How far down?

"I didn't think Corpus cloned themselves."

The quiet words pulled Juil out of her perusal of the code she had been sending into the various Corpus systems to see another lich standing nearby. This one was big, bulky and bald. He hefted a Kuva Chakurr easily. Juil shrugged as she continued to work. Both of them looked to where the boy they had found sat next to a wall with Zanuka coiled up on the ground in front of him. Not so much to keep him in place. More for his protection. He kept trying to grab weapons! Half of them, he couldn't even lift! It had been almost funny watching him try to aim a Supra that he had managed to pick up from the floor. Almost. He hadn't been able to get the muzzle halfway up! He also had never noticed that it had been damaged and would have likely exploded if he had managed to fire it. It had taken the metal monster some time to calm the boy down and it was clearly not happy about all of this even now.

"I don't think they are supposed to, Bop Vikk, but we all know how far rules take some things." Juil replied. "These humans… There was a time we all obeyed mindlessly but we were altered. When we were changed by the kuva, we had to change our thoughts as well. And then what Esther did. These? I don't know. They bother me."

She shook her head as she looked across the small group of humans they had captured. All had been searched, restrained and brought to kneel here in the central room of this facility, Alad V's former lab. She stilled as one of them looked down. He had been watching her. There was something off about that human, but Juil had no idea what it was. She had no time for dithering, either. They had recovered the remnants of Esther's warframe, but of course, Esther was gone. Juil had sent one of her kin to the waiting Scimitar with the remains and now? She had to try and do what Zanuka was still demanding. Machines were not supposed to get exasperated, but this one was different. The boy was clearly a clone and just as clearly not all right in the head, but the machine was still demanding he be taken away. Odd.

Most of the others had left, leaving only three liches with Juil to guard the humans they had taken prisoner. The others were trying to find a way to move the four cloning tanks that still held viable human offspring. None were engineers or techs. None of them understood Zanuka except Juil and after seeing a few records of Zanuka in action that Juil had found? Few of them relished the thought of fighting it. A couple had expressed interest in such, but Juil had nixed that idea. They had come here to recover what they could of Esther and they had. This was a sideshow, nothing more.

"We should shoot them or leave them." The male Lich wasn't a thinker generally. He hadn't ever had to be. His massive spiked hammer generally did his thinking for him. That was good thing when fighting to be done, but everyone (including him!) let others think about stuff. He wasn't stupid. Just not a thinker. "We are wasting our time here."

"I agree." Juil scoffed. "But the Zanuka machine wants the clones gone and it didn't fight when it could have. I am honestly curious as to why not." Zanuka ignored her questioning tone, but more than one of the humans eyed her. The one who had been watching her did not. The liches had been conversing in Grineer and it was highly unlikely that most of these knew that language. It wasn't anything that the Corpus considered important for their rank and file, even the technicians. Juil's eyes lingered on one of them, however. The human who had been watching her had tensed when the male Lich had said the word 'shoot'. He understood them. He was more than he seemed. "That said, taking chances with human fanatics is stupid." The male Lich stared at her and she shook her head just a little as the human she was eyeing did not react. "Esther wanted us to be better. To try to be anyway. We are what we are, Bop Vikk. Stay here, don't let any of them do anything stupid."

No one dared comment as Juil strode into he mass of humans, most of them trying to shy away form her. She grabbed the strange male human and all but yanked him to his feet. She did not slow, pulling the man by his bound arms away from the group. Grineer were stronger than human and she was far stronger than a normal Grineer, but he gave no sign of pain as she bodily pulled him through the facility. She pulled him to the room that held the clone tanks and then she tossed him to the floor.

"You are more than you seem." Juil commented as the man just looked at her. He wore garments like any of the other techs they had captured but he wasn't a tech. She wasn't sure how she knew that, but she did.

"If you are going to remove these, you need to do it soon." The human said softly. "These are a major problem. One that Alad V will make disappear if he realizes they are here." He wasn't afraid. Wary, yes, but not afraid. That said either 'idiot' or 'danger' to the lich and she wasn't betting on 'idiot'.

"You are not what you seem." Juil said slowly and the man shook his head.

"Neither are you." The human replied.

Juil looked at him for a long moment and then he went utterly still as she reached out and tapped his restraints. They fell off in her hand and she slid them into a subspace fold that she used to hide many things. She had learned so much, but was still fumbling in the dark. He stared at her as she stepped back. He did not move, did nothing at all and Juil felt a tinge of admiration. Whoever this guy was, he was well trained.

"You have clearly dealt with Grineer before. You would fool most of them fairly easily." Juil kept her voice conversational. "I am not Grineer. I do not serve the Queens."

"They want you to." The man said softly, still not moving.

"They can kiss my ass after what they did to Esther." Juil snapped and then stilled. His eyes had widened, just a little. "What?"

"Esther." The man said softly. "That was the name you said when you came here. You… You tried to get Alad V to surrender the warframe without violence. He refused like the Profit blinded fool he really is. Nothing matters but his Profit. He couldn't see or hear anything but someone trying to take what he thought was his. But you… You tried to do it peacefully. Why?"

"Esther tried to show me and us a better way." Juil said softly, not sure how this was going. She was supposed to be interrogating him, not the other way around! "We are what we are, but she wanted better for us. The Queens made us monsters, but she wanted us to try and be more."

"Really?" The man slumped for a bit and then he nodded. "This is either the best trick I have ever seen in my life, or you are serious." He shook his head just a little. "And if you are serious… Oh dear."

"I do not know you, and I do not trust you." Juil snapped and paused as the man nodded again.

"Such would be foolish. I am Corpus. An enemy." The man said with a small frown. "Or… Wait…" He paused and then stared at her. "Sic Semper Tyrannus?" He asked very slowly and for her part, Juil stared at him.

"'Thus always to Tyrants'?" Juil demanded. "Why are you speaking a pre-Orokin language of all things?" Esther had all but forced Juil to sit down and study a lot of things. Luckily, with her newfound and newly controlled abilities, such came far easier than most would dream. An educated Grineer? The mind boggled!

"Did it work?" The man all but begged. "Oh, God! Did it work?" Was he pleading with her or someone else?

"What are you talking about?" Juil demanded, her rifle up as the man spun, but to a kneeling position on the floor. He was... Was he crying?

"I had to leave. I had to leave them all. Her." He wasn't faking his distress. Esther wasn't sure how she knew that, but it seemed to be her code telling her his vitals? "I knew they were all going to die! I wanted to go! To die with them! They didn't deserve to all die alone and forgotten!"

"People die every day, human. Especially now." Juil said, recovering as the man sobbed quietly. "Who are you speaking of?"

"A nobody." The man said softly, shaking his head and his tears vanishing as his control reasserted itself and his vitals stabilized. Good training. "A broken cog. Just a discarded piece of trash to people like Alad V. But she had a name. Her name was Maureen and she was brave. Angry, crazy, and so very brave." Her heaved a sigh. "She belonged to a group who wanted to stick it to the queens. I do not know if they succeeded. We may never."

"I take it she did not survive." Esther wasn't sure how she felt about all this.

"None of them did." The human sighed again and then shook his head. "That was then. This is now. You are an enigma. A Cyberlancer Grineer would be a massive threat to everyone. But from your words and actions, you do not serve the Queens. They cannot be happy about that."

"I could not care less." Juil growled.

"I think I would like to know more." The man said slowly. "But for now?" He nodded to the pods. "These are not Corpus tech. Or… Not any Corpus tech I know of. These cannot remain here or Alad V will try to 'remainder' the problem." At Juil's quizzical look her made a face. "Cloning is forbidden and the punishment is severe. He will dispose of the evidence before the Clergy get involved. All this and any who have seen it will disappear. A cursory glance at these shows they are human tech, but not Corpus. And… That boy…" He shook his head. "That isn't right. That boy is a literal boy. Not a clone."

"Alad V is hardly sane even by human standards." Juil retorted. "What is to stop him from doing such?"

"People like me." The man replied, rising to his feet slowly. "My name is Edmund. My rank is Lieutenant Commander and we are not enemies today."

"Prove it." Juil snapped, patience fleeing.

"I will."

Eight minutes later

All four of the liches stared as the humans finished loading the pods onto the hovering platform that had been 'acquired' from Alad V's stores. The 'boy' slept beside them, courtesy of a sedative administered in a drink the odd human soldier had given him. Zanuka had looked at the soldier, made an indecipherable noise and moved away. No one had followed.

"We cannot remain here." Edmund said to the others as they finished up. "You know what he will do if you remain. You have no weapons, no armor and no training, but he won't care."

"We serve the machine." The next highest rank human said slowly, his face blank.

"Indeed we do." Edmund replied. "But, that doesn't mean you have to serve the same Executive. You can shift your contract. No one ever told you the procedures for that, did they?" He inquired coldly as the others stared at one another.

"We… We don't know any other executives." The other said a bit timidly. "We are… This is all we know." All of the others nodded with him, all looking confused and worried.

"Any who stay here will not survive the Executive's wrath." Edmund said quietly as he moved to the head of the platform. Juil eyed him as hate that matched any Grineer swelled in his tone. Not for the clones, for the Executive! "If you are lucky, he will kill you."

"Where would we go?" The spokesman tech asked, worry rising. "I mean, if there are options we have not been told, then yes, many of us would wish to explore those, but…" He looked at Juil who shook her head. "You captured us. What will you do with us?"

"You? Nothing. As long as you do not attack us, you are not our problem." Juil reassured him. "We came for our Mistress' remains. No more. You are not my enemy, human."

"I do not understand." The Corpus tech said weakly.

"Good." Juil grinned as everyone gawked at her. "The first step towards knowledge is admitting what one does not know." Why was Edmund of all people suddenly grinning and nodding?

"You are very strange." The Corpus tech said weakly, only to have all three of the other liches snort in unison.

"You have no idea, human!" Bop Vikk said with an utterly fake snap.

"Enough." Juil said when everyone looked even more confused. "As the Lieutenant Commander says, we need to get out of here. The sooner the better. We cannot take humans the way we go and we cannot take the pods that way either. This is an intriguing mystery, these pods that were in the shield room are not Corpus tech. I cannot operate them or maintain them. My code is a brute force approach that is likely to cause damage if I try. I do not like hurting people with my Code. The Mistress wouldn't like that." The humans stared as all of the liches bowed their heads in unison. "Add to that? I have no idea what to do with a human child."

"Keep him away from Jindaz." Bop Vikk said under his breath and Juil winced. She nodded.

"Do I want to know?" Edmund asked and all the liches shook their heads. "Won't ask then."

"Wise." Came from the other female lich. She hadn't spoken but three words the whole time. Nukkil took 'taciturn' to a whole new level. She normally let her Drakgoon speak for her and few argued with her more than once. Esther had many, many times until the Tenno had figured out the combination to free her from the Queens and now? She was grieving, just like all the others. One step from berserker rage, just like all the others.

"If you cannot take them your way, then you need a ship and I know where we can get one." Edmund allowed. "Frankly? The thought of 'liberating' assets from Alad V makes me feel all warm and tingly inside."

"Um… Can we come?" The male tech asked a bit weakly as the liches thought about that. All three of the others looked at Juil who frowned.

"I will not deny that your technical skill is impressive." The Cyberlancer clone said after a moment. "That said? Neither your kind nor mine have any reason to trust one another. We have been bitter enemies with horrors perpetrated by both sides." A couple of the techs looked to argue, but Edmund shook his head, face set and they subsided. "I do not deny that much of what the Queens have done is evil, but whatever we who were changed by the kuva did in the past in in the past. Now? I refuse to be that way simply to do it. I have no wish to be exploited or dissected, but I also have no wish to fight simply to do it. I think… We are neutral in your disputes."

"That is a hard road." Edmund said softly. "Neutrality is very hard. It pleases few."

"No, it won't." Juil agreed. "But I need to try. The Mistress wanted me to to be better. She sacrificed everything for me, for us. To see it happen, what they did to her… It hurts in ways that I cannot define, but I will never walk the path the Queens demanded again. I, we, will do what she wanted. To try and be a good persons, as opposed to mindless monsters. She wanted us all to be better." The liches all nodded, but did not add anything as the Corpus stared at them.

"I…" Edmund shook his head slowly. "I have seen such before, from another that many called 'monster'. He was monstrous in many ways, but he knew It and always strove to be better. He was a good soul."

"I am not him." Juil warned.

"No." Edmund gave an exaggerated shiver. "And that is a good thing. One of Peter was more than enough." He stilled as all of the liches did the same. "What?"

"Peter." Juil picked her words with care. "You… You were on the Jolly Roger?" She asked and Edmund went still. Then she smiled "'Sic Semper Tyrannus'. Of course. I don't know what his plan was and I have no idea if it worked, human. We won't know. My batch was started well before the changes would have gone through. I wish I knew more." She allowed.

"It… They know?" Edmund had paled.

"The Queens? No." The odd hulking Grineer was quick to reassure him. "None of theirs know or care why he did what he did. Just that he is gone. Esther told me some of what transpired and I figured out some of the pirates' plan from reports I scrounged or stole. I saw that phrase mentioned in a file, but with no context, I have no idea what it means besides the ancient language. No one but Peter knew it all, but he and his did give the Nightwatch a few new nightmares. You served with Peter?"

All of the liches were eyeing Edmund as he nodded, face set.

"I wasn't a formal member of his crew, but I did help him in a few… um… situations." Edmund said with a gulp. "His crew were not nice. But they were good people."

"I think that is why Esther gave me the file on Peter and encouraged my research into him." Juil admitted. "To see that clones like me do not have to be monsters even if we are made to be. She could have just taken my service, taken free will from me. She refused to, despite all of what it cost her. I… I would like to speak with you of what you saw. What you did."

"I think we need to talk, once we are out of here." Edmund agreed. Then he smiled wide. "So… On that note? Let's get out of here. Time to play pirate!" Juil matched his grin and all of the liches chorused with her!

"Yo ho!"