113. Day of Surprises

Nearly four months had passed since the expeditionary team composed of six SecOps, thirteen Recombinants, and twenty-six civilians then Parker Selfridge had landed on Pandora and had arrived at Hell's Gate.

There had been no true diplomacy, it was pointless, it was used when two parties were roughly equal, or under specific reasons that made the situation turn for the worse for both parties which was neither the case. Liam wasn't going to try and be reasonable at any true length and consider the other party's interest. And why would he even do so? His goals were not going to become reality without the blood of billions.

As such he had forcefully absorbed the weaker party by various means, all violating human rights not that they weren't violated daily but there had been no violence in any true sense of the words here.

And what frivolous concepts those rights were, even freedom, those concepts could not exist to their fullest in any civilized society so it was better to get rid of them like most of everything else with humanity. Leading to why Liam will have to cause the death of billions even if death was not the end here making human life cheaper for him than it ever was.

However, the problem wasn't the concept of human rights but their maker and the way they were put into motion if at all with their inconsistencies. And how vague they were as well.

A problem also born of how human society was built, from country, religions, and cultures as a whole, it was made badly because it came naturally from several thousand years of conflicting interest. For the betterment of the species and not a quantum of the world population leading to the latter downfall… It will need without exception to be washed away and marked as faulty and to never repeat, you can't fix the unfixable after all.

This aside, acclimation for the civilians was the one that was the most important and went the smoothest with the least amount of intervention from Liam, but for the others it went well too.

Getting them jobs for their respective competence but also composition and making them part of the leaderboard was done quickly and efficiently. Adding more of them from the ISV Venture Star in a slow trickle had not caused any problem either.

The Argent Sea in their system calming them down here and there or making them focus on other aspects of life was of great help too. They were like scared cavemen and if they turned into a blubbering mess of nonsense at basic teleportation then that was no good considering teleportation was not the most 'magical' thing that Tek could do. Manipulating space was one of its more common functions behind hard light and energy manipulation in general.

The meritocracy with more or less friendly competition and a common goal aided as well but also how violent, unbiased, and extreme the punishments were if anyone thought themselves smarter than the Homo Deus by trying to find nonexistent loopholes.

Did you voluntarily sabotage your colleague by various but discreet means that only you would know since they aren't directly harmful? Then you have failed and can kiss goodbye to your privilege as a member of society and depending on how grievous the crime was with a myriad of factors the punishment could go VERY far, death being far better than potentially heavier sentences.

Personhood could be lost on a fundamental level, and emotions were not exempt from it either. Nothing was safe once the rules were broken, absolutely nothing.

What appeared to be reality was just an illusion for the All-Father to shatter and manipulate, it didn't matter if you were the best, to begin with, punishment would come if you failed to follow the two rules that assured the good, success, and joy of. It will do no matter what. His gaze was all-seeing, he could glimpse within the Mind and Soul, there was no hiding before his judgment.

A meritocracy that promoted aggression against its own members for progress was not a meritocracy but a festering abomination, a pungent failure filled with lies, fear, and hate that would end in war, and death. A step backward for the worse. It needed strict rules and solid structures only absolute authority gave, the fragile unrealistic morality of short-sighted mortals be damned.

One of the Recombinants made with part of Zdinarsik or Z-Dog for short and her memories associated with it had suffered the punishment and will not be seen for the coming century physically, mentally it would be far worse, she had played and lost badly.

Play of words and charisma to defend yourself against a nigh omniscient being was not the best of ideas, even less so when what you are trying to defend yourself from was attempted sexual assault on a man under said nigh omniscient being protection.

It sharply calmed down the more aggressive Recombinants since like all punishment nothing was censored. Absolutely nothing even from children, particularly from children. Though they had the freedom to listen and believe what they wanted, it wouldn't change factual reality.

That was if the rules were broken otherwise… This was heaven, food, entertainment, and beyond all safety as long as someone was a functioning member of the collective nothing would end badly for them, unnatural death with diseases or accidents was not even a concern.

Though there were levels of advantage on how much inherent merit someone brought on the balance, advantage encompassing things like lifespan increments, but even then in no case did it spare them from punishment if action taken with malicious intention against a member or the collective itself was taken. In fact the higher the power the bigger the consequences for such action for the most part, in this case, the saying about great power and great responsibilities tied themselves together.

On the fifth floor of the Habmod of Hell's Gate was walking within corridor a tall and athletic teenager in a highly advanced bodysuit hovering behind him was an otter-like creature of flesh and metal, he was frowning ever so slightly, a quirk inherited by mimicry of his adopted father.

"Oh good morning Miles, quite unusual to see you 'round those parts of the base anymore.", a woman in her forties said to the teenager in surprise as she walked out of her apartment, it had been some time but she recognised him just as he, she was one of his teachers at the Community School and had taught him there when he was younger.

"Hi Elena, yeah… I don't have the time and the gazes are unpleasant… I don't like this place for the same reason. Prefer the freedom outside.", Miles said stiffly referring to how with whom he was the protege he attracted a lot of attention, mostly jealousy from adults and others around his age.

"Suppose it makes sense but that's life. On another note, I suppose you're looking for someone, I don't see anything that might interest you. One of the Recombinants if I were to take a guess or a special someone?", Elena asked, closing the door behind her as she looked up slightly to meet the gaze of the tall teenager.

"The former!", he said rather hastily, the second option surprising him in a way he didn't like as he felt his cheek heat up and it earned a chuckle from the middle-aged woman.

"Just teasing you, Miles, your eyes are on someone else I know and she doesn't live here. As for them, I don't know where they are right but where they most likely should be… Their dormitory… You go straight until the blue plant then right, continue to the third corridor and go to the one lef-ah he is gone.", she sighed in exasperation, having lost the teen from sight, well at least he didn't seem to have changed his habit of vanishing from her eyes the moment she looked away when he was a child.

Back to Miles, he was speed walking through the corridor following the path Elena had given but not by having registered her words, he was following Cupla's instruction through a hidden miniature headset close to his eardrum.

In short minutes he walked close to a third of a kilometer's worth of steps to stop at a very tall door, inhumanly so in fact with a name tag that wrote Quaritch with nothing before or after. Simply Quaritch the Recombinant and the one he was going to meet for the first time.

'Let's see how the copied memories of my sperm donor are in another…', Miles thought knocking on the door before waiting a good half a minute from which he heard thanks to Cupla again the scream and noise of someone hastily dressing themselves, though it was two voices, one distinctively feminine.

Frowning as he was about to open the door by using his higher authority it brusquely slid open revealing a small disheveled woman barely dressed properly with a drunken smile, as she barely acknowledged him and moved away, limping and not a small one. Though it wasn't one born of an injury.

Which reduced the possibilities by a large amount…

"Huh…", he muttered dumbly at the sight, understanding dawning on him in seconds then there was the one he was looking for only in a pair of boxers, an Exo Pack on his face for him to breathe.

"What do you want, boy?", the Recombinant said, a mix of annoyance and amusement at the bemused kid who awakened him in a less-than-respectable position.

"How?", Miles asked incredulously but the only answer he got was from the human Na'vi hybrid rapidly putting on a pair of pants and a t-shirt, a bath will be needed to it seemed.

"Talent, patience, control, and preparation, now who are you and what do you want so this conversation goes somewhere or you can, you know scram off?", Quaritch said this time paying more attention to the teenager in front of him and couldn't but note several glaring details, the bodysuit of Tek, the body type showing heavy but controlled training, the cyborg creature behind glaring at his soul which he found amusing and the face of the boy himself which made him pause.

It was familiar in strange ways…

'This can't be.', he thought recalling the very last few months he had available from before the Soul Drive was used, the face, the eyes, the hair it reminded him of her and the 'mistake' that couldn't be fixed as detected far too late and that he, no the other 'he' had been too hesitant to.

"My name is Miles Cram or at least that is the present and until I die and beyond but on my birth record there are Socorro and Quaritch, my biological parents. I'm a war orphan.", Miles said calmly, studying with rapt attention the rapidly shifting face of the Recombinant.

"But, I reassure you I'm perfectly aware that you are not my Father, that would be beyond insulting to my real Father. I just want to have a general idea of what the man who gave half of my present genetic material was in person. Records, reports, and word of mouth are not everything after all.", the teenager said matter of factly with mere curiosity, and surprisingly, it felt very unpleasant to hear for Quaritch.

And he was stumped, his brain trying and failing to find the words, the questions coming out of nowhere were brutal, lacking in tact, and were said in a way he found… Unnerving, the way it was said was almost mechanical and it was honestly disturbing. The subject was about not helping with how it was placed here, the softness of a jackhammer against concrete, and the delicateness of a grenade.

'Fucking shit that's just a kid calm yourself down… It's just the morning. Last night was good and this is just a kid… Well the kid that I supposedly share blood with…', he thought, collecting himself back together, he understood as much that they weren't in any way related aside from DNA from the same man, they were more brother or cousin than anything else and he would be the younger in the equation too.

But he had the memories of this dead man, and they affected him, even if he and Miles had no tie aside from this strand of DNA, but emotion did not mix well with logic and it dictated that the situation be awkward. For him that is, the kid that should be around fourteen to fifteen seemed far too casual with it adding a new layer to the already uncanny feeling present in the air.

'And he said Cram…', he suddenly had an epiphany making the situation far graver than before and actually making him fearful, with the speech pattern, bodysuit and strange cyborg otter behind it didn't take a genius to realize this brat was important, very, very important. This kid was the adopted son of a God, one misstep and that was game over, at least that's how he immediately saw it

"That's a lot to take in at once five minutes after waking up.", Quaritch said, not finding any other more appropriate words to say at this moment. He didn't know how to react and he wanted to be sure there was even a right way to do so.

Though one thing could be said, "Why? Why now after months I've been here?"

"Why not? It seems to be the correct time to do so, you have settled and have adapted to this new lif-", however before he could finish the world shook, and the sound of thunder echoed from deep below the bowel of Pandora, the tectonic plates below violently shifting causing him and Quaritvh to stumble, trinkets to fells and furniture to moves, and it was but one of many.

But that was only the part of a greater whole, the world outside the windows had turned dark as if night had fallen or a solar eclipse had happened. However this wasn't the one caused by Polyphemus, no this was something else.

As the two advanced to gain a better view their eyes widened at the sight, one of confusion and terror while the other of recognition, circular with sharp points forming a disk of dark grey organic-like alien structure glowing a toxic green of impossible size encompassed the sky as it was slamming against the blue-white hexagonal pattern of the World Barrier.

The calm deep voice of Liam echoed through every device harmoniously snapping both of them to reality, however, a hint of anger could be detected and it was bone chilling to all.

*Code Red, this is not an exercise, I repeat this is not an exercise. Do not panic, follow the rules and move calmly and toward your closest designated vault to wait. Any and all actions infringing on my rules shall be punished accordingly after this event has passed. An explanation shall be given once all individuals present in Hell's Gate have been secured-*

And the message seemingly overpowering the deafening thunders of the sudden powerful seismic activities continued, the one speaking of further instruction on how to proceed against this crisis of which many at this instant in Hell's Gate only thought of a nasty natural disaster even with the Code Red that had for purpose indicating an attack to annihilate them.

They were greatly confused.

*

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