A pale blue cloud enveloped Ayumu's CLH Shamshir as he continued his search for the signal he intercepted. He wasn't about to let that Hunter get away, especially if it had picked up on his scouting runs. The Hunter's ship continued to flee, deeper into the cloud, until it disappeared through the Tau-23 jump hole.
"He's running to the Miners," Ayumu thought, chasing it through the hole. Except, the Sea Serpent just sat there in Tau-23, unmoving, as though it didn't know where it was.
"Ikiryo to Unidentified Hunter. State your business and I might let you live."
No response.
"I repea-"
"This unit is not configured for combat." it responded in an artificial voice, and immediately attempted to flee. The Hunters couldn't be allowed to keep an AI. Unarmed or not. A rapid volley of Mosquito missiles that nearly overloaded the Shamshir's bare-bones guidance system was unleashed and rapidly overwhelmed the AI's processor. Ayumu's tractor beam kept it from shattering against a nearby asteroid, and he called a patrolling RM-1 Destroyer to bring it back to Malta with him.
--
At the Santini Residence, Ayumu called for Don Santini, and waited in the dining room. Two minutes later, Emilio silently walked into the room, looking more relaxed than normal - in stark contrast to Ayumu's deathly serious expression.
"You appear to have something on your mind, Ishida," Emilio asked, taking a seat across from Ayumu with a drink.
"I need an AI expert."
"... why, exactly, do you need an AI expert?" he responded, putting down the mug he had almost drank from. It was rare to surprise Emilio, but this did.
"Captured a Hunter drone. I need to find out how much it knows, and how much it's sent back to the Hunters."
"You brought it here?"
"I disabled it first. Apparently, Mosquito disruptors can overload it."
"I see... yes, I have someone to introduce you to. Follow me." The two stood up, and Emilio lead Ayumu through the almost mazelike corridors of the sprawling estate to an isolated room near the back. "She's in here."
This better not be Mia or Tiana, Ayumu thought to himself, opening the door. Ever since arriving at Malta, he had always been surrounded by beautiful women, and this one was no different - long, golden brown hair, lightly tanned skin, and (strangely enough) she wore a pair of glasses. That was somewhat reassuring; she was very different from the childlike one and the knife nut. He wondered, briefly, what her psychological problem would be, but that thought was quickly pushed to the back of his mind when the woman at the computer turned to him.
"You... you must be Ayumu," she said slowly, and remembering what Emilio had told her about his combat prowess and paranoia she quickly decided to introduce herself. "I'm Serena Santini, Emilio's wife." Had it not been for Aina, those last two words would've been a great disappointment. But, she was still on Ayumu's mind. "I do some work on Maltese computer security for a bit of extra money here and there, but I'm guessing you need something... different."
"I... captured an enemy AI. Bounty Hunter. Unarmed Sea Serpent." Ayumu was sputtering out the details, coherent thoughts taking a bit longer to coalesce than they should've.
"Ah... I've been wanting to work on spaceship AI for a long time, but I could never get any funding. What exactly do you need? And, please, close the door behind you, you're letting the heat in."
"I want to find out where it's been, what it's seen, and where it's sending its data," Ayumu explained, closing the door.
"Oh, that's all?"
"That's... what?"
"I was hoping for something more... interesting. Honestly, that's just a simple case of powering it up, deactivating the scanners, and intercepting and decrypting the simple message relay; it's probably set to relay off Freeports, so it'd be really easy to pick up. I could have that done in ten minutes, and then what would I do the rest of the day?" Ayumu was stunned. He could've done that from his Shamshir... of course, that was no longer an option. Getting a Sea Serpent through Malta's dock control the first time was hard enough. "I have another idea. I've heard about your Mirage team. I bet you could use some AI drones."
"They could be helpful, yes."
"So, we work together on reverse-engineering and reprogramming this drone, buy a few extra Griffins and Eagles to test it on, and then you'll have your drones. All I ask in return is that we can use a few, and that you agree to sell them to certain people - we'll discuss buyers when the time comes. How's that sound?"
"Hmm..."
"You can modify Mirage's, I'm not expecting you to give every Juan, Carlos, and Alicia an advanced recon drone."
"Alright, we have a deal."
"Good! Now, let's get that ship over here so we can get to work."