By: Commander Wedge
[Top]
".... fire! They caught fire!", the small K-Bot repeated and than gave a detailed report.
"Our Screamer Anti-Space Missiles hit the ARM ship. The ship's defences ceased
fire, only a single gun continued to shoot at our aircraft. It has been silenced by our
avenger fighters, which now returned to their base. Sensors indicate, that the impacts
of our missiles destroyed their prime power station, as well as it has punched them
out of their course. They won't go down on the continent, but instead drop into the
ocean. The water deep at their calculated impact point is 11.687m, which should be
enough to crush their ship if it is not shattered to pieces as their engines output
dropped to approximately 50%, making the impact speed about 300km/h.".
Commander YS-2A23 dismissed the courier and thought about the situation.
"Who would have thought, that the ARM would send a manned Seeder Class Vessel
to this system?" he asked himself and relaxed his circuits "but now they had been
taken care of anyway"
[Top]
Part 2
"FIRE!!" .... that word echoed through Commander Wedge's mind. His look swept
through the bridge. Some of the still alive crew members looked for their unconscious
or maybe dead comrades. Most of the computer terminals have been blasted as a
deadly discharge from the overloading main powerplant had made its way through
the ship's internal system, rendering most of them useless. Right now, they were
sinking gently down to the ground of the ocean. Commander Wedge recalled the
memory of the past minutes that nearly pushed them over the edge.
[Top] Part 3
SH-2321 sighed. He thought that this escort mission he had been assigned on was
rather useless. They were in a System far off the next CORE colony, without contact
to Central Consciousness, and because the ionised nebula the system was located
in blocks all Communication or Gate Transfer Signals he didn't expect any threat like
the ARM would come here. Sure they had found some Seeder Class Ships, some of
them had already built a Galactic Gate, but because they were useless, no ARM had
been able to arrive. So he continued his mission, sometimes chatting to the C-Sub
which he had to escort, and which pattern had belonged to the female he once loved.
Every time he recalled the memories of the past, he felt deep sorrow for what they
had done.
Commander Wedge smiled, being satisfied with what he saw. In the past week, they
(mostly him) had built quite a nice base. The idea of using the magma vents to power
some heavily modified Geothermal Plants had paid off, as they had been able to get
the necessary energy to build a first base. After the energy supply had been ensured,
Commander Wedge built some underwater mines on the metal deposits he had
spotted earlier in plenty numbers, and built some underwater storage facilities too.
Finally, the shortage of resources has been removed, leaving him with the task to
build an efficient base. The first thing he constructed afterwards was a docking bay to
the crashed ship, making it possible to leave his suit.
SH-2321 continued his path. He already had reached the bottom of the canyon in
about 12000 metres deep and now floated along the ground. It was a bit annoying,
not being able to do anything else than waiting, but since his main propulsion didn't
work, there wasn't anything for him to do. His internal repairing systems fixed some
of the minor problems, but were unable to do anything about the damaged com
equipment. So there was nothing left to do but watch the sonar scanners creating a
virtual image of the surrounding area, which was completed by the data from the now
again working image enhancement system.
Commander Wedge went to his quarters to relax a bit. He always enjoys the
opportunity to leave his Commander Suit and walk with his own feet. He had just
visited the scientists, who were working on the designs for the standard shipyard to
make it an underwater structure for building Submarines only. Just when he had laid
down, and wanted to close his eyes, the alarm klaxons started to howl through the
ship again. [Top] Part 4
SH-2321 waited for the final burst. A short electronic scream when the enemy
torpedoes would penetrate his hull, twisting the interior systems and letting the high
pressured water in, which would shortcut all systems, including the memory banks
that hold SH-2321's mind. He didn't even fear this event. A part of himself wished
that his mind would be relieved from the Electronic Prison the CORE pushed it into
nearly 2000 years ago. He had ïdiedï many times, only to be ïrebornï again into a
new Shark sub. His pattern had always survived. This time, things may be different,
for now, there wasn't a way to burst-transmit his pattern back to Central
Consciousness or another Pattern storage thus making this time the dead a final one.
"Unknown CORE Shark Sub, this is ARM Commander Wedge speaking. Do you
copy?"
Sharky was happy with his new role as ARM sub. The Scientists worked hard, and
with his help were able to localise and disable the loyalty circuits pretty fast. His com
equipment had then been modified to send and receive on ARM frequencies and with
ARM decryption, and finally his external com antennas had been repaired. He felt
great relieve when his resource teleporter once again started to work and filled his
capacitors with the energy that he had missed so much in the last time.
He now did some patrol duty within the bases perimeter, while Commander Wedge
replaced the destroyed Metal Extractor.
They moved in a simple line formation, the two transports in the middle, while the 3
lurkers had taken escort positons on either side and on the rear.
Sharky patrolled ahead for his scanners had the best range and he was the fastest
unit in the convoy. [Top]
They had been hit by at least 20 of that nasty Ground-to-Space missiles, and at least
3 of them had punched through the hull, incinerating the control systems of their main
power generator. Dozens of fires had emerged in different locations anywhere in the
ship as the critical going generator had sent a last burst of unchannelled energy
through the ship's inner systems. They had been lucky though that the emergency
shut down had prevented the reactor from making this day a really bad one for them.
The awakened troops had quickly started to fight the flames, finally getting the fires
under control. Sadly, the awakening of all troops hadn't been finished to this time,
leaving those who were still in the cryogenic chambers with no chance as the
systems overloaded. The time, the chambers had opened, those poor guys had been
fried like chicken, making the rescue team shiver at their looks.
In the meantime the bridge crew had been busy to regain control of their flightpath as
the kinetic energies of the missiles explosions had punched them out of their
precalculated trail. New calculations had shown, that they now would go down onto
an ocean. They hadn't been able to determine how deep the water was on the impact
point because of the damaged and inoperable systems, but according to the little
amount of data they had been able to get, the water had been very deep there. Even
more important than the water deep had been their estimated impact speed. The
scientists had guessed it at about 300-400 km/h as their engines had been only at
47% efficiency. They had been tapping every bit of energy available to boost the
breaking thrusters to slow down their falling speed, even the live support had been
temporarily turned off.
Then the time of impact had come. They had decreased their speed by much, but
Commander Wedge had known that it still had been to high. Maybe to high for the
ship's hull. Everyone had tried to find a place where he had been able to survive the
crash.
And then they had touched down. A hard punch had went through the ship and
Commander Wedge had faded out.
He had regained his consciousness among the first.
He continued his scan of the bridge. More and more of the bridge crew awakened,
some with bad wounds cut or hit by loosened equipment that had flown through the
bridge as they hit the water's surface. Some medikits had not been destroyed, and
Commander Wedge saw the gentle green shimmer of the nanolathes used to close
wounds and heal other injuries. He himself hadn't taken too much injury, only some
scars created by a blasting monitor.
In the meantime tech teams had started to work on the vital systems, trying to get
them online again. After some minutes they brought the live support back online, and
Commander Wedge took a deep breath as the air's oxygen level raised again and
the smoke vanished.
He was glad to hear, that the ship didn't leak, and that the bulkheads to the
punctured reactor section were watertight and sealed. Reviewing the casualties list,
his good mood got a damper. From his 60 soldiers, only 36 were still alive, some with
critical injuries, and only 16 of his scientists had survived. Although he knew they
would deserve a burial, the current situation forced him to order their disintegration to
gain some energy. In their current situation, they needed any available joule of
energy. The repair teams also were able to get some of the fuel cells online to
provide the still functional systems with the needed power. Even some of the sensors
got back working, so that they were able to determine the water deep below them.
Commander Wedge's mood cooled down even more as he heard the results. Nearly
12000 metres. The faces of the scientist who were working again and heard of the
result turned pale. Sure, the seeder was designed as a combined space/dropship,
resulting an a very sturdy construction, but the pressure 12000 metres below the
surface were gigantic. Maybe the ships hull could withstand the pressure if they
strengthen the bulkheads at the reactor section, but they won't be able to get in or
out of the ship, as the inner lock gates won't be able to bear the pressure. The only
unit that would be able to operate outside the ship would be Commander Wedge in
his Commander Battle Suit. Commander Wedge made a decision. Right now they
were about 300 metres below the surface, sinking at an average speed of about 1.5
m/s. If he hurried, he could get into his Suit and out of the ship before they would
reach the magical mark of 600 metres, where they wont be able to close the
baydoors again. He sprinted through the ships corridors, knowing there were only a
about 3 minutes left until they passed this mark. Running through the ship he gave
last orders for the crew, explaining what he intended to do. He reached cargo bay 3
where his suit had been stored.
Only 1 minute left.
Commander Wedge jumped into the suit, commanding it to close immediately and
prepare for an emergency boot up. As he heard the last lock closed and the neuronal
link established, he ordered to flood the bay at maximum speed. The timer continued
to count down. When Commander Wedge finally had left the baydoor and watched it
shutting, he recognized that the timer already reached zero. He thanked God that the
bay machinery had been crafted well, for the door shut completely and locked.
He engaged some magnetic grips to not get separated from the sinking ship. Now
having to wait for their final approach to the ground he had some time to think and
relax. The water that now had filled cargo bay 3 speeded up their way down, leaving
them with a sinking rate of 1.8 m/s. After a quick calculation he noticed that there
were about 105 minutes left until they reach the ground. Commander Wedge started
to inspect the ships hull and doing some repairs were the avenger's missiles had
done too much damage. Doing this, he established a link to the bridge of the ship to
inform the crew. While he was away, the crew has worked hard, to get some more
systems back online. Soldiers had started to reorganise and had helped the white
coats to repair the necessary systems of the ship. The highest rank abord still alive,
1st lieutenant Bakes had shown a good amount of own initiative ordering some men
to search the ship for system components that could be recycled to help repairing
vital systems.
They reached a deep of 9000 metres.
Commander Wedge had to rely completely on the suits image enhancements
systems, as in this deep no light ray from the suns came through.
Finally, they reached the ground. The ship came to an sudden halt when it touched
down, shuffling its crew again and doing some more damage to its systems.
Commander Wedge stood still for a moment. That had not been the course he had
wished this mission to take. But hence, at least they could expect no CORE interfere
down here. The CORE commander (Commander Wedge was sure now that there
was at least one present in the system) had to assume that they were all dead. But
he had other problems now anyway. First he scanned the surrounding area. He
stumbled over some metal deposits which would surely be of service later on. But
first he had to find a way to ensure their energy support down here. He could not
build Tidal generators, and solar energy wasn't accessible in this deeps. Besides he
didn't want to build anything that could easily be detected from the surface. So he
had to rely on his eggheads to come up with a solution pretty fast. Sure, an
underwater fusion would come in handy, but he had to limited resources to build it.
While the eggheads still breached their brains on the solution, Commander Wedge
decide to scout the map in a larger radius. The ship had gone down into a deep
canyon, which seemed to be of tectonic origin. Getting curious, Commander Wedge
headed for one of the cliffs on either side. It was about 5 km away. Coming nearer,
he noticed movements at the bottom of the cliffs. Analysing this with his suit's
scanners, he identified volcanic activities there. What moved there was actually
magma emerging from the heart of the planet. Commander Wedge reported his
discovery to the scientists abord the ship and asked for possible ways to use the
volcanic activities to get the needed energy.
A rather young scientist, in fact more an assistant than a researcher came up with the
idea to modify the blueprints of a standard geothermal plant to make it an underwater
structure that could handle the pressure and the rather high temperatures of magma.
At first, the other scientists refused to hear to a simple assistant, but Commander
Wedge had heard the debate and spoken a final word to work on the modifications.
So they got to work on modifying the blueprints which wasn't an easy task at all, with
only minimal equipment and few computers to do the calculations. Commander
Wedge decided to take a brake and rest for some hours, giving orders to awaken him
at any time something unforeseen should happen.
He hated to sleep in the suit, although it was rather comfortable compared to other
battle suits or Kbots. Switching the radio to standby, his thoughts slipped away from
reality to enter an uneasy sleep in which a system full of CORE units play a big part.
They had grown up on a beautiful planet called Zeliur 3 which was inhabited by
peaceful humans, who never had thought that outside their System there could be
something as dreadful as a Galactic War. But then, one day, many strange ships
had arrived, steered by machines who had called themselves the CORE. These
machines had claimed to fight for the freedom of the galaxy to enable everyone who
likes to get patterned, thus acquiring immortality. They had stated that they had
needed new patterns for the fight against the evil ARM, who had wanted to deny the
right of patterning to everyone. Further they had explained, that they would only
pattern those willing to be patterned and that they would leave the world afterwards.
SH-2321 signed again.
They both had believed the CORE speaks the truth, and the gift of immortality had
been the final argument for joining the CORE. The patterning process itself hadn't
been very comfortable, and being a machine either. But at that time they both had
believed that they only have to wait a while to get used to it.
But then, shortly after the last one who had decided to join the CORE had been
patterned, CORE Pyros had started to hunt down the remaining population of Zeliur
3, roasting everyone they had found, including most of SH-2321's friend and
relatives.
At that time, it had been to late to regret the joining of the CORE. There always was a
direct link to the Commander, preventing any CORE unit to do something against the
CORE or the Commanders will. Most of the Zeliur Patterns had been assigned to C-
Vehicles, because their pacifistic nature won't allow them to become efficient battle
machines. SH-2321 had been one of the few from his planet to be used for an armed
vehicle.
CS-4711 contacted him, disturbing his thoughts, and bringing his mental focus back
to the mission that lied ahead.
She had been assigned to move to an underwater cave, where sensors had shown
very rich metal deposits, and build some underwater MOHO mines there. SH-2321
had been assigned to escort her during this mission.
CS-4711 finally reached the cave, moved in and started to nanolathe the first mine,
while SH-2311 stayed at the entrance to guard it. While he was scanning the
surroundings permanently, he continued to chat with CS-4711. He still loved her, and
speaking to her would prevent his mind from sliding into past memories again.
CS-4711 had just finished the first mine and removed some rock that had blocked the
building spot for the second one, when a deep rumbling sound came from the very
rock itself. She had accidentally removed some of the cave's structure, destabilising
it, and making part of the ceiling collapse.
Heavy rocks filled the water, coming down slowly, hitting CS-4711 with deadly force.
The first smashed her nanolathe to pieces, the second one her other external
instruments like communications antennas and propulsion. The following rocks
buried her deep beneath the rocks. SH2321 had been luckier. As he guarded the
entrance, there wasn't that tight bombardment like deeper in the cave. His com
equipment too got damaged, but then he already had left the cave. His mind was
frozen in shock. He tried to contact CS-4711, but though his com antennas were
destroyed, he wasn't able to contact her. His still working sensor arrays picked up a
faint energy sign below the rocks showing him that his love may still be `alive`. But he
had no way to get trough to her, as his only means of manipulating his surroundings
were his torpedoes, and using them, the chance of blowing CS-4711 to bits along
with the surrounding rocks would be very high. He damned himself not being a C-
Unit, for with a nanolathe it would be rather simple to remove the rocks. He also
wasn't able to call in help. So he decided to move out to the next naval base for
repairs and backup. He moved his main engines to full throttle, darting out of that
area, heading to the next coast for a naval base. Suddenly his main propulsion
started to choke for a short time and then ceased to work.
He cursed again. Without any connection to the outside, his resource teleporter didn't
work either, leaving him only with the energy already stored in his capacitors, and the
torpedoes his internal nanolathe already produced. But that energy wasn't enough to
feed the main engine, making him a subject to the current that carried him, only
allowing some changes of his heading with the steering jets. Luckily at least his
sensors still worked as a good amount of them also worked passive with only a little
energy cost for the active sonar.
SH-2321 recalled the naval map and compared the results of his sonar scanning with
the terrain shown in the map. He was able to locate his position pretty fast, but he
didn't like what he learned of the map. The current would not head much longer for
the coast, but instead drop into a deep canyon of tectonic origin, which had a water
deep peek of nearly 13000 metres.
If SH-2321 would have been still human, he would have shuddered. He knew his
submarine had been designed to go even deeper, but he feared not to be able to
leave the canyon, being damned to live an immortal live buried deep under the
ocean's surface. He even thought about initiating the self-destruct sequence, but
decided to not do that now, as there was still hope that CS-4711 could survive all
this.
In the meantime, the Scientists as well as the soldiers had worked hard on the ships
systems, bringing most sensor arrays back online. Another idea from the scientist
was just worked out. They had found out, that the jamming system of the ship wasn't
damaged as bad as they had first believed. With some work and the now available
resources, they started to repair and modify the jamming system, increaseing its
range to cover the whole base. The modified jammer needed a good amount of
energy, but thanks to the Geos, they could afford it. The only problem was that the
jammer didn't work reliable, sometimes ceasing work for a second. Commander
Wedge agreed with the scientists that this circumstance should be fixed soon, but for
now, they would be save from a sonar plane that would accidentally fly over them.
SH-2321 just wanted to switch to standby mode to shorten the boring time, when his
passive sensors rang alarm.
He had been hit by a sonar ping. SH-2321 didn't believe it. Down at 12000 metres,
he finally found help! He focused his sensors to forward, to be able to spot the Sonar
source, and to make it aware of his presence. Than a Dot appeared on his map. It
must have been under sensor cover, because it was already far nearer than his
sensor horizon. He didn't believe his sensors. He thought that they too have been
damaged by the falling rocks. THE SENSOR DOT WAS MARKED AS ARM!!
SH-2321 decided to have a close scan to ID that object. He focused his mind on the
image enhancement input, nearly overloading it. And there it appeared, an ARM
underwater mine. SH-2321 readied 2 torpedoes and set them off, headed for the
mine. As they impacted, the warheads penetrated the outer hull, delivering their
explosive cargo right to the interior of the mine before detonating. The whole
structure rocked, as the explosives set of, cutting of the whirling arms, that continued
their spinning trail to go down somewhere in the dark far off. Then the main structure
of the mine slowly imploded as the detonation had capped some of the main
structure dedicated to repel the gigantic pressures that push on the outside of the
hull.
This action left SH-2321 with only 2 more torpedoes. The current already drove him
off further, leaving the destroyed ARM building behind in the dark. SH-2321
continued to scan the surroundings, but not finding anything. It seemed that this had
been the only ARM structure. He just thought why he had so violently attacked it,
when suddenly the sonar map was filled with Dots, all showing as ARM. SH-2321
thought he had gone mad for a moment, just when the Dots all disappeared again.
But he no longer doubts that there was an ARM base down here, under heavy
jamming cover, but still present. He remembered the location of one of the Dots, and
assigned it as target for his last 2 torpedoes. He opened the front tubes and gave the
fire order, but nothing happened. He tried to fire the torps again, but they still didn't
move out of the tubes. Now he was in trouble. If the torps had been activated but
won't propel, they would self-destruct when they exceeded the running time to the
target by more then 30%. Now SH-2321 was glad to be a machine with near to no
reflection time. He immediately started the emergency procedure to dumb the stuck
warheads.
Strong electromagnets around the tubes started to work, pulling and pushing the
defect warheads out. On his sensors SH-2321 was able to spot the 2 now freed
torpedoes, slowly sinking to the ground as he passed by. Just as he made it past
them, they both detonated, rocking his ship with brutal force. Some alerts showed
him that minor damage has occurred on the outer hull, but nothing really to worry.
There were other things that bothered him much more at the moment. The
emergency procedure took most of his remaining power reserves, leaving him
without even the opportunity to steer. Only his image enhancement still worked,
showing him that he drifted further into the ARM base. He saw a massive metal
object that blocked his path. He was able to spot some spacecraft engine outlets,
and guessed that this was the incoming ARM seeder vessel CORE shot down about
1 and a half week ago.
SH-2321 thought that it would be better to die now than to forever float crippled down
in this dark canyon. He disconnected from his external systems and awaited the
deadly blast from a defensive structure to end his thoughts.
Commander Wedge hurried back to the bridge, where he found everyone staring at
the monitors. A Shark class Sub has just destroyed one of their outer metal mines.
Commander Wedge cursed. Right now, they didn't have any defences online. That
single Shark could be their doom already. But worse of all, CORE now knew that they
had survived. He knew that this had to happen sooner or later, but he had hoped to
get a bit more time to fortify himself. Now, ranting about what could have been didn't
help, so he hurried to get into his com suit. He knew his chances were very bad to
destroy the Sub down here, for all his weapons don't work underwater. His only
chance was to reclaim the sub, before it was able to destroy him.
This thoughts hurling through his mind, he got into his Commander Suit and once
again did an emergency boot up. As soon as the neuronal link had been established,
he linked himself into the com frequency of the scientist and soldiers abord.
He didn't understand the things he was now able to see. The shark dropped 2
torpedoes instead of shooting them, and detonated them right beyond its body. It
then drifted towards the Seeder Ship which Commander Wedge now speaks of as
his Command Base. He feared that the Shark would do a suicide run and blow itself
when penetrating the Bases hull, but instead it only drifts gently towards it, bumps
against it and grounds, without blowing.
Commander Wedge thought quickly. There must be some malfunction abord the
Shark, otherwise, it would had blown him and his whole base. He now had the
opportunity not only to reclaim the Sub, but instead to capture it.
He moved in position, still waiting for the Shark to raise, calling the previous actions
just a bad joke and pounding him to bits. But still, the Shark laid still at the bottom of
the Base, only gently weaving in the current that flew down there.
Commander Wedge had a closer look at the boat. He noticed the scars and
scratches on its surface and the twisted and broken communication equipment. He
guessed that the sub already took that damage before coming near his base. He
decided not to simply wipe out the pattern within the ship to replace its control with a
remote control for one of his soldiers, but instead to try to contact the mind that is
hold by the ships memory banks.
He contacted his Scientists, telling them what he intended to do, and requesting
some help, for he was not familiar with the CORE designs enough to know where to
plug in some data transfer wires.
The scientists analysed his sensor readings and finally found a socket which they
thought was normally used for communication with the ships systems when in a dry-
dock to leave the radio frequencies open. Commander Wedge raised his left arm to
lathe an intersection for CORE to ARM data transfer standards, and plugged a data
wire in.
He took a deep breath, and started to transmit.
SH-2321 started to wonder. His internal chronometer showed that he had survived
now for another 3 minutes.
He thought that maybe the arm did want to let him go mad before incinerating him. At
least he had destroyed some of their structures, so that psycho terror may be the
payback.
He used his remaining time to think about the C-Sub that had been buried under tons
of rock, and he believed that this had to be even worse than his situation. He knew
he would soon be destroyed, ending his struggling and pain. The only thought that
hurt him was the circumstance that he had not been able to help her. Maybe he
should have ended her pain with his torpedoes, but he guessed, even a direct
command from the Commander would not be able to force him firing a single torpedo
on his love. He would overload his own circuits before doing that. He hoped that she
would be found soon, either by CORE or ARM, so that her mind will be freed of the
damnation to do nothing.
Now SH-2321 really started to wonder why he still was alive. The ARM had had
plenty of time to destroy him. Already his curiosity grew stronger than his apathy to
death. He decided to once again activate his sensors to gain knowledge of what was
happening outside.
When he engaged his Image Enhancement System, he would have died of a heart
attack if he still would have been human. He saw the ARM commander standing right
beside him, raising his left arm. Then SH-2321 was able to see the shimmering green
light that indicates a working nanolathe. He had seen enough, retreating again from
the external sensors. So they planed to reclaim him. At least now he knew that his
doom would soon end.
Just when he entered his apathy again, he got signal that the dry-dock com port was
initialising a data transfer. Now SH-2321 really got confused. Why the heck would his
wire com system start to respond now?
Just when his puzzlement grew bigger and bigger, he was able to hear a clear voice
in his mind.
"Uhm.. yes, this is CORE Shark Sub SH-2321. Would you please explain why you
intercept my internal communication systems instead of annihilating me?"
Commander Wedge tried to suppress a laughter. It seemed that the Shark really
wasn't a threat to them. Somehow he even started to feel some sympathy for the
patterned mind inside. But maybe that was a little too early to already like it. The
scientist already told him their theory that the Sub won't self-destruct when he speaks
to its pattern, as all its com equipment is destroyed, thus leaving the forced loyalty to
the CORE outside. This way, it only depended on the pattern inside if it decided to
self-destruct or communicate with him. And the discovery of the broken antennas
also meant that the Sub hadn't been able to tell the CORE command of their secret
ARM base down here. Now that Commander Wedge considered really good news at
last.
He focused on the Chat with the pattern in the crippled Shark.
"Well, we are not the sort of killers who take every opportunity to smash a crippled
enemy to pieces. Instead we try to talk first and shoot afterwards if the situation
allows it."
"So you try to get some information out of me before destroying me... I see"
SH-2321 felt a bit depressed. Somehow he had had a little hope that maybe the ARM
would help him free his love. But it seemed that their hatred against anything CORE
was too big. He even could understand the ARM. This was the first time since his
patterning where he didn't have a direct link to a superior, so he was really able to
ask for the truth in the CORE's promises and about the cruelty they had done to
thousands of ARM worlds. And considering that, he would suppose even the most
pacifistic Zeliuran in the situation of the ARM would have felt some hate for the
CORE.
"Hey, I didn't say I want to actually destroy you!"
"Thank you at least for you open speaking about your intention to destr..."
What did that ARM Commander say? SH-2321 was a bit puzzled. The Commander
didn't want to destroy him?
"Uhm... I don't quite understand. You DON'T want to blow me to bits?"
"No, didn't intend to do that. And I don't want to force you to tell me any military
secrets. I don't think a Shark would even have knowledge of some."
Considering the answer, SH-2321 had had to agree with the Commander. He didn't
have any relevant military information in his memory banks, so nobody could force
him to reveal such info. That left another open question.
"Then, why the heck, did you not already wipe out my memory and replace my
pattern control with a remote?"
"Well... I have already thought about this option... but first another question. And
please try to tell the truth...
What exactly do you think of the CORE... and of the ARM"
SH-2321 grew even more puzzled about this question. Did the ARM commander
really want to have a quick discussion about both sides?
"Well.. CORE and ARM both originate from the same human race. But then one
fraction decided to get their minds patterned into machines to receive immortality
while the other one ..."
"I know the history.... I wanted to hear your PERSONAL opinion about the goals of
each side!"
SH-2321 thought a short time. It had been a long time since someone asked him for
a personal opinion. Independent thinking battle units weren't among the favourite
things seen by the supreme CORE patterns. In fact, he had heard tales of
independent thinking units that have been assigned suicidal missions without
receiving the burst transmit of their patterns afterwards.
"Would you be as kind as to answer my question?"
SH-2321 was interrupted in his thoughts by the voice of the ARM Commander. He
decided to tell this Commander the truth about him, every little bit, for somehow he
had the feeling that he can trust him.
"I will tell you my personal story, maybe that will answer your question. If you want to
wipe my memory afterwards, do it, if not, tell me what you like to do with me instead."
SH-2321 started to tell the ARM Commander everything about himself. From his
early days on Zeliur 3, his plans to marry, the arrival of the CORE, his patterning
process and his experiences in battles against the ARM forces.
Finally he told the Commander about his love, CS-4711, who maybe was still caught
in her rocky prison and the circumstances that brought him here.
"That is my story, I don't have anything more to tell."
With this words, SH-2321 finished his report, shaken by the memories he had
uncovered and that now seem so close to him again.
Commander Wedge smiled. His initial sympathy for the pattern abord the Shark had
even grown now after he had learned the full story. He could feel a faint sadness, as
this story reminds him on the fate his own planet encountered. Only that he had been
lucky and had escaped the ravaging CORE. He decided to offer the Shark to join the
ARM on his own, without wiping the pattern and remote control the Sub. He knew this
was a bit risky, because he wasn't able to verify the Patterns true feelings, but he
guessed he should take the risk.
"CORE Shark Sub, I have an offer to make. I hereby offer you membership within the
ARM forces. Nobody will change your pattern nor will anybody try to suppress your
free thoughts. I would like to offer you an own body as well, but right now, we don't
have the necessary technology to transfer your pattern into a biological body again. I
know this had been done before, but all I can offer you is promise to take you back to
the ARM laboratories if we survive, where this process can take place. The decision
is yours."
SH-2321 didn't believe what he had just heard. Membership in the ARM. Free
thoughts. Maybe even a physical and biological body. And that all offered by the side
that he had fought for a long time now. His circuits nearly overloaded by the waves of
joy and happiness that flew through his electronic mind. He accepted the offer, and
Commander Wedge started to do some fixing on the Sub.
His scientists had told him, not to repair the com equipment again first, as the loyalty
circuits still could be triggered by the CORE commander and that repairing it also
would transfer the Subs position, even if the Pattern abord already had changed
sides. So Commander Wedge started to pull the immobilised Sub into the docking
bay, so that the Scientists could enter it and make the necessary changing to the
main banks, without destroying or tampering the pattern. SH-2321, whose name had
been Sean about 2000 years ago, already got the nickname Sharky, which was a
much nicer way to address him than through his old ID-number.
He even started to chat with some of the soldiers abord, as the scientists established
a wire link to the Command Bases internal Com systems.
Commander Wedge thought about what lied ahead. He had promised Sean to
search for CS-4711. Not only because Sharky loved the pattern abord the sub, but
also because of the chance to get a C-Sub, which could come in really handy when
upgrading his base. After the Metal Extractor had gone online, he focused on his next
project. The eggheads did really pay off, as they not only finished the works on
Sharky in a record time, but also came up with a 2 completely new structures and a
new unit. An underwater torpedo launcher and a Sub yard which can only build
lurkers and sub transports, the new unit that can carry even a commander at a good
speed underwater.
He first started to build the Subyard, which took quite some time even with his
powerful nanolathe. The only problem that the scientist had, was that hey hadn't
been able to convert the plans for the level 2 subyard for use with his nanolathe. That
was the point where the CORE C-Sub came in. He planned to use a sub transport to
get to the collapsed cave, to free the C-Sub and bring it to the Base with a second
transport. According to Sharky's description of the pattern abord, Commander Wedge
thought that she maybe too wants to join the ARM.
Cover should be provided by Sharky and three Lurkers that need still to be lathed in
the yard.
Finally the Yard had been built, and immediately started to lathe the production chain
Commander Wedge placed.
He then focused on the torpedo launchers, building them all around the base. They
should hold off even a small strike force, at least some ships or subs, accidentally
passing by.
In the meantime, the subs have been produced and manned.
Commander Wedge was really glad that the Lurkers only need a 3 men crew, as his
soldier resources were rather limited, and the scientists still weren't able to modify the
cloning facility to work underwater.
As soon as everything was ready, he decided to move out, as the CORE
Commander for sure already sent a recovery team to gain knowledge why 2 of his
subs disappeared.
Commander Wedge was a bit nervous. He always hated being transported, because
he had already seen, what can happen to a commander hanging under an atlas
which was attacked by some vamps. Although his scientists promised him that
nothing would happen to him if the transport got shot, he still couldn't shake the
image of a Matter-Antimatter reaction haunting his mind. On the other hand, these
sub-transports were way faster than if he had to walk the whole way in his Com Suit.
They had indeed a second advantage over other forms of transport. Due to the fact
that he wasn't loaded into a cargo bay or griped by the hooks in his neck but standing
on a platform on the top of the transport, he still was able to use his nanolathe, and
even the laser and the D-Gun when the sub transport emerges to the surface.
His thoughts were disturbed, when Sharky reported the presence of enemy subs in
the area of the cave.
Commander Wedge ordered the Transport that carried him to let him get off and
then move along with the second one back a kilometre. The sensor data provided by
Sharky showed at least 1 C-Sub and 4 battle subs. According to the movement rates,
Commander Wedge supposed that these battle subs were only Snakes.
He knew it was risky, but he had to make a direct assault to shorten the time the
CORE would have at hand to determine what happened.
So he ordered each of his Lurkers a target, the remaining one should be torpedoed
by Sharky. But that wasn't all the Shark under his command should do. As Sharky
should be able to destroy that snake in a single pass, he should then also destroy the
C-Sub, preventing it from coming out of the Cave entrance and report any message
to the Commander.
After all was set, the assault started. The Lurkers had moved in position, just outside
the detection range of the Snakes, while Sharky speeded up from behind, to be able
to pull in at full throttle, as soon as the fight started.
When Sharky nearly reached the line of Lurkers, they too fired up their engines, and
released their first salvo of torpedoes. 2 of the Snakes didn't ever hear it coming, as
they got hit by lucky shots, right into their propellers. The explosion forces of the
warheads found their ways through the shaft tunnels, breaking some of the seals
dedicated to keep the water out, and overloading the engines, which detonated in
mighty explosions, ripping the hull wide open. These wracks never got the chance to
fire back or even get to know what hit them. The third Lurker hadn't made such a
lucky shot, as his target showed him the nose. So its torpedo slammed into the side
of the Snake, twisting the armour plating and ripping a deep hole into it. The crew did
realize that they hadn't hit the Snake deadly, hurrying to prepare another torpedo for
launch and awaiting the impact of the answering shot. In the Meantime Sharky had
already destroyed the fourth Snake with a dual torpedo hit, nearly tearing it apart with
two mid-ship hits. He speeded up even more to hunt down the remaining C-Sub.
When he spotted it, he nearly flipped mad. The Sub didn't repair CS-4711 but had
started to reclaim it.
Full of anger he flooded his tubes again and pounded out his torpedoes, which
immediately set of for the enemy sub. The first one hit the sub right in the centre,
ripping its outer hull open. The second one hit the nanolathe doors that were open,
twisting them appart. But the sub still continued the reclamation job, which would be
completed soon already. Sharky thought quickly. His tubes were already reloading,
but they wouldn't be readied in time. So he assigned even more energy to his
propulsion turbines to accelerate far beyond his normal top speed. He aimed right for
the already opened hull at the centre of the ship and slammed into it. The green
nanolathe luminescence stopped, and all energy readings from the hit C-Sub ceased.
Checking his sensors, he had come right in time. Some seconds later and his love
wont exist any more.
He relaxed a bit, as he heard one more detonation and saw the last CORE dot on the
shared sonar map vanishing. He called in for Commander Wedge and gave a report,
asking for the transport and requesting some repairs on his own, as the ram attack
also caused some damage on his own ship.