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The young man sat in an office, folders of all kinds lining one wall while the opposite was made from windows obscured by blinds. The far wall played host to a shelf lined with various awards and commendation. Liek himself was sat in a comfortable arm chair meant for guests while a withered looking man with leathery skin sat at the desk in a large leather chair. The withered man wore an EDF uniform, creases in all the right places and the various lapels and badges of rank adorning the uniform was was proper for a man of his station.

Honestly, the youth was surprised when he’d been asked to come in to see the man. The man, a General in the Earth Defence Force, had apparently been originally trying to get in contact with his Grandmother, but Liek had been the only living soul around to hear to communicator going off. When the youth had revealed his relation to Fa Galswith the General had asked him to come to the base. Being curious about the Earth Defence Force the youth saw no reason to decline.

After going through the whole deal of getting clearance to enter the base and being escorted to the General’s office the young man had not been forced to wait long for the old man to arrive. In fact, the main thing the two where waiting on was for the General’s secretary, who was a man because the General was not about that life, to return with a kettle of tea. Thankfully, the secretary was efficient and returned with the tea quite quickly, poured them both a cup and promptly left.

The old general sighed after taking a sip from his tea and set the cup down before speaking, “So, your Ol’ Fa’s grandson. Can’t see the resemblance, but far be it for me to question it. The things that old bird was involved in are so classified even a Five Star like me can’t access all the damn files.”

“I’m adopted.” Liek replied. It had never been a secret to the young man so it never occurred to him that some may be cautious about the topic.

“Fair enough.” The General shrugged, he wasn’t about to pry into such personal details anyway, “How much do you know about what she used to do?”

The boy thought it over before replying, “I’m not sure what’s considered classified and what’s not… But I do know she protected the planet from an alien invasion and most, if not all, the details related to that.”

“Good.” The General sighed in relief, a major concern of his having been addressed, “Then I don’t have to tip toe over anything.” He though for a moment before continuing, “After that mess the J Numbers approached the Earth Defence Force and worked out a deal. We would leave them alone, in exchange they would be on call as freelance assets. We could call them if we needed their help with a problem and they had the right to refuse.” The old man paused to let the younger man take in what he was hearing, “That’s why I was trying to contact Fa, we need help with something.”

Before Liek could reply the old General held up his hand and added, “The contract for the J Numbers will be extended to you. You will be a free agent with no obligations to work with or for the Earth Defence Force and you will compensated for your help. I’m not trying to recruit you… I’d rather not deal with the paperwork, heh.” he chuckled, before adding, “It will also officially give you special clearance on everything regarding the J Numbers. That’s something even the King of Earth doesn’t have.”

Liek nodded. He wasn’t sure how this would all work, but being free to do as he pleased and having access to the files on his Grandmother and the other J Numbers? That was worth the cost of admission. With his thoughts on the matter resolved the young man replied, “Alright, what do you need help with?”

“Glad to have you on board, young man.” The General smiled with a nod before getting serious, he handed the young man a file and started to explain as he looked through it, “There is an on-going situation outside a small town near West City. An unknown individual has gone wild and attacked several civilians. Local law enforcement attempted to intervene but all their pee-shooters could do was piss the attacker off.”

Liek flipped the pages in the folder and found a blurry photo attached to the front page by a paper clip. Very little could be made out, but it appeared to be a mechanical humanoid of some kind.

“They called us for backup.” The General replied, “So we sent a platoon of mechanised infantry. All our men made it out with minor injuries but they where otherwise routed after only doing minimal damage to the attacker.” He sighed and leaned back in his chair, “Not our finest performance…”

He continued, “We then sent in one of our new Cybernetically Enhanced Troopers, or C.E.T.s, to handle the situation…” a heavy sigh escaped the General, “Last report on that was how they where currently stuck in the concrete and couldn’t pull themselves free because of the damage to their systems.”

“So, I called Fa. I needed someone I knew could get the job done.” The General concluded, “If what you told me about being her Grandson and apprentice then you should be up to the task.”

“Hmm…” Liek pondered, something not adding up, “But why my Grandma in particular? Don’t you have others you could call on?”

Stroking his greying beard the General chuckled to himself, “Sharp as a damn tack. You would do terribly in the military…” Looking Liek in the eye he added, “Morogara Heavy Industries.” the words catching the young man’s attention completely, “Aye, the very company that built the prototypes for us before the Secret War. That machine has their logo on it.”

Liek stared at the General, his mind barely able to process the words, “What…? But… they went bankrupt and where dissolved after all that… how?”

“That’s why I wanted Fa, to pick her brain.” The General admitted.

Closing his eyes Liek reviewed everything his Grandmother ever told him about the company, anything, any detail that could be of use in this situation. Morogara had been a small but ambitious weapons manufacturing firm founded by a small number of disgruntled Capsule Corp employees who disagreed with CCs peaceful view of aliens. They got started supplying the EDF with weapons reverse engineered from past invasion attempts by the PTO. They where who Ro-gantus Do-juun, father of Rudee Shiro, under the name of Roger Shiro, infiltrated to disseminate Fury technology to, paving the way for the Secret War.

The company suffered irrecoverable loses when the war started and over 90% of it’s staff and assets where killed when the Fury razed the Crucible base in the Northern reaches of Earth. Those that remained where almost entirely low level employees in the sales department or on vacation at the time. Other then one of the original founders the entire upper and middle leadership where gone, the entire research department and engineering teams where gone. The company was as good as finished and the patents for their production lines sold off. Something new with their logo should not exist.

“I don’t know…” Liek said, looking at the General with a blaze in his eyes. Whatever was going on, his heritage was involved. He had to learn anything and everything he could. For his Grandmother’s sake, to sate his own curiosity, and to keep the innocent out of harms way. Nodding he affirmed, “But I’ll do everything in my power to find out.”

With a nod the General let out a breath he didn’t realise he’d been holding, a part of him had dreaded that Liek may refuse to help, after all, not all young people respected the armed forces, or authority in general. If Liek had been one of those young people then the EDF may have been in a lot of trouble on this one. “Thank you. Liek.” He breathed, “Whatever happens I’ll keep you in the loop if we learn anything.”

“Thank you, General.” Liek nodded before downing the rest of his tea and heading for the door, “I’d better get going.”


Augmented eyes stared at the cause of so much property damage with disdain and anger born of humiliation. The cyborg fumed within it’s own mind as it attempted to once again free itself from the ground, straining it’s limbs against the concrete and tarmac binding it, only for it’s efforts to be in vain. RRX-CT227 could not believe it had lost so easily. It was one of the latest units of it’s type! Cutting edge technology grafted to a willing volunteer, a prototype for a production model cyborg meant to be deployed as elite forces for the EDF. And it had been defeated in minutes… by a pure machine!

A twitching, screaming machine that lashed out at any who got close and had set ablaze the entire block around it. Police cars where scattered around, burning and mangled, alongside a gutted EDF personnel carrier, the remote turret blown apart. Nearby buildings had partially collapsed and a few where burning. And yet, despite the carnage, not a single person had taken a serious injury.

Not that such a statistic factored into RRX-CT227’s processing. Petty details like ethics and morality had been expunged from their mind during the conversion process. Oh, they still knew what they where and how to behave in a way that would be seen as ethical and moral as they carried out their duties, but reasons to care about either no longer existed for them beyond the mission.

And right now their mission was to demonstrate that they where a worthy investment for the EDF so that they and those based on them could continue to serve and function. Failure here meant deactivation and disassembly to find ways to improve the design. And there was no guarantee it’s creators would use it’s organic components as the basis for a new model later. Survival, one of the few instincts remaining in the cyborg’s augmented brain, drove it to desperation to preserve it’s remaining organic parts.

Apparently RRX-CT227’s efforts to free itself made too much noise, as the rampaging machine’s attention snapped back towards them, it’s four crimson optics shifting back and forth on it’s face before focusing on the cyborg. It just stared at them for a moment before screaming again…

How...? How did something with no mouth scream…?

The machine leapt into the air, energy surging from the wrist of it’s right arm before solidifying into crystal. The machine’s jump reached it’s apex, it’s arm pulled back ready to be thrust down into the cyborg, it’s four red eyes focused entirely on the prone figure. The man-machine amalgamation screamed internally, damning it’s creators for not engineering it adequately to deal with even a single foe. Damning them for sending it to it’s death.

And then a red and black figure blurred into view, slamming it’s left foot into the side of the head of the robot and sending it crashing to the ground and scrapping across the road. A moment later the cyborg’s optics resolved the figure and they realised it was a young man with a brown tail. Before it could process things any further the young man was tearing them from their binds.

“Hey! Are you ok?” Liek asked as he pulled the strange person out of the pit in the ground. The person was strange, first of all he couldn’t sense their energy which was weird all on it’s own. Second they had been stuck in a crater in the shape of their own body, with their limbs sealed in concrete and tarmac that looked like it had melted and reset over the person’s limbs. Thirdly he couldn’t tell if they where a man or a woman. As the person nodded he waved them off, “Get out of here! I got this!”

He didn’t really have time to think about them as the machine that had just been trying to kill the person pulled itself back to it’s feet. But a part of him did put the puzzle pieces together, realising the person was actually the C.E.T. the General had told him about. He also didn’t miss the rampaging machine turning energy into a crystal structure. ‘No mistaking it…’ He swore internally, ‘That’s definitely some form of Energy Materialisation.’ His heart was pounding as he bit his lip in distress, ‘But how? All the development data was destroyed when the Crucible was destroyed! The Fury where very thorough that day! I should be the only one alive who knows how to use the ability!’

The rampaging machine’s crystal spear was still intact as it charged at Liek, the vernier thrusters on it’s back igniting in a fierce blaze as it rocketed just inches off the ground, thrusting it’s arm forwards.

“MATERIALISATION!” Liek roared and batted the spear away with one of his own that he created right at that moment, shocking two observers.

The first was RRX-CT227, who did not miss the similarities in how the rampaging machine made it’s solid weapons and what Liek had just done. It also noted the differences; the machine’s looked dull and lifeless, a soulless construct built only for destruction and serving no other purpose. One the other hand the young man’s own spear shone with an internal vibrancy, like an artwork in which the artist had poured their heart and soul, a work of beauty that made the cyborg feel something it hadn’t known since before submitting themselves for augmentation.

The second was far away in a dark room. The shadowed figure laughed mirthlessly and grabbed their monitor with both hands, “What is THIS?! A living one? No! It is not as Grandfather described. No no no… This one isn’t using technology! So how?! WHO ARE YOU TAILED MAN?!”

Back in the fight Liek didn’t give the machine time for it’s algorithms to process what to do next as he materialised a second weapon, a crude, if still beautiful to the cyborg, sword that he swung up to cleave the left arm of the robot clean off.

Errors flashed through the machines processor as it scrambled to recover, firing it’s retro verniers to create distance it levelled it’s wings and fired the integrated coilguns encased within at Liek. The rods of metal where launched from the weapons at super sonic speeds but Liek was faster, ducking under the shots, but not before one grazed his cheek, and zooming along the ground under the firing arc. As he reached the machine he thrust his spear and repaid the machine for the injury, the head of the spear slamming into it’s face and stripping the armour away, revealing the internal components.

But even as he landed the blow the machine was counterattacking with the cold precision only a machine could manage. It’s remain arm aimed at Liek and thrust it’s spear towards him. The youth was completely open to the attack and entirely blinded to it coming by his own arm blocking his view of the attack coming until it was too late. By the time he saw it it was already in motion, aimed towards his chest in what would absolutely be a lethal strike.

‘Damn… looks like I’ll be seeing you sooner then expect, Grandma…’ The young man thought as the tip closed in. He was trying to get out of the way, but the machine had a rocket mounted in it’s elbow and that was accelerating the spear faster then he could evade. He didn’t want to die, he had so much left to do still, dammit!

And then suddenly he wasn’t in the path of the spear. Something had shoved him out of the way and he heard the sound of something else being impaled. Catching himself in the air he looked over to see the cyborg he’d helped where he had been, with the rampaging machine’s spear through it’s chest.

RRX-CT227 saw the attack coming for Liek did. It didn’t know Liek. It didn’t know what sort of person he was. But anyone who could make such beautiful crystal, even if the cyborg didn’t know how it was made, could crave destruction. Such crystals, the cyborg realised what it was they made it feel; alive. For the first time in who knows how long, the cyborg felt like there was something in their world worth caring about. Something it actually wanted to keep safe and give it’s life to protect. Something that brought colour to it’s world.

So as soon as it saw the attack and realised the kind of damage it would do they started moving. Without intending to, without a single thought it removed the limiters on it’s system and moved with speed far exceeding it’s own specifications and shoved the young man out of the way of the lethal blow, allowing itself to be struck instead. It’s system informed it that the damage was catastrophic, that it’s core was breached and if they didn’t shut down immediately it would overload and explode. But doing so meant cutting all energy to it’s organic components. It would die, one way or the other...

Liek stared at the cyborg as it spoke for the first time, “You… I do not know you…” It said while grabbing the rampaging machine’s arm and locking the joints in it’s hands, preventing the pure machine from pulling away. RRX-CT227 then continued, “But… your light… your crystals… that made me feel…” It bit it’s lip, not sure what to say before deciding on, “Alive. For the first time… in so long… Thank you… and… farewell…” And with those last words the cyborg shut down, just a half second before it’s core would have been too unstable to stop from exploding. It’s body fell limp, except for the locked joints in it’s hands, becoming a dead weight on the pure machine’s arm.

The young man ground his teeth, tears stinging the edges of his eyes as his emotions roiled and churned. He had tried to save that person, only for them to save him and die for it… they died because of him! Because of his mistakes! He’d lost sight of himself for a moment in his frustration at seeing a form of energy materialisation that shouldn’t exist being used by someone, or something, that shouldn’t have it. And now someone was dead because of it.

His rage, aimed more at himself then anything caused his power to flare and he launched himself at the restrained machine. Without even thinking he materialised two Broken Arms crystals and sent them flying at his foe. The first to reach it severed it’s trapped arm at the elbow a half second before the other took one of it’s legs off, quickly followed by Liek using his sword to take the other leg.

Both Broken Arms rapidly slammed into the now limbless robot over and over again, severing the wings as they went, each strike knocking the robot higher and higher into the air until Liek threw his sword and impaled the bot in the chest. The force from the blow spun the robot in time for the spear to impale it in the back.

As the robot realised it had no way out of the situation and activated it’s self destruct the Broken Arms both slammed into it from below and dragged it further and further into the sky. On the ground Liek focused as much energy as he could before unleashing it as a massive energy wave that struck the robot right as it self-destructed, the surging wave of energy accidentally ensuring the explosion was swept away from the town.

Several hours later a despondent Liek sat on some rubble, the lifeless cyborg, sealed in a body bag, laid out in from of him while the pieces of the robot he’d severed where collected in a pile next to him. He held one of the parts in his hands as he tried to analyse it, but he just couldn’t focus. He kept looking at the dead cyborg and mulling over their words. What did it really mean by all that, what kind of life had they lead to say they hadn’t felt alive for a long time? Knowing he may never have answers pained and frustrated him.

A shadow fell over him and he heard the General’s voice, “We’re going to take everything back to be analysed by our best people, if that’s alright with you?”

The young man shook his head, “The robot… it was definitely using…” He considered his words given he wasn’t in a soundproof room this time, “My people’s technology… I don’t think they have the clearance.”

The General sighed but nodded, “A fair point.” He grunted before adding, “...and I, for one, cannot be bothered with the paperwork to get them that clearance. Take the parts with you since you are technically the only one with clearance to handle them. But we have to take the C.E.T.”

“I… understand…” The young man sighed sadly, “What’s… what’s going to happen to them?”

“I honestly have no idea.” The General admitted, “That’s for another department to decide, I’m afraid. But I will recommend they be buried with full military honours. They did give their life to defend our world and people, after all.”

“Thank you, General…” Liek replied. He gathered the parts up, wrapping them up in some cloth he’d found and taking to the skies, soaring for his childhood home in the forests to the east.

As he disappeared into the distance the General narrowed his eyes and muttered, “Sorry I couldn’t tell you about the Red Ribbon, Liek… but you gave me the perfect excuse to deny those bastards new technology.” With a slight skip in his step the General marched off to attend to his duties.

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WC: 3,697
PL: 4,087
Zeni: 2,419
Bonuses: Looters (-25% due to racial)
Rewards: +20% PL gains and +20% Zenny gains (First 1,500 words)
Extra Reward: Chance to get a 20% off coupon for the Intergalactic Market (10 or above/D20)