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Piles of wreckage had been dragged from down the hill outside the base, the remains of the attacking vehicles partially melted and processed. The equipment of the infantry had also been stacked in a pile, and she swallowed a bit of bile as she realized some helmets still had their…prior user’s remains attached to them.
She hadn’t ordered the reclamation of any of it, and in the middle of it all was a crude metal cage. She stared at it, a mixture of surprise and disbelief filling her face. Her suspected culprits for the macabre collection skittered across the bars.
They’d obviously taken her lessons on how to use the multi-tool attachments to heart. The crude lines of the cage had obviously been fabricated using the multi-tools, using the wreckage as feedstock material. Both spiders chittered angrily to each other, Dapple standing on top of the cage peering down at the prisoner, while Dusky circled with agitation.
As she approached, the gray spider reached into the bars and thwacked the Blue with her front leg, shrieking an angry “Taker!”
The alien curled up into a ball, making itself as small as possible while letting out a pained groan. Talia felt her mouth go dry. She understood why the spiders were so angry at the alien, but torture hadn’t been part of her plans.
“Dusky. Dapple.” Talia called out firmly. Her suit speaker amplified her voice, and both spiders froze in place and turned their heads to observe her. “Come over here.”
For a second, she feared they’d ignore her, but the worry was misplaced as the two spiders eagerly hopped off the cage and skittered over to her. “Maker!”
It was impossible to suppress a slight sigh. At least she had that going for her. Both spiders peered at her with what she could only call adoration. It didn’t feel earned. She’d saved Dusky from the Blue before, true, but the way they waited raptly for her direction made her feel uncomfortable.
Even if it was useful for directing their attention and behavior.
“Don’t do that to the prisoner,” Talia instructed. They twisted their heads back and forth a few times as if they were trying to understand her suit translation. “I know you’re angry, but we need to focus on our mission right now. We can deal with the Blue later.”
“Taker…later?” Dusky asked.
Talia nodded. “Yes, later. Right now, we need to get ready for the attack on the research module and rescue your friends. Can I count on you two to help with that?”
Dusky and Dapple exchanged a glance before both spiders nodded in unison, bobbing up and down. “Help… Tch’Llik’yzz’Lrr!” They both cheered.
“Tchlickyizzler, yeah. Help.” Talia replied. Why should she be surprised their name was…totally unpronounceable? Dapple tried to turn and keep her in view as Talia stepped closer, but a hand on the spider’s side kept it still so she could check the battery pack. Sure enough, it had been drained to below half. It wouldn’t surprise her at all if Dusky’s was the same.
“We are going to need to recharge you now,” Talia stated. The spiders followed her over to the stockpile, where her old battpack module was sitting. It took a few minutes to exchange sets of charged batteries for the spider’s used ones, but they seemed to enjoy the attention.
Spider maintenance completed, Talia shook her head and addressed her AI. “Neo…can you please give me the brief rundown on what happened here? Why didn’t you alert me?”
[Informative: Blue prisoner reactivated approximately two hours ago. Upon analyzing its situation, it attempted to extract itself from CRD-X9 unit three. To avoid damage, the prisoner was released. Before LIRU containment units arrived, spider units halted their wreckage retrieval efforts and cornered the prisoner. Their containment efforts were suitable and User intervention was not required.]
“Ugh.” Talia shook her head. She knew she had told Neo to take care of things, but she’d not meant something like…that. It was just that she’d been at the end of a really long day and hadn’t had the energy to be specific.
She needed to spend more time flipping through his settings tabs.
[Notice: This unit is operating at full efficiency.]
Talia rolled her eyes. “Don’t worry. Flipping some toggles and going through some definitions on what is and what isn’t important shouldn’t be a big deal, right? User preferences take priority, after all.”
Her attention slid back to the Blue prisoner who had managed to right themselves and was sitting on their knees, staring at her. Questioning it had the potential to give her more intelligence and insight into the Blues, but she doubted her linguistics had the capability to figure out its language and then hash through things in a timeframe that was going to be helpful. Still it wouldn’t hurt to try.
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“Hello?” she said.
The Blue looked up at her blanky and held out its palms and spoke calmly. It was utter gibberish. “Neo, is there any chance of translating today?”
[Notice: AI Linguistic unit is incapable of translating Blue speech patterns. The linguistic unit is refusing to create a lexicon until further negotiation with Cortex AI suite occurs. User Cortex Credit account has been suspended due to unauthorized use of non-Cortex schematics.]
Talia took a breath to calm herself down. “Okay. Fine. I guess we aren’t translating Blue until we have our own research module and make our own linguistics AI then.”
Neo didn’t respond, and the Blue looked up at her blankly without moving further.
“Neo, we are taking just about everything with us. Can we make sure the security is good enough to make sure our friend doesn’t escape while we are gone? And add some kind of roof for sun protection?” Talia asked.
[Affirmative: Two LIRU units have been selected for base defense during operation and can provide base security and prisoner containment simultaneously. A tasking for protective cover has been added to LIRU order list; suitable wreckage has been located nearby.]
The cage the spiders had made wasn’t very sturdy looking, the bars were warped, and the welds looked like gooped metal, but unless the alien was ridiculously stronger than it looked, they were still Durasteel. The roof probably wouldn’t cause it to collapse, and she’d deal with the Blue later.
“Make sure to have the LIRUs provide it water, too.” Talia added.
She gestured for Dapple and Dusky to follow her, and they did so without missing a beat. It seemed like they were learning just as much about her as she was from them. That they had begun to understand her hand gestures at all was a massive leap that spoke even more toward how smart they were. It was still hard for her to picture them as a intelligent species though…probably because they were so eager to do whatever she told them.
On the other side of the base and the assembled military units, the Pegasus APC was waiting for them.
She tapped a command that activated her suit HUD, allowing her to examine all the infantry and armored vehicles that were waiting with a silent air of…lethality. All of them on the list were reporting ready status, and the fusion cell fab had been working overtime to make sure there was a surplus of fusion cells for taking with them along with a dozen different deployables that she’d asked Neo to fabricate.
Talia took a deep breath and focused on the task at hand. “Neo, how ready are our forces? And have there been any developments detected by our recon units?”
[Informative: User forces are prepared and well-equipped for the upcoming mission. A tactical analysis of unit cohesion during recent engagement has improved combat potential of User forces. Recon site is at the edge of Raptor drone range, which has resulted in sparse reconnaissance data in the targeted area. However, during User rest period, multiple recon missions were included as part of readiness preparations.]
Impatience edged into her voice. “Just tell me what you found.”
[Informative: Increased activity around research module was detected. Security measures have been significantly increased, as well as the number of visible Blue personnel. No immediate threats or additional attack forces have been identified within vicinity of User base.]
The hatch to the Pegasus opened up with an electric whirr. She stepped inside and the two spiders peeked inside before hesitantly following her. Despite their earlier acclimation, climbing into the APC was still something they didn’t seem to like, although Dapple had a lot less trouble with the idea.
“Do we have specifics on their units and numbers at least?” Talia asked.
[Informative: Based on the latest reconnaissance data, the following specifics on enemy forces have been detected around the research module.]
| Enemy Forces Detected |
|--Armor--|
| Light Attack Vehicles (LAVs): 24 |
| Heavy Machinery and Transport Vehicles: 16 |
| Main Battle Tanks (MBTs): 8 |
|--Infantry--|
| Regular Infantry: 150 |
| Infantry with Crew-served Weapons: 30 |
| Foxholes: 37 |
| Heavy Weapon Gun Nests: 13 |
|--Defensive Installations--|
| Automated Turrets: 40 |
| Anti-Air Missile Systems: 4 |
Talia studied the information; it looked like there were double the numbers she had seen before. When she dug deeper into the intelligence sheets, the units presented were comparable to the ones that had attacked the base, for the most part. Even though her forces were outnumbered considerably, it felt like she still had the upper hand, especially due to the Blues’ seeming lack of recon and drone units.
The SAM systems and automated turrets were the two things that stood out as worrisome, though. “Neo, can they use these missiles against our tanks? That would be bad. And do we have any idea on what the turrets are capable of?”
Imagery of one of the deployed defensive turrets appeared, before zooming in and then converting into a blueprint schematic. Different sections of the weapon were highlighted.
[Notice: Turret information is sparse; however, extrapolation of visual data indicates complete automation. Due to the shape and size of the system and previous usage, a plasma-based projectile is expected. Alternatively, a high-explosive or fragmentation type projectile could be launched.]
“And the missiles?” Talia asked again.
[Informative: Missile system capabilities are unknown. However, CIWS anti-missile and anti-shell defenses have been equipped to HIRU infantry units. Twenty deployable defensive auto-turrets also carry this capability.]
“Even if we have the advantage, we need to be smart about this,” Talia said, turning to look back at Dusky and Dapple. “We are only going in only after things are secure.”
[Affirmative: User safety is the highest priority during operation.]
The spiders both looked at her expectantly, their eyes focused on her. She reached out and rubbed Dusky’s furry head with her gauntlet, eliciting a spider chirp.
“I can’t believe we’re doing this,” Talia mumbled.