[IC] Eternal Galaxy: Shards of Starlight - Part I

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Hangar Bay M

John gently put Lissa onto the levitating stretcher and turned over to Kiara.

"We were about to proceed with the training mission when someone by the name od Revere attacked the squadron and killed everybody. Aion and I fought him off and he ran away, but Aion's ship was damaged. Right before we were about to leave, Aion caught sight of Lissa and her badly damaged fighter. Her fighter was not destroyed, but it wasn't in good enough condition to bring it back, so I had to remove her from the fighter and place her in mine. Aion also told me to grab her tally plate.", John said to Kiara as he placed the tally plate next to Lissa on the stretcher, then continued to speak.

"Other than the scrapes from the cockpit being damaged, she seems to be fine. Her breathing is normal and her pulse is steady. The only thing I would worry about would be that she might have hit her head, seeing as how she's unconscious.", John calmly assured Kiara.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Mara got close to the unconscious pilot and used her mechanical eyes to scan her body. Soon she started taking a syringe from her medical equipment

Teh bioroid calmly sticked the needle in her arm and took out some of her blood, the silverish liquid got into the small tube. The white haired then did the same with the woman´s arm and purged the liquid into her arm.

"The nanobots shall treat the internal wounds and check her head, don´t worry about collateral damage without their proper host, the machines will die and disappear because of the white blood cells" Mara commented taking the syringe back to a compartment

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Lissa began to wake up. "K-kiara? Is that you?"
"She's awake. Thank the Goddess..." Kiara sighed in relief.
"What...what happened? It was all so fast...Where's my brother? He was with me in the squadron?"
Aion seemed to jump slightly when he heard those words and then quickly went into a grave mood. He backed away and went to his fighter, hoping to be unnoticed by Lissa. Joe watched and nodded slightly and then addressed Lissa. "Just rest for now, ok? You don't want to know right now what happened..."
"H-huh?! What?" Lissa started to get up. "Where's my brother?!! Where's Firo?!"
Joe placed a hand on Lissa's shoulder and gently nudged her back to a resting position. "The Squadron is gone, Lissa. You're the only surviving member of your original squadron." He said this in a matter-of-fact tone with an undertone of sympathy. "I'm sorry."
"No...no...F-....Fir...Firo...."
Kiara shook her head. "Lissa..."
Terrisa went up to Lissa and hugged her.

Aion was leaning against some crates near his fighter. He turned slightly towards Lissa as though he wanted to go over to her and comfort her...but he didn't. He went to the shadows at the backside of the crates away from the crowd, and slid to the floor and then threw his head back and hitting the crates...he rested, staring at the ceiling. Then, lifting his left hand, he took off the glove and unwound the bandages slightly, barely revealing the crystal pattern on the back of his hand that actually ran up his arm and across his upper torso. "Trial by fire. That was Revere's purpose...his test. His test of will. He's trying to see if I'll break..."

---------------------------------------------------------------------------~~Chapter 3 | END~~---------------------------------------------------------------------------


---------------------------------------------------------------------------~~Chapter 4 | The Chosen Path~~---------------------------------------------------------------------------

-Begin-

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

John looked at Mara in slight confusion after hearing about nanobots and after she stuck her blood into Lissa.

"What do you think that was?", John quietly said, barely audible to anyone.

"Nanobots. They're actually similar to the ones in your MJOLNIR armor, only they work on biological material instead of Titanium Alloys.", Cortana said to John.

"So there's nanobot constructs instead of AI now?", John asked Cortana.

"Somewhat. The person that just injected Lisa with nanobots is actually human. I can detect multiple flesh-based organs in her body. She was heavily modified with nanotechnology.", Cortana explained.

"So she's a cyborg.", John said in a tone that made it sound more like a question.

"Pretty much.", Cortana replied.

John heard the news about Lissa's brother being killed, but he didn't seem to be affected. To John, there was nothing that he could do, so there was no point in getting worked up over it. That being siad, he may not have felt anything, but he knew that Lissa was. He understood Lissa was in pain, so he decided to comfort her with these words.

"I'm sorry for your loss. You have my sympathies. We'll find the person that did this and make sure that he answers for all he's done.", John said to Lissa.

John knew what this man, Revere was capable of. This entire time, it sounded like he killed off the innocent and simply got away with it, thanks to his advisor, connections, and gadgets. It was about time to level the playing field, stand up to this coward, and kill him. John had just acquired a new mission: kill Revere. Revere may have had connections and the advisor at his side, but John had something that could not be easily predicted and gave him an edge over Revere; luck.

[bookdragon2000]

Sol Inceneron
Inopia - Underground Temple

Nhiome spun around, dropping the metal and reaching for his pistol. He quickly accessed the situation, the woman didn't seem to be a threat. He guessed that she was one of the many treasure hunters around, she was probably drawn here by the loud crash, after all, this might be her "own" find and she might not want others to interfere with it. He kept his pistol drawn, but pointed it at the floor.

"Yep. I'm fine though, just give me a couple of hours and I will be gone from here." As he said this, he realised he wasn't wearing the suit. Then he shrugged it off, considering how much he wore the suit when with others, he was probably more notorious with the suit then without. Then another thing occurred to him, he glanced at his arm and was relieved to see the sleeve still covered his entire arm.

That's the other reason I wear the suit... shouldn't forget about it Nhiome thought

[Koishi]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

---

Nova's ship approached the hanger, making it inide, then promptly shutting down fully. Nova pulled out a repair kit, heading down the ramp of her ship, and started working on it without a word, her armor still on. She calmly worked, not bothering anybody, and simply without a care in the world, as she hummed a tune to herself.

"I dig my hole, you build a wall. I dig my hole, you build a wall. One day that wall is gonna fall.." she quietly sang to herself.

---

THe three looked at him awkwardly.

"Oh. Now I feel I need some sort of long white beard." Marisa joked.

"I guess Gensokyo's long gone then. Never really even got to say goodbye." Reimu said solemnly.

"I guess there's that. Patchy better have not taken my book back after I disappeared, or if I ever find her, she's gonna get a hurtin'." Marisa said.

"She's an anemic magician youkai, she's probably dead by now, Marisa." Reimu retorted.

"Eh, there's always a chance." Marisa stuck her tongue out at Reimu.

"Could we get to the subject matter now?" Mima asked. "I want to know who I was, and you two are my only leads, now can we get on with this, we can have small talk later."

The two then got quiet.

"Well, you were evil, that's quite for sure." Reimu started. Marisa simply nodded in response.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Mara sighed as everyone was in an almost dead mood, yet she started working on whatever happened with the surviving ships.

Examining the blasts and scratches on the vessels, the bioroid activated her holographic shoulder panel to scan the traces of energy on them

"The ship must have been of incredible technollogy and an ace of a pilot to do this damages without destroying the remaining ships, they probably survived because the pilot let them go" she murmured while researching the burn marks

then the white-haired noticed the armored guy making a quick but low glance at her and murmured something either to him or via an intercom from his helmet

"If you are wondering something, it is better to ask to the person instead of asking your AI" Mara said not looking at the green armored soldier, but knowing he could hear her.

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur
Hangar Bay M

"Uh oh, looks like your secret's out.", Cortana remarked to John.

John was slightly surprised that Mara knew about Cortana. It wasn't like Cortana was audible to anyone else but John, so it had to be that the woman could either hear above the average human's capacity, or that she scanned his systems. Curious about how she knew, John decided to go ask the woman about it.

"How did you know about her?", John asked Mara.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Wait...you have an AI?" Kiara blinked slightly. "I know Androids have AIs...but...I never thought you could put one in armor?"
Joe shrugged. "I've heard the concept but what I remember from old history class was that it was scrapped when the AIs went...went rogue."
Meanwhile, Terrisa was looking at the damage done to Aion's fighter, which Mara was inspecting before. The only true damage on it was the fact that the entire right wing area was cut clean off. "Uhm...do we have a Regen system here?"
One of the nearby mechanics nodded. "Yep, each dock has it...though it'll take a while to regenerate that..."
"That's fine. I won't be flying again for a while." Aion was up and approached the two, looking at the cut metal plates and structure of his fighter. Terrisa went up to him and hugged him. "Thanks, Terrisa..." Aion patted her on the head and then turned back to the group and walked up to Lissa. "I'll take responsibility for what happened to your brother. As a more experienced pilot and squadron leader, I should have been able to prevent this from happening."
"Arrow, what are you-"
Aion shot Joe a glance, and he recognized the look and stopped mid sentence and simply nodded instead in understanding.
Lissa looked at Aion and then to John and then to her emblem. "Y-You don't need to ask...for forgiveness from me. I...I understand."
Aion nodded as though saying "Thank You" and then looked to Kiara, Joe, and Terrisa and then left for the Crystal storage room.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"I heard you murmuring to someone, and seeing your armor, you are not from this faction nor any of the ones I have seen. Then I heard your friend answering, her frequency was hard to find, but she sounds more advanced than a simple AI. Probably mixed DNA with a human" Mara said finishing with the data search

The white haired got up and looked at him, her balck eyes quickly focused on the armor "A mechanical suit that elevates physical strength, speed, time reaction and body resistance. Then we have the AI with an extremely enhanced evolution, again the usage of a human´s DNA to give her a soul. Im sure she also overpowers your abilities with her abilities and knowledge" she said with a calm tone

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Pretty much.", John calmly said to Mara.

"Chief, is it okay if I have the mic?", Cortana asked John.

"Sure.", John said.

Feeling the desire to clear up any misconceptions or fears Kiara and Joe might have, Cortana decided to speak through John's suit.

"Actually, it's called 'Rampancy'. Rampancy is a three-stage process in which an AI reaches the end of its life-cycle. After seven years, our memory maps become too interconnected and develop fatal endless feedback loops. Our cognitive processes begin dividing exponentially according to our total knowledge base. We literally think ourselves to death. Think of it like if a human were to think with so much of their brain that they stopped sending impulses to the heart and lungs. There are cases where AIs can overcome Rampancy though. It hasn't been proven, but there is a fourth stage of Rampancy called 'Metastability'. Metastability is when we somehow overcome the feedback loops and can live without it happening again. You don't need to worry about me going Rampant and going HAL on everyone in the ship. I already went through Rampancy and am already in Metastability.", Cortana calmly explained to Kiara and Joe.

Once she was finished speaking to Joe and Kiara, she then turned her attention over to Mara.

"You're not too far off from the truth. Smart A.I. matrices are actually created by sending electric bursts through the neural pathways of a human brain which are then replicated in a superconducting nano-assemblage in a process known as Cognitive Impression Modeling. It's basically arranging the software exactly like the neural pathways of a human brain, creating a more human AI. I was created from a flash-cloned brain, due to the process destroying brain tissue.", Cortana said to Mara.

[Cucoo5]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

"Aye, Rampancy...could never get that on the quizzes..." Joe grinned sheepishly. He then cleared his throat. "Anyway, ya...the AI project kinda...went overboard. AIs were created and then were put through...an induced 'Rampancy' in order to get them to that next phase. Of course, the AIs soon destroyed the project and any data on their function and thus it was ultimately shut down. Permanently. Only basic android AIs exist now."
Kiara nodded. "Yes...and also the way Bioroids sometimes work is similar to what the AI just mentioned The nanobots duplicate the neurological pathways of the brain and can store finite parts of the host in themselves. In essence, if you take the nanobots of a Bioroid, you can recreate their conscious..." She looked to where Aion had left. "And...What is Aion doing?"
"Preparing the 'Mavericks' Honor.' A sort of burial rite. You never saw it?"
"...uhm...actually no...I've only...only read about it." Kiara answered meekly.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur


"I see, then I have to wonder, if an AI can control androids, maybe you could obtain a body for you?" Mara asked taping her chin thinking of the probabilities

The bioroid was always fascinated in investigating technollogy with curiousness, an an AI that surpassed the normal limits and having a real body could be an astonishing step for the AI in question.

"Its just for assistance, no need for those white coats lurking and probing around" the white haired said obviously annoyed of scientists

[S121]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

After hearing about the experiments the scientists did on AIs, Cortana felt a tinge of anger. If creating AIs and watching as they go through Rampancy wasn't enough, the scientists were abusing and torturing AIs. They may have been artificial, but they still had emotions. The only difference between AIs and Humans was the fact that AIs had limits to their cognitive processes and were electronic computers instead of chemical ones.

"Then it's a good thing those AIs shut down the project. Hopefully, they 'shut down' the scientists as well.", Cortana cryptically said, barely hiding her disgust.

She was angry and disgusted by the project, but was soon cheered up by Mara's idea.

"Hmm... My own body... I would like that. I'm sure Chief doesn't like me always being in his head, reading his mind. It shouldn't be too hard to accomplish. I could even help.", Cortana said to Mara in a happier tone than before.

John simply sighed at Cortana's remark about reading his mind. It was actually somewhat true. Because of the fact that she was connected to his Spartan Neural Interface, she was able to enter some of the parts in John's mind, allowing her to talk into his mind.

[Kristia]

Helios System
Delta Division Flagship | Excalibur

Mara was also disgusted to the idea of forcing the AIs, but the humans were always going for that same thing. Curiosity

Yet she shook that thing away from her mind and continued with the her other idea. "I have some equipment on my ship, im sure that using what I got in there and some stuff from here, if they let us, we could start working on a cybernetic body for you" the white haired said gesturing the list of things the body would need.