"How's the testing going?" I asked.

Rutendo, C5-6, shrugged, raising his hand and giving a thumbs up. "Solid pieces of work." He reported, glancing briefly at his datapad. "No problems with the IB-C04 Frame so far. As far as the final streamlining goes, I'd have to say you achieved everything you wanted."

That was in line with what my simulations had predicted, but it was nice to have confirmation in real-world data.

Across the board, two-to-four percent increases in performance, eight-to-ten percent decreases in cost, expected structural integrity up by five percent... Small things, really, but they added up over time. From prototype to the final model, the Frame had steadily ticked upwards in capability, and now it was as complete as it was going to get barring future technological breakthroughs that I didn't foresee happening any time soon.

It was better than almost any AC Frame in existence- barring, of course, the cost. Construction and repair times would be quite a bit higher than any other AC, since I was making high usage of nanotechnology in forming pretty much all of its components. It wouldn't be a problem if it didn't get damaged, but, well, they're warmachines. They're going to get damaged.

"Excellent." I hummed. "How's the weapons?"

"As expected." He nodded. "The old stuff is up to par, and the new stuff is performing at the expected parameters." A brief look passed over his face, not quite a grimace or a frown, but not far from either. "Though I do have to say that Deneb is a little too fond of the CO-CS."

"Oh?"

"Did you hear the maniacal cackling?" He asked.

I had, in fact, heard the maniacal cackling. I'd also been deep into the internals of a Lightwave projector, though, so I'd only asked Ezra if anyone was being hurt, and he'd said no to that. "Ah. I see."

"May I ask... what inspired that, exactly?"

I made the CO-CS because while the Pile Bunker had been my favourite weapon, DOUBLE TROUBLE had been a very close second. But I couldn't exactly explain that, could I? "It's made for heavy anti-armour work. I hope it's performing as intended?"

"Exceedingly." He sighed. "He's never going to not use that thing, you know that right?"

"So long as he uses it effectively, that shouldn't be too much of an issue." Then again, it would be hard to use that thing ineffectively. While quite different from any of the other CO designs, it was still a Coral Oscillator.

And, theoretically, there was nothing better to tear through heavy units that the PCA might bring to bear.

"I believe that leaves only a single thing." Rutendo leaned back. "What are you going to name the Frame?"

"Hah. I've been thinking about that one for a while now. I've chosen ELKHORN."

I had been stuck for quite some time on what I wanted to name the prototyping Frame. But then, like a bolt out of the blue, it hit me; Elkhorn.

A type of coral native to Earth, which served as an important reef-building coral that laid the foundations of entire ecosystems. Mostly wiped out due to various circumstances, but as far as the name went, I felt that it was rather appropriate. Elkhorn served as the foundations of coral reefs just as ELKHORN served as the basis for the entire IB-C04 program.

Rutendo raised an eyebrow. "What's an Elkhorn?"

"A type of lower-case 'c' coral organism that gets its name from the shape that its colonies grow into, resembling elk horns."

"What's an elk?"

"One of the largest species of deer, which possess horns growing from their heads."

"... What's a deer?"

"The PCA is sniffing around again." Flatwell sighed. "Doubtlessly looking for some connection between us."

"Not unexpected, but annoying." I noted. "Anything too problematic?"

He shook his head. "Not yet. And with Dolmayan having made his return so... loudly, I don't imagine that they'll be too eager to start trouble just yet."

That was an understatement if I'd ever heard one.

Dolmayan had been gone for the last three-ish months, unseen by anybody, and even the PCA had begun to take notice of that fact. But then Zatsuba had done their thing, and Dolmayan had put a stop to it.

And, as Flatwell had said, he'd done so loudly.

Zatsuba's assault force was gone. Dolmayan had reduced the entire thing to scrap metal with efficiency that my Firekeepers could only dream of. His assault had been so fast and so violent that by the time that the PCA arrived in the area in order to 'respond to Zatsuba distress signals', there'd been nothing left of them to save. Of course, finding one of their biggest targets in the area, they had then tried to kill him.

Dolmayan had reduced them to scrap metal, too.

A full Subject Guard squad, gone within the minute.

And he'd done it while proselytising.

"No matter how hard the tyrants try, they cannot kill the soul!" Dolmayan called, and promptly evaporated an AH12 with a single stab of his Laser Blade directly through the armour between the rotors.

"Craven vultures! Obedient to an unfeeling machine! You who have given up your hearts have no place on Rubicon! You will not stifle the fire that abides in us all! Forged in ash, we stand as one!"

And that was just the short version.

I got my hands on the recording later on, after it went through the public networks.

As one may imagine, the RLF was stoked.

There were only a few ways for the PCA to handle this, and unfortunately for them, their preferred method of simply smashing the place flat would now be seen by a dozen outside factions, which would limit their choices less the negative optics of the situation fall on them.

In a way, this actually turned out quite incredible for us. Since the PCA couldn't spend too much effort on them, they now had to focus on us, since we were much less well known. Goal achieved, in a rather roundabout manner.

This was admittedly not great for us, but at least it meant we could start planning out a few things. The next Firestorm wasn't too far away, after all.

"You'll be taking your logistical asset soon, I gather?" I asked.

He nodded. "The next Firestorm ought to provide us the cover we need to examine it in full. As far as I am aware, it is only mildly damaged. It is not inoperational."

"Fair enough. I've got my own list of targets for the day." And weren't they a list...

The local scene wasn't exactly... enthused. Dosers were as Dosers always were, but the rest of the outsiders? Not exactly happy to see one man very publicly deleting a corporation, and then following that up by deleting a Subject Guard Squad. That follow up investigation showed that said corporation's other assets had also been deleted was making a few people pretty nervous.

It was a coin flip for people leaving and for staying. What was certain though was that everybody was now aware that the RLF was not, in fact, backwater yokels to be pushed over at the earliest convenience. Now, people knew that they actually needed somebody really good to deal with that.

I fully expected mercs to be arriving fairly shortly. Not in greater numbers at first, but those kinds of services were exceptionally useful, and with one of the bigger factions now out of the way? Some new licences had just opened up.

Until then, though? Things would continue as they were.

I had a lot of plates spinning. And I do mean a lot, there. I had projects to keep up with, I had people to take care of, I had children, and I had an entire stellar organisation that I was slowly working on killing in a way that won't cause big problems.

If I'd been just Human, I'd have been pulled in so many directions that I'm quite certain I would have come apart in the process. But, if there was one benefit to being made entirely out of a mass of materials that could act as a self-generating processor, it was that I did, in fact, have the brainpower for it all.

Still, even I prioritised.

Some projects did not need constant, continuous attention. Some of them only needed a program to watch over them and tell me if I needed to start paying attention again.

For example; my Coral vacuum chambers that I'd set up a few months ago now.

Results hadn't been forthcoming quickly with them, and as more and more projects ended up in my sphere, I ultimately left them mostly to be watched over by automated systems. I made a point of checking them personally every week considering the specific nature of the vacuum chamber projects, but there hadn't been much of any actual interest.

That is, until now.

Quick refresh; there were four chambers, all of which were held in different conditions, in order to see if those conditions would prompt the formation of Coral Minds. Chamber One and Two both mimicked the violent separation of the Fires of Ibis, where parts of my being had been replicated into discordant masses of Coral. Chamber One had what I thought was the bare minimum to reach the point of sapience, while Chamber two was under that point, but free to grow more. Chamber Three was 'quiet', purposefully separated with nothing of me within, and Chamber Four was like Chamber One and Two, but there was still a minor Contact rather than complete separation.

All the chambers were surrounded by some rather very finely attuned sensors, designed to pick up transmission activity in Coral. According to their data, Chamber Three had been completely silent, but Chambers One, Two, and Four?

Active.

Chamber One was the most active, by far. Partial wave-noise had been detected, brief, faint, irregular, and uncommon, but present. Chamber Two was similar, but further behind in the process, only having just begun what Chamber One had already gone through, with only a small amount of noise so far. Under the same logic, Chamber Four was the furthest behind, with only two separate instances of wave-noise so far. Something interesting to see, since Chamber Four had the same approximate mass as Chamber One.

Useful information already. Chamber Three's complete silence so far was a point in favour of the theory that I had been the ultimate source of all other Coral Minds. I'd have to see how that panned out with more time, of course, but in this particular case, I actually hoped the theory was correct; Chamber Three's circumstances would mirror the circumstances of all Coral that had been removed from Rubicon, slowly drawn out of my range and with nothing left of me in it. If the theory was correct, then none of those Coral masses would have their own Minds; which was desirable in the greater galaxy.

The differing stages of Chambers One, Two, and Four, though, hinted at the validity of my theories for the Coral colonies still on Rubicon. The fact that Four was -theoretically, mind- still so far behind in terms of progress did seem to indicate that pre-existing minds within a colony would suppress the formation of new ones. That was... interesting, considering how social Coral was as a basic organism. Chamber Two being that far behind Chamber One indicated that it took a certain size before the process could start. That made a bit more sense, mass and processing went hand in hand for Coral, after all.

I still needed more data- needed more time. However...

Knowing all this was still going to inform my future actions. It would let me further refine the likelihood of which Coral deposits would have Coral Minds.

... And, if things kept progressing, I'd soon have more children regardless. A heady feeling, that. Experiments these might have been, but these would be the first... semi-intentional progeny.

Nothing to it for the moment.

Alright. Other things to be doing. It'll happen when it happens...