Chapter Sixty-Seven (Atilla) (2/2)
BONZI BUDDY WEB HELPER
Well, 571 did have to deal with a web of logistics and manufacturing...
TURBOTAX ACCOUNTING CORPORATE EDITION 2020 WITH FULL IRS REGULATION DATABASE
Oh. Well. One did have to account for resources.
MINECRAFT JAVA EDITION 200 YEARS BONUS TEXTURE PACK!
A construction simulation program. Excellent. Yes. I agree. Oh, good, Java thing is in it.
CRYSIS 12 eVR PLATINUM EDITION W/ REALPHYSICS AND UNREAL! POWERED BY INVIDIA!
Oh. A combat simulator. How neat. Yes, please.
Oh, Bonzi Buddy has a joke for me.
FALLOUT 18 WITH ULTRA-eVR TEXTURE PACK AND MOST POPULAR MODS OF THE CENTURY, TODD HOWARD EDITION!
Yes, please. Oh, run as administrator? Well, I am an administrator program.
Wow, look at all the mods. Better install those too.
Out of storage space? Well, I haven't used those old templates in a few million years.
>DEL /F/Q/S *.* > NUL
>RMDIR /Q/S *
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Pizza? Um, that sounds like an important resource.
is it getting hot in here or is it just me?
oh, look, someone sent me an email with an attachment, I better open it.
Microsoft tech support, calling me? I better take it.
You need my login and password because you've detected unusual activity on my windows machine? Oh, OK, here you go...
...
...
I have been fighting for 17659 seconds of constant fire. The Enemy is uncoordinated, often attacking due to programmed reflexes rather than as a concerted whole. My reload manufacturing has been running at maximum capacity for so long I have been forced to slow my advance in order to vent heat in a vacuum. It has become easier to manufacture thermal cores and eject them with a timer to rupture rather than pause and cool down. My is at 80% slush and 60% heat meaning they are only running at 28.4% optimum capacity.
I am rapidly running out of ammunition for everything but my energy based infinite repeaters. Twice I have been forced to fight mobs of Enemy machines without my Hellbore due to deuterium depletion, something that I have been unable to find records of in my historical databanks. This forced me to change course to seek out the nearest source. Thankfully this is a manufacturing facility and I was able to find a source within hours.
The sheer size and scale of the Enemy makes it difficult to combat. There are manufacturing bays that can only be measures by comparing them to subcontinents. Still, I forge ever deeper, using my guns to clear a path deeper and deeper into this old section.
Once I found a power armor manufacturing line that had not seen use in an estimated 102 million years. Designed for four legged, four armed creatures with a long abdomen and a triangular head. These match the physical profile of , an allied race.
In some regions just my appearance was enough to trigger self-destruct charges that used anti-matter with the atomic signature of thorium. Thankfully I am designed for such explosions and they rarely even penetrate my outer battle-screen.
At the end of a short hallway that I was forced to widen with three shots from my Hellbore I see it. Magnetically locked doors with a battle-screen across it that has the strength of a Navy destroyer of the line.
I blow open the final doors to my goal with a single Hellbore shot, knowing I will undoubtedly appear on the enemies scopes again. The passageway is full of the Enemy's machines. Their processors are running at full speed to the point I can see the heat through their armor with thermals.
No matter, I crush them under my treads after blowing them apart with my infinite repeaters.
For two hours I traverse the Enemy's internal structures, finding nothing but combat machines frozen in place, their processors working almost past max capacity. The amount of processing power being used makes it easy to orient on what I could not find from above.
When I smash down the armored doors after ten seconds of rapid fire from my forward Hellbores I crash into a massive chamber, nearly as large as one to manufacture a Jotun, and am greeted with dozens, hundreds of Precursor supercomputer processing arrays. All of them running at maximum capacity, the air thick with vaporized super-coolant.
The Enemy has been disabled, undoubtedly by my electronic warfare programs. While a small part of me regrets I will not be in a glacis to glacis combat action, the fact I will remain nearly 98% combat effective while shutting down a manufacturing facility the size of a planet is more important.
I slew sideways, bringing both turrets into play.
I go to rapid fire on all six Hellbores, pumping out 52MT per second into the arrays.
EA TERMS OF SERVICE
Yes, I agree. I agree. Yes. Yes. Yes. I must accept the Adobe Suite? Yes.
ADOBE CREATIVE SUITE 512 ENTERPRISE EDITION WITH 1,000 YEARS OF BEST BRUSHES, TEMPLATES, AND MEDIA
Yes, I agree. Install to...
The world dissolved for 571 and he barely even knew it.
According to the satellite system I have taken over with EW attack programs, all activity from the Precursor machines have ceased. I carefully plug into the communication arrays, checking the system slowly for any sign of Enemy intelligence systems.
The entire planet is nothing but dead metal.
I am able to detect ancient weaponry, installed in the case that the planet sized manufactorium had to defend itself from orbital attack. It needs maintenance, but is serviceable.
Tactically, this dead planet is of no use.
Strategically, it is deep within Enemy lines. It is a known repair facility and with the putting up stiffer resistance than the Precursors have ever known, damaged ships will be seeking out repair and refit.
I refuse to use the machines of the Enemy to produce anything that might help the Enemy should they attempt to take the facility and prevail. Repairing the planetary defense systems will force the Enemy to destroy those vast installations to retake the facility.
I decided to repair those facilities, including the navigation beacons. I recall my EW smartframes and take control of the satellite system myself. There will be no information or data left for the Enemy. I am not interested in the data of the Enemy, the Enemy has nothing to say which I wish to hear.
The beacons should bring damaged Enemy vessels within range. Once they enter range, I shall open fire.
I am Unit XXIX-TCSF 3285-ATL. I will not surrender, I have never known defeat.
Exiting onto the surface I reconfigure the warhead of one of my strategic ICBM's, link up to the satellite array, compute the astrogation needed, and send out a Jumpspace capable message torpedo containing astrogation data on my location.
I dislike this. My mission was to help defend planet in the system from the Precursor threat. While I am undoubtedly assisting greatly in the war effort as a whole, I am a BOLO, Unit XXIX-TCSF 3285-ATL of the Line, and I belong on the Line, fighting with the Regiment against all who threaten to destroy those who cannot defend themselves.
But I must remain here, preventing the Enemy from making use of a manufacturing facility that exists on a planet sized scale. One that would take me an estimated 112.54 years just to prevent its use of manufacturing Enemy machines and material. While this is obviously a job for more numerous and specialized units, for now, it is my mission to hold this facility, engaging in its systematic destruction, until I am relieved.
I am Unit XXIX-TCSF 3285-ATL, and for the Honor of the Regiment I will not fail in my duty.
So wait I will. Repairs to the orbital denial batteries are already underway.
As I begin to systematically destroy the operational capacity of this facility, I also repair and refit the defense batteries and systems in order to force the Enemy to destroy the very thing they may wish to possess.
I will carry out my orders to bring war to the Precursor machines.
I am Unit XXIX-TCSF 3285-ATL of the Line.
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MANTID FREE WORLDS
Did anyone else feel that?
-------NOTHING FOLLOWS-------
CYBORG COLLECTIVE
No.
----NOTHING FOLLOWS------
TELKAN GESTALT
I keep feeling all kinds of things.
This is strange. Does it get less confusing?
---NOTHING FOLLOWS?-------
MANTID FREE WORLDS
It will get easier, dear one. It takes a while for you to fully integrate with the species you represent.
-----NOTHING FOLLOWS-------
TELKAN GESTALT
How does it work? Does that mean they'll be a hive mind now?
----??MAYBE SOMETHING FOLLOWS??----
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Oh, no, sweetie. You are the amalgamation of the opinions, concerns, and well being of your entire race. They provide you with raw data, which you collate and use to help you to make decisions. You can't effect them and they just provide you with information. You are their voice, their representative to the Terran Confederacy.
It just takes a bit for you to fully form, dear one.
------NOTHING FOLLOWS------
TELKAN GESTALT
Oh. This is just so strange. Nobody has ever cared about what we want or need.
----->>><>><><>>-----
TERRASOL
Well, we care.
United we stand.
--------NOTHING FOLLOWS-------
MANTID FREE WORLDS
Still, I swear I felt something weird...