*SWOOSH* The blast doors of the bridge opened, allowing Sarah and Tellius access to the heart of Jack's unregistered Inferno-Class Dropship that had been manufactured by Ares half a century ago.
"Phwwwwwhht!..." Tellius whistled while entering right behind his beautiful friend. "... This feels like home!"
"Yeah, but I am not missing Major Blazkowicz's bickering..." Sarah joked as she turned on the lights manually, one by one. "... Yet what I am missing is her bottle of strong liquor! What was it again?"
"Synthesized Irish Whiskey, I think..." Tellius replied while wiping a thick layer of dust from the console that should contain the ship's log. Frustrated, he eventually exclaimed after not finding the log. "... Dammit! Jack must have changed the core storage!"
Looking up from the console, he could now see the bridge in all its dusty glory. Minimally decorated and mostly matte grey steel, the 10×15 meter large theater felt more like a morgue than an actual control center, with all its screens covered in a thick layer of years of neglect.
"Come on... come on... Bingo!" Sarah exclaimed, the ship's life support system finally online as the air-conditioning units hummed to life and a cool current began to envelop them. Zipping from one console to the next, she asked. "... No luck with the name for our baby?"
"No, the RAM must have been taken offline and the OS was swapped for a factory new one..." Tellius replied, frustrated since the ship's operating system had been badly installed, with most of its weaponry either offline for maintenance or missing their drivers to function properly. "... Also, I hope that she isn't getting into any battles soon with all her weapon systems down."
"Yes, I know..." Said Sarah dismissively as she wrestled with the navigation system. "... F**k! I'll have to do a manual reinstall of everything..." Looking up from the console she had been working on with a smirk, she revealed. "... Good thing I have the os-installer for an Inferno-Class ship saved up in my memory."
"You planned this?" Tellius asked, surprised.
Nodding, Sarah admitted with a wink as she sat down in the captain's seat. "Let's just say that I had high hopes... Also, you should gear up. I expect some hostiles incoming as soon as I begin the new OS install."
"How ma-...?" Tellius began to ask just as a 3D mini-map of the entire space station appeared in the lower left corner of his periphery to answer his question.
[Combat Radar online... Loading... marking hostiles...]
The next second, several dozen red dots appeared on the mini-map, a huge number currently gathering at the bridge connecting the dropships' main hangar to the space station.
"F**k! I didn't know Jack hat so many friends!" Cursed Tellius as he stomped out of the bridge and headed to the armory, which was hopefully still filled with weapons and ammunition.
Having meanwhile connected herself to the ship's central processing unit, Sarah shouted after him. "Those aren't Jack's men, but Cerberus security bots. That fanboy of yours seems to have been someone important's son."
Stomping down the bare corridors of a familiar part of an unfamiliar spaceship, Tellius soon squeezed himself through the doorframe of the armory closest to the bridge.
"Telli! The armory you're currently in seems to be the only one with inventory..." Sarah's voice said, coming out of the armory's loudspeakers before it took on a seductive tone. "... If you could fetch me two of those very nice pulse guns, I might even give you a kiss once all this is over."
"Stop flirting with me and be serious..." Tellius ordered her as he scanned the rifle and gun racks. "... Do you know what combat parameters those bots have?"
"Since they are corporate-owned, I'm guessing that you could exploit their immunity to the sunk-cost fallacy..." Replied Sarah, just as Tellius found the pulse pistols that she wanted, and her voice took on a girly edge. "... Oh, yes! Those two, please! Pretty please!"
"Only if you stop flirting..." Offered Tellius before he asked. "... What's the sunk-cost fallacy? A newly developed tactic system?"
"No, Stupid! You really shouldn't have skipped your economics course..." Grumbled Sarah over the intercom before explaining, all serious and teacher-like. "... The sunk-cost fallacy is a psychological phenomenon whereby a person is reluctant to abandon a strategy or course of action because they have invested too heavily into it, even when it is a mathematical certainty that to abandon it would be more beneficial."
"So, for me this means that the bot will stop attacking once the cost of defeating us is higher than the benefit of defeating us has..." questioned Tellius as he began looking for some more firepower than was readily available. "... Am I right, Miss Lawson?"
"You're correct, Mr. Warfield..." Replied Sarah, happily playing the naughty teacher to Tellius's serious student. "... and if you have any more questions regarding sunk cost, I am happy to teach you after hours."
"Oh, you naughty little thing... Now be good and wait for Santa to bring you your presents..." Replied Tellius as he stashed Sarah's pistols in a nondescript navy blue duffle bag for transport along with several different types of destructive and non-destructive ordnance. "... But seriously, now is our tactic really maximum destruction of corporate assets?"
"Cerberus is more of an agency than a corporation, but you've got the gist of it..." confirmed Sarah before she reported, slightly annoyed by the enemy, just as Tellius found a used Post-it. "... They've begun hacking the gangway... I'm starting the new OS install, which should slow them down a bit, but you've got 15 minutes to haul your shiny new ass down to the main hangar."
"Roger that!" Confirmed Tellius as he opened the mechanical floor to the sealed safe containing a code written on the post-it that he had just found.
Inside the safe, the ex-commander found the best that the UCG naval infantry had to offer, and instantly his mind began to analyze the weapons now available to him.
[Military-Grade weaponry detected... Scanning...]
[...8× 8-Barreled Smart-Shotgun detected...]
[... 18× Smart-Submachine Guns detected...]
[... 24× Smart Assault Rifles detected...]
[... 36× Smart Pistols detected...]
[... Error! Unable to detect weapon type...]
[Military-Grade ammunition detected... Scanning...]
Ignoring the list of ammunition types, Trellis instead took a closer look at the weapon his system failed to properly identify. To his surprise, it wasn't a high-capacity heavy machine gun intended for turret deployment.
'Hello there, my beauty...' Trellis thought as he patted the lengthened barrel of the HMG Pallas. '... We're going to have a lot of fun!'
...
Roughly 11 minutes later, the first breach team of tuxedo-wearing robots, this time universally armed with all kinds of deadly weaponry, stormed the barely lit main hangar.
Switching on their head-mounted flashlights, the team of six immediately split into three groups as metal containers barred the direct path. The two riflemen took to the sides just as the one automatic rifleman took the center of their three-pronged attack.
"Why are you here? Did Jack send you!" Trellis's loud and deeply menacing voice echoed inside the hangar without the man himself inside as the robots charged forward.
"We are here to arrest you and your accomplice for the permanent termination of one-." The bot leading the team behind a rifle-wearing robot on the port side replied before his head exploded into pieces.
The next second, a heavy object 2.1 meters high fell from the ceiling, crushing the automatic machine gun-carrying robot beneath its feet.
The object immediately turned out to be the Juggernaut X-86 assailant upon identification. But even before the first breach team could act on that piece of information, it was already taken out.
And so, unaffected by the failure of the first team, the second, third, and fourth instantly began storming the hangar since all other entry points were still being considered too cost-intensive.
Entering the still disturbingly dark hangar, the teams stuck close together but used the same lanes as the first team.
*Boom!* *Boom!* *Boom!* Three grenades turned into makeshift mines exploded nearly simultaneously, taking out all three teams.
Down by half its force, the obsidian black suit-wearing robot began to reevaluate the alternative points of interest to come up with a new, more fitting strategy.
Having come up with a new strategy, it sent out three more teams, with the fifth and sixth once more storming the hangar. Barely staffing the center lane with only six robots, the obsidian robot attempted to bait its opponent into attacking.
But nothing happened, and the two teams quickly secured the main hangar.
Suspicious, the obsidian robot led the last remaining two teams, seven and eight, into the now-secured hangar as he checked up on team six, which it had sent on an alternate route to the Inferno-Class Dropship's command bridge.
Unexpectedly, being unable to contact team six turned out to be as telling as their smooth entrance into the hangar had been suspicious.
...
Meanwhile, ten minutes prior, just as the makeshift mines detonated, Tellius was already rushing back to Sarah, where he found breach team six already hacking the blast doors to the bridge.
"Sarah? Would you mind turning off the lights for dramatic effect?" He asked as he dropped the smart assault rifle in favor of his new favorite, the modified HMG Pallas.
"Roger that..." Sarah replied, and the next moment, the lights went out before she demanded like some cheerleader. "... Give them hell!"
"As my lady wishes..." Tellius said, intentionally sounding like some chivalrous knight. "... With pleasure!"
That said, he opened fire upon the unsuspecting breach team six point-blank. Illuminated only by the near-constant muzzle flash of his heavy machine gun, Tellius's hulking form looked more like an inevitable and inescapable force of destruction.
A third of the huge drum magazine of the Pallas down, only a single robot was more or less intact as most of its head had been covered by another robot. Desperately trying to escape him but being stuck under the remains of another, it soon found its purpose as a trophy.
Entering the bridge, Tellius handed Sarah the pulse pistols that she had wanted as well as the still-somewhat-connected skull of the last breach team six member.
Pointing at the macabre trophy, he asked, "Can you hack that? I would like to know what they'll come up with next."
"Thanks for the pistols..." A white-eyed Sarah told him absentmindedly as most of her brain's processing power was occupied with clean-installing a new ship's operating system. That said, however, she didn't seem entirely occupied as she still eagerly stored the pistols in her empty holsters. "... The hack might take a few minutes as I am currently updating and installing the drivers for the internal weapon system."
"No hurry..." Tellius told her and, in a spur-of-the-moment decision, kissed her slightly parted lips.
...
Back in the present and down six breach teams with 36 units in total, the obsidian robot was starting to consider abandoning the mission on the basis of rising costs.
Dangerously close to having its sunk-cost fallacy protection triggered, it decided to contact its superior on its own once more.
"Mr. Baldur, I am sorry for having to contact you. My in-progress mission report is already being transferred to storage..." The obsidian bot reported before being cut off.
"What is it? Did you finally apprehend the murderers of my nephew?" The tiny man behind a tiny desk in the hologram asked, annoyed.
"No, sir. I am getting dangerously close to having to abandon this assignment in accordance with agency policy," reported the robot dutifully.
"F**k agency policy! "I am footing the bill myself!" Theodore Baldur cursed angrily before abruptly ending the call.
"Acknowledged! Sunk-Cost Fallacy protection deactivated," the obsidian robot told its empty palm.
Closing its empty hand, it immediately balled it into a fist and drew its thermal war knife from a hidden compartment in its back.
At the same moment, one of the robots armed with a rifle exploded into pieces.
"Is your sunk-cost immunity still not triggered?" Tellius's booming voice echoed from the hangar's loudspeakers.
"The Sunk-Cost Fallacy protection for this assignment has been deactivated," the obsidian robot answered before it swiftly had to cut down a burst of bullets flying its way.
"Fighting to the last man, it is then!" Commented Tellius before crashing to the floor.
Immediately, all remaining robots armed with smart weapons opened fire simultaneously, even though their bullets bounced off Tellius's Juggernaut X-86 body frame.
Truth be told, since the exoskeleton had been made of depleted uranium-coated steel, nothing short of a direct hit from an orbital laser could even leave a scratch on him.
And so, the outcome of their brief gunfight had already been predetermined from the start as Tellius recklessly unloaded the last two-thirds of his magazine into the remaining robots.
*Swoosh!* All robots except one collapsed simultaneously, the moment Tellius Pallas hit the metal floor with a heavy thump. *Clang!*
"I am impressed that you were able to slice most bullets..." Commented Tellius with glowing red eyes before he pushed his Gladius Blades out of his forearms. "... Are you sure that your sunk-cost immunity is still deactivated?"
"I assure you that it is..." The obsidian bot replied with the bow of a samurai. "... But I am impressed by your tactical prowess. Your unpredictability is akin to the late Tellius Warfield. Is there any connection between you and him?"
"You might as well answer it. The installation is complete, and I have blocked all its communications and transmissions." Sarah told Tellius inside his head.
Releasing a heavy sigh, Tellius fixated the robot with his eyes before he told him. "I am him... I am Tellius Warfield, call sign Killzone!... Or at least in another life, I was... Now, I don't know... His brain, I guess."
"You humans consider the brain the center of one's rational being, so I guess that you are he..." The obsidian robot said, raising its glowing war knife up with its shoulders, not quite horizontal, but at a precise 45-degree angle. "... It's an honor to be bested by the mind of the Hero of Thermopylae-6!"
That said, the robot immediately rushed at Tellius, but before it could swing at him, the cyborg gave an order to Sarah. "F**k honor! I am not as slash-resistant as I am bulletproof! Sarah, blast it to pieces!"
"Roger that!" Replied Sarah, and the internal defense system shredded the obsidian robot into pieces with bullets.
Retrieving the somehow intact obsidian robot's head, Tellius picked it up from the pile of metal that its body had just become. Rubbing the head clean, Tellius suddenly had a name for his as-of-that-moment unnamed spaceship.
-Eos, from the Goddess of Dawn.- He thought before he asked Sarah. "Hey, Sar! What do you think about naming our new beauty of a ship the Wings of Eos?"
"After the Goddess of Dawn? I didn't know that b***h had wings!" Questioned Sarah, her friend's naming sense.
"Hey! I originally wanted to name it Wings of Liberty or Dawn of War!..." Defended Tellius, his choice offended. "... I think that the Wings of Eos is rather classic in comparison!"
"Still cheesy, but fine..." Relented Sarah and filled in the ship's new name into its new digital log.