Question: If commander Tomar was high enough up in the Torgaljin ranks, why would he risk his ship and crew to an attack by the warpers. He must have been aware that they existed and knew they were able to strike down the Aurora. He blatantly bombarded their planet, what did he expect? Unless Torgaljin was completely unaware to the existence of a sentient species residing on the planet. Also why was the Aurora there again? You mentioned that Alterra and Torgaljin were working together to essentially strip mine the planet/build a secret colony, right? But it seems Alterra is out of this deal after what happened with the Aurora. Will further influence by Alterra be mentioned?
DIGBY fired, striking the closest Rockpuncher squarely behind its heavily armoured shoulder plates. The effect was instantaneous. It dropped to the ground like a sack of bricks, completely inert. The remaining Rockpunchers appeared to go into spasms, as if they were desperately fighting against a powerful external influence. DIGBY shifted position, his ExoSuit Percival dancing a graceful salsa as it dodged and weaved, compensating for the erratic gyrations of these creatures. Five seconds later, DIGBY fired again with the same satisfying result. JUNO and IANTO fired another short burst at the others to keep them cowed while DIGBY sniped each one in its turn. Although it was powerful, the Gauss cannon had a capacitor recycle time of five seconds, making this weapon a dubious proposition in a single-handed firefight.
Thirty seconds later, it was all over.
"Are they dead?" I asked, tentatively nudging one with Gawain's right foot.
"Negative, Captain. Scanning indicates that a powerful sedative agent was released into their bodies as a side-effect of the command module's destruction. I assume that this was a fail-safe device incorporated into the device, intended to subdue the creatures in the event of a systems failure."
"Makes perfect sense to me. You wouldn't want these particular hoolies going on a rampage in an undersea base. We'll drag them back to the sub pen and toss them back in the water. I conjure they'd rather be somewhere else when they eventually wake up. I'd certainly feel a whole lot safer with them out of the picture."
"I concur, Captain." IANTO said. "Without any obvious threats in their immediate area, their most logical response would be to return to their native habitat without delay. However, I cannot guarantee that they would not return. Insufficient data exists for this species."
I walked over to DIGBY's ExoSuit and bowed respectfully. Or at least, my suit did.
"Your Mecha-jutsu is strong, DIGBY-san. You have brought great honour to our dojo."
From his lofty perch atop Percival, DIGBY bowed in return. "Hai. Domo arigato gozaimasu, Sensei."
"Right, let's chuck these lobsters back. Mum won't let me keep 'em." I said cheerfully.
Twenty minutes later, we exited the main airlock and headed back to the atrium. By my count, roughly four and a half hours remained until the Lava Castle's inhabitants started to regain consciousness. They wouldn't be in any particular shape to do much to impede our efforts, but I'd prefer to keep any collateral damage to base personnel as close to zero as humanly possible.
I gazed at the massive blast doors, stroking my chin thoughtfully. Two metres thick, faced with a refractory ceramic coating that would make it hard going for the most powerful laser cutter we had. The hinges and shot bolts scanned as case-hardened titanium alloy, faced with a dense layer of boron nitride. The locking mechanism was a masterpiece of high technology. Full-spectrum biometric scanner, presumably keyed to the DNA of those folk who had sole access beyond this point. Superconducting mag-locks, power operated door mechanism. In a word... Tricky.
Instead of wasting precious hours fiddling with this dauntingly impressive barrier, we simply punched a hole in the three-metre thick basalt wall with our Terraformers.
Problem solved.
If the star trek writers could hear me...... they would probably wish I would shut up.
But I think that it is important that a story keeps it's own internal logic, even if that is seprate from real life logic. For instance, if you are writing about the far future, and they don't have the technology to do something that we can do today, then there better be a damm good reason for it.
Not to say that is a problem your story has- it really is quite good, and has done a decent job of sticking to the same set of rules. I was simply pointing out that the terraformer was being removed as a joke.
If the star trek writers could hear me...... they would probably wish I would shut up.
But I think that it is important that a story keeps it's own internal logic, even if that is seprate from real life logic. For instance, if you are writing about the far future, and they don't have the technology to do something that we can do today, then there better be a damm good reason for it.
Not to say that is a problem your story has- it really is quite good, and has done a decent job of sticking to the same set of rules. I was simply pointing out that the terraformer was being removed as a joke.
My story has, and attempts to constantly maintain its own internal logic. Rest assured on that point.
Picking holes in an evolving narrative is probably the worst insult anyone could offer an author. You are doing me no favours.
The notion of 'constructive criticism' does not give anyone free licence to offer 'helpful' suggestions, speculations or make snide comments that only serve to derail the story's progress. Kindly wait until the story is finished, please. Furthermore, events are planned to develop and unfold in a specific sequence. If a story element requires a detailed explanation or a rationale for its existence, you may also rest assured that it shall happen in the fullness of time.
Patience is the key here.
As for making snide comments purely to get a reaction from the author... That dog won't hunt.
I regard trolling in an extremely dim light. Defective Delfin walked that same path. Don't be that guy. K?
Do you know what a joke is? I mean, really. Calm down.
I am perfectly calm. Some of these 'joke' comments are beginning to slip over the line. Again.
Merely reining in some of the potentially pointed comments before they turn nasty.
The bottom line: My plot ideas. My story. I have the final say in what appears in it.
I'd rather not spoon-feed every plot device and odd turn of phrase to the audience. It's condescending, and totally unnecessary.
Pretty sure the little laughing emoji clearly denoted it as a joke, as did his next comment and subsequent apology. He obviously wasn't trying to change anything. Maybe you should give your audience a little more credit, and don't spoon-feed them when it's obviously not needed.
We stepped through the wall and found ourselves in a slightly smaller atrium. Some attempt had been made to soften the stark brutality of the black basalt, although its artistic merits were entirely lost on me. To be honest, quasi-'Soviet Realist' images depicting asteroid mining didn't really do it for me, I'm afraid. It's nothing more than soul destroying, backbreaking, man-killing hard labour. There's no way in the 'Verse anyone could aesthetically glorify that.
We dismounted from the ExoSuits and set them to overwatch mode. Most of the doors were too small to admit them, and we were well beyond the point where we actually needed their firepower. At the very most, only four Torgaljin operatives were still conscious. They might have some armed service or security robots at their disposal, although I sincerely doubted it. Not even a single automated defence turret guarded the approaches to our objective. JUNO had already taken care of that.
Torgaljin Corp was well known for its 'hands-on' approach to primary industry, and its aversion to anything that concerned AI systems bordered on a fanatical hatred. Even their autonomous planetary mining system STARFISH was at the lowest end of the AI intelligence spectrum. Presumably, its existence was tolerated purely for the sake of increased productivity.
The side corridors in the atrium led off to accommodation suites, laboratories and support facilities. I sent IANTO off to search these areas and turn their data systems over for any useful information. Presently, we stood before a massive pair of doors bearing the Thor's Hammer sigil of House Torgal.
Feeling somewhat foolish, I pressed my palm against the intercom pad. A cheerful voice responded.
"Please come in, Engineer Selkirk. I've been expecting you for some time now."
JUNO held up a cautioning finger. I nodded.
The doors opened, and JUNO entered ahead of me. From somewhere inside the room, an automatic weapon opened fire, cutting her down in mid-stride. JUNO sprawled lifelessly on the ground, her blood slowly seeping into the pale grey floor covering. As the echoing gunshots died, the air fell eerily silent.
With a low chuckle, JUNO rose to her feet and slowly advanced towards her assailant. The submachine gun stuttered again, sending gouts of blood flying from JUNO's face and chest. Completely unfazed, she continued to advance until she was standing toe to toe with the shooter.
"Hmm... A Morita Kaiten, 10mm SMG, thirty round magazine. Unless I'm gravely mistaken, you have only one round remaining. You might not want to waste it on me." JUNO said, smiling sweetly.
As JUNO had their undivided attention by now, I slipped quietly into the room. The frozen tableau of four people gaping at a blood-soaked android seemed almost comical. Suddenly, the central figure slammed his hand angrily on the desk.
From what I could see, he was little more than a teenager.
"Baka ne! - It's just a blerry android! Marguerit, shoot the rutting thing!" The youth yelled.
JUNO strode into the room and stood beside me, her flechette rifle poised to fire.
"No. It's a hologram. I'm the android." JUNO said, smiling grimly. "Now, kindly drop your weapons."
Please remember to keep your quotes short, and try not to waste Bugzapper's time, thanks. Also, you're being a jerk. Stop.
-A fan of Aurora Falls.
I actually cut off a significant part of his quote, and was merely commenting on his apparent inability to understand sarcasm. If he doesn't want to "spoonfeed" people, maybe the best course of action is to not reply to casual jokes with long-winded insults and a condescending tone.
Some of you people keep continuing these arguments maybe like you want to get the last laugh before it ends, or maybe not, but either way, how about you just stop arguing about stuff and using more of the alloted posts-per-page or whatever it is? I recall page 17, was it?, was mostly posts not by Bugzapper/parts of the story. Compare to the early pages, which were mostly the story.
A little commenting is fine, maybe, but don't take it too far.
Not that I dictate how this works, that would be Bugzapper, but maybe take a suggestion or something.
Edit #4 or 5 or something: Yes, on page 17, only 3 out of the 30 posts were story. I had maybe two or just one post. Or maybe more. (edited as #5 or 6 to correct number from 2 to 3)
I mean, I don't think upgraded and very high security would be worth the money in Torgaljin's eyes. They are a few thousand metres below sea level on an unexplored alien world that not a lot of people know about, and if people do come lurching to the planet its likely that the warpers will just fill their ships reactors with a few gallons of seawater. So I think you would be relatively safe. Who would expect a fleet of cyclops and 4 heavily armed exo-suits to be knocking at their door.
So in short, Torgaljin essentially lived under a false sense of security. No wonder they didn't see the need to spend time and resources upgrading their systems.
Being isolated from home with no chance of relief or supply drops didn't help either.
I strolled over to the large desk and casually sat down on one corner, seemingly oblivious to the glares of distaste thrown in my direction. This beardless youth could only be Baat Torgaljin. He was a sallow piece of work, undoubtedly as a consequence of living without real sunlight for a major portion of his life. There was some genuine intelligence lurking behind those deep-set eyes, along with an unhealthy helping of malice. In many ways, his appearance reminded me of the Gothic Revival types back on Terra. A single shoulder-length swatch of black hair hung asymmetrically from an otherwise shaved head, intricate silver and black moko tattoos adorned his brow and left jaw-line. He wore a heavy knee-length duster coat over a finely-tailored House Torgal utility jumpsuit, presumably for the air of menace it supposedly conferred. All I really saw was another snot-nosed kid, desperately trying to crawl out from under Daddy's shadow. Even so, this was definitely not a chap to be taken lightly.
"I need to speak with Paal Torgal." I said quietly.
The hard-eyed Belter woman named Marguerit smirked unpleasantly. She was obviously one of Paal Torgal's personal bodyguards, judging by the amount of weaponry dropped when she was politely asked to do so. However, I felt that there might have been 'something' going on between Baat and her. Just a feeling mark you, but a fairly definite one. Marguerit Maida was more 'striking' than physically attractive in the usual sense. I was keeping a discreet but constant eye on her, and not only from a security perspective. Her lower face was decorated in the distinctive broad-stroked red moko of a Torgaljin Protector, making it seem as if her jaws were covered in blood. Someone else's blood, to be precise. She had the bearing of a queen cobra, tensed and ready to strike at any time.
"Difficult, Engineer Selkirk... But not entirely impossible. After what you have done today, I would gladly arrange a conversation between you and my father. Unfortunately, he died of natural causes more than five years ago. In spite of my best efforts, he succumbed to a dreadful terminal illness." Baat murmured.
"Oh. Absolutely nothing to do with a successful Pillow-ectomy, then?" I inquired innocently. "In that case, please accept my most sincere condolences and heartiest congratulations, Emperor Caligula."
Baat scowled darkly.
"Agh, just get to your point, man. What gives you the right to invade a House Torgal research facility? This entire planet is my sole and sovereign territory, by right of birth."
"I'll have to go with the same right that permitted your man Tomar to enter my base and murder me without provocation. Incidentally, I'm beginning to sense a disturbing pattern developing in these Torgaljin social interactions... 'Hello! - BANG!' You might want to look into that, boykie. Doesn't exactly present Torgaljin Corp in the most favourable light. Purely a constructive criticism, of course."
"I haven't heard from Invigilator Tomar for quite some time now. Do you know what happened to him?"
I thrust my face within inches of his. Baat flinched back defensively.
"I happened to him! He's dead, along with the crew of De Ruyter. Unless you want to join him in The Black Fleet, you will do precisely what I say."
Baat laughed awkwardly. "I've only got your word for that, Selkirk. From what Tomar told me, your 'tactics' are comprised of nothing but misinformation, intimidation and empty threats. Those androids of yours physically can't and won't pull the trigger. They're incapable of taking human life."
I sucked air between my teeth thoughtfully. "Now, that would be a prima facie error of judgement on your part, Laddie. My androids are currently operating under the MARTIAL protocol. They are effectively defence troopers in this mode, and as such, will immediately use lethal force whenever they detect what they consider an appropriate threat level. I wouldn't provoke them, if I were you."
At that moment, DIGBY and IANTO entered the room. DIGBY moved over to one side of the entrance and set himself up as a one-android ambush. The first thing that passed through that hole without permission would be extremely sorry indeed. IANTO walked over to me and reported.
"Search detail completed, Sir. All biotechnology research files have been downloaded. Parent files erased. Auxiliary weapons storage bunker has been completely cleared. Weapon fabrication template copies downloaded and secured. All on-site data storage facilities successfully erased."
"WHAT?" Baat Torgal yelled, utterly horrified.
"This is only the very beginning of my sanctions, mate." I said calmly. "You have just lost all of your accumulated research data, plus the capacity to fabricate any form of weaponry. Unless you're using Sporks in your cafeteria, the most dangerous weapon on this base is currently a steak knife. Think about that for a while."
"You can't do this!" Torgal howled in anguish. "We'll have no way to defend ourselves!"
"Against what, pray tell?" I asked. "Could it be an ocean full of angry Warpers, perchance?"
Baat's expression changed instantly. He regarded me with a speculative look in his eyes, as if weighing and measuring my potential worth to his enterprise. "Warpers, you call them. We haven't been able to accumulate much useful data on this species. They have proved to be particularly elusive so far. What exactly have you found out, Selkirk?"
"Not very much at all, except that they are an extremely powerful and above all, intelligent race. They have been shooting down all ships that have attempted to land on this planet, presumably as a direct result of your decision to capture a particularly important organism for your own nefarious purposes. I won't sugar-coat this for you in the slightest, kid... You are solely responsible for the deaths of over 2,700 people so far. We have come to put a stop to it, once and for all."
"You've got no proof of that." Torgal muttered sullenly. "I admit to having the Progenitor captured and confined, but you can't blame me for any of those deaths."
I dragged him out of the chair by his collar, then slapped his face good and hard. Both bodyguards bristled threateningly. In response, JUNO and IANTO instantly snapped into firing stance. The hired muscle hastily backed down. Smart move.
"Listen here, you stupid little ponce! You've imprisoned and quite possibly tortured a unique creature that's the actual wellspring of all life on this planet. Why in Hell's name would you even need to do that? - Answer me, gorram it!"
"Genetic diversity. Once we had the complete genome of the Progenitor analysed, we could apply gene-splicing technology to create more... tractable life forms to eventually displace the native population. It was necessary, as the current forms have become increasingly hostile. We will also need that diversity to artificially increase our gene-pool if we are to survive here." Torgal said flatly.
"Ah, so you've noticed that increased hostility thing too, eh? Ever stop to wonder why?"
"Magellan's bio-research team suspected that some sort of hidden inter-connectivity exists between various species on this planet, but were unable to isolate any concrete proof of its existence. Almost all of their research data was destroyed during a typhoon, so we had to start all over again. The Progenitor's DNA offered a means to accelerate our research effort by several hundred orders of magnitude. If we could successfully contain and study that creature, practical applications would become available to us in a matter of months, rather than decades. With even more detailed information, it would have been possible to apply our gene-splicing techniques to human beings, ultimately creating a race of evolved humans that were perfectly adapted to life on this planet. This was my father's original and admittedly somewhat modest objective. However, I had far greater plans in mind."
"I'll bet you did." I said wryly. "However, you didn't stop to consider the consequences, did you?"
"Didn't seem to be any." Torgal said indifferently. "We have what amounts to the planet's god-king entirely under our control, and it was assumed that any other sentient inhabitants would simply fall into line and do exactly as they were told."
I snorted derisively. "Except that they didn't. Just a couple of logical flaws there, Torgal-kun. One: You have only succeeded in making all sentient life on this planet extremely angry. The Warpers have effectively formed a maquis, a highly organized and extremely effective group of planetary Resistance fighters. This species is able to knock starships out of low planetary orbit by forming warp portals in critical drive systems. You don't have a hope in Hell standing against them. Two: How are you going to tell Warpers what you want them to do? It took the combined efforts of two of my AIs to work out a basic pantomime for their benefit... Again, not even a snowball's chance, Jimmy."
Torgal stared at me in disbelief. "You've... You've actually communicated with Warpers?"
"Aye, and they're none too pleased with the way you lot have been carrying on. In fact, they straight up and asked for my assistance to rescue the Progenitor. Think back to the Magellan incident with the Warper. What happened shortly after Powell panicked and accidentally killed that Warper?"
Torgal wrinkled his brow in obvious concentration. "As I recall, we lost contact with Magellan approximately two hours after it happened. My father and I took off in his personal star-yacht Degasi to find out what was going on, and it was shot down shortly after liftoff. We all survived that crash-landing, but found ourselves stranded on the floating island for more than eleven months. We lost one of our two bodyguards to a native shark some time later. Eventually, Marguerit was able to gather enough materials to construct a submersible capable of reaching Magellan's other field base in the Snake Mushroom caves. It was quite some time before we were eventually able to reach our own research facility down here. Our original destination."
Comments
Thirty seconds later, it was all over.
"Are they dead?" I asked, tentatively nudging one with Gawain's right foot.
"Negative, Captain. Scanning indicates that a powerful sedative agent was released into their bodies as a side-effect of the command module's destruction. I assume that this was a fail-safe device incorporated into the device, intended to subdue the creatures in the event of a systems failure."
"Makes perfect sense to me. You wouldn't want these particular hoolies going on a rampage in an undersea base. We'll drag them back to the sub pen and toss them back in the water. I conjure they'd rather be somewhere else when they eventually wake up. I'd certainly feel a whole lot safer with them out of the picture."
"I concur, Captain." IANTO said. "Without any obvious threats in their immediate area, their most logical response would be to return to their native habitat without delay. However, I cannot guarantee that they would not return. Insufficient data exists for this species."
I walked over to DIGBY's ExoSuit and bowed respectfully. Or at least, my suit did.
"Your Mecha-jutsu is strong, DIGBY-san. You have brought great honour to our dojo."
From his lofty perch atop Percival, DIGBY bowed in return. "Hai. Domo arigato gozaimasu, Sensei."
"Right, let's chuck these lobsters back. Mum won't let me keep 'em." I said cheerfully.
Twenty minutes later, we exited the main airlock and headed back to the atrium. By my count, roughly four and a half hours remained until the Lava Castle's inhabitants started to regain consciousness. They wouldn't be in any particular shape to do much to impede our efforts, but I'd prefer to keep any collateral damage to base personnel as close to zero as humanly possible.
I gazed at the massive blast doors, stroking my chin thoughtfully. Two metres thick, faced with a refractory ceramic coating that would make it hard going for the most powerful laser cutter we had. The hinges and shot bolts scanned as case-hardened titanium alloy, faced with a dense layer of boron nitride. The locking mechanism was a masterpiece of high technology. Full-spectrum biometric scanner, presumably keyed to the DNA of those folk who had sole access beyond this point. Superconducting mag-locks, power operated door mechanism. In a word... Tricky.
Instead of wasting precious hours fiddling with this dauntingly impressive barrier, we simply punched a hole in the three-metre thick basalt wall with our Terraformers.
Problem solved.
Moral: Never, ever mess with an Engineer.
Not in this reality, Bucko. Please refrain from picking holes in the narrative, there's a good chap
Anyone can stand in front of a half-painted fence and say "You missed a bit."
If the star trek writers could hear me...... they would probably wish I would shut up.
But I think that it is important that a story keeps it's own internal logic, even if that is seprate from real life logic. For instance, if you are writing about the far future, and they don't have the technology to do something that we can do today, then there better be a damm good reason for it.
Not to say that is a problem your story has- it really is quite good, and has done a decent job of sticking to the same set of rules. I was simply pointing out that the terraformer was being removed as a joke.
My story has, and attempts to constantly maintain its own internal logic. Rest assured on that point.
Picking holes in an evolving narrative is probably the worst insult anyone could offer an author. You are doing me no favours.
The notion of 'constructive criticism' does not give anyone free licence to offer 'helpful' suggestions, speculations or make snide comments that only serve to derail the story's progress. Kindly wait until the story is finished, please. Furthermore, events are planned to develop and unfold in a specific sequence. If a story element requires a detailed explanation or a rationale for its existence, you may also rest assured that it shall happen in the fullness of time.
Patience is the key here.
As for making snide comments purely to get a reaction from the author... That dog won't hunt.
I regard trolling in an extremely dim light. Defective Delfin walked that same path. Don't be that guy. K?
Do you know what a joke is? I mean, really. Calm down.
I am perfectly calm. Some of these 'joke' comments are beginning to slip over the line. Again.
Merely reining in some of the potentially pointed comments before they turn nasty.
The bottom line: My plot ideas. My story. I have the final say in what appears in it.
I'd rather not spoon-feed every plot device and odd turn of phrase to the audience. It's condescending, and totally unnecessary.
Pretty sure the little laughing emoji clearly denoted it as a joke, as did his next comment and subsequent apology. He obviously wasn't trying to change anything. Maybe you should give your audience a little more credit, and don't spoon-feed them when it's obviously not needed.
Please remember to keep your quotes short, and try not to waste Bugzapper's time, thanks. Also, you're being a jerk. Stop.
-A fan of Aurora Falls.
We dismounted from the ExoSuits and set them to overwatch mode. Most of the doors were too small to admit them, and we were well beyond the point where we actually needed their firepower. At the very most, only four Torgaljin operatives were still conscious. They might have some armed service or security robots at their disposal, although I sincerely doubted it. Not even a single automated defence turret guarded the approaches to our objective. JUNO had already taken care of that.
Torgaljin Corp was well known for its 'hands-on' approach to primary industry, and its aversion to anything that concerned AI systems bordered on a fanatical hatred. Even their autonomous planetary mining system STARFISH was at the lowest end of the AI intelligence spectrum. Presumably, its existence was tolerated purely for the sake of increased productivity.
The side corridors in the atrium led off to accommodation suites, laboratories and support facilities. I sent IANTO off to search these areas and turn their data systems over for any useful information. Presently, we stood before a massive pair of doors bearing the Thor's Hammer sigil of House Torgal.
Feeling somewhat foolish, I pressed my palm against the intercom pad. A cheerful voice responded.
"Please come in, Engineer Selkirk. I've been expecting you for some time now."
JUNO held up a cautioning finger. I nodded.
The doors opened, and JUNO entered ahead of me. From somewhere inside the room, an automatic weapon opened fire, cutting her down in mid-stride. JUNO sprawled lifelessly on the ground, her blood slowly seeping into the pale grey floor covering. As the echoing gunshots died, the air fell eerily silent.
With a low chuckle, JUNO rose to her feet and slowly advanced towards her assailant. The submachine gun stuttered again, sending gouts of blood flying from JUNO's face and chest. Completely unfazed, she continued to advance until she was standing toe to toe with the shooter.
"Hmm... A Morita Kaiten, 10mm SMG, thirty round magazine. Unless I'm gravely mistaken, you have only one round remaining. You might not want to waste it on me." JUNO said, smiling sweetly.
As JUNO had their undivided attention by now, I slipped quietly into the room. The frozen tableau of four people gaping at a blood-soaked android seemed almost comical. Suddenly, the central figure slammed his hand angrily on the desk.
From what I could see, he was little more than a teenager.
"Baka ne! - It's just a blerry android! Marguerit, shoot the rutting thing!" The youth yelled.
JUNO strode into the room and stood beside me, her flechette rifle poised to fire.
"No. It's a hologram. I'm the android." JUNO said, smiling grimly. "Now, kindly drop your weapons."
I actually cut off a significant part of his quote, and was merely commenting on his apparent inability to understand sarcasm. If he doesn't want to "spoonfeed" people, maybe the best course of action is to not reply to casual jokes with long-winded insults and a condescending tone.
A little commenting is fine, maybe, but don't take it too far.
Not that I dictate how this works, that would be Bugzapper, but maybe take a suggestion or something.
Edit #4 or 5 or something: Yes, on page 17, only 3 out of the 30 posts were story. I had maybe two or just one post. Or maybe more. (edited as #5 or 6 to correct number from 2 to 3)
So in short, Torgaljin essentially lived under a false sense of security. No wonder they didn't see the need to spend time and resources upgrading their systems.
Being isolated from home with no chance of relief or supply drops didn't help either.
Sorry, ignore this post. It came too late.
"I need to speak with Paal Torgal." I said quietly.
The hard-eyed Belter woman named Marguerit smirked unpleasantly. She was obviously one of Paal Torgal's personal bodyguards, judging by the amount of weaponry dropped when she was politely asked to do so. However, I felt that there might have been 'something' going on between Baat and her. Just a feeling mark you, but a fairly definite one. Marguerit Maida was more 'striking' than physically attractive in the usual sense. I was keeping a discreet but constant eye on her, and not only from a security perspective. Her lower face was decorated in the distinctive broad-stroked red moko of a Torgaljin Protector, making it seem as if her jaws were covered in blood. Someone else's blood, to be precise. She had the bearing of a queen cobra, tensed and ready to strike at any time.
"Difficult, Engineer Selkirk... But not entirely impossible. After what you have done today, I would gladly arrange a conversation between you and my father. Unfortunately, he died of natural causes more than five years ago. In spite of my best efforts, he succumbed to a dreadful terminal illness." Baat murmured.
"Oh. Absolutely nothing to do with a successful Pillow-ectomy, then?" I inquired innocently. "In that case, please accept my most sincere condolences and heartiest congratulations, Emperor Caligula."
Baat scowled darkly.
"Agh, just get to your point, man. What gives you the right to invade a House Torgal research facility? This entire planet is my sole and sovereign territory, by right of birth."
"I'll have to go with the same right that permitted your man Tomar to enter my base and murder me without provocation. Incidentally, I'm beginning to sense a disturbing pattern developing in these Torgaljin social interactions... 'Hello! - BANG!' You might want to look into that, boykie. Doesn't exactly present Torgaljin Corp in the most favourable light. Purely a constructive criticism, of course."
"I haven't heard from Invigilator Tomar for quite some time now. Do you know what happened to him?"
I thrust my face within inches of his. Baat flinched back defensively.
"I happened to him! He's dead, along with the crew of De Ruyter. Unless you want to join him in The Black Fleet, you will do precisely what I say."
Well, that escalated quickly.
I sucked air between my teeth thoughtfully. "Now, that would be a prima facie error of judgement on your part, Laddie. My androids are currently operating under the MARTIAL protocol. They are effectively defence troopers in this mode, and as such, will immediately use lethal force whenever they detect what they consider an appropriate threat level. I wouldn't provoke them, if I were you."
At that moment, DIGBY and IANTO entered the room. DIGBY moved over to one side of the entrance and set himself up as a one-android ambush. The first thing that passed through that hole without permission would be extremely sorry indeed. IANTO walked over to me and reported.
"Search detail completed, Sir. All biotechnology research files have been downloaded. Parent files erased. Auxiliary weapons storage bunker has been completely cleared. Weapon fabrication template copies downloaded and secured. All on-site data storage facilities successfully erased."
"WHAT?" Baat Torgal yelled, utterly horrified.
"This is only the very beginning of my sanctions, mate." I said calmly. "You have just lost all of your accumulated research data, plus the capacity to fabricate any form of weaponry. Unless you're using Sporks in your cafeteria, the most dangerous weapon on this base is currently a steak knife. Think about that for a while."
"You can't do this!" Torgal howled in anguish. "We'll have no way to defend ourselves!"
"Against what, pray tell?" I asked. "Could it be an ocean full of angry Warpers, perchance?"
Baat's expression changed instantly. He regarded me with a speculative look in his eyes, as if weighing and measuring my potential worth to his enterprise. "Warpers, you call them. We haven't been able to accumulate much useful data on this species. They have proved to be particularly elusive so far. What exactly have you found out, Selkirk?"
"Not very much at all, except that they are an extremely powerful and above all, intelligent race. They have been shooting down all ships that have attempted to land on this planet, presumably as a direct result of your decision to capture a particularly important organism for your own nefarious purposes. I won't sugar-coat this for you in the slightest, kid... You are solely responsible for the deaths of over 2,700 people so far. We have come to put a stop to it, once and for all."
"You've got no proof of that." Torgal muttered sullenly. "I admit to having the Progenitor captured and confined, but you can't blame me for any of those deaths."
I dragged him out of the chair by his collar, then slapped his face good and hard. Both bodyguards bristled threateningly. In response, JUNO and IANTO instantly snapped into firing stance. The hired muscle hastily backed down. Smart move.
"Listen here, you stupid little ponce! You've imprisoned and quite possibly tortured a unique creature that's the actual wellspring of all life on this planet. Why in Hell's name would you even need to do that? - Answer me, gorram it!"
Couldn't stop laughing at that xD
Please correct me if I am wrong.
"Ah, so you've noticed that increased hostility thing too, eh? Ever stop to wonder why?"
"Magellan's bio-research team suspected that some sort of hidden inter-connectivity exists between various species on this planet, but were unable to isolate any concrete proof of its existence. Almost all of their research data was destroyed during a typhoon, so we had to start all over again. The Progenitor's DNA offered a means to accelerate our research effort by several hundred orders of magnitude. If we could successfully contain and study that creature, practical applications would become available to us in a matter of months, rather than decades. With even more detailed information, it would have been possible to apply our gene-splicing techniques to human beings, ultimately creating a race of evolved humans that were perfectly adapted to life on this planet. This was my father's original and admittedly somewhat modest objective. However, I had far greater plans in mind."
"I'll bet you did." I said wryly. "However, you didn't stop to consider the consequences, did you?"
"Didn't seem to be any." Torgal said indifferently. "We have what amounts to the planet's god-king entirely under our control, and it was assumed that any other sentient inhabitants would simply fall into line and do exactly as they were told."
I snorted derisively. "Except that they didn't. Just a couple of logical flaws there, Torgal-kun. One: You have only succeeded in making all sentient life on this planet extremely angry. The Warpers have effectively formed a maquis, a highly organized and extremely effective group of planetary Resistance fighters. This species is able to knock starships out of low planetary orbit by forming warp portals in critical drive systems. You don't have a hope in Hell standing against them. Two: How are you going to tell Warpers what you want them to do? It took the combined efforts of two of my AIs to work out a basic pantomime for their benefit... Again, not even a snowball's chance, Jimmy."
Torgal stared at me in disbelief. "You've... You've actually communicated with Warpers?"
"Aye, and they're none too pleased with the way you lot have been carrying on. In fact, they straight up and asked for my assistance to rescue the Progenitor. Think back to the Magellan incident with the Warper. What happened shortly after Powell panicked and accidentally killed that Warper?"
Torgal wrinkled his brow in obvious concentration. "As I recall, we lost contact with Magellan approximately two hours after it happened. My father and I took off in his personal star-yacht Degasi to find out what was going on, and it was shot down shortly after liftoff. We all survived that crash-landing, but found ourselves stranded on the floating island for more than eleven months. We lost one of our two bodyguards to a native shark some time later. Eventually, Marguerit was able to gather enough materials to construct a submersible capable of reaching Magellan's other field base in the Snake Mushroom caves. It was quite some time before we were eventually able to reach our own research facility down here. Our original destination."
Who ? Me? I don't think so.
Apparently, I am unable to understand sarcasm.