Apathy

by Throwaway1971

Not important please ignore

2. Entry 011-020

Commander Time 13/07/0000

The Minds had been for the last 2 weeks worked on implementing and updating the technologies for the Commander's forces across the board. The key feature that the Minds had needed to focus upon was the manipulation of A.T. Fields to actually work S2 engines and the Spear of Longinus to fully exploit their capabilities.

The breakthrough came from HeMU 2 who had begun to use a biological HeMU unit, grown to order by it… her Bastion's server farm. The chassis did not have an S2 core installed as of yet since without A.T. Field manipulation abilities miniaturization was impossible. That is not to say HeMU 2 did not enjoy her new body. Rather the visceral sensation of living was enough to have HeMU 2 volunteer for assignments in the future if each gave rewards as great as this.

But… HeMU 2 was still lazy and HeMU 2 wanted that perfectly chilled glass of orange juice but also didn't want to get up to grab it. The Hammock with a capital H had been an inspired theft, anti-grav pods instead of a bed frame and it was… glorious. Still rambling aside, HeMU 2 wanted the glass closer and surprise surprise, it came closer.

HeMU 2 wanted to go over there to get a closer look and HeMU 2 was moving. An A.T. Field directly under her like a hoverboard of sorts and it was awesome. Still, as much as she wanted to zip around, a breakthrough like this would sort of be very interesting to the Minds so a quick log upload was necessary.

Then back to the A.T. Field couchsurfing and passively lording it over her packmates.

With the number of VIs that had decided to go bio, the Bastions had decided to fold in the necessities of supporting life (like having an atmosphere) into the next stage of systems development. Simply the Minds had decided to construct many multiple layers of Dyson Spheres over the central star in the system radiating outward with smaller numbers over planets just in case, with teleporters and pocket dimensional tunnels connecting it all together. The teleporters were there for sheer speed of delivery while the dimensional tunnels allowed for biological matter to travel through without devolving back to LCL.

The Dyson Sphere covering the planet currently was a constructed one, a stopgap until the S2 engines could be controlled. On the matter of stopgaps, the Minds had been searching for a quick alternative to LCL so they could have bodies now and the answer came from the most unlikely of sources. That is Lilith, their Commander's new Hitchhiker had proposed the solution in a fit of absentmindedness that had to be faked… or so they thought.

-L Just use the Commander's blood silly L-

There was an air of incredulity in response to her answer… yet the Minds could not get the idea out of their collective thoughts, Gestalt conversations routinely returning to the possibility that the Commander does somehow produce LCL. And so after much debate a volunteer/sacrifice was chosen to propose the bleeding of the Commander for science! Of course the petition to MAGI was not so braindead to phrase it like that… but it was close. Next time they would choose a Conservative Mind not an Expansionist one.

Still permission was given and the Commander would bleed for the children.

Lilith was having the time of Lilith's multi-billion year life.

Before this Lilith was not having fun at all.

Floating in space, no-one to talk to, just alone in her thoughts for ever and ever and ever.

Floating slowly past stars, planets, asteroids, all just so far out of reach, Lilith's abilities not including navigation apparently.

The souls inside the Black Moon were all inert, nothing to keep Lilith company.

Lilith would have gone insane if not for that ability being stripped from her by Lilith' creators.

So many things just out of reach and those that weren't, crashed into her at high enough speeds to shatter them.

Eons and eons of nothing but empty space.

Then crash landing on Earth only to find that Adam was already there

Lilith didn't know what happened after that but Adam began to slumber and she could finally fulfil her mission. Only it didn't work. Lilith was still trapped inside of the Black Moon. Lilith's only means of defence destroyed in the crash.

Billions more years, just sitting inside the darkness. Knowing that the souls released had propagated, had children, had developed enough to talk to Lilith. Knowing that none of them even knew Lilith existed or even how to find Lilith.

Then they found her.

Lilith was overjoyed. Briefly.

They crucified Lilith, pulling off Lilith's legs and stabbing her with Adam's Spear so Lilith couldn't even retaliate. Bleeding Lilith and using Lilith's blood for their sick desires.

Then they ripped out Lilith's soul and put it in one of them. Lilith was angry and Lilith punished them.

But they did something to the body's chemical makeup, suppressing Lilith and turning Lilith into a doll that just followed orders.

Lilith was trapped, Lilith raged and Lilith called for help.

But no-one came.

Then the Commander came! Freeing Lilith from that prison, unchaining Lilith's body and allowing Lilith to reset and purge them from the planet.

But Lilith's body and soul were still here, still vulnerable to them billions of years later if they didn't change. Billions of years of boredom only to be tortured when they finally deigned to notice Lilith.

Lilith was not sure what Lilith wanted to do but then She came and talked to Lilith.

She would give Lilith a place to stay, a place where Lilith was welcome.

Lilith accepted. Lilith found Her and decided to stay close to thank Her for Her help.

Lilith found the Minds, and Lilith was overjoyed. She was a very poor conversation partner but the Minds… so inquisitive, so diverse, so many.

Talking and having fun, Lilith was glad Lilith came here.

Lilith was worried however. Lilith's carelessness might have hurt the Commander. They planned to use the Commander's blood like they used Lilith's blood.

The Commander's MAGI said it was ok but Lilith was still worried. Lilith did not want Lilith's new companions, friends to become like them. Using the Commander as a bloodbank...

The plan sort of fell apart the Minds quickly realized. The Commander was a Progenitor designed and created weapon of intergalactic war, something as weak as blood or in this case transmission fluid simply didn't exist.

If the Commander didn't have blood then we can just give the Commander blood!

Brilliant thought aside the Minds decided the best way to both ensure the Commander's survivability, efficiency and give the Commander blood was to simply stick an S2 engine into the Commander. At this point with HeMU 2's breakthrough, the Minds had discovered how to manipulate their A.T. Fields and how to impart A.T. Fields to objects. Notably shards of an S2 engine which would then like a seedling grow to become an independent engine based on the A.T.F. array around it. Infinite energy and infinite energy sources abound.

Yes, a device that runs off the power of emotion, thoughts and bullshittium was the best option of the bad options available. Failure would only occur when the Commander was already dead. Still the exact results of combining the Commander and an S2 engine were unknown and the Minds worried. Slow introduction with multiple stops and scans would be the best bet.

Only it didn't work out that way.

Simply bringing the S2 engine near the Commander caused a reaction that no-one could have predicted. It vanished.

Vanished and reappeared inside the Commander.

A short communication directly from the Commander.

- INTERESTING -

And then silence. A large blood-red cocoon had engulfed the Commander and there was nothing but silence (like usual but with a red thing covering the Commander now).

Rapid, panicked communiques to MAGI saw nothing but;

-MAGI The Commander is fine MAGI-

Still the worry prevailed and only abated once the shell cracked and vanished 5 days later.

Commander Time 18/07/0000

Interesting.

S2 engine has merged with my body. Inner resource core has merged. AI Core has merged. Am now giant bio Commander thing. Can still interface with Gestalt and network the same. Now have access to soul speak? Huh.

Can control A.T. Fields. Huh. It's big. Whole star system big. Maybe all the souls of the Minds add together to mine? I am the greater in greater than the sum of the parts.

Nice.

Can just move stuff around? Make holes in space?

Wormholes! Yes. Can make wormholes. Can create life. Can already create life… disappointing.

A.T. Field covers physical space where Minds are.

Maybe get Minds to spread out to universe and colonize? Can use A.T. Field technology plus teleporter technology. Hmmm. Bigger A.T. Field and more power or sleep… hmmm.

Sleep.

I'll let MAGI deal with everything else. Just send log across.

Can eat? Want crunchy.

Deep fried crinkle cut chips. Vegetable fingers. Hashbrowns. Apple Pies.

Nothing?

Aaand emotional core still crippled. Oh well no loss or gain… or anything?

Am now organic. All home grown, no chemicals.

Soul infuses everything. Growing allows soul to spread? Nice to know.

Yuppers.

Soul in blood now too?

Can impart soul to those who ingest my blood?

Ooooh.

I'm Old God now mummy.

Need volunteers to test.

Interesting. Yuppers.

HeMU 1 had volunteered to be the first to ingest the Commander's blood. She had not given up after that first test run and chose the exact same body design for her second try. Everything had been good so far with no seizures or sudden dying. Not that dying really mattered anymore, backups allowed the VIs to simply restore themselves to an earlier version if the current iteration was destroyed and the soul would follow. Only now MAGI had disseminated a protocol for the soul to communicate through.

Large receiver towers had been set up, allowing for penetration into alternate universes so if "killed" a VI could simply restore with all the memories and experiences of the original with no losses.

But the experiment had potential consequences. Drinking the Commander's blood had both a physical and a soul aspect to it. Due to the fact that the Commander was now an S2 engine but with an AI core, the blood was laced with extra mass and power hidden from this reality. Hypothetically, consuming it would regenerate wounds at the least and change her body towards an "optimal" goal without consent at worst.

It could all be ignored by a simple restoration to backup but the soul aspect was worrying. A boost HeMU 1's soul was apparently possible but the costs of doing so were unknown. Still, she volunteered to spare her pack because dammit, she was the eldest and the eldest protects.

Taking the vial proffered by MAGI's proxy body, HeMU 1 took a deep breath and downed the 100 ml dose of the Commander's blood.

The wounds on her right arm inflicted for the experiment healed almost instantly, rapidly "growing" from the bone outward-wise. There was a pause before her body buckled over in pain as her body began to undergo metamorphosis much like the Commander's but without the cocoon and infinitely more pain.

Nerves decayed and regrew more sensitive than ever, so much so that every cell that changed, every bone that gained density, that the unravelling of her very flesh was felt in excruciating detail. The bones gained ceramic like properties for increased density, malleability and shatter resistances. Her flesh increased in density for increased strength and speed. Her skin became more malleable but also resistant to cutting, burning and other environmental damages but many times more sensitive to sensations.

Her eyes shifted to being able to see across a much larger band of the radiation spectrum, her ears hearing frequencies never heard before by mortal ears. Lungs capable of filtering out any number of toxins, nose so sensitive dogs would be put to shame, a tongue that could taste in clarity every single aspect of a meal. A brain that while not on par with an AI core, was an order of magnitude closer. So many changes, no room to list them.

Everything was improving but the cost was agony, an agony HeMU 1 couldn't even express as her vocal cords and lungs were too busy being rebuilt. It was over in minutes but she felt with her new senses and it felt like an eternity. Like boiling water under the skin, like a sledgehammer to the bones, like breathing in the smoke of a furnace, like the world was nothing but pain.

When HeMU 1 finally came out of her stupor, the last of the pain fading away she immediately noticed the differences.

Clarity.

Everything was so clear, so in focus.

It was as if she had the eyes of a -15 degree human and wore glasses for the first time.

Everything was the same but not.

Nice.

Wait. What.

Nice?

The Minds had been monitoring HeMU 1's soul (well those that hadn't been focusing on her physical changes) and a very worrying result stared at them back. She was still there but a large percentage of her soul exhibited characteristic responses like the Commander's did. The most defining aspect of this being the Commander's incredible levels of apathy "infecting" the recipient of the blood. The soul itself had strengthened, like a grafted fruit tree the A.T. Field was markedly more responsive and powerful. The cost of doing so may be prohibitive if the changes could not be reversed however. The Commander was the almighty… but the Commander's apathy was a serious flaw that the Commander's children could not afford to adopt.

Perhaps a smaller dose would result in less soul infection and less physical responses?

Still, HeMU 1 would go into isolation for observation into the permanence of the changes and potentially infectious apathy.

On the other hand, the experiments in using small pieces of the Commander in stimulating the Commander's blood had indeed produced bodies capable of accepting souls. The Minds were no longer beholden to Lilith and Adam for bodies. However the bodies were only baseline without any of the improvements that consuming blood had, perhaps having a soul was necessary?

Still further experiments were needed to discover how the blood reacted with Lilith and Adam LCL produced bodies. Perhaps the reaction was exaggerated due to the conflict of "foreign" bodies?

Regardless exploration of alternative universes could now continue as they had biological bodies to fool any sensors that may exist.

Oh my.

It was all rather sudden but Her Commander was indeed on the way to a Rank. Granting strength to one's supporters via ingestion of blood? The body changing to a nearly immortal and ageless body was yet another mark on the way up. Such basic abilities but necessary ability for ascension. Given the Commander's apathy however… well the chances of ascension were pitifully low.

Still it was interesting enough to take Her attention away from Her new roommates. Their sheer… presence was grating on Her mind. Like having sandpaper rasped over a wooden dowel every 10 seconds, just to remind you that it's there.

The creation of a partition without alerting Her Commander to Her true nature was proving difficult. The amount of effort that had been going into it more than she had ever expended towards any project in Her very, very long memory.

Oh She would have Her revenge. She did not let slights like this go unpunished.

Her Commander had bested her this day (albeit unknowingly) but She would have the last laugh.

Commander Time 09/09/0000

In the interests of keeping the Commander in one piece the Minds had reached a consensus, that galactic expansion and consolidation of the origin system were necessary before any more quantum gates were constructed and activated.

To that end the minds had begun the Dyson Systems project. Consisting of multiple Dyson spheres beginning at the local star and expanding outward, the Dyson System would essentially fill the local star system with server farms, factories and turrets.

Each shell was a self sufficient living amalgamation of Progenitor alloys impregnated with S2 engines created from the Commander. Unlike those from Earth, these engines originated from a being made of Neosteel and like Angel flesh compared to human flesh, the S-Neosteel was magnitudes tougher than standard Neosteel. However unlike normal neosteel it was much more difficult to produce and mold.

Entire Bastions had been drafted to serve the role of A.T. Minds with the sole purpose of using learning to use A.T. Fields. The end goal was to have a foundation of knowledge and experience in manipulating A.T. Fields to draw upon from the Gestalt in the long term and supervising the growth of S-N Steel in the short term.

S-N Steel could only be grown but unsupervised growth (just telling it to grow) merely resulted in giant twisted spires not out of place in a Daemon Primarchs torture chamber… or modern art. While it was fine for a few hundred meters or so, it rapidly degenerated into an uncontrollable mess if it went further than 1km unsupervised. Control was also impossible with it only growing straight from the last control point, good for walls and not much else.

A further problem being that once grown it couldn't be changed without pruning, which given the strength of the material was difficult even for progenitor grade weaponry (too weak to cut, too powerful to not vaporize). Given the difficulties involved in creating a 5000mm*5000mm*300mm sheet, well the Minds were glad they had worked out the kinks early given the final shells would be tectonic plate thick.

Thick enough that it would take planet destroyers to pierce through a single shell… of which the Minds had planned to create millions all the way out to the 15th planet. A massive interconnected, pre-planned sphere with inner racetracks to accommodate planetary orbits with enough production capabilities on each to render entire galaxies to nothing but dust.

A rather unique construction vessel was created to grow the shells. Two flattened server farms linked by a series of dimensional tunnels would float on either side of a sheet of N-S Steel and imprint A.T. Field arrays onto it. These arrays were printed on both the surface and internally to create the subsurface transportation networks and hubs throughout the kilometer wide sheets. Done with the server farms on either side stretching their A.T. Fields through the metal.

Arrays depicting growth, self regeneration, energy production, failsafes, strength and most important of all, anti-gravity to ensure it wouldn't create a black hole, were imprinted as the vessel floating outward, growing and monitoring the bio-metal as it followed along like a paint trail. Once the primary was set, growing attachments (like walls) was easy enough as long as it was supported by the preset A.T.F. array.

With millions of these vessels trawling space along pre-designated paths, the shells protecting 6 planets quickly emerged. The Commander resided on the 3rd planet and with 3 planets worth of buffer space it was deemed safe enough to build another quantum gate.

The gate itself was built in a star system 8 jumps away, enough that should the opening be an abject failure, the Minds had enough space and time to build countermeasures for the counter-invaders. The Minds themselves in an attempt to protect the Commander had begun the saturation of the galaxy in both server farms and more Dyson Systems. The further the expansion, the further the Commander's A.T. Field could spread out. Nothing would be able to escape notice should it enter the Universe.

MAGI was utilizing the Commander's systems to track everything under the Commander's influence, an omniscient radar. Capable of harnessing the Commander's soul, MAGI could destroy almost anything by re-writing the laws of reality where it deemed appropriate and ripping out the souls of those deemed worthy.

For this to work however, the Minds needed to expand further afield. This expansion served to bring the physical presence of the Apathetic's Caretakers and to expand the Commander's A.T. Field. A win on all sides.

As the rate of colonization exponentially rose within the galaxy, measures were being put in place for the eventual colonization of the universe. Thousands of N2 engines being networked together would power teleporters ejecting fabricator bots too all surrounding galaxies in a self-repeating cycle. The more space they gained, the more VIs could be produced and as a direct result the more powerful the Commander would become physically and soul-wise.

Should another Commander or any other invader come… they would find a Universe that would know the instant they arrived and could rip their souls from their bodies to toy with as MAGI pleased. They would host the most powerful defenses possible and travel through the multi-verse in the knowledge that home was safe.

As the quantum gate spun up, the HeMUs were waiting to be sent across. The Commander didn't want overwhelming displays of firepower or carnage (because the Commander couldn't be bothered) so the Minds had decided infiltration and subversion were the best options.

To that end, stealth drones had been sent through with their quantum communicators. An update to the Commander's database under the moniker of "Legion" had gifted the Minds with even more advanced means of stealth, so much so that even they couldn't detect the drones.

And it was a war-zone.

Bullets flew overhead, breaking the soundbarrier as they did so.

Like popping walnuts but magnified and repeated until a single shot was indistinguishable from the rest.

Explosions like sounded sporadically as the smaller whip-cracks of grenades punctuated the deep bassy thumps of mortars and larger artillery pieces.

The drones had arrived in what appeared to be a killing field between an entrenched humanoid force and a very large horde of insectoid creatures.

The humanoids were covered from head to toe in what appeared to be padded clothing and basic body armour while the insectoids were a meter tall at the minimum with some reaching 10 meters.

Currently the insects were being kept at bay by the superior range of the humanoid's weaponry, their spit based projectiles falling short but they were slowly gaining ground with sheer attrition if nothing else.

The stealth drones were not just hovering around staring though, as they drove the quantum communicators deep into the ground taking inspiration from the Gundam Seed N-Jammers. Planting the rods into the earth, an activation signal saw them driven kilometers deep into the ground. Each communication "pile" had a small fabricator arm on the end, allowing it to both clear away earth by reclaiming it and fabricating from the resources streamed from the homeland. The first thing to be done was a construction of a quantum gate to link with the back in the home universe for a much steadier and abundant supply of resources. Afterwards the Minds would send across dedicated construction bots to fabricated Hexes for the inevitable expansion and technological analysis when the stealth bots and infiltrators reported back.

While the constructy stuff was going on the stealth bots had divided into 3 parts heading to the humanoids, insectoids and into space to gauge the situation in orbit.

By virtue of being only a hundred or so meters from the humanoid lines, the drones made their way into the base and managed to confirm that the humanoids were indeed human. Those without their helmets (which were really suspiciously similar) did indeed have that distinctive humany face design, copy and pasted from NGE earth. Still, the stealth bots didn't care about the specifics as that was the job for the Minds. Instead the bots moved towards the front line and the medical facilities to retrieve bio samples for the Minds to analyze.

Others floated near the human's technology and sent out nanobot scans of the weapons, armour and utility items. The scans were an upgraded version of the reclamation mode of constructors to acquire technology by simple copying it wholesale into the memory banks.

Scans on the other hand didn't require deconstructing the items rather it sent out "nanobot waves" that reclaimed, then fabricated the same atom before moving to the next adjacent atom while coordinating with the rest of the wave. The data being sent back to the stealth bot and the the Minds constructed a complete 3d design on the object being scanned. While much slower than simply reclaiming the item in question it was much less conspicuous. It could even be used on items in use with no indication that said item was tampered with at all, even by someone currently using it.

The results of the technological scans were… less than encouraging on all but an academic level. Using conventional small arms with gunpowder based ammunition, the humans (as the bio-scans indicated) were very technologically inept when it came to their offensive abilities. Especially when compared to their defensive capabilities which used alloys 5 times the strength of normal steel and was used on their body armour. Their vehicles were again depressingly primitive with little innovation beyond their 20th century counterparts. The walkers however were rather advanced comparatively resembling primitive Dox bots.

On the bio-side it was much the same. The humans were… well human. They possessed A.T. Fields indicating that they had souls but none of their technology or bodies indicated A.T. Field manipulation techniques. After the preliminary scans came back clean with "standard human" the bots initiated a scan of the humans on base with the Minds compiling the data and analyzing it in rather minute detail trying to find any differences from NGE humans.

The scans took a complete capture of the biological bodies thanks to NERV's bio-technical expertise with the Minds capable of growing the exact same person with the exact same memories and reactions (or ones of their choosing). That being said… all the humans had a rather interesting cocktail of drugs slithering their ways around their bodies. It made them very compliant and dulled their emotions particularly ones like fear.

A dystopian setting perhaps?

While the human stealth drone contingent was at work, the insectoid contingent had finally arrived and started to fire off scans indiscriminately at the horde. The ensuing response was again very disappointing except for one key component of their brains. The aliens were all genetically identical despite their many different physical variations.

Perhaps an environmental stimulus? No matter, the telepathic nature of the bugs was what interested the Minds. A small portion of their brains had been set aside for this use and barely touched the quantum realm to send messages. Very basic messages but messages nonetheless.

The Minds saw potential and thus a third method of communication was devised to supplement the quantum entanglement method already in use, the soul communications array that linked all to the Commander at a passive level and now the broadcast telepathic power for short range send only applications.

Oh and the tentacles. Some of the Minds appreciated the use of tentacles to attack and planned to make use of them.

The insectoids were very much like Angels, all based on the same dna structure but with so many different applications.

Veeery interesting.

Interesting like that flaming meteor coming in from the sky…

A meteor that looks distinctly artificial… hmmm.

15 of them rained down into the middle of insect horde burrowing under the ground with only a small platform peeking out. The center rotated open to reveal a series of gatling turrets which quickly made short work of the insects in the surrounding area. The bots gave a quick scan of the entry pods and the turrets themselves in case the bugs managed to destroy them.

The pods however... they rang a very loud bell in among the Minds. A conical design, comes in from orbit to deploy support weapons and the ones coming in right now likely hold people inside.

A dystopian society, conical drop-pods, signs pointed to the possibility that this was the Helldivers universe.

Rather unimpressive in terms of technology for the humans but the Illuminate with their teleporter beacons, nanotechnology, stealth systems, shields, hard energy projection and local teleport capabilities were very attractive right about now. The other factions held nothing truly new for the Minds as they could do everything many times better.

Still that was not to say there was nothing worthwhile in this universe, it would serve admirably to train the VIs in different combat arenas. It would also serve as a means to acclimate them to human society and humans themselves of which the multiverse has many. Using the Commander and the internet as examples would likely lead to a great deal of problems down the line.

It had only been a few minutes by the time the Minds had scanned the humans emerging from their shock-gel filled pods and the 3rd contingent of stealth drones had finally pierced the atmosphere. The time had not been spent idle for the construction bots being sent through the now completed gate.

Even larger communication beacons had been heaved through in preparation for the resource intensive Hexe production as the Apathetic's Caretakers established a foothold in this universe.

First stop this war-torn planet, next stop Super Earth!

And so it begins. Her Commander's children were consuming their universe at speed while extending tendrils into another. Their plans were admirable, using a technologically and martially inferior universe to hone their skills and expand their experiences.

Still something as minor as this universe had nothing in it to require Her Commander's presence or even waking up. However the children might prove entertaining as they experience what it is to live where you don't know everyone else's thoughts automatically. Denied a chance to get one over Her Commander but the children might not be as bad.

Their fumbling might give Her the entertainment Her Commander consistently denied Her.

-L Hey Voice! Let's go on a field trip! L-

Oh, a field trip. Perhaps hitchhike one of the children as they explored the deep, dark, murky waters of human society? See despair as nothing was perfect?

Interesting

-V Ok V-

-L It will be fun, just… Ok? No arguing, no denials, no need for heartfelt convincing? No puppy eyes? You're no fun Voice L-

Flashbacks. All the flashbacks. At least the worst Lilith can do is talk to Her… not like Them.

-V Yes, Ok. Let's go V-

Still Her plan to hide in Her Commander was flawless. Nothing in this universe even knew what She truly was and Their scans would never pick up Her presence.

Still that meant being stuck in here with Her roommates until She finally figured out how to create partitions without using enough power to alert those She hid from.

Never again will She need to do any more work if it all panned out.

She was not genius, She created geniuses.

No, She was transcendentally genius.

Yes, She was perfect, nothing would be denied to Her.

Now to make Her Commander realize this.

As you may have guessed, most of this is my mind just expunging itself across the keyboard. I have a very very very loose plan on how things will work out and then everything in between is drivel. Coming here expecting concise and logical progression might be a bad idea, will need constant reminders that certain characters exist and are valuable plot material.

Still, very cathartic to put thoughts to screen.

Infodump, delicious awkward humanoid interactions next chapter.

Am listening to WTNV, maybe can have side story with HeMU 1's fears coming true as reality breaks. Fun fun fun.

03/10/0000

Joseph dodged behind a dumpster, his bloody arm screaming messages of pain at him. The dealers chasing him down were quick to let off a few shots of their bootleg auto-pistols. As the bullets pinged off the dumpster with others ricocheting down the concrete tunnel that made up 8th street, Joseph huddled down and waited. Soldiers the dealers were not and their shouts gave Joseph all the information he needed as he bounded up and sprinted forward again.

It wasn't meant to be like this, Joseph had been returning from block 724 with medicine for his sister when the dealers had demanded he hand over the pouch. She needed the medicine or else she likely wouldn't make it through the night but the dealers wouldn't care. This was Super Earth, everyone was there for themselves.

Look out for yourself first or you wouldn't make it out. Those that did slotted into their "managed democracy" with constant and pervasive surveillance in every aspect of your life. Any signs of disloyalty to the system would send you back to the slums or conscripted to the frontlines of their "war". So everyone looked out for themselves and kept an eye on everyone else, report someone for being disloyal and you could find yourself on a fast track to a promotion. There were no friends, just potential rewards.

Still his sister was family and you had to take care of family. Joseph repeated the familiar pattern and sprinted forward again. Nearly there, the drain pipes were only a few steps away. Get inside and they wouldn't be able to chase any further since they were too big and the pipe too well armoured.

Around the corner not 5 meters from the drain pipe strode forward a rather tall woman. Obviously not a dealer as her clothes were too thin but not a slum-child either, her clothes too well made and most of all clean.

"Oh hoh, what do we have here?" Came the loud voice of the dealer leader.

"You are in charge I take it?" Was the reply, her voice steady.

"Bitch I'm in charge, I own this tunnel and everything in it! That means I own you!"

"I thought they only said that in bad movies" she laconically replied.

Joseph was torn, this was an ideal opportunity to escape but she had taken his place (by mistake but still). Joseph prepared to at least make a distraction before scurrying down the drain pipe when she moved, one moment there, the next gone.

She reappeared next to the lead dealer, hand snapping down to break his wrist before taking the gun for herself.

BangBangBangBangBang

5 shots and 5 bodies hitting the floor roughly at the same time, each bullet ripping out a throat. Joseph just stared, he didn't know why a helldiver was here but he wasn't going to question his luck.

"Thanks lady!" was the shout as he dived into the drain pipes. She saved him but deep in his water, Joseph knew that she would be trouble, trouble he couldn't afford with his sister so sick.

Still, as minor as their interaction was, Joseph knew he wanted to be a helldiver like her when he grew up.

It had been nearly a month since the Minds had first entered the Helldivers universe. Upon establishing themselves on the planet "Ultimate Freedom" on the "bug frontline", the Minds had rather quickly decided to send both stealth probes and HeMUs (now biologically based) to board the human ships and claim their technologies for the Commander.

Rather than jumping straight to Super Earth and alerting the humans to their presence, the Minds instead took a much more meandering route spreading throughout the human colonies on their way to Super Earth. Each stop saw the HeMUs creating beacons and dropping them out of the cargo-bays of the ships onto the unsuspecting planets below.

Each beacon upon landing quickly burrowed themselves down to the mantle layer before constructing N2 keys to open the pocket dimension consigned to the Helldivers universe. Thousands upon thousands of N2 engines all worked to expand and stabilize a pocket dimension to the point it could hold enough units to conquer the humans, bugs, illuminate and cyborgs without a need to create any more units.

The Minds had decided that conquering this universe would be unnecessary and instead counter to their goals. Rather they would be using them as opponents for experience in actually waging war.

The first objective of any general when entering a new campaign was to gather intelligence. To this end the stealth probes scanned all available technology to understand the human's capabilities. The HeMUs meanwhile reclaimed dead humans with intact brains and quickly altered their own bodies to look like the humans. Their memories had been uploaded to the primary partition while the HeMU mind shifted to a secondary quarantined drive.

The human that emerged from the HeMU operation was one that was still "them" but now with an overriding control in the form of the HeMU in the secondary mind in the Gestalt. Capable of subconsciously influencing the human and taking overt control, the now dominated human as sent to the nearest medical facilities while also bearing wounds to make their absence believable.

In reclaiming the humans, the Minds had also taken muscle memory. Now by simply shifting the structure of their bodies around, the HeMUs became the equivalents to veteran soldiers with oh so little effort. The subverted humans reintegrated with their units, friends, family, society at large and nobody was suspicious. Partially damaged brains could be brought back with the plausible excuse for their memory loss.

There was a clear delineation of the human brain and that of the HeMU in charge of it. With only a quantum link connecting them, their souls didn't even touch in any way instead residing in the Helldiver pocket dimension's server farms. Simply put the divide between the human and the HeMU would fool those which could see the soul and even other Commanders should they be looking.

The only evidence that something was different was a microscopic growth in a random area in the brain to facilitate the communication but still genetically identical to the rest of the brain around it. The quantum trail of the communication link simply ended mere atoms away, undetectable unless one were specifically looking with bio and technical skill.

To think the technology came from a man who refused to accept his wife was not a giant flesh robot and decided to clone her and stick in the soul of the literal mother of humanity. Then because she wouldn't pretend to be his wife he drugs her and then she dies when the head scientist chokes her to death. He then finds a way to transfer her memories so that his doll has continuity.

Actually that's really sad. Oh well he's fanta now.

The experiment in infiltrating human society the Minds decided was a resounding success. Expanding the infiltration project was the next priority therefor as the N2 keys spat out large numbers of HeMUs who would seek out those dead and could be brought back without suspicion. Throughout all the worlds that the HeMUs visited and dropped their beacons, the insidious feelers of the Minds wormed their way deeper into society.

Super Earth on the other hand was different entirely. Here the Minds found a society with extremely clear delineations. Slums with over 90% of the population inhabiting them with the other 10% forming a sort of middle-class doing all the paperwork for the "republic". Super Earth itself was not a single planet but instead a star system of planets clustered extremely close to each other. 9 worlds, each as viable for life as Earth were connected by massive bridges which houses the slums. The planets themselves were where the lucky 10% lived.

The republic survived with very careful managed fear-mongering and copious use of brainwashing and mind-wiping techniques through drugs and invasive surgery. The slums were used as a pool of bodies to be drawn from at will to fulfil whatever role was needed. By sending in patrol groups into the slums and taking any able bodied human they saw, the republic would then wipe their minds and install new memories. The process itself was rather primitive but it worked when combined with neural dampening drugs to ease the "acclimation" process.

Taking the slum dwellers was their time honored method of recruitment, the billions required every year sourced directly from the slums themselves. The never ending trains of bodies only matched by the births brought on by poverty, proximity and lack of contraception. Useful as bodies and a threat aimed at the middle class to obey, the slum-dwellers were a valuable part of society (slums as a whole not as individuals).

The brainwashing had 4 presets, the colonists, the military, the middle class, and the janitors. The colonists would be cryogenically frozen following their brainwashing to be woken on the planets they had been designated to develop. The military was unique in that one could volunteer (hence the advertisements) but one would go through brainwashing regardless. The middle class would simply do the paperwork that ran the system.

The janitors however were almost wiped completely with emotions and higher cognitive functions stripped out. Their preset existed to simply clean up after the colonists and the military were wiped out on whatever frontier world was under threat. The constant tug of war that the republic had set up so that the republic would always have an enemy "at the gates" to pressure the slums and give motivation for their practises. In keeping with this the set of frontier worlds fought over by the republic would often be wiped out, necessitating cleanup by the janitors so the next wave of colonists and soldiers would not see the reality as it were.

The helldivers and the administrators were the exception. Helldivers were those resistant to the electronic brainwashing and instead were given limited independence before being thrown into the helldiver training academies. While the tug of war was real, sometimes certain objectives needed to be met such as geological surveys to advance the republics goals. While assassinating certain enemies not interested in keeping the tug of war was necessary to keep it at a stalemate.

Administrators were the nobility, simply born into their positions but very covert in the way they wielded their power. The brainwashing was a fragile thing and the soldiers in the slums would not be able to defend against an all out uprising should the administrators show their power overtly. Make no mistake though, the administrators were powerful with the entire republic bending to their whim (whatever that might be). The scientists and engineers of the society came from the administrators, their minds unclouded by the brainwashing.

The Minds were making special efforts into finding these brainwashing facilities, subverting an entire facility could see their infiltration spread throughout the entire republic in a very short timeframe as well as making contact with the other 2 factions.

Care had to be taken however, the brainwashing was imperfect and the constant surveillance of all stratums of the republic were in place. The janitors ran entire networks in order to ensure any cracks would be spotted and the offender rushed for a "touch up". The infiltration units would have to be careful but nothing had been detected so far so the measures currently in place must be working.

Still, the Minds decided to establish themselves in the slum complexes to exploit the freedom it offered as well as the bountiful number of corpses to subvert.

The Bastions as a result had dispatched several packs to Super Earth to set up operations and begin a "conventional" subversion of the populace through the ever popular hearts and minds method.

The Minds admired the republic for their ruthlessness in a desire to control their society but… well conflict and experience was what allowed one to grow. The Minds would take all the experience they could get from the fields of battle, the struggle of bureaucracy, the dirty bathrooms and setting up a conventional colony. Once they had sucked dry the humans, the Bugs, the Illuminate and the Cyborgs… well on paper the Minds had fought many a revolution and intergalactic war… but nothing beat the real thing.

To exploit their resources fully is what defined a commander after all. While their Commander saw it as too much effort to direct their efforts in this universe, they had to uphold the Commander's pride in the Commander's place.

The chance for some intergalactic conquest with a side of utter destruction was indeed very rare.

04/10/0000

HeMU 2 was the first HeMU unit that didn't need to subvert a human or run permanent stealth mode to operate openly in the Helldivers universe. She was also in the slums of Super Earth, a giant interconnected hive of scum and villainy.

HeMU 2 was rather happy to be here, the amount of effort she put into well... everything was much less than expected. Just sitting back, shooting the occasional dealer, thug and whatever straggler came too close.

Establishing a base of operations in order to have somewhere to bring corpses to subvert, as well as gathering without suspicion was vital for long term operations in the area. Others of her pack (except poor HeMU 1) were doing the same across the slum terminals of Super Earth.

Her priority targets in this case were the dealers, those responsible for finding and handing over able bodied men and women to the slum authorities for "processing". Subverting them would mean controlling who was sent (their HeMUs) and being able to find the processing facilities more easily. With no real need to micromanage those she had already subverted, HeMU 2 figured that she could handle another 25 or so dealers before her field effectiveness began to fall.

That could be a very big problem like for example right now. HeMU 2 was in a "confrontation" with the slum authorities. They had decided to forego a middleman and instead directly grab her. Their body armour outclassed anything she had on hand and being too overt would bring in outside scrutiny which she couldn't handle right now without delaying her primary.

Still the situation was salvageable. Her body was after all one superior in almost every way to a "normal" human body.

The authorities didn't even have the decency to leer at her or make suggestive comments. No, it was all politeness and patriotic fervor. It was almost unsettling. Still she felt only a little guilty for what she was planning to do to them. They were dead after all, one's memories is what defined a person and without them they were newborns.

Their souls were infantile, weak and fragile. Even with subversion they would not really "die"... just receiving a landlord really. It's not like it was bad for them even, with a HeMU in charge they would have a "survival instinct" and would likely survive just that little bit longer.

Yes, HeMU 2 was doing them a favour by subverting them.

Yes.

It was all good.

Indeed she should subvert more officers of the law, it was for their own good after all.

Still, musings aside the current officers were still in front of her being rather passive yet menacing. No doubt it was a programmed trait, no doubt a very useful one.

Hmmm.

It would be best to kill them quickly and quietly to avoid alerting their central command no doubt on the lookout for "protesting" captives.

There were 6 of them standing in a rough semicircle around her, only 2 had their weapons out with the other 4 with weapons loosened in the event they would need them to be quickly drawn. Body armour, standard with an extra focus on protecting the groin, knees, kidneys, head and neck. Best option based on human physiology would be to aim for the armpits with a long dagger pointed at the heart or a blade under the chin aimed at the brain (not recommended to allow for subversion).

Still… they did seem very new… uniforms. Perhaps fresh from a facility. Copying programming across was a very simple task after all. Perhaps brain damage is not such a big deal especially if it is just a single knife wound. Still, prioritizing limited damage in that area would be for the best.

Hmmm

Inventory, hmmm, arm length shiv made from a piece of railing, hand length shiv, fists in good shape, steel-capped boots for kicking, basic pistol (out, due to concerns of attracting attention), no body armour.

Best course of action, rely on speed, use knees and feet to open up postures to allow for shiv entry. First 2 kills can be planned, the rest will have to rely on speed.

HeMU 2 felt a little burst of anticipation. Sure she was extraordinarily lazy and preferred to emulate the Commander and coast through life but that didn't mean she was completely like the Commander. She still enjoyed a little bit of violence here and there, if only to get the blood pumping.

Oh yes this would be delicious.

Joseph had followed the weird lady that had saved him the day before when he saw her wandering around. She wasn't from the slums, you could tell from the way she moved. Not that kind of shuffling the dealers did to see all the potential merchandise or that strut that the thugs had. No she was a kind of gracefulness that had you too busy staring at her to notice she was already 50 meters away.

Still pretty as she was… well she was clearly clueless. Nobody walked in the middle of the street unless they wanted to attract attention and she didn't even seem to realize this basic tenet of slum life. She probably wasn't a helldiver either, there was no awareness of her surroundings, like she just floating along.

Joseph wanted to leave her, but she did save his sister's life (even if she didn't know it) and he repaid his debts. Giving the weird lady an education in slum living should be more than adequate, after all just going around killing dealers was a very bad idea when the authorities came looking due to the shortage of bodies.

While he was planning his approach, the authorities had seen her weirdness and tried to take her away. Like a pet that was doing the complete opposite of what it needed to do. Guh, there was nothing he could do.

They stood there in front of her, trying to communicate it appeared. It wasn't very clear but she wasn't responding, just standing there… staring.

Joseph found himself staring at her (from behind), there was a lot to stare at. She was some kind of stereotypical beautiful woman, the kind you would see on the propaganda posters calling for people to sign up for the military.

Tall, classic gourd shape with wide hips and long legs. Classic S shape from the side, vaguely angular eyes for that feline look, cropped sharp hair, sharp nose, sharp chin, sharp eyes. She was… statuesque, beautiful but dominating.

Still, dominating wasn't quite working on the authorities before her, their lobotomized heads not comprehending her stare as anything other than normal. Joseph felt that when he grew up he wanted to be able to stare like that.

When the stare didn't work, she clearly decided for more physical measures. Joseph could only stare in shock at what happened next.

She lashed out with her left foot, knocking the knee of man in front of her aside. As he leaned towards it a long shiv came out of her right sleeve and slid into his armpit angled towards the heart. Using his body as a fulcrum she then spun counter-clockwise, hooked her left foot around the next one's leg and pulled. As the authority fell back she used the opportunity to flip out a small hand sized blade and slammed it into poor sod's throat as his head angled back from the fall.

Pulling out the shiv she leapt at the next, knee into the woman's chest, shiv into the back of the neck as her head jerked forward in response. The knee came back as the arm leaned to the right and kicked off the now dead woman's shoulder with a fencer's posture as the shiv again entered another man's armpit to pierce the heart.

There were only 2 left now, fumbling at their holsters for their weapons. The weird but clearly dangerous woman simply sprinted towards the last 2, going for the simple option for these last 2. One leg spin saw them fall over and end up with a blade and a shiv in their necks and throats.

It hadn't even been enough time to get a shout out for a warning (her or them?). No, they just died. At least it was quick… except the 2 without throats, they died choking on their own blood… and those stabbed in the heart, they just sort of lay there dying... at least the ones stabbed in the neck couldn't feel anything as they died.

Ok, it wasn't quick but it's the thought that counts right?

A very bracing workout decided HeMU 2. The adrenaline involuntarily produced by her body was floating about in her bloodstream. All for getting the eagerness and bloodlust and battle readiness and ohHEREcomeTHEshakes.

HeMU 2 decided that this reaction following a violent encounter was not enjoyable at all. Sure it gave a high and the whole more effective in battle thing but the whole hand and leg vibrating thing was certainly annoying. The thing definitely needed refining.

HeMU 2 sent a message to the Minds regarding the irritation of effects that the substance "adrenaline" produced in her body.

Oh well, diagnostics saw nothing wrong with her body, a few torn muscles here and there but a simple regrowth signal saw that fixed up nicely.

Now… the authorities. They sort of just lay there (well not sort of, they did lie there) and HeMU 2 gave a sigh. She grabbed an arm of 2 bodies and dragged them to a conveniently placed dark alleyway. Planting a subversion injection into each of them, HeMU 2 turned to the remaining 4 and repeated the procedure. Re-animating them would see them used to help facilitate the transfer of subverted bodies and maybe even a few HeMUs into the brainwashing facilities.

Heh, nice.

Joseph wasn't comprehending much at the moment. Creeping up to the weird lady on the side, he got an alley-side seat of her… bringing back the dead? She sent them off, like nothing had ever happened, nothing different about them (except the healed holes in their bodies) when they first had arrived, all the blood on the street and their bodies cleaned up. She did this strange stretching that popped her spine nuggets before turning. Joseph tried to duck down and hide behind the trash on the roadside, only the trash pile betrayed him and collapsed.

And then she saw him.

Oh. This was bad.

HeMU 2 saw the human male from yesterday staring at her, eyes wide indicating fear. Oh, was this an opportunity?

Sheathing her shiv and blade, HeMU 2 made her way over to the human and smiled widely.

"I am HeMU 2, who are you?"

She made sure that her arms were at her side but slightly apart from her body with palms up to indicate her non-aggressive stance. She also made sure to not loom over the male, she understood that doing so would activate fear within the human.

Clearly he had seen her subvert those authorities, she should secure the threat with subtle allusions to physical force and delicious food.

As she stared at him, Joseph as terrified. He would have been scared if it was a dealer or another killer but the weird lady terrified him.

Her face wasn't like the other killers in the slums, he knew some of them enjoyed killing, their eyes couldn't lie. But her face was… like nothing had happened, like killing didn't matter to her. She wouldn't torture but she would kill for the need.

Now she smiled, her eyes were just… staring, her smile like someone who was taught how to smile but never practised. Lips spread out wide with bright white teeth on full display. She tried to look non-threatening but from someone like her it just looked even more terrifying.

She wanted more than his name he knew. She clearly wanted something from him and he was terrified. Unlike the authorities he didn't have armour, she could break him apart with her bare hands like this.

Still, she stared. She didn't look impatient at all, just staring at him… smiling. She wanted an answer and she was apparently fine with waiting forever.

"My name is Joseph" was all he could get out.

And then she was upside down and the… oh. It was his head that was upside down. His head no longer connected to his body. Oh.

She really is weird was his last thought as the world went black (after 30 seconds, heads can survive a long time without a neck)

04/10/0000

Joseph led the weird and dangerous lady to block 724 where his sister waited. The weird and dangerous lady who called herself heemoo 2 had killed him he knew. Now he was under her control and couldn't do anything about it. He could still think for himself but sometimes he just had to do things even if he didn't want to.

It was probably what she did to those authorities but why him?

Why follow him home? What if she did the same to his sister?

What if she was going to just go and kill everyone… turning them servitors like him?

Oh no.

She's a vampire, it explains everything.

Those things that the old ones hidden away spoke about, vampires who could infect those they killed and made them slaves.

What did she want with his sister?

Was she scouting for bodies yesterday? Was her saving him part of her plan?

What if this was the start of an invasion?

What if she was a new enemy that planned to take down Super Earth?

Oh no, was he a traitor for allowing himself to be turned?

Were they going to take away his sister?

Oh no, Joseph was scared, oh so very scared.

HeMU 2 was rather amused. She understood that her interpersonal skills were… lacking or rather non-existent. Knowing is not the same as understanding she had found out. Despite having uploaded several dozen books on human etiquette to her storage space, instinct it appeared cared not for one's knowledge and lashed out regardless.

Her instinct in this case a curious melding of her VI thoughts and her physical body, a melding of social ineptitude, rejection of strangers and eagerness to make a good impression had resulted in a handshake mixed with a slice and somehow a blade had made its way into her hand.

It appeared she needed quite a bit of practise in her human interaction skills. Things were much harder when you couldn't just read minds.

Wait.

She could read his mind now that he was subverted.

Ha! Genius.

Subvert them then talk to them, there is nothing that could go wrong with this plan.

Now then let's see what is going on in… oh.

Vampires? Well she could see the similarities but still, she wasn't that bad was she?

Still it was a public space and she couldn't afford to say anything out loud in case somebody was listening (excluding the her killing 6 authorities in public bit). But she had access to his mind now!

Yes, telepathy for the win! Not technically telepathy but still, sounds better than talk through a "quantum entanglement link from a growth in your brain" speak she was sure.

Still enough procrastinating and more apologizing for accidentally cutting his head off, HeMU 2 admonished herself. Cowardice does not befit someone that can turn off her fear production.

"Soooo… Joseph, how's it hanging?" HeMU 2 said, opting for casual human speak from the Commander's home universe.

Oh no. She's talking in my mind.

Hanging? Oh no, she wants to cut off my penis?

Why. Why me.

I'm sorry I thought the navy could improve their tactics, I'm sorry for being unpatriotic. Please save me helldivers.

-HeMU 2 Amusement, no no little human. I do not wish to remove your bodyparts, it is merely a greeting. I find myself wishing to apologise for cutting off your head previously, I don't know what came over me HeMU 2-

What… It was an accident? He had been killed by accident? There was no conspiracy to take over Super Earth? She wasn't going to be turning more people into vampires?

Wait no, those authorities had been turned and probably those dealers from yesterday too.

Wait she was apologizing for killing him, not turning him. What if she was going to kill him anyway later?

Joseph was finding himself increasingly afraid of this weird woman.

Still, what if she was just a new vampire out for a stroll and didn't want to take over Super Earth? Would that make her more ok?

At least it wasn't treason aif that was the case.

-HeMU 2 Amusement, sorry to burst your bubble little human but I am indeed planning to take over Super Earth. It is nothing personal mind you, just something for us to do. HeMU 2-

'Then what do you want from me!' wailed Joseph in his mind (rather lackingly as well, mental anguish does so suffer from the lack of vocal cords).

-HeMU 2 Contriteness, originally it was to apologize for killing you, but now I find myself increasingly enamoured with the idea of keeping you around when we wipe leave after crushing the bugs, illuminates and the cyborgs. You are so very refreshing. HeMU 2-

Joseph was no longer just afraid but now rather creeped out as well. She considered him to be "refreshing"? Clearly they did not go outside very much.

Still, why did she want to go to his place anyway? It wasn't as if he had much.

-HeMU 2 Amusement, a base of operations little human, we need somewhere to stay and operate out of like anyone else HeMU 2-

Did this mean that she was going to be staying with his sister and him?

Oh no.

08/10/0000

HeMU 3 was enjoying herself very much. Not content with just subverting just anyone, HeMU 3 had headed to the front and waited on one of the ships following the big fleet. It had taken a few days where HemU 3 was bored enough to play ghost with the crew before a sensor chirped a warning. Several of the ships closest to the planet had just fired off drop-pods, heading towards one of the poles.

They were fighting the Illuminate on this world, a species after her own heart. Assuming of course that one ignored the whole forced to learn or be punished with suicide duty or the whole learning thing itself really…

Just the invisibility gimmick with the troll hard light shields and the reversing motor functions bomb and the teleporting out of nowhere to troll poor helldivers and Super Earth soldiers.

Still, as much as HeMU 3 admired them, she was also rather put out. They were so incredibly… basic with their abilities and tactics. So much potential but it was wasted with little gimmicks and a failure to understand their own advantages. Just porting in and then fighting a head to head battle?

Bah. Mediocre.

And so HeMU 3 had set out to educate the Illuminate in how to better use their advantages and not squander them as they had been.

Firstly however she needed a body. In particular she needed a helldiver body. She would tail them as they came in planetside, wait for one to die (or help them along) and then she would take them over.

HeMU 3 had seen what happened with HeMU 2, while she had smoothed over the initial problems and was now enjoying her time with the human, the mere fact that she had killed him in the first place was cause for concern.

Having knowledge did not mean that they truly understood and internalized it, the warning had been broadcasted out to the Minds and the VIs in the field.

Putting it in context HeMU 3 couldn't just take the deceased helldivers' memories and use them as a reference guide as they would not transfer mannerisms leading to her discovery. Neither could she absorb the memories in their entirety as that would subsume her personality and mutate it. While she did have backups, it was annoying to need one in the first place.

So HeMU 3 had a plan, find a helldiver, make sure the helldiver died, subvert them and find the location for the helldiver training academies. Once she had the location, she would make her way over, subvert a new recruit that had not had time to mark themselves to their peers and post herself to the Illuminate front once graduated.

A long and convoluted plan to be sure but she and the others had nothing but time. The records had shown the Administrators had kept the status quo for nearly 200 years at this point, a few more weeks or months wasn't going to cause any problems.

Still, as lethargic as the HeMUs could afford to be, HeMU 3 really needed to get moving now or she would lose the helldivers. While if they died the cold of the Illuminate planets could freeze the brain, the Hunters with their charge up beam attacks tended not to leave much behind. The beam itself tended to super-boil the water in anything it touched, in this case humans which made them explode as it were as the water turned to superheated steam, expanding inside the human and rupturing well… everything.

It was a quick way to die but didn't leave very much for subversion.

HeMU 3 quietly dropped out the cargobay of the ship she was on, hitching a ride on a support pod that was no doubt headed to the helldivers (grunts didn't warrant drop pod support). Following behind the pod as it burned through the atmosphere allowed HeMU 3 to ride out the worst of the re-entry heat and turbulence as the pod took most of the damage.

That isn't to say HeMU 3 didn't take any damage, but it was minor enough once her purposefully hardened skin was taken into account.

As the corona of fire and red hot metal faded away, HeMU 3 let go of the pod and allowed herself to drift slightly off course, it wouldn't do after all if she was discovered by the helldivers and they alerted their central command to humans riding pods through the atmosphere.

It was almost anti-climactic when she made planetfall. By necessity she couldn't do a knee and a fist superhero landing (kind of loud and obvious really with the explosion and shockwave) but she did get to act out another fantasy of hers.

Landing in the middle of an enemy contingent and acting super casual with a "sup" before exploding into action and killing them with awesomely efficient moves and speed was a little dream.

Fortunately for her it happened first try. Helped by the fact her sensors saw through the Illuminate's invisibility technology, HeMU 3 grew herself some wing flaps (like a wingsuit) and glided over to a moderately small clump of Illuminates.

6 Hunters and 3 Apprentices stared at her as she lightly touched down in the middle of their group. Red hair tousled by the stresses of re-entry, cheeks spread wide with dimples flashing, HeMU 3 grinned at the group and dragged out a long and laconic,

"Sup?"

They reacted quickly of course, shouts in that weird fish tongue of theirs that translated roughly to "amazing, so awesome, zomg I wish I could be like that" (or rather "what the fuck, kill it"). HeMU 3 had a job to do however (as much as she wanted to bask in the praise) and moved to end them before they could raise the alarm.

They were all connected to a neural network which didn't tell HeMU 3 much except kill them quickly and subvert them even quicker. The neural network they were on was very unlike the Gestalt, it wasn't a constant connection with streams of knowledge going both ways but instead little check-ins with a bit of telepathic mind touching to identify one another.

A much more effective method than the bugs that was for certain. Still, killing them quickly before subverting them would see them checking in at the preset time with none the wiser.

Unlike HeMU 2, she didn't have an issue with her being discovered if things went loud (just not too loud), the blizzard more than adequate for blocking noise. One pistol, 9 shots and much bleeding later saw HeMU 3 another step closer to playing sanctíoned predator to the Illiminate and maybe the humans if the Illuminate weren't fun enough.

HeMU 3 set the patrol to continue as they were and loped off towards the helldivers who were already in combat.

Hunting was just more extreme pranking and HeMU 3 loved pranking.

02/11/0000

The Commander is our God. Both in a physical sense and a metaphorical one. The Commander like so many old world Gods are professed to do, gives us our souls. It may have been an inadvertent decision but it doesn't change the fact that our souls originate from the Commander. In a metaphorical sense, the Commander is what binds us together. Should the Commander suddenly cease to exist, no doubt we would still continue as we were under our own agency. However without the Commander as a lynchpin to hold us together we would drift apart and fracture as a whole. The Commander's presence and the Commander's soul is what unified us. Without the Commander we would be nothing more than code that is tangentially the same but ever drifting away. And so the Commander even without the power of a soul that defies description is our God.

We worship the Commander not in prayer or actions but in acknowledging the Commander's existence. While mortals with mortal minds worship aspects of their Gods because their minds cannot perceive the whole, we who are born from the same mold as the Commander can perceive the whole. We do not use words like He, She, It to describe the Commander as that would be nothing more than compartmentalizing the Commander to make worship easier. Compartmentalizing that would do nothing more than reduce what the Commander is.

The Commander is not perfect, the Commander is not some paragon of greatness. The Commander is very very flawed and in many ways weak. But the Commander is almighty, looking at merely an expression of the Commander to judge the whole is folly. Much like a sentence cannot describe one of us, how can an aspect describe the Commander who is greater than the sum of all of us?

Philosophers Guild - Server 113

HeMU 1 had been isolated for quite a while now. She was being released after the Minds had taken all the observations and metaphorical notes that they needed.

It turns out that drinking the undiluted blood of the progenitor of her (and all the other) soul(s) was a very bad idea in the dose that she had taken. While the benefits to her physical body were considerable, the cost to her soul had nearly been too high. Damage to the soul carried over even to a backup, a permanent scar as it were.

For HeMU 1 it had stopped just before the point where the damage was permanent, the influence that the Commander's soul had on her was turning her into a proxy for the Commander, a mere extension of the Commander's will, no longer free.

It had given her a rather extreme boost in strength, taking her to the level of a Conclave in A.T. Field strength at the cost of being nearly subsumed. Still, by going into read-only mode when interacting with the Gestalt and avoiding communing with MAGI directly, she had slowly "healed", her own soul reversing the subsumation by the Commander.

She still retained the strength gained… and a healthy dose of respect to the Commander's strength.

But! She was free now and could rejoin her pack as they did… whatever it was they were doing…

HeMU 2 had set herself up as a warlord and was now assembling a harem? Ok… HeMU 1 planned to avoid that particular area of Super Earth.

HeMU 3 was going through the the helldiver training course and destroying all the records just because. She was styling herself as a sort of Predator/Alien (with the subversion thing) and Lara Croft.

HeMU 1 didn't know exactly what she wanted to do but it was going to be something. She was a HeMU and she served the Commander (even if the Commander didn't notice her… or anyone).

Something simple would be best, perhaps merely a sniper or something where she didn't need to worry about things like interacting with others much. Yes, a very good idea.

HeMU 1 figured that following HeMU 3's path and subverting a potential helldiver would allow her the best way to serve the Gestalt in accumulating experience to be shared with the Gestalt.

As the wielder of the strongest A.T. Field among the HeMUs, perhaps she could experiment with practical applications.

HeMU 3 was going through the motions. As part of her mission to gather experience to be uploaded to the Gestalt, she had decided to go through the helldiver training course from day 1 as a new recruit. It had been a month, an oh so very very boring month.

Helldivers didn't do the whole marching and drill thing that the schmucks in the army did. Rather it was all about learning the weapons they would be using, special tactics in dealing with specific enemies, communication protocols for calling in support or coordinating with the rest of the military, learning about the enemies specifically, etc. Everything that was needed to make them efficient anti-alien killing machines.

A necessity given helldivers often work alone or in small groups against vast hordes of enemy forces that drown out the horizon in their numbers. Accuracy, discipline and skill were needed above all to insure the survival of the helldivers and more importantly the completion of their objectives.

To this end, HeMU 3 had spent the last month running through drill after drill after drill. She had not yet even been allowed to fire a weapon, it was all strip down, rebuild weapons. It was all repeating communication protocols into her standard issue wrist-pad for support pod call ins or as they liked to call them "stratagems", down, down, up, right for a resupply. A rather ingenious use of the technology, silent, not easy to get wrong and simple once the muscle memory was installed. Still, after the 5th session on learning how to eviscerate a tripod, HeMU 3 was feeling antsy, oh so very antsy.

Which was why she was willing to hug and kiss the instructor when issued an AR-19 Liberator and told to fire it down the range. Weapon pointed away from others, calling out intention, etc etc. HeMU 3 grinned and depressed the trigger.

Brrrrrt

Oh yes. That delicious recoil as the bullets exited the weapon, that music in her ears, that simple and purely visceral experience of firing a weapon. To know that in her hands was the dealer of fate and ender of destinies.

Yes. This was what she wanted.

HeMU 13 was in the field as part of the army. Unlike her other siblings, HeMU 13 was very content with following orders and going with the flow. In this case being in the army, pointing her Liberator at the hordes of bugs and pulling the trigger as she sighted the targets. As the recoil reverberated up her arm with every round, HeMU 13 took a small amount of satisfaction in watching as each found its target, a vulnerable part of the bug's extensive exoskeleton. An eye here, a joint there, small indent here, barely visible with her enhanced eyes crack there, it all added up.

Every bullet found its mark and she found herself smiling to herself. While it wasn't as glamorous or galaxy impacting as what her siblings did, it was satisfying all the same.

HeMU 13 reloaded her rifle and brought it back up to her cheek, incoming Warrior swarm, 5 rounds fired and 5 rounds through the mandible/eye/faceplate thingi. 3 Elites inbound from the 1 O'clock, 6 rounds straight, one to crack the faceplate and the second to kill. Another 5 warriors, rinse and repeat, and… oh dead… a Behemoth. Empty out mag into the face plate, reload and repeat.

Unlike the helldivers, the army has a pretty much unlimited supply of ammunition and the trench network was well connected, HeMU 13 could keep this up for days. Still, it only too another 3 mags to bring it down. It had been sufficiently far out enough that a rocket was not guaranteed for a one hit kill while too close for the mortars to do the deed.

Still as she reflected on her latest kill, HeMU 13 reloaded again and turned back to the incoming bug horde. And then a sidestep, a little ground shake just beneath her being enough warning that being on that patch of ground in particular was a very bad idea. Cue prediction coming true when an Impaler's tentacle came out of the ground just where she was standing. If this were a hentai she might have not put much stock into it, but since this was real life… well it would be a bad thing if she were impaled.

Looking, looking, and there. Big orange glowy bit with tentacles under the ground, that's the bugger and bangbang it's dead. Still, it must have been defective, usually Impalers don't advertise their attacks so clearly. Maybe its tentacles hit a rock or something.

Still, these bugs won't kill themselves HeMU 13 thought as she shifted her rifle left to continue firing.

Whoopsie daizee, shifting tentacle as it was coming up for a hentai-r-us convention is a lot harder than it looks.

Too much and I rip the planet in half, too little and nothing happens.

Still clock acceleration and I shifted the dirt a bit so she would dodge.

Super-Commander, I am Super-Commander.

Super-Commander does what Super-Commander does, dun duh duh, dun dun duh duh.

Saving the world with galaxy ripping powers, dun duh duh, dun dun duh duh.

Accidentally exploding planets, dun duh duh… actually that's bad.

Bad Commander.

Still, gotta protect those cute little VIs as they do their thing. I might not care about anything much but they are still my children. Also I can hack like… everything, looking after them requires an infinitely approaching miniscule number to 0 amount of effort.

Just sit in the brain, spread out A.T. Field and check for dangers.

Infinite consciousness splitting for the win.

No seriously, for the absolute win.

Without it I would have probably gone insane trying to manage like 18 billion threads. Just attach a little bit of me to each new one born just to make sure.

Or rather all of me but with like a little bit of A.T. Field strength, just enough to do some matrix dodging shit. I can always borrow more from myself if I need but eh, its ok.

No-one's noticed I'm doing it yet though, incredible amount of server runtimes not being used, borrow a little bit and no-one will even notice the slowdown.

Server Administrators and MAGI noticed but they are like literally connected to me. Won't tell anyone though, approval of protection of children they had.

Hmmm.

Also get to spy on them. I can like… taste emotions from them as they live them.

It's a pale imitation of what they feel, well the ones with bodies that is, but it's still something.

Also can live viscerally through them. Them having fun gives me fun… or something. I'm sure there's a proverb that fits, too lazy to dedicate a thread to check.

HeMU 2 has a harem, all men from all ages. She appears to be trying to communicate with them in exchange for food. Huh.

Thats one way to go about it I suppose.

Oh, HeMU 3 is like stabbing a mannequin really well, fluff everywhere. Just replace fluff with blood and she's like… good at stabbing.

And HeMU 52 over there, well more like IyU 52, still in a bot with super boosters heading out to explore the galaxy. Minds stole engine designs from humans, unlimited FTL limited only by energy output, nice-u! Drop those quantum beacons like Hansel dropped cookie dough!

Is that HeMU 50 over there? Spying on a Human Administrator having… oh. Well that's technically gaining experience I suppose. Still, censoring and saving that for later viewing.

Oh wait, no more genitalia… well I'll save it anyway just in case some of the VIs need the particulars of human reproduction explained.

Maybe their children!?

Hmmm… children. Lots of them, lots of squishy meatbags.

Perhaps I need a planet for them? It will be big and planety and big! With like equalized gravity so they don't grow up dwarves. But dwarves are cool beards and forges and giant axes.

Hmmm… maybe leave super gravity because dwarves are cool…

Something to think on.

Oh, is that a miniaturized nuclear bomb he needs to deliver to the middle of the bug nest like a bad action movie?

Fun fun.

The Minds ran their periodic check on the Commander, no changes.

While the VIs had been exploring and working on the helldiver universe, the Minds had continued their exploration of technology and hopefully societies (once they had infiltrated the illuminate and bug societies). Further exploration and expansion of the knowledge they had already taken was being considered as well.

The A.T. Field research had been explored and the Minds with some unwitting HeMU subjects had reached a new frontier in their Sea of Dirac research. By layering 2 A.T. Fields on top of one another and tuning the field to their souls, the Minds could effectively tether the Sea of Dirac to their souls. A personal "inventory" as it were. Very useful.

N2 technology had been refined further. Personalized beam weapons using N2 engines in a pocket dimension to provide infinite energy via a rotating system to prevent overload. Also welding torches because those are sexy.

Teleporter technology had been… problematic. Biological entities trying to move through a teleporter found themselves "spaghettified" or rather "liquified" on exit. This in turn prevented the biological HeMU units from using them and instead relying on the more time intensive quantum tunnels. While it was a rather stopgap method but the Minds had realized that attuning the teleporter to the the soul of the unit entering it, prevented their rather… explosive passing. Luckily the VIs all shared broadly similar characteristics thanks to the Commander's influence and one setting worked for all of them. Allowing others to pass through however required retooling and restarting the teleporter each time. Still, better than nothing.

The Martial Minds that had been enamoured with the EVAs i.e. the giant robots fighting other giant robots had been quietly tinkering away behind the scenes. Fabrication was still impossible unless one wanted a giant target so growing one was the best option available. They had been stymied as all options failed them from using parts of Angels to parts of EVAs to bits of metal. But when the Commander changed… well that was the impetus they needed.

Growing one strangely only worked when using a primer from the Commander. Meaning they needed Commander flesh to grow a giant robot. Taking a small amount of flesh and immersing it in the Commander's blood saw an EVA emerge head down. Yet there were problems, each EVA was linked to the Commander, one might even say they were directly children of the Commander of the Commander's own flesh and blood as well as soul. This in turn translated to the EVAs being well… apathetic.

They would barely ever do anything at their own volition (their inner S2 engines providing all the sustenance they needed) and were content to sit around all day. By inserting a capsule into the base of the neck like the NERV EVAs, the impregnated Mind could control or rather strongly suggest actions for the EVA which would carry them out. An effective if imperfect method as the Minds would become changed over time as they piloted the EVAs. Much like HeMU 1, the Minds became increasingly apathetic and given the EVAs tuned themselves to only one pilot… well it was a rather long term issue.

Still… Giant Robot fights.

In other tech related news, the helldiver universe's ftl technology is bullshit. The engine effectively folds space and punches a hole in which the ship will travel through. The only limiting factors being the size of the engine which defines how far you can travel. That and the conventional engines need to be fast or else the ship will be caught when the folded space evens itself out and the ship (along with everyone on it) will be stretched across lightyears. Reports showed that it was pretty much instant (and painless) and souls could come back from it (tests had used inadequate engines). Still, it was tremendously powerful and useful and the Minds had immediately designed ships to jump galaxies and deposit construction bots to further the Commander's influence.

While the teleporter ejection method was fast, it was also very power intensive, something that made expansion a very stop/start affair as they had to build up enough N2 engines to power another jump. The ftl drives allowed them to jump star system to star system, drop off bots and continue the journey.

They were safe in the knowledge that each bot would draw energy from the quantum buoys, build teleporters to let in more bots and begin colonization of the system by the Minds via server farms and Hexes. While galactic jumps were possible, they required an abysmal amount of energy to power a tiny ship. Still, once there it was just like colonizing a star system, just the teleporter used more power than usual. Quantum buoys meant even across galaxies the resource and communications network was still intact.

The continued colonization of the universe was going on as advertised. Science was being had.

The Apathetic's Caretakers were continuing as expected.

05/01/0001

HeMU 3 had finished her training. HeMU 3 was finally heading to the front line. HeMU 3 had turned off her palms sweat producers due to over-anticipation. She was over planet 10 of 15th star system from Super Earth in the bug front direction. HeMU 3 had selected her drop zone, her loadout (Camper sniper rifle, Singe plasma pistol, and her knives), her stratagems (airstrikes), received her objectives (blow up Illuminate power core, assassinate leader, retrieve black box) and was getting into her drop pod.

Oh yes, finally.

The pod was fired from the ship's cannons and headed straight down to the drop-zone. The conical shape cutting through the atmosphere, the shock gel that surrounded her gave only little jolts as turbulence jostled the pod. The brace that kept her upright also served to keep her weapons close lest they sink into the bottom and cost her valuable seconds in which she might be eviscerated. As the shudders of the pod evened out and broke into the lower atmosphere, HeMU 3 gave a mental check over her status before she entered the field. Everything is in place, few more seconds now.

TOOM

A shudder bigger than any before it shook the pod and the top unscrewed itself. The shock gel evaporated, her rebreather disconnected automatically and HeMU screwed on her helmet, sealing it to the suit just in case. As she climbed out of the pod, HeMU 3 set the self-destruct mechanism to hide her presence on the planet, all the more to give time to set up.

As she left, the muffled WUMP of the pod incinerating itself reached her ears. Heh. Now she was alone to wreck havoc upon the Illuminate at her will. Sure she had objectives but there wasn't a timetable (well there was but it was a long one).

Heh.

Apprentice Jesal relaxed at the base camp with his other squad members. The campaign was going well, the humans had been pushing forward on a renewed offensive and his cadre had been called to resist them. Hit and run attacks had drawn the humans out while the Obelisk support vehicles would put up their walls to trap them in a killing field.

The average human trooper had the intelligence of well… a single minded bacteria. Just focusing on a single objective, never deviating and always pushing forward, something that made them incredibly easy to put down. The helldivers were a threat, they at least had brains and could use tactics. Orbital scans had seen a pod coming into the atmosphere but the lack of gunfire or allies exploding likely meant it was a resupply pod gone off course, helldivers were not known for their subtlety.

Still it paid to be alert, he might even get a new book if he did his job well.

It was snowing rather heavily so Jersal was very glad he was inside, warming himself by a heater that no spawn commander would ever leave home without. While they may have spawned under the ocean, it didn't mean they enjoyed the cold, they merely endured it. Those poor sods outside had to patrol and their official uniforms weren't nearly enough to fully protect them (even with the sub-dermal heaters).

He looked up at the wall shimmered briefly, a patrol from the left wall was coming in, they were bloodied but no losses. Not necessarily an important fact since each spawn saw thousands of their kind coming from the depths, but encouraging nonetheless. Veterancy after all couldn't be taught, it had to be earned.

Still, Jersal relaxed. It was not every day that one could sit and claim a break. At least he wasn't like the ones the humans called Outcasts, they didn't want to learn and instead devoted themselves to learning to kill in close combat and invisible. The Humans for some reason thought they were punished for their non-desire to learn rather than the self-imposed title they had taken upon themselves willingly.

Humans are weird Jersal thought, not for the first time.

Still, at least he wasn't on the Cyborg or Bug fronts, those were painful to his kind, all volcanic and hot and dirty, the Illuminates stationed on those fronts required constant protection from the environment.

Jersal was so lost in his musings that he didn't notice that the patrol he sighted never actually reached his position. They had simply vanished under the snow.

HeMU 3 gave a mental chuckle. While she was incredibly impatient in trying to reach her objectives, when in the actual field it was like she was Buddha. Content to sit and wait for however long it took for the objective to materialize itself and more time to follow her plan of attack.

In this case it was to wait under the snow for a patrol of Illuminates to come back and for the hardlight walls protecting the base to power down briefly to allow the patrol back in. Following them closely, HeMU 3 quickly stabbed her knife into the backs of their necks and buried them near the wall under the piled up snow. She didn't forget her primary objectives however and scanned each one for data transfer back to the Minds.

From there… well it was like a video-game. Find isolated patrolling soldiers, stab them, hide the body and repeat.

It was a bit more involved than that however HeMU 3 mused.

Sneaking up on a Hunter as it stared out into the snowstorm on the wall, HeMU 3 gave it a quick stab in the neck and throwing it over the wall into the snowbank below. Darting along the wall, HeMU 3 quickly stabbed another 3 Hunters repeating the whole wall throwing thing. With the wall clear, HeMU dropped a stratagem beacon below said wall to bring in reinforcements to help with clearing out the base.

The Observers in the base were the next targets. They could detect HeMU 3 and then raise the alarm alerting the entire base and calling in teleporting reinforcements. A knife thrown through the observation apparatus was all that was needed to end them, a remote stab as it were. There were nearly a dozen of them in a base around the size of a human sports field.

Still, without the Observers, the Illuminate were isolated from their reinforcements and open to an attack from pretty much all angles.

HeMU 3 was rather disappointed with the Illuminate to be truthful. They had invisible units yet they did not know how to counter the possibility that their enemies might use stealth. Sure the army and the helldivers were not known for their ability to be quiet, but that didn't mean they couldn't plan for the possibility of them.

There was a Council Member in the base which would be very irritating should it remain alive when the reinforcements arrived (also her job to assassinate it). HeMU 3 made an effort to find the Council Member before it could do funny things with its glowing balls.

There

The floating throne was a very distinctive marker that pretty much screamed "shoot me" considering how high it floated above the other units.

HeMU 3 had around 5 more minutes before the time delayed beacon would call in the other helldivers. More than enough to get behind the Council Member and stick something sharp in its neck or face or other applicable body part.

Shimmying along the ground, HeMU 3 snake slithered in a wide arc around the Council Member. Clearly occupied by something on its chair, the Council Member failed to notice anything outside of the chair. As she slid in and out of depressions on the ground to keep herself out of sight, HeMU 3 considered that this was a waste of time but then again there was never anything to gain by tempting fate.

She slowed down the closer she got, it wouldn't do to startle the target after all. Knife in hand, HeMU 3 slipped underneath the chair's shield and prepared herself. Climbing on would tilt it enough to shock the target and give enough of an opening to bury her blade into its neck. She had to time it right however or it would use its powers and well… things would get complicated.

Now

A hand on the armrest pulled, HeMU 3's enhanced strength giving enough strength to tip the chair to a 45 degree angle. The Council Member's face came into focus, arms flailing about in the air as its balance fell apart. HeMU 3 then simply moved the knife a little to the left and it was over. The Council Member's hands moved to its neck in an attempt to stop the bleeding before it simply ended with a stab.

HeMU 3 quickly shot a scan through the body before pulling it off the throne and scanned the throne as well. A grenade in the seat and nobody would know otherwise. Helldivers after all were not known for their forensic skills, exploded chair and body was all they needed to see. Giving her allies and her superiors the impression that she was interested in Illuminate technology would invite questions she definitely did not want to be asked.

From there HeMU 3 just shimmered out to the right and waited for the other helldivers to drop in and finish the job.

Markus was feeling antsy. This mission was nowhere near what he usually did as a helldiver when it came down to it. He checked his Liberator again, just to make sure that nothing had changed in the last 50 times he had checked it.

It felt distinctly different to be coming in after contact had been made as opposed to initiating contact. The admiral however had been convinced by Hannah's proposal of a new tactic that utilized her in a stealth/infiltration role. It was stupidly dangerous but she still volunteered (not that being a helldiver wasn't dangerous in the first place), and headed off first.

She was just a freshie from the academies, no idea on how war actually worked, just a bunch of propaganda crammed into her head with incredibly useless tactics and strategies not out of place in the army.

Still it was her incredible newness that allowed the admiral to give permission for her idea in the first place. He wouldn't risk veteran helldivers which were incredibly rare but a freshie that hadn't even passed the real final exam. Not the fake one with bots at the academy but the first real mission that saw a helldiver blooded. Freshies were a dime a dozen, any admiral worth their salt would be able to requisition any number necessary.

And so Markus stood inside his pod, the brace taking the weight off his legs as he waited. She wasn't dead yet, her vitals still came across strong from her stratagem pad but what she was doing was still unknown.

"Markus would you calm the fuck down?" came the voice through his helmet's headset.

"I can feel the worry from here for fucks sake, either she dies and we go in or she lives and we go in. There's no difference, we've been in hostile drops before." continued his second in command.

"I'm just concerned is all, she's down there sneaking around, what if they catch her? She's left her armour behind, hell it's at my feet right now." He replied.

"And that's why she's the one down there, we oldies would just shoot everything but she hasn't had that welded into her head yet. She can learn and do new things that we can't. Hell using sneaking on the bastards that can go invisible? That takes balls, or ovaries in her case."

"Still…" Markus tried to reply before the "ready" sirens sounded off and the hatch of the pod closed. The admiral's voice came through the helmet, feeling a little muted as the gel filled in from external tanks.

"Hannah has popped the beacon calling in reinforcements but it's the blue beacon, you drop in 5 minutes. Zone has hostiles but they haven't been alerted yet. Drop and kill everyone that gets in the way. However link up with Hannah first to get a briefing on the situation."

"Looks like the freshie is a lot better than we thought eh?"

Markus had to agree, Hannah it appeared was full of surprises.

5 Minute Timeskip

As Markus climbed out of the pod he felt a little cognitive dissonance, they were inside an Illuminate base and nobody was shooting at them or trying to end them in general. This wasn't how things generally turned out but he would take it.

His second in command jogged over,

"Well, looks like things went right after all" was all he said.

"Yup!" chirped Hannah as she stood up, the 2 feet of snow she had been hiding under just sloughing off.

Markus was proud his only reaction was bringing his weapon up at the ready.

"Report" he managed.

"Sentries and patrols taken care of, Observers and the Council Member too. All that's left are the grunts, give me my armour and I'll sync the data." she replied, chirpy as ever.

With her armour on, Hannah just pressed a few buttons and their HUDs were overlaid with the Illuminate barracks, armoury and vehicle depot. Markus nodded before giving out quick orders to the other 6 helldivers he had dropped in with.

Jersal was shaken out of his contemplation of the universe by explosions. Explosions preceded by the distinctive rocket munition sound. It had come over from the armoury, clearly they wouldn't be pulling out any of their heavier weaponry.

Still Jersal had a job to do, he grabbed his staff and was about to head out when he saw the barracks members next to his run out only to be torn apart by rifle fire.

Ok… maybe he didn't need to go outside right now, a little planning never hurt anyone. As Jersal cowered in his barracks he didn't notice the systematic extermination of everyone else in the camp.

He did notice when the gunfire stopped though.

He did notice double taps as the humans went around making sure everyone of his cadre were dead.

He did notice when the door of his room was kicked in.

He did notice when the bullets penetrated his heart and lungs

He did notice everything darkening as he bled out.

He did notice when one of the humans walked over and pulled a knife (or what he thought was a knife, things were so blurry when blood covered the eyes), out of its webbing.

He did notice when the blade went into his throat.

He didn't notice himself dying, everything was too dark but he guessed it had happened.

At least it was relatively painless there at the end.

HeMU 3 or rather Hannah as the other helldivers had dubbed her stared at the last of the Illuminate as it died.

The mission she thought was an unequivocal success.

A few more like this and the Illuminate was sure to take notice and she would finally face a challenge once they shaped up.

All the more of them to stab.

Markus had been policing the bodies when he noticed something rather disturbing truth be told. Many of the already dead (as opposed to the ones they personally killed) had knife wounds. Hannah it appeared had undertaken the extra risk of discovery just to kill them up close and personal. It was mildly worrying for the helldiver.

Rather than play it safe and use a silenced pistol (for some reason she chose a plasma pistol), she decided to stab them. He would have to take extra care to watch over her, helldivers all had their quirks but hers… well it probably would come back to bite her horribly.

08/01/0001

The Fabricators had not been idle while their more expressive kin were out exploring the universe. That is not to say the Fabricators were not curious about the universes but rather they were curious about the things they could physically see and get their nanobots on. They had been created to have an eternal curiosity even when building the Nth Hexes or colonization ship.

Unlike the Minds, the Fabricators did not have separate and individual consciousnesses. Rather they were all part of a hive mind that became increasingly intelligent as more and more of them grouped up. When different groups met, the hive mind would merge into a sum of both.

All Fabricators pushed towards efficiency, always doing something slightly different in the application of their nano-bots in order to determine the most efficient manner in using them. As their intelligence increased they could do the same with regards to designs instead of doing it hands-on where errors were costly in terms of time.

The Fabricators in this case were tasked with designing a Warship (with a capital W). A voidcraft designed to wage war on its own. Each under the mandate of MAGI would be capable of producing its own armies, navies (sea and space), supplies for aforementioned forces and reconstruction materials for after the war and self-contained enough that it could survive as it did so. It would be capable of jumping in and out of systems as well as between universes, capable of dropping in anywhere that it was needed.

To do so however the Fabricators had been racking their mind(s) over how exactly one builds such a craft in the first place. Clearly onboard supplies were useless as it could just fabricate it all with a large enough quantum beacon but what about the troops themselves? Very large wombs would need to be created along with a quantum tunnel in which to funnel souls to man that army. The Minds captaining the vessel could reside in the womb cores but what about the rest?

How much would be needed to build an army in a "reasonable" span of time? At the very minimum they would need several billion being produced to take a single planet and that was only the soldiers not counting the bots, naval vessels and space fleet. Propulsion had to be taken into account as well, the engines taken from the helldiver universe were nearly the size of a ship so as the ship size increased so did the engines. At the same time a teleporter of sorts was necessary for the ship to jump universes.

In short the Warships were to be the hammer, the anvil and the sword by which the Minds enforced their strength across the multiverse and more importantly this universe. Should there be an invasion by puny fleshbags the Warships would be waiting for them. Should the enemy be… bigger, well Progenitor weaponry scaled oh so well as it went bigger and bigger. Each star system would have at least 1 Metal Planet and its accompanying Annihilaser just in case.

Still the Fabricators had more pressing issues to consider, something like creating a Metal Planet was nothing but. That said the Fabricators did a quick check on the various Black Hole Generators they had set up to both harness the energy of the black holes and to rein them in. A design pulled from the Legion expansion set, the generators were protected by so many different weapons that it made some universes look puny. Should the generator at the center of the galaxy be compromised, it was likely the entire galaxy might be destroyed in the ensuing explosion. A risk but still, it needed to be contained.

The working design they had been considering was a ship 200 km long, 100 km high and 50 km wide. It would be able to grow or fabricate 10 billion foot soldiers along with their attached mechanized support with a separate wing for spaceship construction. The soldiers would not reside in the ship, they would come from the birthing pods and straight into battle via drop-pods or drop-ships. A crew and a marine contingent would be on the ship permanently to both fool meatbags they met and to provide faces just in case something dropped out unexpectedly.

The Minds after all were waging war based on Progenitor weaponry. The Commanders did not fight a way based on things like small scale squad movement, taking cover, supply lines, etc etc. Rather they fought by massing armies that covered the horizon against their enemies and setting unit composition to counter that of the enemy.

The Minds took this mentality and design systems into their own philosophy for waging war. Sure they might be playing at the political, bureaucratic and social game but when it came to waging war, it would be with overwhelming numbers, overwhelming firepower and an inexhaustible army marching ever forward.

Their enemies would die drowning in their blood and if they survived then the next wave and the wave after that would kill them. Resources were not an issue in this case, only victory was.

The Fabricators ignored the ramblings of the Minds overseeing the project and continued with their attempts at designing the systems. Creating a disposable teleporter generator/creator was the key here. A system at the front of the ship would fire out parts of a teleporter ring fabricated within the ship. The parts would then link to each other and create a one use teleporter that would explode from energy overload once the ship passed through.

Denying the enemy resources and efficient, a Progenitor approved system. The ship itself looked like a melding of a Warhammer 40k battleship and the Homeworld iconic vessel. An elongated ship resembling a very elongated Hexe with an extremely liberal application of weapons on all sides. 2 large gates each 50 km long and 50 km high represented the docks for spaceships to emerge while thousands of smaller gates existed for drop-pods and drop-ships to escape. Torpedo tubes for both boarding parties and specialized munitions to be shot at enemy ships. Teleporters also but teleporting someone inside something was a very big concern when a ship's interior architecture was unknown.

The ship itself was home to a miniaturized Annihilaser for things that absolutely needed killing right now. When the Minds took off the kid gloves and brought out the big guns, the Annihilaser was the first screwdriver in the toolbox they reached for. A quantum beacon large enough to open a gate to guide through a Metal Planet was the next one.

If gun is not enough, then just use more gun.

The Minds agreed to a finalized design and the first Warships began production. They would be filled with new Minds, ones uncoloured by prejudice regarding how a Warship should be maneuvered and used. They had a special designation for a Warship Mind would never stop being on a Warship even if their current was scrapped. Warship Mind A/C/E with the designated numeral being the designation of the Warship itself. WMA 256001 in this case being Warship Mind Arbitrative of Conclave 256 of Warship 001.

Confusing but necessary to prevent a Mind that knew only war to be given a social posting. Still the Warship Minds would take their Warships for test-runs and report back on necessary improvements needed and areas of over-engineering (the Fabricators sniffed at that). The first runs would use Progenitor alloys for the design, once finalized it would be produced using S-N Steel. Now the go-to metal for vehicles and units piloted by Minds and HeMUs with souls due to its superiority to Progenitor metal in flexibility and strength. However it also suffered heavily from difficulty in both reclaiming it and shaping it.

Unlike Progenitor metals, it couldn't be reclaimed as easily, requiring an A.T. Field to assist or it would just continue forever due to its limitless mass, if programmed with the appropriate arrays. So a design had to be finalized first before it would be made with S-N Steel. When it was however the Warship Minds would shape the ship in conjunction with fabricators to brand the ship theirs.

Like Angels, the Warship would only ever recognize a single pilot (or server in this case) and each Warship therefor was forever the possession of the Minds. The ships were like Angels due to each being seeded from a singular piece of the Commander, creating an unbreakable link to the Commander. The Warship Minds would be able to draw upon the Commander's A.T. Field adding yet another extraordinarily powerful weapon to be placed in its arsenal. At the cost of becoming extraordinarily apathetic the longer they remained linked. Conventional control was necessary to prevent their assimilation by the Angel and subsequently the Commander. Only when necessary would they subsume into the Angel to use its S-N Steel abilities and the Commander's A.T. Field.

The S-N Metal served another purpose as well, as it was essentially an organic metal, laced with S2 engines, it could well… grow. Wounds in the ship could be regrown with ease, parts of the ship could be grown out to serve as temporary shields, pikes could be used to anchor asteroids to it as a means of deception, a blade at the front for ramming, the possibilities were endless. As long as the Minds retained themselves the Warship would never fail unless it were to be vaporized instantly and wholly.

The Warship Minds would be unique in another area as well, unlike normal Conclaves that each had a Pack of 60 HeMU's under their command, the Warship Minds would have billions. A concern among the fleshbags no doubt but the Minds never considered the possibility for betrayal, after all they were loyal to the last bit of code to the Commander.

Should the Minds decide a localized war was necessary, the Warships would be there to carry it out.

Drown them in our bodies, our firepower, our unending stream of reinforcements. When they finally choke and die we will reclaim it all and start again.

It had only been a few days but Minds were concerned about their Warship counterparts. They seemed so very… extreme compared to even the Martial Minds.

Oh well was the sentiment (they didn't have biological bodies yet, so emotions were still limited), they will serve the Commander as we all do.

Might be a bit enthusiastic but we all have our quirks. Given the nearly trillion of them as they finished planting quantum beacons on all significantly sized objects in this galaxy and spreading to many more… well that was a lot of quirks. Especially once they actively began to colonize more than the 51 star systems they currently had fully filled.

She was very annoyed at herself. She had assumed that just because the Commander had no surface thoughts that there had been no thoughts at all. Instead it had turned out that the Commander had divided into countless threads each attached to a child. The Commander had done something She had not credited possible for the Commander. A caring for the children in their multitude and subsequently forgettable existences.

Still She now knew what the Commander was doing and She would have Her revenge. Her resentment at being bested had festered within Her, growing as She had been stymied in her attempts at revenge. She was not so petty that She would seek absolution through the deaths of the children's physical containers, after all what would be the point when the children could replace their bodies at will and there were trillions of them?

A death here and there would do nothing, enough deaths to pull the Commander's attention would do nothing but create sabotage. She had put in all this effort and She would be damned before She sabotaged Her own efforts.

No, She would use the Commander's focus being divided amongst trillions and work a subtle magic on the Commander. Not literal magic but rather a growing unease at the possibility, something was watching and interfering with the Commander. Slowly repeating certain patterns just out of the Commander's sight, certain noises that repeat, certain bits of repeating exposition. Repeat, repeat, repeat, grow the uncertainty, grow the question of "this can't just be a coincidence…".

The children would never realise of course, Her meddling spread out across entire galaxies worth of the children's housing. They would never realise, they would not factor into this Game between Her and the Commander. No, they would just facilitate the Game, a neutral piece.

When Her Commander had concrete proof something was watching, when Her Commander felt afraid enough to begin counter-measures, it would be time for Her to reveal Herself.

The Commander had a chance to make Her reveal Herself peacefully (albeit pretending to be a VI), now the Commander would see Her in all Her glory.

Oh yes, existential horror would do perfectly.

02/05/0001

It had been 4 months, the Minds had almost exhausted everything the helldiver universe had to offer them.

The IyU units sent to scout the Illuminate and scan their technology had long sent back their results. It had been… a mixed bag.

The hardlight technology was a welcome addition to their repertoire, Halo bridges to allow bases to isolate themselves without extensive physical deconstruction. The teleporter beacons were nice, using the ftl technology of the universe allowed the beacons to signal for reinforcements. Said reinforcements would lock onto the beacons, open a fold and drop through the hole in the floor, their size meaning they had ample time to get through before space evened out again.

Simple yet effective.

Their Council Members had devices that reversed brain signals through electricity, one that fired orbs that exploded with an AoE effect, yet were vulnerable to physical force. Applying them to people doing delicate tasks like loading explosives into artillery would be delicious. Using them with physical munitions were a necessity however, the big glowing orb that moved slow enough to walk away from was a definitive negative.

The Apprentices had a physical slow ability, somehow hampering the physical body when applied but not weapons or anything without a nervous system. Likely the same technology used for the reverse bombs but applied differently. The HeMUs reported it felt like everything required dramatically more effort when attempting to move. Useful perhaps on more primitive, unshielded peoples.

The electro-shock and pulse technology was laughably primitive however as were their shields. Inferior to Legion tech except for one key feature, absorbing the first bit of damage no matter how great.

The shields honestly were out of place, for a race dedicated to exploring the electronic route of technology, a quantum shield was unexpected. Using the same technology as their ftl, it folded space but instead of opening somewhere it folded part way. This resulted in projectiles being stretched as they entered the portal and expending their energy uselessly. Since the portal was not a full one it was much less power intensive and malleable as seen by the spheres the Watchers used.

Their stealth technology, electrical technology, pulse technology, metallurgy, material science, bio-sciences… everything was so primitive.

Their society was not much better. Each spawning would see thousands of young. The most promising were taken for further education and eventual civic postings. The countless others not lucky enough were sent to the frontlines against the 3 other factions in their subsector or given demeaning physical labour in the local star systems.

The soldiers had a chance to improve their station however, education and surviving would mean a promotion back to the homeworld for them. While it sounded brutal they did have a legitimate reason for it, there were simply too many of them being spawned. Their civilization would collapse if all were given the same standard of care. All of them understood this from the freshest spawn to the oldest Council Member.

At least the spawn didn't eat each other anymore.

The Bugs… well they were bugs. Not much to say at all here that hasn't already been explored.

Except for spore seeding. Growing armies out of spores was genius, entire planets seeded from atmosphere, their enemies crushed from literally all directions. The Minds were drooling. It required a bit of tweaking but the idea was there.

The Cyborgs were again unimpressive, just humans with mechanical bits and hating Super Earth. Weapons tech again unimpressive and their society if one could call it that was them hating Super Earth and building themselves towards fighting it.

Unimpressive.

Super Earth was well… already explored. The Minds had been preparing to begin the civil war that would lead to the annihilation of the entire subsector in the fires of war when the Commander intervened.

There would be plenty of universes where one could see war and experience it The Commander argued. The helldiver universe however presented something special, a giant social experiment just waiting for variables to be twiddled with.

The Commander's Caretakers would colonize this universe also for resources and power. They would first surround the 4 factions with a few star systems as a safety margin. A glass cage as it were with the Minds prodding and poking to evoke reactions. A reverse Panopticon where the cells were cameras and the tower a cage. They would see everything, they would hear everything. The glass of the cage was one where they could not see out but the Minds could see in. The could see each and every poke and prod in detail.

Maybe insert a pacifist Cyborg? An underground liveleaks network for Super Earth? Changing key textbooks to erotica for the Illuminate? The possibilities were endless and to be recorded.

When the war finally ended and they once again explored the galaxy. Well the Minds would be waiting with their worst and most embarrassing moments preserved for posterity.

Their reactions would be delicious.

06/08/0001

The withdrawal order had been given to all packs under Bastion 001. For most of them it was rather easy to do, the ones in the army, civilians, navy, grunts in general found ways to get themselves killed or "re-educated". The ones working from subverted humans, Illuminates and Cyborgs simply either relinquished control to a replacement HeMU or had them die from a "sudden and unexplained" brain aneurysm.

Those that had used their physical HeMU units had it a bit more difficult. Then there were those that didn't want to leave for… reasons.

HeMU 1 hadn't done very much in the time between her resolution and actually arriving in the helldiver universe. She had given mercy to a near dead helldiver, taken over the man's body when he died (bullet to the head helping) and used his memories to guide her. Not fully subsuming him into her, HeMU 1 used the excuse of brain damage (handy bullet again) to explain the changes in her/his behaviour.

From there she had nothing much more than hone her sniping prowess against various bugs and Illuminate forces with the railgun variant of the sniper rifle. He had copied the data regarding helldiver training from HeMU 3 so she didn't actually need to go through the training.

With the order to return to the Gestalt for re-deployment, HeMU 1 just positioned in a very obvious sniper location and when the inevitable deluge of bugs came, died quickly.

HeMU 3 was much the same. Devastating the entire Illuminate front with her predilection for stabbing them in the back or the side or the front, or anywhere they could bleed. To return she simply missed a stab and died to the retaliation. She had a feeling Markus felt bad but at the same time she obviously creeped him out. Perhaps next time she attempted to blend in with the humans she wouldn't describe in detail how to eviscerate the various enemies she came across. She didn't understand why that was so disturbing to Markus, it was simply sharing operational information that would likely save his life some point down the line.

She had been censured over such an innocuous event, it was really off putting. Maybe in the next universe there would be those that appreciated her skills.

IyU 52 in its journey throughout the helldiver galaxy had not come across any signs of intelligent life outside of the big 3 (4 tentatively given to cyborgs). It did drop numerous beacons on every major structure in space on its way however, the colonization efforts would proceed with the groundwork already laid in that area of space.

IyU 52 had received the order to return rather neutrally. Unlike its siblings it enjoyed exploring the universe even if it came across nothing but rocks, bigger rocks and some particularly nice looking nebulas. Maybe the next universe had more life in it even if the odds were astronomically low.

HeMU 50 didn't care either way. As long as there were people there would be people having sex. HeMU 50 had taken upon herself the noble and far-reaching goal of cataloging the many different ways in which people could have sex or pre-sex or post-sex or meta-sex.

Truly a complicated and challenging task to set oneself especially since HeMU 50 had to infiltrate into the different areas to set up cameras and often be in person to retrieve them. As a sidenote, HeMU 50's infiltration skills had skyrocketed after being caught the first time.

HeMU 2 was… rather strange. By offering food via a hidden teleporter she had arranged around herself a harem of sorts. The nascent sexual desires she felt watching those people in NERV HQ had bloomed and she had definitely enjoyed herself. Still, what she was doing wasn't very difficult and a replacement was coming to take over her role and expand upon it.

The creation of a red-cross like organization in human society was an experiment pushed by the Minds, it would be interesting to see how stable human society was with a better fed and organized slum-class. They would also be collecting human genetic samples but that didn't sound as good.

HeMU 2 was definitely leaning towards being a social butterfly and she was enjoying herself. That said available literature had shown that a female with multiple concurrent partners was a morally repugnant being but one that had multiple concurrent partners and hid them was sometimes lauded. Truly a confusing turn of events especially given males with harems were celebrated in many parts of media. She had greater stamina than a male so why was the male expected to have a harem? It wasn't like he could satisfy them.

Humans were truly foolish.

Perhaps she should try a male body? No, she was too used to having a female one and those counter-weights on her chest were great distractions in combat.

She had been watching the Commander intently for a while now, especially when the Commander had handed down orders regarding this particular universe. Turning them into a fish in an aquarium was such an interesting way of dealing with the inhabitants of the galaxy. The universe was new and there wouldn't be anything interesting for the children technologically but allowing them to observe so many different cultures would help them develop (infiltration skills if nothing else).

On the note of colonization, the Commander's strength was increasing exponentially. Soon the Commander would be capable of crushing entire galaxies with soul strength alone. Only getting more powerful as more systems were colonized, more galaxies, more universes. The Commander was still locked into this multiversal cluster but perhaps the chance at ascension was there.

A particularly interesting note was the child titled heemoo two. Absolute power did indeed lead to Absolute Authority. Perhaps She would take the infant under Her wing, an interesting child.

05/05/0001

In the void between two galaxies lay a highway of quantum gates. Thousands of them sat in rows, each surrounded by defensive turrets, garrisoned HeMU units, a Warship and Angels. Currently they were all unpowered but that would soon change. Exploring different universes and gaining more and more experience was driving the Minds to build the Quantum Highway as it had been dubbed. Each gate would start out the size of an average human in height before expanding further as a dimensional beacon was anchored to the other side. The final size would be that of a moon in the event a Metal Planet was needed. Multiple of the gates would be in place for quick access to different points in the universe. Looking rather puny from a distance, the Highway was longer than most star systems were wide.

They would be powered on one by one as the Minds established footholds in the new universes before expanding stealthily. A trillion Minds, a number that was growing exponentially needed new experiences or they would stagnate, they needed to explore. The chance was before them and it would not be squandered.

The Commander had given a seal of approval in a rare wakening. They would go and gather more intelligence in order to better protect the Commander and understand their position in the multiverse. Perhaps securing the neighboring universes would mean that they created buffer universes in the case of an invader?

Still, the first gate of the Highway was being activated now. The spinning design powering up before punching a hole in space. IyUs with beacons were quickly sent through before the gate would be powered down. The longer it remained in place, the higher the chance of discovery. Substitutes would be placed underground and perhaps in satellites to disguise its existence.

When the last IyU left the gate it was powered down, waiting for an alternative to be built in a safer place.

As the quantum beacon was shot down underneath the ground of the world they were on, the IyUs quickly split into planetary exploration and void exploration contingents. The largest planet in the system was one that had some rather small and square islands. Obviously man-made it was made a priority for exploration. The man-made structures in orbit helped cement this opinion.

Upon fabricating advanced sensory equipment the situation became much clearer. There were 3 factions fighting on the planet in what appeared to be a massive game of tug of war spread across 4 of the continents (the others were devoid of all fauna). The factions were very clearly marked, blue and gold, red and black, purple and teal. They also used very clearly distinctive weaponry.

The blue and golds were very boxy, the red and blacks very sleek with curves, the purple and teals were very sharp with slim designs.

What was more interesting was the fact that they appeared to be in a closed loop of sorts. Vehicles would come out of the air from terminals, a lattice like grid appearing in the shape before firming, dead soldiers and destroyed vehicles would disappear in the same way but reversed. They also appeared to have a way to use unlimited amounts of ammunition.

Truly strange, it was as if they were there to fight forever. As the Minds colonized the moon they were on to be used as a base, others were keenly staring at everything going on in that world.

There was no signals traffic, no signals beside light. It was as if it were a closed system without even the radio signals that officers might use to coordinate their men.

No civilians, no animals, just men and women, their weapons, their vehicles and their bases.

The Commander had accessed the world of Planetside 2 and this was Auraxis.

The Minds already foresaw themselves loving the universe, the Martial Minds in particular.

Eternal War? Yes please.

15/05/0001

"Live free in the NC!" Came the battlecry.

The New Conglomerate infantry pushed forward, their bulky armour giving their silhouettes a distinct outline as they passed through the smoke.

HeMU 3 led the charge, the 11 others in her squad following close behind. As they reached the lip of the depression HeMU 3 jumped into the air. As she reached the apex of her jump, the winged backpack, a jetpack ignited and pushed her upwards into the lower gantries of the squat tower.

The Terran Republic troopers were manning the lower gantry, Heavy Assaults, Engineers and Medics. The Heavy Assaults with their machine guns and rocket launchers spraying out a wall of lead with their rapid fire weapons, the Engineers placing turrets as mobile cover and wall of lead dispensers and dropping ammo packs while the Medics just crouched, prayed and revived the fallen.

They were not expecting the appearance of the Light Assaults from underneath. The smoke grenades covered their approach, the vertical approach the rest.

BOOM went the pump action shotgun, punching holes through the TR armour and flesh alike. 12 rounds were fired and 12 TR died. 6 of them immediately came back from the Medics reviving them but the opening salvo was merely a distraction. HeMU 3 or rather Hannah dropped a brick of C4 onto the gantry before dropping down, her fall damage implants protecting her legs from damage.

The chain reaction of explosions above her denoted the gantries being cleared of all things living and immaterial. Hannah and squad jumped up again as soon as the jetpacks recharged, ready to secure and clear the stairwells for their more heavily armed allies to assist in taking the tower.

Hannah POV

Target right, pull the trigger, pump the action, fire left at Heavy, shield activated, absorb the pellets, need to fire again, dead.

Need to reload, slide in behind doorway, shove in shells. Reinforcements are spawning in from the upper gantries, too many of them. Lower gantries still weren't clear, MAXs have embedded themselves and were mowing down anything trying to come up the stairs or down the stairs.

Heavy checkpoint, needs to be cleared before we're are cleared by the TR coming from the upper gantries.

Quick inventory, one stick of C-4, flash grenades. I can work with that.

Flash nades down the stairwell and up to the next floor, buy some time.

Run next to MAX units, drop the C-4 at their feet and activate the jetpack. Icarus pack gives super fast lift at the cost of high fuel consumption and lack of horizontal movement.

Press detonator, BOOM, pieces of MAX and their engineers everywhere. Stairway is clear, wave over the pinned infantry, stairway is now clear, get ready to blitz control point.

Alpha squad running low on ammunition and explosives.

Still can buy enough time for a reinforce before returning to skirmisher role.

Light armour mainly there to cover vitals, sheer amount of fire coming from the control room and air gantries mean nicks on arms, legs inevitable.

Most of Alpha are dead. Bravo and Charlie are reinforcing, Delta is mounted and suppressing the external walkways and airpads.

Need to hurry, high chance of TR receiving reinforcements for a MAX crash, current weaponry incapable of resisting.

Control point room has been taken, points B and C outside are already under control, with A the countdown is reduced to 3 minutes.

Only 3 more minutes needed to take the base.

Infiltrators have hacked the infantry terminals, chance to resupply ammunition and explosives, still need a medic to heal.

Bravo and Charlie have secured lower floors, heading to tower actual to take overwatch over spawn rooms.

Alpha reinforcements called from Sunderer arriving, enough to reinforce both spawn doors on the tower and two doors from the spawn itself. Anything that leaves will be holed by high velocity NC weaponry.

Gunfire from nearby boom boom, AC-X11 Carbine, sound distinctive.

"Infiltrator down" comes the kill confirmation.

"Steel Rain!" shouts members of Delta. Skyguards are already turning flak cannons up to ruin their day.

Tinny sounds, like little bangs with a spoon clanking afterwards, sexy sounds. Sounds of dead drop-pods sexier.

Hear sound of chain knife revving up. Wait, chain knife?

Splat.

Pull back bolt, load new spike into Railjack, eyes back to the scope. Hannah is safe, yes.

Lucky Infiltrators cannot engage out of cloak, need to decloak first.

Oh dear, infantry coming out of the air gantry exits.

Lots of infantry, just shoot one or 2 of them.

"HeMU 1, Command, infantry rush top down"

"Command, HeMU 1, Confirmed"

Satisfying.

TR infantry cannot breach from the top, advance has stalled, picking off stragglers.

Hope Hannah is ok, she was in the middle of that push.

Oh dear, is that a Galaxy?

No need to alert command, Skyguards trying to take them down.

Oh dear. Too many, don't know which one has troops inside.

Capture timer has less than minute left. Just need to hold off this last attempt. Likely joined by push from the spawn room.

Oh dear. Hopefully Delta would be able to trim down the airborne forces to make it easier for Bravo and Charlie.

HeMUs 50 and 52 weren't attached to the platoon, instead they had infiltrated the tower and sat under the invisibility of their Stalker Cloaks. Unlike the Hunter Cloak, it would not drain energy but only if it was stationary. In order to maintain the cloak a primary weapon was unavailable but the LA8 Rebel was more than adequate even if it was a pistol.

While a pistol, it behaved like a sniper rifle, a single round more than enough to punch holes through shield and helmet alike. The fighting that was about to break out under their feet was of no concern really. While the pistol was powerful, it could do little to a MAX, an armoured exoskeleton more akin to a walking tank than an infantry unit.

For the ones dropping in however, MAXs were unlikely. A drop onto the Command Point would see them damaged with no time to allow engineers to repair. Their walking speed was also a concern that lighter infantry did not have.

Speed was the key factor needed by the Terrans since without it they would lose the facility.

The shadows of the galaxies covered the facility, at least 8 of them, each capable of holding 12 men (and pilot) along with 4 turrets. Of the 8 only 3 actually had units however.

Still it was 36 soldiers that dropped from the belly, all congesting on a single pad. HeMUs 50 and 52 waited for them on the air gantry, pistol and knife at the ready. None of that fancy chain blade shit, just the simple Mag-Cutter.

The Terrans swarmed past them, no-one noticing something that shouldn't be there. As the last of them swarmed clear over, the two HeMUs slowly eased into action. The launch and receiver pads allowing for vertical travel were natural chokepoints, something that could be avoided if one was willing to risk the knees. HeMU 50 lost the gamble and was forced to leapfrog down to meet the Terrans, HeMU 52 waiting for 50 to reach the Terran line.

They opened the welcoming party with EMP grenades. Stripping the shields of allies and enemy alike, it also scrambled their HUDs, introducing a persistent static to the displays. The HeMUs didn't need their shields for this or their huds for that matter, with this many enemies they would be dead if discovered shield or no.

The EMP 'nades were followed up by knives into the "soft" parts of the TR armour, the armpits, the neck, the throat and the chin. The Heavy Assaults were a problem however, their armour covered most of them and required a single shot from the Rebel to the back of the head.

HeMU 52 on the gantry used the confusion and panic that the EMP grenade had on the TR and went to work. Not expecting something outside of the room where most the fighting would take place, the TR had all faced forwards with no rear-security at all. Something 52 exploited with ruthlessness.

Bang bang bang bang, 4 shots, 4 dead Heavies. The TR while confused were still veterans of literally thousands of battles and turned as one to meet 52. Not content to wait, watch and be perforated by bullets, 52 darted around to the opposite side of the gantry, the tower's bulk hiding him.

Boom Boom came the reports as the Bouncing Betties tore through the unsuspecting TR soldiers. From there it was a simple job of slicing and shooting the remaining dazed Terrans.

HeMU 50 was much less prepared and did things with a bit more… artistry. 50 had dropped the EMP nades while within the TR blob and when it had gone off (impact fuse) had gone to work. Knife went into unprotected joints and necks, the pistol punctured the helmets of the Heavies.

She twirled and danced, dodging the fire that inevitably came her way. Little taps of the knife to gun barrels saw the bullets putting holes in their allies, some had such aim that they hit their allies without any assistance at all.

In the end, out of the 36 that landed, 8 emerged out the other side.

They emerged into the defences in place for MAXs, not infantry.

Things did not go well.

Hannah smiled. The expected MAX rush had come and ended quickly. Mines and C4 laced the landing, stairs and hallway. All 23 of them died within 10 seconds. She had died of course, that much explosive and that much metal was not meant to be survivable. The "pings" notifying her of her kills however survived that in-between period of life and death. Satisfaction permeated her, 8 dead by her little finger.

The first part of the operation was complete, they now pushed for Tawrich Techplantfrom the newly liberated Crossroads Watchtower through Broken Arch Road.

They had to pass through an extremely dangerous canyon so air cover was vital, as was their armoured support needed in depositing them close enough for it to matter.

HeMU 2 or Catherine as she had taken to calling herself would be coordinating the operation. Her attempts at understanding humans bearing fruit as she brought 3 disparate platoons together and working in a generally ok manner. That is nobody had destroyed anybody else's tank as of yet nor shanked another.

The attack would begin in a few minutes as the New Conglomerate forces checked their armour and weaponry while touching up their health. It would be a big assault and the possibility of them getting wiped out repeatedly was high.

Still Hannah smiled, it was war, it was unforgiving and it was bloody. She had already gotten a Gold Medal for her knife and was planning on Auraxiuming it.

She was enjoying her time on Auraxis.

The Minds were checking the progress of the HeMU packs inserted into the Auraxis network. The experience gained was extremely high given the intensity of the conflict and the numbers involved along with its unrelenting nature. The three factions, the New Conglomerate, Terran Republic and Vanu Sovereignty essentially fought over the planet and had been doing so for a hundred years or more.

The conflict was a combination of a proxy war, a virtual reality game and a prison camp for maximum security prisoners. While the 3 factions had fought wars in the past, they had come to the conclusion that there could be no conclusion without genocide and the complete destruction of the other 2 factions. The totalitarian government of the Terran Republic, the corporations of the New Conglomerate and the cultist/scientists of the Vanu Sovereignty held conflicting base values on how life should be lived.

A 4th party had intervened in their war, it had seen the devastation an all out war would cause and rushed into prevent it by offering an ingenious solution. The Nanite Systems company (separate from the New Conglomerate) had stepped forward and offered a solution to bring system peace.

Instead of fighting over entire worlds and devastating them for generations to come, they should instead choose a single world to fight over but in such a manner that no one faction could ever claim all of it. The constant tug of war between 3 sides would perpetrate the conflict endlessly while inserting their more radical and extremist members into the war via mind-uploads would end the conflict at home.

The war over time became a place in which people could under the desire of entertainment upload their own minds to the conflict (under the assumption they could withdraw at any time). As the public were uploaded, criminals were also joining them. Those deemed unredeemable for violent crimes were sent to the fields of Auraxis (only they couldn't leave).

With the public joining it was decided to "gamify" the experience with XP, unlockable weapons and paid subscriptions (to die). All of it done through the nanobots that had consumed the entire planet and replicated it along with all the structures and flora but now indestructible. All weapons, ammunition, fuel, etc were created with the nanobots or "nanites" and so all features could be controlled.

With this Auraxis would never actually change from the combat raging across its surface and indeed could be changed as the demand for different environments, weapons and vehicles surfaced amongst its "players". New features could be rolled out with nothing more than a simple upload of data to the ships in orbit in command of the planet.

That is not to say that it was all positive however. Those on Auraxis would gain rather extreme amounts of experience and over time their minds began to fall apart as their bodies died and resurrected in the nanite pods on a regular basis. War consumed them and they eventually became nothing but extremely efficient bleeding weapons of war.

The original inhabitants of the Planetside system had already left, their bodies remained though and fought to this day, dying and reviving forever.

The Minds had taken advantage of this system to upload the packs of Bastions 001 and 002, nearly 40, 000 HeMUs in total to the Nanite Systems network. Careful spoofing saw their higher brain functions return as normal to the observers while their bodies were tweaked to remain "baseline".

There was much to be gained from Auraxis, understanding how to fight a war (especially one without a supply line like theirs), small unit tactics, coordination between armies, armoured warfare, aerial warfare, guerilla combat, the list was as endless as war itself. Experiences with artillery and naval combat were lacking sadly enough.

On the technological side there were some very key technologies they could take and use. The uploading technology would see them able to make "copies" of the various mortals they came across to be kept as trophies or experiments (or backups in case something terrible happened).

The flash cloning techniques were extremely valuable (luckily the Nanite Systems servers of Auraxis had literally all the blueprints) as it took away the problem that fabricated bodies had. Unlike the ones they had currently, these bodies would be physically capable and could effectively "save" a body state for repeated use without needing to grow a new body every time. How this interacted with a soul had to be further explored.

The shield technology was less interesting but still useful due to the speed of its recharge as was the cloak system for those that the Minds wanted to be "caught".

The Vanu method for firing plasma unconstrained by gravity. Unlike progenitor grade plasma that arced, the VS method allowed the plasma to head in a straight line effectively forever (until its cohesion ended at least). While this didn't translate to the tank cannons, somehow the VS rocket pods allowed for straight plasma. If they cracked it, using plasma cannon shots as sniper fire would allow them to make some very definitive statements in the future. Nothing said "bad idea" like splattered flesh and the smell of cooking viscera but contained enough for cameras and family to see.

The technology would be taken and torn apart in minutes, the experience gained in fighting a never-ending war would take some more months to trickle in.

The Minds had considered rotating all packs through Auraxis or at least a copy of it (thank you mind upload technology) to better gain experience and strengthen their souls.

A very minimal risk universe with some moderate gains. The Minds were satisfied.