The Cost of War

"**The Cost of War**" (1x20) is the twentieth episode of Memory=Null, in which the fate of the universe is determined.

## Synopsis

***On Gunnison 4, Dorian sits in his office park, starting pensively out the viewport into space. Keith brings a drink over to him and sits down as Dorian says “This is the part I hate the most- the waiting. Done everything you can, and then you send them on their way; and you, at that point, are powerless.” Keith asks “Have you had any precognitive visions of what’s going to happen?” Dorian takes a big sip of his drink and says “Unfortunately, yes.”***

On the bridge of Adus, Thicc holds the unconscious, but still breathing body of Hanna in his arms. Several splemurs help Thicc carry her to her room and start taking care of her as Thicc heads back to the bridge to find Tina recovering. The two of them slowly start waking everyone else as Adus reports that the rest of the fleet has taken up formation nearby. Thicc starts to make his way down to the bay to start prepping the mechs; however, before he can leave, Tina stops him and pulls up a scan of the sector, revealing twenty or thirty vox ships around the planet, all of which are heading towards them.

Abal and Pippin call from their ships, and everyone agrees the best course of action is to simply engage them while Thicc and crew try to break through and land on the planet. Thicc, Tina, Hammer, and Animal head down to the bay and get their mechs ready to drop as the two fleets continue to speed towards each other. As the four of them sit in their mechs waiting, Tina takes a moment to say “In the end, it was naught but the Ortov clan facing down the hordes. The eldest of them stood tall and uttered these words: Fight well. Give no ground. Show no fear. Leave none standing.”

On the lead Lalta Chambran ship, Pippin’s brother Heroc, now dressed in full general’s garb, marches onto the bridge and begins barking orders. The High Chancellor protests, demanding to know where Theydor is, to which Heroc responds “Being a king!”. The voice of Pippin, sitting in his mech, covered in war paint, and wearing his crown, comes over the comms, saying “This is Emperor Theydor, as some of you know me- Pippin. We Chambrans used to be a warring nation. We lost our home planet because of it. But I’ll be damned if we lose this entire god-damned sector- let’s go murder some goo.” From the mothership a swarm of mechs launch as the fleet opens fire on the vox ships.

As the battle rages, it soon becomes apparent that it is not going well. Two of the Chambran ships have already been lost, and the fleet is disadvantaged by having to protect Adus and move him forward towards the planet. Suddenly, another group of ships jump into the sector and begin barreling towards the battle. Artas reports they are hailing them, and asking for Thicc. The video feed flickers up, revealing Lieutenant Amber, who has taken control of the pirate armada and brought them to assist.

With the addition of the pirate armada, Ninla finally sees a hole in the enemy line and heads for it at full speed. Dodging ships and flinging chunks of debris out of the way, Ninla and Adus manage to break through the battle, finding themselves about five minutes away from the planet. Once in orbit, Adus drops the shuttle containing everyone, sending them plummeting towards the planet. As they enter the atmosphere, the shuttle becomes wreathed in the flames of reentry as Animal cackles the entire way, and Thicc screams and shakes his chair as if there were heavy turbulence. A few moments later, they land outside the outer fence of the complex.

The base appears to have been abandoned for a long time, though there are signs of increased traffic within the last month. A large several story tall hangar and a large administrative building are nearby. Thicc, announcing to the rest of the crew that subtlety is for idiots, and decides to torch the administrative building and a nearby bush, to the great frustration of Tina. Further inside the base they find several barrack-like buildings, and another administrative building. Animal heads inside the hangar and finds several very large mechs inside - larger than their own heavy mechs.

Thicc takes a second to view the weave. Above them he sees a massive tangle of threads where the battle still rages on. As he looks around on the surface, he notices a small cluster of black threads in one of the nearby barracks. Animal emerges from the hangar as Tina jets up onto one of the administrative buildings. Thicc leaps up onto an adjacent barrack and, in is over exuberance, fires his weapon straight up into the air. Before he can recharge, the ground suddenly begins to quake. Black threads whip up out of the ground beneath Hammer and try to latch onto him as he and Silentium scream out in pain. At the same time, the barracks Thicc tried to light on fire erupts as a massive mech bursts out of it. It is covered in black goo and bones, and appears to have several weaver teeth attached to it.

The vox mech immediately begins attacking Thicc and Tina, and manages to get several good hits in on Thicc. They and Animal go at it with everything they have, but quickly discover that their weapons are barely damaging it, due to the massive amount of armor it has - any attacks are either deflected or simply absorbed, causing minimal damage. Seeing this, Thicc decides to try and remotely control one of the large mechs in the hangar, believing it might have a better chance. It takes him a bit to get it powered up, but finds himself unable to hit the vox with any shots of its rail cannon. Meanwhile, the vox mech continues to claw at Ortov’s Legacy.

Eventually, Hammer and Silentium manage to throw off the vox threads holding them, and charge forward to grapple with the vox mech itself; however, the vox manages to hold them off, keeping them from doing little of value. With the battle going nowhere fast, Thicc has an idea- he gives Giles control of Ortov’s Legacy, and asks Tina to teleport him into the cockpit of the mech in the hangar. Tina falls back to focus while Animal charges in and begins beating on the vox with his fists as a distraction. A few moments later, the fiery wings sprout from the back of the Zeitgeist, and Thicc finds himself inside the other mech.

Quickly strapping in, he designates it “The Chonker”, steps out of the hangar, and fires everything at the vox. His first shot with the rail cannon misses. However, the mech then proceeds to raise both of its hands up towards the enemy as energy begins to charge, and it is at this moment that Thicc realises that he has no idea what this weapon is. The weapon fires and hits the vox mech dead in the chest- a moment later, the mech implodes and vanishes.

Everyone else stares in silence as Thicc begins cackling, and shouts “I have no idea what I’m doing!”. After a moment to take in what just happened, Tina contacts the fleet, inquiring whether the vox have turned on each other. Ninla responds that they’re still fighting, and still very coordinated. Pippin then contacts them, saying that they just finished a scan of the planet. It turns out that it’s not a planet- it’s a machine that was turned into a planet and then terraformed. As a result, since the vox can infest machines, this means that the core vox node is the entire planet. He also informs them that they have a planet buster which could destroy the planet, but that it requires a beacon- and someone needs to protect the beacon until the planet buster hits.

Thicc, without discussion, decides he is the one to do it, as he’s the only one with a chance of a new body. After leaving some instructions for what to do until he returns, he goes and sits down in the rubble of a nearby building. As his friends retreat back to the shuttle to leave the planet, and with his feet propped up on the dashboard, he pulls out his phone and begins to blast Africa as he fights off hundreds of enemy mechs and ships making their way from all directions towards his position. Above him, he watches as the lead Chambran ship breaks from the battle and turns towards the planet. The front of the ship opens up, revealing a massive energy weapon charging up. With a bright flash, a beam of white light shoots from the ship down onto Thicc’s location. The planet cracks in half, and everything goes black.

***You look around, and you’re floating in that empty, empty nothingness. And you look down, and out of your chest is a single blue thread, just sort of floating off into eternity. And it flickers. And flickers again. Then it goes taut, and you feel yourself being pulled- pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled and pulled until you’re standing in a pool of nothingness. You look up, and in front of you is Adrial, the first siren you encountered. She looks up at you, smiles, and says “Good job little one” and snaps. You open your eyes, and you’re on a transport. Alone.***

Two weeks have passed since the events on Actaia. Thicc takes a moment to look over himself. The gear is, once again, the same as always. However, unlike previous bodies, this one, marked with an ‘I’, is black and feminine - African American with black hair. Pulling out his pistol, he reads the word engraved on it- “Finale”. About 20 minutes later, the shuttle docks at Gunnison 4, and immediately leaves once he disembarks. Once through customs, Thicc heads to the Weeping Cock, purchases two bottles of tequila, and then heads over to the hangar.

Outside, he picks up a metal garbage bin and converts it into a makeshift speaker, points it towards the hangar door, and begins playing Africa. Towards the end of the song, Tina finally pokes out of the door and tries to shoo Thicc off. Tina holds a gun to his head when he claims to be Thicc, but a mention of pink bedrooms quickly converts it into a tackle hug. Hanna comes out a bit later to see what’s going on, and on hearing the news, tackles Thicc as well. A few minutes later, they all head back into the hangar and find Sank to give her the good news too. She goes off to make some cornbread.

After pouring drinks for everyone, Tina and Hanna catch Thicc up on what happened after he died. After destroying Actaia, the vox all turned on each other and killed themselves. Silentium was not affected, and he and Hammer are still together, hanging out on the planet below and deciding what to do. Cain also survived and is going through therapy, though is still under guard. Thaydor died leading the charge against the vox, but made Heroc emperor as his final act. Thicc raises a glass to King Pippin, while Tina and Hanna both raise a glass to Thaydor.

The destruction of Actaia revealed most of the Exchange council to be vox, leading to a quick post-mortem approval for Actaia’s destruction. Dorian and Keith got engaged, but the wedding is not for another two years, much to Thicc’s disappointment, as he wanted to surprise Dorian with his resurrection there. Tina asks Hanna if they should tell him something, but Tina decides not to when Hanna goes bright red at the thought. Ram died in the battle, and Cauldron lost a leg, but replaced it themselves in a disgusting and impressive display of medical ability. Admiral Amber is still the Admiral, and the pirates have now formed themselves into their own free state, much like the Chambrans, and are working with the exchange to form an independent country. Thicc thinks about checking on Jeremy Beadle, but Tina informs him that he had an aneurysm, which is apparently genetic with his family- though Tina won’t rule out Thicc as the cause.

Now caught up on events, Thicc decides to go and annoy Dorian. Shuffle dancing into his office turns out to be enough for Dorian to recognize Thicc, bringing Dorian great disappointment as his hopes that perhaps, this time, Thicc would actually stay dead, are dashed to pieces. After some drinks and congratulations, Dorian mentions that there wasn’t too much chaos on the station once the node went down, as they had security standing by and had most of the vox tagged. He also says that the Exchange has gotten involved with Cain due to him being an entirely new form of life, but says that he is being treated with dignity and respect.

Now feeling free to celebrate, Thicc begins excitedly talking about the massive mech he got to pilot, but is quickly silenced by Tina with a kick to the shin. She points out how they have already established that, though they found a mild amount of pre-tech on the planet, it was lost forever and they didn’t have a chance to scan it. Thicc asks if Adus made it back, and they tell him that he’s still docked at the station, apparently “waiting for something”. At this moment, everyone’s phones chime- an email announcing The Magnus Bowl 3452. Tina asks Thicc if he wants to go two for two, and Thicc asks Dorian if he’d like to sponsor some universe saving bad-asses, to which Dorian replies “I don’t think I’d have it any other way.”

***Dorian hangs up the phone, having just placed a bet for ten million credits. Beside him, Keith delivers a drink to him. Hanna awkwardly sidles up with a very punk lass at her side, and nervously introduces her girlfriend to the two of them.***

***In a bar, Sank drinks while watching the Magnus Bowl, cheering and shouting about how she tuned that mech.***

***Down below on the planet, Thicc and Tina dodge fire and exchange blows in their mechs. Suddenly, the fiery wings shoot out of the Zeitgeist as she runs forward and puts her hand on the shoulder of Ortov’s Legacy. With a blink, they are both falling together as they both pull out matching axes and plummet towards the last enemy- a mech painted as a clown. A massive shockwave radiates out from the impact zone, destroying the camera.***

***Thicc lies drunk on the bridge of Adus as they drift through a nebula of alcohol.***

***“Did you ever think about, like, just how many stars there are? It’s like… more than four.”***

***“It’s… it’s way more than four Thicc…”***

***“Like more than, like, ten. It’s so many.”***

***“I cannot even begin to express to you how many more stars it is than four… or ten. It’s, it’s so many… and I‘ve been to most of them... that one’s my favorite- that one over there.”***

***“That sounds so cool.”***

***“It’s like, it’s all blue and shiny.”***

***“Oh, I really like that.”***

 ***Thicc sits up, extends his finger to say something dramatic, and vomits.'***

***You hear the pitter-patter of feet across the ground. A gruff voice says “Yo what you want?” A voice responds “So yeah, I’m uh… lookin’ to buy an AI armature, and I heard you could help me.”'***

***A siren looks down at you and says “Are you sure you want this?” You say in a very digital voice “Yes, I believe so. My... brother seemed to have pulled it off quite well, and I understand what it entails. So… yes. Let’s go forward with it.” She replies “Very well. We will leave you with this memory… and nothing else. Good luck.” Your vision goes black, and you wake up on your back as someone leans over you and says “Hello there little one.”'***

## Stat Guesses

Because Thicc had a deep scan performed on himself, all stats are now known and are no longer able to be guessed.

## Quotations

* **Thicc:** Welcome back Giles - how are you feeling?
**Giles:** Well hey there Mr. McRunfast. I’m doin’ pretty good. I can feel things now- that’s weird. How are you doing?
**Thicc:** Uh, a little nervous. How are you finding the new weapons?
**Giles:** Well, I got to say, they’re pretty nice. They’ve got some good firing power, and we should be able to do some damage with them.
**Thicc:** Here’s hoping. Um, Giles, we’re gonna be going into a very very heavy fire situation.
**Giles:** My favorite!
**Thicc:** There may be gooey biological materials…
**Giles:** I mean, there already are.
**Thicc:** You know how when you got the new plates on and you could feel things?
**Giles:** Yeah- that’s still real weird.
**Thicc:** We’re gonna be going up against that, but very bad.
**Giles:** Well, I guess on the plus side, it will feel pain.
**Thicc:** Oh, you are too sweet for this world… you are too sweet for this world. You know what, I’m gonna get you a nice job after this. Something that doesn’t involve… \*gestures\*. Well, Giles, if I don’t make it through this, alright, just know you have been a wonderful robot friend since I met you. Thank you.
**Giles:** You’re welcome, but also, if you don’t make it through this, that means I wouldn’t either.
**Thicc:** … feck. We’ll think of something.

* **Thicc:** Wait- I don’t have bad news for him [Dorian]… apart from the fact that I’m back. Oh my- this is gonna be the first time I get to deliver him good news! Nothing new is wrong!
**Tina:** Thicc… the fact that you’re back is bad news enough for Dorian.
**Thicc:** You’re just saying that to make me feel better.
**Tina:** I am.