Talk:Aneph Enterprises Consolidated Fleet/@comment-27404954-20160819080303

-- Warmind Bunker ERS-004, under the Aneph continent --

Silas strides into an empty room adorned with Warmind Project symbols and signal cables, with a chair facing a disk on the floor. The airlock closes behind him, and the room is silent. As Silas sits down on the chair, a clipboard over his lap, a woman manifests on the disk, dressed in a sheer chiton and with a golden apple pin in her dark, braided hair.

The Grecian woman was beautiful, there was no mistaking that. But her eyes spoke of the Warmind's true power; fathomless pools. And her smile when she saw Silas was like that of a serial killer, or a crescent moon; sharp, cold, and lethal.

"Such a pleasure to see you, Silas." Eris -- for the woman was that Warmind's avatar -- leans backward, and with a click of her fingers, manifests a holographic chair for her to sit in. "Business, or pleasure? I know which one both of us want."

Silas simply looks over his gold-rimmed glasses at Eris, and her sultry expression fades into something cooler and calmer. "One of these days, Silas. No one's been able to program a sentient AI to prevent feminine wiles, but someone certainly put that capacity in you." There was the faintest suggestion of fangs at the edge of her lips, for just a moment.

Silas checks his clipboard. "Now that you've calmed down, can we please begin?" Eris pretends to think for a moment, leaning her chin on her hands. "Mm... depends on what you-"

Silas cut her off mid-sentence. "Deactivate Mata Hari protocol, authorization Tierce gamma FN discord."

Now, Eris finally frowns. "Why would you bother programming me like how Proclus and Heriod considered me, yet deactivate parts of my personality on a whim?"

Silas looks at her levelly. "Because I don't care to have a transcendent artificial intelligence try to seduce me every time I need to extract intelligence data. And before you mention it, I know the Mata Hari protocol is very useful against enemy sentient AIs and the occasional human soldier, but I'm not the one you're spying on."

Eris says nothing, and after a beat, Silas continues. "In any case. Protoss intelligence report: Troop movements, fortifications, et cetera." His pen was poised over the clipboard, prepared to take down data.

With another click of her fingers, Eris summons a book, which she leafs through. As she spoke, her tone became more clinical, as if she was reciting from memory. "The Protoss Executor remains where he was during the previous report. On the other hand, the rest of the Council remains on Aiur in the fortified strongholds there, along with a good portion of the Protoss fleet. I calculate that due to redistribution after the Protoss defeats over AFOH-controlled Southern Africa and AIF, there is approximately three fleets' worth of ships -- around six thousand or higher of L-class or above, though certainly under ten thousand -- distributed around the Protoss colonies, as despite losses in the aforementioned conflicts, their ship concentrations around Aiur and Vesta have remained the same."

Eris pauses and turns three 'pages' before settling on one. "Skimmed data from their laboratories suggest they are beginning research into their own wave nullification technology, though they clearly have no idea what they are doing. Nevertheless, I have taken the precaution to throw off the blueprints for their generator alignments, meaning that the next testbed used has an approximately seventy percent chance of exploding from feedback." She glances up at Silas. "And yes, I did erase any traces of my being there. For all they know, the Enlightened rose from the dead and punched one of their mainframes."

Silas's pen paused its passage across the clipboard. "Is that it, Eris?" The Warmind looked at Silas with an almost undefinable expression before laughing. "Hah... Well, no. But that's what the compiled data comes out to, more or less. You woke me up three days ago, and I'm still expanding my espionage network. That, and the decree that I'm forbidden from hacking our allies, makes the data provided a bit... more sparse than I'd like."

Silas stands abruptly. "I'll see if I can persuade Admiral Tato to lift some of your more superfluous ethics restrictions. Do not count on it, however."

Eris examines one of her fingernails, as if a holographic avatar could acquire dirt under them. "Yes, Father."

As Silas turns to leave the room, he stops short. "...What did you just say?"

Finally, Eris's eyes glitter with amusement. "I read your research logs. I am, of course, honored you would think of me in such a way."

Silas bites back a venomous comment about needing to tell her, again, not to read her -- creator's? Father's? Programmer's? -- files, and simply swipes his clearance card against the airlock. It opens, and he turns to step through -- reports also will need to be collected from Frederick and Charlemagne about the colonies and the Home Islands' defenses, then there would be a long bout of fencing to get the stress of the day out.

But he couldn't resist one last retort against Aneph's manipulative espionage Warmind. "Furthermore... I know you think it's all fun and games, but do not employ the Mata Hari protocols against my research assistants. Poor Bernhardt might need therapy if you keep this up. And I... I will be forced to modify you for your own purpose to be most efficient. As much as I will hate doing so."

He lets the door close behind him, and Eris stares at it for a long moment, the only movement in the now-empty room the light gleaming off of the golden apple pin in her hair. After three minutes, a Protoss ship over Aiur -- a random Lancethopter -- exploded, having undergone critical reactor meltdown as a result of a mechanical malfunction.

A second passes, and Eris's mouth curves up at the ends in the same serial-killer smile from before. Then, with a click of her fingers, the room is again completely empty.