Planet Telex

"However, I am sure you will have no problem showing your loyalty and devotion."
The Avian on the other side of the desk quivered in both excitement and terror -- to be in the presence of Claws of Gold was something very few ever experienced, and to be appointed a Ministry Representative to the Primus was a great honour… but what she was being asked to do was maybe going too far.
"But, a chip… wouldn't that make me a Class C?" Feathers of Violet asked, sitting on the edge of her seat nervously.
"Oh, no, no." Claws of Gold replied, standing from her ornate chair, her metallic feathers glinting in the light of the window as she turned to it. "This is not one of those chips. I designed it myself. I overlook the fabrication. You will lose nothing, but gain so much."
Feathers of Violet stayed silent and watched as Claws of Gold walked towards the glass wall backing her office and leant against a greyed silver guard. Claws of Gold remained silent for a minute as well, before turning back to the Avian meeting with her.
"I don't trust the fully organic with the tasks I give. They are lacking… inferior." Claws of Gold returned to her desk and opened a drawer, pulling out a small silver box, which she opened and pushed towards Violet.
Violet leaned forwards, to see what was inside.
A chip. A golden chip, hermetically sealed in its container.
"Direct communication with me, whenever you need it. All the information you require, with just a thought. Access to systems you didn't even know existed. The knowledge that you are personally advancing the Accord every day." Claws of Gold snapped the box shut, causing Violet to flinch in her seat. "Even if the mind of an Assistant is enriched beyond the norm, you won't be one of them. Nobody will even know."
Violet nodded, staring at the silver box. "Can… can I have a few minutes to think about it?"
"Of course."

Violet needed to process a lot. The ultimatum that Claws of Gold gave her was one such thing, but Claws of Gold herself was a surprise. Nobody had seen her in public for hundreds of years, and some even quietly doubted she was alive -- but she was. Just not by any conventional measurement.
Claws of Gold, as she was now, was an android. As she explained when Violet expressed surprise at this, her mind was uploaded into the thousands and thousands of square metres of computers that took up several levels of the main Ministry of the Primus building on the homeworld. Her physical presence, a secret as tightly kept as the methods of her continued existence, looked just like any Avian would, except in steel, silver, and gold, controlled by the trillions of circuits occupying the base of the building. Hand-machined feathers covered her body, fitting together perfectly and shifting with an unnerving naturalness whenever she moved. Her claws, fittingly, were made of a gold alloy, with the majority of her feathers a polished silver. Her eyes shone with a piercing blue glow which Violet found simultaneously hard to look away from but hard to look directly back at.
"Well?"
Violet took a deep breath and gave the silver box another glance. "I'll do it. For the Accord."
"That's the spirit." Claws of Gold said. "Come with me."

Feathers of Violet didn't remember much of what happened before she woke up again. Claws of Gold had insisted that she install the chip in Violet's head, and it all went quickly after that. Taken to a medical room off her office, small and white and sterile, with a white bed where she lay down for the procedure. Claws of Gold didn't appear to take or use any tools from any of the cabinets of the room, instead injecting Violet with some substance from the tip of one of her golden claws to knock her out.
When Violet awoke some time later, she only managed to roll onto her side on the pillowless bed and groan. Her vision was blurry, her head ached -- all things she knew would happen when an Accord chip, or one of its derivatives in this case, was installed. She was Ministry of Internal Affairs, she'd installed a fair few chips herself in training.
"Isn't that better?" Violet heard Claws of Gold say. "Well, it will be, shortly."
Violet slowly turned her head towards the door, where could make out Claws of Gold, holding a tray. The Primus slowly neared and placed the tray down on a trolley.
"I got one of my Assistants to prepare you some tea. I heard it helps recovery… not that the Ministry cares to provide it to those new to the gestalt."
Violet groaned and slowly sat up, holding her head. "I… gestalt? What's that?"
"Assistants. The backbone of our society. Billions of minds, all linked as one, through the great Mesh…" Claws of Gold trailed off, realising Violet wasn't paying full attention. "You'll come to understand them the way I do, soon enough."
Violet didn't try and make sense of it, instead just trying to focus on the Primus. Her vision suddenly snapped into focus, the chip finally initialising in her occipital lobe, characters dancing in her vision before fading away. "Goddess, now I know why they complain about being awake for it turning on…"
"Go on, drink your tea. We've much to do before the day ends, Secundus Violet."

"Let me get one thing straight before we begin." Claws of Gold said, holding up her own cup of tea. She never drank from it, being unable to, but could never get used to using something else to tamper her gesturing. "The Ministry of Internal Affairs think you work for them. You don't. You work for me."
"If I may… I work for the Accord, Primus."
Claws of Gold placed her teacup down, narrowing her mechanical eyes at Violet. "I am the Accord, Secundus Violet. You will do well to remember that, even if it's not what they taught you there."
Violet lowered her head a little, and nodded in response. "I… yes, of course, Primus. It is nothing without you, after all…"
Claws of Gold leant back in her chair, nodding. "Yes, that's right. Now, they might want you to influence me in some regard, sometimes. Do not get me wrong, I do not turn down good ideas, but recently the Ministry has been…" Claws of Gold trailed off, gesturing in the air.
"Overstepping their authority?"
"Yes! Exactly. See, even you see it!" Claws of Gold stood suddenly from her chair, pacing around, shifting feathers glinting in the fading sunlight. "They're far larger than I ever imagined they'd end up. Even getting their fingers in the Core campaign! They had ships on planets before the Navy did!"
Violet nodded, mostly in agreement. She did feel odd about how the Ministry had interstellar warships larger than the Navy had…
"They want to replace me. They want to take it all for themselves. They think they're all so important… this is why I require a junior officer be my Ministry Representative. I can only trust ones not tainted by the plotting and conspiring of the senior leadership…" Claws of Gold threw her hands down to her sides with a clang, and sighed. "You are replacing an otherwise fine Secundus, Violet. He was loyal right to the end… at least I thought. I gave him the gift, and he squandered it on petty conspiracies…"
"The gift?"
"The implant. The chip. What makes you better than the rest of… them." Claws of Gold gestured out towards the window and the billions of Avians below. "I trust you not to waste it."
"Of course not, Primus."
"Good." Claws of Gold replied, returning to her chair. "The former Secundus… we'll deal with him together, later."

Ministry of the Primus Personnel Record, Primus Eyes Only

EEEE-EEE-00002174 "Secundus Feathers of Violet"
Assistant Class: D
Assignment: Ministry Representative, Ministry of Internal Affairs