ShipCore

USD: 1 Day after Cadre-S Graduation

Location: Van Biesbroeck’s star, Meltisar, MIL-1A Elevator, Outside the Hull

Ignoring Tia's quip, Alex focused on their trajectory. Their flight path kept them as close to the station as she suspected Tia dared, though Alex felt she could have done better. Maybe Tia was just being cautious because she had a passenger.

“Where are we going?” Alex inquired.

“You’ll see.”

At that moment, Alex’s HUD switched to flight mode, highlighting various hard points on the station as they zipped past. Up ahead, a large black cylinder protruded from the station, dotted with PDC-Ks.

Every PDC-K in her line of sight was suddenly outlined in red before solidifying into a bright crimson hue. Panic gripped Alex. “They’re targeting us!”

[Informative: Countermeasures have been activated.]

A flash of light to her right caught Alex’s attention. A small vehicle, identifiable as a CMV, burst through the station’s outer wall.

[Informative: Each CMV is equipped with one computronic module. However, this one is a decoy.]

“There’s more than one!?” Alex blurted out in disbelief, her heart pounding in her chest.

A barrage of red tracers erupted from the CMV, its guns blazing, disintegrating the station’s threatening PDC-Ks into expanding clouds of debris. Suddenly, a brilliant white flash from out of plane collided with the CMV, igniting an explosion that sent a massive cloud of chaff and fog billowing in every direction. The wave reached them in less than a second, shrouding their advance.

“Tia, we’re going to crash into the hull!” Alex cried, panic rising as the other girl showed no signs of slowing down.

“Yeah, better harden yourself.”

With lightning speed, Alex flipped open her ANUF side panel, adjusting her allocation just before impact. The two girls smashed through the heavy hull plate at full speed, the outer layer buckling under the force.

Dizzy and disoriented, Alex felt Tia disconnect from her as they found themselves in the space between the hull plates. A cloud of nanites glowed around Tia, working to melt away the thicker inner plate.

“A little help here?” Tia asked.

Alex nodded and reverted her ANUF allocations back to normal, thickening the nanite cloud.

[Warning: Possibly hostile infantry forces are enroute to the area.]

Tia grunted in annoyance, but with a powerful kick, the hull plate finally showed signs of weakening. Her arm transformed into a blade, and she slashed through the softened metal before peeling it open. “Heavy plate is the worst; the rest should go fast.”

Following Tia, Alex glanced over her shoulder and felt a surge of panic as she spotted a space-borne marine clad in power armor and with a thruster pack hurtling towards them. A shower of sparks erupted from the hull, showing they were under fire.

On instinct, Alex grabbed the rolled-up heavy plate and dragged it back into place, doing her best to reverse the process and nanite-weld the metal shut. “We’ve got company!”

“Too late,” Tia said.

As Alex turned, she realized Tia had vanished. Not wanting to be left behind, she located the hole and leaped down.

The fall spanned several meters, and Alex landed directly on Admiral Anderson’s holotable. Somehow, Tia had managed to dodge it, but the table cracked loudly under Alex’s weight, nearly folding in half before springing back into shape and nearly trampolining her into the ceiling.

The two marines on the bridge brandished their weapons, but in an instant, all the lights in the room flickered out, plunging the room into darkness. A mesmerizing display of glowing blue particles erupted, swiftly coalescing into spears that deftly snatched the pistols from the unarmored men’s grasp.

With a surge of adrenaline, Alex leaped down, seeking cover behind a table as her HUD illuminated Tia’s movements. She watched Tia weave through the bridge, incapacitating those who resisted and restraining the surrendered with nanite bindings.

Chaos and shouting reigned until, finally, an eerie silence settled. The emergency lights flickered to life, albeit at half power, casting the room in a haunting array of shadows. Console screens flickered back on, one by one, but Alex’s eyes remained glued to Admiral Anderson, who Tia forcefully escorted back to the flag bridge.

He landed with a heavy thud in his seat. “Cadets! Stand down now! You’re both going to be court-martialed for this! Marines are already on their way to breach the bridge any minute now!”

Tia tilted her head, a hint of a smile tugging at the corners of her lips. “They’ve been delayed, but you’re right, they’ll probably get in, eventually.”

With a shaky breath, Alex brushed the dust from her pants. Her nerves frayed.

“Westlake was a fool for ever sheltering either of you.” Anderson spat, venom dripping from his words.

Tia raised her chin, her eyes boring into the man below her. “And who’s the fool that created that AGAI thing, which disabled a NAI’s rampancy protections and nearly killed everyone on Meltisar? The one responsible for trillions in damages? You have a lot to answer for, Admiral, all of you do.”

“You won’t get away with this,” Anderson snarled, punctuating his defiance with a glob of spit that struck Tia’s face.

Alex braced herself for Tia’s retaliation, expecting a violent response. But the silver-haired girl calmly reached up and wiped the insult away instead.

“It’s already over,” Tia declared, her voice cold.

|Authentication MIL-1A|

|ADMIRALTY AUTHORITY ONL—|

|ADM—AUTHOR—|

|AUTHO—|

|AUTHORITY OVERRIDE ACCEPTED|

|CELESTIA|

|MIL-1A COMMAND GRANTED|

Tia’s gaze shifted from the Admiral, her attention now focused on the bridge’s main screen. It flickered to life, showcasing the impressive array of ships surrounding the station. Alex’s eyes widened as each vessel was highlighted before ominous red circles enveloped them. In the distance, the other two orbital elevators, including MOR-1, were similarly marked.

A palpable sense of dread filled the air as railgun batteries across the station emerged from their recessed housings. Thousands of PDC-Ks and PDC-Ls readied themselves, and full-sized beam array turret batteries had power channeled into their capacitors, priming them for imminent firing.

Admiral Anderson bolted upright and dashed to a console, his face twisted in horror as he grasped the full extent of Tia’s control.

“I have taken control of this battle station, including all main weapon batteries. Half of the Meltisar Navy is within my railgun range and will be reduced to nothing in seconds. I can sever the tethers of MOR-1 and RELA-1 in a single laser volley.”

Anderson’s face turned ashen. “You’re nothing more than a terrorist.”

Tia dismissed him with an icy stare. “Open a system-wide broadcast on all military and civilian channels.”

Startled, Alex blinked, realizing Tia was addressing her. “Uh, you want me to?”

“I’m having a bit of trouble running everything right now, so some help, yes.”

It was actually more complicated than Alex realized. There were tens of thousands of channels, and even more security authorizations that were needed to open the channels to the military assets. She ended up pushing the task onto Nameless, who made quick work of it with the MIL-1A’s admiralty database.

“Okay. You’re on.” Alex gave her a thumbs up.

Tia raised her chin with determination, her piercing eyes gazing down into the video feed.

“I am Chi Celestia Astraea Psi. I have convicted the Meltisar Government and its Admiralty for conducting illegal experiments on NAI technology, resulting in the release of a nanite rampancy that will have effects felt long into the future and threaten the life of not just everyone who lives in this system, but across all of civilized space.”

She allowed her words to hang in the air, her eyelids narrowing for dramatic effect before continuing.

“As of this moment, I have assumed control of the military’s primary battle station in orbit. With the authority granted to me as a Chi NAI, I hereby claim control of the Meltisar System and declare it and its moon to be a Core System.”

Admiral Anderson’s face contorted with rage, the blood rushing to his cheeks. He snapped, lunging at Tia and grabbing her arm in a futile attempt to pull her away.

Her response was swift as she slapped him with a single powerful blow that sent him sprawling to the floor.

“No one will listen to you!” He shrieked desperately as he held his bloodied face.

Across the bridge, one of the restrained officers yelled, his face pale with shock. “Admiral! Multiple response codes!”

Alex’s eyes darted to the main monitor, watching as, one by one, automated orbital defenses changed from yellow to green, signaling their allegiance to Tia’s command override. The hum of acceptance echoed throughout the system as countless civilian ships broadcast their surrender.

Tia glared down at the Admiral with disdain. “You were never free. All your technology, all your systems, were built by us. All you ever had was an illusion of self-determination while being toyed with by those with genuine power.”

The Navy’s warships remained unresponsive, but they now found themselves hopelessly outnumbered by the thousands of orbital defense weapons scattered around the moon and system.

A chime pierced the charged atmosphere, heralding a priority hail from the MN Solion. Fleet Admiral Wilkes and Admiral Westlake stood on the bridge of the flagship above the captain’s dais, their faces etched with concern.

Tia’s fierce gaze bore into both men, her voice unwavering as she delivered her ultimatum.

“Lay down your arms, or there will be no pieces to pick from the ashes.”

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