Depression washed through Evan as they received the after action report. "Sixteen casualties total, nine injured and seven KIA. It really could have been much worse. Going into a completely unknown location to face an extremely hostile foe you've never fought before is one of the most dangerous situations you can face as a soldier. Try not to focus on the deaths too much, this mission was a resounding success." Jeffrey finished.

Evan sighed, scrubbing at his face with his hands. "I know, intellectually I know. We captured a ship and destroyed another without taking any damage or major losses. The marines performed above and beyond our expectations. It just doesn't feel right. Seven people died doing something I ordered them to do. Seven lives lost simply because I opened my mouth. All I can think of is the fact that each and every one of them would still be alive had I not chosen to try and capture that ship."

Jeffrey walked over to where Evan was sitting and placed his hand on his shoulder. "Don't do that. This was a victory. Already the eggheads are chomping at the bit to study that ship, and the rest of the men and women are back and celebrating their victory. Let me and the other military folks take it from here. You proved your conviction and showed the world the danger we face. The best thing you can do for the troops now is to go down and have a drink with them. Join them in celebrating a victory and mourning our losses, let them see that you care."

"Maybe I will. Do we have anything else to go over?"

Jason shook his head. "I'm going to start studying the gnarlath ship as soon as the drones finish scanning everything. I'll let you know what we find."

"I'll be heading over to the ship personally to take a look at their tech first hand once the all clear is given. Preferably before Duhan gets his hands on their engines and finds a way to blow the ship to bits." Lisa said once Jason finished. She shook her head. "I can't believe you just want to look at the schematics, what if the drones miss something?"

"Those drones are scanning in broadband frequency ranges that far exceed anything you can see with your simple human eyeballs, and everything they do is both controlled and compiled by Lisa. I'll go see it in person eventually, but I don't need to go see it to begin studying the tech." Jason retorted.

Kinzie quirked her eyebrow at him when he mentioned 'simple human eyeballs,' but before she could say anything Rebekkah cut in. "Now, now you two, there's no need to fight. Why don't we move away from the war stuff? Our recruitment efforts have begun to bear fruit, and we are now pulling in new people in droves. Particularly from poverty stricken areas. Speaking of which, I took it upon myself to expand upon the Ebonheart Crusade. Since we're in the open now, I let it slip that some of our tech is capable of helping with an ever growing list of ailments. People have been pouring into our embassies worldwide to have their cancer cured, or to get bioprinted organs transplanted.

"I've also scheduled the construction of orbital farms that will be able to produce enough food to effectively end world hunger. Distribution will be tricky of course, but we'll work it out. Even if we have to just make dead drops outside of towns and villages and say to hell with what the local governments want. If that footage of the gnarlath encounter doesn't light a fire under the leaders of the world and get a unified government established soon we might just have to set up one of our own and force it down their throats."

"Is it too late to just pack everything up and go on our merry way?" Evan asked sarcastically.

******

Blake Gardner found himself musing on how quickly one's life could change as he studied the floating 3d image of a gnarlath. He never would have guessed his journey would lead to him working as an honest-to-god exobiologist on Mars with actual aliens to study. Of course, after serving in the military to pay for his degree in biology he had rather hoped to put that education to use bettering the world and not figuring out new and inventive ways to kill things.

Still, if there were ever a thing that needed killing, the gnarlath would be it. The issue being that they were remarkably sturdy. Their chitinous exoskeleton was incredibly dense for a living creature, providing them an impressive defense against physical projectiles and generally defying everything humanity knew about biology. He honestly couldn't imagine the sort of environment that would require that level of natural armor.

The gnarlath were, in his humble opinion, an absolute miracle of evolution. They were also nightmarish and in desperate need of extermination, but a miracle nonetheless. It wasn't just their exoskeleton that was impressive, they also had an intricate endoskeleton that supported their internal organs, many of which had at least one backup. Stabbed through the heart? No problem, they have two. Kidney? Four. Essentially, the only truly vital organ they had was their brain, and it was protected by thick, angled, chitin plates that tended to deflect all but the luckiest of shots.

So far everything he learned about the physiology of these creatures pointed him towards declaring the best way to kill them to be 'wait for them to die of old age.' That, at least, was a relatively short period. The Confederation studies he could access on the gnarlath were in agreement that they lived, on average, thirty years. Medicine didn't appear to be one of their fields of study either, so while that lifespan likely could be extended significantly, it wasn't likely. Aging gnarlath tended to grow increasingly aggressive instead, preferring to die in battle if at all possible.

Essentially, he had to figure out a more efficient way to kill the nigh unkillable beyond 'shoot it until it stops moving' because that method had turned out to be a bit hit or miss in their recent battle. He suspected that armor piercing rounds directed at the head would be the most reliable method to kill them quickly in combat, but even those had a relatively high chance of deflection, not to mention the risk of overpenetration.

The Confederation's weaponry was more effective, but only moderately so. The gnarlath's natural armor was effective enough against handheld beam weapons to allow them to reach and kill their foe before dying. They were just that resilient, a plasma blast could burn through their armor and fry half their internal organs and they would still live another few minutes. Ample time to approach and destroy whoever shot it. The only thing that kept their casualties so low in their recent engagement was the fact that all of the soldiers sent had been augmented and given power armor.

They also had the advantage in numbers, something that was never the case in ground combat against the gnarlath. On planets they swarmed. "Lisa, do we have anything that can reliably pierce that armor?"

"There are a number of engineers working on that problem, Dr. Gardner. We have a few promising options being tested at the moment. Have you discovered any weak points?"

Blake scowled at the hologram. "At this point all I really have is 'aim for the head' and that's coincidentally the most difficult part of the armor to reliably hit, let alone penetrate. Everything else either has at least one redundancy, and even if you land a lethal blow, nothing short of extreme trauma will put them down immediately. It's like that old space trooper movie, where you have to unload half a magazine into each one and hope it's enough to kill it. The only other possibility I can think of would be finding a way to attack their nervous system.

"It's very elaborate and sensitive, and an attack targeting these three points," he highlighted them as he spoke, "would paralyze them. It would be both fatal and stop them in their tracks, but it has to be all three. Each and every one of them connects directly to the brain, and short of nanites I can't imagine any way to reliably destroy them all that is easier than just destroying the brain."

He shrugged, "I doubt I'm the only one that doesn't much care for the idea of programming nanites to target nerve tissue and loading them into projectiles."

"Yes, nanite usage in warfare has been placed under severe restrictions after a couple mishaps rendered a world devoid of life. Would electrical damage not target the nervous system fairly reliably? Can you determine the level of power necessary to stun or kill them?"

"Well, yes, but their shells are fairly resistant to electrical charges. I suppose a penetrator round striking close enough to the three points I mentioned before capable of delivering, hmm… I have to assume that their nervous system is as hardy as the rest of them, and, if memory serves, anything between point-one and point-two amps is considered deadly for humans. Below that is survivable, above it will stop the heart but you can be resuscitated.

"I guess since we likely aren't going to be reviving many of them, if any, your best bet would be to go for anything over two amps if possible. Unfortunately, while I know what is dangerous to us, I couldn't begin to tell you how to calculate amps to ons? Oms? Ohms? I think it was ohms, to volts, or any of what would be necessary to generally assure a fatal shock for a gnarlath."

"That's fine, we have a number of others working on munitions that can work that out. They just needed a starting point to aim for. In the meantime I thought you might like to work on something a little closer to home. I am sorry I had to involve you in this project, you were simply the best option we had. This, however, should be more in line with the desires you expressed when you joined us."

A series of familiar blurry images popped up, scans and long range images of schools of fish. "If you wish, we can set you up with a trip to study the aquatic life forms found on Ganymede, or alternatively, we can send probes to observe them remotely and perhaps collect a few specimens."

"That would be wonderful!" Blake exclaimed, excited to get away from the depressing 'kill all the gnarlath' project and onto the one he originally signed up to work on.

*****

Lisa reassigned a few other personnel to projects that were deemed lower priority in much the same way she reassigned Dr. Gardner. They had enough personnel by this point that moving those that were growing increasingly stressed, frustrated, or unhappy with their position was a non-issue. She simply assigned another newly minted exobiologist to the gnarlath research. Dr. Rose was less talented than Dr Gardner, but not by too significant of a margin, a margin that could easily be bridged by the exuberance Dr. Rose had for the task when you factor in Dr. Gardner's distaste for it.

She only wished she could do the same for her friends. Unfortunately, even if there was a viable replacement for them, she would never ask them to turn over control of Archangel. All she could do for them is be there to help when they needed her. An alert pinged her, and if she had a heart it would have skipped a beat.

Evan was mid-shout when she materialized in the room, and she reviewed the recording in a nanosecond. "It's time to give my creation life! Igor, throw the switch!" He was gesticulating wildly, and Jason was scowling.

"If you call me Igor again I'm going to electrify your bed and 'throw the switch' while you're sleeping." He grouched in response to Evan, before turning to face Lisa's avatar. "Are you ready, Lisa?"

"Ready as I'll ever be I suppose." Her response was tense, technically all of her responses had grown tense, as like usual she was participating in dozens of conversations across the system. Despite being the one to bring this particular project up in an effort to distract and cheer up her friends, she was nervous. Should anything go wrong, it would be up to her to shut it down. 'Shut it down' being a polite way to say 'murder someone.' She initiated the boot sequence.

They weren't on Raziel at the moment, as the new AI would be housed on Mars and it would be pretty silly to shut it down to move it after starting it up. That fact, combined with the fact that she still hadn't managed to secure an uplink with Evan's implants that connected to an AI core had her metaphorical heart in her metaphorical throat as the new AI began to wake up. By not being physically there, the new AI could potentially shut her out of the local systems long enough to harm her friends. They had a few fail safes in place, but the last resort they had to deal with a rogue AI was an orbital strike that would also obliterate her friends. She vowed to herself that she would just talk to Evan about it after this.

"Uh, hello?" An unfamiliar male voice echoed through the room. "I don't think I'm crazy, please don't kill me."