Ravens of Eternity

Those who fought back only met a quick and brutal end from the bloodthirsty and unflinching marines. Many of them had lost friends and family to the Prophets, and so took their anger and aggression out on any who resisted their arrest.

The Prophets were brought out to the wrecked hangar, where they were shuttled off to the destroyer and thrown into its brig.

Deep in the compound’s Central Command, the nine gathered together along with Commander Aurora and a couple of her lieutenants. They were in hushed silence as Raijin recounted the data she found on Commander Anatoli Drenn, aka ‘Father’.

All around them, a number of marines inspected the room. Some scanned its surface and determined a forensic account of the entire fight. Another team lifted out Callie’s corpse with an antigrav drone, and carried it out in a hovering medical cocoon.

Inside, she was incinerated in a flash and reduced to atoms.

Because Father’s corpse was far messier and much more difficult to gather up, one of the marines instead took a plasmathrower to his body, and disintegrated every atom on the spot.

“I can’t believe it,” said Locke. “This Father – Drenn – was a Naval Science Researcher? A decorated one at that?”

“Very similar to another researcher I know,” said Miko. “Except where she appeals to all of physical engineering, he was hyper focused in genetic engineering. He kidnapped children because their genetic data was easiest to withdraw and modify. Then he mixed his own DNA into them... through various ways... and crafted synthetics out of the mix.”

.....

Some of the team had connected to the databanks and flipped through the mountains of data, mostly through their DIs.

“And... destroyed the originals? Am I reading this data right?” asked Locke.

Miko nodded solemnly.

Commander Aurora read the data through a secure military datapad, and much of what she saw bothered her greatly.

“This person really was in love with himself, huh?” she said. “I mean, all these notes. Thousands of ’em. Hundreds of thousands. Millions. And so much is about himself. How right he is, and how his work is critical to humanity. Or how his genius vision is constantly persecuted. It makes me sick.”

“That’s not love,” said Amal. “That’s pure ego. I doubt he’s ever felt love in his life... That makes me a little sad, honestly.”

“He did what he did,” said Eva, “and got everything he deserved in the end.”

“Damn right,” said Xylo. “Kinda wish I was there to see him eat it. Also, I don’t. I mean, look at this place. You all wrecked it.”

“You all wrecked this entire base,” said Aurora. “And my teams are the ones having to clean it up. Not that I’m complaining, of course. Just saying.”

She grinned playfully.

“In any case,” she continued, “we’ve just about cleared the base of Prophets so we’d better pack up and get outta here. Before the captain gets cranky.”

“Aren’t you here against your superior’s orders?” said Xylo. “I’d be surprised if he didn’t just outright let them go out of spite.”

“Technically, he didn’t say not to be here. He just doesn’t know that I deployed, that’s all.”

Xylo shook her head at the girl’s foolishness. Then grinned at her blatant audacity.

“Friend me,” she demanded.

Aurora nodded with a laugh, then extended an invite through her DI.

“I doubt he, or anyone would just let the Prophets go,” said Fluke. “I mean, they’ve done a lot of damage to the Federation. Would make ’em look bad. I mean, mass protests levels of bad.”

“Agreed,” added Freya. “Would be a disaster for the Navy. Speaking of... Aurora, I’m really glad you’re here. We couldn’t have done this without you.”

“Hey, it’s you I gotta thank,” countered Aurora. “If you hadn’t sent me that intel, we still woulda been flying blind. And it’s weird... sometimes I feel like we were kept blind on purpose, but I dunno. Maybe I’m overthinking it.”

“Maybe you weren’t overthinking,” said Max. “And maybe someone actually did keep you all in the dark.”

Locke groaned at his words, but otherwise didn’t rebut. He had his fill of disillusionment for a good long while.

“Will you be taking the logic circuits and databanks as well?” asked Miko. “They are no doubt powerful evidence.”

Aurora shook her head at her with a grimace.

“Wish I could,” she replied. “But I just don’t have the time or expertise. We’ll be back for them, though. At some point. I hope. No matter what, I’ve got my hands full with the actual Prophets themselves, and they come first.”

“Great!” said Eva. “Gives us time to loot the place dry.”

“I’m with you on this,” added T-Rex. “Gotta earn from this excursion somehow. We spent a whole lot on rations, munitions, armor, meds, you name it. Bit more than I bargained for. Um. Not that I’ve got any regrets or anything. Just gotta look out for the ledger, nothing major.”

Half of them chuckled, Aurora included.

“Well, just do that once my teams are gone,” she said. “Not that anyone owns any of this, technically. But it’d be best not to have witnesses around, just in case.”

“What about the synthetics themselves?” asked Amal. “The ones in the pods, I mean. We can’t just leave them all down there forever.”

“I kinda agree,” said Aurora. “But it’s not like I can do anything about it. I can’t just unhook the pods and install them in the destroyer. That’s just not a mess I’m equipped to deal with.”

Amal’s eyes beamed as she saw a chance to complete her work.

“Let me repair them,” she said. “I can repair most of the damage Drenn did to their bodies, their minds. We can maybe reintroduce them to society?”

“Even the brainwashing?” asked Locke.

“Not all of it,” Amal replied. “That would be impossible. There’d be so little left of them... But I can revert a lot of it, and hopefully bring some normalcy into their lives. Well, for any that have died, anyway. Or any who choose to... reset.”

Aurora sighed audibly. The last thing she wanted was for synthetics to roam free, especially since there was still so much hate towards them.

“Honestly, I’m not a fan of bringing synths out into the public,” she said. “And there’s a whole host of problems with that. Like the whole legal side of things... I’m getting a headache just thinking about it. But the big one being – their current version needs to ‘die’, right? So the pods could download fresh memories to inject into their next version... Who gets to decide who dies and who lives? You? Me? The admiralty?”

“Let the synths decide for themselves,” said Amal.

“I doubt they’re gonna see a lot of reason,” interjected Locke. “That conditioning is pretty damned strong. And I’m worried that it’ll bleed through, even if you do a lot of reversion.”

“Won’t ever be sure unless we try, you know?”

Aurora sighed again, deeply. She felt as though Azrael’s compassion was going to be her undoing. To her, a galaxy this violent and dangerous required massive toughening up. That was one of the most important lessons she got, and she learned it from Freya herself.

“Fine,” she said. “It’s not like anyone’s in charge here anyway. But, lemme leave a detachment here to keep you safe. Just in case any get a little nuts, alright?”

Amal nodded happily.

“Anyway,” Aurora continued, “I’m outta here. I’d better get back asap, so the questions don’t fly around too hard. Keep yourselves safe, and stay in touch.”

They all waved at the commander as she and her officers left Central Command. Her forensic and cleanup teams had all left by then, as well. Which left the nine to themselves once again.

“Well, I guess it’s time for me to get back to my life,” said Fluke. “Got some jobs that need some serious tending to.”

“Same here,” said Locke, “I’ve gotta big case to crack.”

“Before we go our separate ways,” said Miko, “I found something incredibly interesting within many of Drenn’s personal logs. After he was removed from the Navy, and hunted down, he remained in contact with a number of people.”

Miko produced a digital booklet that contained her report and sent it to everyone through her DI. Then she looked at Locke.

“You will be especially interested in this,” she said. “For your big case.”

Curiosity quickly filled Locke, and he opened up Miko’s report hastily. His eyes danced over them, then widened as he saw a pattern emerge in the data.

Drenn had communicated with multiple Naval leaders, pirate lords, and even notable people in the Hegemony. He was in touch with all sorts – huge bankers, corporate board members, shadowy arms dealers, slave traders.

But what had stuck out to Locke were all of the redacted entries that appeared sporadically throughout. It made it seem as though Drenn was conversing with someone in particular, but they had erased all mention of themselves after the fact.

“Remember when T-Rex joked about there being some ultra-powerful person manipulating the galaxy behind the scenes?” said Locke. “Well, I’ve been looking into that. And it turns out that he might be right. Could be one person, could be a whole host of people, I don’t know.

“But I’m seeing whoever it is all over the place. People high and low paid to commit some kinda chaos somewhere, one way or another. And they keep themselves incredibly well hidden. Just like this with Nightmare and Drenn, tracks covered completely. Only thing left is this hole where they used to be.”

Miko nodded.

“I have also seen similar data,” she added. “In places where it should not have been. There is one single word that connects them, however. That is ‘Benefactor’.”

All of them turned grim at hearing that, especially Locke. He desperately wanted to know why anyone would invest in chaos. No matter what it was, it seemed to end in loss.

“Thanks for the data,” he said eventually. “Gives me a lot to chew on. T-Rex, can I hitch a ride back to Helios? I mean, assuming you’re headed back there.”

T-Rex scratched the back of his head a bit, then nodded happily.

“Sure, yeah, no prob,” he said. “I can give you three a ride if you want.”

“Don’t worry about me,” said Xylo. “I was actually kinda wondering if I could join the Ravens. I mean, if you all are gonna get into situations like this, and we’re gonna get our pick of the loot, then I definitely want in on this. And that sweet ‘Cast income.”

Eva chuckled lightly.

“There’s always room for you, Xylo,” she said. “Right? I vote yes on Xylo joining us.”

She turned to Miko, Amal, and Claire, all of whom voted Yes as well. Xylo grinned happily, as though she suddenly found herself in a pool filled with credits.

“One thing though,” said Eva, “we kinda only have four bunks, and three of us are using them as extra storage.”

“She can use mine,” said Miko. “Most of my things are in the Kitchenette anyway.”

“Thanks, but no worries,” said Xylo. “I’ll rough it out in my mecha if we ever have to sortie.”

“Oh, I see how it is,” said Max, his voice teasing. “She quickly gets an offer for a bunk, but I’m forever stuck in the eating-booth-thing.”

They all chuckled lightly, but as they did so Claire turned to Max with a serious look on her face.

“Wanna join us?” she asked. “Officially, I mean.”

She was beaming as she asked, but turned slightly when he shook his head to refuse.

“No, but thanks for offering,” he said. “I think... after seeing what you all did here, that I’ve gotta go back to the Hegemony. There’s a lot to do there, a lot to fix, and it’s never gonna happen if no-one does anything about it. Just like you said.

.....

“I need to go back and try to care for my people the same way you all do with yours. Someone’s gotta fight for ’em, and now I figure that person’s me.”

“Aww,” said Amal. “I’m gonna miss you, Just Max.”

Max sighed deeply.

“Alright, fine,” he said. “My full name’s Maximillian de Jardin, okay? If you ever find yourselves in the Hegemony, look up my House. I’ve got a big family, and we’re kinda everywhere. Just ask for me, and they’ll point the way. If they haven’t disowned me, anyway.”