Give me but one Gunship!
Isaias assessed the situation in a blink of an eye, these men were not here to make friends. He drew his Thin-gun (he had not ditched all his guns like the others) and with one smooth motion was able to dive aside and blow the head off the nearest attacker. The room then exploded as pulsegun fire tore into everything. Within seconds Isaias had killed or incapacitated all five of his attackers.
Stepping across the broken glass and smouldering ruins of the barroom Isaias stepped outside. He expected more attackers.
None were forthcoming but what he did find immediately provided him with options…
The sun rose across the sea casting a pink and orange light across the waves. The Junger 28 Gunship (an ancient attack craft by current standards) sped onwards. The three ECS agents on board had no idea where they were being taken.
metaplot said:
Basharat, the Planetary AI, had lost track of the gunship when it had engaged incredibly complex chameleonware. So far he had not been able to break the coding. That the separatists had access to this level of technology was not worrying by itself, they could easily be flushed out if need be. What was worrying was how they got hold of the technology and what else they might possess. Basharat had shuddered or at least he would have if he were human, when Earth Central told him the Clockmaker was involved. And now Earth Central and Jerusalem wanted to expose certain Polity Agents to this Clockmaker technology. Basharat wasn’t sure what they hoped to learn from this “experiment”…
Boris gazed out of the small window of the Junger28. The craft decelerated quickly and came about. Rippling into existence below them was the massive shape of a ship that was easily half a kilometre long and studded with various defence turrets and several landing platforms and rows of cargo containers. The small forms of people could be seen scurrying about on the deck. The gunship swung around and then dropped quickly, touching down on one of the empty landing pads. The agents were blindfolded and led below deck where they were imprisoned in individual cells. Each of which was harshly lit, without furnishings with temperatures kept just on the uncomfortable side of cool.
Isaias quickly covered the short distance to the idling Junger28 Gunship. He had to act fast before the pilot realised what was going on. He was aboard had had disposed of the pilot within seconds. He settled down in the cockpit and studied the controls. It was an old design but things had not changed much. The computer systems were more advanced than they should have been for the date the gunship was produced but refits were common. First things first Isaias tried to contact the rest of his team but was met with silence. Next he contacted Basharat directly. From the AI he learnt what had happened in the early hours of the morning and who his attackers had been.
Accessing the navigation controls he was able to bring up auto pilot functions and return programs that would take the Gunship home. Before he took the gunship into the air he checked over the weapon load out. Both missile carousels were full and the pulse weaponry and twin rail guns were all functioning at maximum. Before Basharat could finish explaining about the need to gain access to the chameleonware coding Isaias engaged the engines and the Gunship rose into the air on silent gravmotors and then seemed to slip out of existence.
AI said:
“Fuckit!” Basharat said succinctly to no one but himself.
Bryson Pennington looked around the small cell he was in. He had closed down his senses that registered the cold, now he decided what he must do. Running diagnostics throughout his systems he was able to identify the various parts of his chassis that he would need. They were all undamaged. Within minutes he had been able to take these different parts and assemble them into a Thin-Gun, gold in colour like his golem body and shaped vaguely like Walther PPK from the 20th century, but obviously much thinner…
He aimed the gun at the reinforced door frame and opened fire. The pulse blasts blew splinters of ceramal about the small room but had little other effect. However from outside he could hear shouting. Then the locks in the door started to clunk open and finally the door swung open lazily, Bryson braced himself ready to spring into action but there was no one visible in the corridor outside. He then heard the thump of a grenade launcher and something metallic bounced off the door and into his cell. He leapt forwards just as the stun grenade exploded rocking the corridor and sending him tumbling.
Boris and Oswold became instantly alert at the muffled sound of the stun grenade going off.
Isaias spent the journey familiarising himself with various controls and working at turning off the Junger28’s chameleonware so that Basharat had an idea of where to send reinforcements. Maybe he had been to impatient taking off so quickly but he had always been quick to act, relying on instinct. So far this had served him well enough, after all he wasn’t dead yet. After a few more minutes he was able to gain access to the ‘ware’ controls and deactivated them.
He opened comms with the AI, “according to the readouts I’m getting I should be pretty close to wherever this bird has been programmed to land”
Basharat started to reply, whilst linking up to the gunships computer systems. “Three local monitor teams have been dispatched to...”
The gunship winked out of existence again as it came under the chameleonware field of the half kilometre long base ship.
AI said:
Isaias took the Gunship off of auto pilot and thrust the craft back into the air as it was coming into land. He had already closed down the comms signals asking him for security protocols and pass codes. He didn’t need things like that not now anyway. He boosted the gunship out past the ship and swung it about on its nose. Already air defence systems were being activated down below. He selected targets, defence turrets and other vital parts of the ship. Whilst sliding the Junger28 towards the prow of the ship fired off a cloud of missiles. The Pulse Cannon and Railguns were chattering away taking care of incoming enemy fire. Luckily this base ship was not outfitted as a full on warship or this would have been a very one sided fight… As more defence turrets were activated Isaias had to activate one of the gunship’s anti-munitions packages. A holographic copy of the Junger28 appeared a hundred meters to the left of Isaias as his vehicle disappeared, all the incoming missiles sped off towards the fake gunship. he was momentarily shielded under unique and complex chameleonware coding. He had to admit that although this was an old craft with basic weaponry its stealth features were as good as anything he had used recently. Explosions blossomed along the hull of the ship as his missiles started to hit home.
Bryson was knocked sideways by the blast of the stun grenade but was otherwise unaffected. The basic sub-dermal armour of his golem body absorbing the blast. The guard he had landed on however was not so lucky. The confined space had directed the blast right back at him and knocked him senseless. Bryson put a pulse shot through his head and then ducked as a second guard opened fire. The impact of a slug weapon dented and ricocheted of the walls and along the floor beside him. Calmly Bryson raised his gun and shot the man dead. Before the body hit the floor the entire boat seemed to lift and tilt sideways before settling down again, The crash of far away explosions could be heard as klaxons began to wail and the lights dimmed and flashed red. Bryson stooped down and collect the palmcom clipped to the dead guard’s belt along the pass cards for the various cells. He found and released Boris and Oswold.
Using the palmcom the agents accessed maps of the massive ship they were now on. They still had a mission to accomplish and if the separatist leader was anywhere, he was here onboard what appeared to be a command ship. They located the main command deck and set off through the narrow corridors, avoiding contact with enemy personnel if possible. Along the way they picked up a selection of weaponry from an arms locker. And very quickly they found themselves approaching the armoured bulkheads leading to the command centre, nestled centrally within the ship. Before starting their assault they scanned ahead using the neural scanning equipment built into Bryson’s skull. Fifteen people occupied the command centre, all no doubt armed. Several other rooms close by also contained more people ready to help out in a moments notice. Bryson accessed the ships security system, hacking through the simple defens programs and selected one of his own hunter killer viruses. He instructed it to block all door controls within thirty metres except those to the command centre. With what can only be described as a gleeful laugh transmitted via coding the HK program spread through the enemy systems.
The last of the missile defence systems exploded. Isaias assessed the situation. Smoke was billowing out of one of his engines and the gunship had taken many hits to other systems but it was a tough workhorse for sure, with plenty of redundancy and heavy armour. His rail guns were dangerously low on ammo and his missile carousels were not looking healthy either. Down on the landing platforms he saw the shape of two other gunships prepping for launch. This was about to get interesting.
He threw his craft forwards over the ship and around the control towers and then down low across the cargo containers. His gunship spat out missiles, the carousels spinning frantically. A trail of explosions lit the ship below him and one of the Jungers that was launching shuddered in mid air, rocked by multiple missile strikes and then straightened out, looking like it might shrug off the attack, then it dropped like a stone and exploded showering wreckage across the landing pads. The second gunship however was airborne and stalked away through the smoke and fires.
The doors to the Command centre slid open, Bryson, Oswold and Boris dived into the room whilst throwing all the stun grenades they had. Some of the command staff reacted by drawing weapons and active guards opened fire on them. But the grenades went off. In the aftermath of the blinding flash the three agents stormed forwards through the room and into a firestorm. Slowly they made their way towards the centre of the massive command room, consoles burned and holodisplay units showered sparks across the floor. The lights were off and people were screaming. Boris stepped up and out of cover to continue the attack but a stream of pulse fire picked him up off his feet an threw him back across the floor unconscious.
Bryson glanced around the corner of the unit he was using for cover and saw almost directly ahead of him a man he recognised straight away. Mordikai Fonblanque the apparently dead archbishop was wounded and sprawled across the floor leant against a burning computer terminal. He was screaming orders into a comms unit and he cradled under one arm a 12 inch brassy golden cube. Strange patterns and devices decorated the surface of the cube, which also appeared to be the gears and mechanisms of a finely crafted clock. Bryson brought his the pulse carbine he was using up to his shoulders and opened fire, several pulse blasts tore through Mordikai killing him instantly.
Oswold had been able to reach the wounded Boris and slap an analgesic patch on his friends neck. The patch brought him back to consiousness and dulled the pain fomr his horrific injuries. However across the command room the remeianing command staff had rallied and were prepeairing a counter attack, the opposite bulkhead doors had opened up and more armed guards were making their way into the room…
Isaias skimmed close to the waterline along the portside of the ship, he knew that close behind him the other Junger28 was attempting to get a missile lock and would do so any second now. He moved all power to his gunship’s spluttering rear grav motors and bounced it high into the air the nose pointing down towards the raging sea before his engines cut out. The second gunship sped underneath him and Isaias unleashed the last of his missiles. The Junger below him disappeared and his missiles sped off towards the holographic gunship a hundred metres away. Isaias pulled the trigger on his Rail guns, having removed the autogun features on them earlier. The stream of shells impacted on the invisible gunship shattering the cockpit and tearing everything inside to shreds. His own Junger dropped towards the sea and at the last moments he ignited the fusion engines and rose back into the air.
The voice of Basharat came over the comms, “It appears that someone has been able to deactivate the ships 'ware', we have a clear view of it now, I suggest you get yourself to a safe distance, satellite particle weapons are being powered up."
Something began moving on the surface of the cube. The gears and cogs began spinning and moving. Quickly the cube lost its shape and began distorting expanding and realigning itself. The machine grew in ways that should not see possible until it resembled a spider with metres long spindly legs and a tiny body. Its limbs made up of seemingly archaic pistons, wheels and gears. Its limbs knifed about the room spearing those near to it and flinging them about the room. Oswold stood up an unleashed a torrent of fire from his riotgun but the clockwork creature simply lifted a corpse from the ground, reacting faster than seemed possible, and absorbed the shells impacts with its fleshy shield. Bryson had started scrabbling frantically away from the machine but it noticed him. It stooped down and appeared to gaze at him with invisible eyes then suddenly it rose up, turned and headed away from the agents towards the now retreating separatists.
There was a hiss of static in Boris and Bryson’s internal comm units before the voice of Isaias came through loud and clear.
“The chameleonware used on the ship had been deactivated, Basharat is preparing to destroy the ship from orbit, its the only way to be sure of utterly stopping the separatists. You need to get out of there NOW! Get as high as you can, I’ll be there for you!”
As one the agents headed for the nearest stairwell, they located the highest point on the ship and started running to get there. All about them other people were frantically racing about, some heading to escape vehicles, others trying to marshal their troops. Chaos ruled.
After several frantic minutes the agents burst out onto the roof of the highest control tower along the spine of the boat. Smoke and fires obscured their vision and no one was waiting for them. Above them the clouds parted as a turquoise beam stabbed down from the heavens lancing straight through the prow of the ship.
At that instant a Junger28 powered through the smoke, Isaias at the controls. Oswold, Bryson and Boris were able to leap across into the gunship as it turned away from the approaching particle beam. Below them the hull of the ship parted and the clockwork spider, now even bigger than before could be seen almost like it was climbing up through the particle beam, it was invulnerable. Then it jerked and fell back, turning to flames and then ceasing to exist along with the rest of the boat.
The gunship creaked and clicked as it cooled down. It was landed on the shoreline and sagged badly on its landing gear. Isaias decided that there was no way this particular craft would probably be flying again. He glanced up as the shuttle sped overhead and banked around. Its gravmotors took over from the fusion engines and it landed gently.
Word had come through almost immediately when they had essentially crash landed here; the massive Polity Dreadnought Battlewagon had arrived in system to collect them.
There had been an incident at the secure facility on the planet of Aspden…
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