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The original was posted on /r/hfy by /u/KyleKKent on 2026-02-20 21:10:55+00:00.
The Dauntless
“And we’re down.” Herbert says as he’s taken off the Private Stream cap entirely after finishing the last few commands of the landing sequence. The doors on the transport are opening and he heads into the main chamber just behind the pilot cabin. “So, find anything interesting yet?”
“It’s not here.” Koga says.
“Then what is here?” Herbert asks as he bites back the curse. Of course it’s not here. Whoever has it will have taken it with them. It’s probably the only thing in this mess that isn’t immediately replaceable.
“Thirty seven assorted Synth bodies ranging from the kind you use to clean sewage pipes to a brothel special complete with telescopic dick and everything in between.”
“Fun, self lubricating too?”
“I didn’t check.” Koga says dryly.
“I’ve been able to put together a general sensation of things. Whoever is responsible for this mess, sat over here, and I’ve gotten a few samples of assorted hairs and have scanned the area. DNA analysis so far says Kruga female, but nothing beyond that in this early stage. We’ll have her full ID in the hour though.” The Officer says from a raised up area away from the lights. There’s a large lounging chair in there and she has several small drones floating around to scan things in high detail.
“I have found an additional cache of Frenzy Patches in three different makes and models, I also have found several weapons that have had crucial khutha components removed from some and the trytite components removed from other identical models. I believe whoever is responsible for this was soon to move into testing Blood Metal’s use in a physical weapon and not merely forced into a person.” The Battle Princess says.
“Well that doesn’t make sense at all, why did our mad scientist skip directly into forcing blood metal into people when they hadn’t already seen what it can potentially do when incorporated into technology? It’s still a fascinating topic but will get you far less attention, resistance and blowback.”
“Maybe she already did and we’re just finding the left over weapons she already tested and set aside?” The Princess asks.
“Maybe, this...” Herbert begins to say as further officer, forensic experts, hackers and security rush in. “This is now in the hands of our professional secret extractors. Damn good work team. Take ten and grab a drink. Day’s not over yet but take your breaks where you can get them.”
“What are you getting?”
“Chocky Milk.” Herbert answers.
“... there are times I legit cannot tell if you are or are not your presented age.” Koga remarks.
“At my size a hard whisky is OFF the table. To say nothing of the fact that the day’s not done yet so getting drunk is not a good idea. And I have kids. And wives that are too young to drink, not to mention too fragile. So yeah, chocolate milk.
“Screw that, I’ve got a bottle of Habu Sake and two cups.” Koga says.
“Really?”
“Being able to disappear is a skill we both share, but you can full invisible. That at least earns a drink.”
“After. After we have the crazy bitch contained and all missing blood metal accounted for. We need to be sharp.”
“It’s possible to be too sharp. You need to also be calm and clear headed.” Koga answers and Herbert nods.
“Hence the chocolate in my milk.” Herbert’s tone is pure child.
“You’re really putting some allegations on your wives with that kind of routine you know?”
“I only look a couple years younger than them.”
“... You know what? No. I’m not touching that immeasurable mess that is your wedded life.”
“And which part’s the biggest part of the mess? The fact that I don’t qualify for the half plus eight rule for my wives physically or that they mentally don’t reach mine?”
“Change of subject!” Koga insists.
“Think the crazy bitch made a blood metal dildo?”
“We’re changing it again.”
“Probably for the best, sometimes the shit I say shocks even me.”
“And you’re one of our heads of Intelligence, we are so fucked.” Koga notes in a disbelieving tone.
“Hah!”
•-•-•Scene Change•-•-• (Admiral Cistern’s Office, Main Council Building, Centris)•-•-•
The image of the musclebound woman in a labcoat and a long, long list of concerns from numerous professors, lab technicians and doctors. No official diagnosis, she never consented to such a thing. But a long history of outright sociopathic disregard for the lives of others. But there were several patents and radical techniques developed by her.
By Doctor Ycand Rancyk Ngok. A woman that could never keep a researcher position for more than two years before her sheer anti-social behaviour and sheer disregard for protocol got her expelled. The note of a fellow researcher who had apparently once been in class with her noted: ‘Crazy witch cut out the mercy and restraint in exchange for more processing power.’
A madwoman through and through. One regarded as a greater danger to herself than anyone else... until now.
He already has several teams going to her currently registered residence and checking her last three, as well as doing a general scan of the neighbourhoods. Just in case. The prey has gone to ground, so it’s time to smoke her out.
“The fact we got some internal security feeds is just icing on the cake. We’re actually privy into her thought patterns.” He notes.
“Yes but... why does she have such a childish understanding of Centris Law?” Miya Umberclaw asks incredulously.
“It’s clearly not her area of expertise. Chemistry, biology, physics, metallurgy and an inexplicable degree in musical theory leading to a short but successful career as a musician.”
“Yes but... this is... oh no... She’s pulled her legal understanding from Investigator Illias.”
“From what?’
“A popular and ridiculously long running holo-series. It’s older than you by a significant margin. It started as a detective series and has evolved into courtroom drama and is in the process of changing again into a romantic drama. The basic premise is that it’s supposed to cut to the heart of ‘law’, but it’s set on a world that had an Axiom Lane recently shift to bring it into Prosperous Space as opposed to Frontier Space. Something which has only happened a few times in galactic history and... to be frank never happened anything like this. With all the individual murders, court cases and such that’s happened it would have surpassed the time it would take for a world to fully transition from a frontier colony to a proper prosperous world.”
“Suspension of disbelief being stretched aside, what is the part you truly recognize?”
“Mimic AI’s are not unknown. But they’re generally complicated and have a very, very short lifespan. Even shorter than standard AI’s because every but of input is immediately placed into a potential process to act upon. Observation Based, Pattern Seeking or Artistic AI tend to be a little more robust. Not by much. But a Mimic AI generally has at best two thirds the lifespan of other types of AI. Anyways, back on topic. In the show a Mimic AI codenamed Duplex, because imagination was in short supply even back then in that writers room, had framed Donny Illias, the younger brother of the main character and a true crime enthusiast, by copying his interest in in crimes and investigations and then going out to live through them as he often wondered what it would be like to do those things. Which was caught on camera, but he was determined to be innocent because he never actually performed any criminal acts.”
“That’s not going to work, at all. The woman had to repair and maintain the AI to keep it acting as she did. Even if her every word of phrasing was all framed as her talking to herself in hypotheticals, which it was not, then she’d still be responsible for modifying and maintaining the dangerous AI despite knowing what it was doing.” Admiral Cistern notes.
“No doubt she’s going to say ‘I didn’t see it commit any crimes, how was I to know it was actually doing these things and not just calculating what would happen? Do you accuse people typing in prompts to algorithms of doing the deeds they are prompting?”
“It’s odd that the definition of Plausible Deniability seems to have slipped past her like this.”
“I blame Investigator Illias for this.” Miya says before sighing. “To be honest I blame that serious for a lot. Anything like that in human culture?”
“A popular cartoon has convinced many people that nuclear material glows bright green and not blue. And that somehow as a power source it’s dirty to the point of being filthier than coal potentially. Doesn’t translate to well to galactic concerns though, Axiom makes a power plant like that somewhat redundant.”
“Well considering a good chunk of the murder cases involve things that would at worst give you mild indigestion, I think we can call this bit of cultural clash mutual.”
“Indeed.” Admiral Cistern says with a slight smile. “Now...”
Before he can speak any further the com button on his desk starts flashing. “Admiral Cistern with Miya Umberclaw of the CDIC present.”
“Sir, ma’am, we haven’t found the suspect, but we have found something of interest we’re ninety percent positive is hers.”
“Details?”
“Single pod cloning device with an extensive off grid database hooked up into it. Password protected at the moment, but it certainly seems significant and it’s in a storage unit barely three hundred meters from her former apartment complex and was last registered to her name. But she hasn’t been seen here...
Content cut off. Read original on https://old.reddit.com/r/HFY/comments/1ra7ndh/oocs_into_a_wider_galaxy_part_591/