Book 1: Chapter 12: Losses

Book 1: Chapter 12: Losses

USD: ~Eight weeks after awakening

Location: Unknown Yellow Dwarf, L4 Lagrange Point

So how come we didnt see them before they got that close, and why are we being targeted now?

[Correlation: Possible detection during transit between debris clusters, or possible detection of high energy release of weapons fire during carrier pod boarding action.]

Hopefully its the latter lets not stay here any longer. We really dont need another meeting with more Hunter-Killer gunship drones.

The screen on the Workshops display flipped over to navigational, displaying their position and that of the numerous other debris clouds nearby. Alex reached down and zoomed out. The star system had only one orbital body around the yellow dwarf, a gas giant. It was impossibly far away without the Linear Drive, so any destination was going to be another debris cloud or a nearby orbit of the sun.

One of the debris clouds near the center of the Lagrange point highlighted in yellow.

[Suggestion: Gravitational Anomaly detected in Debris Cluster #32, low energy transit possible in 36 hours. Anomaly corresponds to high likelihood of intact nanite technology.]

Alex considered for a moment. Nanite based tech would probably not shoot them on sight. Everything Federation made really didnt like them. All of the wreckage they had found had been Federation so far, without so much as a hair of nanite stuff.

That indicated to Alex who had been the clear winner in the confrontation. The big boss AI had probably left without a scratch, leaving Nameless here in hibernation for some reason. Daddy AI was a very bad parent to have left her alone and stranded like this, and if she ever found him, she was definitely going to complain.

Ok, let's head to DC#32 then. I trust you to not let any other nanite things turn me into a matte white goop ball.

[Notice: This units loyalty is to ShipCore, attempts to damage Avatar by other units would be considered a hostile act.]

Im glad you feel that way. Can we go over the damage? Also, I think we need to prioritize repairs to weapons, and then the linear drive, we need to be able to shoot back and maneuver at least. That could have gone a lot better.

[Affirmative: Repair priorities shifted. Missile tubes #A #B #C #D report operational, Antimatter-catalyst type missiles ready for loading.]Follow current novels on novelb((in).(com)

[Interrogative: Load bow missile tubes?]

Are the autoloaders working properly?

[Affirmative.]

Keeping missiles armed and in the tubes was not the safest practice. A hit to a loaded missile could cause them internal damage and the magazine racks were stored inside multiple layers of heavy armor, much like the CIC.

But the autoloader for Rail #2 had failed in the fight, so Alex wasnt prepared to trust the repairs fully yet.

Go ahead and load them. Well keep them loaded until we have all our weapon systems and the Linear Drive functional at least.

[Confirmation: Loading Tubes #A-#D. Antimatter-catalyst type. Repair Drones tasked with weapon systems repair duties, dispatched drones returning with acquisitions and tasked with Linear Drive repair.]

[Informative: ZnSe acquired, awaiting smelter upgrade for alloying process.]

[Notice: Damage to cargo bay, notable supply losses occurred. Please review manifest. Also complete loss of POWs, recommend returning flow lines to Hydroponics.]

Alex started to cheer their acquisition of the laser lens material before she froze at the second bit. The three POWs that had still been in their cryopods were in the cargo bay when it had been hit by the railgun round.

I they

She had considered moving the cryo-pods into Hydroponics, it would have cleared more space in the bay for hull plates, but she had been so preoccupied with directing the repair bots that she had dropped it in favor of getting the ship in shape. It was partly her fault that they had been in

No.

It wasnt her fault, she didnt choose to fire railguns at the ship, nor had she attacked anyone except in self-defense. She would not blame herself for things out of her control. They started it, she finished it. If they wanted to have a grudge against her because of her origin, she was going to make sure the Shrike was well prepared to fight back against any aggression.

I should go check on Elis. Double check that the pods arent just floating out in space, please?

Alex tried to smile at the guarded look Elis gave her as she entered the Medbay. The medidoc had fallen over apparently, and the box of rations had spilled out all over the floor leaving the plastic packs scattered everywhere. Alex immediately lifted and righted the heavy mechanical doctor without a problem. Mercifully, the storage compartments containing medical things had stayed locked shut.

Elis had moved from her improvised cot to one of the treatment chairs and had strapped herself in. That was smart, the ship had shaken quite a bit during the combat.

Alex waved at the other girl, Hi, how are you?

Im fine, although if you are going to go into combat its not legal to leave prisoners without vacuum equipment.

|| Sub|Astrogation: Marginal |

|||Ter|FTL Waveform: Nominal |

|||Ter|RCS 102/128 |

|||Ter|Linear Drive Thruster: Offline |

|| Sub|Aviation: OFFLINE |

|||Ter|Aerodynamics: Compromised |

|||Ter|MPVT Accelerators: Marginal |

Ok great. So FTL is fine.

[Negative: This ship has no astrogation data on current system, nor any federation astrogation data. Please review Waveform drive operational manual for details.]

Uhh, can you just give me the quick run down?

[Informative: Waveform FTL drives require detailed observation of intra-system for extended periods of time before proper waveform cohesion can be achieved. This requires dedicated sensors. Estimated time to acquire needed data: 32 years once improved sensors are acquired.]

Alex froze with her mouth open, that kind of time frame might have made sense to an AI, but to her that was probably a quarter of her lifespan! She looked down at her hands and started counting fingers. It was 192 times longer than she had been alive!

Uhh, dont we have other options, or can I dont know, setup a million sensors and make it faster?

[Negative: Data requires time length for correlation to nearby connection points. Please refer to technology specification manual.]

Alex sighed, she punched her overlay and looked for the stupid book and found the relevant passage.

|Linear Waveform Drive: A type of FTL technology that allows ships to supercruise along highways between stars. Years of gravimetric data are required to tune the system, and this observation must be repeated once in the destination system in order to establish a return connection. Exploration teams are often sent on decades long ventures on large self-sustaining vessels for the duration. Attrition rates for exploration crews are very high, and highly competitive posts due to their lucrative pay schemes. |

Well, thats fucked, this star isnt even inhabited. We dont even have data on other systems, so even if we go to one we might end up worse off than before since wed be going blind. Maybe we could pull gravimetric data from an intact Federation ship? Although I do not like our chances on finding one that didnt have its computers scrubbed it seems like it was standard practice.

[Notice: Alternative Nanite FTL option available. Please review.]

|Slipstream Drive: A vastly superior and hyper-advanced FTL technology where a ship creates a stable wormhole to another point in space. Requires vast amounts of processing power to calculate the required parameters in real time to achieve a stable connection. Other ships can pass through while the initiating ship maintains it, and the wormhole takes some time to destabilize after being opened. Transit time is instantaneous. |

Did did you just write this for me? Vastly superior and hyper-advanced that sounds like something you would say about yourself, bragging.

[Informative: This is an adequate description of the merits of Nanite technology.]

So how do we get one of those on the Shrike?

[Informative: Shrike mass inadequate. This unit has detected adequate mass in orbit of this systems gas giant in the form of multiple rocky moons. Recommend assimilation.]

Haaa. Ok, spending decades on something that might work or start re-arranging solar anatomy. Got it. Something well have to think about later, because I think we would need way more repair drones before thinking about anything like that.

[Agreement: This unit has begun design work on multiple new mobile drone units to improve ShipCore efficiency.]

You dont already have schematics for that kind of thing?

[Informative: Nanite ships are generally solid constructions and utilize nanites in most processes. This unit has insufficient processing power to control sufficient numbers of nanites for such actions, and ship assimilation and conversion has been canceled.]

Oh. Thats why you wanted to make a bigger ship. You need more processing power and it doesnt fit.

[Affirmative.]

Maybe we can just make better computers that fit in less space?

[Confirmation: Improved computronics can be synthesized with adequate rare resources.]

[Recommendation: Expansion of Internal Shrike Hull for additional ShipCore processing compartments.]

Thats not a bad idea. We can use more nanites and speed up fabrication and smelting, plus whatever else you do.

[Notice: ShipCore expansion scheduled on priority processing list.]