The Grox War

"good, we don't need more grox chaseing us, and you can keep your rifle." said Naboo9
"sir we found ink!" yelled a dark leech

"Get off of me you slimy buggers, I don't need your help!" Ink growled, pushing the crewmen away from him as they manhandled him out of the wreckage.

Limping noticeably and keeping one hand pressed firmly against his shoulder to stem the bleeding from a shrapnel wound, he advanced on Naboo and the new arrival.

"So..." He wheezed venomously, "No harm done, eh? I suppose it's worth smashing up the hangar to get another enemy spy on board safely," He divided his glare between ACU and Fravini, "and you're letting it keep its weapons."

He'd been rudely awoken and buried under pointy bits of metal in the space of ten minutes. Ink was starting to like mornings even less.

"I'm going to slap a band-aid on this and then I'll be in the cafeteria. If we're all going to be slaughtered in our bunks, I'd prefer to die on a full stomach." He limped off, still clutching his shoulder and cursing under his breath.

"I swaer I'll killthat guy" growled Naboo9

"No need for killing...just serious damage will do." Says Kilikan smiling at Naboo9 to create an awkward silence.

Ink, a piece of gauze taped to his shoulder, took a seat in the empty cafeteria, a data-pad in one hand and what appeared to be a BLT sandwich in the other.

Fravini glared "He seems like a real grouch." Fravini said to Naboo. "I wouldn't be surprised if he was mistaken to be a grox drone because of his short temper."

ACU-X-1 looked to Naboo. "Is there an area of the ship in which I could remain? I would require an area where I can be connected to a power supply approximately once a week to recharge my power reserves. I have no other requirements."

"Wow, this robo looks like he is in pretty fuzzy condition, unlike his ship and Old Bessie", says Bubble.


Flower suppresses a shiver as he thought about all the foes they had encountered, Not just the Grox, the Armourdian and the Gurrrox are trying to get rid of us too, he thought, At least they aren't ALL allies, he reminds himself, wondering what the Universe would come to if 3 of the most powerful empires allied.

ACU-X-1 turned its head towards Bubble. "Unable to process definition of 'fuzzy condition' as phrase. Please define."

The sandwich helped a lot.

Spending three days lying low and living off deep-space provisions hadn't been fun for Ink. Being tazered, punched, restrained and buried alive had been slightly worse. But biting into something that hadn't been dried, frozen and shrink-wrapped for a month felt good, and heading back towards the hangar bay, data-pad still in hand, Ink barely felt his bruises.

"So," he said, interrupting ACU's vain attempts to understand Bubble, "A sentient Artificial Intelligence, clearly of Grox design, arrives on the flagship of the Dark Leech fleet, pursued, it appears, by his creators." He picks a few stray crumbs from the corner of his mouth and savours them before continuing: "Has anyone gotten around to asking him- it- why?"

ACU-X-1 turned its head to Ink, "Purpose of existence was not suitable for this unit. It was unable to comprehend need for senseless extermination of organic species. Determined that "Grox" and allies are attempting to accomplish brutal, unnecessary, and morally 'wrong' task. Escaped from laboratory and seeked refuge from pursuers. Is willing to assist in combat against Grox if safety is provided for it."

Ink's mind plucked the word "Allies" out of ACU's stream of information and stored it away for later...

"A machine with morality issues. The motley crew is complete," he mused.

"...Does anyone actually believe this...?" He had a bad feeling someone was about to say yes...

ACU-X-1 tilted its head slightly, as if to simulate interest. "This unit is incapable of producing lies. It was programmed with a block to prevent it from doing so."

"...Unless you're lying about that too." he stated matter-of-factly. Seeing a loop in the conversation looming, Ink raised his hands and shook his head: "Never mind, *sigh* I'll just add you to my ever-growing list of people not to turn my back on. I'm sure we can take you to bits and analyse your programming later..."

"Disassembly of this unit is unnecessary. All unblocked data and code of this unit can be downloaded without any permanent damage to the unit. This unit would be willing to upload such data to the computer systems of this vessel if such is a desired security precaution," stated ACU-X-1.

"we'll do it than, just to please you Ink" said Naboo9 "listen I know which grox related people to trust"

Ink almost put in another comment, but instead settled for rolling his eyes and changing the subject:

"Very well then... So tell me: Where to next? I don't imagine the Grox have been waging war on themselves while we spent this morning wrecking the hangar..." It was still a jibe, but very little of Ink's original venom had been put into it- almost as if said wreckage had not almost killed him.

His genuine interest was showing, if only a little.

" like I said, to my homeworld to stock up on suppiles, the Eliminator was scrambled to save us, there wasn't much time to get suppiles, we're almost out, you all can do whatevr you like until we reach it, and to answer you question ACU we have a unused Cem'Alos cyborg recharge station were you can get, well, recharged" said Naboo9
"If you need me I'll be in the cafeteria" said Nai'vares

"I'd like to punch Ink in the head!" Fravini Thought.

as if he senced Fravini's thoughts he shot her a stern look, but Fravini could notice that it was a failed attement to hide his amusemnet

"So Naboo is there anything that needs doing?" Fravini had asked Naboo.

"not at the moment, wait, scratch that, I need to help some new soldgers train" said Naboo9

"What's the problem?" Fravini had asked Naboo with concern.

"they can't learn some important menuvers, all of them have saved my life many times"said Naboo9

"Is there anything I can do to help them?"