Starborn Smith [Stargate, Battletech Multicross]

- - -

POV: Annelise Koenig

The Phobos had a lot of Centurions. After searching the entire ship, we had confirmed a little over 500 of them. I groaned. "How many people do we have?"

Eamon looked around, "56 total."

I nodded. "So, two people per centurion, 30 minutes to transport a single centurion from the Phobos to one of the Tel'taks. That's 56 moved every hour."

Eamon snorted, "If we round down to 50, it'll take 10 hours to do the whole job. Re-assuming for breaks and the amount of time it takes to find the next Centurion; I'd say three days."

Everyone seemed incredibly annoyed. I groaned again. "Well, let's get to it people. No reason to dilly dally."

- - -

POV: James Cromwell.

For the first time in several months, I stood on a new world. The Stargate stood just behind me. This world was to be the sight of our fall back position. It was at the opposite edge of the Galaxy from what was once Ares territory. The closest active System Lord was nearly 10,000 light years away, and they were a minor System Lord by the name of Lugh. 

Almost 80% of the world was covered in some of the deepest oceans of any planet I'd ever heard of. What parts of the world weren't oceans were massive mountainous plateaus that gave Everst on Terra a run for its money. What wasn't an ocean or mountain was a lush equatorial rain forest. 

The world had no human habitation and no signs of industry or civilization. It was about as perfect as we were going to get. I turned back to see what everyone thought. "Are we sure this is where we want to do this?"

Ma'chello chuckled. "What more could you want? This world is literally perfect. No; this is it."

Arktos and I shared a look. Arktos nodded as well. "The longer we take, the greater the risk. I need to start moving my Jaffa off of Mycena, and you need to start doing the same. We need to begin construction as soon as possible."

"Alright then." 

Ma'chello had spent the past weeks reviewing the construction techniques that we could provide him from the Manassas' Memory Core. It was mostly medical tech and construction techniques which were pretty much exactly what we needed at the moment. Ma'chello had been fascinated by the Castle Brian concept. Absolutely massive constructs of metal that are hidden beneath a planet's surface. He based his own designs on the concept.

We dialed the gate back to Dendred where the last pair of operational colonial raptors were waiting to be sent through. We had an area already decided on; a plateau on the side of the planet's fourth largest mountain. It was nearly perfectly flat – just like a lot of the world's plateaus – and only a few hundred kilometers from the Stargate's current location.

The only issue was that none of the Goa'uld ships could fit through the Stargate. With the exception of Ma'chello's custom built probes, the only flight capable vehicles we had that could get through a Stargate were the Raptors. 

I watched on as the tailless raptors were slowly taken through the Stargate before the device itself deactivated. 

I nodded to Ma'chello and Arktos. "I need to start preparing my part of the equipment. It's gonna be a pain in the ass to unload those Industrial Mechs."

I dialed the gate back to the Village. I was going to have to fast track reviving the commanding officer of the SLS Claymore. I needed to get access to the Cobras in the Manassas' bay.

- - -

POV: Eamon Thorne

With a final shove, the last of the over 500 centurions entered the Tel'tak for transport. Luckily, the work wasn't nearly as extensive as we were expecting. We could just shove the Centurion into space and have the Tel'tak pick it up with its Ring Transporter. 

Next up were the Wardrivers. This particular Phobos carried six of them which is a lot more than normal for such a vessel. Nonetheless, we got to work. Once one of the Wardrivers was disconnected from its docking port, a tow-cable was connected to a Tel'tak just outside the hangar which dragged the thing out. From there, it would be stored away in the nearby Al'kesh and taken back to Dendred for storage.

All in all, disconnecting all of the cylon ships took barely an hour. 

Now that it was finally time for a break, we returned to one of the nearby Al'kesh for debriefing. Waiting at the front of the room was Elder Annelise, Elder Dresden, and Eudora of Dendred. 

I grabbed some water and took a seat as they began. 

"Next up, we'll begin repairing the hull. Luckily, this is going to be a lot less work than with the Daedalus. Unfortunately, we're going to have to remove a large chunk of the ship to remove the computer core."

Groans filled the room. Literally removing a part of a ship was not a good idea. It was dangerous, exceptionally difficult, and was always time consuming. Elder Annelise continued explaining what other work we had for another hour or so. At the end of the meeting, I approached the front.

Making sure I was outside of the range of Eudora, I approached Elder Annelise and Elder Dresden. "Have you considered asking Arthur for him to take a look at the ship?"

The two Elders looked between each other for a moment. Elder Annelise replied, "Do you think he'd be willing to?"

I raised an eyebrow. "Why wouldn't he? He's basically a tech nut anyway. The only issue is going to be getting his first perk to work. As far as I'm aware, it only works on things that belong to the village."

She frowned. "I'll have to talk it over with James."

I shrugged. "Anything is better than having to remove multiple decks of the ship."

She nodded. "Alright. Start repairing the hull. I'll go meet with James."

I shrugged and got to it. 

- - -

POV: Arthur Sinclair. 

Elder James and Elder Annelise found me in the rec room with the other engineers. "Arthur, could we talk to you for a moment."

I walked over. "Yup. What can I do for you?"

Elder James began. "We're in the middle of repairing the Phobos. Our current plan is to remove the ship's computer core entirely, the issue is that doing so would require removing multiple decks of the ship."

I grimaced, and Elder James continued. "We were able to negotiate partial ownership of the Phobos – though we're going to have to start providing materials to the repair effort. Are you willing to take a look at the ship?"

I blinked in surprise. "Absolutely, but it'd be of more help if I had some other Cylons to examine first."

Elder James nodded. "We have the six Wardrivers as well as two dozen Centurions for you to examine." 

I immediately perked up. "Let's go then. They only needed me here for the beginning of this."

I took my leave of the room that was filled top to bottom with mathematical formulas and followed the Elders to the Stargate. Upon arriving on Dendred, we took a Tel'tak to the other side of the planet. I saw the ruins before I even noticed our destination. What must have once been a city of millions, reduced to nothing but collapsing buildings over the course of 50 years of abandonment. 

We set down at a military outpost set into the side of a mountain. A massive door opened up to reveal an absolutely ancient interior hangar. Inside, lined up side to side were more than 500 Centurions as well as the six Cylon Wardrivers. 

First up were the Wardrivers. 

First Perk Activated. Partial Blueprint Acquired: Wardriver (Cylon Raider Variant)

Wardriver Chassis

The chassis was quite sturdy – it could probably take a few hits, but basically any SLDF star fighter was better. I quickly moved on towards the other Wardrivers. 

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Wardriver (Cylon Raider Variant)

Wardriver Tylium Reactor, Wardriver Computer Core, Wardriver Hacking Suite, RCS System

I'd finally gotten a Tylium Reactor, and boy did I see why the colonials used it so heavily. Tylium – like naquadah – was a transuranic element, with a weight much larger than that of even Oganesson – element 118 back in my old life. Tylium, however, had two rather unique features. 

A Tylium nucleus included one antiproton which was then totally enveloped with neutrons. This meant that a Tylium nucleus didn't need anywhere close to an equivalent number of electrons to remain stable. The electrons that orbited Tylium were incredibly loosely bound. Normally, when Tylium was connected to other molecules, this wasn't a concern, but when refined into pure Tylium, those extra electrons could be stripped away with incredible ease. 

A single Tylium atom could have 24 electrons stripped away before there were issues. More than 24 could be stripped, but the tylium would then start to produce Alpha and Beta radiation. I assumed that this is likely what caused the deaths of the Daedalus' crew. Anyway, it was a fascinating concept, and I would think about it more at a later date. 

Finally, I touched the last Wardriver. 

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Wardriver (Cylon Raider Variant)

Zoe Graystone Engram (Modified)

Ahhhh… ohh fuck. 

I sat down; Elder James and Elder Annelise both gave me a worried look. I waved them both off, "I just got a reminder of how the Cylons were created."

Elder Annelise raised an eyebrow. "Explain."

I grimaced, but proceeded anyway. "Well, the daughter of the CEO of Graystone Industries – Graystone Industries were the company responsible for creating the Centurions – well, her mind was copied and she ended up dying not long after. Well… stuff… happened from there and the CEO – I can't even remember his name – modified the… engram of his daughter so that the Centurions would be more effective in combat."

Looking up to the Elders, I could see that they both seemed almost ill at the idea. Elder James looked particularly upset. Elder Annelise asked a rather important question, "And these… modifications… what did they entail."

I grimaced even harder. "They were effectively a lobotomy."

The Elders looked particularly affected by this revelation, which was almost a relief. I didn't really know how they would respond. I remember reading in some fanfic that the Hegemony did basically the same thing when creating its own AIs, but I don't believe that was ever confirmed in any of the canon – or even apocryphal – material. 

[Author's Note: Lemme know if I'm wrong. The only info sarna.net has on AI is on the SDS and the M-2 through M-11 Systems]

Taking a deep breath, I stood back up. "Centurions next." 

First Perk Activated. Complete Blueprint Acquired: Cylon-War Era Centurion 

Centurion Chassis, XXX Tylium Reactor, Centurion Computer Core, Centurion Monoeye, Zoe Greystone Engram (Modified)

As I finished with the fifth Centurion, I let out a sigh. I reached down and tried to open the port on the Centurions neck. It didn't open – the power cell was dead after all. Ignoring the pulse caused by the ship's jumps, one charge of the power cell would only last ten years.

I let out another sigh. I knew what I had to do now. I turned to the Elders. "Give me some tools and find some people to help me with this."

Elder James raised an eyebrow. "What are you doing?"

I looked up at him. "Removing the memory engrams. It's dangerous to leave them installed."

Both to others as well as to the Cylons themselves. It wasn't right to leave them here, even if it wasn't out in the open. It might be possible to save their minds. Even if these beings wished to wipe out Humanity, they were still human and they had been wronged by the colonies before the war began. 

Elder James and Elder Annelise returned twenty minutes later with a group of 12 to help. Luckily removing the engram wasn't exceptionally difficult. The Centurions were designed such that the Engram could be removed if a Centurion could not be moved. 

I showed everyone how to remove the Engram and we began. To get a Centurion's memory engram took about ten minutes. With twelve of us, we removed 50 engrams every hour, since some took a bit longer than ten minutes if a Centurion suffered corrosion. 

As I was moving onto the eighth centurion, I heard something behind me. I assumed that it was one of the other personnel, that was until I felt a metal arm wrap around my neck.