The woman was furious. Lydia had just about shouted every curse word imaginable at Melanie when she suggested that the couple find alternate activities on their down time. She even had to force the woman out of her office once "I don't want to see your fucking miserable face again!" was followed by a paperweight projectile that if it made contact with her head, would deliver a major blow that could very easily cause a concussion. She'd never before had a patient who expressed themselves in such a confrontational matter at one of their sessions, but that didn't mean it shouldn't be expected. Once Melanie finally managed to shut the door to her office, she sighed with relief.

The woman took a seat behind her desk, rubbing her eyes before being momentarily distracted by some books on the shelf. She went on to daydream about a happier past, that which included her now-deceased parents. It's not that her life had drastically changed over these past few years, but the absence of a family--any family, left her feeling a bit empty inside, and she didn't enjoy feeling alone, not anymore. Despite enjoying being the independent spirit that she was, Melanie felt that part of her still needed to care for someone else, to worry about that other person and enjoy making them feel happy. Maybe that's why she cares as much as she does for Carl, aside from the fact that he reminds her of her father. She knew from the moment she began her studies that her patients would mean a lot more to her than they would to someone else in the same position. That's when Melanie pulled up Carl's file on her screen. She scrolled through the many reports and notes she had on him, spent about a minute doing this, up until she got to his main profile, that which was part of a ship wide database which held personal information on every individual aboard the Vitae.

"Hm."

Melanie refreshed the page again. "...Carl Stevens Jr., who was posthumously awarded the Silver Combat Medal". The words stuck with her as she read them over a few times more. It wouldn't make sense for Carl to lie to her about the cause of death of his son, especially since he was killed in action, as any brave person would want to go. But there had to be more to the story he wasn't telling her, and she couldn't help but wonder how serious it was based on his reluctance to divulge this bit of rather important personal information. Surely Carl was well aware of doctor-patient confidentiality, and she couldn't stress enough how crucial it was for him to be completely honest with her. But even then, what did he have to hide that led him to lie about his son's death?

A sudden knock interrupted her out of her thoughts, and she immediately closed the file before rushing to the door.

"Jonas, hi. You're..." Melanie looked down at her watch "...a bit early."

"I'm sorry," he added, "is this a bad time?" He probably thought she had a patient in the office with her, but luckily he didn't have to worry about that at the moment.

"Oh no, it's fine. I just thought I'd be able to get a little cleaned up before we headed out."

"Oh no, it's fine," he smirked with a dismissive gesture. Melanie rolled her eyes in response, shaking her head as she took a couple of steps forward, being now a few inches away from the tall man. She locked the door behind her while maintaining eye contact with him before she looked away.

"Shall we go now?" she asked, her body a bit tense as Jonas refused to move. He had so much confidence at the moment that it was making her question nearly every move she made. It was an odd feeling, one that she didn't enjoy too much, but she knew she wouldn't have to worry about it for long. This was only Melanie's second date since she became of age, and being that the first one was a complete disaster, she never quite figured out how to play that game. Reading about it in articles could only get someone so far if they were lacking the real world experience. But that was about to change tonight.

"I thought you'd never ask."

The two left her office and headed towards the Hub, deciding along the way where to go have dinner.

William stood on front of the holo-emitter. Currently the hologram raised no higher than his head as he replayed the battle through on the table. He kept the hologram small as everyone still at their stations was calm and content, the night shift always was. Though he had some issues that he wanted to work out. The Devastator ship appeared on the hologram pulling up out of Earths Atmosphere the ugly behemoth that it was going at speeds he only wished that the Vitae could accomplish. "Freeze play back." The hologram froze as he spoke, responding to his commands. "Magnify ship dubbed Devastation-" The crew had a very vivid imagination when it came to naming things. He didn't mind, it made it easier to reference and it kept some things that were hard to keep light hearted at least less grim. "- highlight this vessel and show nothing else."

The ship grew to match the parameters he had set in motion for the hologram as everything else faded away. He placed his right hand resting on his chin, while holding his elbow with his left hand, he could feel stubble on his chin as he let his eye run over the vessel from bow to stern. Then there was a chirp as Noah appeared before him. "Admiral, civillian Ronald Bridger is requesting entry to the command centre at his appointed time. Security is wanting to know if they should let him pass." He sighed as he turned away from the hologram, straightening himself up his back cracked as he stretched his arms and shoulders. He had been standing analysing everything he could of the battle for longer than he had thought, he knew that Bridger wasn't going to go easy on him but that was the reason William has selected this time for them to meet. A reminder to him as to whom was in charge.

"Let him in."

Within two minutes, under escort, he saw the ever angry looking face of Ronald Bridger. His biggest fan.

"Admiral, Ronald Bridger Ark News." He extended his hand, William paused for a second before reaching his own arm out and grasping the mans hand shaking it. It wasn't an extremely forced handshake but he didn't go light on him either. In his other hand Ronald carried a tablet, which he raised on front of him as soon as his other hand was free activating what was likely text to speech software before lowering disconnecting a microphone which he held in his other hand between them.

"So Admiral, we've had a tough time so far. Wouldn't you say?" William hated the news service aboard ship. It was useful, served a purpose and it kept people happy yes. He just hated the fact that Ronald Bridger was in charge of it, the man had a good record. Got information out to the people, though was red blooded Federation and didn't really stand for Martians or Armani. Ironically he seemed to be able to tolerate people from the Conglomerate so maybe he was just elitist with him thinking Earth was somehow superior.

"Nothing we weren't prepared for, the Vitae and her crew can handle more than that, anything the cosmos throws at us we've got it handled."

"I'm sure we do Admiral, however would you care to comment on the injuries caused because of your decision?"

"Excuse me?"

"I have it on account that you ordered..." He turned his attention to his tablet for a second. "...Colonel Theodore Anderson to manually dock with the Eye of Thea. The experts I spoke to say that the violent shaking the ark encountered was a result of this manual docking process rather than the more careful automated process. Several injuries were caused because of this, in fact in one case the Doctors are unsure on whether or not the man will pull through. After all this to be killed by our entering hyperspace."

"I did order Colonel Anderson to dock manually, what you fail to realize though is the situation we were in. With a Devastator ship-" He cast his thumb over his shoulder at the hologram. "-Bearing down on us, that had actually launched fighters to pursue us. With the Destiny jumping away to preserve itself we became the target. We had no time to dock with automatic procedures, had the Judicator not jumped in we likely wouldn't even be having this conversation." The press always found a way to put a negative spin on positive actions. He had made the call in the heat of battle, had he not have done anything humanity may have ended forever. At least as far as this ship was concerned.

"Yes but did you know that this action could have caused such damage?"

William shook his head. "No I did not. The Eye of Thea is a new piece of technology, or was. The only ship to ever go through was the Rejuvenation and once she went through she wasn't able to relay any information to us. So there's no way of telling whether or not the Eye caused the damage by simply being used or due to our docking procedures. I made the right call, and I'm sticking to it."

Ronald just nodded as he appeared to think about something for a moment. "So now onto another matter. The cyborg-"

William cut him off there. "I'm not sure how you know about that situation. Though my answer to any questions is no comment. That's a classified military manner-"

"So is that how we should expect to be run? By a military dictator?"

William was becoming fed up of this, it came up everytime. Though it was bound to, on Mars being ruled by a military man was just a way of life. It was how the planet functioned as well as it did, or at least that's how he saw it. "I've commented on this before. We have a civillian judicial system already in place and are currently looking at creating a civillian government for civillian matters. Do you have any other questions?"

"No Sir, I think I've got all I need." William nodded at the guard, who then indicated for the door as he turned back around. William rubbed his brow.

"I hate doing that Noah." The holographic avatar of Noah appeared before him.

"Yes sir. You say that after every meeting with him sir."

"Well, back to real work." He turned back to the hologram as Noah brought up the dimensions of different parts of the ship and he just eyed it. It wasn't the most sound design for a ship, it just didn't make sense for a flagship made to attack an enemy location. Were the Devastators so confident in their abilities that they didn't worry about retaliation? If William had had weapons capable of taking the vessel out there were weak points he could easily have targeted. He swiped at the hologram and it disappeared. It wouldn't do to dwell on the past, study of the devastators was now down to the egg heads. He'd never see them again, they were no longer his concern. He wouldn't be seeing them again.

He sighed as he rubbed his brow. "What's next on the agenda Noah?"

“Try?...” Gavon mumbled to himself. The cyborgs last comment wasn’t lost on him, but certainly raised another red flag. Was this thing merely playing a game of cat and mouse, or was is truly attempting to resist it’s innate protocol to defend itself in a situation where it felt cornered? Based on piecemeal information he received about the cyborg, his gut told him it was the latter, and the proper precautions would have to be taken in order ensure there are no human casualties. The Chief instructed that the Agents fall back several meters, spreading out along the width of the corridor, and allow the droids to enter and apprehend first. With their strength and agility, the cyborg would have little chance of escaping her counterparts, or at the very least, slowed down long enough for the Agent taking up the rear to end the creature's existence.

Gavon re-opened the channel once again. “The bulkhead door directly in front of you will open and my team will take you into custody. Resist again, and there will be no more second chances...”

And with that, the locking mechanisms began to disengage and the thick door opened from the center, allowing a direct and clear view for both parties. Two bright red dots stared at the security force, then suddenly flashed and tripled their size.

Enemy force scan complete. Prioritizing targets.

Within a blink of an eye, the two red lanterns flew to the side, disappearing from sight in the darkened room. Hidden behind a bend, the cyborg rubbed her face with her hands. A hundred different ballistic pathways overlapped each other in her mind’s eye, every version of the attack plan requiring her to go for the firearm carriers first. Keeping those guns down, it wasn’t such a hard request, was it? Any trained guard would be able to shoulder a weapon under a second.

She was busy manipulating the algorithm to make it target the droids first, in case she loses control. But quick metallic footsteps made her abort it. Perfect. She walked towards the droids, arms spread to the sides, and each of them quickly latched itself on each side. She tested their strength as they led her out - not flawless, but in addition to her own willpower, it might just do.

“Alpha Squad One to SecCom, package secure, loading onto transit en route to Central, over.”

“Copy Alpha One, you're cleared and prepped for arrival to Block A.”

The female cyborg, flanked by two droids with the third leading, was escorted toward the awaiting transit shuttle. Three Agents boarded first before allowing her entry, their weapons down but poised to engage if needed. The remaining three coming up several meters on the rear of the droids, as they all entered through the shuttle doors. Surprisingly, and despite what the team heard on the comm, she was completely docile, even a little unresponsive to instructions.

“I want you to know that I appreciate this.” she finally said when the shuttle was on its way and the silence seemed to make the agents nervous. “Bringing a captive alive, without unnecessary violence, at risk to your personal safety.” Some of them frowned at this. “I will not attack you on this trip.” she added. The silence became painful.

“Oh, and can I ask a favor? Could you radio ahead to Mr TreVayne and let him know I would like a meeting with him? It’s not urgent, but it may become soon.”

“I believe we’ve already established that.” The voice of the Security Chief chimed in, already having the two-way channel opened when they boarded. “And I will block time to speak with you within the next day or so. However, any urgent requests can be relayed to me in the interim. Until then, enjoy your stay with us. TreVayne out.”

A slight smirk crossed a few of the guards faces in response to his closing words, and moments later, the shuttle pulled up to the brig’s unloading zone, where several security personnel were waiting to relieve the escorting Agents. The exchange was quick and clean, allowing the field Agents to travel back to their post of origin or a reassigned one per dispatch. As a final precaution, the droids were previously instructed to escort the cyborg to Cell Block A, which was the closest at the moment considering they had no other inmates. Being that the Vitae’s main prison was next to Security Centre, it housed the most number of cells, as well as maximum security coverage, compared to the small “holding areas” nearest to satellite posts throughout the Ark.

The cyborg was escorted through the reception area and several “man-trap” bulkhead doors, which then spilled out into a corridor that ran in a half circle down to the other end of the building. Cells on one side lined the dark gray metallic corridor, each measuring four meters by four meters, with an energy shielded doorway which can activate and deactivate via remote stations. The droids stopped in front of the first cell and released the female’s arms as she was motioned by the guard to step in.

“Clear the threshold as we raise the shield, please.” The prison watchman stated, holding up a small datapad and inputting some information and looking up for a moment to ensure their first resident was safely behind the indication line marked on the floor. And with that, the shielding energized with a low hum and emitted a faint bluish honeycomb pattern as it covered the square entrance.

“Inmate A-001, tagged and secured” The lead watchman -Howards- announced into his comms, relaying information back to SecCom, where Gavon was going over a few notes from a previous field report with one of the dispatchers. He turned his attention briefly to the camera footage of the cell, relieved at last that they were able to apprehend the strange cybernetic woman.

“Nice work folks.” He addressed the room. “Coordination was quick, clean, and efficient.”

“Howards.” He spoke into his comms to the brig’s lead watchman. “Post two droids and have them rotated out every six hours and also make sure any request made by the inmate is cleared through here first.”

The next hour or so was spent wrapping up diagnostic reports and Ark wide checks from all units, before finally walking over to Natalie -who was seated at a console- and rubbed her shoulders while leaning down to whisper into her ear.

“So...I hear that downtime is in order…”

Karen sipped her tea before returning to poking at the eggs laid atop a bed of toast before her. It had been about 24 hours since the Admiral informed her that she’d receive her own lab and staff, and she was nervously skimming the profiles of these people she was about to meet.

“Theodore Hammons: Male, 51, Roslin Federation.
Expertise: Dermatology.”

“Dermatology,” Karen mused quietly before bothering to take a bite of her food. It was somewhere in the realm of biology, she supposed, but far more specialized and human-specific than she had hoped.
“Roland West: Male, 27, Martian.
Expertise: Zoology”
“Evie Oliver: Female, 25, Roslin Federation.
Expertise: Biology (Generalist)”

Closer, Karen supposed. Zoology may help, but she hoped that whoever managed the recruitment process didn’t focus too much on biology. With all the possibilities out there in the Galaxy, it’s plausible for the entire field to be completely obsolete with a given species. With another bite of eggy toast, she decided to simply skim the remaining specialties.

“Neuroscience
…
Pharmacology
…
Microbiology
…
Ecology”

It was decided. While Karen disliked all the trouble it would cause them, and they were quite possibly good people, half of them needed to go. It was clear that whoever organized the crew thought that biology expertise was what she needed, and scoured the ship’s databases for enough that weren’t needed medical practitioners.

A small alarm woke Karen from her mild frustration. It was her little PDA tablet… Thing. The names kept changing too much back on Earth, so Karen never bothered to learn the models. Regardless, this one was informing her that it was time to get moving. Karen stood and took a solid three seconds to chug her remaining tea, which had cooled down to where it could barely be considered warm. She moved swiftly out to the nearest transit station and spent most of the ride debating whether or not to keep both the Zoologist and Ecologist.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

After an unpleasant first 15 minutes, Karen was left in the lab, still under some construction, with the remaining three researchers. Roland West, a young Martian man with dark skin and darker hair who kept a casual, friendly attitude and studied zoology, stood at the front. To his right, and Karen’s left, was Evie Oliver, of the Roslin Federation, whose purple outfit and hair dye insisted upon asymmetry and small lengths of flowing fabric that concealed her small, fair frame. Karen was already bugged by how she tended to swish them about, even in a lab, where it was a liability to both her personal safety and that of any glasses on nearby tables. Finally, to Roland’s other side, stood Erik Klein, a tall Armani man who looked to be in his early thirties, though his physical form was being let go a bit faster than average. How a man born and raised in the cold vacuum of space desired to pursue a life studying microbiology, Karen may never know, but she was interested to hear the story.

The first order of business, now that the most confusing and, for Karen, emotionally difficult part was out of the way, was to properly introduce herself and establish the ground rules. While being very friendly. Karen definitely wanted everyone to be friendly, but it’s tough to do both that and establish the hard rules at the same time.

“Well then, now that we’ve got that sorted out, I’d like to welcome you all to my lab, such that it is. That said, while on documentation it will be listed as mine, and I am in charge, I’d like you to all feel as comfortable here as I do. More, actually, since I’ve honestly not been here before, and was only told of my reassignment yesterday as well.” She paused hoping for a warm reaction. To mixed levels, she got one. The older man, Erik, or should she say Dr. Klein, relaxed his pose at bit, while Roland leaked a small smile and Evie completely stopped pretending to stand at attention, pulling over one of the two chairs currently in the room.

“That all said, we’re here to work, so there’ll need to be a few hard, ground rules. For instance, once we have our full staff, and especially once we have specimens, I’ll be setting up shifts so there’s always at least two of us here at all times. Since there will be eight of us, that means that around half of the time any one of you will be assigned to a night shift. I’m also going to ask Noah for a way to contact you all in case of some sort of emergency. Even though we’ll have guards, I have no guarantee we’ll ever get the same ones twice, so we have to be able to provide assistance, whatever form that may take, with the knowledge we gathered from our specimens.”

A glance around the room proved that, as made logical sense, nobody was happy about this news, but nobody was set to object either. Roland, on the other hand, had a question of sorts. “So does that mean we will be testing around the clock?” He asked, with a concerned tilt of the head. “Surely that’s unethical, and liable to kill the critters.”

Karen frowned slightly, not for the ethics question, but for gaps in understanding she was beginning to see. “No, we will not be doing constant testing. I expect observation, particularly on new specimens, but testing would be ridiculous. That said, constant action may have no effect whatsoever on specimens. And do not get whatever exists out there confused with the furry rodents of Earth, we have no idea what we will find. I understand you’re all tied to biology in some way, but that’s a box that must be broken, and thought outside of. Even the word “Life” as you know it may come into question, as we encounter beings that break supposed laws. For instance,” Karen said, moving towards a whiteboard on the finished, office-like half of the room.

“Suppose you are wandering through some sort of alien desert, but it’s covered in rocks, poking maybe half a meter out of the ground. After a while, you decide to take a break and sit on one.” Karen was scribbling a bit frantically, trying to illustrate her point with wavy lines and a stick man. “Suppose that, after you get up and move around some more, you notice the rocks aren’t as big, then that they are all gone. Going back, there are none where you once were. They seem to have all fled into the sand, but never moved or reacted in front of you. You had even flipped the one you sat on, and saw that there was nothing underneath. Is it still a rock?” Karen gave the trio an expectant look, her not-quite-mad drawings being a trail of chaos across the board behind her.

Evie volunteered first, offering what was clearly the expected answer to the terrible example. “No? If it can move on its own in response to stimulus, maybe it can think.”

The response elicited a grin from Karen, who was happy to see someone who apparently got it. “Exactly! And that’s our job- to figure out if it can think or do anything else. What stimulus does it respond to? Does it grow, or process materials? Where does it get energy from? Does it even use energy in a way we understand?”

The remainder of the hour passed away with Karen giving terrible examples to answer questions, and Evie being the most active, and increasingly enthusiastic, responder. By the end of it, Karen hadn’t really taught them much, but they all understood that they should expect the unexpected to appear, and that they should try and explain things to each other themselves instead of deferring to Dr. Anderson.

Loretta paced down the line of trays. While many other scientists had little actual work today she had plenty to do, and not just with the trays themselves the vast number of visitors was staggering. People who with the loss of Earth had become emotional and as such the bay was a buzz of activity with people insisting on checking on loved ones. Even though the only difference with seeing them here rather than on a computer elsewhere on the ship is that they could actually touch the glass. She felt that was likely to make them even more emotional rather than less.

She slid her keycard through a reader as she entered her lab, really more of a small medbay designed to fit a cryopod in the case where they had to rapidly wake someone up due to unforseen circumstances it had become her own little private work space. She had authorisation to enter it and as such it was where she conducted most of her research in private. Partly as she wanted to keep some of it secret but also as she wanted the peace and quiet that this little laboratory gave her. There were no subordinates trying to vy for her attention or respect and no weeping family members pleading with her to wake up their loved ones 'for just a minute'. That was the worst request, as if the Admiral was going to let her increase the ships population with people in cryo-stasis.

She walked over and checked the containment cells, a her brow furrowing for a moment before she regained her composure. "Begin audio log." There was a ping from elsewhere in the room indicating that the log was beginning. "Subjects Epsilon, Zeta and Sigma are all showing renewed vigor and appear to be healthier than ever indicating that this variation was a success. All other subjects apparently fallen victim to a full body shutdown resulting in their lives ending. Tests will be conducted to discover the cases of death, aforementioned succesful subjects will also recieve a full autopsy to determine why they survived the process. I am predicting that an extraneous variable caused the success in these three subjects, rather than causing the death in the other subjects however further testing will give reliable results. End log."

Loretta walked over to a control panel, as the oxygen was removed from the containment cells. Suffocating the subjects.

The meeting between the Admiral and the others were interesting enough as the men soon left the room. The attack on the ship was intense, as it could get. Everyone in the Archives did their job in gathering much information about the Devastators. Madison & Augustyn found as much as information down in the servers while Kevin and the others looked all over the library. Overall, the Archives didn’t suffer too much damage besides a couple books that fell to the ground. A couple of people were hit back the falling books, but didn't suffer any life threatening wounds. And the footage was sent to the local military key while it replayed the footage moments before the attack. He didn't felt good about lying to everyone, but it had to be done.

People wanted into the Archives and Kevin was willing to let them. He even allowed Mr. Karlson to set up an office in the Archives. Kevin needed to tell the rest of the workers about it and maybe bug his office for safety reasons. However, Kevin didn't know what to think of Karlson and Dr. Anderson. Kevin kept on thinking about the meeting as he walked into the Archives. He saw Madison putting away the remaining books into the shelves. Augustyn was most likely checking out the system for any errors in the server room. Kevin walked towards Madison as she looked at him for a moment and then back to the shelves.

"How was the meeting?" she asked.

"Well, we are going to have a new guest with us. Mister Karlson is going to set up office to look up additional information about the Devastators until he finds what he’s looking for.” Kevin answered as she looked at him confused.

“I had to say yes, Madison. Please don’t piss off Karlson. We need him to be on our good side until he leaves. The Admiral was pleased when I gave him an office, but he didn’t say that I couldn’t have it bugged.” Kevin told Madison before she could protest and left to find Augustyn. He walked to the server room and saw Augustyn leaving it as he grabbed the bottle water and started to drink it.

“How are you doing, Aug?” he asked.

"The sever room is alright and didn't suffer any damage during the fight. As for me, I have spent six hours in that room and I feel like shit. But, I am doing fine." Augustyn answered as he threw the empty bottle into the nearby trash can. Kevin watched as he made the shot and smiled as the bottle landed in the trash can.

Kevin walked towards Augustyn and said to him, "Listen, I need you to do me a favor. There's a new guy coming to the Archives and he's taking one of the offices. I need you to bug the office to ensure that he doesn't do something stupid."

Augustyn nodded and gave him a thumbs up as he walked towards his office to get ready before the guest arrived. Kevin walked back to his office and looked around. He walked to his chair and sat down as he began his own work of looking for any info of the Devastators with doing actual work as well. After two hours of working, he decided to contact the Admiral and see if he's willing to talk in private about things that are happening. He sent a message that they 'need to talk about what happened.' Kevin waited for a response to appear. Once it appeared on the computer screen, he got up from his chair and headed towards the meeting location. Things were going to get more interesting.

The procedure would be a tricky one. Not because the operation being performed was particularly tricky but rather because the man performing it was on edge. As calm and collected as he appeared on the outside, Doctor Caleb Jakande felt like a complete wreck on the inside. Despite his skill, his years of experience, Caleb still felt emotional during things like this. Standing here, with a man's life in his hands, it was difficult not to feel somewhat uneasy. His parents had always taught him to be humble and he always was. Sometimes even to the point of being self-critical. That was not good in his current situation.

He was in the process of removing a section of ensign Haywood's skull to relieve the pressure in his swollen brain. The laser scalpel in his hand was a small device but for some reason it felt so heavy. He knew his own self-doubt could result in a mistake that could cost the ensign his life, so he did his best to push his parents teachings to the back of his mind. He couldn't be that humble man from Ghana. He had to be confident. He was the best at this. He would make this look easy and he would save this poor boy's life damn it!

Caleb's self-reassurance worked and he began the procedure, choosing to perform it manually, rather than rely on a machine. Caleb was somewhat old school in his approach to things like this. Allowing machines to do such potentially dangerous work never sat well with him. If something ever went wrong, he didn't entirely trust a machine to adjust on the fly and correct itself to save the patient rather than simply following a set of instructions. He didn't speak a word to his team as they worked. They had all form such a close working relationship and were all skilled enough to know exactly what needed to be done. It was why they were all selected for this job after all. Caleb had to remember that more often.

Removing a portion of ensign Haywood's skull was done quickly and the bone was taken away to be stored, ready to be replaced later. Removing the blood clot beneath proved to be more time consuming but this too was completed efficiently and without incident. Ensign Haywood was then fitted with a special helmet which would protect the area around the skull that had been removed but would also leave enough room to let the brain swell upwards without meeting resistance.

Caleb breathed a sigh of relief once the job was done and thanked his staff. As the others prepped the patient to be moved to recovery, Caleb turned to leave, stopping for a brief second when he spotted the two young women standing on the other side of the operating theatre's window. He gave them a friendly and reassuring smile before he made his way through the doors to meet them.

He had always liked Amara and Clara, despite what many people said about the former. Clara was a perpetual ray of sunshine in an often dark galaxy. Just being around her often made people feel better. Someone had once joked that she was a natural painkiller and referred to her as "morphine in human form". While Caleb himself would never use that term, he had to admit that they were sort of right. Amara was not so generally friendly but Caleb nevertheless instantly noticed her determination to help others.

"Is he going to be okay, Doc?" asked Clara as Caleb removed his gloves. Her eyebrows raised and she got that puppy dog look she normally got whenever anyone else was suffering. Amara simply stood by the window with her arms crossed in front of her as she watched Haywood.
"Well we need to watch for further issues." Caleb began. "Hopefully there's no infection..." He trailed off as he noticed Clara get increasingly sad. He felt like he was telling a child that her puppy was dying. He decided that instead of telling her all the things that could possibly go wrong, it was best to just give her a reassuring hand on the shoulder and say "Given time and care, he should be fine."

"We don't know if he has any brain damage yet." Amara decided to ever so helpfully chime in as she looked over her shoulder at Caleb and Clara. Clara seemed to shrink in on herself at that statement like it was a physical blow and she wrapped her arms around her chest and pulled her shoulders up around her neck. Caleb knew she hadn't said it to make Clara feel bad. It was just a matter of fact statement to her. She obviously realised the impact that her words had on her friend though and she opened her mouth to say something but apparently didn't know what she could say to make it better.

Caleb decided to save her and replied "We won't know that for sure until he wakes up. We've induced a coma for now until the swelling goes down but when he wakes up we can perform some tests."
"Brain scans?" asked Amara, this time in a genuine attempt to get some information that could be positive.
Caleb recognised this and replied "Showed some minor contusions but nothing I'm immediately worried about."
Clara began to relax her posture and wandered over to stand beside Amara and watch Haywood be whisked away through another set of doors to the recovery room. Amara looked like she was again searching for something to say but all she could come up with was "He's lucky he had you, Jak."
The compliment, and Amara's pet name for him, made Caleb smile. But he countered "Me? He's lucky he had you two. If you hadn't treated him on the scene or if you hadn't gotten him here so fast...he could have been a lot worse off."
Clara turned and gave him a gentle smile, which he realised was her saying thank you for trying to make her feel better. He returned her smile before he threw a thumb over his shoulder and said "I should go check on my other patients."
"Thanks, doc." Amara offered and was quickly echoed by Clara.

Caleb turned and left, leaving the two medics quietly staring into the now empty operating room. Hopefully it would remain empty for a while.

Erik sighed quietly as he slid into the chair in his temporary office in the archives. The fjollet workers seemed suspicious of him, which was confusing. There was no point in stealing anything, as he could just come down to the Archives to look at it anyway. He shook his head. Perhaps they were so paranoid they had even gone so far as to bug his office. He laughed quietly to himself. What a ridiculous thought. He turned to his work.

He groaned inwardly as he reached into his bag, extracting the files for those who had applied to work under him. He would prefer to be working on the Devastator transmission, but this would have to come first. He had asked Noah to print the files; the feel of paper was comforting to him, though he wasn't sure why. Perhaps he was just getting old. He browsed over the files.

...Mandarin, Cantonese, Japanese

...Evolution of Language

...French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese

...General Linguistics

...Written Languages

He sighed. Half of these people would be worthless. He didn't truly need any of the old-world languages. He would only take those people if they had many years of experience with language in general. The others would be more useful, but he would have to decide how many to take on. He tried to do math, asked Noah for help, and then began scrawling over sheets of paper, forming an enormous comparison tree, lines linking people with similar skillsets, rectangles showing incompatible people. It was a trick he had learned from his late father, when they had been trying to decide what language he should learn second (English and Scandinavian had been required in school). Finally, after what seemed like years (that he couldn't be working on the Devastator Transmission), but was probably only a few hours, he made his decision.

"Noah" he asked, into open air. The blue holograph of a man's head appeared, and Erik jumped. He hated the holograph. The AI asked what he needed. "What are my options on more permanent office space? I really don't need all these workers crammed into this one room." he asked, glancing around the small office. Noah sat for a minute, his "expression" showing that he was "thinking."

"Mr. Karlson, it would appear there are two medium sized office spaces available, and a large one. One of the medium ones is quite close to the hub, the other towards the laboratories. The large one is by medical."

Erik thought for a moment. "The one by the laboratories." he grabbed the files he had selected, and waved them towards Noah. "Inform these four that they have been chosen to work with me, and to report to that lab at 1300 hours." He checked his ancient, analog watch. 11:55. That gave him just enough time to find the remaining translation materials and make copies before he had to be in the lab.

---

Erik's desk in the new office was bigger. There was also a piece of paper on it that said he could use the office, but would need to clear it for permanent use within the next week. That wasn't his concern right now, his concern was the four men and women who he had essentially hired. He smiled at them, sliding his chair out from behind the desk and into the front of the room.

Damian Barlow stood farthest to his right. The young man was tall, dark-haired, muscular, and probably significantly more intelligent than he looked. He spoke both English and Welsh, meaning he was a fellow Euro Confederate, but he had been chosen for his skill with written language. Next to him was Adeline Harrington. The woman in her early thirties was short and the tiniest bit pudgy, but she had a bubbly demeanor that distracted from that. She spoke only English, but was a master of discerning languages with little existing connection to anything known, given her work with Native American languages.

On Adeline's left was Lei Hirodeshi, a young woman from the Nagasaki Conglomerate, who had just completed her education upon her recruitment to the Vitae. She was almost as tall as Damian, with long dark hair and pale skin. She spoke Mandarin, English, and Vietnamese; and he had chosen her for her understanding of how languages changed and grew over time. She had done extensive work with the evolution of the Mandarin Chinese language, an impressive feat. At the end of the line stood Sibongiseni Botha, a man in his mid fourties from South Africa. His dark hair had just started to grey, but his unsettling grey-blue eyes still shone with curiosity. He had asked them to simply call him Sibo. Erik had chosen him for his knowledge of general Linguistic tendencies, but also because he had liked the look of the man's file, and wanted his experience and advice on the team. He spoke Afrikaans, Xhosa, and English.

After looking them over again, Erik spoke. "Hello, Dzieci. You all know why I've hired you all. The five of us will be working with Alien Languages. We have two goals here as a team. The first will be to help the crew and humanity understand the communications of other sentient races we may encounter. For this purpose, the Admiral has cleared me for away missions, and I will take at least one of you with me on each." The looks of both excitement and confusion on his assistant's faces brought the slightest smile to his lips.

He continued. "Our second goal is to work on some form of translation technology in order to ease, and perhaps eventually Ustranit' our first goal. I know some of you would rather continue to translate by hand, but many of you will be needed to maintain our own, human culture, and carry on the languages you speak to the populace of this ship. Once I see how much time we have available, I may request the Admiral allow us to teach our languages to people onboard. That being said, the Admiral has given me two candidates for helping us with the software side of our translation issue, who I will be reviewing later. Any questions?"

The four people looked at him, uncertain, until Damian asked, "Where do we start?" Erik grinned. Things were finally getting started.

“And I’ll take a bottle of- “ Gavon turned his attention from the server to Natalie who was seated on his right. “What was the name of that beer from the Americas? Something from Pennsylvania, with a funny name?”

“Yuengling?”

“Yeah, that’s it.” He turned back to the server. “I’ll take one of those if you have it.”

“Of course, just a moment.” The young, short, purple-haired girl nodded while keying in the drink orders on her datapad, checking to ensure they had the beer in stock. “Well...looks like it’s your lucky day Chief.” She said with a wink, followed by a smile that could brighten up any room.

“They’ll be out in a few, guys.” The server said as she went to tend another table.

Gavon returned a friendly smile as she left, and turned to Natalie whose expression was less than amused.

“What?”

“You’re something else.” She snorted. “I think that’s the first time in a long time I’ve seen such a cheesy grin on your face.”

“Yeah...well take it for what it’s worth, Nat” His smile slowly faded into a simple smirk. “Considering there is less to smile about these days.”

The Siren and Song pub was buzzing with intertwined conversations regarding several topics at once, specifically the ones pertaining to Earth, or at least what once used to be. It was home, he guessed, to a vast majority of those on the Ark considering the deep seated sorrow they felt for great loss across generations. There was, however, a sharp contrast in those who have made every effort to move on and accept what fate has granted them. Life, and one that could be of significance looking toward an unknown future. But regardless of the mentality, everyone on the Vitae was being pressed and refined under the same millstone, and what mattered was just how they came out on the other end.

“Nat” Gavon leaned in and placed his hand on the table over hers. “I know it's been difficult to say the least, but thanks for sticking it out with me.”

Natalie cracked a smile. “Well shit man, you make it sound like I'm just tagging along.” She laughed. “Of course it's been rough, for us both…” Her expression evened out. “But we've survived ten years of marriage on a planet wrought with strife and turmoil. So yeah, you're stuck with me Mister TreVayne.”

He couldn’t help but laugh at the silliness, and yet sincerity in her face all the same, as Natalie always knew how to break a serious moment when it was probably the most necessary to be broken. She never did all that well in socially awkward situations, so humor was just one way of making a lateral pass to something more on point, or to veer into a subject that took the spotlight off of her...

“So, when are you going to go see Doctor Raidne, hm?” She finally asked emphatically.

“When I feel like I absolutely need to.” He said plainly without missing a beat.

Out of one awkward situation and into another, but thankfully to their relief, the drink orders arrived along with a few house appetizers that apparently had been ordered for them as a form of “thank you” from the establishment's proprietor. They both thanked the server as she strolled away, leaving them to their meal.

“To my wife” Gavon raised his beer toward her. “Here's to a sweetheart, a bottle, and a friend.
The first beautiful, the second full, the last ever faithful.”

Natalie’s face turned a slight shade of red as she raised her glass as well. “To us…”

Thump... Thump... Thump....Thudump....Thump... Thump...

The steady sound of footfalls echoed through the corridors of the massive Ark that carried some of Humanities last hope. Still several hours until simulated dawn Mackenzie felt the surge of adrenaline flow through her. The corridors were practically empty, except for an occasional Security Officer who stood vigilant.

A bead of sweat dripped down her brow as she forced her legs to push her forward. The music of Martian classical composers vibrated in her ears, dulling the sound of her own heartbeat thudding against her chest. This was the first time in several days that she had been able to get out, and it felt good. Running was the only real thing she had taken away from her time in the Martian Military. It was the best way to vent out her frustrations and the last few days weighed heavily upon her. It weighed heavily on everyone. It was times like these that she missed her father with an ever present intensity. He always knew the right thing to say to her to keep her motivated.

With a heavy breath, Mackenzie rounded a corner in the path and then came to a slow stop. Just up head was the corridor that leads to the central Hub where she could take the transit system to the Fabrication bay.

“Noah?” Mackenzie said as she leaned her back against the wall of the corridor. The soft vibrations of the power running through it grounded her and allowed her to clear her mind. She quickly turned the music off on her data pad.

“Yes, Doctor Newton?” the A.I’s holographic image appeared beside her and spoke through her headphones.

“Just call me Mackenzie, Noah. Doctor should be reserved for Medical Doctors.” She said with a sigh. She hated it when people thought she had Medical training. That reminded her that she needed to call Amara and set up that sparring match they had last spoken about.

“Acknowledged,” NOAH said a second later apparently updating its subroutines.

“Noah, please give me my running stats.”

“Your cadence was 180. Your maximum heart rate was 183. Your distance was 6.839712 Kilometers. Your calories burned were….”

“That’s enough for now Noah. You may go.” Mackenzie said standing back up.

“Acknowledged,” It said and then vanished.

Mackenzie continued on her way towards the Hub. She knew she still had several hours until her crew would show up for the first shift in the Robotics Maintenance Bay and she wanted to get a head start on a few diagnostic tests. So she headed to the nearest Transit system, hopped aboard, and headed to her office.

Mackenzie was both excited and nervous that she had been given the chance to lead her own team. When she had heard how large the team was she nearly choked. Luckily she had worked out a system where only a small handful would be present at one time. Not only that, Mackenzie had repurposed a supply closet into her own little slice of heaven. It was filled with wall to wall computer screens, and a state of the art rig that could process almost as much data as NOAH could. She had built it from random parts around the Robotics bay. That and she completely disassembled several droids she had decommissioned and recorded as defective in the system. Hopefully, no one would be smart enough to figure that little tidbit out.

Another little secret she had was the fact that she had hacked into NOAH’s mainframe through a backdoor. Every system has a backdoor and all it took was a little persistence to find it. NOAH’s hadn’t been particularly easy to find. She had to go so deep into the system that not even NOAH, in its current form, recognized it for what it was. That’s how she knew about the cyborg woman that Security had locked up in cell block A. Several of the ARX45 Security droids had been called into action and Mackenzie had been curious as to why. Needless to say, she didn’t have the security clearance to read the incident reports, but through the backdoor she was able to get a sneak peak. She had then wiped all evidence that she had been in the system, when she logged off.

When she finally arrived at her destination, it was as she expected it to be. The bay was filled with row upon row of deactivated droids and a number of other types of machinery. It was eerily quiet, and Mackenzie couldn’t help but stand for a moment and think about the cosmic beauty of it all, the robots, the Ark, and NOAH. How could Humanity not survive after creating all of this?

Ping

The gentle sound from her data pad brought Mackenzie out of her thoughts and back into the Bay. She turned and headed to the back of the room where her office was located. Her office door was heavily protected. She had Gavon, head of Security, make sure it was set it up correctly. Only three people on the Ark had access to this room, Herself, Gavon, and the Captain. She had explained that any new designs and pass codes for the droids would be safely secured here to prevent anyone from tampering with them. Quickly she entered her security clearance into the screen attached to the door. Not only did it require a passcode, but several body scans as well. The door unlocked with a click as all verifications were met. Mackenzie entered and closed the door behind her.

---

Situated a mere half mile away from the Vitae's Hangar, Ray's Bar resided in what was known as the Hangar District, the part of the Hub located the closest to the Vitae's Hangar. It was no surprise then, that many of the businesses in this area catered to those involved with engineering and piloting, with a tech-and-aviation themed aesthetic painted over many of its businesses, with a largely Armani feel to it. This techy aesthetic, alongside a predominately Armani air and engineering corps, with a some small bits of old-asian aesthetic thrown in, led many, with little surprise, to call the Hangar District "Little Citadel", similar to Chinatowns and ethnic neighborhoods of generations past. Little Citadel jumped from high tech and trendy to industrial and gritty with reckless abandon, each of its hotspots unique, yet trendy in its own little way. Unlike other districts in the Hub, Little Citadel focused primarily on night-life, and hosted a wide variety of bars and clubs, and less on 'daytime' cafes and venues.

Unlike many of the other locations in Little Citadel, Ray's Bar was rather industrial, and often reminded its patrons of the inside of an old Armani-Trader/Hubship. The Bar's Owner, Ray Zachs, a former Armani freelancer, gone legit, gone military, gone rogue again, and gone pardoned-back-into-the-fold, was something of a hero to the Armani on board the ship. With a crazy, illustrious, adventurous, and long lived career like that, and then to top if all off earning a spot on the Vitae for his extensive knowledge regarding trade and ship design, Ray Zachs was the closest thing the Armani had to a living legend. This should come as no surprise, as the bar itself was designed specifically to be reminiscent of bars inside Armani-Hubships. It's Plas-Titanium panel walls were browned with artificial rust and adorned with purely aesthetic old-style air vents and gaudy neon lights, and it was populated by a mix of traditional synth-wood chairs and tables and jukeboxes alongside high-tech game tables and holodecks. The bar itself rested against a wall, with a artificially rusted sign plainly stating 'First Aid & Alcohol', harking back to the old Armani traditions of freelancers and rogues.

---

"To the Grave Robbers and the Barracudas!" Barked a somewhat slurred, but confident and exuberant cry from a stocky man, standing with one foot on the bar to prop himself up, glass, frost covered mug filled with amber liquid thrust high into the air- Sara's crew chief of all people. The cry was immediately followed with a cacophonous roar of agreement and approval by the rest of the patrons in the bar, almost entirely Vitae pilots and flight crew. Fistfulls of beer bottles and mugs were raised high into the air, and the clinking of glasses could be heard as people toasted and consumed their drinks. In the center of it all, given the 'choicest' table, aka, the largest table, in the center of the room, were the pilots of the 5th and 7th Squadrons, who had fought and survived the first battle with Devastators in a decade.

The bar was filled with people and loud music. Men and women in pilots jumpsuits, jackets, engineering coveralls and engine grease alike yelled and drank to loud rock music. Games of poker were played at some of the tables, while the holodecks had various games going on. In the corner a couple or two ignored the universe and got lost in each other's embrace. Ray Zachs manned the bar that night. From him, the booze flowed steadily, and all pilots that had flown drank free that night. A savant at his job, Ray Zachs managed, alongside a small army of volunteer bar-backs to service an entire bar full of patrons, and only a single fight broke out that night over service.

Clearing her own throat, Sara also stood up and made her presence known, a surprising feat granted her rather short standing height. "To Adams, that shitty sonofabitch owed me a drink tonight, and he stood me up!" she bellowed over the din of hard rock music.

"Adams!" the crowd echoed in response, accented by whoops and more clinking of glass.

"And Simms! With an ass fine enough to make another woman stop and stare!" Sara continued, her eyes wavering, but voice strong, her face scrunching to force the tears away. They'd all experienced loss before, it was only natural in their line of work. But something about Simms' loss, and Adams too, struck a chord with Sara. Their losses felt different somehow- maybe it was because they were fighting an enemy that wasn't human, or because they didn't have time to retrieve the bodies for a proper send off- instead leaving their corpses in Devastator infested space.

"Simms!" the crowd responded.

More glasses clinked.

At this point, Setter took over, to announce the losses for his own squadron. While frowned upon by military higher ups for what appeared to be insensitive ridicule for the recently deceased, this method of grieving was an unofficial tradition of Armani origins and found widespread popularity amongst most human fighter squadrons, as a way of mourning the dead. Often times, people were afraid of seeming overly sentimental, and it did no favor to the already tense mood to put a damper on it. Thus the tradition was made so, and more sentimental remembrances would be set up at a later time.

More glasses clinked.

Sara repeated what everyone else did, lifting her bottle into the air with a raucous cry before bringing the bottle to her lips and taking a deep swig. Whether or not it was just her who was shaken by the battle, she wouldn't know tonight. Tonight was a night to focus on the living.

More glasses clinked.

Tonight was a night to focus on forgetting.

---

"Ya done with that glass, lass?" came the low, steady voice of Ray Zachs, stirring Sara from her reverie. With a startled splutter, Sara shook herself awake, finding herself back at Ray's. The bar as it was now was a far cry from a few nights ago. The crowd of drinkers and revelers had disappeared, and was replaced by a small, slow spattering of crewmen and civilians- the 'daytime' hours of the bar didn't do much to bring people in. Gone were the rowdy dart throwers and pool sharks and gamblers, and in there place quiet individuals, not unlike herself, nursing drinks in their own little corner. The hard rock and roll was replaced by slower paced jazz and blues, and the stuffy air of dozens of people stuffed together was replaced by a sense of clarity. Sara herself found herself sat at a small table near the wall, her unfocused eyes staring at a little section of the bar's wall.

Underneath the little bit of wall Sara stared at, a stool stood against the wall with an upturned glass, sealed beer bottle and a digital candle. The light of the candle illuminated four small, 5x7 inch portraits, their frames containing the faces of Adams and Simms, as well as the pilots from Setter's squadron. Occasionally a passing patron would pause, kiss their fingers and press it against a portrait or the bottle, before continuing on with their business. At the moment, the memorial seemed tiny, minuscule in comparison to the rest of the bar, though Sara wondered how long it would be until the memorial started growing, or if even she herself would end up as little more than a 5 by 7 picture on a wall.

"Lass." Ray repeated again.

"Shit, sorry." Sara apologized, as she handed Ray her empty mug, and credit chit. Ray took the glass, but waved the chit away.

"This one's on me lass." He said gruffly as he began to walk off. He paused and turned back, his dark eyes glinting somberly under the shade of his unruly dark hair. "Remembering the dead is important lass, but so is remembering the living." he said as before he walked off, mug in hand.

Sara sighed to herself, as much as she didn't want it to be so, Ray was right. The fighting had hit her hard, maybe harder than others, yet around her she was the only pilot sitting at the bar.

Wiping at the half-dried stains on her cheek with a rough hand, and awkwardly dabbing at the small puddle of salt water at the edge of the table with a napkin, Sara closed her eyes and took a deep, shaky breath and collected herself. Slowly bringing her eyes open, she slowly stood and walked over to the small memorial. She pressed her index and middle finger to her lips and gently placed her fingertips on the bottle. She held herself there for a moment before reluctantly bringing her arm down and slowly, but determinedly proceeded to exit the bar.

Behind her, a few glasses clinked as the door slid shut.

William lay on the tough Martian soil, the ground hard and the air cold though he couldn't be happier. Beside him lay the woman who was to be his wife, Amanda. The only thing more beautiful than the nights sky that he currently gazed up at. It was often lost on him, the beauty of the stars. When his entire life had him living among them, part of him wondered if ancient sailors felt the same way about the sea. Though now, in this moment it was as if seeing them again for the first time. Above him he could just see his hand, intertwined with Amandas as they held it slightly aloft towards the night sky. A sign of love? Togetherness? Defiance? It was impossible to tell. All he knew was that he never wanted this moment to end.

It was just him, her and the universe as it was meant to be. "I really like you, you know that right?" William chuckled slightly as she spoke. Despite the humour the moment not broken, nothing could break this moment.

"I believe I do." He used his other hand to point up towards the sky. "You missed another meteor by the way." She squeezed his hand tighter in mock anger, they had been trying to out eachother all night to see who out of the two of them would see more meteors. They weren't really keeping track, nor were they truly counting.

"I was distracted." He squeezed her hand back.

"I know I can do that sometimes." She nudged him with her elbow as he laughed.

"Though seriously, do you think people used to sit on Earth and look up to the stars like this? Like we are now? Wondering about Mars. Madeline Ulrop was the first person to set foot on Mars but she can't have been the first to dream about it." He looked to her, barely able to see her face. At least nought but the perfect outline, but all he needed to know was that it was her. She could look one hundred years old but so long as it was still his Amanda. That was all he cared about.

"You know, I think they did." He squeezed her hand back. "Probably like we are now, down there. Looking up, not just to view the stars but to view their hopes and dreams. We're with them now." He sat, letting silence engulf them. Not that either needed to speak to make this moment anymore magical. He took a deep breath and held solace, that no matter where life was going to take him. He and Amanda were going to share these same stars.

---

William shook his head below the running water of the shower. Dwelling in the past wouldn't help him move forward, he had lost Amanda but he knew she was still out there in some form or another. After all energy was never destroyed, and that gave him some slight solace despite never being overly religious. He liked to think that the energy that had once been her had become one with the stars that shone bright during the nights on Mars. One that he had watched with her, dreaming off tomorrow. He sighed as he turned off the shower, so much had happened since then. The Genesis Project had enlisted him as Amara had grown up and moved away, he had met Rita and more recently abandoned Earth.

Though he could never give up Amanda. He dressed on autopilot, the routine having been done so many times he barely had to look to pick out his uniform from the closet. Nor did he have to search for the eyepatch that hung on the closets door, hanging there waiting for him. Technically he didn't need it, as his real eye was still there. Simply many found the whiteness of his damaged eye disturbing, or distracting. He had even heard the theories that he had a weapon placed in the socket as an emergency backup or that he did have a cybernetic replacement but that it was designed for X-Ray scans and he kept it hidden. He did nothing to dispel them, rumours sometimes kept people on their toes if they were the right rumours. He chuckled slightly leaving his quarters, the on duty guard quick to following him on his journey.

---

The command center was it's usual flurry of activity, it never slept after all. There was always crew present to monitor the status of the ship. If engineering were the ships heart, this would be it's brain. While a body couldn't live without a heart the brain was equally as important. For a body could not function without a brain, and just remain a husk. William smiled as he entered the command center. His guard, a man named Derek Lancer, remaining at the entrance. He had handpicked all of these officers, only accepting the best and brightest to become the brain of the Vitae. Occasionally he had to scramble with commanders from other Arks attempting to snatch up people he was after, but in the end this crew was the best fit he could have hoped for.

As he passed stations he looked at their screens, everyone knew their place. Their duty, and their importance. He may be the commander but he was nothing without these people. He decended down the stairs into the 'pit' where his holographic table and station awaited him. Down here he had much of the space to himself however the pilot and navigation officer also sat down here in close proximity to him, it was a request he had made when the construction was underway so that he didn't need to use comms to speak to them as he could just walk up to them if necessary. At this point everyone was at their stations and he nodded at Joanne. "Commander."

"Admiral."

He looked down to check his watch, eleven hundred hours on the third day of their journey. He had contemplated starting a new calender year though had decided against it. Those weren't decisions for him to make, for long. After all he had plans for the leadership style of the Ark. "Status report?"

"Noah reports that we will drop out of hyperspace in twenty minutes as intended. All systems are operating at peak efficiency and all hands are standing by for hyperspace drop out, including medical personnel." The jump to hyperspace had been a little, rougher, than intended. As such he had made all Medical Staff all on duty in time for their drop out, it was always possible that he was pulling people from their rest when it wasn't necessary however he would rather play it safe than sorry. It was a big ship with a lot of people and the last thing he wanted was for more death early on in the mission.

"Excellent, have three squadrons prepare to launch upon us dropping out of hyperspace and form a CAP. I also want Engineering to prepare both the Jump Drive and the Nyx so we are ready for anything the moment we jump out of hyperspace if they haven't already." He turned to the table and after pressing a couple of keys the Vitae appeared in holographic form before him, as he zoomed out the screen was full of static as the sensors struggled to read what was surrounding them while in subspace. It wouldn't be long though until it was filled with stars, foreign to their eyes. Likely never seen before by human eyes, or at the very least never seen from the position that they would be seeing them from. Part of him wished there was an observation deck, somewhere he could just lie under the stars just like the good old days. He could feel a tear forming just at the concept, however he quickly cleared his throat and shook the thought out of his head.

---

"Promise me something William?" He turned his head to face hers, despite the darkness he knew she was looking right at him. Though she just wasn't looking at him, but into him. He didn't know how she did it but she looked through into his very being. It's what made him love her so much that she saw so much of him, more than anyone else ever had and likely ever would. Which made this moment one that he would likely never forget as they lay together under the stars.

"Anything."

"If anything ever happens, never forget me." He choked slightly as she said this.

"Well that's morbid."

"I'm sorry just..." She sighed. "-I never want you to be alone if something does happen." She raised their combined hands up towards the stars. "It's just so vast and empty up there. I want to know that wherever you go, I go with you. As wherever I go I take you with me." She squeezed his hand tighter, though not in a painful way. In a way that made him never want to break the moment.

"I promise you, that wherever I am. You are there with me, always-"

---

William cleared his throat as he spoke through the microphone. "All hands, prepare for hyperspace drop out." He turned around the room, eyeing all the officers as he did so. Everyone was at their place, everyone was ready. He turned all the way around passing over the heads of Anderson and his friend, Jenkins, until he once again stood facing the hologram. Through which he could see the face of Joanne studying the hologram almost as intensely as he was. This was the moment they had all been waiting for, anything could happen in this moment. Despite rigorous calculations and approximations, estimations and equations, there really was no telling what was going to happen the moment they dropped out of hyperspace.

They could drop out of hyperspace inside a planet or a star. Too close to a blackhole or in the middle of an alien fleet who could possibly take their presence as a threat or sign of aggression. All they could do was hope for the best. "All hands, this is the Admiral. I know some of you are still feeling the effect of leaving Earth, some still reeling from the battle with the Devastators. Though now is the time that we have waited so long for, that Admiral Constantine and his crew sacrificed everything to give us. We are about to enter uncharted territory with unknown treasures and unknown dangers, though as I have said before I have complete faith in this ship and this crew. We can do anything that we put our minds too. Together, we will make sure humanity lives another day." He looked up to Joanne as she nodded.

"Prepare for hyperspace drop out in five... four... three... two... one..." The entire ship shuddered slightly, though not with enough force to knock anything from it's place, or even to hurt anyone. No, the transition was smooth or at the very least smoother than their entry into hyperspace had been. Immediately the hologram updated to a star system he obviously did not recognise. A star at it's centre with only three planets within its habitable zone. "Congratulations people. We made it, enjoy the view. Expect a status update within the hour, until then stand down from emergency stations."

He nodded to Joanne who keyed the order into her console giving the civilian members of the vessel clearance to resume their lives, though he had no doubt most of the science teams aboard were far more interested in getting their hands on the data pouring in via the ships sensors than going to the Hub for something to eat. "Commander."

"Sir?"

"I want your best pilot briefed and ready to launch for a scout mission." He placed his hands on the holotable as he looked up at the hologram of the solar system before him, data was being added to the hologram as it came in. They were in uncharted waters now, everything was new from here onward. He felt a well of sadness build up in him, but remembered his promise. Not just to the human race to see them to their new home, but to Amanda years ago.

"-No matter where I am. No matter what stars are in my sky, I will take you with me. Always and forever. That is my promise to you Amanda. Always, and forever."

He would not give up, not now. Not ever.

The small box that was the cyborg's prison cell was quiet and motionless. Peaceful. She sat crosslegged in the room's precise center, eyes closed, letting her body rest and, despite the potential danger involved, her mind wander.

Humanity has traded in its home of rock, ocean and sky for one of steel, electricity and engineering. There was no "natural process", no higher power involved anymore. It was somewhat similar to a child becoming an adult - receiving the ability to make their own choices, at the cost of having to make them. She was supposed to be comfortable here. There was no one to say what is natural and what is an "aberration of science", "attrocity against nature" and other such buzzwords used by people mentally incapable of seeing beyond the 'childhood' phase of mankind's evolution. No longer should humanity be limited by the old ethics - they could not afford to be. Their own future, all of it, rested in their hands. It was as if humanity has finally been kicked out of its nest, and has started to learn to fly.

The cyborg felt a crack form in her solid hatred of Project Genesis.

She opened her eyes, letting them slowly adapt to the lighting of the cell. With a soft clink and effortless, fluid motion, her body rose to a standing position. She felt sore, on the inside, as if her own guts were vomited at the devastators when the arks made their escape. In a way, they were. And as she gradually brought her auxiliary sensors online, her thoughts once again challenged her own existence. Was she human? Was she the result of forced evolution? Or simply a tool to let real humans survive in a home they now had to build from scratch?

In the long run, it didn't matter, she thought as she paced forward towards the cell's window. The result would be -

A sudden lurch of the ship sent her head-first into the shield/door of the cell. A loud buzzer went off once on the other side of the door, causing her to jump away from the door. But unlike previous times, this time the security guard simply cancelled the alarm. She wondered if they got fed up of her attempts to touch the barrier. Oh well, an opportunity is an opportunity...

First were EM and IR tests, and the results baffled the cyborg for a few moments until she realized what she was seeing. A strange thought occurred to her - this barrier must appear bluish green to normal people. To her it looked like a gray wall with ever-changing texture. Then, mechanical tests. A metallic palm pressed against the surface of the energy barrier. It felt flat and solid, but in a really weird way. Of course, the alarm blared again, but as soon as the guard looked inside, the PA came on with an announcement of the Admiral. There was a short staredown between the two, until the cyborg smiled and turned to the speaker in her cell.

"Can I get a view of what's outside?" she asked after the announcement, her voice betraying slight urgency.

The lockdown had been lifted, and Michael returned to the science labs. The massive ship's hall were once more filled with the sounds of its denizens. It was curious to the android how quickly the people seemed to go back to normalness. The Devastators had been hot on the trail of the Vitae right before the jump to hyperspace. In his forced confinment inside of his quarters Michael had been going over everything he could find on the hostile alien race. Much to his surprise his files were close to barren with any actual details on the genocidal beings. It was disconcering to say the least.

As soon as he had gone back to his assigned work space, Dr. Phillips informed him he was going to meet an apparent expert in robotics. His creator had given a very informative talk about this person, they were quite well regarded by the elder scientist. Michael's files contained information on the esteemed individual. He was surprised by her relative youth, most of the experts he had seen were older people, she was not. Phillips lead his creation out of the laboratory, then onto transport. They were going to the robotic's bay, and it seemed the well regarded Phillips wanted to introduce Michael to the expert.

After a short bus ride to the robotic's bay, the creator and creation duo entered into the hectic area. The humming of heavy machinery was abound, hitting the android's ears roughly. He gave a usual curious look around, engineers and technicians were spread all around, hard at work as they crafted synthetic creations like him. Not nearly as advanced though, crude and primitive but useful machines. He stared at one humanoid robot, giving it a long look of pure wonder. He hadn't yet seen another machine man, he wanted to speak with it, ask it questions, but he could do no such thing as the doctor lead Michael towards an office to the side of the bay.

Phllips paused in front of the door, then knocked twice. The android read the name on the door, then realized it was the same woman he was arranged to be meeting. He proceeded to stay silent behind his creator.

Mackenzie stared absent-mindely at the several server screens in front of her. They displayed the numerous Droid designs presently active throughout the entire Ark. The last few days, while they were in the Hyperspace, had been hectic. She was not used this much responsiblity and it was extremely unnurving. She had already spent hours in her office pouring over designs and protocols. She needed to know exactly where each Droid type was stationed and what their duties were.

As was not uncommon, Mackenzie's mind began to wonder. Her recent escapae into NOAH's mainframe had been particulary fustrating. She thought she had written an extra code to allow her easier access, but it had not been there the last time she looked.

Two knocks came at the office door and brought her out of her blank stare at the screen. She quickly stood up and headed to see who her first vistor was. when she taped on the small data pad next to the door an image of teo people appeared. She tried to recall if she had ever seen the two before, but was drawing a blank. the Robotics bay had many faces she never seen before, so it wouldn't surprise her if the people outside were part of her massive team.

"Yes?" she asked as she opened up a com.

"Hello, I'm Dr. Ethan Phillips, I believe I messaged you about a meeting? I do hope I'm not interrupting anything. I work in the science labs, I have a wealth of experience in the field of robotics and was very interested to meet you, Ms. Newton," The doctor said as he adjusted his glasses. "My promising apprentice Michael Smith accompanied me, I think he'd be interested in meeting you, and you him."

The android perked up at the mention of his name, then smiled a friendly expression.

"Meeting?" Mackenzie mumbled to herself. " Shit. I mean no, no your not interrupting. Come in" Quickly she pressed the button that spung the door open.

Mackenzie's office was anything but tidy. There was a plethora of paperwork and junkfood wrappers scattered about. She returned to her desk quickly attempting to clean up a bit before offering The Dr. and his apprentice the only other chair in the old utility closet.

"Sorry there really isnt a lot of room in here. Ive only got the two chairs. So, ah, we share an interest in Robotics. Might I ask what area of study you are in?"

"It's quite alright. I specialize in artificial intellgence amongst machines, it's an interesting field, one I've devoted years of my life to." Phillips stated as he sat in the lone seat on the opposite side of Mackenzie.

Michael stood quiet behind his creator, his arms gently resting to his sides. He had raised an eyebrow at the condition of Mackenzie's office, but made no comment of it. It was strange to him that an expert in multiple fields could be messy.

"A sentiment I definately share. Ive written many papers on the subject myself, but lately I havent had much time to research outside my own free time. You would think that they would have put me in the Labs like yourself.However, you go where the jobs are, thus this" Mackenzie used her hands to indacate her office." Im curious what do you have cooking down in those labs?" She smiled at Dr. Philips and then up at Michael. The smile was a little awkward but it was genuine.

"Yes, I've read several of your published papers, your knowledge may exceed my own and even if I have a few more years of experience than you," Dr. Phillips said with a laugh. Michael smiled at the joke behind the doctor. "Much of the science team has been hard at work analyzing the Devastators. Despite our research, little is known about them. We thankfully seem to have escaped them and I'm certain our main research will shift to something far less frightening."

"They are intriguing, though doctor. Such genocide with no reason given, its unlike anything I've seen." Michael commented with a saddened expression.

"Yes, well, we're away from them. We can move onto more beneficial things to help mankind, especially those in the Vitae." Phillips added as he turned his gaze from his apprentice, back to Mackenzie.

Mackenzie nodded accordingly. Indeed the Devastators were frightening to say the least. She had tried her best not to think about them. Though she had seen the atrocities that human kind had done to its own people. She didnt know if she believed in Karma, but if it was real than Mankind had definitely earned what had come.

"One area we've discussed is a more refined type of robotics, more intelligent machines with enhanced independence. Sure it carries a risk, but what doesn't? Humanity needs its help where it can get it. Wouldn't you agree, doctor?" Phillips asked Mackenzie.

"Please call me Mackenzie and Yes I whole heartedly agree. There is so much we can learn from them and how the universe works itself. NOAH is remarkable, though its a bit inconvent that Its not allowed to have Human form. Ive never really believed in that them verses us hu ha." she laughed and leaned back in her chair. " We are just as much machines as they are, just composed of different materials."

Mackenzie had composed multiple papers on this very subject, but many had never been published. She was curious about how Dr. Phillips had heard of her, but not the vice versa.

"Yes, I completly agree. NOAH is almost awe inspiring in his composition, yet he's so limited as well. A more human machine is an intriguing prospect, one that has the pure intelligence and computing capabilities of a machine, while harnessing the free thought and humanity of organic life." Dr. Phillips said, quite pleased with what he was hearing from Mackenzie. He had read the papers she had mentioned, part of the reason why he brought his creation with him.

"What are your thoughts on androids? Outwardly human, with emotions and thought like us, but is in reality machinery, like a living, moving supercomputer?" The older doctor asked as Michael heard the words come from the man's mouth. He was an android, the first of his kind. Could his creator be leading where he thought the man might be?

"That would be spectacular, but I doubt it would be achived any time soon. I thought I came close a while back, but I just couldnt figure out the algarithums. I occationally go back to the board to figure it out, but I just walk away frustrated." Mackenzie said with a heavy sigh. NOAH was one thing but an Android was something different. A computer could learn, but it would never have the fortidute of a human. At least it wouldnt so long as they forced it look and act as a computer should.

"Well, what if I told you that the first android created by humanity is standing behind me?" Dr. Phillips stated before he looked back at Michael who blinked in surprise. One of his creators had just revealed his true identity, the man had told him to ensure no one learned of it, yet he had spoken of it to Dr. Newton. It confused the synthetic man.

The blade of the black dagger thrust past his face, inches from slicing through skin, as he quickly blocked and countered with three successive elbow jabs to the assailants face before spinning the weapon out of his opponent’s hand causing them to stumble and fall backwards. Another attacker from behind swung wide with a large electro-baton, the heat particles emitting from the device singeing a few stray hairs from the man’s head as he dodged the brunt of the attack, repositioning his body for a quick and concise disarm and take-down. The third attacker ran up as though from out of nowhere, armed with a handgun and aimed point blank at the man’s head, but was quickly relinquished of his firearm and held at gunpoint with his own weapon before a shot could even be fired.

“Eight point three seconds, Chief TreVayne.” Noah’s voice echoed through the training room’s vast sound system as the “assailants” bodies dematerialized and lowered into the holo-platforms digital interface.

“Did you get that folks?” Gavon spoke loud and clear enough -between catching his breath- for the crowd of a dozen or so rookie Agents who formed a circle around the event taking place within the large octagon.

“Eight point three seconds to remove multiple threats and diffuse a hostile and potentially deadly situation. Response time is a huge factor when protecting the lives of others as well as your own, so make it count.”

“What about live opponents, Chief?” A tall, bulky young man with a German accent spoke up. “It’s one thing to train with holos, but another to crush a flesh & blood man.”

“Excellent!” Gavon exclaimed with a grin. “Agent Bauer here has agreed to volunteer as our next victim.”

A low laughter erupted from the crowd. The Chief’s eyes then scanned across the row of recruits until it landed on the right fit for his next demonstration.

“Agent Asara, front and center.”

“Sir!” A short, dark-skinned female with jet black hair tied up in a bun behind her head stepped forward a few paces and stood at attention across the octagon from the large Agent Bauer, whose expression instantly transformed from awe to disappointment. The German glanced around the encircling crowd feeling a bit like he was being pranked as a few mocking comments were thrown his way from peers.

“It’s bloody David and Goliath!” An Agent yelled out with a few chuckles from the others, while another close by said “Who?”

“Alright folks, shut it for the moment” Gavon continued, standing along the sidelines with arms crossed. “Let’s make it interesting this time. Once within arms reach, you both have two seconds to take the other down by any means necessary. Engage!”

Bauer‘s eyes widened as he stared across the platform at his smaller opponent, who returned his gaze with a half-smile, and a taunting hand gesture for him to come at her, which inevitably he did like a raging bull. Asara stood her ground until the gap between them closed enough for the hulking man to lunge at her in hopes of attaining a grapple, but was quickly side-stepped and kneed in the groin by the agile female Agent. She then followed up with a hard shove against her unbalanced opponent, sending him face first to the ground using his own weight. Resounding applause mixed with some laughter immediately followed the man’s humiliating defeat.

Gavon raised his arm and gestured indicating silence.

“Ladies and Gentlemen, let’s forget about physique and stature for the moment and concentrate on skill and situational awareness.” He then turned his attention to Agent Bauer who was picking up the pieces of his pride off the platform. “It’s not always about crushing an enemy...”

The Chief then pointed to the female combatant, who was standing straight with arms behind her back. “I’d like to introduce you to Agent Camilla Asara, combat and tactics specialist, and your instructor for the next several weeks.”

------------------------------------------------

Warm water rained down from the stainless steel shower head and along his corded muscles, slowly releasing the tension that had built up during intense morning training and calisthenics, and allowing the thoughts running ever rampant and unchecked to finally sort and settle. The last few days since launch have been quite the primer, especially for the newer Agents, but it gave them a glimpse of just what they should expect aboard the Ark and hopefully beyond. Gavon took nothing for granted, maximizing every bit of non-sleeping hours to refine and educate, not only those around him and under his leadership, but himself as well. There was always room to grow.

The initial high-pitched sound of pressurized water in the stall next to him jolted his reverie, causing his eyes to open and glance to see Agent Asara’s lean, smooth form undressed and removing the clips that kept her dark hair in a bun.

“Chief.” She turned her head and nodded with respect before stepping under the steaming water as the locks fell to just past her shoulders.

“Agent.” Returning a nod as he finished rinsing off.

Shared facilities weren’t uncommon within the Military and Law Enforcement sectors, and if anything, it was highly encouraged, as it literally allowed no secrets to be kept, and all self-doubt, shame and humility to be dissolved in the presence of teammates, whether leadership or peers. If a soldier allowed their own negative, self-conscious thoughts to rattle their psyche, then just about anything could pose as a distraction from their primary job. It was simply another form of breaking down base human instincts and feelings, and building up something so much more substantial and resilient that would carry through their life in and out of service.

Karrels and D’avanzi, a couple of young upstarts from the Roslin Federation were sitting on the benches in front of their lockers passing the time with cards before they were to be called into patrol rotation.

“Chief” Both men stood to attention as Gavon walked toward his locker, but he motioned for them to sit as he unlocked the door.

“You two did well this morning.” He finally said plainly, slipping on a pair of sweatpants. “Although Karrels, you need to work on your positioning. Engage only when necessary. Too early, and you give yourself away, potentially getting you and your team seriously injured or killed.”

“U-understood Sir.” Karrels said, a bit disenchanted by the critique.

The kid had spirit, as did most rookies, but a hot head nonetheless, and too eager to jump into situations he didn’t fully comprehend just to prove he can do it.

“Permission to speak freely, Chief?” D’avanzi asked, hoping to break the tension he sensed in his friend.

“Permission?” The Chief said with a grin. “Last time I checked, this wasn’t the military, so go ahead.”

“Right. So I couldn’t help but notice the tattoo on your back. Does the skull and snake signify anything?”

Gavon slid the plain black t-shirt over his torso and smoothed out the fabric with his hand.

“More or less I suppose...”

If The Solntsevskaya Brotherhood had anything to hide, it was the fact that they had been slowly dissipating after the Third World War, and ripping what was left of Russia apart hadn’t helped their cause in the slightest. The gang's leaders had either fallen or simply disappeared with vast amounts of resources into the wastelands, leaving the remaining members very little recourse. As the years went on, the gang had once again begun recruitment using any means necessary to attain an army they could be proud of. Gavon, a teenager at the time, had been pulled under the sway and influence of the Brotherhood, believing them to be an organization who wanted nothing more than to build up a new Russia. With an eagerness to be apart of something, the Brotherhood trained him in several disciplines of combat -namely Krav Maga- for use in guerrilla style warfare against neighboring threats. However, what started out as swift attacks on military outposts, slowly slithered it’s way into civilian areas. Men. Women. Children. It didn’t matter anymore as each was a means to a greater end for the Brotherhood of selfish bastards.

As a rite of passage, each member was “marked”, not only a sign of allegiance, but to signify their role within the organization. Gavon’s particular fighting and tactics likened him to the serpent, striking fast and silent, even going so far as to coat particular melee weapons with a debilitating snake poison. In the end, he earned the brand through more bloodshed and innocent lives than he would ever care to admit...

“Let’s just say it’s a reminder of what I’m fighting against.” He said, closing and securing the door to his locker.

As if timing couldn’t have been any better, the notification alert on the two Agent’s wrist communicators lit up, indicating a shift change and the start of Forenoon Watch. Both men stood and saluted Chief TreVayne before heading out to their respective posts, and Gavon left for his quarters to grab another hour of rest and change into uniform before his meeting with the mysterious cyborg inmate...

"WHAT?!" Mackenzie nearly choked.

"Michael, show her proof of your true nature." The doctor said as Michael internally figured out a way to display this to the woman. He pressed his hand against his left arm, then flipped it upwards as the skin moved to reveal his inner workings. His chrome metallic skeleton wires underneath it. Michael looked at Mackenzie as Phillips did as well.

Mackenzie instantly bolted up out of her chair, her hand covering her mouth. She looked down at Dr. Phillip and then back up to Michael. She took two steps forward to stand before Michael. She quickly inspected the Android's arm. She then narrowed her eyes, thinking for a just a moment that this was just a joke. Perhaps Michael was just like the woman down in the cell blocks. Only, something seemed genuine about the situation.

"Why are you telling me this? I'm sure you realize how much trouble you'd be in if he was discovered?" Mackenzie wanted to touch the android, but refrained.

Dr. Phillips smirked at how Mackenzie reacted to the revelation; she was the first person outside of the administration that he had told. He believed she would be one of the last as well, she was correct in her remark if Michael's true nature becomes widely known. The android stared at the woman as she neared him; he blinked at the expressions on her face.

"Because I know you won't tell anyone else, Mackenzie. You're intrigued by the existence of him, I think you want to learn more, see more. All the right people know of Michael, the team that created him had to clear through several channels," Phillips said, as he noticed that she didn't yet touch the machine man. "You can touch him if you'd like, he won't hurt a fly. Programmed him as much, violence isn't something he enjoys or will partake in against humans."

Mackenzie couldn't believe what she was seeing and hearing. She wasn't so prideful that she thought she would have been the one to create the first android, but she had hoped. She knew she had been close, but apparently not close enough. Violence wasn't she was really worried about. She knew that humanity would never consciously create a violent machine. She was just worried that if she reached out and touched it, it would disappear. She was still paranoid that this was just a joke.

Gently she reached out and took Michael's arm in her hands. She could feel the artificial muscle under its artificial skin. Gently but firmly she pushed her thumb into it to feel the actual machinery underneath. She then let go, pushing her glasses back up on her nose before she looked back up at Michael. Their eyes meet. She would have never guessed that he wasn’t flesh and blood from mere sight. However, there was definitely something in Michael's eyes that would fool even the most expert in robotics. They weren’t dead like the machines outside her office. There was even something in the way he spoke. True he seemed simple in thought but no more than a child would. Though she supposed in light of things, he was indeed a child.

“Will I be allowed to run a more thorough diagnostic?" She asked turning back to Dr. Phillips.

Michael blushed brightly as Mackenzie placed her hand on his arm, then felt along it. It was a new experience to the android; the only other time he had been touched by a human was in Eden earlier. This was something different. He looked into her eyes as she made contact with his, a light smile on his face. She seemed thoroughly intrigued by his existence, which amused the machine in some way. It also amused Dr. Phillips.

"If you wish, do remember that his existence is a secret to all but a few. Any tests or diagnostics must be run in utter privacy," The man replied with a nod. "He's brilliant, isn't he? Not one centimeter of him is organic, every single part was created. His skin is completely similar in composition to our own, his hair, eyes, every part of him just screams human."

”That’s an understatement!" She said in excited." I understand the need for secrecy. Though It might look, um, weird if Michael is seen entering my office on a regular basis. We'll need an excuse for him to be down here, or for me to go to your office. Something that looks official. Admiral Locke knows about this, right?" There was a hint of giddiness in her tone that she couldn’t hide.

"Yes, he knows. Was one of the first that was informed and had to clear it. We could rotate between where the diagnostic checks take place, in your office, at the science labs, there's plenty of room there to do it." Dr. Phillips said, delighted that such an esteemed individual was so impressed with his creation. It was one of the few times he'd be able to show off the android. Michael wondered what she wished to check with him, he could tell her excitement over his existence. It was amusing.

"Agreed, I’ll send you my schedule and we can find what works best for Michael." Mackenzie reached out her hand to shake Dr. Phillips’. “You have no idea how honored I am to know. I look forward to looking over your data. Brilliant!" Mackenzie couldn’t help but look back at Michael. “It was good to meet you, Michael. I hope we will get to know each other."

"Great to hear! I would love to hear your input on the data, anything you think could possibly be improved." Dr. Phillips said as he grasped her hand gently and then shook it firmly.

"It was a pleasure to meet you as well, Mackenzie," Michael said with another smile as he closed up his arm. He was back to his normal, fully human looking, which was indistinguishable from others in an outward appearance. Dr. Phillips rose out of his seat and then walked towards the door.

"We'll talk later, Mackenzie. Have a nice day." The man stated and Michael nodded before they both left her office.

Mackenzie returned to her seat, though she knew that there would be no getting back to looking at Droid designs for today.

The Nyx, Beautiful in her design yet deadly in combat. Her almost silver bow shined in the lights of the hangar bay. But she was without a captain. Until now that is. Theodore smiled a warm smile as he walked up to the ship. The small scale model had already shown some of her elegance but seeing the real ship was a completely different experience. He had read some of the files the admiral had given him while on his way over here. And while it did give him some important insight about the ship itself he wanted to know the full picture. After all,a captain should know the insides and outsides of his vessel and a few simple sheets of paper weren't gonna complete this task. As he looked at the Nyx he spotted the martian officer who was supposed to show him around the ship and brief him on the stealth drive.The officer appeared to be a she. She was at least a head shorter than Theodore. Her skin was Caucasian and her blonde hair was mostly covered by an officer hat. She seemed a tad younger than him Maybe five years at most.

"Are you Colonel Anderson?"

"That would be me yes."

She gave a firm salute her face hardening slightly as she did.

"Lieutenant Leandra foster reporting sir. I will be your engineering officer during missions aboard the Nyx. I will also be handling the stealth drive."

" At ease Lieutenant, and please just call me Theodore".
She raised a small eyebrow at that though it wasn't of surprise but more of annoyance.

" With all respect sir, i prefer Colonel just fine. Now if you would please join me towards the ship itself. We have quite some ground to cover."

Theodore held back a small sigh as he simply nodded.
" As you wish Lieutenant lead the way."

With that said, she turned around and walked towards the boarding ramp. Theodore walking right behind here. He never liked people that didn't act like a normal human being. Then again Maybe this was just her way of dealing with the fact that earth and almost the entire human race was doomed. And who could blame her? The ship was almost empty of people besides the odd engineer working on something. Theodore listened to Leandra's explanation of the ship itself. Theodore was impressed, to say the least.

" Lieutenant, how do you know so much about this vessel?" He said cutting through her explanation about the science bay.

" I was stationed on this ship even before the three-day war happened." She said in her icy tone.

" I assume you served under the rear admiral then?" Theodore asked as he walked next to her adjusting to her pace as he did.

"Indeed i did." She said her face showing a bit of pride of that fact. As she faintly grinned.

"Then excuse me for asking this but did he already have that eye patch when you served as his officer?"

Leandra rolled her eyes at that remark as she had undoubtedly heard that same question a hundred times. " No sir he lost his eye during the battle of mars." There was silence after that. As both of them thought about that horrible day. Theodore decided that it would be best to drop the matter. As he himself would also rather not think about that dark day. After that, they walked in silence with only the sound of their boots on metal plating and the slight humming of the air recycles. After a few minutes of horrible silence, the entered the ground vehicle bay. Where two massive R207 Beast command vehicles were stationed. Theodore had only seen these things once and even then it was bizarre how such a thing could actually drive. Human engineering at it's finest.

"These will be used for planetary exploration. They will act independently while planet side and since they have some weaponry they won't be helpless when something goes wrong."

"Good i have always disliked babysitting."

"Have to agree with you there sir. Now if you'll please follow me to the bridge."
Theodore nodded and quietly followed her to an elevator. In only a minor minute the elevator was already at bridge level. Theodore was slightly disappointed as the bridge seemed to be a lot smaller than he had anticipated. Instead, he found there to be only four seats facing forward and on the left a lone communication station. Then again the view kinda made it better as the bridge was placed in the rear meaning that he had an excellent view over his ship. The bridge felt somewhat barren. Then again Martians cared more about efficiency in his mind. What interested him most was his own personal command chair. Which was also the pilot chair which was covered by a green HUD overlay at the front. Leandra noticed his interest which wasn't hard considering he was gawking at it.

" I assume you are liking the bridge?"

Theodore looked back a smile forming on his face.
" Not that bad lieutenant. Not that bad at all."

After this, she would give him the ropes around the stealth technology. How she activated it how long it would last. And how effective it was in combat. After a while of talking and discussing things about the ship's capabilities, they were already outside. " Is there anything else you would like to know sir?" She asked politely. " No thank you-you have helped me out more than enough. I will leave you to your work then." She gave Theodore a quick salute and walked off back into the ship. Theodore walked off to one of the busses that were stationed close by and decided that he would take a swing at the simulator rooms since his shift was still a way off. After a few hours of training, he got some food. Did his shift for the day and after simply went to sleep.

The next day was the same schedule. However, while he was once again training in the sim room he got a message from leeroy saying if after the evening shift he would like to join him and a couple of other officers to visit a club. Theodore, of course, responded with a resounding yes and told him he was looking forward to the evening. Leeroy responded with.

"I knew you would. But please make sure you wear something nice. Considering we work under the admiral we have to look the part."

Theodore sends a good reply back saying he understood and went back to training.

After this, he went back to his shift on the bridge where he and Leeroy had a nice conversation about who would join. Apparently, Leeroy was able to convince a few other officers two security officers and an engineer to join up together for some fun. Besides that, they had their normal talks about the ship and other small things that weren't worthy of being mentioned.

After his shift was over he told Leeroy he would see him in a few minutes as he walked back to his room to get changed. Considering he had to look good he decided to wear his black tuxedo. And just casual black pants. After that he made his hair look reasonably look good and walked off towards the meeting point, the bus stop to be exact. It seems he was one of the last to arrive as almost everyone else was there.

Leeroy introduced everyone to each other as he apparently knew everyone else. And after a small bit of waiting for the last person, they left towards the hub. The trip was rather boring and casual as there only was small talk was being made and nothing that peaked Theodore's interest. He'd always been the loner during parties. When he was sober that is.

It was the evening as they arrived the hub. At least that's what the ceiling showed anyway. With a little bit of advertising scrolling across it. It always made Theodore smile when he saw it. Even when most of humanity was lost there was always time for some advertising. It made him chuckle a little at the thought of it. Walking through the packed streets the group arrived at the club called The pink bulb. Whoever decided to name this place must have been drunk or something but that didn't matter. As they approached the place Theodore could see a fairly long line for the exit with a rather big bouncer at the front. And as Theodore and the rest of the group was about to stand in line Leeroy laughed and told them to follow him. As they approached the bouncer Leeroy simply held up his id which the Bouncer inspected before letting them in even wishing them a nice stay. As they walked through what looked like a tube with flashing light shining through it Theodore approached his friend and asked him why the bouncer just let them in.

" Simply the fact that I'm working for the admiral is all."

" Really? Why do i highly doubt that fact?"

" Well, Mabey that and the fact that i paid the guy 50 credits just to let us in."

Theodore wanted to ask why he would do such a stupid thing they entered the end of the tunnel and he found his eyes blinded by a laser beam and as his eyes readjusted to the light he found himself in the Pink Bulb. And what a place it was.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbQgXeY_zi4

The club was packed, to say the least. Music was blaring from almost everywhere and the dancing floor was packed. The music that was playing was like a mix of jazz and techno combined into one. Theodore had no problem with it at all as he enjoyed himself watching the chaos envelop him. The group walked to one of the tables that weren't already packed full and started ordering drinks. at first, everyone was acting polite and wasn't coming loose that much. That changed after the third round. It got worse and worse as more drinks were ordered and at one point there was a small pyramid in the middle. Theodore was already having drinking competitions at this point and was usually the winner. At his point, the conversations people were having were less than normal and the group had devolved into a bunch of drunk idiots. It was fucking hilarious is what it was. And as the tenth round came the talks weren't exactly normal.

" I'm telling you frank hic. The aliens wanna eat all the potatoes we have."

" And I'm telling you Bob hic that the aliens wanna eat all out tomatoes !"

Needless to say, the conversations were idiotic. At some point, the group started showing their dance moves on the dancing floor. Said dancing moves included the tango and the robot. Theodore never being much of a dancer decided to get himself a drink. He still didn't have a problem walking which was a good thing. And as he was at the bar he ordered a small glass of cold beer with nice to wake him up. But as he was taking his first swig his eye caught the attention of an angel. Not a literal angel but she looked like one for sure. After that everything in his memory went black.

The blaring of the phone alarm blared through Theodore's headphones. And as he slowly woke up he quickly noticed that he wasn't in his room. The room was painted mostly green, had different furniture and also had a faint smell of perfume. He also realized he was sleeping naked. Something which he never did as he always slept on his undies. But as was about to get up to explore this place he noticed someone laying against him preventing him from standing up. As he looked down he looked at beatyfull women. She was blond. Almost porn blond to be honest as her hair was almost white. However, before he could do anything else she groaned and rolled away from him. A few emotions rolled through his head. The first was some form of pride. It has been a while since he had gotten laid. Then there was the option of fear as he hoped he had used protection. Since the last thing, he was thinking about was having an accidental child. But before he could think about anything else the women woke up and looked him right in the eyes with her brown ones.

What followed was a high pitched scream and punch in the left eye which send Theodore rolling down the bed and onto the cold floor. The punch came with a surprise as he didn't expect her to do this. Meaning that the hit had made its mark. And the pain wasn't exactly pleasant either. But before he could think of anything else he heard the angry voice of the women whose voice he still did not know to get the fuck out. An answer which she enforced by throwing a shoe at him. Theodore promptly answered by grabbing his clothes, running out the apartment while dodging throwable objects and smashing his face against the corridor of the apartment complex. Needless to say, it was not a good morning.

As he put his clothes back on he checked his phone for any messages. Apparently, Leeroy had been sending him message after message asking him where the hell he was. Theodore decided to ignore him for now as he would see him on the bridge. He left the apartment complex finding himself to be in one of the lower levels of the hub. he took a few elevators and after a quick bit of walking he entered one of the bosses and headed to his own room. He quickly took a shower and as he did he got a message from the girl who had punched him right in the eye. Which was starting ti turn blue at this point. Apparently, they had switched phone numbers. She explained that she was sorry about whats she had done and wanted to apologize and offered a drink a few days later. Theodore responded with a yes also asking for her name. The reply came and her name appeared to be Lucy. As he got properly dressed he couldn't hold back a little smile as he realized he had just been asked to go on a date. He was still in the game. And at this point, the black eye felt worth it. As he approached the bridge officers noticed the swollen and blue eye he had. He told them that he had walked into something and that it wasn't as bad as it seemed. As he entered the bridge he caught the angry glimpse of Leeroy.

" And where the hell did you run off too."
He then noticed the eye which was kinda starting to swell at this point.

" And how the hell did you get that? Did you get into a fight again?"

Theodore chuckled to that.
" You could say that."

“I also want Engineering to prepare both the Jump Drive and the Nyx so we are ready for anything the moment we jump out of hyperspace if they haven't already.” The order was relayed through the central holoterminal’s speakers by some member of the command crew.

Slowly, one after another, hands were raised among the engineering staff and index fingers were gently pressed to tips of noses. It wasn’t long before Lt. Rorq found she was the only member of engineering who had not followed the practice once used by even the chief himself to assign difficult or tedious tasks.

“Real mature, people,” Lt. Rorq barked, and grabbed the maintenance duty roster as SCF Calhound strode in.

“Cancel that,” the Chief said in reference to the ‘Nose Goes’ popular vote. “I’ll be handling JDF personally. The lieutenant will be tasked with the Nyx.” In a moment of delegation he turned to Lt. Rorq directly and added, “Take whomever you’d like.”

Arguably one of the least glamorous tasks on schedule for the engineering staff today was a coolant flush, but such an assignment allowed the Chief of Engineering to really get inside and “tinker”. Tinkering was a term that Engineering’s CPC found quite objectionable, but was nevertheless an apt description. “Rorq,” Calhound added, “Do add our findings to the Nyx’s databanks in case the unthinkable happens.”

With a very punishing ‘you, you, and you’ style declaration from Lt. Rorq a maintenance team was selected and sent down to the hanger in which the Nyx was lie in wait. Likewise Xaith began to disengage the Jump Drive per operational procedure, whilst reporting a projected completion time to N04h and operations.

With the drive offline and the coolant system being flushed, Xaith took the opportunity to run some secondary diagnostics on the device. There was no question that it was state of the art and would perform exceptionally with Rorq’s optimizations, but there was another question on the chief’s mind. A question that had burdened him for the last three days that he intended to find an answer to.

During the Devastator attack the ARK had been virtually powerless and survived alone on the judgement and quick wit of those operating it. While it wasn’t his nature personally to stand his ground and fight, such an edict was often issued by his superiors in the Army. He looked now to this machine for answers as that was something he now demanded of it.

Schematics for the ARK’s entire power management system had been routed through his EEGARD over the course of the last 72 hours, and he had a firm grasp on just how taxing this drive’s priming and operation was on the rest of the systems. In combat it was a cynosure of squandered potential he intended to correct. Over that same time period the Engineering staff had been divided into two camps to tackle either this problem, or the problem assigned to Lt. Rorq, and it had now come to a head.

“Siege drive?” he could still remember one of the senior members of his staff questioning the idea.

---

Yesterday
“You want to make our ship… not move? With respect sir, that’s fucking dumb.” the senior diagnostics officer objected, “Like, potentially humanity-ending dumb.”

“On the contrary,” the Chief of Engineering countered, “Not fully utilizing every system we have to ensure our survival is ‘humanity-endingly dumb’.” He drew up the device’s schematics on the central hollow projector so that his staff could see it clearly while Lt. Rorq’s staff worked individually on a collection of monitors elsewhere. “The core principle behind the our FTL Technology is surprisingly simple: we’re manipulating space around us.” The hologram played out a simulation of the Jump Drive’s activation with corresponding details that were not actually seen by the naked eye, or felt by man’s body.

He then pointed to the Jump Drive that was still carrying them through space. “This device consumes a considerable amount of power to do what it does. If we were to harness that power, and feed it into other systems, I am confident we can push them above and beyond their limits while still generating a distortion field to give us a combat advantage.”

Over the murmur of engineers the project’s lead scoffed. “That’d blow out every system on this ship, if the Vitae doesn’t just explode outright.”

The Chief Engineer shrugged. “You’re not wrong,” he admitted, “At least, with the systems we currently have in place. For now, all we need is to see if the drive is capable of being modified in this way and then worry about upgrading the rest of the systems later. Such a tactical reconfiguration would need to be modular in either event.”

There was no further objecting on the matter as the Chief Engineer wouldn’t allow it.

---

Today
Obviously one does not simply open an engine up and look under the hood while it’s running, and with coolant coursing through its veins, there was little else Xaith could do but wait. He poked and prodded at subsystems of the Jump Drive he could access while waiting for the remainder to become available.

Meanwhile, Lt. Rorq gathered the compilation of her notes on drives formatted specifically for use in the Nyx, with her team in lock-step behind her they marched down to the main hanger where the Nyx was docked. Once there she was met with a regular, albeit unpleasant experience: a confrontation with Lieutenant Leandra who had been awaiting their arival.

“Lieutenant,” Lt. Rorq initiated.

“Lieutenant,” Lt. Leandra reciprocated.

“Permission to come aboard,” Lt. Rorq stated not as a request, but as an acknowledgement of the orders both were aware of. Orders that Lt. Leandra had no authority to interfere with.

“Permission granted,” was all Lt. Leandra was allowed to respond, as she accepted the request on behalf of the Colonel who was not available to welcome the engineering staff personally.

With that the engineering crew was shown to the Nyx's Main Engineering, and they begun work, wile the presiding lieutenant stood at full military attention by the door. It was the military's version of hovering over an engineer and Rorq knew that Leandra knew exactly what she was doing. “Alright people,” Lt. Rorq said to her team that had her complete confidence, in a manner that made that confidence painfully clear to Lt. Leandra. “Let's get started.”

The lieutenant from the Vitae's main engineering plugged in the drives to the central imaging unit and dumped a tremendous amount of combat and metallurgical analysis into the system. She pulled up a few charts to ensure all was in working order, but also to lord them over her rival.



With perfect timing only achievable by an Overclocked Engineer did Rorq turn her head to catch a moment's loss of composure from Lt. Leandra. She tilted her head in the manner one tilts at windmills, and her piercing stare ripped through Lt. Leandra who, as she approach, demanded “How... How the fuck did you get these?”

“The Sargent,” Lieutenant Rorq said with emphasis on the massive difference in rank between they and their commanding officer, as well as to underscore the nature of betray Lt. Leandra's betrayal. “He can be quite resourceful when he puts his mind to it.” Rorq made it a point to explain not only the data that required no explanation, but also how SFC Calhound acquired it, as to further reinforce the importance of ability to the woman who only saw rank.

“The Sargent redirected the Vitae's planetary environmental survey sensors at the battle-space. While not as refined as our combat sensors the whole of the combat was observed.” Lt. Rorq indicated the first image and the holographic display focused on it and presented a three-dimensional model of the multi-spectrum castoff. “The weapons fire was registered as weather patterns, and the Sargent himself reverse engineered the data. While we already knew our weapons were largely ineffective against the Devastators, we now have some insight into why.”

She signaled to the holoterminal to switch from static view to the video view. The projection of the blue waves began moving about the hollow echo of the Devastator's hull. “While we initially thought it was due to some unknown materials or design practice, which is in part true, but a bulk of their resistance to our weapons is the geometry of their hull-plating.”

Lt. Rorq pulled up a comparison of the projected modeling of the Devastator Ship, and compared it to that of the Vitae and the Nyx. Human armor was largely smooth compared to the projected modeling that was designed to displace and disrupt waves. In the projection it was made quite clear that Devastator armor refracts energy that strikes it, breaking it up into different trajectories, while human armor doesn't. The advantage of human armor is that it is easy to manufacture, but at the same time, lacks the complexity to deal with the level of stress and force weapons cause and as such is considerably easier to damage.

Determined to not be impressed Lt. Leandra pressed back. “So what? What good does this do us?"

With a smug sense of satisfaction Lt. Rorq added “We can replicate this technology. More specifically, this is a a highly sophisticated form of technology that has existed for hundreds of years in earth's past but rarely has been applied to armor design.” With the press of a button a new video was displayed in ten-times magnification, one found by S.A.S.H.A. and correlated to the data at hand, and explained the topology of the matter.



As they watched the explanation it was a trivial note that all human weapons relied on violent energy transference. Kinetic weapons such as rails and gauss canons relied of course on kinetic impact. While nuclear weapons relied on many forms of energy, from the initial EM pulse, to the thermal explosion and kinetic shock-wave, to the long-term radiation after the fact. Everything they had was energy and the Devastator's hulls were designed to adapt to and displace that energy as easily as a golf-ball displaces air around it.

Which brought her to her why she specifically was chosen to oversee the Nyx's prep-work today. Just as SFC Calhound was assessing the potential to modify the Vitae's jump drive, Lt. Rorq was tasked with assessing the Nyx's capabilities for battle modification. That is, after running it through all manner of simulations and optimizations.

“Now,” Lt. Rorq finished as she dismissively dismissed her Nyx-ian counterpart, “We have work to do. I suggest you coordinate with the Robotics Lab to get some new plating machined.”

“Access Granted. Good morning Chief TreVayne”

Noah’s voice followed the various biometric screenings performed prior to the doors of Security Command releasing its locks and opening up with a hiss, allowing Gavon to enter into the busy morning rituals of SecCom chatter amongst dispatchers, communications officers, and field Agents. A mixture of various aromatic coffee flavors filled the room, giving it less of a cold, stuffy, technical station. He straightened his uniform while walking toward the holo-table situated on a raised platform in the center of the room. Deputy Jerrol Haas, the Chief’s second-in-command was manning the station as per his usual shift rounds, and looked up from the screen with an acknowledging smile.

“Mornin’ Sir” Haas gave a nod from across the table.

Jerrol Haas was an unassuming thirty-something man, a person who at first glance may seem more a pushover than a rather intense and calculating member of the team. His average height, thin frame, pocked face, and dark-rimmed glasses gave him the appearance of more the stereotypical “computer jockey” than any leader in a Security division. Where Gavon was more the physical and upfront type, Jerrol would rather stay out of any confrontation altogether if he could help it, gravitating toward an operational position and ensuring all aspects of the Division ran smooth and on time. All things considered, it’s truly a strange, yet healthy balance they’ve achieved.

“What time are you expected to meet with our new ‘guest’ down in Block A?” He finally said, grabbing his small thermal canister filled with some sort of protein-enhanced juice, and taking a quick gulp.

There was a brief pause as Gavon scrolled through various timestamped records and then looked up toward the screen just above his head, which showed footage of the cell. “Shortly after we leave Hyperspace, which according to intel should be within the next couple of hours. Although, I’m not certain what to expect considering she’s a stowaway and there are already too many unanswered questions.”

Deputy Haas snickered. “I think that was the first you referred to the cyborg as a ‘she’.”

Gavon stared at the cyborg’s image as it sat cross-legged and unmoving on the cell floor as though it were in some meditative state. “I suppose so…”

Roughly two hours passed before the Admiral made the announcement of the Vitae dropping out of hyperspace, and so it happened shortly after that, which caused quite an arousal of interest as to what was going on outside of the ship. A large overhead viewscreen lowered along the far wall opening the external camera feed which showed a new galaxy around the ship, bringing with it a hushed reverence amongst the room’s personnel. Natalie walked up behind Gavon and slipped her hand into his, interlocking their fingers while they both gazed out into the abyss, their thoughts resting on the same question as a vast majority of the ship....

Where the hell are we?

---

Footsteps echoed off the dull bluish-gray metallic walls of the brigs main corridor as he walk up to the cell, saluting the guards standing outside the cell before stepping closer to the energy field separating him from the cyborg within. The overhead lighting cast an almost ominous shadow on the strong, defining features of the man’s face, while metal buttons, studs, pins, and fasteners on his dark blue uniform illuminated. His six-foot-one frame stood rigid, shoulders reared back and hands folded together resting on his belt buckle. The last entry of transcripts he read pertaining to the cyborg’s brief communication had been: "Can I get a view of what's outside?", which left him puzzled and intrigued all the same.

“Curious.” He finally said. “I’m wondering why a machine would care about sight-seeing, or is it that you’re hoping to run again?” Gavon’s voice was calm, and demeanor non-threatening, as he assessed the cybernetic female with suspicion. She looked surprised at his appearance, her large, artificial yet expressive eyes easily conveying this.

“That - That’s humor, right?” she forced a smile. From this proximity, Gavon could see a row of matte-white, sharpened teeth in her mouth, either practical prosthetics or the result of some kind of fetishist plastic surgery. This grimace persisted for a second or two too long. “Anyway, please enter my office, Mr. TreVayne. Or should we do this in yours?”

She waited for a response while backing away from the barrier. Some tension disappeared from her stance when a half-hearted grin formed on the security chief’s face. “That is also humor. I assume you consider me dangerous. I am, to the enemies of mankind.” She glanced at her claws, then back at the man. “And today, you are mankind. To put it short, I wish to apply for a job in the Vitae’s security force, under you. It is not a standard way to make such an application, but it has its benefits.”

She approached the barrier again, her fingers steepled at chest-level in an almost ceremonious stance. “You may now ask serious questions - though I will go ahead and answer one beforehand. The point of my movement from Engineering towards Security was a drill of sorts, a test of response in the face of an unknown intruder. There are some improvements that should be made in order to survive a real intruder of my magnitude. I have a list.”

Gavon arched an eyebrow, trying to process the cyborg’s barrage of carefully placed wording, unusual ‘job’ requests, and outlandish justifications as to why she had snuck aboard the ship in the first place, and yet coming up short with any viable answer that could appease such a single-minded and delusional walking microchip. He stared at her dull gray face and pitch black eyes, trying to find any semblance that he was being played for a fool, that this machine was perhaps here as a prank started by Engineering as a means to test the ship’s security integrity. The Chief stepped closer, the tip of his nose inches from touching the bluish glow of the humming energy field.

“Are you fuckin’ with me?” He whispered, a serious tone in his voice, as he took a step back to his initial spot while one of the two guards snickered at the comment. Gavon glanced over at the young man, whose expression quickly reverted to deadpan, before turning his attention back to the inmate.

“That was rhetorical by the way, but it’s doubtful your creator included a ‘sarcasm radar’ into your repertoire. The fact of the matter is, your request -whether legit or otherwise- is denied. I can’t allow a rogue machine stowaway with forged personnel documents to simply stroll up and ask for a position with Ark Security, claiming to have vast amounts of knowledge in how secure or unsecure this ship is.”

To Gavon’s surprise, he didn’t allow the cyborg’s blind ignorance to get to him as it did the first time they spoke, keeping a rather mild-mannered tone of voice through his otherwise reprimanding speech.

“So, what we need is the truth.” He continued, crossing his arms as he stared directly at the machines dead eyes. “All of it. Right here. Right now.”

The cyborg frowned. “Really. You have really set yourself up for the ‘in the beginning there was nothing’ or ‘I was born in the Okinawa province in Japan’ jokes?” she shrugged, inadvertently solving the mystery of her accent. “Forgive me for not taking this chance, I am too distracted by your ‘Machine’ comments. The truth is, that you have no right to judge how artificial I may or may not be, given that your permanent residence as a species right now is a huge floating chunk of steel with engines stuck on its rear.”

That last part was said in a slightly raised voice, as she approached the force field and pointed a finger at TreVayne’s face. Noticing this, she took a second to regain her composure, and lowered her finger and her voice. “Let me break your claim up to its components: Rogue - the chaos I’ve caused was meticulously planned. I suggest you take another look at Noah’s logs for confirmation. I was making a point of testing response times and magnitudes on different zone categories in the Ark - engineering, maintenance, residential, security. I have purposefully avoided the Hub in order to allow you and your forces to contain the entire event. You may use all telemetries gathered for debriefing and improvement. This is not vast knowledge, as you put it - these are results.”

“Moving on. Machine - Do you not have Armani crewmembers on board? Otherwise that would be the epitome of irony. Humanity, floating around in a machine, pointing fingers at augmented individuals and calling them too ‘machine’ to be human? This is a suit, Mr. TreVayne.” She raised her left hand and focused her eyes for a moment. With a slight hiss, long black bolts extended from various points of her forearm, and the interlocking armor plates moved to form gaps. She took off what appeared to be a very armored glove and revealed a small, feminine hand, the skin a grayish color as her face. Long scars ran along the skin closest to the bones, interrupted by metallic protrusions that may have been the connection of the glove to her skeleton. Some wiring showed under the thin skin on the back of her hand, and her fingertips were covered in an intricate copper/fiberglass design, most likely some kind of machine interface.

“I do not have a lot of blood so I will not take this demonstration further. Know that some of us have sacrificed everything, our minds and bodies, to form a tentative shield against the Devastators, only to be tossed aside and rejected by the Genesis Project council. Can you imagine, a young girl doing this,” she gestured at herself, scowling, “convinced it is the only way to save humanity, only to have some coward make an escape plan, abandoning her because she is now not human enough!?”

“As you can see,” the glove bolted itself in place, the cyborg looking away from the Chief of Security, “I have refused to curl up and disappear, along with earth and most of humanity. I have rejected my rejection. I have followed humanity, despite its pointless puritanism, to be the sword to impale our attackers with the same cold ruthlessness they have shown us. The instinct of survival, the will of revenge, the heat of aggression and the compassion I have shown your crew despite their lack of understanding, all this and you dare call me a machine?” She stabbed a finger at his chest, touching the force-field by accident and causing the alarm to blare up. Her features contorted for a moment, but a second later a wicked, toothy smile formed on her face. Suddenly, her stance relaxed, her features calmed. She took a small black device from a hidden compartment in her chest armor, and offered it on her palm.

“As for my forged identity, you will find all of the material I could ‘salvage’ about the Daedalus Project and my history on this data drive. Would that be enough, Tin man?”

"Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to unexplored space!" barked Commander Reynolds, the Vitae's CAG. "As you can see, 3rd, 9th, and 1st squadrons have already begun combat patrols." Reynolds gestured at a holo display on the screen behind him. In the darkness of the room, the bright, blue light of the holo screen was harsh, but illuminated the otherwise dark briefing room. The briefing room itself was no more than a small box underneath the Vitae's hangar, fit with little more than some two dozen seats and a holoscreen. All things considered, it didn't need much more than that- the only thing a briefing room needed to do was brief.

The current occupants of the briefing room numbered little more than four pilots, all of them members of the 7th Grave Robbers. Sara Hawkins, Simon Thomas, and Lucas Crowley, along with the 7th's newest recruit sat alone in the briefing room, with the CAG. Having just been deployed a few days earlier, the pilots of the 5th and 7th had been rotated out of combat duty. As such, Sara wondered why CAG had pulled them into the briefing room instead of one of the other squadrons. Surely they were not short on combat pilots just yet. Almost as if he had read her mind, the CAG continued speaking.

"I suppose you're wondering why I've pulled you guys here, instead of one of the other on-duty flights. Quite simple, I'm giving you guys a milk run."

"Sensors have picked up an astounding three planets within the solar system's hospitable zone, so the top brass want to prepare a scouting mission. 7th, you're going to take half of your squadron and get some accurate scans of these planets, with luck maybe we can find some usable materials. Hawkins, take over."

Sara clutched at her EVA harness, for some reason, it felt heavier than usual. Nonetheless, she played it cool as she walked to the front of the briefing room. She cleared her throat and glanced at the three pilots assembled before her. Simon Thomas, was a brash, aggressive and arrogant young pilot with an accentuated english accent, despite being an Armani native like herself. He had a charm to him, a roguish, cocky sort, that all the thrill seeking ladies loved, and with his short styled hair, and roguish scar, it wasn't surprising that he was particularly popular amongst the civilian and less initiated pilots. On the other hand, Lucas Crowley was every bit the model soldier, military straight, with a confident, cool aura about him. The last pilot, Jarret Riley was a young, bright face pilot. Formerly part of Ark-Sec, he responded to the advertisements for new pilots, and was among the first to pass training and adjustment course. Incidentally, Riley was a civilian pilot back on earth, so he had experience with aerospace craft, unlike some of the other recruits. He wasn't a full combat pilot just yet, and it'd be a while until he was ready, but he'd work for a mission like this.

"Alright boys, we will be deploying in T-47 scout ships to recon the planets within the Hospitable Zone, designations H-1 and H-2. The third planet is currently in far orbit on the other side of the solar system, so we'll save off on reconnoitering that planet for another time. Thomas, you're with me, Crowley, you take the new kid."

"I always knew you had a thing for me boss," Thomas said with a dashing grin.

"Keep dreaming, Thomas," Sara replied "Its more that I don't trust you with the new kid. Crowley can take care of him."

---

_{Vitae Hangar
15 minutes after Hyperspace Exit}

Sitting in the launch elevator was one of the two T-47 Scout craft prepared for the sortie. Combat Air Patrols had cleared the surrounding space, and were currently in the middle of force recon through the remainder of the nearby solar system to scan for contacts. Currently they were the only sentient beings in local space. With any luck, it would stay that way, Sara thought to herself, as she pulled herself on top of the scout ship and plopped herself in the pilot seat, Simon Thomas taking the seat behind her. The T-47, while almost as nimble as the T-22 interceptor, was designed for recon instead of combat. As such, it was considerably more delicate than the T-22, and unsuited for combat. Despite this, it still featured a pair of K-80 Railguns for self defense.

"Idunno about you Hawkins, but I'm not too comfortable flying in a bucket that doesn't even have missiles." Thomas shouted at Hawkins, as she began the fighter's startup systems.

"Can it Thomas, there shouldn't be anything to shoot at right now, anyway." Hawkins replied as they were fed into one of the Vitae's launch tubes.

Moments, later, they were launched out of the Vitae at an approximate speed of mach 1.

---

_{In Orbit over H-1
35 minutes after Hyperspace Exit}

"Alright Boss, Graves-2 is breaking off." came the voice of Crowley over the comms. Looking to her left, Hawkins could see the second T-47 breaking off to explore the second planet. The trip thus far had been uneventful. There was nothing but undisturbed space between the Vitae and H-1 and H-2. It was honestly kind of relaxing. Aside from Thomas' bored whining, Hawkins enjoyed her first calm flight in space since, well, as long as she could remember.

Something about this solar system was different than the Sol system. It was quieter, emptier, less busy. In the Sol system, Sara couldn't look in any direction without seeing a trans-liner, hubship, trading post, mining drone, or some other piece of civilization. This system, was very much the opposite. Empty space, untapped asteroids, and even a comet in the distance sailed untouched by human hands. Everything was different- bizarre even. Even without a scan, Hawkin's could tell that this solar system's planets were strange, different than that of the Sol system's.

For starters, H-1 seemed to defy the laws of physics. At a glance, Sara could see what looked to be barren deserts where the planets poles should be- and a frost covered line across its center. In between the mix matched hot and cold zones, was a swath of thick vegetation between them, with the occasional ocean inbetween. The planet was beautiful to look at, colorful, but not overpowering, mysterious, but not terrifying. Sara would have been content to stare at the planet for hours had the increasingly bored Thomas not interrupt her thoughts.

"So, Boss. We gonna scan this planet of what?" Thomas said in a louder than necessary voice.

Sara sighed in annoyance, but nevertheless began the T-47s scanners. Within moments, data began scrolling across Sara's eyes, subsequently streaming directly to the Vitae's bridge under top-secret encryption. It was standard procedure to restrict the new planetary data to strictly upper level brass and command structure- despite the fact that a new planet had not been discovered in well over several decades. The data was fairly standard, not particularly positive, but about what Sara expected. The planet had no breathable atmosphere, being a primarily nitrogen and carbon dioxide atmosphere, but without enough oxygen for human populations. Gravity was slightly heavier than that of earth, sitting at about 1.2 G. Scanners detected trace elements of surface metals that could be used if they had the desire to collect them.

"Hey Hawkins, I'm getting something on scanners. Check the northeast vector." Thomas piped up, surprisingly more curious and informative than Hawkins had expected.

Tuning over to the directed sector, Hawkins was just as surprised as Thomas. "Hawkins to command." Sara called into the fleet-com, hailing the bridge. "We're detecting what appears to be faint EM signatures on planet H-1. Attempting to locate source."

Hawkins tried to pinpoint the source of the frequencies, but found herself unable due to the density of the planet's vegetation. It was almost impossible for her to pinpoint an exact location from the EM signatures. The best she could do was shrink the possible area down to a radius of 5 miles. It was a big area to be sure, but she couldn't get anything narrower without compromising the accuracy of the data.

"Should we enter orbit and take a closer look?" Thomas asked Hawkins.

"Belay that," came the voice of their CAG. "Graves 1 and 2, return to the Vitae for re-tasking."

"Scans of H-2 are not yet complete sir," piped up Riley, "If we could get-"

"Negative new kid, the Grave Robbers will be joining up with the Nyx for further details. Return to the base now."

---

_{Vitae Hangar
1 hour after Hyperspace Exit}

Upon returning to the hangar, Sara and her three pilots had exited their fighters and trooped over to the Nyx, sitting in the back of the hangar. It was a lengthy walk, given the size of the hangar, but it was anything but uneventful. Almost getting her ears talked off by Thomas and Riley throwing quips back and forth, Sara was almost relieved when they were greeted by the stone faced Lt. Leandra, who stared them down from the door of the Nyx. With her stoney glare silencing the rowdy pilots, Sara was able to approach and snap a quick salute.

"Sara Hawkins, 7th Grave Robbers reporting as ordered. Permission to board?"

"Permission granted," Lt. Leandra replied as she returned the salute.