Snippet #2811709

Roland was appreciative that Rei decided to share with him the tribulations she had faced, although other than his resigned silence and a couple nods she would not receive much thanks. He would note everything down at his earliest convenience. The loss of her ship was particularly distressing, and its reacquiring would have to be looked into. Her acknowledgment of the use of children resonated with Roland’s core, too. Roland was beginning to realise what was important once more, and that there was no time to lose on insignificant bickering. He turned away from Rei, eyes facing the wall in front of him. He composed himself more properly, and the human calculator was back (perhaps colder than Rei had remembered).

“You are right that we should cut ties. I’ll start the procedure.” Roland pulled a seperate, pager device and began typing digits to begin the purge of data. “The children were necessary, though. They are advantageous in the utility they provide to the cause. If you want to talk ethics, talk to those who have lost their families to civil war. To those whose parents were taken away for suspicion of treason. There is a fire in their hearts and without a guiding force they will surely destroy themselves… Much like young Joseph. Their childhood has already been taken from them.” He said.

“I’ve lost my touch, somewhat, I suppose. The Imperium is a tool to us. Not the other way around. I do have procedures should anything go wrong. The Phoenix Machine, something I’ve been working on based on a device we use to rejuvenate new plants from a single cell. The De-Re-Educator is still a work in progress, and I’ve thought about… Other… Applications.”

He turned around to face her. He would have appeared stoic, if it weren’t for the deep bags under his eyes or the redness that glazed over them.

“We need power. They have it. The Asylians have done an excellent job at keeping them busy, but more is required. We retake Sky’s Edge in the chaos. Take command. The presence of another outsider army will surely unite us. Yellowstone is on the horizon, Rei. I know it.” He took a pause.

“That does remind me, though. I’ve also been meaning to contact a person of interest who is said to have a certain affinity with very powerful creatures. Could you contact them for me?” He produced his journal once more, and from one of its binded pockets came a makeshift comms device designed by some more tech savvy rebels (with much room for improvement). It had two chunky buttons, one for turning it on and one for turning it off. In place of a screen it had a speaker. He also gave a single page handwritten dossier on the individual, labeled ‘Kassandra’. It also detailed some of the wildlife on Xamoyos Roland had an interest in with loose references to a mythical beast known as ‘Dath’. “Interplanetary one way comms unit. They jipped the heatsink or something, so uh... It gets hot.”

At this point the techie came barging in awfully impolitely. Roland acknowledged him with a nod, and turned to Rei. The techie looked terrified. “I need to use the skull, Rei. Can you get in touch with the Xamayos woman? Use the name Bennie Dwight. Don’t worry about the blockade, this is a kind of technology that won’t show up on a scanner.”