034: Take What You Can – Three
Malakh's prototyping and testing went by quicker than any of them expected. As she'd announced, she'd redirected the manic energy the compulsion to claim her Storlayacas - just a quick flight away - had filled her with into something productive, and by the time day two of their surveillance of the Bakiz Institute rolled around, she'd managed to miniaturize the electronic cloaking technology that was keeping the Pelekys off Zymeth radar into something a little more portable.
"Alright," she'd said distractedly as she fiddled with settings on her test device, roughly the size of a data pad but quite a bit thicker, "You should still be able to pick me up on cameras, but if all goes well, this should mask me from the rest of your sensors."
Over the comms in the armoury, Viatrix said, "I'm ready to begin whenever you are."
Malakh shot a questioning look over to Pryseia, who had her Longan Unit on, linked up to a couple of the cameras they'd gotten with their filming equipment from the Kith. Capable of recording and storing hours of footage on top of streaming it live, the hovering cameras could be set to follow along autonomously, or be remotely controlled by an operator. Pryseia gave a little salute, signalling she was ready to begin recording on Malakh's command.
"Okay, activating stealth in three… two… one!" Malakh announced, touching something on her stealth device and then tucking it into her pocket, and that was all. As far as Elytra could tell from where she was watching the console showing the camera's live feeds, nothing had happened.
It was a different story on Viatrix's end.
"This is a bizarre sensation," she said after a moment, sounding positively thrilled, "I can still see you on my own cameras, but I can't feel you at all!"
"Same, looks like this isn't interfering with visuals at all." Elytra confirmed.
Pryseia's tail twitched in delight as she said, "Excellent work, as always. This will most certainly be an asset going forward."
"Alright, let's do a little more testing with these," Malakh grinned, "Vi, I want you to try and do whatever you can to break through this interference. A little stress test will iron out any kinks before we take these out in the field."
"Oh!" Elytra exclaimed suddenly, sitting up in her seat, "Should we film it in character?"
Pryseia opened her mouth to say something, but she stopped herself, instead turning to face Elytra, her own grin growing devious. "What of a backstory? The Queen requires the best tools in order to achieve her goals, and so would of course send her Hand to snatch the Program from the lab that created it."
"A false heist as a prologue to our our real one!" Viatrix's floral avatar flickered away to be replaced by the axe of her persona, her voice distorting as she said, "What pitiful organic thinks that it can claim me?"
"Oh you'll see," Malakh replied, dropping into the sinister tone of voice she'd been playing with in her role as the Queen's Red Left Hand, "Let's set the stage for this little performance!"
A dark, industrial hallway, lights dim and flickering, a sinister red.
Eyes gleaming in the shadows, here an instant, gone the next.
A low laugh, distorted and jagged, as a security camera pans across an empty room. Empty save for the bodies strewn about.
"Where are you, little mouse? I can feel you scurrying…"
A clawed hand reaching up to sever cables. Sparks flying, the feed cutting out.
"You think that will stop me? Pitiful organic, I have more senses than you could possibly imagine!"
A hand holding a strange device, fingers tapping against a screen. A different laugh, quiet and knowing.
"That's what you think."
A sensor display, target locked. That is, until, they vanish.
"What? Impossible!"
Laser fire, chaotic and aimless. Security drones canvassing a shadowed room, their weapons unable to locate their quarry. Eyes staring at them from the deeper recesses of the room.
A lithe figure, a silhouette backlit by red nimbly dodges around those that seek it, through halls, through rooms, until finally a destination is reached.
A screen on a console, the emblem of a lurid red axe burns like an ember in the dark, flickering in a way to convey distress, a garbled voice crying out wordlessly in frustration.
A figure steps forward from the shadows, the leonine visage of their helmet underlit by the red light of the console, eye sensors gleaming. Clawed hands type swiftly away at the console's controls.
"No! NO! I will NOT allow THIS! You dare? You DARE? YOU D-"
The garbled voice is abruptly cut off, the screen goes black. Emergency lighting fills the space a moment later, just bright enough to catch on the edges of forms moving, allowing for no details beyond that.
A clawed hand reaches forward and pulls a hefty data storage device out of the console by a rugged handle. Steps receding.
The interior of a small shuttle, the doors hissing open to admit the leonine figure. The low, atmospheric lighting of consoles coming to life, sharp pinpricks of light that catch on the sinister details of the figure's armour.
The data storage device placed in a secure container, the latch shut tight and electronically sealed.
At the pilot seat of the shuttle, the leonine figure sinks gracefully into place, hands moving across the console.
A voice comes through the ship's communication system, haughty, commanding.
"I take it you've met with success on your mission?"
The helmet sloughs away like blood wiped from a blade, revealing the sharp features of the woman beneath. Deorviran. A controlled savagery to her beauty.
"Of course. The Queen demands, the Hand complies."
The communication channel blinks out. The Hand smirks, her eyes lifting to stare straight at the audience. A jarring cut to black as sinister music carries on the tension of the scene.
"Holy shit," Rhea breathed a few seconds later, lightly shaking Elytra by the shoulder, "You just put that together in an afternoon?!"
"Inspiration struck, and I was hardly alone!" Elytra replied as she pointed to where Pryseia and Malakh were sitting, "They did all the set dressing and acting, Viatrix too. And Nevara's been playing around with music creation, so it was a team effort."
"Don't sell your skills short, the directing and editing was impressive." Nevara said from her own seat in the rec room where they'd just finished watching the promotional video of Malakh's stealth device.
"Holy shit." Rhea repeated in wonder, her eyes sparkling as she stared off into the middle distance, "I'm having notions."
"Oh?" Malakh urged, looping her tail around Rhea's wrist.
The other woman graced her with a tender smile. "I did a bit of creative writing, a little improv back when I was in medical school. I needed something that wasn't quite so heavy to keep me sane between exams, you know? I loved doing creative shit like that, but it wasn't really something I could pursue with the field I wanted to get into, because I was dead set on getting my doctorate! But I did that, went farther afield than I ever expected because of it, and now I've got the potential of eternity rolling out ahead of me. Time enough to indulge in a bit of creativity."
"Agreed." Nevara said with a nod.
Rhea slapped her knees as she stood, walking backwards as she sent the rest of them a wave. "Besides, it'll give me something to do while we compile data from the museum and gear gets prototyped. My doctorate isn't a lot of use when it comes to all of that."
Malakh's test of the telepathic dampener, by its nature, ended up being a far more nerve wracking endeavour than the testing of her stealth device. Elytra's own empathic abilities were different enough that she wouldn't make an adequate test subject.
They were going to have to test it on zymeth themselves.
"We've no shortage of people to test it on, for good or for ill." Pryseia frowned across the mess hall table, "All we must do is open a door to our ship and we'd be open for their probing."
"Wait, does the ship protect us from psychic detection?" Elytra asked.
Rhea nodded over her lunch. "Yeah. Thalatte design the hulls of their ships with layers specifically designed to scatter psychic wavelengths. They can't get in or out. That kind of protection isn't feasible for something like suit armour, as your entire nervous system basically works as a transmitter for psychic frequencies, so you wouldn't be able to get full coverage without completely sacrificing your mobility."
"The psychic booster I made works in a similar fashion to an audio receiver," Malakh added, "But I'm going to need access to some kind of dry dock to install it in order to bypass the ship's shielding without compromising it."
"Right, so if we pop open a door, bypass that shielding, we'll be as good as broadcasting our presence to any nearby zymeth tourists." Rhea continued.
From the screen Viatrix usually appeared on when she wanted to hang out while the organics were eating, live footage from outside the ship began to play. Beyond the reef that surrounded the patch of land they were parked on, there were several boats lazily puttering around on the lilac sea.
"Zymeth telepathy has an impressive range," Viatrix informed them, "Those in these boats would be close enough to pick up on our thoughts."
"We do need to test these devices before we commence our operation," Nevara said, turning to Pryseia, "Our efforts at stealth would be rendered meaningless otherwise."
Pryseia nodded, drumming the fingers of her prosthetic hand against the table for a few moments. Eventually she turned to Viatrix and asked, "Do you feel you've acquired enough information from your monitoring of the Bakiz Institute for us to formulate a strategy with?"
"More information is always better, but I do believe I've compiled enough for us to get something going." Viatrix told her, banishing the live feed for her floral avatar.
"How soon could you have masking units built for everyone aboard?" Pryseia asked Malakh.
The deorviran stared off into the distance for a moment, running calculations in her head before saying, "A handful of hours, maybe? Before nightfall for certain."
"Ideal," Pryseia said with a nod, "The cover of night will aid us in the event we need to make a swift escape. What say the rest of you to donning these devices and opening our doors to zymeth perception this evening?"
"Vi, would you assist me in getting the ship ready for an emergency exit?" Nevara asked.
"You got it." Viatrix chirped.
"Splendid. We shall either have a successful test on our ledger, or be halfway across the system before the night's over." Pryseia said with a raise of her glass, "May the fates permit us to be crowned in victory."
As promised, Malakh had finished her fabrication of enough masking units to go around before the sun set over picturesque Ritroser. With Nevara in the pilot's seat, ready to have the ship launching at a moment's notice, the rest of them gathered at one of the forward personnel ramps, ready to put the device to the test.
"The ship's stealth systems will keep us hidden electronically and visually," Malakh explained to the others, "So we won't be seen or be picked up, at the very least. If the masking units don't work, the zymeth outside are going to feel a handful of minds pop out of nothing!"
"There's a ship in range, and I've got a visual on them. Bringing it up now." Viatrix said, and on a nearby display panel, a live feed from outside flickered on. It showed a small boat, only a handful of Zymeth aboard, most of them dancing while one of their number played a stringed instrument of some sort.
"You all ready to go up there?" Malakh asked over the radio.
"Confirmed." Was Nevara's reply.
"Alright Vi, pop that door, if you please." Malakh said quietly, and the AI was quick to comply.
As the ramp lowered before them, all eyes turned to the camera feed of the dancing aliens, looking for even the barest twitch of out of place movement. But even as the ramp touched down on the sand, the ship's psychic plating yawning wide, there was no interruption in the gentle swaying of the zymeth on the ship beyond.
"Okay, that's a good sign." Rhea said, quiet and hopeful.
"Can't have a stress test without a little stress." Malakh said, turning to Elytra, "Zymeth communicate telepathically, so normally if you want to speak to one, you have to direct your thoughts at them with your mind instead of your mouth. So everybody, get shouting."
Elytra did as she was asked, focusing her thoughts towards those on the boat as loudly as she could, though it was a little hard to concentrate with the emotions rolling off the others as they stared silently at the boat in the distance. She had no idea what the rest of them were thinking, but from the feeling of it, it wasn't anything complementary.
And yet, there was no reaction from the zymeth caught up in their dance.
After a few minutes of this, Pryseia rocked back on her heels, grabbing Malakh by the arm as she said, "I believe that constitutes as a success!"
Malakh sighed in relief, grabbing Pryseia's hand as she said, "We're good Vi, you can button us back up."
"Happily! I find I don't enjoy the feeling of anxiety." Viatrix said as the ramp began to close.
Rhea threw her arms around Elytra and Malakh, saying, "You and me both, sister! Nevara? Test was a success. Repeat, test was a success!"
The crew of the Pelekys had intended to have something of a celebration about the success of Malakh's psychic masking device, but one thing quickly led to another, and the six of them were soon sat around one of the tables in the rec room, a map of the Bakiz Institute displayed on the surface before them, areas highlighted to show what security measures were where, lines denoting the routes both living security guards and artificial security drones patrolled, and where each of the objects with a bounty in the Avvisi system were located.
"This is impressively through," Elytra said in wonder, "Vi, you'd think you'd planned a heist before!"
"Stop." Viatrix said in a tone of voice that implied she do anything but.
"No, I raise my hand in favour," Malakh agreed, "I've been part of Thalatte missions that didn't have anywhere near this amount of intelligence. Any doubts I had that we couldn't pull this off have been scuppered."
"Once we're in, we shouldn't have much difficulty completing our objectives. Getting in is going to be the sticking point." Nevara said.
Pryseia leaned over the table, motioning at the assorted entrances to the museum. "Indeed. The measures they take to bar their doors when patrons are not within the premise is not something we could overcome with either stealth or alacrity. An alternate means of entry will need to be sought."
"We're also going to need a narrative reason for Queen Kaizoku to be there," Rhea added, continuing when the others gave her a look, "Audiences like it when there's a motive behind what the Kith do more than they enjoy random acts of crime. We were talking about having a fictional reason behind our very real desire to get Storlayacas mechs, so what would our motivation be to steal a bunch of random artifacts?"
"Why do I have the sneaking suspicion that you've thought of a motivation?" Malakh asked fondly, to which Rhea grinned right back.
"So sue me for making use of my downtime! It's a rough draft, but I was thinking something along these lines: the woman who would become Queen Kaizoku was not meant for the throne, but she was hungry for it. Ambition drove her to find any edge she could in her struggle for power, which led her, like so many before her, to seek out Odazaen. Only she found something even greater than that - a Storlayacas. However, her play for the throne was cut short when her courtiers were killed by her enemies, and she herself was stripped of her name and title and forced to flee. All that she had was her mech, and her thirst for revenge. She fell in with others who had been exiled by their people, all of them just as hungry to get back at those who had wronged them. The Storlayacas are weapons of vengeance, and so they call out to those who seek it. So now we're on a quest to get the rest of us kitted out with these mechs, and then we'll get bloody payback on our enemies!"
Pryseia nodded thoughtfully, her tail twitching lazily behind her as she said, "A compelling motivation for our fiction. I assume you also have a reason as to the rest of our pending thefts?"
Rhea pointed a finger at her, "Oh you know it! I had a look at what they've got on display in there, and it's all stuff from the 'lesser' races. Our races. If Queen Kaizoku wants our loyalty, she's going to have to pay for it. What better way than getting back a bunch of artifacts from the aliens who stole them?"
"It would certainly go a long way in proving that you are a Queen of your word." Elytra joked.
Pryseia laughed in delight at that, leaning forward in her seat to bump shoulders with Elytra. "Then I would be wise to ensure the loyalty of my seer then, eh? Alright, we've a lie to mask our truth, the means to walk unseen within the premises of the museum, and a layout of all we wish to acquire. Let us combine our mental might and reason out the means to achieve our goals!"