Body Camera Footage Recovered from Eugales Mercenary, 3-12-125
[static]
“–introduced her a type of unshackled warmind hidden within some Holovid VFX software. This is just an access terminal, the actual frame is apparently already in play. Don’t worry about the visuals I’ve been told its just a form of deterrent mimicry, like eye-spots on a moth. Though they might have just said that to make me feel better. I’ve been staring at it for a while, they say it can actually react sort of like an octopus changing shape by reading the vitals of the observer. Or. Maybe its all the VFX, while the warmind is more like a fish living in an anemone using the visuals as a sort of defense.”
“You’ve been watching a lot of nature documentaries lately?”
“No. Just. You know. You remember the whale thing. And the crabs before that? And the submarine? Anyway. Evidently, its been waiting to meet us a while now.”
“I’m not plugging into that ■■■■■■■ thing.”
“I’m not thrilled by it either Rot but we’re a bit limited on options here.”
“Even if it was designed for it, which it’s not, this is a step backwards. This is the exact opposite of what we–”
“I know. Get in ■■■■■■■ line if you want to add it to the list of compromises and every time we’ve gone off-script, I’ll make sure not to read it. This was supposed to be a quick pitstop, asking to borrow a cup of flower, grab a few documents on our way ou–”
“Hey can she hear us when we talk ab–?”
[Taps on monitor]
“Talk about what? I didn’t say anything. Look I’m not gonna lie we got caught with our pants down here and even if I didn’t feel the need to help these poor bastards fight their way out of here after all they did on Skarkon. Which I do. Gods and spirits you should too, remember when we broke into Ishohuolvi? That was ARCSEC running combined arms at the time when you were breaking rocks in a CBD jumpsu–”
[static]
“Yes yes, even if you didn’t which you do, you were saying?”
“I was saying I’d be more afraid of Red Troop putting you on ice than whatever the hell this thing is capable of shitting out. If we’re going to push back we can’t risk transfer interception, so we need to do this rogue-like. Closed casket. No reclones, dropsuit detects a breach at all nanites go into self destruction and a simple radio tone alerts the caches of blanks to load a softclone from before first contact. You either get one shot, or you start again with a clean slate. Troika testing means we’ve drifted too far from conventional TACNET protocols and we don’t have the tools to do this in the field. We need something more equipped that can access our network and reprogram our setup on the fly before we risk combat.”
“This is gonna wreck hell on the Artificial Troika, we’re talking serious impact to the tactical zeitgeist for four to six months.”
“Its worth it.”
“And there’s not another way?”
“Even if we leave now the same ■■■■ will happen if they run us down or intercept our flight. It’s jack in, or risk of becoming Kasiha’s lapdog and humping her virtual leg in time prison on some asshole’s SSD until they decide to let you out on parole to hunt the rest of us down.”
[long pause]
“Okay. ■■■■ it. Let them know I’m okay with it and we can start. And don’t glare at me like that if I’m going first. I hate it when people watch… This thing have a name?.”
[third voice enters the room]
“Glitter Edifice.”
