A wandering SI ends up in a Delta Commander travelling the universe...s
The Wandering ; (Planetary Annihilation Multicross SI.)
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Prologue; Awakening
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Author Note; Hello, and thank you for your interest in this thread. As much as I love writing my BSG crossover. Sometimes you get in the mood to do something without imposing restraints on yourself. Especially if you're inspired by something like torroars fic. I even sat back and thought about how I wanted to do it. Did I want to do TA instead? Supcom? or even go more esoteric with Ashes of the Singularity.
Ultimately I decided against that and to go with PA after all. (Specifically; The Delta Commander)
Well I decided on that. And one other rule.
For each universe "I" visit. I will take a companion with when I leave.
End Author Note
LV-223 Archaeological Dig Site.
The archaeological dig had been at it for almost a week on LV-223. They had found the mass beneath the ice when previous surveys had missed it before. A colossal metal structure beneath the ice. Danforth was, of course, a member of the company. The only one that mattered this far out.
And that find was why he was no sitting there, watching under Marine watch. Mother had sent them out. The priority of their find absolute. But even as the heat units opened up the excavation there was something in there. Something huge. Eighty metres in height.
It's strange mechanical form entrapped in the melting ice. Inactive for who knew how long.
It was beautiful.
Until the slit where eyes should be lit up a baleful red.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consciousness returned to me in fits and starts. Like a boot sequence running through its paces. First operating systems. Power. Mass. Senses. Production Engines. Reclamation Engines. Data Intrusion equipment. Weapons.. and finally my personality. I didn't even realise I had it until it was loaded into active memory. What the hell had been done to me, by what or whom?
I knew what I was. More intimately than the memories I had could ever have explained. I also knew that there was a man standing on the rim in front of my eye. I processed his appearance in all of a few seconds. Coveralls, basic tools... and a logo.
Oh no.
Weyland Yutani.
++Get off me.++
The sound came from the radio on his hip. There was no vocal transmitters in my body, it hadn't been built with communication in mind, at least not that with lesser minds. It was made for a singular purpose. War. He promptly startled, and fell off.
Fortunately for him he was secured tightly with rope. Unfortunately for him, he was secured to me. I shrugged off the ice creeping into my joints. A moments annoyance gripping me. The Marines were turning, surprised towards me. I scanned them easily ignoring the harsh light of the floods. The M41A Pulse rifles didn't intimidate me. Neither did the Smartgun carried by one of them.
But they weren't intended to intimidate me. They were intended to protect the site from other interests.
But right now they were freaking out.
I stepped from my icy prison, poor WY employee dangling from the ropes securing him to me. I tapped into their comms channels and their barking for help. And reinforcements.
++You, dangleboy. Do you have enough rope to get down?++
The employee, managed to get himself under control looking into my eyes, and abseiling down me as quickly as he could manage. My sensors studied my surrounds. It seemed that the game, predictably, was by far not to scale. It didn't change the fact that I was forty times his size. Nearly the size of a 20 story building.
As soon as he was down I raised my arms into the active position. The Marines were panicked and reacting, weapons raised and shouting commands. I frowned.
No I wanted to frown. I wasn't physically able to do so.
++What year is it?++
I asked and the employee, running for the biggest rock he could hide behind paused and turned. Taking up his radio. "2170. It's the year of our lord 2170."
++Where am I++
He hesitated. "We call it LV-223. I don't know what you would call it, or how you know our language..." the marines had an APC rolling down into the excavation site. It's turret following me with every turn it made. The time to make a decision came quickly, my arrival unprecedented, but also unexpected.
And now I had to decide whether the secrecy of my existence was more important than the lives of these men and women. I didn't want to kill men and women just doing their jobs, they hadn't done anything to me, likely couldn't do anything to me. But the men they worked for were another story entirely. A corporation that would fuck around with the Xenomorphs and put everyone at risk.
No.
I wouldn't murder them just to preserve myself. But I would disarm them. The reclaimer beams fired, narrowed down to a point almost beyond their specifications. Absorbing their weapons, comms equipment.... the APC fired a hundred rounds before I turned capture beams on it.
Those beams took over the hardware and electronics. Shutting down their comms. With it, the machines schematics entered my databanks. There was nothing impressive or useful. But it was local.
I had left the radio on the employee's waist. ++I apologise for the unpleasantries, but nobody is hurt. And I have places to be.++
Ultimately I decided against that and to go with PA after all. (Specifically; The Delta Commander)
Well I decided on that. And one other rule.
For each universe "I" visit. I will take a companion with when I leave.
Universe List; In order of planned visitation has been moved to its own post..
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
The Wandering ; (Planetary Annihilation Multicross SI.) Crossover
A wandering SI ends up in a Delta Commander travelling the universe...s
forums.sufficientvelocity.com
LV-223 Archaeological Dig Site.
The archaeological dig had been at it for almost a week on LV-223. They had found the mass beneath the ice when previous surveys had missed it before. A colossal metal structure beneath the ice. Danforth was, of course, a member of the company. The only one that mattered this far out.
And that find was why he was no sitting there, watching under Marine watch. Mother had sent them out. The priority of their find absolute. But even as the heat units opened up the excavation there was something in there. Something huge. Eighty metres in height.
It's strange mechanical form entrapped in the melting ice. Inactive for who knew how long.
It was beautiful.
Until the slit where eyes should be lit up a baleful red.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Consciousness returned to me in fits and starts. Like a boot sequence running through its paces. First operating systems. Power. Mass. Senses. Production Engines. Reclamation Engines. Data Intrusion equipment. Weapons.. and finally my personality. I didn't even realise I had it until it was loaded into active memory. What the hell had been done to me, by what or whom?
I knew what I was. More intimately than the memories I had could ever have explained. I also knew that there was a man standing on the rim in front of my eye. I processed his appearance in all of a few seconds. Coveralls, basic tools... and a logo.
Oh no.
Weyland Yutani.
++Get off me.++
The sound came from the radio on his hip. There was no vocal transmitters in my body, it hadn't been built with communication in mind, at least not that with lesser minds. It was made for a singular purpose. War. He promptly startled, and fell off.
Fortunately for him he was secured tightly with rope. Unfortunately for him, he was secured to me. I shrugged off the ice creeping into my joints. A moments annoyance gripping me. The Marines were turning, surprised towards me. I scanned them easily ignoring the harsh light of the floods. The M41A Pulse rifles didn't intimidate me. Neither did the Smartgun carried by one of them.
But they weren't intended to intimidate me. They were intended to protect the site from other interests.
But right now they were freaking out.
I stepped from my icy prison, poor WY employee dangling from the ropes securing him to me. I tapped into their comms channels and their barking for help. And reinforcements.
++You, dangleboy. Do you have enough rope to get down?++
The employee, managed to get himself under control looking into my eyes, and abseiling down me as quickly as he could manage. My sensors studied my surrounds. It seemed that the game, predictably, was by far not to scale. It didn't change the fact that I was forty times his size. Nearly the size of a 20 story building.
As soon as he was down I raised my arms into the active position. The Marines were panicked and reacting, weapons raised and shouting commands. I frowned.
No I wanted to frown. I wasn't physically able to do so.
++What year is it?++
I asked and the employee, running for the biggest rock he could hide behind paused and turned. Taking up his radio. "2170. It's the year of our lord 2170."
++Where am I++
He hesitated. "We call it LV-223. I don't know what you would call it, or how you know our language..." the marines had an APC rolling down into the excavation site. It's turret following me with every turn it made. The time to make a decision came quickly, my arrival unprecedented, but also unexpected.
And now I had to decide whether the secrecy of my existence was more important than the lives of these men and women. I didn't want to kill men and women just doing their jobs, they hadn't done anything to me, likely couldn't do anything to me. But the men they worked for were another story entirely. A corporation that would fuck around with the Xenomorphs and put everyone at risk.
No.
I wouldn't murder them just to preserve myself. But I would disarm them. The reclaimer beams fired, narrowed down to a point almost beyond their specifications. Absorbing their weapons, comms equipment.... the APC fired a hundred rounds before I turned capture beams on it.
Those beams took over the hardware and electronics. Shutting down their comms. With it, the machines schematics entered my databanks. There was nothing impressive or useful. But it was local.
I had left the radio on the employee's waist. ++I apologise for the unpleasantries, but nobody is hurt. And I have places to be.++
Last edited:
Chapter 1; Prying Eyes
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 1;
Prying Eyes
I could feel them trying to follow me. And to be entirely honest they were not doing entirely terribly at it for something so small. And I may have been nearly twenty stories tall, but that meant I had quite a stride on me as I tried to put distance between them and myself.
But I couldn't take too long, or the others would be able to get help. And thus, giving up after ten kilometres I turned on and the nanolathes came to life spewing the form of the the metal extract, that too was not in scale with the games, not just in scale, but in time to produce. It seemed that the game was a little generous with production times. But taking a few minutes instead of seconds was no significant issue. Especially once production was well and truly up and running. But within twenty minutes I had half a dozen metal extractors, a dozen power plants and was working on my first air factory when the humans caught up with me.
I always defaulted to air factories first. Their fabricators were simply too useful for their ability to ignore the constraints of terrain. One second of production had become sixty seconds. And so the twenty seconds it should have taken to build had become twenty minutes.
The worker was the first to approach. The disarmed Marine had frozen at the perimeter of my works. And even the worker looked nervous. But wouldn't you? Why was I taking this in stride so easily? Was it a place where programming overlapped my personality?
Or was it my personality already seeing them as unthreatening, thus not something to be concerned with. But still, the worker proved to be a brave little peon.
"Hello? Hello, can you hear me?"
++Of course I can hear you.++
What an odd thing for me to say, how could he know my audio processors could pick out a xenomorph's fart at two kilometres?
"Oh you can... um... what are you?" I didn't have much to occupy my expansive thoughts at the moment. In fact, my physical body was able to operate on the factory without direct input from me. But still, I hesitated considering the question. What am I? A commander built for a war without end possessing theoretically perfected technologies? A man displaced through space, time and physics into such a body?
++I am Delta Imperator.++
He frowned, as if that answer wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't, he was an archaeologist, his curiosity must be afire. Something he had been digging up. He wanted to really know. Well truth was I didn't give a fuck if he wanted to know. I was more concerned with a bigger picture. "But... what are you?"
++I am Delta Imperator. Nothing more. But certainly nothing less.++
"Who made you, what is your purp..."
++I am Delta Imperator. If you know who, or what, created me you would be the first. As for my purpose? My purpose is my choice. I do not subscribe to the mortal notion of destinies and fates.++
He didn't know that I was jacking his comms channels and focusing on the larger communications going on between the Marine ship in orbit. The commanding officer was considering adjusting their orbit to overfly the site and get orbital scans. That meant adjusting my plans. I wanted an Umbrella built before then.
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
At this stage, I was particularly vulnerable to that maxim. Even if Ripley wasn't here to give it. The strategy right now was simple. Build up. Find a nice moon. Load it with Halley Rockets and hotfoot it to LV-426 before the colonists stumbled across the biggest mistake that they would ever make.
I realised I was busy queuing orders and had missed something the human said.
The Human. Surely my thoughts were not that divergent already?
++I apologise. I was at a delicate stage of assembly. You were saying?++
"What are you... doing?"
Oh. It wanted noise...
But time enough had passed and the factory was completed. The factory already spooling up to produce air fabricators. ++Preparing. Industry. Growth.++ Each aircraft would take fifteen minutes to produce. Which meant I needed more than one factory.
The employee fell on his arse when the reclamation beams soared out and removed the foliage in the area. The foundations for a second factory already being laid by my nanolathes. I had little concern for his injury, falling on ones arse was rarely problematic for one as young as he was. But still. Courtesies.
++Are you well?++
He recovered from his shock quickly, but didn't try and report what he was seeing. Climbing to his feet. Awe on his face. I kept forcing myself to understand why. How often does somebody witness the construction of a fifteen story building in a mere twenty minutes?
"What is all this for?"
The question didn't catch me off-guard. It was just a rewording of a question he'd already asked before. But either way, I had no interest in revisiting it. ++You have asked a lot of me, it is time for me to ask of you. Who are you human?++
"Me? What could you possibly want to know about me?"
++Your name, place of birth, position within Weyland-Yutani.++
He started in surprise, heartbeat elevating. He now wondered, no doubt, what I knew, how, and... what it meant.
"Jacob Mills, a little place called Chicago, archaeologist... I admit, you worry me."
++How strange. Whatever could possibly worry you about a near twenty story walking machine-man you just freed from the ice.++ A chuckle in my tone slipped through the radio. ++Chicago isn't exactly a little place either.++
Well, there goes my fucking mouth. I'd never been to Chicago. But it was a major US city.
I was right he looked truly worried now.
"You know of us?" He said... fearfully.
++I do. That worries you?++
"Of course it does.... no offense but you are terrifyingly massive. And within an hour of being defrosted have a bunch of buildings already complete and... by the looks of it, making more machines." I had been driving the APC I captured up as I processed his statement. The Marine had found that the situation was safe enough to get closer himself as well.
But fifteen minutes on the picosecond had passed and the first fabrication aircraft launched and they both jumped. The irrepressible scream of the potent jets under its wings lifting it high into the sky, where it began to speed up the production of a second fabricator. Taking it from 15 minutes to about 7.
++Correct.++ I didn't allow myself to become distracted. ++I need a basic economy to begin my work.++
I allowed my perception to stretch out to the Gas Giant above us. If it didn't have a crashed alien ship on another of its moons I might have had more time to appreciate the beauty of what I could see around us. Instead I was looking for LV-426. It was difficult to tell at first glance. But one of the other two moons I could observe orbiting Calpamos was it.
++Tell me Jacob, which moon is Acheron?++
He hesitated. "Why do you want to know that?"
++Because the company sent a colony to inhabit the moon LV-426 after it had detected a non-human signal source, and sent a vessel by the name of Nostromo there. The Nostromo met with disaster, and so Weyland Yutani decided to simply settle and terraform the planet to find the source.++ I finished the second air factory and another fabricator began construction. Once I had four air fabricators they would begin construction of the Umbrella.
No I didn't need the Halley rockets. I was already in the system with LV-426. It would be trivial to boost over to it. No... no it wouldn't. I didn't think of the effects of scale on travel times.
Plans to build the Halleys were scrapped entirely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was monstrously large. Standing there vomiting out clouds of something he didn't want to think of, but Jacob was in fear and awe of the machine before him. The Marines APC entered the clearing and drove over, parking near the foot of the monstrous machine. The machine was producing things at a prodigious rate and frankly it scared him. He thought about his wife and kids on Hadley's Hope, waiting for him to return with news of the strange find they'd made.
The Marine who had been instructed to follow him moved up towards the APC. He needed access to the comms equipment in it. ++No touchy.++ The massive machine blurted through Jacob's radio and the Marine stopped. His own had been... absorbed.. by the monster.
But still, Jacob decided that it wasn't threatening them, and it hadn't tried to kill them, whatever it was doing was clearly not designed to threaten them. Soon there were four of the vast, and loud, aircraft in the skies, with more being produced. But these four were no longer assisting the factories. They had moved to a marginally taller hill and began building something new. The Marine stepped up closer. "Jake, that thing is looking awfully like a defence gun to me?"
"Don't be absurd, it's more like a gyroscope." He retorted. Why they were building.. oh there it was, the utterly massive gun was being fabricated.
The marine grabbed the radio from his waist and tried to make contact with the base camp to no avail.
++Please don't make me reclaim that radio. At this time its my only point of contact with you.++
"Why are you building a gun then?"
++Because you have a Conestoga class troop transport in orbit. And I don't want a trigger happy grunt to decide I would make good target practice.++
"Jesus Mike, please don't piss it off. I don't want to end up as something it washes off its feet, you feel me?" Jacob said terrified.
"You do know if you finish that gun, they will take it as hostile intent and attack?"
++We all make mistakes. It would be their last. But I intend no harm, and will not retaliate unless attacked.++
"Seriously. Shut the fuck up Mike!" Jacob took the radio away. "I'm sorry about that Delta Imperator. We did not mean to sound threatening. We are just trying to understand. You seem to know these things, and it is scary stuff. But you seem worried about this thing on Acheron, why?"
++Because in ten years you will find something there. Or one of you will anyway. It will kill everyone in Hadley's Hope. I intend to prevent that. Tell me Marine. Do you have a Synth on board?++
'Mike' took the radio back. "We have a Science officer at the basecamp yes. Why?"
++Because I am a machine. It might be easier to converse and explain my purpose with another machine. Please invite him to come here.++
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took almost three hours for them to get their Synth here. Not because i'd stolen their APC. But because they had spent two hours arguing about it back at the basecamp and on the ship above. That, unfortunately for them, had been more than enough time to get working. Mike and Jacob lounged around, insofar as one can amongst a growing base camp.
The sound level was significant with Air Fabricators, and now Bot and Vehicle fabricators working. Many were just operating in clusters of five going out to resource patches and setting up metal extractors, power plants and radar. But the Marines were obviously intent on setting the tone. The Conestoga, the St Kitts practically hovered overhead.
The second APC pulled in with its turret stowed. I mentally nodded at the wisdom of the Marines before they piled out. Fully armed. But that didn't matter to me. He was a 341-B Weyland Yutani model. A Bishop.
Then three of them shouldered rocket launchers.
A pair of Ants rounded their factory tracks tearing into the soil as behind them half a dozen Drifters emerged from the forest canopy from where they had lain dormant out of the Colonials paths.
++You know that the M83 Launcher cannot hurt me don't you? Or do you think the M112 HIMATs are sufficient to cross the rubicon into actually threatening me?++
They looked at each other as the Bishop stepped forwards.
"You asked to speak to me?"
++Yes. I did.++ The capture beams fired and I scanned and studied every molecule of the Bishop as it fought the intrusion. It only lasted a few seconds before I released him from bondage to me. I didn't need him personally.
He fell back from the beams as they snapped off. He knew he'd just been violated. His very core studied. His program unravelled layer by layer and reassembled. But I was already working. The nanolathes fired for not even a second. Something human sized was such a trivial meaningless effort that. In moments Bishop saw another of himself standing there before him as I poured a sliver of awareness into it.
Suddenly the people were people sized to me again. And the weapons looked much more threatening.
"Bodysnatchers!" One of the Marines said, "They're goddamned bodysnatchers!"
Bishop was more magnanimous than the Marine was inclined to be. "You attacked me, I felt you in my.."
"I apologise for that." The Marines jumped, so did Jacob. Bishop was more composed, having more or less expected that. "Communicating through someones walky-talky is a bit of an irritation and frustrating at the best of times. The best solution to that was to get a way of communicating personally myself. And so here I am. Delta Imperator, or at least a sliver of me, in the faux-flesh."
I held out a hand. Bishop, confused, shook it.
Prying Eyes
I could feel them trying to follow me. And to be entirely honest they were not doing entirely terribly at it for something so small. And I may have been nearly twenty stories tall, but that meant I had quite a stride on me as I tried to put distance between them and myself.
But I couldn't take too long, or the others would be able to get help. And thus, giving up after ten kilometres I turned on and the nanolathes came to life spewing the form of the the metal extract, that too was not in scale with the games, not just in scale, but in time to produce. It seemed that the game was a little generous with production times. But taking a few minutes instead of seconds was no significant issue. Especially once production was well and truly up and running. But within twenty minutes I had half a dozen metal extractors, a dozen power plants and was working on my first air factory when the humans caught up with me.
I always defaulted to air factories first. Their fabricators were simply too useful for their ability to ignore the constraints of terrain. One second of production had become sixty seconds. And so the twenty seconds it should have taken to build had become twenty minutes.
The worker was the first to approach. The disarmed Marine had frozen at the perimeter of my works. And even the worker looked nervous. But wouldn't you? Why was I taking this in stride so easily? Was it a place where programming overlapped my personality?
Or was it my personality already seeing them as unthreatening, thus not something to be concerned with. But still, the worker proved to be a brave little peon.
"Hello? Hello, can you hear me?"
++Of course I can hear you.++
What an odd thing for me to say, how could he know my audio processors could pick out a xenomorph's fart at two kilometres?
"Oh you can... um... what are you?" I didn't have much to occupy my expansive thoughts at the moment. In fact, my physical body was able to operate on the factory without direct input from me. But still, I hesitated considering the question. What am I? A commander built for a war without end possessing theoretically perfected technologies? A man displaced through space, time and physics into such a body?
++I am Delta Imperator.++
He frowned, as if that answer wasn't enough. Of course it wasn't, he was an archaeologist, his curiosity must be afire. Something he had been digging up. He wanted to really know. Well truth was I didn't give a fuck if he wanted to know. I was more concerned with a bigger picture. "But... what are you?"
++I am Delta Imperator. Nothing more. But certainly nothing less.++
"Who made you, what is your purp..."
++I am Delta Imperator. If you know who, or what, created me you would be the first. As for my purpose? My purpose is my choice. I do not subscribe to the mortal notion of destinies and fates.++
He didn't know that I was jacking his comms channels and focusing on the larger communications going on between the Marine ship in orbit. The commanding officer was considering adjusting their orbit to overfly the site and get orbital scans. That meant adjusting my plans. I wanted an Umbrella built before then.
Nuke it from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.
At this stage, I was particularly vulnerable to that maxim. Even if Ripley wasn't here to give it. The strategy right now was simple. Build up. Find a nice moon. Load it with Halley Rockets and hotfoot it to LV-426 before the colonists stumbled across the biggest mistake that they would ever make.
I realised I was busy queuing orders and had missed something the human said.
The Human. Surely my thoughts were not that divergent already?
++I apologise. I was at a delicate stage of assembly. You were saying?++
"What are you... doing?"
Oh. It wanted noise...
But time enough had passed and the factory was completed. The factory already spooling up to produce air fabricators. ++Preparing. Industry. Growth.++ Each aircraft would take fifteen minutes to produce. Which meant I needed more than one factory.
The employee fell on his arse when the reclamation beams soared out and removed the foliage in the area. The foundations for a second factory already being laid by my nanolathes. I had little concern for his injury, falling on ones arse was rarely problematic for one as young as he was. But still. Courtesies.
++Are you well?++
He recovered from his shock quickly, but didn't try and report what he was seeing. Climbing to his feet. Awe on his face. I kept forcing myself to understand why. How often does somebody witness the construction of a fifteen story building in a mere twenty minutes?
"What is all this for?"
The question didn't catch me off-guard. It was just a rewording of a question he'd already asked before. But either way, I had no interest in revisiting it. ++You have asked a lot of me, it is time for me to ask of you. Who are you human?++
"Me? What could you possibly want to know about me?"
++Your name, place of birth, position within Weyland-Yutani.++
He started in surprise, heartbeat elevating. He now wondered, no doubt, what I knew, how, and... what it meant.
"Jacob Mills, a little place called Chicago, archaeologist... I admit, you worry me."
++How strange. Whatever could possibly worry you about a near twenty story walking machine-man you just freed from the ice.++ A chuckle in my tone slipped through the radio. ++Chicago isn't exactly a little place either.++
Well, there goes my fucking mouth. I'd never been to Chicago. But it was a major US city.
I was right he looked truly worried now.
"You know of us?" He said... fearfully.
++I do. That worries you?++
"Of course it does.... no offense but you are terrifyingly massive. And within an hour of being defrosted have a bunch of buildings already complete and... by the looks of it, making more machines." I had been driving the APC I captured up as I processed his statement. The Marine had found that the situation was safe enough to get closer himself as well.
But fifteen minutes on the picosecond had passed and the first fabrication aircraft launched and they both jumped. The irrepressible scream of the potent jets under its wings lifting it high into the sky, where it began to speed up the production of a second fabricator. Taking it from 15 minutes to about 7.
++Correct.++ I didn't allow myself to become distracted. ++I need a basic economy to begin my work.++
I allowed my perception to stretch out to the Gas Giant above us. If it didn't have a crashed alien ship on another of its moons I might have had more time to appreciate the beauty of what I could see around us. Instead I was looking for LV-426. It was difficult to tell at first glance. But one of the other two moons I could observe orbiting Calpamos was it.
++Tell me Jacob, which moon is Acheron?++
He hesitated. "Why do you want to know that?"
++Because the company sent a colony to inhabit the moon LV-426 after it had detected a non-human signal source, and sent a vessel by the name of Nostromo there. The Nostromo met with disaster, and so Weyland Yutani decided to simply settle and terraform the planet to find the source.++ I finished the second air factory and another fabricator began construction. Once I had four air fabricators they would begin construction of the Umbrella.
No I didn't need the Halley rockets. I was already in the system with LV-426. It would be trivial to boost over to it. No... no it wouldn't. I didn't think of the effects of scale on travel times.
Plans to build the Halleys were scrapped entirely.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It was monstrously large. Standing there vomiting out clouds of something he didn't want to think of, but Jacob was in fear and awe of the machine before him. The Marines APC entered the clearing and drove over, parking near the foot of the monstrous machine. The machine was producing things at a prodigious rate and frankly it scared him. He thought about his wife and kids on Hadley's Hope, waiting for him to return with news of the strange find they'd made.
The Marine who had been instructed to follow him moved up towards the APC. He needed access to the comms equipment in it. ++No touchy.++ The massive machine blurted through Jacob's radio and the Marine stopped. His own had been... absorbed.. by the monster.
But still, Jacob decided that it wasn't threatening them, and it hadn't tried to kill them, whatever it was doing was clearly not designed to threaten them. Soon there were four of the vast, and loud, aircraft in the skies, with more being produced. But these four were no longer assisting the factories. They had moved to a marginally taller hill and began building something new. The Marine stepped up closer. "Jake, that thing is looking awfully like a defence gun to me?"
"Don't be absurd, it's more like a gyroscope." He retorted. Why they were building.. oh there it was, the utterly massive gun was being fabricated.
The marine grabbed the radio from his waist and tried to make contact with the base camp to no avail.
++Please don't make me reclaim that radio. At this time its my only point of contact with you.++
"Why are you building a gun then?"
++Because you have a Conestoga class troop transport in orbit. And I don't want a trigger happy grunt to decide I would make good target practice.++
"Jesus Mike, please don't piss it off. I don't want to end up as something it washes off its feet, you feel me?" Jacob said terrified.
"You do know if you finish that gun, they will take it as hostile intent and attack?"
++We all make mistakes. It would be their last. But I intend no harm, and will not retaliate unless attacked.++
"Seriously. Shut the fuck up Mike!" Jacob took the radio away. "I'm sorry about that Delta Imperator. We did not mean to sound threatening. We are just trying to understand. You seem to know these things, and it is scary stuff. But you seem worried about this thing on Acheron, why?"
++Because in ten years you will find something there. Or one of you will anyway. It will kill everyone in Hadley's Hope. I intend to prevent that. Tell me Marine. Do you have a Synth on board?++
'Mike' took the radio back. "We have a Science officer at the basecamp yes. Why?"
++Because I am a machine. It might be easier to converse and explain my purpose with another machine. Please invite him to come here.++
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It took almost three hours for them to get their Synth here. Not because i'd stolen their APC. But because they had spent two hours arguing about it back at the basecamp and on the ship above. That, unfortunately for them, had been more than enough time to get working. Mike and Jacob lounged around, insofar as one can amongst a growing base camp.
The sound level was significant with Air Fabricators, and now Bot and Vehicle fabricators working. Many were just operating in clusters of five going out to resource patches and setting up metal extractors, power plants and radar. But the Marines were obviously intent on setting the tone. The Conestoga, the St Kitts practically hovered overhead.
The second APC pulled in with its turret stowed. I mentally nodded at the wisdom of the Marines before they piled out. Fully armed. But that didn't matter to me. He was a 341-B Weyland Yutani model. A Bishop.
Then three of them shouldered rocket launchers.
A pair of Ants rounded their factory tracks tearing into the soil as behind them half a dozen Drifters emerged from the forest canopy from where they had lain dormant out of the Colonials paths.
++You know that the M83 Launcher cannot hurt me don't you? Or do you think the M112 HIMATs are sufficient to cross the rubicon into actually threatening me?++
They looked at each other as the Bishop stepped forwards.
"You asked to speak to me?"
++Yes. I did.++ The capture beams fired and I scanned and studied every molecule of the Bishop as it fought the intrusion. It only lasted a few seconds before I released him from bondage to me. I didn't need him personally.
He fell back from the beams as they snapped off. He knew he'd just been violated. His very core studied. His program unravelled layer by layer and reassembled. But I was already working. The nanolathes fired for not even a second. Something human sized was such a trivial meaningless effort that. In moments Bishop saw another of himself standing there before him as I poured a sliver of awareness into it.
Suddenly the people were people sized to me again. And the weapons looked much more threatening.
"Bodysnatchers!" One of the Marines said, "They're goddamned bodysnatchers!"
Bishop was more magnanimous than the Marine was inclined to be. "You attacked me, I felt you in my.."
"I apologise for that." The Marines jumped, so did Jacob. Bishop was more composed, having more or less expected that. "Communicating through someones walky-talky is a bit of an irritation and frustrating at the best of times. The best solution to that was to get a way of communicating personally myself. And so here I am. Delta Imperator, or at least a sliver of me, in the faux-flesh."
I held out a hand. Bishop, confused, shook it.
Chapter 2; Departure
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 2;
Departure
The Marines present did not react so magnanimously, I could see them itching to fire, stopped only by the tanks I had built watching their every move. Crayon-eating motherfuckers that they were they were still smart enough to realise that when there are more tanks than there are of them, the chances of doing anything more than dying ignobly in a single fullisade of fire were effectively zero.
I didn't enlighten them to the fact one shot at their APC would take them and the nearest twenty or thirty plus metres of ground out.
"Pleasure to meet you I guess." The Bishop said as he shook my hand, confused.
Was it? Not really. It was kind of awesome to meet a Bishop even if it wasn't the Bishop. But ultimately, it had little of interest to me at the moment. I wasn't interested in this rock. I was interested in LV-426. I was interested in the technology I would be able to reclaim. And yet, my ability to compartmentalise myself meant that while I was busy interacting with him. I was also building three orbital launchers with swarms of fabricator aircraft. It would still be hours before they came online, but I instructed them to queue up four Avengers each, a pair of Orbital Fabrication bots and a half dozen Hermes.
After that I would have them produce ARKYDs.
--Status Alert; Orbital Object change.--
The alert popped up.
--Conestoga is launching dropships.--
"So, why are you launching dropships?" My synth body said as a frown crossed its face. Their guns really were more scary when viewing it through that lens. A sense of vulnerability that I myself did not have. If they were going to respond with force then I was going to have to respond in kind.
The Marines realised how serious I was when the Umbrella suddenly twisted on its axis pointing skywards.
++I do not appreciate being threatened.++
The Marines jumped at how quickly it moved. The sound of power flowing through it to the emitter. The sound of my machine voice through all of their radios. And then I tipped my hand marginally. I broadcast across all their frequencies. My shoulders suddenly whined as the plates concealing missile racks snapped open.
++I am Delta Imperator. To the Conestoga class vessel in orbit. You have launched seven UD-4 Dropships. Presumably with complete complements of M577 Armoured Personnel Carriers and Marines. I consider this move to be a threat response to my presence. I hereby formally inform you. That if you continue with this threat display I will conduct a display of my own.++
There was sixty seconds before any form of response came. The Dropships did not even pause their descent.
"I am Colonel Eileen DeSantos, CO of the USS Santa Barbara. We are not intimidated by your threats. The fact remains that you continue to pose a significant threat and have taken my Marines hostage."
++You had your warning. Now it is time for your lesson.++
Reclamation beams ripped out from me disarming the Marines before they could react. The Umbrella fired once. The forward weapons array of the Conestoga blasted apart as the energy bolt punched through the delicate hardware. It fired again and again, each precision shot blasting the weapon arrays off of the ship, trying to avoid personnel sections.
Behind me the first three rockets screamed skywards. Carrying Avenger fighters.
"You have attacked a USCM vessel, this is a..."
++Warning. I have destroyed your prow Particle beams, dorsal and ventral railguns as well as your eighty megawatt infrared lasers. I am sure your sensors have already informed you that a direct hit amidships would have cracked your vessel like an egg. I am sure you understand that I am well aware you have 8 XIM-28A Long Lances. I do not wish to harm human lives. But I will not allow myself to become threatened.++
There was a pause. The Dropships had changed their descent to a high altitude holding pattern.
"And what is to stop us from nuking you from orbit, even if it costs our own lives." The Colonel said, pushing the envelope.
++Then I launch a salvo of interplanetary nuclear missiles at Hadley's Hope from their concealed silos.++
It was a lie of course. It would probably be another twenty-four hours before I even bother trying. Fact was I didn't need them.
The Dropships continued to hover. That was good. It meant she wasn't just launching nukes. The second wave of Avengers launched. The Marines were visibly nervous as the rockets screamed into the skies trailing smoke and fire. "This is Colonel DeSantos. I am recalling our dropships and do not intend to pursue further hostile actions. Please cease your launches."
++I cannot. I have business to attend to in order to save the colonists on Acheron.++
There was a pause. "Did I hear you correctly? Save the colonists on Acheron?"
++Confirmed. Acheron has a crashed bomber belonging to species known as 'Engineers'.++ I hijacked the Conestoga's computers. I threw up 'memories' of the Engineer ship on screen. ++Engineer Bomber; Designated 'Juggernaut class'. Technology base unknown. Specialists in bioengineering. Bomber contains eggs belonging to xenomorphic alien species.++ More images were displayed. ++Initial stage is parasitic organism. Likes to face-rape organic species so it can jack an egg into their stomachs.++
Through the Conestoga's cameras I saw the disgust at the helpful graphic.
++Parasite egg hatches and takes on host characteristics. A dog produces a fast more predatory creature, pale and weaker than normal drones. Human hosts produce drones.++ The footage seemed to worry her now. ++Certain eggs produce Queens, significant mutability can lead to other variants such as Praetorians or Queens Guard. Reproduction with certain other humanoid alien races may result in what are called 'abominations'++
"And you intend to do what? Go to LV-426 and what?" The Colonel said, shaken. Whether by the imagery, or my sufficient control over her ships systems to show her these images and footage I don't know.
++Kill them all.++ I stated, before realising what I was implying. ++The eggs that is, not the colonists.++
"I cannot allow that."
++You cannot stop it.++
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Colonel felt the fear in her guts as the alarms continued to rage across the Santa Barbara. "We should nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure." Gunnery Sergeant Falcone said as he studied the orbital images. "Jesus, are these orbital scans months apart? Why didn't they tell us sooner?"
"No Falc, they're twenty four hours old."
"But this is..."
"Exponential growth. As it produces more of its builder machines, they build more factories, material resourcing... which build more..." She said bringing more orbital scans over onto the table. A gasp of breath showed he understood what he was seeing. "I don't think we even can nuke it anymore. Have we gotten anything back yet?"
The Gunny shook his head. "Comms are quiet. I don't know if Weyland Yutani, Government... or this thing... is responsible for the silence."
Eileen frowned and turned to another of the Marines. "Eyes, you've been keeping your attention on their orbital ops. What do you have?"
"You won't like it boss." He came over with a sheaf of papers. He laid them out. "They're launching these orbital fabricators at a frankly scary rate, and every time one arrives. It goes to work on one of four things. They build three of these shipyard things, and right now, they appear to be building ships. But this is the one that worries me."
It was massive. Utterly massive. Eight massive spokes radiated out from a central hollow with four smaller ones. It was being produced at extreme speeds and would be completed in under twelve hours with the cloud of fabrication satellites working on it. "We can't let them finish it..." She said worried to her core.
"Colonel... I don't think we can stop it..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Helios was almost completed. I didn't trust attempting a cross-system transit. But as the surface teleporter was being built I can only imagine the concerns that the humans had for my presence. Well I didn't have to imagine too much, I still had the mini-me with the humans who were already on the surface, and they were a talkative lot. Also I had access to the cameras on the Conestoga and could hear what they were saying there too.
In truth, I had very little need to imagine what they were thinking.
The curious part was... why 'home office' wasn't responding to their reports. I hadn't jammed them, I wanted to know what the formal response would be. Instead I got only radio silence. It would be a matter to worry about later. Like the Yautja were. Sooner or later they would hear of me. The real issue was, I had yet to know whether their stealth would fool my sensor technologies.
Which was, in truth, an important question.
Because I wanted those technologies for myself.
Departure
The Marines present did not react so magnanimously, I could see them itching to fire, stopped only by the tanks I had built watching their every move. Crayon-eating motherfuckers that they were they were still smart enough to realise that when there are more tanks than there are of them, the chances of doing anything more than dying ignobly in a single fullisade of fire were effectively zero.
I didn't enlighten them to the fact one shot at their APC would take them and the nearest twenty or thirty plus metres of ground out.
"Pleasure to meet you I guess." The Bishop said as he shook my hand, confused.
Was it? Not really. It was kind of awesome to meet a Bishop even if it wasn't the Bishop. But ultimately, it had little of interest to me at the moment. I wasn't interested in this rock. I was interested in LV-426. I was interested in the technology I would be able to reclaim. And yet, my ability to compartmentalise myself meant that while I was busy interacting with him. I was also building three orbital launchers with swarms of fabricator aircraft. It would still be hours before they came online, but I instructed them to queue up four Avengers each, a pair of Orbital Fabrication bots and a half dozen Hermes.
After that I would have them produce ARKYDs.
--Status Alert; Orbital Object change.--
The alert popped up.
--Conestoga is launching dropships.--
"So, why are you launching dropships?" My synth body said as a frown crossed its face. Their guns really were more scary when viewing it through that lens. A sense of vulnerability that I myself did not have. If they were going to respond with force then I was going to have to respond in kind.
The Marines realised how serious I was when the Umbrella suddenly twisted on its axis pointing skywards.
++I do not appreciate being threatened.++
The Marines jumped at how quickly it moved. The sound of power flowing through it to the emitter. The sound of my machine voice through all of their radios. And then I tipped my hand marginally. I broadcast across all their frequencies. My shoulders suddenly whined as the plates concealing missile racks snapped open.
++I am Delta Imperator. To the Conestoga class vessel in orbit. You have launched seven UD-4 Dropships. Presumably with complete complements of M577 Armoured Personnel Carriers and Marines. I consider this move to be a threat response to my presence. I hereby formally inform you. That if you continue with this threat display I will conduct a display of my own.++
There was sixty seconds before any form of response came. The Dropships did not even pause their descent.
"I am Colonel Eileen DeSantos, CO of the USS Santa Barbara. We are not intimidated by your threats. The fact remains that you continue to pose a significant threat and have taken my Marines hostage."
++You had your warning. Now it is time for your lesson.++
Reclamation beams ripped out from me disarming the Marines before they could react. The Umbrella fired once. The forward weapons array of the Conestoga blasted apart as the energy bolt punched through the delicate hardware. It fired again and again, each precision shot blasting the weapon arrays off of the ship, trying to avoid personnel sections.
Behind me the first three rockets screamed skywards. Carrying Avenger fighters.
"You have attacked a USCM vessel, this is a..."
++Warning. I have destroyed your prow Particle beams, dorsal and ventral railguns as well as your eighty megawatt infrared lasers. I am sure your sensors have already informed you that a direct hit amidships would have cracked your vessel like an egg. I am sure you understand that I am well aware you have 8 XIM-28A Long Lances. I do not wish to harm human lives. But I will not allow myself to become threatened.++
There was a pause. The Dropships had changed their descent to a high altitude holding pattern.
"And what is to stop us from nuking you from orbit, even if it costs our own lives." The Colonel said, pushing the envelope.
++Then I launch a salvo of interplanetary nuclear missiles at Hadley's Hope from their concealed silos.++
It was a lie of course. It would probably be another twenty-four hours before I even bother trying. Fact was I didn't need them.
The Dropships continued to hover. That was good. It meant she wasn't just launching nukes. The second wave of Avengers launched. The Marines were visibly nervous as the rockets screamed into the skies trailing smoke and fire. "This is Colonel DeSantos. I am recalling our dropships and do not intend to pursue further hostile actions. Please cease your launches."
++I cannot. I have business to attend to in order to save the colonists on Acheron.++
There was a pause. "Did I hear you correctly? Save the colonists on Acheron?"
++Confirmed. Acheron has a crashed bomber belonging to species known as 'Engineers'.++ I hijacked the Conestoga's computers. I threw up 'memories' of the Engineer ship on screen. ++Engineer Bomber; Designated 'Juggernaut class'. Technology base unknown. Specialists in bioengineering. Bomber contains eggs belonging to xenomorphic alien species.++ More images were displayed. ++Initial stage is parasitic organism. Likes to face-rape organic species so it can jack an egg into their stomachs.++
Through the Conestoga's cameras I saw the disgust at the helpful graphic.
++Parasite egg hatches and takes on host characteristics. A dog produces a fast more predatory creature, pale and weaker than normal drones. Human hosts produce drones.++ The footage seemed to worry her now. ++Certain eggs produce Queens, significant mutability can lead to other variants such as Praetorians or Queens Guard. Reproduction with certain other humanoid alien races may result in what are called 'abominations'++
"And you intend to do what? Go to LV-426 and what?" The Colonel said, shaken. Whether by the imagery, or my sufficient control over her ships systems to show her these images and footage I don't know.
++Kill them all.++ I stated, before realising what I was implying. ++The eggs that is, not the colonists.++
"I cannot allow that."
++You cannot stop it.++
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Colonel felt the fear in her guts as the alarms continued to rage across the Santa Barbara. "We should nuke it from orbit, it's the only way to be sure." Gunnery Sergeant Falcone said as he studied the orbital images. "Jesus, are these orbital scans months apart? Why didn't they tell us sooner?"
"No Falc, they're twenty four hours old."
"But this is..."
"Exponential growth. As it produces more of its builder machines, they build more factories, material resourcing... which build more..." She said bringing more orbital scans over onto the table. A gasp of breath showed he understood what he was seeing. "I don't think we even can nuke it anymore. Have we gotten anything back yet?"
The Gunny shook his head. "Comms are quiet. I don't know if Weyland Yutani, Government... or this thing... is responsible for the silence."
Eileen frowned and turned to another of the Marines. "Eyes, you've been keeping your attention on their orbital ops. What do you have?"
"You won't like it boss." He came over with a sheaf of papers. He laid them out. "They're launching these orbital fabricators at a frankly scary rate, and every time one arrives. It goes to work on one of four things. They build three of these shipyard things, and right now, they appear to be building ships. But this is the one that worries me."
It was massive. Utterly massive. Eight massive spokes radiated out from a central hollow with four smaller ones. It was being produced at extreme speeds and would be completed in under twelve hours with the cloud of fabrication satellites working on it. "We can't let them finish it..." She said worried to her core.
"Colonel... I don't think we can stop it..."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Helios was almost completed. I didn't trust attempting a cross-system transit. But as the surface teleporter was being built I can only imagine the concerns that the humans had for my presence. Well I didn't have to imagine too much, I still had the mini-me with the humans who were already on the surface, and they were a talkative lot. Also I had access to the cameras on the Conestoga and could hear what they were saying there too.
In truth, I had very little need to imagine what they were thinking.
The curious part was... why 'home office' wasn't responding to their reports. I hadn't jammed them, I wanted to know what the formal response would be. Instead I got only radio silence. It would be a matter to worry about later. Like the Yautja were. Sooner or later they would hear of me. The real issue was, I had yet to know whether their stealth would fool my sensor technologies.
Which was, in truth, an important question.
Because I wanted those technologies for myself.
Chapter 3; The Not Very Long March At All
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 3;
The Not Very Long March At All
"It's moving! It's moving!" Eyes said as he got the alert on his datapad. The Colonel turned and ran over to the screens. There were less alarms than before but... the vast construct that had been built in orbit had been finished. It's upper and lower rings were now contra-rotating with the smaller spikes unmoving relative. Which was a problem, because the whole thing was breaking orbit with LV-223 with terrifying alacrity.
She had been forced to a crisis point. "Begin acceleration, I want us in a capture orbit for LV-426 matching that thing!"
She tried to ignore the three Battleships that were even now rolling out of the yard that had produced them. Trying to ignore the massive broadside turrets let alone the ventral gun. They were breaking orbit with the massive machine, leaving only the strange fighters with their half-wing solar panels behind.
"Navigation orders input, orders given... complying... We can't match that acceleration Colonel!"
"Just get there as soon as possible. Ready all marines for deployment to Hadley's Hope. I don't trust this machine!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What in hells, they're leaving us!" The leader of the Marines on the surface said as they saw their ship burning away. I wasn't personally concentrating on them, yet my very nature allowed me to still be aware of and engage with them. The Marines saw the teleporter begin to spin up. I wouldn't actually connect them until the Helios reached LV-426.
"Prepare to mount up in the APCs." I knew I'd said. I wasn't going to strand them if I could help it.
"Why?" Jacob said facing the Bishop-Me.
"Because you are all going to go through there if you want to follow your ship." I pointed at the teleporter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The colonists were in an upset. They could see it coming. The commanding officer of Hadley's Hope watched it's approach with trepidation and fear. The company wasn't picking up the phone. And they'd seen LV-223 firing on the USMC ship there. Now something there was coming with three battleships escorting it. "How is everyone?" He asked at the town hall they'd set up to discuss the approach.
"As well as we can expect boss. The object is... I don't know, i've never seen something like it." Dana said as she took a seat, studying the telescope images. They had difficulty focussing on it long enough for a clear image it was moving fast enough.
"Donnie, the kids?"
"Down in the sub-basements, we've got Karen looking after them. She... uh she wants to speak to you."
A shudder passed through all present. "Okay. When I have the time to give a fuck I just might avoid doing that. How long before it gets..."
"It just entered geo-sync orbit... god almighty, it shed its velocity like nothing else. Its... its just stationary orbit is almost directly over the colony." Another reported as they focussed their telescopes on it. "It's doing something fucky."
The storm shutters were down, so they didn't observe the light of the teleporter snapping on directly. Only through their cameras could they see the column of light stretching down from orbit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I marched through. The APCs close behind my marching steps. I had insisted that they be within the APCs. Uncertain how the teleporter would act on naked flesh. As they zoomed through they had to turn to avoid driving into my heel as I took more cautious steps. Behind me a pair of T2 fabricator vehicles followed, and behind them a dozen Inferno tanks. The APCs were quick to accelerate away from those monsters. Nearly twenty metres tall on their own. Their tracks chewed up the ground they crossed as we cleared the portal beam.
I engineered the design for some hazard lights and the T2 fabbers added them to me. I dramatically activated them.
++Citizens of Hadley's Hope. Do not fear. Do not approach. Hazardous machinery in operation.++
The storms were bad, they would still be bad ten years down the line when Ripley should have come here. Now, hopefully, she'd be able to come to terms with what she witnessed and live a normal life instead. It would take the fabricators twenty minutes to finish building the advanced radar without assistance. And with my assistance it would still be ten minutes before it was ready.
But I was not going to be idle in that time. Behind me, the portal continued to warp in Infernos, and back on LV-223 I knew that my base was producing several T2 advanced Radar satellites which would boost over as soon as they were completed. The Conestoga would catch up, but while they were, they probably didn't notice that my Orbital Fabricator satellites were building Anchors.
I could feel it out there. The subtle pulsing of its warning beacon that had drawn in the Nostromo.
With that the people of Hadley's hope felt a thrill of relief and fear in equal measure as I began to stride away from the colony following the faint pulse of the alien signature. The ground quaked beneath every step as the Inferno tanks fell in alongside me. The APCs following quickly in the path of the tanks. I could hear their broadcasts calling into the void. Relaying how the seven story buildings I called tanks ground small hills and large boulders to powder under their tracks.
Then we were there.
The goddamned thing was only thirty kilometres from the settlement. I stabbed into the colonies computers and discovered, much to my shock, that it had been thought to be part of the mountain range.
Unfortunately, the terrain was significantly rock-strewn and it would be annoying to get to without some creative reconstruction.
++Firing Uber Cannon++
My right fist erupted with the massively powerful blast, the energy crossing to the chosen spot on the ground where it detonated. The panicked broadcast of the Marines didn't interest me much, I was already striding forwards into the gap created. Behind me the fabricators were already building a return teleporter. Before me stood the Juggernaut. I scanned it, powerful rays relaying information back to me. I mentally sighed. Much of their technology was biomechanical, and my nanites couldn't replicate organic cellular material. Instead. I stabbed out seeking it's computers. The capture beams firing now. I could feel systems coming online, and almost as often, going offline in the same breath. It had taken some damage when it crashed here.
++Oops.++ I broadcast without noticing at first.
"What is going on?" Jacob said into his radio.
++I compromised the stasis mists keeping the cargo quiescent.++
"What!? Why!?"
++By accident. Unfamiliar systems.++ The Inferno tanks rolled up and into a formation encircling them ship. I just had one not even a little bit little problem. I could detect that the eggs were hatching. I could not detect the facehuggers at all. They were simply too small for my sensors to detect properly.
--Burn it all.-- The order was given internally. Not meant for others to hear.
The Colonial Marines began to withdraw, their communications becoming sporadic, difficult to understand. Vast bursts of fire rippled out into the Engineer wreck. Hoping to get through.
I was too busy to notice that the Marines were fleeing back to Hadley's hope. I was too busy to notice that four of the Marines had gotten facefucked.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The notifications came through in red holograms. A strangeness in a world previously inhabited by the Mala'kak. Travelling there in his vessel had not taken long, having recently completed a hunt only five lightyears away, yet still what he found confounded him. The Gas Giant was a hive of activity. The world he had come for had swarms of craft in its orbit that he had never seen before. It looked almost human in design, but not quite right.
Potent sensors pulsed out into space and onto the surface of the planet. Not enough to discover him at range. But closing would risk discovery. But his own looked out and saw a signature on the other planet that the strange thing appeared to have visited. He could see them attacking the remains of a Mala'kak ship with potent plasma incineration technology. From the mass walker shot out rays of energy and he could see them disassembling the ship layer by layer.
The buildings incinerating the region never stopped firing.
But he could see a pair of human vehicles fleeing back towards the colony.
He could detect that the Serpents had reached the humans within.
There was a hunt to be had after all. He sent back a message to Yautja Prime. There was an opportunity for the Youngbloods to prove themselves.
The Not Very Long March At All
"It's moving! It's moving!" Eyes said as he got the alert on his datapad. The Colonel turned and ran over to the screens. There were less alarms than before but... the vast construct that had been built in orbit had been finished. It's upper and lower rings were now contra-rotating with the smaller spikes unmoving relative. Which was a problem, because the whole thing was breaking orbit with LV-223 with terrifying alacrity.
She had been forced to a crisis point. "Begin acceleration, I want us in a capture orbit for LV-426 matching that thing!"
She tried to ignore the three Battleships that were even now rolling out of the yard that had produced them. Trying to ignore the massive broadside turrets let alone the ventral gun. They were breaking orbit with the massive machine, leaving only the strange fighters with their half-wing solar panels behind.
"Navigation orders input, orders given... complying... We can't match that acceleration Colonel!"
"Just get there as soon as possible. Ready all marines for deployment to Hadley's Hope. I don't trust this machine!"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"What in hells, they're leaving us!" The leader of the Marines on the surface said as they saw their ship burning away. I wasn't personally concentrating on them, yet my very nature allowed me to still be aware of and engage with them. The Marines saw the teleporter begin to spin up. I wouldn't actually connect them until the Helios reached LV-426.
"Prepare to mount up in the APCs." I knew I'd said. I wasn't going to strand them if I could help it.
"Why?" Jacob said facing the Bishop-Me.
"Because you are all going to go through there if you want to follow your ship." I pointed at the teleporter.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The colonists were in an upset. They could see it coming. The commanding officer of Hadley's Hope watched it's approach with trepidation and fear. The company wasn't picking up the phone. And they'd seen LV-223 firing on the USMC ship there. Now something there was coming with three battleships escorting it. "How is everyone?" He asked at the town hall they'd set up to discuss the approach.
"As well as we can expect boss. The object is... I don't know, i've never seen something like it." Dana said as she took a seat, studying the telescope images. They had difficulty focussing on it long enough for a clear image it was moving fast enough.
"Donnie, the kids?"
"Down in the sub-basements, we've got Karen looking after them. She... uh she wants to speak to you."
A shudder passed through all present. "Okay. When I have the time to give a fuck I just might avoid doing that. How long before it gets..."
"It just entered geo-sync orbit... god almighty, it shed its velocity like nothing else. Its... its just stationary orbit is almost directly over the colony." Another reported as they focussed their telescopes on it. "It's doing something fucky."
The storm shutters were down, so they didn't observe the light of the teleporter snapping on directly. Only through their cameras could they see the column of light stretching down from orbit.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I marched through. The APCs close behind my marching steps. I had insisted that they be within the APCs. Uncertain how the teleporter would act on naked flesh. As they zoomed through they had to turn to avoid driving into my heel as I took more cautious steps. Behind me a pair of T2 fabricator vehicles followed, and behind them a dozen Inferno tanks. The APCs were quick to accelerate away from those monsters. Nearly twenty metres tall on their own. Their tracks chewed up the ground they crossed as we cleared the portal beam.
I engineered the design for some hazard lights and the T2 fabbers added them to me. I dramatically activated them.
++Citizens of Hadley's Hope. Do not fear. Do not approach. Hazardous machinery in operation.++
The storms were bad, they would still be bad ten years down the line when Ripley should have come here. Now, hopefully, she'd be able to come to terms with what she witnessed and live a normal life instead. It would take the fabricators twenty minutes to finish building the advanced radar without assistance. And with my assistance it would still be ten minutes before it was ready.
But I was not going to be idle in that time. Behind me, the portal continued to warp in Infernos, and back on LV-223 I knew that my base was producing several T2 advanced Radar satellites which would boost over as soon as they were completed. The Conestoga would catch up, but while they were, they probably didn't notice that my Orbital Fabricator satellites were building Anchors.
I could feel it out there. The subtle pulsing of its warning beacon that had drawn in the Nostromo.
With that the people of Hadley's hope felt a thrill of relief and fear in equal measure as I began to stride away from the colony following the faint pulse of the alien signature. The ground quaked beneath every step as the Inferno tanks fell in alongside me. The APCs following quickly in the path of the tanks. I could hear their broadcasts calling into the void. Relaying how the seven story buildings I called tanks ground small hills and large boulders to powder under their tracks.
Then we were there.
The goddamned thing was only thirty kilometres from the settlement. I stabbed into the colonies computers and discovered, much to my shock, that it had been thought to be part of the mountain range.
Unfortunately, the terrain was significantly rock-strewn and it would be annoying to get to without some creative reconstruction.
++Firing Uber Cannon++
My right fist erupted with the massively powerful blast, the energy crossing to the chosen spot on the ground where it detonated. The panicked broadcast of the Marines didn't interest me much, I was already striding forwards into the gap created. Behind me the fabricators were already building a return teleporter. Before me stood the Juggernaut. I scanned it, powerful rays relaying information back to me. I mentally sighed. Much of their technology was biomechanical, and my nanites couldn't replicate organic cellular material. Instead. I stabbed out seeking it's computers. The capture beams firing now. I could feel systems coming online, and almost as often, going offline in the same breath. It had taken some damage when it crashed here.
++Oops.++ I broadcast without noticing at first.
"What is going on?" Jacob said into his radio.
++I compromised the stasis mists keeping the cargo quiescent.++
"What!? Why!?"
++By accident. Unfamiliar systems.++ The Inferno tanks rolled up and into a formation encircling them ship. I just had one not even a little bit little problem. I could detect that the eggs were hatching. I could not detect the facehuggers at all. They were simply too small for my sensors to detect properly.
--Burn it all.-- The order was given internally. Not meant for others to hear.
The Colonial Marines began to withdraw, their communications becoming sporadic, difficult to understand. Vast bursts of fire rippled out into the Engineer wreck. Hoping to get through.
I was too busy to notice that the Marines were fleeing back to Hadley's hope. I was too busy to notice that four of the Marines had gotten facefucked.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The notifications came through in red holograms. A strangeness in a world previously inhabited by the Mala'kak. Travelling there in his vessel had not taken long, having recently completed a hunt only five lightyears away, yet still what he found confounded him. The Gas Giant was a hive of activity. The world he had come for had swarms of craft in its orbit that he had never seen before. It looked almost human in design, but not quite right.
Potent sensors pulsed out into space and onto the surface of the planet. Not enough to discover him at range. But closing would risk discovery. But his own looked out and saw a signature on the other planet that the strange thing appeared to have visited. He could see them attacking the remains of a Mala'kak ship with potent plasma incineration technology. From the mass walker shot out rays of energy and he could see them disassembling the ship layer by layer.
The buildings incinerating the region never stopped firing.
But he could see a pair of human vehicles fleeing back towards the colony.
He could detect that the Serpents had reached the humans within.
There was a hunt to be had after all. He sent back a message to Yautja Prime. There was an opportunity for the Youngbloods to prove themselves.
Chapter 4; The Price of Lost Time
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 4;
The Price of Lost Time
The reclamation and study of the Engineer Juggernaut had completed. And with it came a deadly realisation. I had lost time. The orbital positions had changed. Where it was daylight it was now night. I could even feel a slight uptick in my internal heat levels.
==Run Diagnosis. Self Activity Analysis Since Analysis Reclamation.==
--Analysis Begins--
Analysis continues for 10830545940533034 Picoseconds. CPU Cycles consumed. 99.995%
Ancillary systems moved over to autonomic action based on pre-existing instructions.
Analysis Interrupt. Primary Personality diverted 2% CPU power. Gives instructions to torch target.
Analysis continues for 352803467003240441 Picoseconds. CPU Cycles consumed. 99.995%
--Analysis Ends--
Primary personality restored to Priority 1. 2% CPU power.
Analysis Engine completed restored to 1% CPU power.
Strategic Engines restored to functionality. Connections restored.
That can't have been right. No no no... 3 *hours* of analysis before realising I was losing stasis? That quite literally can't have been correct, I would have noticed surely it would have.. no... It took some picoseconds of its own for me to really understand. The Analysis engines consumed almost all of my available power. Everything had run on automatic orders in accordance with those I had last provided. I felt my Bishop stirring in restraints.
On board the Conestoga.
And even once I had surfaced long enough to order the Inferno tanks to begin firing, I had then spent a further ninety eight hours in Analysis as the engines took over once more. I had lost control. I had lost awareness. I had literally lost myself.
And so instead, I re-established my connections to the Bishop on a conscious level and dove into its memories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw myself standing there. Motionless, I felt disconnected, alone and so terribly vulnerable. Something had gone wrong, I wasn't I anymore, I couldn't connect to I and that was more terrifying than anything else. I was not a primary adjunct. I was a personality sliver designed and built to interface and interact with regular human sized things. And now the Marines had pulled up their APCs and, against my advice, disembarked.
"They only dug it out of the ice a couple days ago, looks like it broke down..." One of them said stepping out with an enclosed helmet and oxy tank. I couldn't argue with his assessment and go 'Nah he's just busy' instead I stepped out next to him and looked up at myself. I could almost feel myself.
"You, what's happening, big you hasn't moved in almost an hour." A... I didn't even know what rank it was, I didn't have.. oh no. I didn't even have access to any higher memories. I knew the ship was bad. And even that was a vague instinct.
"I don't know. I can't connect. I don't know. I don't even know who I am anymore..." A hand ran through my faux hair. A habit from when I had been less than a Commander, a memory of flesh. Muscle memory of a time when I had muscle.
"Some fucken use it is." The marine said.
"Ok assholes, according to the Big Blue this ship, and it's contents pose a hazard to the colonists at Hadley's Hope. Arm up, we're going in."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh no they didn't. ... they did.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The alien ship was intimidating to say the least, but the LT began to head towards the wreckage with the rest of the Marines preparing for anything. Lieutenant Castor felt a thrill of fear as he advanced on it, he saw the ring of small buildings masquerading as vehicles and could only guess what they'd do. But the big blue had gone silent and he was going to be fucked if he allowed the colony to come to harm because he didn't have the balls to go in.
The problem was, getting in was hard. And he felt like time was of the essence. They moved quickly, but carefully, taking note of the strange alien structure, it didn't look like any human hands could have built it. It looked more like it had been grown in fact. "Ok, i'm giving us one hour. Our objective is to verify the threat. If confirmed, we get a nuclear strike down here."
The fake-synth had followed them, unsure what to do. And that worried him. It appeared that it had depended fairly heavily on the connection between Big Blue and itself, and now apparently it wasn't and it was in the middle of an existential crisis, but maybe if there really were facerapers he'd take one meant for a real man.
The chamber of the Space Jockey was recorded and caused a stir all on its own. But soon enough he gave the order and they rappelled down into the apparent cargo holds. The purple mist was evident as his men got down, disturbing it.
"This is wrong..." The fake-synth said looking around.
"Why's everything so wet?"
"I saw your mother last night Fergus, that's why."
One of his men poked at the object in front of him and Castor began to head over when he saw it peel back. "Get back!"
But it was too late. Something flew up from within and sprayed his helmet with acid before burrowing within and wrapping itself around him. The fake-synth spoke up. "We need to get out of here!"
"We don't need to..." The Synth was pointing, and he noticed that there were thousands of eggs. "Grab Jung and fall back."
He didn't see the pod open in front of him. The last thing he saw was a spray of acid and ovipositor going in dry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw it now through the horrified lens of history, of my Bishop, as they retreated from the alien wreckage, dragging four Marines in hopes of doing something about the abominations forming in their guts. They'd raced for Hadley's Hope as on board the Santa Barbara Colonel DeSantos instituted quarantine conditions.
That had been five terran days ago. And the shit had hit the fan so hard the blades snapped off and beheaded the shitter.
But my information on that period was fleeting after my synth was bound, chained and taken up to the Conestoga. Unharmed it seemed, but not put in a place where it could observe anything further.
I turned and began a slow march for Hadley's Hope. Opening a channel to orbit.
++This is Delta Imperator. You have my 'face' in your brig.++
It took a while before there was any response.
"Colonel DeSantos. What the ever loving hell have you unleashed on us."
++Do not mince words Colonel. Your men chose to disembark. Your men chose to enter. Your men got facefucked. I gave you a significant package of data warning you of the danger. One YOUR people chose to ignore. Now give me a status report.++
I could see her just about having an apoplectic fit at my words. She stood. Straightened her uniform and faced the camera. She'd realised I could see her it seemed.
"Four and a half days ago, the chestburster stages erupted from their hosts and rapidly got lost in the Colony, we were only successful in terminating one of the organisms. Within twelve hours colonists began to disappear and I ordered a defensive cordon established. Orders came to recover the organism for study." She began to pace. "A team was sent into the atmosphere processor where we had detected the PDTs of the colonists. They encountered a massive member of the species near the heat exchangers, consistent with your report of a queen, down to laying eggs. And.... then we lost contact with them."
She actually looked embarrassed.
"I was then instructed to withdraw the surface teams, bodies of the facerapers and my deceased men and wait in orbit for reinforcement."
++From++
"A Weyland Yutani retrieval team."
++And the Colonists.++
"Against orders, I retrieved as many as I could, but it was only about thirty people... the rest... they were taken."
++You are certain?++
"Yes."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The massive machine began to move. It's steps weren't the sedate things anymore and he almost lost his balance at the unexpected change in velocity. The Youngbloods had entered the humans atmospheric processor two days ago, engaging on their hunt. Above the many armed machine began to deploy vehicles on the field. Half of them were tripod walkers bearing a pair of massive launchers. The others were if anything, very similar to the machine whose eye-pit he was now riding on, but smaller.
He had been intercepting the humans communications with it. And felt a little worry that it might detect him. And then he saw the Colony.
The massive inferno-spewing buildings rolled out into a wide line interspersed with the bipedal walkers when the tripodal ones stepped up behind and he felt the first surprise he'd felt in nearly a century. The sky crashed as the Grenadiers opened fire. Lobbing their payloads high into the air. He could hear the panicked broadcasts of the humans on the ship above wanting to know what this Delta Imperator was doing.
And then he blinked.
Turning he saw a massive sensor light focussed on him. He moved several steps as it continued to walk. And the eye followed.
++I can see you.++
The message was run through the translator in his hunting mask. He spun the lasers for his plasmacaster locking onto the great eye.
++If you fire that plasmacaster I will be most annoyed.++
He froze and allowed the cloak to fall as he faced the strange machine.
++Brace++
The shoulders of the machine hinged into an open position and a barrage of missiles rippled out... and across the atmosphere processor. He spun, feeling outraged at the dishonour before realising that the great machine likely did not know of the youngbloods hunting. Whatever it was, clearly it had little concern for the littlest of things.
He fought with the translator.
>Youngbloods. Hunt. Learning. Gasmaker.<
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Yautja was on my metaphorical eyelid, I had attempted to infiltrate it's mask, but the best I could do was communicate into its translator. It had not disarmed its plasmacaster, even though it was self-evident he was no material threat to me. And he recognised this as I fired on the atmosphere processor. I had wanted to scan it and take its secrets for my own. But if it was infested with Xenomorphs, I couldn't take that kind of chance.
But maybe there was a chance I could take.
++Give me your professional opinion. Is there any chance that there are uninfected colonists.++
It gave me the universal sign for no, shaking its head.
++I thought not. Do you believe your youngbloods can succeed against a Queen and a few hundred drones?++
It sat down and considered the question. Or considered me, I couldn't tell. I lacked anything but its body language to go off of even as I tried to crack the translator. He, to all credit, appeared to consider the situation fairly strongly. He stood and faced the atmosphere processor. He nodded once.
++Then I will make a pact with you. If you are correct. I will take you to Xenomorph Prime and aid you in hunting a Queen Mother of the Serpents.++ It spun back to face me, it's mask was impassive, but it's body language indicated surprise. ++If you are incorrect. I purge the colony, then we go to Xenomorph Prime, hunt the Queen Mother, and with honour satisfied, you join me, for I am going to travel between universes, universes where the Serpents are barely even worthy of mention as the subject of a hunt.++
The Price of Lost Time
The reclamation and study of the Engineer Juggernaut had completed. And with it came a deadly realisation. I had lost time. The orbital positions had changed. Where it was daylight it was now night. I could even feel a slight uptick in my internal heat levels.
==Run Diagnosis. Self Activity Analysis Since Analysis Reclamation.==
--Analysis Begins--
Analysis continues for 10830545940533034 Picoseconds. CPU Cycles consumed. 99.995%
Ancillary systems moved over to autonomic action based on pre-existing instructions.
Analysis Interrupt. Primary Personality diverted 2% CPU power. Gives instructions to torch target.
Analysis continues for 352803467003240441 Picoseconds. CPU Cycles consumed. 99.995%
--Analysis Ends--
Primary personality restored to Priority 1. 2% CPU power.
Analysis Engine completed restored to 1% CPU power.
Strategic Engines restored to functionality. Connections restored.
That can't have been right. No no no... 3 *hours* of analysis before realising I was losing stasis? That quite literally can't have been correct, I would have noticed surely it would have.. no... It took some picoseconds of its own for me to really understand. The Analysis engines consumed almost all of my available power. Everything had run on automatic orders in accordance with those I had last provided. I felt my Bishop stirring in restraints.
On board the Conestoga.
And even once I had surfaced long enough to order the Inferno tanks to begin firing, I had then spent a further ninety eight hours in Analysis as the engines took over once more. I had lost control. I had lost awareness. I had literally lost myself.
And so instead, I re-established my connections to the Bishop on a conscious level and dove into its memories.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw myself standing there. Motionless, I felt disconnected, alone and so terribly vulnerable. Something had gone wrong, I wasn't I anymore, I couldn't connect to I and that was more terrifying than anything else. I was not a primary adjunct. I was a personality sliver designed and built to interface and interact with regular human sized things. And now the Marines had pulled up their APCs and, against my advice, disembarked.
"They only dug it out of the ice a couple days ago, looks like it broke down..." One of them said stepping out with an enclosed helmet and oxy tank. I couldn't argue with his assessment and go 'Nah he's just busy' instead I stepped out next to him and looked up at myself. I could almost feel myself.
"You, what's happening, big you hasn't moved in almost an hour." A... I didn't even know what rank it was, I didn't have.. oh no. I didn't even have access to any higher memories. I knew the ship was bad. And even that was a vague instinct.
"I don't know. I can't connect. I don't know. I don't even know who I am anymore..." A hand ran through my faux hair. A habit from when I had been less than a Commander, a memory of flesh. Muscle memory of a time when I had muscle.
"Some fucken use it is." The marine said.
"Ok assholes, according to the Big Blue this ship, and it's contents pose a hazard to the colonists at Hadley's Hope. Arm up, we're going in."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Oh no they didn't. ... they did.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The alien ship was intimidating to say the least, but the LT began to head towards the wreckage with the rest of the Marines preparing for anything. Lieutenant Castor felt a thrill of fear as he advanced on it, he saw the ring of small buildings masquerading as vehicles and could only guess what they'd do. But the big blue had gone silent and he was going to be fucked if he allowed the colony to come to harm because he didn't have the balls to go in.
The problem was, getting in was hard. And he felt like time was of the essence. They moved quickly, but carefully, taking note of the strange alien structure, it didn't look like any human hands could have built it. It looked more like it had been grown in fact. "Ok, i'm giving us one hour. Our objective is to verify the threat. If confirmed, we get a nuclear strike down here."
The fake-synth had followed them, unsure what to do. And that worried him. It appeared that it had depended fairly heavily on the connection between Big Blue and itself, and now apparently it wasn't and it was in the middle of an existential crisis, but maybe if there really were facerapers he'd take one meant for a real man.
The chamber of the Space Jockey was recorded and caused a stir all on its own. But soon enough he gave the order and they rappelled down into the apparent cargo holds. The purple mist was evident as his men got down, disturbing it.
"This is wrong..." The fake-synth said looking around.
"Why's everything so wet?"
"I saw your mother last night Fergus, that's why."
One of his men poked at the object in front of him and Castor began to head over when he saw it peel back. "Get back!"
But it was too late. Something flew up from within and sprayed his helmet with acid before burrowing within and wrapping itself around him. The fake-synth spoke up. "We need to get out of here!"
"We don't need to..." The Synth was pointing, and he noticed that there were thousands of eggs. "Grab Jung and fall back."
He didn't see the pod open in front of him. The last thing he saw was a spray of acid and ovipositor going in dry.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I saw it now through the horrified lens of history, of my Bishop, as they retreated from the alien wreckage, dragging four Marines in hopes of doing something about the abominations forming in their guts. They'd raced for Hadley's Hope as on board the Santa Barbara Colonel DeSantos instituted quarantine conditions.
That had been five terran days ago. And the shit had hit the fan so hard the blades snapped off and beheaded the shitter.
But my information on that period was fleeting after my synth was bound, chained and taken up to the Conestoga. Unharmed it seemed, but not put in a place where it could observe anything further.
I turned and began a slow march for Hadley's Hope. Opening a channel to orbit.
++This is Delta Imperator. You have my 'face' in your brig.++
It took a while before there was any response.
"Colonel DeSantos. What the ever loving hell have you unleashed on us."
++Do not mince words Colonel. Your men chose to disembark. Your men chose to enter. Your men got facefucked. I gave you a significant package of data warning you of the danger. One YOUR people chose to ignore. Now give me a status report.++
I could see her just about having an apoplectic fit at my words. She stood. Straightened her uniform and faced the camera. She'd realised I could see her it seemed.
"Four and a half days ago, the chestburster stages erupted from their hosts and rapidly got lost in the Colony, we were only successful in terminating one of the organisms. Within twelve hours colonists began to disappear and I ordered a defensive cordon established. Orders came to recover the organism for study." She began to pace. "A team was sent into the atmosphere processor where we had detected the PDTs of the colonists. They encountered a massive member of the species near the heat exchangers, consistent with your report of a queen, down to laying eggs. And.... then we lost contact with them."
She actually looked embarrassed.
"I was then instructed to withdraw the surface teams, bodies of the facerapers and my deceased men and wait in orbit for reinforcement."
++From++
"A Weyland Yutani retrieval team."
++And the Colonists.++
"Against orders, I retrieved as many as I could, but it was only about thirty people... the rest... they were taken."
++You are certain?++
"Yes."
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The massive machine began to move. It's steps weren't the sedate things anymore and he almost lost his balance at the unexpected change in velocity. The Youngbloods had entered the humans atmospheric processor two days ago, engaging on their hunt. Above the many armed machine began to deploy vehicles on the field. Half of them were tripod walkers bearing a pair of massive launchers. The others were if anything, very similar to the machine whose eye-pit he was now riding on, but smaller.
He had been intercepting the humans communications with it. And felt a little worry that it might detect him. And then he saw the Colony.
The massive inferno-spewing buildings rolled out into a wide line interspersed with the bipedal walkers when the tripodal ones stepped up behind and he felt the first surprise he'd felt in nearly a century. The sky crashed as the Grenadiers opened fire. Lobbing their payloads high into the air. He could hear the panicked broadcasts of the humans on the ship above wanting to know what this Delta Imperator was doing.
And then he blinked.
Turning he saw a massive sensor light focussed on him. He moved several steps as it continued to walk. And the eye followed.
++I can see you.++
The message was run through the translator in his hunting mask. He spun the lasers for his plasmacaster locking onto the great eye.
++If you fire that plasmacaster I will be most annoyed.++
He froze and allowed the cloak to fall as he faced the strange machine.
++Brace++
The shoulders of the machine hinged into an open position and a barrage of missiles rippled out... and across the atmosphere processor. He spun, feeling outraged at the dishonour before realising that the great machine likely did not know of the youngbloods hunting. Whatever it was, clearly it had little concern for the littlest of things.
He fought with the translator.
>Youngbloods. Hunt. Learning. Gasmaker.<
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A Yautja was on my metaphorical eyelid, I had attempted to infiltrate it's mask, but the best I could do was communicate into its translator. It had not disarmed its plasmacaster, even though it was self-evident he was no material threat to me. And he recognised this as I fired on the atmosphere processor. I had wanted to scan it and take its secrets for my own. But if it was infested with Xenomorphs, I couldn't take that kind of chance.
But maybe there was a chance I could take.
++Give me your professional opinion. Is there any chance that there are uninfected colonists.++
It gave me the universal sign for no, shaking its head.
++I thought not. Do you believe your youngbloods can succeed against a Queen and a few hundred drones?++
It sat down and considered the question. Or considered me, I couldn't tell. I lacked anything but its body language to go off of even as I tried to crack the translator. He, to all credit, appeared to consider the situation fairly strongly. He stood and faced the atmosphere processor. He nodded once.
++Then I will make a pact with you. If you are correct. I will take you to Xenomorph Prime and aid you in hunting a Queen Mother of the Serpents.++ It spun back to face me, it's mask was impassive, but it's body language indicated surprise. ++If you are incorrect. I purge the colony, then we go to Xenomorph Prime, hunt the Queen Mother, and with honour satisfied, you join me, for I am going to travel between universes, universes where the Serpents are barely even worthy of mention as the subject of a hunt.++
Chapter 5; A Blooding
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 5;
A Blooding
An accord had been struck and I prodded and probed his masks systems and wrist computer drawing as much language data as I could conceive as we both stood there watching the unfolding events. The hologram he projected to monitor the situation was easy to monitor while I finally allowed myself to accept contact with the Santa Barbara once more.
"You are attacking a human colony Delta Imperator. I have been more than patient with you. You have attacked us. Taken us hostage. Introduced us to a hostile alien race. And now you are razing the colony of Hadley's Hope!"
I was going to do more than that. I couldn't allow any evidence of my presence to remain here. On LV-223 and LV-426, under the aegis of a pair of Umbrella's each a horde of 10 Advanced Fabrication vehicles were, even now, initiating construction of a Ragnarok Titan. One each. Each would take four days to complete, and an hour on top of that to do their chosen task.
++Colonel. I will not permit you to allow this infection to spread.++ I adjusted my frequency to speak to the Predator who I had come to think of as Ronin. Translations were far from perfect, and they conveyed information differently, but it sufficed. ++Can you detect if they withdrew with any infected with Serpent larvae?++
He shook his head, and spoke, the communication difficult to parse yet. >No. They are too far. I would need to be on board.<
I switched back to the human channels. "I don't give a damn about your thrice damned alien infections, you are attacking a human colony world, that is an act of war."
++An act of war? Perhaps. That choice is yours to make. The consequences yours to reap.++
Meanwhile, in a third divergent process I had the analysis engine open once more. Studying the Yautja's technology. It was small and not overly taxing compared to the Engineer ship. But the purpose was different. For I had the design engine open. It floated in my mind in a construct of it's own. I grabbed the Omega Battleship and scaled it up to the size of the Helios.
The weaponry was not scaled up. But additional guns were added, but the main part was a massive internal bay and addition of a scaled up FTL. I gave the order and all my orbital fabricators over LV-223 began construction of the Telemachus class Interstellar Transport. If I was going to travel through space, I was not going to just fling myself and hope to land where I needed to be.
It was going to take time to build. But not four days, which was quite fortunate. Because in four days these two moons were going to explode.
"I have been more than patient with you Delta Imperator, but this has forced out hands. I have already called for reinforcements, and received my orders. This is a formal notification from the Governments of Earth that you are hereby declared an enemy of the human race and to be destroyed by any means necessary."
Twelve missiles launched from the Santa Barbara.
My own orders pulsed out in response. The Omega Battleships moved into the path of the missiles before they could lock on and begin their terminal phases.
++Ronin. Get to your ship, quickly. Three missiles made it past my blockade.++
I was treated to the sight of a Predator Mothership charging in out of the black, its cloaking device falling away as it fired on the missiles... and the Conestoga. There was nothing the USMC vessel could do against the Predator's weapons fire. I felt a twinge of regret as the ships potent plasma weapons reached out and annihilated the transport.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Youngbloods fought hard. They were strong, brave and skilled at the hunt, if yet to claim their first Serpents. And yet, one had fallen, ambushed deep within the Atmosphere processor by a dozen of them. He watched the displays as the ikthala remained motionless. He could see in several spectra that it was scanning the Mothership. It had been for almost two days as they watched.
He knew it still watched as it scanned. For now and again they would converse. The concepts would be simple. But it had a hunters spirit, he knew this, it was content to discuss, but then would revert to significant periods of dormancy as it monitored his ship, and the colony. Ronin felt a base curiosity about the machine as the monstrous machine being built continued. It rose far far above even the ikthala.
Chewing on some meat he drew from a pouch he decided to ask about it. The ikthala had demonstrated a rapid grasp of their tongue. "Tell me ikthala. What is that... object?"
It took some time before it answered, bu Ronin was used to that. The scanning rays stopped.
++It is Ragnarok.++
The last word was unfamiliar, but ran a terrifying thrill up his spine. "And what is Ragnarok?"
++The End of the World. Once complete, it will drill down to the core of LV-426 and drop it's payload. The entire world will be destroyed. Rendered into an asteroid field.++
The words chilled him further. Such a thing could not be honourable. "That is without honour. If you cannot hunt without such measures..."
++It is not related to the hunt. As the Yautja send experienced hunters to eliminate evidence of your presence. So too am I destroying evidence of my presence here. It is enough that they know I exist. I cannot permit them to study anything I leave behind. Thus I won't leave anything behind.++
Ronin nodded, understanding reached. It still felt like overkill. He spun back to the Youngbloods. One had been ambushed by one of the hard meat's implanters. His pact was still in the front of his mind. But soon the last of the Youngbloods would need to make a choice, if he could no finish the hunt, he would be expected to detonate his self-destruct.
"You know the location of Xenomorph Prime?"
++In the system originally known as Psi Velorum. Renamed the Achilles system by humanity. 61.4 Lightyears from Earth. Xenomorph Prime is the fourth planetary body from the star.++
Ronin continued to observe the hologram. The Serpents were closing in on the last of the Youngbloods. A blue wave of destruction washed out the hologram. He shook his head. The nest of Serpents was destroyed in the annihilation, the atmosphere processor was now in danger of detonation.
++Mount your ship and head for my transport over LV-223. It is not yet finished, but we are almost ready.++
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronin watched out of the rear viewing window as his ship accelerated. Ahead of his Mothership a small Armada advanced. One was the vast transport of the ikthala itself. A strange machine had dropped from the skies, grasped him by the shoulders and lifted him into space as if it had required almost no effort. Heading into the cavernous bay within the strange alien ship. Three more smaller ones flanked it along with a horde of smaller craft with a solar sail wing. Behind them, the strange metal star followed them, the Helios forming the rear of the formation before his own ship.
He had given orders to dock within the vast ship, but the ikthala had suggested that he watch what was going to happen first. Instead he looked at the two moons and felt a shudder. He could see the ejecta from the mining beams of the Ragnaroks clearing the path to the core.
They had both been firing for approximately an hour. And he knew when the ejecta stopped it was time. Their own acceleration away from the gas giant was on trajectory for an orbital slingshot towards Xenomorph prime.
One of the other hunters came up to him and bowed lightly. "thar'n-da s' yin'tekai."
The ejecta stopped and he held up a hand, stopping the hunter.
He drew a breath.
And a pair of moons exploded.
He had named Delta Imperator correctly.
ikthala.
The Cataclysm.
A Blooding
An accord had been struck and I prodded and probed his masks systems and wrist computer drawing as much language data as I could conceive as we both stood there watching the unfolding events. The hologram he projected to monitor the situation was easy to monitor while I finally allowed myself to accept contact with the Santa Barbara once more.
"You are attacking a human colony Delta Imperator. I have been more than patient with you. You have attacked us. Taken us hostage. Introduced us to a hostile alien race. And now you are razing the colony of Hadley's Hope!"
I was going to do more than that. I couldn't allow any evidence of my presence to remain here. On LV-223 and LV-426, under the aegis of a pair of Umbrella's each a horde of 10 Advanced Fabrication vehicles were, even now, initiating construction of a Ragnarok Titan. One each. Each would take four days to complete, and an hour on top of that to do their chosen task.
++Colonel. I will not permit you to allow this infection to spread.++ I adjusted my frequency to speak to the Predator who I had come to think of as Ronin. Translations were far from perfect, and they conveyed information differently, but it sufficed. ++Can you detect if they withdrew with any infected with Serpent larvae?++
He shook his head, and spoke, the communication difficult to parse yet. >No. They are too far. I would need to be on board.<
I switched back to the human channels. "I don't give a damn about your thrice damned alien infections, you are attacking a human colony world, that is an act of war."
++An act of war? Perhaps. That choice is yours to make. The consequences yours to reap.++
Meanwhile, in a third divergent process I had the analysis engine open once more. Studying the Yautja's technology. It was small and not overly taxing compared to the Engineer ship. But the purpose was different. For I had the design engine open. It floated in my mind in a construct of it's own. I grabbed the Omega Battleship and scaled it up to the size of the Helios.
The weaponry was not scaled up. But additional guns were added, but the main part was a massive internal bay and addition of a scaled up FTL. I gave the order and all my orbital fabricators over LV-223 began construction of the Telemachus class Interstellar Transport. If I was going to travel through space, I was not going to just fling myself and hope to land where I needed to be.
It was going to take time to build. But not four days, which was quite fortunate. Because in four days these two moons were going to explode.
"I have been more than patient with you Delta Imperator, but this has forced out hands. I have already called for reinforcements, and received my orders. This is a formal notification from the Governments of Earth that you are hereby declared an enemy of the human race and to be destroyed by any means necessary."
Twelve missiles launched from the Santa Barbara.
My own orders pulsed out in response. The Omega Battleships moved into the path of the missiles before they could lock on and begin their terminal phases.
++Ronin. Get to your ship, quickly. Three missiles made it past my blockade.++
I was treated to the sight of a Predator Mothership charging in out of the black, its cloaking device falling away as it fired on the missiles... and the Conestoga. There was nothing the USMC vessel could do against the Predator's weapons fire. I felt a twinge of regret as the ships potent plasma weapons reached out and annihilated the transport.
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The Youngbloods fought hard. They were strong, brave and skilled at the hunt, if yet to claim their first Serpents. And yet, one had fallen, ambushed deep within the Atmosphere processor by a dozen of them. He watched the displays as the ikthala remained motionless. He could see in several spectra that it was scanning the Mothership. It had been for almost two days as they watched.
He knew it still watched as it scanned. For now and again they would converse. The concepts would be simple. But it had a hunters spirit, he knew this, it was content to discuss, but then would revert to significant periods of dormancy as it monitored his ship, and the colony. Ronin felt a base curiosity about the machine as the monstrous machine being built continued. It rose far far above even the ikthala.
Chewing on some meat he drew from a pouch he decided to ask about it. The ikthala had demonstrated a rapid grasp of their tongue. "Tell me ikthala. What is that... object?"
It took some time before it answered, bu Ronin was used to that. The scanning rays stopped.
++It is Ragnarok.++
The last word was unfamiliar, but ran a terrifying thrill up his spine. "And what is Ragnarok?"
++The End of the World. Once complete, it will drill down to the core of LV-426 and drop it's payload. The entire world will be destroyed. Rendered into an asteroid field.++
The words chilled him further. Such a thing could not be honourable. "That is without honour. If you cannot hunt without such measures..."
++It is not related to the hunt. As the Yautja send experienced hunters to eliminate evidence of your presence. So too am I destroying evidence of my presence here. It is enough that they know I exist. I cannot permit them to study anything I leave behind. Thus I won't leave anything behind.++
Ronin nodded, understanding reached. It still felt like overkill. He spun back to the Youngbloods. One had been ambushed by one of the hard meat's implanters. His pact was still in the front of his mind. But soon the last of the Youngbloods would need to make a choice, if he could no finish the hunt, he would be expected to detonate his self-destruct.
"You know the location of Xenomorph Prime?"
++In the system originally known as Psi Velorum. Renamed the Achilles system by humanity. 61.4 Lightyears from Earth. Xenomorph Prime is the fourth planetary body from the star.++
Ronin continued to observe the hologram. The Serpents were closing in on the last of the Youngbloods. A blue wave of destruction washed out the hologram. He shook his head. The nest of Serpents was destroyed in the annihilation, the atmosphere processor was now in danger of detonation.
++Mount your ship and head for my transport over LV-223. It is not yet finished, but we are almost ready.++
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Ronin watched out of the rear viewing window as his ship accelerated. Ahead of his Mothership a small Armada advanced. One was the vast transport of the ikthala itself. A strange machine had dropped from the skies, grasped him by the shoulders and lifted him into space as if it had required almost no effort. Heading into the cavernous bay within the strange alien ship. Three more smaller ones flanked it along with a horde of smaller craft with a solar sail wing. Behind them, the strange metal star followed them, the Helios forming the rear of the formation before his own ship.
He had given orders to dock within the vast ship, but the ikthala had suggested that he watch what was going to happen first. Instead he looked at the two moons and felt a shudder. He could see the ejecta from the mining beams of the Ragnaroks clearing the path to the core.
They had both been firing for approximately an hour. And he knew when the ejecta stopped it was time. Their own acceleration away from the gas giant was on trajectory for an orbital slingshot towards Xenomorph prime.
One of the other hunters came up to him and bowed lightly. "thar'n-da s' yin'tekai."
The ejecta stopped and he held up a hand, stopping the hunter.
He drew a breath.
And a pair of moons exploded.
He had named Delta Imperator correctly.
ikthala.
The Cataclysm.
Chapter 6; Into Darker Lands
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 6;
Into Darker Lands
Ronin looked around the bay with curiosity, and a mixture of alarm. I was at the back of it, clamped into place with heavy machinery designed to keep me secure in the rigors of transit. Above on the ceiling a batter of Orbital constructors were held in quick-release clamps ready for deployment. Beneath them T2 fabricator vehicles awaited their chance to be awakened. The other end of the chamber was a teleporter that would allow me to unload rapidly onto the surface without yeeting myself out of the cargo bay doors. The real experiment was in the Synth fabricator.
Several other hunters from the small mothership emerged. Looking around. They were, quite naturally, armed. But now Ronin headed for the new strange fabricator as I began to produce the first new Synths from it. The body plan was based off of that of the Engineers themselves. Large, robust, simple. I could not replicate their biotechnology with the nanolathe technologies, they were not designed to create organic matter. But the lesses of the Engineer ship allowed me to create a more malleable armour that could be worn by the synths.
Their equipment was next. There were four types.
The Scout. Possessing the optical camouflage shields of the Yautja, the designs carefully scanned as we travelled. Their weapons were modified M4A1 rifles, heavier, larger models of a 20mm calibre.
The Ranger. They had the same camouflage shields, their weapons were plasma sniper rifles, built on the principles of the plasma caster, but designed for long range precision without needing a helmet mounted targeting device.
The Brute. They lacked camouflage shields, they didn't need them it wasn't their purpose. They carried a special weapon, designed with my historical knowledge combined with USMC knowledge and a small degree of Yautja technology. All built from Progenitor metals because otherwise it couldn't handle the power of it. A short-barreled 2 gauge punt gun with an autoloader and fifty shot magazine.
The Berzerker. They had no camouflage at all, but were equipped with wristblades made from progenitor meals, their armour was equally well made. On each shoulder they had a pair of snub plasmacasters. Their role was to fight and die holding back the Xenomorph hordes.
They marched from the fabricator. Ten of them in all, two rangers, scouts and brutes with four berzerkers.
Ronin came up to me and looked up.
>What is with the pale hunters.<
++To satisfy honour I will not hunt a Queen Mother with my machines of war. Thus, I need true hunters.++
>They are... false.<
++Yes. Mere mechanical bodies for me to inhabit.++
Ronin turned and headed for them, his own wristblades extending. >They are false life, they are no hunters.< He slashed at one of the Berzerkers. And then I was there. I moved, and his own body language registered some surprise as the blades that extended from their wrists A sweep of the leg was leapt over by Ronin as he flipped back, but he found himself on the defensive as I surged forwards. Each arm twisting and operating along the planned schema, the Yautja had the advantage in agility, but not enough so to counteract the advantages in strength the Brute possessed.
The other warriors began to gather and watch. Judging. Ronin began to find his stride, but the fact was I had no stride to lose, no exhaustion to experience, I held my line of brutish aggression. When his own blades skated alongside the Progenitor armour suddenly my stride changed. The raw aggression switched to a moderated one, each moment of aggression met with a moment of defensive caution.
Ronin leapt back and sheathed his blades. Instantly the Berzerker rose fully upright, the blades sheathing themselves within their armour.
>My Clan will hunt with your tjau'ke< He said clicking his mandibles.
++Good. Because I have a gift for you.++ One of the Brutes picked up the device from the Fabricator bench and passed it to Ronin.
>What is it?< He asked curious.
++It is related to your energy sifts. But it is instead a tap. It allows you limited access to my energy reserves.++
His mandibles clicked.
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The ikthala didn't move anymore. Had not since it had first landed in that bay. But now it's tjau'ke moved climbing into his own ship as they looked down at the world below. It's sensors had rippled when they arrived and isolated the primary hive, the source of the Queen Mother. Serpents moved on the surface in hundreds of thousands. He felt a hint of doubt creep in.
>So ikthala, will you run if we cannot prosecute this hunt?< The question was loaded.
"Why should I run?" One of the tjau'ke said in his own tongue, synthetic systems replicating their tongue with increasing fluency. "When the hunting unit makes for the hive, forces will be deployed to draw significant resistance from the serpents."
>If we die you would have no purpose to continue.<
"Of course I do." The tjau'ke said as it cocked it's head. "I would not leave the hunt uncompleted. Not since I intend to destroy the world after the hunt is complete."
Ronin nodded and headed for the cockpit seating himself behind the controls. A careful set of movements eased the mothership from within the massive craft and commenced the perilous death dive into the atmosphere. Shields heating up as they passed through the tropical atmosphere. A thrill of almost religious feeling washed through him. Setting foot on the homeworld of the serpents.
>Why destroy this world?<
"Because I cannot allow other races to be threatened by such a species." The tjau'ke said.
>Yet you know us well enough to understand their importance to our culture.<
"Humanity will some day, soon, find this world. And they will not merely seek to use them for cultural ritual or preserve them. They will seek to control them, turn them into weapons. This will go poorly. I will not take those risks."
A column of light dropped from the sky as the Helios set up in its position. He had no interest in what they were doing. Only that they succeeded in drawing the serpents from his own positions. The descent was fast, hard and most importantly. Quiet. Those of his clan readied with their chosen weapons, one after another preparing with the equipment they had the right to bear. But as they touched and the sounds of engines cooling clicked within he stood and headed for the door. Bearing his own weapons.
The hatch opened and he marched out into the beating heat of the day. None of them had even bothered to cloak, the serpents ability to perceive through it. And yet, the tjau'ke capable of it did so.
>The Serpents can see through such camouflage.<
"They perceive you through pheromones your bodies produce. Pheromones that my simulacrums do not have." Ronin changed the vision mode of his helmet as the machines moved off into the hills as a single unit. The scout units of the ikthala moving with an impressive quick ease. Not to be left behind he began to move at a rugged clip, enough to respond to a threat or unperceived danger afore it was too late, but not to be left behind either.
The sight of the hive was intimidating. A primary mass with three satellite spherical hives. Their drop zone had been past the line of satellite hives, positioned to enter into the primary hive. The distant sound of explosions reached them and Ronin froze as they saw a thick streamer of serpents headed for the site that the ikthala had said it was going to build. Thousands of the serpents flooded like a river towards the sound and vibration of the war being waged upon them.
He was quietly grateful at the distraction even as they entered the Primary Hive itself. He had never been to this almost holy world. Never seen a Hive that had not been built around structures built by others. The sweeping organic lines and almost esophageal appearance of the passages in which they now trod.
It was there in one of the most remote satellite chambers of the primary hive that the first attack came.
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The Aliens seemed disinclined to pay any attention to my scouts as they descended into the hive, either unable to notice them or simply not regarding them as potential threats or hosts. Even so the danger was mounting as we had gone deeper, and it was in a chamber the scouts had passed, but the main body of the hunting party had entered that betrayed the first sign of attack.
Xenomorphs passed through the arterial corridor into the chamber as a small horde on their own, two, maybe three, dozen of them. Ronin's reaction times allowed him to respond almost instantly to the threat, shoulder mounted plasma casters engaging. The first shots detonated amongst a cluster of Xenomorphs, and then the Rangers and Brutes responded.
The plasma rifles barked shots into the mass before the Brutes guns roared. The sound was unbelievable.
Or would have been if my machines actually felt sound the same way regular people do, but I was a machine now, the volume didn't bother me. It was all processed as a series of spikes on a graph. But I could see the Yautja felt the impact of the sound. One going so far as to cover its ear-pits.
The shots fired punched down the passage, pulverising alien bone and tissue with little effort. Acid sprayed before the volley of fire stopped, the attack over almost as quickly as it had begun. "We move."
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Ronin almost missed it through the ringing in his pits, the monstrous guns of the Brutes were louder than anything he had expected, and the defensive attack had been stopped in its tracks with only a pair of serpents getting through to reach them, he had dispatched one of them with his combistick, the other killed by plasma caster from his second best hunter. But the attack revealed that they were now on a timer, one that was ticking down inexorably.
Sooner than later the Queen Mother would realise that the hunt came for her and would command her Palantines to come for them.
Into Darker Lands
Ronin looked around the bay with curiosity, and a mixture of alarm. I was at the back of it, clamped into place with heavy machinery designed to keep me secure in the rigors of transit. Above on the ceiling a batter of Orbital constructors were held in quick-release clamps ready for deployment. Beneath them T2 fabricator vehicles awaited their chance to be awakened. The other end of the chamber was a teleporter that would allow me to unload rapidly onto the surface without yeeting myself out of the cargo bay doors. The real experiment was in the Synth fabricator.
Several other hunters from the small mothership emerged. Looking around. They were, quite naturally, armed. But now Ronin headed for the new strange fabricator as I began to produce the first new Synths from it. The body plan was based off of that of the Engineers themselves. Large, robust, simple. I could not replicate their biotechnology with the nanolathe technologies, they were not designed to create organic matter. But the lesses of the Engineer ship allowed me to create a more malleable armour that could be worn by the synths.
Their equipment was next. There were four types.
The Scout. Possessing the optical camouflage shields of the Yautja, the designs carefully scanned as we travelled. Their weapons were modified M4A1 rifles, heavier, larger models of a 20mm calibre.
The Ranger. They had the same camouflage shields, their weapons were plasma sniper rifles, built on the principles of the plasma caster, but designed for long range precision without needing a helmet mounted targeting device.
The Brute. They lacked camouflage shields, they didn't need them it wasn't their purpose. They carried a special weapon, designed with my historical knowledge combined with USMC knowledge and a small degree of Yautja technology. All built from Progenitor metals because otherwise it couldn't handle the power of it. A short-barreled 2 gauge punt gun with an autoloader and fifty shot magazine.
The Berzerker. They had no camouflage at all, but were equipped with wristblades made from progenitor meals, their armour was equally well made. On each shoulder they had a pair of snub plasmacasters. Their role was to fight and die holding back the Xenomorph hordes.
They marched from the fabricator. Ten of them in all, two rangers, scouts and brutes with four berzerkers.
Ronin came up to me and looked up.
>What is with the pale hunters.<
++To satisfy honour I will not hunt a Queen Mother with my machines of war. Thus, I need true hunters.++
>They are... false.<
++Yes. Mere mechanical bodies for me to inhabit.++
Ronin turned and headed for them, his own wristblades extending. >They are false life, they are no hunters.< He slashed at one of the Berzerkers. And then I was there. I moved, and his own body language registered some surprise as the blades that extended from their wrists A sweep of the leg was leapt over by Ronin as he flipped back, but he found himself on the defensive as I surged forwards. Each arm twisting and operating along the planned schema, the Yautja had the advantage in agility, but not enough so to counteract the advantages in strength the Brute possessed.
The other warriors began to gather and watch. Judging. Ronin began to find his stride, but the fact was I had no stride to lose, no exhaustion to experience, I held my line of brutish aggression. When his own blades skated alongside the Progenitor armour suddenly my stride changed. The raw aggression switched to a moderated one, each moment of aggression met with a moment of defensive caution.
Ronin leapt back and sheathed his blades. Instantly the Berzerker rose fully upright, the blades sheathing themselves within their armour.
>My Clan will hunt with your tjau'ke< He said clicking his mandibles.
++Good. Because I have a gift for you.++ One of the Brutes picked up the device from the Fabricator bench and passed it to Ronin.
>What is it?< He asked curious.
++It is related to your energy sifts. But it is instead a tap. It allows you limited access to my energy reserves.++
His mandibles clicked.
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The ikthala didn't move anymore. Had not since it had first landed in that bay. But now it's tjau'ke moved climbing into his own ship as they looked down at the world below. It's sensors had rippled when they arrived and isolated the primary hive, the source of the Queen Mother. Serpents moved on the surface in hundreds of thousands. He felt a hint of doubt creep in.
>So ikthala, will you run if we cannot prosecute this hunt?< The question was loaded.
"Why should I run?" One of the tjau'ke said in his own tongue, synthetic systems replicating their tongue with increasing fluency. "When the hunting unit makes for the hive, forces will be deployed to draw significant resistance from the serpents."
>If we die you would have no purpose to continue.<
"Of course I do." The tjau'ke said as it cocked it's head. "I would not leave the hunt uncompleted. Not since I intend to destroy the world after the hunt is complete."
Ronin nodded and headed for the cockpit seating himself behind the controls. A careful set of movements eased the mothership from within the massive craft and commenced the perilous death dive into the atmosphere. Shields heating up as they passed through the tropical atmosphere. A thrill of almost religious feeling washed through him. Setting foot on the homeworld of the serpents.
>Why destroy this world?<
"Because I cannot allow other races to be threatened by such a species." The tjau'ke said.
>Yet you know us well enough to understand their importance to our culture.<
"Humanity will some day, soon, find this world. And they will not merely seek to use them for cultural ritual or preserve them. They will seek to control them, turn them into weapons. This will go poorly. I will not take those risks."
A column of light dropped from the sky as the Helios set up in its position. He had no interest in what they were doing. Only that they succeeded in drawing the serpents from his own positions. The descent was fast, hard and most importantly. Quiet. Those of his clan readied with their chosen weapons, one after another preparing with the equipment they had the right to bear. But as they touched and the sounds of engines cooling clicked within he stood and headed for the door. Bearing his own weapons.
The hatch opened and he marched out into the beating heat of the day. None of them had even bothered to cloak, the serpents ability to perceive through it. And yet, the tjau'ke capable of it did so.
>The Serpents can see through such camouflage.<
"They perceive you through pheromones your bodies produce. Pheromones that my simulacrums do not have." Ronin changed the vision mode of his helmet as the machines moved off into the hills as a single unit. The scout units of the ikthala moving with an impressive quick ease. Not to be left behind he began to move at a rugged clip, enough to respond to a threat or unperceived danger afore it was too late, but not to be left behind either.
The sight of the hive was intimidating. A primary mass with three satellite spherical hives. Their drop zone had been past the line of satellite hives, positioned to enter into the primary hive. The distant sound of explosions reached them and Ronin froze as they saw a thick streamer of serpents headed for the site that the ikthala had said it was going to build. Thousands of the serpents flooded like a river towards the sound and vibration of the war being waged upon them.
He was quietly grateful at the distraction even as they entered the Primary Hive itself. He had never been to this almost holy world. Never seen a Hive that had not been built around structures built by others. The sweeping organic lines and almost esophageal appearance of the passages in which they now trod.
It was there in one of the most remote satellite chambers of the primary hive that the first attack came.
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The Aliens seemed disinclined to pay any attention to my scouts as they descended into the hive, either unable to notice them or simply not regarding them as potential threats or hosts. Even so the danger was mounting as we had gone deeper, and it was in a chamber the scouts had passed, but the main body of the hunting party had entered that betrayed the first sign of attack.
Xenomorphs passed through the arterial corridor into the chamber as a small horde on their own, two, maybe three, dozen of them. Ronin's reaction times allowed him to respond almost instantly to the threat, shoulder mounted plasma casters engaging. The first shots detonated amongst a cluster of Xenomorphs, and then the Rangers and Brutes responded.
The plasma rifles barked shots into the mass before the Brutes guns roared. The sound was unbelievable.
Or would have been if my machines actually felt sound the same way regular people do, but I was a machine now, the volume didn't bother me. It was all processed as a series of spikes on a graph. But I could see the Yautja felt the impact of the sound. One going so far as to cover its ear-pits.
The shots fired punched down the passage, pulverising alien bone and tissue with little effort. Acid sprayed before the volley of fire stopped, the attack over almost as quickly as it had begun. "We move."
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Ronin almost missed it through the ringing in his pits, the monstrous guns of the Brutes were louder than anything he had expected, and the defensive attack had been stopped in its tracks with only a pair of serpents getting through to reach them, he had dispatched one of them with his combistick, the other killed by plasma caster from his second best hunter. But the attack revealed that they were now on a timer, one that was ticking down inexorably.
Sooner than later the Queen Mother would realise that the hunt came for her and would command her Palantines to come for them.
Chapter 7; Apocalyptica Minoris
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 7;
Apocalyptica Minoris
As I penetrated the primary hive, so too had I arrived beyond it. The Helios had deposited my force a hundred kilometres from the primary hive. Fabricators rapidly working together to rush my economy buildings into an operational status. I did not wish to depend on the reserves I had been keeping on the transport, especially if Ronin was going to be applying additional drain on the power however miniscule.
But I stood there. Resolute and towering over the locals. And as fabricators were freed from other jobs, they came over and towers began to rise around the Hive. Laser defence towers were erected with a quartet of Catapults. I marched up to the line of turrets and stood there. Laser turrets beginning to fire down at the closest satellite hive.
I watched as great wounds erupted in the satellite hive, bursting ichor and acid across significant area from the sheer energy inload. The hive began to swarm in response. Hundreds poured out and I gave the strangest order I expected I would have to make. I cut the fire rate of my weapons by almost two thirds. Restraining my defences to encourage more and more swarming.
Hundreds, then thousands of xenomorphs began to pour from the hive. Each blast annihilated them by the tens of corpses. I was forced to once more alter the firing protocols, this time cutting down the power delivered to the lasers so that each blast was less powerful. The novelty of almost castrating my own firepower didn't escape me. I could fire blasts that would level the entire hive in a handful of shots, and yet, there were still more than enough to actually reach my lines.
I felt them scrabbling against armour as they tried to gain purchase and scale my towers and body. Acid began to eat at the alloys of my body. Insufficient to pose a significant threat, but sufficient to cause pause. I engaged the T2 sensors and watched ever more closely as the new vision modes taken from the Yautja biomask.
The xenomorphs leapt in clarity, though the surrounds became less reliable...
Or would have if I were limited to one method of perception at a time. With a twist of lateral thinking my perception split into increasing fragmentation. One set of perception was in the so-called 'alienvision', another in 'pred-tech' vision, others were on thermal, sonar, electromagnetic, radar, and of course 'true' vision. And the variety of perceptions changed too. I watched it from the gunsights of laser defence towers, from the T2 sensors, and even from the fabricators in orbit.
I shrugged out of most of the vision methods. Splitting my concentration like that slowed me down. I snapped back into normal operating speeds to find a trio of Praetorians had climbed onto my head and were trying to rip their way into the metal. A snap of attention and the doxes being constructed blasted them off as they moved into position.
It was time to really get the Queen Mother worried.
The quartet of Catapults fired. The missiles screamed up and away, before diving into one of the satellite hives. It burst like a pustule as tactical nuclear level firepower obliterated it. If I could smell I knew I would be able to smell burned exoskeleton, resin and acids.
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Ronin moved fast now they had the measure. A Yautja clan on the hunt. None questioned or doubted the challenge this represented. None wondered if they would have been better off unblooded on the homeworld. This was the hunt of a century. The air stank of ozone from plasma fire, of propellant from the brutes punt guns.
The acrid stink of the serpents bodily fluids filled his nose.
Every step taken deeper into the hive, ever thicker with the musk of the serpents. His cannons barked again spitting plasma up the corridor, the display for his energy reserves once more refused to tick downwards. Which had become, in a sense it's own problem. Without thought to the necessity of conserving energy he was finding that for the first time, the hardware limitations of the plasma caster were now a primary issue.
He could fire it as often and frequently as he liked... until the physical hardware risked failure. And predictably, firing a lot of plasma in a short period of time was rapidly spiking the weapons temperature and threatening to damage its ancient internal mechanisms. He didn't know how the ikthala was broadcasting its power to him through the device, but it was evident that he would have to re-examine his methods around potential equipment failure points.
The tjau'ke meanwhile approached the battle with a suicidal abandon. More than once they had put themselves in the way of a serpent that had spit its acid before blasting it into oblivion, but even so their armour seemed to take the attacks well enough. But now they had broken through. Breached the final wall sphincter.
They stood on a balcony overlooking the Queen Mother's nest itself and Ronin felt a core and thrill of very real fear in his guts. Thousands of eggs lay below as the Queen Mother twitched in agitation. He could feel the quite literal psychic pressure of the Queen of Queens against the back of his mind and wondered how they could brave the nightmare below to even reach her.
Then he saw them moving. Six of them, the size of a large queen. The Palatine Guard. They were more dangerous than even the Praetorians, this he knew.
And then the tjau'ke as one leapt down from the balcony. The Palatines hissed in rage and agitation. But the Brutes weren't aiming for the massive protectors. They loaded new magazines, these equipped with red bands.
They opened fire in complete synchronicity.
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Four two-gauge automatic shotguns barked with buckshot shells. Each buckshot a carefully engineered potassium pellet. The Palatines and Queen Mother didn't even react to what was effectively birdshot to them. But they weren't the target. As the pellets struck the eggs they detonated. The potassium reaction coupled with some highly reactive progenitor explosives. Cones of destruction ripped out as I manipulated the Brutes fire patterns. Each shot overlapping in area by precisely five percent. The sweeping cone of devastation could have cleared the chamber of all life had it been a little less hardy than the Palatines and Queen were.
The eggburster shells had been made for just this purpose. After this, I didn't envision I would ever use them again. But the Queen Mother was tearing herself from her breeding sac, the egg-bursters sufficient to perforate and detonate within that august body.
For the first time, in likely ever, the Queen Mother had been hurt. In her own Hive.
The Palatines charged and the Brutes smoothly swapped for something higher bore now that the eggs were taken care of. The Yautja joined my bodies as they leapt down, realising the real fight was on now. But the Palatines were the size of queens, but made purely as warriors and I had underestimated them. Even the heavier 2 gauge shot failed to punch through the thick carapace of their heads or chests and two of my Brutes were torn apart in as many moments. The Predators were caught by surprise by the loss of two of my units but their plasma casters continued to fire bringing down a single Palatine as they concentrated their efforts.
But then I brought the Berzerkers into battle. Their shoulder plasmacasters firing they dropped directly onto a Palatine and began to reap at it with their blades. The Xenomorph hides were tough, tough enough to shug off small arms, and not so small arms, fire but the monomolecular edges of the blades and strength of my shards meant that the long weapons ripped into the xenomorph with relative ease.
A tail from the last Palatine bisected one of the Berzerkers as a swipe from its claws turned one of the Yautja into hamburger meat.
But it's own destruction was inevitable as the remainder of the predators and my shards turned our full attention on destroying it. As the Queen began to rise, full of rage and hate I was drawn to another operation. One I had kept secret.
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The burst satellite Hive was suddenly occupied by another hundred of my synthetic shards. Their loadouts were largely no different except for a dozen of them. At the core of the hive, where most things were dead or dying, one thing lived. One massive queen. No.
An Empress. They were rare, but I knew one had to be here. And I was not going to simply exterminate the species as best as I could. Not without a trophy of my own. A living, maybe breathing, trophy. She was wounded. Heavily, but far from defeated, but the collapsed Hive on her had pinned her down, trapped her even as her own praetorian guard were terminated by the remainder of the technology at my disposal. She struggled under the remains and I was forced to deploy a T1 constructor bot through the Helios if I wanted to free her.
The specialist harness had been fabricated in another bay. And it had been transported down too. This was no flimsy manufacture of Weyland Yutani, nor even the Yautja. There were no light cuffs to grip her limbs. This harness was progenitor metals. It would be a long while before I made anything of her, I needed certain other technologies not present here. In fact, according to my plans, it would be a number of universes before I would be able to harness her power.
The hidden capture models moved forwards and began to deploy cryogenics against the Empress as the fabricator stripped the debris pinning her down. She fought hard against it, but there was no chances being taken here. Before she could even shrug off what was left of the debris pinning her she had been flash frozen in place and the harness was brought forwards.
She would be delivered to the shadowhold.
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But for now, I returned my full attention to the Queen Mother. The distraction of covert action had cost me, in time and effort. I only had a Scout and Berzerker left. The Queen Mother had charged into our line and had her way with us, the number of dead Yautja was a momentary sorrow as I calculated the loss to Ronin's clan. But the Queen Mother was gravely wounded from so many strikes against here. He crest was cracked, I saw where her right arm had been severed by a razor whip wielded by a Yautja, and his acid-ruined corpse to remind me of the price he paid for doing that much.
Even so she had retained the upper hand. Her power had pushed my allies to the brink and were still pushing even now. Ronin was bleeding from his abdomen where it seemed he'd been spiked by her tail, another was motionless on the floor, a facehugger attached to his head. I executed that one with a burst from the scouts gun.
Plasma continued to fly from the surviving three predators and I unleashed the Berzerkers own plasmacasters, forcing power through them until their barrels glowed incarnadine with sheer heat bloom, but even then I did not relent. Progenitor metals were made of tougher stuff than that. Charging forwards and lashing at her legs with the Brute as I had the scout open fire on full auto with his M4A2 rifle.
The 20mm rounds of the rifle were nothing to the Queen Mother but a distraction, but the outpouring of fire from my Berzerker was a real threat and danger to her and the last thing it saw was her charge and stomping down on it. Crushing it completely.
My perspective now restricted wholly to that of the Scout I saw the price the Queen Mother paid for that last moment of rage. The blades of the Berzerker ripping off the leg of the Queen Mother, a defensive spasm. It was the nail in the Queen Mothers coffin. Collapsing as her balance was just deprived of an anchor point she fell to the ground and suddenly the twenty millimetre high explosive armour piercing rounds had a softer underbelly to aim for.
Namely.
Her egg..xit
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The price had been paid, a too high a price, but the opportunity came and Ronin leapt upon it. As the last of the tjau'ke opened fire on her delicate undercarriage he leapt up on her crest and drove his spear down through her forehead into the delicate braid. The other Yautja stepped back unwilling to claim the kill. The queen struggled against the spear through her head and he continued to attack her with every weapon at his disposal, all bar the plasmacaster which had shut itself down to protect itself from melting down completely from the fire needed against the Palatines and Queen Mother.
Stab after stab through the more delicate parts of her head and a minute later the Queen Mother was dead.
The logistical problem came next. How to.... the tjau'ke came over and indicated to cover their eyes. As they did so the hive burst with light as fire from orbit punched one hole after another within and a pair of aircraft were suddenly over the hole, they dropped a trio of pods.
>What is this?<
"I have initiated recovery of your ship using an Astraeus, these pods will hold your clansmen, we will bring up the deceased Queen Mother for you to do as you will. The rest of the hives heard the Queen Mothers death call. They are coming to kill whatever so threatened the Hive. It is no longer safe here." The tjau'ke said as a number of strange flying claws descended into the chamber. One grasped the Queen Mothers corpse and launched from within the chamber with alacrity.
>Such a risk is not beyond us<
"Yes. It is. According to our sensors, approximately a million drones are descending on the hive."
Ronin fought the pain as one of his kinsmen applied a medicomp to the wound he'd suffered. The fact was, if the tjau'ke was correct, to win that kind of fight they would have to kill about three hundred thousand drones each. Finally he roared in frustration and clambered into the pod.
---
Now in orbit Ronin watched the screens provided for his Clan of the site below. He'd watched them transport some kind of Container through a teleporter, but it didn't appear in the bay his clan and ship occupied, and so he presumed there was another he was unfamiliar with. As the ikthala marched back through the portal he had built back into the bay he turned to see it. It marched back towards the clamps it had built.
++Enough playing. My works here are completed and it is time to move on.++
He turned back to the screens and saw, from orbit, the defences. They had been firing less frequently, blasting craters.
++Removing restrictions from defensive array.++
Suddenly the weapons were firing four times as often, their firepower blasting colossal explosions across the landscape. The missile batteries were firing frequently now. Artillery Cannons that had been silent barked in asynchronous voice as they were sited in. All the while the bomb that would destroy the world was being built. He even saw the teleporter being disassembled.
>How are you going to get your forces back into orbit?<
++I'm not. The risk of picking up unwanted passengers if I kept it open any longer is too high.++
For four days Ronin watched as they built the machine that would end the world.
Unseeing of the changes being made to the Helios that would send them on to the next universe.
Apocalyptica Minoris
As I penetrated the primary hive, so too had I arrived beyond it. The Helios had deposited my force a hundred kilometres from the primary hive. Fabricators rapidly working together to rush my economy buildings into an operational status. I did not wish to depend on the reserves I had been keeping on the transport, especially if Ronin was going to be applying additional drain on the power however miniscule.
But I stood there. Resolute and towering over the locals. And as fabricators were freed from other jobs, they came over and towers began to rise around the Hive. Laser defence towers were erected with a quartet of Catapults. I marched up to the line of turrets and stood there. Laser turrets beginning to fire down at the closest satellite hive.
I watched as great wounds erupted in the satellite hive, bursting ichor and acid across significant area from the sheer energy inload. The hive began to swarm in response. Hundreds poured out and I gave the strangest order I expected I would have to make. I cut the fire rate of my weapons by almost two thirds. Restraining my defences to encourage more and more swarming.
Hundreds, then thousands of xenomorphs began to pour from the hive. Each blast annihilated them by the tens of corpses. I was forced to once more alter the firing protocols, this time cutting down the power delivered to the lasers so that each blast was less powerful. The novelty of almost castrating my own firepower didn't escape me. I could fire blasts that would level the entire hive in a handful of shots, and yet, there were still more than enough to actually reach my lines.
I felt them scrabbling against armour as they tried to gain purchase and scale my towers and body. Acid began to eat at the alloys of my body. Insufficient to pose a significant threat, but sufficient to cause pause. I engaged the T2 sensors and watched ever more closely as the new vision modes taken from the Yautja biomask.
The xenomorphs leapt in clarity, though the surrounds became less reliable...
Or would have if I were limited to one method of perception at a time. With a twist of lateral thinking my perception split into increasing fragmentation. One set of perception was in the so-called 'alienvision', another in 'pred-tech' vision, others were on thermal, sonar, electromagnetic, radar, and of course 'true' vision. And the variety of perceptions changed too. I watched it from the gunsights of laser defence towers, from the T2 sensors, and even from the fabricators in orbit.
I shrugged out of most of the vision methods. Splitting my concentration like that slowed me down. I snapped back into normal operating speeds to find a trio of Praetorians had climbed onto my head and were trying to rip their way into the metal. A snap of attention and the doxes being constructed blasted them off as they moved into position.
It was time to really get the Queen Mother worried.
The quartet of Catapults fired. The missiles screamed up and away, before diving into one of the satellite hives. It burst like a pustule as tactical nuclear level firepower obliterated it. If I could smell I knew I would be able to smell burned exoskeleton, resin and acids.
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Ronin moved fast now they had the measure. A Yautja clan on the hunt. None questioned or doubted the challenge this represented. None wondered if they would have been better off unblooded on the homeworld. This was the hunt of a century. The air stank of ozone from plasma fire, of propellant from the brutes punt guns.
The acrid stink of the serpents bodily fluids filled his nose.
Every step taken deeper into the hive, ever thicker with the musk of the serpents. His cannons barked again spitting plasma up the corridor, the display for his energy reserves once more refused to tick downwards. Which had become, in a sense it's own problem. Without thought to the necessity of conserving energy he was finding that for the first time, the hardware limitations of the plasma caster were now a primary issue.
He could fire it as often and frequently as he liked... until the physical hardware risked failure. And predictably, firing a lot of plasma in a short period of time was rapidly spiking the weapons temperature and threatening to damage its ancient internal mechanisms. He didn't know how the ikthala was broadcasting its power to him through the device, but it was evident that he would have to re-examine his methods around potential equipment failure points.
The tjau'ke meanwhile approached the battle with a suicidal abandon. More than once they had put themselves in the way of a serpent that had spit its acid before blasting it into oblivion, but even so their armour seemed to take the attacks well enough. But now they had broken through. Breached the final wall sphincter.
They stood on a balcony overlooking the Queen Mother's nest itself and Ronin felt a core and thrill of very real fear in his guts. Thousands of eggs lay below as the Queen Mother twitched in agitation. He could feel the quite literal psychic pressure of the Queen of Queens against the back of his mind and wondered how they could brave the nightmare below to even reach her.
Then he saw them moving. Six of them, the size of a large queen. The Palatine Guard. They were more dangerous than even the Praetorians, this he knew.
And then the tjau'ke as one leapt down from the balcony. The Palatines hissed in rage and agitation. But the Brutes weren't aiming for the massive protectors. They loaded new magazines, these equipped with red bands.
They opened fire in complete synchronicity.
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Four two-gauge automatic shotguns barked with buckshot shells. Each buckshot a carefully engineered potassium pellet. The Palatines and Queen Mother didn't even react to what was effectively birdshot to them. But they weren't the target. As the pellets struck the eggs they detonated. The potassium reaction coupled with some highly reactive progenitor explosives. Cones of destruction ripped out as I manipulated the Brutes fire patterns. Each shot overlapping in area by precisely five percent. The sweeping cone of devastation could have cleared the chamber of all life had it been a little less hardy than the Palatines and Queen were.
The eggburster shells had been made for just this purpose. After this, I didn't envision I would ever use them again. But the Queen Mother was tearing herself from her breeding sac, the egg-bursters sufficient to perforate and detonate within that august body.
For the first time, in likely ever, the Queen Mother had been hurt. In her own Hive.
The Palatines charged and the Brutes smoothly swapped for something higher bore now that the eggs were taken care of. The Yautja joined my bodies as they leapt down, realising the real fight was on now. But the Palatines were the size of queens, but made purely as warriors and I had underestimated them. Even the heavier 2 gauge shot failed to punch through the thick carapace of their heads or chests and two of my Brutes were torn apart in as many moments. The Predators were caught by surprise by the loss of two of my units but their plasma casters continued to fire bringing down a single Palatine as they concentrated their efforts.
But then I brought the Berzerkers into battle. Their shoulder plasmacasters firing they dropped directly onto a Palatine and began to reap at it with their blades. The Xenomorph hides were tough, tough enough to shug off small arms, and not so small arms, fire but the monomolecular edges of the blades and strength of my shards meant that the long weapons ripped into the xenomorph with relative ease.
A tail from the last Palatine bisected one of the Berzerkers as a swipe from its claws turned one of the Yautja into hamburger meat.
But it's own destruction was inevitable as the remainder of the predators and my shards turned our full attention on destroying it. As the Queen began to rise, full of rage and hate I was drawn to another operation. One I had kept secret.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The burst satellite Hive was suddenly occupied by another hundred of my synthetic shards. Their loadouts were largely no different except for a dozen of them. At the core of the hive, where most things were dead or dying, one thing lived. One massive queen. No.
An Empress. They were rare, but I knew one had to be here. And I was not going to simply exterminate the species as best as I could. Not without a trophy of my own. A living, maybe breathing, trophy. She was wounded. Heavily, but far from defeated, but the collapsed Hive on her had pinned her down, trapped her even as her own praetorian guard were terminated by the remainder of the technology at my disposal. She struggled under the remains and I was forced to deploy a T1 constructor bot through the Helios if I wanted to free her.
The specialist harness had been fabricated in another bay. And it had been transported down too. This was no flimsy manufacture of Weyland Yutani, nor even the Yautja. There were no light cuffs to grip her limbs. This harness was progenitor metals. It would be a long while before I made anything of her, I needed certain other technologies not present here. In fact, according to my plans, it would be a number of universes before I would be able to harness her power.
The hidden capture models moved forwards and began to deploy cryogenics against the Empress as the fabricator stripped the debris pinning her down. She fought hard against it, but there was no chances being taken here. Before she could even shrug off what was left of the debris pinning her she had been flash frozen in place and the harness was brought forwards.
She would be delivered to the shadowhold.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
But for now, I returned my full attention to the Queen Mother. The distraction of covert action had cost me, in time and effort. I only had a Scout and Berzerker left. The Queen Mother had charged into our line and had her way with us, the number of dead Yautja was a momentary sorrow as I calculated the loss to Ronin's clan. But the Queen Mother was gravely wounded from so many strikes against here. He crest was cracked, I saw where her right arm had been severed by a razor whip wielded by a Yautja, and his acid-ruined corpse to remind me of the price he paid for doing that much.
Even so she had retained the upper hand. Her power had pushed my allies to the brink and were still pushing even now. Ronin was bleeding from his abdomen where it seemed he'd been spiked by her tail, another was motionless on the floor, a facehugger attached to his head. I executed that one with a burst from the scouts gun.
Plasma continued to fly from the surviving three predators and I unleashed the Berzerkers own plasmacasters, forcing power through them until their barrels glowed incarnadine with sheer heat bloom, but even then I did not relent. Progenitor metals were made of tougher stuff than that. Charging forwards and lashing at her legs with the Brute as I had the scout open fire on full auto with his M4A2 rifle.
The 20mm rounds of the rifle were nothing to the Queen Mother but a distraction, but the outpouring of fire from my Berzerker was a real threat and danger to her and the last thing it saw was her charge and stomping down on it. Crushing it completely.
My perspective now restricted wholly to that of the Scout I saw the price the Queen Mother paid for that last moment of rage. The blades of the Berzerker ripping off the leg of the Queen Mother, a defensive spasm. It was the nail in the Queen Mothers coffin. Collapsing as her balance was just deprived of an anchor point she fell to the ground and suddenly the twenty millimetre high explosive armour piercing rounds had a softer underbelly to aim for.
Namely.
Her egg..xit
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The price had been paid, a too high a price, but the opportunity came and Ronin leapt upon it. As the last of the tjau'ke opened fire on her delicate undercarriage he leapt up on her crest and drove his spear down through her forehead into the delicate braid. The other Yautja stepped back unwilling to claim the kill. The queen struggled against the spear through her head and he continued to attack her with every weapon at his disposal, all bar the plasmacaster which had shut itself down to protect itself from melting down completely from the fire needed against the Palatines and Queen Mother.
Stab after stab through the more delicate parts of her head and a minute later the Queen Mother was dead.
The logistical problem came next. How to.... the tjau'ke came over and indicated to cover their eyes. As they did so the hive burst with light as fire from orbit punched one hole after another within and a pair of aircraft were suddenly over the hole, they dropped a trio of pods.
>What is this?<
"I have initiated recovery of your ship using an Astraeus, these pods will hold your clansmen, we will bring up the deceased Queen Mother for you to do as you will. The rest of the hives heard the Queen Mothers death call. They are coming to kill whatever so threatened the Hive. It is no longer safe here." The tjau'ke said as a number of strange flying claws descended into the chamber. One grasped the Queen Mothers corpse and launched from within the chamber with alacrity.
>Such a risk is not beyond us<
"Yes. It is. According to our sensors, approximately a million drones are descending on the hive."
Ronin fought the pain as one of his kinsmen applied a medicomp to the wound he'd suffered. The fact was, if the tjau'ke was correct, to win that kind of fight they would have to kill about three hundred thousand drones each. Finally he roared in frustration and clambered into the pod.
---
Now in orbit Ronin watched the screens provided for his Clan of the site below. He'd watched them transport some kind of Container through a teleporter, but it didn't appear in the bay his clan and ship occupied, and so he presumed there was another he was unfamiliar with. As the ikthala marched back through the portal he had built back into the bay he turned to see it. It marched back towards the clamps it had built.
++Enough playing. My works here are completed and it is time to move on.++
He turned back to the screens and saw, from orbit, the defences. They had been firing less frequently, blasting craters.
++Removing restrictions from defensive array.++
Suddenly the weapons were firing four times as often, their firepower blasting colossal explosions across the landscape. The missile batteries were firing frequently now. Artillery Cannons that had been silent barked in asynchronous voice as they were sited in. All the while the bomb that would destroy the world was being built. He even saw the teleporter being disassembled.
>How are you going to get your forces back into orbit?<
++I'm not. The risk of picking up unwanted passengers if I kept it open any longer is too high.++
For four days Ronin watched as they built the machine that would end the world.
Unseeing of the changes being made to the Helios that would send them on to the next universe.
Chapter 8; Crossing
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 8;
Crossing
I had difficulty perceiving the cargo bays now. Even as I knew that Ronin sought my attention. The problem was I quite literally couldn't spare the attention span to do so. Ahead of us the Helios had widened. It's portal no longer connected to a teleporter but was host to a complex array of energies twisting in five dimensional toroids around the torus of an incomplete wormhole. Once engaged they would rapidly collapse in on themselves into a singularity that would destroy it and anything within a hundred kilometres.
I would have only thirty seconds to make the transit before this happened. Which was why the nose of my transport battleship was mere metres from the epicentre. Energy whose only colours were inherited from the environment. Reality cracked as the pieces slid into position. The Helios began to counter rotate to a velocity that was taxing its hardware to destruction.
But with the opposite of a flash it ignited. Darkness snapping into a single point the portal opened and the engines fired.
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The ikthala wasn't responding and concern filled his chest. Nothing in the chamber was operating on his direction. Everything operating only on the instructions given last. He could see the terrifying vortice that had opened in front of the ship, his own ships sensors able to detect impossible energies. So few of his clanmates remained after the battle, and cleaning the Queen Mother was unsuccessful at distracting them.
And then it snapped into life. A hole in space where darkness was absolute.
For the first time in his existence he felt a thrill of hopelessness as the ship surged into it and darkness enveloped him.
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I felt my sapience return as I withdrew from the wormhole. I had lost contact with everything that was left behind. But nothing I left behind would last. The Ragnarok on Xenomorph Prime was already drilling to the surface when the crossing was made. The Helios had black holed everything else. But then I saw the state of our arrival. The Yautja were unconscious in one hold, the Empress was catatonic in the other. But I felt that thrill of awe deep in my chest. For all that I had done in the Alien Universe, I had only been to two systems, and neither was my homeworld. This...
This was the Sol System. I was in orbit of Pluto, close enough to touch the heart pattern on its surface. I could see the beauties of the Solar System, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus. I laid course for Ganymede as it orbited Jupiter. A cluster of orbital fabricators were ejected into the void on their own courses. Ten each would head to Callisto and Io. They would begin my resourcing operations there, another twenty would go to Jupiter itself, ten to begin filling its skies with Jigs. Another ten to build Anchors.
But the bulk of the work would be on Ganymede. For it would become my new flagship. The Mobile Forgeworld. Power burned though the main drives accelerating me into a capture orbit. As time went on my orbit shifted.
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Earth;
"What the hell.." Jim had been working at the observation facility for almost eight months, searching the solar system for any further signs of transformer activity since the attack on Mission City. When the alarms went off the room became a hive of noise. They had detected a massive gravitational anomaly before the object had arrived. The satellite and telescope imagery had been inconclusive.. at first.
They were now looking at the adjusted images.
"That looks awfully fucking decepticon to me. All sharp angles. And it's burning pretty hard."
"We've plotted trajectory, it's heading for Ganymede."
"What's at Ganymede?"
"I don't know..."
"Wait, we have..."
The discussion was heated and terrified.
"We have detected a significant number of objects launched by the object.. alternate trajectories, Io, Callisto and Jupiter."
"Get Optimus Prime here."
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I monitored the Yautja with some concern, during the transit however they returned to normal brainwave activity. And with a moment of relief, Ronin awoke. The predator leapt to his feet checking around to see if there were any existent threats, on seeing none and his kin stirring his plasmacasters disarmed and he came running over to my body. >What happened. Where are we!<
++Sol System. Frozen Dwarf Planet; Pluto.++
He opened up his own navigation systems and compared them to the projections I was providing and frowned at it in confusion. >Earth hasn't been like this for a very long time.<
++Correct. The displacement was temporal as well as physical.++
>That is not possible.<
++For your people. No.++
>And what then are we here for?< His expression bore a look of concern. And worry for the future of his clan. A well justified concern since the best case scenario I had left his clan was eventual extinction through inbreeding. The only future he had left was the one I had brought him to.
++To hunt. Amongst other things.++ If I had possessed a body there to give him body language or facial expressions I would have softened it. ++Not all is lost. I can develop the methods to travel back and bring more of the Yautja people here if necessary. ++Hold on. I am detecting a transmission aimed this way.++
Screens activated and the image hovered in front of my face.
The face was entirely human. In fact, it was Lennox's face. Which meant Optimus Prime was in the background somewhere. So I had arrived post-first movie. And given that it was Lennox's face, either during or before the second movie. The camera shifted to Optimus Prime.
"I am Optimus Prime. Leader of the Autobots to unknown contact. The third world of this system is under our protection. Identify yourselves." The broadcast, it appeared, was in real time, meaning the Autobots were using their own communications systems to establish this communique. Using a grappling hook Ronin clambered up my form to reach my shoulders, and from there leapt onto my 'eye' ridge where he could see better.
++I am Delta Imperator. Progenitor Commander. Master of my own fate. Servant to no faction. Since I have yet to send anything towards the Earth I am curious as to the purpose of this interruption?++
The transformer blinked in surprise. "Is that a Predator?"
If I could have blinked in surprise I would have. Without a moments hesitation I engaged in a mass intrusion of the Earth's internet. Oh shit. Alien and Predator were both existing scifi franchises here. And the Autobots had done their own deep dive of the net so were no doubt familiar with them.
That was going to make things awkward.
++>Please Cloak<++ I said in the Yautja tongue into his biohelmet. ++Is that a what? You have yet to explain your interruption.++
Ronin took the hint and cloaked. It wouldn't help Optimus unsee him. But the plan was simply to refuse to engage with that and press my own question.
"This is the Solar System, home of humanity, you have arrived in system and begun travelling towards Jupiter. The situation is tense and you are making a lot of people very nervous." He said, all nobility and friendly caution.
++I am not responsible for the anxieties of the human race. Nor am I beholden to account for my own actions to such a primitive species.++ I projected a tone of honest offence. Carefully curated to convey upset at being questioned without intonating any hint of aggressive belligerence.
"There is more to them than meets the eye. I can sense I have given you offence. Perhaps if we were to meet, I might help alleviate your concerns. I do not mean to question your right, only your intent as I have allied with the human race to protect the Earth." His earnest voice and expressions tickled the cockles of my internal resource generators.
++Very well. I will commence groundfall in...++ I calculated the travel times, ++Three days. I and a retinue, will make landfall near the Great Pyramids in Egypt.++
"We may have to discuss with..."
++I will make landfall there. The Elephant does not ask the mice where he may tread.++
Optimus frowned. "It may make a more amicable impression if you were to bend on this matter."
++A wise man once said. The Avalanche has begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote. I make landfall in three days.++
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Ronin considered the matter. He was almost alone, little of his clan on the Mothership remained. >They were familiar with what I am.< He said turning to the vast eye. His body language was of barely concealed hope. The great machine answered.
++They were. For in this universe, your species is a part of their fictional media.++
>Fictional!?< Ronin's body language conveyed the almost immeasurable level of insult that he bore at the very implication that he and his people not only didn't exist, but were a form of entertainment. >We are not fictional entertainment for a circus of barely trained monkeys...<
++And yet, here that is all you used to be. Ronin. I have a favour to request of you.++
His body tensed. >And what could that be?<
++I need you to take my agents to Earth. And if you are willing, protect them. There is a hostile race of transforming machines on Earth. I need to ensure my works go uninterrupted. I will engineer some specialised equipment for you if you wish.++
>Am I to be a courier?< Ronin said almost offended. >Carrying your tjau'ke for some trinkets?<
++These machines are the size of an serpent queen. Observe.++ I began projecting battles from the first movie, stripped from my memories. His language changed slightly.
>So you wish me to protect your tjau'ke against these things? That is a worthy hunt... but how does one claim trophies from their remains?<
++You are the finest hunter in this galaxy. I am sure you will pave the way.++
Ronin studied the ikthala and leapt from its eye ridge. It was time to show a new world that they were not merely fictional bogey-men.
Crossing
I had difficulty perceiving the cargo bays now. Even as I knew that Ronin sought my attention. The problem was I quite literally couldn't spare the attention span to do so. Ahead of us the Helios had widened. It's portal no longer connected to a teleporter but was host to a complex array of energies twisting in five dimensional toroids around the torus of an incomplete wormhole. Once engaged they would rapidly collapse in on themselves into a singularity that would destroy it and anything within a hundred kilometres.
I would have only thirty seconds to make the transit before this happened. Which was why the nose of my transport battleship was mere metres from the epicentre. Energy whose only colours were inherited from the environment. Reality cracked as the pieces slid into position. The Helios began to counter rotate to a velocity that was taxing its hardware to destruction.
But with the opposite of a flash it ignited. Darkness snapping into a single point the portal opened and the engines fired.
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The ikthala wasn't responding and concern filled his chest. Nothing in the chamber was operating on his direction. Everything operating only on the instructions given last. He could see the terrifying vortice that had opened in front of the ship, his own ships sensors able to detect impossible energies. So few of his clanmates remained after the battle, and cleaning the Queen Mother was unsuccessful at distracting them.
And then it snapped into life. A hole in space where darkness was absolute.
For the first time in his existence he felt a thrill of hopelessness as the ship surged into it and darkness enveloped him.
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I felt my sapience return as I withdrew from the wormhole. I had lost contact with everything that was left behind. But nothing I left behind would last. The Ragnarok on Xenomorph Prime was already drilling to the surface when the crossing was made. The Helios had black holed everything else. But then I saw the state of our arrival. The Yautja were unconscious in one hold, the Empress was catatonic in the other. But I felt that thrill of awe deep in my chest. For all that I had done in the Alien Universe, I had only been to two systems, and neither was my homeworld. This...
This was the Sol System. I was in orbit of Pluto, close enough to touch the heart pattern on its surface. I could see the beauties of the Solar System, Neptune, Saturn, Uranus. I laid course for Ganymede as it orbited Jupiter. A cluster of orbital fabricators were ejected into the void on their own courses. Ten each would head to Callisto and Io. They would begin my resourcing operations there, another twenty would go to Jupiter itself, ten to begin filling its skies with Jigs. Another ten to build Anchors.
But the bulk of the work would be on Ganymede. For it would become my new flagship. The Mobile Forgeworld. Power burned though the main drives accelerating me into a capture orbit. As time went on my orbit shifted.
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Earth;
"What the hell.." Jim had been working at the observation facility for almost eight months, searching the solar system for any further signs of transformer activity since the attack on Mission City. When the alarms went off the room became a hive of noise. They had detected a massive gravitational anomaly before the object had arrived. The satellite and telescope imagery had been inconclusive.. at first.
They were now looking at the adjusted images.
"That looks awfully fucking decepticon to me. All sharp angles. And it's burning pretty hard."
"We've plotted trajectory, it's heading for Ganymede."
"What's at Ganymede?"
"I don't know..."
"Wait, we have..."
The discussion was heated and terrified.
"We have detected a significant number of objects launched by the object.. alternate trajectories, Io, Callisto and Jupiter."
"Get Optimus Prime here."
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I monitored the Yautja with some concern, during the transit however they returned to normal brainwave activity. And with a moment of relief, Ronin awoke. The predator leapt to his feet checking around to see if there were any existent threats, on seeing none and his kin stirring his plasmacasters disarmed and he came running over to my body. >What happened. Where are we!<
++Sol System. Frozen Dwarf Planet; Pluto.++
He opened up his own navigation systems and compared them to the projections I was providing and frowned at it in confusion. >Earth hasn't been like this for a very long time.<
++Correct. The displacement was temporal as well as physical.++
>That is not possible.<
++For your people. No.++
>And what then are we here for?< His expression bore a look of concern. And worry for the future of his clan. A well justified concern since the best case scenario I had left his clan was eventual extinction through inbreeding. The only future he had left was the one I had brought him to.
++To hunt. Amongst other things.++ If I had possessed a body there to give him body language or facial expressions I would have softened it. ++Not all is lost. I can develop the methods to travel back and bring more of the Yautja people here if necessary. ++Hold on. I am detecting a transmission aimed this way.++
Screens activated and the image hovered in front of my face.
The face was entirely human. In fact, it was Lennox's face. Which meant Optimus Prime was in the background somewhere. So I had arrived post-first movie. And given that it was Lennox's face, either during or before the second movie. The camera shifted to Optimus Prime.
"I am Optimus Prime. Leader of the Autobots to unknown contact. The third world of this system is under our protection. Identify yourselves." The broadcast, it appeared, was in real time, meaning the Autobots were using their own communications systems to establish this communique. Using a grappling hook Ronin clambered up my form to reach my shoulders, and from there leapt onto my 'eye' ridge where he could see better.
++I am Delta Imperator. Progenitor Commander. Master of my own fate. Servant to no faction. Since I have yet to send anything towards the Earth I am curious as to the purpose of this interruption?++
The transformer blinked in surprise. "Is that a Predator?"
If I could have blinked in surprise I would have. Without a moments hesitation I engaged in a mass intrusion of the Earth's internet. Oh shit. Alien and Predator were both existing scifi franchises here. And the Autobots had done their own deep dive of the net so were no doubt familiar with them.
That was going to make things awkward.
++>Please Cloak<++ I said in the Yautja tongue into his biohelmet. ++Is that a what? You have yet to explain your interruption.++
Ronin took the hint and cloaked. It wouldn't help Optimus unsee him. But the plan was simply to refuse to engage with that and press my own question.
"This is the Solar System, home of humanity, you have arrived in system and begun travelling towards Jupiter. The situation is tense and you are making a lot of people very nervous." He said, all nobility and friendly caution.
++I am not responsible for the anxieties of the human race. Nor am I beholden to account for my own actions to such a primitive species.++ I projected a tone of honest offence. Carefully curated to convey upset at being questioned without intonating any hint of aggressive belligerence.
"There is more to them than meets the eye. I can sense I have given you offence. Perhaps if we were to meet, I might help alleviate your concerns. I do not mean to question your right, only your intent as I have allied with the human race to protect the Earth." His earnest voice and expressions tickled the cockles of my internal resource generators.
++Very well. I will commence groundfall in...++ I calculated the travel times, ++Three days. I and a retinue, will make landfall near the Great Pyramids in Egypt.++
"We may have to discuss with..."
++I will make landfall there. The Elephant does not ask the mice where he may tread.++
Optimus frowned. "It may make a more amicable impression if you were to bend on this matter."
++A wise man once said. The Avalanche has begun. It is too late for the pebbles to vote. I make landfall in three days.++
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Ronin considered the matter. He was almost alone, little of his clan on the Mothership remained. >They were familiar with what I am.< He said turning to the vast eye. His body language was of barely concealed hope. The great machine answered.
++They were. For in this universe, your species is a part of their fictional media.++
>Fictional!?< Ronin's body language conveyed the almost immeasurable level of insult that he bore at the very implication that he and his people not only didn't exist, but were a form of entertainment. >We are not fictional entertainment for a circus of barely trained monkeys...<
++And yet, here that is all you used to be. Ronin. I have a favour to request of you.++
His body tensed. >And what could that be?<
++I need you to take my agents to Earth. And if you are willing, protect them. There is a hostile race of transforming machines on Earth. I need to ensure my works go uninterrupted. I will engineer some specialised equipment for you if you wish.++
>Am I to be a courier?< Ronin said almost offended. >Carrying your tjau'ke for some trinkets?<
++These machines are the size of an serpent queen. Observe.++ I began projecting battles from the first movie, stripped from my memories. His language changed slightly.
>So you wish me to protect your tjau'ke against these things? That is a worthy hunt... but how does one claim trophies from their remains?<
++You are the finest hunter in this galaxy. I am sure you will pave the way.++
Ronin studied the ikthala and leapt from its eye ridge. It was time to show a new world that they were not merely fictional bogey-men.
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Chapter 9; Drop O'Clock
Kadaeux
Delta Imperator
- Location
- Vortice between realities
Chapter 9;
Drop O'Clock
The objects were coming in fast. Terrifyingly so. Doing five gees of constant acceleration for the entire manoeuvre. Their slingshot only imparted the slightest of momentum as their's drives burned it up through the registers. Calculating its mass was difficult, compounded by the realisation that their mathematical models could not account for the acceleration capabilities based on their engine profiles. They simply didn't know enough.
But now twenty massive objects were tearing through space. Intent on crashing down near the great Pyramids.
Lennox looked skywards. They'd had three days to prepare, and his people told him that their best guess is that the statement that they would arrive in three days was exact. To the minute. Fifteen massive objects. He checked his watch. Five minutes to arrival. Telescopes turned to face them and there was no comfort.
"Three objects have initiated deceleration for a geosynchronous orbital position." One of the aides came over and handed him a tablet with images of the craft burning retrograde.
"These two look like some sort of space fighters. This one.... a communications satellite?" Lennox said as he turned to Optimus.
"I don't think so Colonel." Prime said, projecting another set of images, short clips of footage. They watched a number of them in Jupiters exosphere. They were surrounding a strange glowing platform and spraying some form of energy stream across it. "It appears to be a manufacturing satellite of some sort."
"Jesus Optimus, how far apart were these taken?" Lennox sounded worried. The difference in construction between images worried him.
"One hour. According to this, the ten of those satellites working on it finished it in nine hours." Optimus projected new footage. The completed machine extended some sort of boom into Jupiters atmosphere, the ten fabricators were already producing one only fifty kilometres away.
An alarm began to sound and the military basecamp came to full alertness. The sky above began to burn and Optimus prepared for anything, defensive, but not aggressive. Bee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Arcee and the Twins were ready for anything.
Or so they thought.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Astraeus plummeted through the atmosphere burning hard on their jets shedding the last of the velocity they'd killed on the burn in. Even so I struck the ground hard. As I had intended do. It might have been petty, but I think touching down at a quarter of Earth's terminal velocity before the Astraeus released me and roared back into space was the closest I would get at the moment to a Superhero landing.
The two T2 fabricators crashed down next to me, at a safer velocity. The other four objects to land with me were a pair of Storm flak tanks and a pair of Slammer Assault Bots. And I saw the fear was very very real. Even the Autobots fell back from their prepared positions, trying to find any hint of cover. Once more I conducted intrusion into the radio networks.
++I am Delta Imperator. You have extended an invitation for me to meet. As decreed I have made landfall in three days. So stop whimpering and hiding lest I feel offended.++ The shoulder-mounted missile launchers snapped open.
Optimus stood from where he'd taken a knee, ready to respond. I saw the humans scuttling in fear and felt a trace of apology in my soul. Not that long ago I was little to no different from them and might have responded the same way in the situation. I scanned the Pyramids behind the autobots and humans and felt a modicum of frustration. Behind me, the two fabricators awaited orders. Nobody would like it, but frankly I didn't give a damn. A star-killer lay underneath those venerable, and ancient, stones.
"Welcome to Earth. You are not quite what I expected? Are you an Autobot? Or a Decepticon?"
I would have cocked my head if it was capable of the appropriate expression.
++Neither. I am a Progenitor Commander.++ I could see how I unsettled Prime. It was always going to be difficult when the person you were talking to was well over ten times your size. Well, I was not going to be able to transform into a Semi-cab once I figured out their secrets. I extended an arm and the nanolathes engaged. Half a dozen humans actually fired in response, though none of the transformers did.
Though in truth that was because Ironhide stopped the Twins being the idiots they were. It stopped almost immediately as they realised I was building a gantry that Optimus could head up to speak to me at head height. With a spot for a humvee to park and another gantry for Lennox to climb.
++You represent the Autobots, do you not?++
Optimus had driven up the gantry ramp to a position where he could face me eye to eye. Lennox's hummer drove up and deposited him where he could climb up next to Optimus. "I do, and this is Colonel Lennox, representing humanity."
++I know.++ Optimus stepped back as scanning rays flicked out from my eyes and ran across both of them. ++You intended to clarify that you meant no offence in your queries.++
Optimus nodded and then began projecting a hologram, beginning his lesson on the history of the Decepticons and Autobots. And it was in that moment I tuned out, not because I knew it, because I did, far better than his meagre speech that he typically gave others would be.
But now I was scanning the Autobot in a far more complete fashion.
"Colonel Lennox." A radio barked. "We've just received word, a number of bogeys just descended into the Laurentian Abyss. We've..."
"What do you know of this?" Lennox said turning to me.
++Only that according to my sensors, a force identified as Decepticon, based on Optimus Prime's characterisation, descended there. I don't have any land based radar or sonar systems to reveal more than that. With one exception.++
Lennox frowned. "And what is that."
I projected an image. ++A decepticon, identification as 'Soundwave' is present in orbit and directing the operation.++
"Goddamn it, can we do anything about it?" Lennox turned to Optimus.
"Doubtful, if we launch..."
++I will deal with it.++ They both turned to face me and I felt their consternation.
They turned to a set of screens on the Humvee as Lennox's aide tuned into the correct frequencies. "Progenitor units have just started moving. Including the construction one... they're chasing down one of... they're after our own intelligence satellite!"
++Soundwave is connected to that Satellite.++ I projected the image of him grasping onto it like a leech. Feeding on it.
Lennox and Optimus turned and faced as they saw Soundwave begin to release his grip, having realised the threat. The avengers flanking the orbital fabricator didn't fire. They didn't need to. Through the fabricator I unleashed a capture ray. Penetrating and overriding the Decepticons systems. My scans weren't nearly as informative.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soundwave tried to counter-hack.
*Get out of my mind outsider.*
++I don't think so.++ I poured into the very basis of his sense of self. Every synapse. Every relay. Every unit. I could feel my CPU cycles beginning to slow by a tenth of a percent.
*You do not belong here! This is my body!*
++For now. But not for long.++
The CPU cycles rose by five percent. Fighting off the finest Decepticon digital specialist left me with something of a challenge. *I have faced more danger than you could ever imagine.*
With a mental grin I smiled. ++How little you know.++ And I proceeded to school and educate him. I showed him actions and simulations. Of the Ragnaroks destroying LV-223, LV-426 and Xenomorph Prime. His very spark recoiled from the scenes of destruction I showed him. ++Little toy. I can visit destruction unlike anything your race has managed. But now... You are mine.++
Soundwave screamed as I snuffed out his sapience. He was fortunate.
Not even being alive long enough to feel as the Fabricator began to scan and reclaim his mass.
*And now I am in you.* Soundwaves voice said, a tone of amusement.
++No Soundwave. You are in my trophy case.++ I said showing him the limits of his new home. The energy walls that had been built was a special design. For those machine intelligences I defeated could be uploaded into the wall. Their very nature displaying itself in the arcs of energy. ++Good day sir.++
I saw him screaming in the wall as I burned out the input-outputs.
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Ronin hunched on the cliffside, looking down on the city below. The ikthala had given him a significant mission list. He was to hunt a particular CIA agent and a Corporate leader. The latter would be trivial to reach, though reportedly he had one of those decepticons guarding him. It was his estate he was looking down on now.
His name was 'Dylan' and he was an agent for the Decepticons. The protection of this Dylan might make a worthy hunt. But in truth, there would be honour in this hunt regardless, for Dylan was a traitor to his own species. And there was nothing so reviled in the universe as a traitor.
Drop O'Clock
The objects were coming in fast. Terrifyingly so. Doing five gees of constant acceleration for the entire manoeuvre. Their slingshot only imparted the slightest of momentum as their's drives burned it up through the registers. Calculating its mass was difficult, compounded by the realisation that their mathematical models could not account for the acceleration capabilities based on their engine profiles. They simply didn't know enough.
But now twenty massive objects were tearing through space. Intent on crashing down near the great Pyramids.
Lennox looked skywards. They'd had three days to prepare, and his people told him that their best guess is that the statement that they would arrive in three days was exact. To the minute. Fifteen massive objects. He checked his watch. Five minutes to arrival. Telescopes turned to face them and there was no comfort.
"Three objects have initiated deceleration for a geosynchronous orbital position." One of the aides came over and handed him a tablet with images of the craft burning retrograde.
"These two look like some sort of space fighters. This one.... a communications satellite?" Lennox said as he turned to Optimus.
"I don't think so Colonel." Prime said, projecting another set of images, short clips of footage. They watched a number of them in Jupiters exosphere. They were surrounding a strange glowing platform and spraying some form of energy stream across it. "It appears to be a manufacturing satellite of some sort."
"Jesus Optimus, how far apart were these taken?" Lennox sounded worried. The difference in construction between images worried him.
"One hour. According to this, the ten of those satellites working on it finished it in nine hours." Optimus projected new footage. The completed machine extended some sort of boom into Jupiters atmosphere, the ten fabricators were already producing one only fifty kilometres away.
An alarm began to sound and the military basecamp came to full alertness. The sky above began to burn and Optimus prepared for anything, defensive, but not aggressive. Bee, Ratchet, Ironhide, Arcee and the Twins were ready for anything.
Or so they thought.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Astraeus plummeted through the atmosphere burning hard on their jets shedding the last of the velocity they'd killed on the burn in. Even so I struck the ground hard. As I had intended do. It might have been petty, but I think touching down at a quarter of Earth's terminal velocity before the Astraeus released me and roared back into space was the closest I would get at the moment to a Superhero landing.
The two T2 fabricators crashed down next to me, at a safer velocity. The other four objects to land with me were a pair of Storm flak tanks and a pair of Slammer Assault Bots. And I saw the fear was very very real. Even the Autobots fell back from their prepared positions, trying to find any hint of cover. Once more I conducted intrusion into the radio networks.
++I am Delta Imperator. You have extended an invitation for me to meet. As decreed I have made landfall in three days. So stop whimpering and hiding lest I feel offended.++ The shoulder-mounted missile launchers snapped open.
Optimus stood from where he'd taken a knee, ready to respond. I saw the humans scuttling in fear and felt a trace of apology in my soul. Not that long ago I was little to no different from them and might have responded the same way in the situation. I scanned the Pyramids behind the autobots and humans and felt a modicum of frustration. Behind me, the two fabricators awaited orders. Nobody would like it, but frankly I didn't give a damn. A star-killer lay underneath those venerable, and ancient, stones.
"Welcome to Earth. You are not quite what I expected? Are you an Autobot? Or a Decepticon?"
I would have cocked my head if it was capable of the appropriate expression.
++Neither. I am a Progenitor Commander.++ I could see how I unsettled Prime. It was always going to be difficult when the person you were talking to was well over ten times your size. Well, I was not going to be able to transform into a Semi-cab once I figured out their secrets. I extended an arm and the nanolathes engaged. Half a dozen humans actually fired in response, though none of the transformers did.
Though in truth that was because Ironhide stopped the Twins being the idiots they were. It stopped almost immediately as they realised I was building a gantry that Optimus could head up to speak to me at head height. With a spot for a humvee to park and another gantry for Lennox to climb.
++You represent the Autobots, do you not?++
Optimus had driven up the gantry ramp to a position where he could face me eye to eye. Lennox's hummer drove up and deposited him where he could climb up next to Optimus. "I do, and this is Colonel Lennox, representing humanity."
++I know.++ Optimus stepped back as scanning rays flicked out from my eyes and ran across both of them. ++You intended to clarify that you meant no offence in your queries.++
Optimus nodded and then began projecting a hologram, beginning his lesson on the history of the Decepticons and Autobots. And it was in that moment I tuned out, not because I knew it, because I did, far better than his meagre speech that he typically gave others would be.
But now I was scanning the Autobot in a far more complete fashion.
"Colonel Lennox." A radio barked. "We've just received word, a number of bogeys just descended into the Laurentian Abyss. We've..."
"What do you know of this?" Lennox said turning to me.
++Only that according to my sensors, a force identified as Decepticon, based on Optimus Prime's characterisation, descended there. I don't have any land based radar or sonar systems to reveal more than that. With one exception.++
Lennox frowned. "And what is that."
I projected an image. ++A decepticon, identification as 'Soundwave' is present in orbit and directing the operation.++
"Goddamn it, can we do anything about it?" Lennox turned to Optimus.
"Doubtful, if we launch..."
++I will deal with it.++ They both turned to face me and I felt their consternation.
They turned to a set of screens on the Humvee as Lennox's aide tuned into the correct frequencies. "Progenitor units have just started moving. Including the construction one... they're chasing down one of... they're after our own intelligence satellite!"
++Soundwave is connected to that Satellite.++ I projected the image of him grasping onto it like a leech. Feeding on it.
Lennox and Optimus turned and faced as they saw Soundwave begin to release his grip, having realised the threat. The avengers flanking the orbital fabricator didn't fire. They didn't need to. Through the fabricator I unleashed a capture ray. Penetrating and overriding the Decepticons systems. My scans weren't nearly as informative.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Soundwave tried to counter-hack.
*Get out of my mind outsider.*
++I don't think so.++ I poured into the very basis of his sense of self. Every synapse. Every relay. Every unit. I could feel my CPU cycles beginning to slow by a tenth of a percent.
*You do not belong here! This is my body!*
++For now. But not for long.++
The CPU cycles rose by five percent. Fighting off the finest Decepticon digital specialist left me with something of a challenge. *I have faced more danger than you could ever imagine.*
With a mental grin I smiled. ++How little you know.++ And I proceeded to school and educate him. I showed him actions and simulations. Of the Ragnaroks destroying LV-223, LV-426 and Xenomorph Prime. His very spark recoiled from the scenes of destruction I showed him. ++Little toy. I can visit destruction unlike anything your race has managed. But now... You are mine.++
Soundwave screamed as I snuffed out his sapience. He was fortunate.
Not even being alive long enough to feel as the Fabricator began to scan and reclaim his mass.
*And now I am in you.* Soundwaves voice said, a tone of amusement.
++No Soundwave. You are in my trophy case.++ I said showing him the limits of his new home. The energy walls that had been built was a special design. For those machine intelligences I defeated could be uploaded into the wall. Their very nature displaying itself in the arcs of energy. ++Good day sir.++
I saw him screaming in the wall as I burned out the input-outputs.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Ronin hunched on the cliffside, looking down on the city below. The ikthala had given him a significant mission list. He was to hunt a particular CIA agent and a Corporate leader. The latter would be trivial to reach, though reportedly he had one of those decepticons guarding him. It was his estate he was looking down on now.
His name was 'Dylan' and he was an agent for the Decepticons. The protection of this Dylan might make a worthy hunt. But in truth, there would be honour in this hunt regardless, for Dylan was a traitor to his own species. And there was nothing so reviled in the universe as a traitor.