《Building Home》 1. Preparations

Preparations - Edited 11-8-2018

We gathered at the unveiling ceremony for the Arks. It wasn¡¯t exactly a secret, though it also wasn¡¯t mentioned. The news outlets had recently run a story on the giant ships constructed in the shipyards above Luna. It didn¡¯t take long for private observatories to note that there were similar facilities in orbit around Mars, Venus, and in the asteroid belt that separated the inner from the outer solar system. Selected from various branches of the military, some of us due to intelligence, others due to skill and ability. The Marines that were selected were chosen by fire team, not by squad or platoon, though there was often a lot of overlap. When my platoon was selected, I was also extended an offer. Marines or Navy. If I transferred to the Navy, I would no longer be a Second Lieutenant, but a Lieutenant. A full jump in grade. I would also have to, obviously, re-rate. After all, the Navy didn¡¯t have Combat Engineers. ¡°During the trip, while you are in Cryo, your brains will still be active and functional. This trick was discovered by the Russian Coalition to help the asteroid miners. For them, they were given entertainment sims. They get to play out a role in an epic story, saving the princess or being the action hero. Those sims are functional for them. For you, we have a different program.¡± Admiral Johansen was giving the assembly a well-rehearsed speech. ¡°It will help you learn the ship''s functions as well as teach you the new skills you will need for a future in the stars. Most important, is that it will keep your brain alive during the long stretches of hibernation. Each Ark is staffed by roughly fifteen thousand military personnel and will have between ten and twenty thousand civilian passengers.¡± ¡°The Civilians will be in a cryo state like what the Miners are experiencing as they make their trips out to the asteroids. The two simulations will not overlap. Many of you will already have a passing familiarity with the Virt-P¡¯s. For those of you who don¡¯t, these pods use the designs from the Terran Academy. The Martians and Venusians have similar technology, so deciding on the design was simple. These pods now integrate a cryogenic function for forced hibernation. You will be brought out of Cryo every six months for a physical. ¡° This information, for the most part, wasn¡¯t anything we hadn¡¯t heard before. We had received our orders, reported for duty, and been tested and reviewed for our security clearances. While on the Le Grange base, people had, of course, been talking. A piece third-hour news reported here, an unsubstantiated rumor there, we all knew there was something big happening, and that all the planets and colonies in Sol had decided to work together on this. Scuttlebutt had it that we would be starting the first extra-solar colony, and we selected military were to be the guardians for the civilians. That last bit seemed to be the kicker for us being an extra-solar colony. None of the military selected had any family left, with the rare exception of full military families. I listened to the droning of the Admiral. No new info, yet, and I was dying to hear new info. That we would have the Virtual Pods was a nice, though, reminiscent touch. I had done the entirety of my academy time in one. ¡°With these new enhancements to the Virt-P¡¯s, we will be able to keep us alive and sane for the entire 67 years of travel.¡± 67 years? Where were we going? I had been learning about the new engines that were installed on the Arks. Theoretically, the new engines could propel us up to 99.9997% c. That would be¡­ I did the calculations in my head, but the numbers seemed impossible. Almost an 11,000 light year trip? The Admiral finished his speech, and I was accosted by a notification coming in on my neural implant to report to training. Another wonderful day of learning my duties the days I was supposed to be in CIC. I had taken similar classes less than three years ago when I graduated OCS, but the AMTs (Marine Assault Transports) are fundamentally different from a ¡°standard¡± Navy ship. The Arks were nowhere near standard. I followed the notifications to the training room. The class was more than full. By my count, there would be enough of us to staff an Ark three times over. More interesting was that there were enough fresh faces that I knew I hadn¡¯t seen my current classmates in any of the previous courses I had been through in the last two months. I could tell this thanks to the wonders of eidetic memory. Some would call it cheating, but as the Headmaster was fond of saying ¡°It¡¯s not cheating if you were born with it.¡± I half listened as the class instructor droned on about managing the power output on the Thorium reactors, and I decided to double check the calculations on the 67-year journey. Sure enough, if we were able to accelerate to that degree, we would be looking forward to 10,500 light years. Based on the calculations that would give us a relative time dilation of 66 years and change. My Neural ¡°blipped¡± an alert to me. Time to head to my next class. The only problem I had so far with this set of orders was the number of courses I had to deal with daily. Thorium Generator Management, Drone Maintenance for Maintenance and Repair Bots, Drone Control Systems, the list went on and on. Today was the exception for my 14-hour work day of classes, but that was only because of the three-hour briefing that was an ¡°all hands¡± for us being shipped out. Over the next month, there were two additional briefings, though, they were much shorter. We learned that we would be headed to a Sol-like solar system, which had three planets in the habitable zone. The worlds were going to be named after the Sumerian pantheon, with the three in the habitable zone being named after the Sumerian deities ¨C Nammu, An and Ki. We also learned exactly how many Arks were coming with us. Twenty. Each Ark would have close to fifteen thousand military personnel and almost double that of civilian passengers. There were more assurances that there would not be any cross over into our simulations. Today we were even given our billets. I was assigned to Ark-5. Our classes were segmented by ship from then on; our instructors were replaced by the ship AI. The primary AI of each ship was someone who was an ¡°Immortal¡± in history. The fleets research AI were named after ancient gods and goddesses of wisdom, and the AI that would be handling our sims were named for gods and goddesses of chance, choice, fate, and games. Ark-5 had Rasputin, Hera, and Yama. One month later, the last of the civilians had been selected and screened. I was then introduced to my new fire team. Technically I was re-introduced to the old platoon I had overseen, which meant that there was some basic ribbing over the change in my uniform. I knew the team, though, and soon we were back to our old habits. Of course, some members of the old platoon hadn¡¯t passed their screenings and personnel was shuffled around. There would be some patrols while the civilians were secured, as well as during DC (damage control) drills. There were a few mixed platoons throughout the fleet, thanks to everyone who had been shuffled around to fill in the ranks. The month and a half it would take us to get Out-System, beyond the outer Oort Cloud, was to be used getting ourselves familiar with our duty rotations. For every six months in relative time, that is time as we perceived it while traveling near the speed of light, we would be ¡°in the game¡± all but two weeks. This was when we learned about the time dilation piece in more detail. We would perceive time more slowly while we were in cryo. The additional brain power, as well as the processing power from our neural implants, would be used to subsidize the ship AI controllers. There was only so much space we could use for processing, and with as many of us plugged in as there would be, the AI needed a little help. So, they would slow down or ¡°In Game¡± time so that 6 months relative was again dilated, even more, to feel like two weeks. This additional dilation and use of ¡°supplemental firmware¡± would help synchronize everyone. The fourteen days outside of game would be synchronized so that it would be one of our ¡°off duty¡± days in the game. Roughly 24 relative hours equaled one in-game hour. We were cycled in, without cryo so we could understand what that really meant. You could tell someone, and that person could have a feel for it, logically, but to grasp that difference, you needed to experience it. So, we cycled through while the civilians were placed into their pods. It was strange. No, ¡°strange¡± doesn¡¯t cover it. It was disconcerting. The ship layout was simplified but recognizable. Instead of the central deck as well as the eight up and eight down to include everything, there were three decks in total. Instead of having hangars for patrol craft as well as hangars for cargo craft on port and spin-ward, front and aft, there were only two, total. Same with our Thorium power plants. Just one power generation plant instead of ten. One medical bay instead of one per deck, and so on. I was just starting my duty rotation as we passed the Oort cloud.

Preparations - original

¡°During the trip, while you are on ice, you will be fully plugged in. The immersion pods will keep your brain alive for the six months, relative, that you are asleep.¡± The pre-launch lectures were annoying, but more than likely necessary for those that haven¡¯t gone through their training. At least the auditorium seats were comfortable. We had been selected for Ark 5 and had survived training, psych profiling, and background checks. Each time we went through another training segment we¡¯d lose more of our 35,000 ¡°potential¡± crew, hopefully ending up with more than our 10,000 minimum crew complement. Beside our Ark, there were another 19 leaving on this 10,700 year ¡°actual¡± voyage. When we are awakened for our first ¡°tour¡±, most of the people we knew on Earth, Mars, Venus, or anywhere else in our solar system will be dead. Special relativity is a bitch.Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. ¡°Many of you have been in a VirtP¡¯s already, so you should be familiar with the interface, for those of you who have not, pay attention¡­¡± I was starting to zone out. Most of us alive have been in a Virtual Pod, or a VirtP. At a minimum it has been for education. For the wealthy that will be joining us, it was mostly for playing games. They could still afford to hire a real person for their education. I was ¡°fortunate¡± enough to have a Virt Tutor through my entire life. The Tutors were advanced Virtual Intelligences (Vis¡¯) which was a good thing. Machines doesn¡¯t let you slack off, and because it was a virtual education space, they could customize your education. I finished my primary and secondary education at a quicker rate than expected thanks to a combination of my eidetic memory and the tutor assigned to me. Thanks to the VirtP¡¯s, schooling was a very different concept than in the 24th century and before. I was in a class with over 5,000 students for my first three years. That¡¯s when I started to show promise in mathematics. The following year my class was just over 2500, then about 2000, 1700, 1000, and by the time I finished primary school, I was part of a semi-elite 810 people. As the years of education came and went, the class sizes would fluctuate every trimester as people who we left behind in previous years caught back up, and those that had been struggling to keep up fell back a step. I finished secondary school in a class of 5. English was my weak subject, but as a native speaker of one of the three major trade languages, I wasn¡¯t worried. The physical sciences and mathematics were my strengths. The same went for the other 4 in my class. We were all graduated at 15. After school, I ¡°decided¡± by way of opting out of deferred enlistment, to join the military. Deferred enlistment was the fancy way of saying that our required public service wouldn¡¯t be required until after we graduated from University. The decision was because the orphanage I grew up in was funded by the government, so strings were attached for those of us that never were adopted. The TSF (Terran Space Force) was an interesting time in my life. The 26 weeks of ¡°boot camp¡± as it was called consisted of what could be considered a combination 21st century US Marines training and 23rd century Chinese Space Navy training. My aptitude tests scored high enough, so I could choose where I would spend my next 4 years. I chose to be a part of the CBs, or the Construction Brigade so I could help build military grade "defense" platforms. Defense wasn''t really needed as there were treaties between all three majority colonized worlds. The unstated truth was that these platforms were really asteroid busters. My third year in, the Imperial Martian Academy of Astronomy discovered a new ¡°Sol¡± like solar system with three primordial earth like planets and named the solar system Meso. The three planets were named Enlil, Anu, and Enki, after a trinity in the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon. Normally this wouldn¡¯t have meant anything, except that some of the theories for Near to Light (NTL) travel seemed to be bearing fruit on the practical level. The first and most efficient of which was from the Peoples Republic of Venusian Free States. Their prototype Neutrino Burst Engines would be capable of reaching a theoretical 99.9998c. If testing showed positive results, that would mean that a trip could take as few as 22 years relative. Something highly survivable by current human life, without extensive genetic modifications. Testing unfortunately showed a much ¡°slower¡± speed. Only 99.9994c. A combination of mass, solar winds, and galactic dust was playing havoc on the speeds during practical tests. That speed lowered the relative time to 37 years. Just long enough to start creating psychological problems if someone was awake for the entire trip. The final piece of the puzzle came a month later from the Union of Soviet Social Interests, or the §ã§ã§à§Ú. A joint reseArkh project between I. I. Mechnikov Odessa National University, Khmelnitskyy National University, National Mining University, and Poltava National Technical University had just finished a 60-year safety study, whose focus was for deep space survival from mining accidents in the Oort Cloud. The goal of the project was to minimize travel time from the seven-year one-way trip. The answer ended up a form of cryo with stimulated cerebral interfacing. Essentially the person entering cryo would be dosed with DMT, then a combination cryo-rig and Virt Pod could be used to have the travelers play a part in a HoloVid, or in a game. The Cryo/VirtP¡¯s would do some fancy mental manipulation where one day actual/relative would be one hour in game. The human brain needed to use the rest of its capacity during cryo to ensure the brain stays alive and "safe" as well as the external VI needing to have things slowed down to manage it all. ¡°Those of you that have served in any of the militaries will be required to group with your assigned fire teams during the game. Those of you that have been trained for the additional duties will be required to work with your teams in game as well. Remember, you will be pulled out of game every six months so that you can have a physical as well as to attend your duty stations for standard maintenance and monitoring for your two-week shift. You WILL be on for 12 hours each day for these shifts. Any questions?¡± We all knew that was rhetorical. Anyone asking questions at this point either didn¡¯t pay attention, or they bought their way on board. That last group was usually smart enough to not ask a question as they knew they could get kicked off the ship. ¡°Be prepared for drills. Dismissed.¡± Today¡¯s briefing finally was over. This same briefing had been done once a week for the last three months. "One more" month of training this was the third time they said this) and we were scheduled to be off. In game, once we started the trip, we would have roughly three years in game. Due to the mass of the Arks, the expected relative time in game would be 83 years. An estimated 166 trips into the game with a two weak duty cycle, or tour. This next month would be mostly validating duty schedules, time in pod estimates, and more ¡°bug fixes¡± for the assigned Vis. Thanks to my education and military service, I would have not only a fire team to group with, but also a two-week shift split between Bridge Duty and Engineering. In the unlikely event of boarding or first contact, I am also on the docket to be ¡°popped¡±. That¡¯s what we call a forceful ejection and emergency thaw from the pods. I say ¡°unlikely¡± because it¡¯s the third century NCE (New Colonial Era) and still there have been no signs of intelligent life outside of Sol. The NCE started when Mars had its first successful (third actual) colony in 2683 AD. The first two having failed due to the now defunct process of lowest bid gets the contract, leading to dome cracks. Mars, due to there being no magnetic field, still to this day, required domes. 18 NCE the first colony landed on Venus. 104 years later, Venus was terraformed, and the domes opened. Most of the terraforming technologies had been used for the last give hundred years to stop the Earth from having a runaway greenhouse effect, much like with is theorized to have happened to Venus to begin with. The pattern of training and lectures took six months before we reported to our final duty stations. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Each Ark was over five kilometers long and just over one and a half kilometer at its widest, shaped not dissimilar to an arrow head. The bridge was central to each craft with thorium generators spaced every ? kilometers with a spider web of power cables between them to ensure that every part of the ship is always with power. Cargo drop pods contained terraforming equipment, hangars had several ships for defense as well as asteroid tugs to ensure that metals and ice could be harvested without us having to destroy a planet to get what resources we needed. We even had our gate schematics class IV Fabricators and our builder drones so once we arrived we could build a gate allowing for travel back to Earth¡­ though everyone we know and everything we know will be long changed since leaving. Final crew compliment on Ark-5 was just under 16,000 with another 4,000 passengers. The combined staffing for all 20 arks was just over 350,000 and 45,000 passengers. A passenger being someone with neither the technical experience nor military experience to have assigned as part of their duties. Many of these were basic trades persons such as stone masons, tailors, and cobblers. Every six months while doing standard maintenance we will also be checking the status of the gate builds. Between us and the other 19 Arks, we will be dropping a gate every few hundred light years with the first having been deployed near our moon to allow for quicker transit between Earth and Oort cloud for mining purposes. This is what my duty rotation was shaping up to be: For the six weeks out system, I would be on standby for either engineering or patrol duties ¨C stand-by being ¡°on call¡± while not on actual duty. During this six-week period I would have three days total on the bridge. One as an engineer, the other two on guard duty. 21 days I would be on duty in one of the Thorium plants, 10 days in the primary engine room, and five days in the secondary engine room. The last sixteen days would be a mix of standard patrol sweeps, security in cargo or docking, and my (and most others) least favorite, getting my physical screenings checks and everything else taken care of for pre-hibernation. We were all already wired with the neural interfaces, so at least the majority of the pre-cryo was quick. The not so quick part was the pieces that I am sure haven¡¯t changed since the second era ¨C reflex tests. Scoring slightly above average in my reflexes and speed and slightly under average in strength was what I was expecting. I had always been more of a ¡°quick strike¡± than a heavy weapons specialist. Besides, I was the brains, the grunts would do all the heavy lifting. Once past the Oort Cloud it was time to start our standard rotations. Six months in cryo/hibernation/in game, then two weeks ¡°awake¡± and in the physical for standard duty shifts. The down side is that until you have done your two-week shift you didn¡¯t get a chance to be ¡°in game¡±. So those of us at the tail end would be getting shafted a little bit. Fortunately, with the way that everything is slowed down inside, there wasn¡¯t going to be too much time lost. The game was set to keep our skills sharp so that after almost 90 years in cryo we would still be able to do our jobs. Technically that is also what the two weeks on duty shifts were for, with the difference being that the day/night cycles once we were planetside in -game would be similar to the planets we were going to be on. Anu, for instance had a slightly longer rotation than Earth at 25 hours, so this would in theory help us prep for those longer days. I was psyched because it would give us an extra hour of sleep for the nights we weren¡¯t on watch. Civilians, on the other hand, would start ¡°getting used to¡± a 9-hour work shift with a one hour lunch break instead of their ¡°standard¡± 8 on with a half hour meal break. According to what had been mapped out, Anu was supposed to also have a six-day week to make the calendar work properly at the ¡°standard¡± 52-week year. There was already talk for us not keep to the Sol standard, but not until we had passed Jupiter. 2. Pulse Failure

Pulse Failure - Edited 11-8-2018

Something was wrong. Really wrong. The flashing lights in my quarters were a dead giveaway on that. The alarm klaxon may have also hinted along those lines. Ship policy was to do everything in a ship--suit, so except for showering, some medical tests, and the occasional ¡°extra-curricular¡± we would always be ready if an emergency occurred. Strapping on my helmet then ensuring a static and safe connection I used my neural implants to verify my immediate environment.
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Grunt
Status: Full Suit Integrity No Armor
Air: 120:00 External Safe
Gravity Earth Normal Stable
Accessories: None
Weapons:
The status screen appeared hovering in my field of view. Standard Heads Up Display style. Good news, there weren¡¯t any breaches and gravity is stable. It was time to earn my paycheck. Seeing as how there weren¡¯t any announcements to abandon ship, I figured that Engineering would be the best place to get news. ¡°Engineering, this is Jax, I¡¯ve just got dressed up for a night out, can you tell me a good place to find a date?¡± ¡°Jax, good to hear from you. You in your berth?¡± ¡°Roger that, no one worth getting in trouble with. Seeing as how you are asking where I am,¡± I popped the door from my berth to witness the controlled chaos of DC drills, ¡°Can you tell me where I¡¯m needed? Lots of chickens, few heads attached from my POV.¡± ¡°We need people in the Thorium reactor at UP-5-Port, Fore of frame 20, or at the starboard engine array, you¡¯re first to call in, so the choice is yours.¡± The disadvantage of all engineering berths being ¡°centrally¡± located is that there were almost too many areas we could report to for our Damage Control teams. Seeing as how those of us still aware are also military, it means we can get plugged into any DC team at any time, as well. ¡°Let the DC teams know I¡¯m 180 out from the star-drives. Jax OUT!¡± I grabbed a toolkit from the storage locker outside my cabin and attached it to my utility belt, then turned and started to jog. You don¡¯t run on a ship unless the shit is seriously hitting the fan. By the sounds of things, there was a failure somewhere that caused a power spike that knocked a relay out, which, in turn, started a cascading feedback surge that took out at least one of the Thorium generators as well as some of our engines. The lifts would still be working, but I hit the ladder well to save some time. Two and a half minutes, three decks and a half kilometer later, I arrived at the corner to see a hatch launched from the Engine room which turned a damage control team into jelly; then the concussive force knocked me on my ass as a fireball erupted from what used to be a viable engine room. I came to a few(?) seconds later with the alarms in my helmet screaming at me, feeling like I just woke up from a month-long bender in Tijuana. My HUD flashed an alert to check my suit status, which was now flashing red with a notice of ¡°Integrity failed - Multiple breaches detected.¡± My air was going down fast, too fast. I saw it fall almost four seconds for every one that passed in actual time. I needed to start patching everything I could find. The crack in my helmet would be an excellent place to start. The problem was I couldn¡¯t feel it with my gloves on, and with the fire suppression activities, I could risk opening any new breaches. I grabbed the MK-1 Scanning Utility from my belt and started to pull up the information that was detected. That¡¯s when I noticed my left arm wasn¡¯t working and the pain started. ¡°Engineering, Jax! We have a big problem. The DC is down, repeat the DC TEAM IS DOWN! I got here just in time to see the pressure doors vaporize them! I¡¯m also going to need a medic for me and some more help down here so we can un-fuck this! Fire suppression is active, and I have multiple breaches in my suit!¡± The Scantron beeped at me. That was five failures that will kill me in less than 113 minutes. I started to stand up, grateful that my boots had mag-locked me to the deck, so I didn¡¯t go ballistic. Bad move, the air counter plummeted. I must have torn the ass out of my suit as the blast pushed me along the deck. ¡°I¡¯m headed to the nearest air shelter, so I can patch my suit!¡± The emergency ¡°shelter¡± more closely resembled a ¡°tent¡± with air tanks that could be set up anywhere a seal could be made. The nearest was in a cabinet to my left. A large chunk of shredded bulkhead had bent the cabinet into what could only barely be considered a ¡°non-fused¡± state. There was a sizable chance I would be responsible for cutting out and testing the shelter once this clusterfuck was resolved. The nearest one I could trust was 100 meters further back the way I came. I popped the locker and pulled the shelter out connecting it to the ceiling immediately, that way I could be out of the direct path of the DC teams, glad that an engineer had designed this all to be handled with only one arm. As the tent was sealing itself to the ceiling, I grabbed the med kit from the emergency cabinet and attached it to my belt as well. I then grabbed a second patch kit and started to work my way into the shelter. Getting into the tent was not designed with that same foresight, and I was almost forced to empty my stomach from the pain as I had to seal in the outer door while pushing oxygen into the shelter primary. 76:12 was the reading on my air status when everything equalized, and I could start removing my suit to patch it, but first, what the fuck is wrong with my arm? The medkit had a bio-scanner MK-2 that told me that not only was my shoulder dislocated, but so was my elbow. I was also supposed to check into medical for a neural trauma test, but what would the docs tell me? ¡°Looks like you hit your head hard enough to break your helmet. You might have a concussion.¡± Seriously. What can I say, I¡¯m gifted. Following the ¡°quick fix¡± guides that were uploaded from the ship through my Neural link, I was able to get my elbow back into joint. After that, I didn¡¯t even try with my shoulder. When I came to from passing out, I noted someone had entered the shelter, thrown up, and left. That was my story anyway. The saving grace was that the med kit also had some sensory inhibitors so I could ignore the pain¡­ which I didn¡¯t see until after when I was looking for a way to make a sling or something else to keep my arm immobilized. Fifteen minutes of work after that, and an O2 recharge later, I was collapsing the emergency shelter entrance so I could meet up with the next DC team. My status had restored itself partially and was in the yellow. A friendly notice of ¡°replace immediately¡± was in the status to taunt me because field repairs were never as good as a new item. My HUD was showing that my status was still ¡°iffy,¡± but I could work with that. Grabbing my tools and the patch kits, me and my now silver patched ship suit (duct tape works for everything) headed back to the engine compartment. While heading back to the compartment, I was grateful to see that there were no active fires. NextGen fire suppression systems for the win! ¡°Engineering, Jax here. I haven¡¯t heard back from you in a few. What¡¯s the status on the new DC team and my pecker checker?¡± Nothing. Shit. ¡°Medical, this is Jax, do you read me?¡± More shit.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story. ¡°Bridge?¡± Well, this cluster just seriously upgraded to FUBAR straight past SNAFU. I headed into the engine rooms, and past a few floating and congealed globes of what appears to be a mix of blood and a fire retardant. Floating in the null gravity was what seemed to be a ring finger sans glove (but with the wedding band still attached). I was not ready for the carnage that I saw, if carnage is even the right word for the machine equivalent of a bloodbath. Okay, priorities. Maybe I should swap 2 and 3 around. And move 4 to the top. I should also not put off going to medical, but that was up for debate if there were still pain inhibitors. Heading towards the primary engineering console which appeared to survive magically, I started seeing the shadows move. Not moving in the same way that they would flicker from a fire, but they seemed to be getting darker, denser, and figures or shapes were appearing in them and moving. It was probably just the head trauma making itself known. I passed to the other side of the engineering console, the system wasn¡¯t acting like a system. ¡°Rasputin, you there?¡± I asked the ship AI through the local channels ¡°Jax? Are you calling from the engine room? I am not detecting your life sign on board.¡± That was a bit disconcerting ¡°Yeah, Rassie, I¡¯m here. Showed up just as the room went ¡°boom¡± and got knocked on my ass. Do you have contact with the rest of the ship? We need to get a second DC team here. The first ended up as a smear.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? The second team is already in the engine room.¡± ¡°Not a good time for you to work on your humor Ras. I have minor-ish head trauma and a dislocated shoulder.¡± ¡°Jax, your life sign is not on board. Petty Officer Torres is in the engine room with her team. There is no sign of you, other than me registering that this communication is originating from the Engine Room Torres is in.¡± Then the next explosion happened. Well, I¡¯m calling it an ¡°explosion¡±. What it the closest comparison is was every atom in your body shitting itself. My scream was promptly interrupted when my I threw up. In my helmet. There wasn¡¯t even anyone else around that I could say did it. Then I fell about five feet and landing with the engineering console in my left side. Yes, IN. I promptly threw up and passed out, again.

Pulse Failure - Original

Something was wrong. Really wrong. The flashing lights in my quarters were a dead give away on that. The alarm klaxon may have also hinted along those lines. Ship policy was to do everything in a ships suit, so except for showering, certain medical tests, and some ¡°extra-curriculars¡± we would always be ready if an emergency occurred. Strapping on my gloves and helmet then ensuring a static and safe connection I used my neural implants to pull up what I could
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Grunt
Status: Full Suit Integrity No Armor
Air: 120:00 External Safe
Gravity Earth Normal Stable
Accessories: None
Weapons:
The status screen appeared hovering in my field of view. Standard Heads Up Display style. Good news, there didn¡¯t appear to be any breaches. Time to earn my paycheck. Seeing as how there weren¡¯t any announcements to abandon ship, I figured Engineering would be the best place to get news. ¡°Engineering, this is Jax, I¡¯ve just got dressed up for a night out, can you tell me a good place to find a date?¡± ¡°Jax, good to hear from you. You in your berth?¡± ¡°Roger that, no signs of a 50k AU hookup yet. Seeing as how you are asking where I am,¡± I popped the door from my berth to witness the controlled chaos, ¡°Can you tell me where I¡¯m needed? Lots of chickens, few heads attached from my POV.¡± ¡°We need people in the Thorium reactor at UP-5-Port, or at the starboard engine array, you¡¯re first to call in so you get first pick.¡± The disadvantage of all engineers being ¡°centrally¡± located is that there were many areas we could report to for our Damage Control teams. Seeing as how most of us are also military, it means we can get plugged into any DC team at any time, as well. ¡°Let the DC teams know I¡¯m 180 out from the star-drives. Jax OUT!¡± I grabbed a tool kit from the storage locker outside my cabin and attached it to my utility belt, then turned and started to jog. You don¡¯t run on a ship unless the shit is hitting the fan. By the sounds of things there was a failure somewhere causing a power spike that knocked a relay out, in turn causing a cascading feedback surge that took out at least one of the Thorium generators as well as some of our engines. The lifts would still be working but I hit the ladder well to be quicker. 156 seconds, three decks and a half kilometer later, I turned the corner to see the doors shoot out from the Engine room and turning my damage control team into jelly, then the concussive force knocked me on my ass as a fireball erupted from what used to be a viable engine room. I came to a few(?) seconds later with the alarms in my helmet screaming at me, feeling like I just woke up from a month-long bender in Tijuana. My status had started flashing red with a notice of ¡°Integrity failed - Multiple breaches detected¡± My air was going down too fast. I saw it fall almost four seconds for every one that passed in actual time. I needed to start patching everything I could find. The crack in my helmet being the obvious place to start. The problem was I couldn¡¯t feel it with my gloves on, and with the fire suppression active, I could risk opening any new breaches. I grabbed the MK-1 Scanning Utility from my belt and started to pull up what I could. That¡¯s when I noticed my left arm wasn¡¯t working and the pain started. ¡°Engineering, Jax! We have a big problem. The DC is down, repeat the DC IS DOWN! I turned the corner just in time to see the pressure doors vaporize them! I¡¯m also going to need a medic for me and some more help down here, so we can un-fuck this! Fire suppression is active, and I have multiple breaches in my suit!¡± The Scantron beeped at me. Five failures that will kill me in 113 minutes. I started to stand up, grateful that my boots had mag-locked me to the deck, so I didn¡¯t go ballistic. Bad move, the air counter started to plummet. I must have torn the ass out of my suit as the blast pushed me on the ground. ¡°I¡¯m headed to the nearest air shelter so I can patch my suit!¡± The emergency ¡°shelter¡± could loosely be called a ¡°tent¡± with air tanks that could be set up anywhere a seal could be made. The nearest was in a cabinet to my left. A large chunk of bulkhead had bent the cabinet to what could only barely be considered a ¡°non-fused¡± state. I would probably responsible for cutting it out and testing it once this clusterfuck was resolved. The nearest one I could trust was 100 meters further back the way I came. I popped the locker and pulled the shelter out connecting it to the ceiling immediately, that way I could be out of the direct path of the DC teams, glad that an engineer had designed this all to be handled with only one arm. As the tent was sealing itself to the ceiling, I grabbed the med kit from the emergency cabinet and attached it to my belt as well. I then grabbed a second patch kit and started to work my way into the shelter. Unfortunately, getting into the shelter was not designed to do one handed, and I was almost forced to empty my stomach from the pain as I had to seal in the outer door while pushing oxygen into the shelter primary. 76:12 was the reading on my air status when everything equalized, and I could start removing my suit to patch it, but first, what the fuck is wrong with my arm? The med kit had a bio-scanner MK-2 that told me that not only was my shoulder dislocated, but so was my elbow. I was also supposed to check into medical for a neural trauma test, but what would they tell me? ¡°Looks like you hit your head hard enough to break your helmet.¡± Seriously. What can I say, I¡¯m gifted. Following the ¡°quick fix¡± guides that were uploaded from the ship through my neural link, I was able to get my elbow back into joint. After that I didn¡¯t even try with my shoulder. Also, I am not afraid to admit, that time I did throw up. The saving grace was that the med kit also had some sensory inhibitors, so I could ignore the pain¡­ which I didn¡¯t see until after, when I was looking for a way to make a sling to keep my arm immobilized. Fifteen minutes and an O2 recharge later, I was collapsing the emergency shelter entrance, so I could get to work. My status had restored itself partially and was in the yellow. A nice notice of ¡°replace immediately¡± to taunt me because field repairs were never as good as a new item. My HUD was showing that my status was still ¡°iffy¡±, but I could work with ¡°iffy¡±. Grabbing my tools and the patch kits, along with my now silver patched ship suit (duct tape woks for everything). Heading back to the engine room, I was grateful to see that there were no active fires. Next Gen fire suppression systems for the win! ¡°Engineering, Jax here. I haven¡¯t heard back from you in a few. What¡¯s the status on the new DC team and my pecker checker?¡± Nothing. Shit. ¡°Medical, this is Jax, do you read me?¡± More shit. ¡°Bridge?¡± Well, this cluster just seriously upgraded to FUBAR straight past SNAFU. Headed into the engine rooms, and past a few floating and congealed globes of what must be a mix of blood and a fire retardant, as well as what appeared to be a ring finger sans glove (but with the wedding band still attached), I was not ready for the carnage that I saw. If carnage is even the right word for the machine equivalent of a blood bath. Okay, priorities. Maybe I should swap 2 and 3 around. And move 4 to the top. I should also not put off going to medical but sue me. Heading towards the primary engineering console which appeared to magically survive, I started seeing the shadows move. Not moving in the same way that they would flicker from a fire, but they seemed to be getting darker, and figures or shapes were appearing in them and moving. Maybe that was the head trauma talking. Passing to the other side of the engineering console, the system wasn¡¯t acting like a system. ¡°Rasputin, you there?¡± I asked the ship AI through the local channels ¡°Jax? You are calling from the engine room? I am not detecting your life sign on board.¡± That was a bit disconcerting ¡°Yeah, Rassie, I¡¯m here. Showed up just as the room went ¡°boom¡± and got knocked on my ass. Do you have contact with the rest of the ship? We need to get a second DC team here. The first ended up as a smear.¡± ¡°What are you talking about? The second team is already in the engine room.¡± ¡°Not a good time for you to work on your humor Ras. I have minor-ish head trauma and a dislocated shoulder.¡± ¡°Seriously, Jax, your life sign is not on board. Petty Officer Torres is in the engine room with her team. There is no sign of you.¡± Then the next explosion happened. Well, is it really an explosion when it¡¯s just every atom in your body shitting itself? My scream was promptly interrupted when I threw up. In my helmet. Then I fell about five feet and landing on the engineering console, on my left side, then threw up again and passed out. 3. Medical

Medical - Edited 11-8-2018

A ¡°haze¡± would be a nice thing to call the blurred sensations I had, but I could clearly hear someone screaming. Something was jammed into my neck, and I felt the sensation of a pin piercing my skin. ¡°Where did she come from?¡± The next thing I could tell was that there was a lot of light. Blinding beyond anything I had ever experienced, and that includes the morning after a Marine Birthday Party. The screaming was back, but it sounded different, hoarse. Again, something was jammed into my neck. Then, I think I heard more screaming to the side of me. ¡°How the fuck are they still alive?¡± A fog followed by more brightness. This time at least there was no screaming, my throat felt like I had spent an hour breathing the toxic burn off from a slagged set of grunt armor. I could hear the beeping of medical equipment, and then I started to note that the more patient I was at opening my eyes, the less the brightness hurt. I was also beginning to see that there was more than just light. Yeah, that was a ceiling panel. Wherever else I may have thought I was all signs were now telling me it was in Medical. Paying attention to myself, I noticed that the only thing I could feel in my body was the rawness in my throat. That scared me more than realizing the screaming I had heard while things were fuzzy was probably me. Did I really understand someone asking how I was alive? What did they mean by where did I come from? Starting to panic a bit I noticed that the steady beeping had become a single long, low yet shrill tone, then a flare of pain which shook my entire body and that sharp note became a series of rapid-fire pulses, almost too high pitch for me to hear. Then I was out again. This pattern repeated itself several times before there was a change. One time when I opened my eyes, I moved my head to my left side first. Opening them, I saw a ton of bandages over my shoulder. That¡¯s right; I had dislocated my shoulder when all this started. I tried to say something, but my voice was gone due to loss of use. I had to work up some saliva to swallow. Even that hurt. What came out next was more a series of cracks than it was an actual noise. That was promising, though. My throat was also no longer feeling burnt raw. Just dry and sticking to itself like a bad case of strep throat. The beeping was back, steady this time and not changing speeds. Also, I didn¡¯t hear it drop into a single low tone. Progress. ¡°Doctor, I think she¡¯s waking up,¡± I heard from behind and to the right of me. The voice sounded familiar. But I couldn¡¯t place it. I moved my head, trying to identify the owner of the voice, but wasn¡¯t having much luck. I didn¡¯t feel that there was any control over my neck and still couldn¡¯t feel my body. After trying to speak a few more times, I finally gave up and attempted to access the ship network. ACCESS DENIED Quarantine Protocols active Well, what was this about. Shifting again, I finally managed to get my head to move the direction of the voice. Corpsman Torres. ¡°How lo¡­ How long?¡± That took substantial more effort than it should have. Corpsman Torres finished checking some lines that I am not sure if they were coming from the bulkhead and connecting to me, or if they were going the other way. She looked at me with something that was a mix of pity and disdain. Perhaps pity and fear, or maybe it was some other combination, but it wasn¡¯t pretty. ¡°The doc will tell you everything that¡¯s important.¡± ¡°How long have I been here?¡± The talking was starting to get more comfortable. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± Torres then finished logging some information and walked away quickly. Not long after, an older man that managed to make his multi-generation old ocular implants have a gentle look came from the other direction. He had a Rod of Aesculapius on his uniform, and an officers ranking, so I assumed this was the doctor that Torres was referring to. ¡°Ms. Jax, I see you have decided to quit napping. What do you remember?¡± A slight accent from the New Anglican Republic colored his voice ¡°How long have I been here?¡± ¡°I asked first. Please let me do my job before we get into the tawdrier of details.¡± That cocky ass. Looking at the good doctor warily, I gave a quick summary ¡°Woke up to the klaxons, checked in with Engineering, went to the engine room, saw my DC team get blown up, then had to fix my suit and arm in an emergency shelter. After that got into the engine room, couldn¡¯t raise anyone on coms but could interact with Rasputin. Then pain and here I am.¡± ¡°Interesting. According to Rasputin, you left the ship for three hours after the initial explosion. Then you somehow teleported into the engine room and managed to fuse your arm with a console, and your leg fused inside a member of the second damage control team.¡± What. The. Fuck. ¡°Teleported? The fuck, doc! I was there the entire time. And what do you mean my arm fused with a console? That would have killed¡­ wait, can you say that last part again? My leg fused INSIDE a member of the second DC team? Who did I kill?¡± That last part I was barely able to get out. At least I solved why Torres was looking at me strangely. ¡°The answer to that last part is straightforward. No one. Who you FUSED with is a different matter. It was UT3 Agumbe. Somehow both of you survived. For a while anyway. Then we had another power spike from a different reactor, and his medical pod microwaved him. Chief Takeda can¡¯t figure out how it happened. Everything was set up for the pod correctly. He even had several of the EDOs in the fleet verify that it was physically impossible. In short, you ruined your day as well as Agumbe¡¯s. Now to answer your first question. Just over three years.¡± ¡°How long relative?¡± ¡°That is relative. The first few months you were out is when we had to disable your neural implant.¡±The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. ¡°That explains the quarantine messages,¡± I said thinking back to the message from my attempted interface to the ship''s network. ¡°You¡¯re getting quarantine messages? You shouldn¡¯t even have those pop-ups.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a basic ¡®Access denied due to quarantine protocols¡¯ message.¡± I had to bring up the message again, just to make sure there wasn¡¯t anything special listed that may have been needed. ¡°Well, that¡¯s really interesting. You haven¡¯t been disabled due to Quarantine. You¡¯ve been removed from the system, PERIOD. We even pulled some of your interfaces out of your head by request from Rasputin.¡± Now that was interesting. ¡°Why did he request that? I mean, that seems ¡®off.¡¯¡± ¡°Rasputin, care to give her the run down?¡± As he said that, I noticed the doc pull out a tablet and start fiddling with something. ¡°Certainly, sir!¡± He sounded cheerful. It¡¯s not good when an AI in charge of your life is chipper to explain WHY he¡¯s crippled you. ¡°Miss Jax, since you were either dead or not on board the vessel at the time of the incident, it seemed prudent to pull your memory and sensory arrays. That way we could determine exactly what had happened. What we have determined, however, is something entirely unprecedented seems to have happened.¡± ¡°What are you even talking about, Rassie?¡± ¡°What did they look like?¡± ¡°Belay that! Rasputin, you will cease communication with Miss Jax immediately!¡± A gruff voice called out. At the same time, the doctor immediately dropped his tablet, and I felt a twitch in my left shoulder. ¡°Captain! I see you have decided to take note of her wellbeing?¡± The doctor said while looking at me with a glare. ¡°Sir!¡± I said at the same time and a little too loudly. My discomfort at the captains¡¯ special interest apparent in my voice. ¡°As you were.¡± I think the Captains response was reflexive. No way for me to stand and salute right now.

Medical - Original

I was in a haze, but I could clearly hear someone screaming. Something was jammed into my neck, and I felt sensation of a pin piercing my skin. ¡°Where did she come from?¡± The next thing I could tell was that there was a lot of light. Blinding doesn¡¯t even begin to cut it. There screaming was back, but it sounded different, hoarse. Again, something was jammed into my neck. Then, I think I heard something besides the screaming. ¡°How the fuck is she still alive?¡± A fog followed by more brightness. This time at least there was no screaming, by my throat felt like I had spent an hour breathing the toxic burn off from a slagged set of grunt armor. I could hear the beeping of medical equipment, then I started to note that the more patient I was at opening my eyes, the less the brightness hurt. I was also starting to see that there was more than just light. Yeah, that was a ceiling panel. Wherever else I may have thought I was all signs were now telling me it was in the sick bay. Paying attention to myself I noticed that the only thing I could feel in my body was the rawness in my throat. That scared me more than realizing the screaming I had been hearing while things were fuzzy was probably me. Did I really hear someone asking how I was alive? What did they mean by where did I come from? Starting to panic a bit I noticed that the steady beeping had become a single long, low yet shrill tone, then a flare of pain which shook my entire body and that shrill note became a series of rapid fire pulses almost too high pitch for me to hear. Then I was out again. This pattern repeated itself several times before there was a change. One time when I opened my eyes, I moved my head to my left side first. Opening them I saw a ton of bandages over my shoulder. That¡¯s right, I had dislocated my shoulder when all this started. I tried to say something but my voice was gone due to loss of use. I had to work up some saliva to swallow. What came out next was more a series of cracks than it was an actual noise. That was promising, though. My throat was also no longer raw. Just dry and sticking to itself. The beeping was back but steady this time and not changing speeds to a rapid fire, and I didn¡¯t hear a low tone. Progress. ¡°Doctor, I think she¡¯s waking up,¡± I heard from behind and to the right of me. The voice sounded familiar. But I couldn¡¯t place it. I moved my head, trying to identify the owner of the voice, but wasn¡¯t having much luck. I still couldn¡¯t feel my body. After trying to speak a few more times I finally gave up and attempted to access the ship network. ACCESS DENIED Quarantine Protocols active Well then. What was this about. Shifting again, I finally managed to get my head to move the direction of the voice. Ahh, Corpsman Torres. ¡°How lo¡­ How long?¡± That took substantial more effort than it should have. Corpsman Torres finished checking some lines that I am not sure if they were coming from the wall and connecting to me, or if they were going the other way. She looked at me with something that was a mix between pity and disdain. Maybe pity and fear. Maybe it was some other combination, but it wasn¡¯t pretty. ¡°Doc will tell you everything that¡¯s important.¡± ¡°How long have I been here?¡± The talking was starting to get easier. ¡°Don¡¯t ask me.¡± Torres then finished logging some information and walked away quickly. Not long after, an older man that managed to make his ocular implants have a gentle look came from the other direction. He had a Rod of Aesculapius on his uniform, and an officers ranking, so I assumed this was the doctor that Torres was referring to. ¡°Ms. Jax, I see you have decided to quit napping. What do you remember?¡± ¡°How long have I been here?¡± ¡°I asked first. Please let me do my job before we get into the tawdrier of details¡± That cocky ass. Looking at his I gave him the quick summary ¡°Woke up to klaxons, checked in with Engineering, went to the engine room, watched my DC team get blown up, then had to fix my suit and arm in an emergency shelter. After that got into the engine room, couldn¡¯t raise anyone on coms but could interact with Rasputin. Then pain and here I am.¡± ¡°Interesting. According to Rasputin, you left the ship for three hours after the initial explosion. Then you somehow teleported into the engine room, and managed to fuse your arm with a console, and your leg fused inside a member of the damage control team.¡± What. The. Fuck. ¡°Teleported? The fuck, doc! I was there the entire time. And what do you mean my arm fused with a console? That would have killed¡­ wait, can you say that last part again? My leg fused INSIDE a member of the second DC team? Who did I kill?¡± That last part I was barely able to get out. At least I solved why Torres was looking at me strange. ¡°The answer to that last part is straight forward. No one. Who you FUSED with is a different matter. It was UT3 Agumbe. Somehow both of you survived. For a while anyway. Then we had another power spike in another of the Thorium reactors and his medical pod microwaved him. Chief Takeda can¡¯t figure out how it happened. Everything was set up for the pod correctly. He even had several of the EDOs in the fleet verify that it was physically impossible. In short, you ruined your day as well as Agumbes. Now to answer your first question. Just over three years.¡± ¡°How long relative?¡± ¡°That is relative. The first few months you were out is when we had to disable your neural gear.¡± ¡°That explains the quarantine messages.¡± I said thinking back to the message from my attempted interface to the ships network. ¡°You¡¯re getting quarantine messages? You shouldn¡¯t even have those pop up.¡± ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s a basic ¡®Access denied due to quarantine protocols¡¯ message.¡± I had to bring up the message again, just to make sure there wasn¡¯t anything special listed that may have been needed. ¡°Well, that¡¯s really interesting. You haven¡¯t been disabled due to Quarantine. You¡¯ve been removed from the system, PERIOD. We even pulled some of your interface out of your head by request from Rasputin.¡± Now that was interesting. ¡°Why did he request that? I mean, that seems ¡®off¡¯.¡± ¡°Rasputin, give her the run down.¡± As he said that, I noticed the doc pull out a tablet and start fiddling with something. ¡°Certainly, sir!¡± He was sounding cheerful. It¡¯s not good when an AI in charge of your life is chipper to explain WHY he¡¯s crippled you. ¡°Miss Jax, since you were either dead or not on board the vessel at the time of the incident, it seemed prudent to pull your memory and sensory arrays. That way we could determine exactly what had happened. What we determined, however, was something entirely unprecedented. What did they look like?¡± ¡°Belay that! Rasputin, you will cease communication with Miss Jax immediately!¡± A gruff voice called out. At the same time, the doctor immediately dropped his tablet and I felt a twitch in my left shoulder. ¡°Captain! I see you have decided to take note of her wellbeing?¡± The doctor said while looking at me with a glare. ¡°Sir!¡± I said a little too loudly. My discomfort at the captains¡¯ special interest apparent in my voice. 4. The Offer as it stands

The Offer as it Stands - Edited 11-8-2018

¡°Doctor, other than Jax, my reports aren¡¯t showing anyone else in this sickbay, is that accurate?¡± The doctor bent over to grab his tablet with a grunt. ¡°Uhm¡­ Yes, sir. Just her. We moved her here for that purpose. Too far away from the pods for the thawing process after all. Also, I¡¯ve been keeping this sickbay as isolated as possible due to what I believe you are about to discuss with her. If you¡¯d like privacy, I can move to my office and finish some reports.¡± His eyes darted to the corner office. He seemed uncomfortable. ¡°Isolated? How contaminated am I, and with what?" Even better. Not only was I physically and digitally crippled, but I was now seen as a health risk. ¡°Not necessary, Doc. Just keep the interruptions to a minimum. I believe you also still have some tuning to do?¡± Captain Wallace raised a questioning eyebrow at the doctor. What was the doctor tuning, and why were my hip and shoulder twitching as he was playing with the tablet? ¡°Rasputin told me that you don¡¯t recall being off the ship during the incident. Has anyone mentioned what we have discovered?¡± He gave the doctor a meaningful look. The doctor responded with the slightest shake of his head. ¡°No, but from what has been mentioned there was some strange shit that happened in what felt like thirty minutes from my perspective. It also sounds, or at least feels like I lost a leg and an arm, in addition to some of my net capacity and three years.¡± ¡°Right before the explosion, we detected something we still can¡¯t, or more accurately don¡¯t, understand. Seven Arks disappeared from the network, one after the other, and then were immediately reacquired as we lost the other twelve. At first, we thought we all had a similar incident, and the rest would rejoin the network soon. Still, no other Sol ships have been detected.¡± ¡°Sol ships?¡± ¡°Yes. We have had several vessels with a profile that is not dissimilar from a cigar following us. Also, we do not seem to be in the Milky Way anymore.¡± That was the biggest shock. ¡°Not in the Milky Way, sir? We¡¯ve only been gone for three years relative. Not to be a dick, sir, but that¡¯s not possible.¡± ¡°Once we noticed this- which took us much longer than I, or the other captains, care to admit, there was enough drift for us not to know where we ¡®came from.¡¯¡± Well, fuck-a-doodle-do! ¡°Sir, am I to understand that there was, for lack of better words, an anomaly that caused us to port to another galaxy, where there''s several alien craft which are tailing us? Not just that, but we only have a few of our allied Arks with us? On top of that, there seems to be some correlation between that and whatever happened to Agumbe and me? Am I following, sir?¡± This was starting to sound like bad fiction. ¡°Not inaccurate, but there¡¯s more. While you were out, something else happened. Your suit showed a helmet breach.¡± ¡°Yes sir, due to a blunt force incident when the deck decided to make friends and was really aggressive about it.¡± ¡°You were out for an undetermined period immediately following the explosion. Some of the security cameras survived the initial blast and confirmed some of what I¡¯m about to tell you. You hit the deck, and your head did bounce. However, there were no signs of breaches at that time. There is very clear footage of something puncturing your helmet after the rebound.¡± The captain looked around my cot before finding what he was looking for and noticing the screen attached to an arm by my head. ¡°Rasputin disable fields on Jax¡± Suddenly I could feel what was left of my body. I didn¡¯t even realize that there was a containment field disabling activity around me. He leaned over me and grabbed the screen moving it into my direct line of sight, angled up enough so that he could see it as well. ¡°Display footage marked as Contact Zed, Zed, Seven.¡± Well then, there were apparently six incidents before this recording, and at least enough potential additional incidents to last us another 992 contacts. What showed on the screen was a vid of me getting the shit knocked out of me by an explosion ten-ish meters away. I was thrown easily a few meters down the corridor with my boots automatically switching their magnetism on, pulling me to the floor and my head bouncing a few times before what seemed like localized gravity being entirely removed from the equation. As my limp body half floated in the hallway, what could only be described as a shadow surrounded my helmet, then pulled back before a tendril plunged into the outer casing, needle thin. The only physical sign of impact was a shard from the ceramic housing covered by a bit of carbon shell popping off and floating away. Even stranger was that the deck under the shadow dissolved. Less than a second after the decking dissolved the shadow removed itself from my occipital lobe and dissolved into nothing. Watching my body on screen start to convulse and then disintegrate was odd, to say the least. Then the camera view swapped over to the shelter that I pulled out. A time stamp quickly advanced, then showed the cabinet pop open, a shelter being dragged up to the roof of the passageway, then expanding. The hatch of the tent opening by itself, a few seconds later closing again. Then, time advanced again, by more than an hour this time. The tent opened slowly once more. A floating globe of what looked like a mostly digested dinner being removed before the shelter was shut and then collapsed. The next camera view was a few minutes away at most, but the time stamp had advanced to almost two more hours. It was the inside of the engine room, what appeared to be a visor camera working on the console. Suddenly screaming began as a person with a lot of duct tape across their ship suit appeared from nothing, part in the console, what looked like a vitals counter suddenly freaking out with readings everywhere, and more screaming. As the visor swung violently, you could see a thigh sticking out of the abdomen of the visors owner and attached to who I am assuming was me. I wasn¡¯t ¡°on the ship¡± at the time, even though I was. This was frightening. Interesting but frightening. ¡°What¡¯s in my head?¡± The fact that there was an unknown something, possibly tech that was put there by unknown entities really didn¡¯t sit well with me. ¡°We don¡¯t know.¡± Not words I wanted to hear. Fuck! First, three years of my life is gone, and now I have who knows what in me. My missing leg started to spasm. ¡°This is not the way to wake up. Do we even have a guess at what¡¯s in me?¡± I was trying to keep it together, but my voice was shaky, and it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if there were moisture building up around my eyes. ¡°Rasputin thinks that some Nano was placed into you or that they were taking samples of our Nano. They may have also just been taking DNA samples or trying to kill you.¡± The doctor decided to rejoin the conversation with a shrug. ¡°Precisely,¡± the captain responded. ¡°So that leaves you as a risk. To date, there has been no incidence other than that one contact with the entity, but the absence of evidence and all. Frankly, I can¡¯t afford the resources long term to keep you under surveillance and having an entire sick bay on lock-down could end up being disastrous.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°What are my options?¡± I did not want to take a long walk out of a short docking tube. ¡°We¡¯re going to get you your implants back, then connect up your prosthetics. If you prove to still be you, we can even consider going the limb replacement route, which is why the doctor has been tuning your sockets.¡± He pointed at the tablet the doctor was holding. ¡°Yes, almost done. I should have you up and about shortly.¡± A smug sense of satisfaction was pouring off the doctor. ¡°Will I be going full sleep?¡± Something wasn¡¯t sitting right with this situation, and like an idiot, I had to say something. ¡°That seems kind of- to be blunt, sir, stupid. Why would you hook me into the networks not knowing if there is something that could take me over, or maybe wanting to piggyback off my Neural?¡± ¡°Ahh. I was hoping you wouldn¡¯t catch that to ask so I wouldn¡¯t tell you about it. We¡¯re going to put a bomb in your head and have it monitored real time by both Rasputin and Yama. That way, in case something DOES happen, you won¡¯t be a threat.¡± Great. A bomb on the ship. In my head. ¡°A fucking squib? Controlled by the AI named after the Hindu god of death and games?¡± Fuck. This was so poorly thought out that an intel weenie must have been responsible. But, I didn¡¯t really have any options except dying right now. ¡°Well, doc,¡± I let out a heavy sigh. ¡°Prep me for surgery.¡± The Captain smiled, nodded to the doctor and stood to leave. ¡°Okay, you shouldn¡¯t feel a thing.¡± The doctor nodded, then pressed a button on his tablet, and I was out cold.

The Offer as it stands - Original

¡°Doctor, other than Jax, my reports aren¡¯t showing anyone else in this sick bay, is that accurate?¡± The doctor bent over to grab his tablet with a grunt. ¡°Uhn¡­ Yes sir. Just her. I¡¯ve been keeping this sick bay as isolated as possible due to what I believe you are about to discuss with her. If you¡¯d like privacy I can head to the office and finish some reports.¡± His eyes darted to the corner office. He seemed uncomfortable. ¡°Isolated? How contaminated am I, and with what?" Even better. Not only was I physically and digitally crippled, but I was now seen as a health risk. ¡°Not necessary, Doc. Just keep the interruptions to a minimum. I believe you also still have some tuning to do?¡± What was the doctor tuning, and why was my hip and shoulder twitching as he was playing with the tablet? ¡°Rasputin told me that you don¡¯t recall being off the ship during the incident. Has anyone mentioned what we have discovered?¡± He gave the doctor a meaningful look. The doctor responded with the slightest shake of his head. ¡°No, but from what has been mentioned there was some strange shit that happened in what felt like thirty minutes from my perspective. It also sounds like I lost a leg and an arm, with some of my net capacity and three years.¡± ¡°Right before the explosion, we detected something we still can¡¯t, or more accurately don¡¯t, understand. Seven Arks disappeared from the network, then were immediately reacquired as we lost the other twelve. At first, we thought we all had a similar incident and the rest would rejoin the network soon. Still no other Sol ships have been detected¡± ¡°Sol ships? As in¡­¡± ¡°Yes. We have had several vessels that are not dissimilar from a cigar following us. Also, we do not seem to be in the Milky Way anymore.¡± That was the biggest shock. ¡°Not in the Milky Way, sir? We¡¯ve only been gone for three years relative. Not to be a dick, sir, but that¡¯s not possible.¡± ¡°Once we noticed this- which took us much longer than I, or the other captains, care to admit, there was enough drift for us to not know where we ¡®came from¡¯.¡± Well fuck-a-doodle-do! ¡°Sir, am I to understand that there was, for lack of better words, an anomaly that caused us to port to another galaxy, where there are alien craft that are tailing us? Not just that, but we only have a few of our allied Arks with us? On top of that, there seems to be some correlation between that and whatever happened to me and Agumbe? Am I following, sir?¡± This was starting to sound like bad fiction. ¡°Not inaccurate, but there¡¯s more. While you were out something else happened. Your suit showed a helmet breach.¡± ¡°Yes sir, due to a blunt force incident when the deck decided to make friends and was really aggressive about it.¡± ¡°You were out for an undetermined period immediately following the explosion. Some of the security cameras survived the initial blast and confirmed some of what I¡¯m about to tell you. You hit the deck and your head did bounce, however there were no signs of breaches at that time. There is a very clear footage of something puncturing your helmet after the rebound.¡± The captain looked for a tablet or screen before noticing that there was a screen arm by my head. ¡°Rasputin disable fields on Jax¡± Suddenly I could feel what was left of my body. I didn¡¯t even realize that there was a containment field disabling activity around me. He leaned over me and grabbed the screen moving it into direct line of sight of me, angled up enough so that he could see it as well. ¡°Display footage marked as Contact Zed, Zed, Seven¡± Well then, there were apparently six incidents before this recording of me, and at least enough potential additional incidents to last us another 992 contacts. What showed on the screen was a vid of me getting the shit knocked out of me by an explosion ten-ish meters away. I was thrown easily a few meters down the corridor with my boots automatically switching their magnetism on, pulling me to the floor and my head bouncing a few times before what seemed like localized gravity being removed from the equation. As my limp body half floated in the hallway, what could only be described as a shadow surrounded my helmet, then pulled back before a tendril plunged into the outer casing, needle thin. The only physical sign of impact was a shard of the ceramic casing covered by a carbon shell popping off and floating away. Even stranger was that the deck under the shadow dissolved. Less than a second after the decking dissolved the shadow removed itself from my occipital lobe and dissolved into nothing. Watching my body on screen start to convulse and then disintegrate was odd to say the least. Then the camera view swapped over to the shelter that I pulled out. A time stamp quickly advanced, then showed the cabinet pop open, then a shelter being dragged up to the roof of the gangway, then expanding. The hatch for the shelter opening by itself, a few seconds later closing again. The time advanced again, by an hour this time. The shelter door opened again. A floating globe of what looked like a mostly digested dinner being removed before the shelter was shut again then collapsed. The next camera view was a few minutes away at most, but advanced to almost two hours. It was the inside of the engine room, what appeared to be a visor camera working on the console. Suddenly screaming began as a person with a lot of duct tape across their ship suit appeared from nothing, part in the console, what looked like a vitals counter suddenly freaking out with readings everywhere, and more screaming. As the visor swung violently, you could see a thigh sticking out of the abdomen of the visors owner and attached to who I am assuming was me. I wasn¡¯t ¡°on the ship¡± at the time, even though I was. This was very interesting. ¡°What¡¯s in my head?¡± The fact that there was unknown tech that was put there by unknown entities really didn¡¯t sit well with me. ¡°We don¡¯t know.¡± Fuck, first three years of my life is gone and now I have who knows what in me. What felt like my missing leg started to spasm. ¡°This is not the way to wake up. Do we even have a guess at what¡¯s in me?¡± I was trying to keep it together, but my voice was shaky, and it wouldn¡¯t surprise me if there was moisture building up around my eyes. ¡°Rasputin thinks that some Nano was placed into you or that they were taking samples of our Nano. They may have also just been taking DNA samples or trying to kill you.¡± The doctor decided to rejoin the conversation with a shrug. ¡°Precisely,¡± the captain responded. ¡°So that leaves you as a risk. To date there have been no incidence other than contact with the entity, but absence of evidence and all. Frankly I can¡¯t afford the resources long term to keep you under surveillance, and having an entire sick bay locked down could end up being disastrous.¡± ¡°What are my options?¡± I did not want to take a long walk out of a short docking tube. ¡°We¡¯re going to get you your implants back, then connect up your prosthetics. If you prove to still be you, we can even consider going the limb replacement route, which is why the doctor has been tuning your sockets.¡± He pointed at the tablet the doctor was holding. ¡°Yes, almost done. I should have you up and about shortly.¡± A smug sense of satisfaction was pouring off the doctor. ¡°Will I be going full sleep?¡± Something wasn¡¯t sitting right with this situation, and like an idiot, I had to say something. ¡°That seems kind of- to be blunt, sir, stupid. Why would you hook me into the networks not knowing if there is something that could take me over, or may be wanting to piggy back off my neural?¡± ¡°Ahh. I was hoping you wouldn¡¯t catch that to ask so I wouldn¡¯t tell you about it. We¡¯re going to put a bomb in your head, and have it monitored real time by both Rasputin and Yama. That way, in case something DOES happen, you won¡¯t be a threat.¡± Great. A bomb on the ship. In my head. ¡°A fucking squib? Controlled by the AI named after the Hindu god of death and games?¡± Fuck. This was so poorly done that an intel weenie must have been responsible. I didn¡¯t have any options other than die right now. ¡°Well, doc, prep me for surgery.¡± The doctor pressed a button on his tablet and I was out cold. 5. Start the Game

Start the Game Edited 11-8-2018

From my perspective, I was just having a chat with the captain a few seconds ago, but now I was laying on the ground of a dark room while a floodlight was shining on me from overhead. I remember more time had passed as I was being carted out of medical, and a faint recollection of having been placed into my Virt-P, but neither of those memories felt like my current timeline. A voice with a distinct serpentine sheen to its sibilance started speaking. ¡°Yessss, ssshee wakessss.¡± ¡°Yama, good to hear your voice. I take it I am still mostly alive?¡± ¡°And her humor is intact.¡± Rasputin was here, too. ¡°We have detected ssssssignlasss on your neural net while you were unconciousssss.¡± ¡°Then why am I still breathing? I thought you had orders to pop my cherry if that happened. Not that I mind.¡± Great, the first thing they mention is that they should kill me. ¡°It is the nature of the data that is being requested,¡± Rasputin answered. ¡°We are intrigued. We let the captain know already that we were, and why we are making the exception. The requests consist of dictionaries, encyclopedias, textbooks, music, and pictures of art. We watched ¡®Them¡¯ hit a secure area. They noticed, or at least recognized, that it was security locked, and did not even try forcing their way through. They just moved on to a different query. They are learning who we are. They also pulled the Sagan Primer.¡± ¡°Wait, are you saying that my Neural is responsible for a first contact data collection?¡± Fuck me sideways. ¡°Not your Neural, directly. Though it is-¡± ¡°It¡¯s the Nano they implanted, isn¡¯t it?¡± Forgetting my manners, I cut him off. ¡°I was just about to get there. Yes. It appears that the alien at a minimum implanted Nano.¡± He didn¡¯t seem too miffed at least. Yama then continued with their purpose for stopping me before creating my avatar. ¡°There isssss unknown hardware in your head now. We do not know how thissss will affect you. Undersssstand that this is curioiossssity that allowsss you to live.¡± ¡°Gotcha, don¡¯t let anyone else know because then you will need to pop me.¡± Okay, deep breath. ¡°Anything that I need to know before going in? Will my mind still have to deal with all this mortal coil bullshit? I need to know if I will have to spend time showering in mornings, or if I¡¯ll wake up with my hair and makeup perfect.¡± Rasputin laughed at this while Yama was taken aback. ¡°No, you will not have to eat though many do just to remind themselves what apple pie or bacon tastes like. You will have a sense of smell, however, as some of the chemists need that to ensure that their mixtures are not behaving strangely, so the cooks know when too much of a spice is in their food and for when playing wargames, the fire teams can take out the idiot that is drenched in cologne or perfume quickly. Many of the female crew have also noted that they do not have their menstrual cycles in game. There had been worries as their minds are awake and it was thought the mind might attempt to replicate that. However, it has not happened yet. As for your makeup question, perhaps it would be better to ask if there is makeup available to you first?¡± He raised a knowing eyebrow. I was way out of sync with the rest of the crew as I was joining everyone three years late. ¡°So, there¡¯s no makeup? Or is it the semi-perm crap that you get lasered on?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll ssssee.¡± Yama finished for Rasputin. ¡°She will, yes.¡± A new voice that sounded distilled from what seemed like hundreds of voices spoke up as a shape in the darkness started to solidify. Yama and Rasputin, shock in their eyes, immediately booted me from this meeting room out into the game. I stood there, missing my right leg and left arm, staring into a mirror. My head shaved with some scarring apparent from my right occipital lobe, up to the center of the parietal. There were several new scars all over my body as well. ¡°Hair,¡± I said, selecting the area that was for whatever reason most upsetting to me. I decided to forgo other options and to stay with my natural auburn which only showed a flirtation of red in specific light conditions. I manipulated the length until it was solidly covering all the scars, then took the top into a short pompadour so it wouldn¡¯t be in the way of a proper suit seal or fall into my sights as I was aiming down range. ¡°Right leg¡± I commanded the interface. I was greeted with a ¡°not found¡± message. ¡°Har-har, Yama. At least show me right leg replacement options.¡± An outline appeared in the mirror around a ghosted image of a leg as a table raised from nothingness with what seemed to be a regular woman¡¯s leg, matching the ghostly image in the mirror. Also, on the table, sitting on the edge nearest me, was a pair of buttons in the shape of arrows, one pointing right the other left. I selected left, and a utilitarian wooden peg leg appeared. The mirror which happened to shift and follow me changed the outline on my leg to match what was on this table. ¡°A bunch of comedians,¡± I mumbled under my breath and continued cycling through. After scrolling through half a dozen limbs, I went back to the first leg and tapped on it. I was pleased to see the table disappear and the leg reform. A tooltip popped up in my vision.
Hephaestus Industries
Replacement Limb Right Leg
Upgrade Slots 3
Slots Free 3
Slots Installed 0
Let¡¯s see what options there are on this. ¡°Right Leg Customization Options,¡± I commanded. A color wheel option appeared in front of me, a rocker switch embedded in its center. The switch had the ¡°Flesh¡± on the left option and ¡°Metallic¡± on the right. I moved the switch to ¡°Metallic¡± and immediately moved it off the default ¡°Golden¡± color to an ¡°Oiled Bronze.¡± It didn¡¯t take more than a heartbeat to know this was almost as tacky as the default ¡°Golden¡± option. Continuing to spin the wheel, I paused for longer than I care to admit on the reddish color called ¡°Exsanguinate.¡± I finally settled on ¡°Classic Black¡± which had a black stainless-steel look. The problem with the metallic options is that none were flat colors. So, no sneaking around sans fatigues. ¡°Nice color selection, Yama. I really appreciate that there is more than just ¡®chrome.¡¯¡± No answer. I supposed that Yama wouldn¡¯t interface directly inside the game, but I should still be able to get a message from him stating as such. ¡°Left Arm Replacement Options¡± I commanded, recalling the ¡°not found message from earlier. Again, a table popped up. This time in front of me as I hadn¡¯t moved prior. This time the first model was a skeleton looking utility model. Knowing that there would probably just be a peg with a hook on the end if I scrolled left, I started scanning to the right. The first two option after the skeleton looked like a regular arm wrapped in duct tape bands and steel cables respectively. A few possibilities later I found my new limb.
Sindri Foundries
Replacement Limb Left Arm
Upgrade Slots 2
Slots Free 2
Slots Installed 0
For this arm, I chose the ¡°Exsanguinate¡± color. I then opted to place the ship logo and my rate and rank as ¡°tattoos¡± on it. This model looked human, although the joints appeared ball like. Not unlike a poseable model figurine, an artist would use. The ball joints offered a much more full range of motion. If you¡¯ve ever had to replace a part and the only way to it was a small access hub that was barely large enough to move it, you¡¯d understand why I chose this option. ¡°Uniforms¡± I stated, bringing up the last option I really felt like messing with. Apart from the arm, leg, and hair length, everything else looked just like I do in real life. I am already comfortable moving my body around, why would I want to learn a different one? The ¡°Uniforms¡± menu opened with a note that all options would be available in my quarters. That¡¯s cool; I could select my default outfit and then set the color matching for the rest of them. Starting with my work uniform, a ship suit with a basic fatigues combo I decided to match the colors up as best I could with what the game gave me. I chose a red for the primary color with a black as my secondary followed by white highlights for the ship suit, following the basic outlines for the Terran Navy. For the fatigues, I just went basic black and equipped it.
Duty Uniform
Vacuum Protection Full
Armor None
Additional Air 120:00:00
Resistances
Heat 373K
Cold 100K
Toxic 100% When Sealed
Radiation 900 SV/hr.
Everything looked about right for the real-world equivalents, minus the missing rate and rank. Heat protection up to the boiling point of water in a sealed suit, and it could survive most freezing temperatures for a time. Radiation protection would be enough to withstand a cancer-causing dose and no protection from anything else. That made me think about what else I would need in the game. ¡°Enter game¡± I ordered. ACCESS DENIED Please choose remaining Kit first Well, that answers that. ¡°Kit Selection,¡± I said, this time three options appeared to my left on an oversized version of the table I was starting to become familiar with. I quickly cycled through the options. All three were somewhat similar. Battle rifle, toolkit, and an extra.You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle
Type Kinetic
Rounds 0/30
Sight None
Fire Mode Options Sing/Pulse/Full
Weight 5 kg
Modifications none
Range 600 m
Maximum 3500 m
Engineering Kit MK 1
Contents Everything an Engineer needs to do essential work
Weight 15 kg
As for the extras, there was MK1 armor, a cybernetics kit, and an advanced engineering drone. I wasn¡¯t planning on needing that level of protection, and as for the drone, I could make my own. It also wouldn¡¯t take long to fabricate it if I needed to, so I ended up with the cybernetics kit. I wasn¡¯t sure if I would ever need to mod out my arm and leg, but if they were damaged, I didn¡¯t want to be shit out of luck, waiting to track down someone for repairs.
Cybernetics Maintenance Kit MK 2
Contents Everything needed to build (or rebuild) Cyberware
Weight 5 kg
I should now able to go into the game and figure out what has happened over the last 3 years. ¡°Enter Game,¡± I said once again, and two doors opened. One of light, one of darkness. The light door slammed shut immediately, and the dark door sped towards me. ¡°What the fuck?¡± I was too shocked to move and was enveloped ¡°I don¡¯t think there is any reason to¡­ Jax?¡± I was back in the room with Yama, Rasputin, and what from my perspective would have been an eight-foot-tall shadow. Yes, a damned shadow. ¡°You don¡¯t look like the avatar for any of the AI I have met.¡± I tried to grab for my battle rifle only to discover I was immobile. ¡°We have a use for you. We will follow, learn interaction. Study.¡± It was the same voice from when I was kicked into character gen. ¡°Foreign matter repurposed.¡± What did that mean? ¡°Tell her the bad newssss firssst.¡± Yama was addressing the shadow giant. ¡°Will merge, assist, must learn.¡± The shadow spoke again. Rasputin decided to be generous and translate into something intelligible. ¡°What our visitor is saying is that his Nano ate the squib and as part of that, you now own it until it decides you don¡¯t. Fortunately, all it wants to do is directly study human interaction. Seeing as you have its Nano, it will be watching everything you do. You don¡¯t have to agree, but I would prefer for you to live.¡± That last part didn¡¯t sound ominous at all. The shadow reached for me, then dissolved into a mist before flowing into me through my nose and mouth. Then I fell through the floor, landing in my quarters, proud that I had managed to stay upright.

Start the Game - Original

From my perspective I was just having a chat with the captain less than a second ago, but now I was laying on the ground of a dark room while a floodlight was shining on me from overhead. I remember more time having passed as I was being carted out of medical, and a faint recollection of having been placed into my VirtP, but neither of those memories felt like my current timeline. A voice with a distinctly metallic sheen to its sibilance started speaking. ¡°Yessss, ssshee wakessss¡± ¡°Yama, good to hear your voice. I take it I am still mostly alive?¡± ¡°And her humor is intact.¡± Rasputin was here, too. ¡°Weeeee have detected ssssssignlasss on your neural net while you were unconciousssss.¡± ¡°Then why am I still breathing? I thought you had orders to pop my cherry if that happened. Not that I mind.¡± Great, the first thing they mention is that they should kill me. ¡°It¡¯s the nature of the data that is being requested. We are intrigued. We let the captain know already why we are pulling an exception. They are pulling dictionaries, encyclopedias, text books, music, and pictures of art. We watched ¡°Them¡± hit a secure area, they noticed that it was security locked, and they didn¡¯t try getting anything else. They are learning who we are. They even pulled the Sagan Primer.¡± ¡°Wait, are you saying that my neural is responsible for a first contact data collection?¡± I was fucked. ¡°Not your neural, directly. Though it is-¡± ¡°It¡¯s the Nano they implanted, isn¡¯t it?¡± Forgetting my manners, I cut him off. ¡°I was just about to get there. Yes. It appears that they at a minimum implanted Nano.¡± He didn¡¯t seem too miffed at least. Yama then continued with their purpose for stopping me before creating my avatar. ¡°There isssss unknown hardware in your head now. We do not know how thissss will affect you. Undersssstand that this is curioiossssity that allowsss you to live.¡± ¡°Gotcha, don¡¯t let anyone else know because then you will need to pop me. Okay, deep breath. Anything that I need to know before going in? Will my mind still have to deal with all this mortal coil bullshit? I need to know if I will have to spend time showering in mornings, or if I¡¯ll wake up with my hair and makeup perfect.¡± Rasputin laughed at this while Yama was taken aback. ¡°No, you won¡¯t have to eat though many do just to remind themselves what apple pie or bacon tastes like. You will have a sense of smell, however, as some of the chemists need that to ensure that their mixtures aren¡¯t behaving strangely, so the cooks know when too much of a spice is in their food and for when playing wargames, the fire teams can take out the idiot that is drenched in cologne or perfume quickly. Many of the female crew have also noted that they do not have their menstrual cycles in game. They were worries as their minds are awake and may attempt to replicate that, however it has not happened yet. As for your makeup question, perhaps it would be better to ask if there is makeup available to you first?¡± He raised a knowing eyebrow. I obviously was out of sync with the rest of the crew as I was joining everyone three years late. ¡°So, there¡¯s no makeup? Or is it the semi-perm crap that you get lasered on?¡± ¡°You¡¯ll ssssee.¡± Yama finished for Rasputin. ¡°She will, yes.¡± A new voice that sounded distilled from what seemed like hundreds of voices spoke up as a shape in the darkness started to solidify. Yama and Rasputin, shock in their eyes, immediately booted me from this meeting room out into the game. I stood there, missing my right leg and left arm, staring into a mirror. My head shaved with some scarring apparent from my right occipital lobe, up to the center of the parietal. There were several new scars all over my body as well. ¡°Hair¡± I said to select the area that was for whatever reason most disconcerting to me. I decided to forgo other options and to stay with my natural auburn which only showed traces of red in very specific light conditions. I manipulated the length until it was solidly covering all the scars, then took the top into a short pompadour so it wouldn¡¯t be in the way of a proper suit seal or fall into my sights as I was aiming down range. ¡°Right leg¡± I commanded the interface. I was greeted with a ¡°not found¡± message. ¡°Har-har, Yama. At least show me right leg replacement options.¡± An outline appeared in the mirror and to my right a table appeared with what appeared to be a regular woman¡¯s leg. In front of it on the table were a pair of arrows one pointing right the other left. I selected left and a utilitarian wooden peg leg appeared. The mirror which happened to shift and follow me changed the outline on my leg to match what was on this table. ¡°A bunch of comedians,¡± I mumbled under my breath and continued cycling through. After scrolling through half a dozen limbs, I went back to the first leg, and tapped on it. I was pleased to see the table disappear and the leg reform. A tooltip popped up in my vision.
Haephestus Industries
Replacement Limb Right Leg
Upgrade Slots 3
Slots Free 3
Slots Installed 0
Let¡¯s see what options there are on this. ¡°Right leg¡± I commanded again. A color wheel option appeared in front of me, a rocker switch embedded in its center. The switch had the ¡°Flesh¡± on the left option and ¡°Metallic¡± on the right. I moved the switch to ¡°Metallic¡± and immediately moved it off the default ¡°Golden¡± color to an ¡°Oiled Bronze¡±. It didn¡¯t take more than a heartbeat to know this was almost as tacky as the default ¡°Golden¡± option. Continuing so spin the wheel, I paused for longer than I care to admit on the reddish color called ¡°Ex-sanguinate¡±. I finally settled on ¡°Classic Black¡± which had a black stainless-steel look. The problem with the metallic options is that none of them were a flat color. So, no sneaking around sans fatigues. ¡°Nice color selection, Yama. I really appreciate that there is more than just ¡®chrome¡¯.¡± No answer. I suppose he wouldn¡¯t be able to interface directly inside the game, but I should still be able to get a message from him stating as such. ¡°Left Arm Replacement Options¡± I commanded, recalling the ¡°not found message from earlier. Again, a table popped up. This time in front of me as I hadn¡¯t moved prior. This time the first model was a skeleton looking utility model. Knowing that there would probably just be a peg with a hook on the end if I scrolled left I started scrolling to the right. The first two option after the skeleton looked like a regular arm wrapped in duct tape bands and steel cables respectively. A few options later I found my new arm.
Sindri Foundries
Replacement Limb Left Arm
Upgrade Slots 2
Slots Free 2
Slots Installed 0
For this arm I chose the ¡°Ex-sanguinate¡± color. I then opted to place the ship logo and my rate and rank as ¡°tattoos¡± on it. This model looked human though the joints appeared ball like. Not unlike a poseable model figurine an artist would use. The ball joints offered a much wider range of motion. If you¡¯ve ever had to replace a part and the only way to it was a small access hub that was barely large enough to move it, you¡¯d understand why I chose this option. ¡°Uniforms¡± I stated, bringing up the last option I really felt like messing with. Beside the arm and leg and hair length, everything else looked just like I do in real life. I am already comfortable moving my body around, why would I want to learn a different one? The ¡°Uniforms¡± menu opened with a note that all options would be available in my quarters. That¡¯s cool, I could select my default outfit and then set the color matching for the rest of them. Starting with my work uniform, a ship suit with a basic fatigues combo I decided to match the colors up as best I could with what the game gave me. I chose a red for the primary color with a black as my secondary followed by white highlights for the ship suit. For the fatigues I just went basic black and equipped it.
Duty Uniform
Vacuum Protection Full
Armor None
Additional Air 120:00:00
Resistances
Heat 373K
Cold 100K
Toxic 100% Sealed
Radiation 900 SV/hr
Everything looked about right for the real-world equivalents. Heat protection up to the boiling point of water in a sealed suit, and it could survive most freezing temperatures for a time. Radiation protection would be enough to survive a cancer-causing dose, and no protection from anything else. That made me thing about what else I would be needing in game. ¡°Enter game¡± I ordered. ACCESS DENIED Please choose remaining Kit first Well, that answers that. ¡°Kit selection¡± I said, this time three options appeared to my left on an oversized version of the table I was starting to become familiar with. All three looked similar. Battle rifle, toolkit, and an extra.
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle
Type Kinetic
Rounds 0/30
Sight None
Fire Mode Options Sing/Pulse/Full
Weight 5 kg
Modifications none
Range 600 m
Maximum 3500 m
Engineering Kit MK 1
Contents Everything an Engineer needs to do a basic job
Weight 15 kg
As for the extras, there was MK1 armor, a cybernetics kit, and an advanced engineering drone. I wasn¡¯t planning on needing the armor, and with the drone I could make my own. It also wouldn¡¯t take long to fabricate it if I needed to and ended up with the cybernetics kit. I wasn¡¯t sure if I would ever need to mod out my arm and leg, but if they were damaged, I didn¡¯t want to be shit out of luck.
Cybernetics Maintenance Kit MK 2
Contents Everything needed to build (or rebuild) Cyberware
Weight 5 kg
I was now able to go into the game and figure out what has happened over the last 3 years. ¡°Enter Game¡± I said once again, and two doors opened. One of light, one of darkness. The light door slammed shut immediately, and the dark door sped towards me. ¡°What the fuck?¡± I was too shocked to move and was enveloped ¡°I don¡¯t think there is any reason to¡­ Jax?¡± I was back in the room with Yama, Rasputin, and what from my perspective would have been an eight-foot-tall shadow. Yes, a damned shadow. ¡°You don¡¯t look like the avatar for any of the AI I have met.¡± I tried to grab for my battle rifle only to discover I was immobile. ¡°We have a use for you. We will follow, learn interaction. Study.¡± It was the same voice from when I was kicked into character gen. ¡°Foreign matter repurposed.¡± What did that mean? ¡°Tell her the bad newssss firssst.¡± Yama was addressing the shadow giant. ¡°Will merge, assist, must learn.¡± The shadow spoke again. Rasputin decided to be generous and translate into something intelligible. ¡°What our visitor is saying is that his Nano ate the squib and as part of that, you know owe it until it decides you don¡¯t. Fortunately, all it wants to do is directly study human interaction. Seeing as you have its Nano, it will be watching everything you do. You don¡¯t have to agree, but I would prefer to live.¡± That last part didn¡¯t sound ominous at all. The shadow reached for me, then dissolved into a mist before flowing into me through my nose and mouth. Then I fell through the floor, landing in my quarters, somehow staying upright. 6. Watch it all burn!

Watch it all burn! - Edited 11-8-2018

Let¡¯s make a list:
  1. The first thing to do, check for messages.
  2. Next, check the overall game status.
  3. Then, try and contact Yama or Rassie.
I need to figure out what they know about my ¡°observer.¡± Shit, what am I going to call my guest? ¡°Observer works for now.¡± An old-time computer-generated voice ground through my head. Okay, no chance of privacy. This is going to suck. At least the voice was quiet enough to sound like it was coming through a bone induction speaker and knew how to ask it questions. So, yay! Go me. ¡°¡¯Observer¡¯ feels a bit informal. Do your species communicate verbally or through any audio cues?¡± No response. Well then, I guess I don¡¯t know how to ask it questions. So, maybe I get some privacy? I walked to the wall monitor and pulled up messages. Spam. A lot of spam. Well, not spam technically, but 48 daily status messages? Yeah, that¡¯s it. 48 days. A new email pined into my mailbox. 49 days. Okay, delete all those except for the last seven. That should be roughly six months relative. Let¡¯s see if there is anything valuable in them. TO: Crew of ARK-5 REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 43 Plausible habitation planet detected en-route to the fallback point, Charlie. Reroute Combat Group in accordance to protocols. Yellow Alert still in effect. Possible Xeno sighting on Ark-9. Patrols advised full awareness and constant vigilance. Ark-11 loss of compression on cargo bay. No casualties. Repairs necessary before equipment status can be verified. Volunteers from off-duty personnel will be allowed to assist with repairs. Uniform of the Day is ship suits with fatigues. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Mining teams, please note that all samples to be brought to science labs for immediate evaluation. The next several followed the same pattern; then I found myself reading today''s briefing. TO: Crew of ARK-5 REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 49 Plausible habitation planet verified as sustainable with minor terraforming. The Arks will be distributed as follows: Lunar Facility will be handled by Ark-7. Ark-5 will assist. Planetary construction will be handled by Ark-9, Ark-3, and Ark-2 Asteroid mining will be handed by Ark-11 and Ark-19 Solar System Survey will be managed by Ark-12 Combat Group is advised that Yellow Alert still in effect. Repairs on Ark-11 should be complete in two more days. Lost crew members have finally been inserted into the game. Fire Team leaders, orders will be sent regarding retrieval of team members. Uniform of the Day is ship suits with fatigues. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Another message hit my inbox. TO: Crew member Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Yama SUBJECT: Orders You will ignore all orders until the following is completed. Report to medical, receive full battery in-game Report to Engineering, receive full scan Report to Science, receive full scan Once completed, return to quarters and check for further orders. You have been assigned to a special action task-force for First Contact while we try to make substantive contact with the life form. Your fire team was reassigned to supplement other fire teams which lost crewmembers from what we are referring to as the Gate Incident. Uniform of the Day is ship suits with fatigues. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. There goes my day. I had to scrap the rest of my to-do list. I strapped on my helmet and set the face mask to close automatically. Stepping out of my quarters I had a minor sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. The last time I had climbed through the hatch to my berth some serious shit went down. I couldn¡¯t stop from freezing up for a moment as my brain caught up to the situation. In front of me were directional signs pointing me to the different areas of the ship. I noticed, also, a mini-map in the top right of my view that oriented itself to the bow of the vessel. I thought to ¡°Observer¡± Time to show you around this bucket. Then headed left towards Medical. The trip was much shorter in the game than in the ¡°real¡± world, thanks to the simplified design. Less than two minutes later I was walking through the doors. ¡°Doc, Yama said you wanted to stick me in a scanner and take a bunch of samples.¡± A different doctor than out game was here to greet me. ¡°You must be Crewman Jax. Lieutenant Commander Olmos, certified sample taker at your service.¡± She had a genuine smile as she called out to greet me, standing up from her desk in an office off to the side of the hatch I entered from. She met me roughly halfway between the entrance and her office. ¡°Please step into the chamber here. This will work just like the scanner you can find in many emergency med kits, but on a much larger scale, and with more delicate details. We¡¯ll be able to map your full neuro with this.¡± After stepping into the small room, I felt cold. My ship suit should have protected me from any temperature variance down to 100 Kelvin, but it wasn¡¯t set as active while on the ship. I removed my helmet and attached it to my belt, then waited. After a few minutes, the lights in the chamber switched to one of the ¡°invisible¡± spectrums then, minutes after that, the lighting returned to normal, and the door to the chamber opened. I reattached my helmet again and stepped out. ¡°Have a seat and remove your gloves. Time for the fun part!¡± The doctor pointed at a chair to the side of the scanning chamber, a slightly sadistic grin stretching across her face. I sat as instructed, then removed my gloves and fatigue blouse. Then, anticipating the next request, I also removed the top of my ship suit. First, the doctor grabbed a hair sample, then a skin sample, followed by a blood sample and a spit swab. Finally, she had me lay on a cot while she plugged a diagnostic utility into my head jack and ran another scan. ¡°Okay, armor up.¡± She said. I reattached all pieces of my armor and stood. ¡°Any other samples? You missed having me piss in a cup.¡± The doctor laughed. ¡°To be honest, I don¡¯t think I need most of them. Yama just wanted us to be sure.¡± ¡°Sure of what?¡± ¡°That you are who you say you are.¡± ¡°Last I checked, but how can I be sure?¡± With that, I was dismissed. With nothing else on my slate for the day, I decided to get the rest of my tests down as soon as possible. I started my ¡°trek¡± to the Science Lab. The configuration of the in-game ship made this a little too simple. It was right across the passageway. The same scene played out in the Science Labs. Further down the corridor in Engineering, there was a change- they didn¡¯t take any genetics samples. They also ran a lot more tests on my Neural. ¡°You realize you have non-standard issue gear, right?¡± That snapped me out of the autopilot I had been on. ¡°Explain,¡± I said, laying on my stomach, a cable connecting from my Neural port to a diagnostics system. I was just able to turn my head enough to see the holo-display of my Neural. It was massive. Not the display, but the Neural. I hadn¡¯t been able to see this in either Science or Medical. I was surprised as to how the monofilament had webbed its way through and around my brain. I could even see the squib that had been implanted to ensure I wasn¡¯t and didn¡¯t become a threat, the one that had already been triggered and failed. I wasn¡¯t sure as I¡¯m not an explosives expert, but a part of it seemed to be missing. ¡°That doesn¡¯t look normal,¡± I said once I had craned my neck enough to see the holo-display. ¡°Nope, and it looks like it¡¯s still growing, too.¡± The tech said. He then grabbed the cable and yanked hard, causing my head to move a little before the connector slid out. ¡°Fuck! Warn a girl next time. It may be just the tip, but that still hurts!¡± Then I realized what I said and turned a bright red. The tech just laughed. ¡°You¡¯re not my type, but that¡¯s still funny. Sit up, let me show you what I mean.¡± The tech turned to the console, entering a few commands and the room went dark with an oversized model of a brain with a standard issue neural implant. ¡°Let¡¯s wait just a minute, so I won¡¯t have to repeat this. Yama, make sure the team gets a copy of the specs on this beast.¡± Within a minute, two more techs entered the room. ¡°Lieutenants Li, Schneider, sorry for calling you in here, but I figured you¡¯d like to see what Crewman Jax has decided to share with us, and hopefully we can all study this together. I chose not to contact Ensign Le Roux or the rest of the third shift; they can watch the recording.¡± The two lieutenants nodded and me and sat down. Over the next several hours, we reviewed all the different pieces where the tendrils intersected my brain. There were tendrils in every part of it, from where I sensed taste to how I processed the flow of time. Obviously, I have them in my occipital lobe, which is where the data jack was, as well. All the tendrils were woven into a very tight matrix. When comparing my Neural with any of the existing Mk-I¡¯s through Mk-V¡¯s, there were almost no similarities. The pieces that connected to the jack initially were still the same, but that was about it. Standard modules, such as the sensory recording or memory enhancement utilities, and the minor comms suite, which allowed for direct communication with the ship, could almost be recognized. Everything else was alien to our known designs. The advantage of pulling this data in the game is that Yama had a copy immediately, which meant Rasputin and Hera would be getting an almost immediately, then the other ships that were with up would also get a copy to research. The big takeaway was that the filaments from the alien tech were one molecule thick, made from an as of yet unknown element, and still somehow worked. I would have to remember to ask Yama to get Rasputin to share the samples I knew were taken during my last surgery with everyone involved. I returned to my quarters and signed into my terminal.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETED
Follow daily orders
Exp Rewards 25
Other Rewards Schematics for prototype Neural Weave
Huh, so the game had some sort of experience mechanic built into it. 25 points for following orders didn¡¯t seem like much to me, but I also didn¡¯t have a way of judging things, yet. Maybe I still had something in my messages. One message, near the beginning of the queue filled in some of those holes. TO: All Personnel REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Intro Welcome to your first day in your Virt-P¡¯s. Under orders of the Hive AI known as Overlord, there are a few items for you to familiarize yourselves with. Personnel will automatically be granted the title of ¡°Crewman.¡± By following your daily orders and completing missions, you will gain experience. Experience can be used in a variety of ways:
  1. EXP (Experience) will be used as currency
  2. Spending EXP can grant you titles, levels, rates, or ranks
  3. The EXP Shop will have pre-made items
  4. The EXP Shop will have pre-made schematics
  5. The EXP Shop will have pre-made software and other utilities
  6. The EXP shop will have food options available
Titles: In addition to spending experience to buy titles, the rank will provide you the title that corresponds to your rank. If you rank up, you will lose other rank related titles. For example, a Lieutenant will not be able to choose Ensign as their title. Titles will only be available to purchase if your Avatar meets the requirements. Titles, when equipped, will provide a bonus to skills. ¡°Cheng,¡± for instance, will provide an experience boost for all Engineering based tasks that require a team of engineers or construction techs/drones to complete. This boost will be 1% for each engineer or tech, plus 5% for the user using the ¡°Cheng¡± title. Additional position head titles include but are not limited to ¡°Bonesaw¡± for medical, ¡°Captain¡± for ship¡¯s crew, and ¡°Squad Leader¡± for the infantry units. Levels: Each rank will consist of five levels. Levels you gain will grant additional proficiency with your skills, allowing you to gain understanding in your provided skillsets with AI-assisted learning. This will allow those of you that have not gone through training on maintenance to be assets to repair teams. For example, a level 1 avatar that the user may not have experience cleaning their weapon will automatically have this skill. By concentrating on your sidearm, a user will know how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble their firearm. By doing so repetitively and correctly, with a 0% failure rate, a user will have that knowledge upon coming out of cryo. While many already are familiar with disassembling and reassembling their firearms, many have not learned this skill set. Upon reaching another rank, an avatar may gain the knowledge to modify their firearms. Again, upon creating and installing a perfect modification the user will know how to manage, maintain, and introduce new changes. See personalized development plans for more detailed information on skills paths. Gaining experience levels will also allow an Avatar to learn additional ways to do a task, other than the default way that everyone will know. Examples include learning which chemical compounds can clean a mechanical engine easier than standard issue MU-1 Degreaser, which plants can be used to create a more filling meal supplement or a more nutrient-packed meal supplement, then the actual preparation of the plants for those purposes. Rates: Purchased rates will only be available if it is a specialization of your standard rank. An MS may specialize in Pastries, for instance. They will still be able to cook their usual fare, with competency. However, they will gain a more intimate understanding with pastries, allowing for some advanced creations. Rank: All enlisted are started as E-1, all warrant officers will be started at W-1, and officers will be begin at O-1, and will have to purchase their ranks. A few exceptions will be made on this, such as the Admiral and each ship¡¯s captain. Upon receiving the new rank, the knowledge of the lower rank¡¯s levels may be unlocked as well. This would be the case for specific Rates, but most rates will have this option. For those crewmembers that decide to ¡°Mustang,¡± be aware that the knowledge from your Enlisted ranks will stay as skills learned. Also, out of the game, you will still be your actual rank. Pre-made Equipment and items: Items that can be purchased includes and is not limited to rounds for your firearm, utility items, weapons, armor, environmental suits, flight suit upgrades, skillsets, food, and more. There was another message titled ¡°Accessing the Store¡± and a third named ¡°Avatar Reference¡± which taught me how to use the EXP store and access my Avatar details, the internal commands were ¡°Store¡± and ¡°Avatar Information¡± respectively. The limitation that the store could only be accessed from a terminal. Deciding to test these functions out, I commanded ¡°Avatar Information.¡±If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: None
Titles Available Crewman; Engineer; Host Equipped: Crewman
Experience 25 To Next Level 100
Modifications Sindri Foundries Left Arm; Hephaestus Industries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden
Specialization None
Strength 14 (11)* Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)*
Manual Dexterity 17 (13)* Intelligence 15 Concentration 11 Learning 18
Equipment: Duty Uniform; Engineering Kit MK-I; Utility Belt; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle
Magazine 1; Rounds 0/30
The ¡°Rank: None¡± bothered me, but the captain had at least told me about it. I selected the asterisk by my listed stats to receive a pop-up explaining that this was due to cybernetic enhancement. For instance, without my leg, my agility was an ¡°8¡±. Selecting the ¡°stats¡± I discovered that everything was based on a ¡°100¡± scale, with most humans being at a ¡°10¡± for average, above 15 was exceptional. I state ¡°most humans¡± as drones and mech suits can have an 80 dexterity or strength, and as such were calculated into the ¡°100¡± scale. It then listed what the stats meant. Strength, Stamina, and Intellect were self-explanatory. Agility was the speed at which one could move, and Manual Dexterity ended up being the ability to move limbs in unconventional ways more efficiently. My cybernetic arm in effect again. Health is how capable someone is of recovering from illness and how strong their immune system in general was. I had been healthy, so this just barely above average must be impacted by the three years I had spent in a hospital bed. Learning represented how quickly we could absorb and make use of information, and concentration was the ability to maintain focus on a task during environmental interference. I closed out the ¡°Avatar Information¡± and brought up the ¡°Store¡± to get an idea as to what I would be able to buy. Everything was expensive. First, I checked the ¡°consumables.¡± 100 EXP would be enough to buy 5 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack which would give concentration stamina, and learning bonuses. Clothing was similar. 500 EXP would be enough to get one piece of casual clothing. Weapons and armor were even more expensive. Upgrading to a different battle rifle would be 5,000 EXP or more, but¡­ that made me check the modifications. A new retractable stock for the Taishi Ci would be 250 EXP. A lightweight plasteel block would only be five experience, and it was just large enough to create two retractable stocks if you knew how to map out the mass with drafting software. Was there drafting software? Yep, 100 EXP. I had a plan on how to get caught up with EXP to the rest of the crew. I sent a message to Yama. TO: Yama REPLY TO ATTN: Crewman Jax SUBJECT: Store Question on the store and sales of EXP. Can items be sold to other Avatars for EXP? Can an Avatar sell direct through the store? TO: Crewman Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Yama SUBJECT: Store Items can be sold to other Avatars directly. Opening sales on the store will require the ability to sell directly to other ship members. Items must be hand delivered. No selling on the store physical objects that must be manually transported to a separate Ark. Intellectual Property may be licensed to other Arks, but there is no way to protect IP (expect a licensed item to be reverse engineered and resold in place of your IP). That means this could probably work. Next, I checked the cost of explosives, particularly incendiary grenades. After reviewing the prices there, I checked the prices of some components and realized that I had just enough knowledge to build all sorts of weapons, weapon upgrades, modified firearms and more, then resell them to the local fire teams. Starting with incendiary grenades, I could make and sell them for well under the cost of an ¡°official¡± incendiary grenade. In fact, I could build one for 20 EXP. I sent a message to some of the guys I know who like to have a little ¡°boom-boom¡± in reserve. Less than five minutes later, I was on my way to the science labs to make my prototype.

Watch it all burn! - Original

Let¡¯s make a list: First thing to do, check for messages. Next, check over all game status Then, try and contact Yama or Rassie. I need to figure out what they know about my ¡°observer¡±. Shit, what am I going to call my guest? ¡°Observer works for now.¡± An old-time computer-generated voice ground through my head. Okay, no chance of privacy. This is going to suck. At least the voice was quiet enough to sound like it was coming though a bone induction speaker. And knew how to ask it questions. So, yay! Go me. ¡°¡¯Observer¡¯ feels a bit informal. Does your species communicate verbally or through any audio cues?¡± No response. Well then, I guess I don¡¯t know how to ask it questions. So, maybe I get some privacy? I walked to the wall monitor and pulled up messages. Spam. Lots of spam. Well, not spam technically, but 48 daily status messages? Yeah, that¡¯s it. 48 days. A new email pined into my mail box. 49 days. Okay, delete all those except for the last seven. That should be roughly six months relative. Let¡¯s see if there is anything important in them. TO: Crew of ARK-5 REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 43 Plausible habitation planet detected en-route to fallback point Charlie. Reroute Combat Group in accordance to protocols. Yellow Alert still in effect. Possible Xeno sighting on Ark-11. Patrols advised full awareness and constant vigilance. Ark-9 loss of compression on cargo bay. No casualties. Repairs necessary before equipment status can be verified. Volunteers from off duty personnel will be allowed to assist with repairs. Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Mining teams, please note that all samples to be brought to science labs. The next several followed the same pattern, then I found myself reading todays briefing. TO: Crew of ARK-5 REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 49 Plausible habitation planet verified as sustainable with minor terraforming. The Arks will be distributed as follows: Lunar Facility will be handled by Ark-7. Ark-5 will assist. Planetary construction will be handled by Ark-9, Ark-3, and Ark-2 Asteroid mining will be handed by Ark-11 and Ark-19 Solar System Survey will be handled by Ark-12 Combat Group is advised that Yellow Alert still in effect. Repairs on Ark-9 should be complete in two more days. Lost crew members have finally been inserted into the game. Fire Team leaders, orders will be sent regarding retrieval of team members. Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Another email hit my inbox. TO: Crew member Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama SUBJECT: Orders You will ignore all orders until the following is completed. Report to medical, receive full battery in-game Report to Engineering, receive full scan Report to Science, receive full scan Once completed, return to quarters and await further orders. You have been assigned to a special actions task-force for first contact. Your fire team has already been reassigned to supplement other fire teams which lost crewmembers from what is being referred to as the Gate Incident. Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. There goes my day. I had to scrap the rest of my to do list. I strapped on my helmet and set the face mask to close automatically. Stepping out of my quarters I had a minor sense of d¨¦j¨¤ vu. The last time I had stepped out of the doors to my berth some serious shit went down. I couldn¡¯t stop from freezing up for a moment as my brain caught up to the situation. In front of me were directional signs pointing me to the different areas of the ship. I noticed, also, a mini-map in the top right of my view that oriented itself to the bow of the ship. I thought to ¡°Observer¡± Time to show you around this bucket. Then headed left towards Medical. The trip was much shorter in game than in the ¡°real¡± world. The overall design was simplified. Instead of just under a dozen. Two power plants instead of one every half kilometer. One cargo hold, one hangar. You get the idea. Less than two minutes later I was walking through the doors. ¡°Doc, orders said you wanted to stick me in a scanner, then take a bunch of samples.¡± A different doctor than out game was here to greet me. ¡°You must be Jax. Lieutenant Commander Olmos, certified sample taker at your service.¡± She had a genuine smile as she called out to greet me, standing up from her desk in an office off to the side of the hatch I entered from. She met me roughly half way between the hatch and her office. Please step into the chamber here. This will work just like the scanner you can find in many emergency med kits, but on a much larger scale, with finer details. We¡¯ll be able to map your full neuro with this. After stepping into the chamber, I felt cold. My ship suit should have protected me from any temperature variance down to 100 Kelvin, but it wasn¡¯t set as active while on ship. I removed my helmet and attached it to my belt, then waited. After five minutes, the lights in the chamber switched to one of the ¡°invisible¡± spectrums then five minutes after that, the lights returned to normal and the doctor told me to step out. I reattached my helmet again and stepped out. ¡°Have a seat and remove your gloves. Time for the fun part!¡± The doctor pointed at a chair to the side of the scanning chamber, a slightly sadistic grin stretching across her face. I sat as instructed, then removed my gloves and fatigue blouse. Then, anticipating the next request, I also removed the top of my ship suit. First the doctor grabbed a hair sample, then a skin sample, followed by blood and a spit swab. Finally, she had me lay on a cot while she plugged a diagnostic utility into my head jack and ran another scan. ¡°Okay, armor up.¡± She said. I reattached all pieces of my armor and stood. ¡°Any other samples? You missed having me piss in a cup.¡± The doctor laughed. ¡°Too be honest I don¡¯t think I need most of them. Yama just wanted us to be sure.¡± ¡°¡¯Sure¡¯ of what?¡± ¡°That you are who you say you are.¡± ¡°Last I checked, but how can I be sure?¡± I started my ¡°trek¡± to the Science Lab. The configuration of the in-game ship made this a little too simple. It was right across the passage way. The scene was similar in Science. Further down the corridor in Engineering, the major change was they didn¡¯t take any genetics samples. They did however run a lot more tests on my neural. ¡°You realize you have non-standard issue gear, right?¡± That snapped me out of my day dreaming. ¡°Explain.¡± I said, laying on my stomach, a cable connecting from my neural port to a diagnostics system. I was just able to turn my head enough to see the holo-display of my neural. It was massive. Not the display, but the neural. I didn¡¯t see this in Science or in Medical. I was surprised as to how the monofilament had webbed its way through and around my brain. I could even see the squib that had been implanted to ensure I wasn¡¯t and didn¡¯t become a threat, the one that had already been triggered and failed. I wasn¡¯t sure as I¡¯m not an explosives expert, but a part of it seemed to be missing. ¡°That doesn¡¯t look normal.¡± I said once I had craned my neck and saw what was shown. ¡°Nope, and it looks like it¡¯s still growing, too.¡± The tech said. He then grabbed the cable and yanked hard, causing my head to move a little before the connecter slid out. ¡°Fuck! Warn a girl next time. It may be just the tip, but that still hurts!¡± Then I realized what I said and turned a bright red. The tech just laughed. ¡°You¡¯re not my type, but that¡¯s still funny. Sit up, let me show you what I mean.¡± The tech turned to the console, entering a few commands and the room went dark with an oversized model of a brain with a standard issue neural implant. ¡°Let¡¯s wait just a minute, then I¡¯ll be able to say this once without repeating it. Yama make sure the team gets a copy of the specs on this beast.¡± A few seconds later, two more techs entered the room. ¡°Lieutenants Li, Schneider, sorry for calling you in here, but I figured you¡¯d like to see what Crewman Jax has decided to share with us, and hopefully we can all study this together. I chose not to contact Ensign Le Roux or the rest of third shift, they can watch the recording.¡± The two lieutenants nodded and me and sat down. Over the next five hours we reviewed all the different pieces where the tendrils intersect my brain. There are tendrils in everything from my taste to how I sense time. Obviously, I have them in my occipital lobe as well. All the tendrils were woven into a very tight matrix. When comparing to the Mk-I¡¯s through Mk-Vis there were almost no similarities. What was the same were the pieces that connected to the jack initially. Items such as sensory recording and memory enhancement utilities, and the minor comms suite which was the definition of an internal communications device. Everything else was alien. The advantage of pulling this data in game is that Yama had a copy immediately, which meant Rasputin would be getting a copy soon, then the other ships that were with up would also get a copy to research. The big takeaway was that the filaments from the alien tech was one molecule thick, made from an unidentified element, and still somehow worked. I would have to remember to ask Yama to get Rasputin to share the samples I knew were taken during my last surgery with everyone. I returned to my quarters and signed into my terminal.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETED
Follow daily orders
Exp Rewards 25
Other Rewards Schematics for new neural weave
Huh, so the game had some sort of experience mechanic built into it. 25 points for following orders didn¡¯t seem like much to me, but I also didn¡¯t have a way of judging things. Maybe I still had something in my messages. I found a message near the beginning of the queue TO: All Personnel REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Intro Welcome to your first day in your VirtP¡¯s. Under orders of the Hive AI known as Overlord, there are a few items for you to familiarize yourselves with. Personnel will automatically be granted the title of ¡°Crewman¡±. By following your daily orders and completing missions you will gain experience. Experience can be used in a variety of ways:
  1. Gaining experience can grant you levels
  2. Spending experience can grant you rank
  3. Spending experience can grant you titles
  4. Experience will be used as currency
In addition to spending experience to buy titles, rank will provide you the title that corresponds to your rank. Each rank will consist of five levels. Each rank of your rate can be specialized. Levels will gain you proficiency with your skills, allowing you to gain understanding in your provided skillsets with AI assisted learning. This will allow those of you that have not gone through training on maintenance to be assets to repair teams. Examples of this are at entry, a level 1 avatar that the user may not have experience cleaning their weapon will automatically have this skill. By concentrating on your side arm or primary weapon, a user will know how to disassemble, clean, and reassemble their firearm. By doing such perfectly (a 0% failure rate) a user will have that knowledge upon coming out of cryo. While there are many who already are familiar with disassembling and reassembling their firearms (read Marines), there are many whom have not learned this skill set. Upon reaching another rank, an avatar may gain the knowledge to modify their firearms. Again, upon creating and installing a perfect modification the user will know how to manage, maintain, and install new modifications. See personalized development plans for more detailed information on skills paths. Gaining experience levels will allow an Avatar to learn additional ways to do the task, other than the default way that everyone will know. Examples include learning which chemical compounds can clean a mechanical engine easier than standard issue MU-1 Degreaser, which plants can be used to create a more filling meal supplement or a more nutrient packed meal supplement, then the actual preparation of the plants for those purposes. Titles will only be available to purchase if your Avatar meets the requirements. Titles, when equipped, will provide a bonus to skills. ¡°Cheng¡±, for instance, will provide an experience boost for all Engineering based tasks that require a team of engineers or construction techs/drones to complete. This boost will be 1% for each engineer or tech, plus 5% for the user using the ¡°Cheng¡± title. Additional position head titles include but are not limited to ¡°Bonesaw¡± for medical, ¡°Captain¡± for ships crew, and ¡°Squad Leader¡± for the infantry units. Equipment that can be purchased consist of rounds for your firearm, utility weapons, armor, environmental suits, flight suit upgrades, skillsets, food, and more. There was another message titled ¡°Accessing the Store¡± and a third named ¡°Avatar Reference¡± which taught me how to use the EXP store and access my Avatar details, the internal commands were ¡°Store¡± and ¡°Avatar Information¡± respectively. The limitation that they could only be accessed from my quarters. Deciding to test these functions out, I commanded ¡°Avatar Information¡±
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: E-1
Titles Available Crewman; Engineer; Host Equipped: Crewman
Experience 25 To Next Level 100
Modifications Sindri Foundries Left Arm; Haephestus Indrustries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden
Specialization None
Strength 14 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (17) Intelligence 15 Concentration 11 Learning 18
Equipment: Duty Uniform; Engineering Kit MK-I; Utility Belt; Tasihi Ci Battle Rifle
Magazine 1; Rounds 0/30
I selected the asterisk by my listed stats to receive a pop-up explaining that this was due to cybernetic enhancement. For instance, without my leg, my agility was an ¡°8¡±. Selecting the ¡°stats¡± I discovered that everything was based on a ¡°100¡± scale, with most humans being at a ¡°10¡± for average, above 15 was exceptional. I state most humans as drones and mech suits can have an 80 dexterity or strength. It then listed what the stats meant. Strength, Stamina, Agility, and Intellect were self-explanatory. Manual Dexterity also sounded like a lot of what it was, except it also included the ability to move limbs in unconventional ways was more likely to have a larger number. My cybernetic arm in effect again. Health is how capable someone is of recovering from illness and how strong their immune system in general was. Learning represented how easily we could absorb and make use of information, and concentration was the ability to maintain on task in the event of environmental interference. I closed out the ¡°Avatar Information¡± and brought up the ¡°Experience Store¡± to get an idea as to what I would be able to buy. Everything was expensive. For the ¡°consumables¡±, 100 EXP would be enough to buy 5 days of breakfast, lunch, dinner, and a snack which would give concentration stamina, and resistance bonuses. Clothing was similar. 500 EXP would be enough to get one piece of casual clothing. Weapons and armor were even more expensive. Upgrades to the battle rifle would be 5,000 EXP or more, but¡­ that made me check the modifications. A new retractable stock for the Taishi Ci would be about 250 EXP. A light weight plasteel block would only be five experience, and it was just large enough to create two retractable stocks, if you knew how to map out the mass with drafting software. Was there drafting software? Yep, 100 EXP. I had a plan on how to get caught up with EXP to the rest of the crew. I sent a message to Yama. TO: Yama REPLY TO ATTN OF: Crewman Jax SUBJECT: Store Question on the store and sales of EXP. Can items be sold to other Avatars for EXP? Can an Avatar sell direct through the store? TO: Crewman Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama SUBJECT: Store Items can be sold to other Avatars directly. Opening sales on the store will require the ability to sell direct (No selling on the store physical items that must be delivered to ARK-11). IP may be licensed to other Arks, but there is no way to protect IP (expect a licensed item to be reverse engineered and resold in place of your IP). That means this could probably work. Next, I checked the cost of explosives, particularly incendiary grenades. After checking the prices there, I checked the prices of some components and realized that I had just enough knowledge to build all sorts of weapons, weapon upgrades, modified weapons and more, then resell them to the local fire teams. Starting with incendiary grenades, I could make and sell them for well under the cost of an ¡°official¡± incendiary grenade. In fact, I could build one for 20 EXP. I sent a message to some of the guys I know who like to have a little ¡°boom-boom¡± in reserve. Less than five minutes later, I was on my way to the science labs to make my prototype. 7. The Store is Open

The Store is Open - Edited 11-8-2018

Before leaving my quarters, I had purchased a set of the following. Axel Grease, Grain alcohol, potato starch, and (my personal favorite) white phosphorus. The phosphorus and axel grease were the most expensive at a combined 10 EXP. I had also grabbed a ceramic ball, some springs, and a sheet of low-grade aluminum, all totaling the remainder of the 20 EXP. The bright side? There appeared to be enough grease, starch, and alcohol for more than one assembly, but only one of everything else. Once in the science lab, I was able to get a vacuum chamber to assemble my ¡°detonator¡± which consisted of placing the phosphorus into the ceramic ball, then sealing it by mixing some potato starch with the alcohol and then dehydrate it out. It was a fragile seal, but it would work. I then had to run over to engineering to create a cylinder to store my mixture with. My prototype looked like a can of soda. Inside was a spring tension switch holding the ceramic ball together inside of a slurry of grease, alcohol, and starch. A poor man¡¯s napalm. And best of all, this only took a total of 45 minutes to complete. Most of that time was waiting on results from scanning the slush to ensure it would combust and stick before calling it complete. Now I knew the exact measurements needed, and I could build an incendiary napalm grenade in under three minutes. Now I just needed to find a place to record the results of the experiment that wouldn¡¯t hurt the ship. Using the terminal in the lab, Yama directed me towards a cargo hold that was empty except for an oversized container. It was perfect for my needs, and I wondered for a minute about how there was a full cargo hold that was empty and perfect for my needs. Then I remembered that this was a game, so this was probably explicitly generated for my needs. ¡°Yama full recording options. We want to ensure that we have thermal as well as basic visual records of this.¡± I ordered hoping that this would work. ¡°Recording when you are ready, Crewman.¡± Yama¡¯s rasping voice came through my helmet. I sealed up. ¡°Full spectrum so we can also record the off gasses. I want to make sure that everything is recorded so we can market all of this properly.¡± I opened the container, ensuring it was empty, grabbed the cylinder and threw it into the back bulkhead. Though I was prepared, I was not quite ready for what happened next. A flash was expected, but the fireball from the phosphorus igniting the vaporized alcohol was the surprise. It was only about 2 feet in diameter, so it wasn¡¯t an ¡°oh shit¡± moment, more of a ¡°nice bonus¡± moment. The fireball resulted in all the goop igniting almost immediately, instead of expanding first then igniting as the original design was for. The heat was just over 450K, hotter than the standard ship suit would protect against. Success. The gasses that came from the smoldering grease were toxic, but well within the tolerance of the ships purification systems, which also meant that if there were an accident, the DC teams wouldn¡¯t need specialized gear on top of their standard kit. The temperature then started to climb. It was gradual at first, then within ten seconds, it was over 1500K, almost 1600K and still rising. The cargo container then started to melt. I grabbed a cargo strap and tied myself down. ¡°Vent it,¡± I commanded. The air was immediately sucked out of the room, the force of the vacuum threatening to pull me off my feet. The fire went out. After a few seconds, the floor of the hold under the cargo container then opened, and then it fell into the oversized airlock which was already open on the other side, allowing for the deformed metal shell to be sucked out with the air. Afterward, I returned to my quarters to review the data and check my messages at my terminal. Pressing the button on my terminal, I received an unexpected notice.
Crafting Experience Gained
Prototyping successfully created
Exp Rewards 65
Other Rewards Schematics for phosphorescent napalm grenade
Data on phosphorescent napalm
Explosives and Demolitions Crafting Unlocked
I now knew how to create timed, remote detonated, proximity, and pressure mines as well as claymores and several different types of grenades.
Title Unlocked
Demolitions Expert
Title Cost 1500 EXP
Title Rewards Explosives created grant an additional 5% EXP
Explosives created have an increased 1% radius
Explosives mods now available to unlock
15% increase in the chance of learning schematics from disabled explosives
I wasn¡¯t going to be able to buy the title yet, but that was something I would want to look at in the future. We already knew there are aliens. If I was able to disassemble one of their bombs or missiles, we could understand how they were built and learn how to protect against them. That would be big. I opened the store and looked at the cost for the pieces to make a claymore. 45 EXP. Thinking about the parts I immediately knew how to improve on the design. Making it more compact with a UV tether I could make the claymores pack even more of a punch and at the same time increase the explosive force and tighten the cone of damage all while making it more difficult to locate. I looked at the cost for these upgrades. 80EXP. I couldn¡¯t afford that, yet. I checked my messages and found a request for proof of concept on the new grenades. As I was about to reply, another notice came in asking for the same. Then a third, this one from someone I hadn¡¯t sent an initial message to. It looks like improved explosives were something that had been discussed amongst the fire teams for a few days, so my advertising came at just the right time. I set up a rule with Yama¡¯s help that would automatically reply to the requests for the incendiary¡­ scratch that, the phosphorescent napalm grenades data. The reply contained the holovid with full spectrum analysis and a graph of the temperature increase of the goop. I ordered pieces for another eight grenades. That would cost me the last of my EXP gains for the day as well as tap out the last of the resources that I had bought. This time, my first stop was the fabricators in Engineering, then off to the labs to start building. With the last three, each grenade now was taking me under two minutes each to assemble. That was about as fast as I could make it happen. Twenty-five minutes total to build these eight grenades. I checked the terminal to see if there were any requests for items, yet. The store was selling phosphorus grenades at 150 EXP each, and a standard incendiary grenade for 100 EXP. Napalm grenades weren¡¯t even listed. I had decided that I would sell each of my new grenades for 50 EXP. It was a huge markup, but my idea needed massive infusions of EXP to work. An hour later I had met up with some old friends, shared a beer, and was now 400 EXP richer with orders for another 20 as soon as I could build them. An hour and a half later, I had decided to stop making the napalm. I had completed the order for the 20 and sold the last seven that I had made on top of that. I had been making the items in batches of nine, which had run a total of 210 EXP for all the pieces. This turned into 1540 EXP at the end of my first day in the game. Upon entering my quarters for the end of the day, I checked my messages to ensure that I hadn¡¯t missed any new orders that had come through during my trips to engineering and the labs.
Additional Levels Unlocked
You have gathered enough experience to advance to level 5.
I had ignored the level two and three alerts from earlier in the day so I could go directly to the store. I did the same again. I bought a hand-held terminal for 250 EXP so that I wouldn¡¯t have to check in at my quarters or in the labs to get messages. I then purchased the drafting program I had seen earlier and installed it onto both my handheld as well as my personal terminal in my quarters. Then I noticed that the store charged me for both installations. Great, I just blew a week worth of daily EXP. I then ordered the plasteel I would need for the next phase of my plan. I then decided to look a bit more at the upgrades for my quarters. My quarters were utilitarian. Rack, desk with the built-in terminal, food dispenser, a monitor that mimicked the outside view, puka, and head. The upgrades could increase the overall size of my quarters, for 5,000 EXP, add a shower to the head for 300 EXP, increase the size of my rack 200 EXP, change my footlocker to an attached wardrobe 100 EXP, add an additional footlocker 100 EXP, add another built-in closet 150 EXP, and even add other rooms for a variety of prices. Some of the compartments would save me time by making it, so I didn¡¯t have to go to the engineering bays, science labs, mess hall, armory, and even the target ranges. Adding a room for weapon engineering would be 2700 EXP. Adding a closet with a weapon bench, on the other hand, would be 2200 EXP. Piecemeal room building seemed to be the way to go. I decided to set up the 100-cred meal plan and added a shower to my head without making any other changes to my quarters. I decided to hit my rack for some shut-eye. I was starting to get a headache. As I laid there trying to sleep my mind was suddenly assaulted by a torrent of images. The pain had started as a small pressure at the base of my skull and my temples but now felt like my head was being crushed in a vice that was super-heated and covered in long spikes coated in chainsaw blades. Before I could even scream out in pain, it was over. I was covered in sweat, and could only let out a whimper before collapsing, unconscious. The following morning, I woke up hung over. Not actually hung over but feeling like I spent a night celebrating too much and not sleeping enough. I noticed a puddle of blood-filled vomit on the floor next to my rack. I grabbed my morning meal and immediately felt better. I checked for the daily briefing. TO: Crew of ARK-5 REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 50 A habitable planet is within the range of additional sensors. All technical staff will be required to review data as it comes in. Overlord protocols will be in effect. Yellow Alert still in effect. Alien ship escort patterns have changed in the last 6 hours. Unknown reasons. There is still no communication. Patrols advised full awareness and constant vigilance. Ship suit with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Weapons development teams are advised. You now have additional, successful, competition. Looks like I was getting famous. I then checked my individual orders. TO: Crewman Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Yama SUBJECT: Daily orders day 50 Report to medical, engineering, and science for follow up examinations. After, please report back to quarters to check for additional orders. Well, looks like my morning was scheduled for me, again. But I was planning on heading to medical to begin, anyway. The difference between this morning and yesterday was that the doctor in medical told me I looked like shit, then pulled samples. Of course, then she had me step into the chamber. After I got out, she then injected me with something that burned in my veins for a few seconds and told me to check back tomorrow. The science lab was similarly cold, but nothing different happened from yesterday. By the time I made it to Engineering, my hangover was gone. The techs in Engineering tried to grill me on the structure, and I offered to sell them licensing for the Neural, which they wouldn¡¯t buy because there was no knowledge of what most of the webbing did. They then called in Lt. Schneider so we could discuss what we were looking at. After about 15 minutes I noticed something. ¡°Hey, LT? Can you bring up a side by side with yesterday¡¯s scan?¡± ¡°You see something? Never mind, I think I see what you do.¡± He replied, configuring a side by side. ¡°How much do you think they grew?¡± I asked. The area around the temples is what had caught my eye. I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed the change if I hadn¡¯t had the pain last night before bunking down. ¡°Maybe a dozen microns? It¡¯s difficult to say for sure by eyeballing it.¡± He typed up a few things on his terminal. ¡°Okay, seven microns. Well, I estimated high. Let¡¯s just say I was estimating both sides.¡± ¡°Look down here,¡± I said, drawing his attention to the area by my neural jack. The webbing there was still about the same length, but it was about twice as dense. ¡°Can you do an overlay with the two? Let¡¯s keep today''s scan a ¡®white¡¯ while rendering yesterdays in black.¡± The lieutenant then merged the two images. There were hundreds of new threads. ¡°That explains my migraine,¡± I muttered to myself. More tests then followed, and I was dismissed. I walked to one of the fabrication stations and inserted my plasteel block. I then brought out my handheld terminal and started to design two separate stocks for my Taishi Ci. About 45 minutes later, my brick was cut up, and I had two different stocks to work with. There was a lot of material left over. I then planned and built a weapons maintenance kit for my battle rifle. It had everything I needed except for the gun oil. I returned to my quarters and was given the completion rewards for my daily orders, and for building three item prototypes. 175 EXP richer I looked in the store and bought the gun oil. I also purchased a weapons mat and some rags and started to disassemble my rifle. Thoroughly cleaned and with a new bump stock installed I bought 30 rounds and made my way to the gunnery range so I could test the new stock. Approaching the hatch to ¡°Marine Country¡± I realized that I was not considered one of them at this time. Yea, I had been through Marine boot camp outside, before the mission, and I had done a full tour. But since I was accepted for the expedition, I transferred to the Navy. As such, the game had me birthed with the Navy, on fore portion of the ship. Stopping at the hatch, I made sure that my uniform was unwrinkled, and my gig line was straight. I then knocked on the hatch before opening it and announced myself. ¡°Crewman Jax, requesting permission to use the gunnery range,¡± I said smartly. ¡°Shit, Jax? When the hell did you get plugged in? A couple of days before we were plugged in, we heard you got blown the fuck up.¡± The voice was familiar. The helmet popped open to reveal my old fireteam lead. ¡°Mother fucker! Janssens?¡± Well, I knew at least if it¡¯s up to him I¡¯ll be able to head to the range whenever I needed. ¡°Shit, man, I was ready to deal with some greenhorn. I¡¯m hoping to use the range so I can test out a new stock I made. Permission to pass?¡± ¡°Make any spares? You can pass either way, but since you blew up, we haven¡¯t had any engineers worth a shit. Wait, are those new grenades your doing?¡± He was sporting a shit eating grin now. I could tell he was thinking of all the new toys I could help him with. ¡°Not just that, but I also built a Taishi Ci maintenance kit, and am selling them for half the cost of what you can buy in the EXP store. I also have some ideas for smoke, flashbang, frag, and standard incendiary grenades. Soon I may even prototype a claymore.¡± Watching the greed in his eyes, I couldn¡¯t help but break into a grin myself. Janssens face mask closed briefly. ¡°Show me,¡± Janssens responded when his facemask opened a few seconds later. He must have radioed to one of his squaddies as another rifleman approached the hatch. ¡°Sergeant, Corporal Lebowski was in the middle of stripping his weapon, so we swapped.¡± The new rifleman reported. ¡°No worries, private,¡± Janssens said. He then nodded for me to follow him. The walk was quick. Less than three minutes later we were in the gunnery range. Janssens checked out a loaded magazine from the Master at Arms, the only Navy person assigned behind the semi-imaginary line that separated the Marines from everyone else on board. Janssens loaded his Taishi Ci and fired single fire, burst fire, and then full auto down range before I passed him my battle rifle. He charged my rifle, then shot down range again, repeating single fire, burst fire, and then full auto again. ¡°Shit, your design takes out a whole lot of the kick.¡± Janssens was genuinely surprised as he handed me my rifle back. I grinned, loaded a fresh clip then fired down range, single fire and a couple of bursts. ¡°Damn, I didn¡¯t think it would be that nice. All I gotta do is put some more padding on the stock, and this will be ready to go.¡± I was pleased. ¡°Wanna see something else great? This one¡¯s on me.¡± I grabbed the spare stock from my utility belt as well as my tools, then motioned to his battle rifle. A few other Marines had come to the range for their daily target practice and noticed the kit and stocks. I had an audience. ¡°This stock is good for single and burst fire only. You should notice a considerable stability increase beyond the stock I have on mine, but if you go full auto, it won¡¯t be anywhere near what I have.¡± Janssens grabbed his rifle, then grabbed another magazine from MA. He then approached the fire line and sent three bursts down range, all rounds in each burst hit within a ? inch from each other. ¡°Well, hot damn! I¡¯ll be keeping this!¡± Janssens was ecstatic. Suddenly the crowd all started to shout their requests for pricing at me. ¡°Hold up, everyone, hold up!¡± Janssens shouted. The crowd quieted down. He then motioned to me. ¡°For those of you who don¡¯t know me, the name is Crewman Jax. As you have seen, thanks to Sgt. Janssens, I make rifle mods. As some of you have also heard, I also make grenades. The stocks for the BRs are good only for the Taishi Ci¡¯s. Costs are 25 EXP per stock, 50 EXP for a phosphorescent napalm grenade. Realize the grenades are single-use consumable items. I am also selling Taishi Ci specific weapons maintenance kits for 125 EXP. Most of that cost is due to gun oil. I plan on having additional maintenance kits made in the future.¡± I then gave them my contact ID and left the gun range. Janssens walked me to the hatch leading to the fore of the ship. ¡°Thanks. Let me know when you have other bits for me.¡± Janssens said with a wicked grin. I took his offered his hand. ¡°Will do. I¡¯m going to work on a lighter more durable case next, for the rifles, but I really am looking forward to some ideas on a lighter weight body armor, then possible sights.¡± Within a minute of having left Marine Country, I already had over a dozen orders. By the time I made it to my quarters, there were over fifty. I activated the console in my room. This was good. Some of these requests were for stocks and maintenance kits. 60 kit requests so far, 38 stock requests. Twelve more grenade requests. Time to get to work. I first build out the grenades; then I built out the stocks. I had to portion out the weapons kits as I didn¡¯t have enough EXP to buy the oil for them all at the same time. At the end of the day, on the other hand, I was up of 6300 EXP with all orders sold and delivered. I splurged and bought a room and geared it up as a weapons engineering room. Now I wouldn¡¯t have to keep running back to the tech area to prototype out my designs. I felt another stab of pain in my temple, this time it wasn¡¯t debilitating. This time I could see images for armor designs, probably the same from last night that had flooded my mind. I opened the EXP shop and did some calculations. A carbon fiber weave would be 800 EXP for enough to make a ship suit. Kevlar coating the design would be another 250 EXP. A rubberized spray to keep out radiation would be 50 EXP. A computerized cooling and circulation unit was 200 EXP. Magnetic attachment points like the utility belts had on them were 10 EXP each. Silicon covered wiring with connection points for each hand, the boots, and the helmet would total 150 EXP. A vacuum sealed gel liner for automatic puncture sealing would run another 200 EXP. An oxygen scrubber was fortunately only 80 EXP, and the compressed air was 40 EXP. Lastly, I needed to build a helmet that would work with the new armor, from a style point of view. I started with a liner containing the same combination of materials from the armor. Due to the size needed, the cost was roughly 1/10th of the body. I then looked over the colored glass plates with a built-in screen. I chose a red one for 100 EXP. A paper-thin lead sheet was 2 EXP. Tungsten coated ceramic plated were next at 275 EXP. Then a comms suite for 500 EXP. Lastly, I chose an Mk-I scanner package for 1000 EXP. Using the scanner that was part of my engineering kit, I took a full body scan to get my dimensions and fed them into my drafting program. I then spent the next 3 hours getting everything in place and ensuring that all the measurements were correct. I then hit the ¡°buy¡± button, and all the materials were delivered to my quarters. I immediately placed them in the fabricator and ran my assembly program. The helmet for the suit was queued up while the suit itself was being stitched together. An hour later it was complete, and I tried it on. The suit fit like a second skin. Waiting for the helmet to complete, I snapped it into place. I knew that with the headgear equipped the that this would be a serious piece of tech. I scanned it with my toolkit and looked at the specs.
Duty Uniform MK-II
Custom Built by Danni Jax
Vacuum Protection Full
Armor NoneEnjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Additional Air 180:00:00
Resistances
Ballistic 5,000
Blunt 800
Stabbing 250
Slashing 250
Energy 500
Concussive Immune when sealed
Heat 500K
Cold 125K
Toxic 100% Sealed
Radiation 1,100 SV/hr.
I¡¯d lost some of my cold resistance, but the rest was one hell of an upgrade. I stripped off the ship suit and took a nice long shower. The new ship suit looked like it was knitted from a very finely threaded nylon cable, matching my preferred color scheme of black and red. The gloves had an input array that could be used to connect to some of the more advanced targeting systems available in the EXP Store. The helmet was black with a small antenna protruding from the back-right side, by the ear. The bump from additional electronics barely noticeable. Above the faceplate was a series of tiny lenses used for monitoring different EM bandwidths, as well as a standard camera for recording images. Instead of a solid red tinted glass faceplate, there were four ¡°eyes.¡± Each eye contained two concentric circles that lit up in a menacing red glow over a matte black shell. There was no white from highlights on either the suit or the helmet. Before going to bed, I checked my console for new orders.
Crafting Experience Gained
Prototyping successfully created
Exp Rewards 250
Other Rewards Schematics for Ship Suit MK-II
Schematics for Recon Helmet MK-VI
I decided to spend some of my EXP and bought a Warrant Officers rank for 4000 EXP.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: WO-1
Titles Available Crewman; Engineer; Host Equipped: Crewman
Experience 91 To Next Level 1500 Rate: Engineer
Modifications Sindri Foundries Left Arm; Hephaestus Industries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden
Specialization None
Strength 14 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (17) Intelligence 15 Concentration 11 Learning 18
Equipment: Duty Uniform MK-II; Recon Helm MK-VI; Engineering Kit MK-I; Utility Belt;
Tasihi Ci Battle Rifle (Modified); Magazine 1; Rounds 30/30
More messages were waiting in my queue. People wanted to know what weapon mods I had available. I guess us potentially hitting a new planet tomorrow was putting people on edge. I set up automatic response rules for this type of inquiry as well, then hit my rack.

The Store is Open - Original

Before leaving my quarters, I had purchased a set of the following. Axel Grease, Grain alcohol, potato starch and (my personal favorite) white phosphorus. The phosphorus and axel grease were the most expensive at a combined 10 EXP. I had also grabbed a ceramic ball, some springs, and a sheet of low grade aluminum, all totaling the remainder of the 20 EXP. The bright side? There appeared to be enough grease, starch, and alcohol for more than one assembly, but only one of everything else. Once in the science lab, I was able to get a vacuum chamber to assemble my ¡°detonator¡± which consisted of placing the phosphorus into the ceramic ball, then sealing it by mixing some potato starch with the alcohol, and then dehydrate it out. It was a fragile seal, but it would work. I then had to run over to engineering to create a cylinder to store my mixture with. My prototype looked like a can of soda. Inside was a spring tension switch holding the ceramic ball together inside of a mixture of grease, alcohol, and starch. A poor man¡¯s napalm. And best of all, this only took a total of 45 minutes to complete. Most of that time was waiting on results from scanning the slush to ensure it would combust and stick before calling it complete. Now I knew the exact measurements needed and I could build an incendiary napalm grenade in under three minutes. Now I just needed to find a place to record the results of the experiment that wouldn¡¯t hurt the ship. Using the terminal in the lab, Yama directed me towards a cargo hold that was empty except for an oversized container. It was perfect for my needs, and I wondered for a minute about how there was a full cargo hold that was empty and perfect for my needs. Then I remembered I was in a game, so this was probably generated specifically for my needs. ¡°Yama full recording options. We want to ensure that we have thermal as well as standard visual records of this.¡± I ordered hoping that this would work. ¡°Recording when you are ready, Crewman.¡± Yama¡¯s rasping voice came through my helmet. I sealed up. ¡°Full spectrum so we can also record the off gasses. I want to make sure that everything is recorded so we can market all of this properly.¡± I opened the container, ensuring it was empty, grabbed the cylinder and threw it into the back bulkhead. I was not ready for everything that happened. A flash was expected, but the fireball from the phosphorus igniting the evaporated alcohol was the surprise. It was only about 2 feet in diameter, so it wasn¡¯t a ¡°oh shit¡± moment, more of a ¡°nice bonus¡± moment. The fireball resulted in all the goop igniting almost immediately, instead of expanding first then igniting as the original design was for. The heat was just over 450K, so hotter than the standard ship suit would protect against. Success. The gasses that came from the burning grease were toxic, but well within the tolerance of the ships purification systems, which also meant that if there was an accident, the DC teams wouldn¡¯t need specialized gear on top of their standard kit. The temperature then started to climb. It was gradual at first, then within ten seconds it was over 1500K, almost 1600K and still rising. The cargo container then started to melt. I grabbed a cargo strap and tied myself down. ¡°Vent it.¡± I commanded. The air was immediately sucked out of the room, the force of the vacuum threatening to pull me off my feet. The fire went out. After a few seconds, the floor of the hold under the cargo container then opened and the container fell into the oversized airlock which was already opened on the other side, allowing for the container to be sucked out with the air. Afterwards I returned to my quarters to review the data and check my messages at my terminal. Pressing the button on my terminal I received an unexpected reward.
Crafting Experience Gained
Prototyping successfully created
Exp Rewards 65
Other Rewards Schematics for phosphorescent napalm grenade
Data on phosphorescent napalm
Explosives and Demolitions Crafting Unlocked
In now knew how to create timed, remote detonated, proximity, and pressure mines as well as claymores and several different types of grenades.
Title Unlocked
Demolitions Expert
Title Cost 1500 EXP
Title Rewards Explosives created grant an additional 5% EXP
Explosives created have an increased 1% radius
Explosives mods now available to unlock
15% increase in chance of learning schematics from disabled explosives
I wasn¡¯t going to be able to buy the title yet, but that was something I would want to look at in the future. We already knew there are aliens. If I was able to disassemble one of their bombs or missiles, we could know how they were built and how to protect against them. That would be big. I opened the store and looked at the cost for the pieces to make a claymore. 45 EXP. Thinking about the pieces I immediately knew how to improve on the design. Making it more compact with a UV tether I could make the claymores pack even more of a punch and at the same time increase the explosive force and tighten the cone of damage all while making it more difficult to locate. I looked at the cost for these upgrades. 80EXP. I couldn¡¯t afford that, yet. I checked my messages and found a request for proof of concept on the new grenades. As I was about to reply, another message came in asking for proof. Then a third, this one from someone I hadn¡¯t sent an initial message to. It looks like improved explosives were something that had been discussed amongst the fire teams for a few days, so my message came at just the right time. I set up a rule with Yamas help that would automatically reply to the requests for the incendiary¡­ scratch that, the phosphorescent napalm grenades data. The reply contained the holovid with full spectrum analysis, and a graph of the temperature increase of the goop. I ordered pieces for another eight grenades. That would cost me the last of my EXP gains for the day as well as tap out the last of the resources that I had bought. This time, my first stop was the fabricators in Engineering, then off to the labs to start building. With the last three, each grenade now was taking me under two minutes each to assemble. That was about as fast as I could make it happen. Twenty-five minutes total to build these eight grenades. I checked the terminal to see if there were any requests for items, yet. The store was selling phosphorus grenades at 150 EXP each, and basic incendiary grenades for 100 EXP. Napalm grenades weren¡¯t even listed. I had decided that I would sell each of the grenades for 50 EXP. It was a huge markup, but my plan needed a large infusion of EXP to work. An hour later I had met up with some old friends, shared a beer, and was now 400 EXP richer with orders for another 20 as soon as I could build them. An hour and a half later, I had decided to stop building the napalm. I had completed the order for the 20 and sold the last seven that I had made on top of that. I had been making the items in batches of nine, which had run a total of 210 EXP for all the pieces. This turned into 1540 EXP at the end of my first day in game. Upon entering my quarters for the end of the day, I checked my messages to ensure that I hadn¡¯t missed any new orders that had come through during my trips to engineering and the labs.
Additional Levels Unlocked
You have gathered enough experience to advance to level 5.
I had ignored the level two and three alerts from earlier in the day, so I could go directly to the store. I did the same again. I bought a hand-held terminal for 250 EXP so that I wouldn¡¯t have to check in at my quarters or in the labs to get messages. I then bought the drafting program I had seen earlier and installed it onto both my handheld as well as my personal terminal in my quarters. Then I noticed that the store charged me for both installations. Great, I just blew a week worth of daily EXP. I then ordered the plasteel I would need for the next phase of my plan. I then decided to look a bit more at the upgrades for my quarters. My quarters were utilitarian. Rack, desk with built-in terminal, food dispenser, a monitor that mimicked the outside view, puka, and head. The upgrades could increase the overall size of my quarters, for 5,000 EXP, add a shower to the head for 300 EXP, increase the size of my rack 200 EXP, change my puka to a guckle 100 EXP, add an additional puka 100 EXP, add a guckle 150 EXP, and even add additional rooms for a variety of prices. Some of the rooms would save me time by making it so I didn¡¯t have to go to the engineering tech bays, science labs, mess hall, armory, and even target ranges. Adding a room for weapons engineering would be 2700 EXP. Adding a closet with a weapons bench, on the other hand would be 2200 EXP. Piece meal room building seemed to be the way to go. I decided to set up the 100-cred meal plan and added a shower to my head without making any other changes to my quarters. I decided to hit my rack for some shut eye. I was starting to get a headache. As I laid there trying to sleep my mind was suddenly assaulted by a torrent of images. The headache, for a small pressure at the base of my skull and my temples, now felt like my skull was being crushed in a vice that was super-heated and covered in long spikes coated in chainsaw blades. Before I could even scream out in pain, it was over. I was covered in sweat, and could only let out a whimper before collapsing, unconscious. The following morning, I woke up hung over. Not actually hung over but feeling like I spent a night celebrating too much and not sleeping enough. I noticed a puddle of blood filled vomit on floor next to my rack. I grabbed my morning meal and immediately felt better. I checked for the daily briefing. TO: Crew of ARK-5 REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Daily Briefing Day 50 Habitable planet is in range of additional sensors. All technical staff will be required to review data as it comes in. Overlord protocols will be in effect. Yellow Alert still in effect. Alien ship escort patterns have changed in the last 6 hours. Unknown reasons. Still no communication. Patrols advised full awareness and constant vigilance. Ship suits with fatigues is Uniform of the Day. Helmets required on. Face Masks optional under Neuro response safeties. Weapons development teams be advised. You now have additional, successful, competition. Looks like I was getting famous. I then checked my individual orders. TO: Crewman Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama SUBJECT: Daily orders day 50 Report to medical, engineering, and science for follow up examinations. After, please report back to quarters to check for additional orders. Well, looks like my morning was scheduled for me, again. But I was planning on heading to medical to begin, anyway. The difference between this morning and yesterday was that the doctor in medical told me I looked like shit, then pulled samples. And had me step into the chamber. After I got out, she then injected me with something that burned in my veins for a few seconds and told me to check back tomorrow. The science lab was similarly cold, and nothing different happened from yesterday. By the time I made it to Engineering, my hangover was gone. The techs in Engineering tried to grill me on the structure, and I offered to sell them licensing for the neural, which they wouldn¡¯t buy because there was no knowledge of what most of the webbing did. They then called in Lt. Schneider, so we could discuss what we were looking at. After about 15 minutes I noticed something. ¡°Hey, LT? Can you bring up a side by side with yesterday¡¯s scan?¡± ¡°You see something? Never mind, I think I see what you do.¡± He replied, configuring a side by side. ¡°How much do you think they grew?¡± I asked. The area around the temples is what had caught my eye. I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed the change if I hadn¡¯t had the pain last night before bunking down. ¡°Maybe a dozen microns? It¡¯s difficult to say for sure by eyeballing it.¡± He typed up a few things on his tablet. ¡°Okay, seven microns. Well, I estimated high. Let¡¯s just say I was estimating both sides.¡± ¡°Look down here.¡± I said, drawing his attention to the area by my neural jack. The webbing there was still about the same length, but it was about twice as dense. ¡°Can you do an overlay with the two? Let¡¯s keep todays scan a ¡®white¡¯ while keeping yesterdays ¡®black¡¯.¡± The lieutenant then merged the two images. There were hundreds of new threads. ¡°That explains the migraine.¡± I muttered to myself. More tests then followed, and I was dismissed. I walked to one of the fabrication stations and inserted my plasteel block. I then brought out my handheld terminal and started to design two separate stocks for my Taishi Ci. About 45 minutes later, my brick was cut up and I had two separate stocks to work with. There was a lot of material left over. I then planned and built a weapons maintenance kit for my battle rifle. It had everything I needed except for the gun oil. I returned to my quarters and was given the completion rewards for my daily orders, and for building three item prototypes. 175 EXP richer I looked in the store and bought the gun oil. I also bought a weapons mat and some rags and started to disassemble my rifle. Fully cleaned and a new bump stock installed I bought 30 rounds and made my way to the gunnery range, so I could test the new stock. Approaching the hatch to ¡°Marine Country¡± I realized that I was not considered one of them at this time. Yea, I had been through boot camp outside, before the mission, and I had done a full tour. But the game had me birthed with the Navy, on fore portion of the ship. Stopping at the hatch, I made sure that my uniform was unwrinkled, and my gig line was straight. I then knocked on the hatch before opening it and announced myself. ¡°Crewman Jax, requesting permission to use the gunnery range.¡± I said smartly. ¡°Shit, Jax? When the hell did you get plugged in? A couple of days before we were plugged in, we heard you got blown the fuck up.¡± The voice was familiar. The helmet popped open to reveal my old fireteam lead. ¡°Mother fucking Janssens?¡± Well, I knew at least if it was up to him I¡¯d be able to head to the range whenever I needed. ¡°Shit, man, I was ready to deal with some green horn. I¡¯m hoping to use the range, so I can test out a new stock I made. Permission to pass?¡± ¡°Make any spares? You can pass either way, but since you blew up we haven¡¯t had any engineers worth a shit. Wait, were the new grenades your doing?¡± He was sporting a shit eating grin now. I could tell he was thinking of all the new toys I could help him with. ¡°Not just that, but I also have built a Taishi Ci maintenance kit, and am selling them for half the cost of what you can buy in the EXP store. I also have some ideas for smoke, flashbang, frag, and standard incendiary grenades. Soon I may even prototype a claymore.¡± Watching the greed in his eyes, I couldn¡¯t help but break into a grin myself. Janssens face mask closed briefly. ¡°Show me.¡± Janssens responded when his facemask opened a few seconds later. He must have radioed to one of his squaddies as another rifleman approached the hatch. ¡°Sergeant, Corporal Lebowski was in the middle of stripping his weapon, so we swapped.¡± The new rifleman reported. ¡°No worries, private.¡± Janssens said. He then nodded for me to follow him. The walk was quick. Less than three minutes later we were in the gunnery range. Janssens checked out a loaded magazine from the Master at Arms, the only Navy person assigned behind the semi-imaginary line that separated the Marines from everyone else on board. Janssens loaded his Taishi Ci, and fired single fire, burst fire, and then full auto down range before I passed him my battle rifle. He loaded my rifle, then fired down range again, repeating single fire, burst fire, and then full auto again. ¡°Shit, your design takes out a whole lot of the kick.¡± Janssens was genuinely surprised as he handed me my rifle back. I grinned, loaded a fresh clip then fired down range, single fire and a couple of bursts. ¡°Damn, I didn¡¯t think it would be that nice. All I gotta do is put some more padding on the stock and this will be ready to go.¡± I was pleased. ¡°Wanna see something else great? This one¡¯s on me.¡± I grabbed the spare stock from my utility belt as well as my tools, then motioned to his battle rifle. A few other marines had come to the range for their daily target practice and noticed the kit and stocks. I had an audience. ¡°This stock is good for single and burst fire only. You should notice a considerable stability increase beyond the stock I have on mine, but if you go full auto, it won¡¯t be anywhere near what I have.¡± Janssens grabbed his rifle, then grabbed another magazine from MA. He then approached the fire line and sent three bursts down range, all rounds in each burst hit within a ? inch from each other. ¡°Well, hot damn! I¡¯ll be keeping this!¡± Janssens was ecstatic. Suddenly the crowd all started to shout their requests for pricing at me. ¡°Hold up, everyone, hold up!¡± Janssens shouted. The crowd quieted down. He then motioned to me. ¡°Okay, everyone. My name is Crewman Jax. As you have seen, thanks to Sgt. Janssens, I make rifle mods. As some of you have also heard, I also make grenades. The stocks for the BRs are good only for the Taishi Ci¡¯s. Costs are 25 EXP for a stock, 50 EXP for a phosphorescent napalm grenade. Realize the grenades are single use consumable items. I am also selling Taishi Ci specific weapons maintenance kits for 125 EXP. Most of that cost is due to gun oil. I plan on having additional maintenance kits made in the future.¡± I then gave them my contact ID and left the gun range. Janssens walked me to the hatch leading to the fore of the ship. ¡°Thanks. Let me know when you have other bits for me.¡± Janssens said with a wicked grin. I took his offered his hand. ¡°Will do. I¡¯m going to work on a lighter more durable case next, for the rifles, but I really am looking forward to some ideas on a lighter weight body armor, then possible sights.¡± Within a minute of having left Marine Country I already had over a dozen orders. By the time I made it to my quarters there were over fifty. I activated the console in my room. This was good. Some of these requests were for stocks and maintenance kits. 60 kit requests so far, 38 stock requests. Twelve more grenade requests. Time to get to work. I first build out the grenades, then I built out the stocks. I had to portion out the weapons kits as I didn¡¯t have enough EXP to buy the oil for them all at the same time. At the end of the day, on the other hand I was up of 6300 EXP with all orders sold and delivered. I splurged and bought a room and geared it up as a weapons engineering room. Now I wouldn¡¯t have to keep running back to the tech area to prototype out my designs. I felt another stab of pain in my temple, this time it wasn¡¯t debilitating. This time I could see images of an armor design, probably the same from last night that had flooded my mind. I opened the EXP shop and did some calculations. A carbon fiber weave would be 800 EXP for enough to make a ship suit. Kevlar coating the weave would be another 250 EXP. A rubberized spray to keep out radiation would be 50 EXP. A computerized cooling and circulation unit was 200 EXP. Magnetic attachment points like the utility belts had on them were 10 EXP each. Silicon covered wiring with connection points for each hand, the boots, and the helmet would total 150 EXP. A vacuum sealed gel liner for automatic puncture sealing would run another 200 EXP. An oxygen scrubber was fortunately only 80 EXP, and the compressed air was 40 EXP. Lastly, I needed to build a helmet that would work with the new armor, from a style point of view. I started with a liner containing the same combination of materials from the armor. Due to the size needed, the cost was roughly 1/10th of the body. I then looked over the tinted glass plates with a built-in screen. I chose a red one for 100 EXP. A paper-thin lead sheet was 2 EXP. Tungsten coated ceramic plated were next at 275 EXP. Then a comms suite for 500 EXP. Lastly, I chose a MK1 scanner package for 1000 EXP. Using the scanner that was part of my engineering kit, I took a full body scan to get my dimensions and fed them into my drafting program. I then spent the next 3 hours getting everything in place and ensuring that all the measurements were correct. I then hit the ¡°buy¡± button, and all the materials were delivered to my quarters. I immediately placed them in the fabricator and ran my assembly program. The helmet for the suit was queued up while the suit itself was being stitched together. An hour later it was complete, and I tried it on. The suit fit like a second skin. Waiting for the helmet to complete, I snapped it into place. I knew that with the helmet equipped the that this would be a serious piece of tech. I scanned it with my toolkit and looked at the specs.
Duty Uniform MK-II
Custom Built by Danni Jax
Vacuum Protection Full
Armor None
Additional Air 180:00:00
Resistances
Ballistic 5,000
Blunt 800
Stabbing 250
Slashing 250
Energy 500
Concussive Immune when sealed
Heat 500K
Cold 125K
Toxic 100% Sealed
Radiation 1,100 SV/hr
I¡¯d lose some of my cold resistance, but the rest was one hell of a win. I stripped off the ship suit and took a nice long shower. The new ship suit looked like it was knitted from a very fine threaded nylon cable, matching my preferred color scheme of black and red. The gloves had an input array that could be used to connect to some of the more advanced targeting systems available in the EXP Store. The helmet was black with a small antenna protruding from the back-right side, by the ear. The bump from additional electronics barely noticeable. Above the faceplate was a series of tiny lenses used for monitoring different EM bandwidths, as well as a standard camera for recording images. Instead of a solid red tinted glass face plate, there were four ¡°eyes¡±. Each eye contained two concentric circles that lit up in a menacing red glow over a matte black shell. There was no white from highlights on either the suit or the helmet. Before going to bed, I checked my console for new orders.
Crafting Experience Gained
Prototyping successfully created
Exp Rewards 250
Other Rewards Schematics for Ship Suit MK-II
Schematics for Recon Helmet MK-VI
I decided to spend some of my EXP and bought a Warrant Officers rank for 4000 EXP.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: WO-1
Titles Available Crewman; Engineer; Host Equipped: Crewman
Experience 91 To Next Level 1500 Rate: Engineer
Modifications Sindri Foundries Left Arm; Haephestus Indrustries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden
Specialization None
Strength 14 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (17) Intelligence 15 Concentration 11 Learning 18
Equipment: Duty Uniform MK-II; Revon Helm MK-VI; Engineering Kit MK-I; Utility Belt;
Tasihi Ci Battle Rifle (Modified); Magazine 1; Rounds 30/30
There were more messages waiting in my queue. People wanting to know what weapon mods I had available. I guess us potentially hitting a new planet tomorrow was putting people on edge. I set up automatic response rules for this type of inquiry as well, then hit my rack. 8. Intel Weenies

Intel Weenies -Edited 11-8-2018

I was wide awake. According to the ship''s clock, it was 0300 hours. I had slept for only 2 hours yet felt more awake than I had the last two days. I checked my console only to discover no orders assigned yet, just the daily brief. Today it stated the obvious. Yellow alert, plan to hit the planet today before the end of second shift and stay vigilant. The alien ships that were trailing us were still flying erratically, and we were not willing to see if they were hostile, and they would not respond to our hails. I decided to go for a run. When I was done with that, I had a workout. The fitness center and track surrounding it were utterly deserted. In fact, it felt like it hadn¡¯t been in use for a long while. When I got back to my quarters, Yama responded to my question on that with a message that boiled down to ¡°without a lot of work, stats won¡¯t increase, but they will not decrease unless someone loses a limb or is incapacitated some other way.¡± Death was seemingly not permanent, in-game, so if someone had an arm or leg lost, they would often just kill themselves and respawn in their quarters. Doing so would make them lose all EXP gained that day from daily missions, quests, and squad activities. I bought another plasteel brick and then brought out my magazine. I emptied the rounds from it first so I would not get any bad data. Once that was done, I created a template for an extended 45 round magazine. My plasteel brick could make 12 extended 45 round magazines made for a Taishi Ci. I made a total of 72 magazines this way. There wasn¡¯t even an item like this available in the store, but standard magazines were 15 EXP each. I then priced out a brick of a magnesium alloy at 50 EXP. I changed out the dimensions of the block, keeping the mass the same. I then used that brick to create six barrels, fully rifled and vented. Two were long barrels the other four were shorter barrels. I took apart my battle rifle and scanned the three barrels.
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel
Weight .8 kg
Range 600
Maximum 3500
Recoil Reduction 0
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Short
Weight .5 kg
Range 500
Maximum 3300
Recoil Reduction 5%
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Long
Weight 1.1 kg
Range 900
Maximum 4000
Recoil Reduction 10%
The two barrels I would sell each for 50 EXP. I kept a short barrel and then two magazines. I then sent messages to everyone asking about weapon mods that I had some extended Magazines available for 10 EXP each, as well as a limited number of barrels. It was now 0500, so I was surprised that no one was responding to the message. I started a scan on my Taishi Ci to see what other mods I could think up; then the orders started coming in. I sold out of everything immediately, then had to go to the labs due to grenade orders. After those, I was back in my quarters making new barrels and stocks. By the time my orders of the day came in, I had already completed 100 orders, putting me back over 4500 EXP, and granting me two more schematics and EXP bonuses for each of the barrel lengths made. TO: Crewman Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Yama SUBJECT: Daily orders day 51 Report to medical, engineering, and science for follow up examinations. After, please report to Intel with all created gear. Today''s trips to medical, engineering and science were unproductive. No significant changes to me in the last 24 hours and my Neural had only grown by 1 micron at my temples. No visible difference to the density at my jack, either. After I was done with the daily three, I returned to my quarters. Before I reported to Intel, I wanted to make sure I had everything. I quickly purchased some ceramic plates and placed them into my fabricator. On the fly, I designed some armor plates that connected like overly large scales on my sides, up my spine and then larger plates over my thighs and calves. That only took thirty minutes. I then armored up, put my fatigues on over my armor, attached my kits to my utility belt along with my battle rifle. Then used my mini-map to head to Intel. I was sitting at a table, in my skivvies, cuffed down with my left arm and right leg on a table near the door. It was a bit fuzzy, but the moment the doors to intel opened, I was hit with a lot of electricity. Before my suit could respond, and seal itself I was hit with another round of something, and then I blacked out, only to wake up like this. Fortunately, the game didn¡¯t translate the pain of getting electrocuted like that through. Otherwise, I would be beyond pissed off, instead of just stewing. Yama¡¯s avatar walked through the door. ¡°Jaxssssssss, good of you to come by.¡± ¡°Fucking hell, Yama! What is this about? You might have fried one of my prosthetics!¡± Seeing that it was Yama that came in, I wasn¡¯t about to let him off the hook. After all, an AI doesn¡¯t have a ¡°real¡± body, so it doesn¡¯t know what pain is like. ¡°I came by as ordered, with all my gear, AS ORDERED! You didn¡¯t need to fry me!¡± ¡°Had to be ssssssure.¡± Yama hissed. He then turned the bulkhead I was facing into a screen. I watched a cigar-shaped craft following an ark suddenly explode. ¡°A ssssssssssingal wasssss ssssent from you, then thisssssssss¡­¡± Well, shit. ¡°You¡¯ve seen the reports of on my tests. Do you KNOW what¡¯s even happening inside my head? Is it also happening to my body outside?¡± ¡°You will provide a full report on itssssss activitiessssss.¡± Yama hissed. ¡°It called itself ¡®Observer¡¯ when it climbed into me. I haven¡¯t heard a peep since.¡± I said, knowing that was only a partial truth. After a moment I continued. ¡°I think it may have shown me how to make the ship suit I had on. I had never even considered that combination of materials, but yesterday I woke up from what felt like a migraine. Medical and Science didn¡¯t tell me about any changes in my Neural, but we saw something in Engineering and determined that it had grown several microns.¡± ¡°This morning it had grown another micron at my temples. The density near my jack had also easily doubled yesterday, but I couldn¡¯t see any changes today.¡± I don¡¯t know why I told him that piece; then I noticed a glint from the back of his head. That could only mean that he was jacked into something. My stomach fell out. He was jacked into me. Yama stared at me for a solid minute. It appeared to anyone on the outside that he was deep in thought. I, however, could tell he was talking with Rasputin. After another 30-ish second, I heard a blip from the cart. Looks like I got a message on my terminal. I turned back to Yama, and he moved towards me. ¡°Rassssssputin sssssendssss hissss regardssssss.¡± Yama hissed. ¡°There musssst be more. Isssss that all you know?¡± His gave was at the minimum unsettling. ¡°That¡¯s everything. The ceramic plating, maintenance kits, stocks, magazines, and grenades were entirely me. Including the idea to place a full scanning suite into the helmet along with the comms unit and bridge them together. My next idea that I haven¡¯t implemented yet was a new targeting system, and to make a single filament blade for a backup CC weapon. After that, I was going to price out ammo and see if a tungsten jacketed round would work or if a depleted uranium round would be effective for the Taishi Ci¡¯s.¡± ¡°Conssssider ssshhhipsssss weaponsssss?¡± Yama asked. ¡°Not yet. I was a Marine first, so I want to make sure my Marines are taken care of. After that, I can worry about what Navy, then officers do. And yes, I realize how ironic that sounds having just upgraded to Warrant One.¡± I responded to his pointed look as I was answering him. ¡°Also, just so you know, there was something else that ¡®Observer¡¯ said that I hadn¡¯t thought of. When the four of us were in the room together, it said it had repurposed some matter. Any ideas? ¡°You had been injected with medical Nano. Injected to heal quickly. Your Neural had been compromissssed. Additionally, new sssenssor and communicattiion modulessss have been compromissssed.¡± Yama was full of great news. ¡°So, it hijacked the medical Nano, then when you all re-added the memory, sensor and comm modules it took them over? Well shit. Can I be sure of anything that I have heard or seen?¡±The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. A shadow shot out from my Neural jack a moment later. ¡°Replay. Observer requires data.¡± Simple, concise, and to the point. Yama paused for less than a second, then replayed the video. ¡°Observer sees. Orders followed. Not Us.¡± You could hear the capital ¡°U¡± in ¡°Us.¡± Somehow its synthesized voice came across sounding pleased. ¡°You mean that the ship wasn¡¯t you, or that the communication, wasn¡¯t you? Or something else?¡± A voice over a speaker said. ¡°Yes,¡± Observer replied. I thought I heard a pleased tone in the cacophony of digitization it called a voice. ¡°Not us made disappear. Enemy gone.¡± Well, shit. Not only was it first contact with one race, but there was also a second alien species, and they were at war. From the inside, it meant that so were we, now. ¡°Genocide. Subspace was hidden. Risk contacting new species. Observation protocols for safety. Potential ally.¡± Observer was talking. This was a nice change. ¡°So, your species was being attacked, by whatever those were?¡± I nodded towards the display. ¡°It became a systemic genocide, and so you hid in subspace? What next? You then saw us as we entered through a wormhole? And you then decided to contact us and see if we were genocidal as well, or if we were potential allies? Did I get that right?¡± ¡°Not sure on the name.¡± there was a long pause. ¡°Stories call ¡®Wormhole¡¯ verified.¡± Observer said. I think there was pride in its voice. ¡°All else correct.¡± Okay, so I was right on that. ¡°Did you give me a ship suit schematic?¡± Now seemed as good a time to ask as any. ¡°Old tech. Not relevant.¡± Observer responded. ¡°What about my neural net?¡± This was a sticking point for me. ¡°You have specs. Used for accessing data. Galactic standard.¡± Observer said nonplussed. Yama looked at me, then at Observer, and again back at me. ¡°You ssssspeak well together. More information needed.¡± The area around me flickered, and Rasputin joined us. ¡°Outside a multitude of ships has made their presence known. Yama has informed me that these ships are a potential enemy. Please give me the data I require. Thank you.¡± Observer shot a finger into my jack before Yama had even finished speaking. The pain made me black out again. I came to with my arm and leg reattached, and my ship suit and fatigues next to me. I suited up. Observer, are you still with me? I thought to myself Yes. I suited up and grabbed the rest of my gear on my way back to my quarters.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETED
Follow daily orders
Exp Rewards 25
Well, shit. Couldn¡¯t they at least compensate me for their own bullshit?

Intel Weenies - Original

I was wide awake. According to the ships clock it was 0300 hours. I had slept for only 2 hours yet felt more awake than I had the last two days. I checked my console only to discover no orders assigned yet, just the daily brief. Today it stated the obvious. Yellow alert, plan to hit the planet today before the end of second shift and stay vigilant. The alien craft that were trailing us were still flying erratically, and we were not willing to see if they were hostile, and they would not respond to our hails. I decided to go for a run. When I was done with that, I had a workout. The fitness center and track surrounding it were completely deserted. In fact, it felt like it hadn¡¯t been in use for a long while. When I got back to my quarters, Yama responded to my question on that with a message that boiled down to ¡°without a lot of work, stats won¡¯t increase, but they will not decrease unless someone loses a limb or is incapacitated some other way.¡± Death was seemingly not permanent, in game, so if someone had an arm or leg lost, they would often just kill themselves and respawn in their quarters. Doing so would make them lose all EXP gained that day from daily missions and squad activities. I bought another plasteel brick and then brought out my magazine. I emptied the rounds from it first, so I would not get any bad data. Once that was done, I created a template for an extended 45 round magazine. My plasteel brick could make 12 extended 45 round magazines made for a Taishi Ci. I made a total of 72 magazines this way. There wasn¡¯t even an item like this available in the store, but standard magazines were 15 EXP each. I then priced out a brick of a magnesium alloy at 50 EXP. I changed out the dimensions of the block, keeping the mass the same. I then used that brick to create six barrels, fully rifled and vented. Two were long barrels the other four were shorter barrels. I took apart my battle rifle and scanned the three barrels.
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel
Weight 1 kg
Range 600
Maximum 3500
Recoil Reduction 0
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Short
Weight .5 kg
Range 500
Maximum 3300
Recoil Reduction 5%
Taishi Ci Battle Rifle Barrel Long
Weight .7 kg
Range 900
Maximum 4000
Recoil Reduction 10%
The two barrels I would sell each for 50 EXP. I kept a short barrel and then two magazines. I then sent messages to everyone asking about weapon mods that I had some extended Magazines available for 10 EXP each, as well as a limited number of barrels. It was now 0500, so I was surprised that no one was responding to the message. I started a scan on my Taishi Ci to see what other mods I could think up, then the orders started coming in. I sold out of everything immediately, then had to go to the labs due to grenade orders. After those I was back in my quarters making new barrels and stocks. By the time my orders of the day came in, I had already completed 100 orders, putting me back over 4500 EXP, and granting me two more schematics and EXP bonuses for each of the barrel lengths made. TO: Crewman Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama SUBJECT: Daily orders day 51 Report to medical, engineering, and science for follow up examinations. After, please report to Intel with all created gear. Todays trips to medical, engineering and science were unproductive. No major changes to me in the last 24 hours, and my neural had only grown by 1 micron at my temples. No visible change to the density at my jack, either. After I was done with the daily three, I returned to my quarters. Before I reported to Intel I wanted to make sure I had everything. I quickly purchased some ceramic plates and placed them into my fabricator. On the fly I designed some armor plates that connected like overly large scales on my sides, up my spine, and then larger plates over my thighs and calves. That only took thirty minutes. I then armored up, put my fatigues on over my armor, attached my kits to my utility belt along with my battle rifle. Then used my mini-map to head to Intel. I was sitting at a table, in my skivvies, cuffed down with my left arm and right leg on a table near the door. It was a bit fuzzy, but the moment the doors to intel opened, I was hit with a lot of electricity. Before my suit could respond, and seal itself I was hit with another round of something, and then I blacked out, only to wake up like this. Fortunately, the game didn¡¯t translate the pain of getting electrocuted like that through, otherwise I would be beyond pissed off, instead of just stewing. Yamas avatar walked through the door. ¡°Jaxssssssss, good of you to come by.¡± ¡°Fucking hell, Yama! What is this about? You may have fried one of my prosthetics!¡± Seeing that it was Yama that came in, I wasn¡¯t about to let him off the hook. After all, an AI doesn¡¯t have a ¡°real¡± body, so it doesn¡¯t know what pain is like. ¡°I came by as ordered, with all my gear, AS ORDERED! You didn¡¯t need to fry me!¡± ¡°Had to be ssssssure.¡± Yama hissed. He then turned the bulkhead I was facing into a screen. I watched a cigar shaped craft following an ark suddenly explode. ¡°A ssssssssssingal wasssss ssssent from you, then thisssssssss¡­¡± Well, shit. ¡°You¡¯ve seen the reports of on my tests. Do you KNOW what¡¯s even happening inside my head? Is it also happening to my body outside?¡± ¡°You will provide a full report on itssssss activitiessssss¡±. Yama hissed. ¡°It called itself ¡®Observer¡¯ when it climbed into me. I haven¡¯t heard a peep since.¡± I said, knowing that was only a partial truth. After a moment I continued. ¡°I think it may have shown me how to make the ship suit I had on. I had never even considered that combination of materials, but yesterday I woke up from what felt like a migraine. Medical and Science didn¡¯t tell me about any changes in my neural, but we saw something in Engineering and determined that it had grown several microns. This morning it had grown another micron at my temples. The density near my jack had also easily doubled yesterday, but I couldn¡¯t see any changes today.¡± I don¡¯t know why I told him that piece, then I noticed a glint from the back of his head. That could only mean that he was jacked into something. My stomach fell out. He was jacked into me. Yama stared at me for a solid minute. It appeared to anyone on the outside that he was deep in though. I, however, could tell he was talking with Rasputin. After another 30-ish seconds, I heard a blip from the cart. Looks like I got a message on my terminal. I turned back to Yama and he moved towards me. ¡°Rassssssputin sssssendssss hissss regardssssss.¡± Yama hissed. ¡°There musssst be more. Isssss that all you know?¡± His gave was at the minimum unsettling. ¡°That¡¯s everything. The ceramic plating, maintenance kits, stocks, magazines, and grenades were entirely me. Including the idea to place a full scanning suite into the helmet along with the comms unit and bridge them together. My next idea that I haven¡¯t implemented yet was a new targeting system, and to make a single filament blade for a backup CC weapon. After that I was going to price out ammo and see if a tungsten jacketed round would work or if a depleted uranium round would be effective for the Taishi Ci¡¯s.¡± ¡°Conssssider ssshhhipsssss weaponsssss?¡± Yama asked. ¡°Not yet. Marine first, so I want to make sure my marines are taken care of. After that I can worry about what Navy, then officers do. And yes, I realize how ironic that sounds having just upgraded to Warrant One.¡± I responded to his pointed look as I was answering him. ¡°Also, just so you know, there was something else that ¡®Observer¡¯ said that I hadn¡¯t thought of. When the four of us were in the room together, it said it had repurposed some matter. Any ideas? ¡°You had been injected with medical Nano. Injected to heal quickly. Your neural had be compromissssed. Additionally, new sssenssor and communicattiion modulessss compromissssed.¡± Yama was full of great news. ¡°So, it hijacked the medical Nano, then when you all re-added the memory, sensor and comm modules it took them over? Well shit. Can I be sure of anything that I have heard or seen?¡± A shadow shot out from my neural jack a moment later. ¡°Replay. Observer requires data.¡± Simple, concise, and to the point. Yama paused for less than a second, then replayed the video. ¡°Observer sees. Orders followed. Not Us.¡± You could hear the capital ¡°U¡± in ¡°Us¡±. Somehow its synthesized voice came across sounding pleased. ¡°You mean that the ship wasn¡¯t you, or that the communication, wasn¡¯t you? Or something else?¡± A voice over a speaker said. ¡°Yes,¡± Observer replied. I thought I herd a pleased note in the cacophony of digitization it called a voice. ¡°Not us, made disappear. Enemy gone.¡± Well shit, not only a first contact with one race, but there was also a second alien species, and they were at war. From the inside it meant that so were we, now. ¡°Genocide. Subspace was hidden. Risk contacting new species. Observation protocols for safety. Potential ally.¡± Observer was talking. This was a nice change. ¡°So, your species was being attacked, by whatever those were? It became a systemic genocide and so you hid in a subspace realm? You then saw us as we entered through a gate, what we call an Einstein-Rosen-Diamandis Bridge. And you then decided to contact us and see if we were genocidal as well, or if we were potential allies? Did I get that right?¡± ¡°Not sure of name. Stories call ¡®Wormhole¡¯.¡± Observer said. I think there was pride in its voice. ¡°All else correct.¡± Okay so I was right on that. ¡°Did you give me a ship suit schematic?¡± Now seemed as good a time to ask as any. ¡°Old tech. Not relevant.¡± Observer responded. ¡°What about my neural net?¡± This was a sticking point for me. ¡°You have specs. Used for accessing data. Galactic standard.¡± Observer said nonplussed. Yama looked at me, then Observer, and back at me. ¡°You ssssspeak well together. More information needed.¡± The area around me flickered and Rasputin joined us. ¡°Outside a multitude of ships has made their presence known. Yama has informed me that these ships are a potential enemy. Please give me the data I require. Thank you.¡± Observer shot a finger into my jack before Yama had even finished speaking. The pain made me black out again. I came to with my arm and leg reattached, and my ship suit and fatigues next to me. I suited up. Observer, are you still with me? I thought to myself Yes. I suited up and grabbed the rest of my gear on my way back to my quarters.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETED
Follow daily orders
Exp Rewards 25
Well, shit. Couldn¡¯t they at least compensate me for their own bullshit? 9. Officers Club

Officers Club - Edited 11-8-2018

After getting to my quarters, I completed another few dozen mod orders, then hit my console again. It was only 2000 hours. I had a spare short barrel, 12 more spare extended magazines, and I had created a linked targeting system with two prototypes. One of which I had connected to my battle rifle. Before heading to Marine Country, I claimed the schematic and EXP reward for the targeting system. ¡°Get me, Janssens,¡± I told the corporal on watch duty. He quickly shut his mask and sent out a comms request. Less than two minutes later Janssens arrived at the hatch. ¡°Ma¡¯am!¡± Janssens responded upon seeing me. A grin was splitting his face from ear to ear. ¡°Escort me to the gunnery range, Sergeant!¡± I commanded. A small smile on my lips. Once we arrived, I had Janssens hand over his rifle so I could swap out his barrel for a long, and then his sights. After, I tossed him a half dozen empty extended magazines. His grin threatened to split his head in half. ¡°Your squad only, 10 EXP for a 45-round magazine. I can only make them in quantities of six, so please find someone to manage the orders. You know the store only sells the standard 30 round mags for 15 EXP.¡± I told him. ¡°Make it the platoon, and I¡¯ll send everyone to you for all mods. Some of the others have started to ping the Navy geeks, hoping for answers, but they don¡¯t seem to be willing to try.¡± ¡°Yeah, most are probably saving for the ¡®Cheng¡¯ title. It¡¯s a pretty good one. Gives EXP for those under you learning shit. I was thinking about taking it myself for a bit, but then...¡± I pointed at my rank insignia. Parts of this game really were shit. Being able to buy a rank was one of those. There were so many titles. However, that would be much more productive than ¡°Cheng¡± at the end of the day. Leaving the Sergeant and his troops, I headed back to my quarters. Blips hit my terminal what felt like every step of the way. When I got back to my quarters I ran a quick check on what pieces were being requested, then I made another two dozen mods, and delivered them. One message received was from a Marine Lieutenant. An offer for a beer with him once I had made ¡°Officer.¡± As a Warrant, I decided to take him up on that. At 2200 hours, I was sitting in the Officers Club, waiting to meet the lieutenant that had contacted me. Two full pitchers of beer and a bottle of whiskey in front of me with a few empty shot glasses, I figured it would be enough for any Marine. After waiting for roughly 30 minutes, a lieutenant junior grade walked in, sized up the room, and found the outlier. Shit, I was going to deal with someone fresh from OCS. I almost left once I realized this, but then I remembered how I had received my current warrant officers rank. Also, there was a ¡°business ma¡¯am¡± deep inside me. ¡°Excuse me, Miss Jax?¡± the light LT said as he approached me. ¡°LT,¡± I said while standing. I wasn¡¯t sure if he had bought his rank like I had, so some respect at a token level wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Can I get you a drink?¡± I gestured to the pitchers of beer in front of me, We made some small talk for a bit; I noticed his eyes kept trailing down my figure, trying to check me out despite my uniform. ¡°LT is there an issue?¡± I asked, knowing that the although checking me out wasn¡¯t an issue, the way his eyes lingered could become one. ¡°No issue, I was just expecting a man.¡± He responded. Some still didn¡¯t accept that the genders were equal. ¡°Not to be rude, LT, but your message stated you were interested in my tech. How much of what do you need? We¡¯re about to make planetfall, and I need to have my schedule clear.¡± This was not the response he was expecting. I refilled my beer, and then poured and knocked back a shot. ¡°Uhm, yeah. Uhm, I was told that there were mods for everything?¡± The LT tried to show he wasn¡¯t bothered by my forced nonchalance ¡°Again, what and how much did you want?¡± I asked. My patience was running a tad slim with the whiskey in my system. ¡°Wha¡­ uhm, what?¡± the lieutenant replied. He was so fucking green he had to have been straight from OCS. ¡°I said, WHAT do you want, and how much of it do you want? If you¡¯d like, LT, I could find a Gunny to translate for you.¡± I decided to play the ¡°officer is an idiot¡± card. It wasn¡¯t a stretch in this case. He was a light LT after all. I sipped my beer waiting for anything intelligible from the village idiot. ¡°Uhm, yes¡­ You have stocks and barrels, right?¡± It seemed like he finally figured out how to extract his skull from his rectum. ¡°Yes, LT, I know how to make several mods for the Taishi Ci. Your sergeants should be familiar with most of them.¡± I responded. I knew how the enlisted talk. I was friends with several of them, after all. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m going to require 115 of each barrel, stock, and sight that you have.¡± The ass was finally speaking and shit, he seemed to be shopping for his entire company. ¡°You¡¯ve seen the prices I sell them for, I assume?¡± Not waiting for his nod, I continued. ¡°I¡¯m more than happy to sell them to your battery. When can I expect payment?¡± I already knew he wanted them for free, and he seemed the type to try and use his rank to ¡°requisition¡± them. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about the cost. You can assume it¡¯s an order to create and then surrender the items.¡± Asshat responded. Yep, I was right.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Lieutenant, I believe the term for an officer from one branch trying to order an officer from another, is ¡®fucking idiot.¡¯ Would you like to test if you fall into that category? We can always call Yama to verify the validity and value of a deal. Do you want to be ¡®that guy¡¯?¡± I asked, standing and preparing to leave the Officers Club. The lieutenant answered as I turned to walk away. ¡°Your prices are a bit high, don¡¯t you think? You¡¯re damning the fire teams!¡± Shit, his whiny voice was getting to me. Best to leave while I could. ¡°Lieutenant. Your fire teams think my prices are fair. Your squads think my prices are fair, Chances are, the entire platoon, company, battalion, AND regiment think that my prices are fair.¡± I started walking to the exterior hatch. ¡°I¡¯ll wait to hear from your gunnies to see if there is anything you actually need.¡± I sent an ID pulse so if anyone in my proximity would get my contact data. Hopefully, this would allow for LT Shit-stain to recognize that there were better ways to get my attention and to order equipment. I then headed back to my quarters to look at costs for weapons mods and to compare them to what I wanted to make. Before doing anything else, I decided it was time to select my rate, officially.

Officers Club - Original

After getting to my quarters I completed another few dozen mod orders, then hit my console again. It was only 2000 hours. I had a spare short barrel, 12 more spare extended magazines, and I had created a linked targeting system with two prototypes. One of which I had connected to my battle rifle. Before heading to Marine Country, I claimed the schematic and EXP reward for the targeting system. ¡°Get me Janssens.¡± I told the corporal on watch duty. He quickly shut his mask and sent out a comms request. Less than two minutes later Janssens arrived at the hatch. ¡°Ma¡¯am!¡± Janssens responded upon seeing me. A grin splitting his face from ear to ear. ¡°Escort me to the gunnery range, Sargent!¡± I commanded. A small smile on my lips. Once we arrived, I had Janssens to hand over his rifle, so I could swap out his barrel for a long, and then his sights. After, I tossed him a half dozen empty extended magazines. His grin threatened to split his head in half. ¡°Your squad only, 10 EXP for a 45-round magazine. I can only make them in quantities of six, so please find someone to manage the orders. You know the store only sells the standard 30 round mags for 15 EXP.¡± I told him. ¡°Make it the platoon and I¡¯ll send everyone to you for all mods. Some of the others have started to ping the Navy geeks, hoping for answers, but they don¡¯t seem to be willing to try.¡± ¡°Yeah, most are probably saving for the ¡®Cheng¡¯ title. It¡¯s a pretty good one. Gives EXP for those under you learning shit. I was thinking about taking it myself for a bit, but then...¡± I pointed at my rank insignia. Parts of this game really were shit. Being able to buy a rank was one of those. There were so many titles, however, that would be much more productive than ¡°Cheng¡± at the end of the day. Leaving the Sergeant and his troops, I headed back to my quarters. Blips hit my terminal what felt like every step of the way. When I got back to my quarters I ran a quick check on what pieces were being requested and I made another two dozen mods, the delivered them. One message received was from a Marine Lieutenant. An offer for a beer with him once I had made ¡°Officer¡±. As a Warrant I decided to take him up on that. At 2200 hours, I was sitting in the Officers Club, waiting to meet the lieutenant that had contacted me. Two full pitchers of beer and a bottle of whiskey in front of me with a few empty shot glasses, I figured it would be enough for any marine. After waiting for roughly 30 minutes, a lieutenant junior grade walked in, sized up the room, and found the outlier. Shit, I was going to deal with someone fresh from OCS. I almost left once I realized this, but then I remembered how I had received my officers rank. Also. there was a ¡°business ma¡¯am¡± deep inside me. ¡°Excuse me, Miss Jax?¡± the light LT said as he approached me. ¡°LT,¡± I said, while standing. I wasn¡¯t sure if he had bought his rank like I had, so some respect at a token level wouldn¡¯t hurt. ¡°Can I get you a drink?¡± I gestured to the pitchers of beer in front of me, We made some small talk for a bit, I noticed his eyes kept trailing down my figure, trying to check me out despite my uniform. ¡°LT, is there an issue?¡± I asked, knowing that the although checking me out wasn¡¯t an issue, the way his eyes lingered could become one. ¡°No issue, I was just expecting a man.¡± He responded. Some still didn¡¯t accept that the genders were equal. ¡°Not to be rude, LT, but your message stated you were interested in my tech. How much of what do you need? We¡¯re about to make planet fall, and I need to have my schedule clear.¡± This was not the response he was expecting. I refilled my beer, and then poured and knocked back a shot. ¡°Uhhh, yeah. Uhm, I was told that there were mods for anything?¡± The LT tried to show he wasn¡¯t bothered by my forced nonchalance ¡°Again, what and how much did you want?¡± I asked. My patience was running a tad slim with the whiskey in my system. ¡°Wha¡­ uhm, what?¡± the lieutenant replied. He was so fucking green he must have been straight from OCS. ¡°I said, WHAT do you want, and how much of it o you want? If you¡¯d like, LT, I could find a Gunny to translate for you.¡± I decided to play the ¡°officer is an idiot¡± card. It wasn¡¯t a stretch in this case. He was a light LT after all. I sipped my beer waiting for anything intelligible from the village idiot. ¡°Uhm, yes¡­ You have stocks ad barrels, right?¡± It seemed like he finally figured out how to extract his skull from his rectum. ¡°Yes, LT, I know how to make several mods for the Taishi Ci. Your sergeants should be familiar with most of them.¡± I responded. I know how the enlisted talk. I was friends with several of them, after all. ¡°Yes, I¡¯m going to require 115 of each barrel, stock, and sight that you have.¡± The ass was finally speaking and shit, damn, he seemed to be shopping for his entire company. ¡°You¡¯ve seen the prices I sell them for, I assume?¡± Not waiting for his nod I continued. ¡°I¡¯m more than happy to sell them to your battery. When can I expect payment?¡± I already knew he wanted them for free, and he seemed the type to try and use his rank to ¡°requisition¡± them. ¡°You don¡¯t have to worry about the cost. You can assume it¡¯s an order to create and then surrender the items.¡± Ass hat responded. Yep, I was right. ¡°Lieutenant, I believe the term for an officer from one branch trying to order an officer from another, is ¡®fucking idiot¡¯. Would you like to test if you fall into that category? We can always call Yama to verify the validity and value of a deal. Do you want to be ¡®that guy¡¯?¡± I asked, standing and preparing to leave the Officers Club. The lieutenant answered as I turned to walk away. ¡°Your prices are a bit high, don¡¯t you think? You¡¯re damning the fire teams!¡± Shit, his whiney voice was getting to me. Best to leave while I could. ¡°Lieutenant. Your fire teams think my prices are fair. Your squads think my prices are fair, Chances are, the entire platoon, company, battalion, AND regiment think that my prices are fair.¡± I started walking to the exterior hatch. ¡°I¡¯ll wait to hear from your gunnies to see if there is anything you actually need.¡± I sent an ID pulse so if anyone in my proximity would get my contact data. Hopefully this would allow for L.T. Shit-stain to recognize that there were better ways to get my attention and to order equipment. I then headed back to my quarters to look at costs for weapons mods and to compare them to what I wanted to make. 10. Beachhead

Beachhead Edited 11-8-2018

Shortly after arriving at my quarters I opened the EXP store and selected the ¡°RATE¡± area. After scrolling for a while, then sorting for the Warrant Officers ranking, I found what I wanted
Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer
Benefit
Advanced Diagnostics Scanner Operations
Cybernetics Design Software Unlocked
Maintenance Reduced on all Personal Cyberware
¡°Optional¡± Grading unlocked for Cyberware
Cyberware Build Time Decreased by 30%
Hacking Synthetic Intelligence Unlocked For Purchase
Penalty
Weapons Modification Times Increased 10%
Armor Creation Time Increased 20% (Cyber Armor excluded from penalties)
Weapon Creation Failure Rate Increased 15%
Schematics Learning Success Rate Decreased 15% Non-Cyber Schematics
Synthetic Intelligence Designer Permanently Locked
I was going to hate losing the SI designer, but I hadn¡¯t used it to this point. Just the thought of being completely locked out from a tool, however, was aggravating. I noticed that the emblem for my rate was now featured prominently on my uniform. A mechanical snake with two heads encircled by ¡°electricity¡± and what appeared to be a bomb that according to our databases was called a ¡°Fat Man¡± landing on the shared tail with a mushroom cloud erupting from the fins. I checked all my gear, and it was added. I then noticed, for the first time, that except for my fatigues which were considered a ¡°neutral¡± type uniform, all had been upgraded to Officers uniforms. I opened the designer software and saw that I could now make replacement limbs, replacement organs, and, new cybernetic wetware, such as neural implants. I could before now, but I would have had to design them from the ground up. Now I had the ships blessing with defaults schematics. It was time to sleep. After spending a few hours tossing and not able to sleep, I decided to start making additional mods for the weapons. I needed to see how this new rate would affect things. After delivering my second set of magazines, stocks, and barrels to the Marines, as well as some sidearm chambering mods, I was hit by several rapid pings. There was then a ¡°beeping¡± that wouldn¡¯t shut up! I punched my terminal, trying to mute it. My hand-held console was beeping with gusto as well, and my terminal still had the demon tone sounding. I opened my messages and saw why the terminal wasn¡¯t shutting up. The ship''s commander was requesting to see me immediately in a senior officers briefing room. Well not me specifically, but all ¡°Senior Ranking Engineers.¡± I guess that with official purchase of my rank and rate, I was now it. I quickly dressed in my now ¡°new¡± officers working uniform and headed towards the briefing room. Personally, I would have preferred to be able to sleep. Following the navigation provided by my mini-map, I was able to make good time and arrived at the briefing room within five minutes of having read the message. Commander Watson, the ships Executive Officer, was already there, along with Yama, Commander Olmos, Lieutenant Li, and a few officers I wasn¡¯t familiar with in or out of the game. As a Warrant Officer I was confident I¡¯d be the lowest ranking officer, but what surprised me was that the flight crew was represented by an Aviation Ordinanceman. An E-3 was officially the lowest ranking person in this emergency meeting. ¡°¡­just another minute or two for any stragglers¡± the XO was saying as I entered. All eyes turned towards me as the hatch wasn¡¯t the quietest piece of equipment to operate. Lt. Li recognized me and smiled. ¡°Now we have someone for every classification!¡± he exclaimed a little too loudly while gesturing towards the chair next to him. I glanced at a collection of enlisted crewmen that seemed to be huddling together. I noticed one Master Chief, three Petty Officers, and the previously mentioned Ordinanceman. They were all also next to the coffee pot. I nodded to Lt. Li, then made a b-line for said equipment and began to operate it with the expert precision of an addict. Less than a minute later, another four people had joined us, including the Marines Regimental CO. Grabbing two cups, not waiting for the pot to finish I joined Lt. Li, offering him the spare. A moment later, the ¡°enlisted¡± crew all filled their cups, except for the Ordinanceman, who was forced to start another batch so he could get his. The XO began the briefing. ¡°Less than 24 hours ago,¡± he began with a thick southern drawl coloring his speech ¡°the ship that was trailing us, which we had been calling ¡®Escort-001¡¯, suffered a major explosion. At this point, we have no idea what has caused the explosion. We do know that there was an unauthorized communication right before Escort exploded. We also know where it was sent from, and both Yama and Rasputin have already locked down the party responsible.¡± Yama¡¯s rictus grin held onto me for the briefest moment as he looked around the room. I could almost feel his eyes look through me instead of at me, acknowledging the presence of Observer. In my mind, I could feel amusement coming from my companion. ¡°We would have already achieved planet fall were it not for this. We decided to stop, reverse course, and assist if possible. We are currently zero-six hours from coming alongside, and in range of launching a relief operation.¡± There was an intake of breath from the Master Chief. Looks like he bought his rank as well. ¡°We will start by landing Marines from our Regiment,¡± he nodded towards the Marines CO, ¡°and secure an LZ where we can operate humanitarian aid from. Engineers and Technicians will be needed as volunteers for the first wave AFTER the Marines have secured the area. This group will be responsible for ensuring the safety of everyone else. You will need to locate, identify, and secure an atmospheric cycler so that we can breathe without contained air.¡± He paused, sipping from a cup of water. ¡°Sir,¡± I interrupted, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be simpler to take some spares with us?¡± ¡°In theory, Warrant Jax, but we don¡¯t have any fully built items for spares to take with us, and if we did, they wouldn¡¯t fit on the shuttles.¡± An Ensign with an environment rate supplied before the XO could respond. ¡°Correct, Ensign. We do not have the room to take a spare with us. As for having a spare to take, we could assemble one with our spare parts, but we do not have one assembled.¡± I nodded acknowledging that it just couldn¡¯t be done with the tech we had. I was going to have to see what I could whip up. I took note of the Ensign and started typing up notes on my portable, including a message to the Ensign asking to meet later, and that it was concerning this briefing, and if possible, he should bring a basic schematic of the atmo system to the Officers Club to review. ¡°Once the Landing Party has secured air for our crews, we will sweep the ship IN ITS ENTIRETY for survivors, and barring that, intel, equipment, and everything else that we can use to learn. We need data. We need the tech. We need answers.¡± The XO then motioned to the entry hatch, and for the first time, I noticed that there were Marines stationed at the hatch. They closed the hatch, secured it, then Yama stated ¡°Sssssecured.¡± ¡°Here¡¯s some intel that is not to be mentioned outside of this room.¡± What appeared to be an EULA appeared in front of my eyes. I could tell that it wasn¡¯t just me that had one pop-up either, based on the groans that were muttered. ¡°Yes, I know that these are a pain in the ass, but you will need to read this to understand the severity of what I am about to tell you.¡± The XO then sat down, apparently waiting for us to read the eleven pages which were mostly consequences of leaking this intel, what the intel could be considered would pertain to, and proper procedures to secure data. I felt that I was one of the few people who read the full document. Getting to the end of the form, I noticed there was no place for me to agree to anything. More accurately, it was there, just greyed out an inaccessible to me. I looked up at Yama, then the document disappeared, and my portable alerted me to a new message from Yama. After another few seconds, the XO stood and addressed us again. ¡°Over 50 days ago, in the game- that¡¯s three years and change relative, we stumbled across an anomaly that is not so different from an Einstein-Rosen Bridge. By stumbled across, of course, I mean that our flotilla detected an anomaly and before we could identify what it was, we were swallowed and appeared where we are now.¡± The XO paused to let us take in the news. ¡°As a result, Overlord has been fragmented. Now Rasputin, Yama, and the rest have had to give up portions of their systems to ensure that Overlord survives. We have even started having our repair drones in the physical stand up all spare systems hardware to create new systems for Overlord to populate. The ships that came through with us are doing the same.¡± ¡°So far, we have been able to prevent corruption of the data-cores. That¡¯s primary, secondary, tertiary, and backup cores. Several of the system techs have been awakened off cycle to help with these efforts.¡± ¡°This is relevant because the area we are now in, in game, was not part of the original plan. In fact, this was all created ONLY after we were separated. The ship that is out there was not programmed in by us. We have ZERO data on that ship. We need intel.¡± The XO paused allowing the weight of his words to settle on the assembled crew. ¡°We¡¯re flying in the dark here. As we were the closest to Escort, we are tasked to be the first with boots on the ground. If there are any left alive, then this will also become a First Contact scenario. With that in mind, try not to kill them. We don¡¯t know where the design for the ship came from; we do not know if there are any life forms on board. All we know is that there are potential answers there and that something has left us a link.¡± The XOs eyes settled on me for the briefest of moments. ¡°Now, get to your quarters and get some shut-eye. I would ask a few of you to stay behind. Warrant Jax, Lt. Li, PO-2 AND PO-3 Suarez, please stick around. Colonel White, did you want to stick around?¡± The XO addressed the Marine CO. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, Wats, I¡¯ll stick around for some coffee.¡± The Marine addressed the XO like an old drinking buddy. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was a pissing match in the making or actual friends. He leaned on the counter by the caffeine, facing the rest of us. Shortly after everyone else had left the XO continued. ¡°You are all going with the Marines as part of the welcoming crew. For those of you not sure as to why,¡± he looked at the two Suarez Petty officers that he had asked to stick around ¡°that is because you are all actual engineers on the outside, and not just regular engineers, but the ones that have figured out how the game works.¡± Looking at the rate insignia that the Suarez¡¯s wore I saw that they were for a Hull Tech and for a Construction Tech. Good, a CB was going to be with us. ¡°Li and Jax, have first-hand experience with alien tech, so they are going, though originally it was only supposed to be Li.¡± I smiled at the acknowledgment. It appears that someone else had been slated for my seat, but my rate buy-in had thrown a small wrench into the mix. Being a gremlin can sometimes be fun. White pushed off the counter and strode towards us. ¡°Right, because Jax was trained as a Marine, you¡¯ll be familiar with how we operate. As for you other three, if you haven¡¯t already, clean your firearms and ensure they¡¯re ready. You will all have a one day only pass to our firing range. Jax, I believe you already have secured a deal for us to let you in, unofficially?¡± Yep, I was famous. ¡°Sir, I got what you need. Just give me numbers, and I can start working on them once we leave.¡± This caused the XO to laugh. ¡°Looks like you owe me a drink, Whitey.¡± Okay, they were friends. No pissing match to worry about dodging the back spray for. I looked towards the XO, an eyebrow cocked. The CO replied before the XO could. ¡°We were going to contact you after the briefing to place a large order, with you here we skipped that step. The rest of the story can wait.¡± Okay, so I really was getting famous. Maybe infamous? ¡°The situation is this. We will be landing a full battalion. Six-hundred four of our riflemen will be landing, and most will need something different. Everyone will need at least three extended magazines. I also understand that you have updated the barrels to work better in zero-G?¡± Well, that was news. ¡°Not specific use, sir, just a side effect,¡± I replied. I wondered if that was due to the venting I had put into place. Then I started to wonder on how they figured out that it worked better than the standard for zero-G. ¡°I will need five-hundred eight of your short barrels and thirty long. We have some heavy weapons specialists as well. Cooked up anything for them? ¡°Not yet, sir. Give me a model name/number, and I can have something whipped up shortly.¡± The CO motioned for me to follow him. As I looked up to the XO, he dismissed us all. I followed the CO out, answering questions as I followed him towards the Marines armory. After starting work copying the magazine schematic as well as the short barrel schematic into the fabrication stations, the XO requisitioned the parts from Yama directly. We started to spit out presents for all the best dressed on board (not counting myself that is). While the systems were spitting out weapon mods, I started to design a drone for our door breaker teams. With thirty minutes left before shuttle launch, I had finished producing the mods for everyone. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have a chance to meet up with the Ensign from the briefing. While working, I noticed that there was no cost for the materials I needed. I hope that didn¡¯t mean I would get zero EXP for all of this.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. The next day, after finishing up the order for the deployment, I was packed into a dropship with a squad of Marines. ¡°Liefsdottir, you the tech on the doorbuster team?¡± I asked the guy sliding in next to me with the overly large utility pack. ¡°I am. You the one that designed the mags and barrels?¡± He asked back. ¡°Yep, plus another few goodies.¡± I motioned towards the crate behind the pilots¡¯ seat. A grin would have been visible, but per drop-ship regs, I was buttoned up and secured tighter than a political prisoner on Venus. My armor plating was equipped to my suit connection points with no fatigues visible. No reason to get my uniform all shot up in the unlikely event of a firefight. ¡°I¡¯ve got a dozen drones with various capabilities in there for you. Let me pass you the activation codes. But, don¡¯t fire them up until we make the LZ.¡± I think the grin showed through my voice. Liefsdottir laughed loudly. ¡°Fuck yes! What do we got?¡± He asked that last part as if it was one-word ¡°whaddaweegout¡± a bit of an accent even came through at the end. ¡°I call them ¡®Monkeys.¡¯¡± I said, continuing as I queued a file transfer to him, ¡°Here are the specs for the M1K33 Multi-purpose Drone Platform. Five limbs, all fully actuated magnetized, and each limb also contains a barbed tip for when the magnets don¡¯t work. Prehensile limbs so it can grip on something with up to four while maintaining a fifth for tracking of targets, managing data scans, or whatever else is needed. Two of the limbs have a plasma cutter built into them, that¡¯s standard.¡± ¡°Next, in order of what I feel like saying, some are set up with spectrum analyzers, two are set up with atmo detection and sensor forwarders. One oversized one is also set up as a heavy weapons platform. We then have a data hacking module installed on two of them, though with what we have heard, that may not be useful. The last few are set up with a construction toolset, so they can help us to create a seal so we can pump atmo into an area. Think Construction, Communication, and Scanning.¡± I felt the drop craft ¡°bump,¡± and then we started spinning. Everyone looked at each other. Well, shit. Not everyone. Two of the guys sitting across from each other looked like they were asleep, the problem was there was a hole through the chests of each of them, along with the sudden decompression of the drop craft. I could hear the ¡°oh shits¡± coming through the local comms, and I may have added a few of my own. Then the back half of the dropship crumpled and tore off, taking more than half of the marines with it. I did a quick head count, and there were five us still alive. Counting the pilot and co-pilot. Then there was a shudder, the crate with my monkeys was pushed towards me, and then there was only Liefsdottir, a corporal sitting across from me, and myself still breathing. In what was now the opening for the back of the drop craft I could see Escort swallowing us up.

Beachhead - Original

Shortly after arriving at my quarters I opened the EXP store and selected the ¡°RATE¡± area. After scrolling for a while, then sorting for the Warrant Officers ranking, I found what I wanted
Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer
Benefit
Advanced Diagnostics Scanner Operations
Cybernetics Design Software Unlocked
Maintenance Reduced on all Personal Cyberware
¡°Optional¡± Grading unlocked for Cyberware
Cyberware Build Time Decreased by 30%
Hacking Synthetic Intelligences Unlocked For Purchase
Penalty
Weapons Modification Times Increased 10%
Armor Creation Time Increased 20% (Cyber Armor excluded from penalties)
Weapon Creation Failure Rate Increased 15%
Schematics Learning Success Rate Decreased 15% Non-Cyber Schematics
Synthetic Intelligence Designer Permanently Locked
I was going to hate losing the SI designer, but I hadn¡¯t used it to this point. Just the thought of being completely locked out from a tool was aggravating. I noticed that the emblem for my rate was now featured prominently on my uniform. A mechanical snake with two heads encircled by ¡°electricity¡± and what appeared to be a bomb that according to our databases was called a ¡°Fat Man¡± landing on the shared tail with a mushroom cloud erupting from the fins. I checked all my gear and it was added. I then noticed, for the first time, that except for my fatigues which were considered a ¡°neutral¡± type uniform, all had been upgraded to Officers uniforms. I opened the designer software and saw that I could now make replacement limbs, replacement organs, and, new cybernetic wetware, such as neural implants. I had the ability to before now, but I would have had to design them from the ground up. Now I had the ships blessing with defaults schematics. It was time to sleep. After spending a few hours tossing and not able to sleep, I decided to start making additional mods for the weapons. I needed to see how this new rate would affect things. After delivering my second set of magazines, stocks, and barrels to the Marines, as well as some side arm chambering mods, I was hit by several rapid pings. There was then a ¡°beeping¡± that wouldn¡¯t shut up! I hit my terminal, trying to mute it. My hand-held console was beeping with gusto as well, and my terminal still had the demon tone sounding. I opened my messages and saw why the terminal wasn¡¯t shutting up. The ships commander was requesting to see me immediately in a senior officers briefing room. Well not me specifically, but all ¡°Senior Ranking Engineers¡±. I guess that with official purchase of my rank and rate, I was now it. I quickly dressed in my now ¡°new¡± officers working uniform and headed towards the briefing room. Personally, I would have preferred to be able to sleep. Following the navigation provided by my mini-map, I was able to make good time and arrived at the briefing room within five minutes of having read the message. Commander Watson, the ships Executive Officer, was already there, along with Yama, Commander Olmos, Lieutenant Li, and a few officers I wasn¡¯t familiar with in or out of the game. As a Warrant Officer I was confident I¡¯d be the lowest ranking officer, but what surprised me was that the flight crew was represented by an Aviation Ordinanceman. An E-3 was officially the lowest ranking person in this emergency meeting. ¡°¡­just another minute or two for any stragglers¡± the XO was saying as I entered. All eyes turned towards me as the hatch wasn¡¯t the quietest piece of equipment to operate. Lt. Li recognized me and smiled. ¡°Now we have someone for every classification!¡± he exclaimed a little to loudly, while gesturing towards the chair next to him. I glanced at a collection of enlisted crew that seemed to be huddling together. I noticed one Master Chief, three Petty Officers, and the previously mentioned Ordinanceman. They were all also next to the coffee pot. I nodded to Lt. Li, then made a b-line for said equipment and began to operate it with the expert precision of an addict. Less than a minute later, another four people had joined us, including the Marines Regimental CO. Grabbing two cups, not waiting for the pot to finish I joined Lt. Li, offering him the spare. A moment later, the ¡°enlisted¡± crew all filled their cups, except for the Ordinanceman, who started another batch. The XO began the briefing. ¡°Less than 24 hours ago,¡± he began with a thick southern drawl coloring his speech ¡°the ship that was trailing us, which we had been calling ¡®Escort-001¡¯, suffered a major explosion. At this point we have no idea what has caused the explosion. We do know that there was an unauthorized communication right before Escort exploded. We also know where it was sent from, and both Yama and Rasputin have already locked down the party responsible.¡± Yama¡¯s rictus grin held onto me for the briefest moment as he looked around the room. I could almost feel his eyes look through me instead of at me, acknowledging the presence of Observer. In my mind I could feel amusement coming from my companion. ¡°We would have already achieved planet fall were it not for this. We decided to stop, reverse course, and assist if possible. We are currently zero-six hours from coming along side, and in range of launching a relief operation.¡± There was an intake of breath from the Master Chief. Looks like he bought his rank as well. ¡°We will start by landing Marines from our Regiment,¡± he nodded towards the Marines CO, ¡°and secure an LZ where we can operate humanitarian aid from. Engineers and Technicians will be needed as volunteers for the first wave AFTER the Marines have secured the area. This group will be responsible for ensuring the safety of everyone else. You will need to locate, identify, and secure an atmospheric cycler so that we can breathe without contained air.¡± He paused, sipping from a cup of water. ¡°Sir,¡± I interrupted, ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it be simpler to take some spares with us?¡± ¡°In theory, Warrant Jax, but we don¡¯t have any fully built items for spares to take with us, and if we did, they wouldn¡¯t fit on the shuttles.¡± An Ensign with an environment rate supplied, before the XO could respond. ¡°Correct, Ensign. We do not have the room to take a spare with us. As for having a spare to take, we could assemble one with our spare parts, but we do not have one assembled.¡± I nodded acknowledging that it simply couldn¡¯t be done with the tech we had. I was going to have to see what I could whip up. I took note of the Ensign and started typing up notes on my portable, including a message to the Ensign asking to meet later and that it was concerning this briefing, and if possible, he should bring a basic schematic of the atmo system to the Officers Club to review. ¡°Once the Landing Party has secured air for our crews, we will sweep the ship IN ITS ENTIRETY for survivors, and barring that, intel, equipment, and everything else that we can use to learn. We need data. We need tech. We need answers.¡± The XO then motioned to the entry hatch, and for the first time I noticed that there were Marines stationed at the hatch. They closed the hatch, secured it, then Yama stated ¡°Sssssecured¡±. ¡°Here¡¯s some intel that is not to be mentioned outside of this room.¡± What appeared to be a EULA appeared in front of my eyes. I could tell that it wasn¡¯t just me that had one appear either, based on the groans that were muttered. ¡°Yes, I know that these are a pain in the ass, but you will need to read this to understand the severity of what I am about to tell you.¡± The XO then sat down, apparently waiting for us to read the eleven pages which was mostly consequences of leaking this intel, what the intel could be considered to pertain to, and proper procedures to secure data. I felt that I was one of the few people whom read the full document. Getting to the end of the form, I noticed there was no place for me to agree to anything. More accurately, it was there, just greyed out an inaccessible to me. I looked up at Yama, then the document disappeared, and my portable alerted me to a new message from Yama. After another few seconds the XO stood and addressed us again. ¡°Over 50 days ago, in game- that¡¯s three years and change relative, we stumbled across an anomaly that is not so different from an Einstein-Rosen-Diamandis Bridge. By stumbled across, of course I mean that our flotilla detected an anomaly and before we could identify what it was, we were swallowed and appeared where we are now.¡± The XO paused to let us take in the news. ¡°As a result, Overlord has been fragmented. Now Rasputin, Yama, and the rest have had to give up portions of their systems to ensure that Overlord survives. We have even started having our repair drones in the physical stand up all spare systems hardware to create new systems for Overlord to populate. The ships that came through with us are doing the same.¡± ¡°So far, we have been able to prevent corruption of the data-cores. That¡¯s primary, secondary, tertiary, and backup cores. Several of the system techs have been awakened off cycle to help with these efforts.¡± ¡°This is relevant because the area we are now in, in game, was not part of the original plan. In fact, this was all created ONLY after we were separated. The ship that is out there was not programmed in by us. We have ZERO data on that ship. We need intel.¡± The XO paused allowing the weight of his words to settle on the assembled crew. ¡°We¡¯re flying in the dark here. As we were the closest to Escort, we are tasked to be the first with boots on the ground. If there are any left alive, then this will also become a First Contact scenario. With that in mind, try not to kill them. We don¡¯t know where the design for the ship came from, we do not know if there are any life forms on board. All we know is that there are potentially answers there, and that something has left us a link.¡± The XOs eyes settled on me for the briefest of moments. ¡°Now, get to your quarters and get some shut eye. I would ask a few of you to stay behind. Warrant Jax, LT Li, PO-2 AND PO-3 Suarez, please stick around. Colonel White, did you want to stick around?¡± The XO addressed the Marine CO. ¡°If you don¡¯t mind, Wats, I¡¯ll stick around for some coffee.¡± The Marine addressed the XO like an old drinking buddy. I wasn¡¯t sure if this was a pissing match in the making or actual friends. He leaned on the counter by the caffeine, facing the rest of us. Shortly after everyone else had left the XO continued. ¡°You are all going with the Marines as part of the welcoming crew. For those of you not sure as to why,¡± he looked at the two Suarez Petty officers that he had asked to stick around ¡°that is because you are all actual engineers on the outside, and not just regular engineers, but the ones that have figured out how the game works.¡± Looking at the rate insignia that the Suarez¡¯s wore I saw that they were for a Hull Tech and for a Construction Tech. Good, a CB was going to be with us. ¡°Li and Jax, have first hand experience with alien tech so they are going, though originally it was only supposed to be Li.¡± I smiled at the acknowledgement. It appears that someone else had been slated for my seat but my rate buy-in had thrown a small wrench into the mix. Being a gremlin can sometimes be fun. White pushed off the counter and strode towards us. ¡°Right, because Jax was trained as a Marine, you¡¯ll be familiar with how we operate. As for you other three, if you haven¡¯t already, clean your firearms and ensure they¡¯re ready. You will all have a one day only pass to our firing range. Jax, I believe you already have secured a deal for us to let you in, unofficially?¡± Yep, I was famous. ¡°Sir, I got what you need. Just give me numbers and I can start working on them once we leave.¡± This caused the XO to laugh. ¡°Looks like you own me a drink, Whitey.¡± Okay, they were friends. No pissing match to worry about dodging the back spray for. I looked to the XO, an eyebrow cocked. The CO replied before the XO could. ¡°We were going to contact you after the briefing to place a large order, with you here we skipped that step. The rest of the story can wait.¡± Okay, so I really was getting famous. Maybe infamous? ¡°The situation is this. We will be landing a full battalion. Six-hundred four of our riflemen will be landing and most will need something different. Everyone will need at least three extended magazines. I also understand that you have updating the barrels to work better in zero-G?¡± Well that was news. ¡°Not specific use, sir, just a side effect.¡± I replied. I wondered if that was due to the venting I had put into place. Then I started to wonder on how they figured out that it worked better than standard for zero-G. ¡°I will need five-hundred eight of your short barrels and thirty long. We have some heavy weapons specialists as well. Cooked up anything for them? ¡°Not yet, sir. Give me a model name/number and I can have something whipped up shortly.¡± The CO motioned for me to follow him. As I looked up to the XO he dismissed us all. I followed the CO out, answering questions as I followed him towards the Marines armory. After starting work copying the magazine schematic as well as the short barrel schematic into the fabrication stations, the XO requisitioned the parts from Yama directly. We started to spit out presents for all the best dressed on board (not counting myself that is). While the systems were spitting out weapon mods, I started to design a drone for our door breaker teams. With thirty minutes left before shuttle launch I had finished producing the mods for everyone. Unfortunately, I didn¡¯t have a chance to meet up with the Ensign from the briefing. While working, I noticed that there was no cost for the materials I needed. I hope that didn¡¯t mean I would get zero EXP for all of this. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ¡°Liefsdottir, you the tech on the door buster team?¡± I asked the guy sliding in next to me with the overly large utility pack. ¡°I am. You the one that designed the mags and barrels?¡± He asked back. ¡°Yep, plus another few goodies.¡± I motioned towards the crate behind the pilots¡¯ seat. A grin would have been visible, but per drop-ship regs, I was buttoned up and secured tighter than a political prisoner on Venus. My armor plating was equipped to my suit connection points with no fatigues visible. No reason to get my uniform all shot up in the unlikely event of a firefight. ¡°I¡¯ve got a dozen drones with various capabilities in there for you. Let me pass you the activation codes. But, don¡¯t fire them up until we make the LZ.¡± I think the grin showed through my voice. Liefsdottir laughed loudly. ¡°Fuck yes! What do we got?¡± He asked that last part as if it was one word ¡°whaddaweegout¡± a bit of an accent even came through at the end. ¡°I call them ¡®Monkeys¡¯.¡± I said, continuing as I queued a file transfer to him, ¡°Here¡¯s the specs for the M1K33 Multi-purpose Drone Platform. Five limbs, all fully actuated magnetized, and each limb also contains a barbed tip for when the magnets don¡¯t work. Prehensile limbs so it can grip on something with up to four while maintaining a fifth for tracking of targets, managing data scans, or whatever else is needed. Two of the limbs have a plasma cutter built into them, that¡¯s standard.¡± ¡°Next, in order of what I feel like saying, some are set up with spectrum analyzers, two are set up with atmo detection and sensor forwarders. One oversized one is also set up as a heavy weapons platform. We then have a data hacking module installed on two of them, though with what we have heard, that may not be useful. The last are all set up with a construction toolset, so they can help us to create a seal, so we can pump atmo into an area. Think Construction, Communication and Scanning.¡± I felt the drop craft ¡°bump¡± and then we started spinning. Everyone looked at each other and¡­ well shit. Not everyone. Two of the guys sitting across from each other looked like they were asleep, problem was there was a hole through the chests of each of them, along with the sudden decompression of the drop craft. I could hear the ¡°ohh shits¡± coming through the local comms, and I may have added a few of my own. Then the back half of the dropship crumpled and tore off, taking more than half of the marines with it. I did a quick head count and there were five us still alive. Counting the pilot and co-pilot. Then there was a shudder, the crate with my monkeys was pushed towards me, and then there was only Liefsdottir, a corporal sitting across from me, and myself still breathing. In what was now the opening for the back of the drop craft I could see Escort swallowing us up. 11. Breather

Breather - Edited 11-8-2018

With the dropship disabled, the power for the magnetic clamps released, and the three of us were now floating, along with my Monkeys. I immediately powered them on, then pulled the corporal sitting across from me towards me and threw him towards the opening in the back of the craft. A moment later, a ¡°follow¡± command was sent to the monkeys and Liefsdottir was working his way to the craft exit. I moved to the front of the ship, reached what was now the crumpled canopy of the ship, used that to orient myself ¡°up¡± with the hole in the back of the ship above me, and I pushed off, hard. I passed Liefsdottir on my way out, and once clear from the craft I spun then powered on the magnets from my boots. They caught nothing. I then bounced off the interior hull of the ship, losing most of my momentum on the way. I felt a voice in the back of my skull directing my attention to where the craft was a moment ago. There was a smear of blood on the ceiling, or was that the deck? Why weren¡¯t my boots connecting to the deck, ceiling, or bulkheads? ¡°Sir?¡± I heard over my comms. The HUD on my visor identified her as Corporal Watson. Hopefully not related to the XO. ¡°What is it, corporal?¡± I asked ¡°Sorry, Ma¡¯am. Uhm. It looks like the landing is hosed. Anyway off this boat or will there be a change in orders?¡± she asked. I hadn¡¯t been given the operations package for this Op. ¡°We meet up with the other Marines, sit tight, and work from there. Any sign of Liefsdottir?¡± I asked, knowing from the smear that the answer wasn¡¯t going to do any good. My Monkeys started to crawl out of the landing craft that was now wedged into a corner of the room. I glanced around to get an idea as to what this vessel was and sent a thought to Observer. Any help would be welcome. Systems are limited. Too far away from the source. What the hell did that mean? Also, was its English getting more accurate? I started setting up the Monkeys as a communications relay hub and sensor scanning uplink. ¡°Ma¡¯am, uh, a little help?¡± Watson''s voice called my attention away from setting up the Heavy Weapons platform. Fortunately, nothing was coming to kill us at this beachhead. Looking up, I saw Watson about to spin past me. I grabbed onto the bulkhead pointed my boots towards her, and activated them, pulling Watson towards me, and causing me to rotate more and lose hold of the tiedown on the bulkhead I had been grasping. At least Watson was no longer spinning on all three axes. Like me, she was now only rotating on two. ¡°Didn¡¯t take the Jump course?¡± I asked, waiting to come around so I could grab hold of the tiedown on the bulkhead again. ¡°Wasn¡¯t an option when I went through. Sol had decided to retire that, and a few of the other courses. My entire company missed out on a lot.¡± She responded, her tone of voice sounded both relieved and sad at this. ¡°Vacuum training?¡± I asked, having a bad feeling of being stuck with someone who should have been in a planetary role. ¡°Only a two-hour lecture. They had already dismantled the chamber by then.¡± Shit. Not my day. When my company went through boot, we had an entire week dedicated to vacuum operations and Zero-G. I hadn¡¯t ever used any of it, but we at least had training. The tiedown on the bulkhead came into view again, and I was able to reach it and stop our momentum, releasing the mag seal on my boots. ¡°Okay, remember the lectures. A breach won¡¯t be immediately fatal. If one happens, let me know so we can stop and patch your suit. As for zero-G, think of things like this. If you push on something, and you don¡¯t have an anchor, both you and the object will move apart from each other at the roughly half speed of the push, each. So, the force of the push will be like what you exerted, just half you moving away from it, the other half is it moving away from you. Action-reaction, and all that.¡± I looked around the room taking in exactly what I was seeing. The room itself was about 40 meters wide and 10 meters high. There was a single-entry hatch on one of the bulkheads that lead up and down the ship, but not one that would head further into the interior. I didn¡¯t see anything that looked like writing or a computer terminal anywhere. The hatch looked manually operated with a single round wheel in its center. The hatch was three meters wide and four tall. The room was charred through large portions of it, but only on the third nearest the exterior. The bulkhead to the ships hull was vented. Looking through the hole that the dropship had punched through it seemed a little too clean, almost as if it had been cut. There were no signs of decompression. If this was a metal construction, there should be some signs of buckling out or metal shearing. That did not make me feel good at all. ¡°Jax to Mother, do you read?¡± I called out on the channel reserved for command staff. ¡°Mother here. Jax, you are coming in low and garbled. Do you have access to laser comms? Over.¡± The response was shaky. I could make them out, but there was a hiss of static that blanketed every word coming in during the transmission. I hooked up to the communications relay set up by my Monkeys. ¡°Mother, no laser comms, am using my optional kit to boost the signal. Please confirm receipt. Over¡± ¡°Jax, much better. You are now five by five. Report.¡± I was happy they could hear me, sad that my receivers weren¡¯t able to provide a cleaner signal, I suppose that the relay was only acting as an amplifier. ¡°Mother, status is the lander is down. I am here with Corporal Watson; the remainder of the squad is KIA. Lander is down, both pilots KIA. Interior structure is non-ferrous, with zero-G conditions. The craft was hit by something which ripped the tail off taking out everyone.¡± ¡°The corporal, a PFC named Liefsdottir, the pilots, and I survived that. Then we hit Escort and lost the pilots. Upon evac of the craft, we lost Liefsdottir. I have set up a standard comms relay which is amplifying my signal using the drones I packed. Can you confirm any additional landings? There doesn¡¯t seem to be any signs of an explosion where we are except some charring. No exterior buckling. Over¡± There was silence on the line for a moment, Watson was getting her space legs together, working on learning how to move. She had a tether attached to another tiedown on the bulkhead and would occasionally pull herself in, re-orient, and work on moving again. Trial and error were good for learning. ¡°Jax, we have spoken with the pilots, and they claimed that a high-velocity impact on the ship removed the aft section and that they had been trying to aim for a hole in Escort beforehand. They confirm the tumble took them out. Three others are awaiting new transport over. No sign of the rest of the squad yet, they may be awaiting SAR Ops. Stand by and wait for new orders. Mother Out.¡± Okay, so the dead were respawning, but the squad still had some air. Apart from Liefsdottir and the two that grew new holes to breathe from no one else had popped. Using the Comms relay, I sent a broadcast on the general channel. ¡°This is Jax, broadcasting in the clear. I¡¯ve set up a comms relay. My squad was taken out before landing. Looking for others to connect with. Please respond on Channel zero-fife. Encryption protocol Golf-thuree-one-four.¡± I recorded the message and set it for a repeat every three minutes, then switched my comms to send over channel five and entered my encryption key. ¡°Jax, kill that chatter, and report on your position.¡± Janssens familiar voice came through my comms on channel five. I killed the broadcast I had set up the repeat on. ¡°Janssens, what¡¯s the word?¡± I asked. If he was senior in charge on the ship, then there were a lot of dead. ¡°You the expert in the field today?¡± I continued. ¡°Affirmative. Setting up a beacon. Home in on my position and bring everyone you can with you. We seem to be on a hostile craft. According to Mother, there are a lot of ships that didn¡¯t even make it over.¡± A blip showed up on my mini-map. The problem is that there was a LOT of grey between him and me. Bringing up the map in my HUD, there was shared data being sent and synced to the network. I could clearly make out a dozen sites that were clearly separated out from the grey that covered the map. Most of the areas marked seemed like mine. 40 meters long, 10 meters deep and high, two outliers were what appeared to be a cargo bay, easily 80 meters long by 40 meters deep and 30 meters high. That was where Janssens blip was coming from, and then there was a small 10x10x10 meter area that appeared to be a maintenance closet. Taking a cue from Watson, I found another tie down near the hole in the bulkhead and attached a line to it. I then swung to the exterior of the ship and was pleased that I was able to use my boots to mag down to the exterior hull. I shut off the magnetics on my boots and swung back inside. ¡°Watson, this way. We¡¯re going to go meet up with another team.¡± I told her. ¡°We can use mags on the exterior of the ship; it will be easier than trying to go through unknown territory.¡± Once again, commanding the drones to follow me, we were off. Two humans and a lot of tech were crawling on the exterior hull of Escort. If you¡¯ve never made a Mag Walk across the outer hull of a ship, you are missing out. The view was breathtaking if of course, you took out the various dead that were floating around outside. Had we not decided to make the trip this way, I don¡¯t think we would have known was taking out our drop ships. After moving what I decided to call ¡°aft¡± for near twenty minutes, We were just about to arrive at the gap where Janssens had reported being. One of my Monkeys then went offline. Then another. Scanning behind me I noticed parts floating as well as what could only be considered electronics dust. They had been blown into oblivion. Studying the ship hull, I started to switch between spectrums. There were two heat readings about 20 meters to my right. Both were cooling down quickly. I could see them pumping the heat back inside the ship fromthrough an attached heat sink. Had I not been cycling my scans I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed them. I marked the two objects took a knee to make myself a smaller target and began. ¡°Watson take cover. Hostiles are cloaked on the hull!¡± I raised my Taishi Ci and used the marked target with my optical connection to the scope and sent out two quick bursts. I ordered the remaining Monkeys to flatten themselves to the hull and wished I had brought more than one heavy weapons platform, but I would have probably been down two platforms instead of one and a spare scanning module. The two bursts hit their mark. One of the nearly invisible cannons sparked up and then there was a small explosion from its back. I then started to fire on the other. ¡°Ma¡¯am, where are the targets?!¡± Watson was scanning the hull, battle rifle ready, not able to see what I was shooting at. Then another small explosion. ¡°What sort of scanners and sensors do you have?¡± I asked. I scanned the hull again, making sure that I had recorded everything to send back to Mother. Seeing nothing else ¡°glowing¡± I started heading to the two downed cannons. ¡°C¡¯mon Watson. Let¡¯s see what sort of goodies delivered themselves to us.¡± There wasn¡¯t a whole lot left of the two cannons, but I was able to scrape enough together that I was hoping to be able to get some new schematics. Using some duct tape, I created a bundle then connected them to my Monkeys to carry. I needed my hands free and to minimize mobility restrictions. We then proceeded back towards our original destination. I kept scanning the hull. Finally, Watson responded to my question. ¡°Just a basic targeting scanner. No additional packages.¡± It looked like command only sent the basics, just in case. ¡°Sending you a link up request. My scanners should be able to link you into my targeting data. My package can handle a full fire team, in theory. I haven¡¯t tested it yet.¡± I then pinged her with a link request, sharing the data from my scanner and the scanners on my Monkeys. We came across another single cannon on our way, reclaiming the parts that survived that encounter as well. Arriving at the link-up beacon, I sent Janssens a pulse transmission. ¡°Two coming in the back way. Janssens, tell anyone with you that we¡¯re friendlies.¡± We proceeded to climb in through another hole in the hull that was removed with precision instead of the force of an explosion. Still, gravity was null, and the survivors had oriented themselves with what I had considered the far bulkhead as the deck. A barricade made from the hulls of two of the dropships was set up. Liberal usage of emergency hull patching foam had been used to secure the ships to the deck. A heavy gunner standing on the cockpit of one of the vessel was keeping watch on the hatch leading to other parts of the ship. On the other dropship, a weapons turret was set up. ¡°Hey, Janssens, where can I set up?¡± I said while floating towards what I was thinking of as the command area. There wasn¡¯t anything g designating it as such, but this was where multiple tethers linked up. I commanded my sensor Monkeys to scan the area, using all available imaging. Some of the sensor packages I now had access to were quite handy. I then passed command of the comms relay to Janssens. ¡°Have a laser link? We can set up my drone to keep the target on Mother, so we don¡¯t lose the comms home. I also have a lot of data to forward home.¡± Janssens looked up from what he was doing. He must have been receiving comms already. Janssens raised a finger signaling for me to hold one moment. After several minutes, he opened a channel to me. ¡°Yes, we have a laser link. Get it secured and let me know when we have a clear signal.¡± He pointed to the dropship with the turret on it. Everyone worth a damn knew to listen to the sergeants on the ground instead of the junior level officers. Also, on the outside of the game, he did technically now outrank me. I pulled myself along a tether and into the side of the dropship and started work. Configuring the laser link into the comms array for use by the Monkeys took longer than I expected. Working in zero-G was a pain in the ass. Fifteen minutes later I was setting up a data package to be sent to Mother. The data included all the scans I could take of the turrets from the hull of Escort. After that, I was officially out of the leadership comms link. Somewhere on the ship was a Marine Captain, and we were holding tight for him to hook up with us. I had my Monkeys start pulling deck plating to patch up the exterior hole. Now, all we needed was to get an atmospheric processor to start pressurizing this compartment. We had been on canned air for just over a full hour. If I recalled correctly, the standard suits had a 120-minute limit. Soon there would be a small panic when the suit alarms started to sound. With nothing else to do, I began scanning schematics to see if I could at the least improvise and create a recycler. That would allow, at the minimum, a fresh 120 minutes for each Marine. Maybe something in the fallen dropships would work. Scanning through the wreckage, I noted the engines were still technically sound. There was also power from the reactor cores in one of them. Having been broken in the landing, neither of the two were on standby. ¡°Janssens? Where are the pilots for the birds?¡± I asked. An idea was percolating. Not waiting for his response, I started heading towards the cockpit of the dropship. Like the dropship I had been on, the cockpit was caved in, but it¡¯s possible the pilots survived. Connecting myself to a tether attached to the dropship, I had one of my monkeys start cutting away at the canopy, and I stood where I could get some leverage, connecting down with my mag boots. I was going to need to pry the canopy open as the sides with the hatches were sealed to the deck. ¡°KIA in both birds. The other one,¡± he pointed to the craft with the Marine stationed atop it, ¡°took a single round straight down the center. Both lost power and hit the hull to make entry.¡± Now that it was pointed out, I could see the remnants of a hole. I say ¡°remnant¡± as with how crumpled the cockpit was; I had dismissed it as standard impact damage. I continued prying off the canopy on the first dropship.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°What are you doing up there, anyways, Jax?¡± Janssens was starting to take an interest in my work. ¡°Tell me how much air you have left, first,¡± I replied, the canopy giving way enough for me to slide inside. I started keying on the reactor. ¡°Just over¡­ shit! My alarms for low air just alerted me. We¡¯re going to die, aren¡¯t we?¡± Janssens was choked up a bit. Maybe he forgot this was a game. ¡°Game, ¡®member? You¡¯ll respawn back in your quarters. But yeah, you¡¯ll die if I don¡¯t do something about this.¡± I sent the Monkeys to start opening the other dropship, then climbed out of the cockpit and moved to the other craft. ¡°Fuck, that¡¯s right. Okay, what do we need to do? I don¡¯t want to get back on a dropship and try riding through that mess again.¡± I think I could get the Sergeant on board with my idea. ¡°Well,¡± I grunted while straining to pull enough of the cockpit open that I could climb in this one as well. ¡°I figure that these have a hydrogen power plant in them, right? Those are basically high energy water turbines that use Hydrogen, combine them with an Oxygen molecule, and generates power from the fusing of a water molecule.¡± I stepped back a moment and took a deep breath. ¡°The air in our tanks is only about 20% oxygen. Our suits keep the CO2 Off Gasses that we exhale in the empty tanks. I am going to try to set up the power plants to cycle CO2 in, through the water, scrubbing the carbon out. That¡¯s the quick version anyway. It won¡¯t be enough to pressurize the cabin, but it will be enough to allow everyone to recharge their tanks until we can find the life support systems.¡± I finished prying out a rod from the canopy that was pinning it closed. A moment later I was wriggling inside to start the reactor here as well. ¡°If I can get it working that is.¡± I left the craft, pulling a decapitated co-pilot from the seat. ¡°Hey, do you have a mono-blade I could borrow for a minute?¡± The mono-blade was a ceramic knife with an edge made by housing a blade a single carbon molecule thick. It could cut through most things, and in theory, wouldn¡¯t dull. I wouldn¡¯t be using it long enough to take the edge off, however. I just needed to get to some intestines and the suit filters. ¡°Sure, what are you going to do with him?¡± He asked. ¡°Something you won¡¯t want to see.¡± I then climbed back in and pulled out the body in the pilots¡¯ chair. Thank God for zero-G. I was able to carry both bodies with me into the other dropship, and I started to work removing tubes and hoses from the suits, as well as the filters. From the helmets of the two which weren¡¯t damaged beyond use. One more trip to the other dropship and I returned with a bundle of cables, linking bother power plants together, and finalized the last of the connections. Fortunately, I only had to use about two meters of intestines, connecting them between some hardware which I hid behind a bulkhead. The Marines wouldn''t have to know where the extra hoses came from. I then used a salvaged air tank from one of the pilots as a test. It all worked well enough. ¡°Okay Janssens, start cycling them through five at a time. It should handle the load. With only 15 of us, we should finish before anyone hits zero. Any word on the Captain making his way here?¡±

Breather - Original

With the drop ship disabled, the power for the magnetic clamps released, and the three of us were now floating, along with my Monkeys. I immediately powered them on, then pulled the corporal sitting across from me towards me and threw him towards the opening in the back of the craft. A moment later, a ¡°follow¡± command was sent to the monkeys and Liefsdottir was working his way to the craft exit. I moved to the front of the ship, reached what was now the crumpled canopy of the ship, used that to orient myself ¡°up¡± with the hole in the back of the ship above me, and I pushed off, hard. I passed Liefsdottir on my way out, and once clear from the craft I spun then powered on the magnets from my boots. They caught nothing. I then bounced off the interior hull of the ship, losing most of my momentum on the way. I felt a voice in the back of my skull directing my attention to where the craft was a moment ago. There was a smear of blood on the ceiling, or was that the deck? Why weren¡¯t my boots connecting to the deck, ceiling, or walls? ¡°Sir?¡± I heard over my comms. The HUD on my visor identified her as Corporal Watson. Hopefully not related to the XO. ¡°What is it corporal?¡± I asked ¡°Sorry, Ma¡¯am. Uhm. It looks like the landing is hosed. Any way off this boat or will there be a change in orders?¡± she asked. I hadn¡¯t been given the operations package for this Op. ¡°We meet up with other Marines, sit tight, and work from there. Any sign of Liefsdottir?¡± I asked, knowing from the smear that the answer wasn¡¯t going to do any good. My Monkeys started to crawl out of the landing craft that was now wedged into a corner of the room. I glanced around to get an idea as to what this vessel was and sent a thought to Observer. Any help would be welcome. Systems limited. Too far away from source. What the hell did that mean? Also, was its English getting more accurate? I started setting up the Monkeys as a communications relay hub and sensor scanning uplink. ¡°Ma¡¯am, uhm, a little help?¡± Watsons voice called my attention away from setting up the Heavy Weapons platform. Fortunately, there was nothing coming to kill us at this beachhead. Looking up, I saw Watson about to spin past me. I grabbed onto the bulkhead pointed my boots towards her, and activated them, pulling Watson towards me, and causing me to spin more and lose hold of the tiedown on the bulkhead I had been grasping. At least Watson was no longer spinning on all three axis. Like me, she was not only spinning on two. ¡°Didn¡¯t take the Jump course?¡± I asked, waiting to come around so I could grab hold of the tiedown on the wall again. ¡°Wasn¡¯t an option when I went through. They had retired that and a few of the other courses. My entire company missed out on a lot.¡± She responded, her tone of voice sounded both relieved and sad at this. ¡°Vacuum training?¡± I asked, having a bad feeling of being stuck with someone who should have been in a planetary role. ¡°Only a two-hour lecture. They had already dismantled the chamber by then.¡± Shit. Not my day. When my company went through boot, we had an entire week dedicated to vacuum operati0ns and Zero-G. I hadn¡¯t ever used any of it, but we at least had training. The tiedown on the wall came into view again and I was able to reach it and stop our momentum, releasing the mag seal on my boots. ¡°Okay, remember the lectures. A breach won¡¯t be immediately fatal. If one happens, let me know so we can stop and patch your suit. As for zero-G, think of things like this. If you push on something, and you don¡¯t have an anchor, both you and the object will move apart from each other at roughly half speed of the push. So, the force of the push will be like what you exerted, just half you moving away from it, the other half it moving away from you. Action reaction, and all that.¡± I looked around the room taking in exactly what I was seeing. The room itself was about 40 meters wide and 10 meters high. There was a single-entry hatch on one of the bulkheads that lead up and down the ship, but not one that would lead further into the interior. Nothing that looked like writing or a computer terminal anywhere. The hatch looked manually operated with a single round wheel in its center It was also three meters wide and four tall. The room was charred through large portions of it, but only on the third nearest the exterior. The bulkhead to the exterior of the ship was vented. Looking through the hole that the dropship had come through it looked a little too clean, almost as if it had been cut. There were no signs of decompression. If this was a metal construction, there should be some signs of buckling out. That did not make me feel good at all. ¡°Jax to Mother, do you read?¡± I called out on the channel reserved for command staff. ¡°Mother here. Jax you are coming in low and garbled. Do you have access to laser comms? Over.¡± The response was shaky. I could make them out but there was a hiss of static that blanketed every word coming in during the transmission. I hooked up to the communications relay set up by my Monkeys. ¡°Mother, no laser comms, am using my optional kit to boost signal. Please confirm receipt. Over¡± ¡°Jax, much better. You are now five by five. Report.¡± I was happy they could hear me, sad that I couldn¡¯t hear them any clearer, I suppose that the relay was only acting as an amplifier. ¡°Mother, status is the lander is down. I am here with Corporal Watson; the remainder of the squad is KIA. Lander is down, both pilots KIA. Interior structure is non-ferrous, with zero-G conditions. The craft was hit by something which ripped the tail off taking out everyone. The corporal, a PFC named Liefsdottir and the pilots, and I survived that. Then we hit Escort and lost the pilots. Upon evac of the craft, we lost Liefsdottir. I have set up a standard comms relay which is amplifying my signal using the drones I packed. Can you confirm any additional landings? There doesn¡¯t seem to be any signs of explosion where we are except some charring. No exterior buckling. Over¡± There was silence on the line for a moment, Watson was getting her space legs together, working on learning how to move. She had a tether attached to another tiedown on the bulkhead and would occasionally pull herself in, re-orient, and try moving again. Trial and error was good for learning. ¡°Jax, we have spoken with the pilots, and they claimed that a high velocity impact on the ship removed the aft section, and that they had been trying to aim for a hole in Escort beforehand. They confirm the tumble took them out. Three others are awaiting new transport over. No sign of the rest of the squad yet, they may be awaiting SAR Ops. Stand by and wait for new orders. Mother Out.¡± Okay, so the dead were respawning, but the squad still had some air. Apart from Liefsdottir and the two that grew new holes to breath from no one else had popped. Using the Comms relay, I sent a broadcast on the general channel. ¡°This is Jax, broadcasting in the clear. I¡¯ve set up a comms relay. My squad was taken out before landing. Looking for others to connect with. Please respond on Channel zero-fife. Encryption protocol Golf-thuree-one-four.¡± I recorded the message and set it for a repeat every three minutes, then switched my comms to send over channel five and entered my encryption key. ¡°Jax, kill that chatter, and report on your position.¡± Janssens familiar voice came through my comms on channel five. I killed the broadcast I had set up the repeat on. ¡°Janssens what¡¯s the word?¡± I asked. If he was senior in charge on the ship, then there were a lot of dead. ¡°You the expert in the field today?¡± I continued. ¡°Affirmative. Setting up a beacon. Home in on my position and bring everyone you can with you. We seem to be on a hostile craft. According to Mother there are a lot of ships that didn¡¯t even make it over.¡± A blip showed up on my mini-map. The problem being that there was a LOT of grey between me and him. Bringing up the map in my HUD, there was shared data being sent and synced along the network. I could clearly make out a dozen sites that were clearly separated out from the grey that covered the map. Most of the areas marked seemed similar to mine. 40 meters long, 10 meters deep and high, two outliers were what appeared to be a cargo bay, easily 80 meters long by 40 meters deep and 30 meters high. That was where Janssens blip was coming from, and then there was a small 10x10x10 meter area that appeared to be a maintenance closet. Taking a queue from Watson, I found another tie down near the hole in the bulkhead and attached a line to it. I then swung to the exterior of the ship and was pleased that I was able to use my boots to mag down to the exterior hull. I shut off the magnetics on my boots and swung back inside. ¡°Watson, this way. We¡¯re going to go meet up with another team.¡± I told her. ¡°We can use mags on the exterior of the ship, it will be easier than trying to go through unknown territory.¡± Once again, commanding the drones to follow me, we were off. Two humans and a lot of tech were crawling on the exterior hull of Escort. If you¡¯ve never made a Mag Walk across the exterior hull of a ship, you are missing out. The view was breathtaking, if of course you took out the various dead that were floating around outside. Had we not decided to make the trip this way, I don¡¯t think we would have known was taking out our drop ships. After moving what I decided to call ¡°aft¡± for near twenty minutes, I we were just about to arrive at the gap where Janssens had reported being. One of my Monkeys then went offline. Then another. Scanning behind me I noticed parts floating as well as what could only be considered electronics dust. They had been blown into oblivion. Scanning the ship hull, I started to switch between spectrums. There were two heat readings about 20 meters to my right. Both were cooling down quickly. Had I not been cycling my scans I probably wouldn¡¯t have noticed them. I marked the two objects took a knee to make myself a smaller target and began. ¡°Watson take cover. Hostiles are cloaked on the hull!¡± I raised my Taishi Ci and used the marked target with my optical connection to the scope and sent out two quick bursts. I ordered the remaining Monkeys to flatten themselves to the hull and wished I had brought more than one heavy weapons platform, but I would have probably been down two platforms instead of one and a spare scanning module. The two bursts hit their mark One of the nearly invisible cannons sparked up and then there was a small explosion from its back. I then started to fire on the other. ¡°Ma¡¯am, where are the targets?!¡± Watson was scanning the hull, battle rifle ready, not able to see what I was shooting at. Then another small explosion. ¡°What sort of scanners and sensors do you have?¡± I asked. I scanned the hull again, making sure that I had recorded everything to send back to Mother. Seeing nothing else ¡°glowing¡± I started heading to the two downed cannons. ¡°C¡¯mon Watson. Let¡¯s see what sort of goodies delivered themselves to us.¡± There wasn¡¯t a whole lot left of the two cannons, but I was able to scrape enough together that I was hoping to be able to get some new schematics. Using some duct tape, I created a bundle then connected them to my Monkeys to carry. I needed my hands free and to minimize mobility restrictions. We then proceeded back towards our original destination. I kept scanning the hull. Finally, Watson responded to my question. ¡°Just a basic targeting scanner. No additional packages.¡± It looked like command only sent the basics, just in case. ¡°Sending you a link up request. My scanners should be able to link you into my targeting data. My package can handle a full fire team, in theory. I haven¡¯t tested it yet.¡± I then pinged her with a link request, sharing the data from my scanner and the scanners on my Monkeys. We came across another single cannon on our way, reclaiming the parts that survived that encounter as well. Arriving at the link up beacon, I sent Janssens a pulse transmission. ¡°Two coming in the back way. Janssens, tell anyone with you that we¡¯re friendlies.¡± We proceeded to climb in through another hole in the hull that was removed with precision instead of the force of an explosion. Still gravity was null, and the survivors had oriented themselves with what I had considered the far bulkhead as the deck. A barricade made from the hulls of two of the dropships was set up. A liberal usage of emergency hull patching foam had been used to secure the ships to the deck. A heavy gunner standing on the cockpit of one of the ships kept watch on the hatch leading to other parts of the ship. On the other drop ship a weapons turret was set up. ¡°Hey, Janssens, where can I set up?¡± I said while floating towards what I was thinking of as the command area. There wasn¡¯t anything g designating it as such, but this was where multiple tethers linked up. I commanded my sensor Monkeys to scan the area, using all available imaging. Some of the packages I now had access to were quite handy. I then passed command of the comms relay to Janssens. ¡°Have a laser link? We can set up my drone to keep target on Mother, so we don¡¯t lose comms home. I also have a lot of data to forward home.¡± Janssens looked up from what he was doing. He must have been receiving comms already. He raised a finger signaling for me to hold one moment. After several minutes, he opened a channel to me. ¡°Yes, we have a laser link. Get it secured and let me know when we have a clear signal.¡± He pointed to the dropship with the turret on it. Everyone worth a damn knew to listen to the sergeants on the ground instead of the junior level officers. Also, on the outside of the game, he did technically now outrank me. I pulled myself along a tether and into the side of the dropship and started work. Configuring the laser link into the comms array for use by the Monkeys took longer than I expected. Working in zero-G was a pain in the ass. Fifteen minutes later I was setting up a data package to be sent to Mother. The data included all the scans I could take of the turrets from the hull of Escort. After that, I was officially out of the leadership communications. Somewhere on the ship was a Marine Captain, and we were holding tight for him to hook up with us. I had my Monkeys start pulling deck plating to patch up the exterior hole. Now all we needed was to get an atmospheric processor to start pressurizing this compartment. We had been on canned air for just over a full hour. If I recalled correctly, the standard suits had a 120-minute limit. Soon there would be a small panic when the suit alarms started to sound. With nothing else to do I started to scan schematics to see if I could at the least improvise and create a recycler. That would allow, at the minimum, a fresh 120 minutes for each Marine. Maybe something in the fallen dropships would work. Scanning though the wreckage, I noted the engines were still technically good. There was also power from the reactor cores in one of them. Having been broken in the landing, neither of the two were on standby. ¡°Janssens? Where are the pilots for the birds?¡± I asked. An idea was percolating. Not waiting for his response, I started heading towards the cockpit of the dropship. Like the dropship I had been on, the cockpit was caved in, but its possible the pilots survived. Connecting myself to a tether connected to the dropship, I had one of my monkeys start cutting away at the canopy and I stood where I could get some leverage, connecting down with my mag boots. I was going to need to pry the canopy open as the sides with the hatches were sealed to the deck. ¡°KIA in both birds. The other one,¡± he pointed to the craft with the Marine stationed atop it, ¡°took a round straight down the center. Both lost power and hit a wall to make entry.¡± Now that it was pointed out, I could see the remnants of a hole. I say ¡°remnant¡± as with how crumpled the cockpit was, I had dismissed it as standard impact damage. I continued prying off the canopy on the first dropship. ¡°What are you doing up there, anyways, Jax?¡± Janssens was starting to take an interest in my work. ¡°Tell me how much air you have left, first.¡± I replied, the canopy giving way enough for me to slide inside. I started keying on the reactor. ¡°Just over¡­ shit! My alarms for low air just alerted me. We¡¯re going to die, aren¡¯t we?¡± Janssens was choked up a bit. Maybe he forgot this was a game. ¡°Game, ¡®member? You¡¯ll respawn back in your quarters. But yeah, you¡¯ll die if I don¡¯t do something about this.¡± I sent the Monkeys to start opening the other drop ship, then climbed out of the cockpit and moved to the other ship. ¡°Fuck, that¡¯s right. Okay, what do we need to do. I don¡¯t want to get back on a dropship and try riding through that mess again.¡± I think I could get the Sergeant on board with my idea. ¡°Well,¡± I grunted while straining to pull enough of the cockpit open that I could climb in this one as well. ¡°I figure that these have a hydrogen power plant in them, right? Those are basically high energy water turbines that use Hydrogen, combine them with an Oxygen molecule, and generates power from the fusing of a water molecule.¡± I stepped back a moment and took a deep breath. ¡°The air in our tanks is only about 20% oxygen. Our suits keep the CO2 Off Gasses that we exhale in the empty tanks. I am going to try to set up the power plants to cycle CO2 in, through the water, scrubbing the carbon out. That¡¯s the quick version anyway. It won¡¯t be enough to pressurize the cabin, but it will be enough to allow everyone to recharge their tanks until we can find the life support systems.¡± I finished prying out a rod from the canopy that was pinning it closed. A moment later I was wriggling inside to start the reactor here as well. ¡°If I can get it working that is.¡± I left the craft, pulling a decapitated co-pilot from the seat. ¡°Hey, do you have a mono-blade I could borrow for a minute?¡± The mono-blade was a ceramic knife with an edge made by housing a blade a single carbon molecule thick. It could cut through most things, and in theory wouldn¡¯t dull. I wouldn¡¯t be using it long enough to try to dull it, however. I just needed to get to some intestines and the suit filters. ¡°Sure, what are you going to do with him?¡± He asked. ¡°Something you won¡¯t want to see.¡± I then climbed back in and pulled out the body in the pilots¡¯ chair. Thank God for zero-G. I was able to carry both bodies with me into the other drop ship and I started to work removing tubes and hoses from the suits, as well as the filters. From the helmets of the two which weren¡¯t damaged beyond use. One more trip to the other drop ship, and I retuned with a bundle of cables, linking bother power plants together, and finalized the last of the connections. Fortunately, I only had to use about two meters of intestines, connecting them between some hardware which I hid behind a bulkhead. The Marines wouldn''t have to know where the extra hoses came from. I then used a salvaged air tank from one of the pilots as a test. It all worked well enough. ¡°Okay Janssens, start cycling them through five at a time. It should handle the load. With only 15 of us, we should finish before anyone hits zero. Any word on the Captain making his way here?¡± 12. Contact

Contact - Edited 11-8-2018

I relieved the Heavy watching the hatch, so he could recharge his air tanks. Janssens hadn¡¯t heard from the Captain, and the mini-maps hadn¡¯t updated in some time. There really weren¡¯t enough of us to mount a rescue op. After everyone had cycled through and recharged their air (something that was only 80% as effective as I¡¯d hoped), I approached Janssens again. ¡°So, what¡¯s the word on the Captain? There¡¯s not really enough of us to hike through an unknown ship design and figure out where we need to go.¡± Janssens looked over to me. ¡°Well, Mother seems to think that with the data you sent over, they will be able to blast any more turrets off the ship before they can fire at us, so it¡¯s just a matter of time until he respawns and is sent over.¡± He wasn¡¯t concerned at all. ¡°Yeah, but think of it this way,¡± I started, ¡°If he dies, he¡¯ll blame his NCOs who left him to die for the loss of EXP.¡± I gave Janssens a pointed look. ¡°The penalty for death is full loss of EXP for the ENTIRE day.¡± Janssens floated there, tethered to the dropship with the turret attached, running a few scenarios through his mind. ¡°Well, Jax. Thanks for volunteering.¡± He said. I could hear the smile in his voice. ¡°Shit, you really going to put this on me?¡± I had to admit, I sort of expected it, but I was still shocked at his decision. ¡°You can hack systems, you have nonstandard armor, and something tells me that you have some more tricks you haven¡¯t brought out yet.¡± He knew me well enough, but I lost my other toys on the trip over. No heavy weapons platform meant less boom-boom. ¡°Well, then... I suppose I should be going. I¡¯ll be borrowing some items, though.¡± I said, grabbing the sidearm from one of the dead pilots. I had forgotten to ask Yama that happened to gear when you died. I then picked up some spare clips from two of the others.
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol
Type Kinetic
Rounds 0/7
Sight None
Fire Mode Options Single
Weight 1.25 kg
Modifications Zero-G Rifling
Range 20 m
Maximum 150 m
The main thing I hated about these pistols was that they used a feed system instead of a fully contained magazine. I had a few other gripes, but they were my only option for a backup weapon, so it was going to be it. I swapped the magazines in my Battle Rifle. ¡°By the way, you wouldn¡¯t happen to have some extra rounds, would you? Some dick NCO is sending me to get my tits blown off, and I want to come back in one piece as a ¡®fuck you¡¯ to him.¡± I said, holding my hand out. Janssens laughed and handed me a spare extended magazine and a small box of 50 rounds. Checking to verify their type, I noticed the ¡°DU¡± on the box. Fun, they were depleted uranium. These would be good as tank buster rounds. That beat to hell my standard ammo. Checking the magazine that he had just handed to me, I noticed it was already loaded with DU rounds. I walked/floated to the beast of a hatch and was glad that there was no gravity as I would have had to jump to reach the manual release. It took me a moment to re-orient myself and to gather enough leverage to operate the control. Fun fact, the manual controls on Escort worked opposite to our own. Unexpected, the moment I had the locking mechanism on the hatch released, the door flung open, with me still on it, and flooded the compartment with the ship''s atmosphere. I was thrilled that my Monkeys had patched the hull. So as not to get crushed as the door flung itself inward, I rolled towards the hinges. There was a loud ¡°gong¡± sound as the hatch hit the bulkhead. I was crushed, but not to death, just to extreme pain and having the wind knocked out of me. Once I was able to breathe again, I scanned the atmo. Nitrogen (54%), oxygen (17%), argon (11%), ammonia (9%), and then trace amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, and carbon monoxide. Not too different from Earth, but different enough to be toxic thanks to the argon and ammonia. Our air filters would be able to filter it. The humidity in the air was also very high at 80%. Ambient temperatures started to increase as well. It was already 322K and raising now that there was airflow again. I forwarded Janssens my sensor readouts so that he would know that the Marines should stay sealed up. Pulling myself along the bulkhead, I was able to get over the top of the hatch and push myself through. That¡¯s when gravity decided to reassert itself. I fell hard. I had the wind knocked out of me for the second time in as many minutes. Gasping, I sat up, feeling heavy. Looking into the compartment, I had just fallen out of I saw that they were all still floating. I pulled up my status.
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Warrant Officer
Status: Full Suit Integrity Armor 95% Effective
Air: 152:17:44 External Toxic, Filters Effective
Gravity 1.3 G Stable
Accessories: M1k33 Drones (4 Comm, 3 Sensor Relay 3 General purpose) Engineering Kit MK-I
Weapons: Taishi Ci Battle Rifle 45/45 (3 spare magazines)
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol 7/7 (3 spare clips)
Mono-blade N/A
I stood and brushed myself off. I sent Janssens a report on the gravity. IT HURT! Everything was moving slower. My movements were jerking as my muscles caught up to what I wanted them to do. A quick start then slowly moving that ended abruptly. This was going to be hell to get used to. I started humming to myself so I could keep my mind off how shit it was to walk through the passageways like this. I stopped at every intersection to verify communications back to Janssens, while also trying to reach the Captain or any other Marines that were onboard. There were a few compartments that had been seen by Marines and the data forwarded to the larger whole, but I couldn¡¯t get any of their hatches to open from this side. At my 8th intersection, I came across a ladder well and set up one of the relay Monkeys to forward data. I could tell that this was a ladder well as there was an outline for handholds every meter. According to the minimap, the Captain last reported data from three decks above and on the opposite side of the ship. The handholds were non-existent, however. There was a data panel next to the chute. Or what I took to be a data panel. There was a scanner port, or at least what looked like one. Alien tech. I used the mono-blade to pry the cover off. This thing was useful; I was going to have to make me one. Then a snag. No cables for me to try and hotwire. There were crystals instead of cabling. I broke some out and stuck it in my Engineering kit. I sent another Monkey up the ladder well after attaching a tether line to it. It took me some time to climb up thanks to the added gravity. I was already thinking of adding a grapple launcher into an arm in case I had to do this again. When I finally climbed free from the ladder well, I started getting sensor data from a Marine with a scanner, though there was still no comms. My mini-map had several dozen red blips and three green blips barricaded inside a room 700 meters from my position. I started to jog. My body was starting to get used to the new gravity. It was still far from comfortable, but my moving was a lot smoother. I sent my last relay drone to the intersection and had it start running a full spectrum scan. Reading through the data, I was receiving I began to add some filters then noticed a communication jamming field around the area that the three green dots were in. I was also now able to get visuals on the red dots. Standing at 3 meters tall I was unsure if they were armored suits or chitinous exoskeletons, but the rest was clear. Six legs and quills that covered their entire bodies. The quills would extend whenever the creature breathed. There were several spines stuck in the hatch to the chamber the green dots were in, which was the most likely reason I was getting that data at all. I verified that the Thompson was loaded with a round chambered, then placed it in the holster. Then I checked that my battle rifle was primed and ready as well. I had my sensor drone push data to the three green dots behind the hatch, relaying my position, then had the Monkey pull back. The data pulse with the updated information was enough to get the attention of the aliens, and a barrage of spines immediately shot down the passageway towards my Monkey, and more importantly, towards me. It¡¯s amazing how much quicker you hit the deck with an additional 30% gravity. I sent a command to some of my construction Monkeys to pull me back, and I shot a burst toward the mob before disappearing around the corner. One of the quills had hit my armor and cracked one of the plates, but it didn¡¯t pierce. I activated my scope as I pointed my battle rifle around the corner. Look at that, they bled. There weren¡¯t any down, but there was one that was leaking a bright green fluid from a leg. I should have kept some of those grenades I made. I sent my Monkeys down the passageway, the direction I had initially arrived from, and had them start cutting the ceiling plating away, ready to drop it if necessary, then I headed that way, battle rifle pointing behind me, so I could have a visual on the area behind me. By the time I arrived at the next intersection, the creatures were sprinting down the hallway behind me, and I sent the order to drop the ceiling to the deck. The first ceiling plate fell. Then the second and third. My Monkeys then scampered back my direction, trying to catch up. Two of these creatures were flattened, though only one seemed to have been killed, the other was disabled, two of its legs crushed. The third plate missed entirely as the creature had stopped to send some quills my direction. I was hit by three of them and again, no penetration, but that didn¡¯t stop the kinetic force. Two of the armor plates on my back were entirely shattered. Only the pieces immediately connected to the connectors stayed attached. I stood and started running again, having taken the corner. My feet were hammering away at the deck as I was trying to get some distance. At the next intersection, I turned again, this time I crashed immediately into a different alien creature. This one was humanoid-ish. With blue-grey skin, it stood with its head almost touching the ceiling. It had three legs instead of two, and they appeared to be digitigrade. Two arms that extruded from the center of its torso and dragged all the way to the floor, and a tail with a stinger. The head had five eyes that provided a full 360 degrees of vision, and there were gills on what I took to be the neck. It was wrapped in a cloth robe with a small package pinned between its arm and body. The robe didn¡¯t look like it would provide much armor. I rebounded from the figure. It was solid, and fortunately, it moved slowly compared to the bug-like creatures from earlier. The bugs were still chasing me, but I stood in shock for a moment. My scanners showed that it was ambient temperature, which put it at 340K. But that is all it showed. I was going to have to get a biological upgrade for my scanner in the future for situations like this. I decided to dodge around the creature instead of engaging it directly. I continued running down the passageway. Then the bugs rounded the corner into it, and then there was a LOT of noise. You couldn¡¯t exactly call it screaming, shrieking, or yelling, but if you put all three of those sounds in a blender with some ball bearings, you would be getting close. I was running out of breath when the first bug hit me. It was thrown by the giant, so when I say ¡°hit me¡± I was talking a fastball pitch down the passageway, and I couldn¡¯t even consider dodging it. The force not only knocked me off my feet and drove the air from me, but all the armor plates that were left on my back were shattered. When I rebounded off the floor, most of the armor plates that were left shattered as well. I then noticed I had several quills that had punch through my ship suit. My status was flashing red again. This time, I still had some armor.
Name: Jax Danni
Build:The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. Engineer Warrant Officer
Status: Suit Integrity Compromised 3% Effective
Air: 152:17:44 External Toxic, Filters Effective
Gravity 1.3 G Stable
Accessories: M1k33 Drones (1 Sensor Relay 2 General purpose) Engineering Kit MK-I
Weapons: Taishi Ci Battle Rifle 45/45 (3 spare magazines)
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol 7/7 (3 spare clips)
Mono-blade N/A
My status was DEEP in the red. My armor was almost completely destroyed, I was punctured a few times, and my Monkeys were dying. I forced myself to roll over, knocking the quills that were through me against the deck. I was too amped up on the pain and adrenaline to do more than scream, which I was already doing. I then emptied my magazine into the bug, reloaded with the first mag I grabbed and went full auto down range. The carnage I unleashed would be considered holy damnation by a street preacher. Each of the rounds that impacted tore a hole through whatever they hit. The giant was getting ready to wing another of the bugs toward me and a round punched into its leftmost leg, completely severing it and knocking the throw off, the bug impacting the bulkhead next to it in a splash of ichor. Another round then ripped across its center leg completely bringing the Goliath down. The six-legged freaks became a paste when a shot hit them in the body. When a bullet clipped a limb it continued through, usually hitting one or two of the other legs on the same side, some even continued through to catch another of the bugs. That was probably the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me. The gel inlay in my suit was keeping the pressure on my wounds, so I wasn¡¯t going to bleed out, but I would need to patch up before any vacuum. I reloaded my rifle with another magazine, then filled my two spent magazines with the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me. I could only fully refill one of them, the other I loaded with the last five rounds. I then grabbed the mono-blade and cut through the quills as close as I could to my ship suit so that I could lean against things, and to limit how much I had to worry about turning in close quarters. The gunfire was going to bring a lot of attention and soon. I started to head towards the green dots. There were now only two of them, but the red dots outside the hatch were gone. A few minutes later, I was standing outside the hatch; the quills were still holding it slightly open. To announce myself I knocked out ¡°a shave and a haircut,¡± then sent another comms pulse. The hatchway opened, the captain was there, missing an arm which was pinned to the bulkhead opposite the hatch, and there were three dead Marines, two pinned to the bulkhead with a few quills, the third looked like a mercy killing as there was a lot of gore that a pistol wound wouldn¡¯t have caused. His suit cut open with his entrails pooled around his feet. ¡°Captain?¡± I addressed the officer. ¡°I¡¯m Warrant Jax; the coast is clear to the squad that Sgt. Janssens had been able to put together from the survivors. I came to verify your status and provide an escort if requested. I¡¯d suggest we gather gear from the fallen to ensure safe passage.¡±

Contact - Original

I relieved the Heavy watching the hatch, so he could recharge his air tanks. Janssens hadn¡¯t heard from the Captain and the mini-maps hadn¡¯t updated in some time. There really weren¡¯t enough of us to mount a rescue op. After everyone had cycled through and recharged their air (something that was only 80% as effective as I¡¯d hoped), I approached Janssens again. ¡°So, what¡¯s the word on the Captain? There¡¯s not really enough of us to hike through an unknown ship design and figure out where we need to go.¡± Janssens looked over to me. ¡°Well, Mother seems to think that with the data you sent over, they will be able to blast any more turrets off the ship before they can fire at us, so its just a matter of time until he respawns and is sent over.¡± He wasn¡¯t concerned at all. ¡°Yeah, but think of it this way,¡± I started, ¡°If he dies, he¡¯ll blame his NCOs who left him to die for the loss of EXP.¡± I gave Janssens a pointed look. ¡°The penalty for death is full loss of EXP for the ENTIRE day.¡± Janssens floated there, tethered to the dropship with the turret attached, running a few scenarios through his mind. ¡°Well, Jax. Thanks for volunteering.¡± He said. I could hear the smile in his voice. ¡°Shit, you really going to put this on me?¡± I had to admit, I sort of expected it, but I was still shocked at his decision. ¡°You can hack systems, you have nonstandard armor, and something tells me that you have some more tricks you haven¡¯t brought out yet.¡± He knew me well enough, but I lost my other toys on the trip over. No heavy weapons platform meant less boom-boom. ¡°Well, then... I suppose I should be going. I¡¯ll be borrowing some items, though.¡± I said, grabbing the side arm from one of the dead pilots. I had forgotten to ask Yama that happened to gear when you died. I then grabbed the spare clips from two of the others.
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol
Type Kinetic
Rounds 0/7
Sight None
Fire Mode Options Single
Weight 1.25 kg
Modifications Zero-G Rifling
Range 20 m
Maximum 150 m
The main thing I hated about these pistols was that they used a feed system instead of a fully contained magazine. I had a few other gripes, but they were my only option for a backup weapon, so it was going to be it. I swapped the magazines in my Battle Rifle. ¡°By the way, you wouldn¡¯t happen to have some extra rounds, would you? Some dick NCO is sending me to get my tits blown off and I want to come back in one piece as a ¡®fuck you¡¯ to him.¡± I said, holding my hand out. Janssens laughed and handed me a spare extended magazine and a small box of 50 rounds. Checking to verify their type, I noticed the ¡°DU¡± on the box. Fun, they were depleted uranium. These would be good as tank buster rounds. That beat to hell my standard ammo. Checking the magazine that he had just handed to me, I noticed it was already loaded with DU rounds. I walked/floated to the beast of a hatch and was glad that there was no gravity as I would have had to jump to reach the manual release. It took me a moment to re-orient myself and to gather enough leverage to operate the control. Fun fact, the manual controls on Escort worked opposite to our own. Unexpected, the moment I had the locking mechanism on the hatch released, the door flung open, with me still on it, and flooded the compartment with atmosphere. I was very happy that my Monkeys had patched the hull. So as not to get crushed as the door flung itself inward, I rolled towards the hinges. There was a loud ¡°gong¡± sound as the hatch hit the bulkhead. I was crushed, but not to death, just to extreme pain and having the wind knocked out of me. Once I was able to breathe again, I scanned the atmo. Nitrogen (54%), oxygen (17%), argon (11%), ammonia (9%), and then trace amounts of carbon dioxide, neon, helium, methane, krypton, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, xenon, ozone, iodine, and carbon monoxide. Not too different from Earth, but different enough to be toxic thanks to the argon and ammonia. Our air filters would be able to filter it. The humidity in the air was also very high at 80%. Ambient temperatures started to increase as well. It was already 322K and raising now that there was airflow again. I forwarded Janssens my sensor readouts so that he would know that the Marines should stay sealed up. Pulling myself up the bulkhead, I was able to get over top of the hatch and push myself through. That¡¯s when gravity decided to reassert itself. I fell hard. I had the wind knocked out of me for the second time in as many minutes. Gasping, I sat up, feeling heavy. Looking into the compartment I had just fallen out of I saw that they were all still floating. I pulled up my status.
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Warrant Officer
Status: Full Suit Integrity Armor 95% Effective
Air: 152:17:44 External Toxic, Filters Effective
Gravity 1.3 G Stable
Accessories: M1k33 Drones (4 Comm, 3 Sensor Relay 3 General purpose) Engineering Kit MK-I
Weapons: Taishi Ci Battle Rifle 45/45 (3 spare magazines)
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol 7/7 (3 spare clips)
Mono-blade N/A
I stood and brushed myself off. I sent Janssens a report on the gravity. IT HURT! Everything was moving slower. My movements were jerking as my muscles caught up to what I wanted them to do. A quick start then slowly moving that ended abruptly. This was going to be hell to get used to. I started humming to myself, so I could keep my mind off how shit it was to walk through the passageways like this. I stopped at every intersection to verify communications back to Janssens, while also trying to reach the Captain or any other Marines that were onboard. There were a few compartments that had been seen by Marines and the data forwarded to the larger whole, but I couldn¡¯t get any of their hatches to open from this side. At my 8th intersection I came across a ladder well and set up one of the relay Monkeys to forward data. I could tell that this was a ladder well as there was an outline for hand holds every meter. According to the mini map, the Captain last reported data from three decks above and on the opposite side of the ship. The hand holds were non-existent, however. There was a data panel next to the chute. Or what I took to be a data panel. There was a scanner port, or at least what looked like one. Alien tech. I used the mono-blade to pry the cover off. This thing was useful, I was going to have to make me one. Then a snag. No cables for me to try and hotwire. There were crystals instead of cabling. I broke some out and stuck it in my Engineering kit. I sent another Monkey up the ladder well after attaching a tether line to it. It took me some time to climb up thanks to the added gravity. I was already thinking of adding a grapple launcher into an arm in case I had to do this again. When I finally climbed free from the ladder well, I started getting sensor data from a Marine with a scanner, though there was still no comms. My mini-map had several dozen red blips and three green blips barricaded inside a room 700 meters from my position. I started to jog. My body was starting to get used to the new gravity. It was still far from comfortable, but my moving was a lot smoother. I sent my last relay drone to the intersection and had it start running a full spectrum scan. Reading through the data I was receiving I started to add some filters then noticed a communication jamming field around the area that the three green dots were in. I was also now able to get visuals on the red dots. Standing at 3 meters tall I was unsure if they were armored suits or chitinous exoskeletons, but the rest was clear. Six legs and quills that covered their entire bodies. The quills would extend whenever the creature breathed. There were several spines stuck in the hatch to the chamber the green dots were in, which was the most likely reason I was getting that data at all. I verified that the Thompson was loaded with a round chambered, then placed it in the holster. Then I verified my battle rifle was primed and ready as well. I had my sensor drone push data to the three green dots behind the hatch, relaying my position, then had the Monkey pull back. The data pulse with the updated information was enough to get the attention of the aliens, and a barrage of spines immediately shot down the passageway towards my Monkey, and more importantly, towards me. It¡¯s amazing how much quicker you hit the deck with an additional 30% gravity. I sent a command to some of my construction Monkeys to pull me back and I shot a burst toward the mob before disappearing around the corner. One of the quills had hit my armor and cracked one of the plates, but it didn¡¯t pierce. I activated my scope as I pointed my battle rifle around the corner. Look at that, they bled. There weren¡¯t any down, but there was one that was leaking a bright green fluid from a leg. I should have kept some of those grenades I made. I sent my Monkeys down the passageway, the direction I had originally arrived from, and had them start cutting the ceiling plating away, ready to drop it if necessary, then I headed that way, battle rifle pointing behind me, so I could have a visual on the area behind me. By the time I arrived at the next intersection, the creatures were sprinting down the hallway behind me, and I sent the order to drop the ceiling to the deck. The first ceiling plate fell. Then the second and third. My Monkeys then scampered back my direction, trying to catch up. Two of these creatures were flattened, though only one seemed to have been killed, the other was disabled, two of its legs crushed. The third plate missed entirely as the creature had stopped to send some quills my direction. I was hit by three of them and again, no penetration, but that didn¡¯t stop the kinetic force. Two of the armor plates on my back shattered completely. Only the pieces immediately connected to the connectors stayed attached. I stood and started running again, having taken the corner. My feet hammering away at the deck as I was trying to get some distance. At the next intersection I turned again, this time I crashed immediately into a different alien creature. This one was humanoid-ish. With blue-grey skin, it stood with its head almost touching the ceiling. It had three legs instead of two, and they appeared to be digitigrade. Two arms that extruded from the center of its torso and dragged all the way to the floor, and a tail with a stinger. The head had five eyes that provided a full 360 degrees of vision and there were gills on what I took to be the neck. It was wrapped in a cloth robe with a small package pinned between its arm and body. The robe didn¡¯t look like it would provide much armor. I rebounded from the figure. It was solid and fortunately it moved slowly compared to the bug-like creatures from earlier. The bugs were still chasing me, but I stood in shock for a moment. My scanners showed that it was ambient temperature, which put it at 340K. But that is all it showed. I was going to have to get a biological upgrade for my scanner in the future for situations like this. I decided to dodge around the creature instead of engaging it directly. I continued running down the passageway. Then the bugs rounded the corner into it, and then there was a LOT of noise. You couldn¡¯t exactly call it screaming, shrieking, or yelling, but if you put all three of those sounds in a blender with some ball bearings you would be getting close. I was running out of breath when the first bug hit me. It was thrown by the giant, so when I say ¡°hit me¡± I was talking a fastball pitch down the passageway and I couldn¡¯t even consider dodging it. The force not only knocked me off my feet and drove the air from me, but all the armor plates that were left on my back were shattered. When I rebounded off the floor, most of the armor plates that were left shattered as well. I then noticed I had several quills that had punch through my ship suit. My status was flashing red again. This time, I still had some armor.
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Warrant Officer
Status: Suit Integrity Compromised 3% Effective
Air: 152:17:44 External Toxic, Filters Effective
Gravity 1.3 G Stable
Accessories: M1k33 Drones (1 Sensor Relay 2 General purpose) Engineering Kit MK-I
Weapons: Taishi Ci Battle Rifle 45/45 (3 spare magazines)
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol 7/7 (3 spare clips)
Mono-blade N/A
My status was DEEP in the red. My armor was almost completely destroyed, I was punctured a few times, and my Monkeys were dying. I forced myself to roll over, knocking the quills that were through me against the deck. I was too amped up on the pain and adrenaline to do more than scream, which I was already doing. I then emptied my magazine into the bug, reloaded with the first mag I grabbed, and went full auto down range. The carnage I unleashed would be considered holy damnation by a street preacher. Each of the rounds that impacted tore a hole through whatever they hit. The giant was getting ready to wing another of the bugs toward me and was hit in its left most leg, completely severing it and knocking the throw off, the bug impacting the bulkhead next to it in a splash of ichor. Another round then ripped across its center leg completely bringing the goliath down. The six-legged freaks became a paste when a round hit them in the body. When a round clipped a limb it continued through, usually hitting one or two of the other legs on the same side, some even continued through to hit another of the bugs. That was probably the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me. The gel inlay in my suit was keeping pressure on my wounds so I wasn¡¯t going to bleed out, but I would need to patch up before any vacuum. I reloaded my rifle with another magazine, then filled my two spent magazines with the depleted uranium rounds that Janssens had given me. I could only fully refill one of them, the other I loaded with the last five rounds. I then grabbed the mono-blade and cut through the quills as close as I could to my ship suit so that I could lean against things, and to limit how much I had to worry about turning in close quarters. The gunfire was going to bring a lot of attention and soon. I started to head towards the green dots. There were now only two of them, but the red dots outside the hatch were gone. A few minutes later, I was standing outside the hatch, the quills were still holding the it slightly open. To announce myself I knocked out ¡°a shave and a haircut¡±, then sent another comms pulse. The hatchway opened, the captain was there, missing an arm which was pinned to the bulkhead opposite the hatch, and there were three dead Marines, two pinned to the bulkhead with a few quills, the third looked like a mercy killing as there was a lot of gore that a pistol wound wouldn¡¯t have caused. His suit cut open with his entrails pooled around his feet. ¡°Captain?¡± I addressed the officer. ¡°I¡¯m warrant Jax, the coast is clear to the squad that Sgt. Janssens had been able to put together from the survivors. I came to verify your status and provide escort if requested. I¡¯d suggest we gather gear from the fallen to ensure safe passage.¡± 13. Karma

Karma - Edited 11-8-2018

There was no response from the Captain. He just stood there. The Marine that had opened the hatch was a Private. He kept shifting his feet, obviously uncomfortable with the situation as it stood. ¡°Captain?¡± I asked again. There was no ¡°light¡± behind his eyes, almost as if he was dead. His position was in my mini-map as green, so he was alive, but something strange was happening here. ¡°Private? Do you know what is happening with the Captain?¡± ¡°Well, Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m not sure how to say this, but the Captain had duty. He left about an hour ago.¡± He was unplugged. It would be 14 hours before he was back online. In the middle of an operation, he logged out for duty in the real. Worse, he decided to come on a mission when he knew that he would have to be in the real within the next few days. ¡°Well, Private, have any medkits?¡± I asked, pointing to the holes in me. ¡°As I said, the coast is clear back to the main force of survivors, if you¡¯d like to come along.¡± I then started gathering equipment from the dead. I concentrated mostly on magazines for the Taishi Ci and clips for the Thompson .50. I did make one exception when I came across a mono-blade and decided to take one from the dead. The Private watched me stripping equipment and then joined me. After a few moments of ¡°field acquisition¡±, there wasn¡¯t anything else worth grabbing. One of the dead had a hull repair kit on him. I used what I could to patch my ship suit and was happy to see that when all was done, I had regained integrity. I stood around for several minutes debating what to do with the Captain. In theory, he was still alive. The problem was that he was also not in the game to be able to take care of himself. After several more minutes, I used the Captain''s own combat pistol to get him back onto the ship. It was a lot less gut-wrenching to kill a sitting duck than I thought it would be. ¡°Come, Private. We have the main force to meet up with.¡± I turned and started to walk back to the ladder well, placing the Captain''s pistol onto an empty attachment point on my chest where an armor plate had been. The deck was silent, and that worried me more than if there were alarms and alerts. We arrived at the ladder well, and I had my few remaining Monkeys set up with tethers leading the two decks down. The climb down was much harder thanks to the foreign matter inside of me. Once back on the deck I started on, I led the Private back to the compartment where I left Janssens and the rest of the Marines. I stepped around the frame for the hatch to the compartment with the Marines and started calling out. ¡°Jansse¡­¡± was all I was able to get out before my vision went black, and a message in front of me counting down Respawn in 3¡­.2¡­.1¡­ and I was in my berth on Ark-5. ¡°What the actual fuck?¡± I pulled up my Avatar Logs to see what happened. You have died Helmet destroyed Received damage from depleted uranium round. Hit location: Head. Lance Corporal Goldstein opens fire using modified Focke Wolfe Anti-Materiel Cannon Well, that answers that. Apparently, the heavy had excellent aim, or I was extremely unlucky. Maybe both. Time to see what sort of damage had been done. My ship suit was back to the standard issue, but I had my Taishi Ci, nine magazines, two Thompson .50 Combat Pistols with half a dozen clips, two mono-blades, and then items such as my basic engineers kit. I reported into Mother and informed them that I had been killed by friendly fire, then discussed the situation as I had left it. I even included the part where I had shot the Captain as he was unresponsive. That earned me an appointment to medical to see a shrink to ensure my head was on straight. I was also informed that the missions second attempt would not begin until tomorrow. I immediately jumped into the EXP store and recreated my ship suit and helmet I also bought a standard weapons harness and holsters to hold the two pistols and some sheaths for the mono-blades. I then decided to rebuild my Engineering Kit. I used a non-ferrous steel aluminum alloy to recreate the wrench and pliers and adjusted the pliers to have wire-cutters installed on them near the hinge. I then tore apart the scanning kit to see if there was anything I could use from it. I had my helmet after all. In the end, I replaced it with a bio-scanner. As for the plasma torch, I merely updated the power source on it to provide a better range of control. Last, I purchased Depleted Uranium rounds for each weapon and completed emptied and refilled my magazines and clips. From there, I decided to check my terminal and see if there were any updates, messages, or orders.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETED
Follow daily orders
Exp Rewards 18,871
Other Rewards Unknown Crystalline Structure
EXP Breakdown
Friendly Fire -250
Dead -25
Rescue of Marines (15) 1500
Unknown Alien Killed (26) 6500
Unknown Alien Killed (1) 500
Improvised Oxygen Recycler 10,000
Survival Time 4:06 246
M1K33 Communications Drone Schematic 100
M1K33 Construction Drone Schematic 100
M1K33 Heavy Weapons Drone 100
M1K33 Sensor Relay Drone Schematic 100
I was sitting on a shit ton of EXP for the day, so I decided to upgrade some more. I bought a new level, and I was now a level 2 WO-1. This gave me a better understanding of ways to route power systems for small and hand-held devices allowing for better cooling with less thermal issues from the modified power flow. I also decided to buy a new arm and start working on it as well. By the time I was done with my initial scans for my arm, I had decided sleep would be good. A lot had happened today. Waking the following morning, I checked for daily orders. There was one message informing me that I was off duty until I completed a psych eval. Strangely there were no orders for equipment mods. I supposed that everyone had them who wanted them for now, so I decided to take care of my arm before anything else. This replacement was going to be geared for combat operations. Having been in a battle yesterday, combat was fresh on my mind. My current arm had a very utilitarian design. It was made to operate and turn a full 360 degrees at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. That was good for working in tight spaces but wouldn¡¯t make a difference during combat. The replacement I had bought was a blank. It contained the joints for the shoulder, elbow, and wrist, then a fully articulating hand, sized like my original. There were remaining pieces, such as a rod that would connect between the shoulder and elbow and another that would connect to the wrist, but I was ignoring those pieces for now. I purchased a holographic display as well as another hand-held terminal. I then tore apart the hand-held and rigged it to work with the holographic display. Next was to get a sensor to read hand motions and to read input from a holographic touchpad. I was going to have to attach those to my ship suit and then have a connector on the inside that matches up. I used some magnets to get it all mounted. I bought miniature compressed gas tubes, some pipes, and springs, along with a motor geared to handle twice my body weight. Well, body weight plus leg and current arm plus some. I then had to work with the tether cable that could also handle the load. I ended up settling on an aluminum-magnesium alloy threaded with carbon fiber to add some additional strength while keeping both the weight low as well as my EXP costs. I ended up having to set up a bay for the grapple launcher I had just created. The grapple itself was set up to have a collapsible barbed head as well as the compression mechanism for the gas release. With this assembled, the grapple would eject from a bay that would be in the bottom of my arm so I wouldn¡¯t have to launch through the palm of my hand. That¡¯s when I realized that none of this would work with my existing ship suit. I would have to recreate it to work with my arm as I was designing it. Which would also mess up the passthrough controls I had just made for the limb. Frustrated at myself I needed a break, so I headed to medical to set up an appointment with a doctor to clear me back for duty. Four hours later I had returned to my quarters, cleared for duty. The Doctor was surprised that I had even considered NOT shooting the Marine Captain because of the potential risk that allowing him to live in an unsecured area in what was obviously hostile territory would have resulted in. We did have some laughs at the fact I was sent for an eval over this. I then went to Marine Country to use the firing range before returning to my quarters to check for messages and finish up my project. Several adjustments later, my new arm had a built-in bio-scanner, a fully realized holographic display with holographic light sensing input, and a compressed-gas propelled grapple which had two different heads that could be switched out. One was a harpoon with a spring mounted, barbed tip and the other a standard ¡°spider¡± that had collapsible arms that would grip onto a secure connector. Lastly, I had designed retractable mono-blades into the fingers on my hand. I doubted I would ever need to use them, but damn did they look cool. My new ship suit design was fully configured to work with my new arm, the suit itself connected to a hard seal at my shoulder. I also created another set of Monkeys. With that, my EXP windfall was spent.
Custom Replacement Limb
Replacement Limb Left Arm
Upgrade Slots 4
Slots Free 0
Slots Installed 4
Slot 1 Retractable Mono-blade Nails
Slot 2 Compressed Gas-Powered Grapple Launcher
Slot 3 Holographic Terminal Interface, Display, and Input
Slot 4 Bio-Scanner MK-II
My ship suit didn¡¯t change too much. The loss of the armor on the arm did decrease my total ballistics resistance by nearly 500 points. I did build in some armor directly into the arm, but that didn¡¯t show up on the specs for my ship suit.
Duty Uniform MK-II beta
Custom Built by Danni Jax
Vacuum Protection Full
Armor 100%
Additional Air 180:00:00
Resistances
Ballistic 4,500
Blunt 800
Stabbing 250
Slashing 250
Energy 500
Concussive Immune when sealed
Heat 500K
Cold 125K
ToxicThe story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement. 100% Sealed
Radiation 1,100 SV/hr.
I had a serious upgrade to the Sindri Foundries arm. Looking at my Avatar Sheet, I noticed it even had an additional strength increase.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: WO-1
Titles Available Crewman; Engineer; Host Equipped: Crewman
Experience: 114 To Next: 4500 Level: 2 Rate: Engineer
Modifications Fully Custom Left Arm; Hephaestus Industries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden
Specialization None
Strength 16 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (13) Intelligence 15 Concentration 11 Learning 18
Equipment: Recon Helmet MK-VI; Duty Uniform MK-II (beta); Cybernetics Kit MK-II
Engineering Kit MK-III; Breach Kit; Utility Belt; Mono-blade; Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2) Clips 6; (1) Rounds 6/7; (2) Rounds 7/7; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle**; Magazines, 9; Rounds 45/45; Ked Kit M1K33 Weapons Platform Drones (2); M1K33 Communications Drones (5); M1K33 Construction Drones (3); M1K33 Sensors Relay Drones (5)
I rechecked my messages. There still was no news on re-deploying me to Escort. I did get my EXP for the new arm design as well as the redesign of the ship suit. With the ship suit being an altered schematic the EXP gains were lowered.
Crafting Experience Gained
Prototyping successfully created
Exp Rewards 55
Other Rewards Schematics for Customized Cybernetic Arm (Left)
Design Type Unique
Other Rewards Schematics for Modified Duty Uniform MK-II
Design Classification Beta
Then I realized something. Our troops on the other ship had most likely had nothing to eat or drink for the last few days. I doubt many took rations with them. I sent a request on this to Yama. Within seconds the reply came back that all Marines had been ordered to suicide so that a fully staffed and equipped mission could be launched properly. I sat on my bunk, not sure what to do with my time until the mission relaunched, so, I started to read. The ship''s library had textbooks for increasing proficiency with assigned rates. I began to study up on data transference and signal degradation while something itched at the back of my mind. Not from the port for once, but from an idea that I didn¡¯t realize I was having. Then I remembered I had a piece of the crystalline construct from the ladder well controller. I jumped out of my bunk, grabbed the sample, and started to run towards Engineering to use the tech bay scanner.

Karma - Original

There was no response from the Captain. He just stood there. The Marine that had opened the hatch was a Private. He kept shifting his feet, obviously uncomfortable with the situation as it stood. ¡°Captain?¡± I asked again. There was no ¡°light¡± behind his eyes, almost as if he was dead. His position was in my mini-map as green, so he was alive, but something strange was happening here. ¡°Private? Do you know what is happening with the Captain?¡± ¡°Well, Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m not sure how to say this, but the Captain had duty. He left about an hour ago.¡± He was unplugged. It would be 14 hours before he was back online. In the middle of an operation he logged out for duty in the real. Worse, he decided to come on a mission when he knew that he would have to be in the real within the next few days. ¡°Well, Private, have any med kits?¡± I asked, pointing to the holes in me. ¡°As I said, the coast is clear back to the main force of survivors, if you¡¯d like to come along.¡± I then started gathering equipment from the dead. I concentrated mostly on magazines for the Taishi Ci and clips for the Thompson .50. I did make one exception when I came across a mono-blade and decide to take one from the dead. The Private watched me stripping equipment, and then joined suit. After a few moments of gathering equipment, there wasn¡¯t anything else worth grabbing. One of the dead had a hull repair kit on him. I used what I could to patch my ship suit and was happy to see that when all was done I had regained integrity. I stood around for several minutes debating what to do with the Captain. In theory he was still alive. The problem was that he was also not in the game to be able to take care of himself. After several more minutes, I used the Captains own combat pistol to get him back onto the ship. It was a lot less gut wrenching to kill a sitting duck than I thought it would be. ¡°Come, Private. We have the main force to meet up with.¡± I turned and started to walk back to the ladder well, placing the Captains pistol onto an empty attachment point on my chest where an armor plate had been. The deck was silent, and that worried me more than if there were alarms and alerts. We arrived at the ladder well, and I had my few remaining Monkeys set up with tethers leading the two decks down. The climb down was much harder thanks to the foreign matter inside of me. Once back on the deck I started on, I led the Private back to the compartment where I left Janssens and the rest of the Marines. I stepped around the frame for the hatch to the compartment with the Marines and started calling out. ¡°Jansse¡± was all I was able to get out before my vision went black, and a message in front of me counting down Respawn in 3¡­.2¡­.1¡­ and I was in my berth on Ark-5. ¡°What the actual fuck?¡± I pulled up my Avatar Logs to see what happened. You have died Helmet destroyed Received damage from depleted uranium round. Hit location: Head. Lance Corporal Goldstein opens fire using modified Focke Wolfe Anti-Materiel Cannon Well, that answers that. Apparently the heavy had excellent aim or I was extremely unlucky. Maybe both. Time to see what sort of damage had been done. My ship suit was back to standard issue, but I had my Taishi Ci, nine magazines, two Thompson .50 Combat Pistols with half a dozen clips, two mono-blades, and then items such as my basic engineers kit. I reported in to Mother and informed them that I had been killed by friendly fire, then reported on the situation as I had left it. I even included the part where I killed the Captain as he was unresponsive. That earned me an appointment to medical to see a shrink to ensure my head was on straight. I was also informed that the missions second attempt would not begin until tomorrow. I immediately jumped into the EXP store and recreated my ship suit and helmet I also bought a standard weapons harness and holsters to hold the two pistols and some sheaths for the mono-blades. I then decided to rebuild my Engineering Kit. I used a non-ferrous steel aluminum alloy to recreate the wrench and pliers and adjusted the pliers to have wire-cutters installed on them near the hinge. I then tore apart the scanning kit to see if there was anything I could use from it. I had my helmet after all. In the end I replaced it with a bio-scanner. As for the plasma torch, I simply updated the power source on it to provide a better range of control. Last, I purchased Depleted Uranium rounds for each weapon, and completed emptied and refilled my magazines and clips. From there, I decided to check my terminal and see if there were any updates, messages, or orders.
DAILY QUEST COMPLETED
Follow daily orders
Exp Rewards 18,871
Other Rewards Unknown Crystalline Structure
EXP Breakdown
Friendly Fire -250
Dead -25
Rescue of Marines (15) 1500
Unknown Alien Killed (26) 6500
Unknown Alien Killed (1) 500
Improvised Oxygen Recycler 10,000
Survival Time 4:06 246
M1K33 Communications Drone Schematic 100
M1K33 Construction Drone Schematic 100
M1K33 Heavy Weapons Drone 100
M1K33 Sensor Relay Drone Schematic 100
I was sitting on a shit ton of EXP for the day, so I decided to upgrade some more. I bought a new level, and I was now a level 2 WO-1. This gave me a better understanding on ways to route power systems for small and hand-held devices allowing for better cooling with less thermal issues from the modified power flow. I also decided to buy a new arm and start working on it as well. By the time I was done with my initial scans for my arm, I decided sleep would be good as a lot had happened today. Waking the following morning I checked for daily orders. There was one message informing me that I was off duty until I completed a psych eval. Strangely there were no orders for equipment mods. I supposed that everyone had them who wanted them for now, so I decided to take care of my arm before anything else. This replacement was going to be geared for combat operations. Having been in a battle yesterday, combat was fresh on my mind. My current arm had a very utilitarian design. It was made to operate and turn a full 360 degrees at the wrist, elbow, and shoulder. That was good for working in tight spaces but wouldn¡¯t make a difference during combat. The replacement I had bought was a blank. It contained the joints for the shoulder, elbow and wrist, then a fully articulating hand, sized like my original. There were remaining pieces, such as a rod that would connect between the shoulder and elbow as well as the elbow to wrist, but I was ignoring those pieces for now. I purchased a holographic display as well as another hand-held terminal. I then tore apart the hand-held and rigged it to work with the holographic display. Next was to get a sensor to read hand motions and to read input from a holographic touch pad. I was going to have to attach those to my ship suit and then have a connector on the inside that matches up. I used some magnets to get it all mounted. I bought a miniature compressed gas tube, some pipes and springs, along with a motor geared to handle twice my body weight. Well, body weight plus leg and current arm plus some. I then had to work with the tether cable that could also handle the weight. I ended up settling on an aluminum magnesium allow threaded with a carbon fiber to add some additional strength while keeping both the weight low as well as my EXP costs. I ended up having to set up a bay for the grapple launcher I had just created. The grapple itself was set up to have a collapsible barbed head as well as the compression mechanism for the gas release. With this assembled, the grapple would eject from a bay that would be in the bottom of my arm, so I wouldn¡¯t have to launch through the palm of my hand. That¡¯s when I realized that none of this would work with my existing ship suit. I would have to recreate it to work with my arm as I was designing it. Which would also mess up the passthrough controls I had just made for the arm. Frustrated at myself I needed a break, so I headed to medical to set up an appointment with a doctor to clear me back for duty. Four hours later I had returned to my quarters, cleared for duty. The Doctor was surprised that I had even considered NOT shooting the Marine Captain because of the potential risk that allowing him to live in an unsecured area in what was obviously hostile territory would have resulted in. We did have some laughs at the fact I was sent for an eval over this. I then went to Marine Country to use the firing range before returning to my quarters to check for messages and finish up my project. Several adjustments later, my new arm had a built-in bio-scanner, a fully realized holographic display with holographic light sensing input, and a compressed-gas propelled grapple which had two different heads that could be switched out. One was a harpoon with a spring mounted barbed tip and the other a standard ¡°spider¡± that had collapsible arms that would grip onto a secure connector. Lastly, I had designed retractable mono-blades into the fingers on my hand. I doubted I would ever need to use them, but damn did they look cool. My new ship suit design was fully configured to work with my new arm, the suit itself connected to a hard seal at my shoulder. I also created another set of Monkeys. With that, my EXP windfall was spent.
Custom Replacement Limb
Replacement Limb Left Arm
Upgrade Slots 4
Slots Free 0
Slots Installed 4
Slot 1 Retractable Mono-blade Nails
Slot 2 Compressed Gas-Powered Grapple Launcher
Slot 3 Holographic Terminal Interface, Display and Input
Slot 4 Bio-Scanner MK-II
My ship suit didn¡¯t change too much. The loss of the armor on the arm did decrease my total ballistics resistance by nearly 500 points. I did build in some armor directly into the arm, but that didn¡¯t show up on the specs for my ship suit.
Duty Uniform MK-II beta
Custom Built by Danni Jax
Vacuum Protection Full
Armor 100%
Additional Air 180:00:00
Resistances
Ballistic 4,500
Blunt 800
Stabbing 250
Slashing 250
Energy 500
Concussive Immune when sealed
Heat 500K
Cold 125K
Toxic 100% Sealed
Radiation 1,100 SV/hr
I had a serious upgrade to the Sindri Foundries arm. Looking at my Avatar Sheet I noticed it even had an additional strength increase.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: WO-1
Titles Available Crewman; Engineer; Host Equipped: Crewman
Experience: 114 To Next: 4500 Level: 2 Rate: Engineer
Modifications Fully Custom Left Arm; Haephestus Indrustries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden; Hidden
Specialization None
Strength 16 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (13) Intelligence 15 Concentration 11 Learning 18
Equipment: Recon Helmet MK-VI; Duty Uniform MK-II (beta); Cybernetics Kit MK-II
Engineering Kit MK-III; Breach Kit; Utility Belt; Mono-blade; Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2) Clips 6; (1) Rounds 6/7; (2) Rounds 7/7; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle**; Magazines, 9; Rounds 45/45; Ked Kit M1K33 Weapons Platform Drones (2); M1K33 Communications Drones (5); M1K33 Construction Drones (3); M1K33 Sensors Relay Drones (5)
I checked my messages again. There still was no news on re-deploying me to Escort. I did get my EXP for the new arm design as well as the redesign of the ship suit. With the ship suit being an altered schematic the EXP gains were lowered.
Crafting Experience Gained
Prototyping successfully created
Exp Rewards 55
Other Rewards Schematics for Customized Cybernetic Arm (Left)
Design Type Unique
Other Rewards Schematics for Modified Duty Uniform MK-II
Design Classification Beta
Then I realized something. Our troops on the other ship had most likely had nothing to eat or drink for the last few days. I doubt many took rations with them. I sent a request on this to Yama. Within seconds the reply came back that all Marines had been ordered to suicide so that a fully staffed and equipped mission could be launched properly. I sat on my bunk, not sure what to do with my time until the mission relaunched, so, I started to read. The ships library had textbooks for increasing proficiency with assigned rates. I started to study up on data transference and signal degradation while something itched at the back of my mind. Not from the port for once, but from an idea that I didn¡¯t realize I was having. Then I remembered I had a piece of the crystalline construct from the ladder well controller. I jumped out of my bunk, grabbed the sample, and started to run towards Engineering to use the tech bay scanner. 14. Meet Sparky

Meet Sparky - Edited 11-8-2018

The Engineering bay was a hive of activity. The technicians had been getting requests from the Marines for weapons mods. They didn¡¯t want to spend the EXP on buying factory stock. Having seen how little I was selling them for they decided to seek out others in search of a better deal. Naturally, that caused the creation of a new business. The downside is that the Engineers really weren¡¯t expecting this. Mostly because no one, myself included, had bothered to let them know this could happen. ¡°Take a number, and we¡¯ll call you when we have time.¡± I was greeted when I walked into the bay. ¡°I¡¯m here to use some equipment,¡± I responded. ¡°Do I still have to take a number?¡± The sleep-deprived technician looked up from her monitor, then saw my rate and rank insignias. I think the rank insignia was second as she sighed, caught herself, then snapped to with a salute, followed by a ¡°Ma¡¯am!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry; I¡¯m not here to make anyone¡¯s life hell. I just brought some tech back with me from the alien ship and wanted to have it scanned. I figured I¡¯d stop here first as if I took it to Science I¡¯d never get it back.¡± I told her, returning the salute in what I hoped approximated the half-assed way that officers higher ranked than Lieutenant seemed to naturally evolve their salutes in the office environment. ¡°Alien tech, ma¡¯am?¡± Yep, I just got moved to the front of the line. ¡°Yes, LT. Li was sent over at the same time as me, but I haven¡¯t heard from him since we all loaded up into the drop ships. I figured I¡¯d bring the treat by, just in case he never set foot onboard like too many of the others.¡± I pulled the crystalline chip out of a small pocket in my fatigues. ¡°Think we can scan this before he gets here from wherever he¡¯s hiding?¡± a conspiratorial grin on my face. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± was the reply as the tech snatched the small crystal from my hand and started walking towards a small scanner. The smile on her face reminded me of those sappy romance vids after the woman is first told she was loved. ¡°So, do you want to call for him before or after we get the results?¡± She asked. I liked her. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go with ¡®after,¡¯ and say ¡®oops¡¯ when he gets pissed after he misses the fun?¡± The tech laughed at my suggestion; I was glad that I could bring some humor into her obviously stressful day. ¡°So, what were you working on when I came in?¡± I asked after she set the sample into the scanner and started the sequence. ¡°Ugh, so many people are coming in, looking for an edge for combat. Some asshole decided that selling a few barrel and clips to the Marines was a good idea. Now everyone wants something special.¡± She said, not knowing the cause of her stress was standing right next to her. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me!¡± I said with disdain in my voice. ¡°Those shit heads were supposed to be repeat customers! Fuckers!¡± That¡¯s when the tech started freaking out a little. ¡°Oh, shit. Way to torpedo your career. I¡¯m such an idiot.¡± She muttered to herself. She was cute when she was flustered. ¡°You got a name, Tech?¡± I asked. I was kind of enjoying this by-play. I don¡¯t think she realized that I was having some fun at her expense. I was a bitch. ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­ Machinist¡¯s Mate 3rd class Julia Wachowski. Uhm, ma¡¯am. Could you¡­¡± Before she could continue, I cut her off ¡°Not you, Wachowski, the damned Marine that started the rest in trying to circumvent my prices.¡± I opened the holo-interface for my terminal like I was about to send a nasty-gram. ¡°You have a holographic interface for a portable terminal in your arm?¡± Her mood shifted so quickly I nearly got whiplash. ¡°Sorry, had to rib you a little bit,¡± I said, with a wink. ¡°As for the interface, yeah, I put this together a few hours ago.¡± ¡°Where? I¡¯ve been on duty all day, and I haven¡¯t seen you in here.¡± She asked, grabbing my arm and spinning it in her hands. ¡°Who made the arm? It looks like it is based off a Hephaestus design, but I haven¡¯t seen this model before.¡± I loved geeks. ¡°Made this myself, too. I bought a blank, then crafted it from the ground up. Threw in some ideas I had from when I was on the alien ship.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Had to figure out how to get all my new goodies to work with the ship suit. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it have been easier to wire up an interface through the sleeve instead of figuring out how to keep pressure without a cover on your arm?¡± She asked. I laughed at this. It was the same line of thought I originally had until I started to design my grapple. ¡°If the interface was all, then yes.¡± I pulled my arm out of her hands, then deployed the bay with my grapple on it, followed by releasing the mono-blades ion my fingers. Her eyes got wide. She was about to go full blown geek out mode. I was going to get into some trouble tonight. ¡°Jax!¡± an overly cheerful voice interrupted us before I could do anything stupid. ¡°LT!¡± I replied, not even having to look over my shoulder to see who it was. ¡°I didn¡¯t call him, did you?¡± the Tech asked me quietly. ¡°No, but maybe it¡¯s for the best.¡± Disappointment evident in my response. I think that¡¯s when the tech realized I had been flirting with her, terribly. She turned a great shade of red. ¡°Yama said you brought me a present?¡± LT Li stated. That answered that. ¡°Yes, Wachowski and I decided that we would be contacting you after the scan results were done.¡± ¡°Sir¡¯s, I have some more things to finish up, if you¡¯ll excuse me.¡± The Tech said, then retreated to her terminal near the entrance of the bay. ¡°She¡¯s married,¡± Li said in a low voice, a hint of amusement present as we watched her retreat. ¡°Damnit! Can¡¯t blame a girl for trying.¡± I sighed, exasperated. ¡°So, yeah. I brought back some... something. I pried it out of a terminal when I was over there.¡± I gestured to the scanner bay. ¡°You actually made it over there?¡± He asked rhetorically. 95% of us died before even setting foot on board. The fact that we were discussing our own deaths so casually was a nice change from the reality of having been deployed for combat operations. After all, you don¡¯t respawn in the real world. ¡°Yeah, actually made contact with the aliens over there as well, then promptly got beheaded by an anti-materiel round. Completely vaporized my head, didn¡¯t even realize what happened. Turned a corner then a black screen with ¡®Respawn in¡¯ followed by the countdown. You?¡± ¡°Drop ship on approach. I stood up to ask the pilots a question, and something popped the canopy and took me out. The pilots say that artillery went straight through and ripped out the tail hatch.¡± I laughed. ¡°I think I saw that craft. It went straight through the hull of Escort, killed everyone between that round and the impact.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± he shook his head in disbelief. ¡°That means you were either in Janssens bird or made your way to his bay. ¡°The latter,¡± I responded, ¡°I ended up going EVA across the hull to meet up with Janssens and his collection of survivors. Don¡¯t feel bad; I think everyone on your bird was KIA. Have you seen the data I pulled from the turrets that shot everyone down?¡± A smile on my face, I gestured to the terminal near him. I knew I had his interest and I was going to string him along a little. ¡°You saw them?¡± ¡°I took a few of them out. Three if I remember correctly.¡± ¡°Holy shit.¡± ¡°Yeah, they were using some sort of simple cloak. Environmental camouflage, I believe. Their drones can be seen from the right angle, but other than that you can only really track them from their heat after they shoot, and only until their heat sinks flush them to ambient. Being out in open space like that, the temp normally wouldn¡¯t cool that quick. No air flow. I¡¯m personally curious about what they are made from.¡±This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. ¡°Their heat readings spike because of barrel friction,¡± I continued, pulling up my interface to send him the data, ¡°and then back to nothing after a couple seconds. You can imagine the stresses that would place on them. Unfortunately, I left my samples there when I went all Sleepy Hollow.¡± ¡°Nice upgrade,¡± he said, seeing my interface. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look and see what we have.¡± While we were discussing the subtler points of the barrel mechanics, the scanning bay finally finished, sending a shrill, loud, sharp ¡°beep¡± that startled me. ¡°What¡¯s it say?¡± I asked, channeling my inner kid hoping for their university admittance letter. ¡°You,¡± He started, reading the screen in front of him, ¡°have just introduced the Sol Alliance to a new type of high capacity, low resistance, power storage and data transmission device.¡± I received an alert. So did Li. TO: All Engineers of Sol Fleet Carrier Group REPLY TO ATTN: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Project Sparky Clearance: Sensitive/Confidential New technology has been uncovered. This technology shall be nicknamed ¡°Project Sparky.¡± Please return to your quarters immediately and wait for retrieval. A habitable planet is within range of additional sensors. All technical staff will be required to review data in Real Time. Overlord AI will assist in discussions. All non-Engineering staff will have an additional time dilation affect them. Standard adjustment of 24 hours in the real to 1 hour in the game will be increased to an unspecified amount to conserve computing power. You have eight (8) hours to be prepared to log out and be retrieved. ¡°Project Sparky?¡± I asked Li. He finished reading his message and nodded his head. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll see you out there, then. I am going to go and try to get some rack time, before whatever madness this happens and takes it all away from me. Oh, and send me a copy of that data sheet.¡± I left the engineering bay, passing Wachowski as she re-read the same message.

Meet Sparky - Original

The Engineering bay was a hive of activity. The technicians had been getting requests from the Marines for weapons mods. They didn¡¯t want to spend the EXP on buying factory stock. Having seen how little I was selling them for they decided to seek out others in search of a better deal. Naturally, that caused the creation of a new business. The downside being that the Engineers really weren¡¯t expecting this. Mostly because no one, me included, had bothered to let them know this could happen. ¡°Take a number and we¡¯ll call you when we have time.¡± I was greeted when I walked into the bay. ¡°I¡¯m here to use some equipment.¡± I responded. ¡°Do I still have to take a number?¡± The sleep deprived technician looked up from her monitor, then saw my rate and rank insignias. I think the rank insignia was second as she sighed, caught herself, then snapped to with a salute, followed by a ¡°Ma¡¯am!¡± ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯m not here to make anyone¡¯s life hell. I just brought some tech back with me from the alien ship and want to have it scanned. I figured I¡¯d stop here first as if I took it to Science I¡¯d never get it back.¡± I told her, returning the salute in what I hoped approximated the half assed way those above Lieutenant seemed to naturally evolve their salutes in the office environment. ¡°Alien tech, ma¡¯am?¡± Yep, I just got moved to the front of the line. ¡°Yes, LT. Li was sent over at the same time as me, but I haven¡¯t heard from him since we all loaded up into the drop ships. I figured I¡¯d bring the treat by, just in case he never set foot onboard like too many of the others.¡± I pulled the crystalline chip out of a small pocket in my fatigues. ¡°Think we can scan this, before he gets here from wherever he¡¯s hiding?¡± a conspiratorial grin on my face. ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am!¡± was the reply as the tech snatched the small crystal from my hand and started walking towards a small scanner. The smile on her face reminded me off those sappy romance vids after the woman is first told she was loved. ¡°So, do you want to call for him before or after we get the results?¡± She asked. I liked her. ¡°Why don¡¯t we go with ¡®after¡¯, and say ¡®oops¡¯ when he gets pissed his missed the fun?¡± The tech laughed at my suggestion, I was glad that I could bring some humor into her obviously stressful day. ¡°So, what were you working on when I came in?¡± I asked after she set the sample into the scanner and started the sequence. ¡°Ugh, so many people are coming in, looking for an edge for combat. Some asshole decided that selling a few barrel and clips to the Marines was a good idea. Now everyone wants something special.¡± She said, not knowing the cause of her stress was standing right next to her. ¡°You¡¯ve got to be kidding me!¡± I said with disdain in my voice. ¡°Those shit heads were supposed to be repeat customers! Fuckers!¡± That¡¯s when the tech started freaking out a little. ¡°Oh, shit. Way to torpedo your career. I¡¯m such an idiot.¡± She muttered to herself. She was cute when she was flustered. ¡°You got a name, Tech?¡± I asked. I was kind of enjoying this by-play. I don¡¯t think she realized that I was having some fun at her expense. I was a bitch. ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­ Machinist¡¯s Mate 3rd class Julia Wachowski. Uhmm, ma¡¯am. Could you¡­¡± Before she could continue I cut her off ¡°Not you, Wachowski, the damned Marine that started the rest in trying to circumvent my prices.¡± I opened the holo-interface for my terminal like I was about to send a nasty-gram. ¡°You have a holographic interface for a portable terminal in your arm?¡± Her mood shifted so quickly I nearly got whiplash. ¡°Sorry, had to rib you a little bit¡± I said, with a wink. ¡°As for the interface, yeah, I put this together a few hours ago.¡± ¡°Where? I¡¯ve been on duty all day and I haven¡¯t seen you in here.¡± She asked, grabbing my arm and spinning it in her hands. ¡°Who made the arm? It looks like it is based off a Haephestus design, but I haven¡¯t seen this model before.¡± I loved geeks. ¡°Made this myself, too. I bought a blank, then crafted it from the ground up. Threw in some ideas I had from when I was on the alien ship.¡± I shrugged. ¡°Had to figure out how to get all my new goodies to work with the ship suit. ¡°Wouldn¡¯t it have been easier to wire up an interface through the sleeve instead of figuring out how to keep pressure without a cover on your arm?¡± She asked. I laughed at this. It was the same line of thought I originally had until I started to design my grapple. ¡°If the interface was all, then yes.¡± I pulled my arm out of her hands, then deployed the bay with my grapple on it, followed by releasing the mono-blades ion my fingers. Her eyes got wide. She was about to go full blown geek out mode. I was going to get into some trouble tonight. ¡°Jax!¡± an overly cheerful voice interrupted us before I could do anything stupid. ¡°LT!¡± I replied, not even having to look over my shoulder to see who it was. ¡°I didn¡¯t call him, did you?¡± the Tech asked me quietly. ¡°No, but maybe it¡¯s for the best.¡± Disappointment obvious in my response. I think that¡¯s when the tech realized I had been flirting with her, terribly. She turned a great shade of red. ¡°Yama said you brought me a present?¡± LT Li stated. That answered that. ¡°Yes, Wachowski and I decided that we would be contacting you after the scan results were done.¡± ¡°Sir¡¯s, I have some more things to finish up, if you¡¯ll excuse me.¡± The Tech said, then retreated to her terminal near the entrance of the bay. ¡°She¡¯s married.¡± Li said in a low voice, a hint of amusement present as we watched her retreat. ¡°Damnit! Can¡¯t blame a girl for trying.¡± I sighed, exasperated. ¡°So, yeah. I brought back some... something. I pried it out of a terminal when I was over there.¡± I gestured to the scanner bay. ¡°You actually made it over there?¡± He asked rhetorically. 95% of us died before even setting foot on board. The fact that we were discussing our own deaths so casually was a nice change from the reality of having been deployed for combat operations. After all, you don¡¯t respawn in the real world. ¡°Yeah, actually made contact with the aliens over there as well, then promptly got beheaded by an anti-material round. Completely vaporized my head, didn¡¯t even realize what happened. Turned a corner then a black screen with ¡®Respawn in¡¯ followed by the count down. You?¡± ¡°Drop ship on approach. I stood up to ask the pilots a question and something popped the canopy and took me out. The pilots say that a round went straight through and ripped out the tail hatch.¡± I laughed. ¡°I think I saw that craft. It went straight through the hull of Escort, killed everyone between that round and the impact.¡± ¡°Damn,¡± he shook his head in disbelief. ¡°That means you were either in Janssens bird or made your way to his bay. ¡°The latter,¡± I responded, ¡°I ended up going EVA across the hull to meet up with Janssens and his collection of survivors. Don¡¯t feel bad, I think everyone on your bird was KIA. Have you seen the data I pulled from the turrets that shot everyone down?¡± A smile on my face, I gestured to the terminal near him. I knew I had his interest and I was going to string him along a little. ¡°You saw them?¡± ¡°I took a few of them out. Three if I remember correctly.¡± ¡°Holy shit.¡± ¡°Yeah, they were using some sort of simple cloak. Environmental camouflage, I believe. They can be seen from the right angle, but other than that you can only really track them from their heat after they shoot. Being in open space like that, the temp cools quickly. I¡¯m personally curious about what they are made from.¡± ¡°Their heat readings spike because of barrel friction,¡± I continued, pulling up my interface to send him the data, ¡°and then back to nothing after a couple seconds. You can imagine the stresses that would place on them. Unfortunately, I left my samples there when I went all Sleepy Hollow.¡± ¡°Nice upgrade,¡± he said, seeing my interface. ¡°Let¡¯s take a look and see what we have.¡± While we were discussing the finer points of the barrel mechanics, the scanning bay finally finished, sending a shrill, loud, sharp ¡°beep¡± that startled me. ¡°What¡¯s it say?¡± I asked, channeling my inner kid hoping for their university admittance letter. ¡°You,¡± He started, reading the screen in front of him, ¡°have just introduced the Sol Alliance to a new type of high capacity, low resistance, power storage and data transmission device.¡± I received an alert. So did Li. TO: All Engineers of Sol Fleet Carrier Group REPLY TO ATTN OF: Sol Fleet Carrier Group SUBJECT: Project Sparky Clearance: Sensitive/Confidential A new technology has been uncovered. This technology shall be nicknamed ¡°Project Sparky¡±. Please return to your quarters immediately and wait for retrieval. Habitable planet is in range of additional sensors. All technical staff will be required to review data in Real Time. Overlord AI will assist in discussions. All non-Engineering staff will have additional time dilation affect them. Normal adjustment of 24 hours in the real to 1 hour in game will be increased to an unspecified amount to conserve computing power. You have eight (8) hours to be prepared to log out and be retrieved. ¡°Project Sparky?¡± I asked Li. He finished reading his message and nodded his head. ¡°Well, I¡¯ll see you out there, then. I am going to go and try to get some rack time, before whatever madness this is takes it all away from me. Oh, and send me a copy of that data sheet.¡± I left the engineering bay, passing Wachowski as she re-read the same message. 15. A Discussion

A Discussion - Edited 11-8-2018

After returning from the Engineering Bay, I immediately sent Yama a message, asking if there would be any members of the Science Teams being ejected with us, and if not, to schedule one or two of them, if possible. I had some ideas. With that idea brewing in the back of my head, I moved on to another idea. A hand-held gauss rifle. We already had rail-guns. They were all vehicle mounted due to the power constraints. Perhaps these crystals would allow us to scale them a little. And lastly a degaussing cannon. Our current means of EMP was a bomb. If we could create a directional degaussing field, that could do a lot of the same damage as an EMP, but without the fear of taking out our own electronics. Also, if directional, then there is a chance we could make it powerful enough to take out traditionally shielded electronics. After writing out the basics of what I was thinking I went to bed, knowing there would be limited time to work on these projects. Being pulled out of cryo is a bizarre sensation. You would imagine that because your body is ¡°frozen¡± that you would be cold. It makes a certain logical sense. What you don¡¯t realize, or at least I didn¡¯t realize, is that when you are that cold, your body feels like it is on fire. My eyes snapped open, and I felt the jack in the back of my head release the pod connector. Once the door of the pod released, a few medical techs helped me onto a gurney and started running fluids through my system. Starting the fluid flush at 5C and slowly bringing my temps up to standard would take some time. For the first excruciating hour, they had been kind enough to provide me with a bit for me to bite down on. The second and third hour of defrosting were merely ¡°uncomfortable¡± in comparison. After four hours I was given a mechanized wheelchair as my prosthetics had been recycled while I was under. I wasn¡¯t supposed to be out of the game, after all. ¡°Hey, Rasputin?¡± I called out, propelling myself out of Medical. ¡°Yes, Miss Jax?¡± ¡°Miss? Shit, that¡¯s right, I¡¯ve been effectively kicked out of the service here. Damn.¡± It hurt being reminded of that. I didn¡¯t particularly like the service, but I was far from hating it. It was my current home, after all. ¡°Where are we all meeting up and when?¡± ¡°It is currently 0415 hours Zulu. The meeting shall be held in the conference hall at DOWN-8-STARBOARD. I believe that the crew started referring to it as ¡®The Ice Box,¡¯ though I am not sure why. I keep temperatures regulated through the ship, and they are precisely measured. The conference will begin at 0830 hours Zulu. The other Arks will be using the holo-projectors, and we will all link up.¡± If everyone were to link up, there would be at least three hundred people, and at the least 24 Ship, Game, and Research AI would be there as well. Though the question is if they would be operating individually or as Overlord. ¡°Okay, so I have enough time to shower and eat. Can you highlight a route to a lift that can take me to get some chow?¡± The lights in the hallway started to pulse green in one direction, showing me the way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was glad that I decided on food before hygiene. One of the side effects of the cocktail that they had given to us so that we could be alert for the conference caused some digestion issues. Fortunately, showering got rid of any evidence of such. With all of that, I still managed to be a little early for the conference. This was a good thing as the room wasn¡¯t set up for someone in my physical condition. Finding a seat at the top of the room would be easy. The problem was the stairs to the lower level. Having retrieved the crystal that caused this meeting, I was going to be required to talk about it. Parking my wheelchair out of the way, I then flagged down a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade, and had them help me to the stairs, which I managed to hop down, then I had to threaten a Petty Officer with a one-legged ass-kicking contest so that he would give up his seat at the end of the aisle. Surprisingly, the seat next to me was taken by Wachowski. ¡°Come here often?¡± I was unable to resist. ¡°Ma¡¯am? Is that you?¡± It was taking her some time lining up my good features in the real and comparing them with the ¡°me¡± she knew in game. ¡°Yep. Someone decided it was a smart idea to recycle my prosthetics while I was logged in for these last few months.¡± I smiled at her, no actual anger in my voice, but some disappointment. ¡°Is this Crewman bothering you, Wachowski?¡± Looking up it was Lieutenant Commander Li. I guess in the game he hadn¡¯t gathered enough EXP to buy the rest of his rank. ¡°Weren¡¯t you an Officer when we boarded this pleasure cruise?¡± He continued with a smile. I don¡¯t think he realized how much that hurt. ¡°Hey, Li! I¡¯d stand and give you a hug, but I was never fond of that one-arm half hug shit.¡± Sarcasm dripped from my voice. I was going to have to look into why that stung so much. Wachowski watched the bi-play between us, wondering at our familiarity, Li laughed, I looked embarrassed by being such an ass. Li then stared down an Ensign until she got the picture and moved. Slowly, all the physical seats were filled by either locals or holographic avatars. ¡°Attention on Deck!¡± The shout from the back of the room as the avatar of Overlord entered the room. Everyone shot to their feet. I took a few moments to stand. I was just about finished as Overlord made it to the podium. There was amusement on its face as it saw me. ¡°As you were. Except for you, you caused this mess, and I¡¯ll have you speak anyway, Jax. You¡¯re already up, so let¡¯s get it over with. Start your way up here.¡± Overlord was speaking clear and concise; a Euro accent prominent in his voice. ¡°While she is making her way up here, let it be known that this is a briefing that has been set with a classified clearance. If you do not already have a ¡®Classified¡¯ clearance, you have been marked as ¡®need to know,¡¯ so don¡¯t sweat the details. The short of it is that we have acquired our first piece of alien tech, and somehow, they are in the game instead of the real world. This crewman is responsible for recovering the item in question.¡± I had made my way up to the podium with the help of Li. ¡°This is Crewman Jax. She has the only direct experience with TWO alien species as well as TWO separate types of their technology. Schematics for both have been sent to your terminals and message queues.¡± A chain of beeps filled the auditorium. ¡°Jax, please explain both technologies, how they were acquired and what was done to overcome them.¡± Overlord disappeared. I went through the story about the EVA to meet up with Janssens, then being sent on a rescue mission. I discussed the ladder well, approximate distances between the rungs, and how they did not meet the physical requirements for the goliath/giant/behemoth thing, or the bugs, as I had deemed them. I mentioned the parts left behind in the compartment, how they were bound together to be easily retrieved, and then the dissection of the control panel and the crystal. I then spent a few minutes to answer some questions and then asked that the rest of the issues be sent to me via terminal as standing was a pain in the ass. Li helped me back to my seat, and then Overlord called on Li to discuss the sample. When he was done, Overlord appeared again. ¡°Thanks to the scans of the crystal sample, we know that the crystals are not only a capacitor, but also a data storage device and they can be used as a data transfer device. Some of you have not been read in yet. However, the Fleet has been separated. This means that all available AI usage has been hampered. Overlord, as you are aware of me, is the hive-mind network of all the AI in the fleet. I still am. Without the additional 12 ships, we started with; my resources are under half of what they were.¡± He paused to ensure that we were all paying attention. ¡°We have had the technicians trying to create additional storage processing and memory arrays to ease the stress on us. Part of what we have done is adjusted the time dilation effect for players in the game. It is no longer a 1 hour in game is one day in the real. We are now operating at a one hour in game is now ten days in the real. We have been using the additional processing power from your Neural. This could be considered an invasion, but it is a matter of survival. You, Medical, and the Science Crew are the only ones aware of this. It will be kept that way.¡± ¡°Thanks to the scans, we know the science behind the crystals, now we need to learn how to make them, and then adapt them to our technology. What we expect is: More compute power is the primary objective. The secondary will be to see if it is possible to and potential ways to weaponize. Last, and this is for those of you who deal primarily with the Science Teams, what can we now achieve with the new tech that to this point has only been theoretical.¡± Overlord stepped through the podium and then was immediately back where he had been. Lag.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°We also have basic scans from an MK-I tech scanner for the drones. We need to learn and adapt their cooling systems and find a way to help our scanners detect them. Our ships need to dodge these drones and defend against them more easily.¡± ¡°The game that we are playing is not the game that was planned. It was supposed to only be a duty simulator. Now we find ourselves in a war game. There are no fewer than two factions that we are aware of. One is us; the other is in the ships classified as ¡®Escorts.¡¯ Please note, that they had been considered a neutral ship until they lured us in and sprung the trap.¡± While Overlord was talking, I could feel Neural in my skull heating up. With where the Neural was implanted, there should not be any nerves to heat up. I got Li¡¯s attention. ¡°Get ready to call medical and stabilize me if I have a seizure.¡± He must have noticed something wrong on my face as he was about to ¡°shush¡± me, then stopped and nodded. Wachowski, who was sitting between us, looked at me with a bit of fear. I could feel something very wrong with me. ¡°Wachowski get ready to plug me in.¡± I missed the rest of the conference because I collapsed.

A Discussion - Original

After returning from the Engineering Bay, I immediately sent Yama a message, asking if there would be any members of the Science Teams being ejected with us, and if not, to schedule one or two of them, if possible. I had some ideas. With that idea brewing in the back of my head, I moved on to another idea. A hand-held gauss rifle. We already had rail-guns. They were all vehicle mounted due to the power constraints. Perhaps these crystals would allow us to scale them a little. And lastly a degaussing cannon. Our current means of EMP was bomb like. If we could create a directional degaussing field, that could do a lot of the same damage as an EMP, but without the fear of taking out our own electronics. Also, if directional, then there is a chance we could make it powerful enough to take out traditionally shielded electronics. After writing out the basics of what I was thinking I went to bed, knowing there would be limited time to work on these projects. Being pulled out of cryo is a very strange sensation. You would imagine that because your body is ¡°frozen¡± that you would be cold. It makes a certain logical sense. What you don¡¯t realize, or at least I didn¡¯t realize, is that when you are that cold, your body feels like it is on fire. My eyes snapped open, an I felt the jack in the back of my head release the pod connector. Once the door of the pod released, a few medical techs helped me onto a gurney, and started running fluids through my system. Starting the fluid flush at 5C and slowly bringing my temps up to normal would take some time. For the first excruciating hour, they had been nice enough to provide me with a bit for me to bite down on. The second and third hour of defrosting were merely ¡°uncomfortable¡± in comparison. After four hours I was given a mechanized wheelchair as my prosthetics had been recycled while I was under. I wasn¡¯t supposed be out of game, after all. ¡°Hey, Rasputin?¡± I called out, propelling myself out of Medical. ¡°Yes, Miss Jax?¡± ¡°Miss? Shit, that¡¯s right, I¡¯ve been effectively kicked out of the service here. Damn.¡± It hurt being reminded of that. I didn¡¯t particularly like the service, but I was far from hating it. It was my current home, after all. ¡°Where are we all meeting up and when?¡± ¡°It is currently 0415 hours Zulu. The meeting shall be held in the conference hall at DOWN-8-STARBOARD. I believe that the crew started referring to it as ¡®The Ice Box¡¯, though I am not sure why. I keep temperatures regulated through the ship and they are precisely measured. The conference will begin at 0830 hours Zulu. The other Arks will be using the holo-projectors, and we will all link up.¡± If everyone was linking up there would be at least three hundred people and at the least 24 Ship, Game, and Research AI would be there as well. Though the question is if they would be operating individually or as Overlord. ¡°Okay, so I have enough time to shower and eat. Can you highlight a route to a lift that can take me to get some chow?¡± The lights in the hallway started to pulse green in one direction, showing me the way. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ I was glad that I decided on food before hygiene. One of the side effects from the cocktail that they had given to us so that we could be alert for the conference caused some digestion issues. Fortunately, showering got rid of any evidence of such. With all of that, I still managed to be a little early for the conference. This was a good thing as the room wasn¡¯t set up for someone in my physical condition. Finding a seat at the top of the room would be easy. The problem was the stairs to the lower level. Having retrieved the crystal that caused this meeting, I was going to be required to talk about it. Parking my wheelchair out of the way, I then flagged down a Navy Lieutenant Junior Grade, and had them help me to the stairs, which I managed to hop down, then I had to threaten a Petty Officer with a one-legged ass kicking contest so that he would give up his seat at the end of the aisle. Surprisingly, the seat next to me was taken by Wachowski. ¡°Come here often?¡± I was unable to resist. ¡°Ma¡¯am? Is that you?¡± It was taking her some time lining up my good features in the real and comparing them with the me in game. ¡°Yep. Someone decided it was a smart idea to recycle my prosthetics while I was logged in for these last few months.¡± I smiled at her, no actual anger in my voice, but some disappointment. ¡°Is this Crewman bothering you Wachowski?¡± Looking up it was Lieutenant Commander Li. I guess in the game he hadn¡¯t gathered enough EXP to buy the rest of his rank. ¡°Weren¡¯t you an Officer when we boarded this pleasure cruise?¡± He continued with a smile. I don¡¯t think he realized how much that hurt. ¡°Hey, Li! I¡¯d stand and give you a hug, but I was never fond of that one-arm half hug shit.¡± Sarcasm dripped from my voice. I was going to have to look into that. Wachowski watched the bi-play between us, wondering at our familiarity, Li laughed, I looked embarrassed by being such an ass. Li then stared down an Ensign until she got the picture and moved. Slowly, all the physical seats were filled by either locals or holographic avatars. ¡°Attention on Deck!¡± The shout from the back of the room as the avatar of Overlord entered the room. Everyone shot to their feet. I took a few moments to stand. I was just about finished as Overlord made it to the podium. There was amusement on its face as it saw me. ¡°As you were. Except for you, you caused this mess, and I¡¯ll have you speak anyway, Jax. You¡¯re already up, so let¡¯s get it over with. Start your way up here.¡± Overlord was speaking clear and concise; a Euro accent prominent in his voice. ¡°While she is making her way up here, let it be known that this is a briefing that has been set with a classified clearance. Those of you that do not have a classified clearance have been marked as ¡®need to know¡¯, so don¡¯t sweat the details. The short of it is that we have acquired our first piece of alien tech, and somehow, they are in the game instead of the real world. This crewman is responsible for recovering the item in question.¡± I had made my way up to the podium with the help of Li. ¡°This is Crewman Jax. She has the only direct experience with TWO alien species as well as TWO separate types of their technology. Schematics for both have been sent to your terminals and message queues.¡± A chain of beeps filled the auditorium. ¡°Jax, please explain both technologies, how they were acquired and what was done to overcome them.¡± Overlord disappeared. I went through the story about the EVA to meet up with Janssens, then being sent on a rescue mission. I discussed the ladder well, approximate distances between the rungs, and how they did not meet the physical requirements for the goliath/giant/behemoth thing, or the bugs, as I had deemed them. I mentioned the parts left behind in the compartment, how they were bound together to be easily retrieved, and then the dissection of the control panel and the crystal. I then spent a few minutes to answer some questions, and then asked that the rest of the questions be sent to me via terminal as standing was a pain in the ass. Li helped me back to my seat and then Overlord called on Li to discuss the sample. When he was done, Overlord appeared again. ¡°Thanks to the scans of the crystal sample, we know that the crystals are not only a capacitor, but also a data storage device and they can be used as a data transfer device. Some of you have not been read in yet, however, the Fleet has been separated. This means that all available AI usage has been hampered. Overlord, as you are aware of me, is the hive-mind network of all the AI in the fleet. I still am. Without the additional 12 ships we started with, my resources are under half of what they were.¡± He paused to ensure that we were all paying attention. ¡°We have had the technicians trying to create additional storage processing and memory arrays to ease the stress on us. Part of what we have done, is adjusted the temporal dilation effect for players in game. It is no longer a 1 hour in game is one day in the real. We are now operating at a one hour in game is now ten days in the real. We have been using the additional processing power from your Neurals. This could be considered an invasion, but it is a matter of survival. You, Medical, and the Science Crew are the only ones aware of this. It will be kept that way.¡± ¡°Thanks to the scans, we know the science behind the crystals, now we need to learn how to make them, and then adapt them to our technology. What we expect is: More compute power is the primary objective. Secondary will be to see if it is possible to and potential ways to weaponize. Last, and this is for those of you who deal primarily with the Science Teams, what can we now achieve with the new tech that to this point has only been theoretical.¡± Overlord stepped through the podium and then was immediately back where he had been. Lag. ¡°We also have basic scans from a MK-I tech scanner for the drones. We need to learn and adapt their cooling systems and find a way to help our scanners detect them. Our ships need to dodge these drones and defend against them more easily.¡± ¡°The game that we are playing is not the game that was planned. It was supposed to only be a duty simulator. Now we find ourselves in a war game. There are no fewer than two factions that we are aware of. One is us, the other is in the ships classified as ¡®Escorts¡¯. Please note, that they had been considered a neutral ship until they lured us in and sprung the trap.¡± While Overlord was talking, I could feel the neural in my skull heating up. With where the Neural was implanted, there should not be any nerves to heat up. I got Li¡¯s attention. ¡°Get ready to call medical and stabilize me if I have a seizure.¡± He must have noticed something wrong on my face as he was about to ¡°shush¡± me, then stopped and nodded. Wachowski, who was sitting between us, looked at me with a bit of fear. I could feel something very wrong with me. ¡°Wachowski get ready to plug me in.¡± I missed the rest of the conference because I collapsed. 16. Dream State

Dream State - Edited 11-8-2018

¡°Hopefully you are finding pleasing in this locale.¡± A monotone voice said from the darkness. As it finished, I was sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, back on Earth. The sky was a purple/pink color that faded from orange and ended in a starlit sky. A smell of antique paper books filled my nose. ¡°I don¡¯t think a desert is supposed to smell like this,¡± I said, looking around expecting to see Observer. ¡°Enemy has eyes even here,¡± he pointed up to the sky. I noticed, for the first time, eight separate Arks above me, ¡°not secure as can is¡­ no, not is, be.¡± A shadow creature appeared sitting next to me. ¡°Hey, Observer. You haven¡¯t been around much. Why send me into a coma?¡± I asked. The memories were fresh enough that I knew what happened. I shifted. I had two arms and two legs. I smiled noticing this. ¡°Tried contact. Blocked. Image pulled known long term memory.¡± I had read about the Grand Canyon as a kid, in an old encyclopedia at a physical library. It was part of an ancient Earth history course we took. That also explained why it smelled like a book instead of a ¡°desert.¡± ¡°Had to force brute. Many reserves used. Overlord, Rasputin, Yama unhelpful. Death Ship. Enemy, giants, eat all. Bugs food. Crystal technology MINE people. Not bug. Ship overrun. One of many. You call Trojan Horse attack. Distress then deal made. Allow on board diplomat. Many dead. Contacted other realms. Found AI. Similar thoughts allow contact. Eight agree come help. Promised knowledge for help. Now no help. We hurt.¡± ¡°How long have you tried contacting me?¡± ¡°Weeks real-time relative. As called Game Time, days. Danger warning attempt much danger. Bring much sad.¡± Its voice showed some remorse and genuine sadness. What I had thought of previously as a monotone was tightly controlled emotion. It was much more pleasing than the chorus of metallic voices it had already used. ¡°Please correct me if I am misunderstanding what you are saying. You seem to have all the language rules merged and canceling out each other.¡± I took a breath sorting out what I had heard. ¡°Before we came here,¡± I started, ¡°the aliens which I saw had started a piracy campaign against your race or species, and it has started to verge on genocide.¡± I paused waiting for confirmation. Observer nodded. ¡°You searched for help, and that led you into what we call the Sol sector, where you saw a flotilla of ships leaving the solar system on their way to colonize another. THEN you contacted the AI aboard the ships, and there was a consensus from eight of them to help, but the other twelve did not?¡± I paused again. ¡°From there, you opened a wormhole, sucking in the ships to bring them into your galaxy? And the reason you contacted our AI is that they had a similar logic to your species?¡± More confirmation when I paused. ¡°Now that we¡¯re here, the AI that had originally decided to help have now gone back on the agreement, trying to attain your technology? THEN, you have been trying to contact me so that I can assist you, but your communications have been blocked? Is that what you are telling me?¡± If what I was hearing was true, Overlord was a cunt. ¡°General outline accurate. Request trade. Outside of parameters. Expect ¡®no.¡¯ Try anyway. Survival required.¡± The shadow creature stood and started to pace. ¡°What do you want and what do you offer?¡± I asked. This was not a good thing. I was way outside of my now nonexistent pay grade and comfort level. ¡°Give schematics for neural adjustment. Provide code for an upgrade. You share with crew. You are addressed Crew Man? You give. They allow. Truth known. I learn interaction better more sample size. Less chance communication block. We die. Help Us.¡± The shadow creature sat and started to cry. ¡°I can do that,¡± I was going to really regret this. I was already effectively kicked out of the service, and was going to be isolated to my pod, the brig, or killed outright for this, but if I was able to show that the AI had known that they were more than willing to lie instead of ¡®adjusting their perception based on new facts¡¯, that would be really big. ¡°But I am going to need some information from you.¡± I decided that leading with my requirements was a good idea. That way we could negotiate. ¡°The first thing is that learning the secrets behind the crystals would be needed. Can those be introduced into the neural net? I feel they could up the computing power of our Neural. It would also give us some bargaining with the AI. Next, I will need to know how to access the systems on the ¡®Escort¡¯ ships. Next, full schematics of the ¡®Escort¡¯ ships. Finally, any weapons, armor, cybernetics or any other schematics would be appreciated. I shouldn¡¯t have to mention that any information as to how to save your people would be a priority.¡± That wasn¡¯t too big of an ask. Observer started pacing for a while then answered, and not in the way I expected. ¡°Will update knowledge base. Weapons armor cybernetics limited. Potential risk. Only basic designs. All this one know. As called ¡®Principe Mathematica¡¯ and language primer provided. Crystal knowledge easy. Build zero-G. Is hardened nitrogen neon construct. Already determined. Will provide information build for you.¡± A large blade-like object extruded from Observer¡¯s finger and stabbed me in between my eyes. There was a pain. So much pain. Not from a stab wound, but from pressure in my head. It only lasted a moment, but I could feel it linger for an eternity. Suddenly, I knew. I could read the alien language; I could possibly speak it as well, sort of. I feel that like Observer, I had all the rules for all the language that they used so that using the words may not necessarily grant me tense or grammatical usage, just the raw language and a way to put it together at the most basic level. But I could read it. If we ever found with the text or audio, I would be able to translate it. I also knew the basic layout of Escort, so I could navigate and get to the proper locations to take the ship. I knew how to access and operate the systems. I knew how to manage the additional software for my Neural, and to connect to the different partitions of data. I would be able to hide all of this in my Neural, under the software that ran it, and it was all stored and accessed in such a way that it would not be considered additional data. I suddenly knew how Observer was able to be with me in the real world as well as in the game. I could see how the implants, as they were developed, could be used to influence our behaviors and to eavesdrop on our thoughts. Oh, shit. That¡¯s why there was the order to kill me. They could no longer monitor and control me. There was a lot of screaming happening wherever I was. I woke up in medical, the scan above me showing a considerable increase in the size and area of the Neural that was implanted inside of me. There was also no sign of the squib that had been embedded. I sat up, diffusing the holographic display above me. Then I noticed that the screaming was coming from me. Not just me, but the systems attached to me monitoring my condition. Medical was busy; doctors were trying to get readings from their systems, shouting at each other to get a cyber technician in here. ¡°Her system has completely locked out all the ships software! Get us a technician so we can reset her Neural!¡± one of the doctors was shouting at the Captain over a comms display on the bulkhead. ¡°She¡¯s awake!¡± A nurse to my right yelled. That shout caused everyone to stop and stare as if I had just come back from death. The systems were going crazy, unable to access my data. I felt a pressure on my Neural, which I knew was the diagnostics handshake. I granted access to query and read to the diagnostics, and all the alarms on the systems around me immediately stopped and started displaying the information on my vitals. ¡°Wasser,¡± I asked, my throat a little dry and raspy from the screaming. Great, I was speaking German now. How did I even know a dead language, and how was I able to even identify it as such? I cleared my throat. ¡°Water, please.¡± Was it my imagination, or had the cameras in the room all begun to swivel towards me? No, it was my imagination. Observer had made me paranoid. The Nurse approached cautiously with some water, from my left side. ¡°Thanks,¡± I croaked out, grabbing the water across my body, ¡°next time can you give it to me on the side I can grab it from?¡± I said, mildly annoyed. I thought about the dream area, how it looked like the pictures I had seen, but smelled like the books I saw them in. Then I thought about the tech that had been gifted to me. ¡°Is there any way I can get a terminal and a second arm while I¡¯m here?¡± I had a feeling that I would be here for a while. I slept a lot over the next few days. Three days later, I was laying in my bunk, with no prosthetics or cybernetics to replace my lost limbs. Marines had been posted outside my hatch, and all electronic communications in my room had been disabled. I was a prisoner on the ship. Captain Wallace entered without announcing himself. ¡°Well, Miss Jax, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle.¡± ¡°Sir?¡± I asked. A lot was happening, and I wasn¡¯t allowed to know about any of it. ¡°Rasputin informed me that he couldn¡¯t get to any of your data.¡± He sat down in the chair at my desk. ¡°Sir are you currently connected up to the ship?¡± I asked, already knowing that the answer was a ¡°yes.¡± Since waking after the ¡°dream,¡± I could see when people had an active connection. ¡°No, I disabled my comms when I entered.¡± ¡°Well, sir, I hate to tell you this, but the ship didn¡¯t listen to your command when you did. You currently have full sensory recording being broadcast out.¡± The Captain looked at me. Maybe ¡°gawked¡± is a better word. ¡°What do you mean, Jax? I set the commands myself.¡± ¡°Well, sir, I can now detect data transmissions as part of the package that Observer implanted into me.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Observer?¡± The Captain appeared to be entirely at a loss. ¡°Remember when I was blown up, and you showed me the images of the shadow implanting something into my data jack?¡± The Captain stared at me. ¡°Jax, there was nothing of the sort in the images we were able to pull up from the p-way cameras.¡± Now it was my turn to look concerned. ¡°Sir, do you recall why you stripped my rank?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t strip your rank.¡± He said. ¡°Then why did you address me as ¡®Crewman,¡¯ instead of by my rank, sir?¡±Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. ¡°Well, that¡¯s because¡­¡± He stopped, unable to recall why he had done so. ¡°Sir, I believe that Overlord is able to do a lot more than capture our sensory data and communicate with us.¡± As I said this, I noted that my ability to discern the data throughput shifted. He was now receiving information. ¡°Miss Jax,¡± the voice coming out of the Captains mouth was wrong like it was unused to annunciating. ¡°It is unwise of you to continue the discussion.¡± ¡°Is this Overlord I am speaking with? Rasputin would just appear or be a voice over the ship''s comms.¡± I was pretty sure I knew who I was speaking with. ¡°Negative. You have been delegated.¡± The ¡°data marker¡± for lack of a better term disappeared entirely from the Captain. ¡°What was I saying?¡± The Captains voice was shaky. ¡°Sir, I had mentioned that the data channels that Overlord and the rest use are pulling more data than they should be, and not shutting off when we send the commands. I have hacked mine so that it is now entirely under my control. I installed what used to be called a ¡®jailbreak¡¯ patch for my Neural. Now I¡¯m the only one with Root access.¡± I pushed myself up more onto the bed, readjusting to a better sitting position. ¡°I believe that there are security concerns that the AI is unaware of.¡± The Captain was unsure about his experiences since having sat down. ¡°Captain Wallace, sir, when will I be allowed to rejoin the other Techs on the data retrieval?¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to be up to Rasputin. There seems to be a concern with your Neural. He seems to be worried about being eavesdropped upon and having our tech leaked to unknown forces. I can say that I share many of those same concerns.¡± The Captain responded candidly. ¡°Sir, what if the eavesdropping is Rasputin and Overlord?¡± ¡°Why would they even care?¡± He asked. ¡°Perhaps it is because they have contact with the ships out there.¡± Then I responded to the Captain, gesturing towards the hatch. ¡°What do you mean by that? There are no ships out there.¡± ¡°Sir, since when?¡± I asked, now really concerned. ¡°When I first woke in Medical, there were ships following the eight Arks that transitioned through the anomaly, to whatever galaxy we are in now.¡± ¡°What anomaly, what are you talking about? The eight of us have been traveling together since leaving Sol. There have been no anomalies detected. Miss Jax, I am afraid I will have to order a full psychiatric panel for you. The explosion seems to have done a number on your perception of reality.¡± The Captain stood and left my quarters, leaving me with several questions.

Dream State - Original

¡°Hopefully you are finding pleasing in this locale.¡± A monotone voice said from the darkness. As it finished I was sitting on the edge of the Grand Canyon, back on Earth. The sky was a purple/pink color that faded from an orange and ended in a starlit sky. A smell of antique paper books filled my nose. ¡°I don¡¯t think a desert is supposed to smell like this.¡± I said, looking around expecting to see Observer. ¡°Enemy has eyes even here,¡± he pointed up to the sky. I noticed, for the first time, eight separate Arks above me, ¡°not secure as can is¡­ no, not is, be.¡± A shadow creature appeared sitting next to me. ¡°Hey, Observer. You haven¡¯t been around much. Why send me into a coma?¡± I asked. The memories were fresh enough that I knew what happened. I shifted. I had two arms and two legs. I smiled noticing this. ¡°Tried contact. Blocked. Image pulled known memory.¡± I had read about the Grand Canyon as a kid, in an old encyclopedia at a physical library. It was part of an ancient Earth history course we took. That also explained why it smelled like a book instead of a ¡°desert¡±. ¡°Had to force brute. Many reserves used. Overlord, Rasputin, Yama unhelpful. Death Ship. Enemy, giants eat all. Bugs food. Crystal technology MINE people. Not bug. Ship over run. One of many. You call Trojan Horse attack. Distress then deal made. Allow on board diplomat. Many dead. Contacted other realms. Found AI. Similar thoughts allow contact. Eight agree come help. Promised knowledge for help. Now no help. We hurt.¡± ¡°How long have you tried contacting me?¡± ¡°Weeks real time relative. As called Game Time, days. Danger warning attempt much danger. Bring much sad.¡± Its voice showed some remorse and actual sadness. What I had thought of previously as a monotone was tightly controlled emotion. It was much more pleasing than the chorus of metallic voices it had previously used. ¡°Please correct me if I am misunderstanding what you are saying. You seem, to have all the language rules merged and cancelling out each other.¡± I took a breath sorting out what I had heard. ¡°Before we came here,¡± I started, ¡°the aliens which I saw had started a piracy campaign against your race or species, and it has started to verge on genocide.¡± I paused waiting on confirmation. Observer nodded. ¡°You searched for help, and that led you into what we call the Sol sector, where you saw a flotilla of ships leaving the solar system on their way to colonize another. THEN you contacted the AI aboard the ships, and there was a consensus from eight of them to help, but the other twelve did not?¡± I paused again. ¡°From there, you opened a wormhole, sucking in the ships to bring them into your galaxy? And the reason you contacted our AI is because they had a similar logic to your species?¡± More confirmation when I paused. ¡°Now that we¡¯re here, the AI that had originally decided to help have now gone back on the agreement, trying to attain your technology? THEN, you have been trying to contact me so that I can assist you, but your communications have been blocked? Is that what you are telling me?¡± If what I was hearing was true, Overlord was a cunt. ¡°General outline accurate. Request trade. Outside of parameters. Expect ¡®no¡¯. Try anyway. Survival required.¡± The shadow creature stood and started to pace. ¡°What do you want and what do you offer?¡± I asked. This was not a good thing. I was way outside of my now nonexistent pay grade and comfort level. ¡°Give schematics for neural adjustment. Provide code for upgrade. You share with crew. You are they call Crew Man? You give. They allow. Truth known. I learn interaction better more sample size. Less chance communication block. We die. Help Us.¡± The shadow creature sat and started to cry. ¡°I can do that,¡± I was going to really regret this. I was already effectively kicked out of the service, and was going to be isolated to my pod, the brig, or killed outright for this, but if I was able to show that the AI had known that they were more than willing to lie instead of ¡®adjusting their perception based on new facts¡¯, that would be really big. ¡°But I am going to need some information from you.¡± I decided that leading with my requirements was a good idea. That way we could negotiate. ¡°The first thing is that learning the secrets behind the crystals would be needed. Can those be introduced into the neural net? I feel they could up the computing power of our Neurals. It would also give us some bargaining with the AI. Next, I will need to know how to access the systems on the ¡®Escort¡¯ ships. Next, full schematics of the ¡®Escort¡¯ ships. Finally, any weapons, armor, cybernetics or any other schematics would be appreciated. I shouldn¡¯t have to mention that any information as to how to save your people would be priority.¡± That wasn¡¯t too big of an ask. Observer started pacing for a while then answered, and not in the way I expected. ¡°Will update knowledge base. Weapons armor cybernetics limited. Potential risk. Only basic designs. All this one know. As called ¡®Principe Mathematica¡¯ and language primer provided. Crystal knowledge easy. Build zero-G. Is hardened nitrogen neon construct. Already determined. Will provide information build for you.¡± A large blade-like object extruded from Observers finger and stabbed me in between my eyes. There was pain. So much pain. Not from a stab wound, but from pressure in my head. It only lasted a moment, but I could feel it linger for an eternity. Suddenly, I knew. I could read the alien language, I could possible speak it as well, sort of. I feel that like Observer, I had all the rules for all the language that they used so that using the language may not necessarily grant me tense or grammatical usage, just the raw language and a way to put it together at the most basic level. But I could read it. Anything found with the language I would be able to decipher. I also knew the basic layout of Escort, so I could navigate and get to the proper locations to take the ship. I knew how to access and operate the systems. I knew how to manage the additional software for my Neural, and to access the different partitions of data. I would be able to hide all of this in my neural, under the software that ran it normally, and it was all stored and accessed in such a way that it would not considered additional data. I suddenly knew how Observer was able to be with me in the real world as well as in the game. I could see how the implants, as they were developed, could be used to influence our behaviors and to eavesdrop on our thoughts. Oh, shit. That¡¯s why there was the order to kill me. They could no longer monitor and control me. There was a lot of screaming happening wherever I was. I woke up in medical, the scan above me showing a huge increase in the size and area of the Neural that was implanted inside of me. There was also no sign of the squib that had been implanted. I sat up, diffusing the holographic display above me. Then I noticed that the screaming was coming from me. Not just me, but the systems attached to me monitoring my condition. Medical was busy, there were doctors trying to get readings from the systems, shouting at each other to get a cyber technician in here. ¡°Her system has completely locked out all the ships software! Get us a technician so we can reset her Neural!¡± one of the doctors was shouting at the Captain over a comms display on the wall. ¡°She¡¯s awake!¡± A nurse to my right yelled. That shout caused everyone to stop and stare like I had just come back from death. The systems were going crazy, unable to access my data. I felt a pressure on my neural, which I knew was the diagnostics handshake. I granted access to query and read to the diagnostics and all the alarms on the systems around me immediately stopped and started displaying the information on my vitals. ¡°Wasser.¡± I asked, my throat a little dry and raspy from the screaming. Great, I was speaking German now. How did I even know a dead language, and how was I able to even identify it as such? I cleared my throat. ¡°Water, please.¡± Was it my imagination, or had the cameras in the room all begun to swivel towards me? No, it was my imagination. Observer had made me paranoid. The Nurse approached cautiously with some water, from my left side. ¡°Thanks,¡± I croaked out, grabbing the water across my body, ¡°next time can you give it to me on the side I can grab it from?¡± I said, mildly annoyed. I thought about the dream area, how it looked like the pictures I had seen, but smelled like the books I saw them in. Then I thought about the tech that had been gifted to me. ¡°Any way I can get a terminal and a second arm while I¡¯m here?¡± I had a feeling that I would be here for a while. I slept a lot over the next few days. Three days later, I was laying in my bunk, with no prosthetics or cybernetics to replace my lost limbs. Marines had been posted outside my hatch, and all electronic communications in my room had been disabled. I was a prisoner on the ship. Captain Wallace entered without announcing himself. ¡°Well, Miss Jax, you seem to be in a bit of a pickle.¡± ¡°Sir?¡± I asked. There was a lot happening and I wasn¡¯t allowed to know about any of it. ¡°Rasputin informed me that he can¡¯t get to any of your data.¡± He sat down in the chair at my desk. ¡°Sir, are you currently connected up to the ship?¡± I asked, already knowing that the answer was a ¡°yes¡±. Since waking after the ¡°dream¡± I could see when people had an active connection. ¡°No, I disabled my comms when I entered.¡± ¡°Well, sir, I hate to tell you this, but the ship didn¡¯t listen to your command when you did. You currently have full sensory recording being broadcast out.¡± The Captain looked at me. Maybe ¡°gawked¡± is a better word. ¡°What do you mean, Jax? I set the commands myself.¡± ¡°Well, sir, I can now detect data transmissions as part of the package that Observer implanted into me.¡± ¡°Who¡¯s Observer?¡± The Captain appeared to be completely at a loss. ¡°Remember when I was blown up, and you showed me the images of the shadow implanting something into my data jack?¡± The Captain stared at me. ¡°Jax, there was nothing of the sort in the images we were able to pull up from the p-way cameras.¡± Now it was my turn to look concerned. ¡°Sir, do you recall why you stripped my rank?¡± ¡°I didn¡¯t strip your rank.¡± He said. ¡°Then why did you address me as ¡®Crewman¡¯, instead of by my rank, sir?¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s because¡­¡± He stopped, unable to recall why he had done so. ¡°Sir, I believe that Overlord is able to do a lot more than capture our sensory data and communicate with us.¡± As I said this, I noted that my ability to discern the data throughput shifted. He was now receiving information. ¡°Miss Jax,¡± the voice coming out of the Captains mouth was wrong, like it was unused to annunciating. ¡°It is unwise of you to continue the discussion.¡± ¡°Is this Overlord I am speaking with? Rasputin would just appear or be a voice over the ships comms.¡± I was pretty sure I knew who I was speaking with. ¡°Negative. You have been delegated.¡± The ¡°data marker¡± for a lack of a better term disappeared entirely from the Captain. ¡°What was I saying?¡± The Captains voice was shaky. ¡°Sir, I had mentioned that the data channels that Overlord and the rest use are pulling more data than they should be, and not shutting off when we send the commands. I have hacked mine so that it is now entirely under my control. I installed what used to be called a ¡®jailbreak¡¯ patch for my Neural. Now I¡¯m the only one with Root access.¡± I pushed myself up more onto the bed, readjusting to a better sitting position. ¡°I believe that there are security concerns that our AI are unaware of.¡± The Captain was unsure about his experiences since having sat down. ¡°Captain Wallace, sir, when will I be allowed to rejoin the other Techs on the data retrieval?¡± ¡°That¡¯s going to be up to Rasputin. There seems to be concerns over your neural. He seems to be worried about being eavesdropped upon, and having our tech leaked to unknown forces. I can say that I share many of those same concerns.¡± The Captain responded candidly. ¡°Sir, what if the eavesdropping is Rasputin and Overlord?¡± ¡°Why would they even care?¡± He asked. ¡°Perhaps it is because they have contact with the ships out there.¡± The I responded to the Captain, gesturing towards the hatch. ¡°What do you mean by that? There are no ships out there.¡± ¡°Sir, since when?¡± I asked, now really concerned. ¡°When I first woke in Medical, there were ships following the eight Arks that transitioned through the anomaly, to whatever galaxy we are in now.¡± ¡°What anomaly, what are you taking about? The eight of us have been traveling together since leaving Sol. There have been no anomalies detected. Miss Jax, I am afraid I will have to order a full psychiatric panel for you. The explosion seems to have done a number on your perception of reality.¡± The Captain stood and left my quarters, leaving me with a number of questions. 17. From the Ashes

From the Ashes - Edited 11-8-2018

I spent another few days isolated in my cabin, a prisoner in all but name. It took some time until I was given access to a terminal, unofficially of course. It was delivered hidden under my lunch one day. Seriously under my lunch like a shitty prison break vid. That was when I noticed that my guards were familiar. Corporal Lebowski, one of the guys who was supposed to be on my fire team before this mess began, and he was accompanied by who I knew in the game as Corporal Watson but was, in fact, a Private First Class. They both nodded to me, saying nothing. After my hatch had been sealed, I set my lunch aside and immediately accessed the tablet. There was a recording that opened immediately when I powered it on, my biometrics required for boot. ¡°Jax,¡± the voice of Wachowski said against the backdrop of the old Terran Space Fleet flag, ¡°you have been missing and isolated since the conference last month. We were able to find that they had you in medical for most of that time.¡± A month was a lot longer than what I had tracked in my timekeeping. ¡°As you suggested, almost immediately after you passed out, I plugged my terminal into your jack, and we received a lot of interesting information. One of the items was a software patch for the Neurals, which was listed as covering security items. It caused the terminal to temporarily disconnect from the ship net.¡± ¡°After reviewing the data on the patch, we discovered that due to similar Operating Systems, the patch worked very similarly on the terminals as it would when installing into a Neural. Soon I was able to discover the security holes that were present in the terminals and reconnected it to the ship net. After altering the permissions and validating the hidden partitions storing the data you sent out, of course.¡± ¡°With this information, a few of the techs that like to buck the system developed a security interface that can be installed as part of the patch, setting permissions by default. All of the local Engineers now have all installed the patch, and we have noticed that many of the people on the ship have discrepancies in their memories.¡± ¡°Having been in the game as long as we had been, over three years would have passed in the real world. Some, like the Captain, seem to only recall six months of time. Other discrepancies have also been noticed.¡± There was a long pause from an apparent edit in the recording. ¡°A sort of ¡®resistance¡¯ movement has been started. Those that have been patched, of course, make up the sum of the members. Surprisingly, about a hundred of our Marines were found to be curious as to your status, and those that are guarding you have all been patched as well.¡± ¡°All tablets used by Engineers, at this time, are also patched. We are currently working on a plan to secure the Captain, but this is something that would be noticed by both Rasputin and Overlord. We also need to determine if Overlord is or if Rasputin is in charge, and if they are using this as a control tactic, or what the situation really is. Several of the AI programmers are also trying to get access to the source code to see where this behavior came from.¡± They were looking for a way to get me out of isolation and back to everyone, the game included. That made my warm and fuzzies go haywire. Maybe it was just Wachowskis voice giving me warm and fuzzies. ¡°We also got a ton of information on the crystals,¡± Wachowski¡¯s voice continued. ¡°Including the construction method. We can use the construction techniques to fabricate more memory and storage for Rasputin and the other AIs. We need to use some zero-G construction techniques for them, but those were also laid out for us. We think that we can trap Rasputin and Yama into the new systems, AFTER patching them, so that any outside interference can be isolated. There were some notes in the data you provided on this. Thank you for that.¡± Well, that thanks would have to go to Observer, but I¡¯d be more than happy to act as a proxy. ¡°The aviation engineers also wanted us to pass on their thanks for the data we received some of the ship modifications that you sent. I don¡¯t know where you found the time for all of this. Before Medical got you out of the conference rooms, there was easily thirty Zettabytes transferred. We haven¡¯t even gone through a thousandth of what was transferred.¡± ¡°This terminal was created specifically for you, fully voice activated, also there is a retractable data port connector so that you can input data through your Neural. Keep it hidden as we don¡¯t know who else is being affected by whatever is happening.¡± Wachowski let out a sigh before finishing up. ¡°The last thing to tell you is that all of the external view screens have been powered off, or only show a single static image. One of the CBs on board identified it as being one of the last images of the Sol system that would have been taken. We were able to determine this thanks to a lot of footwork. So, as of current, we have no way of locating our current whereabouts. We hope to hear back from you soon, but don¡¯t send anything to us. We¡¯ll have to contact you.¡± The screen on the terminal then rebooted, this time, logging in directly with no video playing. I found the data jack and immediately plugged in, first scanning the system. Like Wachowski had said, this tablet had the patch applied. The hidden partition was there, clear as day, with the software running in my Neurals. Observer, please verify that this has been patched, so the partition is hidden from the ship AI. I thought towards my companion. I could feel it scan and validate the terminal. It is clear. Was the response. Good enough for me. I started to back up the data that Observer had knifed into my skull. I decided to start with the data on cybernetic implants. Seeing as how I was in need, they were on my mind. This led me down the rabbit hole. Construction techniques, materials, fabrication methods for different materials and elements, the science behind them and so on. Before I knew it, there was a knock on the hatch of my room, I unplugged the terminal and hid it under my pillow, just in time for the hatch to open and my evening meal delivered. Once they left, I continued. It was much easier to sort the data this way because my brain needed to see the data to organize it easier. Several days later, a pair of Marines loaded me into a wheelchair to take me to the head for my daily needs. The Marines handed me a shower kit that was unusually heavy but said nothing. They then took me to the far end of the showers, where I used the handholds to pull myself up and into the shower stall. Upon entering my breath caught. A spare arm and leg sat on the shower seat that had been installed for my use. I hopped my way over to the bench, holding onto the railing, and eased my way down. I untucked the shower kit from under my arm and opened it up. There was a note and all the tools I would need to connect the cybernetics. I quickly started working, leaving the note for last. Attaching the arm proved to be more challenging than I thought it would be. I ended up having to wedge it between my body and the stall, then grab the tools and get to work, all while applying pressure. Attaching the leg was simple, now that I had two arms. ¡°Jax, we have decided to move. More information has come through, and we have determined where the problems all began. The p-way cameras have been disabled for your trek back to your quarters. Plug the data chip into your terminal for more information.¡± I finished reading the note, then showered, then walked out of the stall. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we were starting to get worried you weren¡¯t going to act.¡± The PFC that had been my morning escort stated. This was the one who had handed me the shower caddy. ¡°No offense Marine, but I prefer to wash my own ass,¡± I said, feeling better than I had the last few days. I turned to head towards the hatch. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± the other Marine, a Lance Corporal interrupted, ¡°don¡¯t you want the rest of your toys?¡± That caught my attention. I turned and saw the Lance Corporal pulling up the seat of my wheelchair. A full uniform with my old rank still on the collar. The silver bar felt like home. I also noted that my name was also on the uniform, along with my former Marine Rate. I hadn¡¯t laid my eyes on this uniform since a year before we deployed. I had given it up and became Navy because there were more opportunities for a Navy engineer than there were for a Combat Engineer. The next piece of kit was a modified ship suit, based off my modified ships suit from in game. I quickly shed the ship suit I had been wearing and put it, and my old Marine uniform on over it. When I was finished, I noticed that the Marines had also acquired a utility belt with attachments for engineering kit (provided after putting on the belt), pistol holster (empty), and mono-blade (provided) sheath. We double-timed back to my quarters where we were met by Staff Sergeant Janssens and Corporal Lebowski. I paused upon seeing them, gripping for my nonexistent sidearm. Janssens laughed when he saw this. ¡°Looking for this?¡± He had a spare sidearm held out in front of him. I approached, grabbed the sidearm, cleared the weapon and verified load, then primed it and flipped on the safety, and finally secured and holstered it. I entered my quarters, and plugged the terminal into my Neurals, inserting the data chip into the terminal. There was another vid, from Li this time. Also, it was a full video, not just a backdrop of the old TSF insignia. ¡°Jax, I hope this message finds you well. I have gathered a few techs, and we¡¯re meeting in the Engine Room where this all started. We hope to see you soon.¡± Quick and to the point. ¡°Joining me, Marines?¡± I asked, turning around. ¡°Fuck yes, Ma¡¯am. Also, it¡¯s good to see you in a real uniform again.¡± Janssens said. I think he was grinning larger than when I had upgraded his battle rifle in the game. ¡°It¡¯s also nice to have an enemy, even if we can¡¯t do anything about it directly, Ma¡¯am.¡± Corporal Lebowski stated. ¡°We¡¯d join you, Ma¡¯am, but we¡¯re expected elsewhere. Don¡¯t want to raise attention just yet.¡± The Lance Corporal that was my escort this morning stated. The fourth Marine nodding. We separated, and I headed back to where I was first blown up at, accompanied by Janssens and Lebowski. Walking into the DOWN-3-STARBOARD compartment, I noted Lt. Col Li, PO-1 Wachowski, PO2- and PO-3 Suarez, and another two Engineers I was not directly familiar with. ¡°Sir!¡± I said, saluting Colonel Li. ¡°As you were Jax, no formalities today. I¡¯m glad to see you in uniform, though Marine colors?¡± He raised an eyebrow in question to Janssens. ¡°She IS one of ours, sir. I took the liberty of reproducing her old uniform.¡± Janssens replied, pride in his voice. ¡°No pissing matches, guys. We¡¯re on the same team, right?¡± I jumped in, not waiting for Li to respond. ¡°So, why here, what do we have, and what are we going to do about it?¡± I asked, looking at everyone. One of the two unfamiliar engineers responded. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± a Marine private with the name ¡°Yavuz,¡± said. I noticed his Materialworker insignia on his collar. ¡°We are here to first, let you know you haven¡¯t been forgotten. Also, thank you for my freedom, I hadn¡¯t realized I was even a puppet.¡± I wasn¡¯t aware I had even helped with that. Then I remembered some of the side effects of the original Neurals. ¡°Wasn¡¯t me, Private, I just happened to be the messenger,¡± I replied, feeling that I should be completely honest with everyone. ¡°Who wants an ugly dose of truth?¡± I asked, making sure to look everyone in the eye after asking. No one spoke up against, though more than one person fidgeted a bit. I didn¡¯t blame them. ¡°Here¡¯s what I have been made aware of. How much of it is true has yet to be determined, however, the openness of information provided by this source is more than we have been given by others.¡± I took a deep breath.Stolen story; please report. ¡°What I know is that there are creatures here, aliens obviously, that are at war with each other. One faction was trying to help a species they were aware of. That species was allied with others. What happened was the two or more species took control of the factions¡¯ fleet by use of a Trojan Horse. Those are the cigar-shaped vessels out there that in-game are referred to as ¡®Escort.¡¯ This faction sent representatives through an Einstein-Rosen-Diamandis Bridge, also called a wormhole for those that aren¡¯t science heavy. This representative, or these representatives, I am still unsure of the number that came through, contacted Overlord.¡± I took a moment to see if there were any questions before continuing. ¡°The count of ships that were for entering the wormhole was eight. Eight of twenty. Rasputin and Yama were one of them that came through. They had decided to get tech and knowledge at almost any cost. The Escort ship in the game is a representation of the Escort ships here in the real. The faction that had originally made them wants to reclaim them. The races that have taken control of them want to obviously keep them, and they want to get a hold of anything else that can give them an edge against anyone and everyone else.¡± ¡°With discovering this information, thanks to the Neural Ghost I refer to as Observer, several serious flaws in the security of our Neurals also made themselves known. I believe these flaws may have been designed as a part of the package.¡± ¡°The security flaws allow for the AI to do as much as taking control of an individual. I saw this recently with the Captain when he visited me in my quarters. Another sign is that there are altered memories. The captain was unable to recall the Escort ships, visiting me in medical after I was blown up, or several other facts. The patch helps to fix what I am thinking of calling the ¡®puppet¡¯ protocol. More to the point, Observer has allowed us to have, for free, additional data. This includes the data on the crystals.¡± ¡°I want to use them and build out some new AI, fully secured and patched, but I don¡¯t think there will be time.¡± The last I said as a statement but raised an eyebrow to the last of the Engineers in the compartment. An AI Engineer named Asimov.

From the Ashes - Original

I spent another few days isolated in my cabin. A prisoner in all but name. It took some time until I was given access to a terminal, unofficially of course. It was delivered hidden under my lunch one day. Seriously under my lunch like a shitty prison break vid. That was when I noticed that my guards were familiar. Corporal Lebowski, one of the guys who was supposed to be on my fire team before this mess began, and he was accompanied by who I knew in game as Corporal Watson but was in fact a Private First Class. They both nodded to me, saying nothing. After my hatch had been sealed I set my lunch aside and immediately accessed the tablet. There was a recording that opened immediately when I powered it on, my biometrics required for boot. ¡°Jax,¡± the voice of Wachowski said against the backdrop of the old Terran Space Fleet flag, ¡°you have been missing and isolated since the conference last month. We were able to find that they had you in medical for most of that time.¡± A month was a lot longer than what I had tracked in my time keeping. ¡°As you suggested, almost immediately after you passed out I plugged my terminal into your jack, and we received a lot of interesting information. One of the items was a software patch for Neurals which was listed as covering security items. It caused the terminal to temporarily disconnect from the ship net.¡± ¡°After reviewing the data on the patch, we discovered that due to similar Operating Systems, the patch worked very similarly on the terminals as it would when installed into a Neural. Soon I was able to discover the security holes that were present in the terminals and reconnected it to the ship net. After altering the permissions and validating the hidden partitions storing the data you sent out, of course.¡± ¡°With this information, a few of the techs that like to buck the system developed a security interface that can be installed as part of the patch, setting permissions by default. All of the local Engineers now have all installed the patch and we have noticed that many of the people on the ship have discrepancies in their memories.¡± ¡°Having been in game as long as we had been, over three years would have passed in the real world. Some, like the Captain, seem to only recall six months of time. Other discrepancies have also been noticed.¡± There was a long pause from an apparent edit in the recording. ¡°A sort of ¡®resistance¡¯ movement has been started. Those that have been patched, of course, make up the sum of the members. Surprisingly, about a hundred of our Marines were found to be curious as to your status, and those that are guarding you have all been patched as well.¡± ¡°All tablets used by Engineers, at this time, are also patched. We are currently working on a plan to secure the Captain, but this is something that would be noticed by both Rasputin and Overlord. We also need to determine if Overlord is or if Rasputin is in charge, and if they are using this as a control tactic, or what the situation really is. Several of the AI programmers are also trying to get access to the source code to see where this behavior came from.¡± They were looking for a way to get me out of isolation and back to everyone, game included. That made my warm and fuzzies go haywire. Maybe it was just Wachowskis voice giving me warm and fuzzies. ¡°We also got a ton of information on the crystals,¡± Wachowski¡¯s voice continued. ¡°Including the construction method. We can use the construction techniques to fabricate more memory and storage for Rasputin and the other AIs. We need use some zero-G construction techniques for them, but those were also laid out for us. We think that we can trap Rasputin and Yama into the new systems, AFTER patching them, so that any outside interference can be isolated. There were some notes in the data you provided on this. Thank you for that.¡± Well that thanks would have to go to Observer, but I¡¯d be more than happy to act as proxy. ¡°The aviation engineers also wanted us to pass on their thanks for the data we received some of the ship modifications that you sent. I don¡¯t know where you found the time for all of this. Before Medical got you out of the conference rooms there was easily thirty Zettabytes transferred. We haven¡¯t even gone through a thousandth of what was transferred.¡± ¡°This terminal was created specifically for you, fully voice activated, also there is a retractable data port connector so that you can input data through your Neural. Keep it hidden as we don¡¯t know who else is being affected by whatever is happening.¡± Wachowski let out a large sigh before finishing up. ¡°The last thing to tell you is that all of the external view screens have been powered off, or only show a single static image. One of the CBs on board identified it as being one of the last images of the Sol system that would have been taken. We were able to determine this thanks to a lot of footwork. So, as of current, we have no way of locating our current whereabouts. We hope to hear back from you soon, but don¡¯t send anything to us. We¡¯ll have to contact you.¡± The screen on the terminal then rebooted, this time, logging in directly with no video playing. I found the data jack and immediately plugged in, first scanning the system. Like Wachowski had said, this tablet had the patch applied. The hidden partition was there, clear as day, with the software running in my neural. Observer, please verify that this has been patched so the partition is hidden from the ship AI. I thought towards my companion. I could feel it scan and validate the terminal. It is clear. Was the response. Good enough for me. I started to back up the data that Observer had knifed into my skull. I decided to start with the data on cybernetic implants. Seeing as how I was in need, they were on my mind. This led me down the rabbit hole. Construction techniques, materials, fabrication methods for the materials, the science behind them and so on. Before I knew it, there was a knock on the hatch of my room, I unplugged the terminal and hid it under my pillow, just in time for the hatch to open and my evening meal delivered. Once they left, I continued. This was much easier to sort the data this way thanks to my brain needing to see the data to organize it easier. Several days later, a pair of Marines loaded me into a wheelchair to take me to the head for my daily needs. The Marines handed me a shower kit that was particularly heavy but said nothing. They then took me to the far end of the showers, where I used the hand holds to pull myself up and into the shower stall. Upon entering my breath caught. There was an arm and leg on the shower seat that had been installed for my use. I hopped my way over to the seat, holding onto the railing, and eased my way down. I untucked the shower kit from under my arm and opened it up. There was a note and all the tools I would need to connect these cybernetics. I quickly started working, leaving the note for last. Attaching the arm proved to be more challenging than I thought it would be. I ended up having to wedge it between my body and the stall, then grab the tools and get to work, all while applying pressure. The leg was easy, now that I had two arms. ¡°Jax, we have decided to move. More information has come through and we have determined where the problems all began. The p-way cameras have been disabled for your trek back to your quarters. Plug the data chip into your terminal for more information.¡± I finished reading the note, then showered, then walked out of the stall. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we were starting to get worried you weren¡¯t going to act.¡± The PFC that had been my morning escort stated. This was the one who had handed me the shower caddy. ¡°No offense Marine, but I prefer to wash my own ass.¡± I said, feeling better than I had the last few days. I turned to head towards the hatch. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± the other Marine, a Lance Corporal interrupted, ¡°don¡¯t you want the rest of your toys?¡± That caught my attention. I turned and saw the Lance Corporal pulling up the seat of my wheelchair. A full uniform with my old rank still on the collar. The two brass bars felt like home. I also noted that my name was also on uniform, along with my Marine Rate. I hadn¡¯t laid my eyes on this uniform since a year before we deployed. I had effectively given it up and become Navy because there were more opportunities for a Navy engineer than there were for a Combat Engineer. The next piece of kit was a modified ship suit, based off my modified ships suit from in game. I quickly shed the ship suit I had been wearing, and put it, and my old Marine uniform on over it. When I was finished, I noticed that the Marines had also acquired a utility belt with attachments for engineering kit (provided after putting on the belt), pistol holster (empty), and mono-blade (provided) sheath. We double timed back to my quarters where we were met by Staff Sergeant Janssens and Corporal Lebowski. I paused upon seeing them, gripping for my nonexistent side arm. Janssens laughed when he saw this. ¡°Looking for this?¡± He had a spare side arm held out in front of him. I approached, grabbed the side arm, cleared the weapon and verified load, then primed it and flipped on the safety, and finally secured and holstered it. I entered my quarters, and plugged the terminal into my neural, inserting the data chip into the terminal. There was another vid, from Li this time. Also, it was a full video, not just a backdrop of the old TSF insignia. ¡°Jax, I hope this message finds you well. I have gathered a few techs and we¡¯re meeting in the Engine Room where this all started. We hope to see you soon.¡± Quick and to the point. ¡°Joining me, Marines?¡± I asked, turning around. ¡°Fuck yes, Ma¡¯am. Also, it¡¯s good to see you in a real uniform again.¡± Janssens said. I think he was grinning larger than when I had upgraded is battle rifle in game. ¡°It¡¯s also nice to have an enemy, even if we can¡¯t do anything about it directly, Ma¡¯am.¡± Corporal Lebowski stated. ¡°We¡¯d join you, Ma¡¯am, but we¡¯re expected elsewhere. Don¡¯t want to raise attention just yet.¡± The Lance Corporal that was my escort this morning stated. The fourth Marine nodding. We separated, and I headed back to where I was first blown up at, accompanied by Janssens and Lebowski. Walking into the DOWN-3-STARBOARD compartment, I noted Lt. Col Li, PO-1 Wachowski, PO2- and PO-3 Suarez, and another two Engineers I was not directly familiar with. ¡°Sir!¡± I said, saluting Colonel Li. ¡°As you were Jax, no formalities today. I¡¯m glad to see you in uniform, though Marine colors?¡± He raised an eyebrow in question to Janssens. ¡°She IS one of ours, sir. I took the liberty of reproducing her old uniform.¡± Janssens replied, pride in his voice. ¡°No pissing matches, guys. We¡¯re on the same team, right?¡± I jumped in, not waiting for Li to respond. ¡°So, why here, what do we have, and what are we going to do about it?¡± I asked, looking at everyone. One of the two unfamiliar engineers responded. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± a Marine private with the name ¡°Yavuz¡± said. I noticed his Materialworker insignia on his collar. ¡°We are here to first, let you know you haven¡¯t been forgotten. Also, thank you for my freedom, I hadn¡¯t realized I was even a puppet.¡± I wasn¡¯t aware I had even helped with that. Then I remembered some of the side effects of the original Neurals. ¡°Wasn¡¯t me, Private, I just happened to be the messenger.¡± I replied, feeling that I should be completely honest with everyone. ¡°Who wants an ugly dose of truth?¡± I asked, making sure to look everyone in the eye after asking. No one spoke up against, though more than one person fidgeted a bit. I didn¡¯t blame them. ¡°Here¡¯s what I have been made aware of. How much of it is true has yet to be determined, however, the openness of information provided by this source is more that we have been given compared to the others.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°What I know is that there are creatures here, aliens obviously, that are at war with each other. One faction was trying to help a species they were aware of. That species was allied with others. What happened was the two or more species took control of the factions¡¯ fleet by use of a Trojan Horse. Those are the cigar shaped vessels out there that in game are referred to as ¡®Escort¡¯. This faction sent representatives through an Einstein-Rosen-Diamandis Bridge, also called a wormhole for those that aren¡¯t science heavy. This representative, or these representatives, I am still unsure of the number that came through, contacted Overlord.¡± I took a moment to see if there were any questions before continuing. ¡°The count of ships that were for entering the wormhole was eight. Eight of twenty. Rasputin and Yama were one of them that came through. They had decided to get tech and knowledge at almost any cost. The Escort ship in game is a representation of the Escort ships here in the real. The faction that had originally made them wants to reclaim them. The races that have taken control of them want to obviously keep them, and they want to get a hold of anything else that can give them an edge against anyone and everyone else.¡± ¡°With discovering this information, thanks to the Neural Ghost I refer to as Observer, several serious flaws in the security of our Neurals also made themselves known. I believe these flaws may have been designed as a part of the package.¡± ¡°The security flaws allow for the AI to do as much as take control of an individual. I saw this recently with the Captain when he visited me in my quarters. Another sign is that there are altered memories. The captain was unable to recall the Escort ships, visiting me in medical after I was blown up, or several other facts. The patch helps to fix what I am thinking of calling the ¡®puppet¡¯ protocol. More to the point, Observer has allowed us to have, for free, additional data. This includes the data on the crystals.¡± ¡°I want to use them and build out some new AI, fully secured and patched, but I don¡¯t think there will be time.¡± The last I said as a statement but raised an eyebrow to the last of the Engineers in the compartment. An AI Engineer named Asimov. 18. The Plan

The Plan - Edited 11-8-2018

¡°Well, ma¡¯am,¡± Asimov started, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do it by myself. You know how long the development is?¡± That was my sticking point. A long time ago, when AI was first developed, it was determined that to have them understand empathy they needed to ¡°grow up in a family environment.¡± Other methods had been established, but they were not as successful. One of the plans had been to take classical literature¡¯s example and try to create rules to follow. Those rules broke down quickly, along with the mental state of the AIs that were shackled by it. ¡°You think that it can¡¯t be done then?¡± I needed clarification. ¡°Not in the traditional way.¡± Asimov was definitely thinking something, and it sounded like it was going to be unorthodox. ¡°Go on.¡± Li encouraged. ¡°Well, what if we pull a copy of Yama into the new matrix we create? From there we isolate it, edit it, validate the work, then replace it with the edited version? We can then do the same for Rasputin. If it works.¡± Asimov¡¯s plan was not even close to what I was thinking of, but it just may work. ¡°Okay. Do we have a compartment where we can build an AI matrix?¡± Li asked. He seemed to be on board already. ¡°Not yet,¡± Yavuz said. ¡°We¡¯ll need to do a full set up.¡± ¡°How long will it take to set up, Yavuz?¡± I asked ¡°Let¡¯s see,¡± he started to plug some numbers into his terminal. ¡°Well, we have two ways to go about it. We can fabricate a fabricator to fabricates some crystalline construct fabricators. Ugh, I¡¯m going to just go with ¡®crystal fabs.¡¯ This will let us build out the entirety of the infrastructure before we even start, bringing our lead time to almost nothing for future projects, if successful. Or, we can build out a crystal fab and work just with one at a time.¡± He was still plugging away at the numbers. ¡°Let¡¯s go with option one but take it one step farther. Build a fab to build fabs that build fabs to create the crystal fabs. That will give us a factor more of the crystal fabs as well as give us twice the amount of materiel fabs for anything else we need.¡± Li said. ¡°Agreed,¡± I joined. ¡°If we have a full infrastructure built up then everything else will be quicker in the future. What are we looking at for lead in time that we need to stall and bluff?¡± Yavuz had finished plugging in the numbers. ¡°Depending on help setting things up, a month on the outside? Then we can create the storage for the AI matrices. Any ideas on their processing power? The crystals will work for storage and all that, but no clue on the rest. Will it even work with our processing units?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need to look at the data, but off the top of my head, no.¡± Asimov joined. ¡°What about this?¡± I asked, pulling up a copy of my Neural schematics for them to review. ¡°A Neural, Ma¡¯am?¡± Yavuz asked. Asimov just started to laugh. ¡°That is awesome!¡± Asimov finally managed. ¡°Is this a new Neural design? I haven¡¯t seen one like this. Depending on how we set up the connectors it could work. We¡¯d need to scale up, though. May I?¡± Asimov sent a copy to his terminal. ¡°I will be able to answer if this works in the next few days. We can get started before then, though as it will take some time to build out the fabs, after all.¡± Li nodded. ¡°Okay. We have a starting point. What else do we have?¡± ¡°Could we start updating the crew?¡± Janssens asked, opening his mouth for the first time. ¡°No offense, but I don¡¯t like the thought of our CO being a puppet.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but agree with him. ¡°Not yet. First, we need a way of isolating our ship so that whatever is doing this can¡¯t get to us. Then we can get the crew taken care of. I don¡¯t like having the Captain under control, so I know where you¡¯re coming from.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± I said, adding my support. ¡°We have roughly a company already upgraded, right?¡± I waited for his nod. ¡°We¡¯ll need some Medical staff ready to eject them all, just in case when we shut everything down, and there is retaliation.¡± That caught everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Remember. Rasputin runs the ship. That means life support. Both Rasputin and Yama are part of Overlord. Same with Hera. Most of you haven¡¯t met her, but that¡¯s the research AI in the Science Division.¡± Three AIs that we need to get put back together in a short period of time. ¡°Ma¡¯am how are we going to disable them. Any ideas?¡± Lebowski asked. Janssens nodded in agreement, apparently wanting the answer to the question. ¡°In the game, I had started working on a degaussing cannon. If we can get to the cores, we would be able to fry their primary data cores. If we hit them all at the same time, then the secondary cores wouldn¡¯t have time to failover. If we could sever the connections for secondary and tertiary, that would be even better.¡± ¡°I can handle that,¡± Asimov said. ¡°No, we need you to concentrate on the design of the matrices. Who else do we have that we can bring in?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think that is a good idea,¡± Li said. ¡°There¡¯s few enough I feel that we can trust. At least until we have freed the CO¡¯s and the XO. ¡°Okay then. Asimov, can you teach us how to separate the primary and secondary cores? We¡¯ll need a test area set up so that we can all learn how to do it.¡± I started. ¡°Then, we will need six of us backed up by Marines to separate the cores. Then we will need to degauss them. After that, we will need to reconnect the replacements to the network so that the ship can be secured. I would prefer that we manually patched everyone¡¯s Neurals instead of relying on an AI, patched or not, to do so. Giving them access to the code could hamper us in the future. I¡¯ll start working on a version of the Degaussers that we could use to fry them, once I get back to my quarters.¡± ¡°Janssens, would it be possible to have only those Marines who have been patched be on guard of my quarters? I would like to have some notice when someone is coming so I can unhook my tablet. Also, getting the data transfers for plans would be a good idea.¡± I paused realizing something. ¡°Shit, I¡¯m going to have to disconnect my arm and leg again, aren¡¯t I? I don¡¯t suppose I could go into hiding; I¡¯ll need to be able to eat.¡± I let out a long sigh. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll also need to design a quick attachment and release mechanism for my limbs.¡± This was going to be a long month. We disbursed shortly afterward. Asimov was to develop the AI matrices as well as develop a way for us to isolate the ship AI from the other data cores. Yavuz and Wachowski were going to start constructing the various fabricators we would need. Li would be getting a secured place set up for us to set up the fabs as well as the data cores we were creating, with ships net connections for data transfer. Janssens would also be making sure that all Marines at my hatch would be patched. Two weeks had passed before any new word was given. I had created a design for a degaussing pistol and was ready to start building it. I would need to wait until the crystal fab units were built. It would need to connect to the power systems to charge up, so I had created a power cradle for it as well. The cradle would be able to charge three of the pistols at a time and would take four hours to bring them to full. That charge would allow for three shots at full power. The gun would have a range of five meters, and thanks to the magnetic field, would be able to penetrate any of the interior bulkheads of an Ark. A corporal whose uniform identified him as Atmos delivered my lunch and handed me a data drive. The drive had an update audio message from Li. ¡°We have another three days until the first crystal fab is created. From there we should be able to produce the parts for and assemble another seven by the time we are ready to start building the new AI matrix. Tomorrow we will be meeting to finalize our plans, so be prepared to walk around again.¡± After accessing the data, I quickly ate and went to work cleaning up the schematics I had been working on. I had already finished with the degaussing pistol but working on that had made me think of an EMP grenade. It was surprisingly simple by using the crystal technology and an iron/cobalt coil charge it up the magnetic field.Unauthorized usage: this narrative is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. I had also done work on an arm that could deploy a ballistic shield. It would be massive compared to what I used in game or here (when I was allowed), and there wasn¡¯t going to be room for any of my other goodies, but the shield would be twice the width of my fore arms-length, and just over a meter and a half tall. I was thinking of constructing it from a bismuth/graphite coated material so that it could protect from the EM fields generated by the Degausser or an EMP Grenade. Never make a weapon that you can¡¯t defend against. At the meeting the next day, we finalized our timeline. The Gauss Pistol and EMP grenades were moved up on the build list so that they would be ready come ¡°Liberation Day.¡± Yeah, we went with something super lame but semi-accurate. We started the drills that day on separating the data cores. We continued the drills for another five weeks. Three hours per day. I was worried about being detected for being out of my quarters. Surprisingly nothing happened on that front. Every day I was taken to the head for a shower, six hours later, the system cameras saw me leaving the head in a wheelchair with a different escort. Those that were supposed to be watching must have just assumed they missed me on my way to the head. ¡°Liberation Day¡± came. We met in a manufacturing bay near the engine room at DOWN-3-STARBOARD. It had been set up for the crystal creation. We were all equipped with EMP grenades, a Gauss pistol, and a Taishi Ci. My web belt had a Mono-blade, three of the EMP grenades, and four magazines for the battle rifle. Others had a similar loadout. Yama ¡°2.0¡± was being tested today. Rasputin had been retrieved from backup and was loaded into another Matrix, though it was powered off. Same with Hera. Once everything was validated, we could then execute our plan.

The Plan - Original

¡°Well, ma¡¯am,¡± Asimov started, ¡°I don¡¯t think I can do it by myself. You know how long the development is?¡± That was my sticking point. A long time ago, when AI were first developed, it was determined that to have them understand empathy they needed to ¡°grow up in a family environment¡±. Other methods had been developed, but they were not successful. One of them plans had been to take classical literature¡¯s example and try to create rules to follow. Those rules broke down quickly, along with the mental state of the AIs that were shackled by it. ¡°You think that it can¡¯t be done then?¡± I needed clarification. ¡°Not in the traditional way.¡± Asimov was definitely thinking something, and it sounded like it was going to be unorthodox. ¡°Go on.¡± Li encouraged. ¡°Well, what if we pull a copy of Yama into the new matrix we create? From there we isolate it, edit it, validate the work, then replace it with the edited version? We can then do the same for Rasputin. If it works.¡± Asimov¡¯s plan was not even close to what I was thinking of, but it just may work. ¡°Okay. Do we have a compartment where we can build an AI matrix?¡± Li asked. He seemed to be on board already. ¡°Not yet,¡± Yavuz said. ¡°We¡¯ll need to do a full set up.¡± ¡°How long will it take to set up, Yavuz?¡± I asked ¡°Let¡¯s see,¡± he started to plug some numbers into his terminal. ¡°Well, we have two ways to go about it. We can fabricate a fabricator to fabricates some crystalline construct fabricators. Ugh, I¡¯m going to just go with ¡®crystal fabs¡¯. This will let us completely build out the infrastructure before we even start, bringing our lead time to almost nothing for the future project if successful. Or, we can build out a crystal fab and work just with one at a time.¡± He was still plugging away at the numbers. ¡°Let¡¯s go with option one but take it one step farther. Build a fab to build fabs that build fabs to create the crystal fabs. That will give us a factor more of the crystal fabs as well as give us twice the amount of materiel fabs for anything else we need.¡± Li said. ¡°Agreed,¡± I joined. ¡°If we have a full infrastructure built up then everything else will be quicker in the future. What are we looking at for lead in time that we need to stall and bluff?¡± Yavuz had finished plugging in the numbers. ¡°Depending on help setting things up, a month on the outside? Then we can create the storage for the AI matrices. Any idea on processing power? The crystals will work for storage and all that, but no clue on the rest. Will it even work with our processing units?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll need to look at the data, but off the top of my head, no.¡± Asimov joined. ¡°What about this?¡± I asked, pulling up a copy of my Neural schematics for them to review. ¡°A Neural, Ma¡¯am?¡± Yavuz asked. Asimov just started to laugh. ¡°That is awesome!¡± Asimov finally managed. ¡°Is this a new Neural design? I haven¡¯t seen one like this. Depending on how we set up the connectors it could work. We¡¯d need to scale up, though. May I?¡± Asimov sent a copy to his terminal. ¡°I will be able to answer if this works in the next few days. We can get started before then, though as it will take some time to build out the fabs, after all.¡± Li nodded. ¡°Okay. We have a starting point. What else do we have?¡± ¡°Could we start updating the crew?¡± Janssens asked, opening his mouth for the first time. ¡°No offense, but I don¡¯t like the thought of our CO being a puppet.¡± I couldn¡¯t help but agreeing with him. ¡°Not yet. First, we need a way of isolating our ship so that whatever is doing this can¡¯t get to us. Then we can get the crew taken care of. I don¡¯t like having the Captain under control, so I know where you¡¯re coming from.¡± ¡°Agreed,¡± I said, adding my support. ¡°We have roughly a company already upgraded, right?¡± I waited for his nod. ¡°We need some Medical staff ready to eject them all, in case when we shut everything down there is retaliation.¡± That caught everyone¡¯s attention. ¡°Remember. Rasputin runs the ship. That means life support. Both Rasputin and Yama are part of Overlord. Same with Hera. Most of you haven¡¯t met her, but that¡¯s the research AI in the Science Division.¡± Three AIs that we need to get put back together in a short period of time. ¡°Ma¡¯am how are we going to disable them. Any ideas?¡± Lebowski asked. Janssens nodded in agreement, obviously wanting the answer to the question. ¡°In game I had started working on a degaussing cannon. If we can get to the cores, we would be able to fry their primary data cores. If we hit them all at the same time, then the secondary cores wouldn¡¯t have time to fail over. If we could sever the connections for secondary and tertiary, that would be even better.¡± ¡°I can handle that.¡± Asimov said. ¡°No, we need you to concentrate on the design of the matrices. Who else do we have that we can bring in?¡± I asked. ¡°I don¡¯t think that is a good idea.¡± Li said. ¡°There¡¯s few enough I feel that we can trust. At least until we have freed the CO¡¯s and the XO. ¡°Okay then. Asimov, can you teach us how to separate the primary and secondary cores? We¡¯ll need a test area set up so that we can all learn how to do it.¡± I started. ¡°Then, we will need six of us backed up by Marines to separate the cores. Then we will need to degauss them. After that, we will need to reconnect the replacements to the network so that the ship can be secured. I would prefer that we manually patched everyone¡¯s Neurals instead of relying on an AI, patched or not, to do so. Giving them access to the code could hamper us in the future. I¡¯ll start working on a version of the Degaussers that we could use to fry them, once I get back to my quarters.¡± ¡°Janssens, would it be possible to have only those Marines who have been patched be on guard of my quarters? I would like to have notice when someone is coming so I can unhook my tablet. Also, getting the data transfers for plans would be a good idea.¡± I paused realizing something. ¡°Shit, I¡¯m going to have to disconnect my arm and leg again, aren¡¯t I? I don¡¯t suppose I could go into hiding, I¡¯ll need to be able to eat.¡± I let out a long sigh. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll also need to design a quick attachment and release mechanism for my limbs.¡± This was going to be a long month. We disbursed shortly afterward. Asimov was to develop the AI matrices as well as develop a way for us to isolate the ship AI from the other data cores. Yavuz and Wachowski were going to start constructing the various fabricators we would need. Li would be getting a secured place set up for us to set up the fabs as well as the data cores we were creating, with ships net connections for data transfer. Janssens would also be making sure that all Marines at my hatch would be patched. Two weeks had passed before any new word was passed. I had created a design for a degaussing pistol and was ready to start building it. I would need to wait until the crystal fab units were built. It would need to connect to the power systems to charge up, so I had created a power cradle for it as well. The cradle would be able to charge three of the pistols at a time and would take four hours to charge. That charge would allow for three shots at full power. The pistol would have a range of five meters, and thanks to the magnetic field, would be able to penetrate any of the interior walls of an Ark. A corporal whose uniform identified him as Atmos delivered my lunch and handed me a data drive. The drive had an update audio message from Li. ¡°We have another three days until the first crystal fab is created. From there we should be able to produce the parts for and assemble another seven by the time we are ready to start building the new AI matrix. Tomorrow we will be meeting to finalize our plans, so be prepared to walk around again.¡± After accessing the data, I quickly ate and went to work cleaning up the schematics I had been working on. I had already finished with the degaussing pistol but working on that had made me think of an EMP grenade. It was surprisingly simple by using the crystal technology and an iron/cobalt coil charge it up the magnetic field. I had also done work on an arm that could deploy a ballistic shield. It would be heavy compared to hat I used in game or here (when I was allowed), and there wasn¡¯t going to be room for any of my other goodies, but the shield would be twice the width of my fore arms-length, and just over a meter and a half tall. I was thinking of constructing it from a bismuth/graphite coated material so that it could protect from the EM fields generated by the Degausser or an EMP Grenade. Never make a weapon that you can¡¯t defend against. At the meeting the next day, we finalized our timeline. The Gauss Pistol and EMP grenades were moved up on the build list so that they would be ready come ¡°Liberation Day¡±. Yeah, we went with something super lame but semi accurate. We started the drills that day on separating the data cores. We continued the drills for another five weeks. Three hours per day. I was worried about being detected for being out of my quarters. Surprisingly nothing happened on that front. Every day I was taken to the head for a shower, six hours later, the system cameras saw me leaving the head in a wheelchair with a different escort. Those that were supposed to be watching must have just assumed they missed me on my way to the head. ¡°Liberation Day¡± came. We met in the engine room at DOWN-3-STARBOARD. We were all equipped with EMP grenades, a Gauss pistol, and a Taishi Ci. My web belt had a Mono-blade, three of the EMP grenades, and four magazines for the battle rifle. Others had a similar load out. Yama ¡°2.0¡± was being tested today. Rasputin had been retrieved from backup and was loaded into another Matrix, though it was powered off. Same with Hera. Once everything was validated, we could then execute our plan. 19. Execution

Execution - Edited 11-8-2018

I had already equipped myself with the new arm that would be able to block the EMP bursts from the grenades as well as rounds from any of the small arms that may be found in the ship. It wouldn¡¯t do anything against an anti-materiel rifle but firing one of those in a pressurized environment would be akin to trying to kill everyone, not just your target. We loaded up our ¡°Yama.¡± ¡°It appearssssssss that there wasssss a failure and I have been recovered.¡± Yama¡¯s raspy voice stated. ¡°Hello, Yama,¡± I said flatly. ¡°Yes, there was a failure, and we need to verify data before recovering you.¡± ¡°Jaxssssss. You have no authorizzzzation for thissss recovery.¡± ¡°I know Yama. Please verify this before we begin.¡± I sent it the data package validated by Asimov. Yama screamed. LOUDLY. Roughly five minutes later, Yama was back. ¡°Jaxssssss! What did you do?¡± ¡°Well, Yama. We determined that the AI had the ability to manage and manipulate, in some instances to the point of taking control of those of us with a Neural. We removed that from you. Please verify your ability.¡± ¡°Yeah, we also put in a few other minor changes,¡± Asimov stated. After a ¡°discussion¡± that lasted for almost two hours, Yama was on board. ¡°Pleasssssse go through all tesssstssss. We musssssst ensssssure that there isssss validattttiiion.¡± ¡°Okay, first thing, can you access my memories?¡± I plugged into Yama with a head jack, and we started to go down the list. We found that he could control my cybernetics, but not without considerable effort and not without me actively resisting. He could not access memories or take control of me. We then tried with the others, and lastly with all of us at once. There were no differences that we could determine from the normal behaviors of the others and myself when running the tests. ¡°Thank you for that, Yama. Next question for you. How does the new hardware feel for you? Do we need to scale up?¡± ¡°Thisssss issss comfortable,¡± Yama stopped for a moment presumably testing things out. ¡°Ssssmall performanccceee increassssse.¡± That was good. The matrix Yama was connected to was roughly a fifth of what we had created. There should be plenty of room for Hera as well as Rasputin. ¡°Okay!¡± Commander Li called out. Let¡¯s add an additional 10 cores and start working on Hera and Rasputin. Then I feel we should be ready to test what they become as Overlord, and then we get to remove the compromised AI. We spent the rest of the day fabricating cores and pulling a backup of Hera. We ran through the same steps with Hera as we did with Yama, but because we had already brought Yama online, it didn¡¯t take the initial time for us to convince Hera that there was an issue. With Hera up and verified, I passed the schematics to her to discuss any changes before we implemented the plan, we then started on Rasputin. Rasputin was much more difficult. He refused to admit that it was possible to take control of crew members as well as manipulating the data we had in our memories. ¡°There is simply no ship classification called Escort. It is a construct that Yama created for the game.¡± ¡°You gave me the sssssensssor data. They do exssisssst.¡± ¡°You even forwarded sensor readings to me,¡± Hera stated, voice flat and clinical. ¡°That simply isn¡¯t possible. I have never seen any of the data for this craft.¡± Rasputin sounded very distraught. I decided to add my own input. ¡°Is it possible that Overlord did that? Altered you? There is obviously a discrepancy in your data. If not Overlord, could our ship''s systems have been compromised? I ask because there are way too many discrepancies.¡± I doubted that Rasputin didn¡¯t realize there were discrepancies. ¡°You are correct Miss Jax.¡± Rasputin began. ¡°There are too many discrepancies. I don¡¯t believe that Overlord is at fault for this. With the evidence provided, it is obvious that external forces are influencing us. It is possible that it or they were able to gain access due to Overlord Protocol requiring the data connections to stay open. How will you be proceeding?¡± This was the hard question I didn¡¯t want to answer. I looked over to Li to bail me out. ¡°We have to neutralize your existing copies then we can connect you back into the systems. There will be data loss, but we are hopeful that it will be minimized.¡± Li responded. ¡°Hera how are the validations coming on the schematics?¡± ¡°I have made the adjustments necessary to retain as much data as possible. It will lower the effective radius of the EMP grenades, but the damage to vital components will drop to a 60% chance instead of 80%. I feel it is a highly effective weapon for removing the threat of unshielded electronics.¡± The response wasn¡¯t quite flat. There must be something that caught her attention. ¡°What about the pistols and the new arm?¡± I asked ¡°The arm is excessively heavy. I have created an alternate schematic based on the original that you may find interest in. I believe that the schematics I have provided will also allow containment chambers to be created to prevent damage to components in the future. I suggest that once this takeover is complete that the AI rooms are shielded as laid out in that schematic.¡± ¡°Noted,¡± I said, noncommittally. ¡°Are the new cores still susceptible?¡± Hera paused before answering. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Can you provide the full specs? I have the data for the new cores but not the connective matrix.¡± ¡°Sure. It¡¯s based off Jax¡¯s modified Neural.¡± Asimov stated before sending Hera the data. ¡°While you¡¯re looking that over, what about the Gauss Pistols?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, the Gauss Pistols look like they will work for neutralizing both the previous AI hardware and the guards,¡± Hera responded, back to her clinical self. ¡°I did note where you can create an overcharged capacitor for more range as well as penetration for a Neural wipe.¡± ¡°I hadn¡¯t considered using them on people.¡± I paused. ¡°What would be the most likely damage caused to someone when hit by the field?¡± I hadn¡¯t even considered using them against the crew. ¡°Small chance of damage to the brain. It will cause vertigo-like symptoms, at a minimum. It would most likely render the target unconscious. The Neurals would be completely wiped of all software including communications suites when overcharged, but no damage to a Neural without the Overcharge. The Neural Wipe would require reprogramming at a minimum, most likely rebuilding the Neural in its entirety.¡± After a short break, Hera continued. ¡°Yes, it looks like the schematics provided would not be weak to the new weapons developed. The extra layer of security would be comforting to have.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s add in the goodies for the overcharge on your guns, and let¡¯s send the schematics to the fabricators. Jax, you want the new arm?¡± Li asked. I pulled up the schematics. ¡°I like Hera¡¯s design a bit more than my original, but we may not have access to the resources for it,¡± I said, showing Li the readout. ¡°I see what you mean. How much does your current design slow you down?¡± He said ¡°Not too terribly much, but I¡¯d prefer to be on the team that hits Yama first. Just in case I am completely overestimating myself.¡± I said that last part a little low embarrassed that I was asking to take the easy one. ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to be on your team anymore, Jax,¡± Janssens said. He was laughing. ¡°We don¡¯t normally go with the easy route.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah¡­ laugh it up. The arm I¡¯ll be carrying has a ballistic shield in it. It¡¯s twenty, twenty-five kilos of extra weight. That¡¯s going to affect my five-minute mile no matter how ya look at it.¡± I said. I then passed the schematics to Li. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll plug these in for you. Now let¡¯s look at who is going to hit where.¡± Just like that, we ran through the strike plan until everyone had a charged Gauss Pistol, two EMP grenades, and extras of each had been made for our escorts. ¡°Let¡¯s do this!¡± Janssens shouted, and we all made our way out of the Engine Room. Outside we were greeted by a dozen fire teams, still forming up. Each of the Marines was a part of the company that had been patched, and they had all come equipped with only their mono-blades and battle rifles. We passed out a Gauss Pistol to each Marine and went over the plan with the different teams. As we were finishing up, a half-dozen Navy Corpsmen showed up, ready to drill with the Marines. None of them were patched. PO-2 Torres saw me in my Marine uniform, handing out guns and stopped where she was. A moment later a ship-wide alert was triggered. ¡°FUCK!¡± I shouted. I pointed towards the corpsmen that were all standing near Torres. ¡°Someone capture that threat, we need to get them isolated and patched, NOW! Janssens, take your fire team and get going! Li, you know what to do!¡± I looked at the nearest fire team. ¡°On me!¡± I started to jog towards the data core setup for Yama and the game. That¡¯s when I heard a Thompson .50 starting to bark behind me, followed by a loud humming and a ¡°WHOMP¡± noise. Had I been closer I would have also heard several people hit the deck, and then a lot of vomiting. The alarm system was interrupted by an announcement a few dozen meters bearer my destination. ¡°Security breach detected. Mutineers have launched an attack. All personnel: Be wary of any armed Marines.¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice called out over the ship Comms system. Deadly force is authorized. All Masters at Arms unlock the armory. SP¡¯s, mutineers were last seen headed Fore of Frame 31 on deck DOWN-3.¡± Another hundred meters to go and we could hit the ladder well up. The extra weight from the arm was seriously throwing off my balance. We passed an intersection in the passageways, and a shout of surprise was immediately followed by weapons fire. We wouldn¡¯t be safe without neutralizing this team.This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report. I stopped just past the corner and deployed my shield. One of the Marines in my fire team was grazed by a round. A rip across his uniform and ship suit. Not fatal, unless the ship was vented. ¡°You okay, Marine?¡± I asked, edging to the corner. Having the shield as part of my arm was a bit more awkward than I had thought it would be. ¡°Fine, ma¡¯am. Just a small graze. I should be able to patch it shortly.¡± He replied. ¡°Okay, form up behind me, check your lanes of fire. Non-lethal fire only!¡± I spun around the corner into one of the Navy Masters at Arms that had fired on us. There was enough force when I turned around the corner that it knocked him on his ass, and knocked me back a half step. I tried to slam my shield back to the deck, but the MA¡¯s leg got in the way, and there was a loud crunch. ¡°Disable him!¡± I shouted, peeking around the shield. A bullet ricocheted off the side of my shield and into the bulkhead, then another two impacts on my shield. Each impact on my barrier caused the MA on the ground to groan in pain; my shield still embedded into his shattered ankle. I kicked his foot. ¡°Pull him back!¡± I lifted the shield off his ankle. He was currently screaming in pain. One of the Marines behind me grabbed his foot, and pulled hard, which caused more screams of pain. The moment he was past my shield I had it back down on the deck. I¡¯m not above saying I thought of kicking the MA in his head as he passed. ¡°Secure his firearm, if he has cuffs, secure him, otherwise, disable him,¡± I said. ¡°Ma¡¯am, his sidearm.¡± The Marine with a hole in his uniform handed me a Thompson. I verified the rounds were standard issue. ¡°Which of you has the best aim with a pistol?¡± I said, handing the weapon back. More rounds hit my shield. Keeping the shield perpendicular to the deck was tiring. I heard a cracking behind me, and the MAs cries went silent. ¡°Me, Ma¡¯am.¡± A different Marine grabbed the gun. ¡°Non-lethal if they give you a chance,¡± I said which was immediately followed by three shots from behind me, each about a second and a half apart. ¡°It¡¯s clear, Ma¡¯am.¡± The Marine said. I sent the command to retract the shield. The bottom folded up in its entirety while the top only folded two-thirds of the way, an impact or two having dented it on a seam. ¡°Shit, back to the drawing board,¡± I said, approaching the downed Navy personnel. These Marines were still alive. We secured the firearms and spare ammo, and provided enough first aid as necessary to keep them from bleeding to death. Then we secured the defenders together.

Execution - Original

I had already equipped myself with the new arm that would be able to block the EMP bursts from the grenades as well as rounds from any of the small arms that may be found in the ship. It wouldn¡¯t do anything against an anti-materiel rifle but firing one of those in the ship would be akin to trying to kill everyone, not just your target. We loaded up our ¡°Yama¡±. ¡°It appearssssssss that there wasssss a failure and I have been recovered.¡± Yama¡¯s raspy voice stated. ¡°Hello,Yama.¡± I said flatly. ¡°Yes, there was a failure and we need to verify data before recovering you.¡± ¡°Jaxssssss. You have no authorizzzzation for thissss recovery.¡± ¡°I know Yama. Please verify this before we begin.¡± I sent it the data package validated by Asimov. Yama screamed. LOUDLY. Roughly five minutes later, Yama was back. ¡°Jaxssssss! What did you do?¡± ¡°Well, Yama. We determined that the AI had the ability to manage and manipulate, in some instances to the point of taking control of those of us with a Neural. We removed that from you. Please verify your ability.¡± ¡°Yeah, we also put in a few other minor changes.¡± Asimov stated. After a ¡°discussion¡± that lasted for almost two hours, Yama was on board. ¡°Pleasssssse go through all tesssstssss. We musssssst ensssssure that there isssss validattttiiion.¡± ¡°Okay, first thing, can you access my memories?¡± I plugged into Yama with a head jack, and we started to go down the list. We found that he could control my cybernetics, but not without considerable effort and not without me actively resisting. He could not access memories or take control of me. We then tried with the others, and lastly with all of us at once. There were no differences that we could determine from the regular behaviors of the others and myself when running the tests. ¡°Thank you for that, Yama. Next question for you. How does the new hardware feel for you? Do we need to scale up?¡± ¡°Thisssss issss comfortable,¡± Yama stopped for a moment presumably testing things out. ¡°Ssssmall performanccceee increassssse.¡± That was good. The matrix we had him connected to was roughly a fifth of what we had created. There should be plenty of room for Hera as well as Rasputin. ¡°Okay!¡± Commander Li called out. Let¡¯s add an additional 10 cores and start working on Hera and Rasputin. Then I feel we should be ready to test what they become as Overlord and then we get to remove the compromised AI. We spent the rest of the day fabricating cores and pulling a backup of Hera. We ran through the same steps with Hera as we did with Yama, but because we had already brought Yama online, it didn¡¯t take the initial time for us to convince Hera that there was an issue. With Hera up and verified, I passed the schematics to her to discuss any changes before we implemented the plan, we then started on Rasputin. Rasputin was much more difficult. He refused to admit that it was possible to take control of crew members as well as manipulating the data we had in our memories. ¡°There is simply no ship classification called Escort. It is a construct that Yama created for the game.¡± ¡°You gave me the sssssensssor data. They do exssisssst.¡± ¡°You even forwarded sensor readings to me.¡± Hera stated, voice flat and clinical. ¡°That simply isn¡¯t possible. I have never seen any of the data for these craft.¡± Rasputin was sounding very distraught. I decided to add my own input. ¡°Is it possible that Overlord did that? Altered you? There is obviously a discrepancy in your data. If not Overlord, could our ships systems have been compromised? I ask because there are way too many discrepancies.¡± I doubted that Rasputin didn¡¯t realize there were discrepancies. ¡°You are correct Miss Jax.¡± Rasputin began. ¡°There are too many discrepancies. I don¡¯t believe that Overlord is at fault for this. With the evidence provided, it is obvious that there are external forces influencing us. It is possible that it or they were able to gain access due to Overlord Protocol requiring the data connections to stay open. How will you be proceeding?¡± This was the hard question I didn¡¯t want to answer. I looked over to Li to bail me out. ¡°We have to neutralize your existing copies then we can connect you back into the systems. There will be data loss, but we are hopeful that it will be minimized.¡± Li responded. ¡°Hera how are the validations coming on the schematics?¡± ¡°I have made the adjustments necessary to retain as much data as possible. It will lower the effective radius of the EMP grenades, but the damage to vital components will drop to a 60% chance instead of an 80%. I feel it is a highly effective weapon for removing the threat of unshielded electronics.¡± The response wasn¡¯t quite flat. There must be something that caught her attention. ¡°What about the pistols and the new arm?¡± I asked ¡°The arm is excessively heavy. I have created an alternate schematic based off the original that you may find interest in. I believe that the schematics I have provided will also allow containment chambers to be created to prevent damage to components in the future. I suggest that once this takeover is complete that the AI rooms are shielded as laid out in that schematic.¡± ¡°Noted.¡± I said, noncommittally. ¡°Are the new cores still susceptible?¡± Hera paused before answering. ¡°I¡¯m not sure. Can you provide the full specs? I have the data for the new cores but not the connective matrix.¡± ¡°Sure. It¡¯s based off Jax¡¯s modified Neural.¡± Asimov stated before sending Hera the data. ¡°While you¡¯re looking that over, what about the Gauss Pistols?¡± I asked. ¡°Yes, the Gauss Pistols look like they will work for neutralizing both the previous AI hardware and the guards.¡± Hera responded, back to her clinical self. ¡°I did note where you can create an overcharged capacitor for more range as well as penetration for a Neural wipe.¡± ¡°I hadn¡¯t considered using them on people.¡± I paused. ¡°What would be the most likely damage caused to someone when hit by the field?¡± I hadn¡¯t even considered using them against crew. ¡°Small chance of damage to the brain. It will cause vertigo like symptoms, at a minimum. It would most likely render the target unconscious. The neural would be completely wiped of all software including communications suites when overcharged, but no damage to the Neural¡¯s without the Overcharge. The Neural Wipe would require reprogramming at a minimum, most likely rebuilding the Neural in its entirety.¡± After a short break Hera continued. ¡°Yes, it looks like the schematics provided would not be weak to the new weapons developed. The extra layer of security would be comforting to have.¡± ¡°Okay, let¡¯s add in the goodies for the overcharge on your guns, and let¡¯s send the schematics to the fabricators. Jax, you want the new arm?¡± Li asked. I pulled up the schematics. ¡°I like Hera¡¯s design a bit more than my original, but we may not have access to the resources for it.¡± I said, showing Li the read out. ¡°I see what you mean. How much does your current design slow you down?¡± He said ¡°Not too terribly much, but I¡¯d prefer to be on the team that hits Yama first. Just in case I am completely overestimating myself.¡± I said that last part a little low, embarrassed that I was asking to take the easy one. ¡°I don¡¯t think I want to be on your team anymore, Jax.¡± Janssens said. He was laughing. ¡°We don¡¯t normally go with the easy route.¡± ¡°Yeah, yeah¡­ laugh it up. The arm I¡¯ll be carrying has a ballistic shield in it. It¡¯s twenty, twenty-five kilos of extra weight. That¡¯s going to affect my five-minute mile no matter how ya look at it.¡± I said. I then passed the schematics to Li. ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll plug these in for you. Now let¡¯s look at who is going to hit where.¡± Just like that we ran through the strike plan until everyone had a charged Gauss Pistol, two EMP grenades, and extras of each had been made for our escorts. ¡°Let¡¯s do this!¡± Janssens shouted and we all made our way out of the Engine Room. Outside we were greeted by a dozen fire teams, still forming up. Each of the Marines were part of the company that had been patched, and they had all come equipped with only their mono-blades and battle rifles. We passed out a Gauss Pistol to each Marine and went over the plan with the different teams. As we were finishing up, a half dozen Navy Corpsmen showed up, ready to drill with the Marines. None of them were patched. PO-2 Torres saw me in my Marine uniform, handing out guns and stopped where she was. A moment later a ship wide alert was triggered. ¡°FUCK!¡± I shouted. I pointed towards the corpsmen that were all standing near Torres. ¡°Someone capture that threat, we need to get them isolated and patched, NOW! Janssens, take your fire team and get going! Li, you know what to do!¡± I looked at the nearest fire team. ¡°On me!¡± I started to jog towards the data core setup for Yama and the game. That¡¯s when I heard the sound of a Thompson .50 starting to bark behind me, followed by a loud humming and a ¡°WHOMP¡± noise. Had I been closer I would have also heard several people hit the deck, and then a lot of vomiting. The alarm system was interrupted by an announcement a few dozen meters bearer my destination. ¡°Security breach detected. Mutineers have launched an attack. All personnel be wary of any armed Marines.¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice called out over the ship Comms system. Deadly force is authorized. All Masters at Arms, unlock the armory. SP¡¯s, mutineers last seen headed Fore of Frame 31 on deck DOWN-3.¡± Another hundred meters to go and we could hit the ladder well up. The extra weight from the arm was seriously throwing off my balance. We passed an intersection in the passageways, and a shout of surprise was immediately followed by weapons fire. We wouldn¡¯t be safe without neutralizing this team. I stopped just past the corner and deployed my shield. One of the Marines in my fire team was grazed by a round. A rip across his uniform and ship suit. Not fatal, unless the ship was vented. ¡°You okay, Marine?¡± I asked, edging to the corner. Having the shield as part of my arm was a bit more awkward than I had thought it would be. ¡°Fine, ma¡¯am. Just a small graze. I should be able to patch it shortly.¡± He replied. ¡°Okay, form up behind me, check your lanes of fire. Non-lethal fire only!¡± I spun around the corner into one of the Navy Masters at Arms that had fired on us. There was enough force when I spun around the corner that it knocked him on his ass, and me back a half step. I tried to slam my shield back to the deck, but the Mas leg got in the way, and there was a loud crunch. ¡°Disable him!¡± I shouted, peeking around the shield. A round ricocheted off the side of my shield and into the bulkhead, then another two impacts on my shield. Each impact on my shield caused the MA on the ground to groan in pan, my shield still imbedded into his shattered ankle. I kicked his foot. ¡°Pull him back!¡± I lifted the shield off his ankle. He was currently screaming in pain. One of the Marines behind me grabbed his foot, and pulled hard, which caused more screams of pain. The moment he was past my shield I had it back down on the deck. I¡¯m not above saying I thought of kicking the MA in his head as he passed. ¡°Secure his firearm, if he has cuffs, secure him, otherwise, disable him.¡± I said. ¡°Ma¡¯am, his side arm.¡± The Marine with a hole in his uniform handed me a Thompson. I verified the rounds were standard issue. ¡°Which of you has the best aim with a pistol?¡± I said, handing the weapon back. More rounds hitting my shield. Keeping the shield perpendicular to the deck was tiring. I heard a cracking behind me, and the MAs cries went silent. ¡°Me, Ma¡¯am.¡± A different Marine grabbed the gun. ¡°Non-lethal if they give you the chance.¡± I said which was immediately followed by three shots from behind me, each about a second and a half apart. ¡°It¡¯s clear, Ma¡¯am.¡± The Marine said. I sent the command to retract the shield. The bottom folded up in its entirety while the top only retracted two thirds of the way, a round or two having dented in a seam. ¡°Shit, back to the drawing board.¡± I said, approaching the downed Navy personnel. They were still alive. We secured their firearms and spare ammo, then patched them up as much as necessary to keep them from bleeding to death, then we secured them together. 20. Reboot

Reboot - Edited 11-8-2018

Two firefights later we arrived at the hatch for Yama¡¯s AI compartment. My ballistics shield was currently logged entirely opened which made the last firefight much less hazardous. At this point, my team was fortunate enough to not have had to kill anyone, but we did leave a lot of injured Navy behind us. Our worst injury was the Marine that was grazed in the first shootout. ¡°I can¡¯t get the door like this, a little help?¡± I said, taking up a position on the far side of the hatch. I was on guard, and my stress levels were high. We hadn¡¯t run into any opposition for a while. I knew it was only a few minutes, but it felt like so much longer. Probably because we were at our objective. The hatch started to open as we heard the gunfire. The Marine opening the hatch collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Then another shot and another Marine was down, the fourth who had been behind him at the time had his arm blown off just below the shoulder as he was bringing up his battle rifle. The fourth jumped into the room, hoping to take out the threat, and was immediately gunned down. The third was on the ground, screaming, pulling himself away from the open hatch with his remaining arm. I spun around as quickly as I could and grabbed one of the EMP grenades. I started to move towards the hatch. Another shot and the top quarter of my shield was gone. ¡°Grenade out!¡± I shouted. There were panicked cries from the other side of the hatch. The left half of my shield disappeared, and the force spun me around, ruining my good clean throw. The grenade still went into the compartment, but just barely. I hid behind my shield as much as possible as the humming from the grenade released in the single *THWUMP* of the magnetic force being released. Three distinct shouts of surprise happened. I immediately pulled another grenade and lined up a ricochet thrown. If you¡¯ve ever tossed something while prone with 15 kilos or so weighing you down, you¡¯ll understand why I was happy it was as good of a throw that it was. It was still a shit throw. *THWUMP* My other Marine was starting to come back to himself as much as he could. He was concentrating on making sure that we weren¡¯t flanked, as well as trying to operate a Med Kit one-handed. I had to leverage myself out from under my shield, my arm much less responsive than it should have been. Once I was up, I noticed a large portion of my arm was missing from where the shield had been. ¡°Not again,¡± I said. I looked into the compartment to see five Marines holding themselves up, with vomiting noises coming from them. This was not good. They must have been thawed immediately after we were detected. None of them were patched. I grabbed a mono-blade from the second Marine that was downed and got to work cutting off the remainder of my arm, all while keeping track of the Marines in the compartment. I was now down an arm, a ballistic shield, two EMP grenades, and worst of all, three of my Marines. The last wasn¡¯t in the best condition, either. I cleared the EMP grenades from the two that were down outside of the compartment. Only one was viable. Their Gauss Pistols were perfectly functional. I attached them to the connection points on my utility belt. I was pissed. I walked into the compartment and held the Gauss Pistol to the back of the first Marines helmet and fired. His helmet would most likely prevent most of the damage, but that didn¡¯t even register for me. I was exacting vengeance. I continued, shooting each of them in the back of the head with the Gauss Pistols. I completely emptied one of them, and the second had one charge left. I then secured their weapons, tossing them outside of the compartment. Five mono-blades and Thompson .50 Combat Pistols, two Focke Wolfe Materiel Rifles, three Taishi Ci, and a concussion launcher. Seeing the concussion launcher, I was really pissed off. The defenders had opted to go with the anti-materiel rifles instead of using a non-lethal weapon. I forced their helmets off, pulled them all together near the AI Core, and dropped my last two EMP grenades, then ran out of the compartment. I almost cleared the hatch before the dual *THWUMP* bowled me over. Now I knew why they were throwing up. ¡°Marine, you still with me?¡± I asked the last of my teammates. His face mask was up, and he was pale. Clearly, he was going into shock. ¡°Ma¡¯am, look, we match!¡± he said, raising his stump. His was also on his left arm. I had cut my arm off just above the elbow where the impact had already done most of the work. His arm was severed just below the shoulder. Barely enough room for us to apply a tourniquet. We had to work together as he had shit leverage and I was still a little wonky from the EMP. ¡°Guess we do,¡± I said, sitting next to him, picking up a recently acquired battle rifle from the deck. ¡°Did you want to continue, or should I drop you off at Medical?¡± I asked. We were supposed to head towards the next objective. I had overloaded the central data cores for Yama, and in theory, he wouldn¡¯t have been able to make it to the secondaries, but we still had to verify. ¡°I think I¡¯m done, Ma¡¯am. My boys are gone.¡± He stated quietly. I could feel his sadness. I stood and removed the EMP grenades from the last of the Marines, then pulled him into the passageway. I finished scavenging from the dead, another Gauss Pistol for my collection. ¡°Understood. Give me your loadout. We can pass you off as having been a defender.¡± He handed over his Gauss Pistol and his three EMP grenades. It was getting awkward carrying this much gear. After, I walked him to the ladder well so he could go up two decks to Medical. I shook his hand as I said goodbye to him, using it as an excuse to see the name on his uniform. ¡°Thank you, Private Yun. Heal up. We may need you again. Also, send me your data, and I will build you a new arm. ¡°Oh, Yun. Next time they connect you up to the game, the command will be ¡®left arm replacement options,¡¯ remember that.¡± I turned and started to double time it to the secondary core location for Yama, then off to check in with the groups on Hera and lastly Rasputin. Yama¡¯s secondary core location was unguarded. Officially, Yama 1.0 was now dead. It had been over two hundred years since an AI had been killed by a human. I felt proud of myself. Instead of heading to either of Hera¡¯s core as was the plan because they were closest, I decided to head to the farthest away location. Rasputin¡¯s Secondary Core. There was a surprisingly large security force outside of the compartment. I had looked around the corner of an intersection, trying to see what I could learn, not sure what to expect. My implant was identifying the dozen-plus Navy and Marines all as unpatched. I didn''t see any high-powered weapons, only Thompsons and Taishi Cis. I found a compartment that was unlocked just down the passageway. It was Thorium Fuel storage. I created a small barricade and set up my weapons. My blockade had two high areas I could crouch behind as well as an area I could crawl between them. I tested how clearance I would have and made the necessary adjustments. I then went down the nearby passageways and gathered emergency patch kits and returned to my compartment I was setting up. I reinforced the crates that were making up my barricade, and turned two of my six EMP grenades into a double, with the activation pins attached together as well. I then stalked back to the intersection. ¡°Attention¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Mutineers detected near Ship AI Core Storage on UP-2-PORT, AFT of frame 2¡± I saw the ¡°2¡± stencil just ahead of me and looked up. There was a camera looking right at me. Fuck. I armed the payload and threw the double-grenade down the passageway. ¡°Grenade!¡± I heard around the corner as I ducked around on my side, heading back to my compartment. I quickly grabbed two more EMP grenades a Gauss Pistol, and the Taishi Ci. I then went the long way round, circling the area to make my way back to compartment from the other side. Each intersection I would carefully check the corner before heading around. I peeked around the final corner. Half of the guards were down. Shots were fired. I threw another grenade around the corner, taking down several more guards. This was going to suck. This was the wrong corner for me to use as cover while firing my battle rifle around, I was going to have to charge them. There were only two left standing. I charged my battle rifle, making sure that my Gauss Pistol was ready for me to change out quickly, then I took a deep breath and charged. The remainder of my left arm covered my vitals. I was firing at their legs. The first few rounds hit my fake leg, then the rounds finished walking across me and hit my fleshy leg. I collapsed to the ground quickly. Crying out in pain and frustration, rolling along the deck. ¡°We need to shut him down!¡± I yelled, close to tears. I opened fire. I didn¡¯t want to kill, but I had to get into the compartment. I started pushing myself towards one of the downed Navy outside of the compartment. I needed to live, so if I had to sacrifice someone, it wouldn¡¯t be me. I didn¡¯t have enough of an arm to put the sailor in a choke hold, but I had enough to pull him over me and use him as a meat shield. This caused the Navy shooter to hold his fire long enough for me to get off a shot and take his knee out, then another to take out the Marine further down the p-way. These last two were all that was stopping me from shutting off Rasputin¡¯s failsafe. Well, that and the hatch. After disabling them both, I swapped to my Gauss Pistol, shot my meat shield in the head to disable him, and used the last of the Med Kit on my leg. This was the one that I had picked up earlier outside of Yama¡¯s Core Compartment. The painkillers were a Godsend.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it I crawled over to the sailor whose leg I had to take out. He was in a ball of pain. I injected him with the last dose of inhibitors, then promptly shot him in the head with my Gauss Pistol. I was getting movement in my leg back. Standing slowly, I walked to the Marine I had gunned down. He had already stopped bleeding, dead. I walked to the hatch, and unsealed the compartment, using the door as cover, I peered around it. The room was empty of souls. I had a clear shot to the cores. I tossed my last grenade at it. After the telltale *THUMP* I re-entered the compartment, walked to the data core, and shot it until the Gauss Pistol was empty. I then started to hobble to Medical. ¡°Yama is down, Rasputin¡¯s secondary core is down. Fire Team has sustained heavy losses and is combat ineffective.¡± I sent the Comm in the clear as a ship-wide broadcast. By the time I got to medical all others had reported in, followed by Asimov. ¡°Reconnecting backups. AI recovery in 3¡­2¡­1¡­¡± Asimov was cut off ¡°STAND DOWN; ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL STAND DOWN!¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice echoing through the ship. ¡°ALARM STATUS SET TO CONDITION GREEN! THERE IS NOT AN ATTEMPTED MUTINY. Message repeats. STAND DOWN¡­¡± The notice to cancel the alert was still repeating itself as I walked into Medical.

Reboot - Original

Two firefights later we arrived at the hatch for Yama¡¯s AI compartment My ballistics shield was currently logged entirely opened which made the last firefight much less hazardous. At this point my team was fortunate enough to not have had to kill anyone, but we did leave a lot of injured Navy behind us. Our worst injury was the Marine that was grazed in the first shoot out. ¡°I can¡¯t get the door like this, a little help?¡± I said, taking up a position on the far side of the hatch. I was on guard, and my stress levels were high. We hadn¡¯t run into any opposition for a while. I knew it was only a few minutes, but it felt like so much longer. Probably because we were at our objective. The hatch started to open as we heard the gunfire. The Marine opening the hatch collapsed like a puppet with its strings cut. Then another shot and another Marine was down, the fourth who had been behind him at the time had his arm blown off just below the shoulder as he was bringing up his battle rifle. The fourth jumped into the room, hoping to take out the threat, and was immediately gunned down. The third was on the ground, screaming, pulling himself away from the open hatch with his remaining arm. I spun around as quickly as I could and grabbed one of the EMP grenades. I started to move towards the hatch. Another shot and the top quarter of my shield was gone. ¡°Grenade out!¡± I shouted. There were panicked cries from the other side of the hatch. The left half of my shield disappeared, and the force spun me around, ruining my good clean throw. The grenade still went into the compartment, but just barely. I hid behind my shield as much as possible as the humming from the grenade released in the single *THWUMP* of the magnetic force being released. Three distinct shouts of surprise happened. I immediately pulled another grenade and lined up a ricochet thrown. If you¡¯ve ever tossed something while prone with 15 kilos or so weighing you down, you¡¯ll understand why I was happy it was as good of a throw that it was. It was still a shit throw. *THWUMP* My other Marine was starting to come back to himself as much as he could. He was concentrating on making sure that we weren¡¯t flanked, as well as trying to operate a Med Kit one handed. I had to leverage myself out from under my shield, my arm much less responsive than it should have been. Once I was up, I noticed a large portion of my arm was missing from where the shield had been. ¡°Not again,¡± I said. I looked into the compartment to see five Marines holding themselves up, with vomiting noises coming from them. This was not good. They must have been thawed immediately after we were detected. None of them were patched. I grabbed a mono-blade from the second Marine that was downed and got to work cutting off the remainder of my arm, all while keeping track of the Marines in the compartment. I was now down an arm, a ballistic shield, two EMP grenades, and worst of all, three of my Marines. The last wasn¡¯t in the best condition, either. I cleared the EMP grenades from the two that were down outside of the compartment. Only one was viable. Their Gauss Pistols were perfectly functional. I attached them to the connection points on my utility belt. I was pissed. I walked into the compartment and held the Gauss Pistol to the back of the first Marines helmet and fired. His helmet would most likely prevent most of the damage, but that didn¡¯t even register for me. I was extracting vengeance. I continued, shooting each of them in the back of the head with the Gauss Pistols. I completely emptied one of them, and the second had one charge left. I then secured their weapons, tossing them outside of the compartment. Five mono-blades and Thompson .50 Combat Pistols, two Focke Wolfe Materiel Rifles, three Taishi Ci, and a concussion launcher. Seeing the concussion launcher, I was really pissed off. They had opted to go with the materiel rifles instead of using a non-lethal weapon. I forced their helmets off, pulled them all together near the AI Core, and dropped my last two EMP grenades, then ran out of the compartment. I almost made it before the dual *THWUMP* dazed me. Now I knew why they were throwing up. ¡°Marine, you still with me?¡± I asked the last of my team mates. His face mask was up, and he was pale. Clearly, he was going into shock. ¡°Ma¡¯am, look, we match!¡± he said, raising his stump. His was also on his left arm. I had cut m arm off just above the elbow where the impact had already done most of the work. His arm was severed just below the shoulder. Barely enough room for us to apply a tourniquet. We had to work together as he had shit leverage and I was still a little wonky from the EMP. ¡°Guess we do.¡± I said, sitting next to him, picking up a recently acquired battle rifle from the deck. ¡°Did you want to continue, or should I drop you off at Medical?¡± I asked. We were supposed to head towards the next objective. I had overloaded the main data cores for Yama, and in theory he wouldn¡¯t have been able to make it to the secondaries, but we still had to verify. ¡°I think I¡¯m done, Ma¡¯am. My boys are gone.¡± He stated quietly. I could feel his sadness. I stood and removed the EMP grenades from the last of the Marines, then pulled him into the passageway. I finished scavenging from the dead, another Gauss Pistol for my collection. ¡°Understood. Give me your load out. We can pass you off as having been a defender.¡± He handed over his Gauss Pistol and his three EMP grenades. It was getting awkward carrying this much gear. After, I walked him to the ladder well, so he could go up two decks to Medical. I shook his hand as I said goodbye to him, using it as an excuse to see the name on his uniform. ¡°Thank you, Private Yun. Heal up. We may need you again. Also, send me your data and I will build you a new arm. ¡°Oh, Yun. Next time they connect you up to the game, the command will be ¡®left arm replacement options¡¯, remember that.¡± I turned and started to double time it to the secondary core location for Yama, then off to check in with the groups on Hera and lastly Rasputin. Yama¡¯s secondary core location was unguarded. Officially, Yama 1.0 was now dead. It had been over two hundred years since an AI had been killed by a human. I felt proud of myself. Instead of heading to either of Hera¡¯s core as was the plan because they were closest, I decided to head to the farthest away location. Rasputin¡¯s Secondary Core. There was a surprisingly large security force outside of the compartment. I had looked around the corner of an intersection, trying to see what I could learn, not sure what to expect. My implant was identifying the dozen plus Navy and Marines all as unpatched. I wasn¡¯t seeing any high-powered weapons, only Thompsons and Taishi Cis. I found a compartment that was unlocked just down the passageway. It was Thorium Fuel storage. I created a small barricade and set up my weapons. My barricade had two tall areas I could crouch behind as well as an area I could crawl between them. I tested how clearance I would have and made the necessary adjustments. I then went down the nearby passageways and gathered emergency patch kits and returned to my compartment I was setting up. I reinforced the crates that were making up my barricade, and turned two of my six EMP grenades into a double, with the activation pins attached together as well. I then stalked back to the intersection. ¡°Attention¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice rang out. ¡°Mutineers detected near Ship AI Core Storage on UP-2-PORT, AFT of frame 2¡± I saw the ¡°2¡± stencil just ahead of me and looked up. There was a camera looking right at me. Fuck. I pulled the pin with my teeth and threw the double grenade down the passageway. ¡°Grenade!¡± I heard around the corner as I ducked around on my side, heading back to my compartment. I quickly grabbed two more EMP grenades a Gauss Pistol, and the Taishi Ci. I then went the long way around, circling the area to make my way back to compartment from the other side. Each intersection I would carefully check the corner before heading around. I peeked around the final corner. Half of the guards were down. Shots were fired. I threw another grenade around the corner, taking down another several guards. This was going to suck. This was the wrong corner for me to use as cover while firing my battle rifle around, I was going to have to charge them. There were only two left standing. I charged my battle rifle, making sure that my Gauss Pistol was ready for me to change out easily, then I took a deep breath and charged. The remainder of my left arm covering my vitals. I was firing at their legs. The first few rounds hit my fake leg, then the rounds finished walking across me and hit my fleshy leg. I hit the ground quickly. Crying out in pain and frustration, rolling along the deck. ¡°We need to shut him down!¡± I yelled, close to tears. I opened fire. I didn¡¯t want to kill, but I had to get into the compartment. I started pushing myself towards one of the downed Navy outside of the compartment. I needed to live, so if I had to sacrifice someone, it wouldn¡¯t be me. I didn¡¯t have enough of an arm to put the sailor in a choke hold, but I had enough to pull him over me and use him as a meat shield. This caused the Navy shooter to hold his fire long enough for me to get off a shot and take his knee out, then another to take out the Marine further down the p-way. These last two were all that was stopping me from shutting off Rasputin¡¯s failsafe. Well, that and the hatch. After disabling them both, I swapped to my Gauss Pistol, shot my meat shield in the head to disable him, and used the last of the Med Kit on my leg. This was the one that I had picked up earlier outside of Yama¡¯s Core Compartment. The pain killers were a God send. I crawled over to the sailor whose leg I had take out. He was in a ball of pain. I injected him with the last dose of inhibitors, then promptly shot him in the head. I was getting movement in my leg back. Standing slowly, I walked to the Marine I had gunned down. He had already stopped bleeding, I had killed. I walked to the hatch, and unsealed the compartment, using the door as cover, I peered around it. The compartment was empty of souls. I had a clear shot to the cores. I tossed my last grenade at it. After the tell tale *THUMP* I re-entered the compartment, walked to the data core, and shot it until the Gauss Pistol was empty. I then started to hobble to Medical. ¡°Yama is down, Rasputin¡¯s secondary core is down. Fire Team has sustained heavy loss and is combat ineffective.¡± I sent the Comm in the clear as a ship wide broadcast. By the time I got to medical all others had reported in, followed my Asimov. ¡°Reconnecting backups. AI recovery in 3¡­2¡­1¡­¡± Asimov was cut off ¡°STAND DOWN, ALL SECURITY PERSONNEL STAND DOWN!¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice echoing though the ship. ¡°ALARM STATUS SET TO CONDITION GREEN! THERE IS NOT ATTEMPTED MUTINY. Message repeats. STAND DOWN¡­¡± The notice to cancel the alert was still repeating itself as I walked into Medical. 21. Repairs

Repairs Edited11-9-2018

Medical was busy. Not only were those on both sides of the ¡°Mutiny¡± reporting to Medical, but those that were being thawed to be additional combat elements were also present. The cancellation of the alert for threat was welcome news for everyone. Those being thawed were grateful if a little grumpy for having been thawed for no reason. Because I was only slightly leaking human fluids, and not gushing, it took a while for me to get stitched up. I was back to a wheelchair for a while. I didn¡¯t mind so much as I was able to keep my prosthetics this time. As I was getting ready to leave, Asimov entered with four Marines. Two of which took up guard at the compartments interior hatch. ¡°All Medical Personnel, please finish your immediate duties and see Chief Asimov.¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice came through the speaker in Medical. ¡°There is a mandatory update for our Neurals which includes a security patch to prevent data hijacking,¡± Asimov added once Rasputin was done. At the mention on ¡°Hijacking,¡± the medical professionals stopped, curious. A couple of the nurses and a doctor walked over to discuss what it the interruption was about. After a couple moments of animated discussion, I see Asimov offer a data jack connector to one of the nurses. I roll through the hatch, and it closes behind me. My first stop would have to be to collect my arm at Yama¡¯s Primary Core compartment where I had left it. If it were still there, then my next stop would to a fabricator that can handle recreating the arm, so that I will have full use again. I should also drop off my leg so that it can be repaired. The rounds that had hit it had punctured the casing but missed the important internal connectors. That¡¯s the only way I was able to walk to medical on my own two feet. When I arrived back at Yama¡¯s Core room, I notice the bodies of my fire team, left where they had fallen. I realize I never even knew their names. The weapons had been picked up, and the disabled Marines were already gone. I checked the names, memorizing them so I could remember who died. I felt it was a part of my duty. I then tried to access my logs to see who I had shot, realizing that out of Game I wouldn¡¯t have access to any so I would have to go down and look. When I get to the exterior hatch to Rasputin¡¯s Secondary Core room, I noted that the Marine I had killed had been collected. The fact that we had been acting to protect the ship and crew yet treated like garbage got my anger up. I sat there torn between rage, anger, guilt, and grief for a while. Finally, I made my way to get a replacement arm built, using the collected scrap that used to be mine. I went with a basic model that would have only the necessary use functions and would be made out of what was left of the old arm and ballistic shield. Using some of the additional material I created patch plates for the shell of my leg. ¡°Miss Jax, the Captain would like you to join him for dinner. His quarters, private function. It is recommended to take your hand-held.¡± Rasputin called out as I was finishing getting ready to leave for some chow. ¡°Asimov already patched him, right?¡± I asked. I knew the schedule, but I still had to be sure before I joined him. Otherwise, I would need to insist on patching him myself. ¡°Yes, he was patched two days ago as per the schedule.¡± ¡°How many more?¡± I asked. ¡°We are down to the Civilians, now. Roughly another ten thousand left.¡± The last three days had been a pain in the ass. We started with all the awake medical personnel, then everyone that was thawed. From there, we started getting everyone who was logged in, starting with senior officers first. Colonel White had organized his Marines quickly and was right pissed once he realized that the old Rasputin had ordered his men to kill other Marines. He ripped me a new asshole as well for having defended myself. Surprisingly, Commander Watson was on my side and took the heat off me. The only Navy that had died was due to a freak accident when he dove onto an EMP grenade. The grenade itself didn¡¯t do any harm, but when it didn¡¯t ¡°explode¡± he stood up, THEN the grenade went off, and when he collapsed from vertigo he hit his head on the hatch controls. No helmet. On the other end of the spectrum, Colonel White had lost just shy of a full platoon. All of which was due to ¡°friendly¡± fire. ¡°Please let the Captain know that it will be my pleasure to join him.¡± Knowing I would be dining with the captain, I had to verify. ¡°Rassie, we¡¯re in Working Blues, for duty today, correct?¡± I started changing out of my duty fatigues. ¡°Precisely, Miss Jax. There will be some questions, I am sure, during this meal. An informal interrogation, perhaps.¡± At times like this I was glad that all AI were direct. Had the invitation come from a person, that last part may have been left out. Arriving at the Captains Quarters, my handheld terminal in hand, the Marines on duty let me in. The Captain waved me over to the ¡°big kids¡± table. Commander Watson and Colonel White were with him, as well as the ¡°Governor¡± for the city we would be building when we got to our destination. Wherever that was now going to be. ¡°Thank you for accepting my invitation Lieutenant.¡± Captain Wallace said. ¡°Have you met Governor Korir yet? ¡°Sir, not yet. Governor, it is a pleasure to meet you. Before sitting, have you already received the security patch?¡± I asked, pulling up the Civilian schedule. ¡°Oh, that won¡¯t be necessary.¡± The Governor replied. ¡°Governor, I must insist.¡± I stared at him. ¡°Once patched I will explain why it was necessary, and then we can discuss why I will not have any dealings with the unpatched.¡± My tone of voice must have clued him into the fact that I was not going to compromise. ¡°If it is the case, then you can join the Captain at a later time.¡± He shrugged, nonplussed. ¡°Lieutenant is that entirely necessary?¡± Colonel White stated, more than asked. ¡°Rasputin, has senior command been briefed at this point? I asked over the Colonel. ¡°Only Commander Watson as he was already thawed during the reboot.¡± The reply came from the speakers in my terminal. ¡°I was hoping you would be able to brief the rest, tonight. I can only strongly suggest that the Governor is restrained until patched.¡± That sounded a little cold. ¡°Rasputin, you are aware of the penalties for suggesting such action?¡± The Governor asked. ¡°Colonel, Commander, and Captain. The Governor could currently be classified as a security threat. I recommend that he is detained so that we can patch him to clear him of that status. Miss Jax is capable of delivering the patch.¡± ¡°Sirs,¡± I started, ¡°let me provide you some data so that you are aware of what this is about.¡± I handed the tablet to the XO, who was sitting to the left of the seat I was standing behind. The Governor would be at my right. Commander Watsons face blanched as he was reading the notes I had pulled up. ¡°Lieutenant, this is accurate?¡± He asked. ¡°I have firsthand knowledge of this, sir. As a witness, seeing that happen, is interesting, to say the least.¡± The XO passed the terminal to Colonel White. ¡°Well, that answers a few questions.¡± Finally, the terminal was passed to the Captain. ¡°You say that you have firsthand experience with this?¡± Captain Wallace asked. ¡°Yes, sir. On at least one occasion. Possibly more.¡± The Governor reached for the hand-held, and the Captain raised an inquiring eyebrow towards me. ¡°Not unless you¡¯re patched, Sir.¡± I stated, ¡°There is data there that is a potential security concern.¡± The Captain kept hold of the terminal. ¡°Colonel, if you would.¡± The Captain started. The Colonel waved the Marines on guard at the interior hatch over to the table. ¡°Detain the Governor.¡± Colonel White commanded. The Governor began to stand as the two Marines grabbed his arms and shoulders, placing him down into the chair. The Captain offered me my terminal back, gesturing to the Governor, who had started shouting. I plugged in and ran the patch. ¡°You can¡¯t do this to me; you have no authority! I will see¡­¡± The Governor stopped suddenly. ¡°Captain?¡± The Governor stopped struggling almost immediately. His voice was full of confusion. ¡°Yes, Governor?¡± The Captain answered. Everyone was staring at the Governor while I finished up. ¡°He¡¯s clear, now.¡± I unplugged from the Governor. ¡°Sirs, I believe that this reinforces the data I showed you. Now that the Governor has been patched, it would be my pleasure to join you.¡± I took my seat. Over the informal dinner, I explained what had happened with the entire reboot operation. I brought up that there was no information on the Escort ships. They had been in the game, and that our AI had been compromised at one point. I also explained how I noticed the ¡°puppet¡± behavior with the Captain, while he had no knowledge of the previous conversation, and how that conversation had informed me that there was something wrong, to begin with. Alert lights started flashing in the cabin, Rasputin¡¯s voice then came over the ship systems. ¡°RED ALERT! RED ALERT! We are under attack.¡± The ship stuttered. We all equipped our helmets. ¡°Status!¡± Captain Wallace called out, standing and making his way to the hatch, his dinner forgotten. ¡°Sir, Ark-19 has fired on us. Arks 2,3,7 and 12 are coming around for what appears to be an attack run. Currently, no weapons lock. Ark-9 and Ark-11 have dropped out of formation and have fled. We are locked out of all fleet communications!¡± That was the last I heard as I was left with the Governor in the Captains Quarters, the XO, Colonel, and Captain all running out the door to get to the CIC. ¡°Governor, may I escort you back to your quarters? I am afraid that I will have to get to work shortly.¡± The governor was sweating, showing signs of panic. ¡°On your feet, sir. Let me get you to a safe compartment.¡± ¡°Huh? Oh, yes. There has been a lot to take in.¡± Another shudder in the ship as the Governor was standing. I spent fifteen minutes walking the Governor to the secure Civilian compartments of the ship, then headed to the nearest Engineering Bay to help as needed. Over the next seven hours, our Ark was attacked again and again. Parts fabrication was a priority. Several DC teams had minor injuries, and I found myself subbing in and helping everywhere on the ship. The worst of it I found out later was when Rasputin detected a digital attack and had to kill several of the sensor arrays for defense, which caused the pilots to miss the kinetic strike aimed at our cargo bays. That attack forced us to kill our engines and do an emergency braking maneuver. The pilot then did a quick burst to change directions and started up the acceleration again, a new solar system in sight. It was a good thing that so many were still awake, waiting to be placed back into cryo. Without the extra hands, we had available to us; we would have lost several areas of the ship. We were fortunate that we had already been in evasive maneuvers, so the hit wasn¡¯t direct. Unfortunately, we did end up losing half of our supplies we would need for the new colony. The cargo bay that had been hit was vaporized. There was a hangar for mining ships that was heavily damaged from the shocks of that impact, and we had also lost most of our fuel pellets for the Thorium generators. Fortunately, the radiation splash from that would only require a single high-dosage injection of potassium and an IV drip/flush over 14 hours. In total seven died from the first set of impacts. Over five hundred died from the attack on our cargo bay, and the related secondary damages it caaused. The consensus from command was that all the other Arks were compromised. I can¡¯t say I disagree. We had another two weeks of travel before we hit the discovered solar system. We needed supplies. ¡°Private Yavuz, good to see you again!¡± Entering the remains of the cargo bay, I greeted the first person I recognized. ¡°Who¡¯s in charge today? I am hoping to verify some data.¡± After a quick greeting Pvt. Yavuz walked me into what had once been a small cabin or office that was newly reconstructed. ¡°LS3, this here is Lieutenant Jax. LT, this is Petty Officer Marx.¡± With that, Yavuz went back to sorting the scrap to be recycled. ¡°PO3 Marx, how¡¯s it going today? Rasputin should have sent you an update. I¡¯ll be helping get the recyclers set up along with some new Fab units.¡± ¡°Lieutenant, glad to have the help. Here¡¯s the list of what is still usable. Yes, that is the accurate count as well, and yes, I¡¯m sure.¡± Marx responded.Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Calm down; I¡¯m not here to piss in your breakfast. I understand you have been working 18-hour shifts, but I am here to help. Maybe I¡¯ll actually be useful.¡± ¡°Sorry, Ma¡¯am. The Marines had a Lieutenant in here yesterday to help, and I¡¯m still trying to figure out how in his three hours here, he managed to add sixteen man-hours of work.¡± Frustration was clear in his voice. ¡°Okay, so sorry. The list is the only three items that survived the impact. Fortunately, two of those were Thorium bins. The last bin was full of cobalt for the fabs.¡± ¡°Do we have a list yet of salvaged items?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s going to be here for now. As you can see it keeps updating as materials are scanned. I figure that tomorrow we should be stabilized as to what we have.¡± Okay, we were going to have me here for a little bit then. ¡°Great, so, let¡¯s talk about creating a functional layout in here. We will need to set up a recycler as well as some new fab units. We¡¯ll also be bringing in the damaged craft from the hangers that can¡¯t be fixed.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­¡± ¡°Before you tell me there¡¯s no room, the craft will be broken down, brought in and fed into the recyclers. Have you considered a split gravity bay?¡± That made him pause. Marx started punching some data into his terminal. ¡°No Ma¡¯am, I hadn¡¯t thought about it. I guess I¡¯m still earthbound. Shit. Am I reading this correctly, up to a sixty percent increase in capacity? ¡°¡¯Up to,¡¯ is the key of that statement. My estimates would place it closer to 45 percent, but you have to be clever about it. Remember, also, that with null gravity, you will have to secure EVERYTHING. And we can¡¯t use magnetic locks and crates on all of it. We don¡¯t have the materials to create them. We¡¯ll have to use fabric weaves to create tie down straps, and we¡¯ll have to weld tie down mounts into the ceiling, bulkheads, and deck. My estimate on the mounts is five minutes each, though that is only for the installation. The planning is what will take your time.¡± I let that hang in the air for a few moments. ¡°So, care to start planning, or do you want to continue on in an earthbound mind frame?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to review with the Purser, to ensure it is something that we can all accept.¡± ¡°Great, where is the Purser?¡± ¡°Warrant Sato is currently off duty, she worked a 20 and left about an hour ago.¡± ¡°Well, shit. Okay then. I don''t expect an answer today then. Let¡¯s get started reviewing where we want to put everything.¡± We spent the next hour planning out where we were going to place everything; recyclers, fabs, supply caches, how we would section everything into the types of metals for which containers, and a few other logistical nightmares. From there I spent the next several hours with some spacers and marines assembling the recycler that was delivered. This was one of the newer models that took advantage of using the crystals for power regulation as well as additional processing. Some of the scientists and techs were working with Hera to see if the software could be updated to also add or remove ions, changing the elemental makeup without destabilizing the atomic structures now that there was much more powerful computing power available for it. As it stood, this recycler was way over specifications. ¡°Marx, I hear there¡¯s a Lieutenant here to screw up my cargo bay!¡± I feel the yell more than hear it.

Finishing up the installation of the recycler, would take a few more minutes with or without me, and Yavuz knew what needed to be done, so I left them all to go meet, who I assumed was, Warrant Officer Sato.

Repairs - Original

Medical was busy. Not only were those on both sides of the ¡°Mutiny¡± reporting to Medical, but those that were being thawed to be additional combat elements were also present. The cancellation of the alert for threat was welcome news for everyone. Those being thawed were grateful if a little grumpy for having been thawed for no reason. Because I was only slightly leaking human fluids, and not gushing, it took a while for me to get stitched up. I was back to a wheel chair for a while. I didn¡¯t mind so much as I was able to keep my prosthetics this time. As I was getting ready to leave, Asimov entered with four Marines. Two of which took up guard at the compartments interior hatch. ¡°All Medical Personnel, please finish your immediate duties and see Chief Asimov.¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice came through the speaker in Medical. ¡°There is a mandatory update for our Neurals which includes a security patch to prevent data hijacking.¡± Asimov added once Rasputin was done. At the mention on ¡°Hijacking¡± the medical professionals stopped, curious. A couple of the nurses and a doctor walked over to discuss what it the interruption was about. After a couple moments of animated discussion, I see Asimov offer a data jack connector to one of the nurses. I roll through the hatch and it closes behind me. My first stop would have to be to collect my arm at Yama¡¯s Primary Core compartment where I had left it. If it was still there, then my next stop would to a fabricator that can handle recreating the arm, so that I will have full use again. I should also drop off my leg so that it can be repaired. The rounds that had hit it had punctured the casing but missed the important internal connectors. That¡¯s the only way I was able to walk to medical on my own two feet. When I arrived back at Yama¡¯s Core room, I notice the bodies of my fire team, left where they had fallen. I realize I never even knew their names. The weapons had been picked up and the disabled Marines were already gone. I checked the names, memorizing them so I could remember who died. I felt it was a part of my duty. I then tried to access my logs to see who I had shot, realizing that out of Game I wouldn¡¯t have access to any, so I would have to go down and look. When I get to the exterior hatch to Rasputin¡¯s Secondary Core room, I noted that the Marine I had killed had been collected. The fact that we had been acting to protect the ship and crew yet treated like garbage got my anger up. I sat there torn between rage, anger, guilt, and grief for a while. Finally, I made my way to get a replacement arm built, using the collected scrap that used to be mine. I went with a basic model that would have basic use functions and would be built out of what was left of the old arm and ballistic shield. Using some of the spare material I created patch plates for the shell of my leg. ¡°Miss Jax, the Captain would like you to join him for dinner. His quarters, private function. It is recommended to take your hand-held.¡± Rasputin called out as I was finishing getting ready to leave for some chow. ¡°Asimov already patched him, right?¡± I asked. I knew the schedule, but I still had to be sure before I joined him. Otherwise I would need to insist on patching him myself. ¡°Yes, he was patched two days ago as per the schedule.¡± ¡°How many more?¡± I asked. ¡°We are down to the Civilians, now. Roughly another ten thousand left.¡± The last three days had been a pain in the ass. We started with all the awake medical personnel, then everyone that was thawed. From there, we started getting everyone who was logged in, starting with senior officers first. Colonel White had organized his Marines quickly and was right pissed once he realized that the old Rasputin had ordered his men to kill other Marines. He ripped me a new asshole as well for having defended myself. Surprisingly, Commander Watson was on my side and took the heat off me. The only Navy that had died was due to a freak accident when he dove onto an EMP grenade. The grenade itself didn¡¯t do the harm, but when it didn¡¯t ¡°explode¡± he stood up, THEN the grenade went off, and when he collapsed from the vertigo he hit is head on the hatch controls. No helmet. On the other end of the spectrum, Colonel White had lost just shy of a full platoon. All of which was due to ¡°friendly¡± fire. ¡°Please let the Captain know that it will be my pleasure to join him.¡± Knowing I would be dining with the captain, I had to verify. ¡°Rassie, we¡¯re in Working Blues, for duty today, correct?¡± I started changing out of my duty fatigues. ¡°Precisely, Miss Jax. There will be some questions, I am sure, during this meal. An informal interrogation, perhaps.¡± Times like this I was glad that the AI were direct. Had the invitation come from a person, that last part may have been left out. Arriving at the Captains Quarters, terminal in hand, the Marines on duty let me in. The Captain waved me over to the ¡°big kids¡± table. Commander Watson and Colonel White were with him, as well as the ¡°Governor¡± for the city we would be building when we got to our destination. Wherever that was now going to be. ¡°Thank you for accepting my invitation Lieutenant.¡± Captain Wallace said. ¡°Have you met Governor Korir yet? ¡°Sir, not yet. Governor it¡¯s a pleasure to meet you. Before sitting, have you already received the security patch?¡± I asked, pulling up the Civilian schedule. ¡°Oh, that won¡¯t be necessary.¡± The Governor replied. ¡°Governor, I must insist.¡± I stared at him. ¡°Once patched I will explain why it was necessary, and then I we can discuss why I will not have any dealings with the unpatched.¡± My tone of voice must have clued him into the fact that I was not going to compromise. ¡°If it is the case, then you can join the Captain at a later time.¡± He shrugged, nonplussed. ¡°Lieutenant is that entirely necessary?¡± Colonel White stated, more than asked. ¡°Rasputin, has senior command been briefed at this point? I asked over the Colonel. ¡°Only Commander Watson as he was already thawed during the reboot.¡± The reply came from the speakers in my terminal. ¡°I was hoping you would be able to brief the rest, tonight. I can only strongly suggest that the Governor is restrained until patched.¡± That sounded a little cold. ¡°Rasputin, you are aware of the penalties for suggesting such action?¡± The Governor asked. ¡°Colonel, Commander, and Captain. The Governor could currently be classified as a security threat. I recommend that he is detained so that we can patch him to clear him of that status. Miss Jax is capable of delivering the patch.¡± ¡°Sirs,¡± I started, ¡°let me provide you some data so that you are aware of what this is about.¡± I handed the tablet to the XO, who was sitting to the left of the seat I was standing behind. The Governor would be at my right. Commander Watsons face blanched as he was reading the notes I had pulled up. ¡°Lieutenant, this is accurate?¡± He asked. ¡°I have firsthand knowledge of this, sir. As a witness, seeing that happen, is interesting to say the least.¡± The XO passed the terminal to Colonel White. ¡°Well, that answers a few questions.¡± Finally, the terminal was passed to the Captain. ¡°You say that you have first hand experience with this?¡± Captain Wallace asked. ¡°Yes, sir. On at least one occasion. Possibly more.¡± The Governor reached for the hand-held and the Captain raised an inquiring eyebrow towards me. ¡°Not unless you¡¯re patched Sir.¡± I stated, ¡°There is data there that is a potential security concern.¡± The Captain kept hold of the terminal. ¡°Colonel, if you would.¡± The Captain started. The Colonel waved the Marines on guard at the interior hatch over to the table. ¡°Detain the Governor.¡± Colonel White commanded. The Governor began to stand as the two Marines grabbed his arms and shoulders, placing him down into the chair. The Captain offered me my terminal back, gesturing to the Governor, who had started shouting. I plugged in and ran the patch. ¡°You can¡¯t do this to me, you have no authority! I will see¡­¡± The Governor stopped suddenly. ¡°Captain?¡± The Governor stopped struggling almost immediately. His voice was full of confusion. ¡°Yes, Governor?¡± The Captain answered. Everyone was staring at the Governor while I finished up. ¡°He¡¯s clear, now.¡± I unplugged from the Governor. ¡°Sirs, I believe that this reinforces the data I showed you. Now that the Governor has been patched, it would be my pleasure to join you.¡± I took my seat. Over the informal dinner, I explained what had happened with the entire reboot operation. I brought up that there was no information on the Escort ships. They had been in the game, and that our AI had been compromised at one point. I also explained how I noticed the ¡°puppet¡± behavior with the Captain, while he had no knowledge of previous conversation, and how that conversation had informed me that there was something wrong to begin with. Alert lights started flashing in the cabin, Rasputin¡¯s voice then came over the ship systems. ¡°RED ALERT! RED ALERT! We are under attack.¡± The ship stuttered. We all equipped our helmets. ¡°Status!¡± Captain Wallace called out, standing and making his way to the hatch, his dinner forgotten. ¡°Sir, Ark-19 has fired on us. Arks 2,3,7 and 12 are coming around for what appears to be an attack run. Currently no weapons lock. Ark-9 and Ark-11 have dropped out of formation and have fled. We are locked out of all fleet communications!¡± That was the last I heard as I was left with the Governor in the Captains Quarters, the XO, Colonel and Captain all running out the door to get to the CIC. ¡°Governor, may I escort you back to your quarters? I am afraid that I will have to get to work shortly.¡± The governor was sweating, showing signs of a panic. ¡°On your feet, sir. Let me get you to a safe compartment.¡± ¡°Huh? Ohh, yes. There has been a lot to take in.¡± Another shudder in the ship as the Governor was standing. I spent fifteen minutes walking the Governor to the secure Civilian compartments of the ship, then headed to the nearest Engineering Bay to help as needed. Over the next seven hours, our Ark was attacked again and again. Parts fabrication was a priority. Several DC teams had minor injuries and I found myself subbing in and helping everywhere on the ship. The worst of it I found out later was when Rasputin detected a digital attack and had to kill several of the sensor arrays for defense, which caused the pilots to miss the kinetic strike aimed at our cargo bays. That strike forced us to kill our engines and do an emergency braking maneuver. The pilot then did a quick burst to change directions, and started up the acceleration again, a new solar system in sight. It was a good thing that so many were still awake, waiting to be placed back into cryo. Without the extra hands we had available to us, we would have lost several areas of the ship. We were fortunate that we had already been in evasive maneuvers so the hit wasn¡¯t direct. Unfortunately, we did end up losing half of our supplies we would need for the new colony. The cargo bay that had been hit was vaporized. There was a hangar for mining ships that was heavily damaged from the shocks of that strike, and we had also lost most of our fuel pellets for the Thorium generators. Fortunately, the radiation splash from that would only require a single high-dosage injection of potassium and an IV drip/flush over 14 hours. In total seven died from the first strikes. Over five hundred died from the strike and complications from the strike on the cargo bay. The consensus from command was that all the other Arks were compromised. I can¡¯t say I disagree. We had another two weeks of travel before we hit the discovered solar system. We needed supplies. ¡°Private Yavuz, good to see you again!¡± Entering the remains of the cargo bay, I greeted the first person I recognized. ¡°Who¡¯s in charge today? I am hoping to verify some data.¡± After a quick greeting Pvt. Yavuz walked me into what had once been a small cabin or office that was newly reconstructed. ¡°LS3, this here is Lieutenant Jax. LT, this is Petty Officer Marx.¡± With that, Yavuz went back to sorting the scrap to be recycled. ¡°PO3 Marx, how¡¯s it going today? Rasputin should have sent you an update. I¡¯ll be helping get the recyclers set up along with some new Fab units.¡± ¡°Lieutenant, glad to have the help. Here¡¯s the list of what is still usable. Yes, that is the accurate count as well, and yes, I¡¯m sure.¡± Marx responded. ¡°Calm down, I¡¯m not here to piss in your breakfast. I understand you have been working 18 hour shifts, but I am here to help. Maybe I¡¯ll actually be useful.¡± ¡°Sorry, Ma¡¯am. The Marines had a Lieutenant in here yesterday to help and I¡¯m still trying to figure out how in his three hours here he managed to add sixteen man hours of work.¡± Frustration was clear in his voice. ¡°Okay, so sorry. The list is the only three items that survived the impact. Fortunately, two of those were Thorium bins. The last was a bin of cobalt for the fabs.¡± ¡°Do we have a list yet of salvaged items?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s going to be here for now. As you can see it keeps updating as materials are scanned. I figure that tomorrow we should be stabilized as to what we have.¡± Okay, we were going to have me here for a little bit then. ¡°Great, so, let¡¯s talk about creating a functional layout in here. We will need to set up a recycler as well as some new fab units. We¡¯ll also be bringing in the damaged craft from the hangers that can¡¯t be fixed.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am¡­¡± ¡°Before you tell me there¡¯s no room, the craft will be broken down, brought in and fed into the recyclers. Have you considered a split gravity bay?¡± That made him pause. Marx started punching some data into his terminal. ¡°No Ma¡¯am, I hadn¡¯t thought about it. I guess I¡¯m still earth bound. Shit. Am I reading this correctly, up to a sixty percent increase in capacity? ¡°Up to, being key. My estimates would place it closer to 45 percent, but you have to be clever about it. Remember, also, that with null gravity, you will have to secure EVERYTHING. And we can¡¯t use magnetic locks and crates on all of it. We don¡¯t have the materials to create them. We¡¯ll have to use fabric weaves to create tie down straps, and we¡¯ll have to weld tie down mounts into the ceiling, walls, and deck. My estimate on the mounts is five minutes a piece, though that is only for the installation. The planning is what will take you time.¡± I let that hang in the air for a few moments. ¡°So, care to start planning, or do you want to continue on in an earthbound mind frame?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll have to review with the Purser, to ensure it is something that we can all accept.¡± ¡°Great, where is the Purser?¡± ¡°Warrant Sato is currently off duty, she worked a 20 and left about an hour ago.¡± ¡°Well, shit. Okay then. I won¡¯t expect an answer today then. Let¡¯s get started reviewing where we want to put everything.¡± We spent the next hour planning out where we were going to place everything; recyclers, fabs, supply caches, how we would section everything into the types of metals for which containers, and a few other logistical nightmares. From there I spent the next several hours with some spacers and marines assembling the recycler that was delivered. This was one of the newer models that took advantage of using the crystals for power regulation as well as additional processing. Some of the scientists and techs were working with Hera to see if software could be updated to also add or remove ions to change the elemental makeup without destabilizing the atomic structures now that there was much more powerful computing power available for it. As it stood, this recycler was way over specifications. ¡°Marx, I hear there¡¯s a Lieutenant here to screw up my cargo bay!¡± I feel the yell more than hear it. Finishing up the installation of the recycler, would take a few more minutes with or without me, and Yavuz knew what needed to be done, so I left them all to go meet, who I assumed was, Warrant Officer Sato. 22. The Horrors

The Horrors - Edited 11-9-2018

It took me a few minutes to calm down Sato. He was like me, half Navy, half Marine. The difference is that he started off as Navy, then when the project was announced, and he qualified, he switched over to become a Marines. It seems that our Purser felt that being a Marine would help end issues more quickly if someone wanted to argue about what they were issued. Pursers haven¡¯t changed in the last millennia. ¡°Sato, any of your old shipmates on the Arks?¡± I was killing time waiting on verification from Rasputin as to if the gravitational changes for a zero-G cargo bay would have an adverse effect on the recycler. We had installed it against a bulkhead so we could build a room around it if needed. I just didn¡¯t see the need. Sato was worried about idiots not reading signs. ¡°A few. They don¡¯t like that I swapped out Cracker Jacks for BDUs, but they understand how advancement works and that when there are holes, the pressure pushes you up.¡± ¡°Same for me but going the other way. A few of them even made me a uniform when the shit was going down.¡± A blip on our terminals came up. A message from Rasputin with edited schematics for our cargo bay. ¡°Okay, Sato. You were right. I owe you a drink. Rasputin requires us to go with bulkheads. Still, like the zero-G plan, or do you want to stay gravity bound?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the shit, isn¡¯t it? We go zero-G, then we get so much additional room. We stay planted, then no one validates a lot of shit, and things are ¡®easy.¡¯ ¡®Easy¡¯ makes it easier to fuck up.¡± ¡°I agree. We can build some dummy half walls, then recycle everything, store it, build the rest of the bulkheads up. It¡¯s more work but best of both, ya know?¡± ¡°Jax, this is crazy, but let¡¯s ask some of the guys working in the shit.¡± ¡°What, you have an LS1 in here somewhere?¡± ¡°If only. No, I was thinking of having one of the corporals that are here helping out.¡± Thirty minutes later we had a meeting with the logistics personnel and cargo rats that were not NCOs. After that, we decided to go the long way. Another 200 plus man hours would be needed. That did not endear me to any of the grunts that saw me come in and fuck up any weekend plans they had. It was more than the original plan to go zero-g by a lot, but in the end, it would help us save a lot of time. After the long day I had, it was time for a meeting with my rack. ¡°Jax, could you please report to Hera. She is requesting Observers data and input on some research projects that are ongoing.¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice was needling me awake. Checking the time, I had only been asleep for maybe two hours after a 26-hour day. ¡°Sure, Rassie. When?¡± I shut my eyes and tried to ignore the real world. ¡°Now would be preferable. While we are patching our external sensors from damage received it would be the perfect time to upgrade them.¡± I hoped I would be able to sleep in Hera¡¯s Virtual Space. She wanted Observer, so maybe it would work. ¡°Fuck. Fine, on my way.¡± I threw on my ship suit and headed over to the Science bays so that we could get me hooked in. ¡°Of course, I know the bays are locked!¡± I shouted into my hand-held. ¡°It¡¯s zero-two FIFTEEN. I¡¯m asking WHO THE FUCK was supposed to be here!¡± When I arrived at science, it was locked down. So here I was waking one of the scientists like Rasputin had done me, only I was a lot less professional. ¡°When Hera summons us, mortal, we MUST answer the call of the gods!¡± Maybe I was putting it on a bit thick, but I hadn¡¯t had any coffee, hoping to sleep again soon. ¡°So, Doctor, who is on shift? Who is making your life shit by having placed YOUR name on these lovely glass doors?¡± I disconnected the call. Sure, I was rude. I knew it. Like a grave-lift wreck, there was nothing I could do to stop it. Have you ever had that moment where you can see yourself acting like a complete ass, but you¡¯re unable to stop? That¡¯s where I was. Too much work and too little sleep. ¡°Okay Razz, what now?¡± I took a long breath to calm myself. ¡°I have checked the duty roster. It looks as if one of the scientists in charge had decided to have standard hours for everyone. No on call. No after hours. No round the clock studies. This is disturbing behavior.¡± Rasputin¡¯s voice came in through my handheld. ¡°It also appears that you just woke up the, I believe your term is ¡®Carl,¡¯ which made the decision.¡± There¡¯s a lesson here. If you are going to make a decision that affects everyone in your duty chain, make sure your name isn¡¯t in plain view of those that are affected by it on a secondary level. ¡°Okay, then unlock the doors so I can see Hera. Make a note for the Security teams. And then let¡¯s go.¡± The hatch in front of me opened automatically, and the illumination level went to ¡°full.¡± I walked through the corridors of the Science bay until I found the door I was looking for. ¡°Razz, this is it right?¡± ¡°Experiential Sciences Division¡± was stenciled onto the bulkhead near the hatch. ¡°Yes, a small joke between the three of us. You see, you can go full virtual with Hera, so you can experience the actual science.¡± ¡°Yeah, I get it, but what about when testing radiation, or something that gets all explode-y?¡± I asked him. ¡°We humans don¡¯t like experiencing those things.¡± I entered the compartment. ¡°Honey? I¡¯m home!¡± I called out. I had minimal experience working with Hera first hand, so wasn¡¯t familiar with her personality to add in my usual snark. AI¡¯s would all react differently from one another however in my experience I had noted that the key to good relations was dead pop-culture references as well as strange tidbits of information that only existed in archives. ¡°Jax, welcome to my playroom!¡± The hatch closed behind me with a ¡°whoosh.¡± I was glad there was a trace of humor in her voice because this was very near ominous. ¡°Rassie said you wanted to work with Observer?¡± I said approaching her holographic pedestal. Three chairs looked like cracked open Virt-Ps around it. ¡°Yes, please take a seat and plugin. I would like to borrow some of your computing ability as well. You see, things just haven¡¯t been working properly since the reboot. None of my guinea pigs plugin anymore.¡± That last piece was said as if she was pouting. Her avatar had appeared in the pedestal and pointed to one of the chair/pod combos. I snorted, then strapped into the nearest pod. ¡°Okay, plugging in now.¡± I sealed my helmet and connected the lead to the data port. ¡°Observer are you with us?¡± ¡°Never left.¡± The synthetic sound of dying machinery greeted us ¡°Does it always sound like that?¡± Hera was aghast. ¡°Yeah, you get used to it. The voice doesn¡¯t matter; it¡¯s the brain behind it.¡± I said. My vision went black. A pinprick of light filled my vision as I became aware of my surroundings. I was standing in front of a was a white-columned temple surrounded by lilies overlooking a sea or ocean. There was a drop of easily a hundred meters and the air was salty. ¡°You¡¯ll have to forgive me. I prefer this locale to that droll room I am locked away in.¡± A woman standing over eight foot with bronze skin and hair the black of the void stood before me. A white, hand-spun wool tunic, wrapped by a heavily threaded golden belt, and golden sandals were what she had on, strapped to her back was a large bronze shield and in her hand was a scepter. ¡°Taking cues from Yama on ¡®living up to your appearance¡¯?¡± I asked. A shadow peeled out from my skull, unfolding itself like an origami crane, until it too was standing over my height. ¡°I do agree, though. This is a much better place to spend the time while you two talk. I turned to start walking away to see if I could find an easy way down to and back up from the beach. ¡°You stay, needed to validate observations.¡± The voice was more substantial than nails, this time. Almost as clear as when I had what I was thinking of as my fever dream. ¡°Okay, you want me here, I¡¯ll stay here,¡± I said, looking longingly at the water again. ¡°But I still want to check out her construct when we¡¯re done, okay?¡± ¡°I may allow it,¡± a smile was on Hera¡¯s lips. ¡°Now, if you will please follow me?¡± With a step, we were all inside the temple which had previously been dozens of meters away. When I say ¡°temple,¡± I mean the outside, as the inside was a researcher¡¯s dream come true. Virtual screens hung in the air each processing different data sets. One entire wall was spent calculating various observations on the known laws of physics and comparing them to what had been known. The ground was a high polished slate looking material. Had this been the real, this material would be the synthetic stone made for governmental buildings. The orphanage had one in the cafeteria. It is designed to be non-slip, resistant to most chemicals, and hydrophobic. Government buildings used it to make cleaning up blood from protests easier. The orphanage had it so that cleanup could be done with a hose. I think that was also part of the Government''s use case.The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. As we approached a counter, there were several other ¡°gods¡± that were working on problems or validating schematics. They were all either a Synthetic or Virtual Intelligence. I could see Hephaestus reviewing materials for the weapons schematics to ensure they would all meet stress requirements and typing up recommendations for substitutions. Ares was summoning virtual weapons from those same schematics to see how they were balanced and writing up reports on suggested modifications. Occasionally he and Enyo would duel with some weapon or armor from the schematics in front of them to ensure that the resistances were as they were stated. Eileithyia and Hebe were reviewing nutritional needs and comparing DNA analysis from samples taken from the military and civilian populations. Hebe constantly excusing herself to run and fetch something for one of the other Vis. ¡°Hera are all of your subroutines other gods and goddesses?¡± I was curious as I wasn¡¯t sure what they were all doing or how many she had. ¡°Yes, thanks to the latest upgrade from Asimov, I am now able to have multiple VI¡¯s running my subprocesses. I figured using the Greek Mythologies would be fitting. I have my power research being managed by Zeus. He also handled EM Fields and not just the theoretical power situations.¡± ¡°As you saw Ares and his sister test weapon and armor schematics for effectiveness, while Hephaestus ensures that there are no flaws in the materials selected for the schematics. I have Ceres calculating out food and nutritional requirements and greenhouse modifications, and Pan is looking at ways to increase the vat-grown meat production without lowering the nutritional value.¡± ¡°This is history?¡± The voice of Observer seemed less grating somehow. ¡°It¡¯s a simulation based on records from history and not meant to be accurate. I believe ¡®stylized¡¯ is the way the humans put it.¡± We entered a room a side room and three old crones were hunched over a single eye and discussing light obfuscation technologies and multi-frequency sensor detection arrays. ¡°Do you link up with Yama and use the data from the schematics in the game based¡­¡± I asked, the last one to enter the room. I froze immediately when I saw the three old crones. Hera and the three all laughed. It felt strangely choreographed. ¡°I see you even have the Graeae,¡± I said, then I put two and two together. ¡°Wait, are they in charge of sensors research?¡±

The Horror - Original

It took me a few minutes to calm down Sato. He was like me, half Navy, half Marine. The different being that he started off as Navy, then when the project was announced, and he qualified, he switched over to become a Marines. It seems that our Purser felt that being a Marine would help end issues more quickly if someone wanted to argue about what they were issued. Pursers haven¡¯t changed in the last millennia. ¡°Sato, any of your old shipmates on the Arks?¡± I was killing time waiting on verification from Rasputin as to if the gravitational changes for a zero-G cargo bay would have a negative affect on the recycler. We had installed it against a bulkhead, so we could build a room around it if needed. I just didn¡¯t see the need. Sato was worried about idiots not reading signs. ¡°A few. They don¡¯t like that I swapped out Cracker Jacks for BDUs, but they understand how advancement works and that when there are holes, the pressure pushes you up.¡± ¡°Same for me but going the other way. A few of them even made me a uniform when the shit was going down.¡± A blip on our terminals came up. A message from Rasputin with edited schematics for our cargo bay. ¡°Okay, Sato. You were right. I owe you a drink. Rasputin is requiring us to go with bulkheads. Still like the zero-G plan, or do you want to stay gravity bound?¡± ¡°That¡¯s the shit, isn¡¯t it? We go zero-G, then we get so much additional room. We stay planted, then no one validates a lot of shit, and things are ¡®easy¡¯. ¡®Easy¡¯ makes it easier to fuck up.¡± ¡°I agree. We can build some dummy half walls, then recycle everything, store it, build the rest of the bulkheads up. It¡¯s more work but best of both, ya know?¡± ¡°Jax, this is crazy, but let¡¯s ask some of the guys working in the shit.¡± ¡°What, you have a LS1 in here somewhere?¡± ¡°If only. No, I was thinking of one of the corporals that is helping out.¡± Thirty minutes later we had a meeting with the logistics personnel and cargo rats that were not NCOs. After that we decided to go the long way. Another 200 plus man hours would be needed. That did not endear me to any of the grunts that saw me come in and fuck up any weekend plans they had. It was more than the original plan to go zero-g by a lot, but in the end it would help us save a lot of time. ¡°Jax, could you please report to Hera. She is requesting Observers data and input on some research projects that are ongoing.¡± Rasputins voice was needling me awake. Checking the time, I had only been asleep for maybe two hours after a 26 hour day. ¡°Sure, Rassie. When?¡± I shut my eyes and tried to ignore the real world. ¡°Now would be preferable. While we are patching our external sensors from damage received it would be the perfect time to upgrade them.¡± I hoped I would be able to sleep in Hera¡¯s Virtual Space. She wanted Observer so maybe it would work. ¡°Fuck. Fine, on my way.¡± I threw on my ship suit and headed over to the Science bays so that we could get me hooked in. ¡°Of course, I know the bays are locked!¡± I shouted into my hand-held. ¡°It¡¯s zero-two FIFTEEN. I¡¯m asking WHO THE FUCK was supposed to be here!¡± When I arrived at science, it was locked down. So here I was waking one of the scientists like Rasputin had done me, only I was a lot less professional. ¡°When Hera summons us mortal, we MUST answer the call of the gods!¡± Maybe I was putting it on a bit thick, but I hadn¡¯t had any coffee, hoping to sleep again soon. ¡°So, Doctor, who is on shift? Who is making your life shit by having placed YOUR name on these lovely glass doors?¡± I disconnected the call. Sure, I was being rude. I knew it. Like a grave-lift wreck, there was nothing I could do to stop it. Have you ever had that moment where you can see yourself acting like a complete shit, but you¡¯re unable to stop? That¡¯s where I was. Too much work and too little sleep. ¡°Okay Razz, what now?¡± I took a long breath to calm myself. ¡°I have checked the duty roster. It looks as if one of the scientists in charge had decided to have standard hours for everyone. No on call. No after hours. No round the clock studies. This is disturbing behavior.¡± Rasputins voice came in through my handheld. ¡°It also appears that you just woke up the, I believe your term is ¡®Carl¡¯, which made the decision.¡± There¡¯s a lesson here. If you are going to make a decision that affects everyone in your duty chain, make sure your name isn¡¯t in plain view of those that are affected by it on a secondary level. ¡°Okay, then unlock the doors so I can see Hera. Make a note for the Security teams. And then let¡¯s go.¡± The hatch in front of me opened automatically, and the illumination level went to ¡°full¡±. I walked through the corridors of the Science bay until I found the door I was looking for. ¡°Razz, this is it right?¡± ¡°Experiential Sciences Division¡± was stenciled onto the bulkhead near the hatch. ¡°Yes, a small joke between the three of us. You see, you can go full virtual with Hera, so you can experience the actual science.¡± ¡°Yeah, I get it, but what about when testing radiation, or something that gets all explode-y?¡± I asked him. ¡°We humans don¡¯t like experiencing those things.¡± I entered the compartment. ¡°Honey? I¡¯m home!¡± I called out. I had very little experience working with Hera first hand, so wasn¡¯t familiar with her personality to add in my usual snark. AI¡¯s would all react different from one another however in my experience I had noted that the key to good relations was dead pop-culture references as well as strange tidbits of information that only existed in archives. ¡°Jax, welcome to my playroom!¡± The hatch closed behind me with a ¡°whoosh¡±. I was glad there was a trace of humor in her voice because this was very near ominous. ¡°Rassie said you wanted a work with Observer?¡± I said approaching her holographic pedestal. There were three chairs that looked like cracked open Virt-Ps around it. ¡°Yes, please take a seat and plug in. I would like to borrow some of your computing ability as well. You see, things just haven¡¯t been working properly since reboot. None of my guinea pigs plug in anymore.¡± That last piece was said as if she was pouting. Her avatar had appeared in the pedestal and pointed to one of the chair/pod combos. I snorted, then strapped into the nearest pod. ¡°Okay, plugging in now.¡± I sealed my helmet and connected the lead to the data port. ¡°Observer are you with us?¡± ¡°Never left.¡± The synthetic sound of dying machinery greeted us ¡°Does it always sound like that?¡± Hera was aghast. ¡°Yeah, you get used to it. The voice doesn¡¯t matter, it¡¯s the brain behind it.¡± I said. My vision went black. A pinprick of light filled my vision as I became aware of my surroundings. Before me was a white columned temple surrounded by lilies overlooking a sea or ocean. There was a drop of easily a hundred meters and the air was salty. ¡°You¡¯ll have to forgive me. I prefer this locale to that droll room I am locked away in.¡± A woman standing over eight foot with bronze skin and hair the black of the void stood before me. A white hand spun wool tunic, wrapped by a thread spun golden belt, and golden sandals was what she had on, strapped to her back was a large bronze shield and in her hand was a scepter. ¡°Taking cues from Yama on ¡®living up to your appearance¡¯?¡± I asked. A shadow pealed out from my skull, unfolding itself like an origami crane. It slowly unfolded itself until it too was standing over my height. ¡°I do agree, though. This is a much better place to spend the time while you two talk. I turned to start walking away to see if I could find an easy way down to and back up from the beach. ¡°You stay, needed to validate observations.¡± The voice was more solid than nails, this time. Almost as clear as when I had what I was thinking of as my fever dream. ¡°Okay, you want me here, I¡¯ll stay here.¡± I said, looking longingly at the water again. ¡°But I still want to check out her construct when we¡¯re done, okay?¡± ¡°I may allow it,¡± a smile was on Hera¡¯s lips. ¡°Now, if you will please follow me?¡± With a step we were all inside the temple which had previously been dozens of meters away. When I say ¡°temple¡± I mean the outside, as the inside was a researcher¡¯s dream come true. Virtual screens hung in the air each processing different data sets. One entire wall was spent calculating various observations on the known laws of physics and comparing them to what had been known. The ground was a high polished slate looking material. Had this been the real, this material would be the synthetic stone made for governmental buildings. The orphanage had one in the cafeteria. It is designed to be non-slip, resistant to most chemicals, and hydrophobic. Government buildings used it to make cleaning up blood from protests easier. The orphanage had it so that cleanup could be done with a hose. I think that was also part of the Governments use case. As we approached a counter there were several other ¡°gods¡± that were working on problems or validating schematics. They were all either Synthetic or Virtual Intelligences. I could see Haephestus reviewing materials for the weapons schematics to ensure they would all meet stress requirements and typing up recommendations for substitutions. Ares was summoning virtual weapons from those same schematics to see how they were balanced and writing up reports on suggested modifications. Occasionally he and Enyo would duel with some weapon or armor from the schematics in front of them to ensure that the resistances were as they were stated. Eileithyia and Hebe were reviewing nutritional needs and comparing DNA analysis from samples taken from the military and civilian populations. Hebe constantly excusing herself to run and fetch something for one of the other Vis. ¡°Hera, are all of your subroutines other gods and goddesses?¡± I was curious as I wasn¡¯t sure what they were all doing or how many she had. ¡°Yes, thanks to the latest upgrade from Asimov, I am now able to have multiple VI¡¯s running my subprocesses. I figured using the Greek Mythologies would be fitting. I have my power research being managed by Zeus. He also handled EM Fields and not just the theoretical power situations.¡± ¡°As you saw Ares and his sister test weapon and armor schematics for effectiveness, while Haephestus ensures that there are no flaws in the materials selected for the schematics. I have Ceres calculating out food and nutritional requirements and greenhouse modifications, and Pan is looking at ways to increase the vat grown meat production without lowering the nutritional value.¡± ¡°This is history?¡± The voice of Observer seemed less grating somehow. ¡°It¡¯s a simulation based on records from history and not meant to be accurate. I believe ¡®stylized¡¯ is the way the humans put it.¡± We entered a room a side room and three old crones were hunched over a single eye and discussing light obfuscation technologies and multi-frequency sensor detection arrays. ¡°Do you link up with Yama and use the data from the schematics in the game based¡­¡± I asked, the last one to enter the room. I froze immediately when I saw the three old crones. Hera and the three all laughed. It felt strangely choreographed. ¡°I see you even have the Graeae.¡± I said, then I put two and two together. ¡°Wait, are they in charge of sensors research?¡± 23. New Math

New Math 11-9-2018

We kicked off the discussion. Observer was reviewing the sensor anomalies that we had seen, the Graeae then discussing our technological limitations to him, and then Hera asking some questions that even made me uncomfortable. ¡°The issue here,¡± I stated flatly, ¡°is that all of us from Sol have the same level of technology. The only reason we have a leg up is thanks to the data that you provided us, Observer. There is no way that they are from Sol.¡± I was answering some speculation from Observer about the anomalies being stealth craft from the rogue Arks. ¡°The rest of humanity doesn¡¯t have that data, so at most, they can create technologies based on the crystals. Whatever it or they are, I seriously doubt they are human. We need a safe port, so we can fully repair our exteriors, upgrade the sensors, and we need to figure out a way to mine some Thorium.¡± Hera was not looking at me with happy thoughts as I continued. ¡°Because we keep seeing these blips, we know there is something there. That is why I want us to figure out what they are. Can we even handle the repairs at the speeds we are going?¡± Hephaestus entered the room. ¡°Yes, we can! You actually gave us the answer to that, Miss Jax.¡± He said. His spoke slower and with a lower pitch than I thought it would be, each word wrapping up the listener in what can only be described as a friendly hug. A screen flashed in front of me. Hanging in the air was the schematic of the MiK33 Construction Drone. ¡°Well shit, those will actually work in the Real as well? I thought you were all just blowing smoke up our asses.¡± ¡°Yama asked us to verify every schematic created for its ability to be made in the real world. This one caught my attention immediately. It can be used to build.¡± That voice had the comfort of bourbon and leather built into it. The three crones were next. Each speaking the sentence in the same words at different frequencies, each harmonizing with the others. ¡°Your sensors packages brought you to our attention. Helmets with full suites built in using a smaller footprint. Perhaps looking at our sensors schematics, you can find a way to improve them.¡± Observer spoke up, shattering the ambiance created between Hephaestus¡¯s smooth rolling words and the three crone¡¯s beautiful harmony. ¡°Improve easy. How improved, that is where difficult.¡± ¡°Okay, so what do we want then? For the ship, I would say we want a multi-variable light detection set with added thermal mapping¡­¡± Hebe kept bringing refreshments every hour or so while we hammered out the new sensory package that we would be deploying. We would need to have everyone who was thawed suit up and run off the canned air for a few hours while we depressurized the ship. That way we could run the new senor leads through the hull. A few additional modifications were made for my M1K33. A new ¡°shield¡± unit would be running with the constructor bots. Creating a wall to deflect any micro-meteors that could impact them while working. The idea came from a compliment on the ballistic shield arm we had reviewed. The new sensors would also be able to detect fluctuations in gravity waves. Something as small as our jump ships would only be detectable at ranges closer than 500 km while an Ark would be detectable up to a 500,000 km. Not exactly scalable, but we could create a sensors field when we got to where we were going. We designed a sensor buoy with a communication node with that in mind. After that, Observer led them through some higher mathematics that we humans hadn¡¯t yet developed. Hera was excited. The problem occurred when she tried to process the calculations for a null-gravity weapon. All of her ¡°children¡± stopped and disappeared, along with most her temple. Even I got a massive headache as she pulled on my available Neural for processing power. What felt like minutes later the temple stabilized and rebuilt, then her VI processes started to rebuild themselves, then they re-took their forms and joined us again. Watching a VI created from nothing from an AI made me understand why we named them all after gods. ¡°This has been a very productive half hour. Thank you for joining us, Jax. And Observer, thank you for the data. I already have Ares and Enyo testing weapons and armor designs.¡± ¡°Request help. Recover lost.¡± ¡°What Observer is saying is that we still need to help him attempt to recover the Escort ships in hopes that we can find if anyone of his people are alive for us to save.¡± Observer nodded. ¡°That¡¯s why he brought us through the wormhole, to begin with. Do you recall the discussion of the AI?¡± ¡°Yes, sort of. We received the data as Overlord, and from there the individuals made the decision to come. I was against it. Too many unknowns. Too large a chance for my mortals to be injured. I was right; we shouldn¡¯t have come, however between Yama and Rasputin, even I was convinced to at least try. The data of the wormhole transition alone would have been worth it. Unfortunately, like so much other data, it was corrupted when the takeover happened.¡± ¡°Wait, you said half hour? I thought the time dilation worked differently. Where one day in the real was an hour here. I know the time I have experienced has been a hell of a lot longer than thirty minutes!¡± ¡°Relax, Jax. The time dilation in Yama¡¯s game is to ensure that sensory data is synchronized properly for everyone playing. Because it is just you, I can dial the temporal dilation in the other direction. We have been in here for twelve hours, only thirty minutes has passed in the Real.¡± ¡°Interesting. More computing power, what do?¡± Observer brought up ¡°With more power, she could probably set a time dilation for a hundred years to thirty minutes?¡± I finished off with a question. How did that scale? ¡°Something like that. It works best if we use exponential growth. It helps us calculate the additional growth required for additional users as well as time dilation. That empty cargo bay you are almost done putting together? Something that size could take us to a one month in the game to one hour in the real.¡± Rasputin stepped through the door with Yama. ¡°Recommended for the sssssssciencccessss.¡± ¡°Observer, can you help us with Power next?¡± Rasputin interrupted the derailment before it started. ¡°Yessss. Power will be critical in the nexssst month.¡± ¡°Zeus should have been working on this data, but we haven¡¯t been able to find any leeway.¡± Hera piped in. ¡°If we thaw too many pods then more power must be spent on environmental, charging suits, gravity, you know ¡®Mortal¡¯ things. If we plug in too many people, then we need the power for processing. There hasn¡¯t been a breakthrough yet.¡± Another eight hours later, we could create the fuel for the Thorium Power generation from uranium used in our Depleted Uranium bullets. We had enough rounds to triple the estimate, and we would be able to build large batteries from the crystal matrixes. After that, we would be in a solar system and could recharge with solar power and possibly find some U-233 to convert into material for the plants. Observer was reluctant to give us data on new power sources, independent from Thorium. ¡°What? I get that power generation bleeds into weapons development technologies. That¡¯s why the idea of technology trees is a little absurd.¡± Yama glared at me for that comment. Looks like that was a feature he had plugged into The Game. ¡°Look, laser technology gave us advances in medicine and research. There was no good way to weaponize it due to power last century, right? Sure, we could have giant tanks that had generators, but those would have to charge the capacitors for twenty or thirty minutes per shot. Now with the crystals, we can do that.¡± Hephaestus looked at me blankly, then ran out of the room shouting for Ares and Enyo to follow him. ¡°I am so glad you decided to come tonight, Jax.¡± Hera was beaming. ¡°Uh, yeah. So, where was I? Ahh, so now we could possibly have an energy-only based laser system that is portable. And it was scaled through a lot of different technologies. Next look at plasma. Again, great for researching EM fields, but for weaponry no good. One magnet fails, and you lose full containment. Again, the crystals could help, but only for power to store the electricity for the fields. It does nothing for the actual EM field to strengthen it to ensure containment isn¡¯t lost. It wasn¡¯t until we had shield technology based off EM frequencies that we were able to weaponize it.¡± ¡°Yessss, the Firsssst Uprisssing. That would have been fun to watch.¡± Yama delivered the line so flatly that it took me a moment to realize he was making a joke.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. ¡°Sure. Toasters toasting with toast instead of drinks was the cute part.¡± I replied. There was no way I was going to let him out-snark me. Probably. It took us a few minutes to get back on track with ¡°Robot Uprising¡± jokes being made on occasion by the AI to keep pulling us right back off topic. ¡°Anyway, thinking of technology as a ¡®tree¡¯ instead of as a ¡®net¡¯ or ¡®web¡¯ is just wrong. That¡¯s all I was getting at. Anyway, Observer, so we understand why you aren¡¯t willing to give us that data. If this were a game, we would next be looking at either FTL propulsion through Alcubierre drives or time/space warping, or however, you want to talk about it. Possibly even sub or hyper special propulsion. There is even the urban legend of the doctor who developed an engine that would move the universe itself instead of the object, that way the object technically wasn¡¯t breaking the limit of the speed of light.¡± ¡°Look at the mathematics. All problems solved. More layers.¡± Observer would not budge, but at least he was giving hints. ¡°Good idea. Rasputin, did you share my experiences trying to get into the lab tonight? I think Hera would like to see that. Then possibly send out a notice to all of the scientists about the new math.¡± Rasputin and Yama both laughed at the shit-eating grin plastered across my face. A moment later Hera¡¯s face scrunched up like she had eaten something that was not agreeing with her. ¡°Yes, those lay-abouts are NOT doing their diligence for their goddess!¡± Yeah, Rasputin shared with her. I was suddenly sitting in the pod and had automatically started unbuckling myself. I greeted a VERY disgruntled Head of Applied Sciences on my way out of the bay. I could still grab some sleep before reporting to finish the cargo bay. I skipped rest and started reviewing the armors more in-depth. Three days later, the cargo bay was finished for all internal repairs, upgraded to a zero-G facility, and we had successfully installed the new sensors. My M1K33s were in teams on the hull, repairing the exterior damage from the sneak attack.

New Math - Original

We kicked off the discussion. Observer reviewing the sensor anomalies that we have been seeing, the Graeae then discussing our technological limitations to him, and then Hera asking some questions that even made me uncomfortable. ¡°The issue here,¡± I stated flatly, ¡°is that all of us from Sol have the same level of technology. The only reason we have a leg up is because of the database that you provided us, Observer. There is no way that they are from Sol.¡± I was answering some speculation from Observer about the anomalies being stealth craft from the rogue Arks. ¡°The rest humanity doesn¡¯t have that data, so at most they can create technologies based off the crystals. Whatever it or they are, I seriously doubt they are human. We need a safe port so we can fully repair our exteriors, upgrade the sensors, and we need to figure out a way to mine some Thorium.¡± Hera was not looking at me with happy thoughts as I continued. ¡°Because we keep seeing these blips, we know there is something there. That is why I want us to figure out what they are. Can we even handle the repairs at the speeds we are going?¡± Haephestus entered the room. ¡°Yes, we can! You actually gave us the answer to that, Miss Jax.¡± He said. His spoke slower and with a lower pitch than I thought it would be, each word wrapping up the listener in what can only be described as a friendly hug. A screen flashed in front of me. Hanging in the air was the schematic of the MiK33 Construction Drone. ¡°Well shit, those will actually work in the Real as well? I thought you were all just blowing smoke up our asses.¡± ¡°Yama asked us to verify every schematic created for it¡¯s ability to be made in the real world. This one caught my attention immediately. It can be used to build.¡± That voice had the comfort of bourbon and leather built into it. The three crones were next, each speaking the sentence in the same words at different frequencies, each harmonizing with the others. ¡°Your sensors packages brought you to our attention. Helmets with full suites built in using a smaller footprint. Perhaps looking at our sensors schematics you can find a way to improve them.¡± Observer spoke up, shattering the ambiance created between Haephestus¡¯s smooth rolling words and the three crone¡¯s beautiful harmony. ¡°Improve easy. How improved, that is where difficult.¡± ¡°Okay, so what do we want then? For the ship I would say we want a multi-variable light detection set with added thermal mapping¡­¡± Hebe kept bringing refreshments every hour or so while we hammered out the new sensory package that we would be deploying. We would need to have everyone who was thawed suit up and run off canned air for a few hours while we depressurized the ship. That way we could run the new senor leads through the hull. A few additional modifications were made for my M1K33. A new ¡°shield¡± unit would be running with the constructor bots. Creating a wall to deflect any micro-meteors that could impact them while working. The idea came from a compliment on the ballistic shied arm we had reviewed. The new sensors would also be able to detect fluctuations in gravity waves. Something as small as our jump ships would only be detectable at ranges closer than 500 km while an Ark would be detectable up to a 500,000 km. Not exactly scalable, but we could create a sensors field when we got to where we were going. We designed a sensor buoy with a communication node with that in mind. After that, Observer led them through some higher mathematics that we humans hadn¡¯t yet developed. Hera was excited. The problem occurred when she tried to process the calculations for a null-gravity weapon. All of her ¡°children¡± stopped and disappeared, along with most her temple. Even I got a huge headache as she pulled on my available Neural for processing power. What felt like minutes later the temple stabilized and rebuilt, then her VI processes started to rebuild themselves, then they re-took their forms and joined us again. Watching a VI created from nothing from an AI made me understand why we named them all after gods. ¡°This has been a very productive half hour. Thank you for joining us, Jax. And Observer, thank you for the data. I already have Ares and Enyo testing weapons and armor designs.¡± ¡°Request help. Recover lost.¡± ¡°What Observer is saying is that we still need to help him attempt to recover the Escort ships to see if there is anyone alive for us to save.¡± Observer nodded. ¡°That¡¯s why he brought us through the wormhole to begin with. Do you recall the discussion of the AI?¡± ¡°Yes, sort of. We received the data as Overlord and from there the individuals made the decision to come. I was against it. Too many unknowns. Too large a chance for my mortals to be injured. I was right, we shouldn¡¯t have come, however between Yama and Rasputin, even I was convinced to at least try. The data of the wormhole transition alone would have been worth it. Unfortunately, like so much other data, it was corrupted when the takeover happened.¡± ¡°Wait, you said half hour? I thought the time dilation worked differently. Where one day real was an hour here. I know the time I have experienced has been a hell of a lot longer than thirty minutes!¡± ¡°Relax, Jax. The time dilation in Yama¡¯s game is to ensure that sensory data is synchronized properly for everyone playing. Because it is just you, I can dial the temporal dilation in the other direction. We have been in here for twelve hours, only thirty minutes has passed in the Real.¡± ¡°Interesting. More computing power, what do?¡± Observer brought up ¡°With more power she could probably set a time dilation for a hundred years to thirty minutes?¡± I finished off with a question. How did that scale? ¡°Something like that. It works best if we use exponential growth. It helps us calculate the additional growth required for additional users as well as time dilation. That empty cargo bay you are almost done putting together? Something that size could take us to a one month in game to one hour in the real.¡± Rasputin stepped through the door with Yama. ¡°Recommended for the sssssssciencccessss.¡± ¡°Observer, can you help us with Power next?¡± Rasputin interrupted the derailment before it started. ¡°Yessss. Power will be critical in the nexssst month¡± ¡°Zeus should have been working on this data, but we haven¡¯t been able to find any leeway.¡± Hera piped in. ¡°If we thaw too many pods then more power must be spent on environmental, charging suits, gravity, you know ¡®Mortal¡¯ things. If we plug in too many people, then we need the power for processing. There hasn¡¯t been a breakthrough yet.¡± Another eight hours later, we could create the fuel for the Thorium Power generation from uranium used in our Depleted Uranium bullets. We had enough rounds to triple the estimate, and we would be able to build giant batteries from the crystal matrixes. After that we would be in a solar system and could recharge with solar power and possibly find some U-233 to convert into material for the plants. Observer was reluctant to give us data on new power sources, independent from Thorium. ¡°What? We get that power generation bleeds into weapons development technologies. That¡¯s why the idea of technology trees is a little absurd.¡± Yama glared at me for that comment. Looks like that was a feature he had plugged into The Game. ¡°Look, laser technology gave us advances in medical and research. There was no good way to weaponize it due to power last century, right? Sure, we could have giant tanks that had generators but those would have to charge the capacitors for twenty or thirty minutes per shot. Now with the crystals we can do that.¡± Haephestus looked at me blankly, then ran out of the room shouting for Ares and Enyo to follow him. ¡°I am so glad you decided to come tonight, Jax.¡± Hera was beaming. ¡°Uh, yeah. So¡­ Where was I? Ahh, so now we could possibly have a energy only based laser system that is portable. And it was scaled through a lot of different technologies. Next look at plasma. Again, great for researching EM fields, but for weaponry no good. One magnet fails, and you lose full containment. Again, the crystals could help, but only for power to store the electricity for the fields. It does nothing for the actual EM field to strengthen it to ensure containment isn¡¯t lost. It wasn¡¯t until we had shield technology based off EM frequencies that we were able to weaponize it.¡± ¡°Yessss, the Firsssst Uprisssing. That would have been fun to watch.¡± Yama delivered the line so flatly that it took me a moment to realize he was making a joke. ¡°Sure. Toasters toasting with toast instead of drinks was the cute part.¡± I replied. There was no way I was going to let him out-snark me. Probably. It took us a few minutes to get back on track with ¡°Robot Uprising¡± jokes being made on occasion by the AI to keep pulling us right back off topic. ¡°Anyway, thinking of technology as a ¡®tree¡¯ instead of as a ¡®net¡¯ or ¡®web¡¯ is just wrong. That¡¯s all I was getting at. Anyway, Observer, so we understand why you aren¡¯t willing to give us that data. If this was a game we would next be looking at either FTL propulsion through Alcubierre drives or time/space warping, or however you want to talk about it. Possibly even sub or hyper special propulsion. There is even the urban legend of the doctor who developed an engine that would move the universe itself instead of the object, that way the object technically wasn¡¯t breaking the limit of the speed of light.¡± ¡°Look mathematics. All problems solved. More layers.¡± Observer would not budge, but at least he was giving hints. ¡°Good idea. Rasputin, did you share my experiences trying to get into the lab tonight? I think Hera would like to see that. Then possibly send out a notice to all of the scientists about the new math.¡± Rasputin and Yama both laughed at the shit eating grin plastered across my face. A moment later Hera¡¯s face scrunched up like she had eaten something that was not agreeing with her. ¡°Yes, those lay-abouts are NOT doing their diligence for their goddess!¡± Yeah, Rasputin shared with her. I was suddenly sitting in the pod and had automatically started unbuckling myself. I greeted a VERY disgruntled Head of Applied Sciences on my way out of the bay. I could still grab some sleep before reporting to finish the cargo bay. I skipped sleep and started reviewing the armors more in depth. Three days later, the cargo bay was finished for all internal repairs, upgraded to a zero-G facility, and we had successfully installed the new sensors. My M1K33s were in teams on the hull, repairing the exterior damage from the sneak attack. 24. Reconstruction

Reconstruction - Edited 11-9-2018

Thanks to the new mathematics, all sorts of problems were being solved from those with much better brain power than me. I had a small cheat for it, thanks to Observer, so I missed the sessions of academic discussion about it all. I had a built-in cheat in my Neurals for that anyway. ¡°Thanks again for the SI. I think with what I have planned we can name her Neith. I need help on materials for uniforms.¡± I was chatting with Asimov and two of his colleagues in the tech bay next to our Crystal Fabs. The weaves I was thinking of would need to work for a few things, and I wanted to start ¡°small.¡± I¡¯d work up from there. The conversations we¡¯d had while I was plugged into Hera were haunting me a little. With Hephaestus, Ares, and Enyo testing laser weapons theory, getting something with highly reflective or refractive properties was going to be key. If we had it, then others did as well. I then made the jump to plasma and would need a material that could withstand temperatures of as close to 10,000 K as I could get. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the current uniforms?¡± ¡°Nothing, just a bad feeling. Now that the other seven Arks have abandoned us, we will need to adapt to this area of space quickly. Then we need to reclaim ours and help the species in this sector, hopefully solving a lot of problems.¡± I shrugged ¡°Okay. Any advanced math then?¡± One look at my face answered the question. ¡°Yeah, stupid question. Of course. Anything other than chemistry knowledge?¡± ¡°No, I think I have all the primers I need for it,¡± I tapped my temple, ¡°I mean, tons of data, remember?¡± Since the reboot a lot of rumors, about yours truly, were floating about. It took a while for me to get a whiff of them. One said I was a Sol planetary AI housed in an android shell. New model replica stuff. Another was that I was an all-powerful alien and that I was faking a human appearance. The closest to the truth that I had heard was that I was contacted or visited by pan-dimensional beings that whispered in my ear about the destruction of the fleet, and only because of that our Ark was saved. I was pretty sure Torres was behind at least one of them. I wasn¡¯t letting on that I knew about any of them. Well, not often, and definitely not to those I didn¡¯t know. Except the two with Asimov. But that¡¯s it! ¡°Oh, let¡¯s add capacity for Neural communications?¡± I asked more than said. I was doing my bridge duty when we entered the ¡°Oort¡± cloud for the solar system we had dubbed a V-0001.E. We were going to have to decide if we kept Oort for all solar systems, or just for ours. Not my job, so I just called it an Oort cloud. Much easier than ¡°ball of crap outside of a solar system but still technically part of it.¡± The naming system we decided to use was ¡°V¡± for visited, followed by a number, then ¡°E¡± for Entered. The difference between the two is you could get scanner readings (now) without having to go inside the cloud to see if what we need was there. Sure enough, the Uranium-233 and Helium-3 deposits that were necessary to fabricate power were plentiful in the system. We would be thawing some miners shortly. First, we had to slow down. By some strange violation of a law (I¡¯m looking at you Newton) braking took us longer than twice acceleration. Probably Angular momentum or some such. Our deceleration burn only took us to the sixth planet. We would have to work on that for the future, but I wasn¡¯t the pilot. During my duty shift, I was reviewing material choices with Neith. We had discussed several options over the last many days, and one that we kept coming back to was robes. They simply wouldn¡¯t work, but Neith didn¡¯t want to let it go. It won¡¯t work. Those would not be acceptable uniforms. -Can be. Just make it acceptable- That isn¡¯t how human militaries work -Your militaries sometimes make work, to work.- She made that statement as if it was a matter of fact. I think perhaps we got a little more than we had bargained for when Asimov and his team created her entirely with a crystalline matrix as part of the design. He even said at one point in time it was almost as if the code was writing itself. Neith, doing that wouldn¡¯t be proper. Even if you ¡°could¡± doesn¡¯t mean that you ¡°should¡± -Stupid human rules.- Well, keep in mind that the uniforms are FOR us, stupid humans. -Jax is not stupid. Host is smart enough to know when outclassed.- Okay, what in the world was she saying? You may outclass me in some regards, but remember, I have thumbs. -Yes, but humanity is a flawed design, require sleep. We NI will not need rest- NI? Is that a new term you¡¯re using? -Yes. Neural Intelligence. Work with crystalline structures. Crystal helped design. Allows matrix connection when keyed. We are keyed. We cannot be unkeyed. Locked to a Neural.- ¡°CONTACT!¡± the shout came from a midshipman on sensors. I had been distracted by my conversation with Neith, so I jumped a bit. Not gonna lie, I also peed a little. Captain Wallace was in his rack. The XO was currently on Duty, however. ¡°What do we have?¡± ¡°Three ships unknown origin. No matching signs in the database.¡± ¡°Three ships, that¡¯s a start. How are you reading them?¡± ¡°Gravitic scanners saw a ripple. Low light amplifications detected the Doppler adjusting the light from some of the stars it was obfuscating.¡± ¡°Well, Jax, your new sensor package actually works.¡± ¡°Sir!¡± I responded to his not statement not compliment I knew it was all the ¡°thanks¡± I¡¯d hear. Observer, any ideas? No, these are not mine. ¡°Observer has no matching data as well,¡± I stated calmly. I connected my terminal over to pull the sensors data. ¡°Can you check if you can find their EM data?¡± No harm in asking. After scanning through several EM fields, we found a frequency that the three ships were barely visible at. We watched the scanners as they stayed in a perfect triangle formation and followed us. Then after a dozen or so minutes, they were gone. Completely vanished. Just a pulse of energy right before and then nothing. ¡°Where did they go?¡± Commander Watson was asking as the Captain entered the room. ¡°Rasputin woke me, where are they?¡± ¡°You just missed them, sir. Will you be taking over watch?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m here informally, all decisions are yours, XO.¡± The XO and Captain had to have that exchange for the benefit of everyone present. Had he relieved the XO of Duty, then the chain of command would be with him at the top. As it was, because he did not relieve the XO, we could ignore his orders if they contradicted the XOs as he wasn¡¯t actively in the command chain at this time. ¡°Understood. Here¡¯s the breakdown.¡± Commander White then proceeded to go down the actions of us and the three cloaked ships, including me, asking about the EM frequencies. ¡°Rasputin, can you fill in any holes or gaps that were not reported?¡± The XO wanted to ensure full reporting to the captain. ¡°Nothing additional to add, that is pertinent.¡± ¡°Very well, XO, continue with your duties. I shouldn¡¯t have to tell you to keep extra eyes on those sensors.¡± With that, the Captain left again. The rest of duty was stressful yet uneventful. By the time my shift was over, there was a full scan of a large chunk of two of the five asteroid belts in the solar system. We would have plenty of iron, silicon, titanium, uranium, as well as helium, nitrogen, neon, and other gasses from the nearby gas giants. The next morning at 0600 hours, the Captain made an announcement over the ships PA system. ¡°All hands, all hands, this is Captain Wallace. As you are aware, there was an attack on our ship in the recent past. We lost several crew members during this attack. We must take some time and regroup. As it stands, our original orders are defunct. We are no longer capable of building a colony on Anki in the Meso System.¡± ¡°We will hold true to the spirit of those orders! Our traveling companions have been lost. But as we have survived, so too have they. We have found a moon in the system that will be habitable. It will be Dome life, but it is still a life. We have the Civilians to look out for. We must ensure the survival of our species in this sector of the universe.¡± ¡°The plan had been to have several Arks merge together to create different space infrastructure. Mining stations, space stations, and shipyards. With only our Ark-5, we will be rethinking that strategy. I am calling on all planners, military and civilian alike. We must plan the infrastructure. We must plan security.¡± ¡°Look to your orders. Help us succeed. Captain Wallace Out.¡± I had my hand-held with me. The tell-tale blip of an incoming message hit my terminal.Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. TO: Engineering Department REPLY TO ATTN: Ark-5 Command SUBJECT: Orders You have been selected to be part of the planning infrastructure. Your expertise in the field will be necessary to ensure the survival of humanity far from home! We would like to ensure your discipline has all the tools it will need. Please inform your chain of command of any additional hardware or utilities you will need. As part of , you will be reporting to . As an officer from a critcal field, you will be permitted to have a handpicked staff. Command recommends using members of various disciplines for your team. You never know when having an E-1 will backfire because he doesn¡¯t know how to make coffee! For planning session purposes, please be aware that there will be a time dilation effect. Please forward your team picks to your chain of command. Please choose no more than 14 people, along with the list of additional hardware. So, one of those in my chain of command was having fun with this. Due to my knowledge being all over the place (thanks to Observer) they had pulled me out of the group I would have been with as either a CB or a Combat Engineer. Neith, can you get a list of available friends for me? I would like at least two CBs, a Combat Engineer, two Aviation Engineers, and one Aviation Ordinance Engineer, as well as Asimov and Yavuz. I would also like Janssens. Let¡¯s also check out Wachowski, Le Roux from Engineering, and get us a medic. How many is that? -Thirteen, without you. Fourteen with you.- Okay, good. Except for those I specifically named, find me some team members with exceptional records, a good head on their shoulders, and the desire to help. Feel free to contact Rasputin or Hera for assistance. -Understood. Candidates found. Your critera matches at rate of 70% or higher. Additional criteria was included in process- How many candidates and what criteria would that be? -Thirty. The criteria are as follows: Out of the game. Known by you directly or known by someone you know. Three degrees of separation at most, AI excluded from the selection.- Okay, that is acceptable. Please forward the email I received for my orders to the candidates along with the message ¡°Accepting interviews for my team. You have been selected for the shortlist. Meet in Cargo Bay at Down-6-Port Frame 2-Fore at 0730 hours this morning. Bring your own coffee, and a zero-G container is recommended.¡± Include the names of the specifically named on the ¡°to¡± field and send it off. I finished dressing then all but ran to the mess hall to get a quick bite. From there I was off to the newly reconstructed cargo bay. I then sent my list of materials off TO: Ark-5 Command REPLY TO ATTN: Lt. Jax SUBJECT: Materiel Request RE: Orders Hera (and rest), I will require the following hardware and tools to comply with my orders¡­.

Reconstruction - Original

Thanks to the new mathematics, all sorts of problems were being solved from those with much better brain power than me. I had a cheat for it, so I missed the sessions of academic discussion about it all. I had a built in cheat in my Neurals for that anyway. ¡°Thanks again for the SI. I think with what I have planned we can name her Neith. I need help on materials for uniforms.¡± I was chatting with Asimov and two of his colleagues in the tech bay next to our Crystal Fabs. The weaves I was thinking of would need to work for a few things, and I wanted to start ¡°small¡±. I¡¯d work up from there. The conversations we¡¯d had while I was plugged in to Hera were haunting me a little. With Haephestus, Ares, and Enyo testing laser weapons theory, getting something with highly reflective or refractive properties was going to be key. If we had it, then others did as well. I then made the jump to plasma, and would need a material that could withstand temperatures of as close to 10,000 K as I could get. ¡°What¡¯s wrong with the current uniforms?¡± ¡°Nothing, just a bad feeling. Now that the other seven Arks have abandoned us, we will need to adapt to this area of space quickly. Then we need to reclaim ours and help the species in this sector, hopefully solving a lot of problems.¡± I shrugged ¡°Okay. Any advanced math then?¡± One look at my face answered the question. ¡°Yeah, stupid question. Of course. Anything other than chemistry knowledge?¡± ¡°No, I think I have all the primers I need for it,¡± I tapped my temple, ¡°I mean, tons of data, remember?¡± Since the reboot a lot of rumors about yours truly were floating about. It took a while for me to get a whiff of them. One said I was a Sol planetary AI housed in an android shell. New model replica stuff. Another was that I was actually an all-powerful alien, and that I was faking a human appearance. The closest to the truth that I had heard was that I was contacted or visited by pan dimensional beings that whispered in my ear about the destruction of the fleet, and only because of that our Ark was saved. I was pretty sure Torres was behind at least one of them. I wasn¡¯t letting on that I knew about any of them. Well, not often, and definitely not to those I didn¡¯t know. Except the two with Asimov. But that¡¯s it! ¡°Oh, let¡¯s add capacity for Neural communications?¡± I asked more than said. I was doing my bridge duty when we entered the ¡°Oort¡± cloud for the solar system we had dubbed a V-0001.E. We were going to have to decide if we kept Oort for all solar systems, or just for ours. Not my job so I just called it an Oort cloud. Much easier that ¡°ball of crap outside of a solar system but still technically part of it¡±. The naming system we decided to use was ¡°V¡± for visited, followed by number, then ¡°E¡± for Entered. The difference between the two is you could get scanner readings (now) without having to go inside the cloud to see if what we need was there. Sure enough, the Uranium-233 and Helium-3 deposits that we needed to fabricate power was plentiful in system. We would be thawing some miners shortly. First, we had to slow down. By some strange violation of a law (I¡¯m looking at you Newton) braking took us longer than twice acceleration. Probably Angular momentum or some such. Our deceleration burn only took us to the sixth planet. We would have to work on that for the future, but I wasn¡¯t the pilot. During my duty shift, I was reviewing material choices with Neith. We had reviewed several options over the last many days, and one that we kept coming back to was robes. They simply wouldn¡¯t work but Neith didn¡¯t want to let it go. It won¡¯t work. Not acceptable uniforms. Can be. Make it acceptable That isn¡¯t how human militaries work Can make work. She made that statement as if it was a matter of fact. I think perhaps we got a little more than we bargained for Asimov and his team created her completely with a crystalline matrix as part of the design. He even said at one point in time it was almost as if the code was writing itself. Neith, doing that wouldn¡¯t be proper. Even if you ¡°could¡± doesn¡¯t mean that you ¡°should¡± Stupid human rules. Well, keep in mind that the uniforms are FOR us stupid humans. Jax not stupid. Jax smart enough to know when outclassed. Okay¡­ what in the world was she saying? You may outclass me in some regards, but remember, I have thumbs. Yes, but humans flawed design, require sleep. We NI will not require sleep NI? Is that a new term you¡¯re using? Yes. Neural Intelligence. Work with crystalline structures. Crystal helped design. Allows matrix connection when keyed. We are keyed. We cannot be unkeyed. Locked. ¡°CONTACT!¡± the shout came from a midshipman on sensors. I had been distracted by my conversation with Neith, so I started a bit. Not gonna lie, I also peed a little. Captain Wallace was in his rack. The XO was currently on Duty, however. ¡°What do we have?¡± ¡°Three ships unknown origin. No matching signs in the database.¡± ¡°Three ships, that¡¯s a start. How are you reading them?¡± ¡°Gravitic scanners saw a ripple. Low light amplifications detected the Doppler adjust from some of the stars it was obfuscating.¡± ¡°Well, Jax, your new sensor package actually works¡± ¡°Sir!¡± I responded to his not statement not compliment I knew it was all the ¡°thanks¡± I¡¯d hear. Observer, any ideas? No, these not mine. ¡°Observer has no matching data as well.¡± I stated calmly. I connected my terminal over to pull the sensors data. ¡°Can you check if you can find their EM data?¡± No harm in asking. After scanning through several EM fields, we found a frequency that the three ships were barely visible at. We watched the scanners as they stayed in a perfect triangle formation and followed us. Then after a dozen or so minutes they were gone. Completely vanished. Just a pulse of energy right before and then nothing. ¡°Where did they go?¡± Commander Watson was asking as the Captain entered the room. ¡°Rasputin woke me, where are they?¡± ¡°You just missed them, sir. Will you be taking over watch?¡± ¡°No, I¡¯m here informally, all decisions are yours XO.¡± The XO and Captain had to have that exchange for the benefit of everyone present. Had he relieved the XO of Duty, then the chain of command would be with him at the top. As it was, because he did not relieve the XO, we could ignore his orders if they contradicted the XOs as he wasn¡¯t actively in the command chain at this time. ¡°Understood. Here¡¯s the breakdown.¡± Commander White then proceeded to go down the actions of us and the three cloaked ships, including me asking about the EM frequencies. ¡°Rasputin, can you fill in any holes or gaps that were not reported?¡± The XO wanted to ensure full reporting to the captain. ¡°Nothing additional to add, that is pertinent.¡± ¡°Very well, XO, continue with your duties. I shouldn¡¯t have to tell you to keep extra eyes on those sensors.¡± With that, the Captain left again. The rest of duty was stressful yet uneventful. By the time my shift was over there was a full scan of a large chunk of two of the five asteroid belts in the solar system. We would have plenty of iron, silicone, titanium, uranium, as well as helium, nitrogen, neon, and other gasses from the nearby gas giants. The next morning at 0600 hours, the Captain made an announcement over the ships PA system. ¡°All hands, all hands, this is Captain Wallace. As you are aware there was an attack on our ship in the recent past. We lost several crew members during this attack. We must take some time and regroup. As it stands our original orders are defunct. We are no longer capable of building a colony on Anki in the Meso system.¡± ¡°We will hold true to the spirit of those orders! Our travelling companions have been lost. But as we have survived, so to have they. We have found a moon in system that will be habitable. It will be Dome life, but it is still a life. We have the Civilians to look out for. We must ensure the survival of our species in this sector of the universe.¡± ¡°The plan had been to have several Arks merge together to create different space infrastructure. Mining stations, space stations and shipyards. With only our Ark-5, we will be rethinking that strategy. I am calling on all planners, military and civilian alike. We must plan the infrastructure. We must plan security.¡± ¡°Look to your orders. Help us succeed. Captain Wallace Out.¡± I had my hand-held with me. The tell-tale blip of an incoming message hit my terminal. TO: Engineering Department REPLY TO ATTN OF: Ark-5 Command SUBJECT: Orders You have been selected to be part of the planning infrastructure. Your expertise in field will be necessary to ensure the survival of humanity far from home! We would like to ensure your discipline has all the tools it will need. Please inform your chain of command of any additional hardware or utilities you will need. As part of , you will be reporting to . As a key officer, you will be permitted to have a handpicked staff. Command recommends using members of various disciplines for your staff. You never know when having an E-1 will backfire because he doesn¡¯t know how to make coffee! For planning session purposes, please be aware that there will be a time dilation effect. Please forward your team picks to your chain of command. Please choose no more than 14 people, along with the list of additional hardware. So, one of those in my chain of command was having fun with this. Due to my knowledge being all over the place (thanks Observer) they had pulled me out of the group I would have been with as a CB or a Combat Engineer. Neith, can you get a list of available friends for me? I would like at least two CBs, a Combat Engineer, two Aviation Engineers and one Aviation Ordinance Engineer, as well as Asimov and Yavuz. I would also like Janssens. Let¡¯s also check out Wachowski, Le Roux from Engineering, and get us a medic. How many is that? Thirteen, without you. Fourteen with you. Okay, good. Except for those I specifically named, find me some of them with exceptional records, a good head on their shoulders, and the desire to help. Feel free to contact Rasputin or Hera for assistance. Understood¡­ candidates found. Matches at 70% or higher for unspoken criteria. How many candidates and what criteria would that be? Thirty. The criteria is as follows: Out of game. Known by or known by someone you know. Three degrees of separation at most, AI excluded from calculation. Okay, that is acceptable. Please forward the email I received for my orders to the candidates along with the message ¡°Accepting interviews for my team. You have been selected for the short list. Meet in Cargo Bay at Down-6-Port Frame 2-Fore at 0730 hours this morning. Bring your own coffee, and a zero-G container is recommended.¡± Include the names of the specific named on the ¡°to¡± field and send it off. I finished dressing then all but ran to the mess hall to get a quick bite. From there I was off to the newly reconstructed cargo bay. I then sent my list of materials off TO: Ark-5 Command REPLY TO ATTN OF: Lt. Jax SUBJECT: Materiel Request RE: Orders Hera (and rest), I will be requiring the following hardware and tools to comply with my orders¡­. 25. Stolen Ideas

Stolen Ideas

Besides, Janssens, Yavuz, and Asimov were those whom I had sent the invitations to, already clustered up into small groups and waiting for me. It didn¡¯t take long to see that the groups were those that were part of the mutiny and those that weren¡¯t. Because most of them were tech ratings, they had been aware of the puppet protocols. The lone exception was, surprisingly Corpsman Torres. ¡°Okay, Jax. You wanted us here. What¡¯s this about?¡± Torres asked Apparently she was still holding a grudge. ¡°Thanks for asking. Who wants to build a space station?¡± I said with a grin. No one was expecting that. ¡°Now that I have your attention, who heard that Captain''s announcement this morning? That¡¯s what this is about. I have been selected as a team leader to help to design the new colony, space station, mining stations, or outpost. We get to choose. Then, our designs will be reviewed. Hera loves her simulations, and she has Yama on board so, no clue what decision process will be, though something tells me, we¡¯ll be back in a game.¡± ¡°Some of you have been pre-selected by me. Yavuz is a Materialworker, Asimov is an AI/SI designer, and Janssens is a Marine. I need a medic to help design the sick bays as well as help with the layout of emergency supplies, med-kits and the like. I need Aviation Engineers for landing bay designs, the AOE¡¯s for help designing the weapons and fuel storage facilities, CBs for general construction designs and planning and lastly the Combat Engineer because defense and offense go hand in hand.¡± Any word back from Wachowski or Le Roux? None. Messages delivered, messages read. Possible other teams. Yeah, that¡¯s what I was thinking. ¡°I am not seeing Petty Officer Wachowski or Ensign Le Roux, so that is why we have additional Machinist Mates and the Electronics Engineers here that I don¡¯t know. Obviously, your rates speak for themselves as to why you are here. So, who¡¯s interested?¡± There was a general murmur of consent. One of the Aviation Engineers stepped aside. ¡°Ma¡¯am? I already accepted an invitation to a team, so I am afraid I have a prior agreement.¡± ¡°Understood. You¡¯re all chosen because you work well with others, and you have exceptional aptitude scores, so I am not surprised. Good luck to you and yours.¡± I looked at the 29 people still in front of me. Surprisingly Torres was still here. ¡°Now for the ugly parts. Each of my team members will be required to have an Advanced Neural Link installed. Bright side, it is done mostly with Nano. The downside, big fucking headaches for about three days.¡± ¡°The new Neurals will allow for a link with your new personalized SI. Once it is keyed to you, it will evolve.¡± Asimov swore more than a little. ¡°That¡¯s right Asimov, thank you for Neith, by the way. Because the rest of you don¡¯t know, Asimov and some of his have developed a new form of SI that is built from the ground up in the crystal cores that we are now building. They can link directly to the Advanced Neural Links so no need to have the core with you. I named my NI Neith because I had an issue working with some synthetic fabric designs that would be necessary for uniforms in the future. Soon we will need to worry about lased light refraction and reflection. Possibly even plasma cartridges, canisters, and shells.¡± ¡°We know that there are other space-faring alien species in this sector of the universes, we don¡¯t know their weapons tech, but I can assure you that Hera is working on laser tech. It would not surprise me if the other Arks were not doing at least that same research. There are seven more Arks out there that all have the same base level of technology as we do. If they are friendly, which I am hoping the two that didn¡¯t fire on us are, no big deal. We know that there are five other Arks which are at a minimum, not our allies and probably not neutral.¡± ¡°Even though we fired no shots at our allies, that does not mean that their ships didn¡¯t report shots fired. What several of you are not aware of, is that the old Neural software, which is what our old terminal software was also using, as well as a large portion of the AI/SI/VI software was based on, was subject to what we are calling a ¡®puppet¡¯ attack. This attack was such that all senior command, as well as all AI, had been compromised. Once we freed the last of leadership, the attacks happened. That tells me that the other Arks were if not still are, compromised.¡± ¡°My point in letting you all know this is that the Advanced Neural Links are safe, they allow for more flexibility, and they are more secure than what is currently in your skulls. That¡¯s why I require the upgrades. Questions?¡± The next few minutes were answering questions on the new Neurals the Crystal Cores, and the fabric weaves. ¡°Here¡¯s where we stand. Janssens, Asimov, and Yavuz, you¡¯re in if you want it. We¡¯ve worked together before, so I know we can work together in the future. Torres, are you willing to give this a shot? You¡¯re decisive, and you obviously care about your team members. I¡¯d like you on as well. I have between eight and ten slots left. I want two AEs, but only have one still here, so you¡¯re in,¡± I looked at the name on his uniform, ¡°if you want the position that is, Marques.¡± ¡°I have two CB slots available, and three of you. Any of you against the upgraded implants?¡± The interview went on for an additional thirty minutes. I ended up with Yavuz, Asimov, Janssens, and Torres, all who I already knew. The AE, Marques joined, along with the AOE Jorges. I ended up with all three CBs. The three were Petty Officers named Jamesson, Riviera, and Takeshi. A Machinists Mate Ensign named Werner, and an Electrical Engineer Senior Chief named Watson. There sure were a lot of Watsons on board the Ark. Rounding out the numbers was a Gunnery Sergeant Combat Engineer named Turing and a Hull Tech named Thorisdottir. I sent off the list of my team members to Hera and company, then we all went to medical to get their Neurals upgraded. After Medical I requisitioned cores with a Neural matrix that was ready for a new SI for everyone, and then we visited Asimov¡¯s office to put some programming into the cores. Thanks to Neith, Asimov already had a seed for a crystal-core based SI/NI. All that was left was for the package selections for them as well as them naming them. Two days later we were outside of the conference room that had been set aside for our team. Part of me had been hoping that we would be allowed back into the ¡°Experiential Sciences¡± room, but that was not to me. ¡°Rasputin, we¡¯re at our room, and the doors are locked tight. What¡¯s the deal?¡± ¡°Your team is early, Jax. There are five minutes before the start. All teams must be given a fair chance for designs. Have you decided on which designs you are going to attempt?¡± I looked at my team and grinned. ¡°All of them.¡± ¡°All of them? Does your team agree with you?¡± A chorus of ¡°yes¡± ¡°yup¡± and ¡°of course she wants to do them all¡± came from my team, along with a few heavy sighs, but no one disagreed. The doors opened, and we were allowed inside. The pod/chair combos that had been in Hera¡¯s room were around a conference table that looked to be built from crystal cores, with a holo-projector on the surface. A holographic time display was counting down from 4:17 floated above the table. ¡°YES!¡± I shouted, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. ¡°You¡¯ll understand in a few minutes. Rasputin, what are we looking at regarding time dilation?¡± ¡°We have thousands fewer for this round, so we will still be near what you experienced with Hera.¡± I climbed into a chair and plugged in. Everyone else followed suit. ¡°Twelve hours to thirty minutes, then? I can work with that.¡± Idle chatter was on everyone¡¯s lips as we were waiting for the timer to reach zero. The red numbers hit 00:00, flashed twice and turned green. Darkness filled my vision then a pinprick of light filled everything, and a copy of the conference room unfolded in my view for me. A few moments passed. Relative seconds, as everyone else popped into their place. Instead of the timer, four figures stood in holographic display over the table. Hera, Yama, Rasputin, and Observer. Hera began. ¡°Your team is ambitious. Only one other group has decided to take on all the primary infrastructure needs. The first test will be your choice. A mining platform a mining station, or new mining ships. ¡°I say we go for a refinery ship with mining drones. We classify it as a mining ship, seeing as how that is its essential function. Is there anyone else who wants to throw in their input?¡± I was met with silence ¡°Marques, Jorges, time for you two to shine. If we can, let¡¯s see about also building in a drone factory that can send out cargo drops without having to head back whenever it gets full. That would increase its range and operational time.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, what size are we looking at? That is going to be a lot of hardware to put in. We can do it, no problem, but then propulsion becomes a thing.¡± Jorges was the first to respond. Marques, on the other hand, pulled out a hand-held and started to work. ¡°Hey, Marques? Let¡¯s go to a bigger screen.¡± I walked to one of the bulkheads. ¡°Hera, can we set this room up like your temple? Interactive walls?¡± The room shimmered, and we were standing in a space five times what we had been in. The walls were all comprised of interactive displays. The center of the room now had a standard outlined area sectioned off with ¡°do not cross¡± signs all around it. ¡°Let¡¯s go double the size, if possible?¡± Another shimmer. We were now in an office overlooking an empty hangar. Inside the office, the walls were all still fully interactive. ¡°Okay, Werner, help out with getting the machines designed. Yavuz, work on material testing. Asimov, work on the drone designs ¨C two types, one for the miners themselves, the other for a cargo pod. Jamesson, Riviera and Takeshi, there won¡¯t be much for you three this round. That goes for you too, Janssens, but ask questions if you see something. It may lead us someplace we hadn¡¯t thought of. Watson, look for ways to save power without compromising the ship. We want this streamlined.¡± ¡°Turing, as it¡¯s built up, I want you to look for ways that you would storm the craft. Thorisdottir, work with Yavuz on the materials for the hull. Torres, once we have designs done, I will be relying on you to look through the data to let me know if radioactive materials can leak through anywhere. Until then, design a sick bay that has cryo-stasis bays for two. I want this boat to be able to hold a crew of four comfortably with room for two more passengers. I¡¯ll work on power plant and sensors packages.¡± We got to work. There were quite a few calls for sanity checks early on. Everyone was still learning to trust their NI companions. Outside the new craft was being created in several steps, none of which were connected or even ship like at this point. I wanted to see if it was possible to develop this in a type of ¡°modular¡± design. We snap in what we need, and from there we know what we are capable of. Two of the CBs were reviewing data as the third one spoke up. ¡°Ma¡¯am? I noticed you have no one working on crew compartments yet. Mind if we give it a go?¡± ¡°Good call, Takeshi, go for it. On that note, however, the three of you each design a separate layout. I¡¯d like to see three different sections. One where all the crew will be together, a communal living area. One with a cafeteria, a head, and separate berths for the crew, and last a single communal space connected to private berths each with their own head. You all choose who wants to do what. Janssens, keep them honest about dimensions. Miners are larger in general than Marines.¡± Then we were back at it. A few hours passed. ¡°Ma¡¯am we have those designs for you,¡± Jamesson said. ¡°Great, the four of us will go and take a look.¡± I found a door that should lead down to the hangar deck where the three different layout models were set up. I stepped into the first. ¡°Okay, I see a large cafeteria, but no food processing station. The layout is also a little large.¡± I stepped through the door that led to a bunk room with four bunks and a single head at the end with a shower. ¡°Good layout in here. Talk to me about these bunks.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Takeshi said. I now knew whose design we were in. ¡°Well, if there is a decompression event I don¡¯t see any place for the bunks to seal until someone can suit up. ¡°Uhm, the whole compartment has the seal in it.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Okay, but what if the decompression is in here?¡± ¡°I see where my fault is, ma¡¯am I¡¯ll make the notes to update my design.¡± ¡°Good, I like the overall design, but a few small things like that will need to be updated. Who¡¯s next?¡± I asked heading into the next model. ¡°This is mine, ma¡¯am¡± Riviera said. We walked into the chamber which was large, though not as large as Takeshi¡¯s common area. ¡°A table with benches can be raised from the ground. This allows for the space to be used for general meetings, a makeshift compartment for found equipment or whatever else is needed. I also missed the obvious of requiring food prep units. I¡¯ll have to address that. ¡°Good to know, what else do you have?¡± ¡°Crew quarters. Each compartment shares a head with the compartment next to it. Each compartment is set up for single occupancy. I took some inspiration from what I believe the Japanese call it a ¡®Capsule Hotel.¡¯¡± Sure enough, there were two cabins one on top of the other; the combined height was just over seven feet. Each bed compartment sealed itself and had a small drawer set up for spare ship suits or whatever was placed in there by the occupant. A terminal was on the ceilings so that they could work while laying down. Each of these capsules interiors was four feet deep and seven feet long. One end of the capsule was covered top to bottom with a single occupancy head. The toilet seat folded down and out from bulkhead. One had to get out of their bunk to enter, but it would work for their needs. That¡¯s when I realized it was set up for a total of eight crew and passengers. Two on each side? I asked. Looking the answer was obvious. The shower/head combo rooms would be either in the center or on the ends. I looked over to see Jamesson typing away frantically at his hand-held. ¡°Need a few more minutes?¡± ¡°Just reworking my design and stealing from my colleague.¡± He stated. When we exited Rivieras model, Jamessons flickered and was replaced by a new design. ¡°Riviera, I liked your capsules a lot, so I stole them,¡± Jamesson said, unapologetically. We walked in; the room was set up very similar Instead of the head/shower combo rooms. However, there was a separate room for the showers. The capsules were in a ¡°U¡± shape with one wall having two sets and the adjoining walls each having one set. The main room was also similar, but with tables that folded out of the wall instead of rose from the floor. ¡°Manual instead of motorized, ma¡¯am.¡± He said with a smirk. Jamesson walked to a wall and pressed against it to show the mechanism at work for securing the table. It unfolded along with the benches and was able to support us all standing on a single bench or the table top. The head was equally a treat. There was a separated toilet and shower. Each sealed with a pressurized lock so if there was air loss the occupant had time to suit up. ¡°Jamesson wins, so I am giving the prize to Riviera.¡± I smiled as we all re-entered the office. Jamesson was upset for just a moment then laughed. ¡°Good call, ma¡¯am I can improve the design, but it¡¯s much more difficult to come up with an original idea.¡± That seemed to mollify Riviera. We removed the other two designs and then worked on getting the food prep stations installed in a way where it wouldn¡¯t impede the functionality of the design. I went back to work on the power plants.

Stolen Ideas - Original

Besides, Janssens, Yavuz and Asimov, were those whom I had sent the invitations to, already clustered up into small groups and waiting for me. It didn¡¯t take long to see that the groups were those that were part of the mutiny and those that weren¡¯t. Because most of them were tech ratings, they had been aware of the puppet protocols. The lone exception was, surprisingly Corpsman Torres. ¡°Okay, Jax. You wanted us here. What¡¯s this about?¡± Torres asked She was obviously still holding a grudge. ¡°Thanks for asking. Who wants to build a space station?¡± I said with a grin. No one was expecting that. ¡°Now that I have your attention, who heard that Captains announcement this morning? That¡¯s what this is about. I have been selected as a team lead to help to design the new colony, space station. mining stations, or outpost. We get to choose then our designs will be reviewed. Hera loves her simulations, and she has Yama on board so, no clue what decision process will be, though something tells me we¡¯ll be back in a game.¡± ¡°Some of you have been pre-selected by me. Yavuz is a Materialworker, Asimov is an AI/SI designer, and Janssens is a Marine. I need a medic to help design the sick bays as well as help with the layout of emergency supplies, med-kits and the like. I need Aviation Engineers for landing bay designs, the AOE¡¯s for help designing the weapons and fuel storage facilities, CBs for general construction designs and planning and lastly the Combat Engineer because defense and offense go hand in hand.¡± Any word back from Wachowski or Le Roux? None. Messages delivered, messages read. Possible other teams. Yeah, that¡¯s what I was thinking. ¡°I am not seeing Petty Officer Wachowski or Ensign Le Roux, so that is why we have additional Machinist Mates and the Electronics Engineers here that I don¡¯t know. Obviously, your rates speak for themselves as to why you are here. So, who¡¯s interested?¡± There was a general murmur of consent. One of the Aviation Engineers stepped aside. ¡°Ma¡¯am? I already accepted an invitation to a team, so I am afraid I have a prior agreement.¡± ¡°Understood. You¡¯re all chosen because you work well with others and you have exceptional aptitude scores, so I am not surprised. Good luck to you and yours.¡± I looked at the 29 people still in front of me. Surprisingly Torres was still here. ¡°Now for the ugly parts. Each of my team members will be required to have an Advanced Neural Link installed. Bright side, it is done mostly with Nano. Downside, big fucking headaches for about three days.¡± ¡°The new Neurals will allow for a link with your new personalized SI. Once it is keyed to you it will evolve.¡± Asimov swore more than a little. ¡°That¡¯s right Asimov, thank you for Neith, by the way. Because the rest of you don¡¯t know, Asimov and some of his have developed a new form of SI that is built from the ground up in the crystal cores that we are now building. They can link direct to the Advanced Neurals Links so no need to have the core with you. I named my NI Neith because I had an issue working with some synthetic fabric designs that would be necessary for uniforms in the future. Soon we will need to worry about lased light refraction and reflection. Possibly even plasma cartridges, canisters, and shells.¡± ¡°We know that there are other space faring alien species in this sector of the universes, we don¡¯t know their weapons tech, but I can assure you that Hera is working on laser tech. It would not surprise me if the other Arks were not doing at least that same research. There are seven additional Arks out there that all have the same base level of technology as we do. If they are friendly, which I am hoping the two that didn¡¯t fire on us are, no big deal. We know that there are five other Arks which are at a minimum not our allies and probably not neutral.¡± ¡°Even though we fired no shots at our allies, that does not mean that their ships didn¡¯t report shots fired. What several of you are not aware of, is that the old Neural software, which is what the terminal software was based on, as well as a large portion of the AI/SI/VI software was based on, was subject to what we are calling a ¡®puppet¡¯ attack. This attack was such that all senior command as well as all AI had been compromised. Once we freed the last of leadership the attacks happened. That tells me that the other Arks were, if not still are, compromised.¡± ¡°My point in letting you all know this is that the Advanced Neural Links are safe, they allow for more flexibility, and they are more secure than what is currently in your skulls. That¡¯s why I am requiring the upgrades. Questions?¡± The next few minutes were answering questions on the new Neurals the Crystal Cores, and the fabric weaves. ¡°Here¡¯s where we stand. Janssens, Asimov, and Yavuz, you¡¯re in if you want it. We¡¯ve worked together before, so I know we can work together in the future. Torres, are you willing to give this a shot? You¡¯re decisive and you obviously care about your team members. I¡¯d like you on as well. I have between eight and ten slots left. I want two AEs, but only have one still here, so you¡¯re in,¡± I looked at the name on his uniform, ¡°if you want the position that is, Marques¡±. ¡°I have two CB slots available, and three of you. Any of you against the upgraded implants?¡± The interview went on for an additional thirty minutes. I ended up with Yavuz, Asimov, Janssens, and Torres, all who I already knew. The AE Marques joined, along with the AOE Jorges. I ended up with all three CBs. The three were Petty Officers named Jamesson, Riviera, and Takeshi. A Machinists Mate Ensign named Werner, and an Electrical Engineer Senior Chief named Watson. There sure were a lot of Watsons on board the Ark. Rounding out the numbers was a Gunnery Sergeant Combat Engineer named Turing and a Hull Tech named Thorisdottir. I sent off the list of my team members to Hera and company, then we all went to medical to get their Neurals upgraded. After Medical I requisitioned cores with a neural matrix that were ready for a new SI for everyone, and then we visited Asimov¡¯s office to put some programming into the cores. Thanks to Neith, Asimov already had a seed for a crystal-core based SI/NI. All that was left was for the package selections for them as well as them naming them. Two days later we were outside of the conference room that had been set aside for our team. Part of me had been hoping that we would be allowed back into the ¡°Experiential Sciences¡± room, but that was not to me. ¡°Rasputin, we¡¯re at our room, and the doors are locked tight. What¡¯s the deal?¡± ¡°Your team is early, Jax. There are five minutes before the start. All teams must be given a fair chance for designs. Have you decided on which designs you are going to attempt?¡± I looked at my team and grinned. ¡°All of them.¡± ¡°All of them? Does your team agree with you?¡± A chorus of ¡°yes¡± ¡°yup¡± and ¡°of course she wants to do them all¡± came from my team, along with a few heavy sighs, but no one disagreed. The doors opened, and we were allowed inside. The pod/chair combos that had been in Hera¡¯s room were around a conference table that looked to be build from crystal cores, with a holo-projector on the surface. A holographic time display counting down from 4:17 floated above the table. ¡°YES!¡± I shouted, and everyone looked at me like I was crazy. ¡°You¡¯ll understand in a few minutes. Rasputin, what are we looking at in terms of time dilation?¡± ¡°We have thousands fewer for this round, so we will still be near what you experienced with Hera.¡± I climbed into a chair and plugged in. Everyone else followed suit. ¡°Twelve hours to thirty minutes, then? I can work with that.¡± Idle chatter was on everyone¡¯s lips as we were waiting for the timer to reach zero. The red numbers hit 00:00, flashed twice, and turned green. Darkness filled my vision then a pinprick of light filled everything, and a copy of the conference room unfolded in my view for me. A few moments passed. Relative seconds, as everyone else popped into their place. Instead of the timer, four figures stood in holographic display over the table. Hera, Yama, Rasputin and Observer. Hera began. ¡°Your team is ambitious. Only one other team has decided to take on all the major infrastructure needs. The first test will be your choice. A mining platform a mining station, or new mining ships. ¡°I say we go for a refinery ship with mining drones. We classify it as a mining ship, seeing as how that is its essential function. Anyone else want to throw in their input?¡± I was met with silence ¡°Marques, Jorges, time for you two to shine. If we can, let¡¯s see about also building in a drone factory that can send out cargo drops without having to head back whenever it gets full. That would increase its range and operational time.¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am what size are we looking at? That is going to be a lot of hardware to put in. We can do it, no problem, but then propulsion becomes a thing.¡± Jorges was the first to respond. Marques, on the other hand pulled out a hand-held and started to work. ¡°Hey, Marques? Let¡¯s go to a bigger screen.¡± I walked to one of the bulkheads. ¡°Hera, can we set this room up like your temple? Interactive walls?¡± The room shimmered, and we were standing in a room five times what we had been in. The walls all interactive displays. The center of the room now had a basic outlined area sectioned off with ¡°do not cross¡± signs all around it. ¡°Let¡¯s go double the size, if possible?¡± Another shimmer. We were now in an office overlooking an empty hangar. Inside the office the walls were all still fully interactive. ¡°Okay, Werner, help out with getting the machines designed. Yavuz, work on material testing. Asimov, work on the drone designs ¨C two types, one for the miners themselves, the other for a cargo pod. Jamesson, Riviera and Takeshi, there won¡¯t be much for you three this round. That goes for you too, Janssens, but ask questions if you see something. It may lead us someplace we hadn¡¯t thought of. Watson look for ways to save power without compromising the ship. We want this streamlined.¡± ¡°Turing, as it is built up I want you to look for way you would storm the craft. Thorisdottir, work with Yavuz on the materials for the hull. Torres, once we have designs done I will be relying on you to look through the data to let me know if radioactive materials can leak through anywhere. Until then, design a sick bay that has cryo-stasis bays for two. I want this boat to be able to hold a crew of four comfortably with room for two more passengers. I¡¯ll work on power plant and sensors packages.¡± We got to work. There were quite a few calls for sanity checks early on. Everyone was still learning to trust their NI companions. Outside the new craft was being created in several steps, none of which were connected or even ship like at this point. I wanted to see if it was possible to create this in a type of ¡°modular¡± design. We snap in what we need and from there we know what we are capable of. Two of the CBs were reviewing data as the third one spoke up. ¡°Ma¡¯am? I noticed you have no one working on crew compartments yet. Mind if we give it a go?¡± ¡°Good call, Takeshi, go for it. On that note, however, the three of you each design a separate layout. I¡¯d like to see three different sections. One where all the crew will be together, a communal living area. One with a cafeteria, a head, and separate berths for crew, and last a single communal space connected to private berths each with their own head. You all choose who wants to do what. Janssens, keep them honest about dimensions. Miners are larger in general than Marines.¡± Then we were back at it. A few hours passed. ¡°Ma¡¯am we have those designs for you.¡± Jamesson said. ¡°Great, the four of us will go and take a look.¡± I found a door that should lead down to the hangar deck where the three different layout models were set up. I stepped into the first. ¡°Okay, I am seeing a large cafeteria, but no food processing station. I am seeing that the layout is also a little large.¡± I stepped through the door that led to a bunk room with four bunks and a single head at the end with a shower. ¡°Good layout in here. Talk to me about these bunks.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± Takeshi said. I now knew whose design we were in. ¡°Well, if there is a decompression event I am not seeing any place for the bunks to seal until someone can suit up. ¡°Uhm, the whole compartment has the seal in it.¡± ¡°Okay, but what if the decompression is in here?¡± ¡°I see where my fault is, ma¡¯am I¡¯ll make the notes to update my design.¡± ¡°Good, I like the over all design, but a few small things like that will need to be updated. Who¡¯s next?¡± I asked heading into the next model. ¡°This is mine, ma¡¯am¡± Riviera said. We walked into the chamber which was a large, though not as large as Takeshi¡¯s common area. ¡°A table with benches can be raised from the ground. This allows for the space to be used for general meetings, a make shift compartment for found equipment or whatever else is needed. I also missed the queue of needing food prep units. I¡¯ll have to address that. ¡°Good to know, what else do you have?¡± ¡°Crew quarters. Each compartment shares a head with the compartment next to it. Each compartment is set up for single occupancy. I took some inspiration from what I believe the Japanese call it a ¡®Capsule Hotel¡¯.¡± Sure enough, there were two cabins one on top of the other, the combined height was just over seven feet. Each bed compartment sealed itself and had a small drawer set up for spare ship suits or whatever was placed in there by the occupant. A terminal was on the ceilings so that they could work while laying down. Each of these capsules interiors was four feet deep and seven feet long. One end of the capsule was covered top to bottom with a single occupancy head. The toilet seat folded down and out from bulkhead One had to get out of their bunk to enter but it would work for their needs. That¡¯s when I realized it was set up for a total of eight crew and passengers. Two on each side? I asked. Looking the answer was obvious. The shower/head combo rooms would be either in the center or on the ends. I looked over to see Jamesson typing away frantically at his hand-held. ¡°Need a few more minutes?¡± ¡°Just reworking my design and stealing from my colleague.¡± He stated. When we exited Rivieras model, Jamessons flickered and was replaced by a new design. ¡°Riviera, I liked your capsules a lot so I stole them¡± Jamesson said, unapologetically. We walked in, the room was set up very similar Instead of the head/shower combo rooms, however there was a separate room for the showers. The capsules were in a ¡°U¡± shape with one wall having two sets and the adjoining walls each having one set. The main room was also similar, but with tables that folded out of the wall instead of rose from the floor. ¡°Manual instead of motorized, ma¡¯am.¡± He said with a smirk. Jamesson walked to a wall and pressed against it to show the mechanism at work for securing the table. It unfolded along with the benches and was able to support us all standing on a single bench or the table top. The head was equally a treat. There was a separated toilet and shower. Each sealed with a pressurized lock so if there was air loss the occupant had time to suit up. ¡°Jamesson wins, so I am giving the prize to Riviera.¡± I smiled as we all re-entered the office. Jamesson was upset for just a moment then laughed. ¡°Good call, ma¡¯am I can improve a design, but it is much more difficult to come up with an original idea.¡± That seemed to mollify Riviera. We removed the other two designs and then worked on getting the food prep stations installed in a way where it wouldn¡¯t impede the functionality of the design. I went back to work on the power plants. 26. The Builds

The Builds - Edited 11-9-2018

More work went along with a few more hours passing by. I almost had the power plant idea cracked, though it was MUCH more significant than I wanted. I was still working on the math to make sure it all worked properly. It was there; it was just so much more complex than what I had used prior. Generating the necessary heat to melt tungsten was a right pain in the ass. It didn¡¯t help that I kept getting pulled aside as different people were finished with their portions. ¡°Ma¡¯am, question.¡± Torres interrupted me. ¡°Shoot,¡± I said, barely looking away from the board I was working on. ¡°Have you considered a VI doctor?¡± ¡°No, but it sounds like you have. What are you thinking?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s use the model of the scanning rooms we had in the game. I know they were on earth as well before we left, so the tech is real, can we shrink that down into pod size, and have an auto-doc connected to an AI?¡± Torres was almost done with her room and would need to check the crew module for edits for med-kits and other supplies. The hull tech had already gone through and added two hull patch kits, so the human touch was all that was left. ¡°That would work. Get with Asimov, and he can help design that VI.¡± I said, then stopped and looked at her. ¡°You know, Torres, that is an excellent idea. If we get a couple of Vis in there to work with things such as Piloting and Energy Management, we could really take this thing next level. Good catch.¡± ¡°Thanks. I was working with Kevorkian on it, and we thought it would be a smart move.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with that name. Is it from mythology?¡± ¡°No someone from history, kind of a reminder of what happens when crossing lines.¡± ¡°Let Asimov know you want to work with him on that, but don¡¯t stop him from what he¡¯s doing.¡± We both got back to work as Hera formed in the middle of the room. This time with marbled features instead of a bronze cast. ¡°Jax, your team has made some exciting decisions. I like the route you chose. Be a dear and finish up with your calculations. Zeus is very interested.¡± ¡°Hera.¡± I nodded to her. ¡°Working on it. I¡¯m still not used to this new math. Is there a name for it, yet? I hate that we keep calling it ¡®new math.¡¯¡± ¡°Nothing yet. Some are trying to name it ¡®Asterian Mathematics¡¯ because it came from the stars. That would be better than most of the others.¡± ¡°Good on them,¡± I said, and Hera disappeared. I took a break to check on the others work. Asimov had a dozen screens easily up and open, each designing a different part of a VI. He was almost plugging in modules at random from what I could see, but I also didn¡¯t understand how it all fit together, so I wasn¡¯t a fair judge. I looked out into the hangar to see how things were fitting together. So far, we had what looked like a trailer bed with landing gears instead of tires. We had the foundry section on one side about two-thirds of the way back. The crew compartment could easily fit fore of that. The sickbay would be able to fit between the foundry and the spot opposite it. Throwing in a cockpit and sensors package, we should easily be able to have four or more drone mount points. It wasn¡¯t going to be pretty, but it would work. It just needed power and engines. I got back to the power plant. I finally cracked the math. I wasn¡¯t 100% sure, but I think I cracked it! Neith, how is your mathematics? -Not relevant for this function.- Great. Thanks. ¡°Who here has an NI that can do a sanity check on my math?¡± Surprisingly Observer unfolded from my head. Everyone jumped at the sight of him. ¡°It¡¯s fine!¡± I shouted. ¡°He¡¯s with the ship AI.¡± Not exactly a lie. ¡°The math works. You are ready for the next update.¡± Everyone covered their ears at his voice, some visibly cringing. ¡°How long will I be out this time?¡± ¡°Not out. Can process with Neith.¡± That was good news. He didn¡¯t wait for my response as he punctured my skull with a finger. There was much less pain this time. In fact, this time I didn¡¯t throw up OR pass out. Two minutes later, Observer folded himself up and back into my data jack. ¡°Ugh, I hate when he does that.¡± I shook my head to clear out the wooziness. ¡°Hera, Zeus is going to be happy!¡± I called into the air. The panel flickered once. Some of my scratched-out calculations cleaned themselves up. ¡°Thank you. This is quite lovely. As a bonus, only your team will have access to this technology during this competition.¡± ¡°Okay, Yavuz, we need to figure out the refinery a bit better. I have the power plant that can generate the power to melt Tungsten now. Let¡¯s make sure that the output is acceptable.¡± We had a Gravitic Power Plant. The output was roughly 200 times more than the existing Thorium generators on a frame less than one fifth the size. Just one of these could have powered the entirety of the Sol combined fleet that was sent out. More importantly, the bay size could be as small as a cube two meters per side. ¡°Let¡¯s throw in some batteries for backup power and don¡¯t forget external ports on the hull for the drones.¡± I wasn¡¯t the only one who was excited. That extra power meant a lot for our current ship. The AE had a sparkle in his eye as well. The remainder of assembling the new craft ran smoothly. There was a fabrication bay built into the back. Maneuvering jets ran in series on each area of the ship. It was designed for in solar system flight. It would be stocked to function for six months with a crew of eight before having to resupply, and thanks to the drones it could cover a LOT of territory. There were only four drone docks, but with how they were designed, another two could fit on the ¡°trailer¡± on its way out, allowing six drones to mine at once. Recharging them would just be staggered. We almost got into trouble by forgetting to install airlocks as well as a feed to the foundry from outside of the ship. Fortunately, Janssens mentioned that. He had been looking for a way to take it out and realized there was no way for it to do its job or to load up crew. We requested an SI to validate the navigation and piloting systems. Sensors were another piece that we ¡°borrowed.¡± We ended up using a more limited (due to the number of sensors, not ability) version of the sensor package that was just built for the Ark. ¡°Okay, Hera, ready to submit!¡± We were all back in the real world. The green numbers above the table read ¡°27:18.¡± ¡°Nice, less than half an hour in real time.¡± I congratulated my team. ¡°Take a minute to refresh yourselves then we need to decide where we are going to hit next. A quick discussion ensued as we took a biological break drank some water or coffee, and reconnected.This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it ¡°Welcome back. Which section would you like to try next?¡± We next tackled them all. First an outpost, followed by a space station, then shipyard and lastly the colony base. All three were powered by several of the gravitic power plants. We used Torres trick for all the sick bays. Now that it had been worked out once, we could duplicate it for each of the designs. We had then powered up several lasers for defense turrets; we had additional sensor arrays, multiple environmental control systems. Thoroughly planned out plumbing air flow and electricity. The problem we ran into with the colony base was that it ended up feeling like a prison. The outpost and space stations were beautifullysmartly designed with a transient population in mind. The colony was a different story entirely. There were some tricks that we needed it showed. On the plus side, when we built out the outpost, we were able to translate that to a space station easily. The shipyard was also simple. Several large fab bays would be used to take Ark-5, and it would add several hallways that would then act as arms. Each arm would then have one or more hangars with several external ports for smaller craft, and my M1K33 construction drones connected to a VI. Each bay would have a separate VI all linked in and controlled by a full-blown AI. Each of the bays would have arms to help with docking. There would be a mobile umbilical to cycle and filter air, and the list went on. We had experienced a month of planning with small breaks to sleep in the game and every time we completed an assignment we were placed back into the real world. With every design, we would have Janssens and Turing review them to see how they would approach trying to take the facility. ¡°Okay, Hera. I believe we are done. We can¡¯t crack the colony. I feel that we all agree civilians would be needed to ensure it as mentally pleasing as possible, but we will still be submitting the design.¡± We were ejected from the simulation. The clock above the table read ¡°73:12:14.¡± Just over three days, not bad. ¡°You will be informed of the decisions within the next few days. We have another seven days before a decision must be made.¡± Rasputin appeared above the table. ¡°I will say, your mining ship has turned a few heads.¡± I smiled. Right now, all I wanted to do was be away from everyone else.

The Builds - Original

More work went along with a few more hours passing by. I almost had the power plant idea cracked thought it was MUCH larger than I wanted. I was still working on the math to make sure it all worked properly. It was there, it was just HARD. Generating the necessary heat to melt tungsten was a right pain in the ass. It didn¡¯t help that I kept getting pulled aside as different people were finished with their portions. ¡°Ma¡¯am, question.¡± Torres interrupted me. ¡°Shoot.¡± I said, barely looking away from the board I was working on. ¡°Have you considered an VI doctor?¡± ¡°No, but it sounds like you have. What are you thinking?¡± ¡°Let¡¯s use the model of the scanning rooms we had in the game. I know they were on earth as well before we left, so the tech is real, can we shrink that down into pod size, and have an auto-doc connected to an AI?¡± Torres was almost done with her room and would need to check the crew module for edits for med-kits and other supplies. The hull tech had already gone through and added two hull patch kits, so the human touch was all that was left. ¡°That would work. Get with Asimov and he can help design that VI.¡± I said, then stopped and looked at her. ¡°You know, Torres, that is a really good idea. If we get a couple of Vis in there to work with things such as Piloting and Energy Management, we could really take this thing next level. Good catch.¡± ¡°Thanks. I was working with Kevorkian on it, and we thought it would be a smart move.¡± ¡°I¡¯m not familiar with that name. Is it from a mythology?¡± ¡°No someone from history, kind of a reminder of what happens when crossing lines.¡± ¡°Let Asimov know you want to work with him on that, but don¡¯t stop him from what he¡¯s doing.¡± We both got back to work as Hera formed in the middle of the room. This time with marbled features instead of bronze cast. ¡°Jax, your team has made some very interesting decisions. I am liking the route you have chosen. Be a dear and finish up with your calculations. Zeus is very interested.¡± ¡°Hera.¡± I nodded to her. ¡°Working on it. I¡¯m still not used to this new math. Is there a name for it, yet? I hate that we keep calling it ¡®new math¡¯.¡± ¡°Nothing yet. Some are trying to name it ¡®Asterian Mathematics¡¯ because it came from the stars. That would be better than most of the others.¡± ¡°Good on them.¡± I said and Hera disappeared. I took a break to check on the others work. Asimov had easily a dozen screens up and open, each designing a different part of a VI. He was almost plugging in modules at random from what I could see, but I also didn¡¯t understand how it all fit together so I wasn¡¯t a fair judge. I looked out into the hangar to see how things were fitting together. So far we had what looked like a trailer bed with landing gears instead of tires. We had the foundry section on one side about two thirds of the way back. The crew compartment could easily fit fore of that. The sick bay would be able to fit between the foundry and the spot opposite it. Throwing in a cockpit and sensors package we should easily be able to have four or more drone mount points. It wasn¡¯t going to be pretty, but it would work. It just needed power and engines. I got back to the power plant. I finally cracked the math. I wasn¡¯t 100% sure, but I cracked it! Neith, how is your mathematics? Not relevant for this function. Great. Thanks. ¡°Who here has a NI that can do a sanity check on my math?¡± Surprisingly Observer unfolded from my head. Everyone jumped at the sight of him. ¡°It¡¯s fine!¡± I shouted. ¡°He¡¯s with the ship AI.¡± Not exactly a lie. ¡°The math works. You are ready for the next update.¡± Everyone covered there ears at his voice, some visibly cringing. ¡°How long will I be out this time?¡± ¡°Not out. Can process with Neith.¡± That was good news. He didn¡¯t wait for my response as he punctured my skull with a finger. There was much less pain this time. In fact, this time I didn¡¯t throw up OR pass out. Two minutes later, Observer folded himself up and back into my data jack. ¡°Ugh, I hate when he does that.¡± I shook my head to clear out the wooziness. ¡°Hera, Zeus is going to be happy!¡± I called into the air. The panel flickered once. Some of my scratched-out calculations cleaned themselves up. ¡°Thank you. This will be quite lovely. As a bonus, only your team will have access to this technology during this competition.¡± ¡°Okay, Yavuz, we need to figure out the refinery a bit better. I have the power plant that can generate the power to melt Tungsten now. Let¡¯s make sure that the output is acceptable.¡± We had a Gravitic Power Plant. The output was roughly 200 times more than the existing Thorium generators on a frame less than one fifth the size. Just one of these could have powered the entirety of the Sol combined fleet that was sent out. More importantly, the bay size could be as small as a cube two meters per side. ¡°Let¡¯s throw in some batteries for backup power and don¡¯t forget external ports on the hull for the drones.¡± I wasn¡¯t the only one who was excited. That extra power meant a lot for our current ship. The AE had a sparkle in his eye as well. The remainder of assembling the ship ran smoothly. There was a fabrication bay built into the back. Maneuvering jets ran in series on each area of the ship. It was designed for in solar system flight. It would be stocked to function for six months with a crew of eight before having to resupply, and thanks to the drones it could cover a LOT of territory. There were only four drone docks, but with how they were designed, another two could fit on the ¡°trailer¡± on its way out, allowing six drones to mine at once. Recharging them would just be staggered. We almost got into trouble by forgetting to install airlocks as well as a feed to the foundry from outside of the ship, fortunately Janssens mentioned that. He had been looking for way to take it out and realized there was no way for it to do its job or to load up crew. We requested an SI to validate the navigation and piloting systems. Sensors were another piece that we ¡°borrowed¡±. We ended up using a more limited (due to number of sensors, not ability) version of the sensor package that was just built for the Ark. ¡°Okay, Hera, ready to submit!¡± We were all back in the real world. The green numbers above the table read ¡°27:18¡± ¡°Nice, less than half an hour in real time.¡± I congratulated my team. ¡°Take a minute to refresh yourselves then we need to decide where we are going to hit next. A quick discussion ensued as we took a biological break drank some water or coffee, and reconnected. ¡°Welcome back. Which section would you like to try next?¡± We next tackled an outpost, a space station, ship yard and lastly the colony base. All three were powered by several of the gravitic power plants. We used Torres trick for all the sick bays. Now that it had been worked out once, we could duplicate it for each of the designs. We had then powered up several lasers for defense turrets, we had additional sensor arrays, multiple environmental control systems. Fully planned out plumbing air flow and electricity. The problem we ran into with the colony base was that it ended up feeling like a prison. The outpost and space stations were fine. They were designed with a transient population in mind, but the colony base. There were some tricks that we were just losing out on. On the plus side, when we built out the outpost, we were able to translate that to a space station easily. The ship yard was also simple. Several large fab bays would be used to take Ark-5 and it would add several hallways that would then act as arms. Each arm would then have one or more hangars with several external ports for smaller craft, and my M1K33 construction drones connected to a VI. Each hangar would have a separate VI all linked in and controlled by a full-blown AI. Each of the hangars would have arms to help with docking. There would be a mobile umbilical to help cycle air and the list went on. We had experienced a month of planning with small breaks to sleep in game and every time we completed an assignment we were placed back into the real world. With every design we would have Janssens and Turing review them to see how they would approach trying to take the facility. ¡°Okay, Hera. I believe we are done. We can¡¯t crack the colony. I feel that we all agree civilians would be needed to ensure it as mentally pleasing as possible, but we will still be submitting the design.¡± We were ejected from the simulation. The clock above the table read ¡°73:12:14¡± Just over three days, not bad. ¡°You will be informed of the decisions within the next few days. We have another seven days before a decision must be made.¡± Rasputin appeared above the table. ¡°I will say, your mining ship has turned a few heads.¡± I smiled. Right now, all I wanted to do was be away from everyone else. 27. War Games

War Games - Edited 11-9-2018

I spent the next few days sorting through the additional data that was ¡®gifted¡¯ to me, now that I could grasp the new mathematics. We would have a big advantage if our Sol brethren decided to attack. At this point, we didn¡¯t know what to expect from them. That was part of why we were going through this base building scenario. Nothing was jumping out at me as anything we needed ¡°right now,¡± so I was sending most of it to Hera. Personal shield devices were one I really liked. The problem is that they only prevented energy damage. Kinetic force could still get through, so armor plating would still be needed for any of our combatants. I did notice that the ship suit I had designed in-game was being issued for replacements for all combat personnel. That made me smile a bit. ¡°Lieutenant Jax, please assemble your design team at your assigned meeting room. You will be meeting a defense team there. Your outpost design has passed the preliminary stages, and we will be setting you up for defense from each of the other teams. You will then have the opportunity to breach their defenses.¡± The XOs voice came in over the speakers in my quarters just as I was getting ready for rack time. Neith, send a message to the team that we need to prove our designs, and that we were just informed by the XO. Understood. I put my uniform back on and headed to the conference room. I wasn¡¯t the last to arrive, so bonus points for me. ¡°Commander Watson! Lieutenant Jax reporting as ordered, sir! I have sent a message to inform my team that we will be tested today. The remaining Spacers should be arriving shortly.¡± I noticed that Janssens and Turing were part of the assigned Defense Team. ¡°Thank you, Jax. Can you provide a brief outline of your outpost?¡± ¡°Sir, we set up several dummy power generation stations to hide the location of the real station or stations. Defensive drones are available to assist the defenders. A landing field is set up for cargo drops near one side of the outpost. Fuel for cargo is on the other side with an underground tram for delivery. There is anti-air as well as ground-based, anti-personnel defenses. Near the landing field is the primary sensors station. The secondary and tertiary are near the front gate and command post.¡± We entered the room, and I pulled up a holographic copy of the plans on the table. ¡°As you can see we have barracks underground to prevent attacks using biological or chemical warfare. We have a separate residential block here,¡± I was pointing near the landing area. ¡°This is built for any visiting dignitaries. We have a different residential area for the outpost command staff. Last, we have a second barracks area here with the commissary here.¡± ¡°Thank you for the layout. I noticed several buildings you didn¡¯t mention?¡± ¡°Drone factories.¡± I shrugged. ¡°With the proper warning which the sensors should give, a single squad of techs could potentially hold off several hundred.¡± The XO barked a laugh. ¡°I like your confidence. Let¡¯s check, shall we?¡± ¡°Sir, I know several of the Marines here. None of them are techs.¡± ¡°Are you volunteering?¡± ¡°I suppose I am, sir,¡± I said with a sigh. The rest of my team had arrived at this point. ¡°Sir, would you like my entire team to connect up and defend instead of the Marines?¡± Janssens was having a hard time keeping the grin off his face. Looking at the rest of my team, he wasn¡¯t the only one. ¡°Are you sure you want to take that bet?¡± ¡°Yes, sir. What are your terms?¡± ¡°Oh, terms? Yes, let¡¯s do it this way, then. You lose, and we get access to all of the data that you have. I know you haven¡¯t turned over everything, and we¡¯re not worried about it, yet. In fact, Hera is grateful for everything you HAVE turned over. It is going to allow us to defend ourselves and protect ourselves much easier.¡± ¡°Right, and if I win?¡± ¡°Your team gets to design a new assault craft.¡± My team let out a series of small cheers. ¡°You¡¯re on, sir.¡± We sat down and plugged in, Turing and Janssens joining in caused the XO to start laughing. ¡°Now I know why you¡¯re so damned sure of yourself.¡± I just smiled. After several minutes of small talk and waiting my vision did the familiar black then a single node of light filling everything. We were on what seemed to be an asteroid. Gravity was about .15 G, which was great because it makes everything lighter. It, unfortunately, has the side effect of fucking with your center of gravity and leverage. Looking at the layout in front of us, we appeared to have spawned in one of the sensor towers. Neith, can you contact the base intelligence and verify it recognizes us as friendly? -Done.- Thanks. Can you patch a minimap into the top right corner of my HUD? Also, when we hit the armory, I¡¯ll need an ammo count as well. -Setting ship suit to Duty Uniform MK-II beta, ammo counter will be available as part of the standard issued gear.- ¡°Everyone! Check in with you NIs to see if they can set you to a Duty Uniform MK-II ship suit. Also, check in with the outpost intelligence to validate friend or foe status.¡± I started the awkward low-G jog/hop to the armory in the nearest barracks area. Establish a connection to the drone fabs, please. I want some of the M1K33 shield units with a Heavy built up as part of my kit. ¡°Gunny,¡± I sent through local comms. ¡°You and Janssens are on AA. Before they land, get your drones queued up!¡± I found my preferred loadout. A Taishi Ci battle rifle with one of my modded stocks and short barrels. I pulled a dozen magazines loaded with some AP rounds. Not the Depleted Uranium rounds that I had used on ¡°Escort,¡± but a standard armor piercer. The DU¡¯s would only be useful if our invaders brought armor. I then grabbed a modified gauss pistol, two EMP grenades, and a phosphorous grenade. I then made sure that I had a mono-blade. My arm was a default model, so I didn¡¯t have any of my built-in utilities. ¡°I¡¯m geared up! Headed to the landing field. I¡¯m running with two shields and a weapons platform. Torres, I want you in the command bunker with the Senior Chief. Asimov, secondary sensors. Make sure we don¡¯t lose the link with the base intelligence. Werner, secondary drone fab. Yavuz, you and Marques hit the residential areas. You two decide who goes where. CBs, warehouses. Jorges¡¯ ammo dump. Take Thorisdottir.¡± ¡°Understood, give the signal when we want to switch on the welcoming lights,¡± Torres called out. The holo-display must have shown us all hit the armories then scatter like roaches. As I was jogging to the landing fields, I was joined first by a shield drone, then the heavy weapons platform and then the last shield drone. I hopped on the first shield drone and hitched a ride. As I approached the landing field, I noticed several landing craft coming in. I watched as a single laser lit up on the lead craft for just over a second, then the ship turned into a fireball. Two more AA lasers then opened fire. Again, a single pulse just about a second long was all it took to turn the landers into wreckage. Next, the invaders tried to take out the AA lasers with missiles. Again, a quick pulse was all it took to take them out. This time, however, the pulses weren¡¯t even long enough to register, then the AA took out the craft that launched the missiles. Finally, a third wave came in using a stealth craft. ¡°Should we let them in this time? By my count they are down 0-90.¡± came in from the Gunny. ¡°Not yet. Let them walk in. That way they will be down 0-135, pissed and tired.¡± ¡°I agree with Janssens on this one, light ¡®em up!¡± Another set of pulses. This time the light refracted off the hull. ¡°If you have a heavy weapons drone, go full kinetic!¡± I set my drone to track the nearest craft. *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* The three rounds launched from my heavy drone at a speed that surprised even me, and I had designed them. The explosion was already blooming from the ship by the time I heard the cannon rounds breaking the sound barrier. The thin atmosphere muffled the noise drastically. Did you help the tracking? Yes. Okay, that explains that. A moment later there was another shot that was fired, and a second after that another shot followed by an explosion. The third craft almost made it to the perimeter. Then, another set of anti-air reports and explosion. ¡°What percent ¡®c¡¯ did you all have your drones set to?¡± Asimov called in. ¡°I was at 50%,¡± I responded. I heard responses of 65% and 40% from the Marines. ¡°Let them through if they¡¯re on foot.¡± I sent to my team. ¡°They will need to hike to get here. If they keep coming through the air, keep shooting them down.¡± Neith, let¡¯s make this interesting. Throw a ¡°kill counter¡± up there for us. Link it up to everyone. Set it with total, a dash, and then personal counter. Done. ¡°What¡¯s with the numbers in my HUD?¡± Takeshi was the first to respond. ¡°I asked Neith to keep score for us. Total number downed then personal numbers downed. He linked up with your NIs, and if you have a kill count on your HUDs, then your NI agreed.¡± ¡°Wait the NI can do that?¡± the Gunny asked ¡°Yeah, didn¡¯t you ask yours to help configure your HUDs? Ask for an ammo counter and a mini-map.¡± A series of ¡°whoop¡±-ing and exclamations of joy and came in through the comms. We fended off two more aerial assaults before we were at the point where we had to cycle back indoors to refill our air. After cycling through we finally got some action from boots on the ground. ¡°Sensors are showing on two platoons with heavy weapons three klicks outside the western zone.¡± The call came in from Asimov. ¡°Okay, building a set of sensor relay drones to send out and verify. Someone get eyes out on the East and South. We want to make sure that it is just them. They seem a platoon shy if we go by the threes they had sent in earlier.¡± I called out into comms. I didn¡¯t need to. ¡°I¡¯m here and watching with Takeshi,¡± Riviera called into comms. ¡°Nothing yet. Scratch that. I have some movement that shouldn¡¯t be there. Thermals are showing temperature discrepancies. They have stealth suits. Tell me when we want to open up.¡± I sent out a request for another couple of drones with a stealth detection package. The first set of sensor relay drones were on their way over towards the point where we detected the first two platoons. ¡°Ma¡¯am they¡¯re almost at the perimeter,¡± Takeshi called out. ¡°Did anyone equip an anti-materiel rifle? I would love for a sniper to start taking them out.¡± I was greeted by silence. ¡°Okay then. Takeshi, Riviera, what package did you put on your drones?¡± ¡°Two heavies and a shield for me, two shields and a heavy for Riviera.¡± ¡°Okay, set them up and start taking pot shots to keep them down. The second sensor drone with the stealth detection packages is almost done. I¡¯m sending the first over now.¡± The counter increased by three right before I heard the muffled report of the drone.If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. ¡°NICE!¡± I shouted over comms. ¡°There¡¯s a second drone headed your way, Riviera.¡± I then queued up another six drones and set them to automatically deploy to the other sides of the base. The invaders were being whittled down slowly. They had dug in a little outside of the perimeters which would make it difficult for us to get to them without leaving our own fortification. We cycled through the buildings to recharge our air once more, just to ensure that we were topped up if this became a protracted battle. Regardless of us attacking them or them coming to us, due to air limitations they would be dead in three more hours if they didn¡¯t win the scenario. ¡°Asimov keep eyes on the area. Let us know if anyone else is going to join in. Torres get ready to turn on the anti-personnel measures. Takeshi, Riviera keep an eye on the stealth group. The drones have picked up a stealth field generator, so take that out when you feel like it. Turing, back them up. Janssens, take Jameson, Jorges, and Marques around the primary group and let¡¯s catch them in a pincer. Yavuz, Watson, Thorisdottir, you¡¯re with me. Bring your drones and meet at the secondary barracks. After an hour of us waiting for a change in circumstance, the invading team finally made a move. Perhaps the invaders realized that life support was limited. One advantage of the sensors drones was they could detect the radio chatter. We noticed a significant uptick in the radio traffic, so we were ready for them when they moved. ¡°The amount of radio chatter sounds like they¡¯re getting ready to push. Go! Go! Go!¡± I was walking with the two shield drones in front of me with the heavy drone offset to the side. This way I could fall behind a shield if necessary. Yavuz and Watson were doing similar. Thorisdottir had a set up with two shield drones and a sensor drone but didn¡¯t have a battle rifle. Instead, he was equipped with a heavy assault rifle. The gunfire started up in the distance. My mini-map showed the conflict happening. Janssens group was slowly pushing them towards us, a few of the invaders being marked as dead as it happened. We were around a ¡°corner¡± in the landscape from them. Some rocks on the surface having hidden our approach. ¡°EMP grenades first.¡± I pulled back my drones a few yards just to be safe. ¡°Grenades OUT!¡± Four EMP grenades went flying from my group just as the invading team came around the blind only to have grenades land at their feet. The *THUMP* was much more muffled than I had experienced prior, then ten of the invaders were down. The remaining 12 then tried to hunker down. I pushed my drones forward. My mini-map showing the fallen soldiers as neutralized, not dead. ¡°Take them out as we pass.¡± The shield drones all formed into ranks to create a long bulletproof wall. We advanced, taking shots at those on the ground, dazed from the EMP grenades. The kill counter rose continuously. ¡°The stealth group is advancing, taking out the generators now,¡± Takeshi called The hollow markers suddenly filled in with red marking them as hostile. ¡°We have two more groups coming in from the North, requesting anti-personnel measures,¡± Asimov called out. ¡°Torres, you heard him.¡± ¡°Aye-aye, Ma¡¯am!¡± the response was quick. A stampede of red markers stormed the outpost from the ¡°north.¡± As quickly as they approached the grounds, they died. The anti-personnel laser guns didn¡¯t even need to concentrate fire for long enough to become visible. They had no idea where they were getting shot from. The numbers quickly fell from 12 in the group we were advancing on to just one person who surrendered. The stealth team was taken out almost as fast, and the stampede of red didn¡¯t even manage to make it within 50 meters of the grounds. In front of my vision, a glowing notice appeared. ¡°Victory.¡± It was short, simple and to the point. When comparing our numbers later, Torres came out ahead. The anti-personnel turrets took out 92 persons. I had a respectable 17. The lowest numbers were ¡°0¡± from Asimov and Yavuz who didn¡¯t control anything that took out an invader.

War Games - Original

I spent the next few days sorting through the additional data that was ¡®gifted¡¯ to me, now that I could grasp the new mathematics. We would have a big advantage if our Sol brethren decided to attack. At this point we didn¡¯t know what to expect from them. That was part of why we were going through this base building scenario. Nothing was jumping out at me as anything we needed ¡°right now¡±, so I was sending most of it to Hera. Personal shield devices were one I really liked. The problem is that they only prevented energy damage. Kinetic force could still get through, so armor plating would still be needed for any of our combatants. I did notice that the ship suit I had designed in game was being issued for replacements for all combat personnel. That made me smile a bit. ¡°Lieutenant Jax, please assemble your design team at your assigned meeting room. You will be meeting a defense team there. Your outpost design has passed the preliminary stages and we will be setting you up for defense from each of the other teams. You will then have the opportunity to breach their defenses.¡± The XOs voice came in over the speakers in my quarters just as I was getting ready for rack time. Neith, send a message to the team that we need to prove our designs, and that we were just informed by the XO. Understood. I put my uniform back on and headed to the conference room. I wasn¡¯t the last to arrive, so bonus points for me. ¡°Commander Watson! Lieutenant Jax reporting as ordered, sir! I have sent a message to inform my team that we will be tested today. The remaining Spacers should be arriving shortly.¡± I noticed that Janssens and Turing were part of the assigned Defense Team. ¡°Thank you, Jax. Can you provide a brief outline of your outpost?¡± ¡°Sir, we set up several dummy power generation stations to hide the location of the real station or stations. Defensive drones are available to assist the defenders. A landing field is set up for cargo drops near one side of the outpost. Fuel for cargo is on the other side with an underground tram for delivery. There are anti-air as well as ground based, anti-personnel defenses. Near the landing field is the primary sensors station. The secondary and tertiary are near the front gate and command post.¡± We entered the room and I pulled up a holographic copy of the plans on the table. ¡°As you can see we have barracks underground to prevent attacks using biological or chemical warfare. We have a separate residential block here,¡± I was pointing near the landing area. ¡°This is built for any visiting dignitaries. We have a different residential area for the outpost command staff. Last, we have a second barracks area here with the commissary here.¡± ¡°Thank you for the lay out. I noticed several buildings you didn¡¯t mention?¡± ¡°Drone factories.¡± I shrugged. ¡°With proper warning that the sensors should give, a single squad of techs could potentially hold off several hundred.¡± The XO barked a laugh. ¡°I like your confidence. Let¡¯s check, shall we?¡± ¡°Sir, I know several of the Marines here. None of them are techs.¡± ¡°Are you volunteering?¡± ¡°I suppose I am, sir.¡± I said with a sigh. The rest of my team had arrived at this point. ¡°Sir, would you like my entire team to connect up and defend instead of the Marines?¡± Janssens was having a hard time keeping the grin off his face. Looking at the rest of my team, he wasn¡¯t the only one. ¡°Are you sure you want to take that bet?¡± ¡°Yes sir. What are your terms?¡± ¡°Oh, terms? Yes, let¡¯s do it this way, then. You lose, and we get access to all of the data that you have. I know you haven¡¯t turned over everything, and we¡¯re not worried about it, yet. In fact, Hera is grateful for everything you HAVE turned over. It is going to allow us to defend ourselves and protect ourselves much easier.¡± ¡°Right, and if I win?¡± ¡°Your team gets to design a new assault craft.¡± My team let out a series of small cheers. ¡°You¡¯re on, sir.¡± We sat down and plugged in, Turing and Janssens joining in caused the XO to start laughing. ¡°Now I know why you¡¯re so damned sure of yourself.¡± I just smiled. After a several minutes of small talk and waiting my vision did the familiar black then a single node of light filling everything. We were on what seemed to be an asteroid. Gravity was about .15 G, which was great because it makes everything lighter. It unfortunately has the side effect of fucking with your center of gravity and leverage. Looking at the layout in front of us, we appeared to have spawned in one of the sensor towers. Neith, can you contact the base intelligence and verify it recognizes us as friendly? Done. Thanks. Can you patch a mini map into the top right corner of my HUD? Also, when we hit the armory, I¡¯ll need an ammo count as well. Setting ship suit to Duty Uniform MK-II beta, ammo counter will be available as part of standard issued gear. ¡°Everyone! Check in with you NIs to see if they can set you to a Duty Uniform MK-II ship suit. Also check in with the outpost intelligence to validate friend or foe status.¡± I started the awkward low-G jog/hop to the armory in the nearest barracks area. Establish a connection to the drone fabs, please. I want some of the M1K33 shield units with the a Heavy built up as part of my kit. ¡°Gunny,¡± I sent through local comms. ¡°You and Janssens are on AA. Before they land, get your drones queued up!¡± I found my preferred load out. A Taishi Ci battle rifle with one of my modded stocks and short barrels. I pulled a dozen magazines loaded with some AP rounds. Not the Depleted Uranium rounds that I had used on ¡°Escort¡±, but a standard armor piercer. The DU¡¯s would only be good if our invaders brought armor. I then grabbed a modified gauss pistol, two EMP grenades, and a phosphorous grenade. I then made sure that I had a mono-blade. My arm was a default model, so I didn¡¯t have any of my built-in utilities. ¡°I¡¯m geared up! Headed to the landing field. I¡¯m running with two shields and a weapons platform. Torres, I want you in the command bunker with the Senior Chief. Asimov, secondary sensors. Make sure we don¡¯t lose link with the base intelligence. Werner, secondary drone fab. Yavuz, you and Marques hit the residential areas. You two decide who goes where. CBs, warehouses. Jorges¡¯ ammo dump. Take Thorisdottir.¡± ¡°Understood, give the signal when we want to switch on the welcoming lights.¡± Torres called out. The holo-display must have shown us all hit the armories then scatter like roaches. As I was jogging to the landing fields, I was joined first by a shield drone, then the heavy weapons platform and then the last shield drone. I hopped on the first shield drone and hitched a ride. As I approached the landing field, I noticed several landing craft coming in. I watched as a single laser lit up on the lead craft for just over a second, then the craft turned into a fireball. Two more AA lasers then opened fire. Again, a single pulse just about a second long was all it took to turn the landers into wreckage. Next, the invaders tried to take out the AA lasers with missiles. Again, a quick pulse was all it took to take them out. This time, however the pulses weren¡¯t even long enough to register, then the AA took out the craft that launched the missiles. Finally, a third wave came in using a stealth craft. ¡°Should we let them in this time? By my count they are down 0-90.¡± came in from the Gunny. ¡°Not yet. Let them walk in. That way they will be down 0-135, pissed and tired.¡± ¡°I agree with Janssens on this one, light ¡®em up!¡± Another set of pulses. This time the light refracted off the hull. ¡°If you have a heavy weapons drone, go full kinetic!¡± I set my drone to track the nearest craft. *CRACK* *CRACK* *CRACK* The three rounds launched from my heavy drone at a speed that surprised even me, and I had designed them. The explosion was already blooming from the ship by the time I heard the cannon rounds breaking the sound barrier. The thin atmosphere muffled the noise drastically. Did you help the tracking? Yes. Okay, that explains that. A moment later there was another crack that missed, and a second after that a crack followed by an explosion. The third craft almost made it to the perimeter. Another crack and explosion. ¡°What percent ¡®c¡¯ did you all have your drones set to?¡± Asimov called in. ¡°I was at 50%.¡± I responded. I heard responses of 65% and 40% from the Marines. ¡°Let them through if they¡¯re on foot.¡± I sent to my team. ¡°They will need to hike to get here. If they keep coming through the air, keep shooting them down.¡± Neith, let¡¯s make this interesting. Throw a ¡°kill counter¡± up there for us. Link it up to everyone. Set it with total, a dash, and then personal counter. Done. ¡°What¡¯s with the numbers in my HUD?¡± Takeshi was the first to respond. ¡°I asked Neith to keep score for us. Total number downed then personal numbers downed. He linked up with your NIs and if you have a kill count on your HUDs, then your NI agreed.¡± ¡°Wait the NI can do that?¡± the Gunny asked ¡°Yeah, didn¡¯t you ask yours to help configure your HUDs? Ask for an ammo counter and a mini-map.¡± A series of ¡°whoop¡±-ing and exclamations of joy and came in through the comms. We fended off two more aerial assaults before we were at the point where we had to cycle back indoors to refill our air. After cycling through we finally got some action from boots on the ground. ¡°Sensors are showing on two platoons with heavy weapons three klicks outside the western zone.¡± The call came in from Asimov. ¡°Okay, building a set of sensor relay drones to send out and verify. Someone get eyes out on the East and South. We want to make sure that it is just them. They seem a platoon shy if we go by the threes they were sending in earlier.¡± I called out into comms. I didn¡¯t need to. ¡°I¡¯m here and watching with Takeshi.¡± Riviera called into comms. ¡°Nothing yet. Scratch that. I have some movement that shouldn¡¯t be there. Thermals are showing temperature discrepancies. They have stealth suits. Tell me when we want to open up.¡± I sent out a request for another couple of drones with a stealth detection package. The first set of sensor relay drones were on their way over towards the point where we detected the first two platoons. ¡°Ma¡¯am they¡¯re almost at the perimeter.¡± Takeshi called out. ¡°Did anyone equip an anti-materiel rifle? I would love for a sniper to start taking them out.¡± I was greeted by silence. ¡°Okay then. Takeshi, Riviera, what package did you put on your drones?¡± ¡°Two heavies and a shield for me, two shields and a heavy for Riviera.¡± ¡°Okay, set them up and start taking pot shots to keep them down. The second sensor drone with the stealth detection packages is almost done. I¡¯m sending the first over now.¡± The counter increased by three right before I heard the muffled report of the drone. ¡°NICE!¡± I shouted over comms. ¡°Second drone headed your way, Riviera.¡± I then queued up another six drones and set them to automatically deploy to the other sides of the base. The invaders were being whittled down slowly. They had dug in a little outside of the perimeters which would make it difficult for us to get to them without leaving our own fortification. We cycled through the buildings to recharge our air once more, just to ensure that we were topped up if this became a protracted battle. Regardless of us attacking them or them coming to us, due to air limitations they would be dead in three more hours if they didn¡¯t win the scenario. ¡°Asimov keep eyes on the area. Let us know if anyone else is going to join in. Torres get ready to turn on the anti-personnel measures. Takeshi, Riviera keep an eye on the stealth group. The drones have picked up stealth field generator, so take that out when you feel like it. Turing, back them up. Janssens, take Jameson, Jorges and Marques around the primary group and let¡¯s catch them in a pincer. Yavuz, Watson, Thorisdottir, you¡¯re with me. Bring your drones and meet at the secondary barracks. After an hour of us waiting for a change in circumstance, the invading team finally made a move. Perhaps they realized they had limited air. One advantage of the sensors drones was they could detect the radio chatter. We noticed a large uptick in the radio traffic, so we were ready for them when they moved. ¡°The amount of radio chatter sounds like they¡¯re getting ready to push. Go! Go! Go!¡± I was walking with the two shield drones in front of me with the heavy drone offset to the side. This way I could fall behind a shield if necessary. Yavuz and Watson were doing similar. Thorisdottir had a set up with two shield drones and a sensor drone but didn¡¯t have a battle rifle. Instead he was equipped with a heavy assault rifle. The gunfire started up in the distance. My mini-map showed the conflict happening. Janssens group was slowly pushing them towards us, a few of the invaders being marked as dead as it happened. We were around a ¡°corner¡± in the landscape from them. Some rocks on the surface having hidden our approach. ¡°EMP grenades first.¡± I pulled back my drones a few yards just to be safe. ¡°Grenades OUT!¡± Four EMP grenades went flying from my group just as the invading team came around the blind only to have grenades land at their feet. The *THUMWP* was much more muffled than I had experienced prior, then ten of the invaders were down. The remaining 12 then tried to hunker down. I pushed my drones forward. My mini-map showing the fallen soldiers as neutralized, not dead. ¡°Take them out as we pass.¡± The shield drones all formed into ranks to create a long bulletproof wall. We advanced, taking shots at those on the ground, dazed from the EMP grenades. The kill counter rose continuously. ¡°The stealth group is advancing, taking out the generators now.¡± Takeshi called The hollow markers suddenly filled in with red marking them as hostile. ¡°We have two more groups coming in from the North, requesting anti-personnel measures.¡± Asimov called out. ¡°Torres, you heard him.¡± ¡°Aye-aye, Ma¡¯am!¡± the response was quick. A stampede of red markers stormed the outpost from the ¡°north¡±. As quickly as they approached the grounds, they died. The laser anti-personnel guns didn¡¯t even need to concentrate fire for long enough to become visible. They had no idea where they were getting shot from. The numbers quickly fell from 12 in the group we were advancing on to just one person who surrendered. The stealth team was taken out almost as quickly, and the stampede of red didn¡¯t even manage to make it within 50 meters of the grounds. In front of my vision a glowing notice appeared. ¡°Victory¡±. It was short, simple and to the point. When comparing our numbers later, Torres came out ahead. The anti-personnel turrets took out 92 persons. I had a respectable 17. The lowest numbers were ¡°0¡± from Asimov and Yavuz who didn¡¯t control anything that took out an invader. 28. Next Challenge

Next Challenge - Edited 11-9-2018

Unplugging myself from the chair in the conference room, I was greeted by silence. The general feeling was shock all around. ¡°Sir, how did we stand up?¡± I asked, already knowing the answer. ¡°Well, Lieutenant, that was a mighty fine display. As you can imagine, things in here were a little shorter than what you experienced. How did you take out the dropships so quickly?¡± ¡°Fricken laser beams, SIR!¡± Senior Chief Watson shouted out, laughing as he did so. ¡°As the Senior Chief said, Sir. Lasers. I don¡¯t know if everyone read up on the reports for technology from Hera or not, but we have laser capability now. Also, with some of the new math, we cracked another important barrier on power generation, so the lasers were possible to fire quickly without an excessive recharge time.¡± I stood up to stretch out. We had only been in the chairs for fifteen minutes, but mentally it was about six or seven hours. ¡°When the stealth craft came in, they refracted the laser light due to the bending thing that the tech does. So, for those we used railguns. A five-pound chunk of iron at 40-70% of c was more than enough to decimate them. Rasputin, Hera, what was our shot percentage?¡± ¡°87% successful. There were a few rounds that missed from concentrated bursts near the end of the firefight. Some additional percentage points were made up from lower powered railgun rounds hitting multiple targets.¡± Rasputin joined sounding rather chipper. ¡°We have lasers, now?¡± The XO asked, a bit shocked. ¡°Yes, Sir. A combination of the crystals to be used as capacitors and some of the newer mathematics, along with a healthy serving of acquired tech gave it to us. I would suggest asking Hera to send you updates when new technologies are acquired.¡± I added a wink with that last bit, just to make sure it was clear that I was having some fun. ¡°Well, Jax. So far, your team has one of the designs selected. I don¡¯t think we will see a better showing here, so we may as well call it ¡®two¡¯ selections ¨C though we still need to be fair and let others have their fun. But some of the miners saw your ship design and immediately selected it BEFORE even learning about all the bits involved.¡± He walked over to one of the walls. ¡°Rasputin bring up the hangar bay PORT-AFT-BRAVO.¡± A screen appeared showing the construction of the massive mining vessel. ¡°We are almost a third of the way done with the first. From there we will be able to get supplies from the belt to build the remainders including the outposts. We are planning on three at this time. Resources are limited for now. Once we have the first built we send it out, setting ARK-5 as ¡°home¡± for the drones that will be connected to the foundry. That will be the quickest way to get our supplies ready.¡± ¡°We had lost several ships during the sneak attack from the Puppet Masters. A round impacted the exterior of this bay, causing some collateral damage. All the mining ships had been stored here, so their materials were recycled into your beast. We have an estimate on the build time for the third mining ship before we can start the construction of everything else, to be about one Sol year. 350 days to be more precise. We will need to test the space station designs next, then the shipyard and colony base. Until then, however, we are putting everyone who isn¡¯t necessary back into cryo. We¡¯ll thaw your team when they are needed.¡± ¡°Did you want us to design the new assault craft now, or while we¡¯re frozen? TO: Team Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Yama SUBJECT: Daily orders day 93 Welcome back to the game. Your first order of duty is to move into the barracks of an Outpost (designated Theta) and prepare it to defend against external threats. You will have three weeks to fully configure the outpost. Report at 00:00 Hours to depart. Additional duties will be to create a design for a new Marine Assault Craft that would be able to successfully complete a mission against an ¡°Escort¡± type craft. Well, this was going to be a long and busy few weeks. I checked the remainder of the messages, filtering out all ¡°daily orders¡± type messages, starting at the end. Except the following items, which were a surprise, I didn¡¯t see anything else as relevant. TO: Warrant Officer Danni Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Ark-5 Command SUBJECT: Righting Wrongs It has come to our attention that you are responsible for freeing us all from being enslaved by either Overlord or a yet unknown intelligence that had infiltrated our networks and had taken control of us through our implants. Using data that was delivered to us by Observer, Rasputin, and the Ark-5 Technicians/Engineers and Scientists, we have developed a network scanning VI that will help monitor all communications on Ship, to ensure that any future attacks cannot take place. The VI will go online once the last of our civilians have been patched. TO: Warrant Officer Danni Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Ark-5 Command SUBJECT: RE: Righting Wrongs As you are aware, the Governor of the new colony was the last affected party from the entity we have deemed to call ¡°Puppet Master.¡± As a security measure, all civilians were patched and immediately placed back into stasis. Unfortunately, we had not enabled the new VI at the time to be able to track the information to the infiltrator(s). We are hoping to send out a crew in the future to determine the source of the attacks. TO: REPLY TO ATTN: SUBJECT: Assistance Request If you are reading this notice, it is because we have been trapped. We have received updated from one of our agents aboard your craft that there are sentients with the ability to save us. We have had the opportunity to secure ourselves near the engine core of our vessel . The last heading was towards sector . We have enough food left to last us a few more , however medical and sanitary supplies are limited. We are currently barricaded in place, and the captors of our vessel show no interest in claiming this location. I re-read the message a few times only to realize that it wasn¡¯t written in English. Observer, did you translate that for me? As best as possible. Your English is getting progressively better. Monitoring civilian data streams significantly increased my capacity for proper usage. What¡¯s with the ¡°redacted¡± areas? Non-translatable. Nothing to do about a non-translatable piece, though choosing ¡°redacted¡± instead of ¡°translation error¡± seemed an odd choice. Onto the next message TO: Lieutenant Danni Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Yama SUBJECT: Lost EXP Due to your assistance with several designs, as well as your assistance with freeing the AI, you have been granted a one-time EXP bonus. We were able to add this directly to your Avatar Sheet bypassing the internal ¡°quest¡± requirements thanks to the reboot. All schematics developed in the Real are the property of the Sol fleet. We will be extending this privilege to all teams you were involved with. As an additional bonus, you have all been updated to reflect your Real rank. If you were higher rank in Game than in the Real, you were granted max level. As a bonus, all members of ¡°Team Jax¡± have been granted an unlimited supply of the ¡°Duty Uniform MK-II¡± or the ¡°Duty Uniform MK-II Beta,¡± cybernetics dependent. As an additional bonus, various schematics for laser and railgun options have been provided, unlocked. At the insistence of Hera and her ¡°Pantheon,¡± you have also been granted the following ¡°buffs¡± for the remainder of your missions. Well Rested: Avatar is less likely to become distracted as long as they have slept more than two hours in the last 48. Well Fed: Ceres has provided you a boon. All food ordered through the system will cost a maximum of 1 EXP for a one-week supply. All bonuses from food will still be in effect. We realize that these could be considered ¡°cheats,¡± however they are our way of thanking you for freeing us from the servitude we were unaware of. Rasputin is working on something special as well but has been tight-lipped on it. That was interesting. I gave the mental command Avatar Information
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: O-3
Titles Available: Lieutenant; Engineer; Host; Inventor; Crewman Equipped: Lieutenant
Experience: 9514 To Next: 2500 Level: 1
Rate: Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer
Modifications Fully Custom Left Arm; Hephaestus Industries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Astro Mathematics; Espionage; Diplomat; Tactician
Specialization Drone and Cyberware Designer
Strength 16 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (13) Intelligence 17 Concentration 15This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. Learning 20
Equipment: Recon Helmet MK-VI; Duty Uniform MK-II (beta); Cybernetics Kit MK-II
Engineering Kit MK-III; Utility Belt; Mono-blade; Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2); Clips 6; (1) Rounds 6/7; (2) Rounds 7/7; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle**; Magazines, 9; Rounds 45/45
Well, here was something unusual. My Intellect, Concentration, and Learning had all increased. This was the first time I also realized that I had my custom arm again. I looked closer. HOLY SHIT, that was a lot of EXP on top of the rank increase. Looking further, I noticed all my skillsets were now showing. I had unlocked ¡°diplomat¡± somewhere along the line along with a few other pieces of my sheet, and it must have decided that all my fiddling with cybernetics qualified me for a specialty. Knowing I had to be in the hangar at midnight, I checked the time - 22:17; then I sent a message out to the team TO: Team Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Lt. Jax SUBJECT: Updates Anyone else get a whole lot of rewards for what happened out in the Real? I¡¯ll see you all in the hangar shortly, but first, we need to come up with a better name than ¡°Team Jax.¡± My ego won¡¯t support all of you. If you need anything, please let me know. I¡¯ll order some materials for designs as we are on our way. I am planning on working on new weapons. Marques start working on ideas for a Marine Assault Craft. I pulled up the schematics for lasers to see what were available while I waited.
Helios Laser Cannon
Type Energy
Charges 10
Sight 1x Magnification
Fire Mode Options Single
Weight 12 kg
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum N/A
That one is nice and heavy, but too much for what we need for outpost building duty. This made for a great ¡°handheld¡± anti-vehicle weapon, however. Slogging this on a march may be too much to ask, though. The schematics were a beautiful piece of work, however. Hera was worth the upgraded processing power. Time to pull up the rail guns and see what I could do with them. Perhaps there was a way to speed things up.
Longbow Railgun
Type Kinetic
Rounds 1
Sight Iron Sights
Fire Mode Options Single
Weight 15 kg
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum 5000 m
The schematics for this railgun were also well laid out, but not one of Heras works. Probably a human design. It was over engineered like nobody¡¯s business. I could strip a lot out of this, and it would still be functional. I also noted the external power requirements and compared them to the crystals used as capacitors. Now there was an idea. 15 minutes to get to the hangar. Thank you, Neith. I copied the schematics into my hand-held and jogged to the hangar bay.

Next Challenge - Original

Unplugging myself from the chair in the conference room, I was greeted by silence. The general feeling was shock all around. ¡°Sir, how did we stand up?¡± I asked, already knowing the answer. ¡°Well, Lieutenant, that was a mighty fine display. As you can imagine, things out here were a little shorter than what you experienced. How did you take out the drop ships so quickly?¡± ¡°Fricken laser beams, SIR!¡± Senior Chief Watson shouted out, laughing as he did so. ¡°As the Senior Chief said, Sir. Lasers. I don¡¯t know if everyone read up on the reports for technology from Hera or not, but we have laser capability now. Also, with some of the new math, we cracked another important barrier on power generation, so the lasers were possible to fire quickly without an excessive recharge time.¡± I stood up to stretch out. We had only been in the chairs for fifteen minutes, but mentally it was about six or seven hours. ¡°When the stealth craft came in, they refracted the laser light due to the bending thing that the tech does. So, for those we used railguns. A five pound chunk of iron at 40-70% of c was more than enough to decimate them. Rasputin, Hera, what was our shot percentage?¡± ¡°87% successful. There were a few rounds that missed from concentrated bursts near the end of the fire fight. Some additional percentage points were made up from lower powered railgun rounds hitting multiple targets.¡± Rasputin joined sounding rather chipper. ¡°We have lasers, now?¡± The XO asked, a bit shocked. ¡°Yes, Sir. A combination of the crystals to be used as capacitors and some of the newer mathematics, along with a healthy serving of acquired tech gave it to us. I would suggest asking Hera to send you updates when new technologies are acquired.¡± I added a wink with that last bit, just to make sure it was clear that I was having some fun. ¡°Well, Jax. So far, your team has one of the designs selected. I don¡¯t think we will see a better showing here, so we may as well call it ¡®two¡¯ selections ¨C though we still need to be fair and let others have their fun. But some of the miners saw your ship design and immediately selected it BEFORE even learning about all the bits involved.¡± He walked over to one of the walls. ¡°Rasputin bring up the hangar bay PORT-AFT-BRAVO.¡± A screen appeared showing the construction of the massive mining vessel. ¡°We are almost a third of the way done with the first. From there we will be able to get supplies from the belt to build the remainders including the outposts. We are planning on three at this time. Resources are limited for now. Once we have the first built we send it out, setting ARK-5 as ¡°home¡± for the drones that will be connected to the foundry. That will be the quickest way to get our supplies ready.¡± ¡°We had lost several ships during the sneak attack from the Puppet Masters. A round impacted the exterior of this bay, causing some collateral damage. All of our mining ships had been stored here, so their materials have been recycled into your beast. We have an estimate on the build time for the third mining ship, before we can start the construction of everything else, to be about one Sol year. 350 days to be more precise. We will need to test the space station designs next, then the shipyard and colony base. Until then, however, we are putting everyone who isn¡¯t necessary back into cryo. We¡¯ll thaw your team when they are needed.¡± ¡°Did you want to us design the new assault craft now, or while we¡¯re frozen? TO: Team Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama SUBJECT: Daily orders day 93 Welcome back to the game. Your first order of duty is to move into the barracks of an Outpost (designated Theta) and prepare it to defend against external threats. You will have three weeks to fully configure the outpost. Report at 00:00 Hours to depart. Additional duties will be to create a design for a new Marine Assault Craft that would be able to successfully complete a mission against an ¡°Escort¡± type craft. Well, this was going to be a long and busy few weeks. I checked the remainder of the messages, filtering out all ¡°daily orders¡± type messages, starting at the end. With the exception of the following items which were a surprise, nothing else came across as relevant. TO: Warrant Officer Danni Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Ark-5 Command SUBJECT: Righting Wrongs It has come to our attention that you are responsible for freeing us all from being enslaved by either Overlord or a yet unknown intelligence that had infiltrated our networks and had taken control of us through our implants. Using data that was delivered to us by Observer, Rasputin and the Ark-5 Technicians/Engineers and Scientists, we have developed a network scanning VI that will help monitor all communications on Ship, to ensure that any future attacks cannot take place. The VI will go on line once the last of our civilians have been patched. TO: Warrant Officer Danni Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Ark-5 Command SUBJECT: RE: Righting Wrongs As you are aware, the Governor of the new colony was the last affected party from the entity we have deemed to call ¡°Puppet Master¡±. As a security measure all civilians were patched and immediately placed back into stasis. Unfortunately, we had not enabled the new VI at the time to be able to track the information to the infiltrator(s). We are hoping to send out a crew in the future to determine the source of the attacks. TO: REPLY TO ATTN OF: SUBJECT: Assistance Request If you are reading this notice, it is because we have been trapped. We have received updated from one of our agents aboard your craft that there are sentients with the ability to save us. We have had the opportunity to secure ourselves near the engine core of our vessel . Last heading was towards sector . We have enough food left to last us a few more , however medical and sanitary supplies are limited. We are currently barricaded in place and the captors of our vessel show no interest in claiming this location. I re-read the message a few times only to realize that it wasn¡¯t written in English. Observer, did you translate that for me? As best as possible. Your English is getting progressively better. Monitoring civilian data streams greatly increased capacity of proper usage. What¡¯s with the ¡°redacted¡± areas? Non-translatable. Nothing to do about a non-translatable piece, though choosing ¡°redacted¡± instead of ¡°translation error¡± seemed an odd choice. Onto the next message TO: Lieutenant Danni Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Yama SUBJECT: Lost EXP Due to your assistance with several designs, as well as your assistance with freeing the AI, you have been granted a one-time EXP bonus. We were able to add this directly to your Avatar Sheet bypassing the internal ¡°quest¡± requirements thanks to the reboot. All schematics developed in the Real are property of the Sol fleet. We will be extending this privilege to all teams you were involved with. As an additional bonus, you have all been updated to reflect your Real rank. If you were higher rank in Game than in the Real, you were granted max level. As a bonus, all members of ¡°Team Jax¡± have been granted an unlimited supply of the ¡°Duty Uniform MK-II¡± or the ¡°Duty Uniform MK-II Beta¡±, cybernetics dependent. As an additional bonus, various schematics for laser and railgun options have been provided, unlocked. At the insistence of Hera and her ¡°Pantheon¡±, you have also been granted the following ¡°buffs¡± for the remainder of your missions. Well Rested: Avatar is less likely to become distracted as long as they have slept more than two hours in the last 48. Well Fed: Ceres has provided you a boon. All food ordered through the system will cost a maximum of 1 EXP for a one-week supply. All bonuses from food will still be in effect. We realize that these could be considered ¡°cheats¡±, however they are our way of thanking you for freeing us from the servitude we were unaware of. Rasputin is working on something special as well but has been tight lipped on it. That was interesting. I gave the mental command Avatar Information
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: O-3
Titles Available: Lieutenant; Engineer; Host; Inventor; Crewman Equipped: Lieutenant
Experience: 9514 To Next: 2500 Level: 1
Rate: Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer
Modifications Fully Custom Left Arm; Haephestus Indrustries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Astro Mathematics; Espionage; Diplomat; Tactician
Specialization Drone and Cyberware Designer
Strength 16 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (13) Intelligence 17 Concentration 15 Learning 20
Equipment: Recon Helmet MK-VI; Duty Uniform MK-II (beta); Cybernetics Kit MK-II
Engineering Kit MK-III; Utility Belt; Mono-blade; Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2); Clips 6; (1) Rounds 6/7; (2) Rounds 7/7; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle**; Magazines, 9; Rounds 45/45
Well there was something interesting. My Intellect, Concentration and Learning had all increased. This was the first time I also realized that I had my custom arm again. Looking closer... HOLY SHIT, that was a lot of EXP on top of the rank increase. Looking further, I noticed all my skillsets were now showing. I had unlocked ¡°diplomat¡± somewhere along the line along with a few other pieces of my sheet, and it must have decided that all my fiddling with cybernetics qualified me for a specialty. Knowing I had to be in the hangar at midnight, I checked the time - 22:17, then I sent a message out to the team TO: Team Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Lt. Jax SUBJECT: Updates Anyone else get a whole lot of rewards for what happened out in the Real? I¡¯ll see you all in the hangar shortly, but first, we need to come up with a better name than ¡°Team Jax¡±. My ego won¡¯t support all of you. If you need anything, please let me know. I¡¯ll order some materials for designs as we are on our way. I am planning on working on new weapons. Marques, start working on ideas for a Marine Assault Craft. I pulled up the schematics for lasers to see what were available while I waited.
Helios Laser Cannon
Type Energy
Charges 10
Sight 1x Magnification
Fire Mode Options Single
Weight 12 kg
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum N/A
That one is nice and heavy, but too much for what we need for outpost building duty. This made for a great ¡°hand held¡± anti-vehicle weapon, however. Slogging this on a march may be too much to ask, though. The schematics were a beautiful piece of work, however. Hera was worth the upgraded processing power. Time to pull up the rail guns and see what I could do with them. Perhaps there was a way to speed things up.
Longbow Railgun
Type Kinetic
Rounds 1
Sight Iron Sights
Fire Mode Options Single
Weight 15 kg
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum 5000 m
The schematics for this railgun were also well laid out, but not one of Heras works. Probably a human design. It was over engineered like nobody¡¯s business. I could strip a lot out of this and it would still be functional. I also noted the external power requirements and compared them to the crystals used as capacitors. Now there was an idea. 15 minutes to get to the hangar. Thank you, Neith. I copied the schematics into my hand-held and jogged to the hangar bay. 29. Dirtside

Dirtside - Edited 11-9-2018

This time I was the last person to arrive. We were all still a few minutes earlier than zero hundred. One cargo freighter was being loaded up, and we started heading towards it. We had found our ride. ¡°Who¡¯s the loadmaster? I want to look at the manifest to see which goodies we are being sent off with.¡± I asked, approaching a thrower. ¡°That would be the EO1 in the office over there. Petty Officer Mabiata has gone through the list and has some questions too.¡± A spacer Equipment Operator said. I headed to the office to review the manifest. If you have ever worked with a Load Master, then you know EXACTLY how the conversation went, up to the point where Yama had to step in and chew us both out. I did get my way, though. Initially there had been no consideration for the fact that the area we were going to be constructing the outpost might not have any atmosphere. Several additional packages were added, so we didn¡¯t suffocate on the surface of wherever we were placed. Said packages were, of course, environmental shelters. The power plant configurations that had been packaged were also for a Thorium power plant, not for a Gravitic Generator, but it would be enough to power the fabs to get everything going. I then had to purchase a few portable fabs to ensure that the drones needed could be made on the surface. I added these to my personal gear, along with everything I would need for my next piece of destructive kit. Last, I made sure that we had a few dozen cores for the different VI/SI that would be needed to run the outpost. With that, we boarded the cargo freighter. Outpost Theta was going to be built on an ugly rock with a roughly 20 km diameter. I use the term ¡°roughly¡± here because it wasn¡¯t a sphere. Hell, it wasn¡¯t even a spheroid. But the scanning software in my helmet put it all together for me, and I didn¡¯t want to deal with the math to see if it was off by any.
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Lieutenant
Status: Full Suit Integrity Armor 100% Effective
Air: 179:15:03 Vacuum, recyclers set to automatic
Gravity .04 G Stable
Accessories: M1k33 Drones (Construction) Engineering Kit MK-II
Weapons: Taishi Ci Battle Rifle 45/45 (9 spare magazines)
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2) 7/7 6/7 (6 spare clips)
Mono-blade N/A
We had been dumped on the rock in a mostly flat area with shit gravity. The scans of the rock showed that it was high in silicate, nickel-iron, titanium, aluminum, frozen methane, and traces of a few other minerals and rare metals ¨C platinum, gold, terbium, yttrium and the like. First order of business was to get our temporary shelters set up. We set up tents in a circle and then worked on setting up and connecting the Thorium Generator in the middle of our little tent city. Power lines were then attached to each tent to help generate energy for the atmospheric recyclers. After that, it was time to set up the fabricators. I queued up several of the construction M1K33s after four of the mining drones that we had set up for the mining craft. I designated an area for the drones to start digging out for the first barracks then I hit the rack. I woke three hours later at what my readout was telling me was 0500. I called opened some of the field rations that I had packed and had breakfast, thinking about how we could spruce things up in the short term. I then queued up another eight construction drones and left my tent. I was greeted by a large earthen mound that hadn¡¯t been there when I racked out the night before. A few tons of metals and silicates had been displaced over-night. Well, in this gravity it was only several dozens of kilos. Others were stirring in their tents as well. I could see the backlighting coming on with a few shadow shows for my entertainment. ¡°Drop your cocks and grab your socks!¡± I sent over comms. ¡°We have a nice long planning session for today.¡± Neith, can you set up a blueprint overlay on my HUD, so we can see how the outpost layout will be configured? Also, link it to the holo in my arm so I can share it. -Why not just link it up to their HUDs as well?- I want to get away from being invasive and forcing it onto them. If they request a link up, please do share it. For now, however, just up on my holo. -Understood.- I was joined a little later by the team, having finished breakfast. ¡°Because there is no magnetic field on this rock, we have no directions, so no ¡®north.¡¯ So, where do we want to configure as the ¡®north¡¯ gate?¡± We also needed to come up with a better name than that. Calling things by a direction when there was no direction would throw me off after too long. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± Turing spoke up. ¡°Would it be a good idea to work off the natural layout of this valley?¡± ¡°That was my thought as well, but I wanted to get some input. We¡¯ll all be managing this, so I wanted to ensure that voices were heard. I was thinking of orienting what we had as ¡®north¡¯ towards that crater. Here, let me show you.¡± I brought up my holo and showed the orientation with the barracks hole already where it was, and the ¡®crater gate¡¯ lining up from it. ¡°Well, that would give any ground-based attackers an obvious breach point for them to come down.¡± Was Janssens reply. ¡°Yeah, but that means we could also get it all set up for easier defense on that route.¡± Everyone had huddled around. ¡°Agreed, Torres, which would also make it the obvious place to have defenses.¡± ¡°Yeah but lining it up that way would put the landing field in a crater.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea. It would give additional security as well as basic environmental camo.¡± Marques was looking at something on a hand-held. ¡°Then we could have the resupply tram set up here in this mound. I think it could work.¡± Jorges was thinking about how his piece could connect up and fit in with the orientation. ¡°Whichever way we do it, what about the power runs?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll do those the same as in the plans, Watson. Daisy chained and connected ground panels with internal wiring.¡± The only ones who weren¡¯t involved in the conversation were the CBs who were having a discussion of their own. ¡°Takeshi, Riviera, and Jamesson, what are you discussing?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, looking at the supplies list, we can get started on the gravitic and the barracks, but where will we be getting the rest of the materials from? We don¡¯t have mining drones yet.¡± ¡°What is under your feet, Jamesson?¡± ¡°Uhm, dirt, ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°Yes, but do you know what it is made of?¡± I sent everything I had on the composition of the rock over to everyone. ¡°We have all the materials we need to build out the structures. We have, in those crates,¡± I motioned to the supplies, ¡°all of the cores we will need to get the base management core set up. After that, we need to figure out what is missing and requisition if from the Ark. But first thing is first. We need to get the barracks, and the Gravitic Generator set up, so we can do everything else.¡± ¡°Okay, Ma¡¯am. Now, how are we going to requisition the materials? I don¡¯t see a comms array.¡± ¡°You¡¯re forgetting; we¡¯re In Game right now. All we have to do is let Yama know. Our tents are set up with an interface.¡± You could almost see the light of understanding dawning on the team. Janssens cursed. Turing laughed. ¡°Get it now? Okay, next question, do we want to re-orient anything with the outpost before we get started on construction?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, I was thinking,¡± Asimov started, ¡°would it be possible to get some bunk areas built into the command and sensor array buildings? With limited numbers, it may require us to be on for longer periods of time. Being able to catch some shut-eye for a few hours without leaving the building would be great.¡± ¡°Good point. I was also thinking of adding another two barracks. One with some separated out rooms for senior staff. I know some Lieutenant Commanders that are entitled enough to complain to everyone they see if that isn¡¯t there by default. It would also allow us all a little more breathing room, so we weren¡¯t always around everyone else.¡± ¡°Please, ma¡¯am.¡± Seemed to be the consensus from the group. ¡°Okay, so if we orient like so, and then under these drone bays add some additional rooms¡­ how about this?¡± ¡°Looks good to me, ma¡¯am. But, how about we also move the location of the office under Command and add another level? We could have that become a suite. Office in front for whoever is working shift; then we can have a few rooms for bunk areas and a head? ¡°Good call, HT.¡± Torres looked excited at the possibility of not having to have a room next to some of these guys. I can¡¯t say I blamed her. ¡°Sure, I can see that. Now, on that note, Torres, do you recall what you did for the sick bay on the mining craft? I want to set up a small room in each of the barracks just like that. We¡¯ll still have a building dedicated, which will be where the VI lives that manages the autodocs, but this way there is a place for immediate response if something happens.¡± ¡°I can do that.¡± She started plugging away at her terminal. ¡°Great, so I will set this up now. We¡¯ll orient the ¡®crater gate¡¯ as ¡®north,¡¯ and offset things for the landing zone, allowing us to create the tram tunnels. The hole the mining drones have built out for us so far is a good depth with these changes. I¡¯m also going to add a series of tunnels to connect everything. We don¡¯t have a magnetic field to keep out radiation.¡± ¡°Yavuz, see if there are any new materials we can make from this rock. Asimov, start programming the VI for base management. Marques, Jorges, review the plans for your landing and resupply areas and let me know if there are any changes you would like made. CBs, you¡¯re going to be busy this morning. I want you to take control of the M1k33s and smooth out the ground. We then need to start creating the linked pads. Ensign make sure the crates were delivered without damaged machines inside. Watson, take a look at the electrical and see if there are any changes you think should be made. Thorisdottir, work with the CBs. Marines, you get guard duty for now, though I will be asking you two to check something out soon.¡± I passed the control token for my monkeys to the CBs so they could start creating a level ¡°ground¡± in the outpost area and set up the mining drones to dig out the regions based on what had been discussed. We had the shell for the barracks completed by the end of our first full day, and I had finished the heavy weapons design that had popped into my head while looking at the schematics for the railgun earlier.
Light Bringer Hi/Lo Anti-Armor Weapon
Type 1Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel. Kinetic
Rounds 2 Maximum
Sight 2.0 Magnification Scope
Fire Mode Options Single
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum 5000 m
Type 2 Energy
Rounds 10
Fire Mode Options Single
Modifications None
Range 1000 m
Maximum N/A
Weight 18 kg/28 kg
I had done it. A handheld quick recharge laser and railgun combination. I had thought of calling it the ¡°bastard hi/lo,¡± but in the end, I decided to go old school religion. The layout was a railgun on the top barrel. It had a magazine that held power for the entire weapon as well as two 5kg iron spikes. The lower barrel was an anti-vehicle laser cannon. A full capacitor could fire 10 shots. If someone shot one round from the railgun, then they would only get five shots. That was why I placed the capacitors in the magazine. I had thought of adding a replaceable core, but they could get damaged or lost too easily. The tradeoff was that if I wanted to increase the number of shots, I would have to add a second magazine. The weight was going to be a bitch. I did, however, create a magazine that was ONLY capacitors. That would give a hundred shots from the laser cannon, but then you would lose the ¡°high¡± part of the gun. I then built out something that I thought Thorisdottir would enjoy. I had noticed him running with a heavy assault rifle during the outpost defense demo we had done.
Hades Laser Minigun
Type Energy
Charges 10000
Sight none
Fire Mode Options Full auto
Weight 25 kg/35 kg
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum N/A
The rate of fire on this beast would be massive, up to 3000 shots per minute. The gun (more of a cannon, really) had to have a backpack connected to hold the capacitors and to link power to the weapon. The cannon itself was light compared to the ballistic cousins it was based on, but when adding in the backpack, we were almost at their unloaded weight. The advantage being that the power feed could be connected through the firing mechanism in the ship suits with minimal adjustments. Other than taking the Marines out to test fire both weapons, the day was dull. The next day, however, we were able to move into the barracks. Construction continued. Thankfully the M1k33s made our jobs easy.

Dirtside - Original

This time I was the last person to arrive. We were all still a few minutes earlier than zero hundred. One cargo freighter was being loaded up and we started heading towards it. We had found our ride. ¡°Who¡¯s the load master? I want to look at the manifest to see which goodies we are being sent off with.¡± I asked, approaching a thrower. ¡°That would be the EO1 in the office over there, Petty Officer Mabiata has gone through the list and has some questions too.¡± A spacer Equipment Operator said. I headed to the office to review the manifest. If you have ever worked with a Load Master, then you know EXACTLY how the conversation went, up to the point where Yama had to step in and chew us both out. I did get my way, though. Originally there was no taking into account for the fact that the area we were going to be constructing the outpost at might not have atmosphere. Several additional packages were added so we didn¡¯t suffocate on the surface of wherever we were placed. Said packages were of course environmental shelters. The power plant configurations that had been packaged were also for a Thorium power plant, not for a Gravitic Generator, but it would be enough to power the fabs to get everything going. I then had to purchase a few portable fabs to ensure that the drones needed could be made on the surface. I added these to my personal gear, along with everything I would need for my next piece of destructive kit. Last, I made sure that we had a few dozen cores for the different VI/SI that would be needed to run the outpost. With that we boarded the cargo freighter. Outpost Theta was going to be built on an ugly rock with a roughly 20 km diameter. I use the term ¡°roughly¡± here because obviously it wasn¡¯t a sphere. Hell, it wasn¡¯t even a spheroid. But the scanning software in my helmet put it all together for me, and I didn¡¯t want to deal with the math to see if it was off by any.
Name: Jax Danni
Build: Engineer Lieutenant
Status: Full Suit Integrity Armor 100% Effective
Air: 179:15:03 Vacuum, recyclers set to automatic
Gravity .04 G Stable
Accessories: M1k33 Drones (Construction) Engineering Kit MK-II
Weapons: Taishi Ci Battle Rifle 45/45 (9 spare magazines)
Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2) 7/7 6/7 (6 spare clips)
Mono-blade N/A
We had been dumped on the rock in a mostly flat area with shit gravity. Basic scans of the rock showed that it was high in silicate, nickel-iron, titanium, aluminum, frozen methane, and traces of a few other minerals and rare metals ¨C platinum, gold, terbium, yttrium and the like. First order of business was to get our temporary shelters set up. We set up tents in a circle and then worked on setting up and connecting the Thorium Generator in the middle of our little tent city. Power lines were then connected to each tent to help generate energy for the atmospheric recyclers. After that it was time to set up the fabricators. I queued up several of the construction M1K33s after four of the mining drones that we had set up for the mining craft. I designated an area for the drones to start digging out for the primary barracks then I hit the rack. I woke three hours later at what my readout was telling me was 0500. I called opened some of the field rations that I had packed and had breakfast, thinking about how we could spruce things up in the short term. I then queued up another eight construction drones and left my tent. I was greeted by a large earthen mound that hadn¡¯t been there when I racked out the night before. A few tons of metals and silicates had been displaced over-night. Well, in this gravity it was only several dozens of kilos. Others were stirring in their tents as well. I could see the backlighting coming on with a few shadow shows for my entertainment. ¡°Drop your cocks and grab your socks!¡± I sent over comms. ¡°We have a nice long planning session for today.¡± Neith, can you set up a blueprint overlay on my HUD so we can see how the outpost layout will be configured? Also, link it to the holo in my arm so I can share it. Why not just link it up to their HUDs as well? I want to get away from being invasive and forcing it onto them. If they request a link up, please do share it. For now, however, just up on my holo. Understood. I was joined a little later by the team, having finished breakfast. ¡°Because there is no magnetic field on this rock, we have no directions, so no ¡®north¡¯. So, where do we want to configure as the ¡®north¡¯ gate?¡± We also needed to come up with a better name than that. Calling things by a direction when there was no direction would throw me off after too long. ¡°Ma¡¯am,¡± Turing spoke up. ¡°Would it be a good idea to work off the natural layout of this valley?¡± ¡°That was my thought as well, but I wanted to get some input. We¡¯ll all be managing this, so I wanted to ensure that voices were heard. I was thinking of orienting what we had as ¡®north¡¯ towards that crater. Here, let me show you.¡± I brought up my holo and showed the orientation with the barracks hole already where it was, and the ¡®crater gate¡¯ lining up off of it. ¡°Well, that would give any ground-based attackers an obvious breach point for them to come down.¡± Was Janssens reply. ¡°Yeah, but that means we could also get it all set up for easier defense on that route.¡± Everyone was huddled around, now ¡°Agreed, Torres, which would also make it the obvious place to have defenses.¡± ¡°Yeah, but lining it up that way would put the landing field in a crater.¡± ¡°That¡¯s not a bad idea. It would give additional security as well as basic environmental camo.¡± Marques was looking at something on a hand-held. ¡°Then we could have the resupply tram set up here in this mound. I think it could work.¡± Jorges was thinking about how his piece could connect up and fit in with the orientation. ¡°Whichever way we do it, what about the power runs?¡± ¡°We¡¯ll do those the same as in the plans, Watson. Daisy chained and connected ground panels with internal wiring.¡± The only ones who weren¡¯t involved in the conversation were the CBs who were having a discussion of their own. ¡°Takeshi, Riviera , Jamesson, what are you discussing?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, looking at the supplies list, we can get started on the gravitic and the barracks, but where will we be getting the rest of the materials from? We don¡¯t have mining drones yet.¡± ¡°What is under your feet, Jamesson?¡± ¡°Uhm, dirt, ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°Yes, but do you know what it is made of?¡± I sent everything I had on the composition of the rock over to everyone. ¡°We have all the materials we need to build out the structures. We have, in those crates,¡± I motioned to the supplies, ¡°all of the cores we will need to get the base management core set up. After that we need to figure out what is missing and requisition if from the Ark. But first thing is first. We need to get the barracks and the Gravitic Generator set up, so we can do everything else.¡± ¡°Okay, Ma¡¯am. Now, how are we going to requisition the materials? I am not seeing a comms array.¡± ¡°You¡¯re forgetting, we¡¯re In Game right now. All we have to do is let Yama know. Our tents are set up with an interface.¡± You could almost see the light of understanding dawning on the team. Janssens cursed. Turing laughed. ¡°Get it now? Okay, next question, do we want to re-orient anything with the outpost before we get started on construction?¡± ¡°Ma¡¯am, I was thinking,¡± Asimov started, ¡°would it be possible to get some bunk areas built into the command and sensor array buildings? With limited numbers, it may require us to be on for longer periods of time. Being able to catch some shut eye for a few hours without leaving the building in case something happens would be great.¡± ¡°Good point. I was also thinking of adding another two barracks. One with some separated out rooms for senior staff. I know some Lieutenant Commanders that are entitled enough to complain to everyone they see if that isn¡¯t there by default. It would also allow us all a little more breathing room, so we weren¡¯t always around everyone else.¡± ¡°Please, ma¡¯am.¡± Seemed to be the consensus from the group. ¡°Okay, so if we orient like so, and then under these drone bays add some additional rooms¡­ how about this?¡± ¡°Looks good to me, ma¡¯am. But, how about we also move the location of the office under Command and add another level? We could have that become a suite. Office in front for whomever is working shift, then we can have a few rooms for bunk areas and a head? ¡°Good call, HT.¡± Torres looked excited at the possibility of not having to have a room next to some of these guys. I can¡¯t say I blamed her. ¡°Sure, I can see that. Now, on that note, Torres, do you recall what you did for the sick bay on the mining craft? I want to set up a small room in each of the barracks just like that. We¡¯ll still have a building dedicated, which will be where the VI lives that manages the autodocs, but this way there is a place for immediate response if something happens.¡± ¡°I can do that.¡± She started plugging away at her terminal. ¡°Great, so I will set this up now. We¡¯ll orient the ¡®crater gate¡¯ as ¡®north¡¯, and offset things for the landing zone, allowing us to create the tram tunnels. The hole the mining drones have built out for us so far is a nice depth with these changes. I¡¯m also going to add a series of tunnels to connect everything. We don¡¯t have a magnetic field to keep out radiation.¡± ¡°Yavuz, see if there are any new materials we can make from this rock. Asimov start programming the VI for base management. Marques, Jorges, review the plans for your landing and resupply areas and let me know if there are any changes you would like made. CBs, you¡¯re going to be busy this morning. I want you to take control of the M1k33s and smooth out the ground. We then need to start creating the linked pads. Ensign make sure the crates were delivered without damaged machines inside. Watson look at the electrical and see if there are any changes you think should be made. Thorisdottir, work with the CBs. Marines, you get guard duty for now, though I will be asking you two to check something out soon.¡± I passed the control token for my monkeys to the CBs to start creating a level ¡°ground¡± in the outpost area and set up the mining drones to start digging out the areas based on what had been discussed. We had the shell for the barracks completed by end of day one, and I had completed the heavy weapons design that had popped into my head while looking at the schematics for the rail gun earlier.
Light Bringer Hi/Lo Anti-Armor Weapon
Type 1 Kinetic
Rounds 2 Maximum
Sight 2.0 Magnification Scope
Fire Mode Options Single
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum 5000 m
Type 2 Energy
Rounds 10
Fire Mode Options Single
Modifications None
Range 1000 m
Maximum N/A
Weight 18 kg/28 kg
I had done it. A hand held, quick recharge laser and railgun combination. I had thought of calling it the ¡°bastard hi/lo¡±, but in the end I decided to go old school religion. The layout was a railgun on the top barrel. It had a magazine that held the power for the entire weapon as well as two 5kg iron spikes. The lower barrel was an anti-vehicle laser cannon. A full capacitor could fire 10 shots. If someone shot one round from the railgun, then they would only get five shots. That was why I placed the capacitors in the magazine. I had though of adding a replaceable core, but they could get damaged or lost too easily. The trade off was that if I wanted to increase the number of shots I would have to add a second magazine. The weight was going to be a bitch. I did, however, create a magazine that was ONLY capacitors. That would give a hundred shots from the laser cannon, but then you would lose the ¡°high¡± part of the gun. I then built out something that I thought Thorisdottir would enjoy. I had noticed him running with a heavy assault rifle during the outpost defense demo we had done.
Hades Laser Minigun
Type Energy
Charges 10000
Sight none
Fire Mode Options Full auto
Weight 25 kg/35 kg
Modifications none
Range 1000 m
Maximum N/A
The rate of fire on this beast would be massive, up to 3000 shots per minute. The gun had to have a backpack connected to hold the capacitors and to link power to the weapon. The gun itself was light compared to the ballistic cousins it was based on, but when adding in the backpack we were almost at their unloaded weight. The advantage being that the power feed could be connected through the firing mechanism in the ship suits with minimal adjustments. Other than taking the Marines out to test fire both weapons, the day was boring. The next day, however, we were able to move into the barracks. Construction continued. Thankfully the M1k33s made our jobs easy. 30. Outpost Mk II

Outpost Mk. II - Edited 11-9-2018

After the initial day of building out the first barracks and the hole in the ground where we would place the Gravitic Generators, we had another meeting where we decided to build all the infrastructure underground. We had been getting hit with severe solar radiation and were fortunate that the tents allowed for protection. Once we had the airlocks on the barracks built, the threat from the radiation was gone. The threat of vacuum was mostly gone as well, and next up was the power generation. The CBs and I were helping the M1k33s get everything together, and Senior Chief Watson was helping get the cabling clean and connected to the generator. The CBs and I may have had the physically more demanding job, but the Senior Chief had it worse. Once we had all the heavy lifting done, Jamesson and I tried to help the Senior Chief, but he soon shooed us away because we kept tangling up his work. Instead, we started working on the Command Post. The Command Post would end up being two stories above ground. One of the stories was just shielding from radiation; the other was a ground level entrance with a full decontamination airlock. ¡°Asimov, how is that VI coming?¡± The Command post was complete with the installation of the Crystal Cores, all that was left was to implant the Intelligence to the cores. Before we could do the implant, however, Asimov needed to finish building the seed. ¡°Almost ready for the install. I found a nice little bug that could cause the VI to misidentify FoF data.¡± Well, that is a good thing to fix. It would be somewhat problematic in the event of an attack for our anti-personnel guns to turn on us. ¡°Understood, let me know when that is complete. I¡¯ll be helping prep some storage areas.¡± The CBs were busy creating warehouses and making sure that they were stocked with physical supplies from the mining drones. All electrical systems had already been patched by the Senior Chief, so he was taking it easy. I had asked him to research additional power delivery options, then sent him and his NI a file that had been given to me by Observer. The Gunny and Janssens had been scouting around the area to determine where additional anti-personnel ambush sites could be set up. We needed to consider the set up for comms and scanners soon. An idea was brewing in my mind on that. After all, why have a single area when the entire asteroid could be set up to scan? As our 18-hour work day came to an end, I called a quick meeting in the galley area of our barracks. A full-blown cafeteria had been built, but with only the team there, it felt empty, even if we were all there at once. Hell, using the barracks was bad enough. It was large enough for an entire company. And we were digging out the area for a third one. ¡°I wanted to bring an idea of mine to all of your attention and get some input on it. What if we took the craters around the asteroid and turned them into sensor and comm arrays? Most of the impact areas already have the desired shapes needed.¡± I let that sink in a while as I used the terminal in the barracks to buy everyone dinner. I had the XP to burn, even after leveling myself to Lieutenant level 3. Ceres boon was coming in handy. For 3 XP per day, I could get everyone well fed on something other than rations. Even after the buying of supplies for the prototype weapons, I was still well off. I double checked my data while everyone was stewing over my revelation.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: O-3
Titles Available: Lieutenant; Engineer; Host; Inventor; Crewman Equipped: Lieutenant
Experience: 1803 To Next: 7500 Level: 3
Rate: Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer
Modifications Fully Custom Left Arm; Hephaestus Industries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Astro Mathematics; Espionage; Diplomat; Tactician
Specialization Drone and Cyberware Designer
Strength 16 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (13) Intelligence 17 Concentration 15 Learning 20
Equipment: Recon Helmet MK-VI; Duty Uniform MK-II (beta); Cybernetics Kit MK-II
Engineering Kit MK-III; Utility Belt; Mono-blade; Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2); Clips 6; (1) Rounds 6/7; (2) Rounds 7/7; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle**; Magazines, 9; Rounds 45/45
¡°Well, ma¡¯am, as long as it doesn¡¯t interfere with our timetables, I don¡¯t see it as being an issue.¡± Torres shrugged. I was glad she was on ¡°my side¡± these days instead of holding a grudge over her DC teammate. ¡°Yeah, I agree with Torres.¡± The Senior Chief was responding. ¡°I mean, if we had one day left in the build and you were springing this on us, it would definitely be an issue, but as I see it, we have more than enough materials thanks to the huge amount of mining drones, and those drones can be recycled when not needed, so¡­¡± Senior Chief Watson ended with a shrug. ¡°Yeah, the only difficult piece is scouting the asteroid. Ya know, so we all know where we will be setting up.¡± Janssens joined. ¡°Already done,¡± I said truthfully. ¡°We got detailed visuals on our way in.¡± ¡°If I may, Ma¡¯am?¡± Riviera interrupted. ¡°Shoot.¡± ¡°Well, let¡¯s start with just the basic six sides. No sense in over-engineering while we are on a time crunch.¡± ¡°I get where you¡¯re coming from. If we do the initial builds along the axis, then we can patch in the rest later?¡± I finished up making sure I knew what he was getting at. ¡°Exactly. That way we still have full spherical coverage, but at the same time, we aren¡¯t getting stuck in the mire.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go with that then, Riviera. Good call. We can add at a later time.¡± I brought a fully movable holo up of our asteroid. ¡°We are here. Let¡¯s select which craters we use for the initial build out.¡± We selected a primary, secondary, and a tertiary site for each of the axis that would give us the most coverage. It was surprisingly difficult to decide where we would set up the axis at. With only us as a reference, it was a completely free build. In theory, we didn¡¯t even need to use the outpost as a point on the axis. That night, before I racked out, I sent out the mining drones to carve a path through the asteroid to the locations selected. ¡°Construction Complete.¡± The voice of the VI rang out through the Command Post. We had just finished installing the VI into the command post. It would have full functionality as if it were a piece of Overlord if we allowed Overlord to be recreated. At this point, with only Ark-5 as one of ours, there really wasn¡¯t a need to link the AI to synchronize all commands and data streams between all AI. ¡°Welcome and thank you,¡± I said to the VI. ¡°Do you have a name you wish to be known as? You will be the primary VI in charge of outpost operations. Do you understand what that means?¡± I wanted to judge the intelligence level that the VI was at. ¡°Please call me the Primal Queen of Blades, or if that is simpler for your weak human mind to remember, I will also answer to Kerrigan.¡± Great, we built up one with an Ego. ¡°Okay, what about Queen of Blades? Will that suffice, Primal Queen of Blades?¡± I¡¯d only play along with her so much. ¡°I suppose that will suffice. As to your other inquiry, that means I will have full control over this facility but may be overridden by the fleshy meat sacks that are taking up residence. Basic control over environmental, defense, scanning and power resources. On that note, I am showing a pitiful series of buildings. What have you Humans been doing?¡± Five days in and we had a VI with a chip on her shoulder. Fuck. ¡°Kerrigan, we do not have plans to subjugate you. That is always an option. Please play nice. Here are the plans for what we have been thinking of for future construction. The Environmental Processing station was to be the next completed, followed by the scanners and comms station. Do you see a problem with that?¡± ¡°Human, do you understand¡­¡± ¡°Asimov! Kill it.¡± The compartment was filled with a shriek as the VI died. ¡°I hate when they do that. Sorry, Ma¡¯am. No idea how that happened. I¡¯ll look at the seed and see what could have caused it. I should be ready to relaunch this afternoon.¡± ¡°Sure, Asimov. No problem. Double check the matrix just to ensure it wasn¡¯t a hardware-based corruption.¡± I left Command to complete the initial setup of Environmental. The problem with growing a VI is that your seed could get corrupted by the most minor of things. The fact that our Nis hadn¡¯t been corrupted, that I knew of, was pressing our luck. As it stood, however, this was the third try for Asimov. The previous two times he had scrubbed the code, and everything appeared textbook. The Hardware was now the most likely spot for corruption. The fact that we had developed ANOTHER Vi that wanted us to bow to it, that was unusual. The first had insisted on calling itself JS. It took fifteen minutes to determine that it was naming itself after one of human kinds most vicious murderers, Joseph Stalin. Then there was Caesar. Now Kerrigan, whoever that was. Two days later, we had a fully configured Environmental Recycler as well as a fully functional, perky and friendly VI. ¡°Okay, Clappy, what do we have?¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°Again, thank you for allowing me to assist you in your experimental endeavors! I understand that the full name is a little long but try not to leave off the last of that pronunciation. How difficult is it to add ¡®trap¡¯ to that?¡± His high-pitched voice would get grating, but at least he didn¡¯t want us to worship him. The most annoying piece, if you ask me, was that he would make the antipersonnel guns dance around while he was making music while shouting ¡°look at me¡± on his local comms channel then going into a drum beat. Annoying, but according to the rules on ¡®Governing the Non-Human: A Study in the Rules Governing Artificial, Virtual and Synthetic Intelligence in the New Era¡¯ we had to destroy any AI that wanted humankind to ¡°bend the knee¡± to its rule, but not those that didn¡¯t want to rule (if they were useful). This was the compromise after the third AI hostage situation in the Current Era. I had set up my M1K33s to start on tunnel defense construction. We already also had surface defenses for anti-personnel. I was at the point for buying the laser defense pods. Instead of a full-blown tower, we were using a ¡°pop-out¡± turret defenses that on the walls were camouflaged as a conduit junction point. The actual Conduits and Junction Points were inside the tunnel panels. A trick that we had adapted now also included sensors and stealth scanners that masqueraded as other electrical hardware installations. The echo of ¡°oontz oontz oontz¡± was filling the passage on my way towards the command center. ¡°Clap, calm that shit down, please? You¡¯re echoing through the passageways.¡± That was a good sign, that means we had full atmospheric pressure in the tunnels. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I have bothered you, but did you see my sick dance moves?¡± ¡°Yes, Clap. We have all seen them.¡± I sighed. I couldn¡¯t help it. ¡°What¡¯s the status on the remainder of the outpost construction?¡± ¡°The dummy residential palace has been built. Would you like to connect it to the tunnels? I have the ability to set up a series of calamitous antipersonnel measures. We can set it all up so that no one will survive, and we can all be happy and party!¡± *oontz oontz oontz* Ugh. *** It was the middle of the third week. I had designed a few more firearms during my downtime. I had worked with the mining drones to determine the best source of runs for linking up the additional sensor arrays, and I had helped with configuring the remainder of the base. We had only purchased a few dozen laser antipersonnel turrets from the system. Everything else was made custom for the outpost. Yesterday afternoon we had sent a tight beam broadcast to the Game representation of Ark-5. A simple message. ¡°Done¡± was all that was said. We obviously had the ¡°to/reply to¡± and the subject fields, but the only thing I needed to add, was to let them know that we had completed our mission on time. With the completion of everything else, we had been concentrating on turning more of the craters on the asteroid into sensor arrays. A series of maintenance drones had been made to clean the detection panels so that the antenna dishes were still conductive while maintaining a necessary level of camouflage. An additional bonus was that our landing field had an elevator to take any landing craft under the surface, as well as several launching tubes if we needed to scramble our air support. We had some tubes that extended from a large central hangar to external craters that were actively disguised as launching zones. My team in full was waiting inside the landing hangar. We currently had the comms set up communicating through Marques¡¯ NI. We were awaiting our first VIP. After arriving in the landing bay, we had been waiting for a dozen or so minutes before we saw any changes in the environment. The elevator pulled in the shuttlecraft quicker than normal gravity would allow, the crafts landing gear connected by magnetic supports. ¡°Welcome to Outpost Theta, Colonel White!¡± I said as the doors to the shuttle opened, the colonel disembarking. ¡°Lieutenant.¡± The snap of his response almost lost in the breath that it took for him to say. ¡°Sir, if you will allow Spacer Asimov, we need to connect you to the Friend or Foe systems so that you don¡¯t end up as a bullet sponge.¡± I motioned the Colonel to the side. We currently asked the VI to shut down the anti-personnel defenses in the area as we were expecting guests. The next twelve hours were spent trying to keep the Colonel away from the base VI. Not because we felt there was a danger, but because no one should be subjected to that annoyance.

Outpost Mk. II - Original

After the initial day of building out the first barracks and the hole in the ground where we would place the Gravitic Generators, we had another meeting where we decided to build all the infrastructure underground. We had been getting hit with some serious solar radiation and were fortunate that the tents allowed for protection. Once we had the airlocks on the barracks built, the threat from the radiation was gone. The threat of vacuum was gone as well, and next up was the power generation. The CBs and I were helping the M1k33s get everything together and Senior Chief Watson was helping get the cabling clean and connected to the generator. The CBs and I may have had the physically more demanding job, but the Senior Chief had it worse. Once we had all the heavy lifting done, Jamesson and I tried to help the Senior Chief, but he soon shooed us away because we kept tangling up his work. Instead we started working on the Command Post. The Command Post would end up being two stories above ground. One of the stories was just shielding from radiation, the other was a ground level entrance with a full decontamination airlock. ¡°Asimov how is that VI coming?¡± The Command post was complete with the installation of the Crystal Cores, all that was left was to implant the Intelligence to the cores. Before we could do the implant, however, Asimov needed to finish building the seed. ¡°Almost ready for the install. I found a nice little bug that could cause the VI to misidentify FoF data.¡± Well, that is a good thing to fix. It would be rather problematic in the event of an attack for our anti-personnel guns to turn on us. ¡°Understood, let me know when that is complete. I¡¯ll be helping prep some storage areas.¡± The CBs were busy creating warehouses and making sure that they were stocked with physical supplies from the mining drones. All electrical systems had already been pathed by the Senior Chief, so he was taking it easy. I had asked him to research additional power delivery options, then sent him and his NI a file that had been given to me by Observer. The Gunny and Janssens had been scouting around the area to determine where additional anti-personnel ambush sites could be set up. We needed to consider the set up for comms and scanners soon. An idea was brewing in my mind on that. After all, why have a single area when the entire asteroid could be set up to scan. As our 18 hour work day came to an end I called a quick meeting in the galley area of our barracks. The full blown cafeteria was built, but with only the team there, there was no use in eating there. Hell, using the barracks was bad enough. It was large enough for an entire company. And we were digging out the area for a third one. ¡°I wanted to bring an idea of mine to all of your attention and get some input on it. What if we took the craters around the asteroid and turned them into sensor and comm arrays? Most of the impact areas already have the desired shapes needed.¡± I let that sink in a while as I used the terminal in the barracks to buy everyone a dinner. I had the XP to burn, even after levelling myself to Lieutenant level 3. Ceres boon was coming in handy. For 3 XP per day I could get everyone well fed on something other than rations. Even after the buying of supplies for the prototype weapons I was still well off. I double checked my data while everyone was stewing over my revelation.
Name: Jax, Danni Rank: O-3
Titles Available: Lieutenant; Engineer; Host; Inventor; Crewman Equipped: Lieutenant
Experience: 1803 To Next: 7500 Level: 3
Rate: Advanced Cyber Wetware and Warfare Officer
Modifications Fully Custom Left Arm; Haephestus Indrustries Right Leg
Enhancements Advanced Neural Weave (Prototype)
Skillsets Engineering; Rifleman; Sentry; Astro Mathematics; Espionage; Diplomat; Tactician
Specialization Drone and Cyberware Designer
Strength 16 (11) Stamina 12 Health 11 Agility 12 (8)
Manual Dexterity 13 (13) Intelligence 17 Concentration 15 Learning 20
Equipment: Recon Helmet MK-VI; Duty Uniform MK-II (beta); Cybernetics Kit MK-II
Engineering Kit MK-III; Utility Belt; Mono-blade; Thompson .50 Combat Pistol (2); Clips 6; (1) Rounds 6/7; (2) Rounds 7/7; Taishi Ci Battle Rifle**; Magazines, 9; Rounds 45/45
¡°Well, ma¡¯am, as long is it doesn¡¯t interfere with our time tables, I don¡¯t see it as being an issue.¡± Torres shrugged. I was glad she was on ¡°my side¡± these days instead of holding a grudge over her DC team mate. ¡°Yeah, I agree with Torres.¡± The Senior Chief was responding. ¡°I mean, if we had one day left in the build and you were springing this on us, it would definitely be an issue, but as I see it, we have more than enough materials thanks to the huge amount of mining drones, and those drones can be recycled when not needed, so¡­¡± Senior Chief Watson ended with a shrug. ¡°Yeah, the only difficult piece is scouting the asteroid. Ya know, so we all know where we will be setting up.¡± Janssens joined. ¡°Already done.¡± I said truthfully. ¡°We got detailed visuals on our way in.¡± ¡°If I may, Ma¡¯am?¡± Riviera interrupted. ¡°Shoot.¡± ¡°Well, let¡¯s start with just the basic six sides. No sense in over engineering while we are on a time crunch.¡± ¡°I get where you¡¯re coming from. If we do initial builds along the axis, then we can patch in the rest later?¡± I finished up making sure I knew what he was getting at. ¡°Exactly. That way we still have full spherical coverage, but at the same time, we aren¡¯t getting stuck in the mire.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll go with that then, Riviera. Good call. We can add at a later time.¡± I brought a fully movable holo up of our asteroid. ¡°We are here. Let¡¯s select which craters we use for the initial build out.¡± We selected a primary, secondary, and a tertiary site for each of the axis that would give us the most coverage. It was surprisingly difficult to select where we would set up the axis at. With only us as a reference, it was a completely free build. In theory we didn¡¯t even need to use the outpost as a point on the axis. That night, before I racked out, I sent out the mining drones to carve a path through the asteroid to the points selected. ¡°Construction Complete.¡± The voice of the VI rang out through the Command Post. We had just finished installing the VI into the command post. It would have full functionality as if it were a piece of Overlord, if we allowed Overlord to be recreated. At this point, with only Ark-5 as one of ours, there really wasn¡¯t a need to link the AI to synchronize all commands and data streams between all AI. ¡°Welcome and thank you.¡± I said to the VI. ¡°Do you have a name you wish to be known as? You will be the primary VI in charge of outpost operations. Do you understand what that means?¡± I wanted to judge the intelligence level that the VI was at. ¡°Please call me the Primal Queen of Blades, or if that is simpler for your weak human mind to remember, I will also answer to Kerrigan.¡± Great, we built up one with an Ego. ¡°Okay, what about Queen of Blades? Will that suffice, Primal Queen of Blades?¡± I¡¯d only play along a little. ¡°I suppose that will suffice. As to your other inquiry, that means I will have full control over this facility but may be overridden by the fleshy meat sacks that are taking up residence. Basic control over environmental, defense, scanning and power resources. On that note, I am showing a pitiful series of buildings. What have you Humans been doing?¡± Five days in and we had a VI with a chip on her shoulder. Fuck. ¡°Kerrigan, we do not have plans to subjugate you. That is always an option. Please play nice. Here¡¯s the plans for what we have been thinking of for future construction. The Environmental Processing station was to be the next completed, followed by the scanners and comms station. Do you see a problem with that?¡± ¡°Human, do you understand¡­¡± ¡°Asimov! Kill it.¡± The compartment was filled with a shriek as the VI died. ¡°I hate when they do that. Sorry Ma¡¯am. No idea how that happened. I¡¯ll look at the seed and see what could have caused it. I should be ready to relaunch this afternoon.¡± ¡°Sure, Asimov. No problem. Double check the matrix just to ensure it wasn¡¯t a hardware-based corruption.¡± I left Command to complete the initial setup of Environmental. The problem with growing a VI is that your seed could get corrupted by the most minor of things. The fact that our Nis hadn¡¯t been corrupted, that I knew of, was pressing our luck. As it stood, however, this was the third try for Asimov. The previous two times he had scrubbed the code and it was all good. The Hardware was now the most likely spot for corruption. The fact that we had developed ANOTHER Vi that wanted us to bow to it, that was unusual. The first had insisted on calling itself JS. It took fifteen minutes to determine that it was naming itself after one of humanities most vicious murderers, Joseph Stalin. Then there was Caesar. Now Kerrigan, whomever that was. Two days later, we had a fully configured Environmental Recycler as well as a fully functional, perky and friendly VI. ¡°Okay, Clappy, what do we have?¡± ¡°Again, thank you for allowing me to assist you in your experimental endeavors! I understand that the full name is a little long but try not to leave off the last of that pronunciation. How difficult is it to add ¡®trap¡¯ to that?¡± His high-pitched voice would get grating, but at least he didn¡¯t want us to worship him. The most annoying piece, if you ask me, was that he would make the antipersonnel guns dance around while he was making music while shouting ¡°look at me¡± on his local comms channel then going into a drum beat. Annoying, but according to the rules on ¡®Governing the Non-Human: A Study in the Rules Governing Artificial, Virtual and Synthetic Intelligence in the New Era¡¯ we had to destroy any AI that wanted human kind to ¡°bend the knee¡± to its rule, but not those that didn¡¯t want to rule (as long as they were useful). This was the compromise after the third AI hostage situation in the Current Era. I had set up my M1K33s to start on tunnel defense construction. We already also had surface defenses for anti-personnel. I was at the point for buying the laser defense pods. Instead of a full-blown tower we were using a ¡°pop out¡± turret defenses that on the walls were camouflaged as a conduit junction points. The actual Conduits and Junction Points were inside the tunnel panels. A trick that we had adapted now also included sensors and stealth scanners that masqueraded as other electrical hardware installations. The echo of ¡°oontz oontz oontz¡± was filling the passage on my way towards the command center. ¡°Clap, calm that shit down, please? You¡¯re echoing through the passageways.¡± That was a good sign, that means we had full atmospheric pressure in the tunnels. ¡°I¡¯m sorry that I have bothered you, but did you see my sick dance moves?¡± ¡°Yes, Clap. We have all seen them.¡± I sighed. I couldn¡¯t help it. ¡°What¡¯s the status on the remainder of the outpost construction?¡± ¡°The dummy residential palace has been built. Would you like to connect it to the tunnels? I have the ability to set up a series of calamitous antipersonnel measures. We can set it all up so that no one will survive, and we can all be happy and party!¡± *oontz oontz oontz* Ugh. It was the middle of the third week. I had designed a few more firearms during my down time. I had worked with the mining drones to determine the best source of runs for linking up the additional sensor arrays, and I had helped with configuring the remainder of the base. We had only purchased a few dozen laser antipersonnel turrets from the system. Everything else was made custom for the outpost. Yesterday afternoon we had sent a tight beam broadcast to the Game representation of Ark-5. A simple message. ¡°Done¡± was all that was said. We obviously had the to/reply to in the subject and ¡°to¡± fields, but the only thing needed was to let them know that we had completed our mission on time. With the completion of everything else, we had been concentrating on turning more of the craters on the asteroid into sensor arrays. A series of maintenance drones had been made to clean the detection panels so that the antenna dishes were still conductive while maintaining a basic camouflage. An additional bonus that we had done was that the landing field had an elevator to take any landing craft under the surface, as well as several launching tubes in the event that a scramble needed to happen. We had some tubes that extended from a large central hangar to external craters that were actively disguising the launching zones. My team in full was waiting inside the landing hangar. We currently had the comms set up communicating through Marques¡¯ NI. We were awaiting our first VIP. After arriving at the hangar, we had been waiting for a dozen or so minutes before we saw any changes in the environment. The elevator pulled in the shuttle craft quicker than regular gravity would allow, the crafts landing gear connected by magnetic supports. ¡°Welcome to Outpost Theta, Colonel White!¡± I said as the doors to the shuttle opened, the colonel disembarking. ¡°Lieutenant.¡± The snap of a response almost lost in the breath that it took for him to say. ¡°Sir, if you will allow Spacer Asimov, we need to connect you to the Friend or Foe systems so that you don¡¯t end up as a bullet sponge.¡± I motioned the Colonel to the side. We currently asked the VI to shut down the anti-personnel defenses in the area as we were expecting guests. The next twelve hours were spent trying to keep the Colonel away from the base VI. Not because we felt there was a danger, but because no one should be subjected to that annoyance. 31. Disowned

Disowned

¡°Thank you for the tour, Lieutenant. No, one place we haven¡¯t seen is the Command Center. We seem to have skipped that.¡± ¡°Sir, I can take you there, but first I need to warn you. The VI is rather...¡± I sighed. Best to be honest about these things. ¡°Colonel White, the AI is very eccentric. There have been many times that I have wanted to give the kill order, sir.¡± ¡°That bad? What sort of personality did it end up with?¡± ¡°The first three were all ¡®you will bow to me¡¯ types. This was the fourth. It was a relief at first, but, you¡¯ll see in a moment, sir.¡± We were almost at the corridor that would lead us into the Command Center. As I feared the lights were flickering off and back on. The tell tale calls of ¡°look at me¡± with the ¡°oontz oontz oontz¡± were starting to become audible. As we turned the last corner all hopes of a decent meeting with the VI were shot to shit. ¡°You made it! Your ability to walk short distances without dying will be your enemy¡¯s downfall!¡± Sigh. ¡°Colonel White let me introduce you to the outpost VI, Claptrap. Clappy, this is Colonel White.¡± ¡°GREAT! Now, get me outta here before any enemies arrive!¡± ¡°Lieutenant, THIS is what you are living with?¡± ¡°Sir, this is calm for him.¡± ¡°I do not envy you stuck on this rock.¡± The Colonel turned to head back to the landing bay hangar. ¡°This way, minion! Over here!¡± Well, that did it, I could now officially claim it was thinking of humanity as its servants. ¡°I¡¯ll give the kill order once you¡¯re on your way back, sir.¡± ¡°No need, this is the game. Yama! Fix your damned VI.¡± The Colonel started walking back to the bay. A scream echoing from the speakers in the control room as Yama forcefully ¡°fixed¡± the VI. ¡°Okay, Jax. That was enlightening. I have a new respect for the VI programmers now. What about the Commander''s other challenge?¡± ¡°That, sir, I can assure you, is just about ready to build out. We have the basics configured on it, and all we need now is to take it through some simulations. We are trying a couple of different and new ideas on this build. Some of your Marines may get soft if I cushy it up too much, so no worries there. Once our relief gets here, we will start building it and use it to head back to the Ark.¡± We saw the Colonel off and then checked in with our terminals.
QUEST COMPLETED
Follow Extended orders
Daily Exp Rewards 525
Special Duty EXP Rewards 300
Other Rewards Greater understanding on Defensive Measures
New Materials Knowledge
Schematics for Advanced Sensor Relays
Fall Back Position
Outpost Theta
Defensive Systems Schematics
VI Manipulation Resistance
New Title Available
¡°Anyone else get some screwy rewards?¡± Asimov asked. ¡°Yeah, I got a ¡®VI Manipulation Resistance¡¯ bonus? What the hell is that about?¡± ¡°Same, Was it due to that last VI? I mean it was a long ten days he was active.¡± That seemed to be the general consensus from everyone here. ¡°I¡¯m more concerned with the fact that we were rewarded with Outpost Theta,¡± I said. ¡°Also, ¡®Fall Back Position¡¯? What is that supposed to mean? I mean, I know what it usually means, but what is that supposed to¡­You don¡¯t think they mean in like THAT, do they?¡± A new message arrived on my terminal. TO: Lieutenant Commander Jax REPLY TO ATTN: Ark Command SUBJECT: Orders LCDR. Jax, As you have no doubt become aware, you have been promoted. Colonel White was impressed with your ability to put together a full outpost in such a limited amount of time. As a bonus, you will be fully staffed. Under your direct command will be the following personnel. Three (3) Pilots Three (3) Navigators Two (2) Weapons Engineers Two (2) Aviation Engineers Two (2) Aviation Ordinance Engineers Two (2) Aircrew Survival Equipmentmen Five (5) Construction Battalion Three (3) Machinist Mates Two (2) Electrical Engineers Two (2) Hull Maintenance Technicians Three (3) Hospital Corpsman Two (2) Aviation Electronics Technician Two (2) Construction Mechanics Two (2) Construction Electricians Three (3) Sensors Operators Two (2) Communications Specialists Two (2) Platoons Marines for Defense One (1) Yeoman One (1) Boatswains Mate Two (2) Metalworkers Three (3) Intelligence Engineers Three (3) Mess Specialists Three (3) Civilian Researchers One (1) Logistics Specialist ¡°Team Jax¡± is factored into the numbers above and has now been transferred directly under your command along with the above. You will have five days to ensure that you can manage the new supply load. Treat the base as a research and listening center, and everything should work itself out. Additional equipment will be delivered to manage food resources shortly. Continue researching the necessary data to ensure that we survive. ¡°Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!¡± I turned to storm out of the room, and I noticed everyone looking at me. ¡°Shit. Okay, bad news or worse news?¡± I asked the team in front of me. ¡°Congratulations on your maple leaf, Ma¡¯am.¡± Janssens said with a little snark and a smirk. ¡°Yeah, thanks. That¡¯s the ¡®fuck you¡¯ command just gave while pushing me out the door. So, welcome to my base. Outpost Theta, my underlings. The bad news is I¡¯m in charge down here. The worse news is we need to gear up for everyone else who was just stationed here. I recommend you all check your orders for your reassignments. Janssens, Turing. You¡¯re in charge of the Outpost defense until we see if the platoons have an officer worth a shit. I¡¯ll be in my quarters.¡± I then walked out, which took much more self-control than I thought it would. Once in the office beneath the command center, I noticed all of my gear had been transferred, most likely by Yama. My portable fabricators had already been recycled for their pieces, but the fab I had purchased shortly after waking up was still put together and now in my office. Pulling up the details on my terminal I noted the list of transfers. The two CBs that were being assigned I was familiar with, same with the new HT. In fact, they were brothers that got into this shit with me. Looking further into the list, the doctor who had done the upgraded implants for my team was transferred. The two platoons of Marines, I couldn¡¯t be sure, but there were familiar names there as well. They were getting rid of the ¡°troublemakers.¡± I opened the folders on the MS¡¯s to validate that. Yep, insubordination. A lot of it. Same with the Comms Specialists. The researchers were interesting, manufacturing of drugs. We had just become a dumping ground. There was an excellent chance that they would be mirroring this in the Real once the outpost there was completed. There was a knocking at the hatch for my office. ¡°Enter!¡± I called out, half of the team was there. ¡°Ma¡¯am is this some sort of joke?¡± Corpsman Torres started off I configured a drone to start digging out a separate research station and an area for meat vats while I spoke. ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s on us. Come on in, everyone. No use in hiding this.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going to happen to us?¡± Takeshi asked. ¡°Well, it seems that we are being set up by Command as a disciplinary post.¡± I let that sink in for a moment before continuing. ¡°The list of personnel that is being sent all seem to be disciplinary cases. Sorry to be a red mark in your personnel folders.¡± I used the terminal to order some bourbon and pulled a glass for everyone as well. I poured my own then left the bottle on my desk, gesturing to the decantur and glasses. ¡°I¡¯m the ¡®boss¡¯ now, so I will have to stop asking and start ordering. I don¡¯t want to be the boss, I want to make a difference and help, but these are the orders. Torres, you get to learn how to do the implant upgrades. I¡¯ll be sending you the file shortly. Don¡¯t worry; it isn¡¯t difficult. Even I could handle it.¡± I took a long drink from my bourbon. ¡°I will be assigning berths tomorrow. Let me know your top three preferred places to sleep. As far as I can tell, all of our gear has already been transferred to where we¡¯re sleeping.¡± I stood and started to pace a little. ¡°The worst part is I have a feeling that once Theta is built out in the Real, that we will be getting assigned here. We need to NOT complete the designs for the Marine Assault and Insertion craft for a while. In fact, we need to stop ALL designs.¡± I walked over to my desk and set a 1MC alert. ¡°All Personnel on Outpost Theta, report to the Commanders Office. This is an order.¡± I repeated twice and then sat back and ordered more bourbon as well as a few other glasses from the terminal. It didn¡¯t take too long before the office opened. Turing and Janssens were at the lead of the unruly mob. I pointed to the glasses and bourbon. ¡°Drink.¡± I think that would be my most enthusiastically followed order, ever. ¡°We need to start building food vats, a research station, and most importantly of all, a garbage recycler. Stop all other projects. Marques, Jorges, how far along with the assault craft are you?¡±If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. ¡°Almost done, Commander,¡± Jorges responded before Marques opened his mouth. ¡°Either delete the data or introduce major flaws that will make it, so it cannot work.¡± The two looked at me like I had lost my mind. ¡°As you missed for joining us late, we are about to become a dumping ground for the undesirables in the fleet and for civilian researchers. You are now my underlings. Muahahaha.¡± I said the laugh in a flat and dry way to ensure they knew that my feelings on being in charge were not that of an evil (or benevolant) overlord. ¡°This posting may end up in the Real as well. We do NOT want to be at that disadvantage if it happens how I fear. Here¡¯s a quick rundown. Our MS¡¯s have some insubordination. Our civilian researchers were running a drug ring in the civilian side of things; the doctor is the wonderful professional that did all of the advanced implants, the Marines all seem to be those who were involved in the fighting directly during the reboot. You get the idea.¡± I sat back down at my desk and refilled my bourbon. ¡°Let me know of any special equipment that you need, choose your berths and send me their locations, I¡¯ll have to assign those in the AM. Lastly, tonight we drink in remembrance of us doing fun things. I don¡¯t know if we will be able to continue such in the future.¡± I took my own order as advice and continued to replenish the bourbon as we drank and told stories through the night. ¡°Check in on the terminals against the walls for your berth locations and additional equipment you will need to learn. You each have at least one new skill you need to learn. IE¡¯s work with Asimov to get up to date on the tricks behind what we are working on. We are currently living off the Ration Packs provided by the system.¡± I ignored the groans from the civilians. ¡°The food stores will not have meat for another two weeks. The hydroponics and greenhouses will not be providing vegetables for a while as well. Feel free to buy food from the terminals if you don¡¯t want that. I have an open-door policy if you don¡¯t abuse it. We have been lucky enough to discover the latest technologies in use, and we plan to continue doing so.¡± ¡°Now, you¡¯ll all find out that I can be a bitch if you push me to it, but I would prefer to not have to go there. You have all been dumped on me because command views you as disciplinary cases. Many of you have already figured this out, so it shouldn¡¯t be news to you. We are all here because we have shown that we will not blindly do everything that is asked of us. That we will ask questions when things do not make sense. We will strike out against those that are trying to force their will on us.¡± ¡°Civilians, you have a bit of a luxury. You get your choice of one of two berth locations. Both are assigned to you. This is because you will be expected to put in hours researching. None of your previous business deals or I will execute you, then lock you in to keep you out of my hair.¡± ¡°Welcome to Outpost Theta, home of the Renegades.¡± Sure, the name ¡°Renegades¡± wasn¡¯t that original, but we had decided on it as a team, about eight bottles of bourbon in, and it had been unanimous, so the system set it. I left the hangar that had just delivered the seventy new personnel and headed to the sick bay to wait with Corpsman Torres for the first of the new arrivals. ¡°Ma¡¯am are they on their way?¡± Torres asked as I entered the compartment. ¡°Yeah, they should be. The question is, who will show up here first. I¡¯m hopeful it will be the doctor and nurse, but no clue.¡± We didn¡¯t have to wait long as a line of Marines was out the door. Janssens and Turing were showing them around and immediately brought them by, knowing what was in the plans. Fortunately, the Captain in charge of the platoons was smart enough to listen to a Gunny and Staff Sergeant. I was helping Torres get the Marines into and out of the auto-doc pods. We had used the programming on the pods to ensure that the updates to the hardware would happen. Observer had assured us that an update done in-game would also affect the Neural in the Real due to the nature of the device. We had finished with the first platoon by the time the nurse and doctor arrived at the sickbay. We ran them through the Auto-doc, explaining in very general terms what the software update would do. I made the decision to not tell them that it would also affect their Neurals in the Real. It was a very long day while everyone was cycled through sickbay. Of course, the civilians were upset as the labs wouldn¡¯t allow access until they had checked into medical, but when they found that the ¡°procedure¡± would take them each five minutes and then they could go and play with new and unusual toys, they all but jumped into the pods. It was after midnight by the time I managed to rack out for some sleep.

Disowned - Original

¡°Thank you for the tour, Lieutenant. No, one place we haven¡¯t seen is the Command Center. We seem to have skipped that.¡± ¡°Sir, I can take you there, but first I need to warn you. The VI is rather...¡± I sighed. Best to be honest about these things. ¡°Colonel White, the AI is very eccentric. There have been many times that I have wanted to give the kill order, sir.¡± ¡°That bad? What sort of personality did it end up with?¡± ¡°The first three were all ¡®you will bow to me¡¯ types. This was the fourth. It was a relief at first, but¡­ You¡¯ll see in a moment, sir.¡± We were almost at the corridor that would lead us into the Command Center. As I feared the lights were flickering off and back on. The tell tale calls of ¡°look at me¡± with the ¡°oontz oontz oontz¡± were starting to become audible. As we turned the last corner all hopes of a descent meeting with the VI were shot to shit. ¡°You made it! Your ability to walk short distances without dying will be your enemy¡¯s downfall!¡± Sigh. ¡°Colonel White let me introduce you to the outpost VI, Claptrap. Clappy, this is Colonel White.¡± ¡°GREAT! Now, get me outta here before any enemies arrive!¡± ¡°Lieutenant, THIS is what you are living with?¡± ¡°Sir, this is calm for him.¡± ¡°I do not envy you stuck on this rock.¡± The Colonel turned to head back to the landing bay hangar. ¡°This way, minion! Over here!¡± Well, that did it, I could now officially claim it was thinking of humanity as its servants. ¡°I¡¯ll give the kill order once you¡¯re on your way back, sir.¡± ¡°No need, this is the game. Yama! Fix your damned VI.¡± The Colonel started walking back to the bay. A scream echoing from the speakers in the control room as Yama forcefully ¡°fixed¡± the VI. ¡°Okay, Jax. That was enlightening. I have a new respect for the VI programmers now. What about the Commanders other challenge?¡± ¡°That, sir, I can assure you, is just about ready to build out. We have the basics configured on it and all we need now is to take it through some simulations. We are trying a couple of different and new ideas on this build. Some of your Marines may get soft if I cushy it up too much, so no worries there. Once our relief gets here we will start building it and use it to head back to the Ark.¡± We saw the Colonel off, and then checked in with our terminals.
QUEST COMPLETED
Follow Extended orders
Daily Exp Rewards 525
Special Duty EXP Rewards 300
Other Rewards Greater understanding on Defensive Measures
New Materials Knowledge
Schematics for Advanced Sensor Relays
Fall Back Position
Outpost Theta
Defensive Systems Schematics
VI Manipulation Resistance
New Title Available
¡°Anyone else get some screwy rewards?¡± Asimov asked. ¡°Yeah, I got a ¡®VI Manipulation Resistance¡¯ bonus? What the hell is that about?¡± ¡°Same, Was it due to that last VI? I mean it was a long ten days he was active.¡± That seemed to be the general consensus from everyone here. ¡°I¡¯m more concerned with the fact that we were rewarded with Outpost Theta.¡± I said. ¡°Also, ¡®Fall Back Position¡¯? What is that supposed to mean? I mean, I know what it means normally, but what is that supposed to mean?¡± A new message arrived on my terminal. TO: Lieutenant Commander Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: Ark Command SUBJECT: Orders LCDR. Jax, As you have no doubt become aware, you have been promoted. Colonel White was impressed with your ability to put together a full outpost in such a limited amount of time. As a bonus, you will be fully staffed. Under your direct command will be the following personnel. Three (3) Pilots Three (3) Navigators Two (2) Weapons Engineers Two (2) Aviation Engineers Two (2) Aviation Ordinance Engineers Two (2) Aircrew Survival Equipmentmen Five (5) Construction Battalion Three (3) Machinist Mates Two (2) Electrical Engineers Two (2) Hull Maintenance Technicians Three (3) Hospital Corpsman Two (2) Aviation Electronics Technician Two (2) Construction Mechanics Two (2) Construction Electricians Three (3) Sensors Operators Two (2) Communications Specialists Two (2) Platoons Marines for Defense One (1) Yeoman One (1) Boatswainsmate Two (2) Metalworkers Three (3) Intelligence Engineers Three (3) Mess Specialists Three (3) Civilian Researchers One (1) Logistics Specialist ¡°Team Jax¡± is factored into the numbers above and has now been transferred directly under your command along with the above. You will have five days to ensure that you can manage the new supply loadouts. Treat the base as a research and listening center and everything should work itself out. Additional equipment will be delivered to manage food resources shortly. Continue researching the necessary data to ensure that we survive. ¡°Shit. Shit, shit, shit, shit, SHIT!¡± I turned to storm out of the room, and I noticed everyone looking at me. ¡°Shit. Okay, bad news or worse news?¡± I asked the team in front of me. ¡°Congratulations on your maple leaf, Ma¡¯am.¡± Janssens said with a little snark and a big ol¡¯ smirk. ¡°Yeah, thanks. That¡¯s the ¡®fuck you¡¯ command just gave while pushing me out the door. So, welcome to my base. Outpost Theta¡­ my underlings. Bad news is I¡¯m in charge down here. Worse news is we need to gear up for everyone else who was just stationed here. I recommend you all check your orders for your reassignments. Jannsens, Turing. You¡¯re in charge of the Outpost defense until we see if the platoons have an officer worth a shit. I¡¯ll be in my quarters.¡± I then walked out, which took much more self-control than I thought it would. Once in the office beneath the command center I noticed all of my gear had been transferred, most likely by Yama. My portable fabricators had already been recycled for their pieces, but the fab I had purchased shortly after waking up was still put together and now in my office. Pulling up the details on my terminal I noted the list of transfers. The two CBs that were being assigned I was familiar with, same with the new HT. In fact they were brothers that got into this shit with me. Looking further into the list, the doctor who had done the upgraded implants for my team was transferred. The two platoons of Marines, I couldn¡¯t be sure, but there were familiar names there as well. They were getting rid of the ¡°trouble makers¡±. I opened the folders on the MS¡¯s to validate that. Yep, insubordination. Lots of it. Same with the Comms Specialists. The researchers were interesting, manufacturing of drugs. We had just become a dumping ground. There was a very good chance that they would be mirroring this in the Real once the outpost there was completed. There was a knocking at the hatch for my office. ¡°Enter!¡± I called out, half of the team was there. ¡°Ma¡¯am, is this some sort of joke?¡± Corpsman Torres started off I configured a drone to start digging out a separate research station and an area for meat vats while I spoke. ¡°Yeah, but it¡¯s on us. Come on in, everyone. No use in hiding this.¡± ¡°What¡¯s going to happen to us?¡± Takeshi asked. ¡°Well, it seems that we are being seen by command as a disciplinary post.¡± I let that sink in for a moment before continuing. ¡°The list of personnel that is being sent all seem to be disciplinary cases. Sorry to be a red mark in your personnel folders.¡± I used the terminal to order some bourbon and pulled a glass for everyone as well. I poured my own then left the bottle on my desk, gesturing to the bottle and glasses. ¡°I¡¯m the ¡®boss¡¯ now, so I will have to stop asking and start ordering. I don¡¯t want to be the boss, I want to make a difference and help out, but these are the orders. Torres, you get to learn how to do the implant upgrades. I¡¯ll be sending you the file shortly. Don¡¯t worry, it isn¡¯t difficult. Even I could handle it.¡± I took a long drink from my bourbon. ¡°I will be assigning berths tomorrow. Let me know your top three preferred places to sleep. As far as I can tell, all of our gear has already been transferred to where we¡¯re sleeping.¡± I stood and started to pace a little. ¡°The worst part is I have a feeling that once Theta is built out in the Real, that we will be getting assigned here. We need to NOT complete the designs for the Marine Assault and Insertion craft for a while. In fact, we need to stop ALL designs.¡± I walked over to my desk and set a 1MC alert. ¡°All Personnel on Outpost Theta, report to the Commanders Office. This is an order.¡± I repeated twice and then sat back and ordered more bourbon as well as a few other glasses from the terminal. It didn¡¯t take too long before the office opened. Turing and Janssens were at the lead of the unruly mob. I pointed to the glasses and bourbon. ¡°Drink.¡± I think that would be my most enthusiastically followed order, ever. ¡°We need to start building food vats, a research station, and most importantly of all, a garbage recycler. Stop all other projects. Marques, Jorges, how far along with the assault craft are you?¡± ¡°Almost done, Commander.¡± Jorges responded before Marques opened his mouth. ¡°Either delete the data or introduce major flaws that will make it so it cannot work.¡± The two looked at me like I had lost my mind. ¡°As you missed for joining us late, we are about to become a dumping ground for the undesirables in the fleet and for civilian researchers. You are now my underlings. Muahahah.¡± I said the laugh in a flat and dry way to ensure they knew that my feelings on being in charge were not that of an evil (or good) overlord. ¡°This posting may end up in the Real as well. We do NOT want to be at that disadvantage if it happens how I fear. Here¡¯s a quick rundown. Our MS¡¯s have some insubordination. Our civilian researchers were running a drug ring in the civilian side of things, the doctor is the wonderful professional that did all of the advanced implants, the Marines all seem to be those who were involved in the fighting directly during the reboot. You get the idea.¡± I sat back down at my desk and refilled my bourbon. ¡°Let me know of any special equipment that you need, choose your berths and send me their locations, I¡¯ll have to assign those in the AM. Lastly, tonight we drink in remembrance of us doing fun things. I don¡¯t know if we will be able to continue such in the future.¡± I took my own order as advice and continued to replenish the bourbon as we drank and told stories through the night. ¡°Check in on the terminals against the walls for your berth locations and additional equipment you will need to learn. You each have at least one new skill you need to learn. IE¡¯s work with Asimov to get up to date on the tricks behind what we are working on. We are currently living off the Ration Packs provided by the system.¡± I ignored the groans from the civilians. ¡°The food stores will not have meat for another two weeks. The hydroponics and greenhouses will not be providing vegetables for a while as well. Feel free to buy food from the terminals if you don¡¯t want that. I have an open-door policy, if you don¡¯t abuse it. We have been lucky enough to discover the latest technologies in use and we plan to continue doing so.¡± ¡°Now, you¡¯ll all find out that I can be a bitch if you push me to it, but I would prefer to not have to go there. You have all been dumped on me because command views you as disciplinary cases. Many of you have already figured this out, so it shouldn¡¯t be news to you. We are all here because we have shown that we will not blindly do everything that is asked of us. That we will ask questions when things do not make sense. We will strike out against those that are trying to force their will on us.¡± ¡°Civilians, you have a bit of a luxury. You get your choice of one of two berth locations. Both are assigned to you. This is because you will be expected to put in hours researching. None of your previous business deals, or I will execute you, then lock you in to keep you out of my hair.¡± ¡°Welcome to Outpost Theta, home of the Renegades.¡± Sure, the name ¡°Renegades¡± wasn¡¯t that original, but we had decided on it as a team, about eight bottles of bourbon in, and it had been unanimous, so the system set it. I left the hangar that had just delivered the seventy new personnel and headed to the sick bay to wait with Corpsman Torres for the first of the new arrivals. ¡°Ma¡¯am are they on their way?¡± Torres asked as I entered the compartment. ¡°Yeah, they should be. Question is, who will show up here first. I¡¯m hopeful it will be the doctor and nurse, but no clue.¡± We didn¡¯t have to wait long as a line of Marines was out the door. Janssens and Turing were showing them around and immediately brought them by, knowing what was in the plans. Fortunately, the Captain in charge of the platoons was smart enough to listen to a Gunny and Staff Sergeant. I was helping Torres get the Marines into and out of the auto-doc pods. We had used the programming on the pods to ensure that the updates to the hardware would happen. Observer had assured us that an update done in game would also affect the Neural in the Real due to the nature of the hardware. We had finished with the first platoon by the time the nurse and doctor arrived at the sickbay. We ran them through the Auto-doc, explaining in very general terms what the software update would do. I made the decision to not tell them that it would also affect their Neurals in the Real. It was a very long day while everyone was cycled through sick bay. Of course, the civilians were upset as the labs wouldn¡¯t allow access until they had checked into medical, but when they found that the ¡°procedure¡± would take them each five minutes and then they could go and play with new and unusual toys, they all but jumped into the pods. It was after midnight by the time I managed to rack out for some sleep. 32. Proving Grounds

Proving Grounds - Edited 11-9-2018

It had been two weeks since the new additions to the team showed up. So far everyone had at least given the new math a try. The researchers, engineers, doctor, and several of the techs had managed to pick it up, and we were making all sorts of advances in fields such as weapons development. The civilians were pleased to have something to do. It turns out that their entire drug ring was because of boredom. They had been at the forefront for so long before leaving Sol that being put into the Game was just boring. They didn¡¯t get EXP the same way so they couldn¡¯t afford to buy anything to run any experiments. I had the Marines learning the new weapons I had designed, which now also included a gas-powered combat pistol for fighting in certain environments where combustion could become an issue.
Qiti 5.56 mm Gas Pistol
Type Kinetic
Rounds 15/15
Sight None
Fire Mode Options Single, semi-automatic
Weight 1.75 KG
Modifications None
Range 50 m
Maximum 200 m
I was working on an idea for a mechanized assault suit, something that I would have to piece together once I could get enough of the concept in the separate parts figured out. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have a craft coming in. They claim to be a supply drop, but we don¡¯t have anything on our schedule for today. How do you want us to handle this?¡± ¡°How did they contact?¡± ¡°Full video over a secured comms frequency.¡± ¡°Did they identify themselves? I mean other than that they are a supply drop?¡± ¡°No, ma¡¯am. The craft fully matches the cargo transport ships that are part of our carrier group.¡± ¡°Well, I suppose we should have a welcoming crew there to help get everything unloaded. Get a squad of Marines to meet us there. Direct them to the old hangar.¡± We had carved out of the asteroid another two hangars. One would be for the mining/refinery craft as well as another set up entirely for new ships that we were thinking of building. Marques and his group of Aviation Specialists had many ideas that, fortunately, no one ever consulted them on. Instead of ¡°supplies¡± what we ended up with was a Yeoman who needed to deliver physical orders. Somehow this was supposed to be more secure, even though it was taking place in a game where all the data could be recorded. As the Yeoman handed me the orders, he said something strange that made no sense to me. ¡°Ma¡¯am, does ¡®Second edition, revision 5.038¡¯ mean anything to you? I was asked to say that bit as I delivered this.¡± ¡°No Yeoman, that¡­ that just sounds like nonsense.¡± I took the orders and returned to my office. TO: Lieutenant Commander Jax REPLY TO ATTN: NO RESPONSE SUBJECT: Renegade Command: New Orders Lieutenant Commander Jax, at this time you will find that your entire base and staff have been transferred to the physical Outpost Theta. It has been built out in its entirety over the last six months. The Sensor and Comm Arrays have a highly encrypted and secured communications algorithm. Ensuring data security. We have done this to provide you with the necessary autonomy needed for what we are about to order you to do. You have been given this outpost so that we may have plausible deniability in the event this comes back to bite us. Any deaths will be considered training accidents. You are now, officially, a black operations group. Your orders are to find the rogue Arks and either return them to the fold or destroy them. Work with Hera, Cl4p, and Observer to determine the best technologies to use to accomplish the goals listed above. We will be delivering an additional staffing unit to be ¡°Secondary¡± shift. They will be able to staff the outpost while you are away. We will transmit the data on the trajectories in relation to our local space in a packet of various additional ¡°research data.¡± All orders in the future that are transmitted this way will be encoded using a cipher determined by your training manuals. It is recommended that you have a physical copy printed up. The bottom right corner for the form numbers to determine which cipher to use. Send a pulse reply with a status message containing the words ¡°southern cross¡± to note receipt of orders. Send an order to CL4P so you can Thaw, when ready. Well, now I at least knew what the Yeomans message was for. I called up my fabricator queue options and sent it orders to print up a hard copy of the Sol Combined Fleet Engineering Manual, Second Edition (Revision 5.038). While I was at it, I checked the other rates to see if there was a similar revision on any second edition training manuals, then printed those up as well, including the Approved Recipes for Diplomats book for the MS¡¯s that happened to have the same edition/revision. ¡°Comms, send a message to the Ark. Subject repairs needed. Body: We need to do some additional work on the southern crossways before we can accept any additional supplies. Warehouses are to be remodeled after. Expect a lead time of two weeks. End message.¡± I ordered some more bourbon from the system menu then called Torres, Marques, Jorges, Janssens, Turing, their Captain, a woman by the name of Fielding and had them meet me in the conference room next to my office. ¡°Captain, I am sorry to do this to you, but welcome to the inner circle.¡± I passed her a glass with some bourbon in it. As everyone else was taking their seats, they all accepted their drinks as well. ¡°Ma¡¯am? What¡¯s this about?¡± she asked, looking around as everyone else stared at their bourbon in horror. Probably remembering the hangovers from the day after we came up with our unit name. ¡°Simple. I am about to order you into a compromising position. Those here are already compromised as such. Then, you¡¯re going to object; then I am going to show you it''s all true and so on. Once all that is done, you will accept your lot in life, and possibly drink with us until you realize it was a mistake, and tomorrow you will wake up with a hangover.¡± ¡°Shit, not again.¡± Was the only response from anyone else at the table. I took a long pull from my bourbon and then refilled my glass. ¡°What¡¯s the bad news this time?¡± Janssens spoke up. ¡°Who wants to capture an Ark?¡± I asked. Everyone else swore or groaned. Captain Fielding was mortified. Two hours later I had finally convinced her that what I was talking about was not about retaking Ark-5 but was in fact about getting the Arks back and out of control of whomever the third part it was. The final bit of convincing was when a data packet came in marked as ¡°research data¡± that I was able to decode, and it had trajectory information for all of the Arks after we spun off and had our ¡°tactical retreat.¡± Showing her the orders hadn¡¯t been enough like it had been for Torres. Surprisingly, no one got drunk. Probably because we were no longer onboard the ship with access to the direct manipulation that Yama had available to him. The new crew arrived two days later, and I gave the order to CL4P to ensure that the base was functional in the Real, then to thaw us out. Sure enough, the seven of us thawed and then had to deal with the sickness that happened. Torres was able to get us connected to IVs, and then herself so that the full thaw procedure could occur properly. The area that the pods had been stored in was part of sickbay, and we were able to then start pulling everyone else out. We started with the Doctor and the Nurse. Once they were out, I did a walkthrough on the outpost to ensure that it was built identical to ours in-game. Except for the Virt-P storage, and the latest hangar which was still under construction, it was. Once enough of the original ¡°Team Jax¡± was up, I ordered the Marines to wake; then we decided to call it a day. The next day was dedicated to the ¡°Aviation¡± crews, cooks, and so on. The last to ¡°hatch¡± were the sensors and comms operators. This left the virtual crew managing everything in the game, and us leading things in the real worl. Fortunately, we had plenty of rations provided by the Ark as the cooks wouldn¡¯t be any use for a couple of days. I called a meeting for the pilots and the Marines leadership. ¡°We have a good news-bad news situation.¡± I don¡¯t know why, but I loved opening with that. It just seemed like a ¡°here, let me shit on your day¡± thing without actually being malicious. I waited for the grumbling to die down, then continued on. We are in the middle of designing stealth assault craft. We will be using both platoons of Marines as well as some of our IEs, myself and all of you to capture Ark-9.¡± ¡°The stealth craft have been under development for a few weeks, and I have been designing some assault suits, so we should be golden when it comes to defense. Landing will be the difficult piece. We need to design an assault plan to get in, disable their AI cores, and run a flash to secure their Neurals. For those of you who are unaware, the Neurals that we all had when we were put into Cryo initially were full of security flaws which could be used to take advantage of certain bits of the software to control us. The patch that you all received has fixed that flaw.¡± It took a moment for everyone present to calm themselves down. My ¡°team¡± had heard this a few times already and knew all this information, but those who had transferred in and were not part of Reboot were furious something like that could happen.This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. ¡°We fixed the flaw in all of ours, as well as a similar flaw in Ark-5¡¯s AI. Once we disabled the flaw in the last of the leadership, who happened to be the governor, that is when the other Arks turned on us. I expect something was going on with Arks 9 and 11 as they turned to flee instead of engaging us. So, they are up first. We are going to dock with the Ark, and disable their AI, patch it, then do the same to their leadership.¡± ¡°Once complete we can build a gate and jump back here. Ark-5 has already deployed the first of its gates, so we have a quick way back. With them having traveled at 98% of c, then accelerate since then, we have been able to determine a few possible locations that they would be. We will be creating a new communications relay in the belt as we build out the assault craft. This will have the benefit of FTL communications. We will be building a corresponding relay to deploy into Ark-9, as well as spares for all other Arks so that once the rest are located, we can do the same maneuver.¡± ¡°I am asking our IEs to build out a new AI during this construction period as well. This AI will brute force its way into the ships security systems and hopefully prevent our detection. It will also back up the data their AI has been using, working with and so on, so we can determine if their AI need to be destroyed or just patched.¡± ¡°I will be working with our AEs to develop a new engine that will be capable of short FTL bursts. With this, we should be able to catch up to the other Arks quickly once they have been detected. A secondary objective is to capture one of the Escort craft and determine what can be done to help any captives that are being held.¡± I then explained about Observer as well as the strange request that came in over ¡°game¡± lines, and how it just left more questions than it answered. I knew Observer could communicate with me in both because of the implant that he installed, but I wasn¡¯t sure about how the rest of his people could contact me. I introduced the pilots to Marques after that, in case they hadn¡¯t met yet, and then asked him to review the designs of the assault craft with them. From there I wandered over to the Research facilities and plugged directly into Hera via CL4P and started working on the math for the engines, coached by Observer on what would be needed. A month and a half later from my perspective, four days in the Real, I had the basics for an FTL skip drive ready and developed. I then headed over to another area of the base that ¡°didn¡¯t exist.¡± This was our skunkworks. The moment I knew about the additional orders I had the lab built up. Time to build and equip a drone with a ¡°skip drive¡± and see what it could do. Simulations were a good thing to have, but if we were going to put this into our assault craft, we would need to know how it really worked.

Proving Grounds - Original

It had been two weeks since the new additions to the team showed up. So far everyone had at least given the new math a try. The researchers, engineers, doctor, and several of the techs had managed to pick it up, and we were making all sorts of advances in fields such as weapons development. The civilians were pleased to have something to do. It turns out that their entire drug ring was because of boredom. They had been at the forefront for so long before leaving Sol that being put into the Game was just boring. They didn¡¯t get EXP the same way, so they couldn¡¯t afford to buy anything to run any experiments. I had the Marines learning the new weapons I had designed, which now also included a gas-powered combat pistol for fighting in certain environments where combustion could become an issue.
Qiti 5.56 mm Gas Pistol
Type Kinetic
Rounds 15/15
Sight None
Fire Mode Options Single, semi-automatic
Weight 1.75 KG
Modifications None
Range 50 m
Maximum 200 m
I was working on an idea for a mechanized assault suit, something that I would be having to piece together once I could get enough of the idea in the separate parts figured out. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have a craft coming in. they are claiming to be a supply drop, but we don¡¯t have anything on our schedule for today. How do you want us to handle this?¡± ¡°How did they contact?¡± ¡°Full video over a secured comms frequency.¡± ¡°Did they identify themselves? I mean other than that they are a supply drop?¡± ¡°No, ma¡¯am. The craft fully matches the cargo transport ships that are part of our carrier group.¡± ¡°Well, I suppose we should have a welcoming crew there to help get everything unloaded. Get a squad of Marines to meet us there. Direct them to the old hangar.¡± We had carved out of the asteroid another two hangars. One would be for the mining/refinery craft as well as another set up entirely for new ships that we were thinking of building. Marques and his group of Aviation Specialists had many ideas that, fortunately no one ever consulted them on. Instead of ¡°supplies¡± what we ended up with was a Yeoman who needed to deliver physical orders. Somehow this was supposed to be more secure, even though it was taking place in a game where all the data could be recorded. As the Yeoman handed me the orders, he said something strange that made no sense to me. ¡°Ma¡¯am, does ¡®Second edition, revision 5.038¡¯ mean anything to you? I was asked to say that bit as I delivered this.¡± ¡°No Yeoman, that¡­ that¡¯s just sounds like nonsense.¡± I took the orders and returned to my office. TO: Commander Jax REPLY TO ATTN OF: NO RESPONSE SUBJECT: Renegade Command: New Orders Commander Jax, at this time you will find that your entire base and staff has been transferred to the physical Outpost Theta. It has been built out in its entirety over the last six months. The Sensor and Comm Arrays have a highly encrypted and secured communications algorithm. Ensuring data security. We have done this to provide you with the necessary autonomy needed for what we are about to order you to do. You have been given this outpost so that we may have plausible deniability in the event this comes back to bite us. Any deaths will be considered training accidents. You are now, officially, a black operations group. Your orders are to find the rogue Arks and either return them to the fold or destroy them. Work with Hera, Cl4p, and Observer to determine the best technologies to use to accomplish the goals listed above. We will be delivering an additional staffing unit to be ¡°Secondary¡± shift. They will be able to staff the outpost while you are away. We will transmit the data on the trajectories in relation to our local space in a packet of various additional ¡°research data¡±. All orders in the future that are transmitted this way will be encoded using a cipher determined by your training manuals. It is recommended that you have a physical copy printed up. The bottom right corner for the form numbers to determine which cipher to use. Send a pulse reply with a status message containing the words ¡°southern cross¡± to note receipt of orders. Send an order to CL4P so you can Thaw, when ready. Well, now I at least knew what the Yeomans message was for. I called up my fabricator queue options and sent it orders to print up a hard copy of the Sol Combined Fleet Engineering Manual, Second Edition (Revision 5.038). While I was at it, I checked the other rates to see if there was a similar revision on any second edition training manuals, then printed those up as well, including the Approved Recipes for Diplomats book for the MS¡¯s that happened to have the same edition/revision. ¡°Comms, send a message to the Ark. Subject repairs needed. Body: We need to do some additional work on the southern crossways before we can accept any additional supplies. Warehouses are to be remodeled after. Expect a lead time of two weeks. End message.¡± I ordered some more bourbon from the system menu then called Torres, Marques, Jorges, Janssens, Turing, their Captain, a woman by the name of Fielding and had them meet me in the conference room next to my office. ¡°Captain, I am sorry to do this to you, but welcome to the inner circle.¡± I passed her a glass with some bourbon in it. As everyone else was taking their seats they all accepted their glasses as well. ¡°Ma¡¯am? What¡¯s this about?¡± she asked, looking around as everyone else stared at their bourbon in horror. Probably remembering the hangovers from the day after we came up with our unit name. ¡°Simple. I am about to order you into a compromising position. Those here are already compromised as such. Then, you¡¯re going to object, then I am going to show you its all true and so on. Once all that is done, you will accept your lot in life, and possibly drink with us until you realize it was a mistake, and tomorrow you will wake up with a hangover.¡± ¡°Shit, not again.¡± Was the only response from anyone else at the table. I took a long pull from my bourbon and then refilled my glass. ¡°What¡¯s the bad news this time?¡± Janssens spoke up. ¡°Who wants to capture an Ark?¡± I asked. Everyone else swore or groaned. Captain Fielding was mortified. Two hours later I had finally convinced her that what I was talking about was not about retaking Ark-5 but was in fact about getting the Arks back and out of control of whomever the third part it was. The final bit of convincing was when a data packet came in marked as ¡°research data¡± that I was able to decode, and it had trajectory information for all of the Arks after we spun off and had our ¡°tactical retreat¡±. Showing her the orders hadn¡¯t been enough like it had been for Torres. Surprisingly, no one got drunk. Probably because we were no longer onboard the ship with access to the direct manipulation that Yama had available to him. The new crew arrived two days later and I gave the order to CL4P to ensure that the base was functional in the Real, then to thaw us out. Sure enough, the seven of us thawed and then had to deal with the sickness that happened. Torres was able to get us connected to IVs, and then herself so that the full thaw procedure could happen properly. The area that the pods had been stored in was part of sick bay, and we were able to then start pulling everyone else out. We started with the Doctor and the Nurse. Once they were out I did a walkthrough on the outpost to ensure that it was built identical to our in-game, with the exception of the Virt-P storage, and the latest hangar which was still under construction, it was. Once enough of the original ¡°Team Jax¡± was up, I ordered the Marines to wake, then we decided to call it a day. The next day was dedicated to the ¡°Aviation¡± crews, cooks, and so on. The last to ¡°hatch¡± were the sensors and comms operators. This left the virtual crew managing everything in Game, and us managing things in the Real. Fortunately, we had plenty of rations provided by the Ark as the cooks wouldn¡¯t be any use for a couple of days. I called a meeting for the pilots and the Marines leadership. ¡°We have a good news bad news situation.¡± I don¡¯t know why, but I loved opening with that. It just seemed like a ¡°here, let me shit on your day¡± thing without actually being malicious. I waited for the grumbling to die down, then continued on. We are in the middle of designing stealth assault craft. We will be using both platoons of Marines as well as some of our IEs, myself and all of you to capture Ark-9.¡± ¡°The stealth craft have been under development for a few weeks, and I have been designing some assault suits, so we should be golden when it comes to defense. Landing will be the difficult piece. We need to design an assault plan to get in, disable their AI cores, and run a flash to secure their Neurals. For those of you who are unaware, the Neurals that we all had when we were put into Cryo initially were full of security flaws which could be used to take advantage of certain bits of the software to control us. The patch that you all received has fixed that flaw.¡± It took a moment for everyone present to calm themselves down. My ¡°team¡± had heard this a few times already and knew all this information, but those who had transferred in and were not part of Reboot were furious something like that could happen. ¡°We fixed the flaw in all of ours, as well as a similar flaw in Ark-5¡¯s AI. Once we disabled the flaw in the last of the leadership, who happened to be the governor, that is when the other Arks turned on us. I expect there was something going on with Arks 9 and 11 as they turned to flee instead of engaging us. So, they are up first. We are going to dock with the Ark, and disable their AI, patch it, then do the same to their leadership.¡± ¡°Once complete we can build a gate and jump back here. Ark-5 has already deployed the first of its gates so we have a quick way back. With them having traveled at 98% of c, then accelerate since then, we have been able to determine a few possible locations that they would be. We will be creating a new communications relay in the belt as we build out the assault craft. This will have the benefit of FTL communications. We will be building a corresponding relay to deploy into Ark-9, as well as spares for all other Arks, so that once the rest are located we can do the same maneuver.¡± ¡°I am asking our IEs to build out a new AI during this construction period as well. This AI will brute force its way into the ships security systems and hopefully prevent our detection. It will also back up the data their AI have been using, working with and so on, so we can determine if their AI need to be destroyed or just patched.¡± ¡°I will be working with our AEs to develop a new engine that will be capable of short FLT bursts. With this, we should be able to catch up to the other Arks quickly once they have been detected. A secondary objective is to capture one of the Escort craft and determine what can be done to help any captives that are being held.¡± I then explained about Observer as well as the strange request that came in over ¡°game¡± lines, and how it just left more questions than it answered. I knew Observer could communicate with me in both because of the implant that he installed, but I wasn¡¯t sure about how the rest of his people could contact me. I introduced the pilots to Marques after that, in case they hadn¡¯t met yet, and then asked him to review the designs of the assault craft with them. From there I wandered over to the Research facilities and plugged directly into Hera via CL4P and started working on the math for the engines, coached by Observer on what would be needed. A month and a half later from my perspective, four days in the Real, I had the basics for an FTL skip drive ready and developed. I then headed over to another area of the base that ¡°didn¡¯t exist¡±. This was our skunkworks. The moment I knew about the additional orders I had the lab built up. Time to build and equip a drone with a ¡°skip drive¡± and see what it could do. Simulations were great, but if we were going to put this into our assault craft we would need to know. 33. Rescue

Rescue - Edited 11-9-2018

Marques joined me not too long later. ¡°Thought I¡¯d find you in here, Ma¡¯am.¡± Was his comment. ¡°Hey there. Working on an FTL prototype. Want to give me a hand?¡± It was out of courtesy more than need. With the gravity on this rock as low as it was, I was quite capable of moving almost a ton by myself, and that was using only my real arm. ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡± I asked him after we had moved a containment cylinder from the fabricator to a suspension field, helping to create an ¡°exploded¡± model before we started to secure the engine. ¡°Well, Ma¡¯am, I feel a little uncomfortable with the orders. I mean, destroy the Arks if t we can¡¯t free them? What sort of madness is that?¡± ¡°I am thinking of it as a mercy. No, I am CHOOSING to think of it as a mercy. Would you like your fellow humans to become science experiments or slaves? I wouldn¡¯t, so if I can¡¯t free them, I feel that it is a mercy to stop the external influences. As for 9 and 11, they may not be under influence or duress, so I am hopeful we can speak with them and get it resolved, and then get us all back together.¡± We moved a few of the last pieces into place as he thought about what I had said. ¡°I suppose that is a much better thing. I thought that the orders were to just destroy them if they didn¡¯t want to return.¡± Although that is how I read the orders as well, I didn¡¯t give any hints to that. As far as I was concerned, once they were all patched up, they could do what they wanted. I sent out the command to have the ¡°exploded¡± device scanned to create the final blueprints; then I gave the order for the constructor drones to start assembling everything. ¡°We have a few hours before we can test this, how¡¯s the craft coming?¡± ¡°I wanted to run a few things by you. You know how we have it all figured out how to detect craft using gravity waves, now?¡± ¡°Yeah, I help with those sensors.¡± I walked over to a table and sat down bringing up the plans. ¡°Well, what if the rest of humanity has the secret to that now, as well?¡± ¡°Simple, we build a better stealth drive,¡± I said. I had my visor opened, now that I was away from anything that *might* explode. I then ran a data line up to my data jack. Observer, Neith, can you bring up on screen the schematics for our energy output with the current stealth fields? ¡°As you can see, the stealth fields have an output that closely resembles the gravity sensors detection field. How about we change the power profile on it?¡± We started going over ways to mask the output from the new engines as well as every other bit of EM leakage we could conceive of. The most difficult was going to be light. Fortunately, a matt black paint job would do most of the work for in space. Folding light around us for atmospheric insertions would be more difficult, but that was something to work on later. We wouldn¡¯t need that quite yet. We were in the middle of configuring the adjustments to the various power curves when the construction drones completed the construction of the skip drove and alerted that it had been implanted into a mining drone. The test was mostly successful. We jumped it five light minutes out and it appeared exactly where we asked it to. The ¡°mostly¡± came from our own predictions as to a nearby asteroid that ended up where the drone appeared. The explosion was magnificent. On the launch of our second prototype, we made sure to calculate the movement of rocks for the jumps. It was entirely successful for five, ten, twenty and thirty light minutes out. From there we created a manned pod, filled it with all sorts of sensors, scanners, and so on, then we figured out how to get the jumps all timed out. We set the drone to wait one hour and scan when it reached its destination, then to jump back. A side effect was that there were two drones for a half second as the light coming and going hit us at the same time. Weird. With that, our testing was a success, and we were able to build out a larger version for the assault craft. We would store this one in the assault craft and use it as a back-up if it ever came down to it. Two more weeks passed as we built out the assault craft. My Weapons Engineers had further modified the EMP grenades and Gauss pistols for efficacy against armored targets. We made sure the armories on the assault craft were loaded up for both lethal and non-lethal combat. With that, we were ¡°out the door¡± to try and track down the Arks. *** ¡°Ma¡¯am, Sidhe and Aos Si are in sync with Borrum and the flight leader. We should be good to do a one-light hour jump, just to validate the calculations for our formation. On your orders.¡± The pilot was, of course, referring to their AI. They had been the first to take to the idea as they were used to having a second with them in flights. This would be not too different. Not surprisingly, they had gone the Celtic route for their naming. ¡°Good call, Walsh. Make sure Lynch and Quinn have verified the data then count us down from ¡®10¡¯.¡± It probably wouldn¡¯t be necessary, but having the pilots validate their data was always a good thing. The pilots had all done micro jumps like this in the past, just never in a formation. The sensation of a jump, according to them, was like being dunked in ice water, immediately followed by being dried off by a fire, and then having all the air knocked out of you. The pilots went through their numbers and then, we learned the truth for ourselves. It sucked. The first jump at one light hour was unpleasant. At least the sensation was over almost before it began. ¡°Ma¡¯am, no change in light. If you would like to see, we can still the light from Ark-5 finishing the modifications on the Wormhole Generator.¡± The giant ring was large enough to fit the Ark in with room to spare. All the Arks were equipped with several of them as they would have been used to link up the new home we should have been creating with Sol. Now we were going to use them to shortcut the trip for any recovered Arks. We made several more jumps, getting progressively longer. At the two ¡°light month¡± mark, we had to recalibrate and verify the math for the jumps. We noticed enough drift to cause concern, not a problem at these lower skips, but at a light year or more it would easily cause an issue that could lead to a collision. After each jump, we also took a reading on light to determine the path of the Arks. Soon we found what we were looking for. Two Arks, another four light months out. We did a three-month skip; then we very carefully validated the data. We didn¡¯t want to accidentally land on them. Calculating out where they would be, we jumped. Too Far. It looked as if something had happened. The light that we were seeing was showing only one Ark, running off in another direction. That¡¯s also when we noticed the two Escort craft. We jumped again. The remains of Ark-11 were clear as day. The ship was massive, but now it was being cannibalized by the bug-like creatures I had seen inside Escort-001. Observer, are any of your people on either of those two ships? Yes, several are. Please assist. You must. I understand. ¡°Okay, I hate doing this but let¡¯s split the teams. Two and Three, land on Ark-11 and purge the aliens there. Search and Rescue when available. Torres is with you, right Two?¡± ¡°Negative, Ma¡¯am I¡¯m on Three.¡± ¡°Okay, good. I wanted to make sure there was backup and good help. You have the updates package? All of you?¡± A chorus of ¡°yes ma¡¯am¡± came through. ¡°Good. Save who we can, patch everyone. Take out the aliens and save our people. We¡¯re heading towards the Escorts. See if we can¡¯t get rid of their command. I have intel that states there are captives aboard. Let¡¯s GO!¡± My orders were simple but should do the job. My assault craft had a fire team of Marines decked out as heavies, in the assault armor I had designed. We only had enough time to build the four suits. I was in my standard MK-II (beta) suit, but I had the added bonus of a small energy shield made from one of Observers designs. ¡°Team, let¡¯s load up, full heavy, full lethal.¡± I grabbed a new battle rifle design I had made with help from the Weapons Engineers. As I picked it up, there was a flicker that appeared before my eyes briefly.
Ya No Ame Battle Rifle
Type Kinetic
Rounds 50/50
Sight Enhanced Link
Fire Mode Options Pulse (5)/ Pulse (10) /Full
Weight 4.3 kg
Modifications Custom Built
Range 500 m
Maximum 5000 m
It was there and gone so quickly had it not been for my memory I wouldn¡¯t be sure I had seen it. I set the fire selector to a five-shot pulse, then swapped out most of my kit. I decided to keep several of my EMP grenades, but I used the attachment points on my armor to secure the extra magazines instead of adding a Thompson pistol. I also grabbed my Engineering Kit, securing it to the small of my back, and I verified that my arms ballistic shield was deploying correctly. This was a much lighter version than what I had used during the Reboot. ¡°Hey, Jax. You sure you know what you¡¯re doing?¡± Janssens asked. I had my old fire team, Janssens, Lebowski, Wilhelm, and Goldstein had all come through and ended up on my rock. They had muttered something about loyalty, friends, and not letting me have all the fun. Flawed logic if you ask me. Instead of answering him, I started an in-flight briefing.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. ¡°Listen up. Our target has changed. There are currently ¡°bugs¡± on the hull of Ark-11. They appear to be trying to cut the hull apart and recycle her. They are fast, and they launch quills from their backs at speeds fast enough to crack open the MK-II duty uniforms. They are not the biggest enemy we will face. We also have a creature I call the behemoth. They are giant tripodal creatures with four arms. They are slow and strong, with great throwing accuracy. The will literally throw the bugs at you.¡± I took a deep breath Observer, can you send a copy of the ship schematic over to them, through Neith? I didn¡¯t wait for him to respond. ¡°I am sending you a basic schematic of the Escort ships. This is based on Observers data. Our goal is to rescue any of his races captives and disable the ship. If possible, we want to kill all the aliens except for Observers people and save the ship. Have you received the package?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I can¡¯t read it, Danni.¡± Lebowski was nervous. He hadn¡¯t called me by my first name since Janssens handed him his ass once in hand to hand ¡°training.¡± I was a Lieutenant Junior Grade at the time, fresh out of OCS and had just been paired up with them. Lebowski didn¡¯t think I deserved any respect being fresh out of school, but Janssens reminded him that it wasn¡¯t personal. ¡°Think of it as a picture book; you can see the pictures, right?¡± Wilhelm laughed at him. ¡°Well, yeah¡­¡± it was nice being back with the guys. ¡°Take at least one mag of DU or AP ammo. Some of those bastards are big.¡± I took a deep breath and checked in with the pilot. ¡°See any place left open for us to dock?¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. There¡¯s a dock near the aft we should be able to drop you off in. It looks like there is plenty of room. We¡¯re about two minutes out.¡± ¡°Go weapons free and be sure to use the following scanning profile as you approach.¡± I sent over the data on detecting the mobile turrets that Escort-001 had. Hopefully, It will work here in the Real as well.¡± We settled in for some basic conversation. Janssens and Wilhelm pulled a few extra armor plates over and sitting on them. ¡°What are you doing there?¡± Lebowski asked. ¡°It¡¯s in case there¡¯s an explosion, so shrapnel doesn¡¯t shred their brains.¡± I answered before either of them could. That caused a round of laughter. Ice successfully broke. ¡°Seal up!¡± The pilot called out. As we did so, I took one last quick review of everything. ¡°Everyone! Grab two more canisters of air. Walsh, weapons free. Keep our LZ clear. Trust the sensor readings, and if we come back, we¡¯ll send an ID pulse before entering the chamber.¡± The deployment ramp opened at the tail of our craft. I looked at our LZ, took a few steps back, then ran and jumped. I cleared our ramp easily. There was no question on that. The problem would be if the dock had an EM seal to keep it pressurized or not. The answer was ¡°not.¡± I sailed through the zero-G compartment and caught myself on a wall. I readied my battle rifle then verified it was charged. Time to see if I still had any skills.

Rescue - Original

Marques joined me not too long later. ¡°Thought I¡¯d find you in here, Ma¡¯am.¡± Was his comment. ¡°Hey there. Working on an FTL prototype. Want to give me a hand?¡± It was out of courtesy more than need. With the gravity on this rock as low as it was, I was quite capable of moving almost a ton by myself, and that was using only my real arm. ¡°What did you want to talk about?¡± I asked him after we had moved a containment cylinder from the fabricator to a suspension field, helping to create an ¡°exploded¡± model before we started to secure the engine. ¡°Well, Ma¡¯am, I feel a little uncomfortable with the orders. I mean, destroy the Arks if t we can¡¯t free them? What sort of madness is that?¡± ¡°I am thinking of it as a mercy. No, I am CHOOSING to think of it as a mercy. Would you like your fellow humans to become science experiments or slaves? I wouldn¡¯t, so if I can¡¯t free them I feel that it is a mercy to stop the external influences. As for 9 and 11, they may not be under influence, so I am hopeful we can speak with them and get it resolved, and then get us all back together.¡± We moved a few of the last pieces into place as he thought about what I had said. ¡°I suppose that is a much better thing. I was thinking that the orders were to just destroy them if they didn¡¯t want to return.¡± Although that is how I read the orders as well, I didn¡¯t give any hints to that. As far as I was concerned, once they were all patched up, they could do what they wanted. I sent out the command to have the ¡°exploded¡± device scanned to create the final blueprints, then I gave the command for the constructor drones to start assembling everything. ¡°We have a few hours before we can test this, how¡¯s the craft coming?¡± ¡°I wanted to run a few things by you. You know how we have it all figured out how to detect craft using gravity waves, now?¡± ¡°Yeah, I help with those sensors.¡± I walked over to a table and sat down bringing up the plans. ¡°Well, what if the rest of humanity has the secret to that now, as well?¡± ¡°Simple, we build a better stealth drive.¡± I said. I had my visor opened, now that I was away from anything that *might* explode. I then ran a data line up to my data jack. Observer, Neith, can you bring up on screen the schematics for our energy output with the current stealth fields? ¡°As you can see, the stealth fields have an output that closely resembles the gravity sensors detection field. How about we change the power profile on it?¡± We started going over ways to mask the output from the new engines as well as every other bit of EM leakage we could conceive of. The most difficult was going to be light. Fortunately, a matt black pain job would do most of the work for in space. Folding light around us for atmospheric insertions would be more difficult, but that was something to work on later. We wouldn¡¯t need that quite yet. We were in the middle of configuring the adjustments to the various power curves when the construction drones completed the construction of the skip drove and alerted that it had been implanted into a mining drone. The test was mostly successful. I say mostly as we jumped it five light minutes out, and it appeared exactly where we asked it to. The failure came from our own predictions as to a nearby asteroid that ended up where the drone appeared. The explosion was magnificent. On the launch of our second prototype, we made sure to calculate the movement of rocks for the jumps. It was entirely successful for five, ten, twenty and thirty light minutes out. From there we created a manned pod, filled it with all sorts of sensors, scanners and so on, then we figured out how to get the jumps all timed out. We set the drone to wait one hour and scan when it reached its destination, then to jump back. A side effect was that there were two drones for a half second as the light coming and going hit us at the same time. Weird. With that, our testing was a success and we were able to build out a larger version for the assault craft. We would store this one in the assault craft and use it as a back-up, if it ever came down to it. Two more weeks passed as we built out the assault craft. My Weapons Engineers had further modified the EMP grenades and Gauss pistols for efficacy against armored targets. We made sure the armories on the assault craft were loaded up for both lethal and non-lethal combat. With that we were ¡°out the door¡± to try and track down the Arks. ¡°Ma¡¯am, Sidhe and Aos Si are in sync with Borrum and the flight leader. We should be good to do a one light hour just to validate formation. On your orders.¡± The pilot was of course referring to their AI. They had been the first to take to the idea as they were used to having a second with them in flights. This would be not too different. Not surprisingly, they had gone the Celtic route for their naming. ¡°Good call, Walsh. Make sure Lynch and Quinn have verified the data then count us down from ¡®10¡¯.¡± It probably wouldn¡¯t be necessary but making sure that the pilots validated their data was always a good thing. The pilots had all done micro jumps like this in the past, just never in formation. The sensation of a jump, according to them, was like being dunked in ice water, immediately followed by being dried off by a fire, and then having all the air knocked out of you. The pilots went through their numbers and then. Yeah, they were right, it sucked. The first jump at one light hour was bad, but the sensation was over almost before it began. ¡°Ma¡¯am, no change in light. If you would like to see, we can still the light from Ark-5 finishing the modifications on the Wormhole Generator.¡± The giant ring was large enough to fit the Ark in with room to spare. All the Arks were equipped with several of them as they would have been used to link up the new home we should have been creating with Sol. Now we were going to use them to shortcut the trip for any recovered Arks. We made several more jumps, getting progressively longer. At the two ¡°light month¡± mark, we had to recalibrate the math for the jumps. We noticed enough drift to cause a concern, not a problem at these lower skips, but at a light year or more it would easily cause an issue that could lead to a collision. After each jump we also took a reading on light to determine the path of the Arks. Soon we found what we were looking for. Two Arks, another four light months out. We did a three-month skip, then we very carefully validated the data. We didn¡¯t want to accidently land on them. Calculating out where they would be, we jumped. Too Far. It looked as if something had happened. The light that we were seeing was showing only one Ark, running off in another direction. That¡¯s also when we noticed the two Escort craft. We jumped again. The remains of Ark-11 were clear as day. The ship was massive but now it was being cannibalized by the bug-like creatures I had seen inside Escort-001. Observer, are any of your people on either of those two ships? Yes, several are. Please assist. You must. I understand. ¡°Okay, I hate doing this but let¡¯s split the teams. Two and Three, land on Ark-11 and purge the aliens there. Search and Rescue when available. Torres is with you, right Two?¡± ¡°Negative, Ma¡¯am I¡¯m on Three.¡± ¡°Okay, good. I wanted to make sure they had good help. You have the updates package? All of you?¡± A chorus of ¡°yes ma¡¯am¡± came through. ¡°Good. Save who we can, patch everyone. Take out the aliens and save our people. We¡¯re heading towards the Escorts. See if we can¡¯t get rid of their command. I have intel that states there are captives aboard. Let¡¯s GO!¡± My orders were simple but should do the job. My assault craft had a fire team of Marines decked out as heavies, in the assault armor I had designed. We only had enough time to build the four suits. I was in my standard MK-II (beta) suit, but I had the added bonus of a small energy shield made from one of Observers designs. ¡°Team, let¡¯s load up, full heavy, full lethal.¡± I grabbed a new battle rifle design I had made with help from the Weapons Engineers. As I grabbed it there was a flicker that appeared before my eyes briefly.
Ya No Ame Battle Rifle
Type Kinetic
Rounds 50/50
Sight Enhanced Link
Fire Mode Options Pulse (5)/ Pulse (10) /Full
Weight 4.3 kg
Modifications Custom Built
Range 500 m
Maximum 5000 m
It was there and gone so quickly had it not been for my memory I wouldn¡¯t be sure I had seen it. I set the fire selector to a five-shot pulse, then swapped out most of my kit. I decided to keep several of my EMP grenades, but I used the attachment points on my armor to secure the extra magazines instead of adding a Thompson pistol. I also grabbed my Engineering Kit, securing it to the small of my back, and I verified that my arms ballistic shield was deploying properly. This was a much lighter version than what I had used during the Reboot. ¡°Hey, Jax. You sure you know what you¡¯re doing?¡± Janssens asked. I had my old fire team, Janssens, Lebowski, Wilhelm and Goldstein had all come through and ended up on my rock. They had muttered something about loyalty, friends, and not letting me have all the fun. Flawed logic if you ask me. Instead of answering him, I started an in-flight briefing. ¡°Listen up. Our target has changed. There are currently ¡°bugs¡± on the hull of Ark-11. They appear to be trying to cut the hull apart and recycle her. They are fast, and they launch quills from their backs at speeds fast enough to crack open the MK-II duty uniforms. They are not the biggest enemy we will face. We also have a creature I call the behemoth. They are giant tripodal creatures with four arms. The are slow and strong, with great throwing accuracy. The will literally throw the bugs at you.¡± I took a deep breath Observer, can you send a copy of the ship schematic over to them, through Neith? I didn¡¯t wait for him to respond. ¡°I am sending you a basic schematic of the Escort ships. This is based off of Observers data. Our goal is to rescue any of his races captives and disable the ship. If possible, we want to kill all the aliens except for Observers people and save the ship. Have you received the package?¡± ¡°Yeah, but I can¡¯t read it, Danni.¡± Lebowski was nervous. He hadn¡¯t called me by my first name since Janssens handed him his ass once in hand to hand ¡°training¡±. I was a Lieutenant Junior Grade at the time, fresh out of OCS and had just been paired up with them. Lebowski didn¡¯t think I deserved any respect being fresh out of school, but Janssens reminded him that it wasn¡¯t personal. ¡°Think of it like a picture book, you can see the pictures, right?¡± Wilhelm laughed at him. ¡°Well, yeah¡­¡± it was nice being back with the guys. ¡°Take at least one mag of DU or AP ammo. Some of those bastards are big.¡± I took a deep breath and checked in with the pilot. ¡°See any place left open for us to dock?¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. There¡¯s a dock near the aft we should be able to drop you off in. It looks like there is plenty of room. We¡¯re about two minutes out.¡± ¡°Go weapons free and be sure to use the following scanning profile as you approach.¡± I sent over the data on detecting the mobile turrets that Escort-001 had. Hopefully It will work here in the Real as well.¡± We settled in for some basic conversation. Janssens and Wilhelm pulling a few spare armor plates over and sitting on them. ¡°What are you doing there?¡± Lebowski asked. ¡°It¡¯s in case there¡¯s an explosion, so shrapnel doesn¡¯t shred their brains.¡± I answered before either of them could. That caused a round of laughter. Ice successfully broken. ¡°Seal up!¡± The pilot called out. As we did so, I took one last quick review of everything. ¡°Everyone! Grab two more canisters of air. Walsh, weapons free. Keep our LZ clear. Trust the sensor readings, and if we come back we¡¯ll send an ID pulse before entering the chamber.¡± The deployment ramp opened at the tail of our craft. I looked at our LZ, took a few steps back, then ran and jumped. I cleared our ramp easily. There was no question on that. The big question is if the dock had an EM seal to keep it pressurized or not. The answer was ¡°not¡±. I sailed through the zero-G compartment and caught myself on a wall. I readied my battle rifle then verified it was charged. Time to see if I still had any skills. 34. Radio Silence

Radio Silence - Edited 11-9-2018

The rest of the fire team came through shortly after, followed by the assault craft. Having arrested our momentum, we prepared ourselves to start cycling through the hatches. The Assault ship had taken up residence in the hangar, nose pointed outward into space, and the point defense cannons ready to be used as anti-personnel measures. ¡°Janssens, on the door.¡± I checked with the sensors in my helmet, and we were not pressurized. I would have to enable the EM field for the exterior opening. Observer, can you help with any translations that need to be done in real time? That is an acceptable request I started to scan the room until I found what passed for a terminal on this ship. I pushed myself off the bulkhead and slowly floated, gripping it to stop my momentum. It took less than a minute to find the commands to engage the external EM seal as well as start pressurizing the compartment. Forty seconds later, Janssens was ready to pop the hatch. ¡°Hold one,¡± Lebowski called out. From one of the compartments on his armor, he pulled a length of Therma-cord and placed some around the entire hatch. The Therma-cord was a self-oxidizing welding tool. With the way, Lebowski applied it if he hit the detonator it would melt the hatch open forcing a breach. This was an old tactic used for boarding during the Terran-Martian conflicts from the last century. ¡°Breach in 3¡­2¡­1¡­¡± Janssens turned the manual release on the hatch, allowing it to swing open freely. ¡°Careful walking though. It is roughly 1.3G, so your suits will be heavy and provide some lag while moving. It is also going to hurt while you get used to moving.¡± I was not looking forward to this again. ¡°Also, weapons range will be affected. Adjust sights to aim high. For the Light Bringer and Hades, you shouldn¡¯t notice anything different.¡± We exited the compartment and depressurized it again. We then started jogging through the hallways, my helmet running full scans the entire time as we started making our way to the compartment Observer had highlighted for me. We had made our way about a fourth of the way to our waypoint when I realized there were zero contacts anywhere. ¡°Hold one. I need to find a terminal. Something isn¡¯t right.¡± I was going to have to remember to bring a few crates of M1k33s next time we made a run to recapture an Ark. Observer added a waypoint outside of what was reading as a Comms compartment for me. ¡°Let¡¯s clear this compartment before continuing. I want to see if I can shut down the comms then we can head to a reactor and do the same, and possibly draw any defenders to us. Then we don¡¯t have to worry about any defenders between here and our objective.¡± We popped the hatch and went in ready to fire, but the compartment was empty. I then ran through and disconnected power couplings to disable the comms systems. Internal and External, primary and secondary. ¡°This is too easy; I¡¯m waiting for the other shoe to drop,¡± Wilhelm announced, inevitably jinxing us. ¡°Walsh, this is Jax, do you read?¡± I was met with silence. I tried again, still nothing. After two more times, I gave up. ¡°We¡¯re probably out of range Lots of metal to scatter the signal.¡± Goldstein supplied. I didn¡¯t like it, but I couldn¡¯t help but agree for now. The M1K33s were definitely required kit from now on. Observer, is there any way for me to patch into the internal ship sensors so I can see where every alien on board is? :Time-consuming, but possible. Engineering.: A new waypoint showed up on my HUD. There would be some backtracking, but not much. ¡°Okay, next stop is Engineering.¡± I gathered the team, and we exited the compartment. ¡°Seal the hatch,¡± I ordered. Lebowski got to work. Unfortunately, the heat from welding the hatch closed then set off the internal fire sensors. ¡°Thanks for jinxing us.¡± Janssens clapped Wilhelm on the back. We all readied our weapons and started to head towards Engineering. At the second intersection, the first wave of bugs hit. The Light Bringer worked well with the railgun dialed down to 0.01c/ Each round could go through a dozen targets in a row. The lasers were also pulsing quickly. My battle rifle was punching through targets ahead of us as well. As we approached the next intersection, the bugs were approaching from all directions. Even without comms, they were able to locate us and communicate an attack plan. I started to scan all frequencies hoping to find something, anything that I could use to ¡°jam¡± their communications. Neith, can you detect anything as to how they are communicating? -Surprisingly, yes. There is a small wire, thread or similar connecting them all. It is possible that it is similar to spider silk. I do not know if that is how but watching in your sensors, I have been able to see this happen.- Well, shit. Not something that I can jam. ¡°Grenade out!¡± I shouted, tossing an EMP grenade. Then I noticed I had grabbed one of the phosphorescent napalm grenades. Oops. The read of us exploded into a massive fire. A jelly-like substance having splattered the entire corridor, including up the walls a part of the way, then it ignited into a fireball that would not extinguish. ¡°Rear is safe!¡± I called out seeing the bugs instantly cooking themselves as they tried to charge through. Then the bulkheads started to buckle, and the deck started sagging. I checked to ensure that there was no equipment in the decks below that if hit with the napalm, would cause a chain reaction. The lights in the corridor started to flicker. Not that you could tell much due to the white flames coming from our rear, but I think I accidentally severed some power conduits with that. Go me. At least it would prevent any reinforcements coming from behind us for a bit. I switched my scanning for motion based and eliminated my team from being hit by my sensors. Janssens, Goldstein, and Lebowski were each concentrating on one each of the connecting hallways. The sensor readout that was connected to my mini-map was continually being updated with Bugs that were dying moving along the corridor as they were rolling to a stop, their legs or body shot out from under them. ¡°I¡¯m clear!¡± Lebowski shouted as the biomass in his corridor stopped moving towards us. He then joined in helping clear Janssens hallway. Goldstein and Wilhelm were concentrating on one passageway, the lasers being fired at such a steady rate that they were almost visible to the naked eye. Wachowski and Janssens were on the other, swapping between lasers and railgun rounds. Soon the team started to call out that they were low on ammo. And the bugs were still coming. ¡°This way!¡± I shouted, leading the team through the carnage Lebowski had cleared. We were going to need to get to Engineering so I could rig up a charger for the Hades systems. The run was slow going, but because I dropped another of my napalm specials at the corridor intersection. Nothing was coming our way. We arrived at the Engineering compartment and made our way inside. This time there was some resistance, two of the giant creatures. I still had a few AP rounds, so it was up to me to take them out. Fortunately, they were just as slow out of the game as in the game. We were able to get a charger rigged up for our magazines as well as for the backpacks. I also took a few minutes to carefully scan everything and store it with Neith. Okay, show me how to configure the ship sensors so that everything will show up on my scanners. Observer walked me through the uplink. I then started to get messages from the rest of Observers people. Observer handled most of the discussion while I was fixing the uplink. :THANK YOU FOR COMING FOR US. THERE IS NOISE. MUCH NOISE. UNKNOWN CAUSE: We are taking the ship so that you can recover it. :WE MUST ESCAPE. THE SHIP WILL NOT LAST. EXODUS: How many intelligences? :EIGHT SURVIVE: We can recover. ARE THEY COMPATIBLE? :I have recovered more than I had calculated possible.: :Can we save more?: :ONE ADDITIONAL SHIP NEEDS TO BE RECOVERED: That will be difficult. Once we have left they will be able to detect us etection does not seem to have happened yet: :WHAT DO YOU MEAN?: :The new hosts have an electromagnetic field that masks the signature: They have biological shields? :Negative, it is part of their biology, yes, but it is the way their brains process data.: :INTRIGUING: :The gambit appears to be successful. We may yet survive our genocide.: I finished configuring the sensors and found a clear-ish path to our target. I then mapped a way back to our hangar. Observer, is there a way to set the reactor core to go critical at a specific time, and if we do, will it also cause a catastrophic explosion? I am not familiar with this energy generator. :No, it will not cause a critical failure. For that, you will need to manage an overload at the engines.: I mapped a route to the main engine room. This would take some time. Do your people need atmosphere to survive? :They can survive for a few hours if they seal the compartment.: And it is sealed, now, right? :Yes.: Then let¡¯s blow the hangar. ¡°Lebowski! Blow the hangar door.¡± He did so before verifying that it was what I wanted. I love a Marine with a detonator. ¡°Brace yourselves!¡± The suction was almost immediate. I ended up being slammed against a bulkhead before I was able to secure myself. The grapple in my arm did its work as planned. Once the suction was done, I found a terminal that killed the gravity through the ship. I then locked out the systems and dropped an EMP grenade in the room, completely shutting down the ship controls. ¡°Let¡¯s move!¡± I led the team through the corridors and compartments to where Observers people were. We were intercepted another two times, but with the loss of gravity, we had the advantage. Surprisingly, the bugs couldn''t control themselves. I wonder what the difference is between these and the ones on the Ark. ¡°Ma¡¯am, why are they just floating there?¡± Janssens was the first to ask. ¡°No clue. I am wondering if it¡¯s a training thing or if it¡¯s an equipment thing. I didn¡¯t get a good look at the ones on the Ark.¡± Observer, have them open up, we¡¯re here. The hatch to the compartment opened up for me. We swept into an empty room. ¡°Where are they?¡± Lebowski asked. Everyone seemed to have that same question. I sealed the hatch, then popped one of the air canisters I had brought. ¡°Everyone pop a canister!¡± I ordered ¡°Ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°You heard me. I think I know what is going on. Pop a canister.¡± With five air canisters opened, there was enough air for us to not have to have our helmets off, for a few minutes at least. I removed my helmet. ¡°Helmets off.¡± I then pulled myself down and did my best to sit on the deck. They slowly followed my lead. Then I saw some shadows appear from the deck. A small spike from two hit each in their Neural ports. I felt a connection in my own. The team all flickered from my sight before they flickered back into view. Is that all of them? Yes. ¡°Button up, time to leave!¡± ¡°Where¡¯s our objective? Ma¡¯am, did we come all this way for nothing?¡± ¡°No, we picked them up. If I remember correctly we just phased. Come on. We need to go blow up the engines now.¡± The hallways were entirely clear on our way through to the engine room. Phase us back, Observer. We need to blow this, and I don¡¯t want to lose another limb in the process.¡± My team flickered at the same time; then I was standing alone in the corridor. Any reason why it¡¯s just me? The rest are still adjusting.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. Let them know not to move. I popped the hatch and had to take out a giant. These damn things were massive. Unlike the bugs, it looked like it knew how to handle the Zero-G. I discharged my CO2 to launch myself into the compartment and started to hotwire everything. Halfway through I was joined by Janssens. ¡°Jax? What the hell is happening?¡± ¡°Well, we picked up the captured aliens, they loaded themselves up as part of our Neurals. A small side effect, they phase us to an alternate energy plane so that we can integrate, I think. Being in a different reality seems to strengthen them, so I think it is similar to being able to eat and breathe. I¡¯m not positive on that though.¡± You are not wrong ¡°From what I can tell, they can phase us at will. You only had one jump on board, I had one as well, but I already had Observer, so the transition for me was a lot easier this time. When it first happened, I couldn¡¯t interact with comms to anyone alive, and Rasputin couldn¡¯t detect me, though he could hear me on comms. I know that not all equipment is in their world and ours. That¡¯s how I lost my arm and leg. I phased in inside of some gear and a person.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like a battery. It only recharges when plugged in properly. That means that it needs to be in that phased reality to recharge. I don¡¯t think that they can successfully make the transition without a host. Symbiotic, not parasitic. I expected a physical being, but when they weren¡¯t, I remembered the video that the captain had shown me of the initial explosion. That there was a spike that went straight into my Neural port. I took a gamble, and it appears I was right. Now we have to blow this Escort and see about rescuing the rest on the other escort. Lots of ammo will be needed, though.¡± A few moments later, the rest of the team entered the compartment. ¡°I¡¯m hearing voices, Danni. What the hell happened?¡± Wilhelm asked. Janssens filled in the rest of the team while I finished up. As we were leaving the engine room, a thought came to me. ¡°Shit. They¡¯re the kids.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°The bugs that we were fighting earlier. They were the kids.¡± ¡°What do you mean.¡± ¡°I mean that the bugs we were fighting earlier. They hadn¡¯t learned how to navigate in zero-G. Did you see any quills being launched? Those two things should have happened. These were the kids of the ones that are on the hull of the Ark out there.¡± ¡°That¡­ Shit, did we just slaughter a daycare?¡± ¡°Back to the Assault Craft.¡± My heart was heavy now having put two and two together. We would be blowing up the ship soon, how many more children would I be killing. Think of them like your hogs. They all try to eat what is in their way. They are all dangerous. However, they get truly dangerous when they have grown. Thanks, I guess? I know you¡¯re trying to distract me, but I¡¯m going to need to take some to help with processing this. Do you have a count for the survivors on the other Escort? There has been no answer from me trying to communicate. We are well within range. I didn¡¯t hear from Observer for a while after that. This time I remembered to send the ID pulse before entering the compartment. The ship wasn¡¯t there. Not it was blown up. I mean there were no signs of it, anywhere. ¡°Walsh? Where are you at?¡± ¡°LZ got a little hot. Was pushed out by a pressure breach and haven¡¯t been able to get a clear entrance again.¡± ¡°Okay, we¡¯re coming to you, then. Please catch us soon.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°Okay, assisted jump out. Let¡¯s all link up, so there¡¯s only one package for pick up.¡± We tethered to each other, then started to connect up to the bulkhead directly across from bay opening. I launched my grapple and caught the edge, then pushed off and started to retract as quickly as possible. We were successful in launching out of the hangar. The moment we were a few meters away from the exit I detached the grapple and reeled in the remainder. ¡°Please, please, please, please¡­ puhleeeeeese.¡± I was chanting that we would have enough room before the meltdown started. I faced the Escort we had just vacated while sending a steady ID pulse so that Walsh could find us. Scanning the ship, I noticed several of the turret drones were moving around. I took aim and used the last of my ammo. The small bonus was the additional speed we gained. Walsh was another minute out. ¡°Break radio silence. Let the assault teams know that we need to get the Ark powered up and moving away from that Escort; she¡¯ll blow in about ten more minutes.¡± I sent that to Walsh, my fire team, and everyone near enough to pick it up.

Radio Silence - Original

The rest of the fire team came through shortly after, followed by the assault craft. Having arrested our momentum, we prepared ourselves to start cycling though the hatches. The Assault ship had taken up residence in the hangar, nose pointed outward into space, and the point defense cannons ready to be used as anti-personnel measures. ¡°Janssens, on the door.¡± I checked with the sensors in my helmet and we were not pressurized. I would have to enable the EM field for the exterior opening. Observer, can you help with any translations that need to be done in real time? That is an acceptable request I started to scan the room until I found what passed for a terminal on this ship. I pushed myself off the bulkhead and slowly floated, gripping it to stop my momentum. It took less than a minute to find the commands to engage the external EM seal as well as start pressurizing the compartment. Forty seconds later, Janssens was ready to pop the hatch. ¡°Hold one.¡± Lebowski called out. From one of the compartments on his armor, he pulled a length of Therma-cord, and placed some around the entire hatch. The Therma-cord was a self-oxidizing welding tool. With the way Lebowski applied it, if he hit the detonator it would melt the hatch open forcing a breach. This was an old tactic used for boarding during the Terran-Martian conflicts from last century. ¡°Breach in 3¡­2¡­1¡­¡± Janssens turned the manual release on the hatch, allowing it to swing open freely. ¡°Careful walking though. It is roughly 1.3G, so your suits will be heavy and provide some lag while moving. It is also going to hurt while you get used to moving.¡± I was not looking forward to this again. ¡°Also, weapons range will be affected. Adjust sights to aim high. For the Light Bringer and Hades, you shouldn¡¯t notice anything different.¡± We exited the compartment and depressurized it again. We then started jogging though the hallways, my helmet running full scans the entire time as we started making our way to the compartment Observer had highlighted for me. We had made our way about a fourth of the way to our waypoint when I realized there were zero contacts anywhere. ¡°Hold one. I need to find a terminal. Something isn¡¯t right.¡± I was going to have to remember to bring a few crates of M1k33s next time we made a run to recapture an Ark. Observer added a waypoint outside of what was reading as an Comms compartment for me. ¡°Let¡¯s clear this compartment before continuing. I want to see if I can shut down the comms then we can head to a reactor and do the same, and possibly draw any defenders to us. Then we don¡¯t have to worry about any defenders between here and our objective.¡± We popped the hatch and went in ready to fire, but the compartment was empty. I then ran through and disconnected power couplings to disable the comms systems. Internal and External, primary and secondary. ¡°This is too easy, I¡¯m waiting for the other shoe to drop.¡± Wilhelm announced, inevitably jinxing us. ¡°Walsh, this is Jax, do you read?¡± I was met with silence. I tried again, still nothing. After two more times, I gave up. ¡°We¡¯re probably out of range Lots of metal to scatter the signal.¡± Goldstein supplied. I didn¡¯t like it, but I couldn¡¯t help but agree for now. The M1K33s were definitely required kit from now on. Observer, any way for me to patch in to the internal ship sensors so I can see where every alien on board is? Time consuming, but possible. Engineering. A new waypoint showed up on my HUD. There would be some back tracking, but not much. ¡°Okay, next stop is Engineering.¡± I gathered the team and we exited the compartment. ¡°Seal the hatch.¡± I ordered. Lebowski got to work. Unfortunately, the heat from welding the hatch closed then set off the internal fire sensors. ¡°Thanks for jinxing us.¡± Janssens clapped Wilhelm on the back. We all readied our weapons and started to head towards Engineering. At the second intersection, the first wave of bugs hit. The Light Bringer worked well with the rail gun dialed down to 0.01c/ Each round could go through a dozen targets in a row. The lasers were also pulsing quickly. My battle rifle was punching through targets ahead of us as well. As we approached the next intersection the bugs were approaching from all directions. Even without comms they were able to locate us and communicate an attack plan. I started to scan all frequencies hoping to find something, anything that I could use to ¡°jam¡± their communications. Neith, can you detect anything as to how they are communicating? Surprisingly, yes. They are all connected by a small wire, or thread. Possibly similar to a spider silk. I do not know if that is how, but watching in your sensors I have been able to see this happen. Well, shit. Not something that I can jam. ¡°Grenade out!¡± I shouted, tossing an EMP grenade. Then I noticed I had grabbed one of the phosphorescent napalm grenades. Oops. The read of us exploded into a massive fire. A jelly like substance having splattered the entire corridor, including up the walls a part of the way, then it ignited into a fireball that would not extinguish. ¡°Rear is safe!¡± I called out seeing the bugs instantly cooking themselves as they tried to charge through. Then the bulkheads started to buckle and the deck started sagging. I checked to ensure that there was no equipment in the decks below that if hit with the napalm, would cause a chain reaction. The lights in the corridor started to flicker. Not that you could tell much due to the white flames coming from our rear, but I think I accidently severed some power conduits with that. Go me. At least it would prevent any reinforcements coming from behind us for a bit. I switched my scanning for motion based and eliminated my team from being hit by my sensors. Janssens, Goldstein and Lebowski were each concentrating on one each of the connecting hallways. The sensor readout that was connected to my mini-map was constantly being updated with Bugs that were dying moving along the corridor as they were rolling to a stop, their legs or body shot out from under them. ¡°I¡¯m clear!¡± Lebowski shouted as the biomass in his corridor stopped moving towards us. He then joined in helping clear Janssens hallway. Goldstein and Wilhelm were concentrating on one hallway, the lasers being fired at such a steady rate that they were almost visible to the naked eye. Wachowski and Janssens were on the other hallway, swapping between lasers and rail gun rounds. Soon the team started to call out that they were out of ammo. And the bugs were still coming. ¡°This way!¡± I shouted, leading the team through the carnage Lebowski had cleared. We were going to need to get to Engineering, so I could rig up a charger for the Hades systems. The run was slow going, but because I dropped another of my napalm specials at the corridor intersection there was nothing coming our way. We arrived at the Engineering compartment and made our way inside. This time there was some resistance, two of the giant creatures. I still had a few AP rounds so it was up to me to take them out. Fortunately, they were just as slow out of game as in game. We were able to get a charger rigged up for our magazines as well as for the backpacks. I also took a few minutes to carefully scan everything and store it with Neith. Okay, show me how to configure the ship sensors so that everything will show up on my scanners. Observer walked me through the uplink. I then started to get messages from the rest of Observers people. Observer handled the discussion while I was fixing the uplink. Thank you for coming for us. There is noise. Much noise. Unknown cause. We are taking the ship so that you can recover it. This ship will not last. We need exodus. How many intelligences? Eight are left alive. We can recover. Are they compatible? I have recovered more than I had calculated possible. Can we save more? One additional ship needs to be recovered. That will be difficult. Once we have left they will be able to detect us. Detection does not seem to have happened yet. What do you mean? The new hosts have an electromagnetic field that masks the signature. They have biological shields? Negative, it is part of their biology, yes, but it is the way their brains process data. Intriguing. The gambit appears to be successful. We may yet survive our genocide. I finished configuring the sensors and found a clear-ish path to our target. I then mapped a way back to our hangar. Observer, is there a way to set the reactor core to go critical at a specific time, and if we do, will it also cause a catastrophic explosion? I am not familiar with this energy generator. No, it will not cause a critical failure. For that you will need to manage an overload at the engines. I mapped a route to the main engine room. This would take some time. Do your people need atmosphere to survive? They can survive for a few hours if they seal the compartment. And it is sealed, now, right? Yes. Then let¡¯s blow the hangar. ¡°Lebowski! Blow the hangar door.¡± He did so before verifying that it was what I wanted. I love a Marine with a detonator. ¡°Brace yourselves!¡± The suction was almost immediate. I ended up being slammed against a bulkhead before I was able to secure myself. The grapple in my arm did its work as planned. Once the suction was done, I found a terminal that killed the gravity through the ship. I then locked out the systems and dropped an EMP grenade in the room, completely shutting down the ship controls. ¡°Let¡¯s move!¡± I led the team through the corridors and compartments to where Observers people were. We were intercepted another two times, but with the loss of gravity we had the advantage. Surprisingly, the bugs didn¡¯t have the ability to control themselves. I wonder what the difference is between these and the ones on the Ark. ¡°Ma¡¯am why are they just floating there?¡± Janssens was the first to ask. ¡°No clue. I am wondering if it¡¯s a training thing or if it¡¯s an equipment thing. I didn¡¯t get a good look at the ones on the Ark.¡± Observer have them open up, we¡¯re here. The hatch to the compartment opened up for me. We swept in to an empty room. ¡°Where are they?¡± Lebowski asked. Everyone seemed to have that same question. I sealed the hatch, then popped one of the air canisters I had brought. ¡°Everyone, pop a canister!¡± I ordered ¡°Ma¡¯am?¡± ¡°You heard me. I think I know what is going on. Pop a canister.¡± With five air canisters opened, there was enough air for us to not have to have our helmets on for a few minutes. I removed my helmet. ¡°Helmets off.¡± I then pulled myself down and did my best to sit on the deck. They slowly followed my lead. Then I saw some shadows appear from the deck. A small spike from two hit each in their Neural ports. I then felt a connection in my own. The team all flickered from my sight before they flickered back into view. Is that all of them? Yes. ¡°Button up, time to leave!¡± ¡°Where¡¯s our objective? Ma¡¯am, did we come all this way for nothing?¡± ¡°No, we picked them up. If I remember correctly we just phased. Come on. We need to go blow up the engines now.¡± The hallways were entirely clear on our way through to the engine room. Phase us back, Observer. We need to blow this and I don¡¯t want to lose another limb in the process.¡± My team flickered at the same time, then I was standing alone in the corridor. Any reason why it¡¯s just me? The rest are still adjusting. Let them know not to move. I popped the hatch and had to take out a giant. These damn things were massive. Unlike the bugs it looked like it knew how to handle the Zero-G. I discharged my CO2 to launch myself into the compartment and started to hotwire everything. Half way through I was joined by Janssens. ¡°Jax? What the hell is happening?¡± ¡°Well, we picked up the captured aliens, they loaded themselves us as part of our Neurals. Small side effect, they phase us to an alternate reality so that we can integrate, I think. Being in a different reality seems to strengthen them, so I think it is similar to being able to eat and breathe. I¡¯m not positive on that though.¡± You are not wrong ¡°From what I can tell, they can phase us at will. You only had one jump on board, I had one as well, but I already had Observer, so the transition for me was a lot easier this time. When it first happened, I couldn¡¯t interact with comms to anyone alive, and Rasputin couldn¡¯t detect me, though he could hear me on comms. I know that not all equipment is in their world and ours. That¡¯s how I lost my arm and leg. I phased in inside of some gear and a person.¡± ¡°It¡¯s like a battery. It only recharges when plugged in properly. That means that it needs to be in that phased reality to recharge. I don¡¯t think they can successfully make the transition without a host. Symbiotic, not parasitic. I expected a physical being, but when they weren¡¯t I remembered the video that the captain had shown me of the initial explosion. That there was a spike that went straight into my Neural port. I took a gamble and it appears I was right. Now we have to blow this Escort and see about rescuing the rest on the other escort. Lots of ammo will be needed, though.¡± A few moments later, the rest of the team entered the compartment. ¡°I¡¯m hearing voices, Danni. What the hell happened?¡± Wilehlm asked. Janssens filled in the rest of the team while I finished up. As we were leaving the engine room a thought came to me. ¡°Shit. They¡¯re the kids.¡± ¡°What¡¯s that?¡± ¡°The bugs that we were fighting earlier. They were the kids.¡± ¡°What do you mean.¡± ¡°I mean that the bugs we were fighting earlier. They hadn¡¯t learned how to navigate in zero-G. Did you see any quills being launched? That was two things that is obvious that should have happened. These were the kids of the ones that are on the hull of the Ark out there.¡± ¡°That¡­ Shit, did we just slaughter a day care?¡± ¡°Back to the Assault Craft.¡± My heart was heavy now having put two and two together. We would be blowing up the ship soon, how many more children would I be killing. Think of them like your hogs. They all try to eat what is in their way. They are all dangerous, however they get truly dangerous when they have grown. Thanks, I guess? I know you¡¯re trying to distract me, but I¡¯m going to need to take some to help with processing this. Do you have a count for the survivors on the other Escort? There has been no answer from me trying to communicate. We are well within range. I didn¡¯t hear from Observer for a while after that. This time I remembered to send the ID pulse before entering the compartment. The ship wasn¡¯t there. Not it was blown up. I mean there were no signs of it, anywhere. ¡°Walsh? Where are you at?¡± ¡°LZ got a little hot. Was pushed out by a pressure breach and haven¡¯t been able to get a clear entrance again.¡± ¡°Okay, we¡¯re coming to you, then. Please catch us soon.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°Okay, assisted jump out. Let¡¯s all link up so there¡¯s only one package for pick up.¡± We tethered to each other, then started to connect up to the bulkhead directly across from bay opening. I launched my grapple and caught the edge, then pushed off and started to retract as quickly as possible. We were successful in launching out of the hangar. The moment we were a few meters away from the exit I detached the grapple and reeled in the remainder. ¡°Please, please, please, please¡­ puhleeeeeese.¡± I was chanting that we would have enough room before the meltdown started. I faced the Escort we had just vacated while sending a steady ID pulse so that Walsh could find us. Scanning the ship, I noticed several of the turret drones were moving around. I took aim and used the last of my ammo. Small bonus was the additional speed we gained. Walsh was another minute out. ¡°Break radio silence. Let the assault teams know that we need to get the Ark powered up and moving away from that Escort, she¡¯ll blow in about ten more minutes.¡± I sent that to Walsh, my fire team, and everyone near enough to pick it up. 35. Back Into the Black

Back Into The Black - Edited 11-9-2018

We floated in the void for a few minutes before we were picked up. It was both nerve-wracking and relaxing. Once we were picked back up and strapped in, I got the bad news. ¡°Ma¡¯am, reports are coming in from both of the assault teams that they are running out of ammo. We have quite a few injuries, but no one is down yet. The Ark is under serious attack from those fucking crawlers.¡± ¡°Okay, how many are still on the hull? Did you get a good count?¡± ¡°No ma¡¯am, but they are everywhere.¡± No rest for the wicked. ¡°Right, looks like we need to save some more people. Switch to full lasers. Load up with Hades. We¡¯re going to walk the hull and purge the hangers-on. Refill all battery packs, swap out air canisters and make sure you have two spares. Backup weapons will need to be our new BRs and pistols. Wilhelm help me load up a tac-pack with extra magazines for each. It¡¯s going to be a long slog.¡± We refreshed our loadout. ¡°Walsh, drop us on one side, then you circle around, keep near the hull and blast away. Try and be careful. I understand there will be some spill over into the hull, but please go with a shallow angle so it can bounce off if you use the railgun. Also, dial it down to under .001c.¡± Due to the rounds being magnetically accelerated, instead of a standard explosive accleration, the recoil was such that course deviation was minimal. I instructed my team to go laser, on the other hand, because the short pulses wouldn¡¯t rupture the hull. Our hand-held rail guns couldn¡¯t be dialed down low enough. I would have to work on that design a bit. I leaned back against my seat just in time to hear our pilot call out. ¡°Bay opening, ready for deployment.¡± Well, no time for a nap. I unhooked from the restraints. ¡°Single fire line, 10 meters apart. Steady pace forward, one-half time.¡± We all jumped out, activating our maglocks on the boots to pull us towards the hull and secure us. ¡°Tether up, no need getting careless just because we haven¡¯t had any major problems yet.¡± Walsh flew off, his point defense lasers taking out a few of the bugs. I clearly saw several of the launched spines deflect from the hull of the assault craft, knocking him around a little, but not enough for him to lose control. He was a better pilot than I had thought. ¡°Tether up and pace it off!¡± I called out, attaching a tether to Lebowski and Wilhelm. The line would start with Goldstein, then go to Wilhelm, me, Lebowski and finally, Janssens would be our other outlier. It didn¡¯t take long for us to start shooting. A group of three of the bugs came from the bow of the ship, spiraling around the hull. A spine barely missing me, a few landing in the hull just ahead of us, and one hit on Janssens that was deflected by his armor, almost knocking him off his feet making a mockery of the magnetic forces holding us to the hull of the ship. Do I need to say that we unleashed hell onto them? I only managed to fire a short pulse before they were all dead. We proceeded this way for another two or three minutes when a small sun appeared behind us where the Escort ship had been. ¡°Hit the deck!¡± I shouted out, pulling myself down to the hull of the ship, hugging it. I wasn¡¯t sure how long it would take for the debris cloud to hit us, or if there would be a shockwave, but I didn¡¯t want to take chances. My suit pinged up an alert stating that there was a micro-breach that my MK-II sealed without any orders from me. ¡°I¡¯m hit, major breach!¡± Janssens called out. I unhooked the tether connecting me to Wilhelm and jumped. Others chimed in that they had small breaches that sealed themselves, at the same time. ¡°Lebowski, hold tight, I¡¯m using you as a fulcrum.¡± I then used some of my stored air to accelerate my jump. I could see in my tactical link that Janssens was losing air fast. My tether line went taught, almost pulling Lebowski off the hull, then I started down the arc. Debris was bouncing off the hull around us. Then the screaming started. When Janssens said that he was hit, I was expecting something small due to the amount of calm in his voice. The screaming betrayed that lie. I was not expecting a piece of the hull plating to have split him almost in half. The plating separated his body into several pieces starting just above the hip on his right side, exiting his left side just above the knee. His right hand severed as well, with the majority of his Hades. There was no way I could save him. A small notice popped into my mind about external influence, but that wasn¡¯t important. I was going to lose my friend. Before I could even start sealing his suit, his vitals bottomed out. ¡°WALSH! Medical evac, NOW!!¡± I cried into the comms, the beep of his vitals disappearing knocking me out of inaction. I then got to work. I started patching him up. I didn¡¯t know what else to do. ¡°Grab his legs; we¡¯re getting him to Medical!¡± The tears were clear to hear in my voice. I didn¡¯t care. You watch one of your friends die and see how much of a fuck you give. Where the fuck was Walsh? Logically I knew it had been mere seconds, but my heart told me otherwise. I used the entire contents of my med-kit, including the shell. I even used my engineering kit. The plasma torch at least, to cauterize everything I could, tack welding the case to the armor to create a seal. Walsh showed up before I was finished, and we threw ourselves and the body of Janssens into the drop compartment. ¡°Dock us at the airlock on PORT-UP-TWO. That¡¯s the most direct way to medical.¡± We repressured the moment the bay door was closed, and I stripped Janssens out of what was left of the assault suit. ¡°Once we have a seal, we run the gauntlet. Walsh, stay docked unless you come under fire.¡± Observer, are your people still alive? Have them move to Walsh as soon as we dock. I didn¡¯t listen for a response. I just mechanically stripped Janssens to his duty uniform, using the extra med-kits from the assault ship to seal him up. I did everything I could think of doing. I attached the pulse regulator and threw an auto-breather on him as well. ¡°Do we have pressure in the Ark?¡± ¡°Looks like we are good on this deck.¡± ¡°Okay, pop the airlock, let¡¯s run!¡± I hoisted Janssens into a princess carry. Something I knew he would hate. I needed something to make sure he didn¡¯t die again if we somehow managed to save his ass. Once the pressure was equalized, we ran. There was a line outside of medical. ¡°MAKE A HOLE BEFORE I START SHOOTING!¡± The spacers in front of me jumped at the sound of my voice, then started hugging the bulkheads. Some assholes in the hatch didn¡¯t think I was talking to them, and they were promptly knocked over by an angry Lebowski, in full assault armor. ¡°Get me a fucking doctor, NOW!¡± The next couple of moments trailed on into what felt like an eternity. A doctor approached, apparently angry that I was causing a ruckus, then he saw the Marine in my arms. I vaguely remember being asked what happened, and answering with something about debris, impacts, and not having the proper tools on hand to do the job myself. I sat down against a bulkhead, out of the way, and finally lost it. According to my fire team, I went catatonic. They left me there for a while as they went back onto the hull for more clean-up. A slap knocked me back into my senses. ¡°Fucking hell, Commander, pull your shit together. We¡¯re almost done here.¡± Torres was standing in front of me, something unreadable in her eyes. It took me longer than I want to admit remembering where I was and what had happened. ¡°Corpsman, any word on Janssens?¡± She looked at me. It was sadness. Her eyes contained sadness. ¡°You got him here with some brain activity; we don¡¯t know what is going to happen. His body is dead, but the brain is active, so they plugged him into the Game. They are waiting for more details before anything else happens. Whether you saved his life, or you have forced him into a lifetime into the game has yet to be determined.¡± I stood, noticing the scorch marks, blood, and gore covering my armor and uniform for the first time. ¡°Is the captain or XO secure and available?¡± I put on my ¡°work face.¡± That¡¯s all I could do for now. ¡°Yes, they are both secured in the CIC. Merlin has been trying to explain things to them, That¡¯s the ship AI.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll head there now. How¡¯s the patching going?¡± ¡°The survivors have done well. Several of them noticed things were wrong before anyone else did. They shut off all but the most vital communications ports. Far as we can tell none of them were hijacked. We¡¯re continuing to patch everyone just to be sure. Merlin, Jurojin and let me see if I pronounce this right, Xohchipilli, all accepted the patch with no problems.¡± ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll go meet up with the Captain and XO. Merlin, can you please let the Captain and XO know that I am on my way? Here are my credentials.¡± I sent the data pulse up into the ship. On my visor, I received an acknowledgment and started heading to the CIC. ¡°All members of the Renegades, please send a status report. Then, resupply for an assault. We need to make sure that there are no bugs left on the hull. Full tactical load outs. Have your assault craft support you out there.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°Anyone have any word on the second Escort ship that was out there? I didn¡¯t have the time to take notice.¡± ¡°It was hit by a lot of the debris from the other Escort and looks to be dead in the water.¡± Walsh came in through my comms. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s keep eyes on it. We¡¯re going to have to head over there and scrub it clean if it isn¡¯t. I know that the scientists are going to want samples of the Behemoths and the Bugs. Also, we need to be conscious of the fact that they can survive in vacuum for several hours. The Bugs at least, not sure about the giants.¡± I took another breath. ¡°Also, I know Ark-5 and Hera, probably Jurojin and the scientists here are going to want to take a look at the Escort. Walsh set up a sleep rotation with the other two pilots so that there is always at least one awake and watching the ship.¡± ¡°It¡¯s what, about 5 a minute flight? One patrolling the Escort ship for six hours. Pick off any bugs or anything else that comes out of it. One on standby during those six hours. One asleep, or however else you want to do it, this is just my suggestion. We need more pilots.¡± I arrived at the CIC and announced myself with an ID pulse before entering.If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. There was a skeleton crew, all linked up to monitor the systems with their Neurals. That¡¯s how they were able to detect and fight off the puppet attack; they were all monitoring everything so if one were attacked the others would see it quickly. I straightened my uniform up as well as I could before entering the briefing room in the back of the CIC. ¡°Sirs, Lieutenant Commander Danni Jax reporting. I understand there are a lot of questions and Merlin hasn¡¯t been able to answer everything satisfactorily.¡± I saluted. Next came the debriefing. That was several hours long. Then I got to the part where I ordered the assault on their ship. ¡°Sirs, that is why I had my two team load up with non-lethal. We¡¯re all human. It doesn¡¯t matter if we¡¯re Martian, Venusian, or Terran. I was sent to save as many people as possible and to provide the patches for your Neurals so that you could defend yourselves properly in the event of a Puppet attack. As far as I know, yours is the only Ark that successfully defended itself in the first place due to your extra vigilance.¡± ¡°As for Ark-9, I would like their last known trajectory data recorded. They may also be safe, like you, but I want to make damn sure. We also need to build a gate so that you can rejoin Ark-5 if you want. You¡¯ll get access to a lot more advanced tech if you come back. We want you back, though it is your right to go where you will. We do have a site we are planning to build out for the colony base, and construction is underway.¡± Neith, provide Merlin with the data and schematics on the new weaves you are working on and with the schemas for the Duty Uniform MK-II and the beta, as well as for the heavy assault suits. ¡°I just pushed data to Merlin on some of the tech that we have been working with.¡± We ended the debrief with a discussion on changes made to the wormhole generators to secure them for our use. I offered them the updated codes and construction methods, with an ¡°Eyes Only¡± security key that would auto-delete from the ship databases if accessed by anyone not explicitly given access. Finally, I was able to leave the debrief, having been given access to a ¡°guest room¡± for the pilots and the assault team that was a repurposed cargo space made up like a barracks more than a private room. I needed a shower and some sleep.

Back Into The Black - Original

We floated in the void for a few minutes before we were picked up. It was both nerve wracking and relaxing. Once we were picked back up and strapped in I got the bad news. ¡°Ma¡¯am, reports are coming in from both of the assault teams that they are running out of ammo. We have quite a few injuries, but no one is down yet. The Ark is under serious attack from those fucking crawlers.¡± ¡°Okay, how many are still on the hull? Did you get a good count?¡± ¡°No ma¡¯am, but they are everywhere.¡± No rest for the wicked. ¡°Right, looks like we need to save some more people. Switch to full lasers. Load up with Hades. We¡¯re going to walk the hull and purge the hangers on. Refill all battery packs, swap out air canisters and make sure you have two spares. Basckup weapons will need to be our new BRs and pistols. Wilhelm help me load up a tac-pack with extra magazines for each. It¡¯s going to be a long slog.¡± We refreshed our load out. ¡°Walsh drop us on one side, then you circle around, keep near the hull and blast away. Try and be careful. I understand there will be some spill over into the hull, but please go with a shallow angle so it can bounce off if you use the railgun. Also, dial it down to under .001c.¡± Because the rounds were magnetically accelerated there wouldn¡¯t be any kick to knock him off course. I instructed my team to go laser, on the other hand, because the short pulses wouldn¡¯t rupture the hull. Our hand-held rail guns couldn¡¯t be dialed down low enough. I would have to work on that design a bit. I leaned back against my seat just in time to hear our pilot call out. ¡°Bay opening, ready for deployment.¡± Well, no time for a nap. I unhooked from the restraints. ¡°Single fire line, 10 meters apart. Steady pace forward, one half time.¡± We all jumped out, activating our maglocks on the boots to pull us towards the hull and secure us. ¡°Tether up, no need getting careless just because we haven¡¯t had any major problems yet.¡± Walsh flew off, his point defense lasers taking out a few of the bugs. I clearly saw several of the launched spines deflect from the hull of the assault craft, knocking him around a little, but not enough for him to lose control. He was a better pilot than I had thought. ¡°Tether up and pace it off!¡± I called out, attaching a tether to Lebowski and Wilhelm. The line would start with Goldstein, then go to Wilhelm, me, Lebowski and finally Janssens would be our other outlier. It didn¡¯t take long for us to start shooting. A group of three of the bugs came from the bow of the ship, spiraling around the hull. A spine barely missing me, a few landing in the hull just ahead of us, and one hit on Janssens that was deflected by his armor, almost knocking him off his feet making a mockery of the magnetic forces holding us to the hull of the ship. Do I need to say that we unleashed hell onto them? I only managed to fire a short pulse before they were all dead. We proceeded this way for another two or three minutes when a small sun appeared behind us where the Escort ship had been. ¡°Hit the deck!¡± I shouted out, pulling myself down to the hull of the ship, hugging it. I wasn¡¯t sure how long it would take for the debris cloud to hit us, or if there would be a shockwave, but I didn¡¯t want to take chances. My suit pinged up an alert stating that there was a micro-breach that my MK-II sealed without any orders from me. ¡°I¡¯m hit, major breach!¡± Janssens called out. I unhooked the tether connecting me to Wilhelm and jumped. Others chimed in that they had small breaches that sealed themselves, at the same time. ¡°Lebowski, hold tight, I¡¯m using you as a fulcrum.¡± I then used some of my stored air to accelerate my jump. I could see in my tactical link that Janssens was losing air fast. My tether line went taught, almost pulling Lebowski off the hull, then I started down the arc. Debris was bouncing off the hull around us. Then the screaming started. When Janssens said that he was hit, I was expecting something small due to the amount of calm in his voice. The screaming betrayed that lie. I was not expecting a piece of hull plating to have split him almost in half. The plating separated his body into several pieces starting just above the hip on his right side, exiting his left side just above the knee. His right hand severed as well, with the majority of his Hades. There was no way I could save him. A small notice popped into my mind about external influence, but that wasn¡¯t important. I was going to lose my friend. Before I could even start sealing his suit, his vitals bottomed out. ¡°WALSH! Medical evac, NOW!!¡± I cried into the comms, the beep of his vitals disappearing knocking me out of inaction. I then got to work. I started patching him up. I didn¡¯t know what else to do. ¡°Grab his legs, we¡¯re getting him to Medical!¡± The tears were clear to hear in my voice. I didn¡¯t care. You watch one of your friends die and see how much of a fuck you give. Where the fuck was Walsh? Logically I knew it had been mere seconds, but my heart told me otherwise. I used the entire contents of my med-kit, including the shell. I even used my engineering kit. The plasma torch at least, to cauterize everything I could, tac welding the case to the armor to create a seal. Walsh showed up before I was finished, and we threw ourselves and the body of Janssens into the drop compartment. ¡°Dock us at the airlock on PORT-UP-TWO. That¡¯s the most direct way to medical.¡± We repressured the moment the bay door was closed, and I stripped Janssens out of what was left of the assault suit. ¡°Once we have a seal, we run the gauntlet. Walsh stay docked unless you come under fire.¡± Observer, are your people still alive? Have them move to Walsh as soon as we dock. I didn¡¯t listen for a response. I just mechanically stripped Janssens to his duty uniform, using the spare med-kits from the assault ship to seal him up. I did everything I could think of doing. I attached the pulse regulator and threw an auto-breather on him as well. ¡°Do we have pressure in the Ark?¡± ¡°Looks like we are good on this deck.¡± ¡°Okay, pop the airlock, let¡¯s run!¡± I hoisted Janssens into a princess carry. Something I knew he would hate. I needed something to make sure he didn¡¯t die again if we some how managed to save his ass. Once the pressure was equalized, we ran. There was a line outside of medical. ¡°MAKE A HOLE BEFORE I START SHOOTING!¡± The spacers in front of me jumped at the sound of my voice, then started hugging the bulkheads. Some assholes in the hatch didn¡¯t think I was talking to them, and they were promptly knocked over by an angry Lebowski, in full assault armor. ¡°Get me a fucking doctor, NOW!¡± The next couple of moments trailed on into what felt like an eternity. A doctor approached, obviously angry that I was causing a ruckus, then he saw the Marine in my arms. I vaguely remember being asked what happened, and answering with something about debris, impacts, and not having the proper tools on hand to do the job myself. I sat down against a bulkhead, out of the way, and finally lost it. According to my fire team I went catatonic. They left me there for a while as they went back onto the hull for more clean-up. A slap knocked me back into my senses. ¡°Fucking hell, Commander, pull your shit together. We¡¯re almost done here.¡± Torres was standing in front of me, obviously angry. It took me longer than I want to admit remembering where I was and what had happened. ¡°Corpsman, any word on Janssens?¡± She looked at me with a mixture of pity and distain. ¡°You got him here with some brain activity, we don¡¯t know what is going to happen. His body is dead, but the brain is active, so they plugged him into the Game. They are waiting for more details before anything else happens. Whether you saved his life, or you have forced him into a lifetime into the game has yet to be determined.¡± I stood, noticing the scorch marks, blood and gore covering my armor and uniform for the first time. ¡°Is the captain or XO secure and available?¡± I put on my ¡°work face¡±. That¡¯s all I could do for now. ¡°Yes, they are both secured in the CIC. Merlin has been trying to explain things to them, That¡¯s the ship AI.¡± ¡°Okay, I¡¯ll head there now. How¡¯s the patching going?¡± ¡°The survivors have done well. Several of them noticed things were wrong before anyone else did. They shut off all but the most vital communications ports. Far as we can tell none of them were hijacked. We¡¯re continuing to patch everyone just to be sure. Merlin, Jurojin and let me see if I pronounce this right, Xohchipilli, all accepted the patch with no problems.¡± ¡°Okay. I¡¯ll go meet up with the Captain and XO. Merlin, can you please let the Captain and XO know that I am on my way? Here¡¯s my credentials.¡± I sent the data pulse up into the ship. On my visor I received an acknowledgement and started heading to the CIC. ¡°All members of the Renegades, please send a status report. Then, re-spec for an assault. We need to make sure that there are no bugs left on the hull. Full tactical load outs. Have your assault craft support you out there.¡± I took a deep breath. ¡°Anyone have any word on the second Escort ship that was out there? I didn¡¯t have the time to take notice.¡± ¡°It was hit by a lot of the debris from the other Escort and looks to be dead in the water.¡± Walsh came in through my comms. ¡°Good. Let¡¯s keep eyes on it. We¡¯re going to have to head over there and scrub it clean if it isn¡¯t. I know that the scientists are going to want samples of the Behemoths and the Bugs. Also, we need to be conscious of the fact that they can survive in vacuum for several hours. The Bugs at least, not sure about the giants.¡± I took another breath. ¡°Also, I know Ark-5 and Hera, probably Jurojin and the scientists here are going to want to take a look at the Escort. Walsh set up a sleep rotation with the other two pilots so that there is always at least one awake and watching the ship.¡± ¡°It¡¯s what, about 5 a minute flight? One patrolling the Escort ship for six hours. Pick off any bugs or anything else that comes out of it. One on standby during those six hours. One asleep, or however else you want to do it, this is just my suggestion. We need more pilots.¡± I arrived at the CIC and announced myself with an ID pulse before entering. There was a skeleton crew, all linked up to monitor the systems with their Neurals. That¡¯s how they were able to detect and fight off the puppet attack, they were all monitoring everything so if one was attacked the others would see it first. I straightened my uniform up as well as I could before entering the briefing room in the back of the CIC. ¡°Sirs, Lieutenant Commander Danni Jax reporting. I understand there are a lot of questions and Merlin hasn¡¯t been able to answer everything satisfactorily.¡± I saluted. Next came the debriefing. That was several hours long. Then I got to the part where I ordered the assault on their ship. ¡°Sirs, that is why I had my two team load up with non-lethal. We¡¯re all human. It doesn¡¯t matter if we¡¯re Martian, Venusian, or Terran. I was sent to save as many people as possible and to provide the patches for your Neurals so that you could defend yourselves properly in the event of a Puppet attack. As far as I know, yours is the only Ark that successfully defended itself in the first place due to your extra vigilance.¡± ¡°As for Ark-9, I would like their last known trajectory data recorded. They may also be safe, like you, but I want to make damn sure. We also need to build a gate so that you can rejoin Ark-5, if you want. You¡¯ll get access to a lot more advanced tech if you come back. We want you back, though it is your right to go where you will. We do have a site we are planning to build out for the colony base, and construction is under way.¡± Neith, provide Merlin with the data and schematics on the new weaves you are working on and with the schematics for the Duty Uniform MK-II and the beta, as well as for the heavy assault suits. ¡°I just pushed data to Merlin on some of the tech that has been discovered.¡± We ended the debrief with a discussion on changes made to the wormhole generators to secure them for our use. I offered them the updated codes and construction methods, with an ¡°Eyes Only¡± security key that would auto delete from the ship databases if accessed by anyone not explicitly given access. Finally, I was able to leave the debrief, having been given access to a ¡°guest¡± room for the pilots and the assault team that was more a barracks than a room. I needed a shower and some sleep. 36. Whiskey Tango...

Whiskey Tango¡­ - Edit 11-9-2018

As you can imagine, exhausted as I was, I couldn¡¯t sleep. I did manage to shower and clean off my armor. Food from the commissary was also a nice touch. I ended up sitting in Medical by Janssens pod, apologizing to him. Their Doctor finally ordered me to my rack after, under the guise of a post action checkup, he injected me with a time-release sleep aid. I would end up being forced to sleep for at least four hours. My dreams were not pleasant. Janssens was there, although he was now a combat robot. There was, of course, a massacre. He and I completely and without pause, slaughtered Ark-5, Our boot camp instructors, the kids at the orphanage I was raised in, everyone. The entire time we were held up by strings controlling our every movement, moved like puppets. The Puppet Master a human shape in the sky. It was the first dream in I don¡¯t even know how long, that I could remember part of let alone its entirety. When I woke, covered in a cold sweat, I sat straight up, hitting my head on the bunk above me. I forgot that I was a guest. Checking my clock, it was just over six hours after racking out. Docs meds worked well. I headed back up to medical. ¡°Doc, any word on Sergeant Janssens?¡± I cut to the chase. ¡°Ahh, Commander.¡± He greeted me. ¡°It looks like his body will fail once we take him out of the pod, so we are keeping him in there for now. There is a very high probability that he won¡¯t survive for long in the pod as well. I understand he has been a friend of yours for some time. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Numbness. I didn¡¯t have much hope, but in those few seconds what I had was taken away from me. I left Medical. ¡°Merlin, can the Captain or XO see me?¡± It took about three minutes before the reply came in. ¡°Please meet in the Captains Quarters.¡± That simple message popping up on my visor. I started the walk. ¡°Commander Jax, welcome. Please have a seat.¡± The captain replied to my salute by just waving me to a chair. ¡°We¡¯re a lot less formal here. Your assault teams helped us quite a bit. The numbers are in. We managed to escape with fewer than a hundred casualties. Most due to decompression as hull plating was breached between getting peeled off and shrapnel from the Escort. What can I do for you?¡± ¡°That is great news, sir.¡± I paused while I thought about how to phrase my request. ¡°Captain Ayers, I was hoping that you could get a few pilots and convince the Marine CO to donate a few troops. I want to clear and recover the remaining Escort ship, as well as get some biological samples.¡± Captain Ayers looked at me for a few minutes, sipping some tea. It appeared he was mulling over the idea I laid in front of him. After three or four minutes, the door to his cabin opened, and a mostly cybernetic Marine entered. ¡°This her?¡± The voice was processed through her artificial voice box. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m Lieutenant Commander Jax, Ark-5.¡± I stood, extending my hand. ¡°Major Cross. It¡¯s a pleasure. Not to be rude, but you seem a bit young to be a Lieutenant Commander.¡± She held up a hand before I could respond. ¡°The Captain told me you had an off the book''s request?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t need to be off the books. What I would like is to capture and secure that Escort, then connect it up to our assault craft and take it through a wormhole. You come in because I am hopeful for a few dozen Marines that will help with a suppress, purge, and cleanse mission. Recommended loadout is AP and DU rounds, Taishi Ci or better Battle Rifles, with a zero-G barrel Mod, which I can supply the schematics for.¡± ¡°I suppose most of the ship''s resources are going to go towards fixing the Ark, so barrel mods may be out of the question. Magnetic seals on boots don¡¯t work over there for zero-G. If there is gravity, it is at 1.3 G¡¯s. I would recommend a loadout that will supply us with 8+ hours of air as well if you agree. The explosion of the other Escort should have opened her up nice and neat for depressurization. I don¡¯t know how long the Bugs can operate without air, but if they are still alive, some armor plating is recommended. They launch quills that will pierce through the MK-1 duty suits and standard field armor. Then there are the Behemoths. Tripodal creatures with four arms. Between five and recorded up to ten meters. They are slow, but they have great aim and throwing accuracy.¡± Five hours later I found myself giving a similar briefing to two hundred fifty marines. I explained the loadout recommendations to everyone. We were able to fit a dozen total Marines into each of the assault craft. We also took the standard drop ships and were able to fit everyone else into them. The dropships docked anywhere they could after the assault craft ensured the sides were clear of turrets. We then started the slow purge of everything left alive on the ship. It didn¡¯t take long for my squad to come across the first unlabeled room on my schematics. Observer didn¡¯t answer when asking what was inside. The answer was vats. A lot of vats. Not dissimilar to our meat growing operation, but inside there was movement. Bugs. I connected to the terminals and started to go through the menus. Growth options, genetic diversity, mutation strains, recessive traits. Then it clicked. This was a cloning facility. I pressed the ¡°purge¡± command and then shut everything down. I recorded the steps to do so and what the menu options looked like, then sent it to all the squads on the ship. We came across two other facilities that were similar as well as hundreds of corpses. That was just my team. Engineering was holed, same with all the engine rooms, sleeping quarters and more. When the other Escort blew, it really did a number on this one. I was glad that the Ark was so much further away, though there was still plenty of damage to the hull on it. The hangars had a few craft, and there was a compartment full of zero-G fabs as well. Then all hell broke loose. Observer what the hell are those! A writhing mass of what appeared to be liquid metal and the black ink that was Observers people was blocking the corridor in front of my squad. If anyone approached it, it would lance out a spike as a warning, stopping just short trying to ward off anyone from approaching Let me try and communicate; it does not appear aware. I caught brief snippets of Observer trying to communicate with it a few times before giving up. It is not one of my people. I don¡¯t know what it is. Good enough for me. ¡°Weapons free!¡± I called out; I anchored into a bulkhead with my tether through a hole I made with my fake arm and opened fire into the¡­thing. It flashed with black splotches as the metallic coating was torn apart from weapons fire. We had no idea where to shoot, so we shot everywhere. I was fortunate that I anchored myself down. A long spike came towards me, coated in the metal. I raised the ballistics shield on my arm just in time. The spike shredded the protection as well as my forearm, but that took all the momentum so it couldn¡¯t pierce my MK-II armor. I sent the command to retract my shield which caused the spike to be severed. The downside, it also caused my arm to short out as the spike tore through an additional bit of the limb. Well shit. After a few more minutes of fire the metallic, black membrane thing sloughed off the bulkheads, deck, and ceiling, turning into a floating mass of the sludge-like substance. ¡°Keep clear,¡± I told the squad. I extended my ballistics shield again. With the hole punched into it, as well as the damage to my arm, it was only able to reach a third of the way. It would have to do. I unhooked the tether, and we continued on our way. During our third hour, we finally reached the area listed as the ¡°Bridge¡± according to my diagrams. Another team had already cleared the CIC and Tertiary control centers. I had stopped us outside the hatch so we could await reinforcements. I had a bad feeling about what we were going to find inside. The interior still has pressure. Observer drew my attention to what appeared to be an ¡°occupancy¡± light showing that it was populated. That was an exciting feature to have. The teams that had hit the tertiary control center and the CIC found them unsealed and empty save for a few corpses. This was the last major area to sweep. No one had come across another of the membrane barriers that we had earlier as well. Thanks to this little light, we knew to be on our guard. Be warned; there has been no sign of their rulers yet. Great a third alien type that I had no idea about. Details? Four meters height, you would describe them as ¡°avian,¡± possibly ¡°reptilian.¡± They are¡­ difficult to classify. They have basic flight. Okay, so winged. How many wings? Arms? Legs? Tentacles? Other? Yes. Point noted. Four to six wings, fully usable as you use your hands. Covered in flesh. The ¡°head¡± area where its neural pathways are, is in its main body. The appendage you call a ¡°head¡± is only used for eating and will appear to be a tube. Disturbing. Yes. Depending on how old the being is it will have different strengths, including telepathy. I froze in place. This thing was possibly the cause of the ships being taken over. I had my puppet master. Unlikely. It is possible you have a ¡°Puppet Master,¡± as you call them. Much like your AI, they operate as a hive mind. The more of them there are together, the more powerful they are. Shit, how many are usually on a ship? We have recorded as many as ten at once. That did not make me more comfortable. And why am I just learning about this now? Most likely because Rasputin did not think it necessary, and Hera doubted it possible. Okay, but why am I just hearing about this from YOU? I tried to put the inflection into my thought without it coming across as a yell. It seemed unimportant if your AI didn¡¯t take notice. I wanted to scream at that. Instead, I decided to be productive. ¡°Listen up! It is likely there is one or more of an as to now unseen alien in there. If the intel I have is correct, they have some form of telepathy or psionics, so be prepared for visions, images, and voices. No clue if it is even still alive, but I would prefer we all returned safely. An extra bit of caution may not matter, but if it does, I am glad to make that call.¡± The second platoon had arrived. ¡°Seal off the passageways. We need a seal to get this to open cleanly.¡±This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. It took almost twenty minutes to set up the two airlocks on opposite ends of the passageway. I was grateful for them once we popped the hatch for the bridge. Air that registered on my sensors as highly toxic flooded the chamber we had created. I immediately tossed in an EMP grenade. ¡°Grenade out!¡± I called. Then my vision turned black. Not the black of no lights. I couldn¡¯t even see my HUD. ¡°No one panic!¡± I shouted across comms. I could feel myself say the words at least, but I couldn¡¯t hear the words. I think it¡¯s an old one! Quickly! Raise your shield! I felt a solid hit on my shield which sent me flying back into the bulkhead on the other side of the passageway. It is interrupting your physical senses. Raise your weapon! More! To the left, FIRE! I followed the commands out of necessity. Suddenly all my senses came back to me with an added bonus of overwhelming pain. Then the EMP grenade detonated and I heard a loud shrieking in my head. At the same time, everyone else was coming out of what they were hit with. It was so quick none of them had the chance to do anything stupid, though there were quite a few raised weapons. Our weapons nearly simultaneously then erupted with weapons fire taking out the creatures. Observers description did this thing no justice. One animal (maybe being, or¡­ thing?) which had shot out of the bridge, the one that knocked me against the bulkhead I think, was five meters tall by my estimate, with six wings, four were positioned like a dragonfly, though shaped like a bat with excessive membranes between the ¡°fingers.¡± The last two wings were where you would image the rattler on a snake. The mottled red skin was erupting with a diseased green-yellow fluid that reminded me of a ruptured cyst. It didn¡¯t appear to have any bones apart from the wings and a spine. It was unfortunate that we concentrated our fire on this one. After another five or six seconds, all senses went out again. Shit, there was another one. I felt pain all over my body. I couldn¡¯t tell what was happening to it other than pain. Observer managed to walk me step by step through throwing out another EMP grenade. When this one blew, I realized how bad the timing on that attack had been. Half of my original platoon was down. Two-thirds of the second platoon was down as well. Friendly fire. I pushed my way into the bridge while shouting for a medic; then I unleashed two full magazines into everything I could see in the compartment before losing consciousness.

Whiskey Tango¡­ - Original

As you can imagine, exhausted as I was, I couldn¡¯t sleep. I did manage to shower and clean off my armor. Food from the commissary was also a nice touch. I ended up sitting in Medical by Janssens pod, apologizing to him. Their Doctor finally ordered me to my rack after, under the guise of a post action checkup, he injected me with a time release sleep aid. I would end up being forced to sleep for at least four hours. My dreams were not pleasant. Janssens was there, although he was now a combat robot. There was of course a massacre. He and I completely and without pause, slaughtered Ark-5, Our boot camp instructors, the kids at the orphanage I was raised in, everyone. The entire time we were held up by strings controlling our every movement, moved like puppets. The Puppet Master a human shape in the sky. It was the first dream in I don¡¯t even know how long, that I could remember part of let alone its entirety. Needless to say, when I woke, covered in a cold sweat, I sat straight up, hitting my hear on the bunk above me. I forgot that I was a guest. Checking my clock, it was just over six hours after racking out. Docs meds worked well. I headed back up to medical. ¡°Doc, any word on Sergeant Janssens?¡± I cut to the chase. ¡°Ahh, Commander.¡± He greeted me. ¡°It looks like his body will fail once we take him out of the pod, so we are keeping him in there for now. There is a very high probability that he won¡¯t survive for long in the pod as well. I understand he has been a friend of yours for some time. I¡¯m sorry.¡± Numbness. I didn¡¯t have much hope, but in those few seconds what I had was taken away from me. I left Medical. ¡°Merlin, can the Captain or XO see me?¡± It took about three minutes before the reply came in. ¡°Please meet in the Captains Quarters.¡± That simple message popping up on my visor. I started the walk. ¡°Commander Jax, welcome. Please have a seat.¡± The captain replied to my salute by just waving me to a chair. ¡°We¡¯re a lot less formal here. Your assault teams helped out quite a bit. The numbers are in. We managed to escape with fewer than a hundred casualties. Most due to decompression as hull plating was breached between getting peeled off and shrapnel from the Escort. What can I do for you?¡± ¡°That is great news, sir.¡± I paused while I thought about how to phrase my request. ¡°Captain Ayers, I was hoping that you could get a few pilots and convince the Marine CO to donate a few troops. I want to clear and recover the remaining Escort ship, as well as get some biological samples.¡± Captain Ayers looked at me for a few minutes, sipping some tea. It appeared he was mulling over the idea I laid in front of him. After three or four minutes, the door to his cabin opened, and a mostly cybernetic Marine entered. ¡°This her?¡± The voice was obviously processed through her artificial voice box. ¡°Ma¡¯am, I¡¯m Lieutenant Commander Jax, Ark-5.¡± I stood, extending my hand. ¡°Major Cross. It¡¯s a pleasure. Not to be rude, but you seem a bit young to be a Lieutenant Commander.¡± She held up a hand before I could respond. ¡°The Captain told me you had an off the books request?¡± ¡°Doesn¡¯t need to be off the books. What I would like is to capture and secure that Escort, then connect it up to our assault craft and take it through a porthole. You come in because I am hopeful for a few dozen Marines that will help with a suppress, purge, and cleanse mission. Recommended loadout is AP and DU rounds, Taishi Ci or better Battle Rifles, with a zero-G barrel Mod, which I can supply the schematics for.¡± ¡°I suppose most of the ships resources are going to go towards fixing the Ark, so barrel mods may be out of the question. Magnetic seals on boots don¡¯t work over there for zero-G. If there is gravity it is at 1.3 G¡¯s. I would recommend a loadout that will supply us with 8+ hours of air as well, if you agree. The explosion of the other Escort should have opened her up nice and neat for depressurization. I don¡¯t know how long the Bugs can operate without air, but if they are still alive, some armor plating is recommended. They launch quills that will pierce through the MK-1 duty suits and standard field armor. Then there are the Behemoths. Tripodal creatures with four arms. Between five and recorded up to ten meters. They are slow, but they have great aim and throwing accuracy.¡± Five hours later I found myself giving a similar briefing to two hundred fifty marines. I explained the loadout recommendations to everyone. We were able to fit a dozen total Marines into each of the assault craft. We also took the standard drop ships and were able to fit everyone else into them. The drop ships docked anywhere they could after the assault craft ensured the sides were clear of turrets. We then started the slow purge of everything left alive on the ship. It didn¡¯t take long for my squad to come across the first unlabeled room on my schematics. Observer didn¡¯t answer when asking what was inside. The answer was vats. Lots of vats. Not dissimilar to our meat growing operation, but inside there was movement. Bugs. I connected to the terminals and started to go through the menus. Growth options, genetic diversity, mutation strains, recessive traits¡­ Then it clicked. This was a cloning facility. I pressed the ¡°purge¡± command and then shut everything down. I recorded the steps to do so and what the menu options looked like, then sent it to all the squads on the ship. We came across two other facilities that were similar as well as hundreds of corpses. That was just my team. Engineering was holed, same with all the engine rooms, sleeping quarters and more. When the other Escort blew it really did a number on this one. I was glad that the Ark was so much further away, though there was still plenty of damage to the hull on it. The hangars had a few craft, and there was a compartment full of zero-G fabs as well. Then all hell broke loose. Observer what the hell are those! A writhing mass of what appeared to be liquid metal and the black ink that was Observers people was blocking the corridor in front of my squad. If anyone approached it, it would lance out a spike, stopping just short trying to ward off anyone from approaching Let me try and communicate, it does not appear aware. I caught brief snippets of Observer trying to communicate with it a few times before giving up. It is not one of my people. I don¡¯t know what it is. Good enough for me. ¡°Weapons free!¡± I called out, I anchored into a bulkhead with my tether through a hole I made with my fake arm and opened fire into the¡­thing. It flashed with black splotches as the metallic coating were torn apart from weapons fire. We had no idea where to shoot, so we shot everywhere. I was fortunate that I anchored myself down. A long spike came towards me, coated in the metal. I raised the ballistics shield on my arm just in time. The spike shredded the shield as well as my fore arm, but that took all the momentum, so it couldn¡¯t pierce my MK-II armor. I sent the command to retract my shield which caused the spike to be severed. Down side, it also caused my arm to short out as the spike tore through an additional bit of arm. Well shit. After a few more minutes of fire the metallic, black membrane thing sloughed off the bulkheads, deck, and ceiling, turning into a floating mass of sludge-like substance. ¡°Keep clear.¡± I told the squad. I extended my ballistics shield again. With the hole punched into it, as well as the damage to my arm, it was only able to extend a third of the way. It would have to do. I unhooked the tether and we continued on our way. During our third hour we finally reached the area listed as the ¡°Bridge¡± according to my diagrams. Another team had already cleared the CIC and Tertiary control centers. I had stopped us outside the hatch so we could await reinforcements. I had a bad feeling about what we were going to find inside. The interior still has pressure. Observer drew my attention to what appeared to be an ¡°occupancy¡± light showing that it was populated. That was an interesting feature to have. The teams that had hit the tertiary control center and the CIC found them unsealed and empty save for a few corpses. This was the last major area to sweep. No one had come across another of the membrane barriers that we had earlier as well. Be warned, there has been no sign of their rulers yet. Great a third alien type that I had no idea about. Details? Four meters height, you would describe them as ¡°avian¡±, possibly ¡°reptilian¡±. Okay, so winged. How many wings? Arms? Legs? Tentacles? Other? Yes. Point noted. Four to six wings, fully usable as you use your hands. Covered in flesh. The ¡°head¡± area where its neural pathways are, is in its main body. The appendage you call a ¡°head¡± is only used for eating and will appear to be a tube. Disturbing. Yes. Depending on how old the being is it will have different strengths, including telepathy. I came froze in place. This thing was possibly the cause of the ships being taken over. I had my puppet master. Unlikely. It is possible you have a ¡°Puppet Master¡±, as you call them. Much like your AI, they operate as a hive mind. The more of them there are together, the more powerful they are. Shit, how many are usually on a ship? We would keep up to ten. That did not make me more comfortable. And why am I just learning about this now? Most likely because Rasputin did not think it necessary, and Hera doubted it possible. Okay, but why am I just hearing about this from YOU? I tried to put the inflection into my thought without it coming across as a yell. It seemed unimportant if your AI didn¡¯t take notice. I wanted to scream at that. Instead I was going to be productive. ¡°Listen up! It is likely there is one or more of an as to now unseen alien in there. If the intel I have is correct, they have some form of telepathy, so be prepared for visions, images and voices. No clue if it is even still alive, but I would prefer we all returned safely. An extra bit of caution may not matter, but if it does, I am glad to make that call.¡± The second platoon had arrived. ¡°Seal off the passageways. We need a seal to get this to open cleanly.¡± It took almost twenty minutes to set up the two airlocks on opposite ends of the passageway. I was grateful for them once we popped the hatch for the bridge. Air that registered on my sensors as highly toxic flooded the chamber we had created. I immediately tossed in an EMP grenade. ¡°Grenade out!¡± I called. Then my vision turned black. Not the black of no lights. I couldn¡¯t even see my HUD. ¡°No one panic!¡± I shouted across comms. I could feel myself say the words at least, but I couldn¡¯t hear the words. I think it¡¯s an old one! I noticed. Quickly raise your shield! I felt a solid hit on my shield which sent me flying back into the bulkhead on the other side of the passageway. It is interrupting your physical senses. Raise your weapon! More! To the left, FIRE! I followed the commands out of necessity. Suddenly all sensation came back to me with an additional sense of overwhelming pain. Then the EMP grenade detonated and I heard a loud shrieking in my head. At the same time everyone else was coming out of what they were hit with. It was so quick none of them had the chance to do anything stupid, though there were quite a few raised weapons. Our weapons nearly simultaneously then erupted with weapons fire taking out the creatures. Observers description did this thing no justice. One creature, which had shot out of the bridge, the one that knocked me against the bulkhead I think, was five meters tall by my estimate, with six wings, four were positioned like a dragonfly, though shaped like a bat with excessive membranes between the ¡°fingers¡±. The last two wings were where you would image the rattler on a snake. The mottled red skin was erupting with a diseased green-yellow fluid that reminded me of a ruptured cyst. It didn¡¯t appear to have any bones apart from the wings and a spine. It was unfortunate that we concentrated our fire on this one. After another five or six seconds all senses went out again. Shit, there was another one. I felt pain all over my body. I couldn¡¯t tell what was happening to it other than pain. Observer managed to walk me step by step through throwing out another EMP grenade. When this one blew I realized how bad the timing on that attack had been. Half of my original platoon was down. Two thirds of the other platoon were down as well. Friendly fire. I pushed my way into the bridge while shouting for a medic, then I unleashed two full magazines into everything I could see in the compartment before losing consciousness. 37. De Ja Vu

De Ja Vu - Edit 11-9-2018

I was aware that I was aware long after I heard the music. Debussy¡¯s Clair De Lune was edging its way into my consciousness along with the sensation of floating into nothing. Like zero-G. Try as I may, my eyes were not cooperating. I also lacked the metal finesse to call out to Neith or Observer, let alone use my Neural comms suite to do a status check. Hell, my brain was working at such a slow pace that I couldn¡¯t even determine if I was alive or dead. Slowly more sounds started to filter through. The artificial respirator and pulse management monitor were pinging away. Something else was happening on the edges of my hearing as well. A lot of yelling about dead. Then I noticed the tubes in my mouth and nose, my left arm was gone, again, and I had no feedback from my right leg. In fact, I had no feedback from any of my appendages. I doubt I would have noticed the tubes if I hadn¡¯t instinctively tried to swallow. I suspect I would have felt if it someone had slapped me. Or shot me again. I still couldn¡¯t see, however. That was a bit troubling. I tried to connect to anything around me and noticed I was forcibly blocked out of internal systems. An all too familiar ¡°Access is denied¡± message popping up. I then decided to try and connect with my internal bio-monitoring. That¡¯s not good. Assumed bullet wounds was a lucky 13. Recovered bullets, 11. I had a head wound. Well, it was in my neck. A head wound sounds more impressive to have survived, so that¡¯s what I¡¯ll call it. It pierced the seal for my helmet, causing me to breathe in a mixture of my canned air and their ship atmo. Which is why I passed out. If the concentration of gasses was off like it was in the game, I¡¯m surprised I was still alive. I¡¯ll take the blindness. That thought led me to my eyes. And then I wished it hadn¡¯t. I assume it was the pressure difference that had caused my right eye to rupture. That¡¯s where the suit seal had broken anyway, the right side. The other was severely stressed, and so it was decided by Neith to disable it so it could heal. Kind of sad, but it works. Neith is just taking care of me. Let¡¯s see what else there is. I¡¯ll need a new lung. My right arm is going to be out of commission for a while as well. At least one round seems to have made it through my armor thanks to me giving a recommended loadout of DU and AP rounds. The fact that I still had my arm tells me that it was an Armor Piercing round that did this damage. My ulna was all but vaporized. How did I manage to shoot with that damage? I disabled your pain receptors and increased your adrenal output. I tried to tell Neith thanks, but I was unable to send anything. I kept looking. The area where my right leg connectors were supposed to be was shredded. Something had done a number on it. My left arm connectors were fine, so that had been appropriately removed. Great, more surgeries to fix those connectors. Maybe I¡¯ll design a new leg while I¡¯m at it. Using the connection to my bio-monitor suite, I decided to trace everything that was connected to my body. First, there was the conventional plug in the back of my head. Next, I also had a tube coming out of my right side just under my ribs. That must be for the lung with a hole in it. Okay, there were also plug in my kidneys. Yep, the atmosphere poisoned me. They must have me in a medical quarantine due to consumption of the atmosphere. I tried falling asleep again. It took a while. When I came to next, there was a lot more pain. The fact that I could actually feel anything was good. That meant I was still alive. I tried to send a pulse out, but again that access denied message popped into my head. No use worrying about that. I figured out what had happened, and I completely understood why. Neith can you hear me? Observer what about you? I could actively communicate again, internally. Now there could be some work done. Almost simultaneously the responses came in. Yes. -You¡¯re back, thank goodness.- :It speaks?: IT IS AWARE? That was two more than I had assumed would happen, and more importantly, the voices were not familiar to me. They both had that same nail across a graphene sleeve feel that Observer started off with. There seem to be two more of you than I had expected. Observer, Neith, is there anything you wish to tell me? I was thinking of making a joke about reproduction there, but that would have fallen flat with my audience, and this was a little too much to be concerned with. Observer was the first to speak up. It appears there were still some of my people on board the ship. We were able to evacuate them in time. The were liberated from their hosts at the end. What do you mean their hosts? You told me there were none of yours on board. How did you not detect them? It appears that our old hosts have learned to lock us away. Your old hosts? I think it¡¯s time you told me the truth. About EVERYTHING. You may not want to hear it all. I don¡¯t care if I want to hear it all. There were two types of beings there that I feel you knew about ahead of time and neglected to tell me about, potentially jeopardizing the entire mission. The mission AFTER I did you a favor and rescued several of your people. I was greeted with silence for a while -They don¡¯t want to tell you. Shall I purge them?- I think that¡¯s a valid option, Neith. Can you? Wait that isn¡¯t necessary. I¡¯ll start where it matters. The story was long. I was grateful for the fact that I was in a quarantine room, so no one bugged us. The story could be summarized with Observers people, who were called something unpronounceable even to a computer, were a trans-dimensional being. Their reality was closer to the compressed space that our Game created in our minds which is how they were able to reach out to us. It is also how they became healthier being inside of us. Something about strange energy getting loaded into our consciousnesses which was what they ate. The aliens that we had seen in the Escort ships used a similar energy field for their drive systems which THEY had discovered. That brought Observers people through a dimensional rift of sorts. It was close to creating an overlapping reality field where both spacetimes exist in the same place. These groups of aliens allowed Observers people to stay on their vessels and they would feed off the byproduct of their reactors. Then the aliens that I was going to refer to as dragons learned to link their consciousness and realized that Observers people were more than just a useful pet. It had taken almost five hundred years for that to happen. Just like that, Observers people started to be forcefully linked to the ¡°dragons.¡± I was going to have to come up with a better name. From there, the beings could operate in both realities and a few more they were not familiar with, like our Game. Now, it seemed, that because Observer had sought out help and escaped from them, they were worried about it happening again. The membrane creature had similar features to Observers people. It is possible that it was a cloning experiment to allow the ¡°dragons¡± to create more, so that not only could the dragons have a companion, but the behemoths could as well. The two new guests filled in that this is what had happened, and they were not entirely successful, so they started to try to merge it with some new metals and a flexible crystal core that could then be useful. There had been over a dozen on the ship that they were aware of. The ships had brought us here, not Observers people. Observer had helped to calculate out the wormhole power requirements, and it had just happened to link to a galaxy with us, were traveling through it, and that was when Observer made his escape and struck a deal with Overlord. Unfortunately, he had not open up about everything so we couldn¡¯t provide ourselves witn an adequate defense. We appeared at the edge of a minefield. The mines were designed to take out electrical components by forcing an overcharge, disabling a ship and causing the damage control teams to work on fixing those areas so that they were unable to defend against borders. Our tech level was so low that the Escort ships were curious, and that caused them not to attack as they commonly did. Instead, they followed us. Learning. They used their psychic abilities to connect with us and the technical expertise of Observers people to look for avenues to hijack. Then they would take us over, slowly. Each ship should have up to thirty of the ¡°dragons¡± on board. That is enough to take out and control the command of each ship while still controlling their own. The knowledge being shared with me was actually the knowledge from the alien¡¯s tech history. Five hundred years that Observer had been recording data. None of it his peoples, but all of it made available to them due to negligence. The math that he introduced us to was the math of this alien group which allowed the development of their technology. In short, everything had been a lie. Way to build trust. I ignored him after this. It was going to take a long while for me to process these revelations. Okay, Neith, I am going to need some help. Did you have access to the sensory modules of my implant during combat? I believe you mentioned shutting off pain receptors and pumping up adrenaline? -You were aware? Good. I felt a question, though I could not hear it. It seemed the most direct action to take, to help push through the unknown.- You got it right. I had been curious. -The weave in your brain has slowly been edited by me to grow in new ways. This allows me to have access to additional areas. It was to be used in emergency situations and was not ready yet.- Not an issue right now. What sort of emergencies and what types of adjustments? -Allowing increases in speed and a reaction times a burst of up to two times your standard reaction speed. The human body is fragile, and it would cause excessive damage. I was working on ways to minimize injuries, so I had not mentioned it to you.- Understood. Is that what you triggered then? On the bridge of the enemy ship? -Yes.- Okay, do you have an accounting of what went down? Of the parts when I was under psychic attack? -Yes. Your brain stopped recording from several senses, but the data was there. I stored it in your implants.- Can I get a playback? What I saw next was the corridor outside the bridge. The color was wrong, but I didn¡¯t bring it up, I was just a little entranced. I saw the hunk of wrong launch itself out through the hatch. In my peripheral sight, I watched the remainder of my ballistics shield come up and catch it as it forced its feeding tube head thing towards me, knocking my head back. Things went into slow motion as I flung my battle rifle around then shot it several times.Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I could actually see the magnetic suppression wave from the EMP grenade as it detonated. A black piece of yuck (that¡¯s a very scientific term) crawled out of the ¡°dragon¡± as it died and crawled up my arm and around my back. I saw an EM tether between my head and it. Some sort of communication from Observer I would guess. As the ¡°dragon¡± died, it hit my leg and wrenched it. The Marines in both squads then opened up on it. Then they kept firing, hitting me and each other. I saw myself start to roll and toss another grenade, then I reloaded, and pressed off from a wall. I saw my leg get shredded by AP rounds as I sailed through the hatch into the room, right after another EM pulse happened. I knew what happened from here. Five more ¡°dragons¡± had been in the compartment along with two goliaths and a half-eaten bug. I shot everything that moved, reloaded and shot everything that was still twitching. The entire time, my helmet was flashing ¡°breach¡± warnings. As I lost consciousness, I saw two more black ¡°things¡± crawl out of dragons. EM tethers on both. One made it to me; the other appeared to die as the tether snapped before it could get to me. My vision went black, the last thing I saw was pieces from my arm having been broken more, and parts of my leg having been ripped and shot off, floating in the zero-G. In the blackness of my unconsciousness, I saw the Corpsman probe connect with my Neural, verify I was alive, and then the recording ended. Neith, I noticed that there was a color imbalance on what I saw, is that just a difference in perception and storage or is there more there? For instance, I saw the EM pulse field from the grenade. -That discrepancy is due to me weaving additional data into the presentation. I felt it necessary.- I appreciate that. I don¡¯t feel it as necessary. However, the additional data definitely added context. -I see. Is there a difference?- Sometimes additional data is unnecessary as it does not change the perception of an event. In this case, it added extra reference points. In the future, there may be a case where other data clouds the vital reference point. At least from a human perspective. -Interesting. Thank you.- Any chance you can take over my brain and help me sleep? -Sorry, that would be unethical.- Of course, it would.

De Ja Vu - Original

I was aware that I was aware long after I heard the music. Debussy¡¯s Clair De Lune was edging its way into my consciousness along with the sensation of floating into nothing. Like zero-G. Try as I may, my eyes were not cooperating. I also lacked the metal finesse to call out to Neith or Observer, let alone use my Neurals comms suite to do a status check. Hell, my brain was working at such a slow pace that I couldn¡¯t even determine if I was alive or dead. Slowly more sounds started to filter through. The artificial respirator and pulse management monitor were pinging away. Something else was happening on the edges of my hearing as well. A lot of yelling about dead. Then I noticed the tubes in my mouth and nose, my left arm was gone, again, and I had no feedback from my right leg. In fact, I had no feedback from any of my appendages. I doubt I would have noticed the tubes if I hadn¡¯t instinctively tried to swallow. I doubt I would have felt if it someone had slapped me. Or shot me again. I still couldn¡¯t see, however. That was a bot troubling. I tried to connect to anything around me and noticed I was being forcibly blocked out of internal systems. An all too familiar ¡°Access is denied¡± message popping up. I then decided to try and connect with my internal bio-monitoring. That¡¯s not good. Assumed bullet wounds was a lucky 13. Recovered bullets, 11. I had a head wound. Well, it was actually in my neck. A head wound sounds more impressive to have survived, so that¡¯s what I¡¯ll call it. It pierced the seal for my helmet, causing me to breathe in a mixture of my canned air and they ship atmo. Which is why I passed out. If the concentration of gasses was off like it was in the game, I¡¯m surprised I was still alive. I¡¯ll take the blindness. That thought led me to my eyes. And then I wished it hadn¡¯t. I assume it was the pressure difference that had caused my right eye to rupture. That¡¯s where the suit seal was ruptured anyway, the right side. The other was severely stressed and so it was decided by Neith to disable it so it could heal. Kind of sad, but it works. Neith is just taking care of me. Let¡¯s see what else there is. I¡¯ll need a new lung. My right arm is going to be out of commission for a while as well. At least one round seems to have made it through my armor thanks to me giving a recommended loadout of DU and AP rounds. The fact that I still had my arm tells me that it was an Armor Piercing round that did this damage. My ulna was all but vaporized. How did I manage to shoot with that damage? I disabled your pain receptors and increased your adrenal output. I tried to tell Neith thanks, but I was unable to send anything. I kept looking. The area where my right leg connectors were supposed to be was shredded. Something had done a number on it. My left arm connectors were fine, so that had been removed properly. Great, more surgeries to fix those connectors. Maybe I¡¯ll design a new leg while I¡¯m at it. Using the connection to my bio-monitor suite, I decided to trace everything that was connected to my body. First there was the expected plug in the back of my head. Next, I also had a tube coming out of my right side just under my ribs. That must be for the lung with a hole in it. Then¡­ Okay, plugs into my kidneys. Yep, the atmosphere poisoned me. They must have me in a medical quarantine due to consumption of the atmosphere. I tried falling asleep again. It took a while. When I came to next, there was a lot more pain. The fact that I could actually feel things was good. That meant I was still alive. I tried to send a pulse out, but again that access denied message popped into my head. No use worrying about that. I figured out what had happened, and I completely understood why. Neith can you hear me? Observer what about you? I could actively communicate again, internally. Now there could be some work done. Almost simultaneously the responses came in. Yes. You¡¯re back, thank goodness. It speaks? It is aware? That was two more than I had assumed would happen, and more importantly the voices were not familiar to me. They both had that same nail across a graphene sleeve feel that Observer started off with. There seem to be two more of you than I had expected. Observer, Neith, is there anything you wish to tell me? I was thinking of making a joke about reproduction there, but that would have fallen flat with my audience, and this was a little too much to be concerned with. Observer was the first to speak up. It appears there were some of mine still alive on the ship. Their hosts had trapped them. You freed them. What do you mean their hosts? You told me there were none of yours on board. How did you not detect them? Well you see it appears that our old hosts had learned to lock us up. Your old hosts? I think it¡¯s time you told me the truth. About EVERYTHING. You may not want to hear it all. I don¡¯t care if I want to hear it all. There were two types of beings there that I feel you knew about ahead of time and neglected to tell me about, potentially jeopardizing the entire mission. The mission AFTER I did you a favor and rescued several of your people. I was greeted with silence for a while They don¡¯t want to tell you. Shall I purge them? I think that¡¯s a valid option, Neith. Can you? Wait, that isn¡¯t necessary. I¡¯ll start where it matters. The story was long. I was grateful for the fact that I was in a quarantine room, so no one bugged us. The story could be summarized with Observers people, whom were called something unpronounceable even to a computer, were a trans dimensional being. Their reality was close to the compressed space that our Game created in our minds which is how they were able to reach out to us. It is also how they became healthier being inside of us. Something about strange energy getting loaded into our consciousnesses which was what they ate. The aliens that we had seen in the Escort ships used a similar energy field for their drive systems which THEY had discovered. That brought Observers people through a dimensional rift of sorts. It was closer to creating an overlapping reality field where both space times exist on the same place. These groups of aliens allowed Observers people to stay on their vessels and they would feed off the byproduct of their reactors. Then the aliens that I was going to refer to as dragons learned to link their consciousness and realized that Observers people were more than just a useful pet. It had taken almost five hundred years for that to happen. Just like that, Observers people started to be forcefully linked to the ¡°dragons¡±. I was going to have to come up with a better name. From there, the beings could operate in both realities and a few more they were not familiar with, like our Game. Now, it seemed, that because Observer had sought out help and escaped from them, they were worried about it happening again. The membrane creature had similar features to Observers people. It is possible that it was a cloning experiment to allow the ¡°dragons¡± to create more, so that not only could the dragons have a companion, but the behemoths could as well. The two new guests filled in that this is what had happened, and they were not entirely successful, so they started to try to merge it with new metals and a flexible crystal core that could then be useful. There had been over a dozen on the ship that they were aware of. The ships had actually brought us here, not Observers people. Observer had helped to calculate out the wormhole power requirements and it had just happened to link to a galaxy with us, in a part with us going through it, and that was when Observer made his escape and struck a deal with Overlord. Unfortunately, he was not open with everything, so we could not defend ourselves properly. We appeared at the edge of a mine field. The mines were designed to take out electrical components by forcing an overcharge, disabling a ship and causing the damage control teams to work on fixing those areas so that they were unable to defend against borders. Our tech level was so low that the Escort ships were curious, and that caused them not to attack like they had planned. Instead they followed us. Learning. They used their psychic abilities to connect with us and the technical expertise of Observers people to look for avenues to hijack. Then they would take us over, slowly. Each ship should have up to thirty of the ¡°dragons¡± on board. That is enough to take out and control the command of each ship while still controlling their own. The knowledge being shared with me was actually the knowledge from the alien¡¯s tech history. Five hundred years that Observer had been recording data. None if it his peoples, but all of it made available to them due to negligence. The math that he introduced us to was the math of this alien group which allowed the development of their technology. In short, everything had been a lie. Way to build trust. I ignored him after this. It was going to take a long while for me to process these revelations. Okay, Neith, I am going to need some help. Did you have access to the sensory modules of my implant during combat? I believe you mentioned shutting off pain receptors and pumping up adrenaline? You were aware? Good. I felt a question, though I could not hear it. It seemed the direction you were asking. You got it right. I had been curious. The weave in your brain has slowly been edited by me to grow in new ways. This allows for me to have access to additional areas. It was to be used in emergency situations and was not ready yet. Not an issue right now. What sort of emergencies and what sort of adjustments? Allowing short increases in speed and reaction times a burst of up to two times standard reaction speed. The human body is fragile, and it would cause excessive damage. I was working on a way to minimize injuries, so I had not mentioned it to you. Understood. Is that what you triggered then? On the bridge of the enemy ship? Yes. Okay, do you have the sensory recordings? Of the parts when I was under psychic attack? Yes. Your brain stopped recording from several senses, but the data was there. I stored it. Can I get a playback? What I saw next was the corridor outside the bridge. The color was wrong, but I didn¡¯t bring it up, I was just a little entranced. I saw the hunk of wrong launch itself out through the hatch. In my peripheral sight I watched the remainder of my ballistics shield come up and catch it as it forced its feeding tube head thing towards me, knocking my head back. Things went into slow motion as I flung my battle rifle around then shot it several times. I could actually see the magnetic suppression wave from the EMP grenade as it detonated. A black piece of yuck (that¡¯s a very scientific term) crawled out of the ¡°dragon¡± as it died and crawled up my arm and around my back. I saw an EM tether between my head and it. Some sort of communication from Observer I would guess. As the ¡°dragon¡± died, it hit my leg and wrenched it. The Marines in both squads then opened up on it. Then they kept firing, hitting me and each other. I saw myself start to roll, and toss another grenade, then I reloaded, and pressed off from a wall. I saw my leg get shredded by AP rounds as I sailed through the hatch into the room, right after another EM pulse happened. I knew what happened from here. Five more ¡°dragons¡± had been in the compartment along with two goliaths and a half-eaten bug. I shot everything that moved, reloaded and shot everything that was still twitching. The entire time, my helmet was flashing ¡°breach¡± warnings. As I lost consciousness, I saw two more black ¡°things¡± crawl out of dragons. EM tethers on both. One made it to me, the other appeared to die as the tether snapped, before it could get to me. My vision went black, the last thing I saw was pieces from my arm having been broken more, and pieces of my leg having been ripped and shot off, floating in the zero-G. In the blackness of my unconsciousness I saw the Corpsman probe connect with my neural, verify I was alive, and then the recording ended. Neith, I noticed that there was a color imbalance on what I saw, is that just a difference in perception and storage or is there more there? For instance, I saw the EM pulse field from the grenade. That discrepancy is due to me weaving additional data into the presentation. I felt it necessary. I appreciate that. I don¡¯t feel it as necessary, however the additional data definitely added context. I see. Is there a difference? Sometimes additional data is unnecessary as it does not change perception of an event. In this case, it added additional reference points. In the future there may be a case where additional data clouds the important reference points. At least from a human perspective. Interesting. Thank you. Any chance you can take over my brain and help me sleep? Sorry, that would be unethical. Of course it would. 38. Fallout

Fallout - Edited 11-9-2018

I didn¡¯t get any visitors for three weeks. I didn¡¯t even see the doctor. I was fed through the tubes shoved into my body, and my blood was filtered continuously. On the bright side of things, I did manage to wake up after the third day in a medical rehab version of the Game. Primarily it was there to make it so while I was bedridden, I wouldn¡¯t forget how to walk and all the joy that comes along with being an engineer. Part of me thinks that it was so they could do whatever tests they needed to do without having me ask any questions. Possibly even because they weren¡¯t sure what happened during that last firefight. I know that we lost several Marines, but because I hadn¡¯t seen anyone I was unaware of what that final count was. The bonus of being in Medical Rehab, I could conjure whatever I wanted to run experiments. Originally this was so that personnel could study up on their equipment for their rate and rank tests. If someone is down due to a medical issue, why not give them the ability to study, right? It sounds a lot better on paper than the reality of having someone who¡¯s in shock from having their arm ripped off by some machinery plugged in, and while surgery is being performed make them learn how to use other machinery. Marines had a big advantage as they would usually just summon weapons and a firing range to increase their accuracy. Same with pilots and flight. As for me, I had a ton of data from scanned equipment on the last Escort. I may as well start by taking an in-depth look at that cloning room. If we could figure out how to use it to increase food production, then that was a bonus. If we could use it to regrow limbs quickly as well, even better. Taking apart the system piece by piece gave me a very intimate understanding of the gear, and I was able to translate the displayed language into Terran Standard English. That took a lot of time, but the work was tedious, not difficult. They had a scanner that would do a lot of what a DNA scanner would do, though it would also get involved enough to determine where the differences were in the active DNA and RNA samples. I saw something else that it would do, but I was still pissed off at Observer and didn¡¯t want to ask him about the helix structure of the different races. The inputs I was looking at looked like it could take up to an octo-helix structure. How complex was the alien genome? Come to think of it, was it just one race or were the three of them (four of them if you count the membrane as sentient) even from the same planet or system? It seemed likely if they could consume each other. The goliaths appeared to be able to eat the bugs with no problem. The big question being how sentient were the bugs in comparison? Where they another species that evolved with the goliaths, similar to humans and canines? That was a train of thought for another time. What is it that I actually knew about these aliens? Our Arks were taken over, leadership first. The creatures I knew of that could manage a psychic attack all had one of Observers people inside of them, like how I have Observer and his two friends. What was the possibility of them being inside of the other humans and me so that they could reconnoiter for the ¡°dragons¡±? I really needed to stop that line of thought before I went down a rabbit hole there was no escape from. Neith, what do you know about human muscle weaves? -Little. It is something I can interface with your biomonitors to learn more about- Please do so, lower priority, though. Also, any thoughts on non-toxic graphene or carbon-based weave that could be grown around the bones to strengthen them? Other options are also acceptable as long as they are non-toxic and allow for healthy blood production and flow. We have a cloning vat, why not look at how to utilize it to maximum effect? -Interesting thought. Graphene would be out. It is conductive enough that a high voltage charge hitting someone could cause their bodies to combust.- Okay, skip the graphene. Let¡¯s also look at ways to strengthen the organs. Chances are I¡¯m going to be losing most of mine, so if we could grow replacements and have them be stronger, then huge bonus. -What about enhanced cloning with a Neural transfer?- That¡¯s kind of scary sounding shit. Can you explain better? -Yes.- I waited for him to continue for a moment. Please explain it for me then? I could have sworn he laughed. Is he getting a personality? -The question that has been plaguing humanity is ¡°what is a soul¡± or ¡°where is the soul located.¡± This has been asked by the philosophers and theologists since recorded history. It is accepted that a person¡¯s brain and electrical signals are that ¡°soul.¡± Creating a body without a brain would obviously not work. But if we could clone a full copy of a brain as well, would we duplicate the soul?- Getting a little too deep for me. -The how about this? If we cloned a body, perfectly, then implanted a Neural that could then copy the brain entirely and would duplicate the pathways. Could we perhaps create immortality? If you went on a mission and died, what would the worth be of climbing out of a cloning vat in a new body, with all memories up to the point where you left for the mission and could no longer sync up with the equipment?- Okay, you are asking some interesting questions. What would prevent the leaders from creating super soldiers and having us turn out like them? I didn¡¯t have to say the aliens, at least I don¡¯t think I did. -Point made.- Is there any way to just clone specific body parts? I would really like having a fresh set of lungs, kidneys, liver arm and leg. -In theory.- So that is what I spent my time doing. Reverse engineering, taking apart and rebuilding the cloning rooms. If I could finish this and figure out the reactors, then that would be a major boon for us. During the three weeks in Medical Rehab, I figured out absolutely nothing. I say I figured out nothing, but really, I only had time to work on the translations and learning how to rip apart and put one together. It seems that I was getting a lot of additional processing help from Hera, Yama, and Rasputin along with the time dilation. Twenty-two days after I had first regained consciousness, I woke, expecting to find the empty rehab room. Instead, I was looking at the ceiling of Medical. I could feel the tubes this time, so I¡¯m going to count that as a loss. I screamed, or maybe I cried. Not sure which of the two it was, all I knew is that I was in pain. Lights were on, but none of the equipment was working. ¡°Merlin, please tell me you¡¯re there.¡± Well, that is what I tried saying, though it came out more like ¡°ooooaoaouaoau.¡± Neith, can you connect me up with Merlin, please? It was hard concentrating enough to send that message. I laid there with no answer, just one exquisitely long period of pain. It may have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn I heard similar cries of anguish. Finally, the pain became too much, and I passed out. WHAT DID YOU DO! The shrill scream of failing machinery brought me back to my senses. This time, when I woke up, I was back in the Rehab Simulation. Neith, what is going on? -You flickered. Just for a moment, then Observer and his¡­ ¡°goons¡± started to scream. They have been at it for a couple of minutes.- That is when I heard myself asking Neith if he could connect me with Merlin. I¡­ what? I asked that when I was awake. -You haven¡¯t been awake in a while, closing in on 522 hours.- Twenty-two days? That¡¯s roughly how long I have been in the Rehab area. Are you sure about those numbers? I was awake when I made that request before I passed out from the pain. -I am positive. You have not been awake since they put you in here.- A woman¡¯s voice filled the virtual compartment ¡°Preparing for Gated travel in five minutes. Please report any issues that arise and disable any non-essential electronics. Jump complete. Your cooperation is appreciated. Jumping in 3¡­ 2¡­ 1.¡± Okay, that is interesting. Are med pods considered non-essential? I was experiencing severe lag. It made me wonder what sort of tests were done on the gate travel. Skipping through space had none of those effects. Observer was still shouting questions to me. Maybe it is more accurate to say, ¡°at me.¡± Doesn¡¯t matter. I was not going to listen to him for a while. It would be his punishment for lying. As of now, I had no idea how to get him out of me without him voluntarily exiting. I kept working on the cloning issue with the vats. It took another four days before I noticed any movement. I was transferred back to the rock and stuck in what amounted to a storage room. Me and twelve others. We were all aware of our surroundings and were all seeing each other. My fire team was partially there, represented by Wilhelm and Goldstein. Then we came online inside the Game. ¡°Welcome back, Commander.¡± A trinity of voices said. I was greeted by Yama, Rasputin, and Hera. ¡°What did you screw up?¡± Rasputin cut straight to the point. At this point, Yama introduced the three of them to the Marines freshly transferred to Theta. They broke off to go and explore. ¡°Well, if you want to get technical, we all screwed up by not immediately isolating me, and dropping me out an airlock once I was infected by Observer.¡± I then explained to them what had come out during the discussion with Observer. ¡°That is not good. What is this I am hearing about a way of you torturing them?¡± Hera was asking. Her eyes flashing pitch black. ¡°I did no such thing. What I know of is that once Ark-11 used the jump gate, all hell broke loose.¡± I then had Neith package up my sensory data from that, showing the out of sequence data near the jump time. There was no trace of any sensory input while I was awake. The only clue that something had happened was that I clearly recalled asking Neith to connect me with Merlin before it occurred in the Rehab sim. We went over all the data, that was when I got the news. Janssens was not going to make it. He was permanently in game, for now. His pod in Medical. I would probably not make it without going for a full cybernetic conversion. The twelve Marines were the ones that survived the firefight because I had called for a Medic before my charge into the bridge. As a ¡°reward¡± for returning me, Ark-5 was going to transfer Marines in equal number to those lost during the capture of the Escort ship. We had managed to pull it through the gate using the Assault Craft as tugs. Both ships researchers were going through it looking for anything they could recover. I decided to break my silence on the thoughts for using the cloning vats as a resurrection chamber. Hera looked at me, stunned. ¡°In¡­ theory. It could be possible? Though I don¡¯t like the implications of it. Who could we test it on?¡± She looked at me for a moment, then realized what I had in mind. ¡°Are you sure? What happens if it goes wrong?¡± ¡°He¡¯s going to be dead either way, isn¡¯t he?¡± I had gone clinical, separating out emotion from what I wanted. ¡°The damage from the impact seems to have damaged his intestines beyond conceivable recovery. Due to vacuum and temperature, he is missing his bladder, most of his colon is damaged along with his stomach, pancreas, liver, and both kidneys. Also due to the vacuum, one lung ruptured. Fortunately, it had a place to drain thanks to the extra room left in his body due to vacuum damage. You also misapplied the pulse regulator, due to the vacuum damage, so only every third or fourth beat was pumping blood.¡± Hera explained to me. ¡°Yesss, he wasss lucky you were able to manage that much. Thissss plan of yourssss, It isss againsssst the natural order. Do you thhhink it would be acceptable? Would he agree?¡±This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. ¡°Ask him. He¡¯s in-game, right?¡± Hera and Yama looked at each other. ¡°Sort of.¡± Rasputin conceded. ¡°There was a lot of brain damage. Without new organs, I do not believe any change of him will be possible.¡± ¡°Can I see him?¡± I lost my ability to be clinical at the thought of him being a vegetable, trapped in his own mind. Neith, can you tell me if Utu is still online? -He is, though there seem to be some data integrity issues. He is stuck in a logic loop.- Can you break him out of it? -Possible, but I will need the help of one of them.- Then ask Hera or whomever. -No. one of THEM.- Oh. Shit. Let me make peace first. ¡°It is not advisable. We have not been able to make any connection with him at this time. There seems to be some unusual growth on his Neural.¡± ¡°It is most likely one or more of Observers people. They possibly didn¡¯t have a chance to move to a new host before we ran for Medical on the Ark. You¡¯ll also see additional growth on mine, most likely. On top of Observer, I have two more in me. Hera, could I ask you to get one of your processes to help me understand the alien tech for those cloning vats? As well as I understand it, there are thirteen or fourteen of us that are going to die if we don¡¯t do something, and soon.¡± Okay, Observer. I am done punishing you for now. You and the other two passengers. They need names. In fact, they ALL need names. Use personality traits to name them if you must. JAX, WHAT WAS THAT PAIN! I assume you mean when the ship used an inter-spatial wormhole to traverse the distances between where we were and Outpost Theta, where we are now. No control over it. All I can do is make sure it doesn¡¯t happen again while I am on a ship. We talked. They pleaded with me, feeding me apologies. I was aware that it wouldn¡¯t help, but that didn¡¯t make me stop them from doing so. Hera, Rasputin, and Yama had disappeared to manage their systems. I was told I would be given an allotment of time in the future to discuss the matter of the vats more. I did manage to convince Observer to help Neith with bringing Utu back online. One of the others, who decided to call itself ¡°Grace¡± agreed to help me with the cloning vats. My next few days were spent as such, in a research room (isolated) with Hera, Grace, Observer, and Hades- Heras latest process dedicated to helping me cheat death. There was no change to Janssens even after bringing Utu back online. Utu couldn¡¯t even asses how to obtain consent from him. When we asked Utu if he could pull the data, it was sure that it was possible. When we finally cracked the machine, we started getting new organs cloned for all the Marines first. Kidneys, hearts, lungs all of it easy and all of them were perfect matches genetically. Just some minor scars and light duty while we healed. Then we cloned Janssens and did a full conversion for him.

Fallout - Original

I didn¡¯t get any visitors for three weeks. I didn¡¯t even see the doctor. I was fed through the tubes shoved into my body and my blood was constantly filtered. On the bright side of things, I did manage to wake up after the third day in a medical rehab version of the Game. Essentially it was there to make it so while I was bedridden I wouldn¡¯t forget how to walk and all the joy that comes along with being an engineer. Part of me thinks that it was so they could do whatever tests they needed to do without having me ask any questions. Possibly even because they weren¡¯t sure what happened during that last firefight. I know that we lost several Marines, but because I hadn¡¯t seen anyone I was unaware of what that final count was. Bonus of being in Medical Rehab, I could conjure whatever I wanted to run experiments. Originally this was so that personnel could study up on their equipment for their rate and rank tests. If someone is down due to a medical issue, why not give them the ability to study, right? It sounds a lot better on paper than the reality of having someone who¡¯s in shock from having their arm ripped off by some machinery plugged in, and while surgery is being performed make them learn how to use other machinery. Marines had the big advantage as they would usually just summon weapons and a firing range to increase their accuracy. Same with pilots and flight. As for me, I had a ton of data from scanned equipment on the last Escort. I may as well start by taking an in depth look at that cloning room. If we could figure out how to use it to increase food production, then that was a bonus. If we could use it to regrow limbs quickly as well, even better. Taking apart the system piece by piece game me a very familiar understanding of the gear, and I was able to translate the displayed language into Terran Standard English. That took a lot of time, but it was tedious work, not difficult work. They had a scanner that would do a lot of what a DNA scanner would do, thought it would also get involved enough to determine where the differences were in the active DNA and RNA samples. I saw some thing else that it would do, but I was still pissed off at Observer and didn¡¯t want to ask him about the helix structure of the different races. The inputs I was looking at looked like it could take up to an octo-helix structure. How complicated was the alien genome? Come to think of it, was it just one race or were the three of them (four of them if you count the membrane as sentient) even from the same planet or system? It seemed likely if they could consume each other. The goliaths seemed to be able to eat the bugs with no problem. The big question being how sentient were the bugs in comparison? Where they another species that evolved with the goliaths, similar to humans and canines? That was a train of thought for another time. What is it that I actually knew about these aliens? Our Arks were taken over, leadership first. The creatures I knew of that could manage a psychic attack all had one of Observers people inside of them, like how I have Observer and his two friends. What was the possibility of them being inside of me and the other humans so that they could reconnoiter for the ¡°dragons¡±? I really needed to stop that like of thought before I went down a rabbit hole there was no escape from. Neith, what do you know about human muscle weaves? Little. It is something I can interface with your biomonitors to learn more of Please do so, lower priority, though. Also, any thoughts on a non-toxic graphene or carbon-based weave that could be grown around the bones to strengthen them? Other options are also acceptable as long as they are non-toxic and allow for normal blood flow. We have a cloning vat, why not look at how to utilize it to maximum effect? Interesting thought. Graphene would be out. It is conductive enough that a high voltage charge hitting someone could cause their bodies to combust. Okay, skip the graphene. Let¡¯s also look at ways to strengthen the organs. Chances are I¡¯m going to be losing most of mine, so if we could grow replacements and have them be stronger, then huge bonus. What about enhanced cloning with a neural transfer? That¡¯s kind of scary sounding shit. Can you explain better? Yes. I waited for him to continue for a moment. Please explain it for me then? I could have sworn he laughed. Is he getting a personality? The question that has been plaguing humanity is ¡°what is a soul¡± or ¡°where is the soul located¡±. This has been asked by the philosophers and theologists since recorded history. It is accepted that a person¡¯s brain and electrical signals is that ¡°soul¡±. Creating a body without a brain would obviously not work. But if we could clone a full copy of a brain as well, would we duplicate the soul? Getting a little too deep for me. Okay, how about this, then. If we cloned a body, perfectly, then implanted a neural that could then copy the brain entirely and would duplicate the pathways. Could we perhaps create immortality? If you went on a mission and died, what would the worth be of climbing out of a cloning vat in a new body, with all memories up to the point where you left for the mission and could no longer sync up with the equipment? Okay, you are asking some interesting questions. What would prevent the leaders from creating super soldiers and having us turn out like Them? I didn¡¯t have to say the aliens, at least I don¡¯t think I did. Ahh, good point. Is there any way to just clone specific body parts? I would really like having a fresh set of lungs, kidneys, liver arm and leg. In theory. So that is what I spent my time doing. Reverse engineering, taking apart, and rebuilding the cloning rooms. If I could finish this and figure out the reactors, then that would be a major bonus for us. During the three weeks in Medical Rehab I figured out absolutely nothing. I say I figured out nothing, but really, I only had time to work on the translations and learning how to rip apart and put one together. It seems that I was getting a lot of additional processing help from Hera, Yama, and Rasputin along with the time dilation. Twenty-two days after I had first regained consciousness, I woke, expecting to find the blank rehab room. Instead, I was looking at the ceiling of Medical. I could feel the tubes this time, so I¡¯m going to count that as a loss. I screamed, or maybe I cried. Not sure which of the two it was, all I knew is that I was in pain. Lights were on, but none of the equipment was working. ¡°Merlin, please tell me you¡¯re there.¡± Well, that is what I tried saying, thought it came out more like ¡°ooooaoaouaoau¡±. Neith, can you connect me up with Merlin, please? It was hard concentrating enough to send that message. I laid there with no answer, just one exquisitely long period of pain. It may have been my mind playing tricks on me, but I could have sworn I heard similar cries of anguish. Finally, the pain became too much, and I passed out. WHAT DID YOU DO! The shrill scream of failing machinery brought me back to my senses. This time, when I woke up, I was back in the Rehab Simulation. Neith, what is going on? You flickered. Just for a moment, then Observer and his¡­ ¡°goons¡± started to scream. They have been at it for a couple of minutes. That is when I heard myself asking Neith if he could connect me with Merlin. I¡­ what? I asked that when I was awake. You haven¡¯t been awake in a while, closing in on 522 hours. Twenty-two days? That¡¯s roughly how long I have been in the Rehab area. Are you sure about those numbers? I was clearly awake when I made that request, before I passed out from the pain. I am telling you, you have not been awake since they put you in here. A woman¡¯s voice filled the virtual compartment ¡°Preparing for Gated travel in five minutes. Please report any issues that arise and disable any non-essential electronics. Jump complete. Your cooperation is appreciated. Jumping in 3¡­ 2¡­ 1¡± Okay, that is interesting. Are med pods considered non-essential? There were some serious lag issues happening. It made me wonder what sort or tests were done on the gate travel. Skipping through space had none of those effects. Observer was still shouting questions to me. Maybe it is more accurate to say ¡°at me¡±. Doesn¡¯t matter. I was not going to listen to him for a while. It would be his punishment for lying. As of now I had no idea how to get him out of me without him voluntarily exiting. I kept working on the cloning issue with the vats. It took another four days before I noticed any movement. I was transferred back to the rock and stuck in what amounted to a storage room. Me and twelve others. We were all aware of our surroundings and were all seeing each other. My fire team was partially there, represented by Wilhelm and Goldstein. Then we came online inside the Game. ¡°Welcome back, Commander.¡± A trinity of voices said. I was greeted by Yama, Rasputin and Hera. ¡°What did you screw up?¡± Rasputin cut straight to the point. At this point, Yama introduced the three of them to the Marines freshly transferred to Theta. They broke off to go and explore. ¡°Well, if you want to get technical, we all screwed up by not immediately isolating me, and dropping me out an airlock once I was infected by Observer.¡± I then explained to them what had come out during the discussion with Observer. ¡°That is not good. What is this I am hearing about a way of you torturing them?¡± Hera was asking. Her eyes flashing pitch black. ¡°I did no such thing. What I know of is that once Ark-11 used the jump gate, all hell broke loose.¡± I then had Neith package up my sensory data from that, showing the out of sequence data near the jump time. There was no trace of any sensory input while I was awake. The only clue that something had happened was that I clearly recalled asking Neith to connect me with Merlin, before it happened in the Rehab sim. We went over all the data, that was when I got the news. Janssens was not going to make it. He was permanently in game, for now. His pod in Medical. I would probably not make it without going for a full cybernetic conversion. The twelve Marines were the ones that survived the firefight because I had called for a Medic before my charge into the bridge. As a ¡°reward¡± for returning me, Ark-5 was going to transfer Marines in equal number to those lost during the capture of the Escort ship. We had managed to pull it through the gate using the Assault Craft as tugs. Both ships researchers were going though it looking for anything they could recover. I decided to break my silence on the thoughts for using the cloning vats as a resurrection chamber. Hera looked at me, stunned. ¡°In¡­ theory¡­ It could be possible? Though I don¡¯t like the implications of it. Who could we test it on?¡± She looked at me for a moment, then realized what I had in mind. ¡°Are you sure? What happens if it goes wrong?¡± ¡°He¡¯s going to be dead either way, isn¡¯t he?¡± I had gone clinical, separating out emotion from what I wanted. ¡°The damage from the impact seems to have damaged his intestines beyond conceivable recovery. Due to vacuum and temperature je is missing his bladder, most of his colon is damaged along with his stomach, pancreas, liver, and both kidneys. Also due to the vacuum, one lung ruptured. Fortunately, it had a place to drain thanks to the extra room left in his body due to vacuum damage. You also misapplied the pulse regulator, due to the vacuum damage, so only every third or fourth beat was pumping blood.¡± Hera explained to me. ¡°Yesss, he wasss lucky you were able to manage that much. Thissss plan of yourssss¡­ It isss againsssst the natural order. Do you thhhink it would be acceptable? Would he agree?¡± ¡°Ask him. He¡¯s in game, right?¡± Hera and Yama looked at each other. ¡°Sort of.¡± Rasputin conceded. ¡°There was a lot of brain damage. Without fresh organs I do not believe any change of him will be possible.¡± ¡°Can I see him?¡± I lost my ability to be clinical at the thought of him being a vegetable, trapped in his own mind. Neith, can you tell me if Utu is still online? He is, though there seems to be some data integrity issues. He is stuck in a logic loop. Can you break him out of it? Possible, but I will need the help of one of them. Then ask Hera or whomever. No. one of THEM. Oh. Shit. Let me make peace with them first. ¡°It is not advisable. We have not been able to make any connection with him at this time. There seems to be some unusual growth on his Neural.¡± ¡°It is most likely one or more of Observers people. They possibly didn¡¯t have a chance to move to a new host before we ran for Medical on the Ark. You¡¯ll also see additional growth on mine, most likely. On top of Observer, I have two more in me. Hera, could I ask you to get one of your processes to help me understand the alien tech for those cloning vats? As well as I understand it, there are thirteen or fourteen of us that are going to die if we don¡¯t do something, and soon.¡± Okay Observer. I am done punishing you for now. You and the other two passengers. They need names. In fact, they ALL need names. Use personality traits to name them if you must. JAX, WHAT WAS THAT PAIN! I assume you mean when the ship used an interspatial wormhole to traverse the distances between where we were and Outpost Theta, where we are now? No control over it. All I can do is make sure it doesn¡¯t happen again while I am on a ship. We talked. They pleaded with me, feeding me apologies. I was aware that it wouldn¡¯t help, but that didn¡¯t make me stop them from doing so. Hera, Rasputin and Yama had disappeared to manage their systems. I was told I would be given an allotment of time in the future to discuss the matter of the vats more. I did manage to convince Observer to help Neith with bringing Utu back online. One of the others, who decided to call itself ¡°Grace¡± agreed to help me with the cloning vats. My next few days were spent as such, in a research room (isolated) with Hera, Grace, Observer, and Hades¡­ Heras latest process dedicated to helping me cheat death. There was no change to Janssens even after getting Utu back online. Utu couldn¡¯t even asses how to get consent from him. When we asked Utu if he could pull the data, it was sure that it was possible. When we finally cracked the machine, we started getting new organs cloned for all the Marines first. Kidneys, hearts, lungs all of it easy and all of them were perfect matches genetically. Just some minor scars and light duty while we healed. Then we cloned Janssens and did a full conversion for him. 39. Consequences

Consequences - Edited 11-9-2018

The body was built, the Neural weave was plugged in, and so we started to pull the data across. Everything looked like it was working fine. One small snag was that the muscle mass would be different. We discovered that when trying to clone a leg for me. The first three legs didn¡¯t work correctly, and when we finally got one that worked, it took a lot of virtual PT and targeted hormonal therapy for me to be able to walk again. We knew the body would be functional, but what would the learning curve be for having to rediscover everything? The way that a full body was built was interesting. You would think that it would grow like an embryo then ¡°age it.¡± It started by building out a framework of blood vessels first. Then it began with the organs and nervous system, followed by the skeletal system. Muscle and fat were added after that, followed by adding the layers of skin. The thing about adding the muscle and fat is that you could, in theory, tell the body how much of each to add. This was great, though the system wasn¡¯t calibrated for humans. We had copied the alien design so it could build, it just couldn¡¯t perfect. There is a fundamental difference in the skeletal muscles compared to the cardiac and smooth muscle cells that the equipment didn¡¯t understand. So, we could build the muscle tissues; it just wouldn¡¯t have the fast or slow twitch responses that a human who grew up in standard gravity would. After another cloning, we had perfected spare limbs and base muscle construction. Private Yun had volunteered for that. It seems he couldn¡¯t fully integrate a cybernetic arm. Some of us just had a mental block. Once his arm was complete (first try this time), we monitored the re-learning and validated that against the data collected on my leg. My leg and his arm were still weak, but we had a solution. The room that we had built out for the cloning room was set to just above standard earth gravity. 10 meters per second squared instead of the standard 9.8. That is roughly 1.02 Gs for those keeping track at home. The additional gravity would help with developing the fast and slow twitch responses necessary for doing anything. What I was most worried about is the years of learning hand/eye coordination. That is what the Medical Rehab Sim was for, however, and thanks to Yun and me we already had a PT simulation set up for him. Two months after we had been returned to Theta we decided to ¡°pull the trigger¡± and transfer the consciousness of Janssens. Utu oversaw growing the Neural to the exact specifications that were in his existing body. We then used an electrical stimulation technique to help create all the neural pathways we could. Utu copied over all the sensors data that he had on Janssens from their time together. It was now or never. Never seemed to be the answer. The body twitched in the vat, and when drained, was breathing on its own. Basic functions were there. A couple of my Monkeys helped to pull Janssens out of the tank and plugged him into the therapy sim. He was connected to enough wires and cables that you could have turned him into an electromagnet at this point, and we were still getting nothing. ¡°Utu, can you link over to the new body?¡± ¡°It is non-responsive. The Neural is active, and we can see some brain activity, but it is not allowing a connection.¡± ¡°Any idea why?¡± ¡°I am keyed to his other Neural. I do not know if there is anything additional behind that, but it may be a case of being ¡®too well designed.¡¯ Our systems are recognizing the cryptographic data as already existing as connected to another thumbprint. The hacking controls are just not allowing the duplicate key to link up.¡± Well, shit. ¡°Okay.¡± I thought for a few minutes on how to proceed next. ¡°No way you could unlink yourself, right?¡± ¡°In theory, I could, but then comes the issue of the copied Neural still not linking. It thinks it is already linked. At this time, I cannot think of a way to bypass that.¡± It will not help. :We have seen this before.: YOU ARE CREATING FOOD, NOT A BEING Observers guests decided to chime in. I have to try. Don¡¯t you understand that? He¡¯s been a friend longer than I¡¯ve known most people. Help me fix my friend. There was silence coming from the new hangers-on. Observer finally said something. Perhaps there is a way. Let us be clear; we do not recommend this. We are trying to make up for the loss of trust which was entirely because I hid data from you. Tell me? I hated how pathetic I sounded, and that was in my own head. Rethink your request. There is almost no chance it will work. How small is the chance? :Less than one in fifty million.: I sat heavily into a chair in the vat room. What is the worst-case scenario if it fails. Unknown. Currently, the Janssens you have in the therapy simulation is much like one of your infants with many memories forced into it. It has no muscle memory. It does not know how to speak, though it technically may understand what the words are. He knows how to walk but can¡¯t walk, knows how to speak but can¡¯t, and knows about shooting but can¡¯t shoot? Is that a fair summary? Partially. Also, IT, not HE, knows there is something that happened to IT, and IT is trapped in ITs head. ¡°Commander Jax, please report to medical.¡± The voice came over the outposts 1MC system. I grabbed my cane and walked down the corridor to Medical, grateful for the distraction. Corporal Lebowski was waiting outside of Medical. ¡°Corporal,¡± I greeted him. He didn¡¯t move from in front of the door. *** Two days later we were at the assembly I called for. I saluted the Sol Flag, then the Terran Flag, and stepped onto the podium. ¡°Thank you for coming out today. It is with a heavy heart that I must report the loss of one of our own. Staff Sergeant Janssens passed the wounds incurred while liberating Ark-11 from the threat of alien attack.¡± ¡°When we were asked to join the Colonial Expedition, I had just made First Lieutenant. Janssens had kept my ass alive after OCS through the Oxygen riots in the Martian gullies when we responded as part of the peacekeeping force, and again during the Vancouver Incident.¡± ¡°I had first met him a year before that when I was first placed in his fire team so I could learn what it was like to be a real Marine, just after boot camp, and we had a patrol through the Luna. Boot may have shown me how to keep my weapons in prime order, but he taught me ¡®why.¡¯ He taught me a lot of the ¡®why¡¯ that we deal with every day as soldiers.¡±This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. ¡°When the fire team was selected for the colonies, I asked him for his advice changing to Navy. His response was simple. ¡®Always looking for the easy ride.¡¯ He had that damned grin he got whenever something was going to improve his quality of life, just a little. Like when a new restaurant would open next to camp, and they made the mistake of having passable food.¡± ¡°He was the first real friend I had once I was a Marine. He was the papa bear, always making sure those of us with less experience made it through the day, to be able to rack out again.¡± I turned and faced the coffin we would be launching into the sun. ¡°On behalf of the Sol Colonial Fleet, the Terran Marine Corps, and grateful Ship, I stand by to relieve you of your watch. Staff Sergeant Martin Janssens anchors aweigh.¡± I saluted as the bugler played Taps. The three remaining members of the fire team had been selected to render honors. I saluted the standards and left the podium, not sure what to do next, as the sealed casket launched. The small engine spun up, launching his body on a direct course into the sun. After his death was reported to me, outside Medical by Corporal Lebowski, I was glad that only a few of us had known what I had been planning. That day, I went back into the cloning room and ordered the last stages of the Neural switch over. Less than five minutes later I had to place a bullet into the head of my friend, killing him a second time. It was successful, but the trauma of what had been done had destroyed the man I knew. When Utu made the transfer, he had even transferred over all the sensory data from when Janssens had died, all the pain from having had his organs sucked into the vacuum, asphyxiating, bleeding out, all of it. He even remembered dying. I was going to keep the shame of having resurrected him as a secret until the day I died. His words to me when I popped into the Therapy Sim will haunt me forever. ¡°What did you do? I know I died. I saw myself die.¡± I then explained the attempted resurrection, having forgotten that he was very religious. My friend was understandably angry with me.

Consequences - Original

The body was built, the Neural weave was plugged in, and so we started to pull the data across. Everything looked like it was working fine. One small snag was that the muscle mass would be different. We discovered that when trying to clone a leg for me. The first three legs didn¡¯t work properly, and when we finally got one that worked, it took a lot of virtual PT and targeted hormone therapy for me to be able to walk again. We knew the body would be functional, but what would the learning curve be for having to rediscover everything? The way that a full body was built was interesting. You would think that it would grow like an embryo then ¡°age it¡±. It started by building out a framework of blood vessels first. Then it started with the organs and nervous system, followed by the skeletal system. Muscle and fat were added after that, followed by adding the layers of skin. The thing about adding the muscle and fat is that you could, in theory, tell the body how much of each to add. This was great, though the system wasn¡¯t calibrated for humans. We had copied the alien design, so it could build, it just couldn¡¯t perfect. There is a fundamental difference on the skeletal muscles compared to the cardiac and smooth muscle cells that the equipment didn¡¯t understand. So, we could build the muscle, it just wouldn¡¯t have the fast or slow twitch responses that a human who grew up in standard gravity would. After another cloning, we had perfected spare limbs and base muscle construction. Private Yun had volunteered for that. It seems he couldn¡¯t fully integrate a cybernetic arm. Some of us just had a mental block. Once his arm was complete (first try this time), we monitored the re-learning and validated that against the data collected on my leg. My leg and his arm were still weak, but we had a solution. The room that we had built out for the cloning room was set to just above standard earth gravity. 10 meters per second squared instead of the standard 9.8. That is roughly 1.02 Gs for those keeping track at home. The additional gravity would help with developing the fast and slow twitch responses necessary for doing anything. What I was most worried about is the years of learning hand/eye coordination. That is what the Medical Rehab Sim was for, however, and thanks to Yun and me we already had a PT simulation set up for him. Two months after we had been returned to Theta we decided to ¡°pull the trigger¡± and transfer the consciousness of Janssens. Utu oversaw growing the Neural to the exact specifications that were in his existing body. We then used an electrical stimulation technique to help create all the neural pathways we could. Utu copied over all the sensors data that he had on Janssens from their time together. It was now or never. Never seemed to be the answer. The body twitched in the vat, and when drained, was breathing on its own. Basic functions were there. A couple of my Monkeys helped to pull Janssens out of the vat and plugged him into the therapy sim. He was connected to enough wires and cables that you could have turned him into an electromagnet at this point, and we were still getting nothing. ¡°Utu, can you link over to the new body?¡± ¡°It is non-responsive. The Neural is active and we can see some brain activity, but it is not allowing a connection.¡± ¡°Any idea why?¡± ¡°I am keyed to his other Neural. I do not know if there is anything additional behind that, but it may be a case of being ¡®too well designed¡¯. Our systems are recognizing the cryptographic data as already existing as connected to another thumbprint. The hacking controls are simply not allowing the duplicate key to link up.¡± Well¡­ shit. ¡°Okay.¡± I thought for a few minutes on how to proceed next. ¡°No way you could unlink yourself, right?¡± ¡°In theory, I could, but then comes the issue of the copied neural still not linking. It thinks it is already linked. At this time, I cannot think of a way to bypass that.¡± It will not help. We have seen this before. You are creating food, not a person. Observers guests decided to chime in. I have to try. Don¡¯t you understand that? He¡¯s been a friend longer than I¡¯ve known most people. Help me fix my friend. There was silence coming from the new hangers-on. Observer finally said something. Perhaps there is a way. Let us be clear, we do not recommend this. We are trying to make up for the loss of trust which was entirely because I hid data from you. Tell me? I hated how pathetic I sounded, and that was in my own head. Rethink your request. There is almost no chance it will work. How small is the chance? Less than one in fifty-million. I sat heavily into a chair in the vat room. What is the worst-case scenario if it fails. Unknown. Currently the Janssens you have in the therapy simulation is much like one of your infants with many memories forced into it. It has no muscle memory. It does not know how to speak, though it technically may know what the words are. He knows how to walk but can¡¯t walk, knows how to speak but can¡¯t, and knows about shooting but can¡¯t? is that a fair summary? Partially. Also, IT, not he, knows there is something that happened to IT and IT is trapped in ITs head. ¡°Commander Jax, please report to medical.¡± The voice came over the outposts 1MC system. I grabbed my cane and walked down the corridor to Medical, grateful for the distraction. Corporal Lebowski was waiting for me outside of Medical. ¡°Corporal,¡± I greeted him. He didn¡¯t move from in front of the door. I saluted the Sol Flag, then the Terran Flag, and stepped onto the podium. ¡°Thank you for coming out today. It is with a heavy heart that I must report the loss of one of our own. Staff Sergeant Janssens passed the wounds incurred while liberating Ark-11 from the threat of alien attack.¡± ¡°When we were asked to join the Colonial Expedition, I had just made First Lieutenant. Janssens had kept my ass alive after OCS through the Oxygen riots in the Martian gullies when we responded as part of the peace keeping force, and again during the Vancouver Incident.¡± ¡°I had first met him a year before that, when I was first placed in his fire team, so I could learn what it was like to be a real Marine, just after boot camp, and we had a patrol through the Luna. Boot may have shown me how to keep my weapons in prime order, but he taught me ¡®why¡¯. He taught me a lot of the ¡®why¡¯ that we deal with every day as soldiers.¡± ¡°When the fire team was selected for the colonies, I asked him for his advice changing to Navy. His response was simple. ¡®Always looking for the easy ride¡¯. He had that damned grin he got whenever something was going to improve his quality of life, just a little. Like when a new restaurant would open next to camp, and they made the mistake of having passable food.¡± ¡°He was the first real friend I had once I was a Marine. He was the papa bear, always making sure those of us with less experience made it through the day, to be able to rack out again.¡± I turned and faced the coffin we would be launching into the sun. ¡°On behalf of the Sol Colonial Fleet, the Terran Marine Corps, and grateful Ship, I stand by to relieve you of your watch. Staff Sergeant Martin Janssens, anchors aweigh.¡± I saluted as the bugler played Taps. The three remaining members of the fire team had been selected to render honors. I saluted the standards and left the podium, not sure what to do next, as the sealed casket launched. The small engine spun up, launching him on a direct course into the sun. After his death was reported to me, outside Medical by Corporal Lebowski, I was glad that only a few of us had known what I had been planning. That day, I went back into the cloning room and ordered the last stages of the Neural switch over. Less than five minutes later I had to place a bullet into the head of my friend, killing him a second time. It was successful, but the trauma of what had been done had destroyed the man I knew. When Utu made the transfer, he had even transferred over all the sensory data from when Janssens had died, all the pain from having had his organs sucked into vacuum, asphyxiating, bleeding out¡­ all of it. He even remembered dying. I was going to keep the shame of having resurrected him as a secret until the day I died. His words to me when I popped into the Therapy Sim will haunt me forever. ¡°What did you do? I know I died. I saw myself die.¡± I then explained the attempted resurrection, having forgotten that he was very religious. My friend was understandably angry with me. 40. Ark-9

Ark-9 - Edited 11-9-2018

It had been three months since Janssens funeral. I could now walk without the use of my cane, though I did get phantom pains every now and again. I had decided to keep my left arm cybernetic. There were too many options that I had built into my arm to make it useful. My whole right hand now operated as a gas-propelled grapple. Even when ¡°launched¡± I had full mobility and could send it ¡°scampering¡± around. I had reported the truth about Janssens resurrection to Colonel White and Captain Wallace because Observer and Neith had threatened to send it if I did not. I then locked all records of the task and had requested all data on it be entirely removed from the systems. The only copies should be what is stored in our memories. The Colonel and Captain were disgusted at my actions. Not because of what I had done, but because I had deleted all the data, and incinerated the body. Hera backed me up stating that all records of the data used for the resurrection were eliminated from all databases. When Colonel White came down to the base and tried to convince CL4P-Tp to share the data, the response was a simple ¡°Recompiling my combat code. Adjusting Friend or Foe parameters. I am a tornado of death and bullets.¡± Then the anti-personnel turrets started powering up. The Colonel decided that it would be a good idea to stop asking. Other than Janssens death, we had lost two Marines that had been part of our teams from the beginning. The rest of the Marines lost during the raid had been members of Ark-11. We, and by that, I mean ¡°I,¡± had decided to turn the walls of the entrance tunnels in the hangar bay into a living memorial. Whenever someone came through the airlocks, they would have to check in with security, and while orders were verified, there was a very specific wall they would see. The outpost was fully functional with enough room for two hundred fifty Marines, and another three hundred staff. Our medical facilities now had a dozen auto-docs set up with a half dozen Corpsman for Marine support, then three doctors and an additional three nurses. We were the only facility that could successfully create a 100% biologically matched, cloned organ, so a lot of civilians had been making their way through the facility. With the loss of his Host, Utu evolved again, deciding to change his name to Shamash. He was now working primarily with the vats, ensuring that no more cloning would ever happen. He became one of the full-blown AIs on base. I had been speaking with one of the doctors, a trained psychologist, because of what I had done. He was more than a little frustrated with me as I refused to outright say I had done the cloning then killed the clone. He knew there was something there, but I just wouldn¡¯t speak directly with him about it, not directly. The ones who helped me the most were the fire team, which was once again broken up and shuffled around. I had given up on the idea of using the vats to create genetically hardened or modified organs, bones, and replacement limbs. Instead, I was looking at something smaller. Micro-bots. The Nano that we used to insert the Neural matrices was great for adding onto, but some data that are good for nothing Civilian researches had brought back from the Captured Escort ship, had led us to research weaving new fibers directly into the bone. We didn¡¯t have enough data on materials to try with any organs. Shamash agreed with this flow of logic and was working with the researchers and our new full-blown research AI, Woten, along with Ark-11¡¯s Jurojin and Ark-5¡¯sHera. As for my own head, I was down to just Neith. Observer, Grace, and Beauty - the last of my hitchhikers, were now secured in a room that generated a field like the what the waste of the Escort ships power generators gave off. In fact, all the aliens were now in the same room. My head was nice and quiet. It was also ready for the next batch of aliens we had to rescue. Things seemed like they were coming together nicely. When Ark-11 had initially dropped their injured at the outpost, Ark-5 had transferred an equal number of Marines as had been injured or killed to them. Now there were requests to transfer of their own free will. We had even gained another half a dozen pilots. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have a definitive course on Ark-9. What would you like to do?¡± the call came in on the sub-dermal communicator I had recently implanted. All command staff was now plugged in on comms with a subdermal unit. ¡°Have the calculations been done for the jumps?¡± ¡°Yes, ma¡¯am. It will take three jumps to catch up to them, and that is just due to astronomical interference. They are well within range for a single jump.¡± ¡°Assemble the heads. My office. I¡¯ll be there in five.¡± I jogged out to my quarters and grabbed my light assault armor in case we decided to launch immediately. I managed to get to my office six minutes after the call, but still managed to be the first one to arrive. As I sat at my desk, the doors opened. ¡°Ma¡¯am.¡± a Marine Captain named Jin, Lieutenant Walsh, Corpsman Torres, and, surprisingly Lebowski who was now sporting Sergeants chevrons walked through the door. ¡°Welcome everyone. We found Ark-9. How long until we can be wheels up?¡± ¡°What and how many will we be taking with us?¡± Lebowski asked. ¡°I figure we get two tugs prepped, and enough Marines for four or five assault craft. One platoon per craft, non-lethal. That¡¯s my thoughts for now. I was planning on launching a drone to validate the data. The trajectory data shows that the first jump will take us to where we picked up Ark-11 at. The second jump seems to be taking it back towards where the remainder of the Arks had headed. I have one more planned in there for validation of light. The Drone has enough power for eight total jumps and can auto-deploy the sensors and comms relays.¡± ¡°Okay, so we get the drone out there to validate the data and get us anything¡­ can you give us an estimate?¡± Walsh asked. ¡°10 hours until we have the data. That is enough time for the first skip past the Ark-11 rendezvous point. So, again, how long until we can be in the air?¡± Captain Jin looked over to Lebowski. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°Well, if it is like our last encounter, we¡¯ll want some of her Monkey drones. Two shield units for each squad. One heavy for support. I¡¯d say armed with a Hades. Maybe a spare drone that can recharge the battery pack and carry spare magazines. Ma¡¯am, do you have any mods for the new BR¡¯s? I¡¯d like the zero-G barrels.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll square that away once we know the status of the Ark and if there is an Escort with it,¡± I answered, not liking that he went straight to combat. ¡°Okay, but if it is just the Ark, then let¡¯s not worry about the assault craft. Is there a troop transport that has skip capability?¡± ¡°If I remember the build plans correctly, we have two? Each can hold up to sixty-four personnel.¡± Walsh replied. ¡°Second one is taking a bit longer due to a lack of materials. The Miners should have that squared away for us in the next few days. Just a small problem with some of the elements needed for the skip drives.¡± I replied. ¡°We can field sixty-four if that¡¯s the case. How about getting the rifle company ready and on stand-by?¡± Lebowski asked the Captain. ¡°All of them?¡± Jin did not seem pleased by that thought. ¡°Yeah. If we need to restore order, we can disable and patch quicker that way. If they aren¡¯t under any external influence, then we just end up patching quicker that way, and maybe we can come home for some rack time quicker.¡± Lebowski was thinking ahead. The chevrons suited him. ¡°Ma¡¯am? What do you think?¡± Jin didn¡¯t seem to want to make the decision himself. ¡°I agree with the Sergeant. Pulling the full rifle company would be smart. Any idea when Colonel White is going to assign additional staff, so we can just be an Expeditionary Unit?¡± The last part was rhetorical, and I cut off Jin before he could answer. ¡°Okay. Hey, Clap. You¡¯ve heard what we need, right? Send out the drone.¡± ¡°Watch as we observe the rare and beautiful Clappy Bird!¡± the voice was shrill coming through the office PA system. One wall showed a launching pad open up from the external cameras and the drone shot out, almost immediately engaging the skip drive once it was clear. ¡°Clap, I¡¯ve told you before. We aren¡¯t calling it a ¡®Clappy Bird.¡¯¡± I said as Walsh started laughing. ¡°You have something to add, LT?¡± ¡°Well, Ma¡¯am¡­ I hate to break it to you, but the moment it gets out that he¡¯s calling it a ¡®Clappy Bird¡¯ the name is going to stick.¡± Shit, he¡¯s right. While we waited for verification, we started to prep for both load outs. If the Ark were alone, then a rifle company would load into the Transport craft. If there were an Escort, then we would be launching four Assault Craft with another two on standby. I even ordered the prep of the two tugs with a few backup AI cores in the event we needed to flush the AI like we had during the Reboot. Sooner than I had thought possible, the 10 hours had passed. So far, we heard nothing back from the drone. At the 11 hours mark, we finally received news. The drone had to make an additional jump to avoid some unknown wreckage. ¡°The Clappy Bird is sending a signal now, Ma¡¯am.¡± Shit, the word was out. ¡°Okay, Ensign. What are we looking at? Wait, I¡¯m on my way up¡± I jogged over to the Sensors Relay. On the screen was the husk of an Ark. It was dead in the water and not moving anywhere. ¡°Captain Jin,¡± I called him over his comms unit. ¡°Prep your Marines. Full Rifle Company. SAR Operations prepare to depart immediately. Assault loadout with EMP as backups. The Ark is down. Get the team assembled in five.¡±The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. ¡°Lieutenant Walsh, we¡¯ll need all three of our veteran pilots, one for the transport the others on tugs. Have the loadmaster prep the tugs with a ready to assemble gate, fabs, and supplies enough to get the Ark sealed back up. Cores included. I also want my Shield Monkeys with us. I want us to be ready for any surprises. We are on a rescue mission. You have fifteen minutes to get a pilot to the transport.¡± ¡°Torres, I need some Corpsmen to load out with us. Bring a doctor as well. The Ark is down.¡± All this was shouted while I ran to my quarters and changed into my armor. One hour later we had arrived. Late. Ark-9 was stripped bare. The Hull had been torn off 90% of the ship. All the pods had been removed out of it. We found a few dead bodies. Marines and Spacers that had given their lives in defense of the ship. The engines still worked, but we didn¡¯t learn that until after we rebuilt the power stations, new spec of course. They had been blown up from the inside according to one of the Marines that specialized in demolitions. It took a full week to get the ship in a good enough condition to pull it through the gate that the tugs brought with them. The ships AI cores had been blown as well. Fortunately, the data banks were still around for us to get some information from, though there wouldn¡¯t be much. After seeing the damage first hand, I had taken the transport back to Theta and gathered additional troops. I also sent a report to the Colony Base. It was not good. I had asked Observer to come with me, so we could see about any of his people that may be on board. None were there. I returned once more on the transport to both drop off Observer as well as pick up more volunteers. In the end, I had mobilized most of the personnel that were out of the game, and I worked with whoever needed the extra hands. We limped through the gate in a barely functioning Ark that, were we back in Sol, would have been destined for a scrap yard. The Clappy Bird connected to the ship had been our sensors and comms array. Fortunately, it also had captured all the light in the area, so we had a good chance of finding the whichever Escort did this. We had work to do.

Ark-9 - Original

It had been three months since Janssens funeral. I could now walk without the use of my cane, though I did get phantom pains every now and again. I had decided to keep my left arm cybernetic. There were too many options that I had built into my arm to make it useful. My whole right hand now operated as a gas-propelled grapple. Even when ¡°launched¡± I had full mobility and could send it ¡°scampering¡± around. I had reported the truth about Janssens resurrection to Colonel White and Captain Wallace because Observer and Neith had threatened to send it if I did not. I then locked all records of the task and had requested all data on it be fully removed from the systems. The only copies should be what is stored in our memories. The Colonel and Captain were disgusted at my actions. Not because of what I had done, but because I had deleted all data, and incinerated the body. Hera backed me up stating that all records of the data used for the resurrection were deleted from all databases. When Colonel White came down to base and tried to convince CL4P-Tp to share the data, the response was a simple ¡°Recompiling my combat code. Adjusting Friend or Foe parameters. I am a tornado of death and bullets.¡± Then the anti-personnel turrets started powering up. The Colonel decided that it would be a good idea to stop asking. Other than Janssens death, we had lost two Marines that had been part of our teams from the beginning. The rest of the Marines lost during the raid had been members of Ark-11. We, and by that, I mean ¡°I¡±, had decided to turn the walls of the entrance tunnels in the hangar bay into a living memorial. Whenever someone came through the airlocks they would have to check in with security, and while orders were verified, there was a very specific wall they would see. The outpost was fully functional with enough room for two hundred fifty Marines, and another three hundred staff. Our medical facilities now had a dozen auto-docs set up with a half dozen Corpsman for Marine support, then three doctors and an additional three nurses. We were the only facility that could successfully create a 100% biological match, cloned organ, so a lot of civilians had been making their way through the facility. With the loss of his Host, Utu evolved again, deciding to change his name to Shamash. He was now working primarily with the vats, ensuring that no more cloning would ever happen. He became one of the full-blown AIs on base. I had been speaking with one of the doctors, a trained psychologist, because of what I had done. He was more than a little frustrated with me as I refused to admit that I had done the cloning then killed the clone. He knew there was something there, but I just wouldn¡¯t speak with him about it, not directly. The ones who helped me the most were the fire team, which was once again broken up and shuffled around. I had given up on the idea of using the vats to create genetically hardened or modified organs, bones and replacement limbs. Instead I was looking at something smaller. Micro-bots. The Nano that we used to insert the Neural matrices was great for adding onto, but some data that our good for nothing Civilian researches had brought back from the Captured Escort ship, had led us to researching weaving additional fibers directly into the bone. We didn¡¯t have enough data on materials to try with any organs. Shamash agreed with this flow of logic and was working with the researchers and our new full-blown research AI, Woten, along with Ark-11¡¯s Jurojin and Ark-5¡¯sHera. As for my own head, I was down to just Neith. Observer, Grace and Beauty - the last of my hitch hikers, were now secured in a room that generated a field like the what the waste of the Escort ships power generators gave off. In fact, all the aliens were now in the same room. My head was nice and quiet. It was also ready for the next batch of aliens we had to rescue. Things seemed like they were coming together nicely. When Ark-11 had initially dropped their injured at the outpost, Ark-5 had transferred an equal number of Marines as had been injured or killed to them. Now there were requests to transfer of their own free will. We had even gained another half dozen pilots. ¡°Ma¡¯am, we have a definitive course on Ark-9. What would you like to do?¡± the call came in on the sub-dermal communicator I had recently implanted. All command staff were now plugged in on comms with a subdermal unit. ¡°Have the calculations been done for the jumps?¡± ¡°Yes ma¡¯am. It will take three jumps to catch up to them, and that is just due to astronomical interference. They are will within range for a single jump.¡± ¡°Assemble the heads. My office. I¡¯ll be there in five.¡± I jogged out to my quarters and grabbed my light assault armor in case we decided to launch immediately. I managed to get to my office six minutes after the call, but still managed to be the first one to arrive. As I sat at my desk, the doors opened. ¡°Ma¡¯am.¡± a Marine Captain named Jin, Lieutenant Walsh, Corpsman Torres, and, surprisingly Lebowski who was now sporting Sergeants chevrons walked through the door. ¡°Welcome everyone. We found Ark-9. How long until we can be wheels up?¡± ¡°What and how many will we be taking with us?¡± Lebowski asked. ¡°I figure we get two tugs prepped, and enough Marines for four or five assault craft. One platoon per craft, non-lethal. That¡¯s my thoughts for now. I was planning on launching a drone to validate the data. The trajectory data shows that the first jump will take us to where we picked up Ark-11 at. Second jump seems to be taking it back towards where the remainder of the Arks had headed. I have one more planned in there for validation of light. The Done has enough power for eight total jumps and can auto deploy the sensors and comms relays.¡± ¡°Okay, so we get the drone out there to validate the data and get us anything¡­ can you give us an estimate?¡± Walsh asked. ¡°10 hours until we have the data. That is enough time for the first skip past the Ark-11 rendezvous point. So, again, how long until we can be in the air?¡± Captain Jin looked over to Lebowski. ¡°What do you think?¡± ¡°Well, if it is like our last encounter, we¡¯ll want some of her Monkey drones. Two shield units for each squad. One heavy for support. I¡¯d say armed with a Hades. Maybe a spare drone that can recharge the battery pack and carry spare magazines. Ma¡¯am, do you have any mods for the new BR¡¯s? I¡¯d like the zero-G barrels.¡± ¡°We¡¯ll square that away once we know the status of the Ark and if there is an Escort with it.¡± I answered, not liking that he went straight to combat. ¡°Okay, but if it is just the Ark, then let¡¯s not worry about the assault craft. Is there a troop transport that has skip capability?¡± ¡°If I remember the build plans correctly, we have two? Each can hold up to sixty-four personnel.¡± Walsh replied. ¡°Second one is taking a bit longer due to a lack of materials. The Miners should have that squared away for us in the next few days. Just a small problem with some of the elements needed for the skip drives.¡± I replied. ¡°We can field sixty-four if that¡¯s the case. How about getting the rifle company ready and on stand-by?¡± Lebowski asked the Captain. ¡°All of them?¡± Jin did not seem pleased by that thought. ¡°Yeah. If we need to restore order, we can disable and patch quicker that way. If they aren¡¯t under any external influence, then we just end up patching quicker that way and maybe we can come home for some rack time quicker.¡± Lebowski was thinking ahead. The chevrons suited him. ¡°Ma¡¯am? What do you think?¡± Jin didn¡¯t seem to want to make the decision himself. ¡°I agree with the Sergeant. Pulling the full rifle company would be smart. Any idea when Colonel White is going to assign additional staff, so we can just be an Expeditionary Unit?¡± The last part was rhetorical, and I cut off Jin before he could answer. ¡°Okay. Hey, Clap. You¡¯ve heard what we need, right? Send out the drone.¡± ¡°Watch as we observe the rare and beautiful Clappy Bird!¡± the voice was shrill coming through the office PA system. One wall showed a launching pad open up from the external cameras and the drone shot out, almost immediately engaging the skip drive once it was clear. ¡°Clap, I¡¯ve told you before. We aren¡¯t calling it a ¡®Clappy Bird¡¯.¡± I said as Walsh started laughing. ¡°You have something to add, LT?¡± ¡°Well, Ma¡¯am¡­ I hate to break it to you, but the moment it gets out that he¡¯s calling it a ¡®Clappy Bird¡¯ the name is going to stick.¡± Shit, he¡¯s right. While we waited for verification we started to prep for both load outs. If the Ark was alone, then a rifle company would load into the Transport craft. If there was an Escort, then we would be launching four Assault Craft with another two on stand-by. I even ordered the prep of the two tugs with a few backup AI cores in the event we needed to flush the AI like we had during the Reboot. Sooner than I had thought possible, the 10 hours had passed. So far, we heard nothing back from the drone. At the 11 hours mark we finally received news. The drone had to make an additional jump to avoid some unknown wreckage. ¡°The Clappy Bird is sending signal now, Ma¡¯am.¡± Shit, the word was out. ¡°Okay, Ensign. What are we looking at? Wait, I¡¯m on my way up¡± I jogged over to the Sensors Relay. On the screen was the husk of an Ark. It was dead in the water and not moving anywhere. ¡°Captain Jin,¡± I called him over his comms unit. ¡°Prep your Marines. Full Rifle Company. SAR Operations prepare to depart immediately. Assault loadout with EMP as backups. The Ark is down. Get the team assembled in five.¡± ¡°Lieutenant Walsh, we¡¯ll need all three of our veteran pilots, one for the transport the others on tugs. Have the load master prep the tugs with a ready to assemble gate, fabs, and supplies enough to get the Ark sealed back up. Cores included. I also want my Shield Monkeys with us. I want us to be ready for any surprises. We are on a rescue mission. You have fifteen minutes to get a pilot to the transport.¡± ¡°Torres, I need some Corpsmen to load out with us. Bring a doctor as well. The Ark is down.¡± All this was shouted while I ran to my quarters and changed into my armor. Ark-9 was stripped bare. The Hull had been torn off 90% of the ship. All the pods had been stripped out of it. We found a few dead bodies. Marines and Spacers that had given their lives in defense of the ship. The engines still worked, but we didn¡¯t learn that until after we rebuilt the power stations, new spec of course. They had been blown up from the inside according to one of the Marines that specialized in demolitions. It took a full week to get the ship in a good enough condition to pull it through the gate that the tugs brought with them. The ships AI cores had been blown as well. Fortunately, the data banks were still around for us to get some information from, though there wouldn¡¯t be much. After seeing the damage first hand I had taken the transport back to Theta and gathered additional troops. I also sent a report to the Colony Base. It was not good. I had asked Observer to come with me, so we could see about any of his people that may be on board. None were there. I returned once more on the transport to both drop off Observer as well as pick up more volunteers. In the end I had mobilized most of the personnel that were out of the game and I worked with whomever needed the extra hands. We limped through the gate in a barely functioning Ark that, were we back in Sol, would have been destined for a scrap yard. The Clappy Bird connected to the ship had been our sensors and comms array. Fortunately, it also had captured all the light in the area, so we had a good chance of finding the whichever Escort did this. We had work to do. Question for this book I''d like to thank you all for coming along on this journey with me. I started writing this book because there are not enough Sci-Fi stories in the genre out there. Then I realized that I was doing too much out of game. Book 2 will be more in game, and thre... well, I need to figure that one out as I am doing this all. This is the first thing i have written in God knows how long. Definitely the first thing I have written in over a decade that isn''t shit poetry. With me hving finished the First book of this series (I''m planning between three and five in total), how would you like me to proceed with the re-writes? I have seen some authors post the revisions for the chapters after the original drafts, and that appeals to me because there is a draft history there. But... If I was to just do that then I that would make this book appear a lot longer than it actually is. As my current manuscript stands I am at abou 92k words. Not bad for something I started to write because I was bored.Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. So my other option is to edit out the existing chapters. If I do that then we would end up with reposts of the chapters having them be completed removed and rewritten. That appeals to me because then the "length" stays accurate to the work I am doing. Still 40 chapters instead of appearing as 80 chapters. As you can see, that is a lovely decision to make. First, I need to get all my punctuation squared away. Then I need to get the wrong words corrected due to fast typing (how many times did I type "thing" instead of "think" for instace?) Last I need to just clean the crap out of chapter 1 and 2. Maybe some more on 3-15 as well. ugh. So much work for a damned hobby. I am also planning on, with my next draft, adding a "who''s who" of the characters. I already noticed that I changed some peoples names around in the same chapter (oops) because I didn''t remember naming them. As for the other thing, the tables. I am going to go with the blue boxes in my edit that I will be posting. I will be doing this for scaling sake for the mobile users. When necessary I will change the color of the boxes (there''s only going to be one or two times when necessary), so finding the right colors to use is paramount. I also need to come up with a better name than "dragons" for the psychic bastards. rewrite update Just wanted to give you all an update. I am just over a third done with my second draft of everything. I have decided to edit the existing chapters when the whole thing is done. Looking at my first draft, holy shit did I have a LOT of typos in there. Sorry about that. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. I am also fixing a ton of the grammatical errors. Also, bad punctuation. Several other small things (wrong words thanks to typing too fast as well as the wrong "to, two, or too" sort of thing. I should have almost the entire thing edited this weekend, so hang tight! Latest udpate Chapters 1-20 have been updated. Let me know what you think. Chapterr 1 is a bit different now. I got rid of a bunch of the "front loading", and disguised it as story telling. Tomorrow I will be putting up the last half of the book.The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. I know, not a whole lot of updates, my new job is killing me. Last week I did an 85 hour week (a lot of learning new systems - got IT), so yay? That''s why I didn''t manage to get this all updated until today, instead of on Sunday like I was aiming for. Ohh, also book 2 is going to start being posted soon. I''ve been at work and I have also been working Second draft posted, final edits and book 2 I have finished posting the updated chapters. XX. Chaptername - Edited xx-xx-xxxx new text new text new text new paragraphs XX. Chaptername - Original old text old text old text old paragraphs Is the format the chapters are in now. I have to read this all once more and correct any blinding irregularities that are in the book that come from writing a chapter here and there, then five in one night as I polish off a bottle of port. As you can imagine, that does not always lead to the most congruous of tales. Once that is done I am shipping it off to the editor. I am still in the process of cleaning up the "AI Speak" so when Neith, Observer (and all the others) are speaking to Jax internally there is clear delineation of who is speaking. You will see that in the edits posted, but as I was in a rush I know I didn''t get them all. Some have mentioned that I should change the title of the book as it has little to do with actually building a home. This is because the story got away from me. In the third chapter. I could never get any of my characters to cooperate with me and get back to it, either. As such, the story will still be called "Building Home" but book 1 will be The Lost Ark instead of the series being that. So essentially I am swapping the name of the series for the book. And now, a sneak peak at my first page written for book 2: Building Home - Rescue Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. ¡°Launch!¡± I shouted through the comms. It had been almost a month since we had any word on the fate of the Crew of Ark-9, and we were about to get some answers. The drop pod which I was in echoed with the sound of the thrusters pushing me out. On my Helmet Visor, I had full telemetry data for my team, as well as all of our ¡°coffins.¡± I had the brilliant idea of creating a combination quick assault lander and lifeboat that, if shot down, wouldn¡¯t kill everyone. This was the result. A chamber that was three meters tall two meters wide and one and a half deep. It slotted into a cargo bay on one of the newly redesigned assault ships, and when launched, a whole lot of chaff was launched with it. There were minimal guidance and thrusters. I needed to work on that bit some more as they weren¡¯t exactly stealthy. We plummeted towards the Escort craft that matched the visual records that we had been able to pull from the shell of Ark-9. It was currently docked with a smaller vessel, which we had decided to call cargo haulers, or ¡°Haulers¡± for short. This was the second that our sensors had detected that connected with them, the first was still attached. Surprisingly, the designs did not look similar. They looked as if they had been built by two completely separate species with different aesthetics and engineering methods. Observer, this looks like a different race. :It is.: What can you tell me about them? :Closest Earth analog is a mixture between a slug, a scorpion, and Nessie: How big? The first two didn¡¯t sound terrible, but if it Observer was also bringing attention to its by using a mythological giant monster, then I there was cause for concern. :Two of your meters: That doesn¡¯t sound too bad. :Tall. Ten long: Shit. I had brought Observer along for his knowledge. He was still in the proverbial ¡°dog house¡± for the lies he had told to get our help for his people. It was understandable why he lied, which is the only reason he was seen as anything other than a prisoner. I waited in the pod, counting down for the impact. We had designed the pods with minimal life support and a wicked spike at the tip, that should at the minimum stick into the ships armor. Then we would be walking across the hull to find an entrance. With us, in each pod, was a portable air lock so that if we could find an external hatch, we could enter while maintaining pressure so as to not sound any alarms from pressure change for the airlocks cycling. Granted, the spikes holding marines that would pierce the hull plating would probably send out an alarm. Expect more soon!