"Well well well. So you're the ones I've been hearing so much about."
Don McMurdo Barristan turned from the window he'd been looking out of, observing the twinkling stars and the void of space. The Old Man, as Naze constantly referred to him, looked like he was in his mid-sixties, with storm-gray hair and a thin mustache. His skin was a leathery olive color and particularly wrinkled around his eyes and mouth. Every movement caused his deep blue kimono and haori to shift and flow, almost reminding me of some kind of sorcerer from ancient times.
Said style of dress was heavily contrasted by his thick New York Italian accent, which threw me for a bit of a loop. My optics flicked back and forth to follow him, the servos whirring and whining ever so slightly. They definitely needed a bit more oiling.
"Tekkadan, right? Hey Lucio, get these kids some cannoli! They look half-starved."
The Don waved to one of his black-suited attendants, who bowed and left the room, returning a few minutes later with a trolley full of pastries. It was a very nice room. Wide and open, with stylings that were both traditional Japanese and Baroque European, glimmering and gilded. Naze had told us what to expect from this: those in the Jupiter Sphere liked to show off their wealth when they could. Gaudy jewelry and expensive clothing, eye-catching decorations, and exotic pets imported from the Earth Sphere. This chamber in particular was the traditional audience room of the current acting Teiwaz Chairman, and had been added to over time by each leader over the past two hundred years.
And Barristan's additions were definitely the most striking. In a room large enough to fit the Super Mobile Boat, the tasteful displays of elegantly and carefully maintained flowers and plants drew the eye more quickly than any of the gold. Orga cleared his throat, and I turned in place to look at him, drawing more than a few curious looks from the guards.
"Yes, Chairman Barristan. You are correct. We've come to offer our friendship, and to request a place in your organization."
"Ah, that rascal godson of mine's been coaching you, hasn't he?" The Don chuckled. "You're a polite kid, that's for sure. Naze's told me a bit about you already. My condolences for your losses to Gjallarhorn."
"Thank you, Chairman." Orga nodded awkwardly. He reminded me very much of a kid on his first job interview, which wasn't entirely inaccurate. The boss of Tekkadan was wearing a much better fitting suit: Naze had a few stepsons who sometimes helped out on the Hammerhead. One of them was close enough in size to Orga to borrow clothes from, and now he looked a lot better. Rather than some of Maruba's ill-fitting old stock, Orga now wore a deep red undershirt and a black jacket, with his Tekkadan jacket thrown over his shoulders like a cloak. The outfit made Orga look a few years older, and a fair bit more dignified, but that wasn't enough to stall his obvious nerves.
"Please, call me 'Don', or 'Godfather'. I prefer it, anyways. 'Chairman' makes me feel like a stuffed suit." Barristan laughed before sitting down on the couch across the table from Orga, Kudelia, and Biscuit. Eugene and Mikazuki flanked them on both sides, though they were out of my field of vision. "Now, why don't you tell me yourself why you're here? Naze, he's explained a bit, but I like to hear things directly, word of mouth and all that. Call me old-fashioned, but I feel like it builds up trust better."
"Yes, s-sure, Godfather." Orga nodded. "We, that is Tekkadan, want to join up with Teiwaz, in order for both of our organizations to benefit from our current job. Miss Kudelia, if you would?"
Kudelia blinked, and coughed a few times, steadying when I rolled over to put a manipulator on her shoulder. "Ah… uhm, yes."
She breathed in, and out, closing her eyes for a moment before opening them again and letting all nervousness drain from her face. Despite Kudelia's clear discomfort speaking to the effective king of the Jupiter Sphere, she had addressed the Martian Parliament on several occasions; this wouldn't be the first or last time she spoke to power.
"Cha—Godfather, it is my goal to petition the Arbrau Bloc on Earth to put pressure on Gjallarhorn to finally end the three hundred year old regulation of Martian Half-Metal exports. Prime Minister Makanai has promised his support in this. It is likely that, with Arbrau's assistance, the other Economic Blocs will follow suit. The entire Earth Sphere would benefit greatly from the restrictions being limited-"
Kudelia fell silent as Don Barristan gently raised a hand. "Whoa, whoa, hold on. Miss Burnstein, I think that you haven't fully considered the repercussions of your goal."
The Don spread his arms out, a wide smile on his face. "You see, by controlling the shipment of Half-Metal and the production of Ahab Reactors, Gjallarhorn controls the levers of power throughout the entire solar system. This power has made them quite comfortable; once Mars is free to sell the fruits of their own labor, and anyone on Earth, Mars, or Jupiter can assemble a host to match Gjallarhorn's, they are going to become very un-comfortable. Do you understand what I mean? The deregulation of Half-Metal would, in no small terms, be possibly the greatest shift in astropolitics since the end of the Solar War."
Kudelia blinked, freezing up and looking like she'd been smacked in the face.
"If I'm going to be entirely honest with you, it was a mistake to let that Lieutenant live," said the Don. "That prisoner exchange stunt was all over the inner system news. Hell, even we knew about it. And that means Gjallarhorn isn't sleeping through your power play anymore; you have their full attention. And as far as they're concerned? You are a threat to the continued safety of the solar system. And more importantly, you are a threat to their bank accounts. Gjallarhorn's bosses won't simply want you captured, bambina, they'll want you dead. And they'll stop at nothing until you aren't a threat anymore."
Now it was my turn to freeze and ponder some consequences. I couldn't say I regretted saving Crank, but I also couldn't say I had been thinking of the wider impact on Gjallarhorn's image (or that I particularly cared).. It sounded like the target on our backs just got a lot bigger, though…
"Thankfully, Gjallarhorn's loss is Jupiter's gain." Barristan's jowls twitched up in another grin. "We'll no longer have to bow and scrape before Gjallarhorn to get their scraps, so Mars can certainly count on Teiwaz's support for its economic independence. As for Tekkadan, I'd be willing to incorporate it completely into the Teiwaz family. Just as we count on you to succeed in this endeavor, you will be able to count on any of us, so long as I have your friendship."
Barristan then fell silent as we all properly digested the implications of our goal. I knew that Half-Metal was supposed to be a game-changer, but even I hadn't considered Gjallarhorn's monopoly on force as part of the situation. Orga and Kudelia both now had stony expressions: Orga clenched his jaw before closing his eyes and exhaling, whilst Kudelia furrowed her brow and tightly gripped her dress.
In the end, both seemed to find their determination as they raised their faces back and made direct eye contact with the Don, who grinned at their show of resolve.
"Beep," I piped up, shifting slightly in place and once again drawing the attention of the guards, who shifted uneasily at my presence. Orga nodded, taking the cue exactly how I was hoping he would.
"There is… something else we'd like to discuss." That got the Don's brow to quirk upwards, but he allowed Orga to continue. "Godfather, can we trust your guards here to not speak without your permission?"
It had been Amida who had suggested we come clean about my nature to Barristan. She said that the Don didn't like secrets of that sort being kept from him, but that he also wouldn't be likely to do anything drastic about it.
"It's a show of faith. Prove to the Old Man that you're willing to put your cards on the table," she had said.
"Of course. They're some of my most trusted employees. Now, I assume that this is about that little thing you brought with you?" Barristan gestured to where I was sitting, perched on the back of the couch next to Kudelia, treads shifted forwards to let me balance, even as my binocular-like head turned to look at Orga, then back to Barristan.
"Beep beep," I repeated, as the tiny robot body that I was currently remotely controlling shifted forwards and plopped down onto the couch proper, and raised an arm to wave. "If I may speak, Godfather? If I may speak, Godfather?"
"You may." Barristan peered closer with a curious grin.
"I am… I am…" Oh, right, this again. I paused, and then let ARACHNAE forcibly subvert the little machine's hard-coded vocal repetition, effectively muting my voice every time it tried to follow the pattern.
"I am Cuckoo, an Artificial Intelligence and member of Tekkadan… It's very nice to meet you! It's very nice to meet you!"
…Or at least, tried to. DAMMIT! Well, this was a work in progress, ever since we'd found the tiny drone a few hours ago.
SEVERAL HOURS AGO
"Mrs. Azee, what's this?" Atra asked, huffing and puffing as she carried an odd metal cube out of one of the storage units on the former (and still unnamed) Orcus Company ship. One of the Turbines' pilots, a stern-looking woman with pure white hair, leaned in to get a better look at it.
"Huh, I wasn't expecting to see something like that here. That's a Hardware Assistant Robotic Operator, or HARO for short." Azee shrugged as Atra set the box down. It was primarily green in color, with some sections of gunmetal. A tiny air vent grate sat above a red button on its front face, next to a panel displaying the word "CHARGE" and a bar for said charge, which seemed to be halfway full. It also had the label HARO on the lower left section of its front.
Obviously feeling curious, Atra squatted down and pressed the button. With a whirr, the box rattled, and started to transform. A pair of arms unfolded from the upper part, marked with yellow and black caution lines along their length, ending in hands with two fingers and a thumb. A set of small treads extended out of the bottom, shifting to the sides through some kind of actuated piston joint, while the back half of the upper face of the box extended up a head that almost reminded me of a pair of binoculars.
It simply sat there, unmoving… but I could detect an open connection there. Atra poked at it a little. "What does it do?"
"Well, they're designed to assist with maintenance. You program in what it needs to do, and it can help with simple tasks. Also has a modular tool-box attachment that takes up most of its body," Azee replied as she pulled open another locker. "They can also be controlled through a central computer, if one's available, which really improves their functionality. I've heard of more advanced models that were actually equipped with proper Learning Computers."
"Ooooo!" It was as though a lightbulb went on in Atra's brain. "Miss Cuckoo, are you there?"
"I am… I've already figured out what you're thinking of." I spoke through the intercom. The Super Mobile Boat (Dammit Danji. Dammit PRES.) was currently in the hangar of the Orcus ship, plugged into the central computer to assist with piloting the craft during the docking sequence with Saisei. I was mostly there to ensure that all of the other systems were functioning properly with the skeleton crew that the ship currently had, allowing Eugene to focus purely on guiding it through the AV System. Thankfully, it was light work, so I had plenty of resources for a comm connection attempt.
It was relatively simple to establish a connection, and the HARO beeped and whirred, its large eyes shuttering open and closed. It was interesting to me that the HARO was compatible with my quantum communications system, and exceptionally convenient. The Super Mobile Boat was designed for this, after all (I swear to God, I was going to fix that designation swap when I had the proper time…).
"Hello! Hello!" I waved the HARO's arm before realizing that I hadn't intended to repeat the greeting. "The vocal systems are strange. The vocal systems are strange."
Oooooookay, I could see that getting annoying really fast. Azee stifled a laugh, shaking her head. "That's one of the reasons they fell out of use. The things repeat anything they're programmed to say twice. Something about workplace safety. It's hard-coded in and there's not a lot that you can do about it."
"But… even with that, this means you'll be able to go places that your big bodies wouldn't be able to!" Atra exclaimed cheerfully… and honestly, she was right. I could see through the HARO's eyes, and express a fair amount of fine control over its movements. Add in the long range of my communications systems…
"An Artificial Intelligence?" Barristan looked intrigued. "You're being very specific in your language. Not a Learning Computer?"
"No. Not a Learning Computer." I replied, making extra certain to clamp down on the repetitions this time. Anyways…
"We thought it would be best to reveal my presence to you, if we are going to become a part of Teiwaz."
Surprisingly, I didn't actually need to use the mute that time. Huh. Seems like HAROs weren't really designed to say a lot of words—did it not repeat if the sentence was long enough, then? "Mr. Turbine said that others in Teiwaz might take issue with my use as a combat assistant. However, it is my primary purpose, and I would prefer to not be forcibly removed for other duties."
The Don blinked in slight bemusement; clearly, this was not a regular thing. He seemed to turn some gears in his head before pulling a box of cigars from his kimono.
"You know, my father, he had a very specific way of viewing things." Barristan withdrew a cigar. One of the guards stepped up as the Don cut the tip off with a golden cutter, and held up a lighter for his superior. Barristan took a long puff, before smiling down at me. "He said, 'everyone has their own destiny'. Now, I'm not so sure about that, but if you do what you're good at, and want to keep doing it, who am I to tell you otherwise?"
He offered another cigar to Orga, who accepted it, with Biscuit providing his own lighter. Taking a puff, Orga suppressed a cough, much to the Don's amusement. Barristan continued, leaning back in his seat. "Your secret's safe with me. After all, just sticking blindly to every old tradition isn't how you succeed in life. I think… we'll hold the Sakazuki for your official induction in a few days. Until then, feel free to enjoy Saisei to your heart's desire."
