“Well, the boys in the lab have come to an agreement, this pretty little slab is indeed some sort of data storage. Unfortunately, we can’t decode it, even worse, this is the most complete piece, which means that any data we can recover is probably incomplete.” The group of officers that occupied the room simply stared at the speaker, completely silent as the nature of the statement sank in.
“With that in mind, our resident Teal’c knockoff has been more than willing to… overshare in the field of intelligence.” The screen behind the colonel flickered as the original image of the slide was replaced with a mug shot of the alien woman, apparently in the process of arguing of arguing with someone off-camera. “as a result we have a pretty good idea as to what we are dealing with, which is to say an incredibly aggressive grey goo scenario that has been spreading across the entire galaxy and has now made its way to our corner of the universe.” That revelation of course sent a jolt through the room. “Fortunately we have an edge, as of now local authorities have begun a staged round-up of individuals with exceptionally high exposure. Unfortunately, bits of metal have gone down all over Eurasia.”
“In even worse news the Commander of the ‘bugs’ has escaped.” The screen flickered again to reveal the image of a gaping hole stretching deep into the ground.
“So we haven’t been able to get anything of value?” A greying American asked.
“No, I wouldn’t say that.” The colonel snapped, “With consideration of the variation of exposure we have elected to begin targeted operations on a selection of people, chief of which is one Laura Irons, exceptionally high expose with an entire arm being converted, at this point she is our primary target.” The colonel relaxed as the officers sat back, apparently accepting his answer.
With a protracted screech, the van came to a halt with Laura flopping out of the door like a limp fish. Getting up to her knees she stared at the place where it all started. Before her was the crater, although the lump of metal had long since been removed. Trudging over the clinking carpet of shattered bottles, Laura came upon one of the small sheds that dotted the edge of the dam. She slumped onto a chipped plastic bench as she let the data finish settling in. Laura gripped the table, feeling as if the land itself was rolling from side to side. Squeezing her teeth together until they felt like they were about to crack, the robots behind seemed to stiffen at the behaviour of their commander, though their programming didn’t allow for such responses, at least in theory. After several seconds Laura sighed, her whole body slowly unwinding as she rose to her full height, turning back to the cluster of robots she eyed the two fabricators who she had saved from her FOB. With a mental command, the two robots lurched into a forward march. Laura grimaced, far too much time had been wasted. In a game of exponential growth deciding to wait before taking meaningful action was a death sentence, Laura’s grimace turned into a scowl, and now there were at least two other competitors loose on the city outskirts, not to mention the military actively hunting her, with that in mind there was no choice but to go to ground. After several minutes Laura ceased her brooding to observe the task at hand, accessing the ‘eyes’ of one of the fabricators, she watched as it deployed its beam, the murky water boiling along its path as it slowly laid down the beginnings of a solar panel, albeit a slightly modified one, with a click the process completed and the solar panel zipped out of view, appearing ton Laura’s real eyes a moment later as it breached the surface of the water about 500 meters from shore. While the first was laying down more solar panels the other had completed two mines and was now moving onto the beginnings of this project’s central purpose, the robot started by clearing the mud away, recycling the mass for later use, after clearing a 8X4 meter box it began to lay down the basics of walls, the alien steel growing over the exposed bedrock, turning away from the dam, Laura spoke.
“Alex, you know how you said you couldn’t construct a com device for Kaylee?”
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the AI replied evenly.
“well, can you build an external device for me?”
“Outstanding!” Laura crowed, a low, ominous laugh following a moment later.
Half an hour later
“Sir, we have swept the building.” Martin rose from the desk and turned to face the source of the distraction, the mercenary, like the rest of the dozen or so men in the immediate area he had taken to the local wardrobe, one with a minor alteration in the nature of the heavy jacket that disguised a holstered pistol, along with a variety of other tools. Martin smiled. “Have you found anything?” The soldier nodded and strode out of the apartment, motioning for his commander to follow as he did. As they descended into the building Martin glanced across the several other men who had taken positions around the elevator, foyer and in the ‘basement’ and more specifically the hole burrowed into the side of the wall, stepping through he smiled, so this was where this rat had been hiding.
“Alright, log it, bug it and watch it. Ok team, let's get out of here before someone starts asking awkward questions.” The several men that were currently scattered around the room gave quick nods before bundling their equipment up into their packs and concealed pockets rapidly clearing the space within a few seconds. As soon as the room was empty he turned to one of the fabricators, reaching into his pocket he retrieved a small etched disk from his pocket that was smaller then his hand. Placing his hand along with a small limpet-like device on the side of the machine. Withdrawing his hand he watched as arms extended from the device and the machine got to work. As he watched several stubby arms extend from the device, there was a hum and the lights along the machine flickered before becoming still. With that, Martin turned and strode towards the exit, humming a low marching tune as he went.
From across the street Laura watched as the men filtered out of the building and dispersed into the crowd, pulling the coat she had pilfered from a bargain bin she quickly jogged across the street and shot through the doorway into the apartment block, padding up to her room Laura gave the space a quick scan before relaxing slightly, as far as she could tell the room was unchanged. Not that she was inclined to trust that there weren’t any ‘surprises’. Closing the door behind her, Laura flopped down into the chair and let out a sigh, quickly opening the computer she began flicking through the computer and started quickly downloading documents onto a hard drive, jumping up she began to pile some clothes into an old duffle bag. At this point, she figured that she was definitely being chased, the men that had filtered out of the apartment were proof enough, the only question being; who else? Odin definitely was, the bugs possibly could if they figured out how to move freely in cities. Laura shivered slightly at the idea of unknowable creatures crawling through the sewers, peeking out of drains and… Laura quickly quashed that thought as she continued to pile up a spare jacket. Zipping the bag shut Laura shot up and began striding towards the exit.
“Sir, the target has arrived.” Came the report, inside the van one Maxwell Archer leaned back in his seat, so far his stakeout had already been crashed by a mob of men who’d apparently also had the bright idea to bug the joint. The paperwork for that alone was going to be a problem in of itself on top of the mountain of paperwork that was inevitably coming his way. As if that wasn’t enough of a problem there was a screech from behind as the back of the van, turning around, Max frowned as Garrett clambered into the vehicle.
“And what the hell are you doing here?” He snapped, already feeling something of a migraine already ensuing. “Hi Max, just popped in to see how it was going, figured that I could lend a hand.” The man replied, mouth stretching into a slightly to stiff grin. “Garrett, you can’t be here!” he hissed, a vein on his head observably pulsing. “that’s your girlfriend. You can’t be here doing the fucking surveillance.” At the very least Garrett had the common decency to look a bit sheepish. “Look mate, I’m sure my girlfriend isn’t some world-class threat, she just got sprayed with some weird goo.” Max rolled his head back.
“Whatever you think, our. MY orders are to track her, figure out her supply centres, and bring her in. By force if necessary.”