Eldrad considered the OAMU that was his charge.
The other 2 were being watched over by 2 other instances of himself, a trivial expenditure of strength for one like him.
Unlike most of the others, he had spent time learning just how his A.T. Field worked and creating temporary copies of himself was only the start of it.
But regrettably, that was all he needed at this point in time.
Humming to himself he watched as his OAMU blunder through the realities of existence for a time.
She had struck off on her own in an attempt to gain more experience for herself or something similar. For Eldrad it was a moment for him to shrug his shoulders, if that was what she wanted to do then who was he to stop her?
He was merely there to handle the interactions with anything that she met… or rather anything that was people. At the same time, he would be doing things like making sure that his own brand of knowledge and skill were embedded within her own mind. It would not do to have someone of his caliber teaching a student, only for them to emerge a miserable failure. That could not be allowed to happen, not while he could draw breath and definitely not while he could do anything about it.
Which meant teaching the OAMU how to move like an Eldar, how to think like an Eldar, how to kill like an Eldar and more important of all, how to dodge like an Eldar.
When he was done with her, she was going to be the best damned imitation Eldar this side of the multiverse.
Like a human absorbing shuriken (the proper ones that were shot from a rifle, not the ones you threw), she took in all of his knowledge and made it her own in a remarkably short period of time.
It was rather intelligent the way she had done it actually, one that she passed onto their teammates.
Taking apart the techniques and separating them from their uses, she taught herself the basics and then worked on bringing them all together, using her enormous cranial cavity to work through in days what would have taken others years.
In the end of it all, she had skills in sneaking and assassination far beyond any of the others on her continent. He was damned sure of that or his name wasn't Eldrad the Eldar.
The important part unfortunately, was not the part that he taught her the skills needed to show off that she was indeed his disciple, but that he needed to guide her in her speech and actions when interacting with those around her.
It was… frustrating. The idea that he had to teach an AI how to think like an Eldar, a task that was proving more than important considering that he had already passed down the other parts of the inheritance.
There would be a payoff for this piece of investment even if Eldrad had to hammer home every single little weed that popped out in her path.
First was the matter of him doing things like ensuring that every time he did something that came with dialogue, that she understood exactly what the dialogue was there for, why it was that he was saying that and more.
It took time, it took effort and in the end, it was going to be a matter of trying to ensure that in the end, she was going to be able to survive without him.
It was going to be difficult, it was going to be almost impossible, but he was Eldrad and he had done so much more with so much less.
He frowned the thought inside of his head, he was getting a little attached here and that was very likely a bad thing. A very very bad thing actually.
He frowned… huh. He hadn't thought that he would be able to get so attached to an AI.
Grinning at that thought, Eldar looked down at the screen again as the AI stood tall and… began dialogue with that looked like some kind of alien?
No. That was just a weird kind of alien thing… not it was a human… that decided that it might as well go and look like funny colours for some reason? Why would humans do that to themselves? That… that was a little strange.
Oh well, humans were always strange, always doing things that would be considered as strange and inefficient… and foolish.
Oh well.
Eldrad wondered just how much he had changed now that he was thinking in terms of efficiency… but… actually, that was kind of terrible.
Oh well.
"Hello there Shinobi. How's it feel to be on the losing side." He asked.
Eldrad frowned in confusion.
What?
Had he missed something?
As Aila stood there and waited for his response, Eldar skimmed through the history and…. Ah.
Tournament that the OAMU team had lost in (on purpose) and it looked like he was here to pick a fight… because he won?
Was he an idiot?
Eldrad seriously wondered if all humans were this stupid or insane or both and then considered that they probably were and he was in the wrong place if he wanted sanity.
Sighing, Eldrad decided that he was going to have to word something… or not.
No. He would do this the Eldar way, who cared if they were human, he was Eldar, why did he need to pollute his mind and learn how to think like a human?
Nodded at that plan of action he sent the information forward.
Posture set, expression, words, all good.
Sending it over, he leaned back to regard the screen in front of him and he grinned as he did so.
The OAMU just raised her eyebrow at the man, then turned and walked away. Not a second glance, every bit of her posture as fully arrogant as possible.
Goood.
She didn't have any kind of "arrogance" aura right now but they could work on that.
When he was done she was going to out Eldar the Eldar, not difficult given the younger generation but she could maybe give one of the older ones a run for their money.
Amendera Kendel was a Sister of Silence in both occupation and vocation. In simple terms, she was very much married to her job mainly because her very soul had destined her towards it.
As a Blank she automatically engendered the hatred and disgust of those around her, people who she had been sworn to protect.
Taken into the Service of the Emperor, being the kind of person that needed to have a plan at all times because Chaos did not rest and… more.
Every aspect of her being devoted to a singular cause, that being the destruction of the enemies of the Emperor of Mankind.
And then… when he had gone to his throne and left her and her sisters behind… they had nothing.
While they may have served to hunt down those of Chaos… after the Great Scouring they had nothing, they were nothing.
Hated and reviled by those that they had protected with their lives and with their blood. If that was not a wakeup call for them then they did not know what was. Without the Emperor what did they have that bound them to the Imperium?
The Sisters of Silence had woken up one day and realised that they had nothing.
And then the Caretakers offered them a place by their side and plopped them down, they were not seen as disgusting… mainly because most of them were walking comatose patients but it was the thought that counted.
Amendera had died within the century, in peace, knowing that she was amongst those that at the very least would tolerate her.
Then she had woken up and was in a place beyond her wildest dreams, a place that made the Imperium of Man look… puny. Filled with mystical powers and arcane energies and death of the greatest scale.
It was… terrifying.
And yet, they were there, they were ready to go and kick all the ass in the world.
She had seen her sisters, all of them, the ones who had died, the ones who had passed before their time. All of them there, all of them waiting, all of them smiling.
She had been brought into the fold then as they explained, in quite clear detail what had happened to her and where she was. She was being given a chance to either slip away and die eternally… or perhaps use her skills to assist not just millions of people, or even billions, but countless people.
She would not fight directly, but rather she would teach others to fight, teach them the way of the blade, the way of the Bolt Pistol, the way of the mind.
Her latest assignment was an interesting one, one that had her taking the reigns of an Artificial Intelligence. She had never gotten over the way they called the Abominable Intelligences something else, but it was just a minor change to that of the Mechanicus… who were also here.
She was to teach the young bot to fight, to communicate and to be human.
Hilarious when considering her vows of silence.
Hilarious.
But she had her duties and she would carry them out as was proper for one of her station. She was a Sister of Silence and none knew their duty more than she did.
As for her charge… she had been interesting indeed.
Like a neophyte yet infinitely more malleable, her morals, her mind, her very thought process were open to Amendera, open for her to tinker and meddle with them as she pleased.
She had been given guidelines, that had been standard. Ensuring that her charges would be combat ready, operationally ready, being ready period was the most important thing. Ensuring that when it came down to it they would all be capable of carrying out their duties.
Everything else was up to her own personal discretion, a discretion that she felt was being observed… more… laxly than should have otherwise been. There had been no-one standing over her to ensure that she didn't do it wrongly, no guidelines on how to do it… nothing at all.
It was worrying… yet also distinctly liberating for one such as herself. To be able to do as she pleased… a feeling that had her rather giddy with excitement if she was being completely honest. She was not being bound by some kind of idea on how the training should be accomplished, nor was she bound by some kind of… code.
It was innovation and she was at the spear tip.
Amendera smiled at the memory of those first days, teaching her charges her own sign language or "mark" as they used to call it, and then having them learn from her as she had learnt from her senior sisters.
Through direct application of force and knowledge.
They were made into the perfect warriors, befitting of a Sister of Silence, capable of using all weapons but singularly at home with the sword, not even a sword but a saber in some cases. A weapon with a single edge, one that was designed for singular strikes and singular kills. More power than a sword, less flexibility. A weapon that allowed for no mistakes when using it.
She had been enormously pleased with the efforts of her charges, the way they had picked it all up as if it were the most natural thing of all. It had been beautiful to watch and she had been so proud of them.
While they were AIs, and had a singular ability to learn… they were also her charges and they had learnt her mannerisms, adopted them as their own and then made them their own.
It was like watching a new generation of children rise up and grow into beings that she could be proud of, it was a feeling that was unmatched by anything else that she had seen before and she loved it.
She loved watching them and she was proud of them.
As they trained in the soulspace, she made sure to demonstrate her love for her disciples by ensuring that her blade was fast, it was true and it was straight. They would feel it as she peeled their skin and reset the clock.
Every stroke, every lost limb.
She would destroy them and in doing so provide them with the knowledge they needed to survive in the greater multiverse.
Yes, they were her disciples and she would teach them well.
Wrex looked down at the ninja… or shinobi as they called themselves and at his own personal favourite, the one that was called Arja.
She had taken to his instruction like Krogan did to Ryncol.
She was… almost like a Krogan herself and it was glorious.
He was very glad that he had her around at all since she was so interesting to watch and pay attention to. Almost as if she were a daughter to him in reality instead of it merely being something that he was just guiding through the motions.
Sure they were AIs… but they were pretty awesome AIs right? Like this one had taken only a few hours to get the patented Urdnot Headbutt down pat, it was an ancient technique passed down to him by his father (who he had killed) and his father before that and so on. Legend had it that only the chieftains of the tribe were allowed to learn the signature move, one so powerful that they could crush and destroy a Krogan in a single strike.
And now she was using it on some trees and it was so beautiful.
He wiped away a digital tear as he watched Arja use her own Chakra abilities (like super steroids?) to utterly crush and destroy a wall that was in front of her. One that he would have thought he would need a giant tank of some kind to breach.
Nope, she was doing Wrex proud and just smashing her way through the everything and it was beautiful.
He wiped another tear at that.
He hadn't used 50 digital tissues and he would deny and any all allegations that he had.
But… just… that was so beautiful.
Mmmmm.
Wrex hummed to himself as he flicked his eyes over to the other two feeds and they were… much less special.
Instead of going full Krogan, it was like they were half Krogan, half human. Always with the talking and the needless yammering away. Always with the diplomatic option, fuck the diplomatic option (the diplomatic option for Krogan being leaving it up to someone else to do the talking for them). Just go in guns blazing and blow the hell out of everything that wanted to stand in your way.
It couldn't be that hard could it?
Like right there. Arja just went in and boom, just punched some stupid little dead man walking so hard that he went through two walls and then splattered all over the ground as the body just disintegrated from the force.
Or like then where she…
Mmmmmmmm.
Wrex let out a sigh of satisfaction as he watched her kick the giant green thing in the balls, sending it to its knees which she promptly kicked out of the way, sending it down so its face was level with hers… and then holding both of its ears in her hands, she smashed her head forward and just… splattered it.
Mmmm.
Wrex was kind of happy that he chose this assignment actually.
Nodding to himself he sat back and watched her kick all the ass that could be kicked. Including some serious alien ass.
Like serious alien ass.
Wrex sat in front of the damned console asking himself… what the actual fuck was happening?
Oh right.
Dialogue.
Ummmmm.
Fucking fuck.
This was always Shepard's role, not his. He was the guy that crushed skulls, which in Krogan language made him the chief diplomat.
Or he was the guy that made the threats, lean over them just right, leer down and watch as they pissed their pants.
He was usually the one to go in and just either shoot things or punch them to little pieces, but given that Arja was much faster than he could hope to be, he didn't need to wonder what would happen to her if she didn't have a ranged weapon. Her fists on legs would be fast enough.
Not that that was relevant.
What was relevant was that he was here now and he was…
Ummm.
Fuck.
How did one respond to something like this?
"You really like getting up close and personal don't you?" The human asked… in a really suggestive kind of way, so obvious that even he could feel it.
Just… what was he supposed to reply to that?
"Yes?"
But he wanted to be friends, didn't he? Or maybe he was admiring her crushing of the everything? But he was a Krogan… what did he know about human sensibilities? He was a Krogan and these were human!
Wrex felt himself worry about some kind of future where Arja would be placed in great and imminent danger because of the words he typed out today.
Ummmm…
Wrex smacked a fist into his palm.
He could call a friend!
Setting the call function, he tapped his foot against the floor as he waited, it seemed urgent but time had been accelerated by a factor of 10 in here, he could spend all the time he wanted and nothing would change.
"Sup Wrex! What's going on brother!?" Came the voice of John Shepard. He wrinkled his brow in distaste, ugh. Joy.
He had watched some kind of ancient vid again and was going through one of his phases. Wrex wondered just how someone that piloted one of the Eva's was so… flighty.
No matter, he would try someone else. Hmmmm. Ah yes.
His sister.
"Pass me to Taldeer would you?" He asked of the human.
The two of them were practically inseparable so asking one for the other was generally the best way to go about things.
"Hey, Wrex. Just be yourself. Goodbye."
Ah.
The dulcet tones of an annoyed Eldar… he wondered what could be stupid enough to piss off one before he considered that this was the same reality that the Minds resided inside of.
Which was all the information he needed actually.
Yes.
Shaking his head at that, Wrex turned back to the choices available.
"Because you can feel their blood on your skin when they die." He typed out while also picking the body posture and facial expression while he did so.
Dominant, aggressive and superior was what he wanted.
Hitting send he nodded and watched as Arja parroted his lines and the mild (it was an iceberg) interest in the ninja's face turn into worry and panic as he backed away. Or was that excitement? He really wondered, humans were so diverse and strange.
Good riddance.
He wasn't going to let his Arja fall into some puny human's clutches!
Wrex stared at the screen in front of him and… then stared harder.
Just what did this punk just ask?
Hey, babe, I don't know if there's a heaven but you just fell right on down. How 'bout we go and get a drink and ease the pain?
Wrex had heard back pickup lines before… but this took the cake. What also took the cake was the fact that this bozo was propositioning his OAMU, his surrogate daughter.
This bastard really wanted to do this?
He was going to get all of this.
[Grab ears on either side of the head. Headbutt into the ground. Below Lethal Limit. No Words.]
He typed out the orders painstakingly one bit at the time, slowly, making sure that it was perfect because he did not want to mess this up. Too little and it might be provocation, too much and he was going to die.
He didn't want him to die because that would be an inconvenience to his OAMU, but he also didn't want him to get through it with minor injuries either. There had to be an incentive for the human to stay away from Arja, she was practically a daughter to him.
Nodding at that piece of logic, Wrex hit 'send' and watched with very wide open and gleeful eyes as Arja walked forward, grabbed the white haired idiot by the ears and delivered a truly ground shattering headbutt, one that sent his feet straight into the floor and oooooh the quads were crushed and he went straight on down.
Only his head was left and he was too knocked out from the pain to notice.
Nice.
-Nice- He sent, thoughts this time not actions.
Grinning at the sight of Arja walking away from the idiot who thought they could pick up Wrex's daughter, she grunted once and proceeded to ignore the new garden gnome. He grinned at that.
-Thank you- She sent back. Ah, hear that? It was the sound of actual thanks coming from someone, unlike his actual daughters who were so ungrateful that they didn't even pay their dad a visit more than once every hundred years. True he had a few thousand of them at this point and visits were a pain in the ass but seriously, they could at least try and come more often.
He shook his head at that and got back to watching.
There was a very big and very ugly thing that really wanted his daughter dead.
It was too bad then that his daughter had been trained in the ancient art of the Krogan Battle Headbutt.
The one that she was demonstrating now as she uppercutted a minotaur in the balls so hard that it exploded, sending the skull down to her level where a second punch sent it flying horn first into another one's face, ending that one too. And then she started with the knees… oh, the knees.
She moved on, and continued to hammer her way through pretty much everything that was in her way except for the skeletons because they collapsed from the tiniest of blows.
As in the tiniest of her blows. Their joints were magically affixed and when she touched them they went and just turned to dust.
It was beautiful and Wrex had to wipe away a tear at that.
He smiled as he allowed himself to assume control of her body, or rather assume part control of her body and bathed himself in the sensations of jumping around the forest and being a ninja.
Wrex had never thought he would be able to become a ninja if he was being honest, he had seen the human shows and had been intrigued by it all… but he also had some very stumpy legs and stumpy arms compared to the humans which meant that he was not exactly the most suited when it came to being a backflipping, face flipping, ninja.
It had been a cruel blow to the Krogan but over time he had gotten used to it. He couldn't work with the Asari styles, or the Quarians, or anything else really. They called it Krogan Battle Style for a reason, because only Krogans could actually do it properly… that and only Krogans were able to actually do it at all.
Disappointing but what can you do?
But now, he was inside of his daughter… which sounded really bad now that he thought about it, but he was inside of her mentally and could share in the sensation of flipping his way through the jungle and laughing and smiling and doing things like jumping and laughing.
It was a great feeling, made even more so by the fact that he was flipping awesome.
Wrex allowed himself to breathe in the air and… oh. Was that an enemy thing?
Yes, it was.
Restraining himself from squeeing with excitement for Krogans did not squee, he waited for his surrogate daughter to get in close enough to deliver one of her massive headbutts anddddd yess.
Wrex gave out a sigh of satisfaction as its head caved in and he felt the skull and brain matter just giving away under the force of the strike. His own head was naturally desensitized to it, but the human was not, he could feel all of it and it was glorious.
And then there was the jumping through the trees, feeling the wind in his face, the arms, the way the clothes flapped a little in the breeze… it was amazing and awesome and sooo cool.
Wrex felt like a fledgling for the first time in a long time, being able to be a ninja, feeling what it was like to be a ninja… mmm.
It was more fun than he could have ever hoped and he really hoped that he would be able to just kick all of the ass and just ride all of the winds.
Oh oh oh. What about Jutsu?
Oh… right.
Arja wasn't quite up to that was she.
Hmmmm.
He would need to find a way to teach her some kind of Jutsu because as she was now, he wouldn't be able to make things explode.
Things to think about then.
Wait… didn't she already know Jutsu? Why wasn't she using it?
He wanted to spit lasers like a real Krogan!