2011-06-10 - Sly's Inner Circle Meeting?

Solaris 7 has a lot of very high points, such as the Valhalla club. There are also a lot of low points, such as the dark basement which Sly Heckler has reserved for this meeting. It's under a bar that is currently closed, and Sly had to do some creative negotiating to get it secured for the night.

And the reason for the effort, is that Sly has been doing a lot of crime lately. Crime against major companies, against small business that don't know what, and even assaults and kidnappings against his own friends! It's been a busy month.

All that has come to a head tonight though, as Sly has requested several people meet him here at this time and place. Among them old friends like Macua and Kazuma, business partners like Juku and Spectre, new arrivals like Ted, and kidnappees like R. Well okay, R is the /only/ one he's kidnapped. He arranged to have R ambushed during an escort mission, but that turned out to be unnecessary as R was knocked out by Shu's earlier attack, and Sly just had his people pick him up and drag him off. Also present is Sly's crew, who look a little put out.

Once everybody is gathered, Sly sits, and looks over the crowd mysteriously. "Yes, thank you all for coming. R, I promised I'd explain the whole thing to you here, so here we go. I call to order this meeting of the TRAILERS INNER CIRCLE!"

"Sly," Nancy Osborne says with a touch of irritation, "The Trailers already /have/ an inner circle."

"They do? Who is in it?"

"The CEOs of the major companies that contribute, mercenary unit heads, major captains and such...Spectre is probably in there."

"Huh. Well, okay. Then how about /Sly's Inner Circle!"

Macua Huitl is here though she's shown up in an Armored core flight suit was odd, but it also seems to be the same brand May Greenfield likes, this may be due to the fact that she and mac use to hung out once and a while. She wasn't quite aware of what was going on, other than stuff was up, and she removes her helmet smirking at this point.

"Don't forget my would-be father in law too, Sly. Nancy I’m not sure what those guys are up to other than counting credits and swimming in them like a duck."

Juku looks intensely thoughtful for a while, staring at the surface of the table with one finger over her lips as she furrows her brow, focusing everything she has into deep, purposeful though. "So..." she finally speaks up.

"I'm not being kidnapped?"

"I think I'm disappointed."

R was not amused.

Not at all.

Though he sat there, his feet up on the table, arms crossed over his chest. Some bandages here and there to hold the synth-flesh close to the body. He had a little medical exam to check to make sure none of his cybernetics were damaged by the damn attack. His leather jacket also was messed up, so was his gray shirt, and his jeans. Thankfully those steel-toed boots were still in perfect shape.

He could only image how Nell was acting right now, thankfully she was a big girl. She could probably handle these mechwarriors and clanners... Maybe. Ok, maybe she would have some trouble if she wasn't careful. But that wasn't really his concern right now, right?

Those glowing aqua green eyes shined brightly in the dark basement as he looked over to Sly as he said that. He then grunted gently before he muttered, "First a Volcanic god monster.. and now you nap me. I tell you Sly, you have interested way of showing how to be a friend." It was hard to tell if he was being serious or joking.

He then closed his eyes once more. "Lets just hope this is a good story. Cause I am going to have a ton of explaining when I get back, I am sure."

R then opens one eye and looks at Juku, "..want to switch places?" He says with grin. Ok, now he was joking.

Spectre cannot confirm nor deny the existence of any Trailer Inner Circles. He cannot confirm nor deny the existence of the Midnight Poker Society, the Film Illuminati, the Giant Robot Soft Drink Mob, or even of himself.

Yet here he is, in the flesh. Not nearly as drunk as he'd like to be after the previous night, Spectre has come to this meeting of Sly's Inner Circle largely because he was in the neighborhood and because he owes Sly at least enough after the years of shit to sit in a dark, dank basement for a while with a kidnapped Raven.

Yeah, he doesn't know either.

"So nice to be part of *somebody's* inner circle," Kazuma remarks. "So setting aside organizational minutiae like what we're going to call ourselves, what's the agenda? You don't pull together a hush-hush clandestine gathering like this unless you have *something* in mind - not even you, Sly," he says with a wry grin to the one who's responsible for all of us being here.

He actually didn't mind being here, as Blessfield wanted to make a second attempt at some of the business deals which Shu Shirakawa so rudely interrupted by traipsing through Solaris in a stupidly high-powered battle machine, and in fact the damage inflicted by the Granzon's "demonstration" may mean added opportunities to engage in productive commerce.

"Right, right," Sly remarks in general. Everybody wants to know why they're here. He feels like he should have slides or a big desk or something. He doesn't, but he does have a lot of random media files. "Alright, you all want to know why we're here. This all comes down to Crest. R, Crest has been playing you a lot worse than you know. Let's start from the top."

Sly pulls out some data disks and passes them out. On them there are a lot of odd images. They're all pictures and sound of familiar places such as the Raven's Nest and of recent battles, all taken from a first-person perspective. "A while ago, a few associates and myself took a harddrive from Crest's HQ. I recently managed to decode them, and this is what was on it. Any of it look familiar to anyone here?"

[OOC] Sly Heckler says, "A few highlights that I forgot to mention: A giant flaming robot crawling out an island volcano, a Balmarian stealing an Armored Core unit and joyriding around it, and whoever's perspective it's taken from talking to Macua, Kazuma, and Sly."

Macua Huitlpauses and looks at one of them pausing for a moment. "Wait that's the volcano...." She stops seeing Adom Nazir chasing after R. This chills her it's kinda surreal to be watching this and she watches the footage transfixed for a moment.

"disturbingly so Sly, very disturbingly so."

As for Granzon she grimace again and says, "Do you know how disturbing it is to see Adom and know she's me?"

The dirty blond Raven Founder just continues to kick back as Sly at last gets to explaining. Then at last those boots swing down from the table and plant once more firmly on the ground. Waiting for one of those pads to come his way so he can look at it.

For now he remains silent, not saying too much on the highlight of the evening, 'R-- you been played like a fiddle, you mook.' This actually doesn't surprise him one bit really.

Corps do love playing dirty. Very dirty at that.

"So.. you stole stuff from Crest huh? That explains why they were flipping out so bad for those couple of months." The cyborg states calmly. Then he gets the discs and watches the images play out. As he does so, his eyes slightly narrow. "...."

Then he just passes it to the next person(or back to sly). There was that look on R's face. That look that suddenly he didn't /really/ want to be here now. Those were images right..

"..yeah.. I know those images.." He said softly, glancing over to Sly. "..perhaps better than anyone else in this room would, unless they took part in it." He gestures over to Macua who sorta freaks out.

"Tsk.." He lets out softly, now rubbing his nose ridge. Silence befalling him now as he just listens and watches the rooms reactions. He would say what they were, but it probably was pretty obvious at this point. Right now, it was more like keep anger in check and just let stuff playout.

"Not really," Spectre remarks, examining the images. He looks between the other occupants, gauging reactions. It's funny; he's always gone when things like this happen, every single time...

Kazuma takes his time about going through the footage. "So Crest's been eavesdropping on R ... man. I thought they were pretty bad before, but - are they even letting you *have* a private life any more, R?"

Juku peers at the images. "Nope." she shakes her head. "Sorry."

"Doesn't look like it.." R mutters toward Kazuma.

"It's worse than that," Sly says solemnly. "Yeah, as you've noticed, that's all stuff pulled out of R's brain. Why would they do /that/ you ask?" Sly takes a deep breath, and leans back a bit. "There was another piece of info on that drive. It gave me the name CASE. Now, CASE is some small computer company up in Neo America. From them, I pulled some more info."

Sly hands out another round of data disks. This one doesn't have as much data on it, but what it does have it weird. Then there are some more images, one of what looks like HUD displays floating in thin air with some kinda mecha fight taking place, though when something attempts to impact the mech, there is strange notification at the right corner called P.A. with a bar level that drops when it takes a hit, then takes a moment to charge back up to 100. The field that also gets impacted seems to spark with a strange gold, aqua green hue.

"I also talked to a guy named Timothy. He gave me a lot of interesting information. He worked for CASE when they were working Crest. And what did he do? Well, apparently they were working on developing AI. And this is among the information they were given."

Juku frowns a bit, "That looked like a Primal Armor impact." she looks up at Sly, "So? A lot of companies are developing AI combat systems. The space forces have had Ghosts for a while now."

R stares at the disk on the table now in front of him. He listens to what Sly has to say, before he at last picks it up. He then watches the video. He also knows these images, which causes his eyes to narrow sharply. "Juku is right.. that is Primal Armor displays. The impact that sparked, that was something that slammed into the Primal Armor. Kojima is weird crap."

He then slides the pad onto the table again; mostly in growing frustration and anger than anything. He then looks over to Juku in agreeing to her last comment and gives a faint nod.

Then looks over to Sly, "..and CASE huh? Never heard of them. Though if they are small time, that may explain that." He then places his hands clasped on the table. His index fingers tapping gently. "... ... And some guy developing an AI huh? Crest has tons of people working on AIs." He then looks directly at Sly. "That is something Crest specializes in. After all, most of their base is protected by computer and AI drones." He shrugs softly. "You should know that after sneaking in, what now.. twice.. Three times?"

Macua Huitl looks a bit disturbed she still really can't feel anything from R but she's more worried for a moment. she also noticed Spec's never about when that happens. She looks at Sly for a bit and then seems to becoming seemingly worried. "I remember the AI we fought in a test mission"

"Think it though, guys," Sly says with a sigh. "They're pulling this data out of R's head, then sending it off to people to optimize AI systems though it? They're trying to recreate what R can do try transferring his experiences into a computer or something." Sly gives a bit of a sigh and adds, "But they're not doing a good job of it. Timmy said that these things were going berserk. And that the company was doing a lot to cover it up. Whatever they're doing, they're not playing a good game here."

Kazuma scowls. "They're trying to program an AI with R's piloting style ... I thought the whole point of human pilots is that we can be *un*predictable. How is anyone going to resolve somebody's piloting habits into a convenient algorithm without losing that?"

R continues to listen as his eyes are closed. Keeping his emotions in check. Keeping his mind thinking. Even as Sly drops the bomb on what is really happening.

R then opens his eyes gently, there was a flicker of light in them for that moment, readjusting to the light level once again. "They already have.. once."

He looks over to Kazuma. "I don't remember if you were with us or not, but I believe Macua was. Remember the place in Siberia with that mad AI? Do you remember the drone ACs we had to fight? Technically those were AIed machines, but they were still hooked up to the pilots, yet they were not."

Then R crosses his arms over his chest as he narrows his eyes. "..Also the NEXT we fought, the prototype to what I now pilot.. it almost became sentient. It also flew very similar to myself. So depending on how long Crest has been at this.."

He shakes his head, "..Damnit.. who knows how far they have gotten or even how close they are to completing it." His hand can be seen tighten, before he at last runs it through his short messy hair. "..maybe if we are lucky though.. they will never get a chance to complete it. Every AI I have ever seen." He then looks across the room.

"Even going back to Chrome, every AI they have tried, has always gone berserk. Even when at first they acted sane, they would shortly after time just go nuts. Typically because they always came to some grand conclusion."

"Sly," He then looks over to Sly, "Any idea of maybe how far they /have/ gotten with these attempts?"

Sly shakes his head. "I can give you all the info I have, but I can't make much more sense of it then what I've got." He shrugs a bit, and adds, "We did get a lot of medical info on what was done to you, though. I've talked with that Boyle Fortner guy about it, and he said he thinks he can get the Raven's Nest able to handle all the medical 'stuff' that Crest was using to keep you on a leash. Given that, and what they're doing, I /strongly/ think you should cut them off, R."

Macua Huitl says, "I do, to our dismay and suffering we saved Stinger." she doesn't seem too happy about that. She just keeps listening but the newtype seems worried and may be thinking back, remembering her time as Adom along with a few other things. "Who knows, ya....it's worrisome r..."

"If you're willing to take the heat for this..." Spectre just kind of shrugs, frowning a little. "There's enough on my plate right now, I don't need something else piled on top. It'd all be on you."

Kazuma makes a face. "Man ... if somebody had me on this kind of leash, I wouldn't just *cut* it - I'd rip it out of their hands, maybe try to pull their hands and arms off in the process."

He's very carefully NOT voicing one concern that's crossed his mind ... that bit about Crest not letting R have a private life?

Not that Kazuma has any idea how much of a private life *R* has, and in all honesty he's content not to know the details.

"I can't, remember. I'm kinda stuck. After all they said.." R pauses. He almost gets that blank look on his face for a moment. "..They said.. ..but the contract would be.. so how are they..." There was a hint of confusion in his voice. Sly was right, under normal circumstances, he should be able to just break what Crest was saying. He was alive, right? He didn't die, or he wouldn't be standing here. They said his death was just long enough they /thought/ he did...

..mild amnesia they told him as well..

What happened that night? What happened?

Everyone's voices were a bit ignored as he continued to try to understand just why he /hasn't/ stepped up.

His brows furrow for a moment. His eyes narrowing, before he flicks his eyes over to Macua. "... .. Macua, what happened to Gabriel during that NEXT attack?"

His glowing Aqua green eyes focusing directly at her. "What happened to me in Gabriel? You're a Newtype-- You would know, right? How badly injured was I?"

Macua Huitl takes a deep breath at this she looks at R actually fearfully why would she be afraid to answer? Why would she be afraid. She takes a deep breath. "It was ripped apart and .... I didn't feel a thing...like whenever I feel someone...die."

Kazuma frowns. "So you were piloting it by remote link-up ... and you didn't even know it. Or that was a test run of the AI based on you ..."

"Or," Sly says slowly, looking at R evenly. "Say, Archangel. Buddy. Um...Geeze. How to put this...Have you actually /seen/ your own medical data since Crest started working on you?"

"No. I was in my AC. I was inside of it. I remember the conversation I was having. I remember Otsdarva on the radio giving tips. He wanted us to /save/ it, because it was showing sentience at the end of its life." R replied back to Kazuma.

His eyes were looking more blank by the passing second as the gravity of just what he was saying was starting to weigh on him. The very idea..

Macua's words were also being thought on. He remembered very little of that event, but enough he knew he was there. He was in his AC. He also knew Gabriel was a complete wreck, which is why he lost her.

"..Besides.. Gabriel doesn't operate by remote link-up. Makes it to easy to hack the system and take it over. I know that because I was an operator. Top Operator..."

Those near blank glowing aqua green eyes snap back into focus as he looks over to Sly. They stare at Sly for a moment. He blinks his eyes and then shakes his head gently. "I saw some of it, but not all of it. Since they didn't want me to find the means to, you know, get a leg on them. Even though I did it anyhow to even get the mild bit of freedom I got."

Kazuma says quietly, "So what if you were remote-linked to the AI and piloting through it, instead of by direct link to Gabriel's systems like a normal remote link-up?" He shakes his head, looking disgusted. "I thought we were supposed to have decided 'humans are not property' a couple of centuries *before* the Impact Wars ... guess some people need a crash course in why slavery was so heavily discouraged."

R cuts a glance back over to Kazuma, "..just what are you talking about?"

Macua Huitl just slinks into her chair seeming more and more distant, thinking about when she doubted her own existence. She really has been three different people in her life. she just not sure how R will take it. She looks to R for a moment. "There's no way to tell if it was modded either, R...there wasn't much left. Tch, I was federation military hardware once."

Then those aqua green glowing eyes drift over to Macua, "You are implying then that the wreck I saw what was left of Gabriel was a fake? There wasn't much left of that AC. It was pretty much scrapped."

"Also as Corporations go, Kazuma-- they can own whatever they want, cause they have the money to buy whatever they want. Money speaks louder than convictions and moral when it comes to the business world."

Macua Huitl says, "That’s a possibility to that they may have altered it without your warning. I should know better than anyone how ... overpowering mind alteration can be."

Sly shrugs a little. "Not everything. Anyway, the real point is, what's going to be done about this. Assuming R is..you know, the /original/ R and not an AI clone.." Sly gives a helpless shrug in R's direction before continuing, "Then I'm not really sure this is /our/ problem at all. We have what we need to pull R out of this mess entirely. Do we even want to get involved? Can we?"

"Back then. They couldn't have. Crest didn't have access to my ACs. I knew if anyone modded or altered my babies. That and the Computer was setup to reject all incoming data unless I voice confirmed it." R replies back to Macua.

He then rested his arms on the table, before resting his head on the table. Then he sorta glanced up, "..by the way-- anyone got a glass of water?"

Then he sits back up. "... Here is the interesting thing. If.. I am a copy of.. me.. I.." Whoa, that was some crazy thinking now. "..then by that theory, Crest would have property rights to me. Because I would.. not be a person.. but a.. device." He furrows his brows a bit, not liking what he was implying. "..Though even if the Nest can duplicate everything Crest has done.. including repairs to the NEXT-- which I have no doubts the boys could do.. but how would that effect.."

R than shakes his head before placing his hands on his forehead. "..this is insane.."

"Stick him with a fork, that'll sort out who's who." Juku says.

"Cyborg parts." R replies raising up his arm. Where the wraps were holding the synth flesh. "Fake flesh.. under that ceramics, metals, wires, and gears. They told me they converted me to a near full machine, outside of part of my brain and some.." he does air quotes, "..internal workings."

Macua Huitl says, "They could have and altered your memories after all.. it's just...how do you think I used to feel I found I was listed as dead, that I had a grave. I had to dig it up to just know the truth..." She frowns. "we'll get to the bottom of this one way or another there is one thing we can count on."

Everyone was trying to stay away from the concept. Even R didn't want to flat-out admit it. Everything he had would have then been a lie. He-- the real him would be dead. He..

..then who would he be?

"..really need that glass of water.." he muttered softly, before he stood up at last and actually started to pace around a bit. His hand once more running through his hair. "..." He looks over to Macua. ".. maybe-- but here is a fun question.. if.. I was human right.. you could read me, right?"

The dirty blonde then walks calmly toward Macua, those eyes of his almost look dim. There was a tad flicker in them. It was a strange thing really, something he one time noted when he went without anything to drink, such as water really, for a few days. His body apparently really disliked this.. though he never tested to see just how long he could go without drinking water. The Raven founder then placed his hand on Macua's shoulder, though he was very careful about it. He knew Newtypes were highly sensitive to emotions and things. It is what gave them sometimes the edge in battle.

"..but.. even if we can solve it.." His eyes drift over to Sly. ".. then what are we going to do about it? Taking down Crest is near impossible."

"It'll be easier than the Crusaders," Kazuma says. "We can hit Crest on multiple levels, too - damage them in the field, cripple their assets, steal their money and/or hardware, dig up dirt to bury them in the courts of law, hit 'em financially other than by robbery ... economics can be as potent a weapon as anything, especially when your enemy's a corporation. Those fat-cats live to see their wallets get plumper - start putting them on a low-cash diet, they'll shriek. They'll probably also declare war on us with everything they can bring to bear - potentially including a lot more AC pilots whose leashes and leases they're holding."

R glances over to Kazuma, "Right, though Crest now has one of Katharon's guys running it. Last we spoke.. we didn't get off very well with one another. Haven't had a chance to talk to him since."

"Mmm. Right, Banjo Haran ..." Kazuma purses his lips. "You know. If we brought this to his attention he'd probably try to help us, unless he's sold out or been bought ..."

Macua Huitl says, "Sensing ... non-newtypes is hit or miss sometimes I can if the emotions are strong enough but that's it hit or miss I’m afraid." She seems unsettle and not so confident in her abilities. The one time she actually wants something from her cursed abilities she got nothing, though the hand on the shoulder was .... reassuring at least. "Either way your still R." The worse they'd end up is having twin R's and Hustler would shit a brick...

Sly sort of shrugs, still looking kind of thoughtful. He has no idea what to make of R's problem, but Crest is a bit easier to figure out. "You want to know what I think about Crest? Fuck 'um, that's what. They can do what they want, as long as they don't step on anything they shouldn't. I don't see any reason to try and take them down. If Banjo wants to do something about it, then fine. If not...Do we really care?"

R glances over to Kazuma, before he removes his hand gently from Macua's shoulder, only giving her a soft nod as he speaks to Kazuma. "Maybe. I don't trust many from Katharon." His eyes look over to Macua, "..nothing personal to you. Your kind the exception to the rule." He says with an idle smirk. "..and thanks."

Those aqua green glowing eyes look at Sly. "..I care. You brought up a problem, sly. If they are making an AI copy of.. me.. then there is a strong possibility that AI could go berserk if it got out. I mean-- if you stuck me as like.. some computer. I could do some massive hardware damage." He chuckles, "Not to brag or anything. But I was a top hacker, you give a computer that type of knowledge, there be very little that thing couldn't hack. It probably tick off the Federation on top of that."

"Worse, that thing could be used for any given situation and thus replace anyone. There is a great deal of possibilities a corporation could do if they could mimic a human with a machine." R then crossed his arms over his chest.

"Next, I love to know why the f*ck they have copies of my brain.. and if I really am.. you know.. who I am."

"I mean, kinda suck if I am this.. AI.. and the real me is dead, and that means I am walking around with the face of a dead-man. Mind you.. that is going back to that theory. A theory I don't like." R then rubs his nose bridge as he just kinda walks around now. "..Crest also may not leave the Ravens alone if I don't comply... though I guess if they did try to hassle us. We could just kick them in the balls. They need us, as much has we sorta need them." He admits there in the end.

Kazuma shakes his head. "R, I can pretty near guarantee that if you tell the Ravens what Crest's doing to you, it's going to get the Ravens behind you - at least most of them, probably all. People do not like being *owned*, and what Crest seems to be doing to you ... that's so many kinds of wrong, I'm not sure I could make a complete enough list."

"..and say I am robot?" R asks looking over to Kazuma. "..Then what? Mind you I am throwing that out there for that percentage of possibility as Crest is known for their damn douche-bag moves of dickery."

Macua Huitl just is quite for now, at this point she look to R for a moment. "None taken, I never asked nor wanted these powers at all and it's fine. R at least Banjo's likely not aware of this project....given how spread out Crest is... hummmm.."

"So we don't go though Crest," Sly says evenly after thinking about it for a moment. "What are those other companies they're always fighting with? Mirage and..something? What if we went to them? I'm sure they'd be interested to stop Crest from pulling this off."

"Robot or cyborg, you remember being human and you still act like one." Kazuma meets R's gaze levelly. "Besides which. Say you *are* a robot. Let's say further that somebody at Crest can flip a switch or punch in a code and hijack your higher decision-making capabilities."

He's silent briefly, to let that sink in. "I dunno about you, but if I found out somebody was doing that to their employees, I would.." "... I would *freak* and start looking to put them out of business for good," Kazuma finishes.

R's eyes drift over to Spectre, only cause the guy has been utterly silent. He sorta silently wonders if the guy is even alive.

Freakin' Mechwarriors were freaky.

He looks over to Sly. "Maybe. Hell, probably even feed this to some of the corps that are hooked with the Feds or something.. hehe.." He almost grins. "..maybe even feed something to the Crusaders-- I bet they love to gnaw on that kinda crap." He rubs his forehead, at least just leaning up against the wall. He hated sitting, he really did. "We got choices, a lot of choices. Just depends on who we want to feed it too."

R glances over to Kazuma. "..thanks kid.." his old name for Kazuma showing back up, ".. but lets hope that isn't possible. Then again, knowing my luck, even as a Cyborg-- I am pretty sure they got something hard-wired in that keeps me from like... attacking the president or his snot nosed kid." He then shrugs lightly, "I guess the part of being human falls into the old saying of what really makes a human a human, right?" He chuckles before closing his eyes.

"So.. Sly.." He then looks to Sly once again. "..you brought us all here, what do /you/ want to do?"

Macua Huitl nods to Sly. "Agreed but it does put me in a questionable position. I'm pretty much out if Banjo some how finds out." Basically she knows her sources would dry up and in the long run it would do Banjo good to get this issue /dealt/ with. "So what if you're a robot? Doesn't mean you're not a person."

Somewhere Aria is watching and likely rubbing her hands together at this revelation....

"..maybe I outta go work for the feds. I bet Crest would cough, hack, and just stare." R states offhandedly.

Sly Heckler looks thoughtful for a moment. "What do I /want/ to do? Head over to the nearest bar and drink until the problem goes away." He leans back and kicks his feet up suddenly. He started this thing. What did he expect would happen? "I guess we should see this through, though. We can either do this personal or professional. If we stay professional, that means playing politics, getting other corps involved, and seeing if we can't make this such a headache for Crest, that they give it up." He looks straight at R and adds, "If this is personal though...then we finish this personally. I've got a list of names of people involved in the research, and a good idea where it's based. Down to you if you feel this is personal, though."

R looks over to Sly, "..Honestly. I don't know right now. I am still going over all this crap that we discussed. Though personal or professional. Either way, I don't want my Ravens involved. I know they will want to be, but in the end, this is probably going to become my war." He shrugs.

"Its late though-- and we should just think this over. When I get back to Earth, I'll have the medics check me over. Maybe see if I am a machine after all."

"..and if I am, well then." His eyes narrow. "..I guess I'll have to see what happens next."

Macua Huitl makes some noises, she doesn't like the feds but she's got her own history with it which everyone knows. She looks at Sly and just flat-out asks him. "Do you have any ideas on this? Who was behind this? If you noticed a far more advanced race only used drones for grunt work and never attempted something this complex. I know they actually abandoned trying to do anything akin to Cyber newtypes... Hummmmm.. We'll deal with them."

R turns to look at Macua, "Oh no. This is all Crest." He explains. "Crest is the leader when it comes to doing stuff with AI, robotics, and drugs. They use tech from other corporations they buy out only to make themselves bigger. They got their hands into everything."

R than touches his forehead. "..anyhow.. I'll give this some thought.. and maybe do my investigation into just what happened to me. So unless anyone has any questions or-- anything?"

Macua Huitl says "True, it's not like BAHRAM's selling their own AI developed nor the GGG so your pretty much right there. Look R, whatever you are, you are still a Raven that can't be taken from you copy or not, right?"

"... Hard to say. Same Ravens wonder if I am still a raven at all cause I pilot a NEXT now." R states, not even wanting to explain the odd discomfort of even trying to pilot an AC again. "Just to bad there isn't away to check and see before I go back to earth.."

"Honestly," Sly says with another shrug, "I would just operate under the assumption that you're you until you know otherwise. I mean there are only two options here. One, you're exactly who you think you are, and two, you're a robot, but the guy who you think you are is dead, so who cares at this stage? Let's just keep our eyes forward and not focus on things that would make us go...ya' know..."

"Nuts?" R says with a half smirk grin. "..sadly the idea is already up here." He taps his head. "..so I'll figure it out eventually. If not sooner than later. You know me Sly, I tend to be pretty stubborn and very tenacious when it comes to stuff."

"Either way, lets call this thing an end. I'll do some thinking. Some researching, and I'll let you know Sly, in ohh-- say a week what is going to go down. Sound cool?"