Two more.
No. I don't already have the story written. I'm trying to push myself and go to a schedule. A scene a night.
And this is coming out just a little bit weird. A lot of online stuff and comm's going on....
And Protoype of Mackie. Creating AI's is easy. Creating different ones with a reason to be is hard...
----
Originally the KnightWing’s shipmind AI, Mackie is based on the eponymous character from Bubblegum Crisis Which suggests that Jet was involved somehow in his creation, contrary to her usual moral code about AI's and equipment. He was removed from the ship's systems at his own request, having his core placed in a body constructed by [[Vulpine Fury]. He chose an appearance that isn't too far off his animated counterpart. He's been told he has his sister's eyes, and nearly everyone agrees there is an odd family resemblance.
Originally, he was expected to handle the information security of the Knightwing, act as the spacecraft’s autopilot, handle navigation, plot firing solutions, monitor sensors and generally do all those things spacecraft AI’s do. Now, he’s generally expected to do nothing at all.
However he’s usually the physical pilot for Knightwing, and can often be found assisting [[Ford Sierra] with maintenance, both of the Knight Saber's hardware and [[77 Frigga] itself
Jet gives Mackie a weekly allowance to pursue his own interests. He’s been steadily turning the ''Fitter-K'' into something rather special, taking inspiration from his former ‘home’.
==Handwavium Abilities ==
‘’Boom Boomer:” AI Android. Theoretically immortal. Technically doesn’t need to eat, drink or sleep. Will definitely always be a teenage boy, not that he minds.
‘’Headlight Fluid?’’:Amateur mechanic, studying under Ford Sierra.
‘’Red Four, standing by’’: Competent spacecraft pilot. He prefers to be the pilot, rather than the spacecraft.
==Quirks==
''Cut from the same cloth;'': Considers Jet to be his sister. Jet can't help but consider him to be her brother.Which means she spoils him, much to everyone's annoyance..
‘’Have we met?’’: Occasionally remembers meeting people he’s never met before. So long as Jet as knew them before his ‘birth’.
''Brilliant, but Lazy'': Much like his 'sibling', Mackie has a lot of potential which rarely lives up to. He tends to be only capable of applying himself to projects which interest and excite him ''now''.
''I’ll be in my bunk:'' Mackie is a notorious lech, with the mindset and drives of a teenage boy.
==Trivia==
Mackie was an accident. The KnightWing was originally intended to be AI-free, and had been built with the intention that Jet be capable of interfacing with the spacecraft’s systems. During a test of the interface a hardware error knocked Jet clean out, and caused the KnightWing’s system’s to reset.
The KnightWing’s computer’s attempted to access the unconscious Jet’s systems as an external drive, and used them to bootstrap the main system. Mackie was the result. Because Mackie inherited some of Jet’s memories in the process, he has roughly the same level of education and some of Jet's practical skills. He also knew Jet’s access codes, passwords and credit details, and will occasionally recognise people Jet knows or knew before he was born.
The exact relationship between Mackie and Jet isn’t known outside of the Knight Sabers. The nature of what is shared between the pair is considered deeply private. As far as most of Fenspace is concerned, Mackie’s just another character-based AI with a personality quirk.
Jet believes that Mackie is a lot like who he would’ve been, had he not been modded. Ford recognises Mackie's potential, and tries to push him... but Jet keeps letting him slide.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?
No. I don't already have the story written. I'm trying to push myself and go to a schedule. A scene a night.
And this is coming out just a little bit weird. A lot of online stuff and comm's going on....
Quote:----
Predictably, it lit the Knight Saber fire all over again. It confirmed the suspicions of a good number of Senshi who jumped straight to the most obvious conclusion. Maico regretted not adding a quick clarification to the subtitles, but it was too late now.
Two more Knight Saber missions came to light over the next month. One was an obvious mercenary job. A Pirate who’d raided a Mad, was hit by the Sabers a week afterwards. There were no further details than a patrol statement that they were investigating it.
“So that’s one where they were hired. Someone had something stolen that they wanted back, and didn’t want the patrol to know about,”
“Did they kill the pirate?”
“Well, obviously not or they’d be calling it a murder investigation,”
Maico started typing.
“But of course, they have to be careful. If they use too much force, if they cross the line, then they risk being declared outlaws and actively pursued.”
“But they have killed,”
“Yes. They seem to do it only if necessary.”
“So, they’’re little better than murderers then? Anything that needs to be handled with that level of force is best left to gj and other official agencys IMHO. “
“Maybe they are official, just not acknowledged. Hiding in plain site rather than under cover. It’s the best idea.”
“That does fit with that warsie spy incident,”
“If they were part of Section 9, or Troubleshooters.... It makes sense that they’d hunt a Warsie spy down like that. Local patrol were stunned to find him naked on their doorstep with a drive full of evidence.”
“Lucky bastard deserved worse. He got lucky he wasn’t one of us.”
“I still find the doodles on his body funny,”
“That would be Troubleshooter work. If I remember right, “
“And if Great Justice is projecting them good luck finding out who they are,”
“But of course, maybe they just take the odd mission from GJ. Knight Sabers in the source are mercenaries and willing to work for the government.”
“Yeah... just enough to get themselves protection while the shake down everyone else charging for their services,”
“Aren’t the Roughriders mercenaries?”
“Yeah, but that’s different. We’re registered and proper and legal. We use the profits to expand our protection. These women are operating in the black. There’re laws against that for a reason.”
“They work pro-bono too. Showakusei Kozan was never asked for any payment. I know, I asked them. The Knight Sabers just gave them firearms and left them to guard the surviving raiders. Perhaps their mercenary work is used to pay for their pro-bono work.”
Maico still remembered what Noah had said. The Knight Sabers were trying to do good, in their own way.
“It’s still for selfish reasons. Pro Bono work builds their reputation. It also serves as training. There’s no honest reason for them not registering as merc’s IMHO. They have to be hiding something,”
“Because only people who have something to hide, have something to fear from the law, quiaff?”
“Secrecy is part of their fandom..”
“We’re getting off topic. If they’re working with GJ, GJ’ll be protecting them... so good luck finding them that way. Maybe we might think about another approach.[/]i
[i]“Which is?”
“Who builds these hardsuits?”
“The design’s old. The project dates back to 2016. It was Jet Jaguar IIIRC. ‘Just doing this as a hobby, nothing big and professional like the Silver Sentinel suits’... get your head out of your ass, you’re not the next Linus,”
“Jet doesn’t build them to order.”
“There’s Steganovich Steelwear in Crystal Tokyo. They’re the biggest... but they still use an old design. Atalante’s A-team use a modified design. There’re three builders on Kandor. One on Genaros. And any gearhead who can download the current package and work a CNC mill,”
“But the Knight Saber suits are modifed from the Stingray. Different engines. And they include weapons in the base plans.”
“Stellvian’s Kohran added some weapon modules to the official project archive.”
“Hitting up all the builders probably wouldn’t turn up a thing. They could’ve put them together themselves easy enough.”
“But then, who could build suits that advances?”
Now they were just going around in circles. Maico closed the window. She had other things to do. Video’s needed editing, and she still had to record the voiceover for her last report from New Yavin.
This Knight Saber chase was starting to turn into an obsession.
“Be careful Maico,” she warned her reflection, “Don’t lose your objectivity.”
The Knight Sabers.
Either a force for good, using their mercenary missions to pay for their good deeds. Or were they just ordinary merc’s using the pro-bono work as a publicity stunt?
“And why would they not register themselves?”
No answer.
“Mercenary groups are required to register with Great Justice and the Patrol. They’re required to report their activities and their membership. They could classify certain things, but they’re still subject to Convention oversight.”
“For good reason,” Maico added after a moment’s thought. “They may have the best of intentions, but keeping secrets the way they are damned suspicious. There’s no benefit to the secrecy. It gains them nothing, but it brings them dangerously close to being declared outlaws themselves each time they go into action.”
Maico glanced back at the notes she’d taken on the group.
“It can be just some ‘fandom’ thing. There has to be something I’m not seeing here,”
Her reflection gave her a frustrated glare and she shut the camera down.
-----
Maico’s whole body was fizzing. She was staring ahead out the porthole, filled entirely by Jupiter. Ganymede was a single spot barely large enough for her eye to register, thousands of kilometres away.
She wanted nothing more than to just break through that glass and fly there herself. She had to get onsite. She had to get to Serenity.
“How long?” she demanded.
The pilot was hidden under the deck.
“I dunno. It’s the plasma fields coming off Jupiter screwing with the drive field again. We must’ve struck an eddy. It fried everything,”
“We have to get there before the Knight Sabers do,” she said, trying her best to keep her voice calm.
“What makes you so sure they’ll even show up?”
“I’m not. But I have to take the risk. This is their sort of mission.”
It’d be a good story even if they didn’t show up. Whatever happened, five innocent hostages were going to be rescued. Three months trying and third time lucky. Twice they hadn’t even shown up.
“You’re starting to sound a little obsessive,” came the response from the avionics bay,
“I am not!” she snapped back. Then stopped dead. “Oh my...”
She sat herself back down into the passenger seat. Comfortable, soft fabric. The shuttle’s cabin was small, and decorated like a disco complete with spinning mirror ball. It was all plush and very 1970’s inside.
Even the floor was supposed to light up.
Maico took a deep breath, doing her best to cool off. Still... catching the aftermath of a Knight Saber mission was one thing, catching them in action once more was quite another. It was like predicting where lightning would strike.
Of course, like tall buildings, there were some places where it would be a little bit more likely to hit.
“Since when did I become a disaster chaser?” she asked her reflection in the glass.The radio crackled.
“Serenity Control to unidentified shuttlecraft. You are entering restricted space, please respond,”
Maico’s heart stopped. No.... not when she couldn’t make it. That’s not fair!
“Serenity Control to unidentified shuttlecraft. You are entering restricted space. Respond or you will be treated as a hostile,”
Naturally, they answered with silence.
“When are we moving?”
“Another ten minutes.”
“They’re here. We don’t have ten minutes.”
A catboy’s face appeared from the floor-hatch. His ears twitched. “It’ll take ten minutes for everything to cool down and reset. No more. No less. That’s the way it is.”
“Soyokaze, Soyokaze, this is Serenity Control. We’ve got a bogey craft in our sector. Are you monitoring?”
“Serenity Control, Soyokaze, we are moving to intercept.” the cruiser answered with a woman’s voice. Maico swore she recognised her.
“Whoa!... did you see that? Radar cross-section just quadrupled. That’s no shuttlecraft...”
“Serenity Control, Soyokaze. Can you confirm signal change? Are we dealing with a stealth spacecraft.”
“No...” Maico whined. That had to be them.
“Confirm Soyokaze. We got.... they just launched 4 craft at the surface. Moving at high speed,”
And I’m stuck out here forced to listen to it
“Serenity Control, Soyokaze. Our time to intercept is ten minutes.”
“Oh you idiots. They’re the Knight Sabers,”
“Soyokaze. They just made landfall. Township of Whitefall. They may be trying to break their buddies out of the restaurant.”
Maico grimaced. It was twisting her stomach. It was ripping her apart inside.
“Serenity Control. We are expediting our intercept. Eight minutes.”
“Soyokaze, Control we copy that.”
“This is space patrol cruiser Soyokaze hailing the unidentified spacecraft in Ganymede orbit. You will activate your transponder beacons, and prepare yourself to be boarded,”
Soyokaze’s comm’s officer was answered by static. Maico bit her lip.
“The Patrol are ready to shoot,” Maico realised.
“This is space patrol cruiser Soyokaze hailing the unidentified spacecraft in Ganymede orbit. You will activate your transponder beacons, and prepare yourself to be boarded or we will fire upon you,”
Silence.
The Soyokaze repeated its message twice.Twice it received no answer.
“Soyokaze, Serenity Control. We’ve got some strange reports coming in from whitefall. What’s your time to intercept?”
“Control, Soyokaze, we’re still three minutes out. “
“Soyokaze we copy. We’re hearing from Whitefall that the hostages have been released. Four armoured troopers with flying battlesuits
“Control, Soyokaze. Say again. Four armoured troopers?
“Soyokaze, Control. We confirm. Four women in Stingray armour. They just rescued the hostages. We’re tracking them returning to their spacecraft.“
Maico was ready to cry. She missed them!. She missed her opportunity. She’d been so goddamned close and she’d missed them completely because of a stupid old shuttlecraft and fickle father Jupiter.
“Control, Soyokaze. We think they’re the same group from Genaros. Intercept in two minutes. We’re going to get some answers.”
Maico was recording the whole exchange, naturally. It wasn’t quite a live video of them in action, but it’d work with survivor accounts. Maybe she could ask for an interview aboard the Soyokaze.
“Knight Saber spacecraft, this is Space Patrol cruiser Soyokaze. You will shutdown and surrender your vessel. You will be arrested for violation of the mercenary provisions of the Fenspace convention. If you resist, we will use force,”
Silence.
“Soyokaze, Control. They’ve rendezvoused. They’re moving out of orbit at high speed. Heading, 110 mark 25 relative to us.”
Maico was peering through the window. Jupiter;s great red spot stared, a swirling bloody God’s eye that seemed to be keeping watch over the whole system
“Control, Soyokaze. We are entering pursuit.”
“Whoa, would you look at that Gorram thing go. “
“Knight Saber spacecraft. Cut your engines and prepare to be boarded. This is your final warning,”
“The Patrol are going to shoot them down,” Unless they fire back.... and opening fire on a Space Patrol spacecraft would be a definite line-crosser. They’d either have to surrender, or turn and fight.
“Control Soyokaze... they aren’t falling for it. There’s no way we can accelerate in this sort of plasma field. It’s playing havoc with our drives. We’re calling this a bust,”
A bluff? Maico was amazed by how relieved she felt. “They’ve escaped!” She winced. That’d have to be cut. “It appears the Knight Saber’s spacecraft has escaped,” she repeated, keeping her tone measured.
An alarm began to scream in the cockpit. Maico jumped out of her chair. “I didn’t touch anything,” she pleaded.
The catboy pilot hauled himself up, taking one look at the panel. Disco lights began to flicker. “Conflict alert. Something big is coming right at us... fast,”
Maico blanched. “How fast?”
“They’re going to pass a hundred kilometres overhead in thirty seconds.
A moment later it appeared on the heads up display, fixed by a single red star on the cockpit windows. Data readouts began to plot trajector. No transponder. Accelerating away from Ganymed.
“It’s them!” Maico gasped.
She fumbled for her camera, struggling to fit a new lens. It was a waved one... it would just about image them at that range. Cross her fingers. Offer up a prayer.
“Turn off the HUD please, “ she requested. The words were polite, but her tone was demanding.
The data readouts died. Maico’s viewfinder picked up on the spacecraft... a single solitary spark of sunlight. Target fix. Tracking....
“They’re turning away from us. They’ve seen us,”
Zoom in.
For one single instant it was there in front of her. A thousand kilometres ahead, banked over and exposing it’s belly, silhouetted against Jupiter. She could make out 4 glowing blue sparks pushing it forward. A pair of illuminated rectangles marked the belly, with the blurred outlines of machinery inside lost in the glare.
It was long, and jet black in shadow. Wings were swept right back, and seemed to blend up to a sharp nose. It reminded Maico of a barbed arrow.
Her finger pushed the shutter switch.
With a flash from it’s engines, the Saber’s spacecraft was gone.
Maico heard the digitally generated shutter click, followed by a simulation of a motor winding on a roll of film. Missed it....
The captured image came up on screen. A spot. Maico zoomed in to maximum magnification. It filled the screen... blurred, compressed and pixelated.... but there.
“I got it!” she whooped. “I got the shot!”
There was no way it was clear enough to sell, but it’d be enough for a positive identification of type. From type, comes builder. From builder, comes a lead....
She hugged the bewildered owner of the shuttle.
[/i]
And Protoype of Mackie. Creating AI's is easy. Creating different ones with a reason to be is hard...
----
Originally the KnightWing’s shipmind AI, Mackie is based on the eponymous character from Bubblegum Crisis Which suggests that Jet was involved somehow in his creation, contrary to her usual moral code about AI's and equipment. He was removed from the ship's systems at his own request, having his core placed in a body constructed by [[Vulpine Fury]. He chose an appearance that isn't too far off his animated counterpart. He's been told he has his sister's eyes, and nearly everyone agrees there is an odd family resemblance.
Originally, he was expected to handle the information security of the Knightwing, act as the spacecraft’s autopilot, handle navigation, plot firing solutions, monitor sensors and generally do all those things spacecraft AI’s do. Now, he’s generally expected to do nothing at all.
However he’s usually the physical pilot for Knightwing, and can often be found assisting [[Ford Sierra] with maintenance, both of the Knight Saber's hardware and [[77 Frigga] itself
Jet gives Mackie a weekly allowance to pursue his own interests. He’s been steadily turning the ''Fitter-K'' into something rather special, taking inspiration from his former ‘home’.
==Handwavium Abilities ==
‘’Boom Boomer:” AI Android. Theoretically immortal. Technically doesn’t need to eat, drink or sleep. Will definitely always be a teenage boy, not that he minds.
‘’Headlight Fluid?’’:Amateur mechanic, studying under Ford Sierra.
‘’Red Four, standing by’’: Competent spacecraft pilot. He prefers to be the pilot, rather than the spacecraft.
==Quirks==
''Cut from the same cloth;'': Considers Jet to be his sister. Jet can't help but consider him to be her brother.Which means she spoils him, much to everyone's annoyance..
‘’Have we met?’’: Occasionally remembers meeting people he’s never met before. So long as Jet as knew them before his ‘birth’.
''Brilliant, but Lazy'': Much like his 'sibling', Mackie has a lot of potential which rarely lives up to. He tends to be only capable of applying himself to projects which interest and excite him ''now''.
''I’ll be in my bunk:'' Mackie is a notorious lech, with the mindset and drives of a teenage boy.
==Trivia==
Mackie was an accident. The KnightWing was originally intended to be AI-free, and had been built with the intention that Jet be capable of interfacing with the spacecraft’s systems. During a test of the interface a hardware error knocked Jet clean out, and caused the KnightWing’s system’s to reset.
The KnightWing’s computer’s attempted to access the unconscious Jet’s systems as an external drive, and used them to bootstrap the main system. Mackie was the result. Because Mackie inherited some of Jet’s memories in the process, he has roughly the same level of education and some of Jet's practical skills. He also knew Jet’s access codes, passwords and credit details, and will occasionally recognise people Jet knows or knew before he was born.
The exact relationship between Mackie and Jet isn’t known outside of the Knight Sabers. The nature of what is shared between the pair is considered deeply private. As far as most of Fenspace is concerned, Mackie’s just another character-based AI with a personality quirk.
Jet believes that Mackie is a lot like who he would’ve been, had he not been modded. Ford recognises Mackie's potential, and tries to push him... but Jet keeps letting him slide.
________________________________
--m(^0^)m-- Wot, no sig?