Aesen’s visuals from the ship tracked Osiris and the three new Recruits as they headed towards the ship docks.
Meanwhile Neal observed Osiris as well through the station's security cams, hacked by Aesen on his request. The first two recruits Osiris bumped into looked like hard bastards, so so far so good, then he saw Zeph and started to question the AI's sanity, wondering why they were recruiting a Vis busker of all people. The dossier did mention extreme...quirks in his personality, but not this.
Finally as the four of them entered the ship, Neal was waiting there, wanting to get a look at them in person.
Osiris spoke up first talking to the AI, “Aesen, lead the recruits to their quarters and get them acquainted with the Ship.”
“Right away Master Osiris, come this way if you three will.” Aesen said as Thada, Freya and Zeph were led to the elevator to be taken to the correct level where their housing would be, each having their own room.
Then Neal said "Hi honey, I see you brought the kids home, did you have a good day? Our pet has been annoying me though, where's the spray bottle? I have spray water all over his circuits."
Suddenly Neal was sprayed with direct precision with a few spurts of water from the ships automatic fire fighting systems.
“Bad fleshy! Bad! Bow down to your Synthetic superiors!” Aesen said in his characteristic joking way.
Neal looked up at where the water was coming from, visibly annoyed and said "See? This is why AI sentience isn't actively pursued. You do that again HAL and I'm going down to your core and rooting around in there until you think you're a duck."
Aesen chuckled again, “We’re getting along just fine Master Osiris.”
Soon Aesen was getting ready to plot a course to their next destination.
*Deep space, somewhere relatively near the independent systems*
The freighter convoy was moving slowly towards the navigation buoy that marked their next jump towards the independent systems. The cargo ship's sizes varied wildly, mainly because the company that owned them wasn’t exactly a "run of the mill" freight company. It was more something akin to a shell company that acted as an umbrella for various independent cargo operators.
The company took pains to conceal its activity in official channels, so it would be able to avoid a lot of taxes and drive up profits, but in so doing, gambled heavily with its cargo's safety. It mainly operated in routes that were charted, but not heavily patrolled by police forces.
The company wasn’t completely careless, as it would routinely contract the security services of other companies, usually the ones that offered the best prices. And these would usually subcontract privateers and small squads to fill the numbers. Khrelan was one such privateer and, fortunately, he didn't have to bring his own ship to this specific job.
"15 seconds to jump point. See you on the other side." transmitted the main freighter.
"Roger that. " answered Khrelan and many other pilots escorting.
One by one each freighter and accompanying escorts jumped to the next system. Khrelan was one of the last, as he was in the rear guard.
"Alright, here we go." he said to himself as he keyed the jump sequence.
What awaited him on the other side wasn’t the usual quiet star system, but hell. The convoy had jumped right into a rather well prepared pirate attack.
Barely two seconds in and two of the smaller freighters were already exploding, their engines and power cores breached by explosions from a small minefield laid around the arrival zone.
"Evasive maneuvers! Head in and help the other escorts! Try to protect the cargo!" shouted Khrelan into his squad's comm channel. Fat good that it'd do, there were almost as many pirates as escorts. And the minefield was tearing up the cargo ships.
He got a bead on a pirate fighter. Khrelan kept him in his sights until he got a lock and fired a missile. It streaked ahead and hit the pirate on the engines as he was shooting at a friendly. Swerving right to avoid the explosion, the first thing he saw was a ship's wingtip zoom by his cockpit by mere inches away.
"The hell! Was he trying to ram..." said he to himself, but he didn't finish the sentence as the ship jolted aside when he got hit by a volley. Shielding took the brunt of it, but many more of those and his ship would go.
He turned the ship around just in time to avoid most of another volley. Adjusting the ship, he fired along the enemy's projected path. He got lucky as one round pierced the cockpit and killed the alien inside.
One quick glance at the radar and he saw that the battle was not going well for either side. Most enemy and friendly blips were already gone, replaced by the occasional blip of a pod. Ahead, two freighters were shooting away as many escape pods as they could manage before they blew, but it was a bit too late. A sudden explosion from one of them finished the other, and their shockwave severy damaged most of the pods that were trying to get away.
It'd seem that Khrelan would be lucky just to get out of this alive.
He got on another bogey's six and managed to get in a couple of good shots, damaging one of the engines and a gun. He was going to finish the pirate when a very loud message from the main freighter blasted across all channels:
"We're breaking up! We're..." and that was it. Its radio cut out as a large explosion gutted the ship’s bridge and quite a large portion of the hull.
"excrement!" Khrelan turned tail and ran, trying to get away as much as he could before the big ship's core ruptured. It didn't take long, as something inside the cargo containers cooked off, popping the core. The explosion tossed a lot of debris out, not to mention a deadly shock wave. A large piece of debris hit Khrelan's fighter and severely damaged the power banks that powered weapons. The shock wave broke a wing clean off.
He made sure his armor suit was sealed and punched the eject button. The cockpit of the ship detached and its boost engine kicked in. It was barely enough. His fighter blew as the escape pod was speeding away. The force was enough to toss it aside.
The last thing Khrelan remembered was being tossed around very hard before he blacked out.
*a couple of hours later*
Khrelan woke to a nasty headache and a tangy coppery taste in his mouth. He fumbled with his suit's controls to see if it still had some painkillers to dose him with. As the headache subsided a bit, he surveyed what he could see from his cockpit.
Debris, debris as far as he could see. The occasional pod tumbling about. He could see a large part of the big freighter floating around in the distance. And corpses. Floating corpses here and there, dotting the "landscape".
"Urgh..." moaned him. He was stuck in an escape pod, in deep space, in the middle of nowhere. And he'd have to nurse a nasty headache. Such luck.
Currently Aesen was plotting a jump for Arcadonian space to recruit the next selection, however Aesen was also monitoring chatter in the Independent systems. Aesen soon discovered one of their selections, the Taurgit Male, was working as a fighter pilot escort for a cargo convoy. The destination they should be turning up in was rather nearby, not that distance was too much a factor for Aesen’s advanced FTL systems, and so decided to make a detour.
“Master Osiris, The Taurgit should be arriving in a nearby system, I say we intercept them before jumping into Ki’jan controlled territory.”
Osiris looked at the Galactic map, projected before him as he stood in the command position on the bridge.
“Acknowledged, getting these recruits quicker is prefered. Alter the course, first the Taurgit then the Ki’Jan.” Osiris said plainly as he sifted through the map to the system in question.
Within mere moments the ship was in system, however there was no convoy or any ships for that matter.
“Strange, they should be here. I will scan the system...anomaly detected near a travel marker buoy. Wreckage, there was a battle here. Moving us closer.” Aesen said as the ship slipped instantly to its target destination.
Osiris looked out of the forward port, seeing the carnage that must have unfolded not too long before their arrival.
“Aesen, scan for life.” Osiris commanded with his perpetually stoic visage. After a few rounds of scanning only a single life form was detected.
“Master Osiris I have detected an escape pod, the life form inside is Taurgit, I am unsure if it is the one we are looking for, I have detected multiple other Taurgit corpses as well. Only one way to find out.” Aesen finished as he maneuvered the ship towards the pod.
“Locking onto the pod, pulling it in now. Head down to the cargo bay, I’ll bring him aboard. Let’s find out what condition the Taurgit is in and see if it is our guy.” Aesen said to Osiris who was steps ahead of him already, and heading down to the bay.
Meanwhile in the bay, the cockpit escape pod was pulled in through a tractor beam, and gently placed upon the ground in the cargo bay. The bay itself was large, there was a fully sealed off road vehicle nearby, and a drop ship attached to the upper rafters in the cargo bay.
It seems the Taurgit’s luck had turned for the better at the moment.
Khrelan looked on as the pod settled onto the deck. He had no Idea who was pulling him from deep space. Or why.
He tried the opening mechanism for the pod. Nothing, damn thing was stuck. He tried to kick the canopy off. It came off and clattered on the deck.
He got up and cautiously set one foot on the deck, but the pod shifted and he tripped, faceplanting onto the deck. His trunk, which was behind the pilot seat, fell on top of him.
“Urgh…”
Moments later after his mishap, the elevator at the far end of the cargo bay opened, and out stepped a large fully armored human, or at least he assumed human as the helmet covered his face.
The human came up to him and removed the trunk from the Taurgit’s back.
“Khrelan T'Vathoth? Is that your name? You match the description of our Dossier.” Osiris said in his cool and rather monotonous tone.
Khrelan eyed the human suspiciously as he picked himself up. He knew exactly where to find him, and knew his name.
“Yes, that would be me. Who are … you?”
Osiris took off his helmet, revealing that he was indeed Human, “Osiris is my name, or my designation. I was originally going to meet you after you finished your previous job, however having determined that you did not arrive at your destination, I investigated and found you floating in the void of space.”
“I have been acquiring specialists for my team, and your records show that you fit my needs. Would you be interested in this employment?” Osiris questioned the Taurgit.
“Well... seeing as my old job went up in smoke in a way that...either I'll be considered dead, or freight operators will distrust me, as I was the only one to 'magically’ survive...and seeing that you came along and scooped me up before I starved...yeah. A job would be good, even if it were an excuse to lay low.”
Osiris looked at the Taurgit, “Alright, then. The shipboard AI will show you to your room.”
Aesen chimed in, “Not so fast, I need him to go to the med bay. He is slightly injured, and also has a concussion. After that then he can go to his chambers.”
“Now if you would Mister T’Vathoth, follow the hollow projector arrows.” Aesen said to direct the Taurgit.
“Thank you.” said Khrelan, turning to follow the directions.
With that done Aesen began directing the ship towards its next destination and its final recruit. The ship immediately transitioned to orbit around Leticia, a colony of the Arcadonian Empire.
Arcadonian EmpirePlanet LeticiaLetician EcumenopolisLeticia, the world of water, the scientific capital of the Arcadonian Empire, home to over 3.7 Billion Ki’Jannian lives. The saturn-sized planet had its entire surface area covered by a mixture of shallow and deep ocean, The planet 95% water with the other 5% being a molten iron and other elemental core which provided the planet with a stable magnetosphere.
By all means, this planet wasn’t a normal occurrence in the universe, a complete 1 in a trillion chance with odds even higher when you take into fact that it was located a single star system over from Aquaris System where the Capital of the Empire, Hydros, stood proudly. The members of the Arcadonian Empire considered this place paradise for a reason.
With little to no land to build off of, this planet would have been a near dud for any other species aside from its water supplies, but for the Arcadonian Empire which thrives in the water it was a chance for them to put their architectural abilities to the test.
Hence the Letician Ecumenopolis was born. A floating city 1million km² in size which handled all housing, industry and food production the colony needed. The city split into several hexagonal districts of varying sizes which connected together to form the single city. To the unknowledgeable, it would look like any other floating city concept for any land based species, but to anyone familiar with Arcadonian Cities the floating city would only be the literal tip of the iceberg as once you hit below the water surface you would come to see a city even more vast with skyscrapers and buildings extending deep into the ocean depths.
This was the Arcadonian Empire, emperors of the oceans, protectors of the universes water supplies.
Doctor Ailuin Noatak himself was a prodigy in the fields of biological sciences with a special focus on Xenobiology of all forms. From his own species and the other sentients of the universe all the way to even the smallest of microbes. Ailuin studied it all and was renowned and respected throughout the scientific circles of every civilization for equal parts his intelligence and curiosity as well as his insanity.
While in the past the Doctor had chosen to work for the Letician Imperial Laboratories, quickly making it to the top of the food chain in short time; the Doctor grew weary of the restrictions on his work. Yes he had achieved great things from running half the biology department to great efficiency to even heading up the foundation of a Colonial Security Xeno-Taskforce which had begun to be adopted throughout the known universe, the doctor simply wanted more.
To fight that he decided to form his own Laboratory, aptly named Noatak Laboratories, where he could research all he wanted with no restrictions and contract his highly in demand services out to external parties at exorbitant prices. This personal laboratory is where he stood, deep within the underwater districts. The doctor surrounded by a small handful of carefully chosen individuals whom he trusted enough to assist him in his projects.
In his laboratory he was surrounded by scientific equipment connected to his laboratory's supercomputer which was dedicated specifically to their work. Off to the side in a specially designed quarantine chamber sat incubation chambers and test tubes of various specimens and cultures housing various experiments.
At the moment, his focus was on an electronic microscope with a single sample on the inside.
Meanwhile in orbit, Aesen performed docking procedures with a station above the world where upon disembarking he was brought through an immigration checkpoint which contained every species but Ki’Jan.
Thankfully for Osiris however, Aesen had provided him with a fake diplomatic security visa’s allowing him to skip the lengthy primary line and get pulled into a secondary checkpoint filled with humans where he was questioned about his purpose for visiting and asked to declare his personal belongings to root out any illegalities, tag any weapons and grill him on his allegiances.
As part of standard procedure, Telepathy was attempted to gain his whereabouts for the past several weeks, but with his innate abilities blocking any attempts and giving the inspectors headaches, suspicion was only raised and he was held up longer as more records had to be verified manually.
All in all the process took an hour, but once Osiris passed immigration, he departed, taking a transport from the station to the colony below.
Transport down to the surface involved a simple elevator ride down on one of the colonies orbital tethers, a rather comfy ride. For Osiris however he noticed that with the majority of the people on the lift being Ki’Jan, they all tended to put as much distance between themselves and him as possible.
Osiris paid them no mind, if he removed his headband they would have far more reason to keep their distance, he mostly waited till the ride was over.
Aesen contacted him, “I have been digging through the colony’s systems, and I think our person of interest is in a privately owned lab, I will mark its position in your HuD. Make your way there when the elevator makes it groundside.”
Osiris just continued to wait, seeing the surface getting closer as the elevator lowered.
With Aesen having completed his conversation, the elevator was just entering what was dubbed the Telepathy Zone. Given that Ki’Jannian Telepathy had a range limit of several kilometers when unimpeded, this was the zone where once the elevator entered the location Osiris should have been able to feel a dull, almost nonexistent pressure within mind.
With the elevator in this zone, the colony itself was highly visible with the windows of the elevator revealing a vast ocean with a single circular landmass made entirely out of hexagonal blocks which as it got closer to the surface revealed larger buildings.
The elevator soon made it to the ground and with the doors opened, the Ki’Jan speed walked out of the elevator, giving off the appearance of not wanting to be anywhere near Osiris.
Looking at the nav marker on his hud, Osiris found that the laboratory was within the Underwater portion of the city within one of the nearby district blocks which extended under the water a couple hundred floors. For his target in particular, the laboratory was at depth 85 and due to being walled off was a dry district that allowed him a pathway he could walk to.
Osiris made his way to an elevator to take him down into the the underwater building, keying into the elevator to go to the 85th sub-floor. Now he waited yet again till he arrived on the correct floor.
Going down Osiris was in one of many individual sized glass elevators which brought him down into the underwater portion of the district. Through the glass elevators he could see that the area itself was one large hexagon with a changing layout as it went deeper into the Letician Ocean.
Where on the first 30 floors it started off as an open floor design where each floor contained smaller buildings and rooms setup in the style of a market, upon going deeper the opened floor plans changed to long hallways of office buildings which had no storefront.
The trip in total to the correct floor took about a minute of travel and upon disembarking he found himself facing one of the large halls with offices branching off of them. According to the address on his marker, he followed it along and within a couple minutes made it to a rather boring looking office entrance with the words “Noatak Laboratories” above the entrance.
On the entrance to the office, the front of it was made of a glass panelling which revealed a waiting area with a single Ki’Jan behind a desk with the name of the company plastered on the wall behind them. Beside the Ki’Jan was a doorway locked off with some sort of identification pad.
Osiris entered the building scanning the area as he walked in. He walked up to the desk and looked at the Ki’Jan, this was obviously just a receptionist and not the person he was looking for. However he spoke up, “Is Ailuin Noatak present, and may I speak with him?”
Seeing Osiris enter the building, the receptionist was taken aback a little, but quickly pulled herself back together.
“Hello. The doctor is currently in. Do you have an appointment?”
Osiris should his fully helmeted head, “No, I have to speak with him about a business opportunity if he is not busy.”
The receptionist nodded. “I’ll see if he’s available.” pausing as she opened up a telepathic line to the Doctor, nodding a couple times before coming back after a short moment.
“Alright. He’s decontaminating now. Follow me.” The receptionist getting up from her desk as she led Osiris to the locked door and utilized the telepathic interface to open it, ultimately bringing him to the Doctor's office which consisted of a small room with a desk, table, seating area and several shelves which contained numerous awards. Built into one of the walls was a small fish tank.
“Just take a seat and the doctor will be with you shortly”
The massive armored human took a seat and waited, Aesen briefed him a bit on Ailuin.
“Master Osiris, this one will be a tough nut, he doesn’t like Humans. But you are barely Human as is, so maybe he can look past that. Meanwhile I’ll do some digging in his records some more.” Aesen said into Osiris’s Comms.
The doctor took several minutes, mostly owing to the decontamination process. Entering the room he had a smile on his face, but upon taking a look at the human sitting within his office it quickly disappeared. Before Osiris had a chance to say anything, he spun on his heel and walked out.
In the period of silence for Osiris, Aesen could hear the doctor chew out the receptionist over the buildings security. “Why didn’t you tell me he was human” The receptionist only apologized over and over again. “You know my feelings about them. I need to know these things first..” pausing for a moment as took a deep breath
After a moment the doctor re-entered the office and took a seat at his desk and stared at the Human.
“Dr. Ailuin Noatak, I am Osiris and I have come to your office to see if you were interested in a job that would make use of your unique skillset.” Osiris started out, not the least bit phased by the Ki’Jan’s Speceisism towards Humans.
“Well that much is obvious.” replied Ailuin rolling his eyes. “Out with it. What is this job.”
Osiris nodded, he preferred to just be forward about it, however he needed to save some information for debriefing the whole team.
“Dr. Noatak, you specialize in Xeno-Biology, the best in your field. The task I have been given requires specialists like you, and it is also imperative to the safety of the galaxy at large that we succeed in containing Xeno-Biological threat. You will be paid for your services in a way you see fit, and I assume this would also be a chance for you to study new life forms as well, and expand your horizons in your field.” Osiris offered as he explained.
The doctor nodded as he heard all of this. “If you are talking about the Xenomorphs then it is no secret I am working on a vaccination program to train the immune systems of the Ki’Jan, Kaveni, Iko, Taurgit and to some extent the Pheledioms”
Osiris looked at the doctor, “I am guessing the Humans aren’t a top priority for you Doctor? However I do not know what these Xenomorphs you speak of are, but I also must say that the threat I speak may be more troublesome, if not equally troublesome.”
Smirking slightly at the first portion. “The humans can work on their own vaccine... after they pay for my intellectual rights of course”. Coming the second portion however he looked slightly interested. “So a threat equally if not more troublesome, I’m surprised I haven’t heard of such a threat before. Can you tell me more?”
“I would prefer not to discuss it here, but I can tell you it involves a very persistent and ecologically damaging sentient race. They reproduce faster than Kurgesha, much faster, and can be ecologically damaging on any world they so much as make ground contact with. This is just the biological portion of the danger they pose. Militarily, they could overwhelm all of your known civilizations if they make it to this side of the galaxy.” Osiris explained, Aesen began immediately researching the Xenomorphs to figure out what they were.
Hearing the human refuse to get into more specific details, the doctor began to scowl a bit, thinking to himself that this was why he hated working with humans on a business level
“So they reproduce faster that Kurgesha, and are organized enough to travel the stars and form militaries. Is there anything else you can tell me, a picture, biological scan, reproduction method. Anything to let me know what we would be working with here.”
Osiris decided he would get the assistance of his AI yet again, as he didn’t want to divulge too much with another Ki’Jan nearby.
Osiris then spoke more after requesting Aesen’s help, “Doctor, I would prefer to speak more in private, the information I have is sensitive and should preferably remain unknown to your governments. I don’t know what else to tell you in present company, but if you agree all the information would be available to you aboard my ship.”
“If you are worried about a leak, there is no need to worry. All of my employees are under strict Top Level Scientific NDA and has never seen a leak of information before. The outer walls of this complex are also filled with a Telepathic jamming crystal.”
Aesen hacked into the comms, or well decided to use them since he had already easily bypassed all the buildings cyber-security measures. “Hello Dr. Noatak, I am Aesen. Master Osiris’s Assistant, or more charismatic better half, as I like to call myself.” The AI’s voice was impossible to attribute a gender to, which was rather confusing at first to one’s senses.
“I am his shipboard AI, and I just wanted to let you know your work is rather fascinating. However the lab you use is rather low-tech in my opinion, I am sure you would enjoy the lab I have assembled on the ship. It should suit your needs far better.” Aesen finished.
Hearing the unfamiliar voice emanating from the speakers he had paired to telepathically the Doctor was confused, but before he could speak up to voice his questions the AI revealed itself as an AI and his interest immediately seemed to pique.”
“An Artificial Intelligence. I didn’t think the Coalition States of Earth had advanced that far.” The Doctor turning back to Osiris as he suddenly began to sense something was up. “This is why I don’t like humans, you are far too secretive” The Doctor now purposefully trying to open up a telepathic channel to the human in an attempt to retrieve the information himself given the humans needless secrecy up until now.
However immediately upon attempting to do so a sharp pain ringed out within his mind which caused him to quickly stop out of shock as he gripped his head and winced.
“What the…” he spoke quickly before catching himself and instead switching to look inquisitively.
“You’re not human… are you?”
Osiris nodded, “Not in the typical way, yes. I come from Human stock, but am…different, I would be considered a monster, or freak by some. I however have a device that makes it easier to be near others, if I was not wearing it, you would be in great pain. I assume you tried to touch my mind, such a thing cannot work on me, I am the antithesis of psionics. Now if you are more thoroughly interested, maybe you would consider joining my crew.”
The Doctor sat in silence for a minute as he thought this over. “You don’t work with the Coalition States of Earth, correct?”
“I do not.” Osiris said simply.
“And the pay for this job will be great...”
Osiris nodded, “In whatever form you wish, and it will be legal tender. Or whatever it is that would satisfy you.”
“And I will have the chance to research to my heart's content?”
Aesen spoke up this time, “Of course you can, and you will be in a great position to discover entirely new things. With better equipment as well.”
“Will I have to work with typical humans on this crew?”
Osiris looked at Ailuin, “Besides myself there is one other Human, I have recruited from most of the major civilizations in this part of the Galaxy. However if you can look past that, this is a chance you may never get again.”
Ailuin simply closed his eyes as he thought deeply some more. Reopening them some time later with a sigh.
“I suppose I can give it a chance.”
Osiris nodded, “Good, if you would gather what you need then follow me. I have a ship docked in the orbital station. You were the final recruit I needed, so I will be briefing you all aboard my ship soon, so that you are fully prepared for the task at hand.”
Osiris then stood up and awaited on Ailuin.
“That just leaves the question of what to do with my Laboratory and its Employees. I have a small handful of 8 individuals which assist me in my work. Would they be coming along or should I prepare work from a distance for them.”
“No.” Osiris said, “We can only take you, and it may be best that you don’t share the work you do on the ship with them, if you however choose to continue your previous work with them in long distance is fine, but new work and data should remain on the ship, until it is safe to release such information.”
Hearing this, the Doctor nodded. “That should be fine. The business does have years of work lined up for them to continue in my absence.”
After this the doctor paused. “If it would be possible, can I have a couple days to gather my things and say my goodbyes? I am currently in the process of working with a super virus and other various things which need to be handed over in person tomorrow. After that I will be free.”
“That is fine, I will be aboard my ship in the meantime, good day doctor.” Osiris said and headed out the door.
Aesen then spoke with Osiris through his helmet comms, “I have been looking into these ‘Xenomorphs’ they seem to be a rather dangerous species as well, not nearly as mobile as the Krork, but they seem to be rather dangerous once they get established. We may end up dealing with these creatures alongside our other tasks, it may be a good source of income.”
Osiris didn’t respond to Aesen, though a sort of understanding between the two was already apparent. Osiris knew that the mission was a length one, and while he was given good initial equipment, and a good ship, the only way to be completely sure of success was to do other work to acquire upgrades and better equipment for himself and the ship. If he proved himself enough to his superiors as well, he could get further modification and bring himself closer to his final ascension.
For now though the task at hand would be to get the team together once Ailuin was aboard, and see about getting them acquainted with what they would be dealing with.
During the week buffer he had, Doctor Ailuin Noatak finished up his current assignments and handed them over to the proper authorities. He had let his employees know he had taken on a personal research expedition and put his best man in charge of the laboratory to continue the projects. He assured them he would continue to help from a distance, but he would expect them to continue to uphold the high honour and intelligence he hired them all for.
Over the week he had had his personal items slowly brought to the ship in orbit and had said his goodbyes to his friends and family. On the last day he made his way up the ship with his final bag of gear.