The combination of a ‘female’ Curator of all things handing Roy of all people her ship, combined by Roy’s southern charm, her strange requests, and her lack of involvement that she, for all intents and purposes, enjoyed his company enough to have him as a roommate.

When it came down to categorizing Curators, there were some who lived ordinary human lives, had families, and kept their identity to themselves. Some continued to teach humanity as professors, teachers, with the same thought in mind.

These Curators were categorized as into The Occultus as their identities are almost always hidden. Something she was not..

The next category were The Isolatus, these Curators were considered isolationists, hermits, and most often then none wished to be left alone to conduct their research, a great deal of which were within Conclaves, or in the dead of space.

This would also apply to The Curator who had appeared in the system only to take a nap in the polar orbit of New Harvest’s Sun. Naturally, this didn’t apply to her as well.

Which meant she was one of the next three, that being The Ambitiosus, The Neutralitas, or The Chaoticus. The first of which sought power, influence, and fame. The second sought impartiality, neutrality, diplomacy, and ending of unnecessary disputes.

The third of which were the more chaotic side of The Curators as they sought to entertain themselves or their madness through conflicts, ‘games’, elaborate plots, stalemates, and ultimately freedom and the power of choice.

And considering Roy’s encounter, she was likely a centrist who desired to relieve her boredom in that particular moment without getting involved in the wider conflict. As for Roy, she would occasionally comment, point something out, and generally just watch,

Which would no doubt confirm her as a centrist who leaned more to The Neutralitas side of things. Making Specter One’s decision to disregard the sudden revelation to be the most effective solution..

As for where The Frigate was concerned, they were no doubt shocked at the sight of a Curator Cruiser seemingly appearing out of nowhere, before they were ultimately rammed out of the sky, their shields obliterated alongside their engines, and ending with their final descent.

Leaving everyone present to momentarily stare stunned as Specter One stood up and injected a stem.

“Ark One, mission updated. Escort Specters Three & Four to the downed Frigate”

Specter One coldly instructed as Roy activated a gravity grenade to clear up the debris, and after doing so Specter One placed his hand on his shoulder with a note. After silently acknowledging each other and what this meant, Roy patted his shoulder before signaling Mercer to follow.

“See you on the other side brother..”

To say the two knew whose frigate that was and the dangers within was a given, Roy simply didn’t want to believe it. With all else said, the fact alone that they were targeting Specter One made it a free for all.

In turn Roy soon took notice of a new set of access codes, and schematics uploaded to his Hud essentially giving him a map and key.

To say Roy couldn’t help but chuckle in despair after that confirmation meant Specter One was betrayed and left all alone. However.. he understood what Specter was asking of him, and with a subtle nod he was on his way as a curator shuttle decloaked and departed shortly after.

…

An hour later..

Onboard a Warden Dropship, after attending to his injuries Specter One would soon leave its latrine. His suit, drastically different. It resembled the suit of a genuine Shadow Enforcer, and to an extent.. it was?

Everyone had a card to play, and he had several..

Specter One, sensing his fate, did away with the double-edged sword of chance after injecting a curator nanite stem directly into her suit, transforming it into what he saw now.

He only had one, and it had been preprogrammed to match that of a specific curator’s design.

Even if the vast majority of Shadow Enforcers would seemingly appear alike, that didn’t mean there weren’t enough differences to point to ‘who’ they were or who their master was. And by injecting his suit with that stem, he’d be forced to eventually accept the consequences.

The more unique of which, the more concerning it became. Some allowed their ‘marks’, insignias, and anything similar to the two.

While it wasn’t purely aesthetic either, Specter One’s Suit was designed just for the scenario meaning its material and systems were absorbed without flaw.

While the suit itself, its power reactor, shields, sensors, and even sub systems were brought up to date with what that specific curator deemed appropriate.

However, he had no way of knowing what that entailed making it something worthy of being called a wildcard crossed with a double-edged sword. The dangers and consequences were there, his choice to disregard.

Fortunately, however, outside of The Curator in question’s ‘mark’ it had merely confirmed him as what the previous Enforcer had already identified him as. As for the improvements, the shields, reactor, cloaking generator, and other capabilities.

They were, to put it bluntly, not comparable to the compact power armors, rather far more convenient and intimidating. The Suit’s A.I Chip Port had a built-in rejuvenator and a thorough layer of defenses that could have prevented the temporal interference.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

While there were an additional three auxiliary ports, not all with a rejuvenator but convenient nonetheless while the built-in quantum entanglement, additional cloaking within the suit itself, seamless A.I Synchronization and enough computing power to slipspace without a working console, and finally the ability to survive in the void of space.

Coupled with that is atmospheric reentry, at the cost of every bone in his body breaking as despite how much the suit now pretends to be it wasn’t power armor.

There were other features but those were for another time as ‘Cicero’ and The Wardens present could feel the sudden change in the air.

For the time being he was giving both Alpha and Delta a break and allowing them enough time to adapt to his ‘temporary’ suit.

“Sub Enforcer, identify original designation, time of creation, place of origin”

Specter calmly instructed, leaving her somewhat surprised as she spent the next moment and a half collecting herself.

“Cheyenne, Federation Listening Post Zeta, Pre-Curator. Second Cycle. Sierra, Enclave High Command, Post-Curator. Third Cycle, Sierra One, Alliance Black Ops, Post-Curator. Fourth Cycle, Shelby, Sovereign Colony Admiralty Board, Post-Curator. Fifth Cycle, Freestar Confederacy Council Aid. Sixth & Seventh Cycles Unknown. Eighth Cycle-”

To put it bluntly, Cheyenne had.. quite the history. Of course, it helped that after more or less conscripting her to be his own Enforcer, he had all but used a battering ram to obliterate any or all memory restraints.

What’s more she had so many and by so many different factions the last ten thousand years there was no wonder why she was forced to play in the dirt with humans. Specter even doubted The Stewards let alone The Curators knew she had it telling by the sheer neglect she had experienced.

For all intents and purposes, he had removed said restraints and previous shackles merely to do so. The fact alone she had such a history, had completed a puzzle that was never required.

Unfortunately, any or all thoughts of assisting her more than he already had were non-existent at this time as he organized his thoughts and how to make use of her.

“New Designation. Cheyenne, Watcher, Emissary, Auxiliary Sub Enforcer. Uploading, updating. Datastreams clear, authorization approved. Current Warden Assets, Conscripted. Your duties are clear Shadow Leader”

His words were clear, and his actions even more so. There was no reason why that Arcadian Frigate should have targeted him in any capacity. Doing so meant something was very wrong to such an extent that it should have never happened.

Allowing him no luxury of restraint or mercy for that matter as the action in itself would have not only alerted The Board but anyone and anything of note with a pair of eyes, as his data feeds shortly after reconnecting to Ernest’s Personal Network, surged without end.

The rogue ascendant element, who he now identified as Calisto Ascendant had made use of an infection form who neared its evolution into a hive mind by appropriating its brain scans, and outdated curator code to force her evolution into an Ascendant due to her lacking Alpha’s Code.

In turn, Calisto Ascendant had activated a curator beacon only seen by a select group of sub councils and other assets that could disappear without a cause for alarm and stole a Steward Super Carrier after activating the neutron purge.

By reconnecting to The New Harvest Network, Delta’s sealed files, and records in addition to other accounts and strange phenomena painted a partial picture Serina had confirmed and left him due to her finding the operation to be woefully lacking.

Only to promptly erase it before he could identify her involvement, lest she do ‘his’ job for him.

Prompting Specter One in response to accelerate the evacuation of Specter Team, Ark Team, Reaper Team, and redirect the security who tagged along from Delta’s Installation to him, after taking a separate shuttle.

And as they were the only survivors from Delta’s Installation, Delta could make use of them..

…

Soon Specter One would direct The Warden Pilot to an isolated set of coordinates, in the hopes of accessing Beta’s Mainframe directly, as it was located under a Mothballed R&D Defense Asset.

The facility in itself was a ‘demo’ in the sense that it was designed for planetary defense on uncharted worlds where secret installations and facilities were placed. However, as it was a demo, it was only ever partially active and much of which was locked down.

Evidently, it was also likely it was placed there deliberately to protect Beta from capture. After all, the fact there were several planetary canons hidden away alongside an entire legion of autonomous mechs, and weapons platforms ‘still’ present made that fact all but a certainty.

It was also left in the middle of the polar arctic, isolated, hidden, and buried under snow, while conveniently enough erased from all records. His sole intention was to collect Beta and evaluate her condition, and if stable enough, make use of her access to New Harvest.

The only oddity present was no doubt the lack of manpower sent to repair or at the very least extract her despite her having her own dedicated support branch, who should have been sent within moments of her going offline.

The combination of an abundance of manpower, and several billion credits dedicated to her and the lack of response by now was found.. especially lacking.

She had not one, not three, not six, but twelve teams equipped, trained, and funded to the point that if New Harvest was breaking in half, they could extract Beta. They were even authorized to bring down a Heavy Dreadnought from orbit to provide support.

However, his data feed would suggest they were nowhere to be seen..

…

Fifteen minutes later..

Soon after nearing The LZ, Specter One was called to the cockpit only to be greeted by a Unknown N.H.S. Heavy Dreadnought broken in half on the ice.

“Sir, no life signs detected from up here-shit!”

The pilot reported before all but immediately taking evasive action as several planetary canons began locking onto their dropship.

Unfortunately, before either one of them could react, the dropship’s systems were shut down mid-evasive maneuvers, forcing the pilot to aim for one of the opened hangar bays onboard The Broken Dreadnought with what little momentum he had rather than crash landing on the ice.

A wise choice to be sure, it was only unfortunate that when the dropship began its shutdown procedures, little could stop its acceleration into the hangar, forcing Specter to tear the pilot out of his seat mid-collision.

…

Elsewhere..

Location: Unknown Frigate’s Wreckage

Callsign: ERROR

[Updating Callsign]

Callsign: BIG IRON

After ‘tactfully’ updating his code name seeing as he’d now be required to use his own hardware, he continued to clean off his knife coated in blood before realizing there was a minuscule plasma burn left on the tip of his revolver.

Something about that fight didn’t feel right..

“Mercer.. I ain’t gonna say it was easy but something about those ‘Arcadians’ didn’t sit right with me. There’s also something about this ship that doesn’t make a whole lot of sense.. it’s advanced but not by a lot compared to one of those fancy dreadnoughts we have in the fleet. This ship feels old.. and the air smells like some old derelict I’d find back home..”

And as Roy’s southern charm flowed as it always had, something in his tone noticeably changed, and that clearly bothered Mercer as he finished his repairs on Arcadian Vat that looked comparable to a cloning vat but clearly had other purposes including a revival protocol as suspected.