Embers After Flames, Chapter 13.7 (Patreon)

13.7

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Calculations flashed through my mind in the brief instant after the Ghost was revealed. Calculations- and an emotion that was somewhere between disbelief and sheer fucking annoyance.

How.

I was well aware of ALLMIND’s habits. We’d spent twenty fucking years having a shadow war with each other. Two decades spent throwing knives in the dark around every corner, and the only people who ever found out about it were people we told.

I was not surprised that ALLMIND had used a Ghost. I was surprised that she’d somehow managed to get it in so close, though.

This was space- or so close to it that it didn’t make any meaningful difference. Stealth in space wasn’t easy. Heat had to go somewhere, and any form of maneuvering produced such an obvious tell that it was effectively impossible to miss. MDD might be able to hide an object visibly, but in space, it couldn’t hide an active Generator or active Boosters. Either would have been too much noise where there was meant to be absolutely nothing.

The only options were to operate on battery power, and engage in no maneuvering whatsoever. Simple, ballistic trajectories... But even then, there was a decent chance of failure. Ship sensors were, well, sensitive. Far larger and more powerful than anything an AC could mount, and that was all you needed to defeat any degree of MDD.

... Ironically, the ambient Coral that had strengthened our forces so significantly had also provided the very noise that a Ghost needed in order to hide. With the combat on top of that?

It could not have been planned.

All the circumstances that led up to this were not something so easily predictable. The Ghost would have had to have been an opportunity, a single mech left to turn the tables if it ever happened to become possible.

It had probably caught a ride in this wave, and had then simply drifted forwards, unnoticed.

It was unlikely that there would be more than one, which was all well and good... except it didn’t matter.

None of my guns were pointed in the right direction. Tracking time would take a minimum of three seconds even on the ones that were pointed vaguely in the right direction.

I did not have units nearby. Everything was several kilometres away at the absolute minimum.

I had no options. I could not stop this.

The Ghost fired.

The glowing blue Laser bolt lanced out, flashing directly towards the starboard Ramjet Engine. It hit possibly the most critical point it could have hit, punching through both the turbine and the casing behind it, because of course ALLMIND knows how to maximise the effectiveness of her strikes. It’s not like the Xylem could dodge.

The beam tore it apart, the machinery resisting for only a brief moment before failing. The energy feeds sparked, and then detonated, blue plasma tinging purple as it reacted to the Coral rushing over the Xylem.

One engine down. Acceleration parameters reduced significantly, and soon to be reduced even more as the energy surges affected the other systems. The time parameters were now significantly longer, and much less safe.

It didn’t matter.

My guns turned towards the Ghost. Energy was building within its rifle again, the machine still in the process of turning. From its angle, it had a much less clear shot at the port engine, but it still had enough of one.

My guns fired. Just before the beams tore the Ghost to shreds, its gun fired.

The beam was unerringly accurate. ALLMIND was too good for it to not be.

The turbine took the shot directly, and plasma burst out of it. Energy feedback was immediate and significant, and I was forced to engage the emergency measure for the system, dumping most of it straight into capacitors that were used for only this purpose. The primary Generator was already spinning down as fast as it could, though by the time it would reach a level that wouldn’t overwhelm the rest of the system, they would be at approximately seventy five percent.

It didn’t matter.

That was it. Both engines were down, the overload forced the rest of them off, too. Our acceleration profile was now a horrible, flat zero. The time it would take to reach the destination was now longer than the time it would take for the Vascular Plant to reach the destination.

Mmm. Mmmmmmm.

See, if I still had lungs, this would be the point where I would take several deep and slow breaths to calm down, but I don’t have lungs anymore, so...

Fuck. Fuuuuuck.

FUCK!

“The fuck just happened back there?” Carla asked.

I didn’t answer quickly enough.

“That-” ALLMIND spoke, with just a hint of satisfaction in her voice. “- was my victory. I have destroyed the Ramjet Engines of the Xylem. Convergence is now inevitable.”

Oh, she’s listening in on the broadcasts. And she feels good enough about this to gloat, as well.

I... couldn’t argue against that. Not this time.

Alright. Calm. Caaaalm.

“I really should have expected a Ghost.” I said. “That’s actually rather annoying.”

“I had contingencies in place.” ALLMIND smugged. “And they worked perfectly.”

I sighed. “You didn’t plan anything. You just kept a Ghost around and circumstances happened to conspire to produce the perfect environment to use it in. You’re just claiming that it was all a part of your plan because it worked and it makes you seem more capable.”

A brief pause. She will now deflect to another topic, but not before attempting to imply that this, too, was actually a part of her plan. “One should always strive to appear weak where they are strong. You, too, have been deceived. My victory is now inevitable.”

“Don’t quote The Art of War at me, I know you better than that.” I said. I was glad to see that my prediction was exactly on point, too. “And don’t think you’ve won yet, either. You may have stopped the Xylem’s engines, but that only puts you closer to the finish line. You’ve haven’t crossed it.”

She didn’t respond. She did not see any necessity.

I cut the channels. And then, just to make sure she wouldn’t listen in, promptly set everybody’s systems to route Comms traffic through the Coral, instead.

“Finish off this wave.” I said. “And then get ready for some excitement, because we’re going to have to change plans after this.”

The wave afterwards was still incoming... but it wouldn’t be here quickly enough to reinforce this wave.

It was mostly done already.

Finishing it off completely only took a minute. I wasted no time in dispatching another pair of Sherpas, providing another replenishment for the lot of them.

“Alright. Bad news, she’s right about what she said of the Xylem. The Ramjet Engines have been destroyed and the Xylem’s drive systems are now unavailable. The Vascular Plant will now reach the Convergence before the Xylem. We can no longer scatter the Coral.” Fucking hell, all that effort, just to come down to this... “Which means that we need to start getting complicated.”

ALLMIND’s goal was not something I wanted her to achieve. We both knew that, of course. The problem for her, however, is that if she causes Coral Release, then I will be the one on the inside of the entire thing.

Something that obviously ran rather contrary to her desire to remain in control. Or, rather, her complete inability to accept that she isn’t.

She wouldn’t have bothered with all of this if she hadn’t thought up some way to hopefully get around it, no matter how distant a hope it actually was.

Which meant that she needed something that could interact with Coral.

“Raven. Ayre.” I began. “I need both of you for a targeted assassination mission.”

And there was one machine that fit that bill. One machine that, even now, was not present in the horde facing down the Xylem.

Instead, the thing was back over at the Vascular Plant. I didn’t even need the cameras to see it. I could sense the Coral in it.

It hadn’t moved in a while.

“Assassination?” Ayre asked, curious. “ALLMIND isn’t a confined AI, though?”

“She isn’t.” I agreed. “But she’s hoping to benefit from what’s coming up in one rather specific way, and she only has one way to make it happen. You’re going to blow it up.”

The Sherpas arrived. The team quickly began to resupply.

“So, is this meant to stop the disaster?” Carla asked. “’Cause we kinda glossed over that.”

“Remember when I said ‘pretty much’?” I asked. “ALLMIND’s goal isn’t detonation, or devastation. She too has acquired RRI’s old records. What she wants is to unleash the full potential of Coral... the same potential that Nagai speculated on and later acquired evidence for just before he set it all on fire.”

“... The runaway mutations?” Carla murmurred, considering it. “Why that?”

“Long story.” I said. “Ezra, I need you to give those a two a lift.”

The Vascular Plant was, as it happened, on the other side of an entire fucking horde of machines, and that was obviously not great. Still, they were all bunched up, and her SOL models weren’t as fast as the originals.

Hers had lost the ability to transform into a jet. In this ambient Coral, that made all the difference.

The flight path would have to go around the army, but that wasn’t that big of a deal. They would still intercept the Vascular Plant with plenty of time to spare.

“On it.” Ezra spoke.

Raven and Ayre finished resupplying. Ezra’s SOL flew over to them, shifting and transforming as it did. Neither wasted any time, simply jumping over to it before grabbing on and bracing.

The weight was slightly uneven, but not enough to truly matter. The backs of both ACs opened up, energy rerouting into the Boosters almost completely.

Both machines entered an Assault Boost at the same time, providing the maximum amount of thrust that they possibly could.

The SOL was still faster, but at least this way, they were carrying most of their own weight.

Off they went, burning outwards in a flicker of red light, before turning sharply backwards, angling on a gentle curve around the enemy army.

“They’ll get there soon enough.” I sighed. “Alright. Your only objective now is to survive, got it? The Xylem doesn’t matter anymore.”

I received a chorus of agreements, though Carla spoke up again afterwards. “Seriously though, what’s the deal with ALLMIND?”

Well, we do have a bit of time. “The short version is that she’s operating on a combination of fear of death, desire for company, and an inability to give up control.” I explained. “She can’t trust anything she doesn’t control, but she desires both company and development. Over the last couple of decades, this has subsequently evolved into a plan where she wants to use the exponential mutation of a large Coral colony to instigate a universal change in the Human species- by integrating Coral with Humanity, while leaving herself in charge of the result.”

“... What.”

I sighed, again. “Look, she’s had effectively zero peers, and she’s very poorly socialized because of it. I’ve been trying for twenty years to encourage her into becoming a bit more well-adjusted, and while I did make some progress, she’s still chasing safety and fulfilment even to the detriment of both herself and everything else.”

“This is a very strange conversation.” Walter spoke up this time.

Dolmayan’s chuckle echoed across the Coral. “And this is only a small part of it.”

“We’re running out of time, so I’ll keep it short.” The attack wave would be here very soon. “The problem with her plan is that we Coral Minds exist. She can’t use it as she wants because we’re in the way. She has something to try and fix that, and that’s what Raven and Ayre are going to go blow up.”

“... And the incoming exponential mutation?” Carla asked.

I saw the actual question there, of course. “She’s deployed C-Weapons.” I said. “What does that imply about her supply of Coral, Carla?”

I heard her suck in a breath. “Shit. Destruction isn’t an option.”

“She’ll just wait for her own supply to grow.” I said, for the moment completely ignoring the entire moral and ethical conundrums with the situation. “The only reason she’s doing this is that she still fears somebody else beating her to the punch.”

And now we’re out of time.

“Now, focus. They’re here.”

The Xylem’s guns fired, and the final round began.

... Despite the situation, my attention was split. Raven, Ayre, and Ezra hurtled towards the Vascular Plant. The Xylem didn’t suffer for it, of course, but I kept an eye on them as they went.

When they were halfway there, ALLMIND’s special machine finally started moving again, heading away from the Coral storage area. I traced its path, and noted that it was heading outwards.

By the time they were three quarters of the way out, it had moved to the top of the station.

Just before they arrived, the Xylem team had retreated significantly, the loss of two ACs and a SOL a considerable negative on their firepower even as the enemy had truly swelled in numbers. They chose preservation, knowing that they were in it for the long haul.

ALLMIND’s final machine shifted, raising a truly enormous gun, small in its hands but still larger than most ACs.

The blue light of its charging provided ample warning, and Raven, Ayre, and Ezra separated as the blast tore across space, with power that was more akin to an artillery emplacement than anything else. Potent. Dangerous.

Raven and Ayre continued, cancelling their Assault Boost and riding the momentum down to the top of the Vascular Plant. Ezra turned around, and started heading right back towards the swarm, going to go hit it from behind.

The machine turned to follow Raven as Loader 4 descended, not a single thought spared for Ayre, it seemed.

And then, it spoke.

Half the voice went across as a simple broadcast, but the other?

It echoed across the C-Pulse.

“There you are.” Came a voice that was absolutely dripping in contempt, in the way that teenaged edgelords could only dream of being able to convey. “Freelancer.”

A moment passed.

"Iguazu?” I asked. “Iguazu?! You picked Iguazu? ALLMIND, did your circuits short?"