Chapter 368

368 Assassination & Sabotage, Pt Freya and Lucifer swung above and below the enemy mecha, and flanked them vertically. Because of their comparatively higher speed and agility, they were able to strike from both ends and slice into their targets with relative ease.

Their plasma lances scored deep gouges in their chitin with expert precision, and quite literally cut off limb after limb from a handful of mecha. They circle-strafed around the Drogar mecha, even while they evaded or weathered all manner of weapons fire.

“Keep the cuts as clean as possible,” advised Raijin. “That should help the cores connect to them more easily.”

Which the two certainly took to heart. They did their absolute best to shear enemy mecha arms or legs right where they connected to the main chassis – at their shoulders, or at their hips. And because the chitin was rather thick, found that they had to either concentrate their beams perfectly to a pinpoint, or make a second pass altogether.

Sometimes, they were forced to do both.

Not that it stopped either of them. It hardly even slowed them down. Instead, they dutifully cut off part after part from their opponents. An arm here, a leg there, that sort of thing.

Freya swooped down low and buzzed the roads below. And at the same time, she snapped up the arms and legs that she had cut off using the core’s antigrav fields. Then, she locked them into her orbit using electromagnetic links.

“Got mine,” she said. “Attempting Drogar systems connection.”

“Go ahead,” Lucifer answered. “Gotcha covered in the meantime.”

.....

Freya flew back up into the sky, rejoined the fight, but only defensively. She performed a random variety of evasive maneuvers, one after the other. At the same time, Lucifer went in to support her as her wing, and fought off any Drogar who even came close.

Ze took special pleasure in cutting off more of their limbs, if any were already missing. Just seeing them flounder in the sky with minimal maneuvering thrusters brought hir a simple kind of brutal joy.

Freya on the other hand was still all business, and was observing her core’s attempts to connect to the mecha parts she had acquired. But unfortunately, it failed at every turn.

–

ERROR: I/O Failure

REASON: Hardware mismatch. Circuit corruption safeguard.

–

“Alright, the report’s in,” Freya said over comms. “It’s like we predicted: it won’t connect to any of these limbs. Want me to try through Prometheus?”

“Bit risky, don’t you think?” asked Lucifer “Trying that out in the middle of a fight?”

“Hey, it wouldn’t be the first time I’ve been in a fight while using Prometheus.”

“Nn,” said Raijin. “Please try. I will have the drones cover you.”

“Don’t you dare!” protested Lucifer. “These mecha are mine.”

Freya chuckled, then flipped open a physical switch cover on her control deck. Then, as she flipped the switch inside, activated Promethean Mode once again. Her consciousness slipped into step with the core’s Promethean module, and from there became wholly aware of every other circuit and system inside.

It felt slightly alien to her, because of the odd design. All the parts were there, except in all different places. But she warmed to it quickly, as she realized it was just like her own body, but shifted into something else.

Unlike the Admiral’s implementation, where Prometheus was a feature of the operating intelligence, Raijin opted to nest it into a separate module. It would do the translation for the rest of the chassis. And that allowed it to be installed in any core (at least, in theory).

Otherwise, it would have required custom cores, every single time.

And of course, instead of using a base Federation Coding Language to perform synaptic control, Raijin instead used her own custom language – the Open Engine Framework. It was from that codeset that she redeveloped the Oversight and Truesight Engines and optimized their logic.

It was also from that codeset that she and her team developed the Automation and Promethean Engines as well.

That code was what talked to Freya, or at least, helped translate her neural synapses and signals into machine commands. It worked perfectly for systems that Raijin herself created, and it worked relatively well for any other weapon system developed in the Hegemony or the Federation.

What they didn’t know was how well it worked with Imperial systems and modules. Or if it worked at all.

“I’m merged,” Freya said over comms.

Her voice seemed ethereal to some degree. It seemed to echo through the digital circuitry, and resonated as though she spoke through sonic emitters. As though her voice was digitally recreated.

“Feels weird,” she continued. “But familiar. I don’t feel strained at all, honestly. Could probably stay like this longer than before. What were we at again?”

“Ten hours,” Raijin answered. “We could have done one or two more hours back then. At least, that is my theory. You could do twice that now, judging from how well you are synchronizing with the module.”

“We’ll have to test that at some point. For now, let’s take a look at something else.”

Now that Freya was deep in her Promethean Merge, and was in full control of her core, she reached out to the Drogar mecha limbs and attempted to connect to them.

And like when she attempted manually, found resistance to the connection. Alerts and errors flashed on her screen and in her mind with every attempt that she made.

She found stronger and stronger resistance the more pressure she applied, as though the parts themselves were reacting to her. But it wasn’t like they were thinking – it felt more to her that it was simply the way they naturally operated. That they were created to be resistant in the first place.

Not only that, but she felt a twinge of emotion in the limbs. Not as a reaction, or a defense system. It was simply how they were designed.

Of course, she recognized the emotion easily. It was anger.

It was a low level of seething that sat just under the surface, and for seemingly no reason.

A thought occurred to Freya suddenly, and she adjusted her own emotional state. Specifically, she raised her anger up just enough to resonate with the anger in the limbs. And in doing so, found that their resistance had ebbed.

So, she slipped into the limbs themselves, then took control of them.

“Hah!” she cried aloud, and through comms. “I did it! They’re connected!”

She repositioned the limbs around her core to mimic a kind of humanoid shape, then attempted to move them like she would normally. Such as clenching a fist over and over, bending knees, rotating shoulders.

Although the movements were clumsy, and a bit slow, she was still able to perform them.

With a grin, Freya spun her core around and launched an attack towards the closest enemy mecha. She stretched her leg out as she charged in, and slammed foot-first straight into her target’s chest.

Chitin on both of them cracked and shattered on impact, then countless shards burst in every direction. She felt the impact ripple through her, as though she had kicked the mecha herself with her own leg. The thrill of it consumed her. There was a visceral feel to it that she never felt before.

“Luci!” Freya cried out. “You need to try this! It’s amazing!”

~

Once Kali and her squad completely secured the lab, Xylo and her squad went in to finish up. More specifically, each of them went to the different walls and terminals, and placed magnetic devices on them.

They then activated the devices through holographic projections, connected them to the fleet’s encrypted signal module, then locked them shut.

“Lab charges set,” Xylo said over comms.

“Signals verified,” Aurora replied. “Proceed to the databanks.”

“You heard the boss,” Xylo told her squad. “Move out.”

They quickly headed towards one of the lab’s exits, then carried on through down the hallway beyond. The entire squad crept around various corners and navigated further into the underground section of the facility, closer towards its operational center.

But before they could get there, they veered down a large hallway which terminated in a large, secure door. The two Drogar security guards immediately went for their weapons on seeing the Republic squad, but it was too late.

Both of them were riddled by numerous neurotoxin-laced slugs, and were neutralized instantly.

The squad hardly even slowed down as they filed further into the hallway and headed straight to the door itself. They pressed themselves into both sides of the hallway to minimize their exposure while the doors opened up.

Inside was a massive databank laid out similar to the one back on Zha’ress. But this one was three times larger, with the central datanode being 30 meters in diameter.

It was more than enough space for any one of their fighters or mecha to fit inside.

Xylo and her team didn’t bother to gawk in awe of it. Instead, they swept into the room quickly and neutralized any technicians and guards as quickly as they could. They expertly moved as they fired and downed each of the few dozen Drogar without hardly a fuss.

And once it was all clear, they ran to the various terminals and walls and machines, where they began to set their explosives charges.

Kali whistled at the sight of the giant datanode, even as her own squad rushed in to secure the room itself. She reached into one of her armor’s containers and pulled out a cottonball bird drone, then released it into the air.

It chirped happily at her, then went straight towards the datanode’s primary terminal. It circled the terminal’s station a few times, and zapped certain sections of it every so often. After a half dozen zaps, the terminal itself blinked off and then on again.

During which time, the drone injected Raijin’s Truesight Engine, which immediately began to work its way through the datanode’s robust defenses.

Though it found difficulty fighting against powerful Drogar code, especially compared to Federation code. The datanode’s circuits found themselves the center of a battle between the standard intelligence, and Raijin’s invasive engine.

Their fight was certainly frenzied, perhaps even bitter. Their codesets ripped and tore away at each other with vicious ferocity. Entire command sets were broken apart and modified and wiped and replaced as they fought for dominance.

But even while all that happened, the drone siphoned whatever data it had access to and could see. It easily packaged it down and compressed it, then sent it to the storage drives clipped on both squads’ belts.

And, at the same time, transmitted it up to the fleet, where every analyst could read it.

“Primary databank is secure,” Kali said through comms. “Permission for my squad to proceed to the next stage.”

“You’ve got the green light,” Aurora replied moments later. “Move out.”