Promethea
"Launch countdown initiated. 10. 9. 8...."
The ship had passed all inspections with flying colors, and Kane couldn't wait another second to get off of Pandora, so they got ready for departure as soon as possible.
Now here he was, strapped into a chair in the control room with Luna sitting next to him, awaiting the final few seconds for when they would be launched into orbit.
It was also something to note, that both of them were wearing high end OZ kits, you know, just to be on the safe side of things. He still couldn't fathom how they worked, but they did, allowing people to breath in outer space for a good 3-5 minutes without needing a space suit.
The only thing they required was to recharged with oxygen before their depletion, and that could be accomplished simply by being in a oxygen rich environment. Rather than question the laws of physics here, Kane just accepted it with an open mind, buying a few of them for spares or incase he had guests.
He had so many contingency plans and failsafe's in order, the odds of dying in space were practically zero unless they were attacked. And yes, space pirates were a thing, but that only seemed to excite Kane for some odd reason.
He was brought out of his musings as he felt the ship start to ascend into the sky, the speed increasing exponentially until the next thing he realized was that they were in space.
"That was fast!" Luna excitedly shouted, her eyes practically glowing. "Alrighty then!!" Kane said as he unfastened his safety buckle, then walked over to the consoles.
"Atlas should be in chaos right now, so we're gonna head to Promethea. I want that key fragment, and if I'm lucky, the little bastard will be there too!" Kane said, showing a little bit of a maniac side to him.
"Uh.... not to sound rude or anything, but you're kinda creeping me out." Luna said, distancing herself from him.
"Would you-!! Uh! LOOK!! There is a little creepy insane scientist who is gonna poison the CEO of Atlas in the near future, but I have no idea when or where! This guy is extremely dangerous, and if I can kill him sometime within the next few months, I'll be able to sleep like a baby!" Kane explained, not stopping his frantic typing.
The location of Professor Nakayama had been on the top of his list for sometime now, but he still had some time before he would need to kill him, but he figured sooner rather than later couldn't hurt.
Killing Nakayama would destroy lots of the storyline from happening how it should, but Kane didn't really care about that.
Sure, Rhys would never become CEO of Atlas the way he was meant to, but if the Corporation started to fall into ruins after Jack purchased the deed, he might still give it to Rhys after dealing with Jack down the road, with a 50/50 partnership and he didn't have to do anything but still got the profits of course.
Hell, he could just return some of the tech he stole and make Atlas one of the top dogs down the road again if he wanted. As for the current CEO of the Corporation, Kane wouldn't lose an ounce of sleep if he had to somehow poison the guy in Nakayama's place.
"Sir, I've made known of our arrival on Promethea within the next few days, and our request has been approved. Should I start a course now?" Radar said, the ever helpful A.I.
"That would be awesome, Radar!! Let's start making our way there, but don't rush it. I still haven't found Nakayama yet, and if he is working on Promethea right now, I wanna end him now before he goes to work with Hyperion!" Kane said as he thought over what he remembered from the game.
In the Pre-sequel, Nakayama was working for Hyperion for a few months, and in between the time he started and the actual story began was when Moxxi and Jack started dating.
Given the fact that Moxxi would be leaving Pandora to go and start a business venture on a few planets, Elpis being one of them, Kane was pretty sure Nakayama hadn't started working for Hyperion just yet.
"Of course, Sir. Now would also be a good time to test out the MS-6!" Radar said, sounding a little excited. "6? What happened to 3,4, and 5?!" Kane asked, wondering what happened to the other variants.
"They blew up, sir. They couldn't handle the amount of power I put inside of them, so I had to change the ratio of machine to muscle from 60-40 to 80-20 before it held up through the tests. Now, Meat Suit-6 is ready for trial!!"
The MS or (Meat Suit) program was based off of the BFR project, getting Radar accustomed to a body he felt most comfortable with. Naturally, Kane jumped at the idea, so long as Radar would still be able to do his other functions, he would spend any amount of money Radar would need to finish the project.
Kane's only request had been that if Radar chose to eradicate all life throughout the universe, leave him alive on a nice quiet planet with a few really hot girls. Radar said it would be too much of a chore to erase all life, and the mess would be too much for him, but agreed to Kane's request nonetheless.
Radar also said the humans were doing a bang up job of destroying the universe themselves, so even if he did participate, it would only be speeding the process up by about 50 years.
"So is this Meat suit male or female?" Luna asked curiously. Radar was a mixture of all sorts of the best A.I.'s out there, so he had some that were designed to act male or female, making so he didn't care one way or the other if his meat suit was male or female.
It honestly creeped Kane out a little when Radar would suddenly sound like a woman one minute and a guy the other, so he asked Radar to just use the same voice whenever he was around him.
"The MS-6 has the original body of a female Atlas soldier, so I will be playing the role of a female." Radar stated, much to Luna's enjoyment and Kane's displeasure.
Radar watched all sorts of videos on the ECHO.net about men and women, trying to play the role so perfect that no one would be able to tell the difference.
However what annoyed Kane was how some of Radar's woman personas made her act like she was a spoiled little rich girl who used, 'like' or 'totally' in every sentence, while still sounding smarter than he was, which just pissed him off.
"How about we make the rest of the Meat Suits gender neutral, and you just keep your same lovable voice?!" Kane practically pleaded, but was denied.
He of course could order Radar to follow his commands, but he liked the A.I. more than any other thing in the universe. Well, maybe not Luna, but it was so close he didn't bother arguing about it.
Luna liked his female persona, and Radar had claimed it was extremely fun to play different roles, so Kane would have to suck it up. 'How the fuck does an A.I. have feelings?!' Kane mentally yelled, but then after taking a few deep breaths, he calmed down.
Robots had their own way of having sex in this universe through a deadly process called 'Integration' where one robot would dominate and kill the other, so Kane didn't even want to get started on how robots could feel.
"Sir. Someone is trying to contact the Arcadia (Name of the spaceship) over the emergency channel." Radar said, breaking Kane out of his momentary annoyance.
"Acknowledge the call." Kane said as he went back to his seat. A moment later a dark figure could be seen on the video feed. "This is Transport 6479-BRK, requesting emergency aid! Attacked by Pirates!"
Kane listened to the SOS like he was listening to a boring old report he had heard hundreds of times, without an ounce of interest. "What's in it for me?" Kane asked once the guy on the other end had finished saying some location that Kane had already forgotten.
"WHAT?!!" The voice screamed back in disbelief.
"You don't honestly expect me to go and save you out of the kindness of my little black rock, do you? If you have nothing to offer, than I'm afraid you are wasting my time." Kane said as he waited a few more seconds for his words to sink into the man's skull.
The guy started screaming about how Kane couldn't do this, but in response he just ended the call. "Continue on course." Kane said, then went started scrolling through some ECHO files.
"Why didn't we go save them?" Luna asked curiously. She didn't feel sorry for them, but that didn't mean she wouldn't help them if they were close by.
"It was a set-up. Probably by pirates, if I'm not wrong." Kane said, revealing some light on the situation. "How do you know?" Luna asked once again, her interest piqued.
"Tell me, when you damage a console, what are the odds that the voice recording is left completely in tack while the video feed is destroyed?"
Luna thought for a second then answered, "The odds are low, but it's still possible." Kane smiled at that.
"That's true, but now think about this. How would you act if you were just attacked by pirates and you were stranded in space?" Kane said, earning a confused look from Luna.
"I would be panicked, loud and desperate..." Luna answered, unsure as to where this was going.
"Exactly! Now think about what just happened. The video was fuzzy, barely showing a shadow, but his voice came across perfectly. He of course was loud, but there was no desperation in his voice, and he sure as hell wasn't panicked. No, my guess is they got our signal after Radar requested passage to Promethea, and they figured they could kill us and take our ship." Kane said, enlightening the little girl once more.
"You were right, Sir. I picked up their signal after they gave us the coordinates, but now they're moving. They are heading somewhere out of the way, so I doubt they are coming to attack." Radar said, clearing up any doubts Luna might have had about the situation.
"I gotta remember that." Luna said, sounding a little shaken. Not scared that she could have died, but scared about her lack of knowledge and understanding on how the universe worked.
She was smart as hell when it came to physics and books, but she knew she had a long way to go before she could handle herself alone out in the world.
The rest of the trip was rather uneventful, not even seeing another ship out in the vast space. Getting into port on Promethea, Kane paid a fee for docking the Arcadia and some visitor passes for him, Luna and a third party.
He didn't need a name for it, but if it got stolen he would need to buy new ones or be fined, but the three of them would be fine. The odds are that Kane would be the one stealing from others rather than them stealing from him, so Luna didn't need to worry about that.
She was more concerned about how big the freaking city was. There were skyscrapers everywhere and well paved roads, cars and subways everywhere, with soldiers patrolling around at every few intersections.
The soldiers weren't very comforting, considering how in the few minutes they were here, she could already see 4 different soldiers collect money from unwilling people. For how beautiful the buildings and stuff were, the streets were littered with crap that killed the majestic vibe the city had going for it.
"How many people live here?!!" Luna asked in awe of the place. To her question, a feminine voice answered, "Like, there are a little over four million people that live in the city!!"
The voice sounded snobby, and Kane knew right away who it was. "Oh God damn it, Radar!! Talk like a normal person!!" Kane whisper shouted.
Looking towards the cloaked feminine figure, Kane was a little surprised. The figure looked entirely made out of a metallic substance, but it was a perfect copy of a really hot girl.
The only thing that looked like it was from the original body would have to be the dark red hair, and what Kane prayed to God were just colored lips. There was probably more human parts underneath the clothes, but Kane had no intention of seeing that.
"I look totally hot!!" Radar stated as she did a little spin.
"This is just another reason you need to stay in a male body! You are confusing me!!" Kane shout whispered again, as he glared at Radar and a snickering Luna. Radar just blew him a kiss and struck a pose, causing Kane to face palm and Luna to double over laughing.
Giving up on arguing with Radar, Kane made his way down the street and hailed a taxi. "Where to?" A guy in a helmet asked. This was completely ordinary as 99% of most planets population wore masks or helmets.
Hell, even Kane was wearing a mask, although that was mainly because he was a paranoid freak who didn't want his picture to be out in the universe. He had over a dozen masks, using each one on a different planet, or if things went south, he could swap masks and burn the previous one.
'Honestly, it's like they want an assassin to excel in this universe.' Kane thought darkly as he answered, "Atlas HQ, please." 20 minutes and $230 later, they arrived at the gates to the HQ of one of the strongest super powers in the known galaxy.
With a thought, Kane swapped his clothes out so he was wearing a fine business suit, expensive shoes, and a plain white mask that could only be seen through from the wearers side.
Luna was given a really fancy dress as well as an identical mask to the one he was wearing. Radar was given a fancy dress as well, although Kane was grumbling the whole time, not having wanted Radar to be a girl in the first place, but it didn't matter now.
She was given her mask, then he made sure to check them all over to make sure they looked like they were high end business people, and Luna was possibly his daughter.
With the outfit he had given to Radar, it was impossible to tell that she wasn't human, given she was wearing the body of one, and the mask covered everything to do with her face.
With that done, Kane was walking towards the gates of the Atlas HQ with Radar and Luna in tow. "You know, Radar doesn't really sound like a woman's name..." Luna said, causing Radar to stop in her tracks.
"Then from now on, my name is Sasha." She said after giving it a few seconds of thought.
"Forget it! I'm not swapping back and forth between names! I'm gonna call you Radar, and that's final!" Kane said, shooting a glare at Luna, who promptly ignored him as she said, "I love that name! Sasha also suits you!"
Radar/Sasha looked very happy with Luna's praise over her knew name, and she honestly didn't care whether or not Kane called her Sasha or Radar. Finished with the whole woman's name situation, Kane walked up to the guard at the gate.
"Excuse me, sir. I have been tasked by my employer to speak to the CEO of the Atlas Corporation to negotiate a deal on some advanced armored vehicles. Could you please take me to his office?" Kane said in the most business like tone he could manage.
The guard changed the way he was addressing Kane and was very respectful, but told him that the CEO wasn't in the HQ. Kane was however allowed to wait inside the main building while the guards were relaying information to the higher-ups.
As they were being escorted through the base, Kane couldn't help but laugh like a lunatic inside his mind. 'I'm gonna get the key fragment by using their own stuff!!'
Kane was more than happy with this deal. Hell, as far as he knew, whoever it was that was in charge of Atlas would just sell it to him for most of their guns back, but that was kind of a long shot.
After a good hour long walk across the base, they were led into an elevator that carried them for what felt like an eternity, but was only about 5 minutes. It was kind of understandable given the fact they were going up a hundred floors, to the very top of the main building.
Reaching the top, they were led into a large office area where they were seated on a really comfy sofa and given some beverages.
There were at least two soldiers in the room with them at all times, but there was also some assistants that were working diligently as their desks, sparing the small group a glance before going back to their own tasks.
They waited for about 2 hours being waited on like royalty before a small group of people exited off the elevator. "Hello, Mr.... um, sorry Sir, but I don't believe I know your name." A tall man in a business suit said, extending his hand to Kane.
(A.N. Made this guy up.) "The names Rick Mortemus!! At your service!" Kane said, sounding all professional. Gesturing to Radar, Kane added "This is my chief of staff, Sasha Romanoff and her daughter Lilith." Kane said, not even skipping a beat, acting as though he had rehearsed this whole thing a hundred times.
Really, he was just so bad at remembering lines that he improvised everything when he was on a job, unless it was the layout for a location.
He chose not to show his face or give their real names because he was certain this wasn't going to end well, and he would much rather not have a bounty on his head in the millions from one of the powerhouses.
"My name is Carl Holton, CEO of the Atlas Corporation. A pleasure to meet you. Now, my employees tell me that you have come to do business on some military vehicles, is that correct?" Carl asked with a winning smile.
"That's correct, Sir. A few hundred Atlas military vehicles, salvaged and repaired to pristine condition by the request of Commandant Steele before she tragically passed away. Now without her, I have come here in the hopes of selling back these vehicles at a profitable income." Kane said, causing Carl to smile happily.
Kane showed some pictures of all the vehicles and listed the kinds he had "Restored" and how soon he could have them here. Carl signed a contract saying that upon delivery, Kane would receive 173 million dollars in cash.
Kane then went on to make small talk about Atlas and their rise to power and how they were able to advance to the position they are now. This naturally led Carl to show Kane the Vault Key fragment.
"With the Vault key, Atlas was able to study them and use their power to become the power we are today. There was also the Eridian technology we salvaged around the Vault to create the weapons and achievements we have created over the years.
After Typhon Deleon found the Vault, we studied it for awhile, then after we learned everything we could and had plundered anything of value, we sold off one of the three fragments.
It was to the Malliwan corporation so we could have use of their elemental technology, while the other fragment was stolen by a Siren. No idea where she went or what happened to her, but we still have full control the Vault and it's location, thus making the fragments just a power source to anyone else!" Carl bragged as he put the fragment back inside his desk, then locked it up.
'So the monks on Athenas lied... Centuries my ass!!' Kane thought humorously, knowing he would be heading there after to get the fragment anyway. Who cares if they spread lies to make themselves seem ancient, he was going to take anything of value in their little crypt!
Kane was also surprised that Carl would just openly tell him about all of this crap, but then again, Carl was the head of one of the strongest organizations out there, so trying to tarnish the name of Atlas wasn't exactly a wise move. Unless you were a vengeful lunatic!!
Once getting the Key's location, Kane made a bit more small talk before he got to his feet. "Well, I think it's time I head out and make the arrangements to get the vehicles delivered here." Kane said, trying to get away from Carl!
"Of course, Rick. How soon do you think they will arrive?" Carl asked, keeping the urgency out of his voice. Only the higher-ups of Atlas knew that the fleet sent to Pandora was gone, and he had no intention of letting the populace get wind of their weakened state.
"Three days, at the latest. I'll have them delivered at the airport, then I'll contact you when I find out that everything is all clear." Kane said, getting a happy smile in return.
With business concluded, Kane and the others made their way out of Atlas HQ and back to the ship, Kane celebrating his little victory with a beer. "Romanoff? Really? Like, you couldn't come up with anything better?" Radar asked as she folded her arms across her chest.
"It suits you, and besides it's not your real name to begin with." Kane said, brushing away Radar's annoyance. Kane liked it better when Radar wasn't in a meat suit, cause he always had to put his/her acting skills to the test.
"What's wrong with Luna? Huh?! Why did I have to become Lilly?" Luna asked, shooting Kane a glare of her own. "Do you know anything about not giving your real name to people you have every intention of betraying?" Kane asked, to which Luna shook her head in the negative.
"Exactly! Once we leave here, there is a good chance that we are gonna get bounties put on our head, and if they don't know what we look like or what our names are, then those bounties are gonna be useless.
You just gotta remember to never use the same name more than once unless you've built it to last the long run. I have no doubts hat we'll get bounties down the road from one Corporation or another, but neither of us are prepared to go against one of the powers as we are.
Wait until we get a bit more control of our powers, get Radar a more permanent body, and get ourselves all in order, then we can deal with any group that tries to stand in our way." Kane said, thinking more about the future than either of the other two had done, and they were supposed to be a lot smarter than he was.
For the next two days, Kane went around the city and 'found' all sorts of goodies just begging to be taken. He stole a few drop ships around the space port, some patrol cars that were in random parking lots around town, and even a few robot designs he had never seen before.
In his defense, it was Radar who had requested that he claim those robots so she could use them as suits. She had also done something that Kane thought was really cool, but had never wanted to watch again.
She called it 'Integration' but it looked like a ball of electricity connecting her to the first robot, then Radar started convulsing, but for some odd reason she started moaning.
Kane quickly figured out what was happening and took Luna away as fast as possible. When Radar met up with them later, she was extremely happy, having pretty much devoured her unwilling sex partner.
"The next time you wanna integrate with something, please wait until we're not around." Kane said, astonished that he even had to say something like that. He liked the art of sex as much as the next deviant, but that was straight up creepy as fuck!! Kane had no doubt Brick would love to see something like that though. The man was the embodiment of sex and blood!!
"It's spark was delicious!!" Was all Radar said before she moved to a chair in the command room of the ship.
Wanting to get as far away from the subject at hand, Kane said "Tonight I'll make the shipment of vehicles appear, but I'm gonna need you to hack into the Atlas database and make it look like there was a delivery, alright?"
Radar just nodded her head, not saying a word. Apparently integration left the A.I. in a state of what Kane could only guess was orgasmic, so Radar didn't really feel like chatting at the moment.
Even though Radar was in a meat suit, she was still 80% machine, so Kane didn't really question how the whole integration process worked, but he figured what was left of the human they were using would most likely not hold out too much longer on the amount of power Radar was giving it, but then again, that was kind of the reason they had lots of the suits in stock.
Kane just hoped that the next one was a guy.
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Later that night, Kane made a few hundred Atlas vehicles appear before he had Radar hack into the database and make it look like a shipment was delivered, then he made sure everything looked on the up and up before he called Carl.
That morning, Carl arrived at the port with a fleet of employee's and after a good inspection of all the "repaired" cars, he paid Kane the money, as well as told him they would be more than happy to make the same transaction in the future if he could accomplish the same feat, to which Kane agreed.
'Of course you won't be alive in the future to see it!' Kane thought darkly as he shook hands with Carl before the man disappeared with his enterouge.
Kane scheduled their departure from Promethea within the next 15 hours, giving him enough time to steal the key fragment before they took off, while at the same time making it look like he wasn't involved in what he was about to do.
I mean really, who would expect someone to be able to break into one of the most secured places in the galaxy within 15 hours?
"Radar, make sure to keep a close eye on the surrounding areas. Carl was more than happy to make this deal, but if it were me, I'd have someone come in and either rob and kill us, or just rob us. Either way, set the defenses to maximum, and don't leave the ship from here on out. I'll leave to go retrieve the fragment as soon as night hits, so no one will be entering or leaving until then." Kane ordered, causing Radar to not joke around and do as she was asked.
Radar knew there was a time for everything, but when Kane was serious, that was a time to not fuck around.
An hour later, just as Kane expected, there was a disturbance. "Sir, there is someone outside the ship who is requesting to speak to you?" Radar informed him, causing Kane to wonder who Carl might have sent.
There was the chance this person had nothing to do with Carl, but given the fact he had never met anyone else here, the chances were very slim.
'Who the fuck could this be?' He thought as he looked at a screen showing who was outside. Seeing who it was, Kane went through a few emotions, of which stumped Luna and Radar as they watched him grumble, shout, and finally collapse back in his chair.
"Well shit." Kane said as he glanced at the man.