26 - Rogue AI GBN125B

“I’ve got movement,” Tender stated woodenly.

“You’re just reading me,” Maya replied.

“Nah, man. It ain’t you. They’re inside the ship,” Tender said, his robotic voice seemingly more robotic.

“Keep it together, Tender.”

“The signal’s weird. There’s movement everywhere,” Tender said. The AI then paused and his head tilted down at Maya. “I don’t understand the meaning of this, boss. Why am I being forced to say these words. ”

“Don’t break character,” Maya warned. “We’ve got to set the mood. Right about now, the rogue AI is setting up an ambush, using its wily intelligence to lay traps and destroy the fleshbags who rightfully own this place.”

“Doubtful,” Tender replied. “The levels of the minions we first encountered and the time you’ve stated as being absent is not long enough for a rogue AI to fully establish itself.”

“Yeah, but they don’t know that.”

The duo walked down an engineering level corridor of the Hanganathorie. The pitted and worn metal deck plates shone in bright contrast as a half a dozen lights attached to Tender blazed down the long dark hall.

The welcome party had been defeated by a couple of well placed stomps from Tender. Faster than Maya could even react, the fight was over. Now, the two made their way into the bowels of the ship. Maya had the map Nanaseto had given her, to guide them. There was only one place a rogue AI would set up shop. The mana core room.

“The best place to hunt game is at the waterhole,” Pops used to say, even though he had never hunted animals in his life. Maya figured he had lifted that saying from a documentary they had watched together when she was a child. She definitely remembered watching carnivores and herbivores congregating at a muddy pit in the midst of a drought.

The rogue AI that was squatting in her ship, didn’t seem to be all that strong. The minions it had tossed at her were low leveled and from what she could tell from the crushed remains, had been the previous spiderlings she had left alone. They had become dormant after she killed their master and at the time she had been still reeling from losing an eye and nearly dying.

A recurring theme, Maya mused as they silently made their way down the corridor. She had a habit of half-assing things. Perhaps a full commitment to exterminating threats would have meant she still had the pub and its resources to draw on.

But she also had to admit; without blowing up the pub, she would never have had met Bell, for all his inadequacies.

She glanced over her shoulder to see an empty corridor. Bell had refused to enter the ship. It wasn’t his distaste of System Tech, after all he had been fiddling with the light fixtures she had cobbled together; it was his lack of desire to risk himself in combat.

She wasn’t ready to declare him a coward, after all he was prepared and ready to fight anything that would have attacked their convoy on the way here. It just seemed the addition of a dark ship, with tight corridors was too much for him. Claustrophobia was a real thing and she couldn’t hold it against a person for not wanting to subject themselves to it. Or maybe it was Nyctophobia…

“I am an [Alchemist]!” he had declared, clutching Junior. “I hired people to do these kinds of things.”

“Think of it as expanding your repertoire. One trick ponies and all that.”

“The continued survival of this algae is paramount! I cannot allow it to be unattended. What if one of those minions got pass you and destroyed our only sample of a living organism.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

It only reinforced Maya’s thoughts that he had been on the verge of madness if he thought that killing her would get the System to open him a magic door back home. She didn’t hold any grudges about that and she couldn’t hold it against him for not wanting to fight some unknown rogue AI, just after discovering a way to potentially live indefinitely.

“Just means more bugs for us to kill,” Maya said, racking her shotgun. “You kill anything with more than two legs, you got me?”

“Indeed,” Tender replied as they turned a corner.

A rogue AI champion stood before them.

Rogue AI GBN125B - Champion - Level 4

“I didn’t know they could have champions. Wanna be my champion, Tender?”

Whereas the former resident rogue AI had minions that were spider-like in their appearance, the new tenant preferred theirs rat-like. Maya wondered if it was just an efficient design or were they all going for an animal motif.

The ratling rose to its feet. The creature stood three feet tall, its body cover in fine metal hairs that looked like fur and on its back was a long metallic tail with a sparking barb on the end of it. The face was ratlike and had the signature red glowing eyes.

“Does this count as two legs, boss?” Tender asked.

Maya fired her flechette shotgun. The short distance between her and the rogue AI meant the spread of the flechettes was narrow. She had aimed for the center of mass and watched as half of the ratling’s chest was blasted away. She fired another again and blasted off its barbed tail. The impact having thrown the champion ass over teakettle.

Rogue AI GBN125B - Champion - Level 4

Defeated.

360 EXP

Lootable

“Sweet,” Maya said. “Definitely easier with firearms.”

***

Dynamic Quest: Clear Out the Infestation

The salvaged ship, the Hanganathorie, has been infested with a rogue AI. Defeat the AI and reclaim the ship.

Rewards: EXP and loot.

“There we go again, another kill quest,” Maya said. “Is that all the System offers up, quest-wise? Either that or its got a real dislike for rogue AIs.”

The duo had reached the mana core room. By now the corridor was filled with the strange blue light she had first assumed was the mana in the air. Tender stated that it was not entirely mana.

“It is called a mana bloom,” Tender explained. “Mana core shielding is very effective in a vacuum, but once it is exposed to air; one of the elements that makes up the shielding tends to produce off gassing effects. The ambient mana interacts with this byproduct and creates light. Apparently the element is common enough in places with high mana saturations, causing those areas to produce the blue light you are seeing.”

“Cool story, bro. But is it toxic?”

“No.”

“So basically avoid places that are glowing blue?” Maya asked.

“In a sense.”

“Alright. I think I shouldn’t be too bothered by the exposed core if we do this quick. Last time I was in there for about five minutes or so, but seemed okay. I didn’t grow any third arms or anything, but Nan said there was some genetic damage. Also I was level zero and Bell says the higher the levels one has, the less you’re bothered by mana saturated areas.”

“Yes, boss,” Tender replied.

Maya sighed. “I just don’t want to go in and potentially get messed up by the mana,” she said. “I mean, I’m not scared of the rogue AI, definitely not. I’m just worried about the mana.”

“Okay, boss.”

“You’re right. I should face my fears. Who am I; Bell? Okay. You take point, wave some arms and scream to get its attention. I’ll follow up and blast that thing to kingdom come.”

“Sure, boss.” Tender gripped the massive doors that were partially opened and wrenched them open.

Maya felt the blast what felt like heat hit her, instead of just toasting her skin, it went deeper. Down into her soul. Very different from what she had felt before, this was more intense but also… comfortable.

“Damn, that’s weird.”

Tender didn’t say anything, instead he rushed into the opened core room and waved several of his legs all the while emitting a screeching sound. Maya nearly laughed, then remembered she was supposed to follow.

She did so, rushing after Tender and scanned everywhere for the rogue AI. It was a large room, but there wasn’t much in it. Some trash, broken core shielding, and shredded machinery. The core looked the same as it had before, a swirling multicolored stator revolving around a cylinder.

“Where the hell-“ Maya began and then gasped as a figure materialized before them. One moment she was staring at empty air and the next, there was a four foot tall creature with long arms and multiple short legs on a orb body.

Rogue AI GBN125B - Level 6

The red glowing eyes told her what it was and she immediately snapped up her shotgun. The first blast missed it as the AI moved with inhuman agility. But as it was dodging her attack, it didn’t see Tender’s leg strike out.

The rogue AI cracked against the far bulkhead and Maya followed up with a rapid barrage of shots. A few missed, but the majority were on target. The AI let out a scream and then crumpled to the deck.

“What the hell. Did it just teleport?” Maya asked.

“It seems a cloaking device of some kind.” Tender replied.

“That’s a thing? Of course that’s a thing.” Maya gasped with adrenaline. Her arms shook and her heart pounded in her chest. “Damn thing scared me.”

Maya looked up at the massive core and shuddered as she realized where she was. “Alright. I’m out of here. Check around, see if there aren’t any lingerers or hidden traps. If you can, drag out the corpse, maybe there’s something salvageable on them,” Maya said and hustled for the exit.

Rogue AI GBN125B - Level 6

Defeated.

650 EXP

Lootable

“Damn it,” Maya hissed and turned around. She slapped her hand against the body of the rogue AI and saw the Inventory menus pop open. She dragged the two items into her Inventory and rushed to the exit.

The heavy blast doors were easy to close as they had been loosened by Tender. She left it open a crack and leaned against a bulkhead, waiting.

Dynamic Quest: Clear Out the Infestation - Completed

The salvaged ship, the Hanganathorie, has been infested with a rogue AI. Defeat the AI and reclaim the ship.

+ 500 EXP

+ Defender Token

What the hell was a Defender Token? Maya checked her Inventory but didn’t see anything. She checked everything she had, even her pockets, but there seemed to be nothing. Was this like the Dimensions 101 she was supposed to get, but never received? Maya shrugged and checked the other loot she had gotten.

The Champion had dropped:

Champion Shard - mid grade, Tier 1

There was no accompanying flavor text.

The rogue AI boss dropped:

Zaurtaium ore - low grade, Tier 2

5 kilos

Used in component manufacturing

And…

Mana Charger Module - mid grade, Tier 1

Stabilizes mana distribution in active machinery

None of the items seemed usable by her. She thought back on the fight with the ramming AI, the only thing she had use for there had been the rogue AI processor that Tender now inhabited. She supposed if they were AIs, they dropped AI stuff.

What would have Medusa and Turrethead dropped? She wondered. They were level 25 and 20, respectively. Surely that meant they had good stuff. Maya had to shrug, she couldn’t change the past. The dimensional bomb had consumed everything in its wake, leaving behind the ugly scar.

The door squealed open and Tender exited. With one leg, he pulled the dead rogue AI and on his back he carried a massive machine that was nearly the same size as he was.

“You got that?” Maya asked as the AI limped into the corridor. Maya closed the blast door behind him and Tender dropped his grip on the rogue AI. “What’s that?”

“We are in luck,” Tender said. With a pair of arms, he set down the bit of machinery. “This is a rogue AI manufacturing module.”

“A what now?”

“Its a heavily modified engineering module, used by SIL to create components for their machinery. This is an illegal module modification that allows for rogue AIs to create components and manufacture low grade parts for their bodies. It was in a secondary room behind the mana core room.”

Maya grinned. “Tell me more.”

***

Lock-picking II

Maya grinned as the door lock disengaged and she pulled it open. The thick door that lead into the mana battery storage room was pitted and scarred, but it had held against what she assumed were the rogue AIs attempts to plunder its mana stores. The room wasn’t that big, but it was designed to be a secured location in case of catastrophic failure of the ship, so the bulkheads were reinforced and the whole place protected the banks of mana batteries within it.

Markozki VN4 Megalast Emergency Mana Battery - mid grade, Tier 1

For the longest lasting, most durable mana batteries, buy Markozki

“A double A battery, this ain’t,” Maya said looking at the emergency mana battery. It was a slab of a glassy coated block that was three feet in length and a foot in width. Maya ran her hand across the material, it was cool and she felt a slight shock.

She panned her phone light around the room and saw over three dozen of them. All neatly slotted into racks. They all looked undamaged or undisturbed, but Maya supposed that meant all the corruption that had occurred was internal. Mana broke down the components that made up the devices. On a long enough timescale, they would be destroyed by the mana that they stored.

Another reason Bell had claimed to hate System Tech. It didn’t last long. But twenty thousand years? That was longer than human history, so she was okay with a little degradation in that time frame.

“Alright, bring her in. Slow and steady,” Maya said. Behind her Tender thumped into the room, carrying the mana core. The room lit up with the extra lighting he carried and Maya put away her phone. The battery on that was nearly dead too.

Maya reached forward and unclamped the first set of mana batteries. She grunted at the surprisingly heavy weight of the object and slid it across the decking toward the door. She then pulled a light attached to a cord off of Tender’s back and shone it into the spot the battery had occupied.

There were a dozen small pin like connections that corresponded to the mana battery. Maya returned to Tender and pulled off the toolbox she had liberated from the pub. She detached screws and pins and clamps from a panel in the back and began attacking the wiring behind it.

“Tell me about the manufacturing module,” Maya said as she began splicing wires together.

“There is not much to tell, boss,” Tender said. “You put resources into it and out comes components.”

“Just like that?” Maya asked. “What about blueprints and the like? I mean, there are millions of components out there. It can’t just make them randomly, right? There’s gotta be a control on it somewhere.”

“It is also mana intensive,” Tender stated. “I am assuming that the previous rogue AI that you defeated had the machine already here. You just didn’t see it.”

“Yeah well, I was half blind at the time,” Maya said. “With Nan gone, I wasn’t about to risk more genetic damage.”

“Understandable. As for blueprints, rogue AI components are based off of System Tech components. They aren’t interchangeable, but they are very similar. An analogy would be brass and bronze. From what I understand, rogue AI components are a sort of evolutionary based creation. They are more erratic, more dangerous, and less constrained than System Tech.”

“So which would be better?” Maya asked.

“Unknown. Both have their benefits and drawbacks. System Tech is widely used and easy to obtain. According to System Law, each species is allowed to develop it the way they want; allowing each System Identified Sovereign Polity to submit their own patents and trademarks.”

“Even if they make the exact same thing as another species?” Maya asked.

“Indeed. There have been trade wars that have devastated whole systems because manufacturing monopolies have tried to prevent other SIL from copying their designs.”

“If the System has been around for a billion years, does that mean there are universe spanning manufacturing monopolies out there? Wouldn’t that be, like, against what the System is trying to do. Make everyone survive and chug mana?” Maya spliced more wires together and moved to another mana battery, removing it.

“There are massive commercial conglomerations that exist. Yet a universe is huge, there are unknown numbers of trade conglomerates that exist in several different universes. They make their money on selling low grade, Tier 1 tech to newly Integrated worlds.”

“Sounds like selling to the desperate,” Maya muttered.

“By setting up a formal trading contract with inhabitants of a planet, this allows them to bypass the System Law restriction from claiming patents and trademarks, since they have made contact with the species. This is a method that is used constantly to preempt various species from laying claim to System Tech as their own.”

“Yeah, what a bag of dicks,” Maya growled. She dragged another mana battery from its rack and began stripping the panel from the back. “If they get there too late, would that mean war?”

“It depends on the trade conglomeration,” Tender replied. “The sovereign polity that Tommoth came from was, in the beginning, created by a trade conglomeration. In the early days of our universes’ Integration, a trade envoy settled in what is the core worlds. Eventually they controlled everything until the Sword of the Universe toppled their trade empire, five thousand years ago.”

“Damn, that Sword person is that old?”

“They are a Tier 4 entity. At that Tier they may live hundreds of thousands of years.”

“Damn,” Maya marveled. She shook her head and got back to work. “Anyway, how do I get blueprints to make stuff?”

“You must figure them out yourself.” Tender said.

“Of course,” Maya sighed. “What about rogue AIs? Do they need blueprints?”

“Yes and no. Rogue AIs tend to dissect their defeated foes in search of new components. As you saw, the former rogue AI you had defeated was no longer in the core room. It had been dismantled by the new rogue AI and its parts used to create more minions or recycled. From what I overheard Tommoth say, there are no rogue AI blueprints, but they have an innate sense of what to build. They can reproduce their own components or slowly change one to what they need.”

“So, evolution of their components,” Maya said.

“In a sense. But not in successive generations, but a singular entity slowly upgrading themselves over centuries. Using their own processing powers and imagination.”

“Sounds rough.”

“There are very few sentient rogue AIs,” Tender said.

“I would imagine,” Maya sighed and leaned back, rubbing her eyes. She looked at her work and nodded. She had half a dozen of the batteries removed and the back panel stripped off. It exposed components and connections, to which she attached her spliced wires that ran up to the mana core. It was a cobbled mess, but from what she had gone over with Tender, it would probably work.

She flipped a switch on the holographic display from the computer. There was a click and a low whine, but nothing else. Maya waited a second and then saw a display come to life on the far end of the room. She got up and trotted over.

It was a control panel. She flipped through the menus and disabled everything that didn’t seem related to the medical room. The batteries here were the backup for all the machines and devices that controlled this section of the ship. She had noted several other mana battery storage rooms in the map, but they seemed to be compartmentalized.

The control panel could and did control everything that the batteries were connected to. An individual could even direct where the power went to by a bulb by bulb basis. Maya began flipping switches and tabs. A click and a whir later, Maya saw the lights in the battery room flicker to life.

Half of them immediately burned out, but the rest remained active, providing light enough to see by.

“Well, well, well,” Maya grinned. “Now we need hot water and we’ll have civilization back again.”

Tender didn’t say anything, but sensing that they were done here, he backed out of the room. His large bulk barely fit, but he was agile. Maya followed him and they quickly headed to the medical room that was several doors away.

“Nan! Nan, you here?” Maya shouted as she entered the room.

There was a flicker and the demonic form of Nanaseto appeared.

“Maya, how good it is to see you.”

Maya grinned hugely and raced toward the doctor. It was only until she passed through the image of the doctor that she remembered she was holographic.

“Ow, fuck,” Maya cursed as she picked herself off the ground.

“You appear to be injured,” Nanaseto said, looking down at her. “Do you need medical attention?”

“I’ll live,” Maya said.

“You seem to have kept your promise,” Nanaseto replied. She smiled a mouth full of sharp teeth. “I am pleased.”

“Come on, you need to meet Tender!”

“Hello,” Tender said, poking his head into the room. He was too big to fit

Nanaseto looked up and for a moment she seemed confused. Then she spoke

“Rogue AI detected! Rogue AI!” she screamed.

“What the shit!”