— FDN VESSEL "PRODIGAL", FOUR YEARS LATER, PRESENT DAY —

"I've heard about this happening on the frontier- but I never would have thought it'd happen to us."

"Nobody ever does. Just keep patrolling- if the rumors are true, then we probably have an unwanted guest aboard by now. I'm not too fond of the idea of meeting them."

As the security officers passed by him unknowingly, he couldn't help but smirk as he eavesdropped on their conversation. They were smart not to want to see him- missions like these called for no witnesses, and it wouldn't be the first time he'd had to tie up loose ends if someone managed to catch a glimpse of him.

"Tune them out. I know your ego is already big enough without some frightened guards inflating it further."

He rolled his eyes, and stepped out from the shadows of the wall he'd been hugging. "You're just envious that you don't have anyone talking about you like that."

"Yes, the one thing every girl desires is to be feared by literally everyone," she responded with no small amount of sarcasm over the comms.

"Could have fooled me," he muttered, now switching his focus to the mission and running in the opposite direction of the corridor the guards had gone.

"This ship's layout is the same as the Iridescence. You'll see the target on your right."

True to her word, it was another thirty seconds of light jogging before he saw what he was looking for- a door on the right side of the hall with a passcode panel next to it, and a sign above the door reading 'RESTRICTED ACCESS'. Checking his corners to make sure he was alone, he deactivated his cloak and watched as his hands became visible again. Reaching up to his shoulder, he drew his data-knife and pried the top of the panel open just enough to where he could see a small port. Sticking the knife in, he held it there and asked, "You got a connection?"

"Yeah, I'm in. Give me two seconds …"

It only took her one and a half to crack the security, but he didn't need to tell her that- despite her chastisement of him for arrogance, she could be just as prideful when she wanted to be. The panel's screen seemed to be at war with itself, flashing quickly between 'ACCEPTED' and 'ERROR', but the door unlocked nonetheless.

Retrieving his knife and sliding the door open, he entered to find what he'd been looking for; the Frontier Defense Network's most recent trove of treasures.

Walking past a nanite capsule from Spyglass's Coalescence, several New Humanity spectres, and what looked to be a piece of a fold-weapon, he found his true objective- a single computer station near the back of the room.

Grabbing another object from his pouch, he placed it on the floor near his feet and pressed a button on the back of it. A faint whirr could be heard as heat began to emanate from it, and he redirected his attention to the monitor in front of him. It took him less than ten seconds to access its database and find a directory of important documents that the FDN would likely not be happy to have them seen.

"I've got the roster," he muttered, sticking his data-knife into the monitor and waiting for the connection to take hold. "Transferring data now."

A progress bar illuminated on the screen as all the information in the system was slowly copied over to the storage in his knife. He'd have to sort through it all later, of course, but he'd find what he needed eventually. All that mattered now was making sure they got everything the system had to offer, and making his way off of-

"Oh, hell."

He furrowed his brow, observing the steady ascent of the transfer. "What? What's, 'oh hell'?"

"The ship's system has a dead-man's switch kind of mechanism in place- the moment their sensors went down, a signal was sent to nearby FDN forces. They're jumping to our location now; estimated arrival is forty seconds. Get out of there!"

Shit.

"I'll be right there, the transfer's almost complete," he assured her, reaching down to his feet and picking back up the device he'd set down earlier.

"Forget the transfer, ETA is thirty seconds before our window expires-"

"What have I told you about timers, Ellie?" he muttered, reactivating his cloak and preparing to run. "They throw me off-"

"Six, our whole partnership hinges on mutual trust for the other to do their job. So when I say you have less than thirty seconds left, it means you have less than thirty fucking seconds."

"Point taken," he replied, watching the progress of the data transfer climb. "But that goes both ways- so if I say I'll be gone in ten-"

"Look, just saying you'll be 'gone in ten' doesn't make me worry about you any less."

"So you do care," he quipped to her, his tone becoming snarky and obnoxiously sarcastic as it did when he became annoyed with her.

"Of course I care. If you die on my watch, my reputation would take a sharp dive. Not to mention I'd probably be decommissioned."

At last, the progress bar became full and indicated a complete transference. Without time to waste, he yanked the knife out of the terminal and began sprinting out of the room. Taking a left in the hallway, he followed the projected schematics of the ship in his HUD towards the navpoint Ellie had given him for extraction.

"Twelve seconds."

"On my mark, blow a hole in the side of section 17A," he ordered.

He didn't so much count as he felt the seconds go by. He'd been doing this for so long, timing had become second nature to him. Instinctually, he felt them pass through his mind like little specks of sand- tiny, almost imperceptible things if you weren't aware of their presence.

"… Mark!"

There was less than a second delay from his callout to her response. Almost instantaneously, the wall one meter in front of him exploded into fire before quickly becoming extinguished as the oxygen was sucked out into the void of space.

He made sure to jump to avoid colliding with the edges of the newfound hole in the ship, and allowed himself to be pulled out into the vacuum as well. He curled up into a ball, but couldn't help himself as he turned to watch the ship slowly shrinking in the distance behind him. Another, larger ship suddenly warped into being above it, and began making preparations to board as they attempted to help evacuate the occupants of the disabled vessel he'd just decompressed.

"That was too close. The whole point of these operations is to remain unseen, Six. The moment anyone catches wind of us, the show's over."

"Yeah, yeah," he dismissed her chiding as he continued to spin out in the blackness. Reaching down to his forearm, he activated his recovery beacon. "Now come get me. It's getting cold out here."

"I ought to just let you float for a while," she snapped at him. "Maybe it'd teach you to have a bit more appreciation for me."

"You could," he replied, feigning thoughtfulness. "But I don't think he'd be so fond of that idea. You know he always sees things from my point of view."

He heard her sigh on the other end, and instantly regretted bringing up their mutual benefactor. She would not be happy with him for a while.

"Yeah. The Advocate does tend to play favorites, doesn't he?"

— FDN VESSEL, "CASCADE OF SPIRITS", THREE HOURS LATER —

"Six years since Spyglass fell. Four years since these attacks started happening … and still, nothing."

"I understand your concerns, sir," Gray said with gritted teeth. The rest of her team stood behind her as they watched her speak with a holographic model of Ghost-Actual, their commanding officer … Kuben Blisk.

"My concerns aren't as important as those of our ship captains," he dismissed, waving his arm at her. "They're terrified, thinking that each of them will be next. The Iridescence, the Montoya, the Byzantine … fourteen ships over four years. This needs to end, and fast."

She wasn't really fond of the man, considering his history- but one couldn't argue the fact that his experience as a leader of a feared mercenary group made him perfectly qualified to run a team of highly trained elite operatives.

"I couldn't agree more, commander," she said, nodding her head. "Our new plan that may help with that, and the new intelligence unit we've been granted should help us coordinate it."

"I hope so," he replied, crossing his arms. "What did we learn from the Prodigal?"

"Our automated distress response system worked flawlessly when the intruder," she relayed, bringing up a list of notes she'd written down on a data-pad. "The only issue was that whoever attacked the ship escaped before help arrived. Then, their efforts were focused on evacuating the Prodigal's crew due to decompression from a hole which was, I assume, created by the infiltrator. No casualties, though they are rather shaken up."

"That's something we can use," Blisk commended, rubbing his chin thoughtfully. "What else?"

"Whoever it is won't kill anyone if they don't have to," she continued, scrolling down. "All fatalities sustained in these kinds of incidents are crew members who are present in the attacker's targeted section- usually the cargo bay or areas with restricted access. Keeping people away from there seems to do the trick- unfortunately, it's not really a viable solution to the problem when we're letting the enemy get away with valuable intel."

"On that, we can both agree," he muttered. "Continue."

"Still no sign of anything actually taken," she said, looking down at the pad in her hands. "The ship's inventory was untouched, just like all the others. Whatever they're after, it's not physical; more than likely it's some kind of data from the ship's manifest, but what- we don't know."

He nodded understandingly. "Not a lot of info to go on- but your team is doing a fine job. I don't mean to sound like I doubt your abilities; I know you all are doing everything you can. This whole situation is simply frustrating." He sighed. "You've told me about this plan- it's risky, but the best plans usually are."

"You can say that again," she breathed, thinking back to past experiences.

"Head to the hangar and pick up your new meat- and ask about the surprise I've arranged for you all. Stay safe out there, Ghost. Blisk out."

Once the holographic likeness fizzled out of existence, she heard a scoff from Vogel behind her. "What a prick."

"A prick he may be," she admitted, "but the FDN thinks he's trustworthy and capable enough for command. He hasn't let us down yet, has he?"

"Not really, but the last four years haven't exactly been peachy either," Danvers muttered, shaking his head. Turning around, she faced her team of 'Ghosts'.

Husher, her second-in-command. He'd been part of the Embers and fought at Regis with them when he was still human, but he was gravely wounded- he'd opted to become a simulacrum instead of confining himself to a bed-ridden life of drip-feeding and sterile hospital rooms. His skills and experience hadn't been lost in the transition, thankfully, and he'd taken advantage of his newfound immortality to put himself in harm's way for the team's sake many a time.

Vogel, their veteran warrior. He was nearing fifty now, but you wouldn't have known it from looking at him- he was practically still in peak physical condition. He'd been fighting since the first Titan wars, a dedicated IMC soldier to boot. That wasn't to say it was blind loyalty, however- he'd become disillusioned with their cause after learning of Marder's attempts to use the fold-weapon against the Militia, and temporarily retired before rejoining the fight against Spyglass. Regardless of his past, he'd more than proven himself to be worthy of a place on the team.

Danvers, their scout and designated marksman. It had actually been Dean Fallon, her former teammate and friend, who had overseen the last stages of his training. Consistently outperforming every other candidate in his class, he'd been recommended for her team. She could count on one hand all the times he'd ever missed a shot in her five years of knowing him, and there was no one better to provide cover for the team than him when he had a vantage point.

They weren't her old team, that was for sure- she didn't think anyone could ever replace the familiar faces; Gates, Davis, Vale, Buck, Rose, Fallon … and Four. But they weren't meant to be a replacement- she'd come to rely on these three more times than she could remember, and they hadn't ever disappointed her. When push came to shove, she knew that they'd have her back.

"Be that as it may, we've got a job to do," she declared, effectively shutting down the conversation. "So focus up- and let's go meet our new team member."

"Ugh," murmured Husher as they all turned to leave the room and head towards the hangar bay. "You know I hate it when you call it that."

"I have to admit," Danvers chuckled, sidling alongside Husher as they walked, "I find it ironic that the simulacrum refuses to acknowledge AI's as living things."

"It's not a team member, it's an intelligence unit," he argued, waving his hands animatedly as he spoke. "I came from a real, living body- AI's aren't born, they're made. I just don't see how they can be seen as human. Look at what Spyglass did when we let him have the reigns!"

"And think of all the Titans that fought against him and died so we didn't have to," Vogel reminded him, scratching a patch of his beard absentmindedly. "You can't list only the negatives- you have to look at the issue from an objective point of view."

Husher shook his head in disbelief. "Fine- call it whatever you want, just don't expect me to be friends with it."

Gray understood his mix of fear and revulsion of AI's- many people nowadays had a similar attitude thanks to Spyglass's years of tyranny over the frontier. But she couldn't sympathize with it; she had a Titan of her own, she knew how it felt to be linked to another mind- and she could say without a shadow of a doubt that AI's were every bit as alive as humans were.

Many people credited Four with saving the galaxy, revering him as a hero- but they often conveniently forget about KT in the process. Such was the unfortunate way that attitudes shaped history, she supposed with some regret staining her thoughts.

The unit they were picking up was one of a new line of artificial intelligences that were being designed for use by the Frontier Defense Network, the governing body that Vale had helped establish and even led for a few years after New Humanity was dissolved. These new, experimental AI's were meant to assist the FDN with various tasks- law enforcement, strategic advisory, and- in their case- special tactics and reconnaissance.

Created from a similar process used to make AI's for the older generation of Titans, the things had damn near infinite utility- the ability to compute thousands of equations and algorithms in a matter of seconds, simulate mental combat scenarios and make split decisions, basically everything a Titan could do and more. The key part was that their chassises weren't like Titans'; they were actually somewhere between five and six feet tall, no taller than the average human.

Gray had seen one once or twice- they kind of reminded her of simulacrums, or Kay's white body when she'd been fragmented. They weren't made for intense combat like Titans were, but rather for day-to-day tasks with teams that could psychologically bond with them easier than they would a forty-ton tank with legs.

As it turned out, however, people weren't all too keen to trust them. Their purpose probably reminded the citizens of the frontier too much of Spyglass's spectres and stalkers. That association coupled with the general anti-AI sentiment produced an public opinion which the new AI's were finding tough to adapt to.

Hopefully, Gray thought as they entered the hangar and strode towards a ship at the far end, this one's contributions will go a ways towards helping people see that AI's aren't inherently evil.

The Ghosts' operations were classified for the most part- but it wouldn't be too big of a deal to let the public know that one of the FDN's new top of the line AI's was helping a high-priority team with protecting the frontier's citizens. Maybe that kind of information would be enough to turn the hatred around.

As they approached the ship which their HUD's had marked as the vessel carrying their new toy, the four of them couldn't help but make out small gasps of awe as they took in more and more details; it was a corvette class ship, its body sleek and angular while its sides curved out into wing-like extensions and stretched backwards toward the engines of the ship. Gray had never really seen anything like it, but she was glad to be doing so now; it was a beautiful ship.

The back of it lowered into a large ramp, much like a standard dropship's- but scaled up, way up. A few crew members were unloading cargo from the ship, wheeling it down to the floor below and heading back up the ramp to retrieve more.

"Are you the Ghosts?"

They all looked around to see an officer approaching them, a captain's insignia on their uniform. Each of them saluted, and remained at attention until he waved them away with a dismissive hand and an, "At ease."

"That's us, sir," Gray answered. "Is this your ship?"

"No- it's actually funny that you should ask, though we'll get to that in a moment," he replied. "Presently, I have the first of two deliveries to give you." He gestured towards the top of the ramp, and they all followed his movement. Nothing happened for a moment- then, they watched as a metallic figure strode out onto the ramp, and descended to meet them.

Its body and height were proportionate to that of a human, but that was pretty much where the similarities ended. Its limbs were covered in plasteel, most of it a dark grey coloration- though it did have some white and maroon parts of its casing near its neck, elbows, knees and thighs. On the end of its legs were 'feet'; two small metal pieces, one acting as the ball and the other as the heel. At the tips of each were two claw-like white toes that stuck out of the sides and angled forward to balance it in the place of tendons and a foot arch.

Overall, its surface was rather curved and smooth- totally not what most simulacrums would look like, what with their boxy components and rigid hardware. That trait extended to its face, which was essentially a large, smooth LED screen. Illuminated upon it were two small white orbs, apparently what it was projecting as its 'eyes'. To top it all off, its body was distinctly feminine- its hips, chest, and lower legs followed a curvature that couldn't be mistaken for anything else.

At a distance, Gray might have mistaken it for a Pilot in full combat gear- she could see what the FDN had gone for, trying to incorporate human traits into its frame to make it more appealing to the eye. But psychological association or not, it wasn't going to get her stamp of approval until it proved it could perform the job expected of it.

Finally, it reached the bottom of the ramp and approached them. Upon doing so, it raised an arm in greeting and its eyes turned into half-circles with the curve on top, giving it somewhat of an 'enthusiastic' expression. "Hello! I am an Ancillary Virtual Assistant, assigned to your team by the order of Commander Blisk. I am at your disposal, Lieutenant Gray."

Now she was beginning to side with Husher a bit more. Even the voice was feminine, lively and full of excitement- it was bringing up some painful memories of KT and her alternate personality, Artemis … the one that had nearly killed her on a few occasions.

Beside her, Husher was having no part of it. "Disposal is right- you ask me, we should just trash the damn thing, Blisk's orders or not."

"I would prefer that you didn't," the captain said, coughing into his hand. "I spent a good deal of time transporting her here, I'd rather not to have that effort wasted."

The android raised a hand. "I would also prefer not to be destroyed, if at all possible."

The four of them stared at it- her, apparently- in silence. The fact that it hadn't even realized it had made a small sort of joke just made the situation even funnier, and Gray found herself cracking a smile in spite of Husher's evident discomfort. Danvers seemed to be chuckling because of the simulacrum's discomfort.

"She's got a wicked sense of humor, I'll grant her that."

One of the AI's half-moon eyes inverted itself, making her look inquisitive with a raised eyebrow and squinted eye. "Have I said something wrong?"

"No, no you're fine," Gray chortled, stepping forward before Danvers continued to egg Husher on. "We're just not used to AI's in your form- we're more familiar with the Titan variety."

"Oh, of course!" she responded, bowing her head apologetically. "I did not mean to cause alarm or unease amongst you."

"Again, it's fine," Gray replied. "Do you have a name?"

"My serial number is AVA_000137742-"

"Okay, okay- way too many numbers," Vogel interrupted, cutting the droid off mid-sentence. "We're going to need something a lot shorter than that to address you."

"Just use its given acronym and be done with it," Husher muttered, crossing his arms. "No need to spend forever on-"

"AVA … so, Ava?"

"… Wait, no- don't actually-"

"Too late!" Danvers exclaimed, pointing a finger at Husher. "You named it, that's what we're going with. Sound good to you, Ava?"

'Ava' turned to Danvers and nodded encouragingly. "I am content with that designation."

Husher groaned, planting his optic in the palm of his metal hand. "Great. Just … great."

Gray extended her hand, allowing Ava to reach out and grab it in her own as they shook. "Good to have you on the team, Ava. If you're half as good as the FDN thinks you are, I'll be happy."

"I aim to please, Lieutenant."

After releasing the AI's hand, Gray looked back to the captain. "Blisk told us about a surprise- you have a second delivery?"

"Right," the captain agreed, turning towards the ship. "There it is."

They stared for a few seconds before Danvers looked at the Captain again in confusion. "Where? In the ship?"

"No- it is the ship."

Now, it was Gray who looked to the captain in consternation. "Wait- what?"

"That's why I thought it was funny that you asked about its ownership. Yes, Commander Blisk requisitioned this for your team- said he'd received it from an anonymous benefactor, and that you all would need it more than him."

The idea of suddenly coming into ownership of a ship like this was slowly sinking into Gray. Shakily, she choked out, "Does it have a name?"

"Horizon."

The Horizon. She could get behind a name like that.

"Gray," Husher whispered, grabbing her full attention. "I don't mean to sound paranoid- but first the AI, and now a ship? Let alone a ship like this? Do you think that maybe things aren't all that they seem here?"

Anyone else and she would have agreed that they were paranoid- but this was Husher, and she relied on his intuition for exactly this sort of thing. She couldn't respond with much besides a clap on the back as she leaned in close and whispered back, "Just enjoy this while we can- because my bet is that you're right."

Shaking the hand of the captain, she beckoned for her team to follow her as she made her way towards the ramp. "Ghosts, fall in line. We've got places to be, and a trap to set."

A/N: How many of you have been here since the original trilogy? Leave a review telling me how you came across this series, and get a shoutout on the next chapter!

On another note, how are you guys liking these characters so far? Probably haven't had a lot of time to warm up to them- Gray's the only returning character (besides Blisk) so far, so it will be interesting to see your guys' thoughts on how these new folks hold up to the old ones.

Until the next time,

- Matteoarts