ARTIS PRIME

by Tobias Roote

  “Osachi upgraded my collar shield and gave me the ability to change, or disable the disarm codes. He didn’t trust any of you. I can now fully understand why,” RIGA explained as she examined the dissembler that Jennings had expected to neutralise her shield allowing the blast to kill her.

  Turning to the front of the cockpit RIGA ignored any further threat from him, knowing that one more wrong move and Gossie would dump him into space.

  “Sorry, RIGA, I should have disarmed him on arrival,” Gossie apologised.

  RIGA shook her head indicating it didn’t matter. She really wasn’t bothered. Jennings had played his hand and had nothing more to do to convince her that he was the enemy. She would deal with him once they were out of the ‘soon to be’ battle zone.

  “Damage report, Gossie?” she asked as she surveyed the small bridge for any obvious signs of blaster damage.

  “None, but superficial smears of bulkhead, RIGA. I am allocating nanites to clean up,” Gossie answered. Her ship had been updated all through its active life as RIGA used every opportunity to cajole the very best out of the Navy’s clandestine shipyards. The addition long ago of a blast proof cockpit was one of the easiest to obtain.

  “Proceed with jump,” RIGA ordered, totally ignoring Captain Jennings for the moment.

  As RIGA’s sensors came back on-line after the first jump, she grabbed hold of Captain Jennings and roughly pushed him into his chair. Strapping him in, not because he might fall off, but because over the next few jumps he might get the idea of doing something stupid. She hadn’t yet decided what to do with him, besides spacing him, which was a high probability given her present mood.

  She sat and conferred with Gossie on their private link.

  ‘What do you think, Gossie? - I still don’t think we have enough evidence to satisfy Terra,’

  ‘Actually, we do. The results of the DNA test prove conclusively that he is Tochin!’

  'Ah, that’s good, I mean bad. At least we know what we are dealing with. When did you find out?’

  'While you were on the TELLUR, it was quite a moment, the teleport would have moved him to a new location if it hadn’t been set to jump you at a seconds notice.’

  ‘Quite,’ RIGA responded, smiling outwardly, duly noted by Jennings leaving him deeply worried and fidgeting in the silence. He had no idea a discussion was being carried out about his future. He glared at RIGA.

  “What do you intend to do with me?” he demanded.

  RIGA stood in front of him, turned the chair towards her, placed her hands on the arms so that she was close to his face. “We intend to send you for interrogation, our people are experts in extracting information. I’m sure Terra will also be interested in the results,” RIGA said.

  “They will never believe you. You’re finished - when I tell them you aren’t human, that you’re a...”

  “...A cyborg?” RIGA finished for him. “Captain Jennings, I will provide your people with the opportunity to examine me and they will find my DNA will be 100% human. Their X-Rays will show I have an implant which allows me to communicate with AI's - this hardly represents a transition from human to cyborg. Besides, it’s highly unlikely that your people will ever see you again,” RIGA smiled.

  She wasn’t going to tell him they would also see a strange internal structure, and a teutranium skeleton. Her lack of normal human biology would ensure she would never be regarded as ‘human’ but they didn't need to know any of that, and neither did Jennings.

  “My people know I’m here. They are going to know that you kidnapped me. You won’t get away with this,” Jennings laughed to cover his anger and frustration.

  “Now, who would ‘your’ people be, Captain? The Terrans, or the Tochin?” RIGA asked him, smiling the most evil grin she could muster, which wasn’t all fake.

  Jennings suddenly looked very unsure of himself. She watched his facial muscles. He wasn’t sure if she was bluffing again, but didn’t want to give her more ammunition. The set of his jaw showed that there was still fight in him.

  RIGA finished securing him to the chair then turned her attention back to the mission. Nothing could be seen out of the windows. Screens protecting the clear crystal had dropped instantly on discharge of the blaster. Neither RIGA or Gossie required the view, her sensors told her everything she needed to know. The lack of any outside view would serve to intimidate Jennings further, and the less he knew the better.

  They were in a small system wedged between two Empirum planets, Turmer and Catodee. Both specialised in food production and being purely agricultural worlds they both had a low security level. Their target was the moon of a nearby frozen planet designated as DL5YK on her internal star map.

  As they approached, cloaked and on a low powered fly past that would enable them to passively read the surface, Gossie detected their objective.

  The Tochin spy base was well hidden in the shadow of a cliff. No Empirum Navy Pact ship would waste any time travelling through the system, let alone investigate any of the small planets and moons. So, it was a reasonably safe place for a hideout. The Tochin would also have probably arranged for this system to have been kept off the Empirum’s search list.

  The scans showed extensive fortifications and laser batteries. They were clearly prepared to defend the base, but RIGA had no intention of going in through the front door. This was where her type of guerilla warfare succeeded over an open attack force. The Tochin’s defence would make rescue difficult for the GEN Vasta.

  RIGA remained deep in thought. Her new awareness of the level of penetration of the Empirum Navy and Council was extensive. The intelligence records retrieved from the TELLUR covered the whole of the Empirum and most of the Terran Empire. She briefly conferred with her QDE state, calculating the Tochin were not far from gaining control of the whole Council. The ESSG was mentioned as a target for elimination and herself as primary objective for removal. None of this worried her, she was well used to being hunted. They hadn’t succeeded yet, and with Osachi’s new shield her chances of survival improved tenfold. She worried about Bollida. When would they move against the ESSG? And was Talbeck the opening move? If so it would put a lot of things into context.

  It concerned her deeply, the level of penetration into every aspect of Empirum politics. In some cases their people had been in place for the whole of their working lives. How much damage had they managed to inflict on her people. Many names she knew of, were highlighted. Well, there would be a day of reckoning when this was over.

  ‘Gossie?’

  ‘Yes, RIGA?’

  ‘Have you read the details and my QDE summary of our situation?’

  ‘I have, it's very worrying. The risk to the Empirum is dire. Even if we can fix this there is an 80% probability the Empirum won’t survive the next six months.’

  ‘I don’t think we can risk a message to Bollida, there is too high a probability of interception at this moment.’

  ‘Agreed. That possibility could result in unfortunate consequences for everyone.’

  ‘We proceed alone?’ she asked her, knowing that, at this point, different rules might be in play if Gossie had been pre-briefed in the event of something like this occurring.

  She needed to know if Gossie had different mission parameters in the event of a major threat to the Empirum. It could be a problem for her if she and Gossie had separate orders.

  ‘Yes, but we need to prioritise - there is so much to do,’ Gossie confirmed.

  ‘Definitely, first we deal with the impending threat of a staged war between us and Terra.’

  ‘You’re talking about Osachi as a peacemaker? Then, you must retrieve him – alive,’ Gossie confirmed.

  ‘We’re agreed, then.'

  ‘We are.’

  They had just decided to take on the full unknown power of the enemy in the Terran Empire and the Empirum, to rid themselves of the Tochin threat. Until they had been completely removed, everyone would be suspect, and all loyal members of the councils and military we
re at risk. It was going to be a tough time, and it all rested on being able to rescue Osachi and avert what they considered, would be almost certain war.

  While they had been conversing silently, Gossie had continued to position the cloaked ship closer to the moon base.

  They now hovered alongside it, which was, on the surface, represented by a long oblong building of a grey plasticised mixture, similar to the plascrete used on Artis Prime. The Tochin called it plascon and, according to her newly updated database, its properties were extensive. Heat insulation, low weight, easy pouring, quick setting even in space, and highly mouldable. It also had non reflective capabilities which discouraged stray signals from leaking through into the ether. RIGA wondered if she could jump in.

  The security personnel appeared to be contained in adjoining bunker-type barracks, this was good news. They might take time to rally giving her an advantage if she was able to recover Osachi quickly, assuming he was there.

  RIGA carefully reviewed her options. There were places where the shields overlapped and it was easy for the jump technology to reach part of the upper levels, but the lower levels were all shielded. She chose her entry point and instructed the portal generator to transfer her.

  RIGA’s parting message to Gossie was deliberately verbal.

  “If he tries anything - open the airlock and let him breathe vacuum for a few minutes,” her cold smile left Jennings in no doubt that she meant it.

  Equipped with a heavy duty lasers, which pulsed rounds at a rate of four per second, with a kill zone of seventy yards on the lowest setting, RIGA was prepared for anything. She intended to permanently silence this outpost and rescue Osachi. All she had to do was find him. The sensors from the outside were muted by the plascon so it was left to RIGA’s sensors to navigate her round the complex.

  Her arrival was not the usual attempt at subterfuge. As her sensors came back on-line, the first thing she saw was two security guards half way down the corridor. They turned toward her at the whine of her lasers arming.

  The first blast caught one guard still turning, the second bolt of pulsed light hit the other guard’s blaster as his arm raised to fire. The result was a mixed charring of flesh and molten metal. The guard screamed briefly before a third blast removed his head. The wound cauterized by the heat meant little blood and RIGA continued down the corridor stepping over the corpses while monitoring her sensors for tell-tales. She was an agent at war now, and it was one she intended to win, at all costs. She wasn’t surprised the alarm sounded immediately. This was after all, a military outpost. Cameras were everywhere, she could see gun emplacements, but they were fixed and aiming away from her.

  She activated the targeting pods on her helm. Optical overlays dropped down, giving her enemy positions relative to line of sight as a composite of her sensor results. It was reliable and allowed her visual cortex to identify threats more readily, response became almost automatic. Her added ability to disassociate her eyes, allowing the HUD over each to select left and right targets when in dual-weapon mode, making her a devastating adversary.

  The overlay indicated a group of guards approaching from an adjoining corridor, armed and moving towards her as a team. The HUD, Head Up Display, outlined them as shadows behind walls, tactically leapfrogging each other. They were well trained and prepared. This was going to be a full test of her abilities and her shield.

  As the enemy guards rounded the corner, they jumped out firing, covering each other while moving towards her. A steady stream of mixed fire came at her, the long range giving her time to slip sideways, or duck to avoid the blasts.

  She tuned the lasers up to maximum, firing independently at the buttresses on either side just as they reached them for temporary protection during their advance. The blast heated each section to white incandescent fury, then sparked furiously, showering them with molten alloy steel droplets. Several fell back with injuries to exposed body parts. The others hunkered down. Firing at her in an ordered manner, each alternating their shots, trying to avoid overheating weapons. RIGA reduced the laser’s power reserve by a full 25%, but still took out four guards in one strafing blast.

  Sensing movement behind her, she pivoted on one foot, just as a guard rising from a lower level shot at her with his heavy duty blaster. Her shield took the impact, throwing her slightly off balance, the impact glow meant she was unable to see her target for the few seconds he needed to make a run for cover.

  Just using her sensors to aim, RIGA tuned the laser to minimum again, depressed the trigger and sent a fusillade of bolts up the corridor. As her sight recovered, all she could see was a smoking mass on the floor. She ran to the elevator and leaped in preparing to fire downward if anyone poked their heads up at her. She was relieved they used the anti-grav technology here. The Tesperadus’ metal box elevators were positively archaic.

  The lift descended automatically. As she came level with the next floor, her sensors picked up the strategic placement of four guards. Two large cannons built into the walls were primed, waiting for her to step out of the shaft. They wouldn’t want to shoot her in the elevator, they were probably concerned at removing their only exit to the surface.

  RIGA kept within the recess of the elevator while she assessed the threat fully. The cannons were big, much larger than she had ever dealt with before. Her shield might buckle under their combined power. She must be somewhere strategically important to the Tochin for such defences. Instantly RIGA decided there was obviously something, or someone here she needed to know more about, at least until she could decide its importance. She caught a glimpse of people in white coats and other non-security people being herded to the rear, possibly to a safe room, or another elevator. She would avoid them she had no desire to kill non-combatants, even if they are enemy.

  Deciding on her strategy, RIGA switched herself over to high speed. Then, leaping from the elevator, rained fire at the cannons which were faster than the humans in reaction time, but not as quick as her. They came close to hitting her shield several times before she eliminated both of them. The smoking, blackened stumps of the melted cannon mounts drew the alarmed attention of the guards, distracting them from what was going on.

  As she slowed down to normal speed she came to a standstill behind them. They were still facing forward, unaware she was now behind them.

  “Looking for me, boys?” she called.

  As they swung around, the first, mouth agape in surprise, began firing before he had even aimed. He was so shocked, instead of hitting her, he took out the guard beside him. RIGA shot him in the chest. Why didn’t these people have shields, RIGA wondered idly, as her laser took out the last two across the other side of the corridor.

  The momentary lapse in fighting gave RIGA an opportunity to survey the level she was on.

  There was at least one more level below her, although it was difficult to tell with all of the sensor dampers in the plascon. Her attention came back to the door in front of her. She kicked it in with her foot, the weight and power contained within it, sufficient to send the door flying inward. RIGA saw an officer trying to dodge it as it flew towards him; he was too slow. He was definitely not going to be worth trying to interrogate.

  Proceeding to kick down each door she came to, she found most rooms empty. Deciding she was wasting time, she moved swiftly to the elevator having taken out two other uniformed personnel who were doing their best to hide from her. They weren’t aware her sensors would pick them up at close range. She didn’t even need to see them, but could tell if they were armed. Blasters and lasers, when switched on, showed up as a concentrated haze of interference.

  On the next level RIGA faced the same situation, this time shooting the guards without bothering to warn them.

  The doors were strong on this level, as if it needing heavier security. When RIGA tore off the first lock and kicked the door in, she understood why. It was the computer network, a large one. Just in time, she pulled her finger back off the trigger, stopping herself from destro
ying it. Instead searching out the routers, she ripped them off the wall. It would do for now; no communication in, or out. Was it a comms switchboard, like the asteroid she and Gossie had destroyed? Perhaps she would have a chance to get ESSG in here to dismantle it.

  Returning to the corridor, her sensors, set to catch anything unusual, were tuned into an area of blank space ahead. Past experience indicated to RIGA that the room at the end was protected, not only by plascon, but by sophisticated electronics. This seemed a likely location for hiding someone like Osachi from discovery, even from their own people.

  As she made her way down the corridor, she sensed movement as the doors to two rooms, one on either side, opened up simultaneously. RIGA was immediately bathed in plasma beams from four blasters. The impact to her shield was staggering, she was unable to go left, or right; only backwards or forwards. Two more beams front and behind her added their weight to the fury. The soldiers firing having anticipated her moves, had trapped her within the blasts. The force of the weapons holding her in check, her shield was beginning to go deep red and she could feel the increasing heat. They were trying to overcome her shield.

  She looked up to where the red glow wasn’t yet blinding her vision, RIGA noted the ceiling had melted partially from the fire that bounced off her shield. It exposed metal frames upon which the plascon had been moulded.

  Holstering her lasers, she leaped upwards, fingers digging into the crumbling substance, the pain sensors in her fingertips recognising the possibility of damage, hardened her skin’s resistance. She pulled herself up until she was flush with the ceiling, partially into the hole created, her shield no longer dividing the field of fire beneath her.

  Without her shield protecting their opposite numbers, none of the guards could see when it no longer held back their opposites blaster fire, and suddenly they became the victims as all hell broke loose. None of them survived the conflagration caused by their own weapons.