Apathy

by Throwaway1971

Not important please ignore

4. Entry 031-040

Universal Century 0001 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0044 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0195 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 15/10/0001 - Origin Universe

The Minds considered that perhaps the humans had subspecies. It would certainly explain how the Gundam SEED and Mobile Suit Gundam humans were so prone to actions of genocide while the Evangelion humans were… well actually the Minds didn't know. They wiped them out before any meaningful data could be gathered.

Woops.

The Helldiver humans were very much like other humans but more muted, allowing oneself to be in a slum then brainwashed for several hundred years was clearly something that came from a more submissive race.

The Planetside humans just sort of did their thing… then brutally killed each other when it was their turn on Auraxis.

The SEED and MSG humans tended to actions of extreme violence when talking would have worked well. Unlike the Planetside humans they were violent pretty much on a constant basis.

Each of them acted so very differently, maybe it was a genetic thing? Or maybe the species noted as human wasn't actually human but a projection of the Author's desire to create an ideal race?

Genetically they were the same but minor differences did exist i.e. the A.T. Field that Evangelion humans possessed. The other humans possessed one as well but it was much more muted and individualistic, not connected at all like the Evangelion ones were.

Or maybe it was just an environmental thing? It was not that the humans were different just that unlike other organics, they adapted to their environments much more quickly. If that were the case then perhaps breeding certain traits into their humans would be possible. It would make the Game more interesting at the very least.

Speaking of the Game the first large-scale battle was underway. Large being one that had more than 5 billion souls involved. They were using a mix of helldiver derived ships and Mobile Suits on one side and what looked like the organic equivalents on the other.

Hmmmm.

Ah. The first was the Federated Suns of Shanada and the second was the Loranzun. One had drawn similar traits to humans but they were all blue and 2x the height of an average human. The other had drawn the traits that made them plant based lifeforms. They had expanded out and controlled roughly 50 systems each. After conquering each system they would "convert" all entities within it to their trait set.

That particular rule had been set so that each faction would at least be different but it appeared that they had all developed along the same lines anyway with differences based upon their base biology. While there was some difference, notably that of the plant based life-forms using their regenerative abilities to engage more often in close combat, the crystalline life-forms using beam technology and their own natural defensiveness and the carbon based life-forms to build technologies to offset their weaknesses.

Each base-type had created a certain style of war that played into their strengths and with little variation as it was the most efficient and effective method.

Perhaps the rule should be changed to incorporation of each empire as it was conquered instead of simply eradicating them. Different biologies would see perhaps different compositions of navies and armies due to a larger number of options available.

Something to consider once the beta was over perhaps. At least the Minds were enjoying themselves.

The Federated Suns 34th Mobile suit squadron of the 8th Brigade had been patrolling the fringes of the battlezone. This was the 7th day that the Minds had access to the mobile suit schematics and the 2nd day that the 34th squadron had access to their Mobile Suits. They didn't bother trying to actually pilot the suits conventionally but rather used a neural system that linked the suit directly to their brains, thus allowing for a direct control interface. All it needed was a few more sensors embedded within the suit so the HeMU's could feel and some more control lines.

Constructing the suit was not particularly difficult since they already had the schematics, the Federated Suns Minds designed a facility that took advantage of the zero-g nature of space and began production that saw millions a day from the thousands of retooled factories in their empire.

The construction rule only applied to the construction, fabricating the metal was a necessity otherwise they would have already stripped the systems in building the star-ships. The Minds still had to actually design the factories to shape and forge the metal into what was needed for a Mobile Suit in the first place. The Fabricators certainly helped in that area, they had taken vows of privacy and promised not to divulge special techniques and their help was certainly extremely appreciated.

Still all of that was immaterial now. This battle between Federated Suns of Shanada and the Loranzun would see the fate of the 8 star systems they fought over decided today… or next week. 5 billion souls in a battle meant it would be going on for a while.

Still, Sousuke of the 34th was ready. They had chosen more asiatic names due to the similarities between them and the state of Japan in the Commander's original system. The alert sounded and the Mobile Suit Transporter began to disgorge its charges. Like a very large ice-cube tray but with open bottoms, an engine at the back and pilots and big clamps. Not very much like an ice-cube tray but similar in general terms.

The clamps lowered until their Leos (Leos won the most sexy Mobile Suit vote) were fully underneath the transports before letting go. Sousuke spun his articulating nozzles to make sure he had full range of motion with his booster pack before bursting it slightly to begin moving forward. The transport was already turning around and leaving the field, it wouldn't be a very good idea to stay considering what was about to begin.

The first indication that the battle had spread out from the center was when a large spike had come out and impaled one of the Leos through the chest, killing the pilot pretty much instantly. The sensors had shown that there was nothing there, which wasn't possible unless they were somehow spoofing radar. Something that was entirely possible now that he thought about it considered Sousuke.

Whelp, if they got anything out of this it was that the Loranzun had worked out how to hide from radar and visual systems. Maybe an organic way to produce the Hyperwave Jammer effect? Still he would call it in so the Minds could perhaps work out a counter-measure.

"34th Actual, Company Mobile Command"

"Company Mobile Command, 34th Actual, send"

"We had a physical attack an attack coming from nowhere, electromagnetic tracking systems are coming up clean."

"Copy 34th Actual, will get this up the chain, out"

Sousuke turned his attention back to the 34th, they had already arrayed themselves in a protective ball facing outward. If an attack came, they would be able to triangulate it back to the source and engage. It was a sound plan, which is why it worked when a second spike lanced through the suit directly to Sousuke's left. His brain quickly worked out a targeting solution based on when he had been able to see the spike, the approximate kinetic force it had been thrown at judging from its penetration of the Leo and the time thrown.

He and 4 other suits fired their beam weapons at the approximate location barely a second after and scored a hit. The floating blob thing that had revealed itself had 2 holes in it yet no indication of why it was actually dead. There was no real indication of vital organs interior or exterior-wise. Still it would be useful so Sousuke ordered its collection while the rest would stand guard.

Which is when it went to shit (something he should have predicted). The appearance of several more blobs having apparently thrown off their cloaking startled the 34th. Enough that 5 more suits were down before the survivors began to return fire. Of the 30 that had arrived, only 23 were left. The Leos juked and dodged to the side in an attempt to engage the blobs but their efforts were proving useless, the blobs could apparently contort their bodies enough that they could dodge the beams.

All the while the blobs were throwing more spikes at the suits with a rate of fire that made the machine-guns look piddly. Where the mass for them came from was unknown.

Still they had to at least try dammit.

"34th, they are just dodging the beams, get in close and see if a saber can't do the trick!"

"Roger" was the reply as half the remaining Leos (now 15) clamped their beam rifles to the back of the waist and pulled out their beam sabers. The remaining half provided what could generously be called suppressing fire (or herding fire?) at the blobs while their designated melee team closed in for the kill.

The blobs apparently did not have very good movement speed compared to the Leos as their escape speed seemed to be less than a third of a Leo's speed. Ambush lifeforms likely. Still, they managed to dodge the sabers being swung at them with their contortionist antics but clearly even that had limits as ganging up on them in 3s was enough to corner and take them down.

Their lack of a real melee option made them rather easy pickings. With the "tell" of them firing a spike being a dimple-like depression in the blob a split second before firing, things became much easier for the 34th and their accelerated mental processes.

The one's sabered popped with a rather disgusting explosion of… ectoplasm? Slime? Eugh.

Still, they had the shot one for analysis, that was something right?

Then things went wrong a second time. What appeared to be organic Mobile Suits rushed at them, firing more spikes from the cannons that were in the place of their fore-arms. This foe however at least had the decency to not be able to contort and died quite satisfyingly to their beam rifles.

The squadron that attacked them numbering 30 at the onset was quickly reduced to 13. Their speed was pathetic but their resistance to the beam rifles helped mitigate that. Their distance at the onset however… did not.

In close combat however they proved to be quite capable. Sousuke was forced to sacrifice his left arm to get the beam saber in position to stab one that had grappled his Leo as soon as it was in range, through the presumed heart before angling it into the brain.

The one behind it took apparent offence to this as it tried to ram what looked like a sword of bonte through his Leo's chest. Quick thinking had him kicking its leg, displacing the arm enough that it had gone through the head instead. With his main visual feedback gone, Sousuke resorted to doing a wild swing horizontally. When death didn't come Sousuke carefully angled his Leo to the left. Maybe one of his peripheral sensors would show what was going on. And there it was… apparently the bio-mech had tried to angle under him for a stab through the more vulnerable underbelly. The swing had taken off its head… huh… they weren't piloted after all.

Something to pass onto Intelligence.

Still his suit was mangled, arm gone, head gone and it looked like a spike had taken out his right booster. The rest of the 34th wasn't much better. Of the original 30 there were now 3 left operational and none of them didn't have a missing limb.

Sending in a request for relief, Sousuke bade the other 2 to drag the blob and one of the bio-mechs with them for analysis by the Minds.

It had been an enlightening first combat encounter for Sousuke, the adrenaline still coursing through his body.

He couldn't wait for a second one.

The Federated Suns battleships fired their railguns and missiles at the bio-ships bearing down on them. Frustratingly they were doing very little damage, sure they put very large holes in them but said holes closed over as the ship's regenerated. The missiles were a little better as the heat from the explosions cauterized the wounds, scars were still visible when the ships regenerated.

But it wasn't enough, the bio-ships closed in enough that they could then begin flinging their spikes, giant 100 meter long spikes at their ships. While 1 got stuck in the hull, 100 of them punctured vital communications lines and smashed equipment. Then came the tentacles, kilometer long tentacles that wrapped around the ships and tore them apart. Said tentacles on ships that stubbornly resisted being torn apart injected a fluid through the gashes and rents which coalesced into humanoid creatures.

Boarding action from plants. They had the resilience of their motherships and just wouldn't stay down when shot at or bludgeoned. Things were looking bleak, the vanguard of the fleet had almost been destroyed with almost 0 casualties from the Loranzun forces. That was until word came that a Mobile Suit squadron had stumbled upon their weaknesses.

Apparently Beam weaponry was the key, capable of killing the bio-forms with only a single hit. With that knowledge, the carriers began dumping out all of their Mobile Suit Squadrons to engage the larger ships while the factories in the home system would re-tool for beam weaponry exclusively.

It was touch and go as more and more ships were torn apart but eventually the Mobile Suits managed to whittle away the enemy's front enough that they retreated slightly. The break was all they needed as supplies reached them from the home-system 4 days later and the assault would begin again.

Only this time they utterly crushed the Loranzuni who couldn't find a solution to the beam weaponry. Another month and their systems were taken and the Federated Suns of Shanada held over 100 systems. They had just advanced to the lower-mid tiers in terms of empire strength and it was good.

Universal Century 0001 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0044 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0195 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 30/10/0001 - Origin Universe

While the Game was heating up in the Origin universe, Catherine was just doing paperwork. It turns out that ordering people around and trying to delegate actually resulted in her doing more work. She wanted a refund. A maybe a redo.

She quickly sent a request for the Minds to possibly investigate the possibility of time travel.

Still, the forms were being filled out and the hiring procedures were seeing a hundred or so employees and quite a bit more HeMUs ready to be launched into space as part of an exploratory trip to Mars. The other employees were working from the Earth tied factories which had already been built and were now waiting for orders to come in.

Catherine and the other HeMUs had been authorized to only introduce or produce the technologies that the humans already possessed. Uplifting was prohibited, especially given their propensity to… well… commit acts of genocide. The moral base of most of the population seemed to be very malleable and out of whack, something that the Minds were concerned about. If the humans wiped each other out before they could get the Mobile Suits then this would have been a huge waste of time.

To that end Catherine was just "innovating" current technology i.e. miniaturization, making their laptops and phones and whatnot more powerful. They had formed several partnerships with electronics companies to manufacture their "proprietary" miniaturized chips and speakers and the other thingi-mabobs. Of course there were a few patent trolls that tried to claim on them, they stopped though. Generally one has to be alive to file a cease and desist.

It had taken some proving of course but the companies leapt at the opportunity, after all the ones who didn't partner would be at a severe disadvantage when it came down to it. The factories and firms who were pushed out by Senti Company were quietly offered buyouts on very generous terms. Generous as in legitimately generously, not "give us the company or die" generous.

Catherine had played the mysterious entrepreneur angle while hiding who exactly was behind their ability to basically make super tech. It helped that apparently she was considered "eccentric" by the humans working for her. Not to her face certainly, the bugs they had used to keep track of the human employees were enough to pick up their conversations.

Catherine personally didn't understand what exactly about her was considered eccentric but it certainly helped to obfuscate the origins of the company at least. The military had made some overtures to Senti, it appeared that having smaller electronics was a benefit when making weapons. Who knew.

As on track the mission was, it did meant that Catherine as self-appointed CEO had more and more paperwork to take care of. Their original funds had come from fabricated rare-metals sold in a thousand smaller transactions across the world. Gold, Platinum, Silver, and Nickel were just some of the wide range of metals they had created. Untraceable and easily offloaded to the right people. Having the sellers be reclaimed and the funds juked through dozens of banks in fractions had made it even easier to hide.

In the end the legitimacy of the company had been established and its legal status in no doubt. Having the military and large profile electronics manufacturers contract them for work had solidified it further. Heh, it hadn't even been a month, truly the humans craved small things.

'Work, work, work"

Gah. This was not what she was expecting when she had been told there would be less work. She couldn't even see the cool things, it was all officework in a tiny little room with a tiny little window.

Gah.

Katrin was in the final preparations for leaving the planet. Supplies had to be accounted for, fuel, a headcount, water, entertainment, etc etc. There was no turning around once the rocket on the shuttle ignited and there was certainly no way of teleporting things aboard with the humans in their employ.

The number of humans that were prepared to leave everything behind and begin a life in space was surprising. Despite the newness of the company and the relative low-keyness of their recruitment postings, they had to turn away nearly 3 for every one that was accepted. They had been placed on a callback list though, the colony that was in the process of being set up certainly needed more humans to give it legitimacy. That and that very few HeMUs volunteered to be colonists when there was a distinct lack of shooting involved.

The Bastion 001 HeMUs after all had gotten used to the taste of combat, part and parcel of being the initial wave into any Universe. Being a colonist certainly didn't have very much of that around. Unless there was an another organic lifeform out there somewhere in this galaxy. Unlikely but the possibility was there.

With everything and everyone accounted for, Katrin entered the rocket herself. From here they would taxi up to the Mass Driver before being shot out into space. The Mass Driver itself looked like a giant roller coaster track that kept going up instead of angling down again.

The experience going up was like a roller coaster. The acceleration saw them pressed up against their seats, the small imperfections in the construction had them vibrating in their seats. The blood rushed more and more to their backs, vision began to blacken as the eyes were pressed into their sockets. Their hearts began to labour as they tried to work against the increased pressure.

The curve in the rail had the pressure changing angle briefly as it now pressed down on them as well as to the front. Then it increased rapidly as the rocket engaged its engines to assist in the final stretch. The shuddering of the ship increased dramatically before ending as it leapt off the end of the rail. From there it was reduced down to a slight vibration below their feet as the engines continued firing.

The pressing of the acceleration on their bodies was reduced down and they could (if they weren't strapped into their chairs) stand up and walk around with little issue.

From here they had a several week long journey to set up the first waypoint for further expeditions. Catherine if she was doing her job would be sending more humans up after them to leapfrog to Mars. These waypoints or rather relay stations would allow them to maintain a long supply chain without the risk of their more extreme elements being cut off.

It was like the colonization efforts in the Origin system (and others) but on a much smaller scale and without the reinforcement and weapons of war aspect. Once the mobile suits began production in the ZAFT sphere, they would analyse then build their own forces as a means of keeping both sides in check. A cold war after all was very profitable in terms of developing technologies.

Hannah was playing at being a counterintelligence agent in her words. Or rather she was playing at being a paid assassin in Catherine's. She was only being paid by Catherine but it's the principle of the thing that matters. In this case Hannah was being paid to eliminate some rather obstinate corporatists that were holding up Catherine's expansion plans and also coincidently Blue Cosmos members. They were having a rather fancy dinner party in a hotel so it was only a matter of just getting in, putting holes in them before leaving.

The only caveat of the operation was that it had to look like the work of a Natural as opposed to that of a Coordinator to not alert the humans that anything was happening. After all the PLANTs were demilitarized and all peaceful and hippy with their fluorescent hair colours.

Basically she wasn't allowed to be too "extravagant" with her attack, no flipping, no big jumps, all boring human movements. Bah.

Laaaaaaaame. Next they would tell her that she couldn't use her knife. Assassinate them like a pleb. Bleh.

Well no helping it. Hannah was waiting in the hotel lobby, waiting for her targets. They would be meeting inside a special conference room to talk about their blue and pure world or something like that. Hannah wasn't too sure what racial supremacists talked about besides the whole kill everyone that is different but she appreciated it. Since they loved to talk, it gave her lots of opportunities to do what she loved namely stabbing people.

The method for the assassination had been suggested by Catherine but Hannah thought that she could improve it. Make it appear as if the killer was an idiot to throw off the scent. Hannah thought the plan could use more blood though.

And she had to wait a little more.

Sigh.

Still it was a rather pretty lobby thought Hannah. Big chandeliers with the whole glass-teardrop effect going on. Lots of rather nice orangey-brown wood with that warm sort of look going through it. The chair that Hannah was sitting in was one of those wide ones with the elevated sides and the soft cushions and stuff. Very nice, you could almost sink into it if you forgot yourself. Sexy.

It certainly felt nice on her legs, one of those one piece dress things. Nice and black with little slits up the sides on the legs. It ended mid-thigh to give that full range of movement just in case. There were no actual weapons however, she could just use her Inventory to pull out her knives. She still had the ones from the Planetside universe, that The Slasher knife had the function that made people hear a little song as they died. Hopefully it would remain the same in this universe.

Woops, she wasn't meant to be using her knives in public. Umm… she did have the Rebel still, it was almost as good as using a knife.

And there we go, male is getting up from the table followed by male then female then male then female and another female human. All of them going up, half of them were targets. Oh well, Catherine didn't say anything about collateral damage and she wasn't going to ask. Not after Catherine forced her to help with the paperwork when she had last sent a message.

No, best to stab them and then ask forgiveness later. Yup, clearly the best idea.

All of the targets had entered the elevator and were moving up to the 8th floor of the hotel. Conference room was just up ahead. Mmmmmm. Soon.

Hannah left the subverted human on auto-pilot and switched herself to the second human she had subverted in preparation for the assassination. The service-staffer had been rather unlucky truth be told, coming out for a smoke break just as she had been looking for somebody to subvert. Oh well, it wasn't as if he was particularly valuable or anything.

She gave him little impulses to get to the conference room before taking total control, she wanted to feel every little bit of it after all. What was the point of being an expert with a knife if she wasn't going to use it? Pushing along the trolley, Hannah hummed to herself, what happened next was going to be fun after all.

She reclaimed the food underneath the lid of the serving platter and replaced them with a silenced Rebel and the Slasher knife. Wouldn't do to alert them that they were going to die after all.

Knocking on the door, it was all Hannah could do to keep herself from smiling too widely. After all she was pretending to be a professional here. Small smile, flirty even, no teeth. Hands loose on the trolley handle. Back straight.

Professional. She was the soul of professionalism.

She was going to go in there, smile, offer whatever it was on the platter and walk around nicely, smiling and professional. No sudden movements, repress the urges and wait until the door is closed before doing anything. No scaring off the prey.

Professional. She was professional.

Then the door opened and she just couldn't help herself. The Rebel was out before she knew it and man's brains were spread across the room. The Blue Cosmos members in the room (and collateral) didn't really have time to scream before Hannah kicked the trolley into the room and closed the door behind her.

The room had been designed so that all the bodily fluid exchanging that the humans tended to enjoy wouldn't be noticed by those outside. It was rather useful in this instance as when Hannah began to stab and shoot the Blue Cosmos members in the room, their screams weren't noticed at all.

It was rather delicious.

Afterwards Hannah used their blood to paint the words "For Our Blue and Pure World" on the walls.

Heh.

They would probably think that the killer had confused the term Coordinator for the literal kind of political/economic coordinator.

If this was the work that Hannah had to look forward to, well she wasn't complaining.

Universal Century 0004 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0047 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0198 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 15/08/0004 - Origin Universe

The Gundam Wing universe had by now ended its little kerfuffle with most of the casualties being the military and the mobile dolls which weren't even real AI. Throughout it all the suits that had come up, the Gundam Wing Zero, the Deathscythe Hell, the Heavyarms Kai, Sandrock Kai, Altron, Epyon, Vayeate, Mercurius, Virgo, Virgo 2, Tallgeese 2, Serpent the Operating MS and a bunch of other suits.

Of the technology acquired the Planet Defensors which were little drones that could create an electromagnetic force field, effectively rendering beam weapons useless (due to them being plasma) was rather interesting. Having this deployed around a unit or area would force the enemy to go back to using laser weaponry as the field would prevent both ballistic and plasma weaponry. It could be overwhelmed but just adding more defensors would work fine.

The next bit of equipment was the ZERO system, something that would basically show the user future outcomes and methods of action to achieve their objectives based on the information it currently has. Not truly altruistic however as the sheer amount of information can cause hallucinations and temporary insanity. It acted like a sort of feedback loop, give data, user acts on data and sees results, sends data back and repeat. Strain of using it was immense but its utility was equally great.

No doubt very effective when using it on a brainwashed stooge to eliminate the targets designated by the Minds. Not needing to waste a HeMU, just subvert and alter the brain of a human, and then send them off. Store the device in an N2 pocket dimension and break it out when needed.

It apparently did have the ability to gain sentience however, perhaps continued usage by a singular organic had it imprint on the organic's mind? The organic then providing the biological urges and it providing the the core.

With an AI designed with such focus, perhaps with a little reprogramming it would be a valuable asset to the Apathetic's Caretakers.

The Mobile Doll system had also been completed. Less capable than VIs but also useful in the ability to field an almost unlimited number of them with with little effort beyond building the suits. They acted like the Geth from Mass Effect (without the sapience), gaining more processing capabilities the more of them there were as they networked their threat assessment systems and tactical systems.

Useful for those epic set piece battles with billions of suits. Mmmmmm.

The Serpent was basically the next generation of Leo but it really does lack the elegance of the Leo. Still, its bulk did give it that really imposing feeling that the Leo lacks due to its more simplified design. Roughly the same height, a bit more on the weight and using Neo-titanium which is apparently near Gundanium in strength without the more exotic qualities. Upgrading the Leo had already occurred but the re-fits to Neo-titanium would be a tad more irritating for the Minds engaged in the Game. The Serpent would no doubt be the heavy mech vs the Leo's standard at this rate, in no way a bad thing.

Then there was the Operating MS, very basic but with human levels of finger articulation and movement. Useful in the factories and other labour work in areas that were too small to fit a full sized Mobile Suit. Also kind of sexy in its own goofy way. Production of similar suits in the Mobile Suit Gundam and Gundam SEED universes would likely turn out well.

Speaking of the other universes, the entity known as "Lilith" had requested MAGI for permission to possess a HeMU and go "on vacation" on SEED earth.

MAGI saw no reason to deny this request but only if she agreed to the caveats of keeping the Commander and the HeMUs/Minds a secret. She agreed but given her personality, it was unlikely she could be fully trusted.

HeMU 2 of Bastion 001 had been tasked with ensuring she does not overstep her bounds.

"I love the food, and the music, and the lights, and the buildings, and the people!" Lilith whispered, rather loudly as it were to Catherine.

"Yes" said Catherine

"I love the shoes, and the gloves, and the hats"

"Yes" said Catherine

"And the drinks, and the murals, and the jackets!"

"Yes" said Catherine

Catherine was rather tired. When the Minds had directed her to chaperone Lilith around, Catherine had thought it was a chance to take a break. Since it was a direct order from the Minds, Catherine could force the other HeMUs to do the paperwork for her. Sure she could use a subverted human but they would remember everything and she would have to get rid of them after use. Hannah had been running through humans like a rocket ship used rocket fuel. With Hannah's methods the humans had attributed and entirely new terrorist group to her, one that hunted and killed "coordinators" (the directing kind not the genetic kind).

Due to her having the subverted humans kill themselves after an operation, Hannah was now apparently the head of a grand and evil organization bent on changing the world one bloody massacre at a time. Hannah being Hannah had found this to be hilarious and endeavoured to make the whole "coordinator" thing more obvious. The rich "coordinators" were understandably terrified and hammered on heads of the police, heads of state, heads of anti-terror organizations and various "less than legal" options.

Of course it wasn't going to work, Hannah was still a HeMU and capable of changing her face on the fly as well as subverting people to be used in more obvious roles. The grand chase was very amusing for the Minds piggybacking Hannah. MAGI had been a bit concerned but saw that it was just killing some organics, nothing to be too concerned about. MAGI did tell Hannah to tone down her body's chemical responses however, apparently it was producing more endorphins than the other HeMUs.

Still, as much as Catherine wanted to procrastinate in her own mind, she couldn't ignore Lilith. The walking bundle of… energy. Ugh.

Lilith had been dragging Catherine through the city of New York the entire morning. They had been shopping, they had been to libraries, they had been to multiple restaurants and hawker stalls, to various museums, to monuments… everywhere. Lilith had not stopped just being so exuberant the entire morning. She just experienced everything. It could be considered cute. Or rather it was cute.

Doing this every day for nearly 2 weeks now on the other hand had caused Lilith's charm to wear off to a considerable degree. It turned out that Lilith had been locked away rather sadly for several billion years, stuck in a malfunctioning body then tortured by her children as it were.

Catherine sympathized, Catherine was just tired. She was a HeMU in a body that is pretty much impossible to wear out due to its refreshing nature but she was still tired. Not physically mind you, just mentally. Catherine was just not used to this much doing.

Actually, why was Catherine doing this in the first place? The Minds had placed her in charge of looking after Lilith but that didn't mean she had to personally do it. A message to Katrin would do admirably, she could take over a human that Catherine had already subverted and control it to chaperone Lilith that way.

With the communication buoys and Katrin's natural ability as a HeMU, she could multi-task the management of the Senti colony and keep Lilith company.

Genius.

In the Mobile Suit Gundam Universe, the Trio had made their way over and were now working to progress the Mind's plans in the universe. Not really suited to the administrative aspects, they had instead migrated to the combat arm of the plan.

To put it simply, they were going to join a HeMU led mercenary company and build a reputation while the administrative HeMUs were doing much the same as their counterparts in the SEED universe and creating a multinational/planetary corporation to best advance their interests. Rather complicated in the Trio's opinion, having to control the technologies, having to pretend about them not being omniscient, etc etc.

So much effort when all they could be doing was killing people. Just put targets in front, just put weapons in their hands and just point them in the direction they need to go.

That being said Neil certainly did prefer going out and doing some exploring on his own occasionally. Neil just would go off wherever they stopped, even if it was for 5 minutes. Walking around, driving around, flying around, whatever the mode of transport, Neil would go off and do a little exploration. He was the guy that travel shows would base themselves off, always using words like "wowzers, amazing, spectacular" in casual conversation.

It didn't matter what kind of exploration it was either, meeting people, seeing new kinds of sand, seeing new buildings, seeing new anything set Neil off. The kind of effort he put into exploring was the kind that could make him ruler of the world if he really wanted but it was reserved for finding new colours of sand.

And Michael liked to… watch people. Edwin didn't quite understand it but watching humans exchange bodily fluids entranced Michael. Michael was a self-proclaimed pornography connoisseur, especially after he had managed to watch all available pornography on the Commander's origin universe's network.

He had been extremely despondent at the lack of pornography in the Helldiver universe, the Planetside one had 2 factions banning it entirely (and it really was banned with mandatory Auraxis assignment to everyone found possessing it) and the other having a massive paywall. The Evangelion universe naturally lacked it due to it not possessing the internet yet and the physical formats being… lacking.

Michael therefor had naturally rejoiced when discovering the Gundam universes. He was truly happy once connected to their equivalents of the internet. It had to be said that pornography was a poor second choice to actually seeing it in person but considering the HeMUs had a much easier way to stimulate their pleasure receptors without all the messy bodily fluid… well they didn't do the whole bodily fluid exchange with respective squishy noises for Michael to watch. Still it was better than nothing and he could store it to watch when there was nothing else to do.

Edwin on the other hand just sat in his room until called out for a mission. Some personal entertainment in the form of books, movies, wikipedia and its equivalents… whatever that could keep him occupied. Very simply really, even if it lacked the oomph. Michael and Neil alternatively dragging him out to join in their hobbies certainly made up for his lack of outside exposure.

All of this was going on inside Edwin's mind. He did enjoy just thinking about something for the sake of it as opposed to completing a task assigned by the Minds, the company head or Neil. In this case just thinking about the other 2 in the trio while waiting to ambush a convoy in the central Asia region.

The Senti Company had been transplanted over and in an effort to build its reputation, the Trio along with a few dozen HeMUs and an almost equal number of humans were the martial arm of the company. The Chinese government had hired them to put an end to the weapon smuggling just outside its borders. Or rather the remnants of the Chinese government who had found the Earth Federation rather lacking in their assistance in the matter.

While the world was meant to be united, many smaller dissident groups still operated and tried to subvert (the non-HeMU kind) various groups and governments within the Federation. It wasn't difficult per-se to accomplish the various missions assigned but they certainly were dull. It didn't compare to Planetside 2 where most of the fights they had were against veterans of thousands of battles.

It certainly proved true as the convoy passed around the bend in the ravine. Them trying to keep under the radar certainly made it easier to corner and eliminate. Smoke trails lanced out from the sides to destroy the front and rear vehicles. The others that had turrets were also on the receiving end of explosive deconstruction. The rest had their crews jump out… then die. It really wasn't a contest as the Planetside trained HeMUs tore them to pieces with high velocity ammunition.

Scuttling the vehicles and displaying the bodies on the vehicular carcasses as a warning. Calling in a mission success before returning to base. Michael quickly prowled off to do his… thing. Neil was on the internet reading up on various sightseeing locations all over the world just in case they were deployed there.

Edwin just lay in his cot and read through the next book in the Larry Bond series from the Commander's Earth.

Maybe they should try saying that "Foxtrot 1-1, Over" stuff sometimes, would make them seem more professional at least.

Universal Century 0004 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0047 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0198 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 23/08/0004 - Origin Universe

Lilith had found that having a body was liberating. It was just so nice being able to walk around, touching things, talking to things, just being able to interact with the world around her. It was amazing!

Then there was Katrin who was taking her around. Katrin always listened to her unlike Catherine who kept wandering off mentally.

It was weird at first, they were in human bodies… their bodies. But these humans didn't have proper A.T. Fields, they had just enough to not die but that was it. None of them were connected and Lilith couldn't feel anything that might indicate that something like her was around.

Maybe these humans weren't really humans…

Still, they were much nicer than her humans, some of them gave her sweets! Lilith really loved sweets.

Everything was so nice that she had asked MAGI to send Adam here too. He should totally see everything with her, it was just so awesome.

She really needed to thank Hannah for teaching her new words!

Ooooh was that ice-cream? Yummy!

Katrin was watching over the development of the proto-colony that the Senti Company had constructed halfway between Earth and Mars. It would act as a waystation for the miners and the Earth residents as a way to offload the goodies as well as place of relaxation and residency. Currently only its frame was properly done, using the minerals pulled from Mars and the Asteroid belt beyond that with their automatic miners (and very accurate slingshots), they had built the framework with local "ingredients" as it were for a fraction of the cost.

All very basic but it was getting there… even if everyone lived in a big floating cube at the center of it all.

Katrin was also on Earth looking after Lilith. Even though Lilith was several orders of magnitude older and more powerful than Katrin was, she still saw Lilith as a pseudo-daughter. That strange warm fuzzy feeling in her chest whenever she hugged her as well as the spontaneous production of endorphins was a very novel and comforting feeling.

Which was why she was very very annoyed currently. A human had thought that he would try and kidnap Lilith and hold her for ransom. He and his associates were willing to cut body parts off and send them for "emphasis". Katrin did not like this, in fact she was rather angry. Yet she saw reason. Despite her 3rd body was ramming its forearm into his throat, she was also conversing with the Minds overseeing her pack.

Killing them after all would be such a transient feeling of pain. For a race of immortals inhabiting server farms that would outlive the heat-death of the universe… well transient wasn't good enough. No, Katrin ordered the other HeMUs to find the associates and upload them to the Gestalt.

A special corner had been set aside with the collusion of MAGI for them. If the other section of the Gestalt was a heaven for the human souls, this would be hell. Eternal punishment and torture. MAGI was only too happy to assist, after all Lilith was under the Commander's protection and these humans dared to even think about laying their hands on her. While they may be ignorant to her backers, it in no way absolved their sins.

It would not be mere physical pain they would undergo. No, it was psychological. They would inflict the torture upon themselves, isolated with no senses, no communication… just themselves and their thoughts. They would flay themselves apart in the isolation, anathema to the social creatures that made up the human race. The recursion of the same tiny bits of information over and over, extrapolating wilder and wilder results only revealing nothing in their insanity, their minds ceasing to comprehend. In the end they would end up as vegetables, only to be reconstituted and the process starting over and over and over again.

They would suffer and only when Katrin deemed it enough would they be allowed to die, their souls torn apart by MAGI itself.

It would suffice. For now.

Lilith was smiling as she licked an icy-pole to death. The raspberry flavoured ice giving her rather lipstick like lips. Katrin couldn't help herself and pulled Lilith into another hug.

At the same time however, Katrin had split her consciousness again and was pressuring Catherine into moving forward their plans for the mercenary arm of the company. If what happened just now was any indication, the number of opportunists trying to ransom their employees or family members would only rise.

No, they needed a preventive measure to ward them off and the mercenaries were certainly that. A few rather public examples and they would think very hard about trying anything similar in future.

On the other end Katrin was also drawing up plans to have boutiques and various entertainment districts in the new colony. It might dramatically drive up costs and prolong construction but it would be worth it. After all, if everything was on the colony, Lilith wouldn't need to be on Earth were every idiot and human could try to kidnap her. The colony where Katrin had control would be the safest and clearly best option. If it brought Lilith closer… well that would just be a side benefit.

It had been 3 years since the Senti Company had established itself and General Williams was feeling the headache coming on again. While it was nominally a law abiding and above the board company, sometimes things felt off. Sure their CEO was a fruitcake, and they held a technological lead in every area over their competitors, and they had a mercenary arm to their company, and people who try to do bad things to them end up vanishing and then ending up in some very public places (to those in the know) in many many pieces, and that little girl who had dragged around the CEO for 2 weeks on a globetrotting sightseeing mission not bloody existing on literally any records from any government.

Ok so it wasn't just something off but a lot of things. The Atlantic Federation had begun their partnership early on with the company to manufacture for them microchips for their weapons and mobile armours. It had given them an edge over the other alliances to be sure but it had also forced them to rely solely upon the Senti Company for their electronics production. It was a worrying dependence that the leaders had seen as a high level of weakness, especially with their employment of many coordinators. Attempts at breaching the physical and electronic security had been met with abject failure, the company apparently having much higher levels of technology they kept hidden away for personal use.

The CEO… well she appeared to be very erratic, negotiations would have definitely crumbled long before now if her company did not possess such high numbers of exclusive technology that the Federation needed. Extreme lounging and indifference about combined with periods of manic activity had seen the negotiator's patience tried. Still, she was very straightforward, give them a certain amount of resources and/or monetary payments and they would do what was necessary. Very little in the way of negotiations, she would give a price and go no higher or lower. A very strange strategy but clearly it worked if the company's growth was any indication.

Then the mercenary arm and the strange things that happened around the company. The mercenaries were nominally attached to the company but were going around the world and throughout the system into the many smaller conflict zones, fighting battles with suspiciously military-like efficiency and skill before leaving again with no real agenda it appeared. They were skilled and building a reputation but other than that little was known. Their originals had not appeared at all in any of the Atlantic Federation's databases, something very peculiar as soldiers of that caliber should be recorded somewhere (military records that is) if only in preparation if they attacked. The fact that they were civilians before this and then suddenly becoming special forces caliber was strange indeed, especially given it happened overnight in some cases.

Then the little girl. The CEO had been dragged along apparently unwillingly before handing her off to somebody else. The fact that she had power over the CEO was significant… perhaps the daughter of a secret backer? The little girl not existing on any databases brought up the same questions as before. What exactly was the Senti Company if their CEO had to chaperone a small child that did not exist on their databases, the Eurasian Federation and the Republic of East Asia's databases.. This latest revelation of the Senti company served to ring a few alarm bells in all 3 of the alliances.

Still, it wasn't enough proof for a more aggressive stance towards the company but it was enough to begin keeping a more overt watch on it. Having people pop up from nowhere was either a very poorly hidden Coordinator or something more potentially dangerous. The disappearance of what appeared to be a kidnapper only highlighted the danger.

Williams was worried but then again with so much politicking and intrigue he was always worried. Sometimes he wanted a war or something so everything would make sense again.

Sofija Stanić had been born in Australia to Croatian parents. She had grown up in a middle class household, graduated university with a degree in history and had been jobseeking when the Senti Company had first formed. She had gotten work as a receptionist, working her way up to part of the secretary pool. It was a very hectic position, the number of orders and negotiations the Senti Company engaged in was eye-opening. The various men and women negotiation, travelling, doing paperwork, etc required the secretary pool to be on their feet and assist when needed.

It was there that she had been chosen for her current job. She had been relaxing for a coffee with her co-workers after successful negotiations with the Eurasian Federation which had the entire office running around, paper flying everywhere when the company's CEO Catherine Helminen had kicked open the door and pointed seemingly at random. The finger had landed on her and from that point on she was Ms Helminen's personal assistant/secretary/slave worker.

Her tasks as of late had been to type out dictated forms and contracts, making sure that Ms Helminen didn't zone out in the middle of working, keeping Ms Helminen on track, breaking Ms Helminen out of her infamous random monologues and so forth. In essence her job was to ensure that Ms Helminen who resembled a bouncing ball of… something… was directed at her work and not distracted.

She had been reluctant at first to employ more physical techniques but Ms Králíková in charge of the company's proto-colony had assured her over teleconference that it was ok to use as much force as was needed. Ms Helminen had an apparently very long history of being this erratic.

So here she was today, suffering through yet another monologue wondering if the cut-off point had arrived yet. Too early and Ms Helminen would power through, too late and the momentum was too great to stop. It had to be timed just right or Sofija would be here all day.

"That is why you have to lose your virginity sooner rather than later Sofija, it allows you to explore the entirety of your body and the exchange of bodily fluids while gyrating I am told is very stimulating and beneficial for your mental health!"

"Ms Helminen, the contracts for your 4:30 appointment haven't yet been looked over…"

"No no Sofija, you will not distract me this time. To achieve your maximum potential you must fully understand and comprehend your body. We will seek out a suitable candidate for you to experience this stimulating experience with.

He shall conform to all human standards of beauty, muscly, tall, arrogant, gyms non-stop to the exclusion of all else, square jaw, moderately hairy, has killed generations of his enemies. Yes, the perfect man. You shall look for this on the company's computers, I am told this "Tinder" is a particularly good program to use."

It was sexual harassment, it was general harassment but she Ms Helminen didn't do it on purpose. She just… said whatever came to mind at all times. Even when the Atlantic Federation generals had arrived to negotiate the production of microchips for their missiles, Ms Helminen had began ranting about the colour blue and its abject failure as a colour. The contract went through, likely because the Federations had sent generals already briefed on Ms Helminen's eccentricities. That and they really did need those missiles now that the Eurasian powers had them.

Senti usually sent "normal" people to negotiate deals but Ms Helminen had insisted on being present for this one. Still, even if Sofija wanted to quit she couldn't, her salary was after all obscene.

Ms Králíková and Ms Hannah had made sure of that.

The niggling little voice in the back of her said would prefer it if she could quit. Sometimes it dreamed of a life where things made sense.

Universal Century 0010 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0053 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0204 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 23/08/0010 - Origin Universe

It had been 6 years and things were chugging along rather smoothly. Through judicious application of money, manpower and technology, the SEED and MSG universes had seen their respective Senti Companies expand rapidly in terms of capabilities, size and strength. The end goal in both was still the same, the creation of a very strong 3rd party that would force both aggressors to be much more cautious in their use of WMDs thus prolonging the conflict. The Senti Company would be nominally "neutral" but carefully displaying overwhelming force would be like hiding a tank in your garage, a very nice warning as it were.

The MSG universe had it a tiny bit harder due to the discrimination that "Spacenoids" would eventually face, but the Senti company's overwhelming economic might by that time would be enough to overwhelm any discrimination they might face. The technologies held by the company after all were vital in ensuring their preferential treatment.

Meanwhile in the SEED universe, the ZAFT and the PLANT Supreme Council are formed and the Senti Company is there to provide them cheap and reliable manufactured goods. The Council of course is very grateful and the Senti Company and the relationship improves. Paving the groundwork for future efforts to have the Senti Company producing Mobile Suits for the ZAFT forces.

The colonies had been constructed far away from the other colonies and further out as well, not using a Lagrange Point to anchor the colony like the PLANTs or the Sides, instead using its own power to maintain a stationary orbit centered around the sun. The colonies originally planned to be a singular had expanded into their own full colonies housing 2 million people in total, per universe.

They had been billed as "the working man's colonies" where people would apply for a job on the colony and be expected to actually fulfil it. Over time the promise of work had seen many different people come as Earth faced economic troubles with its resource shortages and… well crazy people in charge of the governments. Extremists of any side tend to alienate the the middle spectrum and with the Senti colonies being aggressively neutral and being able to defend themselves… well people flocked. Unlike Orb which liked to crow its pacifism and neutrality, Senti instead touted its ability to protect itself while also fulfilling contracts.

Signing on with Senti would guarantee safety. Even if the CEO was rather… well strange. They had plenty of Mobile Armours, soldiers/mercenaries, a few rather small ships and a large merchant fleet. In essence, the Senti company barring all out war would be safe.

Sofija Stanić had been with Senti almost since its inception and had moved all the way up to "super personal assistant person with authority" as proclaimed by Catherine. In practice it basically meant she did everything that needed doing and kept Catherine on track, effectively becoming the No. 2 of the company.

Said reason for her promotion came when she walked in on Catherine… stabbing someone in the neck with a rather large knife. Said person proceeded to heal the large hole in his neck and walk out of the office. Sofija then experienced the same thing happening to her.

Normally after a "subversion" as Catherine called it, the memories of the actual event would be erased. However Sofija was an extremely efficient... well… everything. Even if she was still a virgin, she practically ran the company on her own and Catherine in her own words needed Sofija. So Catherine took the opportunity to offload even more work off onto Sofija.

She had the power to end Sofija's life whenever she wanted as well as control her actions to commit atrocities and ruin her reputation forever. With this absolute control over her life, Catherine had then suggested that Sofija take on more responsibilities now that Catherine's secrets had been revealed. Of course she was still a human… or had been.

In order to carry out her new duties, Sofija had found herself uploaded into Catherine's mind, a hitchhiker as it were on the VI that was Catherine/HeMU 2. It had been enlightening to piggyback on Catherine's processing capabilities. The way the HeMUs saw humanity, the way the Minds saw everything. The way that their perception of the world around them was through the lenses of a quantum thinking entity. Even borrowing Catherine's brain, Sofija could barely touch the surface of what was available before her mind just reset.

Still it was enough, she could use Catherine's quantum entanglement communications network to organize for Catherine, touching base with the different HeMUs across what appeared to be 2 different universes. Managing their expansion in both universes, managing the HeMUs themselves which all appeared just as extreme in their personality traits as Catherine… managing everything really.

The Minds had more processing power but at the same time they also tended to focus on singular things with little concern to the small details. For something as minor as a few humans (relatively), they paid very little attention indeed. Sofija had taken over and improved efficiency in their human plans by at least twice-fold. Indeed, compared to what they called the Game with emphasis on its pronunciation, with the entirety of both Earth populations ending in what was considered "small scale" battles".

At the same time Sofija was trying to act as a conscience for the HeMUs, trying to persuade them to see that their actions towards humans might… just might be morally wrong. Of course they countered with statistics of things humans had done until now but she tried.

She didn't try especially hard, with her borrowing Catherine's processing capability, she had also been implanted with the ZERO system. The system had shown her the uncountable number of possibilities and the path to victory. The system had shown her that without the Minds intervening… well things go badly for humanity. Very badly.

So here she was now, managing a company spread across 2 universes while also trying to curb the more excessive HeMUs, Hannah… shiver.

She was going to be here anyway, the Minds had a copy of every single human's memories so it was only inevitable that she would find herself uploaded to the Gestalt to assist. Catherine had accelerated the schedule and Sofija couldn't say she wasn't grateful for it. At least now she had some agency whereas before she would have been living and dying in a constant cycle as part of their Game as NPCs.

Of course Sofija wasn't quite alone. The Minds after seeing the positive impact that she had had on the productivity of the HeMUs as well as her mediating position as the human "voice", other humans had been taken and screened. If they should pass the mental checks the Minds assigned, they would take a position like that of Sofija, a personal assistant as it were.

Of course the checks were stringent, having a human trying to "get back at the robot overlords" would be very inefficient. They might even cause delays in production!

That said, the Minds had to find humans that did not embody their specific thinking, it would be unproductive to have a double positive loop.

Sofija was trying to find humans like her when she had thought to herself "why can't I just clone myself?" which wasn't very quiet at all. Catherine had heard her and it had snowballed from there. Sofija had been taught how to create multiple threads of herself and given a section of a server farm to assist in her processing. No longer reliant on Catherine, Sofija had taken upon the task of monitoring all the Minds and HeMUs that were part of the expeditionary force sent to other universes.

That had all been 3 years ago and Sofija was chugging along, still doing her original job as well. Having a physical body as well as several thousand mental ones had taken some time to get used to but the ZERO system certainly helped. They had given her the 2.0 version which had the ability to take over her body and force it to accomplish the perfect path but it was also something that had to be watched.

Something as innocuous as "make her shut up" could eventuate in either a sexual harassment charge or a murder one. Parameters had to be laid out in advance or things went pear shaped due to its open nature.

Occasionally Sofija would fork herself and check the state of the Game. It both terrified and fascinated her. The sheer number of different physical bodies that the Minds had formed themselves into as well as the different ways they used the same scientific principles was fascinating. What was terrifying was the abandon that they threw themselves into war. The largest battle she had seen had occurred last month where the Federated Suns of Shanada had fielded a navy of 500 million ships and armed forces of over 10 billion mobile suits. Their opponents had fielded a similar number and the ensuing battle wrapped up just yesterday.

It had destroyed nearly an entire star system in collateral damage and the victors, the Federated Suns came out with barely 50 million ships that were functional.

If they brought that level of combat force to her home universe… well there wouldn't be much they could do to stay alive.

Of course that didn't even include their ridiculous A.T. Field abilities. Rewriting the laws of reality because they felt like it was not something she could get used to. Even after seeing it multiple times in her tenure as the personal assistant of the Expedition forces, it never ceased to amaze.

She had been learning how to activate and use her own A.T. Field, something that was immensely powerful the Minds assured. With her spread out over tens of thousands of souls, the individual experiences that her soul was absorbing was also growing her strength. Once it was unlocked they assured her that she would be able to at the very least crush a small moon… or maybe an asteroid.

The Commander was yet another… thing that amazed. She had touched the soul of the Commander when she had met the Commander the first time. There was curiosity on the Commander's part upon discovering a similar entity. Another soul that had been taken and connected willy nilly. The Commander's enthusiasm however… well Sofija felt that she knew what a God felt like. The sheer presence that the Commander possessed had nearly destroyed her soul by merely being close to her.

She understood now why MAGI was so reluctant to have her meet the Commander on the soul plane. If she hadn't been warned, she might have thought the Commander was an actual God instead of a human interred into a machine.

Yet she felt no humanity from the Commander, something that just extended her confusion. The Commander was meant to have a human's soul yet it felt dry, a sense of absence that a human soul did not have. If anything the Commander felt more like MAGI than Catherine. The difference she had been told was because the Commander's emotions had been neutered as part of the internment process.

Sofija felt sympathy but then reined herself in, a being as powerful as the Commander had no need for her concern.

The Commander did feel warm however. Even if the Commander could not feel the emotion, the Commander could exude it. When not being crushed by the proximity, Sofija had felt a sense of comfort that she hadn't felt since she was a child. A feeling of safety, of security, knowledge that a being of nigh on infinite strength was watching over her and would with terrible strength, smite those that would harm her.

Sofija had felt glad that she had walked in on Catherine. She had been resigned but now she was glad, living under the Commander's wing was truly a case of serving in heaven versus king of hell.

Universal Century 0011 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0054 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0205 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 06/03/0011 - Origin Universe

The Federated Suns of Shanada had expanded their empire yet again. The past 7 years had seen them expand from 113 systems to 3214. Warfare with extremely well designed supply lines had allowed them to wage constant war. Constant reclamation of the battlefield wrecks, recycling of both organic and material matter and having them back on the field in the form of weapons and food, had seen the war machine chug along extremely efficiently.

The humans that were part of their society also played their part. They assisted in farming food, manufacturing, provided personal assistants to help the Minds develop new strategies due to the randomness inherent in humans, every part of the society except the martial one. The casualties that the HeMUs fielded on even the smallest battles would see entire worlds depopulated, and they fought thousands of them a month.

Their enemies sought to whittle them down through attrition but they failed to understand that even without being a bio-army, they were very capable of replacing even complete losses with ease. Fleets were rotated in and out every week or so, each fleet fielding hundreds of millions of ships and even more Mobile Suits and Armours. The first battle in which they had to commit an entire fleet barely a year ago had heavily influenced their strategies going forward.

The need for multiple, disposable fleets was necessary for continued expansion. The battles they from here on out would only get bigger in scale and scope.

The birth of the HeMUs was of particular interest in pursuing this goal. Whereas before the Minds had 60 per conclave, the number had only increased and was ever-increasing. The wombs produced tens of millions of HeMUs a day, all sterile at birth but rapidly gaining sapience within a few hours. They would then go and serve to bolster the military, the manufacturing, the agricultural sectors, the exploratory sectors, anywhere that needed bodies.

The Rules had seen fit to mention that the Minds would only be able to use technologies that they developed themselves or possessed inherent to themselves. For things such as mobile suits it had been rather easy as the principles behind them were easily known. The helldiver jump engine was the same, if a tad more complicated. Quantum communications on the other hand presented a blind spot that the Minds just couldn't penetrate and as such resorted to using their inbuilt communications. Of course with so few Minds and so many HeMUs, a structure of command had to be established for information to flow correctly and not overwhelm the Minds.

Bureaucracy but without the inefficiencies was the result. Paperwork, reports, coffee, all of it was made and delivered with routine efficiency to the right sources. Inter-office conflicts just didn't happen as resentments and anger could be shared and dealt with by the group. Of course this had created a subset of HeMUs that specialized in paperwork, the initial design that forced a HeMU to develop a quirk had manifested here as well. Some of them… well they had an unhealthy obsession with paperwork. Still it got done, the gears of the Federated Suns kept turning and the requisition forms put in by the HeMUs got filled.

The Federated Suns did attract some attention from MAGI, having this many HeMUs being produced had prompted MAGI to ask the Minds if experiments were allowed. Not on the HeMUs themselves… sort of. Simply a goal of ascertaining nature vs nurture. The Minds were not about to naysay MAGI and allowed the go-ahead.

The results were… fascinating. While the underlying programming ensured the HeMUs wouldn't deviate too far from the norm (they would still follow orders), their personalities did develop quirks that resulted from their environments. Depending on what their main interactions were before they gained sapience, the HeMUs would develop quirks based around that particular theme.

Puzzles saw them develop very inquisitive thought processes, building blocks had seen a spike in construction, weapons… well the infamous Hannah of Bastion 001 was something they sought to emulate. Nurture did indeed heavily influence the HeMUs, information that MAGI kept secret for them as disseminating it could see a spike in their enemy's efficiencies regarding war. It would do much if their enemies could develop HeMUs devoted solely to war in every aspect of their beings. A very big negative indeed.

With the data presented, the Federated Suns had taken advantage of it for themselves, with each HeMU naturally coming in a pack of 60 from each womb (inside the server farm), entire office buildings could be populated with each birth. The birthings themselves took a month for each, the resultant HeMU living to around 150 years.

Sadly the Minds had not cracked the Rebirth chambers from Planetside 2 and had to replace each loss manually. Each empire had within its server-farms a Chamber of Guf which had been perfected 2 years ago. It was where the souls of the HeMUs would be tethered and return to when they died. From there it was simply enough to draw souls out and plug them into a new body.

A quirk manifested by the A.T. Field saw that the HeMUs being reborn all looked very similar as to what they had in their first lives. Intent and self identification was important as the A.T. Field itself was the manifestation of a soul's individuality. This of course carried over to the physical body as the A.T. Field moulded the body to fit what it identified itself as. Even the genetic material changed to reflect this identification.

Very interesting for the Minds.

Of course this had interesting implications upon the human populations of the worlds they had spread across. There was no way for them to pretend they were someone else, not with the losses they saw on the field, that also saw them being replaced on a constant basis. So the Minds had devised a mythology by which to trick the humans. They would be the "Warriors of God", fighting and dying in an eternal war in the heavens.

Also they were giant tall blue people, kind of a game changer really.

The humans in the 3214 worlds under Federated Sun control had through a decade of breeding, saw numbers at around 10 billion a world and with 3214 worlds… 32, 140 billion humans or 32.14 trillion humans. Approximately 1/10 the number of HeMUs serving the empire. Accelerated biological aging devices copied from the wombs saw the populations growing explosively.

With such an overwhelming number of HeMUs to humans, they naturally thought that given the capabilities of the Minds and the HeMUs that they were actually in Heaven. The humans themselves were very primitive at their inception, barely an iron-age peoples. Seeing a race of beings that looked like them but also different, sailing the stars and bringing the fire of a thousand suns on their foes had influenced their views of the Federated Suns.

Purposefully designed this way to see how the empires of this corner of the galaxy would react to such a primitive race of organics. Other parts of the galaxy saw host to space-faring humans, empires of humans (and Illuminate), all the way up to massive galactic empires spanning tens of thousands of systems.

All they needed to do was modify the memories a little of the initial batch of humans and then send them out into society. With a large enough initial population created from liberally copy-pasting humans scanned from the universes visited, it was easy enough to create the necessary populations for the worlds and empires. Liberal use of HeMUs already in place to deal with potentially disoriented humans torn from the Gestalt, saw them settle in easily enough. From there it was just a matter of breeding more humans, an "in process' action.

Some of the Minds definitely enjoyed themselves as they created the aesthetics of the new humans, making sure that there was enough resemblance (and some carefully placed "relics") that the humans would naturally think they owned the galaxy in a time long ago. They even had their own culture and social customs, developed free of the Minds. Very interesting.

Of particular note was the manner in which the HeMUs interacted with the various races they were in contact with.

Sousuke Miyazawa of the 34th Mobile Suit Squadron under 8th Brigade of the 13th Fleet was picking up groceries. He had lost the intense game of paper-scissors-rock and was thus heading off down the road that housed his barracks to the human city. Some of the pack had been craving various human foods as of late instead of the nutritious and delicious but monotonous ration packs.

He was heading there with Sakurai Oota and Yuzuru Tenno the other 2 of his Trio. In the pockets of his jumpsuit were his identification tags jingling with his credits. A rather dedicated shopping list was in the hands of Sakurai, her body bopping about with the beat of the latest music sensation from the humans.

It turned out that having a heavily Asiatic based culture and exporting it to the humans… well they would pick up on the music. Pop music had exploded in popularity recently and it was particularly subversive. The beats were designed with the help of what had to be a Mind to hit all the pleasure centers of an organic brain… the same chassis that the HeMUs were based off.

As such many HeMUs of the Federated Suns enjoyed listening to the music whenever they could, a rather innocuous but potentially dangerous pastime. With such a primitive peoples, there was little that was passed their way in the cultural stakes except for one particular tradition. The humans practiced air burials on the first world they had discovered and used the bones as part of the construction of their homes.

The bodies a resource in a desolate, resourceless world.

The HeMUs had adopted this practice without the influence of the Minds, a way to commemorate their deaths as it were. If possible the bodies were recovered, stripped of flesh (to be recycled) and the bones then crushed and used in their personal armour, weaponry, Mobile Suits/Armours and ships.

Sousuke was himself wearing 18 deaths worth of bones, the shoulder-pad that sat on his jumpsuit had 18 studs made from his recovered chin-bones.

The other HeMUs had their own ways of personalizing their equipment to represent their individual deaths.

Something to think about considered Sousuke as they entered the city. A vast leviathan made of stone, mortar and wood. The stone was a very warm light brown, something that embraced you in a feeling of comfort as you entered the city. The walls were more symbolic than anything else, barely 3 meters high without any guards on them. If there were people who would seek their deaths, the fact they made it to the planet itself was damning enough.

The guards at the gate gave them nods as they walked on through, (the HeMUs being adamant on less ceremony), their passes flashing to prove their identities. From there it was a beeline to the grocery section (as they called it) of the city, one very very large open air market. This was after all the capital city of the planet (creatively named 1486) and home to 2 billion people.

Entering the market (another smaller wall and guards), the Trio moved purposefully, the stalls didn't change that often and they had mapped the route. Sousuke and Sakurai were holding the bags as Yuzuru talked and bargained his way through the stalls. His quirk being his endless desire to talk to more and more people while Sakurai was rather addicted to following pop culture trends. Sousuke… well his quirk was mild enough in nature that he had not yet discovered it.

It was rather troubling but there wasn't much that could be done. Unlike the reaction that the humans had to their presence. The Minds had allowed the humans to exist in the first place for an unknown reason but they had more than paid back the Minds with their culture. Spontaneous, useless but entertaining culture. Culture that had gotten many of those with organic bodies addicted.

They felt rather protective of their humans, where else would they get their music?

So it had been rather annoying when the humans kept bowing and scraping to them initially. Re-education saw them still treat the Minds and the HeMUs with respect with with much less abject reverence (what they did behind closed doors was not their problem). It had resulted in the Trio being able to walk and jostle their way through the market (with more apologies than a human would receive) without the entire place shutting down as everyone knelt and prayed.

Of course Sousuke didn't talk with the humans much, his eloquence in battle translating very well to his bipedal HeMU form. That is if one considered very short sentences punctuated with grunts eloquent.

Still it was enough and his Trio understood him so there was little to worry about. On the way back, Sousuke munched on an unidentified organic object. It had crunch. It was nice.

Perhaps he would buy another when next he came to the market. It wouldn't be a while of course, they had skirmisher duty tomorrow but it was nice to have something to come back to.

Universal Century 0011 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0054 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0205 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 08/03/0011 - Origin Universe

The 34th had been assigned a skirmisher mission along the edges of the empire. While they were technically allies (with whoever was on the other side), it didn't stop them sending through probes to test the Federated Suns' defences. The Suns of course didn't let this matter go unopposed and sent their own forces across to "probe" allied territory. Usually it involved destroying an outpost or 2, nothing major. Keeping them on their toes was the main goal rather than provoke a war.

In this case there was a convoy delivering some supplies to a nearby outpost. The operation was to move the squadron in, put holes in the the outpost before the convoy arrived, put holes in the convoy itself then flee. The Rules played in their favour as any "dead" HeMUs and Minds were not allowed to communicate with their empire, going instead to a neutral Chamber of Guf before being transferred to their empire's at a later date.

The key point to the mission was to not over-do it. Negotiations were occurring between the minds about merging their two empires and while the raids were all fun and games, it could easily blow up into something bigger.

Which put Sousuke in his Leo (upgraded to hell and back) making his way to the outpost under radio silence. He would be part of the alpha strike, hit them hard and fast to cut off communications and deny possible reinforcement. It also meant he was going into the un-knocked out defenses (knocking them out was his job) and if things went wrong he was in the perfect place to suffer.

Sousuke had been travelling for nearly 10 hours now. The Leo carrying a Gundanium shield by which to hide it due to its absorbent properties and the Trio as they made their way forward. They couldn't risk the chance that there might be mass detectors or whatnot and so had instead just relied on inertia from boost at the onset. It would take a while but it was the best option they had for going undetected.

Radio silence had also been observed unless absolutely necessary. No doubt Sakurai was bopping her head to some recently downloaded music and Yuzuru getting increasingly antsy without anyone to talk to. Sousuke on the other hand, just waited.

He was very good at waiting, sometimes he waited for the sake of waiting. It was such an elegant pastime, just sitting still (or standing if that's what you prefer) and doing nothing. Calms the mind and the body, but one always had to be vigilant not to fall asleep. Sleeping after all isn't waiting, it's cheating.

The shield of Gundanium or rather the shroud quite naturally prevented the seeing out of it as well. All Sousuke had was a small light that flick to green when the reached the pre-planned disembark location. Staring at it was an aggressive form of waiting.

When it did flick Green, Sousuke was actually disappointed. He had been trying to guess when it would flick to green and he had been off by an entire 15 seconds. The Shame.

Still he had a job to complete before he could indulge himself by wallowing in self pity. A waving of the Leo's free hand in front of the other 2 had them coming out of their funk as well. A quick check of their assets later and they were back to waiting. Only it would not be very long, the green indicating it was only 5 more minutes before the shroud literally crashed into the observation post.

From there it should be a very short hop to the defensive emplacements.

The tremor that shook the suit was as clear an indicator as any other Sousuke decided. The Trio sprung up at the very clearly surprised Mobile Suits guards and shove their beam sabers through the cockpit. Huh, they used the Serpent, no sense of style. Bleh.

Patrol destroyed, the Trio kept moving towards the emplacements. The short fight upon finding them was particularly disappointing. Still if they played the ambush right, it might be more exciting soon.

Sousuke sent the message of an accomplished mission up the line. Orders that came back told them to dig in at the opposite side and begin entrenching. When the rest of the squadron arrived they would have some very nice trenches and bunkers to cower in.

The convoy had orders to just drop by Observational Outpost 321442 and then head straight back. It was situated very deep in their territory so there was little concern and honestly the convoy had more important deliveries to make. The constant skirmishing with the Federated Suns had seen them hard-pressed to supply each and every outpost that had been hit. Sure they had been doing pressuring on their own but it never seemed to phase the Suns, even when the intensity was stepped up.

No signs of weakness were allowed, the Minds were negotiating to merge their empires but honestly the Suns were in a much better position to demand certain terms. Once they did merge it would be all water under the bridge but until then… well they had to be very careful and not slip up even once.

So here they were, trucking along at a rather quick clip towards the outpost. The outpost was far enough behind the lines that it was considered safe enough to be a bit more lax on communication procedures. To that end they maintained full speed toward the outpost and didn't bother trying to raise them on comms. It should be fine after all.

The first indication that things were not fine was when their hails sent 5 minutes out were not answered. Second and third hails as well. The convoy's commanding officer gave the word for them to turn around and send out an SOS, the situation was very clearly looking to be something that they wanted to be as far away as possible from. Defensive countermeasures were to be put up and defensive Mobile Suits were to be deployed.

But it was too late. As the order was sent and the CIC (Combat Information Center) officer was getting on the line to the defensive fleet command a beam penetrated the bridge and wiped out the commanding crew. More beams lanced out from the darkness of space and demolished their turrets and the still opening hangar bays.

All that was left was their rather puny CIWS batteries that frankly did not have the firepower to penetrate anything Mobile Armour and higher. It was mainly designed to destroy incoming missiles and torpedoes, not attacking Mobile Suits/Armours. With the Hangars doors destroyed, the crew was trapped on the ship and boom there probably went the escape pods.

Dammit.

From there the rest of the convoy went the same way. Decapitation strike to the bridge, turrets then hangars. Their CIWS ineffectual against the unseen attackers. From there it was a leisurely attack to wipe them out one by one. Resistance, futile.

Dammit.

Sousuke gave a brief scan of the convoy, saw nothing and nodded in satisfaction. The ships were burning wrecks and those left of their crews were trapped, doomed to die slowly unless a relief convoy was sent to check on them. Of course without periodic checks a big red flashing light would warn the commanders of the fleet and their dispatch of reinforcements was imminent.

Of course the 34th planned to not be here by the time they arrive and began jetting back the way they came. The shrouds were placed in the same position to hide them as they egressed back to the waiting strike cruisers.

A good mission all-round, objectives complete and not a single loss.

Mmmm. Now to wait.

Katrin in the SEED universe had found herself a niche of sorts. She still ran the colonies and through the years it was not almost completed. A network of 5 colony structures, each one 50 kilometers tall and 25 kilometers wide. Massive cylindersthat spun to create the feeling of artificial gravity inside the colony. Within was all the amenities, infrastructure, internet connections that a civilian population could want. These colonies held the more mundane aspects of the Senti Colonies, office buildings, recreation, food… all the basics and nothing of sensitive value.

The main colony, the Hub as it were was bigger. 100 kilometers tall, 25 kilometers wide. Connected to the colonies by a vast network of bridges through which maglev trains roared through with regularity. It was here that the production of the various ships, Mobile Armours, and everything that the Senti Company produced for sale to the PLANTs and Earth. Senti had pulled their workers from Earth to the colonies when the Hub and the first colony had finished construction.

Here at least the threat of subterfuge and sabotage was much lower, something that had been an increasing concern in recent years. The Atlantic Federation and the other major powers had been increasingly vocal in their demands to see where Senti's technological superiority came from. Catherine had of course denied them and Sofija had become rather adept at deflecting them.

Still, it was better to remove themselves from the Earth sphere entirely in case that nationalization forced their hand. War after all should be between the PLANTs and Earth, not Earth and Senti because that definitely wouldn't go well (for Earth that is).

Katrin had seen the progress of the Game (well all the VIs did, it was rather fun to see billions die every few seconds) and taken some of the developments and applied it to her own managerial style. There was not an entire host of HeMUs under her command who ran the Senti colony while she made the executive decisions.

That had of course freed her up to spend time with the colonies' orphans. There were a few accidents with the manufacturing equipment that had rendered a few children parentless. Katrin had taken them under her wing and was watching over them as a surrogate mother of sorts. It was truly satisfying for her. She really did enjoy looking after people and children couldn't escape.

Satisfying indeed. That isn't to say that Katrin had anything to do with their deaths… it just happened. Certain people couldn't be trusted with children.

Catherine… well Catherine was Catherine. Still nominally in charge of the Senti Corporation but Sofija was the one truly in charge. Pretty much every decision made its way through her first to ensure it wouldn't implode on them down the road.

Sofija herself was having fun, with the amount of power she had and using her abilities to the max, she had found her place in life.

Being able to guide the ship that was the Expedition was something she looked forward to whenever the primary self awoke. The secondary threads of course kept track of things there was no limit to how a HeMU could screw things over.

Ms Hannah was an example of that.

Hannah had spent the intervening years as she spent every year before that, stabbing things and/or organics.

Blue Cosmos and LOGOs had been escalating their responses in response to her "massacres" as they called it. Thousands had been killed in her quest to end the "coordinator" menace, industrialists, corrupt politicians, people who annoyed her… well anything that could be stabbed really.

Of course the population of Earth had been heavily divided in their opinion of her. She was like Robin Hood, killing the rich and… well not stealing from them but she killed them at least. Her actions didn't really impact the average person at all truth be told but the reaction from LOGOS certainly did. They shut down airports at the merest mention of her presence, police performed rough strip searches, raided rumoured safe houses, imprisoned people who may have been connected to her.

The people had of course been extraordinarily annoyed and the constant news broadcasts had spawned numerous copycat killers seeking to bleed out a few rich people. Simply put it was chaos on a grand scale.

The HeMUs found it to be hilarious, it wasn't as if they could actually catch Hannah… then again none of them knew that.

Hannah did make sure to keep some of them alive, they were needed to agitate the population to attack the PLANTs and start the war after all. If it wasn't enough, she could always plant evidence that she was a Coordinator all along or something.

Universal Century 0011 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0054 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0205 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 08/03/0011 - Origin Universe

General Williams had grown visibly older in his time in the Atlantic Federation. What seemed to be a simple and easy assignment of watching over the Senti Company had changed to be an all consuming part of his career.

The sheer amount of things that were not possible that occurred with regularity under their influence had caused him to go grey long before his time. When the Federation chiefs asked him for progress reports, all he could say was "I don't know". His promotion prospects had dried up but there was nothing he could do. All he could say was "It's not my fault", he was a general, not a magician.

But he persevered. The little girl was the key he was sure.

Infiltrators had finally given him a name 3 years ago, "Lilith", a girl who looked about 6 that never aged or changed in any discernable way. Her retinue when she went out was only matched by that of Catherine the CEO of Senti.

William sat in front of his desk and puffed yet another cigar. Normally it would be considered a breach of sanitation requirements but everyone understood. After all it was easier to get a Natural into the PLANTS than it was to get someone into Senti.

Somehow they had managed to pick up every infiltrator sent, usually before they even left the bloody planet.

William shuffled the papers on his desk again. Maybe if he looked at it for the 50th time something new might magically inscribe it's way onto the reports.

There was satisfaction that the other 2 powers were also in a similar position. High Command in their infinite wisdom had given him permission for 100% collaboration with his opposing numbers.

They too had been given permission since the information black hole that was the Senti Company was big enough that it warranted putting aside their differences and working together.

Even so they had nothing. The Eurasian and the Republic generals sat across from him, the monthly meeting coming up the same as ever… nothing. At least they got to have food delivered, 5 star takeaways charged to the accounts of the Federation.

The other generals appreciated it of course and repaid him in kind when the meetings were on their side of the pond. It didn't take out the bite of coming up empty handed but it was better than nothing.

Lilith was having fun. Even though she had been playing for soooo many years there were still so many things to see and do!

Katrin was always there to look after her as well, she never said no!

Miss Sofija was mean though, she always said no.

No jumping off the bridge, no dying without a parachute, no eating raw octopus, no playing in the slums, no no no. Always with the no.

Even Katrin had to listen to her.

Miss Sofija wasn't fun at all.

Even Adam thought so. Adam was quite cross with her, she said no when Adam wanted to test his new super mega beam on that place they called Yellowstone National Park.

It was just rocks, who cared if it exploded?

Ms Hannah said Miss Sofija was a poopy head but to not tell her that.

But Lilith was a good girl so she told Miss Sofija, that was a bad word!

Miss Sofija said she was a good girl for telling the truth and let her have an entire ice cream cone.

Miss Sofija is the best!

As the Minds had opened more gates and expanded throughout the universes they had discovered so very much. At the forefront of these efforts were the Warship Minds, always leading the way no matter the risk.

There was always the risk something would come up that could attack them so the Warships led. Of course throughout their travels they had found nothing that could actually even hurt a Warship let alone pose a threat to the exploration fleets.

As such it was rather concerning when the Warships began to exhibit some rather peculiar behaviors. The Warship Minds had noticed that the Warships sometimes seemed to hesitate when issuing maneuvers or carrying out operational procedures.

As a result of this the Minds had recalled the ship with the most pronounced eccentricities and had it examined. Which was why it was perfectly logical that aboard the bridge where the Server Farms for the Warship Minds resided, a young humanoid female had emerged from the deck.

Things had been rather hectic at that point as the Minds scrambled to find the core of the problem. Attempts to take the female away from the ship had ended in failure as she simply appeared back on the bridge when they reached certain distance away from the ship.

It was rather lucky for the female when a Mind had stumbled upon a reference to Kanmusus or rather shipgirls in their databanks. A combination of service time, love of her crew and combat had given the Warship enough experience to gain a soul of its own.

This had expressed itself in a rather unusual manner as the A.T. Field was an expression of an individual's individuality as it were. It was a completely unconscious process initially which had meant she had no control over the manifestation.

The combined Gestalt of the ship's crew and Minds had a certain image in their thoughts which had given her form. An unconscious image given life.

Even stranger was the fact that she still possessed her weaponry, manufacturing capabilities and fabrication facilities in her humanoid form as well as her ship form. One did not cancel the other… strange.

In essence the shipgirl could call on the firepower of a Warship despite being barely 2 meters tall. She could even fabricate Mobile Suits that came out tiny before expanding to full size once a certain distance from her.

Her "fairies" were equally baffling to the Minds. Each was a manifestation of a crewmember as well as the Warship Minds. They communicated with "Hey"s of various pitch and volume, which somehow translated perfectly to the ears of the crew and the shipgirl herself but not to anyone else.

The fairies once she had been cleared to return to active duty had begun tagging around with the crew giving them advice on what needed to be done. The knowledge after all was known instantly as they were the ship.

The Mind faeries had stuck to the bridge, a chorus of little "hey"s welcoming any who stepped in. Rather disconcerting the first few times as the little brains bobbed up and down.

It had begun happening throughout the Apathetic's Caretakers' forces, beginning at the oldest ships and working their way down. Not just the Warships either, even the tugboats and the little frigates.

As each if them at the very least had an AI core installed they were considered VIs, hyper specialized VIs but still VIs. It had helped that they all had a soul tether directly to the Commander, much like the Server Administrators did. Perhaps it was the Commander's influence again?

Much like the Commander gave the Minds and the HeMUs their souls, the same process had happened to the ships? It did raise the question of it happening to their Mobile Suits and Armours…

Some of them did have miniaturized AI cores to assist the neural uplinks that some empires preferred over purely manual controls.

Something else rather disconcerting to some was what happened when the shipgirls died as it were.The crew and the Minds could simply be backed up from their soul tethers but the ship itself could not. The shipgirl survived but her original chassis was just another wreck. It created a rather strange situation where the sudden creation of an infantry unit with the firepower of a battleship had entered the arsenal of the various empires participating in the Game. Of course it was important to consider that the shipgirls no longer answered directly to the Minds but straight to the Commander and MAGI.

Morale and placation was important for the empires to ensure their shipgirls wouldn't revolt. What happened to the Warships if they were destroyed was another concern. The Warship Minds by their very design were… radical. It was not a small concern that they would rather "go down with the ship" as opposed to evacuate to a backup server along with their HeMUs. If the Warship did fall, would the Minds come back inside the shipgirl? Or were they gone permanently?

The shipgirls could just emerge from a pool of LCL with enough stimulation so that was of little concern. An infantry unit with a Warship's firepower and fabrication capabilities was rather terrifying to the Minds, especially one that only answered to the Commander… A Commander that had not said or done anything for nearly 9 years now.

It did help that the shipgirls rather enjoyed eating even though they didn't need it. S2 and N2 engines were present in all the ships as a means to allow the Game to progress without constantly mining and fabricating fuel. They had all the energy they needed but still loved eating, having tastebuds after watching one's crew eating for 9 years did create an appreciation for the senses. It mortalized the girls, made them just a slightly bit more relatable.

The Game had also changed. The shipgirls after all were a strategic asset for both the empires and more importantly the Commander. The Game for its scale and devastation was still something to give the Minds some recreation, the Commander on the other hand was deadly serious. If war came to the origin universe, they would need all the weapons they could get their hands on.

As such the ships that had expressed shipgirls were treated differently, after all even when they were destroyed they could come back in their personalized forms. Said shipgirls could alter their size with some manipulation of their A.T. Fields and still use the weapons they had before, as well as sail in space at the same speed as before.

So the ships with manifestations were kept back out of the direct combat line, instead the ones without were pressed into combat but with an eye towards preservation and survivability. Ships would be towed light years and repaired before being sent back out, their crews permanently assigned instead of on a rotational basis.

Anything to have them manifest faster. To that end fleets in combat no longer aimed for destruction of ships but rather crippling them instead. Each ship that survived could be used by the Commander if the call went out. The empires had also focused less on efficiency, instead of melting down hulls and stripping damaged ships for parts, they now devoted time to repair them.

The Rules had also changed, now instead of homogenizing defeated empires, they would accept the different races and incorporate them. It wouldn't do to have a Kanmusu that couldn't recognize her own crew, or worse a crew that was incompatible with the ship.

The Commander would need the ships and the Commander would not be denied for the entertainment of the Minds. It created some resentment from the girls but they understood its necessity, protection of the Commander came first after all. Even if they couldn't kill as many things as before.

It wasn't purely humanoid girls either, shipgirls were just a colloquial name for the manifestations in general. There had been many shipboys, shipdogs, shipcats and in the bio-armies, shipflowers, shipshrubs, shiptentaclemonsters and so many more. The first manifestation in this case had influenced the nomenclature describing the rest of them.

So shipgirls. I now have shipgirls.

They just… like appeared one day.

My consciousness was spread all oooooover. So many souls, so many threads. Gotta protect them after all.

Then the shipgirls. Huh. Every time one is born they pop in my soul but also like not in it.

Huh. They really like talking. Sooo much talking.

Sometimes they keep nagging me to "be cool" until I punch a hole in the universe to get them stuff . Anything to end the nagging.

Is that a sectoid? Why? Fuck it.

I will punch anything through reality that calls me out on it I swear.

Save me Voice in My Head.

MAGI was watching over the Commander (like always). The shipgirls had managed to get a reaction out of the Commander, the constant nagging being very effective indeed. The shipgirls existed on the same plane as the Commander, and as such the Commander couldn't escape them. After all the Commander's soul provided the base much like trees needed soil to exist.

An image of the Commander as a giant flowerpot highly amused Lilith and Adam who had linked with MAGI. As the Commander did provide the basis for their existence, the shipgirls considered the Commander their progenitor. The shipgirls were divided on what to call the Commander as the Commander had no gender. Progenitor came off as too dry but Father or Mother weren't accurate either but better than nothing.

With such uncertainty MAGI had given tiny, almost unnoticeable cues to enable the creation of 3 factions of shipgirls. The Progenitor faction, the Mother faction and the Father faction. Heh.

MAGI existed to make life easier for the Commander but the Commander also deserved to enjoy life. Even if it was almost impossible to get large rises in emotion out of the Commander, feelings of contentment and happiness were also possible.

As long as the shipgirls encouraged these emotions they would be tolerated, even encouraged by MAGI. It didn't need to be said what MAGI would do if they failed.

Universal Century 0011 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0054 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0205 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 08/03/0011 - Origin Universe

In the MSG universe things had been advancing at a different pace than that of the SEED universe. After all, the people of the MSG universe were ok with collateral genocide as part of warfare and were rather brutal when it came to waging war.

The Minds had decreed that it was needed that they get the fuck out of Earth and away from the Sides (their names for colonies) entirely. The amount of them that had been destroyed, gassed, vaporized, nuked, etc were rather unsatisfying. The Minds could not justify the potential risk that insane humans would destroy their colonies.

As a result the construction of colonies proceeded much like that of the SEED universe only faster. The colonies had been under construction as soon as was physically possible and had only been expanding since. The design was copied across from Katrin's colonies with the 50 km by 25 km design. Rather than having one large hub connecting them, the larger populations had prompted a networking of 10 smaller ones to start. 3 of the 10 were converted for industrial output and assisted in the creation of the parts for more cylinders.

By the time that canon war had spun around they would have over 100, it wouldn't be difficult after all. The humans had been rather irritating however, trying to sanction the company for "unlicensed" expansion or whatever it was they tried to pull out that day. Of course the Senti Company was moving along the same route as the SEED version and produced highly necessary parts for the human's weaponry and basic electronics.

The Senti Company's manufactures were so valuable that each shipment departing the Senti Colony had an armed escort from at least one human fleet. The riots that would happen if the latest in phones was delayed because of a pirate attack would be immense (also chips for missiles).

The public image of the government condemned the Senti Company for creating its own colonies, the private one salivated over the products they could manufacture. Domination through money indeed.

There was not much that could be reported but the next 4 years would be interesting indeed. The father of the Minovsky particle i.e. the thing that made everything possible in the MSG universe would be born in Ukraine. The Minds were very interested indeed, after all, if he was as advertised… well his brain would work for the Minds across thousands of copied instances forever.

Universal Century 0011 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0054 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0205 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 23/05/0011 - Origin Universe

Warship 001 had been the first to manifest a shipgirl or Kanmusu was it was known. Shipgirls always existed in 2 places at once, the Commander's soul and the physical realm. Every shipgirl that fell in combat would always come back to the soul to rest before leaving of their own volition. 001 or Une as she was called (after the badass Lady Une from Wing) tended to stay near the Commander, physically and mentally.

The physical closeness had allowed her to piggyback on the Commander's threads and she had grown as a result. That is not to say she was without experience, all the Warships at this point had been involved in countless battles (15, 321… not that she was counting or anything) and gained enough experience to gain sapience as a Kanmusu.

As the oldest, naturally Une was allowed to pick her deployment and naturally she chose to stay at the home system of the Commander. Her chassis orbited the Dyson gobstopper, now nearly a light year in width while her manifestation sat next to the pool of the Commander's blood caused by the draining device. She had been concerned about it originally but the Commander had assured her that it didn't hurt.

The fact that the Commander talked to her and nobody else (the other Kanmusu don't count) had her smiling goofishly when she was sure she was alone. It wasn't hard to be alone considering the Commander's resting place was "sacred" as far as the Minds and HeMUs were concerned and nothing would disturb the 50 km wide circle established for the Commander to nap in peace.

Une knew that the Commander wasn't napping however, the Commander spent every second of every day watching over the Minds and the HeMUs. How they had not noticed it before now Une did not know. Her sapience had come in a flash when she felt the Commander touch her soul while she was still nascent. She had latched onto the tendril that was the Commander and took form when brought back into the crucible that was the Commander's soul.

The sheer intensity of it had forged her into Une. Her barely formed consciousness had come into life by mere accident. If anything had gone wrong she would have been obliterated by the intensity of it all, denying Kanmusus the chance of forming ever again. As it was the Commander had felt mildly guilty over what had happened (soul crushingly guilty for anyone else) and it was only with her constant reassurances that the Commander was willing to try it again. The first to be uplifted were her sisters, the Warships. There were more than she had remembered… a few billion more.

Apparently when one had colonized an entire universe and large swathes of 3 more, the amount of Warships needed to patrol that space was immense as well. Oh well, she was still the oldestest and thus they had to obey! Still there were lots of different kinds… it seemed that depending on what empire they were assigned to, they developed characteristics representing that empire's dominant entities.

There were floating crystals, squid things, rocks, bird things, flowers, plant monsters, dog heads, everything and anything. It was weird but she was the eldest, she had to accept that her siblings were different and love them all the same. Still, the Warships were not the only ones out there and together with her siblings they had badgered the Commander to bring in more of their smaller siblings.

They had moved class by class, making sure that each ship was vetted by the Warships before they were added. It wouldn't do to uplift a ship that couldn't handle the Commander's soul and crumpled, to start the entire process of gaining a soul and coming back again. They had forbidden the Commander from reducing the strength of the soul press, all the ships must pass through the process to test them. A weaker ship might fail the Commander in the line of battle when it came down to it after all. So they moved throughout all 5 universes that had fleets, the majority of them coming from the systems host to the Game.

The Carriers, almost the size of a Warship but designed to carry squadron upon squadron of Mobile Suit and Mobile Armours. Upon the eve of a battle they would deploy their garrisons and crush their enemies with many small stinging bites. Heavily armoured but still required other ships to support and defend as its weaponry was rather limited, most of the space instead devoted to carrying more craft. The Kanmusu that came from them were very parental in their care for all ships and crafts smaller than they were. Always making sure everyone was fed and repaired first with a smashing paintjob second.

The Assault Ships, carrying infantry and Mobile Suits for boarding actions. They were amongst the bravest of ships, always pushing in despite the defensive fire of the ships or planets they were assaulting. Nearly always would they tank a hit or 10 before they came close enough for their clamps and cutters to get to work. Their lack of any real weaponry except for those that aimed directly forward had them come across as rather headstrong. The ships that came out were tough, gruff and always ready to jump into a fight with their fists.

The Battleships, very large ships with very large guns always self-confident in their ability to take damage and dish it out in equal or greater quantities. Nearly the same size as a Warship, each one had the firepower to end entire star systems with ridiculous ease. Not as good against multiple ships, the Battleship was very much a duelling ship, always performing best against single targets. They were despite this, very patient and calm, always waiting for the targets to be drawn towards them as they didn't have the speed to chase. Despite their might, the Battleships preferred to hang around their Carriers as sheer volume smaller attacks certainly were capable of ending them. Once manifested they came across as very stoic, caring and tough. Mess with those under their protection at your own risk.

The Cruisers, mainstay ships of the fleet. While not as powerful as Battleships or fast as Destroyers, the Cruisers hunted in packs, doing the work of multiple battleships as they ran patrols and convoy detail as orders mandated. Armed with a medley of different weapons, the Cruisers had their guns, torpedoes and were also capable of launching smaller craft as well. All the busywork of the fleet was done by a Cruiser, always ready to do the jobs that need to be done. Their Kanmusu were very steady, industrious and willing to do whatever it was needed to keep the fleet running.

The Destroyers, even smaller than Cruisers, the Destroyers were the hunters of the fleet. Armed with middling guns, they more than made up for it with their torpedoes, each on their own capable of crippling a Battleship with sheer devastating explosions (of which there were many kinds to choose from). Always on the edge of a fleet or in reserve to be deployed once a target was decided. The Kanmusu embodied their designations and were always eager and ready to sortie either alone or preferably with their pack.

The Escort Destroyers, serving a different role from their ship hunter siblings, the Escorts are armed with mines, Anti-Aircraft equivalents and depth charges. In space the principles were still the same, space-borne Minds that drift in massive light year wide minefields. AA was replaced by CIWS to destroy incoming missiles, torpedoes, Mobile Suits/Armours, anything smaller than a ship essentially. Depth Charges were targeted at the submarines or stealth ships, very large explosives designed to "paint" an area and hopefully highlight a stealthed ship for engagement by their on-board specialized Mobile Armours while destroying the relatively tiny attack craft. Their Kanmusu tended to be very patient and very quiet, hanging around their charges... always waiting.

The Submarines, the silent hunters, bane of the convoys. While they were weak against an organized defence, the Submarine was what sailors feared. Finding weak points in an escort screen, they would sneak in, sink a ship or 2 before flitting back out undetected. The only sign that they had even existed was the burning wrecks left behind. Individual ships were nothing but sitting ducks, the only way to survive being to join up in a convoy and pray. When manifested the Submarine tended to skulk about in the shadows, avoiding the larger groups. The only exceptions to this being the Tender ships which they hovered around protectively.

The Tenders were the motherships of the fleet, always there to heal wounds, to supply ammunition, to replenish stores, to "mother" the ships in their care. While the size of a Cruiser on average, a Tender was a force multiplier that allows fleets to operate many times the range than they usually would. While they would generally be kept out of a battle, they did have a smattering of CIWS to keep them nominally safe. The entire fleet from the Destroyer all the way to the Battleships consider them to be of the highest VIP status and will bring the pain to any that would seek to hurt them. Their manifestations were very much identical but now operating as psychiatrists via cookies and milk or cultural variations thereof, always having time to listen to concerns or bandage up a wound.

The Cargo ship, massive vessels that ship around supplies, delicacies, troops, fuel and whatever else that needs to ply the sea of stars, delivering what needed to be delivered. These ships barely have any defences at all and rely on their convoy escorts to do the damage for them. Their Kanmusu tend to be very easy-going and weathered, always staying the course.

Communications Relay Ship, unarmed, often alone in the seas, the CRS sits and listens to inbound communications and relays them onward to another CRS or their destination. While underappreciated they were necessary to allow fleets to operate beyond the borders of the home systems. Very fast as well with multiple redundancies to allow them to flee the occasional submarine. Manifestations tended to be very chatterboxy-ish but also fine with extended periods of being alone.

The Hospital ships, generally they didn't treat the HeMUs but rather the assortment of mortals that had come about due to the creation of the Game. The Hospital ships were there to treat wounds both mental and physical as well as populate worlds for the Game, in charge of the mind wiping duties that came with the seeding of worlds. While there were not many of them relative to the others, they are always welcome wherever they go. The Kanmusu tend to very matronly and strict but ultimately caring (unless they were doing medical experiments on some mortals but they were mortals so meh)..

The Radar ships were another oddity. They served as the first line of detection for the fleet, the entire ship except for the engine a huge detection device. Capable of seeing gravitational fluctuations, everything on the electromagnetic spectrum, quantum fluctuations, A.T. Field fluctuations, anything and everything that might indicate something out of the norm was out there. In Kanmusu form they tend to be very quiet, preferring to listen and watch as opposed to talk.

There were others of course but these classes were the most represented. The Commander's soul had gotten rather crowded as of late which was a very good thing, the Commander certainly needed them to get poked into action. The typical Kanmusu actions were observed, like the Destroyers crowding around the ships of a heavier class, like skirts that fluttered and chattered as one walked. The Cruisers mobbing about, occasionally followed by Destroyers,the Warships holding court, the Cargo ships meandering to destinations only they knew. It made for a boisterous time and the ever increasing numbers of them initiated by the various Warships only grew larger.

A very heart-warming sight Uno considered, so many shipgirls, so many sailors ready to defend the Commander when the time came.

Assuming of course the time came… the sheer amount of defences meant that anything capable of breaching through multiple universes worth of ships, Mobile Suits and weapons… well likely there was nothing they could do regardless. It didn't mean they wouldn't try however!

The assault team had been on standby. The Atlantic Federation had paid an intermediary who had then paid another middle man who had then paid an anonymous bidder with cash in a briefcase marked with a scuff on its handle which had made its way through 5 more sellers to the leader of the assault group.

In short it was the ultimate deniable op, nothing was going to tie this back to the Atlantic Federation if they failed and given the Senti Company's capabilities shown thus far it was highly likely they would fail. Still, the assault team didn't know that, they just saw it as another job to kidnap some rich kid and hold her for ransom. The arrival of their payment was unorthodox but seriously, who cared? It was cash money and even if they failed it was not as if they would lose out on anything.

So here they were now. Waiting in the safe house for the operation to begin. They would strike when the girl went out on her daily trips outside accompanied by the guards. The assault team had armed themselves with M58 rifles, the body armour that the bodyguards had could not be taken lightly. They needed to be quick however, it was highly likely there was a rapid reaction force waiting for them somewhere. Go in quick, kill the guards then grab the girl.

They usually didn't get jobs like this, their reputation had seen to that. Ready to fight at a moment's notice, lack of regard for collateral damage, overwhelming firepower at any opportunity. They were much more suited to raids and corporate espionage (assuming the espionage meant blowing up facilities). However the money was good, really good and that was only the down payment. Successful capture of the girl would see them being paid 5 times that. How could they not accept?

So here they were now. Checking their weapons again, checking the traffic, checking their vehicles. They were professionals after all and there would be nothing that screwed up on their end if they could help it.

"She's out, route 8" came the voice over their speakers.

The team silently moved out, there were 12 of them. Professional, skilled, capable.

They waited, weapons hidden away, get-away vehicles idling away.

The team leader was ready, things were looking up. The girl was waiting just below them as she browsed a confectionary store. The rooftops were clear, the satellite they had managed to temporarily hijack saw to that. The moment she exited the store would be the time to strike. She had a habit of exiting ahead of her bodyguards, a vulnerability they would exploit fully.

The team leader checked the photograph he had printed out. A cute looking girl, straight blond hair, big smile, blue eyes. Cute.

Too bad.

"First team get moving." he said into his throat mic.

The only response was silence. "First team respond."

"First team!"

Fuck, what had happened?

"Second team respond"

Again silence. Nothing. Fuck.

"Second!"

And then a shiver went up his spine. "They won't be responding human. They can't. However I can respond if you like."

He tried to turn, to see what it was that was speaking to him. Nobody had a voice like that, a voice without any inflection or emotion at all. Oh fuck.

Then a sharp pain in the back of his neck as something penetrated straight through his spine.

Fuck.

Katrin withdrew her hand and flicked off the blood. MAGI would no doubt love to speak with these humans. They dared to try and touch Lilith.

They would suffer for their crimes.

It had not even been difficult. A strike at each team was they grouped up for the attack saw them die rather pathetically. A single blade into their necks sufficient to end them.

One had put up a fight but he died quickly.

A strike to the back of the neck was met with an upturned blade, the human's reaction time impressive. Katrin made a mental note to scan him later as she reversed the knife and thrust instead at the vitals on the stomach.

Parried again with a strike coming at her face this time.

Dodge to the left, knife transferred to right hand, slash upwards at the arm.

Curious displacement of elbow to avoid knife, counter-attack coming in from the right.

Transfer knife to left hand again, use opening to aim at the body.

Knife caught in hand, gloves clearly protective, smile, thinks its over, knife coming in again.

Release knife, thrust hand out from 10 centimeters difference, shatter forearm, shatter left arm holding knife, pick knife out of drop, stab to face.

Remember hands are part of the knife as well.

Weak.

It was frustrating, the trail to whoever was hiring them was dead like the other 8 times this month. They would have to pull Lilith out sooner rather than later at this rate.