Misadventures in the Multiverse

Chapter Thirty One

Raleigh wakes up in a dark room strapped to a chair saying nothing. She knows where she is and has nothing to say about it. "Good morning G-534, and welcome home it's been quite some time since you've been back. To say you've been missed is an understatement." The Old man says taunting her. She offers him no reply just continuing to stare blankly. "Hmm, what's this? No more witty comebacks? It's good to see we have come to an understanding. With you returned to us, we can finally move forward with Operation Deforestation. You know you, and your doubles were never considered for combat, but you've proven yourself to be quite proficient at that. Perhaps we should've implemented more of you into our army in places other than navigation. That hardly matters now though. In truth, we won't even need you anymore. Since you've proven to be more of a liability we have decided on using a slightly different approach."

Raleigh's attention was now focused on him still not speaking, but giving him eye contact. "Oh? Are you interested to learn about your replacement? Well, We have classified her as G-N she is almost a clone of you. The difference is she won't have thoughts of her own all we needed was you to complete her at least for the time being." He laughed turning to leave. "Your siblings as you call them will be implemented into the final plan just like always, and we will keep you around for other research for sure, however, you will never be leaving this room again." He left her alone to silently cry after that. The Reaper looks inside the room from a distance not saying anything. "You can still do the right thing." The Priest says in his inner mind, only to be ignored by him.

Crow has made their way to Home World of the Empire searching the ruins of an only laboratory. They spent some time looking through old computer records, and anything left behind. The logs had been scrubbed of information nothing to really go off of that would make Corvus look bad. They sighed seeming to feel like they met a dead end. That's when a flash of light reflected on a flash drive drawing their attention. They went over to it wondering just how it had gotten here. The Doctor was careful to cover his tracks, but not careful enough it seemed. They plugged it into the computer seeing corrupted files about a formula to light someone on fire from the inside. This was what they needed though this alone might not be enough. Crow looked around a little more before opening up a communicator to tell the Admiral what they had found.

Clyde, Darrian, and Cyrus arrive at the port world. They all had the same clothing on as before except Darrian who seemed to have changed into a Hawaiian shirt for some reason. "Why are you wearing that?" Clyde asks. "It's camouflage. I don't want anyone from the empire to recognize me I'm supposed to be dead." Darrian answers. "Idiot. If anything it makes you stand out more. Besides after the empire's plans were foiled they were kicked off the world." Cyrus retorts. "Wait this is that port world? I didn't think everyone really picked up on their plan." Clyde said. "It seems your friend with lion ears tipped them off. This world is neutral only in name now the union controls it." Cyrus explains.

This is the first time Clyde has seen the aftermath of a world he visited he didn't know enough about The Union to say if it was a good thing or not. The world didn't look all that different from the last time they visited. "What do you know about those guys anyway?" Clyde asks. "The Union and The Empire are in a Cold War more or less. They have a non-aggression treaty in current standing. They can't attack each other directly, so they often use proxies to fight." Cyrus answers. "Proxies?" "Yes basically aiding less developed worlds, and pitting them against each other. Though their non-aggression treaty is shaky at best it wouldn't take much for either of them to be provoked into all-out war. The union claims they are only trying to stop the expansion of The Empire."

"Sounds messy. I don't think I want to involve myself with them even if they are in the right." Clyde stated. "You may not have a choice in the matter now that this world is a major staging area for them. I hate to ask a former enemy for help but if there are hackers in this world they are most likely employed, by them." Cyrus sighed. "How rare are Universal hackers even?" Clyde asked curiously. "They are very rare. Hackers are self-serving after they hack a world they desire they see no need to further pursue the profession the ones that continue are freelancers I'm not sure what the logic behind their decisions are." Cyrus said Clyde didn't like that answer. "Nevertheless if there are any they would be here. I know exactly where to look." Cyrus said motioning for them to follow him.