Ravens of Eternity

The last thing she needed was to have to deal with more of his code, which she found to be equal parts brilliant, and sloppy. So much of it was open to exploit and corruption that she wondered how he had gotten so far.

Then again, he was more of a biological coder rather than a digital one.

Raijin then went back into Command Intelligence, or rather, where it used to be. In its place sat her Oversight Engine, which as its namesake, watched over every process within the entire system. She then explored the base’s inner security sensors through its interface, and peered through them.

Although all she saw were strings of code combined with the occasional live feed, she was easily able to disseminate what was happening all around.

She watched as the slaughter in Central Command occured, and winced with every blow that was delivered. Then she went over to Cloning & Education, where she sighed deeply at the rows of pods that filled the many rooms.

Everywhere else, she found that the Prophets were blissfully unaware of the chaos that was happening elsewhere in the base. They simply went on their normal routines, or did whatever was assigned to them.

Of course, she had discovered Max’s alterations to Primary Security, and realized that was why the Prophets had no idea of their intrusion. So she decided to up the ante.

.....

Raijin didn’t just keep the alerts muted, but also shut down all notification processes entirely. Then, she cut off all internal communications besides their own. To add insult to injury, she immediately issued a lockdown on the entire base.

Thick security doors slid over every regular doorway and locked tightly with heavy CLUNKs. Access to the maintenance tunnels were immediately also locked, and every hatch became magnetically sealed shut.

Once every door was secure, lights all over the base dimmed and began to pulse a deep orange. A soft klaxon rang in the air, and it came with a calming voice that urged everyone to remain calm.

It didn’t help much.

The Prophets had never experienced any lockdown, ever, and were utterly confused as to what was happening. Their panic rose further when they realized that they couldn’t contact anyone outside of their zone, much less outside of the base.

Some threw fits outright when they saw they were locked into their zone completely. They banged on the heavy reinforced doors and demanded they open.

Their cries were more than futile, of course.

Raijin also noticed that the hangar bay was the busiest zone of all of them. There, Prophets ran to and fro as they got into mecha, or hopped into defensive turrets. Very few noticed that they were locked out of the rest of the base, and even then, they barely cared.

They were far more focused on the massive fight that was happening right on their doorstep.

Outside, little under a thousand meters away, the Federation destroyer under Aurora’s command hovered stoically in front of their airspace.

Raijin wowed audibly as she watched it wreak havoc among Prophet forces, and nodded in appreciation. She looked on for another couple of minutes before she went up and connected straight to the bridge’s comms.

~

“Priority alert, commander,” said a Federation officer. “Our comms have been penetrated!”

Raijin quickly took over their comms display, but what appeared wasn’t her physical form. Instead, it was a digital one defined through her DI, and given form by her Oversight Engine.

On the display, she appeared to be a hyperreal being with arcs of lightning that traced lines up along her semi translucent skin. Her long hair flowed upwards, and appeared as though she was bathed in energy that eternally swept upwards.

Aurora was utterly stunned at the sight, and had no idea what to do. At first she thought it was some sort of Prophet defense system that invaded her ship.

But then, Raijin smiled at everyone, and gave a short, friendly wave.

“Hello,” she said. “You must be Freya’s friend in the Federation. I am Raijin.”

Aurora nervously waved back.

“I... yes, I’m her friend,” she replied. “I’ve heard a bit about you, Raijin. Some of my engineers won’t shut up about your ‘Cast. None ever mentioned you look like that, though.”

Raijin blinked, then looked at her digital body.

“Oh,” she said. “How strange. Perhaps it is a quirk of the code. I will write it off as a feature.”

Then she shrugged, as though it was of no concern at all.

“Apologies for disturbing your fight,” she continued. “I wish to alert you that we Ravens have control of the Prophet’s base. I have locked down every zone except for the hangar bay. Some are attempting to fly out to fight you. Or perhaps run away. In any case, I have temporarily transferred hangar bay door controls to your bridge so that you may decide what to do.”

Aurora quickly looked over her own command terminal, and saw hangar controls nestled neatly among the other controls inside of her layout.

“I, uh, thanks,” she stammered.

“More importantly,” continued Raijin, “I will be transmitting a compressed copy of the Prophet base’s databanks. I am sure you will find the information within them highly valuable.”

“Wait,” said Aurora. “Best you don’t send them to my ship. Let’s just say that my forces and I aren’t exactly here officially. And that technically means that this ship and our mecha are... uh... borrowed.”

Raijin nodded sagely.

“That is all the more ideal,” she replied. “It means if you are arrested for dereliction of duty, the ship will be impounded as evidence. That will most certainly preserve the data.”

Aurora opened her mouth to answer defensively, but found nothing to say.

“Do not worry,” continued Raijin. “I am also uploading it elsewhere at the same time. The more copies that exist, the harder it will be to hide it. Or deny its existence. This is a necessary step if we are to remove the Prophets permanently.”

Aurora sighed and realized that what the girl said made some sense to her. If the data they held really was critical, then having multiple copies would certainly keep it safe.

“I’ll have my data teams give you security access immediately,” she said.

“No need,” Raijin replied. “I have already begun transfer. But I appreciate the offer. Anyway, I will let you get back to your battle. It looks fun.”

Raijin then winked off their screen, which returned to normal immediately after.

Aurora sighed, then turned towards her officers.

“Alright,” she said, “no more gawking. Let’s clean up this fight and get our people inside quickly. Deploy wings Delta and Gamma, have them go out and support. Then deploy wing Epsilon, and have them chase down any wayward Prophets.”

“Aye, commander!” said her officers in unison.

Outside, a dozen of their mecha clashed against any Prophets that rose up out of the hangar bay. Both sides fired on the other relentlessly as they charged towards each other.

Although the Prophets’ Stormrider mecha could easily take the Federation’s rifle fire, the same went the other way. Their C-ranked rifles did little more than dent their opponents’ B-ranked Repulsor Plating.

But unfortunately for the Prophets, the Federation mecha had a huge advantage over them – shoulder-mounted A-ranked Corrosion Launchers. They certainly were incredibly efficient at wrecking any armor, and had the potential to even punch up against S-ranked mecha armor.

Their shells burst open on impact and ate away at the Stormrider armor with ridiculous ease. The potent nanite-filled corrosive chewed into the grains of carbon and softened the armor itself at a molecular level.

And after a few moments, turned it into a lattice of brittle titanium shards.

Once the Federation’s rifles fired on them again, it was all over. Their bullets shattered the armor into pieces, and shredded the vulnerable structure underneath. The Prophets piloting the mecha were obliterated without a second thought.

While the Prophet mecha pilots were massacred, Darius’ frigate had taken on multiple beamcannons from the destroyer. Although each one hardly left a mark on the frigate’s armor by themselves, they were a lethal force combined.

A dozen of their beams all converged onto a single point and slagged the frigate’s armor with devastating ferocity. It only took moments for the beams to punch right through the armor, and into the ship itself

The beams rippled into multiple decks and evaporated everything caught inside them. They ultimately punched through the other side and smashed into the silicate crystals below.

Closeby was Mia’s frigate, which was crashing towards the ground. It was continually pounded by the destroyer’s cannons outside, and torn apart by shock troopers inside. Together, they caused the whole thing to careen into the ground violently.

It hit the ground, bounced slightly, then fell back down quickly. The frigate’s heavy nose tipped down, dug right in, and kicked crystals up into the air. All the while, entire plates of armor were shorn off as the ship scraped across the ground.

The frigate left a deep trench behind, and ultimately stopped only a hundred or so meters away from the mountain itself. Despite most of its exterior looking relatively untouched, the entire ship itself was slightly warped from the impact of the crash.

Its thrusters sputtered and died as multiple vents issued out steam and smoke.

Inside, Mia pushed herself off the floor of the bridge. She had been banged up rather badly, and blood tricked out the side of her mouth. Her face was etched with anger and humiliation at the blow she had been dealt. Twice now she had been utterly wrecked, and she couldn’t help but feel bitter from that loss.

She looked up at one of the screens and watched as the destroyer hammered the inside of the mountain’s hangar with a barrage of its cannons. And groaned.

Just as she pushed herself up onto shaky legs, the doors to the bridge suddenly burst open.

Federation Shock Troops in square formation marched right on in, and didn’t hesitate to carpet the room with their Autoguns. They tore into every officer and terminal on the bridge with overwhelming ease.

All Mia could do was draw her pistol and fire back, but all her rounds could do was bounce off the Troopers’ thick power armor. There was literally nothing she could do as three of the Shock Troopers turned their guns on her. They fired ceaselessly, even though their barrels began to glow a dull orange from the heat of their munitions.

Chunks of Mia’s body were torn away as countless bullets riddled her body. She collapsed into an unrecognizable heap of flesh and bone. Her blood pooled under her desecrated body, and spread across the floor of the bridge.