Rogue Chaos- Friendship Raid: Divide and Conquer
Shortly after returning back to the Fortune's Favor, all of the Battleborn that were currently involved with handling this rogue fleet of ships in the Detritus Ring were right now trying to figure out their next move. Even though they had rescued their companion Toby… they now have come across a new problem. And that was the fact that the one who kidnapped him was now using his own mech suit, Berg, to try and create an army big enough to take over Solus. Yet, if things weren’t already problematic, there was no way that they could tell at this current moment which ship actually had Toby’s mech on it.
“So, does anyone have some sort of suggestion as to what we should do-?”
“Guys, COME ON!! We need to get out there and SAVE BERG!!!” Toby yelled. Despite being a small aviant, the degree in which he was shouting at everyone was like if you yelled through a megaphone directly at somepony.
“Toby…” Reyna grit her teeth as she looked at Discord, before directing her attention to the penguin. “If you don’t stop shouting, I’ll throw you out into the vacuum of space and LAST TIME I CHECKED, THAT’S NOT A PENGUIN’S NATURAL HABITAT!”
Toby… along with Phoebe personally, was startled by that. Especially with how fast she raised her voice at him. “Wow… just, uh… wow y’know.”
Reyna herself though, turned to Discord as she took in a deep breath. “Discord, what’s my rule when it comes to shouting at me?”
The Draconequus snapped his talons, conjuring a book that was labeled ‘Reyna’s rules for the Rogues’ and flipped through the first few pages before reaching a particular page that he somehow had bookmarked. “You shout, I shout?”
“That’s right…” The valkyrie replied back, just as Discord threw the book behind him and it blew up into a cloud of pink smoke. “Now, where was I? Ah right… we need to destroy this convoy ASAP before they could cause anymore trouble… Now, we can always blast them using the weapons on the ship, but… that still won’t be able to solve our problem in figuring out which one of these cruisers has Berg on board.”
“So how are we exactly going to do that?” Phoebe asked.
“Well… that’s where I got an idea for how to handle this… All of these ships are almost completely identical… so it’s possible that their security functions and ship controls also are the same…” Reyna explained, before looking directly at Phoebe. “And since all the ships were stolen from the LLC…” At that point, everyone was now looking directly at Phoebe… even though she did not quite understand why. “Phoebe, how good are you when it comes to sabotaging LLC systems?”
“Well, I would see myself as rather good… However, I’m unsure if I can be able to take control of multiple systems without some assistance.”
“If I may suggest an idea…” The group heard Nova speak up as she emerged from the center of the holo table that they were talking at. “If Reyna happens to take manual control of the ship, then Phoebe can have me come with her and hack into their network. Once we find out where Berg is, we can proceed with sabotaging the ships one by one.”
“That… can work,” Phoebe replied back. “But it might take one or more Magnus in order to handle that much of a connection. And we don’t know what this… Thaddeus guy has planned for us. I could look into LLC records, but-” Before the LLC engineer could be able to continue, that was when someone new just happened to pop in. And they happened to realize this once they heard someone new come out of the crews quarters.
“Heya, fellas!!” Discord… definitely knew who that voice was. But he had a feeling that no one was going to like what he had to say. “I just happened to overhear you talking earlier and I thought I should tell you that I’ve known about Thaddeus’ plans to conquer Solus for a while now.”
Reyna and Discord… both had the same reaction to this kind of news. “Are you f*ckin KIDDING ME, ISIC!?”
“I know, I’m pretty beat up about the whole thing, but I can explain-” ISIC assured them. “-And then help you make him pay. Trust me, Reyna. No one wants to club him and tear his fur off to stitch them into a pair of fuzzy boots more than me.”
Discord, after hearing that, had a detectives coat appear over him as he scratched his chin and had a pipe in his hand. One that had chocolate covered bubbles emerge from it as he looked at ISIC. “He does make a compelling case…”
“And if we wanted to put Nova’s suggestion into action, you would need two Magnus AI’s…” The Valkyrie recalled from what Phoebe said a couple of minutes ago, before thinking of how to proceed. “Alright ISIC… I need you to help Nova with something rather specific… but first, tell us about your… history with Thaddeus.”
“I’m going to give you the short version of the story, because I think we all know that the clock is ticking…” Though, all that did was make Discord look around the room, just as the AI clarified something. “That was a metaphor… Anyways. At one point in my digital existence when I was just working in Minion Robotics, and before I was given this body, I felt rather alone. I never got the chance to engage in any social conversations outside of Kleese and he felt more like my annoying boss than a friend.”
“How annoying?” Discord asked, looking like a newspaper reporter with a hat that read ‘The Daily Solus’.
“Like J Jonah Jameson on shrooms.” ISIC told him.
The Draconequus paused for a moment as he looked back at the Magnus, stopping his writing on the notepad before looking back at him. “Isn’t that just Cave Johnson though?”
“Whatever works for you,” ISIC replied. “Though, while I was working one day, that Thaddeus fellow showed up out of the blue. Wanting to be friends with me. He met with me everyday during his lunch and talked with me, so in my mind, I thought he was actually wanting to be a friend with me… little did I know until much later that he was using me to get security access to the LLC archive database. And after he got what he wanted, he just threw me aside like waste!”
“That’s… just rather messed up! All the more reason to MAKE THE HEAVENS RAIN WITH OUR ENEMIES BLOOD-” After that though, Toby began coughing rather rapidly and began to sound rather dry as he looked at everyone else in the room. “D-does anyone have a glass of water?” To which, Discord snapped a finger and had a glass appear right in front of the penguin. “T-thanks…”
“Your welcome, Uncle Toby.” Discord told him, even going as far as rubbing the top of his head. “Still though, why did he want that database? You said that you knew his plans, so what does a LLC Database have to do with it?”
“There must’ve been something specific that he wants in that database…” Phoebe added as she looked at what appeared to be a holo-screen she was examining. “The only files that the LLC have on him is that Thaddeus was fired because of… property theft. Records as to what was specifically stolen have been wiped from the system.”
“All the more reason to get on board and take it back!!” Toby said, now all fired up… literally. The penguin did not realize that his anger was causing the top of his fur to be on fire as Discord was roasting marshmallows on it while holding chocolate and graham crackers with his magic. “What smells like smores?”
WAY Later…
“So, does everyone know what the plan is now-?” Reyna asked over the comline while Discord and the others were already taking their positions onboard the ships.
“Alright… Toby… Discord, alongside everything else we were doing on these other ships, we did some opposition research like you asked.”
“What?” Reyna asked, caught off guard by Phoebe’s sudden announcement. “I didn’t authorize this. And I’M the leader of this mission-”
“Right, so I thumbed through my little black book of assassination targets.” Pendles then chimed in. “You know, past and future, everyone in existence.”
“I was able to pull us Thaddeus’ LLC Employee records.” The blade dancer from the LLC added onto that.
“And I looked at some old letters and got really sad.” ISIC then spoke up.
“Awesome! So what did you guys find out?” Toby asked, while sliding next to Discord as they raced through the ship they were on. The first one to respond to that, was Phoebe as she seemed to be handling multiple holo-screens at once.
“The Bureau of Intergalactic Patent Enforcement for the Ongoing Protection of Intellectual Property… Excuse the long name… had fired our dear Thaddeus for suspicion of patent theft.”
Of course… it was around this particular moment that the bad guy they were going after soon spoke up to add his piece to the story. “Uh… for the record, it’s not ‘stolen’ if the paperwork isn’t in order-”
“OBJECTION!!” Discord shouted, donning a suit and tie along with having his hair slick backward like a certain famous lawyer. “Anything you want to add, Phoebe?”
“The LLC is going to liquidate you, reanimate you and then make you into perfume.” She boldly stated… only making Toby look at Discord with a raised eyebrow once they were past the observation deck. Pointing out that her attempt at being intimidating sounded more gross than anything else.
Though, when they reached the next hallway, that’s when ISIC soon added onto the conversation. “Hey guys. I was rooting through the convoys trash and found a few receipts made out to someone named ‘Hazel Orion’. Is that your real name, Thaddeus? Hazel Orion.”
Yet, the seal only had one thing to say before turning off his mic. “On the advice of counsel, I decline to comment at this time.”
"DENIAL IS PROOF!!!"
“Hmm… there isn’t anyone in the LLC database by that name… Which is odd since we have the names of mostly everyone in the LLC and this system,” Phoebe spoke up. “Any possible luck on your end, Pendles?”
At first, the assassin was rather silent… but after a few moments, and once Discord and Toby passed through what looked like a shut down production facility, Pendle finally spoke up. “So, I did some digging on this ‘Hazel Orion’ and you’re not going to believe this… He’s the Lorrian!”
“Who?” Discord asked, sounding puzzled by the name. But then noticed Toby shiver a little in response.
“He’s a black market kingpin that I used to work for…” The Roa added, before noticing Toby’s current behavior. “Tobes, what’s the matter?”
“I…… may have bought materials from the Lorrian to make my mech suit…” He said, a blush forming on his face from sheer embarrassment. “Then he tried to kill me…”
“I think the word we’re looking for is… bingo!” He declared. “We got a motive, a personal grudge and everything else. All we need now is to know his plans-!”
“You Bastard!!” ISIC shouted in anger. “You only became friends with me because you wanted to get into the LLC patent vault!!” Again, Thaddeus didn’t answer unlike the other times he did before. But the farther that Discord and Toby went through the final set of hallways, the more that everyone else soon uncovered.
“This bastard paid me a pretty penny to assassinate everyone who suspected that he was the Lorrian. I’ve been used!!” Pendle then shouted in anger… before focusing on the positive part of that. “Still got the money though…”
“Forget that! The only question that’s not answered is what kind of patent did this guy steal!” Reyna soon added to the conversation, and allowed for Phoebe to add a response to that.
“The LLC patent that Thaddeus… or Hazel, now that we know his real identity is a security override device that can… oh dear,” She first began to explain to everyone. But the more she continued to read… the more she became extremely concerned. “… Bypass any defensive technology manufactured by the LLC… We… we might actually be in trouble.”
“You most certainly are…” Thaddeus… or otherwise known as… Hazel soon spoke up. “So, big deal… You know my true identity. But let me tell you what I know.”
“And that is what exactly? That your plan is completely stupid, your reasons are based on delusions of grandeur and you’re basically this worlds equivalent of Jabba the Hutt?”
“You may be half right… but I didn’t just help you with your mech suit Tobes,” The seal added… while Discord and Toby dropped down to where the boss would be… only to find nothing there. “But I also helped your super crush Reyna with her gauntlet.”
“PLOT TWIST!!” Discord gasped. “Actual character development is happening!!”
“Not only that… but when the time came, she refused to pay me back… Isn’t that right, Reyna? Not so strong now, are you my dear?” Reyna said nothing in response, only leading Toby and Discord confused beyond belief. “Your too late… I’m going to take over Solus and there’s nothing you can do to stop me…”
Several sirens went off on the bottom floor as both of them looked confused beyond belief. “Elevated heat signatures are rising rapidly! Both of you, get out of there now!! It’s gonna explode!”
“Already doing it!!” Discord shouted, grabbing Toby and snapping his finger, which… lead to both of them getting back onboard the Fortunes Favor, before the ship could set off. Everyone was thankful that they got out of there, especially the other Battleborn once they returned.
However, one particular penguin… did not feel okay at all. Especially when he looked back at the Valkyrie that was the leader of the rogues. “Reyna… is what he said true? Reyna… REYNA! ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!!”
The leader of the rogues could only keep herself composed for a minute… before letting out a deep sigh. “Toby, I can explain...”