[Tami] Designs of the Wicked

"I know what I am TOLD!" she snarled back. "The Elders speak through my superiors! They say Yamatai is the threat, and they are not wrong!"

"Probability suggest otherwise. But you will not listen. You are programmed to believe them." How much would it take, Nel wondered, to goad the neko into attacking? "What is your evidence?"

"Evidence? The evidence is before your very eyes!" The Neko's lips curled back as she ranted. "Their people are sheep! Their companies rule everything! They use Neko like me as fucking MEAT SHIELDS! They hate any form of freedom!"

A normal person (albeit one with particular political leanings) would have pointed out that the people would revolt on their own if they wished to be free. But Nel had no such knowledge of politics. However, battlefield application of psychological warfare on a basic level was within her education. Make a soldier doubt her superiors, and she would delay in critical decision-making which created defensive gaps either mentally or physically that could be exploited.

Or Nel could just keep insulting her.

"Why is that different from you and your kind? Points of parallelism: They have companies that rule everything. Your Elders rule everything. They use nekos as 'meat shields' (their choice in the matter is debatable, but irrelevant at this point). The NMX use nekos such as yourself as mass-produced soldiers, meat shields, as you call them. I have seen more of your kind and those..." she gestured at the Ripper. "...than any other during my time here. You believe you have a choice in the matter? I challenge you to leave them and see how they take it. Or perhaps your loyalty is an in-born trait that you are enslaved to and cannot question?"

At the very least, it would be one less soldier to fight if the neko left, and she would only prove Nel's point if she refused.

"I'm not walking away from them, and I'm not listening to you any longer!" the Neko shouted. "Either kill me or leave me alone!"

Nel gave the neko a hard stare. Alright, then...that limited options. Maybe the captive would be open to an option that did not end in her immediate demise?

"Will you participate in an experiment?"

"NO!" The Neko shouted in return, and began all over again with trying to find a way out, trying to escape the crazy being and her co-opted armor.

So much for voluntary participation. Either way, the neko was already participating in the experiment.

Nel watched the neko, increasing her sensing abilities incrementally to see how far she could gather data about the neko's composition before the purported safeguards against such actions were activated.

She already had detailed information on the NH-7 series neko from the data stored in the case; her 'biological father', Araiah, had been able to replicate the genome and functions of that series through passive observation and multiple attempts at duplicating the results. That data included a warning that the series had anti-tamper measures that self-destructed a neko when anything more detailed than a cursory scan was performed. It had nothing about any neko series after the 7, so it was a bit of a surprise when Nel found herself able to delve down to a molecular level with no apparent reaction from the NMX neko.

This called for more...active measures. Nel reviewed her memories of the transmissions detected between the neko and the Ripper. It would be an unfortunate sacrifice if she lost the Ripper, but hopefully the neko would succumb first, and not fatally.

A burst of high-volume static filled the telepathic channels and gradually increased in volume. Nel intended to stun the neko, possibly to knock her out through a system shock.

It only took a moment to notice that the neko wasn't reacting to the static at all. So Nel took the manual approach and, when the neko was busy banging on a random wall searching for a way out, she silently came up behind her and grabbed at the neko's head to slam it into the wall with just enough calculated force to knock her out.

Three weeks passed since the NMX neko was captured. Nel kept her alive, but unconscious, for as long as possible. She did not injure the neko beyond the means she used to render the neko unconscious, and kept her testing restricted to active and passive sub-molecular scans that she rapidly performed, now that she knew that the neko wouldn't self-destruct.

The NH-29 series was something of a side-grade to the NH-7. Different features, different weaknesses. The 29, from what Nel could see, was almost more defensive than the 7's tendency toward offense. Both had hearty immune systems and hemosynthesis (Nel could now properly verify what the 7 had; Araiah's study had been incredibly accurate), but the Series 7 had greater strength, a wide number of applications for hemosynthetics (the 29 had a dedicated internal system for healing), and various stealth options. But it also had the glaring weakness of the anti-analysis countermeasures. The 29 sacrificed secrecy for stability, removing the countermeasures, and abandoned the 7's rocket thrusters for a very flexible gravity manipulation system. The telepathy/wireless communications system also had an upgrade, but Nel hadn't discovered that.

Aside from studying the neko, Nel also studied the NMX. True to her estimates of a week...plus a day or two...she cracked their radio signals and could now listen in on them and even "read" them; when her senses were tuned properly, she could sense their direction and other details in addition to the data carried within the transmissions.

Cracking the encryption of neko and NMX wireless "telepathy" was made much simpler after Nel isolated what gave the NMX neko the wireless communications ability. Uncovering the means allowed her to study the method, then to use it. With their standard communications open to her, Nel began to play with the base and its inhabitants: Duplicating a data stream here, changing a detail in orders there. But she never tried the same trick the same way twice or too soon, avoiding raising suspicion. The problems she caused were also minimal. There were one or two NMX that she overheard becoming suspicious, but they had no leads. Only a missing Ripper and a missing footsoldier whose telepathic signatures were somehow buried in the problematic signals.

It was another two weeks, however, before Nel decided she had what she needed. Everything, that is, except what she really wanted: Combat data. Once they knew she was there, then they would not stop until they destroyed her. However, what she wanted, Nel preferred to obtain by hit-and-run strategy. In the arena, she would watch an opponent, let them attack, and then learn to block them effectively. Then she would probe their defenses and learn to negate them effectively.

Well. There was one other way to do that.

Or she could keep it simple.

---

That was strange. There was a sudden flood of transmissions from all around the outpost, with origin points numbering in the thousands! The neko panicked, immediately triggering a base alert.

Outside the base, the ground was littered with spheres, each emitting a strong, but short-range, trash signal which randomly frequency-hopped at nano-second intervals, effectively killing communications within and outside of the base. It wouldn't harm the inhabitants or their equipment, but it would prevent calls for help. And then one of the thousands sent a simple command.

---

Nel watched from where she was holed up in a nearby hill as the settlement and the valley it was in vanished with a flash of white light and a thick shockwave that flattened the forest around it for hundreds of meters. She was well within the range of her Absolute Territory and could 'see' everything. And then could see that everything was gone.

Intelligence obtained. Information verified. Mission completed.

She returned to her test chamber and dismantled it, filling in the cavern with dirt as it was before she arrived, and leaving just enough to serve as a grave-like chamber for herself. Setting her senses on alert, she let herself go over the information she had gathered.

There was one problem left, one that she had not quite considered before stranding herself here: How would she leave?

Three months later...

The world was pretty much mapped. While not emotionally bored, Nel had felt a need for something to do, until an opportunity to leave presented itself at least. And that opportunity appeared to have arrived.

Planetary signal traffic increased dramatically. There was a fight in orbit, she could see the battlepods being dropped through the atmosphere, and being destroyed. Dropships, fighters...all of those would be useful, and she only needed to find one.