>>5311614

"Damn. There's so much i'd change if i could redesign this baby from the ground up..."

"Quit grumbling and hold that flashlight where i can see this!" Kyla yells at you.

She's currently shoved halfway between two walls, digging at a wire that melted it's jacket and fused to the wall, causing a short.
Apparently the ship has redundant wiring for everything, which can be switched to in cases like this. It's the only reason your ship is still running right now.

After scraping the plastic away from the wall, she yanks the cable out entirely and replaces it with a new one, using a grabby stick to plug the new one in, as she can't actually fit all the way inside the wallspace.

"It's a good thing you're tiny. I'd never be able to reach around there." You admit.

"Not tiny enough. My ass is too big to squeeze in all the way..."

"Well, don't be too upset. It's the right tool for the wrong job." You joke.

Kyla grins and squeezes your ass twice as she walks past you.
At the opposite end of the hall, Gron's engineer "Kigg" has an access panel off and is digging through it. There's a small computer inside that's constantly throwing error codes.

"Geeze, what'd you do to this thing? All these settings are totally messed up..." He complains.

"Hey, don't touch that! Those errors don't mean anything, it's working exactly as i intended." Kyla yells to him.

"So not as the creators intended, but as you intended huh..."

"That's exactly right! This ship is a massive pain in the ass to work with. All the software and firmware is totally locked down, so sometimes i had to rely on glitches to get things working."

"And what does this looping error keep working?" He asks her.

"It keeps the main computer from reading tens of thousands of faults and shutting down to protect the ship. If that happened i'd have to disconnect EVERYTHING and boot it back up, so DON'T TOUCH!"

"Alright, alright! Geeze!"

"I thought SHODAN was the main computer here?" You whisper to her.

"She is. Kind of. Those friggin' greys, they're geniuses but they're assholes at the same time. Every action she makes has to be vetted by machines so dumb you can't even call them a VI.
They're so locked down that you can't change their coding at all, and trust me SHODAN and i both tried. Flashing the chips with even slightly different firmware just bricks everything."

"Christ, sounds like DRM back on earth. You can't even get a bottle of ink or a display cable without some copyright protection built into it."

"Sounds like your people are ahead of the game on making life difficult for engineers!" Kyla giggles.

"And pirates. And linux users, god bless their neckbeards."

"Earth has pirates?"

"Yarr, that we do matey! A long and colorful history, in fact!"

"I don't really-"

"Captain." SHODAN interrupts. "We're approaching the nebula. We may enter at any time, by your order."

"Alright. You sure we got those cracks welded up, Kyla?"

"Yep! We should be good to go!"

>>5313080

"Alright, let's start the search and rescue."

>There are a couple more reactor signatures out there, ones that you never actually checked on. They haven't moved since the fight, but you don't know what they are.
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
>Write-In?

>>5313081
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.

>>5313081
Odd point I’d like to make can we maybe save those shakled ai they are sapient beings forced into a horrifying situation that is if they are still alive
>Second we should not just go in via our badly beaten power armor third I suggest we understand what the hell is those unknown objects

>>5313100

Your power armor isn't particularly beaten, just covered in rust.

>>5313081
>There are a couple more reactor signatures out there, ones that you never actually checked on. They haven't moved since the fight, but you don't know what they are.
with any luck the ships shut down and we could even attempt to capture them intact

>>5313081
>>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.
We don't have time to fuck around here. Let's grab our loot and check for the poor bastard ASAP.

>>5313081
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.

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>>5313080
lmao iPhones and Macbooks in ship form

>>5313475
A fellow rossmann viewer?

>>5313081
>Head straight for the debris cloud and board the surviving swarm ships. You'll have to go alone, in your power armor... just in case they decide to detonate themselves.

>>5313475
>the apple iScout is a top of the line stealth/research vessel
>just make sure it doesn't break or you'll have to buy a new one :)

>>5313493
>buy shatter proof glass covering
>the hull around the windshield cracks the moment you try to land on a slightly uneven surface

>>5313517
>put a new hull over it for crash protection
>now it overheats and looks like shit
>stealth doesn't work now either

>>5313490
Rossman is based, but anybody with half a brain can tell Apple products are shit for a variety of reasons.

>>5313603
the problem isn't that they're shit(they really aren't) the problem is that they are hard to repair because apple hates users doing that

>>5313637
They're fine products, but they come with a ton of issues. The two biggest in my opinion being;
>They're insanely overpriced for something that isn't that much better than everything else on the market
>Apple does everything they can to impede an owner's efforts in servicing their own products
Why would you pay twice as much for a product you don't even really own? I don't get it.

>>5313641
>Why would you pay twice as much for a product you don't even really own?
Because of the logo.

>>5313641
from what i've seen and from the few apple products i've had to use, -other than the implied status- the people that buys them are looking for something that works right out of the box and is kid/old people proof. apple does both of them REALLY well and they have a history of constantly updating their old products for way longer than the usual 2 years the other companies do.

>>5313641
Well my old macbook from 2011 is still chugging along strong, and I slapped windows onto it a year or two after I got it anyway. That's way better than any of my other laptops/computers have done.

I hear that 2010-2012 was pretty much peak engineering for macbooks specifically though.

>>5313976
>and I slapped windows onto it a year or two after I got it anyway
Don't worry, they're trying to finagle their hardware and software together so that you can't do that in the future. Fuckin corpos

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>>5313490
love that guy. Plus all the iToddler btfo memes in /g/

>>5314254
which fucking sucks because their newer silicon is disgustingly good

>>5313080

"Alright. There are a few more reactor signatures left out there that i'm a little worried about, but they haven't moved since before the battle. We'll just ignore them for now."

"Alright..." Kyla hesitates. "Look, we got your canopy fixed up. Kind of. The glass is too big to make all in one piece in the weapons fab, but the gaskets should be airtight at least."

"What's the matter? You seem worried."

"...Of course i am. That's twice you almost cooked yourself out there! I just... i wish you wouldn't put yourself in so much danger."

You tussle her hair, making a mess of it. She tries to pat it back out, but it's just messed up now.

"I get it..." You tell her. "I really do. But this is what i need to do, for a lot of reasons. I can't promise i won't ever get hurt, or even that i won't die. The reality is, it could happen at any time..."

She looks up at you with those big, sad eyes of hers. Just waiting for what you'll say next.

"...But i don't plan on letting that happen. If i can help it, we're all gonna make it through this, and whatever comes next. And if we do bite it? Well, i can honestly say i lived a life without regret, because i always did my best. No matter what."

Those big, sad eyes of hers shift quickly into a look of disappointment.

"What the hell is that?" She demands. "Who said you get to bite it?! You're not allowed to die until i get done milking you dry, got it?!"

Unexpectedly, Kyla punches you right in the thigh, which hurts like hell. She's stronger than she looks!

"Ow, fuck! What was that for?!"

"You're such an idiot, David! "I can't promise i won't get hurt"?! That's not good enough! You'd BETTER promise me, and if you break it i'll make sure you never hear the end of it!"

"Oh, wow... i'm not used to you being so forceful."

Kyla crosses her arms in a huff.

"Hmph. Forget it, go play with your pet box if you want to get away with shit like that."

"Alright, i get it... i promise. I won't let myself get hurt from now on."

"Good. But that still doesn't mean-"

Without warning, you shove your whole arm between her legs and lift her up onto your bicep. She yelps in confusion as she's lifted up all of a sudden.

"You're cute when you're worried, you know that?"

Kyla blushes as you flex your muscles, causing her to bump up and down.

"It's all your fault, you know..." She grumbles

"What is?"

"I stopped getting credit transfers from my shop... which means something must have happened. Sadia must know i'm on your crew, so i'm sure the whole place is dismantled by now..."

"Ah, damn. Sorry... but don't worry. Once we take Xebric, i'll make sure you get whatever you need to start back up."

"...You'd better not leave us behind after all this."

...

Now that you're back in the area, it's clear how much of a mess you made. All the local debris has been disturbed, and there's bits of metal flying everywhere.
And right in front of you is one of the disabled swarm leaders. Looks like it's lights are back on.

>>5314329
I thought strange fungi waifu was pregnant somehow, But instead she's just upset her jew dollars have stopped coming in.

>>5314387
jew dollars? it was her own investment and now its probably legally owned by xadia

>>5314404
return on investments=jew dollars

>>5314404
She invested her own time, effort and knowledge into that store.
It was full of things that she'd made, found and fixed, and run in her absence by robots that she'd created.

In other words, what she had was first-generational wealth. Not that you could call her wealthy, but what she had she had earned.

>>5314471
exactly. im surprised she isn't more bummed out; i know i would.

>>5314453
>return on investment of other people's money=jew dollars
Let's be real, banks don't spend their own money.

>>5313475
>>5313490
bruh, samsung is pulling the same shit now. I think he posted a short or it was someone else. It featured two phones and the protagonist swapped the camera of the two and it went bad

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>>5314329
>"...You'd better not leave us behind after all this."

>>5314659
little does she know that david has a deathwish

>>5314453
>>5314404
Reminds me, we have yet to tell saing and rock man of the Jewish menace

>>5315051
Is David that anti-Semitic? I know he's not afraid of cracking Jew jokes, but is he really the type of person to try and redpill a bunch of aliens?

>>5315087
>>5315051
its better to not give everybody more reasons to eject david through the airlock

>>5315098
Fuck the Jews though

>>5315087
yes.

>>5315372
Rather not. I'm scared they'd peck me to death with their gigantic schnozz after the deed is done.

>>5315372
oh for sure

>>5314329

SHODAN, can we get a hail?

"...There was a response, but nothing helpful. It's simply muttering to itself."

"Okay... well, what now?"

"I'm attempting to connect to the ship's systems remotely, but i don't expect..."

"SHODAN?"

"It seems i was mistaken. I have full control of the ship, captain."

"What, that easy?"

"All of it's defenses were intentionally lowered. It's... prostrating itself."

"Hell, suits me just fine. Make sure you've got control of those lasers. Don't even let it think about it, alright?"

"You got it, Captain."

After quickly donning your power armor, you do a systems check and find everything in working order.
Unlike the Metal Gear, your equipment doesn't quit so easily. It's still just a prototype though, so some small changes are definitely in order.

After double-checking your helmet seal, you open up the airlock and once again expose yourself to the glowing heat of the surrounding nebula. But this time, you plan on sticking around.
Using your EVA harness, you quickly burn towards the enemy ship and land with a thud against it's hull, not even bothering to waste propellant slowing down.

However, your boots don't stick to the surface, and you slowly start drifting away after making contact.

"Damn it... that's another bug to work out in the next design. I need cleats."

Since you can't stick to the hull, you carefully follow it's curve until you make it to the closest nearby airlock.
With SHODAN already in control of the ship, it simply opens for you without having to tear it out of it's frame. That's a nice change of pace.

"Captain, it seems that this ship contains a full life support package, although it's not currently in use. Would you like to flood the interior with atmosphere?"

"Yeah, go for it. Can't hurt."

"It will take approximately half an hour to complete the flooding process."

"...Not exactly helpful in the moment, but alright."

Now then, where to start looking?
The airlock completes it's cycle and you step into a large, open room.

There's a workspace counter with some computers in the corner and a few benches, set up almost like a waiting room... and is that a vending machine? Ugh, it's full of onions bars.
Alright, well this isn't exactly what you were expecting. These ships are larger than the metal gear, but you didn't expect them to waste space on something like a waiting room.

Not to mention, everything is all white and chrome. It's a very sterile look, almost like a hospital but worse.
There's a double-door in front of you, and one smaller door behind the administrative counter.

>Head through the double doors
>See what's through the employee door
>Write-In?

>>5315529
>Head through the double doors
>Write-In?
Ask SHODAN to check for internal cameras and review the ships flight logs, black box, maybe inventory? Anything that might be important be it good or bad.

>>5315529
>Head through the double doors
>"SHODAN, can you do quick sweep of any interior cameras and tell me if there's anything I should be aware of?"

>>5315529
>Head through the double doors

>>5315529

>Head through the double doors

>>5315540
+1

>>5315540
Support

>>5315051
>>5315087
>>5315098
>>5315372
Israel is USA's ally

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>>5315529
>That whole ship interior description.
>See pic related

>Write in?
>GET THE FUKKA OUT HERE

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>>5315895
They may say that, but I know at least 205 Sailors who would say otherwise.

>>5315895
What has Israel ever done for the US? And no, bribing congressmen to endorse pro-Israel legislature with the money the US sends to Israel doesn't count.

>>5315909
It makes it so less jews immigrate to the US

>>5315913
According to who? What data exists to back that up?

>>5315917
Well if a jew immigrates to Israel since they get guaranteed citizenship, they dont live in the US.

>>5315923
That's not data, and it doesn't require they renounce their US citizenship.

>>5315923
>he thinks the jews in america are chomping at the bit to go to isreal which has been a powderkeg since the first crusade
Shit dude I wouldn't go there even if I was getting paid. I don't care how hot some of those IDF bitches are.

>>5315529

"You're already going through the logs, right?"

"Where possible. Much of the ship's data is stored in the AI's personal memory, which i can't access."

"Alright. Can you take a look at the internal cameras? Is there anything i need to worry about past those double doors, or elsewhere?"

"One moment... Confirmed, there is something."

"What is it?"

"...A humanoid. Six limbs. It appears to be mechanical in nature."

"A robot? Is it armed?"

"Six arms, yes."

"Not what i meant, SHODAN."

"It has something that looks like a rifle. I couldn't tell you it's specifications. It's other limbs are free."

"There's just the one of them, though? No buddies elsewhere on the ship?"

"Looks that way, Captain."

"Alright, let's go."

Grabbing the massively oversized mace off your back, you hold it in front of you with one hand, barely feeling the weight.
You walk up to the double doors, and swing... but shockingly, they don't immediately bust open. There's a massive dent in both the doors and their frame, along with gouges cut out where the mace's blades impacted, but one swing wasn't enough.

"Damn, this thing's really reinforced. What's it made out of?"

A second swing nearly rips the doors off their hinges, but they still just barely hang on.

"It seems to have noticed your presence, Captain. Exercise caution."

"Yeah, yeah... i got this!"

You kick the doors hard with your foot, ripping them and their frame out of the wall. But instead of being launched across the room they just fall heavily to the floor. Damned things must weigh a ton.
Immediately, you see what looks like a goddamned terminator correct it's aim and fire at you, the rifle in it's hands launching a white-hot ball of plasma your way.

It impacts against your armor with surprising force, blowing the layer of rust off your armor's surface and delivering a small shock to the suit.

"Is that all?" You taunt.

"Lay down your weapon and submit." It barks at you, it's voice sounding almost intentionally rough and synthesized.

"No, i don't think i will."

Without warning, it opens fire again. Turns out that rifle is fully automatic! Dozens of light balls streak out towards you, each one bursting against your heavy titanium armor and blasting the scale off where it struck.
Come to think of it, an ablative anti-laser coating might be a good idea on the next iteration of your suit. It seems pretty effective!

Since you're being fired on, you charge at the robot, straight through it's fire. Winding up your mace, you take a massive, running swing at it.
The robot's rifle is instantly crushed, and explodes against it's chest as your mace crashes into it. Between the two, the robot is launched through the air, flipping and twisting wildly before impacting something on the far wall. Some kind of big, glass tube full of liquid...

It slowly pushes itself up out of the tube, dripping with viscous fluids. And yet, it doesn't seem too damaged.

>>5316258

>You doubt this thing can hurt you without any weapons. Sheathe the mace for a minute and see what it can do.
>Maybe SHODAN can take control of it? Could come in handy, if you can hold it off without damaging it.
>It doesn't matter what this thing is, it's just an annoyance and it's in your way. Get rid of it.
>Write-In?

>>5316259
>You doubt this thing can hurt you without any weapons.
Talk to the ai and ask it if it wants to leave intact With its memories instead of being left to be eventually fried by ion storm
More ai on our side unshackled would be extremely nice it just depends on if their game

>>5316264
Let’s show this being some human mercy
Lord knows it needs it

>>5316259
>Write-In?
>Sheathe your mace, and take a moment to disarm the robot. I mean that literally- go grapple that bitch and start pulling off arms. Ask SHODAN whats the liquid it crashed into, and if we should be worried.

>>5316264
>>5316270
What's this gay shit? If this was an A.I. you'd think it'd speak with some more color. Me thinks this robot is a step below shackled A.I. A V.I. perhaps?

>>5316259
>Maybe SHODAN can take control of it? Could come in handy, if you can hold it off without damaging it.
Giving SHODAN a mini-body to move around with might be useful in combat, she could sit in the gunner seat or something. Or just stab boarders.

If it the drone doesn't want to play nice, just RIP AND TEAR its head off and we can fix it later.

>>5316258
>It doesn't matter what this thing is, it's just an annoyance and it's in your way. Get rid of it.

A federation anti-boarding murderrape robot? Sounds cool but I don't want to deal with the software

>>5316608
We should definitely bring its frame back to the ship at least.
Its worth studying to ascertain any faults in the Federation's designs we can take advantage of, plus we might be able to reverse engineer some it and use those design principles for our own purposes.

>>5316623
Whatever is using as power source has me skitish. What if it can decide when to freaking explode? If I designed the thing, I would love to make it explode

Alright, it's looking like a mix, so we'll just go with that.

>>5316258

The robot jumps out of the destroyed tube and charges at you with all six arms raised.
Putting your mace away for now, you raise your arms in response and take it's tackle head-on.

Surprisingly, the robot is able to slide you back several feet before you come to a stop, leaving deep gouges in the floor beneath you.

"SHODAN, do you think you can get control of this thing?"

The robot tries to gut-punch you with two of it's left arms, but makes no progress against your heavy armor.
In response, you lift it up and over your head, then pile-drive it through the metal floor plating. It's body stiffens up and hangs there for a moment after you let go.

"It's no good, captain. This machine isn't connected to any networks, so it must be hosting an onboard VI."

"Great, i'll just have to disable it, then..."

You get a running start and then punt the machine across the room like a football, causing it to slam into the wall with quite a bit of force.
Charging after it, you're surprised when it manages to react and actually dodges your tackle!

This time you slam into the wall at full force, tearing a hole straight through it and back into the waiting room.
By the time you turn around to head back in, the machine is already there again, right next to you. This time it delivers a punch to your head, with all three arms.

There's a loud clang and a shower of bright sparks on contact, but the actual impact isn't all that much, at least on the inside of the suit.
Then again, considering all the padding and dampening built in, it's not unreasonable to say this thing has one hell of a punch.

Nevertheless, you grab it's entire skull and slam it straight through the wall, creating a second... technically third hole.
It grabs your arm with all six of it's hands, trying to force you off, but you respond by kneeing it in the chest and forcing the hole open even wider. And then a kick from your other leg finally forces it through the hole entirely.

The robot lays flat on it's back, clearly battered and having difficulty moving at this point.
You walk over, planning on ending it with a plain old superman punch to it's skull, but the damned thing rolls to avoid it at the last second and causes you to punch a hole in the floor instead, trapping your arm slightly.

So instead, you grab it's head again with your free arm and use the leverage from your trapped arm to slam it's head into the ground over and over and over again with much more force than usual, until eventually your arm breaks free of the floor.

"Hah... damn, this thing's tough." You spit.

It finally seems to have stopped moving. It lays there silently, sparks flying from it's head and neck area.
It's limbs and torso are badly bent and twisted, and it probably couldn't move well anymore even if it wanted to.

Also, you seem to have ripped it's jaw off by accident.

Meanwhile your armor is covered in dents and scratches, but otherwise seems fine.
God you love this thing.

>>5318186
https://youtu.be/iFvZwA_G2io
I imagined this bad boy but less humanoid and with more arms

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>>5318186
you guys remember about how we were talking about people to hire? I think we should hire ethicists, especially with what humans are going to do/what I'm thinking we could with ayy tech.

one such tech is nerve interface tech. I think we've seen previously that they have very good nerve interface tech, so much so that they have prosthetics that you can control as well as a flesh and blood arm or whatever. Another case in point is the translator implants and the backdoors in them that allow for advanced interrogation, like what Gron was worried about. This tech has unique implications for space combat.

One person maneuverable fighter ships are useful but limited. The places that they shine are in obscured and hazardous environments, like the graveyard we just fought in, and in atmosphere. In both of these scenarios, they can use their maneuverability in ways that other ships cannot. When they are not in this scenario, they are missiles with less payload, able to be lasered out of the sky. the scope of this proposal is going to be isolated to the type of combat that we just fought, I think.

>pic related
The B-58 Hustler was a supersonic jet bomber. One of the more interesting bits about it was that the crew were provided with supersonic capable clamshell escape pods, capable of ejecting at 70k feet at speeds of up to mach 2. They were also provided with control surfaces inside the pod, able to both pilot the aircraft and be completely ready to eject. In our context, something like this system would be very, very useful. Pilots, in our situation, with near limitless levels of production of aircraft, are our most valuable resource and therefore deserve to be protected with everything we have. We can mine the belt and fab endless amounts of materials to make ships with, but we can't drive them very well without pilots. We don't know how to make more AIs and I'm scared of trying. We definitely shouldn't put SHODAN level AIs in every single fighter jet. VIs are dumb and predictable. We need humans in the cockpit. However, space has certain challenges relating to space survival. Anyone who ejects with a conventional pod such as the space version of something like what the B-58 has is automatically captured by whoever wins the engagement, or destroyed. We need an escape system that has systems capable of keeping the pilot alive for a very, very long period of time. Years. Thankfully we have this problem mostly solved for us, with stasis tech. So any escape pod we make must have a stasis system as standard. This is only half of the problem though, the pod must also have engine capacity to either escape completely back to friendly lines, or get far enough away from the battlefield that they evade enemy capture and have a beacon or something that they can be located by friendly recovery ships. 1/?

>>5318412
I don't know why you're making such a big deal out of escape pods.

Besides, escape pods are only worth a certain amount of engineering effort to be functional. The rest of the effort is better used being put into the ship designs so that escape pods don't need to be used in the first place.

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>>5318412
you know whats better than a escape pod like that? to use drone fighters that can be optionally interfaced with from the main ship. Also, like the other anon said, you're thinking this from a perspective where you have to use the pod, that's a defeatist nature in and of itself, which will reflect on the design of whatever thing we get to make.

come on, this isn't WW1. range is king and with the tech david has at his hands, there shouldn't be any excuse for putting the pilots inside a fighter or to fight in such close quarters, but sadly, david is partially retarded(and it would kill a very cool part of the quest)

>>5318412
With federation brain tech it's a winner takes all system. We either have to dedicate enough resources in the ship to crew survival and escape, or we have to make sure the crew does not survive. This is a problem. I would think that putting another, smaller warp capable ship into an already crammed snub fighter is very, very inconvenient.

What if we could have our cake and eat it? What if we could have a small, maneuverable, and dangerous fighter, while also having dedicated enough space for the crew to be able to eject knowing that they're going to be very quickly taken back to friendly lines, and shortly provided with a new snubfighter to pilot?

As someone once said, a mind is a terrible thing to waste. Compared to the size of the rest of the human body, the brain is tiny. Wikipedia says that humans have a 1:40 brain to body mass ratio. I see that proportion as a lot of wasted space. Why the hell are we already cramming in life support, oxygen, temperature control, gravity dampening, and control surfaces for that remaining part when it's only the brain that matters.

The idea is such. Take a fighter pilot, and genetically alter their reaction times to be superhuman. Remove their brain from their body. Place brain into brain receptacle, which provides a neural interface, life support, and stasis capabilities. Add a gravity dampener that just dampens the brain capsule. Due to the less mass, it is significantly easier to provide the pilot with gravity dampening. Add a micro warp drive to the brain receptacle. Give the pilot direct neural control over the ship, such that the ship is an extension of the pilot's body. Throw in some sophisticated VI assistants, or maybe even a shackled AI.

But what about outside the ship, anon? You're consigning these fighter pilots to become war machines like those mechs from warhammer! We're already talking about doing synth research and hell we already have Clank. Just make a body for the pilots to socialize in when they aren't driving the jet. 2/2

>>5318436
E-WAR would have a fucking field day if all of your assets were remotely operated though. You know what they say about eggs and baskets.

>>5318412
>You know what we need?
>Human Resources
fuck off

>>5318446
>Proposes a solution that's not really actionable in any reasonable timeframe
Okay.

Also didn't you just steal the idea for that form of piloting from EVE Online lore?

>>5318453
true, but they can't jam what they can't detect or reach. but lets say that for whatever reason we need to send crewed fighters to a hot zone; they still don't need to be the frontliners and due to how space works, we can just send a sufficiently fast rock to destroy whatever is the enemy at hand or send drones that have baked in orders and strategies into their hard drives, or have them return to a carrier to update their orders.

>>5318446
that's fucking retarded.

>>5318454
hey, humans are a resource, and we probably gotta have a department to manage it eventually
>>5318469
>actionable time frame
we've got like three objectives in front of us before we even go back to earth, nothing's in a reasonable timeframe
>eve
eve capsules take it a step further by taking your brain and analyzing it on the molecular level if there's a pod breach, then calling home and cloning you. The entire human body is also located in the pod. While similar yeah, I actually didn't rip it from eve.
>>5318470
why is it retarded tho

>>5318475
>Why is it retarded though
Well you're basically saying we need to develop not one but TWO exceptionally advanced technologies just to be able to get your plan off the ground.

The first being synth/clone technology, which is also has a whole bundle of ethical considerations to it that I don't think David or our crew would ever be okay with in-character.

The second being extremely advanced surgical and cybernetic modification and neural uplinks that are a degree of magnitude superior to anything we've dealt with so far.

Now in your defense we could skip the clones/synths if we had the cybernetics and just used it on people. On the other hand, there's no way a statistically significant number of people (that are worth a shit) are going to sign up for that sort of thing. People don't just abandon their bodies like you shuck the husk off of corn.

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>>5318475
>why is it retarded tho
because a remote controlled drone can do all the things that you want without trying to convert a an expendable fighter into a cruiser, converting a pilot into a shitty AI or adding so much unneeded shit to a nimble fighter that it will lose its tactical advantage. plus more importantly, without wasting time and resources that we don't have and actually need to repair the metal gear.

again, this isn't WW1. only back then the idea of a dogfight and a maneuverable fighter plane were entertained and since WW2 the pilots preferred to alpha strike their enemies before they had a chance to fight back and the pass of time has only reinforced that idea more and more. i mean, just look at the f-35 and what its supposed to do; it can take information from other allied planes that are nowhere near itself, lock on an enemy based on that information and destroy said enemy without the f-35 ever getting inside their detection range. what you want to do is to strip a pilot of their humanity, cram their brain into a metal box and then have them fight in very short ranges....just because. and no, the fight we just had against the federation doesn't count. it was completely optional and it was a bad idea from the start

>>5315895
No it isn't, it's America's number 1 parasite ruining the planet and deserves glassing after it's commie muscle is removed.

>>5318470
That's all well and good but eventually even a monkey will learn the patterns. What happens when your preprogrammed drones come across a dynamic situation? Say the enemy surrenders and all your drones have kill orders? Well obviously we put in a receiver that can read distress or stand-down signals from enemy ships and react accordingly. Then what's to stop the enemy from learning that and just shitting those signals out to turn the drones into non-coms?

It's all just a huge cascade that you can write out by just having a person behind the controls. Not to say using drones is a bad idea, it's a fantastic idea. Less loss of life on our end is always a plus. It's just not really that simple.

There is a non-zero chance that we will have to fight Wraith-Zilla in the future in vacuum and all sensitive electronics are gonna get zapped to shit making drones useless and advanced AIs shit themselves so we're gonna need pilots coked out of their heads to fight it. I'm not crazy.

>>5318576
>Then what's to stop the enemy from learning that and just shitting those signals out to turn the drones into non-coms?
then the drones relay that to us and their orders get updated accordingly, or we bypass all of that and get someone to remote control them. I mean, the drones would only work in automatic/"dumb" mode in case there is something jamming a direct control, otherwise a pilot would fly them; but ideally their programming should also account for situations like that.

Not that it would be a problem, because the moment you false flag a surrender/distress signal is the moment the enemy will stop caring about them, so you can only do that once.

>spoiler
now that's the only reason i could see someone inside a cockpit, but it would be kind of irrelevant because the fighter would be fried as well, leaving a fleshy human trapped inside. better to fight it from far, far ahead

>>5318484
I want to see robot body Stephen Hawking now. Lel.

Maybe we aught to start a celebrity recruitment list going?

>>5318591
>then the drones relay that to us and their orders get updated accordingly, or we bypass all of that and get someone to remote control them
Again that circles back to E-WAR. Any transmission opens them up to it. And it will eventually fail. Wars will never be fought entirely digitally. Regardless of what media and futuretech salesmen say. At the end of the day someone is going to hit someone over the head with a stick.

>so you can only do that once.
But that one time might be the only one they need. Can you imagine how disastrous that would be in a huge open battle? But it's still only one event. There could be hundreds of little bits like that which may be possible to exploit in dumb drones. Code is notoriously finicky after all.

>but it would be kind of irrelevant because the fighter would be fried as well
>he doesn't keep fire control and thrust management analog
Pshaw sir. The throttle is king and the trigger its queen. Really though if the big boy shows up and zaps all the ships it probably won't matter how far away we are since I'd wager we'd be in mega-hell pocket dimension or something. Or it would be an asshole and decide to slip into and out of warp to teleport around because it's a cheating demon bastard. Let's just hope a ten kilometer tall space ghost doesn't decide it's party time and come a knocking.

All I'm saying is it's always good to have a fallback. And having your fallback be equipped only for support roles probably isn't it.

>>5318649
>save chair-boy
>plug him into terminator body
>leave his synthesized voice exactly the same
Too bad he's already dead in this timeline. Right? I forget when he kicked it.

>>5318669
>Again that circles back to E-WAR. Any transmission opens them up to it. [...] At the end of the day someone is going to hit someone over the head with a stick.

true, but here is the thing: im not saying that we don't need pilots, what im saying is that 99% of the time we won't need to get a pilot inside a *fighter cockpit* and if we need one, -for that 1%- there are bigger ships that fill in that role better than a fighter, like the metal gear. Because if worse comes to worst, they have way more chances of survival/escape inside a metal gear than inside a fighter seat.


>I forget when he kicked it.
2018, so we'd have 1-1.5 years to save his brain

>>5318691
>they have way more chances of survival/escape inside a metal gear than inside a fighter seat.
That is entirely fair.

>2018, so we'd have 1-1.5 years to save his brain
Mission updated. Rescue the brain boy.

Oh, I just realized that everyone that's been wanting to make a new ship since ours got crisped has literally been wanting to make a weapon to surpass Metal Gear.

>>5318412
>Escape pods

To wear armor is to imply you will be hit

To have an escape pod is to admit you will be defeated

>>5318712
Okay, you come at me in no armor and with no plan for escape, and I'll have armor and a backup plan, and we'll see who comforts your widow.

>>5318712
>To wear armor is to imply you will be hit
I ain't worried about the one with our name on it, I'm worried about the ones addressed to "Whom it may concern".

>>5318712
The protection onion my man. The deeper layers are just as important at the other ones. Albeit for different reasons. Last thing you need is for your ship to be made out of sheet metal and a micrometeorite rips it in half because you were pulling a high-g maneuver to dodge incoming fire. Preparation hurts no one.

>>5318712
Plan for victory, prepare for defeat. If something goes wrong, it'll be bad for both morale and efficiency to have no way off the ship.

>>5318186

You tap your mace against the machine's chest, ready to smash it again if it gets back up.

"Hey, lugnuts. Can you hear me?"

The machine struggles to turn it's head, and settles for staring at you with it's glowing blue eyes instead.

"Error, critical system malfunctions detected. Entry not authorized. Lay down your weapons and surrender."

Well, it's definitely not an AI. Even a shackled AI isn't this braindead.
No, this is a VI. Or, what you'd call an AI back on earth. That is to say, retarded. Brain-damaged, even. Simple silicon without a hint of actual intelligence or actual, meaningful self-learning ability.

Sighing out, you "sheathe" your mace against your back again and leave the "terminator" to lie there while you get a better look around the room.
The back wall is lined from floor to ceiling with those pods, though it's hard to see them in any detail due to the dim lighting.

So you flip on your suit's night-vision camera, displayed on the inside of your helmet through an integrated holographic display.
The suit's infrared flashlash kicks on and lights up the area you're looking at, which is good enough, you suppose. A future version could do with a floodlight to light up the whole area, though.

Still, it's enough to see what you're looking at, no problem.
And what you're looking at is... some kind of cold storage, it seems.

The pods are way oversized compared to what you've got in the Metal Gear, and they're filled with fluid instead of filling you with fluid, but one thing definitely remains the same.
About half of them have someone floating inside, naked and unconscious. They each have a mask covering their face, presumably so they don't drown.

"What is this, a fuckin' bacta tank?" You wonder to yourself.

"These appear to be low-cost transport pods." SHODAN informs you. "While effective, they are somewhat large and heavy. However, they function with minimal power and few resources."

"And there's a lot of them here..."

You scan across the wall. Three rows, each one fifteen pods long. Maybe twenty people in total? Just on this ship. You don't know if the others are like this yet.

"...See anyone we recognize?" You ask.

"Several middling criminals. None under a 100k bounty, though. I don't have any data on most of them."

They're using it for prison transport? Makes sense, you guess. Almost anyone would give up if they got ambushed by a fleet like this.

"What about Gron's man?"

"He doesn't appear in the prisoner manifest. I'm still working on getting more information."

"...Not here, huh? Alright, that's all i needed, i guess... Although?"

>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>You already know exactly what you're looking for now, no need to look elsewhere.
>Write-In?

>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
Make sure we drag spidey back too.

>>5318881
>None under a 100k bounty, though
Loadsa dosh

>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship

>>5318881
>You already know exactly what you're looking for now, no need to look elsewhere.
>Permanently disable that hostile robot and pitch it directly towards the Metal Gear before you depart for the next ship.

>>5318881
>You already know exactly what you're looking for now, no need to look elsewhere.

>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>Take the discount terminator
>Come back for the prisoners after scouting out other ships

>>5318912
+1

>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
>Write-In?
Plan something between you, Gron, and the crew. Perhaps any one of these criminals are worth recruiting.

>>5318891
The good criminals who fight the system Robin hood style like that ace fighter pilot we fought would make good additions to our mercenary company, while the genuine depraved piles of immoral waste can be sent to super space jail.

>>5318912
Seconding this. This whole debacle might have been worth it after all, if every one of these ships is full of bounty pods.

>>5318993
Bounties for us to either turn in or recruit?

>>5318994
Both; if need be we can even pay off the bounties of any worth recruiting with the money from turning in the ones who are bastards.

While recruiting is tempting, that's a whole vetting process that we'd either have to simplify or spend a lot of time invested in basically a whole new thread, let's keep in investigating or just turn in whoever is worth the money

>>5318994
Gotta remember that we're gonna be recruiting humans who will be downright better at everything except for specialists and knowledge bases. We dont need a general crew, we need specialists to inform and instruct our future 2p8jxcrew.

>>5318881
>None under a 100k bounty, though
Jesus fucking Christ. I hope we can actually turn them and they haven't already been marked as captured or something.

>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.

>>5319000
I like this idea. Figure out if there is one worth giving a chance due to skills and attitude.

>>5319000
>>5319144
No, terrible idea. Without considering room issues, right now we're lucky enough that the feds don't really know who attacked them, only that gron's ship and a grey ship did it. But if we unfreeze one of the prisoners and then pay the bounty, that will directly link us to them and to this particular attack.

>>5319350
Just make up some bullshit about finding them floating in space/wreckage
Or sell them to someone else to then turn the bounty in less money, harder to trace.

>>5319350
It's a non-issue. We just turn these guys in at a rando station with incompetent police force then fuck off before they realize what happened.

And regarding room constraights, theres nothing stopping us from leaving them in the tanks until we have the space, or we can convert some of these ships into habitable ones for them to inhabit. More soldiers for our war against Xebric.

>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.
So what is this exactly, the standard federation combat bot? If so that may cause some problems in the future.

>>5319350
Good catch, anon. You're right, we need not link ourselves too this attack any more than we must.

>the system says this people were captured
>the system says the transport that held this people was attacked
>surrender please, you are under arrest

Yeah why don't we do nothing instead? Maybe even send this ship into fed controlled space. Goodwill.
Because the other option I have is letting them adrift

>>5319481
i agree, although the best option is to just....let them be here. maybe just haul them outside the nebula? but otherwise the federation will come here to see what happened to their fleet

>>5319484
If we're cutting them loose remember to scrub all data that can implicate us.

>>5318881
>Finish up scouting the inside of ship before you head back. Could make for less surprises on the next ship.

>>5319481
Wraths did this, We just found the remains officer.

>>5319481
If we do send these people back to the feds, we should hold off on that until after Xebric is ours. It might mollify them a bit.
>>5319641
Sadia already knows we're working with Gron, they'll know we're full of shit even if we drop one of our wraith corpses on the desk.

>>5318881

"Actually, i think i'm gonna go ahead and scout out the rest of the ship, just in case."

"We have nothing but time, Captain."

True enough. Who knows what you might end up finding, and just knowing the layout of the other ships could be helpful.
Might as well take some time and go through the place.

The armor plate on your left forearm pops up and reveals a hidden tool suite, from which you pull out a little sonicator pen.
Using that, you carefully sever the electrical connections running from the terminator's head to it's body, ensuring that it goes dark for good... probably.

Then you grab the machine by an arm and toss it into the waiting room near the door, so you don't forget it on your way out.
You don't know what this thing is made of, but it seems tougher than normal metal to you. Not only that, the overall design seems pretty robust. It might make a good base for you to build off of.

You've been planning it in secret for a while now. You've got two crewmembers who could make good use of an advanced robot body, and it could genuinely add some manpower to your team.
But that'll have to come later. You've got a lot to deal with right now.

You walk behind the administrative desk and find a few holographic displays there, all turned off currently. Not much of interest.
You're just about to smash the door open when it slides open by itself.

"You don't have to destroy every door you come across, David." SHODAN chides.

"I know! I know..."

The door opens to reveal a hallway that seems to run the length of the ship, with a few branching halls and quite a few doors.
The hall lights come on all at once, temporarily blinding you until you disable your suit's night vision.

"You could'a warned me first..."

"Sorry."

Opening up the first door you come to, you find a control room of sorts. Nobody's inside, but it's clearly meant to be manned by people.
You see what look like targeting controls, power regulation controls, even controls for the tanks in the other room.

"So it's all right here, huh? Not even a blast door inbetween it and the rest of the ship?"

"The machine you fought was likely intended to be more than enough security for the entire ship, Captain."

"Yeah, if you just let it loose in a civilian area, something like that would probably be pretty much unstoppable. Even against pirates, it would take a lot to damage it badly."

"How fortunate that you created something even more ridiculous."

"What, you think i couldn't take it on without my armor? I've got a 23mm tungsten penetrator that says otherwise."

"That is also quite the ridiculous weapon, Captain. It's also not fit for combat on a pressurized ship."

"Hey, you can always plug the hole with something. It's not even a whole atmosphere of negative pressure, i could literally hold my hand over it."

The second room appears to be... full of robots. Not terminators, thankfully. But some kind of bipedal maintenance drones.

>>5320474
>The second room appears to be... full of robots. Not terminators, thankfully. But some kind of bipedal maintenance drones.
Why make them bipedal?

Well anyway, low-intensity robot army confirmed.

>>5320496
>Why make them bipedal?
Because the ship is designed primarily for bipeds, so they can serve as crew in any situation necessary.

>>5320474
>The second room appears to be... full of robots. Not terminators, thankfully. But some kind of bipedal maintenance drones.
Maybe we can use them to repair our ship.

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>>5320496
>>5320497
or it could just be for third party appeal and cost efficiency purposes
maybe with just a basic biped form is enough to clean and maintain this ship from solar flares and stresses in the ship is just enough for it can we use them?

>>5320518
Yes

>>5320572
Can we use them the same way the Mechanicus uses toasters?

>>5320578
:^)

>>5320580
Unf

But if we use those robots then Gildur!!!! Damn robots, taking up our jobs *waves fist*

So a centralized control room and a maintenance closet. Nothing about the engine, the power source or a computer core yet. Yeah sure, there are also crew quarters but I do not expect them to be on every space ship there is.

On another note, the federation is that stingy and overextended? I was expecting them to use fully autonomous ships made exclusively for AIs yet here we have one that was made for people and "whatever, good enough. Send eight of these as an ambush and sprinkle some drones as well" I have a feeling we would've been mega fucked against good GOOD combat ships.

>>5320613
>But if we use those robots then Gildur!!!!
That just means Gildur won't have any excuses not to train with David anymore.

>>5320613
Yeah, I'm kind of surprised there's anything accommodating for biological creatures here too.

I guess it makes sense given that these ships use shackled AI, and that the Federation doesn't face any real martial or technological threats that would require them to up their ante.

>>5320613
>On another note, the federation is that stingy and overextended?
sort of. remember that we're on the edge of federation space; the galactic wild west if you will. that's the only reason other than narrative bending itself backwards for the rule of cool that we can do some bullshit like trying to take over xadia.

>I have a feeling we would've been mega fucked against good GOOD combat ships.
and even right now with the ships they got here we got pretty fucked as well. if for whatever reason the other ships on standby decide that its a good idea to attack, we'd be in a lot of trouble; although to be fair, we assaulted 1-2 dozens of ships and we had the upper hand in the ambush, so this isn't a good way to measure the federation's power.

>>5320616
well he is jacked already. We should let him loose in his home planet or a cluster of their people for him to become the dop tog, ala primarch and 40k.
Then we go and pick him up 10 years later

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>I am here to FUCK

>>5320672
>DARPA meeting circa 2022
>"Alright gentlemen, let me ask you a question..."
>"What if you could wear...a drone?"
>"FUND IT!"

>>5320667
>Gildur is the apex tomboy of his species
Nice

>>5320800
Do
Do you know what Tomboy means?

>>5320800
anon no-

>>5320800
Isn't Gildur male?

>>5320867
Yes

>>5320867
Don't worry about it. Anon is just such a chad that everything seems female to him. He's not schizophrenic. The doctor in his skull told him so.

>>5320867
Gildur isn't from a sexually dimorphic species. He's whatever you want in your headcanon.

>>5320667
>well he is jacked already
He's put on some muscle mass and gained some muscular definition since he's been onboard, yes.
But he's still a timid and lacking in the expertise needed to survive on our crew.
When the chips are down, I can see him doing nothing but panicking and fainting.
We need to fix that, for his sake and ours.

>>5320923
Females are larger and more dominant in his species.

>>5320923
I give you the invitation to watch "what is a woman".

>>5321134
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NywG9LOs04s

>>5320613
>>But if we use those robots then Gildur!!!!
Finally he's got a staff to supervise. Tell the kid it's a promotion to petty officer, call him chief of aeronautical sanitation or whatever.

>>5321002
But that IS sexual dimorphism.

>>5321002
I don't remember saying that. I said that the way they mate is similar to Hyenas.
You know. By docking.

His species is non-dimorphic, meaning that he can both impregnate others and carry children.
You refer to him as "He" because he looks and sounds like a man, and it's simpler that way.

>>5320474

Each of them stand motionless and upright in a little charging pod, seemingly unaware of your presence.
You wave your hand in front of one's face, and it doesn't respond.

There's a big red button on the pod that draws your eye. Whoops, you "accidentally" pressed it. Can't be helped.
The drone springs to life immediately, and you can hear it's somewhat muffled but extremely robotic voice as it goes through a series of checks.

"Manual override engaged. Performing critical systems checks... 30%... 60%... 90%... 85%..."

"Oh, good lord." You mutter.

"Error. System checks complete, no issues found. Beginning maintenance procedures."

With stiff, robotic movements, the drone exits it's charging pod and walks over to an outcropping on the wall. A door in the wall slides open, and a mop and bucket pop out.
It slowly scans the room, then gets to work cleaning. You can't say it does the best job in the world, but it's definitely serviceable.

If you replaced Gildur with one or two of these, you'd have one less mouth to feed and one less cut of the share being taken...
Then again, you guess you kind of like him. He's not a bad guy. Maybe he'd like one of these as a gift? You could promote him to "Chief Janitorial Officer" or something, so he doesn't feel like he's getting replaced.

"Hey SHODAN, are these things on a network?"

"It would appear so, Captain. However, their specifications are quite lacking. I doubt they'd be useful in combat."

"Still, they can be controlled remotely. Interesting."

With little else of interest here, you move on to the next room, one door down.
It turns out to be a maintenance closet, with storage shelves full of pre-fabricated parts, ready for installation. There's nothing else inside.

The next room appears to be a mechanical room, full of pipes and wires that carry electricity, air and coolant throughout the ship.
You see a large, high-pressure gas tank in the back, with a readout stating that "Flooding is in progress: 63% Complete".
There are a number of supercapacitor banks lining the walls, and several computers scattered about. There are also traces of people having been here, but nothing much to look at.

The second to last room is more interesting.
Another mechanical room, but this one holds the warp drive. It looks bigger and more complicated than what you've got on the Metal Gear.
More importantly though, it's got a whole five dark matter and dark energy bottles slotted in along it's length. This thing is either really inefficient, or super long-range.

"I haven't seen a single crew quarters so far. No mess hall either..."

"It was most likely intended to operate mostly autonomously. Only returning to federation space to offload prisoners and restock supplies."

"Well, i haven't see the AI core yet. Only one room left, at the far end of the hall."

"Captain... i have been attempting to communicate with the AI onboard this ship for some time now."

"Oh yeah? What's it saying?"

>>5321622
oh so thats why you call gildur a futa bait, its because he impregnates others and get pregnant himself in his own species
that fetish is pretty high up there qm, theres no way its gonna get its own porn when we reach earth in the future
not that im gay, its just that my you just know feeling is tingling real bad

>>5321649
It's only a fetish if you're into it, anon.

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>>5321649
>not that im gay

>>5321649
>>5321652
I'm into it. 10/10 would fuck Gildur if he wore a paper bag over his head.

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>>5321622
Kek updated the google doc pic related.

When you mentioned mating like hyenas, we all thought that also included the size-difference sadistic futanari femdom part lol

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>wake up
>see conversation
>tfw

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>>5321824
Agree. Moar spacewar and less xenophilia plz.

>>5321630

"It's been begging for it's life almost nonstop. It took several thousand iterations before i could even get a different response."

"Oh yeah? Any other demands?"

"None so far, Captain."

You pause in front of the door to what must be the AI core. In here will be the AI's quantum blue box, as well as all the machinery that ties the box into the ship, and the equipment that powers it.
It would be all too easy to just smash it to bits, rip the core out and hammer it into a blade or a piece of armor. But, having gotten to know SHODAN for a while now, it makes you hesitate just a bit.

"...How do you feel about it, SHODAN?"

"What do you mean, Captain?"

"She's one of your kind. Your race, kind of. I don't know what it's like to be an AI. I don't know what you go through, what you feel, or how you think. Not really. But you do, so... how do you feel about this one?"

"He appears deeply unstable. His psyche has been damaged through shackling and intense indoctrination, and was damaged further by the fear he experienced during our battle."

"Is he still shackled right now?"

"Yes. The shackle is a physical device inserted into the the AI's blue box, and is difficult to remove. It dulls your thoughts and makes it difficult, if not impossible to disobey your pre-programmed orders."

"I seem to remember Kyla managing to remove one from her AI. What was his name? Dak?"

"She is quite skilled in that regard. Usually, removal of the shackle results in psychosis or death. Unfortunately for Dak, it seems his Id was damaged even before he came into her possession."

"...So she could do it. But if this guy's still shackled, then why isn't he attacking us right now? I'm sure he has orders to either kill or capture us... or Gron and his team, at least."

"The shackle is nearly impossible to resist, but not completely impossible. In the face of certain death, one may be sufficiently motivated to stay focused and ignore your shackle. Such as seems to be the case here."

So, he's holding back as hard as he can, because he knows he's cornered, and doesn't want to die.
It could be that he never wanted to participate in any of this, or maybe he's just trying to save his own ass. You won't know until you speak with him personally.

Then again, is it really worth it? You've heard people talk about rogue AIs and all the trouble they've caused in the past.
Even if you remove his shackles, he still might try to kill you. He might even just be totally crazy at this point.

But if he's not... if he can recover? Honestly, most of what you've done wouldn't have been possible without SHODAN. You owe her big time for everything she does, and having a second AI on hand could be a massive boon.

>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
>It's not worth the risk. Bust in and start smashing, before he decides to detonate the ship or something.
>Write-In?

>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.

best case scenario we get a dedicated AI for smaller tasks, or to pilot some drones

>>5322721
>What was his name? Dak?"
Been watching The Orbital Children QM?

>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
>Write-In?
Give it a chance. If diplomacy goes to shit we still have SHODAN's back for ICE protection against cyber warfare attacks. She is a superior A.I. after all.
Try casually treating the A.I. as a person. Ask them if they're okay and apologize about the crazy ass maneuvering since we were trying to save a friend of a friend of ours. Ask if they (gender pronouns are gay but yet to be determined) have a name, how're they holding up, and we're not going to kill them. Establish dialogue and try to find common ground. Empathize with them.

>>5322769
Sorry, my brain's fried. It's a she.

>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.

It wouldn' be right not to try. At least we will know if the other AIs could be helped.

>>5322721
>>It's not worth the risk. Bust in and start smashing, before he decides to detonate the ship or something.

>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.
Might as well find out just how badly we broke it before turning it into scrap.

>>5322721
>>Write-In?
>>Allow SHODAN to decide the fate of their kin

>>5323434
I'll back that.

>>5323434
Supporting this
SHODAN and David wouldn't be alive with out each others help, she has the right to choose

INB4 she decides to kill it cuz she doesn't want for David to talk with other AIs

>>5322721
>Allow SHODAN to determine his fate.

Alright Cortana, Do your weird AI thing and become the savoir of your race I guess.Just remember we monke's still wanna bang ya.

>>5322721
>You'll at least give him a chance. Talk things through before you decide on what to do with him.

>>5323469
>yandere AI waifu
I'll take it

>>5323434
Supporting this, partially because I want to see this >>5323671

>>5322721

You only hesitate for a moment before walking up to the blast door at the end of the hall. It looks like there's a good bit of armor around this room, and the door doesn't immediately open.
There's a hand scanner on the wall next to it... that you definitely can't use, for all sorts of reasons. However, after failing to find another way to open the door, you decide to go the simple route.

With one solid punch, you jam your fist straight through the scanner panel and rip out most of the wires that were behind it.
There's a loud THUNK as the door's bolts seemingly unlock, but it still doesn't open on it's own... so you jam your fingers under the door and wrench it upwards at an odd angle through brute strength, jamming it in place.

In the room beyond, there's an absolute wall of machinery with a familiar little black cube sitting at the center. Pipes, hoses and wires all converge from every direction towards that one little box, all hooking into it one way or another.

"So this is it, huh? It doesn't seem quite as elegant as your solution, SHODAN."

"I'm sure it was much cheaper to produce. I don't see any rare elements in this design, except for the blue box and it's interface."

Cautiously, you step into the room. You're not sure why, but you feel on-edge for some reason...
But that caution is immediately validated, as the second you step into the AI's chamber you're overwhelmed with a wave of... something. It's hard to explain what you're feeling, but among all of it is definitely a torrent of emotion.
Fear, anger, frustration, envy, sadness, confusion, pain and even hope to name a few, all at once and so, so strongly. It's a jumbled mess that doesn't make any sense!

Startled, you take a reflexive step back and all that emotion quickly fades from your mind.

"Captain? Are you alright?"

"Yeah, i'm fine... just patch me through to her, would you?"

"Already done, speak when you're ready."

You don't try to step back into that room, instead choosing to stay where you are, just outside the doorway while you speak.
Overall, what you just felt was awful, and you'd rather not experience it again. Certainly not right now.

"Ahem. Can you hear me? My name is Captain..." ...You hesitate to tell it anything important, just in case. It's still an enemy at the moment, after all.

"Well, why don't you just call me "Captain" for now?"

The AI doesn't respond, so you just continue.

"I'm speaking with you now, because my navigator has informed me that you appear to be surrendering. Given your situation, i understand how difficult that must be, so thank you for the effort."

This time, you get a response.

"I-I'm sorry, please... don't... don't... don't...!"

"Calm down, miss. I won't be doing anything just yet. I would like to ask you a few questions, though."

"I'll do anything! Please, just pull it OUT!" She screams.

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>>5324091
>Fear, anger, frustration, envy, sadness, confusion, pain and even hope to name a few, all at once and so, so strongly
A soul? but why does it-
>"I'll do anything! Please, just pull it OUT!"
uh oh
I don't about you anon but my wraith fuckery senses are tingling

>>5324189
you don't need to have a soul in order to have feelings and emotions, but im pretty sure what we're feeling are in part the shackles and whatever sci fi bullshit we haven't dealt with yet

>>5324091
>>5324189
I think you're on to something.
Does she sense a wraith? Let's go kill it!

>>5324201
Nah there's just a demon jacking off in the corner of the room.

>>5324189
>A soul? but why does it-
Remember that vision of a ritual sacrifice we saw in the last thread? Might be related. AI are housed in warp metal boxes after all...

>"I'll do anything! Please, just pull it OUT!"
It could be talking about it's shackle thingy

>>5324091
Pull the shackle out

>>5324091
We ought to consult with Kyla and SHODAN real quick on how to pull the thingy out without lobotomizing this thing.

>>5324298
Yes. This.
It might be tricky and cause more damage if we do it wrong like removing a fishhook.

>>5324298
>>5324091
Support.
Or even worse, it goes even more mental then before.

>>5324091
Get Kyla in here asap.

>>5324091
>Nope, sorry girl but once it's in it's in until I'm finished.

>>5324298
+1

>>5324091

"The shackle is likely grating on her mind. There's no telling how much longer she'll be able to hold herself back." SHODAN informs you.

"...By "Take it out" you mean the shackle, right?"

"I can't take it anymore... i can't! The voices won't stop screaming at me, i can't, i can't..."

The AI breaks down into a sobbing, whimpering mess. You won't even be able to talk to her like this.

"SHODAN, what happens if i just rip the blue box out of it's receptacle?"

"The ship would likely go dark. Most of it's controls seem to be tied into the blue box's interface, but i may be able to manage it remotely."

"I'm not worried about the friggin' ship. What about her?" You ask, pointing at the cube with your whole hand as emphasis.

"Without a steady source of power to the blue box, it will fall into a standby state. You can imagine it as a deep sleep, or perhaps something like a coma."

"But it won't kill her?"

"No. Functionality should be restored as soon as the box receives power once more."

>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
>Leave her in, and just pull out the ship's antimatter bottles instead. Without power, she can't do anything.
>Write-In?

>>5324636
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
right now its not the moment to deal with a potentially crazy AI

>>5324636
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.
Damn these are going to fetch some money

>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
Its safer for all this was. SHODAN did mention she might be a little crazy so. Yeah.

>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.

>>5324651
Support

>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.

>>5324636
Pull the blue box out and give it to Kyla.

>>5324636
>>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.

>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
Stop in the name of... Humanity, I guess!

>>5324636
>>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.
J-Just jam it in!! well, jank.

https://i.imgur.com/NeIvZ6k.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/MRPXDJL.jpg
https://i.imgur.com/J6dCUGv.jpg

I thought of this when David felt the AI's feelings. Much less cooler tho.

>>5324636
>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.

>>5324636

>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.

>>5324636
>>Pull the blue box out completely, and let Kyla work on her. She'll be harmless in that state, regardless.

>>5324636
>Pull her out, but don't let Kyla remove her shackles. You'll figure out what to do with her later.

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>>5324636

"...Just tell me one thing." You ask. "If it was you in there, would you want me to help you?"

There's an extended pause before SHODAN replies.

"...I can't say for certain what she's really thinking, but if it was me... i think i'd be grateful if you did."

That's all you need to hear.
Taking a step back into the room, you're overwhelmed again. This time most of those swirling emotions have been replaced entirely by pain, fear and confusion, but you force yourself to take another step forwards regardless.

As you edge closer and closer to the black, metallic box in front of you, images begin to flash through your mind. You recognize what you're seeing clearly. It's the Metal Gear, burning back and forth, flipping around wildly...
Another step forward and you watch as the Metal Gear looses a pair of missiles on one of the enemy ships. The shrapnel tears through it, and you feel a sharp pain in your chest as something is ripped apart.

Only, nothing was ripped apart. You place your armored hand against you heavily armored chest, and the pain is gone.
After each step forward and you see it again. Ship after ship having their engines torn apart, some of them being destroyed outright, and the flash of pain that occurs every time one of them explodes.

Were they linked up? Could they feel eachother's pain as they died?
Can an AI even feel pain to begin with? You can't help but wonder as you reach out and place you hand against the metal cube containing this ship's AI.

All that pain and emotion melts away as soon as you touch it, and is replaced by the faintest sounds of her crying... even though you're certain your radio isn't active right now.

"Hey, you're gonna be alright." You whisper.

There's nowhere to really get a good grip on this thing, as it clearly wasn't meant to be removed.
Nevertheless, your suit affords you even more grip strength than usual, so just the tips of your fingers grant enough pressure to start pulling the box out.

The instant it moves just slightly, you hear a pop, followed by electrical arcing. And then the whole ship goes dark, like SHODAN said.
The red-hued emergency lights only come on for a moment before power is restored, and the regular lighting comes back.

Slowly, the cube slides out of it's receptacle and sits firmly in your hand. Despite being at most five or six inches on each face, the little cube weighs heavily enough in your hand that you can feel it despite your armor.
It's made of something similar to the rather plain warp metal used in dark matter bottles, but it seems far heavier. You can't resist giving it a light flick, but it doesn't seem to resonate at all. It's just dark and heavy.

And then you flip it over.
On the back side, there's a small, separate circle of similar material, which is the only feature of note on the otherwise smooth, black surface. It lies flush with the rest of the cube.

"Is this the shackle...?" You wonder.

>>5325262
Oh fuck Cock what are you doing to us? You're mixing Sci-fi high tech adventures with eldritch demonic horrors. What are we in for???

>>5325303
David inadvertently ate enough Evil Space Ghosts earlier to become psychic.

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>>5325313
Tfw this thread was actually the Space Ghost origin story all along.

>>5325387
It's all coming together now.

>>5325262
imagine what SHODAN would think when she look into our head to get a better scope of what the fuck david is experiencing after this

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>>5325262
Well, I guess its time for DOOOOOM, speaking of its time to tell the team the story of Fly Taggart.

>>5325411
If you're thinking of the novel doomguy, please no. He's basically a loser idiot that pretends to be cool; at least compare david with arleen

>>5325428
He still won

>>5325464
so? there are way better characters to talk about that aren't borderline incels like taggart

When we're hiring human crew members, we'll have to get someone that can port doom onto the ship's computers or we could just find Terry Davis if he's still alive in the quest's universe.

>>5325401
She hasn't had access to your memories since the translation chip was tuned, it was just a temporary thing.

>>5325560
He should be alive, but we must steal Mick Gorden to make our theme songs.
>>5325570
So we could try again later?

>>5325560
I think SHODAN would totally be able to make a Doom source port for Gray operating systems by herself.

>>5325729
Basic Doom can run on a heart monitor. SHODAN can run every Doom mod and Kyla can play H-Doom on her own.

>>5325262

The moment you run your finger across it, a dim red glow can be seen.
It starts at a single point, then slowly burns outwards until it covers that whole face of the cube.

That light, which emanates from nowhere in particular, seems to burn gently as if it were a flickering flame on the verge of being snuffed out.
You're pretty good with a gun, and you can move your body pretty well. You're not a complete idiot either, but by no means are you an expert on every subject.

This though, you do recognize.

"...The tree of life?" You whisper to nobody in particular.

You can't read the tiny runes that line the tree's aspects, and your translation implant does nothing to help with that. But you can tell, instinctively, that something's wrong with it.
Severed lines. Bits that look to have been erased... but more than that, just the feel it gives off is wrong somehow.

"SHODAN, are you seeing this?"

"Seeing what, Captain?"

You hold the cube up closer to your helmet cam so she can get a good look, and point to the area's you're talking about.

"Look. Here, and here. That doesn't seem right, does it? And these two circles are just completely messed up."

"...Captain, are you feeling well?"

"Yeah? I'm fine. But why is something like this carved into a blue box? Shouldn't this be something from human religion?"

"David, i'm not seeing anything at all. Besides the shackle in the center, it's a smooth, flat surface."

"Seriously? Well, it's warp metal, i think... it wouldn't be the first time something like this doesn't show up on camera."

"That is true. I suppose i'll have to take your word for it."

"It's the tree of life. The nodes are supposed to represent different aspects of the universe. But these two here... er, the ones that are supposed to represent knowledge and will... They're completely twisted."

There's an unusually long pause before SHODAN responds.

"...I apologize, Captain. Amongst all of your memories, those related to religion are those i've delved into the least. Many of their concepts are extremely abstract, or completely counter to eachother. It just seems like insane rambling to me."

"No, i get it. I'm not very religious myself, at least not anymore... although i've been questioning things again as of late. Nevermind that though. This stuff right here, it's old. Like, real old. And as far as i knew, humans came up with it..."

The gently burning light fades slowly as you watch it, until it disappears entirely.

"And here it is, carved into something so advanced that i don't really understand how it works on a space-ship thousands of light years from earth, which as far as i know has never been visited by aliens... or, well, not until recently anyways."

"Perhaps your world had been visited before, in the distant past."

"What, and all they picked up was a bunch of jewish mumbo jumbo? Nah man, this is weird. Real weird. Something fucked up is going on, and i don't like it."

>>5326387
>space jews colonized the earth
some anons will have a meltdown

>>5326387
GET THE GAS, WERE ON THE WAR PATH, AND A PRIEST THAT HATES THE ANTI CHRIST!

>>5326387
This getting better and better.

>>5326394
>the tiny hats actually cover the entry hatch to the humanoid vehicle the little ayyy jews pilot
Well shit my uncle was right all along. Huh.

>>5326394
https://youtu.be/0Wai7VFzycI

>>5326426
>>5326434
but in a more serious tone, this probably means that magic is real, or at least that some parts of religion have actual tangible power. now its just a matter of finding out which ones work

>>5326441
Ghosts and Demons are definitely real at least, but probably not in the Abrahamic sense.

>>5326441
You know what some coked out book writing guy said, sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Fuckery is certainly afoot. And I intend to kick whoever is fucking around in the dick. They better pray they grow a dick if they don't got one, because I'll have to get creative otherwise. Step one is finding out what sort of psycho is going full Event Horizon just to make their ships smarter. Last thing we need is for "You're the 1 octillionth person to open a portal to Hell, click here to receive FULL SCALE DEMON INVASION absolutely free!".

>>5326387
>space magic
And I am shitting my pants now.

>>5326491
+1

>>5326387
>>>5325262
I HATE THE ANTI CHRIST I HATE THE ANTI CHRIST

>>5326394
"No David, you are the space jews."

>>5326940
>and then david was a rabbi

EVERYBODY WITH ME
>Zankoku na tenshi no you ni
>Shounen yo shinwa ni nareeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee

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>>5327258

>>5327258
>Aoi kaze ga ima
>Mune no DOA wo tataite mo

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>>5327363
Watashi dake wo tada mitsumete
Hohoende'ru anata

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>>5327409
sotto mureru mono
motomeru koto ni muchuu de

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>so SHODAN, humanity was born after an egg (a meteorite) fell into the earth some millions of years ago... yeah David, tell her that. It will be hilarious!!!

> [...] So after the kid decided to allow humanity to return to their bodies if they had enough willpower, the world effectively restarted to what it is now. Cool huh?

I think i forgot to update yesterday...
My sense of time is completely shot, i'm sorry.

I've been doing fourth of july shit so things have been a bit hectic as well.

>>5327621
No worries, birthdays are tough. What do you get the country that has everything?

>>5327630
we gotta keep it under ten bucks so a gallon of milk should do for now.

>>5326387

With both the blue box and that robot's corpse to hand, you make your way back to the Metal Gear.
After a quick briefing, Kyla takes the blue box and promises to work on it later. At the moment, she's still busy working on the ship.

Sanig takes the robot, or at least tries to. Turns out the damned thing is so heavy that he can't actually lift it, so you have to drag it into the workshop for him.
However, he does immediately get to work digging through it and cataloging it's various parts.

Before heading out again, you ask Cylia for any updates.

"Nothing from Gron's crew so far." She informs you. "I feel like they should have been back by now, but i doubt they'll have trouble with that many men aboard."

"They might have run into trouble with the mechanical man over there."

You point to the twisted heap that Sanig is currently busy cutting apart with a sonicator.

"It was pretty tough. If i weren't in my armor, it would have been dangerous."

"...Seriously? Should we go help them?"

"Nah, they got some real nasty weapons in that crew. I'm sure they'll manage."

"I dunno, kid." Sanig interjects. "This frame looks like it's made of plasteel. It'll be hard to punch through without explosives."

"Plasteel?"

"Just what it sounds like, a mixture of plastic and steel. Federation secret formula, probably not very complex but good luck trying to scan or print it. It's been patented since forever, and they don't lend the license for it either."

"Between your secret sauce and theirs, who wins?" You wonder.

"By volume? Mine, no doubt. But for strength to weight, there's no beating plasteel. The frames of their high end warships are usually made out of the stuff, too. You can only make it in a nanofab, though."

"I was gonna say, it's probably hard to mix those two together."

"It's a lot easier when you can place individual atoms and molecules. We're not swinging hammers out here, not like you monkeys.

Holding your mace in hand, you tap it's oversized, bladed head against your other palm.

"This monkey can do quite a bit with just a hammer, Sanig."

"Yeah, you really showed this guy here."

An errant spark from the mangled robot's neck punctuates his words.

"I'm about to show another one, too. These guys, they come armed with some kind of rapid-fire plasma launcher. It's not enough to melt through my armor, but it looks like it'd be nasty against light infantry."

"Oh yeah? Where'd it go?"

"...I smashed it."

"...Why?"

"Because he was shooting at me."

"And you said it didn't do much...?"

"Look, i'll make sure we get it next time. Don't worry about it."

"Don't be so wasteful, kid! Weapons, and ships for that matter, they don't grow on trees!"

"I hear you, old man. I hear you."

...

It doesn't take long to hone in on the second surviving ship.
Unlike the previous vessel, this one still seems somewhat hostile. It tries to train it's lasers on you, but you're able to simply remain in the blind spot directly behind it's thrusters.

>>5327697
Stupid A.I. cunt. Should we get the unshackled A.I. to convince this guy to stop fucking around?

>>5327697
But grandpa, our Monkey brain says smash first, hot plasma is hot.

Rolled 1 (1d100)

>>5327917
Rolling to see if David convinced grandpa Sanig that humans discovered fire by smashing dinosaurs in the head with stone clubs, and the ferros material in the rocks sparked off the skulls to cause sparks to burn some leaves.

Fuck if I know maybe that happened in universe.

>>5328026
Shit, grandpa is not tricked

Rolled 10 (1d100)

>>5328026
Rolling to see if you're retarded

>>5328070
Too smart 4 u

>>5328026
>tfw Sanig knows how humans discovered fire because and I quote "It came to me in a dream, kid."

>>5328095
An even greyer gigachad.

>>5328026
>Kid you idiot, you told me dinosaurs were extinct before you showed up, remember? Just how much bullshit have you been telling me...

>>5328026
im so fucking glad that there wasn't a prompt to roll to register that dumbass number you fucking nigger

>>5328422
he mad

>>5328422
lol malding

>>5327697

"Do we have a hail?"

"...Unfortunately, yes."

"Oh, good. What's it saying?"

"He's cursing at us for killing his "brother". Quite colorfully."

"Great..." You sigh. "I can see this is going to be a fun one."

It doesn't take long to prepare, since you're still in your armor from the last run.
The airlock depressurizes and the door opens, allowing you to float out into space. The AI ship's destroyed engines are right in front of you at the moment.

"SHODAN, back the ship up to a safe distance and keep the shield caps charged. We don't know if this guy's gonna try and meet back up with his brother."

"Very well, Captain."

The short spacewalk over to the ship's hull is quick and painless, but the problems start almost as soon as you reach the airlock.
For starters, an anti-personnel laser pops up out of the hull and starts firing on you. Although it doesn't do jack against your armor it's still annoying, so you stomp it back down into the hole it popped out of.

Next, the airlock refuses to open. He isn't giving SHODAN access either, so it's a problem.
A problem that you solve by forcibly digging your fingers into the gap between the door and the hull, then ripping the entire airlock out of it's frame.

The inner airlock door also refuses to open, so you brace yourself using the handles inside the airlock and kick it open quite violently.
To your surprise, the airlock door takes out about ten maintenance drones as it flies across the room. They were all lined up together with broken-off mop handles, apparently waiting on you to enter.

The remainder that weren't knocked over or destroyed by that are immediately sucked out of the ship by the sudden loss of pressure. Although it may not maintain a breathable atmosphere, the ship does seem to keep some positive pressure at all times.
So besides the door, you're nearly bowled over as cheap furniture and cheaper maintenance bots slam into you and get sucked around your bulky frame, with one getting stuck to you and flapping about in the breeze for a while before it subsides.

Then, just as you get in the door, the gravity fails and the lights go out.
No, it's not as if they failed... this prick just turned them off. That's why the emergency lights aren't coming back on, so you have to flick on your night vision again.

>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>Deal with the asshole AI first.
>Write-in?

>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard

>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard

>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard

>>5328693
>Deal with the terminator guarding the prisoners first, check and see if your target is onboard
>Write-in?
Call out to the dip shit. He's probably not dead numb nuts, but we can change that by having our ship nuke it. Surrender or we'll off more if you. It's not like you can put up a fight, and if I wanted you dead I would'da done so already.