Technician: "Ah mister Knowles, always a pleasure to see you."
Ryan Knowles: "Likewise, from what I have seen so far, you have successfully completed the task I set before you. I am here to commend you on your work mister?"
Technician: "Taylor, Tommy Taylor. And ah yes the Wraith, everything is in working order, testing phases have been completed and it is now ready to do with it as you will."
Ryan Knowles: "Good, very good. I will put it to good use as soon as I am able to. I have a private matter to attend to in Rheinland, operating under the veil of Rheinland engineering should grant me some cover."
Tommy Taylor: "I hope it all goes well. Now.. To business. I believe prior to our meeting you had mentioned a need for the Avenger Class Vessel."
Ryan Knowles: "That is correct, along with the blue prints of said vessel, I will be conducting some research into the Avenger. This will likely mean, both you and I will work closely together to accomplish this."
Tommy Taylor: "Now when you say working together, surely you mean monitoring my work and making close observations whilst I put all the effort into it?"
Ryan Knowles: "That's a given, yes."
Ryan pauses for a moment, embracing the possibility of such a thing happening.
Ryan Knowles: "No in fact, I will be at your disposal, gathering any necessary component's that you may need to improve said vessel."
More like coordinating, contacting and funding Shipping corporation's to do it for me.
Tommy Taylor: "Good, The Avenger is a vessel that is not easily distributed, you will have to contact the Liberty Navy in regards to acquiring said vessel. As for the blue prints, we can dismantle the entire vessel and reassemble it piece by piece whilst simultaneously documenting everything."
Ryan Knowles: "I assume asking for the blue prints too would be farfetched, right?"
Tommy Taylor: "I can think of more farfetched things than simply asking for the blue prints out right.. If you actually obtain said blue prints that easily, then yes, that would be farfetched, regardless of the current cooperative stance you may have with the Liberty Navy"
Tommy pauses for a moment rubbing his hand across the top of his forehead.
Tommy Taylor: "You could always ask the Directorate for the distribution of the vessel... But..."
Ryan Knowles: "But what mister Taylor?"
Tommy Taylor: "But given your reputation of making a ship disappear so to speak. The directorate would be most apprehensive about supplying you with yet another vessel."
Ryan Knowles: "Valid point.. Perhaps the Liberty Navy is our best bet then. However, I don't like the idea of waiting around for a long duration of time whilst you dismantle and reassemble an entire vessel."
Tommy Taylor: "Well the only other way you could do it is by purchasing the blue prints from a less than legitimate high ranking official."
Tommy laughs historically at the idea.
Tommy Taylor: "And were could you possibly find one of them?"
The irony admittedly pours out of Ryan's facial expression. contemplating the idea for a brief moment before speaking once more.
Ryan Knowles: "Indeed, well I'll get to work on acquiring the vessel first. I'll also give you access to a programme your familiar with."
Tommy Taylor: "Oh?"
Ryan Knowles: "The Simulator Programme. It seems instead of wasting valuable time dismantling the entire vessel and reassembling it again, does not work within my favour."
Tommy Taylor: "Excellent idea mister Knowles."
The sarcasm pouring out of Tommy's tone of voice.
Tommy Taylor: "But you will still need the necessary components to build said vessel."
Ryan Knowles: "The vessel will be at your disposal, simply upload it to the Simulator, It will take me less time acquiring the components so that you can build the vessel, than it would take for you to dismantle it. Correct?"
Tommy Taylor: "Providing you have the necessary Shipping Companies at your disposal, I simply thought you were doing this independently to avoid any unnecessary attention. You know given, your a secret agent."
Tommy once again laughing historically
Ryan Knowles: "Ah, the stereotype again, how I enjoy working with you Tommy"
Tommy Taylor: "Brighten up Ryan, you know I'm only joking with you."
Ryan Knowles: "I will be in contact with you soon Tommy.. Take Care."
Ryan Knowles: I love it when a good plan comes together Tommy.
Tommy Taylor: Oh? I take it you bring good news in regards to the Avenger?
Ryan Knowles: Correct, I have been in contact with a private organisation, which ultimately lead me to a jack pot. In fact all the necessary components to build an Avenger are being transferred to the warehouse now.
Tommy Taylor: Excellent. And the Avenger itself?
Ryan Knowles: Ah yes, I will be in contact with the Liberty Navy as soon I am finished here.
Tommy Taylor: And you are sure they will provide you with said vessel.
Ryan Knowles: I am confident they will, yes.
Tommy Taylor: Good, well using the Simulator Programme, combined with engineering facility's, I am confident you will have your very own Avenger at your disposal within the next couple of days.
Ryan Knowles: Perfect, now mister Taylor, I have some pressing issues to attend to. I will be in contact with you as soon as I have contacted the Liberty Navy's high ranking official.
Tommy Taylor: Good, I look forward to seeing you soon sir.
Ryan's attention suddenly diverted to his pad.
Ryan Knowles: Ah aerelm. What news have you brought me today.
Ryan Knowles: Ah, Mister Taylor, It seems the Liberty Navy have decided to provide me with an Avenger after all. It is currently on board the Missouri's flight deck.
Tommy Taylor: I would imagine this will be transported immediately?
Ryan Knowles: Yes, I will have an operative of mine who just arrived in Liberty pick up the vessel for us.
Tommy Taylor: Who is this operative of yours? Why wouldn't you use our logistic team?
Ryan Knowles: Unfortunately our logistic team is rather occupied with high priority matters. And you will get to meet him when he arrives, I imagine you will have everything in place, so that we may crack on.
Tommy Taylor: Most certainly, The Simulator Programme is ready, once it scans the vessel, it will automatically upload all relevant information on the vessel to obtain the blue prints.
Ryan Knowles: And what about manufacturing an Avenger? Is there anything else you may need?
Tommy Taylor: We have all the relevant components already, your private shipping company took care of that.
Ryan Knowles: Good, so how long will this take mister Taylor?
Tommy Taylor: A matter of days, we have a team of technicians ready to monitor the Simulator Programme and a large group of engineers who are on stand by to manufacture a new Avenger for you. The Machinery we have within our possession will ultimately make things quicker.
Ryan Knowles: Very good, you never cease to amaze me mister Taylor.
Tommy Taylor: Ah, your gratitude is most welcome mister Knowles, I was beginning to think you didn't have a soul.
Ryan Knowles: And I was beginning to think you had a sense of humour. Forgive me for cutting this short mister Taylor, I have other business to attend to. Please inform me of my operatives arrival, I have told him to report to you once he arrives.
The Roc that docked the battleship was one just like any other, but the one piloting it wasn't. Even with sentient AI vessels freely roaming the borderworlds, seeing a robot walk out of a ship is still as rare a sight in core of the colonies as a black man riding a horse back in the old west, and it certainly does turn a few heads and raise a few eyebrows. No one in their sane minds like toasters flying tin cans, maybe because it's an indirect reminder to mankind that their invention is finally catching up and all those pathetically unrealistic horror-esque sci-fi movies from the old Earth might one day actually come true in one way or another, and Nomads stop being the biggest threat to mankind.
Things get even worse when the same humanoid device designed to greet actual people on a station, instead becomes the one expecting to be greeted by those same actual people, and when things go weird like that, there's no going back. The robot walks toward the closest technician on deck, with each step causing an unpleasant metal-on-metal noise that no human would make, running a scan on the technician's ID badge to identify him before greeting the human with a human-like gesture of extended arm, waiting for a handshake.
"I'm supposed to pick up an Avenger for mister Knowles."
The Robot says as the same Roc he had docked the battleship with starts it's engines and undocks from the battleship.
It seems aerelm is a resourceful man, I'll hand it to him the man has style, getting a robot to do his work for him was a smart idea. I suppose I had better get over there and ensure the exchange goes smoothly. It looks like the technician isn't at all pleased.
Technician: Are you joking? When mister Knowles informed me that an operative of his was coming in his place to pilot the Avenger, I wasn't expecting this.
Ryan Knowles: And why is that a problem?
Technician: Mister Knowles! Apologies sir, I was just...
Ryan Knowles: Just what?
Technician: Forgive me sir, I was just thinking out loud.
Ryan Knowles: Well now, you almost sounded as if you had questioned my methods of work. Given you displayed an ambiguous, if not condescending approach to it all. How about I leave it to your better judgement.
Technician: Not at all sir, I was just caught by surprise.
Ryan Knowles: Right. Well then, shall we?
Technician: Certainly sir, this way.
Ryan Knowles: We will be heading to Ames Research Station, I will need you to upload the coordinates to the vessel, I'm sure the robot can handle it from there.
Technician: Certainly. Mister Knowles if I may?
Ryan Knowles: Hmm?
Technician: Do you not think it is impractical for this robot to pilot the Avenger.
I looked at the robot to find it's arm still extended, still awaiting the hand shake like gesture it offered to the technician.
Ryan Knowles: Are you always this pessimistic?
Shaking the robots hand before moving on.
Technician: No sir. I have just never seen anything like this before.
Ryan Knowles: Well, I guess it's true what they say.
Technician: What's that?
Ryan Knowles: You learn something new everyday.
Smiling at the technician, before turning to the Avenger we had come to collect.
Ryan Knowles: I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks after all.
Technician: Implying that I am old sir?
I looked towards the technician with a blank expression, enforcing the fact that he looked almost ancient and withered away.
Technician: Right. Well here it is sir.
Ryan Knowles: Right o, Well, it's been emotional.
The technician looked towards me in shock. As if having a personality was prohibited once you became an Agent.
Ryan Knowles: Ahem, Is there something on my face?
The technician picking up his jaw.
Technician: Not at all sir.
Ryan Knowles: Why are you looking at me then?
Technician: Oh, Apologies sir, You just wasn't what I was expecting.
Ryan Knowles: Let me guess, you were expecting the sun glasses, permanent frown, almost as if I looked constipated.
I smirked, remembering Rokuro's fascinating outlook on what an Agent should look like.
Technician: Well yes.
Ryan Knowles: Lovely, well let's move this along shall we. As much as I have enjoyed your company and your fascinating outlook on how I should conduct myself, It appears I am running late.
Technician: Certainly sir.
Both myself and the technician look towards the robot in the hope that it had processed our entire conversation and knew what it had to do now.
Ryan Knowles: Alright Robot, I'll see you out in space.
Walking away, I couldn't help but think, every technician I run into is a comedian of some sort. I couldn't help but wonder how frantic there life must have been.
The basic auto-pilot AI implemented on every ship aside, the actual robots are not supposed to know how to fly ships, even though it's not a complicated task at all. Just another measure humans have decided to take to make sure their inventions will not turn into rivals. The paranoia grows to such an extent that rewriting a robot's AI to allow implementation of space flight protocols has turned into somewhat of a taboo, but fortunately or not, an unspoken taboo with nothing against it written in any of the house laws. Little did the crew on deck know, that their paranoia was all for nothing and the odd robot requesting permission to undock the Avenger from Missouri did not have a brain of its own, and the only thing it had on top of your average production line service robots was a remote control protocol installed on it.
As the Avenger undocked from Missouri, the actual pilot behind the ship was comfortable in the cockpit of his Roc which had just reached Rochester after taking off from Missouri, tapping away on the screen much similar to playing a videogame to send the required commands to the robot which everyone else thought was the one actually piloting the ship. With the miracle of space travel technologies like lanes and gates, the ship was practically flying itself and the robot had little to do with the actual handling. The only task it needed to perform was a few simple basic gestures to press a few buttons on the console to make sure the ship goes where it's supposed to go.
The tricky part would've come after jumping out of New York and the possible network delay caused by the inter-system communications, in addition to the possible Xenos presence in Colorado, which was why the actual pilot decided to take the route to Ames as well just to make sure nothing goes wrong and the pretend pilot makes it to Kepler with the Avenger intact. Flying two ships at the same time was nothing less than a challenge, especially with one of them being hostile to Liberty now with the fake transponder disabled and the original turned back on.
Humans in general are creatures of habit, and every hunter, mercenary or tracker who's not new to what they do develops a habit of taking shortcuts even when not on a chase. It's a matter of convenience after all, and the risk factor diminishes if the person happens to have unlawful ties in the region, then taking jumpholes and other assorted shortcuts becomes the average means of transportation for the individual. It has it's untypical drawbacks for the odd ones of the bunch though, like how chasing a ship which happens to be warping through lanes in a hostile territory feels less and less exciting or challenging and more and more simple and normal over time.
People like that who've been around a part of space for a few good years and have used each and every of its shortcuts more than enough times often find themselves traveling at roughly the same overall speed whether they take lanes or shortcuts, and it becomes less and less likely for them to fall behind or even lose their target. On top of that, it becomes even simpler if the ship they're chasing happens to be on their navmap and yet even simpler if they're flying that ship too, though the last bit is an odd exception that not often happens. Ames was in sight for both ships, as the Avenger was about to take the trade lane and the Roc had just moved out of the darkmatter cloud, and both ships would've soon made it to the station with no complications, and the poor robot could finally power down after a hard day of unorthodox work. Unorthodox for a robot, that is.
Thanks to an easily-dealt-with gang of rookie Lane Hackers camping the lane, the Roc had managed to win the race and was already docked on Ames by the time the odd Avenger reached the station. Seemed sitting in the cockpit and watching everyone's reaction as they realized a robot is coming out of a spaceship would never get old, especially when the robot got to his favorite part - Mixture of a few simple gestures which roughly resembled the robot taking off the helmet it didn't have.
"God bless technology, eh?"
The robot said as it turned its head toward Knowles, still holding the imaginary helmet in its hands.
I was bemused by the robot, it's personality oozing out of the metal grips this tin can assumed was a hand. Nevertheless, watching a robot fly better than our rookies is slightly disturbing, but complimentary in the same sense that this little tin can was on my side.
Ryan Knowles: As long as technology knows it's place.
Tommy Taylor: And what is this contraption mister Knowles?
Ryan Knowles: Ah, mister Taylor, allow me to introduce you to tin can.
I saw that tin can had a name but it didn't tickle my fancy to announce him as A-98-DF4
Tommy Taylor: Pleasure tin can. So mister Knowles, I assume the Avenger is in the Hangar Bay.
Ryan Knowles: Yes it most certainly is, all in once piece thanks to tin can here too.
For some people business comes first, for others pleasure. Some people though, prefer when they mix the two so they can get both done at the same time. In other words, for some people time-efficiency comes first, so why not use the same tool of trade that has safely moved an Avenger from New York to Kepler to also mess with people's minds a bit and have some fun in the meanwhile?
"What I've always found fascinating and yet puzzling about you humans..."
The robot continued after a short pause and a gesture similar to scratching its chin, as if it was collecting its thoughts,
"...is that you brand everything and find a generalized term for anything in your surrounding, yet, you immediately feel offended when even one of your own kind brands you by your race, ethnicity or even school of thought. For that matter, I feel I'm inclined to take great offense in your use of the phrase 'tin can', so I would like to appologize in advance for my defensively hostile tone from this point on."
![[Image: JT2ERcA.png]](http://i.imgur.com/JT2ERcA.png)
