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Paging Dr. Dinym - Pt. 3
- Location
- USA
We're back. Had a lot of personal things I had to resolve. Thankfully I think we're in a better spot now - and more importantly, I regained the motivation to write. You lose all motivation to do what you used to love when you're feeling at your lowest.
New art inbound as well, so stay tuned for that.
New art inbound as well, so stay tuned for that.
"Good afternoon, Dr. Dinym!" Marcus watched in fascination as within a split second, the hologram of a young woman materialized over Boris's desk terminal. She was stylized in the same Defense Force uniform that was so ubiquitous among the Engineering noncombatant staff, albeit personalized in red colors with white highlights. But for the fact that she was a complex computer program bound together with code algorithms working in unison, she appeared very much the spitting image of the typical young woman down the street some of the young lads would pine over. "My name is Katarina, it's a pleasure to meet you!"
"A pleasure, lass," Marcus replied, nodding his head respectfully. "I heard…some rumblings about one of your fellows from Erika, but it's quite something to meet one myself. Tell me, what is your job here?"
"I'm the administrative assistant program across the whole campus." Multiple screens expanded around Katarina's avatar, showcasing different parts of the facilities – and were all in real time as far as Marcus could discern. "Anytime anyone on base needs assistance, or if there are specific projects that need my help, I'm there!"
"Are there…others like you?" Marcus asked. It didn't escape his notice that Boris was standing off to the side, beaming like a proud father. Or a protective father. The man's posture was both rigid and yet relaxed all at once, as if he was trying not to hover over his daughter's presence too much (which was ironic, given that Katarina was very much the one hovering in this mangled metaphor).
"My sisters are here as well!" Katarina exclaimed, with enough bubbly energy that Marcus could bloody well swear that rainbows and flowers would start glittering around her at any moment. "I can't wait for you to meet them!"
She paused – then her smile grew a bit more strained. "Just be aware that we all have our own personalities, they're not all like me."
"How so?"
"Well…you'll find out!"
"So…like, I could give you a map if you wanted directions?"
"That would be helpful, lass," Marcus agreed, "thank you."
"It would? I mean, of course it would! Great!"
SAI-02 – Melinda – was an immediate proof of truth to Katarina's words. Where Katarina was bubbly, cheerful, and helpful, Melinda appeared awkward, fidgety, and almost nervous, all while her processes were running at veritable mad minutes. Where Katarina's hair was neat and flowed with uniformity, Melinda's was frizzy and frazzled, her glasses gleaming in digital light. "So, we could get you directions – oh! Ooh! You probably want to go the Engineering Bay, right?" Additional informative windows began to appear hanging around Marcus's head.
"Well, yes, but-"
Another window soon formed next to his head. "So then I can find the optimal route for you to sidestep all the traffic-!"
"Now, hang on-"
Now a score more were starting to materialize. "-but you might want to see some of the stuff, so maybe I could route you also past Xenotechnology-"
"Really, now, lass, there is-"
"-time for more things, I know! So how about I give you some more information just in case-!"
"Boris, help!" At least, Marcus was reasonably certain that Ignatov was still out there beyond the swirling prison of informative holo windows-!
"-I told you you were putting too much damned power through the primary drive, Clown!"
"Well, how the hell else are you supposed to get propulsion in this damned thing, Shorty!?"
"Maybe if you actually wired the generator instead of stuffing more batteries into there? You can't just make every system independent, that's wasteful!"
"Yeah, sure. Or maybe all that power draw is just gonna make the damned thing explode mid-flight!"
Marcus very much felt like he was being shepherded through different extremes. From the manic energy of Melinda to the dour and cantankerous personality belonging to Lana, the Engineers' Super AI personality. Long, unkempt hair framed a woman wearing dirty engineering fatigues, her own face smeared with a facsimile of oil grease and soot – all while staring down the nephew of Dr. Rin Yukimura - and appearing just as irate as the man she was currently engaged in a blueprint standoff over.
Yet Marcus watched in fascination as a new copy of the blueprint designs appeared to the side, with parts of the designs being rewired and recalculated in real-time. "What I'm saying is that you can take those independent systems, but stagger them around the main generator, see? That way, you have redundancy-"
"Oooooh. Wait, what if we did it like this then?" Jiro Yukimura's hands began to reassemble the power assembly unit of the strange, dart-like device they were working on. "Think we could add in an emergency siphon unit? That way, if it loses power, it can draw from the main unit in a pinch-"
"Too tiny for a Block. Cube? Whatever, Faedium isn't small enough for this yet-"
"Good to think about, though. What if we-?"
Marcus never interrupted their brainstorming. Yet with both arms crossed behind the back of his waist, he continued to be escorted by Dr. Ignatov, a thoughtful expression on his face.
"It can be a little exhausting, if I'm honest." Ivanna appeared as tired as she seemed to sound. Appearing like a young woman and appearing very much like the many young interns run ragged in university while trying to write their own theses, Ivanna looked as if she had slight bags under her eyes. She appeared to be dressed in the scientific uniform of personnel found in Earth Union facilities, a small beret tucked atop her head, and with long brown hair framing her back.
"I have heard that Doctors Carlson and Brand can be…challenging," Marcus opted to say in sympathy. "Are they quite so bad?"
"What-? Oh, no, no," Ivanna tried to laugh off, waving her hands frantically. "No, it's not them. I'm used to their quirks by now."
"Then what…?"
"It's how they break the laws of physics."
The transition from cheerful young woman to the low tone of the blunt delivery took Marcuss off guard. "I have all of the libraries of the assembled nation-states of the world, and Unity Station, about how things should and shouldn't work." The digital air around Ivanna started to take on a sinister bluish hue, even as the exhausted smile never left her face. Yet her eyes were matching the very same hue. "I could even account for the impossibilities of kaiju physiology as a new field of study! But there are some projects which I cannot disclose that have decided that they can simply break the most fundamental laws of physics, and that. Greatly. Upsets. Me."
Marcus turned to Boris with a worried look, yet the older engineer didn't seem to be concerned. In fact, he had an amused look on his face as Ivanna, never once losing her composure, continued to vent about having to balance the many personalities that clashed within the department, or how her predictive algorithms or mathematical models seemed to do very little in the face of the impossibility of super robots.
Marcus decided right then and there that he wouldn't tell her about his own research. It might have upset her more.
"-and that's how we tracked down those smugglers!"
"You know you don't have to brag, Adrinna."
"C'mon, Diana! I don't get to tell this story enough to someone new!"
The last two personalities shown to Marcus were…well, comparatively normal. If a bit much. He had remembered how Erika described a computer program who was 'adorable, once you accept she's the annoying younger sister who latches onto you.' Once Adrianna had found out that he worked with Erika, he had immediately been dubbed 'a cool guy' and the uniformed young woman with the short bob cut of hair and a permanent grin on her face wouldn't stop hanging around him.
In contrast, Diana was far and away the most normal. Similarly short-cut hair (albeit blonde) and a similar uniform in the fashion similar to the Defense Forces. Yet she held herself rigidly, her hands clasped behind her back as she simulated walking alongside Marcus and Boris, her own statements far more matter of fact and to the point. Charlie would get along with this one, if nothing else.
"You both have interacted with people outside of the Institute quite often," Marcus ventured. "Do you find it odd or uncomfortable at all?"
"Nope!" Adrianna's answer was immediate. "Super easy! They let me talk my piece and don't interrupt me too!"
"Mostly because you bowl them over by being you, Adrianna," Diana said dryly. "My answer: it can be a little challenging. I never know when people might react…poorly to me being an AI." Diana's head lowered, deeper in thought. "So far, they have been accepting, but I don't know if everyone will react that way."
"And they likely won't, child," Boris said gently. "It's not suspicion you're feeling, it is caution and wariness. Not everyone will react well to what you are – but you must win them over with who you are."
"But we're awesome, doctor!" Adrianna pouted as she floated over to Ignatov's shoulder. "No one else can do what we do!"
"And that is why people may fear you," Boris said sadly. "But it is my hope that you all will be treated the same way as anyone else – as people."
"Well. I think I've made up my mind."
Boris looked at his guest curiously. He had been preparing to show him more, but it seemed that the engineer had decided to end the tour here. "Truly? And your thoughts?"
"The MMI and…whatever means you use to create an AI," Marcus said slowly. "Either would help the Valiant immensely. Having both would drastically change Valiant for the better." He exhaled. "I know I'm asking the dragon's share of things, but if we could possibly get both…well, I imagine Charlie will get on his knees and praise the glory of governmental investment."
"We don't need to go that far," Boris replied hastily. "But we will honor the minimum of the bargain called…shall we follow up next month?"
"Likely for the best, aye." As they walked towards the landing bay, Marcus Dinym's eyes stared down again towards the mechanical bodies conducting work below. His eyes had immediately locked onto the dull green form of Ichiro as he was holding a piece of equipment in place, long enough for one of the new Golems to do something with its wiring. He appeared to be straining against the load slightly, all while grinning and shoving back when the load didn't threaten to unbalance him.
"Rather lifelike," Marcus muttered. But then he turned back to the dropship. "Be seeing you, Boris. We'll stay in touch."
New Engineering Options unlocked next turn.
Mander Security Solutions are very interested in the MMI and the Super AI projects.
Mander Security Solutions are very interested in the MMI and the Super AI projects.
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Perseus, Ichiro Images
- Location
- USA
Also, while I'm at it: I had some additional artwork commissioned. All of the following artwork is credited to a new artist I commissioned, 'ZZTheDark'
I will get these uploaded to their profiles at a later date.
For the first commission, I had the artist focus on a sort of 'commercial splash' image. I didn't tell him what to write in there, but the text is genre appropriate! The artwork leans more heavily towards the Transformers comics style of things, but I quite like how it turned out.
At least from my perspective, it does give the impression that Perseus is just waiting to mess up your day.
This was his take on the combined form of Perseus Megas. It's fairly different from how I envisioned it while writing, but I can't deny that the combined form looks mean.
Finally, Ichiro Banner. At the core, he still is rocking the Centurion chassis and has a very Megatron-esque look as a result. His head is somewhat more stylized to that of Springer from the G1 animated movie and onwards. I really quite like how it turned out.
I will get these uploaded to their profiles at a later date.
For the first commission, I had the artist focus on a sort of 'commercial splash' image. I didn't tell him what to write in there, but the text is genre appropriate! The artwork leans more heavily towards the Transformers comics style of things, but I quite like how it turned out.
At least from my perspective, it does give the impression that Perseus is just waiting to mess up your day.
This was his take on the combined form of Perseus Megas. It's fairly different from how I envisioned it while writing, but I can't deny that the combined form looks mean.
Finally, Ichiro Banner. At the core, he still is rocking the Centurion chassis and has a very Megatron-esque look as a result. His head is somewhat more stylized to that of Springer from the G1 animated movie and onwards. I really quite like how it turned out.
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Interlude - Well this is awkward...
- Location
- USA
"...Sasaki. I'd like to have a word with Galbinus before we initiate operations. I think he should probably know about this..."
"Of course, sir. We can send Adrianna to convey the message."
"It'll be a cinch, boss! I'm sure they're not too busy right now!"
The alarm klaxons blared loudly in the enclave. "Legion ready crew, report to stations." Herald's dispassionate, monotone voice boomed across sensors, the sound seemingly shaking along the surfaces of the purple walls and flooring rather than through the air like traditional sound. "This is a priority alert. Legion ready crew, report to stations. This is a priority alert-"
The alarms were soon joined by the swearing voices of mechs roused from their downtime cycles, some far more cohesive than others. The ungainly black-clad bulk of Nailhead stumbled out of his massive berth, tripping over the ledge and falling flat faced with a shuddering impact. The floor continued to shake and groan from the additional impacts of his massive fists slamming onto the floor as he forced himself back up to his feet – only for him to slam his head against the ceiling. "Ow!"
"Cmoncmoncmonwegottogogogogogo-!" A silver and grey sequence of moving still-shots was already dashing through the halls. The kinetic module was already warming up, the circular drive inside of the manic mech's back spinning faster and faster. Nailhead soon found that his trusty rivet hammer was already propped up next to his berth along with an energy shard, as Breakneck was already up and ahead of everymech else as per usual.
"Thanks, kid." An arm had held up an empty palm, only for the silvery brush of air to pass by, and an ancient long rifle lovingly maintained through constant laser scrubbing as his hand gripped firmly on the stock. The dull red weathered form of Tracker, with the provided shard clenched between his teeth, shouldered the long rifle and pulled back the charger handle with slow, practiced ease, making sure the chamber was empty before releasing, and then racking the lever forward with a satisfying clack. "Alright, you sparkheads! Galbinus needs us! And the Legion's damned well gonna answer!"
"…that might be a bit awkward right now."
Adrianna's eyes twitched slightly, even as a bright smile was plastered across her avatar's face. "Why's that?"
Delphi's avatar buzzed slightly. She seemed to have taken a page from Herald's refusal to take on a Configuration – she still remained as a featureless circle that shifted colors slightly. Adrianna had always found that a bit weird, but she never said anything about it either – honestly, it was her choice to take on a more fanciful form or not.
"The Free Brothers just made a rather sizable incursion." The Oracle Matrix transferred a feed showing live footage, along with geographic data tucked away in the corner. "Something just prompted a pretty sizable incursion against a communications tower of all things."
"Why do you suppose that is?" Well, Adrianna had a pretty good idea why – she found the big space box thing after all! – but she wanted to know if Delphi or the Legion had already caught on.
"Unknown." Well, nevermind. "But they almost never move in with this much force. Highway, Throughput, Smelter, Quarry, Cross…even Rangefinder is on the field leading. But there's no significant energy source in the area, that tower is only rated for burst transmissions…"
"Well…" Delphi's avatar turned to face Adrianna's as a sheepish grin crossed her face, both of her fingertips poking against their opposing hand's digits. "…we detected something on long range scanners and we wanted to talk to Galbinus about it…?"
"Adri." Adrianna's sheepish grin widened as she heard the familiar tone of someone who recognized Adrianna was making their day much more complicated. "What did you find?"
"Funny story, that! You see, what happened was…"
The glass framing the outside portcullises of the human buildings shuddered a moment before impact. Galbinus could detect it – the microcycles between the point of impact, and the moment the vibrations rippled through them.
Said moment later, as his massive form landed into the embattled zone, he could feel his feet – incredibly massive compared to the scale the humans built to suit their smaller forms – slam into the reinforced and refined igneous liquistone, before raw weight and kinetic trauma ripped through, leaving giant gouges where he stood. As his right fist collided with that of Throughput's faceplate, the millions of vibrations that rippled outwards from the kinetic strike struck the surrounding buildings, and tore directly into the structural integrity of the 'windows' – and glass exploded outwards, thousands upon thousands of glittering shrapnel catching the light of Solaris's primary star as physical force and gravity forced Throughput down onto the concrete pavement, creating a Kaus-shaped crater as the ground shook with even more structure-shaking force.
Without pausing, with his cannon forearm leading, Galbinus swung his left arm in a wide arc, as if he were making to attack something or someone. There was no one there – and yet a moment later, reality seemed to shudder and crack in a concentrated space where he felt something impact against the swung cannon. The blue and red form of Highway ragdolled into multiple impacts along the ground as the young mech's speed literally ran ahead of his decision-making processes.
Yet the next moment, Galbinus pivoted on his foot, slamming his free leg onto Throughput's prone form as he readied the energy cannon mounted on his forearm. The air was already starting to shimmer and waver from the stress of the Constable-class baton blaster that had become his primary method of attempted law enforcement on this planet. A moment later, his arm recoiled backwards, his elbow bending backwards the absorb the impact as a condensed ball of energy tore across the battlefield, the air screeching as if horrified by the application of physics on display.
Galbinus was already striding forward, his foot driving Throughput's faceplate even deeper into the rubble as he stepped off. The distant building closer to the communications tower momentarily disappeared in a flash of light, followed by an explosion of dust and debris as Quarry's body unceremoniously somersaulted from his sniping position.
"Rangefinder!" he called out, a slight halo of energy still shimmering slightly around the barrel of his weapon. "Enough of this! Cease and desist immediately!"
"Not a fat chance, law-mech." Galbinus only had a moment to turn before the wall next to him erupted, pelting his own faceplate with debris impacts and forcing him to raise his arms up to guard.
Which left his legs open as an enormous green vehicle slammed into his knees, sending him tumbling over the vehicle and forcing him to Reconfigure into the armored combat vehicle Devin's engineers had provided. Rangefinder's large, bulky form appeared to be that of some sort of treaded self-propelled artillery cannon, its unwieldy gun attempting to swing around with its limited traverse. Galbinus's blaster, now the main weapon of the armored vehicle, fired a snap shot directly beneath Rangefinder's treads.
The impact sent Rangefinder spinning about, forcing him to Reconfigure as well and giving Galbinus time to do so in turn. "Wasn't expectin' you to find us so quickly," Tyrannous's Second grunted. Two massive metal manipulators slammed together knuckles-first, as the gun slid solidly over his left shoulder, a round already slotting inside the chamber. "Not that I'm gonna let ya stop us. Tyrannous's got plans."
"He always does," Galbinus growled. "I'll find out what they are, even if I have to beat them out of you!"
"Don't threaten a mech with a good time. Show me what ya got!"
"So…was this a bad time to ask?"
Galbinus stared back at the sheepish looking Oracle Matrix scratching the back of her head as the firefight around them intensified. He barely noticed the blastwave billowing around them, or how Hotwire's hardlight barrier cut it off abruptly.
"Um…you…okay in there?"
"Adri." Delphi's avatar appeared beside Galbinus's head as two digits rose to pinch the bridge of his nose, his optics dimming as he held off what the humans might call a 'head ache.' "This might have been an awkward time for it, yeah."
Galbinu sighed. "It would explain why the Free Brothers seemed so interested in that communications tower."
All of them were standing at the base of the communications tower that Rangefinder's crew had seemed so deadset on before just moments before. Much of the tower was forged from steel and layered in pylon-like structures criss-crossing each other – there were some gouges in the structure, but it was still standing strong enough to support the massive dish apparatus at the top.
"We would not even have known they were making such an attempt if you hadn't already been sharing your data with us," Galbinus mused. "And now a Mekaen vessel on approach? Here? Now?"
Off in the distance, the Free Brothers were engaged in a fighting retreat. Breaker's laughter cut through the distance, seemingly uncaring of all of the damage being leveled against him as he closed again and again to land just one more strike on whomever he could get hold of, before going for one more regardless. Tracker's voice snapped across the communications channels, with Nailhead loudly complaining all the way as Breakneck's form sped through the rubble, trying to find any human survivors to extract them to safety if he could.
"How would they know to come here?" Adrianna asked. "Does anyone know you're here?"
"Not specifically," Galbinus continued to process. "All Inspectors have a tracking beacon – mine has been broadcasting and attempting to reconnect with the wider Dominion for some time now, but any vessel would have had to manually search for some time unless they already knew Earth's location…" His optic narrowed at the still-image – he would have to get his other optic fixed, as cracked and flickering as it was – but for now he could ignore it. "And the Dominion hardly sends just one vessel. That won't hold more than five or so Kaus, unless they were looking to simply extract our processors…"
…wait.
"…this is law enforcement." It finally dawned on him. "And that narrows down who that could be, at least a little bit…" His optic then looked up at the communications tower. "…Adrianna. Would it cause any difficulties if we were to make use of this?"
"Uh…I don't…think so?" The young Oracle Matrix seemed a little uncertain. "What are you using it for, Galbinus?"
"Easy, Adri," Delphi replied. "We're going to directly ask who is on there."
"…uh." Prow's optics blinked as the Defiant's terminals began to initiate an alert.
"'Uh?'" Quantum turned to stare at him dourly. "Please, a little more substance to your navigation reports, Prow?"
"We're getting…a communications request from the surface of Solaris-3."
"…what?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And it even has ident codes."
"What's going on?" Both Kaus turned around as best they could in the Defiant's cramped bridge space. Percivax was hunched over, his larger purple frame struggling to squeeze in as he looked at the both of them.
"We, ah-" It was clearly Quantum's turn to lack eloquence, Prow noted slightly smugly.
"-we're getting hailed from Solaris-3, sir," Prow finished.
"What!?" Prow immediately brought the alert notification to the main screen to head off any cries of 'that's impossible!' from his boss. "And that's-"
"Ident codes confirmed," Victoria said slowly, the incredulity in her voice evident. "And-"
Immediately, a circular image appeared, appearing somewhat incoherent as it materialized on screen. "-ot sure if I'm doing this right? Hotwire, are you sure-?"
"For the last time, Delphi, I'm sure!" Prow's optics flashed in astonishment. There was no mistaking that voice for anything but Kaus. "They're definitely receiving, and if they haven't already said anything they're all slack-jawed and looking like crocillators or whatever those weird lizard swamp things are!"
"Um, if you say so-?"
"Unidentified Oracle Matrix, this is Victoria of the MDS Defiant. Identify yourself." Victoria had found her runtime processes again, and was desperately trying to regain some semblance of normality.
"Oh-? Oh, hello, miss Victoria!" Whatever response any of them were expecting, Prow was sure this wasn't it. "My name is Delphi, and I'm the acting Oracle Matrix for Legio-Galbinus! It's so lovely to meet you all!"
Behind him, Prow could sense Percivax placing a hand onto his forehead. They weren't even in orbit yet, and he was already certain this was going to be a long assignment...
"Of course, sir. We can send Adrianna to convey the message."
"It'll be a cinch, boss! I'm sure they're not too busy right now!"
The alarm klaxons blared loudly in the enclave. "Legion ready crew, report to stations." Herald's dispassionate, monotone voice boomed across sensors, the sound seemingly shaking along the surfaces of the purple walls and flooring rather than through the air like traditional sound. "This is a priority alert. Legion ready crew, report to stations. This is a priority alert-"
The alarms were soon joined by the swearing voices of mechs roused from their downtime cycles, some far more cohesive than others. The ungainly black-clad bulk of Nailhead stumbled out of his massive berth, tripping over the ledge and falling flat faced with a shuddering impact. The floor continued to shake and groan from the additional impacts of his massive fists slamming onto the floor as he forced himself back up to his feet – only for him to slam his head against the ceiling. "Ow!"
"Cmoncmoncmonwegottogogogogogo-!" A silver and grey sequence of moving still-shots was already dashing through the halls. The kinetic module was already warming up, the circular drive inside of the manic mech's back spinning faster and faster. Nailhead soon found that his trusty rivet hammer was already propped up next to his berth along with an energy shard, as Breakneck was already up and ahead of everymech else as per usual.
"Thanks, kid." An arm had held up an empty palm, only for the silvery brush of air to pass by, and an ancient long rifle lovingly maintained through constant laser scrubbing as his hand gripped firmly on the stock. The dull red weathered form of Tracker, with the provided shard clenched between his teeth, shouldered the long rifle and pulled back the charger handle with slow, practiced ease, making sure the chamber was empty before releasing, and then racking the lever forward with a satisfying clack. "Alright, you sparkheads! Galbinus needs us! And the Legion's damned well gonna answer!"
"…that might be a bit awkward right now."
Adrianna's eyes twitched slightly, even as a bright smile was plastered across her avatar's face. "Why's that?"
Delphi's avatar buzzed slightly. She seemed to have taken a page from Herald's refusal to take on a Configuration – she still remained as a featureless circle that shifted colors slightly. Adrianna had always found that a bit weird, but she never said anything about it either – honestly, it was her choice to take on a more fanciful form or not.
"The Free Brothers just made a rather sizable incursion." The Oracle Matrix transferred a feed showing live footage, along with geographic data tucked away in the corner. "Something just prompted a pretty sizable incursion against a communications tower of all things."
"Why do you suppose that is?" Well, Adrianna had a pretty good idea why – she found the big space box thing after all! – but she wanted to know if Delphi or the Legion had already caught on.
"Unknown." Well, nevermind. "But they almost never move in with this much force. Highway, Throughput, Smelter, Quarry, Cross…even Rangefinder is on the field leading. But there's no significant energy source in the area, that tower is only rated for burst transmissions…"
"Well…" Delphi's avatar turned to face Adrianna's as a sheepish grin crossed her face, both of her fingertips poking against their opposing hand's digits. "…we detected something on long range scanners and we wanted to talk to Galbinus about it…?"
"Adri." Adrianna's sheepish grin widened as she heard the familiar tone of someone who recognized Adrianna was making their day much more complicated. "What did you find?"
"Funny story, that! You see, what happened was…"
The glass framing the outside portcullises of the human buildings shuddered a moment before impact. Galbinus could detect it – the microcycles between the point of impact, and the moment the vibrations rippled through them.
Said moment later, as his massive form landed into the embattled zone, he could feel his feet – incredibly massive compared to the scale the humans built to suit their smaller forms – slam into the reinforced and refined igneous liquistone, before raw weight and kinetic trauma ripped through, leaving giant gouges where he stood. As his right fist collided with that of Throughput's faceplate, the millions of vibrations that rippled outwards from the kinetic strike struck the surrounding buildings, and tore directly into the structural integrity of the 'windows' – and glass exploded outwards, thousands upon thousands of glittering shrapnel catching the light of Solaris's primary star as physical force and gravity forced Throughput down onto the concrete pavement, creating a Kaus-shaped crater as the ground shook with even more structure-shaking force.
Without pausing, with his cannon forearm leading, Galbinus swung his left arm in a wide arc, as if he were making to attack something or someone. There was no one there – and yet a moment later, reality seemed to shudder and crack in a concentrated space where he felt something impact against the swung cannon. The blue and red form of Highway ragdolled into multiple impacts along the ground as the young mech's speed literally ran ahead of his decision-making processes.
Yet the next moment, Galbinus pivoted on his foot, slamming his free leg onto Throughput's prone form as he readied the energy cannon mounted on his forearm. The air was already starting to shimmer and waver from the stress of the Constable-class baton blaster that had become his primary method of attempted law enforcement on this planet. A moment later, his arm recoiled backwards, his elbow bending backwards the absorb the impact as a condensed ball of energy tore across the battlefield, the air screeching as if horrified by the application of physics on display.
Galbinus was already striding forward, his foot driving Throughput's faceplate even deeper into the rubble as he stepped off. The distant building closer to the communications tower momentarily disappeared in a flash of light, followed by an explosion of dust and debris as Quarry's body unceremoniously somersaulted from his sniping position.
"Rangefinder!" he called out, a slight halo of energy still shimmering slightly around the barrel of his weapon. "Enough of this! Cease and desist immediately!"
"Not a fat chance, law-mech." Galbinus only had a moment to turn before the wall next to him erupted, pelting his own faceplate with debris impacts and forcing him to raise his arms up to guard.
Which left his legs open as an enormous green vehicle slammed into his knees, sending him tumbling over the vehicle and forcing him to Reconfigure into the armored combat vehicle Devin's engineers had provided. Rangefinder's large, bulky form appeared to be that of some sort of treaded self-propelled artillery cannon, its unwieldy gun attempting to swing around with its limited traverse. Galbinus's blaster, now the main weapon of the armored vehicle, fired a snap shot directly beneath Rangefinder's treads.
The impact sent Rangefinder spinning about, forcing him to Reconfigure as well and giving Galbinus time to do so in turn. "Wasn't expectin' you to find us so quickly," Tyrannous's Second grunted. Two massive metal manipulators slammed together knuckles-first, as the gun slid solidly over his left shoulder, a round already slotting inside the chamber. "Not that I'm gonna let ya stop us. Tyrannous's got plans."
"He always does," Galbinus growled. "I'll find out what they are, even if I have to beat them out of you!"
"Don't threaten a mech with a good time. Show me what ya got!"
"So…was this a bad time to ask?"
Galbinus stared back at the sheepish looking Oracle Matrix scratching the back of her head as the firefight around them intensified. He barely noticed the blastwave billowing around them, or how Hotwire's hardlight barrier cut it off abruptly.
"Um…you…okay in there?"
"Adri." Delphi's avatar appeared beside Galbinus's head as two digits rose to pinch the bridge of his nose, his optics dimming as he held off what the humans might call a 'head ache.' "This might have been an awkward time for it, yeah."
Galbinu sighed. "It would explain why the Free Brothers seemed so interested in that communications tower."
All of them were standing at the base of the communications tower that Rangefinder's crew had seemed so deadset on before just moments before. Much of the tower was forged from steel and layered in pylon-like structures criss-crossing each other – there were some gouges in the structure, but it was still standing strong enough to support the massive dish apparatus at the top.
"We would not even have known they were making such an attempt if you hadn't already been sharing your data with us," Galbinus mused. "And now a Mekaen vessel on approach? Here? Now?"
Off in the distance, the Free Brothers were engaged in a fighting retreat. Breaker's laughter cut through the distance, seemingly uncaring of all of the damage being leveled against him as he closed again and again to land just one more strike on whomever he could get hold of, before going for one more regardless. Tracker's voice snapped across the communications channels, with Nailhead loudly complaining all the way as Breakneck's form sped through the rubble, trying to find any human survivors to extract them to safety if he could.
"How would they know to come here?" Adrianna asked. "Does anyone know you're here?"
"Not specifically," Galbinus continued to process. "All Inspectors have a tracking beacon – mine has been broadcasting and attempting to reconnect with the wider Dominion for some time now, but any vessel would have had to manually search for some time unless they already knew Earth's location…" His optic narrowed at the still-image – he would have to get his other optic fixed, as cracked and flickering as it was – but for now he could ignore it. "And the Dominion hardly sends just one vessel. That won't hold more than five or so Kaus, unless they were looking to simply extract our processors…"
…wait.
"…this is law enforcement." It finally dawned on him. "And that narrows down who that could be, at least a little bit…" His optic then looked up at the communications tower. "…Adrianna. Would it cause any difficulties if we were to make use of this?"
"Uh…I don't…think so?" The young Oracle Matrix seemed a little uncertain. "What are you using it for, Galbinus?"
"Easy, Adri," Delphi replied. "We're going to directly ask who is on there."
"…uh." Prow's optics blinked as the Defiant's terminals began to initiate an alert.
"'Uh?'" Quantum turned to stare at him dourly. "Please, a little more substance to your navigation reports, Prow?"
"We're getting…a communications request from the surface of Solaris-3."
"…what?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm saying. And it even has ident codes."
"What's going on?" Both Kaus turned around as best they could in the Defiant's cramped bridge space. Percivax was hunched over, his larger purple frame struggling to squeeze in as he looked at the both of them.
"We, ah-" It was clearly Quantum's turn to lack eloquence, Prow noted slightly smugly.
"-we're getting hailed from Solaris-3, sir," Prow finished.
"What!?" Prow immediately brought the alert notification to the main screen to head off any cries of 'that's impossible!' from his boss. "And that's-"
"Ident codes confirmed," Victoria said slowly, the incredulity in her voice evident. "And-"
Immediately, a circular image appeared, appearing somewhat incoherent as it materialized on screen. "-ot sure if I'm doing this right? Hotwire, are you sure-?"
"For the last time, Delphi, I'm sure!" Prow's optics flashed in astonishment. There was no mistaking that voice for anything but Kaus. "They're definitely receiving, and if they haven't already said anything they're all slack-jawed and looking like crocillators or whatever those weird lizard swamp things are!"
"Um, if you say so-?"
"Unidentified Oracle Matrix, this is Victoria of the MDS Defiant. Identify yourself." Victoria had found her runtime processes again, and was desperately trying to regain some semblance of normality.
"Oh-? Oh, hello, miss Victoria!" Whatever response any of them were expecting, Prow was sure this wasn't it. "My name is Delphi, and I'm the acting Oracle Matrix for Legio-Galbinus! It's so lovely to meet you all!"
Behind him, Prow could sense Percivax placing a hand onto his forehead. They weren't even in orbit yet, and he was already certain this was going to be a long assignment...
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