D
Dumont
>Outer Osman City, White Lament Shipyard.
The so-called 'Empire' had been amassing strange allies. From the vile pimp Koga, and the now looming bankers watching over the city from a tall tower, things were strange. And without being forewarned, it was hard to keep up. For her part: Arccos just kept to the schedule. Work on the Lament had been accelerated, with shipments incoming from the I'ee, and Uso pushing for a salvage operation in Freehold.
Massive cables now trailed in and out of the wreckage, which hummed ominously from the huge intertialess drive tower-stacks studding the double pyramid hull. Power flowed now that the reactor had been refuelled, and now very subtly the whole thing wasn't bound to the sands of the planet, instead hovering just off the ground.
Outside, the hive of activity was found in swarms of local scavengers, and the small army of junkers that had originally reduced the crashed Mothership into such a state. The Sheriff herself lurked around the little workshop she'd set up at the edge of the irradiated zone, meeting visitors and shouting orders over the polysentience to the makeshift hive network.
The Lizard was more interested in the hive of robots working than she was in the woman giving the commands. Despite all of them doing a rather simple task, there were just so many of the things... To have an AI programmed for that would be something she would quite literally kill to have, if she had to. Thankfully, as far as she knew thanks to the agreement, she wouldn't have too.
"I want it..." She muttered, quietly to herself before looking to the freespacers sheriff. "I take it you are the one who deals with the law on this planet correct?" She asked, hoping to make things seem a little more, business formal at first then get to prying her open for information regarding her AI systems and technology in general.
"Among other things." Arccos shouted over her shoulder, her voice hard to hear over the hammering of rivet-guns and the whine of machinery in the workshop. She stood hunched over a work-bench, manually slotting a freshly fabricated circuitboard into a polysentience server-stack. "You reporting something?"
The Vekimen hummed and hah'd a little at the question. She had o hard time /hearing/ the spacer, it was picking her out from the other nonsese noise that she feared would vibrate her bones into pudding. "Not at all, I am the Liason of the Vekimen, I was just wondering if we could... Have a sit down?" She asked. She wasn't technically lying... She was a liason. "Discuss how we will deal with any possible interfaction slights"
The Sheriff stopped whatever it was she was fiddling with at that point. Finally turning to look at the... Lizard? Alien? Whatever it was. She'd heard about Uso importing more aliens to do something underground, apparently Vekimen was them. Maybe. "Alright, let's make this quick, though. We all have work to do."
The 'spacer moved from her work-bench. Perhaps mercifully leading the Vekimen away from the assault on the senses that was the workhouse, moving over towards the cluster of upturned barrels and weathered chairs around a fire pit used by the scavengers. At this time of night, most were busy working rather than taking a break, so it was mostly deserted.
"So what was it we were going to talk about?"
Zahen visibly relaxed once they were out of the workhouse, rubbing her arms a little to get the way her bones felt numb to go away. The whole scenery of the planet was rather pelasant, and beig a desert made it rather warm. She had elected to wear a Pilot suit right now though, given the cooler tempuratures of the night. "Well, I currently have ten /thousand/ alien creating what could only equate to as a town a mile under..." She started, looking down, then up at the stars. "Right under our feet some actually. Give or take a few hundred meters. My issue is that I feel both of us would be looking at things rather... Naivly if we assumed nothing bad would happen. Given my kid at their worst would see the local population as little more than waling meals, I can see us having a problem... And Vice Versa. I understad the Local Population isn't exactly fond of Aliens, especialy ones who take their jobs"
"Well you have the advantage first that this area isn't heavily mined anymore." Arccos said. She wore her usual combination of tank top and nepleslian jeans. Bare matte-white skin on her arms not showing any sign of reactions to the desert chill. "Same time, I didn't hear anything about you since Uso ran away from doing her job to go strike up bargains on a whim... So you want to talk jurisdiction here, I'm guessing? I'm assuming Uso gave you right to self governance of your territory."
"That and a few other topics, yes. I take it you have some ground rules?" She asked, spinning a chair around and straddling it so her tail was free to move about. "As for our "territory" we do not yet know what it is. We could realistically make a mega-city for the Vekimen on this planet given how much space there is, but I don't know what our build cap is. Uso sorta... Made the Vekimen vauge promises, and I plan on capitolizing on them. I just don't want to step on anyone's toes" She smiled toothily.
"Making sure that we understand our laws may be very different though is a good first step. The Vekimen are what you would call a Stratocratic Dictatorship I believe? Every single citizen of the Vekimen are part of the VDTF, and the only reason we keep the two terms seperate is out of some insane sense of tradition. Therefore all ou citizens and all those on our land are subjected to VDTF, as per the VDTF legislation. What is our land though, that is the question" She asked curiously.
As the alien explained their lot in life Arccos hooked her thumbs into her gunbelt, and actively switched off her ability to make a recognisable facial expression. She didn't really want to insult anyone by showing anything on her face that might be going on in her head.
"Here we're working with functional anarchy. Everything I do is operating on a very localised democratic basis. Same time, I don't represent Uso's claim on the land after she annexed it from the Osman royal family, so I can't tell you what your territory is. That sort of thing sounds like a job for Grant, since Uso herself isn't about to do anything she might consider boring."
Zahen frowned at being told she wasn't going to learn the Vekimen Borders quite yet. "Fine, then let us deal with the issue of Crime on each of our respective territories. If a Vekimen were to commit what you would call a crime on your territory, and vice versa with your jurisdiction, they will be given a trial by the law of the land they are on, and will suffer the worst punishment offered if guilty. This will stop either of us from trying to play favorites. Alternatively, it could be given that it is the decision of the land the perso commits said crime on. A Vekimen steals a slice of meat, whatever you would do to someone, and if a human steals a slice of meat then whatever the Vekime would rather. Does this sound... Agreeable?" She asked.
"The way it works in my territory? I'd say it's best to give the guilty a choice of whose justice they're about to test. If you shoot a thief or what have you, I don't actually care... I'd prefer to give them the option of being tried by your people of mine. This is all keeping in mind that if someone steals from your people, I'd be punishing them by handing them over to you to determine the punishment in the first place."
"And said punishment would likely be immediate natural recycling. As of right now the Vekimen aren't doing so... Great when it comes to food. Uso is feeding us plants despite my Brothers attempt to get her to let us hunt... Concern for those citizens in the mountains I believe, as I know quite a few Vekimen who would storm there for a meal..." She grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "We do not eat plants... These, are not built for plants" She stated, opening her mouth and pointing at the rows of razor teeth. "We are hunters, and there is an entire group of game that might actually make the hunt interesting for us. Even now, despite many Vekimen breaking down and eating what we have been given, our specialists are having a hard time stopping the less civil Vekimen from just going on a hunt without USO's blessing... Which would be for the closest, most abundant food source available. Neither of us want that"
"And did Uso promise you food in these vague promises?" Arccos asked, sliding one of her foul-smelling cheap cigarillos from behind her ear, sticking it between her teeth. Seemed she had no real problem with them eating criminals. Or at least none worth mentioning.
"She did... She promised we would be fed, cared for. We wouldn't need to worry about anything but digging. She is awaiting a burger joint, which she has yet to tell us what is" The Vekimen grumbled.
"She would be talking about Akemi Koga's contribution to the Empire. Purveyor of Nepleslia's largest cuts of meat, which would certainly satisfy you... Unless you're one of those aliens that bloat up to many times their normal size on a full stomach." Arccos looked over the Vekimen, holding up a little laser lighter to ignite her smoke.
Zahen rolled her eyes a little. "It has been confirmed multiple times that how Vekimen eat is regarded as disgusting to your kind. Our saliva has the ability to... putrify flesh at a enhanced rate. What you would call a roast? I could drink that within a few minutes" She sighed, looking at the smoke. What was with those things? "Other then that, all I know from research is that cooked meats bother our stomachs, and we can't taste our food regardless so doing anything is just a waste of supplies"
"I didn't actually know anything about your eating habits, nor do I really care." Arccos said, tucking the lighter away in her back pocket, "I meant more in terms of quantity needed to feed your people. Starving sort of takes precedent over table manners or whatever junk requires the local black laws to eat with fifteen different kinds of fork."
"This sounds needlessly complicated, your human eating..." She commented.
"I don't need to eat." Arccos gave a little shrug. "If you have more restrained hunters, I can give you information on viable hunting grounds on the west coast of the Great Green Sea. Just make sure they don't take any humans, and you can take what you like. I also have some protein stocks on the Lament I can probably spare if it helps. It is technically meat. Keep in mind I'm not the one who signed this deal with your people, so I'd appreciate a smaller scale trade."
The Vekimen seemed to be paying attention now. "What would you like... I will try my best to provide..." She simply said, her mane of quills puffing up a bit.
"You're miners, right?" Arccos kicked the dirt demonstrably, "Just give me a bit of minerals to help repair the ship. I highly doubt Uso will notice a portion of your export being lower, and if she doesn't like it, it's repairing her shipbuilding facilities anyway."
"I was thinking more of right now... What can I do right now?" She asked. "I can offer you several tonnes of what we dig, but right now we are just digging up everything and anything to be put into the fabricators. I canot provide that this second though, and I haven't eaten in a while. The plant based food Uso has been giving us doesn't agree with me at all" She explained.
"Oh." The 'spacer tilted her head to the side, tapping a finger just behind her ear as a sort of hint that something was going on which couldn't be communicated verbally. A few seconds later, a scuttling junker drone jerkily moved out of the nearby workshop holding up a glass jar in its tentril-like manipulators.
"You can just ask nicely, I guess." Arccos said, looking up again as the Junker handed over its bounty of reddish-grey paste. Protein rations, 100% recycled. 'Spacer luncheon, bland with a slight hint of iron to it. Still probably better for a Vekimen than whatever vegetables they'd been on.
The Vekimens eyes seemed focused on the jar. She opened it up and took a sniff of it, before greedily tipping the jar up to try and get it but the paste wouldn't come out. Obviously agitated, she bit down on the jar, crushing it in her jaws. The meat, and the jar where gone rather quickly as the Vekimen kept her mouth clamped shut.
"Your throat going to be okay there?" Arccos asked, not really looking up from the fire. She didn't really have any expression showing about this sort of eating behavior. Internally it was all apathy, though, so the lack of expression was about fitting.
The Vekimen didn't say anything for several minutes, intent on just sitting there. Finally, she opened her jaws and the remains of the jar fell out of her mouth. At this point, the scent of what she had done to the ration could clearly be defined, the glass covered in a grey-green thin liquid mixed with a few trickles of a deep red. The female took a few breaths. "My throat will be fine... I am fine" She said, seeming to be much more relaxed now that she had eaten something.
"Right... I could have gotten you a spoon or something." Arccos looked over, blinking a few times. There was no real reaction to the smell involved at all, despite her larger than average nose for a human-esque species. Working near the vats of liquid silicone had already pushed her towards removing the sense from being an issue.
"Well we got a fair amount of that. Probably not enough to feed your whole population, but I imagine every little bit helps at this stage."
Zahen nodded slowly, looking to the junker. "Off topic... How did you summon that creature? What is the connection?" She asked, curious.
"There's a wireless connection, with a reciever built inside my head." Arccos answered simply.
"Would you be able to make that junker your body?" She asked, tilting her head.
The white 'spacer looked over to the Junker, taking a few steps over to it and sending a little ping to get it to turn towards her. Reading off an identifying number written on its chassis in green paint, she did a few quick calculations before giving an answer.
"No. Not without physically modifying it. It doesn't have the processing power to support a full Syntelligence, or the proper mountings for me to physically install my brain in it." She squinted, pursing her lips a little in thought. "Maybe in one of the Mushroom Units..."
Zahen nodded slowly at this revelation. There was someone on this planet who could possibly give her what she needed. "Part of the agreement with Uso was access to study technology to bring us up to speed with the rest of the Sector... I want to make a Mobile Suit while I am here, that a pilot does not need to physically be in, nor need extensive piloting training... Just the ability to handle having your body temporarily turned into a machine..." She explained, looking at the tiny robot. "The connection cannot be permanent, and should be able to have the consious mind be instantly switched from a suit destroyed on the battlefield to a suit ready for launch on a carrier"
"You'd have them piloting just the one?" Arccos asked, once more pressing a finger behind her ear to send the Junker scuttling off back to its post. "With proper networking you could control... Lots. I think our record was something like one person in simultaneous control of a few hundred thousand."
The Vekimen lost control of her jaw muscles, letting it hang for a moment at the metioning of one pilot to a few hundred thousand ships. She didn't know how that was even possible. No Vekimen could simutaniously control a few hundred /thousand/ ships and not immediately die due to stimulation overload. Given them the ability to use sensors was bad enough! She was already taking a tremendious is with this! "I... I cannot phathom how that is possible. A single brain would not be able to effectivly control that many devices unless much of the functions were automated and the controller merely gave orders..." She stated.
"It's tricky programming, but it's doable. We were working on a unified link to control millions before we lost Freehold." Arccos shrugged. She neglected to mention that the individual pilots in these scenarios were in fact massive syntelligences based in processor stacks the size of a city block... Then again, it was all the same principle.
"You need to put enough processors in each unit to augment the ability to process the information needed. So it's less tagging more bodies on to the brain, than it is tagging an extra body and brain on to the pilot. From there it's tricky networking."
Zahen debated internally with herself for a moment, then shook her head. "Could you provide me with tech that would allow me to maintain this body, but enter a device that would tell my brain that a Mobile Suit is actually this body?" She asked, wanting to simplify before she had a hemmorage.
"Theoretically, yes." Arccos nodded, looking down to her foul little cigarillo and frowning quite deliberately seeing it had gone out. Rather than relight she just shoved it back behind her ear, getting a little ash in her hair. "I don't know your brain structure, though. So I'd need to take you to see a Mindtwister."
Zahe tilted her head. "What in the black is a mind twister?" She asked
"It's a..." Arccos searched for the word, trying to work out the non-spacer equivalent "Something like a neurologist. Brain scientist? They'd be able to modify stuff we already have to be able to do what you ask. Maybe put it in implant form rather than the big tank sort of thing I think you're getting at."
Zahen nodded. "I was thinking more a bed, actually. A coffin? Filled with a bio-gel that could be fitted into a ship. Vekimen heal wounds at a frightening rate, so our bodies simply reject implants. Then agai, this is all on the idea that we have food. Zukan Edtoto is the first Vekimen in several centuries to have regrown a full limb, let alone with no sign of being hurt afterwards" She explained.
"I think if we modify a Nepleslian virtual reality headset with a bridger we'd be able to fit it into a hat, but if you wanna get gooey I'm not about to judge." Arccos shrugged, clearly thinking about it.
"I don't want the Vekimen piloting these suits to be aware of their physical bodies at all. Their bodies would optimally be placed into a temporary coma, rather than simply seeing things through their eyes. I want them to not just control the mech, but /become/ the mech. No other body in between them and the Mech during combat. Does that make sense?" She asked.
"Makes sense. We have some things like that in the nursery on board most Motherships." Arccos nodded, guessing they just wanted to be gooey. "It's doable, for sure."
"I want to try it... Can you give me a basic machine to try this on? I wish to see if the consept will work..." Zahen said softy, looking around. "You have enough machines, surely one of them is advanced enough for my consiousness"
"You'd think so, but no. Not the Junkers." Arccos looked over to the Lament, seeing them scuttle all over it, "They only work well together because they all work with one brain that's subdivided between them. Teleoperations maybe, but not full resleeve. You'd be able to move it around, and see from its eyes, but not fully integrate your consciousness into the thing."
Zahen frowned. "Could you give me software samples? Something I can study? The more I learn, the more I realize that I would likely hurt my test subjects if I used something of my own creation, but I need to uderstand it" She stated.
"Theoretically, yes." Arccos said flatly. "In practice, I manage a shipyard for another shipyard, and control a major police operation in multiple cities. Whether I have time to produce that software, and schematics for the neural bridges is tied rather strongly to my spare time. Also, Uso promised you this sort of thing, so unless she's going to compensate me for it, or you are? No can do. I have an I'ee homeworld to help save with what I'm already working on."
"Do you have anything that can move large portions of raw material?" She asked, pulling out a Datapad.
"We have ore sleds the Junkers can manage." Arccos returned, quickfire.
Zahen immediately made a call. Starting the conversation in Vekimen, she realized the device microphoe wasn't good enough to pick up everything, and swiftly switched to Yamataigo. "20% of everything your workers mine, plus any heavy is to be put into a seperate pile starting immediately" She ordered, rolling her eyes a little. "I don't care if the Fabricators will complete loads faster than we can properly fill them, the amout of downtime they would have is nothing, and we can always blame it on how deep we are getting" She groaned, covering her eyes.
After a few momets, Zahen turned the device off and turned to Arccos. "If you can pick it up... It's yours. Everything that we find which is not strictly dirt. I can make an ammendmet to that, but nothing to compicated. The workers are stupid and probably wouldn't be able to detailed with things" She said matter of factly. "I certainly hope that is enough. Our Mine scouts reported we were going to hit a large desposite of some kind of mineral, we just don't know what it is yet. Does this pay off my software?" She asked.
"I'll throw in the information on hunting grounds and the stock of protein rations I have on the Lament as a bonus, thank you very much." Arccos said, producing her own datapad from her back pocket, switching around some figures "I'll also give you legal authority to 'lean on' Akemi Koga, so to speak. He should be the one supplying all your food, so I'll look the other way if you want to crack the whip on him... Crack whips, his bones, whatever..."
Zahen nodded. "Wonderful... I will continue to collaberate with the others from USO regarding the larger scale models, but if you could make an arangment to have a small prototype operational so I can assure nothing bad will happen to my people, I would appreciate it" She said, getting up from the chair.
"Once I start producing Militant-series Automata to fill out the ranks, I'll have something capable of recieving from a neural bridge. I'd be making them anyway, so you'll have your proof of concept."
Zahen gave a sigh of relief. "Good... Now I just have to make sure no one screws up my new Mobile Suits hardware wise, or someone will get their etrails pulled out" She grumbled, looking in the direction of the USO airfield.
Arccos tipped her hat, and turned on her heel to head back to the workshop.
"Enjoy your evening."
"And you yours... I will be up for the next few hours just trying to figure out how to get these idiots to make something advaced enough to replicate a Vekimen body. This will be tough" She mumbled, starting her walk back to the airfield.
The so-called 'Empire' had been amassing strange allies. From the vile pimp Koga, and the now looming bankers watching over the city from a tall tower, things were strange. And without being forewarned, it was hard to keep up. For her part: Arccos just kept to the schedule. Work on the Lament had been accelerated, with shipments incoming from the I'ee, and Uso pushing for a salvage operation in Freehold.
Massive cables now trailed in and out of the wreckage, which hummed ominously from the huge intertialess drive tower-stacks studding the double pyramid hull. Power flowed now that the reactor had been refuelled, and now very subtly the whole thing wasn't bound to the sands of the planet, instead hovering just off the ground.
Outside, the hive of activity was found in swarms of local scavengers, and the small army of junkers that had originally reduced the crashed Mothership into such a state. The Sheriff herself lurked around the little workshop she'd set up at the edge of the irradiated zone, meeting visitors and shouting orders over the polysentience to the makeshift hive network.
The Lizard was more interested in the hive of robots working than she was in the woman giving the commands. Despite all of them doing a rather simple task, there were just so many of the things... To have an AI programmed for that would be something she would quite literally kill to have, if she had to. Thankfully, as far as she knew thanks to the agreement, she wouldn't have too.
"I want it..." She muttered, quietly to herself before looking to the freespacers sheriff. "I take it you are the one who deals with the law on this planet correct?" She asked, hoping to make things seem a little more, business formal at first then get to prying her open for information regarding her AI systems and technology in general.
"Among other things." Arccos shouted over her shoulder, her voice hard to hear over the hammering of rivet-guns and the whine of machinery in the workshop. She stood hunched over a work-bench, manually slotting a freshly fabricated circuitboard into a polysentience server-stack. "You reporting something?"
The Vekimen hummed and hah'd a little at the question. She had o hard time /hearing/ the spacer, it was picking her out from the other nonsese noise that she feared would vibrate her bones into pudding. "Not at all, I am the Liason of the Vekimen, I was just wondering if we could... Have a sit down?" She asked. She wasn't technically lying... She was a liason. "Discuss how we will deal with any possible interfaction slights"
The Sheriff stopped whatever it was she was fiddling with at that point. Finally turning to look at the... Lizard? Alien? Whatever it was. She'd heard about Uso importing more aliens to do something underground, apparently Vekimen was them. Maybe. "Alright, let's make this quick, though. We all have work to do."
The 'spacer moved from her work-bench. Perhaps mercifully leading the Vekimen away from the assault on the senses that was the workhouse, moving over towards the cluster of upturned barrels and weathered chairs around a fire pit used by the scavengers. At this time of night, most were busy working rather than taking a break, so it was mostly deserted.
"So what was it we were going to talk about?"
Zahen visibly relaxed once they were out of the workhouse, rubbing her arms a little to get the way her bones felt numb to go away. The whole scenery of the planet was rather pelasant, and beig a desert made it rather warm. She had elected to wear a Pilot suit right now though, given the cooler tempuratures of the night. "Well, I currently have ten /thousand/ alien creating what could only equate to as a town a mile under..." She started, looking down, then up at the stars. "Right under our feet some actually. Give or take a few hundred meters. My issue is that I feel both of us would be looking at things rather... Naivly if we assumed nothing bad would happen. Given my kid at their worst would see the local population as little more than waling meals, I can see us having a problem... And Vice Versa. I understad the Local Population isn't exactly fond of Aliens, especialy ones who take their jobs"
"Well you have the advantage first that this area isn't heavily mined anymore." Arccos said. She wore her usual combination of tank top and nepleslian jeans. Bare matte-white skin on her arms not showing any sign of reactions to the desert chill. "Same time, I didn't hear anything about you since Uso ran away from doing her job to go strike up bargains on a whim... So you want to talk jurisdiction here, I'm guessing? I'm assuming Uso gave you right to self governance of your territory."
"That and a few other topics, yes. I take it you have some ground rules?" She asked, spinning a chair around and straddling it so her tail was free to move about. "As for our "territory" we do not yet know what it is. We could realistically make a mega-city for the Vekimen on this planet given how much space there is, but I don't know what our build cap is. Uso sorta... Made the Vekimen vauge promises, and I plan on capitolizing on them. I just don't want to step on anyone's toes" She smiled toothily.
"Making sure that we understand our laws may be very different though is a good first step. The Vekimen are what you would call a Stratocratic Dictatorship I believe? Every single citizen of the Vekimen are part of the VDTF, and the only reason we keep the two terms seperate is out of some insane sense of tradition. Therefore all ou citizens and all those on our land are subjected to VDTF, as per the VDTF legislation. What is our land though, that is the question" She asked curiously.
As the alien explained their lot in life Arccos hooked her thumbs into her gunbelt, and actively switched off her ability to make a recognisable facial expression. She didn't really want to insult anyone by showing anything on her face that might be going on in her head.
"Here we're working with functional anarchy. Everything I do is operating on a very localised democratic basis. Same time, I don't represent Uso's claim on the land after she annexed it from the Osman royal family, so I can't tell you what your territory is. That sort of thing sounds like a job for Grant, since Uso herself isn't about to do anything she might consider boring."
Zahen frowned at being told she wasn't going to learn the Vekimen Borders quite yet. "Fine, then let us deal with the issue of Crime on each of our respective territories. If a Vekimen were to commit what you would call a crime on your territory, and vice versa with your jurisdiction, they will be given a trial by the law of the land they are on, and will suffer the worst punishment offered if guilty. This will stop either of us from trying to play favorites. Alternatively, it could be given that it is the decision of the land the perso commits said crime on. A Vekimen steals a slice of meat, whatever you would do to someone, and if a human steals a slice of meat then whatever the Vekime would rather. Does this sound... Agreeable?" She asked.
"The way it works in my territory? I'd say it's best to give the guilty a choice of whose justice they're about to test. If you shoot a thief or what have you, I don't actually care... I'd prefer to give them the option of being tried by your people of mine. This is all keeping in mind that if someone steals from your people, I'd be punishing them by handing them over to you to determine the punishment in the first place."
"And said punishment would likely be immediate natural recycling. As of right now the Vekimen aren't doing so... Great when it comes to food. Uso is feeding us plants despite my Brothers attempt to get her to let us hunt... Concern for those citizens in the mountains I believe, as I know quite a few Vekimen who would storm there for a meal..." She grumbled, narrowing her eyes. "We do not eat plants... These, are not built for plants" She stated, opening her mouth and pointing at the rows of razor teeth. "We are hunters, and there is an entire group of game that might actually make the hunt interesting for us. Even now, despite many Vekimen breaking down and eating what we have been given, our specialists are having a hard time stopping the less civil Vekimen from just going on a hunt without USO's blessing... Which would be for the closest, most abundant food source available. Neither of us want that"
"And did Uso promise you food in these vague promises?" Arccos asked, sliding one of her foul-smelling cheap cigarillos from behind her ear, sticking it between her teeth. Seemed she had no real problem with them eating criminals. Or at least none worth mentioning.
"She did... She promised we would be fed, cared for. We wouldn't need to worry about anything but digging. She is awaiting a burger joint, which she has yet to tell us what is" The Vekimen grumbled.
"She would be talking about Akemi Koga's contribution to the Empire. Purveyor of Nepleslia's largest cuts of meat, which would certainly satisfy you... Unless you're one of those aliens that bloat up to many times their normal size on a full stomach." Arccos looked over the Vekimen, holding up a little laser lighter to ignite her smoke.
Zahen rolled her eyes a little. "It has been confirmed multiple times that how Vekimen eat is regarded as disgusting to your kind. Our saliva has the ability to... putrify flesh at a enhanced rate. What you would call a roast? I could drink that within a few minutes" She sighed, looking at the smoke. What was with those things? "Other then that, all I know from research is that cooked meats bother our stomachs, and we can't taste our food regardless so doing anything is just a waste of supplies"
"I didn't actually know anything about your eating habits, nor do I really care." Arccos said, tucking the lighter away in her back pocket, "I meant more in terms of quantity needed to feed your people. Starving sort of takes precedent over table manners or whatever junk requires the local black laws to eat with fifteen different kinds of fork."
"This sounds needlessly complicated, your human eating..." She commented.
"I don't need to eat." Arccos gave a little shrug. "If you have more restrained hunters, I can give you information on viable hunting grounds on the west coast of the Great Green Sea. Just make sure they don't take any humans, and you can take what you like. I also have some protein stocks on the Lament I can probably spare if it helps. It is technically meat. Keep in mind I'm not the one who signed this deal with your people, so I'd appreciate a smaller scale trade."
The Vekimen seemed to be paying attention now. "What would you like... I will try my best to provide..." She simply said, her mane of quills puffing up a bit.
"You're miners, right?" Arccos kicked the dirt demonstrably, "Just give me a bit of minerals to help repair the ship. I highly doubt Uso will notice a portion of your export being lower, and if she doesn't like it, it's repairing her shipbuilding facilities anyway."
"I was thinking more of right now... What can I do right now?" She asked. "I can offer you several tonnes of what we dig, but right now we are just digging up everything and anything to be put into the fabricators. I canot provide that this second though, and I haven't eaten in a while. The plant based food Uso has been giving us doesn't agree with me at all" She explained.
"Oh." The 'spacer tilted her head to the side, tapping a finger just behind her ear as a sort of hint that something was going on which couldn't be communicated verbally. A few seconds later, a scuttling junker drone jerkily moved out of the nearby workshop holding up a glass jar in its tentril-like manipulators.
"You can just ask nicely, I guess." Arccos said, looking up again as the Junker handed over its bounty of reddish-grey paste. Protein rations, 100% recycled. 'Spacer luncheon, bland with a slight hint of iron to it. Still probably better for a Vekimen than whatever vegetables they'd been on.
The Vekimens eyes seemed focused on the jar. She opened it up and took a sniff of it, before greedily tipping the jar up to try and get it but the paste wouldn't come out. Obviously agitated, she bit down on the jar, crushing it in her jaws. The meat, and the jar where gone rather quickly as the Vekimen kept her mouth clamped shut.
"Your throat going to be okay there?" Arccos asked, not really looking up from the fire. She didn't really have any expression showing about this sort of eating behavior. Internally it was all apathy, though, so the lack of expression was about fitting.
The Vekimen didn't say anything for several minutes, intent on just sitting there. Finally, she opened her jaws and the remains of the jar fell out of her mouth. At this point, the scent of what she had done to the ration could clearly be defined, the glass covered in a grey-green thin liquid mixed with a few trickles of a deep red. The female took a few breaths. "My throat will be fine... I am fine" She said, seeming to be much more relaxed now that she had eaten something.
"Right... I could have gotten you a spoon or something." Arccos looked over, blinking a few times. There was no real reaction to the smell involved at all, despite her larger than average nose for a human-esque species. Working near the vats of liquid silicone had already pushed her towards removing the sense from being an issue.
"Well we got a fair amount of that. Probably not enough to feed your whole population, but I imagine every little bit helps at this stage."
Zahen nodded slowly, looking to the junker. "Off topic... How did you summon that creature? What is the connection?" She asked, curious.
"There's a wireless connection, with a reciever built inside my head." Arccos answered simply.
"Would you be able to make that junker your body?" She asked, tilting her head.
The white 'spacer looked over to the Junker, taking a few steps over to it and sending a little ping to get it to turn towards her. Reading off an identifying number written on its chassis in green paint, she did a few quick calculations before giving an answer.
"No. Not without physically modifying it. It doesn't have the processing power to support a full Syntelligence, or the proper mountings for me to physically install my brain in it." She squinted, pursing her lips a little in thought. "Maybe in one of the Mushroom Units..."
Zahen nodded slowly at this revelation. There was someone on this planet who could possibly give her what she needed. "Part of the agreement with Uso was access to study technology to bring us up to speed with the rest of the Sector... I want to make a Mobile Suit while I am here, that a pilot does not need to physically be in, nor need extensive piloting training... Just the ability to handle having your body temporarily turned into a machine..." She explained, looking at the tiny robot. "The connection cannot be permanent, and should be able to have the consious mind be instantly switched from a suit destroyed on the battlefield to a suit ready for launch on a carrier"
"You'd have them piloting just the one?" Arccos asked, once more pressing a finger behind her ear to send the Junker scuttling off back to its post. "With proper networking you could control... Lots. I think our record was something like one person in simultaneous control of a few hundred thousand."
The Vekimen lost control of her jaw muscles, letting it hang for a moment at the metioning of one pilot to a few hundred thousand ships. She didn't know how that was even possible. No Vekimen could simutaniously control a few hundred /thousand/ ships and not immediately die due to stimulation overload. Given them the ability to use sensors was bad enough! She was already taking a tremendious is with this! "I... I cannot phathom how that is possible. A single brain would not be able to effectivly control that many devices unless much of the functions were automated and the controller merely gave orders..." She stated.
"It's tricky programming, but it's doable. We were working on a unified link to control millions before we lost Freehold." Arccos shrugged. She neglected to mention that the individual pilots in these scenarios were in fact massive syntelligences based in processor stacks the size of a city block... Then again, it was all the same principle.
"You need to put enough processors in each unit to augment the ability to process the information needed. So it's less tagging more bodies on to the brain, than it is tagging an extra body and brain on to the pilot. From there it's tricky networking."
Zahen debated internally with herself for a moment, then shook her head. "Could you provide me with tech that would allow me to maintain this body, but enter a device that would tell my brain that a Mobile Suit is actually this body?" She asked, wanting to simplify before she had a hemmorage.
"Theoretically, yes." Arccos nodded, looking down to her foul little cigarillo and frowning quite deliberately seeing it had gone out. Rather than relight she just shoved it back behind her ear, getting a little ash in her hair. "I don't know your brain structure, though. So I'd need to take you to see a Mindtwister."
Zahe tilted her head. "What in the black is a mind twister?" She asked
"It's a..." Arccos searched for the word, trying to work out the non-spacer equivalent "Something like a neurologist. Brain scientist? They'd be able to modify stuff we already have to be able to do what you ask. Maybe put it in implant form rather than the big tank sort of thing I think you're getting at."
Zahen nodded. "I was thinking more a bed, actually. A coffin? Filled with a bio-gel that could be fitted into a ship. Vekimen heal wounds at a frightening rate, so our bodies simply reject implants. Then agai, this is all on the idea that we have food. Zukan Edtoto is the first Vekimen in several centuries to have regrown a full limb, let alone with no sign of being hurt afterwards" She explained.
"I think if we modify a Nepleslian virtual reality headset with a bridger we'd be able to fit it into a hat, but if you wanna get gooey I'm not about to judge." Arccos shrugged, clearly thinking about it.
"I don't want the Vekimen piloting these suits to be aware of their physical bodies at all. Their bodies would optimally be placed into a temporary coma, rather than simply seeing things through their eyes. I want them to not just control the mech, but /become/ the mech. No other body in between them and the Mech during combat. Does that make sense?" She asked.
"Makes sense. We have some things like that in the nursery on board most Motherships." Arccos nodded, guessing they just wanted to be gooey. "It's doable, for sure."
"I want to try it... Can you give me a basic machine to try this on? I wish to see if the consept will work..." Zahen said softy, looking around. "You have enough machines, surely one of them is advanced enough for my consiousness"
"You'd think so, but no. Not the Junkers." Arccos looked over to the Lament, seeing them scuttle all over it, "They only work well together because they all work with one brain that's subdivided between them. Teleoperations maybe, but not full resleeve. You'd be able to move it around, and see from its eyes, but not fully integrate your consciousness into the thing."
Zahen frowned. "Could you give me software samples? Something I can study? The more I learn, the more I realize that I would likely hurt my test subjects if I used something of my own creation, but I need to uderstand it" She stated.
"Theoretically, yes." Arccos said flatly. "In practice, I manage a shipyard for another shipyard, and control a major police operation in multiple cities. Whether I have time to produce that software, and schematics for the neural bridges is tied rather strongly to my spare time. Also, Uso promised you this sort of thing, so unless she's going to compensate me for it, or you are? No can do. I have an I'ee homeworld to help save with what I'm already working on."
"Do you have anything that can move large portions of raw material?" She asked, pulling out a Datapad.
"We have ore sleds the Junkers can manage." Arccos returned, quickfire.
Zahen immediately made a call. Starting the conversation in Vekimen, she realized the device microphoe wasn't good enough to pick up everything, and swiftly switched to Yamataigo. "20% of everything your workers mine, plus any heavy is to be put into a seperate pile starting immediately" She ordered, rolling her eyes a little. "I don't care if the Fabricators will complete loads faster than we can properly fill them, the amout of downtime they would have is nothing, and we can always blame it on how deep we are getting" She groaned, covering her eyes.
After a few momets, Zahen turned the device off and turned to Arccos. "If you can pick it up... It's yours. Everything that we find which is not strictly dirt. I can make an ammendmet to that, but nothing to compicated. The workers are stupid and probably wouldn't be able to detailed with things" She said matter of factly. "I certainly hope that is enough. Our Mine scouts reported we were going to hit a large desposite of some kind of mineral, we just don't know what it is yet. Does this pay off my software?" She asked.
"I'll throw in the information on hunting grounds and the stock of protein rations I have on the Lament as a bonus, thank you very much." Arccos said, producing her own datapad from her back pocket, switching around some figures "I'll also give you legal authority to 'lean on' Akemi Koga, so to speak. He should be the one supplying all your food, so I'll look the other way if you want to crack the whip on him... Crack whips, his bones, whatever..."
Zahen nodded. "Wonderful... I will continue to collaberate with the others from USO regarding the larger scale models, but if you could make an arangment to have a small prototype operational so I can assure nothing bad will happen to my people, I would appreciate it" She said, getting up from the chair.
"Once I start producing Militant-series Automata to fill out the ranks, I'll have something capable of recieving from a neural bridge. I'd be making them anyway, so you'll have your proof of concept."
Zahen gave a sigh of relief. "Good... Now I just have to make sure no one screws up my new Mobile Suits hardware wise, or someone will get their etrails pulled out" She grumbled, looking in the direction of the USO airfield.
Arccos tipped her hat, and turned on her heel to head back to the workshop.
"Enjoy your evening."
"And you yours... I will be up for the next few hours just trying to figure out how to get these idiots to make something advaced enough to replicate a Vekimen body. This will be tough" She mumbled, starting her walk back to the airfield.
