D
Dumont
>Ragnaheim, Grand Palace of Usotzka: Basement Cells.
Apparently it had been right to assume that the Osmans kept cells under the palace. For a few days now Ace's world had been one small cell, with one small window designed so no one's head could fit through. One blanket to lie on one cold stone floor; his earlier use of a bed for fortifications inspired his captors to strip his cells of absolutely everything. Thick reinforced bars, that had even been modified by Ragnarok tech crew just so they couldn't be loosened, with a constant twenty four hour watch outside of two armed guards. They seemed to like to remind him that they were under orders to just shoot him if he acted up, although the fact that they'd been supplied with tranquiliser rounds likely wasn't outside Ace's notice.
Across the hall, Aries hung on a rack in her own cell. Still trapped in the suit, although the suit had been partially dismantled. The suit was useless with the AI inside able to push out any other controller, but the servos and internal components in Origin suits were designed to be stripped and reused. Aries' frame was being dismantled for parts, while the same signal jammers all around the dungeon prevented digital intrusion on any broadcast band available to the suit's communications suite, Ragnarok techs having double- and triple-checked for any hidden equipment or transmission frequency modifications Ace may have made.
But as per usual, his daily meal came through a slot in the bars. Nepleslian MRE's, little plastic baggies with the little plastic cutlery removed. He had to eat with his fingers. These meals were usually delivered by the city's new High Sheriff, but handed over by the guards themselves. Today, however. Today was different. Arccos, High Sheriff of Ragnaheim and now self-appointed Thieftaker General of the Usotzkan Empire slid the meal through the bars herself, before plopping down on the cold stone floor outside the bars. It was subtle, but the freespacer positioned herself outside of his potential reach.
"So. Uso is off world, as is Cyrus. I've been appointed to control courts, so you're talking to the Judge right now." Arccos cradled her chin in the palm of her hand, expression blank, "Frankly, I don't know what you did to get Uso pissed off, but whatever sentence I give you in public trial has to be handed down before she gets back if we want it to be lenient and not have this be torture-ish under her supervision."
"All that happened was that I disobeyed what she told me to do based on my higher knowledge of the situation. I'm a hired gun not a slave or a soldier and I haven't been paid yet. No pay. No work simple as that." Ace finsihed off his food than went over to one of the walls and leaning on it. "You know what makes me angry. It's mostly the fact that Aries has been seperated from me and is having the frame of the suit she is occupying dismantled those two things together aren't good for her she could degrade and if she goes offline... It won't be pretty I'll say that. Also tell your guards to stop bluffing I know they aren't carrying live rounds otherwise Cyrus woulda told me and if not the magizines are marked."
Arccos looked over at the guards, with a small grin.
"I was the one who gave them the tranquiliser rounds. Uso has already signed off on your death, and Cyrus does as he is told to a set degree. I'd say you haven't just been taken out back and shot because I made a point about how having fair trials and such won't rile up the locals."
"Uso probably wouldn't even take me out back she'd just have em kill me here save here the hassle and the people." Ace moved over to where the bed used to be and stood there. "Also I don't care much for her gains...as a matter of fact I dont like her at all. The only thing that really kept me on this planet was three things. One I had no way off without getting killed. Two the kids. And three the relic signals Aries was getting from this planet."
"If you do let me out I'd like to at least check one of those signals out before leaving. I've already had one pinpointed and Aries should have the coordinates in her data storage. We could make a trade and I wont ask to be let out in exchange for the info just that Aries is returned to me untampered."
"Well, Aries is a sticky problem." Arccos turned to the armored frame on the rack, "As I said, Uso had signed off on just executing you. Both of you. I'm pretty sure she's just kept her in that suit so that the power runs out and the whole thing can be returned to factory settings and killing her. Same time, I'm not really comfortable just sending her back to you since there's something off about how she can't maintain autonomy without your consent. Two people, one body, but only one of them gets a say sounds like a living nightmare..."
It was a strangely Freespacer point of view, if Ace was in any way familiar with their co-existence with synthetic intelligences.
"I'd prefer to just get her her own body, but I don't know how that will fry you up."
"She can have her own body no problem but there a few certain conditions that have to be met...I don't have the time nor the want to tell you them since I've almost finsished one for her myself."
"You can't kill her since she has a back-up off world but she degrades with out me so she'd only last at most a month without recharing. And it is a living nightmare the prototype AI they gave me took over and killed a few people I had no control but Aries is fine with it for now she knows I'm makin a body for her."
"Also I might as well say this now but Aries can send messages from me I have upgrades to my body that would get pass the signal jammer. There is also the problem of my split personality which Aries keeps in check there are inhibitations on me so I don't end up hurting anyone too bad but my other personality turn those off and I don't know what it is capable of."
Arccos' fingers started to tap out a rhythmn on the stone floor of the cells, it looked like she was thinking. Maybe. When she wanted to she honestly had no expressions whatsoever, like a poker player with a literal off switch for expressions and tics.
"Right, so. There's problems with her transferring to a body other than the one you made, and you won't tell me how to solve it. If she dies you go on a killing spree, but you're also saying you can transmit and screw with stuff outside of here if she's able to re-establish a connection with you... I'm perfectly willing to help get you both safe off world, but this is starting to sound like you're threatening me."
"I mean no hostile intent but it is true. Some one else can make her a body but it needs some of my DNA and someone else's as well but they are not here so it is of new use to you. Also if you could get me off world that would be great but really I'd rather help out around here a bit more at least until I can search those old facilities."
"If I want you off world, I'll just sentence you to banishment or exile or whatever it is. You'll be dumped on your face on some space station next supply run. If I do it in public on the steps of the old courthouse, Uso can't go back on my sentencing without proving herself to be an incompetent tyrant... You know. Fair trial overthrown by personal preference of the crown proving that she's not going to make things better. Same time, I'm also responsible for the protection of everyone in this city, so I need to weigh up how much damage you can cause if you decide to stick it to Uso again, or she decides to pursue you..."
Arccos raised her hands and mussed up her own hair, as if as some sort of expression of frustration.
"And you've also admitted that you can just go berserk... Have you pursued any other course of treatment for a dissociative personality?"
"I can't it won't work it's really deep in my subconcious it's a stack of things that happened when I was really young."
"...That's not an answer. Did you try things and they didn't work, or have you just been going on the assumption it's too hard to solve a mental disorder?"
"The former."
"Okay. So it's a month until she degrades? Thirty one or thirty days?"
"Thirty one from when she was seperated. So let's see it been a few days so she probably has at the most two weeks left and thats pushin it"
"Do you have all the needed components for her body? The DNA or whatever."
"I do its mostly built I just need a relic power source though it helps to maintian the flesh and sytems it self repairs as well."
"I don't see what that has to do with degradation of a digital construct. She's been doing fine in power armor at a regular state of degradation. Flesh impacts the mind?"
"Nah but she would like it. Makes her more human she says."
"Well this is me thinking more about her not dying, not her being as comfortable as she can possibly be. Can the body maintain her without mental degradation without that power source?"
"For a while yes. But that just is a simple stop its not a fix."
Arccos looks down the hall, squinting slightly in the low light of the cell block, before looking up. "Did you notice the crash landing down here?"
"Sure did it wasn't hard anyways. Saw the ship as Aries detected a powersource that would be compatible to the body on board though."
"And what percentage of that statement is bullshit?" Arccos asked, coming over suspect.
"About five percent. I didn't see the ship."
"Well, you've saved her life if it's accurate. Aries will be sent to the Guild of Cyberempathy, all Free State power sources are open source so they'll be able to replicate the power source you need. They can install it and finish the body, put her in it. You'll stand trial for disruption of diplomacy or whatever, and be sentenced to exile. You can meet her off-planet... If you're willing to cut a deal for the location of the dig site, I'm sure Cyrus can be convinced to let you be used as a canary in case you're just detecting a radiation leak from an old reactor."
Arccos stood, adjusting her coat and the silver star forged out of silver and the blood of a Nekovalkyrja empress.
"Her safety is assured, you get to live, and if you're adamant that you want to see those ruins you can cut a deal on your own time."
"Sounds fine by me but I'll have to install that reactor myself it is a very meticulate process can't afford for it to be messed up."
"It's Free State tech. I don't know why you think it would be finnicky. Everything we build is built to be used by someone who's only half awake for ten centuries, but sure. The Guild will be happy to let you perform the operation if it means liberating an AI. That's what they do... I'll have her transported out on the next supply run..."
Arccos held out a hand for the empty packaging of Ace's meal, seemed this little meeting was drawing to a close...
"Just ask Aries for the coordinates and she'l give em to ya." Ace handed the tray to Arccos. "I do have a ship of my own so if you need a ride you know how to get hold of me."
"Well, a brand new used Mothership fell out of the sky for me to fly away on if I need to escape. But I'm not leaving, chances are either Uso is going to shoot Cyrus, or Cyrus is going to shoot Uso in the near future. Mercenaries don't like not getting paid, nor do they profit from protecting a planet permanently and only receiving a small cut... I need to be around and make sure the people of this dustball don't get hurt in the crossfire... There's a lot more at stake than you know..."
Arccos took the trash, and tapped on the bars a few times, as if trying to communicate in some code or other.
"If you need anything, tell the guards to call me. I'll see what I can do. Just keep in mind it has to look like I'm being mean to you..."
Ace noticed the code but couldn't make it out. "Sure thing." Ace simply sat back down.
Arccos' boots could be heard scraping along the cell block floors, before the sound of trash being discarded echoed out through the basement. Lazy afternoon light filtered through the tiny window, as the guards went back to their posts. If Ace thought about it, the tapping on the bars seemed to match some sort of coordinates. Space ones? Whatever it was, it was weird and completely without explanation on behalf of the Freespacer... Something was up.
Apparently it had been right to assume that the Osmans kept cells under the palace. For a few days now Ace's world had been one small cell, with one small window designed so no one's head could fit through. One blanket to lie on one cold stone floor; his earlier use of a bed for fortifications inspired his captors to strip his cells of absolutely everything. Thick reinforced bars, that had even been modified by Ragnarok tech crew just so they couldn't be loosened, with a constant twenty four hour watch outside of two armed guards. They seemed to like to remind him that they were under orders to just shoot him if he acted up, although the fact that they'd been supplied with tranquiliser rounds likely wasn't outside Ace's notice.
Across the hall, Aries hung on a rack in her own cell. Still trapped in the suit, although the suit had been partially dismantled. The suit was useless with the AI inside able to push out any other controller, but the servos and internal components in Origin suits were designed to be stripped and reused. Aries' frame was being dismantled for parts, while the same signal jammers all around the dungeon prevented digital intrusion on any broadcast band available to the suit's communications suite, Ragnarok techs having double- and triple-checked for any hidden equipment or transmission frequency modifications Ace may have made.
But as per usual, his daily meal came through a slot in the bars. Nepleslian MRE's, little plastic baggies with the little plastic cutlery removed. He had to eat with his fingers. These meals were usually delivered by the city's new High Sheriff, but handed over by the guards themselves. Today, however. Today was different. Arccos, High Sheriff of Ragnaheim and now self-appointed Thieftaker General of the Usotzkan Empire slid the meal through the bars herself, before plopping down on the cold stone floor outside the bars. It was subtle, but the freespacer positioned herself outside of his potential reach.
"So. Uso is off world, as is Cyrus. I've been appointed to control courts, so you're talking to the Judge right now." Arccos cradled her chin in the palm of her hand, expression blank, "Frankly, I don't know what you did to get Uso pissed off, but whatever sentence I give you in public trial has to be handed down before she gets back if we want it to be lenient and not have this be torture-ish under her supervision."
"All that happened was that I disobeyed what she told me to do based on my higher knowledge of the situation. I'm a hired gun not a slave or a soldier and I haven't been paid yet. No pay. No work simple as that." Ace finsihed off his food than went over to one of the walls and leaning on it. "You know what makes me angry. It's mostly the fact that Aries has been seperated from me and is having the frame of the suit she is occupying dismantled those two things together aren't good for her she could degrade and if she goes offline... It won't be pretty I'll say that. Also tell your guards to stop bluffing I know they aren't carrying live rounds otherwise Cyrus woulda told me and if not the magizines are marked."
Arccos looked over at the guards, with a small grin.
"I was the one who gave them the tranquiliser rounds. Uso has already signed off on your death, and Cyrus does as he is told to a set degree. I'd say you haven't just been taken out back and shot because I made a point about how having fair trials and such won't rile up the locals."
"Uso probably wouldn't even take me out back she'd just have em kill me here save here the hassle and the people." Ace moved over to where the bed used to be and stood there. "Also I don't care much for her gains...as a matter of fact I dont like her at all. The only thing that really kept me on this planet was three things. One I had no way off without getting killed. Two the kids. And three the relic signals Aries was getting from this planet."
"If you do let me out I'd like to at least check one of those signals out before leaving. I've already had one pinpointed and Aries should have the coordinates in her data storage. We could make a trade and I wont ask to be let out in exchange for the info just that Aries is returned to me untampered."
"Well, Aries is a sticky problem." Arccos turned to the armored frame on the rack, "As I said, Uso had signed off on just executing you. Both of you. I'm pretty sure she's just kept her in that suit so that the power runs out and the whole thing can be returned to factory settings and killing her. Same time, I'm not really comfortable just sending her back to you since there's something off about how she can't maintain autonomy without your consent. Two people, one body, but only one of them gets a say sounds like a living nightmare..."
It was a strangely Freespacer point of view, if Ace was in any way familiar with their co-existence with synthetic intelligences.
"I'd prefer to just get her her own body, but I don't know how that will fry you up."
"She can have her own body no problem but there a few certain conditions that have to be met...I don't have the time nor the want to tell you them since I've almost finsished one for her myself."
"You can't kill her since she has a back-up off world but she degrades with out me so she'd only last at most a month without recharing. And it is a living nightmare the prototype AI they gave me took over and killed a few people I had no control but Aries is fine with it for now she knows I'm makin a body for her."
"Also I might as well say this now but Aries can send messages from me I have upgrades to my body that would get pass the signal jammer. There is also the problem of my split personality which Aries keeps in check there are inhibitations on me so I don't end up hurting anyone too bad but my other personality turn those off and I don't know what it is capable of."
Arccos' fingers started to tap out a rhythmn on the stone floor of the cells, it looked like she was thinking. Maybe. When she wanted to she honestly had no expressions whatsoever, like a poker player with a literal off switch for expressions and tics.
"Right, so. There's problems with her transferring to a body other than the one you made, and you won't tell me how to solve it. If she dies you go on a killing spree, but you're also saying you can transmit and screw with stuff outside of here if she's able to re-establish a connection with you... I'm perfectly willing to help get you both safe off world, but this is starting to sound like you're threatening me."
"I mean no hostile intent but it is true. Some one else can make her a body but it needs some of my DNA and someone else's as well but they are not here so it is of new use to you. Also if you could get me off world that would be great but really I'd rather help out around here a bit more at least until I can search those old facilities."
"If I want you off world, I'll just sentence you to banishment or exile or whatever it is. You'll be dumped on your face on some space station next supply run. If I do it in public on the steps of the old courthouse, Uso can't go back on my sentencing without proving herself to be an incompetent tyrant... You know. Fair trial overthrown by personal preference of the crown proving that she's not going to make things better. Same time, I'm also responsible for the protection of everyone in this city, so I need to weigh up how much damage you can cause if you decide to stick it to Uso again, or she decides to pursue you..."
Arccos raised her hands and mussed up her own hair, as if as some sort of expression of frustration.
"And you've also admitted that you can just go berserk... Have you pursued any other course of treatment for a dissociative personality?"
"I can't it won't work it's really deep in my subconcious it's a stack of things that happened when I was really young."
"...That's not an answer. Did you try things and they didn't work, or have you just been going on the assumption it's too hard to solve a mental disorder?"
"The former."
"Okay. So it's a month until she degrades? Thirty one or thirty days?"
"Thirty one from when she was seperated. So let's see it been a few days so she probably has at the most two weeks left and thats pushin it"
"Do you have all the needed components for her body? The DNA or whatever."
"I do its mostly built I just need a relic power source though it helps to maintian the flesh and sytems it self repairs as well."
"I don't see what that has to do with degradation of a digital construct. She's been doing fine in power armor at a regular state of degradation. Flesh impacts the mind?"
"Nah but she would like it. Makes her more human she says."
"Well this is me thinking more about her not dying, not her being as comfortable as she can possibly be. Can the body maintain her without mental degradation without that power source?"
"For a while yes. But that just is a simple stop its not a fix."
Arccos looks down the hall, squinting slightly in the low light of the cell block, before looking up. "Did you notice the crash landing down here?"
"Sure did it wasn't hard anyways. Saw the ship as Aries detected a powersource that would be compatible to the body on board though."
"And what percentage of that statement is bullshit?" Arccos asked, coming over suspect.
"About five percent. I didn't see the ship."
"Well, you've saved her life if it's accurate. Aries will be sent to the Guild of Cyberempathy, all Free State power sources are open source so they'll be able to replicate the power source you need. They can install it and finish the body, put her in it. You'll stand trial for disruption of diplomacy or whatever, and be sentenced to exile. You can meet her off-planet... If you're willing to cut a deal for the location of the dig site, I'm sure Cyrus can be convinced to let you be used as a canary in case you're just detecting a radiation leak from an old reactor."
Arccos stood, adjusting her coat and the silver star forged out of silver and the blood of a Nekovalkyrja empress.
"Her safety is assured, you get to live, and if you're adamant that you want to see those ruins you can cut a deal on your own time."
"Sounds fine by me but I'll have to install that reactor myself it is a very meticulate process can't afford for it to be messed up."
"It's Free State tech. I don't know why you think it would be finnicky. Everything we build is built to be used by someone who's only half awake for ten centuries, but sure. The Guild will be happy to let you perform the operation if it means liberating an AI. That's what they do... I'll have her transported out on the next supply run..."
Arccos held out a hand for the empty packaging of Ace's meal, seemed this little meeting was drawing to a close...
"Just ask Aries for the coordinates and she'l give em to ya." Ace handed the tray to Arccos. "I do have a ship of my own so if you need a ride you know how to get hold of me."
"Well, a brand new used Mothership fell out of the sky for me to fly away on if I need to escape. But I'm not leaving, chances are either Uso is going to shoot Cyrus, or Cyrus is going to shoot Uso in the near future. Mercenaries don't like not getting paid, nor do they profit from protecting a planet permanently and only receiving a small cut... I need to be around and make sure the people of this dustball don't get hurt in the crossfire... There's a lot more at stake than you know..."
Arccos took the trash, and tapped on the bars a few times, as if trying to communicate in some code or other.
"If you need anything, tell the guards to call me. I'll see what I can do. Just keep in mind it has to look like I'm being mean to you..."
Ace noticed the code but couldn't make it out. "Sure thing." Ace simply sat back down.
Arccos' boots could be heard scraping along the cell block floors, before the sound of trash being discarded echoed out through the basement. Lazy afternoon light filtered through the tiny window, as the guards went back to their posts. If Ace thought about it, the tapping on the bars seemed to match some sort of coordinates. Space ones? Whatever it was, it was weird and completely without explanation on behalf of the Freespacer... Something was up.
