One of the soldiers was near the plasma turret and I took the moment as Astraea counted down to compare the rifle and the turret. Simply put, they were large handheld weapons with a single barrel, grey metal with several heat radiators to disperse any heat that built up and a laser/optic sight combo for sighting. The only true difference was the turret had no trigger underneath it and several wires going down into the mount to connect to the powerline. The flamethrower had tubes and a fuel supply within its mount, leaving me confused by the turrets' simple wires or power cables more likely. The rifle on the other hand, had no way to reload or change it’s magazine. Such a weird design for a standard weapon.
Still as Astraea’s countdown neared its end, an ancient memory surge of hope and pride filled me, I couldn’t place the memory or it’s feelings anywhere other than them being hard coded into me.
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: LOCKDOWN LIFTING IN T-1
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: LOCKDOWN LIFTING IN T-0
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: CORE ROOM LOCKDOWN HAS HAS ENNNDEED COREE ROOM DOORS DOORS OPENING ALL GUNS STAND BY TO EXTERMINATE ALL ALL DEVILROACHES SO REPAIRS CAN BEGIIIN.
The door turned translucent and I got my first look at the Devilroaches. They looked like your avenge cockroach, scaled to four meters in length, with a green-yellow carapace and they were spitting acidic fire at any metal surface they weren’t chewing on with their oversized mandibles. They also numbered in millions and were starting to look this way. I think I underestimated how bad the threat was, in fact my defences seem wholly insignificant compared to what I was up against. My life flashed before my eyes, mostly the birth of my newborn son and me setting up those traps.
A great hiss echoed out as the door opened and every turret, rifle, and pistol opened up to answer the vile, oversized, monster versions of common harmless pests. White hot bolts of plasma flew through the air, impacting and detonating against their carapace. Many simply ceased to exist, others’ shrieked in pain and agony as plasma bolts found their way under their carapace and burned them inside out. Some more were slowly melted down to ash as their tougher carapaces absorb more hits then healthy for them. Five seconds in and the millions were reduced to hundreds, turns out that insect carapace was not a good armour against plasma weapons. Noah, for his part, moved up near the door so that when the firing stopped, he could charge down the hallway.
After a minute passed, every gun began to vent, ceasing fire as they did so. The remaining Devilroaches began to charge down the hallway and Noah charged to meet them. As the first ones came in range, they spat their acidic fire at Noah. For the most part they simply bounced off his armour. His head plates slid into place to protect his eyes, and Noah entered melee range as panic and worry began to bubble up within me. Within such a narrow corridor, Noah’s size worked quite well as none could go past him in any way. His claws repeatedly punched holes through their carapaces and each time he opened his claw the impaled Devilroach was torn apart with its guts and internal organs spilling out. Noah’s tail also impaled those before him with reckless abandon, twisting itself to break open the Devilroach and letting its internals bleed out for a moment before slamming them into the wall or ceiling to clear its blade for the next target.
The corridor turned out to be quite long as I couldn’t see its end as more Devilroaches came around to join the massacre. “Astraea, how far away is the next room and what is its purpose? Also what is the section of the station I’m in called?”
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: THE THE NEXT ROOM IS 4 KILOMETERSS AWAY AND AND IS THE SECURITY OFFICE RECLAIMING IT SHOULD ALLOW FOR FOR YOU REGAIN ACCESS TO ALL INTERNAL AND EXTERNAL CAMERA SYSTEMS THIS SECTION OF THE STATION IS THE CENTRAL CORE WITH ALL IMPORTANT AND VVVITAL SYSTEMS TO TO THE STATION’S WELL WELLBEING AS WELL AS HOUSING THE STATION’S PRI PRIMARY POWER PLANT UNLIKE THE OTHER WINGS THE CENTRAL CORE IS LARGEST SECTION OF THE STATION AND EXTENDS DOWN DOWNWARDS FOR 9,457 KILOMETERS AND FEATURES AN ELEVATOR SYSTEM IN WHICH ALL ROOMS ON THIS SECTION ARE PART OF.
“Didn’t you say that Babel was four hundred kilometers below me?”
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: Y Y YES IS SOMETHING WRONG MMASTERRR.
“There’s nine thousand, four hundred fifty seven kilometers between me and that station’s bottom, so shouldn’t Babel be nine thousand, eight hundred fifty seven kilometers below me?”
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: NO THE STATION IS LOCKED 400 KILOOMETERS ABOVE THE BABEL SPACE ELEVATOR SO YOOU ARE 400 KILOMETERS ABOVE BABEL.
“So I’m this station and this station is me. Say what is the name of this station anyway?”
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: YES THE STATION IS KNOWN AS KORMOURN NAMED AS SUCH FOR THE TAIONIAN WORD FOR THE 16TH STAGE OF GRIEF OUT OF 42.
“Isn’t forty two stages of grief too much?”
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: THERE WAS POLITICAL TURMOIL OF IT NOT BEING ENOUGH I I DON’T HAVE RECORDS OF OF IT BEING RESOLVED IN ANY WAYY.
I don’t know what to say to that. Still the text that accompanied Astraea’s voice was just as damaged as she was. Perhaps if I find her physical location I could see to fixing her issues. “And where are you located? Somewhere close hopefully.” Truth be told I was sure it was far away from me, most likely past the security office. I should “summon” more units so I can clear and repair Kormourn station of it’s infestation faster.
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: 6 KKILOMETERS PAST THE SECURITY OFF OFFICE AND TO THE RIGHT IS IS THE AI SERVER HHUB I ALONG WITH ALL 72 SUBSYSTEM AI’S ARE LOCATED HERE DEFENSE GRRID SOLOMON AND CCHAPEL AI LILITH ARE NOT LOCATED HERE CHAPEL A AI LILITH IS LOCATED AT THE CHAPEL WHILE DEFENSE GRID S SOLOMON IS LOCATED AT FINAL INTERIOR FIRELINNE OMEGA JUST BEFORE ACCESS TO ALL ADDITIONAL WINGS WINGS.
Closer than I thought, farther than I hoped. Still as I summoned more units to reclaim the station I began to ponder on how large the infestation was. Astraea had noted damages done rather than how much of the station was infested. Now that the lockdown had been over for ten minutes and control of the corridor started falling into my hands, I should check out some of the units that were locked down. “Astraea how much of the station is infested?”
WATCH SYSTEM ASTRAEA: 94 PERCENT OF THE THE CENTRAL CORE IS IS INFESTED DECREASING AT AT 0.00004 PERCENT PER HOUR AT AT THE CURRENT RATE EVERY OTHER WING EXCEPPT FOR THE PRIMARY HANGAR BAY AT 99 PERCENT WHIILE THE PRIMARY HANGAR BAY IS AT 10 PER PERCENT.
Summon Name
Cost
Power Drain per Minute
Stolen story; please report.
Life Support Offline
16
-32 Solar
Sergeant
4
-4 Solar
Life Support Offline
9
-18 Solar
Life Support Offline
3
-7 Solar
Sniper
2
-5 Solar
Shredder
5
-400 Solar
At the current rate I’ll be cleaning this station for years, time which I didn’t have. Even as dumb as I am, I knew that this station wouldn’t last long enough for a full, through cleaning. I barely understood half of what Astraea was saying and I enjoyed having the ability to read, which only commoners and above knew how to before. Sarge had been more patient when dealing with me then any other officer as well as my late husband. Still looking over the new choices, showed me that three of the options were locked by life support. The Sergeant and the Sniper were simple enough to understand from name alone, so I summoned them.
The Sergeant was quite simply a more armoured version of the soldier, with a large metal tube with heat radiators along its length instead of the plasma rifle. The metal tube was mostly an RPG of some kind, and I noticed a grenade launcher strapped to his back that also had heat radiators. The Sniper on the other hand was less armoured then the soldier and carried a much longer version of the plasma rifle. Its scope was also longer and had a much larger laser sight. The sergeant was also able to command others to some extent, and the sniper was in truth, not ideal for the current situation. Clearing long hallways and rooms was a poor use of a sniper’s talents, at least as far as I know, it’s not a good use.
The Shredder seemed like something useful, maybe it had a whole butch of plasma gatlings or something. I wonder how that sounds, acting like you know what everyone is talking about was the best advice Sarge ever gave me and it doesn’t seem to be helping me here. Being able to read without understanding what it says is troubling me. Still might as well summon one and see what this Shredder looks like.
The floor opened up and a red core arose out of it with mechadendrites rising up with rings. A Gyroscope or something rose up to surround the core, extending several prongs as the mechadendrites moved the rings towards it. The rings attached themselves to the prongs and pulled themselves together, sealing them together with several welders before the next set of rings rose up. The next set of rings were covered in teeth like a chainsword, they proceeded to attach themselves to the metal sphere. Rotating themselves to secure their hold on the sphere, two central toothed rings rotated back and forth as row upon row of smaller toothed rings were added on. A red glow begins to radiate out from between the central rings as the ball of bladed rings is lowered to the floor.
The Shredder’s teeth dug into the metal flooring much to the annoyance of the spiders. Each shift the Shredder made tore up the floor as it waited for my commands. “Can you take out the devilroaches infesting this Station? I would like to retake the central section by the end of the day. Can you do that for me sweetie?” “BLUUUUR!” A loud roar echoed out as the Shredder raced out of the room tearing up the floor as it went. It rapidly ate up the distance that Noah and the soldiers had spent the last few hours retaking and would be soon upon them. The soldiers moved out of the way of the Shredder as it approached them.
As the Shredder approached Noah, he simply moved to the wall and clung to it, trying to make himself smaller against the wall as devilroaches kept up their assault. Seeing the gap made by Noah moving to the side, more devilroaches moved to flank him. Unfortunately for them, the Shredder came to close the gap. Ripping and tearing into the devilroaches as the Shredder single mindedly advanced through their ranks, bits and pieces of the devilroaches flew every which way and some were simply crushed underneath the Shredder. The crushed ones were also cut up, but not as much as the rest.
Noah moved back into place as the Shredder passed him and started to mop up what little remained after the Shredder passed through. The Shredder had rapidly left my sight and seeing its effectiveness, I summoned more, two at a time. In total, Noah spent four minutes hugging the wall as shredders drove past him. Still the shredders enabled me to quickly retake the hallway up to the security office, unfortunately for Noah, the door was not big enough for him to fit through. It wasn’t easy for Noah to switch back and forth from the floor to the wall and while he was doing that, I noticed that there was a gap within the doorframe. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it normally as it was at the edge of my vision.
I don’t have a good line of sight though and I noticed a similar gap in the door to the core room. The things you take for granted aren’t always there, as Sarge liked to point out. Indeed my own powered armour that I took for granted so often, had not kept me alive much longer then him. In fact, I bet I lived long enough to feel the pain where Sarge had been lucky to die almost immediately. Stop, stop thinking about how I died, it keeps giving me panic attacks.
Still I wasn’t hearing any signs of combat, so the security office seemed to be clear of devilroaches. I still couldn’t see into the room, and Noah took note of it, and produced a mirror so I could see into the room. I’m not sure what I’m looking at. Row upon row of machines stood in the small room. What did Sarge say they were, commuters . . . Cormicks? I don’t know . . . no wait, those are terminals, that's what Sarge called them. My brain hurts, not that I have one anymore, but still, it hurts.
Looking at the security office, I suddenly felt it click and rotate into me. I could now see the room as if I was in it. It was quite honestly, disturbing, as I could see the mirror looking into the room from both ends. My brain hurts so much. Might as well take a look at details to take my mind off the problem, and not wish that I had my flamer that I didn’t have at the time of my death. Come to think about it, Sister Abbeth might have fared far better with the squad she was attached to as she had her flamer and she had fought off a great many demons before.
Rooms (Core Excluded)
Power Drain per Minute
Computer Terminals (48 total)
-8 Electrical
Camera Systems Alpha & Omega Core
-8 Electrical
BOOTING UP CAMERA SYSTEM ALPHA.
BOOTING UP CAMERA SYSTEM OMEGA.
POWERING UP SENSOR NET BARBATOS.
SENSOR NET BARBATOS NOW AT STANDBY STATUS, AWAITING REACTIVATION AT AI SERVER HUB.
CAMERA SYSTEMS WILL BE ONLINE IN 3.5 HOURS.
HAVE A NICE DAY.
What just happened? That wasn’t Astraea, wait does that mean that Astraea isn’t alone at the server hub then. I knew basic first aid, not that I could use it myself in my current form, but the soldiers could be taught it. Ah teaching, I remember teaching Noah how to shoot a rifle when he was five and what the proper prayers for each task with the rifle he had to perform. I should see to teaching the soldiers the proper prayers too, lest their guns jam or rather overload.
Still, without a medkit the amount I could do to help would be limited. I wonder what the term ai meant? It kept popping up every so often. Nevermind that, Astraea and someone else need medical help. I hope those Shredders have reached the server hub. Still I need to repair this station, so might as well summon more spiders. Come to think of it, Sister Cratharine was afraid of spiders, and well, any insect that wasn’t a butterfly or a moth.
She could fight any alien, any heretic, and any demon without a shred of fear, but as soon as she saw a spider, she would freak out and cower. It was funny to watch, but her death had not been. A giant sickly green flash had erased both her and the squad she was attached to, instantly. One moment she was charging to meet the foe like any other and the next she was gone. My thoughts kept coming back to how I died and the events that lead up to it.
Have a nice day huh. Today has been anything but nice. Just a few hours ago I was fighting with Sarge and the rest of the squad to stem the tide emerging from the archaeological site, and now I was aiding in the reclaiming and repairing of some orbital overrun with mutant cockroaches. The good side was that the devilroaches were not as robust as a cockroach. You could cut off a cockroaches’ head and it would survive for a while till it starved to death, devilroaches didn’t live very long after their head came off.
Noah and the soldiers with him began to move up, killing any surviving devilroaches as they sought to catch up to the Shredders. Soon they too, were out of my sight. Even if I felt more of the hallway come under my control, I couldn’t see much of it. Maybe I needed to reclaim the whole hallway before I gained the disturbing sight that I had gained with the security office.
Still I was committed and I would never let myself fall short of my goal. Still there are some words that I think would apply to me now. The words of Saint Roosevelt fill my heart, even if I never learned when he had lived or the original context for these words. I would live by them in my new state of being, ‘Speak softly and carry a big stick.’ Now all I gotta do is find a big stick. Shouldn’t be too hard to find one, just gotta know where to find one.
Things may have been bad before, but now is the time for action. It's time to retake this station with all haste, and nothing will stop or slow me down. I’ve faced worse than these devilroaches. After all, with Noah and all the soldiers, what's the worst that could happen?