Murder Drones: A Merch in Time

"I suppose you're not wrong about that. Though I am impressed by your ability to be so relaxed given our situation."

Karasu responded to Nori's claims about Yeva and himself being so quiet -- and then Nori mentioned having no real idea what those groups are, but is willing to accept what he said at face value.

"Heh. Right, I guess I forgot that you wouldn't really have heard about them -- basically... Freelancers are given top of the line equipment. And from what I've heard, they've also got AI. The gear that they use practically requires assistance from an AI."
He explains -- and then he continues with the differences with what he became instead;
"Then there's Ravens. The easiest answer is that they're not the usual kind of Mercenary. They pride themselves on being the best. So much so that there's a lot of competition between them just to rise up the ranks. It's not unheard of for Ravens to end up fighting each other. Both on and off the job."

He pauses for a moment, letting Nori and Yeva both process his description of the two groups.
"They fight each other just to prove that they deserve to be higher up the ranks than everyone else. As you can imagine, it gets pretty easy to afford a ship with the kind of payments you receive in that line of work."

In any case... Nori then outright confirmed his suspicions -- she wouldn't hold back. Which means he was absolutely right to not suggest anything ludicrous right now. Even as a joke. But what grabbed his attention afterwards was the smile that Yeva gave him.

He arches a brow. He was a little curious as to why she seemed so happy about that answer, but he decided to leave it be for now.

Nori then voices her agreement that the experiment has to be stopped, one way or another.

"Yeah. All the more reason to find a way to stop it."
Karasu replied... Then they started to settle down for the night...

---

Truth be told, it was a restful enough night. Perhaps not the most comfortable for Karasu, but he could make it work. Right now he was doing whatever he could to prove that he was on Nori and Yeva's side.

SLAM!

Apparently it was already working. He is awakened by the sudden noise, jolting slightly and looking over at the door. Nori was VERY angry about something -- and she soon shouts out why. She found whatever that they were going to offer him to eat and drink to be... Unsatisfactory.

Of course, her review was much less polite. More of a demand for better service and conditions under threat of extreme violence. Karasu then looks at the tray with a... Grey goop? The appearance said "nondescript", but the imagination said "you'll wish the taste and smell was bland."

"Gee. They're really rolling out the royal treatment, aren't they?"

He remarks. But it seems that Nori was already well on her way through negotiations at this point. The Doctor agreed to let them go to the cafeteria...

---

In hindsight, an entire armed escort seemed a bit excessive for three prisoners. But then again, he DID threaten the Doctor's life. So it was probably warranted, especially with two supernaturally powered Drones that would side with him.

But the real focus was the Cafeteria! The sign painted a very clear picture of life for the average JC Jenson Employee. Still, Karasu was surprised to see that Drones were actually being catered to within the Cafteria. Nori, for her part, makes a grand gesture as she welcomes him inside.

"Thank you for this, Nori. I'm sure I could have forced that stuff down -- whatever it was -- but this is going to be a lot better."

After voicing his appreciation, he gets into the line for Humans, and begins to assemble a meal for himself. Towards the end he also gets a drink; some water with green apple flavoring applied to it. Whereas his food was a main course of fried chicken, a side of mashed potatoes with gravy, some macaroni and cheese, and some staple veggies; corn and green beans!

Yes, not the fanciest meal. But a damn sight better than that grey goop. After that, Karasu picks out a table; even making sure that it's one that Nori and Yeva could immediately spot when they got their things.

He also waited until they joined him and got settled in at the table, before he started eating.

... Oh, but that did mean one other thing had to happen. This entire time, Karasu had been wearing his space suit. He removes his helmet, revealing his appearance finally.

”I mean, we know what we have to do. We're going to stop it from happening and get to the surface.”

Nori said that in same way one would utter “the sun will rise.” An undeniable fact that was sure to occur. That's how sure the drone was.

She listened to Karasu talk about the mercenary groups, leaning forward and soaking it all in. One thing stood out to her though.

”So why didn't you side with the freelancers? They have the best tech, right? Don't like the idea of having an AI assisting you?”

---

Yeva looked over at Karasu. She seemed annoyed by the situation as well. In the end things got settled quickly though. When he thanked Nori, she looked over at him with a slight smile.

”Hey, you can't operate on oatmeal mix remains. Gotta make sure you're ready to perform espionage.”

Nori pat his back a couple of times, then went off to get food and drink. Which turned out to be a can of oil and what could only be described as drone soup. With chunks of actual drone in it. Nori would be quick to explain this to Karasu.

“Using solver tends to make you overheat. So they give us drones to consume to keep cool.”

When Karasu took his helmet off, both Nori and Yeva stared. Nori seemed curious, studying him like he was some interesting creature. Yeva was utterly entranced though. She would not look away even for a moment.

”I figured your face would be all scarred. From all the mercenary work you do.”

Nori ate while Yeva continued to stare. The purple haired disassembly drone noticed this. So she decided to do something to get her attention.

”Hey Yeva, look somewhere else already.”

That something ended up being rather unorthodox to say the least.


Yep, now Yeva was back to reality. And she looked pretty annoyed.

Well, Nori was nothing if not confident. To be able to state their task so matter-of-factly was impressive, even by Karasu's standards. But the thing that stood out the most in this conversation was the talk about the different Mercenary groups. The Drone had a question and she asked it.

Karasu chuckles softly.

"Not at all. I actually have an AI on my ship."
He replies, and soon explains why he didn't join the Freelancers.
"Remember when I said they started having issues? Well it was big issues. Higher authorities were getting involved, military equipment was being lost, rumors of the Freelancers turning on each other..."

He then shrugs lightly.

"By the time I was ready to sign on as a new Agent, things started... Imploding for them. So, I looked to other opportunities."

---

Now, when the two joined him, he wasn't entirely sure what they would be eating. Suffice to say, he hadn't been expecting "Drone soup" to be on the menu. But Nori's explanation does fill in some critical gaps of information here.

"I see... Problems with overheating."
He thinks that over for a moment, taking the first bite of his food in the process.

It's only after he finishes that bite that he speaks up again.

"That's good to keep in mind. Maybe we can come up with more effective ways to deal with that issue."

What he hadn't noticed for a little bit is that Nori and Yeva were both studying his face. The purple-haired Drone is the first one to comment on his appearance too. He calmly looks over at Nori as he replies:

"Well. The best Mercenaries tend not to get injured."

It was a simple response, and one which it was very easy to draw the conclusions from. By now, he finally realized that Yeva was still staring at him. Nori decided to try and get her back to reality -- by a very unusual method, to say the least... But it certainly worked.

"You know, sometimes it's difficult to tell if you two are friends or not."

Karasu comments with a small smile, and he resumes eating his meal, watching the antics unfold... Like he said earlier, things wouldn't be boring with Nori around, at least.

Nori frowned as he talked about the freelancers falling. [color:42fb=inshoot"Well that's lame. If only you were able to join before they fell apart. Then you could have escaped the sinking ship and taken their high tech with you…”[/color]

Nori's eyes lit up. She then gave Karasu a little grin. ”Hey, if you can't make it back to the present, maybe you can make up some code name and join the freelancers to get all that tech. Like Deatb Metal. Something cool.”

---

”Eto takzhe pomogayet sderzhivat' programmu rumyan, pytayushchuyusya ovladet' nami vsemi.”

[“It also helps keep the rouge program trying to possess us all at bay.”]

”It also helps with other things too.”

Yeva looked at Nori In surprise. Why was she keeping that part a secret? Maybe she just assumed Karasu already knew and didn't want to word it grimly? But Nori didn't typically care about how things were worded. Still, Nori gave Karasu a smirk.

”Hey, I'm all for finding the answer to a problem these scientists have been spending a fortune trying to solve. Then we can rub it in their faces.”

Nori leaned forward, peering at him intently. ”Still, it's dangerous work. Not even a tiny little scar.”

Yeva tanked her tag away from Nori, then turned and spoke to Karasu. ”K sozhaleniyu, ona moy luchshiy drug zdes.”

[“Sadly, she's the best friend I have down here.”]

”Yep, we're total besties!”

Nori draped an arm over Yeva's shoulder. Yeva rolled her eyes at the totally misleading translation Nori just did. A drone walked by their table. Nori's face looked up, staring at her. Then a grin broke out.

”Looks like Alice is out of the repair bay. I'll be riiight back.”

Nori moved as quickly and stealthily as possible. She then wrapped her arms around the drone.

”There's my favorite southern gal! It's good to see you out and about again!”

Nori knew Alice was weary of her. So she purposefully git as close as she possibly could to the other drone.

"Heh. Maybe. That's not without risks, though. So let's keep plans that far ahead on the backburner, we have more immediate things to worry about."

Karasu replies, and then he shrugs.
"Besides... I hear that they select the code names for you. And they're actually named after the States back on Earth. Agent Washington, Agent Texas, and so on."

---

During the conversation in the cafeteria... Nori provided another translation. But given Yeva's reaction towards her, something told Karasu that he wasn't getting the whole picture here. Her arches a brow in response.

"If you're worried about me being apprehensive towards either of you, don't be. We have to stick together to get through this."
With that response, he then follows with...
"Still, noted. I'll keep that in mind."

He still wondered if alternatives were possible... Specifically, even more effective alternatives. But that might be something they just have to tackle later.

"Well, that's our objective put to it's simplest: We're going to completely one-up them."

Still... It seems as though Nori was fixated, and perhaps impressed. As she put it; not even a single scar to speak of. Karasu just gives a calm smile.

"As I said. I'm very good at my work. Perhaps I'll tell you more about it later."

Soon after his response, Yeva yanks her tag away from Nori, and speaks up once more. Only for Nori to provide what seemed to be another inaccurate translation as she throws an arm around the Russian Drone.

"Something tells me I should take your translations with a grain of salt, Nori..."

Karasu remarks. But it seems like the purple-haired Drone wasn't going to stick around for long, as she practically lights up and gives what can only be described a Gremlin's grin. She excuses herself in order to go see this other Drone named Alice. Karasu can't help but turn and watch...

And it was certainly an immediately hectic scene as Nori practically pounces on her and hugs her. Alice jolts from it a bit.

"TARNATION-!?"

She shouts, her eyes widened. But then she soon recognizes the voice, and groans.

"Aw great. Nori."
Alice adjusts her helmet slightly as she glances back at Nori.

"What do you want? Fixin' to give me another headache?"

Nori leaned forward, peering at Karasu. ”You seem like a Wyoming to me.”

---

Nori smiled after Karasu. ”Don't you worry, we both plan on stick by your side. Especially Yeva.”

Nori gave her friend a teasing grin and elbowed her lightly. Yeva simply rolled her eyes in response.

Nori and Yeva continued eating. She nodded at Karasu's assessment. She talked back to him in the middle of eating.

”sounds gud de meh!”

She then swallowed her food, and wipped off her face with the back of her hand. ”You've got a lot of story telling to do once we uproot these bastards.”

Nori grinned when Karasu told her to take her translations with a grain of salt. ”Then maybe you should learn Russian. Something tells me you’re going to be hearing it often.”

Nori had no idea how true that would ring.

---

She smirked at Alice. “Whaaat? I would never. Again. I just want you to meet somebody.”

Nori practically dragged Alice over to Karasu and Yeva. She looked over at Karasu. “This southernly charming bot is Alice. She's one of the more trusted lab assistants. She just got that promotion too. She works in the medical ward now. She's really good with robotics.”