A New Purpose

"Eli." It was the Operators new name, but it felt old. Trezlan had settled on it after hours of him just asking inane questions and ignoring the obvious ones. The AI of the operator's ship liked it, Eli felt the AI had contributed in someway and Eli was it's former name. Still better than the Operator as in previous operations it was hard to understand orders as everyone in the group was named Operator. They used to have numbers to go along with the Operators, Eli once went by Operator 5 on most operations, which felt even more dehumanizing than being an a conscience in a machine.

"I find it a wonderful name Eli." The ship had no name, it wanted no name, Eli felt it was best to never personalize the craft for fear of its destruction, which almost happened prior to being discovered by Trezlan on his ghost run.

"Focus on the task at hand." The task at hand was infiltration. Trezlan not one to trust had given Eli a task. He wanted some information from Morlatech to confirm what Eli had told him, so without much more than some minor covenience repairs on Eli's ship and person, Eli was back in the thick of things, hacking in to the Morlatech database. It wasn't difficult, even with decades gone by the protection Morley used on his data was old, because he didn't expect someone to access it within the actual Relay like Eli had. It was a thrill to break into something again, even if it was an unguarded relay station in the middle of nowhere. It was nice to feel useful to someone.

"Information retrieved give me a minute to verify." Eli didn't have a minute, something tripped upon retrieval and the room which it was in started to fill with gas. Not an issue for Eli because of no respiratory system, but the gas would be one phase of a lot of different traps from what Eli could recall of Morlatech security. Getting out was simple enough, even in haphazard state, Eli had more control and abilities than normal people did. As an Operator that was the bonus, you weren't as tough as a warbot, but you could do things no regular person. It was freedom while being a slave, a dichotomy that didn't bother Eli until the isolation had let madness in. Still with relatively little effort, Eli emerged at the docking port, boarded it's ship and disembarked. Morlatech none the wiser hopefully, the security problem to be written off as a glitch in a long abandoned relay.

"What did we get anyway?"

"Technical schematics on the operator program, Trezlan is well informed to know to even look for this data."

"Trust but verify is apparently his motto, we too should be leery of him, he puts on an almost amusing lack of tact or diplomacy, but he is a murderer and worse, and he's lived a long time, and unlike Morley is not wasting away, caution with our interactions."

"Yes Op, Eli, though I do like his Ai companions they are so polite."

"Set a course for Trezlan, inform him we have his information, but we do seek payment."

"Yes Eli."

Good Days Are Gone For Good

"You know we are called the Shit Squad I didn't realize it meant we'd have days like this." Rem was not liking his change in career at the moment. The facility was in partial lockdown, Carut was doing his best to try and keep the corporate goons out, but it was their facility and so they knew avenues he did not. Rolando also found out the entire facility was anti magical, he didn't even notice it until he tried to shift and came up blank. Carut was working on that as well, but wasn't having any luck in disabling it, if it can be disabled.

"Ammo running low." Rolando actually found himself wishing he had stuck with his father, the height of lunacy for him.

"Hold tight, if we're running low they have to be as well." It was a lie that Therod knew was wrong, but she still had to tell it. The corporation didn't even give them a warning shot, they just hit the ground firing. Probably because they had seen Therod and crew wandering around like idiots for a few days.

"Rem can you see if Dad can lend a hand?"

"No he's blocking me somehow, its the oddest thing really."

"So you have a mind link and he can block it?"

"Years of experience is what he told me, your dad is crazy Rolando." Rolando couldn't disagree with that statement.

"It's not like he would help us anyway, he would come up with some bullshit excuse why he can't help and we'd be screwed all the same, we'd just be more screwed."

"You know you have a very ne NYAH!" Rem was cut off from what he was going to say by an electrical charge frying his synapses. Therod and Rolando were hit by the same thing.

"Guys? GUYS?!" Carut was panicking the life signs of the team had dropped to barely alive and he feared the worse. Then the signal went dead and he was left staring at his monitors unable to figure out what just happened.

Yep We still Exist

"I still recommend you guys leave." Carut had tried to be the voice of reason, but no one who was listening to him was being reasonable. He was losing patience with the whole exercise. Therod and crew had been there for two days attempting to discern what happened, and had come up with nothing, eventually Ronerawth was going to intervene and that's when things would really turn to shit for the shit squad.

"As I've said I need something to tell the people who hired us Carut, shouldn't you be making with your tech skills and finding something."

"It's all wiped out Therod, I told you whoever did it had some serious access. So either someone is not dead who should be..."

"Or we just got gods damned played..." Therod could see the landing craft coming, they weren't Ronerawth, they had a corporate logo and it was that point she noticed there had been no indicators any of the dead were from Ronerawth, only the corp logo of the ships just landing. She had written that off as it being a joint venture, but she just now put together it wasn't a joint venture. Her people with their anti magical capabilities had become the fall guys to a massacre Ronerawth had executed.

"So leaving?"

"Probably, though its not up to us right now." Rem and Rolando saw the ships too and it hit them about the same time. The shit squad was now truly in the shit now.

Not as Terrifying as Warned

"Trezlan Lorentino." Trezlan was looking at the creature that called itself the "operator" he knew Morley stripped names from his bots, he basically stripped them of mostly what they were, but it still made him sad to hear it. It was his first interaction with one of the bots other than one shooting at him and he having to kill it. Though he knew right away the Operator was not the standard Morley Bot. The body was all weird, looking more human than death machine, fully functioning regular limbs with hands and everything. The operator also looked like a miss match of a bunch of different parts, one limb was longer than the other, the legs looked like they came from a different frame and the head had been clearly repaired from a battle but done so poorly. Whoever the Operator was, they had been effectively left to their own devices for a long time.

"I'm aware of who you are." They were seated in what Trezlan thought of as the forward lounge, it was a part that overlooked space despite his robots telling him it was dangerous for a window port to be where he wanted it to, and even more so for him to be in front of it, he needed something that wasn't practically created.

"And yet I haven't a clue what you are Operator, do you have a name?"

"Not anymore, no names, once we transfer over identity is stripped, one of the things you're not told when you agree to the transition." The transition and the way the Operator said it put a chill down Trezlan's spine.

"Well you have to have a name." The Operator sighed, or at least the robot equivalent.

"Fine Mr. Lorentino, what would you want to call me." Trezlan lit up like a kid about to open a present.

"I was thinking of Frago! Because you're like a fragment from the whole and you're the operator."

"No."

"You didn't even consider it."

"I will not go by Frago, can't you think of anything else you'd want to discuss, like what I am or where I came from?"

"In due time we need the name thing settled." The operator suddenly recalled all the times it had been afraid of Trezlan Lorentino and how stupid it would be to be afraid of someone who obviously caught by in life by accident. Trezlan made Morley look worse for not being able to kill him, and that at least brought some happiness to the Operator. And It needed it because the other names Trezlan suggested were worse than Frago by far.

Contained, But Not Forever

The Operator sat in his silence as the remaining fragment of its ship were hauled into the docking bay. It knew that all kinds of security procedures were put into place. The AI had informed it of all the demands it was expected to agree to. And it did, there was no reason to fight back at this point, it was content to let things play out. The operator did take a certain smile to the idea the ship was run by machines, It half heartedly wondered if machines had taken over the galaxy, but it knew the ship had a human master, the name one burned into all of Morlatech's creations as the enemy. Trezlan Lorentino, the great destroyer.

Years before being stuck floating outside of New Lork, the Operator had been tasked as had the rest, with finding and eliminating Lorentino. It was actually the reason It had been near New Lork in the first place. Once early one while floating near the remnants of the Morlatech fleet, the Operator had fantasies of what it would do to Lorentino, blaming him for what had happened though he had not nor most likely ever been to New Lork. Over time that hatred faded replaced by a hatred at It's creator, Morley, the one who had promised immortality but had not fully explained what that meant. What it meant to never be of flesh ever again.

The ship touched down on the deck and immediately security robots were rapping on the outer door. The AI let them in. They were a mixed much like the Operators own body. The operator was amused at the menagerie. Most of them looked like a mix between construction and maintenance bots armed with weapons meant for people. The operator inferred with the bots and the way the ship seemed slapped together from several, that Trezlan was not running his own corporation. And was still most likely on the run. It waited while they looked over what remained of his vessel, taking a look through the weapon lockers and reporting back to whoever was in charge. It didn't say anything, preferring to just welcome the change of pace. When they had finished, the lead amonger their number a headless maintenance bot with one regular hand, and one multi purpose tool addressed the operator.

"You are to be brought to holding, your ship will be repaired if you want, though there is a cost for such things."

"Everything had a cost." It felt weird for the operator to speak, having not done it in decades, though speaking is hardly what it did since much like the bots searching It's ship it wasn't human, not anymore.

"The master would like to see you."

"Is that what he calls himself?"

"It is what we call him, he is our charge."

"Can't wait to meet him." The operator allowed the bots to surround it, and begin the escort up stairs. Not like they could stop it should the operator choose to attack, but it let them believe they had security, if it made them feel better.

Patience At a Premium

"As soon as we entered close enough to the planet it pinged us." Trezlan was staring at the display screen. On it was what looked like a fragment of a larger ship, he was getting read outs from all sorts of scans that showed no life signs, but all kinds of other examples of activity. SiC had stopped the ship immediately upon realizing they were being scanned.

"And what do we know of this little fragment?"

"Morlatech, old though, probably from the end of the conflict, damaged but still functioning, most likely AI on board, and seeing as its Morlatech possible bots." The scans had shown minimal power, Trezlan wasn't that concerned, though it was a Morley ship and so that had Trezlan leery of what might actually be inside.

"Let me guess you guys want to blow it up." It seemed to be the only solution his AI companions liked, which either spoke poorly of Trezlan or the over protective nature of the bots, he wanted to think of it more the later and not the former.

"Actually no, we're intrigued by the idea of a morlatech ship this far out and abandoned, the potential for a destabilized AI is there, but in a way this fragment is one of us to an extent and much like you wouldn't want to kill someone without knowing if they are dangerous we'd like to extend the same courtesy." Trezlan ignored the obvious that he would in fact kill someone before he knew they were dangerous.

"Fair enough, lets first drop off the ghosts, but make contact with the ship, establish security protocols and such and lets see what's going on, but above all else..."

"The sanctity of the ship is paramount."

"Correct, if it looks off we blow it up and call it a day."

"Understood sir, thank you sir."

"You're welcome, thank the collective, now if you would please restart the engines get us to the planet, I'm going to prep our ghostly patrons for their next final journey." Trezlan walked to the cargo hold and he felt the gentle tug of the engines as the ship resumed course. He smiled to himself before he got ready, there were a lot of preparations to offload ghosts and he wanted to make sure he did it mostly correct. Mostly I mean they were ghosts what was the worst that could happen?

Better than Drifting All Day

"Detecting a new reading, do you want me to display?" The ship was drifting in wreckage, and if the operator was honest it was basically wreckage itself. Weapons weren't functional, engines, and power systems operating on tertiary back ups not intended for the long term use they were on, and any hope of being rescued had long faded. The operator instead waited, the ship in a low powered state, hoping to find someone, anyone who can drag it back to civilization. Revenge the blade that slaked thirst.

"Pull it up, but I swear if its another long range probe I'm going to just turn off and never turn back on." It was an empty threat the operator and its AI knew that, but it had to say it all the same, just the the idea of shutting down after all of this seemed like a waste, sunk cost of survival all that remained, hatred having given way to simply living.

"Not a probe, a ship, very large, and it will be passing within orbit, close enough for communication." A ship was surprising, both the AI and the Operator was confused, the New Lork wasteland had been abandoned for some time. After the last war and the pull out nothing alive remained there. The operator was quite convinced It was all that was left of life and It barely considered itself alive.

"Communications?"

"Not within range yet, I could amplify it but..."

"But that would risk what little power we have, no, we'll wait, they are coming and when they get close enough we'll send the signal, preload the message."

"Yes operator, do you think its possible we are saved?"

"After twenty five years of drifting here I'll entertain anything, but lets not get over joyed yet, could just be Morley coming back to finish us off."

"Had not considered that Operator."

"Verify its not before sending the message, didn't stay alive to be vaped later on."

"Yes operator." Satisfied orders were given the operator waited watching the sensor data the ship could pull up. It was patient, It had been patient, a few more hours wouldn't kill it.