Futuristic A New Life

[Goaty Love]

This is one of the moments she actually wished she still had normal eyes so she could cry for a bit. "News from Proxus Operator, the government shot down yet another civilian craft trying to get innocent civilians out of that firezone, the fucking bastards..." Valkyrie said with a slightly trembling voice. Even after all this time she still felt connected to Proxus and its people and it made her mad sometimes to see the atrocities that both sides committed in the conflict that was raging there at the cost of the innocents. She was about to ask Operator to take over on auto-pilot so she could take a short break when Dhampir suddenly started giving through orders to shoot down an approaching vessel that was abruptly marked hostile. She pulled her seat back upright and turned to the weapon controls. She looked at the target and made her calculations for optimal firing angles before punching in weapon authorization to activate the controls. She took a brief pause to compose herself and to make sure she wouldn't mess up the shots. When she took the controls she opened fire with several turrets when the target was in optimal range and tried to only destroy its engines. "Dhampir, mind explaining why I'm shooting at a DI vessel?" She said in a communications link with Dhampir before she turned to Operator. "Operator, I don't know why, but I have a feeling that I would rather have Rose on the line as soon as she's able. Could you send her a message asking to contact me at her earliest convenience?" She asked Operator whilst she kept firing at the vessel. This assignment went from easygoing and musical to weird and suspicious in just half an hour.

 

[Gladius]

Dhampir stared blankly into space until the ship was close enough that she could begin boarding procedures. Blind was talking about carrying an EMP, and Dhampir turned to her as she finished with "Rest assured that I will not attack my own teammates."
"246, if that EMP goes off in this hangar, I will personally ensure that your existence is erased from every memory bank that has ever had the displeasure of being associated with it. I will then cart you off to a distant planet, and will there kill you and revive you until there is nothing left to keep living. To save us both that trouble, I suggest that you go store your toy somewhere where it will not endanger my mission." She pointed to the exit from the hangar, and then turned to Fixer.

Blind inclined her head respectfully. "Understood, V01."


Without another word, she turned about face and departed with the EMP in her hands, ready to store it away. As long as it was somewhere that Dhampir didn't come across, she reckoned it would be safe. She deposited into one of the safe rooms well away from where it would affect anyone in the hangar, then came back the way she came.


Thoughtfully, she ran through Dhampir's words to her in her head. Death threats, already? Well, this was certainly a change from her last mission. Back then, if someone wasn't threatening to kill you at least once every so often, you weren't paying enough attention. What a way to start this one off.


Strangely, Blind found herself indifferent to the cold tone of Dhampir's words towards her. It wasn't that big a deal, really. What did annoy her, however, was the fact that V01 apparently thought she would be so careless as to let the EMP go off in such a critical circumstance. Blind had emphasised that it was purely for emergencies, after all.


Without slowing her walking pace, she looked directly at Dhampir...without facing her, of course. She scanned her from a distance. She watched, and she listened, and then she shut down all of those thoughts surging around in the back of that beautiful creation called a mind, and she stood ever so still in the hangar.

 

[Dannan]

Anomaly. variance.(-67.9802% !)


The guns of his destination where emitting ion streams, consistent with standard firing procedures for a weapons array of that make and model. Warlock stepped forwards in his virtual bridge, an internal sensory illusion he created for himself as a sort of GUI for flying his ship. It was all cosmetic and pointless vanity, but it amused what was left of his sense of aesthetics. Warnings logic strings crossed his thoughts as the ship fed sensor data to his enhanced nervous system.


Those guns should not be active. Ping the IFF beacon.


Response: null.


A dozen possible outcomes formed the space of a few seconds. Warlock shifted mental stance and canceled all auxiliary projections, diverting most of his processing power to immediate combat outcomes.


The projections did not end well(47.8097% destruction of entire vessel. 49.09818% misc damage to systems, exact damage variable on scenario. threshold of optimal integrity: >4% ).


At that point, The cannons actually fired. That was somewhat unlikely, even with the errors-DI order protocol forbid such permutations from coming to pass. Unless....


Warlock would have smirked, if he still had a face beyond his metal mask. Dhampir. Impressive, in a way. V01's source code equation had indicated a possibility of Instability (pride deviation, ego deviation, aggression deviation. Standard: 4.2. Likely actual: 7.8 Threshold A7.)


The flak rounds streaked forwards in a sort of slow motion, lit by diagrams painted around the displaying constantly moving arcs of shrapnel. Warlock had felt this more than once, the effect of having processors and high end superconductors integrated directly into his nervous system. perception dilated time as millions of CPU cycles filled a second.


He jerked on the controls mentally, banking his vessel sharply off the approach vector. Weapons-fire exploded in dead silence around him, a mute hail of metal. A dozen warning displays blared as the hull took hits. Shrapnel perforated various systems. Primary propulsion died, but that was acceptable. He still retained positioning thrusters and more than enough momentum to perform a complex feat of physics.


Selecting a logic string from the thousands running through his augmented mind, Warlock banked again. The guns had a brief gap between firing, and unless the pilot was specifically augmented to be a gunner, they likely operated the devices by manual controls and not an MMI (reaction time mean, .25 seconds. +/- .02 seconds. Relays and targeting, .1 seconds)


It was enough time to control the ship into a specific position. It was a foregone conclusion he would lose it. No models showed it being functional to combat standard in the next 3 seconds of firing, nor could he do anything with it's nominal weapons or transmitters. But he could use it as an elaborate piece of cover.


Flak thudded into the hull in murderous impacts, shattering critical systems this time. auxillary atmosphere vented, but multiple punctures dispersed the leaks enough to prevent a dangerous counter-vector. The damage was consistent with standard disabling tactics, which would no doubt be followed but by a killshot if authorized. Warlock sent the vessel into a crazed spin, letting it veer seemingly out of control towards the hull. This would render it a priority target by standard ship defense programming, and made it (93.4780 %) very likely to draw fire. It's remaining mass and hull integrity would hold fire for 5-17 seconds, approximately,depending on if the engines exploded. At a timed moment in the spin, Warlock left a system ghost in his place and triggered the vessel's emergency eject sequence; one of the handful of systems he'd preserved.


For a moment(1.7 seconds), he felt weakened. Blinded by the loss of his extended body, reduced to just his own physical form. Then he re-synched with his own arms and legs, and sensory data rushed in.


Space. Empty silence. Guns pivoting, his own body pitched at the hull of the larger DI ship. The vector was shallow, but would still splatter him on the hull from the relevant ∆V of himself and it. Diagrams snapped into his visual feed. He drew a slow breath inside his armored frame, and sent power to his magnetic gauntlets. The first pulse was to displace any stray shrapnel from the guns reacting to his ship's pending impact. The second was not a pulse, but a concentrated magnetic tether. It locked with the hull and pushed his arm joints to their limits. He ignored the pain with little more than a sharp breath-it was meaningless. A warning he already knew. The opposing drag from the magnets mono-polar pull slowed him to within acceptable m/s range (∆ 2.50) when taken into consideration with his angle of approach. Some how, in the complexity of it all, he briefly had time to beam a radio message on the standard operations frequency.


"<You're wasting time, V01. An unacceptable inefficiency.>"


It was likely she wouldn't kill him, at least not so blatantly. She was smart enough to know the ramifications of such actions against the company. And even if she was considering it, there was a very high chance he could reach one of the gun emplacements before she selected the murderous option( aprox 30 seconds consideration. +/-20.7 seconds for possible resistance)-the guns wouldn't shoot themselves without radical override. And by then, he'd give her something new to consider.

 

[FancyKiddo]

Dhampir watched the last final moments of the docking procedures out of one side, and Blind’s return on the other. Both were satisfactory; the scout unit would be helpful in pointing them to the right place on the vessel, and the securing happened before Warlock was even out of hyperspace. Their pilot would be able to open fire right away.


“Good,” she responded to Fixer, waving Blind forward with them as she stepped toward the ship. She was heading for a control panel embedded next to the ship’s entry, pausing as the staccato of cannon fire shifted the ground under her. It was a short, precise burst, followed by communications from the pilot, asking why she was following orders. Good, she would shoot and ask questions later.


Dhampir opened the line of communication, but didn’t speak as a second, much-longer burst of emergency fire rocked the ship again. Impact lights came on in the hangar, and machinery subtly shifted to secure everything to the floor. Had Warlock really lasted only that long?


She need not have worried, though, as she got communication from him that confirmed that he was still alive, for some definition thereof.


“937, update on p629’s status, please.”


……………………………….


Blind's radar told her pretty well what was going on outside, but as she approached the ship, it also informed her of a fuzzy presence in the general direction of the ship, a sure sign that something was radar cloaked in there.

 

[Goaty Love]

"937, update on p629's status, please." The communication came through from Dhampir to Valkyrie. She paused briefly. Dhampir had not responded to her question, suspicious but as Operator said this V01 was important and her mission was classified. "p629's status is: completely destroyed. It's pilot seems to have anticipated this action though and is currently on the hull where I can't shoot him with the turrets, over." She replied to Dhampir over the communications and reverted control of the exterior turrets to auto-defense protocols. She picked up both her shotgun and smg from the corner where she put them earlier and checked whether they were loaded and fully functional before putting them in an easily reachable spot from her pilot seat. She sat down again and spent a short moment of time contemplating her situation, training and scenarios before she spoke to Operator. "Operator, I'm sorry but I'm executing the 'Panic Room' protocol now. I don't trust Dhampir and the things she can do to your systems and prefer to have a manual control over the locks and systems in the bridge. Also, I don't know who she's pissed at but I wouldn't want him barging in here as well." She said as she executed the said protocol and isolated the bridge's systems from external systems and inputs although she didn't cut off communications with Dhampir and Operator. How many lives and ships would've been saved if they taught civilian spaceship pilots and captains how to use a 'Panic Room' protocol on their ships. "Fuck." Was all she managed to whisper through her synthetic lips as she waited on what the results would be of this entire situation.

 

[Mitchs98]

Blind inclined her head respectfully. "Understood, V01."
Without another word, she turned about face and departed with the EMP in her hands, ready to store it away. As long as it was somewhere that Dhampir didn't come across, she reckoned it would be safe. She deposited into one of the safe rooms well away from where it would affect anyone in the hangar, then came back the way she came.


Thoughtfully, she ran through Dhampir's words to her in her head. Death threats, already? Well, this was certainly a change from her last mission. Back then, if someone wasn't threatening to kill you at least once every so often, you weren't paying enough attention. What a way to start this one off.


Strangely, Blind found herself indifferent to the cold tone of Dhampir's words towards her. It wasn't that big a deal, really. What did annoy her, however, was the fact that V01 apparently thought she would be so careless as to let the EMP go off in such a critical circumstance. Blind had emphasised that it was purely for emergencies, after all.


Without slowing her walking pace, she looked directly at Dhampir...without facing her, of course. She scanned her from a distance. She watched, and she listened, and then she shut down all of those thoughts surging around in the back of that beautiful creation called a mind, and she stood ever so still in the hangar.

Dhampir watched the last final moments of the docking procedures out of one side, and Blind’s return on the other. Both were satisfactory; the scout unit would be helpful in pointing them to the right place on the vessel, and the securing happened before Warlock was even out of hyperspace. Their pilot would be able to open fire right away.
“Good,” she responded to Fixer, waving Blind forward with them as she stepped toward the ship. She was heading for a control panel embedded next to the ship’s entry, pausing as the staccato of cannon fire shifted the ground under her. It was a short, precise burst, followed by communications from the pilot, asking why she was following orders. Good, she would shoot and ask questions later.


Dhampir opened the line of communication, but didn’t speak as a second, much-longer burst of emergency fire rocked the ship again. Impact lights came on in the hangar, and machinery subtly shifted to secure everything to the floor. Had Warlock really lasted only that long?


She need not have worried, though, as she got communication from him that confirmed that he was still alive, for some definition thereof.


“937, update on p629’s status, please.”


……………………………….


Blind's radar told her pretty well what was going on outside, but as she approached the ship, it also informed her of a fuzzy presence in the general direction of the ship, a sure sign that something was radar cloaked in there.

Fixer carefully walked along towards the ship as gunfire rocked the hangar. Were they under attack or something? She assumed not, or Valkyrie surely would of told them. But if that was the case why were the guns firing? It didn't make sense for the guns to fire without anyone being told of incoming. Ah, well. She assumed it wasn't anything too major, otherwise they'd be blown to bits right about now. Nevertheless she followed closely after Dhampir, and upon reaching the ship inspected the door. She could probably unlock it easily, or just outright destroy it. Either one, really. "Question. Do you need any other part of the ship intact other than the flywheel?" She asked Dhampir. If she didn't she could just carefully and systematically tear the ship apart until they found the flywheel. If she did, well it'd be slightly harder. But it'd be easy either way.

 

[Gladius]

Dhampir watched the last final moments of the docking procedures out of one side, and Blind’s return on the other. Both were satisfactory; the scout unit would be helpful in pointing them to the right place on the vessel, and the securing happened before Warlock was even out of hyperspace. Their pilot would be able to open fire right away.
“Good,” she responded to Fixer, waving Blind forward with them as she stepped toward the ship. She was heading for a control panel embedded next to the ship’s entry, pausing as the staccato of cannon fire shifted the ground under her. It was a short, precise burst, followed by communications from the pilot, asking why she was following orders. Good, she would shoot and ask questions later.


Dhampir opened the line of communication, but didn’t speak as a second, much-longer burst of emergency fire rocked the ship again. Impact lights came on in the hangar, and machinery subtly shifted to secure everything to the floor. Had Warlock really lasted only that long?


She need not have worried, though, as she got communication from him that confirmed that he was still alive, for some definition thereof.


“937, update on p629’s status, please.”


……………………………….


Blind's radar told her pretty well what was going on outside, but as she approached the ship, it also informed her of a fuzzy presence in the general direction of the ship, a sure sign that something was radar cloaked in there.

Blind followed close behind Fixer and Dhampir, actively monitoring the inside of the derelict via radar to the best of her abilities. The constant gunfire from outside the main ship was a bit of an unwelcome presence which cut into her concentration, but she forced her mind away from it and forced herself to focus on what was in front of her. Same old procedure as she always did. No human life forms detected - naturally, she didn't expect to find any after what Dhampir had done to the craft - no life at all, in fact. She scanned for any indication of traps, electrical systems, anything that might be set off as an automated self-defence as soon as one of them crossed the threshold...


Strangely enough, there was still electrical activity present in the derelict. Not very much of it, mind you, probably just the remnants of what remained. Blind did another brief scan but couldn't find anything dangerous. The electrical activity barely registered on her radar at all.


"Take caution," she advised, pinpointing a very small area of the derelict which did not appear on her radar. She couldn't identify it with any of her scanning equipment, so it was possibly jamming her radar or made to specifically block her methods. Either way, it was unknown to her. "An object inside that ship is blocking my radar. No other danger signs or lifeforms aboard. It is likely that we can enter the derelict unharmed without fear of counterattack, but we will have to go deep into the ship to investigate the unknown object."

 

[Dannan]

Gunfire. Shrapnel. Detonation. His transport had exploded (-6 seconds, 36% probability, projected cause, fuel cell breach). That was an expense DI wouldn't find favorable (98.0987%, negative spectrum response). This also included the minor damage to the larger operations vessel from fragmentation and the ammo shells discharged. (INEFFICIENCY! 5.3701%, rising!)


All because Dhampir felt she had to prove a point. How distasteful. It would have provoked an emotional response of disgust, if he actually cared enough. But that was her fault, and thus it would be her that any vengeful superiors would target (aprox 91% fault assessment accuracy /39.0918% of disciplinary action, pending inputs).


Such matters where of little consequence, however, and it did nothing to meditate on them and waste processing power. Warlock closed the models, and analyzed his environment. The impact with the hull had been within integrity standards, but his legs where burning from the impact. Pointless pain receptors he really should have had removed, but the surgeons claimed tactile response required full spectrum of inputs. Including such pointless notice of damage. Contacting the hull in a three-point landing posture, Warlock cast a web of diagrams over the surface upon which he stood. The guns, almost certainly (99.8721%) of standard make, would have maintenance panels at their bases. Using weak magnets in his boots and the more powerful systems in his palms, he approximated a gravity field perpendicular to the hull and bounded forwards. Carefully calculated arcs pitched him across the 20 meter distance to the nearest gun emplacement with acceptable effectiveness. (standard deviation 5.9556%)


Metal clanged. A dull thud went through his armored suit.


The turret. Model SS-V09. DI patented as of 7 years ago. A logical model, given it's operating specs. (fire accuracy +79.0918%, 5 shells per second, flak spread optimal for destruction of standard hull plating)


The screw heads were smooth, an industry standard meant to prevent any fool with a screwdriver from removing them. Traditionally, one would need a complex tool for this. Fortunately, He was not traditional. With a dozen calculations of physics, he formed a program in his head and pushed it to his hands. Cupping both around the screws, he flared a magnetic field to life-a rotary one.


Removing the screws was simple enough (15 seconds, accuracy prioritized, deviation acceptable). Dispassionately, he canceled the complex magnetic construct and simply summoned the loose screws to his off hand. Warlock then placed his oath palm on the now screw-less panel, and pulled it free with another elementary mag-lock. He then placed the screws in a pouch on his belt, and slid the panel into a gap on the gun emplacement. Throwing them away into space would be a further waste of company resources. Warlock took a brief moment to exhale slowly into his helmet, bracing for his next stunt.


<I repeat. Terminate this inefficient behavior. I am authorized to be on this vessel. You are wasting resources-sub optimal, V01.>


Warlock broadcast again, once more using an open operation frequency. Likelihood of intercept by other parties dictated he repeat such efforts (aprox 81% intercept/ white noise introduction 43.1098%, projected outcome: reduction of enemy operations efficiency -+7.4. Thresholds pending)


With that done, he grasped the exposed bundle of fiber optics. Warlock instantly felt the connection, felt his consciousness expand into the massive networks of the larger vessel. With only nominal sentience left in his primary body to warn him of physical strike, he plunged into the digital fortress awaiting him. The AI was expecting him, but then, that too was expected. (98.0871%) With a brief few milicycles to reinforce his algorithms at the head of the system-stream, he forged ahead. It was showtime.

 

[FancyKiddo]

“Sir, I have arranged a virtual meeting with Rose for four minutes from now. Is that satisfactory?” Operator returned from his “phone call” in a flurry, communication protocols starting as he prepared the proper procedures. Billboards around the ship displayed warning messages of the Panic Room protocol and the more-pleasant message that their superior would be calling soon, so quiet would be appreciated.


………………………………………………………..


“V01, 629 has achieved a physical linkup,” Operator informed Dhampir as Warlock’s second broadcast finished.


Dhampir was standing still, taking in the two situations at once. Something cloaked inside the ship… possibly the flywheel? But also possibly not. At the same time, Warlock was making good progress, and would probably find a way in quicker than it sounded like Fixer thought she could get the flywheel out.


“246, watch our backs. 887, I would prefer the ship intact, but do what you must. Are you capable of defusing a bomb, if that is what is hiding in that cloak?” She stepped up to the control panel next to the door as she talked, and punched in a number when she reached it.


“Operator, 629 is using the open channel for transmission. Commit a cache attack on his port until he closes it.” Dhampir paused, but only for the moment it took to give the order before she swung up the ramp that opened to welcome them into the Derelict.


As she set foot in the door, the blindspot in Blind’s radar suddenly moved, swiftly dashing from the back of the ship toward the doorway. Blind only had time to utter a warning before the thing barreled into Dhampir, guns blaring. She tumbled backwards with the attacker on top of her.


It was one of those robotic attack dogs that DI had pleasantly codenamed “Life Killer.” They were large, quadrupedal bodyguards that had thinned their ranks more effectively than anything else that they had faced. This one had two cannons slung on its shoulders, which blazed shell after shell into Dhampir’s brightly-flaring energy shield.


………………………………………………………..


Warlock was making fine progress, meeting surprisingly-little resistance, until he suddenly could feel the torrent of data that Operator suddenly poured into him through the communication port he’d left open for chiding Dhampir. It was an unsophisticated attack, but effective. As Warlock’s lower-level kernels fought over what process deserved memory space, the insistent deluge of data filled its allocated address space and began flushing to disk, slowing every operation he tried to execute to a relative crawl.


As intended, he would have to exit his connection to the machine to harden his ports properly before beginning again. Operator wasn’t going to make it that easy.

 

[Goaty Love]

"Satisfactory enough for this situation Operator, thank you." Valkyrie said to Operator as she sat there waiting for Rose to appear on communications. She realized she still had music on and focused a bit more on that to calm down. She heard the message from the 'thing' that was now prancing about on the hull and saw Dhampir get jumped by a Life Killer. She wasn't sure whether she wanted to laugh, facepalm or go out there and fix the situation with both of these individuals.


"Operator, is there any security droid in the hangar that I can remote control?" She asked Operator calmly.


She had a plan in her head and she wanted to know if it could be put in motion correctly.

 

[Mitchs98]

Blind followed close behind Fixer and Dhampir, actively monitoring the inside of the derelict via radar to the best of her abilities. The constant gunfire from outside the main ship was a bit of an unwelcome presence which cut into her concentration, but she forced her mind away from it and forced herself to focus on what was in front of her. Same old procedure as she always did. No human life forms detected - naturally, she didn't expect to find any after what Dhampir had done to the craft - no life at all, in fact. She scanned for any indication of traps, electrical systems, anything that might be set off as an automated self-defence as soon as one of them crossed the threshold...
Strangely enough, there was still electrical activity present in the derelict. Not very much of it, mind you, probably just the remnants of what remained. Blind did another brief scan but couldn't find anything dangerous. The electrical activity barely registered on her radar at all.


"Take caution," she advised, pinpointing a very small area of the derelict which did not appear on her radar. She couldn't identify it with any of her scanning equipment, so it was possibly jamming her radar or made to specifically block her methods. Either way, it was unknown to her. "An object inside that ship is blocking my radar. No other danger signs or lifeforms aboard. It is likely that we can enter the derelict unharmed without fear of counterattack, but we will have to go deep into the ship to investigate the unknown object."

“Sir, I have arranged a virtual meeting with Rose for four minutes from now. Is that satisfactory?” Operator returned from his “phone call” in a flurry, communication protocols starting as he prepared the proper procedures. Billboards around the ship displayed warning messages of the Panic Room protocol and the more-pleasant message that their superior would be calling soon, so quiet would be appreciated.
………………………………………………………..


“V01, 629 has achieved a physical linkup,” Operator informed Dhampir as Warlock’s second broadcast finished.


Dhampir was standing still, taking in the two situations at once. Something cloaked inside the ship… possibly the flywheel? But also possibly not. At the same time, Warlock was making good progress, and would probably find a way in quicker than it sounded like Fixer thought she could get the flywheel out.


“246, watch our backs. 887, I would prefer the ship intact, but do what you must. Are you capable of defusing a bomb, if that is what is hiding in that cloak?” She stepped up to the control panel next to the door as she talked, and punched in a number when she reached it.


“Operator, 629 is using the open channel for transmission. Commit a cache attack on his port until he closes it.” Dhampir paused, but only for the moment it took to give the order before she swung up the ramp that opened to welcome them into the Derelict.


As she set foot in the door, the blindspot in Blind’s radar suddenly moved, swiftly dashing from the back of the ship toward the doorway. Blind only had time to utter a warning before the thing barreled into Dhampir, guns blaring. She tumbled backwards with the attacker on top of her.


It was one of those robotic attack dogs that DI had pleasantly codenamed “Life Killer.” They were large, quadrupedal bodyguards that had thinned their ranks more effectively than anything else that they had faced. This one had two cannons slung on its shoulders, which blazed shell after shell into Dhampir’s brightly-flaring energy shield.


………………………………………………………..


Warlock was making fine progress, meeting surprisingly-little resistance, until he suddenly could feel the torrent of data that Operator suddenly poured into him through the communication port he’d left open for chiding Dhampir. It was an unsophisticated attack, but effective. As Warlock’s lower-level kernels fought over what process deserved memory space, the insistent deluge of data filled its allocated address space and began flushing to disk, slowing every operation he tried to execute to a relative crawl.


As intended, he would have to exit his connection to the machine to harden his ports properly before beginning again. Operator wasn’t going to make it that easy.

Fixer nodded, slightly harder but if she needed the ship intact she could do that to. "Yep, I should be able to diffuse it. Simple as taking a few things apart..as long as it's not extremely high tech and stuff. Might be a bit harder then, but I don't think it'll be able to go off either way." She replied. She let Dhampir take point into the ship, which was a good thing considering one of those 'Life Killer' things attacked Dhampir the second she stepped through the door. Nevertheless she moved to kick the thing off of her while it was distracted followed by unhooking her gun and firing a few rounds at it while it was hopefully stunned. If they missed, well at-least she'd gotten the thing off of Dhampir.

 

[FancyKiddo]

As Warlock attempted to disengage in order to handle the barrage of data, it suddenly stopped being nonsense and instead became a flurry of warning data, informing him of the situation in the hangar and that Operator had just granted him permission to come on board.


“I have reason to suspect that 246 is contaminated by a virus. I would appreciate your assistance in dealing with her.”


…………………………………………………


246 watched in stunned horror as the cloaked object appeared. A Life Killer? But… those didn’t have cloaking devices. As she observed it now in plain view, her radar cleared up and she could see all of the warning signs that had previously been hidden from her systems somehow.


She shook her head, realizing that what was important was not where the thing had come from, but how they were going to deal with it. Fixer had kicked it away from their ally and begun firing upon it, and Blind decided to follow her lead, reaching for her own weapon.


Except, for some reason, her arms refused to move. She mentally strained to reach around to her weapon, her horror growing as her mind registered this as a dream of some sort and the Life Killer turned its weapons on her. Even her mental command to divert energy to her shields seemed ineffective, as if all of her systems had seized up at once.


…………………………………………………


Dhampir scrambled to her feet, mostly unharmed, as the machine unleashed its first shot against its new target. The energy projectile bore into Blind’s arm before rupturing and blowing the limb completely off in a shower of sparks and bits of organics and cybernetics. She didn’t bring up her shield?


The second shot went wide as Fixer’s firing took down the hound’s targeting system, and the thing only got off a third shot before giving up the electronic ghost. It was a glancing blow to the side of Blind’s head, and passed through her helmet without rupturing, instead leaving a cauterized streak where it had burned through her.


Blind’s body collapsed finally, in a jerky, unconscious manner. Her wounds didn’t leak, but on their huds, her whole squad could see that her vitals were collapsing far too fast for there to be any hope for her.


Dhampir’s weapon was out now, and she raised her voice at Fixer as she dashed the short distance to the body. “Are there any more? Clear the ship!” Her fangs glowed as she crawled over the body, sinking them into the good side of Blind’s neck as the glowing pulses of her own body slowed considerably to synchronize her heartbeat.


But once there, Dhampir found that Blind’s systems weren’t available to receive the gift of life that she’d been intent on sharing. “Operator, reboot her systems off of my power source,” she commanded, beginning to channel again until Operator responded in the negative.


“I’m sorry, protocol does not allow me to do that. I detected an infection in her systems when she scanned the ship. Blind’s systems have been quarantined.”


“REBOOT HER SYSTEMS, CODE-“


“You do not have authorization. I have accepted Warlock on board, and will require him to clean her before I am willing to remove her from quarantine.”


“Good.” Dhampir had been holding Blind’s vitals steady, but with that word, she reversed her gift, and the others saw Blind’s energy banks go completely dry in moments. Dhampir’s beat increased to normal speed, and she dismounted. “I will attempt to revive 246 at that time.”


She turned to Fixer again, moving back toward the ship. “Are we clear, 887? Let us continue our mission.”


……………………………………………………………………


“Sir, there are no drones available for your use,” Operator responded to Valkyrie’s request as events unfolded.


As Dhampir left the body, Operator informed Valkyrie of an incoming call. “Rose is ready for you, Sir.”

 

[Mitchs98]

As Warlock attempted to disengage in order to handle the barrage of data, it suddenly stopped being nonsense and instead became a flurry of warning data, informing him of the situation in the hangar and that Operator had just granted him permission to come on board.
“I have reason to suspect that 246 is contaminated by a virus. I would appreciate your assistance in dealing with her.”


…………………………………………………


246 watched in stunned horror as the cloaked object appeared. A Life Killer? But… those didn’t have cloaking devices. As she observed it now in plain view, her radar cleared up and she could see all of the warning signs that had previously been hidden from her systems somehow.


She shook her head, realizing that what was important was not where the thing had come from, but how they were going to deal with it. Fixer had kicked it away from their ally and begun firing upon it, and Blind decided to follow her lead, reaching for her own weapon.


Except, for some reason, her arms refused to move. She mentally strained to reach around to her weapon, her horror growing as her mind registered this as a dream of some sort and the Life Killer turned its weapons on her. Even her mental command to divert energy to her shields seemed ineffective, as if all of her systems had seized up at once.


…………………………………………………


Dhampir scrambled to her feet, mostly unharmed, as the machine unleashed its first shot against its new target. The energy projectile bore into Blind’s arm before rupturing and blowing the limb completely off in a shower of sparks and bits of organics and cybernetics. She didn’t bring up her shield?


The second shot went wide as Fixer’s firing took down the hound’s targeting system, and the thing only got off a third shot before giving up the electronic ghost. It was a glancing blow to the side of Blind’s head, and passed through her helmet without rupturing, instead leaving a cauterized streak where it had burned through her.


Blind’s body collapsed finally, in a jerky, unconscious manner. Her wounds didn’t leak, but on their huds, her whole squad could see that her vitals were collapsing far too fast for there to be any hope for her.


Dhampir’s weapon was out now, and she raised her voice at Fixer as she dashed the short distance to the body. “Are there any more? Clear the ship!” Her fangs glowed as she crawled over the body, sinking them into the good side of Blind’s neck as the glowing pulses of her own body slowed considerably to synchronize her heartbeat.


But once there, Dhampir found that Blind’s systems weren’t available to receive the gift of life that she’d been intent on sharing. “Operator, reboot her systems off of my power source,” she commanded, beginning to channel again until Operator responded in the negative.


“I’m sorry, protocol does not allow me to do that. I detected an infection in her systems when she scanned the ship. Blind’s systems have been quarantined.”


“REBOOT HER SYSTEMS, CODE-“


“You do not have authorization. I have accepted Warlock on board, and will require him to clean her before I am willing to remove her from quarantine.”


“Good.” Dhampir had been holding Blind’s vitals steady, but with that word, she reversed her gift, and the others saw Blind’s energy banks go completely dry in moments. Dhampir’s beat increased to normal speed, and she dismounted. “I will attempt to revive 246 at that time.”


She turned to Fixer again, moving back toward the ship. “Are we clear, 887? Let us continue our mission.”


……………………………………………………………………


“Sir, there are no drones available for your use,” Operator responded to Valkyrie’s request as events unfolded.


As Dhampir left the body, Operator informed Valkyrie of an incoming call. “Rose is ready for you, Sir.”

Luckily, the shots fired did seem to destroy the killer robot. Though, Fixer could only watch in horror as she wasn't fast enough to stop it from killing Blind. Her first day there and she was unable to stop an ally from dying. She knew they all posed a significant risk to die, but not so soon. She hadn't been prepared for it. She'd just gotten to know her and not even an hour later she was dead with half of her head missing. If she still had normal features she would be crying at this point. She had finally met someone she was getting along with right off the bat and now she was dead. Though, Dhampir hinted at there maybe being a chance to help her..so she held out hope. She wordlessly nodded when Dhampir said to continue.


"Y-Yeah. Let's go." She replied shakily, obviously still disturbed by what had happened. She stepped into the ship ahead of Dhampir, taking point and carefully aiming her gun around. If anything attacked it would hit her first, she'd sooner die herself than see another team mate get cut down so early.

 

[Dannan]

<Aaauuurrrgh!>


Warlock reeled breathless in the void. It wasn't the first time someone had torn into his systems, but that didn't make it hurt any less. Probability of being assaulted through his com-link was unlikely. Dismissively so. (7.1901%) Protocol and the projected source code for Dhampir indicated she wouldn't go that far. Careless. Irritation burned hot in his thoughts, only to drown in a stream of static.


Several emergency circuits opened along his spine, jamming access to his most critical drives. With a series of reflexive shunts, Warlock leapt out of the system and into a internal panic room of his own, a safe place in his own head.


The signal strength was through the roof. Blueprints flashed by his partitioned conciousness. ST-type four transmitters. DI category St-4-5-9 relays, 6 primary server drives.... Where!


Part of him chased logic strands as it tried to isolate what variable he had overlooked. What calculation had been incorrect? How had he oversighted!?


A second thread split off to reinforce firewalls and block memory. A third send and impulse to his transmitter, killing power to the device. Milliseconds ticked by and thousands of actions exchanged between him and the paralyzing static in his head.


Then silence.


Purge.


A dozen threads of logic exploded into existence, running absurdly complex recovery projections. (Identified, foreign data signature. Discrepancy .05192)


He isolated the data signature. Fortunately, he was wise enough to use a unique internal language for storage, rendering his file markers and pathing into a easily discernible format. He slammed lines of code together in a few million cycles, deploying a sweeper algorithm throughout his own systems.


Sensation flooded back in and his senses re-connected to his mind. relief.


It had cost him a full 8 seconds. Unforgivable.


He had come adrift slightly, floating just off the surface. The biomachanical engine of logic known as warlock dragged himself back into hull contact with a magnetic surge. His hand reached for the Optic cables even as he readied a dozen different attacks.


That miserable-


No.


Ego was pointless. He didn't care. It was meaningless. (Directive: entry. priority 0, auth_DI command)


But that little stunt had hurt.


Just as his hand began to close around the fiber optics for a second try, data met him. Instinctively, a dozen firewalls slammed up. Was it the AI?


(return negative. Error margin .01980%)


A few thousand checks on certificate and authentication protocols indicated the AI was sincere. Had Dhampir called it off? That seemed to exceed her source code, given his current understanding-


Break. Recalculate.


(probability of external variable, 89.1098, rising at +.03% aprox per second. Pending further data....)


Warlock deemed the data stream stable. In all likelyhood, something had changed. He opened the connection.


Communication with an AI was....different. tapped into the network as he was, he did not simply get text. Or an audio feed.


In millions of cycles, he experienced The AI's understanding of the situation. Cameras became his eyes, every sensor was his hands, his ears every audio processing device available. It seemed an hour of debriefing, but the system clock reported only three seconds had passed on the primary reality layer most called 'real space.'


At the end of it all, he stopped.


A dozen more simulations flashed. Then, he transmitted his own multilayered reply.


<Understood. Given all possible proceedures, I compute the most logical action to be as follows->


(96.2611 chance of success, pending verify)


A complex model flashed into the system. It contained a compressed file of his own design; one he hadn't yet tested but projected to be useful. One that when injected into Blind's systems, would encode her consciousness behind a complex lock. It would render her in a coma, but it would isolate her from any further infection before he could get to her, assuming operator could install it. And first, there was the dully-named life killer to.....sterilize.(possibilities of further surprises, aprox 57%, threshold +7.9891) Further projections would simply lower his chance for success, so his models would stand as they where.


With that, he ejected from the system. The goal had changed, and so had his plan.


Taking only a few seconds to jam the panel back in place, he arched off across the hull in mag-assisted leaps. His vision snapped a ideal trajectory across his optical feed even as a com-port linked him directly to operator.


<approaching an access hatch, as projected. Have it open. I'm proceeding to the hangar.>


The blueprints returned, showing the fastest route into the ship's depths. The game had gotten interesting.

 

[Goaty Love]

Valkyrie sighed when she heard Operator's reply to her question, her plan wouldn't be able to be put to fruition. She looked at the security feed and saw that the Life-Killer was dealt with but that Blind was down as well. "The fuck...?" She muttered before Operator's second message came through to her. "Ah, thank you Operator. Could you run a damage diagnosis of the impact on the hull Operator?" She replied to Operator whilst she turned off her music and made sure she looked formal enough and was in a proper position for her communications with Rose.


"Hello Rose, 937 'Valkyrie' reporting. Ma'am, you have no idea how glad I am right now to hear from you. To give a short summary, V01 and 629 seemingly have some old vendetta in which I've gotten caught in the middle and gotten to the point that I initiated the Panicroom-protocol out of fear for the security of the vessel, the mission, the data and my life. I could really use orders right now on how to proceed." Valkyrie said in her quick and professional tone to Rose as soon as she opened the comm channel. "Additionally, 246 'Blind' seems to be KIA." She added and waited for Rose to process this rather lengthy start of the conversation and react to her.

 

[FancyKiddo]

Rose’s presence filled the room, and then solidified into an acceptable size and form before Valkyrie. She looked young, but more importantly, more human that anyone in DI with whom Valkyrie had had contact in quite a while. It seemed as if she might have been wholly untouched by DI’s fascination with cybernetics and beyond.


She did not seem, however, to be immune to the default severe attitude of most DI representatives. There, Briar was an unusual case, and Rose was not. She scowled in a tired way as Valkyrie gave her report, resting her pursed lips against her fist, and her elbow against the arm of her chair. Her eyes looked down and to the side, as if she were perhaps not actually paying attention to her minion’s report, but when it was over, she responded almost immediately.


“I was not informed of Dhampir and Warlock’s arrival.” She finally looked up at Valkyrie, but at the same time began messing with something off screen. “If anyone else not included in your dossier attempts to join, please inform me quickly.”


A beep came from Valkyrie’s console, and she saw that Blind had just been removed from her list, and a new unit, 6U7, had taken her place.


“I am sorry to hear that Blind has fallen. Your Operator has informed me of the circumstances of her death.” Rose left a short pause, and then continued back on the original topic. “If you would be so kind as to summon Dhampir and Warlock for me, I would greatly appreciate it.”


……………………………………………………………………


Warlock now found his way unimpeded, such that he arrived within the hangar rather quickly. Dhampir and Fixer had disappeared into the ship, leaving Warlock alone with the lifeless bodies of the Life Killer and Blind.


……………………………………………………………………


The inside of the ship was dead and empty of life. Corpses, bloated and discolored from depressurization, littered the floor in their fine clothes, some still holding the stems of smashed glasses of evaporated champagne.


It was an odd interior, obviously retrofit for press reasons whereas the outside of the ship had remained untouched and practical. In the center, a piece of equipment, the only functional-looking thing in the room, sat anchored to the floor, surrounded by wires that disappeared into the floor, and a red ribbon that hung lightly from golden posts.


“Is that it?” Dhampir asked, gesturing toward the piece. It certainly didn’t look like any flywheel that Fixer had seen before, but the wiring harness that connected to it did look standard for that purpose.

 

[Mitchs98]

Rose’s presence filled the room, and then solidified into an acceptable size and form before Valkyrie. She looked young, but more importantly, more human that anyone in DI with whom Valkyrie had had contact in quite a while. It seemed as if she might have been wholly untouched by DI’s fascination with cybernetics and beyond.
She did not seem, however, to be immune to the default severe attitude of most DI representatives. There, Briar was an unusual case, and Rose was not. She scowled in a tired way as Valkyrie gave her report, resting her pursed lips against her fist, and her elbow against the arm of her chair. Her eyes looked down and to the side, as if she were perhaps not actually paying attention to her minion’s report, but when it was over, she responded almost immediately.


“I was not informed of Dhampir and Warlock’s arrival.” She finally looked up at Valkyrie, but at the same time began messing with something off screen. “If anyone else not included in your dossier attempts to join, please inform me quickly.”


A beep came from Valkyrie’s console, and she saw that Blind had just been removed from her list, and a new unit, 6U7, had taken her place.


“I am sorry to hear that Blind has fallen. Your Operator has informed me of the circumstances of her death.” Rose left a short pause, and then continued back on the original topic. “If you would be so kind as to summon Dhampir and Warlock for me, I would greatly appreciate it.”


……………………………………………………………………


Warlock now found his way unimpeded, such that he arrived within the hangar rather quickly. Dhampir and Fixer had disappeared into the ship, leaving Warlock alone with the lifeless bodies of the Life Killer and Blind.


……………………………………………………………………


The inside of the ship was dead and empty of life. Corpses, bloated and discolored from depressurization, littered the floor in their fine clothes, some still holding the stems of smashed glasses of evaporated champagne.


It was an odd interior, obviously retrofit for press reasons whereas the outside of the ship had remained untouched and practical. In the center, a piece of equipment, the only functional-looking thing in the room, sat anchored to the floor, surrounded by wires that disappeared into the floor, and a red ribbon that hung lightly from golden posts.


“Is that it?” Dhampir asked, gesturing toward the piece. It certainly didn’t look like any flywheel that Fixer had seen before, but the wiring harness that connected to it did look standard for that purpose.

Fixer tried to ignore the presence of the corpses floating about. It made her wonder if these people were truely bad people momentarily, or just got caught up with the wrong thing like she had. Times like this mad her regret her own choices..but there was really no turning back now. It was a true shame that this ship was taken down, it was a really nice luxury ship from the looks of it. Luckily most of it was fine though, perhaps Fixer could well..fix it up and make it into a personal craft or something. She had no real need for it, but it was the thought that counted right? Her eyes drifted to what she thought to be the flywheel even before Dhampir told her about it. Fixer nodded slowly, moving over to it. "I think it is, yeah. It looks like one." She replied. "Gimmie a sec to disconnect the wiring." She told her, carefully and slowly unscrewing the wires from the machine. She had no idea if the thing had traps on it or anything of the sorts, though her scans said they didn't..it was possible she supposed.

 

[Goaty Love]

"Right away Rose." Valkyrie said in response and then opened comms with Warlock and Dhampir. "V01, 629, Rose would like a word with you two on the bridge." She said as she disengaged the Panicroom-protocol and waited.