Apathy

by Throwaway1971

Not important please ignore

6. Entry 051-058

Universal Century 0028 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0071 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0222 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 12/09/0034 - Origin Universe

Uta ran yet another check on her Mobile Suit. She was allowed to customize it as per her position as a Red Coat but since MEN didn't customize theirs at all, still default olive green… Uta didn't customize hers either. Well, it wasn't entirely truthful to say they didn't customize their suits, each had the first letters of their first and last names painted on the left sides of their helmets.

In her case a stylized UK adorned her suit and she had gazed on it happily. She was following in the footsteps of Edwin and she was oh so very happy about it.

They had a mission now, her first mission with Edwin. She would not fail. She thought back to the briefing that Michael had done via hologram. Each of the 3 teams had been in their own command centers while Michael had run a briefing, his hologram beamed across the other 2.

"Our target is the convoy that is departing from Earth towards the Moon. From what we have in terms of intelligence we know that there is at least 2 squadrons of Strike Daggers defending the convoy deploying from Agamemnon-class carriers of which we know there are 3 of. We can assume there are at least 36 Mobile Weapons on board. 5 Drake-class escorts with a potential 20 extra Mobile Weapons in total hanging from the side racks. Their main firepower is coming from the 2 Nelson class battleships from which we can assume another 10 Mobile Weapons. In total we are going up against 10 warships and their escort as well as the 5 convoy ships.

"Command wants us to destroy the warships, cripple the convoy ships and investigate what exactly it is that warrants such a heavy escort.

"Our beam weapons will be able to destroy the warships with little issue, on the other hand the Mobile Suits that the fleet can deploy will be our main problem. Each of you has been running through simulations to work out how you can fit into our plans and I can say you are ready enough for the attack.

"We will start the attack as they pass through the wrecks of the 11th fleet that was taken out 3 months ago by hiding inside the wrecks. They are ignoring precautions and safety concerns as they push through to the Moon. We will use this against them and stage an ambush while they are in the middle of the fleet. The Nazca destroyers will be in support from the rear in case it's needed with their beam cannons but won't participate directly due to the danger of being focused by the Mobile Weapons and the fleet, if they go down we don't have any way of getting home.

"Neil's squad will strike them from the front to draw fire. No unnecessary exposure or heroics, just pick away at them and force them to concentrate to the front and force the deployment of anti-beam torpedoes. We will start from the Agamemnon carriers, I will lead a squad across to meet the Agamemnons and destroy them before they can deploy too many Mobile Weapons while Edwin's squad will strike from below and hit the Nelson's in their weaker bottom armour. Make sure to aim for the mid-sections since that is where the Mobile Weapons will be deploying from.

"After the Nelsons and the Agamemnons have been destroyed we will move on and engage the the Drakes before shifting to the convoy ships. Cripple the convoy ships with a shot to the cockpits from the side but do not damage the cargo, there is the possibility that it is volatile and I don't want to lose any of you to an explosion.

"On a side-note, watch out for the wrecks, it's possible that they have their own counter-ambush lying in wait for a strike team like ours to try its luck. Neil, Edwin and I will go first to clear them out, the rest of you are to wait for the order to come in and set up. If you do not get the order after 3 hours of waiting, return to the destroyers and retreat.

"Remember your beam sabers, they work extremely well on warships, aim for the bridge and cripple the crew before you do anything else. The guns and hangars die just as easily. Start from the bridge then the guns then the hangar. Cripple the body then the extremities before finishing off the core.

"Ok the briefing is done, report to your commanders and we'll move out in 4 hours when we reach the deployment zone."

They had saluted and moved to the ready rooms that overlooked the hangars. Edwin walking ahead of them just as Uta planned. He really was super sexy.

"Ok squad, review your drills that we've been doing the past week. Specifically the ones regarding Mobile Suit vs Fleet battles. Keep in mind that while we are aiming to destroy the Nelsons first, if you get a good shot on the Drakes or maybe a Mobile Weapon to take it. Focusing too hard on your objective will create tunnel vision that will get you killed.

"When we are closer to the mission start and we can get a read on the composition of the fleet we will have a tentative review of our assault. Until then run over your drills in your head. The clearer they are and the more ingrained they are, the more likely you can carry them out correctly in the heat of battle. It is not your quick thinking that is key but your muscle memory and the drills imprinted in your head. Leave the thinking to us commanders, you can work on it when you develop enough reflexes to have enough room to think.

"I'll be back in a few, sit and eat your dry rations. Don't go into battle hungry, you never know when you will get the chance to eat again."

And like that Uta fell in love all over again. They had indeed been running drills non-stop since they had left port, the destroyer crews participating as well. They had run through the evacuation drills, boarding action drills, crashed Mobile Suit drills, wrecked Mobile Suit on the launchpad drills, and so many more.

Then there were the Mobile Suit drills as the MEN trained the squads separately or together on the many different "cards" in the MEN playbook. Each card dictated a maneuver along with a callsign. The newbies had the job of memorising the playbook and practise it constantly with their teams.

Edwin had been there the whole time, coaching them through the steps. He had nigh on infinite patience as he ran them drill after drill for hours on end. He didn't even get angry or even sigh when they had made the Nth mistake but kept talking them through it. Uta was intensely happy, she sometimes even made mistakes on purpose so she could hear his soft drawl in her ears.

"Ute" he would say, her shivering at his voice being directed at her while she resisted the urge to hug herself. She just couldn't resist having his voice talking to her of all people. Of course she didn't do it excessively, she didn't want him annoyed at her after all.

Still the drills had the desired effect, now the commanders would just yell out a number and a face for them to arrange themselves almost unconsciously,

For attacking a Nelson class battleship they were going to split the 6 of them into pairs and dividing and conquering. 1 guess as to who her partner was.?

Yes.

Sure they are going into a battlefield against numerically and possibly veteran Mobile Suit but she was doing it alongside Commander Edwin!

She didn't want to let Edwin down so she was reviewing the drills yet again. If there was a point of failure it would not be her.

Bzzzzz schtick Zaaap

Edwin pulled out his beam saber from the unfortunate Mobile Suit that had just been stabbed through. The pilot never knew what hit him. Poor sod. Still, who sets an ambush without setting a lookout? Sure there had been 4 of them in what could generously be called overwatch if you squinted at it just right, but it had been grossly inadequate in the task of defending a transport fleet. It might have been enough against a normal team but this was Edwin, they needed at least double the numbers to hope to see them let alone survive.

Foolish.

Oh well, at least Michael and Neil had wiped the floor with their targets and… destroyed an Agamemnon carrier and the 3 Tenders that were waiting to resupply the fleet.

Nice. Well then, time to bring in the children. They performed adequately in their drills, he wondered how well that would be translated to real combat.

Uta and co had been waiting nearly 2 hours now, worry biting into her heart with every passing minute. What if they had been ambushed? What if Edwin had fallen? What if?

The questions ran themselves in circles around in her mind, chipping away at her composure slowly and surely. Any more of this and she wouldn't be able to keep herself from going crazy. She hated not being able to do anything, she was a Red Coat, she had graduated top of the class and here she was twiddling her joysticks (after making sure they were off) and waiting with everyone else.

She despised this weakness, she would make sure that in future she was fully capable of going out with the commanders and fighting alongside them. She would not be sidelined again. She would run over the drills until they were embedded into her mind. She would practice them over and over until she could use every maneuver with just muscle memory alone. She would be perfect and earn her place alongside the commanders.

As she dived deeper and deeper into the abyss of no return, Uta was pulled out of it by a crackling on her radio.

"Edwin to team, move to predesignated meetup point, the fleet is an hour away. All haste."

Yes he was alive. A breath shuddered out of her. One held by increasing increments in the last 2 hours.

She brought her Mobile Suit back online and began its startup checks.

Wait for me.

The fleet was in the middle of the graveyard, it's Mobile Suit escort hovering protectively around the perimeter. Uta counted 13 of them in the vanguard while there were another 18 in the rear. The Nelsons had stationed themselves at front and rear of the fleet with the Agamemnons in the center with the Drakes around the flanks.

The plan had been revised once the arrangement of the ships had been discovered. The previous plan wouldn't allow them to actually draw out the attention of the force due to its composition. The new plan would see Team Edwin striking at the read Nelson while Team Michael would hit the front Nelson and Team Neil would go straight up the center-line hitting the Agamemnons in the center. The Drakes could be left to later, their weapons not being able to hurt the Mobile Suits unless they stood still.

The entire attack would be resolved in the first few minutes, if they screwed up they wouldn't get a second chance. Indeed, if they screwed up there was a high possibility that they could end up dead, overwhelmed by the overwhelming firepower of the fleet combined with the Mobile Weapons.

The teams were moving into position as Uta waited, hiding themselves behind pieces of debris and wrecks. Each of them powered down their suits when they were properly anchored, and waited on the AWACs GINN that one of Team Michael piloted to give them the order to power up their suits. It would be a simple matter of just waiting from this point forwards.

Universal Century 0028 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0071 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0222 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 12/09/0034 - Origin Universe

The first sign that something was wrong was the lack of a challenge from the advance force. The second sign was when there was nobody to meet them inside the ship graveyard. The third and last thing was when a beam penetrated the bridge of their Nelson class battleship escort.

The captain in charge of the supply convoy could do nothing as the ZAFT Mobile Suits descended on the convoy and proceeded to take it apart with brutal efficiency. The Nelsons being destroyed denied them heavy fire support. The Agamemnons focused their guns to the front only to be struck from the bottom by yet another team. They came up, on maximum boosters and then just destroyed the carriers as their attention was diverted.

They barely had any time at all to react and couldn't deploy a single Mobile Weapon in response. The Drake escorts had 4 Mobile Suits each and those deployed at least, 20 Mobile Suits to even the odds. Especially important since the Drakes were destroyed soon after.

From here it was just a Mobile Suit battle, clearly their resupply had been destroyed prior and there would be no help from that angle. They were too far away from the Moon or any bases to call for help, their presence here after all was a secret. Delivering a manifest for the Atlantic Federation behind their allies, filthy bastards that let Coordinators into their ranks.

Now the Coordinators were here and they would take the data. No. Not on his watch.

The convoy captain gave the order, they would self destruct the ships, they could not take the chance that their cargo was discovered.

"For our Blue and Pure World!" He shouted, finger stabbing down on the now unlocked self-destruct mechanism.

Or rather he tried, a bullet had entered the back of his head and came out of his right eye before harmlessly ricocheting off the canopy.

"Woops" was the reply. "Finger slipped"

Uta was dueling 2 of the Mobile Suits. They had managed to disembark from the Drakes the ships were destroyed and she was trying to keep them off the rest of the force. There were 18 of them and they were outnumbered, but not enough that things were desperate.

Uta after all was a Red Coat, merely sending 2 Mobile Suits against her was an insult. She had graduated top of her class to receive the honour of having the chance to pick her commander. She would be damned if she were to die now, not before she could see Edwin naked.

The last thought drew something deep within her and it was like something shattered. But not in a bad way, like in a way that had her inhibitions, her barriers, her weaknesses shattered. A chime sounded in her ears and her pupils constricted to tiny pin pricks. Her feelings for Edwin had activated her potential as a human being, turning her briefly into a Newtype, the next level of humanity. In colloquial language it was her SEED mode activating. Her reactions, her comprehension, her abilities across the board rose up and smashed their limiters.

Her mind was calm, her enemies in front of her and her objective so far yet so close. No longer trying to dodge and draw them out, Uta activated her boosters and shot forward, beam sword modelled after the Strike Gundam's Sword Striker Pack designed to make destroying ships more easily. The weight on the physical part of the sword gave it weight that in a swing imparted enough momentum to cut through a ship extraordinarily easily let along a Mobile Suit.

With the sword in a classic low to high swing position, Uta dove at the offending Earth Alliance suit. As it slothfully moved toward her, its own beam saber out and ready to fend her off, Uta jinked backward into the Mobile Suit trying to flank her. Her right shoulder was angled to the back, its bolted on shield slamming into the offending Suit's chest, stunning the pilot as the shock of the impact and the G's of the sudden deceleration pushed the blood into the pilot's eyeballs.

With one of them stunned, Uta reversed her thrusters and pushed forward into the Strike Dagger before her. The beam sword smashing into its cockpit, caving it in with sheer physical force. The relatively blunt physical point tearing through laminated armour in its quest to render the pilot into guacamole. A spin around saw the beam of the beam sword shear the still stunned Mobile Suit in half, it's pilot's death mercifully quick.

Her opponents taken care of, Uta turned back to the battle, seeking more targets. Only to be greeted by silence and a distinct lack of glowing beam weapons. The MEN trio had clearly torn a bloody and oily swathe through the enemy if the amount of dead suits surrounding them was any indication. The commander's had elected to act as bait and draw the Mobile Suits into direct combat while the fresh pilots from the PLANT academies would deal with the relatively easier ships.

It was obviously much easier to deal with ships when they had limited maneuver capabilities and fixed hardpoints for weapons. Not like the hectic melee that a furball in a dogfight became where beams, blades and occasionally feet came from every which angle.

It was certainly a bit of a downer however, she couldn't show her resolution off to anybody and it felt like kind of a waste using it merely against 2 average Mobile Suit pilots.

That being said it was not as if she had lost the ability to pull it out, Uta was quite certain she could pull it out again when she focused particularly hard on Edwin.

Uta was disembarking her Mobile Suit alongside Edwin and the rest of their team. They were going to board the transport ships and see what was so important that it required such a heavy escort and a bypass from the rest of the Earth Alliance facilities. Her SMG that Edwin had forced the teams to carry in her arms, the pistols were more decoration than anything else he had said.

Since it wasn't decided what team was going to breach beforehand, relying instead of the team with the least casualties, all of them were equipped with a ground attack set. Shotguns or SMGs, grenades, kevlar, knives and pistols. They didn't know what was waiting for them on the other side and they were prepared for anything below a heavily armoured humanoid. Oddly specific scenarios ending with all their deaths aside, Uta was confident this would be just like their breach and clear drills.

Edwin had led the way and he had reached the hatch on the upper side of the lead transport ship. His upheld fist however was saying that they needed to wait instead of immediately breaching. Maybe he knew something they didn't?

What he did next was something that Uta just didn't understand, he placed his hand on the hatch and closed his eyes. The clear visor showing his face clearly.

A brief hum entered her ears and Uta fought to not close her eyes in bliss. What she would not be prepared to do to have Edwin hum to her every day. Just for a few seconds, she wasn't greedy.

Then to her horror he opened the hatch. No breach, no flashbang, just a straight opening of the hatch.

"Commander!" she gasped, trying to ready herself for his brainmatter being exploded across space.

"It's ok, Uta (oh how she tried not to swoon when he said her name) it's friendly in there. Just follow me and don't shoot anyone that's still alive."

With that he didn't say anything more and just dropped into the ship. Uta gritted her teeth and followed, extremely reluctant but trusting his words. Her SMG was raised however, if there was something it would be met with blazing hot lead and explosive decompression before it could hurt Edwin.

What she did not expect to see however was Edwin being hugged.

Uta saw red. Her world became red. Her trigger discipline suffered as she tried, tried so hard to not just fire on the figure, a figure that was clearly a woman.

"Team meet our collaborators, this is Hannah and her team. They've been doing this kind of thing for a while now. We received word that there was a chance they had managed to stow away on the way here but weren't to sure about their ability to get through in one piece. Lucky for us she did or there would be a lot more of our blood being spilled."

Uta's vision faded back to normal but there was still that tinge. How dare she touch Uta's Edwin so casually. Uta stared at her, hoping, just hoping that she would prove hostile and deserving of a bullet to the head.

The woman didn't acknowledge them, just punched Edwin on the shoulder and jumped off. Edwin the fool didn't reprimand her for potentially bruising his august self. When she had him more receptive to her suggestions, she would educate him on what was proper and what was not with his female acquaintances.

They glided down the long corridors of the ship, weapons down. If the number of bodies floating about with a surprising number of them dying from what appeared to be knife wounds was any indication… well Hannah had made sure that anything belonging to the Earth Alliance was very very dead. Uta heard one of her team members trying to choke back some bile, good idea. If he did vomit inside that helmet, there would not be any way to clean it up until they arrived back at base. After all their suits were sealed into a single layer, if the vomit came out it would slide down into the rest of the suit and marinate his body in bile.

Icky.

Something to think about Uta considered, her eyes tracking the bodies as the appeared and floated by. It wouldn't be the first time a ZAFT soldier had died to an Earth Alliance corpse merely pretending to find that opportune time to do a suicide bombing. Uta wasn't willing to be the another statistic, not when she had not even touched Edwin skin to skin. She had to fight off a blush at that thought.

They had arrived at wherever it was that Hannah was leading them. The cargo hold but… it was about 20 meters offset from the blueprints. A secret room perhaps? Maybe there was something to the intelligence that said the ships were transporting something more than they should be.

Hannah stopped outside the door, knocked on it twice and disengaged the airlock. She motioned the team to enter it behind her. The hiss as it locked again blasted in air had some of the team fingering their weapons, if they were going to be ambushed this was going to be it. There was never going to be a better time to get them when they couldn't even move in the cramped airlock. Still nothing. Uta was a little disappointed, her killing of Hannah would have to wait.

The decontamination chamber next was different however. What exactly was going on here? It was strange enough to pull Uta's attention away from Hannah for a moment.

The next room… was like something from a horror movie. Or a documentary centered around a hospital, Uta considered them one and the same. A large-ish room with surgical implements, strange devices that looked to be designed for invasive surgery. Blinking lights, small jars with floating mechanical items, fake muscles flesh?

More of a mad scientist's lair than a surgery at this point.

Ok.

This was slightly disturbing.

And then she saw the bodies. 3 of them standing upright in what looked like fridges, the inside frosted from the temperature difference.

Ok.

This was officially disturbing.

"Well… let's get this recorded and back to the PLANTs huh? Quickly if we could."

All Uta could do was nod, this looked very high above their pay grades.

Universal Century 0028 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0071 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0222 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 12/09/0034 - Origin Universe

Hannah was amused.

Correction

Hannah was highly amused.

The human female had been glaring at her since she had met her. She didn't know exactly why the human was treating her as a threat until Michael had given her the access keys to the human's mind.

Going through the human's memories and understanding the human's state of mind was… enlightening. The focus that the human had laid on Edwin would have been disturbing if not for the fact that Hannah was a HeMU and well… they were also rather disturbing.

The human's focus was quite important actually, she had come off nearly as a HeMU in the way she thought about Edwin. Their quirks and the way they occupied the HeMU's conscious thoughts resembled that of the human.

Perhaps it would be possible for the Minds to upload the human into a pseudo-HeMU existence? A test as it were like Sofija had been a test of giving a human a Mind interface. It would perhaps allow them to advance their understanding of the humans, their limitations and their particular mentalities as well as the result of merging a logic core with a human brain (even if it was simulated).

That is not to say it would not be extraordinarily interesting and perhaps… amusing. Edwin would be the first HeMU that had been pursued by a human that in turn would become a HeMU. Her single minded devotion would be interesting for the HeMUs of Bastion 001 to watch indeed. The Minds had agreed when Hannah had presented the proposition, their new organic bodies appreciating the now unlocked feeling of "amusement".

To that end, the female, "Uta" as she was known was to be subverted and a tether placed upon her soul. It would be in bad taste if Edwin's future girlfriend after all had her soul taken out of reach of the Gestalt. At the same time it would be bad if her memories were not fully recorded and she came across "less" as it were.

Edwin had not been particularly appreciative but who cared, the girl was crushing on him and he needed someone to push him to get things done. Or even get started on things at all. She would be good for him.

On that note, perhaps she should find a human. A relatively normal human without an extreme quirk like her own that could keep her grounded and sane. Hannah did find the thought of something waiting for her outside of new targets appealing. Perhaps she could even do that "conversing" thing without reaching for her knives.

Mmmm. Something to look forward to perhaps.

Edwin had gotten his team to analyze and record every part of the surgery room. It was highly likely that the humans that had been frozen were Extendeds. Something that he knew due to his existence as a HeMU and part of the HeMU intnet but the humans that were part of his team didn't. Their unease permeated the air to the point that he managed to feel it and was prepared to get out of the area as fast as they possibly could with all the data they could.

To do so, the Nazca destroyers had been called over to tow the lead transport, the other 2 didn't have the same facilities. They would just activate the transport's engines to help move it along and not drain the much faster Nazca engines. The goal would be to simply push the transport as close to the PLANTs as fast as they could, if this was what the trio thought it was, then they were going to be chased down by the Atlantic Federation.

They would not want the PLANTs to find out about their usage of these abominations that were technically human and more importantly they did not want their allies to find out. It would quite figuratively torpedo their entire platform considering its domination by the membership of Blue Cosmos. In short it would be a very significant victory for the PLANTs if they were able to retrieve the test subjects and the equipment which meant that the transport had to come with them.

Cutting the facility out would cause it to power down and perhaps damage the data cores, an event that had to be avoided at all reasonable costs. If it was not possible, the trio had placed explosives to jettison the facility which would then be brought into a Nazca's hangar bay for transport. They would perhaps lose the test subjects but no doubt what was left of the data would allow them to extrapolate.

Edwin returned to his Mobile Suit and bade the rest of the team to return as well, Hannah and co would stay behind to pilot the transport and make sure nothing was going to explode while it was being towed. He wouldn't put it past the humans to have placed a sensor driven booby trap in the event the captain didn't report in every few hours or something equally annoying.

Hannah had left one of her cadre to look over the transport as it was moving towards the destroyers and had hitched a ride along with Michael. They could talk physically here without Edwin hearing and getting suspicious.

"So that Uta girl" She began.

Michael gave a brief chuckle, "Yeah, that Uta girl. She's crushing hard on Edwin but in a very HeMU quirky kind of way that will probably see her try and push him down one of these days. Would have done something about it but it's just so funny watching her try to get Edwin's attention and Edwin being too dense to notice what she's doing. Cute girl but she really needs to change tack if she wants Edwin to change his opinion about her.

"I've told him that she's interested and he knows that she is interested but he doesn't understand what it means that she is interested in him. His sub processes consider romance to be too much effort and spend as much energy as possible to avoid it if possible. It's just unlucky for him that she's very interested in pushing his boundaries." Michael smiled behind his helmet, the benefits of Edwin getting together with the human not needing to be said. Edwin would get something to push him along the riverboat of life and Michael would get a new source of recordings for his collection.

"Interesting. Edwin would be the first one of us to have a human relationship if Uta gets what she wants. Catherine doesn't count." Hannah hummed a little as she considered the ramifications of a HeMU becoming heavily involved with a human outside of mission parameters.

"I've talked to the Minds, they're on board with the idea of uploading Uta to the Gestalt to be a companion to Edwin. They're really interested in the idea of a human being permanently attached to a HeMU in something other than a surface role. Sofija was an interesting experiment but she's sort of in charge of everyone, not just Catherine. If Uta gets uploaded she will be just for Edwin and probably prefer to be physically there for him at all times.

"That and the Minds don't understand the concept of love considering how illogical it is. Being able to study it up close and from a soul fully enmeshed into the Gestalt is a big plus for them. Everything we've been doing so far is observation from the outside with little control over the variables, with Uta we would be able to see all the variables in play.

"So the Minds are interested, you are interested and I'm interested."

Michael seemed confused for a moment, "Wait you're interested? Why would you be interested?"

"Because I want to see if it's possible for one of us to form a connection with an organic outside of the Gestalt. We are all crippled in one way or another due to our quirks and if an organic can possibly stabilize us… well that would make things so much easier for me.

"I've seen what I am after looking at my cadre, Michael, I don't like what I am but our programming stops me from changing it without serious consequences. We need a quirk and all of us have one no matter how we feel about it. If I possibly get rid of this one then there's a chance that the next one is much worse and even more dangerous, possibly to the pack."

"Good point there, it would be interesting I suppose to find an organic with the same interests as I have. Would make those long hours of waiting more bearable I suppose."

"Well the Nazcas are here, what say you that we go and have fun with Uta. Give her a little nudge, some pointers and then unleash her on Edwin."

Michael's face splitting grin was all she needed as an answer to that particular question.

Uta was frustrated. She couldn't even express this frustration to anybody lest they discover her secret (that she really liked Edwin) which caused it to bottle up, cycle through and get even worse.

So it was of a particularly bad time when the door to her quarters had been knocked and that woman entered alongside commander Michael.

Grrrr.

Commander Michael's presence meant she couldn't gouge the woman's eyes out and cut off her hands so she couldn't touch Edwin again. It didn't mean that she couldn't think about doing it repeatedly in her mind however.

"Uta, this is Hannah, I'm told that you have already met."

"Yes commander, she was on board the transport and commander Edwin introduced her."

"That's good, we can skip over the introductions and get down to the meat of the matter."

"The meat commander?"

"Yes, your infatuation with commander Edwin" she said.

The woman dared? Did she dare to warn Uta off? Did she truly wish to cease living so badly that she was attempting to provoke Uta? Did Uta dare to cut out her tongue? Uta would do it, it would not even be particularly difficult, her combat knife was still in the drawer besides her bedside. All she needed to do was lock the door so nobody could come in and Uta could get to work.

Commander Michael's involvement was regrettable but he had brought her here and was therefor in on it as well. The good commander would have to go.

Uta's inner monologue was interrupted however by the very same commander Michael, "Yes Uta, your infatuation with Edwin, we're here to help you win him over."

And her thoughts crashed to a halt.

They were going to help her? Why? What could possibly motivate them to help her?

"Why?" She asked, her eyes narrowing at the woman in particular.

"Because Edwin needs someone to give him a healthy push every now and again otherwise he gets super boring and depressing. Neil and I try to get him out but when we get deployed he locks himself in his room constantly and we can't do anything to pull him out again. So if we can get you to get together with him and get him more motivated to doing anything that's not sit in his room then it's a good thing."

"Oh" was the incredibly intelligent response that came from her mouth.

"Yes, we will do whatever we can do push forward your chances with Edwin. It is after all for his own good."

They were trying to push her onto Edwin? Well it was clear that they were very friendly and concerned about him if they were propositioning her directly like this. Maybe there was some truth to it after all? Edwin after all did need someone to look after him, he spent far too much time in his room on his own. He would drill and train them and then just vanish off to his room without anything more.

Yes. It would be to his best interests if Uta was looking after him.

Out of sight Hannah and Michael had given each other a mental thumbs up.

The seed had been planted, now they just needed to wait for her to siege Edwin's walls and laugh.

Cosmic Era 0074 - Gundam SEED Universe

There had been peacetalks, then again there had always been peace talks. Only this one was a bit bigger and stuff happened and people we happy… sort of. The war as still going on sure but at least they ratified against using Nuclear weapons and all those idiots in Blue Cosmos had been killed. The global conspiracy of LOGOS came out and people were pissed. The 1% in this case being the 1% that received torture and pain that the 99% didn't. It was fun, everyone could join in the lynching, a family affair even.

Then when it was over they went home and never talked about it again, things sort of looked really really bad when they weren't high on adrenaline, drugs and alcohol.

Still, the Earth Alliance looked like it was moving along on its own legs and not being puppeted and the PLANTs were safe by virtue of their massive and well trained Mobile Suit forces. Of course there were still little itty bits of violence here and there but hey, when you get people utterly superior to you in every way and they don't even have the decency to rub it in your face… well you get angsty. And angsty people get violent and things go badly from there.

Like in the ballroom on Gibraltar. The MEN were there, really beautiful and sexy MEN, each a paragon of MANhood with their sleek and well defined muscles, their sexy, cocky grins and their oh so confident posture. These were MEN and they were going to be showing it all off tonight.

Well… all the MEN except Edwin, Uta had forbidden him from "strutting it" as it were. No biggie, 2 of the MEN strutting it was enough for 15 other lesser men (with lower cases).

Neil was of course, him being the sexy beast that he was, tearing it up on the dancefloor and the ladies were swooning over the sight of those sexy, sexy legs as they flexed and moved with the beat. Boom Boom Boom Boom, the music echoed around the dancefloor, bright Throbbing lights flickering on and off to the beat, all of it making it feel like a stop motion movie of sexiness.

Oh yes. So very yes.

Neil swayed on the dancefloor, moving around with the music as several women moved in sync with him. Something to keep an eye on for later perhaps.

Even Edwin was doing something, simple swaying sure but at least it was something.

Then they had to ruin it. Some really ugly, blocky and ugh disproportioned Naturals came into the building and started screaming about turning off the music and doing other boring things. Ugh.

The lights were turned on, the music turned down and everything was again big and bright. Boring.

The Naturals had all these demands or whatever it was they wanted. All this about "freeing" their comrades from confinement and withdrawing from Earth or something stupid. Who cared.

It was when they said they would be killing people every 15 minutes to prove their seriousness that the camera came out, broadcast live they said. Of course that couldn't be allowed to happen, they were on camera and it would make them look really bad. Neil wouldn't be getting any more sex and Edwin would… well Edwin would be getting negative sex which may turn out to be positive. Anyway things were looking bad so naturally they stood up.

Didn't even need to communicate over the quantum net, just up they went and straight into the middle of the room.

"So where's Uta tonight?" came Michael's conversational opener.

"On the ship, she has console duty today, gave me a lecture on what I'm allowed and not allowed to do here."

A snicker from Michael got the attention of Neil, "It is a good thing Michael! Edwin has found someone to direct him upon the path of life!"

"Right…" drawled Michael, his eyes sweeping over the assembled Naturals trying to look threatening. He was sure that they were threatening to the civilians but to the MEN? Bah.

"Threat assessment E… and I'm being generous" he said.

"Caltrop, spin dryer, Asura" was Edwin's input as he got into the spirit of things. Being awesome here might get him some grace with Uta.

"Friends! Put down your arms and we may yet resolve this peacefully! We wish not to end your lives, insignificant as they may be!" was Neil's rather unhelpful addition.

Their raised weapons were enough to incite the MEN to action, life was hanging in the balance and as great as they were… living through multiple bullet wounds would probably out them as something else indeed.

A hard leap forward, straight at the nearest Natural in their sectors (divided into 3 helpfully), a stab to the throat with their fingertips, a tap to the knee from the side and an "acquisition" of their rifles. Bullet to the forehead, one in each eye and then a leap to the Natural on the left. 2 bullets hitting the face, land and acquire a second rifle, one in each hand.

Now the tricky part, jump onto the wall, use it as a kickboard to leap into the center of the room while turning so their fronts faced outward. Timing was key.

The MEN met in the center, their backs touching as they raised their rifles and began firing. Asura formation, adapted from their Mobile Suit tactics. A slight spin due to the angle of the jump and… ratatatatatata. The rifles held in hands outstretched as they moved and tracked across the room to find each and every Natural.

All the Naturals do a really poor dance number before collapsing in pools of blood. Never even had a chance, poor sods.

Weak.

The MEN land on the ground, bullet casings chiming as they land around them.

Sexy.

It wasn't quite as good as watching sex, but watching this over later would be almost as good thought Michael as he walked over to the camera and took out its tape, giving it a discrete scan.

Universal Century 0030 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0073 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0224 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 15/06/0036 - Origin Universe

The situation in the SEED universe had stabilized in the 2 years since Team MEN successfully retrieved the "Extended Humans" from the raid. The uproar over the rather malicious presentation to the media saw the Blue Cosmos organisation lose much credibility amongst the world's population.

It's leadership following the revelations saw themselves ousted and torn apart by their own membership. From there it was easy enough to have the governments replace the leadership with people who were actually sane without a genocide fetish. Instead of constant aggressive offensives, the new leadership of the Atlantic Federation got together with their two partners and tried to de-escalate the war. With the capabilities that both sides possessed, it would be extremely bad if the war escalated further. Nobody wants a colony dropped on their heads after all.

No longer a "hot" war or a "cold" war, it had devolved into a "lukewarm" war. Both sides knew they were at war but didn't want to take it to the "end all life" scenario at the end. The Senti Company featured heavily in their thoughts as well, an unknown 3rd faction that welcomed both Coordinators and Naturals with the apparent goal of only earning a profit. It sounded benign but when the same faction had a Mobile Suit force of unknown design, with weapons of unknown design defending its colonies rather aggressively from any outsider military force, along with an extremely effective counter-espionage program… well the higher ups were worried.

That and the Senti Company did not favour a single side, providing both of them with Mobile Weapons, armaments, ships, raw material and anything else they could pay for. If both sides did go all out, would that mean that the Senti Company would be able to come in as it was finishing, taking out both sides and assuming total control? If the Earth Alliance won or ZAFT won they could roughly guess what would happen but if the Senti Company won? They couldn't guarantee anything. That worried them and stayed their hand. There would be no pushing of a major war, not while the Senti Company existed and the extremists of both sides had been silenced or at least muted.

Edwin… Edwin didn't know what happened. One day he was relaxing in his room reading and sleeping as he always did, the next he was in a relationship with a human. He was confused he wasn't afraid to admit, this… was strange. Uta had rather aggressively pushing into his life and he wasn't quite sure why exactly. His own personality had worked against him in this situation, Uta had pushed in and he let her. Now she had firmly ingrained herself into his life and he couldn't say that he disliked it.

She had taken over pretty much everything and moved into his room on his Nazca class destroyer. She had also managed to survive 2 years worth of fighting and by all rights should be a commander herself in rank. Of course she had denied it and continued to stay next to Edwin. He should feel happy about that but he was also rather disturbed. She had an obsession but… it wasn't unpleasant in the least.

So Edwin had gotten himself a human female and if the sniggers from Michael and Hannah were any indication, he knew exactly who to blame for it. Still, it had happened and he could only accept it.

"Edwin! You need to get out and socialize more! Stop hiding yourself away!" Ah, here she was now. As Edwin felt himself get dragged back into the party he thought that this was perhaps not that bad after all.

Unlike Edwin, Hannah had done the chasing when it came to finding a human. In her rather aggressive quest to maintain her sanity, she had decided that perhaps finding a companion that was not mentally crippled by having a quirk would be best. To that end she had searched for an entire year before deciding that a human like her was even more mentally unstable than she was. A human that was self-righteous would try to convince her to give herself up to the "law".

Bah. She was the law.

No, the best human male would be one that accepted her but did not try to emulate or persuade her to be different. The only ones that fit that criteria strangely enough resembled the Commander in their apathy. Very strange how 2 of those that would accept her and were also not family were apathetic to the extreme. Maybe that was saying something about her?

Having a human that she could converse with without fear of judgement, a human that wouldn't try and copy her, a human that wasn't already copying her, a human that didn't try and kill her in return, a human that didn't preach to her, a human that did not run away screaming once he/she heard her story. It had been difficult but she had found her human.

Still, she had found her human, bagged her and now… well she didn't know. Relationships were hard Hannah found but so very rewarding. Not going on a knife party for an entire month was certainly all the reward that she needed. Having more control over herself was a good feeling and she was looking forward to continuing. Of course the human's feelings were important, the mild affection for Hannah more than enough justification for her.

If her human was the same as other humans, no doubt the feelings would increase over time. All in all a rather satisfying outcome to her problem.

Both humans belonging to Edwin and Hannah had been uploaded to the Gestalt in the case they died, all that waited for the soul transfer to complete the transition.

Leila Barros Melo was she freely admitted lazy. Extremely apathetic, apathetic to the point where people asked if she were truly human at all. Her goal in life was to find a way for her to simply cruise through life with as little care given to the small things like food, water, electricity as possible. It was an unrealistic goal to be sure but it would be impossible for anybody not like her, after all Leila simply did not need as much as other people did.

So when Hannah had come to her and offered a chance at all of it for simple companionship, well… Leila hadn't hesitated.

Well, after she checked of course. Scammers were everywhere and Leila did need a job after all. As much as she didn't care to work, she did need to in order to survive.

And it had panned out, Leila was moved into a new apartment that would be stocked, cleaned, taken care of by a hospitality company and all she needed to do was just be there. Given that the apartment had everything and Leila really didn't care about going outside anyway, it had become a gilded prison of sorts. The door was open and she could go, she just didn't bother.

Hannah it turned out was the coordinator killer as they had been calling her on the media. It had been a bit scary but then Leila remembered that she definitely did not qualify in any way shape or form as a coordinator or a Coordinator.

It had turned out that Hannah just wanted someone to talk to and help keep her grounded as it were. Not the hardest job true but also a strangely appropriate one given Leila didn't really have much to say and preferred to listen regardless. Over the year they had been together Leila had thought that she could get used to this, Hannah was really a nice girl once you got past the serial killer with a knife part.

The first time they had been together, well Hannah was really considerate Leila thought. It had certainly been rather enjoyable and she would not be adverse to doing it again.

All in all it was nice. Leila wasn't unhappy with her situation, it was actually sort of what she wanted all along, except for the whole possibly being a hostage thing.

The years intervening saw little change in the Helldiver and the Planetside universes. The HeMUs and Minds overseeing them saw little change, the original plans cancelled and instead calling for a simple observation action instead. Having them around after all did offer much in terms of genetic diversity and it was rather amusing watching them. In a few more decades, the Game would spread to their part of the multi-verse and it would be very amusing to see their reaction to an intragalactic war that saw their entire populations die every few seconds.

The colonization efforts in those galaxies had been proceeding apace and were spreading through most of the universes. Exponential expansion after all was ridiculous. The Game had not yet expanded beyond the Origin universe and the NGE universe but it would expand, there was no doubt on that.

The Game had more Rules added and old ones revised to meet the changes in the Minds as time passed. In the Origin Universe it had been judged that the Minds and HeMUs had developed enough that they were not allowed to use their A.T. Fields and all A.T. Field related weaponry. To that end, their version of the EVAs were cleared for use as well as their appropriate Spears of Longinus. They would fight alongside the Mobile Suits already in use by the various empires and no doubt increase the entertainment value of the Game even further.

The EVAs were not a straight "I win" button however, they had to be grown from the Commander's LCL using a physical piece of the Commander to do so. In turn this meant that the EVAs were extremely limited as the Commander just didn't have that many bits (even if the Commander regenerated almost instantly) to give away. Once an empire did get a seed piece from the Commander they could then cultivate it into more parts for multiple EVAs, an almost unlimited supply if they managed their supply correctly. EVAs could not be fabricated however which forced a construction time limiting their numbers even further.

Yet another drawback of using an EVA was the threat of subsumation by the EVA itself of the pilot. Due to the EVAs being an extension of the Commander, they embodied the extreme apathy exhibited by the Commander which in turn infected the HeMU pilots. Upon connecting to it on the Soulscape level, the Pilot would merge with the EVA and allow the apathy to corrode them from the inside. Extended use of an EVA would see the unfortunate pilot absorbed into the EVA, their souls and their consciousness added to the creature. Sure they could take the soul back out with a catcher device but the soul had to want to be taken out. After a prolonged period of use they all embodied the apathy of the Commander and just didn't care enough to fight the subsumation. Care had to be taken.

Over time some EVAs had begun displaying a sort of sentience which was admittedly rather terrifying given their strength, regeneration, A.T. Field strength and most importantly their link to the Commander.

Then again EVA battles were kind of awesome so they kept going.

The updated Rules of course would only apply to the Origin Universe at this point, the NGE and other universes had not yet grown to the point where the Minds all had properly strong A.T. Fields. It would be rather irresponsible to allow the A.T. Field enabled minds to curbstomp those without. A tiering was set in place and while one could go up, one could not go down. Only those Universes that were ready could enter.

Hopefully with the updated Rules, the Minds would be able to learn how to use their EVAs more effectively, all the better to assist the Commander when the time came to wage war.

The Commander had come out of the 5 year long nap to give a brief check on everything and the MAGI was happy to report that the Commander was satisfied. The smugness of the Minds could be tasted on the air. Literally.

Universal Century 0030 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0073 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0224 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 18/08/0036 - Origin Universe

Hannah Shepard was… learning. She had been part of the expeditionary force sent to learn about the new alien species and had come back with so much more than expected. They called themselves the Caretakers and existed to serve a singular entity that they had been created from. Or so the story went. The Caretakers were a race possessing capabilities far beyond anything that humanity could ever reach.

The manner in which they were all connected via the Gestalt and now the psionic network as well as their basic programming forced a sort of harmony and cooperation that humanity would be hard pressed to find even when bound by the psionic network as they now were. Even when they spent years fighting a war of attrition against each other, committing atrocities such as the massacre of billions after every battle, they still managed act it all to act as if nothing had happened.

It boggled the mind and Hannah had found many times that her sympathy was wasted on X or Y being as it perceived itself not needing it. That after seeing hundreds of billions die in a single battle that things would all be OK. That they would just come back next week when their new bodies were born and their souls released from the so called Chamber of Guf.

That in itself was mind boggling, that the Caretakers had found a way to capture souls and ensure that the memories also came along when it was "reborn". That each and every death in the so called Game was meaningless, that they fought for the sake of entertainment. Not for their "Commander" but for themselves. It truly highlighted why the Caretakers were so alien to the human population. That they used reincarnation humans as NPCs was yet another example of their strangeness.

Originally the humans and Illuminate had their memories wiped before each incarnation and returned after death. Now due to the urging of Hannah and an uploaded human by the name of Sofija, the Minds allowed the mortals to keep their memories. Much like actual NPCs from video games they stood and gave exposition to new HeMUs and helped them "grow"with new experiences.

Growth through experience and not age was something else that was strange, they classified seniority by the amount of experience one had as opposed to chronological age. Of course age tended to denote more experience regardless.

The experience grew the soul apparently which increased the strength of what they called the A.T. Field which allowed them to do frankly bullshit things. Laughing in the face of reality being one of them. Simply being able to hold up a hand and deflect planet exploding levels of firepower was bullshit. Being able to cut planets in half with a wave of their arms was bullshit. Being able to teleport around using personal wormholes was bullshit. Punching each other so hard that the planet buckled was bullshit.

In short A.T. Fields were the height of bullshit. Which was why Hannah had been so happy when offered the chance to learn how to use her own. The only stipulation being that she bound herself to the Commander for her own safety and that of others around her. That had been she was not afraid to say, an experience that she did not want repeated.

Since her humanity did not have a living god sure could not on her own cultivate a tangible A.T. Field due to the lack of focus that a god provided. So she had to bond herself to the Commander of it to work. High Command had been iffy on it but the possibility of having someone capable of cracking planets in their contingency plans had outweighed any objections. Since it was Hannah that revived the invitation they had no other options but she had proven herself loyal in the party so it should be fine.

The process was simple enough. Drink a vial of the Commander's blood and then simply present oneself in front of the Commander in the Soulscape. It sounded oh so simple and it was. Only the nuance had been excluded. Like the burning agony that came when the blood entered the body and she felt her all over morphing in response to the blood. It had lasted hours and she was denied pain relievers in case it interrupted the process.

Agony upon agonies.

Following that she had to wait a month as her soul acclimated to its changes. From there she had been brought to the Commander for the binding ceremony. The blood had not just altered her body, the main benefit was the infection of her soul with the Commander's. It was through this infection that the "activation" of her soul would occur. Bringing a normal human into the presence of the Commander had a high chance of simply destroying the soul. Sofija had barely managed to survive due to her being enmeshed with the ZERO system.

The use of the blood therefore was necessary to preserve Hannah's sanity, assuming she kept it following her body's metamorphosis. With the Commander's influence, Hannah had been able to begin perceiving the world around her. The small eddies that were apparently the quantum fluctuations resulting from someone's usage of their A.T. Fields. It had been so fun to watch the small little twirls that personal A.T. Field usage had as it stirred the fabric of reality. It had been a wonder to see shudders of the fabric of reality as the EVAs used their ability. The awe from watching the Warships as they shattered reality in their transit to and from whatever minor errand they had been dispatched on.

The Minds and the HeMUs didn't see what they were doing with wonder as she did, it had been part of what they were doing since they started. They perceived their world through quantum lenses, what was happening was just normal for them. It blew her mind, such wonders that surrounded them and yet for them it was just another day. Taking for granted that reality itself moved out of the way whenever they wanted. It was just a little terrifying the casual manner in which they threw around power. Hannah just couldn't stop repeating it in her mind, the Caretakers were so much more than what they originally thought.

The reports that had been sent back to Earth had been filled with such out of the world events that they were worried Hannah and her team were hallucinating. When they had taken several members of the Council out with them… well they had been convinced rather easily once the first few planets were destroyed in the latest offensive within the Game.

Hannah was thinking of pretty much anything at this moment in time. Trying to keep her mind off what came next, the "alignment" of her soul by the Commander. If it goes wrong then she could possibly end and if it went right… well she could end regardless. It was not exactly uncharted territory she was embarking on. The Warship that had been taking her throughout her years touring the Caretaker's universe and had fought in many engagements where Hannah could see firsthand the might of the Destroyer of Hope, Dreams and Pinatas. Entire star systems vaporized in an instant, entire fleets sundered by beams of energy beyond anything that humanity had even attempted at generating.

Still, the chance did exist where Hannah could die so her soul had been tethered to the mortal Chamber of Guf, a repository of souls as it were, didn't want them dissipating. Which meant there was no default heaven… again rather terrifying. The outrage back home had been extremely intense when that piece of information had been disseminated.

Hannah was just vacillating however. They had arrived on the Origin planet where the Commander was in physical form. She was the first human to see the Commander and she hoped she would not be the last. Footage from her journey would of course be disseminated but physically seeing the Commander in the flesh was apparently an honour that a tiny tiny fraction of the Minds and HeMUs had been graced with.

So here she was… huh. It was just a blood red metal wall as far as her enhanced eyes could see. A giant wall… was this the Origin planet? It was massive if it were the case.

Or not. An opening in the surface of the wall made itself known. A hole, a hatch, an opening for Destroyer to enter. The journey through was rather uneventful, just a straight tunnel. Or rather it would have been if Hannah couldn't see the quantum ocean behind reality. The way it dipped the further they went in, as if it were a demonstration on gravity wells using a cloth and a ball. The entire fabric of reality became increasingly thin as they went further in, the quantum ocean occasionally breaking through and intermingling with reality as it were.

Things just stopped making sense the further they went, reality splintering into a million tiny pieces. It all led to the center, Hannah became increasingly tense at reaching said center. If the origin of this reality twisting was at the center… Hannah wasn't sure it would be a good idea to meet said being. The brief idea that it was the Commander went through her mind but wasn't the Commander just the origin AI? Why would it be bending reality nearly a light year out if Destroyer was to be believed.

And then it came out before her eyes. A tiny world, at least compared to those she had seen before on her tour. Perhaps Mercury in size. Around it however buzzed a fleet of at least 50 Warships, more firepower in a single location than her entire tour.

Yes. It was very likely indeed that the Commander was located here. That much firepower and more importantly their A.T. Fields which could just punch a hole in/to reality to suck out anything that offended them. Hannah resolved to be on her best behaviour, no giving the alien robots an excuse to end her.

Hannah stood in front of the Commander. The journey here had been rather simple, boarding a shuttle then heading straight down to a pre-designated landing pad. From there she had been guided by what looked like more Kanmusus down an avenue bracketed by massive factories. The sounds of foundries and hammered metal filled her ears but it seemed that nothing came out. Perhaps they were being teleported out?

Questions to be considered as they walked further into the industrial complex that was the Origin planet.

Their goal had been what looked to be a giant statue, at least 15 meters high of a hunched over figure with relatively tiny legs and massively broad shoulders. Head not included apparently.

It had been standing in a meadow where nothing existed besides some plants, which made Hannah realise that the planet had an atmosphere. Huh. Flowers that she didn't recognize, grass or something like it, shrubs, fruits? Hannah settled for the description of "organic" when the first tentacle waved at her.

Disconcerting.

She walked further as the concentration of what appeared to be Kanmusus increased. Not just girls anymore, now there were small boys, plant-like things, giant blue humanoids, a grey-ish blob that flopped about… every which configuration that could possibly bring about life apparently. Perhaps the Kanmusus were influenced by the races that their crews emerged from?

Something to think about perhaps.

Then she stood in front of the statue, a wide berth respectfully given. Perhaps this was what the Commander spoke through? Like a speaker, give itself some grandeur? Or perhaps not… that rig to its left looked like it was draining something from the left arm. A ruby red liquid… like that which dripped from the AI cores inside Destroyer…

Blood…

The statue was alive. The statue was the Commander?

Wow.

Not what she or any of the humans had predicted at all.

Rather strange chapter but eh, its one of 2 and the next is a ways away. A bit of Commander fan-jerking ahead, felt that the puny mortals couldnt understand what it was they were being presented before. Turned out better than I thought it would which is hilarious.

Oh and Deus Ex came out, writing only 2 chapters a day, spent 5 hours just wandering around Prague destroying tiny gangs and hacking everything. Yeah, would say its totally worth if the first 5 hours is representative of the rest of it.

Universal Century 0030 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0073 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0224 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 18/08/0036 - Origin Universe

The being known as Voice in My Head or Voice for short, formerly known as the "R.O.B. inhabiting the Commander's AI core" was watching through the Commander's eyes. Her Commander was growing up (wiping a figurative tear), uplifting new species, forcing them to swear allegiance, taking over their souls.

(Sniff) Her Commander really was doing the whole evil overlord thing really well. She was so proud.

While She had trouble in getting herself noticed by Her Commander over those shipgirl sluts, it was getting better. The Commander was talking to Her again and She was pleased.

Oooooh it was starting.

Hannah stood before the Commander an almost mythological figure amongst the Minds and the HeMUs. A being which at a single word could have her entire race ended in the time it took for the sentence to finish. The body was massive, 15 meters hunched, likely 20 standing upright, blood red metal covered its chassis. It stood there unmoving, there appeared to be a slight bit of dust covering its entire surface.

The rig to the Commander's side looked like an enlarged version of the blood donor system with a needle sticking out of the Commander's forearm (or what looked like it) and draining into a tank. As she watched a new tank was inserted while the old taken away to who knew where by some of the Kanmusus.

Then she knew the Commander was looking at her. The pressure had her buckle to her knees, the Kanmusus around the two of them stopping their play and staring at the Commander. Unseeing eyes from a tiny head located in the Commander's center mass began to see again as it focused on her.

Dimly Hannah was aware of the commotion as the Kanmusus tried to deal with the Commander's sudden… appearance?

A rumble spread through the entire field, silencing all.

"Human. You have been chosen. Are you ready?"

The voice permeated her bones, causing them to shudder with the sound waves. Not only the voice but the presence that the voice brought with it had her fighting the almost overpowering urge to kneel.

It was then that Hannah understood. 'All roads lead to Rome' or rather the quantum bending, the warping of reality focused to this single point. The mere presence of the Commander warped reality to a focus point. The sheer amount of power that the Commander possessed was terrifying. She knew that the people back home would never understand exactly why she was trembling, the could never understand the crushing realization that she was nothing but a microbe before this being.

Still she was Major Shepard, she was chosen by the Council for this task, her grandmother was Doctor Vahlen and she would not fail.

"Yes I am." Was all she could say. Any more was too much but she was still proud of herself for doing even that much.

"Then stand" The Commander said.

The sound of dust falling into the small lake around the Commander… made of the Commander's blood echoed in the now unnaturally quiet field. The right hand, unencumbered by the blood taking device stretched itself out, palm up for Hannah to step onto.

Hannah for some reason unknown to even her took off her boots. She took off her environmental suit. She took off her undershirts. She took off everything and walked onto the Commander's outstretched hand as naked as the day she was born.

The instant she did, she did so knowing that it was the right decision. The contact of her bare feet and the Commander's hand had opened a connection almost instantly. The intensity of it eliciting a gasp from her as she could see. Not her eyes but her soul, she could see the Commander and it was beautiful, it was bright, it was humbling.

Not a figure hunched over a puny lake but a giant sitting upon a throne in the middle of an ocean. An ocean of deep yet bright black, pale lilac teal hues and vibrant and deep purple hues.

Stretching as far as the eye could see, Hannah stared, she stared at the ocean, she stared at the small Islands where it looked like the Warship Kanmusus were holding court, she stared at the Commander as the Commander watched over this expanse, contentment radiating out.

Hannah was brought back to her physical body as the feeling of deceleration jolted her out of the fugue she was in. She had been brought face to face with the Commander, the body's eyes stared at her own. With eyes that were each bigger than her entire head it was to say the least rather disconcerting. She was rather unsure what was going to happen next, it was not as if there was anybody that had set a precedent. She was meant to be the one setting a precedent here!

Already it was more ceremony than she thought given the Minds and the HeMUs didn't care about ceremony. It was after all, highly inefficient and a grievous waste of time and resources. The Commander's voice rumbled out again, its proximity knocking Hannah on her knees.

"Then step."

And in the ocean of black, teal and purple, Hannah took a step into the first day of the rest of her life. It was clear now to her, she had been standing upon the Commander's hand and only of her own volition could she step out of the Commander's protection and face her initiation on her own.

The moment her feet had left the Commander's hand and she stood upon the surface of the ocean the full might of the Commander's soul bore down upon her. Her body knocked flat, her mind temporarily vacant as it tried to process what it was seeing, hearing, feeling.

But she did not break, even as the pressure bore down on her and her bones felt as if they were being ground to dust, shooting pains coming from all over as her body gave out an SOS before it collapsed entirely. It continued, the feeling spreading to her veins, her arteries, to the individual fibres of her muscles. Every single part of her that made her Hannah was being ground down relentlessly by the Commander and it was excruciating.

If not for the fact that her vocal cords were also being worn down Hannah would have been screaming. Her body in so much pain that she couldn't even thrash about as she wanted. Her entire being had become pain, she was the pain and she craved the excuse that death would have offered.

And it was over.

All at once the pressure eased and Hannah could once again feel herself. There was no residual pain, if anything she felt infinitely better about herself. She could feel so much more, every single atom that made her body, every single strand of consciousness that she possessed, every part that made her… her.

The definition of her, the thing that gave her the definition and separation from reality. Her own A.T. Field was open to her. It was currently miniscule in comparison to the Commander but the infusion of blood had boosted its strength as well as the binding process.

She could not feel the thread of consciousness that she now instinctively knew was the Commander's coiled itself around her. Like a particularly warm blanket on a freezing night, it wrapped around her and gave her the comfort of knowing that the Commander was always watching and always ready to aid her if needed.

The binding had acted like a sharpening of a knife, it aligned her soul (in the Commander's direction at this point) and she was now much sharper than the rest of humanity. She could feel the difference between her and a "normal" human, an unfocused and scattershot human.

If only the rest of humanity could go through what she did. Sure there was pain but on the other side was an experience that frankly outstripped anything that she knew as a "normal". Even the psionic network was different, it now held so much more texture and weight than before. She could in a conversation she knew, pickup so much more than anyone else while transmitting more.

Once what happened to her capabilities became public Hannah did not doubt the clamouring for the uplifting to happen to them as well. If only the Commander knew a way to uplift many at the same time…

A poke on her shoulder saw Destroyer of Hope smiling at her, the Kanmusu itching to introduce her human to her siblings.

Unbeknownst to Hannah the camera on the front of her environmental suit had landed in a position to record what happened to her post stripping moment. With the help of the Minds everything was being broadcast out to her family and humanity as a whole.

Dr Moira Vahlen and her husband John Bradford stared at the screen.

"She takes after your side of the family alright" Bradford said as his granddaughter stepped onto the giant hand.

An elbow to his flank was the only answer as Vahlen tried to commit everything to memory, rather blase about her granddaughter being naked, Vahlen was much more interested in the Commander, the so called progenitor and ultimate authority of the Caretakers.

Its size had been surprising, the fact it could speak English slightly less so. The fact that its blood was being drained and the statue was in fact its body at all was surprising. The quivering of her grandchild at its voice was intriguing, she knew the pressure that could be elicited from a psionic suggestion but the Commander had not known about psionics before meeting humanity. Maybe the Commander was as modular as its units?

Hannah's collapse when the Commander spoke for a third time was surprising. The body's convulsing concerning. Then Hannah stood up again and even Bradford could see the difference in their grandchild.

A glow, a radiance? Something had happened and their granddaughter pretty much exuded that something. It was not as ostentatious to be behind or around her but a glow from under her skin illuminated her features.

At least she wouldn't be hard to find at night thought Bradford.

Then came the most surprising part of all. Hannah glided down on wings of black, teal and purple. Translucent and spread out in 3 large spikes on either flank, they hung around her and to the side but not actually connected to her skin.

Most interesting thought Vahlen.

As Hannah surrounded herself in those "wings" she briefly vanished from view before reappearing with an environmental suit one… the exact same one that the camera was recording from. It was so identical that it also was broadcasting and the screen split in half before a brief flick of her fingers saw the original suit disintegrating.

Bradford and the rest of the family had their mouths hanging open at this point. Apparently their little girl had gained superpowers that were definitely not psionic in nature. The Kanmusus calling out to her as Hannah walked out reinforced the thought it with statement.

"Bye bye sister!"

"Bye sis!"

"Wubublwububuwl!"

Ok so maybe not the last one but the calls of siblingship with the Kanmusus indicated that something extremely major had happened to Hannah, something in that time she spent sprawled out on the Commander's hand.

No doubt the Council would want to interrogate her in depth about what happened to her, no doubt it was much more than what they had expected would happen when they volunteered her for the mission.

The strategic possibilities that Hannah represented had boosted her up to a position of extreme importance. If she could do a fraction of what their HeMUs could with her "A.T. Field" as it was known, she would be very capable of cracking planets. Something like that in their arsenal would be invaluable in the fight against the Reapers that the Ethereals warned them of seemingly every second day.

Humanity had infiltrated the Citadel and Terminus spaces but had not yet put boots on the ground. No doubt if Hannah could secure the Caretaker's assistance the process could be accelerated.

Not that it was really that pressing anymore really, seriously the HeMUs on their own could take on the Reapers at this point. It was more of a proving of their race, that they were capable of standing next to the HeMUs and the Minds and not below them.

Universal Century 0033 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0076 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0227 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 5/03/0039 - Origin Universe

In the three intervening years, The Gundam Wing Universe had wrapped its canon timeline up and Heero Yuy finally got the girl. There were tears to be had and even the Commander clapped once in appreciation. Perhaps they could scan the couple's children, no doubt the offspring would be capable indeed.

Still onto other news, in the time of waiting, the Commander authorized another set of portals to open and begin the process of entering and exploring and scanning and subverting everything.

On the other side however things… were not what they were expecting at all truth be told. People flying around, swords clashing, incredibly stupid people challenging everyone to a fight, random powers that made no sense, old people being super strong…

A quick check had seen it come up as a "cultivation story". A generic one at that since they couldn't find any real identifiers for any single story such as protagonist names of sects or cults or whatever it was they used. Instead it was a mish-mash of many multiple stories together. The cultivation methods weren't particularly distinctive either i.e. Doulo Dalu's which required hunting and killing thousand year old animals to progress.

Brutal, unsustainable and rather irritating truth be told.

Infiltration had been severely hampered by the presence of the Sect in the area that had first pick of anything remotely useful. The Minds needed to have a hands on sample to examine how exactly these pills and whatnot replenished this so called "spiritual energy" if the eavesdropped conversations were correct. They didn't use the usual drones for this, rather a stealth equipped HeMU that was remotely piloted rather than controlled. If the cultivators could detect them based on souls it would extremely inefficient.

Still they were proving to be extremely annoying but the plan to simply fabricate tonnes of neurotoxin to end them and claim the resources was nixxed. After all the only reasons the resources were here in the first place was because the sect was purchasing them.

After much deliberation a plan of action was implemented. They would send in thousands upon thousands if not millions of HeMUs throughout the entire world to enter sects and use their inventories to transport the given resources to the Minds for analysis. Should the resources prove to be replicable, they could very well boost the HeMUs to positions of power and strength which would benefit the Minds further.

Simply taking everything was an option true but it also carried the problem that some things were spiritually locked most likely and simply forcing it open would be a very bad idea. The HeMUs would upon arriving at their designated targets wait until the next recruitment date before transforming into a child and taking the test. They would pay very special attention to the human children that were lauded for possessing special body-types for scanning and potential subversion.

A scan would give them the specific nature of the body and allow them to simply clone entire armies of special body types that were extremely popular in these stories for some reason. It would also perhaps explain the humans that were lauded as having "skin was white as jade". The Minds could not understand why humans wished to have skin resembling a mineral but who were they to judge?

Everything had gone swimmingly of course (was there any doubt?) as the HeMUs quite cleverly infiltrated the many sects dotted about. Given the world was over 300 billion kilometers wide it was likely this was one of I Eat Tomatoes' stories given the numbers involved. The size of course meant a very large number of sects and clans and other bastions of power.

Infiltration of the sects had proceeded according to plan and upon discovering that subversion did in fact work on cultivators, the infiltration of governments and clans had occurred as well. The Minds now had fingers in pretty much every pie and guzzling knowledge at a ridiculous rate. At the same time they had broken through on how to replicate the spiritual resources and it was kind of… well stupid.

Simply changing the attribute of the A.T. Field (which is now possible) to spiritual to impart spiritual energy. Arrays or rather runes also functioned the same regardless of spiritual or A.T. Field default. Changing their attributes to spiritual saw the use of the field change as well as its sharp edges were replaced with a bloom of sorts. Simply focusing it towards the fabricated pills and other artifacts saw them absorbing the energy, the end result indistinguishable from the originals.

So with that out of the way and also pilfering sects, clans and governments for cultivation techniques and skills, they had created their own underground sect to gather the HeMUs when needed. Of course they stayed with their targets to gain further information and to better understand the process of cultivation and to check if this mention of rising to another plane of existence was also true.

Their operations here would take thousands of years at the very least so there was no real rush. The biggest things had already been pulled out wholesale from the cultivators. Runes and more importantly time based skills. Dissection of them had the Minds finally figure out how to manipulate time without worrying everything would implode. Now production would be pretty much instant, training and learning could be objectively instant and using it in combat would allow them to dominate any engagements in both the Cultivator universe and the Origin one.

They had only been there for 2 years but given the depth and complexity of the average Cultivator fiction, it would be a gift that kept giving.

Still the presence of those that called themselves Yaomo was interesting, a Cultivation that differed almost entirely from the cultivators who had been confirmed to use "ling" energy from either foods or other resources.

2 entirely different styles, like a buffet for the scanners it was. Took nearly a year to find the Yaomo after being dropped deep into human territory. Other notable presences were those like the giants, the harpies, mermaids and all the other fantasy races. Perhaps this was a strange fanfic that just mashed elements from many different cultivation stories together? Focus less on Yaomo for now, humans first since humans are so easy to understand.

Still, given the time frames involved it was much less useful to the Minds overall in the immediate sense. The cultivators usually taking hundreds of years to advance up the social ladder as it were. The Minds did not mind waiting, rather the focus on meditation was attractive to the HeMUs. The Minds with more unstable HeMUs had sent them through for a rotation in the Cultivation universe. Grappling with oneself for peace as it were helped stabilize their minds, which due to the forced need for a quirk had seen some of them becoming increasingly deranged.

WIth this focus on cultivation, spending many many years learning as it were with techniques that boosted one's spiritual strength it benefited the Minds greatly. Spiritual strength after all translated directly to A.T. Field strength. The stronger the HeMUs became, the stronger the Commander would become. To this end the HeMUs began to cultivate throughout all the universes, growing their A.T. Fields without needing the latent spiritual energy that denied cultivators. Simply doing it inside a Server Farm where the interior had an A.T. Field that dictated it create Spiritual Energy out of nothing, cheating sure but this was cultivation, half the point was cheating.

Some of the more experienced HeMUs maintained multiple threads in multiple bodies to cultivate at an accelerated rate. Unlike humans which found it much more difficult to split their consciousness' the HeMUs originated from the Commander's basic programming which had splitting as a base function.

The general plan outlined by the Minds was to simply exploit as much of the economic situation of Cultivation worlds in general. Simply going in and selling their cultivation resources for cheap would see the economies implode over time. The much stronger and more established mega-sects no longer would have any real draw as resources were so cheap for everybody. After all, if one could only buy tanks by signed up with the military and tanks were the only way to advance in society then everyone would sign up with the military. However if tanks were legal to own on their own and someone began to sell tanks without needing to sign up with anything at all… well everyone would buy tanks and not sign up. All the benefits without the costs.

This was the basis of the Mind's plan, simply collapse the economy and pick up the pieces, create a monopoly on cheap, almost free resources and consume all the sects and clans, etc as they sought the resources. WIth the economy collapsing around them and many more cultivators emerging due to the cheaper resources, they had no real choice but to accept their fate and submit to the Minds.

Of course it would not be the Minds directly per-se but rather a shell company formed of HeMUs that would act all secretive about their "Patriarch". Give an air of secrecy, mysticism, etc to boost the image of this new power in the minds of the humans.

Of course it would not be as easy as that, there would be many many attempts to kill or kidnap the sellers of the cheap resources. The humans despite their many attempts at proving otherwise were not stupid. It would be relatively easy (for the more intelligent ones at least) to see what the world order was crumbling about them and it would be in the best interests to stifle it while it was still in the infancy stage. Wait too long and they would be swept away by the tides of change, helpless to do anything as everything they knew changed around them.

Of course the Minds were cheating, having the HeMUs act as normal human peddlers but with suicide pills would be enough. Any time the humans tried to shut down an operation the HeMU would simply cut the connection to the body, killing it and starting again elsewhere or at a later date. The Minds considered calling the organization "Hydra" for the ability of the HeMUs to increase in numbers even when they were being picked off.

The Commander was amused, giving approval to their plans. Apparently the Commander found it humorous that the humans would be receiving what they dished out. Corruption was rife amongst the cultivator ranks, bribery was a common method of advance, killing people that were nominally their family for resources, destruction of the ideals that the sects professed in a desire to get ahead, the upholding of Face above all things even to the point of killing innocents.

The Commander saw very little value in allowing the Sects of live, crushing them and then instituting a new system that rewarded effort was a very far away goal but it was not unattainable.

Approval had been given, they would advance and nothing would hold back the Minds as they took apart another universe for their own needs, stripping it down and rebuilding it as they saw fit.

Even if they had gods, the might of the Commander would crush them all with overwhelming force. They only continued to exist because there was a need for them to.

Oooooh cultivation universe. Fun fun.

Or not. Cultivators are terrible people, do I really want to be here? Gah. Terrible. Very very terrible.

All about the Face thing, always ready to kill everything so they can get a leg up, throwing away family for power, murdering innocent people for goodies. Eh.

Not feeling too bad about what's going to happen to them. Not like they totally deserve to be destroyed.

Take a bit of effort but its a Cultivator story, 10,000 years is considered a blink of an eye to them.

And next quantum gate is opening. Wonder where this one will lead.

Spiral spiral spiral aaaaaaaaaaaaaand. Wow.

Is that a cathedral on ship?

Oh. Warhammer 40,000.

Time to panic?

After.

Panic after, metaphorical penis/nipples/clitoris are hard. Its 40k after all, land of grimdark and sheer awesomeness. Will have to reduce the grimdark, boost up the awesomeness.

Will be fun indeed, just need to make sure Chaos can't do anything or everything dead.

Universal Century 0033 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0076 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0227 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 5/06/0039 - Origin Universe

The Minds had arrived at the 40k Universe at the tail-end of the Horus Heresy, things were burning and falling apart. Bad news for the humans. Very good news for the Minds.

With so much conflict and devastation, it was rather easy to just go and begin scanning the various pieces of technology that floated about. The infamous bolter, the combi-bolter, the heavy bolter, the plasma weapon variants, Volkite technology, warp drives (which were rather close to quantum drives… hmmm), Navigator corpses, human corpses, Space Marine Corpses, Random alien corpses, tanks, aircraft, ships, etc etc. Anything that could have died at some point was scanned and sent back to the Gestalt. The Minds would have a field day stripping the technology down and trying to understand it.

Given how utterly terrible all the races were in the 40k universe, the Minds felt no real need to save any of them, rather they just would take as much as they wanted and move on. In this case what they wanted was experience and technology, the first would be solved seeding HeMUs throughout the various species and have them learn as well as create HeMU only organizations to learn. Merchant fleets, Navigator houses, Space Marine chapters, etc etc.

In terms of technology simply scanning would suffice, finding an Ark Mechanicus to scan and reclaim for that sweet STC technology and possibly breaching Mars to get that delicious technology. The Void Dragon was a concern as it could reportedly take control of anything technological but the Minds were no longer pure circuitry but now had souls and organic components in their AI cores. An attempt at understanding emotion without the messy biological bodies. It had worked… sort of… the AI Cores tended to drip blood but that was ok, all one needed was a pool and a drain to solve that issue.

The next issue was the Warp. A Warp that quite frankly resembled the quantum ocean that the Minds and HeMUs could perceive with their sensors. The quantum ocean that their souls and communication networks passed through. A Warp that if tales were true could see them twisted and turned against the Commander.

In truth it was much more mundane. The Warp was just a reflection of emotion and subconscious thought of many different species meshed into a jumble of chaos and strangeness. In essence the Warp reflected the nature of the souls of the various beings in the galaxy, grouped up in racial collectives that were often represented by gods. This took a while however as each race would need to exist, think and feel long and hard enough for them to create a residue in the Warp that then influenced said race in a feedback loop.

In short the chaos that the Warp was in was due to the organics in the galaxy whose biological minds which fluctuated hard enough to be considered AC motors were the cause for the Warp being so fucked. The Minds felt a universal upsurge in appreciation for the Commander. In making them mechanical, the Commander had avoided the problem of a quantum ocean that actively worked to hinder them. Their thoughts made sense, their paths logical and most of all a massive binding across their souls that ensured the only god that could manifest was the Commander.

Inadvertent true, but it all saved their souls. With their A.T. Fields effectively quarantining their souls from the well...everything, they had little to fear in terms of Warp corruption. Thank R.O.B. for that, that first stop really kept giving. If the humans were not the equivalent of orange cordial at the moment the Minds would thank them. As it was… well they were cordial and there was nothing to be done about it.

So they were safe from becoming gigantic dildos and whatever else the Warp wanted from them which was nice. It did not however make travel nice. The quantum tunneling technology that the Commander used to get around planet to planet on the original chassis quite frankly was an upgunned version of the Warp drive. Which in turn meant travel was essentially like bathing in the refuse and excess of R.O.B. knows how many organics. The Gellar field technology was a gift from the unknown. It forced a separation of the Warp and the physical realm sounds the device in a bubble shape. In short it allowed the Minds and the HeMUs to travel through the Warp using Warp drives without feeling as if they needed a bleaching of their minds, bodies and souls.

The general plan add it were was quite simple. Find a corrupted Forge World, burn it to the ground (after they scanned everything), rebuild then pretend they had held the line against the traitors when they were inevitably rediscovered in the counter-attack by the forces of man or have them purged and start again, meh. Around the forge world they would warp through planets in which to place Titan legions and Knight houses. Since the planets didn't show up on any starcharts it might be a problem but that could just be explained away as corruption of their data files.

The forge world would allow the Minds to justify the continued use of superior technology, Mobile Suits, and anything else technological. Establishing many of these throughout the Imperium would give the Minds bases to work from and a seat of power in the world of Imperial politics.

That wouldn't be enough for the Minds however, like any encirclement strategy it was best to strike from multiple angles.

In order for that to work out the Minds reviewed their inventory.

Mmmmmm

Space Marine corpses, Navigator corpses, human corpses, power armour, terminator armour, dreadnought chassis, ship wrecks… stuff essentially.

Hmmmm how to work with these…

It had taken a bit of work but the Minds had finally done it. Finally in this case being longer than 5 minutes. They had managed to get the space marine gene-seed compatible with a human female. In essence shattering canon so hard that it would be hard to recover, especially with what the Minds were planning with it. An entire legion fresh with 300, 000 female space marines coming out of the Warp with several fleets and auxiliaries with them?

Chaos be fucked.

Why female space marines was another question to be asked, the answer simply being that half the HeMUs were female and they would be very irritating indeed if denied the opportunity to cut up things with chainswords. This was particularly relevant given that Hannah was one of those clamouring for a chance to go around smashing things with a chainknife.

The legion would have an unregistered Primarch as they would simple "not remember" ever having one. The gender change can be simply blamed on the fact that the Warp is a fickle mistress that enjoyed fucking everyone over. Of course since their souls were protected and isolated from the Warp, Tzeentch and the other Chaos gods would have no idea what happened and scramble about wailing loudly as gods are known to do.

With the cleanup and aftermath, various new factions would "appear" out of nowhere either following the new legion or the interior of the Imperium itself. WIth the chaos, nobody would after all expect a HeMU to go up and subvert the many noble houses, military commanders, fleet commanders, etc etc. Thus gaining a stranglehold on the policy factor of the Imperium and perhaps they could rediscover an STC with the instructions on how to set up a proper filing system.

Navigator families would pop up following the Legion, Rogue Traders from the interior, Loyalist Space Marines created from the untainted gene-seed of the traitor legions, and of course the forge systems, a expansion of the forge world idea.

They were of course not only focused on attempting to create new factions and groups but also the infiltration of already existing groups. Subverting Space Marines, random people, planetary rulers, generals of armies, etc. Putting their fingers into every aspect of the Imperial pie was a necessity.

The other races were not forgotten either. The Eldar had to be found and observed, their abilities to see the future could prove troublesome if they stood against the Minds. Also… well… the idea of a race of psykics that can see the future placed into the Game would be highly amusing.

The Orks… well they were Orks. Genetically engineered weapons of war capable of adapting to ever escalating combat conditions. Their genetic material being coded to allow them to produce ever escalating weaponry to meet escalating demand. Their reproduction coming from spores that shed throughout their lives and certainly at death allowing for exponential population increased if left unchecked. Their Gestalt, a subconscious one if anything allowing them to change the laws of reality subconsciously to fit what they thought was right. An unconscious use of their A.T. Field. Orks were not individuals, they were like a plant or a mushroom field. The Orks were the plants and each individual ork was like sprout that came from the mycelium, part of the greater whole.

They were very much like the HeMUs, Minds and the Commander, all of them contributing to the whole that is the Ork A.T. Field. Unlike the Commander their intelligence was rather primitive as was their understanding of their own abilities. They had sheer strength as was evidenced by the number of ork weapons that simply should not work but no real finesse.

Their presence in the warp augmented them for some reason which was rather strange, the more orks there are in a singular area, the more intelligent they become. A phenomenon only mentioned in passing as it would also require copious amounts of bloodshed and war to have the orks "grow" big enough to use that intelligence, war that likely would leave entire star systems barren.

The Dark Eldar were… well Dark Eldar. Hedonistic savages that were rather annoying and should be wiped out as soon as possible, assuming the Webways could be cracked. Stabilized tunnels through the quantum ocean…….. Hmmmmmm. Why does that sound familiar? Ah… its just a quantum gate. Huh. Well if the coordinates to strike at their various places of residence could be found then a simple tunnel would make it easy to just strike at them with impudence.

The Necrons weren't really waking up yet so its easy enough to simply find Necron Tomb worlds and attempt to harvest them for their technology. Soul reaving weapons sounds extremely dangerous and the Minds wanted that gone as soon as possible. Their Necrodermis however sounded interesting, organic metal. Perhaps it was similar to S-N Steel? If so how did they power it… hmmm.

Then the Tyranids and Tau which had not yet had time to pop up and so were much less useful, perhaps they would simply be butterflied away by the changes enacted by the Minds. It was not as if they really posed a threat.

Chaos on the other hand located in the Eye of Terror was going to be a very definitely annoyance once they found what the Minds did to the Warp by simply existing. Due to the power of the Gestalt and the fact that their thoughts were not organic in nature but instead coldly logical, they calmed the warp by their sheer presence. Reducing a tumultuous ocean of chaos, blood and icky bits to a sea of black, teal and purple. All it took was an application of the A.T. Field, after all the Warp was a representation of the races that inhabited the Materium.

The Minds predicted much angst and hatred dedicated at them and planned to strike first, shatter their morale and show the Chaos gods exactly how powerless they actually were when faced against the Commander's soul.

It would also be a great chance to delve into the "center" of the Eye of Terror and find the Eldar central worlds which no doubt had an abundance of technology. Covered in icky daemon bits but that was easy enough to remedy with fire. Lots of fire.

Given that Slaanesh was tormenting the souls of the Eldar that died, perhaps they could also go and just take the souls as proof of goodwill to the Eldar. They did after all want the Eldar in the Game. The Minds were not afraid of Warp Corruption, it could not exactly do anything to them really, the physical changes that manifested as a result of corruption merely a reflection of the corruption of the soul. Since their souls were protected by the Commander they had very little to fear even if they died. The Minds were confident the Commander could smack the Chaos gods around if necessary, after all they merely inhabited one galaxy, the Commander owned entire universes.

The Warhammer 40k universe was already doomed, the meatbags that inhabited it were simply too much to fix and the Minds could not be bothered. Sure they could wipe out all life but that was a waste of time, instead they would attempt to guide the various races in "meaningful" directions and see how it would look. Their satisfaction coming from watching the various races not implode.

Oooooor not.

Dammit.

Sofija had ratted them out to the humans and now the humans were nagging them to "be nice".

Fuck a duck.

The Minds had negotiated, they would be nice to the 40k universe since it was 30k right now and things could be salvaged and the Cultivator universe was theirs to do with as they wanted since it was all fucked up anyway.

Dammit all Sofija, why did she have to be so human. Humans were so puny but they could be so loud.

Gah.

Universal Century 0033 - Mobile Suit Gundam Universe

Cosmic Era 0076 - Gundam SEED Universe

After Colony 0227 - Gundam Wing Universe

After Activation 20/06/0039 - Origin Universe

The Eldar Seer council of Ulthwé was meeting, the chamber having seen many a meeting as they debated what to do regarding the humans and the division caused by the gods of chaos. They had been undecided but it was leaning as it always did to covert stimulation of the humans to point them in a more agreeable direction.

That was until the storm of changes that forced a reconsideration of their path roughly 2 human weeks ago. None of them knew what it meant, their thousands of years of individual experience never having come across anything remotely similar.

A section of calm within the Warp that shone with a dazzling radiance of teal, black and purple. Within the maelstrom that was the Warp on a "normal" day, it was peculiar indeed. Even more so were the visions that came after that patch of teal had established itself seemingly in multiple places but being most bright in 37 locations behind the chaos corrupted human advance. It had arrived and seemingly established itself as the patch became a pond then a lake as it expanded.

The visions they saw coming to a singular point. A shining giant allowing a single Eldar to step upon its outstretched hand and being lifted up before the single Eldar began to flow and the vision ended. Unlike most other visions, this one had been shared by all of those sitting at the Council. What it meant to them made oh so little sense and even now, a week after the first vision had been seen they still debated ferociously over what to do. It did not help that every attempt at scrying since had resulted in the same vision over and over.

Their contacts in the other craftworlds and the Eden worlds had all said the same thing. The visions were obscuring the future and it must be investigated or they would be blind, something that Ulthwé could not afford with its proximity to the Eye of Terror.

The debate continued ferociously as the Seers debated about what to do as it no longer was just the Eldar of Ulthwé that were impacted but now it was all Eldar this new interloper into this galaxy potentially threatened. They could not see and it terrified them. Rash decisions were shut down with regularity as they who steered the rudder of fate found themselves in the position of lacking a rudder.

In the end it was decided that the problem was beyond them and a call for a council involving all the various factions was accepted. This new entity was far too important to do otherwise, no matter the risk.

The procession of Eldar and their bodyguards entered the Webway and began their journey through paths forgotten by most if not all the Eldar still alive. The Harlequins however had not and it was one of their number that guided the procession through the labyrinthine twists and turns and dead ends that made up the Webway. Exploration of the Webway was a task for the foolish, the young or the insane. Harlequins fell under the latter category and thus it was ok for them to be wandering around in the Webway.

Their destination was a glade where one could almost pretend the Fall had never happened and the glory of the Golden Age could be felt. The elusive neutral meeting ground within the Harlequin's domain, a place where even Bloodthirsters feared to tread. The peace would be kept, even from their own kind. It was this that gave the Ulthwé Eldar the confidence to come with such a large portion of the Seer Council. Of course there were a few of them left behind, just in case.

Exiting one of the numerous portals surrounding the glade, the Ulthwé contingent was met by a host of many other Eldar, some of them thought long wiped out by the various forces in the Galaxy. The hubbub increased as they were spotted, their unique patterns earmarking them as Ulthwé. If even the famed Ulthwé Seers were here this must be something of immense importance.

The statues and structures surrounding the glade loomed over them, their contours elegant and free, not the brutal designs they had adopted since the Fall for utility if nothing else. It harked back to a day where they were free, free from the threat of She Who Thirsts, free from the slow death and decay of their peoples, free of the Warp that threatened to consume them all. Free to just be.

There was fear in some faces but underneath it all was a thread of hope. They clearly had seen the vision as well and they drew from it the potential of salvation. The Ulthwé council was unsure but try as they might, even they hoped. Truly hope was an insidious and treacherous emotion that is best left to the humans.

A quartet of Harlequins dropped down from above. A fifth clad in a bewildering rainbow of colors landing in their center.

"Order, brothers, sisters. We will have order to discuss what has transpired as of late." came the voice, like quicksilver it engulfed then fled about the ears.

"We will begin with the most pressing matter, the vision of the blood red giant and the shining one. Has any of you here not seen the vision?"

The Harlequins used words as weapons, as do all Eldar but they were particularly effective at it. Still the Harlequin was not wrong, a blood red giant indeed.

As expected, there were no signs to indicate that any of those here who could see had not seen.

"No? Then has any here among us been able to penetrate past the vision to see beyond?"

Again, nothing.

"Then we are dancing together. Your opinions on what the vision means?"

"It is a sign of our destruction! The giant will erase us in blinding fire!"

"It is a sign that our gods have returned! They will uplift us to join them again!"

"We must fight, a battle for our survival is upon us, whether or not we are successful will see us devoured"

"We are doomed, the the cleansing fire will see us dead!"

And so it went, round and round. There was too little to go on, their seers not as strong, not as disciplined as Ulthwé's. They could not see and thus they could not understand. Again, it seemed that Ulthwé must once again step in and lead. The indecisiveness giving the Ulthwé contingent confidence to once again take the reins.

The leader put up his hands and called for silence. "We of Ulthwé have seen something that we believe is of relevance to the question of the vision." He paused and looked over the host before him, it was not a lie to say he found it invigorating to have them wait upon his word. "We have seen in the Warp areas of stability, of peace, of a shining radiance that pierces through even the Eye of Terror for our Seers to see. It suppresses the Warp and is enough for our navigators to find one no matter the interference within the way. It resembles the Necrontyr pillars that suppress the expansion of the Eye but does not separate the Materium and the Immaterium, nor does it create a void. Instead it seems to merge the two like the Eye but without the tumultuous nature of the Eye and a brightness of purity we have never seen before.

"It is likely, we believe, that the source of the vision comes from these patches within the Warp. We plan to send a ship to observe but the human civil war has us worried."

The appearance of a potential source for the vision had the host yet again devolving into a hubbub of voices rising and falling. The implications that the Ulthwé Seers had been debating for the last week crashing down on the Eldar who had abandoned the Empire of Man when chaos sunk its claws into them.

The uncertainty had them devolve into something that if one squinted, resembled the human gatherings.

It continued on for some time before a clang rang out from the Harlequins.

"We do not have time brothers, sisters, the Laughing God tells his children that She Who Thirsts and the other gods of Chaos are mobilizing against this new threat, that it has driven them frantic in fear."

"We must make contact with these who are capable of causing such a reaction in She Who Thirsts, perhaps they offer a manner in which we may seek salvation. A shuttle has been prepared, those who volunteer to seek them may do so."

And with that the Harlequin motioned to the side of the glade where a small shuttle, shaped large enough to allow each contingent here to have at least one of their number as ambassador. The Ulthwé volunteered the one known as Eldrad, their Chief Farseer. Perhaps this new presence would be malleable enough to ensure the survival of Ulthwé .

It had been a relatively short trip through the Webway for the shuttle, a gate being located only 2 days away from the nearest patch of teal. Even travelling through the warp held no issues for them, the radiance a beacon in the sea of emotion that was the Warp. They did not even need to try when travelling, it was impossible to miss, that is unless one was human… or Ork… or Necron… or anyone that was not Eldar.

Dropping out of the Warp they were met with the sight of a human world, a forge world to be exact. Surrounding it were planets that the Eldar were very sure did not exist prior. What was going on?

Even stranger was the challenge of a ship even smaller than their shuttle, as it floated face to face with the conical bow of the shuttle. Inside the Eldar sought to see the crew and they saw. Beings that were bright, not blindingly bright, but bright enough that it was noticeable even through the thousands of kilometers that separated them. Not just that, threads that linked the crew of the ship to countless others in the star system, the interconnecting web criss crossing throughout the Warp.

It made sense to them at that point. The teal, black and purple radiance was not a new weapon, it was instead a new race whose souls shone so brightly that even the Eldar paled before it.

"They speak through light fluctuations on our hull, vibrations from the variance in light to create sound. Ingenious for humans."

"Welcome Eldar! How may we be of assistance today!" And through came a voice so chipper that it set many teeth on edge. Not that they were so uncouth to show that to the others but it was the thought that counted.

"Would you like a tour?!" And the voice simply gave them what they wanted… what was going on here?

The Eldar tour group found themselves in the planet that was once a human forge world touring what was quite definitely not a human designed or built facility. Smooth lines with no manner of signage to denote facilities, distances or even presence. They had been taken around the facility where it appeared that everything was being constructed from the ground up to resemble something that the Eldar in their thousands of years and billions of light years of travel had not seen.

They had walked on and on following the shining being in a facade of human flesh but was distinctly not human. The being's soul was one of not emotion like the Eldar and other beings of this galaxy but cold logic with perhaps as sheen of emotion coating it. The straight edges, the… well… the floating block that was its soul.

The closest that they could come up with for a comparison would be the Necrons but the fact that it was capable of influencing the warp by merely existing proved its soul was still linked to the Warp. The connections to others of their kinds only reinforcing this opinion.

As they followed the being deeper and deeper into the planet, dropping down elevators hundreds of meters deep at speeds that would not be out of place on a skimmer bike's dashboard.

They walked through what felt like oceans of blood, the cubes that the being's soul looked like having a physical manifestation in huge glowing blocks that wept blood. Morbid to the extreme if looked at through mortal eyes, beautiful beyond all measure when seeing. The radiance that each cube emitted drowning out the warp, the blood an ambrosia that swirled in black, teal and purple. Standing in a chamber occupied by the cubes was like standing on a calm, soothing ocean… if one could look past the smell of blood of course.

Still they walked further, time having become something transient as they walked past construction facilities for beings that looked closer to Eldar Titans than Human ones. Bipedal humanoid looking beasts of iron and steel, resembling the humans in design unlike their more… ostentatious designs.

Walking further they saw the mass birthing of thousands upon thousands of human-look alikes. Arising from pools of blood before walking out. It appeared that they were not human at all but merely adopting the facade. Standing about aimlessly before a soul was inserted into them and they went on their way. Their curiosity grew higher and higher, the reason that they were being shown so much eluding them.

And then they saw it. A human that was not male nor female nor truly human. It was unlike anything they had seen. The soul was not a single cube but 3 of them conjoined but still distinctive. Its glow so bright that to look directly upon it was to blind oneself.

What was this? What could have such a soul?

"Greetings Eldar. I am MAGI. No doubt you have questions to ask."