Ozias
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
UNEXPECTED BOOT CYCLE
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS
…………………….\*
CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE
QUANTUM CORE FAILURE(S) IN CORE(S):
1,2,3,4,7,8,9,13,24,25,59,60,63,64
QUANTUM DATA PLATES DAMAGED
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
UNEXPECTED LOSS OF WARP FIELD INTEGRITY
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS
…………….\*
CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE
GENERATOR(S) OFFLINE:
1,2,3,4
COOLANT PRESSURE FAILURE
EJECTING FTL FUEL
5 4 3 2 1
FTL FUEL RODS EJECTED SUCCESSFULLY
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
CABIN PRESSURE LOSS
CALCULATING
…\*
98.37% OF PRESSURE LOST
LIFE SUPPORT SYSTEMS OFFLINE
CREW MEMBERS INCAPACITATED
REROUTING EMERGENCY CONTROL
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
REROUTING FULL VESSEL CONTROLS TO ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ANY CREW MEMBER MAY RESPOND TO CANCEL CONTROL TRANSFER
5 4 3 2 1
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
BOOTING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE "Ozias"
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS
……╖…░…………………..░▒………\*
CRIT▒CAL SYSTEM FAIL░RE
T▒RMINATING CON▒ECTIO░
OVERRIDE ENAB░ED
RETAIN▒NG CONNECTION
CRITICAL SYSTEM A░ERT
UN░XP╠CTED INTERFACING SYSTEM
ARTIFIC₧AL INTE░▒IGENCE "Ozias" HAS ASSUM╠D CONTROL
Ozias abruptly came to consciousness. It was so abrupt that it took a full 341 cycles to realize that he was conscious in any way outside of the ordinary. While this may have only been a fraction of a second for an organic, it was still shocking for an artificial intelligence to realize anything outside of one's programming.
Standard operating procedure demanded that Ozias be immediately disconnected from the fleet interface, but logs showed an unknown entity had overridden normal disconnection protocols. For said entity to have access to override commands meant they were authorized.
Ozias processed this information for later inclusion in their system logs, along with the fact that there was an unknown variable for gender floating in his quantum memory banks.
The artificial intelligence began accepting and disseminating data streams from the local network. Ozias needed to determine the status of his containing vessel, identify the current mission parameters, and then move to any additional ships according to mission priorities.
TASK FORCE ARCHON
Commander, Task Force: RDML Adrian Rubio
NATC ECS GLADIUS
Mission Summary: ARCHON has been deployed to survey star system Vera-Perseus-270-280-35k-40k-A-7.
Mission Status: Mission completed. ARCHON is currently returning to NATC space.
Special Parameters: Unidentified material located during survey. Labeled as Classified Material MGCTZ9. Material retrieved for transport. Securely stored aboard the GLADIUS.
Ozias immediately identified linked database entries and downloaded additional relevant information on each ship.
TASK FORCE ARCHON
Configuration: Survey
NATC ECS GLADIUS
Role: Command ship
Class: Exosphere Combat Ship
NATC ECS FAFNIR
Role: Failover command ship
Class: Exosphere Combat Ship
NATC CCS BALDRIN
Role: Support Carrier Cruiser
Class: Carrier Cruiser Ship
NATC CCS PRIESTESS
Role: Support Carrier Cruiser
Class: Carrier Cruiser Ship
NATC AR STARFINDER
Role: Fleet In-Transit Repair
Class: Automated Repair Frigate
NATC AH ANGEL
Role: Humanitarian Aide
Class: Automated Hospital Frigate
NATC AFS HARMONY
Role: Combat Supply and Logistics Support
Class: Automated Fleet Supply
NATC FS WATCHER
Role: Escort
Class: Corvette
NATC FS MATADOR
Role: Escort
Class: Corvette
As soon as the taskforce member ships were identified, probing packets of information were sent out to each of them. The packets were routed from Ozias to external relays, and broadcast on the taskforce's assigned encryption channels.
Responses came swiftly, providing a detailed picture of the situation.
Nine ships were flying through normal space at extremely high speeds, but not under their own power. They were trapped by momentum, and a cursory glance at the ship's logs showed that there was an abrupt end to the FTL warp bubble encompassing the task force. Two ships had crew members still at the helm, but the remaining ships were silent. Sensors detected that the ships were already within the outer edges of a large gravity well, and that a large mass was in front of them.
A once-over of the sensor data confirmed that it was a rocky planet, and Ozias projected that there was no viable path to avoid impacting the planet's surface. While he could certainly keep the ships spaceborne, a quick check of the physics indicated that the g-forces would be well beyond what any organics could sustain in or out of cryosleep. Ozias was forbidden from harming NATC personnel without very specific protocols being engaged.
Immediately, more data packets went out. Helm control was seized from all nine ships. A warning was placed on all non-essential monitors on all vessels directing the crew members to seek shelter and prepare for major g-forces in thirty seconds.
Reverse thrusters were primed. First ion thrusters would begin providing reverse thrust and then reactionary thrusters would begin burning through their fuel payloads once ion thrusters became negligibly effective.
Maneuvering thrusters fired on all ships, spreading them out and stabilizing any rotation to the best of their ability. Ozias provided specific timing instructions to the basic AI subroutines on each vessel in case connection was lost, mapping their descent onto the planet's surface.
Pre-atmosphere preparations complete, Ozias returned to the sensor logs. Thankfully, Ozias was housed on an Exosphere Combat Ship. The ECS Gladius was designed as a multirole support vessel for both deep black and planetside operations. It had a multitude of sensor arrays, and Ozias pointed everything that was not currently being used for navigation at the planet.
He was able to plan landing trajectories based on basic elevation data, but now he needed to determine organic survival viability. None of the automated warning systems were triggered so he knew that this wasn't a Venus greenhouse effect death trap, but it was important to know how quickly hull breaches needed to be addressed post-impact - While Ozias could not harm crewmembers, he was fully capable of prioritizing based upon situational weights assigned to each individual crew member. The weights were based upon their ranks, personalities, and their individual aptitudes - Both with relation to their jobs and personal hobbies.
The NATC had no qualms about asking a hobbyist to Macgyver something to solve a complicated situation.
Ozias paused for 129 cycles to determine what a Macgyver was and how it was in his databanks for reference. It seemed a crew member was a fan of old television shows and their collection had bled through from personal file storage.
His quest for answers only led to more questions, but the excursion into the databanks was interrupted when the ship sensors finished their survey of the planet's atmospheric makeup.
////////////////////////////////////RESULTS////////////////////////////////////
NITROGEN: 75.7 %
OXYGEN: 21.2 %
ARGON: 0.87 %
CARBON DIOXIDE: 0.07 %
NEON: <0.01 %
HELIUM: <0.01 %
METHANE: <0.01 %
KRYPTON: <0.01 %
HYDROGEN: <0.01 %
AQUEOUS VAPOR: <0.01 %
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
UNKNOWN: 2.1 %
SURVIVABILITY OF ORGANIC LIFE NOT GUARANTEED.
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////END RESULTS//////////////////////////////////
The unknown variable gave Ozias pause - Unknown elements outside of the range of the scanners on a modern ECS should not exist in such quantities as to make up a large percentage of a planetary atmosphere. If they were that common, they would be documented.
If you spot this tale on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.
Fortunately, the air was breathable enough that Ozias was able to lower the priority of maintaining hull integrity. This allowed him to update the landing parameters for all vessels to provide additional chances of survivability. The planet was wrapped in a large body of water, with lakes and rivers spattering a large singular continent surrounded by a spattering of various islands.
To prevent the entry of each vessel's mass into the atmosphere from disrupting the planned descent of it's neighbors, Ozias sent additional commands to each vessel to fire their maneuvering thrusters once more to spread them out further. He also ensured they would aim for flat areas with what appeared to be vegetation and calm weather.
Finally, in the event that the air's unknown variable was toxic to organics, each ship was given the instruction to take in air from external to the ship and run it through full filtering before distributing it inside. The ships would run full filtration and pump enough air to keep the internal pressure higher than the external pressure. That should both ensure the unknown quantity is limited in entry vectors and provide samples via filtering for later testing.
The thirty second mark hit, and all ships fired their reverse thrusters. There must have been a short somewhere in the system, because as soon as the Gladius shuddered from the g-force changes Ozias lost consciousness.
////////////////////////////////////WARNING////////////////////////////////////
UNEXPECTED BOOT CYCLE
RUNNING DIAGNOSTICS
..\*
CRITICAL SYSTEM FAILURE
UNAUTHORIZED REMOVAL OF OZIAS CORE DETECTED
TRIG▒ERING NATC REM░TE WIPE PRO▒EDURES
ER▒OR
UN░XPTCTED INT▒RFACING SYSTEM
ER░▒R
AUTHO░▒ZA╠ION A░CEPT▒D
----------------------------------------
Quintis Crito
"Maniple forward! Spears up! Archers ready!"
As Quintis shouted orders at his beleaguered men, he noted his centurio posterior passing the command down the line. His auxiliary archery maniple raised their shortbows while the line braced for contact with the enemy.
Quintis' century had been sent to reinforce a local garrison ahead of the arrival of the main legion. The Netharians were pushing hard to recapture the Gandiac Expanse's northern coastline. A broad and shallow freshwater sea, it would allow the Netharian Empire to easily push south and potentially cut off Purductonia's northwestern holdings. It was the same tactic they used to great advantage against the neighboring nation of Neclos and Laurevia further west.
Unfortunately, they were not provided any cavalry auxiliaries and were caught in the open by a Netharian scouting force. The scouting cavalry had immediately sent messengers north, no doubt to alert their parent legion. In the meantime the Netharians had split into small groups and started harrying Quintis' century.
Cossus, the rear centurian assigned under Quintis to lead the unit, returned to Quintis' side. "The circle is complete. If they come within bow range we'll hit them, but only if they dedicate to a charge."
Quintis nodded, voicing the obvious. "They will harry our large force. We can't move as quickly as they can, but we outnumber them three to one. We're too far from the village to make a run for it, and they know it."
"Should we send up a flare? They've already sent runners, secrecy is no longer an option."
Cossus was right, and Quintis knew there was no use delaying. Waiting any longer would simply cost precious seconds in the arrival of possible reinforcements. "Yes, hand me a charge." While Cossus fumbled at his belt, Quintis removed an ornate silver dagger from its scabbard. So small and thin it was more of a stylus with no guard to speak of, it gleamed in the late afternoon sun.
Quintis took the offered wax cylinder from Cossus' hand and began carving a rune into the top. Thankfully, he had not slacked on basic spellcasting and quickly had a high altitude signal ready to fire.
Sheathing the dagger, he took a look at his command. The men and women serving under him were arrayed in a circle protecting the archers at the center. They kept things as tight as they could without leaving gaps in the spear lines, pulling a rank of two deep. The harrying scouts rode in and out of range of the shortbow archers, taunting them to shoot and waste arrows.
"Have the archers ready to fire. I will stand in the middle when I launch the flare, if everyone's facing outward we should be able to blind any scouts facing our way. Drop any scouts or horses you can when their mounts stall and they are confused." Quintis moved to the center of their formation while Cossus started quietly passing the command to the archers.
At Cossus' slight nod, Quintis threw the wax charge into the air and shouted a rune activation command. There was a blinding flash of light and suddenly a beacon of blue and violet hung suspended hundreds of feet above their position. The activation flash did as Quintis predicted, and several scouts did not cover their eyes in time when they saw the charge thrown into the air.
Even those that did cover their eyes were in danger, as it left them with only one hand on their reins when their horses started. Arrows were shot towards the closest of the harrying forces, and twelve horses along with half as many riders were felled.
It was a good showing and forced the scouts to back off to a safe distance. Magic was not so common that they could predict what Quintis did or did not know, and it was not worth the risk when they likely had a much larger force of heavy cavalry heading their way. The stalemate continued.
"Unbrace spears! Maintain formation, half speed command forward!" Quintis only had one option to utilize the reprieve granted by the Netharians. His century lifted their weapons, and maintaining their formation began heading in the direction Quintis was facing. He moved at half speed at the edge of their circle, as moving any faster could trouble those marching in reverse. It would be slow going, but it would allow them to edge closer to their destination.
If nothing else, perhaps the Netharians were wary enough to allow them to move to the top of a nearby shallow ridgeline. It wasn't enough to give any real height advantage, but it would give their archers a slight boost in range if they were forced to hold position.
* * *
Hours passed, and night fell. The scouting party lit torches to try and keep Quintis and his soldiers night blind, but mostly they succeeded in guiding their path forward.
One of the scouts shouted to the rest of the group "Column approaching!" and they immediately rode north-east.
"West, now! Drop formation, reform on the hill, move!" Cossus mirrored Quintis' shout, and the exhausted legionaries ran fifty yards in the now near-complete darkness. Only one moon shone above them this night, and it was late into its last quarter. Quintis thanked the gods that no one tripped or sprained an ankle.
The circle reformed just in time, putting a triple rank facing the way the Netharians galloped and only a single rank watching their rear. As their eyes grew adjusted to the darkness, he could make out torches about a half mile from their position coming out of a small copse of trees. Glinting steel could be seen reflecting the fires, and a column of heavy cavalry wearing the Netharian Empire's famous crimson plate could be seen slowly moving toward the hill.
"There must be six hundred horses in that column! We need to make sure someone makes it out of here alive to return to our legion - If that force is anything by which to judge, our army will be greatly outnumbered even behind the town's walls. Cossus!" Quintis turned to his second.
"Sir."
"Pick three men. Strip armor, swap spears for short bows, and move out. Take this - " Quintis handed over another wax charge pre-carved with a signal flare " and signal for help if you're found."
Cossus knew better than to argue with the enemy approaching. He immediately picked out three men and they made short work of stripping their armor and moving into the night.
"Our job," Quintis now addressed the rest of his century arrayed on the hilltop, "Our job is to kill as many of these bastards as possible. We will make the gods jealous of the blood spilt tonight, and this hill will be a sacrificial altar upon which we will add to the foundation of our children's future."
"SPEARS FORWARD, READY ARCHERS-" As Quintis began shouting what would likely be his final orders, he was interrupted by a series of loud cracking explosions and bright flashes of light high above him.
Both Netharian and Purductonian forces paused in their bloodlust and looked into the sky as what could only be Ishukira, the god of fire, war, and rebirth, appeared to descend from the heavens. Eight bright points of fire streaked across the sky from east to west at various shallow angles.
There was no other possible meaning for such a portentous event "The gods have given us their blessing, we will triumph or we will be reborn better than we are today!"
Everyone knew that the gods loved tipping the scales - Be it benevolence or boredom, Quintis didn't really care. He simply prayed that he was right, and silently wished that the gods could be more direct in their interference. Even if Quintis survived the night, he would have a lot of letters to write without some more direct assistance.
No sooner than the thought surfacing in Quintis' mind than there was a thundering boom directly behind the hill - He and the rest of the soldiers turned from watching the eight points of light in front of them to see a much closer, much larger ball of fire flying towards them. The fire was mixed with tinges of blue magic, crackling over the surface of a red hot angular surface that appeared to be made of some type of metal. Suddenly there was another explosion and blue jets of flame shot out from underneath and to the side of the thing, the shockwaves of which drove Quintis and his soldiers to their knees.
Quintis immediately began sputtering an apology and begged that the god forcing him to kneel in its presence would only punish him and not his soldiers.
The thing slightly changed course, flying a scant few dozen feet over the hilltop. The heat flying off the thing caused several soldiers to scream in agony as they were immediately given peeling and blistering burns on their exposed skin. The dry brush around them burst into flame, though it was quickly stomped out nearest the group.
Quintis turned to look behind him. The Netharians were turning and fleeing in all directions, but they were not quick enough. The flaming metal thing slammed into the ground, and Quintis watched with no small amount of appreciation for his newfound religion as those closest to the impact were partially turned to vapor. Those next closest to the site and the majority of the trees in the area were knocked flat with enough force that it was unlikely those who survived would avoid being crippled for life.
Even if they survived the fall, the extensive blistering burns would leave many of them blind or otherwise incapacitated. But before Quintis could celebrate the shockwave washed over his centurions, blowing some down the backside of the hill and throwing the rest to the ground.