While the suicide attack the pirate ships launched on me was unsettling, it did, at the very least, give me some hope that my plan was working. The fact the attack had been launched at all indicated whoever wanted me out of the way wanted to begin taking more...direct action. Alas, examining the wreckage of the ship not able to provide me any information that would reveal who did this - most of the destroyed ships had been reduced to space dust, their computers among them. Scanning the wreckage yielded more interesting results - apparently, the wreckage was devoid of the amount of organic particles expected of a human crew by, well, a large amount. Perhaps the ship was automated?
Well, that didn't really matter to me, only that my strategy was working. That being said, I checked through the inventory of technology XCOM provided me, which confirmed that apparently yes, they did make bluescreen rounds in this timeline to fight sectopods, cyberdisks and drones. I quickly created a starship sized variant of this ammunition for railguns and plasma cannons, as well as specially modified lasers that could induce similar effects. The result was a powerful set of weapon systems that could easily disable starships, even progenitor tech based ones, as rigorous testing revealed. Carefully, I equipped all of my ships with these weapons, in case they needed to disable enemy forces for when I needed my enemies alive for interrogation.
I gave my existing fleets that were ravaging known pirate hideouts to continue on with their missions, confident that my foes would eventually strike again, at which point I would bluescreen one of their ships, scan its computers, find out where there base was, and crush them.
After that, back to mundane things.
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With most of the bigger fish dealt with at the moment, I turned my attention back to Chiron, specifically all of the former EXALT captives I had awakened, healed and released. All of them had gone back to their normal lives, trying to move past their kidnappings. So far, EXALT hadn't tried to make any moves to recover them, though part of this probably had to do with fear of retaliation from me. If they didn't want to push their luck, fine with me.
Life on Chiron had mostly returned to normal, though the presence of aliens and other colonies had noticeable effects: interplanetary tourism was now a thing, and Chiron having sentient, friendly aliens on it was proving to be a big draw to tourists. My presence was also, apparently, a draw for foreigners, but I couldn't care less as long as people didn't screw up my stuff.
Eh, this was still boring. Time to go to working on technology.
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Among the new things I'd acquired from tech trading was a set of Outsider crystals, which acted as a type of psionic antennae - it broadcasted a signal that let you find do all kinds of things, including create an energy construct that could somehow affect the physical world. How it did that still baffled both XCOM (despite the best efforts of Vahlen and Shen, as well as myself), but the energy construct was undeniably effective in combat. I got to work trying to link one up to my consciousness, so that I could use it when a ...gentler touch was needed. Also, why not. For some reason, though, the crystal turned blue when I liked it to my thoughts. Though considering my psychic aura was blue, as rigorous training with my 'teachers' proved, that might just be its way of showing that I was the owner of its power. Maybe I was the next host of Asaru?
Eh, unlikely.
Also, it turned out that the Outsider Crystal was capable of using abilities besides creating an energy construct. Chiefly, it could act as a long distance psi-amp, allowing the wielder to deploy psychic powers from a reasonable (read: mile and kilometer range) distances from the battlefield. The trade off was that any powers used through the crystal were not as strong as they would be in person. A minor tradeoff, and one I could easily fix.
Back to examining my new tech.
The Alien Battleship I'd acquired from the Micronoids had, due to my single-mindedness, been left to gather dust in my hub universe, hidden in a cavernous research facility I'd built into the (inactive) Metal Planet I'd found. Why Melissa would provide me with one was a mystery, though it was nice to have.
Now that I had no reason to worry about it being stolen, I began to examine the ship. For the most part, it was a standard Micronoid vessel, but I didn't doubt that - why am I getting another alert from Chiron?
...Someone is trailing one of the EXALT victims I rescued?
Well, maybe I might finally get a lead on how to take down those guys for good.
Also, perfect opportunity test out the effectiveness of my new Outsider Avatar.
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It wasn't hard to teleport the crystal to Chiron. After it was on the ground, I focused my power on it, creating the body that I would use for this mission. Part of me had wanted this body simply because I felt that all of the training I had done with fire arms and close quarters combat would be wasted if I did not find a way to go out into the field and put those skills to the test. Cautiously, I flexed the arms, legs, fingers and toes of energy body, and was proud to see how well they responded to my thoughts. Taking advantage of the innate teleporter system the crystal possessed, I pulled out a specially modified rifle, designed for non-lethal take downs. One I'd made sure I could use it properly, which, given the rifle was one I was already familiar with, and that the energy body gave me the sensory input such a rifle would normally offer, I quickly began to make my way toward my target. Careful usage of satellites and empathic psychic powers allowed me to find a path to my target that didn't put me in the view of others.
As I approached my destination, I ordered several CNDRs to converge on that location. CNDRs were actually used in this city as police drones, with downgraded weaponry, of course, so nobody asked questions when they started moving toward my destination. Mine were equipped with stun weapons based on the Arc Thrower, meant for non-lethal takedowns. This was fine with me - if these people were EXALT operatives, I wanted at least one alive, so that I could interrogate them. I'd also made sure to give them dart guns with fast acting cyanide-countering drugs, because EXALT still used those kind of pills for silencing their operatives. Some things never changed, I guessed.
Oh, and according to my satellites, the stalkers had just cornered their target in an empty factory and were no asking her questions. Seriously, Progenitor level sensors were OP.
Luckily, my drones and outsider shell were just outside. Carefully I opened up the doors, allowing me to get a good look at the assailants. Their outfits were a mix of all kinds of styles, but all were wearing hooded clothing, ranging from jackets to hoodies and other, similar articles of clothing. I was pretty sure some would be overheating right now, even if it was Autumn on Chiron. Maybe they had cooling systems hidden underneath their clothes? I'd scan them to be sure, but I was worried about getting too much information-and they're pulling out guns.
Okay, enough watching, let's deal with this.
I targeted the one who was pointing a pistol right at my former patient's head, first knocking away the gun (and rendering the assailant's arm limp), then following up with a knockout shot to the head. The synchronized shots from my robots knocked out the rest of the mooks, leaving their victim unharmed, if a little scared.
While my bots got to work securing the downed criminals for transport, I turned my attention toward the shaking woman and used my (still rather limited) psychic powers to calm her down, then offered to take her home. She obliged, after a moment. I'd had to use a holographic projection to avoid scaring anyone (which was also something the Outsider Crystal could do), but overall, it was an uneventful walk-which was exactly how I wanted it to go. When we arrived at her home, I bid her farewell, then severed the link with the crystal, which caused it to teleport back to me.
Time to interrogate my captives.
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Well, maybe not yet. They still needed to wake up. I sped that up with some stimulants, but it would still take some time for them to regain consciousness.
Eh, I could just check out what was going on across the galaxy while I waited.
So, let's see what was happening.
More Seed Worlds had united together to form a federation of sorts, with trade flourishing between the various members. The Progenitors had been convinced to share more of their technology with mankind, advancing science beyond what I alone could offer. Piracy was fluctuating across the galaxy - new groups were filling the power vacuum I'd made, but the colonial navies had taken advantage of the breathing room I'd given them to build up strength, so I didn't really need to intervene more than I already was. XCOM and EXALT were expanding their spheres of influence, though I was mitigating EXALT's growth with careful strikes against their assets. As for my mysterious foes, they'd gone quiet - no wait, I'm picking up another unknown fleet emerging near one of my systems. Granted, the system had been publicly marked as my property, to avoid any incidents, so I wasn't surprised they knew about. Also, they hadn't slowed down that much from FTL speeds and were about to impact my fleet. I checked my damage and casualty reports, sighed and prepared to rebuild - aaaannnndddddddd another fleet just showed up. Oh joy. This one had slowed down, though, and was readying their weapons. Now, I was at risk of taking losses, but those were going to be minor- what do you mean a third fleet just showed up? Where did it pull out of FTL?
Right next to my defense systems? And most of the fleet was composed of carriers?
Yeah, this was going to be a problem.
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AN: Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!