You. Buros. Console. Now. Get the others if you want.
Oxaris wasn't about to ignore his sister now. Not when the inevitable conflict was close at hand. She must've found something, something big to risk contacting him like this.
"Butcher," he tried to get the attention of his long time friend and squad leader, focused on preparing weapons and equipment for the coming fight. "...Butcher," still nothing. He was working on…charges not unlike what the Irken used on him back on Hel. "Buros."
"What is it, Oxide?" The man finally spoke.
"Vyara just tried to reach out to me."
"And?"
"She wants to talk…to us."
"What, so I can sit through her usual jabs of us dating?"
"You know she's just teasing us since we're practically joined at the hip at this job…no pun intended."
"Oh not you too."
"Look, I'm serious, she wants to talk to us, on a console."
Buros set down the sticky mines he was working on with a loud, annoyed sigh.
"Fine, let's see what she wants."
The two departed the armory of their stealth corvette, heading into a communications room near the cockpit. Oxaris took a seat at one of the consoles and got to work punching in the frequency. Within minutes, they had sound and a video feed. Vyara and Eclas on the other side of the underground base belonging to Kazak and Tak. The Irken themselves weren't in the background, however.
"How's it been?" Vyara asked her brother.
"Beats freezing our asses off in an ice cube but not the best of circumstances."
"Yeah, I can imagine the both of you are happy to be off of Hel. Either of you know that there's a certain sect of Irken on our side now?"
"Irken on our side? Months later and millions of light years traveled, you think it wise to tell jokes?" Buros pointedly spoke. "Did you forget the part about the capture/kill order issued on your heads or are you conveniently ignoring it just to piss us off?"
"Buros, I'm entirely fucking serious. There's an entire group of Irken who are now fighting against the Empire to put an end to it and they're working with Admiral 'Narr." Vyara's words and expression showed no sign of joking, not now, not like she usually would to poke fun at both of them. "And this goes right to the top of their ranks too. General Vaukt and High Marshal Zha have both been branded traitors already and Grimm is now Tallest after trying to take Red and Purple out in his own power play."
Buros blinked, mentally processing the information dump from the least likely of sources. A great deal of restraint was exercised to not jump to conclusions. Textbook example of disinformation and deviation assuming a lack of validity…but the possibility of a kernel is truth gleaned left doubt in the back of his mind.
"…pretend I believe any of that nonsense for a moment. Still doesn't explain why both of you abandoned your posts and went AWOL to the ass-end of the universe in the first place. Why didn't you bring this up sooner?"
"Who would've believed us, Buros? Who would've believed Sanros that the Director ordered that Tallum be blown by forcing our fusion plant to go critical. Killing me and everyone else, by the way. Who would believe me when I said I saw, with my own eyes, working with Athka team of Ohnmatu within the city? On top of that, who in the ever loving fuck would believe me if I said that I heard Overlord and Taskmaster over the comms right before I saw Parliament explode? Who, Buros, who?! And don't say Oxaris, I know he'd stand by me."
"Two things. First…calm down. Second, it's a hard sell on speculation alone claiming the Director, Overlord, and Taskmaster intentionally allowed all of Parliament to die…or even had involvement in their deaths at Tallum." The team's leader addressed pointedly in a calm demeanor. "The fact we're even having this conversation is giving you the benefit of doubt. Ethically-questionable as we may be, hunting our own isn't a common assignment."
Vyara took a deep breath.
"I know, I know…and you both know I wouldn't go rogue either without a damn good reason."
"Yeah, I know," Oxaris nodded. "What's this about Irken, though?"
"The power play Grimm pulled, made himself Tallest. Except on a technicality, he can't assume full perceived authority over the run-"
"Hang on, hang on, perceived authority?"
"You know how everyone in the Empire are pieces on the board? Red and Purple were too, just bigger ones. Grimm's the big piece now. Their real leaders, I've seen 'em before."
"So who's the player behind them?"
"The Control Brains. You both want a copy of my report from my mission to Judgmentia before the war? I'll send it."
Oxaris looked at his squad leader, "You ever hear anything about Control Brains?"
"To my understanding they were nothing more than a neural-assisted network for sharing sensory information and data." Buros responded, contemplative. "...if the Tallest aren't in control and they are…the Irken would be nothing more than biomechanical puppets to an artificial intelligence."
"That's insane."
"So is the level of genocide they committed against their own people centuries ago to force PAKs on everyone."
"Genocide?"
Pings on the console, she's been sending files. Her findings on Judgmentia and her chance meeting with Byte being the first file. The second file, a copy of the compilation of footage and photos from Processing Center 07 on Devastis. Oxaris opened the latter file first and looked through the photos, a decent pace at first before slowing down when he saw the gravity of the crimes long since in the past.
"By the gods…I knew the Irken were like this to non Irken…why am I surprised they wouldn't do this to their own people?"
"Imagine it had to start somewhere…" Buros admitted in kind, equal measures disturbed as he was curious. "My first guess would have been the result of being conquered by another species long before they found us but to do this to their own people? People call us monsters."
"Because you are monsters. Monsters of a different breed."
"Who said that? Who's there with you?"
About that time, a violet-eyed Irken female stepped into frame next to Vyara. The larger-than-average Vortian soldier's gaze narrowed venomously with contempt.
"Identify yourself."
"I don't answer to you. I am going to cut to the heart of the matter. You and your team are already being tracked on-approach. The local population? They know. Our peoples, the Empire, the war. We've uplifted them just enough to be a valuable asset to deal with the likes of you. That being said, no one here wants a fight."
"A pacifist Irken…now I've seen everything."
"Do not confuse compassion for weakness. There is a predetermined location you and your team will arrive at planetside and you can be briefed in full as to why your allies became our allies and we all share a common goal of driving a blade into the heart of the Empire. Are you going to comply or do I need to give the primitives an excuse to vaporize the lot of you in nuclear fire? They are itching for an excuse to kill aliens."
"Remember that Invader you guys had and his little AI?"
"Don't remind us…" Oxaris rubbed his eyes in frustration at the very mention of Skrem and Alurac.
"The guys we're allies with? They're the ones who came for him. They needed him for the effort against the Empire. The Director didn't tell any of you a thing about this, did he?"
"This is the first I'm hearing of it…"
"Then hear them out, hm?"
Butcher carefully considered what was presented before him. Whole other levels of secrecy beneath even them with a singular purpose aligned with their own goals. The enemy of one's enemy was considered a friend, so they say…but he hadn't survived this long being quick to trust or gullible.
"...we didn't come out here all this way to go home empty-handed."
"Press the matter and you won't be going home at all." Tak made clear, unphased in the slightest. For someone of her stature she projected an intimidating aura to demand respect.
Butcher's attention drifted to Vyara, pointing a finger to her projected image.
"Don't make us regret this. Send the location and we'll be inbound."
"You won't." With that, Vyara sent the coordinates for the landing site. "Oxaris, it'll be nice to see you again at least."
"Yeah, you too."
Likewise, on a different console, far off in the hangar bay and out of earshot, Kazak was in his Vortian shuttle, having a conversation with Haxx.
"So you guys aren't too far out?"
"Fuck no, you're not in so much trouble that you need us sooner than nine days though, are you?"
"No, no, we just need to give you landing coordinates well in advance."
"This isn't some sorta trap, is it?"
"No, no, nothing of the sort. It's bad enough we're here already, having been training human volunteers for our war effort. We're trying to direct as little attention as possible from new arrivals."
"You're training the locals to fight? For us?"
"Volunteers, they want to keep their homeworld out of this. Even a token force of volunteers is better than nothing."
"Seems weird uplifting a species like that but alright I guess. Shoot us the coordinates, we'll meet ya there."
"Will do, see you soon."