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This Can't Be Right... Right?

"I can see everything. Look, there's Kane and Mercury."

I grabbed my Kraber and set up a shot. I peered through the sights and lined it up with Kane's head. Once I had it perfectly lined up, I pulled the trigger. Kane's head exploded into shards of light a moment later. "Damn holo-pilots."

Ilia and I trained with the grappling hook for a while longer before calling it a night. I woke up in the sim pod and climbed out, dismissing my team to do whatever they wanted. I took off my helmet and asked Scavenger, "May I have the data knife?" I was referring to the one Ash left in my chest. She handed it to me from a compartment on her exterior.

I grabbed a laptop I found in the ship and inserted the data knife into the port. "Alright, Ash. Let's see what dirty secrets are on this knife," I said to myself. Multiple files appeared on the screen, showing that Vinson Dynamics worked behind the scenes on just about everything.

Project Lusus Naturae
Project Freelancer
Project Apex
Project Monarch
Project Fold

Project Apex was familiar. The forming of the Apex Predators. Blisk only formed the merc group because Vinson Dynamics paid him a large sum of money. Nothing that I couldn't understand.

Project Monarch was also familiar. Vinson Dynamics found two smoldering Vanguard chassises and could not reverse-engineer them. Instead, they modified them, creating the Monarch class. From what I could tell from the logs, the primary weapon, the XO-16 Chaingun, was the same as standard Militia Vanguards. The Rocket Salvo had lost its lock-on capabilities. Its defensive was very different from the standard Vortex Shield. Monarchs come equipped with the Energy Siphon. It deletes shields on enemy Titans while boosting that of the Monarch. Its tactical was also very different. Vinson Dynamics called it Rearm. Instead of being used for direct combat, Rearm diverts energy to reload the rocket salvo, rearm the Energy Siphon, and recharge all dash charges. The most unique thing about it was its core: the Upgrade Core. The Upgrade Core allows Monarchs to upgrade themselves on the battlefield while recharging their shields.

Project Fold merely explained the plans of the Fold Weapon and how it would be used. There was not much here, only that it was ancient and built by another species entirely. It was planned to be used on Remnant, which I already knew.

The other two files were more interesting. Project Freelancer was not influenced by Vinson Dynamics in the slightest. Rather, they stole the time-travel technology developed by the Militia and amped it. They went very far into the future and stole the files. Dossiers of all the agents, battle plans, computer programs, fucking everything. I started to read the files. There are only two agents alive. Out of forty-fucking-nine. Many agents were partnered with A.I. fragments and their armor had a special power. Now I have a bunch of space warriors to save from dying in the future to worry about. Fantastic.

However, the most interesting file was Project Lusus Naturae. It read as such: Project Lusus Naturae, or LS for short and roughly translating to Freak of Nature in Latin, was Vinson Dynamics' attempt at creating artificial human life. This entailed creating an artificial embryo and filling the brain with artificial memories, once said brain is fully developed. At the age of fifteen, the memories of the lab are wiped, leaving the artificial ones to remain. Only three attempts were ever successful: LS Epsilon, LS Iota, and LS Omega. These specimens, while they were successfully created in a lab, began to think for themselves and eventually, they went rogue. The specimens do not know they were created this way, as artificial memories dictate what they know. The three who went rogue were called the Hunters. Epsilon chose the name Milo and the codename Wreckage. Iota chose the name Vera and the codename Blitz. Omega chose the name Chris and the codename Thunder. Their current status is unknown, but what is known is that they all joined the IMC as pilots. Omega went AWOL to work as an independent bounty hunter, a gun for hire. Iota currently works with the IMC. Epsilon joined a mercenary group known as the Apex Predators founded by IMC officer Kuben Blisk. This has been a summary of Project Lusus Naturae by Vinson Dynamics.