Upon Silver Devil: Chapter Four

First topic message reminder :

Dawn would be alright, she just got bored laying there alone and without a project to do.

Tala's ears folded back. "There are new problems? This sounds unsatisfactory. We must hear tell of them."

~~
Asher headed with the others to the main room. He did find himself smiling for a moment as he went up the stairs, because it felt like such a novel experience, but the worry quickly took over. He waited for the others to come in.

Moriah sat down somewhere to wait as well.

Dawn stood and frowned a little "Well, let's get to this meeting and get caught up on what's happening."

"Kay said to be careful" Nova said, looking over to Asher then smiling "Your mate is worried for you, as is your mother."

Aww, that was sweet. Asher felt bad that Kay and Starr were worrying about him, but it was nice that they cared. "Thank you, Nova. Can you please send them my gratitude?" He was tempted to say love, but if Kay was getting messages relayed to him through Starr, he knew Kay wouldn't be comfortable with that. "And maybe mention that I'll send them messages later, after the meeting." So many things to do, but he certainly didn't want to neglect his loved ones during all this.

Nova dipped her head in a nod and smiled "I will." She said gently, looking to Rigel and the others as they came in to start the meeting.

Once the video call with Vestia was set up and everyone who wanted to attend was in attendance, Asher started the meeting. He explained the situation in as much detail as he could, while still trying to keep the explanation concise. He wanted everyone to understand what was going on, but of course time was also of the essence here.

"I think we need to start the android rights campaign now," he concluded, "Before the majority of the older androids have had their sentience stripped from them. The fewer androids there are who are able to speak up, the less likely it is that anyone of importance will notice the ones who do. I realize that this is very sudden, but I don't think it would be wise or ethical to allow millions to be brainwashed into submission."

"But how? You think you have enough sway to convince thousands to stand up at once and say 'by the way, we're people too'?" Esk asked.

Through the feed Matt nodded. "You need a huge amount of people, acting together right? What's your plan?"

Kay just looked anxious, clutching his own tablet to his chest and listening fretfully.

"I buy time!" Mourn declared from the back of the SD's room. "Can no remote hack usefully, got to go to source, crash server from inside."

"How the fuck do you intend to do that?" Esk asked incredulously.

"Heist!" Mourn declared, looking pleased. "I pirate remember? We break into lots secure place, more secure than robot factory. "

"this could get messy fast." Esk cautioned.

"It's messy already." Matt reminded him.

[What do you need us to do?] Kay asked at last.

Asher looked at the ground, thinking over Esk and Matt's question. "It's not going to be easy to convince them to say anything, that's for sure. But we have ways to contact large numbers of androids at once."

James nodded. "There's an android communication network, that was created by the computer that created us. Any of us can access it from any computer, and a lot of us do visit it pretty regularly." He frowned, "We're not supposed to be able to talk about it, I guess we can now we're free. Huh."

"Yes. There are usually close to a million visitors a day," Asher said. "If even one percent of them decided they wanted to help, well, that would be a pretty significant amount of support right there. Enough to get people interested. More supporters would be better, but a couple thousand androids is significant nonetheless."

Tala tilted her head at Mourn, "They know your face. If they catch you, they will know you are connected to Asher. They will think that a hacker like you might have hacked him as well, to make him do this."

"Only if Mourn gets caught," Ethan said quietly.

Asher frowned at that, then looked to Kay. "I'm not entirely sure what we need everyone to do yet. Once the campaign starts, efforts will need to be made to try to protect androids, who will become targets for all sorts of violence. It's also possible someone will need to talk to some of the sapient rights groups on Terra, to encourage them to take a stance on this issue. Other than that, I'm not entirely sure what else will be needed. This situation is developing uncomfortably quickly, and it's not easy to anticipate what's going to become necessary."

"You got magic yes dragon? Can make look different?" Mourn asked.

[Contact the androids, at the very least warn them of this update. They deserve to know what's about to happen to them] Kay suggested. He chewed his lip.

"How much time do you think you can buy?" Matt asked Mourn.

Mourn shrugged. "few days maybe? depend how fast engineer work, and how many servers can take down."

"That's not long..." Matt frowned.

"Yes, I can make you look different." Nova agreed with a frown as she watched them talk things over.

"You have the teleportation stones, so you only have to worry about getting in." Starr said "The Devil itself can be off Mars, so there's less chance of knowing where the threat is coming from before it's too late for them."

Asher nodded at Kay's suggestion. "That's a good idea. I'll post a message warning everyone, even if they can't do much, at least the update announcement won't come as a shock." He looked at Mourn, "Even a few days would be a huge help. It's pretty much inevitable that they'll manage to release the update, but delaying it will give us a better chance of success."

Tala snorted softly at the discussion of infiltrating MegaBrain. "With the help of magic, this mission seems much more doable. It would be wise for Nova to go with Mourn, Terrans don't have access to much magic, but they have started to research and utilize spells in recent years. Being able to detect such spells, if they exist, would be wise."

"Will you guys be coming back to Terra right away once you've finished blowing up or hacking the MegaBrainFart servers?" James asked. "I'm not sure I like you guys being out there on Mars, it's like, the least friendly place you can be."

Nova nodded, that would be best.

Mourn nodded. "We come up with plan, get in, make server crash, then teleport to ship yes? Easy!"

Esk looked dubious of that. "If for whatever reason you can't finish, get back here anyway. If they capture you and link it back to this ship, we're all fucked."

Mourn grinned. "We no fail."

"We should stop wasting time." Esk pointed out.

Kay nodded at the other end of the feed. [Go, alert the others. Make preparations. If you need us to do anything this end, contact us. And please... ] He looked especially at Asher. [Stay safe.]

Tala nodded. "There is much to do. I will assist in constructing a plan of infiltration, although it may be best if I do not go with you." She was curious to know how Mourn and Nova would execute this mission. She did realize she probably shouldn't go along though, as stealth wasn't exactly a strength of hers.

"Yes, we'll be in contact with you guys soon, I'm sure," Asher said, looking at the people on the video screen. "For now, it's time to get to work, there's a lot to do." He smiled sadly, "This has been an unfortunate turn of events, but hopefully we'll be home before long."

James sighed. "Kick some corporate ass for us, if you get the chance. And if you talk to the CEO for some reason, deck him, would you?"

"I really won't," Asher said dryly. "Don't worry, if I have any say in it, he'll get a lifetime in prison. That'll be almost as good, right?"

James nodded reluctantly. "Almost."

"Take care of yourselves and try not to worry." Asher smiled softly and went to shut off the video call.

"Be careful" Starr said softly, waving to them all.

Mourn got up. "We plan!" He declared.

Esk muttered under his breath.

"Yes, it is time we plan," Tala agreed. Her ears were perked forward curiously. "Nova, do you know much of infiltration of corporate bases?"

Asher sat down and started composing messages. Oh boy, this was going to take a while.

"I know how to move quietly and can make cameras repeat so long as they are not live feed." Nova said uncertainly.

Mourn watched everyone, thinking. "We try avoid camera." Cameras were always a problem. He got his laptop and brought up schematics of the building he'd managed to dig out. "Ventilation shafts and cable tunnel not too small, if dragon can make self smaller, could fit." He was probably only just small enough to squeeze through something like a vent, his small size was something his old crew had used to their advantage fairly often.

He grinned suddenly, something occuring to him. "Could teleport in too. Take extra stone. If dragon go first, make self small, too small for camera see, drop stone, send message, I come."

Tala tilted her ears forward. "That would make this much simpler. How small can you become while still carrying a stone, Nova?" She sniffed the air, "Hiding in ventilation shafts is easy for small people, but oftentimes they carry sound well, so the enemy might hear you. Of course the sound might be harder to pinpoint the source of, but any sound at all is not ideal."

Nova nodded "I will need one of your stones and you will need one of someone else's to teleport in and out. My smallest form cannot speak though" She said honestly. This could work, carrying the stones wouldn't be hard.

Mourn nodded. "we got lots of stones yes? You take mine, I take cow lady's, then we good yes?"

"Does your smallest form have telepathy?" Tala asked. She wasn't sure how star dragon shapeshifting worked exactly. She got out her teleporting stones and handed them to Mourn, ears wiggling at his name for her. She didn't mind being called "cow lady" in the slightest. "Here are my teleporting stones, treat them with care and gentleness!"

"Leave one here." Nova said then shifted to a grey cat, her smallest form. After a moment, she shifted back to her terran form. "I can still communicate through telepathy"

"you mind talk then, no need to use radio." Mourn nodded, this was good, he couldn't use radios anyway. His team had always communicated via a text feed straight into his optic.
He took the stones from Tala and placed one onto the table, took his one from his pocket and handed that to Nova before placing tala's second stone into his pocket instead.
Phew, complicated.

"If can get to server room, make sure nobody around. Usually server room quiet, no need for people inside unless problem." Mourn gestured at the map he'd brought up on his computer. "you think can remember way? Maybe cow lady talk in head? Can do that far?" He asked, hey, he had no idea what everyone's telepathic range was.

Esk made sure all his weapons were loaded, just in case things got messy.
Yes, yes he was paranoid.

Luka went to ready the ship to leave. They should get out of here asap, as soon as Nova was prepped and ready.

"This is amusing! You both are cats!" Tala's ears wiggled. It wasn't clear if she thought it was funny to call Mourn a cat when he technically wasn't, or if she just found it funny that Mourn and Nova were felines. Either way, it amused her.
"My telepathic range is a mile or so if I am accustomed to the sound of the other person, and focus hard," she added. That meant her telepathic range could probably reach MegaBrainTech headquarters. If Mourn was planning to break into the server farm outside the biodome though, it wouldn't reach far enough. "What is your range, Nova? Mayhap if we work together, we can reach even farther."

~~
Asher, meanwhile, briefly messaged his Terran sapient rights contacts about the changing situation, before beginning to draft a notice to post on the discussion board.

"I can use telepathy for a long range." Nova said, taking the stone and making a string to tie onto it so she could take it off without shifting, tiring it around her neck like a collar when she was done. She shifted again and looked to Tala. You can hear me well?

Mourn laughed. "i no cat, I felid." He didn't seem offended though. He went looking for supplies.