[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]

22th 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]

22th 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]

22th 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]

22th 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.