ShipCore - Book 3: Chapter 145.1 – Lay Down Your Arms

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Main Transit Hub 36

Consciousness drifted back slowly at first, before Alex’s snapped open.

Raising a hand to her temple a dried line of blood slowly began to absorb back into her skin. “That wasn’t a precision strike.”

[Notice: A maximum power laser at close range with a beam diameter of 15 meters intersected AGAI’s last known coordinates. Total plasmification is theorized. Considerable collateral damage to the environs around the strike beam stabilized thirty seconds preceding Avatar reactivation. A total time of 98 seconds of unconsciousness was recorded. This unit—]

“I get it. Thanks. Tia?” Alex murmured.

Relief flooded her as her HUD sent her in the correct location, but the other girl’s injuries were severe as a standard medical overlay theorized, she was dead. But Alex could see that her nanites were still active and her cerebral function was still stable. It was just the rest of her body that was nonfunctional and the nanites were working full tilt to keep her alive.

“What about the rampancy?”

[Notice: While Avatar was inactive, this unit took it upon itself to expand nanite suppression duties and increased the area of effect to maximum effective limits. Rampancy growth has halted in the section and nearest site of active assimilation is two kilometers down tram line RD-8 in the direction of rampancy source.]

“I thought the AGAI was the source.”

[Informative: All non-local computronics have been effectively destroyed. AGAI usage of modules effectively removed their rampancy protections and introduced them to the local environment once integrity failure occurred.]

“Great. Thanks.”

Turning attention back to Tia, Alex kneeled down beside her. Deciding getting out of the section was the best thing to do, she prepared the other girl for moving.

Tia’s arms went over Alex’s shoulders and around her neck, allowing her to hoist the unconscious girl onto her back. Alex’s hands slipped under the other girl’s knees. Two layers of nanites went to work to suction Tia to her back to help keep her from becoming unbalanced and falling off. It wasn’t the fireman-over-the-shoulders carry they’d been taught, but it worked well with the additional nanite assistance.

The air was thick with the acrid scent of smoke and burnt metal as the I-fields had flickered back to life as emergency systems caught up to the tumultuous damage that had ravaged the station section. Smoldering fires had reignited with the presence of new atmosphere, and red-hot metal holes provided their own addition to the emergency lighting.

[Informative: Military utility vessels will begin laser cutting of MIL-1A subsection 36-MTL-B will occur in less than five minutes.]

[Recommendation: Evacuate Transit Hub Section 36.]

Alex’s gaze slid out a blue tinted hole in the station. In the distance small gray blobs of distant warships were using visible lasers as they cut up sections of the infected station and then pulled them away from the rest of the orbital.

She wasn’t sure how it was possible that the station had restored the atmosphere and I-field. The section was more destroyed than intact, and she had to carefully pick her way between debris and avoid the gaping hole where the AGAI had been impaled on a decidedly non-PDC sized laser with a beam diameter over ten meters.

The dead nanite sand crunched under her boots as she made her way to the nearest tramline that led out of what was left of Transit Hub 36. She’d beaten them back almost half a kilometer back down the tunnel by expanding her defensive cloud as far as she could without claiming more computronics from Tia.

With a mental flick a communication channel sprung to life, and a new connection to the CIC appeared on the side of her vision. Admiral Anderson looked up from his console to look at her. She squelched the third-person camera that the miniature nanites had created for him. She didn’t need to be reminded of how terrible their hair looked now.

“Admiral, the AGAI has been destroyed. I’ve dealt with the rampancy growth in the section as far as I could as well. Tia’s unconscious and I’m taking her to Hub 35.”

Admiral Anderson frowned, then shook his head slightly. “Cadet, I’d prefer if you remained on station and prevented the spread of the rampancy from escaping off the section.”

“I’m sorry, sir, but I must insist. Tia needs help, and despite life-support being restored the section is highly unstable,” Alex replied firmly.

The Admiral sighed, relenting. “Fine, but hurry. We’re going to cut off Hub 36 and the infected sections of the station soon. I’ll send a team of marines to meet you at Hub 35.”

With us still in it.

“Thank you, sir,” Alex said, her voice flat. She killed the connection.

As she reached the tramline tunnel toward hub 35, the structural integrity of the section improved dramatically. It was still a long trip though, even if she wasn’t having to watch every step for falling through and out into space under her and Tia’s combined weight.

Even the normal floor plates felt like they flexed slightly.

“You need to lose some weight.” Alex mumbled to herself.

[Informative: Avatar’s weight is approximately 27 kilograms heavier than sub-core Celestia’s current level. It would likely be more effective for Avatar to shed additional mass.]

Alex bristled at being told she weighed more. “I thought you had a large breast fetish.” Alex accused.

[Notice: This unit prefers efficiency over other considerations. It has no bias relating to the aesthetics of human anatomy.]

For whatever reason, she didn’t believe him. “Uh-huh. Is Tia going to be alright?”

[Informative: Sub-core Celestia is undergoing accelerated recuperation from overdriven computronic cores. Her physical Avatar has sustained considerable damage and is undergoing repairs and maintenance. No permanent cognitive damage or dissonance is detected by MainComputer subroutines.]

“How long until she wakes up?” Alex asked.

[Notice: This time is undeterminable at the current time. An educated estimation places the time between one and five hours for Avatar restoration.]

“Not ideal.” Alex muttered.