CHAPTER 003: Dagger

Adam Rytman

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 14:09

The landing was much nicer than the first one. Nymphae had me slowly decelerate and stop right beside the Axis gate. It soon opened and let me in. Then I had to wait for the pressure to be equalized and for Nymphae to open the damn gate before me.

“I’ve finished waking up another clone.” Nymphae informed me. “Designation: Clone #00004T.” Wait, T? “Letter T by the number means that the clone was optimized towards serving a technician. This includes basic skills in programming, engineering and so on.”

Oh. Wait a second. “There are ‘specialized’ clones? Who am I then? And what are the specializations of the other clones?” I’m slowly getting tired with Nymphae withholding crucial information like that.

“You are a ‘Blank’. Which means that while normally you can be used to menial work only, you can be reprogrammed into any other specialization.” Oh. That’s both good and bad, I guess. “You are also the first one to be dismantled if due to an accident or an attack there are wounded crew members requiring urgent organ transplantation.”

…

Ok, I don’t like the Truthseekers Corporation. That’s official now. I might have another approach if I wasn’t a clone but as one… well, I don’t think they will be… thrilled with one of the clones seizing control of their ship. Even half. And even if it will last for several hours top. So even if I encounter some crew members that somehow survived, they will almost certainly be hostile. Or at least major assholes.

“Out of six clones other than you: 6, 7 and 12 are Blanks, 4 and 8 are technicians, and 18 is a security guard.” I’m not sure if arming an expendable clone is a good idea, but… well. If the Corporation is consistent in its approach to clones, we all probably have explosive implants in our heads or something like that.

Now that I think about it…

“Loyalty implants deactivated.” Nymphae interrupted me. “In you and in other clones.” Right. One more boost of initiative because of mind-reading. One thing less to worry about.

“Wake up the security guard next.” I’m NOT very comfortable with the Numbers’ guys in the other half of the ship. If I travelled from one side to another, then they can do that as well. And might do that right after they figure out where I went. “And send the 4T to the reactor room, we’ll meet up there.”

“Yes, captain.”

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 14:14

It turned out I was closer to the reactor than the 4T, so I had a minute or two to contemplate the place before the first companion of mine came.

Pretty underwhelming. I expected some massive setup together with electric arcs and large moving things I’d have to navigate through to reignite the reactor, heroically risking my life.

Instead, there was a control room with a lot of keyboards (with buttons on transparent glass) and a large window. To a place with a lot of machinery and some central… metal… ball-like thing I presumed to be the reactor core itself.

And you didn’t even have to enter the reactor itself. You had to put the new fuel cell into the tube outside, and everything beyond that was automatic. Replacing the cell was one thing, and reigniting the reactor was something else, but…

There was an access door in case of damages that had to be fixed by hand and there was to a way to replace the cell manually. But… it wasn’t enough to not be considered a letdown. Sigh.

Then the door behind me opened, and I received a payback worthy of suffering the underwhelming reactor room.

4T was a girl. A pretty girl. REALLY pretty girl. Long blond hair. White skin. Blue eyes, which I saw after she came closer. Wow. This level of beauty couldn’t be natural.

And she had assets. Enough to be pleasant to the eye, especially with her rather… tight clothing. It took quite a bit of my willpower to not end up drooling.

“Uhm… captain?” And she is my subordinate, right? Heh. The game is slowly getting better and better.

“Right, right. I replaced the fuel cell.” I still can’t believe it was that easy. “Get the reactor running. I have other things to do.” She… saluted. Didn’t look very motivated.

I left the room. That’s when Nymphae spoke.

“Do not expect a lot of creativity and motivation from newly awakened clones.” Hmm? “If anything, you are an anomaly. Normally they are blank slates, only with the basic knowledge necessary to work that was implanted in their brains during the gestation. It takes a while to develop a personality.”

“Right now I’m planning to make sure the shuttle is in working conditions,” I informed Nymphae. “Could you lead me to it?”

“Now? You still have time.” Sigh. And now a machine is doubting me.

“Yes. Right now. Because I plan to make sure we can escape if the Numbers’ come to visit us.“ The ship is obviously a lost case. I’m not planning to spend weeks welding it together again. We could save the rear part - since it still had the thrusters - but there are probably many more armed Numbers.

I might have killed one, but it was a narrow victory. And Nymphae said something about enemies that ‘weren’t simple infantry bots’, so…

“I see.” A short silence. “According to the date from the Alum’ sensors, the majority of the spaceships belonging to the Task Force Pontifex were annihilated during the attack. I detect some mostly undamaged ships that were simply abandoned by their crews.” Hmm? “Eighty-seven kilometres from Alum current position is TCS Cutlass, a Dagger-class assault frigate. My sensors show no damage to its hull. It is equipped with a hyperdrive, so if you plan to evacuate yourself and the clones, it might be the best choice.”

I wonder how big a frigate precisely is? Sounds like one of the smaller ships, but exact details vary from world to world. Regardless, this is a good idea. I should…

“...147 meters long. Lightweight tonnage - 12359 tonnes. A nominal crew for maximum effectiveness - 25 people. With seven, we will have to cut corners but flying it is possible. I do not recommend entering battles though.”

Right. Wait, we?

“Yes. According to my data, the Cutlass computers were wiped clean. Everything besides the programs required for the reactor and thrusters is gone, they are left to make the ship drift until Corporation find it back. Unless you want to spend weeks writing basic programming for the ship, you’ll need me.” Oh. “It won’t be a problem. Your augments are not standard, for reasons unknown to me. Their capacity equals a supercomputer. I can upload myself to it and have you transfer me to the Cutlass’ Heart. I will lose the majority of my memory, but I can make sure that everything of priority is transferred with me.”

Right. Makes sense.

“Alright, so the plan is as follows.” I said. “4T reignites reactor and keeps the post in the Alum. I fix the shuttle and go to the Cutlass. I make sure it’s cleared of hostiles and under our control and bring him closer. Then we steal everything we can from the Alum, including you, and we move over to the frigate. Questions?”

“One. Requesting permission to upload basic skills required to use the shuttle to your brain.” Right, I forgot about that.

“Is it going to hurt?” I joked.

“No.” Phew. “You are just going to feel a little pinch. Followed by a feeling that can only be summed up to a coal train derailing in your head.”… This AI is beginning to scare the shit out of me.

“Alright, do it.”

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 14:21

NEW SKILL ACQUIRED!

Space Shuttles

Type: Pilotage

This skill governs your ability to pilot shuttles and similar small ships, both in space and in atmosphere.

Level: 1

I wiped the blood from under my nose and rose up from the ground.

“It’s official now.” I spoke. “I prefer the old school method of learning to use things.”

“I am not surprised.” Yeah. Thank you for your words of wisdom, Nymphae. Ugh.

The corridor suddenly brightened. Hmm?

“The reactor is online.” Nymphae informed me. “Emergency power supply is no longer used and the energy saving settings are no longer in place.”

Right, good to know 4T does the job right. And she didn’t even make the ship explode!

I contemplated the idea of bringing her with me to the Cutlass. But no. My ‘human resources’ are obviously limited. Endangering them any further would be stupid. She should stay here.

“Right. Lead me to the hangar.” I should totally spend some time figuring out the game interface… sigh.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 14:29

The hangar was small and pretty underwhelming. The outer gate looked tough, though. Big, made from metal (instead of this weird, white, plastic-like thing that the rest of the ship seemed to be built from).

The shuttle was even worse. Whoever designed it, should just drop dead. It was a ten meters long tube that looked like somebody shrank the airliner and chopped off its wings and fins. Just a tube. With big thrusters in the back, smaller at the tip (you had to decelerate somehow) and few manoeuvre ones on other edges.

It stood three meters up on some ‘stilts’. You entered it through an elevator - the platform was two meters wide and long. Hmph.

“You can also lower down its entire cargo bay.” Nymphae misunderstood my thoughts. “Makes loading and unloading easy.”

“It’s not that.” The elevator reached the destination. The cargo bay was empty. Beyond it was the cockpit. “This thing just looks bad. Not exactly how I expected a spaceship to look like.”

“It’s merely a civilian unit used to carry goods to and from the ship.” Nymphae answered. “There are also much more ‘representative’ passenger shuttles. And even some military units. That’s the only one left in the front part of Alum.”

Right. Sigh. Even civilian designers should have some common sense. It’s just ugly.

The refuelling was done from outside. But before I reached that part, I had to get the shuttle working. The cell had to be inserted into the slot in the wall right behind the cockpit itself. It slid inside and then disappeared. Then that whole part of the wall rotated itself, leaving only blank plate.

I entered the cockpit and sat on the pilot seat. A glass keyboard expanded in front of me. I began the launch sequence.

Huh. Looks like I won’t need to refuel. The fuel tank was full. Why did they even keep the fuel cells for the reactor separately?!

“Security reasons.” Hmm? “The fuel cells were under strict watch, as a person with some engineering skills could make them into a nuclear bomb. By keeping all cells in a few dedicated places it was easy to avoid that threat. Also, it made stealing a shuttle harder.”

Makes sense.

There were two ways of piloting the shuttle. First one included a much more modern version of a control rod and programming skills. The latter was required if you wanted to make harder manoeuvres - you could program the movements when you needed them too precise for a human pilot. Plus, an auto-pilot.

The latter one included connecting your own nervous system to the machine. I had - didn’t notice that earlier - a dedicated connector in the back of my neck. But that was for emergency maneuvers - especially in battles - when you required absolute precision and rapid changes of movements. And while it allowed you to pilot your shuttle with the efficiency and speed of a computer, it was neither pleasant nor long-term healthy.

Wow. Getting knowledge transferred directly to my brain was weird. Since when this was possible?! A natural next step after moving public education to the internet, I guess. Unless it hurts in real life as well.

I decided to stick to the ‘simple’ method. Oh, now that I think…

“Nymphae, are there any hostiles around?” I can’t believe I forgot to ask it about that. It would probably not tell me on its own, right?

“No.” Uff. “The Numbers were carried here aboard a small fleet, but after they boarded the surviving ships of the Task Force Pontifex, the fleet itself departed. I do not detect any hostile ships within the Pontifex-A system.”

“And… can they be hidden?” We are an armed cargo vessel, I don’t expect its sensors to be top-notch.

“No.” Hmm? “You can’t hide a ship in realspace. The vacuum is cold and the ships emit heat. I can monitor any heat source systemwide with the use of the surviving elements of the Corporation satellites and probes. I can warn you - with 100% certainty - about any enemy ship at least six days before they enter combat range.”

… Ok, that’s really handy. Wait, what about…

“Yes, you can do that. But you have to avoid letting out even a 0,1C of temperature. Which, due to the need of the reactor being kept online to keep life support running and the laws of thermodynamics, means slowly cooking your crew alive. You can proceed to Cutlass without worries.”

I feel persuaded.

***

Space Shuttle/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 14:40

I’ve spend a while trying to figure out the interface… and surprise! It worked!

GENERAL INFORMATIONS

Name

Clone #00001 - Adam

Species

Human

Subspecies

Baseline Homo Sapiens [Cloned]

DETAILS

Skills

Quests

Property

Affiliations

Health

MAIN MENU

Suicide

Settings

Logout

I could also inspect stuff! I decided to try that on the rifle.

Hardlight Rifle

Type: Assault Rifle

Ammunition: Numbers’ Class-7 Power Cell

Standard-issue energy rifle used by the Numbers’ infantry.

The term ‘Hard Light’ refers to technologies from old science fiction, using light that for some reason seems to have a corporeal form. This term was adopted by the Truthseekers Corporation scientists, after multiple failed attempts to figure out how exactly it works.

I ejected the power cell and used Inspect on it. Turned out that 89% of power was left. Good to know.

I was so busy inspecting things I almost did not notice that we reached the target. Huh. I parked the shuttle near the Cutlass. Another thing that looked pretty bland. I expected something more… sword-ish. It was built like a large H letter, with one side suffering from powerful dystrophy.

Hmph. Doesn’t look militantly. If you exclude the obvious artillery towers. Three, one big and two smaller - though one of the smaller had two barrels. Looked like something taken straight from WW1-WW2 warship. Small compared to the size of the ship.

“The big one is a 76mm MAW.” Nymphae to the rescue. “MAW stands for Magnetic Acceleration Weapon. Essentially a mass driver that fires solid slugs by using electromagnets” So it really IS taken straight from WW1-WW2 warship. They only changed the method of bullet propulsion. “It can fire thirty rounds per minute, each of them equalling 3-4 kilotonne nuclear warhead.”

So, a rapid fire nuclear bomb. Neat. I take the part about the gun being small back. It doesn’t have to be big.

“The smaller one with a single barrel is a laser. The two-barrelled one is 37mm MAW.” Eh, too much information.

No time for that, I’ll learn details of space weaponry and ships when I’ll have time for that.

I disconnected the seat belts and flew back to the elevator. The shuttle turned out to be too small to have its own artificial gravity. Huh. What next?

My suit automatically switched into vacuum mode. The unasked question about how the elevator will let me out without causing decompression to the insides of the shuttle found its answer. The elevator descended, and together with it, I passed through a nanobot surface.

Aaand… vacuum once again. I can see a star in the distance. It’s small. Smaller than the Sun.

“It’s Pontifex B.” What? “We are in a binary system. We are in Pontifex A system, and you see the Pontifex B star. It’s about one light year away.” I see. “The only difference is the distance, since they are both Orange Dwarfs, like the Sun.”

Hmph. I see. Wait. “Have you transferred yourself onto my implants?”

“No.” Hmm? “I will do it right before we leave from the Alum. For now, I can safely guide and accompany you from the Alum’s Heart.” I heard the word already… I presume it means the central computer of the ship. Hmph. “I copied the basic programming for the doors, hatches and so on unto your implants, though. There is also a program I wrote that will automatically install them unto machines you are passing by. So despite full computer cleanse, no door will slow you down.”

I’m not sure how I feel about being used as a walking hard drive.

“I’m also about to finish writing the basic programming for the frigate. I’ll send it soon. You’ll just have to get close to the Heart or the bridge for me to install it.”

Hmph. No matter how I look at that, Nymphae is useful. Despite being stupid. It could get downright scary if it wasn’t so stupid.

I flew to the nearest hatch. As expected, it opened.

***

TCS Cutlass/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 15:02

The ship was empty. Totally empty. Unlike Alum, there were no bodies. Nor signs of a struggle.

As I walked, the ship was returning to life. Lights. Computer monitors. Everything sprung to life. Wow.

Nymphae used the UI to show me the way. I walked through what I thought to be living quarters of the crew. Quite… sterile, I guess. Felt very impersonal. There was also some mess here and there, I presume people living here left in a hurry.

“Enemy ahead.” Nymphae warned me.

Right.

Next room seemed to a mess hall. I walked inside to see a Numbers’ Infantry Bot standing on the other side of the room.

I fired a burst of bullets from the rifle. Two hits. He seemed to not be fully awake, judging from his position - standing upright, but with the head facing the floor. This also meant that he wasn’t prepared to get hit in any way - the impact pushed him back unto the wall.

Before he raised his weapon, I fired two more bursts. Machine collapsed.

Heh. They aren’t too tough.

“These are merely Infantry Bots.” Nymphae informed me. “They are pretty much Numbers’ civilians armed with a spare assault rifle.” Really? “Good enough for eliminating few surviving crew members armed with nothing but pistols, especially when they swarm them. If you run into Numbers’ Soldiers or Grenadiers… and there are several types of Elites, for example Commandos. If you encounter tougher Numbers’, you’ll be in trouble.”

… good to know. “Actually, who the heck are the Numbers?”

“Scavengers.” Hmm? “Truthseekers Corporation came to Pontifex system for Precursor relics. It believes that their homeworld is somewhere close.”

“Precursors? Let me guess, Ancient Powerful Aliens.” I interrupted the AI.

“Yes. One of over thirty Ancient and Powerful but Extinct Aliens known to Mankind.” Why do I sensed a tint of sarcasm there? “They are counted amongst the most technologically advanced of the known precursor species.”

They had to run out of names for the precursor species to call one of them Precursors. Heh.

“Corporation believed Numbers’ were somehow connected to the Precursors.” Nymphae continued. “They might be wayward self-replicating military machines or something similar. They mostly try to steal materials and technology. However, rather than steal and dismantle ships they left their soldiers to eliminate survivors. This is not a typical Numbers’ tactic.”

“Did they also wiped out the Corporation’s fleet?” They certainly seem aggressive towards it, right?

“Unlikely.” Oh? “The damage done to the Alum doesn’t fit the data I possess about Numbers’ weaponry. They use hardlight artillery, which causes completely different type of damage. It also doesn’t fit any known weapons they could gain access by stealing ships. In fact, it also doesn’t fit any known weapon system at all.”

The plot thickens.

“Enemy ahead.” Nymphae informed me.

This time it seemed to be a cargo hold. But the robot looked bulkier. It raised his head, looking at me… and his eyes lighten up with deep crimson colour.

“Target identified: Numbers’ Soldier Bot.”

Ah, crap.