Galactic Calendar 259872/ 2000 [ Sol Year 4387/ Day 155 of 365. Sol standard year]
Days after of Crash landing/ 4
Uninhabited Island / Clearing of Escape Capsule # 405
Galactic Standard Time / After 1230
Jessie
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As they all gathered together, Jessie looked around at the group and nodded. With all six of them going down, they had a strong chance they would survive. He looked at what they had prepared to carry away the opening they would make, and he nodded. They were as ready as he could think of, they had one chance. As long as they could make it into the structure or ship, they would be able to do this.
He looked around and saw the rest of the deckhands all standing by, ready to help. The plan was that the rest would help open the structure or ship, and some would guard the back. If anything got by the six, then they would come into a kill box. This plan was
“Alright, this is it!” Duncan said as he looked at the six people before him. “Any last words before we start this thing?”
“Yeah. It might not be an AI after all,” Dalila said with a scowl on her face.
Jessie blinked and looked at her, his mind racing. The idea that there wasn’t an AI trying to break into the shield system opened up a question. What had been trying to hack into it? Because it had failed so many times, the system went into defense mode. That meant it needed a “handshake” protocol to allow them to add tech. and because of that, the shield had been down. That had almost killed when those bear monsters attacked. But what was it? A real sentient being?
“What else could it be then Dalila?” Duncan asked, his voice hard.
Everyone watched as Dalila swallowed and took a deep breath.
“I think. It might be either an AI or a very smart stupid program. Maybe something that was connected to a random word generator to break into an enemy system. Systems in enemy borders,” Dalila said with a hard look around.
“An automated program? That would….. could it be?” Jessie wondered as he held a hand over his mouth, his mind racing. He could see the tactical potential for that, and he had to admit he wanted one. “Are you saying, this thing might be trying to break in to listen to us?”
“That’s the only other thing it could be instead of an AI. But it might be an AI with laws that say it can’t talk to Aliens. But I thought I should bring up my fears,” Dalila said as she looked around. “We have to be on our toes. We can’t let anything trick us. We need to look over everything so that this thing won’t kill us. We can’t let any preconceived thoughts affect our efforts down there!”
Duncan looked at them and then he nodded. “She’s right, and it was a good thing that you brought that up. And because of that, I’m changing your orders. Your new mission is this. Get down there, and find out what this thing is. After that, get back here. Do not go farther than you have to.”
Jessie nodded, his mind going down dark places. He looked around, seeing the weapons he had modified in the hands of the deckhands. They had everything ready, there was nothing that could go wrong. No matter what, they had planned for everything. He had even spent the last hour going over everything with Duncan. Together, the two of them had figured out everything that might happen.
“So let’s cut into this thing!” Zevortro called out, holding his right arm up.
There was a roar from the other deckhands, and Jessie felt his heart beat faster. The unknown, the danger, he was reacting to it. It was time to go to war once again.
Jessie watched as Bryke and Zevortro pulled off their rifles, activated the blades and then they started to cut. Zee took a step backwards on top of the object and Bryke started at the bottom. Watching them cut into it and move, he felt a small spark of the old battle lust. The last year he had been on the Spirit was the most peaceful time he had ever had. But it was so peaceful he was starting to get antsy before the crash.
“You okay?” Terra asked from his left.
Jessie blinked, having not heard her come up behind him. He mentally checked and scowled as he saw he still had his nanite enhancements offline. He was going down into an unknown ship or station, he needed them active. He closed his eyes and then turned them all on. He opened his eyes and saw that all of his augments were back online. He smirked as he saw everything, and felt the mental radar turn back on.
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“I am now. You ready?” Jessie asked and Terra nodded.
“I almost wasn’t. You’ve been off your game,” Terra said softly.
“Yeah,” Jessie said as he took a deep breath and blew it out. “My enhancements were off. Yours on?”
Terra looked at him and then she shook her head before closing her eyes.
Jessie chuckled and then rubbed her head.
She batted it away and glared at her, but he saw the relief in her eyes. Then they clouded and she sighed.
“I never told you why I joined the ship, did I?” Terra asked, a somber tone in her voice.
Jessie looked at her and then he felt that cold feeling he sometimes had return. From the tone of her voice, Jessie knew that he was not going to like anything that she told him.
“No, you didn’t. Trouble with something not the law?” Jessie asked and Terra nodded.
A roar from the pit caused them both to turn. Zevortro and Bryke had finished cutting, and they had removed the piece. From where Jessie and Terra were standing, they saw into a darkened void that went on a good fifty feet long at least.
“There’s the way in! time to go!” Zevortro bellowed and there were cheers from everyone around them.
“Well done!” A loud voice caused everyone to turn and see Bradford on top of one of the dirt hills. He beamed as he looked down at them all and walked towards them, a wide grin on his face.
Jessie only shook his head and tried not to smile. This was just what he expected from the old senator, taking advantage of a chance to make a speech.
Jessie looked at Terra who looked back. For a second they just stared at each other before Jessie nodded.
“We’ll talk about this later after we’re back up here,” Jessie said. There was a hard edge to his voice, one that he used to get answers.
Terra only nodded back as Bradford started to give a speech.
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???????
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Damage report from the highest point. Sensors show that the upper area has been breached. All primary internal defenses are offline. Sending Secondary Mobile Defenses into the area around the breach. Orders are to hold off any borders.
Possibility of the source being the strange force ‘above’, 50 percent. There is a possibility that another force has destroyed the first force, 50 percent.
Attempting to hack into unknown network unsuccessful. Code has proven difficult to breach.
Awaiting reports from secondary forces.
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Zevortro
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Zevortro looked at the cut in the hull plates as Bradford droned on. There were only a few wires here and there, and the rest was solid. He didn’t know much about ship construction, but something about it bothered him. There should have been more circuitry here, was one of the wires for data transfer? Everything that he knew, told him that this was wrong.
“…… And I sault our brave explorers!” Bradford said, finishing his small speech.
“GO!” Duncan roared.
Zevortro nodded and fell into line behind Jessie as they walked into the breach. They all turned on the lights on their shoulders as they looked around.
Zevortro scowled as he took in what was here, he hadn’t expected this. The room or chamber was as wide as the section they had cut.
“You found anything already?” Jessie asked amusement in his voice.
Zevortro looked back and saw Dalila attaching a wire to the circuits the cut revealed. She looked at a small-handled device in her other hand, scowling as she did so.
“Everything is what I thought it would be. This is just a power line, with no coding at all. If there were shielding systems here, we’d need to take apart the piece to find it. But what carries the data?” Dalila asked herself as she looked down.
Zevortro looked at Bryke who moved his pointer finger around his right ear in a circle. He just chuckled as they watched Jessie walk over and cough.
Dalila looked up and then she winced. “Sorry. Thought I could get something about this thing. Nothing. We need to go deeper.”
“I thought we would. Terra, what about the door?” Jessie called out.
Zevortro turned and looked at the door, seeing Terra there examining it. She turned back and shook her head. “It’s not an airlock. But I don’t know what the handle is.”
With a look at Bryke and Vivis, Zevortro led the three towards Terra.
“So we can cut into it right?” Bryke asked as he pulled out his pistol, and activated the blade.
Before he could cut into the door, Jessie was there and grabbed Bryke’s arm.
“Hold on. We can see if we can get into the data net from this. We might not even need to go farther in!” Jessie said with a hard look in his eyes.
Zevortro looked at the wall the door was set in. There was nothing that told him that there was anything technical about it. As he looked around, there was nothing that would allow anyone to leave. There was something about this, something that bothered him.
“If there is a way to hack into this thing, I can’t see it. We might have to cut into it. And we might just destroy any data lines,” Dalila said with a scowl.
As Zevortro watched, Dalila looked around, her eyes slowly growing more troubled as she did so.
“Say, Jessie? This chamber is bare. I mean, this….. what is this room?” Dalila asked, worry in her voice.
Zevortro looked around as well, and he heard Jessie muttering as he did the same. Everyone started to move around, examining the room more.
He didn’t know about the others, but there was nothing here. He had been in some rooms back aboard the Spirit, but this was nothing like any of them! Even the storage rooms back in the escape capsule had something to open them from the other side! Here it was as if they just wanted the lock to be one way. It was almost like a……… Zevortro felt his heart stop as he looked around slowly, and then he looked down. As he watched the lights on his shoulders sweep the room, he slowly started to see what he hadn’t before.
“Stars!” Zevortro exclaimed as he looked up. As the others all looked at him, he looked up. The more he looked up, the more saw what he hadn’t before.
“What is it, bro? What are…..you…….. looking at,” Bryke said as he looked up. As everyone joined them, they looked over the ceiling.
“I was right! I knew it!” Zevortro said, a note of anger in his voice
“Wait! What were you right about?” Vivis asked.
Zevortro only moved his torso, showing the blank material of the ceiling to them all.
“Don’t you see it? Or you can’t see it. There are no light sources anywhere on the roof. But there is that!” Zevortro said as he pointed at a space teen feet from the opening. His lights were on a strange square that was set into the material, and Zevortro chuckled. “That there? That’s an escape/entry hatch! That’s what they put on docking ports in old models. The ones that connected bottom to bottom!”
“Wait, what?! Why is it on the ceiling?!” Terra demanded before her mouth dropped open. “You’re not saying!?”
“YES! When this thing crashed, it did so upside down!” Zevortro exclaimed as he looked at the others. But then he looked towards the wall. His light went up and stopped on his target. But before he could say anything, the console he found lit up.