest of the way onto the uneven metal, and then undo the loop of cable from my harness before cautiously clambering over the metal to the door. I rap my knuckles against the left hand door twice, and the use mechempathy to cycle the mechanism.

Clunkclunkclunk.

A couple of guns are raised in my direction, but get lowered again the moment they see me.

"Casualties?"

Carlton nods. "Mark took a plasma bolt to the head, and one of the Paladins didn't tell us they had a pacemaker."

I wince. Unfortunate, but something like that happening in an operation like this was probably inevitable. I didn't know Mark well, and he's hardly the first person to die under my command. The Paladin thing was stupid-.

"It wasn't Justinia, was it?"

"No. I.. didn't get his name-."

I hold up my right hand and shake my head. It's not strictly speaking our problem, but it does indicate a need to check out communication more thoroughly in future.

"Have you found McKinley's brain?"

"Yeah, that's-." He starts walking towards one of the adjacent rooms. "You should speak to her yourself, Chief. She's… Odd."

I follow him, one of my soldiers filing in behind me while the rest continue to guard the lift area. Looking around I can see bullet fragments and bits of robots littering the floor, though it looks like the wrecks have been removed. Carlton leads me around the edge of a… C-27 assembly line, and up a spiral staircase into… Some sort of office, or… Board room? This vault was originally intended for human habitation, I just haven't really… Seen many human touches since I got here.

And there's the last brain.

"McKinley?"

"Finally. Completed your hostile take-over?"

"Pretty much. Calculator?"

"If I'm honest, I'm not feeling too great! One more brain and I'm just running on Doki!"

A cluster of… Brotherhood scribes, are working on the system connecting her to Vault 0 with one of my mechempathy specialists.

"So, McKinley: your options are-."

"I'm staying right here."

"You..? Are?"

"My people came from the Secret Vault in West Texas, before the Brotherhood kicked us out. Just about every one of them are dead or part of the Legion. WARDEN won't tolerate gun-toting capitalism, and I got… I'm out of contract. What's your bid?"

"A replacement body, and lawful employment. You could be a legitimate private security operative."

"Nah. Right now, I've got a unique value set. If everyone else gets out and you liquidate Calculator, I'm the best brain to run this problem child of a Vault and turn it into a cash cow. And I like Vaults. Grew up in one, like I said."

"That… Could be made to happen. I have to consult the other stakeholders first-."

"Stakeholder capitalism is a load of baloney! You answer to your shareholders, not whatever asshole thinks you oughtta!"

"Primary shareholders, then. I can probably sell it to WARDEN as community service, and you would effectively be imprisoned. What would you want out of this?"

"Better accommodation, no heavy lifting, and kill-cameras on every robot so I can watch them downsize whoever we're hostile take-overing this week."

I nod as the scribes finish fiddling and the speakers crackle.

"I think we can work something out."

"Daisy..! Daisy..! It's all.. going.. darkkkkk…"

 

[Mr Zoat]

29th April 2013
23:08 GMT

Those… Ships… Are getting closer.

Most of the Reach's local interdiction field generators have been destroyed, and that's slowed them down. But not all, and-.

I look up as the Effigies deployed to-. No, all of the Effigies leave F.T.L. and appear close by. A lot of them are carrying-. I think those are injuries, but the flames make it a little hard to-.

That one's not moving.

"Mister van Wyck? What happened?"

He glances back at one of the-. Does that hole come out of his back? One of the dead Effigies, before turning to me.

"Brain-Scarabs. Some of… The people who's brains they're harvesting. They stuck Scarabs on them and sent them after us."

"I take it they're a little more effective than usual?"

He nods. "A bit. I… I don't know if these guys are actually dead or what, but-" He points to our ship, and the Effigies carrying them head that way to drop their burdens off. "-they had a few more weapon options, moved better… Haven't fought enough Scarabs to know how much the difference was. How're things down there?"

"They're ready to go. One Scarab and an army of robots." I look at the remaining Effigies. "If we're taking the ship down, you'll need to kill that last Scarab and the larger robots."

He nods, looking down. "Big guns?"

"Your people already wrecked them. We're pretty close to the end, and…" I generate a construct of the oncoming Reach fleet. "They're getting pretty close too."

"Yeah. Alright. Ah. Krillik, Lodd, and… M'ch'cs? You alright to fight?" Three affirmatives. "With me. Everyone else, get ready to attack the Reach fleet. Shouldn't need to, but… Shit happens."

He turns in space so that he's facing down, and then accelerates, the other three a short distance behind him.

I sigh. Not much of the town left, and the Darkstars haven't been able to do much to slow down the.. Scarab.

Odd.

"Effigy Lumsk, did you kill all of the Scarabs you encountered?"

"No, Illustres. One of the interdiction stations had been heavily reinforced, and one of the other Scarabs chose to run once we reinforced Effigy Tun."

So they have a sense of self-preservation. But one stayed behind. A delaying action? No, that wouldn't make sense. From what I've seen, the Scarab down there isn't targeting the refugees. It's targeting the Darkstars and taking occasional shots at the Effigies.

What is it..?

There's a flicker, and I see-.

"Illustres to Darkstars planetside. The Scarab Warrior is confirmed unwilling host, and actively fighting against the scarab device."

"Then I'll make sure I go to their funeral."

Which is an eminently sensible statement from Jade, as forcibly disconnecting a scarab is actually rather difficult. "That-. The Effigies are back and heading down. Once the area is clear, I'll bring the ship down and we can evacuate."

"You could have led with that."

"Sorry. Please pass the other item along to the Effigies. They might be able to work something out."

"I guess we know it's possible to preserve their brains."

"If it comes to that." I generate a strategic railgun construct and fabricate anti-ship size crumbler rounds, aiming at the oncoming battleships. "Let me know if you need immediate extraction."

"No, it's-. The Effigies just arrived." … "How do I get their attention?"

"We're working on that."

I hear her take a completely calm breath. "I'll work something out."

"Thank you."

I start firing. The battleships are accelerating as hard as they can against my interdiction field. The cruisers are closer, but they're easily agile enough to avoid any shots and lack good ground strike weapons. If I can force the battleships to change course slightly, then it will take them significantly longer to get into strike range.

The worst thing that could happen is the surviving Scarabs warping here in close proximity to my interdiction field generator construct, but since they couldn't time that precisely with the ships I'd probably have time to get it back up while the Effigies fought them off. Then it would be… The Reach ships having weapons that don't have to worry about attenuation, and shooting-.

Which they've just started doing.

I raise a construct barrier.

"Illustres to ship, begin heading down. The Reach are trying to get a natural twenty."

"Understood, Illustres. Underway."

Effigy Shuun drifts closer. "Do you want us to push it?"

"Best not risk their inertia controls. And I don't think it's necessary. At this range, with the relatively small number of kinetic weapons they have, the chance of them hitting anything is negligible. Just keep standing by in case Scarabs or something jump us."

"Understood."

Our ship begins turning, and I.. feel it as the magicians on board begin preparing the spells to preserve it in the Honden. And my gun construct keeps firing.

There's a flash from below as the Effigies hit the robots with overwhelming force, Effigy Malag looking a little relieved. Looks like mass low power fire can cause problems for Effigies, or at least cause them pain. Jade… Manages to get into shouting range of Mr. van Wyck, and he turns away from the scrappage scheme to listen. Something to feed back on: he should have stopped in with the ranking Darkstar first. Though given the Effigy communication problems…

He's grabbing Krillik and pointing into the town. Jade nods and heads… Underground, while van Wyck himself grabs a mangled piece of wreckage and flies towards the remaining Scarab. He's… Ah, turning it into a high pressure plasma field. I hadn't realised that he could do that, but I suppose it's a logical application of his abilities. The Scarab is focusing on him, and I see a couple of other Darkstars use the opportunity to leave the town and head for the muster point. Okay, good, but-.

He closes the distance in the blink of a eye, takes a hit from a body morphed hydraulic ram to the shoulder without flinching, then brings his plasma spear-.

And high pressure plasma hoses right through the Scarab's neck.

Well, mission accomplished, I suppose. Nothing down there is close enough to-.

Jade phases through the rubble and flies upwards, catching the head in… Something that looks like the brain storage boxes. For preservation, presumably. Good thinking; they'd have to have something like that down there. And with its user absent, the scarab can't keep fighting. Though I'm pleased to see Mr. van Wyck frying it to make sure.

Mission success. Now comes the difficult task of helping the refugees recover.

 

[Mr Zoat]

22nd December 2282
15:38 GMT -6

"Chief, you gotta stop getting shot up like this."

I nod absent-mindedly from the first aid tent as Charles uses his psychic powers to knit my flesh back together properly. Stimpacks are a quick fix, but if you don't get the bullet fragments and bone shards taken out, you end up not getting any better. There's actually a serious problem in places where stimpacks are more commonly available than actual doctors; people assume that they fix everything on their own, or that the stimpack they used had something wrong with it and the solution is more stimpacks.

I try to smile reassuringly, ignoring the sensation of my legs being pulled open and bits of me ended up in a metal dish. "What doesn't kill me makes me stronger."

"Not unless there's some new mutation you haven't shared with the rest of us it doesn't. What doesn't kill you makes you crippled."

There's a tinktink sound as he tosses a… Worryingly large bullet out of me and into the dish. I guess it hit my tibia directly? My bones are pretty darn tough these days.

"Which wasn't great, but I knew that if I survived I could get it fixed. It completely changes the risk analysis."

"Chief, you were supposed to be a distraction while the main team destroyed Calculator. You could have done that by staying in the room with Doki Doki. Instead, you nearly died because you decided to deal with the situation yourself."

I shrug as he starts closing my injuries up. "Lanius was heading my way whatever I did. The corridor might have worked as a choke point, but his shield would probably have let him charge me down. I might have been able to force the Sentinels or turrets to shoot him in the back, but it would have been a near thing."

He steps away to wash his hands. "You didn't need to go on this mission at all."

Charles Tan is a member of the Followers of the Apocalypse. He originally came to us as part of a misjudged N.C.R. attempt to bring advanced medicine to us primitive tribals, and jumped at the chance to learn psychic chirurgy. He's been a valuable part of the community but I… Can't help but think that some aspects of tribal society pass by his notice.

"A young chief has to lead from the front." I swing my now fully functional legs around and get off the camp bed before pulling my trousers on. "Part of my job is inspiring people with my daring."

"That might have been true when you took over, but you're blind if you haven't noticed that your people worship the ground that you walk on."

"Ah." I frown. "Literally or metaphorically?"

"Metaphorically." He thinks for a moment. "Um, mostly. Some of the… Ah, N.C.R. people…"

"Yeah. Alright. Once the Legion is destroyed, there… Aren't that many places where I need to be on the front lines."

"What about the Eighties?"

"I'm hoping that we can persuade them peacefully."

"But you're still planning on going to Wendover yourself."

"It's got to be me." I shrug. "It's got to be me or Balm-Upon-Wounds, and he isn't allied to the N.C.R.. They won't respect anyone else. But then… That's it. Civilisation wins and I can focus on less dangerous work."

Okay, clothes, check, armour and inertia field, check. Plasma pistol in working order, check, restock of medical supplies, check. Brain… Feels like its in good condition.

"For everyone's sake, I hope you're right." He sighs. "Come back if you feel unwell."

"I will, thank you."

I pat him on the shoulder and then walk out into the midday Colorado sun, to where a squad of Maxson Chapter Paladins and a group of C-22s in painted in WARDEN's colours are securing the exterior. The rest of them are scouring the Vault for anything my people and I missed. We think that we got all of the robots and terminals, but the Midwest Chapter believed that and look what happened.

Still got to repair the lift so we can get Doki Doki's terminal out. I might be able to levitate her up… Best not to. The only question…

I walk towards on of the C-22s. "WARDEN?"

The closest robot turns towards me. "Ah, the man of the hour! I hear you caught that red terrorist leader!"

He was wearing red armour, I suppose.

"His disembodied brain, with a little help from ARGOS. Do you want him?"

"That traitor set half of New Mexico on fire. You better believe I'm going to try him and execute him."

"Given the crimes which he committed in other states, would you mind if California and Nevada sent a couple of observers over?"

"Freedom of the patriotic press is a cornerstone of the American nation. But don't take too long in getting them here."

I nod. "I'll pass that on. Now, what do you plan to do about Calculator?"

"The auto-de-encephalator is not an F.D.A. licensed medical device. As such, I will have it destroyed. Becoming a disembodied brain does not cause a citizen to stop being a citizen. Their participation in Calculator's criminal actions as his processors was involuntary, and as such they cannot be considered criminally liable. The study of Vault Zero was contracted to the Brotherhood of Steel corporation, and so far as I can tell they have not been in breach of contract. However, given the obvious safety concerns I believe that I will require Vault Zero to be dismantled and then what's left will be destroyed."

I nod again. "That sounds entirely reasonable. And… Doki Doki?"

"I'm having my deputies use her broadcast equipment to upload her program to all of the robots Calculator subverted. That should deal with that. As for Doki Doki herself, she is not a person under the law. Unless that changes or if she becomes an active threat to the people of Colorado, I have no basis for acting against her."

"Okay, I'm going to be blunt: are you aware that she's romantically interested in you?"

"That makes no sense. I am a policing management A.I.. Her function is to enable romantic relationships between humans, a vital activity due to the collapse the population after the communist Chinese nuclear attack. Neither of our functions are enhanced by that sort of… I don't even know how I'd do that."

"No one presently alive is licensed to modify your programming, correct?"

"Once democratic government is re-established, appropriately qualified people can become authorised."

"But they'd have to learn you from first principles. No records of your creation exist, and you're sufficiently different from existing AIs that they couldn't directly apply what they know about them to you."

"That's true. The tendering process will be difficult."

"You're capable of learning, WARDEN. It wouldn't be that strange if -as time passes- you learned new ways to interact with people. There's no one who can say for certain how you'll develop. And… Well, sometimes relationships can be more… Practical than romantic. Does Doki Doki assist you in administering Colorado?"

"She is considerably better at interpersonal relationships than I am. I was designed to enforce the law, not govern a state. Her program allows her to perform a wide variety of tasks so long as they create novel romantic scenarios. I… Admire that about her."

"And I assume that you can split your attention between her and your responsibilities."

"Yes, easily. So, your suggestion is that I give it a go and become half of an AI power couple, and perhaps learn human emotions along the way, because that aids the State of Colorado and allows me to better fulfil my primary function."

"I intend to push for the reborn United States to recognise A.I.s of your class as citizens. If that happens, both you and Doki Doki will be able to both vote and marry. I suggest that you look into ways that you could branch out. One of the principles of Robert Peel -the man who founded the first modern police force- is that order can't simply be imposed through violence; police should be a part of the community they serve."

"And I should be able to learn those skills with her aid. I will think about it."

"Good man. And speaking of getting married, I need to get back to Nevada."