A3 - Chapter 142 – Taking stock (Patreon)

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Main Transit Hub

Alex sealed the emergency inflatable near where Rachel had been ejected.

“She’s going to be okay?”

[Informative: Sub-core Thea’s Avatar cerebral function has been maintained and her body is undergoing trauma repair. Computronic module substrates have sustained 95% destabilization; This unit has initiated a combining of modules to maintain functional operations.]

Alex hadn’t expected that the woman’s resistance would result in the destruction of all but one of her computronics; and that one would be needed to keep her alive.

She hadn’t expected to start hearing Thea’s thoughts during the override process, either. More than that; feeling her fears. It had been hard not to break down and cry. She had wanted to give the woman a more comforting hug, but things were starting to go from bad to worse.

[Notice: I-field failure imminent.]

Alex repeated Thea’s earlier action and shoved the emergency pod out of the section, probably on somewhat of the same path that Rachel’s would take. “Keep her unconscious until we have time to talk.”

Nameless confirmed the command with his normal efficiency. There would be time to deal with the Phi, later.

She hoped.

The floor vibrated as Tia and the AGAI continued to square off. An overlay on her HUD showed her friend’s status via several bars that Nameless had helpfully combined into red and blue bars. Both were missing about a quarter of their length.

Alex started to approach, considering how she could help in the fight, but then came to a stop. The black infection of nanites had seeped through a large portion of the room. They weren’t actively attacking anything, but Alex saw that when Tia was knocked into an area prevalent with the stuff, the area disintegrated into dust.

It was like a rot that caused anything it infected to become weak and brittle and then fall apart. It didn’t even seem like the AGAI could compel it to do anything, or everyone in the transit hub would have been overwhelmed by the mass of hostile nanites.

She didn’t think winning this by jumping in to help fight personally would be the best option.

“Nameless, is the AGAI still blocking you from the StationNet?”

[Informative: StationNet communications have been highly disrupted due to ongoing emergency procedures. However, AGAI influence is no longer detected.]

“We need to stop the rampancy spread, and deal with the AGAI’s avatar. Can we interface with any of the station’s systems? Weapons to take out the avatar; sensors to figure out how far the spread has gone?”

Alex rested a hand on a wall, stripping the outer layer to make fodder for a new nanite swarm. Some of the black tendrils had wormed their way all the way across to her location, and she directed her bubble to elongate, targeting the black mass.

Her blue nanites wiped away the infection easily, and the material was easy for her nanites to repurpose into material to create more of themselves. But that left gaping holes in the structure, and using her nanites to plug all the massive holes everywhere was way beyond her control capacity.

Welding the sheets of nanites into thin, brittle patches might have been an option, if she had a big welding torch… but she didn’t have any idea where to start with finding a tool that would suit the purpose.

[Informative: Access to various sensors have been acquired via security bypass and poor network configuration, however complete access is unavailable due to segregation of station networks. A central access node with control to leading and trailing weapon sections is located 13km away.]

A map appeared, filling her vision before it split off into the new double view she had experienced when controlling the local turret. The schematic included detailed highlights of various weapon systems and the specific location of what she realized was likely the station’s main CIC.

The background shading of the station was white, but a black spread covered the entire research and development module, with various lines growing across the tram network. The rampancy infection had used the vehicles to spread. It looked like someone had realized this because all those infection lines had stopped at various points; someone had shut down the tram network.

The worse offender was the line that led to the main transit hub, but it had stopped in the module they were in.

Probably because of all the violence and competing nanite swarms that had been flying around.

[Informative: A mass evacuation of multiple station modules in underway. Estimate 200,000+ people have been evacuated from the locations of high-density rampancy. A considerable necklace of ‘bunker’ escape vehicles is forming above MIL-1A.]

Alex let out a breath. That was good at least. If any of the bunkers were infected, they didn’t have to worry about the rampancy landing on the moon. That would be… disaster.

She really hoped that none of the debris would survive re-entry stress. How to even begin to deal with a catastrophe this scale on the surface would be a nightmare. Especially with the atmosphere blowing the particles around willy-nilly… a shiver passed through her spine.

Restrictions on nanite technology didn’t seem like that bad of an idea.

“What about the military? Can we patch into the communications to whoever is in charge?”

Alex wasn’t quite prepared for how fast the map swapped to a video call. Or for who she’d just called.

Admiral Anderson and two other flag officers were sitting at a bridge console, examining a schematic of the station. Behind them, the CIC of what she presumed was MIL-1A was a chaos of more junior officers running to and froe in a panic while more senior officers worked to direct them into some form of order.

A third picture opened up in her vision, this time a monitor displaying herself in what she assumed was what was being sent to the Admiral’s monitor as he looked up to stare at her.

She was covered in blood, her uniform was ruined, and she looked like shit. The extra screen was also disorienting, and she swiped it away with a thought while bringing the video call picture closer to regular vision, overlapping her peripheral so it wasn’t like looking out of a second set of eyes in different directions.

The admiral spoke first. “Cadet Myers, is there a reason you’ve hijacked my CIC’s main monitor feed?”

Alex suppressed her desire to ask where Westlake or the Fleet Admiral was and saluted. “Admiral, we’ve disabled and subverted the Corpo NAI at Hub 36, and Cadet Tia has engaged the rampant AGAI. We need a bigger weapon to take out the AGAI.”

Admiral Anderson stared at her for a moment, then muted his feed and asked something from one of the other officers before turning back to her.

“Cadet, if you are anywhere near Hub 36, you should evacuate immediately. BB Solion is moving into position to laze the entire area to prevent the spread of rampancy to the elevator cable.”

Alex swallowed back her alarm and shook her head. “Please don’t do that! Tia is stuck in a melee with that thing, and I don’t think we can disengage without leading it somewhere else!”

The Admiral frowned at her. “We can’t risk the rampancy spreading further. We’ve already severed the physical links to the infected tram lines and the Research and Development facility, but there is no way for us to stop the spread if it reaches the cable.”

“You’ve already solved the worst of it! I can’t be everywhere at once, but I can stop the spread here in the hub! The only issue is the AGAI itself spreading more nanites if it gets loose.”

The Admiral stared at her for a moment, before glancing at his tactical monitor. Alex struggled to maintain her composure. Alex’s memory of the meeting with the Admiralty and Anderson’s position on the anti-NAI faction did nothing to quell her agitation.

Finally, he looked back up at her.

“Alright, Cadet. I will give you a chance to handle this. Your first priority is to halt the spread of the rampancy to the adjoining sections. I will order the Solion to be on standby. If the rampancy spreads across the indicated lines, I’ll have no choice but to order the entire area lazed.”

Relief flooded through her, but it was short-lived as a map flashed onto her HUD. Some of the rampancy was already getting close to the edges shown! She was going to need to act fast.

“I’ve tasked a frigate to move in to CQB range. You will need to coordinate with it for fire support. I doubt either of the ships can target the AGAI accurately enough from range without you acting as a range finder for it. The FF should be able to move in considerably closer.”

A black bar with the listing for a comms channel appeared on her HUD, and Alex nodded. “Thank you Admiral, I’ll see to it! Ah… one more thing. There were two emergency pods that were ejected from the hub, one has Cadet Rachel who is injured and the other has the unconcious Corpo NAI. She’s offline until we have time to deal with her, but she’s not hostile anymore.”

The man stared at her silently for a moment before looking over to one of the bridge officers and nodding. The man turned and moved with a purpose.

“I’m having a priority shuttle sent to collect them. Was there anything else?”

Alex shook her head. “No. Thank you, admiral.”

A serious expression filled the man’s face. “Men I respect might have been right while I was wrong. If the spread reaches the cable, we will almost certainly be forced to sever it to prevent it from reaching the surface, and that would cause an inconceivable amount of destruction to the people living there. It is imperative you succeed, cadet.”

Alex gave him a determined nod. “Understood, sir. I need to hurry to get ahead of this.”

The Admiral nodded and then his link disconnected, giving Alex back her regular vision with just the sensor map showing the Rampancy on her HUD. It was going to take a while for her to get used to accepting video calls in her head.

Tia was still going at it with the AGAI, the two combatants acting like ping-pong balls inside the hub’s space. Alex’s eyes narrowed as she spotted the nanite-laced dust and debris they were spreading everywhere. There was a clear path wherever Tia traveled, her nanites clearing the rampant ones.

Unfortunately, those sections often collapsed under their own weight from the ordeal.

“Nameless, we need to stop the spread at these three junctions. Can we expand my field to cover them?”

[Informative: Proposed area exceeds Avatar Nanite field range and density. An extra two computronic modules would be required.]

“Patch me into Tia’s comms.” Alex ordered.

There wasn’t a reply, but the sudden loud crashing sound indicated that he had done so. Tia’s heavy breathing and frequent curses carried over the channel, telling Alex that the other girl had little time to talk.

“Tia, I am sorry, but I need to take back two modules. Just do your best to delay that thing. A FF is en route and I will be targeting the AGAI for them to blast with PDC-Ls.”

There wasn’t an immediate response other than a flurry of curses. When Tia did finally reply, she wasn’t happy. “You’re… taking… my modules… NOW? You’re NOT helping!”

“I have to stop the spread of the rampancy! Just hang in there!” Alex shouted back. Hanging up to forestall any argument, Alex confirmed to Nameless to yank the modules, and then she focused on expanding the field.

It was more mental work than she expected, but she had a solution.

“Nameless, take over the field control.”

The weight pressing down on her brain was lifted, but it came at a cost.

[Notice: This unit postulates once again that it is the superior of Avatar in execution, computation, and planning.]

[Recommendation: Place MainComputer as highest ShipCore authority.]

“Now is not the time!” Alex hissed.

Her defense field stretched rapidly across the station with the help of Nameless’ expertise at manipulating the nanites and the extra two modules. Her nanites hunted down and killed the rabid black ones that didn’t fight back or put up much of a fight. Only the ones near the AGAI itself were a danger, and Tia had maneuvered without being told to keep the thing near the center of the module.

With the exit routes for the nanite infection covered, she moved to a better vantage point on top of a group of crates. The station looked like some type of insect had gnawed hundreds of blue holes in it.

[Informative: Transit Hub 36 I-field failure, imminent.]

It was the second time Nameless had warned her, but this time the power flittered and then failed a few seconds later. Alex had to seal her boots to the heavy metal crate as the sudden flush of air threatened to yank her out of the station. On her face, a nanite mask formed on her face that melded into her skinsuit seamlessly.

A sudden fear gripped her as debris and dust were blown out all the breaches, but it was forestalled as she saw a light-show outside the ship.

A dozen vessels had moved in close to the station, and the spew of material impacted a massive field that had formed around the station. Somehow, the ships and the station had linked their D-fields and inverted them to prevent anything from escaping from the infected section of the station.

Everything inside had gone dark except for the dull white and red emergency lights that were self-powered.

[Informative: Main power relays throughout the module have been degraded.]

Alex’s comm crackled with Tia’s voice in her ear. “Whatever you’re doing, do it now. I’m running out of energy!”

Switching her vision to thermal, Alex tracked the fight. Sure enough, Tia’s energy bar was dropping rapidly now that she couldn’t tap into any of the power relays. It seemed like the same would be true for the AGAI, but since the whirling mass of angry nanites was larger, it probably had a bigger store of power.

The thing needed to be put down.

“Nameless, can you patch me into the comm channel Anderson gave us?”

The bar labeled FF-Turnpike blinked green twice, then a new video call was added to her view. A captain she didn’t know sat on the bridge of his warship.

“Captain, Cadet Tia is engaged with the enemy. Are you in range to provide fire support? I will relay targeting coordinates.”

The man didn’t waste time.

“We are in position. We’ve been tracking movement within Hub 36, but we’ve not been able to lock on anything specific.” He launched into a flurry of technical questions, complete with incomprehensible acronyms she had no understanding of.

“Captain, I’m just a Cadet. I haven’t had a forward fire designation course and I have no idea what any of that means. My MainComputer will relay the targeting data in real time. ”

Before the man could respond, the ship’s tactical officer made an announcement. “Captain, targeting data channel opened. It’s FWDOLRFFC Standard.”

Alex nodded to herself, “Thanks Nameless. Uh, Captain, I need to coordinate with Cadet Tia so she doesn’t get caught in the beam.”

The captain nodded. “Understood, Cadet Myers. We’ll be ready to fire on your mark.”

Alex patched into Tia’s comms again.