Matthew continued to follow Doc up the narrow sandstone staircase for a few minutes before they reached a large open space, he got a little backlash from the fact that the ancient staircase carved out from stone to the large hangar that was filled with all kind of high-tech machinery and equipment, which included more than a few heavy vehicles, the entire hanger was covered in polished metal which reflected the light from the overhead lights around, it was like stepping back into his old world. However, as much as Matthew wanted to check out the equipment there was someone he had to deal with first

“...Major”

In the center of the large hanger were a large rest space, four long couches were placed facing each other with a large square table in the middle which featured a holographic projector which displayed a 3-dimensional overview of what Matthew quickly realized was the city of Uliat, with a large bunker complex sprawling just under the surface, the person that had called out to him, a short woman wearing a tight-fitting training outfit with a virtual reality headset raised up on her forehead, her brown hair was pulled up in a bun and heavy metal training sword stood resting on the couch next to her, even though she looked quite relaxed as she chugged water from a metal canister, Matthew could tell she was quite tense, so he went for a casual greeting

“Ripper… You look like shit”

Ripper showed a small smile and sent a verbal jab back at him

“I’ve never seen you as a brat before? Is it your new hobby?”

Matthew sat down on the couch across from Ripper that waved the holographic projection away, then she removed the virtual reality headset from her head and placed it on the table before she picked up a towel which she wiped her face of sweat with as she spoke

“...I have a formal request to make of you, Major”

Matthew narrowed his eyes as he studied Ripper’s facial expression before he gave his response

“I won’t kill you, frankly I wish you’d stop asking”

Ripper let out a sigh, then she expanded her argument

“I’m sure Doc told you about the state of my 09, I can’t do it myself, so won’t you put me out of my misery already?”

Matthew could see general despair in Ripper’s eyes, her eyes were beyond dead, however Matthew made a counteroffer

‘Send a link request to Ripper’s 09 Aea’

[Confirmed, attempting SRI Data-link… Return ping confirmed from, CR09-0000009, awaiting response]

Ripper visibly winched from the mental feedback loop that played out inside her mind before she grabbed her practice sword as she glared at Matthew and asked

“What the fuck are you doing, Matthew?”

Matthew shrugged and explained

“Either it will kill you, that or fix your 09… I am guessing you are fine with both?”

Ripper continued to glare at Matthew for a few tense moments before she let out a sigh, a moment later Aea spoke out in Matthew’s mind

[Link request approved by CR09-0000009… Handshake confirmed, link established, starting sync of master priority list]

The next moment Ripper’s body went limb and was quickly caught by Doc that had moved to catch her face from impacting the edge of the table knowing that this was where things were headed, she slowly laid her down in a recovery position before long thin wires sprung out from the center of her palm and stabbed into Ripper’s body at different points

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

‘Well, her call name isn’t Doc for nothing…’

Matthew had seen her do some truly spectacular and horrific things with her medical knowledge and skills, once she had put the bisected head of a person back together and directly revived them with a medical compound she had produced while working the needle and thread that kept their head from falling apart, and then kept them alive long enough for a complete biological neurological data harvest

‘It’s not exactly a moral thing, but in the end it’s a testament to her skills… I suppose not many would be able to die if Doc wanted to keep them alive… Not that being alive with a brain void of any personal neurological data would be any different from death…’

“AARRHH!!!

After a little more than 20 seconds passed, Ripper’s body jerked awake with a scream that only seemed to increase in volume until her body went limp again, after that Doc let out a sigh

“I figured as much… Suddenly regaining the full sensitivity of her overturned senses after so long without them was a little too much”

“How long until she’s back to normal?”

Doc thought for a few moments as she looked over the data she gathered from her sensors

“Hmm… It will be a few days before she is able to function somewhat, but she likely won’t be combat capable for a few weeks”

Matthew clicked his tongue and complained

“I could really need a person of her caliber to lavage power over the local area though…”

Doc tilted her head to the side for a few moments before she let out a sigh and laid Ripper down on the couch, Matthew could tell another long-winded explanation was on its way, he thought about how to get ahead of it, but he decided against it and made himself comfortable on the couch and laid down on his side, a few moments after he got comfy Doc asked

“Do you know the 3 great secrets of the Trerubic Empire?”

Matthew shook his head, he wasn’t about to make such an unintelligent guess as the fact that the upper crust of society were all hedonist, that was already well known to most people at this point, so he simply waited for Doc to explain

“Well… The first, most well guarded one would be that the first emperor, ol’ grandad, died from a drug overdose”

Matthew’s chin slipped out of his grip as he nearly fell from the couch from shock, Doc started at him with a blank expression on her face, but Matthew could see it deep down, she enjoyed his reaction quite a bit, even as she hid it behind a seemingly innocent look on her face as she asked

“Do you have a question before we proceed?”

Matthew rose from his relaxed position and sat himself up to listen seriously instead of his previous casual pose before he spoke

“Well, I have two, but those can wait… What’s the 2nd?”

“That would be the fact that the founding emperor had almost 70.000 children, but the amount he sought to create was almost triple that already high number, most of which died painful deaths during their infancy”

“...I am assuming most of those were vat born with donor genetic material, right?”

“Hmm… Around ¾ were, yeah, the rest were regular biological births from around 15.000 different consorts”

“...That’s grotesque”

“Yeah it is a little excessive, but grandad got around alright”

“...You keep talking about him like you are actually related”

Doc blinked twice before she casually admitted

“Well that’s because I am, I was 146780th in line to the empire when I was exiled too… Most of the living members of the imperial line were 2nd generation, so we all called him grandad, with various levels of respect of course”

Matthew let out a sigh, he had expected Doc to be of high birth before from due her mannerisms and pattern of speech, but he hadn’t guessed she was from the direct imperial line, but from hearing the number of descendants from the founding emperor it wasn’t so shocking to him… Besides that he felt that if he continued to dig he would regret doing so

‘Nope, still not opening that particular can of worms’

“So what’s the 3rd secret?”

Doc showed a smile before she simply stated

“The last one is not as simple as it sounds, but here goes… There are no traitors in the imperial line”

“...That’s it? Wait… How many members were there in the imperial line?”

“A little over 2 million by the time of my exile”

“And none turned against the empire? Not a single one?”

“No, that’s because we are unable to betray the empire”

Matthew narrowed his eyes, he noticed a change in Doc’s eyes, there were a faint tremble, her body was shaking slightly too and both her hands were clenched tightly, blood slowly leaking from where her nails priced her palms

‘...So it’s not that they haven’t thought to try… It’s that they can’t… What are your thoughts, Aea?’

[I would guess some sort of biological engineering, miss Doc mentioned the high infant mortality that the children of the founding emperor experienced, so it was likely perfected doing that time… I would argue the case that it is certain to be inherited too]

‘...A empire free of internal power struggles… No wonder most turned to hedonism, with all their needs already provided for’

[Master, I believe stirring the topic of the current conversation away from the current topic with a clear non-acknowledgment of the facts we have inferred will alleviate the pain miss Doc is currently enduring]

Matthew snapped out of his thoughts and looked up at Doc that was visibly shaking at this point, her skin had turned pale and blood was leaking from her eyes and nose

[Please do not acknowledge any of the inferred information we have just learned, or miss Doc might expire fully]

“...What was it you said about not needing Ripper to lavage control?”

A few moments passed before Doc stopped bleeding from her eyes and nose, after a few minutes she wiped the blood off herself before she spoke

“I spliced the local gene pool with a little something that would ensure compliance with the flick of a switch”

“...You did what?”

“Yeah, shortly after we touched down I spliced around 40% of the local area”

“...So how many could you bring under control at this moment?”

“I don’t really have a count an exact count but at the very least the entire populations of the 6 clans and many of the local population centers”