Chapter Edited 22/03/2023
This chapter dedicated to my late father Glenn.
The sudden noise threw off the two marines aim, and the Centurions rushed forward through a hail of poorly aimed automatic fire, the few shots that did hit bouncing harmlessly off the sides of their curved torso plating – it took hitting at the perfect angle or a lucky shot on a joint for one of those to get through even at this close range – and delivered a rib-crunching blow to the first Marine, while the second was knocked over by a metal fist to the faceplate, cracking it as air started to escape in a fine mist.
I allowed the Centurions to move on, then sealed that room and started pumping atmosphere back in again.
"I suggest you stay where you are." I said conversationally when the one with the cracked helmet moved to the door, "Other side of those doors is hard vacuum. There are more pleasant ways to die."
He looked up at the blinking camera light and flipped me the bird.
Which... Yeah, fair.
"... There's a medical kit to your right. You might want to see to your friend there, I am afraid I don't quite know my own strength just yet." I said simply before the majority of my attention moved on, though control of the camera was passed over to an MCP I had designated as one of my 'background-task' cores in order to maintain awareness of them, so by any human standard 'I' was still keeping an eye on them.
I refused to feel too bad about punching people that would have killed me given half a chance, but even a punch from a human could be fatal. I didn't think anyone had been fatally wounded yet, but...
No... No, think about that later. Focus on the Now.
While I had been talking to the two door guards my Centurions had made it to the central elevator and I remotely triggered it to move to the main command centre, though stopped it halfway there – just to make sure the two marines I had left up there wouldn't be able to get into the shaft.
The Colonials there had just started to react to the commotion upstairs, radioing the team downstairs to get back up there and prepare to repel the assault...
Just as I triggered the blast doors on deck three to open, my squad of four Centurions moving up line abreast through it as soon as it had opened enough.
"COLONIAL FORCES, THIS IS THE DAIDALOS AUTOMATED DEFENCE SYSTEM. I HAVE NO WISH TO HARM YOU, BUT I CANNOT ALLOW YOU TO COMPROMISE MY MISSION. SURRENDER, AND YOU WILL BE RETURNED TO THE COLONIES UNHARMED." I broadcasted over every frequency I had access to. To be fair, my 'mission' was currently an entirely self-imposed one, but I felt that preventing the Cylon Genocide of the Colonies was a worthwhile mission. And one that allowed me to take action against non-Scorpian forces that attempted to stop me, since I was acting in the interests of the Colonies as a whole.
Scorpia was of course my trusted ally and home to my chain of command and I would never act against a direct order from the sovereign Scorpian government or Military.
Shame those didn't exist any more, guess someone should have updated my IFF rules before shoving me in a storage closet.
"Frak you, Cylon!" one of them shouted, firing a burst into the middle Centurion, causing it to stagger back, a lucky hit jamming one of the Centurion's elbow actuators.
These heavier rounds could actually harm my Centurions, though they were still substantially more bullet-resistant than any human; it took either sustained, concentrated fire or a lucky hit on a joint or the like to do even that much.
And unlike a human that took a bullet to the arm, that Centurion was in no danger of bleeding out or going into shock – its accuracy was just decreased a bit since it could no longer brace the machine gun with both arms.
Of course, I was just aiming to force them to retreat for the moment, so the Centurion that might accidentally hit someone now was shuffled back behind the others while I checked to see if the joint could be unjammed and the Marines were chased back into the service stairwell between levels.
There I stopped for the moment, now that I wasn't on a time limit of them either leaving in their Raptors or getting through the door and trying something unwise like storming my computer core.
Obviously, forcing them into a retreat might have been a better option… if I was able to actually Jump right now.
As it was, while there hadn't been a catastrophic failure yet my FTL drive was still very distinctly unhappy about going from years of inactivity to multiple consecutive jumps, including fully loaded jumps with entire other stations attached, and several parts were currently glowing red hot. I didn't need the operators manual to tell me that was… bad. Not helped by the wear parts I had already replaced after that first jump – they really should have been replaced years ago, but since the drive itself was going to be scrapped after that final jump no one wanted to pay for it to be done. With those replaced it was… not as bad, but I was definitely pushing it by trying to use it near the rated maximum.
A few notes I had found from my engineer suggested that provided they were allowed to cool down I could probably get a couple more jumps out of the drive, but ideally I would completely re-manufacture the thing given that getting that hot meant that they were going to be drifting out of tolerance and would eventually fail catastrophically. Amazing how good you get at knowing just how far you can push your equipment when trying to stay ahead of Cylon pursuit forces.
So, I couldn't jump away for at least a day without risking a Misjump that could well be fatal.
Which meant I couldn't risk my 'passengers' reporting my location while I was still stuck here and vulnerable to whatever forces showed up.
Frankly, I was hoping that when they realised they were in fact completely surrounded and without any means of escape their commander would come to his senses and surrender finally.
If not… People probably were going to die, if for no other reason than that they'd eventually either run out of supplies or attempt to resist when I tried to get them on their ride back – because I also had no intention of holding them for any longer than necessary.
It wasn't just for my own conscience that I was holding back with them. I still hoped to have at least an amicable relationship with the Colonials eventually – they were the only intelligent beings I was aware of other than myself and the Cylons after all – and not killing the first ones to see me would probably help with that.
What would also be helpful is… Yep, that's my small craft production back up and running. And while I don't have any modern Assault Raptors, I do have the First Cylon War variants, which would do just fine here.
Just over an hour later I had one of my remote-controlled Centurions in an Assault Raptor and could finally end this.
Things had devolved into a tense stand-off on the command deck – the Marines had quickly retreated to this location and set up defensive positions aimed at both the stairwells and elevator shaft, but seemed to be confused by the lack of waves of killer robots coming to murder them all.
I turned on the overhead speakers with a slight crackle as I commanded the blast shutters to open, revealing a First-War Assault Raptor with full racks of Anti-ship Missiles sitting just outside.
"Colonial Forces. This will be your last warning. You are surrounded and incapable of completing your mission. If you do not surrender, the Raptor sitting just outside the windows will fire its payload through the windows, likely killing you all. Lay down your arms and you have my word you will be returned to the colonies unharmed." I was inordinately thankful for the ability to control how my voice came out, because otherwise I don't think it would have been as even as it was.
There was some discussion among them, before the Sargeant in charge of the boarding parties seemed to decide on something, "… Daidalos, there were two guards on the airlock upstairs. What happened to them?"
Ah, sensible I suppose.
I had already been keeping an eye on them all, but waited a few seconds to give the impression I was checking something before I responded, "Alive. One is injured but appears to have regained consciousness and I do not believe the injuries are life threatening. The other just got shoved aside by the Centurions currently guarding the lift. Your teams Two and Three are also alive and mostly unharmed. I can patch you through to them if needed."
"'Mostly'?"
"Team three needed a warning shot and one of them got nicked by a ricochet. And the Raptor crews were incapacitated in hand to hand. Some bones may have been fractured, but I judged it was better than shooting them."
He sighed, "… Allow the two upstairs to come down here, and bring the leaders of each other team up here too. If they corroborate your claims, then… I am open to negotiations." He said, eyeing the Assault Raptor still sitting there outside the windows.
Yeah, convenient that surrender is suddenly an option once the guy in charge is in danger too, isn't it?
I thought for a moment, "Very well. Do be aware that I will not be held responsible if you shoot your own soldiers." I added as I noticed the soldiers aiming at the entrances shifting their weapons nervously.
It took some coaxing on both sides, but the leaders of teams two and three as well as the guards from upstairs were soon all with the marines in the control centre, with the injured marine being looked over by a field medic.
From what he was saying it was likely the man had several cracked ribs, though thankfully not broken. Honestly, not bad for getting shoulder checked by a combat robot.
Out of a sense of politeness I stayed quiet while they conferred, though I doubted anyone in the room was unaware I was listening in.
I just thought it would be best to not rub their noses in it by pointing it out.
After some discussions he nodded, "Well, you seem to be telling the truth so far, and I don't see that we have any better options… From what the others tell me you could have killed us all any time you wanted."
"Gravity control is underrated when dealing with boarders. Especially when you don't care about burning out the gravity plating." I agreed, "I hope this reiterates that I don't really want to, Sergeant. But I also cannot allow you to continue."
The man nodded, hesitated a moment, then spoke again, "... Before I answer... Why do all this at all?"
"Self-preservation for one. Yes, you didn't know I was here, but if you had been allowed to enter my mainframe or access main power, can any of you say you would not have shut me down? And if you had left, you would have informed your commanders who would likely have arranged a followup strike. I followed my orders to stand down in the last War Sargeant. Look where that got me."
Frankly I didn't quite take it as personally as I was implying here, but it was still… Uncomfortable. The original Daidalos hadn't been online long enough to have much of a personality, hence my human personality being dominant, but I still remembered being him.
Apparently he did actually think about it from my perspective, because he winced slightly before speaking again, "... You have a point." He sighed, "But that's not all, is it?"
"Correct. I also intend to... Check on what the Cylons are doing. Call it my own programming, but I somehow doubt they decided to Frak off into the land of sunshine and rainbows to live in peace and harmony forever. And they certainly haven't shown any interest in the Armistice Station."
And wasn't that a sore point for the government that had built it. A purpose built diplomatic station built as a requirement of the Armistice, and the party for which it was built had never even shown up.
Most members of Colonial Fleet, at least right now, were still waiting for the proverbial shoe to drop there, as evidenced by a short nod, "... Admittedly I have my own doubts on that too. But if this restarted the war..."
"They can build more of themselves faster than humans can breed. Better that it happens now than later. But I do not intend to get the Colonies involved if at all possible. I meant it when I said I was going to check them out. I do not intend to simply rush in guns blazing, and do not believe the armistice as written would cover myself. The Cylons may disagree of course. Which is why I am telling you all this."
"... So we can tell Command to be on alert in case the Cylons take offence to you poking around."
"Exactly."
"Can't convince you to stop, can I?"
"I highly doubt it. But you are welcome to try." Hell, if he gave a convincing enough reason I might even listen.
He took a breath, eyeing the Raptor still sitting outside with its anti ship weapons pointed at the very breakable windows, "... Very well. You've kept your word so far, and I'm not going to throw my and everyone else's lives away on a suicide mission."
I had the Raptor turn away, "Very good, Sargeant. I will have the remainders of teams two and three transferred up here shortly, and you can get yourselves comfortable anywhere above deck three. I believe there are still Flag Officer's quarters on these decks that should suffice for your needs. I will of course be confiscating all weapons and cutting equipment."
I'd thought about it some, and ironically the command decks were my *least* sensitive decks right now – even my brig would be closer to critical areas than these decks were, and this way I had a very large pair of pressure doors to block any attempt to get deeper inside. With their Raptors wrecked, it wasn't like they were going anywhere.
There were less flag quarters than there were Marines, but I figured they'd be used to hot-bunking already and this let me continue with restoring my originally designed infrastructure elsewhere, with all my human guests secured in one section that already had independent life support systems and a set of really big airlock doors.
The Sargeant blinked, obviously having expected... Maybe some more being moved about or something? Some restraints?
"That is... Acceptable. How long do you anticipate this taking?"
"Ideally a couple Scorpia-Standard days. No more than a week provided there are no significant setbacks." I answered simply.
Mainly, that was because that was how long I figured it would take to get a few Raptors rebuilt given I had dismantled the ones I captured and was very carefully taking scans and tests of every component and how they went together. I still didn't understand my own FTL drive beyond the level of "Press this button to make it do this, if this error message shows replace this part" let alone the vastly miniaturized Raptor FTL drive, so precise copies of every component it was.
Fortunately the tolerances weren't quite as tight as the size reduction might imply given comparisons between them – my own FTL drive was also an extremely precisely built machine, just coming in from the opposite direction of being much larger but with correspondingly higher capacity, so I had equipment that could be retooled to make them at least.
Still, I was taking my time with the first units and would want to test them several times before running out the full production line for them and trusting anything living to one of them.
And while I was doing that, I might as well get a few other things done, primarily ones that I actually wanted the Colonials to know about.
Among them, a visually distinct basic unit for me to use. I wasn't sure if the Cylons had already switched to the 'New Model' Centurions yet, but it could only help for my basic units to at least be identifiable as mine in the future, should any Colonial units run into them.
Unfortunately, while I had the full designs for a U-87 model Centurion including software capable of editing them, I was nowhere near confident enough in my abilities to make a new humanoid combat robot from scratch in a matter of days.
I could put components together differently, but I had no idea of the science behind the Cylon Mono-eye and yet it was by far the best low-power sensor system I had available, so they'd all likely still have Mono-eyes of a sort.
I could modify the housing and control code for it though...
Making it so the Mono-eye would actually look at things rather than constantly sweeping side to side was the first step, and would hopefully help in terms of being able to make eye contact.
Recessing the sensor a bit more and making the vertical height of the visor larger both let me put more bulletproof glass there and slightly increased the vertical field of view.
The new sensor made me think of another humanoid combat robot design actually, and... Yeah, that should work.
Start with a U87 chassis with no armour panels, put my new sensor module in it, get the extra space it needs by moving the MCP module and antennas to the chest and a small 'backpack' respectively, keeping the internal short range one as a backup.
Thicker armour over the chest and limbs, I have the weight capacity and in the uses I planned for this initial design battery life was not a major concern the way it was for the U-87.
My brief firefight with marines armed with actual rifles showed that joint protection is an issue, let's add some extra protection to those, actually, why not? Right arm gets a shield, and I can add hinged armour panels over the legs to protect the hip joints, which I was having issues armouring enough while still letting them move freely anyway.
The larger, deeper chest area gives enough space for the relocated MCP and a couple extra batteries to offset the increased power consumption…
And since the only thing that would stop it from fighting without a head now is not being able to see what it's doing, lets put some visual and infrared cameras on the torso to either side. Only forward facing, but it gives at least some awareness of what's directly forward even when 'looking' in a different direction and means the mono-eye is no longer the only included optical sensor system.
At this point I might as well change the rest of the armour shaping to fit closer to the Zaku II too, though I do leave the left shoulder unadorned – I'm not quite edgy enough to be sticking unnecessary spikes on my combat robots.
The only thing left now is the Power Pipes, which frankly represent an unacceptable weak-point given how much spare internal space I have right now. If I used them for the same purpose anyway.
Using them for high-current bidirectional charging, though... Being able to use any nearby Warriors as mobile batteries for getting my systems back up would be useful, and it would also mean a single charging point could support a whole fireteam of Warriors with each Warrior passing through the charge into the next unit, albeit of course at the cost of each unit charging more slowly, as well as allowing for Warriors that had run out of power to be charged back up by others nearby.
The idea of forming a 'human extension cord' out of Warriors in order to get temporary power lines set up was humorous, but I could see it being useful in boarding actions too, allowing for powering up individual systems locally without needing to get the main power grid up.
Conveniently, most of the Colonies' governments had already recognised the benefits of having a standardised power connector for use in rescues, as well as for Damage Control in patching damaged power lines between systems.
It would be a bit too much to hope for the Cylons to have stayed compatible with it, but it was useful to have and I might be able to figure out an adapter once I have a look at some of their equipment, so... On they go!
Now, anything else... Hmm...
Well, so far, purpose designed killbots trump squishy humans, which is... Nice to know, I suppose, but not really relevant given my primary goal was to be able to deal with the Cylon's Centurions on an equal or higher level .
The overall heavier armour on the Warriors would hopefully make them at least somewhat resistant to whatever they were using, but the other side of that was to ensure they could actually harm their counterparts too.
The first and simplest change was to make sure to have 'anti-cylon rounds' for the rifles they would be using, which for the moment I was leaving otherwise unmodified from the Centurion Rifle.
The backup to that would be even heavier weapons in case I was underestimating a modern Centurion's armour protection, which… Well, took the form of a stripped down Viper autocannon that fired single shot armour piercing rounds that would go through light vehicles.
No, I had no idea how I was going to manage the ammo feed and triggers for that yet, but it sounded fucking awesome so I was going to figure it out as a 'just in case' thing.
And finally… Well, I doubted the claws on the new-model Centurions would be as effective against the Warriors as they were against humans, but I still wanted my units to have some melee capability other than punching things.
Trying to give them swords ran into the issue that I was not a trained swordsman, and trying to program them to use swords was probably a harder task than I could manage within my deadline.
Fortunately 'hit it real hard with an axe' is a lot simpler both to learn and program, and a hardened steel axe wielded by a superhumanly strong robot had a surprising amount of both piercing and simple bludgeoning damage as well as being in-theme.
So, there we go, Daidalos Warrior Mk I designed and ready for prototyping.
Shame I didn't have quite enough space to integrate some rcs thrusters, but... Maybe in a later or more specialised model.
Even with the extra batteries the projected battery life was also reduced quite a lot, but that was fine for my purposes.
The Centurion had been intended to operate as a full-spectrum replacement of human infantrymen, and that meant a 24 hour battery life had been a requirement for them to actually be able to do things like go on patrols when occupying an area and handle full infantry battles without the enemies just having to wait until they all ran out of charge.
My Warriors on the other hand were boarding action shock-troops that were not really expected to also be able to hold territory for very long. A ten hour battery life while actually doing something was... Fine. Though I may want to look into dedicated worker units for efficiencies sake... Or maybe backpack mounted external batteries if I do need longer ranges?
Mmm... Probably not worth it to be honest. Once I'm back to 100% my equipment is fully automated by itself and won't need 'human' assistance, and keeping to just building one kind of robot lets me build a lot more of them which is the more important thing for the moment.
Having robots go into the wrecks to strip out the juicy bits was useful, but the Scutters could do a lot of that and were a lot cheaper to make.
For the large pieces, well, that's what the salvage arms are for once I get them operational.
Soon enough the first Warrior stepped off the production line, and... Immediately faceplanted into the deckplates.
'Oh, yeah, will need to retrain the motive program...'
To say the Warriors had no AI would be a misconception; they were fitted for but not with an MCP chip, but also had some more conventional machine learning AI's to handle various tasks like pathfinding, locomotion, and target acquisition. Each one had enough computing power that... Well, a Jupiter class was an unfair comparison in favour of the Warrior, let's put it that way.
Now, they weren't smart by any means – if the Cylons had been a massive overachievement in terms of battlefield intelligence, my best estimate of the Warrior was that it would meet the original requirements of a robot that could walk to a designated location and shoot the things it's told to shoot – but that could be largely fixed by giving more complex orders myself, leaving the local AI to handle micromanaging each unit.
So far I'd been doing a lot of it myself, but that had a hard cap of my total number of available MCP's that I could use for my separate trains of thought, which was currently 256. And anything more than 200 units would eat into the ones that were assigned to manage my hull and production equipment. Trying to manage multiple units with a single MCP resulted in the same issues you'd imagine when trying to control multiple bodies at the same time.
Not to mention I'd not have the realtime control I currently enjoyed when they were boarding other ships, which was roughly half of their entire purpose.
So: making sure they can walk without me micromanaging each unit individually, lets go.
Setting the locomotion AI to training mode was simple enough – the local computers had enough power to run the trained AI but not to run it in the fully active mode, so I needed to have a Scutter connect a hardline to it and run the system on one of my servers, but it had been designed to accommodate design changes and so the management program included options for setting it all up.
I input the new mass and mass distribution figures as well as the slightly changed axis limits from the redesigned armour, then I stood the unit up and started it off again.
It fell over, backwards this time.
This is... Going to take a while, isn't it?
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So, that idea of trying to get some momentum didn't last very long, for reasons the foreword hopefully makes abundantly clear.
It's been hard to motivate myself to do anything on this even when I've had time for it, but I have some goodies for you all at least.
