Three Square Meals Ch. 058

Calara only looked at it for a couple of seconds before she said, "They've modified an old cruiser variant. Mass Drivers fell out of favour, because of the difficulties of keeping them trained on enemy ships in a medium or close range brawl. All modern cruiser variants replaced them with heavy cannons, like those Armoured Cobra cruisers we fought."

Dana frowned as she asked, "Why not use a more modern design then?"

John had a deeply troubled expression on his face as he replied, "Maybe those designs weren't available when the R&D division started this project."

Calara looked shocked as she gasped, "That would mean they've been building a fleet of AI ships for over ten years!"

John nodded slowly, not wanting to contemplate how many ships could have been built in that time. He glanced at Dana and said, "Let's scan that facility, and find it's weak points. Then we can blow that base to pieces, and be done with this place."

She turned back to her console, rapidly setting up another active scan, but targeted on the enormous R&D facility this time.

"Take us into the asteroid belt, Jade," he said firmly. "We need to find an optimum firing position."

The Nymph gave him a smile, then followed his orders, powering up the Invictus' four huge engines and sending them into the metallic asteroid field. As she wove between the hulking asteroids, she frowned, and said, "I might be mistaken, but I'm sure I spotted what looked like doors on that asteroid we just passed."

Calara zoomed in the Tactical Map, bringing it to the centre of the Bridge for them all to look at more closely. The asteroid field was depicted in meticulous detail, and as she upped the magnification, they were all able to clearly see what Jade had just spotted. A couple of colossal blast doors were built into one of the faces of the hulking asteroid.

Irillith glanced up at John, and offered, "I can try and establish a link, and remotely open it."

"Go ahead," he agreed with a nod.

She leaned over her console, setting up a link to the facility. "Connection established," she murmured a few moments later, as her eyes darted through the gateway responses she was seeing on her display. Eventually she added confidently, "Security seems pretty good by Terran standards, but give me a minute or two, and I'll hack my way inside."

John turned in his chair, and watched Irillith close her eyes, as she used astral projection to enter the data jacks for their network. His attention was drawn back to Dana who cheerfully announced, "Active scan is complete!"

"Any obvious vulnerable spots?" he asked her. "With something that big, we'll be here all day just blasting through the metal in the asteroids."

Dana smiled at him, then said, "Just looking! Hang on a momen-..." Her voice trailed off as her eyes widened, and she cursed, "Oh shit!"

"What's wrong?" he asked her in alarm.

Her hands flashed over the console, and she replied, "See for yourself!" A moment later, the R&D facility winked into view, floating before them as a hologram. It was made up of five huge asteroids, with one in the centre, and the other four attached in a ring around the circumference. Dana hit a couple more buttons, adding an information overlay, and bright green spots flickered on at dozens of locations around the base.

"What are those?" John asked curiously.

Dana grimaced, replying, "Life signs, hundreds of them I'd guess."

"Wait, that's a good thing!" Rachel said in surprise at her reaction.

John sighed and said, "Yes, and no. It's great we'll be able to potentially rescue survivors, but we can't just take out the base now. We'll have to board the station, and either free all the prisoners first before blowing the place up, or find out a way to shut it down from the inside."

Alyssa had turned in her XO chair to look at him, and asked, "I thought rogue AI killed everything in sight? Why has it taken prisoners?"

"Maybe this one's smarter, and is using them as hostages?" John replied. "Truthfully, I've no idea why, but you're right; typically a rogue AI just murders every last Terran it can get its hands on."

"Movement on that asteroid we passed," Jade warned everyone, and they immediately looked at the tactical map to see what was happening.

The huge doors built into the asteroid were slowly swinging open, but revealed nothing in the forbidding darkness within. A couple of seconds later, internal floodlights activated, and illuminated a vast empty Hangar Bay in the hollowed out asteroid.

There was a momentary gasp as Irillith came out of her Spirit-Walk, and she said, "This whole asteroid belt is riddled with hollowed out hangars! I scanned through them all, but they're all the same... empty."

John felt his heartbeat start to quicken as he asked, "How many ships could they hold?"

Irillith paused a moment as she considered the size of the robotic cruiser, and the number of hollowed out asteroids she'd seen. "At least fifty," she replied looking worried.

John considered this for a moment, then said resolutely, "Alright, it looks like we've got to go in there and rescue those prisoners, then shut the place down. Calara and Jade will stand guard in the Invictus. I'll bring the rest of you girls with me. I expect we'll need all your respective skillsets."

While the rest of the crew nodded obediently, Irillith frowned and said, "Hold on a minute!"

They all turned to look at her in surprise, and she said, "If the prisoners are all R&D personnel, they're the ones that caused all these deaths in the first place! Why not just forget the rescue, and wipe out the base with the Invictus? We'll be done and on our way in five minutes."

Rachel gasped in horror at the thought, and Dana rolled her eyes, as she said to John, "It looks like she needs loading up again. You haven't scrubbed out all the evil yet."

Irillith raised her hands placatingly, and said, "No, it's not that. Just think of the consequences of the delay. It will probably take us several hours to rescue everyone, and what are all those AI ships doing in that time? If they've been sent off to attack a planet, we could be rescuing a few hundred people, but at the cost of billions of lives!"

Calara's frown relaxed, and after pondering this for a moment, she looked at John and said with regret, "Irillith actually makes a logical point. Demolishing the base as fast as we can might be the best option to save lives."

John looked torn as he considered this, while everyone stared up at him awaiting his decision. He eventually stood up with his jaw set decisively, and said, "Irillith makes a good point, but we need to infiltrate that base and get some answers as to where that fleet has gone. Even if we nuked the base, there's no guarantee it will knock out the AI ships, so we can't take that chance."

"I only hacked the external firewalls to access the Hangars," Irillith said. "If you give me a few more minutes, I could break my way deeper into the base, and try and find the data we need."

John was about to respond, when Faye let out a frightened squeak. "What's up, Faye?" he asked her, surprised at her outburst.

"We're under attack!" the purple sprite gasped. "There's a huge wave of hostile programs performing a brute attack on our firewalls."

"Cut the connection!" Irillith said curtly.

Faye shook her head frantically, and said, "I can't! They've taken control of the communications relay. There's no way to shut down the Gateway to our network, without someone going out on the hull and yanking out cables!"

"Can you hold them?" John asked her in alarm.

Faye shook her head in fear, and in a terrified voice replied, "No! There's too many of them, they'll break through our defences eventually!"

"I'll help!" Irillith said, getting ready to enter the cyber-realm once more.

John looked back at Faye, and said firmly, "With Irillith's help you two can do this! Watch out for each other, and keep the ship safe. We'll shut them down inside the base."

The scared AI construct nodded, then gave him a trembling salute before winking out of sight.

Dana, and Rachel had already risen from their seats and were running for the Briefing Room to get geared up. Alyssa stood up too, and said, "We better get equipped in our room. You'll need your new sword."

John jumped to his feet, then looked down at Jade and Calara, saying, "Keep your eyes peeled for a returning AI fleet, and contact us immediately if anything changes." He gave them both an encouraging smile, and added, "Take care, both of you."

While Calara waved him goodbye, Jade half-rose out of her seat, and asked hesitantly, "Would you mind if I come with you? I can ferry you there and back, then come and pick you up when you need the evac." She smiled as she added, "I haven't had a chance to fly the new Raptor yet."

"Yeah, that's fine," John agreed. "You'll only be gone a couple of minutes, and any incoming AI fleet won't be able to get here that fast."

Giving him a happy grin, Jade jogged across the Bridge, heading towards the grav-tube. With Alyssa beside him, John dashed into the dim red glow of the anti-gravity field, and dropped down to the level below. It only took a few seconds to sprint down the corridor into their bedroom, and when they burst into the walk-in wardrobe, they ran over to the armour equipping frames. John stepped into the gleaming boots of the Paragon Armour, then slipped his hands into the gauntlets. He pressed the thumb buttons that activated the robotic arms, and the triple layered armour plates were lowered into position, before he sealed the suit with a rippling series of clicks.

He stepped away from the frame the moment his Paragon helmet had been lowered into position, and reached for his resplendent new sword. Alyssa had moved to the weapon racks to begin gathering magazines and clips which she slotted into the webbing around her armour. John lifted the sword over his shoulder, then carefully positioned it so that the magnetic fields would hold it securely in place. As soon as he was done, Alyssa stepped aside to give him room to stock up on ammunition, while she did a final check on one of the Punisher rifles. She handed it over while he was securing clips to his armour, then picked up a second rifle for herself.

John watched her go through the drills he'd shown her, loading the rifle and integral grenade launcher with the practiced familiarity of a combat veteran. It was with a sudden start that he realised she'd seen more intense combat in the last few months, than most Terran Federation marines would have experienced in ten years. He felt a moment's regret at the sheer number of fraught scenarios he'd dragged her through, and couldn't help feeling he'd let her down by exposing her to such danger.

*Don't be daft,* she thought to him, touching the clear crystal facemask of her helmet against his. *I've loved every minute of it!*

*Even getting shot by a heavy laser, and having a pillar dropped on you?* he asked wryly.

She smiled at him, and replied, *Of course. I was fighting by your side.*

He felt a momentary lump in his throat, and gathered her into an embrace, made slightly awkward by the full body armour. *I love you,* he told her, with heartfelt intensity.

*I love you too, you old softy,* she replied affectionately, blowing him a kiss. *We probably shouldn't keep the psychotic robots waiting though.*

He laughed, and then led the way out of the room, and down the corridor to the grav-tube. They were just in time to see Rachel and Dana descending down the tube ahead of them, immediately identifiable by the tawny-brown and dark-red lioness holographs on their pauldrons. Stepping in after them, they dropped down to Deck Nine, and jogged through the open double doors into the Hangar Bay. Dana and Rachel were already disappearing inside the Raptor, so John and Alyssa ran up the ramp to follow them.

John paused to hit the button to raise the loading ramp, then went through the door at the back of the room, and then up a floor in the grav-tube. Dana and Rachel were already buckling themselves in to the seats opposite, and the redhead grinned at him, giving him a thumbs up. He gave them a warm smile in return, then walked over to the other end of the cockpit, where Alyssa was sitting in the pilot's seat, watching Jade go through the pre-flight checks.

"Mind if I take us in?" she asked Jade with a smile. "I haven't flown the Raptor in ages."

"Be my guest," Jade replied with a smile, quickly switching over to the co-pilot's seat.

Calara's image appeared in John's helmet HUD, and she said, "I've gone over the scan results, but I can't see any defence grid on that base. This facility is so deep in Terran Federation territory, I guess the R&D division figured there was no point. It should be plain sailing getting over there, but I'll be keeping a close eye on you, just in case."

"I appreciate it, Lieutenant, thank you!" he said, giving her a reassuring smile.

She gave him a sharp salute, then relaxed her posture and blew him a kiss. "You take care, now," she said softly.

"You too, gorgeous," he replied, before closing the call.

Alyssa had powered up the engines, and the gunship started to lift off the ground, then swept smoothly to the side as she guided them out of the assault cruiser. As he glanced up at the cockpit canopy overhead, the view changed from the grey titanium interior of the hangar, to the breathtaking vista of sparkling stars against the jet black of space. The Raptor rotated in place, then blasted forward, accelerating at an almost unbelievable rate. The station loomed worryingly large through the canopy, and for a moment John thought they were going to slam into one of the asteroid walls.

"Oops!" Alyssa call over her shoulder playfully. "This is the first time I've flown the Raptor since we upgraded it. Let's just say the new engines have a hell of a kick to them!"

Dana laughed with glee, and said, "I can't wait to see the Raptor in combat. Any fighter pilot thinking she's an easy target is going to end up shitting bricks!"

Jade chuckled along too, and with an eager gleam in her eye said, "I really want to be the pilot when that happens!"

John grinned at them both, then looked at Rachel who was currently staring off into the distance, her expression pensive. He squatted down in front of her, placing his hands on hers, and asked, "Everything okay, Rachel? You look a million miles away."

She focused on him, then gave him a bashful smile, and said, "Sorry, I was just distracted for a moment there."

"Worried about something?" he asked her with concern.

She nodded, saying, "Just wondering what kind of state these prisoners might be in. I've brought more emergency treatment gear than normal, just in case."

"Good thinking," he replied with an approving smile. "Let's hope we won't need it, but better to be prepared."

"Coming in to dock," Alyssa called to them, and John stood up to look out through the cockpit.

Alyssa had brought them around to the top level of the R&D station, and amidst all the communication spires and control towers, they could see deep recesses in the surface. The excavated sections were filled with maintenance gantries and loading areas, and they could make out the telltale sign of landing lights in the murky gloom below. She dipped the nose of the gunship, then dropped inside the surface of the base, and there was a flickering haze as they descended. John recognised it as signifying them having just passed through an atmospheric shield, and it disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.

Predictably, there were no signs of life when Alyssa brought them down to land inside the asteroid base. Long shadows filled the interior of the docking bay, and everything looked still and ominously peaceful. Jade pressed a button on the console in front of her which lit up the Raptor's external lighting, sending the shadows scurrying away from their white radiance.

"Let's move out," John said, his voice strong and authoritative.

***

Irillith had appeared abruptly in the cyber-realm, but began moving immediately, suffering none of her previous disorientation when switching between realities. There was a system wide alert in progress, which appeared as brightly glowing red letters across the featureless black sky, or ceiling, Irillith hadn't quite decided which.

It read: "Primary gateway under assault! All defensive programs activate emergency protocols!"

She ran towards the firewalls guarding the way in and out of the IntOps Console, and the moment she dived through the walls, the Maliri lifted into the air and raced along the network to the primary gateway. They had both spent hours reinforcing this point, in anticipation of an external assault, and the moment Irillith arrived, she was extremely glad they had done so.

Through the multi-layered defensive walls, which appeared translucent to her, but opaque to invaders, she could see a vast teeming horde of programs assaulting the outer layer. There were code breakers, logic probes and a broad variety of hacking programs all affixed to the outermost wall, all pushing hard to force their way through. Even more worrying were the multitudes streaming in as reinforcements. Faye ran across the silvery floor to join her, a look of panic on her face.

"There's so many of them!" she gasped in shock. "It's like a denial of service attack, but made with offensive programs instead!"

"Stay calm Faye, we'll be alright," Irillith said with a confidence she certainly didn't feel, kneeling down to give the purple AI a comforting hug.

Faye squeezed her tightly, and then relaxed a little. Her tiny face looked much happier when she pulled back and said, "It feels so reassuring being able to do that. Okay, Creator, what's the plan?"

Irillith grinned at her, and said, "Let's show these rude programs the consequences for their poor manners. I'll take tower one, you take two!"

Faye's luminous purple eyes shone with excitement, and she sprinted away to the second of the towers set back from the walls. Irillith wasted no time, and raced over to the first. She placed her slender blue hand on the base of the tower, and it scanned through the robust security protocols verifying her identity. A green check flashed on the wall in front of her and she stepped through the wall, then rose swiftly up into the tower. She quickly reached the top, floating up through the floor, which seemed to solidify after she had safely passed through. A luxurious chair appeared behind her, and she sank back into its comforting embrace.

A targeting grid appeared before her, and two controls materialised above her hands. With an eager smile she grasped each of the controls, and felt a shiver through her arms as she established a secured connection to the turret. Long twin cannons appeared on either side of her, and as she stared at the rampaging horde on the far side of the walls, targeting reticles appeared, one for each of the pair of cannons.

She glanced to her right, and Faye gave her a cheerful thumbs up. Irillith closed her eyes for a moment, and established a direct link to the AI, so that they'd be able to communicate easily over the din of battle.

"Let's do this," she said to the sprite.

***

John had his weapon ready as he jogged down the ramp into the hangar, with Alyssa, Dana, and Rachel fanning out to flank him. They moved quickly across the large cavern, their armoured footsteps sounding loud and metallic as they walked across the titanium grilled flooring. There were no signs of trouble here, just a couple of abandoned load lifters and grav-trucks which would have been used to unload cargo from supply freighters.

They reached the broad set of doors built into the rocky wall of the asteroid's surface, and John hit the button to open them. Nothing happened, so he tried again, but there was still no response.