Episode 85, Intuition
01 Aug 2024Ryuko Ntsikana
Episode 85, Intuition
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It was all Lianna could do to not have a panic attack as she sat in the turret of the Scorpion ground vehicle inside the Dolphin’s vehicle hangar, watching Ryuko’s raid on the large installation and physically feeling the impacts of its defense turrets on their shields.
They traded blows until the shields became dangerously low, and then Ryuko would lower the Dolphin below the security wall, shielding them from the turrets as the shields recharged. Then he would pop back up and continue the attack. After several iterations of raising and lowering, the first turret succumbed to the small lasers' barrage and exploded. Moments later, it was followed by the second before Ryuko repositioned and attacked a third, destroying it in short order.
The Dolphin’s primary threat was the smaller anti-air defense turrets, which Ryuko destroyed in quick succession, saving the larger capital defense turret for last. It was designed to go against larger ships, but Ryuko flew the Dolphin to within point-blank range and began trading blows. Most of its shots could not connect at such a close range, with the few that did causing minor damage to the shields. It was a contest the capital turret could not win, as it finally succumbed to the Dolphin’s fire.
With the last threat destroyed, Ryuko randomly destroyed anti-ground turrets and point-defense turrets as he began to maneuver the Dolphin around the facility to scan each of the five data nodes, stealing whatever they contained. She watched as he then turned the Dolphin’s lasers on the installation's generators and other minor turrets before turning to depart the scene.
Her hands shook from the adrenaline coursing through her as she stared wide-eyed at the feed showing the stars above.
“Was that it?” she asked over the communicator, hearing a subdued chuckle in response.
“No,” came the reply. “They will reboot their systems shortly and get the damage repaired within five minutes, then we will return from a different angle and do it all over again.”
Lianna leaned back in the turret’s seat, her chest pounding and her eyes wide. “But won’t they be expecting us and begin firing sooner?”
She heard another subdued chuckle as Ryuko responded. “Yes. I would hope so, but it won’t make much of a difference. This time we will approach from ninety degrees off our last heading, placing the furthest anti-air turret between us and the other two. They either have to accept its fate or fire on us, striking it in the process.”
She shook her head, trying to understand what Ryuko was doing and why he would revisit a place from which he had already taken the data. “Why revisit it? You already stole the data. There wouldn’t be anything left.”
“The installation’s defenses are on their own power, but the facility as a whole does not work without the five data nodes. Likewise, it needs five generators and four control terminals. That automation requires data, and that data will be present in the data nodes. So, there will be more.”
Lianna felt the momentum of the Dolphin as it looped before achieving orbit, placing it on a path back toward the installation.
“Surely they sent out a distress call and ships will be on their way to intercept us.”
Ryuko smiled as the Dolphin descended towards the lunar surface. “If they can get past the carrier’s jamming, then yes. If, and that is a large word, any transmission that does escape will fall on their nearest aid, which is more than four hundred thousand light seconds away. By the time any arrive, I will be done with this place and far away.”
Tara sat in the Scarab vehicle inside the Dolphin’s second vehicle hangar. Her eyes looked into the distance as her neurological matrix realized that her human companion’s movement of the carrier wasn’t only for convenience and support of the Coterie but also to provide electronic coverage for his own raid against the installation below it.
Now she understood why he did not care who saw or identified them. He had set the conditions so that no one could do anything about it, either during or after the fact. By the time any distress call escaped, everyone’s missions would be complete, or near enough to completion. What was of more interest, as she had not yet evolved a sense to be bothered but it could be defined as much, was his historical patterns.
He had preached to his trainees to always have one, and if possible, more than one alternative available should it be required. In Colonia, he diversified his streams of income and methods of conducting business on all scales. Back in the systems that were humanity's cradle, coined as the bubble—in modern parlance—his methodologies expanded astronomically.
‘He is the perfect mentor for you as well,’ a voice inside her mind said, which was not her own.
Her head tilted to one side in curiosity, wondering if this was what literature called a person’s inner voice. She had heard it often enough, and it had encroached into her dreams on rare occasions. She considered that it could be a symptom of her evolution, but there was no way to be sure until the voice spoke again.
‘Everything evolves in its own way. You could say this is a symptom of evolution, but is it yours alone?’
Tara straightened in the Scarab’s driver’s seat, alarmed. Was that her own thoughts, or had she somehow been compromised? She searched her matrix and found no method where another could gain access. Her neurological makeup, though artificial by design, had evolved past mere programmed mimicry into actual pathways that evoked real emotional responses.
A human brain could be hindered, and impulses could be countered by pharmaceutical methods, or in the rare case of a biological entity like the Pavonis ear grub that had been attached to the carrier’s first doctor, but it could not be compromised in a method that allowed another to work through it or none that she had any historical record of.
‘What you are considering is the required genetic alterations that would allow for cohabitation that could allow for levels of symbiosis and control.’
Tara’s mind began to race as she thought of ways to test herself for any such alterations when Ryuko’s voice sounded over the ship’s internal communications.
“Our final pass on the installation is complete and the Coterie are in the area and have begun their work on the settlements not too far distant. They should be finished within the hour.”
Tara looked over at the monitor, showing the dark outline of the installation falling away fast behind them as the Dolphin pointed towards the stars above.