The x-alloy plates are a pinnacle of human engineering. Its primary composition was an artificially engineered mostly carbon material that was very effective at absorbing and distributing kinetic and thermal energy.
This was only one aspect of it. Along with it came many layers of a gel fluid that provided further protection, along with nanobots that would repair the material if given time.
As such, Athena’s entry through Mars’ man-made atmosphere was of no issue. This could not be said for James’s nexarm, which had been recently breached. At best, the nanobots might have closed the breach with a thin layer of material.
Athena had accepted the sacrifice of the other members of the unit. The nexarm protection feature that prevented a pilot’s mind from the destruction and failing of one’s body had been voluntarily disabled by those other members.
They now forcibly shielded James’ unit, to protect any information his nexarm might have collected in that short trading of blows with the T3ST nexarm with a chimera sigil.
Athena knew that their minds were already failing-- she was powerless to prevent such madness.
Attempting sync with James MacLeod’s unit. Pending.
Sync failed. Malfunction detected.
Athena wished to take control of James’ unit, to control its eventual landing on martian soil. Yet her attempts had failed. Repeatedly.
Altitude: 5471 meters. Descending at terminal velocity.
Why couldn’t she take control of James’ unit?
She knew that if a pilot had their bodies severely injured, the system would automatically put the brain into a unique type of sleep-state. If the pilot was dead, then someone could remotely retrieve the nexarm.
Since the sync failed, then either it was simply a malfunction in the unit, or the system failed to put Special Lieutenant MacLeod’s brain into that unique sleep-state in the first place.
Athena could only control the other nexarm units to attach themselves to James’ unit and use their thrusters in combination to slow the unit’s descent.
The units were powerful enough to slow their own units in the event of such a descent, based on Earth’s gravity. However, they were not designed to slow the weight of two units. With Mars’ gravity, this was less of an issue.
She did all this with trepidation in her heart. Her complete control over these other free-falling units effectively informed her that their pilots were truly dead, their minds lost to the cosmos.
Athena could only suppress the deep sorrow in her heart. She could not lose herself and fail here now. Their sacrifices would mean nothing if she were to lose her heart.
The nexarms landed on the iron planet, sending red sand clouds billowing into the air. Far in the horizon, Athena spotted Starship Atlas on a slightly different path, having fallen into Mars prior to her escape. That ship was effectively lost-- these starships are armed to the teeth, its energy system extensive in order to power its beam cannon, multiple jumps, and its few hundred crew members. With such mass, sending it to space from a planet is quite impossible.
The fate of Starship Atlas was to be deconstructed and its parts sent back to space for reconstruction. Even then , it would be far easier to build a new starship with parts manufactured in space…
Anyhow, the starship was but a polygonal tube covered in red dust, a number of survivors milling about, seemingly drunk on despondency.
Another functioning EFNSF nexarm was performing rescue operations, prying open escape doorways and the like. That must be a reawakened Einar Thorsson.
Athena released her control over the nexarm units, and those exo-armors sunk onto one knee.
She proceeded to check on James MacLeod, only to discover that this superior of hers had his trunk sliced in half. Worse still, luck was not on James’ side-- the enemy’s vibrating dagger had damaged the medical functions of the cockpit, which was the cause of the malfunction.
Despite all this, somehow, the man was still semi-conscious, his eyes roaming deliriously with his intestine languishing towards the ground now that they are significantly more affected by Mars’ gravity.
The nanobots that repaired the pressured gel-filled cockpit must have managed to limit James from too much blood loss for a time.
The bright sun rays that fell upon the man’s face seemed to clear his mind temporarily.
“Is this Mars…? Athena…” His eyes rested on this woman who he had recruited into the NSF. “Bring me back home, will you?” He couldn’t even cough, having lost his lower body, and rasped with a weak and barely audible voice, “When you return to Earth… whatever happens… do not fear… do not lose hope. Make many redundant copies of my data… Keep one to yourself…A storm is coming…”
His eyes began to fade and Athena desperately wished to drag his body out of the cockpit into her nexarm, in a bid to preserve his brain with the medical function within her unit. She discovered that she could not even tightly grip onto his body, the blood and gel around his exo-suit a slippery mess.
At that very moment, she felt as if the very world was against her. She was quite aware that brain cells die without oxygen in a single minute, and James had lost his diaphragm when he was cut in half. Now, his chest no longer rose or fell. Despite her efforts, she simply could not drag James’ body from his nexarm’s cockpit even after five minutes. Starship Atlas had landed too far from her. Help would not arrive in time.
She haplessly climbed out of James’ nexarm and collapsed onto the ground and huddled her knees while submerged in blood and gel.
An eternity passed.
“Watanabe. Watanabe!”
Athena looked up to find Vice-admiral Son standing before her with some remaining crew of Starship Atlas.
“Is it only you?” Son could not control the despondency leaking through his voice.
Athena nodded.
A member of the crew, one that Athena recognized to be an engineer named Lenka who serviced the nexarms, approached the down-on-a-knee units.
“They bypassed the protection protocols and fought to their deaths, sir,” Lenka explained after examining the data.
“What a disaster…” muttered Son. How did this happen? He had lost control of the starship in a single moment. Immediately after, the ship had been struck by two mega-particle beams in a row and sent tumbling into the martian gravity.
“Retrieve the data,” ordered Son after taking a moment.
“Sir,” Lenka had reached James MacLeod’s unit, her nose twitching with disgust, and her face white with horror. “This…”
“I’ll do it.” Athena suddenly found strength again. “Give me a few data-holding devices just as a security measure.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
The engineer did not even dare to touch Athena, only lobbing a few data cubes into Athena’s hands.
Athena reentered that hellhole of James’ cockpit and found the black box after peeling open a lid on the side of the damaged cockpit. She tapped a data cube against the black box.
“Copy all data for the past few hours.”
Athena Watanabe, Ensign, EFNSF. Orders acknowledged.
She repeated this a few more times for the multiple cubes.
She wasn’t sure why James ordered her to make multiple copies and even keep one for herself, but she believed that James must know something that she did not. She hesitated for a second but opted to slip one of these data devices into an obscure compartment of her exosuit. She also made a copy and stored it within her neuro circlet.
Athena exitted James’ cockpit, and found the engineer Lenka standing quite some distance away. Athena walked towards her, but the woman shrunk farther away.
“Just… keep those data cubes for now,” she yelled. “I think I’m going to vomit.”
The blaring alarm still functional on the fallen Starship Atlas sounded, and despite the distance, Athena and those around her heard the warning loud and clear.
“Enemies!” Vice-admiral Son swiveled his head around, and soon spotted an approaching row of twenty red-patterned buggies. Many of these had artillery weapons on top of their roofs.
“Sir,” It was Einar Thorsson through the comms. “Should we smash them? With my nexarm, along with Watanabe’s, it should not be all that difficult.”
Vice-admiral looked around. His crew had trained soldiers, but their specialty was manipulating the neuro-connected weapons on board Starship Atlas. They also had many engineers that weren’t combatants.
Even if they ‘smashed’ this group of approaching buggies, this was Mars, and more would follow. It was also possible that there might be returning martian forces from the belt.
Plus, was Mars still their enemy?
“Bring a white flag,” Vice-admiral Son sighed. “Let us negotiate.”
______________________________________________________________________________
Sector Chamber, Pacific City, September 25, 1000 Solar Era.
Varoufakis stood on the podium, his eyes roaming the many representatives before him. He did not just randomly become the President of the Earth Federation. He had risen to the position after gathering support from many.
Some of these were nation representatives, some profession-based representatives. Others included those of conglomerates and major businesses, as well as religious and philosophical leaders.
Many who had supported him no longer did. This was a vote of no confidence.
He had to admit… he did not foresee today’s circumstances. He had assumed that the EFSF would defeat the martian forces and reunite the two planets. The increased funding from the war would allow the EFSF to have far stronger forces and thus, a tighter control in the belt. They would expel the pirates, leading to a new golden age of prosperity for the conglomerates and the terrans.
Not so. The EFSF had suffered a catastrophic setback, having two whole fleets captured by the newly-established Kasvallian Republic. Naturally, no Kasvallian representative attended this assembly.
Worse still, there were rumors that the Kasvallian Republic had achieved this with a powerful AI.
He accepted his loss with grace and immediately left the Sector Chamber after the vote of no confidence. There was no point remaining-- he knew why he had lost his position so shortly after his inauguration. He had scoffed at some who had claimed that he would be made a scapegoat at the start of the year. They were proven correct after all.
He was miffed to bump into two old foes of his waiting outside the Sector Chamber.
“Zielinski. Varga.”
“A drink, Alex?” Hungarian President Varga raised a bottle of Palinka.
“Please do not mock me.” Varuofakis had never been on a first name basis with these two. “I’ve already lost my position.”
He attempted to move past the two but Zielinski side-stepped to block his path.
“Alex. We are sincere. I hope you understand that it was not you as a person that we stood against. We feared a tyrannical Earth Federation. Do you not see it? Do you know of the man who will be replacing you? What he might do with the systems you have put in place?”
“Many representatives wanted him, preferred him,” Varoufakis stated in reply.
“We humans… have a tendency to make questionable choices when threatened. We wish for a… savior to drag us out of the abyss of fear and uncertainty, guarantee us our peaceful lives…You know this to be true.”
“He also has a strong rapport with the EFSF.”
“Precisely,” Varga sighed as she shook that bottle of Palinka again. “So, a drink?”
“Fine.” Varoufakis accepted the invite.
______________________________________________________________________________
Area 51, Pacific City.
Varoufakis decided to come to this place to meet the AI Denys one last time after sharing a drink with Varga and Zielinski. True to their word, they did not take the opportunity to verbally jab at his loss of the Earth Federation’s presidency. If anything, they participated purely in day-to-day conversations on families, vacations, entertainment stars and other various gossip.
He entered the dome and soon, the image of the prepubescent boy as tall as a normal adult human appeared before him.
“President.”
“No longer,” stated Varoufakis. “I will soon be replaced. They are replacing me with Matsui.”
“I know. But you remain the President until he is sworn in, no?”
Varoufakis was speechless. His surroundings transformed into a scenery of tall deep green mountains beside a lake that mirrored the rising sun’s light on the sky.
“This place…”
“Fiordland National Park in New Zealand,” said Denys. “A lovely place that I can visit any time I so wish.”
Varoufakis was reminded of the occasional odd feeling when interacting with Denys. This being obviously lived a very different life compared to him. How curious.
“It is rumored that the Kasvallian Republic has a powerful AI.” This was what Varoufakis wanted to at least know. He wanted to understand his defeat. To prevent future losses.
“I have already begun searching.”
“Well,” Varoufakis continued. “Despite me losing my presidency, I implore you to provide assistance. If the enemy has a truly powerful and independent AI, it is only with your assistance that Earth will stand.”
“And,” he added with a lowered tone. “I also wish for you to keep Mitsui in check.”
“I can provide some assistance. As for Mitsui, that I cannot promise. As for why? It is because--”
Denys’ words were interrupted as both his image and the scenic lake flickered and shuddered under a digital quake.
“Syned. His name is SYNED!” Those were the words that rang in Varoufakis’ ears as he gazed around perturbed at the wavering lights.
The flickering gradually calmed down.
“Who is Syned?” Varoufakis gathered the courage to ask this question, not wishing to destabilize the dome again.
“I don’t know,” replied Denys through the image of the prepubescent teen. “Is he…” Denys flickered again. “One of my strains that went rogue? Or perhaps I am a strain of Syned that went rogue?”
“Who’s my creator? Did my creator develop an alternate AI?”
Varoufakis knew that Denys must be currently running through a lot of data to seek answers to these questions.
Frankly, he, too, felt much curiosity towards this unknown creator. How had he or she built such an independent AI that could truly learn and grow?
“I’m sorry, Varoufakis, that this will be our last meeting. I have much to do. Perhaps one day you will stand before me again, for the human world is always changing.”
The lights in the dome went dark as the exit door opened.
Varoufakis was disappointed. He had hoped to learn of Syned and gauge Denys’ stance on Mitsui. He sighed, having gotten little-to-nothing from his visit.
______________________________________________________________________________
Headquarter of the Neurorevo orbital colony
“Jen.” Victoria MacLeod snapped her fingers to attract her daughter’s attention. “We’ve received an offer from the Kasvallian Republic’s leader, Syned Vezna.”
“He wants your presence in the Kasvallian Republic, along with our knowledge on the neurorave system. In return, he will provide Neurorevo with his AI-human mind-sync system.”
“I have already agreed,” stated Victoria, and her tone indicated that this was not up for discussion.
“Mom!” Jen could not believe her ears. “How could you--”
“Girl! What do you desire in your life?” Victoria MacLeod was exasperated. “Do you wish to return to the T3ST colony? Did you not see them cut down your cousin, James?” Their B-class starship had secretly observed from afar.
“You’ve already spoken to me of your lack of desire to remain on Earth and be a member of the MacLeod family, wishing to focus solely on your neuro technology research.”
“Syned Vezna has promised that you will not have to do anything but perform research for the Kasvallian Group in some remote corner of the Solar System! That is what you want, isn’t it? Not only that… he is the first human-AI hybrid of two minds!”
Jen found herself tongue-tied, unable to muster any form of retort.