CHAPTER 005: Evacuation

Adam Rytman

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 16:29

Clone #6 looked… well, she looked like the exact opposite of 4T. With exception of skin colour. She was white… but almost pale.

Black hair. Brown eyes. Much flatter than 4T. Not ‘flat’, but definitely lacked the expansive assets of our current chief engineer. Despite this, it was still an eye candy as she wore the thin suit.

Heh. Makes you wonder how many clone variants they have. I mean, the word ‘clones’ brings the image of hundreds of identical people, right?

I expected Nymphae to interrupt my thoughts with an answer… but I was met with silence. Hmph.

“So… uhm… you are the boss around here?” She didn’t look very composed. Huh. My internal fear of facing a competitor that might threaten my power over this little group just paled a bit.

I nodded.

“I… mm… okay.” She nervously scratched her head while trying to avoid my eyes. “I’m sorry for acting like that, it’s my first time in a VR game, and…” Oh. Right, there are still people like that. I guess everyone has to start somewhere.

“Don’t worry.” My worries were ALMOST extinguished. Too unique to be a mask. Nobody can play such an extreme shyness for long and not drop out of the act. That’s a two-edged sword. “It’s not that complicated. For now, we are a group of runaway clones that, together with a certain AI that I believe you already met, is trying to… survive, I guess. Since the ship we are on will crash.” Hmmm… “You know what, if you want to get used to it slowly, go help 4T with carrying stuff. We have no other things to do at present.”

I’m totally not going to arm her. Not because she might try something funny, but because she looks like she would faint after seeing a weapon from too close.

Ok, the situation with personnel under my command is officially bad. Besides myself, I have one withdrawn technician, one silent rugby player, and one… I think that’s shyness. Wonderful.

Then again, I’m pretty much stupid here. It wasn’t even ten minutes since I was scared to death that the new girl would be crazily active and will threaten my current authority I really don’t want to lose.

After she left - following a glowing trail invisible to me - I spoke with Nymphae.

“Observe her closely.” Just in case I was wrong. “And tell me of any suspicious actions. Though also help her. She… seems to need help. At least until she gets used to being here.”

“You don’t seem… thrilled, despite meeting a person in similar ‘predicament’ as yourself.” And now even AI is pointing this out.

“Well, let’s say that sometimes more means less… and less means more.” Time for something else. I should…

“I think I should inform you that Cutlass’ sensors detected movement on the surface of the rear part of Alum.” Nymphae suddenly spoke. “It’s the Numbers’. They are heading towards the Axis gate. I presume them to be a reconnaissance group.”

Ah, shit.

“Call 18S to the Axis. And watch them closely, in case they actually tried to enter through a different entrance.” I said while I marched towards Axis myself - at this point, I already knew the route.

The early warning achieved through the Cutlass’ sensors was our greatest trump card. If only we could activate its armaments… maybe not the main cannons, as it would be like using a nuke to kill a rat or something like that. But there were only a few smaller cannons and having them all melted because Nymphae didn‘t figure out their cooling systems would be a bad idea.

“Also, call… Ah, shit. I forgot to ask her for a name.”

“Sarah.” What? “She introduced herself to me. Quite a well-mannered girl, despite shyness.”

Oh? Someone was getting friendly behind my back? Hmph.

“Yeah, so call her. And ask her if she would be so kind as to replace me as a temporary pilot.” Delivering supplies to the Cutlass can’t wait. After all, we might be forced to evacuate in hurry. But… let’s avoid scaring her mentally too bad. “Just… make sure she knows that she has a choice and that she knows it will hurt, ok?”

“Ok.”

Good. Now, let’s proceed to fight off invaders.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 16:39

The assault was obviously a reconnaissance. The Numbers’ command wasn’t precisely the smartest one around, and it required time to figure out they had an intruder. And a bit more to figure out where he might have come from.

Not that hard to do; I mean all you had to do was to literally take a look outside to see an assault frigate parked right beside the other part of the Alum - where there were no Numbers’. Also, there were also no Numbers’ aboard the frigate… and there used to be a few dozens.

So yeah, it didn’t require being a genius to figure out what was going on.

Thankfully, rather than storming the Alum in force, the enemy commander (whoever it was) instead played it safe. So there was simply a recon by force. Fifteen Infantry Bots - that the enemy could spare - that flew over from the other Axis to the one on our side.

The attack was a bit too early - most of the hatches were welded shut (not like the enemy couldn’t open them, but it would take a lot of time), but we had no time to prepare the Axis for defending it properly. We had just enough time to move most crates away to prevent the enemy from taking cover… and we prepared covers for ourselves, but it was far from the barricade I envisioned in my head.

Me and 18S. In the plastic armours, and with assault rifles with attached grenade launchers. Versus fifteen Infantry Bots, forced to charge at us through fifteen meters of open space.

Enemy lacked grenade launchers and even grenades. So the victory was established right from the start. The question was - whether we avoid casualties that would rob us of our ability to survive the main dish. Like, 18S dying or me suffering respawn debuffs.

And we avoided the worst. It was a rather intense firefight. But we stalled the attackers for a critical few seconds right after the gates opened by electrocuting grenades. Since it immobilized them, it was a shooting range for us. And on a close distance, so even complete noobs couldn‘t miss.

From fifteen, we destroyed seven right there. Two more died right after the stun faded, even before they opened fire at us.

Six left. The cover we made was a long line of crates. With six guns, they couldn’t keep the suppressing fire thick enough - we immediately moved to the other side of the cover… and then opened fire, taking two more down.

Then we hid again since they turned their guns on us. So we moved again… and fired at them again, taking two more down. And then the final two fell. My assault rifles proficiency grew to second level.

It wouldn’t work on humans, but the Numbers’ suffered from some mental problems. In fact, it wouldn’t work even on Soldiers, as they would close the distance much faster and threw grenades over the cover. We could have taken four or five in the entrance (according to Nymphae they were more resistant to electricity than Infantry Bots), and then maybe two more between the entrance and the cover. And then… goodbye, Adam. And 18S.

“Is it over?” He seemed dumbfounded.

He wasn’t stupid. I watched 4T for a while when we were busy with delivering supplies to the Cutlass. The clones are about as intelligent as an average human, but… they are ‘empty’. I ordered him to help me fight the attack, so he did so - especially after I told him the Numbers would kill everyone around. And I even had to explain what death really means since Corporation decided that teaching that to expendable clones might be a bad idea.

Ugh. The Corporation guys are a bunch of real assholes. A bunch of real, ingenious assholes. I give them that.

18S fought alongside me, but he barely knew what was happening. I managed to describe the situation more or less to 4T, but we spent time together and 18S was busy working alone.

Nymphae wasn’t really a good person to introduce people to the world. Lacked social skills. Not like I was great on that field, but definitely better than her. And Sarah. One more thing we had to do for real once we will be safe.

“Yes. But I have a job for you.” I described him how I wanted the Axis to be prepared.” How far are you with the welding?”

Turned out he had only one or two entrances left. All of them on the opposite end of the front half from Axis gate.

Hmph. The chances for Numbers’ to continue that far in their search of entry point… No idea, actually. A normal human would have called off the search after checking twenty or thirty entrances. Machines? That’s exactly the kind of repetitive work the machines excelled in.

Well, if they will check out every entrance one by one, it will buy us an hour or two at the very least. If anything, they’ll find the hangar long before they will find the unwelded hatches.

And unfortunately, we couldn’t weld the hangar.

“Alright, so let’s consider the welding part finished. We’ll fortify the Axis together.”

Let’s hope we can hold the fort long enough for all of the clones to be unfrozen properly.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 17:04

Next clone to be successfully unfrozen was 8T. Another technician, this time a young man. According to Nymphae, he was from the same genetic stock as me. So, I finally got an identical twin brother.

I had no time to meet him. We were in a hurry. Axis was mostly prepared, but I always had ideas for more improvements. At this point, it was obviously a paranoia… but one that could be constructive.

I told Nymphae to guide 8T to the hangar… and then have him transfer to the Cutlass. I also ordered our AI to find a job for him there. Something fitting his skills.

I was half hoping for another Blank to turn out to be a Player. Average one. Somebody I could throw to defend the trenches without risking that he would die.

I tried to figure out how to connect another person to the augments so they would have respawns like me, but… I just can’t. Ugh. I need to check the internet outside. For now, I was too busy. So many things to do, so little time.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 17:43

Third blank clone turned out… normal. Not a player. Clone #7 turned out to be a genetic copy of Sarah/Clone #6. Another person I had Nymphae evacuate to the safety of the Cutlass.

She wasn’t in great shape. Nymphae told me she was cutting corners at this point. AI had very limited insight into the electronic system of the other half of Alum - Numbers’ were much more thorough over there… but it was enough to detect massive regrouping of enemy forces.

At least judging from the number of internal gates opened and closed repeatedly. An attack was imminent. And it would be a major pain.

At least we managed to finish delivering supplies to Cutlass. We were stuffed to the brink with food, water and spare parts. We also had a frigate’s worth supply of fuel, reactor power cells and ammunition. With every passing second without the attack starting, we were getting closer and closer to a flawless retreat. I mean, it was maybe twenty or thirty minutes until the last Blank is unfrozen, and then…

“They are coming.” Oh shit. Nymphae immediately brought me back from the depth of my thoughts.

“How many?” We had a perfect defensible position and a lot of grenades - plus some mines Nymphae found in Cutlass armoury. So unless the enemy had an overwhelming advantage, we should…

“82 so far.” Oh shit. “64 Soldiers, 14 Grenadiers. Four Elites: two Commandos, one Sorcerer and one Technician.” Ohshitshitshitshit. I don’t know details on them, but they sound tough.

Shit. No way of saving the last clone now. We were about to get absolutely murdered here.

“We can still manage.” Hmm? “They plan to overwhelm us by attacking everywhere at once. They are spread evenly… which means that they are thin everywhere.”

So, rather than one decisive wave, there will be one group after another. We will run out of ammunition soon, but…

“What about the hangar?” If they attack there, we are dead..

“They steer clear from this side of the ship. They simply don’t know that Cutlass weapons are offline.”

The enemy had outwitted me. They will take a look at every entrance at once. I didn’t imagine there would be as many of them there, how did they… but wait, it will take them a lot of time to reach the still open entrances. Maybe 90% of enemies will discover their entry points blocked and will need time to reach one of the few open ones. So instead of one massive wave, they will be many successive ones.

“Is there a medbay in the Cutlass?” Time for plan B.

“Yes. And I know what you mean, we can fix most of the typical side effects of hurried unfreeze there. It won’t be fast, but… I estimate that you need to hold the line for ten minutes for the last clone to be unfrozen and evacuated. I will need to have someone help her walk.”

“Send Sarah.” Even if she dies, she won’t die for real. And she has to stay around, since someone has to fly the shuttle in case I was wounded and unable to do that.

Time to start the battle.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 17:45

Soldiers stormed in first, but we were prepared. I might not be very experienced with the mines, but I put enough of them in the area surrounding the entrance to at least slow them down.

The mosaic of explosive and electrocuting mines changed the entrance into a slaughterhouse. Though since the enemy send the biggest group for the Axis, they still pushed through

We met them with gunfire. A hail of bullets killed the surviving Soldiers before they had time to use the grenades.

Yes, well, that was pretty underwhelming…

Grenadiers. Two. The Nymphae standard report only confirmed my fears.

They carried much larger weapons… and pointed them towards us. Unfortunately, both me and 18S targeted the same one. The other one had a free hand to fire a whole rain of grenades on us.

Shit, was that thing full auto?!

Thankfully, I had a paranoia… and the crates could be glued to each other by usage of some weird nanobot glue that Nymphae found for me. Because of that, our barricade was three crates tall, with the shooting window in the middle.

So rather than massacre us, the grenades exploded on the other side of the cover. But since there were many of them, it was most traumatic for the barricade. And for ourselves though merely few shrapnels found their way through our shooting window.

I rose and shot the Grenadier. With a grenade. Explosive one.

18S was scratched - bulkiness made hiding behind cover a bit harder - but he looked more or less ok. But with our barricade blown, our ability to hold the ground right at this point was pretty busted.

As if to put a big, black underline for my statement, more Soldiers stormed inside. The two first ones were shot almost instantly, but the rest.

“SECOND LINE!” I shouted to 18S. He nodded, while still shooting. Then we began our retreat to the second line.

Because I was smart enough to make three. Smart or paranoid.

“Numbers’ fell into the typical weakness of most machine threats in the Galaxy.” Nymphae spoke, while I kept shooting. “They go towards the quantity over quality. They can normally reproduce fast enough to outnumber any possible enemy. Like 30 to 1. Because of that, they will storm every encountered opponents. Returning to the breach repeatedly, until enemy drowns in bodies.”

I exploded another head with a burst of bullets… and decided that I have to admit our AI was right. Suicidal. You had to lack self-preservation instinct (and brain) to charge like that. We were only two amateurs, what would they do if there were two (or more) badass marines or something?

“They would send more of their own. Hundreds after hundreds. Thousands after thousands. And any time the marines would be pushed back, they would grab the destroyed robots and repair them back into shape… only to send them to battle again.” Oh, that… might just work. Even without working brain. “They still seem forced to act against their own programming. Normally they would dismantle the ships, stealing materials to build more of their own. That’s why they are like… fishes taken out of the water.”

“This fish taken out of the water is about to chomp on my ass.” I commented. Another Soldier got shot by me.

“Yes, and… Oh.” Not again. What is it now? “Numbers’ also use few Elites… pushed towards the quality end of the scale. Makes it easier to retake fallen bodies and so on.” … one of them is coming, right? “Yes. Sorcerer. Unless you have a squad of marines with you, you won’t even put a dent in him. I suggest retreat.”

Sorcerer? Hmph.

Let’s see if we…

He marched in.

Tall. Slender. An industrial looking robot, but one that seemed much more advanced than average. He was higher than normal Numbers’ robots, but looked more slender and more… vulnerable.

He also wore a cape. A damn cape made from fabric. With a hood. Seriously? Someone has a truly flawed sense of aesthetics.

Alright. Let’s test his mettle.

Both me and 18S had the same idea at the same moment. We both opened fire at the Sorcerer.

Bullets stopped mid-flight right in front of him. And then dropped on the ground.

Ok, it’s not good.

I tried to fire an electrocuting grenade… but he used his ‘telekinesis’ and shielded himself with some unlucky Soldier that was standing close to him.

Then he threw the Soldier at me. I ducked, and the soldier missed me and flew above my head.

The soldier was in shape good enough to almost immediately raise up… but 18S shot him before he shot me.

More and more Soldiers entered the Alum. Sorcerer shielded them. They put suppressing fire on us and moved forward from cover to cover.

Fuck.

“It’s time.” Nymphae interrupted me. “Sarah and Clone #12 are nearing the Hangar, if you retreat now, you’ll meet with them there.”

HIGH FUCKING TIME. “WE ARE PULLING OUT!” I shouted to 18S. He nodded.

Time to get the heck out of Alum.

***

TCS Alum/Pontifex-A System

Long War

28 March 2547, 17:54

We’ve run into the hangar to see Sarah and Clone #12 entering the room from another door nearby.

This time an auburn-haired beauty. Though she lost most of her beauty by being half frozen. She was barely standing straight. Her skin was almost blue and she seemed to have hoarfrost in her hair.

She lacked clothing. I guess there was no time for that.

18S didn’t wait. Instead, he showed a surprising amount of initiative (or cowardice) and he simply ran towards them, grabbed Clone 12 and ran towards the shuttle with her in his arms. Sarah seemed frozen by surprise for a second, then she saw Soldiers flooding the hangar and leapt towards the shuttle with a loud shriek.

Yeah, forget about me. I mean, WHO CARES ABOUT ME, RIGHT?

I jumped over a crate, turned back and shot one of the storming Soldiers. Then I fired my last electrocuting grenade at a group of three Numbers’ that were about to open fire at me…

...And then Sorcerer entered the hangar right after them. With five more Soldiers’ running inside, guns blazing.

Yeah, shit.

Fuck that. I’m out of here.

The cargo elevator safely carried all of my sidekicks up. They left passenger elevator for me. How nice.

I ran towards it, trying to jump from one cover to another.

Then Sorcerer threw crates at me.

FUCK YOU.

He missed narrowly. One of his supporting crew had more luck, and I got shot in the back.

Hurt a lot. More than the last time. So it probably went through. Shit.

But I reached the elevator The tube closed around me… and then the platform rose. I could hear the shuttle engine starting.

Goodbye, Alum. Welcome, Cutlass.