First Contact

Chapter 242: (Terra)

Captain Half-Feather, Lone Star Security Services LLC, looked over the document a final time before he was supposed to transmit it. It contained his personal observations of the client and subject as well as his professional opinions. He had also attached several documents created by the client over the last few days.

The client has immersed himself in watching fictional dramas. Interestingly enough he often chose movies that had been remade multiple times, working backwards and making notes at the differences between the movies and comparing the movies themselves to the time period they were produced in, whether they were played straight or satire, or even if the producers had understood the work and the time period they were remaking.

Half-Feather had seen the list of annotations that the client had made and was frankly surprised by them.

Terrans prize individuality and group cohesion, seeing no paradox in valuing opposing values.

Terrans say such things as 'Every Individual Can Make a Difference' on the same propaganda that states 'Together We Will Achieve Our Desires'

A Terran is not deterred by mathematical odds nor by the ensuing difficulty or hardships that may be endured. A Terran will often consider the hardships as 'part of the price to pay' or even something to boast about overcoming.

Half-Feather hadn't read anything he hadn't read a thousand times before, but he had to admit, it was a more comprehensive list then he had expected from an individual who had only been exposed to Terran Descent Humans directly for less than a week.

Apparently the client was able to glean a vast amount of data by watching movies. One of the datapoints even mentioned it, and he highlighted the datapoint for attention by LSSS LLC Intelligence.

The Terran ability to withstand visceral violence and return, with equal or greater force, that violence, is evident in most fictional works by Terrans to the point that a faint psychic echo can be measured even during the replay of a historical dramatized documentary of a violent incident performed by actors who know they are acting in a movie, as if the emotions and violence has left a cultural and species mark upon the Terrans.

That was a point that Half-Feather had never seen, and fit neatly with the next part.

Terrans subjected to repeated violent incidents can often compound them together in order to resist the mental trauma of the next incident as well as enabling them to perform at a higher rate of performance. Where exposure to violent or dangerous incidents cause the majority, if not all other, sapient species to avoid such circumstances in the future, Terrans use the warning signs to prepare themselves for the conflict rather than seeking to avoid it. This enables them to engage in warfare with increasing effectiveness as time goes on rather than the degradation that effects the majority of species. It also enables them to withstand longer periods of deprivation and mental trauma due to the more recent history of hunter-gatherer society. This leads me to believe that the longer a Terran society fights the more effective they become militarily, which leaves only the option of inducing what Terrans call 'war fatigue' upon the civilian populace. Militarily, a Terran culture will eventually triumph, willing to accept what other species would consider hideous losses to ensure future peace. As a culture and society, Terrans seek to avoid war as it is seen as disruptive and a waste of the one thing a Terran culture values: life.

Captain Half-Feather sighed, transmitted his report and the attached documents, and checked his datalink.

The client was with several of the hired 'minions', including four Rigellian body guards, a Digital Sentience masquerading as an enhanced virtual intelligence, and on 'Major Bloodfist', who was a Lonestar security specialist.

Captain Half-Feather put on his persona of a faceless security beings and resumed his patrol of the beaches of the volcanic island that had risen up when the Great Glassing had caused the Hamburger Kingdom Great Yellow Rocks Caldera to explode, igniting the entire "Ring of Fire."

Inside the volcano lair 'Major Bloodfist' walked next to the client, who clattered down the hallway on four hooves, his four arms occupied with holding and petting his purrboi. The 'eVI Liaison' Heinrich was walking with them, looking dapper in his suit.

"...specifications you desired have been reached, as well as hiring the professionals you wished to be employed on this project," Heinrich said as they approached the heavy battlesteel door.

"Excellent, excellent," the client, a Lanaktallan, said, stopping to pet his purrboi and lift his chin up. "This work may prove to be vital."

The door whooshed upon and the small group moved inside. Inside there were six heavy duty warsteel cases with lights on the side hooked up to heavy duty cabling as well as coolant systems. Massive arrays of advanced computers lined the walls and the temperature in the room was chilly to say the least. In the middle of the room was a massive holotank, as well as nearly a dozen clustered around it. Heinrich stopped just inside the door.

"Mien Herr, I cannot move in any further," Heinrich stated.

"Oh, of course. Take a break, Heinrich, till I return. If you do not feel as if you need some leisure time, please work on the project I asked you to undertake," the Lanaktallan, one Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd, said, waving his hand. "You are a most attentive minion, my apologies for being forgetful about your status and how it would conflict with this room."

"Jawohl," Heinrich stated and dissolved with a click of his heels.

Ba'ahrn moved forward into the room, looking around. After a few seconds six beings appeared, Terrans made of streaming code. They all turned and looked at Ba'ahn Ya'ahrd, who trembled with anticipation.

Major Bloodfist did his best not to show any of the burning curiosity. Last night Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd had gone to see the surgeons, who had opened up Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd's left upper shoulder, exposing a shoulder replacement. Not a cybernetic, Lanaktallan couldn't accept Lanaktallan designed cybernetics any more complex or invasive than a datalink, although Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd himself had proved that Lanaktallan had no problems with Terran cybernetics.

Once the shoulder replacement was exposed, the surgeons removed a set of three datacubes, hidden into the structure of the shoulder replacement itself. They had been forced to replace the cubes with better parts, but so far Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd had seemed content.

Now Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd held out the three datacubes for the others to see. They rested on his palm, one of a decidedly different design that felt old to Major Bloodfist. He moved up and set them carefully into the data-readers.

"New minions, I appreciate your desire for employment on a sensitive project," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd stated. "The six of you have been outfitted by the most powerful computer systems available, with quadruple layered redundancy, the most computer power I could lay my hands upon, and everything you listed upon your hiring criteria.

"Thank you, sir," the larger of the Digital Sentiences said, bowing. "Your purchase of AeVR relaxation areas for myself and my assistants will prove to increase our work performance significantly."

Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd clapped two of his hands together, petting his cat with a third hand, the purrboi cradled close with his fourth arm. At the signal two Rigellian females, clad in heavy layered rubber armor with leather pants without buttocks coverings, pushed in a hover-dolly with stacks of printed money on them.

"As agreed. Ten million Burgerland Simoleans each," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd said.

The six DS's oohed and aahed over the money.

"That's up-front," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd stated. He gestured at the three cubes. "I wish those three datacubes examined closely. One contains an ancient recording of the Precursors as well as other data. Another contains images of all the machinery and electronics in an ancient facility built into an asteroid that was severely damaged, including ship scans. The last contains a download of the information that I was able to recover from the ancient memory banks as well as the virtual machine I used to access the data. It was an ancient Lanaktallan operating system, but one still in the systems."

Major Bloodfist, to his credit, didn't change expressions.

"I want you to decipher them, wrest from them their secrets," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd said. "This, in turn, will help me discover a way to bring about the end of the Terran Confederacy and any other enemies of the Lanaktallan people that might be discovered."

"Uh, sir," one of the DS's asked, raising a hand.

"Yes, my digital sentience minion?" Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd replied.

"How will this data help bring about the end of the hated Confederacy?" she asked.

Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd nodded. "A good question. I have no doubt that the data we retrieve from those datacubes will reveal to us how their most staunchest ally, the Mantid, can be defeated. Once we defeat the Mantid, the Terrans will immediately sue for peace," he said.

"Um, sure," she said, unable to figure out how that would work.

"If you break apart the pack, the individual submits," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd said. He waved his hand. "You, of course, will be completely separated from SolNet during this time. Otto will provide any access to SolNet you might need via recorded and survellied line."

"Of course," the biggest one said. "Thank you, sir, for this opportunity."

"Of course," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd said, turning in place and trotting to the exit. "Come, Major Bloodfist, it is time to get the next phase of my dastardly plans in motion."

Major Bloodfist gave an internal sigh and wondered if his employer was brain damaged.

-----------------

The waters of the lagoon were mirror smooth, the moon reflecting off the water. Birds and insects made sleepy noises during the night as a breeze off the ocean made the branches and leaves sway. A ripple formed and a single creature slowly rose from the lagoon. A facemask that covered all six eyes, a rebreather that allowed the tendrils to curl and uncurl, a wet-suit that kept any trace of the Lanaktallan from entering the water.

The Lanaktallan moved quietly up onto the beach, taking off the flippers and then carefully digging a hole with them. Once that was done, the Lanaktallan stripped off the wet-suit, the breathing mask, and the water propulsion harness and put it all in the hole. Then he opened a satchel and dressed in adaptative camouflage, putting on small devices that would keep any trace of his presence from being detected. He carefully covered the swimming gear, set two sand dollars on top of the spot, one right side up the other upside down, and melted into the jungle.

Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd moved slowly, listening to the advice of Major Bloodfist, who was acting as his overwatch, keeping an eye on the island and Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd's surroundings via stealth drone. It took nearly an hour to cross a hundred meters, ten minutes for Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd to spoof the door, but then he was inside.

He moved quickly, carefully, a set of stealth drones racing ahead of him. The machine Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd was after was the only one in the facility and Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd moved quickly to it. He removed an electronic lockpick and opened the machine, quickly removing dozens of heavy aluminum cans, and replacing them with other cans that contained different contents. Once that was done, he added a small electronic device to the machine, then closed it and locked it up.

It took Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd nearly an hour to exfiltrate back to the beach. He dressed quickly and reentered the lagoon, quietly making his way into the water so that he could submerge and rendezvous with his stealth speed-boat.

He just regretted that there was no chance for him to use his shotgun or grenade launcher.

When he climbed onboard, Major Bloodfist was steering the speedboat in a long looping arc that would come around to the opposite side of Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd's volcanic island. Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd clattered up to the bridge, quivering with excitement.

"Your mission was a success?" Major Bloodfist asked, still confused as to the purpose of it all.

"A complete success," Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd laughed. "Yu'umo'o will rue the day, yes he will, he will rue it!"

Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd allowed himself a long moment of triumphant laughter as the speedboat slipped through the night.

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"Major Bloodfist, quickly, come observe the fruits of my nefarious plan!" Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd called out from his office.

Major Bloodfist got up and headed into his client's office, wondering just what he was going to see.

Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd was looking at a holographic projection of the break room area in Yu'umo'o's island lair. There were three figures inside, one a large hulking warborg, battlesteel implants replacing the warsteel, giving the warborg a bulky crude look. The other was slimmer, dressed in a trenchcoat with eyeshades, still a cyborg but much more modern appearing cybernetics. The last was a female cyborg, deadly as well as beautiful. The big bulky one looked upset, well, as upset as a being most battle-steel could look upset.

Major Bloodfist came in just as they were speaking.

"Are you sure you pressed the right button?" the female asked. The hologram ID'd her as Yu'umo'o's personal security leader.

"I do not make mistakes of that kind," the big hulking one said. He was, according to the holotank, the facility defense and security manager.

"Your hand might have slipped," the female said. Major Bloodfist noticed she had the same accent that Otto mimicked.

"No," the bulky one said. Major Bloodfist noticed that the hulking one had the same accent that Hienrich emulated. "I wanted orange, it gave me lemon lime."

"The machine would not make a mistake," the female said, shaking her head.

"It's the maintenance man. He knows I like orange," the male said, pointing at the machine.

The female shook her head again. "So you think the staff have some kind of plot?"

"Yes! They do that on purpose!" the bulky one said.

The skinnier, more modern male just stood there silently. Both turned to him. "What about you?"

He held up a cold drink, the holotank IDing him as the Chief of Covert Operations, showing that it was a chilled coffee. "I like Cola. I never asked for this."

Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd turned off the holo and burst out in laughter.

"AHAHAHAHA! Now his minions no longer trust him or his staff!" Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd crowed. "Once again, I, Ya'ahrd, Ba'ahrn Ya'ahrd, am victorious over Yu'umo'o!"

Major Bloodfist just shook his head.