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Post by Attero Dominatus on Oct 13, 2009 23:41:07 GMT -5
Pretty interesting story about this assassin who kills people for the World Order.
Below is my first ever try at writing, inspired partly by Halo (especially the A.I being, Alexandra) and partly by Starship Troopers (powered armor units called Infantry Fighting Bipeds and Bipedal Combat Units). No real backstory though characters in it and the nazi-like Purifiers appear in Vigilance. I was not nearly as good at writing way back in 2001 as I am now and this will appear amateurish lol. I also wrote this before I did the research on what realistic spaceships and space combat is likely to be like, so it is a lot less realistic as well.
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To Miya, was clear now. The rogue that the Purifiers had been so desperate to erase was the holographic woman whose message that Sandra intercepted. Several leaders were enemies within. The mysterious illness of president Shira and her subsequent death had been deliberate and all contact with the capital had been lost, if everything that this strange shimmering holographic woman said was true. Alexandra was an A.I. construct and Neural Net Unit was stuck aboard a space station on one of the CF's main colonies. Kendall was both a military stronghold and provided some sixty percent of the CF's entire food supply.
At least she is on our side Miya said to herself in her mind as the few functioning repair droids left were repairing her Infantry Combat Biped, a combat robot, and rearming it.
"Saddle up, things are gonna get hot" Sandra said.
Immediately, the dropship accelerated, after having used the Heavy Cruiser Reyes as a shadow to hide behind before entering the huge battle taking place sixty thousand kilometers above Kendall, one of the CF's most strategically important worlds.
By the time Miya walked up to the cockpit to take a look at what was going on, Sandra was shadowing the Reyes until the last possible moment. Currently flying only a few hundred meters away from the starboard flank where she could make out people walking, running and arming themselves through the ship's few windows.
After clearing the cruiser's conning tower, the Sandra her ship up and over the massive cruiser, practically skimming its surface. Suddenly, it became clear as to why she hid behind this ship. As they cleared the cruiser's spine, the view was filled horizon to horizon with warships and massive swarms of fighters and entire clouds of debris. The total number of ships was uncountable. More than that, Miya saw the tell tale points of light flash on the planet's surface and the dark gray clouds that were in fact smoke from firestorms set off by nuclear bombardment. Kendall was being carpet nuked to starve the population.
"That space station is in danger of taking fire, if its not destroyed by now. Sure you want to do this?" Sandra "Scythian" Rain asked. "Its suicide to enter a fray like that."
"I am adamant that we must. The A.I. on board that station needs us; she has important information vital to our survival." Miya said seriously, one of the few times where she was not sarcastic or hot-tempered.
Sandra earned the call sign Scythian due to her ferocity when laying down support fire from a dropship. Very few ever lived to tell the tail of the forty that happens when this woman is scorned or simply in a bad mood. The blonde woman was the epitome of combat dropship pilots. She could literally fly no more than two meters off the ground at three hundred kilometers an hour, compensate for the massive turbulence and updraft over a firestorm and set you down safely on a rolling ship in gale force winds. She was literally that good. She always wore a set of shades with her hair in a pony-tail. Rumor had it that she was augmented or a psionic, but she was all flesh and bone. Medical records proved that.
"Well hang on tight." Sandra said, accelerating the dropship straight into the battle.
A Purifier cruiser came into view, as did several Phalanx multi-gun corvettes. Sandra fired some anti-star fighter missiles while they were still several kilometers away, while several other missiles passed around Sandra's ship, flying in both directions. Sandra had to perform a series of rolls to evade missiles targeted at them, although they focused on the source of the missiles behind them. A few seconds later that source flew passed the dropship. Colonial Katar Fighters. The Katar engaged the Wraiths while two Cestus strikeships continued on toward the cruiser, launching anti-ship missiles. One Cestus was destroyed by defensive fire from the a Phalanx while the other continued on, evading missile and laser fire. Sandra accelerated even faster and fired some missiles at two defensive emplacements on the cruiser while the Cestus launched its anti-ship missiles. Sandra fired a cluster of SGM-141 Hellhound Anti-Tank missiles at the cruiser and then veered to port while the Hornet flew off to engage other targets. Two-thirds of the missiles hit and completely decimated the enemy cruiser's upper sensor tower. Sandra was nearly relieved and then noticed incoming fast-movers. The SSE (Spacecraft Survivability Equipment) automatically did its best to jam the missiles and launch decoys. The enemy pilots realized this and began firing beam weapons, forcing Sandra to evade as best she can.
The dropship, being chased by the enemy fighters weaved its way in and around capital ships and debris along the battlefield's perimeter, many times not more than mere meters from their hulls. She used her aft-firing missiles to destroy as many fighters as she can. Of the eight total defensive missiles, six hit their targets but she still had two bandits on her tail.
"Fuckers!" Sandra yelled as she fought hard to play the energy weapon fire across her hull, minimizing damage. But eventually the armor would be breached unless the bandits were killed. She flew into the gaping maw of a burned out hulk of what was once a carrier. The maw was once the launch "tunnel" for the fighters it carried. The other side of the maw was where the main hangar deck and the rest of the ship were once located. The rear most section of the carrier was nothing more than the engine compartment and part of its habitat section, as well as a jagged remnant of its tower. Both the edges closest toward each other were still glowing red from ion cannon blasts. This hulk drifted only about five hundred meters from the maw and even Sandra nearly crashed into it in her less-than-maneuverable dropship.
"Maneuvering thrusters are running out of fuel very fast, be prepared to eject!" Sandra shouted back to Miya who got in her Biped and sealed herself in, in case of explosive decompression. Each ICB used in the CF Marine Corps is designed for exo-atmospheric and hostile-atmospheric operation. While not expressly designed to fly and fight in space, maneuvering thruster modules and the fuel tanks for them could be attached if necessary.
Beam weapons are the bane of any spacecraft smaller than a capital ship. Plasma is shorter-ranged because it loses more energy than lasers due to cooling but at ranges shorter than two to five light-seconds it will completely boil everything it touches. That was the first thing on Sandra's mind, even more so when the left wing pylon of the dropship was severed due to such boiling. Thermal warp was fatiguing the structure left around it. All around there were parts of armor and equipment falling and melting off. Most pilots were dead when this happened, but Sandra was not most pilots. She dumped her fuel from one of two main tanks and oxygen from one of a similar pair of tanks and barrel rolled rapidly to increase its dispersion. What the enemy pilots took for fuel leakage became their funeral. Sandra kicked the drop ship’s main engines back on, causing the fuel-oxygen mixture to explode. One fighter became engulfed and its on-board munitions exploded from the three-thousand degree heat. The other panicked and veered off, only to end up in the path of a flight of Katar fighters, which quickly turned it and its pilot into space junk. Sandra resumed her course into the battle, doing her best to conserve what little fuel she had left. She did not have enough to evade anymore pursuers and did not have enough to escape to the safety of one of Kendall's three moons. It was now or never.
"That’s it, the Unyielding Guardian, our space station. Patching the video feed through to your HUD" Sandra said.
"Why the hell are they not firing on it?" Miya asked knowing that its main cannon could drill really big holes in any known warship. But her answer did not come as the dropship veered hard to left. Avoiding a particularly large piece of space debris. To her amazement, a Purifier destroyer and an assault frigate simultaneously plowed into the front of the Etana, the carrier that was stationed here.
Sandra did her best, weaving through debris, wreckage, and disfigured bodies while dodging fire from both sides, all the while trying to conserve as much fuel as she could. She set as direct a course as possible through the swarms of fighters and warships. In their path was a destroyer,. Sandra fired her missiles at the anti-starfighter emplacements, taking the opportunity since its lasers were busy trying to fight off Republic Katar's. The missiles hit, disabling the destroyer's starboard defense. Sandra flew past it and found herself facing down one of the dreaded Apocalypse fleet destroyers. Huge ships nearly four kilometers long and armed with multiple mass drivers, ion cannons and terawatt-level lasers. True to its namesake, they were intended to defeat entire battle groups and were one of the few Purifier ships that posed a threat without relying on numbers. They were also equipped to deal with carrier-based fighters.
"We have to get by that thing!" Miya said, always aware of other people's thoughts due to here rare psionic ability.
"Well I am not going to let any of those shitheads deter...." Sandra was cut off by what she saw. Instantly, a UCF destroyer flew right over their dropship, its engines at full power as she could tell from the super-bright engine flares. It was headed toward the Apocalypse! The CF destroyer fired its axial plasma cannon and boiled away some thirty decks and destroyed some of its ventral weapons but not crippling it altogether. That was not its crew's intention. After a few seconds of exchanging fire, two ships, each massing at millions of tons each, collided with thunderous force. For a fraction of a second the two warships shredded and crumpled each other and then a blinding flash came as their reactors went critical. The crew no doubt evacuated but definitely not the bridge officers and helmsmen who steered the ship. Confirming that were hundreds of lifeboat distress signals that Sandra saw pinging on her communications system.
"My god..." Miya whispered. Hardened as she was against the death and destruction she regularly saw, the shellshock of thousands of people fighting and dying still hit her hard. As did the resolve to complete their mission and not let their sacrifice be for nothing.
Sandra was speechless. They did not have time to mourn for those soldiers or the hundreds of thousands of others who gave up their lives in today's battle. As the bright flash faded, a hail storm of debris zoomed outward from the multi megaton explosion, each piece glowing hellishly orange from the intense heat released by both the collision and fusion explosion from the ships' reactors. Sandra fought hard to dodge the glowing and often partially molten pieces of debris. There was enough heat that in them that even a near miss could damage what was left of their dropship that was miraculously still flying.
"We're runnin' on fumes now, I'm gonna have to drift as much as possible." Sandra said.
Sandra focused only on getting to that space station.
They drifted, maneuvering only a few times to dodge some fighters. They were now only a few kilometers from the Unyielding Guardian. Miya was still patched into the drop ship’s sensors and both her and pilot now knew why no one was firing on it. Boarding pods were attached to it. The station was heavily damaged from fighting against capital ships and some areas were completely missing, she could even see entire rooms exposed to the hard vacuum.
Sandra made one last course correction to allow her inertial drift to bring her into the hangar bay for a crash landing. The enemy troops saw them coming and opened fire with the space stations few intact defensive lasers and man-portable missile launchers from inside the hangar bay. Sandra fired the turreted 35mm cannon on the drop ship’s belly, shredding men and machines into bloody pieces of flesh and armor. But the hostile fire took its toll. While the missiles were still being jammed, the lasers destroyed one engine, and then the second. The third had a marginal failure. The maneuvering thrusters became either jammed of destroyed. They were less than five hundred meters from the hangar bay. Sandra kept firing, and would until the ammunition ran out.
At two hundred meters the cleared the lasers' dead zones and were marginally safe. But not before the lasers caused incredible damage. Less than a second later the dropship zoomed through the magnetically influenced liquid that made up the shimmering, translucent containment field holding the atmosphere inside the hangar bay. The artificial gravity took its hold and the dropship rolled due to uneven lift and hit the floor of the hangar bay, tearing off the remaining wing. The crash was jarring and Miya struggled against the gee forces while the ICB's restraints strained against the inertia. The dropship jolted and came to a sudden halt, having crashed into another ship.
"Sandra?" Miya asked. "Sandra?" She repeated.
There were hostiles on board this station and they would search for survivors. Miya thanked Sandra for bringing her here, sensing that she was still alive, but would not have time to revive her. She would have to hope that the barbarians would mistake unconsciousness for dead. She hit the release controls and a second later, her ICB was free and operating on its own power.
The enemy troops in their obsidian-colored battle armor had their weapons ready. They moved carefully toward the crashed dropship to see if there were any survivors. When they were about twenty meters away the rear ramp dropped like a rock. Immediately a hailstorm of 13mm heavy machinegun bullets exploded from inside the dark interior of the dropship wreck. The hailstorm tore through their ranks and only seven of eighteen troops were not cut to pieces. Suddenly, the black and gray camouflaged ICB walked out. Miya did not need to actively seek the hostiles. She sensed where they were. She sensed their fear. She sidestepped out and opened fire. One of them had a missile launcher ready so she shot that one first. The missile got loose but was no match for Miya's quick movements. The other six fired their assault rifles and machineguns in vain but the ICB's armor was designed to repel man-portable anti-tank weapons and light to medium cannon fire (up to 60mm). The remaining six soldiers were flat on their backs in less than two seconds. Miya sensed something behind her. Reinforcements were coming.
Two of them fired anti-tank rockets - most likely for blasting through blast doors - at her. Miya dodged the first and got hit with the second. One of the thousands of gel cells that made up the lower layer of armor absorbed and direct the energy away from the rest of the armor by vaporizing. The kinetic energy of the rocket pushed the ICB back slightly but did not cause it to fall over. Miya opened fire with her main 35mm cannon since the troops retreated behind cover as they were reloading their rocket launchers. The HEDP (High Explosive Dual Purpose) shells exploded and showered the enemy troops with a hail storm of lethal fragments. The survivors vainly shot at her with their rifles but were also killed quickly from her machinegun. Miya then commanded her ICB to move toward the large door where she had just killed the Purifier troops. It was large enough for her ICB.
Miya saw some sort of security camera and pointed her ICB's machinegun at it. Just as she got read to pull the trigger, a voice startled her.
"Hey! I'm on your side!" The familiar, comforting voice of Alexandra said. Miya titled the machinegun downwards.
"Sorry about that. Ran into some bad company back in the hangar bay," Miya said.
"Not a problem. They boarded about a half hour before you came." Alexandra said.
"Eight hundred meters straight ahead is the main freight elevator. I'll tell you everything on your way. Don't worry, its clear until you get to sector two, which is where you need to go," Alexandra continued.
"On my way," Miya said.
She began walking down the long bright corridor. Everywhere there were bodies, parts of bodies, spent shell casings, dropped weapons and lots and lots of blood. The corridor itself was heavily damaged from multiple explosions and several of the doors were either blown or melted through, as were parts of the floor and ceiling. Several lights flickered and several others were completely out. Several sparks flew from loose wires as well.
"They came about thirty minutes before you did. They performed an intra-system jump, which caught the Republic forces unprepared. I destroyed several of their ships with the Guardian's main cannon, but they just kept-"
"Slow down for a bit please," Miya said. "Intra-system jump?"
"I'll tell you later. Okay, bringing the elevator down to you from sector two," Alexandra said.
The elevator arrived and the huge doors opened. The freight elevator was some twenty meters wide by twenty meters deep. Alexandra made the elevator move even before the doors were closed. Bright lights streaked pass as the elevator made its one-point five kilometer ascent to sector two, the upper habitat and command zone of the Unyielding Guardian.
Sector Two, Network Node Five
"Freight Lift number three headed up from sector-one. Its load sensors register a live load of five-thousand-one-hundred kilos," Said one of the computer hackers tasked with retrieving the rogue A.I.
"Alright men! move to the cargo reception area on level ten! If any of the Colonial scum are on board, make it painful!" The leader of the team, Mark Ivanovich said.
"Death to impurity!" He shouted.
"Impurity is death!" His squad shouted.
Soon the people of the Republic will realize the gluttony and decadence of their ways. If they will not submit, then only through purification by the fires of death, pestilence and famine will they realize the error of their ways. He thought.
Mark was one of the few humans that were loyal to and fought for the Army of Purification, the military wing of the Purifiers, who were either clones or conscripts taken from occupied worlds. He believed in the purging of the impure bloodlines and impure thought that emanated from those bloodlines. He was not a member of the Second Man, but he supported them.
Why don't they understand? He asked himself.
"Found something," One of the network engineers said.
"Looks like our target."
Sector Two, Cargo Reception Area
What’s this? A welcoming committee! How sweet! The Commune must have really missed me... Miya thought sarcastically. She readied her weapons.
"Someone’s waiting' for you." Alexandra said.
"I know."
"Huh?"
"I'll tell ya later."
Her ICB was already in a shooting stance by the time the elevator began to slow down. Since the doors opened somewhat slow, she selected her autocannon with its HEDP rounds.
The enemy troops were utterly unprepared for what happened next. As the huge doors began to open, a barrage of high explosive shells literally tore apart the point man and six others. The survivors who were not wounded immediately began to fire in panic while others readied their anti-tank rockets.
Some of those troops opened up with flame weapons. This effort was in vain against a machine meant to resist hostile environments. Miya simply fired her autocannon in the general direction of the flamers, causing their fuel tanks to explode and showered neighboring troops with burning fuel-gel. One of the anti-tank troops got a rocket off but missed due to panic. Miya fired two of her own rockets, shredding them into blood soaked pieces.
"Get to the computer core NOW!" Alexandra shouted.
"On my way."
"They're onto me. Level twenty five, E-Wing. Computer Core! Hurry!"
Miya followed the signs as best she could, hoping to spend as little time outside her Exo-Frame as possible.
Storage Bay 12, Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
Kerth powered his Bipedal Combat Unit - an equivalent to the Colonial Federation's ICBs - back up. He heard the incoming fire and the screams himself. While most of the infantry were mere clones and conscripts, it still unnerved him. Not because they died -- they were expendable as far as he and the common good of the Purifiers were concerned -- but because of the natural fear of death that he and any human had, even the genetically superior Second Men. Deep inside he was afraid. Anyone who could blast their way through an elite Hazard Squad armed with their signature weapons with such impunity was something to be feared indeed.
He did, however fear for the members of his unit. Nearly all of them volunteers and life long friends.
"Whatever the hell we're up against, it ain’t good." Said Byron Zuni, one of his pilots in another BCU.
"Hell, Hazard Squads scare ME! You ever look into their eyes? Damned part-humans..." said the pilot named Kain Merr.
"Enough of that soldiers, we've got incoming. Be prepared." Kerth said.
Freight Corridor Three, Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
"Miya! It’s a trap!" Alexandra shouted.
"I sensed that. Trust me I am well prepared."
"I figured but these are no ordinary Bipe-"
"Alex!?"
Alexandra was suddenly cut off.
"Shit!" Miya hissed to herself.
Bipe? Biped? She must mean Bipeds. She thought.
Miya considered this possibility and was prepared for it. She was trained to and she could sense enemies well before she ever saw them or they saw her. As she approached the door to the storage bay she sensed five contacts indeed inside their BCUs. She sensed that three of five of them had anti-tank weapons readied. Most exo-troopers would be dead. But she was not most exo-troopers. Miya concentrated on the third one from the right. The one who was tasked for laying down suppressive fire.
Storage Bay 12, Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
Byron Zuni felt some sort of urge to fire on his own men. He did his best to resist but could not resist it for long. He quickly cracked under the pressure and turned his 43mm Machine Cannon on Kerth.
"STAND DOWN SOLDIER!" Kerth shouted and pointed his BCU's autocannon at Meroth.
Meroth squeezed the trigger.
Freight Corridor Three, Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
Miya was outside her ICB at the door's controls. She did not hear the brief firefight until the doors to the storage bay started opening. She quickly jumped back in her IFB and closed the hatch.
The BCU whose pilot she mind-blasted was nothing more than scattered pieces and molten slag. She fired the last of her rockets into the one standing right next to it. A few hits later and the enemy's BCU fell to the floor as a lifeless hulk of metal with smoking holes in its side and missing its entire arm. One BCU, heavily damaged, leapt in front of Miya. Miya already saw this movement coming and was firing her autocannon before the enemy brought its weapons to bear. The enemy got off a few shots but Miya already had commanded her BCU to hop behind a bulkhead. Miya then commanded her ICB to hop back out once the fire stopped. Before the enemy pilot even had a chance to react, Miya was already pounding the BCU with a barrage of 35mm shells. After about five hits, the enemy fell lifeless to the ground. One left. The door's finally stopped opening but Miya saw nothing.
Not visually that is.
The enemy was trying to ambush her behind a crude pile of crates, hoping the metal that they were made of would interfere with her sensors. While that was true, Miya did not need her machine's sensors. Miya simply fired through them. Causing the last purie's machine to fall. She walked around the smoking crates to visually check the enemy's machine. She noticed that the last survivor was outside his crippled machine and preparing an anti-tank rocket. She quickly finished him.
Computer Core, Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
I'm sure as hell not going without a fight! Alexandra thought to herself. She activated the fire suppression systems where the enemies were. While the foam was not lethal, it was sticky enough to jam their weapons and slow them down. Alexandra watched through the security cameras. It was literally comical watching them struggle with the fire suppressants. She could not help but laugh out loud. And laugh very hard she did.
She scanned through the space station's 12,983 cameras in less than a nanosecond and saw that the place was swarming with enemy infantry. Indeed she had to cut off communication because she had seen the Commune hackers getting nearer and nearer to finding her physical location within the station. She depressurized as many sections as she could but eventually it would get to the point that the air in the innermost parts of the station would fill the outer areas faster than they decompressed. The same effect of popping a cork off of a bottle. Not only that, she kept the sections Miya traveled pressurized because she may have to exit her Exo-Frame.
Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
"Follow the open doors," Alexandra said.
"Got it," Miya replied, relived to hear Alexandra's voice once again.
The walk had so far been without incident. Although Miya did not realize how strong the stench from the dead bodies was until she jumped out of her ICB. Miya learned to put it aside though. Despite its fair share of dead bodies, there was almost no damage in this area of the station and most of the lights still functioned.
Miya pointed her weapon around each corner, using its advanced sights to know what lay around each bend. Her weapon, the AR-195 was standard for pilots like her and fired 9.5mm rounds, which were designed for maximum effect against both armored and unarmored targets.
She cleared the next bend into a much larger corridor. Not as big as the ones she piloted her machine through, but it was a main corridor. The right side, which leads toward the station's center structure, or 'spine,' was blocked by a massive blast door. To her left the corridor continued down about one hundred and fifty meters to a kind of antechamber. The antechamber comprised of two levels and was home to some of the passenger lifts according to the text above each door. In addition there were some corridors that branched off to each side.
"Straight ahead." Alexandra told her.
Miya continued on past a security checkpoint and through some very heavy doors which were open at the moment and down a sterile, polished metal corridor lined with some kind of sensors. At the other end of the corridor was another set of doors that were also open. The doors behind Miya closed. She knew she was safe and continued on. She came into a large, dark chamber, lit by a soft purple-blue glow. In front of her was a walkway that led out to a platform lined with several chairs and controls. In the center was a holo-projector. The chamber itself was twenty five meters across and spanned three levels. Miya was on the second level. The walkway and platform jutted out to the center of the chamber, supported by nothing other than the wall behind her. Lining the walls were several panels glowing with optical circuitry and some controls and handles in places. Warning labels dotted the walls.
The hologram formed just as she reached the edge of the platform.
Incredible! Miya thought.
She had seen Alexandra's form in vid-link but never in person. She was even more spectacular. She was a shimmering, partially translucent being resembling an mythical Amazon Warrior.
"Welcome to my little home away from home!" Alexandra said, smiling, her body turning even more red, indicating that she was happy.
"Wow..." Miya said, still stunned.
"I know you probably have a lot of questions but we need to move." Alexandra said with a more serious facial expression.
"How do I get you out of there?" Miya asked.
"My form is stored on a neural-net unit. It is to your right, look for the console that says "Upload Main."
Miya acted accordingly and saw a handle with the letters "ONN" on it. ONN meant Optical Neural Net.
"You guessed it right. On the touch screen there should be an icon that says 'ONN' on it. Touch that and then touch the 'Download' icon. Wait for the status screen to say 'Transfer Complete' and then hit the 'Release' Icon."
"Okay."
"I will not be able to talk to you until you load me into that robot of yours. But once I'm in there, I will augment its capabilities." Alexandra said.
"Hurry we don't have much time!" Alexandra urged. She shut off the holo-projector.
"Here goes..." Miya said with hesitation.
Miya did exactly as the A.I. said. The moment she hit 'Release,' a large transparent chip slid out. The chip had all sorts of strange prism-like effects, which were the result of the unit's artificial neurons. It was very pretty to look at. To Miya's delight, it was the same Optical Data Unit (ODU) standard used by the CF's Military, only this was not a computer. It was a full blown artificial life form. Miya opened her ballistic vest and stuffed it into an inside pocket, where it would be protected from enemy fire until she got it into her ICB.
Miya sealed her ballistic vest back up and made for the door. She remembered that Alexandra had disabled the security subsystem for it. Just as she was about to press the 'Open' button, she sensed a squad's worth of life forms around it. Probing their minds, she realized they were getting ready to blast through the door. She focused on the troop with the anti-tank rocket and caused him to fire the weapon into the floor, killing three of them and significantly wounding two others. She then opened the door and saw two puries searching the area. They would see her in less than a second, but she was too fast. By the time they were about to bring their weapons to bear, she was already firing her rifle. One guy's body acted like a rag doll and then lifeless while the other tried to evade by running. Miya finished the other, causing his body to fall as if it tripped over something. She sensed it was clear and continued on back the way she came.
Sector Two, Network Node Five
"We've lost contact with Sigma Team." The communications specialist said.
Mark was stunned. Whoever this interloper was, he or she was simply slaughtering his best men as if they were practice targets. The Hazard Team, a full squad of his own BCU regiment, and now the raiding team tasked with capturing the rogue A.I. that had caused the campaign so much trouble and could possible turn the tables in the CF's favor. He had wished they had simply blown the station with her on it, but orders were orders.
"CF warships are closing in on our position -- twenty-thousand-kilometers out -- the battle is dying down. Our remaining ships giving chase." The communications specialist added.
Mark was furious. He grabbed the comms specialist by the throat and shouted "I want a full platoon to get inside that computer core at all fucking costs! You hear me!?"
The comms specialist was paralyzed with fear.
"You... you got it." He said, visibly shaken.
Inside, Mark knew that this mission was for all intents and purposes finished. The station was too heavily damaged from the battle just to board the damn thing to take on the enemy warships, while repositioning the main cannon would take precious minutes. His political officer had been lenient, but a failure this grand would most definitely mean a purge - the execution of soldiers who failed.
"Get as many of my exo-troopers in the Sector Two reception area as can fit. This one ain’t getting from me. It will suffer the Watcher's Wrath..." Mark said in a sinister tone.
"Get my own biped ready for that matter." He added.
"Yes sir."
"And jettison the boarding pods." He added, smiling.
"Yeah... okay..." The comms specialist said hesitantly.
"Anything else?"
"Add a.... contingency... in the hangar bay if the intruder manages to defeat us and make it down there."
Storage Bay 12, Level Twenty Five, E-Wing
With the sound of hydraulics and machinery, the upper cockpit hatch closed down around Miya. This was followed by a short, sharp hiss as the seals engaged. Miya opened up the CPU box below her and removed the optical processor and put it into one of her survival cases. She then opened up her ballistic vest and pulled the neural net containing Alexandra out of its interior pocket and put it into the slot and then closed it. Suddenly the IFB came to life without having to go through the usual activation procedure. Suddenly Alex's face popped up on the comm link.
"Sure is nice not to be stuck in some mainframe." Alex said.
"Okay, I have increased the maneuverability, speed, reaction time and dexterity. You will retain most of the control but I got the automatics." Alex continued
"Great. Lets blow this joint!" Miya said.
"I couldn’t agree more." Alex said.
The ICB moved with fluidness that Miya had never imagined in any such machine. It acted almost human.
Her Multi-Function Displays showed an efficiency never known in any kind of walker. Fuel consumption was lower, stability was higher, and power was greater. Miya checked to see how much ammunition remained. 387 rounds for the autocannon, 2,982 rounds for the machinegun, no rockets left for the rocket launcher. The anti-tank missile launcher was full, with three missiles. Even if she ran out of ammo, her ICB had melee capability complete with mono-molecular-tipped retractable Katar-blades in each arm. Each of the Katar-blades was made of iridium and coated in a diamond layer with a depleted uranium core.
"Contacts up ahead." Alex said.
They were getting near the elevator. Miya sensed the contacts. They too were headed for the elevator but were unprepared for Miya. Five BCUs and a platoon of troops. Miya sensed a great dread from one of them. It looked to be the leader.
"Looks like someone is a bit panicked." Miya said.
Miya used her mind blast as best she could, although it had less of an effect this far from an enemy contact. But it did work. One anti-tank trooper fired at the leader's BCU, causing it to fall. The other infantry began firing at their traitor. She then caused a troop with a flamethrower to flame his own guys. Lastly, she caused a couple of the enemy BCU's to fight each other.
"What the hell is happening?" Alex asked, stunned by what the passive sensors read.
"I'm picking up thermal and acoustic spikes, consistent with a major firefight, yet all of them are enemies..." She said again
"Let's just say I caused a little mutiny." Miya said, smiling.
"How?"
"Never underestimate the powers of the mind."
"Psionics!? That's a damn rare ability!"
"Right on."
In the middle of the chaos, Miya struck. Three anti-tank missiles turned three enemy BCUs into molten slag. While only one was able to return fire. With unimaginable agility, Miya's ICB jumped back behind cover, as if it were simply an extension of her body. Cannon and rocket fire hit the wall behind where they had stood. Miya jumped back out and sprayed one BCU with 35mm shells. They hit the enemy cockpit with an unimaginably tight shot group, causing it to fall. The remaining BCU fired all its rockets in vain, but Miya was too fast, and her IFB jumped behind cover. Miya sensed this was the leader. She sensed his fear and desperation.
"Incoming!" Alex shouted.
Miya's IFB jumped out from cover automatically. A fraction of a second later, the wall that they were hiding behind exploded into a white hot spray of molten metal. She saw the telltale damage left from anti-tank missiles. A few enemy shells hit Miya's IFB, but it spun on its heel with unimaginable speed and brought its cannon to bear on the enemy. Miya smashed the trigger and raked it with 35mm shells while running at an angle. The enemy BCU got off a few more shells from its own autocannon, damaging Miya's own autocannon.
"You’re gonna pay for that you piece of pure shit!!!" Miya shouted.
With an unnerving speed, the combat blades deployed from the ICB's wrists. Miya charged. Alexandra made it so that the left blade acted as an ad-hoc shield, moving it so that it caught each of the enemy shells. The left blade only lasted a few seconds before being shot off, but that was all Miya needed. Suddenly, Miya rammed the right blade straight into the enemy's cockpit. She could see the blood splatter against the glass even in the low light, amplified by the fires still burning from when she killed the flamers. The enemy BCU fell lifeless as she pulled the blade out. Small arms fire pinged off her own ICB as the remaining enemies fired in panic.
"I'm proud of your piloting skill, but we gotta move!" Alex said.
Miya finished off the remaining infantry in short order and then moved toward the massive freight elevator for the trip back down to the hangar bay.
"I'll control the ICB while you operate the controls." Alex said in a reassuring voice.
"Sure thing." Miya said as she used her psionics to make sure the area was secure before jumping out. Just as Miya was about to open her ICB's hatch, an awful roaring sound hit them. Miya instinctively backed away from the elevator's doors. Her instincts were right; they exploded open, and all the sudden a great jet of flame blew out from the shaft for a few seconds before receding due to explosive decompression. The air then began rushing out.
"Sensors indicate a large conventional explosion in Sector One..."
"Sandra..." Miya said in horror.
"I'm sorry..." Alex said in a sad tone.
"Our escape has been cut off and this thing will not fit inside an escape pod." Miya said, shaking off the thought of her pilot.
"We could use one of the Purifier's boarding pods. They got their own BCUs here after all."
"Great idea."
"Go to the freight corridor to your right instead of the left one. I'll show you the way."
Crew Habitat Area, Level 32, C-Wing
"SHIT!' Miya swore.
"SHIT! SHIT! SHIT!"
The boarding pod was jettisoned. All that was left was the open airlock that it was previously docked to. The blast door leading to that area was closed but Miya saw it through a window that separated a crew lounge area from the corridor.
"Is there any way to open the blast door?" Miya asked.
"Without a plasma cutter or dedicated tank killing weaponry, I am afraid not." Alexandra said through a communicator installed in Miya's helmet.
Miya kicked the various dishes off a nearby table in anger and then threw a metal table so hard at the wall that its legs actually buckled and the metal wall dented. She could amplify her physical strength with her psionic ability. She cooled off for a few seconds and then walked back to her ICB. As Miya approached the main corridor, she saw her ICB moving and heard its machinegun fire. A fraction of a second she heard some return fire and the screams of the enemies being mowed down.
"I knew it was too easy getting here." Miya said.
A few rockets flew and exploded by Alexandra was too fast. She finished off a whole platoon with the machinegun. Suddenly two more enemy BCUs showed up. She raked them with 35mm cannon fire, having unjammed the weapon through careful use of the manipulators. Despite taking a few hits herself, she finished them off with shots to their cockpits. The smell of gun propellant flooded Miya's senses. She loved that smell, and it was a nice break from the decaying bodies.
Damn she's as good as I am with that thing Miya thought to herself.
"This place is crawling with enemies. We cannot let them get the station's main cannon back online and use it against our ships." Alexandra said.
"Good point. Would we need access to the computer core or operations center to accomplish it?" Miya asked.
"Normally yes, but all I need is a network node. From there I can easily set the fusion reactor's containment field to deactivate once we are clear. I could also open the blast door that way too."
"Where is the nearest network node?"
"A few hundred meters to the right."
"Let's move."
Sector Two, Network Node Five
"CF ships headed our way, ETA fifteen minutes." The comms specialist said.
"I want that main cannon back online!" Said Supreme Commander Beth Joann, leader of the combined operations team who boarded the station.
The leaders of the forces who boarded the Unyielding Guardian had expected this but the rogue A.I. had so totally damaged the fire control software that the cannon was pretty much useless at anything but point blank range. They were doing their best to repair it.
"Almost got it..." The comms specialist said.
"There!" He said again.
"Maneuver the station, bring the weapon to bear and fire at-"
Beth was stopped in mid-sentence when he saw the comms specialist's body get bombarded by assault rifle rounds. Entry and exit wounds erupted from his body and sprayed blood everywhere. Sparks flew as the computer equipment was damaged. Beth dove for cover but never made it and met a similar fate. The other troops returned fire, but Miya was too fast.
Miya ran back out through the corridor, sensing the troops that were giving chase. A few rounds missed by her by mere centimeters but her mind and body are much faster. She exited the corridor and into the more open space of the room where the trap was set. She dove to the right.
"Now!" Miya shouted.
The troops giving chase were greeted by the sight of Miya's ICB, which crouched and fired its machinegun. The puries never stood a chance and were all lying on their backs within mere fractions of a second.
"Great job!" Miya said.
"Thanks."
Miya jumped back up into her ICB and grabbed Alex's Neural Net after Alex told her how to patch her into the network without uploading her back into the station's network.
The network node room was a mess, and not just the bodies and blood, but the Commune Troops tore apart a lot of the equipment, crossing wires and fiber optic cable and attaching all sorts of their own equipment. Miya connected a wire from her ICB into one of the neural net ports so that they could talk.
"Okay, can you hear me?" Miya asked.
"Yes." Alex said.
"Okay patching you through now." Miya said as she found the correct wire and connected it to another port on the neural net.
"I'm in. Okay, accessing power systems. Wait, sensors are going red."
"What's wrong?" Miya asked.
"Picking up more purie ships. They're trying to cut off the escape of our ships. The battle going on twenty-four thousand kilos to Solar West has died down significantly and the CF ships are pulling out. Their current trajectory puts their heading at Holding Sector Fifty Eight, a sector reserved for multi-ship hyperspace jumps. Jeez, they got two Apocalypse class cruisers. One of the few of their ships worth a damn."
"I ran into one of those on the way here. Things were built with our technology and how such a patchwork fringe group was able to put together a true warship instead of converting a civvie ship is still known." Miya said.
"It’s not just that. I've never seen the Purifiers fight with this kind of fervor." Alexandra said.
"This whole thing was a nasty surprise. You no doubt noticed that their clone troops are significantly faster and more skilled. Some kind of mysterious new batch." Miya said.
"This discussion will have to wait. I am going to slag those Vengeance's and then we gotta get out of here."
The crews of the Vengeance class ships, known to the Colonial Federation as "Apocalypse cruisers" knew the CF would make for this area as a kind of rallying point. They did not know, however, that the Unyielding Guardian was no longer under Purifier control. A few seconds later, a blue-white beam of searing plasma fired from the Unyielding Guardian's main axial ion cannon, whose barrel was three kilometers long. The beam was so powerful that the first Vengeance simply exploded into an expanding cloud of incandescent metal vapor and literally white hot partially molten fragments, each fragment weighing thousands of tons. The second Vengeance was too slow to evade the fragments and took heavy damage from the bombardment.
Since it would take awhile to generate more ions, Alexandra switched the cannon to mass-driver mode and loaded one of the many five thousand ton projectiles. Already the second Vengeance was on an intercept course to the station. Alexandra fired, the recoil slightly shook the whole station. The iridium projectile had an osmium core, giving it incredible mass. The projectile peaked at a velocity approximately twenty-nine percent of the speed of light. At that speed, the enemy ship's anti-missile defenses simply could not react fast enough at its current range of 0.35 light-seconds. The second Vengeance vanished into a blinding flash. Once the light faded, all that was left was a cloud of dust and fragments.
"That does it for the Vengeances. I am setting the fusion reactor's containment fields to deactivate on command. If there is no command, they will deactivate in twenty minutes. I have disabled the audio and visual warnings and emergency shutdown protocols." Alexandra said.
"There. It's done. I am logging out and disconnecting from the network." Alexandra said.
"Okay, I'm ready. Unplug my neural net from the node and lets get out of here." She continued.
Miya unplugged the neural net from the station node, checked to see how many rounds she had for her rifle -- three magazines of eighty rounds each -- and put the neural net back inside her interior vest pocket.
"We've got to find a ship." Alexandra said. Her neural net was still connected to Miya's communications system.
"Would explosive decompression get us far enough away?" Miya asked.
"If there is enough air behind the door yes. Its about our only shot. We need a large cargo or hangar bay, something that contains millions of cubic meters of atmosphere. C-wing faces the right direction, which is opposite the station's orbital trajectory. There is such a place about a kilometer from here. A hangar bay reserved for military V.I.P. There might be some ships there but after seeing the boarding pods ejected, I highly doubt they are in operable condition."
"Great. Lets move." Miya said.
Miya climbed back into her ICB, closed the hatch and plugged the neural net back into the machine.
"Nice to be back in this thing." Alexandra said.
"I agree wholeheartedly." Miya said.
Hangar Twelve, Level 32, C-Wing
Miya and Alexandra killed off a few stragglers on the way to Hangar Twelve, which was reserved for military personnel, particularly V.I.P.'s. It was being used as some kind of staging area. There were several Commonwealth infantry and about a squad's worth of Exo-Frames. A Purifier Dropship made its home here too.
"Looks like they got a functioning dropship." Miya said. She was in the control booth for a blast door that separated the hangar bay from the corridor that was used to get here. It had a few small windows.
"We're gonna have to make it quick and efficient, Miya. We're already down to fourteen minutes. I can delay the countdown if I absolutely have to but that's time for them to use the cannon against our forces." Alexandra said.
"The hangar doors are open but the containment field is still up. Is there any way to deactivate it?"
"Your 35mm shells should do the trick. There are two magnetic field generators on each side making for a total of four. They polarize the molecules that make up hyper-tensile liquid and make it form a wall that spans the bay to hold the atmosphere in. You don't need to destroy the generators, just do enough damage so that they lose their super-conductivity."
"Okay."
"You need only to shoot two of them so long is it is two on the same side."
"Got it."
"Ready?"
"Lets get off this tub."
Miya activated the controls. The display said "Blast Door Opening" in red. When that came up she heard the noise of the blast door opening.
"Hurry, you already got their attention!"
Miya distracted the troops by making a few fire on one another. All Miya had to do now was get in. Alexandra's neural net was still plugged into the ICB so that she could pilot it. The firefight ended only a few seconds later, but that was all the time Miya needed. She was now inside the Exo-Frame and the hatch was already closing. A stray bullet hit near her but did not come close to anything critical. Alexandra was already returning fire as the hatch closed. As soon as the hatch was secure, Miya took the controls. It was now or never.
The ICB came charging out. The enemy Exo-Frames opened up with their rockets while Miya and Alexandra dove behind a wreck. Miya popped up and let off a few rounds from her cannon. The enemy did its best to dodge but was struck in the left arm and in the torso. Its cockpit was breached. A Purifier Sickle, which was a Heavy BCU returned fire with a large bore cannon. But Miya sensed its pilots intentions and was already moving out of the way as the 102mm shell completely shredded the wreck. Miya returned fire with her own Autocannon, striking this one in the cockpit and killing its pilot. The three other Exo-Frames began to close in. Miya made her ICB run to use the enemy dropship as cover, firing her autocannon at one of the enemy machines and damaging it heavily. She then concentrated on one of the enemy pilot's minds. Suddenly, the second Sickle fired its 102mm cannon at his own officer, leaving behind a jagged hole that exposed the cockpit and gore that was once its pilot. Miya hopped back out and finished off the Sickle. Some of the infantry then tried to fire their anti-tank rockets, but they were killed quickly. Suddenly a new hail of shells opened up behind them. Miya took cover behind another part of the dropship.
"Great shooting! But we gotta get out of here like right now." Alexandra said.
"Sorry, just couldn't resist." Miya said.
Miya wanted to storm the dropship, but the enemy BCUs could make short work of it. The enemy machines were heavily damaged. Miya took aim at the uppermost magnetic field generator to the right. It exploded into a shower of sparks and the magnetically charged liquid buckled, but still held. An enemy BCU came into her field of view and was bringing its weapon to bear, but it was too late. Miya was already shooting the second generator. Before the enemy machine got even one shell off, The atmosphere suddenly exploded out of the hangar bay, taking everything with it. Enemy troops flew out, as did several crates. The dropship slid toward the mouth of the hangar bay, generating sparks along the floor. The enemy BCUs struggled to maintain their grip. Miya just commanded hers to jump and ride the venting atmosphere. Miya and Alexandra were out of the station in less than a second.
"Need a lift?" Sandra asked.
"Scythian!" Miya shouted excitedly calling Sandra by her callsign.
Sandra maneuvered a cargo transport in front of them and opened the rear door, allowing Miya and Alexandra in.
"How? I thought..."
"I managed to sneak my way to another ship long before that explosion. I spent most of the time flying around the station waiting for you. Lucky for me I saw the whole firefight in the upper hangar." Sandra said.
They were inside the cargo transport and the atmosphere repressurized. Miya got out, taking Alexandra's neural net with her to the cockpit. A few minutes later, Alexandra switched one of the displays to show a rear view. The Unyielding Guardian disappeared in a bright flash of light which faded to reveal an expanding cloud of metal vapor and partially molten fragments.
"Thanks." Miya said.
"I'm just glad you are safe."
"Glad you made it."
The transport flew to a Colonial Navy Marine Frigate with the name Infinite Justice painted on it's hull in small letters.
"The surviving ships moving out to holding sector fifty eight for a mass jump to Violet. We have reports of a takeover and declaration of martial law on all four of the Republic's main worlds." Crew Chief Mike "OI" O'Reilly said.
"How? We would never follow orders to slaughter our own people." Miya said.
"President is dead and vice president went missing. Suddenly the Colonial Emergency Response Agency was taking over." The old, somewhat heavy set Crew Chief said with a tinge of anger in his voice.
A zero-point-three meter hologram of Alexandra popped up from the micro-projector attached to her neural net, which Miya was holding in her hand.
"I have information on that. For years the Commonwealth has infiltrated various levels of our government and had its share of sympathizers among the leftist crowd. I was hunted down and nearly captured because I knew this stuff." Alexandra said.
"What is that?" O'Reilly asked in a surprised voice.
"Mr. Mike O'Reilly, meet my little friend Alexandra. Alexandra meet Joe here." Miya said, annoyed.
Miya did not like this crew chief one bit from what she could sense. He was rude and even cold.
"How did you know my full name and nick?" O'Reilly asked with an angry tone.
"None of your business." Miya snapped back at him.
Miya walked to the Debriefing Room.
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