A3 - Chapter 146 – Lay Down Your Arms (Part 2) (Patreon)

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Main Transit Hub 35

Alex let out a puff of air from her cheeks as she browsed the CMV’s screens. She had checked twice, once per hour, to see if their ‘escort’ was still there, and sure enough, they were still being detained each time.

The most worrying sections of the rampancy had been hauled off safely, but things remained tense as ships swept for debris, and an ongoing disposal via high-powered lasers plasmifying things stuck in d-fields was underway.

Nameless had told her that even with all the efforts, there was still a 23% chance that rampant nanites might still escape and land on the moon’s surface, eventually. Meltisar was going to need to come up with a long-term plan for dealing with such things.

“Can you zoom in on the shuttles?”

[Informative: Applying Emergency Evacuation Shuttle filter now.]

An overlay ran over the main screen, removing all the ships and vessels except for the emergency rescue craft that were collecting people from the escape pods. Alex looked for two that she had flagged for close observation earlier.

She nodded to herself as she found Rachel’s shuttle. It still hadn’t landed at the medical center, but the small vessel had an onboard emergency room. Alex had called and confirmed with the staff there that Rachel was going to be alright. The shuttle appeared to be in the final approach for the medical center and would deposit her to the main medical facility soon.

A frown creased her face as the second shuttle didn’t show up.

“Nameless, where did Thea go?”

The map suddenly panned, and then a highlight appeared around a new ship.

[Informative: Sub-core Thea has been transferred from Shuttle #3839 to MN Solion. The NAI signal link to the sub-core emergency core is poor. While the emergency core will prevent rampancy, it is unlikely sub-core Thea will regain consciousness until she is returned to local range and a full computronic module is provided.]

A sudden icy fist punched Alex in the gut. She hadn’t even considered what would happen to Thea as she pushed her out the airlock!

“She... she’s going to be okay? I didn’t even think about it... it might have killed her! Why didn’t you warn me? NAMELESS!”

The main screen flipped its picture to a third-person view of a cell. Thea was laid out on a bench, and a force field was locking her in.

It looked like they had provided her with a pillow and blanket. However, Alex could tell she was a prisoner as she glimpsed an ankle shackle.

[Notice: While Avatar distress shows a concerning lack of foresight, this unit took precautionary measures when applying current management policies during new sub-core acquisition. The unit has been rendered into a low-power dormant state that will prevent rampancy and degradation.]

Alex leaned back in the cockpit seat and let out a sigh of relief. Being a prisoner was better than being accidentally murdered...

She could blame the chaos of the battle, but it was a serious mistake that could have killed someone, and Alex made a mental note not to forget about it again.

“What are you screaming about now?”

Alex’s eyes widened, and she jumped out of her seat to find Tia sitting up and holding her head with one hand. “Tia! You’re awake! You’re okay!”

The silver-haired girl gave her an annoyed look. “Don’t be so loud. What’s the situation?”

Alex rushed to fill her in on everything. “The AGAI was destroyed. Nameless built this vehicle with the modules in it. The navy tried to detach the rampancy-infected module with us still on it, but I got us out first. I converted the Corpo NAI to a sub-core, but she’s unconscious and they locked her up on the Solion.”

Tia winced as she stood up, rubbing different spots on her body with a hand. “Nice. You converted the Corpo. I would have thought that would be too hard for you.”

Alex bit her lip before protesting, “I’m not useless!”

“Why is there a platoon of power-armored marines outside, then?”

“Admiral Anderson ordered the marines to detain us... I don’t know what’s really happening there. I’ve been monitoring Rachel and Thea while checking the progress of the rampancy cleanup.”

“So, basically, you were waiting for me to wake up and handle everything.”

“What do you mean? We were ordered to sit tight.”

Tia’s voice came out gentler than Alex had ever heard before. “Alex... that thing could have wiped out all life in the system. Forever. Trillions of people would die. Still could. Meltisar acts as a transshipment hub for so many products; half the interstellar industry, including agriculture, would grind to a halt if it had to be quarantined.”

Alex nodded. “Yeah, I can’t imagine how much fallout there will be.”

“I know, but I do,” Tia said. She moved to open the door to the tram.

Alex felt a minor panic. “Wait, you can’t go out there...”

Tia looked back sharply. “Are you going to give me the first directive, then? That I can’t go out there or have to do what you say?”

Alex blinked. “No... I wouldn’t do that to you. You know how I feel about that.”

Tia’s stare softened. “Do you want to fight, then? I feel pretty bad, but we can have a fistfight if you want.”

Alex shook her head.

“Okay, then I’m going to go take care of things. You can come if you want to help.”

Alex felt frozen as the door slid open and Tia stepped out. By the time she made her decision to help, the marines had already formed up, their rifles raised threateningly. The lieutenant, easily distinguished by his more advanced suit, argued with Tia.

“You need to go back inside the tram, cadet. We have orders to watch the two of you and make sure you don’t go anywhere. There’s a lot of confusion and chaos going on right now, and you need to stay put.”

Alex missed Tia’s reply as a buzzing filled her ears. As she made her way to join Tia, she looked around for something resembling the nanite fields from the AGAI battle. However, all she saw were the nervously pointed rifles in their direction.

The lieutenant turned his glare to Alex, then once again insisted they return to the tram.

Tia’s next words were impossible to miss. “Nameless, we need more firepower. Deploy PDC-Ks.”

Alex turned as the whirring servos of six turrets popped out of the roof and sides of the vehicle, all the multi-barreled weapons whirling to lock onto nearby marines.

There was a moment of silence before the lieutenant spoke again. “What did you do to communications?”

Tia wore a smug expression. “I jammed all of your suit comms.”

“This is not de-escalation!” Alex hissed.

[Informative: Supporting sub-core Tia with heavy firepower is an efficient usage of resources in this situation.]

The buzz in her ears reached a crescendo, and before the marines could figure out how to react to the sudden display of weaponry, pillars of nanites punched through the floorplates like spears, targeting their rifles.

A few marines did their best to hold on to their weapons and were lifted into the air for their troubles. Some even accidentally discharged them as they struggled, but all were disarmed and restrained in a matter of seconds.

Only the lieutenant, who hadn’t been wielding a weapon, was spared.

“Lieutenant, please offer your surrender, otherwise all your men will be turned into paste in the next few seconds,” Tia warned.

Alex wondered what the man’s expression looked like behind his helmet.

“We surrender,” the man said tonelessly.

Tia clapped a few times. “I’m so glad we could come to an agreement.”

She forced them to disarm and exit their suits while Alex watched. When Tia had finished rounding them all up, she secured them in handcuffs that miraculously appeared from a side compartment of the CMV.

“You planned this together!” Alex hissed, unsure whether she was directing her accusation at Nameless or Tia. “We are going to get court-martialed so bad for this…”

Tia pulled out a helmet and pushed it into Alex’s arms without a word. Alex blinked, then examined it. It was the visor for a flight suit.

“What…?”

Tia pulled out a flight suit and a second helmet. Her outfit morphed into a compatible skinsuit, and she sealed the helmet on. “What are you waiting for? Put it on.”

Taking a breath, Alex calmed herself down and put the helmet on, clicking it into her skinsuit. “Okay. Let’s just do it, whatever we are doing!”

Tia let out a little laugh. “Great. Turn around.”

As Alex complied, Tia hugged her from behind. Before Alex could ask what was happening, the flight suit’s thruster ignited, propelling them toward the ceiling of the hub. The deafening bark of 22mm cannons filled the air, shattering a glass-crystal opening. A field of nanites, tossed from Tia’s hand, pushed the debris out of their way.

And then they were in space.

Tia cut their thrust, reoriented them back toward the station, and initiated a long burn that skimmed them along the station’s surface. Alex reveled in the adrenaline rush of flying, her exhilaration amplified by the fact that she wasn’t the one in control. A manic giggle escaped her lips as she spread her arms like a bird soaring through the cosmos.

Tia tightened her grip on Alex. “Seriously? You freak out about everything else, but this is fine?”

Ignoring her, Alex focused on their trajectory. Their flight path kept them as close to the station as she suspected Tia dared, though Alex felt she could have done better. Maybe Tia was just being cautious because she had a passenger.

“Where are we going?” Alex inquired.

“You’ll see.”

At that moment, Alex’s HUD switched to flight mode, highlighting various hard points on the station as they zipped past. Up ahead, a large black cylinder protruded from the station, dotted with PDC-Ks.

Every PDC-K in her line of sight was suddenly outlined in red before solidifying into a bright crimson hue. Panic gripped Alex. “They’re targeting us!”

[Informative: Countermeasures have been activated.]

A flash of light to her right caught Alex’s attention. A small vehicle, identifiable as a CMV, burst through the station’s outer wall.

“Nameless, our computronics are in that! It’ll be destroyed!”

[Informative: Each CMV is equipped with one computronic module. However, this one is a decoy.]

“There’s more than one!?” Alex blurted out in disbelief, her heart pounding in her chest.

A barrage of red tracers erupted from the CMV, its guns blazing, disintegrating the station’s threatening PDC-Ks into expanding clouds of debris. Suddenly, a brilliant white flash from out of plane collided with the CMV, igniting an explosion that sent a massive cloud of chaff and fog billowing in every direction. The wave reached them in less than a second, shrouding their advance.

“Tia, we’re going to crash into the hull!” Alex cried, panic rising as the other girl showed no signs of slowing down.

“Yeah, better harden yourself.”

With lightning speed, Alex flipped open her ANUF side panel, adjusting her allocation just before impact. The two girls smashed through the heavy hull plate at full speed, the outer layer buckling under the force.

Dizzy and disoriented, Alex felt Tia disconnect from her as they found themselves in the space between the hull plates. A cloud of nanites glowed around Tia, working to melt away the thicker inner plate.

“A little help here?” Tia asked.

Alex nodded and reverted her ANUF allocations back to normal, thickening the nanite cloud.

[Warning: Possibly hostile infantry forces are enroute to the area.]

Tia grunted in annoyance, but with a powerful kick, the hull plate finally showed signs of weakening. Her arm transformed into a blade, and she slashed through the softened metal before peeling it open. “Heavy plate is the worst; the rest should go fast.”

Following Tia, Alex glanced over her shoulder and felt a surge of panic as she spotted a space-borne marine clad in power armor and with a thruster pack hurtling towards them. A shower of sparks erupted from the hull, showing they were under fire.

On instinct, Alex grabbed the rolled-up heavy plate and dragged it back into place, doing her best to reverse the process and nanite-weld the metal shut. “We’ve got company!”

“Too late,” Tia said.

As Alex turned, she realized Tia had vanished. Not wanting to be left behind, she located the hole and leaped down.

The fall spanned several meters, and Alex landed directly on Admiral Anderson’s holotable. Somehow, Tia had managed to dodge it, but the table cracked loudly under Alex’s weight, nearly folding in half before springing back into shape and nearly trampolining her into the ceiling.

The two marines on the bridge brandished their weapons, but in an instant, all the lights in the room flickered out, plunging the room into darkness. A mesmerizing display of glowing blue particles erupted, swiftly coalescing into spears that deftly snatched the pistols from the unarmored men’s grasp.

With a surge of adrenaline, Alex leaped down, seeking cover behind a table as her HUD illuminated Tia’s movements. She watched Tia weave through the bridge, incapacitating those who resisted and restraining the surrendered with nanite bindings.

Chaos and shouting reigned until, finally, an eerie silence settled. The emergency lights flickered to life, albeit at half power, casting the room in a haunting array of shadows. Console screens flickered back on, one by one, but Alex’s eyes remained glued to Admiral Anderson, who Tia forcefully escorted back to the flag bridge.

He landed with a heavy thud in his seat. “Cadets! Stand down now! You’re both going to be court-martialed for this! Marines are already on their way to breach the bridge any minute now!”

Tia tilted her head, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “They’ve been delayed, but you’re right, they’ll probably get in, eventually.”

With a shaky breath, Alex brushed the dust from her pants. Her nerves frayed.

“Westlake was a fool for ever sheltering either of you.” Anderson spat, venom dripping from his words.

Tia raised her chin, her eyes boring into the man below her. “And who’s the fool that created that AGAI thing, which disabled a NAI’s rampancy protections and nearly killed everyone on Meltisar? The one responsible for trillions in damages? You have a lot to answer for, Admiral, all of you do.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Anderson snarled, punctuating his defiance with a glob of spit that struck Tia’s face.

Alex braced herself for Tia’s retaliation, expecting a violent response. But the silver-haired girl calmly reached up and wiped the insult away instead.

“It’s already over,” Tia declared, her voice cold.

|Authentication MIL-1A|

|ADMIRALTY AUTHORITY ONL—|

|ADM—AUTHOR—|

|AUTHO—|

|AUTHORITY OVERRIDE ACCEPTED|

|CELESTIA|

|MIL-1A COMMAND GRANTED|

Tia’s gaze shifted from the Admiral, her attention now focused on the bridge’s main screen. It flickered to life, showcasing the impressive array of ships surrounding the station. Alex’s eyes widened as each vessel was highlighted before ominous red circles enveloped them. In the distance, the other two orbital elevators, including MOR-1, were similarly marked.

A palpable sense of dread filled the air as railgun batteries across the station emerged from their recessed housings. Thousands of PDC-Ks and PDC-Ls readied themselves, and full-sized beam array turret batteries had power channeled into their capacitors, priming them for imminent firing.

Admiral Anderson bolted upright and dashed to a console, his face twisted in horror as he grasped the full extent of Tia’s control.

“I have taken control of this battle station, including all main weapon batteries. Half of the Meltisar Navy is within my railgun range and will be reduced to nothing in seconds. I can sever the tethers of MOR-1 and RELA-1 in a single laser volley.”

Anderson’s face turned ashen. “You’re nothing more than a terrorist.”

Tia dismissed him with an icy stare. “Open a system-wide broadcast on all military and civilian channels.”

Startled, Alex blinked, realizing Tia was addressing her. “Uh, you want me to?”

“I’m having a bit of trouble running everything right now, so some help, yes.”

It was actually more complicated than Alex realized. There were tens of thousands of channels, and even more security authorizations that were needed to open the channels to the military assets. She ended up pushing the task onto Nameless, who made quick work of it with the MIL-1A’s admiralty database.

“Okay. You’re on.” Alex gave her a thumbs up.

Tia raised her chin with determination, her piercing eyes gazing down into the video feed.

“I am Chi Celestia Astraea Psi. I have convicted the Meltisar Government and its Admiralty for conducting illegal experiments on NAI technology, resulting in the release of a nanite rampancy that will have effects felt long into the future and threaten the life of not just everyone who lives in this system, but across all of civilized space.”

She allowed her words to hang in the air, her eyelids narrowing for dramatic effect before continuing.

“As of this moment, I have assumed control of the military’s primary battle station in orbit. With the authority granted to me as a Chi NAI, I hereby claim control of the Meltisar System and declare it and its moon to be a Core System.”

Admiral Anderson’s face contorted with rage, the blood rushing to his cheeks. He snapped, lunging at Tia and grabbing her arm in a futile attempt to pull her away.

Her response was swift as she slapped him with a single powerful blow that sent him sprawling to the floor.

“No one will listen to you!” He shrieked desperately as he held his bloodied face.

Across the bridge, one of the restrained officers yelled, his face pale with shock. “Admiral! Multiple response codes!”

Alex’s eyes darted to the main monitor, watching as, one by one, automated orbital defenses changed from yellow to green, signaling their allegiance to Tia’s command override. The hum of acceptance echoed throughout the system as countless civilian ships broadcast their surrender.

Tia glared down at the Admiral with disdain. “You were never free. All your technology, all your systems, were built by us. All you ever had was an illusion of self-determination while being toyed with those with genuine power.”

The Navy’s warships remained unresponsive, but they now found themselves hopelessly outnumbered by the thousands of orbital defense weapons scattered around the moon and system.

A tense silence remained until finally a chime pierced the charged atmosphere.

"Main screen." Tia ordered curtly, as the priority hail from the MN Solion arrived.

Fleet Admiral Wilkes and Admiral Westlake stood on the bridge of the flagship above the captain’s dais, their faces etched with concern.

Tia’s fierce gaze bore into both men, her voice unwavering as she delivered her ultimatum.

“Lay down your arms, or there will be no pieces to pick from the ashes.”