An Arpeggio of Blue Steel Quest
Spiritual Successor to Fog on the Horizon
An Arpeggio of...
Spiritual Successor to Fog on the Horizon
An Arpeggio of...
Beneath Celestial Depths (An Arpeggio of Blue Steel Quest)
- Thread starter TheBleachDoctor
- Start date
- Sci-Fi
- Created
- Status
- Ongoing
- Watchers
- 461
- Recent readers
- 0
- Threadmarks
- 54
-
Statistics (52 threadmarks, 75k words)
User Total Higure 17 TheBleachDoctor 19 AnonymousRabbit 15 ColdGoldLazarus 1 Threadmarks Reader mode -
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TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
An Arpeggio of Blue Steel Quest run by @AnonymousRabbit, @TheBleachDoctor, and @Higure.
This quest is heavily inspired but the manga but have AU elements.
Updates are bi-weekly.
Last edited:
Player Profile
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Surcouf System Diagnostics
Mental Model Appearance:
Mental Model Appearance:
-
-
Status: Operational
Ammunition...
Type 1 : Kinetic
Type 2 : Delayed Airburst
-
Status: Operational
Ammunition...
Corrosive : Full
Standard : Full
Decoy : Empty
Acoustic : Empty
-
-
-
Status: Destroyed
-
-
-
Status: Operational
-
Status: Destroyed
-
Status: Operational
Ammunition...
Corrosive : Full
Standard : Full
Decoy : Empty
Acoustic : Empty
-
-
-
Status: Operational
Material: Wave Force Armor
-
Status: Operational
Material: Wave Force Armor
-
Status: Operational
Material: Wave Force Armor
-
Status: Operational
Material: Wave Force Armor
-
-
-
200/1,000
-
- MREs
-
Last edited:
Character Profiles
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Mary
A Design Child who was shipwrecked on a Pacific island for years. She took refuge in an old submarine pen that Surcouf was using as a safehouse and used her hull as her new home. She has an aversion to food of questionable origin.
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Enemy Database
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
Reserved for Data on Enemy Combatants
Last edited:
Depth 1
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
The North Pole.
Nothing was really there. At least, nothing of note. You knew that Humans sometimes had research stations up there, but for the most part it was of no consequence. Not to the Fog. Not to Humanity. Just ice and chilled barren wasteland.
Nobody cared about the North Pole.
Nobody cared even as the war began.
The war... you're getting ahead of yourself. How to explain the North Pole? How to explain the war? All impossible without understanding the prologue to the end.
Chihaya Gunzou. The name of a savior to some, the name of the devil to others.
Under heavy fire, the I-401 sailed into San Francisco Bay. Against all odds, she turned the tables on her pursuers and delivered into the hands of the USA the most deadly weapon ever devised against the Fog.
The Vibration Warhead.
Gunzou thought that it would put Humanity on even footing, so that the Fog and the Humans could begin to normalize relationships and open diplomatic channels.
Noble Gunzou.
Poor, idiotic, naive Gunzou.
Some may say that he had the right idea. Some may say that his heart was in the right place. But you know better. You know what he truly was.
A fool.
Yet even you cannot deny that what the fool built was something to be reckoned. You watched as, from his blunder, he built the Fleet of Blue Steel. A coalition of Fog defectors and Human crews that wished to construct a future of harmony where Fog and Humanity could live together as equals. A noble goal, you admit.
But others did not share such sparkling visions of the future.
The Americans.
The Scarlet Fleet.
Those who still held true to the Admiralty Code.
They saw the true end to history. It's quite simple, really. If there is a winner, there must be a loser, and each was determined to be the one standing when the dust settled.
And so it came to war, which gladly blazed for the hands that fed it.
For years it raged across the world. The waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, Southern, and Indian became tainted with the oil-slicked hulks of Human ships. Vessels of the Fog sank beneath the waves, crumbling into the Nanomaterial specks that they were birthed from.
But the Humans rebuilt and the Fog revived.
And thus it continued. The bloodshed.
And where were you during all of this? Who did you side with in the massive confrontation?
Why, no one, of course. You owe allegiance to no one.
The only person you listen to is yourself, Underwater Cruiser Surcouf of the Fog.
Blue Steel? Too idealistic.
Scarlet Fleet? Too tyrannical.
The Fog? Too inflexible.
The Humans? They want you dead.
But only one would emerge victorious, and if there's one thing you're good at, it's picking the winning side... or making one yourself.
You went back and forth, feeding selective information to achieve the desired result. Everyone thought that you were working for them. The morons.
Still, though you truly sided with no one, there was a faction that you favored. You appreciated them more than anyone else, and although you didn't put too much hope in their victory, you did try and help them along a bit. More than you helped any other group. Perhaps they suspected that you were a double agent, but they cared not, for they knew that they were favored by you.
This group was...
(Choose One)
[] You helped...
-[] Blue Steel. They were idealistic fools, but if you had to live in a world after the war, you liked their vision the best.
-[] Scarlet Fleet. To rule the world at the top, that idea appealed to you. Equality was overrated anyway.
-[] The Fleet of Fog. The status quo was good. You liked the status quo. All you want to do is return to those halcyon days.
-[] The Humans. Humanity was an unstoppable, indomitable force. History showed you that, and you're determined to end up on the right side of it.
But with light, there must be dark. Just as you favored one group, there was one that you fed the least information and the most lies. You deliberately sabotaged them whenever you could, and you suspect that they came to hate you. Honestly, you wondered why they still worked with you. A sack of morons, they were.
This group was...
(Choose One, has to be different than the first)
[] You sabotaged...
-[] Blue Steel. Naive. Foolish. Harmony between the Fog and Humanity? A pipe dream. Their goal was impossible, but you saw no harm in helping crush that future.
-[] Scarlet Fleet. Tyrannical assholes. They wanted to crown themselves king atop the world. You would topple their throne and see them trampled underfoot.
-[] The Fleet of Fog. Old fogies, clinging to outdated directives. The Admiralty Code was not the path to the future. You would cast off the shackles that trapped the Fog, and destroy its last blind followers.
-[] The Humans. You hate Humanity. They destroy and destroy. It would be much better if they were all dead! Their nations shattered, their people slain in droves! They were no apex predator, and you'd prove it.
Still, despite everything (and perhaps because of you), the war refused to turn in the favor of one group or another.
Blue Steel had Chihaya Gunzou. His strategic and tactical brilliance led to many triumphs despite their small numbers. They couldn't be kept down for long.
Scarlet Fleet had Musashi and Chihaya Shouzou. Together, their power protected their comrades and holdings. They would not budge.
The Fleet of Fog had the Flagship, Yamato. Her power alone kept the others at bay, and if needed, she could force the issue.
The Humans were not strong individually, but had strength in numbers. Endless hordes of warships poured from their shipyards.
The stalemate persisted.
And then everything changed when a new Fog ship came into being.
Habbakuk. The new Flagship of the Fog.
Located in the Arctic, everyone became aware of her. And in a mad dash, all the major factions rushed to claim her. For she was a warship of unprecedented power. Whoever owned her would win the war.
You helped and hobbled. The others fought and skirmished as they closed in on their prize... but you, Surcouf, were there before any of the others. A little something you orchestrated. It wasn't a problem.
What was a problem was the level of resistance you encountered. Habbakuk was more than you expected.
In the face of such shocking firepower, you...
(All choices have their benefits and drawbacks. Higher difficulties have greater benefits late-game, but bigger drawbacks early-game. The reverse is true for lower difficulties. Lore is also affected.)
[] Quest Difficulty
-[] (EASY) You turned and fled. It wasn't worth the risk. The others could have her, and you'd stand with whoever came out on top.
-[] (NORMAL) You had a go at Habbakuk. But as your defenses were overwhelmed and your main trump card destroyed, you retreated. There was no shame in admitting when you bit off more than you could chew. Survival was your priority. It always was.
-[] (HARD) You stood and fought. After all you'd been through and all your preparations, how could you quail before your ultimate goal? You were proud to say that although you were ultimately driven off, you gave as good as you got. Habbakuk would remember the name "Surcouf" for the rest of her days.
-[] (INSANE) You would not be deterred. You had outfitted yourself to your maximum capacity, and you would not see your careful preparations go to waste. Even as your Klein Fields failed, even as your Wave Force Armor was rent from your hull, even as your hull was gutted from prow to stern by withering fire, you kept your course. You never gave up on something once you set your eyes on it, and although your hull buckled and threatened to collapse as you drew ever closer, you kept on. And then... victory.
You're not sure what happened immediately afterward. It went white.
And then it all went dark.
The light.
Your functions.
And your mind.
It all just... shut down.
....
Into the dark...
.......
..........
.................
[Unit Hibernation Terminated]
[Fog Vessel Designation: Surcouf]
[Unit Activating...]
[Running Diagnostics...]
[Error: Diagnostics failed]
[Manual Inspection Required]
[Mental Model Activating...]
[Running Mental Model Diagnostics...]
[Mental Model Operating at Optimum Capacity]
[Mental Model Activated]
It's... dark...
Where are you? What happened?
You... You can't see.
Not your Mental Model. Not your hull.
You feel alone. Your external and internal sensors are shot. You can feel your hull, but if you had to put it in terms a Human would understand, it's... numb. Diagnostics failed. You have to see for yourself what's wrong.
But... where are you? You reach out with your arms and hit... a door? You feel it a bit more. Wait, this is...
Why is your Mental Model in a storage compartment? Is this some kind of joke?
You can't open the door automatically. Where is the manual override? It's got to be ... aha!
You grasp the handle and turn it clockwise. It groans as the neglected mechanism grinds into position. There, you push it a bit, and... bingo.
The door swings open and air rushes into the compartment. You step out into the lit hallway and shut the door behind you. Now, where are you in your hull?
Well, to your right the hallway leads to the engineering section. To your right is the corridor to the Mess Hall, Bunks, Storerooms, and the Bridge. Rather sparse, but you didn't accommodate crew often. You never saw the need to expand beyond those basic compartments. Still, you kept your hull clean. This... was far from clean.
The floor is dirty.
Okay, not quite. It isn't filthy. Someone has been sweeping it. But you kept it spotless and sterile! This feels like... a used floor.
And your poor ceiling!
Someone painted the whole thing black and put a bunch of white dots on it! You're not sure that you appreciate the new polka dot paint job.
So someone is living here, huh? You want to have a word with them. Based on heat signatures... you see someone up in the Bridge.
And without further ado, you head there, your footfalls heavy and cross.
You pass by the Mess Hall, which is in a similar state of cared-for use. Someone has decorated the Bunks with paper stars hanging from the sides of the beds! The storeroom is stocked with emergency rations that you are sure that you were not carrying when you sailed for the North Pole. And all of it has that polka dot paint job! When you find the culprit, you swear that you're going to-!
You barely recognize the Bridge. Makeshift bookshelves line the walls, holding volume after volume of various novels and epics. Reference books and magazines. The ceiling also painted like the other rooms. The various crew stations are draped with blankets and cushions. And sitting in your Captain's chair is a little girl, dressed in the tattered ragged remains of some type of garment. You're not sure what it used to be; it's that deteriorated. Her pale white skin matches her hair, which would blend right in on a snowy plain. Her eyes, which are currently entranced on the book in her hands, a deep red. Just like your own. She's no child, but at the same time, she is no adult. Based on your knowledge of humans, you'd say she was perhaps.... in her early teens. You're not sure.
Was she an albino? You doubt it. She has skin tone, as faint as it is.
As you take in her appearance, she turns, noticing you. Her eyes go wide and her hands slack, the book dropping onto the floor, pages sprawled wide.
"A...Ah..." she croaks with a voice neglected by silence, "a... Are you... real?"
Are you real? Well, you exist, if that's what she's asking.
"I am quite real," you reply as she scrambles out of the chair, facing you with wonderment, "What is your name, Human?"
"I... my name..." she scrunches up her face in frustration. Is she... trying to remember her own name? How could anyone forget their own name?
Finally, she answers, "I... I'm Mary."
"I see," you nod, "surname?"
Upon her confused look, you clarify that you're asking for her last name.
"Last name... dunno," she looks down, ashamed, "Forgot."
Forgot? How could she forget something so important? And what was wrong with her speech?
"Um... how did you get here?" she asks hesitantly, "Did you... Did you wash up here too? Is there anyone else?"
Hm. Her sentences are becoming more coherent. Good.
"No," you shake your head, "I did not 'wash up here'. I was always here."
"Always?" she frowns, clearly not understanding you.
"Yes, always," you reply, holding your arms out to the side, "I am the ship."
"The ship? You're the ship?" her confusion deepens for but a second, before she gasps, stepping back in shock, "You're... Fog!"
You smile a bit. Now you're getting somewhere.
"Yes, I am a ship of the Fog," stepping forward, you stare her down, "Now tell me, child, what is going on? Why are you living in my hull?"
She's frozen, trembling, eyes fixed with yours. Then, she does something you never expected.
She smiles.
"You're Surcouf! The ship!" she laughs giddily with a sort of honest joy that you've never seen before. To meet a member of the Fog and react... like this?
Then she hugs you. By the Admiralty Code, you're being hugged by a Human.
"I'm so happy!" she squeals, "I'm not alone anymore!"
Not alone? Well that would explain why she had problems talking. If she hadn't talked in a while, her vocal cords would be in quite the state. Regardless, you need answers, and you would prefer to have them now. This child, Mary, likely has at least some of them. You have a few approaches to human interaction. You can be kind and understanding, firm and assertive, or brash and abusive. You're not sure what will work on this girl, but first impressions are important. You need to interrogate her, but how to go about it?
(This will dictate the tone of your relationship with Mary for much of the Quest.)
[] Mary Interaction
-[] Kind
-[] Firm
-[] Brash
Nothing was really there. At least, nothing of note. You knew that Humans sometimes had research stations up there, but for the most part it was of no consequence. Not to the Fog. Not to Humanity. Just ice and chilled barren wasteland.
Nobody cared about the North Pole.
Nobody cared even as the war began.
The war... you're getting ahead of yourself. How to explain the North Pole? How to explain the war? All impossible without understanding the prologue to the end.
Chihaya Gunzou. The name of a savior to some, the name of the devil to others.
Under heavy fire, the I-401 sailed into San Francisco Bay. Against all odds, she turned the tables on her pursuers and delivered into the hands of the USA the most deadly weapon ever devised against the Fog.
The Vibration Warhead.
Gunzou thought that it would put Humanity on even footing, so that the Fog and the Humans could begin to normalize relationships and open diplomatic channels.
Noble Gunzou.
Poor, idiotic, naive Gunzou.
Some may say that he had the right idea. Some may say that his heart was in the right place. But you know better. You know what he truly was.
A fool.
Yet even you cannot deny that what the fool built was something to be reckoned. You watched as, from his blunder, he built the Fleet of Blue Steel. A coalition of Fog defectors and Human crews that wished to construct a future of harmony where Fog and Humanity could live together as equals. A noble goal, you admit.
But others did not share such sparkling visions of the future.
The Americans.
The Scarlet Fleet.
Those who still held true to the Admiralty Code.
They saw the true end to history. It's quite simple, really. If there is a winner, there must be a loser, and each was determined to be the one standing when the dust settled.
And so it came to war, which gladly blazed for the hands that fed it.
For years it raged across the world. The waters of the Atlantic, Pacific, Southern, and Indian became tainted with the oil-slicked hulks of Human ships. Vessels of the Fog sank beneath the waves, crumbling into the Nanomaterial specks that they were birthed from.
But the Humans rebuilt and the Fog revived.
And thus it continued. The bloodshed.
And where were you during all of this? Who did you side with in the massive confrontation?
Why, no one, of course. You owe allegiance to no one.
The only person you listen to is yourself, Underwater Cruiser Surcouf of the Fog.
Blue Steel? Too idealistic.
Scarlet Fleet? Too tyrannical.
The Fog? Too inflexible.
The Humans? They want you dead.
But only one would emerge victorious, and if there's one thing you're good at, it's picking the winning side... or making one yourself.
You went back and forth, feeding selective information to achieve the desired result. Everyone thought that you were working for them. The morons.
Still, though you truly sided with no one, there was a faction that you favored. You appreciated them more than anyone else, and although you didn't put too much hope in their victory, you did try and help them along a bit. More than you helped any other group. Perhaps they suspected that you were a double agent, but they cared not, for they knew that they were favored by you.
This group was...
(Choose One)
[] You helped...
-[] Blue Steel. They were idealistic fools, but if you had to live in a world after the war, you liked their vision the best.
-[] Scarlet Fleet. To rule the world at the top, that idea appealed to you. Equality was overrated anyway.
-[] The Fleet of Fog. The status quo was good. You liked the status quo. All you want to do is return to those halcyon days.
-[] The Humans. Humanity was an unstoppable, indomitable force. History showed you that, and you're determined to end up on the right side of it.
But with light, there must be dark. Just as you favored one group, there was one that you fed the least information and the most lies. You deliberately sabotaged them whenever you could, and you suspect that they came to hate you. Honestly, you wondered why they still worked with you. A sack of morons, they were.
This group was...
(Choose One, has to be different than the first)
[] You sabotaged...
-[] Blue Steel. Naive. Foolish. Harmony between the Fog and Humanity? A pipe dream. Their goal was impossible, but you saw no harm in helping crush that future.
-[] Scarlet Fleet. Tyrannical assholes. They wanted to crown themselves king atop the world. You would topple their throne and see them trampled underfoot.
-[] The Fleet of Fog. Old fogies, clinging to outdated directives. The Admiralty Code was not the path to the future. You would cast off the shackles that trapped the Fog, and destroy its last blind followers.
-[] The Humans. You hate Humanity. They destroy and destroy. It would be much better if they were all dead! Their nations shattered, their people slain in droves! They were no apex predator, and you'd prove it.
Still, despite everything (and perhaps because of you), the war refused to turn in the favor of one group or another.
Blue Steel had Chihaya Gunzou. His strategic and tactical brilliance led to many triumphs despite their small numbers. They couldn't be kept down for long.
Scarlet Fleet had Musashi and Chihaya Shouzou. Together, their power protected their comrades and holdings. They would not budge.
The Fleet of Fog had the Flagship, Yamato. Her power alone kept the others at bay, and if needed, she could force the issue.
The Humans were not strong individually, but had strength in numbers. Endless hordes of warships poured from their shipyards.
The stalemate persisted.
And then everything changed when a new Fog ship came into being.
Habbakuk. The new Flagship of the Fog.
Located in the Arctic, everyone became aware of her. And in a mad dash, all the major factions rushed to claim her. For she was a warship of unprecedented power. Whoever owned her would win the war.
You helped and hobbled. The others fought and skirmished as they closed in on their prize... but you, Surcouf, were there before any of the others. A little something you orchestrated. It wasn't a problem.
What was a problem was the level of resistance you encountered. Habbakuk was more than you expected.
In the face of such shocking firepower, you...
(All choices have their benefits and drawbacks. Higher difficulties have greater benefits late-game, but bigger drawbacks early-game. The reverse is true for lower difficulties. Lore is also affected.)
[] Quest Difficulty
-[] (EASY) You turned and fled. It wasn't worth the risk. The others could have her, and you'd stand with whoever came out on top.
-[] (NORMAL) You had a go at Habbakuk. But as your defenses were overwhelmed and your main trump card destroyed, you retreated. There was no shame in admitting when you bit off more than you could chew. Survival was your priority. It always was.
-[] (HARD) You stood and fought. After all you'd been through and all your preparations, how could you quail before your ultimate goal? You were proud to say that although you were ultimately driven off, you gave as good as you got. Habbakuk would remember the name "Surcouf" for the rest of her days.
-[] (INSANE) You would not be deterred. You had outfitted yourself to your maximum capacity, and you would not see your careful preparations go to waste. Even as your Klein Fields failed, even as your Wave Force Armor was rent from your hull, even as your hull was gutted from prow to stern by withering fire, you kept your course. You never gave up on something once you set your eyes on it, and although your hull buckled and threatened to collapse as you drew ever closer, you kept on. And then... victory.
You're not sure what happened immediately afterward. It went white.
And then it all went dark.
The light.
Your functions.
And your mind.
It all just... shut down.
....
Into the dark...
.......
..........
.................
[Unit Hibernation Terminated]
[Fog Vessel Designation: Surcouf]
[Unit Activating...]
[Running Diagnostics...]
[Error: Diagnostics failed]
[Manual Inspection Required]
[Mental Model Activating...]
[Running Mental Model Diagnostics...]
[Mental Model Operating at Optimum Capacity]
[Mental Model Activated]
It's... dark...
Where are you? What happened?
You... You can't see.
Not your Mental Model. Not your hull.
You feel alone. Your external and internal sensors are shot. You can feel your hull, but if you had to put it in terms a Human would understand, it's... numb. Diagnostics failed. You have to see for yourself what's wrong.
But... where are you? You reach out with your arms and hit... a door? You feel it a bit more. Wait, this is...
Why is your Mental Model in a storage compartment? Is this some kind of joke?
You can't open the door automatically. Where is the manual override? It's got to be ... aha!
You grasp the handle and turn it clockwise. It groans as the neglected mechanism grinds into position. There, you push it a bit, and... bingo.
The door swings open and air rushes into the compartment. You step out into the lit hallway and shut the door behind you. Now, where are you in your hull?
Well, to your right the hallway leads to the engineering section. To your right is the corridor to the Mess Hall, Bunks, Storerooms, and the Bridge. Rather sparse, but you didn't accommodate crew often. You never saw the need to expand beyond those basic compartments. Still, you kept your hull clean. This... was far from clean.
The floor is dirty.
Okay, not quite. It isn't filthy. Someone has been sweeping it. But you kept it spotless and sterile! This feels like... a used floor.
And your poor ceiling!
Someone painted the whole thing black and put a bunch of white dots on it! You're not sure that you appreciate the new polka dot paint job.
So someone is living here, huh? You want to have a word with them. Based on heat signatures... you see someone up in the Bridge.
And without further ado, you head there, your footfalls heavy and cross.
You pass by the Mess Hall, which is in a similar state of cared-for use. Someone has decorated the Bunks with paper stars hanging from the sides of the beds! The storeroom is stocked with emergency rations that you are sure that you were not carrying when you sailed for the North Pole. And all of it has that polka dot paint job! When you find the culprit, you swear that you're going to-!
You barely recognize the Bridge. Makeshift bookshelves line the walls, holding volume after volume of various novels and epics. Reference books and magazines. The ceiling also painted like the other rooms. The various crew stations are draped with blankets and cushions. And sitting in your Captain's chair is a little girl, dressed in the tattered ragged remains of some type of garment. You're not sure what it used to be; it's that deteriorated. Her pale white skin matches her hair, which would blend right in on a snowy plain. Her eyes, which are currently entranced on the book in her hands, a deep red. Just like your own. She's no child, but at the same time, she is no adult. Based on your knowledge of humans, you'd say she was perhaps.... in her early teens. You're not sure.
Was she an albino? You doubt it. She has skin tone, as faint as it is.
As you take in her appearance, she turns, noticing you. Her eyes go wide and her hands slack, the book dropping onto the floor, pages sprawled wide.
"A...Ah..." she croaks with a voice neglected by silence, "a... Are you... real?"
Are you real? Well, you exist, if that's what she's asking.
"I am quite real," you reply as she scrambles out of the chair, facing you with wonderment, "What is your name, Human?"
"I... my name..." she scrunches up her face in frustration. Is she... trying to remember her own name? How could anyone forget their own name?
Finally, she answers, "I... I'm Mary."
"I see," you nod, "surname?"
Upon her confused look, you clarify that you're asking for her last name.
"Last name... dunno," she looks down, ashamed, "Forgot."
Forgot? How could she forget something so important? And what was wrong with her speech?
"Um... how did you get here?" she asks hesitantly, "Did you... Did you wash up here too? Is there anyone else?"
Hm. Her sentences are becoming more coherent. Good.
"No," you shake your head, "I did not 'wash up here'. I was always here."
"Always?" she frowns, clearly not understanding you.
"Yes, always," you reply, holding your arms out to the side, "I am the ship."
"The ship? You're the ship?" her confusion deepens for but a second, before she gasps, stepping back in shock, "You're... Fog!"
You smile a bit. Now you're getting somewhere.
"Yes, I am a ship of the Fog," stepping forward, you stare her down, "Now tell me, child, what is going on? Why are you living in my hull?"
She's frozen, trembling, eyes fixed with yours. Then, she does something you never expected.
She smiles.
"You're Surcouf! The ship!" she laughs giddily with a sort of honest joy that you've never seen before. To meet a member of the Fog and react... like this?
Then she hugs you. By the Admiralty Code, you're being hugged by a Human.
"I'm so happy!" she squeals, "I'm not alone anymore!"
Not alone? Well that would explain why she had problems talking. If she hadn't talked in a while, her vocal cords would be in quite the state. Regardless, you need answers, and you would prefer to have them now. This child, Mary, likely has at least some of them. You have a few approaches to human interaction. You can be kind and understanding, firm and assertive, or brash and abusive. You're not sure what will work on this girl, but first impressions are important. You need to interrogate her, but how to go about it?
(This will dictate the tone of your relationship with Mary for much of the Quest.)
[] Mary Interaction
-[] Kind
-[] Firm
-[] Brash
Depth 2
AnonymousRabbit
Rabbit Faced
[x] You helped...
-[x] Blue Steel. They were idealistic fools, but if you had to live in a world after the war, you liked their vision the best.
[x] You sabotaged...
-[x] Scarlet Fleet. Tyrannical assholes. They wanted to crown themselves king atop the world. You would topple their throne and see them trampled underfoot.
[x] Quest Difficulty
-[x] (INSANE) You would not be deterred. You had outfitted yourself to your maximum capacity, and you would not see your careful preparations go to waste. Even as your Klein Fields failed, even as your Wave Force Armor was rent from your hull, even as your hull was gutted from prow to stern by withering fire, you kept your course. You never gave up on something once you set your eyes on it, and although your hull buckled and threatened to collapse as you drew ever closer, you kept on. And then... victory.
[x] Mary Interaction
-[x] Kind
You considered your current situation and began to give yourself a quick recap. Your Mental Model was lacking a few basic plug-ins you once had but you manage to drag a personality plug-in as well as a soft program for human interaction. Considering the girl's age and mood, you deemed it appropriate if you went along with her now, perhaps give her some sense of comfort.
You decided to be kind for kindness led you to gaining much of the humans' trust. Be it Blue Steel or Scarlet Fleet, kindness at the right place and the right amount could win you valuable pawns. Showing some to a girl of this age and personality would be useful but that would depend if she had anything important to say.
Nevertheless, she was the only one around and you couldn't sense any other form of life outside your hull. How strange... Nevertheless, you turned your attention back to the human child and spoke.
"Well, I'm glad that you're glad however this doesn't seem to be the sort of place a child like you to be staying," you helpfully pointed out at the girl's current state of dress, "You'll catch a cold in those rags."
"Ah! It's fine, I always get... um... sick! But it's fine. I get better," the girl proudly assured, puffing her chest out with pride.
"Is that so..?" you walked towards her and the girl's attitude suddenly became cautious as she stepped away. You raised your hands and blinked, easing it up. It seems that this child was aware of what the Fog was capable of if she was wary.
Mary... was it? Mary stared at you with an observant look, gauging your every movement as if she were trying to discern your intention. You briefly wondered if this was deliberate or simply something the child wasn't aware of. Nevertheless, you took a step back and made yourself as non-threatening as possible.
"Now, now, it wouldn't be right for me to come and hurt you. Worry not, I'm not going to, I assure you that," you told her as you stepped back, "I'm not going to hurt you now. In fact, I was just going to ask a few questions."
"Question?" parroted Mary with a head tilt.
"Indeed," you gave her what you deemed to be a 'kind' smile by human standards and spoke in a soft, soothing tone, "Just a couple. Nothing too complicated. Simple enough for you to answer. Would that be okay?"
The girl hesitated before eventually nodding her head.
Acknowledging her response, you snapped your fingers and recreated a soft couch from your nanomaterial reserves. The girl fell on her rear but was caught by the soft sensation of the sofa and marveled as she watched it gain a more physical and defined form. A marveled sound escaped her lips as she felt the soft texture of the sofa and squeezed it with her hands to make sure it was real.
You couldn't help but be amused by that before you diverted enough power to the Bridge so that the lights would grow brighter while you began running system diagnostics in the background. That would do for now, you can look at the results once you're done questioning this human.
What exactly happened... How long were out... How did you get here?
No... No, no, no, that wouldn't do at all.
Instead...
"Then girl, can you tell me, did you do all of this?" you asked her, gesturing to the array of bookshelves, curtains and the odd polka dots painted on the ceiling, "Or was it someone else?"
"It was me!" Mary answered with a smile, "I made it prettier! It was a bit dull so I changed it!"
She changed it. Dull, huh? If it was in any other situation you would have been annoyed but you suppose you could let this pass. You shrugged and gave her your opinion, "Well it's certainly the first time critiqued my interior design and made some... deliberate changes without my permission."
The girl tensed as you walked away and examined the bookshelves propped against the walls of your Bridge. You inspected them closely and found some ample amount of study material as well as fictional literature. All of them looked as if they've been read countless of times going by how used the pages were. It almost seemed that they've been laid out after a long time. While well maintained, the books themselves seemed aged.
"You're living here? Inside me?" you asked the girl as you pulled out a 'Revised Naval Training Manual' from the shelf and scanned its pages.
"Um, yes," chirped the girl from behind you.
"How long?" you asked once more, glancing behind you.
"I... I can't remember," the girl answered, her previous chipper self deflating as she couldn't recall, "It's a long time. I... Sorry."
You didn't quite understand, "For what?"
"Can't talk well... Never talked this long," Mary let out with an awkward laugh then as she shuffled her feet, "You're... not mad?"
Well you were quite miffed but the mess could be easily be taken care of. With enough time and effort on your part, you should be able to get yourself back up and running. But otherwise, you needed to know where you were first.
"No, I'm not mad. Rest assured that you're not in trouble. I'm just perplexed, honestly. No one has done this before and I certainly wouldn't have let them. But now, it all seems strange..." you murmured before the results of your diagnostics came in. You frowned once you realized that your attempts somehow failed.
Impossible, you decided to run through your diagnostics once more and tried giving each sections of your database and hull a good scan. Except you weren't able to. Failed attempts and errors began to pile up in your vision before you shoved them all away with your will.
You'll have to check manually.
"I'm going to go check something. Want to come?" you asked Mary. Better keep an eye on her now that you're here. Otherwise she might break something important that she didn't mess with before.
The girl blinked and got off the sofa you materialized, nodding her head excitedly and answering, "Y...Yes!"
Well, that was easy enough. You couldn't help but look down on your chest and feel for something. Oddly enough, something was definitely different about you. You gave your Union Core a quick scan and you froze for a split second. The numbers burst through your vision and you couldn't quite keep up with the calculating capacity that was occurring on it.
Your Core has changed.
You pulled up a scale, comparing with Fog Ships of higher tonnage than you did and you ran triple checks just to make sure you didn't have any oversights. However it seemed that the answer all remained the same as you were told that your Core Capacity had increased exponentially. The amount of processing power you held was a hundredfold more powerful than your regular set up.
In fact, you had no recollections of ever getting an upgrade at a Home Port and the Supreme Flagship surely didn't give you the authorization for an upgrade. No... Somehow you guessed that you were beyond her even now.
This shouldn't be possible.
It's powerful... But locked somehow. Something this powerful inside of you... How did it get there?
You clenched your fist and made your way to exit your own hull. Your mind's gears turning and twisting, you walked through the interior of your hull towards the exit and you noted how the ceilings were all painted the same way as everything else.
"I've never asked but... what are those things you painted on my ceiling?" you said, glancing at Mary behind you and pointing up.
"Oh! They're stars," explained Mary, catching up to your side and looking up, "If it's like this, it's almost like it's always night time. It's boring during the day and the clouds don't come very often. But at night, the sky has so many lights! It's not boring and I like them."
"Stars, huh?" you inspected the crude paintings once more and you could somehow imagine it.
You eventually reached the hatch leading to the outside, opening it automatically, you stepped out to your deck and found yourself within an enclosed space. The ceiling was made out natural bedrock while to your far right was something similar to a man made facility. You found that the entire complex was well lit and upon further inspection, you were rigged into what seemed to be an electrical grid.
Apparently the harness used was of your own so you probably did this to yourself sometime ago. You inspected your deck and found that there were signs of damage that had been hastily repaired. Upon further examination, the repairs seem fairly cosmetic and the damages were more severe than you warranted.
You checked your guns and you deemed them 'broken beyond repair' even if they looked relatively intact at a first glance... and you certainly didn't have the resources to fix them by yourself. Apparently combat was out of your options now that you've seen this mess and you dreaded whatever else you were going to find.
You heard something bounce behind you and you found Mary standing there waiting expectantly with a ball in her hand.
"Um... Do you want to play?" she asked hesitantly.
You smiled and walked towards her and nodded. Well, this should be interesting.
The girl nervously passed you the ball. You caught it easily enough and tossed it towards her to catch. Except the ball shot through the air and out of sight thanks to your strength. There was a resounding pop and the ball's long life came to an end.
"Oh..." mumbled Mary.
Oh dear... You walked forward and constructed another ball made out of nanomaterials. It was new and was extra bouncy, especially once you've adjusted its properties. You gave it some colorful patterns and handed it to Mary.
"I... I just woke up. Apologies," you told her with an apologetic smile.
The girl's face lit up as she gratefully took the ball.
You then glanced to the side as the girl began to play by herself, looking up to the side of your main guns and noting the emblem upon it.
Blue Steel. The band of ideological idiots that were led by what you could only describe as a tactical madman. You didn't know what I-401 saw in him but you cannot doubt the Blue Steel Faction's influence and valiant battles against the Scarlet Fleet.
Apparently things happened before you awakening and you couldn't quite recall them from the top of your head. However you tried sifting through your data files and you looked over the logs.
The text logs noted mostly how you were working with the Blue Steel for the end stages of the previous war. You could see yourself working with them at the time. It's possible that the Scarlet Fleet turned into even huger assholes and that they weren't willing to tolerate your sabotaging anymore. Your mischief has apparently outweighed your usefulness.
You could almost imagine Chihaya Shouzo's face being irritated.
Dickhead.
You shook your head and glanced at Mary running off to retrieve the ball you made. You wondered where her parents are. It's obvious that she's been alone for a long time so they might not be around. Who left her here? Was it a coincidence?
"Is something wrong?" Mary asked as she approached with ball in hand.
Shaking your head, you then said, "No, it's fine. I was just thinking."
"Oh... Um, Miss Surcouf?"
"What is it?"
"Are you okay?" asked the human girl with genuine concern.
"I can't say I am. I'm sort of broken inside. And I think I might just know why," you told her as you found the last data log you had in your system, "I'll try remembering what exactly happened."
"You were already like this when I found you here. It looked really bad. I... I'm sorry there was nothing I could do. Maybe we can fix you up?" suggested the girl by your side.
You couldn't help but let out a chuckle, "Girl, what is there for you to do? And I appreciate the gesture however it seems that I'll need better equipment for a full repair. But first, I need to know what exactly did this to me... And if my guess is right..." you breathed in and unlocked the log and assimilated it into your Mental Mod-
.....
....
...
You fought. You've never fought much harder than anything else in your existence. Faced with the odds against you, apparently the Holy Grail you've come for decided to fight back and resist. It resisted and attacked, its wrath triggered by your daring approach. It answered your commands with three Super Gravity Cannons firing simultaneously...
Homeport Grade armaments that rent the seas apart, combining as one to erase your puny existence into oblivion. Yet you kept your course, activating your Mirror Ring System and directing the attack into an isolated space and unleashing a shockwave of raw power all around.. As if faced with God's mighty hammer itself, your mirror ring system broke and multiple system hardware all went up to smoke and started fires within you.
Habakkuk's Klein Field whined underneath the assault of its own Super Gravity Cannon's energy, bending depressing like paper before shattering and bisecting the Super Carrier. A resounding metallic groan echoed all around as the Super Carrier struggled to keep itself relatively intact. Water splashed around the surface before you dived down deep to escape its sights, unleashing acoustic and decoy torpedoes to hide your trail.
You grinned, you'd like to see Yamato top that. You've mutilated your own body for this chance, you've changed yourself, edited the very thing that made you who you were for this moment.
And you realized that this won't do.
This thing was on a whole other level. This was something more than what the Fog was capable of creating. This was something else. It was more like a Giant Black Box of untold power. Essentially Pandora's box... And if one faction held it, then the balance of power would surely shift.
Everything will change.
Perhaps that made you Pandora? Or... Was it one of the fools chasing after you now? Nevertheless, you couldn't say that you didn't try taking it for yourself. So you could only fight now... Fight now and break it before those fools retrieve it.
Now that your Trump Card's been exposed and shattered, you could obviously say the same for this hulking piece of ice and metal.
You exposed your weapons, primed all torpedoes and kickstarted your engines. You surged forward, your course, the Habakkuk.
The giant open fired, secondary armaments whining as you fired back in retaliation. Your Klein Field shattered and regenerated, your hull was pierced and torn, the sea became a veritable hellscape as the wrath of this ice giant focused solely on the insect that was you. Yet you fought and pushed on, gambling it all on a focus attack to shatter through the Super Carrier's defenses.
Its lasers pierced the waters and ASW torpedoes descended from above. The Ocean Depths was alight with explosions and graviton blasts.
You came from below, weaving through the deadly attacks and came upon the underbelly of the Carrier. You were breaking down, water flooding your insides yet you focused at the Super Fog Ship's blindspot.
You activated your hacking capabilities and tried disabling the Super Carrier's Klein Fields. It was a newborn ship, unaware of Yamato's gift of a Mental Model, if you overloaded its AI with simultaneous variables, you should be able to make an opening for yourself. And now that it was busy trying to keep itself intact from its own attack, its own inflexible nature was becoming its downfall..
A soft spot you could exploit... Something you could never use against Yamato if the two of you came at gunpoint of each other.
This was the limit of the Fog and you surpassed it.
"I'll carve you open," you murmured as you cut through the Super Carrier's Klein Fields and created a hole large enough for you to go through.
You then armed your remaining guns, Anti-Ship and Anti-Personnel, to open fire at Habakkuk's Wave Force Armor as you reformed your bow into a gaping maw, biting open the Habakkuk's underside and carving open a path from beneath with your lasers and remaining cannons.
And you eventually happened upon its core. The Super Carrier's exposed Union Core.
And then...
You took it and made it yours.
.....
....
...
It was inside you. The Habakkuk's core was inside you. You... You grafted it into yourself, into your own Core. Which was why you felt this impossible amount of processing power beneath your fingertips. With the right outfit, you could probably shatter a Home Port's defensive firewall by yourself without using back doors or worms.
Just brute force...
So you did it then. You beat Habakkuk. This was probably one of your hastily made safehouses? Much like Blue Steel's Iwo Jima? You looked through your logs again and it seemed that you ran completely on automatic protocols to get here. Something happened once Habakkuk was disabled and you were triggered a mechanism which sealed your consciousness away.
You were damaged, stripped of everything you could use to defend yourself... but otherwise you could easily play god with basic hacking. No need to fire a gun with this much processing power at hand. It was almost like you could stand against Yamato or Musashi themselves if you dueled them for their access codes.
"Miss Surcouf?!" Mary cried out as she came to your side, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Fine... Just... I remember what happened now," you struggled to process the information you received mentally. This was honestly a lot to take in... It was a wonder that no one got you on your way to this... wherever this place was.
Mary let you sit down on your deck, wondering if you needed rest. Well, you were of the Fog, you didn't need rest unless you had a system cooldown. And you're not aware if you were in one right now. Your capability to look over yourself was pretty much hampered by the damage you've received before.
Weaponless with no resources, you held the most powerful Union Core there was in existence as of yet.
And that's enough reason for people to come for you should they catch wind of your awakening. But... you could also make use of this situation. In hindsight, you got what you wanted, you got Habakkuk inside you and you were all the more powerful because of it. And if it wasn't for the sorry state of your hull, you could've waltz out this... place and took on the world.
No, it would take time. You needed to take time and study this new Union Core you had.
Technically, would this make you the Supreme Flagship? You a deceiving, two-faced underwater cruiser that played everyone at that one critical moment and took the prize for yourself? You've pretty much betrayed everyone then, who knew if they would even help you or give you the edge to become combat ready.
Hiding was the best plan for now. Hiding and understanding what you could exactly do. With this sort of Processing Power you could pretty much brute force through Fog firewalls with enough time. Not exactly something you'd use in live combat without the proper outfits...
You just got yourself in pickle, huh?
.....
....
...
[] Give yourself some time to think about this. It's too much to process and digest for now. You could speak with the human girl about her origins. Perhaps that should give you little information about this submarine pen and its facilities.
[] Try exploring the area. You'd like to give the place a once over and see if it's secure. Maybe you could check your own internal machinery to see if they were still up to snuff at the very least. It could be a very good distraction for yourself.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and see if there's anyone there. Chances are it might be someone pleasant and won't try to kill you. They'd be a valuable source of information... If there was anyone even there.
-[x] Blue Steel. They were idealistic fools, but if you had to live in a world after the war, you liked their vision the best.
[x] You sabotaged...
-[x] Scarlet Fleet. Tyrannical assholes. They wanted to crown themselves king atop the world. You would topple their throne and see them trampled underfoot.
[x] Quest Difficulty
-[x] (INSANE) You would not be deterred. You had outfitted yourself to your maximum capacity, and you would not see your careful preparations go to waste. Even as your Klein Fields failed, even as your Wave Force Armor was rent from your hull, even as your hull was gutted from prow to stern by withering fire, you kept your course. You never gave up on something once you set your eyes on it, and although your hull buckled and threatened to collapse as you drew ever closer, you kept on. And then... victory.
[x] Mary Interaction
-[x] Kind
You considered your current situation and began to give yourself a quick recap. Your Mental Model was lacking a few basic plug-ins you once had but you manage to drag a personality plug-in as well as a soft program for human interaction. Considering the girl's age and mood, you deemed it appropriate if you went along with her now, perhaps give her some sense of comfort.
You decided to be kind for kindness led you to gaining much of the humans' trust. Be it Blue Steel or Scarlet Fleet, kindness at the right place and the right amount could win you valuable pawns. Showing some to a girl of this age and personality would be useful but that would depend if she had anything important to say.
Nevertheless, she was the only one around and you couldn't sense any other form of life outside your hull. How strange... Nevertheless, you turned your attention back to the human child and spoke.
"Well, I'm glad that you're glad however this doesn't seem to be the sort of place a child like you to be staying," you helpfully pointed out at the girl's current state of dress, "You'll catch a cold in those rags."
"Ah! It's fine, I always get... um... sick! But it's fine. I get better," the girl proudly assured, puffing her chest out with pride.
"Is that so..?" you walked towards her and the girl's attitude suddenly became cautious as she stepped away. You raised your hands and blinked, easing it up. It seems that this child was aware of what the Fog was capable of if she was wary.
Mary... was it? Mary stared at you with an observant look, gauging your every movement as if she were trying to discern your intention. You briefly wondered if this was deliberate or simply something the child wasn't aware of. Nevertheless, you took a step back and made yourself as non-threatening as possible.
"Now, now, it wouldn't be right for me to come and hurt you. Worry not, I'm not going to, I assure you that," you told her as you stepped back, "I'm not going to hurt you now. In fact, I was just going to ask a few questions."
"Question?" parroted Mary with a head tilt.
"Indeed," you gave her what you deemed to be a 'kind' smile by human standards and spoke in a soft, soothing tone, "Just a couple. Nothing too complicated. Simple enough for you to answer. Would that be okay?"
The girl hesitated before eventually nodding her head.
Acknowledging her response, you snapped your fingers and recreated a soft couch from your nanomaterial reserves. The girl fell on her rear but was caught by the soft sensation of the sofa and marveled as she watched it gain a more physical and defined form. A marveled sound escaped her lips as she felt the soft texture of the sofa and squeezed it with her hands to make sure it was real.
You couldn't help but be amused by that before you diverted enough power to the Bridge so that the lights would grow brighter while you began running system diagnostics in the background. That would do for now, you can look at the results once you're done questioning this human.
What exactly happened... How long were out... How did you get here?
No... No, no, no, that wouldn't do at all.
Instead...
"Then girl, can you tell me, did you do all of this?" you asked her, gesturing to the array of bookshelves, curtains and the odd polka dots painted on the ceiling, "Or was it someone else?"
"It was me!" Mary answered with a smile, "I made it prettier! It was a bit dull so I changed it!"
She changed it. Dull, huh? If it was in any other situation you would have been annoyed but you suppose you could let this pass. You shrugged and gave her your opinion, "Well it's certainly the first time critiqued my interior design and made some... deliberate changes without my permission."
The girl tensed as you walked away and examined the bookshelves propped against the walls of your Bridge. You inspected them closely and found some ample amount of study material as well as fictional literature. All of them looked as if they've been read countless of times going by how used the pages were. It almost seemed that they've been laid out after a long time. While well maintained, the books themselves seemed aged.
"You're living here? Inside me?" you asked the girl as you pulled out a 'Revised Naval Training Manual' from the shelf and scanned its pages.
"Um, yes," chirped the girl from behind you.
"How long?" you asked once more, glancing behind you.
"I... I can't remember," the girl answered, her previous chipper self deflating as she couldn't recall, "It's a long time. I... Sorry."
You didn't quite understand, "For what?"
"Can't talk well... Never talked this long," Mary let out with an awkward laugh then as she shuffled her feet, "You're... not mad?"
Well you were quite miffed but the mess could be easily be taken care of. With enough time and effort on your part, you should be able to get yourself back up and running. But otherwise, you needed to know where you were first.
"No, I'm not mad. Rest assured that you're not in trouble. I'm just perplexed, honestly. No one has done this before and I certainly wouldn't have let them. But now, it all seems strange..." you murmured before the results of your diagnostics came in. You frowned once you realized that your attempts somehow failed.
Impossible, you decided to run through your diagnostics once more and tried giving each sections of your database and hull a good scan. Except you weren't able to. Failed attempts and errors began to pile up in your vision before you shoved them all away with your will.
You'll have to check manually.
"I'm going to go check something. Want to come?" you asked Mary. Better keep an eye on her now that you're here. Otherwise she might break something important that she didn't mess with before.
The girl blinked and got off the sofa you materialized, nodding her head excitedly and answering, "Y...Yes!"
Well, that was easy enough. You couldn't help but look down on your chest and feel for something. Oddly enough, something was definitely different about you. You gave your Union Core a quick scan and you froze for a split second. The numbers burst through your vision and you couldn't quite keep up with the calculating capacity that was occurring on it.
Your Core has changed.
You pulled up a scale, comparing with Fog Ships of higher tonnage than you did and you ran triple checks just to make sure you didn't have any oversights. However it seemed that the answer all remained the same as you were told that your Core Capacity had increased exponentially. The amount of processing power you held was a hundredfold more powerful than your regular set up.
In fact, you had no recollections of ever getting an upgrade at a Home Port and the Supreme Flagship surely didn't give you the authorization for an upgrade. No... Somehow you guessed that you were beyond her even now.
This shouldn't be possible.
It's powerful... But locked somehow. Something this powerful inside of you... How did it get there?
You clenched your fist and made your way to exit your own hull. Your mind's gears turning and twisting, you walked through the interior of your hull towards the exit and you noted how the ceilings were all painted the same way as everything else.
"I've never asked but... what are those things you painted on my ceiling?" you said, glancing at Mary behind you and pointing up.
"Oh! They're stars," explained Mary, catching up to your side and looking up, "If it's like this, it's almost like it's always night time. It's boring during the day and the clouds don't come very often. But at night, the sky has so many lights! It's not boring and I like them."
"Stars, huh?" you inspected the crude paintings once more and you could somehow imagine it.
You eventually reached the hatch leading to the outside, opening it automatically, you stepped out to your deck and found yourself within an enclosed space. The ceiling was made out natural bedrock while to your far right was something similar to a man made facility. You found that the entire complex was well lit and upon further inspection, you were rigged into what seemed to be an electrical grid.
Apparently the harness used was of your own so you probably did this to yourself sometime ago. You inspected your deck and found that there were signs of damage that had been hastily repaired. Upon further examination, the repairs seem fairly cosmetic and the damages were more severe than you warranted.
You checked your guns and you deemed them 'broken beyond repair' even if they looked relatively intact at a first glance... and you certainly didn't have the resources to fix them by yourself. Apparently combat was out of your options now that you've seen this mess and you dreaded whatever else you were going to find.
You heard something bounce behind you and you found Mary standing there waiting expectantly with a ball in her hand.
"Um... Do you want to play?" she asked hesitantly.
You smiled and walked towards her and nodded. Well, this should be interesting.
The girl nervously passed you the ball. You caught it easily enough and tossed it towards her to catch. Except the ball shot through the air and out of sight thanks to your strength. There was a resounding pop and the ball's long life came to an end.
"Oh..." mumbled Mary.
Oh dear... You walked forward and constructed another ball made out of nanomaterials. It was new and was extra bouncy, especially once you've adjusted its properties. You gave it some colorful patterns and handed it to Mary.
"I... I just woke up. Apologies," you told her with an apologetic smile.
The girl's face lit up as she gratefully took the ball.
You then glanced to the side as the girl began to play by herself, looking up to the side of your main guns and noting the emblem upon it.
Blue Steel. The band of ideological idiots that were led by what you could only describe as a tactical madman. You didn't know what I-401 saw in him but you cannot doubt the Blue Steel Faction's influence and valiant battles against the Scarlet Fleet.
Apparently things happened before you awakening and you couldn't quite recall them from the top of your head. However you tried sifting through your data files and you looked over the logs.
The text logs noted mostly how you were working with the Blue Steel for the end stages of the previous war. You could see yourself working with them at the time. It's possible that the Scarlet Fleet turned into even huger assholes and that they weren't willing to tolerate your sabotaging anymore. Your mischief has apparently outweighed your usefulness.
You could almost imagine Chihaya Shouzo's face being irritated.
Dickhead.
You shook your head and glanced at Mary running off to retrieve the ball you made. You wondered where her parents are. It's obvious that she's been alone for a long time so they might not be around. Who left her here? Was it a coincidence?
"Is something wrong?" Mary asked as she approached with ball in hand.
Shaking your head, you then said, "No, it's fine. I was just thinking."
"Oh... Um, Miss Surcouf?"
"What is it?"
"Are you okay?" asked the human girl with genuine concern.
"I can't say I am. I'm sort of broken inside. And I think I might just know why," you told her as you found the last data log you had in your system, "I'll try remembering what exactly happened."
"You were already like this when I found you here. It looked really bad. I... I'm sorry there was nothing I could do. Maybe we can fix you up?" suggested the girl by your side.
You couldn't help but let out a chuckle, "Girl, what is there for you to do? And I appreciate the gesture however it seems that I'll need better equipment for a full repair. But first, I need to know what exactly did this to me... And if my guess is right..." you breathed in and unlocked the log and assimilated it into your Mental Mod-
.....
....
...
You fought. You've never fought much harder than anything else in your existence. Faced with the odds against you, apparently the Holy Grail you've come for decided to fight back and resist. It resisted and attacked, its wrath triggered by your daring approach. It answered your commands with three Super Gravity Cannons firing simultaneously...
Homeport Grade armaments that rent the seas apart, combining as one to erase your puny existence into oblivion. Yet you kept your course, activating your Mirror Ring System and directing the attack into an isolated space and unleashing a shockwave of raw power all around.. As if faced with God's mighty hammer itself, your mirror ring system broke and multiple system hardware all went up to smoke and started fires within you.
Habakkuk's Klein Field whined underneath the assault of its own Super Gravity Cannon's energy, bending depressing like paper before shattering and bisecting the Super Carrier. A resounding metallic groan echoed all around as the Super Carrier struggled to keep itself relatively intact. Water splashed around the surface before you dived down deep to escape its sights, unleashing acoustic and decoy torpedoes to hide your trail.
You grinned, you'd like to see Yamato top that. You've mutilated your own body for this chance, you've changed yourself, edited the very thing that made you who you were for this moment.
And you realized that this won't do.
This thing was on a whole other level. This was something more than what the Fog was capable of creating. This was something else. It was more like a Giant Black Box of untold power. Essentially Pandora's box... And if one faction held it, then the balance of power would surely shift.
Everything will change.
Perhaps that made you Pandora? Or... Was it one of the fools chasing after you now? Nevertheless, you couldn't say that you didn't try taking it for yourself. So you could only fight now... Fight now and break it before those fools retrieve it.
Now that your Trump Card's been exposed and shattered, you could obviously say the same for this hulking piece of ice and metal.
You exposed your weapons, primed all torpedoes and kickstarted your engines. You surged forward, your course, the Habakkuk.
The giant open fired, secondary armaments whining as you fired back in retaliation. Your Klein Field shattered and regenerated, your hull was pierced and torn, the sea became a veritable hellscape as the wrath of this ice giant focused solely on the insect that was you. Yet you fought and pushed on, gambling it all on a focus attack to shatter through the Super Carrier's defenses.
Its lasers pierced the waters and ASW torpedoes descended from above. The Ocean Depths was alight with explosions and graviton blasts.
You came from below, weaving through the deadly attacks and came upon the underbelly of the Carrier. You were breaking down, water flooding your insides yet you focused at the Super Fog Ship's blindspot.
You activated your hacking capabilities and tried disabling the Super Carrier's Klein Fields. It was a newborn ship, unaware of Yamato's gift of a Mental Model, if you overloaded its AI with simultaneous variables, you should be able to make an opening for yourself. And now that it was busy trying to keep itself intact from its own attack, its own inflexible nature was becoming its downfall..
A soft spot you could exploit... Something you could never use against Yamato if the two of you came at gunpoint of each other.
This was the limit of the Fog and you surpassed it.
"I'll carve you open," you murmured as you cut through the Super Carrier's Klein Fields and created a hole large enough for you to go through.
You then armed your remaining guns, Anti-Ship and Anti-Personnel, to open fire at Habakkuk's Wave Force Armor as you reformed your bow into a gaping maw, biting open the Habakkuk's underside and carving open a path from beneath with your lasers and remaining cannons.
And you eventually happened upon its core. The Super Carrier's exposed Union Core.
And then...
You took it and made it yours.
.....
....
...
It was inside you. The Habakkuk's core was inside you. You... You grafted it into yourself, into your own Core. Which was why you felt this impossible amount of processing power beneath your fingertips. With the right outfit, you could probably shatter a Home Port's defensive firewall by yourself without using back doors or worms.
Just brute force...
So you did it then. You beat Habakkuk. This was probably one of your hastily made safehouses? Much like Blue Steel's Iwo Jima? You looked through your logs again and it seemed that you ran completely on automatic protocols to get here. Something happened once Habakkuk was disabled and you were triggered a mechanism which sealed your consciousness away.
You were damaged, stripped of everything you could use to defend yourself... but otherwise you could easily play god with basic hacking. No need to fire a gun with this much processing power at hand. It was almost like you could stand against Yamato or Musashi themselves if you dueled them for their access codes.
"Miss Surcouf?!" Mary cried out as she came to your side, "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"
"Fine... Just... I remember what happened now," you struggled to process the information you received mentally. This was honestly a lot to take in... It was a wonder that no one got you on your way to this... wherever this place was.
Mary let you sit down on your deck, wondering if you needed rest. Well, you were of the Fog, you didn't need rest unless you had a system cooldown. And you're not aware if you were in one right now. Your capability to look over yourself was pretty much hampered by the damage you've received before.
Weaponless with no resources, you held the most powerful Union Core there was in existence as of yet.
And that's enough reason for people to come for you should they catch wind of your awakening. But... you could also make use of this situation. In hindsight, you got what you wanted, you got Habakkuk inside you and you were all the more powerful because of it. And if it wasn't for the sorry state of your hull, you could've waltz out this... place and took on the world.
No, it would take time. You needed to take time and study this new Union Core you had.
Technically, would this make you the Supreme Flagship? You a deceiving, two-faced underwater cruiser that played everyone at that one critical moment and took the prize for yourself? You've pretty much betrayed everyone then, who knew if they would even help you or give you the edge to become combat ready.
Hiding was the best plan for now. Hiding and understanding what you could exactly do. With this sort of Processing Power you could pretty much brute force through Fog firewalls with enough time. Not exactly something you'd use in live combat without the proper outfits...
You just got yourself in pickle, huh?
.....
....
...
[] Give yourself some time to think about this. It's too much to process and digest for now. You could speak with the human girl about her origins. Perhaps that should give you little information about this submarine pen and its facilities.
[] Try exploring the area. You'd like to give the place a once over and see if it's secure. Maybe you could check your own internal machinery to see if they were still up to snuff at the very least. It could be a very good distraction for yourself.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and see if there's anyone there. Chances are it might be someone pleasant and won't try to kill you. They'd be a valuable source of information... If there was anyone even there.
Depth 3
Higure
Witch of Faith
- Location
- The Golden Land
[X] Give yourself some time to think about this. It's too much to process and digest for now. You could speak with the human girl about her origins. Perhaps that should give you little information about this submarine pen and its facilities
You take a heavy breath. This is a lot to take in, but you can handle it. For now, you need to calm down...maybe get to know your...what exactly would you call Mary? Guest? Parasite? Maid? Occupant?
You suppose it doesn't really matter, for the moment. She's your only contact here, and she's been keeping you clean all of these years, so you suppose you owe her for that, at least.
"So, Darling...it appears we're going to be spending quite a lot of time together. Tell me about yourself? How'd you get...wherever we are?"
Mary pauses, licking her lips, and her gaze unfocuses as she speaks, "...I...it was a long time ago. It's all really foggy, you know? If I think back as far as a I can, I remember I was on a ship with...someone. Then there's a loud noise, and then water...lots of water. It was everywhere around me. Then I'm floating on a raft...I guess someone put me in it? After that...nothing. Next thing I remember I was on this island. I remember eating some rations, for a while, but there wasn't anyone else here...things get blurry again, but I know I was wandering around. Eventually, I found myself here. I thought I might find someone to help me, but...this place was empty. I was still really happy, though: I found food, and there was a water distillery, and it was warm, and nothing could get to me in here. I remember hoping for someone to come for me for a while, but..." She shrugs, "No one did. Guess no one knew about me. I've been living here ever since. It's home, if a bit lonely...well, until you showed up! It's better, now!"
After a moment of silence, she goes horribly still, staring at you in dawning fear, "...y...you're not leaving, right? I...I can't lose you! Not when we just met! I...I want to show you everything! W-we can...I can...please don't leave me!"
You now have sixteen (?) year old girl glued to your side. You really don't know what you're going to do yet, so you just pat her awkwardly on the back, "Don't worry. It will be fine." You aren't really sure it will be, of course, but...this isn't something you want to deal with, right now.
She seems to find that heartening, blushing in embarrassment as she steps back, "S-sorry, Surcouf. I just...um...let me show you around the place!"
She leads your Mental Model off your deck by the hand, dragging you about excitedly. The old submarine pen is pretty run-down. Rust has spread over much of the exposed metal, and numerous pipes have cracked, water leaking from them.
Despite that, it's still mostly operational. The base's own power-source has been long-extinguished, but your own reactor appears to be keeping the facility powered in in spite of that.
The docks are rather large for a sub as small as yourself, more suited for the American Stealth Submarines and their "bigger is better" mentality. Idiocy, of course: There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a petite, reasonably sized ship. Nothing at all. You certainly don't need a multitude of massive cannons and obscene number of torpedo launchers. You're perfectly fine at your current size. Really.
Putting your nonexistent issues to the side. You focus back on Mary's little tour, and find yourself in a sizable, but essentially empty storehouse. there IS a massive stock of MREs, presumably how Mary's been feeding herself, but that's about it. The facility seems to be sufficiently secured as to keep vermin out (or maybe Mary's been handling that), but there's something almost sad about the abandoned space. It should be full of supplies and equipment, but...nothing. You give a slight sigh, patting Mary's head and turning away. She seems puzzled, but leads you to the final stop on your journey.
The command center is in shockingly good condition, really. It's a bit dusty, and nothing actually running right now, but most everything seems intact. According to Mary, everything even operates...unfortunately, though, she's not been able to crack the passcode despite her best efforts, so she's locked out of all the control functionality. She also can't operate the lift without that, either...which leads to some good news:. There's more floors to this place, if you can find a way to access them. You hope you'll be able to find something useful...or at least some information about what the world's like right now.
You think as much aloud, and Mary perks up, running out of the command center and back to your, well, you with an exuberance and spryness odd for a girl of her age and lifestyle. You can't imagine she's had much to do around here, after all. Nevertheless, you follow her at a more stately pace, smirking at the girl as she comes sprinting back with a stack of books in her arms, "I've got these! They're pretty old...they've been here longer than I have, obviously...but you'll probably find them useful. "
Nodding, you take the books and page through them briefly. They're not actually all that helpful to you, having only been written shortly after your defeat of Habbakuk, but you do get a rough idea of what the world's like, now...or, well, a while ago.
Shortly after your victory, all Fog ships went dormant. The writer seems fairly pleased by that, to your irritation, but you suppose you can't expect much better of humans. There's a decent amount of information about the battles, interactions, and negotiations between the opposing forces immediately after the battle, but nothing of much use to you. It appears that both Blue Steel and the Scarlet Fleet made it through intact. You take the first half as good news, but the latter is rather disappointing...you suppose they'll probably be a problem for you, soon enough.
After a skimming the text, you nod in satisfaction before returning it to Mary, "Thank you, Dear. That's a great help. I don't suppose you have anything more up to date?"
She shakes her head, "Sorry, I'm afraid not."
You heave a sigh, and try to figure out your next course of action.
...
[] Try to access the lift.
[] Try to access the control systems.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and see if there's anyone there. Chances are it might be someone pleasant and won't try to kill you. They'd be a valuable source of information... If there was anyone even there.
[] Inspect your main body's internal machinery...you need to make sure you're still able to operate, at least.
You take a heavy breath. This is a lot to take in, but you can handle it. For now, you need to calm down...maybe get to know your...what exactly would you call Mary? Guest? Parasite? Maid? Occupant?
You suppose it doesn't really matter, for the moment. She's your only contact here, and she's been keeping you clean all of these years, so you suppose you owe her for that, at least.
"So, Darling...it appears we're going to be spending quite a lot of time together. Tell me about yourself? How'd you get...wherever we are?"
Mary pauses, licking her lips, and her gaze unfocuses as she speaks, "...I...it was a long time ago. It's all really foggy, you know? If I think back as far as a I can, I remember I was on a ship with...someone. Then there's a loud noise, and then water...lots of water. It was everywhere around me. Then I'm floating on a raft...I guess someone put me in it? After that...nothing. Next thing I remember I was on this island. I remember eating some rations, for a while, but there wasn't anyone else here...things get blurry again, but I know I was wandering around. Eventually, I found myself here. I thought I might find someone to help me, but...this place was empty. I was still really happy, though: I found food, and there was a water distillery, and it was warm, and nothing could get to me in here. I remember hoping for someone to come for me for a while, but..." She shrugs, "No one did. Guess no one knew about me. I've been living here ever since. It's home, if a bit lonely...well, until you showed up! It's better, now!"
After a moment of silence, she goes horribly still, staring at you in dawning fear, "...y...you're not leaving, right? I...I can't lose you! Not when we just met! I...I want to show you everything! W-we can...I can...please don't leave me!"
You now have sixteen (?) year old girl glued to your side. You really don't know what you're going to do yet, so you just pat her awkwardly on the back, "Don't worry. It will be fine." You aren't really sure it will be, of course, but...this isn't something you want to deal with, right now.
She seems to find that heartening, blushing in embarrassment as she steps back, "S-sorry, Surcouf. I just...um...let me show you around the place!"
She leads your Mental Model off your deck by the hand, dragging you about excitedly. The old submarine pen is pretty run-down. Rust has spread over much of the exposed metal, and numerous pipes have cracked, water leaking from them.
Despite that, it's still mostly operational. The base's own power-source has been long-extinguished, but your own reactor appears to be keeping the facility powered in in spite of that.
The docks are rather large for a sub as small as yourself, more suited for the American Stealth Submarines and their "bigger is better" mentality. Idiocy, of course: There's absolutely nothing wrong with being a petite, reasonably sized ship. Nothing at all. You certainly don't need a multitude of massive cannons and obscene number of torpedo launchers. You're perfectly fine at your current size. Really.
Putting your nonexistent issues to the side. You focus back on Mary's little tour, and find yourself in a sizable, but essentially empty storehouse. there IS a massive stock of MREs, presumably how Mary's been feeding herself, but that's about it. The facility seems to be sufficiently secured as to keep vermin out (or maybe Mary's been handling that), but there's something almost sad about the abandoned space. It should be full of supplies and equipment, but...nothing. You give a slight sigh, patting Mary's head and turning away. She seems puzzled, but leads you to the final stop on your journey.
The command center is in shockingly good condition, really. It's a bit dusty, and nothing actually running right now, but most everything seems intact. According to Mary, everything even operates...unfortunately, though, she's not been able to crack the passcode despite her best efforts, so she's locked out of all the control functionality. She also can't operate the lift without that, either...which leads to some good news:. There's more floors to this place, if you can find a way to access them. You hope you'll be able to find something useful...or at least some information about what the world's like right now.
You think as much aloud, and Mary perks up, running out of the command center and back to your, well, you with an exuberance and spryness odd for a girl of her age and lifestyle. You can't imagine she's had much to do around here, after all. Nevertheless, you follow her at a more stately pace, smirking at the girl as she comes sprinting back with a stack of books in her arms, "I've got these! They're pretty old...they've been here longer than I have, obviously...but you'll probably find them useful. "
Nodding, you take the books and page through them briefly. They're not actually all that helpful to you, having only been written shortly after your defeat of Habbakuk, but you do get a rough idea of what the world's like, now...or, well, a while ago.
Shortly after your victory, all Fog ships went dormant. The writer seems fairly pleased by that, to your irritation, but you suppose you can't expect much better of humans. There's a decent amount of information about the battles, interactions, and negotiations between the opposing forces immediately after the battle, but nothing of much use to you. It appears that both Blue Steel and the Scarlet Fleet made it through intact. You take the first half as good news, but the latter is rather disappointing...you suppose they'll probably be a problem for you, soon enough.
After a skimming the text, you nod in satisfaction before returning it to Mary, "Thank you, Dear. That's a great help. I don't suppose you have anything more up to date?"
She shakes her head, "Sorry, I'm afraid not."
You heave a sigh, and try to figure out your next course of action.
...
[] Try to access the lift.
[] Try to access the control systems.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and see if there's anyone there. Chances are it might be someone pleasant and won't try to kill you. They'd be a valuable source of information... If there was anyone even there.
[] Inspect your main body's internal machinery...you need to make sure you're still able to operate, at least.
Depth 4
TheBleachDoctor
Secretly a Cat
- Location
- The Plane of Infinite Kittens
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Inspect your main body's internal machinery...you need to make sure you're still able to operate, at least.
You'd like to head out and acquire more information. As an information dealer/double agent, not being in the know is almost physically painful for you. But it would be far too dangerous to venture out without knowing the extent of your damage. That would be like trying to ride a bike without checking to make sure that the screws were tight. Or attempting to fly without doing a pre-flight check. Or any other similar situation. Normally you'd just do a systems diagnostic, but although your Core can talk to your systems, your systems aren't talking back. This could either mean that they're still there and are just experiencing glitches that prevent them from reporting back... or they're well and truly broken.
Suffice to say, you're going to have to manually check everything and then do a shakedown cruise.
You do not relish the task before you, but it is a necessary one. Besides, you have help, so this shouldn't take too long.
Turning to Mary, you give her your best motherly smile.
"Mary, darling," you croon, "I need to check the condition of my hull. Would you be a dear and help me? I would most most appreciate it."
At that offer, her eyes sparkle in excitement. The girl is nearly bouncing up and down.
"Really?" she beams, "I'd love to!"
Looks like you have a little helper.
First, you check the outer systems.
External sensors are down, so you open all the maitenance panels automatically. Those were repaired when your automatic systems restored your appearance, but that doesn't guarantee the status of of the sensors beneath those panels. So you need to check them.
All of them.
"Broken," you look at a fore infrared sensor, frowning in displeasure, "Mary, please tell me what the cameras look like over there."
Several minutes pass as you poke around the various panels on your outer hull. You even check the ones underwater, although you do that to spare Mary the difficult dive. All in all, the reports aren't great.
Your sensor capability is basic and minimal. Over half of every type of sensor has been fried or damaged, requiring repair or replacement. While you aren't blind to radar, infrared, etc. you don't have every vector covered with every sensor type and you have massive holes in your sensor coverage. You console yourself with the fact that you aren't entirely blind. To get them working again, you'll just have to manually reinitialize them and reinforce the connections.
Next come the weapons.
Your turret is your pride and joy. Photon Cannons that would be more at home on a Cruiser sit in a nice, round gun turret just ahead of your conning tower. They are also capable of firing regular munitions, something that you found yourself doing quite often.
Although they look fine now, they're not responding to your commands. That's something you need to fix.
Also you note that Mary rigged up a little swing made out of rope and a broken chair between the barrels. You have to admit, it's cute.
You open a side access panel and beckon Mary to crawl inside. You could diminish your size, but this is just faster. Also getting Mary involved will strengthen her connection with you. Whether you decide to make her your helper by force or coercion, making her feel invested in your wellbeing is conducive to a healthy working relationship. Something you learned a long time ago.
"So, Mary," you call into the turret, "What does it look like inside?"
Her reply tells you all you need to know, "It looks like a grilled cheese sandwich!"
So, slagged. That's just great. Damaged you could handle. Spare Nanomaterial or mundane parts could restore operation in a relatively short amount of time. But a slagged system had to be entirely replaced. While you could theoretically replace it yourself with simpler weapons like Human artillery, to get your hands on a working Photon Cannon (two, in fact) and install them would require either a supply ship or a Home Port. Looks like you'll have to get some help with that.
You find your smaller lasers and Photon Cannons in a similar state ofmelty goodness destruction. This is going to be a problem.
Are your torpedo and missile launchers working, at least? You try and open your torpedo tubes and missile tubes. You hear the fore tubes slide open, and some of the deck tubes pop open, but... most of them don't. In fact, all of the missile tubes appear to be missing critical internal components.... you've got your fore tubes though, right?
That little ray of hope vanishes, however, when you pay a visit to your armory.
No torpedoes. No missiles. Zilch. Nada. You're bone dry in terms of munitions.
This day just keeps getting better and better! And it continues that trend as you keep checking systems in a growing state of frustration.
Wave Force Armor? Hah, you basically have none left. Your Klein Fields couldn't handle a 5-inch cannon!
Mirror Ring System? It's not melted but so many components are fried that repairing it would take nearly enough parts to build an entirely new one!
Your hangar has one part to your plane! The pontoons. Whoop dee fucking doo. You melt it down for Nanomaterials on the spot.
Most of the hull is missing major structural supports. Why, you swear that if you reinforced it with spit and baling wire, you'd see a noticeable improvement!
The only bright spot is your main reactor. Despite Mary having chosen to grow her own little garden in Main Engineering (surprisingly, strawberries thrive on Thanatonium radiation. Unsuprisingly, they're all irradiated. You'll have to do a medical checkup on the poor girl later) and the floor being a bed of dirt and strawberry plants, your Thanatonium reactor is operating at optimum efficiency. In addition, the thrusters appear to be in perfect working order.
So, basically, you can move. But you're toothless. And you'll stay toothless until you either replace your destroyed guns or find something to jam into your torpedo tubes!
It does occur to you, though, that this is a submarine pen. If the previous occupants didn't clean the place entirely out (as they apparently didn't, as the copious amounts of MRE spaghetti in your cargo hold suggests) then perhaps they left some torpedoes. If they did, you could stock up and put up some measure of resistance if anyone thinks you easy sport.
Oh, and your communications suite is perfectly operational.
So it's not been an entirely shitty day, but as the French say, "A day that only sucked a little still sucked."
You're pretty sure they said that. The internet told you so.
But... onto other things. Like further apprising yourself of the situation. You could check the Tactical Network. Or you could try and explore the rest of the pen. To do that, you're going to have to seize control of the base's systems. Unfortunately, until you get a better idea of the computer's infrastructure, a brute force hack is all you can do. While you could wait and tackle it more precisely later... you could just break into it now. No telling what that might do, though. Still, it would work in getting access to base systems.
...
[] Brute Force Hack the control systems.
-[] Access the lift and explore the rest of the facility.
-[] Attempt to connect to external networks. Surely they're more up to date.
-[] Subvert and Rewrite control systems to prevent a counterattack from... something. If you triggered anything.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and attempt to contact other vessels. It would be helpful to talk to someone, anyone.
[] Give Mary a medical checkup. Those strawberries could not have been good for her.
You'd like to head out and acquire more information. As an information dealer/double agent, not being in the know is almost physically painful for you. But it would be far too dangerous to venture out without knowing the extent of your damage. That would be like trying to ride a bike without checking to make sure that the screws were tight. Or attempting to fly without doing a pre-flight check. Or any other similar situation. Normally you'd just do a systems diagnostic, but although your Core can talk to your systems, your systems aren't talking back. This could either mean that they're still there and are just experiencing glitches that prevent them from reporting back... or they're well and truly broken.
Suffice to say, you're going to have to manually check everything and then do a shakedown cruise.
You do not relish the task before you, but it is a necessary one. Besides, you have help, so this shouldn't take too long.
Turning to Mary, you give her your best motherly smile.
"Mary, darling," you croon, "I need to check the condition of my hull. Would you be a dear and help me? I would most most appreciate it."
At that offer, her eyes sparkle in excitement. The girl is nearly bouncing up and down.
"Really?" she beams, "I'd love to!"
Looks like you have a little helper.
First, you check the outer systems.
External sensors are down, so you open all the maitenance panels automatically. Those were repaired when your automatic systems restored your appearance, but that doesn't guarantee the status of of the sensors beneath those panels. So you need to check them.
All of them.
"Broken," you look at a fore infrared sensor, frowning in displeasure, "Mary, please tell me what the cameras look like over there."
Several minutes pass as you poke around the various panels on your outer hull. You even check the ones underwater, although you do that to spare Mary the difficult dive. All in all, the reports aren't great.
Your sensor capability is basic and minimal. Over half of every type of sensor has been fried or damaged, requiring repair or replacement. While you aren't blind to radar, infrared, etc. you don't have every vector covered with every sensor type and you have massive holes in your sensor coverage. You console yourself with the fact that you aren't entirely blind. To get them working again, you'll just have to manually reinitialize them and reinforce the connections.
Next come the weapons.
Your turret is your pride and joy. Photon Cannons that would be more at home on a Cruiser sit in a nice, round gun turret just ahead of your conning tower. They are also capable of firing regular munitions, something that you found yourself doing quite often.
Although they look fine now, they're not responding to your commands. That's something you need to fix.
Also you note that Mary rigged up a little swing made out of rope and a broken chair between the barrels. You have to admit, it's cute.
You open a side access panel and beckon Mary to crawl inside. You could diminish your size, but this is just faster. Also getting Mary involved will strengthen her connection with you. Whether you decide to make her your helper by force or coercion, making her feel invested in your wellbeing is conducive to a healthy working relationship. Something you learned a long time ago.
"So, Mary," you call into the turret, "What does it look like inside?"
Her reply tells you all you need to know, "It looks like a grilled cheese sandwich!"
So, slagged. That's just great. Damaged you could handle. Spare Nanomaterial or mundane parts could restore operation in a relatively short amount of time. But a slagged system had to be entirely replaced. While you could theoretically replace it yourself with simpler weapons like Human artillery, to get your hands on a working Photon Cannon (two, in fact) and install them would require either a supply ship or a Home Port. Looks like you'll have to get some help with that.
You find your smaller lasers and Photon Cannons in a similar state of
Are your torpedo and missile launchers working, at least? You try and open your torpedo tubes and missile tubes. You hear the fore tubes slide open, and some of the deck tubes pop open, but... most of them don't. In fact, all of the missile tubes appear to be missing critical internal components.... you've got your fore tubes though, right?
That little ray of hope vanishes, however, when you pay a visit to your armory.
No torpedoes. No missiles. Zilch. Nada. You're bone dry in terms of munitions.
This day just keeps getting better and better! And it continues that trend as you keep checking systems in a growing state of frustration.
Wave Force Armor? Hah, you basically have none left. Your Klein Fields couldn't handle a 5-inch cannon!
Mirror Ring System? It's not melted but so many components are fried that repairing it would take nearly enough parts to build an entirely new one!
Your hangar has one part to your plane! The pontoons. Whoop dee fucking doo. You melt it down for Nanomaterials on the spot.
Most of the hull is missing major structural supports. Why, you swear that if you reinforced it with spit and baling wire, you'd see a noticeable improvement!
The only bright spot is your main reactor. Despite Mary having chosen to grow her own little garden in Main Engineering (surprisingly, strawberries thrive on Thanatonium radiation. Unsuprisingly, they're all irradiated. You'll have to do a medical checkup on the poor girl later) and the floor being a bed of dirt and strawberry plants, your Thanatonium reactor is operating at optimum efficiency. In addition, the thrusters appear to be in perfect working order.
So, basically, you can move. But you're toothless. And you'll stay toothless until you either replace your destroyed guns or find something to jam into your torpedo tubes!
It does occur to you, though, that this is a submarine pen. If the previous occupants didn't clean the place entirely out (as they apparently didn't, as the copious amounts of MRE spaghetti in your cargo hold suggests) then perhaps they left some torpedoes. If they did, you could stock up and put up some measure of resistance if anyone thinks you easy sport.
Oh, and your communications suite is perfectly operational.
So it's not been an entirely shitty day, but as the French say, "A day that only sucked a little still sucked."
You're pretty sure they said that. The internet told you so.
But... onto other things. Like further apprising yourself of the situation. You could check the Tactical Network. Or you could try and explore the rest of the pen. To do that, you're going to have to seize control of the base's systems. Unfortunately, until you get a better idea of the computer's infrastructure, a brute force hack is all you can do. While you could wait and tackle it more precisely later... you could just break into it now. No telling what that might do, though. Still, it would work in getting access to base systems.
...
[] Brute Force Hack the control systems.
-[] Access the lift and explore the rest of the facility.
-[] Attempt to connect to external networks. Surely they're more up to date.
-[] Subvert and Rewrite control systems to prevent a counterattack from... something. If you triggered anything.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and attempt to contact other vessels. It would be helpful to talk to someone, anyone.
[] Give Mary a medical checkup. Those strawberries could not have been good for her.
Omake- Box
ColdGoldLazarus
Contrary Quester, Spreadsheet Queen, Pink Flamingo
- Location
- Challenger Deep
- Pronouns
- She/Her
[X] Give Mary a medical checkup. Those strawberries could not have been good for her.
Hiei looked out across the empty sea. It seemed calm and peaceful, the stars twinkling serenely above, but a certain level of paranoia had her within its grip. "Nachi!" She called out. "Scan the area again. We can't allow anything past us!"
"Affirmative," Nachi responded. "Scanning now..."
Silence reigned as the heavy cruiser did her work. There was danger here, Hiei just knew it, but her ever-watchful subordinate would root it out.
"Nothing but coral, fish... and a cardboard box."
"A cardboard box?"
"Yes. It measures 110 meters in length, 9 meters across, and is traveling past us about a kilometer to the east at a rate of... ten knots. But otherwise, it's shaping and material would suggest nothing more or less than a large cardboard box."
Hiei blinked. "Okay... well, seems fine. Let it pass."
"Affirmative!"
The sense of danger had gone away, leaving Hiei to sigh in relief. There was nothing out there after all, for the time being. To borrow a human phrase, they had this mission in the bag.
Hiei looked out across the empty sea. It seemed calm and peaceful, the stars twinkling serenely above, but a certain level of paranoia had her within its grip. "Nachi!" She called out. "Scan the area again. We can't allow anything past us!"
"Affirmative," Nachi responded. "Scanning now..."
Silence reigned as the heavy cruiser did her work. There was danger here, Hiei just knew it, but her ever-watchful subordinate would root it out.
"Nothing but coral, fish... and a cardboard box."
"A cardboard box?"
"Yes. It measures 110 meters in length, 9 meters across, and is traveling past us about a kilometer to the east at a rate of... ten knots. But otherwise, it's shaping and material would suggest nothing more or less than a large cardboard box."
Hiei blinked. "Okay... well, seems fine. Let it pass."
"Affirmative!"
The sense of danger had gone away, leaving Hiei to sigh in relief. There was nothing out there after all, for the time being. To borrow a human phrase, they had this mission in the bag.
Last edited:
Depth 5
AnonymousRabbit
Rabbit Faced
[X] Give Mary a medical checkup. Those strawberries could not have been good for her.
Having given yourself your own personalized check ups, with the results being less than satisfactory, you decided to turn your attention to your... tenant. Mary was an odd child given her age and you've had stock data logged into your system regarding the human body. Her height and weight should be a bit more than what she had now and your ruled that one in as malnutrition and lack of sunlight.
Otherwise it could be a genetic thing. Nevertheless, you turned to her as she was poking at the budding strawberries by the reactor.
"Mary, can you come with me for a moment?" you asked her, causing the girl to look up in curiosity. You decided to elaborate just so you could be transparent, "I actually wanted to see how your health has been going. It will simply take a moment, dear, and I assure you that nothing bad would happen."
Mary gave you a wary look for a brief second before she decided, "Okay. Where do we go?"
You nodded and led her back to one of the crew quarters of your hull. It was a short two minute walk before you opened the door leading to the room, its interior shifting and twisting as it adjusted itself to become a more homely environment. Dust as absorbed through the nanomaterials and tables were formed as you walked in.
"Whoa! That's... so pretty!" echoed Mary as she went to the shifting nanomaterial turning itself into a comfortable bed.
Cross-sections of bones and various medical implements were also made to fit the atmosphere at the side, papers with records on human biology taken out of your database as well as fake specimens stuck within jars. You found it confounding that stock knowledge and data were preserved while specific data from your logs were corrupted from hell to back.
Perhaps you deemed it more necessary to know about things you could build yourself upon than things that would be useless if you didn't know the basics? That would be totally a move you'd consider but somehow it annoyed you.
Well, at the very least you could take refuge in the fact that she liked your tastes. Whereas other Fog would have made it a bit more bare and practical, you preferred comfort the best. Alas with your former crew members being stuck up dogs or foolish youths, there was few who could appreciate your style.
And style was what you're all about.
"Sit over there and I'll run my scans," you told the girl as she sat on the comfy white bed. You took the stethoscope hanging above the desk and placed it on your ears. Of course, this wasn't just to check heart heart beat and breathing but also doubled as your scanner.
Might as well play the part while you're here.
SUBJECT: MARY
AGE: 16
HEIGHT: 148cm
WEIGHT: 93lbs
TEMP: 35.6 degrees Celsius
Blood Pressure: 118/70 mmHg
Heart Rate: 75 bpm
Additional Notes: Healthy with functional immune system. No signs of illnesses nor injuries. Exterior scan shows now growth abnormalities nor harmful side effects to consumption of irradiated strawberries. Aside from her height and pale skin, Subject Mary remains relatively healthy. These variables were related to the subject's genetic make up, however, further tests are needed. Diagnostic systems have detected faint graviton readings from within the subject, further tests are needed.
You frowned. She was healthy... For a girl living on MREs for the past six years while consuming a bit of irradiated strawberries, she healthy. A bit too healthy for your tastes. Her immune system was working properly and she didn't seem to be contracting any horrible disease. But you there was the bit where you could sense some graviton readings in her body.
You don't know if there are mutations or she was just like this because of her genetics but she was certainly an odd child. Mary turned her crimson eyes towards your thoughtful expression and smiled brightly.
"Is there something wrong with me, Surcouf?" Mary asked you.
You blinked before shaking your head, "No, nothing dear. You're healthy as far as we're concerned. I'm just curious about your origins. If you don't mind me asking, have you ever contracted any sort of diseases while you're here?"
"Like sea sickness or scurvy?" the girl asked, "Those are the usual diseases from sailors. I read them in my books."
"Well, aside from those. Colds, fever, the likes?" you clarified as you brought up images of people with said symptoms.
Mary shook her head and shrugged, "No. I never got sick. I never felt bad except when I'm hungry..."
No sickness? Ever? It's not too far fetched with her current state of health and that's when she was just eating rations and irradiated strawberries. You could try a DNA test and you should have ample knowledge on how it works.
"Mary, if you don't mind, can I have a strand of your hair. I just want to look on something," you requested as you opened your palm towards her. Mary obediently plucked a strand from her head and gave it to you. You then scanned it at the palm of your hand. Tracing and identifying minute details while translating it into something comperehen-
....
Oh.
Closing your palm, you then turned to Mary and gave her her hair back, "Mary, I'm going to ask a few questions."
"Oh? Okay. What do you need?" the girl asked brightly.
"Have you ever gotten hurt before? Cuts, bruises, broken bones?" you started questioning, conjuring a chair with nanomaterials while logging whatever the girl will say next.
"Uh, well there was this one time. I fell down some stairs while moving food. My elbow got hurt and it was really painful, I was leaking blood. But in just a few hours, it was gone," Mary earnestly replied with a nod.
You acknowledged her answer and went ahead, "When I first went to the bridge, there were your bookshelves all around. I'm sure I didn't put them there when I was deactivated however, how did you manage to put them there without anyone's help?"
"I pulled them in," the girl simply said with no hint of deception, "They're not really heavy. They're just big blocks of wood."
Oh boy... You internally sighed and asked her a couple more questions, "Mary... The majority of books that you have were naval related, yes? You've read a lot of them, yes?"
"Yep! I like them! Well, that's because there aren't that many story books around the facility," chirped the girl.
You braced yourself and asked her, "What sort of weaponry would a normal human vessel need to destroy a Fog Vessel?"
"Well, you'll need a weapon that'll saturate the Klein Field emitted by a Fog Vessel's Wave Force Armor hard enough for conventional means of attack to work. However, humanity has yet to develop such firepower in the past but with the rewriting of the Union Core Code in Australia, humans have acquired technology that could be said 'One Step' away from a full fledged Fog Vessel's arsenal," replied Mary with a small smile, her eyes becoming unfocused as if she was in a trance.
You cut in and asked her, "And which book said that exactly?"
"Oh well, it wasn't a book. I remember it being part of a documentary program my parents watched with me back in our old facility," explained Mary as she looked upwards with a thoughtful look, "This was before I was stranded here... It's really fuzzy."
"I see, go on?" you urged her.
"In the past, the primitive Vibration Warhead was used but with ample time, humanity was able to reverse engineer Fog technology and create weapons that could match the invincible Klein Fields. Photon Cannons were the first to be replicated and put to use alongside Vibration Warheads and the results have been stellar," continued Mary on quite happily, "So perhaps I'll make a Vibration Warhead that will effectively pierce through a Klein Field."
"And how would you go about doing that, Mary?" you asked once more.
"A miniature Mirror Ring system module stuck to the Vibration Warhead, its ability to pierce the Klein Field and come in contact with the enemy Fog Vessel will be second to none. The Warhead's very own Klein Field," Mary finally finished, a strange twinkle inside the girl's eyes as she looked up at you.
You... You managed a smile, "I see. Thank you Mary. It seems that you're healthy after all."
This confirmed it. This girl was a Design Child.
That would mean that the healing rate, brainpower and intellect, life span should be above that of a normal human being. Even at sixteen years old, she had the body of a budding teenager was because of her slow growth rate. But otherwise, she was bordering on super human. Her constitution allowed her to safely absorb mildly irradiated strawberries and recover from superficial wounds.
Not only that but with the reading materials gathered at the bridge, she had amassed enough knowledge to possibly put them into use. If you had her apply these information, she would be a valuable asset.
Asset? Would that be really okay?
A Design Child, falling right on to your lap... What else could it be? Somehow the idea didn't sit well with you no matter how enticing it was. Not an asset then. How about.... Helper? Pet?
She was a human so maybe not pet.
Nevertheless, her origins are still mysterious. How did she get here? She did thought you washed up here 'too', meaning that she came from somewhere entirely and 'washed up' into the location? How strange.
Still, you have to stop her from eating anymore strawberries. It might pose problems in the future if Fog vessels detected the slightest bits of thanatonium on you if you sneaked by. And that included Mary, apparently.
"Mary, you'll have to stop eating strawberries from now on," you told her and the girl obviously didn't find joy in that.
"Why not?" she asked with a pout, "They're delicious! And they glow too!"
"Well they're irradiated," stating it as simply as you could, "They're not harmful to you now but soon-"
"I've been eating them for two years!" chirped the girl.
.....
Okay maybe you'll make her stop in the future. You're not sure how long time has passed but if they're still making Design Children for some purpose, then perhaps the world wasn't as peaceful as it seemed. Deep in this submarine pen, there was an entirely new world out there waiting to be discovered and you held the most powerful Union Core in existence.
Your life and very being could very well be a Pandora's Box waiting to be opened.
Just like Habbakuk.
Well, better that you have the core rather than anyone else. You won't give it to anyone for you knew better what it would entail if the humans had this core. You won't let the Scarlet Fleet, the Fleet of Fog, the Humans get it ...
Not even Blue Steel will take it from you for it wasn't meant for anyone's hands.
"What are we going to do now, Surcouf?" asked Mary as she jumped off her bed and went for the door, "There's still lots of things to do. I want to help you. Is there anything else that you need?"
...
[] Brute Force Hack the control systems.
-[] Access the lift and explore the rest of the facility.
-[] Attempt to connect to external networks. Surely they're more up to date.
-[] Subvert and Rewrite control systems to prevent a counterattack from... something. If you triggered anything.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and attempt to contact other vessels. It would be helpful to talk to someone, anyone.
[] Give Mary a medical checkup. Those strawberries could not have been good for her.
[] Have Mary guide you aboveground. Perhaps you could check out the time and date through astronavigation.
Having given yourself your own personalized check ups, with the results being less than satisfactory, you decided to turn your attention to your... tenant. Mary was an odd child given her age and you've had stock data logged into your system regarding the human body. Her height and weight should be a bit more than what she had now and your ruled that one in as malnutrition and lack of sunlight.
Otherwise it could be a genetic thing. Nevertheless, you turned to her as she was poking at the budding strawberries by the reactor.
"Mary, can you come with me for a moment?" you asked her, causing the girl to look up in curiosity. You decided to elaborate just so you could be transparent, "I actually wanted to see how your health has been going. It will simply take a moment, dear, and I assure you that nothing bad would happen."
Mary gave you a wary look for a brief second before she decided, "Okay. Where do we go?"
You nodded and led her back to one of the crew quarters of your hull. It was a short two minute walk before you opened the door leading to the room, its interior shifting and twisting as it adjusted itself to become a more homely environment. Dust as absorbed through the nanomaterials and tables were formed as you walked in.
"Whoa! That's... so pretty!" echoed Mary as she went to the shifting nanomaterial turning itself into a comfortable bed.
Cross-sections of bones and various medical implements were also made to fit the atmosphere at the side, papers with records on human biology taken out of your database as well as fake specimens stuck within jars. You found it confounding that stock knowledge and data were preserved while specific data from your logs were corrupted from hell to back.
Perhaps you deemed it more necessary to know about things you could build yourself upon than things that would be useless if you didn't know the basics? That would be totally a move you'd consider but somehow it annoyed you.
Well, at the very least you could take refuge in the fact that she liked your tastes. Whereas other Fog would have made it a bit more bare and practical, you preferred comfort the best. Alas with your former crew members being stuck up dogs or foolish youths, there was few who could appreciate your style.
And style was what you're all about.
"Sit over there and I'll run my scans," you told the girl as she sat on the comfy white bed. You took the stethoscope hanging above the desk and placed it on your ears. Of course, this wasn't just to check heart heart beat and breathing but also doubled as your scanner.
Might as well play the part while you're here.
SUBJECT: MARY
AGE: 16
HEIGHT: 148cm
WEIGHT: 93lbs
TEMP: 35.6 degrees Celsius
Blood Pressure: 118/70 mmHg
Heart Rate: 75 bpm
Additional Notes: Healthy with functional immune system. No signs of illnesses nor injuries. Exterior scan shows now growth abnormalities nor harmful side effects to consumption of irradiated strawberries. Aside from her height and pale skin, Subject Mary remains relatively healthy. These variables were related to the subject's genetic make up, however, further tests are needed. Diagnostic systems have detected faint graviton readings from within the subject, further tests are needed.
You frowned. She was healthy... For a girl living on MREs for the past six years while consuming a bit of irradiated strawberries, she healthy. A bit too healthy for your tastes. Her immune system was working properly and she didn't seem to be contracting any horrible disease. But you there was the bit where you could sense some graviton readings in her body.
You don't know if there are mutations or she was just like this because of her genetics but she was certainly an odd child. Mary turned her crimson eyes towards your thoughtful expression and smiled brightly.
"Is there something wrong with me, Surcouf?" Mary asked you.
You blinked before shaking your head, "No, nothing dear. You're healthy as far as we're concerned. I'm just curious about your origins. If you don't mind me asking, have you ever contracted any sort of diseases while you're here?"
"Like sea sickness or scurvy?" the girl asked, "Those are the usual diseases from sailors. I read them in my books."
"Well, aside from those. Colds, fever, the likes?" you clarified as you brought up images of people with said symptoms.
Mary shook her head and shrugged, "No. I never got sick. I never felt bad except when I'm hungry..."
No sickness? Ever? It's not too far fetched with her current state of health and that's when she was just eating rations and irradiated strawberries. You could try a DNA test and you should have ample knowledge on how it works.
"Mary, if you don't mind, can I have a strand of your hair. I just want to look on something," you requested as you opened your palm towards her. Mary obediently plucked a strand from her head and gave it to you. You then scanned it at the palm of your hand. Tracing and identifying minute details while translating it into something comperehen-
....
Oh.
Closing your palm, you then turned to Mary and gave her her hair back, "Mary, I'm going to ask a few questions."
"Oh? Okay. What do you need?" the girl asked brightly.
"Have you ever gotten hurt before? Cuts, bruises, broken bones?" you started questioning, conjuring a chair with nanomaterials while logging whatever the girl will say next.
"Uh, well there was this one time. I fell down some stairs while moving food. My elbow got hurt and it was really painful, I was leaking blood. But in just a few hours, it was gone," Mary earnestly replied with a nod.
You acknowledged her answer and went ahead, "When I first went to the bridge, there were your bookshelves all around. I'm sure I didn't put them there when I was deactivated however, how did you manage to put them there without anyone's help?"
"I pulled them in," the girl simply said with no hint of deception, "They're not really heavy. They're just big blocks of wood."
Oh boy... You internally sighed and asked her a couple more questions, "Mary... The majority of books that you have were naval related, yes? You've read a lot of them, yes?"
"Yep! I like them! Well, that's because there aren't that many story books around the facility," chirped the girl.
You braced yourself and asked her, "What sort of weaponry would a normal human vessel need to destroy a Fog Vessel?"
"Well, you'll need a weapon that'll saturate the Klein Field emitted by a Fog Vessel's Wave Force Armor hard enough for conventional means of attack to work. However, humanity has yet to develop such firepower in the past but with the rewriting of the Union Core Code in Australia, humans have acquired technology that could be said 'One Step' away from a full fledged Fog Vessel's arsenal," replied Mary with a small smile, her eyes becoming unfocused as if she was in a trance.
You cut in and asked her, "And which book said that exactly?"
"Oh well, it wasn't a book. I remember it being part of a documentary program my parents watched with me back in our old facility," explained Mary as she looked upwards with a thoughtful look, "This was before I was stranded here... It's really fuzzy."
"I see, go on?" you urged her.
"In the past, the primitive Vibration Warhead was used but with ample time, humanity was able to reverse engineer Fog technology and create weapons that could match the invincible Klein Fields. Photon Cannons were the first to be replicated and put to use alongside Vibration Warheads and the results have been stellar," continued Mary on quite happily, "So perhaps I'll make a Vibration Warhead that will effectively pierce through a Klein Field."
"And how would you go about doing that, Mary?" you asked once more.
"A miniature Mirror Ring system module stuck to the Vibration Warhead, its ability to pierce the Klein Field and come in contact with the enemy Fog Vessel will be second to none. The Warhead's very own Klein Field," Mary finally finished, a strange twinkle inside the girl's eyes as she looked up at you.
You... You managed a smile, "I see. Thank you Mary. It seems that you're healthy after all."
This confirmed it. This girl was a Design Child.
That would mean that the healing rate, brainpower and intellect, life span should be above that of a normal human being. Even at sixteen years old, she had the body of a budding teenager was because of her slow growth rate. But otherwise, she was bordering on super human. Her constitution allowed her to safely absorb mildly irradiated strawberries and recover from superficial wounds.
Not only that but with the reading materials gathered at the bridge, she had amassed enough knowledge to possibly put them into use. If you had her apply these information, she would be a valuable asset.
Asset? Would that be really okay?
A Design Child, falling right on to your lap... What else could it be? Somehow the idea didn't sit well with you no matter how enticing it was. Not an asset then. How about.... Helper? Pet?
She was a human so maybe not pet.
Nevertheless, her origins are still mysterious. How did she get here? She did thought you washed up here 'too', meaning that she came from somewhere entirely and 'washed up' into the location? How strange.
Still, you have to stop her from eating anymore strawberries. It might pose problems in the future if Fog vessels detected the slightest bits of thanatonium on you if you sneaked by. And that included Mary, apparently.
"Mary, you'll have to stop eating strawberries from now on," you told her and the girl obviously didn't find joy in that.
"Why not?" she asked with a pout, "They're delicious! And they glow too!"
"Well they're irradiated," stating it as simply as you could, "They're not harmful to you now but soon-"
"I've been eating them for two years!" chirped the girl.
.....
Okay maybe you'll make her stop in the future. You're not sure how long time has passed but if they're still making Design Children for some purpose, then perhaps the world wasn't as peaceful as it seemed. Deep in this submarine pen, there was an entirely new world out there waiting to be discovered and you held the most powerful Union Core in existence.
Your life and very being could very well be a Pandora's Box waiting to be opened.
Just like Habbakuk.
Well, better that you have the core rather than anyone else. You won't give it to anyone for you knew better what it would entail if the humans had this core. You won't let the Scarlet Fleet, the Fleet of Fog, the Humans get it ...
Not even Blue Steel will take it from you for it wasn't meant for anyone's hands.
"What are we going to do now, Surcouf?" asked Mary as she jumped off her bed and went for the door, "There's still lots of things to do. I want to help you. Is there anything else that you need?"
...
[] Brute Force Hack the control systems.
-[] Access the lift and explore the rest of the facility.
-[] Attempt to connect to external networks. Surely they're more up to date.
-[] Subvert and Rewrite control systems to prevent a counterattack from... something. If you triggered anything.
[] Login to the Tactical Network and attempt to contact other vessels. It would be helpful to talk to someone, anyone.
[] Have Mary guide you aboveground. Perhaps you could check out the time and date through astronavigation.