WoWS3 Chpt 32

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==Weapons of War Saga: The Final March- Chapter 32 - ==
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===Briefing of Intelligence and Children ===
Fort Drillson
New Lazarus
1st September, 3144
“Welcome to our latest facility ladies and gentlemen. This is our new overall headquarters. Every branch of the SLDF, Navy, Army, Intelligence, Diplomatic Corps, Exploratory Service, and Science Directorate has a space here to facilitate cross communication and coordination as a proper HQ should. Our previous HQ was getting a bit cramped. We start today with two items of news, both good and bad at the same time, and what we’re going to do about both.” Tabiranth paced the stage.
“Item one. The expected happened. Caleb Davion has met the end he set up for himself on Palmyra. It is confirmed he met his end on 25 June of this year. I know some of you would consider this good news but the number of combat commands wiped out there because of his stupidity has put the Davions in a bad spot.”
“So what is item two?” William Mahan asked.
“Alaric has moved on Dieron. We also have reports he is getting support from the Ghost Bears against any Combine counterattacks. This does not break his treaty with us but he is clearly setting himself up for the end game.”
“And what are we going to do about all of this?” Bruno Unger asked.
“We’re going to liberate Sheratan. We know of all the powers around us the one we have no chance at all of a diplomatic solution with until a change of leadership is affected is the Capellan Confederation.” The Advisor took over the stage as a holo projector put a star map up for all to see.
“There is no major Capellan force there at this time but with what we know about Daoshen we expect a response. Indeed we are somewhat counting on it. To set the bait we will send Fourth Division with some adhoc supplemental forces.”
“I see. Fourth is a pure human formation with no drones or AIs, but if we temporarily attach some given Daoshen Liao’s sentiments about such things it will force him to respond but if we pull the drone and AI attachments before he can, it will just show him to be growing increasingly unstable.” Brody Atwell commented.
“Exactly and because Fourth is normally an all human formation it isn’t like we’re hanging them out to dry. They’ll have plenty of combat strength to repel any counter attack. It is still not completely ideal but this is how we have to fight this foe.” Juanita took up the stage.
“As you can see there are a number of major combat commands that can respond. Hopefully we will draw in enough and defeat them in detail to provide some relief to the Federated Suns. If they do not we will repeat the process at Fletcher.”
From the back of the room, Amanda Roberts watched quietly, seeing Pestilence in her element.
<She has certainly grown into the role, Helena.> Over the Digital link through her implant.
<I know, I was hoping you'd notice.> Helena replied through the relay. <You taught her well.>
<She learned, including things we didn't teach her, I'm really pleased to see her coming into her own.>
<There is something about trying to play these sorts of mind games and paying in irreplaceable blood I don’t like but it is war and every effort I’ve made to even reach out to Daoshen has met with no success.>
<Big change from the old days, isn't it? I wonder which one is the act, the Daoshen now, or the one who was stumbling over himself to apologize at Port Orphan?>
<Based on what Danai let slip in our one meeting, I think both were the genuine Daoshen in a way. We’ve all just underestimated how unstable he really is.>
<You know, I loaned you someone who can put an end to that.> Amanda actually glanced in Helena's direction, <It's not 'nice' but it might be 'necessary'.>
<I know. Currently he’s too well protected based on what Juanita’s pieced together. Or I wouldn’t have signed off on these mind games in a desperate hope to undermine his support and make him more vulnerable.>
Amanda was as silent on the channel, as she was in the physical…for a moment. <Well…how many of their counterfeit Desmonds do you figure are still running loose in the Confederation? I'm going to bet there are a few.>
<Agreed. That is where I’ve tasked Victoria to focus now that we have the luxury. I have little doubt there will be souls meeting blades in the dark in the pursuit of that information.>
<We'll know for sure, if Famine has to upload and she's happy.>
<I find it strange that I want to see her happy but yet I know what it will mean and that will actually make me sad.>
<My youngest is a distillation of a bunch of traits I didn't know I could have, Helena. You'd be sad, I’m terrified. I only let her out hoping she'd develop more…human? Humane? Less destructive interests and desires. Otherwise she's a mind that has to be kept in a box. One marked 'in case of catastrophe'.>, Amanda told Helena
<Since she is biological maybe she eventually will but I doubt as much as either of us would like.>
<She's my daughter, part of me, and I love her, but she frightens me, Helena.> Amanda confided. <Both for what she is, and what that says about who I am.>
<Then we will love her and show her she can be something else. Something more even. Even if she does not become something more we will still love her because she is family. But we will do what we must for the sake of others as well.>
Amanda noticed the room had gone quiet. People were looking at Helena, thankfully, rather than across the room at her.
<Helena, I think they're waiting for you to speak.>
<Shit. I wasn’t paying enough attention. Okay recovery mode.> Helena fretted.
“First off I want to thank all of you for being here, supporting me at this time. I know some of you have reservations about this upcoming operation. I will not hold it against anyone if they wish to protest or not be a part of this operation. But ultimately I am the First Lord and Director-General. So the sin is mine to bear and this will not be the first time in the history of warfare a dirty trick has been pulled on an enemy by standard line troops. My prayers go out to our brave men and women. We have prepared for this and I have faith we will emerge victorious.” Helena took the stage.
Amanda mused silently in the back of the room, as work proceeded in the outer system…
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===Stubbornly adjusting to the new Normal===
Precision didn't like her body. It was too slow, too soft, the senses felt dulled in comparison with what she'd had in the Virch at Kolossus, and pain registers were too intense. "Intermix should be adjusted fourteen points to the titanium from this setting." she explained to Truk's remote, "No less, and for ghu's sake no more."
“Yes, yes. I know what I’m doing.”
"You know what you're doing, or I wouldn't have pointed it out, Truk, the problem is you knowing what we're trying to do." she tried to explain, "Which isn't normal KF architecture. The alloys have to be exact or it will rupture when we put the power to it. Blew up three prototypes back home that way."
“See? Fourteen points on the dot.”
Hate these dim eyes!! Mom why did you have to make me be fleshy for this?? "Sorry, Truk, the input and data collection from these senses are so…limited!"
“Heh. Maybe so but they do allow you to experience things I never will unless I borrow them from someone else’s digitized memory.”
"You're not missing anything good." she told him, "really, I could've just been loaded to a core and shipped with the cargo but mom said nooo, I have to be all…wet inside and stuff!"
“I guess it is a case of the grass always looks greener on the other side.”
"Probably more me being rude to Katrin's assistants during the first tests, I'm being punished, Truk, 'you need to have some empathy for the organics'...Gahh!"
“We could examine you to see if you have been given less than standard human sensitivity. Might give you some relief.” Truks told her.
"I'm being a whiny bitch, okay, now, when this forging's done, we're going to need to start prepping the selenium doping process for the secondary jacketing…"
“Of course. If we start now we could wind up with far too much margin for error due to production imperfections and be too far out of spec.”
"We can't do it early." she judged, "but, we DO need to have the secondary structures prepared and inspected. This is high-energy materials physics, not banging rocks together for scrapers."
“Zulu is overseeing the preparations. When was the last time you ate or slept?”
"Uhm…I've got suit-paste and supplements, and sleep is a huge waste of ti-"
“Tut-tut. You’re in a body now. Even machines need the occasional bit of down time. So as your psychiatrist, I’m prescribing a real meal, shower, and a nap.”
"BUT-"
"NO buts. You, into the airlock out of the suit, into the galley and then off to bed. You're organic, you wrote very exact instructions, I can handle executing them, you don't need to touch every piece. Go. Or do I have to carry you out?"
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===The struggles of a teenage cybernetic girl===
Industrial Area - Port Lazarus Space Complex
New Lazarus, system
14th September, 3144
The decision to implant Precision came from the needs of the project, as a result, her organic body was…well…as one of Amanda's youngest, one would expect youth. And Youth there is. The engineered and cloned body was a female one, like all the Envoy series, but Precision's body in this case was put into service with fewer of the force-growth processes.
The result is a child's mind in the body of a child. In her case, physically the same age her progenitor was when she was abducted by a cell of the Word of Blake.
A twelve year old. Not physically grown enough to be seen as an adult by other humans, and this, she hated, having spent literal decades as a digital wraith in virtual space, interacting with the physical world through robotic remotes and display systems.
The point is, the human crew at the station had a tendency to stare, and she had to cope with the awkwardness of a body still in its growing years.
Which made her relationship with Truk, difficult to say the least.
He was everybit her mental equal, but he still often wound up treating her like a child.
“Until you can act like an adult and take care of yourself like an adult I will treat you like a child.” His admonishment rang in her ears.
He even put her in ‘time out’ in a corner once for her behavior.
It was humiliating.
Perhaps the worst in her opinion was when he fed her chocolate. Real chocolate. Not simulated. Not her mother’s memory of it. She was not prepared for how different it actually tasted outside the sims.
She liked it. But she dare not admit it.
In the end though they understood each other, yet that never seemed to end their daily routine.
As proof, Truk detailed a maintenance spider to help her get out of the EVA suit-it wasn't a skinsuit because she hadn't stopped growing enough to make the investment in flexirigid materials worth it, so her EVA suit weighed an impressive 150 kilos to protect right around 35 kilos of her.
"Shower." Truk told her, and she moved into the decontamination module just off the airlock, where a multiheaded shower system designed for cleaning surface contamination off hit her with hot water and a liquid wash, before the nozzles retracted and hot air blowers circulated and scavenged moisture in a full-body blow-dry process.
Five minutes, and done.
"Food." she muttered, pulling on her normal outfit. Bike shorts, sports-training-bra and a robin's egg blue coverall with her official 'name of record' embroidered on one pocket, and patches including the radiotelescope array that served as the 'heraldry' for Kolossus Station's staff.
“Have you decided what you’d like to eat today?” Truk asked.
"Uh, that porridge stuff yesterday was pretty good, and I liked the meat-strips, the yellow sour juice stuff, and…ahm….the eggs? The way your guy cooked them last time was good."
“Acceptable. Glad we’re making progress.” Truk smiled.
"I just remember it was fast getting down, a lot faster than the pancakes from Monday, but it tasted…good?"
“I imagine you’ll find many sensations different than you expected from the sims.”
"Oh, yeah." she nodded.
“Next we should work on what your mother wants. You need a friend that isn’t family or an AI.”
She winced visibly at the comment. "Do I have to? it's not going to get the test item built faster and-", Precision started to question.
“You’d be surprised how enlightening it can be. And while it probably won’t speed up progress, it will give you something else to focus your attention on so you don’t get so stressed.”
"If you'd unlock my lab-fab I could relax easier." she argued, "Or let me set up with the long range telescopes…"
“Make a friend first. A real one. You might be surprised at the kind of people you can find on station.” Truks sternly tells her.
She sighed heavily, and checked her chronometer and calendar on the wrist of her coverall. "In three days, I'm going to be worse and I'm going to be smelly." She argued, "Humans don't like that, and neither do I."
“Which is why you must also make time for self care. You’re not in a sim anymore.” Truk tried explain to her.
"If you can get Vendetta to let me have 'em, there are pills for it!" she tried to bargain.
“Pills won’t solve your problems. Taking time to keep yourself clean and nourished, not just your body but also your soul is part of your existence now.”
"I'm going to lose this argument again, right?" Precision shook her head as she entered the galley area.
“Welcome to being human.”
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