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Chapter Twenty-Four

The small group of soldiers tracked the object as it fell to earth. It had landed well within the recognised perimeter of the complex. A hover-car was called forward and with the aid of its drivers they managed to secure the strange box safely. It did not take long to transport back underground, where the recently returned Elias waited for them.

“What is it?” asked Jax, as he walked around the rear of the truck.

“A memory storage device,” replied Elias, “a large one, to be sure. I will run a few tests and hopefully it will tell us a little more.”

He connected a number of cables to the device from the computer one of his assistants handed him, and began tapping keys.

“It seems to contain an extremely large amount of compressed data, but if I just...mmm.”

“Well, well,” said a voice, made tinny by the computer’s small speakers, “what do we have here? Big Star League complex, lots of people running around and one crazy b*tch on the loose. Mind you, she did make a little mistake when she declared squatter’s rights on my old pad, but hey, who am I to complain?

“Now, if you would be kind enough to give me a little juice, we can talk more normally...”

Elias nodded and his men carried out his instructions as Jax stared at the screen. This was his first close-up with an AI, or at least its memories. The thing was using Elias’ small computer as a means to communicate, whatever program running had at least given it this minimal appearance of live.

“Ah, thanks, I can already feel...”

The screen flickered twice, sparks crackling along its keyboard, and then it exploded.

“What the...” began Jax, when a voice boomed from all of the loudspeakers at once.

“Now this is more like it...”

Emergency doors closed, strip lights died and secondary controls were locked out. Jax and Elias watched open-mouthed as a holo-image of a face began to form, the complexes new owner staring out at them wild-eyed and grinning.

As a group, AI’s could never be deemed to be totally stable. Their cognitive processes ran at extremely high speeds, and they usually multi-tasked to an almost incomprehensible level. Add to that the enforced isolation, a heavy dose of superiority and a dash of ego, and insanity was often the name of the cocktail. In Billy’s case, though, he had started from a position of almost apathetic indifference and had built himself his very own personality. When he had to snap into action, the change forced upon him showed much of the idiosyncrasies of his brothers and sisters, yet without their God-complexes. He liked being all-powerful, enjoyed the fun of the chase and loved destroying his enemies with the best of them. Billy did so with a panache, which could almost be called human.

Sellen Cage was the opposite; apart from the organic versus machine comparison, she was arrogant, overbearing and convinced of her immortality. Clan Ice Hellion was isolationist, refusing to incorporate the best of other Clans and, although they had Freeborn warriors, looked down on them. As she drove her Omnimech forward, she knew she would win. Her cries exhorted just such an attitude from her followers and as one, in their own minds, they had already won the battle and were already dividing the spoils.

The complex sprang to life again, although its human inhabitants were merely onlookers, as Billy flexed his muscles. Drones took to the air, tanks rolled from their bays and missile pods realigned themselves. Neither Binetti, nor David could exact any response from their simulators; all they could do was watch.

To Billy, war had already been declared, so that he felt no need to advertise his intentions. When the first Ice Ferret, closely followed by a Mist Lynx and a Black Lanner crossed his imaginary line, he attacked. His lead tanks sent a swatch of PPC fire hip-height at the approaching Mechs, whose speed was instantly nullified. The force of the attack and the machines’ own speed, led to their downfall. Hip-joints and knees were seared with high energy blasts, their resistance shattering as kinetic energy became less than potential. Metal flew away, as the Mechs own weight tore articulations apart. Their pilots were too late in giving warning as the diving drones fired a volley of missiles, slamming into a following Hellion. This was slaughter.

Cage became crashingly aware that perhaps a frontal assault had not been the best tactical decision, and tried desperately to call her troops back. They, in true Ice Hellion fashion, were too far gone to listen to her.

Return fire caused two of the drones to veer away drunkenly from the battle, trailing black contrails of smoke. One of the tanks exploded in a gratifyingly violent manner, but these were minor victories. So far, Billy had been playing.

Inside the complex, Jax watched as the hologram reappeared. Billy was shadow-boxing, or so it seemed, mimicking each strike with a punch, a feint and even a little dance. He stopped for a moment, drew heavily on his imaginary cigarette.

“Now,” he said, “is when we separate the boys from the men.”

He flicked his cigarette away, drew up the sleeves on his leather jacket, spat into his hands ,winding up a haymaker as he did so.

“Game...” he mimed a ball toss, “Set...” he swept his arm forward, “...and Match, baby.”

The aftermath of the battle left few survivors; hover trucks busied with ferrying those Ice Hellion warriors who were more severely wounded back to the complex. A shuttle had already carried Sellen Cage and a few more lightly injured to an audience with Jax and the now ever-present Billy. Elias was back on the Frigate, as were a number of new troops who had been used to swell the ship’s complement. There was little fear of local insurrection as word had quickly spread of the demons’ prowess. Not only that, Billy’s coup de grace had been felt half-way round the planet.

New recruits were plentiful and Jax could begin to think of strengthening his command; there was still the return to Winfield to consider, as well as how to deal with the vagaries of the more friendly AI.

“Maggie is probably wondering what to do next,” commented Billy, when there was a lull in activity, “that is if she’s managed a coherent thought since she realised what she had let herself in for.”

His laughter echoed around the command centre, his image doing a little dance.

“We need to pay her a little visit,” mused Jax, “before we send anyone to Winfield. I really don’t like the thought of leaving her out there. Who knows what mischief she could get up to?”

“Not much,” said Billy dismissively, “believe me, I know. Chuck a couple of missiles down her throat and that’ll be the end of the matter.”

“An elegant solution,” agreed Jax, “but I would like to make sure her threat is definitely neutralised. We’ll send a team in to deal with her once we’ve tidied up here.”

“Shame that I can’t be there to see it,” mused Billy.

“We could pack you back into your travel case, fix up something...” Jax said cautiously.

“Nice try,” laughed Billy, “but I much prefer it here. Anyway, what would you do without me?”

Jax bit back his first comment, realising that their relationship, although constrained, could be to everyone’s advantage. The problem was that Billy was at the moment in the driving seat. He had originally thought of suggesting to his Khan that they move their base of operations, however putting all of the Dark Falcon’s forces within the reach of a still to be confirmed sane AI was a little risky.

“Fine. I guess we just need to work out a few ground rules, then.”

“Not to worry, my needs are quite simple. I can see the beginning of a beautiful friendship here...”

*

Elias watched the bustle on the Bridge with a fatherly eye; how different it was that the Frigate was fully manned. Granted, many of the troops were green, although the backbone of the crew were experienced Dark Falcons. Hans and his Elementals had been assigned to the ship, as had been Binetti. Von Jankmonn had been confirmed as Captain, much to his own amusement. His comments about the Frigate being just like a fighter, but slightly larger had not gone down well with the remaining naval crew, but he would do. Ultimately when they arrived at Winfield, the expectation was that others would be given command. Now a full Dark Falcon, Von Jankmonn hankered more for command of the fighters in the docked dropship, so Elias could see no real problem.

“Entering the bay now,” Arn’s voice crackled through the speakers, “Hans and his team are forcing entry.”

There was silence for a few moments and then Arn spoke again.

“This place is huge, although there’s not much activity. One or two robots working, but they are ignoring us. Frak! That is one big ship. As Billy said, it’s a wreck. Even to my simple eyes, there is no way it’s ever going to fly again. We will...”

His transmission was abruptly cut short and the Bridge crew could do nothing more than wait.

*

“Hello, what do we have here?”

Arn knew who it was, but was more concerned as to Hauser’s whereabouts. He signalled Conn to disperse the troops, Hans’ icon showed him closing rapidly on Arn’s position. The young man would have felt much happier if the Elemental had been in charge, but Elias had insisted that Arn deserved the promotion.

“Maggie, how nice to hear from you,” he said as he checked his HUD, “all alone are you?”

“That has never been my problem,” replied the schizophrenic Warrior-Queen, “but it is nice of you to give me one or two hostages.”

“An interesting perspective on our position,” replied Arn, relaxing as he saw the Elementals moving into position, “you are imprisoned on a broken warship, in the middle of an asteroid, with no possibility of escape. We, on the other hand, have a warship standing off this rock, fully crewed and with a more than eager complement of fighters, missiles and energy weapons. Oh, and by the way, Billy says hello.”

“That worm! He tricked me ad will pay for that. Hauser!”

An armoured figured moved slowly into the light, his arms held outwards. In his left hand he carried a small hand-held device on which a light flashed intermittently. Arn quickly communicated to his men to hold their fire.

“Arn,” said Hauser, “how nice to see you. It’s been a while.”

“I see you have finally shown your true colours,” commented Arn, watching as Hans flanked the rating.

“If you don’t want me to use this,” commented Hauser, waggling the device, “I would not make any rash moves. You might remember Elias’ little detonator? I salvaged it and have wired up a few packages of my own. One false move and boom, we all say goodnight.”

“What?” screamed Maggie, “how could you?”

“Now, now,” said Hauser placatingly, “we both knew that our relationship couldn’t last. I merely took one or two precautions, negotiation tactics you might say. So, Arn, what are you willing to give me so that we can rid ourselves of this crazy b*tch once and for all and leave this sterile rock?”

“Death,” said Arn calmly, raising his laser rifle and firing.

The detonator flew high into the air as Hauser’s body jerked convulsively, its lights changing from red to green. Charges round Maggie’s core exploded first, their impact muffled by the remains of the once great warship.

“Everyone out!” screamed Arn as successive charges exploded, lighting the hanger with hellfire.

Khan Al Sheehan moved his Omnimech with skill, twisting the torso of his machine and bringing his PPC to bear on the Hellion in front of him. Blue lightening shot forward, spearing the left side of the frantic Mech, shredding armour. He followed it up with a volley of SRM’s, the missiles slamming into the machine’s already damaged body. With a bright spurt of flame, the Mech’s pilot activated his escape pod and soared clear.

Sheehan took a moment to study the battle; they were winning, but this attrition was killing the Dark Falcons. Ever since the loss of Jax and his men, it had been almost a siege on Winfield. One after another, the Clans had sent their forces here to test their warriors. He knew that their ultimate aim was the complete destruction of the Dark Falcons and there seemed no limit to what they would be willing to do to reach that end.

Sheehan spoke into his transmitter, asking for the state of his own forces and for any news on the return of his allies.

“My Khan,” returned the voice, “we have turned back our enemies. They are running.”

“Send a signal to regroup,” he said tiredly, “this is no doubt only a reprieve.”

The operator’s voice came back urgently.

“More dropships are descending, My Khan. They will land near to your position and...”

There was silence for a moment and then the voice returned.

“We have just identified a jump signature. Another warship has entered the system and is on a direct course for Winfield. They refuse our hails, but it seems that their intention is clear...dropship being deployed as are multiple fighters...”

“Keep me informed,” said Sheehan angrily and send that signal as I requested.”

“Yes, My Khan,” replied the chastened operator, “ and I will...wait! The fighters are attacking the ships in orbit and I am receiving a signal...”

“Put it through,” snapped Sheehan, thinking that the Vipers had returned.

“Well, My Khan,” said a cheerful voice, “it seems that we arrived just in time!”

“Elias!” laughed Sheehan, “Am I glad to hear your voice!”

This one is complete

Click on the new thread for Book III

Cheers

Rayo