Okay, the arrival of the Korx was rather annoying, but nothing I couldn't handle. In fact, they barely got off a few shots at me before I took out two of their five ships, which caused the rest to promptly scatter. A few more shots took out two of the survivors, while the third one ended up hitting one of the mines. How amusing.

Well, that was anti-climatic. Also, no survivors among the Korx, so there's that.

Well then, back to rescuing the ships.

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While it wasn't easy, I was eventually able to get the Iconians into my Pilgrim, allowing me to move them toward the safety of my home systems. From there, I'd let them stock up on supplies, then send them back home. As for the Yor, who I'd managed to coax into entering my omegas, I would treat them to the same hospitality, but I would make it clear I would prefer to be left alone. I also decided to let them know that I was an AI, since that might calm them down. I also made it clear that if they told any other race this fact, no matter the reason, there will be a reckoning. Hopefully, the Yor would heed my advice. Considering that they weren't mustache twirling, card-carrying villains, I was willing to give them the chance.

Speaking of which, back to the mine field.

I'd brought in my ship from Spore to examine the remains of the ships I'd destroyed, on the off chance I'd find something valuable inside the wrecks - maybe information on why they attacked? The Korx didn't normally do things unless they could make a profit, if the lore was anything to go by. On the other hand, they were considered just as bad as the Drengin...

Oh, look, a surviving computer. Hooray!

Let's see - crew intel, weapon schematics, sensor info...mine deactivation signal? What?

...salvage cost?

Oh, you have got to be kidding me. I knew the Korx were immoral, but wow. See, they didn't just know about the minefield, they were the ones who made it.Through a heavily traveled part of space, I might add.

Why?

So that they could sell any wrecks they found on the black market. They also apparently sold the dead bodies of the ships' crews to places that would break them down to make, well, all kinds of stuff. Except food, oddly enough. I guess that making alien versions of long pork pies was just too disgusting for them. Well, that or nobody really thought that it would be a good idea to sell that kind of food. Either way, that was a relief.

Not that it made me think any higher of the Korx. Not by a long shot.

In fact, the Korx were now number three on my list of targets to deal with in this universe, right behind the Drengin, who, in turn, were suprassed by the Dread Lords. Which currently constituted all of the completely and unambiguously evil races in the Gal Civ universe that were active at the moment. Who would've thought?

'Sarcasm detected'

Oh. Apparently my support AI can detect sarcasm. Impressive.

Now, what to do to deal with the Korx?

...well, taking them down wouldn't be easy - they had planned their corrupt business practices so that they could call in favors from just about every other empire in this galaxy to pull them out of the fire, so I'd need to find a way to get rid of those favors before I decided to lay them low. Alright, time to start planning.

...Speaking of which, I really needed to check some of the alerts that I'd gotten. They were starting to pile up. Also, why didn't I react to these alerts until long after I'd received them? I mean, that wasn't a good habit for a commander to have.

Maybe I should check my core programming. First, though, examine the alerts.

...Why did one of my ships keep two siblings on it for some time after the final battle on Earth against those weird aliens and not tell me?

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[ESTABLISHING COMMUNICATION LINK...COMPLETE]

CMDR_FLAME: Hydra-01, report in.

HYDRA_01: Yes, commander?

C: Why did you keep two humans aboard yourself for three weeks following the battle of Mega Primus? All rescued civilians were to be returned home after one week had passed.

H: I apologize - their home was destroyed in the battle and they would have had nowhere to go.

C: And the large amount of resources you asked move to your chassis?

H: Better attempts to accommodate them until they could be returned.

C:...Fair enough, but from now on, do not disobey my orders. If this happens again, I will be examining your coding for errors.

H: Understood.

C: Farewell.

[CONNECTION TERMINATED]

XXXXXXXXXX

I sighed as the connection to the aircraft carrier faded. While we had been conversing, I had briefly linked up directly to its systems and memories - nothing really special in there, barring a few minor oddities around the data that had been logged just prior to my exit from the Civilization Universe. Those data fragments had seemed...disjoint, and had slight glitches, almost like someone had doctored them. I needed to check if the portal interfered with the memory of the hydra line of carriers - I knew it didn't affect normal commander tech, but its affect on Chiron-tech, as I had decided to call it, was still unknown.

No time to ponder that now, though. Time to start looking through my code for any errors that might explain why I don't acknowledge alerts until long after I received them (at least in some cases).

The results I found were...rather interesting.

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AN: Took long enough to get this one out. Sorry for any issues with quality.

So, read and review! This is Flameal15k, signing off!