Hi everyone. Here's the new chapter. I hope you'll like her.
I made small change and when Leya speaks with Eleanor internally it will be in cursive. I hope I got all the interaction as I decided to start with it in the middle of chapter, but I think it's better this way. I wanted to remove the confusion form the dialogue when Eleanor tells something only to Leya.
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I used kinetic blast to smooth my landing. As soon as I felt the ground I rolled left and looked behind me. I expected enemies climbing over the wall, but what I saw surprised me. In truth it shouldn’t. Leya told me that she would help, but I didn’t expect something like that. The stone wall was shining red from the recent heat applied to it. The mercenaries unlucky enough to be in the breach had to die almost immediately.
“Put your hands up and identify yourself.” Shouted voice behind me.
I turned around. “I’m friend. I came with the Paladin.”
After my statement, I could see about ten man crouching behind make shift barricades looking at me with wide. “How can we tell you are telling the truth?” eyed me one of them.
I heard sound behind and without looking I sent one of the daggers towards it. I heard riffle barking behind and almost immediately I felt bullet bouncing from my shield, but the riffle fell silent quickly as I heard my dagger found its target. I looked behind me and saw one of the mercenaries holding his throat. He tried to pull the dagger from his throat so I helped him and pulled it for him. Before the men behind the barricade could say anything, I sprinted to the breach.
With kinetic push from the ground, I vaulted over it and landed right in the middle of mercenary group. I sent my two daggers in tight circle around me while pulling three spikes from behind my back and sending them at other mercenaries. With half of their number cut down, they pointed their weapons at me and fired. I ducked behind one of them and sent couple more spikes at them. Some of them missed, but others still did the damage.
When they saw that their weapons didn’t have any effect they run. I let them go as this attack cost me a lot of my power and I needed to rest for couple of minutes to get it back. Still this should prove even better. They would tell others what happened to them and if I do it right, they would be running when they saw me. With smile I jumped over the wall and walked towards the men who looked at me with open mouth.
“Does it answer your question?” I said smirking.
“Yes miss, it does. I have report of other breach.” Said one of them.
“Lead the way than.” I said and moved behind the soldier that get the job of escorting me. I looked up and hoped that Leya and Lany were alright. In the short time I was with them, I started to think about them as my family.
● ● ●
After couple of minutes, I could see that Lany managed to get to control center, because turret fire stopped firing at me and started to fire at the enemy far more efficient than before. I knew, I could count on her to get it all under control.
As the defenders found out that they had new help, they rose everywhere and repelled the attackers with new strength. Meanwhile, I took down enemy artillery and remaining tanks. Without them the mercenaries started to run away. I just hoped that they would see it as black hole for their money and leave.
Leya you have COM request coming from the city. Said Eleanor.
“Patch me through.” I said and immediately I could hear Leons voice. “So you returned and from reports I got, you even brought couple of friends.” He said and laughed. “To tell the truth, when I heard that only two people jumped from your ship and one of them was Lany I thought that they were joking. Only two people to help us, but then came the reports. Turret defense efficiency went up almost hundred percent and man around the wall tell me about this woman demon that goes from place to place and kill every mercenary on sight.”
“What can I say? I like quality over quantity.” I said laughing.
“That I can see. Now we should talk about the destroyer over our heads. It’s only matter of time before they will lose patience and glass this city. We need to do something about it.” Said Leon.
“This setback should give us little time. I don’t think they are ready to return for some time. We left them with pretty bad impression of this city. I’ll come down and discuss with you our options. Also I would like you to brought as much materials as you could on my ship. I’ll tell Lany to start building you better armors and weapons.” I said thinking what more I could do.
“That would help. You should park the ship at the scrapyard. We’ll make you a place to land and start loading the materials as soon as you are on the ground.” Said Leon.
“Ok, see you in the scrapyard.” I said and ended the call.
I flew over the scrapyard and land on patch of the land that was quickly cleared of all the rubble. I secured the ship and activated defense protocol that would enable the workers to load the ship, but nothing more.
“Want to meet my friends?" I asked Eleanor.
Of course, you told me so much about them, I feel like I know them myself. Said Eleanor. Month ago she would just hide somewhere and refuse to meet them. Now she was curious about what was happening around her. I was glad she was getting better as the state I found her in was bad.
I laughed. “Ok, then jump on and will be on our way.”
With the last word, I felt as something entered into my body. Eleanor made herself comfortable and I could feel her looking through my eyes. She always like to look through my eyes. She said that it gives her different perspective.
Once I walked out of the ship, I could see workers already waiting with first batch of materials. Lany was with them and she was grinning from ear to ear. “I heard, you volunteered me for making equipment for our rebellion.”
“Of course, who else should do it?” I asked.
She squealed and hugged me. “Thank you, I won’t disappoint you.”
I was confused by her statement. I just gave her tremendous amount of work and not too funny work. Just repetitive work. She thinks you now trust her with important jobs. First, you let her help with the turrets and now the equipment. Said Eleanor to me.
Thanks. I said to Eleanor than turned to Lany. “I know you won’t. Now go start working. We have a lot of work before us.” I said with smile.
She saluted me. “Yes captain.” Then she hurried inside the ship while she whistled loudly.
I shook my head at her antics. I looked around the scrapyard and I could see great changes in it. There was, I don’t know how to say it better, than, there was more and less of everything. A lot of things disappeared, but there was also a lot of rubble and other things that weren’t here before. From the looks of it, they used it as junkyard for everything.
I turned my head right when I felt something hit me from the side. I looked down and I saw Liray hugging me. “Well girl, you made it. I told them, you would return to us with the help.”
“Liray, I’m so glad to see you.” I said.
“Me too girl.” Said Liray and let me go. He looked me over and frowned. “There is something different about you. You look… whole. Yes, that’s it. You no longer fight against your body.”
“Yes, I have friend helping me with that.” I said and I was sure my eyes did the thing where Eleanor peaked through them. She only did it when she wanted to let someone know she was inside my body. From what Lany and Strike told me, my eyes flashed briefly and there was this another alien intelligence in them.
I could see that it startled Liray. He turned his head sideways. “That’s the friend you were going to rescue. Am I right?”
“Sorry to stop your reunion, but we don’t have time for this. We need to do something about the destroyer up there.” Said Leon who walked up to me. “With it up there, we can’t do anything. They could just start with kinetic bombardment and we would be screwed.”
“Yeah, we need to get on the destroyer. If we capture it, we will win.” I said.
“That’s my thought too, but how would be get on the board?” said Leon.
“I have part of the plan, but we should discuss more in my ship.” I said and we went to the lounge.
Once there we took our seats around the table and I asked Eleanor to give us picture of destroyer. Even Strike managed get back in time for this planning session and she set in one corner of the lounge. Like I predicted, I could see Leon nervously looking at the picture and me. I remembered that he didn’t like unshackled AI so I waited for him to say something. In the end he just nodded towards me and let it go.
“How do propose we get on the ship. You said outside that you have plan.” Said Liray.
“First I would like to introduce everyone. Lany you already know and woman next to her is my new friend and part of the crew. Her name is Strike.” I said.
Others introduced themselves and some of them even hugged her. They where the guards at the walls who came to help with moving the materials into the ship. I could see Strike’s surprised eyes glistering with tears that she almost shed. She looked at me and I smiled at her. I knew how important the family was for her.
“Now there is one more crew member and friend that I would like to introduce to you. As you know, I went to save my friend and you know that she is the AI.” I said and let the El know that she should introduce herself.
“Hi my name is Eleanor, but you can call me El.” Came Eleanor’s voice form the speakers over our heads.
I saw Leon freeze and looked around himself. He looked at me, but in the end he took deep breath and said forced hi. When it came to Liray he just introduced himself and went like it was another normal thing. I love that about Liray. He never cares about the shell, but about the soul inside.
I smiled at Liray and he nodded my way. “Ok we should talk about the ship parked over your planet. I can tell you that when I saw it parked over your planet, I knew we should take it intact. We can use it as protection for this planet and there should be a lot of useful intel on the ship. So all in all, it’s best to take it and not destroy it.” I said.
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“That we knew, but that’s probably our only chance. Also it’s only way how to take it down, we don’t have anything strong enough to make more than a dent in their armor.” Said Leon.
I saw Lany and Strike look at me with raised eyebrows. I ignored them, but Liray saw their looks. “What does the looks mean?” he asked.
I sighed. “It’s not completely true that we can’t destroy the destroyer and when I’m saying we, I mean me. I have weapon strong enough to destroy it, but I would like to take it intact. We have to stop reacting to them and start making our own moves.” I said and everyone looked expectantly at me. “I will not tell you what it is. I didn’t even tell Strike and Lany and they’re part of the crew.”
“Part of what crew?” I heard voice from the door. I whirled around and smiled. There in the door stood smiling Hurriliat, George and his crew. Hurriliat spread his arms and waited for me. I run towards him and hugged him.
“I missed you so much.” I said.
“Me too girl, now what is this talk about superweapons?” he said looking me in the eyes.
“Like I told others, I will not tell what it is. Just know that if everything fails, I’ll take it down.” I said resolutely. I saw Lany and Strike looking at me with strange look, but I didn’t care. The missiles were too dangerous and they still didn’t have enough experience in these kind of decisions.
But we had. I heard Eleanor in my head.
Yes, we had. I said sadly.
“Did something happened?” asked Hurriliat when he saw mz expresion.
“No, just some memories, but that doesn’t matter now. We need to find a solution to our problem. Like I said I already thought about it and I think there is a way how to do it. It’s just not very safe.” I said and told them about what I cooked up from the time I saw the destroyer over the planet.
“I think it could work, but there will be too many of them on that ship. We wouldn’t be able to take them down.” Said George.
“That’s where I come in. With the materials you delivered, I’ll make some armors and by that I meant normal armors, not the old buckets you are wearing.” I said looking at George’s armor which looked like he took it straight from the museum.
“This is one of our better armors.” Said George defensively.
I smiled. “You made my point.” Then I moved towards the table where the hologram projector was installed. “I think everyone knows their job so you should go and prepare. I and Lany will be working overtime. We need to make you best equipment we can in short time.”
Everyone went to prepare for their part and only Lany stayed here. “So what should I do first?” she asked.
“Ell will give you measures of everyone here and you should take measures from everyone going on the mission. Than you should make armor for everyone. In a mean time, I will work on your armor and weapons for everyone.” I said and moved towards the cargo bay. I had to pick right materials for Lany’s armor.
“Why are you making my armor?” she asked curiously.
I looked over my shoulder with smirk. “Because I have to make sure nothing happens to you. Don’t worry it will be spectacular.”
She looked confused at me, but then she just shrugged and went to take measures from everyone. I went straight to making armor for her. I wanted something that would protect her, something that could take beating.
I already had the basic design in my head and I only needed to tweak it little. I wanted to make it from three plates which would be connected to one another with special membranes that would absorb the impact and distribute the heat along the surface of plates under them. I wanted her to be safe even after the shields on her armor goes down. Also now that I had enough materials, I could use something better than simple metal. I would use plaststeel interlaced with titanium cord. After about one hour I inserted the design in the system and waited for it to come out. I had prepared a lot of other surprises for her. I was curious to see her reaction to the armor. It was different than most of the other armors. It was built for the defense. It was bulkier and person in it would be stronger than in normal armor. Even though it was bigger and heavier it wasn’t slower as I made special joints with nanobots which would work as hydraulics. Far better than normal hydraulics as even after the hit they would continue to function.
Next I made the weapons for the team. I made them all assault rifle as they were simple to use. I made three types. The exchange of ammo would be good, but as we didn’t know what type of defenses they have we needed to be prepared. I made laser, plasma and normal projectile weapons. If I had enough time I had this plan to try and build anti-matter pistol or rifle, but that was for another time.
The laser rifle and plasma were pretty standard. I just used the designs, I worked out while playing Virtua to add some punch to them. For laser I use multiple crystals which focused laser into one bigger one and that would focus them all into one powerful shot. For the plasma I used normal rifle, but I accelerated the plasma with twin magnetic rail. It gave the riffle pretty good punch. As the last I made projectile weapon. There too I used the magnetic rail so it was pretty simple to make it. What I made special were ammo. I made clips with different bullets. They would inject them into rifle depending on switch on the rifle. They could shoot armor piercing, explosive or impact. In last position the rifle would shot all three in rotating fashion.
When I was done with the weapons I went to look at the designs that Lany made. She sent them to me for approval and I couldn’t find any fault in them. They were designed simply and effectively. Just the thing we needed. We didn’t need armors with too many functions. They would just hinder most of them. Only adjustments I made were for Leon and his team. They were soldiers so it shouldn’t be problem for them to handle little more options.
They were all made from plaststeel with best shields we could build with materials on our hands. There had thrusters for maneuvering in areas without gravity. All in all, they should be able protect their wearers against most of the weapons. I just hoped that this destroyer’s crew wasn’t equipped with better arms than I saw. The armors should still hold under fire, but I would rather not test them against unknown weapons.
Only thing left was George’s ship. I wanted to make her as stealthy as I could. That meant I will paint it with light absorbing paint and repair or cover as many leakages as I could on the ship. With the cover from the explosion I was going to make, it should be enough to get them on the destroyer.
For next four hours we worked on the ship and in the end, I declared it stealth worthy. We all you knew what would happen to them, if they are found out. No matter, this was best chance to take it down without destroying the ship.
While working I looked for the others who didn’t show up at my landing. I found out Jonathan was helping children who lost their parents. He took care of them and let them live in his bar. Harry and his family stayed in hospital and helped with simple things. As for the Norman, my former employer, he died. He went to the destroyer to negotiate some treaty, but they killed him after the arrival and tossed his body towards the star.
“Leya there is call on COM for you.” Said Eleanor as I was last time explaining to everyone what they should do.
“Patch it thru to me.” I said curious about what could they want.
“Good day Leya. I have proposition for you.” Said the man in his late thirties without preamble. He had short beard which was carefully trimmed. He looked more like businessman then mercenary.
This is coming from the destroyer? I asked Eleanor, unsure if she made mistake.
Of course! Do you think I am just some calculator? Said Eleanor in pretended anger.
Sorry, but he doesn’t look like mercenary at all. I apologized to her and smirked at her antics.
“What is the proposition?” I asked him.
He perked up when he heard me. “To tell you the truth I don’t like to fight so I would like to avoid fighting with you. I have here on this ship hostage and I think you know him.” He said and send me video on another link. I didn’t even hear what he told me next because I was looking at the video. There bound on the ground was John. He looked older and I could see blood on his clothes.
“What did you do to him?” I asked angrily.
He stopped saying whatever he was saying. “He refused to give us codes to this ship.” He shook his head. “It wasn’t until we started to hurt his crew, he gave us them.” He said and smiled at me with fake smile. “Now to my proposal, if you leave this system, I will let him go. Simple, isn’t it?”
I licked my lips. “What if I refuse?” I asked.
“Then I would torture him until he dies.” He said same smile.
I looked at the video of John and I sighed. “Ok, you win, but know this. After this business is over I will find you and kill you. You will have nowhere to hide and whoever will help you will die with you.” I said with fury raising in me. I have clench it before I say more and he will kill John. I breathed heavily as I tried to contain the anger in me. After minute or two I got it under control and looked at him.
He lost his smile. “You have hour to get out of the system or he’s dead.” He said and closed the connection.
When the connection closed and I looked around, I found everyone looking at me. “He has my friend and he will kill him, if I don’t leave the system.” I said simply.
“So you are leaving us? Just like that?” asked one of the George’s man.
I turned to him furiously. “No, we’re going with the plan, but I plan to return to the destroyer and take the captain out myself.” I said angrily.
The man put up his hands and looked at me with fear in his eyes. “I didn’t mean anything by that.” He said hastily.
“Good, then the action starts now. Everyone knows what they should do.” I said and moved towards the Paladin.
Once there, I went straight for the bridge and after really quick preflight I pulled the ship up. I waited for Georges ship to take off too and then I speed up from the planet. “We’ll see who will smile when this day ends.” I murmured under nose.