>>6091170

"So should we start killing them n-GHHHHK!"

Ronnie speaks up again, resulting in SHODAN shocking the shit out of him.
His knees nearly buckled from that, but he still didn't go down. Surprisingly tough little bastard, that one is... if none too bright.

"You can chill on that, SHODAN. It's fine, i was just having a moment." You order.

"Very well, Captain."

"Thank... you..." Ronnie rasps, rubbing his throat.

You sigh. Not because of Ronnie, but because of what he asked.
Honestly, you're just not sure whether you should wipe this nest out or not.

From what you've seen, these ant-like insects haven't been doing anything too particularly harmful... besides stealing food, naturally.

What they have been doing however, is cleaning up corpses, tending to the plants in the hydroponic basins and even cleaning up the sewers by eating waste, apparently.

With a lot of the stations systems offline and few hands to do the usual work, that could be a bigger help than a hindrance.
Naturally the guards are a problem, but what if you got rid of them all and just left the relatively docile workers behind?

You can easily envision a future where you intentionally incubate only certain eggs, or find a way to force them all to grow up as workers instead of guards.

At that point, these insects would just be free labor.

But the state of the eggs in this clarifying tank worry you a bit.
There are a lot of defective eggs, whether it's the egg sac itself, the larvae inside or the lack thereof.

Something is clearly wrong with the "ant queen" that's resulting in a large number, at least 80%, of birth defects.

However, there are still clearly plenty of non-defective ants being born, since the surface is swarming with them up above.
Red should be taking care of that issue as we speak, but you want to give him some time to clear them out... it's a little bit dangerous to go topside right now.

With nothing else to do at the moment, you suppose you could defer passing judgement until you find the "ant queen" and see what's wrong with her...
But then, it may be impossible to get close to her, as she'll probably be under heavy guard.

You discovered this earlier, but the largest of the guards have a thick exoskeleton capable of deflecting gyro-rounds at point blank range.
Judging by the damage the shells had, you think it was still close to penetrating, though. Even a little more distance and it would have gone through.

The problem is, the queen is probably in a tunnel somewhere, so you won't have that kind of range. You'll be stuck using melee, which is fine for you and SHODAN, but...

You turn to glance at Ronnie, who's currently poking at one of the eggs glued to the outside of the tank.
...Yeah, he can't really fight these things hand to hand. He's still got that folding knife you gave him, you think, but that's all.

He probably doesn't even have the strength to pierce their shells.

>>6091171

>Destroy the eggs. You have no interest in taming a bunch of giant bugs.
>Spare the eggs. You think these insects could serve as a functional workforce.
>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.
>Write-In?

>>6091172
>>Spare the eggs. You think these insects could serve as a functional workforce.
We can get a better look at big mama some other time. For now, we got what we came for and then some. Let's start heading home.

>>6091172
>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.

>>6091172
>>Destroy the eggs. You have no interest in taming a bunch of giant bugs.
The queen can always lay more, we better cull 'em now because we haven't learned enough about their biology

>>6091172
>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.

>>6091172
>>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.

Slip a beacon on a few of the eggs incase they try to move the nest.

>>6091172
>>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.
These bugs are a result of redsang mutation, right? $20 bucks says the "queen" either is or used to be a sentient insectoid species and that this is the scuffed result of said redsang mutation. Maybe it doesn't work right on insectoids, which is why the bugs seem mostly fine except for the birth defects that don't seem to reach beyond the eggs.

>>6091172
>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.

Back to David... I fear for Ronnie's life.

>>6091172
>Hold off on making any decisions, you want to try and find this queen first. Something ain't right with her.
worst case scenario, we have to find a new queen....which sounds hard, but if these insects work like bees and ants, there should be several newborn queens around here

>>6091172
>Destroy the eggs. You have no interest in taming a bunch of giant bugs.

Besides, we have the droid force to manage labour

>>6091466
droids require a population and an AI to control them. in theory the mutant ants would need none of that, except territorial markers and their share of food

>>6091172
>Spare the eggs. You think these insects could serve as a functional workforce.
Worst case scenario we could keep them as livestock.

>>6091172

You decide to hold off on making any rash decisions until after you've gotten a good look at the queen.
Naturally you'll need the queen to lay eggs if you want to use the insects as a labor force, but if she's too fucked up to do that, it's a moot point.

Regardless, these eggs may or may not be useful in the future, and you know exactly where they are, so it's not like you can't come and grab them... or burn them... later.

"...I think we're gonna leave the eggs alone for now. I've got an idea or two rollin' around in my noggin, and we might need 'em later. Just depends."

"On what?" Ronnie asks.

"Whether or not the queen laying these things is tenable. It might be too late for her, in which case there's no point keeping them."

Ronnie squints at you in confusion.

"Look, don't worry about it and just follow me, numbnuts."

"Yes sir..."

You form a line with Ronnie in the middle and SHODAN at the back and head back down the tunnel. If anything ambushes you, it shouldn't get to him first.
Probably. Unless there's like, a giant spider hiding in a tunnel on the ceiling or something.

You doubt it, but who knows. These things are like ants with wings and scorpion tails, who's to say there couldn't be a giant spider?
Maybe it shoots acid from it's asshole! Sky's the limit when you have unlimited access to genetic modification and absolutely no morals.

...Maybe you should get in contact with the greys after all. You do know about that one outpost.

"...Why is he mumbling to himself?" Ronnie whispers to SHODAN, rather loudly.

"Captain Rockefeller's mind is quite busy most of the time. He's thinking to himself right now, which is to the benefit of yourself and the station." She explains.

"Are you sure he's not just crazy?"

SHODAN doesn't respond.
You can almost feel her grinning.

"Haha, very funny. You know i have issues." You grumble.

Lots of issues, actually. More and more after you got out into space as well.
At least you've been dealing with some of them. Kind of.

Having Cylia around has been good for you.

But the wraiths have done nothing but damage. And since AIs are kind of close in proximity, you're not sure how good it is for you to be interacting with them all that much either.
You'll do it, of course. You have to make use of them if you want to keep shit running, there's just no other way.

But everything has it's costs, you suppose.

...Something's coming.
You stop suddenly and listen, causing Ronnie to run into your back and complain.

You hush him.

...Clattering legs, chitin against concrete. Bigger this time, much bigger than the little ones carrying the eggs, those are the size of a dog at most.
But these tunnels are barely big enough for Ronnie, who's a little taller than you are, to stand up in. It can't be one of those big fuckers.

So one of the flying ones.

>>6091792

>Go in with your knife and cut it apart. Ronnie got poked by one's stinger quite a bit and was fine, so it won't go through your armor.
>Send Ronnie in with your knife, make him cut it apart. You want to see what he can do in close combat.
>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.
>Write-In?

>>6091470
We have unoccupied AIs like the Caithan and the silent traumatised woman. Then we have VIs that can be spun up and hand off activities for absolutely repetitive things like cycling atmosphere/heating.

The only wrinkle I see is manufacturing things with the DRM shutting the station fabs down.

>>6091793
>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.

I want to test flamethrower mode on the sprayer so much, but seems like the sprayer is cooked already from Ronnie's mad escape

>>6091793
>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.

Also Ronnie being slightly taller than David is a trip. In my head, Ronnie's like a head shorter, but I guess it makes sense if he grew up in microgravity.

>>6091793
>Go in with your knife and cut it apart. Ronnie got poked by one's stinger quite a bit and was fine, so it won't go through your armor.
Guys let's keep our stealth advantage for as long as we can.

>>6091793
>>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.

>>6091793
>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.

>>6091793
>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.

If the gyrojet misses the target (blind-firing) is going to keep going until it hits something.
Considering where we are, that "something" could very well be important
>rules of firearm safety

>>6091793
>>It hasn't come around the bend in the tunnel yet. ...You could do a sick trick with the gyrojet rifle right now.
>Ronnie, I told you not to think because you aren't familiar with being hunted. Observe now, and see what prey that can outsmart its hunter, is capable of

>>6091793
>Go in with your knife and cut it apart. Ronnie got poked by one's stinger quite a bit and was fine, so it won't go through your armor.

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>>6091792

It occurs to you that the tunnel you're in consists entirely of smoothly sloping curves.
That being the case, and if this bug is one of the flying ones, it'd just about take up the whole tunnel... you could pull off a sick trick right now.

You bring your gyro-rifle up to your hip and hold down the trigger.

As it fires, you gently sweep it up and down the side wall off the tunnel, and watch as the gyrojet rockets slide along it, following the curve of the tunnel and leaving trails of fine concrete dust and a skidmark on the wall.
That's followed up shortly by the sound of shrieking from further up the tunnel. Looks like your little trick worked out.

"What the hell was that?!" Ronnie yells.

"What did you shoot?! I didn't see anything!"

You wave for him to follow you, and around the next corner, about twenty feet up the tunnel, you find a twitching flyer bleeding out on the ground.
It flails violently as it tried to get back to it's feet. All your shots landed on the left side of it's body, damaging it's legs...

"Holy shit." Ronnie exclaims. "How did you do that?'

He looks down at his own gryo-rifle, looking for some switch or function on the sight that allows him to shoot around corners.

"I saw it on the internet one time. Turns out it works pretty well, huh? Hell, even better than that fuckin' cornershot." You shrug.

"Only in this particular circumstance, Captain." SHODAN says, poking you in the side.

"Well, good thing we happen to be in it, then."

You fire three more rounds straight through the insect's head and into it's body from a distance, ensuring they dig deep inside and burn the wound channel as they continue to fire.
That quickly silences the bug, but then you end up having to drag it all the way back to the clarifying room before continuing, because there was no room to squeeze around it in the tunnel.

It was a pain in the ass, but that's what Ronnie and SHODAN are for.
SHODAN don't get tired, and Ronnie can just deal with it.

Still, that took you about ten minutes, and by the time you're back to where you were, the sounds of fighting from up above have disappeared.

"You all done up there, Red?" You call in over the radio.

["Ahhhh.... eyup, just about, i reckon."] He replies, a few moments later.

"Armor give you any trouble?'

["Shit, naw! Hell, i almost feel like i'm twenty-five again!"]

"Yeah, you caused about that much damage at that age."

["Man this shit's fuckin' crazy, where the hell'd you get something like this? I didn't have to verify my e-mail or nothing, that shit just worked!"]

"Ah well, believe or not, it's a house special. You can thank the whole crew for helping to develop that one."

["I might just have to do that."]

You hear the sound of crunching exoskeleton, followed by insane, joyous laughter.
It might be a good idea to get Red his own Mk-1 suit, you get a feeling he's gonna want to borrow yours.

On the topic of parts shortage due to fabs shutting down on the station.
How much easier or harder it would be to write our own software for fabricators? Just nuke the crappy DRM ridden shit they have and install our homebrew spagetti.
Are there any tech-savvy aliens that we could recruit for this, and maybe unfreeze our human passengers to help since the crew is already super busy.

>>6092917
You aren't sure, because you haven't cracked open a fab to look inside.
However, it's well known that every part of the firmware is completely locked down to the point that it would be easier to simply replace the components.

And you could do that, but nobody actually knows how the nanomachines are manipulated, even at the code level.
Physically, it's all intense magnetic and gravitational fields, electron beams, lasers... depends on what you're making, but some things require different methods.

Crafting certain items requires a lot more power, too. Like duranium.
It's forcing atoms together when they really don't want to be, by applying a lot of force to a very small space.

Naturally that requires a lot of careful timing and application of various forces, which has to be repeated really, really fast to print in a timely manner.
So the code has to be pretty damn good, and capable of both prediction and self-correction in a very short (sometimes nanosecond-scale) span of time.

Only a quantum computer is capable of the kinds of calculations required for that.

That said, the greys are the only ones capable of actually producing that kind of technology, besides the federation.
Finding an old abandoned fab is one thing, but actually building one from the ground up, even if you had the nanomachines, that'd be hard on your own.

>>6092833

After taking several turns at SHODAN's discretion (she insists they don't go anywhere) you eventually come to a point where the tunnels start to open up.
The water at your feet was nearly waist high at that point, so it makes sense.

You exit the smaller tunnel into a much larger one, and after redirecting a bit of power to the area, the lights kick on and allow you to see clearly.

It's... a sewer. Like, almost steriotypically sewer-esque. Water runs down a channel in the middle, while platforms on either side allow you to walk without wading through shit.
And a number of various pipes and wires line the walls, waiting to be serviced by maintenance men who are probably all dead or gone.

There are a few ants around... three or four, maybe. All smaller ones, clung to the walls and eating bits of crud stuck to them.
This area isn't nearly as clean as the smaller tunnels, but there are large patches that have actually been cleaned up already.

None of that matters, though.

"Any idea where to head next?" You ask.

SHODAN shrugs.

"I could do a basic analysis based on the conditions in the clarifying chamber and search for other areas likely to have similar temperature and moisture levels, but otherwise no."

"Well, i mean... the queen's probably as big as one of those giant guards, right? Maybe bigger? So... she couldn't be anywhere without a big enough entrance for her, right?" Ronnie theorizes.

"Unless she was born and nested in such a place before growing to size." SHODAN says, correcting him.

"So it could be anywhere..." Ronnie sighs.

Yeah, that's the problem. Where the hell to go.
If you were an insect queen, where would... you...

"...What if she's not in the sewers?" You question.

"What?"

"You seen these things poking their heads out of the swiss cheese, right?"

"...What?"

Ronnie looks at you with profound confusion and shakes his head.

"The fucking holes in the asteroid, numbnuts. They've been using those tunnels... but a lot of them don't actually connect up, some are filled with rock and debris... and i know there's more of them in the service layers, too."

"So perhaps they've been tunneling." SHODAN finishes for you. "It's quite possible, however, it would be slow work. Their jaws seem quite powerful, but this is still mainly an iron-nickel asteroid. There are many areas made of solid metal."

"If they can chew through metal, that's a big problem. Real big, actually. But regardless, how the hell are we supposed to find the queen now? Any ideas?"

"...These collars got tracking devices on em, don't they? That work even underground and stuff?" Ronnie offers.

"Hey, good point!" You grin. "Superglue a couple trackers to these bugs, let them map out the tunnels, get an idea of where they all run around at... it could work!"

"That will take time, however." SHODAN points out.

"True... but what the hell else are we supposed to do? There's side-tunnels everywhere." You say, pointing around with your hands.

>>6093764

>You'll have to come back to this at a later date, after you've gotten a map of the insects' routes.
>Fuck waiting, have SHODAN map out the likely sewer locations and just go there, maybe you'll get lucky.
>Send some droids to crawl through the spider holes, see what they can find. That may be your best bet.
>Write-In?

>>6093767
>Send some droids to crawl through the spider holes, see what they can find. That may be your best bet.

>>6093767
>>Send some droids to crawl through the spider holes, see what they can find. That may be your best bet.
Supplement with the worker drones trackers

>>6093767
Set off some very big colored/chemical signal smoke bomb. Use sensors around the station to figure out where the exit holes are?

Enough sensor saturation on the surface means we can probably sample wide for chemical saturation. Then we can be more specific in areas the sensor's concentration levels seem to point at?
Combine that with spider drones to get maximum "input" saturation?

>>6093767
>>Send some droids to crawl through the spider holes, see what they can find. That may be your best bet.

>>6093767
Is seismic mapping or heat mapping possible? How about neutrino mapping?

Otherwise;
>Fuck waiting, have SHODAN map out the likely sewer locations and just go there, maybe you'll get lucky.
but set a time limit, after which we come back at a later date. There are probably other things we can be doing, but by checking out at least one of these locations we can improve our knowledge of (not) possible locations and narrow down the remaining locations by a lot.

>>6093764

You tap your foot and scratch at your helmet as you consider things.
What are you to do? What indeed.

"What do you think about seismic mapping? Could we get an idea of the tunnels that way?" You suggest.

"It wouldn't be very accurate, i'm afraid. Since the asteroid has been hollowed out, and the remainder has many pockets of loose silt, it wouldn't "ring" very well. We may be able to detect any large voids that way, however." SHODAN explains.

"What about using a trace gas? Something not found in the atmosphere normally? We could figure out which tunnels connect up to eachother that way."

"That may work, however, knowing which tunnels connect won't lead us to the queen. It would be useful for determining the routes, or possible routes used by the insects, though."

Ronnie curls up against the wall, cradling his knees.
He lets out a tired sigh.

"...Lots of partial solutions, but nothing immediately helpful, huh." You sigh in turn. "Alright, i guess there's nothing to it but to do it. This is what the fuckin' droids are for, right?"

"Affirmative, Captain. Traversing the tunnels may prove dangerous for a variety of reasons, but losses would be minimal by using droids for recon."

"We'll need equipment... i want to get trackers on the bugs, too. Get some guys down here, we'll just... fuckin, glue them to their shells, i guess."

"The droids will likely require external battery packs." SHODAN adds.

"What about bio-generators? Bug flesh could keep them going..."

"It would be less than ideal. Such generators are inefficient. I was considering setting up a charging station deeper in the tunnels, using an RTG."

"Hey, that's not a bad idea!" You grin. "We already use droids to work on the reactor, they could just lug it with 'em..."

...

.....

...

You end up calling the expedition off quicker than expected, and head back up to the surface to meet with Redbone after he gives the all-clear.
What you're met with is an absolute mess, even worse than you were expecting.

One corner of a building has a gaping hole in it, clearly from a stray 40mm grenade round.
The buildings may be concrete, but the walls are relatively thin since they're only meant to withstand 0.3g.

Besides that, there's bullet holes absolutely everywhere. The buildings are pockmarked, the road is torn up, and my god, the bug corpses.

Rivers of yellow-green bodily fluid stream across the ground just about everywhere you step, from two hundred feet from the tunnel, all the way up to it's entrance.
It looks like Red brought an entire wagon full of .308 with him, and used at least half of it.

"Holy shit, Red. Do you not know the meaning of the word "restraint"?" You complain.

"The fuck you mean restraint? I came here to save your ass and kill all these gottdamn bugs, and that's how you thank me?"

"You'd be more convincing if you could stop fucking smiling for a second."

"I can't." He says, grinning about as wide as it's possible to grin.

>>6094581
>"The fuck you mean restraint? I came here to save your ass and kill all these gottdamn bugs, and that's how you thank me?"
>Effective now, the rounds anyone expends must be reloaded by the same individual... With a single-stage press.

As for gluing trackers, you could just shoot entire rows of workers with adhesive trackers, or even just slap one on them manually as they wander by with them being so passive half the time. You could then set up kiosks at strategic locations to download the data off of the trackers.
What do you want on the sensors? Gyroscopes & accelerometers? Cameras? Something more advanced to send data through the asteroid in real time?

If the source of these bugs really is an atavistic insectoid station dweller, it's possible it used to live in the slums, and could in fact be there still, or what parts of it are still warm, at least. We could start looking in nearby residential areas with easy access to the sewers that we're in now.

>>6094581
Shiiit. Look at that smile, I can't even be mad.

>>6094581

The support crew shows up not long after, all piloting droids.
Not a single person wanted to come out here, even after being told the soldiers were all dead.

But the droids can't lift much, so it's up to you, SHODAN and Redbone to get the big ones into the back of the longhaulers.

"It occurs to me that one of Sanig's devices would be useful in this situation." SHODAN comments as you're dragging the first one.

"Which one would that be?" You ask between grunts.

"The anti-gravity device he uses to maintain his weight on the Metal Gear."

"..."

A quick call later, and in about twenty minutes someone's ferried the tool over for you.
You just sat on your asses and waited, watching the droids load up the smaller ones... and the chunks of the larger ones.

It occurs to you that the floating lifts and carts they're using probably have something similar inside of them.
You always wondered how they worked, but you guess it makes sense.

The one Sanig made is a larger unit, created using a small piece of the warp metal you've collected.

Doesn't take much, apparently. Not for something this small.
Sanig actually crafted it on his own time, while making glitter for subspace crystal doping.

Carved with a dremel, apparently.

Literally all it does is cancel out artificial gravity, it's strength dependent on the current applied to it.
It's self-powered, with a big fat battery in there that should last at least a few hours. Enough for this work, for sure.

You flick the device on and feel a slight decrease in weight.
Cranking the knob up, you eventually start floating... but this antigrav unit can go much, much higher.

Looks like it's meant to be usable even in conditions up to 5x earth gravity... but the only time you'd experience that is when working out on the ship.
Well, who knows what all Sanig might want to use this for.

You tried turning the knob up higher, but nothing happens.
Looks like it only cancels the artificial gravity out, but won't invert it or generate it's own field.

You're not sure how that works, might be an artificial limitation or a safety feature.

Either way, doesn't matter here.

You hold onto the anti-grav unit with one hand and the bug corpse with your other, and have Ronnie pull you along with a rope.
Once you're in the back of the truck, it's easy to kick the bug into place, and then Ronnie pulls you out.

Repeat over, and over and over again... for hours. Four hours.

Trucks come and go, hauling what is effectively meat back to base.
You don't know if it's any good to eat though. Taste aside, you'll need to do tests to ensure it's safe before trying it.

Once you're all back at port, you see some (relatively) burly men unloading the trucks and dragging the bug corpses into storage containers.
The low temperature in the port will freeze the meat after a while. Presumably they're sterile and shouldn't rot, but they have been eating corpses and literal shit, so who knows...

>>6095304
Well, that could've gone much worse. Red will definitely want his own suit though, now. Maybe we try a new lightweight one for him with the new.. what was it mmm plasteel?

>>6095304
Like with the steaks, I feel we should render this down to base elements in the nanofab and reconstitute it back into actual food.
Energy intensive? Sure, but no chance redsang being bio concentrated and damaging people. They'll get fatty liver from onions cow instead.

>>6095304

"Where's the first load?" You ask the portmaster, who's currently "supervising" the operation.

His mouth too full of sandwich to answer you, he instead points at a shipping container nearby.
It's been set apart from the rest of them

Opening it up, you find a pair of droids inside, guarding the sedated insects fervently.

"Man, they're still asleep? How long does that shit last?" Redbone asks, poking his head inside.

"We don't know, actually. It's the first time we've used it on something not from earth." You answer honestly.

You toss Sanig's antigrav unit into the container, then shut and lock the doors with the droids still inside.
A strong magnet attached to a rope allows you to pull the container along behind your hovercar, although the ride is a bit rough at times...

You decided to drive yourself this time, since you don't want that container's momentum carrying it into your car and taking your head off if the driver decides to stop suddenly.

It's a little bit tricky, but you've already got plenty of experience flying ships in zero-g at this point, so it's not too hard to control after getting used to it.
The hovercar does get a little squirrelly when the container gets too close and you end up inside the zero-g field, though.

It's designed to stay on a mostly flat trajectory, without going too high or low... but that goes out the window and you lose directional control.

Nevertheless, you manage to get the insects up to the merchant district without too much issue, and only scrape the container on the tunnel walls once or twice on your way to the industrial district.
Not too bad, especially for your first time.

The guys piloting the droids in that container might disagree, but you don't care.

You land it just outside of Doc Lyna's new "clinic", currently operating out of an abandoned mansion.
Inside, there is precisely one nurse, who is literally asleep in her chair. Nobody else is here, except the good doctor herself.

You find her in the back, tapping away at her computer, like usual.

"Hey, doc. I got those samples you wanted." You tell her, poking your head through the door.

"Oh, good!" She grins "I've been waiting. I was quite excited to hear you were bringing something back for me today."

"They're out front."

...

When you unlock the doors, they fly open on their own.
You're startled for a moment, thinking that maybe the insects were woken up by all the shaking, but... no.

Instead, one of the droids lunges at you, only to be grabbed by the ankle by the second one.

Floating, he claws at the air, trying to get at you while his buddy drags him back.
You can't hear the conversation since most of these droids don't have speakers, but the operators are definitely yelling at eachother in person.

This goes on for a minute until the offending droid just suddenly goes limp, like a lifeless doll.
You guess somebody removed his brain interface helmet.

"...What in the hells was all that about?" Lyna asks.

"Ah, nothing."

>>6096319
Oh right the NAUSEA. Heh.

>>6096319
Just another case of averting the inevitable droid rebellion with loyalist droids and best girl SHODAN

>>6096319

The remaining droid starts dragging the unconnected droid off, while you float on into the container and pull an insect along with you.
You leave the insect inside the anti-grav field, just at the edge, so Lyna can check it out more easily.

"And it's still alive?" She asks.

"Yep. Just drugged... not sure how much longer that'll last, but it's been a while since their last dose."

"I can see that." She says, pulling out a small device.

She presses it against the insect's shell and pushes a button. It beeps a few moments later.

"...Barely any oxygen in it's blood. The dosage must be quite high. What did you use?"

"Uhhh... not sure, actually. You'd have to ask SHODAN."

SHODAN then proceeds to rattle off a long list of chemicals you don't recognize, all of which Lyna quickly inputs into her holopad.
You don't think she knows what they are either, but she's writing it down anyways, along with the dosages.

"Anyways, we got you a few different types, and some egg samples... which we really need you to look at first."

"Why is that?" Lyna asks.

You hand her a sack containing numerous insect eggs, which she quickly opens up and then closes.
For the first time, Lyna actually seems upset. Almost disturbed, even.

"See the problem?" You shrug.

"Yes, i... i see that. I'll take a look immediately."

"We need to check for redsang in all this meat, too. Need to know if it has to be cleaned up before it can be eaten."

"Yes, i can do that. I'll need a bit of time, can you give me... an hour?"

Lyna looks at her watch.

"Maybe two. I have a few things running right now." She corrects.

"That's fine." You reply.

As before, you unload the insects from the back of the truck, this time with Ronnie on the rope, and you the one pulling.
There's a good chance he'll find himself fighting in zero-g at some point, so it's good to get some experience if he hasn't already.

Lyna doesn't even wait for you to finish, and quickly takes the bag of eggs inside with her.

Once you are finished though, you're left with an open spot in your schedule.
After Ronnie's been stripped of his equipment, he can walk back on his own... that just leaves you and SHODAN.

You think everyone else is busy with something or another right now. Technically SHODAN is too, but, well... she's pretty good at splitting her attention these days.

>Check in with Sanig, see if you can help with getting those trackers and other equipment made for dealing with the bugs.
>Head back to the mansion and check in with your mom and Sam, see how they're settling in.
>You haven't actually laid eyes on the new carrier yet. Supposedly it's in flyable condition at this point, and a little road trip wouldn't hurt.
>Write-In?

>>6097111
>>Head back to the mansion and check in with your mom and Sam, see how they're settling in.

>>6097111
>Head back to the mansion and check in with your mom and Sam, see how they're settling in.

>>6097111
>>Check in with Sanig, see if you can help with getting those trackers and other equipment made for dealing with the bugs.

Let's continue to focus on the task at hand.

>>6096319
>You decided to drive yourself this time, since you don't want that container's momentum carrying it into your car and taking your head off if the driver decides to stop suddenly.
Those camera footages... yeah

>>6096503
>Just another case of averting the inevitable droid rebellion with loyalist droids and best girl SHODAN
... they are piloted

>>6097111
>>Write-In?
>>Sex SHODAN in an empty mansion

>>6097111
>Head back to the mansion and check in with your mom and Sam, see how they're settling in.

>>6097111
>>Head back to the mansion and check in with your mom and Sam, see how they're settling in.

>>6097111
>Check in with Sanig, see if you can help with getting those trackers and other equipment made for dealing with the bugs.

We got work to do. R&R is for after the infestation is handled.

>>6097111

You decide to take a moment to check in on your family.
You've been so busy since you got back to the station, you really just haven't had time to talk with them.

After tossing the antigrav in the back of the truck, you make a relatively short hop from Lyna's clinic, back to the street that you've effectively commandeered for your crew.

Landing the truck on the road out front of your mansion, you see Pickle sitting in a plastic monobloc chair, drinking a beer and grilling something unidentifiable.
...The smoke smells like hickory. He printed a Weber grill and charcoal for this.

As he's waving to you, sparks from the grill fall down onto the dead, dry grass of the front lawn and start a fire, which quickly starts spreading in a circle.
Pickle pulls his dick out and pisses out the flames right in front of you, then starts poking at whatever the hell he's got on that grill.

Well, you don't have to worry about him feeling at home.

Ignoring him, you head on in to your own mansion, where most of the crew is staying, including your sister and mother.
As soon as you're through the front door, SHODAN stops you.

"Captain, i'm afraid i have a significant amount of data that requires my full attention for processing. I will need to dock this unit for the time being."

"You don't have to ask me, SHODAN. Go on ahead, we'll catch up later."

"Thank you, Captain." She smiles.

SHODAN heads directly to a utility closet, where a charging dock has been installed for her.
You on the other hand, really wish you could just strip out of this armor and lay down...

But skinning your suit is a really unpleasant experience, so you drop the hard armor plates and throw a t-shirt and some cargo pants on instead.
The sensation of touch transferred from the suit to your skin is... well, it's close, but not quite the same as the real thing.

You get used to it, but after having the skinsuit on for a long time it's incredible how sensitive your bare skin feels.

The lower levels of the station are cold. Everything's dark and depressing.
It makes you want to curl up under a warm blanket, next to a wood stove... with a nice cup of hot cocoa. Yeah, that'd be nice.

It's almost christmas back on earth, isn't it?

You didn't expect to spend it with your family at all, but even if you did, you wouldn't have expected it to be here.
Hopefully Mom and Sam are getting along fine. You did kind of just dump them here, even if the place is pretty nice.

...

Knocking on the door to your mom's room, you get a response immediately.

"Come on in, baby!" Your mother replies.

The door's closed. She can tell it's you, just by the sound of your footfalls.

"Hey mom, how you doing?" You ask, entering and closing the door behind you.

She's laying in a big, fluffy-looking bed, with a gigantic flat-screen TV on the far wall. It lights up the whole room like a flashbang whenever the scene changes.

"Oh, i'm doing alright, i reckon!" She grins, slurring only slightly.

>>6098000
trips.
She needs some physical therapy, and while parts of her brain that move her limbs are dead, it wouldn't hurt to fashion some mechanical or electric orthesis that helps moving that limp leg an arm so they don't adopt viscious positions. And of course, strenghten her working limbs and trunk that's key. HOWEVER, this sort of patients tend to waste away not even trying. It goes in hand with how important they feel.
An important 70 yrs old bussinessman will try to get better (boomers think they are invincible for some reason) but a 65 yrs old granny whoose only worry was to keep the house clean... so I wonder, what can she do besides watch TV

>>6098021
Everyone needs a dragon to slay. Figuratively speaking.

>>6097243
100% correct, but I believe it was said that a VI or AI is normalising the droid/pilot command interface. So I assume there was some level of intervention.

>>6098000
>>6098021
Sanig made the skinsuit for exactly this reason for himself. It enables his mobility and that is the most important thing for people to just keep moving - avoiding blood pooling, lactic acid buildup and clean flows of nutrients/oxygen to all the body.
It makes me think that circulatory system nanomachines that can remove arterial blockages such as fat, calcium or clotting would be amazing. Basically a more universal Aspirin.

What's the latest of momma's treatment QM?

>>6098000
Did we bring a human doctor?

>>6098364
Yes.

>>6098330
A VI is just a regular computer, it's not sentient.

The latest on her treatment is that it's going well, but not as well as you'd like.

The drugs you gave her have done a good job of repairing her remaining grey matter, allowing new connections to form and the brain to re-train itself.
However, that's a slow process and won't grow back the chunk of her brain that has already died.

As for the cause of the stroke, the blood clots in her system have been broken down by nanomachines and her blood pressure, cholesterol and nicotine intake are under control.
No further damage will be done, despite her lifestyle.

That said, she's old, and still has a lot wrong with her. Damaged organs, creaky joints and so-on.

A skinsuit would indeed be a good solution for helping her walk again, if you could get her to wear it.

>>6098619
>Mom would you like to be drugged the druggiest you've even been drugged and put on this strange suit?
Her heart wouldn't resist the strain of strong opiods. She might stop breathing altogether or go into cardiac arrest... Hmm I could give her a mild dose of midazolam followed by ketamine. Ketamine is a great sedative! It causes amnesia, hypnosis and analgesia, it acts FAST and does not mess up with the breathing centre of the brain stem! The only downside is that you tend to err... have terrorific hallucinations as you are getting sleepy, which is why you get a little midazolam as a starter of sorts.

>>6098000

She's been getting better the past few weeks.
A steady dose of the annoyingly expensive drug "Neura-link" that you yourself have taken once or twice, seems to have done her some good.

But it's meant more for minor brain damage. Concussions, things like that... it can't regrow a hunk of lost brain tissue.

You've been considering possible treatments for her. Other drugs, wetware, bionic limbs...
But you know convincing her to do any of that would be hard, bordering on impossible. That's why you've settled on the easiest solution.

Well, "easy" by comparison.

"Well that's good." You reply. "I'm glad you're feeling better. Have you seen Sam around?"

"Almost too much! She's been waiting on me hand and foot since we got here. I barely get a moment to myself." Your mother groans.

"She's just trying to take care of you, mom."

"I know it, i know it... but she says she don't like it much outside, too."

Your mother stares at you with a raised brow. That look... how much does she know?

"Oh, please. You think i didn't see those girls or that little alien man through the doorway? I always figured you were up to no good in the military, always telling me you couldn't talk about nothin' you did."

"Well, the lines were monitored... and i wouldn't have wanted to tell you all that terrible stuff anyways."

"Uh huh. Well, i'm was a little surprised at the aliens, but not really, you know? I always knew, ever since my uncle Leroy disappeared back in 1967. You know there was a radioactive circle burned out in that field, right?"

"Yes, mom. You've told me."

You don't think any other aliens have visited earth... probably. But at this point, who knows?
Kind of hard to explain what happened to Leroy either way, knowing what you know about aliens and radiation.

"...Well are you gonna introduce me to 'em? I'm dyin' to know!"

"Know what?"

"I dunno! What do they eat? Can they speak? Do they probe people? What happened in Roswell?"

"Er, maybe later, alright? We're all kind of busy at the moment... lots of fires to put out. Figuratively."

"Fine, boy. But you better not be lyin' to me! I want to meet an alien!"

"Yes, mom. I promise."

"Well anyway, i think Sam's still in the shower right now, so you're stuck talking to me for a minute!"

"That's fine, i actually had something i wanted to ask you about anyhow..."

"Oh?"

"Yeah..."

You grab a bag that Gildur left just outside your mother's room and bring it in.
Inside is a custom-fit Mk1 skinsuit, with extra artificial muscle.

It's kind of an inbetween the Mk1 and Mk2. Not too bulky, and it doesn't require nerve melding, but still provides a lot of support.

"What the hell is that?" Your mother asks. "Some kind of gimp suit?"

"No, mom. This is called a skinsuit. I'm wearing one right now, see?"

You point out that your arms are covered in the same material, and roll up your pants to show your legs are covered in it, too.

"...Is it a sex thing? I don't want to know, if it is."


"

>>6098918
>No much is not a sex thing- what the fuck mom
>Mom?
mom...

>>6098918
>Does it come in any other colors?

>>6098918
>"...Is it a sex thing? I don't want to know, if it is."
Is she trolling us...?

>MOOOOooooOOOM!

>Uncle Leroy disappeared around '67
>Anecdotal evidence from Ma points towards Grey abduction
>Years later, David gets abducted by Grey's
You don't think they were looking for a specific genetic profile, were they?

>>6098918

"No, mom. It's not a sex thing, i swear."

She looks at you with obvious doubt in her eyes.

You sigh.

"Look, it's... kind of like armor, i guess. But it's also a sort of... assistive device." You try to explain.

"What?"

"Ah, how to explain this... ah, fuck it. You know that little alien man you saw?"

"Yeah, he looks like one o' them Roswell aliens!"

"Yeah, that guy. Well, he's like a thousand years old or something, i don't even know. Point is, he's so old that he's basically a cripple, right? He can't move around so good.
So we made this suit, amongst other things, to help him walk. It's made out of stuff that acts like muscle, and it moves when you move..."

"So you want me to wear this fetish outfit, so i can walk around?"

"...Not the way i'd put it, but yes."

"Honey, i can't wear something like that out in public. Even around the house, i'd be too embarrased to let someone see me through a window."

"It's not-"

You huff in exasperation.

"Look, you see how i'm wearing it? It goes on under the clothes. Like underwear, you know? You can wear it like underwear."

You can see the gears turning in her head as she recategorizes it from fetish gear to undergarment.

"Hmm... i dunno..."

"You want to walk again don't you? When's the last time you cooked something?"

Your mother rips the skinsuit out of your hands.

"Gimme that damn gimp suit, boy."

"It's kinda hard to squeeze into. You might want to wait for Sam to-"

"Get out, i'm getting dressed right now!"

"Okay, alright, alright!"

...

You wait outside for a good twenty minutes, occasionally knocking and asking if she's alright.
She sounds increasingly frustrated as time goes on, and eventually Sam comes back, her hair wrapped up in a towel like a snail in it's shell.

"Hey, David." She greets you. "What's going on?"

"Ah, mom's trying to get one of those skinsuits on by herself. I don't think it's going too well."

"What?! Why didn't you help her?!"

"Man, i don't want to see that. I'm sure she'll get it... eventually."

Sam scoffs and rolls her eyes, pushing you out of the way.

"You good in here, mom?" She asks.

"Yes, honey. I've just about got it..."

"Oh, mom. You know your legs are weak, let me just get that..."

Your mother sighs in frustration, but relents.

"I think that's got it? David, come look and see." You sister tells you.

Re-entering the room, you see that your mom did in fact just about have it on already.

"Looks good!" You tell her.

"Please, i look like a rotten pear. Now, is this thing working or what?"

"Not yet."

You flip a switch on the back of the suit's neck, activating the microcomputer inside.
It handles things like feedback and battery management, although the whole suit is basically a battery.

"There, now it's on. Normally it would recharge itself as you move, but since you're so weak that'd just put more strain on you. Instead, we made yours with a swappable battery pack..."

"Oh lord, something else to charge." Your mother complains.

>>6099359
If we ever wander back to Earth, we should leave instructions for the skinsuit behind. Get SHODAN to lock the strength amplification to it minimal level, and we might accidentally an humane

>>6099359
>"Oh lord, something else to charge." Your mother complains.
Bitch we just told you it comes with SWAPPABLE BATTERIES ffs why are women

>>6099359
>"You want to walk again don't you? When's the last time you cooked something?"
>Your mother rips the skinsuit out of your hands.
>"Gimme that damn gimp suit, boy."

Mom's cookin'? I can't wait.

>>6099472
>Mom's cookin'? I can't wait.
...to scan them.

We could start a subscription services, locking the recipes/dishes behind DRM

These aliens don't know shit 'bout Mama's cornbread.

>>6099526
Cinnamin apple pie with the homemade lard crust.

>>6099359

"We'll keep a bunch of spare batteries and a charger on your bedside table, alright?"

She doesn't reply. Instead, she's busy testing her legs, which makes you smile.
You can see the artificial muscle fibers flexing, doing their job. The nerve signals to her legs are weak, but the VI in the suit is doing a good job of adjusting the sensitivity.

She takes a few careful steps, and finds that she can actually walk normally.

"Holy shit." She cusses. "Oh my god, this suit is amazing!"

Now feeling more confident, she walks straight out of the room and starts exploring the mansion.

"Wow, this place is big, ain't it? How long are we supposed to be here?" She asks herself.

"...Probably a while, mom." You answer, following behind her in case she falls.

But she doesn't. She scoots her feet a little, walking in a way that kind of reminds you of a penguin, but she doesn't fall.

"Y'know, this place doesn't look like it was built by aliens. Where the hell are we, anyways?" She says, looking out the window.

"Grass is all dead..." She mumbles.

"Yeah, it hasn't been getting watered. Long story, not really an issue... uh, well, we're technically on a space station right now, but, like... we're in the rich asshole section. Everywhere else looks like a concrete commie block."

"Oh, wow. How much are we paying for all this, then?" She asks.

You haven't seen her this lit up and excited since you came back to earth. She has so much more energy all of a sudden...

"Nothing, technically. Actually... i uh, i kind of own the whole place. Well, joint ownership, with a group of guys who are helping me clean up the place."

They should be helping you, anyways. Technically, according to your deal, they're the ones who own the majority of the station. Where the fuck is Dark Star at? Shouldn't they have moved in by now?
You're gonna bitch at Gron when he gets back, you need more manpower right now.

Not droids, not a bunch of vegans, actual, useful manpower. For bug killin' and shit.

But that's fine. You've got those pirates under your belt for now and-

"Boy, quit drifting off." Your mother chides. "You still do that too much."

"Sorry, mom." You sigh.

"Now, where's the kitchen?"

"It's over here, mom." Sam says, guiding her in the right direction. "I was planning on making lasagna today, but we're stocked up for just about anything."

"I need beans and mexican cornbread." Your mother declares. "With bacon. You got bacon here?"

"I think it'll be hard to find anything we don't have..." Sam chuckles.

You grin just slightly.

Yeah, momma's a little messed up... you might not be able to fix her entirely, not the least cause she doesn't want it, but that's how it is with her.
But the medicine you gave her is doing it's job, and the suit will help her to walk. If she can walk, she can be active, and that'll be better for her than anything else.

Mentally, it means the world. Physically, it's good rehabilitation.

You guess you've done what you can for her.

>>6099863
The girls liked this action

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>>6099863
We should toss Ma a little translator so she can chat with the girls and Sanig. Do we have em in a more compact form factor like pic related?

>>6099958
You do now, yes.

>>6099958
There we go. As far as additional medical help for her goes... well, she might look into it herself or go visit Lyna.

Also, will she need oxygen to get around?

>>6099964

She will need oxygen outside of the house.
She and Pickle both haven't taken the retroviral treatment.

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>>6099863
Too wholesome, like this cornbread coming right up.
Just the way I like my quests

>>6099863

You spend most of the rest of that day with your family.
Mom ends up cooking way too much for just y'all, which ends up luring over Pickle and Redbone as well.

Pickle contributes a little of what he was grilling, which turned out to be haggis.
Fuckin'... grilled haggis? Really? Alright, anyways... it was actually pretty good, but still fuckin' weird.

At some point Cylia also returns from training the pirate raiders and sits down to eat, next to you, naturally.
With mom right next to you, it's a little awkward. She keeps glancing past you, towards Cylia. You remain stone-faced, but you know she knows.

No, even if she doesn't know, she can feel it.

Mom's always had a real strong sixth sense. She could just tell whenever you were up to something.
Sometimes you'd just be thinking about something stupid, and she'd bust into your room with a "Don't even think about it!".

You already kind of half-believed in psychic powers because of that kind of shit, but now you're a true believer.

...

Lunch goes well. After that, your mother insists on cleaning the mansion, even though Gildur's already taking good care of that.
You aren't actually sure where Gildur is right now. Sometimes he just disappears whenever he's not busy, but... that's fine, you guess.

Kyla and Sanig are both back on the ship, hard at work as ever.
After scanning in all that earth food, they hardly ever see reason to leave anymore, since the Metal Gear is also their workshop.

Kyla's been working mainly on robotics, trying to improve the droids and come up with solutions to the nanofab problem.
Sanig meanwhile has been working heavily on the gyro-rifle prototypes, as well as the skinsuits and power armor.

After today you're certain of it. While the gyro-rifle is great, it lacks power at short range, being closer to 9mm pistol in terms of penetrative power.
That's by design, of course, but for a rifle to be carried into battle it has to be useful in a wide variety of scenarios.

You think it needs an under-slung grenade launcher. 25mm would do.

Naturally you could use grenades with it, which would be great for clearing crowds or launching CS gas, but it can also serve as a shotgun.
If the armor is relatively soft like a bug's carapace, then deer slugs would do the job... and if it's hard, then you could use darts instead. There's just so much beauty in a grenade launcher, isn't there?

Bolters won't have this issue, though. They're kickstarted from the get-go, making them as powerful as any rifle from the start... and then any distance they travel is just icing on the cake.
But that's a good way to bruise your shoulder unless you're wearing at least Mk-2 power armor. Or break a bone, depending on your species.

Your mother smiles as you discuss such topics with your friends over a few beers in the living room.
She doesn't try to butt in, and just seems happy to see you being happy.

Well, seeing her happy makes you happy too.

>>6100675
>No, even if she doesn't know, she can feel it.
she's definitely gonna harass david to put a ring on cylia within the next month

>>6100745
it's not like she's pregnant or anything

>>6100675
>You think it needs an under-slung grenade launcher. 25mm would do.
Oh no. Oh no not the multi-role-weapon-design meme. Ahhh I feel the overengineering overtaking me. It is a good pain!

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>>6100803
>Oh no not the multi-role-weapon-design meme.
I feel the same. The Gyro rifle is doing it's thing. Give pic related to two guys per squad and we gucci.

Because fuck you, fuck your cover and fuck my shoulder!

>>6100803
Oh come on. A multi-role underbarrel isn't the worst idea in the world. Especially with all the space age design software and materials we have to work with.

>>6100803
It always starts as a tube with a trigger on it and ends with some completely unusable technological atrocity.
Every single time.

>>6100675
The big issue is alien strength. Each action has an opposite reaction. Something that accelerates that fast to hit hard in a small distance may be an issue for most. Gyro ammunition fixes this by changing what's being reacted against at what time.

It may make more sense to have short range emergency energy weapons for the average user. That or a coil gun to minimize the acceleration constant over a longer distance.

>>6100769
not with that attitude

>>6100769
Not from lack of trying mind you. She gets a full sized protein meal each shot.

>>6100890
Or you could just use something similar to an RPG or recoilless rifle, where the terminal performance isn't necessarily based on the velocity. Shaped-charges, HESH, or even a projectile breaching charge isn't out of the realm of possibility with the precision and smart electronics available.

>>6100675

That night, you end up watching a movie together with your mom, your sister... and Cylia, who naturally clings to you on the couch.
It's so obvious, you can't hide it. Mom just grins at you. She knows. Why is it so embarrassing? You don't understand it, really.

Fuck it. You throw your arm over Cylia's shoulder and pull her in even closer, which seems to make both of them happy.

Anyways, the movie is some capeshit called "Endgame", you don't know. You don't really watch a lot of movies.

You think you remember hearing about it before you were abducted, but you never got a chance to see it.
It's weird just sitting down and watching a regular human movie, from earth. It's not like there isn't TV out in space, but... to say it's lacking is an understatement.

The movie looks pretty cool, you guess. You only recognize some of the characters, like iron man.

You really don't feel like cooking anything for dinner, or even eating some big, fancy meal... so you end up microwaving a TV dinner.
It's nice to just eat garbage sometimes. It's not like it even tastes bad, it's just not earning any michelin stars.

And eating garbage does make you appreciate the good stuff more, too.
Hungry man, that's you. Steak and potatoes, mmm.

Well, hamburg steak and mashed potatoes.

Cylia tries a bite and also likes it a lot.
It still has worlds of flavor compared to station food, so that's no surprise.

...

"So, which one is it? I thought that other girl was your girlfriend?" You mother eventually asks, as you're getting ready to turn in for the night.

Oh boy, here we go.
You've already gone through this with Sam, but how are you supposed to explain this to your mom?

God, just... don't freeze up.

"Uh, well, mom... you see, it's uh... kind of a situation... where uh..."

"We're polyamorous." Cylia blurts out.

You just stare at her, wide-eyed.

"Buh." is all you can say. Why, Cyl? Why?

"Oh, lord..." Your mother says, rolling her eyes. "Another womanizer, just like your father."

"...What?" You ask. This is the first you've heard of that. She didn't talk much about their relationship after he passed.

"Your father was a playboy, too. But i put a stop to all that when we got together, and i got pregnant with you." She explains.

"He's actually been very faithful... we were the ones that forced it on him, miss Rockefeller."

"Call me Betty, sweetheart. Now, how long have you two been together?"

You and Cylia share a look between eachother.

"Two..."

"Three...ish? Maybe?"

You say together.

"Ah, it's complicated. Warp travel, some weird stuff... i'm not sure all the dates add up anymore. Call it two or three years?" You tell her.

"That long, already? Boy, haven't you put a ring on her yet?"

You inhale sharply through your nose and stare straight ahead.
Yeah, you figured it was gonna go here at some point.

You feel three pairs of eyes boring a hole through your head. Sam was listening, too?

>>6101436

>I'm not really planning to get married. I don't think it's necessary.
>I mean, i guess it wouldn't hurt... but... what about the other girls?
>...Would you want to get married, Cyl?
>Write-In?

>>6101439
Could we use our translator link to think a request to shodan to do some hacky-wacky stuff to cause a distraction that we need to go fix? She can read our mind, right?

>>6101439
Like father like son, marry her when she gets pregnant. Seems appropriate no?

>>6101439
>...Would you want to get married, Cyl?
>immediately after go to the fabricator to make her a wedding knife

>>6101443

You can try.
You know it's possible, but it's not something you've attempted before.

>>6101439
>>...Would you want to get married, Cyl?
Would the others want to as well? SHODAN probably would be all for it, Kyla might not, but we'll see

>>6101439
What do about getting married to the ship ai.

Shodan prob has opinions, and we've proven there's probably a shackled soul in her, so it's not exactly fucking a soulless robot.

Can always become Muslim and have multiple wives inshallah

>>6101444
Nice, but, sons ought to improve from their fathers

>>6101443
>as if shodan would let pass the chance to embarras david. there is bros before hoes, but sometimes making fun of a bro in front of her ho is worth it

>>6101439
>>Write-In?
>>ESCAPE
>>>UUUH SOME BULLSHIT ABOUT... PIRATES OR BUGS.... OR BUG PIRATES IN.... TUNNELS... RECENTLY DISCOVERED TUNNELS

>>6101439
>...Would you want to get married, Cyl?

>>6101439
>Well nither of them are pregnant yet Ma, So I don't quite see a reason to rush it.

>>6101542
+1 supporting

We should ask how Cylia feels about marriage in private.

>I mean, i guess it wouldn't hurt... but... what about the other girls?

Let's assign Gildur to carry around a camera and start filming stock footage for:
Xenosister Wives: Deep Space Kine

>>6101439
>>6101574
Switching to this

>>6101439
>Its something we should talk about eventually, huh Cyl?

>>6101574
Do aliens even have wives? Most of them are godless creatures. How can you marry one if they don't even know what the Lord's good book is?

g-guys stop... don't do this
DON'T DO THIS TO DAVID

>>6101439
Support for >>6101443

>>6101474
This would be her definitive Turing test then.
Not to us, but her herself.
She cannot deny emotions any longer if she can do this and chooses not to for her own amusement.

>>6101439
>...Would you want to get married, Cyl?

>>6101439
>Write-In?
>What does marriage mean out here? [SHODAN, HELP!]

I mean, given all the different species of aliens out here, from floating amorphous blobs to insectoids, the idea of "marriage" could vary greatly depending on who you're speaking to. Even Terran felines differ greatly, too. So, how does marriage work, especially between alien species?

>>6101439
>>...Would you want to get married, Cyl?

>>6101439

Your mind races possibly harder than it ever has before.

Split several ways at once, you begin looking for a way to escape this conversation.
A distraction could work, but how do you make one happen without being noticed?

They have all eyes on you. Even an errant twitch of the finger wouldn't go unnoticed, it's impossible. Unless...

["SHODAN!"] You think as hard as you possibly can.

No response.

["SHODAN, PLEASE!"]

The building's lights flicker slightly as you think the hardest thoughts you've ever thunk.
But you're not sure you're actually communicating through your translator right now. You've never attempted it before, and there's a lot else going on in your head besides that.

No time. This moment of silence has already hung on longer than it should have. You can see Cylia's arms moving, soon to be crossed. You can see your mother's face shifting towards a scowl. You have to say something.
Don't say something stupid. Don't say something stupid.

Oh god, stupid stuff is flashing through your mind at light speed.
"Neither of them are pregnant yet, so why rush?"

Such a thought actually crossed your mind. You'd be insulting your mother and raising very dangerous questions with Cyl at the same time.

No, no. Focus. Grab something out of the reel, something that won't get you killed.
You could attempt to bullshit your way out of it, but that would just get you in more trouble later. You'd have to come back eventually.

...Is there really no escape? You think you'd rather be back in the middle east right now, getting danger close with a "friendly" warthog.

"Uhhh, well..." You finally start. "I dunno, honestly. Uhhhh..."

You look over at Cylia, who has fully crossed her arms. She's waiting on a response.

"I mean, i guess it's up to her, right?" You chuckle nervously. "Would you want to get married, Cyl?"

She glares at you for a moment, before raising a brow at your question.

"...What's marriage?" She asks.

Huh?
Wait, what?

"Oh, dear. Don't they have marriage ceremonies wherever you're from?" Your mother asks.

"I guess not... my translator isn't making much sense of it." Cylia shrugs.

"Damned technology. Nothing's ever worked right, has it?" Your mother says, fiddling with the hearing-aid style translator you'd given her.

"No, it's working fine... i guess there's just not a word for that in the Caithan language. What is it?"

You give her a brief explanation of marriage, punctuated and corrected at times by your mother.
Including details such as weddings, tax filings and shared assets, unfortunately.

You don't dare to mention a prenup.

"I see, so that's how it is in human culture..." Cylia ponders. "We don't have anything like that. Caithans mate for life, so staying together is just a given."

"Oh. That's nice." You chuckle.

For life, huh?
Caithans mate for life.

Nobody ever mentioned that before.
Of course, you never mentioned marriage either, but...

>>6101882
>"...What's marriage?" She asks
She didnt even knew what was David's mom talking about and got pissed on the vibes alone. Women are something else

>>6101882
>"We don't have anything like that. Caithans mate for life, so staying together is just a given."
So they have such a strong custom in their tribalistic survival culture and David steamrolled it with his footlong? Remember that the cats live 120 years and don't really grow old, who knows for how long they remain sexually active and fertile.

There is literally Zero chance that we even can get the aliens pregnant guys. Don’t be retarded.

>>6101975
Bro you can get like, anything pregnant if you bust hard enough. Ten millions hours worth of hentai couldn't be wrong, you know?

>>6101997
male butt pregnancy

>>6102000
Ah too much fiber and not enough water. A fate worse than diarrhea.

>>6101975
that's because we haven't genetically engineered our cum to impregnate caithans. but now we have enough mad scientists to make it happen

>>6101934
She can surmise from their reaction (and ours) that we've fucked somewhere, even if she doesn't know what it is yet.
She may be concerned about the fact we may have tried to pull the wool over her eyes about something (dodge responsibility) even if she didn't care at all about what that something may be (marriage).
My autistic ass made that mistake with a girl once

>>6102073
yea

>>6101882
David is already married, he just didn't know it.

>>6101882

You spend that night together with Cylia, in a slight daze.
She clings to you just a little harder than usual as you're falling asleep.

You have trouble getting to sleep, and in the morning you're still thinking about it.

Honestly, you shouldn't care. You've been with her for a while now, and you couldn't imagine your life without her anymore.
It wouldn't be so strange to "marry her", for all that means out here in space.

And yet you're reluctant.

If there was any reason, you guess it would have to be that, huh.

You take a trip back to the Metal Gear after breakfast the next morning.
There's something you need to check out.

After greeting Kyla and Sanig, who are both hard at work still, you head to your sleeping quarters on the ship and pull a steel container out from under your bed.
Inside is everything you dug up in front of your house when you went back to earth.

Tucked away in one corner is a small velvet box.

You open it up, and inside there's a small diamond ring. Nothing too fancy, you couldn't afford much, but you thought it was pretty nonetheless.

"Lizzy..." You sigh, sitting on the bed and turning the ring over in the dim cabin light.

You fall onto your back and grip the ring tightly in your hand, arms spread wide as you stare up at the ceiling.

You never did find out what happened to her.
Even after pulling all the strings you had with the higher ups, nobody could tell you anything.

You wonder if there's anything about her in the records SHODAN scraped, but now you're kind of afraid to know.

...Does it even matter anymore? She's been gone for years. You live a whole different sort of life now. She probably wouldn't even recognize you if she were still here.

Man, you feel like shit. Thinking about her makes you want a smoke.
It's really her fault you quit, anyways. You never liked them yourself, and you hated seeing what they did to your mom, but it was still her that actually spurred you on in the end.

She never complained or said anything about it, but any time you smoked around her, you could see that little twinge of disgust on her face, and you hated that.
You didn't want her to taste smoke and ash whenever she kissed you.

You wanted her to spend more time around you, and to enjoy it.

Sitting back up, you dig through the photos in that box, looking for it. The polaroid that you had taped up in your bunk for so long.

It's nothing too special. A shot one of your buddies took of you and her posing together in front of a jet, out on the deck of the Nimitz.
You were all taking photos to send back home to your families. It had been around six months since you'd been home at the time.

Something about it though, you dunno. That picture just has good vibes to it.
Whenever you're thinking about her, you try to remember that photo.

Ah, there it is... all worn and faded. Whether it was the salt, the grease, the sun or the humidity you don't know.
Probably all of it. Nothing lasted long out there.

I wish we had the emotional intelligence to get over women...

>>6102534
Emotional intelligence isn't about rationality superseding your emotions, it's about understanding them and acknowledging them.
You're gonna feel stuff and act accordingly, there's no getting around it. Let David remember when shit was sweet and things were simple.

>>6102464
We should ask Shodan about her so that we know what happened to her. Even if it hurts us.

>>6102672
Good or bad, David's gotta know if he wants to put this thing to bed.

>>6102464
Gotta know. You know Shodan looked.

>>6102865
>THIS is the bitch he's pining over? She can't even bench press his truck. Ugh.

>>6102873
More telling would be that she couldn't balance her checkbook, or keep from getting fat.

>>6102464

You spend a while just looking at that photo. Feeling out your own feelings, you know.

You never really got over her. Never had a real reason to.
There was that waitress back in town, but... you hadn't gotten anywhere with her, honestly.

She was cute. Nice girl, big tits.

You chuckle to yourself. What are you even thinking about?

You know, you always look back fondly on the past, but that's just cause you forget about all the little problems you had.
It wasn't perfect with Lizzy either. On paper, you never even boarded that ship, so it was hard for anyone to say anything, but "fraternization", to put it mildly, is looked down upon.

Lizzy was no base bunny, but once rumors spread, well, y'know... it causes problems.

You were both under a lot of stress, too. Stress that you tended to take out on eachother, sometimes verbally, sometimes "physically".
That part was both good and bad, in various ways. Maybe not the healthiest of relationships, but... definitely nothing you regretted.

She was pretty. She was tough. Strong-willed and thoughtful.
But what you liked most about her was just how damned happy she was. She almost always had a smile on her face.

It was contagious, and that's exactly the sort of thing you needed in your life.

You still have anger issues and more besides, so it can be hard to imagine, but you used to be way worse.
It was a very destructive path you were on, one where you didn't care what happened to anyone, including yourself.

Lizzy gave you something to care about, though. Just like Cyl and the others are doing now.

It's not like you weren't still angry at the world, but at least you had a reason to hold yourself back.
You started thinking more about her and less about your job. More about the future and less about... whatever you were doing in the moment.

You don't know where you'd be right now if you'd never met her, but probably nowhere good.

Honestly, you don't know what she ever saw in you. You were such an asshole back then. A million times worse than now.
Not even a "bad boy", just a downright asshole.

No, you kinda know. It's hard for you to accept, but you know.

She just genuinely cared about people, and wanted to help them.
Something so strange and foreign that you couldn't possibly accept it as being the reason, but that was probably it.

And because you enjoyed being around her, and she was so good for you, you just let it happen.

Yeah, it just sort of happened. Because that's just how she was.
And then she was gone just like she appeared, by chance.

You want to believe that.

You want to, but you can't. Nobody just fucking disappears, unless they get disappeared.
That's something you're very well aware of, because you and your team did a whole lot of that disappearing work.

>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.
>Just leave it be. The past is in the past, and knowing now won't bring her back.
>Write-In?

>>6103124
>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.

>>6103124
I can fix him, she said. It sorta worked it seems..
>Ask SHODAN for her info

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>>6103124
>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.

Mfw Shodan looked but found nothing.

>>6103124
>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.
He's gotta know.

>>6103124
>>Just leave it be. The past is in the past, and knowing now won't bring her back.

>>6103124
>Just leave it be. The past is in the past, and knowing now won't bring her back.
we're back in space, knowing what happened to her is pretty much a moot point

>>6103124
>Just leave it be. The past is in the past, and knowing now won't bring her back.
I'd rather not put a gun to my head a la 'eaky 'linders if it's bad.

>>6103124
>>Just leave it be. The past is in the past, and knowing now won't bring her back.

>>6103124
>>Just leave it be. The past is in the past, and knowing now won't bring her back.

>>6103124
>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.

>>6103124
>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.

Time to fight some demons, hopefully not literally.

>>6103124
>>SHODAN probably knows something. She won't tell you unless you ask, so ask.

>>6103124

You sit there for a good long while, going back and forth over whether or not to ask.

Maybe she doesn't know anything. Maybe she does.
But if she does know, you know it won't be anything good.

You're just going to hurt yourself doing this, David.

Stupid.

Could have just left it alone.

Could have just forgotten about it all.

Don't do it, dumbass.

"...SHODAN."

["Yes, Captain?"] She replies over the speakers in your room.

"You know what i want."

["I have taken the liberty of parsing all files related to Elizabeth Charlotte Scott. Ranked W-2, Aged 39 at the time of disappearance. Her case is technically still open, with intentional desertion deemed unlikely."]

"Tell me something i don't know."

["Private calls and texts between various individuals seem to indicate that her disappearance was a genuine surprise, and those aboard the Nimitz had no knowledge of the cause."]

That's something, you guess.
You'd hate to think one of the men you worked with had something to do with it.

But...

["However,"]

Yeah, here it comes.

["There are gaps in the data logging around the time of her disappearance, and for some months afterwards, indicating that information regarding her was intentionally wiped."]

You rest your elbow on your knee and cradle your head.

["Being a cyberwarfare specialist, Elizabeth naturally had an online presence, but a rather clean one, with very little publicly available information.
Her private information indicates that her disappearance was indeed sudden and unexpected for her as well. There is no significant change in the patterns of her behavior in the weeks and months leading up to her disappearance... except..."]

She paused. It's not like her to have pause.

"What?"

["David, i am uncertain that this is something you should hear."]

"...Tell me."

["This information may negatively affect your psychological-"]

"Just tell me! That's an order!"

["...Very well, Captain. It appears that miss Elizabeth had put in an early request for maternity leave, under the assumption that she would have difficulty getting it granted. She was approximately fourteen weeks-"]

You pick up the box full of shit from your house and slam it into the speaker, folding the box in half and taking a chunk out of the aluminum wall it was mounted in.

You stop thinking entirely, and just stand there.
You don't know why you just did that. You don't know why you're so pumped with adrenaline that it feels like your heart is going to burst out of it's chest.

So you just stand there, breathing heavily as your skin turns hot.

The door to the room slides open. Both Kyla and Sanig are there, and they're armed.

"What the hell was that, kid? Is it another wraith?!" Sanig asks.

"David, your hands are bleeding..." Kyla tells you.

You look down at your hand, and sure enough your palm is cut... or ripped open, maybe.
The skin feels a little funny, but it doesn't hurt.

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>>6104019
OH SHIT!
She was pregnant and then got dissappeared by the feds?
She found something out she wasn't supposed to, or got killed by some creep and there was a coverup, or aliens really are after David's genetic profile and the greys took her?
Well. Wow.

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>>6104019

>>6104019
Someone is gonna die.

>>6104119
Yeah, David when he has a heart attack from this.

>>6104123
>The Nanomachines inside David right now

"I'M FIGHTING FOR MY FUCKING LIFE SARGE!"

>>6104119
Even odds, David hops in the Metal Gear, supplies up, and heads straight back to Earth while Judas Priest's Screaming for Vengeance plays in the background.

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>>6104019

>>6104073
The greys wouldn't bother wiping records unless the (US) feds were cleaning up after them, and the (US) feds would not do that unless they were cooperating with the greys.
What was the timeline? Did she disappear while David was still serving (at 39 or older)?

Honestly, unless the kid was (likely) David's. (my autistic ass) would be more concerned about what's at hand in the present then worry about something that had already been settled years ago. David has so much more to lose at this point, and the trail isn't likely to get any colder, either.
However, from the gaps in what had been wiped, you can likely find out the nature (or department) of what she was involved with. I doubt that it has to do with her pregnancy, so you could start by seeing who else disappeared around the same time and looking for commonalities. It'd be a personal quest, and would not solve any of our present problems (but likely make it much worse).

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>>6104019
There will be a reckoning.

>>6104073
>>6104320
If it was the grey's, US fed could be operating the same way they were against us, max paranoia with everything done in secure rooms and physical media.
I like your ideas about seeking correlations. We should ask SHODAN what she predicts is the mostly likely candidate and act from there.

Regardless of what happens, we need the carrier finished.

>>6104386
>We should ask SHODAN what she predicts is the mostly likely candidate and act from there.
im 90% sure its gonna be earth politics again, and last time we went back there we left a lot of international alphabet groups pissed at us. im not saying its not worth it, but the trial is as dead cold as she probably is, it might be easier to look for the kid instead

>>6104019

You open and close your fingers a few times, watching the blood leak out from the ripped skin.
Then you shake your hand out, and throw three quick punches at the wall, leaving increasingly large dents with each strike.

Kyla and Sanig both jump back at the noise it makes, like metal slamming against metal.

There we go, now your hand hurts a little.

"David?!" Kyla exclaims, looking worried.

"Hey, i gotta go for a walk. Be back in a little bit." You tell her.

Kyla starts to protest and moves to stop you, but Sanig quickly pulls her away.

"Just hold on, girl! Something ain't right with him." He whispers to her.

"Nah, i just gotta walk." You mumble, heading to the airlock.

It cycles, and you find yourself in front of a ten foot drop.
Oh, that's right. You usually use the cargo ramp, don't you? But the airlock looks more like a door.

Oh well.

You hop down and start walking.
Not sure where you're going, but you really need to walk right now.

Actually, you might just jog.

...

.....

...

After jogging around the station three or four times, you start to feel a little better.
But your body is still really hot for some reason. Actually, you kind of feel like throwing up.

You think you could do it if you tried, so you focus on the feeling of wanting to throw up, and what do you know, it works.

Now you really feel a lot better.

You wipe your mouth with a sigh and a grin.
Looks like you stopped around one of the old shopping districts. There's a bunch of old stores here, some of which are still intact.

This seems like a good place to take a nap. It's even nice and cold.

You kick one of the shop doors, but your kick was unexpectedly weak and it doesn't budge.
This pisses you off, and your second kick folds it in half and rips it clear off the hinges.

Man, you're off your game today, aren't you? Huh.

Heading inside, you see the desiccated body of a shopkeeper lying in the corner of the room, by the register.
Poor fella, must have holed himself up in here and died of thirst or hunger.

You pick the opposite corner of him and sit down, leaning your back against the wall. The concrete floor and wall are cold. It feels good.
You slump over to one side, and allow your eyes to roll back into your head.

...

.....

...

"..vid."

Hmm, what's that?

"David?"

Ah, it's Cylia.

You open your eyes after a while, and Cylia's there, bent over and holding your shoulder.

"Oh, hey Cyl." You greet her.

"...Are you okay?" She asks.

"Uhhhh..."

You're honestly stumped. You don't know. Are you okay?
Hey, you feel like shit for some reason. Hand's broken, you think.

But you feel like you've asked yourself this question before. What's "okay", really?

You don't know. You don't have all the answers. You're not some fucking genius or quack psychiatrist.
So you just shrug. You shrug, and flutter your lips at her.

"Oh, babe..." She sighs.

Then she glances over at the corner and sees your buddy laying on the floor.

"Oh..."

>>6104441
Oh yeah, I'm not expecting her to be alive, or the kid really. But SHODAN must be able to plot out some idea of who's heads will be rolling

The thing with it just being earth politics is the why. I also feel like if it was just that David would of already had some semblance of a trail to follow. We don't know his full past but we know he's connected enough to some glowy shit to sniff things out if he wants to.

> and those aboard the Nimitz had no knowledge of the cause.
this line makes it sound like she disappeared on an aircraft carrier, which would def freak out the gov enough if they had evidence it was ayy's doing it.
This might even explain why the metal gear got nuked when we were first abducted. They were hyper-vigilant to see if it would happen again, and took a potshot when they caught them

>>6104463
It was the chinks that fired the nuke if I remember right.

>>6104463
Its was commie china that shot the nuke, not the us.
>Captcha
>YY2K
Ominous
>>6104446
I feel bad for Cylia and Kyla now, David has to get it together for the women he has left in his life

Guys its not complicated. She became a liability and was disposed off. Maybe our boy was still active and the news of a baby would shake him up so OF COURSE the best solution was to murder her. David would have to enact his vengeance on his direct superiors and some other big shots and thats it. The problem is that this is not the time (and we dont have the resources) to return to earth even if the killing takes only a day. We have to find out wtf happened to dark star, finish the cruiser, reenable communications and trade with Tekia and become too dangerous for the feds to bother with (but not enough to threaten their rule)

>>6104669
There's also the space whale that needs to be fed (Feds).

>>6104446

...

It's been three or four days since your little episode.
You've just been in kind of a daze since then. Not really doing much, thinkin' bout much.

You've just been staying at the mansion with your mom and sister, watching reruns of old TV shows. You haven't even been training, which has been nice.

But mom keeps getting pissed at you because you haven't been talking enough, apparently.
Well, what does she want you to say?

SHODAN already told everyone else what she told you.
You guess she had to. Everything kind of ground to a halt without you giving orders.

The bug extermination was supposed to be a few days ago. It just hasn't happened.

Cleanup's still going on, but nothing's really been resolved.
You don't know what the AIs are doing. Do they really need your input for every little thing?

Every few hours, one of your crew will come by to check on you.

Usually it's Cylia or Kyla, but Sanig and Gildur have both come by at least once.
There's nothing wrong with you, though. You haven't gone crazy or anything.

It's not like you're going to die just because you're sitting still.

You guess it's weird for them, though.
You never really stopped moving ever since you first came to this shithole of a station.

Not even sure why, really. For survival? You could have just laid low and looked for a way home.
You've already been back to earth. If you really wanted to, you could have just stayed.

It's not like you're particularly ambitious. You just like doing whatever you want.

Did you want to fight the federation? To kill wraiths and subjugate pirates?
Well, you guess so. You've always had an urge to fight that, frankly, wouldn't have gotten you very far living a normal life in some suburb.

It's not like you weren't comfortable after getting out of the military and settling down in that cornfield, but it was the most boring few years of your life.

Now though, you dunno.
It's weird. Like the fire lit under you just went out.

You lean your head back on the couch and stare up at the ceiling.

There's a gross feeling in the pit of your stomach.
You feel like you've felt it before, maybe when you were a kid.

You try to remember, but they're vague memories that feel more like a dream.

...Ah, right. This is how you felt when your dad died.

Great, now it's worse.

You get the feeling that some real dark thoughts are gonna start creeping in if you don't do something soon.

>Fighting always makes you feel better. You don't know if you're in the right condition for it, but the bug extermination still needs to happen.
>You just don't have it in you to do much at the moment. You absolutely don't want to talk it out with anyone either, but maybe you need to be around other people right now.
>If there's anything that might fix this feeling in your gut right now, it's killing everyone involved in whatever happened to her. Not very constructive, but it'll make you feel better for sure.
>Write-In?

>>6105121
>Fighting always makes you feel better. You don't know if you're in the right condition for it, but the bug extermination still needs to happen.

Move around it will be better. Jog for a bit take a look around the neighbourhood.
Lightly work out, think about the stuff you need to do. You will have time to think about this when you get back to earth, if you ever go back. Anything is better than thinking about it.

>>6105121
>>Fighting always makes you feel better. You don't know if you're in the right condition for it, but the bug extermination still needs to happen.

>>6105121
>>Fighting always makes you feel better. You don't know if you're in the right condition for it, but the bug extermination still needs to happen.

>>6105121
>>Write-In?
>>Try to contact the dark star bros

>>6105319
>+1 to this. Something isn't right.

>>6105121

>Write-In?
go do a weapons test of the carrier, it is a distraction but blowing up an asteroid is a pretty good distraction.

>>6105121
>>You just don't have it in you to do much at the moment. You absolutely don't want to talk it out with anyone either, but maybe you need to be around other people right now.

>>6105121
>Fighting always makes you feel better. You don't know if you're in the right condition for it, but the bug extermination still needs to happen.

>>6105319
Sure, supporting.

>>6105121

You don't know if you're really in the right headspace to be engaging in any sort of combat right now, but you guess it doesn't really matter.
The bugs have to die, that's all there is to it.

Some other guys are working on attaching trackers to the worker insects and mapping out the tunnels, but the guards have to go.

Cylia, who's currently just sitting with you on the couch, leaned over onto you, seems a little surprised when you suddenly stand up and start stretching out.

"David, are you hungry? I'll cook for you if you want something..." She offers.

"Sounds nice, but no thanks."

"Do you need to pee? I can pause the movie..."

"Nah. Get up, we gotta go work."

"Huh?"

"We're behind schedule, so come on. Let's go get to work."

"Are you sure? Don't you think you should rest a little more, or-"

"I'm going crazy sittin' here, Cyl. I gotta do something to clear up my head."

"...Alright. If you're sure."

"I'm sure."

...

After informing your crew, you drop by the Metal Gear to get kitted out.
Seeing just how many bugs there were last time and how hard they were to kill, you'll be going in your Mk-2 armor this time, and probably have the Mk-1 on standby as heavy backup.

When you get to the ship, you find Kyla and Sanig both still hard at work. They both greet you, but only Kyla seems surprised to see you up and at 'em.
Sanig, on the other hand...

"Took you long enough to get your shit together, kid." He grumbles, not even turning away from his work.

"Worried you were gonna die from old age first, huh?"

"Not a chance. I'll outlive all of you little brats." He scoffs.

Although he's being like that, you see what he's been working on.
Sanig's your weapons expert, and he's clearly been hard at it while you were wallowing.

Despite taking time out to visit you on occasion, he's already finished modifying and tuning both the tesla rifle and the tox-pack based on the combat data you collected.

All the problems you had with them have been minimized, and all the potential you saw in them has been maximized.
After asking him about them, he gives you a demonstration out on the docks.

The tox-pack has been reinforced a bit, some of it's tubes are armored or hidden, and it now sports a metal mesh that can be electrified to "reject" any hangers-on.
It's nothing complex, just a small battery and a big capacitor, taking advantage of the fact that the rubber suit you wear with this thing is electrically insulated.

It'll blast your ass across the room if you touch it, so no critters are going to latch on or nibble on it without consequence.

Speaking of the rubber suit, it's been improved in a few ways.
First off, it's lighter... or it would have been, if not for the addition of other systems.

>>6105684
>or it would have been, if not for the addition of other systems.
Yoooo built in autoblow LETS GO

>>6105684
Daaaaw, Our new company mascot has a fancy suit.

>>6105684
Well, at least some good came out of the delay. Should improve survival rates.

>>6105684

The addition of stiff armor under the rubber layers allows it to take a little more of a beating. It just means you won't be wearing it over whatever other armor you have, it goes on over clothing only.
The inner layer of the suit now has a cooling jacket, with a small external radiator and fan. Not essential, but Ronnie did mention how hot the suit got, and after wearing the Mk-1 for a while, you understand.

Since it needed a battery for the zappy cage anyways, it wasn't a big ask. Fortunately you don't need a huge battery to run a small pump and fan.

Lastly, it's been made mostly fireproof using a few different methods, including insulative padding, which only makes the cooling jacket more critical, the addition of some fire retardant chemicals to the rubber layer, and an inert outer coating.
All the different layers have made it slightly thicker, which would have been a problem for mobility, so the joints were replaced with carbon fiber and hardened steel, coated in an intumescent material to reject heat...

And of course, the reason that's required is the modifications that have been made to the sprayer itself.

Simply put, it's been retrofitted into a flamethrower.

The solvents used to form toxic glass needles was already flammable, but it wasn't designed to be used that way before.
Now, the whole pack has been reworked and fitted with an additional tank, full of some spicy liquid that can be injected along with the toxin mix.

There's two triggers now. The original one on the main handle, and the new one on the foregrip.
Literally all it does is open up the valve on that extra tank and ignite the pilot light.

Technically you could use them individually, but the fireball is much bigger if you use them together. It's really sticky too, almost like napalm but runnier.

...

The tesla rifle was already pretty effective, and most of it's problems came from user error. That is, the inability to follow fucking directions.
So it had to be retard-proofed, just a little bit.

"I'll be honest, kid. I was conflicted over this one.... I didn't want to reduce the power or range any, so i didn't."

The new tesla rifle's power pack is... bigger. And heavier.

Sanig optimized it as much as possible, but it's still at least time and a half the size and weight as before.
However, it can now be fired continuously. Half of the caps charge while the other half are discharging, simple as that.

"This thing weighs at least a hundred pounds, Sanig. I have doubts any of those guys are gonna be able to lug it around for very long."

"Yep, that's what this is for!" Kyla says, butting in.

She pulls a tarp off of something, revealing it to be a... pair of legs.
Well, it looks like a frame that would go around your legs.

"What's this, half an exosuit?" You wonder.

"Yes, actually!" She grins.

Taking the tesla pack from you, she hefts it over her head and slots it onto the back of the free-standing exosuit frame, where it audibly clicks into place.

>>6106277
>She pulls a tarp off of something, revealing it to be a... pair of legs.
>Well, it looks like a frame that would go around your legs.
I hate this shit. If your guy gets an artery punctured or their legs break Or even worse, the frame bents the wrong way, taking the leg with it you can't tourniquet or put on a spling

>>6106278
Skill issues

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>>6106279

>>6106278
I have a very simple solution to that. Don't get your legs shot or stabbed. If you're not the guy running the Tesla, protect the guy who is.

>>6106286
The protection onion. Don't get shot.

>>6106277

"Since the power pack is just one big, fat power supply, i figured why not!"

She smacks the side of it a couple times, then yanks down on it. The device bends at the knee, tilting backwards slightly, but doesn't fall over.

"I just took the lower skeleton of the Mk-1 power armor, modified it a little, threw in a gyroscope, and bam! Power legs!"

This looks like more than a slight modification, but alright.

"It's a completely skeletonized titanium frame, kid. No armor, but you won't feel the weight of the pack at all." Sanig explains.

"Alright." You sigh. "What happens if it breaks and snaps your leg off?"

"Please, i'm no amateur." Kyla scoffs. "There are pins here to stop them from articulating beyond the expected range. They exceed the motor's maximum shear strength by about double."

"If it still happens, blame god for your luck." Sanig smiles.

"Fair enough, i guess. But do you think it'd be possible to put armor on there?" You ask.

"Sure, but at that point it might as well be a proper Mk-2 suit. These are cheap, simple and quick to print. No special materials, no special requirements... you don't even need a skinsuit!"

"So the reaction's laggy, huh."

"Only by comparison. I had one of the guys on the dock try them out, and he said they were great. Actually, those guys requested a full exoskeleton suit for their work..."

"Up to you, Kyla. I don't really care." You shrug.

Kyla's smile fades.

"You're still in a bad mood, huh."

"Not trying to be." You respond, looking away from her. "Just not in a great place right now."

A set of metallic tendrils worm their way out of Kyla's backpack and lift her up into the air, until her head's at the same height as yours.
They rap rhythmically against the metal as she uses them to walk over to you, and wrap her arms around your neck.

"I'm sorry, Hon. I can't say i know what you're going through, but we're all here for you."

Kyla's AI, Dak, beeps at you from the backpack as well.

You feel a little ridiculous being comforted by someone so small.
...The backpack definitely makes it worse. She rarely uses it inside the ship, so sometimes you forget she even has it.

Feeling embarrassed, you wrap one arm around her and pat her on the back as well.

"Well, thanks. I just need some time, alright?"

"Sure." She says, releasing you, but maintaining her height. "I get it. It took me a while to get over what happened to me, too."

"Mmm." You nod.

You're not sure this is something you can really "get over".
But right now, you just want to think about something else. Anything else.

"So anyways," You say, changing the topic. "Anything else with the tesla rifle?"

"Not really, no. It seemed to perform really well, it's only problem was being unable to fire continuously. And fixing that, well, the weight..."

"I did put together that other thing you wanted, though." Sanig tells you, pulling a Gyro-Rifle out of a crate and handing it to you.

>>6106812
>"I did put together that other thing you wanted, though." Sanig tells you, pulling a Gyro-Rifle out of a crate and handing it to you.
uuuuuuuuuugh rifles have to shoot forward and that's it damn it

Say, what about people we took from Earth in cryopods? We have a set of very capable underlings and we're not putting them to work. Seems like a waste

>>6107270
They're probably working on the Carrier and getting the station unfucked.

>>6107270
>>6107271
They're frozen to reduce food and energy consumption. If they were removed from their pods they'd have to eat ze bugs.

>>6106812

It's fitted with an under-barrel grenade launcher...

"Loads like a shotgun." He explains. "No magazine though, just one round at a time. Has it's own trigger, no safety. Simple as it gets."

You give the launcher a good look-over. It's as simple as his says, and attached only via rail and locking pin.

"The grenades are also done, of course... all up to spec."

He hands you a bandolier, with a dozen or so 25mm grenades shoved into it.
Each one is marked with different colors of paint to indicate their usage.

There's regular frag rounds, HE rounds, smoke, CS gas, nerve gas, smoke of various colors and three types of shotgun round.

"You didn't specify what kind of shotgun you wanted out of this, so there's a twelve-guage variant and a 23mm variant." Sanig tells you.

"...A 23mm variant?" You question.

"Tube wall was too thin, had to give the casing some extra thickness to keep it from exploding. That one only comes in buckshot, but the twelve gauge has slugs and darts, too."

"...Did you test the recoil on that?"

"Personally? Hells no." He scoffs. "I wouldn't touch that thing if it grew my dick back. But the simulations all say it won't explode, so go for it."

Yeah, you don't know about that. The gyro-rifle is very light for what it is. Firing one of these might hurt.
Maybe, you don't know. Kinda makes you want to try it...

Ah, fuck it. You got nothing to lose.

"We got a target set up anywhere?" You ask.

Sanig points at a half-collapsed building just outside of the docks.
Yeah, that'll work.

Heading over there, you pull a 23mm buckshot round out of the bandolier and swiftly load it into the launcher.
It makes a satisfying noise as it seats into the tube.

Behind you, Sanig and Kyla huddle behind a hardlight shield and watch you intently.

"Way to inspire confidence, guys." You grumble.

"Don't worry about us, kid."

"Wish we had some popcorn..." Kyla whispers.

Ignoring them both, you aim at a chunk of wall that looks like it's about to collapse, and pull the second trigger.
It's... almost shockingly loud. You don't think that's normal gunpowder in there.

The butt of your rifle also digs deep into your shoulder. Might have a bruise later, but it's nothing you can't handle.

As for the wall, well, there's a sudden cloud of concrete dust, and the chunk falls from where it was hanging to the ground, shattering on impact.

A quick inspection of the tube and gun reveals that the launcher is a bit loose now, and rattles around just slightly.
The screws holding it in place were forced back, bending them and cutting into the rail. It then slammed into the rear locking pin and bent that slightly out of shape, too.

You show this to Sanig, who clicks his tongue.

"Knew it should have been hardened steel." He cusses.

The other rounds are all unremarkable, and work about as you'd expect.
It'll be nice to have the option, and it doesn't add all that much weight to the rifle, which again, is relatively light anyways.

>>6107395
Alright, now it needs truck nuts and a bottle opener.

>>6107395
Maybe skip the hardened steel and go straight to vanadium alloy?

>>6107528
I imagine we have a lot more carbon and iron than we do vanadium. No reason to waste rare ores on something that's probably gonna get broken by some retarded pirate anyways.

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Masterkey huh? But- oh Jehová the OICW is back with vengeance

>>6107395

You go over a few other small things.
Apparently the aim correction software has been improved a lot, and there's a new "economy" fuel mix for the rockets.

A few other small issues were also fixed with the overall design, allowing the weight to be reduced even further while upping the stiffness of the frame.
You thought it felt a little lighter, but in this gravity it's hard to tell.

None of it really matters though, not to you anyways.

You like your regular guns and regular bullets in most situations.
If you need firepower, you'll use a rifle or a shotgun. If you need to not overpenetrate, you'll use your pistol. Simple as that.

The gyro-rifle is first and foremost, a rifle for the masses. For aliens and idiots, for cripples and dainty little women.
It doesn't kick. It aims for you. It physically can't overpenetrate when firing inside a ship.

These are all fixes for problems you personally just don't have.
It's a nice gun, don't get it twisted. But it's not meant for you.

The bolter variant on the other hand...

If it didn't try to blow your arm off whenever you fired it, you'd fuckin' love the thing.
It's not too bad if you're wearing the Mk-2 armor though, and you don't feel it at all in the Mk-1.

It hits like a fuckin' dump truck, too. If the target's close range, all that extra fuel just detonates on impact or just inside the target.
At close range, they're explosive rounds. At long range, they're HV. And as we all know, HV equals AP.

Alright, maybe it's just fuckin' fun to shoot, but whatever.
You toss the prototype Sanig gave you back onto the table.

"So, we're probably going through with the extermination sometime today." You tell the two of them. "Is all the gear updated already or what?"

"Yeah." Sanig tells you. "It's easy enough to shove the whole crate onto the fab platform. Just takes a while to finish like that."

"Alright. Get some guys to ship it up to the merchant quarters. I got a couple stops to make first."

"You got it, kid."

You turn to walk off, but Kyla stops you.

"Hey, hon?" She calls out. "Take care, alright? Tell us if you need anything. I don't think i can handle you if you go nuts."

"Yeah, don't worry about it." You reply, only stopping for a moment.

...

Now back up in the upper district, which you affectionately refer to as the "merchant quarters", you find yourself at Lyna's office.
There's a pair of pirates here who seem to have minor injuries from training, but besides them nobody else is around.

Lyna isn't even seeing to them, it's one of her nurses instead.

You call out to the nurse.

"Hey, is the doc in?"

"Sorry sir, i'll be with you in a minute..." She says, not paying you any attention as she tries to keep the two pirates from bickering.

Seems like they got hurt sparring with eachother.

You inhale sharply, and both of them get zapped pretty bad.
The nurse is surprised by it, and takes a few steps back as both men collapse and grab at their necks.

>>6108130
>which you affectionately refer to as the "merchant quarters"
Oy

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>>6108130
So many of these aliens are weak and not so smart. Reminded me of this.

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>>6108130
>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vHSNZK4Je-Y
>"SHODAN, why the fuck is Hava Nagila playing over the loudspeakers up here?"
>"Mister Pickle suggested it shortly after we started referring to this area as "The Merchant's Quarters". If you do not like it-"
>"Oh no no no, this is fucking hilarious. Keep it on and start handing out latkes around here."

>>6108158
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2bEZQ00OOxY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7f7m0mQKT0
Their reputation precedes them for once

>>6108130

As you relax, the collars let up and the men are released from their torment.
You aren't actually controlling them with your mind or anything. SHODAN is constantly watching you after your little episode, and she can practically read your mind.

Of course, she literally has access to all of your memories up to a certain point, and you've spent a lot of time together, so she knows how you think.
But still, it's scary how accurate she is at guessing what you're thinking or what you want.

Maybe she's reading your facial expressions through the office's security cameras, you don't know.

Anyway, not important.
You step over the two men who just got dropped, and ask again.

"Where's doc Lyna?"

"Uh... o-office... sir." The nurse replies nervously.

The nurse dutifully starts tending to the two pirates after you walk past her.
You walk into Lyna's office and... you're hit with a bit of a smell.

The disorganized but relatively sanitary appearance of the office just a few days ago has disappeared, and now it's a complete mess.
There are beakers, test tubes, half-eaten packages of food and drink, stacks of holopads and data crystals, and just garbage everywhere.

In the middle of the pile is Lyna's computer desk, with the only clear space being around Lyna herself.

She doesn't look too good, honestly.

"...When was the last time you slept?" You ask.

"82 hours ago. Don't worry about it, i've got an implant that mitigates the risk." She replies, not bothering to glance away from her screen.

Your brow furrows.

"Dude. I know i'm not one to talk, but that can't be fuckin' good for you."

"This is nothing compared to when i was younger. Caffeine also helps a lot. Send my regards to mister Sanig, if you would."

She sips on something that looks a lot like a cup of coffee.

"...Is that decaf?"

"No."

"Oh, hell. How did the old man even... no, fuck it, whatever."

You're pretty sure you banned him from synthesizing caffeine after he got addicted to it, but it's hard to tell him anything when it comes to his drug intake.

"Anyways, you've been up for days, so something must have happened. What is it? What did you find?"

Lyna turns around in her chair and hands you a vial of fine grey powder.

"...What's this?"

"Redsang." She replies. "Or more specifically, the nanomachines found inside of Redsang. When mixed with the chemical stimulants in the formulae, those nanomachines actually give it it's characteristic red hue. Interesting, isn't it?"

"I guess. So where did you get this?"

"They were extracted from the insects you killed, while refining the meat to be used as food."

"So the nanofab got it all out?"

"Quite easily, yes. The nanomachines are detected as foreign matter, and while they can't be manipulated, they can be moved and thus extracted. The meat is quite clean as a result."

"Well, that's good. But i guess i was right then, huh? Bioaccumulation." You sigh.

"Correct. You have quite a discerning mind, for a man of war. Knowledgeable."

>>6108565
>"Correct. You have quite a discerning mind, for a man of war. Knowledgeable."

Its the wrinkles :)

https://youtu.be/IrRA2zl2Er0 mmm numclear pamsta

>>6108565
Bioaccumulation, a common trend on top predators and plants... those bugs must have eaten a truckload of corpses huh? Also, if the bugs were uuuuuuh not huge pre-crisis, can't we look for compatible specimens in a database? We already have samples and living ones to study but it doesn't hurt to reference past research. If redsang rewrites genes to bring out more primite versions of creatures (besides all the roids, agression and turning into grey goo...) then the huge bugs were prehistoric versions of smaller ones.

>>6108565
>"Correct. You have quite a discerning mind, for a man of war. Knowledgeable."
A man who is strong but not smart is a horse. We ain't no horse. Despite what the ladies may say.

>>6108565
Is there a test we can administer on everyone(ourselves included) to check for contamination levels, and perhaps a treatment?

>>6108728
Sure we can throw people into the fabs and check for nanobots

>>6108565

"One might think you were raised to be a senator or councilman." She continues unnecessarily.

"Hey now, no need to cuss me out."

"It was no insult, David. Few people have the breadth of knowledge and skill that you do. Whether by design or by nature matters little."

...You feel like Lyna's acting a little odd.
Not that you know her that well, but you think she might be more tired than she's admitting to.

"Thanks, i guess? But i feel like i'm... well, no, i'm definitely not normal. Yeah, nevermind."

She nods and turns back to her computer.

"So, i've discovered that the concentration of redsang in each individual varies widely, although it tends to trend upwards with age. You might think the guard insects would have the highest concentrations, but it's the workers."

"No, that makes sense to me." You say, leaning over her shoulder to look at her screen. It's a bunch of random numbers and charts you can't really make heads or tails of.

"They're the ones cutting up corpses and bringing them back to the nest, right?" You tell her.

"Correct. They also have shorter lifespans, though. The guards don't seem to age much, and likely get recycled when injured."

"Recycled... you mean cannibalism?"

"Exactly. The insects accumulate redsang through the corpses they eat, then further concentrate it by eating eachother."

"So, there's no way that's not what's causing the birth defects, right?"

"Most likely. It'll be hard to say without access to the queen, but based on the eggs you brought back, i believe i understand what's going on."

She flips through the charts on her screen until she arrives at the one she wants, a side-by-side comparison.

"As you can see here, the unmutated eggs contain almost no redsang at all, while the mutated eggs contain extremely high dosages. There is no inbetween."

"Huh. So what does that mean? It can't be two queens, they'd both be eating the same food, wouldn't they?"

"Unless one was exclusively dining on greenhouse plants, yes. However, that doesn't appear to be the case, since insects from the greenhouse ward also had high levels of redsang. in their system.
I believe the queen's ovaries contain a large store of unfertilized eggs. There may also be an organ for storing genetic material for fertilization, rather than requiring constant mating."

She swaps charts again. It's genetic data this time, though you don't recognize any of it.

"There could be two cases. Either some, but not all of the eggs are contaminated with redsang, or her partners are so badly contaminated that their seed is no longer fully functional." She concludes.

"Which do you think it is?"

"Honestly, it could be either. Or even both. Regardless, many of these eggs aren't going to hatch, and those that do will be badly misshapen."

"I didn't see any mutated bugs amongst those we killed, though. Not even one."

"They're recycled when injured, remember?"

Ah... and mutation is considered an "Injury" to them. That makes sense.

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>>6109276
>"One might think you were raised to be a senator or councilman."
I AIN'T NO SENATOR'S SON

>>6109276
>"Few people have the breadth of knowledge and skill that you do. Whether by design or by nature matters little."

>Yeah, the voices really are knowledgeable about all sorts of different subjects
>... what?!
>Hm?

>>6109276

"So, say we wanted to pull the redsang out of them..." You ask.

"There are two methods. Either inject them with even more nanomachines, or capture them and place them into a nanofabricator."

Lyna turns around in her chair to look at you.

"However, both have issues. The first is of course, administering any treatment at all will be difficult. Even the workers will fight vigorously once captured."

"We can manage it." You assure her.

"I'll bet. In that case, the problem with the nanomachine method is one of scale and resources. Normally only small dosages are required to treat any issue, but in this case, one nanomachine is required to counter another."

She holds the vial of redsang nanomachines in front of her face and shakes the powder around.

"This may not look like much, but it's an extremely large quantity. Enough to kill or transform thousands of people once ingested."

"Don't drop it..." You warn.

She tosses the vial up into the air and catches it with her whole palm, then gently sets it into a rack on her desk.

"I can propagate nanomachines in my lab, but to do so i require a supply of a certain special material. Something that can't simply be mined from an asteroid or processed in a nanofab..."

"Warp metal, right?" You guess.

"Yes. You're aware of that, too?"

"I've been using it for all kinds of shit. My crew has weapons and armor doped with the stuff, and i've even smithed it by hand."

Lyna looks at you like you've just told her that you shit rainbows.

"...Why?"

"Why what? You'll have to be more specific."

"Why all of it. In order." She asks. Actually, it sounds more like she's demanding to know.

"Killing wraiths, mostly. But i've been saving up a supply of it to forge my own warp drive for the carrier. I got a guy back on my home planet working on it right now, actually."

She stares at you in an odd way. Almost like she's squinting at you, either in confusion or disbelief.
She then closes her eyes entirely, takes a moment, then seemingly shuts her brain off before speaking again.

"So you've killed a wraith, then." She concludes.

"Quite a few. Some by hand. Even a couple big ones." You reply, smiling slightly.

"I assume you have proof? Some kind of evidence?"

"Sure. Skins, bones, crystals... even entire bodies. You know how the Metal Gear sets off the dark matter alarms every time we pull into port, right?"

"I believe the whole station is aware, Captain."

"They're made of dark matter. No real blood or organs to speak of, at least not like we have. Solid, liquid, gaseous. Sometimes papery, sometimes leathery or woody in texture... but it's all the same stuff."

"...You're not lying. Fascinating."

"Why would i lie?" You shrug.

"Who knows? But, since you know so much, i assume you know what i'll ask next as well."

"You want to study the remains."

"Not exactly difficult to guess." She says with a smile.

>>6109863

>I don't mind. My crew has already tried, but we haven't learned much.
>It's probably not a good idea. Wraiths are bad for your health, both physically and mentally...
>I don't mind, but it has to be supervised. I'll lend you one of my AIs as a lab assistant, if that's alright.
>Write-In?

>I don't mind, but it has to be supervised. I'll lend you one of my AIs as a lab assistant, if that's alright.
Hopefully the reply isn't dubbled

>>6109864
>I don't mind, but it has to be supervised. I'll lend you one of my AIs as a lab assistant, if that's alright.

She's going to have to get used to having her mind blown. Especially when she finds out we can develop psychic powers using near death experiences with the druggiest of drugs and the demon core.

>>6109276
MICROPLASTICS IN OUR BALLS
MICROPLASTICS IN THEIR OVARIES
MICROPLASTICS IN FETUSES
IS REDSANG AN ANALOGY TO MICROPLASTICS!??!?!?!??

>>6109864
>>Write-In?
>>Ok but first I will do a procedure on you... *makes her a psyker*

>>6109864
>I don't mind, but you're gonna be doing it in a hazmat suit. You're the only qualified doctor I got...and enough of this days without sleep shit. Go get some rest.

>>6110004
Microplastics don't give me super strength and turn me into a giant acid pissing tumor (yet) so not really, probably.

>>6110028
Speaking of super strength, whatever happened to that feral Caithan?

>>6110032
Pickle is fucking her into submision as we speak

>>6109863
>I don't mind, but you're gonna be doing it in a hazmat suit. You're the only qualified doctor I got...and enough of this days without sleep shit. Go get some rest.

Also, bugs like these usually mate with many drones and store the sperm for their entire lifespan but maybe these bugs need their queens to constantly mate with drones to replenish their reserves or the redsang transformation created that need.
So I am back with my theory.
>MICROPLASTICS IN MY BALLS

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>>6109864
>I don't mind, but it has to be supervised and you're doing it in a hazmat suit. You're the only qualified doctor I got. I'll lend you one of my AIs as a lab assistant, if that's alright. And enough of this days without sleep shit. Go get some rest.

>>6109864
>>I don't mind, but it has to be supervised. I'll lend you one of my AIs as a lab assistant, if that's alright.

Warn her of the various side effects, the terror, the possible development of psychic powers, and everything else we've noticed

>>6109863
>>6110237
+1 to both
.
Where are microplastics stored?