[center][img]https://fontmeme.com/permalink/200921/a0d9f0c951eb4c885b4ac93efc0f5799.png[/img][/center] [center][h2][b]The Thousandfold Conspiracy #1[/b][/h2][/center] [center][b]Lost Haven, Warehouse, Now[/b][/center] Lo sat at a wooden table under the glow of stage lights in a barely lit warehouse. Her fingers danced across the keys of the kind of sturdy, blocky, fall and water resistant laptop usually reserved for construction workers. Several tabs were open in the Symphonic web browser. Area-51, First contact (anthropology), What would happen if a meteor hit Earth?. The final tabs title was constantly changing as Lo studied, analyzed, and locked way the information present on each page. Lo shrunk the window, opened another on the taskbar labelled "Drone surveilance". An image, taken from a nearby rooftop, took in the figure of of a man, no, more than a man, Icon, silhouetted by the nimbus of flame surrounding the massive asteroid set to impact earth in free fall. Lo bit at a nail in anticipation. What she had heard about meteors of that size impacting Earth on youtube was not very good. Her interest and terror only increased as Icon began to push the asteroid away from Earth like it weighed as much as a basketball. She leaned back in her swivel chair, sighing with intense relief, [color=d9094b]"Not today, King Yan."[/color] She returned to her tea kettle, which had brewing a bracing Oolong tea, and poured some for herself in a fair cup. Sitting back in her chair, she said, "Ok...so, first contact. Well, except for who was it? Voyager." She opened and looked at a picture of Voyager, taken by the local news when she was fighting...[i]videogame characters[/i] she thought with incredulity, staring eyes narrowed at the screen. Though because Voyager wasn't, supposedly, a representation of an alien nation, she couldn't really count her as a first contact. Regardless, she was going to be the first of many on a database Lo was compiling, which was called "Possible alien spys". Taking a sip of tea, she diverted her attention back to the drone feed and to her dismay, realized the small blips she had detected on her drone network as balloons actually turned out to be a mass of small, alien ships. Maybe King Yan would take her soul today anyway. She said, [color=d9094b]"Open communications, Little Lo."[/color] A icon flashed on her screen, and a video feed. Little Lo was staring upwards, from a fire escape she was climbing on spindly, metal legs. Occasionally, a alien vessel would zoom by and her movements would stop to maintain a still image of their passing. Lo said, [color=d9094b]"Little Lo, organize the other drones. I want as much information about these invaders as you can acquire. If any of these vessels crash, slice off a piece of the ship, find what constitutes their electronics, take metal. I'll finish up the transportation prototypes. Something tells me that alien metals and knowledge will soon become a very valuable commodity."[/color] Little Lo chirped back, in a slightly distorted version of Lo's voice, "I think I can manage that Little Sister. Do you want us to keep low?" Lo said in a tone dripping with sarcasm, [color=d9094b]"You know, I'd love for you to make first contact with the local capes right now, but I think dealing with this first contact is enough problems for today. I'll be watching the fighting to see if humanity fights off the alien invasion or we get into some kind of, Battlefield Earth situation."[/color] Little Lo chuckled, then played back a brassy recording of a song, "We'll meet again, don't know where, don't know when!" and almost as quickly, the connection closed. --- [center][b]Lost Haven Little Lo, Rooftops, Now[/b][/center] Little Lo clambered onto a AC unit on top of a boarding house. It scanned the skies for the trajectories of the various crashing alien ships, sent crashing earth side by Icon, by Terra Firma, by various other heroes she couldn't identify. She contacted drones 3, 5, and 7, with the order to secure and attempt a partial disassemble of the wreckage of a crashed "bird fighter" as she was classifying them. Drones 1, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, and 16 were to be sent to what looked like a massive carrier. The first drone contingent spread out, carefully using the fact most civilians were looking upwards, towards the battle in the sky, their metal legs making the barest pin prick sound. The transport drones from Lo's main warehouse began to spread out, much less subtlely, their metal bulks looking like big metal boxes, their only function to drive to locations and transport materials to and fro. A few of these transports stopped so that several spider drones could cling onto them, and these sped towards the massive carrier ship whos bottom was the only part not buried underground from Terra Firma's attack. At the site of the first crashed fighter, several drones arrived, and with small cutting lasers, begin to burn at the metal of the vessel. It took some time, more time than Little Lo thought it would take, but eventually pieces of metal were chipped away and they came closer to reaching the interior. Through a crack in the metal, caused by impact, one of the drones processed the image of a unconscious alien inside. --- [center][b]Lost Haven, Warehouse, Now[/b][/center] Lo stared at the image of a being that had crossed the stars with some consideration. She said, over communications with Little Lo, [color=d9094b]"How much do you think the local news network would pay for this?"[/color] Little Lo said, "Not as much as it's worth." [color=d9094b]"Think you can take that thing apart like the ship?"[/color] "Are you sure? Feels a bit...wrong to kill an unconscious combatant then sell it's parts off to the highest bidder." [color=d9094b]"Well for one it's an enemy combatant of what is likely a violent and genocidal alien Empire. For two, the government would hide it away in this Area-51 I keep hearing all about, probably doing exactly what we're doing but keeping it private so they can make a war machine out of its skin or something. Does it have skin?"[/color] After a brief scan and a moment, Little Lo replied, "Yes, though it's not exactly...the same as ours? I'm not a biologist." [color=d9094b]"Don't have to be to hack parts off. That practically makes us surgeons!"[/color] "Butchers?" Lo cringed,[color=d9094b]"Let's keep to positive titles."[/color] The connection closed, and Lo sighed, watching the battle unfurling as carriers opened and released their contingent of alien forces upon Lost Haven. She was just glad she wasn't fighting out there.