Machines

Indigo J-05 was a happy Corpus cog.

She hadn't always been that way. That wasn't a memory, more a feeling. She didn't remember what had happened or why. But she also did not question. Well, not that.

She had lots of questions and now? She finally had a line on a few of the answers. There was just one small problem...

"No." The voice that accompanied the denial was calm and controlled and Indigo J-05 fought to remain calm herself as the holographic being stared at her, face impassive. The Executive wasn't happy, but apparently it wasn't her that had caused it.

"I know there are problems, sir." Indigo J-05 said respectfully. "But if we can get the information, we might answer a number of questions."

"You are asking us to mount an expedition into Grineer territory to ask questions." The Executive said with a shake of his head. "Every probe that has been sent into that area has failed. So you want to send difficult to replace personnel instead. That is not profitable."

"No sir, that is not what I am saying, sir." Indigo J-05 said quickly, too quickly and the Executive's eyes narrowed.

"Then what are you saying, Educator?" The other demanded.

"I have found references to a number of artifacts that may be in that area." Indigo J-05 forced herself to be calm. "I am not asking for a dig, that would be suicide. I am asking for a team to check the area out, no more."

"The Grineer have been far more active recently all across the system. No one is sure why." The Executive said firmly. "I understand your devotion to history and I applaud it." Indigo J-05 kept her face straight at that. Like hell he did. "But you are asking for a ship, personnel and proxies."

"Yes sir." The female Corpus said softly.

"You have no proof, just bits of text in ancient languages." The other shook his head again. "Get more proof and I will consider it further."

The screen went dark and Indigo J-05 stared at it and the ruins of her dream to add mountains of profit to the company. She was loyal to the Corpus and this... She shook her head. The Executive was simply doing his job. The Company frowned on gambles and this was long shot at best. It wasn't personal and she knew that. But she felt a deep and sudden pain deep within her. She wanted to know.

"I told you he would say 'no'." A familiar voice snapped her out of her reverie and Indigo J-05 turned to glare at her co-worker. "Don't look at me like that."

"Marian R-23..." Indigo J-05 gave herself a shake. "You know what this says." She tapped a console and a series of holographic pages popped up in midair.

"I know what you think it says." The younger Educator replied. "But he is right. You don't have any proof." Indigo J-05 snarled halfheartedly at that and the other shook her head. "Come on. Break is over. We have to get back to work."

"I know." Indigo J-05 banished the pages with a sigh and followed her co-worker out of the room. She checked her tools automatically and nodded as she sat at her desk, Marion R-23 taking the other one. She activated her systems and smiled as her normal routine popped up. It wasn't a fun job. It wasn't a glamorous job. It was a very necessary one.

On her screen, small images showed two hundred Corpus employees as they lay in their beds asleep. The somatic units built into their bunks ensured a good off shift rest for all workers. Her eyes scanned the readouts , flicking with trained speed over each and every... She paused and enlarged one of the images.

"Anomaly detected." Indigo J-05 said calmly as Marian R-23 pulled up the same image. The brainwaves of the sleeping Crewman were decidedly out of the norm. "Monitor."

"Acknowledged." Marian R-23 replied and went back to scanning the images. She could keep the others supervised while Indigo J-05 focused on the one that was different.

A quick flip sent an Osprey to hover beside the Crewman whose brainwaves showed variations outside the norm. Another button warned the proctor for the area that something was amiss. There was always one flesh and blood guard for each dormitory. Despite the best efforts of Corpus security, humans were still human. Anything electronic could be subverted. There would always be those who sought to do things the easy way, the quick way. That was not the Company way. Then there were those who sought to profit from the Company. They were a cancer that had to be cut out quickly. But this one... He was...

"Oh." Indigo J-05 bit back a laugh as she realized what was happening. He wasn't being disloyal. He was dreaming what men usually did when they had time to spare. Dreaming with his other brain. "Anomalous feelings but not disloyal. Physical. Hmmm..." She mused. "Should I counter?" She queried her co-worker.

"If you don't, he will make a mess all over himself and his bunk." Marian R-23 replied instantly. "The proctor will not be amused."

"Point." Indigo J-05 frowned and then keyed her com. "Proctor James H-18, subject in bed 134 is not disloyal. He is having an erotic dream. Countering now. We will suggest scheduling the subject some time in a rec facility." An acknowledgement came from the proctor but Indigo J-05 was busy.

Human brains were both chemical and electrical based. The physical structure of the most important organ in the human body had been mapped thoroughly by Corpus techs for centuries, but the sheer number of neurological variations often defied the odds. Even with all of the processes that guaranteed obedience and loyalty in Corpus workers, there were a number of things that could go wrong. That was where Indigo J-05 and others like her came in. One part of her saw the Osprey land at the head of the subject's bed and extend probes to touch the bare skull. Now there was no chance he could wake completely or make a mess, since she could take control of every facet of his body with a simple button push. The rest of her was working feverishly. She keyed her mike, knowing that her words would not be audible to anyone but the subject and to him? They would be subconscious. He was not awake and would not wake, but he could reply, if quietly and slowly.

"Now is not the time, worker Hors B-87." Indigo was good at her job. Corpus Educators were not teachers, per say. Training for Corpus was done via indoctrination and that was a different skill set. She was not technically a mental tech either. No, her job was to monitor and nudge errant workers into better paths. "You serve the Company and the Company serves you."

"I live to serve, I serve to live." The man's words would have been inaudible if not for the neurological connections.

"Are you lonely?" Indigo J-05 asked, her tone still calm. A quick check showed the man hadn't been to the rec center recently. Corpus rec centers were geared to exercise any and every part of a worker's body. Including genitalia. Every worker was scheduled for such, but he had missed the last two times due to overtime work called for by the Executives. He was hardly the only one in such a situation. "We can help. The Company protects."

"I serve the Company." The man replied but his tone was wistful.

"It has been rough for a bit." Indigo J-05 let hint of sadness enter her tone now. "We will take care of you. But for now? I need you to do some math for me." If there was anything more guaranteed to squash an incipient libido in the bud than certain math problems, Indigo J-05 had no idea what it might be.

"Yes, Educator." The man replied. He sighed and dropped into a deeper sleep as Indigo J-05 tapped controls. The hind brain was not good at anything that required conscious thought, but basic manipulation of it would allow the man to get a full rest period while the rest of his subconscious focused on the basic math problems that Indigo J-05 was feeding into the Osprey now. Problems that would lead his mind to develop strategies that would aid him in his work without his conscious mind realizing it. She ran the programs that the mind techs gave her, she couldn't write them. But she did enjoy it when her pupils learned their lessons well.

"And one more problem solved." Indigo J-05 minimized the screen as the man settled back into sleep, his brainwaves shifting to allowable patterns. She keyed the com again. "Proctor James H-18? Situation resolved. Osprey will continue to monitor for thirty minutes. Recommend Hors B-87 be scheduled time in a rec facility as soon as possible."

"Noted." The Proctor replied and the com clicked off.

"When was the last time you went to one?" Marian R-23 asked quietly as she scanned her readouts.

"A week." Indigo J-05 replied. "And yes, I did the whole series." She said quickly. After so long working as a team with Marian R-23, she knew how her colleague thought and wanted to head off the questions she knew were coming. But some wouldn't be denied.

"You are not seeing Harold G-43 anymore?" The other asked, concerned.

"He was offered another post last week with higher pay." Indigo J-05 managed to keep her voice level with effort. A tap of a control and soothing music sounded in her ears, calming her. "He left a note."

"Oh." The stunned voice of the other had Indigo J-5 relaxing. "But you are coping."

"Fixating is more like." Indigo J-05 said with a frown, thinking about her own feelings. Human emotions made a mess of things at the best of time, but when someone that you had planned to spend your life, -indeed had planned to have a child with!- with just up and left with little word? She was angry and would be. "I am angry, but he saw profit."

"Profit numbs the feeling." Marian R-23 quoted instantly. "But this? Earth? Indigo J-05, are you looking to die?"

"No." Indigo J-05 replied without heat. "I was angry. I am angry. But this? I found the text some time ago and have been working to decipher it in my reading downtime. One thing I am sure of? It is not an Orokin thing."

"How can it not be Orokin if it pertains to Earth?" Marian R-23 sounded reasonable but she had been partnered with Indigo J-05 for a long time. She knew her partner very well and knew exactly how angry Indigo J-05 was at this betrayal.

"Earth wasn't always Orokin." Indigo J-05 replied. "We knew that before the rise of the Orokin, there were others living there." As she spoke, her gaze swept her screens, but nothing out of the ordinary showed. The Osprey was continuing to distract Hors B-87 and nothing else seemed amiss. One of the primary requisites for an Educator was the ability to multi-task. Some of that could be trained, but when the recruit had the ability already? It made things much easier.

"Yes." Marian R-23 was more than a bit dubious. "That was a long time ago and we lost so much in the Collapse."

Both women bowed their heads in memory. The Corpus was descended from survivors of the catastrophe that had befallen the mighty empire that had spanned and remade the solar system. So many lives lost, so much technology and knowledge lost.

"Yes we did." Indigo J-05 shook her head. "Thing is, I don't know one word that I found. None of the databases I have been able to access have it."

"Not in any of our databases?" Marian R-23 asked, impressed. "That might be worth something to someone."

"I know, but I have to be careful asking." The senior Educator had seen far too many of her peers step over the line with information, either needing more than they thought or needing to know less. "I doubt it is anything important, but you never really know."

"You reported the find, yes?" Marian R-23 asked, worried and relaxed as coworker nodded. "Good."

"As soon as I realized it was pre-Orokin text, I reported it." Indigo J-05 reassured her some more. "I was told it would take some time to get back to me." Marian R-23 looked at her and Indigo J-05 made a face. "Weeks."

"These things do take time to go up and down the chain." Marian R-23 agreed, then stiffened as an alert sounded close at hand. She slapped her Comba helmet closed and Indigo J-05 was a less than a millisecond later. "Set. Status?"

"All dormitories are locked down." Indigo J-05 reported as she checked her Lecta. Unless the enemy force was far stronger than any that could have made it this far without setting off any perimeter alarms, the non-combatant workers were safer in there. She didn't need to see to know that Marian R-23 was checking her Detron at the same time. "No reports of what has set off the alarms."

The ship they were on was huge and well defended, but no one assumed it was impregnable. Grineer raiding parties, Infested outbreaks and even Tenno attacks had happened on occasion. The solar system was not a safe place to be a human sometimes. But the Corpus had learned its lessons well. They couldn't match the Grineer for numbers, the Infested for adaptability or the Tenno for power, but they adapted to each and every new onslaught with high technology. There had been whispers recently of another threat, either a new one or an ancient one depending on which whispers you believed. If the half hysterical rumors were true and there were Sentients now loose in the system... Those monsters had given the Orokin with all of their incredible advances fits. The Corpus had built upon the ruins of that fallen empire so they wouldn't have much chance. But such thoughts were not to be aired. Ever.

"Proxies are responding to the alarm location." Marian R-23 replied from her post near the door. "Nothing on the cameras."

She sounded hopeful, but Indigo J-05 just shook her head. Most enemies would know to either avoid or destroy Corpus security cameras. As soon as the automated systems detected an enemy they could identify,. They activated whatever defenses were in the area as well as sounding a discreet alert to all nearby security forces. Infested didn't care one way or another, but the rest? Grineer would swarm the area and destroy anything and everything that shot at them, swamping the area with clone bodies and firepower until the situation was resolved. Tenno were more problematic, they could and would...

"What was that?" Marian R-23 said softly as she looked around. Both women held their weapons ready but nothing presented itself. The door to the control room was sealed. All of the ducts surrounding the area were sealed as well. "I heard something."

"I didn't." Indigo J-05 said with a frown that was wasted with her helmet closed.

Both women spun as the world in their control room turned bright. Both goggled at the 'sealed' duct nearby as it glowed with energy and then slowly vanished. The form that entered the room wasn't a Corpus. It wasn't a Grineer. It wasn't an infested. It wasn't even a Tenno! It was...

"Sentient!" Indigo J-05 screamed but her call met only a haze of static as another large spindly form entered the room behind the first. Against one, the two women had very little chance. Against two? Neither of the floating glowing things attacked, instead they moved toward the control consoles!

Marian R-23 shook off her horror first and opened fire. Her Detron spat its glowing payload of death. Her shot was true and had no effect whatsoever! The Sentient ignored the impact and her. Indigo J-05 lashed out with her whip and was pleased to see it do something to the alien biometal. Just a scratch, but she could hurt it. The monstrous alien form paused in whatever it was doing. She could almost feel its regard. Almost.

That one.

The words were not out loud. Indigo J-05 shouldn't have been able to hear them, but she could. The sheer malevolence in those words put any Corpus she had ever heard to shame for sheer lack of emotion. This was a machine, but... not. Marian R-23 sank to her knees, keening, as power flared over both of them and their wondrous technology all stopped working. Their weapons, their armor, their implants. Everything just shut down.

Through sheer force of will, Indigo J-05 kept her feet. She hefted the inert mass of her whip like a club and waited. Neither of the alien machines moved and she snarled at them through her dead helmet. Then her world went decidedly weird. Golden energy flared around her and both machine seemed to shrink back from it. Her helmet came back to life! On her HUD was shown a word.

'Run!'

There was nothing Indigo J-05 wanted to more than obey that command. But she had two problems. One, Marian R-23 was down and still keening. Two? Indigo J-05 had nowhere to go. The door was dead and the two Sentients were between her and the duct. Both were closing with her, their odd slender appendages glowing with evil energies as they stretched out to touch her. If they had wanted her and Marian R-23 dead, she would be, so... what?

'Run now!'

"Where, Profit take it?" Indigo J-05 snapped out loud even as she backpedaled, her whip up and knocking the closest Sentient limb away. But when she hit it, lethargy swam through her arm and she screamed as her body slowly folded into a kneeling position despite her screams of rage and pain.

'Close your eyes.'

The golden text didn't make any sense. She couldn't... Wait. She could close her eyes. She did and hoped that death would take her before the horror reaching for her did.

She never felt the blow that knocked her unconscious.

From behind!