Upon analyzing reports from scouts on an Apex production facility, I can conclude that Apex is trying to make a ranking system just like ours.

In one of the photos,  there are is a 4x8 box of Apex soldiers, presumably for a drill practice, even though they aren’t needed; both Vertices and Apex soldiers know exactly how to get into position. Perhaps their leader does it for the hell of it?

In front of the drill, there is a unique looking bot staring them down. Said bot has similar visual qualities to myself: the body frame, neck, height. However, the differences between me and this “Commander” is that his head is shaped very differently. Like all Apex bots, they have a head with the face being dependent of a screen going down the middle, similar to the helmet of Guy-man of Daft Punk. However; the helmet of the commander seemed to be more of an older iteration. It looked like the rejected version of the “Hazmat Headcase” hat for the Pyro class of Team Fortress 2.

In relation to the Pyro, the Commander had a tank of (Either napalm or propane) on his back, with two cables running from the base to his hands. Judging by his design, he is able to use his cylindrical wrists as a flamethrower, with four faucets evenly spaced on each wrist. 

After inspecting this new data, it is theorized that if the tank on his back is taken out, eliminating him should become simple. That is, until I saw him executing one of his own to make an example. He is very agile, and can use his ability to an advantage regarding movement. While showing to the Apex soldiers what would happen to any dissenters, the commander (promptly named “Nero”) showed that he could “throw fireballs” by simply activating and deactivating his flames on a quick timeframe, as well as doing a “fire uppercut” by having the flames at a low speed and height. It is unknown how many other techniques he has. More plans to study “Nero” more are to be done in the coming week.

To make things worse, he was painted red. Apex hates red. Either they were shooting to copy Babel that badly or for some other unknown reason.

[End Log]

I know I haven’t actually done much with this thing, but it’s just that nothing ever happens ‘cept for the usual skirmishes with Apex’s army.

Oh wait, I haven’t told you guys. When Kevin isn’t running the place and making sure the products are in pristine condition, he commandeers the Vertices, as you all know. However, I haven’t told you who we specifically fight. It’s a company by the name of Apex; They’re in the same business as Babel, but was founded way after Babel’s start. Instead of using a sturdy, blocky, easy-to-make theme for their robots, they try to be “unique” and “revolutionary” but making roundish, feeble, hard to make robots. For example, a “Babelbot” (Easier term than “Generic Grunt”) has two visual apparatus, similar to eyes. They can also telegraph emotions and how healthy they are and what they’re doing by using simple colors. Apexbots on the other hand, have a stupid sensor on their body and have a head only for storing important chips and information. Their “face” is just a screen with a face that can change emotions.

Anyway. The reason why Babel and Apex are rivals is simply because Apex wants to monopolize the whole “Guns n’ Robots” biz, and they plan (have) used physical force to try to knock us out.

So, I’ve been thinking. We as a whole group don’t really get to do much. Hell, most of the time we’re just in the Albatross or on a ground base somewhere waiting for an order. In this downtime, general supplies usually get overstocked; Buncha weapons and ammo all over the place. The soldiers either screw around, rest, or just do odd jobs for people.

I don’t mind that, but I fear that their training will be forgotten over time and that’ll screw us over for when we actually DO have an assignment. To counter that eventual fate, I’ve come up with a few Virtual Reality programs.

VRA-1 consists of a randomly generated assignment (An ambush by an Isosceles squad, etc.) I’ve yet to decide whether or not to let soldiers be on the opposing team, rather than themselves. On one hand, having a more dynamic AI than the pre-programmed one for the enemy would make the Virtual Assignment more realistic for the soldiers. On the other hand, I wouldn’t want my soldiers to expect the enemy to act like how they control them. I should look into this conundrum further.

VRA-2 is a general free-for-all training simulator to make soldiers more aware of their weapons in short-range, medium-range, and long-rage combat. Kind of like Quake or UT. In this Virtual Assignment, all of the Babel Ind. weapons are included, as well as a few random “boss” fights, most likely a Titan with the new prototype weapon for him, or any of the Commanders, me included. Hell, I’d like to see this happen soon, but I don’t believe that’d be possible anytime soon.

VRA-3 would be for pilots; VRA-3a would simulate Vertex-fighter missions. (Psst, It’s kinda like Star Fox 64, the only difference is that you’re locked in Cockpit-cam, have to be aware of every part of the fighter, and the difficulty being way more harder.) VRA-3b would be for Hermes pilots; Dropping off a squad of four, delivering supplies to a squad in need, using the new weapons to defend from a chasing enemy ship, etc.

You guys are probably wondering what a Vertex and a Hermes are, but don’t worry, you’ll see them soon enough.

Hopefully Kevin will like these ideas and get them out to everyone.

[End Transmission]

Ah… Alright, I guess I’m finally into this “Tumblr” thing I keep skimming across on the net. I guess I might as well pass the time while we’re on a rather long expedition.

I’m going to put this simply. I’m a highly regarded product of Babel Industries sitting in another highly regarded… Well, modification of a Dreadnaught-class hovercarrier dubbed the Albatross.

If that made no sense, let me explain it all to you, then.

Babel Co. was once a simple computer company ran by Charles Babel. His son, Kevin, grew up watching Saturday-Morning cartoons and playing video games. During his childhood, he never really had the opportunity to socialize with others; He was taught by BabelCo’s education software. Of course, you could probably imagine where I’m going with this. He wanted a friend, and had always enjoyed robots, so he put two and two together and asked his dad for a robot friend. Charles never let his son down, so he got to work with Project Titan.  

Time went on, Kevin got older, started tinkering with his own radical ideas, and Project Titan was forgotten. Until Kevin decided to visit his dad’s factory. He found the Titan, only 80% complete. After taking it to his apartment (very awkwardly), he analyzed it for weeks: It’s movement, it’s voice modulators, it’s power supply, everything that made the 8-foot metal beast stand. 

Skip to about 3 years later.

Kevin, now 21, owned Babel Co. after Charles went missing in a long fishing trip to Antartica. He changed the general goal from Computers to Robotics and abstract weapons; The purpose was to be the strangest professional business ever. And Kevin loved it. He had minimalized the technology needed for robots, so making bots more advanced than the slow and clunky Titan was easy.

The first model of robots were known as Servbots. They were designed to be a worker’s worst nightmare: does 10x the work, doesn’t need a salary, and loves to work. they helped build Babel’s towering HQ while he changed Babel Co. to Babel Industries. Afterwards, he created me. My original purpose was to moderate zones filled with people that could spawn physical entities and use them to build virtually anything they wanted to using a special tool-gun. Sure, actual humans had the job as well, but I was merely a substitute. However, I turned out to be much more important in the future. 

Skip about 7 months after Babel Ind. (ABI)

I had met a person who entered the Zone, George. He had an issue with one of his tools and I was called upon to help him repair it. Of course, nothing in this world can be simple, and it eventually came down to having an entire adventure involving going to the forgotten Babel Co. lab and discovering the other Titan Prototype. After getting what we needed we came back to the Zone, only to find out that Charles’ old Co-Worker, Remington, had swindled Kevin out of the company, wanting to use the robots for militaristic purposes; wanting to conquer the world, you know, the usual.

George and I had fought our way to the top of Babel HQ and confronted Remington. It was a short lived fight, but it was satisfying to see him fall from the top. We freed Kevin from his jail and things went back to normal. Kevin had drawn up a design for a private-owned task force during this downtime; A force known as the Vertices. 

I was assigned to be a General to a small army of Servbots with the purpose of securing unsafe lands, destroying any form of evil or corruption in our path. Kevin and George continue to watch over B-Ind. while we continue our mission. 

As time went on, more servbots were produced, requiring more generals. We now have 3 additional commanders, which includes Nik and Issac, twins which happen to prefer their own style of fighting, and the first version of the new Titan, pretty much a walking tank.

I’d love to prattle on about weapon regulation in the V, but I’d be going overboard. Possibly later. I have to end this transmission now, we’re about to hit a point where the internet’s gonna go out.

[End Log]