While we were fighting the big Mack, the fabricators had kept working on the assembly drones we would use to disassemble said fabbers. As we went back into the base, four brand new drones waited for us.
Major Allen called the commander of the landing craft and told them to come back. I set the drones to work disassembling the manufacturing equipment, and the soldiers prepared them for transport to the landing craft.
At some point, I sneaked away and into the lab where Amanda had her mind uploaded into a Mack cyber-brain. I would not be able to steal the whole apparatus, but I managed to extract the software and take a few unused filaments of the type that went into the upload victim’s brain.
We worked into the night, and it turned out that the parts of four large Mack fabricators did not leave much room on the craft. There was no room left for the components of the teleport systems.
As we were done, the soldiers and Team Battle Bug trashed the facility. I did, however, not see anyone going down into the basement where the submarine pier presumably was. Sloppy.
I might come back soon to poke around in there. But first I had to look after Arina. The way back to Victoria dragged on and on, my impatience fueled by worry about her. Back in Victoria, I made some hasty arrangements about the handling of the fabbers. Then I jumped into my van and drove to the shelter, disregarding the alert that was still in effect.
The door was still open and I found Arina lying in the corridor. I managed to pick her up and drag her to the bed, then I plugged her charger in.
Arina blinked and seemed disoriented for a bit, then she recognized me. We asked each other simultaneously “Are you OK?”
I said “Mostly fine. Maybe some minor hearing damage from setting off that kami-drone nearby.”
While I filled her in on the events at San Juan Island, a message arrived that the emergence was over. Seconds later, internet and telephone started working again for everyone.
You made another 1166 points from HANAF’s Mack kills using the weapons you delivered. That brings your total balance to one token and 3112 points.
After the long and exhausting day, all I wanted was a few hours of sleep. Arina joined me in bed and I simply enjoyed her gentle embrace. Even the charging cable in Arina’s belly button was a welcome reminder of her presence.
Friday, October 30th 2048
I was on my way to Styx base to pick up Wendy. She had been stuck there during my absence, but now I would come and fetch her. The girl needed her own helicopter license, and I would give her the Variocopter as a company ride. At the moment, I chauffeured her like a parent would drive their kid around. Which was not all that satisfactory for either of us.
Wendy would start as manager of the new company as soon as possible, while I would spend most of my time at Styx Base and work on some projects I had neglected lately.
We had already chosen “Vanguard Enterprises” as the name. What started as a joke nine months ago was about to become reality.
In the late morning, I arrived. Wendy awaited me with a dozen Lesser Battlecats she had built in my absence. Which we had planned before, but it was still nice to see that she knew how to work with the fabricators.
“Hi Wendy” I greeted her. “I’d like to take a detour to San Juan Island and check out what is left of the Mack Base we raided yesterday. The Battle Bugs trashed most of it, but there is one thing they may have neglected.”
“And that is?”
“The submarine on which Shaver Bitch, err, Amanda arrived at the base. I never saw the Bugs go downstairs to destroy the basement inventory.”
“Sure, I’m curious too!”
This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it.
We loaded some equipment into the explorer, including a few Battlecats, and took off. Being a little paranoid, I sneaked in low, landed a few kilometers away from the Mack base and launched a Spectracopter for reconnaissance.
It soon turned out that the paranoia was justified. Light Macks of all types were swarming over the base area. Some kind of worker drones that seemed to try and repair the Type 32, but also a few dozen combat units. Those included some Type 28 sniper units that could get dangerous even at long ranges.
Conspicuously absent were the Type 21 units that would usually teleport the small ones in. No easy shit load of points today. Too bad because the Twenty-Eights were really the only thing that stood in the way of a major smackdown today. Melee units cannot reach a flying opponent.
But I had an idea. To Wendy I explained “We land behind that little hill over there and let the Battlecats go after the Twenty-Eights. Once they are busy with each other, we pop up and add our own fire from the Explorer’s turrets.”
“Sneaky.”
“Sure. No military commander worth her salt wants a fair fight.”
After a short detour we approached the aforementioned hill from the far side, carefully avoiding line of sight to the Macks. Wendy let the Battlecats out, who promptly made their way up the hill. At the top they crouched in front, but lifted their butts and peeked over the crest with the railguns in their tails.
The sound of whipcracks rang out, and on the video feed from the Spectracopter I could see sparks flying from the Twenty-Eights' carapaces. Mack eyes shattered and the sniper bots sagged to the ground. I lifted our aircar over the crest and the two turrets added to the destruction.
For Wendy’s benefit, I gave the next commands aloud. Among people who knew about Elya, I did no longer hide my discussions with her.
“Elya, kill the combat units but leave the maintenance types alone! Where possible, go for ranged kills!”
“What are you planning?” Wendy replied.
“Trying some advanced infiltration.” I took the Explorer higher to blast some Mack Battlecats from outside the range of their plasma casters. On the ground, my Battlecats slaughtered their way through the lesser Macks. It was gloriously one-sided.
You earned 1040 points for this little massacre.
Approaching the site, I asked “Elya, I’d like to plant some hidden software on the worker drones here, once we have subverted them. Something to take them over later.”
Over the air car’s sound system, Elya replied
“Your current cyberwarfare tools are more suited for overt intrusion. I recommend purchasing the Class I Network Intrusion Utilities catalog for 100 points, and the “Parasite” rootkit from the catalog for 50 points. It hides in the infected systems and waits there for commands.”
Wendy interjected “Like those hidden viruses they warned us about in our computer security classes?”
Like that, but the Parasite is more capable. Better at hiding and harder to eradicate.
I said “Yes, let’s do this.”
Class I Network Intrusion Utilities unlocked
Purchased: “Parasite” adaptive rootkit (software)
New balance… One token and 4012 points.
Once landed, I put my armor with the Mack-zapper on and leisurely strolled around the Mack drones, letting Elya hijack all of them. One died from circuit damage, but from the others I collected the blueprint and the software of the Type 32.
“Elya, can you make a software update for the Thirty-Two part of the repair procedure here?”
Of course.
“Ok, make it an update with pre-corrupted software. Mission of the parasite is to listen to outside signals and take command of the Thirty-Two on Wendy’s or my command. Uh, add Arina to the list just in case.”
Wendy seemed puzzled “I don’t understand. Why this complicated setup?"
“Right now, we don’t have the transport capacity for taking all this scrap with us. Especially not a thousand ton monster. So I’m gambling on it showing up again where we can actually use it. Call it Checkov’s Mack.”
Next on the agenda was a visit to the base, with the Battlecats taking point. The walk through the base was uneventful, with no major surprises in the parts I had visited before. The machinery was thoroughly trashed, but the building as such still stood solid. The Battle Bugs had ripped some cabling and pipes out of the walls, but not taken the time to destroy load bearing parts.
We went down the stairs where I expected to find a submarine pier. Found it too, but it was empty at the moment. There were some traces of recent usage though, such as wet footprints. Or what counted as footprints among murderbots.
Wendy mused “Could we perhaps bug the place for surveillance?”
“I like the idea, but I didn’t think about about bringing hidden cameras.”
With nothing left to do at the moment, we returned to the Explorer and took off for Victoria.