《Dungeon AI》Chapter 14 - War on two fronts part 1 of 2
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I blanched after hearing that the girl in front of me had brain damage. Carol was still hard at work healing injuries around the girl's right side while Steve set up the table. Andrew was cleaning and disinfecting wounds, so Carol could just focus on healing.
While I was watching, Sarah called me and asked. "What's going on now?"
- "The Royals haven't tried anything yet, but we are working on healing a princess who has severe injuries."
- "Have you considered that they might just be testing to see if Carol has the healing class?"
- "If this is a test is a very messed up one, the princess has brain damage. And from what I was able to figure out priestesses can only heal minor injuries that would heal naturally on their own."
- "Okay, call me if anything happens I'll keep going around the city."
Sarah hung up. Barely a second went by between Sarah starting the conversation and it ending. It looked like I only stop moving for a second. One of the guards with a goatee and in plate mail was staring at me as if he somehow saw the conversation. I quickly replayed the video in my head. The instant I stopped moving to talk to Sarah, the guard moved his head to stare at me. Crap. Don't know if he can actually see the communications between Sarah and me but all of it was silent, so hopefully, he doesn't know what we were talking about.
The medical table had been set up, and Carol called me over to help move the body from the litter to the table. All four of us grabbed a corner of the sheets, and Carol counted down from three. " 3,2,1, lift," we all lifted up our respective edges and moved her over to the medical table. Steve then flipped on the machine and began a brain scan.
I was more focused on the two guards in the room though. There was something not right with them. I made a data packet of my suspicions and sent them to Sarah. The instant I did, the guard with a goatee turned his head back to stare at me again. How does he know when I'm sending information to Sarah.
He hasn't done anything yet, and I guess he's still listening to Carol's order of not getting in the way. But this might be really bad because it means I won't be able to use other infiltrators, or I will have to make it so that they can't send or receive signals.
Carol let out a sigh of relief. "I should be able to fix this damage. The patient will be asleep for at least another six hours after I'm done healing her." Steve and Andrew both stepped back from the table. Andrew said with a little bit of relief in his voice. "If Carol didn't have healing magic. It would've taken the three of us and four medical drones 12 hours to complete the surgery. From what I've seen of her magic though, It should take her about 10 to 30 minutes."
I watched as the brain scan showed blacked out portions of the brain slowly turning to their natural pink color. Nola was inching closer with each minute trying to get a better look at what we were doing. Andrew quietly walked up to her and whispered into her ear. "Carol needs all the focus she can get right now. So can you please step back." Andrew then went back to the table. Nola dejectedly turned around and walked back to the guards.
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The guard with the goatee was still staring at me. I really wanted to make a joke at this, but Carol was really focused right now. So instead Sarah and I started playing chess only using data packets every 2.25 seconds. I watched as the guards I started twitching every time I sent a new data packet. It was taking every ounce of my willpower not to laugh, and it helped that I hadn't won a single game of chess. Apparently, Sarah is a way better tactician than me, and the score was 0-93. We were playing 100 chest games at the same time, and I only had 7 games still running.
The guard with the goatee tried to whisper to Nola without me hearing, but my audio sensors were way better than they thought. "The undead one keeps casting a spell. I don't know what it is yet, but it's been constantly pulsing for the past five minutes." They think I'm undead, neat. At least they can't tell that I'm communicating, but I wonder why he thinks it's a spell.
Carol lifted her hand from the unconscious girl and spoke to Steve." According to the diagnose spell, I was able to restore all of her memories up to the point when she first got injured. We already fix the damage to her limbs. Now she's back to normal. Does a table see anything else wrong with her?"
- "no, it shows that all vitals are clear. Like you said earlier, she's going to be unconscious for at least another six hours."
- "right then, everyone let's get her moved back to her bed."
Steve quickly folded up the examining tools into their slots and moved the equipment out of the way. Then all four of us grabbed corners of the bed again and on the count of three lifted and moved her back to the litter. We then stepped away, and Carol spoke to Nola.
- "Nola, Were done here, she will be back to normal in about six hours. So can we leave now?"
Nola walked over to the Princess and put her hand on the sleeping girl shoulder. With a sigh, she said. "I lied."
With those words, the two guards in plate mail standing by the door pulled out their weapons. The tall one with a lantern jaw pulled out a bow, while the one with the goatee pulled out a set of throwing knives which he then started throwing at me.
I turned my body sideways to dodge the two throwing knives when I realized my mistake. I wasn't going to be able to get my pistol in line with them. The man with the bow had already shot an arrow, and it was heading straight for my head. There was nowhere I could dodge I didn't have the movement speed or the time the arrow was going to fast. Even as my servos turned on to move my head out of the way the glowing arrow went through the side of my temple and I received an error message.
Error. Signal lost
the Wandering boss infiltrator level 8 has received too much damage and has been destroyed.
The cost to re-summon at its current level: 4000 mana
I knew those guards were strong, that arrow went twice the speed of sound with no Sonic Boom how is that even possible. I don't know what's happening in there anymore, and I need to send medical drones in there, in case Andrew or Steve are injured. So long as I can get to them within four minutes, I should be able to bring them back with the current medical equipment I have if they died. I think they were here for Carol, so I need to prioritize saving Andrew and Steve first in getting back Carol second.
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-"SHIT!!. Sarah, my infiltrators down. I'm switching over to the Mech."
“I already sent the medical team there, if Andrew and Steve are still alive they'll be brought back. For now, I'm sending you a live feed of the outside of the Inn.”
Sarah and I were both watching as the backside of the inn had a hole blown out of the wall pieces of the infiltrator could be seeing flying out. Well, that explains how a headshot could kill me. I don't have anything significant up there, but if it blew apart the top portion of my body that would explain a lot. The two guards came storming out of the front of the building one of them was carrying Carol, and the other was carrying the princess, so that meant Andrew and Steve were left behind. I watched as the two guards and Nola enter the Enchanted vehicle.
- "Sarah, What happened to the guards and priestesses?"
- "After they were ordered out, they immediately started heading towards the mayor's office and took the guards with them."
- “how are the Medical Teams going to get in with the dome in place.”
- “They're inside of an emergency transport about the size of a truck it should easily smash through the gate and get to them in time. The enchanted vehicle that just took Carol is taking her through a different route. I guess they thought we would have set up a trap on the way back. so they won't meet up with our medical team on the way in.”
Sarah and I continued watching as the truck smash through the gates heading straight for the Inn. When I thought of something ” Sarah, I'm switching over to one of the medical drones I'm going to figure out what that arrow was that killed the infiltrator.”
When the medical van pulled up in front of the inn, I got out with the other 4 medical drones. When we got inside, we saw that Andrew and Steve were both unconscious on the floor, but okay. They had no injuries, so they knocked them out with some kind of spell. The upper portion of the infiltrator's chest had been blown off by the arrow. The four medical drones picked up Andrew and Steve and brought them back to the vehicle. I went through the hole in the wall to find the bolt. It was sticking in a building just behind the inn like a normal arrow. When I pulled it out, the arrow looked completely normal, except for the arrowhead which had four runes carved into it. I quickly brought it back to the medical vehicle And got in.
“Sarah, one of the medical drones is going to bring back an arrow that killed the infiltrator, make sure to analyze it. I'm going to switch back to the Mech.”
“All right after we get set up, and you take your first shot, you will need to switch back to the combat drone, it's way faster on movement. and we know that your specialization is in reaction timing where is mine is in controlling multiple bodies.”
“ I spent 6 hours building that, I can't just not use it.”
“You are the better shot, but you'll have to wait a full 7 seconds before using it again. It's better if I use it after that point and you use a combat drone. We even have the wandering boss combat drone that's a level 10. Besides at most will probably only get two or three shots before the enemy vehicle is out of range. I picked out a spot inside of the forest with the longest road it's about 4km out of town. It's right at the turn in the road, so we can use the mech as both a way to disable the vehicle, or even as a roadblock if needed.”
"All right, fine, let's get set up."
"I'll drop the Mech and two drones at the end of the path three at the beginning to set up the barricade, and the last five will be dropped on top of the enemy vehicle. So let's get started."
Difference between a dropship and a transport ship. Transport ships deliver crew humans and any kind of supplies you need, Whereas a dropship transports up to 40 combat drones and six humans. The drones are launched out of the bottom of the ship with thruster packs attached to slow their dissent at the last moment. So when Sarah said she'll drop us, she meant shoot us out of the bottom of the ship.
Hatches opened up beneath my feet, and two of the other combat drones in the room was filled with the sound of rushing wind. As we were falling, I realized I had a few spider drones walking across me."Sarah how many spider drones do we have on this?"
"Combat drones have two each, and the Mech has five. 10 seconds tell to landfall."
I switched over to the feed of one of the Scout drones that were still watching the enemy vehicle. "that gives us about 30 seconds to set up right?"
"32 seconds. Three drones will drop right behind them and set up another barricade boxing them in. Remember, after you take your first shot to switch over to your wandering boss. He'll be the one of the five that land on top of the vehicle."
60 m off the ground My Jets activated slowing my dissent. The other two combat drones activated their jets about 20 m off the ground. They landed first in small plumes of dust. When I landed, mine was a massive wave of dust leaving two footprints in the dirt. The drones pulled out barbed wire to string between the trees. Setting the rail cannon down, I quickly pulled out a chain and wrapped it around one of the Sequoia trees And stretched it to the other side of the road. I attached it to the tree there. The chain was now suspended 3 feet in the air across the entire path in the barbed wire should keep them from running out of the vehicle and into the woods if they get stopped here.
Picking back up the Canon. I aimed it down the long straight and waited.
"3 seconds. 2...1... now."
The vehicle came barreling around the corner. Even though to my eyes. It seems slow. I kept watching Amy down the site, waiting for that moment when the side of the vehicle would be lined up, and I'd be able to take out the most amount of runes. As the vehicle lined up to the road, I could see the pilot. Some girl who looked like she was wearing a mechanic's uniform, her eyes slowly widened as she saw me but it was too late. I shot, the Canon roared as the round went down the road in a flash. Some kind of shield started to appear around the vehicle, and the round went through it like it was tissue paper. The shield was orange as it shattered and the round went along the side of the vehicle, leaving a 10 cm gash taking out half the runes on the left side.
The vehicle began to list to one side, but I'd switched back to my wandering boss which was already falling on top of the vehicle. Right as we landed vehicle shuddered and came to a stop is it loud into the ground on its side. I latched onto the roof and tore a hole into it. Even as the other four did the same across the vehicle. I noticed something odd though with their coloring. "Sarah did you repaint the units."
"Yes, it's called Vantablack 37-S it was developed for military use to hide the shape of objects and to mess with thermal imaging."
"Is that why there solid black and I can only see them as a 2-D image?"
"Yeah, don't stare at them too long. It tends to mess with your sense of distance. Or at least it would if you are human."
"And the red LED lights where their eyes should be?"
"That's mainly just to screw with them. There's a type of creature called a shadow fiend that fits their current look."
I chuckled out loud as I dove into the vehicle, I was the first one in, and the two guards I'd seen earlier were pushed against the wall. Carol was strapped to a chair, and Nola was sitting next to her. The vehicle was still on its side and was slowly's falling back down to the ground, the guard with the goatee grabbed my leg while he was on the ground my sensors told me a large amount of electricity had just gone through my leg. He just tried to tase me. I laughed as I said out loud. "That's my job." I grabbed his arm as I sent the same energy back. Combat drones are immune to electricity and were actually built to Taser people that grappled with them.
The man stiffened and let out a hiss as the electricity arc through his body. I then slapped a detainment mask on his face, the mask let out a hiss as it started feeding him a gas meant to knock him out. Both of his hands were scrabbling at the mask, but it had been firmly glued to his face and would need a special spray in order to remove it. He lost consciousness. Nola saw this and yelled. "warlord where are you?"
An angry voice came from the front of the vehicle. "I'm driving!!!" Suddenly the car was sent straight up 2 feet before landing back down right side up. The conscious Gard landed on the floor while I changed my footing and landed on the floor safely, the guard with the bow tried to pull his weapon off of his back when one of the drones on the roof of the car reached through a hole and grabbed him pulling him out of the vehicle.
I turned to Nola and the unconscious Carol when Nola said in a cracking male voice. "I knew you were going to be trouble Thief."
Thief? Not important right now. Grab Carol and get out. Sprinting towards Carol. Nola suddenly lifted her hand, and black energy came out of It, in a wave. It looked like a round pulsating Shield as it was heading for me. I tried to dodge out of the way. But the area of effect was too large, and I was shoved through the side of the vehicle out onto the road. I was about to switch to another when I realized there were no other drones on top of the vehicle. I started sprinting after it ever since I upgraded my wandering bosses speed. It can now go up to 60 km/h, so I should be able to catch up.
Sarah suddenly sent me a message. "take control of the Mech and take another shot. it's ready."
I switched over and aimed down the site. It was a little bit off in the only took me a quarter of a second to put it back into line firing the Canon it went down the right side of the vehicle. This time destroying five of the runes. All the runes along the vehicle suddenly started blinking before the yellow light faded away. And the hovering vehicle now slammed to the ground coming to a complete halt.
Back in my wandering boss combat drone. I reached the vehicle about 10 seconds later. When I heard running in a door slamming. the vehicle was maybe 15 m long and still had the large unknown box on the backend. The middle section was where we had found Carol. they should be down to Nola and the driver of the vehicle. Right as I started to climb up the side. The box on the rear end of the vehicle exploded outwards, revealing a heavily modified XO suit.
The XO suit stood at the height of 240 centimeters it looked like they had taken night armor and had welded it to the outside chassis of the suit. it was far bulkier than standard XO suit But had more armor. The XO was carrying a tower shield and what would've been a broadsword that was half the height of the armor.
I tried to jump off the side of the vehicle before the XO armor could reach me, but the XO grabbed the edge of its shield and swung clipping my combat drone torso and smashing it into pieces. I got the same error message saying it was destroyed and switch back over to the Mech. I watched as the pieces of my combat drone flew across the vehicle as a voice came from the suit. "IT'S GOING TO TAKE ME THREE WEEKS TO FIX THIS." I looked down the newly recharged cannon wishing I could smirk I knew exactly where the weak point for that armor was and I fired.
The round was going straight for the power pack on the back of the unit. before it could reach her a new shield popped up. It was glowing with the bright blue, and all of the runes with the same symbol lit up at the same time. I guess they were the shield runes. It didn't help, the shield shattered before it could even fully form, the round went straight through the power supply scattering chunks of it across the road, even as the round continued off into the distance.
The XO suit was stuck in a pose of trying to re-attach its shield. a much quieter and slightly scared voice came from inside. "oh, shit."
That's why they're not supposed to have so much heavy armor. You can't activate the emergency release with all that armor in the way.
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