Mass Effect: Pilgrims Progress

[Steel Accord]

"Right and next you're going to be telling me Blasto was based on a true story." Banks formerly of the Blue Suns replied sarcastically as he took a swig from the tube.


"No the kid's right, colony planets got weird old customs. I once visited a planet where a form of recreation was juggling kittens. It was adorable, confusing, and horrifying all at once." Said Rebecca Myers, Alliance veteran.


"It wasn't just dancing but yeah, that was the gist of it before I went off to school." August confirmed the story.


"Right, right, you're a college boy." Banks said.


"Give the kid a break, Banks." Said the captain as he entered the mess. Myers snapped to attention with a "captain on deck" but La Croix gave her an "as you were" before she even finished her sentence.


"Hey I'm not giving him shit for it. Wish I went to a fancy school, wouldn't have had to get shot at for a living." Banks said.


"Well then you're in luck, Indwe said she's found our target and she appears to be only lightly defended by Cerberus. So hopefully a show of force should be all we need to take her." The captain said.


"Captain, I'm not naval expert, but shouldn't Cerberus be guarding what is bound to be a very sensitive project more heavily?" August asked.


"Normally you'd be right son, but Cerberus has traded security for subtlety. They were hoping to hide this, not defend it. All of you, get to your stations, we're making the jump."


The crew got up from their half finished meals with an "aye aye" and got to their stations. August went to his quarters, lit some incense and began to meditate and clear his mind as the Hawkins passed through the mass relay. 

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon was only minimally aware of her actual surroundings. Her body was in a climate-controlled tank near the heart of the CS Kore, and if she tried to focus on what her body felt, she could make out the swirling sensation of liquid against her skin, feel her hair brush against the back of her neck, and taste the nutrient-enhanced water on her lips. But that's not what she focused on right now. Her eyes were the ship's cameras and long-range scanners. Her ears were its radar systems and transceivers. Her touch, as it were, the status of the ship's systems, shields, and weaponry. This was to be her last training mission, or so the project lead had said. Maybe, Lexicon thought, they'd have more work for her to do once the seemingly endless training and evaluation was over.


Overlaid over her 'sight', a timer counted down to zero. Once it hit zero, she disengaged the ship's mass effect drives, informed the captain of their deceleration, and began scanning the space around them while reorienting the ship towards its next checkpoint. They were in route to Cronos Station, which meant an annoying number of false starts and stops to throw anyone off their path in case they were being followed. The Illusive Man was very anxious to keep his hidden base a secret. She was about to sound the all clear and inform the captain that they could jump to FTL upon his command when she noticed the telltale blue-shift of an approaching vessel. She immediately alerted the captain, and began to perform precautionary diagnostics on the ship's weapons and shields. She couldn't engage them without permission, but the project leader always liked it when she thought ahead and prepared for eventualities such as this. 


With a snap, an unmarked ship flashed out of low-mass space and immediately began tracking towards the Kore. As soon as she received the command, she activated the shields and targeted the Kore's weaponry on the incoming ship. She also attempted to hail the oncoming ship, trying to open a channel between it and her captain.

 

[Steel Accord]

The hailing was not responded to, instead the ship open fired. Torpedoes exploded across the Kor's starboard bow, a warning shot from the Hawkins. The captain ordered a return fire, but it was clear that the Kor's weaponry could not break through the Hawkin's defenses.


"Orders, sir?" The X.O. asked his leader.


"If we can't protect Project Overlord we must ensure it's not once again taken from Cerberus' hands. Begin deleting all files and records of the project and terminate Lexicon." He said with no hesitation. There was a pause in the crew.


"Sir? All due respect."


"I will NOT allow the Overlord to be taken away again, especially by a group of pirates!" The Cerberus commander declared.


"Who knows what they'll do to her." His X.O. offered meekly as a kind of sort of justification. Another explosion racked the Kor yet another warning shot, the ship itself was undamaged. The cerberus crew started to delete files and a few of them slowly started to put in the command to cut off life support for the Lexicon.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 


August was deep in mediation even as the ship was engaged. He would know when he was called. For now though there was no battle, indeed there was no ship. His eyes were closed, his hands cupped in front of his gut. His body was now wreathed in dark energy and his mass steadily lessened, gravity's bound to his body got weaker and weaker and his body's grasp of him got weaker and weaker. He rose off the floor. In his mind's eye the objects in his quarters crumbled like dust, then the door, then the walls, then the Hawkins itself. He was free and clear, floating in the vacuum of space. He smiled internally and was content.


"Hey Matriarch Miyagi! Captain wants you on the bridge!" Myers blasted as she opened the door on the fast setting. August slumped back down on his mat, crashing out of his meditation like a rock dropped from a shelf. He laughed.


"You know, I should be annoyed that you keep doing that, but it's actually really fun to feel. Like a five second roller coaster." He said. She smiled.


"Yeah, yeah, grab whatever gear you need." She left. August got up and dusted himself off. His mind was clear and his body was buzzing. He was ready for anything. He strapped on a belt and flipped a switch, the kinetic barrier whizzing to life and then disapearing from sight. He grabbed his predator sidearm, activated it and checked it to see if it was still working fine and ready. He deactivated it and holstered the weapon, as he walked out to join his crew he said a silent prayer he wouldn't have to use it.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon guided the Kore's torpedoes herself, detonating them with flawless precision for maximum effect, but it was to no avail. The Hawkins kinetic barriers were too powerful, and it would take another twenty similar barrages to inflict any real damage. Part of Lexicon wished that she could defend herself more capably, but the rest of her was curious about what the captain would do, since resistance seemed to be futile.


The answer to her question came in the form of suddenly dark spots in her expanded memory. Knowledge and memory - files and folders - went dark as if someone was intentionally erasing them. Lexicon's pulse increased, and her breathing would have sped up if it wasn't tightly regulated through the tube in her throat. Had the attacking ship managed to sneak in a virus under her nose? Lexicon was embarrassed at the thought, but even as she ran a blindingly-fast diagnostic, she realized that it was the Cerberus crew that was responsible for initiating the file wipe. 


"Captain Harvey?" She spoke over the ship's speakers, something she rarely did. The crew didn't like to be reminded that their computer had a human voice. "There must be an error, but I believe someone on your crew has begun to delete files associated with my programming."


Moments later, her access to the PA system was revoked, and then with a shock, she realized she was no longer breathing. The ventilator she was hooked up to had stopped pumping air. It was funny how she could overlook such vital things like breathing while her attention was focused on the ship's systems. Her head started to feel fuzzy, and in panic she began to shut down her VIs and other hookups, trying to return her awareness to her body. Realizing that wouldn't be quick enough, she returned her attention to the ship's systems, trying to override the command to cut off her life support. After a horrible moment of gasping for breath, she succeeded, and the flow of life-sustaining oxygen continued through her ventilator. Outside, the ship rang with more explosions, and thumping feet sounded just outside her compartment. "She's managed to override the life-support failsafe." Said a voice which sounded like the X.O. "Quick, open the door so we can finish the job properly."


Her heart dropping within her, Lexicon realized that her crew was abandoning her. No, worse than that, they wanted her dead. She quickly reopened some of her connections to the ship's systems, realizing that she had to make sure that she stayed sealed away from the crew, but found herself blocked by unexpected firewalls. Allocating some of her processing power to getting through those, she devoted the rest of her attention to finding a work-around. 

 

[Steel Accord]

"That's odd."


"Report, Rudy." That captain ordered of their Salarian crew mate. His real name was Rudni but after being told it sounded kind of odd to pronounce he basically insisted he be given a nickname on the spot.


"Just that they hailed us earlier, we gave our 'response' but now that we're hailing them back, no one's responding." Rudy said as his eyes overlooked his console.


"My intelligence suggested minimal defense." Imbwe spoke up, the dark skinned, deep voiced women of Earth. "But I didn't think they'd surrender that easy."


"We'll be cautious." La Croix said. "Banks, hang back, we'll call if we need the big guns. Imbwe? Guandang? You're with me, small arms and non lethal. We already have them at a disadvantage, no need to shed blood if we don't have to. Plus if we could capture Cerberus personnel alive, what we gain could be invaluable."


"Plus that ship alone could cover a lot of our bills if we sold it to the Quarians or on Illium." Banks suggested.


"Awesome!" August said, cracking his knuckles. "Let's be pirates." He said with a grin.


The Hawkins docked and the bridge between the ships opened with a hiss. La Croix stormed on to the deck.


"Crew of the Kors! We're taking your ship. We have you outgunned and outmatched. Surrender peacefully and you have my word that you won't be harmed." He announced clearly.


"Cerberus will never surrender to you dogs! Security!" Harvey commanded. Four burly looking guards approached the boarders. All of them armed with stun batons. La Croix dodged a clumsy swing from one and with a single, solid, swift jab to the face, knocked the assailant flat out. Imbwe simply shot her attacker with a stun gun and tripped him when the effects didn't kick in fast enough. The last two were left to August. They both stood at diagonal angles to him. He put an open palm over a fist and bowed before assuming a fighting stance. They both tried to swing at his head but August ducked and twirled around, facing them again in a different stance. One tried to swing for his head. August caught him by the wrist, put him into a wrist lock, disarmed him of his weapon, and then struck him on the head with his own stolen stun baton. August then held the baton out in front of him pointing upward like a sword toward the only remaining guard. The guard pointed it at him but August parried the clumsy thrust. August smiled as he enjoyed fencing with the Cerberus thug for a few seconds, he clearly didn't know what the heck he was doing.


"Sir Duangang . . ." La Croix's tone told him, "don't play with your food." So August deftly twirled the baton out of the guards hands and then struck him with it, the man fighting with voltage as he passed out.


"I won't let you have it!" Harvey ran off the deck.


"Imbwe, call Myers over and secure the bridge. August, with me!" La Croix commanded as August and him gave chase.

 

[Kaeli]

Just outside her nutrient tank's chamber, the Cerberus X.O. thundered at the other crewmember to open the door, shouting over the man's protests that the codes had been changed and were protected by a level of encryption so multi layered that he could hardly comprehend it. Lexicon smiled to herself - a small spark of white teeth against her otherwise limp, floating body - at their frustration. At first, they'd nearly opened the door, causing her to feel fear even though her body was incapable of producing the fight or flight emotion that adrenaline gave. But then, she'd found a work around, and gaining control of the ship's subsidiary systems had been nearly effortless. 


Now, she focused her attention on activating the ship's internal defenses. A group of three pirates had boarded the ship, and it was only a matter of time before the two Cerberus crewmen outside her door tried force rather than hacking. She gained access to the internal cameras, and a moment later accessed the ten LOKI mechs aboard the ship. Two she immediately sent to stun the two men outside the door. Another four she sent to guard the manual self-destruct switch located in main engineering. 


She saw Captain Harvey run through the hallways, flying through bulkheads as he tried to keep ahead of the pirates chasing him. She analyzed his route and determined that he was heading for her compartment, so she sent the final four mechs to stop him from coming closer. She didn't know if it was him that gave the order to deactivate her, but if she was already committing minor mutiny, she had better play it safe. She ordered these mechs to stun instead of kill, and watched through the cameras as they formed up in the hallway, blocking his approach after he rounded a corner. 


Harvey stumbled to a stop as he confronted the mechs, and then he yelled in an authoritative tone, "Lexicon, I'm ordering you to deactivate and terminate yourself per Cerberus Regulation C59." A quick check into her archives reminded her what that order was, but she didn't respond. Instead, she waited, for two of the pirates rounded the corner behind the captain, and Lexicon wanted to see what would happen before she decided what to do. 

 

[Steel Accord]

"Having trouble with your own ship, Captain?" La Croix said. Harvey grunted at the enemy and repeated his order at the mech with his voiced raised. Only to receive a taser shot in response.


"We'll restrain him but he was clearly trying to access the core of the ship. Hopefully these mechs won't be a problem." He said. August cracked his neck.


"Captain, need I remind you, you didn't hire me just because I can whip up a good stir fry." August grinned as he started to glow.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2FfTefp8q-Y


La Croix stepped back. August turned to his side and lowered into a horse stance, he circled both of his palms wide around his body, dark energy building along the nerves in his arms and running down to his palms. He cupped his hands near his core and slightly behind him, allowed the energy to build for a moment. Then with a cry of "hadouken!" thrust the biotic ball forward with a push of both his palms like a double palm strike.


The mass effect field cruised through the air, passing through the mechs and pulling them in the dense gravitational pull and slamming them against the back wall. One of them didn't move at all, one of them recovered after a slow reboot, the last two were only caught in the wake so were just thrown off balance.


All he needed.


August closed on them with only two gliding steps that were amazingly not biotically enhanced. His shin cracked into the mech's weak knee joint with a sweeping dragon tail kick, knocking it to the ground. August transitioned from the low kick to a hand stand and then brought his other shin down hard on the mech's head. The other one was almost on top of him but August cartwheeled to the side, bringing him back to eye level with the machine. The mech tried to taze the acrobatic biotic ("acrobiotic?") with a sharp poke to the gut, August blocked with a tiger claw (not a literal one of course), side stepped and delivered a hammer fist to the side of the head. The mech's head shook and it droned disjointedly. August spun and slammed his elbow into the faceplate, shattering it and sending the mech flying back. The last one limped to him. It tried to reach out to him like a push or a grab with both arms. August popped both forearms outward to block the circled wide with his left arm, trapping the mech's own under his armpit. With a graceful pirouette, August popped the arm off its owner with a snap and spark. He then held it by forearm and upper arm, snapping it at the joint so it bent both ways, and then . . . started spinning and twirling the arm like a pair of nunchaku. With a crack and snap he fired it at the joints, bents, and other non-solid parts of the mech chasis. "Stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself, stop hitting yourself." With one last elaborate spin to build up momentum, he knocked the head clean off and then brought the impromptu weapon back to resting in one hand and tucked under his arm.


August was sweating and smiling. La Croix just shook his head.


"Son, in a world without guns, you'd be a king."


"Captain, in a world without guns, we'd still have kings." August said as he casually rested the mech arm over his shoulder. La Croix nodded. 


"Let's head to the core." The two of them jogged down the hall in the direction Harvey was heading.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon frowned at the unexpected turn of events. She'd hoped that the mechs would stop the captain and the intruders in their tracks, but one of the intruders at least seemed to be very proficient in hand-to-hand combat, which excelled in the cramped confines of the ship's interior. Also, it seemed that he was a biotic. She found herself interested in this information - Cerberus had never explained much about biotics. Outside her door, two muffled thumps marked the disabling of the last two conscious Cerberus crewmembers, and her mechs took up defensive positions outside the door to the core. Through the interior cameras, she saw the same two pirates jogging towards her, and they were only seconds away. She speedily shut a bulkhead blast door in front of them, trying to buy herself more time to decide what to do.


Feeling foolish for acting so slowly, she assigned one of her computer's processors to dig up subroutines that would enhance her mechs close quarters combat skills. She devoted another processor to trying to contact the project leader back at Project Overlord headquarters. Now that the Cerberus crew was incapacitated, she had no one to receive orders from, and so sought for instruction elsewhere. The first report came back positive, and she quickly began uploading a anti-riot program into the 6 remaining mechs, hoping that the increased functionality would make them able to resist the pirate's attack. The second report came back negative - headquarters was too far away, and even using a tightbeam extranet signal, it would take dozens of minutes for signals to flow between the station and her beleaguered ship. 


Lexicon felt frustrated, and although her senses were still mostly detached from her body, her increased heartrate and perspiration - even though the water around her was regulated at a perfect 98.6 degrees - betrayed her unease with the situation. She debated trying to hack into the pirate ship, causing a crisis there that would allow her to escape in the commotion, but she was still locked out of the Kore's higher systems, and she estimated it would take her at least twenty minutes to break through the remaining firewalls and assume command of the ship. Besides, even if she did escape in the Kore from the pirates, what would she do? She distractedly noticed the pirates coming even closer - having found a way around her blocked bulkhead. An idea came to her, though she almost dismissed it out of hand. She could depressurize the ship, killing everything organic not hooked up to a life-support system. Only, there was two problem. First, she didn't currently have the root-level access needed to perform such a drastic measure, and second, she didn't know if it was right for her to act in aggression without prior permission. The captain had ordered her to fire at the pirate ship, but then he'd ordered her termination. Which order should she follow, or were both invalid?


After what seemed like ages of thought - though only seconds had elapsed - she decided to try and trick the pirates. She ordered the two mechs nearest to her to approach the two pirates from a side hallway, and then shut all remaining bulkheads closed, except for the ones in between the two pirates and their ship. She wanted to create a way for them to escape. She blasted a warning claxon through the PA system, and recorded an alert message. As the wailing claxon rang, a soft female voice calmly said over the ship's speakers, "Alert, depressurization imminent. All hands evacuate immediately." She couldn't actually depressurize the ship, nor did she think she wanted to, but maybe she could scare them away.

 

[Steel Accord]

August heard the order and turned to La Coix. Myers voice came over their comms.


"Captain, the bridge is secure but if the ship depressurizes with the Hawkins still attached, both ships are going to be vacuums." La Coix held a hand to his ear.


"Get the prisoners aboard the Hawkins and de-couple." He said.


"Sir?"


"That's an order Myers!" He closed the comm channel and turned to August. "Think you can trap an atmosphere in a mass effect field?" He asked. August looked at his hand and it shimmered for a moment before he closed it into a fist. He remembered his meditation earlier. "I'm pretty sure but there's no way I can do that and fight at the same time."


"Then let's get to the core quickly, we can control the ship from there. Double time it." The two of them started but then the passageway slammed shut on them. "What the?" 


"Watch your six!" August shouted. La Croix turned too late and he got tazed for his sluggishness and for August's lack of awareness. He wasn't out cold though, he was a larger man and an Alliance veteran at that, but he was in great pain and crumbled to his knees. La Croix drew his side arm and returned fire. Center mass shots damaged the unit but did not completely shut it off. His hand was weak and shaking from the voltage and the mech grabbed the barrel, wrenching it from his hand.


During this, August was fighting the other mech. He tried to shut it down quickly with a one two jab, cross punch but the mech blocked both by raising its arms to protect its head. It capitalized on August's moment of hesitation with a jab to his shoulder. He stumbled back, rubbing his shoulder with an eyebrow raised. He tried to go instead for a roundhouse kick to the head but the mech intercepted this as well, blocking and sending his kick to the deck. August's stance was now wide open to be followed by a gut punch. Again stumbling back and this time falling to a knee, August grit his teeth.


"All right, that's it." He clenched a fist and it started to shimmer as he rose to both feet. He cocked his fist back, low next to his waist, and then with a powerful turn of his hips he fired his punch. The man's fist now had the density of a cannon ball and going at the speed it was, the effect was pretty much the same even if the mech tried to block the body blow. August's hand exploded out of the back of the chassis. He un -clenched his hand pulled it back, the mech crumbling apart. August shook his hand back to life, feeling like he'd been trying to crush coal into diamonds and was succeeding. Turning his attention to the other mech, he dispatched this one more easily and quickly without his biotics. He took it to the ground with a body tackle and slammed it in the head with the butt of his sidearm.


"Captain!" He went over to his leader and helped him to his feet. He was heavy. August considered lowering his mass but decided against it, he was already starting to feel drained.


"Captain! August! Come in!" Rudy chirped on the comm. August answered.


"We got jumped by some mechs but we're all right. It was weird though." August said.


"That's not the only thing. We were about to decouple but I've noticed something from the scanners. There's no commands being sent to life support or essential mechanisms."


"Meaning what?" August asked.


"Meaning the ship's not going to de-pressurize." The captain interpreted as he stood up but braced himself against the bulkhead.


"Which doesn't make any sense. A V.I. might give a false warning but there was no code to trigger the response." Rudy said. August looked down.


"On top of that, how do security mechs of the same model on the same ship go from barely able to shove to Muhammad Ali?" August chipped in, noticing the sharp difference in behavior.


"And the doors, none of the crew could have activated that and in case of depressurization, they don't leave paths open TO the airlock." La Croix said running his hand along the door. His eyes went wide. It all made sense. "Rudy I need you over here now! Imbwe too! We need to get into the core of this ship!"


"Captain what's going on?" August asked. La Croix turned to him.


"Cerberus has created an A.I."

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon watched the fight between her two mechs and the pirates with interest. Her programming upgrades definitely paid off, though the man with biotics had still been able to dispatch both of them, albeit with greater difficulty. What most intrigued her was the comment that came from the person named Rudy over the biotic man's personal comm. Apparently, the pirate ship had some level of access to the ship's primary systems, even if it was only enough to observe the commands being sent and received. That was still greater access than she had, and it made her reevaluate her plans. If all of Cerberus' electronic countermeasures were being used to keep her from accesses primary systems, that would explain why the pirate ship had been able to get a tap into the primary systems so quickly. Either that, or the pirate ship was far better equipped than she had first assumed. Either way, she wasn't going to regain control of the Kore's primary systems anytime soon, which meant that her plan of stalling the intruders until she could do something else was obsolete. 


All of this thinking happened in a split second, and she hatched her new plan by opening all bulkhead doors. Secondary processors already anticipating her brain's commands, she sent orders to the four remaining mechs to converge near the core as quickly as possible. Two processors downloaded and installed the updated anti-riot software into two of the mechs, and Lexicon prepared to manually take control of the remaining two. However, something else caught her eye. On the camera showing the exterior of her compartment, only one slumped Cerberus body lay on the ground. The other one - the X.O. had disappeared. Lexicon's eyebrows raised in concern, and she quickly searched through the ship, trying to find him on the interior cameras. It only took a moment to locate him, for he was running pell-mell towards Main Engineering. Lexicon frowned in consternation. What was he planning? She didn't have the resources to deal with both threats, but she would have to make do. Software download completed, she allocated one secondary processor to tracking the X.O, and the other to hunting him down with one of the standard mechs.


That left only three mechs to combat the intruders, but Lexicon had a plan. She could see two more pirates emerge from the airlock into the bridge, and the captain and the biotic near the core where her compartment was located. If she could disable the latter two, she might be able to hold them hostage and bargain with the remaining pirate crew. She switched her point of view from the interior cameras to the mech armed with a stun-gun. Ahead of her were the two mechs with anti-riot programming. She planned to use those to engage the captain and the biotic, and then use the mech she personally controlled to stun the biotic if he ever began to shimmer with dark energy. She noticed that it took him a moment to manifest his biotic abilities, and she planned to exploit that weakness.

 

[Steel Accord]

August and the Captain were hiding behind cover before three mechs, two as a vanguard and one hanging back armed with what August was sure was only a stun gun but the Captain did not want to take chances. The captain activated his sidearm but August put a hand on his wrist.


"No Captain, if you open fire they're going to fire back."


"What makes you so sure about that?" Le Croix asked. August said nothing, only stepping out in front of them with his arms wide open. The two in front did nothing, the one in back kept its weapon raised but it did not fire. He looked back at the captain, who nodded.


"Good instincts, son. You have permission to engage, but be careful." He cautioned.


"Don't worry, Captain, whatever this is, I'm on to it now. Won't get the drop on me again!" He shouted that last part. He then composed himself and took a few steps forward. The mechs put up their dukes like good rock 'em sock 'em robots, probably due to some proximity switch or something. He put a hand over his fist and bowed. "August Duangang, famed on Liebenthal." He greeted. He took a deep and lowered slightly into a stance while pushing out with his fingers curled but pointer fingers pointed up. His stance was that of resting most of his weight on his left foot with right foot lightly resting on the ground, a cat stance. He twirled his arms and ended up with his right hand held forward, palm open, and his left hand resting near his right elbow also palm open and facing up.


http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-xe3Up8W3swU/UFgwylNLo9I/AAAAAAAAATk/BqI0_SrN4H0/s1600/T+WingChunGuard.jpg


He waited . . . when it was clear that the mechs were not going to take the initiative, he pushed off with his back foot and fired a front kick into the chassis of the right one, it stumbled back but remained upright. This allowed August a moment to focus on the left. The left mech fired a cross punch at him but August blocked and shot a jab at the machine's faceplate. It tried a hook and he blocked with the arm he just punched with. The mech started firing punch after punch, but August's arms and hands were an equally fast but very little actually moving series of blocks, guards, and grabs all the while advancing steadily, keeping in the mech's danger close range and getting close enough to kiss the thing. Then with a smooth sweep of his arm, he pushed the bot to his left side and hammered the side of its head. By then, righty had come back up behind him and August turned to defend. He tried the same sticky hands defense but the mech caught him in his side and bopped him in the face, long enough to distract him for a throw to the deck.


He rolled to the side and got to a knee. He wiped some perspiration from his forehead. He was seating but he wasn't smiling anymore. Getting to his feet, he switched styles. With a brief dance of loud stomping he planted his feet and raised both of his fists clenched tight and raised high. This time he eased into the fight, taking deliberate and powerful steps. This time the mechs attacked first. They both got elbows to the faceplate for their trouble, one a straight elbow hook and the other a spin slam of one. It sent both of them buzzing and August took a few wide steps back, braced himself, began a short sprint, leaped into the air, curled both legs mid-air, and crushed his knees into their heads. He stumbled a little as he landed, breathing hard. He arose to look at the last one in a ready stance.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon watched curiously as August bowed to the mechs and settled into his stance. Why did the man do that? Was that why he fought so effectively? He alone had disabled more of her mechs than the other two combined, and the others seemed willing to let him handle most of the fighting. Unfortunately, a pressing alarm came through on one of her subprocesses. The mech that she had sent after the X.O. had been suddenly destroyed, and it took only a moment to discover why. The Cerberus officer had pilfered the armory, and disabled the pursuing mech with one well placed rifle shot. 


Now the man stood at the main engineering console - A system that Lexicon didn't have access to. Her heart rate started to rise again, feeble remnants of her endocrine system expelling adrenaline into her system. She wasn't used to this feeling, and it clouded her judgment. 


She quickly gave standing orders to the mech she personally controlled, ordering it only to fire if the man charged a biotic ability. Needless to say, the mech stood motionless the remainder of the fight. Lexicon's attention was elsewhere, as she focused all her processing capacity on hijacking the electronic signals coming from the main engineering console. She couldn't directly access the systems the X.O. was attempting to control, but she could send precisely dissimilar electric charges along the wires adjacent to the wires his commands were using, cancelling them out. 


By the time August had disabled the other two mechs, the X.O. had realized that he was being outsmarted. With a snarl of frustration, he ran into the maintenance platform in front of the drive core, cursing as he did so. With a sinking feeling of dread, Lexicon watched in horror as he used his command id card to access the manual core shutdown. She hurried to end all external subprocesses, but she didn't have enough time to completely prepare. The X.O. threw the last security switch, and with a giant heaving sound, the drive core flared and then shut down, sending a surge of electricity through most conduits that shattered lights, shorted out circuits, disabled electronic locks, and blew out console computer screens throughout the ship. The ship immediately plunged into darkness after a binding flash of light and power, and only after a few seconds of total darkness did the emergency generators kick in, restoring minimal power to essential systems. 


Lexicon herself was protected by advanced surge protectors from the worst of the power spike, but most of her equipment was not. Her ventilator, heater, data archives, and other core systems all shut down. Her cranial computer with its processors and memory was hooked up to external power supplies, so they shut down as well before beginning to boot back up using power from the batteries implanted in Lexicon. After a moment's delay, her life support powered back on, restoring breath to her lungs, but all of her thoughts, memories, plans, and intents had been disrupted by the power surge, and her over burdened brain struggled to manage all the loose ends from her previous thoughts and processes. It failed, and instead chose to momentarily shut down as well. With hardly a sigh, Lexicon fell unconscious, gently bobbing in a slim water tank in the now dim core. 

 

[Steel Accord]

August was caught off guard by the sudden chaos and darkness before it all went quiet.


"Captain! August!" Came Myer's voice. Two omni-tool lights came bobbing down the hallway. "Are you all right, Captain?"


"It's nothing, just a little muscle spasm, I'll be fine."


"The escaped officer, where is he?" Demanded Imbwe.


"I didn't see him." August said.


"Forget about him, we need to get to the core, it should be vulnerable now." The captain ordered. The three fell in behind him. They came upon a heavy door. La Croix tried to open it but the electronic interface was lost in the shut down. "August, I know you must be running low on fuel at this point . . ."


"Don't worry about it Captain. I am going to need some help though, Imbwe?" August said as he grabbed one half of the door. The spy nodded and also grabbed the door's other half. The both of them heaved hard and the door did open. Imbwe and Myers both unfolded their rifles they had retrieved and August walked in with his predator sidearm at the ready.


What they found though, caused them all to lower their weapons and merely stare. Not a humming tower of intelligence or some glowing eyed technological monster, the four were staring at a woman of indeterminate age with wires attached all around her floating peacefully in a tank. August in particular was slack jawed. The girl's face held such delicate features.

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon wasn't aware of the four corsairs stepping into her compartment. How could she be aware when her brain was still trying to sort itself out after the power surge? It would be a while yet before Lexicon returned to consciousness.


Before the corsairs was a small chamber, maybe ten feet long and six feet wide. The tank was attached to the far wall of the room, and was slightly illuminated by dim blue emergency lights, revealing its unconscious inhabitant. A girl floated inside, her arms slack at her side, her legs slightly bent, and her short, black hair floating behind her. Her body was too long to belong to a child, but she didn't yet look like a woman either. Her body was too straight and thin, her breasts - if you could call the barely visible lumps on her chest breasts - were far from being fully formed, her skin still smooth and tender, and her features still betrayed a hint of immaturity. She was dressed in a thin, form-fitting jumpsuit which started at her neck and extended down to her wrists and ankles. Her eyes were shut, though the eyeballs inside flicked from side to side as if she was dreaming. Her mouth was slightly open, showing the barest hint of white teeth inside soft, pink lips.


But the girl alone was hardly the most unusual sight. Attached to her skull was a sleek bundle of electronics, mostly silver and black, though some tiny blue lights flickered on and off. The computer connected to her head at several points, and thin silvery sensors extended from the apparatus to locations on her forehead and near her ears. A number of thin wires connected her head to the machinery at the rear of the tank. A small implant at the base of her neck, between her collarbones, had two wider tubes connected to it, and the rhythmic rise and fall of her chest revealed their purpose. A few more wires were attached to her shoulders and upper arms in various locations, and a small bundle of wires extended out of her right wrist. One more thin wire connected to her lower left back, but the rest of her body was free from any sort of implant, machinery, or tubing. The girl twitched periodically, perhaps betraying that her sleep was troubled. 


"Captain?" Rudy's voice came over the comm. "An escape pod just detached from the Cerberus vessel, bearing 609 by 30. Should we intercept?"


Before the captain could reply, Rudy's voice crackled to life again. "Er, nevermind Captain. The pod was evidently equipped with a mass field generator, and jumped away as quickly as it could manage. Looks like we lost one." His voice paused, and then he continued in an inquisitive tone, "You four went real quiet all of the sudden. What did you find?"

 

[Steel Accord]

The pod was evidently equipped with a mass field generator, and jumped away as quickly as it could manage. Looks like we lost one."

((OOC: Not sure that's ever been established as being possible in canon since escape pods are meant to be short range craft just to get you off the ship to safety so someone else can pick you up but whatever, he got away. That's the point.))


"A reminder that our cause is just." Imbwe said as she started to the pod, August quickly falling in behind her.


"Wait, you two, we don't know anything about this yet. It could be a trap." Myers reminded.


"Aye, remember she's on a Cerberus ship, she sent the mechs after us, threatened to suffocate us all. A.I. or no, she was in the driver seat."


"Captain, we can't just leave her in there either!" August argued. La Croix raised an eyebrow. August averted his eyes and tried to shrink into himself. La Croix rubbed the bridge of her nose. "Do what you have to to get her out of there, but be cautious, it could be trip wired to kill anyone trying to access."


"OR the girl herself." Myers added sensibly. Imbwe, was far more skilled in electronics than August was so he let her handle any countermeasures Ceberus put in place to keep their brain bound prisoner in her cell or hurt anyone trying to break her out. With a set of heavy tool resembling a wrench, August climbed to the top of the tube and pryed the top open. It released with a noxious but sterile scent wafting into the chamber. All the crew pinched their noses or reacted in some way. August tried to reach in.


"Wait . . ." Imbwe stopped him with her firm voice. She started detaching cables from her body. As she pulled them out of her body leaving visible holes, August covered his mouth in horror. The sentiment if not the motion was mimicked by La Croix and Myers who turned to talk to each other, too far for August to hear. "Now, you may lift her out." Imbwe permitted, unflappable to what she had just done. August reached into the tank with eager hands, the fluid felt like dish soap that had been used as bath water. He lifted the girl out of the container and eased her into the bridal carry. He held his nose next to her ear. She was breathing but just barely.


"We have to get her to the med bay." August said.


"She's still a prisoner." La Croix reminded as August walked by her.


"And AS a prisoner, she has rights." August once again turned back to his captain, shocking both of them.


"Technically speaking, we're not an Alliance crew, so we're under no obligation to treat her anyway." Imbwe reminded.


"Nevertheless, we will operate as if we are." Myers said. La Croix nodded.


"Take her to the med bay and see what Lice can do for her." the captain ordered. August readily nodded and brought her back to the Hawkins.


~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ 


In the ship's medical bay was a thin man who's snore belonged to a much larger one.


"Lice!" August said as he came in.


"Wha! I'm awake, what's the emergency?" He sputtered in a London accent.


"Uhhh long story, but we're not sure if she's going to be all right." August laid her down on the bed. Lice activated his omni-tool and started to perform several tech and direct diagnostic procedures. "Hmmmm, surgical punctures, malnutrition and shallow breathing suggests heavy technical assistance."


"We found her in a tube like that, is she going to be okay?" August demanded.


"Well it's going to take some re-attachment, but I can rig up a temporary rig similar to the one she was using to breathe." He activated a sequence and a mechanical arm came over and hoses began to pop out. "You . . . might not want to be in here for right now."


"I'll be right outside." August said. And he was. By the time the girl was breathing "normally" again and her heart rate was steady, he was invited back in. August took a seat by her bed for a long time while she rested.

 

[Kaeli]

The girl hardly moved at all in August's hold, though he wasn't sure if that was due to insufficient musculature or her comatose state. She did begin to shiver as the Corsair approached the med bay, increasing in intensity the cooler the girl became. 


--------------------------------


A makeshift breathing tube hooked to her neck implant, and an incubation light overhead, Lexicon slept more soundly while her brain finished processing. At last, she returned to consciousness, opening her eyes slowly and squinting at the bright light. Her expression changed from one of peaceful sleep, to one of deep confusion. Her eyes darted around the room as she attempted to connect to the Kore's systems, but she stopped at the sight of a man sitting beside her. She gazed at him for a long moment, not blinking, while she attempted to speak to him with the ship's speakers. 


That of course did not work, and finally a flash of inspiration glimmered in her eyes, brightening her troubled expression. She opened her mouth, and with a faint, unpracticed voice made wispy by the make shift ventilator, asked, "Am I alive? Where is this?"

 

[Steel Accord]

"You're all right." August said in as easy and non-threatening tone he could manage. "You're aboard the Hawkins. We got you out of that tank you were being held in." August said. He inched the chair he was sitting on closer to her bed. "Do you feel like you can talk? About what you were doing in there? What Cerberus did to you?" He asked.

 

[Kaeli]

The man's voice was calm and soothing, which made Lexicon relax a little bit. Her heartrate, which had been slowly rising ever since she awoke, steadied and then began to slowly drop. She felt like she should recognize the man, but something was missing. Her subprocessors and memory were still coming online, so maybe she'd be able to recall what was missing from her mind's memory in a few minutes. 


"I am able to respon---" She girl began, her voice a little more clear until the ventilator forced air into her lungs, stopping her sentence. "I can talk." She said quickly in the next pause between breaths. "But you may find it more-" Another breath. "Effective to query me if you remove this ventilator." She fought down a rise of irritation as the ventilator kicked in again. She hadn't spoken out loud for maybe years, and she felt she wasn't responding quickly enough for satisfaction.


Determined to answer the questions, she doggedly continued speaking between ventilator cycles. "I was in the tank to facil-- --itate minimum physical distraction and ease of life support-- --while controlling the Kore's internal and external systems." She breathed again, and as she did, a blue light on her cranial implant that had been blinking slowly turned steady, and as if in answer, a number of other lights turned on in her computer and on various neck and shoulder ports. Most of the ports which had been gaping holes sealed themselves with a small mechanical door, and her previously grey eyes suddenly turned a dim, translucent turquoise color as small photoreceptors and chips embedded in her retina turned back on. The rest of Lexicon was waking up.


"I am unsure what you mean by your-- --last question, but if you mean Cerberus' attempt to termin-- ate me, I believe they were-" Lexicon stopped talking, but this time it wasn't due to air being forced into her lungs. As her synthetic memory had come back online, she remembered the man's face. And if it was this man that was questioning her, Lexicon wasn't sure how to respond.


This time when the girl spoke, there was a hint of distrust in her voice, but also embarrassment. "Actually," she began slowly. "I'm not sure I can answer your questions." Her face crew clouded, as if she was deep in thought. "Your name is August, correct? Biotic and CQB profess-- ional?" The distrust mostly left her tone, and she raised an eyebrow in curiosity. "I think the information you seek may be... classified?" She questioned, wondering how she was supposed to interact with potential captors. She felt bad for not immediately answering his questions though, and expressed it through an even more embarrassed, "Sorry."

 

[Steel Accord]

"Wait so you were . . ." August then remembered her request. "Ummm hold still." He reached over and started to carefully decouple the ventilator. "You can breathe on your own right?" He asked, and she nodded. August was both horrified and darkly fascinated by this girl's comfort with such invasive machinery in her body. Sure he himself had an implant somewhere in his spinal column, a very top secret and experimental one at that, but it wasn't near to this extent. He slowly removed the machine, loose puss sticking to it. He wasn't normally this squeamish around medial procedures but this was a whole new level. All the conflicted emotions were quite clear on his face as they always were. August didn't play a lot of poker. 


Once the respirator was removed he backed away slowly to give her some room. "If you're feeling up to it, what's your name?" He asked as he scooted his seat right next to her bed.

 

[Kaeli]

When August took out the respirator, her neck implant whirred for a second, and then a tiny door sealed off the hole in her esophagus. Once it was sealed, she breathed much better, though it evidently still took some effort. 


August's next question surprised her, as it wasn't the type of question that she was used to receiving. She thought for a second, then decided that no harm could come through his knowing a little about her. "They call me Lexicon. Is that what you were asking?" Her tone was questioning, as if she wanted to please but wasn't sure how exactly to do so. "I don't think I have a name like you do, but whenever project command would address me, they always called me Lexicon." She blinked, waiting for his next question.


In the meantime, she assigned her subproccessors to examine the room, in an attempt to identify exactly where she was. They complied, using her retina-mounted sensors, hijacking one of her ears, and using a few other hardware mounted sensors to study her environment. As they worked, each object in the room was documented and put into her synthetic memory, the vibrations and sounds of the ship around her were compared to different samples, and the processors compiled the information and presented Lexicon with a list of probable locations. To her, it seemed most likely that these men weren't pirates, but Corsairs.

 

[Steel Accord]

Realization was starting to dawn on him and it horrified August. This girl had been in that tank for a very long time. He sighed and rubbed a thumb and finger around his stache and goatee both very well trimmed. August could scarcely imagine such a life, raised by Cerberus, cut off from the world, denied the simple comfort of touch. He was wearing a casual vest with a white shirt underneath. His pants were white and loose and he wore sandals on his feet.


"Well you were polite enough to introduce yourself to me it would only be polite to return the favor. Welcome aboard the Hawkins, I'm August Duangang, pleased to meet you." He held out his hand to shake hers.

 

[Kaeli]

August was very distraught about something, Lexicon thought. Or maybe his facial expressions indicated that he was just nervous about interacting with her. She felt the same way. 


When August held his hand out to her, Lexicon didn't understand the gesture at first. Instead, she replied in a polite tone. "Duangang? I didn't know that." He held the hand out as if he was expecting something, and then Lexicon realized that he was extending her a greeting. "Oh! Of course." She replied, her cheeks blushing a faint red color from embarrassment. With a moderate effort, she raised one hand up and put it in his hand, giving it what she thought was a firm shake, though it felt limp to August. "I'm happy to know you." She smiled, hoping that she was doing this right. Her hand felt cool and soft, with no callouses to mar her overly-moistened palm and fingers.

 

[Steel Accord]

In contrast, August's hands were leathery and muscled. He returned her gesture but did so like he was handling porcelain.


"Happy to know you as well, Lexicon." He said with a warm smile. Just then the door opened. In stepped the Captain.


"I see our guest is awake. And Lice was fine with you taking out her breathing device."


"She asked me to captain . . . annnnd I didn't exactly want to disturb him." August pointed over to Lice, resting peacefully in his chair with his arms crossed. La Croix kicked the chair, starlting the doctor awake.


"You two, outside, now." The captain demanded. Lice got up from his chair and followed. August turned back to Lexicon.


"I need to speak privately with the captain, but I'll be right outside and right back, okay?"

 

[Kaeli]

Lexicon didn't know if he was reassuring her, or asking her for permission to go talk with the captain. She assumed he meant the first, and so she nodded politely and said, "Of course. I'll be in here if you need me."


With the three of them gone, Lexi turned her attention to understanding the rest of the room. She gazed this way and that way, soaking in all of her surroundings and trying to make sense of them. Things like the hi-tech medical equipment, the tuned hum of the engines, and other factors convinced her that she was right in assuming that this ship was a Corsair ship. It appeared that the ship was a small one, maybe Corvette class, or possible Frigate class. Then, she realized she was ignoring the biggest quandary facing her. If she was captured, assuming that a computer could be captured, what was she to do. She spent a good while deliberating over that while the three spoke outside.


-Outside-


"Lice," Said the captain in a brisk tone. "Give me a quick rundown. What is she?"


Lice stammered in reply. "Well, that's hard to say, actually. She's like nothing I've ever seen, but it appears that she's been serving as that ship's computer for a long time now. Possibly years, or even decades."


"Decades?" Replied La Croix, her eyebrow raised. "She doesn't look a day over 13."


"Very true, Captain, but my initial scan revealed a huge number of changes to her body, mismatching signs of puberty and maturation, and an unusually well-integrated system of implants. I think it's hard for me to say exactly how old she is, but I bet that she's at least several years older than she looks. With your permission, I'll get ready to run a full analysis and tell you what I learn."


"Go for it." The captain said, shaking her head, then turning to August. "Duangang? Report."

 

[Steel Accord]

"Captain, in my honest opinion I don't think she's a threat."


"I'm not taking any chances." He said curtly as he saw Lice start to attend to her. "But . . . I think you may be right."


"She doesn't seem to have any knowledge of what Cerberus is. Or, she said classified, she might know but she doesn't have the context. Like Lice said, she's been in that tube for possibly most of her life." August explained. La Croix held the bridge of his nose.


"We need that information, Duangang. She could bring down Cerberus itself or at least cripple them." La Croix said.


"I know . . . but we can't push too hard. To be . . . crass it would be like trying to interrogate a child on which of their siblings ate the cookies."


"We might not even need to do that." A new voice came in. Imbwe stood beside the two, seemingly appearing from nowhere. The two however were used to her sudden ins and outs. She couldn't really help it, it's just what she did.


"What are you suggesting?" La Croix asked.


"If her brain is mostly machine, we can extract the information harmlessly from her. She wouldn't even know it was happening if we did it right."


"We don't have the facilities to perform that kind of data mining and extraction." La Croix said.


"Not here." August said, "but I know where they do . . ."