Authors Corner: A look at the hidden battle behind the scenes that change the tide in battle. All things related to hacking is pure bullshit on my part. I know shit about hacking so i just played around after watching to many anime that shocked something with it.

Enjoy

“Hey guys, the guard ships have already picked up bandit raiders coming and their long range scanners already have the outpost on visual at 30 km ahead.” Alex’s voice runs through the ship through loud speakers.

“So it’s starting.” I mutter.

I besides Alex, who was piloting but still had a hologram screen open to chat in the kitchen, me and the others were in the kitchen.

“So how is this going to go down?” Hilda asked.

“We should prepare beforehand. Hilda, you and my dad will wait in the workshop with me. I still need to arm my robot with the proper arm and weapon but that will go quickly. We will use the workshop exit to jump into the outpost once the doors are open.” I say and dad and Hilda nod. “Jessica, the support frame for your snipers and railguns are set up correct?”

“Of course, I set them up before we left the station and they are set up on the turret platform so Alex needs to rise it from his controls.” She explains.

“Good, like I said before our ship is the least armed so we will be furthest back and it’s even more so important to be ready because once Alex gets in range and begins hacking they outpost will know at once and will probably try attacking. That is why I want Lisa with you.” I say.

“Me?” She exclaimed surprised.

“Yes, the first reason is because your barriers can be used to protect both of you and with your telekinesis you can cause damage to the enemy by pulling or hitting them with your Psi. We will be inside an asteroid field so while they are moving at a fast speed we will be slow. If they aren’t careful they will take damage. Also we have the ships own shields so unless something large takes them down you can help Jessica to protect the ship.” I told her.

She nods after I explained.

“Why does it feel like Noah is the captain instead of Roktar?” Alex asked from her spot.

“Dad is smart but his planning skills is at a simple minded level.” I say bluntly.

“Oi!” He complained.

“OH! It's similar to One Piece where there is a strong but stupid captain.” Lia said adding insult to injury.

Dad sulks and we chuckle.

“Don’t mind it dad, you are the strongest and most skilled in the crew. I will only be able to help when invading the hangar and will have to abandon the robot as after.” I comfort him and it works.

Suddenly we feel the ship vibrate.

“Rockets incoming, shields are on and at best we will only feel the vibrations. We should get to battle spots and get ready for the worst.” Alex says.

“Come on let's go!” Dad roars as he storms out of the room.

We all split off into two groups as Lisa and Jessica go one way and start to climb a step ladder that leads into the overhead turret compartment.

Dad, Hilda and I went to the workshop that was just that. There was a platform for my robot to stand and allow me to work lifts on all sides. On the left side were the boxes for robot parts and closer to the entrance was another box made specifically for the androids. After they got a class upgrades, the only thing inside those boxes were numerous components that are there for repairing parts.

I will probably have to learn how to make upgrade parts for them and it could benefit me later one.

I walk over to the robot that had the drill arm attached. Hop in and disconnect it and jump back out to remove the nerves and everything and store it away before pulling out the standard arm. It was the left arm that also possessed the shot guns. The method to load and unload is an automatic changing system. After the bullet is fired the shotgun will withdraw and inside the back part will open and the cartridges will be removed while new bullets will be placed. The reload time is 6 seconds and there is a 4 second charge time to gather psi around the bullets. I use 100 psi per round.

(double barrel sawed off shotguns so 4 shots in 1 round.)

We feel the ship shake a bit but I give it no mind as I move the arm into place and attack the wires before climbing in and firmly attaching the arm and testing to make sure it was working.

With that checked I did a quick maintenance on Hilda to make sure she was at top condition before we fought and then it was time to wait.

After a moment the ship suddenly shook violently.

“I have started Hacking and their attacking. Time estimate for me to creak their system is… 2 minutes. Noah can you help with the defenses through your robot.” Alex asked.

“Lia, tell Alex that I can add some support in a few moments after I do the final checks.” I tell Lia.

Aye Sir!

After that it went on for some few moments before I jump into my robot and do the checks to see if the arm is properly attached.

I then get up and grab the large sword leaning on the wall next to me and make the robot arm the shotgun and get the start charging.

“Lia, raise the energy shields for the cargo’s then open the second floor cargo.” I order Lia.

“Wow so demanding~!” She said in a fake complaining tone making me roll my eyes as the windows appeared showing the system being accessed and instantly the energy shield activated.

Moments later the thick metal locks on the large doors that kept it sealed unlocked and the door began to open.

The next moment the ship suddenly shakes violently.

“Need help quickly please!” Alex’s voice shouted.

“SHUT UP I KNOW!” I shouted complaining through the communicators directed at that whining trap.

As the door finally opens completely I take a step outside and then grab a step ladder on the side which was placed there for this reason.

Using it for the hand rails I attach the magnet boots to the hull of the ship I attach myself to the outside.

Even though the ship was moving somewhat I didn’t feel the movement. Inertia Dampeners work together with the ship's shields so that those inside wouldn’t feel the inertia but the effectiveness drops when the shields are down.

When I reached the top of the ship I found a war happening.

There were lots of fighters attacking and lots were coming our way.

I find Lisa and Jessica on the turret platform.

Jessica had just mounted one of the railguns and were aiming carefully towards one of the larger enemy ships. Those had the missiles that were aimed at us.

The ship's shields were visible and it was in large hexagon shaped blocks.

If it wasn’t for the shotguns, I wouldn’t even be here since I don’t have a use in long range and my robot still doesn’t have space flight capabilities.

Suddenly a large vibration comes from over at the platform as Jessica fires her shot.

The extreme power of the railgun blasts towards the ship and slips right through our shields and rips through space as it impacted on the shield of the other ship causing a visual wave to ripple on the shield and cracks appeared with the bullets penetrated shot as its center. As for where the bullet hit, that would be right at the pilot's seat which now had a broken window and a large amount of air leaking.

”This gir! Did she have Gunner improve that gun a bit?!” I thought. I never expected the railgun to be able to penetrate through the shields of a ship.

I looked next to her and saw that the “Bullets” actually looked like large drill bits.

“Wow~! She sure upgraded the railguns to fire such a fun bullet. From a basic scan it shows that those are actually built to penetrate strong shields.” Lia said after I looked.

Lisa: Noah, please focus and start helping!

I look at Lisa who was using her helmet and was looking my way.

I nod and look up while activating my shot gun and when a fighter gets close I fire and make it momentarily go up in flames. The air in the life support in the ships can only hold an explosion for a few moments so even in space I still get to see a star spaceship explosion in space.

The shotgun pellets have a great scattering effect in space and with one round fired at a ship around 100 meters away the spread could cover most of the ship. It's obviously weaker than a concentrated attack but in space where any little damage to a ship can be fatal, a fighter ship with a mediocre shield didn’t last the full psi charged shotgun barrage.

“How long Alex?” I asked.

Alex: A bit more keep them off my ass. Also, get those damned guards to protect us DAMN IT! We are at the back yet they aren’t protecting as they should!

I looked around and see all the guards fighting and see she was right. They must have gone to intercept some ships. Guess we have to defend our own asses then.

I move near the rear and defend that side while Lisa moves towards the front and defends from there.

Alex PoV

*Boom!!*

Damn it! This shaking is really distracting. The system on this outpost pretty much shames the lower and middle level security measures on the station. Seriously these guys have some real strong backers.

Not that it made much difference but the problem is that there were many problems with the system on the station. They had a very skilled programmer that set up the system like a web that would trigger lots of problems if something wasn’t properly handled.

What I had thought would be quick ended up a extremely irritating exercise and not only that the programmer seems to be actively countering me.

“Xeno how is it on your side?” I asked.

Found 3 holes, two are traps that would backfire on our systems allowing them to hack into our system when we break through them and the third one is purposefully left so that they can open a hole in our firewall to hack us.

The AI on that side is also watching everything and improving as we go. I’ve already found several weak areas in the system so if you can stealthy modify a few parts we can slowly weaken it more until we can smash through. That said I found a worrisome thing.

“What?” I asked as I he pulls up a wall of codes and I take a quick look and move the screen to the side as I keep typing and trying to change something and make weaknesses in more obvious locations before changing a single code on the weak area and leave it along for some seconds.

It seems these guys are paranoid, they have set up a self destruct mechanism that starts to activate every 24 hours. When it activates the bandits have 10 minutes to punch in a password to deactivate it.

Its also set to activate if the system is breached and the AI activates it. Then we have 1 hour to deactivate it since the bandits would obviously return to base and fight down there or abandon ship and leave us to our fate.

Oh! These guys are interesting, not only are they not stupid but they are even cautious to this point.

If they are careless and forget the password then it would blow them up but it’s also a quick way to get rid of evidence as well as those attacking them. Sadly we already found it so we are prepared.

“Xeno, while I slowly weaken that breach you showed me you try to find the password as stealthily as possible. Also find out if there is any kind of transmission going and coming into the station and try and track it.” I tell him.

On it!

With that I start to speed up my fingers as I type rapidly trying to out do the AI and programmer on the other side.

I upload some virus I built and guide them into the trap holes and if I’m lucky I can start to lag their systems.

I make sure that they go and are uploaded with nothing left on our side.

Occasionally I look at the weak zone that was getting weaker code by code in this huge battle. The other side is really careless even after I took down the lower and middle stage of their security programs.

When I felt confident I got ready to break that weak spot.

“Xeno, did you find it?” I asked.

Part of it, about half of the password is decoded. Also, there are transmissions coming from the outpost. It seems to be coming from deep space but the trace stops after it gets beyond several thousand kilometers.

“Alright, since it’s like this we will break in, get ready to subdue the AI and take control of their systems. The self destruct will most likely activate as well so after we get in try to learn it quickly.” I tell him and move my focus to the weak zone. Finally I type in a series of codes and that area becomes like a gate into the outposts system finally breaching the final defense.

Hacking has leveled up to 15

Two levels for a battle between hackers. Not bad I need to find more people to fight against in hacking, it will make my skill grow so much faster.

At once a wave screens pop up and I start to sift through at a quick pace. I don’t forget to do this though.

“Xeno open the chat to everyone.”

Its open.

“Guys! I’m in! Wait a bit longer and the hangar will open, quickly subdue them so we can approach!” I tell all the guards and all the crews.

Cheers came from them and the intensity of the battle escalated as the bandits were squashed and the ships began to move towards the outpost.

I didn’t stop hacking into their systems. I was able to get a layout of their outpost and found numerous traps and weapons inside so I had Xeno hack into those. The other hacker was trying to remove us but when Xeno entered he came and gave a huge blow to the AI with a virus he made personally to disrupt the functions and made it easy for him to smash her out of the system.

With her out the hacker alone couldn’t surpass the combined force of a pro hacker and an AI.

The result of this was taking control of several systems of the station. We first opened the hangar but kept the energy shield active but changed it to let people in but no one could exit. Next I began to take over the security system and deactivating them. We needed to catch the bandits and not kill them so sadly I can’t get a massive Exp boost from killing all the bandits in one go by doing something like removing all the air in the outpost.

With the wrecks of the bandit ships left behind Xeno takes control of monitoring the system while searching and decoding the self destruct system that had activated.

As the ships get near the massive rock that was around 80 - 100 meters in diameter a large square shaped area broke off and was pulled inside before it was pulled inside revealing the interior that was blocked by an energy shield.

Inside was a number of fighter ships of different sizes and some shuttles as well. We could see the people moving down there.

Guard Captain: Star Comet crew, you possess a dwarf fighter, please enter first and distract them long enough for the others to enter.

This bastard, is he making us scapegoats.

“Noah, go in but just piss them off a bit. I will make the energy gates let you in and out. When that idiot guard enters you leave him open so that he can learn not to take advantage of those that are better then him!” I shout in my rage.

Noah: Yeah, I found him annoying as well, not to mention this is probably that same bastard Ogre that tried to act tough when I first entered the game.Roktar: Oh it's that guy leading? He actually has a grudge against dwarves and elves so he doesn't care about doing something like this.Alex: Really? He racist or something?Roktar: Actually yes, he doesn’t like the other races that originated from Elves. Don’t ask me why since I have no idea.

With that side comment we drew close to the entrance and with a quick stop near it Noah floats down towards the back and with him is Roktar and Hilda.

Seems they want in on the fun or maybe they got another objective. Oh looks like Lisa also joined.

I hear footsteps from the corridor which was Jessica after she had her AI lower the turret platform.

I eventually pulled the ship away a bit and worked the controls to have it pause in space.

“So how was it?” Jessica asked as she appeared.

“Hacking this place was fun. Still need to work on capturing the rest of the outposts systems and completely getting rid of that self destruct mechanism. Speaking of that, Xeno did you find more?” I asked.

Yes but there is a problem. You need to manually input it into the main computer in this room.

He pulls up a map of the outposts layout and a room was glowing red.

“How much time before it blows?” I asked.

00:54:32

“Pinpoint all the bandits in the station!” I ask and see many of them all over and notice a group in several corners.

“These groups, what is in those places?” I asked.

Those seem to be emergency escape shuttles. They need to blow the rock cover to open this and by doing that the outpost will depressurize.

I frown and quickly pull up all the systems of all these rooms and found the shuttle and everything as they were getting read. In the corridors and even inside the rooms itself there were security measures.

“We can’t let them escape this way so activate the security systems in these areas and kill them all. We can explain it later!” I ordered and at once the many security systems came to life and rapidly killed almost half of the people.

You have leveled up. 3x

In the moment that nearly half of all these bandits in these areas died I gained 3 levels due to all the experience.

I guess being the one to pull the trigger or my AI doing it counts as my kill.

I gained another level soon after as they start running into the corridors only to be shot down.

I put priority to keep alive those that looked like researchers and the brains of the operations but I make sure to cripple all the shuttle's thrusters.

“There, that is enough the ships should be damaged in vital locations and would blow up if they start it up. Make suppression fire from now on and aid the others in the hangar as well. Also, contact Lia and the other AI and pass the outpost password to stop the detonation.” I said.

With that it seems I have done what I can now we just need to quickly get in and find that computer before we do anything else.