War Room

"War Room" (1x11) is the eleventh episode of Memory=Null, in which our crew plans out their road to war, and seek out new allies.

Synopsis
The following morning, everyone begins to wake up on the bridge from the previous evening’s drinking as Janus begins pouring coffee for them. Tina heads off to take a shower, Artas and Ninla are meditating in front of the micro-star chamber, and Thicc starts contemplating where to go next. He then heads down to the bay, where he finds that Adus is upgrading the mechs, and the torpedo systems are complete. As he’s checking things over, he receives a message from Cain, containing a screenshot of a text message thread. Thicc heads back up to the bridge and asks Janus what ‘Silentium’ is. Janus is surprised that Thicc would know of it, and asks how he knows that name. Thicc explains, at which point Janus reveals the same text thread on his phone. As Janus debates whether to explain things, the buzzer at the airlock goes off. Joined by Tina, the three of them head to the airlock where they find Drizzler, High Chancellor Sonard, and several guards outside. Adus camouflages himself, and they let Drizzler onboard. She informs them that they have successfully isolated the compound responsible for setting off the Vox, and hands Thicc a vial of it. It’s an odd smelling liquid, smelling something like brown sugar mixed with vinegar. The three of them plus Artas all smell it, and Drizzler informs them that it took them quite a while to produce that small amount, so mass production will not be easy. Adus appears and asks Thicc to bring the vial over to the control panel. He takes a moment to analyze it, then declares that he could start producing it in a day or so. As Sonard comes on board, Adus disappears. Sonard says that they have been attempting to form a plan on how to combat the Vox, but that Thaydor has once again locked himself in the mech bay, and that he needs Thicc to help convince him to come out. Everyone heads back down to the mech bay, where Thicc and Tina find Pippin once again. Thicc manages to convince Pippin to join them, and they all head off to the war room. As they pass the training grounds, Pippin stops and tells Thicc he needs to let off some steam. He orders a guard to go back to the mech bay and fetch two wrenches, and then approaches the instructor and has him bring over the six Lalta Chambran whom Pippin had beat up back on Gunnison 4, who are currently being drilled as a result of that event. They are each given real swords as Pippin selects two wrenches from a variety brought back by the guard. As many other soldiers surround them to watch, Pippin proceeds to annihilate the six soldiers while barely breaking a sweat, all while Tina films it. He then gives his wrenches to the instructor, rejoins the group, and continues off towards the war room. Hannah and Drizzler also borrow Thicc’s axe, saying that they are going to make it better. Inside the war room, an immensely fat Lalta Chambran is sitting at the end of the table easing a croissant - Pippin’s stepdad Garod, next to inherit the throne. He moves over a seat as Pippin sits down there instead, and Thicc moves to take Garod’s seat. He begins to protest, but Pippin quickly silences him and orders him to change seats again, and continues to do this until he has done a full lap around the table and back again, ending up at the far end. Pippin orders the guards out of the room. Drizzler then goes around and has everyone sniff the Vox detection compound. Pippin starts things off by renaming the war room Warhalla at Thicc’s suggestion. Thicc then presents a very convoluted and confusing account of what they know about the Vox, which Garod begins to protest against. Pippin, however, shushes him once again, and orders Janus to kick him in the face the next time he speaks out of turn - which Janus happily agrees to. Drizzler begins to go over what they know of the Vox, and reveals that when a Vox takes over a person, they eat the brain, killing the person, and hook directly into the central nervous system. Because the person is effectively dead, they are very difficult to detect. One of the other Lalta Chambrans reveals that the Vox started taking over animals because they realized that their social monitoring did not cover animals, and that they are trying to rectify that. Janus covers the hive mind aspect of the Vox and that they have a master mind which, if killed, will cause all the Vox to go feral and kill each other. He also reveals that he is a part of a group called The Fangs of Tarot. They are a group of six assassins - Jester, Animal, Hellhound, Cauldron, Ram, and Shade - who have recently focused all their efforts on eradicating the Vox. He also asks for their scientist to have access to a Vox for interrogation, and covers the biomechanical nature of the Monarch’s Fortune, and how the Vox are seeking to take over machines as well as organics and completely control the Monarch’s Fortune. Finally, he mentions that it would be beneficial to have an army of mechs, to which Artas mentions that they might have one. After exchanging some nasty stares with Artas, Ninla asks Thaydor if everyone in the room can be trusted. Pippin then asks Janus to throw his stepfather out of the room, to which Janus happily obliges. Ninla then reveals to the new people that the Vox are actually the males of the Siren’s species. However, she adds that, after a significant enough genetic deviation occurred between them, they found themselves unable to reproduce. As a result, they began to genetically engineer their own offspring as a warrior race, known as the Etharl. She also points out that the Sirens have developed an incredibly large information network, and while they haven’t been able to ascertain the location of the master mind, with help, they may be able to. Janus suggests that they nuke all but one of the Vox they have in order to reduce risk, since they are a hive mind and only need one, to which Pippin agrees. The council decides to have Adus drop Ninla off at her people in sector 507, while Janus and the Lalta Chambran fleet head to sector 203 to meet Janus’ contacts. People begin to leave as the council adjourns, leaving only Thicc and crew inside the chambers. Pippin then tells Hannah that her mom is onboard. Hannah says that Tina’s mother died when she was very young, and that Hannah’s mother had bailed on them. Tina is furious, and Hannah has to take both her guns away. Thicc persuades Tina to head back to Adus, and Artas accompanies her. Hannah, overcome by the situation, collapses to the floor and sits there for about fifteen minutes, before deciding to simply leave. Thicc and Pippin help her back to Adus, where everyone says goodbye to Pippin. As Thicc and Pippin talk, they hear a ‘honk’ behind them, as they all turn around to see a goose run off to the side. Suddenly, the wall turns into a black hole, and a fifteen year old person with a scraggly beard, nice but soiled clothes, a rope belt, and a rusty dagger jumps out and says “Did any of you see a goose?” as the black hole closes. Thicc points them in the direction of the goose, which the person thanks him for as he runs off after it. As he sprints down the hallway, the goose rounds the corner. The mysterious person shouts “Son of a…!”, makes a tearing motion, and leaps into another black hole, which immediately closes behind him. Thicc, Pippin, and the guards all stand there, stunned at what they have just witnessed. As Pippin leaves, he takes another look at the wall where the black hole formed, and mutters “I have an idea…”. Thicc asks Herbert whether he saw the goose and person, to which Herbert replies that he knows of the person chasing the goose, and that they should not speak of him. He also says that he helped design the Etharl as part of him being the first Weaver to take up arms. Thicc chats with Herbert for awhile, then goes to check on Hannah. Finding her buried in splemurs behind a console, he goes and gets some tea and brings it back to her. He talks with her briefly until Tina comes in and tells him to go do some navigating. He heads over to the chair and sets course for Sector 507. Thicc then heads down to the mech bay, where Giles tells him that he is starting to feel things, such as air and weight, as a result of the modifications Adus is making to the mechs. Thicc also finds the sirens there, and asks them what they know about ‘silentium’. They say they don’t know anything offhand, but that there are archives where they’re going. He then asks about the Etharl being designed by Adus, to which they explain that Adus helped solve the genetic degradation problem of the cloning process. They also mention that they should be careful with the Etharl, as they have believed their gods to be dead for a very long time, and suddenly showing up with a new old god might cause problems. Sank then arrives with cake. Thicc distracts Hannah by telling her about Giles, as she immediately rushes to turn him off. He then asks Tina about Hellhound. She says that she had heard legends of a grun who had the MES cancer of a powerful psychic surgically implanted into themselves, since grun inherently resist MES. In addition, their special organ amplifies the psychic powers. Thicc heads to his quarters to get some sleep, and finds his room filled with proper furniture - a gift from Pippin. Thicc awakens as Adus drops out of hyperspace. Orbiting the star is a single planet - Oenon. The high iron content of the planet combined with the strong magnetic field results in massive floating rocks scattered about. Sank makes waffles for the group, and Hannah returns Thicc’s axe to him, having embedded a small bone spike from Adus’ old corpse, creating a mini doof-nail, which Thicc is ecstatic about. She also says that the tech bay and MES cannon are both complete. Discussing the possible effect the strong magnetic field could have on Thicc, Artas points out that one of the reasons they chose this planet was as a partial protection against the AI Draco, who had once targeted them. While Draco was good at coping with new strategic situation, it was not good at coping with new environmental situations. However, part of the reason for that may have been that it was not sentient and, unlike Thicc, did not have a soul. Thicc decides to go down with them, but tells them to bring him back if he starts vomiting or speaking in tongues. They then realize that they don’t actually have a way to get down to the surface without announcing the presence of a weaver. Ninla says that they do have some shuttles that can go between space and atmosphere. Ninla then performs an experiment. She asks Adus to camouflage himself as a normal ship, and then asks everyone what they see. Thicc sees everything as slightly blurry, while Hannah can see both what Adus is and what he is trying to be as if it were translucent. Tina and the sirens only see a normal ship. Thicc also recalls that Janus was able to see through Adus’ disguise. Artas contacts the planet and requests a shuttle, but as it has just landed, it will take about twelve hours to reach them. Thicc runs off with the rest of the waffles, while Tina and Hannah head to the mech bay to psychically spar. Hannah and Sank also spend time researching pre-scream tech in Adus’ archives. Thicc recruits Sank to test the effects of magnetic fields on him. The fields initially drop him to his knees, but he eventually learns to manage it. Later, Thicc spoogles Hannah’s mother, Dr. Sarah Upton, and finds that she is a high end scientist, specializing in biomechanical engineering. He also takes some time to inspect the mechs, and finds out that Adus is reinforcing them with the same chitinous armor that protects himself from space. The shuttle eventually makes its way to them and docks with Adus as Artas, Ninla, Thicc and Tina go to meet it. The airlock doors open, revealing six siren-looking creatures with horns and assault rifles. They barge onboard and slam Thicc and Tina against the wall with rifles at their throats as Ninla and Artas try to talk to them.

Quotations
Pippin: Interrogation like… Janus: The really good interrogation. Thicc: I mean, Janus. Are you asking for a Vox in a box? Janus: (tilts head) Yes, but as long as they are not wearing socks. Thicc: That is good… could someone make a note that the Vox in a box should not have socks, but make sure- Janus: Also, hopefully, their surname is not Cox. Thicc: ...and that the entire thing is secured by several locks… sorry, Janus. Please continue. Janus: I believe that’s all I had.
 * Janus: So, if it would please the court - is that what we call this? I don’t give a shit. I would like to have our scientist come out. They are very good at interrogation. I would like access to at least one Vox.