Embers After Flames, Chapter 5.10 (Patreon)

5.10

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“You stole a C-Weapon.”

“I stole a C-Weapon~” I laughed. “Goodness I had a lot of fun today. I mean really, It started like any other, but then I got to just keep kicking the PCA right where it hurts, and right when I thought it was done completely, they sent me one last gift!”

Belius Staging Point was in ruins, now. The Sea Spider that I had reclaimed had very quickly seen to that, blasting the entire place with various different Coral weaponry... And that was after Dolmayan and Freddie had their run of the place.

They hadn’t accomplished that much, admittedly. They were two ACs, equipped with damned good tech, yes, but just two ACs in the end.

A Sea Spider was a lot more than that. The game really did not do justice to life. 

Sure, plenty of players found the Sea Spider to be a troublesome bastard, but it was fairly easily handled in game in all honesty. In truth... Well, there’s a cutscene in the game just before you fight Handler Walter in the Hal 826. The IB-C03W1: WLT 011, is used there; one of the few times a weapon is used as part of the story. In game, the WLT 011 is a disappointment.

In the cutscene?

It gouges a line from the ramjet engine to the end of the spokes connecting to the thermion lift generator- a distance at about seven fucking kilometers before the beam simply ran out of hull to gouge. There was a smoking trail from one end to the other.

That is the kind of shit C-Weapons do. And while the Hal 826 is the ultimate prototype mech carrying the most advanced technology ever devised by RRI, and the final resort of Nagai gifted to Walter, the Sea Spider had the size to make up the difference in advancement.

Its primary weapon was as large as an AC. Just spend a moment to think about that. 

When I say ‘in ruins’, I mean in ruins. Every building torn to the ground, every machine reduced to scrap, the floor cratered and trenched, the very foundations of the facility ripped apart. 

It had taken barely ten minutes. I had been tempted to keep going, but...

Well, probably best not to push things too far. The PCA did have limits to their patience, and I had fucked them up a lot today.

As such, I had the Sea Spider live up to its name and escape into the ocean, where even the PCA’s satellites wouldn’t be able to track it. Retrieving it was going to take a couple days while I sorted the drillship out to ferry something so... voluminous.

There was pretty much no configuration of the Sea Spider that didn’t leave it wide, unfortunately.

“Everything went absolutely perfectly on my end.” I hummed. “And I do hope things went just as well for you, because we are not going to get another chance like that one again.”

Flatwell leaned back in his chair, tapping at the pad in his hand. “It was everything I wanted and everything I could have hoped for. Take a look.”

The files flicked across the data link. Quite a large amount of files, actually. And files that were quite large.

Hmm. Let’s see...

First, survey data. Interesting enough. Our own maps were fairly complete, though, so short of comparative analysis, it wasn’t likely to be too useful.

Second, profiles. Almost entirely useless by this point in time. Nothing that had been recovered from Belius Staging Point had been up to date. Hell, I’d pulled more recent data from the corpses of PCA mechs.

Third, orders. Debatably useful. Hardly a complete list, though, since most of the time, the Enforcement System directly gave orders to units. Anything here was probably old records.

Fourth... Battle data?

That’s unusual. The Enforcement System kept its hands on that. There weren’t many reasons for it to be spread around without the PCA rank and file requesting it for usage in their missions.

The data... isn’t completely recent, going back to only two years ago, but that is strange.

Hmm...

Well, anyway, fifth and last is...

“Is that technical files?” I asked.

Flatwell could not quite hide his smirk, and honestly, I wasn’t going to blame him. Not for this.

I dug into the files. What I found was a wealth of information; schematics, specifications, codes, interfaces -all that and more-, for dozens of PCA of designs. Repairers, Watchers, Sentries, AH12s, even fucking Auxilia and Light Cavalry...

And if I’m not mistaken, some of these half-complete files are referring to Heavy Cavalry.

Everything except the Closure Satellites and Warships were in here!

“You know, I honestly thought I had bloodied them the most today, but this?” Holy shit, Flatwell. “I think you won a competition I wasn’t even aware of.”

This data...

It wasn’t quite a full steal, but holy shit it was close. Any decently competent set of engineers would be able to use this to rapidly develop technology up to PCA standards very quickly. Two years out of date, sure, but fuck, PCA technology usually hovered at the leading edge... Unless RRI was involved, anyway.

This was data that was stupidly valuable. The RLF could use it to get significantly better at fighting the PCA. Flatwell’s offworld corporate contacts would pay out the nose for this kind of shit. The edge it would get them over their competitors alone...

And that was completely ignoring the potential for its usage as a weapon against the PCA. 

Merely the fact that he’d acquired this would make the PCA look real fucking bad to the people they had to answer to. Their complete inability to actually keep this planet closed was one thing, but if the PCA was having their tech stolen, then something was definitely going wrong on Rubicon.

And attention had been the worst thing that could ever happen to the PCA.

Of course, it went without saying that Flatwell was going to have to be very fucking careful with this. The PCA was going to be out for Flatwell’s head.

Well. More out for his head than usual.

“I do hope you’ll take extra care in the immediate future.”

“I was well aware what the consequences of my actions would be when I was planning this out.” Flatwell shrugged, before frowning after a few moments. “Although, if they’re now escalating to throwing C-Weapons at us... That will be problematic.”

“They won’t be able to do it publicly.” I stated. “And most of the RLF’s larger facilities would be too risky, if anybody present was able to get the footage out. Proof of active C-Weapons is the same as proof of active Coral to a lot of outsiders. The PCA themselves would be become a target, under suspicion of harbouring their own supply.”

Technically speaking, they were. They knew exactly where Institute City, and the main Coral colony, was, after all. The Enforcement System’s mainframe was sitting right on top of it, blocking the only path into the city like a cork in a bottle.

They just weren’t making use of me, because the Enforcement System was an AI that prioritized containing Coral, and proliferating it for usage in weapons was the complete opposite of that goal. The enforcement System was just this side of completely incapable of making that choice; it would only do so if, by doing so, it could prevent a larger breach.

Dolmayan rated enough of a threat that deployment of a C-Weapon was completely reasonable. That it had backfired so spectacularly...

“On top of that, I’m pretty sure the PCA doesn’t actually understand the C-Weapons very well.” I stated.

Flatwell’s head tilted to the side, eyes focusing on the screen displaying the wiggling red waveforms that I used as my ‘picture’. He was interested, and I knew him well enough by now that he didn’t even need to voice his request to elaborate.

“The coding for the C-Weapons is...” Hmm. How to say this... “Complex. Their CPUs have more in common with an artificial brain than they do an actual processor. That’s a necessity, since they were never able to figure out how to upload an AI directly into the Coral itself.” Because while Coral could be a processor in addition to being a conduit, the latter was much easier. Most... did not understand how Coral actually processed. 

Nagai figured it out. That was probably half the reason he was so afraid of his Collapse, though.

“While the C-Weapons are designed to be commanded, anything more complicated than that is significantly more obscure and dense. Actually altering the behaviour patterns of a C-Weapon is quite the effort even for me, and I was there for the entire process of research, development, and production.” It was easier to just make new behaviours entirely rather than alter the existing ones, honestly. I could do it. I had done it. The CEL 240 was loaded up with a ton of extra bullshit these days, in the event that I was somehow incapable of taking control of it directly. 

But that was getting off topic.

“My examinations of the Sea Spider shows me that the PCA hasn’t altered any of the machine’s deeper behaviours. The only thing they’ve been able to modify is the ally and enemy parameters, issue missions, and give operational parameters. All of which are exposed on purpose.”

He raised an eyebrow. “And you don’t think they didn’t change any of it on purpose?” He asked.

“Some of these behaviours are the sort that would make the PCA very uncomfortable if they were actually trigger.” I stated. “For example, one of them would require a C-Weapon to immediately attempt to defend Institute City over all other directives.” The Ice Worm had been hit by that one in the game. “To the point of ignoring all missions, all parameters, and all restrictions.”

“Really?” Flatwell straightened up. “Now that is very interesting.”

“I’ll send you the full rundown later.” I said. “It hasn’t really been relevant until now.”

“Indeed.” He agreed, sighing. “And things have been rather very busy for the both of us.”

“You’ll be even more busy soon enough.” I pointed out. “Not just with the PCA, either. Your new pilot training program is starting to reach full swing.”

It had been a long time coming, to be honest. The RLF was always in need of new blood. Unfortunately, until recently, they had to make do with relatively basic training and not-great machines, which... did not help very much against the PCA except in numbers. Which the PCA usually also had.

Getting room to breathe allowed Flatwell to change things up.

“If there’s one thing all these mercenaries have been good for, it’s that they were excellent cover for acquiring more ACs.” Flatwell took off his glasses, taking a cloth and beginning to wipe at one of the lenses. “But it’s going to be months before any of the trainees get to the point of being able to use them effectively. Without the simulators you were able to bring us...”

“It would have been years.” I finished for him. 

It would have been years at best. ‘Months’ was still quite an optimistic estimate, but much more reasonable with the RRI simulators that I’d handed over.

They employed direct neural-interfacing, producing extremely realistic simulations for the user, presuming the program was properly set up. Couldn’t quite replicate the full physiological effects, but anybody who couldn’t handle the sims wasn’t going to be able to handle the actual AC, so that was basically winnowing regardless.

That was just the first step, though. After that came augmentation, which... Well, obviously that wasn’t easy for the RLF.

My presence had changed that.

Still, it was necessary. More pilots was obviously good for us both. It was basically a miracle that the RLF hadn’t lost any of the four AC pilots who helmed it, and my Firekeepers had made it so far mostly through sheer technological advantage. Additions and replacements would be grand for us both.

“Well, if you need anything..?”

“There’s a few things.”

Well, we’ve had our fun.

Time to get back to work.