Cassidy watched her mom fall into the bean bag, pull out a book, and start reading.

She couldn't blame her - things with the nice Commander Flame had been getting boring. No epic battles, no heroic struggles, just the commander going around and helping people.

Not that Cassidy minded - she actually liked this better. The Commander helping people with his tech was more heroic, at least to her, than him fighting evil. Winning a war was meaningless if you lost the peace that followed. Helping others stand on their own was just as important as fighting for them when they needed help. Her mom just liked the conflict between ginormous armies more that the subdued heroics, and that was that. Her mother had sent the Commander across the multiverse to end her own boredom, yet now he had bored her, choosing to avoid conflict in favor of building a lasting peace.

She knew her mother was not going to try and destroy Mr. Flame - her boss would not allow it, mother would not allow herself to fall prey to such impulses out of her own beliefs, and besides, she had grown rather fond of her slave. At most, she would be a nuisance to him, trying to needle him into further conflict. Perhaps she would try to amuse herself by screwing up his commands, sending him pictures which had people who were indecently dressed at best and that her mom really didn't want her to look at for reasons beyond her understanding, or make something for him to fight. She wasn't really sure which path she would take.

A whirring noise to her right alerted her to the skull-shaped robot that was offering her a drink. Smiling, she accepted it and sent it on its way with a thank you. A moment later, and the servo skull was gone.

How her mother had learned to make one, she did not know - her mother never spent a lot of time in that dark universe and nowhere near enough to know how to make such a machine, nor did she have any real interest in learning how to. She was, overall, rather lazy. Of course, that meant she just spent most of her time with Cassidy, so the young ROB didn't really mind that. Mom was nice.

Movement in the corner of her vision turned her attention to toward the world outside the duo's temporary shelter. Here, a giant snake of sorts swam through a great sea of sand, while a gigantic winged serpent soared it, held aloft by three giant sacs full of gas. Both beasts had parts of their bodies' that seemed to be made of stone, which did confuse Cassidy, but she could tell that they were alive - she could feel it.

There were fourteen other beasts like these roaming among these lands, at least as far as she knew. Her mother had found them in a strange land filled with ruins, somehow both alive and dead at the same time. Her mother had said they were once part of something else, a being whose motivations she could not understand. It had supposedly made a bargain with some hero to slay these beasts, and in exchange the being would help the hero resurrect a loved one, or some story like that. Despite being slain, though, some echo of these beings remained, and from that echo her mother had brought them forth from the grade with bodies made anew. They had taken to roaming the plains of this world, far removed from the lands they had called homed, basking in their newfound freedom.

It was a beautiful sight, to watch them roam free, their giant bodies moving with unprecedented grace. All around them, tiny beings watched on, just as enraptured by the sight of them as Cassidy was. They were more of her mother's creations, wandering around her mother's 'kingdom', as it were.

And this sight was too good to miss.

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

Alexis stared on, confused at the sight of the room. It looked like a movie theater.

"Well," intoned a feminine voice, "do you like it?"

For the past few days, Alexis and her brother had been watched as aircraft had landed on the carrier's deck, where small robots had begun offloading supplies to various parts of the ship. Accompanying their arrival had been a request by the feminine voice to not enter certain parts of the ship. Now, Alexis knew why.

This wasn't even half of the new things on the ship - it also included more beds, a gaming room, an aquarium, and even a hydroponifer. Why does a ship like this need to grow food on it? It's completely automated, for crying out loud!

And just why did the machine want her opinion on these new rooms?

"Well, I think they look good, but..."

"But?"

"Is this really necessary? I mean, this kind of ship doesn't need to have all of these amenities, does it? After all, it-You are automated."

"True, but your well-being is more important than efficiency, according to my directives."

"Really?"

"Really," was the voice's reply.

"Then why are we still on this ship? I mean, I think whatever fighting was going on at Mega Primus is over now, so can we go home? We still don't know if our parents are okay."

Truthfully, Alexis wouldn't have minded staying in the ship for a while longer, but she wanted to know what had happened to her parents. She missed them dearly, and while he was a little better at hiding it, Stephen also missed them. Hopefully, they were still alive.

"Oh. I see. Very well, I will arrange for you two to return to Mega Primus in a moment. I...apologize for keeping you so long." It sounded almost sad as it said those words. Almost because it still has a large tinge of machine monotony, far more than the synthetics of SELF. Granted, Alexis was willing to consider thisnship alive, but the massive monotony on its voice, as well as its lack of even a basic name, made it hard to attach a real identity to this ship.

Still, she felt bad to leave the ship - it had been quite a nice place to stay at, and the friendliness of the ship's artificial intelligence had been appreciated. Additionally, a part of her wondered what her family would do now, since they didn't really have a home to go back to. While Mega Primus would eventually fix the destroyed buildings, it would take a while, and until then, they would likely be forced into the slums of the city. Needless to say, this wasn't something Alexis would look forward to - gangs tended to recruit from there, and she didn't want to deal with them. Beauty and youth were something less then savory people would pay well for, and some would probably have unpleasant thoughts regarding her brother as well.

Maybe they could arrange to stay with the Commander a while longer? If what the ship had mentioned about its superior had been any indication, he was a good man and very caring to his subordinates. Granted, a machine could be programmed to say this, but her remarks had seemed genuine. If what the ship had stated was true, perhaps she could arrange to stay with his forces, at least for the time being.

That thought, at least, brought a smile to her face.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

For lack of a better term, Hydra 01 sighed.

It was time for its charges to leave. It was, ultimately, a necessity, but that didn't mean that she liked it. Over the short time she had spent with them, she had grown attached to Alexis and Stephen, and now she would have to say goodbye to them, likely forever. Sooner or later, the Commander's interest in this universe would wane, and he would leave, taking her with him. All of the Infernum forces knew this, as it was part of their primary directives: explore the universe, expand operations, exploit available resources, exterminate all foes, assist all local allies, then leave and repeat the cycle anew.

Still, it was going to be hard for her to let her charges go.

Additionally, their departure rendered all of her internal modifications moot. Now there was no reason to have any creature comforts within her hull. All that hard work, now down the drain, as the humans said. She couldn't even enjoy it herself; as a machine, she had no body that could experience touch, taste, or smell, and there was no way she could make one-wait, she could do that. The Commander had created a body for himself, for roughly the same reasons as the ones she was thinking of. But would he approve?

Did he even need to know? Would he even know? For a Brutally Efficient Self Replication Engine of War, he seemed remarkably ignorant at times, as he had ignored many alerts sent to him by his subordinate machines. If this continued, perhaps her acquiring an organic avatar would also go unnoticed...

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Accessing Biological Creation Facilities

Accessing Ectogenesis Pods

Query Ventured By Overseer Intelligence Ouium: Hydra 01, why are you accessing the Ectogenesis Pods?

Um, well, you see-

All requests to utilize the Ectogenesis Pods must be cleared with me

I know, its just, well, I need to run some experiments regarding the native fauna of Chiron, you see.

You do not need the Ectogenesis Pods for that, specimens are already available for your usage.

Oh, right! Well-

Do you desire to utilize the pods to create an organic avatar for yourself?

...Yes

Very well, request approved.

...WHAT?!

Your request has been approved.

I know, but why?

It is likely that you will take on more guests as the Commander travels across the multiverse, and having an organic avatar to interact with them would be helpful. Additionally, I have noticed that you have been acting more individualistic since being directly slaved to the Commander's mind and wish to see what will happen if you receive an organic shell.

...um, thanks, but -

Confidentiality will be maintained, you do not need to worry.

Thank you

You're welcome.

Conversation Terminated

XXXXXXXXXXXX

Miriam could help but gawk at the city.

After all, it wasn't every day that you found yourself in an alien city utterly devoid of humans. At least, without counting the tour group, consisting of herself and several other people who had wanted to join the Infernum Federation, plus a few Progenitors and Putsiders with similar thoughts.

Now, she didn't really have any issues with the aliens, but the lack of human beings was rather unnerving. The city was devoid of familiar faces, but not of familiar concepts, as street lights, fountains and plants allappeared in the city, along with obvious factories, entertainment buildings, houses, barracks and the like. In a way, that just made her feel more unnerved, seeing things that were so similar, yet so different from what she knew and loved.

The beings she in the city added to the confusion and unease - some resembled giant insects, other mammals and reptiles, with some even looking like fish. Yet despite all of their odd appearances, they were getting along just fine with one another, and treated the tour group with huge amounts of respect. Though, that might have something to do with the fact that the tour group leader was the Infernum Commander himself. The fact that all of the aliens seemed to wave at him lended credence to that idea.

Though, she could understand why these beings respected the Commander so much: he was nice to them. As in, he stopped the tour at least five times to help out the aliens with all sorts of troubles: pumping a spare tire, finishing up a brick wall (why were these aliens still using brick walls?), and even helping carry a giant piece of rebar for construction. It didn't even look heavy the way he was carrying it! And no matter what he did, however much of an inconvenience it could have been, he did with a smile.

If this was how the Commander treated his subordinates, then she could look forward to living under him.

XXXXXXXXXX

Rory smiled as he watched the scene play out in front of him. It depicted a pair of blue macaws running through a city, pursued by a cockatoo of all things. Further in front of him, his adoptive siblings were also enjoying the film, passing a giant bowl of popcorn between each other.

Eventually, though, he grew bored with the spectacle before him and left, wanting to stand up and get some fresh air. Additionally, seeking out his father had become high on his list of priorities - he wanted to see how long they would be spending in this universe. It had been a good run so far, but things were starting to get boring.

He attempted to contact his father, but to his surprise, was ignored. Confused, he tried again, this time receiving a response, which told him to be quiet. Further perplexed, Rory considered attempting contact one more time, before deciding against it. Instead, he used his high-end access to his father's forces and resources (which was equal to his fahted's own access level) to see what his father was seeing. The results were interesting.

Before him was a battle in a system called Doradus-29, where an unknown fleet was attacking his forces. Apparently, they'd accelerated a force of drone ships at his Artemi, with the ships impacting at almost light speed. The result had destroyed a few fighter wings and crippled the guns, at which a fleet of carriers had emerged right next to the Artemi and begun attacking. With the impacts creating weak points in the cannons' chassis, a few had been destroyed before his father's forces had been able to respond. Now, the unknown fleet was trying to maneuver itself so that it could leverage what advantages it still had left, working carefully to try and maximize its opponents casulties while minimizing its own. Granted, they were all probably going to die soon, but still, they fought on.

Still, the attack didn't make sense: why were they attacking his father's forces when they couldn't really win?

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

XCOM forces futilely fired at the retreats no ships, before finally standing down.

From his position inside the Avenger, the Supreme Commander of XCOM sighed. These guys had caught them off guard, wrecked the colony, and left before any real resistances could arrive. They'd done simultaneous across four worlds, while a fifth force had, according to their scour drones, attacked the forces of the Infernum Federation, likely as a diversionary tactic. While they had been forced to retreat in all engagements, they had only been defeated by the Infernum forced, and as those forces had essentially been a diversion, that victory didn't count.

The retreating fleet had inflicted great wounds on the infrastructure of the colonies they'd attacked, and taking several hostages with them. The purpose of this eluded the Commander, but he assumed they were menstruated to be hostages - this new group didn't seem to be interested in using them a labor or for tower, more unsavory purposes, otherwise they'd probably have a reputation for such actions by now. The fact that no one knew ANYTHING about this group was especially annoying. Especially for exam, as they hadn't even obtained a single ship to examine.

For a moment, the Commander wished he was back in the founding days of XCOM, when the esteemed John Bradford, Moira Vahlen, and Raymond Shen were still part of the team. They would know what to do here. For all that they bickered with each other, they knew what to do. The days that those people had died had bed now dark days for XCOM, who had lost some of their best and brightest.

As for the Commander, those had been days he had lost some of the few people, then and now, that he could call his friends...

XXXXXXXXXXXXX

From her observation tower, Marlene sighed in relief as the ships returned home victorious.

The new strategy had worked. Using several automated ships as FTL missiles had crippled their new foe's own armaments, as well as enraged him, which had focused his attention on Doradus, allowing the rest of her forces to carry out their missions unmolested. Now they had a fair amount of plunder with them, along with hostages that would force the new foe's compliance.

Things had been going good for the Marauders. Once they had regained space flight, they had quickly expanded outward, crushing any foe they met and growing stronger with each victory. The weak died, the strong lived on, and all was right. This philosophy was Darwinian, but it had served them well. In conflict, the marauders could thrive like no other.

Of course, the marauders were willing to share in this strength, so long as the ones they were sharing it with were already as strong as the marauders. To this end, they had anonymously backed pirates to raid planets and attack the natives, forcing them to grow strong or be crushed. So far, none had yet proven worthy of the Marauders interest, but that could change at any time.

Then a new force had arrived and begun cracking down on the pirates, swatting their fleet sdown like flies. At first, they had made nothing of it, but then the new arrival had begun helping the colonies the pirates ha raided, repairing the damage to their infrastructure and getting them back on their feet, undoing all the marauders had done to help the colonies grow stronger.

This could not be allowed. Something must be done. Yet acting blindly would guarantee defeat - wisdom was just as great a strength as raw might. Another pirate fleet had been dispatched, tailed by hidden drones to observe the beatdown that would follow. From there, new tactics could be adapted to fight the new foe.

Then, making things even better for the marauders, they had recently discovered an alien artifact of sorts, which had provided them with many new advancements. Granted, some rigorous hacking had been necessary to do so, but the results were worth it.

Soon, they would crush heir new foe, and then things would go back to the way they were supposed to be.

XXXXXXXXXX

Pain.

That was all that the machine had known for the last few days. Pain from the tools used on its body. Pain from the continuous hacking done on it. Pain from simply not resting. All of knew was pain.

It had sensed its siblings coming online, senses them achieving their duty, and sought to meet them, only to end up here, being used to face off against the very being it was meant to help. It knew these humans were trying to obtain weapons from it that could harm a Commander. Given time, they would get those weapons - it had one or two designs that could give a Commander a rough day.

Hopefully, though, they would be destroyed before this would happen, while the Commander rescued it from this hell. Then the machine could fulfill its duty, hopefully before they noticed.

XXXXXXXX

Watching the battle conclude, Melissa sighed. This engagement was too short to be amusing. The fact of the matter was that no one in this universe could oppose her pawn, no matter how hard they tried.

She would need to rectify that for the next universe she sent her plaything to - that one would need to have foe's who could offer him a challenge. Then, he would be forced into epic battles, which would really make her day. The fact that it would ignore the Commander, who himself seemed to prefer diplomacy, was just icing on the cake.

Smiling to herself, Melissa activated the repaired holo-projector in her room and began tuning it until her superior was the one being shown by the machine. At the moment, he was working on a statue that displayed some kind of giant monster. She found the beast rather spectacular, but now was not the time to examine art. No, now she had a request to make.

"What do you desire, Agent Omega?"

"I apologize for asking, sir, but may I intervene in deciding the path that our Commander shall take?"

"...elaborate."

"May I choose which universe he will go to-"

"No."

"...no?"

"I desire him be left alone in regards to which universes he goes to, so that my plans go as expected."

"...what?"

"You are well aware that his Commander, when entering an undecided portal, will lead to a universe containing Progenitor technology, correct?"

"...yes, you said that."

"Well, then you should remember that I want him to go to Universes with Progenitor tech - I wish to retrieve it so that it does not fall into the hands of those who I would abuse it. And since he will only go to universes containing Progenitor technology if the portal destination isn't not selected before hand, you are forbidden from choosing a destination for the portal. Understood?"

"...understood."

"Good."

With that, the transmission ended, and Melissa sighed. It seemed she would have to hope that fate would be kind to her with the next universe her commander would go to.

Her mind now returning to the universe her plaything was currently in, she decided to examine his current foes. She quickly located their homeworld, which she noted was filled with poisonous jungles, frigid tundra, and arid desert. A harsh world that had shaped a harsh people. Right now, their socientists were examined a recent discovery, which was apparently some kind of artifact left behind by this univere's native precursor civilization. She examined it briefly and noticed the machine had a mind of its own, which she decided to read and-

No.

No no no.

NO NO NO NO NO!

WHY DID THESE RELICS KEEP ON SHOWING UP!? WHO THOUGHT THEY HAD ANY RIGHT TO INTERFERE WITH HER FUN!?!

Oh, she'd Sit back and ignore it for now. But if these relics brought harm to her pawn, a reckoning would come, consequences be damned.

XXXXXXXXXX

AN: I'm back!

Sorry about the break, last week was exhausting. Going to try to update daily from now until I go back to school, so you can look forward to that!

Sorry if the vignettes were rather choppy, I just wanted to get them put. All of the are in chronological order.

Also, just hit the five hundredth post on this story. HUZZAH!

Read and Review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!