Aftermath

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After the retreat of the Supermassive Quark, most of the Quarks inside the shelter began to navigate towards the hole that the Supermassive had made in Shelter 7's wall. Slowly but surely, the fight inside the walls began to die down. V1 hadn't seen the M.A.S.S. that had saved it since the attack on the Supermassive Quark. V1 concluded that it was helping finish off the remaining Quarks that were in the area, which were taking too long to leave. The sounds of explosions in the distance were fading away, as the shelter was slowly liberated. V1 had been picked up by a M.A.S.S. that was returning back to one of the shelter's hangars. The machine could barely stand, its servos worn out and exhausted. It couldn't even walk forward a few steps before its systems shut down, and its body collapsed to the floor.

...

V1 reactivated an ungodly amount of time later, in the engineering sector of the shelter. It was hooked up to all sorts of wires, and laying on a table. V1 didn't ever sleep, but this is what it imagined waking up would be like. Despite being refreshed, its movements were still groggy as it slowly got up. As its visual systems got back to optimal conditions, it could make out a figure looking at it. V1 realized that the figure was Waltz, Saturn Lancers' second-in-command of the engineering department.

"Well look at who finally decided to wake up," He said with a slight grin. "You were decommissioned for 3 days, you know."

"Wow, that long...? How?"

"I ain't that sure myself, but lemme toss my hat in the ring and guess that not even a machine like you can fight for 17 hours straight."

"I... have a lot of questions, but you probably won't be able to answer them. Just let the brass know that I'm up, and that I can fight again."

"I can do that, but try not to push yourself, bud."

V1 briskly walked out of the room and headed to its quarters.

Alright, first thing I do when I get back is checking the WDF's data logs and try to find out what the hell that M.A.S.S. was.

V1 got back to its room and quickly closed the door. Like the last time it had hacked into the WDF's systems, it connected to a panel in its room and searched their data. V1 found a new section labeled "New Units".

Bingo.

V1 saw a lot of M.A.S.S. it hadn't seen before, though most were marked as "under construction", with no data available. Finally, it saw a M.A.S.S. that resembled the one that had saved it from the Supermassive. V1 opened the data entry.

13FB09-2144/V-2112 Ψ Hyperion

Type: Supreme Machine

Data:

The Ψ Hyperion is an upgraded version of the 13FB09-2144 Hyperion. The Ψ Hyperion was initially planned to be a separate unit than the Hyperion, but the decision was made to construct the Ψ Hyperion as a repaired version of the first Hyperion. The Ψ Hyperion utilizes the movement technology taken from V1's systems, enabling it to slide, dash, and slam. Furthermore, the twin sets of Railcannons were developed from V1's Railcannons and the Hyperion's Ice-Picks. Additionally, the Ψ Hyperion utilizes Quanta Particles and the Quantum Break system. When Quantum Break is activated, the ambient Quanta Particles are dispersed throughout the golden frame of the Ψ Hyperion, temporarily increasing the speed, damage, and durability of the unit.

Oznodib cvn mzqzvgzy ocvo rczi Lpviov Kvmodxgzn viy Qjdy Kvmodxgzn diozmvxo rdoc zvxc joczm, v ntixcmjiduvodji ja ocz orj kvmodxgzn dn xmzvozy, mznpgodib rdoc ocz H.V.N.N. wzdib npkzmxcvmbzy, rdoc ocz kjrzm oj omvinxziy nkvxz viy odhz. Cjrzqzm, jiz rjpgy izzy v xjixziomvodji ja Qjdy Kvmodxgzn nj bmzvo, vitocdib ncjmo ja ocz Qjdy Xmtnovg ocz Lpvmfn gviyzy ji rjpgy wz pnzgznn ajm ocdn diozmvxodji.

V1 paused its reading.

Encrypted data? But why? They released information about this unit on their servers, but will still try and redact data? What is going on here...

V1 continued reading. Most of the text was considered "irrelevant" by V1's computers, but left one final piece of data.

"The pilot of this machine is Commander Uri of the PMC Saturn Lancers."

I knew it! The bastard has been away for months to test a new unit!

V1 heard a normal announcement over the intercom telling crew members to prepare for a M.A.S.S. landing. Acting on the chance its suspicion was accurate, V1 ran over to the hangar just in time to see the Ψ Hyperion land into the area. As the machine saw the pilot get out of the cockpit, it just stood there as the pilot descended from the unit.

...

Uri was getting off of the Ψ Hyperion when it was suddenly accosted by V1.

"Uri! Where have you been for the past six months! Everyone in Saturn Lancers has been worried sick about you! You could've at least told us what you were doing!"

"Woah, calm down, V1! Wait, how'd you even know about this?"

V1 suddenly paused before continuing.

"Well, uh... I have my... reasons. Anyway, you have a lot of things to tell us!"

"Look, there are some things I can't disclose right now. And this is one of the off-limits hangars. You can't even be here. Go, quickly, before someone finds you!"

Uri tried to push V1 but couldn't move the machine very far.

"Alright, alright. I'll go. Just try and reach us once you can. It's a little boring without you."

"Good. See you later, V1."

"See you, Uri."

With that, V1 walked away. It could not stop thinking about the article about the Ψ Hyperion. Or rather, V1 could not stop thinking about the encrypted footnote attached to the mention of Quanta Particles. Back in its room, V1 plugged itself into the servers once again, this time, with a different goal in mind. It navigated back to the data on the Ψ Hyperion, and looked at the encrypted section. It noted the text in its head, and set one of its processors to work. Until the data was unencrypted, the processor would try every key imaginable to try and decipher the secrets of the Quanta Particle.

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