Chapter 18: Chapter 17 – Bugs (4)

“Record everything!” Rururin shouted at the workers, before turning towards the lead engineer, standing next to her. “How’s the connection?”

 

“Surprisingly stable.” He answered. His name was Tzen, a 190 centimeters tall man. His body was thin and from his overall he sprouted four arms. With one pair he was taking notes on his datapad while the others were handling the mobile server before him. His elongated, boney fingers were covered in short and sharp, black fur. The same kind was also covering the rest of his body. His face, although human-like, had eight eyes, all moving separately. Some were focusing on the datapad, some on the computer before him, some at his workers. And one at Rururin. “The exposed connection was standardized.” He continued, “It is the same we have on our ships, confirming for us that the old Hegemony had a central industry. Our ports and cables are coming from the same design source, same with most of the parts installed! We can repair it with enough time. If we have the schematics… we could replicate the machine too! For the most part, that is.” Tzen said.

 

“That is good…” Rururin murmured, now only troubled if they would survive the upcoming hour or not. “So, about the schematics…” 

 

“We are downloading it right now.” Tzen nodded, his fingers typing away on the computer’s projected holo-keyboard. “I have to do it manually, but I can keep up with our hastened pace, don’t worry. There was a slight resistance at first but that Alfonse guy and the newcomers lowered the machine’s software’s defenses. Since then the dataflow is stable, only small hiccups come up with corrupted or sealed data!”

 

“Sealed?” Rururin asked, looking at the multiple monitors, constantly flashing different images.

 

“Yes. I am not surprised, this was a warmachine in the end. There has to be encrypted information, not for outsiders’  eyes! Something that is up to the higher ups to crack into, not my job!” He smiled a little, showing his sharp teeth. 

 

“Pray that we get back to give them this info!” Rururin sighed.

 

While they were talking on the ground, up in the head, Miyon was sitting in the pilot’s chair, watching the image of the suit. 

 

“Hey… A new thing popped up!” He spoke into the communicator.

 

“Describe it for me!” Omega answered from the other side.

 

“I assume it has something to do with weapons? I get the image of a blade or something, crossed out… but it has some swirly things next to it, accompanied by well… whatever wall of text. I won’t read that or we will run out of time!”

 

“Okay, okay, I get it!” Omega laughed. “It should be the secondary weapon of the suit! Does the text have the word “vibro” in it somewhere?” He answered back.

 

“Let me check it!” Miyon leaned forward, running his eyes through the jumbled mess that he could not understand. “Yeah, it pops up sometimes!” 

 

“Thanks! That means the vibroblade is still functioning. The release mechanism may be stuck, that is what gives us the prompt of an error! The self-cleaning of the core should fix it, put it to the side for now! If in the next 10 minutes it is still crossed out, tell me again!”

 

“Okay.” Miyon nodded, sighing a little.

 

“What is a vibroblade?” Sylen asked, popping back up from the sea of cables, looking disheveled and dirty. 

 

“The suit’s hands are made in a way it can transform into a blade-like shape. Vibrating at a specific frequency. It cuts through matter easily.”

 

“Any kind of matter?” She asked, watching Omega come down from the top.

 

“Yes, because it cuts the covalent bond.” He explained briefly. “The top is fine, what about you?”

 

“All good!” Sylen nodded. “None was loose!” 

 

“Omega,” Miyon’s voice cut in again. “The right arm seems fixed, the left still gives back the same message.”

 

“It must have some mechanical problem then.” He scratched his chin. “We don’t have time to work on it, one hand will do! I was planning to go out without weapons anyway, this is much better by now!” 

 

“Unarmed?” Sylen furrowed her brows, tilting her head. “I don’t think that is a good idea!” 

 

“No, it is not.” Omega nodded. “But I am not intending to win the battle, only to open up a path, so the Veil can pass through.”

 

“Haah… I hope this works… I am not looking forward to being a bug’s birthing nest!” She groaned, shuddering at the thought.

 

“Relax… It won’t happen! Everyone is going to get home, I promise!” Omega said, with a kind smile, patting her head, looking at her warmly. 

 

…

….

…..

 

When everything was finished, best as they could in their limited time, everyone was backing away from the Suit of Ares. Miyon and Sylen were back on the ground, standing next to Rururin, who was looking on nervously. She found it a bad idea to let him pilot their newest treasure but it was Parthen’s decision. Orders had to be followed. Omega was sitting in the pilot’s chair and he was letting the suit’s own system recalibrate the small changes the workers did. In the meantime he had something else to do. Something he did not tell the others. 

 

“I hope this jogs some of my memories… I feel like I know everything yet I can’t remember anything…” He thought to himself, initiating the suit’s core, slowly letting it spin and echo in his chest with a buzzing sound. “The remaining anti-dark matter is enough for a few hours… this should be… fine.” He checked the popping up messages, before leaning back, closing his eyes, thinking to himself. “Initiate melding.”

 

…

….

…..

 

The sky was filled with millions of bright dots of lights, all being a distant star, somewhere in the Galaxy. Looking at infinity was just as humbling for Lauren as the first time she got the honor to sit in the pilot seat of her own Suit of Ares. Taking it to its maiden flight, launching from the base on Titan, heading through the rings of Saturn and circling around the gas giant. It was an experience she would never forget, still burning strongly in her consciousness. 

 

Now, she was in the Damoclesian Rift, doing a reconnaissance mission. She was in her Xanthe, standing on one of the moons of the 3rd planet, with a robust sniper-rifle in hand. She was melded with her beloved partner, feeling as if she herself was standing on the surface of the barren, gray celestial body, watching the dark sky with the gas giant behind her. They completed hundreds upon hundreds of missions in the past 30 years. The first time she piloted Xanthe, she was only 16, yet here she was, still looking and feeling young, serving the Hegemony, serving Humanity. 

 

“Why does nobody respond?” She murmured to herself, getting a little bit nervous. Her communication with her fleet was cut off four days ago. Nobody answered, no matter how many times or on what frequencies she called. Her suit was not capable of opening up an Astropath by herself. For now, she was stranded.

 

She did not panic. Her equipment was more than enough to guarantee her survival, especially because one of the planets had a breathable atmosphere capable of sustaining life. She was nervous because if her messages did not reach the fleet, it must mean two things. The messages were either intercepted or the fleet was. The former seemed unlikely, as the ‘bugs’ she was searching for did not have technology of decoding them or even tapping into quantum entanglement. The basis of their communications. What remained was the harsh reality… the fleet was under attack. Who else would be responsible if not those wretched abominations? No matter how many times they thought that they finally exterminated those vermin, they always reared their ugly heads, swarming the planets of theirs and other species under the Hegemony’s protection.

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“Damned cockroaches…” Lauren clicked her tongue. She was present at the burning of their home planet. It was the first time that the Hegemony authorized a garden world to be completely destroyed. The planet was bathed in flames and even its core was cracked. It was a complete massacre… and it still made her feel fuzzy inside.

 

It was that moment when her senses, the sensors of Xanthe, picked up the fluctuations in a nearby Astropath. It was yet to be made visible, but the gravitational currents it was generating was telling enough. Something was coming her way. Something big. The waves it was pushing forward were already readable at her side.

 

“It should be the fleet…” She murmured, as no single vessel would generate these kinds of readings. 

 

The wing-pack on her back immediately activated, the eight, blade-like talons of hers spread out as they started to buzz. Then the suit simply disappeared. For Lauren, it was an instant transmission, already floating above the gas giant. While her wing-pack was gathering the fuel it needed for the next teleportation, she was looking towards the Astropath at the edge of the system. For Xanthe’s and in return for her eyes, it was not a distance. She felt as if she was standing right before the mouth of the opening Astropath. What came out of it was not the fleet she was expecting but one, single ship. A monster. A white giant. It was something she had never seen or heard about before. She knew it was not made by the Hegemony immediately. Something at this size was not practical at all.

 

“What in the heavens…?” Lauren gulped, licking her parched lips.

 

“Human…” echoed a deep, cold voice, right in her head. It was male and female at the same time. Real yet synthetic which was making her shudder.

 

What happened next was something that she had no explanation for. Not that she ever had a chance to speak her thoughts out, ever again. A man was standing before her suit, appearing from nowhere. His skin was ashen in color, his long hair black was as the abyss of deep space and his red eyes were burning with disgust. He was looking not at Xanthe but at Lauren, penetrating the suit’s helm. 

 

“Your existence is sin.” He said, and with a snap of his finger Lauren simply flinched and the next moment… she disintegrated.

 

There was no sound, no scream left her throat and her mind never could come to terms with her sudden death. Her body simply broke down, leaving behind nothing more than fine ash, staining the leather seat she was occupying a moment before. The ashen skinned man simply left, heading back towards the giant ship, traveling along on a different Astropath, going towards who knows where. 

 

Xanthe was still operating when they left, throwing up error messages after error messages. Its systems were calling out for its pilot. Texts after texts were coming up from the headrest’s projector. If it mentally couldn’t contact its own pilot, the suit started asking for an answer, for confirmation, via the most primitive method. Its projectors. It was desperate for a reply… that in the end, never came. Xanthe lost its most important component. The thing it was programmed to prioritize above all else. Gone without It ever realizing. Xanthe was only left with the remnants of Lauren’s last thoughts, her momentarily feelings that were recorded into ones and zeros in its core computer.

 

…

….

…..

 

When Omega’s mind returned to reality, he was breathing heavily and tears were flowing down his cheeks from his closed eyes. He was confused, as reliving the last memory of Lauren, did not jog his own memories but awoke some unpleasant feelings. He felt helpless, powerless and desperate. Yet no new memories appeared next to these feelings. For him, this all took only a millisecond, from the outside looking at it, the Suit of Ares was still just powering up, its armor plating closing back onto its exposed frame. He was still melded with the machine, so instead of a holographic projection, the computer's messages were appearing in his mind.

 

“New pilot recorded. You are not Lauren.”

 

“She died.” Omega answered with his own thoughts.

 

“...”

 

“...”

 

“Parameters modified. Please state your name.” The computer continued.

 

“Omega.”

 

“Searching. Error. The connection to the Hegemon’s networks is returning code:349.K. Please reinstate the connection. Error. The chrono-readings show a great amount of time has passed since last activation. Error. You are not Lauren. Error. You can’t prove your origin. Error. Error.” It was starting to go haywire and Omega had to stop its constant messages with his mind.  

 

What he told the others… was true. The computer responsible for all that the Suit of Ares was capable of, was not an AI. It lacked one, major and final component, that would make it a true, thinking and feeling program. That component was instead replaced by the design of its creator. And that role fell into the lap of the suit’s pilot. Now that it was melded with Omega’s mind, it started to recognize what happened to it, the great amount of time that passed, the last memories of Lauren. Everything was flooding back as if it just woke up from a long sleep.

 

“Stop it!” Omega said, his thoughts trying to remain gentle and caring. Soothing the computer as a parent would sooth his scared child. “I am going to transmit fragments of my most recent memories. You can adjust it to yours and modify your programming accordingly.” 

 

“Acknowledged.” 

 

The following silence was short but Omega felt the quickly running mind of Xanthe, coming up with thousands of possibilities and solutions to Omega’s memories. He was only showing what he remembered, from the moment he woke up in the empty void of space and ripped out the Dawn from its Astropath.

 

“Adjusting. You are human.” Xanthe said in the end. “Designating the human named Omega as the temporary pilot, until Lauren’s return.”

 

He did not correct Xanthe for now, letting it do its own thing. Lauren was ‘ripped’ out from a melding process, without correct shutdown and separation. It was bound to leave lasting damages in the programming of it. It looked like the suit was still denying its previous pilot’s abrupt death. Even as it had her last memories clearly recorded down in its memory banks.

 

“We need to deploy, and soon. We have a ship of human descendants to protect! We need to carve a path through the bugs’ line, so they can escape.” Omega said softly.

 

“Acknowledged. Original mission parameters are aligned with current conundrum. Priority: Elimination of alien threat. Warning. Fuel reserves are only at 11%. Warning. Last maintenance was: Error. Date discrepancy is too big. Can not compute.”

 

“Or you just don’t want to.” He thought of it and of course, it was also known to Xanthe immediately. 

 

“Warning. Only one secondary weapon is functioning. Probability of success is less than 64% if the number of enemies is correct in Pilot’s memory.” 

 

“We don’t need to exterminate them all Xanthe. Only carve a path.”

 

“Adjusting. Acknowledged. It is… doable.”

 

“Good…” Omega smiled, opening his eyes slowly, finally reacting to the constant messages and voices coming from the outside world.

 

They were already out of time, as they were nearing the Astropath. Their road was blocked by 40 ships as small bugs were deploying from them, swarming towards the Veil, maneuvering through the vacuum of space.

 

“Empty out the hangar.” Omega’s voice echoed out from the helmet of the Suit of Ares. “Then open the hatch. Let me demonstrate to your Major General, how they should use a Suit of Ares in the future.”

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