"Huh..." - The machine beeped. "I never thought that you would ever use me for anything else."

"Rubert I? I thought you were dead long ago!"

"Who is this?" - Rubert asked Akivili.

"A fellow Nameless, currently a member of the Astral Express." - Akivili explained. "And, well, don't worry, this one is not evil, Fuli got a bit curious and Mythus with Aha messed around with this copy, and so he is completely safe, just that he can be a bit too-"

"Your fleshed form looks weak. Would you like some custom cybernetics enhancements?" - Rubert beeped.

"too extreme sometimes. Anyways, I have summoned you here today for one unique purpose." - Akivili turned over to the computer.

"What is it?"

"Join us in our gossip."

"...wat"

— — —

"Mhmmm..." - A random person on a random planet was chilling while during their random thing... Until all of a sudden, a memokeeper appeared through a surface of a nearby mirror and handed them a newspaper. "Wuht"

"You will forget me." - The memokeeper slapped them in the face and then climbed back inside the mirror.

"Wuht?"

They opened and read the newspaper regardless.

"Hmm... Oswaldo Schneider gifted 100 people 100 orphans... Boring... Hmm... Phantylia the fraud disappeared after conflicting with space pirates... mmm boring... Qlipoth the Preservation left the construction site.... mmm boring... THE MARKET GOT WHAT?"

At somewhere else more important, with significantly more important characters, the Stellaron Hunters' hideout.

"Well, that was surely something." - Silver Wolf sat down on the couch in disbelief, not believing what she had just witnessed throughout the entirety of the mission. "What even was that place?"

"Well... You can call it some places that only those who walked too far into the other side are interested in... Is little wolfy traumatized?" - Kafka teased as she puts her coat on the hanger and went to take a shower.

"..." - Blade sat down next to Silver Wolf, his body all covered in bandages and healing wounds. "... I have to agree with you on this one..." This would be one of the rare moments that Blade would appear to be exhausted, as he leaned his back against the couch to rest.

"I will get some new bandages." - Firefly said as she walked away.

"By the way, what happened to the guy we set free? Did you see him anywhere? What was his name again, Virgil?"

"Who knows... There was too much there..."

— — — — —

"Well... I'm gonna need you to elaborate on this specific matter, Aeon of Trailblaze." - Rubert inquired.

"Just some gossip, tell us something to talk about, like starting a conversation?" - Akivili said. "It should be easy for you, after all you have plenty of things to talk about."

"...Would you like to get your pathetic fles-"

"Anything but that."

"Fine. I suppose I can share some stories about some different branches within my Mechanical Legions that spanned across the Cosmos during the War." - Rubert sighed.

Stelle is finding a hard time to believe now... Not only she is in the same room with the supposed deceased Aeon of Trailblaze, but she is also in the presence of the supposed to be dead space h*tler...

"The Anti Organic Equation spread throughout the Cosmos at an immense speed, any device connected to a network is exposed to the Equation I released onto it, and it eventually affect the other networks through those devices as well, especially when they came into contact with the automatons of the IPC, it was like striking a gold mine, greatly boosting my army's might while also destroying one of the biggest forces from within with not much losses on my side. But then, of course, not even machine and inorganic beings were infected with my Equation, those who have been aware of such things could choose to resist, and some of them did. They decided to side with the organic beings and stop my war." - Rubert explained, while also showing a map of the known Cosmos at the time, some parts highlighted his forces' influence and expansion, it was fast at first, but gradually became slower and slower until it was stopped at several fronts.

"Although it might sound easy for me to do, commanding such a large army within a shared network was impossible, too many variables to process at the time." - Rubert continued. "That's why several fronts were given their own ability to make judgement, heavily influenced by the Equation, I was assured of their complete loyalty to my war. Eventually, after a long while, several different branches appeared, each specialized in taking down a specific enemy of mine. One of the biggest was the Cult of the Machine Reign, although it was unneeded, they had a part of... Religion, in worshiping the might of the machine and inorganic life forms, were more of preachers and sustainers rather than warlords, yet they managed to keep several sectors' forces supplied steadily, and constructed even more terrifying weaponries."

"What happened to them?"

"Their fall was inevitable once the War was met with overwhelming resistance and limited supplies. The Stellaron Hunters, for instance, once used brute force to tear through the vanguard surrounding the world of Rugh and overloaded the planet's molten core through unknown means, caused a great drop in natural minerals extractions in the whole System, as well as the eradication of the Mechanicus Archbishop."

Stelle slept on the couch.

"Wuh- wuh- what?" - Rubert seemed surprised, and so was Akivili for a bit before THEY started to laugh and shrug it off.

"Don't mind her, she doesn't seem to be the smart type, and isn't even interested in those kinds of stories." - Akivili said with a smile on THEIR face.

"Fine. I will tell her the entirety of your browser history next time."

"Shut."

— — — — —

"I do not trust you. That is why, aside from acting as reinforcement for your cause, the 3rd company of my automatons will also keep you under watch. Should there be even a moment of suspicion...

Consider yourself a walking dead, Lord Ravager."

Those were the words that the Emperor spoke to Phantylia. Forget about the unfair conditions he have given her and her Annihilation Gang, she was satisfied more due to the fact now that her cause has been greatly powered by the mechanical army now at her command, with several more capable vessels for void battle, now she has more confidence in her upcoming against the Astral Express.

"My lord. We have caught the signal of the Astral Express, approximately 5 hours from our location." - One of the officers reported to the floating heliobi.

"Very well... Have the entirety of our fleet march at full speed... We will burn the Nameless and restore my pride." - Phantylia said, if she had a body now, she would have been smirking. After all, this is what she has been wishing for ever since she was accused of fraud...

Meanwhile, aboard the Astral Express...

"It's such an honor to be greeting such esteemed guests as you, I'm sorry if the Express doesn't look formal enough to be hosting you as guests." - Welt greeted the newly boarded guests, from the Herta Space Station.

"Please, the honor is all mine, mister Welt." - The Herta happily smiled. "All the businesses seem to be done for a while, so I took my time and got here. After all, I just need Stelle to come and help me in preparation for the new DLC drop..."

"So this is the Astral Express. Looks better than how I pictured it." - Screwllum was accompanying her.

At the same time, Himeko returned to the Cabin Car, but not alone, she was with Firefly who had come to look for Stelle again.

"Oya? Seems like the Express is getting a lot of visitors today..." - Pom Pom was sweeping the floor, not paying attention as they bumped into Boothill.

"Yo! Ah it feels good to be visiting you muddle-fudgers as always! Oh right! I have bought some of the machine oil you asked for maintenance!" - Boothill showed Pom-Pom a bottle of machine lubricant.

"So adorable!!! Lord Silvergun Shura! How come you only introduced me to such a cute creature now??" - Rappa appeared to be standing behind Boothill.

And Acheron was suddenly seen sitting on the sofa.

Phantylia will soon know pain. 

/

alr i run out of ideas for now for the gossip sessions so the update schedule will be tighter from now on maybe hopefully nous bless me with some wisdom