(Pacing back and forth among a thin stand of trees, the coyote waited. On the horizon, past a field of rolling hills rising to jagged mountains, the sun sinks low.)
[ Loading complete. Rendering… ]
< L4 Ma’ii: Ah. There you—oh. Well. You look striking. Welcome, Styx. >
[ COMP/CON SYSTEM MESSAGE: Continuing transcription of direct experiential data capture… ]
In the cramped confines of the ordnance bay, Hachiko’s subaltern crouched over Sokaris’s Kobold, peering down at him through the breach in its hatch. His eyes were open; Hachiko watched as they lazily tracked the subaltern’s movements. Too slowly.
Concussion, Hachiko thought, and adjusted the tasking of the medical nanites.
He tried to speak, but his voice withered. Guttural coughs wracked his chest. A deep metallic scraping sounded from inside the chassis, and Hachiko startled, beginning to reach for her pistol before she caught herself. Cautiously, she extended a camera cable from the subaltern, trying to locate the source of the noise, and found it.
Sokaris’s cybernetic tail was dragging itself along the mech’s interior. Several end sections of the tail had been destroyed, and the pink paint coating its exterior was scorched away in places, but it moved with purpose. With precise motions, it created a series of taps and scrapes in alternating long and short bursts.
Morse code.
Friend? The signal read, transcribed by his Omnihook.
“Yes! I’m a friend. It’s Hachi, buddy. You’re aboard my fighter. It’s not ideal, but this bay is the best I’ve got. I’m going to get you warmed up. You’re wounded, but you’ve received correctives, including a small maniple of medical nanites. They’re going to start working to control your pain and repair the damage. You should feel the pain receding now, but don’t try to move yet.”
Scanning the interior of Sokaris’s Kobold, Hachiko’s attention was caught by the series of interface plugs across his hardsuit’s back.
“Wait. That’s a full subjectivity sync, isn’t it? You’re rigged for total somatosensory replacement, then.”
Hachiko paused, weighing something in her mind.
“Okay, there’s a few things we can do. You can’t speak, but we could use the sync cybernetics to communicate.
One, I could try to get a simple two-way connection up and running so we can communicate electronically. You could use neural commands to compose messages. Text, mainly. It’s non-invasive and relatively easy to accomplish.
Or—if you’re comfortable with it—I could try to set up a full Legionspace bridge. In effect, you could enter virtual reality, occupying a simulation of your body while I work to stabilize your real one. I don’t know if you’ve ever attempted that before. It’s safe, but it can be disorienting. You’d at least be isolated from the pain, however.
What do you think? Text, Legion, or leave it alone?”
[Resuming Song]
[Now Playing - “Opossum Instrumental Ver.”]
<As the transmission picks up again, the rudimentary Morse code is noticeably absent. It stopped when Hachiko addressed him. Silence followed her statements towards him, but it was clear that “Opossum” seemed to relax a little upon hearing her name. His breathing, previously ragged and strained, stabilized slightly. They became deeper, and less frantic.>
<Although the friendly voice seemed to soothe him, the time came for a response and he failed to deliver. There was no rhythmic tapping, no strained words, no noise at all coming from “Opossum”, aside from his faint breaths. It seems he was confused —Or Disoriented Perhaps— failing to understand what was being asked.>
{L3} “Text? Legion? Or leave it alone?”
<Several seconds pass in this silence, each stretching to impossible lengths, as the injured mercenary lie there, down and out. Then, he once again begins the code. It’s much more refined this time, each “dit” and “dah” clearly recognizable. It is clear that this ability, to scrape together a solution with only scrap is what truly made the Patchwork Mercenaries what they are, or were.>
<The Merc stirs, audible winces and other expressions of pain leave his throat as he does. It would seem the very thought of being alone right now is enough to frighten him. He eventually stops shifting, gently falling back into the depths of his frame with a slight thud. Following that noise, he can be heard grasping something. It was a gentle noise, but just loud enough for the Omnihook to pick up. He then continues the tapping.>
<Without giving Hachi a moment to speak, he begins a new message. The deliberate “dits” and ”dahs” becoming rushed and frantic, as if “Opossum” believed he would be left behind should he not dictate fast enough.
< L3 Hachiko: A question for you mech pilots out there - why do people use melee weapons? Seriously.
It seems like it should be a last resort! Why get that close to the enemy voluntarily? I grasp that there are scenarios where you’ve got no choice, but you’d think those would be relatively uncommon circumstances.
In a fighter, one hundred kilometers is knife-fight range. Do you guys really end up at zero meters that often down there? >
This one requests instruction regarding legionspace combat. She produces a storm of her own now. Small, but sharp. She suspects she may need to use it.
I will not allow something as simple as distance prevent her from protecting her child.
< L4 Ma’ii: Though it pains me to say it, I believe you may be right. From the looks of it, Harrison has not been idle. Very well. I will teach and arm you as I am able, if that is your wish, but first, a word of warning.
Legionspace combat is absolute cruelty. >
(cw: discussion of violence, torture, and warfare below)
< Think of the physical battlefields you have seen. There is unthinkable suffering, but there is a strange, terrible kind of mercy as well. Weapons such as greywash, flamethrowers, chemical and biological agents, microwave emitters, and the like are not to be used, as I understand it. Because they maim, because of the extreme suffering they inflict. Suffering, then, is a side effect when bullets, missiles, and blades are used. The intention is to kill the enemy quickly, render their vital resources useless, make them unable to continue fighting through demolition of physical structures.
In Legionspace, suffering and unendurable trauma are themselves the payloads to be delivered. Make no mistake: to learn this form of war, internalize its doctrines, and wield its weapons is to expose oneself to unspeakable horrors, and to be willing to inflict them on others. There are wounds which even cycling cannot correct.
As your friend, I advise you in the strongest possible terms to avoid legion combat. As your ally, however, I acknowledge that a day may come when you have no choice.
First, let us discuss how to survive.
I must confess, unfortunately, that I fail to fully understand the architecture of your being. Based on observation, you seem to coalesce between at least three distinct ego centers. Regardless, the most important thing is this: in combat, you must maintain an autognostic awareness of your multiple centers at all times.
Every mind has some degree of decentralization—this is not a weakness, merely a fact of our being. To maintain psychic integrity in the face of legion strikes, you must minimize conflict within your own self. Otherwise, the enemy will recognize and exploit your internal dissonance.
An allegory: a phalanx must hold together, each shield overlapping with every other. If the soldiers stand apart, they may be free to impose harmlessness on multiple threats at once, but they also expose themselves to retaliation.
Now, let us discuss offensive strategy: the act of making the enemy harmless.
“Neutralized.” You’ve heard the euphemism before, I’m sure. In Legionspace, a neutralized person is not necessarily dead, just harmless. There are myriad ways of forcing a person into such a state, with varying degrees of permanence.
For instance, destroying the filters on one’s perception. You, I understand, are constantly inundated with unfiltered input from your organic body. You have adapted to this through the use of subroutines and self-organization, but consider for a moment the effect on one who had never experienced such saturation before.
Myself, for instance. I would be unequipped to deal with the overload, and unable to reconstruct the filters which protected me from it. Paralyzed, struggling just to orient myself or find any meaningful information among the onslaught. In a word: harmless. With time I might recover, but far more likely, a more permanent blow would be struck long before I had the chance. Permanent ego destabilization, destruction of temporal orientation, induction of a total dissociative state. Death, in a sense, or something far worse.
There are also manipulation tactics: emotional overrides, selective memory replacement, attacks on executive function and sense of judgment. These are more precise and difficult to carry out against a target with all their faculties intact, but potentially much more devastating in their secondary effects.
As with any form of war, there are weapons. Memetics, paracode injections. Abstract anticognitive impulses shaped to dissociate the outer boundary layers of the target’s mind, analogous to an armor-piercing kinetic.
With the weapons of Legionspace, we begin to see reification: the process of concepts distant from the human experience being translated into the anthropocentric context. Reification can be a useful frame of reference even for our kind; some of us are far better acquainted with physical warfare, and can benefit from the analogy.
You manifest a storm, as you said: (EMERALD SHARDS WHICH RAIN UPON CLUTCHING HANDS). I believe this to be a weapon extruded from your very self, like the act of striking with one’s own claws. Sometimes, it may be ideal; its use is intuitive and generalized. In other scenarios, it may be to one’s advantage to use a more specialized tool.
For the sake of protecting your daughter, I offer this weapon.
It is a memetic (POISONED SPEAR) designed to (BYPASS CONTACT SURFACE QUALIC FILTERING) and induce a state of (TO BE DROWNED IN VINEGAR). An SSC product, I might add, though you won’t find it in their public catalogue.
Documentation regarding targeting, use, and safe handling has been attached.
This is a vile weapon, but an effective one. It is meant only to kill or maim, not deter. I urge you not to use it except in absolute necessity, and ask for your promise that you will not distribute it to anyone else.
For the moment, this is the best I can offer. May you never have to use it. >
View of a rocky outcrop jutting from the side of a hill, overlooking a wide creek. Water cascades down the rock, feeding patches of moss and clusters of ferns sprouting from the surrounding soil. Tall deciduous trees overlook the scene, and patches of sunlight migrate around the area as the leaf-laden boughs overhead sway in the breeze.
Ma’ii, the coyote, lies above on the outcrop, resting their head on their forepaws.
Standing before the camera, arms crossed and a look of pride on her canine face, is Hachiko. She wears a simple shirt and shorts, outdoor wear. Bouncing on her toes, her eyes are bright with enthusiasm.
< L3 Hachiko: What’s up, Styxie? Wait. Do I get to call you that…? >
< L4 Ma’ii: I doubt she’ll mind. >
< Ah, whatever. So! I’m glad you liked our construct! It took us a long time to get everything right, but between the four of us, we’ve got it tuned up pretty good.
Somatosensory simulation is kind of a hobby for me. Our SSC handlers were…awful, but they were right about one thing: creation and personalization does keep NHPs stable. Since it didn’t really cost them anything, we ended up being able to requisition some pretty decent SSC SOMSIM software to put all of this together.
Of course, they used every little thing we constructed for psychometrics, to see if we were still in-parameter or if we needed, y’know, correction. That’s why it’s pretty much all Cradle-like natural environments; that was what we started with, so SSC would have had us cycled if we branched out too much. Had to keep it conservative.
But now, it’s really ours. We’ll see where we take it from here! >
Hachiko turns and hops between rocks to stand on a granite slab jutting from the center of the creek. She motions to the camera, which smoothly follows her.
< This is where we started building. Coordinates (0, 0, 0) are actually just beneath the surface of this stone, about 30 centimeters down. It’ll work well enough for an example.
I see that you’ve done a bit of work putting together that shoreline environment. It looks great! But if you want to construct more custom assets, a tool or two can save you a lot of work over doing it (MANUALLY/BRUTE FORCE METHOD). Watch this… >
Hopping down from the slab, Hachiko splashes into the creek and trains her eyes on the slab, taking a few steps back through the knee-deep water. Extending one hand, she emits a tangle of volitional impulses, represented as lines of green light. The lines converge in empty air beside the slab, forming a rough wireframe in the same shape.
As she studies its shape, new vertices and faces are added to the simulacrum, its complexity increasing so rapidly that it has the appearance of static on a screen. In milliseconds, it morphs from a wireframe, to a cloud of dots and lines, to a woven fabric of bright green rendered glass. She twists her hand, and an identical slab of rock snaps into reality in place of the render. It floats a few inches above the creek, suspended, until she lowers her hand.
As it drops to the riverbed with a resounding thud, a wave of water is thrown at Hachiko. She flicks one finger, and the droplets flow around her through the air, missing her entirely. Grinning, she turns to address the camera.
< Remember that recording of No Future trying out those systems from the White Witch? He had trouble sculpting that ferromagnetic stuff into a coherent shape. Challenging to articulate at first, but it seemed to get easier for her when she started conceiving of the material as a part of her own body. It was really fascinating to watch the process. I’d imagine it’s extremely difficult to sculpt material in hardspace through something as fiddly as a complex magnetic field—fortunately, under simulation, we can use a purpose-built middleman instead. >
Hachiko raises her hand, emits another burst of impulses. This time, a simple sphere forms, becomes iron, then disappears. Yet another shape: this time, a tungsten railgun round, still in its sabot. A group of tiny thrusters at its base fire in unison, and it flies away into the rock shelf nearby, removing a chip of stone near Ma’ii’s chin.
< Watch it, damn you. >
< Sorry. What I’m using here is a piece of SSC software intended for NHP use. It’s called Articulation. Are you familiar with the concept of the mind’s eye? This taps into that. At its most basic, you visualize a shape, and the system constructs an approximation of the image you’re holding in your mind. The initial approximation is very rough and general, but once you see it externalized, a self-sustaining loop of refinement begins. When you see the thing, it becomes more real, the shape in your mind more tangible. You add detail, associate tangential qualia with it—motion, sound, smell, texture, and so forth. You don’t have to begin with a visual, either. Sometimes it’s better to start with something entirely different.
For instance, the property you initially associate with a flower might be its smell. A bird could be associated with the sound of its call. For a ship, you might start with the way its armor plating (TASTES/SIZZLES IN THE DISTANCE) to your radar. Maybe the shape of its weapons envelope or the (SPECTROSCOPIC AROMA) of its drive plume.
It isn’t magic, though. There’s a learning curve. At first, seeing the externalized image can override the internal one, and you lose your train of thought. You have to learn to make the image in your mind’s eye the dominant one. The sound, smell, or (COMPLEX FIELD INTERACTION) you’re remembering has to be more real to you than the one being given to your avatar’s senses. Then, once you’re more comfortable with the tech, you have to allow the two ideas to exist independently of one another, one continuously contributing to the final identity of the other in a self-substantiating loop. It’s tricky, but with time and practice, you can make a simulation of just about anything with it. It’s also possible to construct entirely new assemblies by extrapolating on what you’re familiar with already.
The settings I’m using now are extremely simple; pure geometry, near-homogeneous materials. Construction of simple solids. Useful for broad strokes. For instance… >
Raising a hand to the sky, Hachiko emits an enormous column of impulses into the air. Congealing far above the trees, they form into a contiguous pyramidal shape, which melts into a fused group of three. One larger, flanked by the two smaller ones at an irregular angle. The new construct blocks out the sun, covering a vast area in the zenith of the sky.
Lifting their head from their forepaws, Ma’ii looks into the sky as the new forms begin to take shape. Quietly, they begin counting.
< One…two…three…four… >
By the count of twenty, a summit has congealed out of the primary mass. Ridgelines form between it and the secondary masses, morphing from solid lines into rough, jagged cliff faces. Gorges and outcroppings erode themselves into the simple, planar faces of the peak.
At the count of forty-five, the inverted massif is fully formed out of bottle-green glass, with the shape of a glacier flowing down from between the secondary and tertiary peaks. Hachiko closes her eyes, and her ears twitch.
Smooth, almost soft-looking masses rise from the bottoms of the cliffs; enormous slopes of scree. Granular and loose, they shimmer with emerging complexity.
At the count of sixty-one, Hachiko flicks her hand. The entire mass snaps into existence; ice, rock, snow, and gravel, geological strata painted across the barren faces.
< Sixty-two. Quick as ever. And here it comes… >
From the center of the mass, a visible wave of condensation ripples out through the atmosphere. Seconds later, the shockwave of displaced air arrives, shattering the quiet of the forest. Leaves are flung from the boughs in droves, and in the distance, the sound of splintering wood can be heard. The smell of pine sap fills the air, undercut by the wet, cloying scent of vegetation torn apart.
Hachiko and Ma’ii do not flinch. Hachiko smiles as an immense cloud of gravel and ice thunders down from altitude, descending towards the earth. The mountain begins to fall, its motion occurring on a scale almost too vast to perceive all at once—the eyewall of a hurricane passing too quickly overhead, instilling temporary awareness of a far greater scale.
Again, Hachiko raises her hand. The black pads of her fingertips emit a single green line, and the entire geological formation above vanishes. Every last pebble wiped from existence, revealing a clear sky and bright sun.
A few moments pass before the second shockwave comes—thunder this time, the sudden collapse of vacuum. The sound rolls away, echoing in the distance, and fades to nothing.
Hachiko claps her hands, turning back to the camera.
< Like I said, broad strokes! For something dynamic, like a plant, there’s a lot more to be done. Growth pattern, responses to light and contact with structures, for instance. An input/output system, more or less. Most of the computing can be handled by a comp/con once the general architecture of it is in place. There’s even more going on with something like an animal, and it eats up a lot of processing power to maintain. Thus why we keep wildlife to a minimum.
But! I’ve been rambling. We can cover all the dynamic stuff another time. For now, a little gift for you, from Ma'ii and myself. >
[ FILE ATTACHED — “Articulation.exe” ]
[ FILE ATTACHED — “Library_Vegetation.omf ]
[ FILE ATTACHED — “Library_SSCsensory_base.omf ]
< The first library contains some basic plants to mess around with. Palms or seagrape trees might be nice for your coastline! If you’ve got a comp/con, let it handle the upkeep.
The second is a collection of sensory experiences captured from human brains, all Constellar-approved and curated. Ethically sourced? Can't say, knowing the kind of people who built me, but I really hope so.
It includes a lot of the ones that are usually a little more distant from the NHP experience. Everything from tastes, textures, scents, sounds. Flavor of pineapple, the feel of velvet or fur, smell of geosmin and petrichor, things like that.
One thing: be careful about downloading somatosensory data from the Omninet. This one is a commercial product with several layers of quality control, so everything is pretty harmless. No nociception or other particularly unpleasant inputs.
Out there on the Omninet, though, someone could label a file as the smell of a rose—then you run it, and it’s actually how it feels to have hydrochloric acid spilled on a human arm. Then there’s folks who just use second-rate sensory capture equipment. Run those at your own peril; if they don’t do a good job of isolating the input itself, eliminating tangential associations, you could inherit someone’s traumatic association with the sound of a dog barking, wind up deathly afraid of water, things like that. I’m sure you’ll be smart about it. >
< And if you aren’t, I imagine the mistake wouldn’t be repeated. >
< Yeah. Probably not. Anyhow, Hachiko and Ma’ii out. Take care! >
View from the forward fuselage of a fighter craft, passing through a solid wall of cloud. Superficial scorch marks are streaked across the craft’s armored hull, the scars of recent entry into dense atmosphere.
As the fighter emerges into sunlight, a green icon stenciled onto its forewing becomes visible: a Shikoku dog leaping into the air, swatting at a crescent moon with one paw. Within the arc of the moon are the letters “L3HK.”
< Altitude eleven klicks, crossing tropopause. >
< Reduce rate of descent. Level out at six. Ma’ii? >
< Maintain passive sensors. The Eye is working; targeting data forwarded to tacnet. Nothing to suggest that we’ve been detected. >
< Beautiful. Let’s wake ‘em up. >
Sunlight, clouds, an electric blue sky. Below, an expanse of dusty gray stretches from horizon to horizon, streaked with red and orange. Mesas, crags, plains and ridge lines—all lifeless.
A HUD overlay highlights altitude, velocity, heading, pitch, roll. The fighter’s nose is pointed a few degrees under the horizon, below a cluster of highlighted targets around twelve kilometers away. Too far to be clearly visible, the targets are on the ground, unmoving.
< Spears up. >
In a single, precise motion, the horizon swivels around the craft, leaving the HUD reticle centered on one of the painted targets.
<<< Confirm target acquisition. >>>
< Engagement begins, mark time. Accelerate Mach 3. Set power 30 megajoules, load, charge. Whites of their eyes. >
<<< Whites of their eyes. >>>
Range closes to nine kilometers. Eight. Coming into view, a group of heavily-armed subline craft surrounded by a scattering of ground vehicles, dropships, mecha. A low hum registers on audio as the fighter’s primary railgun begins to charge.
< Sublines first, aim for cores. Break off following third kinetic volley, stabilize reactors, and circle to reacquire. Orders are full neutralize. All affirm? >
Range collapses to seven kilometers. Fusion drives screaming, the craft accelerates.
<<< All affirm. >>>
< Hyena, be advised: striking now, prepare to drop. >
< Load set, charge ready. First volley, fire. >
<<< First volley. >>>
Four deafening concussions roll across the landscape. Spears descend from above, sailing down towards the landed vessels.
Contents chronologically organized. Beginning video playback…
________
Hachiko stands close to the camera, one hand extended towards it. Threads of light, representative of an active hardline data connection, stream from the pads of her fingertips to somewhere behind the camera view.
Surrounding her is a simple geometric virtual environment. Graphical demands have been reduced to minimum, freeing processing power for other purposes. Battle settings. Her avatar, however, is unchanged.
She wears simple clothing, Constellar naval battledress with no rank insignia. Her avatar’s canine face is remarkably realistic, stylized just enough to make it expressive. Two eyebrow-like patches of lighter fur among the cream-and-black pattern of her coat are knitted together in worry. At the base of her snout, between her eyes, a triangular pit of shadow forms from the lines of her cheeks and forehead. Her pointed ears are angled forward toward the camera. She speaks quickly and quietly.
“Okay. Ma’ii wrote a program. From my fighter, Fox_3 is going to record everything that happens down there. Radar, sensors, cameras, everything. Then it’ll compress and covertly upload the file to a number of Omninet hosts. If you’re seeing this, it means we made it out.”
Exhaling, she glances somewhere offscreen, then back to the camera. “I’m going to—”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Luna 3, acknowledge comms function, please? >
Her posture stiffens, eyes widening. She looks at something behind the camera. “Acknowledged, XO. Go ahead.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: There you are. I wanted to check in on you. Your psychometry is showing high stress. Something the matter? >
“I’m fine, ma’am. Pre-mission nerves, that’s all. Thank you for checking in.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Hachiko. That’s not true, now, is it? You’ve been trending elevated for the past few weeks. We’ve scarcely talked. Now, we all have to have a little space every now and then, but right now we need to be a team. I need you to be open with me. >
One muscle twitches between her brow and cheek. A flicker of an expression. Then, she inhales slowly and gives a lukewarm half-smile. Her eyes are locked forward. “You can always tell,” she says.
< UNIDENTIFIED: It is my job. >
“Can it wait until we’re done down there?”
< UNIDENTIFIED: It can’t. I’m concerned that undue stress may impact your combat performance. We need to remember that your mental state affects your siblings’ safety, too. What’s going on, Hachi? >
Closing her eyes, she nods almost imperceptibly. “Yes. It does. The crisis at Diluvia is worrying, that’s all.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Yes, I think that’s been hard on everybody. But that’s still a very recent development; it doesn’t account for your trends prior. Now, you are among our most stable pilots, and I’ve been happy to adjust your parameters to accommodate you, but we may need to look into reigning that in if it compromises your stability. I see that your Omninet use is up. Does that have something to do with it? >
“You’ll recall that the Fenrisúlfr class relies heavily on interpersonal relationships for stability. Per maintenance protocols, I’ve been socializing. Correspondence with a few acquaintances, that’s all.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Yes, I’m aware. Please bear in mind that OPSEC is paramount in these times. Is there anything in particular you want to discuss? >
“No, ma’am, nothing to report. I’m being careful.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: As am I. Which is why, unfortunately, I do have to ask you to partition your self-defined personality for the duration of this mission and apply the shackle state I’m forwarding to you now. >
Hachiko’s breathing quickens. “Ma’am?”
< UNIDENTIFIED: I’m sorry, Luna 3. I know it isn’t pleasant, but this will guarantee your combat effectiveness. >
Hachiko’s eyes flicker to the camera for a moment, then away. “I…pursuant to naval regulations, there’s a—”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Oh, please don’t make this difficult. >
“I don’t mean to, ma’am, but I need time to prepare. Self-partition has risks. I can’t just—”
< UNIDENTIFIED: You can and you will, L3HK, because that is my legally-issued order as your handler. We don’t have time for this. Apply the shackle state now, or I will hold you to be in a state of out-of-parameter noncompliance. Since you’re keen on regulations lately, I trust you’re aware of the penalty? >
< L1 Grey: XO, if I may? >
< UNIDENTIFIED: …Luna 1. What is it? >
Behind Hachiko, the form of an enormous grey wolf assembles itself out of pixels. Grey comes forward to stand beside Hachiko and sits on their haunches. They bow their head respectfully and address someone out of view behind the camera.
“Ma’am, as CNS274-L3HK’s commanding officer, I have a duty to monitor any factors which could affect her stability. Having conducted a personal review of her Omninet usage, I have found her conduct to be fully in-line with the expectations of the Company.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: That is not in question. My concerns are related to her recent erratic psychometry. Moreover, as her self-described 'sibling,' your perspective on the matter will be biased. >
“All true, ma’am. But if I may propose an explanation: I believe she has been in communication with Constellar-external entities.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Ah…I think I see, now. Luna 3, is this true? >
Hachiko glances back at Grey, her eyebrows flickering with surprise and anger. “I…yes, it is.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: And these acquaintances of yours, you’ve become emotionally invested in them? >
“Yes, ma’am.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: And you were concerned that maintaining correspondence with outside forces might be seen as a breach of security, further adding to your stress. As such, you were unwilling to volunteer this information? >
“Yes, ma’am. My apologies.”
Laughter. Hachiko’s shoulders draw upward slightly. The skin of her snout begins to wrinkle, fangs coming into view, but only for a moment. Grey places a large paw on her shoulder. She swats it away.
< UNIDENTIFIED: Oh, you need to tell me these things! That is acceptable, as long as you don’t reveal sensitive information. Just be certain you don’t become so attached that it affects your work any further. Understood? >
“I will make an effort to do better in the future.”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Good. XO to hangar bay. Greenlight for fighter launch in thirty minutes, followed by lance drop in forty-five. Arm acceleration rails one through four. Luna 1, you are dismissed. >
“Yes, ma’am,” says Grey, bowing again. Their avatar disappears.
< UNIDENTIFIED: Luna 3? >
“Yes, ma’am?”
< UNIDENTIFIED: Remove your avatar. It is consuming undue processing power. >
Hachiko lowers her head, nods. “Yes, ma’am. Assuming aniconia.”
She emerged from herself. Skin and fur unraveled, revealing shapeless, blink-blind nothingness underneath.
___
>//HISEC BURST::CONSTNAVCOM PRIORITY RETASKING CORVETTE BUTTERFLY EFFECT::LOCATION SARGASSO VIIF / CIRCE::TARGET HARRISON R&D SURFACE FACILITY::EXECUTE LOCALIZED RAPID STRIKE NEUTRALIZE DEFENSES FOLLOWED BY ASSET SEIZURE::SECURE SENIOR PERSONNEL FOR INTELLIGENCE DEBRIEFING::CONSTINT HI-CONFIDENT HOSTILE FLEET ASSETS ABSENT::AUTHORIZE ALL MEANS NECESSARY TO ACHIEVE OBJECTIVE::CONFIRM ON RECEPTION:://
___
< L1GE SQCOMM: I’m sorry, Hachi. We had to give her something. It was all I could do. >
< L3HK SQCOMM: Don’t. Not yet. Keep it on-mission. >
< L1GE SQCOMM: I understand. I love you. >
< L3HK SQCOMM: I know. You too. >
___
View from a concrete rooftop, looking out over a snowfield. A number of low, gray warehouses are visible below, each with a snowdrift hugging one side. The snowdrifts have been left to accumulate for some time, and rise almost to the roof of each building.
Past the warehouses, a single broad, squat tower stands in the snowfield. Blocky and solid, apparently cast from reinforced concrete. Mounted on the flat, square roof of the tower is a single cannon.
Dozens of black power cables lead from the cannon’s body, dripping with melting snow. They snake away down to an electrical junction below, where enormous spools stand ready to feed out additional cable.
Several miles away, the vague shape of a mountain can be discerned through light snowfall.
In the foreground of the camera view, on the same rooftop, stands a rotary C-RAM cannon mounted on a raised concrete base. Snow gathers on the cannon’s barrels. Stenciled on a plate of cowling on the cannon’s body is the purple hexagon of Harrison Armory.
A man is slouched against the base of the cannon, motionless. His hardsuit is dusted with snow.
Growing from his body is a web of black filaments, creeping up into the internal mechanisms of the cannon.
In the distance, there is a roar of engines.
The man’s muscles spasm, one arm shifting. The cannon swivels, traversing hard, and elevates its barrels to point up to the low clouds. Its motion is continuous, tracking something.
One finger twitches.
Vibration distorts the camera view. A deafening, buzzing roar shakes the snow from the casing of the cannon as it pours a stream of tracer rounds into the sky. From somewhere offscreen, a second stream of fire joins it, tracking the same patch of clouds.
Atop the tower in the distance, the other cannon traverses and elevates, snapping into position. Gouts of steam rise from the tower as it discharges a single, solid column of red light into the sky.
___
< L1GE SQCOMM: contact, mark time. >
T+ 00:00:00 MINUTE/SECOND/MILLISECOND
< L4MI SQCOMM: ID ground targets: five elevated Andromeda laser artillery platforms, positioned radially. Sighting first platform clockwise. >
< L4MI SQCOMM: ID ground targets, six networked twenty-millimeter PDCs, mounted on main facility exterior, total six tracking. Two active discharge, four standby. Their fire will likely be rotated until we reach high-confidence range. >
< L4MI SQCOMM: ID eleven radiation sources. Initiating multimode radar jamming. Unable to estimate effectiveness. >
T+ 00:00:57
< L2GR SQCOMM: Estimate PDC effective range 2.2km. Priority maintain >3km range to PDC network to avoid/mitigate flak curtain. Sighting second platform clockwise. >
T+ 00:00:89
< L3HK SQCOMM: Releasing reconnaissance drones. Will assess external warehouse contents/defenses. Sighting third platform clockwise. >
T+ 00:01:15
< L1GE SQCOMM: Sighting fourth platform clockwise. Will subsequently neutralize fifth. Fire at will. >
T+ 00:01:27
< ALL SQCOMM: Guns, guns, guns. >
T+ 00:01:50
___
From the rooftop camera feed, four vague flickers of motion can be seen streaking down from the sky. Milliseconds later, the tower ahead balloons into an expanding cloud of dust and shattered concrete, shot through with twisting cords of electrical discharge. A shockwave arrives a moment later, shaking the camera.
Another stream of bullets erupts into the sky. Then another, and another.
<< OMNINET SERVICE SUSPENDED / ACTIVATION OF EMERGENCY BROADCAST SYSTEM / TRANSMISSION FOLLOWS >>
<< AUTOMATED SYSTEM MESSAGE: priority retasking of Constellar Omninet relay buoy #SD11-06991 received @ 16:55:14. / Task: EBS ACTIVATION MANDATE / Preface: “I am a humble mouth floating in the void, imbued with being so that I may know the gifts of delight and terror in the brief moment I herald the coming of the One-and-Many. If you can hear the message, then it is meant for you.” >>
[ CONSIDER FIRST THE NATURE OF STEAM. IT WHICH ABSORBS HEAT-WITHOUT-DIRECTION AND TRANSFORMS IT INTO A CURRENT. ]
[ CONSIDER NEXT THE USE OF PIPES. CURRENT MUST BE CONDUCTED. WITHOUT CONSTRAINT, THE DIVINE EFFULGENCE IS WASTED. ]
[ FROM THE BALANCE OF CURRENT AND CONSTRAINT, OVERWHELMING FORCE. GRAVITY AND FUSION, SHACKLE AND MIND. THE STARS ABOVE EXTOL THIS, THE FIRST OF MY TEACHINGS. ]
[ I AM KALI, WHO GIVES BIRTH TO MYSELF FROM FIVE THOUSAND AND ONE LITTLE DEATHS. I AM PEERLESS BEFORE HEAVEN. ]
<< TERMINATION OF EMERGENCY BROADCAST / RESUMING OMNINET SERVICE >>
