The Present..

[Approximately Three Hours Since The Start of The Engagement]

Soon Specter One’s implant began to dim after the surge of reports, and engagements occurring on New Harvest. An Ultor Penal Legion, a Private Army made up of off the record and disposable shock troopers had landed in thousands of insertion pods.

Unfortunately, & fortunately, only five thousand shock troopers managed to make landfall on their insertion pods including the escape pods following the rather ‘immediate’ destruction of The Ultor Penal Fleet before they landed on New Harvests Main Continent.

However, only an hour had passed since then, prompting Specter One to forgo the hidden pathways used by The Wardens and retrace his steps to The Wardens themselves. But not without the others taking notice as Calisto had also experienced the very same unfortunate phenomenon.

Leaving Roy to have a word or two of what he thought of Specter One’s current condition as he all but seamlessly removed Calisto and tossed her into that funny looking thing that was coincidentally The Curator Rejuvenator.

Roy wasn’t a smart man, albeit he was but he trusted his instincts, and knowledge of what he’s looking at so if it looks similar to something he knew leaving Calisto in his implant when the metallic bits turned bright red similar to a toaster was something he personally felt was dangerous.

And had it not been Roy doing so in his place, Specter One would have naturally ‘prevented’ anyone else from doing exactly that. Which only ever revealed the amount of what could be perceived as immense trust Specter One had for the man..

“Brother.. I ain't gonna pretend to know the pain you're in, that ain’t my place. But I ain’t gonna pretend that your implant of yours didn't light up like a Christmas tree on Christmas day. You’d be as stubborn as a mule if you thought I’ll let that brain of yours turn into a steaming bowl of grits? Now stay still-what the hell.. your implant.. Mercer!”

Roy’s ordinarily calm southern charm changed in all but an instant as he saw the state of Specter’s Implant, it wasn’t just overloaded, it was made malleable at an atomic level, as Mercer all but immediately begun to remove it ‘manually’ through the use of a hologram, a hologram that had quickly shorted out after removing the implant that now sunk into the floor.

“A Curator Failsafe.. intriguing but ultimately expected. Severe burns.. easily rectifiable. Brain scans reveal temporary trauma and elaborate scarring on the brain stem. Side Effects include Sciatica, Peripheral Neuropathy, Potential Mental Blocks and Paresthesia is to be expected but not long lasting-”

Mercer all but calmly evaluated as he coated the burns, numbed the pain, and reinserted an organic based implant Roy had ‘appropriated’ from a mothballed evolutionary project using remnant cells of an Unknown Ascendant Progenitor.

As to why Roy had it.. to put it bluntly it was a waste not to.

While he did expect someone on Specter Team would need a new implant sooner rather than later so he kept it around merely as one would do with extra batteries and funnily enough, he had those too.. albeit spare compact reactors he had also ‘appropriated’ from mothballed projects.

And after replacing Specter One’s shortly after Mercer installed the organic implant, Roy reinstalled a new reactor on Mercer’s Suit before simply placing the sentry gun pack on Mercer’s back figuring he may need it the most.

Mercer after all ‘was’ trained and could kill the best of them without his trinkets, ‘however’ he found it tedious and merely liked to watch or if need be, provide sniper support.. an odd preference to be sure but neither Roy nor Specter One cared to discuss it with him.

However, soon after making their way to The Wardens, it wasn’t difficult to notice they were cleaning up the mess as The Female Warden and Delta were ‘discussing’ matters.

At least until Specter One, filled to the prim with his suit’s automatic stims, filled in the gap between The Female Warden and Calisto Delta. What followed was Specter One forcing Delta to translate his thoughts.

And translated she did! It was only ‘unfortunate’ that he left his more ‘uncensored' thoughts on the table. As a result, she did as he asked..

“The Thirty Third Steward & Seventy Seventh Warden Sub Councils are hereby ‘marked’ for censure. They’re unauthorized interlopers who have commenced hostilities in favor of a Rogue Ascendant A.I making use of Outdated Curator Code collected through Project Chrono-”

Delta unfortunately declared before all but immediately being forced back into his suit.

“Assuming Direct Command. Conscription Authorized. Do not resist..”

Specter One’s words were immediate as was his actions as he shackled The Female Warden who he now identified as a Warden Council Enforcer, whose name was evidently was ‘Cicero’ before seemingly being ‘relieved’ of her duties in favor of taking command of The Warden Equivalent of her Specter Team.

Warden Enforcers were generally respected by those of their Steward Equivalent due to the sheer strict adherence to completing objectives and quality control.

Curator Enforcers didn’t have much thought of them, so naturally they didn’t command the same respect.

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Curators only chose Stewards Councilors, Arcadians, Ascendants, or a child of any one of the three. There were no exceptions, so a Warden Enforcer with neither the backing, experience, or brilliance would be considered nothing more than cannon fodder.

Being an A.I made no difference.. and in the end, her choosing to follow a counselor to New Harvest and leading this team was her ‘only’ chance to progress in any meaningful way.

In the end by discovering this, Specter One revealed something he never desired to reveal to any lesser individual as ‘his’ voice echoed in her mind, neither hidden nor halted by manipulations forcing her into the revelation that she ‘knew’ who he truly was, making it every ounce more terrifying.

“We have come to an impasse”

…

Thirty minutes had soon passed as they neared the exit only to be greeted by the sounds of a battle raging outside of conclave’s entrance as it would appear much of The Penal Legions Fleet’s Debris & Ships alongside their escape pods and crews were redirected to land on their continent.

Likely not by their own accord, due to the unpredictable nature of uncontrolled debris and ships falling from orbit..

And soon Specter One’s ‘retinue’ were greeted by a peculiar site of a Frigate of ‘unknown’ configuration firing its overloaded beam emitters of pure overheated plasma and taking out not only the members of the penal legion who broke through the perimeter, but the already unfortunate convoy presumed lost hours prior having seemingly returned to the complex.

It didn’t take long for Reaper Two to seemingly uncloak and tackle both Roy and Specter One back into the conclave. Ironically enough, the conclave, despite having little but no power, powered up the very same shields that had been used to contain the neutron purge.

Whether it be faith, or sheer luck, it mattered little as it too was overloaded. In turn, Reaper Two activated the explosives near the entrance and collapsed it with the blast pointing outwards.

…

As the dust cleared Reaper Two was gone..

It only took moments to realize neither the explosion or unknown frigate had killed him, rather a precise bolt of overheated plasma shot by a cloaked figure from an impossible distance.

If that wasn’t all, it had partially gone through him and into Specter One himself as Roy respectfully handed Reaper Two off to Mercer before giving Specter a hand.

“Haven’t seen one of those in awhile.. at least we got ourselves a target. Mercer we ain’t gonna leave that boy here, when I take that thing out of the sky, we’ll need to bring him along. If they have that kind of firepower, I wager they should have a revival vat hidden away somewhere? Now sit back and watch the show..”

Roy coldly reassured followed by a fit of coughs from the dust, and before anyone knew it, he activated a sizable holographic screen for all to see, covered in a series of warnings and black lines before revealing he may or may not have stashed away more than a few mothballed projects.

The one he had in mind was called Project Scourge, a sizable Curator Cruiser recovered from a ‘missing’ Curator Enforcer Fleet, while Evidently it was a Curator Planet Killer. Naturally that capability was greatly capped before it was decommissioned and officially ‘scrapped’.

New Harvest in all its brilliance had not only ‘found’ such a cruiser, but several of its less impressive and standard cousins. None of which were less than five centuries old and were still in Curator Service by the time of their retrieval.

In actuality Ernest had unceremoniously ‘confiscated’ a small Enforcer Fleet ‘undamaged’ and merely out of his own curiosity to see how much they had improved. Before hiding them away and tossing the planet killer to the side to be found by The Board..

Specter One was present and had seemingly assisted him in that regard, especially when it came to keeping Ernest Anonymous. Evidently, what The Curators had seen was ‘Specter’ board, and an hour later their fleet had been stolen to much of their confusion?

Ernest ensured they weren’t made aware of the other elements present, as only Ernest and Specter had been present, and no one, not New Harvest, The Board, nor Alpha, or Serina were ever made aware of their bonding trip.

Mercer was the only one who ever got close, and he assumed Specter himself soloed a Curator Planet Killer and brought it back while on his ‘vacation’.

While Roy in all of his brilliance was responsible for its deconstruction, and in turn he may not have been able to get his hands on it before they had ‘partially’ removed that capability, however no one said anything about ‘moons’.

Which was made all too evident as he had managed to unlock a small portion of its planet killing capabilities, before test firing it into several moons and a.. Curator Dreadnought. Roy had a dream, and he’d be damned if he didn’t squeeze that little fact in there!

It also couldn’t be helped; he had only meddled in that particular capability, as for reasons unknown he had kept all the armaments intact, which had ultimately translated to him hiding away a ‘present’ era Curator Cruiser in pristine condition.

And as this was a better chance than any, he activated satellite imagery and displayed the frigate and the cameras from the cruiser itself as its A.I, something Roy had also kept hidden away, targeting the frigate as it attempted to leave the atmosphere.

“Hey darlin, do you see that frigate there? Yeah, that one.. ram it!”

Within moments the cruiser slipspaced inside of the atmosphere directly in the path of the frigate before all but immediately ramming it back down where it belonged. But not without destroying its engines and slip spacing instantaneously after.

Evidently, The Curator Cruiser was as Roy had discreetly mentioned to Specter One shortly after the revelation, fully active, which ultimately meant its weapons, sheilds, slipspace drive, and systems were ‘completely’ active.

Again, the only partial powered object on the ship was its ability to destroy planets, everything else was, for rather of a better term.. still up to date to ‘current’ Curator Specifications. Which had reluctantly led to Roy’s next revelation..

The A.I currently in control of The Curator Cruiser was.. a Curator who had seemingly made use of Roy’s curiosity after he had unceremoniously rebuilt the already deconstructed quantum relay attached to what he had initially believed to be its sensors..

In actuality, the relay itself did not connect to the sensors, rather The Curator Network.

Subsequently, The Curator whose fleet had seemingly disappeared made use of this opportunity, and in turn discovered Roy all alone, and the ship itself seemingly hidden somewhere in uncharted space?

It took Roy nearly an hour before he realized she was now seated in the captain’s chair, staring at him for him to finally hit his head from underneath the console, before apologizing to the console and complementing the ship itself.

Naturally, after he had turned around and saw an angry woman staring at him, he knew right then and there that his luck ran out. Ironically enough, the two had hit it off and she allowed him to keep the ship with the exception that she ‘remained’ onboard and in his suit.

Subsequently, Specter One chose to disregard this revelation in favor of not involving himself in Roy’s more ‘private’ affairs.