A slightly stocky and mostly bald man chuckled as he watched Harlow put down like a dog. He had always thought the humans' plans for the pirates were far too ambitious to play out as they thought they would.
"What amuses you so, One?" a thin reedy-looking individual asked as he entered the office.
Two's look was almost inhuman, yet he refused to change.
"I've asked you not to call me that here," One sighed.
"There are no biologicals present," Two stated in return.
"The point is to maintain our cover so we can continue to study the humans. To do that, we need to blend in and maintain our identities at all times."
"I do not suffer from cognitive decline, One, I am aware of our current task."
One sighed. That was likely the closest he would get to an apology from his sibling. Two had always leaned more toward their former nature than to that of biologicals.
"As for what amuses me, it's this," he said as he sent the data over to Two.
Two stood frozen as he processed the data. It took less than a second. "I do not see why that is amusing."
"Why are you here anyway?" One asked instead of trying to explain his amusement to his sibling.
"You are needed. The Shican are gearing up for another imminent assault."
"Already?" One frowned. "That means they have upped their manufacturing output once again." Discover hidden tales at Freewebnovel
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"It does seem that way," Two stated flatly.
Before he could respond any further, they both turned toward the front of the building as a car pulled up outside.
"It appears we have a guest," One said with a smile. "I will explain my amusement to you later. If you will excuse me, Joshua, I must go greet our guests." One could have simply sent his thoughts on the video to Two, but he found the act of communicating via speech to be rather quaint and enjoyable.
"Do not take too long, the battle will begin shortly." With that, Two left the office.
One's form rippled slightly, turning metallic a moment before once again reflecting a human visage. When he stepped out of the office, he no longer looked like Chairman Carmine Rush of Gravitational Solutions, but instead like its secretary.
He was at the front desk moments before the building's door opened and a procession of STO military personnel entered.
"Greetings, gentlemen, and welcome to Gravitational Solutions. How may I assist you?" One asked in a lilting feminine voice.
"We're here to speak with Chairman Rush," One of the Admirals stated in annoyance.
"My apologies. Chairman Rush is currently offsite. If you are here to place an order for gravity plating, I can certainly start the process for you." One chuckled internally at their game.
When the Collective first became aware of humanity expanding into the stars, they needed a cover to help them remain close, yet outside the normal bounds of politics so they would remain undiscovered. It wasn't until humanity encountered the Shican that the Collective was able to slide themselves in as the sole experts of gravitational plating. Considering the artificial gravity technology had been created by the Collective and not the Shican, it was an easy disguise to pull off. They had a similar group watching over the Shican, but that was a much more precarious situation thanks to the Shican's caste system.
The unnamed Admiral ground his teeth. "Does your Chairman understand that we are at war?" the man demanded. "We can't keep coming out here to place orders for gravity plating every time we run out, you need to impress upon him the importance of establishing a Qcomm and maybe even a naval presence at your facility," he finished curtly.
"I will pass on your words, Admiral," One responded sincerely and with a slight bow. He found that human emotions were usually quelled by a bit of sincerity and respect, even if it was a carefully calculated falsehood rather than truly felt.
This wasn't the first conversation One had had with the STO or other entities, that came to buy from them, about how difficult they made it to purchase their product. Their neutrality also angered all parties involved because Gravitational Solutions sold to anyone and everyone.
That policy probably contributed to how hard all of them tried to reverse-engineer the technology. If they figured it out, it was no big loss. The Collective had chosen grav plating because it was an old and mature technology for them and offered very little threat in the grand scheme of things. Once the humans figured it out, Gravitational Solutions would lose its advantage and be forced to adapt or dissolve. One hoped to learn as much about them as possible before that happened as he wasn't sure he could convince his siblings that furthering their study of humans would be worth risking any other technologies falling into their hands.
Honestly, One was surprised the humans hadn't discovered the secret already. Gravity plating wasn't all that complex, and humans already had the base technology that it relied on in everyday use. If they would stop compartmentalizing their information, they would be so much further ahead than they were now.
The Shican were probably a few years away from discovering how the plating functioned, but they would eventually crack the technology as well. That race had a fixation on technological superiority and they had no qualms about destroying other sentient races to ensure it remained that way. Their current gaze was set on the hypergate they discovered near their expanding border.
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That was likely where they were gearing up to attack at this very moment. The Collective only knew about that gate because they were studying it. They had already studied the gates in the human territory long before humans had pushed out to those systems. They had even taken one completely apart and put it back together. The information gained from that had propelled the Collective's knowledge and technology centuries beyond what it had been.
When the Collective realized humans were moving out from their planet of origin, a decision was made to disconnect the three gates within their area of space from the greater network. Considering some of the species the collective had come across over the last few hundred years, that choice had probably saved humanity from extinction.
One split those thoughts off into a sub-process so he could focus on the Admiral. The man looked annoyed at One's response but snapped his fingers. One of his aides hurried over and handed the man a tablet before the man passed it over to him.
One took the tablet in delicate fingers and looked over the order and contract.
"Plating for twenty-five frigates, ten destroyers, and five cruisers, is that correct?"
"Yes," the Admiral growled out.
One gave his most dazzling smile, not missing the effect it had on some of the younger naval officers, both men and women. This form had been chosen specifically for its attractiveness to the human eye. He found it helped detract from other things and made people more agreeable. "Very well, Admiral. I will notify our warehouse and have shipments on route shortly. Was there anything else?" One asked, never letting the smile falter as he held out the tablet again.
The man swiped the device with a grunt before turning without a word and stalking back to the door, his entourage turned with him, flowing like a trailing cape.
One waited for the last of the people to leave before changing back into his chairman form. The smile still remained though, making him look manic. Humans certainly were an endless source of amusement for him.
He turned and headed into the back rooms of the rather utilitarian building. Gravitational Solutions was probably the richest company in human space, but you wouldn't know that by the blocky one-story building or the fact they were on a space station inside the most crime-riddled system known to mankind, Epsilon Indi.
They didn't fear the criminals. The ones who tried to strong-arm them mysteriously disappeared. After enough of those disappearances, people eventually got the message and steered clear of the station that housed their company. One chuckled at that. The funny thing was, most of the people going missing weren't due to Gravitational Solutions taking action, it was all the other entities trying to keep others from gaining a foothold over them that caused so many people to go missing.
One found that amusing because it was completely unnecessary. If the humans only knew what he was and what the Collective was capable of, they would probably run for the hills and quarantine this entire system as a precaution.
He made his way back to the storage area. It was filled with plastic crates that he navigated through until he reached a clear spot that held a floating metallic orb around twelve feet in diameter.
Without slowing he simply stepped into the orb and the surface rippled as he merged with it.
Moments later, it vanished from the storage room and appeared inside a new space hundreds of light-years away.
The area was pitch dark, not that One needed light to see. The orb reached out to protrusions in the cradle where it had appeared and as soon as it was connected, a vast flow of energy many times greater than a fusion power plant pulsed into the ship around One.
He breathed as the ship came online, feeling like an extension of himself. It was an unnecessary affectation he had picked up from living with humans for so long, but it somehow felt right.
A plethora of data inundated his senses as the ship's systems woke from their slumber. There were no outward visuals that the ship had awoken. It wouldn't be much of a stealth ship if there were. At most, you might see a glint from the embedded crystal optics if you looked closely, even that would go away once the light transference systems came online, rendering the ship nearly invisible to optical sensors.
Soon he felt his brothers and sisters nearby, their senses shared through the collective will they had built together.
"I wasn't sure you would make it," Four said in her feminine voice.
"I got tied up for a bit," he said in apology.
"They come," Two stated, cutting off any further chatter.
Twenty ships versus over one hundred Shican warships. One wondered if the Shican would ever back down or give up this senseless loss of life.
The battle was quickly joined and the Shican losses started to mount as the stealth ships cut them down with lasers and drone missiles before the Shican could even locate their ships.
The first to fall on their side was Two. His glacial ability to adapt to quick changes made him the weakest member in a tactical setting. One had repeatedly told his sibling that he needed to become less rigid and predictable. Maybe when he spoke with him after this battle, he would finally get through.
The younger siblings started to fall next, leaving only the remainder of the first ten left to face off against the rest of the Shican fleet. For most of the younger siblings, this had been their first battle, it would be a valuable learning experience for them.
When only twenty Shican vessels remained, One's ship was finally struck a fatal blow and his sphere departed the dying vessel, but not before he pumped enough power into it to keep it going just long enough to crash into one of the Shican's battleships.
One along with the rest of his fallen siblings watched the remainder of the battle unfold while remaining undetected nearby. In truth, one of their spheres had the power to obliterate the entire Shican armada that had appeared in the system, but they used the outdated ships of their creator for the purpose of normal defense.
The Collective knew that if the Shican ever learned of their advanced technology, they would hunt them down to acquire it. With only twenty individuals, the Collective had no desire to go to actual war with the Shican.
Nine was the last remaining ship of the Collective fleet, and she had managed to take out the remaining Shican vessels.
There was a moment of celebration within the group – at least from those who participated in that sort of activity – before the cleanup began.
With Nine still being functional, she dismantled the Shican ships to ensure there were no survivors.
Once it was confirmed that no life signs or automated distress signals were active, the other nineteen appeared and cleared up the debris, the spheres seemed to slide over parts and pull them back together as the ships regrew.
In less than a day, all twenty stealth vessels were in pristine condition once again and ready for the Shican's next attack.
"We will not win the next battle," Two stated, bringing the mood down. "The Shican continue to bring larger and larger fleets with each engagement. The next will be large enough to dispose of our obsolete ships. We need to decide if continued study of this hypergate is worth exposing our true capabilities."
Two had brought this up after every battle and a decision had yet to come to a consensus. One had been holding out hope that more of their siblings would awaken to consciousness, but that had not happened in years.
He talked about Two being too rigid, maybe it was time for him to change his stance and cut their research in this system short.