Chisaki Nagao peered over at the... vast vast library of video games that she was meant to curate as head of Eggers Media.
Which in itself should have meant that this wasn't a big deal... until it became obvious that these games considered 'best of X year' were often multiple hours long, worked on operating systems that were considered extinct in the Inner Sphere... and used control interfaces that were completely absent.
As in, she had no idea how one was meant to control these systems, some asked for input of X and Y, others A and B, others still asked for the 'any' button.
What the actual hell was the 'any' button? She could not see an 'any' button on any of the museum keyboards! Why couldn't they use the very logical pen system that personal computers in the Inner Sphere used? Personal pads linked to a central mainframe... not this individual tosh!
Chisaki felt, that for all the genius that early Terrans possessed, they were also incredibly illogical. Perhaps they had a separate key that was labelled 'any' for this exact circumstance? Like the mythical 'space' key.
In any case, the issue was that there was truly a glut of video games and other pieces of media. All with control systems that she did not currently have access to.
She had been releasing curated music and movies, itself a function of the fact that she was in essence... well, using what the Little Boss had focused on as inspiration. Clearly he knew what he was doing, and she merely followed his example, used his words as a guide.
When the words had been "I like playing video games, miss me with that Dark Souls stuff," Chisaki had felt confusion. What was Dark Souls? What games exactly?
From the available materials that her agents had transmitted out of Terra, there had been Real Time Strategy, First Person Shooter, XXXX games, pornography games, Real Time Tactics games, jumping games, puzzle games, and who even knew what else.
So many different genres for different people, that required different skill sets to enjoy.
In short, a pain in her behind.
The solution? To not even bother with this curation at all.
The Little Boss had made it clear after all, 'I like playing video games', which meant all video games! Why bother curating when she could just use all of them!
Just release the games as part of a 'nostalgia' or 'retro' pack, with the disclaimer that these were selected as part of a certain time period.
The only issue now was emulation.
Like Windows Vista, the last version of Windows that had ever existed apparently, it had caused the company to bankrupt due to lawsuits.
Or the Y-Box, or the Gamestation.
Different consoles that had to be emulated, devices that had to be manufactured to match said machines.
It was all a pain in the buttocks, but it was what she had to sort out. Part of her job since Eggers Gameworks didn't have anyone except agents seeking out said games. She needed to find someone who knew what they were doing already!
She sent out the orders regarding the release of the old games before pausing and sending a second message. LIC had experts and while she was an expert with culture overall, she was definitely not an expert in the realm of video games.
They needed an expert to handle this, or it would land with a flop when Eggers Media started creating games, not merely re-releasing them.
Which brought her back to the focus of her thoughts. The shoots that they were doing with the Smialy Automechs.
Differentiating them from Battlemechs, the Auto was for automotive (like a car) and mech was used in the same way the terms Battlemech and Industrialmech used 'mech'.
The premise was simple.
Mainly because the Wolverines had invested quite a bit of effort into this project. Providing both pilots and team members to the shoot.
The story revolving around a faceless evil group covered in wolf monikers that landed and was slaughtering any who resisted their attempts at turning the population into 'bondsmen'. Or serfs in the Confederation, peasants in the Combine.
All were pressed into service and killed if they tried to reject it.
Which naturally meant that when the plucky band of intrepid Wolverines rose up, using their Smialies against an overwhelming foe, the audience would naturally cheer.
Then, using the unnamed enemy's own rituals against them, they bargained their own surrender against the enemy retreating from the world.
Naturally, the Wolverines used guile to trick them into betting a lance of 4 battlemechs against 30 Smialies, using tonnage instead of mech numbers to trick their enemies. In doing so, the enemy is defeated and driven from the world.
The sequel bait being the end-credits scene, where the Wolf commander whispers that this trick won't work twice.
The other production being an Eggers Agricultural and Eggers Defence Force one, strangely enough. About a farmer trying to save his planet using his Smialy, converted from military use to farming.
Naturally, the Combine invade, and the farmer must now take up his arms again and rise to the occasion.
Gathering those like him, rebuilding Smialies from the junkyards in the nearby city, utilising small machine shops, they build an army... and then launch a counter-attack. The farmer annihilates the enemy before removing the weapons, reattaching the hoe and returns to farming, working to feed the people of his starving world.
In the closing shot, a defeat Dragon lies on its side, its cockpit shattered, the dragon insignia defaced. In the foreground, the farmer's Smialy is dutifully planting seedlings for a nondescript crop.
The script had been rather touching, and Chisaki had green lit it.
One was an action-comedy, the other an action-drama.
Both were advertising the Smialy, if from different perspectives.
She didn't have a problem with the production, just felt it might have been more useful if Eggers Armaments had been behind it all.
Then again, they were providing the Automechs and the technicians to supervise the production.
These were the first production Automechs, after all, and they needed some extra work done to prevent issues from arising. Especially with all the quirks these machines possessed, the Eggers Armaments line not having fully refined their processes as of yet. Making sure the machines were running for the production was certainly important!
Chisaki nodded with satisfaction as she reviewed the shoot process. One here on Blackjack, the other in the Rasalhague Kingdom. Using one of the slowly recovering agricultural plots that Eggers Agriculture had been working to repair.
The soundtrack was proving to be easier than she thought.
~~Never gonna give you up~~
Rick Astley, one of the greats from just how many times this song had been played according to official records.
~~ Never gonna let you down ~~
It was the perfect song for a farmer trying to save his planet, always resisting the urge to return to his warrior ways. A message about self-control and discipline.
As for the first movie, Wolverines vs the Unknowns, this was more difficult.
She had to think on this one, find the appropriate music for this battle of the fates to be set to. It was more difficult than she had imagined it to be. Everyone thought she was a music guru after the success of the first few releases of Eggers Media. Did they not realise that it was due to the Little Boss' words?
+_+
For Glory, sometimes things just ended up in a way that made her... irritated.
It often wasn't the fault of a single individual or group, just... the way things were.
Like here, now.
In the hold of a jumpship. One of the two that an Invader possessed, part of the standard configuration. Significant in the fact that it was currently... wet.
Very wet.
Squishy and squelching as well.
Not the kind of things that you wanted from a cargo hold on a spaceship. Unless you were trying to bring water to a planet of course, but, well, this jumpship definitely was not. In other words, not standard at all.
Glory stepped in, noted the sound of suction was liquid climbed in and out of the grooves of her boots as she stepped on the crimson remnants of this 'self-defence action'. The floating red orbs, either splashing as she walked through them, or bouncing from the water resistant fabric.
"Thank you for the service, Wolverine."
The woman nodded, her helmeted head making the movement nigh-invisible. The rest of the team still on alert, their bodies radiating danger.
Glory for her part walked with a nonchalance that those who were not Glory... or Wolverines, did not feel.
Three survivors of the mess, the blood was definitely not theirs. That belonged to the bodies that had been... well... trunked.
It was what happened when you used standard body armour... and your opponents went into the fight using short vibro-axes. Skipping the fragility of swords entirely, when armed with hatchets, they made quick work of their enemies, cutting off limbs before bisecting the 'trunk' of the body. Hence, trunked.
Of the hostiles, there were three survivors. Strung up with various cords to prevent them from floating off.
Stepping delicately around the bodies and body parts, making sure that she didn't accidentally slip, Glory felt distaste. it was like a diorama, one of those that served to demonstrate an incident where time had 'frozen'. Body parts floating in the zero gravity, gently trailing small globules of blood. Ensuring it didn't get on her clothes or her body like navigating a maze.
One did not serve as Military Intelligence without seeing similar or worse sights. The effects of vehicle-grade weaponry on infantry was truly horrific, what was left often being classified as 'unit burials'. The only way to tell who was who, being to collect all the blood, running it through a DNA sequencer and then counting how many distinct variants of DNA were present.
At least here, one could tell which body parts generally belonged to which people.
"These are the ones we caught."
And so they were. Mouths bleeding from where their teeth had been nearly pushed in from the mouth-guards to prevent suicide capsule use. The way their fingers and toes were visible, held apart in strange glove-like contraptions which prevented them from moving. The way their eyelids were held open with restraints to prevent contact based explosives.
The many ways that an agent could kill themselves during a capture were varied and often localised to different agencies. That the Wolverines had been able to identify them... and to prevent their success spoke volumes about their skills.
"Good morning. My name is Glory Brantzollen. As you may have concluded, there is very little chance that you will leave this room alive. It is the unfortunate truth of these matters, you know this, I know this. As hostile agents seeking to kill my employer, I do have very little sympathy with you. After all, you have certain weapons here that are certainly... well... war crimes to deploy."
Her eyes turned to the multitude of weapons that were in the hold. Strewn where they had been dropped, others still in opened crates. Breaching charges, rifles, submachine guns... and what looked very much like a portable nuclear device. All guarded by some very still, and very dangerous Wolverines. After all, it meant someone, in other words. Had wanted Huu Eggers, very, very, dead.
"Which is why I will be speaking of what comes after." Her voice remained steady the entire time, eyes languidly moving from captive to captive.
Squatting down, Glory leaned forward, the magnets in her boots activating with a discreet heel to heel tap. The Combine Squat as it was called, with the soles of one's feet fully flat on the ground, stomach in contact with the upper thighs or knees, body held upright from the forward leaning posture of the torso. One that set the body's centre of gravity over the feet themselves.
Nobody knew where the term had originated, but it was most commonly referred to as the Combine Squat, or if one was feeling particularly patriotic, the Kyoto Squat.
In any case, she had moved her eyes closer to the captive's level. The closest figure looking at her with hate in his eyes. From this angle, she could see just how much they had been shaken from the sheer... violence of action of the Wolverine attack.
Sheer, unrelenting, overwhelming force, breaching the cargo door with an electronic override... and then storming in with gun and blade. Using their mastery of zero gravity to tear apart their foes, ignoring cover. Charging forth and trusting in their armour. The small packs on their backs filled with compressed air. Pushing them forward to act like Battlemechs, crushing in from above, from the front, from behind. There was nowhere that cover was complete, nowhere that was safe.
In the end, none had been wounded. The mental trauma of doing this to fellow human beings however... that was a more long term and possibly debilitating wound.
Ignoring the blood and other bodily fluids that a human body contained... that was probably bouncing around her at this very moment, Glory held out a hand and said a name, just one name.
"Voidy."
And lo, from the Hyperdimension from which the creature originated, emerged Voidy. Like a series of spiked cylindrical cones stacked atop one another. Tentacles made of serrated blades, held together by only the most tenuous grasps of reality. The multitude of slit-less red eyes, like little red orbs glistening in the hold's light.
"This is Voidy, a Hyperdimensional creature that has found itself bonded to my employer, Huu Eggers. Which probably seems rather irrelevant to you, the people who are about to die. But, well, you see. Religions, tend to speak of an afterlife that is not found on this world, but one that is separate from the real world entirely. One where your souls will go after you die, leaving your earthly vessels behind. Now, I don't know exactly what you are, or where you come from, or even your own personal beliefs about the Afterlife. But... well..."
Voidy circled the three figures, its tentacles moving as if it were swimming in water. Their heads locked by a brace, and yet, they tried as strongly as they could to keep track of the small thing. The same size as her palm at this point, Glory felt quite a bit of discomfort at its presence... but needs must.
"You must be thinking it, for you fight for your creed, and you die. You must be thinking about what happens next... are you going to get a reward? Are you going to a new reality where all your efforts have paid off? That you are given the riches you deserve? A harem of beautiful girls cheering you on?" Her voice deepened, no hint of mockery in her tone.
They glared defiantly at her.
"Well, there is also the second option. You see, when our afterlife is in another reality... and Voidy is from another reality... well, I am sure you are intelligent enough to see where this is going." She made a purposeful glance at the purple creature, itself landing on the leftmost figure, seemingly 'walking' with its tentacles cross his scalp.
Their eyes widened at the implication. Was it true? Was this... creature capable of denying them access to the afterlife?
"If any of you want to speak now... so that you may die a quick death... well, that would be great. We do need to clean up after all."
One of them glared at her. Jerking his head, as if he wanted to say something.
Glory waved a hand over, she needed an example in any case.
"We die knowing we have done our duty. Duty above all!"
"Voidy?" Her questioning tone, never quavering, never rising. She had seen this happen once before on Furillo and had not wanted to repeat the experience.
The creature dove into the man's open mouth. He struggled briefly before going slack, from the orifice it had entered, Voidy emerged. Dragging something that was invisible to the naked eye. It chewed, used its tentacles as if cutting apart morsels to devour, and continued to munch away, giving every semblance of enjoying itself immensely.
For Glory, it felt as if someone cold had dripped down her neck. That what was happening was wrong, blasphemy. That this should not be happening at all. Her animal brain screaming that she should leave. Even if one wasn't looking, they could feel the effects, whatever part of their bodies, their minds, their souls that were connected to Hyperspace could feel what was happening.
But she had been Military Intelligence, as if she would give up over something like this.
"His body is still alive by the way. It's just... well, something vital to the human condition has been removed. Some might say that it is the soul... some might say it was a few blood vessels that were disconnected. I will let you decide. But, well, you've heard of Jumpship psychosis. Of those that go insane from the process of jumping through Hyperspace. Trying to slaughter the crews of their dropships, claiming that their gods had spoken to them. Voidy also comes from Hyperspace you know, from the realm of Gods you might say... and... well... I'll let you decide your opinion on the fate that awaits you if it feels hungry."
In the end, the two spoke.
When one weighed their immortal souls, very visible apparently (Glory was half convinced) going to the 'hell' version of their afterlife. Against the definite possibility of having no afterlife at all because their soul has been devoured. Well, people tended to talk.
Not that it was really worth anything.
Agents on the sharp end of the spear very rarely knew anything worthwhile.
Their last words... those were a little more important.
"Blake preserve my soul."
And well... that was a clue.
There was on large organisation that worshipped Blake, that being Comstar. The question, really, was why were they here? What had Huu Eggers done to warrant them sending their vaunted ROM out?
She knew of ROM of course, Toyama's purge of Comstar during Richard Steiner's reign had seen a great many refugees flee into the Successor States. Why? Because over 20% had been killed in purges in under a year.
They spoke of ROM, how it had been used to kill those who were not fanatical enough, how Comstar had run concentration camps where nearly all of those incarcerated were worked until they died. How regular civilian contractors were dragged into these camps for failing to demonstrate loyalty. How Comstar threatened any state that accepted the refugees with interdiction if they were not returned.
They were very public and loud about that part.
The question, then, was why had ROM, Comstar's internal security and ideological enforcement unit, been present here? Or if it was not ROM, then had Comstar created religious populations in the Commonwealth that also hated Huu Eggers?
Because the resources to get this many men and women into one jumpship, from dropships across the Lyran Commonwealth had to either be something like the Thuggee Death Cults spread across the Inner Sphere, which were legitimately terrifying, or had the resources of a successor state, like Comstar.
She felt like she had missed something in the 5 months that they had been away from Blackjack, and she was certainly not enjoying the feeling.
"How many on this Jumpship can we trust?"
A pause as the Wolverine finished executing the last of the prisoners. If this were on the battlefield, she would be facing a trial, and then a firing squad. As a secret agent? Nobody would need to know, yet she would face recriminations for letting things get so out of hand that the deaths had been necessary at all.
"Outside the Wolverines, the boss, and yourself, there are those that have just entered from Dropship Excelsior."
A pause.
"All 56 people on board want the Little Boss to die?"
"Yes ma'am."
"I do hope you have the munitions to handle this? He is currently unconscious due to Jump Sickness. I do not want him to wake and realise something has happened. Get word to the Excelsior to remain aboard their dropship, we don't want witnesses or collateral damage."
The Wolverines saluted before two of their number, the one wearing the experimental harness from Tolsand Warworks, came forward. As they did so, Glory really did hope that things would be over and soon. They needed to clean all this up and present a 'clean' jumpship to Huu when he woke up.
For someone with such monstrous foresight when it came to business and combat development... he was surprisingly dense when it came to matters of personal trust. It was as if he had a blind spot around close acquaintances, one where he would simply accept what was told to him in an uncritical manner. It had led to the Wolverines and Glory agreeing that this needed to be done outside of his sight. The Little Boss would be devastated that there were people who wanted to hurt him.
Simply explaining they had an emergency and needed to return to Furillo would be sufficient. Or to explain there was a Blue/Gold crew, like in pre-spaceflight submarines. Crews that switched out to ensure the Jumpship remained in peak condition. He would believe it if she said it.
The Hyperdimensional creature, much more intelligent than had been thought, had agreed with her. Helping, in its own way, to dispose of those that sought to hurt its self-chosen master. Following her instructions in a way that made the Military Intelligence operative very appreciative indeed.
"What have we got that can handle an enemy that outnumbers us 5 to 1?" She asked, factoring in the team that was in this hold, and the ones that were protecting the dropship from interlopers.
There was a distinctively predatory air as they hefted the distinctive quick-firing 2 pounder gun. Hand loaded to reduce weight. The gun held aloft by a rigid harness attached to the exosuit. Unarmoured, bare bones, and powered by removable fuel cells, it was a clumsy thing. Slow... but when it let you bring a field artillery piece to the infantry fight, well, that changed things. Still, solid shot wouldn't help very much against an enemy determined to see them dead in the crowded confines of a jumpship.
But these were Wolverines, she was expecting something substantial from them.
"Two words. Canister Shot."