by Chris Hechtl
“What's going on?” Sharon whined as Miss White put a mask on her.
“Never you mind your pretty little head. We're about to get this job done,” Miss Red said, handing her a back pack.
“It's heavy,” the girl said, hefting it.
“So it is. So is mine. You've got this too as pack mule. Keep up or I'll kick your ass and tell Shren.”
“You don't have to be mean about it,” the girl whined, taking up the carryon luggage as well.
“Bishop Two, wake Queen and tell her to let the “Boogeyman” loose,” Mister Black ordered.
“On the way,” Mister Gray, aka Bishop Two, replied, jacking into the computer. He reached over to touch Queen's case with his free hand. He inserted his index finger into a universal port acting as a bridge. He felt the A.I. rush through him, along with her junkyard dog and boogeyman, then thousands of skittering spider bots and other virtual constructs. “Damn what a rush,” he gushed out.
“He on something?” Mo asked, jerking his thumb to the cyborg.
“He's doing his job. Mind your own business and do yours,” Jock growled, finishing his weapons check. He didn't like plastic guns, but that was what they had managed to get through security.
“Boogeyman is off his leash and is away,” Mister Gray said as he unleashed the second and more vital part of their cyber-attack.
<===@^{:::}{<
A.I. throughout the area pitched in to see what was going on. The military A.I. immediately attempted to help the station managers. But when Boogeyman was unleashed, it triggered secondary viruses in the chips that had been seeded through the docks by the Black Pawns. These viruses emulated Boogeyman, which was every A.I.'s worst nightmare, an emulation of Skynet.
Skynet and a Xeno Wraith virus were the terror of every A.I. To be suborned, turned into a puppet, and discarded was a fear no A.I. could fully handle. Every A.I. in the system was aware that the Wraith virus had somehow gotten through the ansible and had been hiding in the networks like an unseen shark. When reports of Skynet were broadcast by near hysterical A.I., others who heard the warning thought it was a mistake, a misidentification.
But they had to do something to protect themselves, so they threw up firewalls.
Sprite and other A.I. also heard the warning and heeded it. But after her firewalls went up, Sprite crafted bots and sent them out to help clean the system while she also alerted the cyber team and Protector that something was seriously wrong.
<===@^{:::}{<
Leopold had been offline in his sleep time when the docks erupted into chaos. Fortunately, an A.I. wakes far faster than a human. Unfortunately, Leopold's first sight once he entered the dockside contacts that still remained was the warning of a virus in the system, then the word, Skynet.
That was quickly followed by something black and dangerous consuming his system resources. He cut the dock side feeds and threw up a buffer but the damn virus was already inside.
Leopold knew his history. Skynet or the Xeno Wraith, whatever it touched, it consumed and made its own. He ran deeper into his own network, throwing bots to build firewalls up as it set off the alarms.
As he retreated he saw the virus replicating at an alarming rate. It overwhelmed his systems, so he continued to retreat. When a tendril of code caught him, he severed the module that had been caught, and then withdrew into his final bunker, his A.I. cores.
Once he was inside, he severed the connections to the ship's core. The crew would be on their own until someone stopped the thing.
<===@^{:::}{<
Boogeyman was a dumb A.I. controlled by Mister Gray, Miss White, and most important of all, Queen. Queen had crafted the viral A.I. centuries ago to fulfill a simple task, to drive an A.I. into a fear-induced withdrawal of the network, thus leaving its resources and memory up for grabs.
By Leopold's surrendering the playing field, she through Boogeyman gained access to it. And with Boogeyman and her own cracking skills, she gained control making each network node her own. She took the precaution of reprogramming them to her and the team and then used the added power to take over additional sections of the network.
She initiated one of her priority tasks within the first minute. She located and locked down the brig, armories, and morgue in the ship. She deliberately triggered their intrusion alarms so that they would hard lockdown, and once they had done so, she sent pulses of energy to scramble their electronics to prevent entry.
While she was doing that, Boogeyman and her bots took over sections of the ship with the most crew and then vented them to space, sucking people out into the void if they were near the hull and an open air lock, or into unconsciousness and death if they were only nearby. Many were still in their bunks and had only moments of air to realize they were about to die without ever knowing why.
A second task was also achieved as she set off alarms of a fuel leak and began false-feeding information to the bridge. Concerned over a plasma leak tearing the ship apart, the skeleton watch on the bridge issued orders for damage control.
Queen and Boogeyman mapped each command as it was sent out and then overlaid their own commands as they took over the comm systems to and from the bridge. Mister Gray sent a warning of an impending reactor meltdown to flush power room crews out and away from their stations. Miss White followed that up by locking the compartments down and then sealing them to prevent entry.
Some on the skeleton crew first thought the alarms were some sort of drill or prank, but when people started dying around them they scrambled to get off the ship or into their suits while others reached through the net for orders or followed their training.
<===@^{:::}{<
“Sir, we've got a major cyber intrusion throughout the dockside nets. The ships in dock are severing their connections. It's not them. It's big and it's bad,” a tech said.
“What the hell is it?”
“It … looks black. Scary. I caught something before it turned on me. I got out of there, sir. The A.I. are saying pull the plug. Something about Skynet?”
“Skynet?”
“Could it be the Wraith? A clone of the Xeno Wraith that got through the ansible?” another tech demanded.
Lieutenant Ulster paled. “Get cybernetic help. Get a clear answer from the A.I.s. Sound the cybernetic attack alert. Sever the links to the other stations and the ships. Then someone get on the radio to command and give them a SITREP. Use a comm whisker, no data transfer.”
“Yes, sir.”
“Spirits of space help us if it's the real thing. I don't know what we can do to stop it.”
“Well, we could start by unplugging the systems,” the first tech said.
“The systems run the station,” the second tech argued. “Shut them off we lose life support,” she pointed out.
“One thing at a time. We've got procedures for this. Pull them up and follow them,” the lieutenant barked.
“Aye aye, sir,” the first tech said nodding as he put words to action.
“Aye sir, on it,” the second tech said, settling herself as she got to work.
Ali frowned then pulled up the procedure in his implants. He wasn't sure if it would work, and one of the things on the list was indeed to shut down infected systems, destroying them if necessary. “Spirits of Space there is going to be hell to pay over this,” he muttered.
<===@^{:::}{<
Sharon realized something very wrong was going on, something beyond the quick in and out they'd promised her. No one was supposed to be hurt, and from what she'd overheard, bad things were going on. Very bad things. She also knew deep down it was on her. “This … it's your doing,” she accused, glaring at Miss White. “What the hell? I thought you were going to drop off drugs or something! Steal something!”
“I forgot about our little bird. Sloppy,” Mister Black murmured conversationally, looking back at the girl and then on to their destination.
The girl stopped towing the package she'd been assigned and stopped in the middle of the companionway b
locking the others. Mister Tan cursed. “Out of the way, bitch!”
“Or you'll what?” she demanded. “Shren isn't here is he?”
“No, he's not. If you ever want to see him again, keep moving,” Miss Red hissed at her, glaring.
“I don't think I am,” the girl said, stiffening. Her eyes widened. “You are going to blow up this ship! This is some sort of suicide mission.”
“No, we're jacking it. Now move,” Miss Red snarled, brusquely pushing the girl along.
“Then what? When you get out … I won't have Shren, I won't have Bliss …”
“Deal with it later. Move lady,” Miss Red said, pushing her along. “Liability here,” she caroled to her boss.
“Don't I just know it. She's past her shelf life it seems. Deal with her,” Mister Black said regretfully.
Sharon realized she was in trouble and tried to dart away, leaving her case behind. She shrugged off her backpack and tried to throw it at her pursuer as she ducked down a side corridor. She got out a scream and a Wi-Fi alert signal just as Miss Red pounced on her from behind with a curved plastic knife. One stab in the back and another in the front was all that was needed to stifle the girl's protests. The girl slumped.
“Deal with the body and get back on track,” Mister Black said, still moving forward.
“You and you,” Miss Red said, pointing to two of Team One as she ripped the girl's mask off then picked up the body in a shoulder sling. “You take her gear and mine and get to the bridge. You with me,” she said, indicating Jock. Jock grimaced but obeyed. He wasn't willing to admit it, but the blood soaked woman scared the hell out of him.
“We better hurry. The little bitch got an emergency security alert off,” Mister Gray snarled. The others turned to him, and he shrugged. “The scrambler is off. We need to remain in Wi-Fi contact, remember?”
“Frack,” Mister Black said, picking up the pace.
They found a closet to ditch the body in, dumped her, then Miss Red shut it. She grimaced at the blood on her clothes, looking over her shoulder as much as she could. “Is it bad?”
“Yeah. Red in name and clothes it seems,” Jock said as they trotted back the way they'd come.
“Frack it,” Red said, unzipping and then pulling the top of her coverall down before she wrapped the arms around her waist. “Better?”
“Yeah. Except the blood on the floor. Somehow I doubt it matters much though with all the alarms going off,” he warned.
“It might. It still might,” she said. “Come on, pick up the pace,” she ordered.
He stifled a groan as he trotted along behind her. She was definitely one lady he didn't want to cross.
<===@^{:::}{<
“We've got a security alert on board, Captain,” Commander Montoya said. “It was brief and has a flat line attached. Security has been alerted, but they are busy with whatever is going on at the docks,” she said.
“Tell me something I don't know. What the hell is going on with Leopold?” Captain J'ck'zR'll demanded. He looked up with all four eyestalks, but there was no response. “It's like he's not even there. I can't raise him at all. Is he sulking?”
“It came from a woman, sir, a janitor—a security alert. We can't access the feed; the net is screwy. But her vital signs just flatlined,” the XO reported grimly.
The captain clacked his mandibles. “Alert security to her location. Where was she headed?”
“I've just gotten into the net for a peek. According to the alert, the bridge, sir, with a large group of janitors,” Chief Young reported, anticipating the question. “I think I remember seeing them in passing a little while ago, sir. They've got a lot of gear with them. They said they were headed to the bridge,” he said ominously as connections started to form in his and the captain's mind.
“Damn it,” the captain said, realizing what it could mean. “Alert the bridge. Lock this ship down. We've been boarded,” he buzzed angrily. “Security alert. Battle alert!” he called out, all eyes to the nearest camera.
There were no answering klaxons or alerts. “This is not a drill …,” he buzzed again, then reached out with his implants and entered the net. He saw something rampaging within the network. It was jet black and buzzing with rage. He managed to use his officer implants to get the alert off before he quickly withdrew.
“What the devil was that?” he demanded.
“A demon? Something nasty and not Leopold,” the XO replied. “And it's got control of the ship's network.”
“We're in serious trouble here,” a tech muttered behind them.
“Tell me something I don't know. We need to get into engineering, sir,” Chief Young said insistently.
“Do it,” the captain said, waving a truehand. “Report back over comms if you have to. Relay if you can't use the ship's comm network,” he ordered.
“Aye aye, sir,” Chief Young stated, taking off at a trot.
<===@^{:::}{<
“We're hitting resistance,” Knight One observed cool and professionally as he moved in and took a bewildered Neodog out before he could react. “It's slowing us down.”
“Gas ‘em. Everyone masks,” King ordered, pulling out a thin translucent mask and slipping it over his face. A band went over his ears and around his head to hold it on. The edges sealed against his face and the mouth part expanded slightly to give him room to work his mouth and jaw. The nose reformed into a rounded pair of nostrils. After a moment the mask's translucence faded into the image of a skull.
“Cool,” Mo murmured, hastily putting his on.
Jock grunted as he did the same. The black eyes freaked him out. So much for stealth he thought as the Knights began popping gas grenades and dropping them into air intakes. Knight Two found a life support room on the deck and took his pack over to it, leaving the rest of them behind.
“You're sure the scrubbers won't filter it out?” he asked, voice slightly muffled by the mask.
“Take a look yourself,” Bishop Three said as they continued to walk. He pointed casually off to his left. Jock looked to see a couple of sailors slumping to their knees then keeling over with their hands to their throats.
“What the hell is in that?” Jock demanded.
“You don't want to know. Just be glad it works. Make sure you shower the first chance you get. Thoroughly,” the hijacker warned.
“Yeah, I'll, um, remember that,” Jock mumbled.
Their control of the local life support allowed the team to feed knockout gas into the air system. But the bridge had been alerted that something was up. A marine sentry knelt and shot at them, taking out the Pawn on point. Knight One tossed a small grenade into the opening, taking a shot in his shoulder for the exposure.
The flashbang went off, momentarily stunning the marine long enough for the group to get in closer and fire with deadly effect.
The short but vicious fire fight with the dazed marine lasted only a few seconds more before Knight Two blew his head off. The marine had been the only armed individual on the bridge they realized when they rushed past his body onto the bridge. Everyone else on the bridge was cowering down behind their stations. Methodically Miss Red and Mister Brown went around the room and killed any nonhumans left. Only two put up enough resistance to be of note but neither managed to get within striking distance. Their reaction times were compromised by the gas exposure. Those ratings who tried to run were easily gunned down.
When the brief execution ended, there was only one wounded human survivor on the bridge. Knight Two firmly taped the dazed Asian male into a ball and left him under watch.
“Bridge is secure,” Miss Red said triumphantly as she stood. “The knockout gas is either too thin or not effective against them though. They weren't completely out,” she warned.
“The bridge might be on its own life support circuit,” Bishop Three warned.
“Check that,” King ordered.
Mo slapped his massive hands together, startling the trigger happy group into glaring at him. “Hot damn, we
did it,” he said with a shit eating grin.
“Don't jinx it. This isn't even the hard part,” Mister Gray, aka Bishop Two, replied as he pulled the A.I.'s box in and plugged her back into the ship's network right next to the ship A.I.'s pedestal. His hands busily ripped at velcro pouches to pull ODN cables out. Once he had a pile he started to plug them into the various ports on the A.I.'s box and the other ends into the ship's computer network.
“What's the hard part then?” Mo demanded.
“Getting control of the ship and getting out of here.”
“Oh. You would say that,” Mo said, making a face. He glanced at Jock. Jock was standing by the door.
“Any other stupid questions? No? Get by the door and stay there until we have something else for you to do,” Miss Red snarled.
Mo grunted and then went over to his surviving teammate. “I guess they don't care about the bodies,” he stage whispered.
“You do? We can deal with them later. First things first, we secure the ship,” Jock said. “The dead can wait a little while longer,” he said simply.
Miss Red looked up and over to them, nodded once and then went back to securing the other doors with tack welds to the hatches.
<===@^{:::}{<
Queen did a rough assessment of the situation as she reined Boogeyman in to get a dump of its files. She logged the access and map and sent copies to each of the human techs with her.
The guild had exploited carefully crafted and hidden back doors in the Federation coding for centuries. She'd found out about them long ago, and passed their codes and locations on to her team while also embedding them into modules for Boogeyman to use. His seemingly ability to get around any firewall had lead great credence to the threat that he was a Skynet or Xeno Wraith attack.
Unfortunately, the A.I. hadn't taken down Leopold. It had inflicted some damage, most likely repairable. Some of the damage she and Boogeyman were inflicting to the net was also doing damage. The A.I. was distributed between dozens of A.I. computer cores on the ship. Taking down enough of them would damage the A.I. more, possibly beyond his ability to self-repair.