Kenon turned his focus away from Alana and his jaws parted slightly as if he were about to reply, then he shook his head slowly and let out a long breath. He either didn’t know how to respond, or he didn’t want to share his answer with her.
He definitely was an oddball.
“Let this dispute be put to an end at once,” the Ship Commander ordered sharply, regaining the attention of the humans. He lowered his throne to the ground and rose to his feet. “My warriors have arrived and boarded the ship. So now, humans,” he addressed the four soldiers of Alpha Team and the two from Echo. “You may remove yourselves from my sight and make your way down to the supply bay. Further instructions will be issued to you there.”
The six holstered their weapons and departed without another word, but it was easy to see they were still uncomfortable about cooperating with Drocain warriors—and within the shell of a carrier under the control one of the UNPD’s most feared opponents, no less.
“What’s the plan?” Lieutenant Knoble asked once Alpha had left. Now that he wasn’t caught up in a heated discussion with his teammate they could get back on track to dealing with the situation at hand.
“We leave immediately.” Levian sat back down in his throne and turned to the command console. “Your ship’s Captain seeks to destroy what is now an abandoned encampment. This, I assume, will also cause the mountains housing one of your cities to collapse. I wish to prevent such a tragic event from happening.”
“You want to stop Nicholas? Why do you even care?” Knoble almost laughed, not willing to believe for a second that the warrior would want to avoid the human casualties.
Typical, Alana thought, wishing her stepfather would be a little more open-minded. He was highly opinionated; if he’d made up his mind about something it was hard to convince him to see things differently.
“The tides have changed,” the Ship Commander hissed.
“Yeah?” Knoble grunted. “Well I was going to try and talk him out of this insane plan of his. You can’t do that, so what are you going to do—blow his ship out of the sky?”
“Your Captain is a fool, but killing him is not the only option available to me. I will damage his frigate’s hull to such a degree that he will be forced to retreat.”
Alana could see the fear on her stepfather’s face. He had to be concerned about the frigate and its crew—especially when the damage it had taken during its last engagement hadn’t been fully repaired yet—but he also knew that if Captain Nicholas wasn’t stopped they were going to lose Viro City. There were too many innocent lives on the line.
Knoble gave a resigned sigh and didn’t say anything more on the subject.
Hearing a mechanical purr, Alana looked up and was startled by the tangle of blue and orange tentacles above her.
The rounded silver thing floated downward, watching the soldier with a single eye, and Alana remembered that she’d seen one of these robotic creatures before—three years ago during a reconnaissance mission aboard a derelict corvette. It was a Drocain artificial intelligence bot; fascinating to look at, and not at all hostile.
“How did you get aboard my ship, Ayla?” Levian asked when it hovered over to his throne.
“It is this unit’s self-appointed duty to ensure your safety, Ship Commander, for you are in danger,” the AI bot said, reaching for a pulsing tab on one of the screens and tapping it lightly with the tip of a tentacle.
The image on the forward viewscreen changed once again, this time displaying the view out of the starboard side of the carrier. The Hornet’s Nest could be seen in the distance, barely visible amongst the trees with its green-gray coloring, and on its far side was the facility where the UNPD frigate Rain of Fire was undergoing repairs. The facility’s roof had been opened, indicating that the ship was preparing for departure.
. . . Or was already taking off.
Alana watched as the frigate rose from the building, thrusters burning bright yellow and orange. Once it had gained enough altitude, the thrust couplings dropped off and the ship started on a forward trajectory in the direction of the Terrak Mountains.
The Ship Commander snapped to the alert and pulled his arm from Ayla’s grasp, giving her a couple of simple orders as he activated the ship’s navigation controls. “Bring weapons systems online and raise shields to maximum power.”
The AI complied, taking control over the carrier’s defense and weaponry systems. She completed these tasks in a few short minutes, then drifted over to the Drahkori and the two human soldiers. She looked at the three of them with interest and her eye flickered between red and blue when she spoke.
“G-greetings, this unit is called Ayla. I am the artificial intelligence unit previously assigned to armor production, currently o-offering assistance to Levian ‘Nher and the crew of the Legacy of Night,” she said, stumbling awkwardly over her words. “I-I was taken to the Drocain High City to be dismantled a-a-at the orders of Her Majesty Ahlaie Yhehiel when she deemed me a threat to the C-Calypsis Pro-o-ject.”
“What did that thing say?” the Lieutenant burst out, but neither his stepdaughter nor the young warrior had any words to give him. They were both just as stunned as he was.
“Ayla,” Kenon prompted the AI for more information. “What do you know about the project?”
“Fifty-two of s-seventy-nine files recovered. Remaining twenty-three f-files have either been c-corrupted during transfer, or are encrypted,” the AI huffed and pulled her trembling tentacles close to her body, probably frustrated with her inability to form even a single sentence without errors.
“Where did you retrieve these files from?” Kenon asked.
“Redacted.”
“What are the contents of the fifty-two accessible files? Are you able to tell us?”
“N-negative. Files a-are at risk of intrusion. Apologies for the inconvenience.” She rotated her eye to look at the floor and lowered her top eyelid to show dissatisfaction.
Alana couldn’t help but wish that Dr. Chambers’ artificial intelligence construct were here now. Irritating as he was, she was confident he would be able to retrieve all of the files from Ayla’s databanks without putting them at risk. Hell, he would probably also be able to decipher the encrypted files that the Drocain AI couldn’t access.
Whatever was in those files could be extremely valuable, maybe vital to the team’s success.
Success in what, though? We don’t even know what we’re going to do once this bomb problem is out of the way, the Corporal thought, troubled—but she forgot all about it when a violent shiver ran through the carrier’s deck.
Impact alarms sounded out, Alana drew her focus to the viewscreen and saw the Rain of Fire banking right after releasing a volley of Viper missiles; changing course to confront its attacker.
The plan was working. Captain Nicholas’ attention had been redirected to the oncoming Drocain carrier, and with his vessel’s repairs having not been completed, he would soon be forced to flee from the fight.
“Looks like you pissed them off,” Knoble remarked.
Whilst the Lieutenant and Levian were concentrating on the Rain of Fire, it was a dark figure on the underside of the vessel that caught Alana’s attention. She walked over to the console and pointed to it.
“What is that?” she asked.
The Ship Commander followed her motion and squinted as he tried to focus on the object, then tapped a couple of holo-keys and zoomed in on the frigate to get a better look at this thing.
Alana could see now that it was huge—at least three times the size of a standard SUV. Metal cables flailed around its segmented body, and as the sunlight hit its flanks, it pulled back a long neck and looked directly at the Legacy of Night with seven crimson eyes.
What the hell . . . Whatever it was, Alana was sure it didn’t belong to the United Nations Planetary Defense—or to any human military faction, for that matter—nor did it appear to be of Drocain origin.
Chapter
——FOURTEEN——
The young Drahkori warrior joined his comrades by the console and stared up at the screen in confusion, wondering what in the world he was looking at. He didn’t recognize the thing as a human craft, and the crimson lights told him it was not a machine of the Royal Empire.
“Warning: hostile construct detected!” the armor creation bot alerted as she pushed past the four and came to hover in front of the screen. The AI cast a yellow beam of light from her eye and brought it to focus on the unidentified object. “Stage two threat level. Recommending immediate evasion!”
On-screen an enormous, golden bubble of energy appeared and stretched around the Rain of Fire’s midsection. The bubble expanded, swallowed up the frigate, then burst—cutting the human ship in half and sending a massive shockwave racing towards the Legacy of Night.
“Brace for impact!” the Ship Commander shouted.
The wave rammed into the assault carrier and drained its power, depleting it of its shields. There was enough force behind the wave to push the carrier backwards and cause its bow to tilt skyward.
Kenon realized the opposing warship had inclined likewise, its hull engulfed in a churning inferno. Then he noticed something odd.
Though both ships were without power, they remained in place. Why were they not losing altitude?
As that question crossed his mind, the Legacy of Night’s controls came back online and the Rain of Fire’s thrusters ignited. The frigate and the carrier both began to stabilize; straightening out . . . then kept going until their bows were angled down toward the marshland.
The ground below split open; cracks spread like veins, dividing rivers and uprooting trees. Rock crumbled away and green waters cascaded into the shadows, spilling into four massive tunnel entranceways—each large enough to house vessels the size of Drocain supercarriers.
The swamp had given way to some kind of inground docking station where red beacons flickered on to guide the way into the tunnels. Thick cables looped from one connector to another on either side of the station, like huge vines hanging between trees, and slapped against metal walls.
“Holy shit!” the Lieutenant exclaimed.
At once, the two battling ships plunged through the air and descended toward the yawning chasm. The Rain of Fire disappeared inside the fourth tunnel and the Legacy of Night was drawn into the second. Their speed steadily increased as they continued to dive deeper and deeper, swerving around unseen corners in the darkness.
They were being pulled beneath the surface of the planet against their will.
Kenon instinctively ducked when a metallic screech rang out from somewhere above him—from inside the ship’s skeleton. Several muffled thumps like the footsteps of some animal clambering through the ventilation system followed, and then a high-pitched whine fell upon the young warrior’s ears. A white-hot smoldering circle appeared over his head and he retreated as the metal dissolved.
“We have been boarded!” Kenon alerted.
A robotic creature dropped into Legacy’s bridge and grasped the bulkhead with a pair of clamp-like hands. Four struts extended from a curved carapace and adhered to the floor as it threw its head back to let out a rallying call.
Kenon drew his repeater and was about to open fire on the hostile AI when the machine’s cable arms thrust forth. One clamp whipped his firearm out of his hand, while the other coiled around his ankle. With a hard tug, the machine snatched the warrior’s feet out from under him and dragged him across the deck.
Lying flat on his back under the machine, Kenon stared straight up into the thing’s three soulless eyes—nothing more than blood-red lights behind clear casings.
No sense of pain, no emotion, no mind. Just a feral, bestial machine programmed to kill.
The machine drew back its head and opened its jaws, ready to sink a set of steely fangs into the young warrior’s throat—then a flurry of armor-piercing rounds pelted its carapace.
The bullets didn’t appear to do anything other than act as a distraction. They dealt no damage—failing to leave so much as a scratch on the machine’s body. But now that its attention had been drawn elsewhere, the Drahkori could make his own move.
Kenon activated his right-hand energy blade and drove it into the exposed grouping of cables at the base of its neck. Alana then stormed forward, rammed the barrel of her rifle down the AI’s shredded throat, and pumped it full of lead.
The machine recoiled, releasing its grip on the bulkhead as orange fluid poured from its wounds. It crumpled to the floor and writhed around violently for a moment as if it had lost control over its own body.
“Levian,” Kenon said as he jumped back to his feet and withdrew from the robot’s flailing limbs. “Open the hatch!”
There was no audible response from the Ship Commander, but the hatch spun open a moment later and Kenon gave the alien machine a hard kick to the shoulder.
It rolled across the floor, and when its cable arm fell through the opening, it was snatched out of the bridge so fast that all Kenon saw was a gray blur and a cloud of sparks.
Alana gave the young warrior a thumbs-up. “That was actually a really good idea,” she said as she slung her rifle over her shoulder. “What the hell was that thing anyway?”
“A d-defense AI. There were thousands constructed to ensure the maintenance and protection of this world,” Ayla said fretfully, drifting over to the console. “The rest have detected our presence and will come for us.”
“And you’re telling me we pissed off every goddamn one?” Lieutenant Knoble asked the Drocain AI, and she simply gave him a sideways glance. That was enough of an answer for him. “Well that’s just great, isn’t it?”
“Perhaps the crates of stolen combat suits will be of use to you, Lieutenant,” the Ship Commander suggested as the Legacy of Night’s speed began to decline, the whine of its engines dropping to a low hum. “I am certain they can offer your team protection far superior to that of the uniforms you currently wear.”
Knoble looked surprised, but he seemed to be intrigued by the offer. “What combat suits?” he asked.
“The warriors who maintained the encampment in the mountains made use of their spare time recently by taking out a group of cargo transports. They raided the convoy and seized seven crates, five of which are currently being held in the storage bay. You may examine the contents whenever you please and do what you will with them.”
“This isn’t some trick, is it? I’m not going to go down there and get blown up?”
Levian turned around and regarded the soldier with resentment. “You dare accuse me of lying?”
Knoble put his hands up. “Oh, Jesus, no,” he said sarcastically. “Honestly, though, you don’t have much of a reason to treat me like a guest, so why are you letting us roam freely around your ship?”
“Because, Lieutenant, if you make one wrong move, I can make you disappear in a heartbeat.”
Kenon thought he saw fear flash across the Lieutenant’s face. The Corporal, on the other hand, found amusement in the threat. She stifled a laugh, then patted Knoble’s shoulder and led him out of the bridge.
Chapter
———FIFTEEN———
2340 Hours, December 02, 2438 (Earth Calendar) / Drocain Assault Carrier Legacy of Night, planet Calypsis
Alana gripped the combat suit’s silver zipper between her fingers and pulled it all the way up under her chin, then inserted the headphones into her ears and stuck the small microphone piece to her chin. When she slipped her helmet on these devices would connect to the inside and, according to the manual, make for clearer lines of communication.
UNPD Nanotech Combat Suits. These were brand-new top-of-the-line military uniforms manufactured by Nine Gates Armory—complete with state-of-the-art energy shielding systems. The armored harnesses, decorated with green lights to signify the UNPD, were crafted from a titanium alloy that had the ability to rep
air itself with the use of nanotechnology—hence the name.
Helmet’s were fitted with high-definition camcorders, hyperlink communications devices, and polarizing faceplates. The matte bodysuits had a gel layer that would add extra protection against crytal weaponry while also providing a heating and cooling system.
And then there were the nanotech self-building wings, which would fan out at the push of a button, spanning ankle-to-ankle and from wrist to thigh. These wings allowed users to glide safely from one destination to another over both short and long distances.
Sergeant Major Shepherd had paid a handsome price to have a shipment of these combat suits delivered to the Hornet’s Nest but they had never arrived, and now the Corporal knew why.
How convenient that the Drocain snatched these up. Now we won’t be at such a huge disadvantage against these defense AIs.
Alana donned her helmet and a wave of dizziness hit her when the direct neural interface connected to her implants. The helmet-mounted display pulsed into being, blurry for a moment, and then cleared. Health monitors, equipment information, a targeting reticule for enhanced aim, a shield status bar, and a motion sensor became visible.
It was almost identical to her old display, but smoother and not quite as bright. It probably had some other bonuses too, but she would likely have to read through the entire manual to find out what they were. For now, she would hold onto the necessary details.
Lifting her visor, she stepped out from behind the stack of stolen crates and looked to her stepfather as he slipped his own helmet on over his shaved head.
“Nifty, aren’t they?” he said with a grin, slinging his assault rifle over his shoulder. It clicked as it locked onto the magnetic clip on the harness.
The Corporal nodded and then warned, “Before you decide to go testing out the pretty green buttons and dials on the wristband.” She tossed a datapad to him. He caught it and began to flip through the digital pages. “Read the first twenty pages of the manual. There are quite a few things you’ll want to avoid messing around with.”
The Calypsis Project Boxed Set (Books 1-2 - The Echo-Alpha Duology) Page 16