EliteCommander

The Cradle

The commander did allow the sergeant to deal with the media encroaching on them. If there was one thing he agreed with, it was that he wanted to keep cameras away from them at the moment. Though, once that was done, he spoke up quietly enough to keep any onlookers from hearing them. “And who gave that order? The woman you were speaking to when we arrived was just arrested due to evidence that she is associated with these terrorists. Any of her orders no longer stand. The woman she brought here may be in danger if she remains. You may join us as well, but we need to confirm her safety.”

The Cradle

Vreta kept his gaze firmly fixated on the agent, his expression remaining unchanged through any excuse she tried to make. Clearly, he was not impressed by her attempts. “Sorry, agent, but I just did.”

The Rothian commander resumed quickly where Vreta had left off. “Ma’am, there is more than enough evidence to implicate you as a suspect to this crime. There is no entity in the Outremer legal code that is defined as being above the law, so we must detain you for further questioning and investigation. Now, are you going to cooperate and come quietly?” He asked one final time.

Vreta knew that the agent was likely correct, but he was not concerned with what Human courts would or would not believe. He had other goals in mind with this move. Ultimately, the agent was not going to resist with violence, so she ended up being taken in to the Rothian dropship without a fight. Although, the commander did not leave with his vehicle right away. There was still one last thing for Vreta to do this night.

Vreta joined the commander in approaching the officers guarding the front of the building. He used his implant to share his plan with the Rothian peacekeeper, then allowed the commander to take the lead, given his more “official” position within the city.

The commander was quick to identify the ranking police officer out of the group. “Officer, there is a woman inside this building we need to see, and confirm her safety. She is a potential target of these attacks.”

The Cradle

Vreta decided to allow himself to show a visibly cross expression towards the agent. He shook his head, perhaps showing slight amusement at the direction she tried to take the conversation. “No, it’s still about the attempted assassination. It is fortunate for me that those ‘Skinners’ posed so little of a threat to a Rothian like myself. Whoever trained them did a rather pathetic job, I would say. Though I also find it quite…interesting how these ‘Skinners’ who were, according to you, hunting Dr. Lang decided to entirely ignore both you and her in favor of surrounding me.”

The Rothian commander stepped forward beside Vreta, extending out one hand to encourage Vreta to allow him to take over. “Ma’am, you are under arrest pending further investigation of your role in the attempted murder of a Rothian citizen. He has provided sufficient evidence to call into question either that you are who you say you are, or your loyalty to your position. Cooperate with the investigation, and I can assure you that you will be released quickly if you are indeed innocent of wrongdoing.”

Call of the Hunt [EliteCommander and Muttonhawk]

“No Daedra would ever retreat on their own accord.” Meesei agreed with Fendros. “For them to retreat means they are following the strategy of a superior. You said there was a ghost of a mortal woman among them…these kinds of tactics would be much more likely from a mortal than another Daedra.” She reasoned.

“There is no question from me that she was some ranking member of Vile’s cult.” Ahnasha commented, though she did pause for a moment as she focused her mind on her titan above, ensuring she did not lose her control over it. “That staff she was using, it felt like Daedric magic to me. And as powerful as it was, I have to imagine Vile created it as a weapon for one of his more loyal followers. I can’t say I know why he would have made a Daedric imitation of the Staff of Magnus, specifically, though. It did look pretty much the same. The soul herself did teleport away before we could destroy her, but Fendros did break her staff, at least.”

Meesei looked back up at the tower at the far end of the valley, though it did not seem all that far anymore. They were near to the exit of the pass, and from there, it was just a short march up to their final destination. “Regardless of who leads them, this next fight will likely be our last before we reach Vile. As long as we move quickly afterwards, the Daedra from main battlefield will not be able to fall back and defend in time. But Lorag is right, we lost a lot of people in that fight. We could wait for reinforcements, but the longer we wait, the more they will be able to harden their own defenses. Wait too long, and we may not be able to push through regardless.”

“I say we just go in now.” Ahnasha said rather quickly. “It can burn, or rather freeze, its way through any ambush they try to set up. There’s simply no way the Daedra, or any of Vile’s minions, planned on me turning their strongest weapon against them. We’ll catch them unprepared, for sure. If we wait too long, though, we might actually give them enough time to bring in some kind of siege weapon, or something else that can stop a titan.”

Lorag grunted, craning his head up to look at the Daedric corruption of a Dragon she had tamed. “Maybe, but if they do already have a way to deal with it, then we might just end up overwhelmed.”

Ahnasha crossed her arms, shaking her head. “Sure, if. Maybe they have some kind of miracle defense on-hand, but the chances of that are less than the chances of us giving up our advantage by waiting too long.”

The Cradle

Once he had his answer, Vreta had no desire to wait around any longer at the market. Once the Rothian commander had finished speaking to the Human officer, Vreta spoke to him again through his comm unit. [i]“That is the answer I needed. There is a government agent nearby, a Human woman. If she did not kill those two, then I have strong evidence she is associated with the people who attacked me. I’m giving you a copy of my entire recording of the incident, but we need to move quickly. We have enough evidence to arrest her under suspicion of her role in trying to murder me, as well as a potential association with a terrorist group. I doubt the charges will stick, but even if they don’t, it can still work to our favor.”

The commander nodded along as Vreta spoke, then guided him into the back of the dropship they had arrived in. “Are you sure about this?” He asked Vreta. “Arresting a government agent could cause a mess of trouble.”

“Yes, but I don’t think we have to worry about that. It’s just an arrest. And we definitely shouldn’t put up a fight if they want her released. Whether or not the charges stick, even the Humans will have to admit that we had more than enough evidence to arrest her on suspicion. She’ll likely know that too, so she’ll probably come quietly.” Vreta reasoned.

Again, the commander nodded. “Understood. Should I recall my team?”

Vreta shook his head. “No, we need to hurry. I doubt we’ll need more than you and your droids. Besides, it would be best for us to have our own records of the crime scene, as well. Speaking of, we need to make sure we have people investigating my attackers as well.”

“We already have a dropship there as we speak.” The commander answered.

“Good. I didn’t kill all of them, so at least some of them might live for questioning if they get medical attention.”

---

As the Rothian dropship flew in towards Freyr’s apartment building, one of its many cameras spotted the crowd of police gathered out front. Zooming in on them from a distance, it only took a moment for the dropship’s facial recognition software to identify the very agent Vreta was seeking. As she started to move towards a nearby vehicle, the Rothian peacekeeper acted quickly. The dropship swept in low and stopped with seemingly impossible precision and speed between the agent and her escape. For an outside observer, the rapid deceleration looked like it would be enough to kill anyone inside, yet those within did not feel a thing.

Out the back of the dropship, Vreta was the first to step out, followed close behind by the Rothian commander and three Rothian droids. Each of the machines were built in the shape and size of an augmented Rothian soldier, and their plating was sleek, smooth, and white in color. They did carry weapons, though they were the same non-lethal rifles as the commander wielded.

All of Vreta’s injuries still showed plainly on his body, from his exposed skull and ribs, to the hole through his gut and the many other lacerations he had received. Yet, the way he walked made it seem like he was unaware of any of them. He also wore a belt he did not have before, which seemed to have a small, circular device on the front. “Hello there.” Vreta said in a calm, even tone. “Why don’t you just stop there for a moment, ‘agent’? We need to talk.”

The Cradle

Running into the market, Vreta was met immediately by police pointing their guns at him. He stopped and put his hands in the air. ”Not this again…” he muttered to himself. Before the police even spoke, he already linked his implant with the comms channel of the peacekeepers in the dropship just above them. “Get some of your people down here. I’m going to need some help with these officers.”

As the dropship lowered closer to the ground, Vreta kept his hands clearly in the air, though pointed a finger at the Rothian vehicle. “Don’t shoot, I’m with them.” He said, sounding more annoyed than afraid.

The market was too crowded with structures for a landing right where they were, but after a moment, once the dropship was low enough, several Rothian peacekeeping officers dropped out the back down to the ground. They all wore clearly marked uniforms, similar to other specialist police forces on Outremer, and, as per their agreements with the local government, carried exclusively non-lethal weapons. Though, one of their more striking features were their imposing physiques. Like Rothian soldiers, their police also received extensive combat augmentations. Each one of them was at least a full head taller than Vreta, who himself was far from short by Rothian standards.

The peacekeepers’ commander stepped forward to diffuse the situation. “Stand down. He is under our jurisdiction. And a victim, besides that.”

Using his implants to send his messages to the commander’s helmet radio, Vreta continued to speak to him in secret. Vreta was not interested in sticking around the crime scene with the local police, but what did interest him were the bodies he saw being loaded onto a truck nearby. Just by that fact alone, he already had a strong suspicion they were alive. If they were dead, procedure would be to leave them in place until the crime scene had been properly analyzed, and it had only been a few minutes. Still, he would not mind confirmation. ”Those bodies they just loaded onto that truck, I need to know if they are still alive. Say…say that they are persons of interest in this attack, and you want to interview them later. Ask what condition they are in.”

The commander did not react to Vreta, though he followed the order without question. Though first, he did glance back at his own team and motion towards the crime scene. “Get some scans for the area for these officers, then provide assistance until I call you back.” He ordered. He then slung his stun rifle over his shoulder and approached the Human officer in charge in a more relaxed posture. “Those people you were loading on that truck when we flew in, we think they might be involved in an attack on a Rothian citizen. What’s their condition? Will they be ready for an interview anytime soon?” He asked.

The Cradle

Considering the suspicions Vreta had beforehand, the events that immediately followed their departure certainly caught him off-guard. Attacks towards Freyr from an old woman in the crowd, followed by another from a man with meat hooks, and that agent shot both in short order. Vreta had not at all actually expected the Skinner threat to be real. He had given that as a reason for meeting in person, but that was just a pretense. He saw no reason for a terrorist group with their goals to make an attack against Freyr. At least, not after the recent disaster in the Cradle. Yet, the agent had shot and killed two people in the middle of the market. He could not see that being a trick, unless…

Vreta, unfortunately, did not have time to investigate further. No matter what was going on, he still needed to move with the others.

---

The picture of the situation unfolding around Vreta was becoming clearer, though unfortunately, that did come too late for Vreta to avoid being surrounded himself. Most of the lights had been disabled, so it was pitch black across most of the park, though Vreta was quite unperturbed by that fact. He was in his own body now, and the low-light vision provided by his bionic eyes allowed him to see perfectly clearly. As such, he had no trouble witnessing the fact that these “Skinners” were making no effort to pursue their supposed target while the agent whisked Freyr away. That was something to act on, but first, he had some obstacles to deal with.

Vreta’s program had not yet found anything, but regardless, he re-dedicated most of his implant’s processing towards combat assistance software. Meanwhile, he left his program to monitor any communications passively, as well as to send a priority alert to the Rothian embassy. He doubted they would arrive in time to help him, but he still would have need of their help after this was over.

“So, you are ‘Skinners’, then?” Vreta remarked. The Humans were moving from their hiding spots to take up positions all around him, which he allowed to happen for the moment. His own implants marked every target in his field of view, as well as identify the weapons they wielded. Knives, short blades, other sharp objects. They certainly looked the part of a band of criminals within a city that had strict firearms laws, but most certainly, his previous opinion still stood. They had no idea who they were dealing with. As a part of his defenses, his aural implants began emitting quick, ultrasonic pulses of sound, the echoes of which they could use to build a picture of his surroundings. “I’ll warn you, there are no laws in this city against me killing a group of terrorists in self-defense.”

The Humans had certainly left him with no escape with how they had encircled him, and they of course paid no heed to his words. All around him, many of his attackers did an admirable job of moving around, taunting, and generally making noise to confuse him, while two just within view to his left seemed to be the first to go in for their attacks with heavily-telegraphed swings from long machetes. Of course, his echolocation built quite a clear image of the man, light on his feet with hardly a sound to his step, rushing in behind him with a knife in-hand to go for a quick, precise takedown.

Rather than turn to face his true attacker, Vreta held his hand out behind him so that the knife pierced through his palm, scraping past his metal bones and out the other side. Before the man could react, Vreta tightened his grip around the man’s hand and twisted, snapping his wrist to the point that his entire hand went limp.

“Remember, you chose this.” Vreta’s voice, and indeed his entire visage, was calm, cold, and devoid of emotion. He turned his body around with alarming speed for a being of his size and slashed his claws perfectly across the man’s jugular. He then pulled the knife from his hand, which dripped with surprisingly little blood, and simply dropped the blade to the ground. He had no need of the weapon, as his own claws were sharper.

The swings from the machete-wielding opponents had been feints, but with their quick, safe takedown foiled, the rest of the Humans collapsed on Vreta all together. There was simply no way for him to avoid injury; he just had to be fast, decisive, and deadly. He picked two in front of him and met their charge with equal aggression. The man to his direct front held a knife, but Vreta’s arms still gave him more reach. Vreta thrust his arm forward, overpowering any attempted defense to jab two of his claws straight through the man’s throat At the same time, he caught the machete of the woman to his front and left by its blade. To her credit, she was quick to let go of the weapon and try to step back, but he was simply too fast to avoid. He stabbed the machete into her chest with enough force to simply break through her ribs.

While Vreta had stopped the two in front of him, even he could not avoid the attacks of all his assailants at once. He felt the pressure, though not the pain, of knives entering his back, the chop and metallic clang of a heavy weapon striking his spine, and a slash through his tricep from under his left arm. The last of those was the most worrying for him. While his bones, tendons, and ligaments were likely unbreakable for the weapons they were using, his muscles were not. They were enhanced in several ways and tougher than normal, but they could still be cut and damaged. Too much damage and he could lose control of a limb. Regardless, the damage was not yet that severe, and he could still fight. His health readout in the corner of his vision reported multiple lacerations, tissue, and some organ damage, but clotting agents and nanomachines were already flooding his system to mitigate the damage.

Having killed or incapacitated everyone in front of him, Vreta could turn and get everyone on the same side of him, at least for a moment. Although, by the time he turned around, he was met with another knife in his stomach and an improvised axe striking the very center of his chest. But again, that axe, after just a short bit of cleaving through flesh, met nothing but the metal of his ribs. Ignoring the axe, Vreta grabbed the top of the man’s head instead, squeezing hard enough that blood dripped from the point that his claws met his flesh. Then, there was a loud snap after Vreta gave enough of a twist for his head to face near completely backwards. At the same time, he went for a slash with his other hand at the Human holding the knife. While he was fast enough to bring his arms up to guard his throat, Vreta simply readjusted to slash across his abdomen instead. Vreta’s claws disemboweled the Human, spilling his innards out onto the grass.

While his combat software had alerted him, Vreta had not been in a position to react to the woman drawing a pistol just to his left while he was killing the other two. She fired her shot from close, hitting him directly in the side of the head. The superheated bolt of energy practically vaporized any flesh it touched. Yet, what was left was not a hole through the middle of his brain, but rather, the shine of the untarnished alloy that comprised his skull in the middle of a hole of burned flesh. She did not get time to land a second shot on target as he grabbed her wrist with one hand, then grabbed her arm farther up with the other. With a quick motion, he bent back her arm and snapped it completely at the elbow, leaving it hanging just by skin before he pried the gun out of her grasp. Judging by her blood-curdling scream, he did not expect her to remain a threat, and there were still others that were a more immediate danger.

Once guns were drawn, everything moved even more quickly. The rest of the Humans were backing out from melee to draw firearms of their own, and Vreta’s combat program marked each of them based on which was closest to being able to fire. For the first, Vreta managed to take aim and put two quick shots into the chest before the Human could bring his own weapon on target. The second fired a shot before Vreta could transfer his aim to the new target, and it did find its mark on Vreta’s chest. However, all the shot served to accomplish was to burn away more of his scales and some of the flesh underneath to show a portion of his metal ribs and the armored mesh in between them, neither of which were meaningfully damaged by the shot. Vreta’s pair of shots again found the Human’s chest, and to much deadlier effect.

The third of the Humans to take aim had learned from the fight so far, as brief and bloody as it had been. Instead of aiming for what would usually be his vital areas, he aimed lower. Both the Human and Vreta fired at the same time. Once more, Vreta put two shots into his opponent’s chest, while the Human burned a hole clean through Vreta’s gut and out the other side. His health monitor lit up with a frenzy of warnings. Intense damage to muscle and other tissues, and especially intestinal damage. As well, there were burns from radiant heat on multiple other organs. The cauterization from the heat meant that bleeding was not catastrophic, but there was still heavy trauma throughout his abdominal cavity. His implants went into immediate, full-body damage control. His pain response had been suppressed before the fight even began, and now his implants were also sending chemical signals to discourage digestive function, as well as slow down the functions of other affected organs as much as was safe to prevent them from damaging themselves. Meanwhile, his implants began flooding the affected area with medical nanomachines to begin restoring the most vital of functions.

The shot Vreta had taken had caused damage that could become fatal to one who received no treatment, but ultimately, it was not going to drop him anytime soon. He did not so much as hesitate to take aim at his next target, but the final two attackers gave perhaps the smartest response he had seen out of any of them thusfar. Eight of their companions had been killed or otherwise taken out of the fight, and no injury they had caused seemed to even slow Vreta down. As such, they both dropped their weapons, turned, and began to flee. Vreta did take aim, but he still maintained his calm and refrained from shooting. His goal was not to kill his attackers, but simply to end the fight. Besides, the last thing he would want now would be to shoot them in the back and break any of Babylon’s self-defense laws.

It did not take long after Vreta dealt with the ambush for a Rothian dropship to descend down from the sky and hover just above the park, shining a bright floodlight down on the grisly scene surrounding Vreta. The vehicle’s smooth, sleek design contrasted with the more harsh, angled plating and utilitarian design of many Human vehicles. In accordance with Rothian diplomatic agreements with the Outremer government, the Rothians were permitted to deploy peacekeeping forces for matters pertaining to their own citizens, sometimes to arrest them for crimes they had committed against Outremer, and sometimes to protect them from danger. Generally, they worked closely with local police forces, but of course, for an event as dangerous and pressing as a terrorist attack, there was no requirement for the Rothian peacekeepers to wait for Human police to arrive. Given the speed of Rothian dropships, they naturally arrived on the scene first.

Vreta’s implant quickly established a connection with the ship above him. “This is Vreta’Sori, my condition is stable. Two of my attackers retreated into the park, capture them if you can.” He instructed, as well as transmitting images of the two Humans. “I want you to send another dropship to the food market in this park as well. We may need to carry out a rescue, but there’s something I need to check there first…”

At a full sprint, heading back to the food market would not be too much of a detour, but what he learned there would likely entirely determine what he did next. The ambush had been a quick, brutal affair. Just a few minutes had passed. He needed to see if the bodies of the man and woman that had first attacked Freyr, the ones the agent had shot, were still there, and if they were truly dead.

The Cradle

Vreta was less prone to notice odd behavior among Humans compared to Freyr, since his concept of what constituted “odd” for them was not as refined as hers. However, even he could recognize when he was being watched. He was not suprised when they were finally approached, though he feigned enough shock as would be appropriate for a Rothian businessman in his position.

Vreta listened to the story that the woman weaved about protecting Freyr from Skinners, but he remained unconvinced. It sounded to him like they just wanted to get them away from a public location. Certainly, he did not trust that any member of the Outremer government would be honest with them; not after their encounter with the man that had interviewed them outside. Vreta knew this game all to well to simply fall into a trap blind. Though, that did not mean he was unwilling to turn a trap to his advantage.

Before the woman was even finished speaking, Vreta was already giving his program new instructions. Instead of observing himself, he had it observe the government agent, and identify anyone who might be associated with her. More importantly, he wanted it to observe their communications. In addition to observing anyone she communicated directly with, it also searched other channels for any keywords that might be related. Skinners, government callsigns, anything out of the ordinary for civilian communications.For now, he still had his program keep itself safe to avoid detection, but his program could run circles around Human intrusion detection systems, and it was still not doing anything beyond listening.

Vreta was not particularly keen on stepping into danger again, but there were differences this time around. Namely, he was not in the Cradle, and he now had access to his fully array of equipment and capabilities. Whether Skinners or government agents, they did not know who they were dealing with. “I do. I want both of us to be safe. I will help, but why bring her to her apartment? There are more well-protected options. Bring us to the Rothian Embassy and no terrorist will be able to touch her, or me.” He suggested. If nothing else, it was a statement that would get those listening in talking in a way his program could hone in on.

The Cradle

Vreta leaned back somewhat on the bench and hummed to himself. There were a few, long seconds of silence from him as he ruminated on the situation, which he filled by finishing off the rest of his food. Inwardly, he wished he had been given the chance to study the Cradle in-depth before all of this had happened. The Rothians had been trying to gain access to study the Cradle for many years, and had made some generous offers in that time. If his people had the time for proper research, he had no doubt they could have come to understand it. In his mind, Humanity simply was not yet advanced enough to comprehend what they had in their possession.

Once he was finished with his roll, he turned his head back towards Freyr. Despite his opinions of Humanity’s usage of the Cradle, he did have to admit that her reasoning was quite sound. She had come to potential conclusions even he had not considered. Granted, he was working with much less direct experience with the Cradle.

“Your proposals are reasonable. Really, they could be correct.” Vreta finally replied. “An immature AI, one based on learning algorithms, that had not yet been given enough data to mature would match the behaviors we have seen. But why would there be a learning AI within a supercomputer as advanced as the Cradle, I wonder? In Rothian history, there was a time when our most potent AI required a period of time to collect data and learn. However, we have come to the point where we can create AI that are both exceptionally capable of learning, and are mature from their creation. I have to imagine that the creators of the Cradle would have been capable of the same thing. Unless..well, I suppose the theoretical limits of an AI that begins immature are higher, in the long-term. It would have to be quite an important project to justify the inconvenience, though.”

Once again, Vreta sighed. “Like you said, though, this is all just theory. Speculation. Regardless of the nature of the AI or its purpose, more needs to be learned about it. And the Cradle in general. People have been killed. Terrorists, soldiers, and innocent civilians alike. It is clear that this intelligence, whatever it is, does not discriminate with its victims, and I do not see any reason to believe it is going to stop. And your world, Outremer…perhaps this is just my impression, but your world is exceptionally intertwined with the Cradle. If your people lose control of the Cradle, I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that the society you have built here could come to an end. It is past time for games; it is my opinion that your people should seek aid from the Rothians. I am fairly certain my government would be willing to help.”

The Cradle

Again, there was a pause from Vreta. His severe expression may have even been readable to a Human. He looked around for a few seconds at the crowd around them, then leaned in somewhat closer to Freyr to speak more quietly. Conveniently, given the sensitive and quite personal nature of the topic to Freyr, it did make sense for him to avoid speaking loudly enough to draw the attention of someone around them. At the same time, he also made his first, subtle changes to what the cameras could hear. He did not change any of the words he spoke, but rather slightly enhanced the voices of others near the camera, while also slightly reducing Vreta’s own volume from the perspective of the camera. Altogether, it prevented his words from being distinguished from the rest of the noise of the crowd.

“I do wish I had more solid answers. Even with my expertise on advanced computer systems, the Cradle is still a mystery. I can only make guesses, but what I can say is that the Cradle is an advanced computer system, even by my people’s standards.” Vreta said, now making direct eye contact with Freyr. “My people can craft software with consciousness indistinguishable from that of living beings, and capabilities far beyond them. And we do not do so lightly. For a civilization advanced enough to create the Cradle, I have no reason to believe they could not do the same. Again I…apologize if my opinion is offensive, but I do not think it would be a popular one on this world. Humanity does not control the Cradle, and does not truly understand it. You have learned to use it, but Outremer’s society has become intertwined with something that is still a mystery at its core. It is entirely possible that the Cradle contains artificial intelligence, or is an artificial intelligence, with goals that do not align with your own.”

Vreta let out a sigh and shrugged his shoulders. “Like I said, I have only guesses for that. As for your last question, I wish I could play back the encounter for you. Unfortunately, I did not have access to my implants in the Cradle. From what I can remember, it first spoke to me in a child’s voice. It said something about wanting to find its toys, but then ‘offered’ to take me to its parents. I tried to talk my way out of that, but soon enough, it changed voices and started talking about me more directly. It said that it did not remember much of what it was, but that it recognized me. It said that it had seen me 'crawling from the ocean to the rocks'. I believe that it has either been driven insane, or it was not speaking about me as an individual. Perhaps both.”