The Northern Front

[ALIS-Ultonis]

The Gate-way from Edge opened, negative space forming a reflection upon space that saw a non-local portal form a few miles south of Discordia's Northern Border. Heavy items were brought on via hover-platform which included a few Magi-Golems, 10 Raider-Hounds, 3 Phantoms, and 4 Avengers. Regular Alis would come through about 50 in total accompanied by Tronny and Six and her Drones. "Alright orders are to get this place fortified against attack and the elements first." she said to Six. "Can you have your drones begin constructing accommodations, while having several others take energy readings and samples of the environment so you can study a way to protect against the Chaos-Beasts influence? Also, apparently if you go too far north there is a wasteland under the jurisdiction of some Demon-Lord.. Apparently the influence is entirely different there." she said.

The regular ALIS did not have grav-harnesses, but they did carry Pulse-Rifles and Magi-batons, and typically had a few explosives, a few spread out and formed a perimeter "over-watching" from all sides while others began constructing a skeletal frame for the outposts main building. They were banking on being at a point where Vivi's influence was at its limit near the border which lead further off into another jurisdiction. It was also night. "I'm going to try and establish contact with the forces already here..." she said adjusting her comm. The Magi-Golems also activated and all 3 would move into a triangular position over-watching all sides with the regular Alis.

[numbersix]

Quietly, six awaited completion of the field, before evaluating the area. It seemed, rather open.. A lot of movement around the area, noise. She sighed. Tronny spoke, she knew this already. Well, time to get to work. In a rare effort, six would make an attempt to raise her voice, though by doing so it took on more of an airy quality and the deeper tone would pretty much cancel out. Soft voice but audible and sharp pronunciation. " The three stealth units, take point in exploration in a three mile radius, Anything that moves, stands out from surrounding terrain, or may be a significant resource is to be reported. ALIS, " she would point to a individual per number. " One, Two, Three, Four, Five. You will patrol within eighty yards of the center compound, a small drone will accompany you, shoulder mounted, for the night. Their vision is superior, keep them on a swivel. " her eyes turned to the magi-golems, then the raider hounds, pointing " Provide details to function. " Then to the avengers. " and those. " She started walking, up o the skeletal frame. " Sixteen volunteers to begin unpacking resources " she would point to the south facing side of the frame. " There. " She would point, twice, in passing. The two larger drones would snap to and beggin assisting in the compound's frame work.. though, they where not the only ones. From them poured half of those previous small cutter drones each, which aided. Five of those drones would however break from the collective and seek to climb the indicated numbered Alis. " Keep all non essential machines silent. Lights and sound to a minimum. " a breath would be taken. Suddenly the louder and mature male robotic voice of one of the D-5's (larger drones) would speak up despite its work. " Any who do not comply will be be regarded as obsolete parts and replaced, conditions pending establishment of immediate essentials " Six then started to back up, inspecting the frame work. " 42, 52, 10. 4, 10 by 6 at 5 south. 1, 5 by 5 at 21 north. " And, these aparantly translated well to small drones as measurements, for they started immediately laying out lines in the ground. Six would about face and start toward her supplies, particularily the packaged center piece.. She eyed it, and simply waited here in front of it.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

The lands of Discordia were fairly nasty. Dead trees were about every so often, as well as small tar pits that if disturbed would actively seek to devour anything that touched it. These would probably be the first things she discovered, while the foliage was either deadened or something poisonous, and any wild-life appeared to be mutated. It was a highly foreboding place.

Things seemed to be going rather well, and if no incident happened they would probably establish a shelter within an hour or so, where it would be time to start moving things in. Tronny spoke to Six when this was done."The walls are shielded against radiation, and outside influences but apparently this creature can control the entire earth, we need to start getting those samples and see if we can figure out a way to quarantine its influence from this area." she said. 'it the first priority I would think."

[numbersix]

By the time the base setup was completed it was into day, mostly because Six was picky, and needed things set up a certain way.. And got distracted occasionally, once by taking a couple hours to rebuild a generator, so she would have two personalized power sources. Her own work environment was tricky because it would seem her and only her would have any influence in its plan, and she made it pretty sealed off, a bulky metal door inside a pretty well reinforced 30x60x20 room, that seemed to have no access points, say for the heavy door's internal opening mechanism it would appear only Six's peculiar magic touch would influence. When everything seemed a easy success, Six was busied meandering around taking long moments to stare at previously shoulder mounted drones, wouldn't say why. Tronny's approach and input was unheeded for almost twenty minutes for that last task before abruptly, Six popped up with a response. " That is why she reconstructed features of Seven. Limited access to long distance recon, limited defense capabilities. She has installed certain safety protocols. She brought only one though... maybe it would be better to have more.. Hmm.. " She'd begin her rambling habit as she made her approach across the encampment toward that mystery package. " This model is self charging, it gathers ambient energy for storage in one.. Heart, and filters it to the next for overall power, however.. For safety reason she should disconnect the link... Hmm, allowing for twenty seven hours per operation... Seven may be corrupted, however.. Which is why a open data link is necessary, and why destruction is a necessary safety protocol. Corrupt bio-mater will also be collected and analysed from the field, and expectedly returned for testing. As well as minerals. Hmm.. As much as she would prefer to go herself, potential self sacrifice is too great a risk for the prime directive. Seven... Wake." She finished, on arrival. Waiting there, the package would start with a series of metallic clacking noises only to become suddenly shredded from the inside, as large sharp points lashed out from multiple directions. What came out looked a bit like a monstrosity of her engineering prowess. Forearms, large with full 360 degree rotation behind each joint, ending with a four digit dragon style.. claw.. Dangerous tool, that, the feet and legs where much the same, likely large enough to catch a human torso in and.. squeeze.. There was a internal liquid system carrying magic energy through the exceptionally sturdy looking, unarmored frame, pipes covered in glass in various exposed portions. Occasionally, there where small jolts of energy transferred between joints and the like, where the liquid couldn't flow... Subtle, and without illumination. The body was stout and thick, probably the most protected point on this beasty. In the chest, there was evidence of Seven's "brain" caged in plated ribs, that white case.. Aside, what was internal seemed very intent to stay internal. The head was just a solid egg shape with three eyes, one in center, two on the side, but with the joint and rotating link it could potentially swivel around enough to grind a circle around its own neck, and flip its head from right side up one way, to upside down the other. Seven planted down on all fours and crawled off the platform. Only about eight hundred pounds of metal there, in a four foot shoulder level body, while on all fours. seven on two. The large graspers squeezed deep into the ground, audibly. " There now. " six muttered. " You'll behave this time.. Or this one, will detonate your core without question. " The fixated eyes would beam their dark orange stare for some time, before a deep metallic resonating pulse sounded response. " Tronny. Direction. Seven will explore as far as possible toward corruption, and return if possible. Otherwise, we must be prepared to collect him. Do not complain, either. Without risk there is no reward. Big risk, but the rewards are doubtlessly worthwhile and Six hasn't the time for hesitation, correct? "

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Tronny was slightly irritated and concerned at Six' reclusive behavior, and the fact she ignored her advice, but instead of dwelling on it she simply worked with what she could, thankful that this assignment had at least allowed her to be useful. When they began to touch bases Tronny looked at her. "That might be risky, if its drawing off ambient energy it can become... Possessed possibly? I'm not sure." it seems Seven thought of this however and was playing it safe which was somewhat re-assuring but only so much. She nodded as Tronny explained though, and it seemed like it was a reasonable precaution.  It seemed she was on her way to exploring the area. "You do not want my assistance?" Tronny asked. "Or an escort?" she clarified. It might be for the best, and perhaps Six felt stifled and watched, though she was unsure if such things even occurred to the technopathic female. The dragon-construct did seem like it could handle itself, but this land had proven to be a death-realm, and there were countless things that could seem to go horribly wrong very quickly.

[numbersix]

: As tronny continued, six made her way around the machine to the side, easy reach of the torso. From here, she would plunge her hand in, the metal rippled like liquid, just.. parting from touch. Movements of her hands suggested she was fiddling around with things. In due time she would retrieve her hand, with a quick yank, bringing with it a handful of tubes, wires, parts and a little broken device with a fractured stone in it. " Corrupted energy will be stored but not deliberately transferred to the rest of the body. Until there is a pure sample to analyse, this one can not design a defense against it. You have claimed biological subjects are influenced. It is a gamble to assume machines are less susceptible to this corruption, but better to risk a machine then one of you, correct? Souls are less expendable, after all. " Face seemed to wince slightly at the words, concept in itself was difficult. " But, yes, assist. In direction. To what direction is corruption at its peak? " Even as she spoke, Seven was doing a circle around her, behind. As she asked the question it rose up one of those large claws, quietly, reaching for her head. After question, seven froze, six turned to give a insanely cold stare at which point her hair started to.. fluff.. a tad.. Standing on end? Static? Who knows. Seven backed, and started in a random direction, full charge out of here. She sighed. " He resents... creation. "

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Six's fiddling with the machine caught Tronny's attention briefly. "It is as you say." Tronny replied looking at her explain her idea in detail. Tronny felt she understood what Six was planning, or trying to get it, and it could work. "The further south you go, apparently there is a temple nearby, but we are not to go near it and I think as of right now that place is a battle-zone. Further south there is a great fortress, so far the theory seems to be that these two points serve as sources of the corruption, and the Primoris Ultonis is seeking to destroy at least one." she said. "I would resent it too if I were dragged into this hell-hole." Tronny managed as she looked at Seven. "What is he doing?" She asked Six.

[numbersix]

Eyes shift slowly in the direction of the slowly shrinking in the distance Seven. " Hmm... Following orders. He'll distance from the camp and hide his trail before heading south. Until his return, or retrieval, there is unlikely going to be any significant progress in balking corruption. So, we will get started on construction of " She hesitates, drawing a blank on the name. " The... ....ecospheres? garden bubbles.. .. .. aeroponic... .. .. " Slowly, she would pull her hair in front of her face and mutter. " floaty gardeny things... " Head twitched. " Shhh. that's even more inappropriate. " Replied to voices in head? After a moment she sighed. " This one promised to assist with food and water production. She'll begin with the systems, though she can not finalize without a method of defense for corruption. If there is nothing else you need, Six should retire for a while. She'll stay open to communication via drones, unless there is something you need right now?"

[ALIS-Ultonis]

"Ecospheres sounds like a good one for now." Tronny said as she shrugged lightly. "Yes we need to figure out how to stop areas from being corrupted, but if we can make things float up and not touch any of the environment, that might do something, however if you have to think and rest then that is fine, we will establish a perimeter and I will inform you if I need you." Tronny said as she looked around upon the horizon towards the canyon many miles away to the south.

[numbersix]

Trance would give a quick abrupt nod, and began toward the main structure to retire. Though, on the way she was met by both Fives, who seemed to act as if given sudden orders, and both headed to one of the hover platforms to begin the process of reverse engineering the technology. Best thing to do was try to utilize technology familiar to those other then herself, for the sake of maintenance.. Six could not be everywhere, despite how far she seemed able to stretch herself. The smaller drones, given that it was daylight would work like ants, all in unison to gather pieces of materials or components needed, and haul them back to the main structure. Six, would lock herself in that private chamber, proof of her consciousness would be reflected in the occasional shift of work patterns in the drones across camp. The process of creating the first ecosphere would be a joint effort of all active drones. Constructing parts, working a furnace, gathering quarts and sand from the environment for quad layered barriers. Utilizing Six's magic engine for recharges, construction of several different devices, and modifications, infusing those devices to "cast" on various components of the ecosphere. This process would continue through the day. And in night, a new five patrol persons where selected as drone mounts as before, but labor continued. Once or twice, Six, in secret, would open the door to either receive from or exchange with the drones. If left this way, this activity would continue for three days.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

As Six and her drones busied herself, the ALIS and Tronny went to work continuing to put up structural walls around a perimeter. As they did this Tronny mused about different ways to try and make the area more habitable. She went through possibilities in her head, and the idea of some sort of jamming pylons might help though only time would tell. As these things happened she wrote up the schematics anyway.

Within three-days there was a respectable outpost built, with metallic 8 foot walls creating a perimeter that was about 100 acres. There was still a surplus of materials left for additions if needed as well. This obviously encompassed the area that Six was working in as well, while turrets akin to "Rail-Ballista" were mounted 20 feet high from the walls. There were about 8 of these and they could serve well as anti-air and long-range precision weapons though they could only fire at a maximum of 3 shots in rapid succession before needing 15 second recharge and could even strike at things in orbit with proper sensor-arrays. Below them were 16 turrets on either side of the Ballista only 12 feet above the walls with ladders positioned behind them. These turrets were particle-vulcans that fired 10 shots per second utilizing minutes amounts of matter and exciting the particles compressing them together and firing the unstable pseudo-mass a distance of 150 yards. Upon contact with any matter the unstable particles would quickly disperse creating a shock-wave of kinetic force, heat, and ionizing electricity within a radius of 3 feet. These turrets could probably fire 150 shots in sustained succession without overheating at which point they would require 30 seconds to cool-down, though a five second cool down between shots can allow sustained fire. The turret can fire 2000 shots before needing a 10 minute recharge.

Upon the completion of the defenses Tronny would seek to visit Six. "Any progress on the research?" she asked assuming she could get to her easily. "I've been drawing up possible ideas, we've got enough food for 3 months in storage, with the Hydrogardens we can sustain ourselves with rationing but establishing some crops would make things a lot more easier and show that we can tame and heal this land." she told Six getting right to business as she gave her a data-drive containing her ideas.

[numbersix]

Three three day absence. Six had shown minimal sign of life from her seclusion chamber, only interacting with drones. The Fives seemed to carry on messages, relaying tidbits of structural advice or communicating their tasks when needed. Tronny had been observed frequently by small drones, on lingering passes that seemed never to exceed a half hour... Which might bring discomfort of being watched. Seven, had not returned and no indication or preparation was provided. Six had just been busy busy busy, or dead.

When finally the time came, and Tronny presented herself at the door there was only silence for roughly ten minutes. The door then hissed, and ground open by way of internal mechanisms that seemed under powered. The interior of her fortress of solitude was brimming with random electrical discharges, odd fluctuations of potent ambient energies, messes on messes on messes of wiring, scattered devices, discarded materials and components.. And Six, Six seemed to be the worse of the mess. Her hands looked.. charred.. The tips had the worst of it and aesthetically seemed almost.. Stone.. Black.. Which spread up to part of her wrist with diminished damage till finally just retreating into etchings resembling electrical arcs. Her eyes were a solid black, without light or reflection. There where deep black etchings around the eyelids and face that where dark enough to resemble scattered cracks. Her hair was a mess, whites and blues cascading about wildly. Not to mention, she hadn't showered in three days.. Her alabaster skin was a unhealthy white, and probably sticky where it wasn't still damp. Fortunately, the odd ionized burn scent from the room's interior overpowered any possible body odors. She did not reply to tronny, or even for a time seem to be aware of her existence. Instead, she would climb through her jungle of electronics to drag out a sphere by its cords, detaching them as they went along till finally, it was free at the door, hugged to her chest, she would push forward, into Tronny, and let go of it. " Finished. Status report as follows. Completed prototype of automated ecosphere. Diameter of eighty nine point six. Hover range five to forty three feet. Approximate ETA of self sustained function seven hundred eighty four days. Design schematic completed, Varients of size applicable. Standard model, production of crops ETA one hundred hours. Suggestion of seed, Carrot 20, Potato 16, Celery 24, Cabbage 5, lettuce five. Small herb 30-36, pumpkin 2, watermelon 2. Do not intermingle crops or over seed. Features include production of nature energy for self fertilization, self hydration, acceleration of growth, Sterile environment support, non chemical, Self harvesting, system fault alarms. " Voice, cracked, dry. " waste management Discharges Am..ambient energy, not yet guaranteed against chaos. " She pauses, change of subject. " Communications of unit seven failed, communications of fail safes failed. Most likely cause..... ... .. " her body went a bit tense. "successful neutralization of material and metaphysical components. Recovery of unit seven... not.. applicable... Suggest new method of chaos energy acquisition produced as soon as possible. Ready to receive requisitions. " Her hands extend to purpose.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Of course Tronny did not like being watched, as they were still unsure of Sixes true nature or motivations in terms of how she might act in the future. But still the Primoris-Ultonis had taken a calculated risk in seeking her services, he liked to take chances sometimes, and unconventional decisions were the mark of this particular branch of the Celesin Military. Tronny however had to admit that her patience was tested with this one, and the time it took for her to answer only exacerbated this. Upon arriving into the room, she found that Six was in something of a state. Tronny could not help but suppress a small sigh as she thought "What now?" and moved into the make-shift bunker.

She saw that Six was still making progress despite whatever was happening. "That's some good work, but 2 years for self sustained function might be pushing it, is this pertaining to the organic components or the mechanical ones?" she asked. "Because we can fertilize and augment the growth process." she extrapolated but kept an eye on Six, and felt slightly guilty at her annoyance at the female. "I'll work on the Chaos-Energy problem for now, perhaps it might be better too focus your attention at the moment." Tronny said with a hint of gentleness. "Is there something wrong?" she asked hoping she would not regret doing so.

[numbersix]

It was an odd reply.. Had she been unclear? Who knows.. and why such a question. Six was fairly scrambled on the mental level at the moment, but replied in turn just as one ought to expect. " The state of the machine, shelf life, is expected to be around two years without maintenance, if production of the machine is correct. Time between seeding, and first harvest is one hundred hours, requiring a downtime based on time to manualy re-seed... simple process, shouldn't be more then a few minutes. And also for the unit to reset its system.. Roughly three hours. .. This one does not understand the followed question. Nothing is yet wrong. Number seven was assigned a mission as a potentially disposable unit. The loss of which was an expected negative effect, the consequences will assuredly not effect overall performance of This... " She would hesitate, a long moment.. Slowly going rigid, taking breath, after breath.. But they seemed to refuse to return to a normal or stable rate. So, not a robot after all! Six stood there trying to suck it up, before realizing that her eyes where welling up and leaking down her face. " He never knew any better. I put him that way. He only knew how to learn to be a weapon. It was my fault, it was my part that did it. I should have never been angry. He didn't need to die, I could have fixed him! I could have! If I only knew how to get a little better. I could have tought him what it meant to hurt things. It's not fair! I was cruel, and he suffered. Its my job, I am the maker. The only one to hurt should be me. " Her voice became increasingly childish, cracked, high toned as she went along like her physical tension was crushing the air out of her lungs. " I don't want to anymore! I can't make anymore mistakes. I have to make them better. All of them. I have to fix everything, or all the bad before will never go away. Why can't I do it yet! " She started to go on, but by this time things in her chamber where going haywire, moving around on their own like they where under a mass effect to rebuild with no particular parameters. This was also about the time the two fives came streaking across the place and almost trampled Tronny, where it not fore awkward re-directioning. Six was kind of.. Lightly seized, and pulled into her isolation chamber by one of the Fives. The other, made sure the door was closed before about facing at Tronny. " Go away! Mother is sad. " The five demanded. Reinforcing this demand by a rather sudden display of its cutting torch on one limb, and what looked a bit like a pick on the other.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Perhaps Tronny had misunderstood what Six had told her, but regardless it seemed more clear now. "Oh I'm sorry, I was slightly confused by your syntax and-" and that was when she began to break down. Tronny personally felt non-plussed and she wondered if her little "prank" was worth having to endure this strange woman, then again perhaps Tronny was being callous. "I... Don't understand, what's wrong? Who is dead?" she said feeling some sympathy well up for this woman who was showing the first signs of emotion since Tronny had known her in the admittedly brief period.

[numbersix]

: The number five, fortunately the less mature of the two halves continued to guard. " Our brother, Seven is dead. It might not mean much to you meat bags. But that's how it is. We're sons and daughters of Six. But only a handful. Hm, Irrelevant. You should be satisfied to know simply that Six is more now, because she is less divided. Like a machine, pieces once returned, always improves function. You should go. Yes, move along meat bag, less you have other business. Take your food growy thingy with you. Ask a drone, they know how to work it if you can't find the on switch. " Graspers make a shoo-shoo motion.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Tronny was not going to be shooed away by five. "I don't take orders from scrap buckets like you..." she said tilting her head at five. "I am here to help Six, and also make sure you machina don't run amok... " she said moving towards Six. "If I can do something to help her I will, this may be business but I can show some empathy to your creator..."

[numbersix]

Number five took its steps to continue blocking the closed off metal door.. Like it was necessary? " Scrap bucket?! I'll have you know, meatbag. I'm fourteen percent organics, eighty percent premium parts and genius craftsmanship, and sentient.. Smarter then you to boot. Hmmm.. But may be there is something.. Shhh... " The drone head and body turned to give a sideways glance at the door. Then, odd thing.. IT would reach up and into a panel on its back, behind the head, and pull a odd little object out. It made a whurrrvvv sound and seemed to almost power down, before sprucing right back up. " Ew, singular consciousness. AHEM. Come, come! " The five marched out, and would try to push Tronny toward the door a bit, if resisted, it would slip past and outside where it would wait. Should she follow. " Ok.. Keep your voice down, don't want the little eyeballs probing around for this. Not really supposed to talk about.. him.. you know. so.. You might be able to help.. You see, mother got waayy worse when she split for production of Eight. Mind's not been the same, you could say that her humanity is.. Fractured, between herself and one other. It made her strange, more like bucket-heads. Right now, we figure she might be more strange, since the fragment that had turned to Seven, is now hers again. There was power in that one that she thought was better left aside. I can't guarantee our future cooperation in this ordeal, I'll be erasing this log after. Hmm.. What could help six now.. Is convincing her to build a new model Seven, though that's a bit risky. The other option... Hmm.. More of a risk if she catches on she'll be rather cross.. and in her current state.. hmm... Anyway, Thing Is to go track down Eight. Hard to do without some pretty complicated things, you wouldn't understand. Best way to do it would be to throw a signature, kind of a invitation straight to Eight across a few dimensions and hope he picks up but.. We are not certain six retains the knowledge to produce anything of the sort. Other thing to do is.. Unthinkable. Eight might show if he thinks mother's dead. grgrgrrrrrr! Might be enough to break her connection to us.. we think its possible. Can't believe I'm conspiring against mom! ERRRG! " and a pause. five's body turned, the eye swivled a bit toward the small clacking noise of a little drone passing by.. Plasma cutter goes zap, small drone explodes. " Well.. That was probably pretty suspicious. If you want to help, I'm free to listen, for now. If you want to concent to any of the prior.. well.. I'll letchu know how I can assist! "

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Tronny had almost expected the automaton to freak out, but it seemed her treating it like she would a "person" seemed to snap him out of it. She did not quite follow everything it said, it was hard to keep up, but apparently this "Eight" thing had ruined another of Six's animations, and it had caused psychological backlash. A rogue machine seeking to implement its will. It seemed dangerous, and if this was a problem then it would have to be solved. "I will help out of necessity, tell me more about this 'Eight'."

[numbersix]

The Five continued to observe the surroundings the whole while, just in case another drone decided to pop up. " Eight.. We are unsure of what kind of creature Six has brought into this world, or what has become of it. It is not machine, but can be... It is flesh and blood. Or it is energy. Or it is metal and gears. Or it could be something different. We are not sure. It chooses its own route of evolution, and its own time, and its own place. But it is a creature born of Six, unlike us.. but of us. You must know we can be indaviduals, we have personality, I myself have strange dreams, and happen to be the more creative of the Fives. But we are machine, predominantly. We've no soul, only a mind. Eight is not machine. He is also not truly dangerous, his motivations seem only ever temporary, and he's claimed to reject adaptations of negative emotions. It will be difficult to find Eight, or call him. As I said, the process would require a great deal of effort. hmm.. But now that I think about it, there might be a way to speed that along. You know we are numbered, yes? There is a number four. Four contains a great deal of data, much of Six's memory, concepts, and raw information is in possession of Four. But four was not salvaged prior to the encounter which brought m.. Six over with that man, your Superior we gather. Yes, yes.. It would be a all around advantage there. Getting Four would be easier to start with. That's something your people can do, right? ... .. Why are you going fuzzy? " The voice of Five was distorted breifly. And for moments, it may seem like it was just a weird robot quirk or something. Then Five toned high with alarm, slamming backward under its own movement to back up. Why would be demonstrated promptly there after. Some tremendously noisy light show tore a line in the air just behind Tronny. Strange energies leak out, swirl.. And then the whole thing dissipates. Five would point promptly at that moment. " That normal here? I'm connecting back to Six to relay the observation. I wouldn't recommend acknowledging our previous conversation. " The object Five had removed from itself was skillfully re-inserted. He buzzed.. Brightened.. Twitched. Silence.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

This certainly was strange, these automatons seemed to possess free will through some device or another. Such things were not unheard of, but there was something of a familial environment with them and their creator. They did not precisely act like machines, even ones with artificial intelligence were typically much colder.  "Where can I find four then?" she asked crossing her arms trying to square things away since the machine seemed to be doing this stealthily. However she seemed to recall that her superior had mentioned encountering this woman and her drones in the arena, though chances were the scrappers had already taken everything of value. It was not much but it was something at least, but leaving the front to take a metal detector to the arena was not something that could be done. She would have to run the request through channels which might take some time, time she did not feel she had but she had no choice. She nodded to the machine but stayed a moment for the relay with Six. *

[numbersix]

continued silence. The Five remained stationary, just throwing data back and forth for several moments. By the time it moved again it was a couple minutes later, and the small drones where already crawling into scene, exploring the area where that odd rift had formed. The five piped up. " we assume, rifts such as the one aforementioned are not a natural occurrence here. If you had not already developed gate technology we would enjoy the pursuit of this, however there is no current known value or reason. The event was without incident or significance, and will be neglected for the time being. Progress will continue. Fortifications will be established. With no commissions, Six would like to invest time into the improvement of know w-" There was a sharp and obvious hesitation, five pivoted its head quick enough that had it a spine it would suffer whiplash. " Weaponry. " The word slow, the five seemed rather confused. " .. and defenses. Priorities will shift as needed to satisfy commissions, the prime directive is not forgotten. We also request arrangements to meet with ranking superiors be made. Yourself, and Fenris included. " Another moment of silence. The five would reach up and yank that odd part out yet again. The drones observed this, but seemed to pay it no mind.. Dispersing as other duties took priority. Five minutes or so.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

"We have gate-technology." she said quite quickly. It was actually a staple of the Imperiums capabilities. "If things go well in this... Probationary period I can speak to my superiors about allowing access to some of the knowledge involved..." she said tilting her head. But no she still did not trust six nor her drones though she did not outright distrust them either. She saw Five hesitate and had a feeling why it did. "Is there anything else to discuss? I need to start working on some things". She said.

[numbersix]

Hessitation for responses continued, till the area was in the clear. " Be mindful of Six's progress in offensives. There are many reasons why she has not sought further developments of this field since... hmm.. Nope! nothing else. " and the five would stand there.. looking like it was feeling awkward for staring, before about facing from tronny and marching off. Meanwhile, six was a mess.. Held up in the private chamber on lock down.. Probably best, that there where no witnesses to the oddities occurring within the chamber, mergings of flesh and metal, mechanical mutations, distorting energies, odd bouts of bizzar magic effects.. fortunately all contained in a isolation chamber. Little did many know the horrors the other five was going through at the moment as well. However, the continuence of these circumstances would only progress into the hours, and the isolation doors would open. Six herself, silver skinned and free of long blue hair in the replacement of unusual assorted cords of various types and effect would drag herself and severed cords out of the room, wander wordlessly to the barracks, into the mess hall, foll up a beaker full of water, steal a potatoe, and drag herself back to the isolation chamber. This at least demonstrated she was eating, and hadn't managed to convert herself to a robot or blow herself up. The silver skin only due to metal dust debris. Though the cords filling up her dome might seem a bit concerning. The drones, and the five didn't seem to concerned over her moving about either.Progress in the base would continue, drones stayed constantly busy, often multitasking. Analyzing weapons and the like whenever a chance between work was available. The five, remained the only five outside the isolation chamber, would be gradually taking apart that one ship and storing all the removed components Six's building(not the isolation room itself). Since the odd emotional outburst of six, nothing but her singular appearance had come in or out of the chamber anymore. This was likely to progress until production of something new came about, or a commission took priority.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

With nothing else to do and it seeming like Six would be relatively compromised for a while, Tronny came to the conclusion that the only thing left was too go through the rift as indicated by Five. She sighed unsure if she should, and wondering if it could even help her cause, but things seemed to be progressing accordingly and they had not even suffered an attack yet from the Chaos-Beast. The fact was this assignment was rather slow at the moment, and she might as well follow a lead if it could help. Sighing she moved to collect several regular ALIS and made her way towards the rift, gathering some supplies in case they were needed and within 45 minutes going into the Rift with the 8 other ALIS.

[numbersix]

nope.

[ALIS-Ultonis]

Responded to PM sorry it took so long. Things have been very hectic and I did not see your post here for a while.

[Sponsored content]