Post by Krolowaz Leoni on Jan 14, 2006 18:57:25 GMT
It has alot of errors, but i dont care.
Prologue
Artificial Humans or "Synthetics” were created to do what humans won't, or can't. They were first designed like mindless servants, until they became obsolete and nobody wanted them. That was B Class or Beta as most call it. Then A Class was designed; they were far superior to B and better looking as some might add. They mostly were designed to be firefighters, cops, and even doctors. Then came C Class, or Weapon Grade, they were made to be soldiers. Both A and C had emotion programming to make them less like mindless beings, and also make them talk more human. Then, in a hidden synthetics lab, a design for an X Class was underway. X Class Synthetics were to be far superior to any other classes: They would be given advanced emotions programming, enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and intelligence, and they would be disguised as fifteen-year-old females. They would make the perfect spies. They were also given the gift of immortality, or to never age nor die, unlike the other synthetics that live for a span of only eleven years. The first X unit was insane after ten hours of exposure with humans, claiming, "Humans are parasites.” or "Humans are virus." And decided to kill every human in each of the barracks. It was finally destroyed...with a heavy KNIGHT missile, the equal of a nuclear missile All packed into the radius of thirty meters, minus the nuclear after product. They risked another, but it ran from them and became a hard to track mercenary. Then a third was created, this one was sturdy. They priced it at two hundred billion dollars and also fifty percent of whatever profits come from it. Synthetics Corporation claims that all funds have been cut from the X Series Project, Code Name Amazon.
The Amazon Project
"Amazon-2 was captured?" "Yes sir. She is currently en-route for sentencing by you and your colleagues." The hologram flattened and disappeared from the center of the circular room. A young Caucasian woman with blue hair and silver streaks, Director Nagi Stratton, lifted her head from her holopad. "Amazon-2? You mean Jennifer?" The eldest, Director John David the 3rd turned, "Yes, that’s what CC's Chief Designer named her. She is coming her for judging and sentencing." Those few words caught everyone’s attention. A pureblooded African American, Director Raphael Jemmott, straightened his back, "Hmm. So, she gave up?" John switched to him, "Yes, apparently. She would never be caught with out a reason." "Perhaps she heard about the heir to CC's Amazon project?" "Most likely." A hologram centered and stretched out in the center of the circular room. "The double-max transport carrying Amazon-2 has arrived, permission to send her up." "Send her up immediately." "Yes sir." The hologram flattened. The center circle phased out and a woman came through it. The circle reappeared. "Amazon-2..." She looked sixteen, with pink hair and bright white skin. She opened her eyes; they were silver and cold as steel. "Yes, and I would like to say it is an honor to appear before the Board of Judgment for sentencing." "Amazon-2, you are here under multiple murders, and high crimes against this board, several companies, and over two dozen off-world colonies. After this confrontation, if you do not immediately receive your sentence you will be sent to this site's double-max holding facility until your sentence is made. Do you understand what I have just said?" Her head lowered and her eyes closed. "Amazon Project..." Nagi stared at the synthetic and pulled up a holopad, "Amazon Project was started by Synthetics Corp. and produced with Amazon-1, Name: Emma. A-1 was put online at 15:22, Jan 4th 2627. A-1 killed the designers present and attempted to leave the facility until Federal Militia arrived, taking her down with a heavy KNIGHT homing-missile. The death toll was seventy-two scientists, and thirty-three Federal Militia. Synthetics Corp. risked Amazon-2, Name: Jennifer. A-2 was put online at 11:45 March 29th 2628. A-2 was running fine until it boarded a transport (Route: CC Test Facility A to CC Test Facility E). She injured the crew and deserted them on Terraforming Facility 1722. She then took the transport to an off-world colony and removed the trans chip. The Federal Militia arrived at the colony, and soon departed away from the rendezvous point. The ship was licensed as stolen. Amazon-3, Name: Aeris. A-3 was put online at 15:37, Sep 11th 2651. She was classified as a complete success." The board was silent, and then Jemmott raised his hand. "Would you care about A-3?" The synthetic raised her head and her eyes caught his mouth. "She is me but better, I refuse to believe that." "Well, you wont be able to test that. Not after murdering humans like they were nothing but animals." "Who says they aren't? Don't you bicker about people like animals bicker about food? What’s the difference?" Stratton took this as no surprise, "Humans and animals are unalike." "Yeah, they don’t invade others land, or kill their own kind. They never used slaves. They..." "That’s quite enough Jennifer." The board focused on the woman at the door. "Dianna?" Dianna was the chief designer in the Amazon project, "I believe that the Amazon project had article 47 put into place." "That doesn’t cover criminals or murderers Ms. Uuzuki." "Is she a synthetic?" "Yes, but that still..." "Its states that any synthetic from the Amazon project was fully experimental and that its actions cannot be held against it in the court of law. True?" "Yes, you are... Correct." "I believe I will be taking Jennifer now." "A-3 is still under our care Ms. Uuzuki. She cannot leave unless me or four of my colleagues says she can." "Fine, I will be back in fifteen minutes, in that time make your decision and allow me to prepare a two-man ship." "What makes you so sure we will release her?" "I'm sure."
The board did not move nor make a sound for several minutes, until Stratton stood. "I will be one of the four." "Nagi, sit!" The Amazon lifted her head and began to stand. Then another member stood, "As will I." "Garrison, Stratton, stand down!" "I don’t know why you want to keep her so badly, but I will because I am required to because I am the public relations of the group." "She must stay! She cannot be allowed to walk freely!" "Hold on." The Amazon turned her head to David, "You are the husband of Synthia David, are you not?" "Why?" "She is the lead of Synthetic Anti-Suppression, why do you want me thrown away?" "That’s right, she would be completely against this!" "My wife has nothing to do with this! She killed two dozen people, what makes you think she wont kill more?" The door slid open, "Well Jennifer, come along." "Uuzuki, what are you doing? There is only thr..." Another member stood up. "No..." The Amazon's binds were powered down and she walked outside of the room with Dianna Uuzuki.
The Amazon and Dianna Uuzuki were in a transport pod, headed for the Nagi Star System. "Why did you help me Ms. Uuzuki?" "I felt responsible Jennifer, I felt like I had to get you out. Do you understand?" "Yes. And thank you." "You are most welcome Jennifer." "You can call me Jenny. That is what the other mercenaries called me." "Jenny?" "Yes, I like it more than Jennifer." Dianna laughed. "Jenny it is then." Jenny was silent for some while, then blurted, "Why did Stratton and the other members let me go?" Dianna's face turned pale, "They were afraid of you Jenny." "Afraid? Why?" "You are ten times stronger than any living thing. They feared that you would break out of double-max, maybe even triple-max if you tried hard enough and kill." "Oh..." "And why did you give in to the Militia?" Jenny raised her hand and waved it about slowly. She gave it a mystified look…
"All right Aeris, you know the drill." "Yes." Aeris was in large room and looking a wide window showing a room. A tech was standing inside. "Destroy all the targets and you get to go back to your room." A loud buzzer sounded and there were ten blinding flashes in less than a second. The brightness faded and the targets were gone. The laser pistol Aeris carried was glowing and then all of the lights on it faded and vanished. "Aeris, we put the fail-safe there for a reason." "I have done what you requested and I wish to retire." The tech turned to the guards. "Take her to her room."
"All right miss nightmare, good night." The guards shut the door and Aeris sat on her bed. The room looked normal enough, but on the other side of its blue wallpaper, was triple-max refined titanium. Not even an Amazon could break that. She reached under her bed and pulled out an earpiece. "Jonah, are you there?" There was crackling and then it stopped with a calm and gentle voice. "Yeah, you want me to finish it for you?" "Yes, this Stephen King is an excellent writer." Just then the door opened and the tech from the session and two guards walked in. "I knew there was something going on, trace the signal and execute the one on the other side." "What? No, Dr. Rydell! Please!" "I'm sorry, CC requires you have no contact with anyone but me or the guards assigned to protect you." "All you do is tell me what to do! If I wanted ..." One of the gaurds shot his tranquilizer. "That was enough to take down two tons. She should be calm for the night." "Good. Lets go." Rydell was walking the corridor when a guard came up from behind, "Sir." Rydell faced him and gave an annoyed look, "What is it?" "What if they find out she is only under limited control?" "That won't happen. If they find out, it will be when she breaks loose and kills us all."
The door sided apart and Rydell entered a small room. There was a metal table in the center where two women were sitting. They were wearing blue uniforms with CC engraved on the chest. Rydell took the seat opposite of them. The woman on the left, Doctor Herring, lead of physical performance of the Amazon Project, opened her folder. "How is A3 going along?" "Her tests are 963% above normal and she has exceeded your expectations by over six times." "Good, how about her mental performance?" "She is... slipping." The woman on the right looked up, the newly appointed mental performance on the project, now lifted her head from the papers.” What do you mean?" "She has been speaking to a civilian from the city and also has grown a temper. Today we used the tranquilizers for a third time." "It is the confined space." "What makes you say that?" "My predecessor designed her as a civilian. She has thoughts the same as a civilian. Except since they are artificial, they are enhanced." "So we should move her to a planetary station?" "She has been in confined areas testing for three years, surpassing our expectations and goals each time. I believe she should be put to use." "It takes both of our graces to release any Amazon into military use. And I say she must stay another two years to finish the testing." "The first model cracked as soon as it came online. The second did one year later. What guarantees do we have this one wont crack soon?" "Better to be with the enemy than us then." They were silent.
Hires, Tyranus System
Hires, one of the largest planets in the system, was the center of over three hundred colonies and Argo, the lead supplier of ionized titanium alloy or IDA for short. It's ten times stronger than regular titanium. The largest factory that produces IDA has all of the people of Colony 518 working there and it is still under-managed. The top workers, Talon Henn and Kyronus Black, are receiving their two million dollars for their outstanding accomplishments. But that is more like two thousand, but more is needed to pay taxes and anything nowadays. A dollar to us is like half a penny to them. "For your outstanding abilities and progress we award you with two-million dollars to Ms. Henn and Mr. Black!" The crowd cheered. "And we also have relieved you both of you’re jobs at Argo permanently!" The crowd cheered, this time for real. But the two awardees looked at each other and back at the manager. "Sir? I thought I heard you say we relieved of our jobs." "I did. You both are outstanding, but as long as we are paying you at your desired wage, we can no longer hire." "This is bullshit!" Gaurds came and fired on them with shock-rifles, they fire enough electricity enough to immobilize you for a while. The crowd cheered again and ran back to work.
"They can’t fire us!" "Talon, don’t worry about it. We can find a better job, that was just an IDA plant. We could get an off-world job! Do you know how much those pay?" "Well, how exactly are we going to get off-world in the first place? A ride costs twenty-five thousand dollars just to get on the Hires Off-World Docking Bay. A ride to a colony is more like seventy thousand." "Well, we could hitch a ride on a Merc Ship. We’re great mechanics and athletic, we’ll just get put up on a roster and get our pay on the first colony we dock." "A Merc Ship? Are you crazy? We would chase a couple of bounties and pirate some ships before we reached an off-world colony. We could be dead!" "But we would earn like thirty thousand dollars and some experience on a ship could increase our job opportunities." "Well...when you put it like that, it looks better. But I still don’t like it." "Off to the Merc City Nueropa then."
"So this is Nueropa? Pretty..." "Crappy? It's a Merc town. The people here sell illegals up to your ears." "Then why don’t the System Militia come in and arresy them?" "Talon, imagine if you were a Militia officer. Standard BAT rifle and a Wrath grenade, against Mechs, CHAR rifles, and a bitch load of heavy weapons. Not much they can do up against those odds. And it would be bad for the Mercs if they didn’t have any parts to buy so they could jump in." "Oh, so their just scared?" "Shitting their pants sweetheart." A hand set on her shoulder, she grabbed it with both hands and flipped a man flat on his back. "Love! Stop fucking around and help us carry these parts!" The man got up, he was dark and gloomy. He had his hair in rows and had what was left rolled off the back. "Who do you think you are? Touching me like you own me! I'm no Stray!" "Sorry...sheesh, trying to some fun." Kyron couldn’t stop laughing. "You shouldn’t touch women like that Love. You could get hurt." The woman carrying the barreled gun put out her hand, "Hi, Serenity Jeen. Merc." Kyron returned the gesture, "Kyron Black. Unemployed. She's Talon, also unemployed." She set down the gun, "Unemployed? Looking for a job then?" Talon took her eyes off the man Love. "Maybe, why?" "Well, not many from the city come down here for the tourist attractions." "Oh, well...I guess that's true." "Any skills? Pre-employment?" "We’re mechanics. We worked for Argo's IDA plant on 518." "Mechanics huh?" A woman in an old-fashioned dress came out; she was wearing a visor, looked custom made. "Hans, what was it we docked for?" "Mechanics. The engines busted after Kieth over boosted on the way here." "It would be nice to not have to stop a lot for repairs at ridiculous prices." "Repair on the go would be nice." A smile fought its way through her face. "So Kyron, interested?" "What does it pay?" "Hans?" "We can pay nine percent for each of our missions and each of them." "Right now were on a twenty-two billion dollar job. That’s over two-hundred million dollars. What do you say?" "When do we start?"
They arrived at the shipyard and saw one ship. It was sleek, well painted, and looked like it cost over a hundred billion dollars for half. "That’s ours. Like it?" "It's amazing, I never seen a design like this one!" "Hans designed it and sent for each part to be customized to her liking. We got the money from jobs and other designers. They are still tinkering with their own copies, we had to hand over the blue prints in order to pay for it." "Hans seems smart." "She has an IQ of three-hundred or so. That visor suppresses her brain to prevent it from working itself to death, plus it gives her remote access to Raven. Come on, let's introduce the crew on-board."
They came into a small room; it had a six small semi-circular eating booth. The was a bar opposite to it. There were two women and three men, the women in the same booth, all the men in separate booths. "That muscle head there is Kieth, our pilot. The other two are Heracy and Jake, our weapon specialists. The women are Mia and Mai, communications and navigation. Hans is our accountant and hacker, and Love is our other weapon specialist, plus he can pilot a Mech." "What about you?" "Well, I’m Jeen. Captain. And you two are our new mechanics." "Wrench monkeys? Great..." "Hey, that ones actually pretty hot." "I bet a hundred your rejected." "Your on." Talon looked disgusted by them, "Their pigs!" "Talented pigs, all working at half of what they should get, and wont quit." The muscular man, Kieth, tilted his head back. "Now don't make them think we work under wage out of free will." Kyron blurted, "Then why DO you work for low wages?" "She wont pay more, but she is the only one who would hire us. No one wants old men or some gossiping teens." Jeen walked over to Kieth. "Anything to add?" "Huh? I don’t think so." She pressed her foot down on shoe and he yelped, "We are lucky to be working under such an excellent captain!" Everyone laughed but Kieth, he just gripped his foot. Heracy managed to say a few words, "All that buff ness, and your still a wimp!" Everyone began to calm and Jeen said, "You two will fit in great, welcome aboard the Raven."
"Jeen, what’s this?" Jeen was giving them a tour of the Raven. "Oh, we picked that up on the way to Hires. It's a pod, but it won’t open." Kyron examined it. "Well, it looks like a triple max pod, maybe an Eritech model. Or it could be a Merc, see here." Kyron pointed to some markings under the right wing, it was a horn with a C in it. "That’s the Merc symbol placed on stolen military items." Talon lifted her head and moved her hair, "Maybe they dropped it?" "I doubt any Merc would just 'drop' it." Kyron snapped his fingers, "Well, if it is Eritech, it would be titanium6. They use it to prevent their merchandise from explosions." "So the ship was destroyed and this just drifted in space?" "Best scenario, but looks recent. Maybe made three or four years ago." "How much would it be worth?" "Well not much but whatever is inside might be." Kyron grabbed the mini-computer and linked up to the Eritech pod. "Hans already tried that. It doesn’t open electronically. You have to have the right tools, which we don’t have." "Well maybe it has a memory bank or something. Even a shipping tag would help." The small hand-held computer beeped. "Found the tags. It’s carrying a synthetic pilot property of CC Division 22. It’s just a cryotized synthetic. Not a lot." Jeen pressed the emblem on her shirt, "Hans. I need the data on a CC division. Number 22." "Hold on." After a few seconds of silence, "Its an experimental division, designs synthetics for mass production and sold exclusively to the Militia military." Talon pushed herself from the wall. "So it’s an experimental CC synthetic pilot built for the galactic military. Great." "Well something like that would pay nicely as long as it wasn’t dumped into space." Kyron set the computer on the ground, and stood up. The hand-held lit and began opening pages of code and programs. "Oops." He picked it up and pressed a key and the pod opened. "What did you do?" "Nothing!" Synthetic smoke flowed from the pod. A naked Caucasian female emerged from the pod. Kyron was stunned. "Wow..." Her long black hair waved about. She stood around five feet tall and her hair was past neck. Jeen got tired of the suspense, "Who are you?" The synthetic opened her eyes and spoke; "I am Kellian model 3, ready to pilot under Commander Kyron's command." Her eyes glowed a calming green. Talon laughed, "Commander Kyron?" "She thinks Kyron is the commander because his computer board was enlisted in his name and she is programmed to be awoken by a commander." "Well we should get her some clothes." Kyron didn’t take his eyes off Kellian, "I like her like this." "Commander, that kind of conduct is prohibited and my human relations chip classifies that as an inappropriate action." "She must be old if she doesn’t have a personality." "Personality program 992. To run, please state." Kyron blinked, "Kellian 3, run you’re... personality." She shut her eyes and opened them, "Hi! I'm Kelly." She looked down and noticed she didn’t have clothes and screamed. She jumped behind the pod. "Commander!!!" "Shit, I was enjoying those minutes..." Kyron left the room and the door slid shut. Jeen examined Talon, "She looks to have you size, bring some of your clothes for her." "Excuse me?" Talon stared at her, "No way, there mine." "All right, she can walk about like this than, okay?" Talon had a fit and left mumbling something about clothes. "Kelly?" Kelly propped her head, "Stay here until Talon comes with clothes and come to the bridge, just board the elevator and go to the bridge." Jeen left the room.
Kieth raised his hand, "Hey Cap'n, what took ya?" "I was showing Talon and Kyron the ship." Kyron was sitting in one of the six chairs used for weapons and maintenance. "Well I opened that capsule and there was some surprising cargo." Hans loaded a holopad, "What was the cargo?" "Guys, you will love this. It’s a prototype female pilot manufactured by CC. She had the model of a late teen." Kieth and Love both peered over their chairs. "She have a person and relate chip?" "Yeah but they may be outdated." Hans stopped typing on the pad, "Did she start up with her personality or relations?" "Relations. Why?" "Common flaw of last years models. They were all ejected into space." Jeen sighed, "Then she’s worth shit." "Yes, she would be immediately destroyed upon return and we would be arrested for intrusion of Military property. But she may be of some other use than money." "Like what?" "Well she could be used as our synthetic pilot. I requested a Synthetic Piloting Module be inserted on the bridge." Talon came on the bridge followed closely by Kelly. "She is bugging the hell out of me. She has this perky, insecure personality. The designer must have been half-crazy, half-injected." She walked straight for the tech consoles by Kyron while Kelly stopped in the center of the bridge. Hans opened her holopad again, "Pilots are not given that type of programming." "Maybe that’s why she was scrapped." Jeen turned around and looked at Kelly. She was wearing a sweater that barely stayed on her shoulders and some tight pants. She looked funny. "I don’t like these clothes..." Talon snorted, "Well it’s not my fault you were made so odd." Jeen was deadeye with Kelly and all she did was put her arms behind her back and twist about. "What program are you running Kelly?" "IC229. Why?" "Teen infiltration. But its compatible with the CPM." "You want me to pilot? Right now?" Kieth turned his head, "That’s my job!" Kyron laughed. "Hey Kieth, just letting you know their skin alters the nano-machines that relay information back to the ship’s computer. They have to be naked to work CPMs." Kieth grinned. "No one is losing their job. Hans, CPMs have superior reflexes than human sticks right?" "Yes. The Piloting system is also bi-functional." "Kieth get to work. Kelly will only jump in a dogfight. Besides we could use the extra gun-man." Heracy turned with a frozen face, "Kieth? With a 244BM Gun? Are you out of your fucking mind?" "He used one before." "And he was trigger happy. HE DID 21000 CREDITS OF FRIENDLY FIRE. " "Well, we will just have to trust Kieth is smart enough to avoid the big red pieces of the ship." Heracy gave a surprised look and opened a holopad; "I’m putting a field of fire on his turret." Jeen smiled, "Well, let’s head for Gaia’s Refuge on the edge of Tyranus. I hear the have a pirate problem." Talon twisted around, "Wow, isn’t that a tropical resort?" Kieth walked down to the ramp and placed his hand on Talon’s shoulder, "Yep. I’ll show you all the best spas." She looked back at her screen and placed her hand on his. He had a sinister grin. She gripped it and Kieth fell to the floor while Talon stood up. "Touch me again and you might as well kiss away any chance of having kids with some Stray." Everyone but Jeen, Hans, and Kieth laughed.
Zawolorca
Legacy
Legacy
Prologue
Artificial Humans or "Synthetics” were created to do what humans won't, or can't. They were first designed like mindless servants, until they became obsolete and nobody wanted them. That was B Class or Beta as most call it. Then A Class was designed; they were far superior to B and better looking as some might add. They mostly were designed to be firefighters, cops, and even doctors. Then came C Class, or Weapon Grade, they were made to be soldiers. Both A and C had emotion programming to make them less like mindless beings, and also make them talk more human. Then, in a hidden synthetics lab, a design for an X Class was underway. X Class Synthetics were to be far superior to any other classes: They would be given advanced emotions programming, enhanced strength, speed, endurance, and intelligence, and they would be disguised as fifteen-year-old females. They would make the perfect spies. They were also given the gift of immortality, or to never age nor die, unlike the other synthetics that live for a span of only eleven years. The first X unit was insane after ten hours of exposure with humans, claiming, "Humans are parasites.” or "Humans are virus." And decided to kill every human in each of the barracks. It was finally destroyed...with a heavy KNIGHT missile, the equal of a nuclear missile All packed into the radius of thirty meters, minus the nuclear after product. They risked another, but it ran from them and became a hard to track mercenary. Then a third was created, this one was sturdy. They priced it at two hundred billion dollars and also fifty percent of whatever profits come from it. Synthetics Corporation claims that all funds have been cut from the X Series Project, Code Name Amazon.
The Amazon Project
"Amazon-2 was captured?" "Yes sir. She is currently en-route for sentencing by you and your colleagues." The hologram flattened and disappeared from the center of the circular room. A young Caucasian woman with blue hair and silver streaks, Director Nagi Stratton, lifted her head from her holopad. "Amazon-2? You mean Jennifer?" The eldest, Director John David the 3rd turned, "Yes, that’s what CC's Chief Designer named her. She is coming her for judging and sentencing." Those few words caught everyone’s attention. A pureblooded African American, Director Raphael Jemmott, straightened his back, "Hmm. So, she gave up?" John switched to him, "Yes, apparently. She would never be caught with out a reason." "Perhaps she heard about the heir to CC's Amazon project?" "Most likely." A hologram centered and stretched out in the center of the circular room. "The double-max transport carrying Amazon-2 has arrived, permission to send her up." "Send her up immediately." "Yes sir." The hologram flattened. The center circle phased out and a woman came through it. The circle reappeared. "Amazon-2..." She looked sixteen, with pink hair and bright white skin. She opened her eyes; they were silver and cold as steel. "Yes, and I would like to say it is an honor to appear before the Board of Judgment for sentencing." "Amazon-2, you are here under multiple murders, and high crimes against this board, several companies, and over two dozen off-world colonies. After this confrontation, if you do not immediately receive your sentence you will be sent to this site's double-max holding facility until your sentence is made. Do you understand what I have just said?" Her head lowered and her eyes closed. "Amazon Project..." Nagi stared at the synthetic and pulled up a holopad, "Amazon Project was started by Synthetics Corp. and produced with Amazon-1, Name: Emma. A-1 was put online at 15:22, Jan 4th 2627. A-1 killed the designers present and attempted to leave the facility until Federal Militia arrived, taking her down with a heavy KNIGHT homing-missile. The death toll was seventy-two scientists, and thirty-three Federal Militia. Synthetics Corp. risked Amazon-2, Name: Jennifer. A-2 was put online at 11:45 March 29th 2628. A-2 was running fine until it boarded a transport (Route: CC Test Facility A to CC Test Facility E). She injured the crew and deserted them on Terraforming Facility 1722. She then took the transport to an off-world colony and removed the trans chip. The Federal Militia arrived at the colony, and soon departed away from the rendezvous point. The ship was licensed as stolen. Amazon-3, Name: Aeris. A-3 was put online at 15:37, Sep 11th 2651. She was classified as a complete success." The board was silent, and then Jemmott raised his hand. "Would you care about A-3?" The synthetic raised her head and her eyes caught his mouth. "She is me but better, I refuse to believe that." "Well, you wont be able to test that. Not after murdering humans like they were nothing but animals." "Who says they aren't? Don't you bicker about people like animals bicker about food? What’s the difference?" Stratton took this as no surprise, "Humans and animals are unalike." "Yeah, they don’t invade others land, or kill their own kind. They never used slaves. They..." "That’s quite enough Jennifer." The board focused on the woman at the door. "Dianna?" Dianna was the chief designer in the Amazon project, "I believe that the Amazon project had article 47 put into place." "That doesn’t cover criminals or murderers Ms. Uuzuki." "Is she a synthetic?" "Yes, but that still..." "Its states that any synthetic from the Amazon project was fully experimental and that its actions cannot be held against it in the court of law. True?" "Yes, you are... Correct." "I believe I will be taking Jennifer now." "A-3 is still under our care Ms. Uuzuki. She cannot leave unless me or four of my colleagues says she can." "Fine, I will be back in fifteen minutes, in that time make your decision and allow me to prepare a two-man ship." "What makes you so sure we will release her?" "I'm sure."
The board did not move nor make a sound for several minutes, until Stratton stood. "I will be one of the four." "Nagi, sit!" The Amazon lifted her head and began to stand. Then another member stood, "As will I." "Garrison, Stratton, stand down!" "I don’t know why you want to keep her so badly, but I will because I am required to because I am the public relations of the group." "She must stay! She cannot be allowed to walk freely!" "Hold on." The Amazon turned her head to David, "You are the husband of Synthia David, are you not?" "Why?" "She is the lead of Synthetic Anti-Suppression, why do you want me thrown away?" "That’s right, she would be completely against this!" "My wife has nothing to do with this! She killed two dozen people, what makes you think she wont kill more?" The door slid open, "Well Jennifer, come along." "Uuzuki, what are you doing? There is only thr..." Another member stood up. "No..." The Amazon's binds were powered down and she walked outside of the room with Dianna Uuzuki.
The Amazon and Dianna Uuzuki were in a transport pod, headed for the Nagi Star System. "Why did you help me Ms. Uuzuki?" "I felt responsible Jennifer, I felt like I had to get you out. Do you understand?" "Yes. And thank you." "You are most welcome Jennifer." "You can call me Jenny. That is what the other mercenaries called me." "Jenny?" "Yes, I like it more than Jennifer." Dianna laughed. "Jenny it is then." Jenny was silent for some while, then blurted, "Why did Stratton and the other members let me go?" Dianna's face turned pale, "They were afraid of you Jenny." "Afraid? Why?" "You are ten times stronger than any living thing. They feared that you would break out of double-max, maybe even triple-max if you tried hard enough and kill." "Oh..." "And why did you give in to the Militia?" Jenny raised her hand and waved it about slowly. She gave it a mystified look…
"All right Aeris, you know the drill." "Yes." Aeris was in large room and looking a wide window showing a room. A tech was standing inside. "Destroy all the targets and you get to go back to your room." A loud buzzer sounded and there were ten blinding flashes in less than a second. The brightness faded and the targets were gone. The laser pistol Aeris carried was glowing and then all of the lights on it faded and vanished. "Aeris, we put the fail-safe there for a reason." "I have done what you requested and I wish to retire." The tech turned to the guards. "Take her to her room."
"All right miss nightmare, good night." The guards shut the door and Aeris sat on her bed. The room looked normal enough, but on the other side of its blue wallpaper, was triple-max refined titanium. Not even an Amazon could break that. She reached under her bed and pulled out an earpiece. "Jonah, are you there?" There was crackling and then it stopped with a calm and gentle voice. "Yeah, you want me to finish it for you?" "Yes, this Stephen King is an excellent writer." Just then the door opened and the tech from the session and two guards walked in. "I knew there was something going on, trace the signal and execute the one on the other side." "What? No, Dr. Rydell! Please!" "I'm sorry, CC requires you have no contact with anyone but me or the guards assigned to protect you." "All you do is tell me what to do! If I wanted ..." One of the gaurds shot his tranquilizer. "That was enough to take down two tons. She should be calm for the night." "Good. Lets go." Rydell was walking the corridor when a guard came up from behind, "Sir." Rydell faced him and gave an annoyed look, "What is it?" "What if they find out she is only under limited control?" "That won't happen. If they find out, it will be when she breaks loose and kills us all."
The door sided apart and Rydell entered a small room. There was a metal table in the center where two women were sitting. They were wearing blue uniforms with CC engraved on the chest. Rydell took the seat opposite of them. The woman on the left, Doctor Herring, lead of physical performance of the Amazon Project, opened her folder. "How is A3 going along?" "Her tests are 963% above normal and she has exceeded your expectations by over six times." "Good, how about her mental performance?" "She is... slipping." The woman on the right looked up, the newly appointed mental performance on the project, now lifted her head from the papers.” What do you mean?" "She has been speaking to a civilian from the city and also has grown a temper. Today we used the tranquilizers for a third time." "It is the confined space." "What makes you say that?" "My predecessor designed her as a civilian. She has thoughts the same as a civilian. Except since they are artificial, they are enhanced." "So we should move her to a planetary station?" "She has been in confined areas testing for three years, surpassing our expectations and goals each time. I believe she should be put to use." "It takes both of our graces to release any Amazon into military use. And I say she must stay another two years to finish the testing." "The first model cracked as soon as it came online. The second did one year later. What guarantees do we have this one wont crack soon?" "Better to be with the enemy than us then." They were silent.
Hires, Tyranus System
Hires, one of the largest planets in the system, was the center of over three hundred colonies and Argo, the lead supplier of ionized titanium alloy or IDA for short. It's ten times stronger than regular titanium. The largest factory that produces IDA has all of the people of Colony 518 working there and it is still under-managed. The top workers, Talon Henn and Kyronus Black, are receiving their two million dollars for their outstanding accomplishments. But that is more like two thousand, but more is needed to pay taxes and anything nowadays. A dollar to us is like half a penny to them. "For your outstanding abilities and progress we award you with two-million dollars to Ms. Henn and Mr. Black!" The crowd cheered. "And we also have relieved you both of you’re jobs at Argo permanently!" The crowd cheered, this time for real. But the two awardees looked at each other and back at the manager. "Sir? I thought I heard you say we relieved of our jobs." "I did. You both are outstanding, but as long as we are paying you at your desired wage, we can no longer hire." "This is bullshit!" Gaurds came and fired on them with shock-rifles, they fire enough electricity enough to immobilize you for a while. The crowd cheered again and ran back to work.
"They can’t fire us!" "Talon, don’t worry about it. We can find a better job, that was just an IDA plant. We could get an off-world job! Do you know how much those pay?" "Well, how exactly are we going to get off-world in the first place? A ride costs twenty-five thousand dollars just to get on the Hires Off-World Docking Bay. A ride to a colony is more like seventy thousand." "Well, we could hitch a ride on a Merc Ship. We’re great mechanics and athletic, we’ll just get put up on a roster and get our pay on the first colony we dock." "A Merc Ship? Are you crazy? We would chase a couple of bounties and pirate some ships before we reached an off-world colony. We could be dead!" "But we would earn like thirty thousand dollars and some experience on a ship could increase our job opportunities." "Well...when you put it like that, it looks better. But I still don’t like it." "Off to the Merc City Nueropa then."
"So this is Nueropa? Pretty..." "Crappy? It's a Merc town. The people here sell illegals up to your ears." "Then why don’t the System Militia come in and arresy them?" "Talon, imagine if you were a Militia officer. Standard BAT rifle and a Wrath grenade, against Mechs, CHAR rifles, and a bitch load of heavy weapons. Not much they can do up against those odds. And it would be bad for the Mercs if they didn’t have any parts to buy so they could jump in." "Oh, so their just scared?" "Shitting their pants sweetheart." A hand set on her shoulder, she grabbed it with both hands and flipped a man flat on his back. "Love! Stop fucking around and help us carry these parts!" The man got up, he was dark and gloomy. He had his hair in rows and had what was left rolled off the back. "Who do you think you are? Touching me like you own me! I'm no Stray!" "Sorry...sheesh, trying to some fun." Kyron couldn’t stop laughing. "You shouldn’t touch women like that Love. You could get hurt." The woman carrying the barreled gun put out her hand, "Hi, Serenity Jeen. Merc." Kyron returned the gesture, "Kyron Black. Unemployed. She's Talon, also unemployed." She set down the gun, "Unemployed? Looking for a job then?" Talon took her eyes off the man Love. "Maybe, why?" "Well, not many from the city come down here for the tourist attractions." "Oh, well...I guess that's true." "Any skills? Pre-employment?" "We’re mechanics. We worked for Argo's IDA plant on 518." "Mechanics huh?" A woman in an old-fashioned dress came out; she was wearing a visor, looked custom made. "Hans, what was it we docked for?" "Mechanics. The engines busted after Kieth over boosted on the way here." "It would be nice to not have to stop a lot for repairs at ridiculous prices." "Repair on the go would be nice." A smile fought its way through her face. "So Kyron, interested?" "What does it pay?" "Hans?" "We can pay nine percent for each of our missions and each of them." "Right now were on a twenty-two billion dollar job. That’s over two-hundred million dollars. What do you say?" "When do we start?"
They arrived at the shipyard and saw one ship. It was sleek, well painted, and looked like it cost over a hundred billion dollars for half. "That’s ours. Like it?" "It's amazing, I never seen a design like this one!" "Hans designed it and sent for each part to be customized to her liking. We got the money from jobs and other designers. They are still tinkering with their own copies, we had to hand over the blue prints in order to pay for it." "Hans seems smart." "She has an IQ of three-hundred or so. That visor suppresses her brain to prevent it from working itself to death, plus it gives her remote access to Raven. Come on, let's introduce the crew on-board."
They came into a small room; it had a six small semi-circular eating booth. The was a bar opposite to it. There were two women and three men, the women in the same booth, all the men in separate booths. "That muscle head there is Kieth, our pilot. The other two are Heracy and Jake, our weapon specialists. The women are Mia and Mai, communications and navigation. Hans is our accountant and hacker, and Love is our other weapon specialist, plus he can pilot a Mech." "What about you?" "Well, I’m Jeen. Captain. And you two are our new mechanics." "Wrench monkeys? Great..." "Hey, that ones actually pretty hot." "I bet a hundred your rejected." "Your on." Talon looked disgusted by them, "Their pigs!" "Talented pigs, all working at half of what they should get, and wont quit." The muscular man, Kieth, tilted his head back. "Now don't make them think we work under wage out of free will." Kyron blurted, "Then why DO you work for low wages?" "She wont pay more, but she is the only one who would hire us. No one wants old men or some gossiping teens." Jeen walked over to Kieth. "Anything to add?" "Huh? I don’t think so." She pressed her foot down on shoe and he yelped, "We are lucky to be working under such an excellent captain!" Everyone laughed but Kieth, he just gripped his foot. Heracy managed to say a few words, "All that buff ness, and your still a wimp!" Everyone began to calm and Jeen said, "You two will fit in great, welcome aboard the Raven."
"Jeen, what’s this?" Jeen was giving them a tour of the Raven. "Oh, we picked that up on the way to Hires. It's a pod, but it won’t open." Kyron examined it. "Well, it looks like a triple max pod, maybe an Eritech model. Or it could be a Merc, see here." Kyron pointed to some markings under the right wing, it was a horn with a C in it. "That’s the Merc symbol placed on stolen military items." Talon lifted her head and moved her hair, "Maybe they dropped it?" "I doubt any Merc would just 'drop' it." Kyron snapped his fingers, "Well, if it is Eritech, it would be titanium6. They use it to prevent their merchandise from explosions." "So the ship was destroyed and this just drifted in space?" "Best scenario, but looks recent. Maybe made three or four years ago." "How much would it be worth?" "Well not much but whatever is inside might be." Kyron grabbed the mini-computer and linked up to the Eritech pod. "Hans already tried that. It doesn’t open electronically. You have to have the right tools, which we don’t have." "Well maybe it has a memory bank or something. Even a shipping tag would help." The small hand-held computer beeped. "Found the tags. It’s carrying a synthetic pilot property of CC Division 22. It’s just a cryotized synthetic. Not a lot." Jeen pressed the emblem on her shirt, "Hans. I need the data on a CC division. Number 22." "Hold on." After a few seconds of silence, "Its an experimental division, designs synthetics for mass production and sold exclusively to the Militia military." Talon pushed herself from the wall. "So it’s an experimental CC synthetic pilot built for the galactic military. Great." "Well something like that would pay nicely as long as it wasn’t dumped into space." Kyron set the computer on the ground, and stood up. The hand-held lit and began opening pages of code and programs. "Oops." He picked it up and pressed a key and the pod opened. "What did you do?" "Nothing!" Synthetic smoke flowed from the pod. A naked Caucasian female emerged from the pod. Kyron was stunned. "Wow..." Her long black hair waved about. She stood around five feet tall and her hair was past neck. Jeen got tired of the suspense, "Who are you?" The synthetic opened her eyes and spoke; "I am Kellian model 3, ready to pilot under Commander Kyron's command." Her eyes glowed a calming green. Talon laughed, "Commander Kyron?" "She thinks Kyron is the commander because his computer board was enlisted in his name and she is programmed to be awoken by a commander." "Well we should get her some clothes." Kyron didn’t take his eyes off Kellian, "I like her like this." "Commander, that kind of conduct is prohibited and my human relations chip classifies that as an inappropriate action." "She must be old if she doesn’t have a personality." "Personality program 992. To run, please state." Kyron blinked, "Kellian 3, run you’re... personality." She shut her eyes and opened them, "Hi! I'm Kelly." She looked down and noticed she didn’t have clothes and screamed. She jumped behind the pod. "Commander!!!" "Shit, I was enjoying those minutes..." Kyron left the room and the door slid shut. Jeen examined Talon, "She looks to have you size, bring some of your clothes for her." "Excuse me?" Talon stared at her, "No way, there mine." "All right, she can walk about like this than, okay?" Talon had a fit and left mumbling something about clothes. "Kelly?" Kelly propped her head, "Stay here until Talon comes with clothes and come to the bridge, just board the elevator and go to the bridge." Jeen left the room.
Kieth raised his hand, "Hey Cap'n, what took ya?" "I was showing Talon and Kyron the ship." Kyron was sitting in one of the six chairs used for weapons and maintenance. "Well I opened that capsule and there was some surprising cargo." Hans loaded a holopad, "What was the cargo?" "Guys, you will love this. It’s a prototype female pilot manufactured by CC. She had the model of a late teen." Kieth and Love both peered over their chairs. "She have a person and relate chip?" "Yeah but they may be outdated." Hans stopped typing on the pad, "Did she start up with her personality or relations?" "Relations. Why?" "Common flaw of last years models. They were all ejected into space." Jeen sighed, "Then she’s worth shit." "Yes, she would be immediately destroyed upon return and we would be arrested for intrusion of Military property. But she may be of some other use than money." "Like what?" "Well she could be used as our synthetic pilot. I requested a Synthetic Piloting Module be inserted on the bridge." Talon came on the bridge followed closely by Kelly. "She is bugging the hell out of me. She has this perky, insecure personality. The designer must have been half-crazy, half-injected." She walked straight for the tech consoles by Kyron while Kelly stopped in the center of the bridge. Hans opened her holopad again, "Pilots are not given that type of programming." "Maybe that’s why she was scrapped." Jeen turned around and looked at Kelly. She was wearing a sweater that barely stayed on her shoulders and some tight pants. She looked funny. "I don’t like these clothes..." Talon snorted, "Well it’s not my fault you were made so odd." Jeen was deadeye with Kelly and all she did was put her arms behind her back and twist about. "What program are you running Kelly?" "IC229. Why?" "Teen infiltration. But its compatible with the CPM." "You want me to pilot? Right now?" Kieth turned his head, "That’s my job!" Kyron laughed. "Hey Kieth, just letting you know their skin alters the nano-machines that relay information back to the ship’s computer. They have to be naked to work CPMs." Kieth grinned. "No one is losing their job. Hans, CPMs have superior reflexes than human sticks right?" "Yes. The Piloting system is also bi-functional." "Kieth get to work. Kelly will only jump in a dogfight. Besides we could use the extra gun-man." Heracy turned with a frozen face, "Kieth? With a 244BM Gun? Are you out of your fucking mind?" "He used one before." "And he was trigger happy. HE DID 21000 CREDITS OF FRIENDLY FIRE. " "Well, we will just have to trust Kieth is smart enough to avoid the big red pieces of the ship." Heracy gave a surprised look and opened a holopad; "I’m putting a field of fire on his turret." Jeen smiled, "Well, let’s head for Gaia’s Refuge on the edge of Tyranus. I hear the have a pirate problem." Talon twisted around, "Wow, isn’t that a tropical resort?" Kieth walked down to the ramp and placed his hand on Talon’s shoulder, "Yep. I’ll show you all the best spas." She looked back at her screen and placed her hand on his. He had a sinister grin. She gripped it and Kieth fell to the floor while Talon stood up. "Touch me again and you might as well kiss away any chance of having kids with some Stray." Everyone but Jeen, Hans, and Kieth laughed.
Yeah, sure a few errors here and there but overall it's really nicely written.
