Book 4: Chapter 188: Cold Calculations and Hot Confrontation

Book 4: Chapter 188: Cold Calculations and Hot Confrontation

USD: A month after A3123Y departure.

Location: Nu Crateris, SRS Heavens Fire II, Rexxor CIC.

Heelers metallic tipped tentacles tapped rhythmically on the command console. It was difficult to maintain a constant stream of inputs on the dozen screens laid out before him mentally, so the addition of the physical controls had beenefficient. The cold, dim lights of the command bridge cast an eerie array of shadows throughout the space, emphasizing the alienness of the compartment.

Several of the Rexxor new-type nestlings sat on their haunches, staring at their own screens, a new set of tentacles rising from the back of their necks to tap at the different controls at their stations. A single human console had been an afterthought of an addition, bolted to the bulkhead beside Heelers command console.

The single human on the ship, Daniel Ashburn, sat contemplating a growing list of messages and seeing to the coordination with the humans and directing his own group of ship units that Heeler had granted him command over. If the man had any fear or distaste of the Rexxor preferred surroundings, the smell of humid meat, or the organic additions to the ships hull, he made no sign of them.

But Heeler could taste the humans fear and discomfort anyway. It was a grudging respect Heeler had to present to the human, and if the human did not let it show outwardly, Heeler was capable of ignoring what he could smell. For as long as it was necessary. Or useful. The man was exactly both, a human to deal with the humans was quite necessary.

At least if he did not wish to fail his mothers intentions.

Heeler turned his thoughts to the invasion barges which dominated his main display. He had calculated every possible scenario that could play out once the invasion barged reached Hades. His machine mind had run through countless simulations of the deployment until they had come up with the most effective strategies.

The need for victory pressed down on his carapace, the responsibility to make it happen weighed heavily. Heavier than when he had launched himself and his brothers to the stars, for his entire race was now bracing for an intense war into the nest of the Hadenics. To take it for themselves.

A chime drew his attention, and one of his sub-routines detected an anomaly in one of the barges propulsion systems. An angry hiss drew the attention of his brothers and a raised eyebrow from Daniel, but Heeler did not elucidate. Many errors had been detected in the barges due to the hasty construction.

Despite the precision of his machine mind, directing the many hundreds of thousands of construction bots had been a strain, and sub-routines that took care of each process were not infallible when things out of normal occurred.

A small impurity in an ingot casting could cause a defect in a thruster housing, which could cause premature failure of the engines more sensitive components due to vibrational issues with the plasma flow. It was just one example of a small issue compounding until it became a critical failure of a major system.

And yet they had done the impossible. The six great hive ships for the six remaining queens who had risen to the greatest power were complete. In the end, they had not been subdued by flame or rock, but by the mercy his Queen had blessed them with. The humans great ship carried the remnants of their race off the smoggy darkness of Dedia with his kin. Each ship was a city in itself, complete with a now functional Chi-level subcore.

His Queens vessel was twice as large as the other vessels, and all were ready to embark on their single planned journey to Hades surface where they would act as the nucleus for an invasion that had been long in the planning.

Heeler transmitted the need for a full diagnostic to his workers, and they obeyed. There could not be any more delay to their invasion. A scheduled update from Y-4993-R was due, and the previous days report had not been entirely positive.

Minutes turned to hours as Heeler watched the maintenance and repair work done on the faulty hive ship thruster. The report was overdue, but as Heelers patience finally run out, it arrived.

The news was as he feared; the Hadenics had redoubled their efforts again. Y49s territory inside the moon had diminished despite the copious amounts of bloodshed spent to hold it. More and more, the organic units of the sub-cores command had degraded from the insidious environment inside the artificial moon.

Automated units had been developed and deployed. Nestlings grown to pilot their drones had begun to outnumber those whose purpose was to breach the tunnels and unleash rockets and projectiles. It was a change. So, the Rexxor would change as well, as battlefield conditions demanded. Those who had survived were returned to safer zones where they could age and grow stronger, for when the need of close combat troops returned.

Each nest would deploy an army a thousand times larger than the forces Y-4993-R controlled. Each one would pierce the crust of the world and establish its own transport tube, engineered, and developed purely for the purposes of breaching the molten layer and allowing the Rexxor to flood the interior with thousands of vehicles of war and overwhelm the Hadenics once and for all.

USD: Several hours after arriving

Location: Meltisar, IFRB Interstellar Headquarters, Justice Building

The Corporate lawyer droned on and on, arguing for Alexs confinement for the remainder of the trial. The tension in the courtroom was palpableexcept to her. Her JAG lawyer had conferred with the Solarian one, and both had warned her this might happen, but not to worry. The IFRB judge had been reminded of the Meltisar Navys cooperation during the matter.

The Navy had provided a helpful reminder: the number of Navy Marines lining the walls at attention was only matched by the number of IFRB bailiffs that looked distinctly unhappy to be sharing their space with other armed personnel.

When the black uniformed Corpo argued that there was a high degree of certainty that she could cause further harm, and easily escape with the resources afforded to her. When he finally sat down, her lawyer stood up and began his rebuttal; reminding the court that she had come voluntarily. That no military force or police action had been required to bring her to the courtroom today.

She didnt flinch as the Drakars tail whipped through the benches of the courtroom to strike at her. The concrete beside her feet suddenly erupted upwards, slamming it to a stop before the rebar inside it was yanked out by force. The metal rapidly shifted to blue just before impaling the Drakars tail, eliciting a roar of outrage.

Ripping every local computation module into maximizing her ANUF node took half a second. She knew exactly how to allocate her points for this fight.

The tail whipped back, smashing the attached ball of metal and concrete into the buildings wall like a mace, shaking the entire structure. It whipped back to strike at her again, but suddenly froze mid-air.

Barely discernable blue tendrils wrapped around the appendage, dozens of them anchoring it from further movement along the walls edge. A fine cloud of blue dots began to form throughout the entire space, rapidly multiplying through the air until every dust particle was aligned.

Please, there is

The Drakar lunged forward; hits claw lined arm that was large enough to squash her plunged through the air to do just that. Alex reached up, the ground behind her erupted, mimicking her movement to slam into the aliens hand. It tried to swipe at her again, but suddenly was yanked sideways as more blue tendrils attached to the wall suddenly contracted.

Off balance the Drakar tried to snap at her, only for her to pull down a pillar of metal from the ceiling to smash it into the dragons back. Splinters of wood and debris flew into her tightly held nanite field to be dissolved.

Alex reached out and directed a new group of wires from the pillar to suddenly wrap the dragons wings before they could send a burst of wind at her. She closed her fist and suddenly the thin skin was turned into shreds, sending blood and destroyed leather flying.

The angry roar turned into a shriek of pain. She wasnt sure if dragons actually could breathe fire, but it didnt matter because she wrapped wires around its mouth and snapped it shut. A stress gauge showed the alien tried to struggle against it, but the harder it tried, the more damage it did to itself as the fine wires cut through armored scales like they were soft skin.

That was to be expected. Shed made sure theyd cut through starship hull plates when practicing.

Alex reached up and pulled down more bars of steel from the skylight. The poles stabbed into the ground around the Drakar, and wires erupted from them to tie themselves around each joint, pinning it to the ground.

Large, ember eyes stared rage at her.

She stared back, unimpressed. Are you done?

The desire to rip her to shreds was discernable in the aliens eyes. She leaned in closer. The Drakar seem like a very angry race, although I only have a test group of one.

H..how? Veliana finally spoke, approaching carefully.

Alex looked at her. How what?

Veliana reached out and a small purple ball of nanites formed, then fell on the Drakars claw. The light from them disappeared and a puddle of dead nanites flowed to the ground like sand.

Alex grunted. Nameless, delete any video feeds of this.

[Notice: All recording devices were disabled upon Drakar transformation, with the exception of Avatars and Velianas own visual.]

I dont understand. Drakar disrupt nanite cohesion at close range. Veliana continued.

Let me explain, Alex started.

Veliana looked at her expectantly.

Blue is better than purple, Alex said carefully. A smile appeared. Ill leave you to take care of the mess here.

Veliana looked like she was going to cry. H..how?