“I calculate there was a 63.7 percent chance we could have been destroyed with that grenade, and we would have if the front of the structure would have been built more solidly; the explosion would have been directed inward, at us.” Reverend Jo tells me while they’s sittin’ cross-legged at our make-shift camp along the ridge line of the mountains, overlooking a rough shallow sea. We rode hard for four hours straight, pushing Deadeye as fast as it could go, until I needed some coffee to help me stay awake. I feel bad about almost blowing up the reverend, so I don’t say nothin, and try to look busy with my coffee making.
“I figure the best way for us to cross the water is on the tidal-flats when the tide is at its lowest,” but there is a catch and it’s the part I don’t say out loud, see; if we are caught out there when the tide comes back in, we will find ourselves on the water, extremely choppy water with towering waves that’s not suitable for riding over. In addition to that, being knocked under by a wave will likely smash us to pieces on the rocks. And because that water is so treacherous, sailing on the seas on Blasted Lands is considered an extreme sport and only the craziest some-bitches even try. However, I believe this is the best way to avoid the coastal towns. And when I say, ‘coastal towns,’ I mean towns that are kinda on the coast, but there are very few places that are pleasant enough on Blasted Lands for actual coastal settlements, like the kind they have on the home world of Hope. Most places on the coast that are suitable for a town are high up on a cliff or the mountain side. I know it’s confusing, I call the star ‘Hope’ because that’s what it’s called but I call the planet ‘Hope’ too, but that’s more of a general area than an actual planetary designation; the planet is called ‘New Terra,’ which is stupid and no one ‘round here calls it that.
“Comms are extremely throttled, so I ran a passive app to scan for something I was suspecting, all comms on-world and the off-world relays are being funneled through a third-party filter system. I believe it is the Sagittarius Protocol.”
“The what say you, Jo?” As I sip on my cowboy coffee, not too bad really.
“It is the newest, most technologically advanced digital information filter system; designed to screen out Sentient code that is being transmitted off-world, or on-world so the code can’t be duplicated or preserved. It is a tool and weapon of the Hunter-Seekers, they are likely here now, in orbit. They won’t be in a high geostationary orbit, but they will be in a high orbit for maximum communication capability with relative tactical optimization for sending in drop ships if needed. The side effect is that comms are throttled down and limited to a debilitating level for society to function normally. They are closing the net on us, so to speak.” Jo says all this, while glancing upward toward the heavens. “This is not new in concept, we used the first generation of this right after the war ended, the newest iteration is likely gen six or seven. Would you like to know the odds I calculate for us surviving all of this?”
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“Nope, can’t say I’m terribly keen on knowing that info, Jo. But I tell you what, you be careful with your uplinking and poking ‘round in there, they gonna track us down if you do one tiny slipup. But I’m wondering, they got a name for this procedure and all, so how often do Sentients go rogue?”
“I do not know, that information is behind a military grade security wall; it would take a military-grade quantum computational system to do a brute force breach, and it would still take weeks, but by that time, the attack would be traced, and troopers would be sent to the location to eliminate the threat. But it can easily be inferred that if there have been any rogue Sentients, every single one has been eliminated since the end of the Great Machine War.” Jo says while looking at me with them human looking, but not so human looking eyes. “Also, your bounty has gone up after the troopers found the body of Bighands Ben and for killing those Big Dawg members by blowing up the front of that building.”
“Well anyways, I figure there is little to no safe refuge for us anywhere on the whole damn planet now. I’m getting push notifications that Dahlia messaged me, but I don’t dare open it. I figure it most definitely has a tracer on it, if’n it is even her and not some bounty-hunter trick or tactic of the Hunter-Seekers. I know the Hunter-Seekers aren’t interested in me, but they will use whatever tricks they can to get… Do you detect this?” I’m referring to my implants detecting a drone flying a little too close to our location and making another pass. So, I dial in my range with my pistol because my scatter gun won’t have the range, I synchronize my pistol, hand and eye implant and I put a shot right through it… on the second try. “That wasn’t a rancher’s drone, it looked trooper to me and armored a little but fortunately this new pistol is way more powerful than my old one. Either way, we best get moving. If they didn’t scan us in detail, it certainly gives them something to investigate, so they’ll be sending a patrol.”
“I’ll risk doing a more powerful scan.” Says Jo as they close their eyes and concentrate. “That nearby town, Tortuga I believe, I detect two hoverbikes traveling rapidly, directly for this vector. Both riders are heavily armored and armed with high-powered weaponry.”
“It’s a trooper patrol, let’s move. Likely, they already scanned us,” even though we are masking our signatures, which is highly illegal, they still know something of interest is out here and we just shot down their drone, which is also highly illegal.