“Get clear! It's going to fire!” Oz called out to his group as they moved to support Yves and his team.
The cannon swivelled and took aim at the shuttle just starting to lift off and a slim red beam burst forth from its short barrel, slicing through the smaller, more disposable vessel's hull and leaving a long tear across its middle. The cannon fired twice more, horizontally across the length of the ship with an intentional, digital precision that ensured that most of the soldiers inside would be burned through the middle on both decks of the ship as its engines lost power and it fell awkwardly down several meters to rest on the landing platform.
“We've taken the west most shuttle, several injured,” Yves announced breathlessly.
Oz's team was already inside, and Ayan could hear his comforting tone; “I've got ya, we'll get you patched up.”
A quick glance at her command and control unit told her that he was performing a medical scan and administering pain meds to Yves.
Minh's group rushed the shuttle that had been cut to pieces, and for long moments it seemed that there was no resistance. “We have control of the rear most shuttle, there are a few soldiers in the rear compartment who are holding out though,” Minh reported.
Through one of the few transparesteel windows in the side of the drop ship Ayan could see flashes of light from weapon's fire, then it stopped suddenly and Minh's status indicator began flashing red, highlighting injuries across his knees, thighs and midsection. She didn't think, just drew her sidearm and ran as hard as she could through the barricades and down the embarkation ramp. No matter how quickly she was moving it seemed too slow. “Minh? Can you hear me?”
“He blocked a grenade when we opened the rear door, he's in bad shape,” said one of his people.
“Do you have medical training?” Ayan asked as she rushed into the dropship and up the steep stairway that led to the upper level.
“I don't, and I can't get his headgear off!”
Ayan ran up the aisle between the shoulder and hip restraints, an efficient method of cramming as many soldiers into a dropship as possible and she nearly panicked as Minh came into view. At the sight of him she was immediately grateful that he had been knocked out by the blast.
She made the last two meters on her knees, skidding to a stop and as soon as she could she used her arm unit to inject him with emergency stasis drugs, praying that his circulation would take the medication to his vital organs. She took a medical scan and watched as the medication made it through his torso, his head but only as far as half way down one thigh. There were wide open wounds and serious trauma to his torso, and as he settled into a stasis state that didn't keep him alive but prevented further cellular deterioration she said; “He can be revived later, there's far too much damage for nanobots to repair.” She pulled a protective vacbag out from under the rear of her poncho and laid it atop him carefully. “Do you have any other wounded?”
“My group's taking care of them, nice catch Ayan,” replied Oz.
The protective bag enveloped Minh's body and stiffened, forming a hardened case and a perfect seal. “He might lose his legs and a hand. He'll either need replacements grown or an emergency unit with full regenerative capabilities and I haven't seen one since we arrived,” she replied quietly.
“But if you waited any longer he might not have a chance at all. How long can he last with those new meds?”
“We have to get him to a proper facility or a very expensive regeneration suite to revive him properly.”
“As soon as we make it off this rock.”
“He saved my life, saw the grenade and stepped right in front of me,” said one scruffy, long haired rebel.
The sadness etched on his young face touched Ayan deeply and she stood, putting a hand on her shoulder. “That's what heroes do, and once he's back on his feet I'll make sure he knows how thankful you are. Now, did you manage to overtake the soldiers in the rear compartment?”
“Yes ma'am, as soon as the grenade went off most everyone rushed 'em. There are a couple prisoners but the rest are dead.”
“Good, everyone did well here, better than expected. Now get a detail of ten together to guard the ship behind cover while everyone else in your group moves the wounded behind the barricades. When you're finished move your entire group there and guard the subway tunnel.”
“Yes Ma'am,” the young rebel nodded as she stared at Minh's protected form.
Ayan caught her eye and stared at her. “We have to keep working, make this place safe and save lives while we get what we need from this ship's systems. I need your help.” she whispered.
She nodded and smiled at her a little. “I'm on it.”
Jason Everin had never seen anything like it before; a massively multitasking artificial intelligence that also operated like a virus. As Dementia manipulated the parts of the station he could see he worked tirelessly to spread his influence, to control every non-intelligent computer system that was adjacent to areas he already had access to. Jason focused on what he had to, there was no time to do anything else. The generic transport that was on the landing platform had settled down. Dementia had already cut power to the engines, removed all access to the interior systems and raised the carbon dioxide mix in the air to lethal levels. The temperature was over one hundred fifty degrees centigrade, anyone not in armour with an environmental layer would have been dead in the first few minutes.
He didn't know if he could stop Dementia if he tried, and despite the inhumane use of the internal environment systems Jason didn't feel motivated to help the soldiers taking cover inside. The evidence of the slaughter in the main foyer, security areas and embarkation sections of the space port that he'd seen was enough to allay his tendency towards mercy where anyone from the West Watch or Regent Galactic forces were concerned. Anyone who could be allied with a company or government that unleashed such a murderous virus on a general population, on innocent non-combatants, deserved what they got. The fact that an artificial intelligence that, from what he could tell so far, was on the rebels' side was responsible for much of the enemies suffering was simply a welcome irony.
While Dementia focused on controlling the small portion of the spaceport he had overtaken and killing or forcing the enemy soldiers out of their sanctuaries Jason worked to get his remote terminal ready to patch into military channels and start back hacking to the source. The first of the wounded were coming in, Ayan was at the head of them, making sure that they were attended to properly. He glimpsed the protective black vacbag that Minh was in and tried to put thoughts of his suspended state and uncertain future out of his mind.
“How are we doing Dementia?” he asked.
“I'm afraid I'm not doing very well, Jason. The androids and other rebels below are having difficulty holding the level beneath us and I predict that my ability to be in direct contact with you and your section will be compromised unless you can break through the wireless jamming that is coming from orbit.”
“What's happening down there?”
“Perhaps in response to our victory on your level the enemy have surged against us two levels down and are about to overtake the defences there. As I speak the rebels are being pushed into a retreat.”
The news was verified by Ariel, who ran up the rampway to their level. “We're retreating to this point. The West Keeper fanatics have almost overrun the post below!” she exclaimed. The emotions in her voice weren't reflected in her expression, which remained passive and calm.
Human soldiers rushed up behind her, there were few wounded and as Jason sat working to set up his system the retreat continued. “I haven't been able to track your point of origin Dementia; where are you right now?”
“My point of origin a ship several levels down. It is called the Clever Dream. The vessel is owned by Alice Valent, who I have not seen in some time.”
“When you first connected to my terminal it sounded like you knew us.”
“You're right, Alice spoke of her observances of you and your friends while she was in service as a digital artificial intelligence in service to Jonas Valent. She began work on me after she made the transition to a biological form.”
Jason stopped everything he was doing. “She transferred herself into a human body?”
“Aboard the Overlord Two as Jonas, Oz, Ayan, Minh and several others were escaping. The systems on that ship and the body provided were barely sufficient, but they did allow her to cross over and escape from the
