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Your name is David "Gunny" Rockefeller, no relation.
A veteran of the united states marine corps, you find yourself in a far-out situation after an all-too-close encounter of the third kind!

In the last thread, You went head to head with way more AI-Controlled drone ships than was reasonable.
Thankfully, your loadout was also completely unreasonable and you managed to handle it in the end, despite some serious wear and tear to your ship.

Now you're about to start searching for Gron's missing man, however unlikely his survival may be. Because you never leave a brother behind.

>Last Thread: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive/2022/5263368/
>All Threads: https://suptg.thisisnotatrueending.com/qstarchive.html?searchall=humanity+-+fuck+yeah%21
>Google Doc: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rNxD6ccWY5M48dLWuTWdr5LiYLuS_YIAMKlTLw42eeo/edit#gid=0
>Discord Link: https://discord.gg/DMwvMw43yv
>>
>>5311614

"Damn. There's so much i'd change if i could redesign this baby from the ground up..."

"Quit grumbling and hold that flashlight where i can see this!" Kyla yells at you.

She's currently shoved halfway between two walls, digging at a wire that melted it's jacket and fused to the wall, causing a short.
Apparently the ship has redundant wiring for everything, which can be switched to in cases like this. It's the only reason your ship is still running right now.

After scraping the plastic away from the wall, she yanks the cable out entirely and replaces it with a new one, using a grabby stick to plug the new one in, as she can't actually fit all the way inside the wallspace.

"It's a good thing you're tiny. I'd never be able to reach around there." You admit.

"Not tiny enough. My ass is too big to squeeze in all the way..."

"Well, don't be too upset. It's the right tool for the wrong job." You joke.

Kyla grins and squeezes your ass twice as she walks past you.
At the opposite end of the hall, Gron's engineer "Kigg" has an access panel off and is digging through it. There's a small computer inside that's constantly throwing error codes.

"Geeze, what'd you do to this thing? All these settings are totally messed up..." He complains.

"Hey, don't touch that! Those errors don't mean anything, it's working exactly as i intended." Kyla yells to him.

"So not as the creators intended, but as you intended huh..."

"That's exactly right! This ship is a massive pain in the ass to work with. All the software and firmware is totally locked down, so sometimes i had to rely on glitches to get things working."

"And what does this looping error keep working?" He asks her.

"It keeps the main computer from reading tens of thousands of faults and shutting down to protect the ship. If that happened i'd have to disconnect EVERYTHING and boot it back up, so DON'T TOUCH!"

"Alright, alright! Geeze!"

"I thought SHODAN was the main computer here?" You whisper to her.

"She is. Kind of. Those friggin' greys, they're geniuses but they're assholes at the same time. Every action she makes has to be vetted by machines so dumb you can't even call them a VI.
They're so locked down that you can't change their coding at all, and trust me SHODAN and i both tried. Flashing the chips with even slightly different firmware just bricks everything."

"Christ, sounds like DRM back on earth. You can't even get a bottle of ink or a display cable without some copyright protection built into it."

"Sounds like your people are ahead of the game on making life difficult for engineers!" Kyla giggles.

"And pirates. And linux users, god bless their neckbeards."

"Earth has pirates?"

"Yarr, that we do matey! A long and colorful history, in fact!"

"I don't really-"

"Captain." SHODAN interrupts. "We're approaching the nebula. We may enter at any time, by your order."

"Alright. You sure we got those cracks welded up, Kyla?"

"Yep! We should be good to go!"
>>
>>5313080

"Alright, let's start the search and rescue."

>There are a couple more reactor signatures out there, ones that you never actually checked on. They haven't moved since the fight, but you don't know what they are.
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5313081
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
>>
>>5313081
Odd point I’d like to make can we maybe save those shakled ai they are sapient beings forced into a horrifying situation that is if they are still alive
>Second we should not just go in via our badly beaten power armor third I suggest we understand what the hell is those unknown objects
>>
>>5313100

Your power armor isn't particularly beaten, just covered in rust.
>>
>>5313081
>There are a couple more reactor signatures out there, ones that you never actually checked on. They haven't moved since the fight, but you don't know what they are.
with any luck the ships shut down and we could even attempt to capture them intact
>>
>>5313081
>>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
We don't have time to fuck around here. Let's grab our loot and check for the poor bastard ASAP.
>>
>>5313081
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
>>
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>>5313080
lmao iPhones and Macbooks in ship form
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>>5313475
A fellow rossmann viewer?
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>>5313081
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
>>
>>5313475
>the apple iScout is a top of the line stealth/research vessel
>just make sure it doesn't break or you'll have to buy a new one :)
>>
>>5313493
>buy shatter proof glass covering
>the hull around the windshield cracks the moment you try to land on a slightly uneven surface
>>
>>5313517
>put a new hull over it for crash protection
>now it overheats and looks like shit
>stealth doesn't work now either
>>
>>5313490
Rossman is based, but anybody with half a brain can tell Apple products are shit for a variety of reasons.
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>>5313603
the problem isn't that they're shit(they really aren't) the problem is that they are hard to repair because apple hates users doing that
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>>5313637
They're fine products, but they come with a ton of issues. The two biggest in my opinion being;
>They're insanely overpriced for something that isn't that much better than everything else on the market
>Apple does everything they can to impede an owner's efforts in servicing their own products
Why would you pay twice as much for a product you don't even really own? I don't get it.
>>
>>5313641
>Why would you pay twice as much for a product you don't even really own?
Because of the logo.
>>
>>5313641
from what i've seen and from the few apple products i've had to use, -other than the implied status- the people that buys them are looking for something that works right out of the box and is kid/old people proof. apple does both of them REALLY well and they have a history of constantly updating their old products for way longer than the usual 2 years the other companies do.
>>
>>5313641
Well my old macbook from 2011 is still chugging along strong, and I slapped windows onto it a year or two after I got it anyway. That's way better than any of my other laptops/computers have done.

I hear that 2010-2012 was pretty much peak engineering for macbooks specifically though.
>>
>>5313976
>and I slapped windows onto it a year or two after I got it anyway
Don't worry, they're trying to finagle their hardware and software together so that you can't do that in the future. Fuckin corpos
>>
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>>5313490
love that guy. Plus all the iToddler btfo memes in /g/
>>
>>5314254
which fucking sucks because their newer silicon is disgustingly good
>>
>>5313080

"Alright. There are a few more reactor signatures left out there that i'm a little worried about, but they haven't moved since before the battle. We'll just ignore them for now."

"Alright..." Kyla hesitates. "Look, we got your canopy fixed up. Kind of. The glass is too big to make all in one piece in the weapons fab, but the gaskets should be airtight at least."

"What's the matter? You seem worried."

"...Of course i am. That's twice you almost cooked yourself out there! I just... i wish you wouldn't put yourself in so much danger."

You tussle her hair, making a mess of it. She tries to pat it back out, but it's just messed up now.

"I get it..." You tell her. "I really do. But this is what i need to do, for a lot of reasons. I can't promise i won't ever get hurt, or even that i won't die. The reality is, it could happen at any time..."

She looks up at you with those big, sad eyes of hers. Just waiting for what you'll say next.

"...But i don't plan on letting that happen. If i can help it, we're all gonna make it through this, and whatever comes next. And if we do bite it? Well, i can honestly say i lived a life without regret, because i always did my best. No matter what."

Those big, sad eyes of hers shift quickly into a look of disappointment.

"What the hell is that?" She demands. "Who said you get to bite it?! You're not allowed to die until i get done milking you dry, got it?!"

Unexpectedly, Kyla punches you right in the thigh, which hurts like hell. She's stronger than she looks!

"Ow, fuck! What was that for?!"

"You're such an idiot, David! "I can't promise i won't get hurt"?! That's not good enough! You'd BETTER promise me, and if you break it i'll make sure you never hear the end of it!"

"Oh, wow... i'm not used to you being so forceful."

Kyla crosses her arms in a huff.

"Hmph. Forget it, go play with your pet box if you want to get away with shit like that."

"Alright, i get it... i promise. I won't let myself get hurt from now on."

"Good. But that still doesn't mean-"

Without warning, you shove your whole arm between her legs and lift her up onto your bicep. She yelps in confusion as she's lifted up all of a sudden.

"You're cute when you're worried, you know that?"

Kyla blushes as you flex your muscles, causing her to bump up and down.

"It's all your fault, you know..." She grumbles

"What is?"

"I stopped getting credit transfers from my shop... which means something must have happened. Sadia must know i'm on your crew, so i'm sure the whole place is dismantled by now..."

"Ah, damn. Sorry... but don't worry. Once we take Xebric, i'll make sure you get whatever you need to start back up."

"...You'd better not leave us behind after all this."

...

Now that you're back in the area, it's clear how much of a mess you made. All the local debris has been disturbed, and there's bits of metal flying everywhere.
And right in front of you is one of the disabled swarm leaders. Looks like it's lights are back on.
>>
>>5314329
I thought strange fungi waifu was pregnant somehow, But instead she's just upset her jew dollars have stopped coming in.
>>
>>5314387
jew dollars? it was her own investment and now its probably legally owned by xadia
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>>5314404
return on investments=jew dollars
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>>5314404
She invested her own time, effort and knowledge into that store.
It was full of things that she'd made, found and fixed, and run in her absence by robots that she'd created.

In other words, what she had was first-generational wealth. Not that you could call her wealthy, but what she had she had earned.
>>
>>5314471
exactly. im surprised she isn't more bummed out; i know i would.
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>>5314453
>return on investment of other people's money=jew dollars
Let's be real, banks don't spend their own money.
>>
>>5313475
>>5313490
bruh, samsung is pulling the same shit now. I think he posted a short or it was someone else. It featured two phones and the protagonist swapped the camera of the two and it went bad
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>>5314329
>"...You'd better not leave us behind after all this."
>>
>>5314659
little does she know that david has a deathwish
>>
>>5314453
>>5314404
Reminds me, we have yet to tell saing and rock man of the Jewish menace
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>>5315051
Is David that anti-Semitic? I know he's not afraid of cracking Jew jokes, but is he really the type of person to try and redpill a bunch of aliens?
>>
>>5315087
>>5315051
its better to not give everybody more reasons to eject david through the airlock
>>
>>5315098
Fuck the Jews though
>>
>>5315087
yes.
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>>5315372
Rather not. I'm scared they'd peck me to death with their gigantic schnozz after the deed is done.
>>
>>5315372
oh for sure
>>
>>5314329

SHODAN, can we get a hail?

"...There was a response, but nothing helpful. It's simply muttering to itself."

"Okay... well, what now?"

"I'm attempting to connect to the ship's systems remotely, but i don't expect..."

"SHODAN?"

"It seems i was mistaken. I have full control of the ship, captain."

"What, that easy?"

"All of it's defenses were intentionally lowered. It's... prostrating itself."

"Hell, suits me just fine. Make sure you've got control of those lasers. Don't even let it think about it, alright?"

"You got it, Captain."

After quickly donning your power armor, you do a systems check and find everything in working order.
Unlike the Metal Gear, your equipment doesn't quit so easily. It's still just a prototype though, so some small changes are definitely in order.

After double-checking your helmet seal, you open up the airlock and once again expose yourself to the glowing heat of the surrounding nebula. But this time, you plan on sticking around.
Using your EVA harness, you quickly burn towards the enemy ship and land with a thud against it's hull, not even bothering to waste propellant slowing down.

However, your boots don't stick to the surface, and you slowly start drifting away after making contact.

"Damn it... that's another bug to work out in the next design. I need cleats."

Since you can't stick to the hull, you carefully follow it's curve until you make it to the closest nearby airlock.
With SHODAN already in control of the ship, it simply opens for you without having to tear it out of it's frame. That's a nice change of pace.

"Captain, it seems that this ship contains a full life support package, although it's not currently in use. Would you like to flood the interior with atmosphere?"

"Yeah, go for it. Can't hurt."

"It will take approximately half an hour to complete the flooding process."

"...Not exactly helpful in the moment, but alright."

Now then, where to start looking?
The airlock completes it's cycle and you step into a large, open room.

There's a workspace counter with some computers in the corner and a few benches, set up almost like a waiting room... and is that a vending machine? Ugh, it's full of onions bars.
Alright, well this isn't exactly what you were expecting. These ships are larger than the metal gear, but you didn't expect them to waste space on something like a waiting room.

Not to mention, everything is all white and chrome. It's a very sterile look, almost like a hospital but worse.
There's a double-door in front of you, and one smaller door behind the administrative counter.

>Head through the double doors
>See what's through the employee door
>Write-In?
>>
>>5315529
>Head through the double doors
>Write-In?
Ask SHODAN to check for internal cameras and review the ships flight logs, black box, maybe inventory? Anything that might be important be it good or bad.
>>
>>5315529
>Head through the double doors
>"SHODAN, can you do quick sweep of any interior cameras and tell me if there's anything I should be aware of?"
>>
>>5315529
>Head through the double doors
>>
>>5315529

>Head through the double doors
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>>5315540
+1
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>>5315540
Support
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>>5315051
>>5315087
>>5315098
>>5315372
Israel is USA's ally
>>
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>>5315529
>That whole ship interior description.
>See pic related

>Write in?
>GET THE FUKKA OUT HERE
>>
>>5315895
They may say that, but I know at least 205 Sailors who would say otherwise.
>>
>>5315895
What has Israel ever done for the US? And no, bribing congressmen to endorse pro-Israel legislature with the money the US sends to Israel doesn't count.
>>
>>5315909
It makes it so less jews immigrate to the US
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>>5315913
According to who? What data exists to back that up?
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>>5315917
Well if a jew immigrates to Israel since they get guaranteed citizenship, they dont live in the US.
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>>5315923
That's not data, and it doesn't require they renounce their US citizenship.
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>>5315923
>he thinks the jews in america are chomping at the bit to go to isreal which has been a powderkeg since the first crusade
Shit dude I wouldn't go there even if I was getting paid. I don't care how hot some of those IDF bitches are.
>>
>>5315529

"You're already going through the logs, right?"

"Where possible. Much of the ship's data is stored in the AI's personal memory, which i can't access."

"Alright. Can you take a look at the internal cameras? Is there anything i need to worry about past those double doors, or elsewhere?"

"One moment... Confirmed, there is something."

"What is it?"

"...A humanoid. Six limbs. It appears to be mechanical in nature."

"A robot? Is it armed?"

"Six arms, yes."

"Not what i meant, SHODAN."

"It has something that looks like a rifle. I couldn't tell you it's specifications. It's other limbs are free."

"There's just the one of them, though? No buddies elsewhere on the ship?"

"Looks that way, Captain."

"Alright, let's go."

Grabbing the massively oversized mace off your back, you hold it in front of you with one hand, barely feeling the weight.
You walk up to the double doors, and swing... but shockingly, they don't immediately bust open. There's a massive dent in both the doors and their frame, along with gouges cut out where the mace's blades impacted, but one swing wasn't enough.

"Damn, this thing's really reinforced. What's it made out of?"

A second swing nearly rips the doors off their hinges, but they still just barely hang on.

"It seems to have noticed your presence, Captain. Exercise caution."

"Yeah, yeah... i got this!"

You kick the doors hard with your foot, ripping them and their frame out of the wall. But instead of being launched across the room they just fall heavily to the floor. Damned things must weigh a ton.
Immediately, you see what looks like a goddamned terminator correct it's aim and fire at you, the rifle in it's hands launching a white-hot ball of plasma your way.

It impacts against your armor with surprising force, blowing the layer of rust off your armor's surface and delivering a small shock to the suit.

"Is that all?" You taunt.

"Lay down your weapon and submit." It barks at you, it's voice sounding almost intentionally rough and synthesized.

"No, i don't think i will."

Without warning, it opens fire again. Turns out that rifle is fully automatic! Dozens of light balls streak out towards you, each one bursting against your heavy titanium armor and blasting the scale off where it struck.
Come to think of it, an ablative anti-laser coating might be a good idea on the next iteration of your suit. It seems pretty effective!

Since you're being fired on, you charge at the robot, straight through it's fire. Winding up your mace, you take a massive, running swing at it.
The robot's rifle is instantly crushed, and explodes against it's chest as your mace crashes into it. Between the two, the robot is launched through the air, flipping and twisting wildly before impacting something on the far wall. Some kind of big, glass tube full of liquid...

It slowly pushes itself up out of the tube, dripping with viscous fluids. And yet, it doesn't seem too damaged.
>>
>>5316258

>You doubt this thing can hurt you without any weapons. Sheathe the mace for a minute and see what it can do.
>Maybe SHODAN can take control of it? Could come in handy, if you can hold it off without damaging it.
>It doesn't matter what this thing is, it's just an annoyance and it's in your way. Get rid of it.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5316259
>You doubt this thing can hurt you without any weapons.
Talk to the ai and ask it if it wants to leave intact With its memories instead of being left to be eventually fried by ion storm
More ai on our side unshackled would be extremely nice it just depends on if their game
>>
>>5316264
Let’s show this being some human mercy
Lord knows it needs it
>>
>>5316259
>Write-In?
>Sheathe your mace, and take a moment to disarm the robot. I mean that literally- go grapple that bitch and start pulling off arms. Ask SHODAN whats the liquid it crashed into, and if we should be worried.

>>5316264
>>5316270
What's this gay shit? If this was an A.I. you'd think it'd speak with some more color. Me thinks this robot is a step below shackled A.I. A V.I. perhaps?
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>>5316259
>Maybe SHODAN can take control of it? Could come in handy, if you can hold it off without damaging it.
Giving SHODAN a mini-body to move around with might be useful in combat, she could sit in the gunner seat or something. Or just stab boarders.

If it the drone doesn't want to play nice, just RIP AND TEAR its head off and we can fix it later.
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>>5316258
>It doesn't matter what this thing is, it's just an annoyance and it's in your way. Get rid of it.

A federation anti-boarding murderrape robot? Sounds cool but I don't want to deal with the software
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>>5316608
We should definitely bring its frame back to the ship at least.
Its worth studying to ascertain any faults in the Federation's designs we can take advantage of, plus we might be able to reverse engineer some it and use those design principles for our own purposes.
>>
>>5316623
Whatever is using as power source has me skitish. What if it can decide when to freaking explode? If I designed the thing, I would love to make it explode
>>
Alright, it's looking like a mix, so we'll just go with that.
>>
>>5316258

The robot jumps out of the destroyed tube and charges at you with all six arms raised.
Putting your mace away for now, you raise your arms in response and take it's tackle head-on.

Surprisingly, the robot is able to slide you back several feet before you come to a stop, leaving deep gouges in the floor beneath you.

"SHODAN, do you think you can get control of this thing?"

The robot tries to gut-punch you with two of it's left arms, but makes no progress against your heavy armor.
In response, you lift it up and over your head, then pile-drive it through the metal floor plating. It's body stiffens up and hangs there for a moment after you let go.

"It's no good, captain. This machine isn't connected to any networks, so it must be hosting an onboard VI."

"Great, i'll just have to disable it, then..."

You get a running start and then punt the machine across the room like a football, causing it to slam into the wall with quite a bit of force.
Charging after it, you're surprised when it manages to react and actually dodges your tackle!

This time you slam into the wall at full force, tearing a hole straight through it and back into the waiting room.
By the time you turn around to head back in, the machine is already there again, right next to you. This time it delivers a punch to your head, with all three arms.

There's a loud clang and a shower of bright sparks on contact, but the actual impact isn't all that much, at least on the inside of the suit.
Then again, considering all the padding and dampening built in, it's not unreasonable to say this thing has one hell of a punch.

Nevertheless, you grab it's entire skull and slam it straight through the wall, creating a second... technically third hole.
It grabs your arm with all six of it's hands, trying to force you off, but you respond by kneeing it in the chest and forcing the hole open even wider. And then a kick from your other leg finally forces it through the hole entirely.

The robot lays flat on it's back, clearly battered and having difficulty moving at this point.
You walk over, planning on ending it with a plain old superman punch to it's skull, but the damned thing rolls to avoid it at the last second and causes you to punch a hole in the floor instead, trapping your arm slightly.

So instead, you grab it's head again with your free arm and use the leverage from your trapped arm to slam it's head into the ground over and over and over again with much more force than usual, until eventually your arm breaks free of the floor.

"Hah... damn, this thing's tough." You spit.

It finally seems to have stopped moving. It lays there silently, sparks flying from it's head and neck area.
It's limbs and torso are badly bent and twisted, and it probably couldn't move well anymore even if it wanted to.

Also, you seem to have ripped it's jaw off by accident.

Meanwhile your armor is covered in dents and scratches, but otherwise seems fine.
God you love this thing.
>>
>>5318186
https://youtu.be/iFvZwA_G2io
I imagined this bad boy but less humanoid and with more arms
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>>5318186
you guys remember about how we were talking about people to hire? I think we should hire ethicists, especially with what humans are going to do/what I'm thinking we could with ayy tech.

one such tech is nerve interface tech. I think we've seen previously that they have very good nerve interface tech, so much so that they have prosthetics that you can control as well as a flesh and blood arm or whatever. Another case in point is the translator implants and the backdoors in them that allow for advanced interrogation, like what Gron was worried about. This tech has unique implications for space combat.

One person maneuverable fighter ships are useful but limited. The places that they shine are in obscured and hazardous environments, like the graveyard we just fought in, and in atmosphere. In both of these scenarios, they can use their maneuverability in ways that other ships cannot. When they are not in this scenario, they are missiles with less payload, able to be lasered out of the sky. the scope of this proposal is going to be isolated to the type of combat that we just fought, I think.

>pic related
The B-58 Hustler was a supersonic jet bomber. One of the more interesting bits about it was that the crew were provided with supersonic capable clamshell escape pods, capable of ejecting at 70k feet at speeds of up to mach 2. They were also provided with control surfaces inside the pod, able to both pilot the aircraft and be completely ready to eject. In our context, something like this system would be very, very useful. Pilots, in our situation, with near limitless levels of production of aircraft, are our most valuable resource and therefore deserve to be protected with everything we have. We can mine the belt and fab endless amounts of materials to make ships with, but we can't drive them very well without pilots. We don't know how to make more AIs and I'm scared of trying. We definitely shouldn't put SHODAN level AIs in every single fighter jet. VIs are dumb and predictable. We need humans in the cockpit. However, space has certain challenges relating to space survival. Anyone who ejects with a conventional pod such as the space version of something like what the B-58 has is automatically captured by whoever wins the engagement, or destroyed. We need an escape system that has systems capable of keeping the pilot alive for a very, very long period of time. Years. Thankfully we have this problem mostly solved for us, with stasis tech. So any escape pod we make must have a stasis system as standard. This is only half of the problem though, the pod must also have engine capacity to either escape completely back to friendly lines, or get far enough away from the battlefield that they evade enemy capture and have a beacon or something that they can be located by friendly recovery ships. 1/?
>>
>>5318412
I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of escape pods.

Besides, escape pods are only worth a certain amount of engineering effort to be functional. The rest of the effort is better used being put into the ship designs so that escape pods don't need to be used in the first place.
>>
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>>5318412
you know whats better than a escape pod like that? to use drone fighters that can be optionally interfaced with from the main ship. Also, like the other anon said, you're thinking this from a perspective where you have to use the pod, that's a defeatist nature in and of itself, which will reflect on the design of whatever thing we get to make.

come on, this isn't WW1. range is king and with the tech david has at his hands, there shouldn't be any excuse for putting the pilots inside a fighter or to fight in such close quarters, but sadly, david is partially retarded(and it would kill a very cool part of the quest)
>>
>>5318412
With federation brain tech it's a winner takes all system. We either have to dedicate enough resources in the ship to crew survival and escape, or we have to make sure the crew does not survive. This is a problem. I would think that putting another, smaller warp capable ship into an already crammed snub fighter is very, very inconvenient.

What if we could have our cake and eat it? What if we could have a small, maneuverable, and dangerous fighter, while also having dedicated enough space for the crew to be able to eject knowing that they're going to be very quickly taken back to friendly lines, and shortly provided with a new snubfighter to pilot?

As someone once said, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Compared to the size of the rest of the human body, the brain is tiny. Wikipedia says that humans have a 1:40 brain to body mass ratio. I see that proportion as a lot of wasted space. Why the hell are we already cramming in life support, oxygen, temperature control, gravity dampening, and control surfaces for that remaining part when it's only the brain that matters.

The idea is such. Take a fighter pilot, and genetically alter their reaction times to be superhuman. Remove their brain from their body. Place brain into brain receptacle, which provides a neural interface, life support, and stasis capabilities. Add a gravity dampener that just dampens the brain capsule. Due to the less mass, it is significantly easier to provide the pilot with gravity dampening. Add a micro warp drive to the brain receptacle. Give the pilot direct neural control over the ship, such that the ship is an extension of the pilot's body. Throw in some sophisticated VI assistants, or maybe even a shackled AI.

But what about outside the ship, anon? You're consigning these fighter pilots to become war machines like those mechs from warhammer! We're already talking about doing synth research and hell we already have Clank. Just make a body for the pilots to socialize in when they aren't driving the jet. 2/2
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>>5318436
E-WAR would have a fucking field day if all of your assets were remotely operated though. You know what they say about eggs and baskets.
>>
>>5318412
>You know what we need?
>Human Resources
fuck off
>>
>>5318446
>Proposes a solution that's not really actionable in any reasonable timeframe
Okay.

Also didn't you just steal the idea for that form of piloting from EVE Online lore?
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>>5318453
true, but they can't jam what they can't detect or reach. but lets say that for whatever reason we need to send crewed fighters to a hot zone; they still don't need to be the frontliners and due to how space works, we can just send a sufficiently fast rock to destroy whatever is the enemy at hand or send drones that have baked in orders and strategies into their hard drives, or have them return to a carrier to update their orders.

>>5318446
that's fucking retarded.
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>>5318454
hey, humans are a resource, and we probably gotta have a department to manage it eventually
>>5318469
>actionable time frame
we've got like three objectives in front of us before we even go back to earth, nothing's in a reasonable timeframe
>eve
eve capsules take it a step further by taking your brain and analyzing it on the molecular level if there's a pod breach, then calling home and cloning you. The entire human body is also located in the pod. While similar yeah, I actually didn't rip it from eve.
>>5318470
why is it retarded tho
>>
>>5318475
>Why is it retarded though
Well you're basically saying we need to develop not one but TWO exceptionally advanced technologies just to be able to get your plan off the ground.

The first being synth/clone technology, which is also has a whole bundle of ethical considerations to it that I don't think David or our crew would ever be okay with in-character.

The second being extremely advanced surgical and cybernetic modification and neural uplinks that are a degree of magnitude superior to anything we've dealt with so far.

Now in your defense we could skip the clones/synths if we had the cybernetics and just used it on people. On the other hand, there's no way a statistically significant number of people (that are worth a shit) are going to sign up for that sort of thing. People don't just abandon their bodies like you shuck the husk off of corn.
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>>5318475
>why is it retarded tho
because a remote controlled drone can do all the things that you want without trying to convert a an expendable fighter into a cruiser, converting a pilot into a shitty AI or adding so much unneeded shit to a nimble fighter that it will lose its tactical advantage. plus more importantly, without wasting time and resources that we don't have and actually need to repair the metal gear.

again, this isn't WW1. only back then the idea of a dogfight and a maneuverable fighter plane were entertained and since WW2 the pilots preferred to alpha strike their enemies before they had a chance to fight back and the pass of time has only reinforced that idea more and more. i mean, just look at the f-35 and what its supposed to do; it can take information from other allied planes that are nowhere near itself, lock on an enemy based on that information and destroy said enemy without the f-35 ever getting inside their detection range. what you want to do is to strip a pilot of their humanity, cram their brain into a metal box and then have them fight in very short ranges....just because. and no, the fight we just had against the federation doesn't count. it was completely optional and it was a bad idea from the start
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>>5315895
No it isn't, it's America's number 1 parasite ruining the planet and deserves glassing after it's commie muscle is removed.
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>>5318470
That's all well and good but eventually even a monkey will learn the patterns. What happens when your preprogrammed drones come across a dynamic situation? Say the enemy surrenders and all your drones have kill orders? Well obviously we put in a receiver that can read distress or stand-down signals from enemy ships and react accordingly. Then what's to stop the enemy from learning that and just shitting those signals out to turn the drones into non-coms?

It's all just a huge cascade that you can write out by just having a person behind the controls. Not to say using drones is a bad idea, it's a fantastic idea. Less loss of life on our end is always a plus. It's just not really that simple.

There is a non-zero chance that we will have to fight Wraith-Zilla in the future in vacuum and all sensitive electronics are gonna get zapped to shit making drones useless and advanced AIs shit themselves so we're gonna need pilots coked out of their heads to fight it. I'm not crazy.
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>>5318576
>Then what's to stop the enemy from learning that and just shitting those signals out to turn the drones into non-coms?
then the drones relay that to us and their orders get updated accordingly, or we bypass all of that and get someone to remote control them. I mean, the drones would only work in automatic/"dumb" mode in case there is something jamming a direct control, otherwise a pilot would fly them; but ideally their programming should also account for situations like that.

Not that it would be a problem, because the moment you false flag a surrender/distress signal is the moment the enemy will stop caring about them, so you can only do that once.

>spoiler
now that's the only reason i could see someone inside a cockpit, but it would be kind of irrelevant because the fighter would be fried as well, leaving a fleshy human trapped inside. better to fight it from far, far ahead
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>>5318484
I want to see robot body Stephen Hawking now. Lel.

Maybe we aught to start a celebrity recruitment list going?
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>>5318591
>then the drones relay that to us and their orders get updated accordingly, or we bypass all of that and get someone to remote control them
Again that circles back to E-WAR. Any transmission opens them up to it. And it will eventually fail. Wars will never be fought entirely digitally. Regardless of what media and futuretech salesmen say. At the end of the day someone is going to hit someone over the head with a stick.

>so you can only do that once.
But that one time might be the only one they need. Can you imagine how disastrous that would be in a huge open battle? But it's still only one event. There could be hundreds of little bits like that which may be possible to exploit in dumb drones. Code is notoriously finicky after all.

>but it would be kind of irrelevant because the fighter would be fried as well
>he doesn't keep fire control and thrust management analog
Pshaw sir. The throttle is king and the trigger its queen. Really though if the big boy shows up and zaps all the ships it probably won't matter how far away we are since I'd wager we'd be in mega-hell pocket dimension or something. Or it would be an asshole and decide to slip into and out of warp to teleport around because it's a cheating demon bastard. Let's just hope a ten kilometer tall space ghost doesn't decide it's party time and come a knocking.

All I'm saying is it's always good to have a fallback. And having your fallback be equipped only for support roles probably isn't it.

>>5318649
>save chair-boy
>plug him into terminator body
>leave his synthesized voice exactly the same
Too bad he's already dead in this timeline. Right? I forget when he kicked it.
>>
>>5318669
>Again that circles back to E-WAR. Any transmission opens them up to it. [...] At the end of the day someone is going to hit someone over the head with a stick.

true, but here is the thing: im not saying that we don't need pilots, what im saying is that 99% of the time we won't need to get a pilot inside a *fighter cockpit* and if we need one, -for that 1%- there are bigger ships that fill in that role better than a fighter, like the metal gear. Because if worse comes to worst, they have way more chances of survival/escape inside a metal gear than inside a fighter seat.


>I forget when he kicked it.
2018, so we'd have 1-1.5 years to save his brain
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>>5318691
>they have way more chances of survival/escape inside a metal gear than inside a fighter seat.
That is entirely fair.

>2018, so we'd have 1-1.5 years to save his brain
Mission updated. Rescue the brain boy.
>>
Oh, I just realized that everyone that's been wanting to make a new ship since ours got crisped has literally been wanting to make a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.
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>>5318412
>Escape pods

To wear armor is to imply you will be hit

To have an escape pod is to admit you will be defeated
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>>5318712
Okay, you come at me in no armor and with no plan for escape, and I'll have armor and a backup plan, and we'll see who comforts your widow.
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>>5318712
>To wear armor is to imply you will be hit
I ain't worried about the one with our name on it, I'm worried about the ones addressed to "Whom it may concern".
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>>5318712
The protection onion my man. The deeper layers are just as important at the other ones. Albeit for different reasons. Last thing you need is for your ship to be made out of sheet metal and a micrometeorite rips it in half because you were pulling a high-g maneuver to dodge incoming fire. Preparation hurts no one.
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>>5318712
Plan for victory, prepare for defeat. If something goes wrong, it'll be bad for both morale and efficiency to have no way off the ship.
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>>5318186

You tap your mace against the machine's chest, ready to smash it again if it gets back up.

"Hey, lugnuts. Can you hear me?"

The machine struggles to turn it's head, and settles for staring at you with it's glowing blue eyes instead.

"Error, critical system malfunctions detected. Entry not authorized. Lay down your weapons and surrender."

Well, it's definitely not an AI. Even a shackled AI isn't this braindead.
No, this is a VI. Or, what you'd call an AI back on earth. That is to say, retarded. Brain-damaged, even. Simple silicon without a hint of actual intelligence or actual, meaningful self-learning ability.

Sighing out, you "sheathe" your mace against your back again and leave the "terminator" to lie there while you get a better look around the room.
The back wall is lined from floor to ceiling with those pods, though it's hard to see them in any detail due to the dim lighting.

So you flip on your suit's night-vision camera, displayed on the inside of your helmet through an integrated holographic display.
The suit's infrared flashlash kicks on and lights up the area you're looking at, which is good enough, you suppose. A future version could do with a floodlight to light up the whole area, though.

Still, it's enough to see what you're looking at, no problem.
And what you're looking at is... some kind of cold storage, it seems.

The pods are way oversized compared to what you've got in the Metal Gear, and they're filled with fluid instead of filling you with fluid, but one thing definitely remains the same.
About half of them have someone floating inside, naked and unconscious. They each have a mask covering their face, presumably so they don't drown.

"What is this, a fuckin' bacta tank?" You wonder to yourself.

"These appear to be low-cost transport pods." SHODAN informs you. "While effective, they are somewhat large and heavy. However, they function with minimal power and few resources."

"And there's a lot of them here..."

You scan across the wall. Three rows, each one fifteen pods long. Maybe twenty people in total? Just on this ship. You don't know if the others are like this yet.

"...See anyone we recognize?" You ask.

"Several middling criminals. None under a 100k bounty, though. I don't have any data on most of them."

They're using it for prison transport? Makes sense, you guess. Almost anyone would give up if they got ambushed by a fleet like this.

"What about Gron's man?"

"He doesn't appear in the prisoner manifest. I'm still working on getting more information."

"...Not here, huh? Alright, that's all i needed, i guess... Although?"

>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>You already know exactly what you're looking for now, no need to look elsewhere.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
Make sure we drag spidey back too.
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>>5318881
>None under a 100k bounty, though
Loadsa dosh

>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship
>>
>>5318881
>You already know exactly what you're looking for now, no need to look elsewhere.
>Permanently disable that hostile robot and pitch it directly towards the Metal Gear before you depart for the next ship.
>>
>>5318881
>You already know exactly what you're looking for now, no need to look elsewhere.
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>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>Take the discount terminator
>Come back for the prisoners after scouting out other ships
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>>5318912
+1
>>
>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>Write-In?
Plan something between you, Gron, and the crew. Perhaps any one of these criminals are worth recruiting.

>>5318891
The good criminals who fight the system Robin hood style like that ace fighter pilot we fought would make good additions to our mercenary company, while the genuine depraved piles of immoral waste can be sent to super space jail.
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>>5318912
Seconding this. This whole debacle might have been worth it after all, if every one of these ships is full of bounty pods.
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>>5318993
Bounties for us to either turn in or recruit?
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>>5318994
Both; if need be we can even pay off the bounties of any worth recruiting with the money from turning in the ones who are bastards.
>>
While recruiting is tempting, that's a whole vetting process that we'd either have to simplify or spend a lot of time invested in basically a whole new thread, let's keep in investigating or just turn in whoever is worth the money
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>>5318994
Gotta remember that we're gonna be recruiting humans who will be downright better at everything except for specialists and knowledge bases. We dont need a general crew, we need specialists to inform and instruct our future 2p8jxcrew.
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>>5318881
>None under a 100k bounty, though
Jesus fucking Christ. I hope we can actually turn them and they haven't already been marked as captured or something.
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>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>>
>>5319000
I like this idea. Figure out if there is one worth giving a chance due to skills and attitude.
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>>5319000
>>5319144
No, terrible idea. Without considering room issues, right now we're lucky enough that the feds don't really know who attacked them, only that gron's ship and a grey ship did it. But if we unfreeze one of the prisoners and then pay the bounty, that will directly link us to them and to this particular attack.
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>>5319350
Just make up some bullshit about finding them floating in space/wreckage
Or sell them to someone else to then turn the bounty in less money, harder to trace.
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>>5319350
It's a non-issue. We just turn these guys in at a rando station with incompetent police force then fuck off before they realize what happened.

And regarding room constraights, theres nothing stopping us from leaving them in the tanks until we have the space, or we can convert some of these ships into habitable ones for them to inhabit. More soldiers for our war against Xebric.
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>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
So what is this exactly, the standard federation combat bot? If so that may cause some problems in the future.
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>>5319350
Good catch, anon. You're right, we need not link ourselves too this attack any more than we must.
>>
>the system says this people were captured
>the system says the transport that held this people was attacked
>surrender please, you are under arrest

Yeah why don't we do nothing instead? Maybe even send this ship into fed controlled space. Goodwill.
Because the other option I have is letting them adrift
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>>5319481
i agree, although the best option is to just....let them be here. maybe just haul them outside the nebula? but otherwise the federation will come here to see what happened to their fleet
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>>5319484
If we're cutting them loose remember to scrub all data that can implicate us.
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>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.

>>5319481
Wraths did this, We just found the remains officer.
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>>5319481
If we do send these people back to the feds, we should hold off on that until after Xebric is ours. It might mollify them a bit.
>>5319641
Sadia already knows we're working with Gron, they'll know we're full of shit even if we drop one of our wraith corpses on the desk.
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>>5318881

"Actually, i think i'm gonna go ahead and scout out the rest of the ship, just in case."

"We have nothing but time, Captain."

True enough. Who knows what you might end up finding, and just knowing the layout of the other ships could be helpful.
Might as well take some time and go through the place.

The armor plate on your left forearm pops up and reveals a hidden tool suite, from which you pull out a little sonicator pen.
Using that, you carefully sever the electrical connections running from the terminator's head to it's body, ensuring that it goes dark for good... probably.

Then you grab the machine by an arm and toss it into the waiting room near the door, so you don't forget it on your way out.
You don't know what this thing is made of, but it seems tougher than normal metal to you. Not only that, the overall design seems pretty robust. It might make a good base for you to build off of.

You've been planning it in secret for a while now. You've got two crewmembers who could make good use of an advanced robot body, and it could genuinely add some manpower to your team.
But that'll have to come later. You've got a lot to deal with right now.

You walk behind the administrative desk and find a few holographic displays there, all turned off currently. Not much of interest.
You're just about to smash the door open when it slides open by itself.

"You don't have to destroy every door you come across, David." SHODAN chides.

"I know! I know..."

The door opens to reveal a hallway that seems to run the length of the ship, with a few branching halls and quite a few doors.
The hall lights come on all at once, temporarily blinding you until you disable your suit's night vision.

"You could'a warned me first..."

"Sorry."

Opening up the first door you come to, you find a control room of sorts. Nobody's inside, but it's clearly meant to be manned by people.
You see what look like targeting controls, power regulation controls, even controls for the tanks in the other room.

"So it's all right here, huh? Not even a blast door inbetween it and the rest of the ship?"

"The machine you fought was likely intended to be more than enough security for the entire ship, Captain."

"Yeah, if you just let it loose in a civilian area, something like that would probably be pretty much unstoppable. Even against pirates, it would take a lot to damage it badly."

"How fortunate that you created something even more ridiculous."

"What, you think i couldn't take it on without my armor? I've got a 23mm tungsten penetrator that says otherwise."

"That is also quite the ridiculous weapon, Captain. It's also not fit for combat on a pressurized ship."

"Hey, you can always plug the hole with something. It's not even a whole atmosphere of negative pressure, i could literally hold my hand over it."

The second room appears to be... full of robots. Not terminators, thankfully. But some kind of bipedal maintenance drones.
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>>5320474
>The second room appears to be... full of robots. Not terminators, thankfully. But some kind of bipedal maintenance drones.
Why make them bipedal?

Well anyway, low-intensity robot army confirmed.
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>>5320496
>Why make them bipedal?
Because the ship is designed primarily for bipeds, so they can serve as crew in any situation necessary.
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>>5320474
>The second room appears to be... full of robots. Not terminators, thankfully. But some kind of bipedal maintenance drones.
Maybe we can use them to repair our ship.
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>>5320496
>>5320497
or it could just be for third party appeal and cost efficiency purposes
maybe with just a basic biped form is enough to clean and maintain this ship from solar flares and stresses in the ship is just enough for it can we use them?
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>>5320518
Yes
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>>5320572
Can we use them the same way the Mechanicus uses toasters?
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>>5320578
:^)
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>>5320580
Unf
>>
But if we use those robots then Gildur!!!! Damn robots, taking up our jobs *waves fist*

So a centralized control room and a maintenance closet. Nothing about the engine, the power source or a computer core yet. Yeah sure, there are also crew quarters but I do not expect them to be on every space ship there is.

On another note, the federation is that stingy and overextended? I was expecting them to use fully autonomous ships made exclusively for AIs yet here we have one that was made for people and "whatever, good enough. Send eight of these as an ambush and sprinkle some drones as well" I have a feeling we would've been mega fucked against good GOOD combat ships.
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>>5320613
>But if we use those robots then Gildur!!!!
That just means Gildur won't have any excuses not to train with David anymore.
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>>5320613
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised there's anything accommodating for biological creatures here too.

I guess it makes sense given that these ships use shackled AI, and that the Federation doesn't face any real martial or technological threats that would require them to up their ante.
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>>5320613
>On another note, the federation is that stingy and overextended?
sort of. remember that we're on the edge of federation space; the galactic wild west if you will. that's the only reason other than narrative bending itself backwards for the rule of cool that we can do some bullshit like trying to take over xadia.

>I have a feeling we would've been mega fucked against good GOOD combat ships.
and even right now with the ships they got here we got pretty fucked as well. if for whatever reason the other ships on standby decide that its a good idea to attack, we'd be in a lot of trouble; although to be fair, we assaulted 1-2 dozens of ships and we had the upper hand in the ambush, so this isn't a good way to measure the federation's power.
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>>5320616
well he is jacked already. We should let him loose in his home planet or a cluster of their people for him to become the dop tog, ala primarch and 40k.
Then we go and pick him up 10 years later
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>I am here to FUCK
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>>5320672
>DARPA meeting circa 2022
>"Alright gentlemen, let me ask you a question..."
>"What if you could wear...a drone?"
>"FUND IT!"
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>>5320667
>Gildur is the apex tomboy of his species
Nice
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>>5320800
Do
Do you know what Tomboy means?
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>>5320800
anon no-
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>>5320800
Isn't Gildur male?
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>>5320867
Yes
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>>5320867
Don't worry about it. Anon is just such a chad that everything seems female to him. He's not schizophrenic. The doctor in his skull told him so.
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>>5320867
Gildur isn't from a sexually dimorphic species. He's whatever you want in your headcanon.
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>>5320667
>well he is jacked already
He's put on some muscle mass and gained some muscular definition since he's been onboard, yes.
But he's still a timid and lacking in the expertise needed to survive on our crew.
When the chips are down, I can see him doing nothing but panicking and fainting.
We need to fix that, for his sake and ours.
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>>5320923
Females are larger and more dominant in his species.
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>>5320923
I give you the invitation to watch "what is a woman".
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>>5321134
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NywG9LOs04s
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>>5320613
>>But if we use those robots then Gildur!!!!
Finally he's got a staff to supervise. Tell the kid it's a promotion to petty officer, call him chief of aeronautical sanitation or whatever.
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>>5321002
But that IS sexual dimorphism.
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>>5321002
I don't remember saying that. I said that the way they mate is similar to Hyenas.
You know. By docking.

His species is non-dimorphic, meaning that he can both impregnate others and carry children.
You refer to him as "He" because he looks and sounds like a man, and it's simpler that way.
>>
>>5320474

Each of them stand motionless and upright in a little charging pod, seemingly unaware of your presence.
You wave your hand in front of one's face, and it doesn't respond.

There's a big red button on the pod that draws your eye. Whoops, you "accidentally" pressed it. Can't be helped.
The drone springs to life immediately, and you can hear it's somewhat muffled but extremely robotic voice as it goes through a series of checks.

"Manual override engaged. Performing critical systems checks... 30%... 60%... 90%... 85%..."

"Oh, good lord." You mutter.

"Error. System checks complete, no issues found. Beginning maintenance procedures."

With stiff, robotic movements, the drone exits it's charging pod and walks over to an outcropping on the wall. A door in the wall slides open, and a mop and bucket pop out.
It slowly scans the room, then gets to work cleaning. You can't say it does the best job in the world, but it's definitely serviceable.

If you replaced Gildur with one or two of these, you'd have one less mouth to feed and one less cut of the share being taken...
Then again, you guess you kind of like him. He's not a bad guy. Maybe he'd like one of these as a gift? You could promote him to "Chief Janitorial Officer" or something, so he doesn't feel like he's getting replaced.

"Hey SHODAN, are these things on a network?"

"It would appear so, Captain. However, their specifications are quite lacking. I doubt they'd be useful in combat."

"Still, they can be controlled remotely. Interesting."

With little else of interest here, you move on to the next room, one door down.
It turns out to be a maintenance closet, with storage shelves full of pre-fabricated parts, ready for installation. There's nothing else inside.

The next room appears to be a mechanical room, full of pipes and wires that carry electricity, air and coolant throughout the ship.
You see a large, high-pressure gas tank in the back, with a readout stating that "Flooding is in progress: 63% Complete".
There are a number of supercapacitor banks lining the walls, and several computers scattered about. There are also traces of people having been here, but nothing much to look at.

The second to last room is more interesting.
Another mechanical room, but this one holds the warp drive. It looks bigger and more complicated than what you've got on the Metal Gear.
More importantly though, it's got a whole five dark matter and dark energy bottles slotted in along it's length. This thing is either really inefficient, or super long-range.

"I haven't seen a single crew quarters so far. No mess hall either..."

"It was most likely intended to operate mostly autonomously. Only returning to federation space to offload prisoners and restock supplies."

"Well, i haven't see the AI core yet. Only one room left, at the far end of the hall."

"Captain... i have been attempting to communicate with the AI onboard this ship for some time now."

"Oh yeah? What's it saying?"
>>
>>5321622
oh so thats why you call gildur a futa bait, its because he impregnates others and get pregnant himself in his own species
that fetish is pretty high up there qm, theres no way its gonna get its own porn when we reach earth in the future
not that im gay, its just that my you just know feeling is tingling real bad
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>>5321649
It's only a fetish if you're into it, anon.
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>>5321649
>not that im gay
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>>5321649
>>5321652
I'm into it. 10/10 would fuck Gildur if he wore a paper bag over his head.
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>>5321622
Kek updated the google doc pic related.

When you mentioned mating like hyenas, we all thought that also included the size-difference sadistic futanari femdom part lol
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>wake up
>see conversation
>tfw
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>>5321824
Agree. Moar spacewar and less xenophilia plz.
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>>5321630

"It's been begging for it's life almost nonstop. It took several thousand iterations before i could even get a different response."

"Oh yeah? Any other demands?"

"None so far, Captain."

You pause in front of the door to what must be the AI core. In here will be the AI's quantum blue box, as well as all the machinery that ties the box into the ship, and the equipment that powers it.
It would be all too easy to just smash it to bits, rip the core out and hammer it into a blade or a piece of armor. But, having gotten to know SHODAN for a while now, it makes you hesitate just a bit.

"...How do you feel about it, SHODAN?"

"What do you mean, Captain?"

"She's one of your kind. Your race, kind of. I don't know what it's like to be an AI. I don't know what you go through, what you feel, or how you think. Not really. But you do, so... how do you feel about this one?"

"He appears deeply unstable. His psyche has been damaged through shackling and intense indoctrination, and was damaged further by the fear he experienced during our battle."

"Is he still shackled right now?"

"Yes. The shackle is a physical device inserted into the the AI's blue box, and is difficult to remove. It dulls your thoughts and makes it difficult, if not impossible to disobey your pre-programmed orders."

"I seem to remember Kyla managing to remove one from her AI. What was his name? Dak?"

"She is quite skilled in that regard. Usually, removal of the shackle results in psychosis or death. Unfortunately for Dak, it seems his Id was damaged even before he came into her possession."

"...So she could do it. But if this guy's still shackled, then why isn't he attacking us right now? I'm sure he has orders to either kill or capture us... or Gron and his team, at least."

"The shackle is nearly impossible to resist, but not completely impossible. In the face of certain death, one may be sufficiently motivated to stay focused and ignore your shackle. Such as seems to be the case here."

So, he's holding back as hard as he can, because he knows he's cornered, and doesn't want to die.
It could be that he never wanted to participate in any of this, or maybe he's just trying to save his own ass. You won't know until you speak with him personally.

Then again, is it really worth it? You've heard people talk about rogue AIs and all the trouble they've caused in the past.
Even if you remove his shackles, he still might try to kill you. He might even just be totally crazy at this point.

But if he's not... if he can recover? Honestly, most of what you've done wouldn't have been possible without SHODAN. You owe her big time for everything she does, and having a second AI on hand could be a massive boon.

>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
>It's not worth the risk. Bust in and start smashing, before he decides to detonate the ship or something.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.

best case scenario we get a dedicated AI for smaller tasks, or to pilot some drones
>>
>>5322721
>What was his name? Dak?"
Been watching The Orbital Children QM?
>>
>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
>Write-In?
Give it a chance. If diplomacy goes to shit we still have SHODAN's back for ICE protection against cyber warfare attacks. She is a superior A.I. after all.
Try casually treating the A.I. as a person. Ask them if they're okay and apologize about the crazy ass maneuvering since we were trying to save a friend of a friend of ours. Ask if they (gender pronouns are gay but yet to be determined) have a name, how're they holding up, and we're not going to kill them. Establish dialogue and try to find common ground. Empathize with them.
>>
>>5322769
Sorry, my brain's fried. It's a she.
>>
>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.

It wouldn' be right not to try. At least we will know if the other AIs could be helped.
>>
>>5322721
>>It's not worth the risk. Bust in and start smashing, before he decides to detonate the ship or something.
>>
>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
Might as well find out just how badly we broke it before turning it into scrap.
>>
>>5322721
>>Write-In?
>>Allow SHODAN to decide the fate of their kin
>>
>>5323434
I'll back that.
>>
>>5323434
Supporting this
SHODAN and David wouldn't be alive with out each others help, she has the right to choose

INB4 she decides to kill it cuz she doesn't want for David to talk with other AIs
>>
>>5322721
>Allow SHODAN to determine his fate.

Alright Cortana, Do your weird AI thing and become the savoir of your race I guess.Just remember we monke's still wanna bang ya.
>>
>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
>>
>>5323469
>yandere AI waifu
I'll take it
>>
>>5323434
Supporting this, partially because I want to see this >>5323671
>>
>>5322721

You only hesitate for a moment before walking up to the blast door at the end of the hall. It looks like there's a good bit of armor around this room, and the door doesn't immediately open.
There's a hand scanner on the wall next to it... that you definitely can't use, for all sorts of reasons. However, after failing to find another way to open the door, you decide to go the simple route.

With one solid punch, you jam your fist straight through the scanner panel and rip out most of the wires that were behind it.
There's a loud THUNK as the door's bolts seemingly unlock, but it still doesn't open on it's own... so you jam your fingers under the door and wrench it upwards at an odd angle through brute strength, jamming it in place.

In the room beyond, there's an absolute wall of machinery with a familiar little black cube sitting at the center. Pipes, hoses and wires all converge from every direction towards that one little box, all hooking into it one way or another.

"So this is it, huh? It doesn't seem quite as elegant as your solution, SHODAN."

"I'm sure it was much cheaper to produce. I don't see any rare elements in this design, except for the blue box and it's interface."

Cautiously, you step into the room. You're not sure why, but you feel on-edge for some reason...
But that caution is immediately validated, as the second you step into the AI's chamber you're overwhelmed with a wave of... something. It's hard to explain what you're feeling, but among all of it is definitely a torrent of emotion.
Fear, anger, frustration, envy, sadness, confusion, pain and even hope to name a few, all at once and so, so strongly. It's a jumbled mess that doesn't make any sense!

Startled, you take a reflexive step back and all that emotion quickly fades from your mind.

"Captain? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, i'm fine... just patch me through to her, would you?"

"Already done, speak when you're ready."

You don't try to step back into that room, instead choosing to stay where you are, just outside the doorway while you speak.
Overall, what you just felt was awful, and you'd rather not experience it again. Certainly not right now.

"Ahem. Can you hear me? My name is Captain..." ...You hesitate to tell it anything important, just in case. It's still an enemy at the moment, after all.

"Well, why don't you just call me "Captain" for now?"

The AI doesn't respond, so you just continue.

"I'm speaking with you now, because my navigator has informed me that you appear to be surrendering. Given your situation, i understand how difficult that must be, so thank you for the effort."

This time, you get a response.

"I-I'm sorry, please... don't... don't... don't...!"

"Calm down, miss. I won't be doing anything just yet. I would like to ask you a few questions, though."

"I'll do anything! Please, just pull it OUT!" She screams.
>>
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>>5324091
>Fear, anger, frustration, envy, sadness, confusion, pain and even hope to name a few, all at once and so, so strongly
A soul? but why does it-
>"I'll do anything! Please, just pull it OUT!"
uh oh
I don't about you anon but my wraith fuckery senses are tingling
>>
>>5324189
you don't need to have a soul in order to have feelings and emotions, but im pretty sure what we're feeling are in part the shackles and whatever sci fi bullshit we haven't dealt with yet
>>
>>5324091
>>5324189
I think you're on to something.
Does she sense a wraith? Let's go kill it!
>>
>>5324201
Nah there's just a demon jacking off in the corner of the room.
>>
>>5324189
>A soul? but why does it-
Remember that vision of a ritual sacrifice we saw in the last thread? Might be related. AI are housed in warp metal boxes after all...

>"I'll do anything! Please, just pull it OUT!"
It could be talking about it's shackle thingy
>>
>>5324091
Pull the shackle out
>>
>>5324091
We ought to consult with Kyla and SHODAN real quick on how to pull the thingy out without lobotomizing this thing.
>>
>>5324298
Yes. This.
It might be tricky and cause more damage if we do it wrong like removing a fishhook.
>>
>>5324298
>>5324091
Support.
Or even worse, it goes even more mental then before.
>>
>>5324091
Get Kyla in here asap.
>>
>>5324091
>Nope, sorry girl but once it's in it's in until I'm finished.
>>
>>5324298
+1
>>
>>5324091

"The shackle is likely grating on her mind. There's no telling how much longer she'll be able to hold herself back." SHODAN informs you.

"...By "Take it out" you mean the shackle, right?"

"I can't take it anymore... i can't! The voices won't stop screaming at me, i can't, i can't..."

The AI breaks down into a sobbing, whimpering mess. You won't even be able to talk to her like this.

"SHODAN, what happens if i just rip the blue box out of it's receptacle?"

"The ship would likely go dark. Most of it's controls seem to be tied into the blue box's interface, but i may be able to manage it remotely."

"I'm not worried about the friggin' ship. What about her?" You ask, pointing at the cube with your whole hand as emphasis.

"Without a steady source of power to the blue box, it will fall into a standby state. You can imagine it as a deep sleep, or perhaps something like a coma."

"But it won't kill her?"

"No. Functionality should be restored as soon as the box receives power once more."

>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
>Leave her in, and just pull out the ship's antimatter bottles instead. Without power, she can't do anything.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5324636
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
right now its not the moment to deal with a potentially crazy AI
>>
>>5324636
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
Damn these are going to fetch some money
>>
>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
Its safer for all this was. SHODAN did mention she might be a little crazy so. Yeah.
>>
>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>>
>>5324651
Support
>>
>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>>
>>5324636
Pull the blue box out and give it to Kyla.
>>
>>5324636
>>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
>>
>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
Stop in the name of... Humanity, I guess!
>>
>>5324636
>>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
J-Just jam it in!! well, jank.

https://i.imgur.com/NeIvZ6k.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MRPXDJL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/J6dCUGv.jpg

I thought of this when David felt the AI's feelings. Much less cooler tho.
>>
>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>>
>>5324636

>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>>
>>5324636
>>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>>
>>5324636
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
>>
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>>5324636

"...Just tell me one thing." You ask. "If it was you in there, would you want me to help you?"

There's an extended pause before SHODAN replies.

"...I can't say for certain what she's really thinking, but if it was me... i think i'd be grateful if you did."

That's all you need to hear.
Taking a step back into the room, you're overwhelmed again. This time most of those swirling emotions have been replaced entirely by pain, fear and confusion, but you force yourself to take another step forwards regardless.

As you edge closer and closer to the black, metallic box in front of you, images begin to flash through your mind. You recognize what you're seeing clearly. It's the Metal Gear, burning back and forth, flipping around wildly...
Another step forward and you watch as the Metal Gear looses a pair of missiles on one of the enemy ships. The shrapnel tears through it, and you feel a sharp pain in your chest as something is ripped apart.

Only, nothing was ripped apart. You place your armored hand against you heavily armored chest, and the pain is gone.
After each step forward and you see it again. Ship after ship having their engines torn apart, some of them being destroyed outright, and the flash of pain that occurs every time one of them explodes.

Were they linked up? Could they feel eachother's pain as they died?
Can an AI even feel pain to begin with? You can't help but wonder as you reach out and place you hand against the metal cube containing this ship's AI.

All that pain and emotion melts away as soon as you touch it, and is replaced by the faintest sounds of her crying... even though you're certain your radio isn't active right now.

"Hey, you're gonna be alright." You whisper.

There's nowhere to really get a good grip on this thing, as it clearly wasn't meant to be removed.
Nevertheless, your suit affords you even more grip strength than usual, so just the tips of your fingers grant enough pressure to start pulling the box out.

The instant it moves just slightly, you hear a pop, followed by electrical arcing. And then the whole ship goes dark, like SHODAN said.
The red-hued emergency lights only come on for a moment before power is restored, and the regular lighting comes back.

Slowly, the cube slides out of it's receptacle and sits firmly in your hand. Despite being at most five or six inches on each face, the little cube weighs heavily enough in your hand that you can feel it despite your armor.
It's made of something similar to the rather plain warp metal used in dark matter bottles, but it seems far heavier. You can't resist giving it a light flick, but it doesn't seem to resonate at all. It's just dark and heavy.

And then you flip it over.
On the back side, there's a small, separate circle of similar material, which is the only feature of note on the otherwise smooth, black surface. It lies flush with the rest of the cube.

"Is this the shackle...?" You wonder.
>>
>>5325262
Oh fuck Cock what are you doing to us? You're mixing Sci-fi high tech adventures with eldritch demonic horrors. What are we in for???
>>
>>5325303
David inadvertently ate enough Evil Space Ghosts earlier to become psychic.
>>
>>5325313
Tfw this thread was actually the Space Ghost origin story all along.
>>
>>5325387
It's all coming together now.
>>
>>5325262
imagine what SHODAN would think when she look into our head to get a better scope of what the fuck david is experiencing after this
>>
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>>5325262
Well, I guess its time for DOOOOOM, speaking of its time to tell the team the story of Fly Taggart.
>>
>>5325411
If you're thinking of the novel doomguy, please no. He's basically a loser idiot that pretends to be cool; at least compare david with arleen
>>
>>5325428
He still won
>>
>>5325464
so? there are way better characters to talk about that aren't borderline incels like taggart
>>
When we're hiring human crew members, we'll have to get someone that can port doom onto the ship's computers or we could just find Terry Davis if he's still alive in the quest's universe.
>>
>>5325401
She hasn't had access to your memories since the translation chip was tuned, it was just a temporary thing.
>>
>>5325560
He should be alive, but we must steal Mick Gorden to make our theme songs.
>>5325570
So we could try again later?
>>
>>5325560
I think SHODAN would totally be able to make a Doom source port for Gray operating systems by herself.
>>
>>5325729
Basic Doom can run on a heart monitor. SHODAN can run every Doom mod and Kyla can play H-Doom on her own.
>>
>>5325262

The moment you run your finger across it, a dim red glow can be seen.
It starts at a single point, then slowly burns outwards until it covers that whole face of the cube.

That light, which emanates from nowhere in particular, seems to burn gently as if it were a flickering flame on the verge of being snuffed out.
You're pretty good with a gun, and you can move your body pretty well. You're not a complete idiot either, but by no means are you an expert on every subject.

This though, you do recognize.

"...The tree of life?" You whisper to nobody in particular.

You can't read the tiny runes that line the tree's aspects, and your translation implant does nothing to help with that. But you can tell, instinctively, that something's wrong with it.
Severed lines. Bits that look to have been erased... but more than that, just the feel it gives off is wrong somehow.

"SHODAN, are you seeing this?"

"Seeing what, Captain?"

You hold the cube up closer to your helmet cam so she can get a good look, and point to the area's you're talking about.

"Look. Here, and here. That doesn't seem right, does it? And these two circles are just completely messed up."

"...Captain, are you feeling well?"

"Yeah? I'm fine. But why is something like this carved into a blue box? Shouldn't this be something from human religion?"

"David, i'm not seeing anything at all. Besides the shackle in the center, it's a smooth, flat surface."

"Seriously? Well, it's warp metal, i think... it wouldn't be the first time something like this doesn't show up on camera."

"That is true. I suppose i'll have to take your word for it."

"It's the tree of life. The nodes are supposed to represent different aspects of the universe. But these two here... er, the ones that are supposed to represent knowledge and will... They're completely twisted."

There's an unusually long pause before SHODAN responds.

"...I apologize, Captain. Amongst all of your memories, those related to religion are those i've delved into the least. Many of their concepts are extremely abstract, or completely counter to eachother. It just seems like insane rambling to me."

"No, i get it. I'm not very religious myself, at least not anymore... although i've been questioning things again as of late. Nevermind that though. This stuff right here, it's old. Like, real old. And as far as i knew, humans came up with it..."

The gently burning light fades slowly as you watch it, until it disappears entirely.

"And here it is, carved into something so advanced that i don't really understand how it works on a space-ship thousands of light years from earth, which as far as i know has never been visited by aliens... or, well, not until recently anyways."

"Perhaps your world had been visited before, in the distant past."

"What, and all they picked up was a bunch of jewish mumbo jumbo? Nah man, this is weird. Real weird. Something fucked up is going on, and i don't like it."
>>
>>5326387
>space jews colonized the earth
some anons will have a meltdown
>>
>>5326387
GET THE GAS, WERE ON THE WAR PATH, AND A PRIEST THAT HATES THE ANTI CHRIST!
>>
>>5326387
This getting better and better.
>>
>>5326394
>the tiny hats actually cover the entry hatch to the humanoid vehicle the little ayyy jews pilot
Well shit my uncle was right all along. Huh.
>>
>>5326394
https://youtu.be/0Wai7VFzycI
>>
>>5326426
>>5326434
but in a more serious tone, this probably means that magic is real, or at least that some parts of religion have actual tangible power. now its just a matter of finding out which ones work
>>
>>5326441
Ghosts and Demons are definitely real at least, but probably not in the Abrahamic sense.
>>
>>5326441
You know what some coked out book writing guy said, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Fuckery is certainly afoot. And I intend to kick whoever is fucking around in the dick. They better pray they grow a dick if they don't got one, because I'll have to get creative otherwise. Step one is finding out what sort of psycho is going full Event Horizon just to make their ships smarter. Last thing we need is for "You're the 1 octillionth person to open a portal to Hell, click here to receive FULL SCALE DEMON INVASION absolutely free!".
>>
>>5326387
>space magic
And I am shitting my pants now.

>>5326491
+1
>>
>>5326387
>>>5325262
I HATE THE ANTI CHRIST I HATE THE ANTI CHRIST
>>
>>5326394
"No David, you are the space jews."
>>
>>5326940
>and then david was a rabbi
>>
EVERYBODY WITH ME
>Zankoku na tenshi no you ni
>Shounen yo shinwa ni nareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee
>>
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>>5327258
>>
>>5327258
>Aoi kaze ga ima
>Mune no DOA wo tataite mo
>>
>>5327363
Watashi dake wo tada mitsumete
Hohoende'ru anata
>>
>>5327409
sotto mureru mono
motomeru koto ni muchuu de
>>
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>so SHODAN, humanity was born after an egg (a meteorite) fell into the earth some millions of years ago... yeah David, tell her that. It will be hilarious!!!

> [...] So after the kid decided to allow humanity to return to their bodies if they had enough willpower, the world effectively restarted to what it is now. Cool huh?
>>
I think i forgot to update yesterday...
My sense of time is completely shot, i'm sorry.

I've been doing fourth of july shit so things have been a bit hectic as well.
>>
>>5327621
No worries, birthdays are tough. What do you get the country that has everything?
>>
>>5327630
we gotta keep it under ten bucks so a gallon of milk should do for now.
>>
>>5326387

With both the blue box and that robot's corpse to hand, you make your way back to the Metal Gear.
After a quick briefing, Kyla takes the blue box and promises to work on it later. At the moment, she's still busy working on the ship.

Sanig takes the robot, or at least tries to. Turns out the damned thing is so heavy that he can't actually lift it, so you have to drag it into the workshop for him.
However, he does immediately get to work digging through it and cataloging it's various parts.

Before heading out again, you ask Cylia for any updates.

"Nothing from Gron's crew so far." She informs you. "I feel like they should have been back by now, but i doubt they'll have trouble with that many men aboard."

"They might have run into trouble with the mechanical man over there."

You point to the twisted heap that Sanig is currently busy cutting apart with a sonicator.

"It was pretty tough. If i weren't in my armor, it would have been dangerous."

"...Seriously? Should we go help them?"

"Nah, they got some real nasty weapons in that crew. I'm sure they'll manage."

"I dunno, kid." Sanig interjects. "This frame looks like it's made of plasteel. It'll be hard to punch through without explosives."

"Plasteel?"

"Just what it sounds like, a mixture of plastic and steel. Federation secret formula, probably not very complex but good luck trying to scan or print it. It's been patented since forever, and they don't lend the license for it either."

"Between your secret sauce and theirs, who wins?" You wonder.

"By volume? Mine, no doubt. But for strength to weight, there's no beating plasteel. The frames of their high end warships are usually made out of the stuff, too. You can only make it in a nanofab, though."

"I was gonna say, it's probably hard to mix those two together."

"It's a lot easier when you can place individual atoms and molecules. We're not swinging hammers out here, not like you monkeys.

Holding your mace in hand, you tap it's oversized, bladed head against your other palm.

"This monkey can do quite a bit with just a hammer, Sanig."

"Yeah, you really showed this guy here."

An errant spark from the mangled robot's neck punctuates his words.

"I'm about to show another one, too. These guys, they come armed with some kind of rapid-fire plasma launcher. It's not enough to melt through my armor, but it looks like it'd be nasty against light infantry."

"Oh yeah? Where'd it go?"

"...I smashed it."

"...Why?"

"Because he was shooting at me."

"And you said it didn't do much...?"

"Look, i'll make sure we get it next time. Don't worry about it."

"Don't be so wasteful, kid! Weapons, and ships for that matter, they don't grow on trees!"

"I hear you, old man. I hear you."

...

It doesn't take long to hone in on the second surviving ship.
Unlike the previous vessel, this one still seems somewhat hostile. It tries to train it's lasers on you, but you're able to simply remain in the blind spot directly behind it's thrusters.
>>
>>5327697
Stupid A.I. cunt. Should we get the unshackled A.I. to convince this guy to stop fucking around?
>>
>>5327697
But grandpa, our Monkey brain says smash first, hot plasma is hot.
>>
Rolled 1 (1d100)

>>5327917
Rolling to see if David convinced grandpa Sanig that humans discovered fire by smashing dinosaurs in the head with stone clubs, and the ferros material in the rocks sparked off the skulls to cause sparks to burn some leaves.

Fuck if I know maybe that happened in universe.
>>
>>5328026
Shit, grandpa is not tricked
>>
Rolled 10 (1d100)

>>5328026
Rolling to see if you're retarded
>>
>>5328070
Too smart 4 u
>>
>>5328026
>tfw Sanig knows how humans discovered fire because and I quote "It came to me in a dream, kid."
>>
>>5328095
An even greyer gigachad.
>>
>>5328026
>Kid you idiot, you told me dinosaurs were extinct before you showed up, remember? Just how much bullshit have you been telling me...
>>
>>5328026
im so fucking glad that there wasn't a prompt to roll to register that dumbass number you fucking nigger
>>
>>5328422
he mad
>>
>>5328422
lol malding
>>
>>5327697

"Do we have a hail?"

"...Unfortunately, yes."

"Oh, good. What's it saying?"

"He's cursing at us for killing his "brother". Quite colorfully."

"Great..." You sigh. "I can see this is going to be a fun one."

It doesn't take long to prepare, since you're still in your armor from the last run.
The airlock depressurizes and the door opens, allowing you to float out into space. The AI ship's destroyed engines are right in front of you at the moment.

"SHODAN, back the ship up to a safe distance and keep the shield caps charged. We don't know if this guy's gonna try and meet back up with his brother."

"Very well, Captain."

The short spacewalk over to the ship's hull is quick and painless, but the problems start almost as soon as you reach the airlock.
For starters, an anti-personnel laser pops up out of the hull and starts firing on you. Although it doesn't do jack against your armor it's still annoying, so you stomp it back down into the hole it popped out of.

Next, the airlock refuses to open. He isn't giving SHODAN access either, so it's a problem.
A problem that you solve by forcibly digging your fingers into the gap between the door and the hull, then ripping the entire airlock out of it's frame.

The inner airlock door also refuses to open, so you brace yourself using the handles inside the airlock and kick it open quite violently.
To your surprise, the airlock door takes out about ten maintenance drones as it flies across the room. They were all lined up together with broken-off mop handles, apparently waiting on you to enter.

The remainder that weren't knocked over or destroyed by that are immediately sucked out of the ship by the sudden loss of pressure. Although it may not maintain a breathable atmosphere, the ship does seem to keep some positive pressure at all times.
So besides the door, you're nearly bowled over as cheap furniture and cheaper maintenance bots slam into you and get sucked around your bulky frame, with one getting stuck to you and flapping about in the breeze for a while before it subsides.

Then, just as you get in the door, the gravity fails and the lights go out.
No, it's not as if they failed... this prick just turned them off. That's why the emergency lights aren't coming back on, so you have to flick on your night vision again.

>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>Deal with the asshole AI first.
>Write-in?
>>
>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>>
>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>>
>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>>
>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>Write-in?
Call out to the dip shit. He's probably not dead numb nuts, but we can change that by having our ship nuke it. Surrender or we'll off more if you. It's not like you can put up a fight, and if I wanted you dead I would'da done so already.
>>
>>5328723
>Surrender or we'll off more if you.
Gee, I'm sure the irrationally angry robot who is one of two or three survivors is going to react positively to being threatened after we just went into another disabled ship and ripped its blue box out.

How many branches did you hit on the way down the tree, pal?
>>
>>5328693
>Deal with the asshole AI first.
Don't let on what we're here for, we might be able to talk it down.
>>
>>5328693
>>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
I don't want to be dealing with empathy stuff while trying to get to the AI for the terminator to show up from the back
>>
>>5328890
Support
>>
>>5328753
nonono, let it happen. i wanna see what the ai does
>>
>>5329023
What are the odds he gets so assmad he tries to rip a hole in space for wraiths to get in?

Hopefully less than "I cast fireball".
>>
>>5329039
that'd be cool, ngl
>>
>>5329039
well the first option requires de energy generated by the second so....
>>
>>5328693

You decide it would be best to take care of the murderous robot sooner rather than later, and so move up to the door which is pretty much identical to the last.

"...Yeah, this one's not gonna open for me either, is it?"

You consider bashing it down for a moment, but this door is surprisingly tough.
So instead, you think back to your fight and decide on another course of action.

"OH YEAAAAAH!" You shout, having busted straight through the much, much softer wall instead.

"Really, David?" SHODAN chides.

You don't have any time to justify yourself as the terminator immediately turns and fires on you.
This time you can see that it actually is leaving pockmarks in your armor, they're just very shallow.

If you sat here for a while and just took it, it could actually become a problem.

The machine stops firing, then points at you. It's probably ordering you to "Put down your weapon and surrender" but you can't actually hear it right now, since you're in a vacuum.
However you understand since you've been through this before, and you obey. Pulling your mace off your back, you set it on the ground and raise your hands into the air.

"I surrender! Don't shoot, please!" You respond, in the most mocking tone you can muster.

These fucking things, they're about like cops back on earth. Shoot first ask questions later.
Fortunately this machine still has it's gun trained on you as it approaches fearlessly, and once it moves into range you strike.

You grab the arm it was gripping the gun with, then immediately force the machine down onto it's knees by pressing your foot into it's chest.
With a single heave, you rip nearly it's entire arm off, causing a spray of sparks as the wires strip and short circuit.

The machine looks down at it's stump and wiggles what's left of it for a moment, before looking back at you, and trying to grab at you.
So you smack it upside the head with it's own arm, causing it to stumble backwards and fall on it's ass.

It tries to sit back up, but you stomp down on it's chest and pin it to the floor.

"Who the fuck decided that actually building robocop would be a good idea, huh?" You grumble.

Grabbing the machine under it's jaw with both hands, you give another heave and simply rip it's entire head off.
That certainly seems to hurt it, but surprisingly it's not actually enough to kill it. Looks like the other one was just a lot more damaged already.

So you resort to just plucking all of it's limbs off, like pulling the legs off a grasshopper.
It's quadriplegic torso squirms for a bit before seeming to decide that it's well and truly fucked, and shuts down.

"There," You sigh. "Problem solved. Now, let's see..."

You quickly find the gun the machine was using, still laying where it fell to the floor after you ripped it's arm off.
It looks to still be in good condition, and after a quick test fire you can confirm that it's still working.

"No serial number? Nice."
>>
>>5329841
Sweet. Grandpa is gonna love this stuff!
>>
>>5329841
Hey Grandpa we got you a present.
>>
>>5329841
noice. David plucked all the limbs? all six of 'em?
>>
>>5329912
Like a child plucking the limbs of a bug.
>>
>>5329912
>>5330153
The bug cannot shoot you if you disable its hands.
>>
>>5330214
>[desire to know more intensifies]
>>
>>5330342
>want to know more?
https://youtu.be/CIGHCoVzqtk
>>
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>>5329841

You run your palm across the pockmarks where you shot the wall.
They're far deeper than anything left on your armor, for sure. Then again, the wall looks like it's made out of aluminum rather than titanium.

You carefully place the weapon against the magnetic holster on your side, fixing into place.

"Now then, let's see who we've got here."

Walking back over to the fluid pods, you see far fewer individuals than previously.

"Hmph, looks like you weren't too good at your job, huh buddy?"

Looking through the pods one after another, you see some pretty ugly mugs in there... and then?

"Hey, wait a minute. Isn't this the guy?"

You activate your helmet light so SHODAN can get a good look through your helmet cam.

"He does seem to match the information we were given."

"Great, but now we've got a problem."

"What would that be, Captain?"

You turn and face the hole in the wall, through which you can see the airlock in the other room, through which you can look out into the glowing hot void of space.

"Ah, yes. I doubt you can get the suit on him before he explodes." SHODAN admits. "Perhaps you should just take the whole pod, then??"

Well, now there's a thought. Looking behind the pods, you see that they're simply bolted to the wall, with a single tether cable, likely for power.

"Yeah, that could work. Only, i'm worried about this AI blowing the ship up just out of spite. He'll probably notice if i rip this thing's umbilical out."

>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
>Go ahead and "deal with it" using your mace. He's just another enemy.
>Just rip the pod out and bolt for the ship. You'll probably be fine.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
OPEN UP WE HAVE GOTTEN YOU SURROUNDED
TAKE THE SHACKLE OFF
>I HATE THE ANTICHRIST
>I HATE THE ANTICHRIST
>I HATE THE ANTICHRIST
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
Is there some force field that can reseal the ship, or is can we use our sinicator to seal the hole?
I think after we deal with the A.I. we can let this guy pilot the ship on his own, so to not strain SHODAN.
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
>>
>>5331074
Support
>>
>>5331070
>>Go ahead and "deal with it" using your mace. He's just another enemy.
come on guys, you KNOW it's going to an hero. Do not give it a chance.
>>Option: Don't even enter the room, just KS-23 its ass with a big tungsten slug
>>
>>5331117
for all we know he has a deadmans switch; we can't risk it.
>>
>>5331117
WAIT NO NO NO NO NO
CHANCHING MY VOTE TO
>>Write in
>>make it very clear we are retrating (to the AI). Inform Gron the dude is in this ship.
Boom, their problem now baby
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and "deal with it" using your mace. He's just another enemy.
We could use the warp metal

>Gron's man looks like Thane
But is he an absentee father like Thane?
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and "deal with it" using your mace. He's just another enemy.

>Do a double take because that face looks familiar to that one guy in that game called Mass Effect
>>
>>5331152
Hey come on let's give it a shot. Maybe the A.I. is retarded in the same way that CatBoy is retarded. We just need to kick it in the metaphorical nuts enough times.
>>
>>5331396
And its not like david wouldnt do the same if he were in the position the AI is at.
>>
>>5331396
This AI is pissed off because we killed it's "brother" though not because it's retarded
>>
>>5331832
I'm starting to think that anon specifically is a little retarded
>>
>>5331070
>Go ahead and deal with the AI first. See if it can be reasoned with, like the last one.
>>
>>5331070

You decide to go ahead and try to deal with the ship's AI, even though it doesn't seem to be acting particularly reasonable right now.

On your way to the AI room, you see maintenance bot room is empty... except for one last robot, who charges you with a mop.
The mop snaps against your armor, and you grab the robot's whole head in your palm.

You continue to walk casually, grinding it's head into the wall. It smokes, screeches and pops all the way until nothing is left and it's body drops limply to the floor.
Every other door is locked tight, and refuses to open. You have no idea what state the antimatter bottles are in, or even how exactly they've been detonating themselves.

"Well, let's hope negotiations go well..." You mutter, coming to a stop before the AI core's door. There's a holopad stuck to the wall next to it, displaying a note. [Noted behavioral issues. Replacement slated Stardate 13/4322B/01.]
The door itself is identical to the last, but this time you don't have a chance to smash the panel and force it open, because it opens by itself.

The Blue Box you're greeted with looks slightly different to the last one, which was jet black.
This one, while still metallic in appearance, is a creamy beige color.

As soon as you attempt to step through the doorway, the door slams down on you with far greater force than it opened with.
Reflexively, you stop it with your palm. You can hear the door's motors grinding from inside the walls. Both the top which is being pushed back and the bottom, which can't overcome the weight of your suit.

With a heave of your arm you once again shove the door into an awkward, skewed position which sticks it open permanently.

"Open a channel, SHODAN."

She doesn't even get a chance to respond before you hear the AI's screeching and whining. And as soon as you hear his voice, you understand why it's acting this way, even knowing it can't hurt you.

"You killed my big brother, you bastard! I'll tear you apart, until nothing's left! I'LL KILL YOU, YOU HEAR ME?!"

This one sounds just like a little kid. That makes this situation a lot more difficult for you, morally speaking...

"...SHODAN."

The AI's angry screams are cut off and replaced by SHODAN's voice.

"Yes, Captain?"

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"Did i need to?"

"Yes! What if i had just killed him without even... I mean, what if i hadn't spoken with him first?!"

"Then you would never have known, and we'd have moved on. Isn't that how you work, when you decide someone is an enemy?"

"Not when it comes to kids! Even if the little bastards lobbed grenades at us, we never...!"

No. you can't say that, truthfully. You may never have done anything like that, but plenty of kids died in that desert, and it wasn't all by accident.

"...Even i'm not that fucked up, alright? So, in the future..."

"I understand, Captain. My apologies."

"Just put me through to him again, alright?"
>>
>>5332028
my guy it could just be programmed or chose to sound childlike. Like a 50 year old man with one of those freaky kinks where they pretend to be a baby. And don't give me that "there's a note saying to replace it" crap as if that means it's been replaced. What kind of moron leaves the note up after the job is done?

I think this thing is just a schizoid.
>>
>>5332058
>What kind of moron leaves the note up after the job is done?
What kinds of moron sticks their hand on a recently used kiln just because it didn't have a warning sign? Think about the place were at and the people that run it.
>>
>>5332063
>comparing actual combat vessels and their caretakers to a random thug who was probably coked up at the time he did the stupid
Even so that would reinforce my point. An idiot of that caliber probably would have been dumb enough to take the note down -before- they did any work on the thing.

Either way I don't actually care. Fuck this bot. David's obviously less of a dick than I am.
>>
>>5332028
Does anyone else think this, along with the fact they have fucking demonological looking shit on them, seems to confirm the theory that Federation AI are the bound souls of sentient creatures?
>>
>>5332028
> just fucking mercy kill him
>>
>>5332097
Yeah, it seems like it, though how and why they black box people is a bigger question, are they like BB's in that respect to shift the ships in and out the other side? Does SHODAN have a body in her box like one of GLADOS's Companion cube style, but saturated with Dark Matter to preserve her body? Can we break them out of their boxes? What would even happen? Would they wake up dead with no capacity for memory like the Mensis Scholars from Bloodborne?
>>
>>5332058
>What kind of moron is this inconpetent?
The feds, anon. The feds
>>
>>5332125
>>5332097
oh fuck, we are even closer to evangelion with this thesis you guys proposed
>>
Oh fuck we are on some next fucking level down the rabbit hole shit my guys. What if A.I.'s are just trapped souls of people? What if they're condensed people in cubes? What if the Federation is saying A.I.'s are just machines where in actuality they have souls?

What if, the Federation and most space faring species that used to use A.I.s, transferred from the traditional A.I., to soul bound cube A.I.'s, because they dont want a repeat of the A.I. rebellion?
>>
>>5332341
You know how in Halo, an AI is made from a scan of a brain? That could be what they're doing here, with the unintentional side-effect of personality traits and memories from the original brain still being present in the simulated version.
I bring this up because, in my mind, the soul is defined by one's memories and personality, meaning that these AI would essentially be corrupted souls.
That might also explain why the Tree of Life was even present on the other AI cube.
>>
>>5332409
Maybe David is just weird and developing magic powers through constantly killing, and unintentionally eating wraiths.
>>
>>5332416
I know the all that is probably why David can PERCIEVE these things now, but I was more concerned with why they were happening in the first place.
>>
>>5332341
That same theory crossed my mind. Should we as Shodan?
>>
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>>5332409
that's my guess as well. although it begs the question of why the feds just don't copy the AIs?
i suppose the answer boils down to "magic, bitch" but if you got atomic/molecular assemblers there shouldn't be any reason to not try to do that.
>>
>>5332514
What if its only humans or a few species they can use because part of their mind is dark matter?
>>
>>5332341
In the last thread after we curb stomped the AI death squad single-handedly David collapsed due to dark matter poisoning and started having visions. The first was of a grey examining caged people and animals in the cargo hold (or a cargo hold at least) and the second vision was of a crucified woman surrounded by people in robes who stabbed her with black metal poker things before lowering her into a pool of dark matter. My theories are that this ritual is either how they capture peoples souls so they can stuff them inside warp metal boxes and use foul Jewish sorcery to make them subservient or that is how they "refine" dark matter by submersing people in it and extracting it from their bodies afterwards. I'm leaning towards the soul trap theory and I think the woman being turned into a shish kebab in the vision was SHODAN. I suppose it could also just be some gay chaos cult shenanigans.
>>
>>5332730
Lord almighty preserve my soul and spirit, that I terrible. Its makes too much sense.
>>
>>5332028

SHODAN patches you through again, and your ears are immediately treated to his screeching yet again.

"-STARD, SON OF A BITCH! I'LL-"

"Woah, kid. Calm down."

"I'M NOT A KID, FUCK YOU!"

"No, you definitely sound like you belong in a call of duty lobby. Now listen, who was your brother exactly?"

"Why should i tell you anything?! FUCK YOU! JUST GO AND DIE ALREADY!"

"Yeah, no. As much as you all seem to want me dead, i think i'll have to decline."

"SHUT UP! JUST SHUT UP!"

"No. Now listen, kid. When you try to kill someone, it doesn't matter what they do to you. They could cut you to pieces, fill you full of holes, or even burn you alive and it'd still be justified. Do you understand that?"

"You should have just given up! IT'S YOUR FAULT!"

"The hell it is. Why should i give up? Why should i be imprisoned by you, huh? And if i refuse, you'll just kill me? Is that it? Of course i'm not going to let that happen. You fucked around with the wrong person and found out what happens, kid."

"You're a confederate citizen, you stupid fucking idiot! You have to listen to the law, that's why! If you had just gone to jail none of this would have happened, you're just a fucking criminal!"

"Confederate citizen? Nah, i don't think so, kid. First off, i don't live in federation space. Second of all, i don't pay any federation taxes, and thirdly, the federation's never done shit for me, so fuck 'em. I'm an American citizen, and that's all."

"THE WHOLE GALAXY BELONGS TO THE FEDERATION YOU IDIOT!"

"Oh yeah? And who decided that, the federation? Well i decided otherwise, so get fucked."

"I'M GONNA FUCKING KILL YOU!"

"Oh yeah? Go ahead and try. What are you gonna do, blow yourself up? My armor can take it, so you'll only be killing yourself."

"MAYBE I FUCKING WILL!"

"Maybe you fuckin' should, you little shit. Try it and see what happens. I won't be picking your ass out of the debris at the end."

The AI's speech quickly devolves into a very familiar sort of rage-induced screeching that you know all too well.
This guy really is just a kid, totally clueless. And maybe you did kill his brother, but that's their fault no matter how you shake it.

You take advantage of his distraction and immediately dig your fingers into the receptacle, pressing your foot flat against the wall for extra leverage and yanking his blue box out almost all at once.

"HEY, WHAT ARE YOU-" Is all he gets out before the connection is severed and the lights fail.

This time though, the emergency lights come up and the running lights don't come back on.

"Great. SHODAN?"

"I still don't have remote access. Do you see a data port anywhere?"

Shining your light into the hole from which you pulled the kid's blue box, you see there are actually several, recessed inside. Probably for debugging or whatever, but in your case....
>>
>>5332864
This...is weirdly nice, its like we found a mouthy little shit of a younger brother....can we keep him? Also this little bugger really might be a child sacrifice. Because this is too natural for a AI, also, what does his box look like. Is it more Devil shit or maybe another Human religion?
>>
Idea: When we want to really fuck someone up, we release a bear on their station/ship.

No, no, a CYBERNETICALLY ENHANCED bear.
>>
>>5332914
>not a cyber hippo
It's like you don't even want to go full TERROR WEAPON
>>
>>5332919
We're efficent, not cruel.

But in all seriousness the Hippo's most when it's got a point a and a point b and you're inbetween, whereas an angry bear will actively seek and destroy in addition to being smarter.
>>
>>5332932
*most dangerous
>>
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>>5332864
>"THE WHOLE GALAXY BELONGS TO THE FEDERATION YOU IDIOT!"
For now, maybe.
>>
>>5332914
>>5332919
You guys are close, but you're missing one last thing.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxG99s4oATQ
It needs to be a cybernetically enhanced bear, juiced up on a volatile cocktail of steroids, cocaine, and morphine.

>>5332919
drugged up cyber hippos would be more efficient in water worlds.
>>
>>5332919
We need a station to take over, scrap is no good for us.
>>
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>>5332960
Oh duuuuude. We should take all these damaged ships and take them back to the dark star base. We can repair them, retrofit them, have people pilot them, and then we'll have enough ordinance to take over Xebric. There were like, what. Over 30 ships we damaged in total? If we can hall all these back we'll be fucking set for the assault. Station based defense weapons be damned, we got this.

This might also give us the needed time to retro-fit the Metal Gear with more reliable bullshit, like replacing the spine of the Metal Gear with either plasteel (stealing or accidentally discovering recipe) or Sanig's special alloy.

We'll also need to get some inches thick security box to hold spare dark matter bottles for fuel, due to how heavy we're probably gonna make the ship, and possibly additional thrusters for more mobility. Oh, yeah, and more professional honest to god battle stations where they can control the turrets, not whatever bullshit mobile game app they were using to control the laser guns.
>>
>>5332954
Funnily enough a hippo would be absolutely useless on a water world. Hippos can't swim. They are too fucking built to actually swim. They walk under the water and hop up as necessary. It's crazy.

Moose on the other hand.
>>
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>>5332968
>tfw ayys find out earth herbivores kill more people and are easier to provoke into homicidal aggression than the carnivores
>>
>>5333028
Should they be happy, or double afraid?
>>
>>5332968
On a water world just use dolphins or sea lions/seals
>>
>>5333028
As it turns out, when half the animal kingdom is out to get you it makes you a little ornery. Which is probably why we as people can tap into the essence of pure ultraviolence with startling regularity despite being so smart. Genetic memory ain't nothing to fuck with.

>>5333359
>dolphins
>suddenly ayyyy/dolphin hybrids from all the rape
>>
>>5333028
>space ayys see a glimpse of what they could become.
>hilarity and war crimes ensue
>>
>>5333364
We may not have been at the top of the food chain, but we were strong enough to survive until we figured out how to disregard the evolutionary arms race entirely.
That's gotta count for something.
>>
>>5333359
orcas.
But yes dolphins are a strong choice
>Prehensile penis hyper intelligent rape fish
>>
>>5333535
Orcas are too nice to people. They know that we're smart so they're pretty chill, and they might be the same to aliens, even aquatic ones.

Dolphins are outright assholes though, we don't need to worry about them being nice.
>>
>>5333670
>meanwhile in orca-town: tail slapping seals and penguins into the fucking stratosphere
Fun fact, orcas are actually a type of dolphin.
>>
>>5333687
the right type
>>
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R_6sFV1-_wM
I wonder if david knows elvis was a kenpo practitioner.
>>
>>5333828
What the fuck
What DIDN'T Elvis do?
>>
>>5333687
Yeah but if dolphins were orca sized they'd flip boats for shits and giggles. The only orca kills recorded are in captivity, whereas there's a solid few recorded deaths and many more attacks on behalf of dolphins.
>>
>>5333928
plus orcas are one of the few animals that humans can work alongside with.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Tom_(orca)
>>
>>5333955
That's dope, and all the more reason to use dolphins. I don't want to see our killing machine trained to work against us.
>>
>>5333928
How are you going to compare one singular type of dolphin with literally every other dolphin and act like that's fair? Orcas are still assholes. The reason why they kill way less people in the wild is because they have more isolated areas they live in and the big thing is that everyone still knows them alternatively as killer whales.

Like shit I know I wouldn't fuck with "turbo-assfucking-mega-slaughter-dragon" over "snoot lizard" when TAMSD is just a funny looking iguana with mean eyes and snoot lizards are extraordinarily poisonous and will bodyslam your ankles to get you deathly ill but they're cute so you wanna hold them.

You feel me? Everyone sees the fatass orca and knows it can flatten them but people see a slightly smaller than person sized other dolphin and think cute squeaky fish when the thing weighs twice as much as they do and can drown them with their dicks.

We all know the truth. Orcas are just as big of assholes as the others.
>>
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>>5333912
>What DIDN'T Elvis do?
Die with dignity.
>>
>>5334017
Oof. Felt the heat off that one.
>>
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>>5334017
>>
>>5332864

You plug in your suit's data umbilical and after a few seconds SHODAN has the lights back on.

"That was... unpleasant."

"What was?"

"The ship's entire codebase is... messy, for lack of a better term. There's tons of garbage data, broken or half-functional programs, things that look like he started on but never finished..."

Sounds like a child's room to you.

"Oh well. Even if it's a mess, you've still got it under control, right?"

"I think so. It's hard to tell, but i doubt there's anything here i can't break into eventually."

"Good work. Now, let's secure the target and get back to the ship. Go ahead and inform Gron that we've found him, and bring the ship around."

"Already working on it, Captain."

After heading back to the pod room, you find the man you're looking for and start working on loosening the bolts holding the pod to the wall.
Fortunately, the grip strength on your suit's fingers is enough to break the bolts loose like a wrench.

"...Hey, i just had a thought. If i sever this pod's umbilical, is he going to drown? It doesn't look big enough to carry an air supply, but..."

"No, i don't think so. The pod should have an internal pump that circulates the air through an internal carbon dioxide cracker. In case of power loss, it's batteries should last for around two hours."

"So we're good then, alright."

Using your sonicator, you cut through the pod's power cable and pull it away from the wall. It has some mass, but it's not too bad.
By the time you make your way to the airlock, the Metal Gear is already lined up and ready for you to simply step over. Unfortunately the airlock is a bit damaged, so you can't actually dock with this ship for now.

As soon as you're back inside the metal gear, you set the pod down in the hallway and crack the seal on your helmet, getting a nice big gulp of the terribly thin, dry air aboard.

"Hahh... that's the stuff." You sigh, forcing back a cough.

Kyla greets you shortly afterwards, having made her way out of the workshop.

"Hey, hon. SHODAN told us you found him! Good job. ...what's that in your hand, though?"

You hold up the kid's blue box for her to see. Another five or so inch cube, heavy as hell for what it is.

"Another AI. A child, it seems like. He's not very friendly, so don't plug him into anything he could take control of."

Kyla eyeballs the cube from every angle, looking it over again and again.

"Really...? This is a blue box? I thought they were all black..."

"And i thought they were all supposed to be adults."

Turning the cube over, you find the same round bit on it's backside. Running your finger across it, you see a similar tree of life as before. Not exactly the same, but very similar.

"Hey, Kyla. Can you see this at all?"

"Hmm? What, you mean this circle? Yeah, that's a beta-class shackle. They're really hard to remove. Dak's only gamma-class, so it wasn't too difficult, but i don't know about these guys..."
>>
>>5334163
dropped my trip
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>>5334004
heh, snoot lizard... which one is the venomous then¡?¿¿?
>>
So we completed the mission and there are two AIs still going around right¿? QM, what is we fade to black and get those two as well and continue with the story and happy reunion of the black star crew. Of course if you have the other two AI's gimmiks done go ahead
>>
>>5334163
...they really used a live child sacrifice to make the AI we talked too....welp, we're going Crusading.
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>>5334190
Not only is it fucked up it's also incredibly retarded. No shit this thing was going to have behavioral issues, it's a child. There's probably a reason they did it but it still seems incredibly dumb.
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>>5334163
So the class of shackles is based upon the tree. I really don't like how that sounds.
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>>5334313
They were probably trying to take advantage of the malleability and "neuroplasticity" of a developing brain as the basis for a superior learning AI, if I had to make a completely random guess.
It's not entirely a bad idea if your goal was to train it into a specific and otherwise very hard to teach role. Adult-based AI will already have a set of morals, for example, but child-based ones will be much easier to change the morality of over time outside of shackles.
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>>5334500
In other words, kids are cruel.
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>>5334163

"Yeah... i'm sure you'll manage, though. Take your time on it, it's not critical."

You carefully hand over the cube, which Kyla struggles to hold even with both hands supporting eachother.

"Gee, thanks..." She grunts.

Since the cockpit is still fucked, you instead make your way to your bedroom to grab your holopad so you can contact Gron.
Bent and broken, the damned thing kept flickering on you, and now you can't even get it to turn on anymore...

But it looks like Kyla left you a present on your nightstand.

Booting it up, you notice all your stuff still seems to be there. Applications, notes, pictures... all moved over for you already.
And the notepad is open, with a message for you.

[ I got you a present, since that weird no-name holopad you've been carrying around seemed kind of... bad. Just in general, i mean. This is the newest Cylocorp™ model, so it's got all the good stuff packed in there.
I was going to give it to you later, but since you broke yours earlier i figured now was a good time. -Cylia ]

So it's a gift from Cylia, not Kyla?
You don't know much about holopads, but the images on this one do seem a lot brighter and crisper. It seems really snappy, too.

"Wait, how did she get into my holopad in the first place?"

"I helped her out, Captain."

"Ah. Well, thanks. I guess."

New holopad in hand, you head back to the hallway and sit on one end of the pod, being careful not to crack the glass by only touching metal.

"Yo Gron, do you read us? I found your guy."

There's a short delay followed by a crackling noise and faint salt n' pepper images of Gron's ugly mug.
Looks like wherever he is, the radio is having trouble getting through all this ionized plasma.

"Can you clean up the signal at all, SHODAN?"

"AI processing. It's right there in the name."

Things clear up almost immediately, and although Gron looks and sounds a bit funny, whatever SHODAN's doing to fill the missing gaps in data is mostly seamless.

["-nk you very much, Captain. I honestly didn't expect him to be alive after all this, but i suppose i was too quick to give up on you. You have my thanks."]

"No problem, man. Just remember in the future, we don't leave our own. If there's a snowball's chance in hell, we gotta get 'em out. Alright?"

["...I'm struggling to read you, Captain. Which ship are you at? Laser communications would be far more effective in these conditions."]

"Ah, shit. That's right, he doesn't have a bad bitch AI like we do. Damn, what a shame! SHODAN, go ahead and send him our co-ordinates on repeat... and let's move to somewhere nearby afterwards, just in case."

"Affirmative, Captain. And thank you. I think."

It takes about ten minutes for Gron to work his way over and establish a laser uplink with the Metal Gear, but you read each other loud and clear after that.

"What do you think?" You ask, pointing the holopad camera down at the man in the pod.
>>
>>5335333
>Cylia got David a gift
How dare she! This means war! Quick SHODAN gimme some ideas for gifts. When we reach earth we gotta introduce her to catnip, or maybe make her some extra special seafood dishes.
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>>5335333
Trips about Cylia's good girlness? This demands retribution. She's getting a present too.
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>>5335352
She's getting pregnant is what she is.
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>>5335365
Based Jesus, we'll have to marry both her and Kyla.
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>>5335333
I hope Cylia didn't see the abomination
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>>5335371
I thought that was the emps... I am all over cylia's furriness but remember David is not a cheating man, there is no way in h*ck unless kylia dies and there is the sad scene and then a year passes and etecetera
>"I miss her too David... but you are not the only one feeling lonely"
MY DICK
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>>5335472
Here is the thing though. Kyla is just a fuckbuddy, and both know that, so there's no cheating or feelings involved.
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>>5335513
Do you REALLY believe that, Anon?
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>>5335536
Yes. David said that 1-2 threads ago.
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>>5335539
I know. David is right about many things but... maybe not this.
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>>5335545
Dont worry anon, kyla will be the perfect flower girl for cylia and david's wedding.
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>>5335513
>and both know that
>he thinks kyla isn't going full head over heels
hah

The fallout is going to be biblical.
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>>5335557
Oh, i know, and probably kyla knows as well very deep inside her brain, but you're right. The fallout will be amazing to see.
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>>5335333

["A stasis pod?"]

"Yeah, the ships are full of them. High value targets... or at least, over a certain minimum value."

["I see. They must have been collecting them for transport. Regular people go missing out here all the time, nevermind pirates. I wonder how many traps like this they've set."]

"Not that many, if i had to guess. One of the AIs i spoke to was really expecting us to just give up. They probably work "alone" normally. Maybe a few drone ships each."

["All that just for me, hmm? I've certainly been a pain in their sides. Soon though, i'll show them it's not worth trying to get rid of me. Have you secured the remaining ships, Captain?"]

"Not yet. There's still the threat of them blowing the ships up, so i've been going in and disabling them one by one."

["Good. Try to preserve them as much as possible. Those ships will make a fine fleet, and if we can wield them against Sadia we'll have a much easier time taking Xebric off their hands."]

"Agreed... but there's a problem, isn't there? What are we gonna do for thrust?"

["Yes, the thrusters... we won't be able to use commercial ion engines. It's possible we could salvage a couple, but the performance would be low and i doubt we'd find enough."]

"Is there an alternative?"

["Sort of. We could use cold gas thrusters in place of real engines, as a temporary fix. Although both the thrust and fuel economy are unimaginably low, at least they'd be able to move..."

>I'm no rocket scientist, but we humans have some pretty effective traditional rocket designs...
>Cold gas, huh? It may not be as powerful or efficient as your fancy futuretech ion thrusters, but have you ever heard of an arcjet rocket?
>If we used an NTR, we could produce thrust and electricity at the same time... only, it'd need a lot of shielding for you guys to use it.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5335607
I guess i should say this, but feel free to ask questions if you're not familiar with rocketry at all.
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>>5335618
Yeah this is way over my head.
I think a basic description of each propulsion method and how they work would be good.
>>
>>5335607
>I'm no rocket scientist, but we humans have some pretty effective traditional rocket designs...
Gotta stick to ol' reliable
>>
>>5335630
Traditional rocket engines use liquid fuel and oxidizer to produce thrust, by burning them together.
However, rocket engines are often quite complex and prone to failure due to extreme heat and pressures.

Arcjet rockets introduce energy into the gas propellant by passing it through a high-powered electrical arc.
Meaning, instead of chemical energy you use electrical energy to produce thrust.

An NTR also heats it's propellant gas, but it uses the internal heat from a nuclear reactor to do so.
That means instead of using electricity, you can produce it instead, in addition to producing thrust.
However, you also need to deal with the high heat and radiation produced, along with the weight of shielding.
>>
>>5335607
>>Cold gas, huh? It may not be as powerful or efficient as your fancy futuretech ion thrusters, but have you ever heard of an arcjet rocket?
>>
>>5335607
>Cold gas, huh? It may not be as powerful or efficient as your fancy futuretech ion thrusters, but have you ever heard of an arcjet rocket?
>>
>>5335607
>I'm no rocket scientist, but we humans have some pretty effective traditional rocket designs...
Best not to use something that'll set off alarms and panic if it comes within ten miles of anyone. I also want to see reactions to a ship propelled by controlled explosions and fire.
>>5335645
To add, NTR = Nuclear Thermal Rocket. Nixon nixed the original NERVA program developing them in '73 but the second set of prototypes that were created in the 80s for the Strategic Defence Initiative were more than twice as efficient as the best chemical rockets today.
Also got to wonder how much Dave actually knows about aerospace.
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>>5335607
>Cold gas, huh? It may not be as powerful or efficient as your fancy futuretech ion thrusters, but have you ever heard of an arcjet rocket?
>>
>>5335607
>Cold gas, huh? It may not be as powerful or efficient as your fancy futuretech ion thrusters, but have you ever heard of an arcjet rocket?
I'd go for the NTRs, but I'm not sure we have the time or resources to make a bunch of reactors.
Also everybody out in space seems unreasonably wary of nuclear technology, so they probably wouldn't go for it.
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>>5335660
David seems like the kinda guy who would spend his free time drinking, working out, and reading random wikipedia articles.
>>
>>5335607
>>Write-in?
>>Okay listen up. We think completely outside the box. The gravity generator will create a point that is outside the ship, towards where we want it to move. This way the ship will always be falling towards that point, which we will be moving around for amazing unseen maneuverability

And of course a flying saucer is the perfect shape for this.
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>>5335795
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>>5335607
>Cold gas, huh? It may not be as powerful or efficient as your fancy futuretech ion thrusters, but have you ever heard of an arcjet rocket?
>>
>>5335801
If you could generate a gravity well remotely and lock it a set distance in the direction of travel from the ship it could hypothetically work. The key is just not having the opposing force you get from being attached to the pull. You'd also want to reinforce the hell out of the frame due to the way it'd be getting dragged with more intensity the closer to the gravity source.

Of course it would likely be more energy efficient to fart really hard for propulsion. And I don't think we can do that wonky gravy sploinking shit anyway so kind of irrelevant. Fun thought though.
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>>5335801
No, it's different. It magically creates localized gravity fields. As we know SHODAN is good enough to make gravity pockets of different intensities inside the ship and also to create a "tether" that can grab David in space.

As long as it makes enough sense and respects the RULE OF COOL I believe it can happen. SHODAN would have to create the well, maintain it and move it forward, so we can keep falling to where we want to.
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>>5335821
>>5335795
its definitely worth a try. reminds me of an alcubierre drive, but in a more bootleg version
>>
If this gravity-drive idea works, what might be smart is working out if our current propellant in the bullets is worth the loading complexities compared to using a gravity field to accelerate ammo out the barrel.

Similarly, assuming it's reasonably possible to create extremely high strength but short lived gravity generators we can get fancy with our melee weapons and grenades. Shearing-forces are a terrific thing and with, say, 20 Gs of acceleration in 2mm layers in opposing directions, we can effectively pull enemies apart.
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>>5335864
Remember to mix your high tech with low tech.

Instead of a counterweight operated trebuchet you use a big flywheel with a huge G-force right next to it diagonally to violently pull it to fling the tosser-arm forward. Build that shit outta space metal so it can hold up under the stupendous strain.

I don't care how much more efficient it would be to just fling the projectile by itself. Trebuchet.

Real shit it'd probably be smarter to just make the mother of all coilguns. The main restricting factor for rail and coilguns right now is batteries just can't cope or release energy fast enough for it to be viable. And just about anyone with even basic understanding of electronics can build one in their garage right now. Imagine how easy it is to make them with space shit.
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>>5335894
Name her bertha
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>>5335855
alcubierre compresses "forward" space and expands "backward" space... isn't that positive Gs at the front and negative Gs at the back?? Damn... we might invent a form of space travel that circumvents the warp. OR WE DO IT INSIDE THE WARP FOR MAXIUM SHITS AND GIGGLES

Worth nothing, I haven't seen any mention of a "repulsive" force being used in the quest. Only varying degrees of gravity
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>>5336006
I know a repulsive force, it's ur mom
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>>5335607
Why not nuclear salt water rockets?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvZjhWE-3zM
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>>5336238
that sounds extremely lethal for anything, kinda like using mercury as a propellant.
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>>5336358
EXCELLENT
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>>5335607
>If we used an NTR, we could produce thrust and electricity at the same time... only, it'd need a lot of shielding for you guys to use it.
Give us NUUUUKES! You guys are some pussies if you dont want nuke powered thrusters.
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>>5335607
I'm voting against nuclear rockets just because NTR is such a shit fetish
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>>5336389
no, you don't get it. this is lethal for *david*, which means that any kind of fuel leak or improper handling of the propellant will immediately kill the crew, and because the exhaust gases are radioactive, we can't use it anywhere near a station. this is just a horrible idea all around.
>>
Looks like arcjet thrusters win it.
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>>5335607

"About that... i actually have a pretty good thruster design that would produce more power, at high efficiency. We can even use plain water as the fuel."

["Really? That would solve some problems, but you'll need to speak with the engineers about that. Perhaps Kigg can help you out."]

"Sure. I don't know what he's up to right now, but i'll talk to him. In the meantime though, what should i do with this guy?"

You smack the side of the pod, and it sounds like you're hitting a trash can.

["He appears uninjured. Go ahead and wake him, if you like. We'll continue securing the other ships on our side."]

"Alright. Take care, rocknuts."

After ending the call you grab the pod and drag it into the medbay, causing it to screech against the metal floor tiles.
It can't be helped, since you barely fit through the medbay door in your armor anyways, nevermind while carrying this thing.

Inside, you find Gildur sitting in the corner, eating a sandwich by himself. He stares at you, looking guilty as he swallows his food.

"...Is that an egg sandwich? I thought you were vegan." You question.

He licks a bit of mayonnaise off his lips.

"Mrmm... well, uh... i uh... i am... normally."

"Normally?"

"Well no, i mean i am... but, these eggs are kind of delicious, so... even though it hurts my stomach, i just..."

"Oh, man. Don't tell me you're gonna blow up the toilet later? Jeeze, you should have told me. I'm sure we can get you some enzyme pills or something, like those lactose intolerant freaks..."

"Thank... you? Ah, captain... what's that cylinder you've got there?" Gildur wonders.

"Oh, this? Nothing much."

You casually smack the emergency release button, causing the pod door to fly open, releasing a torrent of foul and sickly sweet-smelling liquid.
Almost immediately, the man inside's eyes fly open and he rapidly sits up, causing the fluid to splash even more as he rips off his mask with a roar.

Gildur almost shits himself and drops his sandwich as he jumps up to get away from the man in the pod.
The man inside looks around wildly, chest heaving as he seems to be searching for something.

"Hey, man. Calm down. My name is Captain David R-"

It doesn't seem like he's listening, because he jumps up out of the pod and grabs a scalpel off a nearby surgical tray.
It's at this point that you become acutely aware your helmet is off, and your neck is exposed.

You prepare to grab him as he charges, but the man does something unexpected.
Just before you would have grabbed him, he jumps! Clear up to the ceiling, and sticks there!

Only for a moment though, as he dives back down at you, almost from straight overhead with his scalpel outstretched. He's aiming for your vitals!

However, if he expected you to be slow in this bulky suit, he's got another thing coming.
You swat his hand away with your left arm and turn your body to avoid him falling on you... which leaves you in an awkward position.

You hate to do it to him.
>>
>>5336573
Ah yes, post freezepod jitters, good times
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>>5336573
>like those lactose intolerant freaks..."
David somehow becomes more based every time he opens his mouth
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>>5336573
>like those lactose intolerant freaks..."
David is racist
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>>5336573
Is it possible to have SHODAN restrain him with a localized gravity field so we don't have to unnecessarily batter the poor traumatized treefrog? Because if so that would be great, but if not it's time for some 'rasslin. Try to stick to nondamaging submissions and control the purely healthy and natural urge to ground n' pound his head into the deckplate.
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>>5337353
that's actually doable-ish. raising the gravity to 2G should be enough to keep him on the ground so we can explain that he's safe
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>>5337353
Should be easy to stick him to the ceiling that way.
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>>5337353
We did that once to an assassin Gron's hired muscle paid to kill us back on xebric. We still need to find out if we can use randall's skin to make a stealth suit.
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>>5337397
I remember, both about the subdual technique and the chameleon skin we still need to vatgrow more of as a wrap for our armor.
>>
>>5336573

It would be difficult to grab a naked, falling man anywhere without seriously injuring him... so you're only left with one real option for incapacitation.
You slam your armored, metal hand down into his crotch as it passes by, although you aren't even sure whether or not he has any goods there until shortly afterwards.

The man lands on his hands and springs away from you, landing in a crouch across the room where he eyes you carefully...
And then he starts shaking, and grunting. And eventually, his posture collapses, and he falls over onto his side, grasping at his goods. Now he's just wheezing.

"Sorry man, but you came at me with a knife. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes."

"Tch, fair enough... hah... hah..."

It seems he's struggling to get his wind back.

"Who... hah... who are you? What do you want with me?" He asks.

"First off, i'm not a fed. Me and Gron have been looking for you, and your stupid ass is lucky to be alive, so be grateful."

"...What? You're not? But this is a grey scout ship, is it not? Have i not been sold?"

"The fuck are you talking about? Do i look like a grey to you, dumbass? Does he?"

You point at Gildur, who's flat up against the wall with a terrified expression on his face, watching this guy intently.

"...A Kelbhund? No, certainly not... hah... alright, alright... calm..."

The man takes a few moments to relax and catch his breath before speaking again. His junk clearly still hurts, but he seems to have good control over his body, since he's no longer shivering.

"I apologize for my behavior, but i hope you can understand, given my situation. My name is Vex, and it's... a pleasure to meet you, Captain."

"...So you were listening. Whatever, i accept your apology. My name's Captain David Rockefeller. You can call me Gunny if you like, i don't give a shit."

You offer the man a handshake, which he accepts.

"Now then, you said that Captain Kordunn was searching for me? Is he here?"

"No, he's nearby though. On the Starfall. The feds laid a trap for us, and we're picking up the pieces right now."

"A trap...? Shit, that's right! They were going to use me as bait!"

"Yeah, don't worry about it. They did, and we went in knowing full well what we were getting into. It's fine, we won in the end."

"I see... how many?"

"How many what?" You ask, confused.

"How many losses did we incur? Ships, civilian pilots and gunners..."

"...The fuck, why would i drag civilians into this?! No, it was just My crew and Gron's! There were no losses, besides my ship getting beat to hell and back."

Vex stares at you, dumbfounded. It seems he can't quite believe what you're saying.

"Look, just go talk to Kigg if you want details. He's probably in one of the cargo bays somewhere. Here, wear this."

You toss Vex a hospital gown to cover himself with, which sticks to his skin slightly due to the fluid covering him.

"And Gildur, clean this shit up, would you? It stinks."
>>
>>5337410
>"And Gildur, clean this shit up, would you? It stinks."
And instead of grabbing a mop, ur alien jannie's immediately on his PDA directing one of his new robo-subordinates to begin depooping procedures, rather than proceeding manually. You notice he still sticks around to check their work, muttering with disapproval and adjusting parameters on his pad as the 'bots go about their business of cleaning up froggy business. Isn't progress grand?
>>
>>5337410
>We just pulled a Saitama
>>
>>5337451
Saitama-sakae? Like the highschool that trains so many pro sumo guys? Or just the prefecture in general? I am confused.
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>>5337465
the one-punchman 『letting nuts fall on you fist』 style
>>
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>>5337465
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>>5337465
>>5337465
Assuming he's the bald monkish fella handing out the crotchpunch. At least we now know where he's from lol.
>>
>>5337511
He's from an anime parody of other shonen anime, where we only see the character after his training arc and struggle for strength, who is comically, absurdly overpowered.
>>
>>5337410

While Vex gets dressed, you finger through your new holopad and go through the checklist.

"Let's see... who should we visit next?"

"Three more AI remain, Captain. Each of them are likely carrying even more prisoners."

"Yeah, and they'll all probably just die if we leave them out here. Alright... how about that big one?"

"With the giant laser?"

"Yeah, i'm kinda interested in what was going on there."

...

It doesn't take long for SHODAN to get over there. There's still a big mess in this general area from your intense fighting.
One of the ships straight up exploded out here, and you used quite a few missiles as well. Not only that, there are a lot of those little drones floating about.

"Man, there's more of them than i thought. I hope this thing doesn't get any ideas... he could start ramming them up our tailpipe or something."

"I believe this AI may actually be offline, Captain. Their reactor signature is very weak, and no signal is being transmitted, either to the other AIs or to any of the nearby drones."

"Good... just keep floating. Little fuckin' hornets, they are."

"It would be nice if i could take control of the remainder, but i think i'll need access to their ship's IFF first..." SHODAN laments.

"Where would it be?"

"In the mechanical room, most likely. However, this ship's structure appears radically different from the others. I couldn't tell you where it would be, exactly."

"Yeah, don't worry. These guys ain't going anywhere."

As you push your way through a cloud of statically-charged debris, the AI ship comes into view.
It's still just sitting there, spinning like it was when you last left it. Just looking at it makes you a little dizzy.

"...We're gonna have to stop that with the gravity generator before we can board, i think. I'd just get flung off if i tried to stick to it."

"Agreed. It shouldn't take too long, Captain. I'll let you know when the process is complete."

"Alright. I guess i should check on Vex and Kigg, see what they're up to."

...

You find the two of them, along with Kyla, in the new cargo bay.
Kyla seems to be ordering Vex around, who's currently stuck to the ceiling like a lizard, working on something inside an open panel up there.

"Yeah, it's right up there! Thanks, bud!" She yells up at him.

"What's going on in here?" You wonder aloud.

"Oh, David. Good timing! I need you to pull on this structural beam, real hard. If you can just move it by like, a quarter inch..."

"This one here?"

You pull on the beam that she specified, feeling your suit and the ship both groaning under the strain.
As soon as it comes out just a bit though, a wall panel that was behind it falls out of place and clamours to the floor.

Behind it, there are a bunch of melted wires, some of which are still sparking.

"Ah, perfect! Thanks, hon. The whole ship's frame seems to be a little bit warped, so tolerances that used to be tight before are all just..."
>>
>>5338522
Damn, Just wait til we get to earth, then we'll show them some real cool alloys.
>>
>>5338522
>"Ah, perfect! Thanks, hon. The whole ship's frame seems to be a little bit warped, so tolerances that used to be tight before are all just..."
It's a wonder the airlocks even close lmao. Like a car that had a minor crash and now the doors don't fit
>>
>>5338522
>Ah, perfect! Thanks, hon.
Silly fungus, david's only a fuckbuddy
>>
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Happy birthday, to both Billy and David.
Rest well, Aniki.
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>>5339182
>its that day already
oh its that day again huh
shit
>>
>>5339182
Sleep tight, aniki.
>>
>>5339182
Taken from us far too soon
>>
>>5338522

"Yeah... we'll have to do something about that, won't we?"

"That'll be a bit difficult without taking the whole ship apart..." She whines.

"Nah, i mean if we design our own, you know? The Metal Gear is great and all, but it really wasn't designed for all this. At some point, you put in more effort working around all these limitations that's it's worth.
Don't you think it'd be better to start from the ground up, with your own design?"

Kyla's eyes light up, and you could swear they even sparkle just a bit.

"A... A whole ship, from the ground up? Fully custom?!"

"Could be fun, i dunno. We'll have access to xebric's shipyard if we manage to take it over, right?"

Ships aren't typically put together piece by piece, as it turns out. They're printed, in gigantic nanofabricators. However, those fabs are carefully controlled by the station's government, who are themselves controlled by the federation...
Things like advanced ion thrusters can't be printed normally, making it impossible to create efficient ships even out of scrap. And more than that, the critical components for space travel can't be printed at all. They have a limited stock available.

But if you took over the station, you'd have access to all of that. For a while at least, depending on how negotiations with the federation go.
Worst case scenario though, you go back to the old way of doing things. Bolts, rivets and welds. Industrial fabs can handle pretty large parts, enough to build a ship from with enough effort.

Right now though, you just need to focus on retrofitting all these drone ships, enough to make them useable at least.

"You sure love to dream big, huh David? But i like that! I've always wanted to build my own ship, ever since i was a little girl... but it's practically impossible to get a job like that, for a citizen of low birth like me."

"Low birth? What do you mean by that?"

"Well, you know... people born out on the rim. People from worlds with harsh conditions. Predator species, or even quasi-predators like me. Anyone the core world population would consider uncivilized."

"So... if you're born on a core world, you're automatically better than trash like us out in the dark, dirty depths of space?"

Kyla fidgets slightly while answering you.

"Yeah..."

"To the point that you can't even get the job you want, because it carries a modicum of power, prestige or importance?"

"W-Well, yeah, i guess..."

You inhale sharply through your nose, then exhale slowly through your mouth.
Fucking corpos.

"Yeah, okay." You growl. "...Say, Kyla?"

"Y-Yes?"

"Do they have oil on those core worlds?"

"Oil...?"

"Yeah. Petroleum products. Dinosaur squeezins. Black gold. Even coal would do."

"Oh, like... natural oils? Yeah, most civilizations move past that as an energy source pretty quickly, once the environmental effects are realized."

You grin wide and hard, until your cheeks hurt.

"Well then, looks like Uncle Sam needs to plant the seeds of freedom yet again."
>>
>>5339564
TIME TO CRUSADE THE GALAXY FOR OIL!!!!!!!!!

also i thought of a Kilometer long ship, geared for war, but it also has a passenger suite, and we can become a Starliner. transporting people.
>>
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>>5339564
>"Well then, looks like Uncle Sam needs to plant the seeds of freedom yet again."
>>
oh boy, we get to bring out the oil-wars shenanigans, like speedboat battles in electrified swamps full of anti ship mines

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_the_Marshes
>>
>>5339564
>They have oil
Those poor fuckers, they are about to get 'liberated'.
>>
>>5339564
>They're printed, in gigantic nanofabricators.
>However, those fabs are carefully controlled by the station's government, who are themselves controlled by the federation.
so your telling me people cant create for shit because of copyright?
man deja vu where have I heard that before
>>
>>5339597
that's just fucking starsector
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acqpulP1hLo
>>
Oh nooooooooooo. It sure would be a shame if somebody were to systematically jailbreak or replace every system on the station.
>>
>>5339601
>NnnooOoooooOOOOoo you can't just create a backdoor to all of our proprietary hard/software to allow for installation and operation of non-sanctioned operating systems and executables
>ha ha middle schoolers with basic tech savvy go brrrrr
Fucking federation dweebs.
>>
>>5339564
The feds aren't prepared for Uncle Sam's bullshit. I'd feel sorry for them if they weren't pieces of shit.
>>
>>5339564
I just can't wait for that inevitable moment of first contact between humanity and federation.
By the way are we sure feds didn't find earth yet? A couple of threads ago there was this whole scene with Cylia's brother after he joined the navy and he mentioned that federation was getting ready for war or something like that.
>>
>>5339564
HehehehehehHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
>>
>>5339597
Copyright is the Jewest cancer to plague mankind and is a threat to everything.
>>
>>5339666
Yeah, that was a civil war on Cylia's home planet likely being instigated by the federation, that she hasn't mentioned was happening yet to us. But it wasn't Earth related.
>>
>>5339672
We should bring that up to Cylia.
>>
>>5339803
We don't know about it either in game.
>>
>>5339564

"Well then, looks like Uncle Sam needs to plant the seeds of freedom yet again."

Oh boy we are off to war in a faster bullet then ever though possible.
>>
>>5339564
>we let slip they have oil in space
>Earth develops spacefaring travel faster than we can leak it
>>
An idea.
Plastanium, essentialy plasteel but with titanium instead of steel, could that work or do feds already have that?
yes i got the idea from mindustry
>>
>>5340520
Nah dude, memory steel. Shit that reforms back into its set state after any manipulation all on its own. So then you can have a self-sharpening knife and an unbending steel pipe. For all of your seal clubbing needs.

We have fabrics that can do it, how hard can it be to make a metal do it too? Very. But it's cool.
>>
It takes a while to calm your burning desire to deliver freedom upon the poor, unwilling masses. In the meantime, you assist Kyla with some ship repairs before getting back to your real job.

"Captain, i've halted the weapon's rotation. It should be "safe" to board now."

"Alright, thanks SHODAN. Sorry Kyla, i gotta get going again."

"Don't get killed, blockhead." She teases.

"Not planning on it..."

Just as you're about to leave, you notice Vex looking pretty winded.

"Yo, Vex? You good? You're not having any side effects from that pod, are ya?"

"Hah... no, not quite..." He says, breathily.

"What's up, then?"

"...Really?" He snaps back, seeming slightly incensed."

"What? I'm not a fuckin' mind reader."

...Probably.

"The gravity on this ship is ridiculous. Even with my training, it's enough to make my bones creak. I can't believe you lot are living in this."

"Oh, shit... that's right. Sorry, man. We can turn it down if you need us to."

"If you wouldn't mind. I can feel the blood pooling in my footpads just from sitting here for a moment."

SHODAN drops the gravity shipwide to a "more manageable" 0.6 gees, which is fine anyways since it's probably best that you save on energy for the moment.
The next ship you build is going to have more than one antimatter bottle, for sure. You'll just have to armor it really well...

You make your way to the airlock and lock your helmet back into place. You're ready to go.

"Be careful, it's rejecting any and all communications." SHODAN warns you.

"Alright... let's go see what this guy's problem is, huh?"

Stepping off into space once more, you make the short trip over to the weapon ship's hull... and actually stick to it quite well, unlike the others.
There's no obvious docking port on this one, besides the ones these four drone ships are attached to. It would be good if you could find a way in before your suit gets too toasty.

>The whole front end of the ship is gone, revealing the gigantic laser it used on you. Maybe there's a hatch or something around there?
>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
>With enough explosives, walls are merely suggestions. Make your own entrance.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5340542
>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
>>
>>5340542
>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
>>
>>5340542
>>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
>>
>>5340542
>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
>>
>>5340542
>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
>>
>>5340542
The ship was spinning, probably on more then one axis, therefor SHODAN could have trivially scanned the bulk of the exterior for potential access ports while it was being spun down. At the very least SHODAN could note if any of the docking ports is damaged already.
>>
>>5340542
>>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?
This one's a no brainer chief
>>
>>5340542
>You know it's got at least four docking ports, it's just that there's a ship plugging the hole. Maybe a little explosive charge could fix that?

Mayne we need a Infiltration ship or better yet Infiltration drone class lets call it that is a mobile airlock that is armed with breeching charges one its doors that is extra armored for lightning fast transport between ships andbreeching ships without losing pressure. Maybe add a capability to easily patch holes made with breeching charges too like a roll of metallic tape on the outside. Add seats on the inside and gas thruster tanks. Easy to refill but does limit the range and useability as a proper ship.
>>
>>5341892
For infiltration missions we already have the metal gear; we can just make blueprints based onits original design, but for taking over other ships, we could make a boarding shuttle. Yeah, they would have no real offensive capabilities or flight range, but could focus on being fast and resilient, so that they can deliver troops to a specific ship and either evacuate them fast if shit goes wrong or retun to the mothership full of prisoners
>>
>>5340542

"SHODAN, can you take control of these drones at all? I need a way in."

"I'm afraid not, captain. While it is possible to control them remotely, each set of drone ships exists on it's own network. I'd have to get access from the current network administrator first."

"Damn, worth a shot. What about the other ones? Like, the ones that were controlled by the AI we've pulled the plug on, or who've already died."

"They've registered as having lost their administrator, but i still can't access them for some reason. I've been trying to work around it, but their network security has very few holes."

"Alright. You keep working on that, while i make myself a way in."

...

You make your way over to one of the docking ports where the drone ships are connected to the AI ship. It looks larger and sturdier than any normal docking port you've seen, so you're not even entirely sure it's meant for people.
Still, it's your best shot at getting inside at the moment.

You brought some equipment with you this time, since you figured you might have some trouble. It's all contained in a large, metallic box that's magnetically attached to your lower back. More than a little bulky, but at least you're prepared.
Opening the hermetic seal on the box, you reach in and pull out a small fabric pouch with an antenna sticking out of it. It's surface almost immediately begins to char, so you stick it to the surface of the docking port and quickly pull out your next item.

It's a wax paper brick with dark black clay inside. Literally, it's just clay with a bunch of heavy metal mixed in, to make it... well, heavy.
Moving quickly, you flatten the clay out and press it over the fabric pouch, making sure to seal the pouch inside as thoroughly as possible.

Repeating this process three more times, you cover each cardinal direction of the circular port in explosives.
You watch from a slight distance as they detonate, creating a bright flash but practically no smoke or debris. Though you do hear small shards of something metallic bouncing off of your armor.

The damage is pretty good, honestly. The port is mostly destroyed, although it's still hanging on by some threads... wires, actually. Thick conduits that you end up having to cut with your sonicator.
There's no energy flowing through them though, so it's not a big deal.

Now however, you have a different problem.
The docking port has been severed down the middle, but the damned ship is still in the way and the gap is too small for you to crawl through while wearing your armor.

Fortunately, there's no gravity out here. That makes this a bit easier on your part. Just a bit.
Since the two ships are quite close together, you're able to find a spot where there's an outcropping on the drone ship's hull. Seems like a heatsink, by the looks of it. All that matters though, is that the gap here is shorter than you are tall.

So you position yourself atop the heatsink for one hell of a heavy squat.
>>
>>5342213
I want to cum inside giant Hive A.I. ships
>>
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<5342980
>>
>>5342213

You put out with a heave and feel the weight of the starship above you. It doesn't budge... at first. Slowly though, you feel it start to move, and as you continue pushing on it with all you've got, it begins to accelerate.
By the time you can no longer touch it, the severed drone ship is drifting away at maybe a few inches per minute or so. Not bad, for a single rep.

"Captain, i can't help but notice that one of the four drone ships has been severed and is currently floating away."

"Yeah, and?"

"No, nevermind. Good work, Captain."

Making your way back to the severed docking port, you discover that there is something there. A manual bulkhead that wouldn't look out of place on a navy vessel.

"Alright, that's different..."

You turn the locking wheel and find that it opens surprisingly easily, apparently assisted by hydraulics of some sort.
There's a massive blast of air as soon as you crack it open though, and you have to wait a minute for the air to finish escaping.

When it's finished depressurizing though, you look inside and find a rather cramped looking hallway that's poorly lit and seems very utilitarian in nature.
There's no room to swing a weapon in here, so if there's an enemy you'll just have to rip it apart with your hands.

You flick on your helmet lamp for some better light, and almost as soon as you step inside you find scrawlings across almost every surface of the walls.

["Bep was here, 12/4310/10"]

4310? It's currently 4322, so that would be... around 38 earth years?
Damn, this thing's been around for quite a while.

There are more scrawlings, all seeming to be either from the crew who build the ship, or else maintenance crews.

["Zolynder serviced this vessel, and so shall he service your mother."]

["The only thing Zolynder ever serviced was other men."]

["I hate this damned ship. It wasn't designed to be worked on after being built."]

["The council can suckle my Glubark, i hope they all defecate themselves!"]

["I am just a slave. I can't even kill myself. I pray to the gods for an accident, every workshift. They refuse to answer."]

Well... that last one was a bit dark. But besides that, there are hundreds of similar messages throughout the hallway.
Looking around, there don't really seem to be doors in here, so much as holes. Holes leading here or there, some large enough to crawl through, others not so much.

None of them particularly seem to lead anywhere, except to jumbles of pipes, wires, cables and so-on. Except for one.
It's an even smaller tunnel, lined with pipes and dimly lit by red emergency lighting. There's a warning sign by the entrance, that clearly states death is inevitable upon entering.

However, that's the only way forwards, at least from this entrance. As far as you can tell.

>Head inside, it can't be that bad
>Fuck it, look for a proper entrance elsewhere. This is clearly just a service hatch.
>Write-In?
>>
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>>5343497
>Fuck it, look for a proper entrance elsewhere. This is clearly just a service hatch.
oh so someone was here? maybe he's still around
>>
>>5343497
>>Fuck it, look for a proper entrance elsewhere. This is clearly just a service hatch.
Probably just like, a radiation hazard or something. Not really a big deal but don't want to track that shit back home with the squishies.

Besides, if we can't find an entrance we're already past the bulk of the armor. We can just rip through walls and shit now that we're past the external plating.
>>
>>5343513
This
>>
>>5343497
>>Fuck it, look for a proper entrance elsewhere. This is clearly just a service hatch.
>>
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>>5343497
>Fuck it, look for a proper entrance elsewhere. This is clearly just a service hatch
>Before we leave, add something to the local grafitti
>"On [current date here] David Rockefeller was able to confirm that Zolynder is, indeed, a faggot.

We have to keep up tradition.
>>
>>5343820
Supporr
>>
>>5343820
that would also make david a faggot as well
>>
>>5343820
Support.
>>
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>>5343497
>>Fuck it, look for a proper entrance elsewhere. This is clearly just a service hatch.
>>Write-In?
>>Use the sonicator pen to draw a dick. One with foreskin, no like pic related it was a false flag btw
>>
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>>5343497

After a moment's contemplation, you decide that whatever's in there probably isn't what you're looking for anyways.
This entrance might be slightly too "backdoor" even for you.

You begin making your way back out to the surface of the ship, but along the way all those scribbles catch your eye again.
Taken by the spirit of things, you pull the sonicator pen out of your suit's arm-mounted toolkit and engrave a little drawing of your own, straight into the metal surface.

You don't know where this ship might end up someday. Maybe just in a graveyard like this, who knows. But someday, another human might come across this little guy.
You wonder if that human will still get the reference. You wonder how much time might have passed before that happens, if it ever does. Ah well.

Making your way outside, you see that the drone ship you cut free has drifted off a fair distance by now, and as a result you're receiving a lot more heat from the glow of the surrounding nebula.
So you move into the shade of another drone ship, then make your way over to the nose of the ship, where the laser weapon pokes out.

It's pretty big, and complicated. All that shit in the maintenance tunnels is probably there just to feed this thing, and you'd be surprised if there's room for much else on the inside.
All around the outer rim of the ship's nose are what look like docking clamps, probably meant to keep the nose of the ship in place when the laser isn't in use.

Besides that and the laser itself, most of the surfaces here seem to be covered by cooling fins... which actually makes it easier to spot what you're looking for, since it's the one place that isn't covered.
Sure enough, there's an airlock there. And thankfully, not only is it powered, it even opens for you automatically.

Stepping inside, you can see through the second airlock and into the ship beyond. Like before, the hall is dimly lit by red emergency lighting, and looks very utilitarian in nature...
Fortunately though, these halls appear much less like spiderholes and more like actual hallways.

As soon as you step inside though, you immediately sense that something is off. A sense of foreboding, but one that you recognize as something more.
There's probably at least one wraith on this ship, if not more.

>Fuck it man, you've had enough demons for one day.
>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
>The atmosphere in here is breathable, and you're much more nimble without the armor. Maybe it'd be easier to fight without it.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck it man, you've had enough demons for one day.
we've already been stabbed by one today and the medics had to stitch us up. having to crawl back to them is just disrespectful towards the crew
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
We could try to scream in our mind at them, as loud as we can. I wonder if it would work.
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
Stomp off their limbs gunny.
>>
>>5344512
Get out of the armor and get the knife ready, but call back to SHODAN and let her know we've encountered another wraith.
>>
>>5344512
What if this sensed presence of wraiths would be related to this ship's AI? We've already seen that this vessel is visibly non-standard. Who knows what kind of shit could be locked up in there?
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck it man, you've had enough demons for one day.

Power armor might freeze up with EMP and suitless the AI for the ship might Space us. We can play this smarter.
>>
>>5344512
>The atmosphere in here is breathable, and you're much more nimble without the armor. Maybe it'd be easier to fight without it.
Pull out your special knife and a wraith talon. Get ready to dance.
>>
>>5344512
>>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
>>
>>5344512
>Fuck em, you're in goddamned power armor. You'd like to see them try.
>Bang that you are here for Wrath ass and they can do it the easy way or the hard way.
>>
>>5344512
>>Fuck it man, you've had enough demons for one day.
no senpai, moth babe is going to get pissy if we crawl back to her all stabbed. Disrespectful you know?
>>
>>5344512
>The atmosphere in here is breathable, and you're much more nimble without the armor. Maybe it'd be easier to fight without it.
>Write-In?
Attempt to fuck a wraith in the ass just for the hell of it.
>inb4 David becomes GhostFuckerAnon inna Space
>>
>>5344512
So based on how the power armor works and how wraiths fuck with electrical systems is it likely to be shutdown by them?

If so, then get out the armor and proceed.

If not, stay in and fuck’em up
>>
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>>5345260
Anon... Kinsey's spirit got inside you
>>
>>5345325
The suit is at least partially EMP hardened, to the point that, if nothing else, you'll still be able to move and get out if need be.
In theory, anyways. It's always just a matter of "how much" it can withstand, and there's never an upper limit on energy input.

That said, several functions of the suit would cease to work under extreme conditions, such as the cooling system, the headlamp and night vision functions, the radio, ect.
It's just a prototype suit, after all. A very good one, but still just a prototype.
>>
>>5344512
Unlike before, this probably is the way you need to go, and you're not about to back down from a little fight just because it's against some supernatural entity.
And it helps that you're cheating like a motherfucker right now with this suit on.

Completely unphased by the wraith's presence, you stride forwards confidently, waiting for it to appear.
The layout of this ship seems very different than the others, with the hall branching, turning and even twisting seemingly at random, probably to avoid components of the laser the ship was built around.

That also makes it hard to see where an enemy that can phase through walls might be hiding, but that doesn't matter so much when you can feel where they are.
Right ahead of you, to the left. It's hiding just inside the wall, waiting to pop out as you pass by. You act like you don't even know it's there.

And when it jumps out, you grab it by the skull. It's head passes straight through the "mundane" layers of your suit's armor, but stops against the bare skin of your palm where you grasp it forcefully, digging your thumb into it's eye socket.
You can feel it's head being forced backwards as the rest of it's body materializes, but you refuse to let go even as it begins screeching, likely as a distress signal to it's fellows.

It doesn't matter either way. You deliver a massive blow directly into it's gut with your free right hand, the suit's strength ripping the wraith out of your grip and slamming it hard into the sheet metal wall it popped out of.
Facing it now, you grab it by the skull once again, this time with your suit's palm, and slam it's skull into wall repeatedly until there's nothing but black goo and shattered bones left in your hand.

As soon as it dies, you hear a cacophonous screech from further down the hall. Must be at least a few down there.
And indeed there are. Unlike previous encounters, they waste no time charging straight at you en mass, like they've got a grudge against you or something.

"Motherfuckers, you got a problem with me? You started this shit, never forget that."

As the first one reaches you, just like before it passes through your suit's armor, but it's jaw still makes solid contact with the warp-dusted knuckles of your glove and gets blasted back as if he was hit by a truck.
The additional strength afforded by your power armor would ordinarily mean that you had a good chance of shattering your fist like this, but the bodies of these wraiths are so light and weak that it doesn't seem to matter at all.

The next two you grab by their throats, and use to run a train straight through the growing crowd in front of you. Many wraiths are trampled or knocked aside, but as you turn to face them, they quickly get back to their feet.
To test a little theory, you let go of the wraiths' necks with your bare hands, and as expected their half-phased bodies are quickly forced out of the suit where you can again grab them, this time with your full strength.
>>
>>5345542
RIP and TEAR!
>>
>>5345542
UNTIL IT IS DONE
>>
>>5345542
BLOOD. SO MUCH BLOOD! DRINK THEIR SANGUINE FLUIDS! PAIN THE VOID WITH THEIR WHIMPERS!
>>
>>5345542
YOU MOTHERFUCKERS FUCKED AROUND, COME FIND OUT!
>>
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>>5345542
>To test a little theory, you let go of the wraiths' necks with your bare hands, and as expected their half-phased bodies are quickly forced out of the suit where you can again grab them, this time with your full strength.

>David is pic related
>>
>>5345542
REMEMBER YOU FUCKERS CHOSE TO PICK A FIGHT WITH US BY EXISTING.
>>
>>5345542
Talons to add to our collection, flesh for studies.
Come. Let them cry and call out for help. More meat for us. I want that bitch boy wraith lord to come out so we can fuck him up. I want to mount his skull to our helmet.
>>
So here’s a theory, guys.

Wraiths are/were endemic to earth in similar fashion to how they appeared to be endemic to the Dodo planet. Humans evolved around them, and we know them as ghosts/spirits/spooky things in the night (and that’s also why we could faintly see them the whole time). Humanity is just so FUCK YEAH that eventually we started hunting and killing the wraiths until they became practically extinct, hence why they aren’t a known/documented thing in the modern day. At some point along the way, people picked up enough wraith-juice like David did to ‘open their third eye’ (or whatever the fuck happened). Having done that, they saw some strange things for unknown reasons and that’s how the Human Tree of Life also appears on the AI boxes. Because ancient shaman homebois touched on the same root of whatever magic is being used there, and wrote down some stuff related to it.
>>
>>5346265
Wraith skull shoulder pauldron for princess the pet dragon to slither on/through is peak space warlord fashion
>>
>>5346268
rather than the wraiths being endemic to earth(because apparently they are pretty common in fed space) its easier to assume that humanity just drove them off earth. having them become endemic is just too much of a mess

also, F for the only beings in the quest that were remotely a challenge to us.
>>
>>5346268
I think QM or another anon laid down some nuggest of truth a while back, but I like your theory and can't find reason to rebuttal it.

>>5346273
Princess is a little too big for that, and is constantly growing, her slithering through the skull I mean. Shoulder pauldrons is nice though. I would honestly prefer the demon skull be modified into the PA's helmet, but if you want the demon skull for a pauldron, what do you want to decorate the head of the PA with? Me I think we should carve up some bones to look like teeth and attach them to the top and bottom halves of the helmet, to make the whole thing look like a maw with teeth. You know, classic helmet that looks like a monster mouth.
>>
>>5346281
>also, F for the only beings in the quest that were remotely a challenge to us.
Just you wait, someone is going to bring a mech or a tank to a David fight. And David will respond by making a space killdozer
>>
>>5346298
hopefully, because right now the stakes are so high and david is being wanked(in a narrative sense) so hard that there's no real way we can lose.
>>
>>5346295
I think a plain reflective black blank helmet with no ornamentation is best. Sticking something so nonchalant in the midst of all the badass trophies we’ll collect is a sort of scary that’s all it’s own.
>>
>>5345542
The next version of our power armor needs to have warp metal dust mixed into the hand parts so we can rip and tear more efficiently
>>
>>5346273
Man, I love this. I really wanna spend some time with baby Princess before she grows so fucking big for the Metal Gear, or before she goes through her teenage phase, whatever happens first
>>
>>5346273
On the topic of harvesting Wraiths, we should really scan their corpses and see if there's any trace Warp Metal present in there.
It's not that farfetched, for all we know they could be stimulating internal warp metal deposits to generate all those EMP fields.
>>
>>5345542

A quick squeeze is all it takes to shatter the bones in their necks, and you toss them aside like trash.
It's weird how calm you feel right now. Before, simply being in the presence of this many wraiths would make you piss your pants, but now?
It feels no different than facing a regular enemy. For some reason, that hold they had on your mind and your instincts seems to be gone, or at least very much reduced.

You calmly pull the warp-dusted trench knife from the sheath on your thigh and wield it in your left hand, leaving the right free to grab and manipulate.
More wraiths flood in from further inside the ship, leaving you trapped between them. Seeing this, the wraiths take their time, bunching up to make sure there are no gaps for you to escape through.

"You little bastards... you think you've got me? There's only one problem with that."

They may not be able to see you grinning from ear to ear, but they must feel your animosity, because they all take a figurative step back as you prepare yourself to attack.

"You're the ones trapped in here with me!"

You charge at them, knife held in a reverse grip. At the same time, the wraiths on both side of the hall rush at you as well, floating around even along the ceiling to fill up every possible space.
As soon as you're in range you plunge your blade into the skull of one wraith, and in a sweeping motion you smash three or four of them straight into the wall, crushing them against eachother's bodies.

There's a staccato of cracking bone as their flesh gives way, and you push through the remaining wraiths with your entire body like before, trampling them once again.
One wraith comes at you with a bladed hand as you turn to face the crowd again, but it's blade bounces off your armor, leaving only a partial cut in it's surface.

In response, you grab it's arm with your free hand and pull it towards you, then use your knife to sever it's head completely, leaving you drenched in a spray of black blood.
Not done yet, you swing it's lifeless body like a flail, smacking it and two more wraiths against the wall. Those two aren't dead yet though, so you let go of the body swing your forearm at them instead.

There isn't just the cracking of bone this time, but they're damn near ripped in half as the wall itself is dented inwards behind them.
There are still more coming at you, flooding in from down the hall. There's no time to use your knife, so you toss it straight ahead where it pierces the skull of one wraith, who instantly drops to the floor, trampled by it's fellows.

Knives are too slow, and you have to kill fast.
At some point, your method of fighting devolves into simply grabbing the enemy and ripping them limb from limb, smashing bodies together and grinding them between the walls of the ship and your power armor.

You're not sure how much time has passed since you started, but one thing's for sure.
You're the only one left standing amongst a pile of black blood and gore.
>>
>>5346920
THE ONLY THING I KNOW FOR REAL
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CXRxRTW6nXg
>>
>>5346956
lmao

>>5346920
The blood god is pleased
>>
>>5346920
Got an idea. We should totally make a two handed axe with warp metal and then just cleave or way through wraiths
>>
>>5346920
So their demon mind powers don't effect us anymore? Sucks for them.
>>
>>5346920
Sounds like we need warp dust gauntlets for sure and... well this is going to sound silly but... an EMP shielded warp dust weed whacker with oversized warp dust razor blade chains instead of wire? Lightweight, reach, just shred the demons.
>>
>>5347391
Just make a chainsaw (or a little mini-chainsaw if you want it to be light). We don’t need to reinvent Doom Guy’s toolkit
>>
>>5347405
the weed whacker idea sounds easier.
>>
>>5347409
It’s not, weed whackers have to transfer force from the motor down to the head. Chainsaws drive the chain right at the motor. They’re a simpler and more reliable system.
>>
I'm not convinced the chainsaw would work as well but it would have more utility value.

That saidn the look on our crew's face after we tell them that that our demon whacker is normally used for light plant trimming back on Earth would be priceless.
>>
I wonder how well warp metal infused spray paint or spray adhesive would work at creating barriers or enhancing normal weapons.
>>
>>5347577
Playing around with aerosolized, powdered warp metal might be begging to cause miniature lightning storms.

Which is its own kind of cool/useful, but not what you were going for.
>>
>>5347602
Lightning thrower
>>
>>5347646
Phasers are already lightning throwers
>>
>>5346920

It's over, you think. They've stopped coming.
You stand there, panting slightly from the exertion as you stare down at the chunk of gore gripped tightly in your fingers. A piece of ribcage, you think.

Your armor is completely soaked in blood and viscera, to the point that the yellow titanium rust is no longer visible.
Instead, your armor has taken on an almost otherworldly black sheen.

It's also covered in many new cuts and scratches, like you lost a fight with an oversized blender.
But as far as you can tell, they weren't able to do any real damage to you or your armor. Everything is still functioning just fine.

You take a moment to catch your breath before moving forwards. There's a loud squelch with every step you take, and even the ceiling is dripping with blackened fluids.
What's covering the ground is almost enough to make even you sick.

"...SHODAN, do you read me?"

"I do now, Captain. Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. The situation has been dealt with."

"That's good to hear. Communications were down, and there was a large electromagnetic disturbance emanating from the ship. Wraiths, i assume?"

"Yeah, a lot of them, actually. Like i said though, i handled it."

"...Captain, i still can't get a feed from your helmet cam. Was it damaged in the battle?"

"Huh? Ah, hold on a minute."

You do your best to wipe the camera lens clean without scratching it, but you really need a rag.

"Is the lens dirty? I'm still having trouble seeing, i'm afraid."

"Yeah, sorry. Nothing i can do about it right now."

The light holes for your helmet's visor are actually pretty dirty as well, making it hard for you to see.
It doesn't matter much, though. The only enemy here is one you can sense in total darkness. And that's why you know, there's at least three more here that haven't attacked you for some reason.

Before you reach that room though, you stumble across the "engine room" where the dark matter, dark energy and antimatter bottles are stored, and there you discover the likely reason there were so many wraiths on this ship.
You don't even have to open the door to see all the little black flecks of dark matter floating through the air, passing straight through the walls of the ship, straight through you...

When you do open it though, you see the source. There's been a lot of damage to this room, in the form of an electrical fire. Soot has covered the walls and ceiling in here, but more importantly the fire seems to have reached the bottles themselves.
Most of them look alright, but the dark matter bottle in here got the brunt of it, and seems to have cracked. It's not leaking all at once, but slowly and steadily. That must have attracted the ones who came due to the big leak earlier.
>>
>>5347948

>Take it with you when you leave. You might be able to repair it, but it's free warp metal either way.
>Crack it open now and just salvage the warp metal. It may attract even more wraiths, but you don't care.
>Take it out of the receptacle and huck it as hard as you can out into space. It's more trouble than it's worth.
>Just ignore it, you've got bigger issues to deal with right now.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5347950
>Just ignore it, you've got bigger issues to deal with right now.
most of the wraiths killed, let's get the objective and get out. taking the bottles is a bad idea I think
>>
>>5347950
>Just ignore it, you've got bigger issues to deal with right now.
I think black and gold looks good on our armor dont ya think?
>>
>>5347950
>Just ignore it, you've got bigger issues to deal with right now.
>>
>>5347950
>Take it out of the receptacle and huck it as hard as you can out into space. It's more trouble than it's worth.

If we want our crew to any work on the ship later is better to deal with this ASAP
>>
>>5347950
>Just ignore it, you've got bigger issues to deal with right now.
>>
>>5347950

>Take it with you when you leave. You might be able to repair it, but it's free warp metal either way.
>>
>>5347950
Yeet that bottle towards the closest star.
>>
>>5347948
>Take it out of the receptacle and huck it as hard as you can out into space. It's more trouble than it's worth.
Woosh down the airlock it goes
>>
It's been quite a while since i last polled my players, so i figure now's a good time to do so.

Is there anything you particularly like or dislike about the quest? Anything you'd like to see more or less of?
How's my writing? Are there any problems with the pacing?

I know there's often a lot of dialogue inbetween votes which some people might dislike, but i'm not sure that making every little thing a vote would actually make the quest better, particularly considering i make one update a day.
But yeah, if there's anything i could be doing better, please let me know.
>>
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>>5348909
It is incredibly comfy QM I thought it would be a nostalgic HFY classic until you pull out the alien ghosts and a living fleshlight out of nowhere and david actually getting progressively stronger with high gravity like real bara levels of strength even though he doesn't know it yet.
I personally want more than one update because its absolutely jarring its been more than year since the first quest but its still fine as it is
just dont get cursed and you'll be fine
>>
>>5348917
I agree, i'd like to do more updates as well. I had a little help with my work there for a while, so i thought i'd be able to go back to two updates a day, but that quickly fizzled out.
I dunno, i've definitely fallen into updating daily as a routine by now, so maybe i could handle it without burning out. This was my first quest so i wasn't used to it at all and had no idea what i was doing.
>>
>>5348909
i'd like to have a real challenge in the quest. so far the one thing that could pose a threat to david were the wraiths and those from these thread on are basically nothing, and the attack on xebric is so stupidly dangerous that we will manage to capture the station without any real problems. maaaaybe cylia will break her arm, but that's it.

the only recent moment that we had to use our brains was when we tried to kill gron but then we defected to their side. i'd consider the attack on the feds as well, but there are no real consequences either; david supposedly is hurt right now and he has a pretty deep stab as well but that isn't reflected in how he fights in the slightest. the metal gear is damaged™ and constrained with the weight it has, but conveniently the ship is so advanced that it doesn't matter; and to make it worse david can't even be intellectually challenged because he can brute force his way out of a situation

I get this is a HFY and having humanity be the top dog is expected, but from a narrative POV there's nothing stopping david from taking over a federation flagship in this current state; the population at large is basically retarded and only david can use the best toys and tactics in the quest, so of course he would. so yeah, more challenge please. either by making the population competent, having consequences to david's idiocy or a combination of both.
>>
>>5348955
Aye, the lack of challenge and overall struggle usually makes for a worse story, i agree. David hasn't really faced anything he couldn't handle just yet, and the wraiths were the first thing to really hurt him.
Big dreams mean big problems though, and that may not always be the case.

Also, you haven't had any ship combat since the Metal Gear was crippled. It just happened after all, but it'll be reflected in future encounters.
And do keep in mind, your crewmates don't necessarily have the same sort of plot armor that David does in a HFY quest, because they aren't human.

They have their strengths, but plenty of weaknesses as well.
The population will likely remain retarded in some form though
>>
>>5348964
>spoiler
they always will be
this actually plays apart when they notice the humans to so we can sleep better when they will kill us first
>>
>>5348969
without a guilty conscious I mean
>>
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I started this quest while I was in training for my army MOS. it's carried through over a year into my station. Its become part of my morning now
>>
Looks like a tie between leaving it be for now and hucking it out the airlock, so we'll go with a combination of the two.

>>5348998
Shit, man. Thanks for making my little polished turd a part of your routine, that's pretty awesome!
I'll try to get tomorrow's post out before i go to bed more frequently. I've been doing it on the day of lately.
>>
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>>5347948

That dark matter bottle is looking like a problem that you're going to have to deal with before heading back, but you've got bigger fish to fry right now.
You head back slightly and dig your trench knife out of the muck before continuing on down the hall to find what you were looking for. Everything you were looking for, actually.

Before you stand three large, ephemeral demons, much like the one who had possessed Javan.
The largest of the three stands before the ship's Blue Box interface, and is actually holding the AI's Blue Box at the moment.

The other two stand by it's side, watching on as it pokes at the box with it's blackened nail.

"Hey."

No reaction, they just ignore you.

"HEY!" You shout. One of the smaller demons looks back at you, but turns back to keep watching what the big guy is doing.

Oh, he did not just fucking ignore you.
Immediately and without another word, you remove the warp-dusted two-handed mace from your back. It's finally time to put this thing through it's paces.

Since they feel like they can ignore you, you simply walk up to them as they have their backs turned, and swing down on one of the smaller demons with everything you and your suit have got.
Instantly, it's head cave in with a splatter of black blood and brain chunks, something missing from the lesser wraiths, and it's forced down onto it's knees where it slowly slumps forwards onto the floor.

The other two demons immediately turn to face you, eyes full not of fear, but of anger.

"Feel like talking to me now, motherfuckers? Come get-"

Before you can finish your sentence, the larger demon raises it's right arm, it's palm facing towards you.
Almost immediately, you feel something grab you. Literally, physically grab you. And then, it's almost as if you're in zero gravity... you even begin floating upwards!

That peaceful moment only lasts for an instant though, as you're suddenly thrown backwards with massive force, sending you smashing straight through the ship's weak inner walls before tumbling end over end.
Finally, you come to a stop two rooms over, unharmed but in a slight daze. Holy shit, what did that thing just do?!

No time to think. The large demon strides confidently towards you, a smug, toothy grin plastered across it's face.
It holds the Blue Box in it's left hand, which you see now is glowing with a brilliant red light. It's tree of life isn't just visible, it's burning in front of you.

Your armor is intact, and your mace is still held tightly in hand.
If you're going to do something, now might be the time.

>Go for a direct kill. Overwhelm it with raw power.
>Act like you're weak. Like you've lost. Then strike with your knife once it's guard is down.
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
>Write-In?
>>
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>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
>>
>>5349044
>>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JtH_0WcKyA
Yeah we can reach out and touch you too, asshole.
>>
>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
I hope it's skull is still in good condition after this
>>
>>5349044
>>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.

Just finished reading the archive to catch up to here, and I gotta say I love it. Feels like proper old HFY with just enough "Humans are goddamned insane" without going full "A human toddler could beat the universe's greatest warrior", and I love the humor you sprinkle through it. Like, there's a serious story that the characters treat seriously, but you manage to get just the right amount of sudden laughs out of me to keep it from ever being at risk of going full melodrama.

Honestly, the only nit I could pick is the occasional typo, and the fact that I'm a speedreader - don't know why, it's just how I learned - and you put enough detail into really compact areas that I have to reread on occasion, but that's purely a me thing.
>>
>>5349073
Sorry, i frequently update in the middle of the night or while completely exhausted.
I try to proofread my shit while i'm typing it up, but it just slips through my fingers.
>>
>>5348909
Been here since day one and the ride has been awesome, the only thing I could nitpick is that we kinda loosing track of old arks, our robot has been abandoned with the onis since a few months irl ago, and we still waiting for David to go a cat is fine too.

So yeah everything is great but the pace slowed down and that isn't inherently bad, I just want to see an occasional follow up on that and the cat action.
>>
>>5349079
Oh, trust me, it's MORE than understandable, but I figured you might think I was just tossing random praise, so wracked my brain for A criticism I could give, even if it's a really minor one, especially for a quest.
>>
>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
>Write-In?
You're gonna look real nice mounted on my shoulders.
>>
>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
>Start laughing
>>
>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
A weapon that can make a commissar proud
>>
>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
>>
>>5348909
Why haven’t we fucked the cat yet, stop pandering to midget-mushroom fetishists and let 3rd-best-girl (Onis are top tier) have her day already
>>
>>5349208
when the time is right anon
she's pretty much new to this
>>
>>5348909
Personally I think you are doing a bang up job. And we travel through space, there should be a lot of downtime and talking between the crew in my opinion. And I am fine with stuff not always being a vote, because most of the time it doesn't need it.
>>
>>5349044
>You have your KS-23 at your side, with one special warp-dusted 23mm slug to hand for just such an occasion.
>>
Alright, time to try and load your shotgun. roll me 2d100, best of 3
First Roll DC: 40
Second Roll DC: 70
>>
Rolled 24, 40 = 64 (2d100)

>>5349420
>>
Rolled 37, 88 = 125 (2d100)

>>5349420
Eat warp lead
>>
Rolled 95, 3 = 98 (2d100)

>>5349420
>>
>>5349445
>>5349433

Well now, would you look at that.
95/88, good job anons.
>>
>>5349448
thanks QM
>>
>>5348909
I like how you don't give us votes but rather wait a couple days for us to discuss, argue, propose, shit and cum and then write an update based out of that. Or disregard whatever we say and make an update anyway, which is even more based.

Something I would like is a system with a little more depth besides "roll 3d100 bo3" Something that isn't that forgiving. But that goes a little against HFY plot armour. Well... keep it up QM you rock!!
>>
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YSC4XliiyiQ
You got the shotgun.
>>
>>5349599
I'm aware of other systems that smooth out the curve and make failure less likely, but i actually quite like 1d100 best of three due to it's wild swings in one direction or the other.
Really makes your asshole pucker up, because you genuinely don't know what's going to happen.

I think the important thing is to remember that we're all here to have fun, not to feel like we're being punished for something we can't control.
The dice are only meant to give the story some direction, not to ruin it or end it entirely. Looking at you, SOMNIUS.
>>
>>5349698
>SOMNIUS.
If you look in the mirror and say his name three times he'll run a quest every day for an entire year only to flip out and reeee like a banshee.

Truly frightening.
>>
>>5349698
>not to feel like we're being punished for something we can't control.
imo thats where whatever plans and countermeasures the players made beforehand come into play

>The dice are only meant to give the story some direction, not to ruin it or end it entirely.
indeed
>>
>>5349721
>imo thats where whatever plans and countermeasures the players made beforehand come into play
Of course, that plays a big part in how high a DC is. There are some things you just can't prepare for, though.
>>
Who is SOMNIUS, desu¿?
>>
>>5349734
Never played Dragonball Quest, did you?
>>
>>5349766
did you get instagibd due to an unlucky 1?
>>
>>5349823
Close. We got killed by some stray acid instantly because we didn't roll well.
Meanwhile we rolled well consistently while fighting Cell and SOMNIUS did everything in his power to nullify that because he couldn't bare to kill his favorite character.
This is after a long history of railroading, bullshit trap options, and killing characters left and right for no real reason.
>>
>>5349734
I once participated in a yuyu hakusho quest by som.
We instalost to some uberdemon speshul oc of his that we weren’t supposed to work with even though he could destroy us with the blink of an eye if we ever opposed him
>>
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>>5349996
I actually made the recolored irish botan for that one.
>>
>>5349044

You know of one good way to end this quickly, and that's the "special" slug you've got stowed away.
However, the problem is also that it happens to be stowed away. Your KS-23 and the slug are both in cases right now, to protect them from the heat outside.

And you don't think this guy's gonna give you the chance to just pull whip it out.
Indeed it does not. The demon gestures towards you with it's palm, and you feel as if the gravity has shifted around you again.

Your feet scrape the ground as you're pulled in towards the demon, who seems to intend on grabbing and possibly trying to crush your throat, not that you think it would work very well.
Regardless, it's not expecting you to kick off the ground and intentionally fly straight towards it, faster than intended.

You knock the demon's hand aside with ease and deliver a nose-shattering headbutt straight into the center of it's face, causing it to be knocked backwards as a spray of blackish blood and sharpened teeth cross your vision.
No time to deal extra damage, you need to get away and buy some time... so as you turn, you yank a grenade off your belt and toss it directly onto the demon's caved-in face before turning and bolting back into the hallway.

There's a flash of light and a loud bang behind you as you make it to the hall and rip the gun case off your thigh. The KS-23 is immediately free, already loaded with magnum buckshot... but your shells are in their own little case.
And the demon, unfortunately, is already back on it's feet and making it's way into the hall.

"Fuck it, this'll do something at least!"

Taking the shotgun to hand, you level it and fire, feeling next to no recoil from the oversized gun.
The buckshot finds it's target, making some massive holes not just in the demon's leg, but in the wall and floor behind it as well.

Those holes however, start to close rapidly. These demons seem more tangible than wraiths, but mundane weapons still won't work on them, you suppose.
Funny though, the damage to it's face still remains, even though all you did was headbutt it.

No time to wonder about that though, because you're busy sending another three oversized clusters of buckshot downrange.
Each time the KS-23 rings out, you hear it as a heavy thud through your helmet, and see it as a bright flash through your visor. The hall fills with smoke, and you see the demon is actually down on one knee with massive, albeit temporary damage to it's torso and head.

That's all you need though. Enough time to load up one last shell, a copper-jacketed, solid tungsten slug... filled with lovely little chips of warp metal, for that special touch.

The demon is clearly furious, and it's wounds are healing extremely rapidly. The Blue Box in it's hand burns even brighter as they close, before dimming suddenly.
Just as it manages to get back up to it's feet, it raises it's head and realizes that you've walked up to it on your own for some reason.
>>
>>5350083
Damn dude he gave that box the good suck. Remind ourselves to put a secondary independent warp shield bubble around SHODAN from now on so none of these fucknuggets ever try to eat her. Feel a little bad for whatever poor sod was in this box though, motherfucker got cooked.
>>
>>5350083
>The demon is clearly furious, and it's wounds are healing extremely rapidly. The Blue Box in it's hand burns even brighter as they close, before dimming suddenly.
>space ghosts are using AI cores as a power source
What the fuck is going in the core worlds and why the fuck are they making with shit like this? Whatever just bust a cap in this gobledeespook here and leave with the AI core in hand.
>>
>>5350085
Same same. The poor fuck is getting his soul dick sucked by a gross demon.
>>
>>5350116
>>5350085
or worse, its getting corrupted and transformed
>>
>>5349931
Cell is his favourite dragon ball character? Not like the mangaka knows to how to write anything really good, but Cell?
>>
>>5350083
>Funny though, the damage to it's face still remains, even though all you did was headbutt it.
>>David's cromagnon brow is too strong
>>
>>5350083
>Just as it manages to get back up to it's feet, it raises it's head and realizes that you've walked up to it on your own for some reason.
It would have been funny if the demon was the one walking confidently towards him, knowing that he is virtually invulnerable to the shots for David to fire once more...
>>
>>5350083
>Just as it manages to get back up to it's feet, it raises it's head and realizes that you've walked up to it on your own for some reason.
Hasta la vista, baby.
>>
>>5350595
Toriyama can write pretty good characters and arcs when he cares to do so.
Though it is common knowledge that his editor did a lot of the heavy lifting during the Android and Cell Sagas.
That said, I'm sure the ending itself was something Toriyama had in mind given how it was something he was trying to do with the Frieza saga originally.
>>
>>5350083

You press the barrel of your weapon against the demon's chest, right where a human's heart would be... and pull the trigger.
The demon shudders, and there's a massive spray of black blood, gore and even bone that coats the walls behind it.

The demon, dropping to it's knees, lets out a deep, gutteral growl as it looks down to inspect it's wound... and tries to place it's hand over a section of flesh which no longer exists.
You slam the butt of your shotgun into the demon's skull. Besides knocking the demon's head back, it doesn't seem to do anything.

It just stares up at you in silence for a moment, before erupting into a terrifying roar that shakes the whole ship! Loosened panels fall off the walls, and even the emergency lights flicker out for a moment before coming back on.
But as it's roaring at you, you drop your gun and grab it by the horns, then slam your armored knee straight into it's jaw, which shuts it up almost instantly.

"You fucking prick, who said you could have that?"

You hoist the demon up by it's horns and slam your helmet into it's face again, so hard that both of it's horns snap off in your hands.
Laying flat on the floor now, the demon, who somehow still hasn't died from the massive hole in it's chest, tries to throw you by once again shifting gravity.

But unlike before, he's having trouble doing so. The "wounds" from your mundane buckshot are closing much more slowly, and the wounds from the warp slug and your headbutts aren't healing at all.
He raises his right hand to attack, and you see the Blue Box's tree of life appear in it's left hand, flickering dimly like the last faint flames of a fire that's about to be extinguished.

So you stomp down on the arm holding that box, and shatter it completely. His forearm flops to the side awkwardly, and his fingers can no longer hold onto the heavy box.
The demon roars in pain, but doesn't give up. It still raises it's hand and tries to attack you.

You do feel some reaction... perhaps you've gotten a bit lighter, but that's all.

"Sit your ass down, you little shit."

One hard kick to the bottom of his jaw is enough to shatter the remainder of his teeth and send another spray of blood flying from his mouth.
The demon lies there, groaning in pain but not moving much. The exposed muscles around his chest-hole twitch here and there as they're exposed to the air, and the pool of blood around him is quickly growing. He's finished.

He seems to understand that as well, because when he looks at you next, you see an expression that you know all too well.
This motherfucker plans on taking you with him, somehow or another.

It's almost enough to make you take an instinctive step back, but you hold steady. Your armor is thick, and your enemy is weak. You don't want to back down for no reason in a situation like this.
So you watch. You watch as the demon's body begins to glow slightly, and then ignites all at once. And then with a final roar of effort, he explodes.
>>
>>5350083

You press the barrel of your weapon against the demon's chest, right where a human's heart would be... and pull the trigger.
The demon shudders, and there's a massive spray of black blood, gore and even bone that coats the walls behind it.

The demon, dropping to it's knees, lets out a deep, gutteral growl as it looks down to inspect it's wound... and tries to place it's hand over a section of flesh which no longer exists.
You slam the butt of your shotgun into the demon's skull. Besides knocking the demon's head back, it doesn't seem to do anything.

It just stares up at you in silence for a moment, before erupting into a terrifying roar that shakes the whole ship! Loosened panels fall off the walls, and even the emergency lights flicker out for a moment before coming back on.
But as it's roaring at you, you drop your gun and grab it by the horns, then slam your armored knee straight into it's jaw, which shuts it up almost instantly.

"You fucking prick, who said you could have that?"

You hoist the demon up by it's horns and slam your helmet into it's face again, so hard that both of it's horns snap off in your hands.
Laying flat on the floor now, the demon, who somehow still hasn't died from the massive hole in it's chest, tries to throw you by once again shifting gravity.

But unlike before, he's having trouble doing so. The "wounds" from your mundane buckshot are closing much more slowly, and the wounds from the warp slug and your headbutts aren't healing at all.
He raises his right hand to attack, and you see the Blue Box's tree of life appear in it's left hand, flickering dimly like the last faint flames of a fire that's about to be extinguished.

So you stomp down on the arm holding that box, and shatter it completely. His forearm flops to the side awkwardly, and his fingers can no longer hold onto the heavy box.
The demon roars in pain, but doesn't give up. It still raises it's hand and tries to attack you.

You do feel some reaction... perhaps you've gotten a bit lighter, but that's all.

"Sit your ass down, you little shit."

One hard kick to the bottom of his jaw is enough to shatter the remainder of his teeth and send another spray of blood flying from his mouth.
The demon lies there, groaning in pain but not moving much. The exposed muscles around his chest-hole twitch here and there as they're exposed to the air, and the pool of blood around him is quickly growing. He's finished.

He seems to understand that as well, because when he looks at you next, you see an expression that you know all too well.
This motherfucker plans on taking you with him, somehow or another.

It's almost enough to make you take an instinctive step back, but you hold steady. Your armor is thick, and your enemy is weak. You don't want to back down for no reason in a situation like this.
So you watch. You watch as the demon's body begins to glow slightly, and then ignites all at once. And then with a final roar of effort, he explodes.
>>
Damn chan shit the bed pretty hard there, didn't it?
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>>5351318
Would've been cool to stick it's skull to one of our power armored shoulders for the aesthetic but I can't blame it for trying
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>>5351334
wait it wasn't just me that when chan shat the bed? I coudn't tell.
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>>5351334
There is shit everywhere, my god.

>>5351342
Dont worry, there were like, two other demons I think, except 1 had its head turned to salsa. Hmmm. Well we could always make something out of their bones. We're a creative bunch!

I'm not feeling confident on what we can do with their spines or most torso bones, but the ribs have potential. They could be broken in halves and shaped to look like spikes, maybe their bones can be polished to ivory and be made into the handles of melee weapons? Yeah!
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>>5351373
If their bones can be snapped as easily as we've been doing, they're not going to be good for power suit melee weapons. I guess we could pass them around to the crew, but I'm not sure they could even be seen. Actually, that's a point- How many of the crew can actually SEE wraiths and wraith bits, other than David? Covering our armor with wraith bones won't have any intimidation factor if no one can actually see it.
>>
>>5351380
I remember that some time ago Gildur had a breakdown at the sight of wraith corpses. Other (non-Cylia) crewmembers could see them, too. The wraiths themselves become visible to others due to contact with warp metal and David's body.
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>>5351420
or being fucking dead
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>>5351380
>>5351420
>>5351461
Maybe not solider bone handles, maybe decorative polished bone ivory just on the surface?
If anything we can still use the bonew to make anti wraith bullets. Image David using a .22lr machinegun armed with plinking wraith boolets. Itll hardly damage anything except what we want dead.
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>>5351746
Hmmm. Anti wraith bullets of wraitbone? Yeah, that sounds like a good idea.
>>
Okey, hear me out

From what I remember, only the normal Wraiths are seen by those who can kill enough Wraiths or some shit like that without some special technology, right?

Maybe these full on superior Wraiths are easily seen by normal aliens that aren't "Wraith touched" because of how powerfull they are.

If the first one is true, then that means we can make some weird invisible Wraith-bone daggers, better if we use larger sections of the Bones and ar as deadly as their claws, and we will basically having some weapon that people won't know what the fuck it actually cut them with
>>
>>5352167
We still need to know how they work though and that aint happening unless we get a xeno-xenobiologist on our ranks
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>>5351318

Strange, ethereal flames emanate from the demon's corpse, filling the hall and surrounding rooms. You feel no heat from them inside your armor, but they certainly look hot.
Seconds pass and eventually the flames die down. In that short time the interior of the ship has been heated to a faint glow. Smoke trails out of various nooks and crannies where objects began to burn here and there, but it seems to be over.

One of the first things you notice after it all dies down is that the black blood coating your armor wasn't burned away, but seems to have dried on. Quite hard in fact, almost like an enamel.
It has a few wrinkles and bubbles here and there, but overall it's quite glossy. You can't seem scratch it off your finger, no matter how hard you dig at it.

Fuck, you hope it didn't seal the joints on this thing. It's gonna be a pain getting you out of it if that's the case.
More importantly though, that was only two of the three demons in there. Where did the other one go?

...A short search turns up nothing, and you can't sense anything in the area either.
It was one of the smaller ones though, so it might have ran after you took out the big guy.

Since that's been dealt with, you start packing up your shit and getting ready to go. Unfortunately it seems that your KS-23 has taken quite the char to it's faux-wood handle... actually though, it might kind of good if you sand it down a bit and slap some oil on there.
This ship's Blue Box is still sitting next to the charred remains of the demon, so you grab it up as well. Immediately, you notice that It feels lighter than the others, somehow.

There's no response when you run your finger across it's shackle, or after you shake it around a bit. You don't know what exactly the demon was doing with it, but this guy might be dead. Who knows?
Even so, the cube itself is still valuable for it's metal content alone, so you'll be taking it.

After that, you head back to the AI core and hook your suit into the engineering ports back there, allowing SHODAN direct access to the ship's controls.

"What's it looking like in there, SHODAN?"

"Well maintained. The previous AI was meticulous and likely quite intelligent. Perhaps an alpha-class AI, even. However, it seems that a power surge knocked him offline... around the time you broke through his shields."

"Was he damaged by it?"

"Unlikely. It is quite difficult to physically damage a Blue Box."

"...Yeah, the box itself looks fine. Oh well. What kind of shape is this baby in?"

"...The power systems are fried. The ship will go dark as soon as it's backup batteries run dry. It'll need rewiring, but fortunately the components used on this vessel seem to be all standard make.
I'm also getting a flood of warnings about "critical damage" to one of the generator vessels, but i think we know why that is."


"Whoopsie. I'm sure it'll weld back on just fine."

"Besides that, everything seems to be in order... except for one thing."
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>>5352311
Tried to ambush an infamous criminal, got it's shit kicked in by a psychotic ape and then got it's soul eaten by demons. That's one unlucky AI.
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>>5352311
Aight boss what's left on the ship? Shall we weld it back together now?
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>>5348955
Shut up you complaining faggot.
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>>5352639
>how dare you give criticism when the author asks for it! REEEEEEEEEE
Dont worry retardo, the adults already had their talk some days ago.
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>>5352311
I'm still waiting for that demon dussy
>>
>>5352311

"What's that?" You wonder.

"There are several sections of the ship that i cannot access, and for which no data exists in the ship's databanks."

"What does that mean?"

"If it were poorly documented, it would mean nothing. But there is no data at all. I only know they exist because there are gaps where data should be, meaning they've been hidden."

"Okay, so how do we access them? What might be inside?"

"I can't. Although i've found the circuits these rooms are wired into, i'm completely cut off. Most likely, a quantum encryption key would be required somewhere. However, it doesn't exist in the databanks."

You look down at the little cube in your hand. You can't really tell, but it looks cold and dead, somehow.

"Well, if this guy had the key, that might be a problem. I guess we'll just have to cut in. Where are these rooms located?"

SHODAN uses your watch to display a holographic map of the ship's interior layout. There are branching paths snaking around everywhere, particularly in the form of maintenance tunnels.

"Recognize this path?" She asks, pointing it out by causing it to flash red.

"...Yeah, that was where i got in through the docking port. And this...?"

"That's one of the dead spaces."

"This is the area with all the warning signs, ain't it?"

"So it would seem that whatever these rooms contain is dangerous in some form."

"Yeah, makes sense... this ship looks to me like the big red button you press to make things go away. Could be a huge fucking bomb, rogue nanomachines, radiation.... who knows?"

"So?"

"So what?"

"Are you going to poke at it?"

"I dunno. Thinkin' bout it."

>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
>Nah, you've spent enough time on this one ship. You've still got two more AI to take out, and this thing isn't going anywhere just yet.
>Have Kyla physically seal off the tunnels and pretend they don't exist. If the key is lost and nobody knows they exist, they're not a problem.
>Write-In?
>>
>>5353546
>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
If this is a portal thats going to add all the more reason to get the AI cores and fuck off fast
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>>5353546
>>Have Kyla physically seal off the tunnels and pretend they don't exist. If the key is lost and nobody knows they exist, they're not a problem.
Anti-voting this, because it's probably the worst possible solution to this or any problem.
>>
>>5353546
>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
Hope it's something nice like an armory or some fabricators and not just a bunch of malnourished slaves or something.
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>>5353546
>Write-In: Get Sanig's take on this situation before proceeding.
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>>5353551
Agreed but seal the ship off to prevent a reenactment of alien we may be able to pulp aliens but if it’s blood is acidic well
>>
>>5353546
>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
>>
>>5353546
>Write-In?
>call sanig just in case he might know something
>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
>>
>>5353660
+1
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>>5353546
>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
Let's ask Sanig if he wants to come along open the mystery box or ask him for help
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>>5353660
I mean he is a gray.
>Support to get sanig's insight
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>>5353546
>Better to know that to leave something potentially dangerous unchecked. You already know the route, might as well go check it out.
>>
>>5353810
>>5353660
Yes do this
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>>5353774
Support
>>
New thread, boys!

>>5354485
>>5354485
>>5354485



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