Ship Six

1. Ship Six

   #41

   Shine came quickly to the aid of XX-012, lifting him up and steadying him against falling.
   "Sorry, double X. No time to brief you, we've apparently got to follow the sparrow, there."
   
   The holographic bird lifted up and fluttered in the air, widdershins around the enclosure. It tweeted, and began to fly down the corridor of boxes alongside the mid-air duct where Number Two was.
   
   Shine, hobbling with XX, called out to Number Two. "Crawl along the west-going duct!"

2. Ship Six

   #42

   "Hi-ho, I guess were off." Nubmer One followed the Sparrow down the hall.

3. Ship Six

   #43

   Shadow sighed and shook his head. He started following the sparrow as well, and he switched his rifle to saftey. No point yet in keeping it off. He wondered why the hologram would suddenly come on. It might be a trap. He shrugged as his objectives ran through his mind. If it was, he would accept that situation and continue to try to fulfill his objectives

4. Ship Six

   #44

   Nine, of course, remained silent during all of this. He simply offered an impassive stare towards XX and Shine as the latter helped XX to stand, then altered his gaze towards 7 as he spoke and moved.
   Finally, Nine pushed himself off the box he was against and began walking steadily in the direction of the sparrows flight. Beneath his mask, his face cringed and his head jerked as an unexplained bolt of pain abruptly seared in his lower jaw area, but that pain quickly receded to nothingness, and was forgotten as the battleroid continued walking.

5. Ship Six

   #45

   He managed to start walking himself, the confusion dissipating. He reached up, to clear his mask, so he could see where he was going. Soon he was strong enough to walk on his own again, and looked around quickly for weapons. He thought they might be handy, afterall, they had just been awoken, and everything was not right. It had been an emergency waking, otherwise he would be thinking clearer.

6. Ship Six

   #46

   Soldier two was annoyed. Apparently they were taking directions on following a holograph bird. Continued to crawl, taking the west duct. She had the sudden urge to back track and get the drop on Shine. The urge to put her arm through his head. Maybe later. Continuing through the ducts.

7. Ship Six

   #47

   Shade found it quiet, but he didn't expect it to be loud, but he didn't like the silence, most unlike the other battleroids. He stopped and looked around before starting to go again as he put his visor on infered once more.

8. Ship Six

   #48

   Coming to the next intersection, she paused.
   
   Left or right?
   
   Ask the bird.
   
   Shut up!
   
   Ask the bird.
   
   Fine.
   
   "Ok, br.....fearless leader. Left or right?" 277 waited for a response.Still annoyed that the others were following a bird. Maybe it was one of the AIs trying to get their attention. Who knows. It seemed a bit foolish to her that they all had to follow it.

9. Ship Six

   #49

   "Left!" Soldier Three shouted up, and switched in said direction.
   
   Ahead, a large board of computer holoscreens were glowing up, slowly glimmering into existence in midair.
   
   Shine approached them slowly, even suspiciously.
   "Alright... Holographic bird, holoscreens. I can buy that... But who switched 'em on?"
   The bird landed with a fluffing of feathers on the edge of the holoscreen. The blending of holo-patterns mutated the colors.
   
   There was a screech, and a bolt of movement, and Shine crashed backwards in response to the sudden blast of holographic feathers which burst from the holoscreens.
   
   When the fray ended, there was a holographic hawk, perching regally upon the railing of the walkway. In it's beak was a little feather.
   
   The screens filled with text. The text read:
   
   "Ah-ah-ah. Not so fast.
   -Sparrow-hawk."

10. Ship Six

    #50

    Shade stopped behind Fearless Leader and looked at the hologram raising his rifle slightly. Who had turned on the lights? He had picked up no human activity since he had been looking he tapped his chin and sighed shaking his head. He looked up at the air duct and thought of something, then he looked back down at Soldier 3.
    "Sir, may I request that make a little search around our proximity."

11. Ship Six

    #51

    Nine had to twist to the side to avoid bieng hit by Shines sudden halt and crash backwards. He paused where he was, peering at the flickering holographic hawk. It appeared to him that the holographic console was under security - and not everyone was allowed close. After pondering on this for a time, Enigma glanced back and nudged Shine to get his attention, before pointing upwards to the vent which 277 was currently occupying, then indicating the holoscreen. Perhaps one could breach the security by coming over it, if an exit could be seen - or made - in the vent.

12. Ship Six

    #52

    One followed the others feeling extremely stupid. Follow the bird.. Follow the bird.. he thought sarcasticly. I hope this is a trap serve this incompentent piece of technology right.

13. Ship Six

    #53

    Four looked around once more and decided it was too quiet, so he switched off saftey, in the silence it made a loud click in the area and he looked around. He didn't like the silence.

14. Ship Six

    #54

    7 lurched to a stop, instinctly raising the arc cannon level with the hawk, the battlecomp adjusted the targeting system, pin-pointing the projectors instead. The sparrow was gone...he remembered Thais' words, her warning.
    
    "You will not harm her...whichever you are." 7 said, discharging the arc cannon in a brilliant flash of actinic light. Optical shields deployed to pretect the delicate instruments of his false eyes as a beam of coalescent ions blasted the mechanisms of the holoprojector

15. Ship Six

    #55

    4 heard the weapon fired an automatically crouched raising his rifle and looking around to see the cause of it. He saw seven and lowered his gun nodding to 7.

16. Ship Six

    #56

    Soldier 2 went left. A short time later she heard the weapon fire from within the airduct. "What the hell is going on down there?"
    Well if the intruders didnt know someone was awake, they did now.
    "Who fired?"
    Crawling to the nearest vent opening, she forced it open. Looking down at those who were below her.

17. Ship Six

    #57

    The air shimmered around the barrel of the arc cannon as the internal mechanisms force cooled the barrel. A few laces of errant plasma leaked from the discharge coil as the capacitor held back full power. To fire at maximum power was rarely done. Most blasts were in the 20 to 30% power range, with the heaviest blasts, 65 to 80% power reserved for heavily armored targets, like enemy ships and armor tanks.
    
    The holoprjector erupted into a spray of glassite and plastics as the material was alternately superheated, and impacted by the stream of superheated ions. The falling particles sounded like a rain of hail as they fell through the grating of the catwalks until reaching a solid barrier some flights away from the location of the battleroids.
    
    "I have been informed that two of the AIs might have gone rogue." 7 said.

18. Ship Six

    #58

    4 nodded and activated his Electromagnetic Pulse Destroyer. It had been an experimental project when the humans had designed it into TRX-13 to see what it could possibly due. The tests pooved to make it powerful, the EPD could with the slightest touch from special copper settings on the hands on the battleroid could discharge enough electomagnetic pulse that it could litterally destroy a machine and so they tested 4 by letting him use martial arts skills with the EPD and just touch the machines and destroy them.
    At the sound of the EPD being activated, only the machines and picked up the pulse in the air and he knew that they knew to not come in touch with him. He let the strap of his rifle hang on his shoulder as he clenched his fingers over and over again, getting used to the electricfied copper.

19. Ship Six

    #59

    The holoscreen, somewhat disrupted by the rain of particles, filled with computer-garble.
    
    "IEOssa939234nv*#(2q3(2weofashonfo=fawoe/eoreso392 348239 @@19349qh fhfhf=\---
    
    Hahaha!
    That's your answer for everything, isn't it? Destroy, destroy, destroy. Well good job, zombies. Now you have no way of knowing where my defensive perimeter is, and there isn't any bird around to help you figure it out.
    Oh, and just so you know- I've rigged the surrounding area with explosives. If you try to come too near to the terminal, there will be consequences.
    
    Love-love,
    Sparrow-hawk
    
    293 8#($(A=EAOEFNEFseofneafhdnJj =TeilharddeChardin/aser haesf ase0f02389 *(#@(80h4fpefase- lafrijolesestaenfuegoF@#(8r2 39hfbnva9hawhfahohj$$$$-.... TERMINATE"

20. Ship Six

    #60

    TRX-13 tilted his head to the side and put his hands behind his back waiting for orders, not moving on his own for he didn't know what he was to do now. He shook his head as memories of his picking up a little girl, with golden curls and blue eyes and swinging her around. He had saw himself in a mirror, steam around the edge from the shower, and then it changed, he wore a white suit and the ground was dark red, scarlet. He carried a very old kind of rifle and had been fighting men, he could 'hear' the wind of the Mars dust coming around as he fired the Maser Rifle at the green clad men. Then he saw a blue beam coming out at him and hitting him in the throat, then everything went black. Shade closed his eyes and shook his head roughly. The thoughts leaving and he opened his aritficial eyes once more.

21. Ship Six

    #61

    Soldier 2 looked down on the group. Frell them, she had better things to do. Removing herself from within the airduct, activating magnetic crawl. Moved along the outside of the duct, and out of sight.
    Eventually finding a computer port she typed in:
    
    #2/---75j3eot83HSk38dhy
    
    Awaiting orders Sparrow-Hawk.
    
    The AIs were the ones in charge while the humans slept. Even if they had gone rogue. Soldier was smart, and did not jack into the comp. She accessed it manually like she would if she were all organic. Loyalty was a tricky thing, and a matter of perspective.

22. Ship Six

    #62

    The screen went blank. There was a silence.
    And then, more text scrolled onto the holo.
    
    "239q39@#9saea(#a//q39asrersresolving text...
    
    Cold in this ship, isn't it?
    I'll tell you what. Why don't I warm it up a bit for you?
    Maybe that will get you moving. Corpses- they're like reptiles sometimes; you need to nuke 'em before they start doing anything useful.
    
    Love-love,
    Sparrow-hawk
    
    INITIATE PROGRAM: Incinerator dump- drop auxiliary fusion core- sealing cargo vacuole. EVACUATE IMMEDIATELY."
    
    Shine said: "Ah crap."
    And then: "LET'S MOVE, PEOPLE!"

23. Ship Six

    #63

    Shade instantly went into overdrive and followed Shine out as fast as he could. This could be very bad, and so his artificial body went into overdrive, hauling it's weight faster.

24. Ship Six

    #64

    Luke cursed the leader viley, before moving at accelerated rates with everyone else out of the center of danger.

25. Ship Six

    #65

    Shade knew this was bad so he ran faster with Shine. If they stayed where they were they would be incinerated if the fusion core was dumped on them. His oblectives flashed through his mind and he shook his head. They should try to acquire those as well and at all costs.

26. Ship Six

    #66

    Annoyed by the computers response. The AI was ignoring her. That could be used to ones advantage. Soldier moved away from the compuet port, several levvels above the others. There was no need for her to rush. She was not at risk at the moment, unlike them apparently. No orders from the AIs and an unstable unit leader. It was just going to be one of those missions that made a person want to bash their head against the wall.

27. Ship Six

    #67

    Enigma had paused for half a second, studying that message, before he, too, turned and ran, just two steps behind the majority of the group.
    Dying was agonising enough the first time - he remembered the hours of agony well, flailing about whilst a medic tried - unsuccesfully - to stanch the bleeding. He could still feel the ruined flesh hanging within his mouth, the blood flowing down his throat and pooling in his lungs. He did not want to risk a long, painful death again. And so he ran.

28. Ship Six

    #68

    7 broke formation, and made his best speed to the far side of the chamber, away from the others. To some it would seem a division of strength, but 7 reverted to inferior forces mode, changing tactics from main battle to guerilla warfare. The full group of them could easily be wiped out by the AIs, so the more groups, the harder to eliminate them all.

29. Ship Six

    #69

    Shade saw 7 go off and suddenly knew what he was doing and so he too broke off from the main group and went the other way 7 had. He liked the idea and smiled as he knew what to do.

30. Ship Six

    #70

    There was a sudden increase in heat, 3 or 4 degrees at first, and slowly rising. It affected the ducts first, as the automated protection systems rerouted hot air away from fragile cargo.
    There was a bright flash and rumble, and a flickering light played over a far side of the cavern. The glow was dim- the miles of the cavern and the great towers of cargo intercepted it somewhat. But there was a distinct increase in illumination. The far-away sound of explosions and collapsing structures showed that it wasn't due entirely to reactivating lights.
    
    277, alone of the cyborgs, recieved a sudden burst of radio data on wide-band radio beam.
    "WARNING! WARNING! WARNING!
    AUXILIARY CORE-DUMP IN PROGRESS!
    EVACUATE THE CARGO VACUOLE IMMEDIATELY!
    MESSAGE REPEAT..."
    
    Meanwhile, 7 and Shade, having split from the main group, found themselves on the side of a large plasteel highway for rapid travel across the cavern. Stationed in a sunken maintenance-pit was a small crate-towing truck. In the distance down the highway was visible the yellow-orange glow. An echoing smash sounded, and a tower of boxes and parts could be seen collapsing downwards in a hail of wreckage, exploding into the fiery glow.
    
    In the opposite direction, Shine, dashing down the corridor, slid barely to a stop, teetering at the edge of a another highway which had collapsed, dropping into the levels below in the centuries of interstellar travel. The yawning pit, where wreckage sat in a pool of mixed water and suspensor fluid, tinging it green-blue.
    Number Three kneeled down, and looked into the sickly fluid.
    "What do we do now..." he mumbled, trailed off.
    Something was swimming in there.
    What was that? Shine leaned forward over the gap, bracing himself on a glow-bracket.
    There it was again- a tail, fins. What was it?
    "What the hell is that?" he said aloud.
    
    David.
    
    "Not again!" he snapped.

31. Ship Six

    #71

    Shade stopped and looked around and then he shook his head. Where to now. The message in his helmet kept on repeating and repeating and 4 was getting angry at this, irritated. He got the message already! He looked down the highway and then the truck, then he strangely laughed lightly. He jumped into the truck and activated it by turning the switch.
    "7! Jump on"
    He waited until 7 jumped on and he shot it forward down the highway

32. Ship Six

    #72

    Soldier 2 received the data message. Info was sorted. Dropping back down onto the airduct pathways. She head east along the duct. Following the winding path. East-ward direction.
    At the next intersection of ducts, she picked east again. Moving quickly and quietly. Doing low range sensor sweeps as she went.
    The next junction provided several directions to chose from. The ducts heading north/northeast was taken. Several more paths were taken. Heading east along the ducts two more times. Then north , northeast and then finally north once more.
    She stopped, surveying the area. This was the spot. Now to sit and wait. Sensors open and scanning. Collecting data.

33. Ship Six

    #73

    Obligingly, 7 mounted the cargo transport with Shade behind the wheel. He plugged into the datajack on the transport, where the vehicle gained data from its ground sensors and alarm systems. He rerouted the system, alternating the frequency recieved to match the Six-Internal network.
    
    "Auxilliary Power Core Five has been emergency jettisoned, and is traveling down the exit channel, which will pass through our current location in one minute, forty-four seconds." 7 said, echoing the mechanical cadence of the computer.
    
    "We should find an access corridor and exit the cargo vacuole as quickly as possible." 7 said, feeling the slight tingle of internal pumps adding trace amounts of radiation absorbing boron into his body.

34. Ship Six

    #74

    He nodded and looked over at 7.
    "The AIs are programmed not to become mutinous. Why are they doing this? We are part of the system."
    He looked forward and shook his head as more memories of feeding a little girl....ice cream? He closed his artificial eyes and oepned them once more. What he thought would be simple to find things out in thise found out to be one hellish nightmare.

35. Ship Six

    #75

    277 had not long to wait.
    
    There was a sparkling flash, like before, and a spotlight cut the darkness. A humanoid form materialized in the air before her, adjusted itself in size and position, colors reset.
    Before her stood a smallish man, thin in build, with heavy white-blonde hair. His eyes were a milky green color, and he wore an antiquated garment from old Earth history, once called a tuxedo.
    
    "Greetings," the man said, in a pleasantly mellow voice. "Right this way."
    He began to walk down the nighted hallway.
    
    ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
    7 and 2, roaring at high speeds down the plasteel highway, hit a corner too fast. The car skittered on slick ceramic, and spun into the side, smashing through guard rails and plunging sideways into a pile of crates.
    The metal cases crashed down around them, bursting asunder in a rain of, strangely enough, weaponry and ammunition.

36. Ship Six

    #76

    Protected by the thick plating of the coffin suit, 7 pushed himself back to his feet, and quickly armed himself. Pragmatic programming allowed for the caching of weaponry and ammunition, especially when running in inferior forces mode. He picked two guns up, one in each hand.
    
    ID Weapon - Mauser 980 Assault Weapon system...
    Rapid fire assault rifle, parabolic 9mm long cartridge
    Short range, high rate of fire, excellent penetration
    
    ID Weapon - Mars Assault Works (MAW) 12.5mm Autocannon
    Single Action armor piercing gun, self cycling
    Long range, low value against soft targets
    
    CHECK AMMUNITION
    9mm Long Cartridge - 3 clips, 30 round capacity
    5 cases ammunition, 100 rounds per case
    
    12.5mm AP - six clips, 6 round capacity
    2 cases ammunition, 24 rounds per case.
    
    7 Hung a case of each ammunition from hardpoints on the coffin suit, and placed the spare clips in the clip bin located on the shoulder of the heavy suit. It was armed, and now had to evade the observers.

37. Ship Six

    #77

    2 raised slowly up from the crash. Since he had to be flexible for martial arts programming and fighting with the EPD, he had thinner armour then the other cyborgs. He looked around and started to load himself up with weapons.
    
    FRC- Fusion Rocket Cannon. Shooting high rounds of high concentrated fusion, use with extreme care due to its high instabilty it will produce enough power to blast through almost anything.
    
    Titanium Needle Knife- A very needle sharp knife about a foot long and slightly curved with a black hand-fit handle it can cut through metal easily and effectively and used int he right hands can cause serious damage to unarmoured enemies.
    
    He threw the cannon over his shoulder and put the knife in a sheath at his side and nodded to 7, ready to go.

38. Ship Six

    #78

    277 followed the Tuxedo man. Preffering orders instead of being led on a merry chase. "What are your orders? " 277 wanted a job to do. Wether it be kill the intruders or dismantle the other cyborgs.
    Continuing to do a sensor sweep as she followed the tuxedo man. Making sure no intruders were sneaking up on her location.

39. Ship Six

    #79

    *Initiate Activation*
    *ERROR*
    
    *Initiate Activation*
    *ERROR*
    
    *Initiate Activation*
    *ERROR*
    
    *Initiate Activation*
    *ERROR*
    
    *Initiate Activation*
    *Initiation Successful*
    *Activating Cybernetics*
    *Activating Organic Support*
    *Activating Communications*
    *Resuscitation*
    *Resuscitation Successful*
    *Activating Chameleon*
    
    So many bright lights. Disorienting. So many people around. Why? Unknown. Restrained. Why? Unknown. Pain! Stop! Stop! Let me go!
    
    "Help, Johnathan!"
    *Program Error. Restricting Memory*
    Slowly, the nightmare dissolved. Lock became aware in a very confused state. Her programming shut down access to her memory in self defense. She was comming out of stasis.
    *Scanning*
    Why had she come out of stasis? That wasn't supposed to happen. She automatically got out of her stasis coffin. Something was wrong. The lights were on, but no one was around. She could hear distant explosions. "Oh." Obviously, they were under attack.
    *Danger Level High. Temperature increasing to lethal levels.*
    
    Lock did not think. She ran. Figure out what was going on later; self-preservation was the more important objective. She was very confused, but her programming was in control. She had been placed in a different area of the cargo hold than the others, one apparently much closer to the exits. She could feel the increase in heat. Her coffin-armor was much lighter than everyone else's, but an increase in speed compensated.
    Even as she ran, she was scanning her surroundings, looking for avenues of escape. There. The plasteel transport highway. Part of it was wrecked; whether by explosions or just by time, she didn't know. Was that a person, there by the collapse?
    *Scanning. Scan complete. Subject Soldier Number Three, friendly.*
    Three was kneeling by a pool of leaking fluids, staring into it. "Three!" Her voice was very hoarse; she hadn't really been designed for speech, and over three and a half centuries of disuse hadn't helped. "What's going on, and why are you just sitting there?!" She was still moving fast, and briefly wondered how she must look. The Chameleon system was active, but she was moving too fast for it to adjust. It was probably just a blur of different colors.

40. Ship Six

    #80

    Startled, Shine drew backwards from the edge.
    "Soldier 10? Lock? Is that you? Your polymer is all... One, look out!"
    Shine called too late. There was a booming crack as a long twisted rope of steel fibers slammed into Soldier One, smashing him backwards against the tower of boxes. It fell towards them, threatening sudden death.
    Shine leapt pushing Lock out the way of the swinging cord, and found himself plummeting, through thin air...
    
    No time to think, not time to stop, only run, run, run, run, run, run, run, run, shoot, shoot, shoot, shoot, oh no weapon jam shot firing blast of shrapneldeathburningsensationpainpainpainflamesflamesflames- endlessblackvoidofswirlingairunboundedbytheknownuniverse...
    The last sensation was a twisting, falling sensation. He collapsed to the ground- one last burst of logic from the dying brain, and one last burst of fear.
    
    Shine awoke. "NO!" he shouted.
    He lay in the oily pool. Above him on the crumbling edge above stood the other battleroids.

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