Aren threw the Engineer's own grenade back at him knocking him out. The Tech bomb succeed in nullifying the 2 other traps he had set. Eudoxia and Xin attacked Ten at the same time. Unable to fight against both of them at once, Ten soon found herself defeated and on the ground, gasping for breath. With their leader down and only the biotic left standing...she knew they were done for. She put her hands above her head signaling her surrender. Mythai's stun grenade did it's work. With the biotic stunned and helpless, Mason finished him off with two shots in the back. He looked around. No one was left standing and according to Eudoxia's scans...there were no squads left. They had done it. They'd won. ----------------------- The ceremony to iniate their team as Jumpers went until late that evening. They finally received their squad name, Shadow Squad. Mason was slightly disappointed that the name wasn't something more awesome, but the very fact they would be going on their very first off world mission tommorrow off-set that dissapointment. He went to bed that night with high expectations and many questions. Who would be their commander? What planets would they be going to? What was their mission. And more importantly, would they succeed? ---------------------- Mason woke up early the next morning. The team had about 2 hours before they met their commander so Mason decided to hang out in the Rec Room and relax for a bit. The rest of the squad would eventually make their way over here too. A lieutenant was posted at the door. Odd. As an offical Jumper Squad they shouldn't need supervision. He went into the room anyway and looked around. There was a foos-ball table, a pool table, video games, a snack machine and tons of other recreational gadgets. In the corner of the room stood a strange looking girl. It took him a moment...but Mason recognized it as an android. Why was an android in here? That must be the reason a lieutenant was stationed outside the door. Robots wouldn't be allowed to freely roam the base. "Hello?" He asked it.
Adwaita Adwaita traipsed into the Rec Room, her many heavy gold bangles jangling on her arms and announcing her arrival. She had traded in the standard sleek jumpsuit for a yellow top and a bright orange skirt that swished around her dark ebony legs. A bandage was wrapped around her chest beneath her top, from that laser blast from the Biotic the day before. It wasn't a serious injury, but it still hurt. After a quick call to Grandma Zipporah, who was also a spiritual healer, she was ordered to rub special oils on the bruise and wrap it up. Adwaita always did what Zipporah said, even if she didn't fully understand--she was a very wise woman. Adwaita thought it was weird that a lieutinant was there, but she just ignored it. But, upon seeing Mason and an android, Adwaita stopped in her tracks on the way to a corner sofa where she intended to read her book of poetry. (A lot of people prefered digitized books, but Adwaita liked the smell of old paper. The printed word was sacred to her.) "Why is that here...?", Adwaita said slowly, pointing her book at the android. Her bangles clanked together noisily.
Hello? Why is that here...? "I don't know, why don't you ask it." Seven replied with a huff, "And frankly why are any of you here?" Seven was still a little cross about her situation, but her anger was slowly giving way to curiosity. Humans, these were the humans she had been searching for. All those years the decided to observe them, see what they acted like.
Adwaita "I don't know, why don't you ask it." Seven replied with a huff, "And frankly why are any of you here?" Adwaita scowled at the android. "We belong here", she retorted smartly. She gave Mason a 'What is the world coming to?' look, shook her head, and headed for the comfy seat in the corner. Adwaita had worked hard to get to this point, to get into this squad. That android was probably just ready-made and programmed, and shipped over. It was injustice, that's what it was. Adwaita couldn't stand injustice. Without a word, Adwaita ducked behind her book and tucked her legs up to her body, reading. But she couldn't get lost in the words, she was too distracted. So she just pretended to read and kept an ear trained on what the android was doing. Using her curtain of dark hair, she could spy on their conversation without them even knowing. I'm not being sneaky, I'm being resourceful, like a true Jumper would do, Adwaita reasoned to herself.
Xin: "There -that's it for today. You should come back next week for your next dose, and then. . . well -we'll see what happens." the doctor said, pulling off his gloves and putting the syringe away. casting a worried glance at Xin again, he asked, "Are you still sure you want to go through with this? Your genes haven't been altered enough to the point where you would survive if you just stopped coming. If I give oyu the next one-" "I know what the chances are." Xin said quietly, her gaze hard. Sliding off of the table with a small bounce of her heels on the floor, the girl pulled her sleeve back over the tattoo-like dots on her arm. She hadbeen takign these light "gene-altering" doses for the last few weeks to enhance her abilities, and so far she hadn't had anything bad occur. Striding to the door, she opened it and walked down the hall towards the Rec room without even so much as a thank-you or good-bye to the doctor. The man only sighed, he had seen her many times other than this. Broken, bleeding, but instead of her own blood coating her body the last time, it had been that of a suicidal studen'ts she hadn't manage to save in time. So much death in her life . . . The doors to the Rec room opened with a faint swish as the girl walked in and caught sight of the android. Halting in her tracks, she eyed it, her head quirked to one side in a bird-like motion. Intelligence. This thing -no, this being- was not their average robot. A smile tugged at the corner of her mouth -the first in a long time, "Hello -I'm Xin. What's your name?"
Mason "And frankly why are any of you here?" The Android replied sharply. Mason laughed. "Wow! I can't believe they gave you programming that lets you talk like that. You must be one of those A.I. androids. I wonder why there wasn't something on the holo-net. A working A.I. is huge deal...so what's your identification?"
Eudoxia Point Amount: 50 Eudoxia laid in bed, and as his alarm went off, he awoke. He rose from his bed like Dracula from a coffin. His back straight up as his legs were completely still, maybe not exactly Dracula. He put his right hand on his head and scratched his scalp through his short light brown hair. He did all this before even managing to open his eyes. His eye lids separated and his purple eyes scanned the room. He knew where to go, but seeing as this would be his first actual mission he was a little disappointed to have to go the the Rec Room. He took a shower and changed his clothes. He then walked calmly down the hallway and got closer and closer to the Rec Room. He walked through the doorway and looked to see a few of his team mates. He then saw Mason, but wait who was he next to. Eudoxia's purple eyes grew big and his eye lids separated even farther. He saw an Android. He knew that this would be the person who would impress him. This was the first time he had got excited, he was ready to jump out of his shoes. He fast walked over to the android and asked her, "What's your name?" He then reached in his pocket and grabbed one of his MicroBots and scanned her body up and down by holding it in his hand and moving his hand up and down. He then took out his clear tablet and scrolled through data. "You're made of no metal or natural resource in my database!" he said a little to excitedly. "May I study you? I won't need to have to disassemble you, Just wanna see if there is anything I can recognize on your exterior." he said.
Adwaita Everyone was fawning over the android while Adwaita hid behind her poetry book. Didn't they see what she could see? That this thing was here to take the job of a hardworking living organism that had actually done the grunt work to get here? She had had enough. Adwaita stood, snapping her book closed and tucking it under her arm. She swished over to the group around the robotic hunk of metal, standing with them. "So. Android. Are you going to fight along with us?", Adwaita said, trying to keep her voice even. She flicked her long locks out of her face, irritatedly. "What is your training, if I may ask?" Her meaning was obvious--did he have to work for this position, or was all his knowledge just downloaded into his mechanical brain. "I wonder who got booted so you could get this spot", she added slyly. Her dark eyes were narrowed to dangerous slits. Adwaita wasn't an emotional person, she was even bordering on stoic. But the presence of this robot, here, was making her upset.
Suddenly Seven was flooded with curious humans asking her all sorts of questions, some respectful others not so much. Hello -I'm Xin. What's your name?" "Hello Xin you may call me...Seven." It replied formally, "I'm a seventh generation autosapian from a distant world and the only type of my kind I am, intrieged to finally meet the creatures my design was based off." Seven reached for her hair holding it close seemingly studying it. "This serves no purpose, I wonder why where you and I created with this? Maybe you can enlighten me? Also what is the purpose of these?" seven poked Xin erm, chest area out of genuine curiosity, although a poke from and android felt more like a jab." I have them as well albieght much smaller and not at all soft like yours, and these other humans do not have them at all. I truely I'm perplexed by our design." "What is your training, if I may ask?" "I need none, I can copy the fighting styles of anyone I see and my superior strength and speed would allow me to easily take on any trained homo sapian. I can also download new information. You can do that too, correct? I assumed the creature I was based off could at least download and create new data for things it has seen, indeed it must, you have memory banks as well don't you?" "Wow! I can't believe they gave you programming that lets you talk like that. You must be one of those A.I. androids. I wonder why there wasn't something on the holo-net. A working A.I. is huge deal...so what's your identification?" "No what's your identifcation?" she snapped back. Then after a moment she added. "It's called please." May I study you? I won't need to have to disassemble you, Just wanna see if there is anything I can recognize on your exterior." "Only if I can study you, and no probing in my head, that's personal stuff."
Eudoxia Points Amount: 50 "Only if I can study you, and no probing in my head, that's personal stuff." Eudoxia looked at her and a smile grew on his face. Not one that met both cheeks, but one that was noticeable. He looked at her and said, "Agreed. I can tell you anything about humans you want and I'll also let you take a look and examine me. But no surgery or cutting either or each others' bodies. Oh and by the way, what's your name?" he asked. He looked at the android once again and let out the other five of his MicroBots, they all flew around her body, scanning everything as fast as they could. He smiled and said, "I also would like to test your strength and other human like abilities, and I'd like to have some sessions with you to understand your personality." He surprised himself at the word personality instead of AI. But he felt no need to correct himself, as she was more human like than ever. Plus, he had no idea what she was.
"I also would like to test your strength and other human like abilities. I would also like to have some sessions with you to understand your personality." "If you like to know my strength I could break your neck?" Seven replied casually. Awkward silence.... "Forgive me, I was under the impression that you were to...laugh as you call it, at what is called a Jest. Maybe I said it wrong? hold on....why did the chicken cross the road? To get to the other side." More awkward silence. "Clearly those joke books I was reading were lying to me, Homosapiens have no sense of humor at all." Seven said frowning in slight disapointment.
Eudoxia Point Amount: 50 Eudoxia liked being friendly so he laughed along to Seven's terrible jokes. He then looked at her, wiping his eye, pretending to have laughed so hard he cried. "We prefer to be called humans." he said a little more serious, in his normal tone. He was serious but he liked being a nice person. He wasn't anti-social. He then opened his hand and his MicroBots flew back into his hand, and he slid them into a pocket. And pulled out his clear tablet. It was pocket sized, holograms appeared on it. "It seems I have not been able to tell the material you're made out of. I did realize the red tiny hole on the back of your neck. Do you know what is in there? Do you remember where you came from?" he asked. "Any questions for me?" he continued.
Adwaita Adwaita rolled her eyes. "Hold on, R2-D2", she said sarcastically. Then she flicked her hand at the android, using her power of Freezing. The Android was paralyzed and it could not see or hear anything that was happening around them. It didn't evne matter that it was a robot, because Adwaita's power was with stopping the movement of molecules. For now, the android was basically stuck in the past. Adwaita crossed her arms and faced the others. "Are you guys okay with this? Like, really okay with this?", Adwaita asked bluntly. "It's okay, the Android can't hear us for the next fifteen seconds or so. I want to know if you guys are okay with a robot taking the job of a human, think about all the other hardworking trainees that are vying for this spot. Be honest." She stood in front of them and waited, meeting each of their eyes. If they all agreed with her, she was sure they could send the artificial thing packing.
Mason shook his head in disbelief at Eudoxia. Though he was curious about the Android, Eudoxia was acting like an obsessed scientist. He shrugged his shoulders and looked at the clock, eager to begin the off-world mission. "It's okay, the Android can't hear us for the next fifteen seconds or so. I want to know if you guys are okay with a robot taking the job of a human, think about all the other hardworking trainees that are vying for this spot. Be honest." Adwaita demanded. "It doesn't matter if we're okay with it or not. If the general wants it to join us...then we don't have a choice in the matter. Besides...there has to be a good reason they'd let an A.I. out on the field with us. Right?"
Awaita "Besides...there has to be a good reason they'd let an A.I. out on the field with us. Right?" Adwaita sucked in her cheeks thoughtfully. That sounded very reasonable. But still. "But still", Adwaita said aloud. "It doesn't have emotions. How can it make human decisions during battle? What if it turns on us and gets hacked or something, kills one of us? Then what?" Adwaita glanced at the clock. "Nine more seconds, guys. Truth time is almost up. I think if we all join together, we could boot the robot off the team. They will be forced to listen to us, we'd make them. We could at least make our voices heard, even if we got shot down. So. What do you think...?"
Eudoxia Level: 2 Point Amount: 100 Eudoxia was done with his examination. He then saw that Seven had been frozen. He turned and saw that it was Adwaita doing. "It's okay, the Android can't hear us for the next fifteen seconds or so. I want to know if you guys are okay with a robot taking the job of a human, think about all the other hardworking trainees that are vying for this spot. Be honest." Eudoxia heard this and looked at Adwaita and responded, "To be completely honest she seems pretty human like to me. Maybe she pushed someone out of the way for the spot, but as Mason said she is here whether we like it or not. And I doubt we could beat her even if we wanted to. She is unknown to almost everything in my data base. I have no idea what she is capable of. Though, I don't care. She is something for me to study. Plus, I kinda like her. Though, her bossiness could be worked on." He put his hands on the back of his head and hastily turned back around, searching Seven's body for anything, anything at all he could find. Something that could lead him to a clue about her interior or where she came from.
"My name is not r2-d2 and..." Seven blinked, then she frowned, something was off. "My internal clock is wired to the microsecond but now it is 10 seconds off." She turned to the others looking very, very cross. "What, did you do to me?" she growled
Adwaita Adwaita gave Eudoxia a funky look. He was too far gone, all her cared about was studying the robot thing. He didn't see what she saw. Maybe she would just have to deal with it. "If all you guys don't care, then I'll be peaceable...I guess", she said slowly. Then the android un-froze. "What, did you do to me?" she growled Tiny Adwaita looked unblinkingly into the android's artificial eyes. "I guess your clock malfunctioned", she said coolly. Then she headed back to her spot in the corner, diving back into her book. This time, she actually did read, to distract herself form the disappointing conversation she had just had with the others. "But if I'm right, then I'll be ready", she grumbled to herself, turning a page. In her mind, that hunk of metal didn't stand a chance if it turned on them. She would simply Freeze it and the others would go at it til it was nothing but pieces of machinery--but they weren't at that point yet. With any luck, they never would be.
Mason watched Seven unfreeze and immediately recognize that something was wrong. "My internal clock is wired to the microsecond but now it is 10 seconds off." It asked angrily. If looks could kill... Amazing...it's eyes seem to gleam with intelligence. How is that possible? Mason opened and closed his mouth a few times not sure how to respond. It would be uncouth to rat out Adwaita so he simply shrugged his shoulders. "Don't know." He looked over at Eudoxia, who had been one of the cadets to transfer from another squad only a few months earlier. Eager to change the subject he asked, "So, Doxy. What's your story? You seem to have some pretty cool gadgets."
Mythai Dravid The rec room was not her favorite place to hang. With a majority of hands-on items, bacteria thrived in such a place. Remote controls, gadgets, games, food; the doorknobs alone had 2.7 million bacteria cells per square inch. Mythai knew it wouldn't hurt to spend a little extra time in the sterile lab instead of meeting with everybody early. She had to remain in top-notch health on the mission anyway. Medics couldn't get sick. Mythai stocked up on some more poison needles before forcing herself into the hallway. With every step closer to the germs that lingered, her heart beat faster. "I will be ok, they can't hurt me." Mythai repeated to herself as she reached the rec room door. The lieutenant standing guard gave her a queer look, but she shrugged it off. Keeping her hands in her pockets, she walked in. Just as she had expected, the ones she'd fought side by side with were already here. Her eyes shifted from person to person. Finally her gaze rested on someone unfamiliar and not particularly human. An android? Mythai looked curiously at its metal exterior and wondered when the last time it had been cleaned. Taking a step closer, she managed a tight smile. "Hello everybody. Did I miss much?"
Eudoxia Level 2 Point Amount: 100 "So, Doxy. What's your story? You seem to have some pretty cool gadgets." Taking a step closer, she managed a tight smile. "Hello everybody. Did I miss much?" Eudoxia looked at Mythai step in and thought she could hear his story too if she wanted. "Not much, Myth, not much." He then looked over to Mason and replied. "Speaking of gadgets, I just made a new one last night, show it to you later. But, anyway, as for my story. It's actually quite uninteresting. Though, I'll explain anyway." Eudoxia put his hands in his pockets and squinted his eyes. "Very boring." he said. "So, very boring." He thought back to the most dull life he lived in the past. "Well, I was born under a family who was pretty wealthy, and in the times we live in, that wasn't too hard." He thought of his obnoxious parents, when he was born they treated him like someone special, he fell for it for a while. Though after time, he got bored of his same old same old life, the life of being rich. "My parents treated me special ignoring my other siblings. They hated me for it. To be honest, I had no idea why they thought I was so special." he said putting one hand over his right eye. He always thought that his eye color made his parents believe that he was some type of good luck charm. "Though, once I told them I was bored with the life we we're living, they shunned me. This made my siblings happy. But, obviously they couldn't give me up, they sent me to school and threw money at me. So, I made something out of my life. I became an inventor and a scientist." He smiled a little. "It was one of the only things that was fun to me, since I was rich, I had experienced everything else. And I mean EVERYTHING else. Only one thing interesting to me.." He then looked at Seven and whispered, "Technology.." He then looked back at Mason, "Once I got in College, I realized I was too smart for it. And my inventions had never been tested in actual field work, and my parents never allowed me to. They thought I was weird since neither of them were scientists. Money and wealth make you terrible people. But back to College. I needed something to test my experiments, then I found out about this program. And I joined, without second thought." He breathed a sigh then took his hands out of his pockets and behind his head once again. "As I said, boring."
Aren Aren stretched, and pushed off the blanket on his bunk. Then looked at the time and jumped up, terrified that he was late for drills. Then he remembered that they had the day off in celebration of becoming official Jumpers. There was still about an hour and a half before they would meet their new commander. Aren pushed himself up, and pulled on some clothes, then headed out to find some food. The cafeteria was empty, so he went to the rec room to try his luck with the dispensers in there. When he walked in, still looking disheveled, he was surprised to see everyone gathered around an odd looking metallic girl. Wait, why would there be a metallic girl? That didn't make sense. Aren wondered, then decided that he would rather find food first, so he went up to a vending machine and got a bowl of fruit rings before walking over to the others. "Yo. Who's that?" he asked through a mouthful of fruit loops, pointing at the girl.
Mason "Yo. Who's that?" Aren asked through a mouthful of fruit loops, pointing at the girl. Mason smiled and threw an arm around his dark-skinned friend's shoulders. They'd been training together since the first day. "That, my friend, is an honest to goodness A.I. android. Call's herself Seven." He snuck a hand towards Aren's bowl of fruit loops. "She's kinda hot for a robot don't you think?" He asked with a wry smile. He managed to nab a few fruit loops and popped them in his mouth.
Aren "Bro- C'mon man! That's my breakfast!" Aren said swatting ineffectually at Mason while he stole his fruit loops. "Taking a mans cereal, shameful..." he shook his head in mock disappointment. Other than the occasional breakfast snatching shenanigans, Mason was a good guy. "She's kinda hot for a robot don't you think?" "Little bit, little bit," Aren said, making a gesture holding his index finger a quarter inch from his thumb. It was his way of saying "Hell yeah," without actually saying it. "So... where'd you come from shiny?" he asked the android.
Mythai Mythai listened intently to Eudoxia's story. She understood about his shunning parents, her own parents had signed her up for UNSP without even a warning. On her birthday of all days. "I admire your ingenuity, Eudoxia. That's wonderful you have made something of yourself considering your boring situation." Mythai nodded. Her gaze then shifted back to the interesting robot and she caught a glimpse of Mason snatching fruit loops. "I do hope he washed his hands..." Mythai muttered.
