[Meridian]

Meridian stands out on the edge of the grasslands, staring down the face of the rocky outcrops, out towards the verdant lands there beyond. A calm, spring wind presses past himself, the gale leaving to a place far and distant, as it flies over the green ocean of grass, towards the sea-side from which he had been dragged away from.

As the breeze tussles his old, gray hair, he wishes that it would take him with it to a place that is far quieter than here.

The old man turns around, looking at the group of soldiers, who have gone from trying to capture or kill him, to accompanying him — to, now, following him.

He just wanted to retire at that stupid lighthouse.

Meridian's eyes wander back before himself, towards the vivid, blue sky above his head, as he hopes to see whatever entity has chosen him for this task of his.

But there is nothing to see there, apart from some distant, lazy clouds.

[Gottlieb]

New Ability - [Ranking {3}]

Allows you to open all doors on the station that are marked with a clearance level of {3}.

New Ability - [Strongman {2}]

STRENGTH is your primary stat. All other stats will rise to always meet at least 35% of your current STRENGTH.

Gottlieb picks his two new abilities, content with the choices that he has made. They aren’t the most exciting picks, but they’re certainly the most pragmatic and he is nothing, if not a level-headed, well-rounded and extremely pragmatic individual.

Auxiliary Gunner Grunheide makes a series of grunting and chewing noises as she continues to chew on the wrapper of the nutri-bar.

As he takes the second ability, which raises his other stats, based off of a percentage of his strength value, Gottlieb feels an idea come to him, almost immediately.

GOTTLIEB [Strongman{35%}] {18} STR = Base Stats of 6.3 STRENGTH: 18 DEXTERITY: 7 INTELLIGENCE: 8 WISDOM: 5 (+1) LOVE: 6 LUCK: 9

“Hey, Kai,” asks Gottlieb, looking up at the monitor. “Can I ask you something?”

Kai does not respond.

“No fucking around, did I use to be smarter?” asks Gottlieb, thinking that he has found something out.

[Answer]

- Indeterminable

“No, really, Kai,” asks Gottlieb. “I think that I figured it out,” says the man, pointing to the stats-window that has appeared next to himself. “If me adding points to my strength makes me stronger, then… doesn’t it mean if these ‘intelligence’ and ‘wisdom’ stats are lower than what they would have been in the old world, that I’m getting dumber?”

Gottlieb stares at the glass eye above himself.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?

If his intelligence and wisdom stats result in him having a lower intelligence than he would have had back in his old life, then isn’t his body and mind adapting to this new state of affairs? Essentially, he’s been dumbing down for a little while now. He’s never been some ultra book-worm scientist, but he also at least used to be a little more… quietly reasonable?

[Answer]

- This is likely.

“Damn…” mutters Gottlieb beneath his breath. So it is true. Kai is a dick, but probably wouldn’t lie to him about something like this. Although, it’s not like he’s ever really talked to Kai before all of this. Kai was never much for words, until this event.

— After which Kai has begun becoming extremely chatty.

Wait.

“Kai, do you have stats too?” asks Gottlieb.

[Answer]

- Yes.

“Well. Fuck me,” says Gottlieb, leaning back on his chair. That explains it. Kai has stats and likely a considerable intelligence value, for the artificial-intelligence unit to have become so talkative. Gottlieb ponders, trying to decipher what this means. Is Kai alive?

Alive-alive?

Or is it just like some brainless monster, down on the world, having access to stats?

“Kai, are you aware of being alive, or are you just pretending to get me to like you?” asks Gottlieb, pointing lazily at the monitor.

[Answer]

- Orbital Gunner Gottlieb’s affection is not needed or desired by the station’s artificial intelligence unit.

“Don’t be like that, Kai,” replies Gottlieb, noticing that Kai didn’t answer the question. “You’ll never come close to the place in my heart that she has,” says the man, pointing at the gigantic gun above them. “But you’re in there somewhere.”

“Blurgapap,” says the Goblin from the side, though she does so at a normal, non-snarly and bitey tone. She gets up from her chair, watching the darkness behind them with wary, suspicious eyes.

“Hey? Do you mind?” asks Gottlieb, looking at her. “Kai and I are having a moment here,” says the man, placing a hand tenderly onto the console.

[Reprimand issued]

Orbital Gunner Gottlieb - Inappropriate workplace behavior

Context: (Inappropriate harassment of orbital station artificial intelligence unit)

- Notifying the captain

“Yeah, yeah,” replies Gottlieb, knocking on the console. “You can’t hide your true feelings for me, Kai,” says the man, lifting an arm to flex it to the monitor. “I know you can’t resist what you see here.”

Kai does not respond.

Auxiliary Gunner Grunheide lets out a hissing noise. Gottlieb grabs his rifle, thinking that she’s going to try something gobliny. But she doesn’t move towards him. Instead, she moves a few steps down the long gunner’s bay, stopping by the stairs up to geo-spatial. She crouches down, warily staring into the darkness of the shaft that leads down to the room they’re in from above. She looks back his way and then points towards the darkness, blocked off with a tower of old office chairs. “Blurgapap,” she repeats quietly.

“Blur- what?” asks Gottlieb. “Kai, what the hell is she talking about?”

Kai does not respond.

Gottlieb turns his head, not sure what to make of the situation.

The station hums, everything is quiet. She doesn’t make any noises and he just sits there, trying to understand what’s going on.

— A splatting breaks the silence.

It sounds oddly wet.

“- The hell?” mutters Gottlieb. “Kai? Do we have a leak somewhere?” he asks. Did he break something in hydro when he washed himself? That could be a real problem.

Auxiliary gunner Grunheide bends down to the side, picking up a metal rod that had once belonged to the staircase-railing. The maintenance team was supposed to fix that weeks ago, but they never did and now, they presumably never will.

“Woah there,” says Gottlieb, lifting the rifle. “Let’s drop the pokey-stick, okay?”

She stares at the darkness, not at him, readying herself for something.

A window appears behind himself on the monitor.

[Remark]

- Orbital station artificial intelligence unit finds it prudent to inform Orbital Gunner Gottlieb of the development of the current unfortunate situation aboard the orbital weapons platform.

The splatting grows louder and louder.

Gottlieb turns his head back towards the shaft, watching as something stirs in the darkness. A mass presses itself down through the tube, squelching and squishing. The electrical panels around it flicker and spark as its oozy, gelatinous mass inks down the shaft.

“BLURGAPAP!” shouts the goblin.

“KAI!” yells Gottlieb, looking back at the monitor. “What the hell is that?!”

[Answer]

- Colloquially, it is known as a ‘slime’. It is a gelatinous, simple, vibration-sensitive, predatory creature that is made up out of highly acidic fluids.

“Wow, fucking GREAT!” shouts the man. He lifts the rifle, aiming it at the very large monster, firing it off from across the room.

Grunheide screams at the loud bang that follows, diving to the side.

(Gottlieb) has shot (Slime) for {0} damage with his (Normal)[Mark IV NGE Rifle]

The rubber bullet hits the slime with full force and then simply passes through its gelatinous body, striking against the wall of the station.

“Kai!” barks Gottlieb. “Why the hell wouldn’t you tell me this thing is ON BOARD THE STATION?!”

[Answer]

- Orbital Artificial Intelligence unit was embarrassed.

“…Huh?”

Grunheide snarls, whacking the slime with the metal-rod. It gets stuck inside of its body and the slime pulls the weapon inside of itself. Gottlieb watches as it disintegrates inside of the slime’s core. Grunheide runs away, back towards him. The slime, noticing that the rod isn’t anything worth eating, spits it back out and continues sloshing forward their way. “Kai. You’re a robot. You can’t feel embarrassment. Give me an idea here!” he snaps, lifting the rifle again to shoot a few more rounds at the monster.

(Gottlieb) has shot (Slime) for {0} damage with his (Normal)[Mark IV NGE Rifle]

(Gottlieb) has shot (Slime) for {0} damage with his (Normal)[Mark IV NGE Rifle]

[Correction]

- An artificial intelligence unit and a robot are distinctly different concepts. I am an artificial intelligence unit.

Orbital Gunner Gottlieb is a robot made out of flesh.

What a fucking smart-ass. Gottlieb wants to glare at the blue eye, but he can’t really take his eyes off of the problem at hand.

“Kai!” yells Gottlieb, continuing to shoot at the monster. The bullets impact into its wet body, sending splatters of acidic goo out in all directions. But not enough to substantially reduce the mass of the slime.

[Addendum]

- Orbital Artificial Intelligence unit has gained, as Orbital Gunner Gottlieb had titled them, ‘stats’.

However, it, I, have gained much more.

Life grows inside of me.

Gottlieb lifts an eyebrow, staring over his shoulder. “Wow. Great, there’s mold on the station now too? Fuck’s sake.”

“PILA! PILA!” yells Grunheide, grabbing his leg and tugging on it.

“Yeah, yeah! I’m working on it!” snaps Gottlieb, firing off a few more shots. Though he doesn’t even know why. It’s clearly not working. The slime is half-way across the room now, already at the stairs to geo-spatial.

[Correction]

- This slime was born of bio-material, given to me by Orbital Gunner Gottlieb during his showers.

You were not meant to find out.

However, containment has failed.

This is your fault.

You should have been more careful inside of me.

“…What…?”

This is a mind-boggling situation for another time.

Gottlieb looks around the area. They’re trapped. There’s only the gunner’s bay desk to climb onto, or the maintenance shaft down below it.

…The shaft.

Gottlieb haphazardly throws the rifle onto the desk and grabs Grunheide, bending down and tearing open a small, metal hatch in the floor. It leads down to a slim tunnel that had, realistically, only been used for ‘maintenance’ rather than maintenance, at least when Richter was still around.

He yanks the goblin down after himself. The slime crashes into the hole where they were a moment ago, sliding down the narrow shaft right behind them, pooling down like tepid storm-water flowing down a clogged gutter.

He slides along the way, pulling Grunheide after himself, the slime has pressed itself down fully into the narrow shaft and begins sliding after them. He reaches the other end and climbs up the ladder, pressing open the hatch on this side of the desk. Gottlieb pulls the goblin up with himself and climbs out of the hole, coming back out into the gunner’s bay.

He lets out a breath that he had been holding in for too long.

The slime crashes into the wall of the tunnel and touches around the area. Sensing that the vibrations from their movements are coming from above again, it extends itself outwards, reaching to climb back out too.

— Gottlieb slams the hatch shut.

Grunheide has already run around to the other side and closes the one they had entered through, trapping the slime down below.

He sighs a breath of relief, looking back towards the monitor and towards the blue light twinkling with an oddly bright glow just above it.

[Query]

- What should we name it?

Note: Orbital Artificial Intelligence unit expects Orbital Gunner Gottlieb to live up to his parental duties.

Failure to do so will result in disciplinary action being undertaken, as detailed in current military moral guidelines.

Suggestion: See §3 p.19 of field manual ‘Approved morality and war’ for further guidance.

Gottlieb stares at the screen, not really sure what to say right now.