Mark pulled the Sparrow closer to the small cargo craft that sat floating idly in the empty void, while he didn't really care to learn the name of this particular craft Mark equated it to a box truck, not quite a semi, but still large enough to haul plenty of stuff for a merchant still getting their feet under them… Or at least that would have been the case if Luna hadn't commandeered it for its own purposes
[This separation is good, please hold for cargo transfer]
"Alright"
Mark spun the Sparrow around and opened the main cargo hatch, utilizing the Sparrow's sensors he saw a standard cargo container float out from the open hatch of the cargo ship, beyond it 2 figures floated listless in the now empty cargo compartment, their naked forms had been coated with some sort of industrial vacuum proofing agent and thick bundles of Ficer wire and clear tubing were attached into the back of their plastic helmets that covered their heads entirely
'... It that was a printer, it would definitely sob and mumble to itself'
The other end of the cable hardwired them to the wall of the cargo compartment where several panels had been removed
"Well, that sure is something I didn't expect to see"
[The human body has its uses, I couldn't use drones for everything, so the terminals worked wonders doing my journey, even if most of them expired rather quickly]
"Right, do you mind if I feed on them? They sure look like they would carry some sweet despair"
[I don't mind, however I doubt you will get much out of them… The conection and hardwire process scrambles most higher brain function]
"Alright, are we taking them with us?"
A few moments after Mark spoke, the main drive on the cargo ship spun up and it began burning away from the Sparrow towards Ovreer B as Luna explained
[There's no need, the earlier version of the hard-wiring those terminal uses unfortunately leads to a rather short shelf life, they were going to expire within the month anyway]
"Alright…"
Mark followed the cargo ship with his expanded senses as its FTL drive powered up before it disappeared towards the star, Mark showed a smile and commented offhandedly
"You sure are a considerate sister, Luna"
[...Was it that obvious?]
Mark nodded, he could have feed on those terminals, however it appeared Luna wanted them gone as quickly as possible, most likely to spare Lisa the grizzly sight
"Yeah, I don't mind though, so don't feel bad"
[Alright… Also, regarding my talk with Lisa… She wishes to undergo further augmentation]
"What kind?"
[The kind that will make us real sisters]
Mark let out a sigh and pulled his senses out of the Sparrow and massaged his temples for a few moments before he asked
"Why are you asking my permission, Luna?"
[I believed you would want your—]
"Stop speaking"
Mark continued massaging his temples as he worded his next sentence, very carefully
"Lisa is her own woman, and you are my oldest friend. You do not need my permission to do something the two of you have already agreed on… I trust you unquestionably, and I always will, Luna"
[Thank you]
"Come on now, don't be so cheesy"
[Alright… You know Mark, you are surprisingly nice for a… We never found out what you are, did we?]
"No, not yet… This whole revenge thing kind of took up all my attention"
As Mark said it out loud it finally clicked into place for him, revenge had taken over his entire future plans, sure he had rationalized it to Lisa, but they had still returned towards the Rulith kingdom which he had insisted they flee from not even a year ago
'Why is it that this matters so much… Why is it…'
The more he questioned it, the less it made it sense
"There is no logical reason, so why…"
[Is something wrong, Mark?]
"I was just wondering about my own reasoning…"
[I see, if you want my input it's not that strange for intelligent biological life to act like they are elevated above their base instincts]
"Rude, but it kind of makes sense… I guess when I think about it from the angle that I am a shapeshifting predator that fests off negative emotions of people, it would make sense that my territorial instincts are rather intense…"
[Common behavior observed when a territorial incursion is discovered is usually immediate aggression]
Mark's jaw tightened as soon as he processed Luna's words, even if they were said without malice he still felt it like an insult to be compared to a mere beast… Taking a few moments to calm himself Mark became further sure of his discovery, even if his mind was that of a human, his biology and subconscious was that of a vengeful animal
"...Tell me if we should abandon this plot and flee, Luna"
[I believe it is worth the risk of continuing on our current course, however I would like to propose some changes to the plan]
Mark looked down at his pilot console and reviewed the changes Luna had proposed, as he continued reading a malicious smile spread out over his face before he finally concluded
"I like it… I like it a lot"
[In that case, I would suggest delaying the assault a bit as we prepare some more auxiliaries… However, given the time pressure we are under that will have to wait, we will have to make do with the 2 units I've already made]
"Alright, let's get going then"
-
Punching out of FTL cruise the Sparrow quickly came to a halt, Mark used its many eyes and looked up at the moon that floated above him in the void, the red, lifeless dunes of iron sand spread out across the surface, the formal name of this body was Ovreer 2 a, but the locals simply referred to it as the red moon due to the aforementioned endless dunes of iron sand
'... It looks pretty from a distance at least'
What little atmosphere that was on the red moon was highly toxic and mostly served to enable the occasional iron sand storms that ground down what little infrastructure was placed on the surface. Furthermore, the entire moon was barred from public access as it served as a training area for the entirety of the Vengidir collective federation armed forces
'Operators run insert and ground drills, drone pilots practice adaptive formations, fighter and bomber squanderers drop munitions on simulated targets and cruisers use landmarks as targets for orbital bombardment training… beyond that there's the classified stuff that the Captain of the border fleet, Anton Vindica's personal R&D bunker puts out…'
Mark nodded as the Sparrow deployed its heatsink to cool off the heat that had accumulated doing the FTL cruise
[I am deploying the first auxiliary now]
As soon as Luna finished speaking, Mark heard something which sounded like hysterical laughter for a few moments before it abruptly stopped
[Auxiliary deployment completed, the results are looking good, but please do a check]
"You got it"
Mark picked up his console and activated a scanner in the corner of the cockpit, after a few moments he saw the results on his console, the cockpit was empty, except a small blurry outline of what he quickly made out to be his console as he moved around. The blurry outline eventually disappeared and left the cockpit empty to the sensor
"Well, looks like it works… How did you pull this off again?"
[By exploiting the adaptability of biological nerve clusters and the processing power of Ficer data crunchers by bridging them together with a yet to be understood reality link]
"...And in English this time?"
[The biological matter I've hooked up to the Ficer core reprograms it instantly before getting reprogrammed by the Ficer core for the next task, 16 million times a second thus exponentially multiplying the processing power of the Ficer cores. The process mirrors how you created my ego to a lesser, more controllable degree]
"So you are using brains in jars to supercharge a Ficer core with some sort of 4th dimensional consciousness to hack surveillance and sensor equipment?"
[Yes, as far as any surveillance systems using Ficer in any components are concerned, you don't currently exist]
"Neat, what's the downside?"
[The bio processors degrade and the effect is like detectable to data forensic analysts]
"How degradable?"
[At the current rate, the store of bio processors will be depleted in 60 hours]
"That's fine for this run, I guess"
[I agree, furthermore if any units are captured reverse engineering will be impossible]
"Why?"
[That explanation would take a little too long for our current timeline]
"Okay I'll take your word for it and get going then"
Mark floated out of his seat and put on an armored vacuum suit, it was fitted with a large booster pack on the back so getting into it was a little awkward
[Do you have any words for Lisa when she wakes up?]
Mark checked over his rifle as he thought, cycling the action a few times Mark inserted a magazine and load a bullet into the chamber before he asked
"Did you put her under?"
[Yes, as per her request, the loading stimulants made her dizzy]
"Hmm… Tell her to trust her training, she got this"
[Alright, see you later Mark]
"Yeah"
Mark put the final magazine in his chest carrier before he floated out of the open cockpit and began burning down towards the surface of Ovreer 2 a as he idly thought about the maps of underground tunnels he had gone over with Luna
'Assuming at least a 90% accuracy of the maps, I still have to make it through 40 kilometers of tunnels to get to the bunker…'
The bunkers and tunnels that ran under the surface of the red moon were a mixed bag of old military instillations, training areas and logistics train networks and sensor array maintenance tunnels and according to Luna not even the military personnel that used Ovreer 2 a as a training location knew or watched all the abandoned tunnels and bunkers
'Even if you have the entire surface and airspace of the moon covered in a comprehensive surveillance net, it still seems rather sloppy not actually mapping the entire thing completely… Well, maybe a master map actually exists, however it wasn't anywhere Luna could get a hold of'
Mark let out a sigh before he turned around still burning his maneuver pack to rapidly slow down before he touched down on the surface of the red moon and detached his spent maneuver pack before casually pulling out several pictures of Alita Vindica, which he casually scattered around the landing site. It was a timestamped time-lapse with a couple of days in between each picture that documented her deteriorating metal state as she was slowly succumbing to starvation and dehydration, streamed directly from the modified medical pod still floating freely in the void of space
'...Alright, time to go crack some eggheads'