Author Topic: The Snake and the Machine (Read 5301 times)

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #25 on:** April 17, 2012, 12:10:05 AM »

"Yes Sir." came a reply from Valdamee. "Keep weapons online. Start picking priority targets within the DAIS Armada. Dont worry about life support or systems that would be vital in maintaining an organic crew." he barked to the fleet. Multiple acknowledgements came through.

"Sir!" a Comm officer called out. "Incoming transmission."

"Put it up on the screen." Valdamee ordered.

<<<This wasnt my fault, this wasnt your fate. It seems that our hostilities have come to a halt, so i will close shut the gate.

I may last into infinity, but please King allow me this one dignity. I want not to be a villain nor a hero, but please allow me to save my dear Red Zero.>>>

---------------
Anrufe Staging Point: XRAY
Enemy fleet status: READY TO ENGAGE [WARNING]
Current Fleet status: READY TO ENGAGE [Code: RED]

<<<DAIS MI7 Eliminated. Anrufe Ground Attack Force Eliminated.>>>
<<Assessing Situation>>
<System Suggestion: Retreat IMMEDIATELY>
<<<Running Battle Simulation>>>
<<Done>>
<<<Probability of Victory against enemy Mechra Fleet: 50%>>>

<<<Weapon systems remaining online, priority targets already picked out. V-9s,m Pulse, and Guass ONLINE and READY.>>>
<<<FIRE AT WILL, DIRECTOR>>>
<Implement Command: Hold Fire. Await Orders.>

Delta would have to wait for Gregory's reply.

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #26 on:** May 03, 2012, 10:24:07 PM »

OOC:Since its not looking like K2 wants to post, I'm gonna assume my attacks gone through and the Mechera have Red Zero...

[Red Zero, Red Zero...She wouldn't happen to be the pyromancer, would she? If so, she is aboard the First Battalion as a prisoner of war, under intensive care due to suffering third-degree burns across her entire body, and under a AM, AT, AP, and A-Whatever-Else field we have. We stand to...Learn...Many things from her, whether she'll appreciate it or not. And rightly so, she and her 'friends' caused a massive amount of infrastructural damage and wreaked havoc upon Violet. In addition, it appears the instabilities with the Elfie Pseudo-Magic attack originated from her location. That fire becoming unstable around a pyromancer, no way that's coincidence. If not for her, millions of species of life might not be currently extinct. So...Why should we set her free?] Came the response. However, Gregory was not the one who responded, instead, it was the Admiral of the First Battalion speaking directly to the DAIS fleet.

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #27 on:** May 13, 2012, 04:38:01 PM »

<<<Im sure we can negotiate some sort of release, Admiral.>>>

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #28 on:** May 17, 2012, 10:41:03 PM »

[Then begin the negotiations. What have you to offer in exchange for the terrorist's freedom?]

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #29 on:** May 17, 2012, 10:48:12 PM »

<<<What I have, but what you want... Information, and knowledge.>>>

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #30 on:** May 17, 2012, 11:02:36 PM »

[Interesting. What subject matter have you to offer?]

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #31 on:** May 19, 2012, 05:41:25 PM »

<<<What ever your mechanical heart desires.>>>

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #32 on:** May 20, 2012, 09:59:41 PM »

[Any information at all? Ahaha...Very well then, that will be a good trade. But we must impose another restriction to this as well...That you will not interfere with our coming operations that will come from this newfound data. After these operations, the prisoner will be of no use to us. In the meantime, however, we will refrain from experimentation upon her, nor shall we violently or psychologically interrogate or torture her. In this manner, we ensure both the validity of your data and that our operations are unopposed by your fleet...She shall be kept until the end only as a security measure. The data that we request is thus:All information pertaining to Anrufe Agents, their leadership structures, their technologies both defensive and offensive, even their nonmilitary technologies, the location of every base of their's, and any weaknesses and strengths that they possess otherwise from these details. How to access their computer systems remotely to take control, how to rip apart their shields, where to find their people if they hide...All of it. And only after our campaign of vengeance shall the sage Red Zero be relinquished to you. I will not ask you to fight with us in this campaign, nor to act on our behalf against the Anrufe...Only that you will stay out of our way and not aid them. Are these terms acceptable, Sir Delta?] This time, it was not the Admiral who responded. Instead, after a short pause, it was King Gregory himself who spoke, directly to his...Perhaps not ally, but even after all of this, Gregory still considered him a friend. All friends do fight amongst each other, he supposed...Its simply when they are in leadership roles that these fights affect their people, and even their allies. In his mind, he grieved that upon this day he would certainly lose a friend, and gain a enemy, yet...He had to what was right for his people, even at this cost. The Anrufe had twice assaulted his people...To ensure that they would not again, only their extermination would suffice. Or, at the very bare minimum, the breaking of every part of their structure, the crippling of their organization on a level they would not recover from. Bodies, many still living, would be burned just as the land itself, the ashes themselves salted and mixed with the soil to prevent anything ever from growing again. For his friend to forgive him of these acts, this invasion of his morals and allegiances, would be a miracle in itself...No matter how he might pray to the Knight Sallie, for the Divines to absolve him of this would be impossibility incarnated.

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #33 on:** May 21, 2012, 02:08:56 AM »

Delta looked at the request with new found uncertainty. Was Falzone serious? Was he asking him to sell out his friends, quite possibly killing them, for the single life of the one he loved? He looked around the cyberspace at the multitude of AI looking at him, and awaiting his decision. Information was zipping in his mind running any kind of outcome, band judging the favor of each one. None were good for his friends, but some were good for Red, and himself.

"Self preservation..." he kept telling himself. "But its Red Zero!" he told himself again.

<<<The request will be granted with this only condition. All relevant information about the DAIS, as well as the Operative Red Zero will be redacted to ensure her own future survival, as well as my own. Is this acceptable Gregory?>>>

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #34 on:** May 21, 2012, 05:14:49 AM »

[I have no intention of allowing my people to go after you...But I understand that my demands will not show me to be worthy of your trust. And I cannot honestly say for nations allied to the Empire. Your terms are acceptable.]

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #35 on:** May 21, 2012, 06:54:43 PM »

"So, once again I do betray a former master..." he said to his fellow AI. "I now see that Gregory was right, but i am not so foolish as to think that i am absolved. For eons i suffered, and now. Finally. There is no more sadness. No more pain. No more envy. I only do this out of care, and love. Do not think that this is an attack or retaliation against those who have given us so much."

<<<As one last request, i would like proof of life via video stream. This is to secure that my end of the deal will still be upheld.>>>

(4000th post!)

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #36 on:** May 21, 2012, 08:00:25 PM »

[We will not give you a live feed. The information will have a three-second delay, to facilitate time necessary to host the data on a remote server. The access code is %7*4#3&76, and the server will be at the coordinates A72, around Frezzi. In addition, we'll give the video equipment a rudimentary AI and close it from the rest of the ship. Security measures, and a slight twinge of paranoia, you understand. It will, however, constantly broadcast her condition and the station will have logs of what has already been taped. Everything should be entirely set up within one or two Certes* time, and you'll have all of the existing logs once the servers are fully set up.]

*Single Certe roughly translates to about two or three hours in earth time, give or take half

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #37 on:** May 26, 2012, 07:10:53 PM »

<<<Acknowledged. Launching SSTO Vulcan Datalink Satellite.>>>
<<Channel- 9013>>
<<Port- 105453>>
<<Password- SENT>>
<Awaiting Connection to Data Uplink>

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #38 on:** May 30, 2012, 08:02:08 AM »

[Connection is accepted. Transfer of data is ready to proceed...]

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #39 on:** May 30, 2012, 10:17:47 AM »

<<<Connection Verified.>>>
<<<Receiving Video Feed>>>
<<...STANDBY...>>

Delta looks at the feed. "Still cant be sure." he says to himself.

<<<Relay message to Red Zero for verification. Pose the following riddle and confirm her reply. [Who was there at Nord, that fateful summer day? Who was there to see them, or hear about what they'd say? I look into the Dawn, Awaiting my Grave Stones]>>>

This was a riddle that Delta had once posed Red when he told her stories of his former life in the UP. The Answer wouldn't be known to anybody save for members of the Anrufe.

(OOC- Kaleb may need to post his answer for this one. ((@K2: the answer is: But why are you asking me, Why dont you ask the bones))

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #40 on:** May 30, 2012, 10:53:30 AM »

[She should have the message now. Whether or not she responds depends mostly on how much pain she'll be in...she was burned quite badly, you know. Only so much even the best painkillers can do.]

K2 · « **Reply #41 on:** May 31, 2012, 08:33:13 PM »

As the video of Red Zero, with the three second buffer, played, Red Zero was shown strapped in a chair, her hair singed off, her skin black and drooping, her eyes surrounded by blood. She was surrounded by defenses (mirror shields?) and most notably, her hands were grasping her stomach, as if some sort of wound -- or incision -- had been cut there. She was weak, and hardly aware, but alas, she did, slowly, answer...

"B-but why... are you asking me? Why don't," she paused, abruptly coughing repeatedly before continuing, "you ask the bones."

Her voice was now squeaky and raspy, from smoke inhalation. Red Zero would never be the same, even if allowed to go free with Delta. The Anrufe had done this to her, not the Mechera. She'd been trained by her own family to follow orders, to kill, to destroy. And now, her destruction had cost her that family, and all she had left was Delta.

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #42 on:** June 01, 2012, 01:12:59 PM »

<<<Identity Confirmed.>>>
<<...You may start data transfer...>>

The Mechera would now be allowed to download all of the promised data. Delta simply stood in his place on the bridge and stared at the computer screen.

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #43 on:** June 01, 2012, 01:49:08 PM »

[Verafied. Begining data transfer.] Gregory responded, before the Mechera downloaded all of the specified information and analyzed it.

Back on the Bridge, Gregory re-entered his body. "Grbecrl, Rdvuea, gather your research teams. I want you to analyze all of this data and begin production of countermeasures as soon as possible. We must understand everything from this data there is to be understood."

Admiral Regis Hermitage · « **Reply #44 on:** June 01, 2012, 08:26:48 PM »

"So, it is once again that i betray another master... But i would like my creators, and my former handlers to know that I have changed. I do not believe in good, or evil, just many sides fighting for what they believe in. Maybe this plane isn't so shattered after all." He says to Gregory through cyberspace. "But, I ramble. You have what you desire, now give me what i desire."

@Pokemon Master Red · « **Reply #45 on:** June 02, 2012, 12:12:23 AM »

[As we said...At the end of our campaign. We did tell you this, and you accepted the terms. She shall not be harmed, as per the conditions of the arrangement, of course.]