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(XBOX)DarkPhoenixRise

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  1. Easter Aurora slips and slides her way across the wet grass towards Hagrid’s hut. As she nearly goes arse over tea-kettle once more, she curses under her breath, “Why oh why can’t I just fly out here?” A couple of minutes later she takes a step off the grass and onto the mud outside Hagrid’s hut, only for her foot to slide out from underneath her, sending her sliding into the slight dip caused by regular traffic. After her surprised scream, the door to Hagrid’s hut opens to reveal a nervous Hagrid, “Professor Sinistra, are you all right?” Aurora carefully pushes herself to her feet, “It only hurt my pride. I wasn’t expecting the grass to be quite this slippery.” Hagrid nods, “Aye, it gets like that sometimes. Your shoes certainly don’t help either.” Aurora looks down at them ruefully, “You’re right. Though, to be fair I’d have brought my walking staff if I’d realised how bad it was. But it was one of those afternoons where you have a couple of hours free time, and it looked nice out so I figured I’d come and see how you’re doing.” Hagrid looks down at his feet, “Ya needn’t do that, ah’m just fine.” Aurora carefully draws her wand and uses it to clean herself off, “Hagrid, you’ve barely left your hut for the last couple of weeks. You’ve got smoke pouring from your chimney, and your curtains are closed, yet it’s more than comfortable out here.” Hagrid mumbles almost as loudly as most men speak softly, “You were always a kind one weren’t you.” In a more normal tone he says, “No, really, I’m fine. I’ve, er, just got a project in my hut.” Aurora smiles up at Hagrid, “Oh, anything interesting?” Hagrid shakes his head, “Not really, ‘s just a dragons egg.” Then he frowns, “I dinna mean to say that.” Aurora sighs, “Hagrid, you’re really too good for your own good. Come on, let’s see it and you can tell me all about it.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Grim faced, Ironjaw walks into the Director’s office with a tightly wound scroll, “Director, I have important news from the goblins that left with healer Straightseam.” The Director looks at the scroll, “What’s the news? And why did it take them so long to send us a reply?” Ironjaw takes a deep breath, “I’ll answer the second question first. According to this letter, their owls were all killed or captured by the Grineer during the early days of their negotiations. After that, Earth was almost cut off from the rest of the solar system by most of the Tenno flocking to the Zariman Ten-Zero to try and push the Grineer and Corpus out of their birth place.” The Director shakes his head, “What of our own letters?” Ironjaw looks down at the scroll in his hands, “None of the guards survived longer than a year there. There was a Ghoul outbreak and they died defending the settlement long enough for the civilians to retreat.” “And Healer Straightseam?” Ironjaw hands over the letter, “It would be better for you to read his own words yourself.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Director, care of Ironclaw My apologies for the delay in sending you an owl, as it appears that my personal missive was never delivered. I will summarise that missive at the end of this letter, but suffice to say that my wife and I had long discussions about our decisions. The reason it has taken so long for me to get word from the surface is the Grineer interdicted the planet and threatened to destroy the local relay station. A threat that has only just been resolved with a judicious amount of violence. The Cetus enclave have agreed to allow our people to join their settlement, though they have been told that it would be unwise to attempt to create a colony outside the shields until we have not only established ourselves, but also have the capability to not only hide from the Grineer, but also defend ourselves from them. A sentiment that I am forced to agree with given what I’ve learnt about this systems ability to detect things from well beyond the reach of our magics. Currently, our people are sheltering inside the derelict Orokin tower along with the majority of the Cetus population as the ghoul infestation continues to rage uncontrolled beyond the shields. The occasional Tenno that pays a visit for resources or weapons is not enough to deal with the level of infestation across the plains. They have asked me to request a block of platinum 1 foot on a side. With that they believe they will have enough to pay the bounties needed to clear out the infestation and make the village safe to live in once more. If you agree to this, then send the platinum to Ullok son of Furrad as he is now of age. Enclosed with this letter is a data cylinder with the details of an informal currency that the Tenno use. This currency is based on reputation and allows them to access goods and services that can’t be bought for credits or resources. The Lotus and I all agree that this would be the best way for the new clan to trade with the wider solar system. The Sinestra family, as vassels of Clan Potter, have already started to use this system to great effect. Signed Healer Straightseam Personal note. After three years of deliberation, Urana and I decided to join Clan Potter as Sentients along with our child. Part of this decision comes from a desire to allow for a continuity of contact with Clan Gringott. One of the Lotus’ personal owls should be delivering my formal request to the clan chief at the same time this letter reaches you. If my request is accepted, my children will take on the role of advisers and liaisons between the new clan and the Tenno. It is my hope that their involvement will increase both the profits and honour of both the Tenno and the Goblin Nation. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ The Director looks up from the letter, “I see, and the platinum?” Ironclaw shrugs, “Already sent out of my families coffers, I will be seeking reimbursement through favours and services rather than goods, as the Potter accounts have been good for us.” The Director laughs, “Of course they have. I’ll talk to the clan chiefs about giving you a minority share in the new clan.” Ironclaw shakes his head, “I would much rather be allowed to start my own guild.” The Director coughs violently, “What?” Ironclaw smiles widely as he nods, “I wish to start the Technicians Guild.” The Director clenches his teeth for a moment, “What of the Potter accounts?” “I am still a fully paid up member of the Bankers Guild.” “I will bring your request to the Council.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Dora glances over at Digger as she sends a message to squad chat {KarmaChameleon} 😊😍 Digger nods, “Are you ready?” Dora nods, “I am, do you have your shields up?” “Of course.” {KarmaChameleon} 😊 Dora adds, “Just checking as Hermione has been stunned, and Harry was forced out of their warframe.” Slightly chidingly Digger points out, “Dora, this isn’t my first turn around the sun. I’m more worried about you, as we don’t know what will happen if transference is forcibly ended for you. You should be fine though, as Alad V has been kidnapping warframes for study, even before we started to wake from the second dream. That’s why I made sure you had a couple more warframes before I even considered allowing you to take any missions here.” “Digger! I am a trained Dax and I have a Mastery in Transfiguration too.” Digger raises a hand, “Dora, I’m not questioning your ability. I’m talking about the chaos of the battlefield. All of us die occasionally, every single one of us. If they manage to hit you with something that knocks you out of your warframe, then you could just be dead.” Digger takes Dora’s hand, “Dora, I don’t know if you realise the implications of this, but the Zariman was a colony ship, and my family was one of thousands onboard. We… You know we found the Zariman, what you probably don’t know is we found out how many people were on board.” Dora shakes her head, “There were around 100,000 civilians on board, 25% of them were under 16, and 18% under the age of 11. There were only around 8,000 survivors of the Zariman, and Harry was the only one under the age of 11.” Dora shakes her head, “What are you getting at?” “I’m getting there Dora. Before the New War there were nearly 4,000 Tenno, now there’s only slightly more than 3,000. Everyone else died. Everyone. You, Hermione, and Luna, you’re all special because you’re the first new Tenno we’ve ever had, and the first additions to our number for over 100 years. That’s why we locked you all out of places we know Alad might be able to capture you. It’s why I helped you get Chroma so quickly. Well, that and the fact I like you.” Dora shakes her head and pulls Digger into a hug, “I like you too you big lunk. Now come on, this is a capture mission, except we’re not allowed to digitise Fenris Greyback as he needs to stand trial.” Digger affects a lisp, “Yes Misstress, is there anything else Mystriss.” Dora hits Digger on the shoulder before starting to circle around the hideout, “You’ve been watching far too much Earth media.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Harry startles a little as Kitty winds her arm around his as they walk into London Zoo. “Kitty, why are we here again?” Kitty laughs, “Anne, at work, said it was the sort of thing we’re supposed to do on a date. So here we are. One of our customers is a Goth, at least that’s what he said he was anyway. Anyway, he said that the best place to find the sort of clothes he was wearing is Camden Market, which is just a short walk away from here.” Harry groans theatrically, “You and your clothes.” Kitty smiles, “They might have some plushies that you’ve never seen before.” Harry shakes his head with a laugh, “Fair point.” Kitty thumps Harry in the shoulder, before double checking the civilian lock on her amp, “Hey, how are you getting on at school?” Harry sighs, “Honestly, it’s all a bit basic. Don’t get me wrong, I’m learning a lot. It’s just I don’t think they’re really set up for teaching someone who has mastered over 300 different hand to hand weapons, and the math is so basic that we don’t even teach it at home.” “Harry, I didn’t mean your school work. You’ve been using wisp for a few months now, and I’ve never known you to stick to one warframe for that long.” Harry leans against a display with some brightly coloured birds in it, “I’m coping. I’m just glad that wisp isn’t a prime frame as she’s still only able to express feelings. I’m not sure I could handle a Yana.” Kitty shudders, “You don’t need to tell me that. I think my Nezha is starting to develop emotions too, and he’s a prime.” Harry shakes his head as he goes to push away from the railing, “Let’s not think about that for now.” Impishly, Kitty stands on tiptoe and nibbles Harry’s ear, “How about we hurry through the zoo then see if we can find a nice dress to put you in.” Harry shivers at the feel of Kitty’s hot breath on her ear, “Kitty! That’s not fair!” Kitty just smiles as she leads Harry off to look around the zoo. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ “Albus!” Minerva slams her palm on his desk for emphasis, “Hagrid has a Merlin damned dragon egg in his hut and all you can say is, ‘would you like a lemon drop?’.” Albus looks up at his deputy mildly, “What would you have me do then?” “Your job as headmaster. Or don’t you care about Hagrid or the schools finances?” “Have you let Kettleburn know that we have a dragon on the school grounds?” “You know as well as I do that he would be oath bound to report it to the Ministry as soon as he found out about it. As soon as that happens we get hit with a massive fine and Hagrid takes a one way trip to Azkaban for endangering the Statute of Secrecy by raising a 5x creature without a licence. If it officially comes to my attention, or the bloody thing hatches I’ll have to do the same thing.” Albus spreads his hands, “I’m sure that it will resolve itself on it’s own.” Minerva shakes her head, “Oh no you don’t. I know as well as you do that Charlie Weasley is a Dragon Handler. But I will not have you endangering his younger brother because you don’t want to do the job yourself.” Albus leans forward, suddenly serious, “Minerva, I really can’t be seen to do anything about the dragon egg. I am looking after the stone out of respect for my Master, and we all know that one of Voldemort’s followers is trying to steal the stone. At the moment they believe me to be oblivious of their attempts on the stone, and so they’re not doing anything to endanger the students. If I act overtly that may change.” Minerva stares at Albus for a long moment, “Fine, then I’ll deal with the egg myself, and I’ll be changing my own defences too.” “Minerva, you can’t…” “Watch me.” With that she whirls around and storms out of the office.
  2. Probing attacks Yana is happy because her Hermione is happy and she’s been able to visit the local forest while her Hermione plays in another frame. Especially being able to play with the little not Titania’s that flit around from flower to flower. As Yana daydreams about how she could bring more of this forest to her own forest, her Hermione suddenly slumps to the floor as a red light hits them out of nowhere. A moment later, someone nudges them with their foot before shouting, “Ow! Merlin that hurt!” Another voice says, “Well, what did you expect? This is supposed to be armour after all. Come on, you’re paying me to help put her in her place, so we need to get her out of the corridor.” “Right, then we can get her out of her armour and teach the *@##$ a lesson about her place in the world.” A third voice, this one belonging to a girl, “I’m not sure about this, I mean isn’t that Potter’s armour?” Yana begins to become concerned when her Hermione doesn’t start to stand up, as she can feel that she’s still here, just not responding to anything. As the voices continue to speak she tries to disengage the civilian locks and enable her shields, or something. There’s the sound of a sneer in the first voice, “Then he shouldn’t have lent it to a mudblood. Something like this should be in the hands of a pure blood.” The girl’s voice sounds further away, “Um, didn’t Professor McGonagall say that the armour was for our protection, not hers?” “What, are you scared?” “It’s just, I thought we were going to teach her a lesson about showing up Ravenclaw and being a know it all. This is going too far, I’m out!” As the first spell cuts into her body, Yana begins to panic as she can’t move while her Hermione is still here. A forth voice adds, “Yeah, me too, I thought we were just going to make her miss a few classes or something.” A fifth voice accompanies several sets of footsteps from the other direction, “Yeah, well you should have thought about that before you discussed your plans in the common room. When we’re finished with her, there’ll be one less mudblood in the school.” The first voice sounds worried, “Wait, you can’t do that, do you have any idea how bad that would look?” The second voice is receding as it sounds resigned when they say, “Malfoy, I don’t think they care. This is going a bit beyond a prank now.” Yana starts to panic as she’s hit by an explosion, and her Hermione still doesn’t move. Her brief flight into a wall allows her to see her attacker, all of whom are taller than the humans her Hermione goes to classes with. A pulse of light hits her in the side, cutting deeply as her eyes glow with realisation. They’re taller, and she can get smaller. She might not be able to move, but her butterflies know what to do. As a spell punches through her chest, one of the attackers shouts, “Merlin, what does it take to get through that armourrrrrhhhhh!” Yana feels a surge of happiness go through her as she activates her transformation and sends out her butterflies to kill her assailants. She might not be able to move, but she can still defend her Hermione. As the screams of her assailants echo through the halls, Yana goes back to daydreaming about chasing rabbits and fairies around her own forests. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Minerva scowls as Severus rants to the headmaster, “Albus, something needs to be done about those two first years, and the pet cat they brought.” Albus looks up from the medical report Severus shoves in his face, “Hmm, what would you have me do exactly?” “Suspend them, force them to attend without their armour, make Granger leave her butterflies behind?” Minerva shakes her head as she glances around the staff meeting, “Severus, I know you have four of your 6th years in the hospital wing, but Fillius has one there too. It’s also clear from their wands that they were attacking Miss Granger with lethal spells before Aurora and Filius arrived at the scene.” Severus shakes his head, “They say they were just defending themselves, and there’s no evidence of any sort of lethal attacks on Miss Granger’s armour either. The sort of spells that you say were used would have left a mark.” Filius snorts, “Defending themselves from an unconscious first year.” “Maiden has lost an eye, and Macks is currently under stasis while his family searches for a Healer that’s willing and able to restore his ability to father children. Weakman and Harvey are both going to carry permanent scars, despite the fact that there’s no dark magic in the wounds.” Filius nods, “Miss Roland has suffered similar wounds too. However, Miss Granger was stunned unconscious at some point before the attack on her person began. I was able to verify the magic once the two of us had dealt with the butterflies. A simple enervate after that returned her to consciousness, and she was able to return to her normal size. What I think happened is that these five students. Students that I’ll note are all of them are pure bloods, and thus can’t be legally forced to give memory or veritasium evidence until they have been charged with a crime. I think they stunned her from behind to prevent themselves from being identified in Miss Granger’s memories, and then sought to take out some misplaced aggression.” As the conversation continues, Quirinus Quirrell frowns at the fact that Miss Granger came out of the entire ordeal unscathed. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ A few weeks after that incident, Harry stumbles as he’s forced out of his wisp in one of the little used corridors of the school. Quickly, he disables the civilian lock on his amp and shielding while he looks around the corridor cautiously. A moment later, a red spell splashes off his shields, and Harry instinctively returns fire down the corridor. When there’s no sounds of a body hitting the floor, or any sign of anyone else around, he focuses on the chat. {Harry} @MissKitty I think someone just tried to attack me. {MissKitty} Where are you? {Harry} 4th floor by the Friday stair. {MissKitty} I’ll be right there. {TheFairyQueen} I’m coming too. {Lights} Miss Granger, you will do no such thing. {TheFairyQueen} But I can help. {Lights} If they knock you out again, Yana is likely to actually kill someone. {Yana} 😛👻🐰🐰🦄 {Lights} Merlin damn it! Why did we have to give Yana chat again? {Yana} Bunnies! {MissKitty} So she can call us if she’s in trouble again. {Yana} 💢💥 {MissKitty} No Yana you can’t just blow up the student’s {Yana} 👼🐱‍🏍🗡⚔ {TheFairyQueen} No Yana, we can’t do that either. {KamaChameleon} Can you guys take it to squad chat or something, as some of us are working here. Harry relaxes slightly as Minerva flies down the stairs from the dungeon, “I haven’t seen anything else moving since I was attacked.” Minerva nods as her own senses show the area is clear, “Well it’s better safe than sorry. How’s your wisp?” With Minerva keeping an eye out around them, Harry connects to his wisp with his implants, “I think she’s just a little confused about why I’m out here. I’m going to try transferring back now.” Minerva nods, “Go ahead, there’s nobody around.” Harry tries to trigger transference, only to meet resistance before bouncing back to the real world, “It’s not working. But it’s not like something’s messing with the transference signal.” Minerva picks up the wisp with both arms, “Let’s get her back to the lander and we can see if it’s localised.” {MissKitty} @Lights @TheFairyQueen can you start checking for magic that could force Harry out of his Frame? ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ In the Gryffindor common room, Hermione’s working on copying out her homework from her computer to parchment while shrunken down as a fairy. At the same time Yana is using the butterflies to play with some magical wooden blocks that have pictures and letters on them. “C.A.T. Cat! Meow.” Hermione smiles as Yana finishes pushing the blocks together with the right picture, and they make a tinkling noise before the picture animates and they announce the word she’s just spelt. They’re one of a few toys that Aurora bought for Yana once she realised that Yana is basically a child. As she’s carefully carrying her quill across the parchment to the inkwell, in order to avoid smudging her writing, Ron and Dean both sit down in the corner she used to hide in. As the two of them pull out their homework, Dean leans over, “Can you believe that Hagrid has a dragon egg?” Hermione’s eyes dim twice before she diverts to her computer and activates the record program. Keeping half an ear open to the conversation, she continues back to the inkwell. Ron shakes his head, “Not at all, they’re highly illegal outside registered sanctuaries, as they’re untameable and almost impossible to keep without breaking the statute.” Dean raises his eyebrows, “Really?” Ron nods before his expression sours, “Ugh, Potions, can’t we just play chess?” Dean shakes his head, “I’m not getting another detention because you’re allergic to homework. Homework first.” Seamus walks over and plops down next to Dean, “Hey guys, what’s going on?” “R.A.B.B.I.T. Rabbit!” Ron scowls, “Will someone please take those blocks away!” From the other side of the room a prefect calls, “At least she’s learning something!” As Ron starts to grumble, Dean softly says, “Hagrid’s got a real fire breathing dragon egg.” A wide smile comes over Seamus’ face, “Cool.” Dean nods, “I know right.” Ron shakes his head, “It’s not cool, he could get into real trouble with one. My brother Charlie works on a dragon preserve, and he said that they become dangerously territorial really quickly.” “D.R.A.G.O.N. Dragon!” Seamus shakes his head, “Ron, you don’t get it. It’s a real dragon. I grew up muggle like, and they’re just fairy tales in that world. Ma used to tell me about dragons, fairies, and unicorns, but it was hard to believe her.” Dean looks up from his own homework after a couple of minutes, “Still, don’t you think it’s a bit convenient that Hagrid won a dragon egg at the same time he was talking about Fluffy.” “U.N.I.C.O.R.N. Unicorn!” Ron stops glaring at his homework for a moment, “Yeah, now you say it that does sound suspicious. That and how easily you tricked him into admitting that Fluffy will fall asleep to music.” As the boys continue to talk about their misadventures, Hermione opens up the chat as she keeps trudging over the parchment with the quill that’s like a tree trunk at her size. {TheFairyQueen} @Everyone I think you should look at /dev/tfqt/usr/tfq/recordings/gcr-92-04-09-001 it’s still recording so make sure you open it view only. {Yana} U.N.I.C.O.R.N. Unicorn! 🦄 {MissKitty} Well done Yana, but you should be in the play channel. {MissKitty} This is worrying, Aurora, can you check in on Hagrid over the Easter Holidays. Seamus puts his quill in his ink pot for a moment, “Ron, didn’t you say that you saw Snape limping just before the Quidditch match in November?” Ron nods, “I did, do you think he was trying to get past Fluffy?” Dean looks up, “Seems reasonable. I bet he wants the stone.” Ron nods, “I bet he’s getting desperate, remember what Hagrid said about the unicorns disappearing?” As the portrait door swings open, the three boys look up and quickly turn their faces down to their homework as Neville walks in with Whisper balanced on his shoulder. Behind him comes the Weasley twins. Spotting Hermione’s computer, he makes a beeline to her stuff, “Hey Hermione, how are you getting on.” As Hermione returns to normal size, Dean coughs, “Bollocks.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Minerva settles into a chair in the headmaster’s office, “Albus, I think we’re going to need more help with the stone.” Albus leans back in his chair, his eyes sparkling slightly in the candlelight, “What makes you say that?” “I know that there’s at least one group of students that have already found out what’s been hidden, and how to get past Hagrid’s pet.” Albus nods, “We always knew that was a possibility. That’s why the Devils snare is next. As long as Fluffy isn’t attacked, he won’t ado more than bark at the students.” Minerva shakes her head, “That’s not what worries me. The students found out because Hagrid let it slip when they were talking about one of his acquisitions. Apparently they weren’t the first people he shared it with.” Albus shakes his head, “No, we can’t. It’s too much of a risk to bring more people in on the secret. Too many people know about it all ready.” Minerva huffs, “Well, at least let me ask the Potters to keep an eye on the students that I know know. I just know that they’re going to do something stupid if we don’t.” Albus raises an eyebrow, “And why not your prefects?” Minerva just stares at Albus, “Really? You do remember that they’re all Gryffindors, don’t you?” “I haven’t forgotten, no. But why do you believe these other student’s would be better than the prefects?” Minerva smiles, “The stone would have absolutely zero interest for them, and I have absolutely no doubt that none of the puzzles would be even remotely challenging.” Albus removes his glasses to clean them, “I presume you are speaking of Ms Potter and Miss Granger?” Minerva nods, “Indeed, though they’re both full members of clan Potter.” Albus frowns and thinks for a long moment, “Very well, but you’re not to let them know what the stone is.” Minerva smiles, “They won’t hear it from my lips.”
  3. Zariman – part 1 “Anet, Margulis, what are we looking at?” Margulis looks up from the Grineer computer she’s working on, “A pile of crap that offends every iota of engineering and research training I’ve ever had.” Anet laughs, “Tell us what you really think.” Margulis growls, “Do you want to do this? I mean, they don’t even have the decency to include implant access to the computers. Everything has to be done through these terminals. Not even the Corpus have fallen that far. Then whoever designed the system seems to have never heard of an organisation tree, or any sort of file structure.” Anet laughs again, from her own computer, that she’s leaning against, “Margulis, have you forgotten that you’re not Orokin anymore?” “No, I can hardly forget now can I.” She holds up a hand and allows it to take on a less human appearance for a moment. Taylor shakes her head and goes back to guarding the door, meanwhile Anet giggles, “Then why are you trying to access the computer like an Orokin?” Margulis huffs, “I’m not, didn’t I just explain that it doesn’t have any systems for interacting with implants?” “Daughter, you are a Sentient, not an Orokin. Why do you persist in ignoring that part of yourself?” Margulis slams her fist on the keyboard, “I’m not ignoring that part of…” She trails off as she looks down at the keyboard, “Oh, I am aren’t I. But…” Anet walks over and puts her hand on Margulis’ shoulder, before initiating a join, much like a parental hug. In the join she sends over the memories of learning the Orokin way, and their hope that Margulis would have been doing the same thing for the Sentient way of being. Along with that she can’t help sending a sense of exasperation with Taylor for not learning more about being a Sentient too. As they separate, Margulis looks down at her hands and deliberately lets go of the form she’s so used to. As she does, her body expands out until it’s finally the full size it’s supposed to be. Connecting to her mother wirelessly, she regards the computer, “This isn’t all you meant is it.” What she gets back is an image of herself in the gardens of the Dojo learning how to terraform. With a sigh, she turns back to the computer and invades it in seconds, and only a few moments later she’s located all of the interesting information and downloaded it. It will require further perusal later, but it looks like they have the location of the Zariman anyway. As the sound of an alarm goes off, Ordis connects to them all, “This has become an extermination mission. Find everyone that saw you enter the secure area and eliminate them.” All three of them share a glance before Margulis forces herself down into her humanoid form, and picks up her weapon. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ “Daughter, daughter, you must…” With a mental flick, Anet turns off the incoming call as she turns her attention back to the gardens with Taylor and Margulis, “Taylor, you need to consider what happens to your plants and animals once they die, otherwise your eco system will fail almost immediately. Margulis, while a world of bacteria and fungi is very stable, you need to include insects, mammals, and reptiles in order to fill your brief. Remember your biology and geology lessons.” Hunhow’s face briefly appears in a message window again, “Daughter, we need to…” Taylor loses control of her human form as she tries to balance her garden so that it only needs a single energy input to remain stable, “Gah! This is harder than it looks.” Anet briefly joins with Taylor to send a sense of approval and appreciation before turning her attention back to Margulis, “Margulis, while this is very utilitarian, where’s the wonder and beauty? Where’s the…” Margulis sweeps her hand over the garden, “Can you not see it? There’s 300,000 strains of fungus and bacteria, all working together in a perfect dance, growing, living, dying, and being eaten. Each one producing something that the others require.” Anet sighs before she uses the systems to create a lump of limestone, and throwing it randomly into the garden, “Where’s the resiliency.” Margulis watches aghast as the limestone causes some of her carefully crafted bacterial to reproduce out of control in the accelerated environment, causing a cascade throughout the system that ultimately causes mutations, and then wipes out the underlying bacteria that use heat and water to provide the basic chemicals needed for the next layer in the ecosystem, “But, that wasn’t supposed to happen.” Anet touches her daughter and sends a sense of reassurance, “Margulis, you focus too much on the details and elegance that you don’t leave yourself space to consider external factors.” She waves a manipulator over the garden, “Life doesn’t work like that. Life adapts, responds, and fills niches. Your creations should reflect that. They should be adaptable and able to grow to fill a niche if it's available.” Ordis opens a communication channel with all three of them, “Operators, we have just finished calculating the coordinates of the Zariman Ten Zero. A new mission has been added to Navigation.” As Ordis ends the call, Hunhow opens a call to Anet, “Praghasa.” Anet freezes as she’s about to cancel the call once more, “What about her?” “Your brother has reactivated her with Ballas. My daughter, you must stop them.” “Erra’s dead, my Tenno killed him in the old war.” “Grievously injured, yes. Killed, not quite. The traitor, Ballas, unsealed his tomb.” “Why haven’t you stopped my brother?” Hunhow hesitates before responding, “Erra, listens to me about as much as you do. Especially now.” “Then, why do you think he’ll listen to me?” “I don’t, however you are still your mother’s successor. Like you, she can call our people out of hiding. I would rather you were the one to make the call, than the traitor, Ballas.” Margulis interrupts her with a snarl, “Did you say Ballas?” Anet cocks her head to one side in thought, a habit she picked up from Taylor. Coming to a decision, she connects to an EmMat and creates a communications node to transfer the call to, “Margulis, meet Hunhow, my father. Father, meet my daughter Margulis, and you already know Taylor. Apparently, my, not nearly as deceased as he should be, brother has activated her with Ballas.” Margulis snarls as best as she can in her sentient body, “Where is that filthy spawn of a kubrow and yogwun? He has some nerve sealing me into Anet, .” Hunhow stays silent for a while as he processes the new information, “Daughter…” Anet interrupts with a growl, “I am not your daughter, not now, and never again. I am Anet, or The Lotus to you.” Taylor sighs, “Let’s ignore the whole genetic donor thing for the moment. What’s going on that requires our direct involvement?” Anet growls, “Taylor, you know what…” Taylor raises a manipulator, “Anet, I know, but at the moment he’s a client, so we are going to treat him as a client. Now, Hunhow, what were you saying.” Hunhow rumbles, “Daughter…” Taylor interrupts, “Uh uh, that goes for you too. Unless you want to be shunted to the Lotus Cephalons you will stop with the genetic donor crap until the call is over.” “…Praghasa, our mother, has been reactivated by Erra and Ballas, they are going to use her to call the sentient’s out of hiding. The only other sentient that could do that is my…” He changes tack as Taylor raises a manipulator, “Natah. You must stop them, or call the other sentients yourself.” Margulis shakes her head, “We can’t be involved in this. Ballas changed Anet in some way to allow me to take over her systems. But we don’t know if that’s the only thing he added. All three of us could be taken over by him if we got anywhere close, and unless we let it happen I couldn’t tell you what part of our systems are needed to allow him to do that.” Taylor nods, “Anet, if one of us were to do this call thing, would it give away our location?” Anet nods, “Every Sentient in the solar system, including my… including Hunhow would know precisely where we are.” Taylor nods, “Which include Ballas and Erra.” Margulis calls out, “Ordis, transfer Hunhow to the Lotus.” At the same time Hunhow calls, “Natah, you must call them, they are your peo…” A moment later, Taylor forms a hand so she can snap her fingers, “Ordis, have you located the Warframe that Alad V stole from me yet?” “Operator Ordis notified you of that new mission three days ago.” Taylor forms a head and another three hands so she can facepalm properly, “Right… Anet, would you mind terribly if I got my Titania back, and then we head to the Zariman to rescue me?” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Taylor, Anet, and Margulis all stop to stare as Cy brings the Railjack out of the void near to the recovered coordinates. In front of them, the ships scanners are projecting holographic markers for a fleet of Grineer ships. If that was all, then the three of them would have just taken their positions to wipe the fleet out. Instead, there’s a shimmering white crack in space behind the fleet, and it is getting bigger and bigger as it blots out the stars. As they watch, it cracks open, revealing a dark void that seems to hungrily consume most of the waiting fleet before a silvery grey ship slowly starts to emerge from inside the void. The docking port alone looks as though it would be large enough for even a Grineer Galleon to dock nose first, even if that’s all that would fit. As more and more of the disc shaped ship pokes through to real space, the sheer size of the 44km diameter ship becomes apparent. As they watch, the ship seems to get caught in the rift just as it reaches its widest point. Suddenly Margulis gasps, “What’s that, on the edge of the rift?” As the other two look, they can all see the faint images of another land, just beyond the rift. Grimly, Taylor says, “Cy, plot a course to the docking bay. We need to get in there. Once we’ve landed, get back to the Orbiter and start preparing a new set of solar rails. We have a ship to clear out.” Margulis shakes her head, “What about Ballas?” Taylor looks at her, “Be honest, how long do you think it will take before he knows about this? Once he does, he’s going to want to take it for himself. Honestly, I’m surprised that we’ve not seen any of the Orokin towers being returned to real space.” Cy interrupts, “Captain, the Lotus Cephalons have been stepping up their monitoring of void incursions by any forces, and have been setting high priority missions to clear them out. Ballas would need to go to a tower personally in order to take one over. Every ships Cephalon has additionally been instructed to send new fallback coordinates to each of the tower Cephalons once their operators have completed their missions. We estimate that the entire fleet, bar two towers, will be inaccessible to the other factions within the next 28 days.” Taylor nods, “So they’ll be back to sending out scouting missions and collating nav-coordinates again.” “Affirmative. Course plotted.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Nearly 6 hours later, two sentients, three Warframes, and Pemmy (aka PemMat mk 3 #3), Margulis’ portable research lab, all land on a small pad inside a massive hanger that looks like it doubles as a concourse. Once they touch down Taylor transfers out of her wisp. “I’ve got nothing on my implants, what about you two?” Anet shakes her head, “There are communications, but they’re not using the same channels as the towers.” Margulis nods, “That tracks, this was supposed to be a colony ship after all. I’ve got 33…” Margulis humphs as Taylor stares at her, “ok, Pemmy checking through all the variations of civilian and military channels that I had access to. It… They’re also looking for any patterns in the emissions that could hint at unknown channels.” Taylor nods, “Anet, anything on the Grineer coms?” Anet laughs, “Taylor, there’s always stuff on Grineer coms, but they don’t keep a data network going like the Corpus do. I’m monitoring it for anything interesting. Now what’s going on with that song I can hear but not sense.” Margulis nods, “Whatever it is, it’s playing havoc with Tenno and Orokin void based comms.” Taylor nods, “Right, I’ll take point with my Wisp while the two of you bring up the rear and guard Pemmy and the Warframes. Remember, we’re on our own here and until we find a secure living space we won’t be able to set up transference pods for either of us.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ As they’re carefully making their way through the seemingly deserted ship, Taylor walks through a barely visible shimmer of light and leaves her Warframe behind. She takes two steps through the door she was about to walk through before she stops and looks back, “What the hell?” On the other side of the door, Margulis has already put her Warframe down, and is looking at the barrier in interest, “Fascinating, this seems to be disrupting the transference energies that we use to join with the Warframes. I wonder if this developed naturally, or was manufactured as it’s a masterful use of the void.” Taylor shakes her head, “Fine, whatever. I’m going to scout ahead to make sure it’s not an ambush, Anet watch our backs, Margulis find out how to disable this.” Shifting sideways in physics, Taylor lifts off the ground and puts herself slightly out of phase with the physical universe the same way she did when she made the bet with Anet so many months ago. As she does so, she shivers slightly as the ship around her seems to become less solid, and she’s able to easily perceive the things outside the ship that were previously been blocked. It's only because of this state that she avoids walking around a corner into view of some sort of void beast that is barely visible to her eyes, and invisible to the rest of her sensors. Lowering herself to the floor, Taylor returns to her natural phase, and frowns when the creature ahead still doesn’t show up on her other senses properly. Off to one side, a voice hisses, “This way, over here!” Taylor looks towards the voice, and blanks momentarily when she sees a young human woman in a black leather outfit kneeling in an access tunnel. Quickly, she flies over to the woman, and into the tunnel. “Come on, follow me, there’s a safe place we can talk.” Taylor shakes her head, “Not without my friends, they’re just back there.” The woman stares at Taylor disbelievingly, “Are you serious?” Taylor nods, “There are three of us, we’re here to gain a foothold against the Grineer.” The woman shakes her head, “The Grineer aren’t the problem, I’ll explain later. Where exactly are your friends?” Taylor tries to connect to Pemmy to create a map, only for the connection to fail. Sharpening a finger, she scratches a ‘crude’ map into the wall. Then stares at it in consternation as she realises that it’s actually only off by a fraction of a millimetre. “They’re here, just outside the weird barrier that’s interfering with my communications.” The woman nods, “I can get us there, follow me.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ After a circuitous route through some maintenance tunnels, and backtracking along some main corridors, the woman finally leads the group into a large central elevator. As the elevator goes down into the ship, Taylor looks out into the central maintenance shaft wistfully, “I remember standing in one of these just after I arrived on the Zariman. Kay used to bring Rell here to watch the shuttles and drones moving around inside the shaft with supplies. We’d sit and chat behind the console there while Rell walked around the viewing window. We were considered a little odd for doing that, as each dorm level was its own town.” The woman looks at Taylor in surprise, “You’re passenger N? We all heard of you, as what you did was supposed to be impossible.” Taylor turns round, “Who’s we?” The woman folds her arms defensively, “The crew. I’m Hombask, I was going to be in charge of the homesteading when we reached Tau.” Taylor nods, “I remember you, you tried to protect us. But you died.” Hombask looks down, “Yeah, not that it matters in this forsaken place. I’ll let Quinn or Yonta explain it once we reach safety.” Margulis frowns, “Yonta? Archimedean Yonta?” Hombask nods, “Yes, you know her?” Margulis growls, “Of her, and I have some choice words for what she did.” Hombask shakes her head, “Whatever you think she did, she probably didn’t do. Not in the way you’re thinking anyway.” In order to divert the conversation, Anet quietly asks, “Why is Taylor passenger N?” Hombask laughs, “Because that’s what her passenger number was. She had another passenger number too, but anyone in the crew could see the passenger manifest, and when every passenger joined the ship. In the first days after the accident we were all using it regularly to find points of unrest or distress. It didn’t help that we were running low on food because the Orokin in charge wouldn’t stop the mission ‘just because the agricultural biomes failed’.” Margulis frowns, “That didn’t make it into any of the reports I received.” The large door behind them slides open, bringing a halt to the discussions as Taylor walks out into onto a veranda that has been partially overtaken by plants, “This wasn’t our home.” Hombask shakes her head, “It isn’t, no. Those areas aren’t safe. The Grineer can’t come down here, and the Angels… Come on Quinn’s waiting for us.” As they walk along the veranda, Taylor looks over the edge to see water instead of the plaza she was expecting, “Water?” Hombask nods, “The Orokin in charge ordered these areas flooded when the riots started, and the first adults started falling to void sickness. Every dorm level we’ve looked at is the same when accessed by this elevator.” Margulis looks out of the long windows that overlook the plaza below, “Were these the crew quarters then?” Hombask nods, “They were.” She then walks through a door on the opposite side of the veranda to the railing. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ As Anet and Taylor walk into a sleeping area, Margulis takes one look at one of the people inside, and charges forward to land a right hook right around their face. “How could you! How could you countenance the mission and the experiments they were running?” The women she just slugged, holds her cheek, “I didn’t have a choice, and I thought I could limit the damage. Do you have any idea how many times I wished I was the one that had chosen to walk away from my life’s work? That I’d defied the Seven? Oh, how I wish I was the me that did that. Maybe then the whole ship wouldn’t have been lost, maybe then I’d have survived.” Taylor laughs, “Not likely, out of all the Orokin, there’s only the Entrati family, Ballas, and Margulis here still alive. But backing up a bit, what do you mean you’d have survived?” One of the two men in the room speaks up, “That would probably be my cue. I’m Quinn, and you’re Taylor Hebert. It is to my great regret that I am the person who glassed you when you arrived on board. We believed you to be a stowaway, and that was to be your punishment. My superiors took you away when you survived.” Taylor nods, “Thank you for admitting that, it’s part of why we’re here. The Grineer have found the genetic samples taken from my arrival, and we came to rescue the Cephalon created from me.” Quinn nods, “Maybe we can help each other then. The Grineer restarted the reliquary drives and woke the angels. We also have a void cascade affecting the entire ship. Then there’s ‘That’, we can feel it, trying to push past the ship into the rest of the solar system.” Anet shakes her head, “What are Angels?” Grimly, Quinn says, “They are manifestations of the void, and what we become if we succumb to the song. Kira was the angel that you met before Hombask. Hombask left to try and persuade her to hold on and not give in.” Taylor grumbles, “You still haven’t answered the question, what do you mean you’d have survived.” Quinn looks at the woman, “Yonta?” Yonta shakes her head, “So far as I can tell, we’re conceptual embodiments. Imprints of people who died without going insane from void exposure. The sum of our possibilities.” Taylor puts her head in her hands, “Great, Eternalism, I hated that subject.” Anet shakes her head, “I feel like we are getting off track here. Starting with the basics, are the computer systems still working here? Are there any maps of the ship? How do we get to the places we need to go?” Quinn looks down, “Cephlon Melica is still around, we managed to repair her enough to work. But she’s… different. She’d be the best person to ask about the computer systems, but expect them to be spotty as the void… It plays havoc with the inside of the ship… It…” Yonta interrupts, “The memories of all those on board while the ship was waiting for rescue, they shape the inside of the ship. As it was mostly children that didn’t succumb to void exposure, many of the areas that can be accessed change their layouts and have a childlike relationship to each other. Sometimes, getting to the drives is as simple as taking the engineering elevator to the right level and walking down a few corridors. Other times you’ll need to go through the Lunaro stadium, and the athletics track, in order to get close. I would imagine the same is true for the labs.” Margulis nods, “Is this area safe?” Yonta glances nervously at a door, “It’s safe from threats inside the ship. But there ‘That’, you should be fine, but for us… Many of us chose to explore ‘That’ rather than give in to the song, we don’t know what happened to them.” Margulis nods, “I’m going to create a Reservoir outside, that should allow those that follow the safety net they need, if they’re not already awoken.” Taylor pokes Margulis, “You mean like you and Anet.” Margulis grumbles, “Yes, like us. I don’t know how you do it, you make it seem so easy.” Taylor laughs, “You could always ask Teshin to teach you, after all he taught me.” Margulis shakes her head, “He believes we’ve abandoned the Tenno, and is leading a number of them against Ballas.” Taylor puts her hands on her hips, “When was I going to find out about this?” Anet smiles, “It’s in the Lotus data packets we get every day. You’d already know if you bothered to read them.” “Right, well you get on with the Reservoir while I go and deal with this void cascade. Anet, I want you to try and get access to the computer systems and the Cephalon. If you can, see what resources we have available.”
  4. Side Story - Sentient Effect - Chapter 1 – The perils of forgetting to account for drift – part 1 Taylor, Anet, Margulis and Pemmy, well, not Pemmy as Pemmy isn’t smart enough to understand, all watch in dismay as the orbiter slowly drifts apart in front of the lander. A little further away, the two halves of their railjack also slowly drift apart. None of them can miss the plushies slowly floating out of the nest room either. Taylor sighs, “Ordis, what just happened?” “Ordis is not entirely sure… Warning, sensors are reading a hyper velocity projectile coming towards… Operators, Ordis believes he knows what just happened. There is a receding light shadow from what appears to be a projectile travelling at speeds exceeding the speed of light.” Margulis has to be held back by Anet and Taylor as she tries to reach a console, “Ordis, that’s impossible, nothing can exceed the speed of light.” Anet taps her daughter on the chassis, “Margulis, Ordis doesn’t have anywhere else to go!” Taylor asks, “Ordis, any ideas where that thing came from?” “Ordis thinks the Operator would know more than Ordis does at the moment.” Taylor sighs, “Right, faster than light. Let me know if anything shows up on your scans, and depressurise the lander, I’m going to go and rescue my plushies. Come on Pemmy, let’s see what we can salvage.” Margulis finally stops trying to reach a console, “Ordis, where are we?” “My systems indicate that we are approximately half way between the orbits of Pluto and Neptune.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ A few hours later, a long, narrow, ship appears out of nowhere that bears no resemblance to any of the factions that the three of them are used to. Carrying a plushie and a blue glass pyramid, Taylor flies out of the wreckage and over to the ship. Opening a call to the lander, Taylor says, “Oh, hey, they speak English here, or at least they use English letters. The ship’s called Normandy.” Margulis says, “Can you see why it feels like there’s negative mass there?” “No clue, but it looks like someone’s opening the door and I’m working on their communications. I’m just heading around to the airlock.” Anet shakes her head, “Talyor, be careful you’ve got Taylor there, and I know you want her to meet your dad.” Taylor shakes her head as she pulls herself into her human shape, “Yeah, yeah, I’ll be careful.” As she makes her way around to the airlock, she spots a window and waves to the people staring at her from inside. At the airlock is a human, wearing some sort of basic propulsion frame, tethering themselves to the outside of the ship. Slowly they turn around to face Taylor, who waves cheerfully, before they check their oxygen supply. While they’re doing that, Taylor floats into the airlock next to them and touches the wall to close the airlock. As she does, she absently leaves part of herself behind to learn what she can about their computer systems. BANG! Taylor looks down at the remains of her plushie and then up at the human in a space suit, at the same time her systems reconfigure her shields to convert piercing kinetic energy to electricity for her systems. “What did you do that for? That was Anet’s plushie!” As the person in front of her takes a couple more shots, Anet asks, “Taylor, what’s going on?” “I’m being shot at, and the first shot went through your condrac plushie.” Anet begins to laughs, “Taylor have you tried speaking English? Oh, and my original plushie is in digital storage.” Taylor drops the plushie and puts her head in her now free hand, “I’m an idiot, no wait. I’m in a vacuum and we haven’t… Really? Their communications aren’t using any cyphers whatsoever? #*!%!” Taylor connects to the humans communications system and drags her English language out of the back of her memory, “Good morning, I hope you don’t mind me dropping by for a cup of milk…” The human opposite her freezes before pointing their gun towards the ceiling, “What?” “Don’t mind me, I’m just trying to remember my word book as I haven’t used it in over 1,000 years.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Jane Shepherd looks at the thing wearing the body of a human in alarm, changing channels on her comm, she says, “Joker, get command on the line we’ve got a first contact scenario.” Before Joker can say anything the thing says, “What? No, I’m not an alien, I’m human. Well I was until a few months ago anyway… At least I think I was, as I still had 28 chromosomes but do implants stop you being human… Oh, hey… Jane Shepherd isn’t it. You have implants, have you stopped being human?” Jane switches over to an encrypted channel, “Miranda get them out of our comms.” The thing shrugs, “If you’re not going to put in even basic encryption, don’t expect to keep anyone out. Oh, and the airlock now has pressure.” Miranda replies, “This is encrypted... I’ve generated 257 new keys, and they're broken as quickly as they're used.” The thing responds, “Wait, those aren't just fancy math tests? Margulis, have you ever heard of doing encryption with prime numbers?” “No I haven't, I'm a bit busy trying to save the digital storage here.” Jane pulls her helmet off and leans heavily against the wall, “Just my luck, there’s more than one of them.” A third voice comes over the comm, “Taylor, don’t you think you should introduce yourself?” Somehow, the thing in front of her manages to blush as it says, “Oops, sorry about that. I’m Taylor Hebert, originally from Earth Bet, but most recently from the Origin System. If it helps, I was born human, I just had a slight accident” Jane stares at the hand that Taylor is holding out. Coming to a decision, she grabs the hand, “#*!% it, I’m Jane Shepherd. Pleased to meet you. You wouldn’t happen to have seen anything attacking a shuttle that was passing through here a few hours ago?” Taylor shakes her head, “Sorry, no. But it was probably the same thing that destroyed our ships. We transited from the void, and bam, we were hit by a projectile going faster than light.” Jane blinks twice, “Joker, calculate the exact vector the shuttle would have been taking.” EDI’s voice comes back in less than a second, “Calculations say that it is possible that this was a collision rather than an attack. There was a 0.0000003 second window between the Mass Relay activating and the shuttle leaving the solar system plus or minus 500 nano seconds.” Taylor blinks, “Wait, that’s a big error window. Let me see those calculations… Mercury’s mines, how crude is this computing hardware. No wonder it’s so bad… right I see. We didn’t see the incoming light from the transit for 1925.436231984332 seconds after the collision which would put their relative locations at that, giving us a 0.21 arc second deviation…” Taylor continues to mumble for a couple of minutes before saying, “Margulis, could you check my math, to make sure I’ve correctly accounted for everything.” Jane shouts, “Power down the ship, don’t let it get into our computers.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Miranda comes running to the airlock. As Taylor glances over at the aristocratic looking woman with long black hair she calls out, “Comms are completely compro… oh… I also couldn’t shut the ship down.” Taylor waves, “Hi, I’m Taylor. Oh, and Margulis is just coming to the ship with Pemmy. Something about impossible numbers in your calculations. So you may want to leave the airlock.” This is when she notices the trio of marines pointing their rifles at her, one arm turns briefly into a tentacle to snatch one of the guns, “Oh, those are interesting, where’s the smart matter? And what’s the deal with this impossible element?” At the same time, there’s the loud retort of automatic gunfire unloading into Taylor until the cartridges turn red hot and automatically eject. Something that she just ignores, as she’s already adapted to it after Jane tried to shoot her. Jane shouts “Weapons down! Weapons down! She is currently non-hostile and we don’t want her to become hostile.” Jane’s eyes widen comically as another thing comes through the wall behind the marines along with a floating pillar around as tall as a human, and maybe 2m in diameter. That’s when things go from sideways to surreal and all the guns in the area spontaneously dismantle themselves, with their components just floating in the air. The tiny spheres of eezo that provide the mass effect field needed to fire the weapons dance in front of the newcomer. Taylor huffs as she starts to reform the floating weapon components into 3 Fulmin, the signature weapon of Wisp, and one Plinx, a corpus pistol, “Margulis, what have we said about not acting on your impulses. Sorry about that, these weapons don’t need any ammo as they run entirely off of electricity.” Jane dumbly nods as she takes the weird looking pistol, “Um, thanks. Would you be able to give us our ship back?” Taylor looks up, “Um, what? Oh… Sort of no? Taking over technology is a natural byproduct of us just being here. But I can certainly stop paying attention to it. Um, would you mind taking us to the Kuniper Belt so we can make a new Pemmy. That way we can let Margulis have fun building a dry dock and new base while Anet and I come and help you as best as we can as an apology for all this.” Margulis looks up, “You mean that Taylor? You’ll let me build a new research centre? Can I keep these element samples too please?” Taylor sighs, “Margulis, when did you learn English?” “Huh? Just now. They have translation programs built in to their computers, so it was trivial to just copy them to my implants and add Orokin to them.” Taylor sighs, “Jane Shepherd, meet Margulis, my somewhat daughter and one of my partners. She’s also the last Orokin Archemedian and the most intelligent person you’ll ever meet. She also has the attention span of a mayfly.” Margulis looks up, “I’m not that bad.” Taylor laughs “Margulis, how’s the planning for the in-place upgrade of this ship going, and how many new projects have you started since you dismantled the guns?” “Shut up! I’m only 40% through that plan, as I need to really understand this new element. I don’t yet understand how it allows for negative mass without destroying everything.” “And how many new projects?” Margulis mumbles, “17, but only because I’m currently trying to get into the scientific journals to see the state of the sciences here. I predict another 135 projects arising from that information, including a dedicated toy to produce this element.” “What about the orbiter?” Margulis looks up, “Hmm, that’s interesting… Oh, what? The orbiter? My lab’s on independent power now, and I left it building a new Pemmy, that should be done in the next hour and Ordis can then direct the most urgent repairs so we can get the ship into the drydock.” From the helm, Joker calls, “Captain, the ship is moving without me doing anything.” Taylor snaps at Margulis, “Margulis, stop that!” “But!” “This is not your ship, and they’re not enemies. You’re not our enemies are you?” Jane shakes her head and raises her free hand, “No, no, we’re not enemies. Um, are you AI?” Taylor shakes her head, “We’re synthetic, rather than biological, life forms. Ordis, Cy, and Taylor here,” she lifts the blue pyramid, “are all cephalons. That means they used to be organic until the Orokin turned them into cephalons, and now they’re digital intelligences.” Jane swallows hard, “Uh, Joker, set course for the nearest large object in the kuniper belt. Everyone else back to work. Miranda, get the others and meet me in the ready room with Taylor.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ As Taylor walks into the briefing room, she stops to look at the large wooden table, with a central holographic projector, in the cramped room. With a shrug, she activates the OmniMat built into Pemmy and replaces it with an Orokin era projector. Cocking her head to one side, she sends a query to Margulis for the specifications of a mini synthesis simulacrum. Within milliseconds, Margulis has sent back the design, plus the designs for chairs that will allow non-orokin to use it. With a minor thought, she dissolves the back wall of the room for energy and uses it to build a small void reactor and start it. Now having enough energy to work with, she first builds out the computing hardware needed to run the system, and a dock to put Cephalon Taylor on, before connecting the system to the ships computer network and starting on the chairs. As an afterthought, she locates the core for the ship’s AI and points Margulis at it for upgrading, given the vastly more capable computer that Cephalon Taylor is going to have. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Jane holds her brittle smile as she guides the human looking alien to the briefing room behind the CiC. “Taylor wasn’t it? Would you wait in there, I just need to get something from my quarters and I’ll be back.” Taylor doesn’t even seem to acknowledge her as Jane makes her way to the lift up to her cabin. Once inside, she makes her way over to her personal comm and inputs her codes for the citadel council. A few seconds later, the salarian councillor, Valern, appears in the view screen, “Spectre, you are a long way from the Terminus System.” Jane nods, “I am, I’m in Sol on Alliance business. However, Council business dropped in my lap.” “Go ahead.” “We are currently experiencing a first contact scenario with a highly advanced species that seem to be extra-galactic.” Valern cocks his head, “What makes you think they’re extra-galactic?” Jane laughs dryly, “They had no idea what eezo was until they came aboard.” Valern looks down, “I see, I will have some diplomats sent out soon. Will you be in position long?” Jane shakes her head, “I don’t know. What I do know is that they took over the Normandy with no apparent effort. They are able to shrug off our weapons, and they have the ability to reform matter out of hand.” Jane holds up her plinx, “This used to be an M-3 Predator. Now it’s whatever this is.” “This is an order then, delay your departure from Sol for as long as you can. I will contact you again once I’ve convened the council.” Jane nods, “Understood.” With that, the screen goes blank and Jane makes her way back down to the CiC. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Back at the cockpit, Margulis mutters, “Damn it, I wish I was in my research lab, then I could look at the subatomic make up of… Damn it Anet! Why didn’t you make us train on the subatomic level…” EDI turns her attention to Joker in the pilot seat, “Pilot Moreau, is it possible to look at subatomic structures? My records indicate that it is not.” Joker looks back as he’s carefully throttling the eezo drive to allow the Normandy to reach the kuiper belt in reasonable time. “So far as I know, they still have to smash things together to see the bits and pieces that make up atoms. Something about quantum uncertainty or something.” Absently, Margulis says, “The universe is holographic, so you can just look deeper and deeper the higher the frequency you look in. That’s interesting, I wonder how they managed that. Oh, EDI, this might itch a little.”
  5. Harry Potter: Tenno – 1 “Harry?” “Yes Lotus?” Harry says absently while looking through a recovered Orokin terminal on the Orcus Relay. “What is that?” The that in question is a brown avian with large eyes, sharp claws, and a beak designed for rending flesh. It was also wearing a harness and had a leather tie around one foot. “According to ancient Orokin records, it’s likely to be some sort of owl. Though they don’t have much about them on this terminal. I’m still trying to find a translation program that will work on this letter.” “Letter?” “Yes, it was carrying a small scroll, the scanner says that it is made out of skin of an animal. One that we have no records of in our databases. Neither does Simaris, in fact he offered me my pick of his offerings in trade when he found out about the owl.” Lotus is silent for a moment, “Harry, do you want to use the systems on Lua? They are still the originals that were there before I moved it into the void.” “There’s an idea, thank you. Maybe they also have a record of the letter I was found with. Margulis used to tell me about it and how the original was being used to create new species for Earth.” Harry sounds a little sad when talking about Margulis, though he does pack up and head back to his lander. “I’m sorry I’m not her Harry” “Don’t be, I’ve had two wonderful mothers. Even when you were Natah the Sentient for a while, you were still my mother. Did you know that I never had my memory wiped, I don’t think I’ve every mentioned that before. I still remember the look on Margulis’ face when I came out of the device that was supposed to seal them away, and then ran towards her shouting ‘Mama’” Lotus considers that for a moment, “I can imagine. You always were an odd one Harry. You had less issues controlling your void energies, and were far more versatile in what they could do.” Harry laughs, “According to Margulis, my existence did more to upend their ideas about souls too. There were some theories before I arrived that they yellow light seen when they convert a cephalon is actually the persons soul. Apparently, I had a fragment of another persons soul in my head.” “I hadn’t heard about that.” “Mum, my first mum, used to talk to me about her work when she thought I was too young to understand. Something about the control exercises that they had us learn allowed me to remember everything perfectly. Including when you stood up to Hunhow for us before you took on a human form. Listen, I’ve just arrived at my lander, give me a day and I’ll see you in person.” As he hangs up on the Lotus, he looks at the lander and then at the bird that’s perched on his shoulder, “Ordis, do you have any thoughts about how to get an owl onto the orbiter without using the digitisation beam?” “Ordis wonders if the Operator is Crazy forgetting the docking door.” “Thanks Ordis, I had forgotten. Could you open it for me.” “Ordis will manoeuvre the lander so you can use the door.” “Thank you Ordis.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ When Harry saw the Lotus waiting for him at the landing site he transferred out of his Equinox Prime and launched himself into a hug, “Mother!” “Ooof. Hello Harry.” “I’ve missed you. How are you adjusting to being the Lotus again?” “It is, interesting. Why did you suggest I take up this name again?” Harry leans back, “Margulis was a woman who’s boots you were trying to fill, and Natah is the person that your family moulded. However, the Lotus is the person you chose to be. The name that you took on yourself. Why wouldn’t I want to honour that? Every one of us has been shaped by the war, and you allowed us to be our own people, why wouldn’t you expect the same?” “Thank you.” “Besides,” Harry adds cheekily, “You’re more cuddly like this.” Natah smiles at the most accepting of her Tenno, her children as he disengages and opens the air tight cabin to let the owl out. Using all of her senses she studies the owl trying to divine it’s origins, and comes up blank. They then walk together down to the original labs that Margulis used. Loading the scans of the parchment and owl into the labs computers unlocks a previously secured section of the servers. There they find a lot of speculation on DNA divergence points, as well as a translation program for the ancient language the letter is written in. There’s copious notes by Silvana about how the differences were enabling her to develop flora and fauna that would be resistant to the pollution that was plaguing the earth. Apparently, all of the things he appeared with were made from organic materials that had retrievable DNA. The last thing they find is thousands of pages of research on the soul using the fragment they extracted from Harry’s forehead. As Harry gets lost in the research and speculation about his origins, she takes the time to make some nanites to sustain the owl off of the ambient Orokin energy. To Natah, the most important find was the original specifications for her ancestors along with speculation on how they could have incorporated a soul into it. Later investigation would reveal that every single project in that part of the servers had been banned and destroyed by the Orokin leadership at the time. Additionally, all of the scientists involved were put to death the same way that Margulis had been, with the sole exception of Silvana who went missing on Earth, and was presumed dead. ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Harry was absolutely engrossed, and then he came to the research about souls. The more he read, the more he was sickened by what happened to his first mother. “Mum.” Natah looks over from a mission briefing she’s giving, “Yes Harry?” “Thank you for killing the Orokin.” “Ah, er,” She quickly turns back to the briefing, “Sorry to cut this short Tenno, the Grineer and Corpus are arguing about territory again and are willing to pay quite handsomely for your help. Pick a side, and if you see out the campaign then you’ll get your pay.” She then closes the call quickly before giving Harry her full attention. “What brought this on.” “I’ve been reading up on the Jade Light. Those, those, corpus execs, were destroying peoples souls. Not just the Oro, but the soul itself. That’s why their Oro, where they’ve survived in the past, didn’t bring them back.” “Harry, have you read the letter yet?” “I know what you’re doing Mum, and no I haven’t” “Well, maybe we should read it together.” __________ School of Witchcraft and ____________ Headmaster: ___________ ____________ (Order of _______, First Class, Grand _______, ___ ___________, Supreme ________, International ___________ of Wizards) Dear Mr Potter, We are pleased to inform you that you have a place at __________ School of Witchcraft and ________. Please find enclosed a list of all necessary books and equipment. Term begins on 1 ___________. We await your owl by no later than 31 ______. Yours Sincerely, ___________ _______ Deputy Headmistress Harry shakes his head, “That’s a lot of unknown words.” “What was written on the other side?” “Oh, just the nav-coordinates of my location when the owl arrived. I checked that with Ordis as soon as I got the letter on board the Orbiter.” Natah nods, “Let us craft a reply, and send it on it’s way.” ═══════ ೋღ ֍ ღೋ ═══════ Minerva looks up as one of the long distance school owls appears in her office while she’s just sat down to do some paperwork. Which is odd, as she’d just sent off the last batch of school letters. Her eyes widen as the implication sinks in, this is the owl that she sent out with Harry’s letter. It is with a sinking feeling that she retrieves the letter from the owls leg, as the only reason the owl would be that quick is if the letter was undeliverable. She’s reaching for her wand to vanish the letter before taking the news to the headmaster when her brain catches up to what her fingers are telling her. This isn’t parchment. Fingers trembling she opens the letter to see printed text in both English and an unknown language. Dear Deputy Headmistress We received have your letter, and have translated best as we can. Please could you provide coordinates for navigate us to find you. I am interested in attending your educational establishment, do you have a place where the downloaded buy the books? We will also compilation need of your calendar and how relates it to your star system, as we share not the same. Regards Natah (The Lotus), Harry. Sent at Tau-71324998 Rath-89423843 Vela-13024935 Lemos-24194340 Orion-65732041 Gro-27843519 from Sol, Milky way. Clutching the letter tightly she scrambles around her desk, catching her thigh on the corner, and fair runs to the headmasters office.
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