After the purge subsided the core room was left with only red flashing lights alerting everyone present of a critical reactor failure and as Specter One looked up he saw a burnt husk in female form slowly walking over to him before grabbing him by his neck and bashing his face into the wall with no signs of stopping.

At that moment he heard Shadow Two’s Voice and glimpsed his way, however everything was a blur..

“No! I won’t let you-”

What followed was the sound of him firing his side arm, after blacking out and waking once more, there was only silence as a blurry image of Jack sat against the wall, his side arm in his lap, and a torn off Terror-Mech Claw where his head should be..

Subsequently, Shadow One, ‘tested’ her luck once more before firing into its body, before she too had her dagger ‘returned’ to her through her neck after being thrown at unrealistic speeds as she struggled to remove it and her suit attempted to seal the hole in her neck.

But not before she began using her side arm until she ran out of charge from her laser repeater..

As a result, the last thing Specter One saw was the burnt husk turning to ash in the presence of what he assumed to be a mirage wearing an all too familiar suit of precursor armor..

“This is not your tomb..”

His voice boomed in Specter-Ferris’s mind as everything else began to fade only to be faded by a brilliant white light.

…

After seemingly hours had passed.. Ferris was finally woken up where he laid by the sound of an all too familiar southern voice and the sound of footsteps..

“I’d be damned! Specter One? Don’t worry I got ya! Now before y’all start reprimanding, I wager it took a whole hour with my trusty shovel digging ya out. At least before Delta Squad or whoever these boys are, gave me a helping hand. Now, on my three.. one.. two.. three!”

Roy unceremoniously blurted out, his southern accent thicker than ever, as he helped Ferris up and slowly limped with him to collect Beta’s Chip, scan the curator’s power armor, and remove the A.I Chips that resided in the other half of his body..

After turning around the two looked at the exit, and to Ferris’s surprise Roy had in fact dug a clear path..

“Not.. my fault.. Ferris.. him.. Alpha.. hmm? Oh.. bleh blah blupe..”

Delta unconsciously mumbled, leaving Roy to only chuckle as Delta Squad carried Cheyenne & Jack and their short lived time as Shadow One & Two.

“Huh-yeah darling-what? You got to be kidding me.. Specter-no hell Ferris I ain’t fond of being the bearer of bad news, but you gotta know. Blair-my Curator Contact just told me The Curator Net lit up like a bunch of fireworks and you’re slapped down right in the middle of it? She won’t tell me much other than they think you killed that guy back there-”

Roy quietly whispered, unfortunately, Ferris was in no state to reply as he quietly groaned in turn.

…

One hours had soon passed..

Limping was indeed an ineffective means of travel as they finally stepped into the sun.. and as to be expected a great deal had changed? The mountain was no longer a mountain while despite there still being ice it was warm and rather moist as Ferris heard a new voice.

“Captain, I fear Delta isn’t completely lucid at this time due to her unsafe vicinity to the neutron purge and Alpha is still recovering. I have reconnected to The New Harvest Network, and I’m ready to assist!”

Beta kindly humored.. at the very least he trusted her more than Delta, especially in her current state. Subsequently, Roy waved off Beta as they boarded an unusual shuttle, as it made its way to The Medical Cruiser above.

Roy had unceremoniously borrowed it from R&D shortly before it was mothballed, the crew on the other hand were Synthetic Human so that was something?

They were after all practically human in that regard, not clones but humans born synthetically and biologically engineered. As to why they weren’t widely known of, or seen is likely because they opted out of their synthetic identity.

And In the greater scheme of things they were again not widely known and at most sent to the more isolated and tedious tasks elsewhere.

Listening posts monitors, transport captains, mining, minor infiltration such as being an officer of no significant rank in several major factions, armed forces, corporations, pirates, and the like. They were not born to suffer life and death altercations or endure unnecessary risks.

They were simply sent into the wild, filled in the gaps, and gathered intelligence wherever they decided to go. And aside from those with specific duties, the fast majority of them were sent out and told to make themselves useful one way or the other.

There were even dozens of pirate and salvage fleets led by them roaming around and boarding merchant ships for their manifests and uploading them to send back to New Harvest.

Quantum Entanglement no doubt played a significant role in that regard, combined with their near infinite information storage, and A.Is to sort out anything useful, assisted greatly in information gathering.

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Subsequently, Ferris had been previously pushed into the role of director of intelligence over their operations, which in itself was merely a title with benefits as it was already autonomous at this point in time.

He had used the role as his own personal information network as Specter One, while the title was strictly hidden within New Harvest’s Secret Service Branches, ensuring its secrecy. While none of which particularly interested him in his current state..

…

As all the dust cleared, all three were rushed on stretchers to the advanced care facilities on board..

The Medical Cruiser or rather The N.H.S Hospital Ship was unique in the sense that it was pure white, and appeared no different from a oversized medical transport, only far larger, and with all the bells and whistles they could throw add to its hull.

While its hull in particular was especially thick, its shields considerable, and its defensive capabilities far more superior than any ship in The New Harvest Fleet. The downside was no doubt its cost making it infeasible to mass produce..

…

Thirty minutes after boarding..

All three had little choice but to remain in the seemingly restricted Infirmary? The only reason why Roy could stay was no doubt because he made himself The Supreme Admiral of R&D, which in actuality was a genuine title created in Roy’s honor.

However, to the ship and those synthetic humans present they didn’t know that little fact.

Because of this, Specter One & Ferris were recorded to be on their medical leave, and the mission and its related reports only falling on Ernest’s Desk rather than that of The Board’s, as far too much had already occurred to care for diplomatic maneuvers.

…

An hour had soon..

Within moments of awakening, he was forcefully disconnected as little of the vat tanks remained.

Forcing all three to rush to get dressed after only partially being healed, however that was enough, the bruises, a partially healed broken rib here and intense pain mattered very little as long as their bones were intact.

“Warning-”

Beta could only get out a single word before letting out a blood curdling scream that nearly burst Ferris’s eardrums.

“What in the goddamn?! Someone cut off my link to-oh hell her name is Blair! And whatever is going on is trying its darndest to stop her from coming to our rescue? I wager The Curators still think you killed one of their boys-oh and that old suit of yours is glowing so we should get the hell out of dodge-”

Roy suddenly blurted out, as a massive explosion tore through the hull across the hall, resulting in mass decompression as the ship attempted to enter orbit. Forcing them to rush towards the breach only to see Delta Squad in a medical shuttle.

“Jump you idiots!”

Delta One screamed through the opened shuttle door, and as they jumped the shuttle was forced to maneuver onto its side and catch them as they met its interior at a high rate of speed.

Thankfully Roy and Ferris knew a thing or two about their suits’ thrusters. Jack & Cheyenne were subsequently lacking in that area as they had unfortunately crashed into Delta Team as the shuttle flipped around and attempted to make its way to The Capital.

“You fly it! I’m finding a place to hide!”

Delta reasonably demanded as she cut herself off from his suit and remained purely in her chip, forcing the shuttle she had been piloting prior to free fall until Jack took over its flight controls.

She’d be damned if whatever came for Beta and Alpha got her too! And they were the strong ones! Ferris naturally wouldn’t comment as to put it bluntly, his suit was off, he was on medical leave, and he was not Specter One at the present.

However, it wasn’t over as the cruiser began repairing itself and spiraling down to catch up to them. And before anyone knew it, Specter One reconnected to his shadow enforcer suit, and set the smart self-destruct before it could cut him off.

It would appear it was smart in the sense that Shadow Enforcers were ‘capable’ of combating Curators to some degree, in addition to their support even if purely through self-defense? However, he had removed the safeguards and allowed it to act ‘proportionality’..

And the result was almost instantaneous as the cruiser and the one controlling it experienced an unknown phenomenon, that being a combination of electromagnetic pulse capable of killing most or at the very least severely injure A.I, and a Anti-Synthetic Based Neutron Pulse.

Naturally, it was weaker in suit form however, telling by the fact that the carrier broke apart before eventually crashing into the ocean at a high rate of speed meant it was clearly enough.

Sadly, it still wasn’t enough for Delta to be useful, as moments later a Curator Cruiser appeared, and Roy had a big smile on his face as he directed Jack into enter its hangar and for everyone except Ferris and himself to leave the shuttle..

Roy for one knew he was going to get an earful for inviting guests over without telling her, however, there was something she needed to tell them, and he preferred it be in person.

…

Soon after making their way to the bridge, the mood became tense as ‘Blair’ sat on the captain’s chair tapping her nails on the armrest.

When it came to her appearance, she had brown hair with subtle undertones of caramel and chestnut, giving her hair a radiant, sun-kissed appearance, while styled into a fishtail crowned braid.

Which had in turn complimented her soft porcelain skin with ever so slight caramel undertones further complimenting her caramel golden eyes.

She wore a comfortably tight-laced curator dress of brown and gold, and knee-high boots.

“Hey Darlin-”

Roy attempted to introduce as both him and Ferris couldn’t breathe for several months as if the air had evaporated from their longs until finally she sighed and leaned back allowing them to breathe once more.

“Ferris W Welsh.. you're fortunate. Were you not, I wouldn’t have involved myself even for Roy’s sake. That.. child you had encountered in The Haust Conclave was especially bothersome. She had framed you initially for the death of the first child, but not the second. Some would prefer if you ‘were’ responsible for both, for the mere sake of theatrics..”

Her words were calm but ultimately indifferent as she signaled Roy to not to speak. It was evident she knew exactly who he was and likely more than she’d be willing to speak on had Roy not been present.

However, she had chosen to speak to him directly through his neural implant for the sake of privacy.

“Whether you know it or not, your father’s legacy left its mark, no matter how tedious the phrase? And as you were his only son born of this era, his death was never something we had accounted for. Neither was your sister, a century your elder. Suffice to say she was responsible for the first attempt on your life, but not the second”

Blair subtly remarked with a yawn, as a result, Ferris felt a cold chill down his spine. To put it bluntly, he was never expressly told he had a sister, until he later learned while ‘interning’ within an organization that officially didn’t exist..