P’Ko’s tricked out pocket knife sized diagnostic tool was now stealth rover with enough power to run for hundreds of hours, but at a low power draw consequentially forcing draconian TTP’s (Tactics Techniques and Procedures) regarding power usage and levels. Never being able to do more than one thing at a time well, constantly prioritizing and scheduling all activities.
P’Ko, Su’Zi, and Tn’Ya learned to make the microbot a virtual extension of themselves, becoming nearly as comfortable with its controls and sensors as their bodies. Its sensors are not the most powerful or long range. They’re made to operate close up, almost touching the thing to be analyzed are designed to be sensitive and accurate. A jammer using technologically related to the reading lights sometimes used to cover covert activities. Simple, efficient and challenging to develop counter-countermeasures for topped off the microbot’s defensive suite.
Tn’Ya’s expertise, knowledge of the latest fabricating techniques, and a deft hand in using micromanipulators was instrumental in designing, miniaturizing, fabricating and integrating the new features into P’Ko’s pocket microtool transforming it into a stealthy remotely operated roving observation platform and science laboratory.
The CASS uses surveillance bots too; CASS minibots are general purpose, a mobile version of their fixed site video surveillance network. Elaborate stealth is necessary for these bots since the CASS uses them as a deterrent, for real stealth they use other methods like the nanobot blood implants.
Minibots are huge in comparison to the resistance microbot and hundreds of times heavier; they are equipped with EO (Electro-Optical), IR (Infrared), low light and radar capabilities. It lacks the hyper-spectral, x-ray diffraction and neutron sensor; the resistance managed to build into its microbot. The minibots size and power draw forces it to use a more traditional robot power supply rather than the trickle feed antimatter power supply utilized in the resistances microbot.
The minibot’s stealth capability is limited to its relatively small size, its mobility and its ability to change surface color to match their background which has no effect on radar. Using radar, the CASS minibot stands out like a beacon. The resistance microbot counters radar detection with a radar absorbent coating, but it has frequency and exposure limitations. Fortunately, the resistances intelligence has determined that the CASS minibot’s radar mode is rarely used unless in near total darkness, preferring the more natural and aesthetically pleasing images from its EO/IR sensors.
CASS minibots do have a significant advantage that P’Ko and Tn’Ya’s bot entirely lack. They have offensive capabilities: a laser system capable of dazzling a potential enemy, or with sustained exposure, burn through many materials; a claw capable of crushing or even severing a limb. And spiked legs that can easily puncture skin and light ballistics fiber; its legs are connected to a stun capability powerful enough to paralyze and kill, through the disruption of heart and brain function.
The CASS minibots are deadly.
Despite the many advantages, the CASS minibot has over the resistances microbot, the resistances choice to use a QECS (Quantum Entanglement Communications System), gives it an edge. It provides secure, instantaneous, un-jam-able communications that impact all of the microbot’s functions. A capability and expense that the CASS, to the best of the resistances knowledge, have been unwilling to commit. The CASS’s considers their minibots to be expendable and carry a self-destruct charge programmed to explode in the event of compromise or loss.
The willingness of the resistance to turn over a QECS to P’Ko and Tn’Ya spoke volumes about how important this mission is to them. A QECS pair is worth millions of credits; even the CASS restricts their use to only the most critical systems, rare, even among the soldiers. Especially now with the numbers of soldiers multiplying, only the lead soldier within a squad or sometimes a whole company gets a QECS.
The vast majority of soldiers is chained to the QECS possessing leader or rely on relatively easy to intercept or jammable conventional communication systems, using autonomous programming to fill in the gaps.
The resistance, after watching the entrance to the passageways leading to the prison cells and charting out and studying the closed passageways, had a pretty good idea where the special mining area lay and knew when the soldiers guarding the Prz’Nr’s rotated and the paths taken.
P’Ko, disguised, walked past the surveillance system monitored guard station just as the soldiers were entering through the entry control point door. The microbot that he and Tn’Ya customized clung to P’Ko’s pant leg, just as the door opened the microbot launched. With Su’Zi at the controls and Tn’Ya monitoring power levels and watching for hazards, the microbot scampered through the door, at an angle calculated, so P’Ko and the soldiers blocked the view of the cameras. The soldier’s three hundred sixty-degree vision was blocked by its body as the microbot ran perilously under its feet.
Even with all non-essential sensors, and systems powered down, except for camouflage and EO Su’Zi was just barely able to keep up with the soldiers coming on duty as they made their way towards the prison cell. The soldiers entered a doorway which led into a staging area just outside the Prz’Nr’s cell. Su’Zi raced the microbot in just as the door shut and Su’Zi and Tn’Ya put the microbot in protect mode.
The microbot lay huddled in a corner with its active camouflage turned on and its transparent legs folded up underneath it as its severely depleted systems recovered.
____________________________
The next day the team was ready, they knew precisely when the mining team would be returning to their cells and were prepared. They were relatively safe in what appeared to be an airlock like vestibule used for kill-vest donning and doffing.
P’Ko sat in the pilot’s seat, Tn’Ya filled the role of systems engineer, monitoring power levels and the sensors, while Su’Zi was in charge of the defense team. She had people watching the soldiers, the Prz’Nr’s and the environment for any hint of danger. Part of her team monitored CASS’s communications. Although most of CASS’s communications were encrypted, the resistance had studied and analyzed CASS’s communications for long enough that they knew what types of signals and on what channels meant something was wrong.
As the Prz’Nr’s accompanied by the soldiers entered the vestibule, P’Ko gave the command to begin overcharging the maneuvering systems needed for the massive jump to access the kill-vest.
Not far from a soldier, P’Ko looked up; it was like standing near and looking up at a hundred story building that was moving. P’Ko got dizzy; and though sitting he felt like he was going to fall. He had never experienced vertigo like this before. Not even while standing on ledges near the top of the stadium. The area he was looking up at was so big and flat it invited the senses to presume that it’s a new floor, and upset his equilibrium. Some of the others experienced it too. He felt himself teetering back; it was a little like the first time he experienced weightlessness. P’Ko reached back into his memories of weightlessness and the compensation techniques he used then, and he soon recovered.
The perspective was very strange, and it took a long while for P’Ko recognize the Mi’Nr that invaded his quarters. Not knowing his name P’Ko decided just to call him Number One, appropriate since he also seemed to be the one in charge. There were four others in this group; all their work uniforms still showed impacted dirt but dust free. The Prz’Nr’s must have gone through an air shower and blown clean of loose material. There will still be plenty of microscopic material embedded in the kill-vest for data to be collected and analyzed. They should be able to determine where they’re working by matching the dirt to known mining locations in the Mi’Nr’s database.
As the microbots power levels gradually crept up, the Prz’Nr’s took off their work overalls. The kill-vests were clearly visible, a glistening vest a few millimeters thick, looking almost like flexible metal, but when zoomed in was composed of a very tightly woven fabric of metallic and optical filaments. It will be a challenge to hop
onto it and cling to it as the soldiers place it the locker. P’Ko ordered the programmed application of the special adhesive to the microbot’s legs as it makes its jump. The adhesive, having been prepositioned on the underbelly of the microbot, in anticipation of this need.
The team watched as the kill-vests, sealed in place by what looks like a zipper up the back of the kill-vest, were unzipped, the zipper was activated by a soldier pressing a sensor near the center of the back of the kill-vest a few centimeters to one side.
By the time the third Prz’Nr had doffed his kill-vest the microbots power levels were ready, they could only stay overcharged for seconds before damage to the circuits occurred, the team prepared for the jump/grab ride onto the kill-vest as it was placed into the storage locker/charging station.
P’Ko had to get the microbot into just the right position at just the right time, all non-essential systems were powered off, the energy capacitors of the microbot’s systems were redlined, and the system temps were redlined when P’Ko initiated the jump-grab sequence. It was over in less than a second, and they rode the kill-vest into its storage/charging cabinet.
Once safely inside the locked kill-vest cabinet Tn’Ya ran her system checks and began a battery of tests, including the use of insect-sized beetlebot probes to explore the kill-vests harder to access recesses. She focused on collecting the data, the analysis would take longer. She collected data first on the kill-vest, its destructive power, its control mechanism and the locking system that holds it in place.
There was one close call during the kill-vest analysis mission, as safe as it sounded inside the locked storage cabinet did have a close call. A doffed kill-vest passive tamper detect system, tied directly into the destruct circuit was discovered almost at the point of tripping the destruct sequence. It was found that the kill-vests internal communication channels ran a continuously running self-diagnostic hashing sequence. Tn’Ya had to call in programmers and engineers to help with the data collection to ensure their sensor probes didn’t affect the self-diagnostic hashing system and set off an instant destruct sequence.
The data would be compiled and analyzed immediately, but it could be hours before the final results, including a possible way to disable or defeat these cruel, despicable devices would be available. Then with the little time remaining Tn’Ya collected data on the residual dirt that was left on the kill-vest to get an idea where the worksite might be located and what special materials might be that they are mining.
The team knew going in that the microbot wouldn’t be able to follow the Prz’Nr’s all the way to the mining site. It was just barely fast enough to keep up with a walking soldier or Prz’Nr for short distance. Keeping it up for very long risked disaster. Su’Zi confessed that she was lucky to keep up with the soldiers and keep from being stepped on during the initial entry into the Prz’Nr Vestibule. She didn’t want to risk a second, longer attempt.
The microbot is tough and could survive getting stepped on by a Prz’Nr, but the Prz’Nr would surely react and give away its presence. If stepped on by a soldier the microbot would be severely damaged or crushed, and its antimatter power source could catastrophically fail, destroying the microbot, along with all of its equipment, including the irreplaceable QECD. The fact that it would probably take a portion of the soldier’s foot along with it would be little consolation.
It had first been considered riding the kill-vest onto the Prz’Nr and then to the work site. That was decided as too risky; it would be virtually impossible to ride out the day without being noticed and discovered. Even though knowing the routes to the mining area and knowing about the mining area itself was important, and even prove critical to the resistances developing plans. They had no way of knowing how the Prz’Nr would react if they discovered the microbot inside their kill-vest or in a fold of their clothing. The surveillance system was tuned to monitor every move of the Prz’Nr’s and detect any telltale indications that something was amiss.
So instead of riding the kill-vest onto the Prz’Nr it was decided to sneak into the Prz’Nr’s’ cell unobserved by the soldiers and surveillance cameras. Then after lights out, establish contact with one of the Prz’Nr’s, once in communication, accompany them on their workday and complete the pattern of life data collection and analysis, tracing and timing routes, locations, and duties, then devise an escape plan.
All they had to do was get out of the kill-vest cabinet and to some safe hiding spot then sneak into the Prz’Nr’s cell.
There was a lot of anxiety about jumping to the floor. The engineers assured P’Ko, Su’Zi, and Tn’Ya that the microbot could handle the G’s from what amounted to a fall of a relative distance of several hundred meters, but the first person experience from the operator’s perspective was scary. The door opened and with others focusing on where the soldiers and the Prz’Nr’s were looking P’Ko focused on the leap.
As soon as he got the all clear. P’Ko launched the microbot out of the cabinet and for a moment there was the sensation of falling. When they hit, everyone could have sworn that they felt it physically. The microbot bounced, and P’Ko luckily managed to hit the deck running after the first bounce. Once safe in the corner and in protect mode, the team in the control room cheered and wanted to do it again.
Everything that they did now ran an even higher risk of detection. In spite of high the level of confidence among the resistances analysts that the soldiers and other surveillance systems were operating in a mode intended to monitor the Prz’Nr’s and not look for microbot infiltrators. The detection and loss of the microbot, with its QECS would be a devastating blow to the resistance. If captured, they were prepared to short the antimatter power supply and self-destruct the microbot, but it would be a loss that the resistance could hardly afford and wanted to avoid at all costs.
____________________________
With last night’s mission was a success, the kill-vest analysis determined that its lock transmits an unlock code generated and stored in the locking mechanism each time the kill-vest is worn. The unlock code is passed to a control point using a phase locked communications method whose communications encryption is relatively weak, but is very secure in that any tampering or attempts to intercept or monitor would be instantly detected, setting off an alarm and security response. There’s no nonvolatile RAM in the kill-vest, only volatile RAM storage tied to a detect tamper system linked directly to the destruct mechanism. The kill-vest is not fail-safe, it’s fail destruct, once the destruct sequence begins it will destruct unless phase locked communications from the command post is resumed and an abort destruct signal with the unlock code is received from the command post.
Tonight’s mission will be the most dangerous yet; it will leave the microbot exposed without cover longer and presumably there will be more surveillance devices where they will be going. P’Ko knew that it cost a significant portion of the resistance’s budget to build this first machine, building a second machine may be impossible.
P’Ko didn’t know if the resistance even possessed a second QECS. And a mistake would add months to the rescue attempt and likely result in the execution of the Prz’Nr’s. Failure was not an option. If successful, the resistance for the first time will have a system that can sneak into the CA’s most secretive meetings and find out what the CA and the CASS are up to. They could lift the veil of secrecy that surrounds so many of the doings of the CA and CASS, and finally, answer some of the most plaguing questions about Dadr’Ba.
P’Ko will be “driving” again with Su’Zi operating the defensive sensors and, hopefully, establish contact with one of the Prz’Nr’s. Tn’Ya was told that she’d have to sit tonight’s mission out, as much as she wanted to be there, she was under CASS surveillance, and they couldn’t risk raising the suspicion of the CASS by being “off their grid” too many nights in a row. She would be needed for later missions and can review the recording of tonight’s mission during the post-mission debrief and analysis later.
Having practiced
on a virtual simulation, P’Ko ran along the floor under the soldier’s feet. It’s fortunate that soldier’s steps are predictable, and they don’t need to see their feet walking, otherwise, it would have been hard to miss the microbot as it scampered back and forth between its feet, its adaptive camouflage fluctuating from the ebbing energy expenditure taxing its systems.
If P’Ko ran too fast, for too long, while sensors were running, he would lose too much energy and systems would quickly fail. Thankfully the failures are programmable, priority was given to motion, adaptive camouflage, and motion detect warning. Radar, EO (electro-optical)/IR (infrared) and HS (hyperspectral) had already been shut down. X-ray diffraction and neutron imaging/spectroscopy systems have been fully powered off and secured. They use too much power to allow movement and need a stable, static platform to operate optimally.
Now all those sensors were just dead weight, with the power running low P’Ko felt like he was operating at 4 G’s at Dadr’Ba’s lower levels with a Se’Ro’Bs on his heels. He dodged back and forth between giant feet, first of the soldiers and then of the Prz’Nr’s as he worked his way into the cell.
As difficult as it was to keep from getting stepped on by the soldier it was more difficult staying between the footfalls of the last Prz’Nr as he entered the cell following his four comrades. The Prz’Nrs must have been tired; his steps were labored and halting, unpredictable, which forced P’Ko to accelerate more quickly, more often and force the depletion of the microbots energy reserves more quickly.
P’Ko wished suddenly that Su’Zi was “driving” she was a better driver than he, but it was too late, there was no time to switch positions. Luckily P’Ko only needed to avoid a few steps.
The Prz’Nr was watching the back of his cell mate in front of him and not his own feet as they entered the cell. Had the Prz’Nr looked down and saw the microbot scampering underfoot and showed any notice or surprise the surveillance cameras looking down on the scene would have surely detected it. The resistance’s analysts had assured them that the surveillance systems monitoring the Prz’Nr’s are tuned to watch the Prz’Nr’s and their actions, not tuned to detect a micro-robotic intruder, and so far their assurances held true.
Dadr'Ba Page 35