Mary sat down and relaxed into the sofa as she lit her pipe. Frankie remained quiet, as she got comfortable. For someone who thought at the speed of light she had amazing patience when it came to dealing with the inherent slowness of organic lifeforms.
“So what did you learn?” Mary asked.
<<That The New Knights appear to be a fake as you suspected, Designation: Banshee. There are at least two members that are fictional, the others may have been brainwashed, I have insufficient data to confirm either way. How would you like me to proceed with my analysis?>>
“Start with that Lancelot fella, would you please Frankie? He seemed to be a bit of a loose cannon. I assume he falls into the second category as far as the New Knights are concerned?”
<<Compliance, Designation: Banshee. Lancelot also known as Samuel Beaumont, colloquially named as Sam. 39 years old, the son of a wealthy French industrialist, Sam attended a private school in Paris, where he acquired a love of fencing that soon saw him winning every tournament he entered.
His father was killed in an accident when he was 16 and it was subsequently discovered that that his partner had been swindling the family out of millions. Grief stricken, Samuel’s mother took her own life shortly thereafter and as the sole heir to the Beaumont name, he supposedly vowed revenge. He became a vigilante calling himself “le Rapier” and made quite a name for himself in France and several other western European countries over a period of three years. His violent (and supposedly final) approach to justice caused a great deal of friction between himself and the authorities though he has never been charged with a crime.
Lancelot claims to be bound by a Code of Chivalry and his personal sense of honour. Among other things, he claims this prevents him from attacking an unarmed foe, mistreating prisoners, turning away from innocents in distress (especially a woman), and breaking his word. His behaviour at the march however showed how inaccurate his own perception of himself really is.
He, like the others, are all on record as claiming that memories from their previous life as a knight of Camelot frequently intrude upon their current thoughts, often manifesting as flashbacks. There is no evidence to substantiate this and there is no indication that prior to Arthur’s arrival that he or any of the others had any links to or interest in Camelot or the Arthurian legends.
Samuel is publicly known to be a womaniser and there is no record of his forming any long-term attachments with anyone until he joined the New Knights.
His identity prior to the arrival of Arthur is confirmed though I have no way of checking whether he has been brainwashed or if he really believes in the New Knight’s backstory.>>
Mary let out a sigh, “I doubt it, he seemed the mercenary type. Tell me how has the Beaumont companies been doing since he was recruited?”
<<His companies have done extremely well over the last year, well in excess of what would have been expected given its previous performance – without access to his detailed corporate accounts I cannot confirm, but I suspect someone is manipulating his profit margin, as a reward, possibly?
He is supposedly bankrolling the New Knights himself but again the financial figures do not marry up. His development costs for his suits of armour for example are completely unrealistic and I believe the operation is being secretly bankrolled by someone else.>>
“Ok, so the cyborg Galahad next…”
<<Compliance. Galahad is one Warren Cooper, 32, ex-paratrooper. He was injured in a car accident while on leave that resulted in the death of his parents. He is a paraplegic with serious burn damage to most of his remaining body. He designed his own artificial limbs initially which brought him to the attention of Dalton Technologies who elected to take him on as a test subject for their Operation Pheonix, a programme designed to build a weaponised cyborg.
Why he is no longer part of the programme is not known, but it is interesting that Sir Damien Dalton allowed him to retain his cybernetic enhancements when he was discharged. That is extremely uncharacteristic behaviour for Dalton, which might indicate his involvement in secretly creating and equipping the New Knights despite his apparent focus being on creating his Dalton Defender teams of Metas.
Warren’s current appearance is a combination of his cybernetics and the addition of power armour that connects to his cybernetics via interface ports. In his Police statement, he claims the integrated weapon attachments were added without his permission and appear to function independently. He claims he was not in control when he fired the sonic cannon into the protesters. Again he appears to be exactly who he claims to be. >>
“So who are the other two you think are genuine?”
<<The two knights known as Gawain and Tristan. Do you wish me to relay their backgrounds?>>
“No, just now, I’ll study them later if that’s ok. So their only enhancements are built into their body armour?”
<<Affirmative. Gawain, also known as Marc Manderburl is a South African mercenary and body builder; his armour enhances his natural skills as does Tristan’s flight suit. He is known as…>>
Mary interrupted, “So the two who aren’t real are Rex, Arthur and the female Guinevere?”
<<Affirmative. Arthur appeared out of nowhere at Stonehenge claiming to be from the 6th Century, his fingerprints, and his features do not match any on record.
However when he first arrived, he was able to speak and fully understand English and modern day terminology, he initially referred to himself as Arthur only to later change it to Arturus and showed very little surprise off-camera at modern day advances.
Your conversation with him at the march shows that he is aware of modern terminology and he correctly used the term “Manchurian candidate” though he claims he supposedly cannot read and I can find no trace that he has ever accessed the film at least via the internet. His whole personae, even down to claiming to be Christian from the 6th century, is inconsistent with known history. He is a fake, created for the media and public perception with little concern for historical accuracy.
The other imposter is Guinevere – Bethany Sontel is of Afro-Caribbean descent supposedly from London. Her history is supposedly that she lived in an unnamed orphanage until the age of eight when she felt she would be better off on her own. Beth quickly learned to survive on the street. Her biography claims that her ‘natural charm and ageless beauty caused other street children to flock to her’, forming a pack of youths who managed to organize themselves into an inventive ring of pickpockets and petty thieves before retiring.
However, her background only exists on the internet; none of her story marries up with people’s memories in the real world or with Police records. She has only existed on record for the last two years, before that nothing exists. I did examine video recordings and noticed faint scarring under her chin possibly indicative of facial surgery to disguise her features and having observed scars on her fingers conclude her fingerprints may have been replaced as well, which could indicate that they were originally on file somewhere.
I did note that in your mission notes from when you travelled forward in time in your attempt to leave the Faerie Realm you mention that the Terminus invasion had been thwarted because humanity had a stockpile of powered armour. The whole situation was/will be engineered by ‘M’ (also known as The Professor) who used Labyrinth and the Foundry to create a stockpile of suits and that it was the New Knights who opened up all of the hidden warehouses stockpiled full of powered armour. 1
Of course, you met a man who called himself ‘Professor’ whose hologram you last saw in the disused Battersea Park Road railway station in London just before he tried to blow you up. 2
Could they both be the same Professor and if so, what is his purpose in creating the myth of Arthurian Knights being reborn in this era? I lack sufficient data to reach a conclusion…>>
Mary scratched her head long and noisily. “I’m bamboozalumed,” she said. “You need to share this with the others and see what sense they can make of it. We think that this power-armour stuff comes out good in the future – in which case should we’d be letting the Knights storm ahead and do their thing, even though in the present they are a bunch of dangerous and unpleasant expletive-deleteds?
But then in the aftermath of beating off the Terminus, as I recall, wasn’t it Dalton and the power-armour people who somehow let the vampires take over?’ She shook her woolly head. “And we didn’t like that at all, not one tiny bit.” She ground her teeth. “And maybe we should get the tech-guys to run their scopes over them, the Knights. The way they act they could have been ear-wormed – though that wouldn’t make any sense if they eventually fight against the Terminus, would it? Damn!” She paused a while, before quietly muttering, “Things were much simpler back in the old days, in the old country.”
<<As I have already stated, I have found no evidence of brainwashing or parasite infestation in the New Knights, though I agree it would explain a great deal about their recent behaviour. I will request a parasite scan of their team members be initiated by A.E.G.I.S…>>
Frankie paused for several seconds, way too long to be natural even if she was now also in the process of contacting Harry Powers in realtime – it seemed she was still trying to emulate human mannerisms, the delay felt… Unnatural, fake and for effect which of course, it was.
Frankie continued. <<Based on your mission reports of that future era, which admittedly was recorded sometime after your return and are primarily hearsay, Dalton refused to work with this M and the stockpiling of powered armour occurred as a result of M’s manipulations not as a result of Dalton, despite some of the suits definitely being of his designs.
Regarding the origins of the alliance with the Vampires I directly quote from your mission report, “mages, from both sides of the divide came together with some meta-mystical monsters created apparently in Carpathia and together with the now armoured soldiers they began to push them (Terminus) back through that hole in reality, before they could get properly established.
It was suggested that those who had magic in their blood couldn’t be controlled properly nor could the (Carpathian?) hybrids. It might have worked if the Library hadn’t formed an alliance with the Vampire nations…”
It seems these Mages in general and the Library in particular were responsible for the alliance. How important this alliance was in finally defeating the Terminus, I have no way to analyse.>>
Superhero Adventures, UK Style 