And Those of Your Ilk

"And Those of Your Ilk" (1x13) is the thirteenth episode of Memory=Null, in which hearts are broken, and more questions are discovered.

Synopsis
Thicc goes back into the pub and slips out the back through the kitchen. He circles around to the front of the bar, blending into the crowd despite the giant TV screens showing footage of him and the team, including Sank firing a chain gun. Making his way to a nearby Infinity and Beyond home store, he hides in the fancy section and calls Tina to let her know what happened. Tina is watching the news, and tells Thicc that there was an outbreak of zombie spores from the planet below on the station, and that Devin is probably dealing with that right now. As he puts his phone away, he finds a tarot card in his pocket depicting the inner working of a pocket watch, labeled “The Machine”. As he looks at it, he receives a message from “The Shade” which says “Beginning interrogation now. Will keep you updated.” Thicc calls Dorian to update him, though he asks that Thicc discuss things in person in his office. Thicc relays his plans to Tina and asks her to bring some of the siren pheromone, then heads towards the Baalu section of the station. As he is riding the elevator up, Thicc hears the familiar dripping of water, and finds himself once again in the endless black pool. Standing in front of him is a siren, whose hand is resting on the shoulder of a very old female nekram. Both are wearing ceremonial attire. The nekram introduces herself as Cedra. They are part of the Order of the New Life- a group dedicated to protecting AIs who have gained sentience. She tells him that he has a brother- another AI that Rochford started making after Thicc. The siren concentrates and reveals a small area around them, allowing Thicc to see a robot, constructed of gears and with a prosthetic face, singing, dancing, and cooking behind them. She invites Thicc to visit them in sector 906 to meet him when he is ready, which Thicc accepts. The blackness fades, and Thicc finds himself back in the elevator. Thicc continues up and, despite issues with the receptionist, makes his way inside Dorian’s office. Inside is a new, teal-skinned siren lounging in a corner, and a guy with a big bushy beard. The guy excuses himself, gives Dorian a kiss, and leaves. Because Dorian doesn’t know the siren very well, and due to the delicate nature of the conversation, Dorian asks her to leave. She shoots back “More delicate that ‘Keith’?” and walks out. Thicc tells him of the siren pheromone and ability to detect vox, and shows him a copy of the list of possibly compromised people Amber had given him, minus Devin’s name. Dorian comments that he thinks one of them might be a Baalu scientist, but isn’t sure. He then asks why Thicc isn’t giving him the entire list. Amber suddenly walks in, wearing a suit and golden chain and nuts, carrying a bottle of whisky which she hands to Dorian. Dorian reveals that, after Thicc had him set up the special account he used to pay his child army, Dorian looked into it and discovered where the money was going. As he was already paying them, he figured he might as well get their information directly. As Amber’s age prevents him from hiring her directly, she is working for him under the table for now. Thicc then tells them about the vox hive mind, Pippin, the Lalta Chambran fleet, Adus, The Monarch’s Fortune, and, in general terms, the Etharl fleet. Eventually, Tina, Hannah, Artas and Ninla all barge into the office. Artas has Tina pull out the siren pheromone and test Amber and Dorian. Thicc points out that Dorian has another siren and is safe. However, Artas reveals that the new siren, Sordra, had an accident which prevents her from producing those specific pheromones anymore, and therefore cannot be sure that Devin is not a vox. After much debate over how to handle Devin, they finally decide to just go down and test him directly. They head back to the hangar to gear up, as Hannah needs to hack the station to remove the locks on their weapons. Thicc checks in on Sank, who is working on the mechs and baking brownies, and asks her about the clip they saw of her with a chain gun. She says that she used to be a member of the Ronan Accord, but that it’s now behind her. After partaking in fresh brownies, the five of them (including Sank, who comes back with a massive gun, armor, and an army helmet which once had the Ronan Accord symbol on it) head out to find Devin. They eventually reach the main portion of the station and approach a security checkpoint set up to quarantine the infection. Unable to convince the guard to let them pass, Hannah uses her psychic powers to knock all the guards unconscious. On their way, Sank raids a nearby shop and comes back out with a cigar. They continue to move towards the core of the station, following the sounds of gunfire. Eventually, they encounter a team of station security, who give them access to the comm channels and directs them towards Devin’s team. They also assign a young station security member named Smithers with them so they have someone official. As they continue pressing forward, Thicc receives another message from Shade, saying that while he doesn’t think they got all of what they wanted from The Monarch’s Fortune, the vox might have gotten enough to start making progress. As he puts his phone back in his pocket, he hears a vox say “Well I guess we don’t need you anymore”. As he turns around, Smithers shoots him in the shoulder, barely missing his heart. Another Vox rushes out of a nearby corridor and stabs him with a knife. Ninla, Tina, and Hannah begin to unload on Smithers, but his swat gear tanks the gunfire. Another Vox bursts out a nearby door and stabs at Thicc, but misses. Smithers shoots Thicc again, and he falls to the ground. As everyone continues to fight, all finding it difficult to hit anyone due to the close quarters, Hannah attempts to use a Lazarus patch to save Thicc, but is unsuccessful. 'Your vision goes black, and suddenly you’re plunged back into that space when you first woke up- just that endless blackness. And you’re floating. And you just feel like the- almost like the ocean moving around you, but just black nothingness. And you sit there, and you see this thread of light going out from your chest into eternity, and this wave of helplessness, as you know your friends are there still fighting, still going. And that’s it. That’s everything. That’s how this tale of Thicc McRunfast ends. And then you see the thread snap over to a different location. And you feel yourself being pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and then- you open your eyes. You’re in a bathroom? You think? You look around. There’s a mirror, and you look in the mirror- why are you ginger now?' Thicc appears to be in the bathroom of some kind of transport. He notices that the door is unlocked, and quickly reaches over to lock it. He has almost identical gear to what he had when he first woke up- a pistol, a cred stick, an id, phone, body armor, and company tattoos. This time, however, the pistol is engraved with “Flank”, the id says “Thicc McRunfast” and has a picture matching his reflection, and his phone has all the same content as the previous one. In addition, where before he had a tattoo saying “VII”, he now has one which says “IV”. Physically, he still has a similar build as before, except he’s now ginger. Thicc takes a moment to calm himself and attempts to view the weave. He sees his own thread as well as the threads of many people also aboard the transport. He checks his phone, and discovers that four days have passed since he died, though it seemed only a few seconds to him while in the black ocean. He steels himself and steps out of the bathroom and into the hallway of the ship. There are about thirty people on the ship, which seems to be preparing to land. He sits down next to (and strikes up a conversation with) a little old lady who’s knitting. He finds out that they are about to land on Mon in sector 003, and that she’s traveling here to visit her daughter, who just had a baby. Thicc disembarks the transport, passes through customs without issue (with the exception of the standard reaction to his name), and finds himself inside a massive bubble-city. He enters a large open-air market and finds a coffee shop. He spends a bit of time there, then heads off to find an Order of the New Life church. He finds a tiny temple, staffed by a male grun in a suit, and a human female. Thicc asks them a couple of questions, then proceeds to tell them everything that has happened to him. As they attempt to process everything, Professor Vendemar Elem (a female Nekram) bursts in while talking at unintelligible speeds. She eventually notices Thicc and stops talking. Thicc introduces himself and tells her that he is an AI. In order to prove it, he has them bring out a scanner. Once the scan is completed, Thicc tells his story again to a now shaking professor. She reveals that they’ve been paying a siren to help communicate with their home office, and that just this morning, she found out the weavers were real, and talked to one. He appeared to the leaders of each of the temples, and told them that the initial message that had been sent out in The Scream was misinterpreted because the weavers were trying to talk through a shattered weave. The Scream somehow shattered the weave, and while some psychics picked up on it, they got it wrong. He said that the real message was:  Doom is upon your enemies, and thine ilk will aid thee. For you have seen the light of the weavers for what it is, and because you’re not of the same thread, you may alter it. As babes, you fractured eternity, though no fault of your own, and in the end, humanity will survive because of it. Thicc asks if they could introduce him to their siren, which they agree to, and are even willing to help pay for her services. Suddenly, they hear a commotion outside- people screaming and running away. The roar of a weaver pierces the room as they look up towards the dome to see a massive, blue weaver.

Quotations
Dorian: If you powered up a mech… and fired in the space station? Thicc: Yeah. Or maybe used one of the larger concussion weapons. Dorian: You realize… it’s a space station. Thicc: Okay. I’m thinking outside the box here! Dorian: Do not fire a mech sized weapon on my ship! Also, technically, they’re locked down on the ship. Thicc: Eh. It’s just a lock down. Hannah: Yeah, I can get around that. Tina: You know, fuck this shit. I’m gonna go shoot Devin.
 * Thicc: How much damage to the core structure of this station would do if we used one of the robots in here? I have an idea…

Dorian: *Non-seriously* I totally cannot authorize this thing that you are about to do. No, don’t. Stop. Come back. Thicc: *Over-dramatically* What’s that Dorian? You want us to go help Devin out in the infected zone and save the station? Why, we’d be honored to! Big wink!
 * Thicc: Alright. No giant mech weapons. No trapping in elevators. But I’m telling you, the bees would have worked. The bees would have worked. Dorian, with your permission, we’d like to tool up and go in there.

Dorian: *Non-seriously* I’m sorry, what’s that? I couldn’t hear you ‘cause you’re storming out of my office to do something rash that I forbade! Thicc: Ah yes. Also I can now speak German! Dorian: Wait, what? *door closes*
 * Thicc: See Dorian? We’re helping! I don’t just bring you a boatload of new problems… just.

Sank: Pretty good. Thicc: We’re gonna go fight some baddies. Maybe zombies. Maybe vox. Maybe vox zombies? *gasp* Vombies! Sank: Oh, like right now? Cause I’ve got brownies in the oven… Thicc: Yeah, we’ll be back in time for brownies. Sank: I mean, it’s like five or ten minutes. I’ve got to go check on them soon, actually. Thicc: Oh. Well I’ll check with the crew. Also, do you own a minigun? Sank: Maybe… Thicc: I saw a video of you firing it in central square. Are you a badass? Sank: I might have been part of the Ronan Accord at one point… that’s behind me. Thicc: I mean, we’ve all got a past… except for me! So, do no worry. *looks around* Yeah, I think Tina’s still gettin’ the guns sorted, so we should be able to grab a hot brownie on the way out. Thank you. Sank: Oh, well that would be lovely.
 * Thicc: Hey Sank. Just checking in. How you doin’?